Mar 05
Almost certainly, says the reliable Michael Isikoff in Newsweek.com. His scoop (with Mark Hosenball) is getting picked up again and again in Iran’s state-controlled media where people care about such things.
For U.S. editors (and readers), the story is just too darn complicated. Who knows from Jundullah?
Tagged with: Jundullah • Mark Hosenball • Michael Isikoff • Newsweek.com
Mar 04
Violence is often tempting. Shirin Ebadi via roozonline.com on what the Green movement does now that the Iranian government’s repression seems to be working.
Resist reacting to tanks, bullets and shells. We must not pick up rocks. The path to justice, freedom, democracy and human rights requires flowers not blood.
Tagged with: green movement • rooz • Shirin Ebadi
Mar 04
The pleasant notion that the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process” will make “progress” has receded. PALESTINE CRY notes “newspapers from the region [outside of Israel] are in agreement that Israel is acting to escalate the conflict and foment a war in the region.”
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Tagged with: Al-Ayyam • Al-Quds • Al-Vefagh
Mar 02
Yossi Alpher sees “hypocrisy” all around the world in the Dubai hit story, a common enough sentiment in Israel. When Germany opened a “murder” investigation, Ynetnews put the word in quotes.
But the hawkish Alpher also notes a hard fact: Israel’s policy of extrajudicial assassination does very little to make Israelis more secure in the long run. Indeed, such tactics have reliably served to strengthen its most militant foes.
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Tagged with: assassination • bitterlemons • Hamas • Mahmoud al-Mabhouh • Yossi Alpher
Mar 02
And NOW Lebanon feels sold out.
This Lebanese opposition commentator is right to sense that the combined interests of Sunnis and Christians in Lebanon (a fractious minority) do not rank high on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s regional agenda–at least not as high as seeking a front line ally in the campaign against nuclear Iran.
Tagged with: Bashir Assad • Mahmoud Ahmedinejad • Nasrallah • Syrian Arab News Agency
Mar 01
The orphan island nation–claimed but not governed by the Beijing communists–used to be a former favorite nation of the American right, a plucky capitalist redoubt resisting the tyrants of the mainland. Now that China has become a capitalist superpower, the right’s ardor for Taiwan has become dim and redundant The plucky capitalists must look elsewhere for other friends.
Now Taiwan is a channel for Tehran’s nuclear technology needs, says AP Enterprise.
Tagged with: AP Enterprise • nuclear technology