Dorothy Naor writes:

..today’s political cartoon in both the Hebrew print and electronic editions of Ha’aretz (absent from the English on-line edition)–so apt to the situation and to Gideon Levy’s article that follows. [The war for the house] [Hebrew Title: A small contribution to the Security of Israel]. In the cartoon the TV is showing scenes in Gaza of men carrying stretchers of wounded/dead. At the other end of the room, with back to the TV, the man, holding the newspaper from which he is reading and completely oblivious to the TV and probably to Gaza itself, says to the woman “Poor Monks in Burma.” [Read more]

Avi Katz writes:

The cartoon is Daniella London-Dekel’s personal message, and she deserves a credit as much as Gideon Levy.

By Gideon Levy, Ha’aretz, 28 September 2007

It was a pretty quiet year, relatively speaking. Only 457 Palestinians and 10 Israelis were killed, according to the B’Tselem human rights organization, including the victims of Qassam rockets. Fewer casualties than in many previous years. However, it was still a terrible year: 92 Palestinian children were killed (fortunately, not a single Israeli child was killed by Palestinians, despite the Qassams). One-fifth of the Palestinians killed were children and teens – a disproportionate, almost unprecedented number. The Jewish year of 5767. Almost 100 children, who were alive and playing last New Year, didn’t survive to see this one.

One year. Close to 8,000 kilometers were covered in the newspaper’s small, armored Rover – not including the hundreds of kilometers in the old yellow Mercedes taxi belonging to Munir and Sa’id, our dedicated drivers in Gaza. This is how we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the occupation. No one can argue anymore that it’s only a temporary, passing phenomenon. Israel is the occupation. The occupation is Israel.

[Read the report]

For Gaza’s young at play, fields can be deadly
Steven Erlanger, The New York Times, 26 September 2007

The three Abu Ghazala fathers were in mourning, in the Palestinian way, sitting with their relatives recently in a shaded courtyard, open to the fields of watermelon and eggplant in which their children had died.

The children — Yehiya, 12, Mahmoud, 9, and Sara, 9 — were tending goats and playing tag on Aug. 29 when an Israeli shell or rocket blew them apart. “They went up to that palm tree,” said Ramadan Abu Ghazala, Yehiya’s father, pointing 300 yards away. “They went there every day.”

As the fathers, all farmers, talked, an Israeli blimp, with cameras, hovered in the sky above Beit Hanoun on the northern edge of Gaza, an Israeli drone buzzed in the air and an Israeli watchtower loomed over the nearby border. It was the blimp or the drone, presumably, that first identified the target.

[Read the report]

By Joel Beinin, Middle East Report Online, 29 September 2007

(Joel Beinin, a contributing editor of Middle East Report Online, is director of Middle East studies at the American University in Cairo.)

For the second time in less than a year, in the final week of September the 24,000 workers of the Misr Spinning and Weaving Company in Mahalla al-Kubra went on strike — and won. As they did the first time, in December 2006, the workers occupied the Nile Delta town’s mammoth textile mill and rebuffed the initial mediation efforts of Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Yet this strike was even more militant than December’s. Workers established a security force to protect the factory premises, and threatened to occupy the company’s administrative headquarters as well. Their stand belies the wishful claims of the Egyptian government and many media outlets that the strike wave of 2004-2007 has run its course.

Most importantly, if the promises made by the government are kept, the Mahalla workers have scored a huge victory that will likely have reverberations throughout the Egyptian textile industry, if not beyond. After halting production for less than a week, they won a bonus equivalent to 90 days’ pay, payable immediately. A meeting of the company’s administrative general assembly to be convened soon will increase this to at least 130 days’ pay. In addition, a committee will be formed immediately in the Ministry of Investment to negotiate increases in extra compensation for the hazardous nature of their work and clothing allowances. Incentive pay will be linked to basic pay and subject to a 7 percent annual increase. The executive board of the company will be dissolved and CEO Mahmoud al-Gibali will be sacked. The days of the strike will be considered a paid vacation.

[Read the report]

Courage to Resist
28 September 2007

An interview with Mark Wilkerson by Aaron Glantz, co-produced by Sarah Olson, for KPFA Radio August 18, 2007. 19 min. audio edited by Courage to Resist (transcript here). Live broadcast available here.

Following his presentation at the Courage to Resist hosted workshop at the 2007 Veterans for Peace National Convention in St. Louis, Mark sat down with Aaron Glantz and David Cortright, author of “Soldiers in Revolt”.

Mark was a Army MP in Iraq. He talks about joining the military, the reality of the Iraq occupation, his five months in the Fort Sill brig, and how people can better support today’s GI resisters. At the time of this interview, Mark had just been released from the brig only days earlier.

[Read transcript/Listen to 19 min. audio]

..with our scythes and pitchforks and be done with the lot of ‘em.”

The quote is the first comment here, a response to the news that today the Senate passed the Kyl-Lieberman amendment by a vote of 76-22.

ThinkProgress on the final edits:

UPDATE Before the vote today, changes were made to the original amendment, with paragraphs three and four taken out completely. This paragraph was also added at the end:

“Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated on September 16, 2007 that “I think that the administration believes at this point that continuing to try and deal with the Iranian threat, the Iranian challenge, through diplomatic and economic means is by the preferable approach. That the one we are using. We always say all options are on the table, but clearly, the diplomatic and economic approach is the one that we are pursuing.”

Read the full marked up amendment here.

Two more paragraphs were also added, prior to section b, that I assume were inserted as comic relief for sociopaths and other deranged sorts who would appreciate the humour.

Updated 26 September, hat tip to the same My Left Nutmeg comment section:
Senate Endorses Biden Plan To Partition Iraq
By Eric Kleefeld – September 26, 2007, 1:52PM

Joe Biden won a victory in the Senate today, with the chamber voting 75-23 for a non-binding endorsement of his plan to partition Iraq into three separate states with Baghdad as a federal capital.

Nearly all Democrats voted for the measure, with only two exceptions: Barack Obama missed the vote, and Russ Feingold voted against it. The Dems were joined by 26 Republicans voting in favor of the plan.

Insane.

LULAC and the DREAM Act
From: cheencheenvideo About This Video
I recorded this video two months ago, then got distracted with other projects. Now the DREAM Act is on the table again, so I thought it pertinent to come back to this video and edit it.
The Few, the Proud, the Military’s “Green Card” Soldiers
XicanoPwr, ¡Para Justicia y Libertad!, 21 September 2007

Let’s break down the numbers using the average that is being thrown around. According to the Department of Defense, 750,000 youths who benefit from the DREAM Act. However, Durbin states the high school dropout rate among undocumented immigrants is 50 percent. Therefore, that would mean, half of them are already unqualified, which now brings that number to roughly 350,000 undocumented immigrants who entered the United States before age 16 and graduated from high school would qualify. As Durbin noted, not all high school graduates will go on to college according to a study conducted by RAND. They found that roughly half of those students were “very likely to serve in the Armed Forces.” Since the military is eying about half of those students, we are now left with roughly about 25% of the original 100%, which means roughly 187,500 undocumented immigrants would choose college over the military option. Of those 25 percent, not everybody will automatically get to adjust from conditional to permanent legal resident status, they still have graduate from a two-year college or complete two years of a four-year degree before they can qualify baring any hurdles placed by the Sec of Education and their respective state. The current dropout rate during the first two years in college for immigrant students is between 50 to 68 percent. In the end, roughly 60,000 to 93,750 undocumented immigrants will be allowed to adjust from conditional to permanent legal resident status.

So in reality, who is really benefiting from this Act? Recently, Sen Durbin has agreed to drop the in-state tuition clause for the college option thereby eliminating the college option for thousands of undocumented immigrants. The DREAM Act’s education component is a wonderful dream, but as it stands, the only DREAM that is really being accomplished is the military’s DREAM – the few, the proud, the military’s Green Card Soldiers.

[Read the article]

Like KYL-LIEBERMAN, the DREAM Act has been introduced as an amendment to the FY 2008 Defense Spending Bill. If you’re looking for a toll-free number to Congress here are a few: 800 828-0498, 800 614-2803 or 866 340-9281.

Updated 26 September:

The Kyl-Lieberman amendment was approved today by the Senate. See how your Senators voted here.

Arrest Bush (UN Protest) – Ad Hoc March

Anti-Bush protesters arrested near UN

By KAREN MATTHEWS, Associated Press, 25 September 2007

About a dozen war protesters were arrested Tuesday morning during a peaceful demonstration against President Bush’s speech before the U.N. General Assembly.

They were among about 400 protesters opposing the Bush administration’s war in Iraq and its incarceration in Guantanamo Bay of more than 300 men on suspicion of terrorism or links to al-Qaida or the Taliban. Many in the crowd wore orange jumpsuits in solidarity with the Guantanamo detainees.

Police took the arrested demonstrators into custody by police after they knelt on the sidewalk in an act of civil disobedience at the rally near the United Nations. One of them, 58-year-old Bill Ofenloch, said they were trying to serve an “arrest warrant” on Bush for “high crimes against humanity.”

Members of the anti-war group Code Pink performed a bit of street theater where a person wearing a Bush mask was arrested.

“What do we say?” shouted Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin. “Arrest the criminal!”

Continue reading →

David Bloom of WW4 Report has posted the following excerpt from a report by Amit Cohen that was published, Bloom writes, “in the center-right Israeli paper Ma’ariv in Hebrew on Sept. 19″:

Abu Mazen instructed his general “Slaughter them”

The clip [shown at the Ma'ariv link] apparently shows a meeting in Abu-Mazen’s [President Mahmoud Abbas] bureau in Gaza in which members of the preventive security force identified with [Fatah strongman in Gaza] Muhammad Dahlan participated. When meeting the older gentleman dressed in black uniform, Abu Mazen asks him “are you the head of the preventive security force.” When the answer is in the affirmative Abu-Mazen says one word, “slaughter [them]” [translation by Sol Salbe]

It’s not surprising that Abbas would issue the order and be so easily exploited. The humiliation of Abbas has moved into the arena of bad slapstick.

Puppet Leader by Gideon Levy:

Mahmoud Abbas has to stay home. As things stand right now, he must not go to Washington. Even his meetings with Ehud Olmert are gradually turning into a disgrace and have become a humiliation for his people. Nothing good will come of them. It has become impossible to bear the spectacle of the Palestinian leader’s jolly visits in Jerusalem, bussing the cheek of the wife of the very prime minister who is meanwhile threatening to blockade a million and a half of his people, condemning them to darkness and hunger.

If Abu Mazen were a genuine national leader instead of a petty retailer, he would refuse to participate in the summit and any other meetings until the blockade of Gaza is lifted. If he were a man of truly historic stature he would add that no conference can be held without Ismail Haniyeh, another crucial Palestinian representative. And if Israel really wanted peace, not only an “agreement of principles” with a puppet-leader that will lead nowhere, it should respect Abbas’ demand. Israel should aspire for Abu Mazen to be considered a leader in the eyes of his people, not only a marionette whose strings are pulled by Israel and the United States, or affected by other short-term power plays.

Right now power rests with the powerless Abu Mazen. Since Washington – and perhaps Jerusalem as well – badly want the photo-op otherwise known as a “peace summit” to show off an “achievement,” Abu Mazen could and should threaten to boycott the meeting to try and force some achievement on behalf of his people. Palestinians live in Gaza, too – an area controlled by Hamas, which Abu Mazen so loathes: He cannot continue to ignore the inhumane conditions in which Gazans live, caged in by Israel.

Google News two hours ago:

Ahmadinejad to Speak at Columbia University Amid Heavy Protests FOX News

The same FOX News article is now titled, “Ahmadinejad Speaks During Controversial Appearance at Columbia University.”

Diane Smith reports, “Ahmadinejad to Deliver Speech Amid Massive Protests.”

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was expected to visit Columbia University in New York City on Monday and deliver a speech there, but his presence in the most populous city in the United States sparked massive protests.

Protesters gathered outside the university early Monday before Ahmadinejad was due to arrive and deliver his speech on Morningside campus. Ahmadinejad’s ideology and harsh words have been heavily criticized by simple people, activists and politicians.

It is clear that most people do not welcome his presence in New York, but the acting dean of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs, John Coatsworth, said Ahmadinejad is “an important person” because he is the “leader of an important country and one we are going to have to deal with in the future.”

I searched for pictures and found one that was published today by the New York Press. But if you follow this link you’ll find that it’s an old photo taken outside the Hotel Washington during the Million Worker March.

Agence France-Presse reports that, “100 protestors gathered.”

Updated 24 September:

Poor turnout causes CNN to edit headline, too? What once read, “Iran’s president faces U.S. protests“, now reads, “Iranian leader ‘petty, cruel dictator,’ school president says“.

Yaman Salahi writes:

Hossam al-Hamalawy, an Egyptian blogger, journalist, and labor activist currently at Berkeley’s School of Journalism, is reporting on his blog that 15,000 workers at the Ghazl al-Mahallah textile factory in Egypt have gone on strike. Ghazl al-Mahallah is the biggest textile factory in the Middle East, with over 27,000 workers comprising its total labor force. Workers have occupied the factory, including men, women, and their children, and the numbers are increasing during the daytime. Even retired workers in the area are showing up at the compound to join in solidarity.

See:
15000 workers are taking part in the industrial action…Numbers expected to rise…Factory under police siege

Continue reading →

Chemical gas fills the air in Montebello, Quebec outside of the location of the trilateral summit, forcing the majority of demonstrators to retreat from the police lines.

Opposing the Security and Prosperity Partnership: Demonstrations in Montebello: A photo essay by Stefan Christoff