gaza war

After receiving a letter from Richard Goldstone, the South African judge who investigated Israeli and Hamas war crimes in Gaza, to dispute an impending bipartisan House resolution denouncing his report, staffers for Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) are “conferring” with staffers for bill co-sponsor Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen’s (R-Fla.). “Chairman Berman is studying Judge Goldstone’s letter,” Berman [...]

TWI has acquired the text of a congressional resolution that may be introduced in the next few days condemning the findings of U.N. investigator Richard Goldstone’s report into war crimes during Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza this past winter.
The resolution — drafted by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), Dan Burton (R-Ind.), Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) and [...]

This post is going to get filled, really fast, with irresponsible speculation. So let’s have some fun.
This Washington Post story about the Washington debate over Iran is revealing for two reasons. First, the administration doesn’t seem to be phased by Manichean, inwardly focused arguments through analogy about why President Obama needs to intercede, rhetorically, into [...]

Speaking of returning the United States to an active role in Arab-Israeli peace processing, here’s a statement just issued by new White House press secretary Robert Gibbs:

The first meeting of President Obama’s national security council is scheduled this afternoon, on the topics of Iraq and Afghanistan and the dicey situation in Israel/Palestine. According to The Associated Press and The Washington Post, Obama will receive military advice on his planned troop withdrawals in Iraq and troop increases in Afghanistan from U.S. Central [...]

Two items on a progressive wish list can be checked off. The first one was a promise to President Obama: Israel is now out of Gaza. The second was a commitment from Obama: the administration has filed a legal motion halting military commissions at Guantanamo Bay for 120 days. That’s a first step to shutting [...]

Jerusalem welcomes the 44th President of the United States by trying to clear a mess off of his plate:
Israel hopes to pull all its troops out of the Gaza Strip by the time Barack Obama is inaugurated as president of the United States on Tuesday, Israeli officials said.

CNN reports that Osama bin Laden’s latest audiotape is about Gaza:
The message is “an invitation” from bin Laden to take part in “jihad to stop the aggression against Gaza.”
The terrorist leader has attempted to hijack the cause of the Palestinians before, so this was probably inevitable.

Daniel Kurtzer is the progressive choice to be President-elect Barack Obama’s envoy for Arab-Israeli issues, as he’s considered more even-handed than his presumed competitor for the job, veteran peace-processor Dennis Ross, though former Bush 41 and 43 official Richard Haass has emerged as a new prospect. It’s been reported this morning that Ross has some [...]

There may or may not be a ceasefire coming soon to Gaza. If there is, the Wall Street Journal reports, it’ll emerge from Cairo:
Despite a flurry of other negotiating tracks, including talks pursued by Turkey, Cairo has become the hub of diplomacy over the Gaza war in the past few days. Egypt has served as [...]