AP is reporting: “Exxon Mobil Corp. said Thursday it earned $10.36 billion in the second quarter, the second largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company. “The earnings figure was 36 percent above the profit it reported a year ago. High oil prices helped boost the company’s revenue by 12 percent to…

MEDEA BENJAMIN Benjamin is cofounder of CodePink, a women’s peace group, and Global Exchange. She stood up and spoke as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki addressed a joint session of Congress today. CodePink said in a statement released this afternoon that Benjamin is on her 23rd day of a long-term fast for peace called the…

JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of law at Ohio State University, Quigley is author of numerous books on international law including Genocide Convention and Palestine and Israel: A Challenge to Justice. He said today: “Yesterday’s bombing of the UN compound has striking parallels with the shelling in April 1996 by Israel of the UN compound at Qana,…

On July 23, the United Nations Emergency Relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, visited Beirut. The BBC reported: “[Egeland] said the ‘disproportionate response’ by Israel was a ‘violation of international humanitarian law.’” BBC The United Nations’ top human rights official, Louise Arbour, warned on July 19: “International law demands accountability. The scale of the killings in the…

In February this year, three former U.S. diplomats toured the Mideast as part of an independent delegation and met with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, President Emile Lahoud of Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah, various Hamas officials and Amr Mousa, secretary general of the Arab League. ROBERT KEELEY A former U.S. ambassador to Greece and…

The BBC reported on July 19: “More than 3,400 evangelical Christians have arrived in Washington to lobby lawmakers as part of the first annual summit of Christians United for Israel. Delegates have come from all 50 states and have 280 meetings on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, [main organizer] Pastor John Hagee said.” Rev. Dr. DONALD…

RALPH NADER Consumer advocate Ralph Nader recently published a letter urging President Bush to take action on the Israel-Lebanon conflict. An excerpt from this letter follows: “With systematic efficiency, the Israeli government has already destroyed innocent homes and basic public facilities — ports, airports, highways, bridges, power stations — which are critical to the delivery…

ILAN PAPPE Currently in Haifa, Ilan Pappe is senior lecturer in the University of Haifa Department of Political Science and Chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies in Haifa. He said: “The Israeli army’s main vision for the battlefield is today still that of ‘shock and awe’ rather than chasing snipers, suicide bombers…

RANIA MASRI Assistant director of the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Balamand in northern Lebanon, Masri is contributing to the new web pages Siege of Lebanon and Electronic Lebanon. She is particularly documenting attacks on the Lebanese civilian infrastructure. EMILY DISCHE-BECKER Dische-Becker is a freelance reporter blogging from Lebanon. She has worked…

Israel has bombed homes of Hezbollah leaders and the group’s Al Manar TV station while likening the group to al-Qaeda. But a Washington Post reporter wrote yesterday that “[Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah has only disdain for bin Laden and the Taliban. In April, an al-Qaeda cell in Lebanon tried to assassinate him.” AS’AD ABUKHALIL AbuKhalil…