May 31, 2013 Endless War, by Lawrence Davidson | Redress Information & Analysis There is an American tradition of frequent war. Indeed, over the course of the country’s history the United States been at war almost constantly. Some of these have been relatively short conflicts like interventions in various Central American venues. Some have been much larger and longer affairs, like the Civil War, World War II and Vietnam. The point to be drawn from this is that the people of the United States are (perhaps unconsciously) acclimated to always being in one sort of armed conflict or another.. With their active assumption that the U.S. represents the world’s best chance for the victory of “good” against “evil,” Americans seem willing to battle on... Canada Detainee Torture Scandal, by John McNamer | MCW News Although the Harper government seems to believe it has successfully buried the mountain of evidence demonstrating Canada’s long-term, large-scale systemic complicity in illegal Afghan detainee torture and the CIA’s horrific worldwide “extraordinary rendition” scheme, this ghost may soon rise again to haunt all of Canada in a big way... Denying Holocaust Forgeries, Hoaxes, and Fabrications, by Jonas E. Alexis | Veterans Today ...The late Christopher Hitchens, who found out late in life that he was Jewish, said, “Is there any more contemptible poseur and windbag than Elie Wiesel? I suppose there may be. But not, surely, a poseur and windbag who receives (and takes as his due) such grotesque deference on moral questions.” Wiesel used to work for the newspaper Zion in Kampf, a propaganda machine for a terrorist group named the Irgun. Wiesel, like Simon Wiesenthal, turned out to be a pathological liar who cooked up his story as he went along... [The Holycause is based on myths and fantasy, kinda like the Old Testament] Narrative Led Operations | Defence IQ The concept of a strategic narrative has begun to resonate in International relations, communications and war studies, although with an emphasis on narratives role in Strategic Communication. Most of the discussions are communication centric and discusses narratives in the framework of Strategic Communication, Information Operations, Psychological Operations and to some extent Public Affairs.. to minimize the so called “say – do gap” and winning the “Battle of Narratives”... [Some members of the establishment, it would appear, are beginning to understand the MO of tribal Jewry and the Zionist war against the rest of the world. ITSS – it’s the story, stupid!] Mass graves of Palestinians killed in 1948 Nakba discovered in Jaffa | Al Akhbar Six mass grave sites dating back to the 1936 Palestinian uprising and the 1948 Nakba were discovered around the Jaffa cemetery, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage reported Wednesday, revealing hundreds of bodies of Palestinians killed by Zionist forces... The Holocaust Hoax Exposed: Debunking the 20th Century’s Biggest Lie, by Victor Thorn | The Barnes Review ..The holocaust industry has become a tyrannical dictatorship that incessantly manipulates, distorts, marginalizes and manufactures false conclusions to prop up their sinking ship. By taking their hysterical obsessions to psychopathic levels, the charlatans behind this ruse make it glaringly apparent how weak the foundation of their argument is.. with this new book. Thorn rips apart, in lay language, the veil-thin arguments used to prove the Jewish “Holocaust,” which is then used by global Zionists to justify the creation and continued existence of the state of Israel... Obama’s Willful Foreign-Policy Blindness, by Sheldon Richman | The Future of Freedom Foundation ..Obama says he wants to understand the roots of terrorism, but he just repeats bromides.. Obama shows no understanding that Muslim violence has been a response to generations of Western and most recently American efforts to maintain hegemony in the Muslim world. These efforts have consisted in direct overt and covert intervention, backing for brutal and corrupt dictators and monarchs, and enabling of Israel’s repression of the Palestinians. From Osama bin Laden on down, the perpetrators of anti-American violence have consistently said so... Open Letter from Alice Walker to Alicia Keys | Palestine Chronicle I have learned today that you are due to perform in Israel very soon. We have never met, though I believe we are mutually respectful of each other’s path and work. It would grieve me to know you are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country that is being boycotted by many global conscious artists. You were not born when we, your elders who love you, boycotted institutions in the US South to end an American apartheid less lethal than Israel’s against the Palestinian people... Thanking Bradley Manning, by Kathy Kelly | Palestine Chronicle A few evenings ago, as the sky began to darken here in Kabul, Afghanistan, a small group of the Afghan Peace Volunteers, (APVs), gathered for an informal presentation about WikiLeaks, its chief editor Julian Assange, and its most prominent contributor, Bradley Manning. Basir Bita, a regular visitor to the APV household, began the evening’s discussion noting that June 1st will mark the beginning of Bradley Manning’s fourth year in prison. Two days later his trial will begin, a trial which could sadly result in his imprisonment for a life sentence. June 1st also begins an international week of support and solidarity, aimed at thanking Bradley Manning... ‘Syrian National Council’ unfit to rule, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today The Syrian “National Council” is a very different kind of animal, neither snake nor rat nor vulture but parts of all, and not the best parts by far. Never has a group so small had so many masters to serve. However, anything is possible for a mythical beast like the many-headed hydra.” Today, Syria’s “National Council” went into a “meltdown” as extremist groups tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, the CIA dominated “pet” staved off attempts by liberal elements led by Michael Kilo to broaden representation within the 60-member conclave... CrossTalk: 'Democratic Iraq' an Oxymoron? | YouTube Last week the ubiquitous Brookings Saban Center pundit Michael O'Hanlon fled a live globally broadcast RT debate. Presented with a withering barrage of damage assessments, O'Hanlon struggled to explain why Iraq is collapsing after billions of US taxpayer dollars were wasted invading and on fraudulent reconstruction contracts. IRmep's Grant Smith explains to viewers why Americans should consider the Iraq invasion to be nothing more than an enormous scam while reviewing how Brookings, after its takeover by Israeli-American media mogul Haim Saban, became just another pro-invasion trumpet for "Iraq-scam" in the months leading up to invasion... Paving, Penetrators and the Parchin Probe: Issues in Environmental Sampling by the IAEA | Arms Control Law ..Yousaf brings to this analysis his very impressive qualifications and scientific expertise.. Yousaf is a seriously well qualified nuclear physicist – not just another self-styled wonk with a degree in policy studies who likes to talk about missiles and nukes). For us lawyers, this kind of expert technical appraisal is vital for understanding the underlying technical issues that are the subject of legal regulation. I plan to follow up Yousaf’s post in the next day or so with a post of my own on the legal implications of his analysis. But for now, enjoy!.. Go ahead, Iran! | Roi Tov For many years, I wondered what happens with school bullies. After all, they are the only constant evident in Western schools. One cannot trust that proper topics would be taught, one cannot trust that a proper level would be achieved, but always, always, one can trust that the bullies are out there attacking the righteous sheep. Obscured by propaganda, the scary truth was slow to emerge. Bullies join the government and become self-serving civil servants... [Or worse – and more predictable – they become the leadership] Assad: Hezbollah Is Fighting Israeli Enemy, Confidence in Victory Definite | Al Manar ...They said that the Syrian Army should fight on the borders with Israel. We clearly said that the army is fighting the enemy wherever he is present. When the enemy is in the North, or comes to the North, we move towards the North or the East or the West. The same applies to the resistance. Why is Hezbollah present on the borders in Lebanon or in Syria? Because the battle is against the Israeli enemy and its agents in Syria or in Lebanon... May 30, 2013 The Eternal War? by Andrew Bacevich | TomDispatch Twelve and a half years after Congress didn’t declare war on an organization of hundreds or, at most, thousands of jihadis scattered mainly across the backlands of the planet, and instead let President George W. Bush and his cohort loose to do whatever they wanted; twelve and a half years after the president, his top officials, his neocon supporters, assembled pundits, and others swore we were nonetheless “at war” and the country in “wartime,” after our media beat the drums for “war” and assured us that “war” was our fate, after followers of the president insisted we were entering a monumental, multigenerational struggle, or even World War IV... [Oh well, Empires come and go. The great European Empire that began with the Portuguese maritime explorations more than 500 years ago, now in its penultimate form as the American Empire, is going out in a cacophony of belligerence, arrogance and stupidity. The dissolution of Israel, the Western proxy state in the Middle East, will seal the deal. RIP] The entire globe is a battlefield for the Pentagon, by Pepe Escobar | RT Forget it; the Global War on Terror (GWOT) is not becoming more “democratic” – or even transparent. US President Barack Obama now pledges to transfer the responsibility of the shadow 'Drone Wars' from the CIA to the Pentagon – so the US Congress is able to monitor it. Until virtually yesterday the Obama administration did not even recognize in public the existence of the shadow 'Drone Wars'. The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) at the Pentagon – which would then be in charge of the 'Drone Wars' - is bound to remain secret... On this Memorial Day, something worth remembering - the Empire will fall! | The Vineyard of the Saker On this Memorial Day when doubleplusgoodthinking zombies of the Empire remember the men and woman who have served in the US military, let us remember the many millions of people murdered by these global killers. Let us remember all those whom the Empire has murdered, killed, oppressed, tortured and exiled in the name, of course, progress, 'manifest destiny', democracy, human rights, anti-communism, anti-terrorism and all the other lame excuses for global imperialism. Let us remember that there is not a single American alive who could truthfully claim that he fought in a war in defense of his country, faith or family: Anglo wars are always wars of aggression... It Tolls For Thee: One Nation, One World, by Michael Yates | CounterPunch ...We have to take the view that either everyone matters everywhere, or no one matters anywhere. Whether you are one of the world’s two billion peasants, a starving urban dweller in Athens, an illiterate street vendor in Cairo, or one of the obscure members of the 99% here in the United States, your life counts. When we arbitrarily divide a country or the world into those parts that are “Real” and those that are not, we are ignoring a large part of humanity. We are assuming that those outside the “Real” parts of the earth have hopes and aspirations that are unworthy or our attention and knowledge of no use to us. Such thinking is profoundly elitist and reactionary... Israeli DM Threatens to Attack Russian Ships, by Jason Ditz | Antiwar Israel’s long-standing habit of making bellicose threats in the face of neighbors potentially acquiring defensive weapons has reached a new level today, with Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon threatening to attack Russian ships in the Mediterranean if they attempt to deliver anti-aircraft weapons to Syria... Memorial Day Special: U.S. Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan Return War Medals at NATO Summit | Democracy Now! Today we bring you a Memorial Day special, "Honor the Dead, Heal the Wounded, Stop the Wars." That was the demand of veterans who gathered in Chicago in May of 2012, just a year ago, at the site of the largest NATO summit in the organization’s six-decade history. Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, as well as women from Afghans for Peace, led a peace march of thousands to the summit gates. Iraq Veterans Against the War then held a ceremony where more than 40 veterans hurled their war medals toward the gates of the NATO summit... Osama bin Laden Responsible for the 9/11 Attacks? Where is the Evidence? by David Ray Griffin | Global Research ...neither the 9/11 Commission, the Bush-Cheney White House, the FBI, the British government, nor the 9/11 Commission provided good evidence that Osama bin Laden was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Many people, however, have assumed that the question of his responsibility was settled by the existence of videotapes and audiotapes in which he himself confessed to the attacks. There are, however, good reasons to believe that these so-called confession tapes are fakes. I will illustrate this point in terms of the two best-known videotapes of this nature... Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz on Israel As “Democracy” | YouTube The Syrian Crisis: The Option, by Jeremy Salt | The OtherSite While all options are said to be still on the table, Barack Obama is clearly backing away from any deeper involvement in Syria now it is clear that nothing but direct intervention is going to bring down the government in Damascus. In the past few months alone the armed groups have lost thousands of men. Although the conflict will grind on for some time yet, the Syrian military is steadily closing down the insurgency. The sponsors of this adventure are in complete disarray. Like the Syrian National Council before it, the Syrian National Coalition has imploded... Ultra-Orthodox Conscription Enforced | Roi Tov ..In the morning of May 29, 2013, Israel's Ministers Legislation Committee approved the new Conscription Law, which enforces the draft of Ultra-Orthodox Jews, the bulk of whom are Haredim. Yair Lapid, leader of the party promoting the new law and second only to Netanyahu in political power, celebrated immediately with derogatory remarks towards Haredim. Yet, despite the law having passed the most critical step towards its approval, the Knesset won't vote on it until August. Don't roast a hyrax yet, Mr. Lapid... The Diplomatic Double Standards of Agent Hague, by Stuart Littlewood | Veterans Today You’ll remember how he fell for the phony claptrap about WMD and voted “very strongly” for the Iraq war, thus advertising his lack of diligence and poor judgement. After three years in power he still has British troops dying in Afghanistan to massage the egos of American and British warmongers. He’s also made it his business to protect Israeli war crimes suspects – and the rest of the world’s most odious scum – from arrest. He was at the forefront of military intervention in Libya, which has had messy, horrific and uncontrollable consequences... Western Aggression brings Russian Fleet back to the Mediterranean, by Jim W. Dean | Veterans Today ..The recent Israeli attacks on Syria, particularly the use of a nuclear bunker buster gave the Russians a gift from heaven, opening the door to make a defensive deployment to protect their longtime ally in Syria. The Russians are back in the Med to stay, and this might be a good lesson to the folly of the Western slow motion aggression policy in the region, which has put a match to the whole place. Russian Navy Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov has announced that a permanent staff was being set up, and the present force might eventually include their nuclear submarines... Israel warns Russia over Syria arms delivery | MCW News Israel has said it will act if Russia delivers promised anti-aircraft missiles to its ally Syria, in an apparent allusion to another air raid on the neighbouring country. Moshe Yaalon, Israeli defence minister, issued his warning on Tuesday shortly after a senior official in Moscow said the Russian government reserved the right to provide Syria with state-of-the-art S-300 air defence missiles "As far as we are concerned, that is a threat.. At this stage I can't say there is an escalation. The shipments have not been sent on their way yet. And I hope that they will not be sent. But if, by misfortune, they arrive in Syria, we will know what to do.".. Lifting the Fake EU Arms Embargo: Weapons for Al Qaeda in Syria, by Stephen Lendman | Global Research On May 27, the so-called one-year EU arms embargo on Syria’s opposition ended. Officially it does so on June 1. EU nations agreed to end what never existed. Since Washington’s war on Syria began in early 2011, arms flowed freely. Western-enlisted death squads get them. At issue is replacing Assad with a subservient pro-Western puppet. Syria’s being ravaged in the process. Washington, key NATO partners, Israel and rogue Arab state allies bear full responsibility. War rages ahead of Geneva II. Planned peace talks are pretense... Neoconservatism as a Jewish Movement | Kevin MacDonald Over the last year, there has been a torrent of articles on neoconservatism raising (usually implicitly) some difficult issues: Are neoconservatives different from other conservatives? Is neoconservatism a Jewish movement? Is it “anti-Semitic” to say so? The thesis presented here is that neoconservatism is indeed a Jewish intellectual and political movement. This paper is the final installment in a three-part series on Jewish activism and reflects many of the themes of the first two articles. The first paper in this series focused on the traits of ethnocentrism, intelligence, psychological intensity, and aggressiveness. These traits will be apparent here as well... Young people with American accents declare they won't be ethnically cleansed from their 'native land' (Jerusalem), by Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss Rimon Club, an American Zionist organization in the Bay Area, has posted this inspiring video. "We are rediscovering our roots, our deep Middle Eastern roots.... We are the ancient Israelites." I remember in college when all my reggae albums had songs about Rastafarians being the Israelites. At least they were adults! The music on this video is not quite as good, and better suited to indoctrination. Some excerpts:.. [The Hitler Youth never died, they just switched from mountain trout to gefilte fish] May 29, 2013 The machiavelian threefold game of the neoconservatives, by Laurent Guyénot | Voltaire Net To realize their fantasies of world domination, the neocons resorted to a triple discourse, as Laurent Guyénot shows in this study, i.e. a cynical political philosophy developed by their mentor Leo Strauss for domestic consumption; a cold analysis of Israeli strategic interests for the benefit of the leaders in Tel Aviv, and a fear-mongering warning against imaginary dangers besetting U.S. public opinion... [Imagine if this brilliant, incisive and comprehensive piece were published in the mainstream media. Would the sheeple even notice? Not likely - they're too deeply programmed to think of Israel as 'our closest friend and ally.'] The Self-Defeating Dynamics of American Hegemony in the Middle East: The Leveretts on Conversations with History | Going to Tehran ...Our experience in the U.S. government—running from roughly the period of the first Gulf War in the early 1990s until March 2003, just before the invasion of Iraq, when we left our positions at the White House on the National Security Council staff—effectively spanned the high-water mark of American primacy in the Middle East. In an interview for the University of California’s Conversations with History series we discuss how our government service gave us “ringside seats” to watch as “the United States really misused that primacy, misused its supremacy in ways that were grossly counterproductive for its own interests, and for America’s standing in international affairs.”.. Strange Love: How Obama and Al-Qaeda Became Syrian Bedfellows, by Shamus Cooke | CounterPunch ..Obama has taken the saying, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend,” to irrational heights, and in so doing is helping to produce a new generation of Islamic extremists that will help fuel the U.S.-led never-ending “war on terror.” The real intention of the War on Terror is not to stop terrorists, but to target nation states that are opposed to U.S. foreign policy.. It’s blatantly obvious to most Americans that Syria and Iran are at the top of Obama’s war list, a much higher priority than any terrorist group... An Endless “Peace Process” for Palestine, by David Swanson | CounterPunch The United States balances its endless war of terrorism with the institution of an endless “peace process” for Palestine, a process valuable for its peaceyness and interminability. Josh Ruebner’s new book, Shattered Hopes: The Failure of Obama’s Middle East Peace Process, could just as easily have been called “Fulfilled Expectations: The Success of Obama’s Middle East Peace Process,” depending on one’s perspective. Its story could be summarized: Obama’s performance in this area has been of a piece with his performance in every other. Some people became very hopeful about his rhetoric and then very dejected about his actions... Comoros Sues Israel | Roi Tov Certain errors are difficult to fix, as the adjacent picture shows. On May 28, 2013, a Merkava 3 tank found itself upside down in Tzeelim, a training base near Gaza. Loaded, the vehicle surpasses the 90 metric tones of weight (in violation to international agreements). A small navigation error that can be fixed only at a great cost. In the past, an M113 troops carrier sank in the Sea of Galilee while its amphibious capabilities were being checked; fixing this error was so difficult that it was left underwater. A few days before the tank exposed its weakest point, Comoros sued Israel at the International Criminal Court. This was a direct result of an even greater navigation error committed by Benjamin Netanyahu... Responding to The Syrian Challenge | Richard Falk ...There are important world order issues present aside from the questions of legality and legitimacy. There are also pragmatic and prudential dimensions of any decision about what to do in response to Syria’s descent into chaos and horrific violence, with no early end in sight. Although the sovereign state is not an absolute ground of political community, it is the basic unit comprising world order, and the logic of self-determination should be allowed to prevail in most situations even when the results are disappointing. The practical alternative to the logic of self-determination is the hegemonic logic of hard power, and its record is not a happy one if viewed from the standpoint of people and justice... Russia to send air-defence system to Syria | MCW News Russia will not cancel plans to deliver an air-defence system to Syria despite Western opposition in order to help deter foreign intervention in the two-year-old conflict, according to the country's deputy foreign minister. Speaking in Moscow on Tuesday, Sergei Ryabkov also accused the EU of "throwing fuel on the fire" by letting its own arms embargo on Syria expire... [Now if only the Russians would honor their contract with Iran to sell them S-300s it would take a lot of pressure off that country in the crosshairs of the Empire.] Is it the end of Sykes-Picot?: The Syrian War Spills Over, by Patrick Cockburn | LRB For the first two years of the Syrian civil war foreign leaders regularly predicted that Bashar al-Assad’s government would fall any day. In November 2011, King Abdullah of Jordan said that the chances of Assad’s surviving were so slim he ought to step down. In December last year, Anders Rasmussen, the Nato secretary general, said: ‘I think the regime in Damascus is approaching collapse.’ Even the Russian Foreign Ministry – which generally defends Assad – has at times made similar claims. Some of these statements were designed to demoralise Assad’s supporters by making his overthrow seem inevitable. But in many cases outsiders genuinely believed that the end was just round the corner... The Unraveling of Sykes-Picot, by Patrick J. Buchanan | Antiwar ...Between these clashing commitments there had been struck in 1916 a secret deal between Britain’s Mark Sykes and France’s Francois Georges-Picot. With the silent approval of czarist Russia, which had been promised Istanbul, these lands were subdivided and placed under British and French rule. France got Syria and Lebanon. Britain took Transjordan, Palestine and Iraq, and carved out Kuwait. Vladimir Lenin discovered the Sykes-Picot treaty in the czar’s archives and published it, so the world might see what the Great War was truly all about... From Iraq, a tragic reminder to prosecute the war criminals | John Pilger The dust in Iraq rolls down the long roads that are the desert's fingers. It gets in your eyes and nose and throat; it swirls in markets and school playgrounds, consuming children kicking a ball; and it carries, according to Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, "the seeds of our death". An internationally respected cancer specialist at the Sadr Teaching Hospital in Basra, Dr. Ali told me that in 1999, and today his warning is irrefutable. "Before the Gulf war," he said, "we had two or three cancer patients a month. Now we have 30 to 35 dying every month. Our studies indicate that 40 to 48 per cent of the population in this area will get cancer: in five years' time to begin with, then long after. That's almost half the population... [First and foremost that would be George W. Bush. He may be a moron, but that should be no impediment in a Court of Law.] Beware of Robert Reich's Latest Op-Ed, by John Spritzler | New Democracy World Robert Reich wants to be known as a good economist who stands up against evil Big Money capitalists. Thus he titles his latest Op-Ed, "Beware Capitalist Tools." But people who stand up against Big Money capitalists do not find themselves, as did Robert Reich, appointed to be Secretary of Labor in the United States, where Big Money capitalists control the government and all of the other major institutions of society. It was Reich's buddy, Bill Clinton, who appointed him Labor Secretary. Let us not forget what Bill Clinton did... [For musical accompaniment let's sing Love Me, I’m a Liberal along with Phil Ochs’. Back in the 60’s the counter-culture saw through the Establishment clowns, and Ochs was in the vanguard.] McCain Sneaks Across Syria Border, Joins Al-Qaeda, by Kevin Barrett | Veterans Today According to unconfirmed reports, former Republican presidential candidate and current Senator John McCain has joined al-Qaeda. Informed sources report that McCain slipped across the Syrian border last night and joined the al-Nusra front, an Israeli-supported al-Qaeda affiliate that is waging war against Syria. McCain issued the following statement explaining his actions: “In the name of Yahweh, the benevolent, the merciful, I hereby declare allegiance to... Arrest John McCain & Investigate US State Department & Clandestine Activity in Syria, by Scott Rickard | Salem News ...It is my understanding that US state department and other clandestine activity has been facilitating intelligence, logistics and weapons to militants and criminal mercenaries operating in and around Syria for over two years. It is also my understanding that John McCain met with and pledged support to militants and criminal mercenaries during his illegal entry into Syria yesterday. I am sending this letter as official notice of a citizens request for the arrest of John McCain and investigation of these criminal activities in Syria... Isaiah 60:12 and US Middle East Foreign Policy, by Bob Johnson | Veterans Today ...Although the Jewish state of Israel is loaded with a growing stockpile of real nuclear weapons of mass destruction along with a fleet of highly advanced German made submarines which can deliver their deadly payload virtually anywhere in the world, Israel uses the American military through the US political whores it owns from both parties to wage war for Israel’s benefit. As retired Israeli General Avraham Rotem said just prior to the US politicians starting the war against Iraq in 2003 for Israel’s benefit, ‘A (US) war with Iraq serves Israel’s strategic interests because it wants Saddam gone. Someone says, ‘You sit back, we’ll take care of it’–what’s better than that?”.. May 28, 2013 Ayn Rand, Usury and Capitalism, and Goldman Sachs (Part II), by Jonas E. Alexis | Veterans Today ...“The world’s most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.”[Matt Taibbi] This Jewish “vampire squid” has been involved in cheating and ripping people off for years. Greg Smith, a Jew himself who was vice president of the firm, quit in 2012 after 12 years because he finally had the guts to say that the firm does not serve people but serves what the New Testament calls Mammon or what Karl Marx would have called money, which to Marx was “the god of the Jews.”.. [Includes an excellent summary of Rand's cult and "philosophy."] Netanyahu’s Facebook Page Replete With Racism, Islamophobia, by Richard Silverstein | Tikun Olam Bibi Netanyahu is the son of a noted Jewish historian. But unfortunately, neither the lessons nor substance of Jewish history has rubbed off on him (the son). He published today an execrable screed denouncing the Syrian people as blood-swilling heathen. It is beyond offensive. But the racism and Islamophobia, while disgusting, doesn’t plumb the depths of this posting. Not content to denounce the supposed barbarity of Syrian Muslims, he contrasts it with the supposed civility and stability of the State of Israel... Boycott Israel, by Mazin Qumsiyeh | Sharing the Land of Canaan ..Millions of activists have come to see an organic link between the occupation and colonization of Palestine and diverse and pressing global issues ranging from the war on Iraq to global poverty. How did we reach a point where Palestinian flags dominate anti-war rallies and the demonstrations against US-dominated world financial institutions? Why do these activists see the hypocrisy of American foreign policy with regard to Israel/Palestine as the Achilles’ heel that might allow a successful challenge to its hegemony? How did we get to the point where mainstream churches and more than 30 American campuses have active divestment and boycott campaigns against Israel?.. My grandmother thought it was temporary: Huffpo features Nakba discussion with 5 Palestinians, by Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss This is incredible. Yesterday Huffington Post had a video conference on the Nakba led by Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, a Palestinian-American, featuring four Palestinians commenting on the history and meaning of the catastrophe. I found it incredible for the deep civility of the conversation. The calmness in the face of tragedy, the reasonableness of all the participants as they say it is time for democracy between the river and the sea, Shihab-Eldin's grace note about a "Jewish right to a homeland," and the lovely respect that he shows to the lovely Nina Saah... Senior Fatah officials call for single democratic state, not two-state solution | The Muslim Times Approximately 22 senior members of Fatah have signed a document calling to resuscitate the Palestinian strategy for a one-state solution, according to a report by Amira Hass in Haaretz.. the document was the product of two years of work (including meetings with Jewish Israelis), and was purposefully revealed on Wednesday – the 65th anniversary of the Nakba. The document states that Israeli policies have made the two-state solution “unrealistic,” and that the most desirable outcome left for the Palestinian people, which would allow for the right of return is a “democratic state for all its citizens, based on a democratic constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights... B’Tselem video: Israel bans Gaza children from seeing their fathers | YouTube Bill Maher shredded by Glenn Greenwald on US intervention in Muslim countries | Gilad Atzmon Bill Maher is taken apart by Glenn Greenwald for trying to absolve the US from any responsibility for the mass slaughter and destruction in Muslim countries, blaming it on Islamic fundamentalism, as if the Afghanistan and Iraq wars never happened, as if the US wasn't pushing for more war in Iran, as if it isn't intervening in Somalia and Yemen... A Fate Worse than Debt?: Triangular Cooperation and the New Great Game. by Sasha Ross | CounterPunch The global March Against Monsanto took place in more than 50 countries last Saturday, with more than 430 simultaneous protests chanting down the walls of the 1%. The numbers are staggering: an estimated two million protestors turned out world-wide. Las Vegas saw over 2,500 protestors coursing through its arid streets. Five hundred marched in Anchorage, Alaska; thousands thronged the state capitol of California; rallies broke out throughout the US, raising the voice of dissent: “No more lies! No more greed! We don’t want your toxic seed!”.. An Outlaw Comes to Town: Willie Nelson, Wisdom and Defiance, by Adam Chimienti | CounterPunch ...Pete Seeger is still going strong at 94 years of age, which he celebrated early this May. Unfortunately, voices like Seeger’s and Nelson’s, poetic geniuses like Alice Walker and prolific academics like Noam Chomsky, are up against a system of control not unlike that of the retirement community. This is why it is in our best hope to raise up our fists and organize, inspired by the spirit of these rebels with causes that we make our own. We must appreciate the notion of struggle in our own lives, but never accept it or become complacent, alas that’s what the crooked and greedy feed off... Why Palestine is different, by Sam Bahour | Mondoweiss ...Israel worked hard to cast the U.S. support in cement. Israeli leaders understood very well the inherent weaknesses of an open political system and wasted no time in creating a pro-Israel lobby that transformed what is supposed to be a foreign affairs issue into a U.S. domestic issue. Israel’s domestication of the U.S. political scene – courtesy of American proxies – is alive and well today; just ask newly appointed Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel. U.S. president Barack Obama epitomizes this reality... Read more... Torture and Human Rights violations in Israel and Palestine, by Ludwig Watzal | MCW News Torture allegations against the treatment of Palestinians detainees in Israeli prisons make headlines again. Few days after his arrest, Arafat Jaradat died in Israeli custody. On 27 February 2013, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Richard Falk, called for an international investigation on the death of Palestinian prisoner Jaradat while undergoing interrogation in an Israeli facility... The Jewish Hand in the World Wars, by Thomas Dalton | Inconvenient History In 2006, an inebriated Mel Gibson allegedly said this: “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.” There followed the predicable storm of anti-anti-Semitism, ad hominem attacks, and various other slanders against Gibson’s character. But virtually no one asked the question: Is he right? Or rather this: To what degree could he be right?.. We are All Russians Now, by Lasha Darkmoon | Veterans Today Shortly after Vladimir Putin was elected president of Russia in 2000, the murdered family of Tzar Nicholas was beatified. Until quite recently, the centers of Jewish power had hoped to preserve some idealized memories of the murderous Soviet system in the minds of the Russians, but it turned out to be a vain hope. Because Bolshevism was formulated and executed by Jews, their power centers had retained fond hopes of being able some day to reconnect and reinstall some sort of Jewish lobby leverage in the Kremlin. These fond hopes were dashed by Vladimir Putin... Impeach Obama? | Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox Recently, I received an email from Veterans for Peace (VFP) Chapter 136 in Central Florida asking me for an endorsement of its resolution to impeach Barack Obama. First of all, I would like to commend the Central Florida chapter for its integrity and vision for peace that this resolution exhibits. In my own experience, it’s not even popular to criticize the Dalai Bama, let alone call for his removal from office. Kudos!.. Veterans For Peace Passes Resolution Demanding New 9/11 Investigation | Veterans Today In 2009 VFP membership mushroomed with savvy new members who realized it wasn’t enough to protest the war if we didn’t protest the government lies that allowed the “attacks” of 9/11 to happen.By 2008, an international team of scientists had published volumes of conclusive evidence for “explosive demolition” of the Twin Towers and WTC-7. This hard evidence and admissions by the 9/11 commission that they were “set up to fail” moved VFP members and leadership to pass a resolution to press for a new 9/11 investigation during their 2009 annual meeting... Paul Findley speaking on 45th anniversary of Israel’s deliberate attack on the USS Liberty | Veterans News Now ..Johnson ordered Kidd to issue a finding that cleared Israel of blame. Even today U.S. officials cling to the fiction of mistaken identity, acting as if Boston’s confession never occurred. Official navy records have been scrubbed clean of any reference to the launching of rescue aircraft or their callback on presidential order. Kidd, already a distinguished senior four-star admiral, should have refused the presidential order. He should have upheld time-honored tradition by refusing to engage in deceit. By telling the truth, the American people—and the Congress–would know of the crime committed by Israel and likely prompt our government to proceed carefully in any future dealings with Israel... Why Disinformation Works: In America “Truth has no Relevance. Only Agendas are Important,” by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts | Global Research ..whenever a stunning episode occurs.. most everyone whether on the right or left goes along with the government’s explanation, because they can hook their agenda to the government’s account. The leftwing likes the official stories of Muslims creating terrorist mayhem in America, because it proves their blowback theory and satisfies them that the dispossessed and oppressed can fight back against imperialism. The patriotic rightwing likes the official story, because it proves America is attacked for its goodness or because terrorists were allowed in by immigration authorities and nurtured by welfare, or because the government, which can’t do anything right, ignored plentiful warnings... May 27, 2013 What Mideast Crisis? Israelis Have Moved On, by Ethan Bronner | NYT ...At a Jerusalem cafe one noon, Dan Meridor, the former Likud minister and son of right-wing Zionist aristocracy, could not stop talking about the Palestinians. “It is a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads,” he said. “We are living on illusions. We must do everything we can on the ground to increase the separation between us and the Palestinians so that the idea of one state will go away. But we are doing nothing.”.. [I wonder how many Israelis have read The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allan Poe] Domestic fissures in Israel will not benefit Palestinians, by Jonathan Cook | The View from Nazareth A claim often made by ordinary Palestinians when discussing their conflict with Israel goes like this: Israel is a state comprised of such varied ethnic, religious and social groups that the only glue binding it together is hatred of Palestinians and Arabs. “You know why Israel’s leaders can’t make peace?” a Palestinian friend asked recently. “Because if the conflict ever ended, Israeli Jews would start tearing out each other’s throats.”.. [I’ve said the same myself, but Jonathan has a better view.] A War Criminal With A Peace Prize, by Jay Janson | Information Clearing House ...Cornel West, professor of African American Studies at Princeton and of Religious Philosophy and Christian Studies at the Union Theological Seminary in New York, the most outspoken anti-imperialist lecturer and writer, the most well known defender of Black and minority civil rights since Martin Luther King Jr. and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America, has been for years a severe critic of the Obama administration. This week he came to say flat out that the president is a war criminal. West had criticized President Obama when Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it "would be difficult for Obama to be a war president with a peace prize.".. War Is Hell And Don't Forget It, by Allen L. Roland | Before It's News ...War is big business~ and it operates in the service of big business regardless of the lives that are sacrificed. No one understands that better than the “cream” that rises to the top in the Pentagon ~ like Col Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff for former United States Secretary of State Colin Powell. They know exactly what they’re doing and who they’re serving ~ and for sure it’s not “Truth, Justice and the American Way.”.. Déjà Vu All Over Again, by Rashid Khalidi | Foreign Policy ...the United States has done much to reinforce Israel's occupation, its settlement project, and its continued denial of Palestinian rights. This willful blindness to the lessons of the past can be partially explained by U.S. policy-makers' dread of straying from a narrow range of tepid bromides guaranteed not to arouse the ire of the Israeli government and its vocal supporters in the United States. If the aim is to change the status quo, rather than consecrate it, a radically different approach by the United States and others will be necessary... [Of course they would have to run it by the major Zionist organizations. Good luck with that.] Rogue President Obama: Defending the Indefensible, by Stephen Lendman | Global Research Forked tongue rhetoric can’t disguise it. Throughout Obama’s tenure, he has governed lawlessly. He’s done so at home and abroad. He spurns rule of law principles and other democratic values. Nothing suggests change. Business as usual continues. War on humanity is policy. Rogue leaders govern that way. Obama threatens everyone... Of malignant hatred and a law of theft, by Adam Keller | Crazy Country ...Hit the Bedouin and Save Israel!. How did such a malignant and vociferous hatred spring up in the Israeli society? It was not always so. From my Tel Aviv childhood in the 1950s and 1960s I can’t recall anyone expressing hatred towards Bedouins. We learned of them as exotic and interesting people, wandering the desert and riding camels... A Creeping Feudal Order, by Archie Kennedy | MCW News ...This study hints at a much bigger and dangerous reality. It reflects an attitude of contempt of the working class that is most pronounced in the United States. This attitude of contempt is reflected in the policies of austerity that have been pushed by the IMF and the Federal Reserve and it runs through ruling circles across the globe (with a few exceptions). Even though austerity policies have been a colossal failure, they continue to push this cruel attack against the poor and the middle class it is an attitude of contempt that runs so deep and it is so entrenched that they are biting off the hands that feed them... Colorado BDS Conference | YouTube .... Israel's occupation of Palestine has been supported every step of the way by the United States government. Since 1976, Israel has been the United States' largest annual recipient of economic and military aid, which amounted to more than $3 billion in 2012. American corporations are also directly implicated in Israel's crimes as a result of the millions of dollars they make in profits each year through occupation-related activities. As American citizens and residents, we are both uniquely positioned and morally obligated to apply pressure to those who support, enable and profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestine until Israel is forced to comply with international law... Jewish commentator reports that Jewish Neocons were behind Iraq War | YouTube Sometimes the truth can even be heard on MSM TV! Commentary by Mark Dankof from "Mark Dankof's America" weekly podcast... Encyclopedia of the Palestine Problem, by Issa Nakhleh (Chapter 8) | Palestine Encyclopedia ..."the mandated territories belong virtually to the populations or to the autonomous communities. The League of Nations is their protector and family adviser." This theory is in accordance with the principle of self-determination of peoples which was advocated by President Wilson and other world leaders in the Paris Peace Conference. It marked the end of Colonialism because it was agreed that no new territory should be annexed by the victorious powers and that these territories should be administered solely for the benefit of the indigenous populations of these territories... One Democratic State in all of Palestine | YouTube Lamis Deek of Al-Awda-NY talks about a vision for one state comprising all of Israel/Palestine... [Watch also Who Said Israel Has a Right to Exist?] Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vows victory in Syria | News "I say to all the honourable people, to the mujahedeen, to the heroes: I have always promised you a victory and now I pledge to you a new one" in Syria, he said at a ceremony marking the 13th anniversary of Israel's military withdrawal from Lebanon. Nasrallah said Hezbollah would always stand by its ally, President Bashar al-Assad, and his regime, stressing that its own interests were at stake... May 26, 2013 If Only Glenn Greenwald Would Learn to Say "They" Instead of "We," by John Spritzler | New Democracy World ...people like Sullivan want violence committed by "their own tribe" to never be stigmatized as evil, e.g. "terrorism"; and want violence committed by "the other tribe" to be so stigmatized as much as possible. This is an emotional, not rational, phenomenon. Greenwald develops this thesis with all of the incisiveness that he is famous for--be sure to read it! But as true as Greenwald's analysis is, he fails to draw the conclusion from it that would enable him to be far more persuasive with far more people (maybe even with--who knows?--Sullivan himself.) What do I mean?.. [See Greenwald’s piece in the Guardian] Iran - US: Legacy of Belligerence and Conceit, by Mark Weber | IHR on YouTube Iranian distrust of the United States is rooted in a legacy of arrogant, belligerent US policy. During World War II, British and Soviet military forces invaded neutral Iran. The country's leader, Reza Shah Pahlavi, trustingly appealed to President Franklin Roosevelt, who had solemnly proclaimed devotion to the principles of freedom and respect for national sovereignty. But Roosevelt rejected the plea and sought to justify the aggression, which he backed to help the Soviet Union against Germany and to support British imperial interests. The Allied invasion and occupation brought destruction, mass death and humiliation to Iran... New Right vs. Old Right, by Greg Johnson | Paul Eisen ..The true Right, in both its Old and New versions, is founded on the rejection of human equality as a fact and as a norm. The true right embraces the idea that mankind is and ought to be unequal, i.e., differentiated. Men are different from women. Adults are different from children. The wise are different from the foolish, the smart from the stupid, the strong from the weak, the beautiful from the ugly. We are differentiated by race, history, language, religion, nation, tribe, and culture. These differences matter, and because they matter, all of life is governed by real hierarchies of fact and value, not by the chimera of equality... [See also White Nationalism & Jewish Nationalism. One wonders if this brand of racial/tribal identity politics could present a real challenge to Jewish hegemony in the West. This writer, and those contributing to the Occidental Quarterly, are quite sophisticated. Moreover, unlike peaceniks like me, their message could have mass appeal as the situation deteriorates further. They might even get support from the current manifestations of La Raza, the Black Power movement and AIM. It's powerful stuff. An alliance of minorities who consider themselves to be oppressed (and that would include White Nationalists) against the dominant but vulnerable minority is a very plausible scenario.] UK Woolwich murder leaves unanswered questions, by Nureddin Sabir | Redress Information & Analysis So far we have refrained from commenting on the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby in Woolwich by Essex boy Michael Adebolajo, lest our comments are misinterpreted as justifying or excusing in any way this appalling act... The Evil of Humanitarian Interventionism, by Jacob G. Hornberger | The Future of Freedom Foundation American statists sometimes justify U.S. military interventionism in foreign countries by saying that it’s necessary to save people from the tyranny and oppression at the hands of their own government. When a dictator is killing his people, they argue, it is up to the U.S. military to invade the country, oust the dictator, and install a new, more benevolent ruler into office, thereby saving the lives of the people who the dictator would have killed but for the invasion.. While statists inevitably focus solely on the dictator himself—and the need to get rid of him—a military invasion inevitably involves the killing of many people before the troops actually reach the dictator himself... Syria’s failure to lose, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today Syria has surprised everyone. They were supposed to have collapsed long ago. They didn’t, far from it. There is every indication that the Syrian government is winning what really isn’t a civil war. Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and “others” have brought the dregs of the terrorist and criminal world into Syria and “delegitimized” moves against the government, which had once been based on real sectarian and political differences. We now have Israeli artillery, one American nuclear “bunker-buster” and even Israeli vehicles as evidence that this is an aggression and not another “Arab Spring.”.. On the Road to Damascus: An Eyewitness Report by Antonio C. S. Rosa | Global Research ...I had psyched myself to find a country in ruins, people fleeing for their lives from bombs, tanks on the streets, a police state massacring its own citizens, large scale suffering, buildings demolished, people resisting the government by force, and so on. Yet, I saw none of the above; quite the opposite. But you will forgive my ignorance, for I am a Westerner and that is what we hear, watch and read in our corporate media, which without a pinch of shame, honesty or humanity tell us half truths, innuendoes, straight lies, and party-line talking-points uttered by talking heads about what is happening on this part of the world. And I stand guilty of believing them like a fool... Lebanonizing Syria | Roi Tov ..Lubnan, as this country was named in Arabic, was a multi-cultural society far before Europe knew this term. Maronite Christians, Twelver Shia Muslims, Alawi, Sunni, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic, Armenians, Druze and others lived peacefully for much of their common history. You won't find in their history the mass-murders and state-violence that characterize regimes portraying themselves as free and democratic, despite their presidents crying in fake sorrow. During its long occupation of the White Country, Israel tried hard to bring about its cantonization... Iraq: Maliki & Co.’s Path of Folly, by Wayne White | LobeLog The Biblical quotation, “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” could not be more relevant to what Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s near unremitting hostility toward Iraq’s powerful Sunni Arab minority has generated: a rising drumfire of mostly Sunni Arab bombings aimed at Maliki’s Shi’a base as well as his regime. Yet, in the face of the awful toll such bloodshed has taken in past years, Iraq’s Shi’a policymakers have remained unmoved. So, for the most part, Maliki and Co. may well continue this dangerously divisive policy, making further unrest in Iraq likely. Yet, responding with some grand offer of sectarian reconciliation might find few takers at this point... The Greatness of Peace Activist John Bright, by Sheldon Richman | The Future of Freedom Foundation As we approach Memorial Day — or what I like to call Revisionist History Day — it’s fitting to contemplate the words of one of the world’s great peace activists, John Bright (1811–1889). Bright, a Quaker and Nonconformist, is best known for leading (with Richard Cobden) Britain’s Anti-Corn Law League, the organization that fought successfully to abolish the tariff on grain imports, which had benefited the landed aristocracy by raising the price of food for working people. He was also a manufacturer, a member of Parliament, and an eloquent orator. Bright passionately opposed war — however popular — whenever it threatened to rear its ugly head... Mind blowing hypocrisy - this time by John Kerry | The Vineyard of the Saker ..’US Secretary of State John Kerry has said the militant Lebanese Shia Islamist group Hezbollah and Iran are helping perpetuate President Bashar al-Assad's "campaign of terror" in Syria. Mr Kerry said thousands of Hezbollah fighters were contributing significantly to the violence. He added that Iran was actively supporting Hezbollah's involvement.’ Oh jeez, Mr. Kerry is deploring that foreign elements are involved in the war on Syria. But how is it that Mr. Kerry had nothing to say when many tens of thousands of foreign fighters invaded Syria from Lebanon and Turkey? Where was Mr. Kerry when the Israelis bombed Syrian targets, not once, but twice?.. Old Masters and the Masters of War: Guernica – Gaza, by Vacy Vlazna | Palestine Chronicle The Israeli military occupation is not only an external experience of ubiquitous soldiers, guns, teargas, tanks, F16s , Apache helicopters, warships, checkpoints, prisons, it is a virulent pathogen that infects and debilitates the psyches and bodies of its living hosts – the men, women and children of Palestine contaminating every precious instant of their lives from the first breath to death. The omnipresence of Israeli aggression is strikingly conveyed in internationally acclaimed Gazan artist, Mohammed Al Hawajri’s new exhibition, Guernica – Gaza 2010-2013, featuring 28 extraordinary artworks which present the Israeli reign of terror invading the artistic vision of certain Old Masters... May 25, 2013 RT interviews Chomsky: Obama, Bush, Blair must be put on trial at ICC for the War on Terror | Intifada Palestine A drone strike was a terror weapon, we don’t talk about it that way. It is, just imagine you are walking down the street and you don’t know whether in 5 minutes there is going to be an explosion across the street from some place up in the sky that you can’t see. Somebody will be killed, and whoever is around will be killed, maybe you’ll be injured if you’re there. That is a terror weapon. It terrorizes villages, regions, huge areas. In fact it’s the most massive terror campaign going on by a longshot... From Iraq to Syria: US Political Impotence in the Middle East, by Ramzy Baroud | Antiwar In an article published May 15, 2013, American historical social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein wrote, “Nothing illustrates more the limitations of Western power than the internal controversy its elites are having in public about what the United States in particular and western European states should be doing about the civil war in Syria.” Those limitations are palpable in both language and action. A political and military vacuum created by past US failures and forced retreats after the Iraq war made it possible for countries like Russia to reemerge on the scene as an effective player... Iraq Today: America's Imperial Legacy | Stephen Lendman US imperial wars reflect mass slaughter, widespread destruction, ecocide, resource theft, exploitation, unspeakable human pain, suffering and misery, as well as permanent occupation. Washington came to Iraq to stay. US military and other security elements infest the region. It's the oil and unchallenged Middle East dominance, stupid. The price of imperial arrogance is unconscionable. Ordinary people bear the cost. Countries are laid waste. Victims suffer most. Iraqis understand... Is it Nakba Time for Zionism? by Jim W. Dean | Veterans Today The 65th celebration of the ‘Independence of Israel’ and the corresponding annual Nakba commemoration provide an obvious platform for turning Israel inside out if you add one more ingredient. When President Ahmadinejad was maliciously misquoted in his comment of ‘erasing the Zionist regime from the sands of time’, as ‘wiping Israel off the map’, most of the world was appalled. It was of course a psy ops Intel coup. But a correction has never been forthcoming which shows the contempt corporate media has for its audience... Israeli Sex Slave Trade: One Billion Dollars Per Year | Altermedia The Parliamentary Inquiry Committee has found that between 3,000 and 10,000 women are smuggled into Israel each year to be sold and trafficked as sex slaves. Each woman is sold at public auction for between 8 and 10 thousand USD and about 10,000 women are currently being held in Israel’s 3 to 4 hundred brothels. The women are forced to work up to 18 hours a day seven days a week. On average they are paid about 3 percent of the money charged for their work. Some are raped, beaten, and murdered. Others are traded for jewelry or food. Some are forced into sado-masochism for which the clients pay extra... Wherefore Parchin? by Dan Joyner | Arms Control Law ...the whole Parchin issue appears to be being used by the IAEA so similarly to how the Benghazi consulate attack issue is being used by the US House of Representatives. In both cases, I think we are seeing perfect examples of the use of investigation powers by a legal institution as a political weapon. In both cases, the investigating authorities ask a never ending stream of questions, trying to get at “the truth,” which is really of course merely an attempt to confirm their own unsupported allegations against the target of the investigation. But the fact that no evidence is ever produced... A Nation State in a Non-Existant Nation?: The State of Whom? by Uri Avnery | CounterPunch Can a law be both ridiculous and dangerous? It certainly can. Witness the ongoing initiative of our government to enact a law that would define the State of Israel as “The Nation-State of the Jewish People”. Ridiculous 1 – because what and who is the “Jewish people”? The Jews of the world are a mixed lot. Their only official definition in Israel is religious. In Israel, you are a Jew if your mother was a Jewess. This is a purely religious definition. In Jewish religion, your father does not count for this purpose (it is said, only half in jest, that you cannot ever be sure who your father is.) If a non-Jew wants to join the Jewish people in Israel, he or she has to convert to Judaism in a religious ceremony... Guantánamo: The nation’s and Obama’s shame, by Lamar Hankins | San Marcos Mercury There should be no question that George W. Bush is the first to charge for the shame of Guantánamo. But now President Obama, the Congress, and the nation share that shame. Just as the nation bought the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice-Powell lies that took us to war in Iraq, so the nation bought their claims that every person imprisoned at Guantánamo was the worst of the worst. We now know that was a lie, too. Of the 166 men now being held at Guantánamo, 86 have been cleared of wrong-doing. There is no reason to hold them except for Congressional action to make their releases difficult and the recalcitrance of a president whose moral convictions have evaporated like steam from boiling water... The Sheer Silliness of the Peace Process, by M.J. Rosenberg | Washington Spectator ...The “land for peace” exchange has not taken place, and it won’t despite Kerry’s efforts, because Israel intends to keep the West Bank, not only keep it but thoroughly colonize it until it is as Israeli as Tel Aviv. There are today 350,000 Israeli settlers in the West Bank (double the number in 2000). Netanyahu has made clear that those settlers are staying, and that their numbers will grow. Referring to Prime Minister Sharon’s removal of settlements from Gaza, Netanyahu said, “the days of the bulldozers uprooting Jews are behind us, not before us.”.. Zionism and the Third Reich, by Mark Weber | IHR ...Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), the founder of modern Zionism, maintained that anti-Semitism is not an aberration, but a natural and completely understandable response by non-Jews to alien Jewish behavior and attitudes. The only solution, he argued, is for Jews to recognize reality and live in a separate state of their own. "The Jewish question exists wherever Jews live in noticeable numbers," he wrote in his most influential work, The Jewish State. "Where it does not exist, it is brought in by arriving Jews... [See Zionism and Nazism: Is there a difference that makes a difference? Also, watch Third Reich-Zionist Cooperation by Mark Weber] 9/11, compiled by Zen Gardner | Veterans Today As I revisited this whole nuke thing after all these years and was mulling over the photos of all those singed and bent vehicles, my friend Connie Smith — a long-time 9/11 researcher some of you may know — dropped me a note reminding me of something I’d completely forgotten about: the fascinating case of EMT Patricia Ondrovic... Syria: The Messed Up Neighborhood | Moon of Alabama ...Having again messed up the whole neighborhood the colonial "friends of Syria", now shrunk down to a mere 11 countries, are today meeting in Jordan. This is the first time that no one from their sponsored exile Syrian opposition is attending such a meeting. Those SNC folks will meet tomorrow in Istanbul to quibble again and to receive the new orders of their colonial masters. The SNC still demands that Assad must go before they can agree to any serious negotiations. As this does not fit the current "western" plan for negotiations the group, already in terminal crisis, will fall even further apart... Why Washington and Tel Aviv Want Hezbollah to Keep Fighting in al-Qusayr: Hezbollah and the Syrian Pit, by Franklin Lamb | CounterPunch ...Some analysts are saying this morning, with perhaps a bit of hyperbole that as al-Qusayr goes so goes Syria and the National Lebanese Resistance, led by Hezbollah. If government forces can retake the city it will put an end to the Saudi-Qatari green light, in exchange for controlling al-Qusayr, of the setting up a Salafist emirate in the area which would constitute a threat to the nearly two dozen Shia Lebanese inhabited villages of the Hermel region. If the Syrian army re-takes al-Qusayr, it would also avoid the likelihood of a full-fledged sectarian war on both sides of the border... Marcy Wheeler Explains Antiwar.com’s Suit Against the FBI, by Eric Garris | Antiwar ..On The Scott Horton Show yesterday, Marcy Wheeler discussed the ACLU’s lawsuit – filed on behalf of Antiwar.com – against the FBI for unwarranted surveillance; the FBI memo stating Antiwar.com might be “a threat to national security” and working “on behalf of a foreign power;” Justin Raimondo’s controversial columns after 9/11 about Urban Moving Systems and Israeli “art students” that may have piqued the FBI’s interest; the loss of major donors who worried about being investigated themselves; and evidence that the FBI thinks anti-Zionism is criminal behavior... UK trying to ‘nobble’ Nasrallah - Hezbollah, by Stuart Littlewood | deLiberation ...The MP did at least declare an interest: “I am one of the vice-chairs of Labour Friends of Israel.” Well, there’s a surprise. Unfortunately he’s also a member of the Select Committee on International Development. For a start, what’s causing instability in the region are the armed jihadist groups in Syria and the thousands of international terrorists backed by the West (including Britain), the Gulf states and Turkey who provide them with weapons or money or both. There is an EU ban on supplying arms to these terror groups but our foreign secretary, Agent Hague, is working feverishly to overturn it.. presumably for the benefit of Israel whose devoted friend he has been since schooldays... US Gov: Walk Slow, by Bob Nichols | Veterans Today ...the Nuclear States officially raise[d] the amounts of “permitted radiation levels” by hundreds and sometimes thousands of times to maintain the utter and absolute dominance of the Nuclear State over everything, everywhere, for all time. No tolerance given. Plummeting worldwide population numbers and a dumber population are the inevitable results of this policy. This codifies a policy “guidance” issued to all Executive Branch Offices of the US Gov immediately after President Obama’s first Presidential election. The Hope Prez? Yea, sure, when pigs fly... May 24, 2013 Deaths of the “no-state” Palestinians are Proportional to Life of the Two State Solution, by Dan Lieberman | Dissident Voice It is perilous and unbecoming to argue with and contradict the icons of our global society. Those who struggle courageously for the rights of others and speak eloquently with word and deed against war and tyranny deserve praise and comfort. They are beautiful people. Uri Avnery, journalist, soldier, politician, Knesset member, peace activist, writer, wordsmith, master of the quip and Zionist is one of the nobles who warrants special consideration. Being human, Avnery can be faulted, and his fault is a rigid attachment to Zionism, which strays his thoughts from lofty objectives and guides him to instruct others toward confusion... [This is an exceptional, must read article] Syria as a Game-Changer: US Political Impotence in the Middle East, by Ramzy Baroud | Counterpunch In an article published May 15, 2013, American historical social scientist Immanuel Wallerstein wrote, “Nothing illustrates more the limitations of Western power than the internal controversy its elites are having in public about what the United States in particular and western European states should be doing about the civil war in Syria.” Those limitations are palpable in both language and action. A political and military vacuum created by past US failures and forced retreats after the Iraq war made it possible for countries like Russia to reemerge on the scene as an effective player... Israel digging own grave, its death very close, by Kevin Barrett | Veterans Today “If you build a country’s economy on nothing but the military, as Israel has, you are digging your own grave and those who live by the sword, die by the sword and Israel is very close to dying by the sword.” Press TV has conducted an interview with Dr. Kevin Barrett, with the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance from Wisconsin, to shed more light on Zionist settlers’ protests against the austerity measures implemented by the Tel Aviv regime. What follows is a rough transcription of the interview... [Now that is a funeral that I would dearly love to attend. I’ll even offer to recite the Kaddish.] Read more...WaPo Really Thinks U.S. Should Be World’s Policeman, by Jim Lobe | LobeLog If you want to get some insight into how the Washington Post’s editorial board increasingly thinks of the world and the U.S. role in it, editorial page editor Fred Hiatt’s column in Monday’s newspaper provides a good idea. While Hiatt is generally not as ideological as his deputy, Jackson Diehl (although he did hire Jennifer Rubin), his basic belief in U.S. exceptionalism, his rejection of “retrenchment” and “limitations” (on U.S. power), and, above all, his implicit equation of international “engagement” with military intervention demonstrates how his version of liberal internationalism is so easily co-opted by neo-conservatives:.. [No surprise – WaPo is one of the leading mainstream Zionist rags, along with the WSJ and the NYT - their most popular presstitutes are the highest paid in the business - with the possible exception of the sluts at Fox News.] The New World Order is Unimpeachable, by Philip Giraldi | Antiwar Sinclair Lewis once wrote that if fascism ever comes to the United States it will be wrapped in the American flag and carrying a cross. Lewis might have been describing our contemporary “political Christians,” the mostly evangelicals who believe that Washington has a manifest destiny to make the world behave while simultaneously expunging the constitution of all those troubling un-Biblical bits that were pulled together into the Bill of Rights. Well, it hasn’t quite happened that way... Third Reich-Zionist Cooperation, by Mark Weber | IHR on YouTube In spite of a basic hostility between Third Reich Germany and international Jewry, German National Socialists and Jewish Zionists shared similar views about ethnicity and nationhood... [The sad thing is that the majority of German Jews wanted nothing to do with Zionism – they wound up in the camps. The ZioNazis went to Israel.] Muslims and the War on Terror, by Faisal Kutty | CounterPunch ...The vast majority of Muslims condemn terrorism because even classical Islamic law explicitly classifies hirabah (terrorism) as a serious sin. In fact, indiscriminate killing and attacks are prohibited. Indeed, the Qur’an (6:151) proclaims: “Anyone who kills a person (except pursuant to law) it is as if he has killed the whole of humanity.” Moreover, the Prophet Mohammed’s strict rules of engagement even in times of hostility were blunt: “Do not kill women or children or non-combatants.” Such nuances are lost on those with limited knowledge of their religion... What is the U.S. REALLY doing in Syria? by Stephen M. Walt | Foreign Policy Permit me to indulge today in a bit of speculation, for which I don't have a lot of hard evidence. As I read this article yesterday on Hezbollah's involvement in the Syrian civil war, I began to wonder whether U.S. involvement in that conflict isn't more substantial than I have previously thought. And then I did a bit of web surfing and found this story, which seemed to confirm my suspicions... Tyranny Around the Corner, by Judge Napolitano | Antiwar A few weeks ago, President Obama advised graduates at Ohio State University that they need not listen to voices warning about tyranny around the corner, because we have self-government in America. He argued that self-government is in and of itself an adequate safeguard against tyranny, because voters can be counted upon to elect democrats (lowercase “d”) not tyrants. His argument defies logic and 20th-century history. It reveals an ignorance of the tyranny of the majority, which believes it can write any law, regulate any behavior, alter any procedure and tax any event so long as it can get away with it... Young objector defies Israeli army, by Josef Federman | Stars and Stripes The Israeli military has jailed a young man for six months for refusing to serve because of his opposition to Israel's occupation of the West Bank, focusing attention on the longstanding conflict between the country's universal military service and divided political beliefs. The refusal by 20-year-old Natan Blanc to serve has put the military in a delicate position as it tries to resolve the case. Releasing him could set an unwanted precedent, but keeping him jailed could turn into a public relations debacle... Israel Attacks Church of Scotland | Roi Tov In May 2013, one can't help but watch astonished a media attack conducted by the State of Israel on the Church of Scotland. On May 22, Israeli newspaper Haaretz—the unofficial Voice of the Shin Beth secret police—published an opinion article by Ben Cohen, titled "The Church of Scotland's parody of Judaism." One of its first paragraphs opens with the words "The great majority of Jewish readers would most likely plump for that rather unfashionable, much maligned term, 'anti-Semitic,'" providing me with a good introduction to what at first sight looks like Israeli anti-Scottishness... The Palestine Liberation Movement is not about Anti-Semitism, by Paul Larudee | Dissident Voice I don’t disagree that the cowardly removal by Aljazeera of everything written by Joseph Massad is a travesty of justice and journalism and that their reinstatement is justified. But why was Massad trying to defend Palestinian rights based upon them being “the last of the Semites?” The term “Semite” was born of the assumption that all the languages of the world are the result of the sons of Noah – Shem, Ham and Japheth – going to different parts of the globe after the flood and creating different language groups: Semitic, Hamitic and Japhetic. The sons of Noah? Are we seriously entertaining such nonsense?.. [If it were about 'antisemism' the issue would be clear to everyone, since the Palestinians are, by definition, semites, while the Ashkenazi/Khazar colonists were not (their root language is classified as Turko-Finnic. What they spoke for the last thousand years or so was Yiddish (mostly German with some Slavic and Hebrew thrown in. My Yiddish speaking parents just called it the "Jewish" language - which is what Yiddish means in German). A trivial issue? Perhaps. But it is symptomatic of the mythological basis of Jewish tribal identity.] United Against Scholarship | Gilad Atzmon In the last few years we have been witnessing the emergence of a self-gratifying populist culture in the midst of the Palestinian scholarly discourse. Two years ago we watched Ali Abunimah's lecture about ‘culture’ and politics setting a new record of intellectual ignorance. We then came across ‘anti’ racist Israel boycott campaigner Omar Barghouti preaching in favour of biological determinism. This week I came across Columbia Professor Joseph Massad’s Last of the Semites, a talk on Zionism and anti-semitsm the Professor delivered in Stuttgart last month. Unfortunately Massad repeats the exact same pattern... [Confusion reigns supreme. There would be no Zionism, Nazism, Salafism or any such religious or ideological cults based on a spurious identity otherwise. As usual, Gilad pretty much nails it.] Iran’s presidential election, the West and Israel, by Jamal Kanj | Redress Information & Analysis ...Pundits in the West have argued for years that the method of choosing candidates in Iran’s election is the least democratic. It is far from being a representation of plural democracy – but neither is the filtered democratic process in the West, where backdoor dealings, not a popular vote, determine which party’s candidate wins a general election. To the chagrin of the West, the final candidates in Iran might quarrel over many issues, but they all support Iran’s right to develop a “peaceful” nuclear programme.. To succeed, the West must first stop viewing the Middle East through an Israeli prism. Next, it should take bold steps to rectify past sins by promoting a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East... Should the Law Governing the War on Terror Be Changed? by Ivan Eland | Antiwar A move is afoot in Congress to change the 2001 law that kicked off what became the “war on terror” (although the Obama administration has dropped the now politically incorrect term). The administration, however, opposes changing the statute, because, as one Pentagon official said, “As of right now, it suits us well.” Naturally the administration would take this position, since it has gotten away with vastly exceeding the mandate of Congress—thus running not so secret unauthorized drone wars in far-flung places. The administration and other proponents of the war on terror seem to fear that any replacement statute could restrict the administration’s wide-ranging claims of authority... Murder, Inc., by Jacob Hornberger | The Future of Freedom Foundation For all his faults and failures, President Lyndon Johnson put it correctly: With its assassination program, the CIA was operating a “damned Murder Inc.” Not only does Johnson’s pointed observation observe the true nature of the federal government’s assassination program, it also serves to show that assassination has been an integral part of the U.S. national-security state apparatus since long before the 9/11 attacks... May 23, 2013 Is This The Best That Christianity Can Do? by Stuart Littlewood | Redress Information & Analysis While the Jewish State was putting its finishing touches to Operation Cast Lead (the horrific blitzkrieg launched against Gaza’s civilians, including the Christian community there), the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, joined Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks in a visit to the former Nazi camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau to demonstrate their joint solidarity against the extremes of hostility and genocide... [Only kosher Shoas are acknowledged by the branch of tribal Judaism that nostalgically still calls itself the Christian Church. All pronouncements about the Middle East must be vetted by the local Jewish tribal authorities – in all of the Western countries, but especially the English speaking ones (and Germany of course). The Shoa Must Go On! – it’s maintained as a strict monopoly and is very, very lucrative - something like a hundred billion dollars so far (mostly from the abject Germans) rolling into the ZioNazi coffers.] Gilad Atzmon on free speech, self-censorship, and the legacy of George Orwell | The Kevin Barrett Show Gilad Atzmon, who will be performing tonight in Madison, Wisconsin, says the loss of freedom in today’s world is being driven not just by overt power grabs, but by a sort of Orwellian self-censorship that is pervasive on the left. His latest project is a re-reading of George Orwell – who, Gilad says, saw it all coming... Will Latin America Lead Us Out of the Drug War Morass? by Jacob G. Hornberger | The Future of Freedom Foundation Interestingly enough, it is Latin America that just might end up leading the world, including the United States, out of the drug-war morass in which most countries have plunged during the past 40 years. After four decades of death, economic destruction, political corruption, ruination of lives, torture, gang wars, drug cartels, drug lords, bribery, asset forfeiture, mandatory-minimum sentences, militarization of the border, attacks on privacy, police-state tactics, no-knock raids, warrantless searches, and constant assaults on the Bill of Rights, there just might be light at the end of this dark tunnel, one that unfortunately the U.S. government is, in large part, responsible for... Fetzer Questions Holocaust – Call the Spanish Inquisition! by Kevin Barrett | Veterans Today My VT colleague Dr. James Fetzer is no stranger to controversy. Beginning with his 1990s research on the JFK assassination, and continuing through his work on 9/11 and the assassination of Sen. Paul Wellstone, Jim Fetzer has never been shy about researching too-hot-to-touch topics and expressing politically incorrect views. But last night at Gilad Atzmon’s talk in Madison, Wisconsin, Fetzer outdid himself. In the discussion session following Atzmon’s presentation, Fetzer announced his support for holocaust revisionism... [The Holycause has its own Holy Inquisition - the presiding Grand Inquisitor is, yes, a woman, the venerable sock puppet Deborah Lipspadt] The scandalous erosion of US civil liberties, by Patty Culhane | Al Jazeera This week has been pretty scandal-ridden by Washington standards. In all, four different stories are taking up all the oxygen on cable TV. Here's a quick rundown for those who perhaps think it is more important to know what is going on in Syria, Iraq or anywhere where lives, rather than just political capital, are on the line... Everybody Must Get...Straight! by Frank Scott | Legalienate The global condition can at any time be likened to the situation on the sinking Titanic with its crew re-arranging deck chairs and throw pillows as the ship continues to submerge. This analogy may not quite fit the present status of the global center, the USA. Here, the situation at a mental health crisis center under a full moon while suffering a shortage of powerful tranquilizers might seem pleasant by comparison. As always under profit and loss economics, increasing numbers face growing hardship bordering on absolute disaster while some enjoy ever more lavish splendor with their servant class living in relative if temporary comfort. Just another day at empire’s headquarters... Isabel Kershner chosen to reveal future Israeli exonerations, by David Samel | Mondoweiss ..Fresh from its triumph in exposing the Mohammed al-Dura death hoax, a secret Israeli Government Commission is nearing the completion of an even more comprehensive investigation absolving the IDF of all deaths of civilians in Lebanon in 2006, Gaza in 2008-2009, the Mavi Marmara in 2010, and Gaza in November, 2012. According to high-ranking informed sources, who talked with Isabel Kershner of the New York Times on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to discuss this sensitive information... Kenneth Waltz, Noam Chomsky, and America and Israel’s Real Concerns about Iran’s Nuclear Activities | Going to Tehran ...Waltz posited that nuclear deterrence between competitive or even antagonistic states (think the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War) is uniquely stabilizing. In his view, power that is unbalanced by countervailing power is the ultimate source of instability in international affairs, and nuclear deterrence is a very effective form of balancing. Updating this assessment for the present-day Middle East.. Waltz wrote that what is truly destabilizing for the region is unchecked Israeli power, especially Israel’s nuclear weapons monopoly. From this perspective, he argued that Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons would actually enhance strategic stability in the Middle East... Jewish National Fund UK faces official questions over racial discrimination, by Asa Winstanley | The Electronic Intifada The Charity Commission is to quiz the Jewish National Fund’s UK-registered bodies over claims it falls foul of British anti-racism law. The move comes in response to a formal complaint by Stop the JNF campaigners about the JNF’s racist practices in Palestine-Israel, lodged with the commission in March. In a detailed letter to Stop the JNF, the commission denied their request to strip the three JNF bodies of their charitable (and thus tax-exempt) status, but admitted that the campaigners’ complaint “raises matters of potential regulatory interest for the Commission.”.. How do you walk through a landmine?: Saving Private Alfi | Roi Tov I grew up next to the Jordan River. Its western bank had a minefield blocking access to the river, denying even stolen glimpses at its historic waters. Nearby, our kibbutz was surrounded by several concentric circles of barbed wire; landmines had been laid in between them. It was nothing but a Zionist concentration camp. At school, our teachers told us horror stories about the Nazi regime; the stories draw images similar to those surrounding us, including the wild dogs next to the barbed wire. Years later, even sworn Zionists agreed that some of the stories were made up, like the one claiming that our grandparents had been made into soap by the Nazis... And the winner is - Khamenei, by Pepe Escobar | Asia Times Online Nothing will be left to chance - even the hint of a green protest wave. In 2009, 475 candidates registered to run for Iran's presidency. Only four were approved by the Guardian Council - the all-powerful, vetting clerical committee. This year, no fewer than 686 registered for the upcoming June 14 elections. Eight were approved. Among them, one won't find the two who are really controversial; former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, aka "The Shark" - essentially a pragmatic conservative - and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, adviser and right-hand man to outgoing President Mahmud Ahmadinejad are both out... [A straightforward way for the power elite to ensure that only someone acceptable to them is nominated. In the Empire it’s accomplished in a far more obscure manner.] Refugee Camps as War Zones: How Lebanon’s Palestinians Are Being Pulled Into Syrian War, by Franklin Lamb | CounterPunch ...Palestinians in Lebanon’s camps are being lectured that they will get civil rights here only when they take them which is their right and their jihadist religious duty. These arguments will fail, with few exceptions, among the quarter million Palestinian refugees actually still in Lebanon, as they have in the past. But the Palestinians descent here in Lebanon into deepening sectarian and religious divisions is worrisome. Scholars and political analysts and even elements of the National Lebanese Resistance are counseling that an effective, moral, religious, and political measure that could bring Sunni and Shia together in Lebanon:.. Al Jazeera roiled by US manager’s decision to censor Joseph Massad article, by Ali Abunimah | The Electronic Intifada ..Days after a top Al Jazeera executive ordered the removal of an op-ed critical of Zionism by Joseph Massad, the article was today restored to the network’s English-language website. Imad Musa, the head of Al Jazeera English Online, also posted a statement on the Editor’s Blog denying that Al Jazeera had “succumbed to various pressures, and censored its own pages” when it removed the article. The about-face follows a growing uproar inside and outside Al Jazeera over the article’s removal, amid fears for editorial independence and freedom of speech as the Qatar-based network prepares to launch Al Jazeera America... Biden Talks of 'Outsized Influence' of Jews: 'The Influence Is Immense' | The Weekly Standard At a Jewish American Heritage Month reception last night in Washington, D.C., Vice President Joe Biden talked about Jews, power, and influence. “The truth is that Jewish heritage, Jewish culture, Jewish values are such an essential part of who we are that it’s fair to say that Jewish heritage is American heritage,” Biden said, according to the pool report. “The Jewish people have contributed greatly to America. No group has had such an outsized influence per capita as all of you standing before you and all of those who went before me and all of those who went before you.”.. [Biden outranks even the Clintons and Rupert Murdoch in the ultimate shabbas goy sweepstakes, but there are thousands in the running.] May 22, 2013 It should be clear that zionism is the most evil ideology that has plagued humankind, exceeding nazism, fascism, and communism. For the eventual betterment of humankind, it, too, will ultimately be defeated as all others had perished, and its adherents that were responsible for the war criminality that they inflicted upon the innocent peoples of Palestine and Lebanon and continue to do so with impunity will be summoned before the forthcoming Jerusalem Tribunals to be tried and punished under the precedent of the Nuremberg Trials and israel's own trial and execution of the nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann. Not the inept 1.7 billion Muslims worldwide will bring about their downfall, but rather those increasingly numerous warm-hearted anti-zionist Jews who have won my admiration and respect will do so. Jew-hating Jewish zionists refer to them as "self-hating Jews". I refer to them as the world's emerging saviors of humankind's calamity under that despicable ideology. The Palestinians and Lebanese who suffered the immense anguish, misery, pain and suffering at the hands of zionists and their radical, extreme, ultra fundamentalist, hypocritical Christian eschatological fanatical supporters will have their Day of Joy. Patience, my brothers and sisters. Mssrs. Time and History are your guarantees. ~ Yousef Salem in the Unites States of Israel - until we take it back [Nazism, Zionism and Communism (in its Bolshevik manifestation) are varieties of Fascism - ethnocentric in the first two instances and based on economic class in the latter. Moreover, both Zionism and Bolshevism were primarily tribal Jewish projects in obedience to the mantra 'If it's good for the Jews.." See my short essays on Fascism and the similarity between Nazism and Zionism for further explanation. ~ The Editor] The Role of the United States in Israel, by Samir Abed-Rabbo | Gilad Atzmon ..God has never been involved in real estate transactions; neither has the Bible ever been considered a source of International Law governing relations between modern states nor a reliable source of human history or archeology. If the world were to be reestablished according to the Bible, the United States, Europe and most modern states would not exist. Furthermore, there are no eyewitness accounts or scientific evidence linking current Israeli Jews to the ancient Hebrews. Some historians and archeologists even dispute that Jews ever had a significant presence in the area... [‘The world is made of stories, not atoms’ ~ Muriel Rukeyser] Read more...65 Years of Palestinian Nakba, by Elias Akleh | The OtherSite ...National catastrophe is the proper description of the Palestinian plight caused by the Zionist Jewish occupation of Palestine and the creation of a terrorist state called Israel. Israel is the invention of Zionism, which is a colonial expansionist terrorist movement based on an extremist ethnocentric supremacist Judaic religious discriminative concept of God’s chosen people in God’s promised land. Its primary objective is the establishment of a Jewish only super power state in the heart of the Arab World to control its most needed natural resource of oil in order to control the economy of the whole world and to become the masters of the world as prescribed by their own Judaic religion... Read more... Other Losses by James Bacque | WikiSpooks In summary between 900,000 and 1.2 million Germans - mainly soldiers but including a significant proportion of old men, women and children - died of starvation, disease and exposure in open-air, barb-wire enclosed camps, under the control of the US and French military and as a direct result of official policy. If that number is not shocking enough in and of itself, consider that it is roughly 10 times higher than the officially recorded Wehrmacht losses from fighting through 1941 to the 1945 surrender!!. There was an explicit policy to provide no shelter in these camps through 2 winters of their operation and to provide below starvation levels of food, in spite of available supplies being plentiful... Read more... The Flaw in Many Humanitarian Arguments for War, by Conor Friedersdorf | The Atlantic Prior to the Iraq War, the war in Libya, and any intervention we may or may not undertake in Syria, some hawks insistently argue(d) that there is a humanitarian imperative to step into the breach. Their arguments can be powerful. Innocent people are dying at the hands of a tyrant. We have the most powerful military on earth. If we do nothing, the slaughter will continue. And don't most of us agree that some military interventions, like the one that stopped the Holocaust, would've been justified on purely humanitarian grounds, even if stopping the death camps wasn't the rationale for WWII at the time?.. [War is too attractive an option for the conscienceless opportunists otherwise known as Western politicians. It pleases their prime constituency, the corporatocracy, and is always easy to sell to the sheeple – until it starts going sour.] Read more...Rape by American Soldiers in World War II France, by Jennifer Schuessler | NYT The soldiers who landed in Normandy on D-Day were greeted as liberators, but by the time American G.I.’s were headed back home in late 1945, many French citizens viewed them in a very different light. In the port city of Le Havre, the mayor was bombarded with letters from angry residents complaining about drunkenness, jeep accidents, sexual assault — “a regime of terror,” as one put it, “imposed by bandits in uniform.”.. [From time immemorial, the prospect of unfettered access to vulnerable women has been one of the prime motivations for participating in war.] Read more...The Council on Foreign Relations, by Dean Henderson | Veterans Today In 1919 Rothschild’s Business Roundtable launched the Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) in London. The RIIA soon spawned sister organizations around the globe, including the US Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the Asian Institute of Pacific Relations, the Canadian Institute of International Affairs, the Brussels-based Institute des Relations Internationales, the Danish Foreign Policy Society, the Indian Council of World Affairs and the Australian Institute of International Affairs. Other affiliates popped up in France, Turkey, Italy, Yugoslavia and Greece... Read more... The tired “academic freedom” argument: PACBI response to Nobel laureates’ attack on the academic boycott of Israel | PACBI Once again, the specter of the suppression of academic freedom has been invoked in what is now becoming an organized campaign to counter the growing global movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel, and the academic and cultural boycott in particular. This time, a number of American, European, and Israeli Nobel laureates have been enlisted in the campaign, in the hope that their plea to defend “academic freedom” will stem the tide of this ever-expanding movement... Read more... A Response to Michael Neumann: There’s Nothing Idealistic About the One-State Solution, by Jonathan Cook | CounterPunch ...Like him, I do not believe that a particular solution, or resolution, will occur simply because the Palestinians or their wellwishers make a good moral case for it. Success for the Palestinians will come when a wide array of regional developments force Israel to conclude that its current behaviour is untenable. There are plenty of signs that just such a power shift is starting to take place in the Middle East... [Two steps forward, one step backward – at best. It has taken tribal Jewry some two thousand years to become the principal and mostly unchallenged power broker, at least in the Western world – they are not going to give that up without at least threatening to take the rest of the world down with them.] Read more...'You Say What You Like, Because They Like What You Say' by David Cromwell | Media Lens ...Comedian Frankie Boyle had already put it all in perspective: 'I've never been surprised by low voter turnouts. In fact, I'm surprised anybody ever votes at all. Politicians seem so alien to us, their insincerity taken as a given, behaving inhumanely while they pretend to be human in some symbolic way. If, instead of a nation, we were 500 people living as a tribe, or a bunch of survivors in a lifeboat, would anyone elect Miliband or Cameron as a leader, with their choppy hand gestures, lack of conviction and bizarrely automated range of emotions? In a normal social gathering, most of our leaders would seem to suffer from a hysterical personality disorder.'.. Read more... Top 10 warning signs of 'liberal imperialism' by Stephen M. Walt | Foreign Policy ..Liberal imperialists are like kinder, gentler neoconservatives: Like neocons, they believe it's America's responsibility to right political and humanitarian wrongs around the world, and they're comfortable with the idea of the United States deciding who will run countries such as Libya, Syria, or Afghanistan. Unlike neocons, liberal imperialists embrace and support international institutions (like the UN), and they are driven more by concern for human rights than they are by blind nationalism or protecting the U.S.-Israel special relationship. Still, like the neocons, liberal imperialists are eager proponents for using American hard power, even in situations where it might easily do more harm than good... Read more... National Socialism as an Anti-Jewish Group Evolutionary Strategy | Kevin MacDonald The National Socialist movement in Germany from 1933–1945 is a departure from Western tendencies toward universalism and muted individualism in the direction of racial nationalism and cohesive collectivism. The evidence reviewed below indicates that National Socialism developed in the context of group conflict between Jews and gentiles, and I propose that it may be usefully conceptualized as a group evolutionary strategy that was characterized by several key features that mirrored Judaism as a group evolutionary strategy... [The tendency to fight fire with fire, fascism with fascism, is predictable. We see just that in the Islamist reaction to the presence of Israel in the Arab heartland. It’s simple cause and effect, stimulus/response. In the case of Zionism and Nazism, we see two nearly identical manifestations of the same phenomenon. See links in the Header above.] Read more...Al Jazeera deletes its own controversial Op-Ed, then refuses to comment, by Glenn Greenwald | The Guardian ..Last Tuesday, Al Jazeera English published a lengthy Op-Ed by Columbia professor and Middle East scholar Joseph Massad entitled "The Last of the Semites". Massad's argument was obviously controversial: he highlighted the shared goal between the early Zionist movement and Europe's anti-Jewish bigots (namely, the removal of Jews from the continent), detailed the cooperation between German Nazis and Zionists to facilitate the departure of Jews out of Europe (the existence of that cooperation is not in dispute, though the extent of it very much is), and highlighted the extensive disagreements among Jews themselves over the wisdom and justness of Zionism... [Qatar and Saudi Arabia are Israel's closest allies in the Middle East, in case anyone reading this isn't quite up to speed yet. Al Jazeera is owned by Qataris and Saudis.] Read more...Background to the Magna Carta, by Andrew Joyce | The Occidental Observer The first point to bear in mind in that Magna Carta was a document produced by the nobles and presented to the monarch — in this case, King John. In this sense we should bear in mind the tensions between the nobles and the King over one chief issue — the role of Jewish usury in enabling land transfer from the nobility to the monarch.. King John, whose actions had brought about the need for the Magna Carta, was profligate, incompetent, and utterly beholden to his Jews and their ability to provide him with seemingly unlimited funds for his misadventures on the Continent... Read more... Israel Expands Western Wall | Roi Tov "Diskotel" was coined by Yeshayahu Leibowitz by merging "kotel" with "discotheque." In Hebrew, "kotel" means "wall," and is the short referral form to the Western Wall in Jerusalem. "HaKotel HaMaaravi"—the Western Wall—is the full name. Using this phrase, Professor Leibowitz, an Orthodox Jew, made fun of the Jewish veneration of old stones in that site. According to his view, Orthodox Jews swaying in front of the Western Wall in pretentious prayer are nothing but dancing to a pagan idol... Joseph Massad | Paul Eisen Ali Abunimah's Electronic Intifada says all the Jews/Zionists (choose whichever you like - they're all pretty much the same) are going mad because of the threat this man poses to them. Relax guys. You've nothing to worry about. Massad [and Abunimah, for that matter (Ed.)] spouts the Jewish ethnic activist (anti-Zio division) line perfectly. It is Israel's claims that it represents and speaks for all Jews that are the most anti-Semitic claims of all. [Not to mention that 'semitic' is a linguistic classification. Modern Hebrew, the Israeli language, doesn't qualify - it is a Yiddish/Slavic/Hebrew polyglot invented 100 years ago. The only people who qualify as semites are overwhelmingly native Arabic speakers. - a revealing take on 'antisemitism.'] What 'Jews a Race' Debate Means for Israel, by Jarrod Tanny | Jewish Daily Forward The persistent debate over the “racial” origins of the Jewish people makes a mockery of scholarship, trivializes history and perpetuates conceptions of identity that have been misused to justify everything from violent repression to affirmative action. It is hardly surprising that Johns Hopkins’s Eran Elhaik “stirred up a hornet’s nest of controversy,” as the Forward recently put it, with his genetic study alleging the Khazar origins of the Jewish people — for, as readers undoubtedly know, deracinating Jewish DNA from ancient Israel undermines the legitimacy of the modern Jewish state... May 21, 2013 Palestinians Mark 65th Nakba Anniversary, by Anthony Lawson | The OtherSite ...There can be absolutely no doubt that Israel has created an inhuman, illegal and utterly disgraceful Apartheid state, and the international community will never be able to excuse itself if it takes no action against this blatant, ongoing and in-plain-sight crime against humanity. Please join the millions of decent people around the world who are crying out against Israel’s ongoing persecution of the Palestinians. Send the link to this video to your elected representative and make sure he or she does something about it. You have to ask yourself: If I keep quiet, will it ever end? .. Ghada Karmi: Palestine Solidarity Conference in Stuttgart 2013 | YouTube Graham Fuller, Uncle Ruslan, the CIA and the Boston Bombings, by F. William Engdahl | Veterans Today ...Take it all in: The two brothers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, accused though never proven in a court of law to have been responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings, had an uncle, the same uncle who agreed to bury the remains of the one dead brother. This uncle was married to the daughter of Graham Fuller, one of the most important CIA architects of using Islamic Jihadists/terrorists against the USSR during the Cold War and after, throughout Central Asia, including Chechnya and Kazakhstan. Coincidence?.. [See also Part 2, Boston And The CIA Snafu] Al Jazeera management orders Joseph Massad article pulled in act of pro-Israel censorship, by Ali Abunimah | The Electronic Intifada In an unprecedented act of political censorship Al Jazeera English has deleted an article by noted Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad after coming under intense criticism from Zionists in recent days.. Since its publication, the article generated intense criticism from Zionist extremists, including a columnist in the virulently anti-Palestinian Jerusalem Post, and condemnation on Twitter from President Barack Obama’s favorite Israel lobby gatekeeper and former Israeli prison guard Jeffrey Goldberg:.. [Contains a link to a .pdf of Massad’s piece if you haven’t read it] Israel Demands French TV Retract 2000 Report on Gaza Child’s Killing, by Jason Ditz | Antiwar Capping another round of denials by Israeli officials, the government has formally demanded that France 2 retract a September 2000 media report accusing Israeli soldiers of killing Mohammad al-Durrah, a 12-year-old boy, insisting that the report fueled “anti-Semitism.” The “al-Durrah incident” involves a France 2 video of Durrah’s death, apparently in the crossfire of fighting during the beginning of the Second Intifada. The Israeli military conceded to the incident at the time, and the Israeli government apologized, though they later issued a retraction for that apology... 3 Glaring Hypocrisies in Obama's Iran Policy, by John Glaser | Antiwar In testimony to Congress on Wednesday, Obama's State Department official Wendy Sherman reiterated the administration's policy on Iran. Since the intelligence community has concluded for some time now that Iran has not yet decided to pursue nuclear weapons, Sherman felt compelled to recite a litany of supposed Iranian transgressions to justify America's harsh economic sanctions and overall belligerence toward the country. Every major criticism of Iran, though, is one that can also be lodged against the United States... The Privilege of the Pritzkers, by Dennis J. Bernstein | CounterPunch ...According to the Chicago Tribune, “Pritzker’s nomination could prove controversial. Penny Pritzker, says Chicago-Based independent banking investigator Tim Andersen, played fast and loose with the American Dream. Anderson, who has been investigating for many years Pritzker’s pioneering sub-prime operations, says Superior Bank in Chicago, specifically targeted poor and working class people of color across the country. He asserts that her extreme wealth and privilege has not only made her virtually untouchable by law enforcement, but now her appointment to Sec of Commerce, will allow her to cleanse her sub-prime banking record by becoming the Secretary of Commerce... Israel Mulling Plot to Assassinate Syrian President Bashar Al Assad | Global Research The Israeli regime’s security bodies are working on a plot to assassinate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad by the help of terrorist groups and armed rebels in the country after Damascus showed strength and months of resistance against the terrorist attacks orchestrated by US, Israel and their Arab partners, the Israeli media reported on Tuesday. The Israeli Vala news website reported that the Israeli security and spy agencies were shocked at Assad’s resistance against two years of terrorist and sabotage operations against the country and are mulling other ways to topple him... Why the Magna Carta anniversary celebrations will be missing two crucial paragraphs, by Francis Carr Begbie | The Occidental Observer ...Across the English-speaking judicial world no single document is probably more venerated than the Great Charter. The Founding Fathers embedded it into the 1791 Bill of Rights in the shape of the Fifth Amendment that says no-one “can be deprived of life, liberty or property without due process of law”. And today it is regularly cited in newspaper editorials, political debates and Supreme Court judgments.. Why have clauses 10 and 11 been airbrushed from history? These were the ones inserted in the original charter to protect widows and underage heirs specifically from Jewish moneylenders by restricting the recovery of debt out of the deceased debtor’s estate... The Gospel according to Sand: We are not Jews | Niqnaq Professor Shlomo Sand opens his new book, “How and When I Stopped Being Jewish,” with a warning: “Many readers will see the main point presented in this book as illegitimate and even infuriating. Many of the secular people among them who insist on defining themselves as Jews will reject it out of hand. Others will see me as a vile, self-hating traitor.”.. if there is no such thing as a Jewish people, then secular individuals cannot, by definition, be Jewish. Step by step, he undermines, weakens and deconstructs the identity of secular Jews... "The Controversy of Zion" by Douglas Reed | Kevin Boyle ...Why was he “forgotten”? It was simply because he wrote about “The Jewish Question!” International Jewry responded to his frank description of the problem with total censorship, so that his new books could no longer be printed and the old ones would disappear gradually from the bookstores and even from the library shelves. After a short period of slandering he was no longer mentioned at all in the world's media... The Origins of the Inquisition in 15th Century Spain by Benzion Netanyahu: Review by Brian Chalmers | IHR It is nearly impossible to dig into any chapter of Jewish history without uncovering lessons for our own age. Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries is a particularly striking example. Even today, our view of this period, and particularly of the Spanish Inquisition, colors our attitudes regarding relations between Jews and non-Jews. The Inquisition is considered one of Jewish history's darkest chapters - and one of Christian history's most shameful. In 1391 intense, pent up anti-Jewish sentiment in Christian Spain erupted with great violence against the country's prosperous, well-established Jewish community. Spanish cities were engulfed in ferocious pogroms... When Pi Equals 3: The Battle for a Zionist Chief Rabbi | Roi Tov ...Weakened, Netanyahu is between a rock and a hard place. He cannot make a coalition with his historical partners, the Ultra-Orthodox parties. If he follows the lead of Bennett and Lapid he will be soon portrayed as a clownish yes-man; Ultra-Orthodox already consider him a Hyrax-Eater for what they consider his betrayal. Bennett belongs to the Religious Zionism Movement and is eager to justify his achievement in the recent elections. He is promoting the Haredi Draft Law, and in the second week of May announced a marriages reform in Israel and on May 19, 2013 announced that he wants a Zionist Chief Rabbi... Israeli Archive File Shows That Israel’s Founder Tried to Erase Palestinian Nakba, by Saed Bannoura | The OtherSite A new report published in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz describes the information found in a newly-uncovered document in the government archives, which reveals that the first Israeli government, including the first Prime Minister David Ben Gurion, worked to re-write the history of Israel's founding in 1948 to deny the fact that over 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled... Why Shouldn’t the Federal Government Be Blamed for Boston? by Jacob G. Hornberger | The Future of Freedom Foundation ...Prior to the 9/11 attacks, The Future of Freedom Foundation repeatedly stated that if the U.S. government continued its policies of death, destruction, humiliation, and abuse that it implemented in the Middle East after the Cold War ended, Americans would ultimately witness terrorist attacks on American soil. We were referring, of course, to the brutal sanctions on the Iraqi people, which were killing Iraqi children by the multitudes, the stationing of U.S. troops near Muslim holy lands in Saudi Arabia, the support of brutal dictatorships in Muslim and Arab countries, and the unconditional military and financial support provided to the Israeli government... Jump Off the Treadmill of Defeat! by John Spritzler | New Democracy World Americans are on a treadmill of defeat. That's why things are getting worse, not better. Working class and "middle class" Baby Boomer parents know that things are getting worse. They know that that life is a lot harder today for their children than it was for themselves back when they were young adults looking for their first real job. Good-paying jobs are more scarce. Expectations in life are lower. Student college debts are now so oppressive that they render new college graduates virtual debt slaves forced to work a job they don't like just to pay back the debt... May 20, 2013 Ilan Pappe: Palestine Solidarity Conference in Stuttgart 2013 | YouTube Al Nakba and Canada, by Mazin Al Nahawi | Intifada Palestine The Canadian government has a history of supporting apartheid, along with other destructive policies from mining, to militarism, and backing up big corporations stealing from poor nations. It is a shame that John Baird and his boss Stephen Harper haven’t learned yet from Canada’s colonial past.. “I am not willing to see anybody associated with those misled and criminal people.." (Signed, ‘A. Einstein’).. Jackass does his job: After US request, EU delays decision to label products from Israeli settlements | Niqnaq At the US’ request, the EU has delayed fully enforcing its decision to label products from West Bank settlements in European stores. European diplomats and senior officials in Jerusalem said the issue, which was due to be pushed through at the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council this week, was put off to the end of June. A year ago, the foreign ministers of the 27 EU member states decided to fully enforce EU legislation regarding products originating from the settlements. Such products would be labeled throughout the EU... Political firewall: Strategy against the assault against Israel's legitimacy | Reut Institute This document focuses on the structural response to the challenge of Israel's delegitimization... [Reut is the premier Israeli hasbara think tank. ] On Ambassador Sherman’s Testimony on Iran, by Peter Jenkins | LobeLog Listening, on 15 May, to the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on US policy towards Iran put me in mind of the inscription Dante imagined over the entrance to Hell: “Abandon hope all you who enter here”. There seemed no notion among members of the committee that territories beyond the borders of the United States of America are not subject to US jurisdiction – still less that reasoned persuasion and reciprocity can be more effective tools for achieving US foreign policy goals than sanctions (how the good Congressmen love sanctions!) and the infliction of pain... UN General Assembly Vote Reflects Shift in Syrian Public Opinion, by Franklin Lamb | Al Manar It’s not hard to find critics of the Assad government in the Governorate (Muhafazat) of Homs or for that matter, to varying degrees in Syria’s other thirteen Governorates according to Syrian analysts interviewed by this observer and reports from human rights groups including lawyers representing dissidents in Syria. However, after nearly 27 months of turmoil, the public opinion pendulum is markedly shifting back in support of the current regime. One international political result was registered at the United Nations this past week when a US-Qatari-Saudi drafted General Assembly Resolution that was designed to increase pressure on the Assad government stumbled badly... Israel says no ‘compromise’ should be made with Iran | PressTV At a Friday meeting with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle - whose country is a member of the P5+1 - in East al-Quds (Jerusalem), Peres once again accused Iran of building a nuclear weapon and called for the escalation of pressure against the Islamic Republic in the run-up to the country’s presidential election on June 14. “Iran is near elections and the sanctions may be having an impact. The sanctions and pressure should be continued in the buildup to the Iranian elections,” the hawkish Israeli president said... [Peres is bucking to be Israel’s Official Bullshit Artist (OBA) as well as President] Israel: "We Are More Anti-Semites!" | Roi Tov I can seldom claim to be delighted during my daily tours within the Hebrew media darkest corners; the offensive image I reproduced in yesterday's article is a good explanation why. Yet, today, May 19, 2013, I had a pleasant surprise on the Yedioth Ahronot portal. A small box linked there to a comment on yesterday's Eurovision Song Contest. In its fine print, one can read: "All are anti-Semites? We are more!" With such an irrational competitiveness, it is not surprising that Israel didn't reach the final stage, the fact that provoked the delightful remark... Benghazi Smoke Screen, by Will Durst | Huffington Post ...Having taken all this in, the American people responded with what can only be characterized as even more penetrating questions such as: "Who cares? What difference does it make? Aren't we stuffed to the gills with enough partisan gobbledy goop already? Does anyone really give an albino rat's ass? Isn't there a seafood buffet around here somewhere?" The revelations have been as startling as mint jelly on lamb. Tragic violent events occurring in the Middle East? Oh no! Not that... America Honors Its Worst | Stephen Lendman Presidential Medals of Freedom are awarded annually. They mock what they claim to represent. Many go to deplorable recipients. Previous dishonorees include GHW Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Gates, Henry Kissinger, Tony Blair, Shimon Peres, Margaret Thatcher, Alvaro Uribe, Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, and Alan Greenspan among others... Two friends meet for 5 minutes in Jerusalem, by Walaa Ghussein and Annie Robbins | Mondoweiss ..It's not easy for a Gaza resident to get a permit to enter the occupied lands of Palestine, or even to leave Gaza through Erez checkpoint. And it's impossible for anyone from there to enter Gaza. Our permanent dream is to meet, one day, in our own land. And we never gave up this dream. But I almost did when I was there, in Jerusalem, not having time to meet one of my friends because of my permit and some restrictions. But my friend refused to give up and managed to follow me to the Gas station while I was on my way back to Gaza. My friend, Maha came from Umm Al-Fahem to Jerusalem, just to see me for 5 minutes in the Gas station, knowing that I would have to go back to Gaza before 7 pm... West German justice and so-called National Socialist violent crimes, by Wilhelm Staeglich | Paul Eisen When I speak of so-called National Socialist (hereinafter: NS) crimes of violence, this correctly indicates my conviction that the legend of the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question" is a fiction. This is not the place to present a detail-by-detail rebuttal of this myth; others have already done so most adequately. In any case, as a jurist I do not in any way feel beholden to deliver a conclusive refutation of an allegation which has yet to be proved in the first place. The historians have from time to time admitted as much, and refer the skeptic not to any forensic or tangible evidence of exterminations by gas, but to the results of countless NS criminal trials before the West German courts... The True Meaning of God's Covenant with Abraham, by Rev. Ted Pike | NPN Jewish and evangelical Christian media are up in arms against the recent report by the Church of Scotland asserting that Jews have no “divine right” to own and occupy Palestine. They are demanding a retraction and swelling this controversy into a major discussion which could become even larger. In this, the first of a series, I will repost definitive articles I have written on this vital subject. I present what I believe is a balanced, practical, and biblical answer to the question: “Do Jews have ‘divine rights’ to Palestine?”.. Anatole France and Michel Corday: War is a crime, for which victory brings no atonement | Stop NATO Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts... Vittorio Arrigoni, a winner | YouTube In the beautiful scenery of Gaza's cemetery, where soldiers of WWI are buried, Vik explains how he would want to be commemorated if he would die (in a hundred years or so). It's true words, from a true winner. You're dreams will live on, we are guarding over them... ‘Reset’ on Iran now, by Yousaf Butt | Reuters On Wednesday, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iran’s chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, met one on one for their regularly scheduled diplomatic dance over Iran’s nuclear program – this time in Istanbul. A solution is about as likely to materialize from these discussions as a slow waltz between them. Indeed, the two sides in Istanbul are reported to remain far apart. The fundamental reason progress is unlikely now – and perhaps also after the Iranian presidential election on June 14 – is that the West has badly mishandled the nuclear issue since the early 1980s. Iran is also at fault... The Rise and Fall of the Holocaust Industry, by Jonas E. Alexis | Veterans Today When Norman Finkelstein wrote The Holocaust Industry: Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering in 2000, he argues that Holocaust “hoaxers” and “hucksters”—namely Jewish organizations—have exploited what happened in Nazi Germany in order to get millions of dollars from Swiss banks. Finkelstein calls those Jewish leaders a “repellent gang of plutocrats, hoodlums, and hucksters.” The book was quickly denounced as a work of an anti-Semite, despite the fact that Finkelstein lost his grandparents in Nazi Germany. Finkelstein was teaching at Hunter College at the time and lost his job right after the publication of the book... [Bigger than any shoa(sic) Broadway ever dreamed of, and immensely profitable] May 19, 2013 Yoav Bar: Palestine Solidarity Conference in Stuttgart 2013 | YouTube Joseph Massad: Palestine Solidarity Conference in Stuttgart 2013 | YouTube Zionism, Antisemitism and the Question of Palestine... Legally, Morally, and Ethnically Israel Has No Right To Exist, by Mohamed Khodr | Veterans Today How inhumanely cruel, barbaric, devious, deceitful, manipulative, ironic but oh so typical, so so typical of Israel and its submissive Congress.. As typical of their manipulation of truth, history, and non-stop efforts to distract the world from any remembrance or simplest commemoration of what the founding of Israel on May 15, 1948 entailed. Israel could only be established in Arab Palestine if its native inhabitants were collectively and brutally ethnically cleansed from Palestine through hundreds of terrorist act, dozens of wholesale massacres of entire villages, and the total destruction of 530 Palestinian villages... The Age of Corporate Treason, by Ralph Nader | Counterpunch ...these corporate goliaths work their tax lawyers overtime to escape U.S. taxes. Many pay less than you do in federal income taxes. Imagine corporations, like General Electric, have not paid federal income taxes on U.S. profits for years. Why are big, global U.S. corporations so unpatriotic? After all, they were created in the U.S.A., rose to immense profit because of the toil of American workers, are bailed out by American taxpayers whenever they’re in trouble, and are safeguarded abroad by the U.S. military. Yet these corporate goliaths work their tax lawyers overtime to escape U.S. taxes. Many pay less than you do in federal income taxes... Obama's Contempt for Venezuelan Democracy, by Stephen Lendman | Indybay It's no surprise. He exceeds the worst of George Bush. He abhors democratic values. He defiles rule of law principles. He governs by diktat authority. He's waging war on humanity. He targets all independent states. He wants puppet pro-US regimes replacing them. Venezuela is hugely important. It's the oil, stupid. Venezuelan reserves are the world's largest... Bashar al-Assad interview: “I don’t give up. The people say who stays and who should go, not U.S.” | Syrian Free Press President Bashar al-Assad affirmed that the basis for any political solution for the crisis in Syria is what the Syrian people want, which is decided through ballots, saying that Syria welcomes the Russian-US rapprochement, voicing Syria’s support for any suggestion which halts violence and leads to a political solution and its readiness to hold dialogue with any Syrian side which didn’t deal with Israel secretly or publically and which rejects terrorism. In an interview with Argentina’s Clarin newspaper and Telam news agency, President al-Assad said that Israel supports terrorists, directs them and gives them the general plan of their movements according to its interests... Washington gets explicit: its 'war on terror' is permanent, by Glenn Greenwald | The Guardian That the Obama administration is now repeatedly declaring that the "war on terror" will last at least another decade (or two) is vastly more significant than all three of this week's big media controversies (Benghazi, IRS, and AP/DOJ) combined. The military historian Andrew Bacevich has spent years warning that US policy planners have adopted an explicit doctrine of "endless war". Obama officials, despite repeatedly boasting that they have delivered permanently crippling blows to al-Qaida, are now, as clearly as the English language permits, openly declaring this to be so... [The funny thing is that if they were really serious about eliminating the ‘terrorists’ they’d all have to commit seppuku. That’s my contribution to the suggestion box.] Catastrophic thinking: Did Ben-Gurion try to rewrite history? by Shay Hazkani (Haaretz) | Shamireaders ...Archived Israeli documents that reported the expulsion of Palestinians, massacres or rapes perpetrated by Israeli soldiers, along with other events considered embarrassing by the establishment, were reclassified as "top secret." Researchers who sought to track down the files cited in books by Benny Morris, Avi Shlaim or Tom Segev often hit a dead end. Hence the surprise that file GL-18/17028, titled "The Flight in 1948" is still available today... IDF Commando Filmed Crapping on Friend’s Head | Roi Tov "I had a female commander who didn't stop cursing, dirty words that I had never heard before," Yosef Duvdevany complained a few days ago while describing his IDF service as a Haredi soldier. Despite his heartbreaking descriptions, anybody aware of the IDF reality couldn't help but giggle in embarrassment at his naivety. In the last minutes of May 16, 2013, so that the item would be missed by many, Haaretz published in its Hebrew online edition that the commando's filmed shitting on their friend's head were dismissed from their duties. In other words, they were thrown down the sewage of oblivion into the deepest ocean... Church of Scotland unmoved by Zionist bullies, by Stuart Littlewood | Redress Information & Analysis Church of Scotland report challenging Jews’ “divine right” to Palestinian homeland unchanged. Impertinent complaints politely sidestepped.. The Israeli ambassador moaned that it belittled the deeply held Jewish attachment to the land of Israel in a way which was “truly hurtful”.. [It's touching that mass murderers (among their numerous other crimes) are so sensitive.] Women of the Wall, by Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom There was this Israeli man who from time to time put a slip of paper in the cracks between the stones of the Western Wall, asking God for favors - as Jews have been doing for centuries. They believe that the gates of heaven are located directly above the Wall, making it easy for their missives to arrive quickly. The man always wondered what all the other petitioners were requesting from the Almighty. One night his curiosity got the better of him. In the wee hours of the morning he stole to the Wall, extracted all the pieces of paper and checked them. All of them were stamped “Request Denied”.. Mideast Now Entering the Twilight Zone, by Jim W. Dean | Veterans Today ...Press TV’s Saturday news about the May 7 agreement of Russia and the U.S. to encourage a political solution to the Syrian war is what launched me into outer space. You may notice I did not use the term civil war. Everyone now knows, even the dead… that it is not. The West and the Persian Gulf states are openly at war with Syria, but we are supposed to believe that their actions just represent concerns over protecting their interests. The new thing in modern warfare is that you use proxies to keep your downside risks manageable. Hopefully that theory will be relegated to the trash bin after Syria... Russia, the West and World War II, by Joseph Richardson | Counterpunch ...The historian Howard Zinn, himself a former bombardier and member of the ‘greatest generation’, reacted to the cult of WW2, and the concomitant glorification of its participants, in the following terms: “I refuse to celebrate them as “the greatest generation” because in so doing we are celebrating courage and sacrifice in the cause of war. And we are miseducating the young to believe that military heroism is the noblest form of heroism, when it should be remembered as only the tragic accompaniment of horrendous policies driven by power and profit... The Biggest Obama Scandals Are Proven and Ignored, by Conor Friedersdorf | The Atlantic ...President Obama has broken the law on multiple occasions. Despite clearly stating, in a 2008 questionnaire, that the commander-in-chief is not lawfully empowered to ignore treaties duly ratified by the Senate, Obama has willfully failed to enforce the torture treaty, signed by Ronald Reagan and duly ratified by the Senate, that compels him to investigate and prosecute torture. As Sullivan put it earlier this year, "what Obama and Holder have done (or rather not done) is illegal." Obama also violated the War Powers Resolution, a law he has specifically proclaimed to be Constitutionally valid, when committing U.S. troops to Libya without Congressional approval... May 18, 2013 Prof. Richard Falk: "Boycott, Disinvestment, Sanctions" and the perspective of one democratic state in Palestine" | YouTube Obama's Legacy: Secrecy, Drones, Prisons and Kill Lists, by Alyssa Rohricht | Counterpunch ...From the very start of Obama’s presidency, he and his administration have managed to take the Bush-era attack on civil liberties and not just continue them, but in many cases, significantly expand them. The AP phone records story, while certainly significant, is not the first time the Obama administration has acted above the law... Pope Francis condemns global 'cult of money' | Al Jazeera Pope Francis has called on world leaders to put an end to the "cult of money" and to do more to help the poor, warning that insecurity was rising in many regions of the world and the "joy of life" was diminishing in developed countries. "The worship of the golden calf of old has found a new and heartless image in the cult of money and the dictatorship of an economy which is faceless and lacking any truly human goal," Francis said in an address to ambassadors to the Vatican on Thursday. Francis said that radical free-market ideologies had created "a new, invisible, and at times virtual, tyranny" and human beings "considered as consumer goods" and called for global financial reform that would benefit everyone... [Wow, who saw that coming? Somehow I doubt that the Jewish bankers who hold the mortgages on the Vatican are pleased. It’s quite possible that the new Pope could meet an untimely end. On the other hand, the High Priesthood of the Cult of the Golden Calf, if I may call them that, might have given him a long leash, as they basically control the Church no matter what he says or does. We’ll see how this plays out.] 3 Glaring Hypocrisies in Obama's Iran Policy, by John Glaser | Huffington Post ...America's geo-political interests have always trumped respect for human rights. We supported Turkey as it carried out ethnic cleansing of the southeastern Kurdish population in the 1990s. American money and weapons aided the Indonesian regime's atrocities against the people of East Timor in the same years. Today, in Bahrain, the U.S.-backed regime continues to systematically repress peaceful, democratic protests in harsh crackdowns including murder, torture, and intimidation. Iran's support of the Syrian regime is one thing, but for U.S. officials to use it to justify hostility toward Iran is hypocritical in the extreme... Israel’s Deficit Cure: New Taxes on Occupied Palestinians, by Jason Ditz | Antiwar Ongoing budget talks in Israel have begun to coalesce around a scheme to unilaterally amend the Oslo Accords with a provision allowing the Israeli Defense Ministry to impose “tolls” on Palestinians in the occupied territories for allowing them to import and export goods... US drone strikes: 'deadly and dirty' warns new book | The Guardian ...The kill lists, scrutinised personally by Obama at the weekly meetings, were soon expanded to become what US journalist Jeremy Scahill, author of Dirty Wars, calls a form of "pre-crime" justice where individuals are considered fair game if they met certain life patterns of suspected terrorists.. "One of the enduring legacies of Obama's presidency is how he has normalised assassination as a central component of what is called America's national security policy", Scahill told me... Chechen deja vu | The Vineyard of the Saker ...while there are bloodthirsty maniacs on both sides, such maniacs are always present in any group of people), on the government side they act in their own, self appointed, capacity, they are not the official norm, and they don't pretend to be upholding any law. Not so with the Wahabis: they very openly claim to be acting legally and morally, they are actually very proud of their actions, and the clearly present their atrocities no as a shameful deed, but as the norm, as the law of the land should they ever get to power... Palestinians advocate for one state solution | YouTube On the Bilderberg Agenda: Domestic Spying, Diffusing Social Protests, War on Syria and Iran, by Stephen Lendman | Global Research ..“Backed up by prior research, we were able to confirm in conversations with hotel managers and others that the Grove is now a central base for Google’s agenda to control the global political and technological landscape.” Bilderberg’s “being recast as ‘Google-Berg’ – partly because of efforts on behalf of activists to tear away the veil of Bilderberg’s much cherished secrecy, and partly as a means of re-branding authoritarian, undemocratic secret gatherings of elites as trendy, liberal, feel-good philanthropic-style forums like Google Zeitgeist and TED.”.. Malcolm Shabazz's Suspicious Death | Stephen Lendman ...Who killed Malcolm matters less than who wanted him dead and ordered it. Others will have to decide. Perhaps history will have final say. The same holds for Shabazz. It's unclear who killed him and why. He once said he and his family were persecuted "by select businessmen and government officials. I've been a target my entire life. My family is targeted." More on that below... Ilan Pappe: Palestine Solidarity Conference in Stuttgart (5/10/13) | YouTube solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant | Paul Eisen Below is a post by Tony Greenstein on his own blog. For reasons of ill-health, Tony's cutting back on his activism. I'm sorry about the ill-health, but less so about the cutting back. Since I've been around, Tony Greenstein has engaged in just about the most vicious, bigoted and hate-filled Jewish ethnic activism I've ever come across - all the more strange (and worrying) when one considers how personable Tony can be on meeting... [I have recently observed Greenstein in action on Alan Hart’s blog; he’s everything Paul says. I’m sad that Alan is throwing in the towel. Greenstein’s absence from the Web, however, can only be considered a blessing, to the Palestinians and pretty much everyone else.] The Real News From Guatemala: US Guilty of Genocide, by Ajamu Baraka | Counterpunch ...A relationship that even with a cursory understanding of the history of the conflict in Guatemala would lead logically to the inescapable conclusion that if Efrain Rios Montt, and by extension the Guatemalan military, are guilty of the crime of genocide, the U.S. government and its officials are just as guilty as Rio Montt and that justice in Guatemala remains unfulfilled until everyone, including those responsible for pulling the strings in Guatemala, are also brought to justice... Egypt to Gaza: The Gate and The Key, by Lauren Booth | Gilad Atzmon It’s been exactly a year since I was last in Gaza.. On my previous visit, months after Egyptians elected the Muslim Brotherhood to power, there was little sign to the visitor of any real easing of the punitive behavior of officials at the Rafah crossing, towards Palestinians, wishing to travel to and from their homeland. What changes would I see this time?.. Alan Hart and what it takes to struggle on, by Lawrence Davidson | Redress Information & Analysis ...On 25 April Alan Hart, the activist for Palestine, literally turned in his resignation letter. In it he states, “I am withdrawing from the battlefield of the war for the truth of history as it relates to making and sustaining of the conflict in and over Palestine.” Why did he do this? In Hart’s opinion, the struggle for justice in Palestine is “mission impossible”.. With all due respect to Alan Hart, who certainly does deserve our respect, I can’t help asking myself whether his assessment of this “war for the truth of history” is objectively true or an expression of personal disappointments... FBI files reveal Anti-Defamation League spied on Arab students, by Grant F. Smith | The Electronic Intifada ...In 1969, the Anti-Defamation League infiltrated and spied on a national gathering of Arab students in the United States, newly released Federal Bureau of Investigation documents show.. The documents reveal how ADL surveillance against the Organization of Arab Students (OAS) in 1969 coalesced into plans for infiltrating the OAS national organization in New York. The files also give an insight into why the entire effort eventually backfired, ultimately leading to raids on ADL offices involved in intelligence-gathering through illegal means, and a lawsuit against ADL in the early 1990s — ultimately settled out of court in 2002... May 17, 2013 Al Nakba Day Commemorating The Palestinian Catastrophe ...In covering al-Nakba, sympathetic Arab and other media play sad music and show black and white footage of displaced, frightened refugees. They rightly emphasize the concept of Sumud, steadfastness, as they show Palestinian of all ages holding unto the rusty keys of their homes and insisting on their right of return. Other, less sympathetic media discuss al-Nakba, if at all, as a side note – a nuisance in the Israeli narrative of a nation’s supposedly miraculous birth and its progression to an idyllic oasis of democracy. What such reductionist representations often fail to show is that while al-Nakba started, it never truly finished... ..“They old will die and the young will forget.” declared, David Ben Gurion, the ideological father of the European colonial/settler project, Zionism. Few quotes so succinctly sum up the stated goal/vision, idealism and the delusional nature of Zionism – which can only reside in the realm of cognitive dissonance. Meanwhile, nothing more accurately reflects the collective consciousness of Palestinians, than the shared memory of what began 65 years ago today, during the Nakba, or catastrophe and forced exile of 750,000 people from their land, and the universally recognized right to return home... ..Lifta is one of the 68 villages surrounding Jerusalem that were ethnically cleansed during the Israeli systematic attack in 1948. Unlike the others, it is the only Arab village that has not been destroyed since. Israel confiscated the village land under the Absentee Property law in 1950, despite recognition by the Fourth Geneva Convention of the right of refugees to be repatriated. Some of its inhabitants found shelter a few hundred meters away, certain of soon being able to return to their former homes, while others fled to the West Bank and are now unable to visit their village due to the severe restrictions on Palestinian movement imposed by the Israeli government... The fifteenth of May 2013 marks the sixty-fifth commemoration of the day the oppressive Zionist state came into being. It also marks sixty-five years from the beginning of our collective fragmentation and simultaneous resistance. This current period that we are living also marks a significant shift in our history not only as Palestinians, but as Arabs, colonized, and young people of today’s world. While there are strong sentiments of brokenness and rupture of Palestinian and Arab communities, we also must recognize, reflect on, and celebrate our histories of resistance and use these narratives as fuel for creating a new and strong resistance for our generation and those that follow... Why a Syrian rebel eats a soldier's heart, by James Dawes | CNN ...Watching videos like this, and thinking thoughts like this, it is easy to lose hope. In war, are we doomed always to descend into barbarism? The answer is no. The nightmare video from Syria is not inevitable. The very same steps used for creating monsters can also be used to stop monstrosity -- you just need to reverse the steps. Some people are born moral heroes, but most are made. And this is how you make them... Open War Crimes: US and British-Backed Weapons Airlift From Croatia to Terrorists in Syria, by Patrick Henningsen | UK Column It’s well known by now that the NATO and Gulf States' initial plans to overturn the sovereign state of Syria has been running behind schedule since their operation was launched two years ago. They had hoped for the sort of slam dunk which they enjoyed in overturning the country of Libya in late 2011. This same formula could not be applied again however, so Plan B, a ground war using proxies has meant a longer drawn out conflict, with western backed terrorist groups sustaining heavy losses in their fight to topple the Assad government on behalf of NATO and its Gulf allies... Imperialism, The Cold War, and the Contradictions of Decolonization, by Anthony Mustacich | Global Research ...As the last standing capitalist superpower, the United States was charged with redesigning the imperial landscape after WWII. The former colonial empires of Western Europe were in shambles and no longer had the ability to manage their colonies. The United States adopted a comprehensive aid program to help rebuild Europe and Japan.. The Marshall Plan.. was no altruistic gesture stemming from America’s noble spirit, but rather a way for American capital and products to penetrate European markets. In the end, the Marshall Plan pumped $13 billion into the reconstruction of Europe, reviving capitalism on a world scale... The Western Powers Had No Choice But To Go For Peace Talks, by Amb. Gajendra Singh | Shamireaders ...Bassam el Hachem says, that given the state of the jihadist rebellion and given the danger to world peace following the mad Israeli intervention, the "Americans" decided they cannot go on taking such risks. They had given the green light to the rebellion to try to take control of the country, but after nearly two years and with the jihadists going from bad to worse, they decided there was too much risk involved in all of this for them. Thus the opening of the negotiations with Putin... The Poorest Rich Country | Roi Tov ...Both movements are related to the truth that Israel is trying to hide: Israel is not a developed country. Its membership in the OECD allows it to market easily its military industries to Third World countries. Yet, on May 15, 2013, the OECD published a report showing that Israel is the poorest country among its members. Moreover, the rate of poor people in its population almost doubled since 1995, rating worse than Mexico and Turkey. Moreover, Israel is one of the top five countries in the world when measuring the income gap between rich and poor... Take It From the Rabbi’s Mouth | Gilad Atzmon Every so often we come across a secular Jewish ‘anti’ Zionist’ who argues that Zionism is not Judaism and vice versa. Interestingly enough, I have just come across an invaluable text that illuminates this question from a rabbinical perspective. Apparently back in 1942, 757 American Rabbis added their names to a public pronouncement titled ‘Zionism an Affirmation of Judaism’. This Rabbinical rally for Zionism was declared at the time “the largest public pronouncement in all Jewish history.”.. "We have to stop being afraid of Jews" | Paul Eisen ..the Christian author says, "We have to stop being afraid of Jews.. We must empower ourselves to treat Jews just as we would any other person or group with whom we live, negotiate, or have a conflict".. this'll immediately be seen by Jews as hostility. 'Non-Semitism' will be portrayed as 'anti-Semitism'. And of course 'the Jews' (meaning those Jewish big-shots who get us ordinary Jews into so much trouble), are very good at picking up on this and using it to create trouble. How to deal with that? Well, I suppose as one would with any unruly adolescent who yells "You're always pickin' on me".. When 'J' means 'Jewish' not 'Justice,' by Heike Schotten | Mondoweiss ...I’m skeptical that U.S. Jewish opinion has much sway over the machinations of the Zionist lobby. Their opinions may matter more to the so-called “Jewish establishment,” but even presuming a major shift on Israel on their part leaves me unconvinced that this would significantly affect either the Zionist lobby or U.S. policy on Israel. After all, neither actually cares about Jewish people, their welfare, or what they really think—this is far from their raison d’être. To presume otherwise is again to presume that Zionism has something to do with Judaism or Jewish people, when in fact Judaism and Jewish people are instead used as ideological leverage... On Political Preconditions | Richard Falk ...If we look back at the developments of the past twenty years, we take note of the extraordinary growth in the number of Israeli settlers and the ethnographic and infrastructural changes in the city of Jerusalem, making it difficult to continue to lend credence to Palestinian self-determination being realized by a ‘two-state’ solution, which remains the American oft-repeated mantra. What might have seemed like a viable Palestinian state in 1967 when Security Council Resolution 242 was adopted, became less so, when the Oslo Framework was accepted on the White House lawn in 1993, and by 2013 it is a delusionary goal... Stephen Hawking's boycott hits Israel where it hurts: science, by Hilary and Steven Rose | The Guardian ...That the world's most famous scientist had recognised the justice of the Palestinian cause is potentially a turning point for the BDS campaign. And that his stand was approved by a majority of two to one in the Guardian poll that followed his announcement shows just how far public opinion has turned against Israel's relentless land-grabbing and oppression... Israel’s racist and ethnocentric roots, by Jamal Kanj | Redress Information & Analysis ...Following a UN vote to divide Palestine in November 1947, Israel’s founder, David Ben-Gurion, reiterated the same goals when he voiced concerns that the partition plan would result in a state with only a 60 per cent majority of Jews, declaring: “Such a composition does not provide a stable basis for a Jewish state.” After a six-month campaign of terror, the Zionists succeeded in reducing the “vexing” population by more than 90 per cent. Institutional racism targeting the remaining natives, who today represent 20 per cent of the population of Israel – was complemented by a rabbinic edict signed by several Israeli Jewish religious scholars... May 16, 2013 Good-bye Dubai? Bombing Iran’s Nuclear Facilities would leave the Entire Gulf States Region virtually Uninhabitable, by Wade Stone | Global Research Every Spring and Summer, during a period of low pressure over the Persian Gulf, powerful winds known as the “shamals and sharqi,” sweep down from the north and north east into Saudi Arabia, whipping up ever more grains of sand as they head south and south west across the Arabian Desert. Frequently, these sandstorms become gargantuan in size – hundreds of meters high and kilometers wide and in length of dense roiling particulate, choking the lungs of those exposed, blocking out the sun completely and, by the time they are over, burying whole towns, sometimes even large cities like Riyadh, in a meter deep or more of sand... Trapped Between Delusions of Total Victory and its True Consequences: America’s Syrian Riddle, by Deepak Tripathi | Counterpunch ...Persuading those who are ideologically drunk and politically myopic is often a hopeless undertaking. Hunger for war and lust for power or for distant resources always impair both reason and morality. The war hawks struggle for credibility. For them, the last resort is to assert with dead certainty their “belief” that it is Bashar al-Assad’s forces who have employed chemical weapons and committed war crimes. How could “freedom fighters” do this?.. The Living Tree | Palestine Fund This book.. gives a simple potted history of the Palestinian narrative since 1948 when the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine uprooted and dispossessed almost three quarters of the Palestinian population to make way for the newly created state of Israel. That ethnic cleansing continues to this day. The Palestinian people though, despite all the calamities which they endure, have remained steadfast and continue to struggle for their freedom and self-determination. This is an appeal for the world to support their rights under international humanitarian law and as stipulated in umpteen United Nations resolutions... Syria Counterattacks Israel | Roi Tov ...A creative solution to the conflict may look back at events that took place in the previous century. An Alawi State already existed between 1920 and 1946, under the French Mandate of the League of Nations. The city of Latakia was its capital, and it occupied territories that nowadays form the Syrian Latakia and Tartus governorates. The Alawis may agree to the destitution of Assad in exchange for the revival of their republic. In this scenario, Syria will be split in at least two parts... BDS and Its Agenda, by As'ad AbuKhalil (the Angry Arab) | Al Akhbar ...The BDS movement is growing in the Western world and may have become more mainstream than its enemies may have imagined, as was revealed from the recent stance of Stephen Hawking. The Zionists have striven to conflate boycotts with – you guessed it – anti-Semitism, hatred, and sectarianism. But the tasks and agenda of Zionism are way too clear: Zionists wish to delegitimize and even criminalize all acts of peaceful resistance against Israel, just as they have succeeded in criminalizing all acts of non-peaceful resistance against Israel... More on the Pritzker Mobster: Self-Chosen 'Nominee' for Commerce Secretary | Maurice Pinay The Pritzkers created the investment grade for the entire subprime mortgage industry. Once that collapsed, the worldwide economy collapsed. And this is the person they want to put as Secretary of Commerce. It was a very sophisticated con game. They were the best in the business at hurting the poor people – they did a superb job. Look at what they’ve done to the middle class, to everyone’s retirement, every pension fund that lost money in ’08, ’09 and 2010. The Pritzkers destroyed the American economy, which destroyed the world economy... Landmark Victory for a Change | Gilad Atzmon ..Six months ago Café Palestine filed a complaint against the University in the Administrative Court following the University´s refusal to let the Palestinian solidarity group use a space for a lecture by Paris University professor Christophe Oberlin. On Friday, the Administrative Court of Freiburg made of five judges found that the University acted illegally. Freiburg University together with Dr. Heinrich Schwendemann, who was the main actor against the Café, were highly criticized by the court. Schwendemann is one of the founders of the German Holocaust memorial site shoa.de... [Until this I never heard of the German ZioNazis ever losing any such challenges to their power.] How Elites and Media Minimize Dissent and Bury Truth, by Paul Craig Roberts | Information Clearing House ...I wrote about some of Unz’s remarkable findings. One of my favorites is his comparison of the responsiveness of the Chinese and US governments to their publics. I found his conclusion convincing that the authoritarian one-party Chinese government was more responsive to the Chinese people than democratic two-party Washington is to the American people. The person is rare who can take on such controversial issues in such a professional way that he wins the admiration even of his critics. In my opinion, Ron Unz is a national resource. He.. is an independent thinker free of The Matrix... Destroying Libya and World Order, by Francis A. Boyle: Review by Ludwig Waltzal | MCW News This book tells the story of what happened, why it happened and what went wrong between the United States and Libya from a perspective of a professor of international law. Among the U.S. Empire’s serving international law professors, Francis A. Boyle is an exception among American international law professors, because he offers his legal advice for government of states that are the victims of Western aggression. He has been opposing unlawful policies of states with his only available “weapon”: international law. He could be described as a defender of the downtrodden of the current international system such as the Palestinian people, Libya under Muammar al Gaddafi and others... The collapse of journalism / The journalism of collapse, by Robert Jensen | Resilience There is considerable attention paid in the United States to the collapse of journalism - both in terms of the demise of the business model for corporate commercial news media, and the evermore superficial, shallow, and senseless content that is inadequate for citizens concerned with self-governance. This collapse is part of larger crises in the political and economic spheres, crises rooted in the incompatibility of democracy and capitalism. New journalistic vehicles for storytelling are desperately needed. There has been far less discussion of the need for a journalism of collapse - the challenge to tell the story of a world facing multiple crises in the realms of social justice and sustainability... Dennis Bernstein interviews Gilad Atzmon | YouTube Radio host Dennis Bernstein interviewed renowned jazz saxophonist and author Gilad Atzmon on KPFA's Flashpoints on May 13, 2013... The Myth of the U.N. Creation of Israel, by Jeremy R. Hammond | Foreign Policy Journal There is a widely accepted belief that United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 “created” Israel, based upon an understanding that this resolution partitioned Palestine or otherwise conferred legal authority or legitimacy to the declaration of the existence of the state of Israel. However, despite its popularity, this belief has no basis in fact, as a review of the resolution’s history and examination of legal principles demonstrates incontrovertibly... May 15, 2013 Barghouthi: “Right Of Return, A Sacred Right” | International Middle East Media Center In a statement released from his prison cell, detained Palestinian political leader, Marwan Barghouthi, stated that May 15 marks the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, when Israel was established in the historic land of Palestine, over the ruins of hundreds of displaced and destroyed villages and towns, and added that on this day, the Palestinians reaffirm their legitimate inalienable Right of Return to their homeland... [That they have that sacred right is written in stone, in the earth, in the trees, in the hearts of all decent people, not to mention the law. The Israelis, claiming the same right based on nothing but fairy tales have only the right to leave, with an allowance of one suitcase per person, if the Palestinians choose to be that generous. I would only let them have the clothes on their backs, but I'm not so generous.] Read more...A Bedtime Story: ‘Daddy, What is a Drone?’ by Dr. William A. Cook | Intifada Palestine The question jolted him out of his lethargy as he suddenly sat upright in the soft chair he had slumped into when she came for “her time with Daddy.” It had the ring of a catechism question; “What is God, Daddy?” How does one answer that without a torrent of other questions cascading from this innocent mouth one after another? His first impulse was to ignore it; his second, to discombobulate the response with obfuscation, to deflect the question with words she could not understand; his third, to respond directly to her question, to speak the truth knowing that she would not comprehend the intricacies of the policies that legalize the use of drones... Bishop Richard Williamson: “Boston Bombing Was Another False Flag,” by Martin Hill | Veterans Today ...Barrett asks if the holocaust religion, instead of embodying traditional religious characteristics such as humility and submission to God, is conversely characterized by “egocentric qualities and personal aggrandizement.” Williamson replies similarly to the account he wrote.. in which he explained “Now not only does what is known as the “Holocaust” serve as the secular religion of the New World Order.. but also it seems to me that the post-World War II Germans have difficulty in respecting themselves unless they are beating their breast for the alleged crimes of the Third Reich. Holocaustianity is being almost designed to replace Christianity, and it’s been very cleverly done.”.. [Bishop Williamson reminds me more and more of Sir Thomas More.] Valentino's Ghost trailer | YouTube A Documentary Film exploring the Western misconceptions about the Middle East through our Main Stream Media outlets (Movies,News and TV) and how important it is to re examine our support for Israel... Palestinians Should Not Stand For It: Are Israelis Appropriating the Nakba? by Susan Abulhawa | Counterpunch ...Imagine Germany never acknowledged the Jewish holocaust. Imagine, we are living in an era where Jews are still fighting for basic recognition of their pain. Then imagine that on the day in which Jews engage in solemn remembrance of their greatest collective wound, television shows choose to feature German sons and daughters of Nazis in a discussion expressing differing views on whether or not and/or how Germany should deal with the memory of the genocide their country committed. And imagine, of course, there is a token Jew “to balance out” such an ill-timed and inappropriate public conversation... Ominous Similarities Between Syria and Iraq: History Lessons the West Refuses to Learn, by Patrick Cockburn | Counterpunch In the aftermath of the First World War, Britain and France famously created the modern Middle East by carving up what had been the Ottoman Empire. The borders of new states such as Iraq and Syria were determined in keeping with British and French needs and interests. The wishes of local inhabitants were largely ignored. Now, for the first time in over 90 years, the whole postwar settlement in the region is coming unstuck... Syria Endgame Approaching Fast, by Shamus Cooke | Global Research With Obama’s blessing Israel fighter jets recently attacked Syria on three occasions; in one massive air strike on a military installation in Damascus 42 Syrian soldiers were killed. Shortly thereafter Obama finally agreed to a peace conference with Russia, which had been asking for such talks for months. Obama is entering these talks from a weakened position; the Syrian government is winning the war against the U.S.-backed rebels, and success on the ground is the trump card of any peace talks. Obama and the rebels are in no position to be demanding anything in Syria at the moment... Cafe Palestine´s Victory Against the University of Freiburg | The OtherSite The reasons offered by the University in refusing use of a lecture hall were that the event might serve illegal and anti-constitutional aims and might lead to constitutional and legal violations which, according to the administrative regulations of the Ministry of Science and the University’s own guideline, are grounds for refusal. But the university failed to prove that the event might encourage constitutional and illegal violations and therefore was found to be abusing freedom of opinion... [Small victories add up] Robert Greenwald’s Brave New Film: An interview with ‘War on Whistleblowers’ filmmaker, by Kelley B. Vlahos | Antiwar A funny thing happened after post-9/11 whistleblowers started being gagged, persecuted, prosecuted, raided, threatened and retaliated against. They began to organize. They gathered the wagons around and took to the press. It’s a phenomenon not uncommon in America, particularly when individuals believe they are being unfairly targeted by the government for doing the right thing... Findings of the Mussalaha Peace Mission to Syria, by Father Dave Smith | Global Research Syria exhibits a massive and terrible breakdown of human decency and respect. There are millions of innocent victims and many individual acts of heroism, but amongst the powerful we see an appalling degree of violence, hypocrisy and corruption. Tens of thousands have died, millions have been displaced, and nearly the entire population of 23 million lives in fear. The international community has stated and we confirm that the Syrian tragedy is possibly the worst since World War II... We have purchased Gaza’s Ark | Gaza's Ark ...Gaza's Ark is a people-to-people campaign to force the injustices faced by Palestinians in Gaza back onto the world's agenda. We are excited to announce today that we have bought the boat that will become Gaza's Ark!.. Will Church of Scotland cave in to Zionist bullies? by Stuart Littlewood | Redress Information & Analysis ...It is therefore unacceptable for Jews to now lay exclusive claim to the land 17 centuries later, at gun-point, when the Palestinian Arabs, including their Christian communities, have been there all the time. The right of Palestinians who were expelled by Jewish terror has not expired because the Israeli occupation continues. Also, the UN endorsed their right to return. The Church of Scotland’s report, otherwise, seems a fair and truthful summation of the situation and the false claims. It doesn’t of course suit those like the Zionists, who find the truth “inconvenient” and see it as a threat to their wobbly position... CrossTalk on RT: US Foreign Policy - Manufacturing Deception? | YouTube What drives US foreign policy toward Iran? Whose interests does it benefit? And is it really ever about consensus? CrossTalking with Flynt Leverett and Judith Kipper... Buckling to Bigotry: The Newseum Dishonors Murdered Palestinian Journalistsm, by Nima Shirazi | Dissident Voice Just two days before Palestinians commemorate the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, the names of two Palestinian cameramen targeted and killed by Israeli airstrikes in Gaza last November were dropped from a dedication ceremony held to honor ”reporters, photographers and broadcasters who have died reporting the news” over the past year. The move followed an Israel lobby pressure campaign led by anti-Palestinian organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the American Jewish Committee, efforts that were openly supported by the Israeli government... The last of the Semites, by Joseph Massad | Al Jazeera Jewish opponents of Zionism understood the movement since its early age as one that shared the precepts of anti-Semitism in its diagnosis of what gentile Europeans called the "Jewish Question". What galled anti-Zionist Jews the most, however, was that Zionism also shared the "solution" to the Jewish Question that anti-Semites had always advocated, namely the expulsion of Jews from Europe.. While the majority of Jews continued to resist the anti-Semitic basis of Zionism and its alliances with anti-Semites, the Nazi genocide not only killed 90 percent of European Jews, but in the process also killed the majority of Jewish enemies of Zionism... [The Nazis and the Zionists – two peas in a pod] Israel blames Chomsky for Hawking withdrawal from Peres conference | PressTV ...“This is a big name person perceived as very rational, who doesn’t take political stances,” said Menachem Klein, a political scientist at Bar Ilan University, near Tel Aviv. “This will push forward the boycott movement on certain kinds of events.” “Hawking is a reminder that even Shimon Peres with his PR campaign to beautify the ugly face of Israel has limits,” he added... [Perhaps this will spur Chomsky to finally and fully let go of his youthful romance with Israel and start telling it like it is.] America’s War on Syria: Another Anti-Assad False Flag? by Stephen Lendman | Global Research Since early 2011, Obama’s been waging proxy war on Syria. Imported death squads masquerade as freedom fighters. The scheme’s familiar. It repeats. It reflects US imperialism’s dark side. In the 1980s, CIA-recruited Mujahideen fighters battled Afghanistan’s Soviet occupiers. Ronald Reagan called them “the moral equivalent of our founding fathers.” He characterized Contra killers the same way. Naked aggression is called humanitarian intervention. New wars follow earlier ones. Ravaging humanity is called liberation. Propaganda convinces people that America is threatened. Truth is turned on its head... May 14, 2013 Why the Two-State Solution is Not Dead: The Donkey of the Messiah, by Uri Avnery | Counterpunch “The two-state solution is dead!” This mantra has been repeated so often lately, by so many authoritative commentators, that it must be true. Well, it ain‘t. It reminds one of Mark Twain’s oft quoted words: “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” By now this has become an intellectual fad. To advocate the two-state solution means that you are ancient, old-fashioned, stale, stodgy, a fossil from a bygone era. Hoisting the flag of the “one-state solution” means that you are young, forward-looking, “cool”.. [I have a soft spot for the old warhorse. He almost makes Zionism seem respectable. That he passionately cares about justice for the Palestinians is incontrovertible. One of his greatest accomplishments, at least from his point of view, was to convince his bosom buddy Arafat to accept the idea of a Palestinian State, thereby legitimizing Israel and dooming the Palestinians to decades of wrenching suffering that continues to this day. The good news is that even Avnery now feels forced to confront the growing acceptance of the One State Solution. People are waking up.] Uri Avneri's Specious Attack on the One State Solution, by John Spritzler | New Democracy World Uri Avnery may be the most sophisticated defender of Israel's ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. He defends this ethnic cleansing while posing as a great friend and sympathizer of Palestinians.. Avnery's latest piece, "The Donkey of the Messiah," will, with its feigned concern for "being realistic" and specious "logic," no doubt mislead some people to abandon their support for the essence of any One State Solution, which is the right of return (to their homes and villages inside what is now called Israel) of the approximately seven million Palestinian refugees and compensation for property stolen from them by the Israeli state... Israeli Lobby Power in America | Stephen Lendman In 1949, the American Zionist Council (AZC) was established. It operated until 1962. It was ordered to register as a foreign agent. It failed to do so. It transferred its responsibilities to AIPAC. It calls itself "America's Pro-Israel Lobby. It operates as an unregistered foreign agent. It's done so since 1953. With rare exceptions, no one in Congress confronts it. It wields enormous influence over US foreign policy. It fronts for Israeli lawlessness. It's one of 52 major US Zionist organizations... Nakba and Palestinian Failings, by Sami Jamil Jadallah | Veterans Today ...While Israel leadership always had a focused mission of total and unconditional commitment to the safety, security, existence and expansion of Israel by all means including blackmailing, false flags terrorists attacks and penetrating the inner circles of the highest level of national security of Western democracies, the Palestinian leadership past and present continued to be bogged down with its own self serving and perpetuation and have lost focus on Palestine, on the Rights of Return and Jerusalem long long time ago... [Without our help the Palestinians have no chance at all, but if the Palestinian cause winds up an abject failure, then all the rest of us are toast as well. As they say, We are all Palestinians.] Israel, Iran, and the Nuclear Freight Train, by Tom Engelhardt/Nick Turse | Antiwar ..In those first minutes, they’ll be stunned. Eyes fixed in a thousand-yard stare, nerve endings numbed. They’ll just stand there. Soon, you’ll notice that they are holding their arms out at a 45-degree angle. Your eyes will be drawn to their hands and you’ll think you mind is playing tricks. But it won’t be. Their fingers will start to resemble stalactites, seeming to melt toward the ground. And it won’t be long until the screaming begins. Shrieking. Moaning. Tens of thousands of victims at once.. This could be Tehran, or what’s left of it, just after an Israeli nuclear strike... Consequences of western intransigence in nuclear diplomacy with Iran, by Hillary and Flynt Leverett | Al Jazeera ...the Obama administration is no closer than its predecessor to accepting safeguarded enrichment in Iran. This is partly due to pressure from various allies - Israel, Saudi Arabia, Britain, France - and their American supporters, who expect Washington somehow to defy legal principle along with political reality and compel Tehran to surrender indigenous fuel-cycle capabilities. But the real reason for US obstinacy is that recognising Iran's nuclear rights would mean accepting the Islamic Republic as a legitimate entity representing legitimate national interests... A United Nations For the Rest of Us, But Not For Israel, by Mohamed Khodr | Veterans Today On May 15, 2013 Israel will celebrate its 65th year of “independence” (from whom?), a celebration steeped in historical lies, myths, blood, and the forced expulsion and dispossession of Palestinians from their homeland with the political, economic, and military support of the U.S. and Britain, two colonial racist powers who themselves understand the meaning of killing and ethnically cleansing indigenous populations around the world. Since its illegal and immoral founding no nation has so humiliated, made a mockery of, or castrated the United Nations like Israel, the very nation that owes its existence to the U.N... The Jenin Jenin Amendment: Israel from Ethnocracy to Fascism | P U L S E ...on the 6th of May, Israel’s Ministerial Committee for Legislation decided to approve the “Jenin Jenin Amendment” in a paramilitary hearing. The amendment is an addition to the Israeli Defamation Law, stating that army personnel and the state can sue individuals, who expose army violence, for libel, without proving damages. The amendment comes as a reaction to Israel’s Supreme Court rejecting soldiers’ class action suit of defamation against actor/director Mohammad Bakri, for his documentary Jenin Jenin, in which Palestinian testimonies describe their experiences of the 2002 massacre perpetrated by Israel’s army in the besieged refugee camp... [A belligerent, supremacist ethnocracy - Israel from its very conception - is fascism in a nutshell] The EU: Israel's Faithful Brother in Arms, by Bruno Jäntti | Al Akhbar During Israel's latest onslaught against the Gaza Strip in November 2012, a major conference was held in Tel Aviv: the 2nd Israel HLS International Conference. Among the most prominent sponsors of the homeland security event were two of Israel's largest weapons companies, Elbit Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), both of which cooperate closely with the Israeli military. But the conference also had another grandiosely advertised partner: the European Commission... Jeremy Scahill: Other Side of the Barrel of the Gun, by Nozomi Hayase | Dissident Voice ..In his presentation to a packed audience in Oakland, California, Scahill mentioned the Reagan’s CIA wars and their attempts to recolonize parts of Latin America. He then showed how these Dirty Wars from the 80s are back — in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and other corners of the world. Under the post-911 ‘counter-terrorism’ meme, this impulse of imperial colonization continues in the Middle East and North Africa. Scahill’s investigations uncovered the real-world consequences of the brutal foreign policy being carried forward by the Obama administration... Back to the Future: Israel Accelerates Heritage Program | Roi Tov ..On May 13, 2013, the Israeli Government decided unanimously to replace its Secretary.. Avihai Mendelblit is the new one.. As Military Advocate General, he addressed the justification for the blockade of Gaza Strip and the legal aspects of the IDF attack on Gaza’s Freedom Flotilla.. the Secretary of the Government is a key function within the Israeli Government.. While in this position, Mr. Hauser initiated Moreshet, the Heritage Program.. At least two sites which were recently proposed for the project are political bombs. One is Rachel's Tomb in the northern entrance of Bethlehem. The second is even more sensitive, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron... The Big Split, by Preston James | Veterans Today Even though the American Group Mind (AGM) has been successfully “Hived”, it’s hard for the Big Lies of the US Government (USG) to last forever thanks to the advent of the alternative news provided by the worldwide Internet. As more and more USG Big Lies are exposed, the USG reacts by staging additional Gladio-style false-flag attacks (GFFA) in desperate attempts to bombard the American Group Mind back into submission and compliance with their completely false narratives which are dispensed through their Controlled Major Mass Media (CMMM)... May 12-13, 2013 Scientific Journals Must Not Touch Anything Related to Iran, by Jason Ditz | Antiwar Major scientific journal publisher Reed Elsevier and others are vowing to obey the latest US sanctions against Iran in their day-to-day operations, implementing bizarre policies aimed at following the letter of the law... [Science? More like Talmudic science, methinks. It’s gotta be kosher; anything from those vershluggene Persians is tref!! Hey, back in the day we slaughtered 75,000 of them; this time let's make it a lot more!] Washington and Moscow trying to square a circle in Syria, by Saeed Naqvi | Firstpost After 70,000 Syrians have paid with their lives in the foreign induced conflict in Syria, why has the American perspective changed? Even so, it was nice to see Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov embrace each other in Moscow. Kerry also met President Vladimir Putin who, in Kerry’s presence, asked Lavrov to take over the task of navigating the Syrian crisis towards a peaceful resolution. At about the same time two years ago, Hillary Clinton, with an imperious wave of the hand, was demanding that “Assad, get out of the way”... An orthodox historian finally acknowledges: There is no evidence for Nazi gas Chambers, by Robert Faurisson | Paul Eisen From the IHR, a piece of classic Faurisson. It contains that wonderful statement made by "34 reputable historians" who in 1979 proclaimed, "It is not necessary to ask oneself how, technically, such a mass murder was possible. It was technically possible because it happened." .. Israeli humor: Protocols of the Children of Zion | YouTube A brilliant skit from the Israeli comedy show "Eretz Nehederet" (lit: "Wonderful Country) on Channel 2. This skit depicts a joint education program devised by the right-wing (yet mainstream) organization Im Tirtzu with the Ministry of Education that helps kindergarten children be prepared for the complicated life in Israel... [Atzmon's comment: Jewish supremacy - they see it, they know it, they laugh about it but the rest of us are not even allowed to mention it...] America’s Muslim Zionists | Redress Information & Analysis The name sounds benign enough: the American Islamic Congress (AIC). The mission appears equally harmless, if somewhat vague: “We believe American Muslims must take the lead in building tolerance and fostering a respect for human rights and social justice..” The reality, however, is very different. The AIC is not what it seems. An investigative report by the author Max Blumenthal, published in Electronic Intifada, exposes the shocking truth that the AIC is funded by the most fanatical section of the Israel lobby in the United States... More truthtelling from David Duke | Paul Eisen More truthtelling from David Duke. In this video he showcases the renowned journalist Carl Bernstein who recently named the "Jewish Neo-Cons" who bullied and manipulated our world into the Iraq war. Towards the end of the video Dr. Duke says "I believe the day is coming when many more people ...will speak about the critical issues facing America and facing the world.".. [‘Tis true, ‘tis pity ‘tis true”] Jerusalem Day: Key Annexation Step Completed | Roi Tov Two years ago, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said during Jerusalem Day: "next year in a more built up Jerusalem," improving on an old Jewish prayer. It was such an unusual saying that against my usual policy, I quoted him in Jerusalem's Holocaust Day. His words became a self-fulfilling Pygmalion Prophecy. On Jerusalem Day 2013, Netanyahu inaugurated several projects which are crucial for the annexation of East Jerusalem... My response to Salvador López Arnal and Santiago Alba Rico, by Gilad Atzmon | Tlaxcala ...two days ago, the Spanish translation of “In Bed With Bibi” was published online by Tlaxcala and reproduced by the Rebelión website. Within a few hours, all hell broke loose: Salvador López Arnal and Santiago Alba Rico were remarkably quick to criticize the piece. On the face of it, the meaning of it to me seems simple and positive. The Spanish-speaking left is still engaged in an intellectual and ideological debate. I have now read both López Arnal and Alba Rico’s papers, and my response will be short and to the point. I am afraid that both Salvador and Santiago failed categorically in understanding my article... Teaser, Gilad Atzmon & Jacob Cohen: Politique identitaire juive, sionisme-anti-sionisme... | YouTube Was Syria ‘Nuked’? by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today Analysis shows Syria came under attack by Israel using, not just nuclear weapons, but an American nuclear bunker buster bomb, one of several supplied to Israel to use against Iran, one of the last acts of the Bush/Cheney administration... Boston and Cleveland, by Michael Shrimpton | Veterans Today ...Let’s get this straight: the FBI knew they had a real live Chechen terrorist, on the radar of the efficient and highly professional Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), walking the streets of Boston. What’s more he was just back from Chechnya, where he was in communication with radical terrorist elements engaged in an unlawful terrorist insurgency against Russia. After 9/11 we were supposed to see better co-operation between intelligence and law enforcement agencies,.. What's wrong with people in this country?: America, the WTF Nation, by Dave Lindorff | OpEd News I used to read the news in the morning and often find myself saying "This can't be happening!," which is actually how this news site got its name. But if I were just getting set to create the site these days, I'd have to call our publication "WTF!?," which is what I find myself saying more and more often over my morning paper. Just consider some recent news... Wake-up call for America, by Paul Balles | Gulf Daily New I’m tired of politics, of the injustices, the corruption, the assassinations, the gross illegal behaviour of the strong, the plundering of the poor and the indignities wrought on the weak. While decent working people lose their homes, thanks to Wall Street's Ponzi schemes, the market manipulators pay themselves outrageous million-dollar salaries and bonuses. Millions of children go hungry as warmongering US Senate crusaders groan and gasp that not enough is spent (wasted) on military interventions around the world. According to a Pentagon report, the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba - dubbed the most expensive jail on earth - costs Americans $903,614 annually per prisoner... Support for Israel: A diagnostic guide for progressives, by Ariadna Theokopoulos | deLiberation Evidence indicates that Support for Israel (SI) is a widespread condition affecting the Western world irrespective of age, race, gender, socio-economic class, religion or education level, although the preponderance level is much higher among Jews, Christian Zionists, government officials, owners or employees of financial institutions and armament industry or security firms, the mainstream media and the entertainment industry. In its covert, more intractable form, SI seems to affect large numbers of Progressives on the so-called Left of the political and ideological spectrum... The Judeo-Russian Mafia And The Bloodbath To Come, by Dr Lasha Darkmoon | deLiberation ...With activities in countries ranging from Malaysia to Great Britain, Russian mobsters now operate in more than fifty nations. They smuggle heroin from Southeast Asia with the help and cooperation of the CIA. They traffic in weapons. And they have a special knack for large-scale extortion. When the Judeo-Russian mafia and the Rothschild-controlled banksters, who are ultimately behind this vast criminal organization, want the American government to do something which the government is hesitant to do—for example, to bomb Iran—it will give the government a sign of its displeasure by staging a terrorist event... Exile and the prophetic: The Jewish code of silence, by Marc Ellis | Mondoweiss ...If you think there aren’t consequences to breaking the Jewish Code of Silence, think again. The Jewish establishment has become a Mafia-type organization – while enjoying a very public status. Like the Mafia, the Jewish establishment has bosses and enforcers. We don’t need to see conspiracy to know there’s Jewish power around every corner of American society. The Jewish Code of Silence includes silence on Jewish colonialism, apartheid, ethnic cleansing, the Western Wall, the Israel lobby and more... The Beautiful Banality of Ugly Racism | Roi Tov ...Tel Aviv is quite different from the picture most international readers probably have in mind. Mostly, the city is confused with its metropolitan area, namely “Gush Dan,” “Dan’s Block” in Hebrew. The latter is comprised of seven towns, and is surrounded by several others. With a total population of roughly three million people, this is the largest urban area in the Holy Land. Tel Aviv is at the center–on a north to south axis–of the area and at its western edge, next to the sea. Formally, the city is a consolidation of Tel Aviv and Jaffa; by combining the two cities, the Israeli administration avoided having a Palestinian town at the center of its largest metropolis. Jaffa is an astonishing place... Mass Poverty, Social Inequality and the Thirdworldization of America, by Stephen Lendman | Global Research Center for Economic and Policy Research co-director Dean Baker calls poverty America’s “new growth industry.” The state of today’s America is deplorable. In his latest May 3 analysis, economist John Williams said “April “employment and unemployment data were nonsense: the economy remains in serious trouble.” About 23% of Americans wanting work can’t find it. Most jobs are temp or part-time low pay/poor or no benefit service ones with no futures. Conditions are getting worse, not better... Syria’s Iranian and Russian Allies may Openly Intervene if Crisis Escalates | Global Research Israel’s reported second air strike on Syria in two days targeted a facility just outside the capital. But there was no escalation toward Israel to justify the attack – and Tel Aviv is only trying to drag the US into the conflict. That’s the view of journalist and Middle East expert Ali Rizk, who told RT he believes the actions are Israel’s attempt to influence US Middle East policy... The fuzzy nebulous cloud widely known as 'liberals' may be more a threat to the well being of the working classes (aka: the middle class) and the poor than the screaming, manic right. Obama illustrates and verifies this point; not by his words, but by his actions. And it is right there we spot the enemy in our midst... Anatomy of the US Targeted Killing Policy, by Lisa Hajjar | MCW News As President Barack Obama geared up for the 2012 campaign, he and his administration were eager to capitalize on their most bipartisan “victory” -- the targeted killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2, 2011. With the one-year anniversary of bin Laden’s death approaching, top officials took to podiums to deliver remarks that, while differing in some particulars, were consistent in their message: The targeted killing policy is legal, it is necessary to keep Americans safe, it is effective in eliminating terrorist threats, and it is undertaken with great care to minimize civilian casualties... Jewish Slavery in Western Culture (Part III), by Jonas E. Alexis | Veterans Today ...when one revolutionary activity died out, another one sprung up with much political and ideological force. When Bolshevism died out, then neoconservativism came into the scene which, as we have seen in a previous article, is the reincarnation of Stalinism, Leninism and Trotskyism in a new garb. The Bolshevik Revolution eventually blessed the West with at least one hundred million deaths.[79] Neoconservativism recently blessed the West with millions of dead bodies in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya.. the U.S. is now patrolling 74 countries, a burden that the neoconservatives have largely placed on America... May 11, 2013 Norman Finkelstein bids farewell to Israel bashing, by Natasha Mozgovaya | Haaretz In June, Norman Finkelstein will mark 30 years of criticizing Israel. He remembers the exact day - the beginning of the Lebanon war, which ended his indifference to the Middle East's troubles. He'll have a new book coming out - "Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel Is Coming to an End" - that focuses on Jewish public figures who represent, in his view, the narrative of beautiful Israel that's coming to an end. He is sure to make a lot of people mad again... Poet Ezra Pound, an American Giant, by Debbie Menon | Veterans News Now ..To write about Pound is to attack the proverbial mountain. He lived 87 years, published more than 60 books, and was involved in enough controversy for any ten men, maybe any hundred or even thousand men. His major interests or concerns were, above all, world poetry and, then, economic, social, and political theory and practice, especially the age-old scourge of usury. He viewed our present money system as radically evil, and destructive of economic and social justice... Is Iran anti-Semitic? | Roi Tov ...I am glad to announce having found the most anti-Semitic country in the world. It is not Iran. According to the above mentioned ADL, “Anti-Semitism is prejudice against or hostility towards Jews, often rooted in hatred of their ethnic background, culture, or religion. In its extreme form, it attributes to the Jews an exceptional position among all other civilizations, defames them as an inferior group and denies their being part of the nations in which they reside. Anti-Semitism may be manifested in many ways, ranging from individual expressions of hatred and discrimination against individual Jews”.. [Israel is an absurd, Rube Goldberg designed assemblage of people with very little in common - apart from a putative 'Jewishness' - which would come apart at the seams without enormous infusions of American taxpayer money and a manufactured common enemy to unite people who would otherwise be at each other’s throats. It’s a house of cards that is near its demise - a consummation devoutly to be wished.] Lebanon greets the Special Rapporteur for Palestine, Richard Falk, with an ear full, by Franklin Lamb | Intifada Palestine The United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine, Professor Richard Falk, came to Lebanon last week on an unofficial visit to survey opinion while fact finding the condition in Palestinian refugee’s camps. It was the Professors first visit to Lebanon since the fateful summer of 1982. Back then, en route by sea to Beirut, which was under Israeli siege and blockade, Falk was Vice-Chair of the Sean McBride Commission of Inquiry into Israeli crimes against Lebanon. Mid-way between Cyprus and Lebanon, the Zionist navy, in a blatant act of piracy on the high seas, intercepted, boarded and commandeered the vessel.... It’s all about appeasing Israeli racism, by Jamal Kanj | Redress Information & Analysis US Secretary of State John Kerry has succeeded in tailoring yet another peace initiative to appease Israel. But it took Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu no time to effectively reject the offer, telling Kerry and company it was not occupation – it was all “about a Jewish state”. American diplomacy in the Middle East must be barren and dull. On average, every three to five years – after full consultations with Israel – the US comes up with a new peace plan. Israel’s typical response is conditional approval, rendering such proposals dead on arrival... The Samson complex: Israel again rebuffs peace with the Arab world, by Jonathan Cook | Mondoweiss ...Faced with a diplomatic impasse between Israel and the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, seized his chance last week. He extracted from the Arab League an agreement to dust off a decade-old regional plan, the Arab Peace Initiative, declaring the move "a very big step forward". Unveiled by Saudi Arabia in 2002, the plan promises Israel normal relations with the whole of the Arab world in return for its acceptance of a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders, or 22 per cent of historic Palestine. The new Arab overture, like its antecedent, has raised barely a flicker of interest from Israel... Death is Preferable to Life at Obama's Guantanamo, by Marjorie Cohn | Huffington Post More than 100 of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo are starving themselves to death. Twenty-three of them are being force-fed. "They strap you to a chair, tie up your wrists, your legs, your forehead and tightly around the waist," Fayiz Al-Kandari told his lawyer, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard. Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo for 11 years, has never been charged with a crime. "The tube makes his eyes water excessively and blood begins to trickle from the nose. Once the tube passes his throat the gag reflex kicks in. Warm liquid is poured into the body for 45 minutes to two hours. He feels like his body is going to convulse and often vomits,".. [Many if not most of the inmates were accused by local opportunists, often as a profitable form of revenge, to collect the bounty offered by the Empire.] Why the Two-State Solution is Not Dead: The Donkey of the Messiah, by Uri Avnery | Counterpunch ...this has become an intellectual fad. To advocate the two-state solution means that you are ancient, old-fashioned, stale, stodgy, a fossil from a bygone era. Hoisting the flag of the “one-state solution” means that you are young, forward-looking, “cool”. Actually, this only shows how ideas move in circles. When we declared in early 1949, just after the end of the first Israeli-Arab war, that the only answer to the new situation was the establishment of a Palestinian state side by side with Israel, the “one-state solution” was already old... [Even the tough old idealistic Zionist Avnery has begun to sit up and take notice. One Democratic State, coming soon to the only remaining and largest ever Jewish ghetto. Dog works in mysterious ways.] Homeland Security Blames Boston on Public, by Jim W. Dean | Veterans Today Homeland Security admits Boston security failure. That’s right folks. They do admit it, but with a twist. They admit that the public must do more to inform them of potential threats so they can then prevent future attacks. You just can’t make this stuff up… but they surely can, and with no embarrassment either. I know this seems hard to believe so I am going to jump into the quotes earlier than I usually do in a commentary... Drones, knives and peace initiatives, by Adam Keller | Crazy Country This week, the Israeli drones went back into action in the skies of Gaza. The 29-year old Haitham Mis-hal, who had worked as a guard at the Shifa hospital, was shot from the air while riding a motorcycle and died instantly. When the ceasefire was signed half a year ago, Israel took the obligation not to carry out any more “targeted killings”. But the new Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon asserted that Mis-hal had been responsible for – or at least in some way involved with – a rocket attack out of Sinai on the Israeli resort of Eilat. No proof was given or offered for this assertion, based on unnamed confidential sources, and which Israelis in general took on faith... Israeli Soldiers, Palestinian Protestors Clash in Walaja | Palestine News Network Protestors from Palestinian village Walaja and Israeli soldiers clashed at an Israeli-secured gate on one of the village's borders during a peaceful demonstration in remembrance of the Nakba on Friday. Shortly after afternoon prayers, protestors from Walaja village gathered and marched to a security gate placed on one of the village's entrances. Upon arriving, they met Israeli soldiers who refused the marchers entrance past the gate... [That’s Mazin in the baseball cap. Although I'm a buddhist and utterly nonviolent, I was once so livid with rage that the ZioNazis had arrested him (and worried about what they would do to him) that I wrote to Regev, the Head of Hasbara, that if one hair of his head was touched I would personally come to Israel and tear the damned place apart with my bare hands.] Gatekeeping for Zion, by Philip Giraldi | Antiwar People like myself who are either paleoconservatives or libertarians generally base their opposition to Israel and its Lobby on the costs of the de facto alliance, both financial and in terms of the wars and political chaos it has triggered. We try to demonstrate how damage to rule of law and actual U.S. interests has been a byproduct of the relationship and seek to explain what a sane U.S. foreign policy might actually look like.. But it is different sensibility coming from the more humanitarian inclined political left of the spectrum.. it is remarkable how ineffective the left has been in mobilizing any serious opposition to Israel’s policies... [Our left arm has been in an iron cast since the beginning of the 70’s. The cast was a gift from the horde of newly minted "liberal," politically correct Jewish faculty members in the major universities.] Did YU's Harry Ostrer Cook The Genetic Books To Support False Findings Of Ashkenazi Jews Origins? | Failed Messiah ...The Forward has a report on Israeli researcher Eran Elhaik's 2012 study, “The Missing Link of Jewish European Ancestry: Contrasting the Rhineland and the Khazarian Hypotheses,” on the origin of Ashkenazi Jews. Elhaik found that previous studies were flawed and contradicted each other and was able to use their data and create a hypothesis that rectified them. And then the data matched. Unfortunately for many of us, what Elhaik may have proved is that most Ashkenazi Jews are descended from converts to Judaism – the Khazars... [Gee whillikers, what a surprise - a collection of Turkic tribes allied to Attila the Hun, just as Arthur Koestler described it in The 13th Tribe. Who woulda thunk it.] Muck & Meir: Prolific Analyst Botches Facts to Vindicate Failed Iran Sanctions Policy, by Nima Shirazi | Muftah Israeli commentator Meir Javedanfar.. in a recent op-ed for the Guardian newspaper.. has insisted – as he has done for years now – that the economic warfare and collective punishment exacted upon Iran at the behest of the United States and Israel is a beneficial policy that has made the Iranian government more malleable and amenable to Western diktat over its uranium enrichment program. A recent spate of informed analysis and reports from establishment institutions has acknowledged the failure of sanctions to bully Iran into capitulating to illegal and hypocritical Western demands... May 10, 2013 Interview with Richard Forer: The Hidden Roots of the Israel-Palestine Problem - Enslavement of the False Self | deLiberation Advocates of freedom for all people, not some people, mistakenly presume that the Israel-Palestine problem is a political one. The actual core of the problem is the attachment to a limited identity and the beliefs and images that emanate from and reinforce that presumed, unexamined and mortal identity. In this interview with Father Yago Abeledo of the Center for Justice and Peace Building, Richard Forer discusses the true and unconscious roots of the Israel-Palestine problem. He explains that a resolution is unlikely until its participants recognize that at its most fundamental level, they are not dealing with a political problem.. Peace is not possible until the illusion of identity is shattered... [Richard gets more buddhist by the day, and he really nails it here. As the Buddha himself put it: "In separateness lies the world's great misery, in compassion lies the world's true strength."] Fayyad: Palestinian Leadership a Failure | Palestine Chronicle The Palestinian Authority is broke, the Palestinian leadership is a failure and Fatah will “break down,” resigned premier Salam Fayyad said in an interview published Friday in The New York Times. “Our story is a story of failed leadership, from way early on,” the former prime minister said. “It is incredible that the fate of the Palestinian people has been in the hands of leaders so entirely casual, so guided by spur-of-the-moment decisions, without seriousness. We don’t strategize, we cut deals in a tactical way and we hold ourselves hostage to our own rhetoric.”.. Budget of an Interest Slave | Real Currencies The main reason why interest slavery goes largely unnoticed is because most of what we pay is invisible: it is included in prices. Producers cannot avoid capital costs and must pass these on to consumers. It has been established that 45% of prices we pay are for interest on business loans or other capital costs. No less than 50% of taxes we pay go to servicing the National Debt and capital costs included in prices the Government pays. So what does the budget of a typical interest slave look like?.. ["The money power preys upon the nation in time of peace and conspires against it in times of adversity. It is more despotic than monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, more selfish than bureaucracy. I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me, and causes me to tremble for the safety of our country. Corporations have been enthroned, an era of corruption will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people, until the wealth is aggregated in a few hands, and the republic is destroyed." ~ Abraham Lincoln Wherefore by Their Friends ye Shall Know Them: Zionists vs UNSW BDS, by Vacy Vlazna | Palestine Chronicle In Australia there are 30 Max Brenner shops providing funds for the Strauss Group that filter towards the maintenance of the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. Another Brenner outlet is ‘coming soon’ to the campus of The University of New South Wales (UNSW), the site of the present BDS protest organised by Students for Justice in Palestine. Spin-doctors against the BDS action, present the issue as an unjustified anti-Semitic attack against an innocuous chocolate shop, however the Max Brenner company and its supporters have direct and indirect vested interests in the Zionist enterprise that brutally, to this day, has destroyed the political and human rights of the indigenous people of Palestine... Why deny? A Christian Jew explains “Holocaust denial,” by Kevin Barrett | Veterans Today “WANTED – A psychiatric diagnosis of Nazi holocaust denial.” That was the title of a recent article by Alan Hart, author of the brilliant Zionism trilogy. With that piece, Alan started a controversy by wondering whether “holocaust deniers” are mentally ill.. Obviously, some holocaust revisionists do harbor anti-Jewish prejudice. But just as obviously, many don’t. Can a sane, unprejudiced person “deny the Holocaust”?.. [See my remarks in the article’s comments section – unfortunately, Alan didn’t post all of my comments, but my basic response is there. Last week Alan announced that he was retiring from the field. I think this discussion did him in. It’s sad, really, because his has been one of the most articulate and well-informed voices fighting Zionist lies and sophistry. Hopefully, he’ll salve his wounds and soon return to do battle.] See you in Stuttgart, by Yoav Haifawi | Free Haifa ..While the world is doing nothing to stop the daily massacre in Syria, we will be meeting tomorrow in Stuttgart, Germany, to convince a sympathetic audience of democratic activists to take a stand on the hardest of issues: Support the return of all Palestinians refugees and the formation of one democratic state in all of Palestine as a solution to the century long conflict that Zionist colonialism created. It is not an easy task, especially here in Germany, where everyone that criticizes Israel is automatically persecuted as “Anti Semitic”.. How can you oppose the descendants of the victims of the Holocaust and undermine their demand to have their own safe haven?... The Arab Spring: was it worth it? by Nureddin Sabir | Redress Information & Analysis Hardly a day passes without someone asking me whether the Arab Spring had been worth it. Libya is in chaos with no effective government, police or army, and with armed militias acting as the Italian mafia once did in American cities. Egypt and Tunisia have swapped pro-Western lackeys for reactionary Islamists. In Syria even more backward-looking Islamists, in the shape of Salafis-cum-”jihadists”, are exploiting disunity within the armed opposition to infiltrate the country, and that is not to mention the daily death toll of innocents and the destruction wreaked on homes, businesses, public buildings and infrastructure, mostly by Bashar Assad’s forces... [From a while back, but well worth chewing on. Nureddin is one of the most informed and articulate writers on the Middle East and is well worth reading. His passion for the welfare of humanity and for freedom (the real thing, not the crap version constantly invoked by the pimps and whores of the mainstream media) is truly impressive.] The Bickering Genocides | Steyn Online ..."Canada's Journey," a heartwarming historical pageant illustrating how the blood-soaked Canadian state has perpetrated one atrocity after another on native children, Chinese coolies, Japanese internees, Jews, gays, the transgendered, you name it. And, of course, the Ukrainians. Per Izzy's wishes, the Holocaust would have pride of place in a separate exhibit, because, its dark bloody history notwithstanding, Canada apparently played a minimal role in the murder of six million Jews. However, the Holodomor would be included as a permanent featured genocide in the museum's "Mass Atrocity Zone.".. Missing from the Arab peace plan: an Israeli partner, by Jonathan Cook | The View from Nazareth Washington’s reputation as an “honest broker” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is in tatters after four years of indulging Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s intransigence. The Obama administration desperately needs to resurrect a credible peace process. Faced with years of diplomatic impasse between Israel and the Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, John Kerry, the US secretary of state, seized his chance to resurrect the peace process earlier this month. He extracted from the Arab League an agreement to dust off a decade-old regional plan, the Arab Peace Initiative, declaring the move "a very big step forward".. [As I keep saying, the last thing either the Americans or the Israelis want is peace. It would throw a wrench into the Empire’s grand strategy which depends on continuous warfare, the “long war,” as they call it. As for Israel, without war or fear of war they would have to face one another without a unifying enemy, resulting in such civil strife that the Jewish State could not survive.] Egaliteet Reconciliation } Gilad Atzmon I believe that the following is a very interesting interview. Very intelligent questions. I touch upon multiculturalism, patriotism, nationalism, Jewish Left and Progressive spin. I also refer to future Palestinian solidarity in the light of growing Liberal Zionist intervention... US watchdog turns blind eye to Israel’s religious rights violations, by Stuart Littlewood | My Catbird Seat It's hilarious. I'm still rolling on the floor laughing my socks off at a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF). What's the joke? Well, it’s no joke really. The USCIRF has just released its 2013 Annual Report on the world’s worst violators of religious freedom. And.. you simply won't believe this.. it doesn’t even mention the worst offender of all, Israel. Truly. It's like Israel doesn't exist.. [Good photo of “the Prince of Darkness”] Naked Citizens | YouTube ...Across Western Europe and the USA, surveillance of civilians has become a major business. With one camera for every 14 people in London and drones being used by police to track individuals, the threat of living in a Big Brother state is becoming a reality. At an annual conference of hackers, keynote speaker Jacob Appelbaum asserts, "to be free of suspicion is the most important right to be truly free". But with most people having a limited understanding of this world of cyber surveillance and how to protect ourselves, are our basic freedoms already being lost?.. [The electronic surveillance around the most sensitive and powerful Jewish ghetto in the world, the City of London http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_of_London , mirrors the Iron Dome system protecting Israel. Paranoia taken to the Nth degree, and consisting of little more than smoke and mirrors.] Israel Grants Oil Rights in Syria to Murdoch and Rothschild | Craig Murray Israel has granted oil exploration rights inside Syria, in the occupied Golan Heights, to Genie Energy. Major shareholders of Genie Energy – which also has interests in shale gas in the United States and shale oil in Israel – include Rupert Murdoch and Lord Jacob Rothschild.. For Israel to seek to exploit mineral reserves in the occupied Golan Heights is plainly illegal in international law... [Legal, shmiegel, ve don’t give a damn. Ve are the ones Chosen to take our pick of everything on the planet, and the rest of you can just go to Hell. Amen] Zionism – The Real Enemy of the Jews by Alan Hart: Reviewed by Ludwig Watzal | MWC News Alan Hart’s trilogy on the devastating impact of Zionism not only on the Palestinian people but also on Judaism is the most comprehensive and best analysis that has ever been written on this subject. The author takes the readers on an epic journey through a cocoon of propaganda lies that kept the Westerners, especially the U. S. Americans in line with a movement, which has been violating every value Western democracies pretend to defend. The massage on the cover of the first volume is clear: “Almost everything you have been conditioned to believe about the making and sustaining of conflict in the Middle East is not true...” [My take is that the real enemy of the Jews is and and always has been.. the Jews. It’s a matter of projection, denial, self-deception, self-worship and a few other psychological failings, not least of which is an inordinate fear, hatred and contempt for the “other.” Then the principle of what goes around comes around applies, just cause and effect.] Ramzy Baroud: 'West lets Israel play with nukes so Egypt quits talks' | RT/YouTube Israel's alleged cache of nuclear arms is in the spotlight again. Egypt withdrew from Non-Proliferation Treaty talks in Geneva on Monday, over the failure to plan for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons - clearly referring to Israel. Ramzy Baroud, the editor of the Palestine Chronicle, believes the international community's tacit support allows Tel-Aviv to possess a nuclear arsenal... May 9, 2013 Stephen Hawking Joins Boycott Against Israel | NYT Stephen W. Hawking, the University of Cambridge physicist and cosmologist, has pulled out of a high-profile conference to be held here in June in order to support an academic boycott of Israel, conference organizers and the university said on Wednesday. The academic and cultural boycott, organized by international activists to protest Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians, is a heated and contentious issue; having Dr. Hawking join it is likely to help the anti-Israel campaigners significantly... [Well, things are looking up, way up] Read more...Outrage over disgusting 'cripple Stephen Hawking' jokes after he joins boycott of Israel | Daily Express World renowned theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has faced a barrage of vile abuse today from people furious over his boycott of Israel... Read more... The Staggering Cost of Israel to Americans | If Americans Knew Israel has a population of approximately 7.7 million, or a million fewer than the state of New Jersey. It is among the world's most affluent nations, with a per capita income similar to that of the European Union. Israel's unemployment rate of 6.3% is much better than America's 8.2%, and Israel's net trade, earnings, and payments is ranked 146th in the world while the US sits at a dismal 193rd. Yet, Israel receives more of America’s foreign aid budget than any other nation. The US has, in fact, given more aid to Israel than it has to all the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean combined—which have a total population of over a billion people... [Talk about flushing money down the toilet] The Venezuelan Revolution, Assata Shakur & Richard Falk | IJAN The United States and Israel share much in common: settler-colonialism, militarized aggression, and in turn the endless use of propaganda to defend the otherwise indefensible. Israel uses this propaganda to justify the ongoing colonization and occupation of Palestine. A recurring tactic is to claim perpetual victimization, even while its policies create more and more victims. For its part, United States uses such propaganda to shroud the aggressive nature of its attacks against all who stand in its way, and to cover up the distance between its claims of defending the democracy of those living in the U.S. and elsewhere, and the reality of its goals of conquest... Shimon Peres' Special Centennial Message to the ADL | YouTube Clueless? In denial? Massive self-deception? How pathetic... How the Rabbis Kook, Father and Son, Shaped Today's Election In Israel | Tablet Magazine Israeli voters go to the polls today to elect the next Knesset. Regardless of the outcome, undoubtedly the biggest story of the campaign season has been the rise of Naftali Bennett, a rookie politician who, against the odds, helped religious Zionism grow from a strong but discombobulated movement into an electoral powerhouse. This ideology, increasingly embraced by mainstream, secular Israelis, has its roots in the thinking of two influential rabbis: Abraham Isaac Kook and his son, Zvi Yehuda... [What a serendipitous name] A former insider explains how Human Rights Watch panders to the Israel lobby | The Electronic Intifada Scott Long has written an excellent exposé of the scurrilous smear campaign against Egyptian human rights defender Mona Seif by the Zionist organization UN Watch and its director Hillel Neuer, “a former corporate lawyer and lobbyist for Israel”.. While the whole post is well worth reading, Long includes a fascinating passage on how Human Rights Watch (HRW), where he was director of the LGBT Program until 2010, panders to the Israel lobby which attacks it constantly. Those of us who observe HRW’s work have long known that it deals with Israel by a different, much softer standard than it applies to any other country... The Angry Arabs Will No Longer Fight Against Syria | Moon of Alabama It took As'ad AbuKhalil, the Angry Arab, two years to come to his senses and to acknowledge his errors: “This was never a “revolution”. I among other leftists in Lebanon signed a petition early on after the events in Deraa in which we denounced the regime and mocked and dismissed its narrative of armed groups roaming the country and shooting at people. I now figure that I was dead wrong: I do believe that armed groups were pre-prepared and armed to strike when orders (from Israel and GCC countries) arrive. They had a mission and it had nothing to do with the cause of liberation of Syria from a tyrannical regime.”.. Is U.S. Credibility Really on the Line in Syria? by Daryl G. Press and Jennifer Lind | Foreign Policy With reports of chemical weapons use in Syria, many U.S. officials and foreign policy analysts have called for U.S. military intervention there. They quote President Obama's previous statements referring to chemical weapons use as an unacceptable crossing of a "red line." This is unsurprising: Every time analysts and leaders call for war, they warn that inaction will jeopardize America's credibility. What is more surprising, however, is how little evidence there is for this view... Generation Palestine: Voices from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, by Ludwig Watzal | MCW News ...This peaceful political campaign enjoys ample international support among small segments of civil society, which the list of authors demonstrates: Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ronnie Kasrils, Ken Loach, Iain Banks, Richard Falk, Ilan Pappe, Ghada Karmi and many others. All authors have a common concern that they think they can change the course of the Israeli government to give in to Palestinian demands. The unique model of “Israeli Apartheid“, colonization and military occupation that Israel imposes on the Palestinians, has made Palestine the moral cause of a generation... Yair Shamir: Profile of Israeli Extremism | Stephen Lendman He's a former IDF officer. He's now an Israeli politician and businessman. He's former Prime Minister Yitzhak's son. He's named after Avraham "Yair" Stern. In 1940, he founded the terrorist Lehi group. It's commonly called the Stern Gang. During WW II, it offered to help Nazi Germany and fascist Italy against Britain... Happy Texas-Israel Day! by Kevin Barrett | Veterans Today ...Time to saddle up and ride on down to the picnic and grab yourself a mouthful of barbecued matzoh balls! (Round these parts, we call ‘em Megido Mountain Oysters – just be sure and talk real nice to the matzoh while you’re cuttin’ em off.) Wash ‘em down with a splash of Lone Star of David beer – just pour some Mogen-David 20-20 into your can of Lone Star and you’re off to the rodeo! And don’t forget to crank up a Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys CD – they’re great for dancin’ the Hava Nagila while you wave your cowboy hat around like Slim Pickens ridin’ one of them there Samson Option missiles... Drones are deadly and dangerous - and not just to terrorists, by Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson | Al Jazeera Akbar Ahmed's The Thistle and the Drone: How America's War on Terror Became a Global War on Tribal Islam, should be required reading for American soldiers, citizens and, above all, every member of the Obama administration. Written from the perspective of both an academic (Professor Ahmed is a leading anthropologist) and a government official (he was political agent to South Waziristan, in Pakistan's Federally-Administered Tribal Area, and Pakistan's High Commissioner to the UK and Ireland), as well as with the inestimable passion of a poet... Obama's Syria problem, by Patty Culhane | Al Jazeera US President Barack Obama has a problem: he likely has more than a few, but when it comes to Syria - that is a big one. And if you want to know how big, just read between the newspaper headlines this week. I’ll explain, but first for those who haven't been paying attention - and it turns out that is the case for a lot of Americans - the back story... Germany arrests alleged Nazi death-camp guard | MCW News German authorities have arrested a 93-year-old alleged former guard at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz on charges of complicity in the mass murder of prisoners.. Lipschis has been living in the Baden-Wuerttemberg town of Aalen and reportedly told the authorities that he worked as a cook, not a guard, in the camp in then occupied Poland... [How sick.. The Holycause ghouls go about their grisly business and no one bats an eyelash.] This is what's gonna happen | Paul Eisen This is Hungary's Jobbik Party. "We are special here in Europe," says their leader, "but not because we are the most anti-Semitic nation, but because that even if all of Europe is at their feet, even if all of Europe licks their feet, even then we will not,".. [As I’ve said before, the tribal Jews are setting themselves up (and the rest of us who are at least nominally Jewish) for the Mother of All Pogroms. Is it stupidity or insanity (as Einstein defined it) or just a failure in pattern recognition?] Israel Cozies Up to China, by Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall | Veterans Today ...China’s new president Xi Jinping has issued a four point proposal for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to a statement issued by Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying: “The immediate priority is to take credible steps to stop settlement activities, end violence against innocent civilians and lift the blockade of the Gaza Strip in order to create the necessary conditions for the resumption of peace talks,” She added that China is firmly opposed to Israel’s settlement construction in Palestinian territory occupied by Israel and that this places the primary obligation on Israel to remove the barriers for peace talks. Netanyahu seems to have got the message... [They frequently “freeze new settlement activity” as a temporary tactical maneuver. It is then “unfrozen” in short order.] Read more...May 8, 2013 Syriana (Cont'd) No universally applied principle justifies the Israeli attack on Damascus. Only self-flattering tribalism does that.. On Sunday, Israel dropped massive bombs near Damascus, ones which the New York Times, quoting residents, originally reported (then evidently deleted) resulted in explosions "more massive than anything the residents of the city. . . have witnessed during more than two years of war." The Jerusalem Post this morning quoted "a senior Syrian military source" as claiming that "Israel used depleted uranium shells", though that is not confirmed... [As if they give a damn what anyone thinks] Once again we see a familiar pattern: our united 'progressives' - a veritable synagogue, a collective of great humanists - lend their support to the oppressed. This time it is the ‘Syrian people’ whom they wish to liberate and their enemy is obviously Bashar Al-Asad. It is a pattern we know only too well by now. Ahead of the ‘War Against Terror’ we witnessed years of intensive progressive Feminist and Gay’s rights groups campaigns for women’s rights in Afghanistan. The Progressive type also disapproves of the current state of the Iranian revolution. Too often he or she would insist that we must liberate the Iranians. The decision of the European Union to lift the embargo on Syrian government’s energy exports by importing oil from the ‘armed opposition’ is another flagrant violation of international law. It violates the UN General Assembly declaration of 1962 on Permanent Sovereignty over Natural Resources and is yet another violation of the 1981 UN declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Internal Affairs of States. But it is much more than a technical violation of the law. It marks the decent of civilization into barbarism... One must not forget the disgraceful petition put out by what calls itself the "Left" in the name of "dignity and freedom" last week, the so-called "Global Campaign of Solidarity with the Syrian Revolution". The geo-political analysis of the screed would not pass the muster of a child, and the empty verbiage comes straight out of a George W. Bush or Barak Obama speech - without exaggeration. In any event, don't mislead yourself into thinking the timing was accidental in the face of the collapse of the mercenary Takfiri front. Because it wasn't. When the empire finds its back against wall, it will not hesitate in pulling out all stops - even if it means trotting out a brigade of tired old leftists in its dirty service... ...This was the same flimsy pretext used in another alleged Israeli attack on Syrian territory earlier this year. In reality, the "other terrorists groups" Israel claims to worry about, are indeed funded and directed by the US, Israel, and Saudi Arabia as part of a long-standing, documented conspiracy to overthrow the nations of Iran and Syria. Reported by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh in his 2007 New Yorker article, "The Redirection," it was stated... With the approaching Finale for Syria’s Assad the Uber-Neocon architects of US foreign policy have been hard at work. Assuming (albeit knowingly) the certainty of the soon-to-come end for Assad’s government, the neocon architects are drafting and crafting their objectives for the Post-Assad regime in Syria. I know the mainstream and pseudo-alternative media use the term “Neocon” loosely and willy-nilly, but I can assure you this is not the case with my usage of “Uber-Neocons’ here. You will see that clearly after reading the following facts... Israel may have attacked targets in Syria — and risked a wider war — to stop ballistic missiles from falling into the hands of Islamic extremists. But current and former Israeli missile defense officials insist that if Hezbollah militants ever got the Fateh-110 weapons, Israel could shoot the missiles out of the sky. “We are now able to cope with all the missiles that are threatening Israel right now, including the longer-range missiles in Iran and in Syria,” Arieh Herzog.. Israel’s missile defense calculus and the decisions it makes based on that calculus have repercussions far beyond its own borders... [There is considerable doubt that ‘Iron Dome’ is anywhere near as effective as advertised.] “We would like to announce that in response to the unfair and illegal attacks, taken place by Israel on DATE, SEA has penetrated one of the main infrastructural systems (SCADA) in Haifa and managed to gain access to some sensitive data. Also SEA is now able to cause irrecoverable damages to the Israeli's infrastructural systems. This message carries a serious caution to the Israeli statesmen. They should know that not receiving a quick reaction to such childish ventures, does not show the Syrian inability in doing so, but it is based on wisdom and humanity considerations. We do not approve of killing civilians and innocent people as this is an Israeli type of solution instead... Ilan Pappe and Pavel Barša: A Case for One State Solution in Israel/Palestine | YouTube Respected professor Ilan Pappe agreed to see us at the end of the long Czech winter to share his thoughts on the solution for Israel and Palestine. So, one state, two states, or more?.. A photographic history of the Palestinians, 1876-1948, by Walid Khalidi | Before Their Diaspora Before Their Diaspora is a visual journey into Palestine before 1948. Every important aspect of Palestinian society comes to life in the nearly 500 photographs, carefully selected from thousands available in private and public collections throughout the world. Descriptive, analytical texts, introduce each of the five historical periods into which the book is divided.. Wednesday, May 15 marks 65 years since the Nakba (Catastrophe): the dispossession, forced exile, and ethnic cleansing of 750,000 Palestinians from their land before and during the creation of the State of Israel in 1948... Why the WSJ Op-ed Page Needs Fact-Checkers, by Stephen M. Walt | Foreign Policy When they want to find the best in contemporary fiction writing, people often think of The New Yorker, Granta, or any number of small circulation literary magazines. When the subject is foreign policy, however, I'll take the Wall Street Journal op-ed page. Apart from maybe running a spell-check program on submissions, it's hard to see any sign that the editors there care about factual accuracy, provided that the piece in question satisfies their hawkish proclivities and other litmus tests... [It’s Rupert Murdoch’s only publication aimed at an educated readership. Most of the staff are professionals who can usually tell the difference between fact and fiction. But when it comes to the editorial staff dealing with foreign policy, and particularly in the Op-Ed section, the frothing-at-the-mouth Zionists/neocons take over. It's similar in that respect to the NYT, but far worse.] Librarians, Archivists, the Transformation of Information and Palestine: A Call, by Ron Jacobs | Dissident Voice This June, a delegation of librarians, archivists, and other library workers will travel to Palestine. They will connect with colleagues in library- and archive-related projects and institutions there, traveling as truth seekers and information skeptics, applying their experience in the form of skillshares and other types of joint work. Their hope is to shed light on Palestinian voices, refute various myths common in the West about Palestine, and bear witness to the destruction and appropriation of information. Furthermore, they will support efforts to preserve cultural heritage and archival materials (of all kinds) in Palestine... Obama's Choice for Commerce Secretary Chose Obama for Political Career | Maurice Pinay Some people have been skeptical when I’ve referred to Obomba as having been hand-picked by the Chicago Jewish political mafia. Well, here’s the skinny... Obama’s Duplicitous Iran Policy, by Muhammad Sahimi | Antiwar One of President Obama’s greatest “accomplishments” has been creating fissures within the antiwar/progressive community in the United States by talking like a progressive politician, but acting in most cases as a conservative one. Consider, for example, his domestic policy. It has helped Wall Street far more than anything the President is willing to do for Main Street – just consider the cuts that he has proposed for Social Security and Medicare. His administration’s assault on civil liberties, including prosecution of six whistleblowers under the Espionage Act, and the expansion of the surveillance state have surpassed anything that we experienced under the George W. Bush administration... Hebrew University’s “Monstrous Carbuncle” on Jerusalem Skyline to Showcase Einstein Legacy | Tikun Olam Haaretz yesterday reported that the Hebrew University, the prime minister’s office, and the city of Jerusalem have announced a grandiose architectural plan to build a 25-story building in the shape of a golden helmet on the top of Mt. Scopus. The new building will be dedicated to the legacy of Albert Einstein, whose archives the University holds. It will be called the Einstein Heritage Center and is designed to take advantage of what Einstein would offer as a tourist attraction. It would also serve as a counter-delegitimization strategy, allowing Israel to appropriate one of the world’s greatest scientific minds on behalf of Zionism and the modern Israeli state:. [Hitler would approve – indeed, he would be envious. The Zionists long ago surpassed the German ethno-centric fascists in their sheer bravado and contempt for the uentermenschen.] Chemical Duel | Roi Tov The soldiers were trapped between slow moving clouds of the grey-green poisonous gas. Those closer to the chlorine cylinders felt a distinctive peppery-smell and metallic taste before the poisonous element stung their throats and chests. Those of their friends standing further away panicked as the green-death silently swallowed their friends. This scene from WWI won't repeat itself. Not because humanity has experience an epiphany and returned to the Kingdom of God, but because more efficient gases have been developed... Shared values? by Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss This story is a reminder of Israel's importance to many Jews and Jewish organizations, preserving Jewish "continuity," by keeping Jews from marrying out. Dennis Ross is engaged in this enterprise, heading the Jewish People Policy Institute, which opposes intermarriage. But where are the shared values? I first got engaged on religious-political issues 15 years ago.. I pointed out that the American Jewish community's policies to stop people from doing what I'd done-- falling in love with and marrying a non-Jew-- were just as bad. By the way, others are complaining that the new Israeli banknotes will only bear images of Ashkenazi Jews... [Jews will always keep us amused if nothing else] "Brokers of Deceit: How the U.S. Has Undermined Peace in the Middle East" | Book TV Rashid Khalidi argues that the U.S. is far from being an impartial broker in negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. He says that since 1982 the U.S. has had several opportunities to move the peace process forward, the latest as recently as last year, but decided to thwart them all. Prof. Khalidi speaks at an event celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Institute for Palestine Studies... American media distortion on Palestine, by Alison Weir | Middle East Monitor Thirteen years ago I knew very little about Israel-Palestine. Like most Americans, this seemed to be a distant, confusing conflict that had little to do with me. I was unaware –again, like most Americans – that American taxpayers give Israel over $8 million per day, more than we give to any other nation. I was unaware that our nation has vetoed numerous United Nations efforts to reign in Israeli aggression; resolutions that were supported by almost every other country around the world. I was unaware that US actions were enabling a massive land theft and ongoing ethnic cleansing that has caused profound tragedy in the Middle East, deep damage to our own nation and endangered American lives... [That was the same year that I too woke up to what has been going on – and like Alison put up my first website on the subject] May 7, 2013 Syriana Syria says Israel has effectively declared war after its planes bombed targets in Damascus, the second airstrikes in as many days. Egypt has condemned the Israeli airstrikes on Syria, with the Arab League also demanding action from the UN Security Council. For more on this RT speaks with Asia Times Online correspondent Pepe Escobar... While the United States peddled the threat of chemical weapon use to justify its arming of the ‘opposition’ in Syria, Israel destroyed a chemical research facility near Damascus which was allegedly developing such weapons – thus unleashing every single potentially-poisonous particle on the Syrian public. Thus guaranteeing that regardless of whether there actually were chemical weapons being developed or manufactured, regardless of whether the Assad regime actually was intending to use them against the Syrian people, the Syrian people now HAVE been exposed – and in a totally uncontrolled fashion – to not only the known toxic effects of whatever was in the facility, but also to the unknown effects of the random mixing of such chemicals under conditions of extreme heat, and their dissemination who knows how far, causing who knows what extent of environmental and health damage... For well over a year, the US has pursued a policy of regime change in Syria. This policy is rooted in Washington’s broader regional interest: maintaining obedient client states and eliminating states that challenge US hegemony. More specifically, the US is interested in breaking the “Iranian sphere of influence” in which Syria is key. In pursuit of regime change, the US has been supporting the rebels. This support includes hundreds of millions of dollars in aid; the facilitation of arms transfers to the rebels; the training of rebels in Jordan; and the provision of actionable intelligence to select rebel factions... Early yesterday morning Israeli warplanes dropped bombs on the suburbs of Damascus for the second time in recent days. With the Syrian military having seized a clear advantage on the ground against Saudi-financed Israeli-trained al Qaeda rebels, the Illuminati banksters have become ever-more desperate in their attempts to salvage their covert operation gone awry. Syria is a key pivot in their attempt to impose a neocolonial oil-extraction blueprint on the Middle East region – a project which began in the aftermath of the Gulf War... The Vexing 'Jewish Question': A Nineteenth-Century Scholar's View, by Goldwin Smith | Journal of Historical Review Although today it is considered tactless if not hateful to speak openly of a "Jewish question," the often thorny matter of relations between Jews and non-Jews in society is a real issue that has bedeviled countless governments and scholars for centuries. In the following essay, a prominent British scholar tackles this issue with a forthrightness, perceptiveness and courage that is all too rare among academics in our own day. The author is Goldwin Smith (1823-1910), a prominent 19th-century educator, historian and author... Attacking the Messenger: In Praise of Richard Falk, by Lawrence Davidson | Counterpunch ...looked at from outside of the self-justifying perspective of the United States government, everything Richard Falk says is accurate. However, from the inside of the official government worldview, Falk is a heretic and his message dangerous verbal poison. Therefore, the reaction of those dedicated to customary policies and alliances has been shrill... The Failed Neocon Attempt to Destroy an American Anti-War Organization, by M.J. Rosenberg | Middle East Online The war over war with Iran has many battlefronts. Inside Washington, the battle line is between a small coalition of peace and security, non-proliferation and religious groups opposing war and favoring a peaceful solution to the stand off with Iran, and a well-funded war machine comprising neoconservative organizations... Diaspora Jews Must Speak Out, by Sam Bahour | Palestine Chronicle ...If you are Jewish, a very discriminatory law in a foreign country applies to you, without taking your consent and without any formal ties between you and that country. It matters not that you are a citizen of America, Argentina, or Australia; as long as you are Jewish, you have a foreign country that claims to speak for you from the moment of your birth. You could be a sixth generation Alaskan Jew or a tenth generation Brooklyn Jew; it matters not. You, and your entire family for as far back as you can track could know no other place than your hometown in America, and you would still be “represented” by a foreign country, one whose language you don’t even speak. That foreign country is Israel... Boston: Who did what to whom? by Jim W. Dean | PressTV The smoke has cleared and the dust on the Boston bombing is finally beginning to settle a bit. The frenzy on the Internet of everyone pouring over the huge number of images and appointing themselves instant photo analysts has cooled down somewhat, too. But today we will drive the wooden stake through the heart of some of the god awful silly accusations that were made which has hurt the hunt for the truth. We understand the public is hypersensitive about false flag attacks now... Palestine is NOT a Farm Of The Saudi King and Arab States, by Kawther Salam | Occupied Palestine Palestine is not a private farm of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, of the Emir of Qatar, of the Arab League or the self-appointed Palestinian “president” Mahmoud Abbas, whose presidential term expired in 2009, since when nobody knows on basis of what laws he calls himself “president” and since when neither he nor his “Palestinian Authority” have any legitimacy in law, what makes all decisions and agreements in which they have a part null and void... May 6, 2013 Declarations of War? Israel's Suspected Bombing of Syria Raises Stakes | Common Dreams Explosions that rocked the outskirts of Damascus overnight were caused by missiles unleashed by the Israeli military, according to various media reports. If these reports are confirmed, said one Syrian official on Sunday, the attack would be considered as a "declaration of war" by Israel... The recent Israeli air strikes are a clear sign that the US/NATO/al-Qaeda/Israeli war against Syria is now entering into a qualitatively new phase | The Vineyard of the Saker The latest Israeli airstrikes are now the clear proof that the US/NATO/al-Qaeda insurgency is currently losing the war against Syria. I submit that the purpose of these strikes is rather obvious: to trigger a Syrian response which would give Israel a pretext to wage what Pepe Escobar aptly called a "mini shock and awe" campaign against Syria, tipping the balance in favor of the US/NATO/al-Qaeda insurgency. Here is how that plan would play out:.. International Peace Delegation to Syria | Monthly Review Former U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich and Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire from Northern Ireland are two of twenty participants from seven countries that will participate in an international delegation to Syria, May 2-10, 2013. The purpose of the delegation is to meet with communities affected by the fighting, with a view towards facilitating peace and reconciliation in Syria. More than 70,000 Syrians are estimated to have died and millions have been displaced in the conflict... America and Israel: Imperial Partners in Crime | Stephen Lendman Longstanding ties remain firm. Both nations are imperial partners. Naked aggression is official policy. Regime change in Syria is planned. Daily events head inexorably toward full-scale intervention. The latest incident ups the stakes... Truth-tellers and justice-seekers: don’t give up! by Stuart Littlewood | Redress Information & Analysis William Cook in his masterly way tells us not to give up, even if “overwhelmed by darkness of the times”.. His eloquence is designed to stiffen the sinews. But some weary truth-tellers and justice-seekers simply don’t want their sinew stiffened any more. For years they’ve given the Palestine cause their best shot, their family life has suffered, and for what?.. [And what is one supposed to do? Write a memoir – learn how to play mah-jong? The Palestinians have been behind the 8-ball since the beginning, and it’s not really about them anyway. It’s about truth, justice and compassion,and putting up some kind of resistance to the Zionist juggernaut; it’s about all of us.] Who served their country better: George Bush or Kimberly Rivera? by Amy Goodman | The Guardian As the former president was opening his memorial library, the US military was sentencing an Iraq war resister veteran to jail time.. The library officially opened to the public on 1 May, the tenth anniversary of his famous "Mission Accomplished" speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, anchored just off the coast of San Diego. Bush, in his remarks at the library, along with President Barack Obama, former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and others all failed to mention the word "Iraq"... [‘The George Bush Memorial Library’ – it sounds like some over-the-top comedian’s throwaway line] Islam: The Danger Within, by Sami Jamil Jadallah | Veterans Today As if the war on Islam and Muslims declared by certain evil forces within the US and international Zionism is not enough, the so-called “ Takfiri/Jihadist” terrorists have also declared war on Islam and Muslims. Mohamed Imami Kashani, the Imam of the Friday Prayer Mosque in Tehran is correct when he recently labeled these “Takfiri/ Jihadists” as not Sunnis, not Shiites not even Muslims but true die hard Zionists... A Benevolent Revolution: Hugo Chavez and the Revolutionary Imagination, by Daniel Kovalik | Counterpunch While I was in Venezuela two weeks ago as an election observer (or “accompanier” as the Venezuelans referred to us), some of us were sitting around musing over the question of why revolutionary Venezuela has not received the same level of solidarity and support from American leftists, progressives and religious groups as Nicaragua had in the 1980’s or as Cuba has received at various times since its revolution in 1959. Where are the “Venceremos Brigades” for Venezuela, we wondered... May 5, 2013 Welcome to the Machine: Imperialism is Now Murdering Stories, by Andre Vltchek | Counterpunch Nothing frightens fascism and its older brother imperialism more than real people and their honest stories. It is because ordinary stories of ordinary people are so genuine and so accurately reflect authentic human fears, desires and dreams that the ideologues and propagandists of the Western regime, which is supported by unnatural hyper-pseudo-reality, feel, for their survival, that it is essential to annihilate those stories, to wipe them from the surface of earth, even to erase them from our memories... [Brilliant, a must read] What Would Einstein Say Today about the State for Jews? by Ariadna Theokopoulos | deLiberation What would Einstein’s attitude toward Israel be if he were alive today? Would he be a zionist, an anti-zionist or an anti-zionist zionist? The following letter was published in the New York Times on December 4, 1948. Einstein was one of the signatories... Obama’s Ties to CIA May Explain His Totalitarian Views, by Sherwood Ross | Veterans Today ...Maybe the reasons for Obama’s transformation from a Chicago law professor into a world-class totalitarian thug is that he is a creature of the Central Intelligence Agency; that both his parents were CIA payrollers; that the CIA financed his college education and gave him his first job afterwards—-so that we may well have a president beholden to this international criminal organization, an agency that has left a trail of blood, turmoil, and assassinations around the globe... ‘Everything Libertarians and Liberals Get Wrong About Drones’ Wrong About Drones, Everything, by Lucy Steigerwald | Antiwar In the past few days, two different Atlantic writers have worried that drones are a “sexy” subject which often overshadow other issues. Now, Andrew Cohen’s article isn’t really about war or drones. It’s a reminder that it’s not only Anwar al-Awlaki who didn’t get due process. Thousands of other Americans aren’t getting theirs either... Israel Discloses Politruk Protocols | Roi Tov ..."Boorgani" is how the word "bourgeois" was adapted to Hebrew. In the kibbutz, it was used to design the politruks and technocrats living well at our expense. They would sit on red coaches and travel in cars while the proletariat fought the "eshel" trees infesting the Valley's fish pools... DHS Whistleblower: War On Terror a Charade, by Tim Brown | Veterans Today Julia Davis, a former Customs and Border Protections Officer, was falsely declared a domestic terrorist and subjected to retaliatory efforts against her by theDepartment of Homeland Security. Her home was raided by a 27 man “special response team.” She was twice falsely arrested and imprisoned, but later exonerated. She is now a national security expert and has put out a historical documentary titled, Top Priority: The Terror Within. She claims that the “War On Terror” by the Department of Homeland Security is a charade and that the agency seems to be targeting concerned American patriots... [Of course the DHS is a charade, or more precisely, a puppet show. But who’s pulling the strings? Or do I have to ask that question in Yiddish or Hebrew to get the answer?] “Holocaust expert” David Cole Stein: Quintessentially Jewish – with a shred of integrity, by Kevin Barrett | Truthjihad David Cole, under the name "David Stein," just pulled off one of the all-time greatest hoaxes in history. As The Guardian explains: “Over the past five years Stein’s organisation, Republican Party Animals, drew hundreds to regular events in and around Los Angeles, making him a darling of conservative blogs and talk shows. That he made respected documentaries on the Holocaust added intellectual cachet and Jewish support to Stein’s cocktail of politics, irreverence and rock and roll. There was just one problem”.. Jewish Wealth by the Numbers, by Steve Sailer | Taki's Magazine ...in Israel, you can write openly about one of the more interesting and important subjects of our era: Jewish wealth. For instance, the Israeli-American centrist think tank Jewish People Policy Institute reported in 2010: “World Jewry today is at a historical zenith of absolute wealth creation.” Forbes Israel, the Tel Aviv offshoot of the American business magazine, has a cover story on Jewish billionaires. The Israeli edition has made up a list, drawn from Forbes‘s overall ranking of the world’s 1,426 billionaires, of the 165 richest Jews in the world... Hollywood’s Agenda, and the Power Behind It, by Mark Weber | Paul Eisen ...Last September, during my first visit to Iran, I was a bit surprised that at one session of the “New Horizon” conference, a few of the participants objected to describing Hollywood as “Zionist controlled” or “Zionist dominated.” The discussion became so heated that a special session was scheduled to further debate this issue and, hopefully, to reach a consensus on it. This question is not a peripheral or academic one. An awareness of who holds power in Hollywood is essential for an understanding of the outlook, ideology and agenda of those who wield such great influence... Palestine: Fist Full of Dollars, by Sami Jamil Jadallah | Veterans Today ...Contrary to public claims, the Palestinian leadership past (Arafat) and present (Abbas) was never interested in liberation, let alone ending the Jewish Occupation. Oslo and subsequent actions since then can only confirm this. It is all about business and the windfall the continued Jewish Occupations brings to the Palestinian leadership, leaders and cadre of “Fasa’el” and of course to the Palestinian Oligarchs... Israeli Airstrike on Syria | Roi Tov "There is no better testimony that the situation in Syria has deteriorated into a full war than the fogginess accompanying reports from there. "Yesterday, May 3, 2013, unclear targets were hit by unknown forces; but maybe it happened the night before." This is the only possible conclusion if integrating all what was claimed by mainstream media... No, We Can’t! by Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom 'An Ambassador is an honest man sent abroad to lie for the good of his country,' a British statesman famously wrote some 400 years ago. That is true, of course, for all diplomats. The question is whether the diplomat lies only to others, or also to himself. I am asking this these days when I follow the arduous efforts of John Kerry, the new American foreign secretary, to jump-start the Israeli-Arab “peace process”.. Boston Marathon, this Thing Called Terrorism, and the United States, by William Blum | Dissident Voice What is it that makes young men, reasonably well educated, in good health and nice looking, with long lives ahead of them, use powerful explosives to murder complete strangers because of political beliefs? I’m speaking about American military personnel of course, on the ground, in the air, or directing drones from an office in Nevada. Do not the survivors of US attacks in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Libya and elsewhere, and their loved ones, ask such a question? The survivors and loved ones in Boston have their answer – America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan... The Game of Drones, by Jeffrey St. Clair | Counterpunch At last we know. The mysterious legal authority for Barack Obama’s killer drone program flows from another administration with an elastic interpretation of executive power: that of Richard Nixon. In a chilling 16-page dossier known simply as the White Paper, one of Obama’s statutory brains at the Justice Department cites the 1969 secret bombing of Cambodia as a legal rationale justifying drone strikes, deep inside nations, against which the United States is not officially at war. This startling disclosure is drafted in the antiseptic prose of an insurance adjuster announcing the denial of a claim based on a pre-existing condition... Drones for “Regime Protection,” by Philip Giraldi | The American Conservative Media reports of CIA preparations to use drones to target al-Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria, should the post-Assad situation warrant such an intervention, are only party correct. The plan to use drones under certain circumstances is in reality part of the much larger CIA program in Iraq that parallels the program being set up in Afghanistan. CIA initiatives in both countries are related to what is being mandated by the National Security Council as a policy of “regime survival” to help keep in place governments that are at least nominally friendly to Washington and that will be dependent on American technology and intelligence resources for the foreseeable future to maintain their own security... May 3-4, 2013 The Truth Tellers Lament in a Time of Darkness, by William A Cook | My Catbird Seat It is the legacy of Lloyd Garrison, of Martin Luther King, of Malcolm X, of all those who devoted their lives to eradication of slavery and segregation in these United States; it is the eternal legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, of all who lived and died to bring apartheid to an end in South Africa symbolized by their Bishop Tutu; it is the caustic lament of the great satirists from Petronius to Voltaire to Swift to Twain to Vonnegut; it is the strident voice now of Jonathan Cook in Israel, of Uri Avnery and Uri Davis inside the belly of the beast.. and Atzmon and Finkelstein and those declared to be self-hating Jews who stand for the conscience of humankind not the tribal mentality of ancient days... How The Nation Magazine Makes the World Safe for the Plutocracy, by John Spritzler | New Democracy World The Nation magazine's target audience is people who want to read journalism that comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. What readers of The Nation don't realize is that the magazine's purpose is to protect the most comfortable people of all - the American plutocracy - from its readers... Read more... Mike Stivers interviews Noam Chomsky: Obama's Attack on Civil Liberties Has Gone Way Beyond Imagination | Alternet Anyone following issues of civil liberties under Obama knows that his administration's policies have been disastrous. The signing of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which effectively legalizes indefinite detention of US citizens, the prosecution of more whistleblowers than any previous president, the refusal to close Guantanamo, and the adoption of ruthless positions in trials such as Hedges vs. Obama and Holder vs. Humanitarian Law Project don't even encapsulate the full extent of the flagrant violations of civil, political and constitutional rights. One basic question that a lot of people seem to be asking is, why?.. Read more... Boston, Brazil and Islam: Irrational Rhetoric, Illegal Wars, by Ramzy Baroud | Palestine Chronicle ...It is impracticable to rationally argue with those who are essentially irrational. Many of us have tirelessly tried to wrangle with those who want to ‘kill all Muslims’ whenever someone claiming to be a Muslim is accused of carrying out or planning to carry out an attack somewhere in the world. The ‘debate’ rages on, not because of the power of its logic, but because of the heavy price of blood and gore that continues to be paid due to the deliberate misinformation, utter lies and subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) intellectual racism that defines much of the American media and academic discourses... Anti-Semitism is Zionism's Bread and Butter | Henry Makow ...The pogrom on Sept. 11 2001 was designed to stampede Americans into forfeiting their civil rights and invading the Middle East, like Zionists. There is a drumbeat in the media to convince Americans that they are victims of Muslim fanatics. This propaganda campaign is carried out by Neo Cons (a.k.a. Zionists.) In his book, "The New Jerusalem: Zionist Power in America," Michael Collins Piper writes: "In the build-up to the Iraq war, Zionist propagandists and the media increasingly began touting the message to Americans that "the whole world is against us"... and the Israelis are our only real solid dependable ally ... Read more... Kristol Clear, by Philip Giraldi | Antiwar It has been noted ironically by Justin Raimondo at antiwar and also by Scott McConnell over at The American Conservative how the neoconservative dominated American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus, which sees Chechens and other Central Asian Muslim militants as “freedom fighters” against Russian rule, exists side by side with other organizations like the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the American Enterprise Institute that feature many of the same neoconservatives dedicated to restraining Political Islam while extirpating what they frequently describe as “Islamic fascism.”.. [Funny how the real fascists (nowadays that would be the Zionists) find it convenient to call the people they hate and fear “fascists.”] Read more...How the Boston Bombings May Change the World for the Worse! | James Petras The relation between the suspected Boston Marathon bombers and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Massachusetts State Police (MSP) and the Boston Police (BP) is a point of contention and controversy. The FBI, at first, claimed no knowledge of the bombing suspects but later was forced to admit having received at least two sets of intelligence reports, one from Russian officials and another from the CIA, identifying one of the suspected bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, as a potential security threat -linked to a Chechen terrorist organization... [Either the FBI is the most incompetent security agency on the planet or there’s something else going on here] Read more...When Israeli denial of Palestinian existence becomes genocidal, by Ilan Pappe | The Electronic Intifada ...Peres’ denial of the native Palestinians and his reselling in 2013 of the landless people mythology exposes the cognitive dissonance in which he lives: he denies the existence of approximately twelve million people living in and near to the country to which they belong. History shows that the human consequences are horrific and catastrophic when powerful people, heading powerful outfits such as a modern state, denied the existence of a people who are very much present. This denial was there at the beginning of Zionism and led to the ethnic cleansing in 1948. And it is there today, which may lead to similar disasters in the future — unless stopped immediately... Read more... The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, a talk by Ilan Pappe | YouTube This is a unique opportunity to hear the renowned historian and author, Ilan Pappe speak about his book "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" where he lays out the past, present, and offers suggestions for the future... Prosecutable US Crimes against Humanity in Korea, by Jay Janson | Palestine Chronicle While staring at the New York Times front page photo of the bat-winged nuclear-capable B-2 Stealth Bombers up in the blue sky on their first non-stop long-range mission from the US on their way to a practice sortie to end in a mock bombing drop of inert munitions on a range off South Korea’s coast, I ponder. The thought that ‘enough is enough’ will apparently never arise in the mind-set of those commanding the first planet-encompassing space-age military, blown up now to an uncontrollable magnitude and fueled by an uninterrupted flow of trillions of dollars by ledger line pre-occupied elite of the speculative investment banking community... Ultra-Orthodox Judaism Declares War on Netanyahu | Roi Tov In the morning hours of May 2, 2013, Jerusalem Time, the political news everybody had predicted since the elections in January was announced. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Ultra-Orthodox Shas party announced that Arieh Deri is returning to lead the political party. Deri has recently announced his intentions to stand against the ultra-secular government leading Israel while Minister of Finances Yair Lapid made unprecedented antireligious declarations in the Knesset. Jewish-Wars are in the air... [It is comforting to note that throughout history any polity wherein the State and the predominant religion were at odds has had a short shelf-life. Maybe the ghastly malignant tumor that is Israel will soon devour itself rather than the host, which is the rest of us.] Read more...A Talmud Question from Sweden, by Michael Hoffman | On the Contrary Dear Michael Hoffman, I am trying to convince a rabbi to try to debunk the late professor Shahak's understanding of the Talmud as well as your compilation of Talmud-quotes, instead of just crying out "Antisemites"! I've been absolutely correct in my manners in the email-correspondence with the rabbi, but he has not stopped using abusive language towards me.He promotes the idea that you and Shahak have not understood the Talmud, so I have offered him to state the amount of money he needs to tutor me/debunk your and professor Shahak’s understanding/explanations of the Talmud. To debunk, I've explained to him is to use Talmud-quotes to prove your explanations wrong... Read more... Israel’s ethnocentric experiment, by Jamal Kanj | Redress Information & Analysis Israeli leaders are masters at muddling the international community with trivial issues while turning peace negotiations into a process to end all peace. Assured by subservient US backing, and for more than 15 years prior to the current pointless and interminable process, Israel rejected peace overtures from the Palestinians by insisting on impossible and ever-changing terms to be fulfilled even before agreeing to talk with Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)... A beautiful piece of writing by Shelby Tucker | Paul Eisen This is a letter written to a newspaper by my friend, author and activist Shelby Tucker. It's a reply to a rabbi's libeling him in their columns. I post it because it seems to me to come from kinder times but most of all, because it's so beautifully written... Read more... Church of Scotland Questions Right of Israel to Exist | The Jewish Press The Church of Scotland has written a document that suggests that Jews may not have a valid claim to the Land of Israel because of an “increasing number of difficulties and current Israeli policies regarding the Palestinians.” Local Jewish leaders are up in arms and fear that if the church adopts the document at its annual general assembly, it may be become official church policy, the London Jewish Chronicle reported. The Church of Scotland’s annual general assembly is to vote on the 5,000-word report later this month.. If the proposed view passes the vote, it may become “the considered view of the Church,” .. [Israel may not have the ‘right to exist,’ but by its actions it has certainly demonstrated that it has a right to cease to exist, and the world is morally bound to assist in that process. “All options are on the table.”] The Inheritance of Abraham? A report on the promised land | Church of Scotland ...From this examination of the various views in the Bible about the relation of land to the people of God, it can be concluded that Christians should not be supporting any claims by Jewish or any other people, to an exclusive or even privileged divine right to possess particular territory. It is a misuse of the Bible to use it as a topographic guide to settle contemporary conflicts over land. In the Bible, God’s promises extend in hope to all land and people... U.S. Government and NATO Worked with Bin Laden and His Top Lieutenant 3 Months AFTER 9/11 | Washington's Blog FBI Translator Alleges that Bin Laden and His Number 2 Worked as Part of Operation Gladio: Former FBI translator Sibel Edmonds has been deemed credible by the Department of Justice’s Inspector General, several senators (free subscription required), and a coalition of prominent conservative and liberal groups. The ACLU described Edmonds as: ‘The most gagged person in the history of the United States of America.’ And famed Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg says that Edmonds possesses information “far more explosive than the Pentagon Papers”... Boston Bombing: What You Aren't Told | The Truthseeker/YouTube New Study Examines Media Coverage of Iranian Nuclear Program, by Nima Shirazi | Muftah Late last month, The University of Maryland’s Center for International and Security Studies (CISSM) released an extensive new report examining the mainstream media’s coverage of the Iranian nuclear program and its attendant developments and implications over the past four years.. Drawing direct parallels to the irresponsible, inadequate, inaccurate and dangerously ideological media malpractice during the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the CISSM report concludes that press coverage on the Iranian nuclear program has been – and continues to be – similarly distorted and dishonest, confusing, and contradictory... The trial of Guenter Deckert by Sylvia Stolz | Paul Eisen ...During his appeal Guenter Deckert wanted to know the concrete facts which he, according to the accusations, deliberately ignored and the truth he contested. He received no answer. It is especially telling that the so-called “Holocaust” is not legally defined (This is against the principal of the penal law). In the first trial no concrete facts as to the place of the crime, the methods of killing or other proofs, directly or indirectly presented in the findings of other trials, were presented... Read more... New Addition to the Syrian Islamic Front, by Aron Lund | Syria Comment The Haqq Battalions Gathering, a militant group in the Hama province, announced in mid-April 2013 that they are joining the Syrian Islamic Front (SIF). This is the first time since the SIF’s creation in December 2012 that an independent outside organization of any consequence decides to join the front. Previously, some small local factions had been coopted into SIF member factions, but the Haqq Battalions are joining as full members. The SIF is one of Syria’s largest and most powerful Islamist militant alliances... Mainstream Presstitutes & Syrian Genocide, by Gideon Polya | MCW News Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Lying by commission, lying by omission, censorship and self-censorship by Mainstream journalist, editor, politician and academic presstitutes has enabled the continuing, Zionist-promoted, US War on Muslims that has so far since 1990 been associated with 12 million Muslim deaths from violence or from war-imposed deprivation.. Now mainstream lying and censorship is enabling a build-up to a US Alliance destruction of Syria to parallel that in Iraq... No Mayday On May Day For American Politics, by Ben Tanosborn | Eurasia Review Another May Day gone by… 2013 this time! And as usual, our beloved local politicians, business leaders, peace-enforcers (cops), corporate journalists, and citizenry busy in making the proverbial buck, made sure that the protests taking place were pictured as smallish and un-American as that foreign-sounding International Workers’ Day. And if any incidents occurred – other than having folks peacefully walking the streets collared with a permit – it was the anarchist thugs that need to be blamed; idiots and ingrates who fail to appreciate our freedoms, or the greatness of America’s capitalist way of life... Read more... May 2, 2013 Pappe's Discomfort | Gilad Atzmon ...Back in the 1990s Pappe, amongst a few other Israeli post-Zionists, reminded Israelis of their original sin - the orchestrated, racially-driven ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Palestine - the Nakba. But like many historians, Pappe, though familiar with the facts of history, seems either unable to grasp or reluctant to address the ideological and cultural meaning of those facts.. For some reason, he believes that Peres’ denial of the Palestinian’s suffering is a result of a ‘cognitive dissonance.’ i.e. a discomfort experienced when two or more conflicting ideas, values or beliefs are held at the same time... [As usual, Gilad cuts directly to the chase – no mincing of words here. What we are dealing with is evil, plain and simple – and postmodernism be damned.] Apologists for Israel take top posts at BBC, by Amena Saleem | 21st Century Socialism The American poet T.S. Eliot wrote that ‘April is the cruelest month’. The phrase springs to mind in April 2013, the month that a new director-general took up his post at the BBC and, within two weeks, had installed a line-up of hardline Zionists at the top of the world’s largest publicly-funded news organization... [What irony that the Allied Powers, after defeating the German Nazis during WWII, have themselves been subverted and taken over by another set of Nazis, Jewish this time (with the help of a doomsday cult of “Christian Zionists”).] Genocidaires Upholding International Order, by Kim Petersen | Dissident Voice ...injustices have always had a starting point in the past with the injustices differing as to which point in the past they had their start. The Zionist dispossession and genocide of Palestinians is of a more decidedly recent starting point than 1492. So unfortunately genocides are not confined to the past but still occur in our supposedly enlightened times. Abdul Haq al-Ani and Tarik al-Ani tackle a very recent genocide: a genocide that is concealed by the corporate or state media of the West, the genocide perpetrated in Iraq by the United States and aided by the United Kingdom and the coalition of the killing... The Boston Bombings Swing in Israel’s and the NeoCon’s Favor, by Jonas E. Alexis | Veterans Today ...If there is something that decent Americans have to reflect upon throughout this year would be this: America needs to seriously and collectively reconsider its unconditional allegiance to the Zionist regime in Israel. Decent Americans need to come to grip with what the neoconservative ideology is actually doing... Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the Penumbra of Terror, by Justin Raimondo | Antiwar The semi-official story coming out of Washington, and the Western media, is that the Tsarnaev brothers were “self-radicalized” loners, “losers,” as their uncle Ruslan put it, unconnected to any larger organization or terrorist network. The poor babies were so alienated by life in America – where they had been given refugee status, welfare payments, and, in Dzhokhar’s case, citizenship – that they suddenly decided to carry out a terrorist act in which three were killed and hundreds wounded. Move along, nothing to see here.. There’s just one problem with this story: it’s unraveling... Truthdigger of the Week: Jeremy Scahill, by Alexander Reed Kelly | Truthdig ...where governments are concerned, the ugliest and most important truths are always buried by those who are responsible for them. The availability of unprecedented communication technology in the age of Internet has driven officials to unprecedented lengths to keep secret the unnecessary killing of thousands of innocents and alleged militants abroad, a handful of whom are U.S. citizens. Failure to keep the public confused about these matters would risk a popular backlash and the possible loss of political power... West's WMD Lies Fray as Syrian Army Overruns Terrorist Proxies | Land Destroyer Absurd "chemical weapons" claims begin to fall apart amidst NATO's desperate bid to save its collapsing terror front in Syria. According to the White House itself, there is no evidence that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons of any kind during the two year conflict the West itself has created and continues to perpetuate. Indeed, a letter from the White House via the Washington Post exposed just how tenuous the evidence actually is... Charles Lindbergh: A courageous American's prophetic voice, by Mark Weber | Paul Eisen ...During his lifetime he made a mark not only as a pioneering global aviator, but also as an award-winning author, environmentalist and anti-war activist. Given the scarcity of truly heroic Americans during the past century, he towers as a man of exemplary accomplishment and courage. He deserves to be remembered today not only as an authentic American hero, but also because much of what he wrote and said is relevant in our own age. Indeed, some of his remarks have proven to be prophetic... Why are the Israelis so Damn Happy? by Tiffanie Wen | The Daily Beast By now everyone in Israel has read the results of the study published earlier this month that showed Israelis ranked among the happiest people among the Western nations, despite an extensive laundry list of problems in their country... [Israel reminds me of Edgar Allan Poe's story The Masque of the Red Death] Israel gets fifth ‘nuclear-capable’ sub | RT News ...In June 2012, Der Spiegel reported that Germany is actually strengthening Israel’s nuclear capabilities. The magazine claimed that Dolphin-class submarines are equipped with hydraulic ejection systems that enable the underwater launch of Israeli Popeye Turbo SLCM long-range cruise missiles, believed to have nuclear warheads. Israel’s Popeye cruise missile is believed to have a range of up to 1500km and carry a 200kg payload, enough to fit in a nuclear warhead. The first launch of the missile was carried out in 2002 in the Indian Ocean. Thus the German-built submarines are believed to be the backbone of the Israeli nuclear deterrent against Iran... [Deterrent against Iran? These are for offense, not defense. Iran has no offensive capabilities nor the desire to have them.] Tsarnaev: Right to Counsel, Not Miranda, Is the Key | Empty Wheel Since Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was taken into custody just over a week ago, the hue and cry in the public and media discussion has centered on “Miranda” rights and to what extent the “public safety exception” thereto should come into play. That discussion has been almost uniformly wrongheaded. I will return to this shortly, but for now wish to point out something that appears to have mostly escaped notice of the media and legal commentariat – Tsarnaev repeatedly tried to invoke his right to counsel... Law Professor John Yoo Apparently Unaware of Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, by Adam Serwer | Mother Jones Torture memo author John Yoo and others who have called for Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to be held in military detention are claiming vindication following reports that Tsarnaev stopped talking to interrogators after a judge advised him of his right to remain silent. "Apparently the FBI interrogated the younger Tsarnaev for 16 hours," wrote torture memo author John Yoo at National Review. "And then, for reasons that are still unknown, the government read him his rights." Yoo has never met a right he didn't want to ball up like a piece of paper and toss into a trash can in the name of national security... [Yoo is near the top of my list of Nazi scumbags serving the Empire] WMD for We but not for Thee: The Usual Suspects v. Syria, by Thomas L. Knapp | Counterpunch The French, British and Israeli governments have all accused Syria’s regime of using chemical weapons in its ongoing struggle with foreign-backed rebels. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is urging Assad to allow UN inspectors into the country to verify or disprove the claims. And US president Barack Obama, while carefully avoiding a direct accusation, has publicly mused that proof of the charge would be a “game-changer,” by which he means that it would serve as an excuse to escalate US meddling in the conflict... Afghanistan: An Endless Financial Sinkhole, by John Glaser | Antiwar As we noted in the news section yesterday, The New York Times reported this week on “bags of cash” that have been continually sent to Afghan President Hamid Karzai “courtesy of the CIA.” Despite its unsurprising “revelations,” the story has received a lot of attention from Americans who are tired of fighting the lost war in Afghanistan and resentful that so many resources have gone to that sinkhole of a “nation-building” project... Recovery for the 7 Percent | Paul Craig Roberts Since the recession was officially declared to be over in June 2009, I have assured readers that there has been no recovery. Gerald Celente, John Williams,and no doubt others have also made it clear that the alleged recovery is an artifact of an understated inflation rate that produces an image of real economic growth. Now comes the Pew Research Center with its conclusion that the recession ended only for the top 7 percent of households that have substantial holdings of stocks and bonds... The Boston bombing as a symptom of the terminal decline of the US Empire | The Vineyard of the Saker Do you remember how crowds on Boston cheered and celebrated their "victory" when, after a week-long manhunt, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was finally arrested?.. When I saw these videos I marveled at how stupid American crowds can get, but I decided not to post anything about it since, after all, stupidity is not something worth posting about, I think. Still, I though, what a pathetic display of incompetence and ignorance, what a total over-reaction. First, the entire city was put on lock down - something which never happened elsewhere, not in Israel, not in Ulster, not in the Russian Caucasus, not in India, not in any other city affected by a rather minor wannabe terror event... [Ah, my hometown, Beantown - the Athens of the West - cradle of intellectual ferment and creativity - liberal bastion of America - what a perfect setting for the dress rehearsal] May 1, 2013 The Holycause Revisited It’s high time we freed our minds from this horrific tribal cult 10 newspapers from 1915-1938 before the Holocaust even happened... I used to believe in “the Holocaust.” Not as a religion – I’ve never been to any of the museum-temples or made a pilgrimage to Auschwitz or pored over the sacred texts. And I never was stupid or crazy enough to accept the Holocaust as a valid excuse for the Zionist theft of Palestine. (If the Holocaust had anything to do with Israel, then Israel would have been established in Germany – not Palestine.) In short, I believed in “the Holocaust” as history, because I assumed that 99% of Western academic historians can’t be wrong... The interview captures the good Bishop’s courage and impeccable dignity (One can ignore the Catholic theology as irrelevant)... I am currently writing the introduction, compiling the bibliography and designing the cover for our forthcoming book, Testing the Talmud, which was written by a professor of Hebrew at a major university. Judaism is again on my mind therefore, after writing three books on the subject (in 2000, 2008 and 2011) and then pursuing other revisionist history, most recently, Usury in Christendom. Yesterday was Lag B'omer, an Israeli holdiay in honor of Rabbi Shimon Ben Yohai, the reputed founder of the Kabbalistic system of magic and superstition in Judaism, and the Mishnaic theologian who declared, "Even the best of the gentiles should all be killed.".. ...“the argument that we must spare the feelings of survivors is essentially an appeal to compassion. For many years, we were swayed, and even troubled, by this argument, but we have seen in recent times that this compassion has been invoked to justify persecution and censorship. So now the value of compassion has been placed at odds to the free reason of the individual. But in fact all compassion, and all human action, can only flow from the reasoned choice of free human beings. We conclude, therefore, that the most positive end is served by insisting on the right of free people to speak their minds.".. Our American Pravda, by Ron Unz | The American Conservative ...The realization that the world is often quite different from what is presented in our leading newspapers and magazines is not an easy conclusion for most educated Americans to accept, or at least that was true in my own case. For decades, I have closely read the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and one or two other major newspapers every morning, supplemented by a wide variety of weekly or monthly opinion magazines. Their biases in certain areas had always been apparent to me. But I felt confident that by comparing and contrasting the claims of these different publications and applying some common sense, I could obtain a reasonably accurate version of reality. I was mistaken... The real enemy of the Jews? | Paul Eisen ...Do all Jews have supremacist leanings? Yes. Does this mean that all Jews are culpable? Of course not - but those Jews who actively promote their supremacism at the expense of others certainly are. Finally a plea: When Jewish power is finally and rightly confronted, let it be done intelligently, peacefully and, above all, with compassion and understanding... Syria and sarin gas: US claims have a very familiar ring, by Robert Fisk | The Independent Is there any way of escaping the theatre of chemical weapons? First, Israeli "military intelligence" says that Bashar al-Assad's forces have used/have probably used/might have used/could use chemical weapons. Then Chuck Hagel, the US Defense Secretary, pops up in Israel to promise even more firepower for Israel's over-armed military – avoiding any mention of Israel's more than 200 nuclear warheads – and then imbibing all the Israeli "intelligence" on Syria's use/probable use/possible use of chemical weapons... Ricin, Diamonds, and Stingers: American/Saudi Covert Operations in Chechnya, by John Stanton | Dissident Voice ...Once converted to cash, US and Saudi intelligence agencies could clandestinely purchase weapons, like Stinger Missiles, and bribe the appropriate personnel to get the nasty little weapons where they needed to be. In this case the anti-aircraft Stingers would land in the hands of Chechen rebels fighting against the Russian military. A transit and training point was (and remains) NATO and Israel friendly Georgia.. “..it became absolutely clear that Chechnya became a key element in the process of controlled destabilization of the Caucasian Region. Hence well-known intelligence managers of such destabilization processes moved to solve Chechen problems... New Israeli Math and the Return of the Holocaust Analogy: Iran "Equal to 30 Nuclear North Koreas" | Wide Asleep in America At the second annual Jerusalem Post Conference, held in New York City on Sunday April 28, a number of former and current Israeli officials offered new estimates about Iran's nuclear progress, issued threats of war and pretended Israel is more powerful and militarily capable than it really is. In other words, it was just another day of shameless and shameful Israeli propaganda; pathetic, jingoistic bluster meant to appeal to hawkish American donors, puff up Israel's inflated sense of self, and attempt to boost its already non-existent credibility... Israel Assassinates the "Freelancer of Terror" | Roi Tov Only yesterday, I commented on the Israeli saying "The Jewish Brain Invents Patents," in the context of a new semantic invention promoting war ("entwined red lines"). The saying denotes a wild act, a purposeful violation of the law, usually by the government. A few hours later, Israel assassinated Hitham Mishal in the Shati refugees' camp in Gaza. The headlines of Yedioth Ahronot, the largest paid Hebrew newspaper, claimed "Shin Beth and IDF Terminated the Freelancer of Terror." The Jewish brain had invented a new term: "Freelance Terror.".. The Real Reason America Can't Make a Nuclear Deal with Iran, by Flynt and Hillary Mann Leverett | Huffington Post The outlines of a nuclear deal between the P5+1 and Iran have long been obvious: Western recognition of Iran's nuclear rights in return for more intrusive monitoring and verification of Iranian nuclear facilities. With agreement so readily at hand, the Obama administration's refusal to take it is baffling to many international observers. But the reason for American obstinacy becomes clearer when one considers that that the Iranian nuclear issue has at least as much to do with the future of international order as it does with nonproliferation... 'Saudi Arabia was betting on advantageous military developments in Syria when in reality tables were turned against Riyadh & allies!' | Friday Lunch Club "... Under the guise of openness toward Hezbollah in Beirut, the Saudi axis is locked in a regional battle to tighten the siege on the Syrian regime and topple President Bashar al-Assad. As the Saudis were preparing to attack Damascus, they felt it prudent not to open more than one front at a time. So they made a truce with Hezbollah and showed goodwill toward the party, while the Arab-Western-Turkish noose was tightening around Assad’s neck.On the other hand, Hezbollah and Iran were not fooled by the Saudi maneuver... The Boston Marathon Mysteries, by Thierry Meyssan | Voltaire Net Two weeks after the Boston bombings, the U.S. authorities have designated brothers Tamerlane and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as the perpetrators. They declared that they killed the elder of the two and arrested his brother and accomplice. The young man, aged 19, was hospitalized, but his injuries prevent him from communicating except through nodding. Regardless, he has allegedly admitted the facts. However, nothing is known about the circumstances under which Tamerlane was killed, or about those surrounding the arrest of Dzhokhar... Upping the Stakes: Edging Closer to Full-scale US-NATO Military Intervention, by Stephen Lendman | Global Research Things appear heading closer toward full-scale US intervention. The fullness of time will have final say. On April 28, The New York Times headlined “Lawmakers Call for Stronger US Action in Syria,” saying: Republicans “took President Obama to task Sunday for what they characterized as dangerous inaction in Syria….” Iran softens tune on Israel, by Kaveh L Afrasiabi | Asia Times Online ...the fact that some leading politicians have explicitly distanced themselves from the Ahmadinejad administration's hardline anti-Israel policy reflects the depth and seriousness of policy debates in today's Iran and underscores the ruling elite's growing concerns about the effects of Iran's isolation due to the nuclear crisis... |
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