Charges dropped in Guantanamo terror trial

By LARA JAKES, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon's senior judge overseeing terror trials at Guantanamo Bay dropped charges Thursday against an al-Qaida suspect in the 2000 USS Cole bombing, upholding President Barack Obama's order to freeze military tribunals there.

The charges against suspected al-Qaida bomber Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri marked the last active Guantanamo war crimes case.

The legal move by Susan J. Crawford, the top legal authority for military trials at Guantanamo, brings all cases into compliance with Obama's Jan. 22 executive order to halt terrorist court proceedings at the U.S. Navy base in Cuba.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Crawford withdrew the charges against al-Nashiri. However, new charges can be brought again later, and al-Nashiri will remain in prison for the time being.

"It was her decision, but it reflects the fact that the president has issued an executive order which mandates that the military commissions be halted, pending the outcome of several reviews of our operations down at Guantanamo," Morrell said late Thursday night.

The ruling also gives the White House time to review the legal cases of all 245 terror suspects held there and decide whether they should be prosecuted in the U.S. or released to other nations.

Obama was to meet with families of the USS Cole and 9/11 victims at the White House on Friday afternoon and may announce the move.

Seventeen U.S. sailors died on Oct. 12, 2000, when al-Qaida suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the Cole, a guided-missile destroyer, as it sat in a Yemen port.

The Pentagon last summer charged al-Nashiri, a Saudi Arabian, with "organizing and directing" the bombing and planned to seek the death penalty in the case.

In his Jan. 22 order, Obama promised to shut down the Guantanamo prison within a year. The order also froze all Guantanamo detainee legal cases pending a three-month review as the Obama administration decides where — or whether — to prosecute the suspects who have been held there for years, most without charges.

Two military judges granted Obama's request for a delay in other cases.

But a third military judge, Army Col. James Pohl, defied Obama's order by scheduling a Feb. 9 arraignment for al-Nashiri at Guantanamo. That left the decision on whether to continue to Crawford, whose delay on announcing what she would do prompted widespread concern at the Pentagon that she would refuse to follow orders and allow the court process to continue.

Retired Navy Cmdr. Kirk S. Lippold, the commanding officer of the Cole when it was bombed in Yemen in October 2000, said he will be among family members of Cole and 9/11 victims who are meeting with Obama at the White House on Friday afternoon.

Groups representing victims' families were angered by Obama's order, charging they had waited too long already to see the alleged attackers brought to court.

"I was certainly disappointed with the decision to delay the military commissions process," Lippold, now a defense adviser to Military Families United, said in an interview Thursday night. "We have already waited eight years. Justice delayed is justice denied. We must allow the military commission process to go forward."

Crawford was appointed to her post in 2007 by then-President George W. Bush. She was in the news last month when she said interrogation methods used on one suspect at Guantanamo amounted to torture. The Bush administration had maintained it did not torture.

Last year, al-Nashiri said during a Guantanamo hearing that he confessed to helping plot the Cole bombing only because he was tortured by U.S. interrogators. The CIA has admitted he was among terrorist suspects subjected to waterboarding, which simulates drowning, in 2002 and 2003 while being interrogated in secret CIA prisons.

Jordanian nurse disappears at Rafah border

A Jordanian nurse disappeared as he was entering the Rafah crossing border with Egypt, local daily The Jordan Times reported on Friday.

The nurse, identified as Salman Masaeed, was one of a group of Jordanian nurses who volunteered to work in Gaza to help treat thousands of Palestinians injured during a 22-day Israeli onslaught on Gaza, the press quoted a source who requested anonymity as saying.

It is believed that he was arrested by the Egyptian authorities, said the source, adding that Masaeed, however, remained behind his colleagues who had left for Egypt.

Meanwhile, Jordanian doctors dispatched by the Jordan Medical Association remained stranded on Rafah border on Thursday, reports said. They were trying to enter Gaza to join their colleagues volunteering in hospitals there.

Reports came out from time to time in the aftermath of the blistering Israeli offensive that Jordanian delegations were denied entry to Gaza at the Rafah border on humanitarian missions.

German City Of Munich Says It Will Accept Guantanamo Uighurs

BERLIN (AFP)--The German city of Munich, home to the biggest community of ethnic Uighurs outside China, has offered to host the 17 members of the Chinese minority held at Guantanamo Bay, authorities said Friday.

A city hall official confirmed a report in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung daily that the municipal council had supported a motion to this effect put forward by the Green party Thursday.

However the offer will need approval from the cross-party government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, which is divided on the issue of taking inmates from Guantanamo after Washington closes the prison for terror suspects on Cuba.

Social Democrat Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is in favor of taking in some freed prisoners while Christian Democrat Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaueble is against.

The case of the Uighurs arrested in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo for the past seven years is exceptional.

All have been cleared of terrorist activity but Washington has declined to repatriate them to China for fear they would be persecuted or tortured.

Beijing has demanded the return of the 17, who it says were part of a U.N.- listed terror group seeking an independent homeland in the Uighur-populated Xinjiang region.

Lawyers for three of them have filed applications for refugee status in Canada, prompting a warning from Beijing Thursday.

"We have expressed our position many times about those Chinese terrorists detained in Guantanamo. We are opposed to any country accepting those people," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing.

"We hope the parties concerned can resolve conveniently this issue according to the international laws and regulations".

Uighurs, who are mostly Muslim, form the largest ethnic group in northwest China's Xinjiang region that borders Central Asia. Some hope for independence from China.

Israel Releases Lebanese Gaza Boat Activists

By SANA ABDALLAH

AMMAN -- After seizing a Lebanese boat carrying activists, journalists and tons of humanitarian aid to Gaza, the Israeli authorities expelled the Lebanese passengers by sending them back to their country.

The first Lebanese ship that sought to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza ignored Israeli navy vessels and warning shots that tried to steer the boat away from nearing the shores of the Gaza Strip.

When the boat insisted on reaching its destination shortly after midnight Thursday, Israeli soldiers stormed the Togolese-flagged ship, Tali, reportedly beat up some of the passengers, bound them, and towed the vessel to an Israeli military port in Ashdod.

The boat, with 18 crew and passengers, was carrying 60 tons of medical supplies, food, books and toys for Gaza, which has been living under a paralyzing Western-backed Israeli blockade since Hamas seized control of the narrow strip in June 2007.

Organized by the Lebanese group, End the Blockade of Gaza, the boat – dubbed "Brotherhood Ship" to connote solidarity with the Palestinians – originally set sail from the northern port of Tripoli on Tuesday toward Cyprus, where the supplies were transferred to another ship before heading toward Gaza.

The Lebanese authorities said the boat was thoroughly searched before sailing from Tripoli and again searched in Cyprus to confirm it was transporting only humanitarian aid.

Nevertheless, the Israeli military cited "security concerns" for intercepting the solidarity ship and later admitted it was not carrying any weapons. Israel said it would send the aid to Gaza.

However, the seizure of the Brotherhood in international waters raised a political storm, with Lebanon and the Arab League strongly condemning the move as "an illegal act of piracy" and declared its passengers as prisoners or hostages.

Passengers onboard said the boat was in Egyptian waters when the Israelis intercepted it, but this was not independently confirmed.

Israel declared Gaza's coastal territory a closed military zone when it launched a massive war on the strip on Dec. 27, an offensive that last 23 days and left more than 1,300 Palestinians killed, most of them civilians. Ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians died in combat and from Palestinian militant rocket fire.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said it was "no surprise for Israel to perpetrate such an action as it has been accustomed to ignoring international resolutions and values."

Arab League representative at the United Nations, Yahya Mahmassani, asked U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to quickly intervene and demanded an international condemnation. "The world community should condemn this act of piracy committed by Israel," he said.

Aboard the Brotherhood were Lebanese reporters and cameramen from the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news channel and pan-Arab nationalist Lebanese Al-Jadeed TV (New TV), in addition to Lebanese activists.

Also onboard was the former Greek Catholic archbishop of Jerusalem, Monsignor Hilarion Capucci, who was deported from Jerusalem in the mid-1970s after serving time in an Israeli prison for affiliation with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Capucci, 84, was not among those who were handed over to U.N. peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon early Friday, and was expected to be expelled to Syria through the Golan Heights, along with other Syrians who were on the boat.

Upon her arrival in the Lebanese southern town of Naqoura, Al-Jazeera reporter Salam Khodr said that after firing bullets at the boat, 30 Israeli soldiers stormed it, beat up some of the passengers, blindfolded them and bound their hands before interrogating them.

She charged that soldiers kicked 60-year-old Hani Suleiman Lebanese coordinator of the campaign, Hani Suleiman, in the chest and back although they were told the man had heart problems.

"One female soldier said to us, 'You should have thought about his health condition before you attempted to come and break the siege on Gaza,'" Khodr recounted on Al-Jazeera.

Al-Jadeed TV said the soldiers broke then confiscated the camera equipment onboard.

Israel denied using violence or having fired at the boat, whose fate remains unknown.

But Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday made it clear that Israel will no longer tolerate attempts to breach the blockade on Gaza, saying that the seizure of the Brotherhood ship was to prove that "things will be done differently" from now on, since "the equation has now changed" in the aftermath of the 23-day war.

The international, non-violent Free Gaza Movement – a group of Western, Palestinian and Israeli human rights activists – was the first to launch the concept of seeking to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza by sailing boats from Cyprus to the strip without Israeli permission for the first time since 1967.

In August 2008, the organization sent the first boat carrying activists and humanitarian aid to Gaza "to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy, and its support for continued Israeli occupation," according to the movement's Web site, www.freegaza.org.

Lebanese activists emulated the move by organizing the Brotherhood ship. Aid coordinator of the Lebanese End the Blockade on Gaza, Maen Bashour, said the Israeli "hijacking" of the boat will not deter the Lebanese from sending more vessels to Gaza.

Commentators say the saga of the Brotherhood ship may have ended with the release of its passengers, but the continued blockade on the impoverished Gaza Strip is expected to draw more solidarity boats to sail the Mediterranean waters to try to defy the Israeli blockade.

Philippines will give away efficient bulbs

MANILA, Philippines, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- The Philippine government is planning to give away millions of energy-saving lightbulbs to try to save money on electricity.

An estimated $100 million will be saved each year if residents and businesses replace their traditional lightbulbs with new compact fluorescent bulbs that the government is handing out, Xinhua reports.

The government was given a 25-year, $31.1 million loan by the Asian Development Bank for the project.

The "CFL distribution program is like building 'virtual' power stations," said Sohail Hasnie, senior energy specialist in ADB's Southeast Asia Department.

Residents can turn in their incandescent bulbs and receive a compact fluorescent lamp. Individual savings are estimated at $8.50 a year for the next seven to 10 years.

The loan also includes funds for the government to retrofit all of its office buildings and public lighting with efficient lighting options. It also provides state-owned Philippine National Oil Co. with $7.5 million to establish an energy service company to extend financial and technical support to companies that want to reduce energy consumption.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Energy_Resources/2009/02/06/Philippines_will_give_away_efficient_bulbs/UPI-41721233945409/.

Scotland seeks title of green job capital

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Scotland's Finance Secretary John Swinney pledged to create at least 16,000 renewable-energy-related jobs in Scotland over the next 10 years.

The new goal is part of the nation's larger efforts to avoid recession and be more energy efficient, Scotland on Sunday reports.

Scotland should have at least one-tenth of the estimated 160,000 renewable energy jobs that will be generated in Britain over the next 10 years, Swinney said.

"We are in the most difficult economic climate for a generation and need to pursue every possible opportunity we have to create wealth," he said. "We are laying the foundations for economic success by investing in a greener deal for Scotland."

The nation generates one-fifth of its electricity demand from renewable sources, and Scotland is home to 25 percent of Europe's wave and tidal energy potential.

Two suns found in distant planetary system

SEOUL, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- South Korean researchers say they've discovered a planetary system that has two suns.

Lee Jae-woo and Kim Seung-ri of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute and Kim Chun-hwui of Chungbuk National University said the planetary system, which they've named HW Vir has had the two suns since its birth, unlike other planetary systems in which a second sun was drawn by gravitational attraction, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper reported Friday.

The report, published in the Astronomical Journal, said the HW Vir planetary system lies about 59 billion light-years from Earth.

Ants chatter to each other in nests

LONDON, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- A British scientist says advanced audio technology shows ants talk together frequently while inside their nests.

Miniature microphones and speakers placed inside nests allowed scientists to play back sounds made by the queen, which called the ants to attention, The Times of London reported Friday.

"When we played the queen sounds they did 'en garde' behavior. They would stand motionless with their antennae held out and their jaws apart for hours -- the moment anyone goes near they will attack," Jeremy Thomas of the University of Oxford told The Times.

Thomas said further analysis may reveal ants have a wider vocabulary than previously suspected. "The most important discovery is that within the ant colony different sounds can provoke different reactions," he said. "I would be very surprised if we didn't get different types of sound."

Egypt returns ancient statue to Iraq

CAIRO, Feb. 6 (UPI) -- An ancient Mesopotamian bronze statue smuggled into Egypt has been returned to Iraqi authorities, Egyptian officials say.

A spokesman for the Egyptian Antiquities Department says the statue was handed over to the Iraqi Embassy in Cairo during a special ceremony, Iraq's Azzazam news service reported Friday.

Spokesman Abdulzahra al-Talaqani said the return of the ancient relic is a signal of the willingness of nations to cooperate with Iraq in the recovery of its stolen heritage.

It isn't clear whether the bronze statue was among the thousands of artifacts that went missing from Iraq shortly after the U.S. invasion.

In addition to items taken from the Iraq Museum, archaeologists say thousands of antiquities have been smuggled out of the country due to illegal digging at scores of ancient sites.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/02/06/Egypt_returns_ancient_statue_to_Iraq/UPI-88101233941292/.

Russia allows transit of US military supplies

By MIKE ECKEL, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW – Russia granted transit rights Friday to non-lethal U.S. military supplies headed to Afghanistan but only after apparently pressuring a former Soviet state to close an air base leased to the Americans.

The signal from Moscow: Russia is willing to help on Afghanistan, but only on the Kremlin's terms.

Kyrgyzstan announced the closure of the Manas air base but American officials suspect that Russia was behind the decision, having long been irritated by the U.S presence in central Asia.

The Russian decision to let U.S. supplies cross its territory opened another route to those through Pakistan now threatened by militant attacks, but U.S. officials were still left scrambling for alternatives to Manas.

Russia wants to open discussions on thorny policy issues that Washington and Moscow have clashed on in recent years — NATO enlargement, missile defense in Europe, a new strategic arms control treaty. More importantly, Russia's expectation is that Washington must go through Moscow where Central Asia is concerned.

Russia may also be showing Washington that its positions aren't immovable — particularly where Afghanistan is concerned. Russia fears Afghanistan is collapsing into anarchy, leading to instability or Islamic radicals migrating northward through Central Asia.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia had agreed days earlier to allow transit of U.S. non-lethal supplies to Afghanistan.

"We are now waiting for the American partners to provide a specific request with a quantity and description of cargo," Lavrov said Friday in remarks broadcast by Vesti-24 TV. "As soon as they do that we will issue relevant permissions."

He and other officials did not say whether the U.S. will be offered air or land transit corridors. Any new transit routes are unlikely to make up for the loss of Manas, home to tanker planes that refuel warplanes flying over Afghanistan as well as airlifts and medical evacuation operations.

The Kremlin last year signed a framework deal with NATO for transit of non-lethal cargo for coalition forces in Afghanistan and has allowed some alliance members, including Germany, France and Spain, to move supplies across its territory.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Lyakin-Frolov said Germany has been using air and land routes and France so far only has used air transit.

Ground routes through Russia would likely cross into Kazakhstan and then Uzbekistan before entering northern Afghanistan.

The U.S. has reached a preliminary deal with Kazakhstan to use its territory and officials have said they are considering resuming military cooperation with Uzbekistan, which neighbors Afghanistan.

That option is problematic for Washington: Uzbekistan kicked U.S. forces out of a base there after sharp U.S. criticism of the country's human rights record and the government's brutal quashing of a 2005 uprising.

Renewing those ties would also open the United States to new accusations it is working with an authoritarian government that tortures its citizens. Uzbekistan has also in the past faced a low-level insurgency from Islamic radicals, though a government crackdown has quelled much of it.

U.S. officials have repeatedly said talks with Kyrgyzstan on the Manas base are still ongoing. U.S. State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid suggested Friday that Kyrgyz officials may be divided over whether to close the base, a source of income for the impoverished nation.

"They've not told us they reached a final decision," Duguid said.

Kyrgyzstan's parliament delayed a vote on the government's decision until next week, and some Kyrgyz officials have indicated they may be willing to discuss the issue with the United States.

But National Security Council chief Adakhan Madumarov said Friday the decision to close the base was final.

"There is no doubt the bill to revoke the basing agreement will be ratified," he said. "The fate of the air base has been sealed."

In a separate development, Tajikistan's president pledged Friday that his government would allow the transit of non-military supplies to coalition troops based in neighboring Afghanistan.

Still, Tajik routes are unlikely to greatly affect U.S. supplies because the mountainous country is hard to traverse by land and it already allows U.S. overflights.

Obama considering at least 2 Iraq withdrawal plans

By ROBERT BURNS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON – The White House is considering at least two troop withdrawal options as it weighs a new Iraq strategy — one that would preserve President Barack Obama's campaign pledge to get all combat brigades out within 16 months and a second that would stretch it to 23 months, two officials said Friday.

A third, in-between option of 19 months is also being weighed, according to the officials, neither of whom would discuss the sensitive topic without being granted anonymity. One of the officials said the main focus appears to be on the 16-month and 23-month options; 23 months would run to the end of 2010.

Under either timeline, the U.S. would hope to leave behind a number of brigades that would be redesigned and reconfigured as multipurpose units to provide training and advising for Iraqi security forces, one official said. These brigades would be considered noncombat outfits and their presence would have to be agreed in advance by the Iraqi government, which under a deal signed late last year insisted that all U.S. forces — not just combat brigades — be out of Iraq by the end of 2011.

Obama has said his Iraq policy will include leaving a residual U.S. military force of unspecified composition and size in Iraq and in the region to conduct counter-terrorism missions against al-Qaida in Iraq and to protect American diplomatic and civilian personnel. He has said they will not build permanent bases in Iraq but will continue training and supporting Iraqi security forces "as long as Iraqi leaders move toward political reconciliation and away from sectarianism."

The concept of the stay-behind training and advising brigades has been well developed, the official said, although the details such as their size and makeup are in an early stage of being sorted out.

At the White House's request, top military officials recently offered an assessment of the risks associated with the 16-, 19- and 23-month withdrawal timetables, without saying which is preferred. Obama's top two defense advisers, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, have not yet provided a formal recommendation to the president on a timetable, an official said.

It is possible that Obama will ask for similar assessments of other withdrawal timetables before deciding on a way ahead.

A senior administration official said Friday, without commenting on the timetables under consideration, that the White House and senior military commanders "are coming to a meeting of the minds" on troop withdrawals and on the need for a diplomatic and political strategy to end U.S. involvement in the war and to ease the strain on troops and their families.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said it likely would be a matter of "weeks, not months" before Obama is ready to announce his decisions on an Iraq strategy.

McClatchy Newspapers was first to report Friday that the White House had received risk assessments associated with 16-, 19- and 23-month drawdown options.

Obama must weigh a number of risks in deciding how fast to pull out the 14 combat brigades that are now in Iraq, including the political risk associated with abandoning his campaign pledge to get out within 16 months.

The calculation is complex and tied to other concerns: relieving stress on war-weary troops and their families; tradeoffs in escalating the war in Afghanistan, and being ready for popup crises elsewhere.

The pace and sequencing of a troop pullout will have implications for preserving recent gains in reducing violence in Iraq. An erosion of security could in turn halt progress toward political reconciliation, raising once again the prospect of widespread sectarian warfare and a new crisis for Obama.

Also at issue is how to ensure proper protection for U.S. civilians, such as State Department members of military-civilian teams supporting Iraqi economic and political rebuilding, as the U.S. military presence shrinks. That civilian work, including the role of international non-governmental groups, will arguably grow in importance as the Iraqis focus less on fighting insurgents and more on building national unity.

The fact that Obama did not immediately order his generals to begin withdrawing — as some might have expected, given his emphasis during the campaign on refocusing the U.S. military on Afghanistan — is evidence that he recognized, even before assuming office Jan. 20, the dangers of a precipitous withdrawal.

During Obama's first meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Pentagon last week, he did not mention a 16-month timeline, according to officials who were present.

U.S. military commanders in Iraq — and some senior military leaders in the Pentagon — still wonder whether the Iraqi security forces will be ready this year to handle what remains of the insurgency without substantial U.S. combat assistance. If they are not, and if a U.S. pullout accelerates, what will happen?

That question may be most important in northern Iraq, where the insurgency is still viable in the Tigris River city of Mosul and where ethnic tensions between Arabs and Kurds are high around the city of Kirkuk.

Maj. Gen. Robert Caslen, the senior U.S. commander in northern Iraq, told the AP it is too early to know how long U.S. forces will be required there, noting that conditions are fluid.

"The north provides a unique set of issues that requires the services of each and every (U.S. military) unit to its fullest extent," Caslen said. "And as long as the AQI (al-Qaida in Iraq) insurgency remains buried in places like Mosul" and until ethnic disputes are resolved in places like Kirkuk, "we will continue to be needed in this area in order to maintain the same level of risk."

Rise of the moderates

Out of the rubble of Gaza, global Jewish dissent could be emerging as a more potent force

Antony Lerman

Each and every Jew who protested as a Jew against the Gaza war had a personal Jewish imperative for doing so. Some simply expressed dismay; most demanded action to end the carnage. To say that we failed is neither an expression of despair nor a statement that dissent wasn't worthwhile. Realism suggests that it was inevitable.

Let's be clear: diaspora and Israeli Jewish support for the war was extensive - and extremely dispiriting. It raises the question: critical Jewish voices may have increased, but can we ever trigger decisive change in mainstream Jewish opinion? An unsentimental look at developments may give reason for hope.

First, there's been activity in many countries and support for Jewish peace groups has increased. European Jews for a Just Peace, a 10-country federation of such organizations, reports numerous initiatives in Europe. Independent Jewish Voices, Jews for Justice for Palestinians and other UK groups demonstrated, lobbied, placed newspaper ads and joined demonstrations. IJV groups in Canada and Australia issued statements. Jewish and Israeli protesters in Toronto, Montreal and Boston occupied Israeli consulates. US peace groups have been increasingly active. Together with activity by Israeli groups, this amounts to an undercurrent of protest that is rattling establishment Jewish leadership.

Second, some groups of Jews have taken significant stands. On 11 January, the Observer made front-page news of a letter from rabbis, academics and prominent community figures at the centre of UK Jewish life, calling for a ceasefire. In Germany, a letter from 35 supporters of the group Jewish Voice for a Just Peace, demanding an end to "the murder in Gaza", was published on 17 January in the Süddeutsche Zeitung - a major newspaper in a country where expressing public criticism of Israel is difficult for anyone, let alone a group of Jews.

But most significant was the strong anti-war stand taken by J Street, the new American liberal "pro-peace, pro-Israel" lobby, which is effectively challenging the influential, rightwing Israel lobby Aipac. Heavily criticized by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, a prominent US peace camp leader, for being "profoundly out of touch with Jewish sentiment", J Street stuck to its guns and attracted increased support. It then warmly welcomed President Obama's appointment of George Mitchell as Middle East envoy, positioning itself to have clout in Washington. The positive consequences for further legitimizing Jewish dissent in the US and beyond could be crucial.

Third, there are signs of underlying disquiet in the middle ground of normally solid pro-Israel Jewish opinion. On 2 January, Anshel Pfeffer wrote in Ha'aretz: "Extremely disturbed and hurt by the level of civilian deaths and destruction ... [these Jews] say, there must, there has to be another way of doing this. And they live with those doubts, often unexpressed, even among families and close friends, because the worst thing they find is that others around them don't seem to discern between the different nuances, and can't find in themselves compassion for the dead and wounded on the other side." Pfeffer is not alone in sensing this mood, which suggests Israel is perilously close to the line beyond which even some of its strongest supporters cannot go.

Two encouraging conclusions can be drawn. First, although it seems most Jews shrink from the truth and embrace the Orwellian "war is peace" propaganda, doubts are growing. For Jewish dissenters who seek an appropriate language to persuade mainstream Jewish opinion that Israel is going in the wrong direction, the effort may produce results.

Second, dissenting peace groups can be stubbornly independent and make a virtue out of minor differences. But effective coordination during the Gaza war proved empowering. It's surely worthwhile attempting to create a critical mass, united around key objectives, and expressed in language that can connect with mainstream Jewish opinion.

Israel is heavily dependent on what Jews think. Its leaders turn to their support whenever they face an internal crisis or need cover for some new military adventure. But it's now not too far-fetched to think Jewish opinion could turn decisively against Israel's current path. This would shake the government and help change Middle East realities. So, out of the rubble of Gaza and the political failure it represents, Jewish dissent may emerge a more potent force.

A final cautionary note: Jewish opposition to the Gaza war was not qualitatively different from anyone else's. And it's not more important than the horrendous experience of the people of Gaza. But were that opposition to be translated into a rolling tide of Jewish opinion, it may have a moderating influence on Israel. This would benefit Palestinians, who deserve an immediate end to siege and occupation, and Jews, who deserve an immediate end to the antisemitism, highlighted in these pages by Jonathan Freedland, which Israel's war has provoked. And ultimately lead to an Israel living in peace with its neighbors.