U.S. forces patrol on the outskirts of the Syrian town, Manbij, a flashpoint between Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters and U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters, in al-Asaliyah village, Aleppo province, Syria, March 7, 2017. (Arab 24 via AP)
In this Sunday, Jan. 24, 2016 file photo, American soldiers participate in a training exercise at Basmaya base, 40 kilometers southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. (AP/Karim Kadim)
In comments today at the State Department, Rex Tillerson confirmed what has been reported for awhile, that the US intends to keep its thousands of ground troops in Iraq over the long-term, even after ISIS ends up being defeated.
Israel has given itself almost complete immunity from paying compensation in cases where its soldiers have killed, injured or disabled Palestinian civilians, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem warned in a new report this week. It said changes to Israeli law over the past 15 years meant Israel now denied many thousands of Palestinians redress in its civil courts, even for harm caused in non-combat situations.
The Israeli parliament passed the legalisation law on Monday night – a piece of legislation every bit as suspect as its title suggests. The law widens the powers of Israeli officials to seize the last fragments of Palestinian land in the West Bank that were supposed to be off-limits.
Palestinian leaders warned that the law hammered the last nail in the coffin of a two-state solution. Government ministers gleefully agreed. For them, this is the extension of Israeli law into the West Bank and the first step towards its formal annexation.
The Israeli parliament passed the Legalisation Law on Monday – a piece of legislation every bit as suspect as its title suggests. The law widens the powers of Israeli officials to seize the last fragments of Palestinian land in the West Bank that were supposed to be off-limits. Palestinian leaders warned that the law hammered the last nail in the coffin of a two-state solution. Government ministers gleefully agreed.
In this Jan. 21, 2017, photo, President Donald Trump speaks at the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va. (AP/Andrew Harnik)
WASHINGTON — No one knows how seriously to take President Donald Trump’s threat to seize Iraq’s oil.
Doing so would involve extraordinary costs and risk confrontation with America’s best ground partner against ISIS, but the president told the CIA this weekend, “Maybe you’ll have another chance.”
Israel's military authorities have published a video on social media publicising Palestinian attractions in the West Bank, in what looks like a generous promotional stunt to bring tourists to Palestine. Except that is precisely not where the video invites them. Instead it beckons tourists to visit "Judea and Samaria", the Biblical names Israel uses to justify the illegal Jewish settlements that dominate much of the West Bank.
Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman launched his new plan to retool the occupation. His "carrot and stick" approach is intended to sideline the Palestinian Authority in favour of new local leaders hand-picked by Israel. He will use a new website to speak in Arabic directly to ordinary Palestinians, who in turn will be colour-coded in green and red to denote whether they are "good" or "bad".
In just a decade, a Palestinian farming project, Canaan Fair Trade, has recruited 2,000 small-hold olive farmers in the West Bank. It teaches them how to grow crops that can withstand the privations of a hostile occupation; cooperate to raise prices and make a sustainable living; and access foreign markets as a way to bypass Israeli control.
In the summer of 2014, the people of Ferguson were brutally subjected to a military-style crackdown by local law enforcement following the murder of teenager Michael Brown by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Police officers who appeared more like combat soldiers pointed military-grade assault rifles at peaceful protesters. Paramilitary units dressed in camouflage fired tear gas into residents’ front yards, and armored personnel carriers (APCs) rampaged through the streets of residential neighborhoods.
