God will surf with the devil if the waves are good.

~ Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, who brought the 13 surfboards into Gaza in 2007 for Palestine surfers who were using wind surfing boards with the sails removed and battered surfboards to catch the waves off the coast. Inspired by their dedication, Doc and friends, including one of guests tonight, Matt Olsen, Doc founded Surfing 4 Peace and arranged for 23 more boards, plus clothes, surf wax and gear to be hand delivered to Gaza by American and Israeli surfers.

It’s a big moment, not only because it ends the blockade on the Palestinian people. It’s a big moment for Egypt as well. This is a country just 3-4 months from revolution, and it’s their second major foreign policy decision. They brokered the deal between Fatah and Hamas, and now they’ve opened the border crossing.

Inspired by the Arab uprising, protesters on three borders marched into Israel and triggered violent responses from Israeli security, leading to at least 15 dead.

Today’s book salon is unexpectedly timely. With this weekend’s startling Washington Post opinion piece by Judge Goldstone which seems to contradict the factual findings of the report of The United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, controversy over “The Goldstone Report” on Operation Cast Lead is in the news once again.

How could the State Department have been so stupid as not to see that Hamas would win a democratic election in Gaza in 2006? Maybe a certain Egyptian told them not to worry about it.

Israel’s self appointed inquiry, the Turkel Commission, on the Israeli attack on the Mavi Mamara has issued the first part of it’s report. When pressure for an international investigation swelled after the killings, Israel refused to cooperate with independent reviews but assured us all that Israel would conduct an inquiry into what happened. And to [...]

The two-phase civil lawsuit, brought by Cindy and Craig Corrie against the Israeli Defense Forces, seeking a judgement of wrongful death in the matter of their daughter Rachel, near Rafah, Gaza, on March 16, 2003. resumes today in Haifa. In this phase, the defendant government will seek to rebut the plaintiff’s case, presented last spring.

In Gaza and the West Bank, as in Afghanistan, the daily toll on children of American policies is devastating.

Hopeful words from this week’s U.S.-Israeli summit are in conflict with decades of meaningless lip service to “peace process.”

“Easing” of blockade the day before Benjamin Netanyahu visits with President Obama is weak tea for Gazans under collective punishment while new settlement building campaign gears up and Phil Weis uncovers Gen. David Petraeus emails to Max Boot.