Bedouin’s legal fight threatens Jewish state
Electronic Intifada - 1 Sep 2010
rr r r r rr r rr r rr r rr rr rrr rNuri al-Uqbi’s small cinderblock home in a ramshackle neighborhood of Hura, a Bedouin town in Israel’s Negev desert, hardly looks like the epicenter of a legal struggle that some observers say threatens Israel’s Jewish character.

Withdrawal or Enduring Presence? US Military Continues to Invest Hundreds of Millions in Iraq Bases
Democracy Now - 1 Sep 2010
In his Oval Office address Tuesday night, President Obama said the US had closed or transferred hundreds of bases to the Iraqis. But many US bases remain in Iraq, as well as the massive US embassy in Baghdad, the size of eighty football fields. We play a report on US bases in Iraq by independent journalist Jacquie Soohen of Big Noise Films.

“Security for Everyone, Not Just Settlers and Occupiers” – Ali Abunimah on Opening of US-Brokered Mideast Peace Talks
Democracy Now - 1 Sep 2010
US-brokered talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority begin today in Washington. Both sides agreed to sit down last month after the US successfully pressured Palestinian leaders to drop their precondition of an Israeli settlement freeze. On the eve of the summit, Palestinian militants killed four Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. We speak with Ali Abunimah, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada.

“Iraq Is a Shattered Country” – Nir Rosen on Obama Declaring an End to US Combat Mission in Iraq
Democracy Now - 1 Sep 2010
President Obama declared an end to the combat mission in Iraq Tuesday night in the second Oval Office address of his presidency. Although tens of thousands of US troops, special operations forces and private contractors remain in Iraq, Obama announced that Operation Iraqi Freedom is now officially over. We go to Baghdad to speak with independent journalist Nir Rosen. [includes rush transcript]

Invisible War: How Thirteen Years of US-Imposed Economic Sanctions Devastated Iraq Before the 2003 Invasion
Democracy Now - 1 Sep 2010
While the US invasion and occupation of Iraq over the past seven years has inflicted multiple disasters on the country, many argue that the US assault on Iraq really began twenty years ago with the US-imposed economic sanctions. Joy Gordon, author of Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions, writes, “U.S. policymakers effectively turned a program of international governance into a legitimized act of mass slaughter.”

Headlines for September 1, 2010
Democracy Now - 1 Sep 2010
Obama Declares End to US Combat Operations in Iraq, 4 Israeli Settlers Killed on Eve of Mideast Talks, Study: CEOs Who Fired Most Workers Earned Highest Pay, Bank Profits Soar, But Lending Drops, Murkowski Concedes Alaska GOP Senate Primary, 5 Arrested After Shots Fired at New York Mosque, Seattle Man Charged with Hate Crime after Attack on Turban-Wearing Clerk, Poll: 71% of New Yorkers Oppose Islamic Center in Lower Manhattan, Deal Reached to Provide Dialysis Treatment to Undocumented Immigrants in Atlanta, Gov’t Sues Arizona Colleges for Anti-Immigrant Discrimination, Migrant Deaths Nearing Record in Arizona, Study: Hiring of Immigrant Workers Triggers Economic Benefits, NY Enacts Domestic Workers Rights’ Law, Texas Appeals Court Upholds Gay Marriage, Divorce Ban, Greenpeace Shuts Down Offshore Drilling Rig in Greenland

Lifta’s legacy under threat
Electronic Intifada - 1 Sep 2010
rr r r rr r rr r rr r rr r rr rrr rThere are few villages in historic Palestine which invoke the memories of the Nakba (the 1948 dispossession of the Palestinian people) as does Lifta. However, Lifta’s architectural legacy is under threat as Israel moves to Judaize the formerly pluralistic Palestinian village.

DOES THE WEST WANT A REAL DISCUSSION WITH IRAN?
Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII) - 31 Aug 2010
Summary: MottakiIn the lead up to a likely resumption of Western ?diplomacy? with Iran, conducting an interview with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, with questions designed to elicit substantive and revealing responses, could potentially yield real benefits for the international community. The prominent German newsmagazine Der Spiegel had an opportunity to conduct such an interview today. But Der Spiegel opted, instead, to engage in an egregious exercise of agenda-driven, ideologically-loaded journalism source: Race for Iran read more