Common Dreams:
“Will Ukraine Bid To Join NATO Unleash 21st Century Cold War? Experts warn that if US and Europe continue to expand NATO's reach without recognizing destructive consequences, crisis in eastern Ukraine risks serious escalation“
In a move that could dramatically spike international tensions and escalate the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the Prime Minister of the Ukraine government in Kiev on Friday submitted legislation to Parliament declaring intention to join the western military alliance of NATO and longer-term ambitions to actually join the European Union.
Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk submitted the proposal on Friday just ahead of a NATO emergency meeting held in Brussels to discuss the ongoing crisis in Ukraine. Following that meeting, NATO's Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen emerged to say NATO would ‘fully respect’ Ukraine's effort to join the alliance.”
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/08/29/will-ukraine-bid-join-nato-unleash-21st-century-cold-war
—>Of course the new Cold War is about the US trying to establish NATO bases closer to Russia. The NY Times coverage, however, neatly skirts the issue of NATO by offering in depth analyses of why Putin is acting so warlike. Our newspaper of record would never speculate on why the empire overthrew an elected government in Ukraine and established a pro NATO regime there.
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Common Dreams:
"Israel Announces 'Unprecedented' Land Seizure. Anti-settlement group says move is ‘proof that Prime Minister Netanyahu does not aspire for a new Diplomatic Horizon.’ …
According to reporting by Haaretz, ‘The appropriated land belongs to five Palestinian villages in the Bethlehem area: Jaba, Surif, Wadi Fukin, Husan and Nahalin. …
Part of the lands being confiscated are already home to the illegal Jewish settlement of Gvaot, part of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc. Local settlers moved into the area and took over Palestinian land with military support more than a decade ago, but have been living in an area technically unrecognized by Israeli authorities despite their armed protection.’ “
—>In the pro-Zionist world of Isabel Kershner and The NY Times, Israel did not seize the land at all, but “made claims” to it and officially “declared it state land.” Kershner’s article debates whether Israel is justified in taking the land, and accepts without question that the seizure was the direct result of the killing of three Israeli teenagers.
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Mondoweiss:
Mondoweiss:
“When tear-gas was first fired into the streets of Ferguson, Missouri at people angry at the police killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown, Palestinian activists sent out messages on Twitter giving people tips for how to deal with tear gas’ effects.
And there was another direct connection between events in Missouri and the West Bank, as Palestinian activist Mariam Barghouti noted: the company that supplies the Israeli army with tear gas is the same company supplying the police in Ferguson. …
The tear-gas, smoke bombs and rubber bullets fired on demonstrators, a symbol of the growing militarization of America’s police forces, have fed anger over Brown’s killing across the nation and has sparked an unprecedented debate over police militarization in the country.”
—> To the mainstream media, these connections don’t exist. The weapons industry is just too powerful to take on, and such links are routinely left unreported. The NY Times did a story on the Twitter advice, but left out the US weapons maker.
