Officials Say Refusal to Authorize 'Limited' War Proves War Worth Fighting. - The attempts by some in the House of Representatives to spin the second of two votes on the Libya War as an “antiwar” alternative, even though it amounted to a de facto authorization of the conflict, did not manage to get it passed. Both failed, albeit with oddly different sorts of votes. Still, the misunderstandings surrounding the second bill have given the Obama Administration an opening to start spinning anew. Though the first vote was a clear rebuke to the conflict, administration officials insist that the second vote, which failed to “defund” the war with a huge number of exceptions, proved that Congress agrees the war is “worth fighting.” One was quoted as saying the second vote’s failure “was an acknowledgment that what we’re doing there is important and worth supporting.”

Gallup: Americans Shift to More Negative View of Libya Military Action

Israeli soldiers arrest an Israeli human rights defender
during the weekly peaceful demonstration against the
construction of the annexation wall in Nabi Saleh village,
northwest of Ramallah.

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) Continue Systematic Attacks against Palestinian Civilians and Property in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)

● A Palestinian was wounded and arrested by IOF in Qalqilya.
● Israeli warplanes bombarded a chicken farm in the central Gaza Strip, killing 3,500 chicks.
● IOF continued to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank.
● Israeli gunboats opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats in the Gaza Strip.
● IOF conducted 38 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank and two limited ones into the Gaza Strip.
● Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.
● IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

Shooting: During the reporting period, 5 Palestinian civilians were wounded by IOF in the West Bank. On 19 June 2011, a Palestinian civilian was wounded and arrested by IOF in the northern West Bank town of Qalqilya. IOF claimed that he attempted to stab an Israeli soldier. During the reporting period, IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest to Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the annexation wall in the West Bank. As a result, 4 Palestinian civilians, including a child, were wounded, and dozens of Palestinian civilians and international human rights defenders suffered from tear gas inhalation. IOF also arrested 6 international human rights defenders. During the reporting period, Israeli gunboats opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats in the Gaza Strip in 3 separate incidents. In one of these attacks, two Palestinian fishing boats were damaged. On 22 June 2011, Israeli warplanes bombarded a chicken farm in the central Gaza Strip. The farm was damaged and 3,500 chicks were killed. IOF claimed that a tunnel was dug under the farm. Incursions: During the reporting period, IOF conducted at least 38 military incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank, during which they arrested 12 Palestinian civilians, including two children. In the Gaza Strip, IOF conducted two limited incursions into Palestinian areas in the central Gaza Strip, during which they leveled areas of Palestinian land. Restrictions on Movement: Israel had continued to impose a tightened siege on the OPT and imposed severe restrictions on the movement of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem.

KABUL, Afghanistan — President Hamid Karzai is increasingly isolated and has surrounded himself with an inner circle of advisers who are urging him to move closer to Iran and Pakistan as the U.S. draws down its role in Afghanistan, several friends and aides tell The Associated Press. - Their advice is echoed in Karzai’s anti-West rhetoric, which has heightened both in his public speeches and in private. He met recently with Iran’s defense minister, and constantly cautions against trusting the U.S. to have Afghanistan’s best interests at heart. Several of Karzai’s close friends and advisers now speak of a president whose doors have closed to all but one narrow faction and who refuses to listen to dissenting opinions. They say people allowed to see the president are vetted by an inner circle of religious conservatives who belong to a nonviolent wing of Hizb-i-Islami, a radical Islamic group whose relentless attacks on American soldiers forced the U.S. to withdraw from bases in northeastern Kunar and Nuristan provinces. The group’s leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, was once an American ally but has since been declared a terrorist by the United States.

In an announcement many will find stunning, the Obama administration has upped its threat level to Americans participating in the 2011 Gaza relief flotilla:

The U.S. State Department said Friday that attempts to break the blockade are "irresponsible and provocative" and that Israel has well-established means of delivering assistance to the Palestinian residents of Gaza. It noted that the territory is run by the militant Hamas group, a U.S. designated foreign terrorist organization, and that Americans providing support to it are subject to fines and jail.

The Americans "providing support" include:

Hedi Epstein, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor
Alice Walker, beloved poet, writer and Pulitzer Prize winner
Ray McGovern, former CIA intelligence expert and staff member for seven presidents
Col. Ann Wright, 1997 recipient of the U.S. State Department’s Award for Heroism
Medea Benjamin, perhaps America’s most prominent peace activist

and over 30 other Americans.

AP/Google: US steps ups pressure on Gaza flotilla activists
Jason Ditz: State Dept Threatens Prison for US Participants in Gaza Aid Flotilla

The House of Representatives voted against a resolution authorizing the war in Libya, but then refused to cut back funding for its continuation. - With the Democratic Party providing the majority of the pro-war votes, the US House of Representatives refused Friday to cut back funding for the continuation of the Obama administration’s war against Libya. The vote was 238 to 180 to defeat a measure introduced with the support of the House Republican leadership. It would have cut off funds only for Predator missile strikes and other unilateral US military attacks on the North African country, while allowing military operations in support of NATO air strikes to continue. Clinton cynically declared:

“The bottom line is, whose side are you on? Are you on Gaddafi’s side or are you on the side of the aspirations of the Libyan people and the international coalition that has been created to support them?”