The most important developments in the Middle East peace process are
often the ones that get the least notice in America's mass media. Israeli Defense
Minister Ehud Barak's visit to Washington this week got a bit of notice, even
though there wasn't much news to report. In a joint statement Barak and U.S. envoy George Mitchell said "they
had discussed the full range of issues ... constructive and would soon continue,"
blah, blah, blah.
Israeli officials have welcomed
comments by US Vice-President Joe Biden that America would not stand in
the way of an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear plants.
Mr
Biden contradicted his country's most senior military commander,
Admiral Mike Mullen, when he responded, three times, to questions on
the American ABC's This Week program that Israel was free to do what it needed to do.
Israel says it will expel eight pro-Palestinian activists detained at sea last week as they tried to ferry aid to Gaza in defiance of Israel's blockade.
Nobel peace laureate Mairead Maguire and former US congresswoman Cynthia McKinney are among the detainees.
They complain the Israeli navy seized them illegally in Palestinian waters.
Israel's navy has blockaded Gaza since the election victory of Hamas militants in 2006. It said the Greek ship ignored orders to stop and was intercepted.
Lord Bingham, who retired last year as a senior law lord, said the aircraft could follow other weapons considered "so cruel as to be beyond the pale of human tolerance" in being consigned to the history books.
He likened drones, which have killed hundreds of civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Gaza, to cluster bombs and landmines.
Lord Bingham made the comments to the British Institute of International and Comparative Law in an interview which addressed the issue of the state being bound by the rule of law.
CAIRO — About 100 U.S. activists arrived in Egypt Sunday on their
way to Gaza, hoping to deliver medical aid, trucks and support for
lifting a 2-year old Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the territory.
The US-sponsored "security
coordination" program headed by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, which was
launched by the Bush Administration in 2005 to allegedly help the
Palestinians reform their security services, has done more harm than
good. US President Barack Obama would do well to fire Dayton and put an
end to US intrusion into internal Palestinian affairs.
Much can be said to explain,
or even justify Hamas' recent political concessions, where its top
leaders in Gaza and Damascus agreed in principle with a political settlement
on the basis of the two-state solution.
When
our governments refuse to act to stop the 22 month illegal and inhumane
siege, blockade, quarantine of Gaza, citizens have stepped in to
challenge the blockade.
My name is Ezra Nawi. I am a Jewish citizen of Israel.
