On Guadalupe Hidalgo Day, Here’s Why The U.S. Has Title To The Southwest

By Allan Wall
February 1st, 2007

The Second Annual “National March for Immigrant Rights” is scheduled to be held on the U.S.-Mexico border on February 2nd.

Last year, the march was also held on February 2nd.

What’s going on here? Why February 2nd?

Answer: February 2nd is the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. That 1848 treaty officially ended the Mexican War and legally turned over most of the Southwest to the United States.

The average American doesn’t know much about the Mexican War and thinks about it less.

But here in Mexico they do think about it—a lot. (….Full Article Here)

Time to get serious about Israel
A multi-party committee of MPs is pressing for sanctions over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.

By John Hilary

01/31/07 “The Guardian” — – You know that things are serious when a parliamentary select committee puts out a call for sanctions against another sovereign state. Doubly so when that state is supposed to be one of Britain’s key allies in the Middle East. Yet today the House of Commons international development committee is calling on the Labour government to press for sanctions against Israel over its treatment of the Palestinian people. Things must be pretty bad.

Things are indeed bad, says the committee’s new report. As a result of Israeli occupation and the accompanying restrictions on movement, the Palestinian economy is in freefall. Fully 70% of Palestinians are now living in poverty, according to UN calculations, a figure which rises to 80% in Gaza. Over half of all Palestinians are now unable to cover their families’ daily food needs without relying on external aid - a scandal in such a rich and fertile land.

As a first step in putting pressure on the Israeli government to end this oppression, the UK should now urge its fellow members in the EU to consider suspending the EU-Israel association agreement, the cross-party committee says.

That agreement gives Israeli exports preferential access to the markets of the European Union. Europe accounts for two-thirds of Israeli exports, and suspending the preferences those exports currently enjoy would send the first proper message to Israel that its oppression of the Palestinian people is unacceptable. (more…)