3 minute recap: Obama’s UN speech

Barack Obama, the US president, has urged countries in the United Nations to get behind Middle East peace efforts in an address at the UN General Assembly.

But Ali Hasan Abunimah, a Palestinian-American journalist and co-founder of Electronic Intifada, an independent web site about the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, said Obama’s speech did not represent anything new.

“That bodes very ill for the peace process that he’s so invested in,” Abunimah told Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, speaking from the US state of Indiana.

“Let’s judge him not by what he says, but what he does.”

If You Build it, They Will Come

By Osama bin Laden

It’s very, very important that the Ground Zero Mosque moves forward quickly. It’s our monument to Jihad. You see, it is the third phase of our four phase Al-Qaeda strategy plan. Without this essential edifice, we will not be able to fulfill our “Jihad in America 2010″ pledge to our donors. While we’re only behind a few years at best, we’d like to have this accomplishment in the bag by year’s end for our 2010 annual report.

Back in 1995, we developed an ambitious five year plan. We were in Sudan, and feeling like we were going to get kicked out any minute. Boy were we right.

End of War in Iraq or Rebranding of Occupation? Neither.

By Raed Jarrar

Last week, the last U.S. “combat convoy” left Iraq. By the end of this month, the remaining “combat forces” will leave the country, putting the Obama administration on track to reduce the U.S. troop level to 50,000 by August 31.

The U.S. media coverage of this month’s withdrawal has been very confusing and inaccurate. It ranges from mainstream media outlets claiming that this is the end of the Iraq war, to leftist media accusing the Obama administration of pulling a trick to re-brand the occupation. This withdrawal deadline is neither. read

Guest Post: Our Islamic President

Note: I asked my grandfather, William L. Youmans, for his thoughts on the current political climate in the United States. Here is what he wrote (with slight edits) — Will.

There are forces in our country dedicated to bringing down the President. The charge that he is a Muslim is just one aspect of the determination to frustrate his efforts to usher in the changes that he promised.

I suspect that a major objective of these dishonest critics is to encourage Congress to become even more resolute in their refusal to cooperate. Mitch McConnell, Senate minority leader, recently said that “I wish we had been able to obstruct more.”. Supposedly he meant the Republicans in Congress could have done more to block Obama’s initiatives. This example of mean spiritedness further feeds the growing resistance, bordering on a frenzy, to Obama’s presidency.

Guest Post: Top Ten Reasons the Tea Party’s 15 Minutes of Fame is Just About Up

Here is a list I received from an online acquaintance Jon from BigFatSlobDiet who just had it with the Tea party and their antics. He assembled this list to argue that the Tea Party will be saying Sayonara. I use his list with his permission.

America and Israel: ‘special relationship’ intact

“The worst diplomatic crisis in decades.” These were the words used by Israeli ambassador to the US, Michael Oren, recently to describe the perceived rift between Israel and the Obama administration over Israel’s illegal settlement policy in occupied East Jerusalem.

The US’ choreographed “outrage” at Israel

The speeches at AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby group, on Monday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Netanyahu’s subsequent meeting with US President Barack Obama are widely seen as drawing to a close what Israeli ambassador to the US Michael Oren called the “most severe crisis in US-Israel relations” in decades. This rapprochement comes on the heels of a series of seemingly angry statements top members of the Obama Administration released, after Israel announced construction of 1,600 new illegal housing units in occupied East Jerusalem while US Vice President Joe Biden was in the country.

Biden’s Farce of a ‘Peace Mission’ Too Much For Israelis

Minutes after Joe Biden sang Israel’s praises for willingness to reengage in ‘peace talks’ and promised to confront Iran on it’s behalf, the Israeli government rebuffed the VP with an announcement to resume settlement building, effectively derailing his mission. A few months ago, Netanyahu came to Washington only to outmaneuver and outfox Obama and make [...]

American Policy Towards Israel: All Carrots, No Sticks

The United States government has had such a hard time getting Israel to see its way on the question of ending the Israeli occupation and Palestinian autonomy. How is it that the world’s superpower is relatively weak next to a tiny state of 7 million people?

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What a Joke

I forgot to laugh. read.