Author Archives: Soccerdad

About Soccerdad

I'm a government bureaucrat with delusions of literacy.

The dwindling continues

Back in January 2007, Media Backspin observed that the number of news organizations with Israel (or Middle East) desks was decreasing, a trend that was likely to accelerate (and did). He quoted an analyst who wrote: Many news organizations rushed … Continue reading

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The NGO problem

Yesterday I blogged about a Physicians for Human Rights report that accused Israel of pressuring Palestinians seeking medical treatment in Israel into becoming informers. Honest Reporting provided a link to Gerald Steinberg who questions the claims: Similarly, in this publication, … Continue reading

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Fulbright sequel

Two months ago the State Department embarrassed Israel into allowing a number of students from Gaza travel abroad as Fullbright scholars. At the time the NYT reported: The American State Department has withdrawn all Fulbright grants to Palestinian students in … Continue reading

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Peace teaser

The Washington Post reports Syrian General Who Oversaw Arms Shipments Assassinated: A Syrian general shot to death at a beach resort over the weekend was a top overseer of his country’s weapons shipments to Hezbollah, according to opposition Web sites … Continue reading

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How dare Israeli hospitals treat Palestinians!

Israel opens its borders to allow thousands of Palestinians access to medical care in its hospitals. The only time you hear about this is when there’s a complaint. The Washington Post’s Linda Gradstein is all too anxious to report Gazans’ … Continue reading

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… arrested by his enemy

Ethan Bronner contributes an analysis of the rescue of the Hilles clan by Israel. He gives one explanation why Abbas didn’t want to receive the Hilles clan. In truth, the relationship between the Fatah leadership in the West Bank and … Continue reading

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Bad bets

I*Consult reflects on the recent rescue of a number of Fatah loyalists from Gaza who were saved by Israel over the weekend. He points out that Israel was simply doing something it had done a number of times before and … Continue reading

Posted in Gaza, Israel, palestinian politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

Hello martyr, hello Fatah

Last week a number of bloggers noted that AP had a picture of girls at a summer camp in Gaza. Cute. They were holding a missile aloft. Not so cute. Backspin wonders how many papers carried the picture. Mere Rhetoric … Continue reading

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Olmert and the peace process again (sigh)

The NYT follows up with another article showing what I observed yesterday, that Olmerts resignation is being viewed not in terms of security considerations, but in terms of the peace process. Today we have Israel’s Political Situation Dims Hopes for … Continue reading

Posted in Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome | Tagged | 1 Comment

Water on Mars

From Popular Mechanics. In a discovery that could qualify as one of the most important in the history of space exploration, NASA’s Phoenix Mission may have confirmed the presence of water ice on the planet, Popular Mechanics has learned. The … Continue reading

Posted in Israel | Tagged | 1 Comment

Olmert odds and ends

With the end of his political career at hand (or perhaps in a half year) it’s hard to remember that there was a time when Ehud Olmert was considered an up and comer in the Likud party. (He did rise … Continue reading

Posted in Israel, Politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

American reaction to Olmert’s announcement

Not surprisingly the Washington Post’s coverage of Olmert’s announcement that he would step down after the Kadima primaries, focuses on the peace process. Palestinian officials reacted cautiously, with Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki saying that Olmert’s decision would not change much, … Continue reading

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Don’t let the door hit you, OK?

Judging from many of the reactions to PM Olmert’s announcement that he would not run again to lead his party, Kadima, it would possible to say that he’d envy President Bush’s level of popularity. Yossi Klein Halevi writes (h/t Shalem … Continue reading

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Values of classical journalism

via memeorandum I wanted to believe the worst of the Obama campaign. I wanted to believe that they had released the note that the candidate had place in the Kotel (Western Wall) to two newspapers. There was some indication that … Continue reading

Posted in Media, Politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

A passive aggressive national ethos

The other day I commented on a story from the Washington Post that Arab states were failing to fulfill their commitments to fund the Palestinian Authority. Since then a few other bloggers have written about the story as well as … Continue reading

Posted in Israel, palestinian politics | Tagged | 2 Comments