Despite the injuries to protesters, police have been praised once again by their Prime Minister. They can be proud of what happened on Sunday, amidst the Government's declarations of "more democracy and a more pro-freedom standard".
The most significant point in this week's Turkey-Israel talks is not the supposed disagreement over the exact noun to denote "apology" for the attack on the Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla in May. Instead, the careful observer should recognise the division inside the Israeli Government.
I am not an insurgent, and neither are you. Until we realize that, until we understand the difference between journalism and war, then the government will continue to claim it's acting in self-defence.
Stop giving the government an excuse for repression. Stop calling Wikileaks "warfare".
This morning I appeared on the BBC World Service's World Update, speaking about the politics behind President Obama's decision to extend the 2003 tax cuts of the Bush Administration. The discussion includes Brian Carney, the Wall Street Journal's editorial page editor in London, and American comedian Dave Fulton.
The item begins at the 14-minute mark.
See also on EA: US Politics Analysis --- The Progressives Attack Obama
For later updates, please see Thursday's story.
UPDATE 2305 GMT: Twitter has just suspended the account of the hackers Anonymous.
UPDATE 2255 GMT: Looks like former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin wants to get in on the act. She is e-mailing journalists that, as she is a dedicated foe of WikiLeaks, her website and her credit card information has been targeted by Operation Payback.
US Politics correspondent Lee Haddigan writes:
The President has lost the support of his most committed and enthusiastic activists. And they are not about to sit idly by while Obama cruises to the Democrat nomination for President in 2012. I think it was Shakespeare who once wrote that “hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”.
It will be interesting to see over the next few months whether Hillary Clinton tries to remake herself surreptitiously as the new voice of progressivism.
2205 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Actually, I don't want to finish with smog. Instead, I note Fereshteh Ghazi's interview with journalist Emaduddin Baghi just before he returned to Evin Prison to serve a seven-year sentence. Baghi explains, "It is impossible to work through legal channels in the Islamic Republic."
2200 GMT: Back to the Smog. To almost end the day where we began....
Like the Washington Post, the Financial Times prefers to discuss pollution rather than protests: "Tehran residents are blaming the Iranian government’s production of poor-quality petrol for the serious air pollution affecting Iran’s capital city."Do not fear, however. The solution is at hand. Reviving a proposal offered by Tehran Friday Prayers leader Ayatollah Emami Kashani, the Basij-e Mostazafin organisation has issued a statement to the people: Pray for Rain.
For some, it is as if the demonstrations on National Student Day --- 16 Azar --- never happened.
You will not, for example, find any reference in Iranian state media to the protests on campuses across the nation. Press TV's top story prefers the relative security of the nuclear discussions, with Iran's National Security Council "call[ing] on Western powers to exercise commitment to agreements they make with the Islamic Republic".
I guess that's understandable --- no one really likes to mention domestic arguments. A bit more surprising that CNN's website forgot to mention 16 Azar.
Turkish diplomatic sources say that Israel and Turkey are close to agreeing on a document that will include Israel's apology and compensation for the nine Turkish citizens killed in the May attack on the Freedom Flotilla.
Questions remain. For instance, if Israel offers a clear and simple apology, will there be legal consequences? Will Turkey's immediate political gains crumble when it becomes clear that its other demands have been flatly rejected by West Jerusalem? To sweep away recent tensions and current suspicions over regional manoeuvres by both sides, will a letter of apology be enough?
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, addressing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday, said discussions over another moratorium on expansion of West Bank settlements had been suspended in the wake of the WikiLeaks crisis and the tensions between North and South Korea.
A senior Israeli official went further, declaring said that the talks over the settlements had reached a dead end, and West Jerusalem and Washington would find new ways to advance the peace process. A senior US official confirmed, "After consultation with the parties, we have determined that a moratorium extension will not at this time provide the best basis for resuming direct negotiations."
Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 2:43