***image1***Israel is under fire from civil rights groups after launching a new West Bank transportation service for Palestinians that is expected to keep them off the buses used by Jewish settlers. Palestinians and Israeli human rights groups decried the new policy as racist. "Today Israel is officially an apartheid state," said Palestinian lawmaker and activist Mustafa Bargouti. Haaretz, a liberal Israeli newspaper, ran an editorial denouncing the "new routes to racism." [Read the full article]