· June, 2008

Stories about War & Conflict from June, 2008

Israel: Sarkozy Security Scare at Airport

As French President Nicholas Sarkozy departed Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport, shots rang out. A quick assessment revealed that one of the Israeli members of Sarkozy's security detail had turned his weapon on himself, apparently committing suicide. The victim, whose name has not been revealed at his family's request, was in his...

Israel: No Nuts for You!

Israel is the world's largest consumer of pistachio nuts, but recent reports reveal that illegal imports from Iran may be its primary source. Jewschool's Shalom Rav jokes: “Anyone with even a passing knowledge of Israeli snacking habits will attest that Israel will be hard pressed to give up their pistachio...

Palestine: She Shoots, She Scores

Muna Nawajaa has scored a victory for social justice. Using a camera given to her by B'Tselem's Shooting Back project, Palestinian Nawajaa recorded the masked beating of members of her family, resulting in an investigation and arrest of suspects by Israeli police. In a post entitled “Cameras as Weapons,” Uriel...

Israel: Broken Truce Angers Israelis

Six days after Israeli and Palestinian forces brokered a ceasefire agreement, four kassam rockets fired from Gaza blasted the Western Negev. Islamic Jihad claimed credit for the attack, while Hamas, Palestine's ruling party, encouraged “all Palestinian factions to abide by the calm agreement,” asserting, “Hamas is keen to maintain the...

Afghanistan: Taliban Retreat

Patrick Frost says that after a couple weeks of poor news regarding Afghani security, there was finally some positive developments as a force of Afghanistan troops supported by NATO armored vehicles and helicopters appeared to rout Taliban forces who recently took over the Arghandab region surrounding Kandahar.

Georgia: Abkhaz Tensions

  22 June 2008

Steady State comments on how the media in Georgia reports on continuing tensions with Russia over the breakaway region of Abkhazia. The blog implies that the media is being used to encourage such tensions and says that if there was any real interest in peace then a different approach would...

China: Is the West afraid of our patriotism?

  20 June 2008

Are there factors informing your perception of China circa 2008? Novelist-blogger and researcher of worldly affairs Yang Hengjun moves on from ‘How did America cover up the truth of the bombing of our embassy in Yugoslavia?’ to his post last week, ‘Are Western countries afraid of the Chinese people's patriotic...

Bosnia & Herzegovina: Mass Grave; Court Case

Srebrenica Genocide Blog posts images from a mass grave excavation at Zeleni Jadar. Foreign Policy Association's War Crimes blog writes about a case brought before a Dutch court to “determine whether Dutch peacekeepers operating under the flag of the United Nations are liable for the 1995 massacre of thousands of...

Zimbabwe: Mapping terror

  19 June 2008

Mapping terror in Zimbabwe: Sokwanele has mapped a sample of the cases based on recorded first hand testimony from victims, and the interactive map so far bears witness to over 1,000 confirmed experiences of terror and intimidation.