intifada
October 15, 2009
- The planned agreement goes some way toward validating Hamas control of the Gaza Strip. By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPostRAMALLAH, West Bank — Warring Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah have drafted an agreement to end their two-year civil war. But U.S. diplomats oppose the deal. Here’s why.The planned agreement, a copy of which GlobalPost obtained from senior Palestinian officials this week, ...
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October 9, 2009
- A brouhaha over who can pray at the Temple Mount recalls a similar disagreement ... that became known as the second intifada. by Matt Beynon Rees on GlobalPostJERUSALEM — I just returned to Jerusalem after a month away. Or at least I thought I did.I suspect I entered a cosmic wormhole that popped me out in the right place — the Israeli capital — only nine years earlier.Muslim leaders claim ...
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August 13, 2009
- Seems even those holding the keys to the Holy Land need reminding that thou shall not steal. By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPostJERUSALEM — In its international survey of corruption, Transparency International (TI) ranks Israel a respectable number 33 out of 180 countries.Pity the poor people of Somalia (rank: 180), because the graft stinks bad enough here, 147 places higher on the list.Israel ...
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July 31, 2009
- With US diplomats roaming the streets of Jerusalem, it's like the intifada never happened.By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPostJERUSALEM — It’s like the intifada never happened.American diplomats mobbed the streets of Jerusalem this week. Even Iran point man Dennis Ross, whose sad-sack demeanor was a frequent feature of the Oslo peace process, stopped by to keep the U.S. defense secretary, the ...
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July 23, 2009
- Poison? By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPostRAMALLAH, West Bank — Yasser Arafat’s body lies in the back of the presidential compound, beyond the parking lot, in a mausoleum of stone and glass. Two guards in ceremonial uniforms that seem out of place in the camouflaged guerrilla world of Palestinian militias watch over the angled stone marking the former leader’s grave.The gravestone gives ...
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July 3, 2009
- Orthodox Jews face off against secularists in the Holy Land — a sign that all is well. By Matt Beynon Rees - GlobalPostJERUSALEM — Ultra-orthodox Jews have been rioting the last few weeks against a parking lot the municipality wants to leave open during the Jewish Sabbath, leading to dozens of arrests and quite a few moderate to serious injuries. Secular activists have held protests in favor ...
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July 2, 2009
- My friend Ilan Mizrahi has published a wonderful book of his photos about Jerusalem -- not the conventional Jerusalem of suicide bombs and the Dome of the Rock and praying Hassids (though he covers that, too). Ilan, who was born just down the road from where I now live and is as "Jerusalem" as they come, aims to capture a side of the city populated by the poor, the drug abusers, the ...
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