"On March 21, 2010, the Syrian security forces opened fire with live ammunition on a crowd of 5,000 in the northern Syrian town of al-Raqqah. The crowd had gathered to celebrate the Kurdish festival of Nowruz. Three people, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed.

"Trackers have good intuition. This intuition is the reason for their success," says Mansur. "When we first join the army, we are taught what to look for, how explosives look.

"The two truths that we see from the new Pal/Lebanese rights movement: 1. No Arab country wants them. 2. Their supposed "nationalism" is a fake construct designed to pressure Israel - and keep them from becoming citizens in Arab countries.

"Seven Israeli Arabs affiliated with al-Qaida and Global Jihad have been arrested for allegedly murdering a taxi driver last year, and carrying out a series of terrorist attacks, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) revealed on Monday.

"Israel's Muslim and Christian Arabs can develop expertise in biotech and life sciences thanks to a national business project created in 2002.

Readers of my commentaries know that I usually send one a week. Last week, however, I sent two because the Helen Thomas incident occurred after I had finished my regular weekly article, and I thought the Thomas affair required a response from me.

"According to media reports, Riyadh is looking to boost its already impressive air capabilities by purchasing more F-15 aircraft and updating the ones it has through a couple of multimillion-dollar contracts with Lockheed Martin Corp. and Goodrich Corp.

"More than a million Jews were expelled from Arab and Muslim countries between 1948 and 1974, without asking for compensation or the right to return.

Israel of course is the US's most threatened ally. And Obama's treatment of Israel has been uniquely shabby--and dangerous.

The relationship between Mr. Erdogan's government and the IHH ought to be one focus of any international investigation into the incident.

"Andre Abu Khalil, a Lebanese cameraman for Al Jazeera TV, who was aboard the Mavi Marmara told Reuters some 20 Turkish men tried by force to prevent the boarding commandos from reaching the wheelhouse and commandeering the ship.

Satire.

"There is a cardiac ward in a hospital in Tel Aviv where children lie on cots as doctors and nurses check charts and adjust advanced medical equipment. It is busy here.

"Saudi law forbids women to socialize with unrelated men or walk in public without a male guardian, other than her husband, father or brother.

Ehad Ever is an Israeli and strong proponent of Zionism. In this video he explains what Zionists believe, and debunks much of the current anti-Israel propaganda.

According to Khaldi, most Israeli Arabs are not opposed to the state of Israel as a state, although they might disagree with the authorities or with policies, as is the case in any democratic country.

"At the request of the Palestinian Authority, an Islamic scholar published a fatwa on Tuesday banning Muslims from digging or working in tunnels under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.

Mona Eltahawy is a well known Egyptian writer and human rights activist.

Iran made a new offer for resolving tensions with Arab nations, an Egyptian official said Monday, and Egypt's president flew to the Persian Gulf in an unexpected visit to discuss the proposal with his allies.

"According to a new study of public opinion by the folks who host the Doha Debates in Qatar, a clear majority in 18 Arab countries now thinks Iran poses a greater threat to security in the Middle East than Israel. The leadership in most of these countries has thought so for years.

" BEIRUT: The road to equality is still a long one in Lebanon. The promises for reform made after the culmination of the 1974-90 Civil War, especially those regarding women's rights, have not yet been fulfilled. "

The fate of Arab bloggers and the fate of the Arab world are one and the same. Empower them and the region will prosper; suppress them and the region will continue to languish.

(Opinion & analysis):

Bigoted, xenophobic, reactionary, alarmist, radical, hateful, rabid: these words are more commonly used to describe extremist Muslims.

" Ever since the Islamic revolution in 1979, Iran has cast itself as a utopian model.

"The Jerusalem Municipality is plowing ahead with plans for construction of more than 5,000 housing units in Arab neighborhoods.

"Saudi Arabia on Tuesday imposed a naval blockade on the Red Sea coast of northern Yemen to combat Shiite rebels along its border, an adviser to the government said, in the latest escalation of fighting in the southern Arabian peninsula.

Guards ejected an accredited Canadian commentator from the United Nations after she denounced a controversial report that focuses heavily on alleged Israeli war crimes.

An exhibition in Berlin that cast light on the Muslim/Nazi collaboration during the holocaust was cancelled for fear of Islam. The publicly funded multicultural center in Berlin, "Werkstatt der Kulturen," is located in a heavily Turkish and Arab neighborhood.

The establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, the Nakba (catastrophe) for Arabs, and the aggression by five well-armed Arab countries, assisting local Arab gangs and militias who had been attacking Jews for years, placed Jews in Israel and the state in mortal danger.

"Women who fled violence in Sudan's Darfur region are being regularly raped in refugee camps in neighbouring Chad, despite the presence of U.N.-trained forces, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.

By the end of the 1960s, and since 1975, anti-Zionism became international in scope. It first appeared in the universities in the West where the New Left, in cooperation with Arab student associations, attacked Israeli policy.

"While the media may not show it and you might not know it, all across Israel coexistence programs remain strong despite the current conflict with Gaza. These children don't know about wars, or who's a Jew and who's an Arab.

Racism overall in Lebanon, not just at the beach clubs. New law maybe on the way to outlaw discrimination, we'll see. These maids and labourers need protection from abusive employers. Like at the end of the article says:

I found this article interesting as the Israel/Palestinian conflict surges on.

"The situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable," declared United Sates President Barack Obama in his June 4 Cairo address. Really? Compared to what? Things are tough all over.

Public Affairs Coordinator in Administration for National Civic Service says number of Arab volunteers for national service quadrupled since 2004. 'Demand exceeds supply. Arab youths' willingness to volunteers greater than statements from public leaders,' he says

"Jewish and Arab students at the Hand-in-Hand bilingual school in Jerusalem, Israel, learn the language of friendship and goodwill.

"Palestine Today published pictures of the general atmosphere in villages and cities in the Gaza Strip at the start of the Islamic month of fasting: Ramadan.

The situation of Arabs in Judea, Samaria and Gaza is far better than the image that media present, and their gross domestic product and, life expectancy are among the highest in the Arab world, the Asian Times reported. Calling their situation "hopeless but not serious," the …

The just-concluded Fatah general assembly, (in which the organization met for the first in about 20 years) rejected recognition of the Jewish State. This was no surprise. It has always been the Palestinian position. See this cartoon for more

"Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair said Monday that Israel was not getting enough credit for its many recent measures to improve conditions for the Palestinian population in the West Bank, such as the removal of roadblocks and checkpoints.

Imagine my surprise; Barack Obama's bold new initiative for Arab countries to normalize relations with Israel is getting nowhere.

" The U.S. administration has not been successful in securing commitments from Arab countries to take steps toward normalizing relations with Israel, a senior source in Jerusalem said Wednesday.

One can continue waging the argument with the United States over settlements by citing mathematical figures, numbers and formulas on natural growth or natural development, and perhaps doing so is the correct thing, but whoever believes that settling the territories of Judea and S …

"The schoolchildren painted reproductions by famous Israeli artists - Jews and Arabs - on both sides of the sculptures, creating a collaborative public art installation that reflects Arab-Jewish dialogue through cultural cooperation.

Since we are about to embark on another fruitless peace effort in the Middle East, it probably makes sense to take another look at the UN Resolution we will be hearing a lot about over the next few months, UN Resolution 242.

"Moreover, the dramatic video of Iranians being beaten or shot by Basijis has done incalculable damage to Iran's image as the region's most religiously pure and populist state.

"The skies lit up over Jenin last month, and it wasn't tracer bullets or flash bombs but celebratory fireworks, set off to mark the occasion of the opening of Hirbawi Home Center, a new luxury establishment on the city's outskirts.

It is one of the oddities of the global war on terrorism that while al-Qaeda is almost universally condemned, its Sunni terrorist counterparts in Hamas continue to attract a devoted following.

"Frustrated with Teheran's long-standing policy of meddling in their internal affairs, representatives of the relatively moderate, pro-Western governments in Ramallah, Cairo, Beirut, Riyadh and other Arab capitals are hoping that regime change in Iran would undermine radical Isla …

Key Arab nations have kept silent about Iran's political upheaval, possibly reluctant to antagonize the powerful nation that sponsors such militant groups as Hezbollah and Hamas.

Over the past six years of violence in Iraq, oil has been the flashpoint in Kirkuk, a city forever home to a combustible mixture of races. Kurds have always claimed Kirkuk as a homeland; Turkomans, Assyrians and Arabs have at various times based empires here.

Before you make a speech to the Muslim world.

In a lively market town hotly disputed between Iraqi Kurds and Baghdad's Arab-led government, Khalil Ibrahim points at the ground under his feet to illustrate what he thinks the dispute is about: oil.

"The Palestinian Authority faces a serious cash crisis after receiving only half of the aid money it needs to function every month, the International Monetary Fund said Monday, blaming delinquent Arab donors.

"While support for America's leaders has risen markedly throughout the Arab world with the coming of a new American administration, it has actually declined among Palestinians, a Gallup poll published Monday has found.

It's been some time since the creation of Israel. A lot has happened, the world has changed. In America blacks can drink from any fountain, shop at any store, and a whole lot more than ride in the front of the bus. England gave up control of colonies.

"Two years ago, Al Arabiya producer Nabil Kassem was asked to put together a documentary film on Darfur.

"While Obama may have handled the high seas showdown, his most dangerous foe in Africa isn't a rag-tag group of teenagers with AK-47s and speedboats. No, that adversary is Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, the world's first sitting president with a warrant for his arrest.

Israel, Syria, Lebanon and other Arab nations would sit down together to try to resolve the Middle East conflict under a new "combined approach" currently under discussion with the U.S., Jordan's king said Wednesday.

Imagine that Egypt, Jordan, and Syria had won the Six Day War, leading to a massive exodus of Jews from the territory of Israel.

Palestinian Authority court sentences one of their own to hang for selling land to Jews. Let those who scream about ethnic cleansing look at the true face of evil. This is racism at its most blatant.

Of course, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict inflames the Muslim world in a way the Chechen one does not. But why is that, when so many more Muslims are being victimized by Russia?

In September 2005, Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published a series of cartoons about Prophet Mohammed. This event lead to violent protests by Muslims worldwide in February 2006.

This is a conflict that often is touted as a religious conflict, even though it really is not. I have heard it couched between the idea that Israel, or more specifically Jerusalem is the spiritual meeting place of three religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

"Why is the U.N. keeping its report on the 2007 terrorist attack in Algeria secret? The world body's staff union says it wants to know.

"Cairo said it may issue charges and move for international arrest warrants for Hezbollah officials amid allegations of a terrorist plot on Egyptian soil.

"Egyptian authorities are investigating a group suspected of ties with the Lebanese group Hezbollah and of planning attacks in Egypt, the public prosecutor's office said on Wednesday.

"The US and French government have agreed that the support lent by Arab states to embattled Sudanese president is "regrettable", according to a news report.

Palestinian militants have smuggled nearly 70 tonnes of explosives and bomb-making materials and other weapons into Gaza since Israel ended an offensive meant to choke off the arms flow, a senior Israeli defence official said Sunday.

An Egyptian cleric has literally blown the lid off the global conspiracy of the Starbucks chain: none other than the Jewish heroine of the Purim story is the power behind the worldwide coffee empire."

"the government has approved the plan to fortify the unprotected schools and kindergartens in Ashkelon against rocket attacks

" Morocco cut off diplomatic relations with Iran on Friday, accusing Tehran in a rare public spat of trying to spread Shia Islam in this Sunni Arab kingdom.

Pakistan's Swat valley is quiet once again. Often compared to Switzerland for its stunning landscape of mountains and meadows, Swat became a war zone over the past two years as Taliban fighters waged fierce battles against Army troops.

There is not the slightest resemblance of South African apartheid in democratic Israel. If ever a lie has been deliberately repeated and magnified to damage Israel, this is probably the prime example of modern times.

"I'm asking for your help. I would like to meet an Israeli woman for marriage purposes," Abdullah, a resident of Saudi Arabia, said in a recent letter to the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem. "I have heard that the Israeli women are very smart and beautiful," he added.

Haneen Zoubi has made history: although she is not the first Arab woman to enter the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, she is the first to be elected for an Arab party. Sitting in her home in Nazareth, the effective capital of Israel's 1.2 million Palestinian citizens, she i …

Q: "Do you think Israel used disproportionate force against Hamas?

How did humans living in the third millennium BCE manage to find sufficient quantities of meat in the arid desert regions? A new study of the "desert kites" that are spread across the expanses of Israel's Negev and Arava desert region, carried out by researchers from the Universi …

An Israeli company that supplies laboratory information management systems (LIMS) has been awarded a tender to help run a natural gas exploration project off Yemen's coast, the Al Quds Al Arabiya Arabic-language newspaper reports.

Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman has clarified his views on citizenship, racism and the creation of a Palestinian Authority state in Judea and Samaria.

The cult of death is marching forward under its battle cry: "We love death, the infidels love life," says Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon's Hizbullah.

According to Lewis, an Israeli strike on Iran 's nuclear facilities would be met with "carefully concealed relief" from the Arab world.

Problems without solutions are frustrating, especially when the disputes are between warring groups and countries; so politicians, diplomats and envoys spend their time negotiating and trying to hammer out a deal, anything that will show progress.

"A discriminatory, over-and-above hatred, inexplicable in its hysteria and virulence whatever justification is adduced for it; an unreasoning, deranged and as far as I can see irreversible revulsion that is poisoning everything we are supposed to believe in here – the free exch …

"At a weekend meeting in Istanbul, 200 religious scholars and clerics met senior Hamas officials to plot a new jihad centred on Gaza. "The choice of Turkey was significant. Arab hardliners were keen to put aside historic differences with the Turks.

""There is no greater hypocrisy than a country that just 39 years ago, during Black September in 1970, murdered 10,000 of its Palestinian residents – dealing with international crimes today," Dichter told Ynet.

"A powerful Sudanese rebel leader met secretly with top Israeli espionage officials in Israel earlier this month, Israeli defense officials said Monday.

(IsraelNN.com) Gaza terrorists gave Israelis a wake-up call Friday morning by firing three short-range (Kassam) rockets towards the Negev. Terrorists fired the first rocket, which landed in an open area within the Eshkol Region, around 6:45 a.m.

The Global Thermometer, which measures the warmth of American voters' feelings toward a list of foreign nations, on a scale of 0 - 100, found that the ratings for 13 nations increased since the August 28 survey by the independent Quinnipiac University poll.

Another Arab pundit says that the Jews deserved genocide-- Essa bin Mohammed Al Zedjali justifies the Holocaust.

Israel's military action in Gaza was in response to the nearly constant barrage of rockets and missiles launched by Hamas and other terrorist organizations in Gaza.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had a temper tantrum at the Davos forum on world economics recently.

"When Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan very publicly condemned President Shimon Peres at the World Economic Forum in Davos and then stalked off the stage in a huff, the incident was blamed on his short temper, and officials in Ankara and in Jerusalem rushed to dispel p …

There's something about the Arab war on Israel that inspires cockamamie "peace" ideas. It seems like anyone with an expertise or avocation thinks that his special interest might help reduce Arab-Israeli tensions.

Most westerners have little knowledge of what really happened in the area. This short presentation covering the Mid-East conflict in a visual and easily digestible way.

"See below for the usual BBC / Channel 4 / Sky News guidelines for Israel.... 1. always accept the Palestinian version without question 2. interview at least 8 Palestinian supporters to every Israeli supporter