Pornography of Terror: Thoughtful piece by Chris Dickey with insights from Brian Jenkins (who is almost always sensible)

Macabre Excavations: Those missing Kurdish men...

More on the acid wells were Turkish death squads dumped the victims during what the Turkish military described as "the terror war." "Kurdish researchers argue that the number of unresolved murders in Turkey exceeds 20,000."

Extensive testimony from the UN Fact-finding commission on the Gaza war chaired by Richard Goldstone

You will find links for Arabic and English videos of testimony before the commission from 28-9 June and 6-7 July, 2009. The videos offer authentic accounts of episodes in the Gaza war, as well as some systematic details on the utilities and health sectors.

David Harris of the American Jewish Committee commenting on Roger Cohen's recent NYRB essay, and Cohen rejoinder

'Eyeless in Gaza': An Exchange - The New York Review of Books

Original essay link.

The evanescent two-state solution for Palestine and Israel

Hillary Clinton has garnered some headlines during her visit to Israel for emphasizing the inevitiability of a two-state solution. In contrast, incoming Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu aims to focus on improving economic conditions for Palestinians living in occupied West Bank, while continuing the colonization project that aims to make a viable Palestinian state impossible, except in the minds of gullible western politicians. The Palestinians are certainly not gullible, and with about 500,000 Israelis living either in East Jerusalem or in interconnected settlement clusters in the West Bank, they know that the tipping point is not far away if it has not already arrived.

Here is what Clinton had to say in press conference with Foreign Minister Livni on March 3, 2009 (the conference should be read in full):

"It is our assessment, as I expressed yesterday and again today, that eventually the inevitability of working toward a two-state solution seems inescapable. That doesn’t mean that we don’t respect the opinions of others who see it differently. But from my perspective, and from the perspective of the Obama Administration, time is of the essence on a number of issues, not only on the Iranian threat. We happen to believe that moving toward the two-state solution, step by step, is in Israel’s best interest. But obviously, it’s up to the people and the government of Israel to decide how to define your interests."

Even considering the subteties of diplomatic language, "the inevitability of working toward a two-state solution seems inescapable" sounds to me just like the "successful" incremental diplomacy of now Special Adviser to the Secretary Dennis Ross.

Meantime, did anyone hear a word from Clinton about Israeli settlements?

Insanity: "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."--Albert Einstein

Meantime, White House spokesman notes that "these people (Hamas) are nothing but thugs." Very helpful, especially from a White House that has been oblivious to the collective punishment and starvation that has been imposed by Israel upon Gazans. Of course, Israel has a right to defend itself, and firing rockets into the Negev requires a response, but indiscriminate attacks on Gaza will have at least three effects:

--Palestinian solidarity around Hamas will increase.

--Mahmoud 'Abbas will be further discredited.

--U.S. credibility as a mediator will only become more risible.

Gideon Levy maintains his sanity: The neighborhood bully strikes again - Haaretz - Israel News

Added:

The Guardian offers a reminder that the Israeli occupation of Gaza ended only in form, not in fact.

Will al-Qaeda self-destruct?

The logic behind the latest Lebanon bombing

Even before the May events, there have been deep worries in Lebanon about the resurgence of Salafi groups especially in the environs of Tripoli. There are four factors that drive the attacks on army connected targets, in my view:
1.Vengeance for the 2007 suppression of Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr al-Barid fighting.
2. Perception that the army is aligned with Hezbollah (army orders have stressed cooperation with the resistance, and the recent policy statement privileged Hezbollah).
3. Judgment that Saad al-Din al-Hariri, with whom Salafi groups had aligned, was shown to be weak. While the Salafis will take his money, they are less inclined to rest their fate in his sometimes shaky hands.
4. Role of external players, which in this case refers to hardline Saudis, who wish to undermine the consensus government in Beirut. That consensus government concedes a major political voice to Hezbollah led opposition.

FT.com / World - Lebanese blast mars electoral law vote

Kuntar

The quality that distinguishes terrorism from violence in general is not merely that it is political, but that it is opprobrious because it targets innocent people by design. In my own work I have insisted that terrorism may be carried out by non-state actors as well as by governments, including our own. You can find this approach developed in my old essay in Ethics and International Affairs, in the Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World, and in a variety of other publications. Unless we insist on preserving the term "terrorism" to refer to opprobrious violence, the term is, in a sense, cheapened and it becomes only a rhetorical bludgeon.

This brings me to the case of Samir Kuntar (Quntar), the Druze terrorist who has been in jail in Israel for almost three decades for the murder of a father and child. By my understanding, what this then young man did was unquestionably a truly despicable act of terrorism. I happen to know a bit about the victims who lived at 61 Jabotinsky Street in Nahariyya, Israel, and I find the account from the trial of Kuntar an accurate depiction.

One may argue that his pending release by Israel is something of a political victory for Hezbollah, as Amal Saad-Ghorayeb does, but it is simultaneously a moral defeat for Hezbollah. This man was not a victim, but a bona fide terrorist. He is not like those Lebanese seized, reprehensibly, by Israel in years past to be held for years as bargaining chips, or those Lebanese jailed by Israel for fighting to liberate their country. Whether Christian, Jewish, Hindu or Muslim, there should be not doubt about the distinction being made here. The fact that Hezbollah has made his release a centerpiece of its policy, and that his release was a rationale for the infamous operation of July 12, 2006, undermines whatever moral claim the group might otherwise make.

The Israel-Hizbollah prisoner-deal | open Democracy News Analysis

Cross-posted.

Added:
My sentiments exactly.

Readers' comments in ICGA.