January 31, 2010  Read more... Birds of a Feather: Subverting the Constitution at Harvard Law, by Jim Fetzer | OpEd News As someone who has promoted the investigation of political events that appear to have involved "pulling the wool" over the eyes of the public, I must say that I have never read a more corrosive approach toward the Constitution than "Conspiracy Theories" by Cass R. Sunstein and Adrian Vermeule of the Harvard School of Law. The massive blunder at the core of their conception is to take for granted that virtually all "conspiracy theories" -- and certainly the most historic, such as JFK and 9/11 -- are obviously false! That is about as gratuitous a begging of the question as I have ever encountered -- and I taught logic, critical thinking, and scientific reasoning for 35 years. No one can know which theories are true or false without investigating them. That this is coming from faculty at Harvard Law is simply stunning... Read more... Breaking the Silence publishes shocking testimonies from women who served Occupation | Mondoweiss There’s a new and shocking booklet of testimonies out from Breaking the Silence, this one from anonymous female soldiers who served in the Occupied Territories and routinely abused the "Arabs" or "illegal aliens." Because they could, or needed to. Ynet has published many of the testimonies, and they’re horrifying/nightmarish, all about the kind of warped psychological/gender power abuse that people talk about in David Hare plays or in Eastern European memoirs. What if these stories of sexualized humiliation were published in the U.S.? Don’t worry, they won’t be. And they won’t be acted out in Jewish Community Centers, not for another ten years, till the kids take over... Read more... Nietzsche on the Jews, by Thomas Dalton | Occidental Observer Philosophers, as a rule, are a rather low-key bunch. They generally discuss mundane, technical, or utterly abstract topics that cause little concern among society at large. Of course there were exceptions, primarily during the Renaissance when the early humanists incurred the wrath of the Church (think of Bruno or Spinoza); this required some to publish their works either pseudonymously or posthumously. And Marx and Engels have certainly garnered their fair share of enmity. But by and large philosophers throughout the ages have raised few serious hackles. A major exception is the case of Friedrich Nietzsche, certainly one of the most controversial philosophers in history... Read more... Aafia Siddiqui stands her ground at trial  Aafia Siddiqui\ Pakistani citizen Aafia Siddiqui, who is charged with attempted murder of FBI agents and US military personnel, has told a New York court that the charges against her are "ridiculous."...Siddiqui went on to say that she saw an M-4 for the first time when it was produced in the court a couple of days ago as the weapon she allegedly used. It was absurd to think a US soldier would carelessly leave his weapon in a place where a suspect like her could grab it, she told the jury. "It's too crazy. It's just ridiculous," Siddiqui said. "I didn't do that."..Read more... Mossad Tied to ‘Underwear Bomber’, by Victor Thorn | American Free Press “His explosives couldn’t have blown up his own seat. Even if full power, it wouldn’t have worked.” These were the words relayed to me during a Jan. 2 interview with military analyst and counterinsurgency specialist Gordon Duff in regard to the attempt of Christmas Day underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab [sometimes referred to as Abdulmutallab] to ignite 80 grams of the explosive PETN on a flight destined for America. He also explained how the patsy’s country of origin, Nigeria, is clandestinely controlled by the Israeli army and Mossad... Read more... BBC Panorama - A Walk In The Park | YouTube Ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem Watch...Drones and Death: The Israeli Connection, by Ed Kinane | Dissident Voice Drones are remote-controlled airborne robots. They come in all shapes and sizes. These unmanned high-tech weapons are remarkably versatile. From thousands of feet in the air some reportedly have heat-detecting and surveillance instrumentation that can distinguish between an automatic weapon that has been recently fired and one that hasn’t. Unlike the people of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Palestine, most US Americans are oblivious to drones. But we’d better wake up. Drones are poised to become tools of domestic surveillance... Read more... The Real Reason for the Cancellation of the 9-11 Trial | Christopher Bollyn  The real KSM studied mechanical engineering at NC Agricultural and Technical University  The man said (by U.S. officials) to be Khalid Sheik Mohammed is clearly I was not at all surprised to read that officials in New York City took David Axelrod aside and told him that the city could not allow the trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed and other 9-11 suspects to go ahead. I never expected that this trial would go ahead in anything resembling an open court. It is clear that this trial cannot go ahead. The media discussion about the high cost of security is just the cover story. The FBI and U.S. government does not want to be exposed as having stolen another person's identity to push the fraudulent "War on Terror."...not a bright-eyed and articulate English speaking engineer Read more... Israel's attorney general fears growing isolation of country after Gaza war | Gaza Solidarity Israel's attorney general fears that his country faces 'Serbianization' by which he means it will be seen as an outcast among nations, unless it makes the pretence of at least holding an 'independent' inquiry into the Gaza war. The Goldstone report is hurting Israel big time and the more far-sighted among the leadersip are belated recognising this fact... Read more... Blair survives Iraq Inquiry without a scratch, by Stuart Littlewood Claims Saddam threatened the world and picks fight with Irany Stuart Littlewood considers the failure of the Iraq Inquiry rigorously to question former Prime Minister Tony Blair about his decision to join the US in committing aggression against Iraq, and reflects on Blair’s use of the inquiry as a platform to promote aggression against Iran.Read more... Another world is possible, WSF says at end of gathering | Press TV After five days of debates, the World Social Forum (WSF) has ended in Porto Alegre, the capital of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The events of the 10th annual World Social Forum were attended by roughly 35,000 people from 39 countries. The Forum's panelists and speakers included sociologists, economists, intellectuals, and politicians from around the globe participating in 915 different conferences, seminars, and workshops throughout the five-day event...As with previous Forums, capitalism and consumerism were held responsible for most of the world's economic, cultural, and environmental woes... Read more... The Best Human Being I Knew: A Memory of Howard Zinn, by Daniel Ellsberg | Counterpunch I just learned that my friend Howard Zinn died. Earlier this morning, I was being interviewed by the Boston Phoenix, in connection with the release in Boston in February of a documentary in which he is featured prominently. The interviewer asked me who my own heroes were, and I had no hesitation in answering, first, “Howard Zinn.” Just weeks ago after watching the film on December 7, I woke up the next morning thinking that I had never told him how much he meant to me. For once in my life, I acted on that thought in a timely way. I sent him an e-mail in which I said, among other things, what I had often told others about him: that he was,” in my opinion, the best human being I've ever known. The best example of what a human can be, and can do with their life.”... Read more... January 30, 2010 Enough is Enough, by Gilad Atzmon  The UK Jewish Chronicle is apparently stupid enough to unveil the ferocity of Zionist lobbying within the British Government and its corridors of power. The Jewish weekly is happy to outline the relentless measures that are being taken by Jewish lobbyists in order to Zionise the British legal system and its value system... Read more... Obama Asked Why US Doesn't Condemn Israeli Human Rights Abuses, by Nicholas Graham (video) | Huffington Post During President Obama's town hall this afternoon in Tampa, Florida, a young woman asked a pointed question about Israel and human rights that stirred up the crowd and prompted a long answer from Obama... Read more, watch... Polish bishop accuses Jews of exploiting Holocaust | Israel News Tadeusz Pieronek says, 'Holocaust as such is a Jewish invention used to obtain advantages that are often unjustified,' claims Israel treating Palestinians 'like animals'... Read more... Israel responds to Gaza war report | Al Jazeera  Barak has promised that individual Israeli soldiers will not be indicted for war crimes Israel has submitted to the United Nations details of the investigations it conducted into war crimes allegations raised in a reports into the 22-day Gaza war, which ended last January. Ehud Barak, the Israeli defence minister, told reporters in the southern Negev desert on Friday that his report backed the army's actions during Operation Cast Lead. "All of the soldiers and officers whom we sent to battle need to know that the state of Israel stands behind them even on the day after," Barak said. "The Goldstone Report is a distorted, false, and irresponsible report."...Read more... Zinn, WEF, abuse of the Jewish holocaust.., by Mazin Qumsiyeh | Human Rights Newsletter We lost the good voice of historian, intellectual and activist, Prof. Howard Zinn. I met Zinn twice while in the US. I read two of his books and hope to have time some day to read the others. Zinn was not happy with Zionism and frequently criticized the Zionist atrocities, from massacres in Lebanon in 1982 to those in Gaza last year. But, like many leftists, preferred tochallenge US imperialism over challenging the destructive Israel-first lobby in the US. In this, I disagreed with him because I believe Zionism sits at the table of power in Washington DC and is not merely a tool of "US Imperialism"... Read more... 'Defamation' | Information Clearing House 'Hashmatsa' ('Defamation') by Israeli director Yoav Shamir dares to attack one of the sacred cows of Israel and of the Jewish people thinking - how it reacts to antisemitism around the world, how it looks at the evil of the Holocaust, and how young generations are being educated in Israel with respect to these painful and fundamental issues... Read more, watch... 'Israel, US spread Iranophobia to divide ME states' | Press TV  Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani says the US and Israel are attempting to spread Iranophobia in the region to create division among the Middle Eastern states. "It is necessary to recognize that by creating a non-realistic sense of fear and dread towards Iran, the US and Israel are seeking to expand their military bases in the region," the top Iranian official said on Friday during a visit to Kuwait. Larijani added that the US and Israel make the most out of forging unreal enemies in the oil-rich region by "selling their armaments and plundering oil reserves."...Read more... Barack Obama's paralysis in face of Zionist lobby, by Uri Avnery | Redress Information & Analysis Uri Avnery laments Barack Obama’s weakness and lack of leadership, as manifested in his failure to exercise leadership, invest political capital in a confrontation with the Israel and Christian-Evangelical lobbies in Congress and move forward by announcing a clear peace programme for the Palestine-Israel conflict... Read more... IDF is saving the world | Gilad Atzmon A wry takeoff on Israel's "humanitarian" efforts in Haiti Watch... AIPAC urges swift implementation of Iran sanction bill | Press TV  The US Senate's approval of the Iran sanctions bill has won attention and applause from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), one of the most powerful and influential pro-Israeli lobbies on Capitol Hill. The bill, which was passed by the Senate on Thursday, targets Iran's energy sector, threatening to impose tough sanctions on any entity, individual, company or even country, which deals in refined petroleum with Iran. AIPAC, which led lobbying for the bill, applauded the move on Friday, but nevertheless called on senators to expedite the implementation of the resolution... Read more... Author David Grossman: Settlers abuse Palestinians - Haaretz Renowned Israeli author and peace activist David Grossman accused settlers and the political right of abusing Palestinians and destroying the chance for a peace agreement while participating in a protest in East Jerusalem on Friday. The weekly demonstration in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood is held to protest a Jewish takeover of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem through the use of ownership documents dating from the period of the British mandate in Palestine... Read more... This corruption in Washington is smothering America's future, by Johann Hari | The Independent  How do you regulate banks effectively, if the Senate is owned by Wall Street? This week, a disaster hit the United States, and the after-shocks will be shaking and breaking global politics for years. It did not grab the same press attention as the fall of liberal Kennedy-licking Massachusetts to a pick-up truck Republican, or President Obama's first State of the Union address, or the possible break-up of Brangelina and their United Nations of adopted infants. But it took the single biggest problem dragging American politics towards brutality and dysfunction – and made it much, much worse. Yet it also showed the only path that Obama can now take to salvage his Presidency...Read more... The Big Theories Underwriting Society Are Crashing All Around Us - Are You Ready for a New World?, by Terrence McNally | AlterNet  Economic meltdown ... environmental crises ... seemingly endless warfare. The world is in critical condition. Bad news? Good news? Or both? Many of the ideas and institutions that define our culture are breaking down -- and that's a good thing, say Bruce Lipton and Steve Bhaerman. In their new book, Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future and a Way to Get There from Here, they write that today's crises are part of a natural process -- clearing out what no longer serves us to make room for a new way of being. Are they cockeyed optimists or do they see things others miss?... Read more... President of Cant, by Tariq Ali | New Left Review A year since the White House changed hands, how has the American empire altered? Under the Bush Administration it was widely believed, in both mainstream opinion and much of the amnesiac section of the left, that the United States had fallen under an aberrant regime, the product of a virtual coup d’état by a coterie of right-wing fanatics—alternatively, ultra-reactionary corporations—who had hijacked American democracy for policies of unprecedented aggression in the Middle East. In reaction, the election to the Presidency of a mixed-race Democrat, vowing to heal America’s wounds at home and restore its reputation abroad, was greeted with a wave of ideological euphoria not seen since the days of Kennedy. Once again, America could show its true face—purposeful but peaceful, firm but generous; humane, respectful, multi-cultural—to the world. Naturally, with the makings of a Lincoln or a Roosevelt for our time in him, the country’s new young ruler would have to make compromises, as any statesman must. But at least the shameful interlude of Republican swagger and criminality was over... [I would call this a definitive review of Uncle Tom Obama's foreign policy - longish, but worth it for the full overview.] Read more... Howard Zinn (1922-2010): A Tribute to the Legendary Historian with Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove | Democracy Now  We pay tribute to the late historian, writer and activist Howard Zinn, who died suddenly on Wednesday of a heart attack at the age of eighty-seven. Howard Zinn’s classic work A People’s History of the United States changed the way we look at history in America. It has sold over a million copies and was recently made into a television special called The People Speak. We remember Howard Zinn in his own words, and we speak with those who knew him best: Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove... Read transcript, watch video... The Optimism of Uncertainty, by Howard Zinn | The Nation In this awful world where the efforts of caring people often pale in comparison to what is done by those who have power, how do I manage to stay involved and seemingly happy? I am totally confident not that the world will get better, but that we should not give up the game before all the cards have been played. The metaphor is deliberate; life is a gamble. Not to play is to foreclose any chance of winning. To play, to act, is to create at least a possibility of changing the world... Read more... Gaza ambulance shelled "point blank", by Desmond Travers | Electronic Intifada  A Palestine Red Crescent Society ambulance, destroyed by Israeli bombing at the al-Quds hospital and PRCS station, Tel al-Hawa, Gaza City I write concerning your report and photograph describing an attack on an ambulance by means of a "dart bomb". As a member of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict led by Judge Richard Goldstone, I examined this incident and offer a more precise term and also some analyses on the nature of the attack on the ambulance in question:.. Read more... The Chilcott Enquiry Wanted: Tony Blair for war crimes. Arrest him and claim your reward, by George Monbiot | The Guardian Chilcot and the courts won't do it, so it is up to us to show that we won't let an illegal act of mass murder go unpunished The only question that counts is the one that the Chilcot inquiry won't address: was the war with Iraq illegal? If the answer is yes, everything changes. The war is no longer a political matter, but a criminal one, and those who commissioned it should be committed for trial for what the Nuremberg tribunal called "the supreme international crime": the crime of aggression...In October I mooted the idea of a bounty to which the public could contribute, payable to anyone who tried to arrest Tony Blair if he became president of the European Union. He didn't of course, but I asked those who had pledged money whether we should go ahead anyway. The response was overwhelmingly positive... Read more... Israel's voice on Britain's Iraq Inquiry accuses critics of "anti-Semitism", by Nureddin Sabir | Redress Information & Analysis ...On 22 November 2009, as the inquiry, was preparing to convene, a former British ambassador, Oliver Miles, wrote an article in the Independent on Sunday newspaper expressing concern at the fact that two out of the five members of the inquiry’s committee, Martin Gilbert and Lawrence Freedman, were “strong supporters of Tony Blair and/or the Iraq war”. He also pointed out that both Gilbert and Freedman were Jewish, and that “Gilbert at least has a record of active support for Zionism”... Read more... The Blair Iraq conspiracy is unravelling, by Christopher King | Redress Information & Analysis Christopher King argues that Britain's Iraq Inquiry “appears now to be part of a general unravelling of the Blair conspiracy" and has underlined that UK politicians cannot be trusted. He says the lesson of Iraq lies not in whatever the inquiry might report but in the necessity for British people to take on oversight of the political process themselves... Read more... Israel's agents of influence in Britain | Redress Information & Analysis A guide to Israel’s stooges and agents of influence in British politics and society, from the three main political parties to the church, the media and education. Of all the mysteries, contradictions and irrationalities in international relations, one stark fact stands out: the unconditional support given by the United States and Britain to Israel, a criminal, racist, rogue state. It is unique in that there is no other example of rational states behaving so irrationally. On the surface of it, it makes no sense whatsoever, politically, strategically, economically or morally... Read more... Israeli mind-scanner may take over US airports | Press TV  As part of stringent measures to beef up airport security, US authorities may use an Israeli-made mind-reading scanner that allegedly predicts whether a passenger is a potential threat or not. The Transportation and Safety Administration (TSA) and the Homeland Security are considering the installment of a controversial mind-reading system, that was recently developed by the Israeli-based WeCU Technologies, in all American airports, AP reported on Thursday... [So much for such silly notions as freedom, liberty, justice, human dignity etc. etc. - the Zionists are comfortably in control] Read more... United we stand, by Meron Benvenisti | Haaretz Do Israelis and Palestinians belong to one divided society, or to two separate societies in a situation of forced proximity as a result of a temporary occupation? This is a crucial question. The answer depends on the historical-political-ethnic evaluation of the pre-1967 period, and on one's perception of the entire Jewish-Palestinian encounter since the beginning of the Zionist enterprise. It has profound ramifications for understanding the present situation in Israel/Palestine... Read more... Obama: I will never waver from supporting Israel | Press TV  Uncle Tom Obama Although US President Barack Obama vaguely acknowledged Israel as the cause of Palestinian "plight," he affirmed that he will never waver from support for Tel Aviv. Obama made the remarks in a speech to a crowd in a gymnasium in Tampa, Florida, on Thursday when he was asked about his policy on Israel. "Here's my view: Israel is one of our strongest allies. It is a vibrant democracy. It shares links with us in all sorts of ways. It is critical for us, and I will never waver from Israel's security." Obama said... [C'mon, boy, show us that Chicago two-step agin] Read more... January 28, 2010 Israeli Charities ‘Cashing In’ On Palestinian Suffering | Desert Peace  The above photo is being circulated throughout the Israeli press. The organization Feeding the poor is a wonderful deed…..asking for contributions to continue this work is to be expected….. BUT…. the photo used is not one of a poor, hungry Jewish child. It is the photo of a child in Gaza at the funeral of her brother who was killed by the zionists during the blitzkrieg a year ago...that sponsored the ad operates (for hungry Jews only) soup kitchens in every major Israeli city. Read more... The kidnapping of Haiti, by John Pilger | New Statesman With US troops in control of their country, the outlook for the people of Haiti is bleak The theft of Haiti has been swift and crude. On 22 January, the United States secured "formal approval" from the United Nations to take over all air and sea ports in Haiti, and to "secure" roads. No Haitian signed the agreement, which has no basis in law. Power rules in a US naval blockade and the arrival of 13,000 marines, special forces, spooks and mercenaries, none with humanitarian relief training...Read more... The Holocaust Backfires, by Gilad Atzmon  Ynet reports: Peres in Berlin, Netanyahu in Auschwitz, Lieberman in Budapest and Edelstein at the UN headquarters in New York all plan to attack the Goldstone report into the Gaza war on International Holocaust Day this Wednesday. Israel's political echelon will once again try to divert attention from the fact that the Israeli crime is beyond comparison... Read more... Venezuela cancels Haiti's debt, by Emile Schepers | peoplesworld The president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, announced this week that his country is canceling Haiti's debt for the purchase of Venezuelan oil, and ordering the petroleum company that the Venezuelan government owns, CITGO, to make its facilities available for the provision of emergency supplies as well as cooperating with the general fund-raising efforts for the Caribbean nation. Chavez said Venezuela will be providing free fuel to those in Haiti who need it... Read more... Glenn Beck Assails Obama and Progressives with Holocaust Imagery, by Eric Burns | AlterNet  Beck uses his Fox News perch to preach stunningly irresponsible history, and organize a movement dedicated to destroying progressives and Obama... Read more... In the West they say it's rain, by Amira Hass | Haaretz Israel, via the Interior Ministry, continues to spit in the face of friendly countries, and those countries continue to admire the falling raindrops. The ministry's most recent gob of spit was the cancellation of the work visas that citizens of those countries who are employed by international NGOs have been getting for years... Read more... Potential False Flag Attack To Be Blamed On Muslims Foiled, by Paul Joseph Watson | Prison Planet A possible false flag terror attack to be blamed on Muslims has been foiled after a Navy vet was busted with a grenade launcher, assault rifles and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, as well as Arab headdress, in New Jersey yesterday. Initial media reports speculated that the man was planning a terrorist attack on a U.S. military base in the area... Read more... In Fox News America trusts, poll says | Press TV  A recent poll suggests Fox News, the relentlessly rightwing channel with an aggressive commercial strategy, is the most trusted news channel in the United States. Almost half of 1,151 registered voters in the Public Policy Polling survey said they trusted Fox News' motto, "Fair & Balanced."... Read more... Presidential assassinations of U.S. citizens, by Glenn Greenwald | Salon ..."U.S. military teams and intelligence agencies are deeply involved in secret joint operations with Yemeni troops who in the past six weeks have killed scores of people." That's no surprise, of course, as Yemen is now another predominantly Muslim country (along with Somalia and Pakistan) in which our military is secretly involved to some unknown degree in combat operations without any declaration of war, without any public debate, and arguably (though not clearly) without any Congressional authorization. The exact role played by the U.S. in the late-December missile attacks in Yemen, which killed numerous civilians, is still unknown... Read more... Unite to change the world, WSF says | Press TV  Young people gather at a youth camp during the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil The 10th World Social Forum (WSF) has kicked off five days of criticizing capitalism in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Participants want to remind the world that capitalists are exploiting the poor. Meanwhile, its antithesis, the 14th World Economic Forum (WEF), a meeting of rich nations, opens on Wednesday in Davos, Switzerland. It is an annual meeting held to debate issues facing the global economy. The WSF, set up to counter the "worldview" of rich nations, on Tuesday called on activists worldwide to "unite to change the world."..Read more... 4 videos you must watch...selected by Gilad Atzmon 1. Holocaust Exploited 2. Defamation, the first 20 min on Youtube 3. IsraHell for you... 4. Americans You Better Watch This 54 U.S. lawmakers urge Obama to press for end to Gaza siege - Haaretz  Advertisement embedded in story Fifty-four members of the U.S. Congress have signed a letter asking President Barack Obama to put pressure on Israel to ease the blockade on the Gaza Strip..."We ask you to press for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts," they wrote, adding that the blockade has hampered the ability of aid agencies to do their work in Gaza...(for those of you with a dry sense of humor) Read more... CrossTalk on Holocaust: Murder Revenues (video) | RussiaToday Sixty-five years ago, Auschwitz was liberated by Soviet troops. Peter Lavelle asks his guests what the legacy of the Holocaust is today. Is its memory being abused? Does Israel use Holocaust as a blackmail weapon? Norman Finkelstein and Israel W. Charny discuss the issue in a heated debate. Watch... Israeli Supreme Court chief struck with sneaker and now for the lighter side - unlace your Nikes please  President of the Supreme Court of Israel Dorit Beinisch An Israeli man has hurled his sneakers at Israel's Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch breaking her glasses and knocking her off the chair. The shoe-thrower, Pinchas "Pini" Cohen, entered a hearing on medical marijuana on Wednesday and asked, "Is this the president?" After receiving a positive response, he took off his sneaker, threw it at Beinish and hit her in the face while yelling "you're corrupt, a traitor, because of you I lost everything.".. Read more... US budget deficit to hit $1.35 trillion in 2010 The US government's budget deficit is expected to narrow slightly to $US1.349 trillion ($1.49 trillion) in 2010 but its fiscal outlook remains bleak amid mounting debt, estimates by Congress showed on Tuesday. Accumulating deficits beyond this year could double federal debt held by the public to $US15 trillion ($16.62 trillion) within a decade, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report... Read more... Israel: Please, No More Bin Laden Tapes, Nobody Is Buying It!, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today  Christmas Bombing Audio Tape Lamest Yet; The new audio tape from “Osama bin Laden” taking responsibility for the idiotic and childish incident in Detroit where moronic Nigerian armed with a useless “bomb” is simply too much. Now using audio tapes because, supposedly, nobody in Al Qaeda got a flash drive video recorder for Christmas is even more of a joke. Please, with the hundreds of millions our Saudi allies have given to terrorists, a video camera the size of an Ipod might have been a nice touch. Even funnier was releasing the audio, using algorithm software probably illegally downloaded off the internet, and giving it to Al Jazeera...You Were Caught, Admit It And Move On With Life Read more... January 27, 2010 Anti-Israelism: Why Zionism doesn't and can't get it, by Alan Hart | Intifada Palestine  Read more... USA is Bankrupt, Quit Buying Bombs or We're Done, by Ron Paul | Information Clearing House (video) Perpetual War, Perpetual Spending Watch...Israel plans to repatriate ‘lost Jewish tribe’ in India, by Jonathan Cook | The National  A member of the Bnei Menashe community paints Israeli flags The Israeli government is reported to have quietly approved the fast-track immigration of 7,000 members of a supposedly “lost Jewish” tribe, known as the Bnei Menashe, currently living in a remote area of India.Under the plan, the “lost Jews” would be brought to Israel over the next two years by right-wing and religious organisations who, critics are concerned, will seek to place them in West Bank settlements in a bid to foil Israel’s partial agreement to a temporary freeze of settlement growth...on children's faces for the Israeli Independence Day in 2009 Read more... Minister: Israel rejects UN Gaza war probe call | Houston Chronicle Israel will rebuff a U.N. panel's demand for a special investigation into last winter's Gaza offensive, a Cabinet minister said Tuesday, a decision that could open the government to an international war crimes inquiry. Information Minister Yuli Edelstein said Israel would submit a document to the U.N. later this week that deals only with Israel's own investigations of its conduct during the three-week war. Those investigations have been conducted by the military, which has exonerated itself of any systematic wrongdoing... Read more... The sanctity of military spending, by Glenn Greenwald | Salon  Read more... Auschwitz survivor: Israel acts like Nazis, by Graeme Murray and Chris Watt | Uruknet One of the last remaining Auschwitz survivors has launched a blistering attack on Israel over its occupation of Palestine as he began a lecture tour of Scotland. Dr Hajo Meyer, 86, who survived 10 months in the Nazi death camp, spoke out as his 10-day tour of the UK and Ireland – taking in three Scottish venues – got under way. His comments sparked a furious reaction from hardline Jewish lobby groups, with Dr Meyer branded an "anti-Semite" and accused of abusing his position as a Holocaust survivor... Read more... Israel's PR exploitation of Haiti aid, Sarah Irving | Electronic Intifada  Israel has exploited the crisis in Haiti for PR purposes, while working Despite logistical problems, the 12 January earthquake in Haiti has seen much of the "international community" pull together to provide food, doctors and other emergency aid for the already poverty-stricken country. But the disaster has also provided apologists for the State of Israel's human rights abuses an opportunity to try and grab high moral ground. It was a chance remark by anti-Zionist Jewish comedian Ivor Dembina that first alerted me to this. "There's this whole email campaign going out, saying, 'Look at what Israel is doing, this is what we mean by a disproportionate response,'" he commented while I was interviewing him on 22 January for an Electronic Intifada article...alongside the very aid agencies it is shutting out from the Gaza Strip Read more... Rule By The Rich, by Paul Craig Roberts | OpEdNews ...The Democrats were destroyed as an independent party by jobs offshoring and so-called free trade agreements such as NAFTA. The effect of "globalism" has been to destroy the industrial and manufacturing unions, thus leaving the Democrats without a power base and source of funding. Obama and the Democrats cannot be an opposition party, because Democrats are as dependent as Republicans on corporate interest groups for campaign funding... Read more... Holocaust Day Invite Raises Storm in Israel, by Jonathan Cook | Palestine Chronicle  Mohammed Barakeh is the leader of the Communist Party An Arab member of the Israeli parliament has sparked controversy among Jews and Arabs in Israel over his decision to join an official Israeli delegation commemorating International Holocaust Day today at a Nazi death camp in Poland. Mohammed Barakeh will be the only Arab in a contingent of Israeli parliamentarians and government ministers, including Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, at Auschwitz to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the camp’s liberation...Read more... Our Wars Are Killing Us, by Tom Engelhardt | TomDispatch Back in 2007, when General David Petraeus was the surge commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, he had a penchant for clock imagery. In an interview in April of that year, he typically said: “I'm conscious of a couple of things. One is that the Washington clock is moving more rapidly than the Baghdad clock, so we're obviously trying to speed up the Baghdad clock a bit and to produce some progress on the ground that can perhaps give hope to those in the coalition countries, in Washington, and perhaps put a little more time on the Washington clock.” And he wasn’t alone. Military spokespeople and others in the Bush administration right up to the president regularly seemed to hear one, two, or sometimes as many as three clocks ticking away ominously and out of sync... Read more... How surrendering Palestinian rights became the language of "peace", by Joseph Massad | Electronic Intifada  One of the ways the prejudiced Oslo "process" has survived is through the creation The 1993 Oslo agreement did not only usher in a new era of Palestinian-Israeli relations but has had a much more lasting effect in transforming the very language through which these relations have been governed internationally and the way the Palestinian leadership viewed them. Not only was the Palestinian vocabulary of liberation, end of colonialism, resistance, fighting racism, ending Israeli violence and theft of the land, independence, the right of return, justice and international law supplanted by new terms like negotiations, agreements, compromise, pragmatism, security assurances, moderation and recognition, all of which had been part of Israel's vocabulary before Oslo and remain so, but also Oslo instituted itself as the language of peace that ipso facto delegitimizes any attempt to resist it as one that supports war, and dismisses all opponents of its surrender of Palestinian rights as opponents of peace. Making the language of surrender of rights the language of peace has also been part of Israel's strategy before and after Oslo, and is also the language of US imperial power, in which Arabs and Muslims were instructed by US President Barack Obama in his speech in Cairo last June...of a Palestinian Authority upon which tens of thousands depend for their livelihood Read more... January 26, 2010  Zionism and the Third Reich, by Mark Weber | Institute for Historical Review  The coin that the Nazis struck after the successful journey and stay for 6 months, in 1933, of baron von Mildenstein, who became head of the Jewish Desk of the SS’s Security Service (SD) in 1935, as a guest of the kibbutzim and Histadrut Early in 1935, a passenger ship bound for Haifa in Palestine left the German port of Bremerhaven. Its stern bore the Hebrew letters for its name, "Tel Aviv," while a swastika banner fluttered from the mast. And although the ship was Zionist-owned, its captain was a National Socialist Party member. Many years later a traveler aboard the ship recalled this symbolic combination as a "metaphysical absurdity." Absurd or not, this is but one vignette from a little-known chapter of history: The wide-ranging collaboration between Zionism and Hitler's Third Reich... Lessons of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, by Stephen Lendman | Palestine Chronicle  BDS is a tool to end a very oppressive occupation Established in 1989, the MA'AN Development Center is "an independent Palestinian development and training institution....work(ing) towards sustainable human development in Palestine" through its various programs. On October 31, it released a publication on the Palestinian BDS campaign titled, "Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions: Lessons learned in effective solidarity." It's another of the many BDS initiatives multiplying to support Palestine. In July 2005, a coalition of 171 Palestinian Civil Society organizations created the global movement for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights" for Occupied Palestine, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian diaspora refugees...Read more... War on Goldstone now deploys human rights orgs and, you guessed it, the Holocaust, by Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss The war that was launched this past weekend against the Goldstone report in the New York Times is aimed at the mild-mannered Sec’y General of the United Nations. So Norman Finkelstein tells me, and this Haaretz piece confirms. On February 5, Ban Ki-moon will report to the General Assembly on the progress of the report (which was published last summer by the UN Human Rights Council). Before then Ban will have gotten the Israeli gov’t’s response to the Goldstone report–its effort to nullify the findings–and Haaretz says the goal is to get Ban to say, I accept the Israeli response to the charges, let the Israelis investigate the Gaza slaughter.Today the campaign for Ban is playing… the Holocaust card! "Israeli leadership is planning an all-out attack on the report to coincide with Wednesday’s anniversary of the 1945 liberation of Auschwitz." (AFP). Israeli leaders are rushing to Auschwitz this week, even as the Israeli information minister has declared the report to be "anti-Semitic."... Read more... Why Mideast Envoy George Mitchell Should Resign | Stephen M. Walt  If Mideast special envoy George Mitchell wants to end his career with his reputation intact, it is time for him to resign. He had a distinguished tenure in the U.S. Senate -- including a stint as majority leader -- and his post-Senate career has been equally accomplished...Why should Mitchell step down now? Because he is wasting his time... [It's amusing that he describes himself as a "realist." "As a long-time supporter of Israel's existence," (i.e., as a committed Zionist) Professor Walt still doesn't quite get it. But like many well-intentioned people bewitched by the Zionist narrative, he's getting closer all the time.] Read more... Russia, Turkey and the Great Game: Changing teams, by Eric Walberg For all intents and purposes, Turkey has given up on the European Union, recognising it as a bastion of Islamophobia and captive to US diktat. As Switzerland bans minarets and France moves to outlaw the niqab, the popular Islamist government in Istanbul moves in the opposite direction -- supporting the freedom to wear headscarfs, boldly criticising Israel and building bridges with Syria. This is nothing less than a fundamental realignment of Turkish politics towards Turkey’s natural allies -- the Arabs ... and the Russians... Read more... 2050: The Re-Birth of a New Just Nation, by Mohamed Khodr | Palestine Think Tank  “But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security.” - Declaration of Independence “Once to every man and nationComes the moment to decide, In the strife of truth and falsehood, For the good or evil side; And the choice goes by forever” –James Russell Lowell Read more... Important Two-Part PowerPoint Presentation About Al-Awda's Work An important two-part PowerPoint presentation has just been posted to Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition's website. The first part of the presentation provides a brief review of Al-Awda's work in the U.S. educating, advocating and organizing since the founding of the organization in 2000. The second part of the presentation provides a report about the work Al-Awda has been doing with regard to Palestinian refugees arriving in the U.S. from Iraq... Read more, watch... Beware of the BBC, by Stuart Littlewood | Palestine Chronicle  No rockets are launched from the West Bank, yet Israel keeps it sealed Its mission statement says: 'Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest.' However, people are complaining bitterly to the BBC about its pro-Israel stance when reporting on the situation in the Holy Land. Once renowned as the benchmark for fairness and accuracy, the BBC nowadays is careless with the truth when handling news from the Palestinian territories illegally occupied by Israel - the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza...Read more... January 25, 2010 In Memory of Martin Luther King, by Gilad Atzmon  I also have a dream that one day the Jewish state, a state sweltering in the heat of injustice, sweltering in the heat of oppression; will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and fairness. I have a dream that in the ‘Jews-Only State’ people will not be judged according to the blood of their (Jewish) mother, but rather by the content of their character. I have a dream today!.. Read more... The United States of Corporate America: From Democracy to Plutocracy, by Rodrigue Tremblay | Rebel News "The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." - Plato, ancient Greek philosopher "...The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance: The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against democracy." - Alex Carey, Australian social scientist "The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations." - Noam Chomsky, M.I.T. emeritus Professor of Linguistics Read more... Israel 'to keep' parts of West Bank | Al Jazeera  Netanyahu pledged to retain parts of the West Bank for Israel 'forever' [AFP] Israel's prime minister has reaffirmed his country's commitment to retaining parts of the occupied West Bank, undermining US efforts to restart talks aimed at eventually establishing a Palestinian state. During a tree planting ceremony in a West Bank settlement, Binyamin Netanyahu said that parts of the territory would be kept by Israel under any final peace agreement reached with the Palestinians. "Our message is clear: We are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here, this place will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel forever," he said...Read more... Middle Eastern and Latin American Media: A Thorn in the Side of the U.S. Military in Haiti, by Nikolas Kozloff | Huffington Post Watch the U.S. media and its coverage of the crisis in Haiti, and you get the impression that Washington is a benevolent power doing its utmost to help with emergency relief in the Caribbean island nation. But tune into al-Jazeera English or South American news network Telesur and you come away with a very different view... Read more... Netanyahu, Hegel and the Jewish Spirit, by Gilad Atzmon  PM Netanyahu was quoted by the Israeli Ynet last week saying that the “whole of Israel would be surrounded by a fence eventually”. According to another report he said “there will be no choice but to fence Israel in on all directions”. What Netanyahu means by ‘fence’ and ‘all directions’ may be left open for the time being. However, PM Netanyahu has managed to bring to light an Hegelian interpretation of the notion of ‘Jewish spirit’ as a relentless inclination towards segregation and isolation. It is the tendency to keep oneself apart that determines and shapes Jewish collectivism... Read more... Israel Crushes Local Dissent, Attacks Global Criticism, by Mel Frykberg | IPS Israel is lashing out at international criticism and attempting to crush local dissent in what appears to be growing sensitivity to reproach of its policies. Several recent incidents have dominated media headlines, including the arrest of a Jewish-American journalist on the grounds of security, threats by an Israeli minister against international diplomats and the arrest of Israeli and Palestinian peace activists... Read more... Israel Creates First Army-owned University, by Jonathan Cook | Global Research West Bank campus plans to double in size  Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister, approved last week the upgrading to university status of a college in a settlement located deep inside the West Bank, a move certain to further undermine Palestinian confidence in the peace process.The decision, authorising the first Israeli university in Palestinian territory, is expected to entitle the college to significant extra funding, allowing it to expand its student population. About 11,000 students, most from inside Israel, already attend the college in Ariel, studying amid a population of 18,000 settlers...The United States and Israel have repeatedly clashed over Israeli plans to extend its separation wall east of Ariel, effectively annexing the settlement and separating the central and northern parts of the West Bank.Peace groups have been particularly shocked that authorisation for Ariel college’s upgrade came from Mr Barak, leader of the Labor Party. Members of his centre-left faction had previously blocked attempts by right-wing parties to change the college’s status... Read more... Stop terrorizing the world, by Paul Balles | Redress Information & Analysis Paul J. Balles considers the USA’s use of the so-called “war on terror” as a cover for US state-sponsored terrorism against anyone who stands in the way of Washington’s global hegemonic ambitions or even questions US or Israeli policies. Dissent is no longer the duty of the engaged citizen but is becoming an act of terrorism. (Chris Hedges) It's ironic. It's hypocritical. It's a fraud. The "war on terrorism" branded by America is a propaganda cover for the worst terrorists in the world. What was the invasion and occupation of Iraq but an act of terrorism? Everyone now knows that the faux war was born of a fraud. The deception had no legitimate purpose except to terrorize countries that (a) produce oil, (b) harbour Al-Qaeda or (c) threaten Israel...Read more... The Shoa Must Go On, by Gilad Atzmon  German justice Last week saw Holocaust survivor Thomas Blatt, 82 give testimony at the trial of John Demjanjuk. Blatt stated that he still has nightmares about his time at the camp at Sobibor, "I go there in my dreams, they are so real. In them I am still there. I can't get it out of my head. This is the price I paid for getting out."...Read more... What did the Supreme Court just do to our democracy? | freespeechforpeople.org On January 21, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations are entitled to spend unlimited funds in our elections. The First Amendment was never intended to protect corporations. This cannot stand. Sign up to protest this decision and protect our democracy! Free speech is for people — not corporations... Watch video... January 17, 2010 Israel's growing insanity, by Avigail Abarbanel  Avigail Abarbanel, an Israeli Psychotherapist Benjamin Netanyahu’s father—described as “sharp as a razor” at the ripe old age of 99—gave a rare interview to Amit Segel of Israel’s Channel 2 to support his son’s election campaign. At some point in the interview Professor Ben-Zion Netanyahu said, “Today we are facing plain and simple, a danger of annihilation. This is not only the ongoing existential danger to Israel, but a real danger of complete annihilation. People think that the Shoah (Holocaust) is over — but it is not, it is continuing all the time.” The views of Netanyahu Senior do not represent a lunatic fringe, but the Israeli mainstream. When I was growing up in Israel, things were much the same. I and everyone I knew believed in earnest that we were always at risk of annihilation. Fear of annihilation is at the heart of Jewish, not just Israeli culture and it pre-dates the Holocaust. But the climate in Israel today is far more extreme than it was in my time, as Israel on the whole moves further and further to an irrational fanatic position... Read more... Fight hypocricy and Help Haiti and Gaza, by Mazin Qumsiyeh | Human Rights Newsletter Journalists struggle to describe the scenes of misery, death, and despair in language befitting of its tragedy in Haiti. Over 100 countries mobilized for aid. Even Israel has mobilized its usual contingent of Israeli doctors and the mass Zionist media to show how humanitarian it can be (but tiny Qatar sent far more actual aid). What is little discussed is that the natural disaster would have claimed far fewer lives had Haiti been allowed to develop without Western Interference over the past few decades... Read more... Sacrosanct State and Complacent West, by Jeremy Salt | Palestine Chronicle  Attack on UN school in Gaza. Merkel: 'Thousands of (Israelis) are living in fear.' 'Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided.' -- Barack Obama 'I've been to Gilo and seen the security fence protecting Israeli families from attacks in their own homes.' -- Hillary Clinton 'When I heard about the rocket fire at Israel I felt it was a danger to Italy and to the entire West.' -- Silvio Berlusconi 'While we speak here today thousands of people are living in fear and dread of missile attacks and acts of terror by Hamas.' -- Angela Merkel These quotes are chosen at random from a script written in the theatre of the absurd known as ‘the west’. Does Barrack Obama, the Harvard law graduate, not know that Jerusalem is an occupied city? Does Hillary Clinton not know that the Israeli ‘families’ living at Gilo have built their homes on land belonging to someone else? Does Silvio Berlusconi seriously regard Hamas rocket attacks as a threat to Italy and even the ‘entire West’?...Read more... Anthony Lawson/Jeff Gates - A Closer Look at Israel's Role in Terrorism - Parts 1, 2 and 3 | Gilad Atzmon (video) Watch... Tunnel youth - Israel News (video) Rafah tunnels have become a central and almost exclusive commercial channel following Israeli and Egyptian border limitations, transferring everything from food and medication to weapons. Teens working in tunnels tell of the conditions underground, and play around while listening to the hit single 'Tunnel Heroes' on their cell phones... Watch... A second Gaza war around the corner?, by Hasan Abu Nimah | Electronic Intifada Israel's recent assassinations of Palestinian resistance activists look ominously like the aggression that preceded last winter's attacks in Gaza  Israel is once again complaining that its "security" is being threatened by new eruptions of violence along the border with Gaza. About two dozen Qassam rockets were fired at Israel from Gaza in recent days. Although they fell in (and may have been deliberately targeted at) open areas, causing no damage or injuries, Israel took revenge with destructive air raids that did cause damage and killed several people, including a 15-year-old boy. Before asking who should stop first, one should recall who started the latest ugly round of violence... Read more... Reviewing James Petras` Zionism, Militarism, and the Decline of US Power, by Stephen Lendman | Mathaba Every Petras book is important. So is this one at a time the most powerful Washington Lobby is assured that a new administration will continue and expand the current "Global Wars on Terrorism." Petras explains the dangers. The current disastrous foreign adventurism. America's economic decline as a result, and the calamitous global fallout overall. High-level officials won't read this book, but they should. To realize the dangers of their destructive policies. How they threaten the republic's survival and are heading the nation for insolvency and ruin... Read more... Challenging Noam Chomsky's opposition to boycotting Israel (Ali Abunimah & Jeff Blankfort - Audio) | Ali Abunimah Why does Noam Chomsky oppose boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, and why does he think Palestinians should not talk about justice and redress for their ethnic cleansing from their homeland in 1948? Why does Chomsky dismiss any talk about the influence of the Israel lobby? On 13 January 2010, Ali Abunimah and Jeffrey Blankfort were invited to respond directly to an interview Chomsky gave earlier on these topics, on KPFA's show Voices from the Middle East and North Africa hosted by Khalil Bendib. Chomsky was invited to take part in a direct debate but declined. Listen... January 16, 2010 Support Marcy! (She'll need all the help she can get as the vultures tear into her - sent from an Internet Cafe) Waxman Attacks Winograd on Israel; Ignites a Political Firestorm, by Linda Milazzo | Huffington Post Read more..., See also Richard Silversteins's article in Tikkun, Her campaign website Far beyond chutzpah: the lies of Israel apologist Alan Dershowitz, by Gilad Atzmon  Read more... January 13, 2010 TomorrowI'm off to the ocean, getting away from the chill here on the highplateau of the Sierra Madre in Mexico. I won't have access to theinternet for a week or two. In the meantime, I leave you with a poem... Where Time Stood Still, by Samah Sabawi | Palestine Think Tank Gaza one year after operation cast lead  We don’t measure our lives by this calendar Time has stood still for us so long ago Punctuated only by loss and grief And the in between moments of quite reprieve We don’t count on Christmas, nor Eid for cheer We don’t fool ourselves with “happy new year” No occasion is ever taken for granted, When it comes to tomorrow, there are no certainties Our yesterday is our today Time is frozen here And one calendar year Will never contain our lives, Our collective misery, Our yearning for humanity Don’t tell us a year has passed Our clock stopped ticking when justice collapsed Eclipsed by decades of repression Hush… don’t speak of time We have endured the absence of time We don’t measure our lives by days like you We measure our lives by the number of embraces Our worth by a lover’s heartbeat Our existence by our persistence So, don’t tell us a year has passed…. Link... January 12, 2010 Us vs. Them: On the Meaning of Fascism, by the Editor "We have met the enemy and they are us." - Pogo  Pretty much everyone nowadays rejects fascism, but nobody seems to know quite what it is. The words "fascist" and "fascism" are frequently flung about, but they seem to be applied to all sorts of different and unrelated people and things. The dictionaries and Wikipedia are no help because they all assume that the word refers to a political phenomenon that arose in Europe in the 20th Century. That is indeed when the word "fascism" was coined (in the form of "fascismo," an Italian word for the ideology of Benito Mussolini's political party). Here's an excellent contemporary example: "The definition of “fascism” has some academic variance, but is essentially collusion among corporatocracy, authoritarian government, and controlled media and education. This “leadership” is only possible with a nationalistic public accepting policies of war, empire, and limited civil and political rights." (1) However, it is rather easy to demonstrate that fascism, in terms of usage (what people mean when they employ the term) dates back to the dawn of history. In order to do that we have to look at what goes into the process of properly defining a word. There are two things that need to be taken into consideration; the historical, linguistic roots (the etymology of the word) and contemporary usage. The Oxford English Dictionary is usually helpful with the former but not in this case, as it too (following the OED rule that looks at the first instance in print) refers only to the recent manifestations in Italy and Germany. In order to determine usage we need to pay close attention to how and when people nowadays commonly employ the terms "fascist" and "fascism." The Etymology The word "fascism" has as its root the Latin term "fascis." Here Wikipedia is helpful: "[Fasces:] from the Latin word fascis, meaning "bundle," symbolize summary power and jurisdiction...The traditional Roman fasces consisted of a bundle of white birch rods, tied together with a red leather ribbon into a cylinder, and often including a bronze axe (or sometimes two) amongst the rods, with the blade(s) on the side, projecting from the bundle. It was used as a symbol of the Roman Republic in many circumstances, including being carried in processions, much the way a flag might be carried today...Believed to date from Etruscan times, the symbolism of the fasces at one level suggested strength through unity. The bundle of rods bound together symbolizes the strength which a single rod lacks. The axe symbolized the state's power and authority." Another word with the same root is "fascia," which Wikipedia defines as follows: "(from latin: a band) is the soft tissue component of the connective tissue system that permeates the human body...It is responsible for maintaining structural integrity..." Again there is a sense of the binding factor, suggestive of the social glue or cultural bond that defines and holds a community together and gives it strength and endurance. The Etruscan origin is probably correct and some have theorized that the original symbol depicted a bound sheaf of wheat. Whether factual or not, this hypothesis is very suggestive and goes to the heart of the matter. The bound sheaf of wheat, or bundle of sticks tied together, are clearly symbolic of the basic family, clan or tribal group that lives and works the land together cooperatively. That is what most of the names of indigenous tribes or peoples all over the world mean in their own language, "us," "the people," bound together by blood, language and place. In its primary and positive sense the fasces symbolizes how we are bound to the earth and how, by working harmoniously with it, we sustain ourselves. It evokes primal feelings of oneness with nature and with one another and is suggestive of nurturing and fertility. It invokes the feminine, or mother principle, and it is no wonder that the early agricultural communities worshipped an earth goddess. Its not so benign meaning emerges with the addition of the axe blades, symbolizing the masculine principles of power, authority and the monopoly of force wielded by those who sit atop the heirarchy that naturally develops in human groups. In that sense, the original holders of the fasces were the mother and father of the primitve family and through the evolution of culture has become invested at the highest level in the leaders of nation-states and those who represent them. In the simplest and most basic sense we are talking about group ego. The term "ego" is generally understood as the sense of self, all of the disparate physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectual elements that we think of as an "I," an ongoing, solid and independent actor. All wisdom traditions point out the danger of solidifying this concept. They teach us that we are inextricably connected, existing only in relation to one another and to everything else. Whether perceived as pacific and cooperative or aggressive and warlike, all group identities court the same danger, the reification of the concept of "Us." Fascism is neither masculine nor feminine, neither rightist or leftist, but a combination of both. Nor does it have anything to do with a particular political or economic setup. Let's take a look at what the Italian fascisti, the ones who coined the term, had in mind. The following is in Wikipedia's translation of the Fascist Manifesto: The Manifesto (published in "Il Popolo d'Italia" on June 6, 1919) is divided into four sections, describing Fascist objectives in political, social, military and financial fields. Politically, the Manifesto calls for:
In labour and social policy, the Manifesto calls for:
In military affairs, the Manifesto advocates:
The Manifesto thus combined elements of contemporary democratic and progressive thought (franchise reform, labour reform, limited nationalisation, taxes on wealth and war profits) with corporatist emphasis on class collaboration (the idea of social classes existing side by side and collaborating for the sake of national interests; the opposite of the Marxist notion of class struggle). This sounds remarkably like a program that most liberals and progressives could salute, doesn't it? Of course, fascismo changed markedly after Mussolini assumed control and turned it into a right-wing dictatorship, but what we're concerned with here is the evolution of the term fascism from its linguistic origins in pre-Roman Italy to the present. However, we must guard against the notion that there is anything particularly Italian (or German for that matter) about fascism. The symbolism of the fasces is widely used and displayed in government sponsored designs in the U.S., France and a number of other Western democracies. Similar symbols are native to most cultures; it is well night universal. In order for fascism to come to dominate an identity group, it must have a compelling narrative. Whether group identity is based on nationality, ethnicity, religion, class, caste, gender or whatever, there is sure to be a story that glorifies the "tribe" and sets it above all others. Typically, it reaches far back into history and has elements both of exaltation and humiliation, triumph over its adversaries and victimhood. And it will come replete with slogans and symbols, and nowadays, more than likely, bumper stickers. To sum up, the linguistic root of the term fascism and its visual representation clearly refer to identification with a particular group of people, originally based on family, clan and tribe, including place and language, evolving eventually into what we would nowadays call nationalism, or internationalism when it is based on a politico-economic ideology like capitalism or communism. As will be discussed further, the essential principle applies to any kind of identity politics that distinguishes between "Us" and a "Them" and asserts "Our" interests as primary. At what point, then, does this basic pattern, which is neither good nor bad in itself, become malevolent and get properly labeled as "fascist"? One could say that it turns ugly when sports fans, for example, start physically assaulting one another rather than just rooting for the home team. At the scale of international relations, when nationalism becomes aggressive and predatory, then we can clearly identify the pattern as fascistic. The simplest manifestation is that of the schoolyard bully, usually consisting of a leader and his loyal followers. Writ large, it supplies the tacit or explicit rationale for all wars. It must be stressed that there is nothing inherently wrong with group identification. On the contrary, without it we would be alienated and lost. The turning point is when a healthy sense of group pride turns into belligerent arrogance and racism; when patriotism becomes an excuse for hating foreigners, when we start dehumanizing and vilifying others, when we go along with a party line that gives us the right to oppress and dispossess outsiders. Usage Many observers have remarked that people use the words "fascist" or "fascism" in a context that has only the vaguest reference, if any, to historical events that occurred in the previous century. However, there is a remarkable consistency to the usage that is commonly overlooked. First of all, it is always negative, something to be rejected and actively opposed. Second, it is always used to refer to something characteristic of a particular group of people unlike us, people with whom "we" don't identify, all of whom have in common this "fascistic" quality. And it always contains some explicit or implicit accusation of injustice, abuse of power and arbitrary use of force. At this point it should be becoming clear that fascism is a word that may have been coined in the context of 20th century European politics, but which has been adopted in popular speech to refer to something far more basic, universal and timeless, for which no handier term existed. I suspect that the peculiar potency of the word derives from the enormously successful wartime propaganda of the Allies that strove to identify "our enemies" du jour with evil incarnate, and kept alive through a myriad of films, books and the approved version of history taught to young people. It is no accident that fascists are always the "other," while "we" are always both the victims and the heroic warriors keeping "them" at bay. Let's look at some circumstances in which a person or some group of people are typically labeled fascist. Children sometimes accuse their parents, or caretakers, of being fascists. What they mean is that their liberty to do as they please is being unfairly circumscribed. No, you can't stay up late playing video games. You can't sleep over with your friends, or whatever. They are fascists because they have used the authority vested in their position to control your behavior and activities. You must comply, because they have a monopoly on the use of force, the ability to withold whatever you want or feel you need and are entitled to, and in the last resort, to inflict physical punishment if you do not obey. Another frequent use of the term occurs in the context of confrontations with the police. They represent authority, as signified by their uniforms and the fact that they are armed and have the government sanctioned option to use their weapons. Nowadays, in our generally disaffected mood, the Government is commonly perceived to be fascist. Here, the relationship to the Roman fasces is obvious - they are identified with the State and its power. A wonderful example of the notion of fascism as it is popularly understood is the character of Nurse Ratchett in Ken Kesey's classic "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." She represents the absolute and arbitrary power of established authority to control others' lives. One might accuse one's boss of being a fascist for exactly such reasons. They have the authority and the power and, as you see it, they abuse it. In terms of politics, the term is generally employed in reference to parties whose ideology asserts a prerogative to rule based on ethnocentric supremacy, a form of extreme nationalism. However, it has been applied to a variety of political views based on group identity if that identity is used as a rationale for precedence over others. "We" could just as easily be "the working class" as self-proclaimed representatives of national or religious identity. It is useful to remember that both the Italian Fascist party and the Nazis considered themselves to be socialist, while the Spanish and Japanese parties openly appealed to conservative, traditionalist sentiments. In terms of a useful definition of fascism, these distinctions are meaningless. Let's try a thought experiment to test our own fascist propensities. Create a mental list of those characteristics that constitute your identify. I will provide an example by doing this for myself. I am male, Caucasian, an American, a Jew by birth and a Buddhist by inclination, a senior citizen and retiree, a veteran, a writer, a revolutionary, left-handed and blue-eyed with dark hair. And that's just a partial survey. To what extent do I identify with each of the groups just enumerated? The answer is all of them, to a greater or lesser extent. By identify I mean that there is some emotional attachment, some sense of tribal belonging, however vague and ill-defined that might be. But is that really who I am? Note that all of the above are accidents of birth, except for being a Buddhist and a writer, which are the result of choices that I made (I enlisted in the Army when I was young, confused and looking for a place to hang my hat, and almost immediately regretted it), Also note that, with the exceptions mentioned, all of these identity groups have a story associated with them, ranging from some simple positive affirmation to a long and complicated narrative. Let's look at them one by one in terms of fascist potential. Male - Just ask a feminist (or vice-versa) White - Just ask anyone who isn't American - The Free (to dominate, monopolize, control and bomb) and the Brave (when backed up by overwhelming firepower) Jewish - When I was young I thought Chosen People meant chosen to suffer. But things morph and change, and now it appears to mean to make others suffer (see the Old Testament). Buddhist - Yes, there are Buddhists who claim exclusive possession of the Truth Senior/Retiree - Ah, the Gray Panthers and AARP Veteran - Ever been to a VFW gathering? Writer - Those who really know about stuff, the intellectual elite Revolutionary - the Vanguard of the People (the new ruling class in waiting) Left-handedness - Well, you know, we are more intuitive and creative And so on and so forth... Examples Fascism, as herein defined, is ubiquitous and has no particular origin. It seems to make sense, then, to talk only about the two varieties with which I'm most familiar, being both an American and a Jew. Coincidentally, they also represent the greatest political challenges facing our world today. American fascism American fascism, by definition, became possible once the inhabitants of the Colonies began to see themselves as other than ordinary Englishmen who happened to reside on the other side of the Atlantic. They had to become an identity group. That self-perception solidified, at least among the disaffected, as soon as friction arose between the two populations, culminating in the War for Independence. Victory arrived with all of the fascist accoutrements, tribal symbols, a self-glorifying national narrative and, of course, a flag. However, those who had the responsibility of fashioning the new nation were an unusual assembly of highly educated, sophisticated people (mostly lawyers) who were well aware of the dangers the fledgling republic was facing - not external dangers, but internal ones. Much consideration went into creating obstacles to giving birth to what we are calling a fascist state. But the seeds had already been planted; America's development was dependent on the processes of genocide and slavery. If one overlooks American poaching in Canada and Florida and similar early adventures, one could say that it was pretty much a done deal once the Republic engaged in its first full-blown war of international aggression, which resulted in the acquisition of the northern half of Mexico. Not too much later, the United States proclaimed itself a full-blown Imperialist power in the European tradition with its conquest of the Spanish territorities of the Phillipines, Cuba and Puerto Rico, while at the same time grabbing Hawaii from its indigenous population. Something needs to be said at this point about two terms that are closely related to fascism, "racism" and "imperialism." Fascism necessarily includes racism. Just as in the case of individual egoism, group ego requires the solidification of the sense of separation and distinctness from the other. Furthermore, in order to start going down the road to full-blown fascism, group identiy must become chauvinistic, that sense of overwheening pride in ourselves and our superior characteristics. The expression of this sense of superiority over others is what is called racism, and America, as we know, is a profoundly racist country and always has been - although the "other," aside from the old standbies - the blacks, the Indians and the Hispanics - kept changing depending on who the latest immigrants were. The next step, to full-blown imperialism, requires nationalistic aggression against other states. Whether to acquire loot in whatever form, or to expand control over an ever increasing territory, the drums of war are frequently heard around the land. All of this has become fully institutionalized in the U.S., to the extent that the prevailing national doctrine is now perpetual war (the current Pentagon term is "the long war"). Not that long ago President Calvin Coolidge could say that "the business of America is business." But times have changed; imperialist war - business by other means to paraphrase Clausewitz - has become our major occupation and economic activity - and, no doubt, will in due time be our undoing, as history so clearly tells us. This pattern of serial aggression, which requires creating enemies when they don't conveniently present themselves, is inherent in the dynamics of fascism. All empires have fallen when they have become fully overextended, militarily, financially, geographically and in every other respect. America now has clearly has opted for this destructive and self-defeating strategy. Jewish fascism (aka Zionism) Another clear, albeit bizarre, example is Israel, which would no doubt quickly implode without the requisite unifying principle of an external enemy with which the nation must always be at war, or preparing for war. I refer to it as Jewish fascism because it predates the Zionist project. When I was in Hebrew school in the early 50's, in preparation for my bar mitzvah, I thought I should read the Old Testament. What struck me was that much of it conformed to what we were being taught was the essence of fascism, though I didn't make much of it at the time. Although I haven't read it, it appears that the Talmud, the primary scripture of the Orthodox ashkenazim, is a veritable manual of Jewish fascism. (4) Israel is exceptional in a number of ways:
Thus, Israel combines three convergent forms of fascism: ethnocentric (based on mytho-history much like the Nazi notion of an Aryan race); religious (nominally Jewish, although its founders were secular. Following the 1940's the place of Judaism as the sustaining religious identity was essentially replaced by Holocaustism, complete with a Holy Inquisition.); and, of course, virulently nationalistic. Fortuitously for the Jewish fascists, or maybe not so coincidentally (3), an extremely powerful ally emerged from within the American fascist world, the Christian Zionists. Although essentially a doomsday cult, it numbers, conservatively, 40-50 million Americans eager for Israel to build the Second Temple, thereby paving the way to Armageddon. At this point American and Jewish fascism appear to have converged into an aggressive pathological force that endangers humanity more than any such phenomenon in the past. At this point American and Jewish fascism appear to have converged into an aggressive pathological force that, considering Israel's nuclear arsenal, endangers humanity more than any such phenomenon in the past. Both Americans and Jews have made extraordinary positive contributions to world civilization, but a ruthless and predatory American imperialism and fascistic Zionism we can do without. The Antidote The inner fascist in all of us claims to be one of the "good" people, the "superior" people, the "strong" people, or the "smart" people, but whatever flavor it comes in, we are one of the "entitled" people. The antidote to such delusions is the realization that we are just people, pretty much like everybody else, with as much right to be here as anyone else (and vice-versa). This realization cuts through self-deception, protects us from buying into whatever snake-oil the zealots happen to be selling today and contains within it the possibility of a sane society, however far off and illusory that may seem. We all belong to one tribe, humanity, and if we take our cue from those whom history has deemed wise, we realize that caring for others and the environment that supports us is the key. When we attempt to separate ourselves, individually as egomaniacs or as part of some fascistic identity group, then we're only asking for trouble. We may think we are protecting ourselves by attempting to control and manipulate others, but in the end what goes around comes around, a pointless and painful cycle that reason and experience tell us to abandon. Fascism as we have been describing it is a social pathology and it can legitimately be considered humanity's most urgent public health problem. If enough people come to understand what the disease is and how to diagnose it, perhaps there will emerge a means to inoculate ourselves. At this point American and Jewish fascism appear to have converged into an aggressive pathological force that endangers humanity more than any such phenomenon in the past. In the short term, it is imperative to dissolve the Jewish state of Israel. Such a state, which has no basis other than a fascistic narrative constructed out of paranoia and mythology, has no legitimacy in our world. It embodies all of the characteristics that humanity has resoundingly rejected in the last century - settler colonialism, racism, ethnic cleansing, apartheid and genocide. The dehumanization and destruction of a people, along with the dispossession of their land and property, is utterly intolerable. The only feasible alternative is its replacement by a pluralistic, democratic state that includes the Palestinians as equals. There is no other viable solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, a conflict that threatens to engulf the entire planet in nuclear devastation. In the long term, we must overcome the tendency to adopt belief systems that are based on blind faith, whether they take the form of political or religious dogmas. Only then can we grow up and have the opportunity to create a truly sane world. "...According to Sand, the description of the Jews as a wandering and self-isolating nation of exiles, "who wandered across seas and continents, reached the ends of the earth and finally, with the advent of Zionism, made a U-turn and returned en masse to their orphaned homeland," is nothing but "national mythology." Like other national movements in Europe, which sought out a splendid Golden Age, through which they invented a heroic past - for example, classical Greece or the Teutonic tribes - to prove they have existed since the beginnings of history, "so, too, the first buds of Jewish nationalism blossomed in the direction of the strong light that has its source in the mythical Kingdom of David."... 3. Scofield Bible made uncompromising Zionists out of tens of millions of Americans, by Maidhc Ó Cathail “Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves.” - 'The True Believer' by Eric Hoffer January 11, 2010 A Jewish American's Evolving View of Israel, by Steven Feldman | Palestine Chronicle  The Stern Gang In an argument about the origins of the Israel-Palestine conflict with a Jewish friend, I mentioned 'Plan D, the secret plans of the Jewish army to expel Palestinians.' My friend thought I was a raving lunatic, spouting a conspiracy theory promoted by anti-Semites. I didn’t used to sound that way. Growing up in Washington, D.C., I attended the Hebrew Academy, a school that my grandfather helped to found and that my father had helped lead...Read more... The Quiet American, by Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom The Quiet American was the hero of Graham Greene’s novel about the first Vietnam War, the one fought by the French.He was a young and naïve American, a professor’s son, who had enjoyed a good education at Harvard, an idealist with all the best intentions. When he was sent to Vietnam, he wanted to help the natives to overcome the two evils as he saw them: French colonialism and Communism. Knowing absolutely nothing about the country in which he was acting, he caused a disaster. The book ends with a massacre, the outcome of his misguided efforts. He illustrated the old saying: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”... Read more... "No army, no prison and no wall can stop us", by Abdallah Abu Rahmah | Electronic Intifada  Abdallah Abu Rahmah being arrested by Israeli soldiers at demonstration in Bilin in 2005 I mark the beginning of the new decade imprisoned in a military detention camp. Nevertheless, from within the occupation′s holding cell I meet the New Year with determination and hope. I know that Israel's military campaign to imprison the leadership of the Palestinian popular struggle shows that our nonviolent struggle is effective. The occupation is threatened by our growing movement and is therefore trying to shut us down. What Israel's leaders do not understand is that popular struggle cannot be stopped by our imprisonment... Read more... LBJ, Lincoln Gordon and the Origins of the Desaparecidos: The American Elite, by William Blum | Counterpunch Lincoln Gordon died a few weeks ago at the age of 96. He had graduated summa cum laude from Harvard at the age of 19, received a doctorate from Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, published his first book at 22, with dozens more to follow on government, economics, and foreign policy in Europe and Latin America. He joined the Harvard faculty at 23. Dr. Gordon was an executive on the War Production Board during World War II, a top administrator of Marshall Plan programs in postwar Europe, ambassador to Brazil, held other high positions at the State Department and the White House, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, economist at the Brookings Institution, president of Johns Hopkins University. President Lyndon B. Johnson praised Gordon's diplomatic service as "a rare combination of experience, idealism and practical judgment". You get the picture? Boy wonder, intellectual shining light, distinguished leader of men, outstanding American patriot. Abraham Lincoln Gordon was also Washington's on-site, and very active, director in Brazil of the military coup in 1964 which overthrew the moderately leftist government of João Goulart and condemned the people of Brazil to more than 20 years of an unspeakably brutal dictatorship... Read more... Mubarak Creates PR Disaster for Egypt and Himself, by Stuart Littlewood | Palestine Chronicle  Where does Mubarak go from here? Hosni Mubarak, President of Egypt, has plumbed new depths and caused deep offence with his shameful bullying of the Viva Palestina convoy bound for Gaza, which had driven for weeks and thousands of miles from many countries to bring medical aid and other relief to women and children cruelly shut off from the world and under endless lethal bombardment by Israel...Read more... Sens. McCain, Lieberman Hawk It Up After Tour, by Jason Ditz | Antiwar Senators John McCain and Joe Lieberman, two of the Senate’s premier war enthusiasts, wrapped up a whirlwind tour of America’s warzones and would-be warzones and have now transitioned to delivering one hawkish statement after another... Read more... It's a long march to freedom, by Mary Rizzo | Palestine Think Tank  Read more... A Coalition's Progress: Monterey's Anti-Afghan War Demonstration, by David Henderson | Antiwar My local chapter of Libertarians for Peace,..joined the Peace Coalition of Monterey County (PCMC) about three years ago. I think we are the only non-Left group in the 20-plus member coalition...In an interview I did with Scott Horton shortly before the demonstration, I told Scott about my "War Destroys Wealth" idea. Scott saw it as a way to appeal to the Right on his assumption that people on the Right don’t care about human lives but do care about property... Read more... Israeli Theft of Palestinian Property, by Stephen Lendman | Palestine Chronicle  For over 60 years, Israel has done this ruthlessly, systematically Adalah, meaning justice in Arabic, is the legal center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel advocating through Israeli Supreme Court petitions; lawsuits and appeals to the District, Magistrate and Labor Courts; pre-petitions to the Attorney General; and various other ways to serve its constituency in a nation where only Jews have rights... Read more... The Confinement of Hashmi: The Law is Lost, by Paul Craig Roberts | Counterpunch I had just finished reading the uncensored edition of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s book, In The First Circle, when I came across Chris Hedges article, ''One Day We’ll All Be Terrorists''. In Hedges’ description of the U.S. government’s treatment of American citizen Syed Fahad Hashmi, I recognized the Stalinist legal system as portrayed by Solzhenitsyn... Read more... Remember Ariel Sharon’s Words, by Jim Traficant | American Free Press  “We, the Jewish people control America, and the Americans know it.” It is so powerfully blatant that an Israeli prime minister (Ariel Sharon) was not even “concerned” when he uttered that statement on an Israeli radio show. Sharon was simply stating a known fact. A fact that never appeared in a U.S. newspaper (except for American Free Press) nor was it heard on any radio or television shows in America. Think about it. A foreign leader, proclaiming that his country, Israel, and the Jewish people control America and it didn’t make headline news. They do. Israel, through its powerful lobby, AIPAC, dictates and manipulates American foreign policy, American commerce and the American media. You see folks, AIPAC needs only to “pull the strings” and the puppets on Capitol Hill dance to their music...(Statement of Ariel Sharon, former prime minister of Israel, Oct. 3, 2001.) Read more... Happy New Year and Take to the Streets!: Naked Empire, by Saul Landau | Counterpunch Millions of Americans drink “unhealthy” water; military suicides escalate; schools erode and health programs collapse. - The New York Times... Read more...AAPER Expands its Free Bethlehem Campaign | AAPER  For the last two years, AAPER has sought to educate Americans about the plight of today’s Bethlehem by producing and distributing thousands of brochures and postcards providing information about the situation in that city and its Palestinian Christian and Muslim inhabitants... Read more... The Long March in Latin America, by Vijay Prashad | Counterpunch In mid-2008, the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) came under strong criticism from both Brazil's Lula and Venezuela's Chavez. Lula said, "The waging of armed struggle as a means of achieving power should end in Latin America. The belief that armed struggle can solve anything is out of date." Chavez mirrored these views, saying, "The guerrilla war is history. At this moment in Latin America, an armed guerrilla movement is out of place."... Read more... January 8-10, 2010 Ahmadinejad demands global nuclear disarmament | Press TV  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president ...President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Saturday shared Iran's vision of creating a world free of nuclear weapons by adopting steps toward global nuclear disarmament. "All countries should be disarmed of atomic weapons. Iran will strongly push ahead with its demand for global nuclear disarmament,"..Read more... Former CIA Michael Scheuer Takes Calls | Voice of Reason Broadcast Network ...I think that American foreign policy is ultimately up to the American people. One of the big things we have not been able to discuss for the past 30 years is the Israelis. Whether we want to be involved in fighting Israel’s wars in the future is something that Americans should be able to talk about. They may vote yes. They may want to see their kids killed in Iraq or somewhere else to defend Israel. But the question is: we need to talk about it. Ultimately Israel is a country that is of no particular worth the United States... Read more, watch... The Chilcot Inquiry: Britain's 9/11 commission, by Maidhc Ó Cathail | Media Monitors All too often, official inquiries are conducted by the very people who should themselves be under investigation. In this respect, Britain’s Chilcot Inquiry on the Iraq war bears a distressing similarity to the 9/11 Commission. In a remarkable symmetry, both inquiries involve a Jewish Zionist historian, who not only advised his country’s leader to go to war against Iraq, but actually provided the ideological justification for that unnecessary war... Read more... Let the plunder begin: The return of Robert Rubin, by Mike Whitney | Global Research  There’s no denying that the economy is getting better, but will it last? Many economists don’t think so, including experts at opposite ends of the ideological spectrum, like Paul Krugman and Martin Feldstein. They think the economy will begin to fizzle sometime in the latter part of 2010 when Obama’s $787 billion fiscal stimulus runs out and consumers are forced to pick up the slack in demand. That’s a safe bet, too, considering that unemployment will still be somewhere in the neighborhood of 9 percent and households will still be digging out from the $13 trillion they lost during the crisis... Read more... Reagan's ghost: Star Wars stops START, by Eric Walberg | Online Journal Russian confidence that US President Barack Obama might represent a fundamental change in the direction of US foreign policy is fast eroding. Even pro-Western analyst Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Centre reflects, “The people who see Russia as a problem are still at the Pentagon,” and he predicts that even if Obama lasts another seven years, the Russians are coming to the conclusion that “he may not be able to withstand the pressures on him.” The hope, as recently s a month ago was that a new version of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (SALT) might be successfully negotiated. But Obama’s two other surges -- NATO’s expansion in Eastern Europe and the rush to implement the US missile defence system around the world -- follow so closely the hawkish policies of his predecessors, that whatever “Atlantists” there might be in the Kremlin have been put on the defensive, so to speak... Read more... Statement by SA Palestine Solidarity Movement and COSATU | One Democratic State Group (Gaza) We salute the gallant and heroic actions of over 1,400 people from around the world – especially the South African delegation – who went to Cairo to embark on the historic Gaza Freedom March (GFM). The South African delegation truly represented the revolutionary and humanitarian character of our country even when faced with the harassment and intimidation of the Egyptian police and military. They have helped us recognise that standing firm against the Apartheid state of Israel and its Egyptian collaborators enhances our common purpose of building a more just world... Read more... Israel says wall helps eject Palestinians | Press TV  An Israeli official said Friday the separation wall in Jerusalem Al-Quds is being built with the aim of forcing out tens of thousands of Palestinians living in the occupied territory. "The fence was built on this route for a demographic reason - to remove 50,000 Arabs from Jerusalem (Al-Quds)," said council member in charge of Al-Quds Yakir Segev, Israeli outlet Ynet news reported... Read more... Your Palestinian Gandhis Exist ... in Graves and Prisons: Calling Bono, by Alison Weir Dear Bono, in your recent column in the New York Times, "Ten for the Next Ten," you wrote: "I’ll place my hopes on the possibility — however remote at the moment — that...people in places filled with rage and despair, places like the Palestinian territories, will in the days ahead find among them their Gandhi, their King, their Aung San Suu Kyi." Your hope has already been fulfilled in the Palestinian territories. Unfortunately, these Palestinian Gandhis and Kings are being killed and imprisoned. On the day that your op-ed appeared hoping for such leaders, three were languishing in Israeli prisons. No one knows how long they will be held, nor under what conditions; torture is common in Israeli prisons... Read more... "In the end, only kindness matters", by Mazin Qumsiyeh | Human Rights Report I gave a talk at the NATO Defence College in Rome to some 82 officers and civilians from many NATO countries and affiliated or partner countries (including Egypt, UAE, Jordan, etc). An Israeli colleague who lives in London also presented his point of view and read on things and then we took questions... Read more... Wife Says CIA Bomber Hated the U.S. | AP (video) A Jordanian doctor-turned-suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a base in Afghanistan is regarded by his family as a martyr in Islam's holy war against the United States... Watch... Galloway: Britain, Egypt need leaders like Erdogan | Press TV  British MP George Galloway British lawmaker George Galloway has slammed Egypt for its support of the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip, hailing Turkey's support for the Palestinian people. Galloway, who headed the Viva Palestina aid convoy for the Gazans, was deported from Egypt. "I wish that Egypt and Britain had leaders like [Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan," Turkey's Yenisafak quoted Galloway as saying on Saturday. He hailed the Turkish government's support for the humanitarian convoy...Read more... Is Anyone Telling Us The Truth?, by Paul Craig Roberts | ICH What are we to make of the failed Underwear Bomber plot, the Toothpaste, Shampoo, and Bottled Water Bomber plot, and the Shoe Bomber plot? These blundering and implausible plots to bring down an airliner seem far removed from al-Qaida’s expertise in pulling off 9/11. If we are to believe the U.S. government, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged al-Qaida "mastermind" behind 9/11, outwitted the CIA, the NSA, indeed all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies as well as those of all U.S. allies including Mossad, the National Security Council, NORAD, Air Traffic Control, Airport Security four times on one morning, and Dick Cheney, and with untrained and inexperienced pilots pulled off skilled piloting feats of crashing hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center towers, and the Pentagon, where a battery of state of the art air defenses somehow failed to function... Read more... Answering Helen Thomas on Why, by Ray McGovern | Consortium News Thank God for Helen Thomas, the only person to show any courage at the White House press briefing after President Barack Obama gave a flaccid account of the intelligence screw-up that almost downed an airliner on Christmas Day... Read more... Public trial, private nightmare | altmuslim  Someday in court On June 6th, 2006, Syed Fahad Hashmi, an American citizen, was arrested in London and extradited to the US, all for storing a friends luggage with raingear in his apartment. His public trial was due to begin today, 3 1/2 years later..Read more... Wife Says CIA Bomber Hated the U.S. | YouTube A Jordanian doctor-turned-suicide bomber who killed seven CIA employees at a base in Afghanistan is regarded by his family as a martyr in Islam's holy war against the United States... Read more... Finkelstein on Hezbollah | YouTube Norman Finkelstein, a Jewish American political scientist and author, specializing in Jewish-related issues and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular talks about the Lebanese militia Hezbollah and openly supports and praises their resistance: "They (Hezbollah) show courage, they show discipline, I respect that"... Read more, watch... Venezuela: Obama is worse than Bush  Venezuelan National Assembly President Cilia Flores Head of Venezuela's top legal body has lashed out at President Barack Obama for his undelivered vows of change in US policy. The Venezuelan National Assembly President, Cilia Flores, strongly criticized Obama for failing to overrule former President George W. Bush's doctrines of war, adding that Obama's administration is "worse" than his predecessor's. She slammed the US for following in Bush's 'footsteps' in "installing" military bases in South America under the pretext of combating organized crime, a reference to the recent stationing of US troops in seven Colombian military camps... Read more... IsraHell for you, Ethnic Cleansing Live! | Gilad Atzmon Israeli TV, a glimpse into Jewish tolerance. Bare in mind that this is Israel National TV's 5 pm News. The elder Israeli presenter is Dan Margalit, a leading Israeli Journalist and a devoted servant of every Israeli government and War Criminal leaders in the last four decades (Rabin, Peres, Sharon, Netanyahu, Olmert, Livni and Barak). Israel is no doubt the ugliest collective around... Watch... Israeli war game eyes Gaza 'occupation' | Press TV Tel Aviv is conducting war games in the Negev desert, in what appears to be preparation for a new offensive on the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. An Israeli TV channel reported the military drills on Thursday, saying the rightist government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely gearing up for a massive attack on Gaza shortly after the anniversary of the deadly Gaza onslaught last year. It further revealed that Tel Aviv plans to occupy the entire coastal enclave this time to compensate for the failure to overthrow Hamas, the democratically elected ruler of the Gaza Strip... Read more... January 7, 2010 Alarmingly Close in Gaza: When Does It Become Genocide?, by Nadia Hijab | Counterpunch  During a visit to Ramallah a year ago while the Israeli bombardment of Gaza was underway, I shared my fears with a close Palestinian friend. "It may sound insane, but I think the Israelis' real objective is to see them all dead." My friend told me not to be silly, the assault was horrific, but it was not mass killing. I said that wasn't the issue: This was a population already very vulnerable to disease, ill-health, and malnutrition after years of siege, with its infrastructure rotted, its water and food contaminated. Israel's war would surely push the people over the brink, especially if the siege was maintained -- as it has been... Read more... Report by George Galloway: Viva Palestina Starts Entry To Gaza | Information Clearing House The Viva Palestina Convoy, after facing ongoing Egyptian rejection and violent attacks by the Egyptian security forces, started on Wednesday evening to roll into the besieged Gaza Strip. Thousands of Palestinians, carrying flowers and flags, gathered in the streets while the convoy continued to move in... Read more, watch... Turks protest Egypt's attack on Viva Palestina | Press TV  Thousands of angry protesters in Turkey have staged a demonstration in the city of Istanbul to condemn the Egyptian police crackdown on a Gaza-bound aid convoy... Read more... Pink Floyd's Roger Waters Speaks Out in Support of Gaza Freedom March, Blasts Israeli-Egyptian “Siege” of Gaza | Democracy Now British musician Roger Waters of the iconic rock band Pink Floyd speaks out about the Gaza Freedom March. “I actually would be very interested to hear what the President of the United States has to say about this nonviolent, democratic demonstration of ordinary people from forty-two countries all over the world,” says Waters. “They feel solidarity with their brothers and sisters, other human beings who are living in conditions that none of us would stand for, for a single second, in any of our countries.”... Read more... The Fear Decade: Since 9/11, We've Embraced Our Inner Coward | Ted Rall Home of the free and the brave. Live free or die. Shoot first; ask questions later. Kill 'em all, let God sort 'em out. These were the mottos of a brash, impetuous, audacious-to-a-fault nation. That nation is dead... Read more... How Israel Wages War on the U.S. - By Way of Deception, by Jeff Gates | Criminal State  The Manipulation of U.S. General Colin Powell and Pakistani Cricket Star Imran Khan Mass media and popular culture are powerful tools of manipulation when wielded by those skilled at waging way by way of deception. When shaping the opinion of an unsuspecting public, the star power of military leaders and sports heroes is routinely appropriated. That duplicity was on display in February 2003 when Colin Powell gave false testimony to the U.N. Security Council that helped launch the U.S.-led invasion of a Muslim nation. Similar duplicity was deployed in May 2005 when Pakistani cricket icon Imran Khan launched from Islamabad a false story that provoked outrage at the U.S. in Muslim nations...Read more... From Reconquista to Recolonization, by Tariq Ali | Counterpunch The Cultural Festival of the city of Granada awarded Tariq Ali the Granadillo 2010 for his novels known as the Islam Quintet. The award was presented at a gathering of over 3000 citizens in the evening of January 2, a day that marked the surrender of the country’s last Muslim kingdom to the Catholic kings Ferdinand and Isabella. Earlier that morning the right wing had marked the day with fascist groups carrying banners that read: FOR A NEW RECONQUEST, EXPEL ALL THE MUSLIMS FROM SPAIN. The speech below was Ali’s response to the Award... Read more... Iraq to sue Israel over destroyed reactor | Israel News Iraqi MP says UN resolution backs suit against Israel for bombing Tammuz nuclear reactor in 1981... Read more... AIPAC's Role in Spying & U.S. Foreign Intervention, by Jim Traficant | Intifada Palestine  Jewish American citizens Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman were both “Big Shots” in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) hierarchy. They had one other major common bond. Rosen and Weissman were spies. They spied for Israel. They spied on their own country, America. That is, presuming that America is their true country. I doubt it... Read more... Obama Adds 675 Million Muslims to the Ultimate US Terrorism List, by Franklin Lamb | Uruknet Lebanon reacts: "Wouldn't it be simpler just to put the whole world on?" On January 3, 2010, the Transportation Security Administration issued new security directives to all United States and international air carriers with inbound flights to the U.S. effective January 4, 2010. The TSA press release sought to assure the traveling public: "The new directive includes long-term sustainable security measures developed in consultation with law enforcement officials and our domestic and international partners." At midnight Washington DC time, January 3, it went into effect and placed 675,000,000 (675 million) more Muslims and Arabs on yet another 'Terrorism 'list. Also added were Nigerian and Cuban Christians but they were not the target...Read more... Germany to sell Israel another nuclear submarine | Press TV  A Dolphin class submarine Germany starts talks with Israel over the sale of a new submarine, capable of firing nuclear missiles, despite having received no payment for previous deliveries...Read more... The French Heroes of the Gaza Freedom March: Palestine Vivre!, by Emily Ratner | Counterpunch A great many heroes have emerged from the Gaza Freedom March's efforts in Cairo, where more than 1,400 internationals from 43 countries have come to demand an end to the Israeli siege on Gaza. The South African delegation have inspired us all by facilitating the drafting of the Cairo Declaration to End Israeli Apartheid, a document that reaffirms our commitment to the struggle for Palestinian liberation and self-determination and offers a concrete plan for moving forward. Small groups have flown the Palestinian flag from atop the Cairo Tower and one of the pyramids. Many delegates refused the 100 seats on two buses to Gaza that painted our historic political efforts here as yet another token humanitarian aid trip. We will all leave Cairo with far more hope, wisdom, and collective power than we had when we arrived. Of all of the inspiring stories I have witnessed in the days I have spent in Egypt, the story of the French delegation remains a beacon in the darkening sky over the Sinai that separates us from Gaza... Read more... The End of Traditional Alliances: 2009 - Some Arabs, Some Jews, by Bouthaina Shaaban | Counterpunch 2009 closed with unusual headlines of the press on what is called the Arab – Israeli conflict, headlines which warrant careful thinking because they might imply changing the name of this conflict as a result of the changes which happened to its nature and the parties involved in it... Read more... Israel moves to prevent further war crime lawsuits | Press TV  Israeli Military Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Gabi AshkeNazi Wednesday ordered the army to consult with its legal advisers during future operations. Legal advisors will now work only with divisional headquarters while operations are underway, Haaretz reported. During the Gaza offensive a year ago, legal advisers took part in the planning as well as the selection and approval of targets for destruction. They were, however, rarely consulted once the combat began... Read more... Poison bullets: Depleted Uranium factor covered-up? (Part I) | Russia Today Many American and British soldiers who have returned from Iraq are complaining about Depleted Uranium-related illnesses. They accuse both the Pentagon and the UK Ministry of Defense of covering up the problem. Poison Bullets follows doctors and experts as they voice their opposing views in the DU controversy... Watch... January 6, 2010 Deconstructing Simon Wiesenthal, by Lawrence Swaim | Mondoweiss  The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, California, is named after the famed Austrian Nazi-hunter, Simon Wiesenthal, a connection that turns out to be appropriate in disturbing but unexpected ways. That is, both Simon Wiesenthal and the Center named after him have been accused of flagrant lying, exaggerations and half-truths. Wiesenthal’s confabulations were never a matter of published discourse among scholars, so far as this writer can determine, nor were they popular knowledge until quite recently. In any case, it is now known that Wiesenthal, a born story-teller, rarely let the facts get in the way of a good story—in fact many of the things he claimed to have done were fabrications... Read more... Fake Al Qaeda | What Really Happened "The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the 'devil' only in order to drive the TV watcher to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US . . ." -- Former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook... Read more... Israeli television confrontation is a metaphor of the moral crisis in which Zionism is found today, by Adam Horowitz | Mondoweiss ...It is very important to watch the “discussion” between MK Zahalka and Dan Margalit on “Erev Hadash”, during which the televised interview between a Jewish journalist and a Palestinian member of the Knesset became a dialog of war. In the blink of an eye, the interviewer became a “fighter” as if by dictates of a state of emergency. This is a [metaphor] of the “Israeli Democracy” situation... Read more, watch... Racism and Zionism, by Joshua Seraphim | A Voice for Palestine  At the recently held 2009 National Campus Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Conference at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, Ali Abuminah, founder and force behind the Electronic Intifada, relayed the story of a famous Israeli football player, who was reprimanded and later apologized to his fans for having expressed his openness to having an Arab player on his team. To this he made the comment: “Israel strikes me today as the only country on Earth where public figures and celebrities have to issue tearful apologies for not being sufficiently racist.”... Read more... Jewish settlers are akin to malignant tumor | Press TV An Arab Member of Knesset (MK) from the United Arab List-Ta'al, Taleb Sanaa, has described Jewish settlers in the occupied Palestinian territories as analogous with a 'malignant tumor.' "There is no connection between civil rights and settlers in the Palestinian territory whose point of view is to persecute and abuse. These vermin must not be permitted. According to international law, settlers are prohibited from being there. They are a cancerous tumor," Sanaa said. "The settlers don't give a damn about the government and the High Court of Justice's decisions. They come to the Knesset to enforce terror."... Read more, watch... Support the Cairo Declaration of the Gaza Freedom March Petition We, international delegates meeting in Cairo during the Gaza Freedom March 2009 in collective response to an initiative from the South African delegation, state:.. Read more, sign petition... More... Message to Obama and Brown – How about asking Why?, by Alan Hart | Intifada Palestine  President Obama and Prime Minister Brown In their refusal to ask the question of why, really, Muslims are being radicalized, President Obama and Prime Minister Brown are no different from their immediate predecessors. When George “Dubya” Bush and Tony Blair ruled the world and were pressing ahead with their “war on terrorism”, I used to ask this question: Are they ignorant of history and don’t know what they are doing and therefore stupid, or do they and/or some of the powerful vested interests which pull their strings want a Clash of Civilizations, Judeo-Christian v Islamic?..Read more... Masters of the false flag: Yemen latest target in widening war on Islam, by John Kaminski | Rebel News Shylock's Goons At The 'Gate of tears' As evangelical Christians who have elevated the state of Israel to a higher status than the Redeemer they presume to revere cast both a stain and a shadow on those normal Christians who actually practice the very love they preach, so the worldwide nation of Islam is infected by a similar false flag phenomenon — the Wahhabis...Read more... Today in Palestine! A summary of news items detailing Israel's ongoing crimes in Palestine - updated daily Link... Italy-Based Group Accuses Israel of Poisoning Gaza Land | Al-ManarTV The Italian New Weapons Committee accuses Israel of contaminating Gaza land through bombing, and the president of the European Jewish Congress termed the claims "unfounded blood libels reminiscent of tales of Jews poisoning wells." The Italy-based group of researchers studied Israel's use of ammunition and said the population of the Gaza Strip is "in danger." It based the claim on soil analysis of four bomb craters. "It is essential to intervene at once to limit the effects of the contamination on people, animals and cultivation," the researchers stated. Their findings grabbed headlines in Italian, European and Middle Eastern publications, including Terra, Ambito, the Turkish Weekly and Tehran Times... Read more... An Israeli Jewess lives in Ramallah: This country, Palestine, from the river to the sea, by Neta Golan | Palestine Telegraph  Nita Golan with one of her daughters I couldn't believe it because I was a part of the consensus opinion in Israel, that we are morally superior. They are violent. We have purity of arms. If we do kill a civilian or an innocent, it's by mistake. Even if these mistakes happen every single day. I didn't believe it until I saw it with my own eyes. I refused to believe that a soldier would open fire on an innocent child, but I saw it...Read more... Viva Palestina: URGENT call for help! | Intifada Palestine Our situation is now at a crisis point! Riot has broken out in the port of Al- Arish. This late afternoon we were negotiating with a senior official from Cairo who left negotiations some two hours ago and did not return. Our negotiations with the official was regarding taking our aid vehicles into Gaza. He left two hours ago and did not come back. Egyptian authorities called over 2,000 riot police who then moved towards our camp at the port. We have now blocked the entrance to the port and we are now faced with riot police and water cannons and are determined to defend our vehicles and aid. The Egyptian authorities have by their stubbornness and hostility towards the convoy, brought us to a crisis point... Read more... Desperate Fanatics: The ADL Pounds The Table!, by Alan Sabrosky | Intifada Palestine  Illustration by Ben Heine Fanatics, it has been observed, are those who redouble their efforts when they lose sight of their goal, or at least feel its attainment slipping from their grasp. This describes precisely the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), founded in 1913 principally to combat anti-Semitism and closely linked since its inception to the emerging Zionist movement, which increasingly has resorted to the defamation of Israel’s critics as part of its avowed mission to support “the Jewish State by advocating for Israel.”...Read more... Israeli women's group tells Livni to turn herself in | Maan News Agency The Women's Coalition for Peace sent a letter on Wednesday to Israel’s former Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, calling on her to cooperate with international investigations into her role in the assault on Gaza last winter, after a British court issued an warrant for her arrest on Monday. The Israeli organization wrote in the letter, which was attached to a translated copy of the Goldstone report on alleged war crimes in Gaza, "We are convinced that if you refer to the report you will understand why British citizens and organizations have turned to the courts with a request to issue a warrant for your arrest."... Read more... Rabbis to US Ambassador: Time to 'Go Biblical' with Arabs | Israel National News  Sociopaths from the back ward masquerading as holy men A delegation of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) met with U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mr. James Cunningham, today and called for a reassessment of the entire U.S. policy vis-à-vis the Israelis and Palestinians. The rabbis told Ambassador Cunningham that it was time to try the Biblical approach to the dispute over the Land of Israel... Read more... Reflections of war on Gaza (video) | Aljazeera Do you want to understand what it felt like to be in gaza when the bombs were falling? Do you want to identify with the families who felt death right at their doorstep? Watch this and think about what our silence is doing to these people still coming to grips with the brutalisation of their society one year after the war. You will not be able to ignore gaza again if you are at all human. Please pass this link on. The whole world needs to know about that war and that israel’s savage treatment of the palestinians is continuing with a crippling siege that denies them any chance of rebuilding their lives... Read more, watch... Ma'ale Adumim: Annexation and the Architecture of Apartheid, by Michael Ratner | Mondoweiss  Today we came away stunned, shocked and almost numb from our trip to East Jerusalem with Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions. And when I say we, I mean my family—my wife and two children, 19 and 21. We have spent the last 10 days trying to get into Gaza from Egypt; demonstrating against the Gaza siege and joining demonstrations in Israel at the Erez crossing and protesting the evictions in the Sheikh-Jarrah area of East Jerusalem. But nothing and I mean nothing prepared me for today and our trip through East Jerusalem and to Ma’ale Adumim, a city a few kilometers away. It was not the Palestinians we met, although each had heart breaking stories. Rather it was our seeing first hand the deliberateness of the Israeli annexation project and its seeming inevitability. If you want to be made almost speechless stand at the edge of East Jerusalem and look out at a vast construction project on someone else’s land. Look out at the commission of a monstrous crime, open and notorious. As one of my children asked, “Why have the countries of the world done nothing to stop this?” I said, “It’s worse, the U.S. and others have aided and abetted this crime.”... Read more... The Criminalization of Protest, by Radley Balko | Reason Magazine Police and politicians ignore the First Amendment when we need it the most I’ve lived in the Washington, D.C., area for the better part of the last 10 years. So I’ve seen my share of demonstrations, although more often than not I just try to avoid the traffic nightmares they cause. Among the various classes of protests—pro-life, anti-war, environmental, and now tea parties—the most destructive are the anti-globalization marches. So when cops clashed with anti-globalization demonstrators at the Pittsburgh G-20 summit in September, it was easy to assume that most of the altercations represented justified police responses to overzealous protesters. But a number of disturbing photographs, videos, and witness accounts told a different story... Read more... The Palestinian farmer who grows his own resistance, by Rachel Shabi | The National  Murad al Khofash, from the West Bank village of Marda, attended the climate As a means to counter the creeping expansion of illegal Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, a permaculture farm might not seem like the obvious approach. But for Murad al Khofash, who runs Marda farm in the northern West Bank, it is the natural choice. Squashed between some of the largest and most powerful settlements, Mr al Khofash’s three-year-old eco-friendly farm is a Palestinian template of how to grow-your-own resistance, from the roots upwards...change talks in Copenhagen to argue on behalf of the Palestinian Territories. Read more... Walls never work: in the Middle East or in Ireland, by Robert Fisk | The Independent Israel’s illegal claim to West Bank Arab land is based on holy texts, not on a king’s fiat We were walking round Milltown Cemetery last week, me and David McKittrick – Our Man in Belfast and among my oldest friends – and the wind came biting down from Cave Hill. "Cloaked in ice and snow," was how the Belfast Telegraph described Northern Ireland when I took the train back to Dublin the next day, but I think the bitterness of the Ardoyne, the Falls, the Shankill, the old Markets, made up for the exaggeration. "Peace" lines they may be, but just east of Andersonstown, that frozen, implacable wall of iron, stone and wire reminded me of an even more permanent "security fence" more than 3,000km away...Read more... Israeli org says world's major human rights groups engaged in 'political warfare' against Israel | IMEMC News The Israeli Knesset recently hosted a conference in which a right-wing Israeli settler-led organization presented a 'report' claiming that virtually all of the world's major non-governmental organizations 'lack credibility' and are engaged in 'political warfare' against Israel because they have called for an investigation of the Israeli army's conduct during last year's invasion of Gaza... [It's "antisemitism", just gotta be] Read more... Egypt's lack of sovereignty, by Abdel Sattar Qassem | Middle East Monitor  Egyptian officials start talking about Egypt’s sovereignty every time Gaza is in need of food even though the people of Gaza have no desires on Egyptian territory and have no army intending to invade. All they need – desperately need ‑ is to be able to buy food and other necessities. Maybe the resistance groups have other goals, smuggling money and weapons in order to defend themselves against Israeli aggression. But whatever weapons are in Gaza, they are not there to fight against Egypt... [A very important article that explains the actions of Egypt vis a vis Gaza] Read more... U.S. Venezuelan Relations: Imperialism and Revolution, by James Petras | Rebel News Historically Latin America has been of great importance to the United States on numerous counts: the region has in the past, provided the US with a trade surplus; its outflows of licit and ill-begotten funds to US banks, numbers annually in the tens of billions; the US has been, up to recently, the major trading partner in the region; Latin America has provided a lucrative outlet for US buyouts of oil, telecoms, banking and related strategic mining companies during the golden age of imperial pillage (1975 – 1999). Throughout most of the 20th century the US could rely on the vote of its client regimes in the United Nations (UN), the Organization of American States (OAS) and in the international financial institution (IMF, WB, IDB) to back its efforts to sustain its global political and economic expansion... Read more... Aaronovitch Miliband & Me, by Gilad Atzmon (a Multimedia Show)  David Aaronovitch, The Times and Jewish Chronicle pundit, doesn’t learn the lesson. We are not exactly on an equal footing and we don’t see eye to eye. Though we happen to fling mud at each other, it seems that what I point out about him sticks, some of it permanently. His invective against me, on the other hand, blossoms into kudos. Aaronovitch fails to realise that within the discourse with which I am engaged attacks from Zionists are interpreted as moral credentials... Read more... The Next Quagmire, by Jeff Huber | Antiwar Non-G.I. Joe Lieberman, Dick Cheney’s fellow Vietnam-era draft dodger turned warmonger, said on the Dec. 27 edition of Fox News Sunday that "Yemen is now one of the centers of that fight." It’s difficult to tell from reading the transcript of the interview between Joe and Chris Wallace what exactly Joe means by "that fight." Does he mean the fight against al-Qaeda, or the fight the military-industrial-congressional complex is waging to ensure that we have a Long War of 50 years’ duration or more? "If we don’t act preemptively," Joe warned, "Yemen will be tomorrow’s war. That’s the danger we face."... Read more... The US and China: One Side is Losing, the Other is Winning, by James Petras | Global Research  ...China will grow and exercise power through the market; the US will engage in endless wars on its road to bankruptcy and internal decay. China’s diversified growth is linked to dynamic economic partners; US militarism has tied itself to narco-states, warlord regimes, the overseers of banana republics and the last and worst bona fide racist colonial regime, Israel... Read more... From Italy, by Mazin Qumsiyeh | Human Rights Newsletter My wife and I are now in Italy to give a few talks and maybe get a break from the jail of Bethlehem under apartheid. Every time I visit Europe or other countries I wonder why can't we get to live a normal life in a normal country in Palestine. Israelis pretend they live in a normal country. Having removed most of the natives and confined the rest to ghettos and bantustans, the Israeli public by and large goes around pretending that everything is normal; that Israel is like any European country. It has a parliament albeit it spends time deciding who is a Jew entitled to automatic citizenship and how to strip non-Jews of citizenship), a military, a high tech industry, universities, bars, fancy restaurants, elites and poor people, religious and secular etc. But deep down Israelis know that this is all a mirage and an illusion... Read more... Daniel Ellsberg on Mordechai Vanunu's Arrest | Antiwar I just learned, late this New Year’s Eve, of my friend Mordechai Vanunu’s outrageous arrest, facing further imprisonment, for “meeting with foreigners” (of which I have quite openly been one, on several occasions). I plan to do whatever I can to bring international pressure to bear on the Israeli government to free him. My views about him are expressed adequately in the op-ed below which appeared in the LA Times...on the day of his release having served 18 years in prison, five years ago. Mordechai Vanunu–my friend, my hero, my brother–has again been arrested in Israel on “suspicion” of the “crime” of “meeting with foreigners.”... Read more... Neither wars nor drones, by Marwan Bishara | Al Jazeera  The Obama administration has offered no real alternatives to the policies of his predecessor A young Nigerian from an affluent family, trained in Yemen and reportedly influenced by extremists in the United Kingdom, tried to blow a hole in a plane flying from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas day and failed. Instead, he blew a greater hole in the logic of the US Global War On Terror...Read more... C.I.A. Takes On Bigger and Riskier Role on Front Lines - NYT The deaths of seven Central Intelligence Agency operatives at a remote base in the mountains of Afghanistan are a pointed example of the civilian spy agency’s transformation in recent years into a paramilitary organization at the vanguard of America’s far-flung wars... [Yup, that's all we needed] Read more... Changing the Narrative for War, by Philip Giraldi | Campaign For Liberty In spite of the calamities of the past eight years, there continues to be no shortage of neoconservatives in one's face in the media, advising their fellow Americans that wars can be won quickly and decisively and that using military force to change how other nations behave is sound policy. The Washington Post features Bill Kristol, Charles Krauthammer, all three Kagans, John Bolton, and Eliot Cohen on a regular basis. The Wall Street Journal editorial page is the epicenter for those who favor muscular interventionism. The New York Times, America's most influential newspaper, is somewhat more circumspect, featuring neocons-lite David Brooks and Thomas Friedman regularly... Read more... US general urges strip search of Muslim men | Press TV  Lt. General Thomas McInerney spoke to Fox News about A retired US general and member of Iran Policy Committee (IPC) says all 18 to 28 years old Muslim men should be strip searched at airports as "one of these bombers" will explode an airliner in the coming days...what he called pending terror attacks on US airliners Read more... Witness - A girl called Jewel (video) | Rebel News Just days into Israel's war on Gaza, in early January, the extended Al Samouni family, some 48 men, women and children, was attacked in the homes they occupied together in the south of Gaza - and almost all of them were killed. Thirteen-year-old Almaza - 'jewel' - is one of the very few who survived the attack in which 30 members of her family died, many before her own eyes. A Girl Called Jewel is Almaza's story, a heart-breaking eye-witness account of the war in Gaza... Watch... Top Israeli diplomat scolds ambassadors | Press TV Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman chastised the regime's foreign envoys for their tendency to appease their host states. "I have seen that some ambassadors identify themselves with the other side to such an extent that they are all the time trying to justify and explain [the position of the other side]," Lieberman said at a conference last week with Israeli ambassadors. In his 20-minute address, Lieberman spoke before the shocked audience, who had gathered at the Foreign Ministry, without giving them any opportunity to ask questions or comment. He then left abruptly... Read more... The Iron Wall of Egypt, by Uri Avnery | Palestine Chronicle  One may well wonder about the Egyptian participation in Gaza blockade. Something odd, almost bizarre, is going on in Egypt these days. About 1400 activists from all over the world gathered there on their way to the Gaza Strip. On the anniversary of the “Cast Lead” War, they intended to participate in a non-violent demonstration against the ongoing blockade, which makes the life of 1.5 million inhabitants of the Strip intolerable. At the same time, protest demonstrations were to take place in many countries. In Tel-Aviv, too, a big protest was planned. The “monitoring committee” of the Arab citizens of Israel was to organize an event on the Gaza border. When the international activists arrived in Egypt, a surprise awaited them. The Egyptian government forbade their trip to Gaza. Their buses were held up at the outskirts of Cairo and turned back. Individual protesters who succeeded in reaching the Sinai in regular buses were taken off them. The Egyptian security forces conducted a regular hunt for the activists... Read more... Prostitution in the US Government, by Paul J. Balles | Information Clearing House MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann, in a special commentary, referred to Senator Joe Lieberman as a "senatorial prostitute" for selling himself to the US insurance and pharmaceutical industries. Prostitution is the oldest business in the world. In some places today, it's legal. In others, it's illegal. In some of the latter, the authorities look the other way...This is about people who sell themselves for money or jobs or elections or favours. It's about people bought, not for sex, though sometimes that's included, but for their services that become as illicit as sex for hire. One modern definition of prostitution is: "The act or an instance of offering or devoting one's talent to an unworthy use or cause." That's the sense in which Olbermann referred to Senator Lieberman... Read more... Unreported in US Media: Minnesota Resident held in Israeli Jail, by Amanda Mueller | Uruknet  Ryan Olander was arrested from a tent the Palestinian al-Kurd family built in their own backyard following a recent setter take-over of a section of their house. He was drinking tea and talking to the family members when six Israeli police walked into the tent and took him for questioning at the Russian Compound police station in west Jerusalem. Despite being released without charges the following day, Ryan was illegally re-arrested by immigration police only a few moments later, right outside of the same police station that told him he was free to go... Read more... Jewish Apartheid - Still Apartheid, by Joh Domingo | Jewish Tribal Revue Uri Avnery is a good guy, but his thinking is completely corrupted. His new article on Apartheid has to be silliest I have read for a long time. Basically he says that just because Apartheid SEEMS similar to Zionism, it does not mean that they are the same. Nothing wrong with that; they are not the same, just similar. He then goes on to explain the differences, and how important they are, and here he goes completely wonky. He thinks people just draw similarities between Apartheid and Zionism in the hope that public opinion will put pressure on the Israeli Government, like it did on Apartheid. That is it? That is why the similarities are drawn? We should stop this because. he does not say. Never mind that the similarities are striking, he goes out of his way to explain the differences, it is somehow important. It is in the detail of his listed differences that a whiff of an agenda surfaces... Read more... January 2-3, 2010 A Super Power Of Near Demonic Dimensions, video with Noam Chomsky | Information Clearing House  U.S. Citizens Attacked By Egyptian Riot Police In Cairo In Front Of U.S. Embassy | LoneStar Peace activist Cindy Sheehan issued a report Tuesday regarding the Gaza Freedom March. Here is the breaking news as quoted by Sheehan:.."In my understanding of world affairs, embassies are stationed in various countries so citizens who are traveling can seek help in times of trouble, but this doesn't appear to be so right at this moment in Cairo..."'When I was talking to Mike he said that an Egyptian told him that all Egyptians are in solidarity with the Marchers and with the people of Gaza/Palestine, of course, but the "Big Boss" (the U.S.) is calling the shots.'... Read more... 'Israel is the persecutor,' says Holocaust survivor on hunger strike for Gaza | The Daily Star An 85-year-old Holocaust survivor entered the second day of her hunger strike on Tuesday, in protest over the Egyptian government's refusal to allow an international Palestinian solidarity march to enter the Gaza Strip. American peace activist Hedy Epstein came to Cairo as part of an international delegation with participants from 43 countries. The delegation had planned to join Palestinians in a non-violent march from Northern Gaza toward the Erez border with Israel, calling for the end of the blockade on Gaza on the anniversary of the Israeli invasion last December. Egyptian authorities have refused to allow any of the 1,300 protesters entry into Gaza, prompting Epstein and many others to go on hunger strike. "There comes a time in one's life when one has to step up and risk one's own body...We're in a desperate situation here, but not as desperate as the people in Gaza."... Read more... Threats to Yemen prove America hasn't learned the lesson of history, by Patrick Cockburn | The Independent  Extraordinarily, the US is making exactly the same mistake as in Iraq and Afghanistan ...I have always loved the country. It is physically very beautiful with cut stone villages perched on mountain tops on the sides of which are cut hundreds of terraces, making the country look like an exaggerated Tuscan landscape. Yemenis are intelligent, humorous, sociable and democratic, infinitely preferable as company to the arrogant and ignorant playboys of the Arab oil states in the rest of the Arabian Peninsula...Read more... An Interview with Ilan Pappe: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine | Counterpunch Israeli historian Ilan Pappe's groundbreaking book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, on the events in 1947-49 that led to the formation of the state of Israel, had just been published in German translation, and he was in Austria to promote it. A few weeks prior to the outbreak of the Gaza war, Pappe answered our questions in such a way that all his points are still as relevant today as they were a year ago. Gaza is still suffocating under a heavy Israeli blockade, East Jerusalem and the West Bank still being invaded by illegal Jewish settlers. It is clearer than ever before that Israel is not defending itself; it is extending itself. The remaining Palestinian pockets of land look like 20th-century South African Bantustans, and worse, like the shrinking and disappearing American Indian reservations of the 19th century... Read more... How a Lebanese Television Station Got Included on the T-List: The Israel Lobby's War on Al Manar TV, by Franklin Lamb | Counterpunch Having inherited the Bush administration's rising stack of terrorism lists, President Obama's team had expressed interest in culling them "so they are more accurate and manageable and Americans experience less stress", according to Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano...As of Christmas Eve, the 'Terrorism Watch List' reportedly included some 900,000 names with a "selectee" list with somewhere close to 30,000 people within the higher-risk category, and a "no-fly" list with an estimated 10,000 names of people who are not allowed to board planes. Today it's anyone's guess who is on but shouldn't be and who is off but should be on... Read more... False Friends: MSM Covers up Israeli War Planning, by Captain Eric H. May | Education News  It's becoming more and more difficult to keep a straight face at any mention of the U.S. free press. The mainstream media, often called the corporate media by semi-truthful left wing publications, is nothing more or less than propaganda. It is overwhelmingly owned and run by Jews to turn the American dream of uninterrupted security into the Arab nightmare of endless war... Read more... Breaking With Obama?. by Ralph Nader | Information Clearing House Those long-hoping, long-enduring members of the liberal intelligentsia are starting to break away from the least-worst mindset that muted their criticisms of Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential campaign. They still believe that the President is far better than his Republican counterpart would have been. Some still believe that sometime, somewhere, Obama will show his liberal stripes. But they no longer believe they should stay loyally silent in the face of the escalating war in Afghanistan, the near collapse of key provisions in the health insurance legislation, the likely anemic financial regulation bill, or the obeisance to the bailed out Wall Street gamblers... Read more... Ridding America Of The Warmongers, by Sherwood Ross | Information Clearing House As MIT activist philosopher Noam Chomsky points out..."Opportunities for education and organizing abound. As in the past, rights are not likely to be granted by benevolent authorities, or won by intermittent actions-attending a few demonstrations or pushing a lever in the personalized quadrennial extravaganzas that are depicted as 'democratic politics' .These tasks require dedicated day-by-day engagement." Failure to grasp these opportunities "is likely to have ominous repercussions: for the country, for the world, and for future generations."... Read more... Gaza Freedom Marchers issue the "Cairo Declaration" to end Israeli Apartheid | Indybay  Gaza Freedom Marchers approved today a declaration aimed at accelerating the global campaign for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli Apartheid. Roughly 1400 activists from 43 countries converged in Cairo on their way to Gaza to join with Palestinians marching to break Israel's illegal siege. They were prevented from entering Gaza by the Egyptian authorities...We, international delegates meeting in Cairo during the Gaza Freedom March 2009 in collective response to an initiative from the South African delegation, state:.. Read more... Chavez: Netherlands and U.S. Planning Military Aggression Against Venezuela from Dutch Antilles, by James Suggett | Venezuela Analysis During a meeting with trade unions, political organizations, and social movement leaders in Copenhagen, Denmark on Thursday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez accused the Netherlands of allowing the United States military to plan a future attack against Venezuela from its island territories in the Caribbean, known as the Dutch Antilles."I am accusing the Kingdom of the Netherlands together with the Yankee empire of preparing a military aggression against Venezuela," said Chavez, who came to Copenhagen to participate in the XV United Nations International Conference on Climate Change this week... Read more... World's Sole Military Superpower's 2 Million-Troop, $1 Trillion Wars, by Rick Rozoff | Global Research  With a census of slightly over 300 million in a world of almost seven billion people, the U.S. accounts for over 40 percent of officially acknowledged worldwide government military spending with a population that is only 4 percent of that of the earth's. A 10-1 disparity. In addition to its 1,445,000 active duty service members, the Pentagon can and does call upon 1.2 million National Guard and other reserve components. As many as 30% of troops that have served in Afghanistan and Iraq are mobilized reservists. The Army National Guard has activated over 400,000 soldiers since the war in Afghanistan began and in March of 2009 approximately 125,000 National Guard and other reserve personnel were on active duty. The Defense Department also has over 800,000 civilian employees at home and deployed worldwide. The Pentagon, then, has more than 3.5 million people at its immediate disposal excluding private military contractors. After allotting over a trillion dollars for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq alone and packing off more than two million of its citizens to the two nations, the U.S. military establishment and peace prize president have already laid the groundwork for yet more wars. Boeing, Raytheon and General Electric won't be kept waiting... Read more... Humanity's Right To Life, by Fidel Castro | ZNet Climate change is already causing enormous damage and hundreds of millions of poor people are enduring the consequences. The most advanced research centers have claimed that there is little time to avoid an irreversible catastrophe. James Hansen, from the NASA Goddard Institute, has said that a proportion of 350 parts of carbon dioxide by million is still tolerable; however, the figure today is 390 and growing at a pace of 2 parts by million every year exceeding the levels of 600 thousand years ago. Each one of the past two decades has been the warmest since the first records were taken while carbon dioxide increased 80 parts by million in the past 150 years... Read more... January 1, 2010 The Underwear Bomber - Crushing Freedom With Phony Arab Terrorism | Signs of the Times  Strange as it may seem, a couple of weeks ago as I ruminated on Obama's broken promise to bring the troops home, his attempt to out-warmonger the Bush administration and his plummeting popularity, I thought to myself: "ya know, what that guy (or rather the disgruntled US public) needs is a good old fashioned 'Muslim terror attack'. Preferably one that includes a ranting 'terrorist' message about Afghanistan and 'slaughtering infidels'. That'll soon silence the rabble and get them behind Obama's Afghan surge!" And so it was that, as I sipped my eggnog on Christmas day, I was shockingly unsurprised to read the headlines about an 'underwear bomb'... Read more... America's War On Islam - The "Fort Dix Five", by Stephen Lendman | Atheo News With world eyes on Gaza, the horrific carnage on the ground, innocent civilians being slaughtered, Israel's grievous crimes of war and against humanity, and its slow-motion genocide gaining speed, it's easy to forget America's war at home on Islam and its growing number of victims. This article highlights five recent ones - innocent young Muslim men called the "Fort Dix Five."... Read more... How Goldman Sachs Made Tens Of Billions Of Dollars From The Economic Collapse Of America | Infowars ...The following is how Goldman Sachs made tens of billions of dollars from the economic collapse of America in four easy steps…. Read more... Gaza's Untold Story, by Mamoon Alabbasi (Book Review) | Gilad Atzmon  One year on since Israel's criminally-insane war on Gaza, many are still unaware of the roots of the 'conflict' and the plight of the Palestinian people. Israel would like to have us believe that its latest onslaught was a direct response to resistance rockets or even Hamas's democratic accession to power, forgetting that both of which came into existence as a response to Israeli policies... Read more... Israel's Increasing Anti-Christianity, by Rev. Ted Pike | Truthtellers The period of the Great Crusades saw the forces of the Christian west and Muslim east engage in futile military efforts to decide who would control Palestine, with power to exclude others. After millions died, the exhausted combatants finally reached a compromise that has proved amicable for nearly a millennium: Each of the three great religions claiming special kinship to Israel—Christians, Jews and Muslims...would have freedom as pilgrims and even residents to worship in the sacred places of the Holy Land. Yet, with return of Jews to Israel in the 20 th century, a different mentality emerged, one shared by Christian evangelicals. The Jews returned to a land they considered entirely and unconditionally theirs—a land in which Jewish worship, customs and laws enjoyed a Biblical right to predominate. Now Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox rabbinical authorities in Israel increasingly assert that Israel has the right to actually exclude Christians and Muslims from full participation in the religious life of the nation... Read more... A Jewish Defector Warns America: Benjamin Freedman speaks | Sweet Liberty Benjamin H. Freedman was one of the most intriguing and amazing individuals of the 20th century. Mr. Freedman, born in 1890, was a successful Jewish businessman of New York City who was at one time the principal owner of the Woodbury Soap Company. He broke with organized Jewry after the Judeo-Communist victory of 1945, and spent the remainder of his life and the great preponderance of his considerable fortune, at least 2.5 million dollars, exposing the Jewish tyranny which has enveloped the United States. Mr. Freedman knew what he was talking about because he had been an insider at the highest levels of Jewish organizations and Jewish machinations to gain power over our nation. Mr. Freedman was personally acquainted with Bernard Baruch, Samuel Untermyer, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, Joseph Kennedy, and John F. Kennedy, and many more movers and shakers of our times... Falk slams Egypt for Rafah wall | Press TV  A UN human rights expert has deplored the construction of a wall along Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip, terming it as a sign of complicity between Washington and Cairo. UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Richard Falk denounced the construction of the steel wall which "is designed to interfere with the tunnels that have been bringing some food and material relief to the Gaza population...I'm very distressed by that, because it is both an expression of complicity on the part of the government of Egypt and the United States, which apparently is assisting through its corps of engineers with the construction of this underground steel impenetrable wall,"... Read more... Israel's East Jerusalem Linked Settlement Expansion, by Stephen Lendman | Dissident Voice ...Israel’s 121 West Bank/East Jerusalem official settlements, another 100 so-called “unauthorized outposts,” and 12 Israeli (de facto settlement) neighborhoods annexed to Jerusalem’s municipal area are illegal under international law, including Fourth Geneva’s Article 49 stating: “Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupied Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of the motive.”... Read more... Egypt lacks the milk of human kindness, by Stuart Littlewood | Palestine Think Tank It is desperately sad to see the noble efforts of the Viva Palestina expedition turning sour in front of our eyes as the forces of darkness plot once again to derail humanitarian aid for Gaza. Admittedly the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (joint organizers) are avoiding questions about whether or not they obtained clearance from Egypt for the route. This encourages speculation that convoy members were led up the garden path when they headed for Aqaba. The cost in time and expense (and lost pay, as many took time off work to make the trip) of having to re-trace their steps to Syrian, and divert to the port of Latakia, is an added burden they could have done without... On Gaza Drivers, Rumours and Egypt's Steel Wall, by Ramzy Baroud | Palestine Chronicle  Those pesky drivers of Gaza! ...When the Palestinian people democratically elected Hamas to lead the Palestinian legislature in 2006, they were aware of the possible repercussions. They have become accustomed to the ‘collective punishment’ employed every time actions fail to meet Israeli expectations. They also understand well the influence of the pro-Israel lobby on American foreign policy, and know of Cairo’s commitment to political ‘moderation’ and unabashed tiptoeing to the US. But never, in their wildest imagination did Palestinians foresee the measures that Egypt would take to stifle their democratic decision, suppress their resistance and cut off the very lifelines that keep Gaza breathing...Read more... Holocaust Survivor on Hunger Strike for Gaza | Islam Online As the Gaza Strip continues to reel under a crippling Israeli siege, a Holocaust survivor has gone on hunger strike to protest Egypts refusal to allow a solidarity march to enter the sealed off coastal enclave. "It is important to let the besieged Gazan people know they are not alone," Hedy Epstein, 85, told the Massachusetts-based Salem-News website on Tuesday, December 29. "I want to tell the people I meet in Gaza that I am a representative of many people in my city and in other places in the US who are outraged at what the US, Israeli and European governments are doing to the Palestinians and that our numbers are growing." Flanked by hundreds of foreign supporters outside the UN building in Cairo, the American activist began a hunger strike late Monday. "I've never done this before, I don't know how my body will react, but I'll do whatever it takes," Epstein told Agence France-Presse (AFP)... Read more... Gaza offensive: Israeli war crimes are in little doubt, by Jonathan Cook | The National  The debate reverberating in the human rights community one year after Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip is not about whether Israel committed war crimes during its attack last winter, but whether and how its political and military leaders can ever be brought to book. The problems were highlighted this month when an arrest warrant was issued in Britain after action by activists for Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister during the war, after it was mistakenly believed she was visiting. The British government responded with anger and promised to change the law to ensure future restrictions on the use of “universal jurisdiction” powers that grant British courts the power to try suspected foreign war criminals. Human rights experts mostly agree that Israel extensively violated the rules of war during its three-week operation, known as Cast Lead. The consensus was formed early on, as organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch carried out investigations. Their findings were backed by testimonies from Israeli soldiers... Read more... UN's Falk calls for sanctions against Israel | Press TV The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Gaza Strip has called for military and economic sanctions against Israel. "The UN has not been willing [yet] to give what's needed to exert significant pressure on Israel to lift the blockade that under any circumstances is unlawful," Richard Falk told Press TV on Thursday. "The only thing that could be more effective would be a move toward economic sanctions that would include military assistance" to Israel, the UN diplomat underlined. The UN independent expert on Palestinian rights has also criticized the international community for its failure to end the Israeli blockade against the Gaza Strip... Read more... |
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