As Israel and Hamas continue Egyptian-mediated talks on a Gaza truce deal, Cairo has emerged not as a mediator or an honest deal maker; its interests meet those of Israel to the extent that it is functioning as a broker on behalf of Israel. It may even have gone as far as to undermine an emerging French-mediated prisoner exchange. Amal Ghazal analyzes for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Did Egypt sabotage deal over Gaza, Shalit? 

The export of unmanned aerial vehicles, techniques of urban warfare and other tools of Israel’s pacification industry is the occupation’s contribution to the sustaining of the global power structures. Jimmy Johnson analyzes for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Unmanned aerial vehicles and the warfare of inequality management 

CAIRO (IPS) - Coverage of Israel’s recent war on the Gaza Strip by regional news stations has reflected longstanding political divisions within the Arab world. Qatar-based Al-Jazeera’s reporting drew a particularly angry response from Egypt. “Coverage of the Gaza conflict by certain Arab language news channels aggravated the rift between the Arab ‘moderate’ and ‘rejectionist’ camps,” Mohamed Mansour, professor of mass media at Cairo University told IPS. Read more about Egypt on offensive after critical Al-Jazeera coverage 

Since Israel’s bombing of the buildings housing scientific laboratories at the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) on 28 December, the rubble that remains debunks Israeli claims that those labs were used to manufacture weapons. Of course such allegations are preposterous; indeed it would be quite foolish for IUG to even entertain the notion of producing weapons given the way in which Palestinian universities have been under constant Israeli attack since the founding of Birzeit University in the West Bank in 1975. Akram Habeeb and Marcy Newman comment for The Electronic Intifada. Read more about Rebuilding the Islamic University of Gaza 

Whenever Israel has an election, pundits begin the usual refrain that hopes for peace depend on the “peace camp” — formerly represented by the Labor party, but now by Tzipi Livni’s Kadima — prevailing over the anti-peace right, led by the Likud. But whatever coalition emerges, it will maintain control with more violence and repression as Israel lurches into fascism. Ali Abunimah comments. Read more about Israel lurches into fascism 

The ongoing bloodletting in the Gaza Strip and the ability of the Palestinian people to creatively resist the might of the world’s fourth strongest army is being hotly debated by Palestinian political forces. The latest genocidal war which lasted 22 days, and in which apartheid Israel used F-16s, Apache helicopters, Merkava tanks and conventional and non-conventional weapons against the population, have raised many serious questions about the concept of resistance and whether the outcome of the war can, or cannot, be considered a victory for the Palestinian people. Dr. Haidar Eid comments for EI. Read more about Gaza 2009: Culture of resistance vs. defeat