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Uprising’s guest expert Robert Jensen, an author and professor of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, analyzes today’s news headlines.

Violence is once more surging in the Middle East as the deaths of two Israeli victims of stabbing by Palestinians are met with Israeli force. One of the Israeli victims was a West Bank settler while the other was a 20-year old soldier. Israeli troops shot and killed a 21 year old Palestinian man in Hebron where one of the attackers is from. Overall, Israel has increased its military presence in the West Bank. The tensions are mounting in the wake of an escalation of clashes in East Jerusalem prompted by Israel’s provocation around the Al Aqsa mosque. Many commentators and even officials are expressing fears of a third Palestinian intifada. Click here for an LA Times article, and here for a Reuters article about the story.

Speaking of the Occupied Territories, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has just named a retired Dutch general named Patrick Cammaert, to head a five person panel investigating Israeli war crimes aimed at UN facilities during the latest Gaza war. Ban decried the extensive damage he witnessed during a recent tour of the area as “beyond description.” A separate UN Human Rights Council investigation is also on-going. Meanwhile the UN is also looking into human rights violations by the United States. This week, a panel of the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva will investigate the widespread practice of solitary confinement in US prisons. About 80,000 of the 2 million incarcerated American prisoners are confined at any given time, some for years and even decades. The experience is considered tantamount to torture. Click here for an Al Jazeera article about the Israel story, and here for an Al Jazeera article about the US story.

And finally, today is Veterans Day. President Barack Obama, in his proclamation called on Americans to “recognize the valor and sacrifice of our veterans,” and to, “participate in patriotic activities in their communities.” He made no mention of the veterans of recent wars who have come home to denounce war altogether. One such person was 34 year old Tomas Young, who was paralyzed during his deployment to Iraq and became an anti-war activist. Young died on Monday of unknown causes. Obama also did not mention the many Latino immigrant veterans who have served in the US Army and been deported. There are vigils planned in many US cities today as well as in Mexico where some deported vets are, to commemorate their service and call on Obama to stop deporting them. Click here for Commondreams article about Tomas Young.