The importance of a failed summit
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- Written by Gideon Levy, w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m Gideon Levy, w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
- Published: 12 November 2007 12 November 2007
- Hits: 7811 7811
Do not belittle the Annapolis summit. Despite all the prophecies of failure, justified as they are, this summit could still make an important contribution to the history of Israeli-Arab negotiations: For the first time, it will become crystal-clear who aspires toward peace and, more important, who flees from it as if from fire.
{josquote} An Israel that refuses to discuss the core issues is an Israel that does not want peace.{/josquote}
Israel is going to Annapolis as if by force. The prime minister's hands
are tied. If he were to dare to raise the core issues, which are the
only thing to be discussed there, then his political fate would be
sealed. Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu have already announced that in such
an event, they will bring down his government. One can assume that Ehud
Olmert, the survivor, is aware of this danger. Despite the lofty
agreements that he will achieve - or not, it will seem as if his
biweekly talks with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas never
took place. Eli Yishai won't permit it, Avigdor Lieberman is making
threats and even Ehud Barak is making sour faces. An Israel that
refuses to discuss the core issues is an Israel that does not want
peace. There's no other way to put it.
Intel Official: Say Goodbye to Your Privacy
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- Written by PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer
- Published: 11 November 2007 11 November 2007
- Hits: 7252 7252
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguards people's private communications and financial information.
Kerr's comments come as Congress is taking a second look at the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act.
Lawmakers hastily changed the 1978 law last summer to allow the government to eavesdrop inside the United States without court permission, so long as one end of the conversation was reasonably believed to be located outside the U.S.
The Last Refuge
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- Written by Uri Avnery Uri Avnery
- Published: 10 November 2007 10 November 2007
- Hits: 4187 4187
ISRAEL IS an island in the global sea. We live in a bubble. This week I was sharply reminded of this.
{josquote}It has been said that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel". For a failed politician, the last refuge is war.
{/josquote}
I was returning home from Germany. On the eve of the flight, all TV
networks, from CNN and BBC to the German channels, were reporting on
the events in Pakistan. In the airplane, I opened Israel's largest
circulation tabloid, Yedioth Aharonoth, in order to read about the
Pakistani mess. I did not find any mention of it on page 1. Nor on page
2. I found a small item on page 27. The first pages were devoted to
something much more important: the shouts of protest by right-wing
football hooligans when they were requested to stand up in memory of
Yitzhak Rabin.
ADC Deeply Troubled by LAPD Plan to 'Map' LA-Area Muslims
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- Written by The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC)
- Published: 10 November 2007 10 November 2007
- Hits: 5692 5692
Washington, DC | November 10, 2007 | www.adc.org | The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is deeply troubled by the Los Angeles Police Department's "community mapping" plan. The intelligence-guided mapping plan, which is to be carried out in conjunction with the University of Southern California's National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events, would collect information about Muslim communities in the Los Angeles area in an effort to identify who the Muslims are and where the Muslims reside.
In addition to obvious constitutional concerns that such a practice
would violate equal protection and burden the free exercise of
religion, religious profiling will engender fear and lack of trust in
the community which will, in turn, hinder law enforcement efforts.
Read more: ADC Deeply Troubled by LAPD Plan to 'Map' LA-Area Muslims
Whose Road Map?
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- Written by Jeff Halper Jeff Halper
- Published: 09 November 2007 09 November 2007
- Hits: 5381 5381