Sub-Topics History of Middle East Conflict Israeli Wall Also Try Islam Middle East Middle East Conflict - Why? Middle East Current Events Archives Muslim Rage Muslims Against Terrorism Terrorism Discussions Arabs and Jews Seeking Peace (PEACE Mid - East Dialogue Group) Provides discussion groups that allow Arabs and Jews to talk to each other, citizen to citizen, to work toward peace in the Middle East. 4-02 Materials Bias, Prejudice and Attitudes (IAT Corp and Tolerance.org - Greenwald and Banaji) Provides a test of attitudes regarding age, race, gender, and obesity. Your responses are measured by your speed of associations. Most of us do have biases (preferences) that may conflict with our values. Biases can work invisibly and give us a tendency to treat others unfairly (with prejudice). By uncovering our biases, we can combat our prejudices more effectively. Maps of the Middle East Maps (University of Texas) Provides maps of Israel, Jordan, the West Bank, Gaza, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Jerusalem, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Jericho, Persian Gulf, Strait of Tiran, Palestinian Refugee Camps, Strait of Hormuz, Kurdish Lands, and more. 10-00 News -05-18-09 Issues that Divide Israel and the U.S. (Time.com) "President Barack Obama welcomes Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House on Monday, at a moment when the White House and the Israeli leadership are undeniably at odds over the path to Middle East peace. While the Obama Administration remains steadfastly committed to Israel's security, its ideas on how to achieve that security differ markedly from those of the hawkish Netanyahu government." 05-09 -Middle East - News by Country (MiddleEastInfo.org) Provides news on the Middle East from each country in the Middle East. -Middle East Conflict (BBC News) Provides news on the Middle East conflict between Israel and Palestinians. -Middle East Conflict (MiddleEastDaily.com) Provides news on the Middle East from international sources. -Middle East Conflict (PBS.org - OnlineNewsHour) Provides daily news focusing on the Middle East, primarily the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. -Middle East Conflict - Israeli View (Jerusaleum Post) Provides news from an Israeli perspective. -Middle East Conflict - News by Country (Al Bawaba) Provides news regarding the Middle East in general, as well as by country. 2-02 -Middle East Conflict - Palestinian View (Palestine Daily) Provides news on the Middle East conflict from a Palestinian view. -Middle East News (BBC News) Provides news stories, features, and analysis of the news in the Middle East, with a heavy emphasis on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Papers -Essay - Amos Oz Sees Two Wars in the Middle East (Guardian Unlimited - Oz) Provides a view from the Jewish novelist, Amos Oz, that we must be clear to distinguish two wars. "Two Palestinian-Israeli wars have erupted in this region. One is the Palestinian nation's war for its freedom from occupation and for its right to independent statehood. Any decent person ought to support this cause. The second war is waged by fanatical Islam, from Iran to Gaza and from Lebanon to Ramallah, to destroy Israel and drive the Jews out of their land. Any decent person ought to abhor this cause." He concludes that Israel must withdraw from Palestinian territories for moral reasons. If withdrawal does not end the war with fanatics, then he argues that Israel can continue to fight the second war with full moral authority. 4-02 Camp David Accords (U.S. Embassy) Provides a framework for peace between Egypt and Israel. Essay - Need for a Culture of Compromise (MideastWeb.org - Heggy) "A few years ago, I discovered that there is no equivalent in the Arabic language, classical or colloquial, for the English word 'compromise', which is most commonly translated into Arabic in the form of two words, literally meaning ‘halfway solution’." "As language is not merely a tool of communication but the depositary of a society’s cultural heritage, reflecting its way of thinking and the spirit in which it deals with things and with others, as well as the cultural trends which have shaped it, I realized that we were here before a phenomenon with cultural (and, consequently, political, economic and social) implications." Heggy argues that "compromise is the strongest product of nature, life and the march of civilizations and cultures, while a rigid refusal to consider the merits of anyone else’s opinion and to insist on obtaining all one’s demands runs counter to the logic of science, nature, humanity, culture and civilization." 11-02 Essays and Dialogues for Peace in the Middle East (MideastWeb.org) Provides essays, dialogues, and news. The site was designed to promote peace between Israelis and Palestinians. Hamas (BBC News - Westcott) "Hamas, the main Islamist movement in the Palestinian territories, was born soon after the previous intifada erupted in 1987." "The organisation opposes the Oslo peace process and its short-term aim is a complete Israeli withdrawal from the Palestinian territories." "Hamas does not recognise the right of Israel to exist. Its long-term aim is to establish an Islamic state on land originally mandated as Palestine - most of which has been contained within Israel's borders since its creation in 1948." Hamas - Who Are Hamas? (BBC - Asser) "Branded terrorists by Israel and western countries, Hamas is seen by its supporters as a legitimate fighting force defending Palestinians from a brutal military occupation." Muslim Rage (First Person Book Page - Mudge) Provides an interview with Thomas L. Friedman regarding his book, Longitudes and Attitudes. " 'I'm quoting here from a U.N. study that's just come out that says it's a deficit of freedom, it's a deficit of education and it's a deficit of women's empowerment. Thanks to these three deficits they've [Arab Muslims] dug themselves a really deep hole.' ""'The dark side of all this, Friedman writes in his diaries, is that it leads to what he calls the 'Circle of bin Ladenism, which is made up of three components: antidemocratic leaders, who empower antimodernist Moslem religious educators to gain legitimacy, who then produce a generation of young people who have not been educated in ways that enable them to flourish in the modern world.' " 9-02 Women's Views - Voices from Behind the Veil (Christian Science Monitor - Gaouette) Provides an inside view on the experience of Muslim women in the Middle East. "They bridle at Western assumptions about the nature of Islam and a woman's place in it. Like their Afghan sisters, these women stress that culture shapes their lives as much as religion and if they have problems, the veil certainly isn't one of them. They want change, but on terms that suit their society. Most of all, they would like Westerners to stop rehashing old clichés about who they are." 3-02 Also Try Lessons on the Middle East News -06-11-09 Illegal Israeli Settlers Furious at Obama (CBS News) "While the [Israeli] settlers have always known that new outposts [on Palestinian land] have been forbidden under various peace plans, and some have been forcefully demolished, successive Israeli governments, they insist, have always had a nod-and-wink understanding with the United States that building on existing settlements was tolerated. Washington denies any such deal." "Mr. Obama may not only have changed the rules of the game in these settlements, he may actually have changed the very nature of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. Previous American presidents have called for a settlement freeze. The fear here is that this one may actually mean it." 06-09 -07-05-09 Israeli Settlers Versus the Palestinians (Time.com) "While Benjamin Netanyahu, then as now Prime Minister, was negotiating with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in 1998, Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon got on Israeli radio and urged Israelis to settle more land fast. 'Grab the hilltops, and stake your claim,' he said. 'Everything we don't grab will go to them.' " "The Palestinians ('them') hate the settlements as a reminder of occupation, proof that if and when any agreement with Israel is forged, they will never get back the land they call theirs. The settlements have joined other intractable issues — like the desire of Palestinian refugees to return to villages their families left 60 years ago — that have stymied every effort to find peace in the Middle East for a generation. The Obama Administration says negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis can only proceed if Israel agrees to stop settling occupied land." 07-09 -07-05-09 Leading Clerics Defy Ayatollah (New York Times) "A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult." " 'This crack in the clerical establishment, and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi, in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic,' said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. 'Remember, they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei.' " 07-09 -07-19-09 Israel Snubs U.S. Call to Halt Settlements (CBS News) "Israel on Sunday rejected a U.S. demand to suspend a planned housing project in east Jerusalem, threatening to further complicate an unusually tense standoff with its strongest ally over settlement construction." "The international community considers Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to be settlements and an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Israel does not regard them as settlements because it annexed east Jerusalem in 1967 after capturing it in June of that year." 07-09 -09-09-09 Study: Majority Killed in Gaza War Were Civilians (Time.com) "Well over half of nearly 1,400 Palestinians killed in Israel's Gaza war were civilians, including 252 children younger than 16, a leading Israeli human rights groups said Wednesday, challenging Israel's claim that most of the dead were militants." "The Israeli rights group B'Tselem on Wednesday published figures it said were compiled in months of research, including visits to families of victims. It said 1,387 Gazans were killed, including 773 civilians and 330 combatants. Thirteen Israelis also died, including four civilians." 09-09 -10-13-09 Gaza's Tunnel Economy (Time.com) " 'There is only one economy — there's a tunnel economy,' says John Ging, head of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency in the Gaza Strip. 'You have zero exports and zero commercial imports through the [Israeli-controlled] crossing points.' " "Under the blockade, Gaza's unemployment rate has become the highest in the world." " 'It's accurate to say that the economy has been destroyed. All aspects of the commercial sector are in tatters, including the physical infrastructure,' says the U.N.'s Ging. 'But what we have here is a phenomenal entrepreneurial spirit, and the only thing we need to revive the economy of Gaza is the creation of opportunity, which means lifting the siege.' " 10-09 Who Are Iran's Revolutionary Guards? (MSNBC News) "Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was founded in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution to defend the regime against internal and external threats, but has since expanded far beyond its original mandate. Today the guard has evolved into a socio-military-political-economic force with influence reaching deep into Iran's power structure." Papers Chinese Mainstream Carries News of Iranian Protests (MSNBC News) "So it comes as a surprise to see that China’s mainstream media coverage of the post-election crisis in Iran has been fairly thorough. The protests and resulting bloodshed were reported all week in newspapers and on Web sites, with vivid videos and pictures." "The coverage included a healthy dose of analysis by Middle East experts, discussing the election results and the growing protests. But they did not say much about the events’ influence on China, despite the fact China is Iran’s biggest oil trading partner, as well as Iran’s biggest business partner in Asia." 06-09 Ecology, Water, and Peace (Time.com) "For Bromberg, the future of water conservation in the Middle East lies in transforming rural economies. Right now the Israeli and Jordanian governments give precious water at subsidized prices to their agriculture industries – which consumes a majority of their water (about 50 percent in Israel and 70 percent in Jordan) but which contributes just a fraction of their GDP (two percent in Israel and three percent in Jordan.) Because they don’t pay the full price of their resources, farmers in the region grow water-hungry crops such as garden vegetables, fruits and flowers, most of which are shipped to Europe. 'We are exporting our water,' said Bromberg. 'Bananas are a tropical fruit. Why are we growing them in the desert?' While Israel needed its own farmers to feed the country in its early days, Israel can now import its food for less of an environmental and economic price than it is currently paying." 08-08 Iranian Leader Tries to Cut Off the "Head" of Opposition (ABC News) "As part of a broad crackdown on the media and perceived dissidents, the Iranian government has arrested 23 journalists and bloggers since the disputed presidential election on June 12." "A spokesman for opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said today more than 700 supporters and organizers have also been detained over the past week, among them former Vice President Mohammed Ali Abtahi and Ebrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister and architect of the Islamic Recpublic." 06-09 Middle East History (Avalon Project at the Yale Law School) Provides a history of the Middle East going back to 4000bce. More Massive Protests Planned in Iran (MSNBC News) "Iranian protesters planned to flood the streets of Tehran in the tens of thousands Thursday after opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi defied a government crackdown and called for another day of demonstrations against what he has denounced as a rigged election." 06-09 Neda of Iran (Awesome Library) Provides the picture of the young woman purported to be the person shot to death by Iranian military as she attended a protest. She has become the "face" of the protests of election irregularities in Iran. Note: This is an earlier portrait picture of Neda, not the video depicting her death. 06-09 Neda: An Iconic Image to Inspire (CNN News) " 'Every revolution needs icons and symbols -- an image that embodies a sense of universality of blight and at the same time innocence,' said Roya Hakakian of Connecticut, a writer, poet and journalist who was born and raised in Iran. 'The image of Neda does both.' " Official Report: More Votes than Voters in 50 Iranian Cities (WorldPress.com) "Shocking admission of election fraud from Iran’s Guardian Council: in at least 50 cities more votes were recorded in the reported tally than there where eligible voters." 06-09 Supreme Leader of Iran Warns of Violence (MSNBC News) "Taking an unequivocal stand against days of mass protests, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sternly warned opposition supporters on Friday to stay off the streets and raised the prospect of violence if their defiant, vast demonstrations continued." "Prime Minister Gordon Brown stepped up his public criticism." " 'We are with others, including the whole of the European Union unanimously today, in condemning the use of violence, in condemning media suppression,' he told a news conference after a European Union summit in Brussels. He said it was up to Iran to show the world that the elections were fair and that 'the repression and the brutality that we have seen in these last few days is not something that is going to be repeated.' " 06-09 True Power in Iran (Time.com) "Despite the convulsions in Tehran's streets in the aftermath of a disputed presidential election, Iranians — and the smart folks in Washington — know that Iran's presidency is not the seat of executive power. Unelected mullahs hold veto power over the decisions of the elected government, and their Supreme Leader, currently Ayatullah Ali Khamenei, must approve all political policies and make the key foreign policy and security decisions. No one can run for president without the approval of the clerics, and they routinely narrow the field to those deemed acceptable within the parameters of the Islamic Revolution." "Yet Khamenei has now done something extraordinary to the regime's democratic apparatus. Even though Iran's Electoral Commission allows three days to hear challenges before presenting results to Khamenei for approval, the Supreme Leader rushed to put his seal of approval on the outcome, and warned all political factions to refrain from challenging it." 06-09

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