Category Archives: terrorism

Hamas: All Israelis are targets | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR

Horrible deaths but an Hamas all out attack is just what political leaders of Israel want just now – Hamas said Tuesday that “all

Israelis” would be targeted after a deadly strike on a house in the southern city of Khan Younis killed seven people, among them two teenagers.

“The Khan Yunis massacre… of children is a horrendous war crime, and all Israelis have now become legitimate targets for the resistance,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement, without elaborating.

Medics said another 25 people were wounded in the strike.

via Hamas: All Israelis are targets | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR.

Same Interest as Facebook – Manipulate Your Thoughts and Actions for Profit and maybe a Little Good! Participant Index Seeks to Determine Why One Film Spurs Activism, While Others Falter – NYTimes.com

Participant, created in 2004 by the eBay co-founder Jeffrey S. Skoll, is using that methodology to build a proprietary database. It will feature three echelons with 35 projects each, or about 100 distinct bits of media, annually.

The company will lean heavily toward films and television shows of its own, especially those carried on its activism-driven online and pay-television network, Pivot. But it will also index properties for partners, like the Gates and Kaiser Family foundations, and for companies or others who will pay a fee.

Participant was created in 2004 by the eBay co-founder Jeffrey S. Skoll, left, pictured here with James G. Berk, chief executive. Credit Emily Berl for The New York Times

(Prices have not been set, Mr. Berk said, but he expects to serve nonprofits at cost. He declined to say how much Participant has invested in the index.)

In an inaugural general survey, which polled 1,055 of its viewers in March and April of this year, Chad Boettcher, Participant’s executive vice president for social action, and Caty Borum Chattoo, a researcher and communications professor at American University, found some perhaps surprising results.

Even among the presumably progressive Participant audience, crime ranked near the top of the list of 40 primary concerns. It was cited by 73 percent of respondents as an important social issue, placing it just behind human rights, health care and education.

Gay rights, female empowerment and prison sentencing reform, by contrast, ranked near the bottom of the list, while climate change was stuck in the middle, a concern among 59 percent of respondents. Digital intellectual property issues, at 38 percent, brought up the rear.

Continue reading the main storyContinue reading the main storyContinue reading the main story

Stories about animal rights and food production, it turned out, were the most likely to provoke individual action. But tales about economic inequality — not so much.

Over all, said Marc Karzen, a social media entrepreneur whose company, RelishMix, advises film and television marketers, Participant will most likely affirm what is becoming clear to conventional film studios: Impact can be less about persuasion than nudging an audience to go where it is already pointed.

“You have to embrace your fans, not shout at them,” Mr. Karzen said. “They need to be inspired to spread the word.”

One of the weirdest problems in measuring social impact, and one still unresolved, Mr. Boettcher said, is the paradox of “The Cove.”

That documentary, which looks closely at dolphin killing in Japan, had worldwide ticket sales of just $1.2 million after its release in 2009. Yet it has repeatedly led to campaigns to protect the Japanese dolphins, Mr. Boettcher notes, particularly among activists who are aware of the film but will not watch (and hence, would not be counted under the current methodology of the index) because of its gory content.

“They don’t want to see it,” Mr. Boettcher said, “but they will sign up.”

via Participant Index Seeks to Determine Why One Film Spurs Activism, While Others Falter – NYTimes.com.

 

Is it a documentary or propaganda – the folks who want to profit from your feelings don’t care – they just care about the money!

Water supply key to outcome of conflicts in Iraq and Syria, experts warn | Environment | The Guardian

Armageddon on the horizon?

The Euphrates River, the Middle East’s second longest river, and the Tigris, have historically been at the centre of conflict. In the 1980s, Saddam Hussein drained 90% of the vast Mesopotamian marshes that were fed by the two rivers to punish the Shias who rose up against his regime. Since 1975, Turkey’s dam and hydropower constructions on the two rivers have cut water flow to Iraq by 80% and to Syria by 40%. Both Syria and Iraq have accused Turkey of hoarding water and threatening their water supply.

“There has never been an outright war over water but water has played extremely important role in many Middle East conflicts. Control of water supply is crucial”, said Stephen.

It could also be an insurmountable problem should the country split into three, he said. “Water is one of the most dangerous problems in Iraq. If the country was split there would definitely be a war over water. Nobody wants to talk about that,” he said.

Some academics have suggested that Tigris and Euphrates will not reach the sea by 2040 if rainfall continues to decrease at its present rate.

via Water supply key to outcome of conflicts in Iraq and Syria, experts warn | Environment | The Guardian.

Mourning, And Rioting, Over Death In Jerusalem – NYTimes.com

As police tear gas wafted through his East Jerusalem neighborhood, the father of a slain 16-year-old Arab, the possible victim of a Jewish revenge attack, mourned with friends who had come to console him Wednesday on the enclosed porch of his two-story stone house. He had just spent seven hours with police investigators.

“I don’t expect any results,” the father, Hussein Abu Khdeir, 48, said of the investigation into the abduction and killing of his son Muhammad that morning.

via Mourning, And Rioting, Over Death In Jerusalem – NYTimes.com.

Israeli settlers torch Palestinian farm in ‘price tag’ attack | Maan News Agency

NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers early Wednesday set fire to an animal farm in the northern West Bank on Wednesday, a Palestinian official said.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settler activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an that a group of settlers set fire to a sheep farm in Aqraba village south of Nablus at 3 a.m.

Palestinians managed to round up the sheep, but the steel structure surrounding the farm was destroyed by the fire, Daghlas said.

Settlers spray-painted the words “blood vengeance” and “price tag” in Hebrew on the outer walls of the farm, he added.

The farm belongs to Fadi Basim Bani Jabir.

Daghlas said the settlers came from the illegal settlement of Itamar south of Nablus.

Later, in the Bethlehem district, Israeli settlers hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles as they drove on a road near the village of Husan, locals said.

A number of vehicles were hit and sustained damages, they said.

The attacks come in the wake of the burial of three Israeli teens who were found dead in the Hebron district on Monday.

Hours after they were buried on Tuesday, around hundreds of Israelis marched through Jerusalem, stopping cars and shouting “Death to Arabs,” police and witnesses said.

via Israeli settlers torch Palestinian farm in ‘price tag’ attack | Maan News Agency.

On Netanyahu’s head for yesterday’s revenge talk! Possible Revenge Killing Adds to Tension in Israel – NYTimes.com

“The coming days, you can’t expect what will happen — the situation will get worse and worse,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, who works with the Palestine section of Defense for Children International. “The occupation and the cycle of violence should be ended to guarantee there is no further loss of life.”

Continue reading the main story

Mr. Netanyahu spoke before noon with Mr. Aharonovich, the internal security minister, and requested that “investigators act as quickly as possible to find out who stands behind the despicable murder,” according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. Mr. Netanyahu called on all sides not to take the law into their own hands, saying, “Israel is a state of law and everybody is obligated to act according to the law.”

As news of the killing spread, the police increased their presence in Jerusalem. Clashes broke out between Palestinian youths and Israeli security forces along the main road that links the neighborhoods of Beit Hanina and Shuafat. Dozens of teenagers, some using slingshots, hurled stones at the security officers, who responded with tear gas and stun grenades.

Shelters at stops along Jerusalem’s light rail line, which runs through Arab and Jewish neighborhoods, were smashed, and smoke from tires set ablaze hovered over the area. The police barred Jews from entering the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City to avoid rioting.

via Possible Revenge Killing Adds to Tension in Israel – NYTimes.com.

Israeli groups call for more settlements in response to the killing of the three settlers

A group of Israeli settlers led by the mayor of the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, Benny Kashriel, set up a tent today in the area between the settlement and Jerusalem, known as Area E1.

Kashriel called on the Israeli authorities to construct new settlement units in the area in response to the killing of the three Israeli settlers.

Construction in E1 is very controversial, as building settlements there would create a physical link between Ma’ale Adumim and Jerusalem, dividing East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and its Palestinian population centers. It would also divide the West Bank into two almost separate parts, jeopardizing the prospects of a contiguous Palestinian state.

Moreover, the Israeli right-wing political women’s group Women in Green also set up a tent, in order to pressure the authorities to build new settlements in the area between Jeba’at Auz and Gush Etzion, in the north of Hebron.

via Israeli groups call for more settlements in response to the killing of the three settlers.

Israeli forces ‘blow up homes’ of Palestinian suspects | Maan News Agency

{“Guilt?” being Palestinian and relatives of two – suspects, not convicted people – this is democracy?}

The two houses, which are both located in the same neighborhood in northwest Hebron, belong to the families of Marwan al-Qawasmeh, 29, and Amer Abu Eisha, 33.

After Israeli forces in Halhul north of Hebron found three bodies presumed to be those of three Israeli teens who went missing on June 12, soldiers surrounded the houses, forcibly removed the families, and declared the area a closed military zone, locals said.

Witnesses said the homes were then blown up by explosives.

Locals had told Ma’an earlier that soldiers were preparing to demolish the homes.

via Israeli forces ‘blow up homes’ of Palestinian suspects | Maan News Agency.

Sick Majority of Supreme Court rules in favor of Hobby Lobby – chicagotribune.com

Major fail – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday ruled that business owners can object on religious grounds to a provision of President Barack Obama’s healthcare law that requires closely held companies to provide health insurance that covers birth control.

The court held on a 5-4 vote on ideological lines that such companies can seek an exemption from the so-called birth control mandate of the healthcare law. The decision means employees of those companies will have to obtain certain forms of birth control from other sources.

In a majority opinion by conservative Justice Samuel Alito, the court said the ruling applies only to the birth control mandate and does not mean companies would necessarily succeed if they made similar claims to other insurance requirements, such as vaccinations and drug transfusions.

via Supreme Court rules in favor of Hobby Lobby – chicagotribune.com.