This video shot last year is appalling.

Footage showing Irish Noble Peace Prize recipient, Mairead Maguire getting shot by Israeli army who opened fire at peaceful demonstrators in the West Bank village of Bilin on April 20, 2007, following the international conference on popular resistance (April 18-20, 2007). Maguire was shot by a rubber-coated-metal bullet in the leg. Maguire speaks after she received first aid. [Footage by Ana Nogueira]

Thousands of innocent Palestinians getting shot, imprisoned and killed is appalling.

I read Norman G. Finkelstein's preface, an angry challenge to Barack Obama, and then watched the video.

We need more, not less anger at what Israel (with American complicity) has now become, and what we have all become. What a travesty.

American progressives often fret that the Israel-militarism issue will split the Democratic Party, parting the way for radical Neocon dominance of American politics for generations.

But do we add our voices of condemnation and challange Israeli-American aggression and human rights violations, or ought we be silent?

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu (pictured at left) spent 18 years in prison, most of it in solitary confinement, for telling a British newspaper in 1986 about Israel's surreptitiously developed nuclear weapons program.

A Jerusalem court convicted Vanunu last week of violating parole restrictions by talking to the media and other human beings outside his native country, Israel.

The case is under appeal and Vanunu is free on appeal, but could face an additional six months in prison.

An AP report reads that emerging from an Israeli courtroom, Vanunu said the verdict proves "that Israel is not a democracy," and asked to be allowed to leave the country.

- via MAL Contends

The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli Air Force is training to bomb Iran.

That's great, the air strike, predicted by many in the reality-based community, is likely to kill many innocent civilians in Iran and destabilize much of the world.

But the neo-con Israeli and American hawks know from experience that war works well, right?

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) has been training on long-range flights, including refueling in mid-flight, in preparation for potential strikes against Iranian nuclear targets.

The training program has been taking place for some time but has only been released for publication Friday, the Ma'ariv daily reported.