General News

Top Israeli Online Magazine Names Edward Snowden "Person of the Year"

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One of Israel’s best online publications – +972 Magazine – has for the first time chosen someone unconnected to Israeli/Palestinian issues as its “Person of the Year.” That person is Edward Snowden. The unusual move by this progressive, politically searing outlet in Israel is testament to just how strongly Snowden’s leaks have reverberated across political spectra. And as +972 Magazine revealed, it is also testament to just how critical Snowden’s leaks are when considering the very nature of the Internet itself, and what it may become. I found this selection from its editors to be quite compelling:
As journalists, we are experiencing firsthand how the Internet has altered our profession, putting some of us out of work while creating new opportunities for others, ones that we couldn’t have imagined a decade ago.

General News

Israel Thumbs Nose at Obama Administration – After Chiding U.S. for Bad Behavior

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With Israel set to release a new slate of Palestinian prisoners as part of U.S.-brokered peace talks, John Kerry – at President Obama’s behest – personally asked Israel’s Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to hold off on announcing new settlement construction plans. Such an announcement could, in the Obama administration’s view, undermine any positive momentum generated by Israel’s prisoner release, thus poisoning the talk’s already murky waters. Today, Haaretz is reporting that Israel plans to thumb its nose at the Obama administration (as well as the EU) by announcing new housing tenders in the West Bank and East Jerusalem after the prisoner release. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce Israel’s plans for new housing tenders in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem next week, following the release of the third group of Palestinian prisoners, an official in Jerusalem said Wednesday. Netanyahu did not heed the United States’ request to postpone the announcement of the new tenders and rejected warnings by the European Union which also urged Netanyahu to avoid announcing the new construction following the prisoner release.

General News

A Memo from Santa

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To: Christmas Defenders
From: Santa Claus dictated to Valerie Elverton Dixon
Re: War on Christmas
For the past several years, the holidays have been scarred by talk about a “war on Christmas.” In the name of tradition, many of you lament the trend of people wishing each other happy holidays, changing the titles of various parades and pageants from Christmas to Holiday this or that. So, you have defined this trend as a “war on Christmas”, and you have entered into battle. As you know this is my busy season. In some countries I made my deliveries on December 6, it has been busy for me since Halloween.

General News

CNN: Al Qaeda More Honest Than Obama Administration

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Peter Bergen, CNN’s national security analyst, has suggested that al Qaeda is winning the honesty war against the United States in a piece entitled “Is al Qaeda outdoing the U.S. on truth telling?” While on first blush the suggestion might seem like partisan slander, a look at Bergen’s argument reveals an unsettling truth: we may be losing the honesty war to al Qaeda due to our secret, and unaccountable, drone program. To make his point, Bergen compares two recent, and accidental, civilian massacres by each side, and how each side dealt with the situation. Unfortunately for the Obama administration, Bergen’s example demonstrates how we have become a nation so secretive in the region that we are incapable of apologizing for our mistakes, much less acknowledge them:
When Gen. David Petraeus was U.S. commander in Afghanistan in 2010 he issued guidance to his troops, one of the key points of which was to “be first with the truth.” Yet, in Yemen where the U.S. has been fighting a small, undeclared war for the past four years, we have now arrived at the ironic point where America’s main enemy there, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, is doing a better job of truth telling than the U.S.
In a video message released on Sunday, a leader of al Qaeda in Yemen apologized for an attack on a hospital in the Yemeni capital of Sanaa earlier this month in which civilians were killed …

General News

Winter Drive Update: Testimonial from Saadia Faruqi

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Provided byFund-Raising-Ideas-Center.com
 
The Tikkun Daily Winter Fundraising Drive is in full swing– and we would like to extend a huge thank you to those who have begun to help us reach our goal! Below we have a testimonial from one of our dedicated bloggers, Saadia Faruqi, as to why it is imperative that Tikkun Daily stays afloat:
Please read the following testimonial from one of our outstanding bloggers, Saadia Faruqi:

Writing for Tikkun Daily is for me, a pleasure beyond words. It’s also sometimes a puzzle to my readers. What is a Muslim woman doing writing about American Muslim issues on a Jewish blog? The answer to me is simple.

General News

This Could End the NSA: Financial Market Manipulation

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When the White House task force’s independent report was released this week, expectations were that it would contain mostly cosmetic recommendations. However, combing through the 300 page document reveals shockingly specific, detailed suggestions for reform which seem to be addressing known, or suspected, NSA activities. Trevor Timm of the Electronic Frontier Foundation found a specific recommendation buried in the report which could spell the NSA’s doom if it’s revealed that this recommendation is responding to actual activities by the intelligence agency. Here is recommendation 31(2), as presented by techdirt:

Glenn Greenwald and others have warned that the worst Snowden revelations about the NSA are yet to come. If indeed we learn that the NSA has been manipulating international financial systems, whether of individual countries or world systems – or even that is has been manipulating markets here in the U.S. – the NSA as it currently exists will not survive.

General News

Another AIPAC Bill Designed To Get US Into A War With Iran

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Just when President Obama was starting to believe that it was safe to go back into the water, the lobby has come out with a new Iran sanctions bill designed to torpedo negotiations with Iran. And, once that is accomplished, it provides for automatic U.S military backing for Israel if Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu decides to bomb. This may be the lobby’s most brazen attempt yet at subverting negotiations and, in Andrew Sullivan’s words, “handing over American foreign policy on a matter as grave as war and peace to a foreign government….”
The resolution, introduced by Senators Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Mark Kirk(R-IL), seemingly responds positively to President Obama’s request that Congress hold off on new sanctions during the negotiations. It does that by giving Obama the authority to waive its proposed new sanctions until the two sides successfully reach an agreement. It is only at that point, with the agreement in hand, that the new sanctions would go into effect, effectively killing the deal.

Culture

The Transformative Activist Training

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A transformation of consciousness throughout our society is the absolute prerequisite for making social, economic, and political transformation. We invite you to come to our Transformative Activist Training so that you may join our movement and become a transformative activist.

General News

Winter Drive Update

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The Tikkun Daily Winter Fundraising Drive is in full swing– and we would like to extend a huge thank you to those who have begun to help us reach our goal! Today we have a testimonial from Miki Kashtan, a dedicated blogger, as to why it is imperative that Tikkun stays afloat.

General News

Tikkun Daily's Winter Fundraising Drive

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We are launching a donation drive to support the future of this collaborative, multimedia, interfaith project. The sustainability of this project is within reach — to move in that direction we need just 200 people to pledge a $10 donation to reach our minimum goal of $2,000 this winter. Help us make it happen!