Gee, that didn’t take long. Conspiranoid cranks claim (on no evidence) that Mossad was behind the Oslo terror attacks, providing an opportunity for the right-wing Israeli press to tar “anti-Zionists” as conspiranoid cranks.
Europe’s right-wing media voices all jumped to the al-Qaeda thesis in the Oslo terror attack—but it now emerges the perpetrator is a lone right-wing extremist who evidences the predictable Islamophobic rhetoric in his Internet footprint.
A memo leaked by the hacker group LulzSec from the Tucson police on a supposed emerging collaboration between Hezbollah and the Mexican drug cartels sparked hearings on Capitol Hill. But the memo itself was mostly empty speculation.
One year after the announced “easing” of the Gaza siege, the IDF releases a report boasting of improved conditions in the Strip. But the Israeli rights group Gisha crunches the numbers to reveal that the “easing” is more illusory than real.
Peru’s populist president-elect Ollanta Humala takes office in just one week, and ominous signs are mounting that he will continue his predecessor’s trajectory towards breakneck resource extraction—and attendant bloody social conflicts.
The “Free Tibet” crowd is not disturbed as the Dalai Lama celebrates his 76th birthday with John Boehner—while the Dalai-demonization set continues to portray the Tibetan struggle as a CIA astroturf creation.
Libyan and Syrian opposition leaders met with NATO and EU diplomats in Istanbul, winning support for their efforts to oust their respective dictators—while Yemeni protest leaders elected a transitional council under siege in violence-torn Sanaa.
The UN Human Rights Council released the Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, finding potential crimes against humanity committed by Israel. The report focuses on the seven-month period last year when the Gaza protest campaign known as the "Great March of Return and the Breaking of the Siege" was taking place. During this period, 6,106 unarmed protesters were shot by military snipers, resulting in 189 Palestinian deaths. (Photo: Ma'an News Agency)
The NATO powers hope a compliant post-Qaddafi regime in Libya will counter-balance the OPEC price hawks. This doubtless means little at the moment to Libya’s Berbers, who have won cultural freedom in their rebel zone, and face a massacre if Qaddafi prevails.
The Knesset has just passed a law banning calls for a boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel. The Israel-based website BoycottIsrael! remains online at the moment, and it will be interesting to see if any action is taken against it.
As thousands commemorated the 16th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre in eastern Bosnia, Ratko Mladic faces genocide charges in The Hague—yet is still hailed as a hero by Serbia’s ultra-nationalists.
The US and French ambassadors visited the army-besieged city of Hama during Friday protests to express their “solidarity” with the demonstrators—allowing the Assad regime to portray the protesters as pawns of Western imperialism.
