By Ben Cohen: Regardless of whose side you take in the Israeli Palestinian crisis, there is no denying that the Jewish state has been far better at the public relations game than the Palestinians have ever been. There are many well funded pro Israel groups in the US that have ...read more

Israel is feeling the heat from the international community after declaring it would build 3000 new settlement homes on Palestinian territory, with the UN going as far as calling the move as 'an almost fatal blow' to to the peace process. From the  BBC: Britain and France have ...read more

It wasn't enough for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push the peace process back by assaulting Gaza and inflicting massive a massive humanitarian disaster on the area - he is now authorizing the construction of 3,000 illegal settlement homes in the West Bank and East ...read more

The Huff Post's Ahmed Shihab-Eldin decries the framing of the Israeli assault on Gaza that paints Palestinians as aggressors: To ignore the role of Israel's occupation of Gaza is to ignore the fundamental fact needed to frame the latest escalation in reality rather than rhetoric ...read more

Andrew Sullivan decries Israel's self harming policies that he believes will eventually lead to its demise: Without diplomacy toward a two-state solution, we are looking at a lifetime of constant Israeli warfare against all of its neighbors, deeper isolation in the region (with ...read more

By Ben Cohen: The world watches as the deteriorating situation in Gaza unfolds, unable to prevent either side from pulling back from the brink of war. With Israel gearing up for a full out assault on the impoverished area it has been occupying for decades, the chances for a ...read more

By Ben Cohen: The pretense that the United States is an honest broker in the Israeli/Palestinian crisis must now be completely dismissed from serious circles. From the Guardian: The United States has warned European governments against supporting a Palestinian bid for enhanced ...read more

By Ben Cohen: Mitt Romney is not having a good week. After campaign ending footage was released of Romney describing half of the America population as blood sucking parasites, it then transpired that he had gone on to declare he wasn't interested in a settlement between the ...read more

By Robert Parry: Some pundits are excusing Mitt Romney’s comment about why Palestinians are so much poorer than Israelis as a slip of the tongue caused by a shortage of staff on his overseas trip, but the Republican presidential candidate makes the same point in his book, No ...read more

By Chez Pazienza: Can we just finally admit that Mitt Romney is the worst candidate the GOP has offered up in, well, maybe ever? Is there anyone who still thinks Romney is anything more than one big walking punchline, an ongoing political disaster of Irwin Allen-esque ...read more

By Ben Cohen: Whatever you might think about the conflict between Israel and Palestine, there are certain lines of argument that are completely unacceptable regardless of which side you are supportive of. Mitt Romney has weighed in on the debate with typical insensitivity, and ...read more

Andrew Sullivan dismantles Newt Gingrich's incredibly offensive and racist remarks that Palestinians are an 'invented' people: It's worth noting that one of the most authoritative geneticists in studying the people of the Mediterranean, Antonio Arnaiz-Villena, has found no ...read more

Juan Cole slams Obama for his blatantly hypocritical stance on the Palestinian move towards statehood: President Barack Obama appears to have thought that he could go to the UN with a liberation of Libya and a further postponement of Palestinian rights to boast of, and that ...read more

President Obama's policy towards the Israel/Palestine conflict has been one of avoidance and acquiescence to Israel. Over and over again Obama has rolled over to Netanyahu's demands, and the Israeli state continues to colonize Palestinian territory and brutalize its people. In ...read more

Image via Wikipedia Robert Fisk breaks the extraordinary inside story about the unity deal between Hamas and Fatah. Key quote: The secret story of Palestinian unity is now revealed. Israeli prime minister Netanyahu’s reaction to the news – having originally refused to negotiate ...read more

Andrew Sullivan rectifies a myth being perpetuated by the Right wing media: One begins to suspect that we have really have entered a postmodern era on the right. So Fox News "reports" that Obama's speech calling for a return to 1967 borders, with agreed-upon land swaps: "stunned ...read more

Image via Wikipedia More on this tomorrow, but my first reaction to Obama's speech from the White House on America's policy towards the Middle East was one of cautious optimism. Ignoring the usual pledges to support democracy in the region (countered by the United States lengthy ...read more