Perspectives

"Worse, where was the heavy Israeli security contingent in Hebron when the extremist settlers responded to the evacuation by marauding through Arab Hebron (by far the larger part of the city), torching houses and cars, shooting and stoning? It was well known that the extremist settlers had put a "price tag" on every act by the state against them. Yet the violence and the defacing of mosques and Muslim cemeteries began before the evacuation and were allowed to continue for a day or two afterward, not only in Hebron but elsewhere in the West Bank as well."

"The presence and expansion of settlements together with the activities of settlers, violent and aggressive as they are, have shown that the settlement phenomenon is the biggest and most dangerous threat to any potential peace and co-existence between Palestinians and Israelis. Ending the expansion of settlements and eventually evacuating the occupied territories of settlers in order to allow for an independent Palestinian state to emerge are prerequisites for a peaceful solution."

"Israel's desire to acquire maximum geography with minimum Palestinian demography is the root of the suffering afflicting the Holy Land. Today, there are 6 million Palestinian refugees and displaced people. Amnesty International has observed that the "peace processes" failed because Israel has ignored human rights, including the right of native Palestinians to return to their homes and lands."

"In American culture, the throwing of cream pies, eggs or tomatoes at someone is considered the ultimate insult; in Arab culture, the throwing of shoes says the same."

"Community-level projects directly and more quickly impact local populations because of their proximity. Projects are located in local communities where they stimulate jobs and purchases of materials and equipment. As projects are designed, implemented, and functioning (more immediately because of community control and local reliance) stimulus takes effect. There is not a lag in waiting for a trickle-down of benefits."

"...the United States excels only in military technology, as it needlessly spends more on the military than all the rest of the world combined, building 3.5 billion dollar aircraft carriers to fight an “enemy” without an air force, and billion dollar submarines to fight an “enemy” without a navy."

"Outright obstructionism is a daring strategy by the Republicans, since the overwhelming sentiment of Americans right now is for positive, major change. If the GOP continually blocks the changes desired by the citizenry, the odds increase that the voters may turn the Republicans into a permanent minority party in 2010."

"Bush, like the fool we love to excuse, nonchalantly brushed off the encounter with substandard jokes and reassured the American public that this incident is evidence that democracy is in full effect. TIME Magazine's Mark Halperin responded to the episode on Anderson Cooper 360, "[y]ou know my reaction to it, without taking sides…I think the president should be a little more sensitive to what this man was protesting, which was in effect, the death of innocent civilians in Iraq." MSNBC's Rachel Maddow also ended her segment discussing the deaths of Iraqi civilians over the course of the last two days and inferred that the last minute reframing of the war was itself a tragedy."