JERUSALEM – Palestinian militants from Gaza fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells into Israeli territory on Monday, causing no casualties but some property damage, after an Israeli airstrike wounded at least 10 Palestinians in southern Gaza on Sunday.

Israeli warplanes responded immediately, striking a number of rocket launching squads as they fired toward Israel, according to the military, and hitting several facilities belonging to Hamas, the Islamic group that controls Gaza, which the military said were being used to store weapons.

Ashraf al-Qedra, a spokesman for the Health Ministry in Gaza, said that five Palestinians were injured in Monday’s strikes, one of them seriously.

Read Full Story

The issue is not what separates Romney and Obama, but how much they agree. This hidden consensus has to be exposed.

Wednesday night's debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney underscored a core truth about America's presidential election season: the vast majority of the most consequential policy questions are completely excluded from the process. This fact is squarely at odds with a primary claim made about the two parties – that they represent radically different political philosophies – and illustrates how narrow the range of acceptable mainstream political debate is in the country.

In part this is because presidential elections are now conducted almost entirely like a tawdry TV reality show. Personality quirks and trivialities about the candidates dominate coverage, and voter choices, leaving little room for substantive debates.

... Read more »