I wouldn't be surprised at all if Waleed is right. Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the founder of modern Hebrew, apparently used plenty of Arabic words when he recreated the language in the early years of the last century. Ben-Yehuda's memoir is fascinating; he was at first stunned when he arrived in Palestine from Europe to discover people were already living there.

Thanks, Antony, for an excellent first-hand report.

I found this section of Joseph Dana's Op-Ed piece in Haaretz extremely interesting, and contrary to what we read elsewhere:
"The settler movement is not as strong as it is portrayed in the Israeli and international media. Without the active and passive support of both the government and the armed forces, the settlers' efforts would be rendered useless. Without it being possible to freely document and expose these matters, Israel's government will continue to use the image of the settlers as a cover for its own overt policy of support for settlement creation and maintenance in the West Bank. "
I have tremendous respect for Dana and the rest of his group.

A powerful video, and one more reason I'm a loyal follower of Mondoweiss.
Where is the mainstream American press?
Where are the "liberal" American commentators who upbraid the Palestinians and their supporters for not resisting the occupation non-violently?

An excellent and moving report, characteristic of Phil's Gaza coverage all along. When will the mainstream American papers and networks introduce us to people like Fares Akram?

What is dangerous is that some of these young men may well have served or will serve in the Israeli army of occupation, and decide whether Palestinian grandfathers and grandmothers are allowed to pass checkpoints. Why does the U.S. mainstream press have trouble finding these kinds of Israelis, but no trouble quoting "extreme" Palestinian views?

James North responds to Ingina y'Igihanga: I do hope to visit Rwanda, as you suggest. Do you live there? (Do you work for the Rwandan government?) If you are there, or wherever you are, do you really believe that 95 percent of the Rwandan people voted for Paul Kagame? Even Robert Mugabe did not claim that high a percentage.

Ran Greenstein's review is worth reading in its entirety. He demolishes Morris's Orientalist views by a calm look at the early resistance by the native Arabs/Palestinians to the Jewish settlers more than a century ago, showing that "Islamic fundamentalism" was not part of Arab/Palestinian thinking. This look at a fairly distant past is essential, because Morris and other Orientalists insist that Arabs and Muslims have an irrational, illogical hatred for Israel. The implication is that all you can do with such people is attack them.

Louis Proyect is great. I also loved his comment, in the extended version of his remarks that Mondoweiss links to, about Yul Brynner. Let's hear more from Proyect!