Links February 11th to February 14th

Links from my del.icio.us account for February 11th through February 14th:

• Pre-empting the Satellite TV Revolution - Committee to Protect Journalists - On the Arab Interior Ministrers' agreement to control satellite TV stations.


• ei: Israel lurches into fascism - Ali Abunimah writes: "Lieberman, who previously served as deputy prime minister, has a long history of racist and violent incitement. Prior to Israel's recent attack, for example, he demanded Israel subject Palestinians to the brutal and indiscriminate violence Russia used in Chechyna. He also called for Arab Knesset members who met with officials from Hamas to be executed.
  But it's too easy to make him the bogeyman. Israel's narrow political spectrum now consists at one end of the former "peace camp" that never halted the violent expropriation of Palestinian land for Jewish settlements and boasts with pride of the war crimes in Gaza, and at the other, a surging far-right whose "solutions" vary from apartheid to outright ethnic cleansing."


• Hamas murder campaign in Gaza exposed | World news | guardian.co.uk - I'd like to read more detail about the kind of people Hamas went after in its murder-and-kneecapping campaign, especially an analysis of how credible the claims that the victims were IDF collaborators or whether they were just political opponents.


• U.S., EU indicate they prefer Kadima-Likud unity government in Israel - Haaretz - Israel News - Because a Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu coalition would just make their jobs explaining why the US still supports Israel more difficult?


• UK Muslim tells court he fabricated Islamist past | International | Reuters - The result of the British media paying for interviews with ex-jihadists: "Hassan Butt, 28, told Manchester Crown Court he had fed stories to the media and that his portrayal of himself as a terrorist planner who later renounced violence in order to fight Islamist extremism was a fabrication."


• Mauritania says it has closed its embassy in Israel - Haaretz - Israel News - About time.


• The American Conservative » Whither Zinni - Zinni overlooked for Iraqi ambassador job: "Zinni was rejected after Clinton came under pressure from some major supporters in New York State who told her that the appointment was unacceptable to Israel because Zinni is perceived as “hostile” to the Jewish state. Zinni has, indeed, been critical of Israel on a number of occasions. Another source in the intelligence community has told me that Zinni was perceived as bad for Israel’s security because Israel regards Iraq as a “front line state” in its confrontation with Iran. If Israel were to attack Iran it would need overflight approval over Iraq, something that Zinni would be unlikely to approve, possibly even submitting his resignation to stop such a development."