By Ali Abunimah, Special to CNN

(CNN) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Monday speech to America’s leading pro-Israel lobby took on added significance in light of the spat between the U.S. and Israel over the expansion of Jewish settlements in occupied East Jerusalem.

It indicated the Obama administration blinked in the face of continued Israeli defiance, but that Israel likely faces more trouble down the road.

The row began when Israel announced 1,600 new Jewish-only homes on occupied Palestinian land on March 9, the very day Vice President Joe Biden was in the country to launch indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

[Read the article]

Mazin Qumsiyeh
24 March 2010

Yesterday, after 6 days of kidnapping and beating our friend Omar Mousa Ala’eddin from the village of Al-Ma’sara, the Israeli occupation authorities released him broken and battered.  We spend much of the day with him.  Omar is an English student at Hebron University and was returning with other students and two of his professors from a field trip to Ramallah where they watched a play. On the way back, a soldier at the checkpoint entered into a verbal exchange with Omar when Omar tried to explain to him about a fellow female student who did not have her ID card with her since Omar spoke Hebrew.  The soldier ordered him out of the bus and the first blows were delivered to Omar in front of his friends and teachers.

Continue reading →

Cecilie Surasky
Jewish Voice for Peace

Let Obama and Congress know that AIPAC doesn’t speak for us, and that the time is over for unconditional aid to support settlement expansion and human rights violations. It’s the only way we’ll ever achieve a lasting peace.

Obama and team can also look in their backyard to see another source of support for illegal settlement expansion that can be stopped: the network of tax-exempt US-based charities which send millions of dollars to fund illegal settlements in places like Hebron and East Jerusalem.

JVP has just released a new policy paper on settlement funding. Click here to read it now.

via Palestine Video

Schumer to Bibi: How about that $1,800?
By Ron Kampeas · 22 March 2010

The Schumers invited Bibi over for Shabbat dinner and put on quite a spread. Someone made the mistake of asking Bibi to explain price controls, which then beset Israel’s economy.

“Bibi being Bibi,” Schumer said, the ambassador took a 2-liter Pepsi bottle, unscrwed the cap, stuck his thumb in it and proceeded to shake.

“This is Israel’s economy,” Netanyahu said. “It looks stable…” and then he pulled out his thumb.

“It took me $1,800 to clean up the mess,” Schumer said — and he wanted to know if Bibi was ready to pay up.

Hey, at least he wasn’t asking interest.

Hey, is Ron Kampeas a reporter or a friend promoting friends?

Netanyahu to AIPAC: Jerusalem not a settlement
By Ron Kampeas · 22 March 2010

Netanyahu also criticized the Palestinian Authority. “What has the Palestinian Authority done for peace?” Netanyahu said. “They have placed preconditions on peace talks, waged a relentless international campaign to undermine Israel’s legitimacy, and promoted the notorious Goldstone Report that falsely accuses Israel of war crimes.”

Bibi being Bibi – creating catastrophe and demanding others clean up without interest.