The Joke At The Heart Of American Foreign Policy Toward The Middle East

If you ever doubt who controls American foreign policy, consider the case of Chas Freeman. Freeman was, until today, Barack Obama’s appointee to chair the National Intelligence Council. No more. Today Freeman was forced to withdraw from the position.
Why you ask? Because, as Josh Marshall puts it, Freeman has been “far more critical of Israeli [...]

President Obama On Al Arabiya Television

[The two videos above are of poor quality, but they are the only ones I could find of the interview. I will update when there is a better version on YouTube.]
President Barack Obama gave his first formal television interview to Al Arabiya Television. It was a remarkable interview, both in tone and in content. With [...]

Murder In Gaza

 
A few nights ago I was watching Al Jazeera television’s live interview of John Ging, director of operations in Gaza for the UN Refugee and Works Agency (UNRWA). Mr. Ging was on the phone from the main UN compound in Gaza city. While he was being interviewed, Israelis shelled the UN compound injuring three UN workers and lighting on [...]

American Middle East Policy In A Nutshell

Isreali Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is bragging about how he ordered United States President George W. Bush to abstain from the UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease fire in Gaza. He is also bragging about how he shamed Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice:

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was left shame-faced after President [...]

Congressman Eliot Engel: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bombing Of Children

Shihab Rattansi of Al Jazeera tries to make some sense of the nonsense coming out of the mouth of Democratic Congressman from New York, Eliot Engel.
This week, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution supporting Israel’s actions in Gaza. Not to be outdone, the US Senate passed by unanimous consent a resolution offering [...]

“In the name of humanity, what is Israel doing?”

[H/T The Heathlander]
Britain’s Channel 4 does the kind of reporting that the U.S. media refuse to do.
In this report, the ICRC describes how the IDF would not allow ICRC ambulances to evacuate four starving children in Gaza who were clinging to their dead mothers. At the end of the report, Israeli government spokesman Mark [...]

The Children Of Gaza

The International Committee of the Red Cross has issued a written release demanding immediate access to Gaza after the discovery of weak children laying next to their dead mothers.
In the release, the ICRC states:

The ICRC/PRCS team found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to [...]

Support Juan Cole

The neoconservative bloggers have organized a "Stop Juan Cole" campaign to prevent Juan Cole from winning the Best Middle East Blog distinction at the 2008 Weblog Awards. Apparently Mr. Cole has not gotten with the program in showing blind support for Israel.
Juan Cole was ahead in the vote tally until the borg organized their minions.
If you [...]

The Slaughter Of Innocents

Up to sixty members of one family in Gaza were rounded up into one house and then bombed to death by the IDF:

In what the United Nations fears could be the bloodiest single attack of the Israeli assault, as many as 60 members of the extended Samouni family were killed near their homes in the Gazan [...]

Ehud Olmert’s Folly

Ehud Olmert has done it again. Two years after the fiasco in Lebanon, he has once again committed Israeli forces on a fool’s errand. The target is different this time, but the one constant is the body count.
Unlike the humiliating outcome against Hezbollah, this time the opposition is much weaker. Hamas lacks the sophisticated weaponry [...]