RUSSELL BRAND - ISRAEL-PALESTINE DEBATE

Israel-Palestine: Is This A Debate?  Russell Brand The Trews (E111) Source - Youtube -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_m98GAdqKM

US MEDIA - ISRAELI BIAS

American media's new pro-Israel bias: the same party line at the wrong time Evolving conversations on the ground demand probing questions on-air. So why does TV news look like a Netanyahu ad? Chris McGreal theguardian.com, Friday 1 August 2014 03.45 AEST Here are a few questions you won’t hear asked of the parade of Israeli officials crossing US television screens during the current crisis in Gaza: What would you do if a foreign country was occupying your land? What does it mean that Israeli cabinet ministers deny Palestine’s right to exist? What should we make of a prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, who as opposition leader in the 1990s was found addressing rallies under a banner reading “Death to Arabs”? These are contentious questions, to be sure, and with complicated answers. But they are relevant to understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict today. They also parallel the issues routinely raised by American journalists with Palestinian officials, pressing to consider how the US would react if it were under rocket fire from Mexico, to explain why Hamas won’t recognise Israel and to repudiate Palestinian anti-Semitism. But it’s a feature of much mainstream journalism in the US, not just an issue of coverage during the last three weeks of the Gaza crisis, that while one set of questions gets asked all the time, the other is heard hardly at all. ... Take Netanyahu’s appearance on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday. The host, Bob Schieffer, permitted the Israeli leader to make a lengthy case for the his military’s ground attack, guiding him along with one sympathetic question after another. Finally, after describing Netanyahu’s position as “very understandable”, Schieffer asked about dead Palestinian civilians – but only to wonder if they presented a public relations problem in “the battle for world opinion”. ... [bias] At one extreme is Fox News, where last week Sean Hannity shouted down a Palestinian guest, Yousef Munayyer, because he would not condemn Hamas as a terrorist organisation, then proceeded to terminate the interview. Munayyer, director of the Jerusalem Fund in Washington, has appeared repeatedly on CNN where he is treated more respectfully. But he told me he is frequently brought on to answer accusations from the Israeli side, rather than explain the Palestinian perspective in the way that Israeli officials and commentators are allowed to lay out their case.  ... There is evidence of a shift in public opinion, mostly generational: a Pew poll this month showed falling support for Israel among younger Americans. Over 65s backed the Jewish state by 60% to just 9% support for the Palestinians. Among young adults, aged 18-29, just 44% were behind Israel with backing for the Palestinians rising to 22%.  As opinion shifts, it will be harder to go on presenting just one side of the story. Rest of article @ source http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/31/american-media-israel-bias-netanyahu

Article started off strong and held my interest.

The media sounds laughable in the US.

Fox News is appalling.  The guy that did the shouting gets flack online. 

Pew Poll put me right off the article.

Pew means bull to me.

GAZA - Disarmament of Hamas

Kerry: Truce Deal 'Must Lead to the Disarmament of Hamas' US, EU, UN pressure builds to accept internationally-mediated truce deal, despite heavy rocket fire on Israel. By AFP and Arutz Sheva Staff First Publish: 7/28/2014, 8:19 PM US Secretary of State John Kerry Monday said that international efforts to reach agreement on a truce between Israel and the Palestinians in Gaza must lead to the disarmament of Hamas. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/183443

Somehow I can't see Hamas agreeing to disarmament, and I've only just begun watching politics.

GAZA - John Kerry - Outrageous Proposition

Krauthammer: Kerry is undermining Israeli-Gaza peace talks Published July 28, 2014 ... Krauthammer, a syndicated columnist and a Fox News contributor, said Kerry has caused "wreckage" by intervening. ... Kerry spent Saturday in Paris meeting with several European diplomats and the foreign ministers of Qatar and Turkey, who are negotiating on behalf of Hamas, hoping to establish an immediate cease fire in the ongoing conflict. Krauthammer said Kerry returned from the negotiations as essentially Hamas’ lawyer, and the plan Kerry supported “would have given Hamas all of its demands.” "(Kerry) hands Israel a proposition that is so outrageous that the cabinet votes 19-0 against it," he said. "Israeli cabinets have never voted 19-0 on whether the sun rises in the east. It was unbelievable." http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/07/28/krauthammer-kerry-is-undermining-israeli-gaza-peace-talks/?cmpid=cmty_twitter_fn

John Kerry the 'Hamas lawyer'?  

I don't think so.

Kerry's 'outrageous' proposal plays right into Israeli hands.  

It's a round of High Fives.

GAZA - Update

Fears grow Hezbollah could join Hamas fight against Israel after Kerry peace effort fails The Washington Times Wednesday, July 23, 2014 Hamas rejected Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s call for a cease-fire amid concerns that an agreement won’t be reached before other parties are drawn into its conflict with Israel. A new jihadi media outlet called Al Fawaris released a video Wednesday calling on Gazans to endure the military operation. Its message said victory looms and that Muslims all over the world support them. While Hamas is using tactics favored by Hezbollah, the Lebanon-based Islamist group has not shown signs of entering the conflict. Analysts say Hezbollah, which has offered words of support for Hamas, is fully occupied with Syria’s civil war. “Right now, Hezbollah has way too much invested in the Syrian conflict to provoke an unnecessarily destructive war with Israel,” said Daniel Nisman, president of the Levantine Group, a geopolitical risk and research group based in Tel Aviv. The Middle East Media Research Institute’s Jihad and Terrorism Threat Monitor published a report with a video featuring jihadi cleric Abu hareth Al-Maqdisi, who said he and his fighters in Syria want to join the battle in Gaza. “True, we are fighting in Syria, but our heart yearns to arrive and fight the sons and brothers of the apes and pigs [the Jews],” the institute reported Al-Maqdisi as saying. The jihadi cleric said Gazans must be patient and wait for either victory or martyrdom, and that Allah will soon send “extraordinary soldiers who will fight and defeat the Jews.” Mr. Kerry reported progress in indirect negotiations, and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal called for a temporary truce to allow humanitarian relief into Gaza. But Mr. Meshaal said his group would keep fighting Israel and would not agree to a more lasting cease-fire without a full negotiation of terms. “We need the calm for a few hours to evacuate the wounded and assist in the relief. This means a real truce backed by a real relief program offered to the people of Gaza,” Mr. Meshaal said at a news conference in Qatar.

However, he said any permanent cease-fire could be reached only if Israel ends its siege and could be implemented only after full negotiations. More than 680 Palestinians and 34 Israelis have been killed since fighting began in early July. Already hurt by mass tourism cancellations, Israel faced increased economic pressure after the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration took the rare step Tuesday of banning flights to Tel Aviv and renewed the order Wednesday. Many other foreign carriers, on heightened alert after a Malaysian airliner was shot down over a combat zone in Ukraine last week, followed suit. Israeli carriers continued to operate. “Hamas’ success in closing the Israeli airspace is a great victory for the resistance, a terrible failure for Israel that wrecks the image of Israeli deterrence,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri. The Tel Aviv stock exchange and shekel were flat, with traders showing little concern about the flight stoppages. Mr. Kerry landed at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, despite the flight bans, and met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and a grim-faced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He said indirect talks had made some progress but returned later to Egypt, which shares a border with Gaza and has mediated with Hamas. “We have certainly made some steps forward. There is still work to be done,” said Mr. Kerry, whose most recent efforts at peace negotiations between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas broke down in April. Mr. Kerry has been working through Mr. Abbas, Egypt and other regional proxies because the U.S., like Israel, shuns Hamas as a terrorist group. Hamas brushed off the U.S. diplomat’s appeal, saying it would not hold fire without making gains. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said there was “a strong possibility” that Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza, where most Palestinian casualties have been civilians. She also condemned indiscriminate Islamist rocket fire out of Gaza. The U.N. Human Rights Council said it would launch an international inquiry into suspected violations. Israel dismissed the threat. “Get lost,” Justice Minister Tzipi Livni said on her Facebook page in response to the investigation. SOURCE - Washington Times - here.

A very interesting update.

GAZA - John Kerry in Israel - Peace Talks

Yahoo News ... so far killed 649 Palestinians and 31 Israelis, with neither Israel nor Hamas showing willingness to end hostilities, despite days of diplomatic efforts to coax them into a truce. - Possible war crimes - [...] In Geneva, UN rights chief Navi Pillay said Israel's military actions in the Gaza Strip could amount to war crimes, while also condemning indiscriminate rocket attacks by Hamas. "There seems to be a strong possibility that international law has been violated, in a manner that could amount to war crimes," Pillay told an emergency session on Israel's Gaza offensive at the UN Human Rights Council, citing attacks that have killed Palestinian civilians, including children. She added that Israeli children and other civilians also had a right to live without constant fear of rocket attacks. Despite appeals from UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for both sides to "stop fighting", Israel has insisted it would keep up its punishing campaign until it smashes cross-border tunnels used by Gaza militants to attack the Jewish state. After touching down in Tel Aviv at 0800 GMT, Kerry set off for Jerusalem where he was to meet visiting Ban before travelling straight to the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, a State Department official said. He was later to return to Tel Aviv for talks at the defence ministry with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the official said. He was expected to return to Cairo in the evening. [...] police confirming they had arrested 800 Arab Israelis and another 295 people in east Jerusalem in the past three weeks. Source - Yahoo News - undated  - here.

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COMMENT


Somehow I don't think there will be any action taken whatever the UN says.

Kerry trying to make peace with Palestinians is strange when he's a firm Israel supporter.

Mahmud Abbas is the official recognised go-to; but I think Hamas government is separate to him.

Peace talks must be awkward.

HAMAS - Pew Research Centre - Propaganda Survey

Pew Research Centre

July 1, 2014

Concerns about Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Middle East

Negative Opinions of al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah Widespread

...

 Negative Opinions of al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah Widespread

Overall, most people surveyed have an unfavorable impression of Hamas, a militant Palestinian organization that is in control of the Gaza Strip and designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. This includes people who live under its rule.

More than half in the Palestinian territories (53%) have an unfavorable view of Hamas, with only about a third (35%) expressing positive views. Negative views are higher in the Hamas-led Gaza Strip (63%), up from 54% in 2013. In the Fatah-led West Bank, 47% have an unfavorable opinion of Hamas.

Opinions of Hamas have been deteriorating in the Palestinian territories since it took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Then, 62% of Palestinians had a favorable view of the extremist group, while a third had negative views. Now, only about a third have positive opinions and more than half view Hamas negatively.

Elsewhere in the region, views of Hamas are negative. This includes 65% in Lebanon. Lebanese Christians (79%) and Sunni Muslims (65%) have greater enmity towards Hamas, which is a largely Sunni organization, than do Lebanese Shia Muslims (44%), who on balance have a favorable view.

...extract only...full @...
SOURCE - Pew Research Centre - here.

Methods - here.
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COMMENT

PRC putting out more of their laughable propaganda.

GAZA - Death Toll

GAZA

DEATH TOLL:   above 300

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon - seeking to broker truce.

Obama has supported Israel's right to defend itself against Gaza rocket fire

ISRAEL - land, sea, air and ground offensive

HAMAS - [Palestinian Islamist de facto government in Gaza (following landslide parliamentary election win)]

HAMAS - Remains defiant "as Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas travelled to Egypt and Turkey for truce talks". [Mahmud Abbas - PLO Chairman & President of State of Palestine [wikipedia]]

Total death toll to 307 Palestinians and 2 Israelis.
2,250 Palestinians and several Israelis have been injured.

U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA ... to shelter those fleeing.

• 47,000 Gazans seeking sanctuary with the agency.
• 20,000 displaced people received World Food Programme emergency food rations and food vouchers to more than
• 85,000 people estimated to require emergency assistance, as result of Israel ground offensive.

70% Gaza power outage (electricity lines from Israel were damaged)...
 

• Ground operation:  

Israel aim to "destroy Hamas network of tunnels which are used for cross-border attacks on southern Israel".

• Netanyahu (Israel) ...  admitted there was "no guarantee of 100 percent success."

"French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Abbas had urged Paris to ask Hamas allies Qatar and Turkey to pressure the group into accepting a ceasefire."

"Hamas has rejected Egyptian proposals for a truce:

1. demanding an easing of a harsh Gaza blockade imposed by Israel in 2006; and
2. the release of Palestinian prisoners."

BLOGGER SUMMARY and QUOTE SOURCE - 

Gaza Toll Passes 300 as U.N.'s Ban Heads to Region
by Naharnet Newsdesk  - 
Lebanon - here.

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OTHER

HAMAS - is a 'Palestinian Sunni Islamic organisation'  

Declared terrorist organisation by Israel, Jordan, US, EU & US western allies, Japan

COUNTRIES OPPOSED to terrorist designation:  

• Iran
• Russia
• Turkey
• China; and 
• 'many Arab nations' 

2006-onwards - Hamas has governed the Gaza Strip

HAMAS -

 'won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections and defeated the Fatah political organization in a series of violent clashes.'

FATAH - largest faction of PLO multi-party confederation.

INTERESTING ASIDE:

'Fatah wanted US Secretary of State John Kerry prosecuted before the International Criminal Court for allegedly having threatened the life of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.' [wikipedia]

US Secretary of State John Kerry recently threatened PA President Mahmoud Abbas that he would meet the same fate as his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, if he turned down Washington’s proposals for peace with Israel, a Palestinian source was quoted Sunday as saying.  [The Jerusalem Post - Feb 2014 - here.]

According to Jerusalem Post's source, Kerry's proposals for the region were met with 'shock and rejection' and the proposals allegedly involved:

creating large settlement blocs where 80% of the settlers would be gathered under Israeli sovereignty. [The Jerusalem Post - Feb 2014 - here.]

John Kerry's brother, politician Cameron Kerry (US Democrats...US Secretary of Commerce), described the US Secretary of State's position as follows:

Today, his determined work on Middle East peace is informed by an abiding sense of the need to secure Israel as a home for the Jewish people. For years since that first visit, he has engaged passionately with a wide variety of leaders in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and across the region to understand the way to peace. He also maintained a 100-percent pro-Israel voting record during his nearly three decades in the US senate.

It is this deep involvement that has led to the conviction that Israel's long-term security requires a two-state solution – ... Israel cannot sustain occupation of the West Bank and remain both democratic and Jewish. ...

Prime Minister Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Lieberman, and Ambassador Dermer were courageous in their defense of my brother’s motives. We can all debate the effectiveness of security measures, the delineation of borders, arrangements for East Jerusalem, and other real issues among the parties, but there is no truth and no good that can come by calling into question John Kerry's good faith toward his own heritage. Israel and the Jewish people deserve better than that.  [YNet News - here.]

HAMAS, if I understand correctly, look to Tayyip Erdoğan's Turkish government, as a model government.

Religious and secular balance sought ... but unknown if this aim is universal or if it will prevail.

Alleged that Saudi Arabia has been an early financial supporter of HAMAS.

HAMAS

• 540-million-dollar government budget for 2010 

• 90% coming from "undisclosed" foreign aid

said to include funding from -

• Iran; and 
• Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

 'Due to the Gaza blockade, Hamas still faces a financial crisis." [wikipedia] 



Criticisms of HAMAS - wikipedia - here.



[source - wikipedia - where not otherwise stated]
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COMMENT

Spent a while checking out the info regarding this region and I'm still not really all that clear.

GAZA - EU Press Release - 16/07/2014

SOURCE - EU Press Release - 16/07/2014
- GAZA  - PDF - on Page 5 of 6 pages - here.

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Conclusions - 16 July 2014

EUCO 147/14

Gaza

10. The European Council is following with great concern the continued violence in Israel and Gaza. The European Council condemns the firing of rockets from Gaza into Israel and the indiscriminate targeting of civilians. Israel has the right to protect its population from this kind of attacks. In doing so, it must act proportionately and ensure the protection of civilians at all times. It deeply deplores the loss of innocent lives and the high number of wounded civilians in the Gaza Strip as a result of Israeli military operations and is deeply concerned about the rapid and dramatic deterioration of the humanitarian situation. The European Council calls on both sides to de-escalate the situation, to end the violence, to end the suffering of the civilian populations notably by allowing access to humanitarian assistance, and return to calm. The European Council welcomes on-going efforts by regional partners, and in particular the initiative launched by Egypt, to establish a cease-fire and calls on Hamas to agree on such cease-fire. The European Union stands ready to provide the necessary support to this end. The European Union continues to call for the full implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1860 (2009)

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