vjp-global

A friend in Virginia shared these two items.   - Jerry Markatos    (posted by Sam Bryan - AIME member) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NYT today on US Jewish divisions over Iran: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/29/us/politics/iran-deal-opens-a-vitriolic-divide-among-american-jews.html?_r=1 Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, a Jewish political advocacy group that backs the Iran deal, spoke of a fundamental break between Democratic Party leaders inclined toward diplomacy and the worldview of a conservative Israeli government that has more in common with Dick Cheney than the former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. That will not change even if congressional efforts to kill the accord fail, Mr. Ben-...

https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/2309/2015/en/ Joint Statement: Surge in Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes condemned by 31 international organizations Posted by Sam Bryan, AIME member

http://972mag.com/watch-christian-muslim-palestinians-protest-separation-wall-route/110940/ Days after the army uprooted Palestinian-owned olive trees to pave the route of the separation barrier in Beit Jala, Christians and Muslims from the town hold a joint protest to try and put a stop to the plan. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.alonben-meir.com/article/israeli-hamas-truce-an-opportunity-in-disguise/?utm_source=Subscribers&utm_campaign=cdc37a286c-UA-5963141-2&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6e846e6217-cdc37a286c-309994637   Israel and Hamas are reportedly discussing a long-term truce. .. The truce would put the Arab states, especially Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt, in a position to exert political and material pressure on Hamas to formally adopt the Arab Peace Initiative (API). The API provides several common denominators between Israel and Hamas about the principle idea of a two-state solution, and offers Hamas's leadership a face-saving way out. Consistent with the API, on more than one occasion Hamas clearly stated that it is willing to negotiate a peace agreement with Israel based on the 1967 borders. The truce could further nudge Hamas in that direction. Finally, the truce could also lead to Hamas' acceptance of the Quartet's three requirement...

      http://www.salon.com/2015/08/18/black_activists_send_clear_message_to_palestinians_now_is_the_time_for_palestinian_liberation_just_as_now_is_the_time_for_our_own_in_the_united_states/   More than 1,000 black activists released a statement reaffirming their "solidarity with the Palestinian struggle" [see http://www.blackforpalestine.com/ ]. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2015/08/beit-jala.html   Yesterday morning the army of the colonial new "Jewish state" of Israel, 68 years of mayhem in the building, destroyed 15 ancient olive trees dating back 2-3000 years old in Beit Jala. The reason? Israel is going to close off the most fertile valley of Beit Jala western Bethlehem (Wadi Abu Ahmed, Cremisan area). Closing it off from its owners (55 Christian families of Beit Jala) is a step in confiscating it as happened before in thousands of locations. The world community and the Palestinian authority ignore the continuing massacre of land and people while occasionally making meaningless "statements". In practice though, the Western governments support Israel and have close working ties with it (thus are co-conspirators in the crime in the legal sense). But I do want to focus on the Palestinian authority (PA) and will argue that it is the biggest enabler of the occupa...

Some stirrings in the water in the evangelical world regarding Israel http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/46958/where-are-empowered21-and-oral-roberts-university-headed-in-relation-to-israel-opinion/#d7QIO7KHb2eIKLPm.97 Posted by Sam Bryan, AIME member

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/251263-340-rabbis-urge-congress-to-support-iran-nuclear-deal Over 300 rabbis sent a letter to Congress on Monday declaring their support for the Iran nuclear deal and urging lawmakers to endorse it. "We encourage the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives to endorse this agreement," read the Aug. 17 letter signed by 340 rabbis. The letter was distributed by Ameinu, which describes itself as a "national, multi-generational community of progressive Jews in North America." Posted by Sam Bryan, AIME member

http://972mag.com/arab-american-comedians-turn-hardships-to-triumph-at-west-bank-festival/110436/ Thousands of Palestinians flock to Bethlehem, Ramallah and Jerusalem for the 1001 Laughs comedy festival where serious topics such as identity, stereotypes and the difficulty of air travel turned into comedy gold. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767059   Egyptian authorities on Saturday announced that they will open the Rafah crossing into and out of the Gaza Strip for four days starting Sunday [as requested by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas honoring an] appeal from the Hamas-run Ministry of the Interior in Gaza, who asked that humanitarian cases be permitted to exit the besieged coastal enclave… Iyad al-Buzm, a spokesperson for the ministry, said in a statement last week that conditions in Gaza represent a "humanitarian catastrophe," with up to 20,000 humanitarian cases and thousands of other Palestinians waiting to leave the territory…   …The Egyptian government has in the past accused Hamas of assisting the insurgency, although Hamas denies the allegations. Egypt has done little to alleviate Israel's eight-year blockade on the Gaza Strip, which has severely restricted imports and exports into the territory and denied ...

http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766957   Israel has released all suspects detained in raids as part of a probe into the firebombing of a Palestinian home that killed an 18-month-old child and his father, Israeli authorities said Monday. They did not provide the number of those detained in the raids early Sunday in Jewish settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank near the Palestinian village of Duma, where the July 31 firebombing occurred… Outposts in the Israeli-occupied West Bank are notorious for housing young Jewish hardliners, referred to as hilltop youth… The 100 or so Jewish outposts in the occupied West Bank are not officially recognized by the Israeli government but receive support and assistance from government ministries. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767032 Palestinian prisoner Muhammad Allan, who has been on hunger strike for two months [in protest against his administrative detention], lost consciousness Friday morning, the Palestinian Prisoner's Society said…   The Israeli Knesset last month approved a law allowing prisoners on hunger strike to be force fed if their condition becomes life-threatening, sparking outcry from rights groups and medical experts [including the Israeli Medical Association]… Israeli authorities announced that Allan may be force-fed if his health continued to deteriorate to the point in which his life was in danger…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767009   A group of Israeli settlers raided the village of Ein Samiya and threw flammable material on a Bedouin tent before the residents noticed and attacked the settlers, forcing them to flee the area…   Israeli settlers have carried out at least 120 attacks on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank since the start of this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member  

http://972mag.com/watch-breaking-the-palestinian-taboo-on-the- holocaust/109891/ Dr. Mohammed Dajani challenged one of the biggest taboos in Palestinian society when he took a group of Palestinian students to visit the death camps of Europe. Without this kind of education, he says, reconciliation is impossible.  [He talks about the trip and reaction when he returned in the video.] Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=767008 Hamas' military wing   [Al-Qassam Brigades] on Wednesday claimed that it had taken over an Israeli drone [Skylark I]   last month and rebuilt it to make it operational…   "Security checks were conducted, and the systems and technologies installed in the drone were examined, and then the unit rebuilt it and put the drone to use in the service of the al-Qassam Brigades," the group said.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

newyorker.com/news/news-desk/israels-jewish-terrorist-problem?mbid=nl_081015_Daily_Photo&CNDID=14997515&spMailingID=7973282&spUserID=MjQ5MTY1NTQ5MTAS1&spJobID=741326474&spReportId=NzQxMzI2NDc0S0   …Fifteen Palestinian homes have been set on fire in recent years, but not one of the arsonists has been put behind bars…   New evidence shows that these attacks aren't caused by a few "wild weeds," as they are called in Hebrew, but are supported by settler councils, which have grown more extremist and are paid for, in large part, by taxpayer money. A report by the liberal think tank Molad revealed settler-council correspondence that describes price-tag tactics as a legitimate means of protest against the government…   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766959   Nashaat al-Wahidi, a Fatah prisoners' representative in Gaza, confirmed the suspension following an agreement with Israel's Prison Service. Israeli authorities have reportedly agreed to stop cell raids and the arbitrary transfer of prisoners to different sections of the jail, he added.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766922 …Israeli settlers have carried out at least 120 attacks on Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank since the start of this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Only 1.9 percent of complaints submitted by Palestinians against Israeli settler attacks result in a conviction, the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din reported. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/terrorists-palestinians-settler   …The past two years have marked a sharp increase in settler violence against Palestinians. Attacks, which include arson, beating and destruction of Palestinian agricultural fields, skyrocketed from 93 incidents in 2012 to 963 incidents in 2013, and 1011 incidents in 2014, according to data complied by the Palestinian Liberation Organization's monitoring group. Israeli human rights group note there were 8 arson attacks against Palestinians in 2014. Since January 2014, Palestinians killed 16 Israeli civilians in the West Bank and Israel. In that same period seven Palestinians were killed in nationalist attacks by Israeli citizens, and 58 killed by Israeli security forces, according to the Israeli human rights group B'tselem.  Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/university-chancellor-amendment?utm_source=Mondoweiss+List&utm_campaign=5aa7d8ed52-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b86bace129-5aa7d8ed52-398495333   On August 6, a federal court upheld Salaita's lawsuit on free speech grounds, ruling that the professor's tweets "implicate every 'central concern' of the First Amendment."   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member  

http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766913   Over 100 Fatah-affiliated prisoners in Israeli jails entered their third day on hunger strike on Friday, prisoner representatives said. The 120 prisoners, all held in Nafha jail, are demanding that detainees be returned to their former wings after being moved to other sections last week  [and family visits, an end to solitary confinement, public telephones, a kitchen and bakery]. ...Around 5,750 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli jails, over 400 of whom are held under administrative detention.   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://mondoweiss.net/2015/08/israeli-palestinian-checkpoints …At the moment, the female activists mostly support the Palestinians' kindergarten in an attempt to help one small part of Beit Ummar's economy. But their friendship started when driving the Palestinians to see the land that their grandparents used to live in. …Yet the military checkpoints to cross into Israel are not always foolproof. By wearing Western clothes and leaving their headscarves at home – in other words, by appearing as Israeli as possible – the Palestinians were able to trick the soldiers. Nobody was ever caught for traveling without permission… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/08/world/middleeast/fears-of-lasting-rift-as-obama-battles-pro-israel-group-on-iran.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0 President Obama had a tough message for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee , or Aipac, the powerful pro- Israel group that is furiously campaigning against the Iran nuclear accord , when he met with two of its leaders at the White House this week. The president accused Aipac of spending millions of dollars in advertising against the deal and spreading false claims about it, people in the meeting recalled. So Mr. Obama told the Aipac leaders that he intended to hit back hard… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

8-6-2015 Hamas, PFLP meet in Gaza to discuss unity government Ma'an News Agency http://www.maannews.com/Content.aspx?id=766904 Hamas and Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) officials met in the Gaza Strip on Thursday to discuss recent developments in the process of maintaining and implementing a national unity government... Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/05/world/middleeast/un-chief-appeals-for-more-aid-to-support-palestinian-refugees.html?mabReward=CTM&moduleDetail=recommendations-1&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&region=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&src=recg&pgtype=article Secretary General Ban Ki-moon of the United Nations beseeched donors on Tuesday to fill an emergency $100 million gap in funding for the agency that aids five million Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. In a statement , Mr. Ban said the shortfall confronting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency was unprecedented and risked disrupting the education of a half-million children. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

8-4-2015 The silent transfer of Palestinians from Jerusalem -Betty Herschman +972 http://972mag.com/the-silent-transfer-of-palestinians-from-jerusalem/109720/ …Since annexing Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has manipulated migratory trends toward an unstated goal: absorbing the land without the people. …Findings from Ir Amim's comprehensive new report, " Displaced in their Own City ," reveal that at least 80,000 and possibly more than 100,000 Palestinians — between one-fourth to one-third of the entire Palestinian population of Jerusalem… now live in these abandoned enclaves… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

  http://forward.com/news/breaking-news/318430/leading-house-republican-and-democrat-introduce-anti-bds-resolution/?utm_source=feedly&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Main   The top Republican and Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee [Reps. Ed Royce (R-Calif.) and Eliot Engel (D-N.Y)]   introduced a [non-binding] resolution urging the Obama administration… "to increase the use of its voice, vote, and influence in international organizations and other appropriate international forums to actively oppose politically motivated acts of boycott, divestment from, and sanctions against Israel…"   Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

  http://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article29580862.html The agreement strengthens the moderates in Iran and sends a message of hope to the young tech-savvy people tired of the mullahs… It may not always be possible to avoid war, but no effort should be spared… The diplomats and scientists in Vienna representing the great world powers and the nation of Iran seem to share this wisdom… Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/06/israel-closes-tv-station-palestinian-identity-150621120713478.html Israel has ordered a six-month closure of the PA-funded station, which aimed to feature investigative documentaries. …The endeavour to produce cultural and historical content for Palestinian populations in Israel, the occupied territories and the diaspora came at a difficult political time, amid a fracture between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, as well as aggravated tensions.  It also came up against one of the most conservative governments in Israeli history. But the pressure from Netanyahu's right-wing government, as well as the geographical disconnect between Palestinians, could make the yearning for solidarity even stronger, Abdelrahman said. .. Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member

http://www.timesofisrael.com/ex-mossad-chief-some-aspects-of-iran-deal-are-good-for-israel/ Efraim Halevy criticizes Netanyahu for approach to agreement, laments Israel has no one in DC with whom to hold 'discreet' conversations... Posted by Judith Ferster, AIME member