Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Winograd Commission that his decision to respond to the abduction of soldiers with a broad military operation was made as early as March 2006, four months before last summer’s Lebanon war broke out.
GILBERT ACHCAR: a Lebanese-French academic and activist, is the author of Clash of Barbarisms: September 11 and the Making of the New World Disorder [2006], and more recently, with Noam Chomsky, Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy [2007]. His latest book, with Michel Warschawski, is 33-day War: Israel’s War on Hezbollah in Lebanon and its Consequences [2007].
THE PRESS here is portraying the opposition movement headed by Hezbollah in Lebanon, that is attempting to challenge the Siniora government, as a movement that is provoking sectarian conflict. What is your take on that? What is the character of the opposition, and what is it trying to achieve? (…اكثر)
OCHA: U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Occupied Palestine
February, 28th 2007: At approximately 02:30 on 28 February, a large force of IDF soldiers and Israeli Border Police re-entered Nablus. This latest incursion marks the continuation of Operation “Hot Winter”, the largest military incursion in three years in Nablus city.
BEIRUT: Before he was assassinated in June 2005, columnist and academic Samir Kassir completed a slim book in French called “Considérations sur le malheur arabe” He promised an Arabic edition and in late 2006 “Being Arab,” an English-language version of his work, appeared.
Three elements of collaboration between two artists who happen to be mother and son
BEIRUT: Nothing encourages artists to produce better work than competition. Last summer, for 34 days straight, two artists – one holed up in Achrafieh and the other holed up in Sin al-Fil – made drawing after drawing. When the power supply was on, they posted their pieces online, filling their respective blogs with diary-like accounts of living through the war in Lebanon.
On the anniversary of the Six Nations Land Reclamation we express our solidarity to you and to all those that are defending today their land and livelihoods against theft and colonization.
A proposed constitution written by the Israeli Arab advocacy center, Adalah, states that Arab Knesset members will be able to bring about the disqualification of bills that impinge on the rights of Arabs, and classifies the State of Israel as a “bilingual and multicultural” country rather than a Jewish state.
The proposal, entitled “The Democratic Constitution,” also calls for majority and minority groups to split control of the government in such a way that will strengthen the Arab minority on issues relating to the character of the state.
Invitation to attend, participate and celebrate with us in an event sparking a new initiative within the cultural and social realm of Beirut…
Is the Administration’s new policy benefiting our enemies in the war on terrorism?
by SEYMOUR M. HERSH
In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The “redirection,” as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
