Purveyor
Purveyor's Journal'Promised Land' Wrestles With Israel's Brutal Contradictions
In his new book My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel, Israeli journalist Ari Shavit tackles several basic questions: Why was Israel created? What has it achieved? What went wrong? Where is it heading? Will it survive?
The book is based on interviews with hundreds of Israelis — Jews and Arabs — as well as his own story and family history (two of Shavit's great-grandfathers became Zionists in the late 1800s).
Shavit, a columnist for Israel's Haaretz newspaper, was born in 1957. He says serving in the Israeli army in the occupied territories left him "morally outraged" and turned him into a peace and human rights activist. But he writes that there are no simple answers in the Middle East, which is why he prides himself on challenging "both right-wing and left-wing dogmas."
"The great challenge for Israel is that there's an inherent contradiction between our values — which are basically democratic, liberal, humane values — and the brutal reality we live in," Shavit tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. "And the challenge is to find a way to reconcile them [in] the best way possible, not to lose our soul and not to lose our values while we defend our [lives] and protect our future."
This is where the "triumph and tragedy of Israel" begins. My great-grandfather, who was one of the founders of Zionism of Britain, ... he arrives as a pilgrim in the port of Jaffa in April 1897, just a few months before the First Zionist Congress.
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http://www.npr.org/2013/11/18/245952983/promised-land-wrestles-with-israels-brutal-contradictions
Death Of Rebel Leader Seen As Key Loss To Syria’s Anti-Assad Forces
BEIRUT -- A rebel commander who built the most effective faction in northern Syria of the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army has died of wounds he suffered last week in an airstrike on a meeting of high-level rebel and opposition figures, his unit announced Monday.
Abdul-Qadir Saleh had been taken to Turkey for treatment of the injuries he’d suffered Thursday when forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad targeted the building where he was meeting with other key rebel leaders outside the contested city of Aleppo. His unit, the Liwa Tahid brigade, initially reported that his injuries weren’t serious, but he died shortly after arriving at a medical facility in Gaziantep, Turkey. His body was returned to his hometown in Syria for burial over the weekend, the group said Monday.
Three other high-ranking commanders were killed and the group’s political director was wounded, the group said.
Saleh’s death was seen as a massive setback for the future of moderate Islamist rebel factions, which have suffered a series of defeats recently at the hands of the Assad government and al Qaida-affiliated rebel groups with which they’ve clashed. Widely seen as the U.S.-backed rebellion’s most effective military leader, Saleh had a reputation not only for driving his group’s battlefield prowess but also for being able to work effectively with the broad range of anti-Assad groups, from Western donors to al Qaida-inspired militants.
“The martyr leader Abdul-Qadir Saleh was one of the bravest men of the Syrian revolution,” said Salar al Kurdi, a rebel activist from Idlib. “He had an excellent reputation and he was well mannered. It is a loss to us because we lost a gentleman and an honest fighter, someone from whom we never heard any lies or betrayal.”
Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/18/3762778/death-of-rebel-leader-seen-as.html#storylink=cpy
Israeli Rapper: 'First Burn All Jails With Palestinians Inside, Then Destroy Jenin!'
One of Israel’s most popular hip-hop artists, Subliminal, was pretty angry after a Palestinian teen murdered an IDF soldier in his sleep earlier this week.
Subliminal posted a photo of the Palestinian, who was bandaged after apparently being roughed up during his arrest, and had some harsh words for the lad. Here are just a few of his choice phrases:
“… Now he’ll go into a jail in Israel like a hero! Will study a few degrees and get connected to all the heads of Palestinian terror groups… Damn all those savages, we should burn the jails with all of them inside! And a second later we should destroy Jenin whose inhabitants gloat that they are the stronghold of terror against Israel… Another embarrassing moment for me to be an Israeli! The people of Israel – wake up! And all the lefties who hate what I wrote here – kill yourselves already! I wish what happened yesterday would happen to a relative of yours and you’ll wake up from the zany dream you’re holding on to and splitting and weakening my people!”
Needless to say, the comments were very supportive. But I’ll spare you those…
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http://972mag.com/israeli-rapper-first-burn-all-jails-with-palestinians-inside-then-destroy-jenin/81922/
Libya: On The Brink Of Abyss
Libya's dangerous slip into anarchy will have serious implications for Africa.Last updated: 16 Nov 2013 12:14
The deterioration of the political and security situation in Libya has been worsening throughout the year, stocking fears that the country risks total anarchy and civil war. Violence and instability have increased in parts of the country, while the level of insecurity, particularly in cities such as Tripoli and Benghazi, has worsened. Indeed, a simple survey of headlines such as "Libya: Going wrong", "Libya on the brink", "Premier's brief 'arrest' highlights anarchy", or "Deepening crisis in Libya", all tell the story of a failing Libya.
The latest violent incident which occurred on November 15, epitomises the gravity of the crisis. In the worst street fighting between one of the revolutionary brigades in Tripoli and residents of the city, at least 32 people were killed and about 400 wounded.
One of the legacies of the rushed military campaign against former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was the dismantling of the security sector and the looting of the weapons stockpiles of the country. The various armed formations and revolutionary brigades that waged the war that toppled Gaddafi, are not integrated into a unified national security architecture. Instead, granting official recognition to a large number of armed groups under the National Transitional Council encouraged the consolidation of the brigades. The recognition brought many of them under the "nominal" authority of either the defence or interior ministry and allowed their proliferation. Yet, the brigades, known locally as Katibas, for the most part, act independently. While only an estimated 50,000 Libyans fought in militias against Gaddafi, the number of brigades has grown and the country's Warriors Affairs Commission believes that currently, there are 250,000 militiamen under arms.
A roll call
Over the course of the past two years, the various armed elements evolved into different politically- and ideologically-oriented groupings. The major armed groupings now include the Libya Shields, a coalition of militias from Zawya in the west and Misrata in the east, authorised by the government to bolster security in Tripoli; the Zintans, a powerful Bedouin tribal militia whose commanders lead the Qaqaa militia, an 18,000 strong force opposed to the influence of the Shields; the Supreme Security Committee (SSC) that operates as a de facto police and has an alliance with the Shields against the Zintans; and finally the Benghazi federalist group bent on establishing their own administration in the east.
The government's attempts at asserting authority over the various brigades has continued to face fierce resistance due to several reasons; the lack of trust in government, the hatred against the perceived or real role of Gaddafi-era people, and the rivalry for influence.
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http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/11/libya-brink-abyss-201311131174190342.html
Report: Obama Rejecting Calls From Netanyahu Amid Tension Over Iran
By Barak Ravid | Nov. 17, 2013 | 12:20 PM
Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida reported Sunday that U.S. President Barack Obama has been refusing to take phone calls from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu because of the tension between the two countries over how to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue.
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a flat denial, saying, “The report in Al Jarida is wrong.”
The White House also denied the reports.
Al Jarida, which has previously reported information that was later verified about a leak investigation taking place in Netanyahu’s bureau, says that on Friday, Obama refused more than once to speak to Netanyahu on the telephone and had U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry take the call instead. The paper cited a source it says is familiar with the issue.
According to the report, which was written by a reporter in Jerusalem, U.S. Jewish leaders are trying to get the White House to decrease the tension and snag Netanyahu an invitation to meet with Obama in Washington.
The Kuwaiti paper’s exclusive reports on what’s going on behind the scenes of the Prime Minister’s Office have raised the question of whether Netanyahu’s bureau is intentionally using the paper to release information to which it doesn’t want to be directly linked.
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http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.558544
Netanyahu Needs To Hear What The US Public Is Saying: 'No more wars...'
The spat between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama over Iran shows how out-of-touch Israel's leader is with world opinion.By Amir Oren | Nov. 17, 2013
Here’s a statistic from an official Pentagon presentation, recently revealed at a security industry conference in Augusta, Georgia. The subject was American military interventions since the end of World War II. The figures: 44 interventions – one a year – between 1945 and 1989; and another 100 – three to four a year – since the end of the Cold War.
The world has become wilder, with more American raids and invasions, since the disintegration of the bipolar American-Soviet structure. The trend is toward longer interventions, which require maintenance of ground forces – that is, a long, costly investment from a cavernous-bottomed barrel.
That is the backdrop for an important and frank statement made by a senior American official, in the current context of the dispute between U.S. President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the emerging agreement between the six world powers and Iran. Last Thursday, speaking at another security conference, this time in Washington, U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel summed up the American public’s position as it is reflected in opinion polls: “No more wars, no more Middle East.” They don’t want to spill any more blood or money into the quicksand of countries in the same region as Afghanistan and Iraq.
The public, said former senator Hagel, is at the foundation of democracy. The public decides because Congress – a partner as strong as the president – must constantly heed the desires of the voters. Especially the House of Representatives, which stands for election every two years. None of its members is so invulnerable as to buck the spirit of the times.
Without willingness to put boots on the ground – not a commando force to kill Osama bin Laden that performs its task and takes quickly to the air, but divisions that get bogged down and bloodied – no regime can be toppled. Prudent planners don’t talk about air operations before they have the general outlines of the boots on the ground operation.
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http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.558361
NSA Chief Reveals How Many Documents Edward Snowden Leaked
Former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden leaked as many as 200,000 classified US documents to the media, according to little-noticed public remarks by the eavesdropping agency's chief late last month.
In a question-and-answer session following a speech to a foreign affairs group in Baltimore on October 31, NSA Director General Keith Alexander was asked by a member of the audience what steps US authorities were taking to stop Snowden from leaking additional information to journalists.
"I wish there was a way to prevent it. Snowden has shared somewhere between 50 [thousand] and 200,000 documents with reporters. These will continue to come out," Alexander said.
US officials briefed on investigations into Snowden's activities have said privately for months that internal government assessments indicate that the number of classified documents to which Snowden got access as a systems operator at NSA installations ran into the hundreds of thousands.
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http://www.watoday.com.au/it-pro/security-it/nsa-chief-reveals-how-many-documents-edward-snowden-leaked-20131117-hv3ij.html
France Assures Israel It Will Stand Firm On Iran Deal
Source: REUTERS
(Reuters) - President Francois Hollande assured Israel on Sunday that France would continue to oppose an easing of economic sanctions against Iran until it was convinced Tehran had given up any pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Hollande's pledge could help underpin an intensive campaign by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convince Israel's main ally, the United States, and other leading powers to toughen terms of a proposed nuclear deal with Iran ahead of negotiations reconvening this week in Geneva.
Differences over how to ensure Iran does not obtain nuclear weapons have opened a rift between Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama, whose relationship has long been fraught. France has taken a tough line with Iran, helping Paris forge closer ties with Tehran's foes in Israel and the Gulf.
"France will not give way on nuclear proliferation," Hollande said at a welcoming ceremony at Tel Aviv airport. "So long as we are not certain that Iran has renounced nuclear arms, we will keep in place all our demands and sanctions."
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/17/us-iran-nuclear-idUSBRE9AG0DP20131117
Is The Affordable Care Act In Serious Jeopardy?
By JAKE MILLER / CBS NEWS/ November 17, 2013, 4:04 PM
With an eye on the 2014 midterm elections, a growing number of Democrats are voicing concerns about the insurance cancellations and website problems that have plagued the debut of the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges - a phenomenon highlighted Friday when 39 House Democrats broke ranks to support a GOP-authored bill that the White House said would undermine a "central premise" of the healthcare law.
It was a remarkable show of disunity from Democrats, who have splintered every which way in reaction to the Obamacare's rocky debut. And it raises an uncomfortable question for congressional Democrats who voted overwhelmingly in 2010 to approve the Affordable Care Act without any Republicans in tow: Will they have the political fortitude to stick to their guns and fend off changes to the law, or will a vulnerable caucus begin to accept alterations to a bill they've steadfastly safeguarded for years?
Despite the anxiety among her troops, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives insisted Sunday she isn't fretting about the law's future.
"I don't think it's in trouble," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters. "I think we just have to remain calm, get through the website getting fixed, clarify some misrepresentations about it."
"It's the law of the land," she added. "It's an important health, stability issue, security issue for the American people, and I believe that in a matter of months many more people will see that."
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http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57612721/is-the-affordable-care-act-in-serious-jeopardy/
Qatar Stadium Design Critics: It ‘Looks Like A Vagina’
AECOM Technology Corporation posted a short video animation of the design for Qatar’s new Al Wakrah sports stadium Saturday, which under almost immediate criticism for its resemblance to female genitalia.
Buzzfeed’s Matt Kiebus noted that the $120 billion project bears little resemblance to an ancient dhow boat “that Qataris traditionally used for pearl diving.”
Qatar is building the 45,000-capacity stadium to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The climate-controlled stadium will be about 12 miles south of Doha, in “one of the oldest inhabited areas in Qatar, with a rich cultural heritage evidenced by its traditional Islamic architecture, historical buildings, distinctive mosques and archaeological sites,” according to AECOM.
Watch the video and draw your own design conclusions below.
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http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/11/16/qatar-stadium-design-critics-it-looks-like-a-vagina/
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