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Israel's Justification for Killing Civilians

Nicola Perugini and Neve Gordon Al Jazeera
For Palestinians living in Gaza today, spending time in schools, mosques, hospitals or even their own homes has become deadly. The question "when does it become a legitimate military target?" is merely rhetorical. Its real meaning is: "All houses in Gaza are legitimate targets" since all houses are potentially non-homes.

Telecom Lobbying Dollars At Work

Telecoms not-so-subtle use of lobbyists and lobby dollars to influence some Civil Rights organizations to oppose net neutrality and the best interest of constituents.

Smallpox: The Long Goodbye

Jeanne Guillemin Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists
American and Russian officials always insist that their smallpox repositories, under WHO oversight, are well guarded. But experience tells us that scientists working in laboratories with the highest biosafety standards are still caught off guard by technical breakdowns, that their staffs make mistakes and break rules, and that a predictable institutional reflex is to cover up blunders.

The Growth and Spread of Concentrated Poverty, 2000 to 2008-2012

Elizabeth Kneebone Brookings
Although severely concentrated disadvantage remains a predominantly urban phenomenon, suburbs now have nearly as many poor residents in high-poverty neighborhoods as cities. If these communities are ignored, they could become areas of concentrated poverty over time.

A Leading Voice of U.S. Jewry: End the Occupation

Amy Goodman/Nermeen Shaikh Democracy Now!
Henry Siegman, former executive director of the American Jewish Congress, tells Democracy Now!, "I think that sending rockets that are going to kill civilians is a crime. But for Palestinians to try, in any way they can, to end this state of affair—and to expect of them to end their struggle and just focus on less than 2 percent to build a country is absurd. That is part of—that’s propaganda, but it’s not a discussion of either politics or morality."

Liberal Zionism After Gaza

Jonathan Freedland The New York Review of Books
When Israelis and Palestinians appear fated to fight more frequently and with ever-bloodier consequences, and when peace initiatives seem to be utopian pipe-dreams doomed to fail, the liberal Zionist faces something like an existential crisis. They will have to decide which of their political identities matters more, whether they are first a liberal or first a Zionist. And that is a choice they don’t want to make.

Blacklisted Writer Norma Barzman Kicks Off UCLA Film Series

Susan King Los Angeles Times
Barzman wrote the 2003 autobiography "The Red and the Blacklist: The Intimate Memoir of a Hollywood Expatriate" and has been a leader in getting blacklisted writers' credits restored to films that were released with a "front" name. She'll be appearing at the Wilder theatre on her 94th birthday Sept. 15 for a screening of the 1946 drama "The Locket," for which she recently received writing credit.