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Inside the Middle East
May 17, 2011
Posted: 1220 GMT
Palestinian protesters infiltrate the Israel-Syria border on May 15 near the Druze village of Majdal Shams. Reportedly at least twelve were killed and several injured when Israeli soldiers opened fire on protesters AFP/ Getty Images.
Palestinian protesters infiltrate the Israel-Syria border on May 15 near the Druze village of Majdal Shams. Reportedly at least twelve were killed and several injured when Israeli soldiers opened fire on protesters AFP/ Getty Images.

Clashes between pro-Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces erupted along Israel's borders and occupied territories Sunday, leaving at least 12 dead on a Palestinian mourning day marking the birth of the Jewish state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decried what he called "violent demonstrations" aimed at undermining Israel's existence.

"We hope for the peace and restfulness to return quickly, but no one should be mistaken - we are determined to defend our borders and our sovereignty," Netanyahu said.

The conflicts broke out on "Nakba Day." Nakba - Arabic for "catastrophe" - marks the period when more than 700,000 Arabs were displaced from their homes during fighting that followed the creation of Israel in 1948.

Two protesters were killed and 170 were wounded Sunday when fighting broke out in the Golan Heights area, the Syrian Arab News Agency said. And at least 10 were killed and 112 others were injured in clashes along the line of demarcation with Lebanon, Lebanon's state news agency reported. Read more...

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Filed under: Israel •Lebanon •Netanyahu •Palestinians •Syria


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Myriam   May 19th, 2011 8:35 am ET

Israel will use any excuse to kill Muslim civilians.

If Israel can't find an excuse, the Zionists will manufacture one.

Israel is the root cause of tension in the middle east. America has positioned itself in the center of the trouble with its unwavering support for the criminal state of Israel.

Ariely   May 19th, 2011 10:36 am ET

Abraham Lincoln
You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
-
The real reality as described by Arab leaders.
However the Arabs with the help of some so called human rights protectors that are partnering Arabs/Iranians that stand against

–democracy-human right-women equality-speech freedom–religious equality and using terror to impose worldwide their ideology –

Are trying to rewrite the history:
1:Azm-Syrian prime minister memoirs:
Arab governments called to evacuate Israel
Leave for Arab countries. We made them leave.
Then we exploit them in executing crimes of murder in the service of Arab political purposes

2:The secretary general of the Arab League, Azzam Pasha:
Advice given to the Arabs to
LEAVE AND STAY IN NEIGHBORING STATES. Later to RETURN AND OBTAIN JWEISH property

3:Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Said in Sir An-Nakbah
We will smash Israel.
ARABS SHOULD LEAVE UNTIL END OF FIGHTING

4:On 1947the UN proposed the formation of the Jewish state Israel and the number 22 Arab state.
The Arabs refused and 7 Arab armies attacked the defending Israel.
Arab league declared:
This will be a war of extermination and a massacre which WILL BE SPOKEN OF LIKE THE MONGOL MASSACRESS
The Arabs still refuse to recognize Israel as a Jewish state

5: Egypt controlled Gaza and Jordan the West bank.
They could from a Palestinian state.
The Palestinians could demand independence.
By they did not

6: The Arabs/Iran dictators and theocrats ideologies are still diverting people's attention from their crimes toward the imaginary enemy- the defending Israel.

Will they ever learn?

S Cohen   May 24th, 2011 7:55 pm ET

The 10 Arabs killed while trying to cross the Israel-Lebanon border were shot by the Lebanese Army, which was trying to prevent them from breaking down the border fence. Videos showing the shootings are available online for whoever needs further proof.

The Syrian Arabs who crossed the border to Israel were sent by their president, Bashar Assad, who was desperately trying to distract attention from his wholesale slaughter of his own people. Assad probably hoped they would be killed, too, which might earn him some sympathy points.

miriam   May 30th, 2011 4:30 pm ET

CNN,

It took almost two weeks for you to eventually delete my comment, an honest response to your account above.

Freedom of expression allows the media to report as they wish including biased, inaccurate reports. However, banning truthful responses which might be critical of your version is shameful. If this blog is open for discussion, let there be a discussion. On more than a few occasions you have allowed absolute hate on this blog which, unless you have a long over-due new moderating policy, cannot be compared to the pro-Israeli and ultimately also pro-Palestinian narrative.

After all, a little research and knowledge of the story would support my comment and help some confused readers who have trouble comprehending Israel and its actions to understand what really goes on in the ME.

mike   May 31st, 2011 11:06 am ET

if anyone will try to brake are border we woulden't hesitate and shoot him. the israelies did not used firepowered guns though there border was broken through which is by the way usually interpeted as an act of war!

John A   May 31st, 2011 11:16 am ET

Miriam is totally correct. CNN has been manipulating this blog for a long time. The truth is most blogs, twitters etc are manipulated to make people believe in a false sense of public opinion.

I disagree with Miriam's politics and I disagree with Zionists. Nevertheless, Miriam, Zionists, Palestinians and others including myself ALL have the right to speak without CNN manipulation.

proud zionist   May 31st, 2011 10:05 pm ET

miriam

CNN censors work overtime to delete any comment relating to the truth

none of John A's comments heve ever been deleted by the CNN censors!!!

John A   June 1st, 2011 4:00 pm ET

Proud Zionist says,
May 31st, 2011 10:05 pm ET

miriam

CNN censors work overtime to delete any comment relating to the truth

none of John A's comments heve ever been deleted by the CNN censors!!!
-------------
How do you know that Proud Zionist. Do you write my posts???

Why is everything you say surrounded with a sense of idiocy?

Ariely   June 2nd, 2011 7:18 am ET

**Fatah has never recognized Israel’s right to exist and will never do so
-
**I challenge anyone who says that the case is otherwise, whether it’s Hamas or others. Neither Fatah nor Hamas is required to recognize Israel.

Remarks made by Azzam al-Ahmed in an interview with the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al- Youm.

Azzam al-Ahmed head of the Fatah negotiating team with Hamas member of Fatah Central Committee closely associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
-.
Lessen to what Arabs are saying in Arabic and English.
In English they lie to infidels. In Arabic they speak to their people.

ltrail   June 13th, 2011 1:25 am ET

The news media label Jordanians in Israel, as so-called Palestinians. There are no such people and there is no nation or state by that name.

miriam   June 13th, 2011 1:26 pm ET

Itrail,

Upon Jordan's occupation and annexation of the West Bank in 1950, the residents of the territory, having been ethnically cleansed of Jews, were given Jordanian citizenship despite opposition from the Arab League.

Arab residents of Israel have Israeli citizenship.

grasshooper   July 16th, 2011 6:22 pm ET

Imagine in the current time if France would want to create its own state in Michigan and separate it from the U.S. French are a minority in Michigan so democratic vote on the separation would not work because they would be outvoted by the rest of the Americans living in Michigan. So imagine if they had a historic opportunity when the U.S. is at its weakest and militarily occupy a part of Michigan and impose a regime where only French can vote and all the others who lived there cannot. Furthermore, the occupiers rename the occupied part of Michigan as the “French State” where not only that Americans are not welcome, but they are systematically expelled over time creating huge refugee camps in nearby states of Indiana and Ohio. Imagine then that at that point in history the artificial organization called the United Nations is full of French supporters and somehow that makes the occupation “legal” and Americans who fight for their homes in the occupied part of Michigan are labeled as terrorists. The occupation is a part of a careful log-term plan (i.e. Zionism) of acquiring land by French, so literally days after the occupation is implemented (what a coordinated plan!) the occupiers import millions of other French from all over the world to increase their population in Michigan from around 100,000 to over 5 Million in a short period. Then Americans resist and fight to regain the occupied part of Michigan, but Russia steps in, sends weapons, cash, and everything else the occupiers need to sustain the occupation.

What do you think all of us Americans would feel? We would hate French first, and then all of their supporters (Russia in this analogy) that make the occupation of our land possible. Still questioning yourself why people in the Middle East and other parts of the world do not like us? Because our Zionist controlled government, not the people, supported the very exact scenario as described above against our will and with our tax money making us accomplices in this unspeakable crime. The scenario that would outrage all of us Americans and make us fight against it if it happened in Michigan or anywhere else in the U.S.

This comment is not intended to make derogatory remarks about France and Russia. It is merely used as an example of how Americans would be outraged and fight back in the same situation as the forced establishment of the Zionist regime and its occupation of Palestine.
Urge your state representatives and senators to immediately stop any remaining support for the Zionist regime. Much of the support already stopped because of the increasing pressure on this issue, but we Americans need to completely distance ourselves from this oppressive regime and start actively opposing it.

miriam   July 17th, 2011 1:59 pm ET

grasshopper,

But the French are not a people whose religion, history and culture is centered in Michigan so of course any claim to territory would be out of place.

Unlike the Jews whose religion, history and culture IS centered in the Holy Land.

Jewish presence preceded any Arab arrival, the Jews are the people who have been repeatedly expelled and massacred and the UN is the organization that has allowed the Palestinians displaced following Arab attack and invasion to remain in camps, rejected by the very nations who forced their displacement in the first place.

Their is no "occupation" of the West Bank according to international law despite the common rhetoric describing the situation as such.
The US government shares common modern, western, democratic values with Israel and is not controlled by some group whose only supposed crime is to agree with the right for the Jewish people to self-determination in their historic national homeland.

The amount of American tax dollars that goes to Israel is small compared to the vast quantities spent on other nations and peoples who, unlike Israel, do not repay most of it back into the US economy and whose populations increasingly incite against Americans and their culture.

US representatives and senators are more likely to block the money pouring into the Palestinian coffers and those of their supporters than the aid going to Israel. However, if US foreign aid were to be halted, the thousands of US workers whose livelihood depends on their work in the projects that Israel shares with the US or which are a product of Israeli spending their aid in the US will find themselves joining the unemployed, further burdening the US economy.

In addition, Israel will be freed from the various trading and investment restrictions imposed on her by the US, thereby strengthening her own economy which is already in a much healthier state than most of the world's.

The French and Russians may be comforted that you don't mean them any harm, however your derogatory remarks towards Israel and the US are shameful and their populations should not be so forgiving.

sue   October 16th, 2011 10:50 pm ET

Israel are GOD'S chosen people!

History has proved this over and over, they can never be taken out and God has said they will become a Nation which has happened, God said the His people will come back to Israil and so this had happend , there are now approx 5.5million Jews if not more now back in Israil. The Jews have been the most hated nation in the world, how many times have there enemies tried to wipe them out! But GOD has protected them! What an Amazing God of Jacob we have and what a blessing its going to be when they finally realish that JESUS CHRIST is the MESSIAH that they have all being waiting for! I am praying for the Jewish Nation


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