Can a small simple cardboard robot succeed where reporters, world leaders, activists and educators have not?

By RAMZY BAROUD - February 4, 2010

One thing we all know by now is that Israel is a highly militarized country. Its definition of ‘existence’ can only be ensured by its uncontested military dominance at all fronts, thus the devastating link between Palestine and Lebanon. This link makes any analysis of Israel’s military intents in Gaza, that excludes Lebanon...seriously lacking.

By Robert Fisk - 21 January 2010

...[H]ere's the big question[:]...If Israel ignores Obama and attacks Iran's nuclear sites...the Hizbollah could fire rockets into Israel, perhaps even revealing its new anti-aircraft missile capacity. Hamas might join in from Gaza. Hamas is a tin-pot outfit; the Hizbollah is not. An Israeli attack on Iran will unleash Iranian military power against America. But part of that power is Hizbollah in Lebanon. This is serious business.

By Seumas Milne - January 08, 2010

Decades of oil-hungry backing for despots...along with the failure of Arab nationalism to complete the decolonisation of the region, fuelled first the rise of Islamism and then the eruption of al-Qaida-style terror more than a decade ago. But, far from addressing the natural hostility to foreign control of the area and its resources at the centre of the conflict, the disastrous US-led response was to expand the western presence still further...

Ziad Abbas is a journalist and co-director of the Ibdaa Cultural and Community Center in Dheisheh Refugee Camp, Palestine. Nadeen Elshorafa is a Palestinian activist with Youth Together in Oakland, California.

Israeli defiance of international law.

By Uri Avnery - January 04, 2010

As an Israeli, I protest against the Israeli blockade. If I were an Egyptian, I would protest against the Egyptian blockade. As a citizen of this planet, I protest against both.

Obama's expanded war agenda.

By Robert Naiman - January 03, 2010

It wasn't a starting point of the protest to highlight the role of the Egyptian government in enforcing the blockade. It was the government of Egypt which, by refusing to let us pass, put its role at center stage...The events of the last week have transformed the "Israeli blockade" of Gaza into an "Israeli-Egyptian blockade," something that will dog Egypt's international relations - including calls for sanctions against Egypt - until the siege has been lifted.

By RON JACOBS - December 31, 2009

Like Afghanistan, Yemen is a very poor country. It is also somewhat unstable politically...Also, like Afghanistan, it can be argued that its best promise for stability and a decent life for its citizens was when it had a socialist oriented government--a regime subverted with considerable help from the United States.

By Jean Athey - January 02, 2010

Hedy Epstein, 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, has stolen our hearts. At four feet-ten, she is a giant...When she came to Cairo, Hedy decided to undertake a fast in support of the people of Gaza, a particularly apt form of protest given the inadequacy of both the supply and type of food the people there have access to. Malnutrition is endemic in Gaza, and children's growth is stunted; people frequently go hungry.

By Dave Bleakney - January 01, 2010

As [Gaza Freedom Marchers] came to the aid of an Egyptian man who was about to be detained for showing modest encouragement for the confined freedom marchers, plainclothes police attacked and assaulted the women. One security agent referred to them as "trash"...another attempted to kick one of them...Such are the results of the policies of the United States and Israel, directing the Egyptian government, a government lacking integrity and independence which requires a massive police apparatus to control the population...while the people of Gaza starve.

By PATRICK COCKBURN - December 31, 2009

It is extraordinary to see the US begin to make the same mistakes in Yemen as it previously made in Afghanistan and Iraq. What it is doing is much to al-Qa’ida’s advantage...Al-Qa’ida leaders openly admitted at the time of 9/11 that the aim of such operations is to provoke the US into direct military intervention in Muslim countries. It is a formula which worked under President George W Bush and it still appears to work under President Barack Obama.

"In contrast to the Egyptian government's behavior...the people of Egypt have been extremely welcoming and very supportive of the Gaza Freedom March. This support has largely had to remain underground...[I]t has been rumored that some 200 Egyptian citizens attempted to join the Gaza Freedom March of their own accord and were arrested on their way to El Arish. The authorities have refused to comment or substantiate this. If it is true, the whereabouts of the Egyptian citizens remained uncertain."

By EMILY RATNER - December 29, 2009

The Egyptian government has revoked the contracts for the buses that would take us one step closer on our journey to Gaza and has forbidden us from leaving Cairo. Military police have torn down our small hand-written cards tied to the Kasr al Nil Bridge...We regroup, circle again, and find another path to remembering and reminding, another way through the many checkpoints and the impossible border ahead.