them

The story of Peter Erlinder, an American law professor and leading figure of the International Criminal Tribunal of Rwanda, reads like a macabre thriller with an unresolved ending. He arrived to Rwanda on May 28th to help defend a jailed opposition presidential candidate, and then was promptly arrested and detained on specious charges of genocide ideology by the government of President Paul Kagame.

Readers of my commentaries know that I usually send one a week. Last week, however, I sent two because the Helen Thomas incident occurred after I had finished my regular weekly article, and I thought the Thomas affair required a response from me. I called for her to step down, which she did.

With all the ballyhoo about the alleged "existential" conflict between Israel and Iran, you might think that the news that Iran is trying to send an aid boat to Gaza, in the wake of the Israeli military attack on the Turkish aid boat that killed eight Turks and an American, would occasion a great wailing and gnashing of teeth in the American media.

Hizbullah has laid claim to oil and gas fields Israel discovered off the Mediterranean Coast and it will make sure Israel does not “loot” them.

The following is a transcript of a TRNN interview with Ralph Nader. You can view the video of the interview here.

Your concept of "Israeli security" is probably wrong. If you're a part of the hoards of people protesting Israel's interception of the flotilla, you just don't get it: Israel will risk everything if it thinks its security is the least bit in jeopardy. If you're Israeli and believe in the need for overwhelming violence, your grasp of "security" is outdated, outmoded and unsustainable.

Earlier this week I wrote that the Jews were good at P.R. But that was before I saw the "We Con the World" video, a spoof of Michael Jackson's 1985 song "We Are The World" which raised charity for Africa.

Originally published on Youthradio.org, the premier source for youth generated news throughout the globe.

By Nora Barrows-Friedman

I am posting this piece here, admittedly much more a religious tone than I usually post on my blog, because I tried all week to get it published in several Jewish papers around the country unsuccessfully. Because I thought its message was too important to stay on my hard drive alone, or for the few friends and colleagues I shared it with, I am giving this wider audience a chance to read it. It is based on the weekly reading in synagogue this coming Sabbath, the story of Korach, beginning Chapter 16 in the Book of Numbers. Check it out, a wildly intense story.