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Palestinians lack true national identity as theirs is mostly characterized by hatred towards Israel
By Ofir Haivry, YNet News, June 29, 2007
See also: Reexamining Two-State Solution
The growing political and cultural rift between the Arabs of the Gaza Strip and those residing in Judea and Samaria has stirred debate about the possibility of establishing two separate political entities and the future of Palestinian nationalism in general. Yet perhaps we should be asking whether there ever really was a Palestinian “nation”?
In many places in the world, arbitrary borders set by colonialist powers define a “nation” that do not exist in practice. Is there such thing as a Sudanese “nation” or Iraqi “nation”? Or are we talking about a collection of tribes, groups, and even nations possessing vastly different ways of life, religions, and values that has been gathered together by chance and who are paying a bloody price for this to this very day? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Opinion on June 29, 2007 - י"ג תמוז תשס"ז at 10:03 am
By Ezra HaLevi, Israel National News, June 28, 2007
(IsraelNN.com) In a move aimed at reversing the silent policy of freezing the settlement of Judea and Samaria, Land of Israel activists plan to establish a new community “outside the fence” next month.
The selected location for the new community is Givat HaEitam, the hilltop north of Efrat that has a commanding view of the Jerusalem-Hevron Highway and the central Gush Etzion region.
Several trips and visits to the area have taken place since the government decided to abandon the hill to the PA-controlled town of Bethlehem, on whose side of the Partition Wall the land is being left. This time, however, organizers say a core-group of future residents plans to stay and build a permanent community there. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts on June 28, 2007 - י"ב תמוז תשס"ז at 10:25 am
Reprinted from One World South Asia, June 28, 2007
As Ranks of “Environmental Refugees” Swell Worldwide,
Calls Grow for Better Definition, Recognition, Support
Amid predictions that by 2010 the world will need to cope with as many as 50 million people escaping the effects of creeping environmental deterioration, United Nations University experts say the international community urgently needs to define, recognize and extend support to this new category of ‘refugee’.
In a statement to mark the UN Day for Disaster Reduction (October 12), UNU’s Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) in Bonn says such problems as sea level rise, expanding deserts and catastrophic weather-induced flooding have already contributed to large permanent migrations and could eventually displace hundreds of millions.
Unlike victims of political upheaval or violence, however, who have access through governments and international organizations to such assistance as financial grants, food, tools, shelter, schools and clinics, “environmental refugees” are not yet recognized in world conventions. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Climate Change, Recent Posts on June 28, 2007 - י"ב תמוז תשס"ז at 9:57 am
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See also: Cry Out For Answers
By Khalil Al Assali, Correspondent, Gulf News, June 27, 2007
Ramallah: A majority of Palestinians do not trust their current leadership, according to various public as well as confidential opinion poll results.
The polls also revealed that the mistrust was not just limited to one particular group or Islamists, but all the political parties. The opinion polls were conducted by various Palestinian institutes, centres and companies.
Gulf News spoke to several officials and companies who conducted such polls and the general opinion that came out was the suggestion for an alternative leadership.
Palestinians are seeking an alternative leadership, said Dr Nabeel Al Kawkali, Chairman of one of the polls centre in Bethlehem. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, News Articles, Recent Posts on June 27, 2007 - י"א תמוז תשס"ז at 10:33 am
Researchers at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT have, for the first time, reversed symptoms of mental retardation and autism in mice.
The work will be reported in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of June 25-29.
The mice were genetically manipulated to model Fragile X Syndrome (FXS), the leading inherited cause of mental retardation and the most common genetic cause of autism. The condition, tied to a mutated X chromosome gene called fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene, causes mild learning disabilities to severe autism.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, FXS affects one in 4,000 males and one in 6,000 females of all races and ethnic groups. The prevalence of autism ranges from one in 500 to one in 166 children. There is no effective treatment for FXS and other types of autism. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Health Sciences, Mental Health, Special Education on June 26, 2007 - י' תמוז תשס"ז at 11:21 am
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Reprinted from One World South Asia, June 26, 2007
Governments and aid agencies worldwide are already straining to cope with 10 million refugees whose plight is in danger of being obscured by debates over a far greater wave of economic migrants and people escaping climatic chaos, say experts on World Refugee Day.
The number of people displaced by global warming could dwarf the nearly 10 million refugees and almost 25 million internally-displaced people already fleeing wars, oppressive regimes, civilian conflict and lawlessness, said experts on the occasion of World Refugee Day, June 20.
Coping with the masses of people seeking new places to live as their areas are devastated by climate change-related disasters, or are facing water and food shortages as a result of global warming, poses a new challenge to those working with refugees, in a world already weary of them. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Climate Change, Middle East Report on June 26, 2007 - י' תמוז תשס"ז at 9:51 am
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by Tom Rose, Weekly Standard, June 22, 2007
THE PAST WEEK has been a good one for terrorists. The birth of the world’s first truly terrorist state in Gaza was quickly followed by a Western response that, if sustained, all but guarantees that terror state’s survival.
While there are plenty of examples, past and present, of states that encourage, fund and even practice terrorism, no nations have ever been created explicitly for the sake of terrorism. Not even the Taliban. Hamas was built upon the terrorist edifice created by the organization it recently supplanted–the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), or “Fatah” as it is has become more recently known. The PLO was created in 1964, three years before the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, not to create the world’s 22nd Arab state, but to destroy its only Jewish state. Hamas overthrew the PLO in Gaza not to change the PLO’s dream, but to fulfill it. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on June 24, 2007 - ח' תמוז תשס"ז at 9:34 am
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By Elizabeth Pennisi, ScienceNOW Daily News, 20 June 2007
Did the demise of dinosaurs pave the way for the great diversity of mammals seen today? Many scientists believed so. Then, 3 months ago, an extensive analysis of DNA suggested that mammals only became prominent long after dinosaurs left the scene (ScienceNOW, 28 March). Now researchers studying the teeth, jaws, and other physical features of living and extinct species have challenged these molecular data, offering new insight into when and where the world’s most common furry creatures arose and began to diversify. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Evolutionary Biology, Recent Posts on June 22, 2007 - ו' תמוז תשס"ז at 9:43 am
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by Nicole Brackman and Asaf Romirowsky
Washington Times
June 21, 2007
http://www.meforum.org/article/1706
See Also: UNRWA Benefits From Conflict
Recent violent events in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon, as well as the internecine Palestinian fighting raging in Gaza, are a stark reminder of the inherent instability of the current Palestinian political culture and the rise of extremism within the population.
Along with the explosion in Lebanon, there have been weeks of street fighting in Gaza between Hamas and Fatah activists. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called for resumed negotiations with Israel while Hamas has rejected this possibility. The inter-Palestinian violence also heralded a new barrage of Kassem rockets launched at Israel — more than 150 in the past weeks.
In Lebanon, it seems the refugee camps have been effectively taken over by a new al Qaeda-linked terrorist faction called Fatah al-Islam. Long an epicenter of factional extremism in Lebanon, the Palestinian camps are a hotbed for breeding and exporting terrorist activists. One common denominator between the refugee crisis in Lebanon and the violence in Gaza is the involvement of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Founded in 1949 after the passage of U.N. Resolution 194, the organization was to take over immediate relief and more long-term work projects designed to make the refugee communities self-sufficient, pending a political settlement. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on June 21, 2007 - ה' תמוז תשס"ז at 7:25 pm
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Canadian Coalition for Democracies, 21 June 2007
Toronto, Ontario - Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Peter MacKay, is correct to call for a moderate Arab Palestinian leadership. But Mahmoud Abbas is no moderate. Promoting Abbas as a moderate will once again prevent the emergence of any genuinely moderate Palestinian Arab leadership.
“Have we not learned from the 1990s when Arafat and his PLO cronies, including Abbas, were imposed on the Arab Palestinians under the Oslo Accords?” asked Alastair Gordon, president of Canadian Coalition of Democracies (CCD). “Arafat the ‘moderate’ immediately broke the terms of the Accords by building a war machine – bringing in arms, indoctrinating hatred and setting up a corrupt, oppressive, tyrannical kleptocracy. But just as treating Arafat as a moderate ensured that no truly moderate leadership could develop, today we are repeating the mistake when we know too well what the outcome will be.” Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by CNP Webmaster as Middle East Report, Opinion, Recent Posts on June 21, 2007 - ה' תמוז תשס"ז at 7:14 pm
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