The minute the UN humanitarian truce ended, Israel initiated its threatened ground invasion …
- Gaza Cease-fire Affords Brief Respite, then a Buzz of Drones (Christian Science Monitor)
- Israel Starts Gaza Ground Offensive (BBC)
… but some “Israelis have chosen to commemorate the dead in the latest Gaza conflict by spray painting surfaces in the southern city of Beersheva with biographical details of name and age. The names of the Gaza dead now appear across many neighborhoods in this desert Israeli town”:
- Israelis Scrawl the Names of the Gaza Dead on Their City Walls (Christian Science Monitor)
“Some of those community leaders have already come under fire for attending the White House dinner. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee urged a boycott over the surveillance and administration support for Israel during the current Gaza offensive”:
A female “Muslim scholar who sits on the Birmingham Mosque Sharia council … says: ‘Sharia is … based on equity, compassion, human dignity. I don’t think there is a conflict between Sharia and equalities legislation, the issue is with texts being applied literally without the historical context'”:
“The petition, signed by Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Ken Loach, Brian Eno and Jeremy Hardy, accused the corporation of pro-Israeli bias and said it would ‘like to remind the BBC that Gaza is under Israeli occupation and siege [and] that Israel is bombing a refugee population'”:
“Kurds going in to fight are from everywhere — Turkey, Iran, Syria and others. Even some Kurds based in Europe are saying they want to go fight” in Kobane, a strategically important Kurdish city between Raqa — the jihadists’ main bastion — and Aleppo, where IS has made recent advances”:
- Kurds Enter Syria from Turkey to Fight Jihadists (Daily Star)
“I have many customers who want to grow their beard and hair out because they are going back to repent. Even those who fought [ISIS] are repenting and pledging allegiance” – Abdel Qader Mahzoud, a barber in the southeastern Turkish border town of Akcakale:
- To Trim or Not to Trim? For Syrian Men, Beards Matter Under Militant Rule (Christian Science Monitor)
“Supporters of Syrian rebels and of President Bashar al-Assad see, experience and feel entirely different wars. But the Palestinian narrative may be so entrenched, and the emotional resonance of Israeli attacks on Palestinians so intense, that it overwhelms this tendency toward fragmentation”:
- Arabs Do Care About Gaza (Washington Post)
“The covert war waged by the US and Israel against Iran’s nuclear program has seen the assassination of five Iranian scientists, malicious computer viruses like Stuxnet, espionage, and unexplained explosions, as well as several apparent attempts by Iran to fight back in kind”:
- Covert War Against Iran’s Nuclear Scientists: a Widow Remembers (Christian Science Monitor)
In a video interview Edward Snowden warns Americans that the most intimate details of their lives are being turned over to the government under such poor safeguards that a 29-year-old was able to walk off with it:
