March 25, 2009 Israel’s Labor Party Votes to Join Netanyahu Coalition | NYT As coalition talks proceeded on Tuesday, clashes broke out between police and demonstrators A deeply divided Labor Party voted Tuesday to join the governing coalition being formed by Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister-designate and leader of the conservative Likud Party. The decision paves the way for a broader government than the narrow and hawkish one that Mr. Netanyahu would otherwise have had to settle for, increasing his chances of gaining international acceptance and deflecting potential friction with the Obama administration...in the northern Arab Israeli town of Umm al Fahm after a march by Israeli far-rightists [left-wing fascists, right-wing fascists - what's the diff. In practice, Barak has been even more of a terrorist than Netanyahu.] Read more... Peace Conference Canceled After South Africa Bars Dalai Lama - NYT Organizers of a peace conference that was to have been attended by five Nobel laureates in Johannesburg this week said on Tuesday that they had canceled it after the South African government denied a visa to the Dalai Lama... [Just like Durban I and II: succumbing to Chinese pressure, succumbing to Zionist pressure - similar situations, same deal] Read more... IDF ceased long ago being 'most moral army in the world', by Gideon Levy - Haaretz Saying, as Gideon Levy does, that the IDF "ceased" to be the 'most moral army in the world' implies that at some point indeed it was the most moral army. I question that: Since already at the '48 war the Israeli army engaged in massacres; ethnic cleansing, and so on and so forth, exactly when was it a moral army? (And is any army ever a moral one?) This objection aside, I like this article , and think it's very much worth reading. It tells us what many of us who have been paying attention know - that the atrocities committed in Gaza are nothing new, and that in fact they have not ended when the Israeli army withdrew. Furthermore, the likelihood that the army will conduct a real investigation into the widespread killing of civilians that occurred in Gaza is nill. He concludes: "Change will not come without a major change in mindset. Until we recognize the Palestinians as human beings, just as we are, nothing will change. But then, the occupation would collapse, God forbid. In the meantime, prepare for the next war and the horrific testimonies about the most moral army in the world. " - Racheli Gai, Co-editor of Jewish Peace News... Read more... Israeli humor: 1 shot 2 kills, by the Vineyard Saker Just when we could have imagined that these racist thugs did it all, they surprise us again with even more sickening and psychopathic behavior. Frankly, they make SS Totenkopfverbande look comparatively sane or, at least, less proud of their rabid hatred. The "Jewish state" of Israel and the crazed racists which populate it have become the single biggest disgrace of mankind, I think. It is beyond me how any decent and sane person can live in such a place or willingly associate himself/herself with what it stands for... Read more... Michael Donnelly: Obama's Team of Losers | Counterpunch ...My brother suggested keeping a list of positive “Changes” coming out of the Obama Administration. I'm into credit where due, so I started one. Granted it’s only been two months, but the list is rather short: a seeming retreat from the insane anti-medical cannabis government position that saw DEA agents raiding California dispensaries and depriving sick people of their medicine; trials, at least, for Gitmo prisoners; suspending (but not killing) funding for Yucca Mountain; allowing Stem Cell research and…not much else. When one adds in the critical non-changes at Defense and the Treasury, the picture is very bleak, indeed... Read more... Under attack: how medics died trying to help Gaza's casualties | The Guardian Medical staff and ambulance drivers who attempted to assist casualties of the Israeli invasion of Gaza have told the Guardian that they were attacked by Israeli forces while trying to carry out their job. The offensive left 16 medics dead. Nearly all of them were killed by Israeli fire while trying to save lives, and many more were wounded. According to the World Health Organisation, more than half of Gaza's 27 hospitals were damaged by Israeli bombs. Two clinics were completely destroyed and 44 others received damage... Read more... Press TV - 'Obama should explain Iraq exit plan' The Government Accountability Office has called on the Obama administration to explain the meaning of 'responsible' troop pullout from Iraq. "The new administration has emphasized the importance of a responsible drawdown of US forces but has not yet defined this term," said a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress... Read more... Thousands attend Anti-Israel march to protest against Israeli invasion of Gaza Hundreds of thousands of people marched on the city roads in Karachi on Sunday to protest against Israeli invasion of Gaza, and killing of innocent Palestinians, especially women and children. The march, organized by Jamaat-e-Islami, was the biggest anti-Israel event held so far in Pakistan, as waving flags could be seen from Tibet Center to Mazar-e-Quaid... Read more... Press TV - Evidence piles up against 'moral' Israel Israel's claim of morality in the war on Gaza has been countered by mounting evidence of its war crimes against the Palestinian population. Israel's Chief of the General Staff, Gabi Ashkenazi on Monday hailed the morals of the Israeli military and called the Israeli conduct during the three-week attack on Gaza "moral" and "humane.… as the person who accompanied the preparations for Operation Cast Lead, briefed the commanders in the field … I tell you that this is a moral and ideological army," Ashkenazi told new recruits Monday at the Meitav army base. In a 26 page detailed report to the UN human rights council, the UN human rights rapporteur on the Palestinian territories Richard Falk said the Israeli attacks on Gaza have been “inherently unlawful” and “constitute a war crime of the greatest magnitude under international law.” The American academic, who Israel has barred from entering the Palestinian territory since December, provided evidence in support of his claims... Read more... Police disperse Israeli-Arab protesters - Examiner Police dispersed rock-throwing Israeli-Arab youths with stun grenades and tear gas after a group of Israeli extremists marched through an Arab town demanding that residents show loyalty to the Jewish state. The clashes in the northern Israeli town of Umm el-Fahm came at a time of increasing tensions between Israel's Jewish majority and its Arab minority, and residents said the march was a provocation. The leader of the Israeli demonstrators, the well-known anti-Palestinian extremist Baruch Marzel, has been involved in violent attacks against Palestinians... Read more... March 24, 2009 First Love, by Mike Odetalla I can’t say for sure when it happened. Nor can I say for sure how it happened, but rest assured it happened. I had fallen hard for this, my first love. I was smitten but could not really explain how or why. I was a mere child who could not put into words the feelings that I had for this fair maiden, the true extent of which did not reveal themselves until much later on, only after I was separated from her. The vast distance between us only made me yearn more for her ever more. She was in my blood and there was nothing on this earth that could remove her. Her name is Palestine... Read more... Cut to pieces: the Palestinian family drinking tea in their Gaza City courtyard | The Guardian ..."You cannot imagine the scene: a family all sitting around together and then, in a matter of seconds, they were cut to pieces. Even the next day we found limbs and body parts on the roof, feet and hands," Mounir says...A Guardian investigation into the high number of civilian deaths has found Israel used a variety of weapons in illegal ways. Indiscriminate munitions, including shells packed with white phosphorus, were fired into densely populated areas, while precision missiles and tanks shells were fired into civilian homes. But it is the use of drones in the killing of at least 48 civilians that appears most reprehensible... Read more... Seumas Milne: Will Israel be brought to book over evidence it committed war crimes in Gaza? | The Guardian Evidence of the scale of Israel's war crimes in its January onslaught on Gaza is becoming unanswerable. Clancy Chassay's three films investigating allegations against Israeli forces in the Gaza strip, released by the Guardian today, include important new accounts of the flagrant breaches of the laws of war that marked the three-week campaign – now estimated to have left at least 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and 13 Israelis dead... Read more... Elliot Spitzer is back and hes talking. The thought of this, no doubt, brings a small shiver to the boardrooms of some of the perps walking around trying to figure out how to hide the money this week. Today Edward Liddy testified that there have been death threats made to or about executives who received bonuses, so no names will be put on the record, but these anonymous players must know that the jig is up in the land of easy-money. Isn't what to do a no-brainer for these great Americans?... Read more... Israel soldier calls order during Gaza assault 'murder' - Los Angeles Times Palestinians in Jabaliya, northern Gaza, put up tents near the rubble of their homes destroyed during Israel's At first the specified action was to go into a house . . . with an armored personnel carrier . . . and start shooting inside. . . . I call this murder. . . . We were supposed to go up floor by floor, and any person we identified, we were supposed to shoot. I initially asked myself, "Where is the logic?" They said it was permissible because anyone who remained in the sector was in effect condemned, a terrorist, because they hadn't fled. I didn't really understand. . . . They don't have anywhere to flee to...22-day offensive. U.N. and Palestinian officials urged Israel and Egypt to end their blockade of the territory Read more... Hope and Empowerment: Theory, practice and history of Palestinian and International Nonviolent Resistance 1878-2008 (Draft of a book in progress) There is now wide recognition of the centrality of the question of Palestine not only to peace in Western Asia but to peace around the world. Yet, as I gave hundreds of talks on the issue in the past few years, some questions keep coming up: What is your position on Israeli violence? Palestinian violence? What do you think Israeli and Palestinians should or should not do? What makes Christian Zionists support Israel? And on and on but the question that makes me take the most time is “Why don’t Palestinians engage in nonviolent resistance?.. Read more... UN report says Israel used boy as human shield - International Herald Tribune Israeli soldiers used an 11-year-old Palestinian boy as a human shield during the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, U.N. human rights experts said Monday. The Israeli Defense force ordered the boy to walk in front of soldiers being fired on in the Gaza neighborhood of Tel al-Hawa and enter buildings before them, said the U.N. secretary-general's envoy for protecting children in armed conflict. The boy also was told to open the bags of Palestinians — presumably to protect the soldiers from possible explosives — before being released at the entrance to a hospital, Radhika Coomaraswamy said... Read more... Arming Terrorist Israel | AMIN Israel did not become the fourth largest army in the world by its own merit, but by the Western countries supplying it with all kinds of weapons Since their occupation of Palestine in 1948 to establish illegal Israel in the heart of the Arab World until the present, Zionist Israelis had initiated seven wars against their Arab neighbors. Six of those were waged after 1967 to maintain their occupation of the rest of Palestine, Lebanese Sheb’a Farms, and Syrian Golan Heights; formally recognized by the international community as an occupation. Israel had maintained its occupation of the land for the last sixty years. The question that poses itself, here, is how a small state like Israel, 7 million Zionist Jews in an area of 8 thousand square miles (excluding the 1967 occupied territories), could maintain such an occupation against hundreds of millions of Arabs and against the disapproval of the civic (not political) international community? Bullying with extreme brutal force is the answer. Israel is a military society with every Zionist Israeli citizen, from childhood to old age, being militaristic in one form or another. Israel possesses all kinds of weapons including weapons of mass destruction (WMD) such as nuclear and chemical weapons... Read more... A Judicial Document, by Uri Avnery The most important sentence written in Israel this week was lost in the general tumult of exciting events. Really exciting: In a final act of villainy, typical of his whole tenure as Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert abandoned the captive soldier, Gilad Shalit. Ehud Barak decided that the Labor Party must join the ultra-right government, which includes outright fascists. And this, too: the former President of Israel was officially indicted for rape. In this cacophony, who would pay any attention to a sentence written by lawyers in a document submitted to the Supreme Court?.. Read more... Press TV - Commander confirms Netanyahu war plans Israel is preparing for all-out war on multiple fronts that include Iran, Syria and Lebanon, a senior military commander claims. Israeli army Home Front Command Major General Yair Golan said Sunday that Tel Aviv is preparing for "all possible scenarios", indicating that one such scenario would be to fight a simultaneous war against Iran, Syria and Lebanon. The confirmation comes as US President Barack Obama seeks "new beginnings" with its arch-rival Iran. The US offer has been met with world praise but with fury in Tel Aviv... Read more... alJazeera Magazine - Obama seeks 'way out' of Afghan war US President Barack Obama says the new policy for Afghanistan will focus on "an exit strategy" even as the fight against Taliban expands. Obama on Sunday suggested that the military build-up in Afghanistan will not be open-ended and that a way out of the war will require a diplomatic and economic front against insurgency. A US-led coalition invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to punish those responsible for carrying out the 9/11 attacks on US soil and to end the rule of Taliban in the country. Seven years later, rising violence in the war-ravaged country is forcing the new US administration to seek an end to the war... Read more... Press TV - Egypt nabs sheep headed for Gaza Cairo, an accomplice in the imposition of a 20-month blockade on Gaza, has stopped a flock of sheep from entering the Palestinian ghetto. Egyptian police said that on Sunday night they discovered and seized a flock of 560 sheep set to be transported into Gaza through underground tunnels -- the main artery for food entry into the strip. A security official said the flock was discovered in the Salah al-Din district north of the Rafah border crossing. Egypt plans to auction off the sheep to the highest bidders... Read more... March 23, 2009 'A Hell on Earth', by Pico Iyer - NYRB "The situation inside Tibet is almost like a military occupation," I heard the Dalai Lama tell an interviewer last November, when I spent a week traveling with him across Japan. "Everywhere. Everywhere, fear, terror. I cannot remain indifferent." Just moments before, with equal directness and urgency, he had said, "I have to accept failure. In terms of the Chinese government becoming more lenient [in Chinese-occupied Tibet], my policy has failed. We have to accept reality."...Democracy has always been a particular passion of this Dalai Lama, as both one of the secular practices of the wider world that Tibetans can now usefully learn from and an idea perfectly consonant with the Buddha's own belief that all beings are equal, and each person should rule himself... Read more... From Tehran to Tel Aviv, by Roger Cohen - NYT ...Obama made it almost inevitable that one of the defining strategic issues of his presidency will be a painful but necessary redefinition of America’s relations with Israel as differences over Iran sharpen... Read more... YouTube - Canada ban: Galloway faces his accusers - a Jewish Defence League "Terrorist" The decision to ban George Galloway from Canada seems odd, but now it emerges that the Jewish Defence League (JDL) pressured the Canadian Government to so the action takes on sinister connotations for Canada, why? Because the Jewish Defence League are according to the FBI a Terrorist Group. In its report, Terrorism 2000/2001, the FBI referred to the JDL as a "violent extremist Jewish organization". This "violent extremist Jewish organization" now it seems has power and influence over the Canadian Government... Read more... YouTube - Think on these things - Durban II to start in Geneva on 20 April 2009 Durban I broke up in uproar on 7 September 2001 and 4 days later 9/11 occurred and the Muslim World /the religion of Islam was decried as a terrorist world/religion - all because the Zionist, racist state of Israel had been exposed for what it is - an illegitimate European colonial entity that rests on the Holocaust-Shoah myths for its existence... Read more... The Big Takeover, by Matt Taibbi | Rolling Stone The global economic crisis isn't about money - it's about power. How Wall Street insiders are using the bailout to stage a revolution Illustration by Victor Juhasz It's over — we're officially, royally fucked. no empire can survive being rendered a permanent laughingstock, which is what happened as of a few weeks ago, when the buffoons who have been running things in this country finally went one step too far. It happened when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was forced to admit that he was once again going to have to stuff billions of taxpayer dollars into a dying insurance giant called AIG, itself a profound symbol of our national decline — a corporation that got rich insuring the concrete and steel of American industry in the country's heyday, only to destroy itself chasing phantom fortunes at the Wall Street card tables, like a dissolute nobleman gambling away the family estate in the waning days of the British Empire...Read more... U.N. Panel Says World Should Ditch Dollar A U.N. panel will next week recommend that the world ditch the dollar as its reserve currency in favor of a shared basket of currencies, a member of the panel said on Wednesday, adding to pressure on the dollar. Currency specialist Avinash Persaud, a member of the panel of experts, told a Reuters Funds Summit in Luxembourg that the proposal was to create something like the old Ecu, or European currency unit, that was a hard-traded, weighted basket. Persaud, chairman of consultants Intelligence Capital and a former currency chief at JPMorgan, said the recommendation would be one of a number delivered to the United Nations on March 25 by the U.N. Commission of Experts on International Financial Reform... Read more... Rockefeller: Internet is “Number One National Hazard”, by Kurt Nimmo According to the great-grandson John D. Rockefeller, nephew of banker David Rockefeller, and former Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller the internet represents a serious threat to national security. Rockefeller is not alone in this assessment. His belief that the internet is the “number one national hazard” to national security is shared by the former Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell and Obama’s current director Admiral Dennis C. Blair... [You bet, Rocky - hazardous to you and your playmates' heretofore unchallenged control] Read more... Being Palestinian, by Mike Odetalla To be a Palestinian in this world is a truly unique experience. You begin to feel that you are “different” from everyone else the minute that you start to understand and comprehend what your birthright means for you. By the simple fact of being born on and living on that small piece of real estate between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, your life takes you on a path that others cannot fully comprehend... Read more... Mondoweiss: A taperecording of Nadia Matar's call for the assassination of Mahmoud Abbas A number of people have asked if I have a recording for the report that Israeli colonist Nadia Matar called for the killing of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas last night during a lecture at the Safra Synagogue on E. 63rd Street in New York. Here's an audio, including about 10 minutes of the 1-1/2 hour lecture. At the beginning, a guy in the crowd (somewhat inaudibly) asks Matar, What do you do with a million Palestinians? Matar gives a rambling and hair-raising answer, most of which is here, including the statement that Israel should have kicked out all the Arabs in '48 or '67 and grabbed the Temple Mount, too. At 2:30 or so she starts in about Neville Chamberlain and Hitler and Churchill, which brings her, at 3:15 or so, to Abbas. Notice the rousing applause for Matar's call for his murder, which I failed to register when I posted late last night... [They're getting confused, they can't even tell friend from foe anymore. Oh, yeah, it's "them."] Read more... OUR AMBASSADOR TO POLAND, by Khalid Amayreh Many of our so-called ambassadors around the world are really unqualified for the job. They simply lack the required professionalism and experience to communicate the plight of our people and justice of our national cause to a world community that is heavily bombarded by Zionist lies around the clock... Read more... Join the Global BDS Action Day, March 30th! | Global BDS Movement The mobilization coincides with the Palestinian Land Day, the annual commemoration of the 1976 Israeli massacre of Palestinians in the Galilee in struggle against massive land expropriation, and forms part of the Global Week of Action against the Crises and War from March 28 to April 4.We urge the people and their organizations around the globe to mobilize in concrete and visible BDS actions to make this day a historic step in this new anti-apartheid movement and for the fulfilment of the rights and dignity of the people and the accountability of the powerful... Read more... The Real AIG Scandal, Continued!, by Eliot Spitzer The AIG scandal is getting ever-more disturbing. Goldman Sachs' public conference call explaining its trading relationship and exposure with AIG established once again that Goldman knows how to protect itself. According to Goldman, even if AIG had failed, Goldman's losses would have been minimal...But this raises two critical questions. The first is why did $12.9 billion of taxpayer money go from AIG to Goldman? What risk—systemic or otherwise—was being covered? If Goldman wasn't going to suffer severe losses, why are taxpayers paying them off at 100 cents on the dollar? As I wrote earlier in the week, the real AIG scandal is that the company's trading partners are getting fully paid rather than taking a haircut... Read more... The Military-Industrial Complex: Impacts on the Third World What is the military-industrial complex in 2008? Where is it? What does it look like? I am not even sure if the phrase, used so famously by former US president Dwight Eisenhower3 in 1961 is the best descriptor to encompass the many tentacles and facets of the war and security industry and the links and connections between capital and its political allies...Many NGOs campaign for instruments like a Global Arms Trade Treaty. But when we see the spectrum of industries and political actors which benefit from militarized capitalism, and the way in which the US, Israel, and other leading producers and users of cluster munitions refused to attend last month’s Dublin Diplomatic Conference on Cluster Munitions which adopted an international treaty banning cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians54, it should be clear that we must go beyond these strategies to confront the system that underpins obscene profits for a few, at the expense of the many, through military contracting and war profiteering. That system is capitalism. Those of us who research must continue to expose and oppose militarization and the violence of capitalism in all its forms, in our communities, nationally and internationally. In doing so we need to support, build and sustain mass movements that understand the interconnectedness of war, neoliberal globalization, corporate profits, the repression of dissent, “peacekeeping”, “reconstruction”, the criminalization and militarization of immigration, violence against women, and colonialism.. Read more... Jewish Lobby Says Hillary Too Pro-Palestinian | AFP Although many Americans focused on the successful effort to scuttle President Barack Obama’s nomination of former Ambassador Charles Freeman to head the highly influential National Intelligence Council (NIC) many are unaware that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has also emerged as a target of the Israeli lobby...In fact, the concerns of the major dailies reflect an open unease that has appeared in journals of the Jewish lobby in America and in newspapers in Israel. For example, the national security correspondent of The Jerusalem Post warned darkly against “disturbing things about the climate in Washington these days.”... [no problem, all she has to do is show them her star of david tattoo] Read more... The Assault on the USS Liberty Still Covered Up After 26 Years | WRMEA Twenty-six years have passed since that clear day on June 8, 1967 when Israel attacked the USS Liberty with aircraft and torpedo boats, killing 34 young men and wounding 171. The attack in international waters followed over nine hours of close surveillance. Israeli pilots circled the ship at low level 13 times on eight different occasions before attacking. Radio operators in Spain, Lebanon, Germany and aboard the ship itself all heard the pilots reporting to their headquarters that this was an American ship. They attacked anyway. And when the ship failed to sink, the Israeli government concocted an elaborate story to cover the crime... [make that 32 years] Read more... March 22, 2009 President Obama, the problem is the malignant tumor called Israel, by Khalid Amayreh | Palestine Think Tank One of the most scandalous aspects of US foreign policy towards the Middle East is the shocking dishonesty inherent in the American approach regarding the Palestinian plight. The US often watches Israel indulge in pornographic criminal acts against Palestinian civilians, acts that contradict the most fundamental American ideals and norms. However, instead of condemning these evil crimes, successive American administrations have either kept silent or given Israeli the benefit of the doubt... Read more... Fisk Misses the Target | Israel Shamir The great British journalist Robert Fisk wrote a few days ago: Why Avigdor Lieberman is the worst thing that could happen to the Middle East. Much as we like Fisk, he was mistaken; he’s gotten carried away by this popular pastime of Lieberman-bashing: there is a worse thing happening in the Middle East right now, and that is Ehud Barak, the Labour Party leader, as Defence Minister in the Netanyahu government. While a narrow right-wing government of Netanyahu and Lieberman would be a world pariah, isolated and hesitant, the same government with Ehud Barak at a top slot will be fully accepted by the international community. It appears that Barak will force his decimated party to join the coalition, and will stay as the Defence Minister, with disastrous consequences for the region... Read more... Religious war in Gaza?: Israeli soldier says rabbis said 'get rid of the gentiles' | Chicago Tribune Rabbis affiliated with the Israeli army urged troops heading into Gaza to reclaim what they said was God-given land and "get rid of the gentiles"—effectively turning the 22-day Israeli intervention into a religious war, according to the testimony of a soldier who fought in Gaza. Literature passed out to soldiers by the army's rabbinate "had a clear message — we are the people of Israel, we came by a miracle to the land of Israel, God returned us to the land, now we need to struggle to get rid of the gentiles that are interfering with our conquest of the land," the soldier told a forum of Gaza veterans in February, weeks after the conflict ended... Read more... Palestinian Mothers: Homage to Steadfastness and Sacrifice | Palestine Think Tank Mother protecting children When the women came and told her to leave what she was doing and come and sit in front of the house with them, my grandmother knew what was to come. They sat outside and didn’t talk much. My uncle had been shot in the chest by the IOF that afternoon, and was at that moment being operated. He was in a critical condition, the doctors had told the men who had brought him to the hospital. Some were sent back home to prepare the family for the news and to prepare the refugee camp to welcome the hero, in case the worst happened. Although hope dies last, it was a necessity to prepare everything for a quick funeral and a quick burial. The Israeli army had been known to take bodies of Palestinian martyrs and steal their organs without the Palestinian family’s consent...Mothers are sacred in Palestine because they are the personification of Palestine: the homeland and the mother of all Palestinians. It is the love of this land that is handed over from one generation to the next... Read more... From Guangzhou to Gaza -- underground Goods from Guangzhou take a circuitous route before reaching Gaza, according to the representative: Shipped first to Port Said, a duty-free port in northeastern Egypt, they are then taken to the Egyptian side of Rafah, via al-Arish, before being smuggled into Gaza by tunnel...The tunnels remain a vital lifeline for Gazans, supplying the market with goods restricted from entering Gaza through the Israeli-controlled crossings, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)...Since the Israeli blockade of Gaza in June 2007, the tunnels have increasingly been used to send in humanitarian items, including medical supplies, fuel and food products... Read more... Daniel Pearl and the Normalization of Evil - WSJ I include this article from the father of Daniel Pearl as an excellent example of the Zionist mindset, according to which up is down and down is up. If you simply substitute "Israel" or "ZPG" (Zionist Power Configuration) for "Hamas," the result is both rational and accurate. That Pearl and his fellow true believers have been able to co-opt the Western world into buying into this mythology is a truly astounding achievement (giving credit where credit is due), in spite of the fact that it contradicts all the core values derived from the European Enlightenment. - the Editor Read more... Of Missing Weapons and Secret Airbases, by Faryal Leghari The recent weeks have seen some astounding revelations, first with the report from the US General Accountability Office (GAO) to the Congress on the case of the unaccounted weapons in Afghanistan and, second; with the highly controversial disclosure of the American drones being flown and operated from within Pakistan! Trivialities aside, these are no joking matters and have far reaching implications. Moreover, they reveal the deep fissures that run across the political and military administrative landscape in both the countries... Read more... The Lobby Falters, by John Mearsheimer | LRB John Mearsheimer Many people in Washington were surprised when the Obama administration tapped Charles Freeman to chair the National Intelligence Council, the body that oversees the production of National Intelligence Estimates: Freeman had a distinguished 30-year career as a diplomat and Defense Department official, but he has publicly criticised Israeli policy and America’s special relationship with Israel, saying, for example, in a speech in 2005, that ‘as long as the United States continues unconditionally to provide the subsidies and political protection that make the Israeli occupation and the high-handed and self-defeating policies it engenders possible, there is little, if any, reason to hope that anything resembling the former peace process can be resurrected.’ Words like these are rarely spoken in public in Washington, and anyone who does use them is almost certain not to get a high-level government position...Read more... Ecology and the Prophet of Islam, by Tariq Ramadan Awareness that the Universe is in fact a Revelation that must be respected, read, understood, and protected should reform our minds and our attitudes toward nature, animals, and therefore also to an economy focused on economic production and the mad logic of economic growth at all costs to society... Read more... March 21, 2009 George Galloway banned from Canada | The Guardian George Galloway branded the decision 'irrational, inexplicable and an affront to Canada's good name' Anti-war MP George Galloway has been banned from Canada, it emerged today. A Canadian spokesman confirmed that the Respect MP had been deemed inadmissible on national security grounds and would not be allowed into the country. Galloway today branded the ban "idiotic" and vowed to fight the ruling with "all means" at his disposal. He is due to give a speech in Toronto on 30 March. Earlier today the Sun said border security officials had declared Galloway, 54, "inadmissible" because of his views on Afghanistan and the presence of Canadian troops there and would be turned away if he attempted to enter the country...Read more... Bernie and the Scapegoats, by Frank Scott Capitalism’s worst crisis in a generation has seen the personalizing ofsocial problems proceed with a vengeance usually reserved for foreignleaders. While we have long had our collective consciousness shapedinto despising individual alien monsters, like Hitler, Saddam, orOsama, the recent hit list of bad guys is composed mostly of Americans.There is always some hatred generated for whoever fronts for corporatecapital and allegedly presides over the system, like Reagan, Clinton,Bush, and now Obama, but it hasn't yet led to embargoes or bombingraids on the American people. That is reserved for the foreign bad guysand used as rationale for mass murder. But this economic crisis findsnew home grown satanic villains, made to seem responsible for the neartotal demise of the financial system, if not capitalism itself... Read more... Worried aunt in Abu Ghosh, by Deb Reich | Jewish Peace News My nephew, whom I greatly love, was conscripted not long ago into the IDF after a year of national service, and chose to join a combat unit. To my knowledge, I am the only one in the family who is unhappy about all of that (except the national service part, when he worked with disadvantaged urban youth)... Read more... John V. Whitbeck: Happy Birthday, Iran! | Counterpunch On the occasion of the Persian New Year, President Obama has videotaped a personal statement to the Iranian people which is being portrayed in the Western media as a significant change, in both tone and substance, in American policy and an effort to "reach out" to Iran. However, reading the principal substantive portion cited below, one must have serious doubts that it will be viewed in this light by many Iranians... Read more... Missy Beattie: Still Waiting for Change | Counterpunch ...Over seven years ago, we began the demolition of Afghanistan. This occupation continues. Six years ago, we shocked and awed Iraq. Considered a success story by Dick Cheney, the invasion has left the country a bloody, chaotic mess, where more than a million civilians have died. This occupation continues...And then there’s the question of Palestine, the pivotal issue in our foreign-policy debacles. Our support for Israel’s war crimes against Palestinians is one of the reasons our commercial airplanes were weaponized on September 11, 2001. Will we remain indifferent to the suffering of those who are labeled “the enemy” by our Zionist “friends” in Israel? Unfortunately, too many of us will... Read more... From Washington, an A.I.G. Flogging for the Masses, by Joe Nocera - NYT ...But there is a much bigger issue that has barely been touched upon by Congress: the way tens of billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money has been funneled to A.I.G.’s counterparties — at 100 cents on the dollar. How can it possibly make sense that Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup and every other company that bought credit-default swaps from A.I.G. should be made whole by the government? Why isn’t it forcing them to take a haircut? What’s worse, some of those companies are foreign banks that used credit-default swaps to exploit a regulatory loophole. Should the United States taxpayer really be responsible for ensuring the safety of European banks that were taking advantage of European regulations?... Read more... King Of Bahrain Welcomes Jews | Islam And The West On a recent visit to the United States King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa of Bahrain extended a warm invitation to any expartiate Bahraini Jew to return to the Arab kingdom...This past year he appointed a Jewish woman, Huda Azra Nunu to be Bahrain’s Ambassador to the United States -- the first Jewish woman to serve in such a capacity in the Arab world... Read more... Obama Under Fire With Black Activists Nation-Wide | Pan-African News Wire Black activists around the country will hold simultaneous press conferences on Saturday, March 21, 2009, also the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racism. The December 12th Movement International Secretariat will hold a Press Conference in New York City to protest President Barack Obama's threat to boycott the United Nations World Conference against Racism - Durban Review being held in Geneva Switzerland next month... Read more... Iran’s Supreme Leader Dismisses Obama Overtures Iran's supreme leader rebuffed President Barack Obama's latest outreach on Saturday, saying Tehran was still waiting to see concrete changes in U.S. policy. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was responding to a video message Obama released Friday in which he reached out to Iran on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian new year, and expressed hopes for an improvement in nearly 30 years of strained relations... Read more... Interview: ICC and Al-Bashir: A Question of Politics? - IslamOnline The unprecedented arrest warrant of the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Sudan's sitting President Al-Bashir has provoked experts to question the legality of such a warrant and its underlying political motivations... Read more... Jewish Bigotries at Interfaith Dialogue | EAAZI The organized Jewish community and network of Israel advocacy organizations subject Americans to a web of control that Orwell could not have conceived... Read more... Hasbara Handbook: How to pretend to debate while smashing your opponent | MuzzleWatch ...You could, the book suggests, try one of two methods. You could engage in real debate or you could “point score.” As it says on page 9 under the title “How to score points whilst avoiding debate”, and no I did not make this up: “Central to point scoring is the ability to disguise point scoring by giving the impression of genuine debate. Audience members can be alienated by undisguised attacks so all point scoring needs to be disguised.” Try as I might, I could not find Alan Dershowitz’s name listed as a writer, or at least the inspiration... Read more... More Allegations Surface in Israeli Accounts of Gaza War, by Ethan Bronner | NYT An Israeli newspaper gave a fuller account on Friday of testimonies by soldiers alleging loose rules of engagement in Israel’s war in Gaza, which they said led to civilian deaths and wanton property destruction. One soldier asserted that extremist rabbis had told troops they were fighting a holy war... Read more... March 20, 2009 The Israeli Terror | Songwriter's Notebook ...Israel bears many of the hallmarks of a fascist regime. What's more, it is, like Nazi Germany, a very popular regime among its people. Like Nazi Germany, it is justly reviled by people around the world, but actively supported by so many of its people. Like Nazi Germany, governments and corporations around the world prefer to profit from trading with it rather than standing up to it and isolating it. Like Nazi Germany, it is dependent on the outside world for food, fuel and other basic necessities of life. Unlike Nazi Germany, Israel possesses hundreds of nuclear weapons. Unlike Nazi Germany, Israel is not going to be defeated militarily. But it can be defeated if the people of the world – especially in the US -- pressure their governments to recognize Israel for the aggressive, racist state that it fundamentally is and has been since 1948, cut off the aid and impose trade sanctions of the sort that were imposed on South Africa under apartheid. The beginning of the process of isolating this small country from the world community that allows it to prosper is to educate people about the true nature of Zionism... Read more... Letter from Mazin 3/19/09 ...Arrests last night throughout the West Bank including in our area of Bethlehem. The reports on radio suggest that this was intended to apply pressure on Hamas because Israel wanted a deal to free the captured Israeli occupation soldier with minimal cost in terms of releasing native Palestinian political prisoners... Read more... Obama Blinks, the Lobby Gloats | The Ugly Truth Obama has begun to show signs of weakness and instability, his recent appeasement of the Israel lobby over the Freeman falala being an ominous example of his impotence. Will this limp-wristed and laissez-faire president be able to halt the headlong rush to a new war in the Middle East? Speaking to a Jewish friend the other day about the Freeman debacle and its significance, I ventured to express my concern over the formidable power of the Israel lobby. “Where’s it all going to end?” I sighed. He fixed me with a baleful eye. “Iran!” he crowed. “That’s where it’s going to end!”... Read more... Seth Freedman: Trouble brewing in Jerusalem | The Guardian Either side of Jerusalem's Old City walls, a storm is brewing, threatening to engulf residents the length and breadth of the region. If the Israeli authorities make good on their promise to demolish homes in Silwan and evict families in Sheikh Jarrah, locals swear that Israel will be drenched with blood and tears, rather than with the Biblical blend of milk and honey said to flow through the Holy Land... Read more... A Request from Joel Kovel You have been generous in spirit to endorse my protest against the efforts of Bard College to terminate my contract; and so I do not need to tell you of the particulars of that case and of the way it illustrates the larger issue of the repression of open debate on Israel and Zionism in our society. I think you know, too, that despite all the injustices and the power of the forces of repression, we are slowly, but definitely, winning!... Read more... Israel troops admit Gaza abuses | BBC NEWS An Israeli military college has printed damning soldiers' accounts of the killing of civilians and vandalism during recent operations in Gaza. One account tells of a sniper killing a mother and children at close range whom troops had told to leave their home. Another speaker at the seminar described what he saw as the "cold blooded murder" of a Palestinian woman... Read more... Inspiration LA Come join us at this very rare event where communities ranging from grassroots movements for social change to filmmakers, musicians, artists, dancers, etc in Los Angeles come together to raise awareness about the situation in Gaza as well as build bridges among one another. All proceeds will be donated to support direct humanitarian aid and cultural programs in Gaza... Read more... Israel kidnaps 10 senior Hamas members | al Jazeera Magazine Israeli forces have arrested twenty Palestinians, including ten Hamas senior leaders in the West Bank, Israeli media and military say. Israeli army forces detained 20 Palestinians in a pre-dawn raid in the West Bank early Thursday. According to the Palestinians, the detainees include Nasser Shaher, a former Palestinian deputy prime minister, and several Hamas lawmakers... Read more... Western Wall rabbi says pope should not wear cross at site | Jerusalem Post Ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's May visit to Israel, the rabbi of the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinovitch, has said that it is not proper to come to the site wearing a cross.The pope wears a cross in all public appearances and is slated to visit the Western Wall on May 12 after a meeting with Muslim religious leaders at the Dome of the Rock. After the visit, which will include a meeting with Rabinovitch, the pope is slated to meet with Israel's two chief rabbis, Yona Metzger and Shlomo Amar... [Pope'le, you've received your orders, there's nothing more to say. Shalom] Read more... The Final Solution: A Response to Christopher Browning, by Paul Grubach Introduction Christopher R. Browning is a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill. The author of numerous books and papers on Nazism and the Jewish experience during World War II, he is widely considered to be a foremost expert on the alleged Nazi policy to exterminate the Jews of Europe. His tome that we are about to examine received stellar reviews from the mainstream media. Publishers Weekly claimed the “book is sure to become the standard work on the emergence of the Holocaust.” Likewise with Booklist, as their reviewer maintained this lengthy work is “the most detailed examination of this aspect of the Holocaust yet published.” And finally, the New York Times Book Review offered this lavish praise: “This magisterial work does offer us something new—an unrivaled account of how the Nazi leadership ended up with a policy of industrialized mass murder of Jews.”... Closing statement This critique is not meant to be comprehensive, for it is not possible to expose all of the falsehoods and weaknesses of this 616 page tome in this short essay. I only focused upon what I believe to be the core of Browning’s case. After closely examining this massive study, this reviewer now fully comprehends why the traditional view of the Holocaust needs special laws and prison sentences throughout Europe to protect it from rational criticism. It is a very weak and flimsy doctrine that cannot be defended with the time honored methods of the history discipline. As time marches on, this is becoming more and more apparent... Read more... March 19, 2009 Who Said Nearly 50 Years Ago that Israel was an Apartheid State?, by Ronnie Kasrils | Media Monitors Mandela: 'We South Africans cannot feel free until the Palestinians are free.' The voices against Israel’s apartheid regime are being raised around the world and former South African anti-Apartheid campaigner Ronnie Kasrils reminds those who still refuse to countenance the idea, “that any South African, whether involved in the freedom struggle, or motivated by basic human decency, who visits the Occupied Palestinian Territories are shocked to the core at the situation they encounter and agree with Archbishop Tutu's comment that what the Palestinians are experiencing is far worse than what happened in South Africa.”His article will remind you of a similar struggle to change people’s view of the world – a view that had allowed a newly-formed racially supremacist state to subjugate the indigenous Africans without a murmur from the international community, until gradually the South African freedom struggle inspired worldwide movements to begin campaigns of Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions. It was very easy to normalise a regime that operated like us, especially in trade, sport and culture and many will remember how slow Australia was to boycott and our government all too ready to convince people that politics has no place in sport. The same attitude is being taken towards Israel with all the complications of religion and the Holocaust to ensure fawning fealty from all levels of our society to an ideology that has no place in a world that ought to know better. Today, there are no excuses – not with instant communication and the visual evidence on our TV screens, albeit filtered from Israel’s day-to-day apartheid policies and practices that have imprisoned the Palestinians in a nightmare world way beyond our wildest imaginings. How much longer can we go on ignoring eminent people like Tutu, Mandela, Jimmy Carter and the many others whose names are not so well known, but who are all calling for Israel to end its brutal occupation and let the Palestinians have the freedom that is their right as human beings? How much longer? [Commentary by Sonja Karkar of Women for Palestine; Ronnie Kasrils is the SA Minister of Intelligence] Read article by Kasrils... Thoughts on the Death of Rachel Corrie | Huffington Post Today is the sixth anniversary of the death of Rachel Corrie. On March 16, 2003, in Rafah, in the Gaza Strip, she was run over by an armor-plated Caterpillar bulldozer, a machine sold by the U.S. to Israel, the armor put in place for the purpose of knocking down homes without damage to the machine. Rachel Corrie was 23 years old, from Olympia; a sane, articulate, and dedicated American who had studied with care the methods of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. At the time that she was run over, and then backed over again, she was wearing a fluorescent orange jacket and holding a megaphone. There is a photograph of her talking to the soldier of the Israel Defense Forces, in the cabin of his bulldozer, not long before he did it. None of the eyewitnesses believed that the killing was accidental. Perhaps the soldier was tired of the peace workers; it was that kind of day. Perhaps, in some part of himself, he guessed that he was living at the beginning of a period of impunity... Read more... In Torture Cases, Obama Toes Bush Line | The Washington Independent Donald Rumsfeld and John Yoo While Congress debates whether senior Bush administration officials should be called to account for the torture, humiliation and indefinite detention of prisoners taken during the “war on terror,” some of those prisoners aren’t waiting around for lawmakers to make up their minds. A growing number of private lawsuits brought by former detainees against former Bush officials are slowly making their way through the courts. And to the dismay of some of its strongest supporters, the Obama administration has, in every case so far, taken the side of the Bush administration, arguing that these cases should all be dismissed...Read more... The Decline of the American Empire: Who's Calling the Shots Now? | Counterpunch It may not be obvious today, and certainly it’s not how the corporate media reported it, but future historians are likely to look back at March 13, 2009 as the day that American imperialism began it’s inexorable decline. That’s the day that Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announced that his country was “worried” about its holdings of over $1 trillion in US treasury securities, and warned that he wanted the US to assure China that it would maintain its good credit and “honor its promises” and “maintain the safety of China’s assets.” There is no way that the US can accommodate Premier Wen and still finance and operate a global military system with over 1000 overseas bases, massive aircraft carrier battle groups, and with hundreds of thousands of men and women armed to the teeth with the latest high-tech military hardware, not to mention fight endless wars on the far side of the globe... Read more... Soldier suicides skyrocket | Salon News The Senate Armed Services Committee hearings Wednesday on the rising suicide rate among U.S. ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan revealed some frightening new data, but did little to investigate the underlying causes of what is emerging as one of the darkest, most disturbing legacies of the wars. Last year the Army had its highest suicide rate on record -- 140 soldiers. But new data from the Army on Wednesday showed the number jumping even higher. Forty-eight soldiers have already killed themselves so far this year. If that rate keeps up, nearly 225 Army soldiers will be dead by their own hand by the end of 2009... Read more... Our South Africa Moment Has Arrived, by Omar Barghouti | Palestine Chronicle 'This criminal impunity (was) the main motivation behind the Palestinian BDS campaign.' As Israel shifts steadily to the fanatic, racist right, as the latest parliamentary election results have shown, Palestinians under its control are increasingly being brutalized by its escalating colonial and apartheid policies, designed to push them out of their homeland to make a self-fulfilling prophecy out of the old Zionist canard of “a land without a people.” In parallel, international civil society, according to numerous indicators, is reaching a turning point in its view of Israel as a pariah state acting above the law of nations and in its effective action, accordingly, to penalize and ostracize it as it did to apartheid South Africa...Read more... A Democratic State: In Palestine, and the U.S.A., by Frank Scott | ODSG The Jewish state of Israel was anti-democratic from its inception , though the lie calling it the only democracy in the region has become truth for the criminal, the ignorant and the insane. Unfortunately, that unholy trio still wields power, but it represents minority control of a failing system which is bringing the world closer to major loss of social and environmental life. The democratic majority must take control from these seriously disturbed forces, and not just in Israel, before they bring further destruction not only to one state , but to civilization. Textbook behavior that is called insanity when practiced by individuals is more deadly when practiced by states. America’s policy towards Israel has been endless repetition of failed practice for more than sixty years and it approaches homicidal madness . More than the middle east is threatened if America keeps repeating uncritical and costly support for the jewish state... Read more... Bedouin Baby's Power Struggle with Israel, by Jonathan Cook | The Palestine Chronicle 'The Bedouin languish at the bottom of the country's social and economic indices.' Little Ashimah Abu Sbieh's life hangs by a thread -- or more specifically, an electricity cable that runs from a noisy diesel-powered generator in the family’s backyard. Should the generator's engine fail, she could die within minutes...“Israel cuts off the electricity to Gaza and the world is outraged,” Mr. Abu Sbieh said. “But we’ve been living like this for decades and no one cares.”...Read more... Where's the Love? | Jewcy.com David Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee, is not too keen on New York Times columnist Roger Cohen’s recent op-eds about Israel. The two had a lively exchange in the pages of the New York Review of Books, which takes off from Cohen’s earlier article, Eyeless in Gaza. Harris is not alone in his reaction to Cohen. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s editor’s blog, The Telegraph, was merciless in its critique of Cohen. The Jewish Journal took serious exception to Cohen’s piece on Iran. And one hardly needs to look to guess what CAMERA (the Orwellian-named ‘Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America’) has to say. Read more... The real scandal at AIG is not the bonuses - it's the payments to counterparties, by Eliot Spitzer | Slate Magazine Everybody is rushing to condemn AIG's bonuses, but this simple scandal is obscuring the real disgrace at the insurance giant: Why are AIG's counterparties getting paid back in full, to the tune of tens of billions of taxpayer dollars? For the answer to this question, we need to go back to the very first decision to bail out AIG, made, we are told, by then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, then-New York Fed official Timothy Geithner, Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke last fall. Post-Lehman's collapse, they feared a systemic failure could be triggered by AIG's inability to pay the counterparties to all the sophisticated instruments AIG had sold... [I'mnot to sure, Eliot. Appears to me that hypocritical, puritanicalAmerica is far more scandalized by sexual hanky panky than mass murderor multi-billion dollar heists - viz. Gary Hart's indiscretion, theshadow still hanging over Ted Kennedy, the impeachment of Bill Clinton,not to mention your own recent run in with America's tabloid mentality,etc. You get a pass only if you're a televangelist and you get down onyour knees and beg forgiveness (from your flock of fleeced sheep).] Read more... Broad nonviolent resistance to Zionism | Electronic Intifada An artist in Gaza paints a mural depicting the Nakba in 1948 and the ongoing war on Palestine Amid the escalating violence, and the 60-year-long status quo, there are certain fundamental questions that need to be asked. Are there certain values and absolute foundations that make resistance in general, and against Zionism specifically, a moral and humane necessity? What is the framework for nonviolent resistance, and how is it connected to these values? What is the ultimate end goal of the struggle? Is it returning the land and some rights to the indigenous Palestinian population, or can it lead to "solutions" that include acceptance of Zionism or even its right to exist? Millions of persons hope for a chance to participate in this noble struggle, yet can't find the medium in which they can contribute. This is where there is an important role for a group of "movers" to create the vehicles for individual and collective contributions within the above framework and mobilizing the hitherto wasted support to achieve measurable results...Read more... US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites, by Mark Danner - The New York Review of Books We think time and elections will cleanse our fallen world but they will not. Since November, George W. Bush and his administration have seemed to be rushing away from us at accelerating speed, a dark comet hurtling toward the ends of the universe. The phrase "War on Terror"—the signal slogan of that administration, so cherished by the man who took pride in proclaiming that he was "a wartime president"—has acquired in its pronouncement a permanent pair of quotation marks, suggesting something questionable, something mildly embarrassing: something past. And yet the decisions that that president made, especially the monumental decisions taken after the attacks of September 11, 2001—decisions about rendition, surveillance, interrogation—lie strewn about us still, unclaimed and unburied, like corpses freshly dead. How should we begin to talk about this? Perhaps with a story. Stories come to us newborn, announcing their intent: Once upon a time... In the beginning... From such signs we learn how to listen to what will come. Consider:.. Read more... March 18, 2009 Gilad Atzmon – War On Terror Within: The End of Jewish History magen david clock The issue I am going to discuss today is probably the most important thing I’ve ever had to say about Israeli brutality and contemporary Jewish identity. I assume that I could have shaped my thought into a wide-ranging book or an analytical academic text but instead, I will do the very opposite, I will make it as short and as simple as possible...Read more... Robert Fisk: Why Avigdor Lieberman is the worst thing that could happen to the Middle East | The Independent Only days after they were groaning with fury at the Israeli lobby's success in hounding the outspoken Charles Freeman away from his proposed intelligence job for President Obama, the Arabs now have to contend with an Israeli Foreign Minister whose – let us speak frankly – racist comments about Palestinian loyalty tests have brought into the new Netanyahu cabinet one of the most unpleasant politicians in the Middle East. The Iraqis produced the hateful Saddam, the Iranians created the crackpot Ahmadinejad – for reasons of sanity, I leave out the weird ruler of Libya – and now the Israelis have exalted a man, Avigdor Lieberman, who out-Sharons even Ariel Sharon... Read more... Israel: “The Entire World is Against Us. No Matter, We Will Overcome” | AIC In the wake of the latest Israeli national elections, Likud head Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel Beitaynu head, Avigdor Lieberman are in the midst of creating a far Right coalition. A month ago, millions took to the streets to express their rage against the Israeli military actions in Gaza, and from all continents a unified cry was heard, demanding that the killings be halted. From Right to Left, the response in Israel was: “This is a war for existence, and it doesn’t matter what the non-Jews say! After all, everyone is anti-Semitic anyways.” And what further supported the Israeli imperviousness was the support—or at least the intentional silence—of the United States, Europe and the Arab states, first and foremost Egypt... Read more... Will He Sell Himself Into His Own Defeat?: Obama and the Empire, by Bill and Kathleen Christison | Counterpunch Various people have asked recently, “What are the implications of the global economic crisis for US policies in the Middle East, and will Middle East countries lean more or less toward the US as they suffer their own economic crises?” Not simple questions, but here, presented very briefly, are our first shots at them... Read more... Interview with Akiva Orr: "Zionism – Tried and Failed" | AIC Israeli children signing missiles to be dropped on Lebanon Akiva Orr: “Israel is now the most dangerous place for Jews to live.”...There were a couple of things that happened in the recent Israeli elections. One, there was a general shift to the Right of the political spectrum, and two, there was the almost complete collapse of the Zionist Left. Why do you suppose that happened?..Read more... Naomi Klein speaks on Israeli Apartheid | Canadian Dimension Naomi Klein first marched against the South African Apartheid when she was just a student at the University of Toronto. Almost 20 years later, the activist and international best selling author of No Logo and The Shock Doctrine joins a new student-led protest against racial segregation. Klein kicked off Israeli Apartheid Week Monday, March 3 at Ryerson University. Here’s the video:.. Watch... Red Cross Described 'Torture' at CIA Jails | Wash Post The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report that the Bush administration's treatment of al-Qaeda captives "constituted torture," a finding that strongly implied that CIA interrogation methods violated international law, according to newly published excerpts from the long-concealed 2007 document. The report, an account alleging physical and psychological brutality inside CIA "black site" prisons, also states that some U.S. practices amounted to "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." Such maltreatment of detainees is expressly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions... Read more... Who is Bernard Madoff, the man behind the $50 billion fraud?, by Christopher Bollyn ...As I have pointed out earlier, Madoff's has very close and long-standing business ties to the directors and owners of two of Israel's largest banks, which were privatized in the 1990s: Bank Leumi and Israel Discount Bank. The IDB, at least, has a long history of money-laundering and illegal money transfers. Jacob Ezra Merkin, who funneled hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars to Madoff's fund, is part owner of Bank Leumi. These relationships strongly suggest that Madoff's scheme was a massive theft being disguised as a Ponzi scheme in which fellow high-level Zionists played key roles. If this is the case and the Madoff fraud is nothing but a huge Zionist fund-raising scheme in which untold billions have been stolen, then we would expect that the role of the prosecutor would be played by a Zionist agent playing the role of a tough, but not too tough, prosecutor. It should come as no surprise that this is, in fact, the case... Read more... UN General Assembly leader asks West to stop demonizing Iran | Earth Times UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann launched yet another campaign on Tuesday against Western governments, urging them to stop demonizing Iran and its leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for wiping Israel off the map. Miguel d'Escoto, a former Sandinista foreign minister of Nicaragua in the 1980s and a Roman Catholic Maryknoll priest, has advocated reform and "democratization" of the United Nations since he assumed leadership of the 192-nation assembly last September... Read more... Does Obama have the will to challenge Israel?, by Gary Kamiya | Salon Trying to figure out what Barack Obama intends to do in the Middle East is like trying to read the leaves in a cup of tea stirred by Jackson Pollock. For every signal Obama has given that he intends to break decisively with Bush's failed approach to the Middle East, he has given another that indicates he plans to simply give the same policies a fresh coat of paint... Read more... Israel Review Conference - Geneva, 18-19 April 2009 The Israel Review Conference will take place in Geneva on 18 – 19 April, two days before the United Nations' Durban Review Conference will examine the progress made in implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action (DDPA) adopted by the World Conference Against Racism (2001) and strengthen its recommendations. The Israel Review Conference will bring together internationally renowned experts and actors for social and political justice who will examine how the UN anti-racism instruments apply to Israel's policies and practices regarding the Palestinian people and develop practical recommendations on how to make Israel accountable to international law and protect the rights of the Palestinian people... Read more... US Eyewitness in Gaza: 'The reality of a very real bloodbath set in...' | Mondoweiss The rubble of Al-Zeytoun, on the southern outskirts of Gaza City The following was written by Rose Mishaan, a participant on the recent National Lawyer's Guild delegation to Gaza. Rose is a student at the University of California Hastings College of Law. I know Rose from when we were both members of Jews Against the Occupation in New York. She sent this out as an email to friends and has given us permission to reprint it here. All the photos below were taken by her. - Adam HorowitzRead more... On the 6th Anniversary of the Iraq War: March on the Pentagon - March 21 Read more... Politicising racism, by Ramzy Baroud | Al-Ahram Weekly The US refusal to participate in the Durban II conference against racism dashes the hopes of those who voted for and welcomed the first black US president Many countries are set to participate in the Conference Against Racism, slated for Geneva 20-25 April. But the highly touted international meeting is already marred with disagreement after Israel, the United States and other countries decided not to participate. Although the abstention of four or more countries is immaterial to the proceedings, the US decision in particular was meant to render the conference "controversial" at best. The US government's provoking stance is not new, but a repetition of another fiasco that took place in Durban, South Africa in 2001. Israeli and US representatives stormed out in protest at the supposedly "anti-Israeli" and the "anti-Semitic" sentiments that allegedly pervaded the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR). The decision was an ominous sign, for the Bush administration was yet to be tested... Read more... Tariq Ali puts the case for a total boycott of Israel outside the Israel Embassy in London Israel operates a system of racial Apartheid against its non-Jewish inhabitants and has been illegally occupying Palestinian land in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights since 1967. It has sought to further annex these lands and has systematically transferred its own civilian population into these occupied territories in contravention of international law. Israel continues to build the illegal Apartheid wall, annexing vast swathes of Palestinian land in the West Bank and creating Palestinian ghettos, despite the ruling of the International Court of Justice that this is illegal. 180 Palestinian organisations and unions have called for a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Apartheid Israel - I urge you to consider supporting this campaign. Watch... Freeman and the lobby: Pride and Prejudice, by Eric Walberg | Vineyard of the Saker The remarkable hegemony of Zionists in US -- and by implication -- world politics continues unabated, as demonstrated starkly by the withdrawal of Chas Freeman as United States President Barack Obama's nominee to chair his National Intelligence Council (NIC). Unlike cabinet positions, the NIC chair is not subject to Senate approval, but when Freeman was subjected to a campaign of slander led by AIPAC functionary Steve Rosen, joined by a chorus of senators, he withdrew, relating in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) the "libelous distortions of my record", the "efforts to smear me and destroy my credibility ... by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country." Jews have more of a tradition of being liberals and supporting Democrats. But nowadays, more important than shades of pink are the Zionist colours one flaunts, and no US politician, left or right, dares to buck the Zionist tide. Whether or not Freeman -- or any other US public figure -- is Jewish is now a moot point.... Read more... Paul Craig Roberts: Israel's American Chattel | Counterpunch ...But what’s really going to blow the legs out from under conservatives is the realization that the great superpower is the chattel goods of the Israel Lobby. The Obama administration, despite the Democrats’ decisive electoral victory in last November’s election, has demonstrated that the superpower cannot appoint its own chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Charles Freeman, a distinguished and independent-minded American, former ambassador and former Assistant Secretary of Defense, found his appointment blocked by Steve Rosen, a former official of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) currently under indictment as an Israeli spy, and a handful of American Jewish neoconservatives closely identified with the right-wing government in Israel... Read more... March 17, 2009 USS LIBERTY: The Fifth Fleet Sacrifice - Why did it happen?, by Debbie Menon "Truth and America's honor were ignominiously sacrificed to provide cover for Israel's transparent lies and despicable act of perfidy." -Phillip F. Tourney, President USS LIBERTY Veterans Association, June 8, 2007, Marriott Courtyard, VA. We have long wondered, and conjectured, the "why" of the USS Liberty incident, as it has become known and referred to; an "incident" being an easier event to push onto the back burner and forget while it simmers away harmlessly, unlikely to boil over and burn the stew. It was obvious that the Israelis knew at the time what they were doing, who they were attacking and, long ago, I found from my research sufficient evidence to prove it to my satisfaction at least... Robert Dreyfuss, The Freeman Affair Is This the Last Gasp for the Israel Lobby and the Neocons? "Because one man, conceding defeat, didn't issue the typical statement indicating that he preferred to spend more time with his family, and instead launched a frontal attack on those who had attacked him, the foreign policy equation in Washington might have changed in discernible ways last week. On withdrawing from his nomination as director of the National Intelligence Council, Charles Freeman, former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and a rare provocative thinker in Washington, let loose with a broadside against his enemies."... Read more... Activists confront AIPAC donors with checkpoint outside fundraiser Activists set up a mock Israeli checkpoint outside the AIPAC fundraiser Dozens of Los Angeles-area Jews, Palestinians and other allies erected a mock checkpoint at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC) annual Valley Fundraiser in protest of AIPAC's attempt to steer US policy makers to ignore recent Israeli war crimes in Gaza and the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. Cars were confronted by people dressed as Israeli soldiers and those attending the event were "allowed to pass through" after receiving a new program for the event that exposes AIPAC support for Israeli policies which contravene international law. A boisterous crowd also chanted "Angelenos choose a side, human rights or Apartheid!" at AIPAC donors as they approached the hotel entrance...Read more... How Abu Ghraib Was Politically Defused, by James Bovard ...The Abu Ghraib photos were only the tip of the iceberg. Far more incriminating photos and videos of abuses existed, which Pentagon officials revealed in a slide show for members of Congress. However, the Bush administration slapped a national security classification on almost all the photos and videos not already acquired by the media. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told Congress that the undisclosed material showed “acts that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel, and inhuman.” Highlights included “American soldiers beating one prisoner almost to death, apparently raping a female prisoner, acting inappropriately with a dead body, and taping Iraqi guards raping young boys,” according to NBC News. Suppressing those videos and photos enabled the Bush administration to persuade many people that the scandal was actually far narrower than the facts would later show... Read more... Film review: A Zionist state where "The Land Speaks Arabic" A still from The Land Speaks Arabic Maryse Gargour's 61-minute film The Land Speaks Arabic documents the founding of the Zionist movement and the expulsion of Palestinians in the early part of the 20th century. The historical narrative is reconstructed by weaving archival materials such as photographs, films, news reels and official documents, with the testimonies of Palestinian survivors of the forced expulsion of 1947-48, referred to as the Nakba, and the findings of British-Palestinian historian Nur Masalha. Beginning with Masalha's thesis emphasizing the idea of "transfer" as the rudimentary motive of Zionism, the film chronicles the establishment of the Israeli state through the initial proposals of European Zionists in the late 19th century and the terrorist tactics of Jewish settlers in Palestine under the British Mandate. Acting as the historical anchor of the film, Masalha first describes how he came upon innumerable records in Israeli archives outlining the transfer of European Jews to Palestine with the simultaneous ejection of local Palestinians to neighboring countries. He then places this policy within the European colonial mindset of the time, one based on racist, supremacist notions...Read more... Watch video about the film... JOIN THE GLOBAL BDS ACTION DAY, MARCH 30 | Stop the Wall In December 2008, Israel decided to mark the 60th anniversary of its existence the same way it had established itself: perpetrating massacres against the Palestinian people. In 23 days, Israel killed more than 1,300 and injured over 5,000 Palestinians in Gaza. The irony of history is that Israel targeted those Palestinians and their descendants - whom it had expelled from their homes and pushed into refugee-hood in Gaza in 1948, whose land it has stolen, whom it has oppressed since 1967 by means of a brutal military occupation, and whom it had tried to starve into submission by means of a criminal blockade of food, fuel and electricity in the 18 months preceding the military assault. We cannot wait for Israel to zero in on its next objective. Palestine has today become the test of our indispensable morality and our common humanity... Read more... Cheney “Assassination Unit” Still Active Under Obama, Including Domestically Joint Special Operations Command comprises Delta Force personnel that have killed ...Revelations that a political assassination unit which reported solely to Dick Cheney was in operation during the Bush administration are absent the fact that the unit in question, the Joint Special Operations Command, has been active for decades, has been deployed domestically in the U.S., has killed U.S. citizens, and is an integral part of Barack Obama’s expanded wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan...U.S. citizens and acted in support of Obama’s expanded war in Pakistan Read more... Sheikh and Archbishop condemn East Jerusalem home evictions There is an Israeli plan to evacuate and demolish at least 1,700 homes owned by Palestinians in Jerusalem in 2009, warned head of the Islamic movement in Israel Sheikh Raed Salah on Sunday. Sheikh Salah revealed information at a media conference in Jerusalem on Sunday that demolition orders or re-zoning plans would make homeless more than 17,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem. He described the situation as the most dangerous since Israel’s annexation of the area in 1967... Read more... Al-Jazeera Video: Gaza - The Blockade In this week's show we look at how the Israeli blockade continues to hinder life in Gaza. We have an interview with George Galloway and feature a new campaign by an Israeli anti-blockade group. Plus we follow one fishermen as he tries to provide food for his family. Watch Part 1, Part 2... March 16, 2009 Statement from the Family of Rachel Corrie We thank all who continue to remember Rachel and who, on this sixth anniversary of her stand in Gaza, renew their own commitments to human rights, justice and peace in the Middle East. The tributes and actions in her memory are a source of inspiration to us and to others...We are writing this message from Cairo where we returned after a visit to Gaza... Rachel wrote in 2003, “I am nevertheless amazed at their strength in being able to defend such a large degree of their humanity--laughter, generosity, family time—against the incredible horror occurring in their lives...I am also discovering a degree of strength and of the basic ability for humans to remain human in the direst of circumstances...I think the word is dignity.” On this sixth anniversary of Rachel's killing, we echo her sentiments.Read more... INTERNATIONALS IN PALESTINE - ACTS OF HUMANITY Israeli soldiers and settlers kill and injure with impunity Yesterday, peace activists all over the world remembered the tragic killing of Rachel Corrie in Palestine by an Israeli bulldozer. That was 6 years ago. She became the icon for all peace activists in the Palestine/Israel conflict, but there have been other internationals too who have been killed or injured by Israeli forces and sometimes the extremist Israeli settlers. Many of them were young like Rachel who came with compassion for humanity and the courage to defend the defenceless while the rest of world turned its head. Some paid for their fervour with their lives, others have been badly disfigured. The ones listed here are just some of many who come to be human shields for the Palestinians against Israeli bulldozers, tanks, soldiers and the crazed Israeli settlers whom not even Israel’s formidable army can control... Read more... Readings and Talks for Pro-Gaza Playlet Ruth Posner and Samuel Rouki in the London production of The New York Theater Workshop and two theaters in Washington will hold staged readings this month of Caryl Churchill’s provocative new play, “Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza,” along with talk-back sessions with audiences about the piece’s controversial portrayal of some Israelis, leaders of the theaters said Sunday. The play, which runs just 8 to 10 minutes, features members of a Jewish family instructing children about how to view violence affecting them, from the Holocaust to the Palestinian uprisings and the Israeli military campaign in Gaza this winter..."Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza." Read more... Letter from Mazin 3/16/09 The Palestine Center for Human Rights just reported that Israeli occupation forces in 3 weeks in Gaza killed 1,434 Palestinians: 235 resistance fighters, 239 police, 960 civilians (over 1/3rd children). Also it injured thousands (many with permanant disabilities). This 7 minute video is worth watching...Today, Monday 16 March 2009 is the 6th anniversary of the murder of Rachel Corrie whose main concern since she was a child was the fate of the children of the world. Her killers were never brought to justice. We can honor her by reading some of her words (here in different languages):...More on the deliberate attack on US citizen Tristan Anderson by Israeli occupation forces this last Friday. Also includes quotes from his Jewish girlfriend... Read more... Israel-Palestine Conflict 101: Taking Off The Blinders In The U.S. | Counter Currents “There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz but was that their [the Palestinians] fault? They only see one thing: We have come here and stolen their country.” --David Ben-Gurion, one of the founders of Israel and the first Prime Minister Now that Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is off the front page and the Gazans are left to deal with the aftermath outside of world media attention, it makes sense to step back and review how the Israel-Palestine conflict is depicted in U.S. mainstream media. This depiction shapes how the U.S. public views the recent events in Gaza. It also shapes how the public understands what constitutes a just resolution to the conflict... Read more... Building on bold-faced lies, by Khaled Amayreh | Al-Ahram Weekly While Israel never stops claiming that it has a sincere desire for peace with the Palestinians, the Israeli Housing Ministry, in coordination with other government agencies as well as the occupation army, is finalising plans to build tens of thousands of Jewish settler units all over the West Bank, especially in occupied East Jerusalem. The plans, it is generally agreed, would put an end to Palestinian dreams of establishing a viable and territorially contiguous state that they could call their own. According to a detailed document by the Israeli Peace Now group, which monitors the proliferation of Jewish colonies in the West Bank, the Housing Ministry is planning to build more than 73,000 new apartments and settler units on occupied Palestinian land... Read more... Israeli War on Palestinian Olive | IslamOnline Palestinians say hundreds of thousands of grown olive trees Israeli occupation forces and protected Jewish settlers are waging war on Palestinian olive orchards throughout the occupied West Bank, especially in areas contiguous to Jewish settlements. "Imagine watching the trees you planted and nurtured all your life being suddenly uprooted and destroyed by the callous blades of a huge caterpillar bulldozer," weeps Abdullah al-Hurub, an elderly farmer from the village of Dir Samet, near the southern town of al-Khalil (Hebron)...were destroyed and uprooted by Israel in the past few years. Read more... Durban II: Politicizing Racism, by Ramzy Baroud | Global Research Many countries are set to participate in the Conference against Racism, scheduled to be held in Geneva , April 20-25. But the highly touted international meet is already marred with disagreement after Israel , the United States and other countries decided not to participate. Although the abstention of four or more countries is immaterial to the proceedings, the US decision in particular was meant to render the conference ‘controversial’, at best...What indeed took place at the conference [Durban 1] was democracy in its best manifestations, where no country could defy international consensus with the use of a veto power, or could flex its economic muscles to bend the will of the international community. The result was, of course, disturbing from the view point of those who refuse to treat all United Nations member states with equity and impartiality. An African demand for a separate apology from every country that benefited from slavery, to every African nation that suffered from slavery was considered excessive, and eventually discounted. But the main “controversial” issue that led to the US representative’s departure from the conference was the criticism by many countries of Israel ’s racism against the Palestinians. A majority of countries called for reinstituting UN General Assembly resolution 3379 which in 1975 equated Zionism with racism... Read more... The Rape of Washington, by Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom RETURNING HOME from a very short visit to London, I found the country in the grip of uncontrollable emotions. No, it was not about the looming danger of the radical right gaining control. It is now almost certain that the next government will consist of an assorted bunch of settlers, explicit racists and perhaps even outright fascists. But that does not evoke any excitement. Nor was there much excitement about yet another interrogation of the (still) incumbent Prime Minister in his various corruption affairs. That is hardly news anymore. All the excitement was about a “press conference” given by the former President of Israel, Moshe Katsav, after the Attorney General announced that he might be indicted for rape... Read more.... Elie Wiesel Stole Book & Identity Says Survivor Nikolaus Gruner, 81, says Elie Wiesel's book "Night" is " 87% a word-for-word plagiarism" of a Yiddish book by Gruner's friend Lazar Wiesel published in Paris in 1956 entitled "... Un di velt hot geshvign," ("The Silence of the World.") In 1944, Lazar Wiesel, 31, befriended the 15-year- old Gruner in Auschwitz and saved his life more than once. Gruner is in the bottom left-hand corner of the famous Buchenwald photo. Now Gruner is outing Elie Wiesel who he claims stole his friend's identity and work. "What have they done to my friend Lazar?" Gruner asks. "I want to say kaddish. Where is his grave? Only this man knows. "... [Mr. Mackow may be slightly whackow (aren't we all), but the substance of the article is consistent with everything I know about the Weasel.] Read more... Israel's arms around sexualized, racialized clients | Jewish Peace News The major Israeli arms manufacturer "Raphael" produced a promo tailored especially for one of its most significant arms buyers, India. As reported in the first item below recounting part of the international response to it, this clip is an extremely blunt, not to say bludgeoning, expression of Israel's racist, sexist orientalism. Reflecting the perceptions of Israeli defense officials, it portrays India (and by implication other major "third world" clients such as Turkey) as a feminized, sexualized, exoticized, undeveloped country, dependent on Israel's/Raphael's masculinized high-tech-protection. Read more... Press TV - Justice experts urge prompt Gaza War probe In an open letter supported by Amnesty International, the 16 signatories stressed the need for an investigation into 'all serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by all parties of the conflict'. The letter argues that the UN investigation 'should not be limited only to attacks on UN facilities'. The distinguished signatories -- who have led investigations of crimes committed in former Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Darfur, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, East Timor, Lebanon and Peru -- say they were 'shocked to the core' by the events in Gaza... Read more... Press TV - Israel to raze 1,700 Palestinian homes ...Speaking at a Sunday press conference in Jerusalem, Sheikh Raed Salah, who leads the Islamic Movement, revealed the demolition plan, saying the move would leave more than 17,000 Palestinians homeless in East Jerusalem. He also warned the situation on the ground was the most dangerous since Israel's illegal annexation of the area in 1967... Read more... "US strike" on Iran: Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff points to risks and "unintended" outcomes ..In a weekend interview with Charlie Rose, Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said although he is concerned with the 'consequences' of a military action against Iran, the army could rely on a 'very strong strategic reserve'. "We have the capacity to do it but we are stretched. My ground forces are very stressed, very worn… On the other hand we've got a very strong strategic reserve in our Air Force and in our Navy and in fact that's a part of the world, it's a maritime part of the world, where the emphasis would certainly be on those two forces," explained Adm. Mullen. His remarks come as Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi is currently in the US to discuss "the Iranian threat" with the heads of the defense establishment and the US Secretary of State's special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia, Dennis Ross, according to Israeli media... Read more... Turkey probes Gaza 'war crimes' | Al Jazeera Protests against the Israeli assault on Gaza took place almost daily across Turkey A Turkish prosecutor has launched an investigation into whether Israel committed genocide and crimes against humanity in its offensive in Gaza, his office has said. The investigation follows a complaint lodged by the human rights association Mazlum-Der against several top Israeli officials. The officials against whom allegations have been levelled are Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, Tzipi Livni, the foreign minister, Ehud Barak, the defence minister, and Gabi Ashkenazi, the army chief of staff...Read more... March 15, 2009 An Interview with Haider Eid: Massacre in Slow Motion | Counterpunch More than a month after Israel's assault on Gaza ended, life for Gaza's 1.5 million Palestinians continues to be a daily struggle. Israel maintains a suffocating siege that blocks the flow of basic staples, plunging the vast majority of residents into abject poverty. But a ray of hope has emerged in the form of a growing international struggle--from Canada and the U.S., to Europe and South Africa--to hold Israel accountable for its violations of international law and Palestinian human rights. On March 21, justice for Palestine will be a main slogan at an antiwar demonstration in Washington, D.C. organized to mark the sixth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Haidar Eid, a professor of English, political commentator and longtime activist, is a resident of Gaza City and has provided an ongoing eyewitness account and analysis of Israel's war... Read more... Zionism is the problem, by Ben Ehrenreich - LA Times The Zionist ideal of a Jewish state is keeping Israelis and Palestinians from living in peace It's hard to imagine now, but in 1944, six years after Kristallnacht, Lessing J. Rosenwald, president of the American Council for Judaism, felt comfortable equating the Zionist ideal of Jewish statehood with "the concept of a racial state -- the Hitlerian concept." For most of the last century, a principled opposition to Zionism was a mainstream stance within American Judaism. Even after the foundation of Israel, anti-Zionism was not a particularly heretical position. Assimilated Reform Jews like Rosenwald believed that Judaism should remain a matter of religious rather than political allegiance; the ultra-Orthodox saw Jewish statehood as an impious attempt to "push the hand of God"; and Marxist Jews -- my grandparents among them -- tended to see Zionism, and all nationalisms, as a distraction from the more essential struggle between classes... Read more... U.S. official: Obama won't cut military aid to Israel - Haaretz U.S. President Barack Obama will not cut the billions of dollars in military aid promised to Israel, a senior U.S. administration official said Wednesday. The $30 billion in aid promised to Israel over the next decade will not be harmed by the world financial crisis, the official told Israel Radio. He spoke on condition of anonymity... [What happened to Hope and Change?] Read more... The Heights Traveled to Subdue Tibet - NYT A still image of a Chinese television report on protests last year in the Tibetan capital ...Tibetans widely resent Chinese rule, and Chinese leaders fear that Tibetans could seize on this month, the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising, to carry out a wave of protests, similar to what took place a year ago. Part of the mission of the security forces is to evict foreigners so that whatever occurs will be kept hidden from the world....Read more... Full-Spectrum Penetration: Israeli Spying in the United States | Counterpunch Scratch a counterintelligence officer in the U.S. government and they'll tell you that Israel is not a friend to the United States. This is because Israel runs one of the most aggressive and damaging espionage networks targeting the U.S. The fact of Israeli penetration into the country is not a subject oft-discussed in the media or in the circles of governance, due to the extreme sensitivity of the U.S.-Israel relationship coupled with the burden of the Israel lobby, which punishes legislators who dare to criticize the Jewish state. The void where the facts should sit is filled instead with the hallucinations of conspiracy theory -- the kind in which, for example, agents of the Mossad, Israel’s top intelligence agency, engineer the 9/11 attacks, while 4,000 Israelis in the Twin Towers somehow all get word to escape before the planes hit. The effect, as disturbing as it is ironic, is that the less the truth is addressed, the more noxious the falsity that spreads. Israel's spying on the U.S., however, is a matter of public record... Read more... DetainThis: Will AP Stop at Nothing to Push for War on Iran? The Associated Press Lies and Deceives While Defaming Islam and Christianity, in Its Latest Apologia for Israel’s Massacre on Gaza ... And of course, just in case we forget who the bad guys are, the Israeli military-state is just “Israel”; while its Palestinian counterparts are always modified with several adjectives and adverbs because, after all, it’s bad to be Muslim and violently defend yourself, your people, and others against the wanton aggression of the Almighty States. AP stands for Abominable Propaganda. Read more... March 14, 2009 Letter from Mazin 3/14/09 A good friend of ours, Tristan Anderson (US Citizen) was critically injured yesterday (Friday) and is in intensive care. Other friends there reported that the Israeli soldiers were not in any danger when they fired new kinds of projectiles and other weaponry. Tristan was actually to the side and was hit while standing and observing the attack by the Israeli soldiers on the Palestinian and International nonviolent and unarmed demonstrators. So far in the last 9 years over 6000 Palestinians and several Internationals were murdered by Israeli occupation forces (including 23 year old American student Rachel Corrie)... Read more... American citizen critically injured after being shot in the head by Israeli forces in Ni’lin | ISM Tristan Anderson from California USA, 37 years old, has been taken to Israeli hospital Tel Hashomer, near Tel Aviv. Anderson is unconscious and has been bleeding heavily from the nose and mouth. He sustained a large hole in his forehead where he was struck by the canister. He is currently being operated on... [includes contact info] Read more... Press TV - CIA report: Israel will fall in 20 years The CIA report predicts "an inexorable movement away from a two-state to a one-state solution, as the most viable model based on democratic principles of full equality that sheds the looming specter of colonial Apartheid while allowing for the return of the 1947/1948 and 1967 refugees. The latter being the precondition for sustainable peace in the region." The study, which has been made available only to a certain number of individuals, further forecasts the return of all Palestinian refugees to the occupied territories, and the exodus of two million Israeli - who would move to the US in the next fifteen years... Read more... The Jewish Holocaust and the Palestinian Holocaust -- Signs of the Times The Israeli government repeatedly denies that its treatment of the Palestinians is anything like the treatment suffered by Jews under the Nazi regime. But the Nazis too denied that they were engaging in genocide and war crimes. Rather than attempting to argue in writing the point that the stewards of the state of Israel appear to be the ideological descendants of the Nazis, the following photo essay of juxtaposed images of Palestinian life today in the occupied territories and Jewish life 68 years ago in Germany and Poland say much more than words ever could:.. Read more... Jews and the Gaza holocaust, by Khalid Amayreh in East Jerusalem In June, 1942, in reprisal for the assassination of the Nazi commander Reinhard Heydrich, the Germans carried out a murderous rampage of murder and terror throughout Czechoslovakia. The small Czech village of Lidice bore the brunt of the German revenge, with the SS killing all the men, deported all women and children and razed the village to the ground...Now what is the difference between these Nazi atrocities and what Israel, the “only democracy in the Middle East” is doing in the Gaza Strip, where “the most moral army in the world” is slaughtering babies as young as six-months’ old? I know that many Jews, especially Zionist Jews, have developed almost instinctive knee- jerk defensive reactions to any comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany. However, the truth must be proclaimed aloud, irrespective of how many Zionists will get angry... Read more... Press TV - Olmert pronounces Greater Israel dead Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says the idea of "Greater Israel"-- the main motto of the Zionist founders of the Israeli regime-- is dead. "'Greater Israel' is finished. There is no such thing as that anymore. Whoever talks in those terms is only deluding himself," the prime minister admitted at a cabinet meeting. "It doesn't help Israel. The international community has changed its perspective ahead of the possibility of Israel becoming a bi-national state," he said... Read more... YouTube - Ralph Nader on the rise and fall of Madoff Bernard Madoff, the former chairman of the Nasdaq stock exchange, has pleaded guilty to swindling at least $65 billion from people around the world. Al Jazeera's Ghida Fakhry talks with Ralph Nader, a former US presidential candidate and consumer activist, to bring perspective to the rise and fall of Madoff. Read, Watch... In A Blockbuster New Book, A Former Counsel To The U.S. Senate Documents How The Israel Lobby Led The Effort To Take America To War In Pursuit Of Tel Aviv's Expansionist Agenda In a blockbuster new book, a former counsel to the U.S. Senate documents how the Israel lobby led the effort to take America to war in pursuit of Tel Aviv’s expansionist agenda. This searing indictment of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) depicts Washington’s most powerful lobby as a nest of foreign agents working against America’s interests in the Middle East... Read more... Justice for Palestinians and Jews linked - The National At the United Nations Relief and Works Agency headquarters in Gaza yesterday A broad coalition of Jewish lobby groups has made a series of breakthroughs this year in its campaign to link the question of justice for millions of Palestinian refugees with justice for Jews who left Arab states in the wake of Israel’s establishment 60 years ago. Referring to these Jews as the “forgotten refugees” and claiming that their plight is worse than that of exiled Palestinians, the campaign has scored political successes in recent months in Washington, London and Brussels...[Is there no depth of avarice, deception and mendacity to which these people will not stoop?] Read more... Tibetans struggle in exile - The National Remembering the Tibetan Nakba In the smoggy backstreets of Kathmandu, just over a hundred kilometres from Tibet’s snow-capped peaks, a refugee community attempts to live out their lives in the tradition of their culture. In parts of Nepal’s busy capital, it is almost possible to envision how Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, once was...But this is not Tibet, nor is it the reality in Lhasa today, where China has been an occupying force for over 50 years. As the issue of sovereignty over Tibet extends into its 50th year ..there are fears that these hidden pockets of tradition in Nepal and India may be all that is left of a dying culture. And even those too seem under threat as China exerts greater influence on its neighbours to rein in their refugee populations, including the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India... [See this piece comparing the travails of the Palestinians with those of the Tibetans.] Read more... March 13, 2009 The Case Against Israel's "Right to Exist", by the Editor As you know, Mr. Price, I was invited to join a group of activists who met with you Monday morning to urge you to take action regarding the siege of Gaza, the Occupation and American support for Israel. I declined to attend because my particular focus is on One State advocacy, and you have made it crystal clear that this is not your view, nor is it ever likely to be (unless and until, in the due course of time, it becomes politically expedient). You represent the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill), fondly known as the pat of butter in a sea of grits, a highly educated, liberal, metropolitan area that votes heavily Democratic. You received 63% of the vote in the recent election, and fly under the "progressive" flag. Yet you voted for House Resolution 34, supporting Israel's massacre in Gaza...The choice is, theoretically, among four possible solutions. Which among them would you choose, based on the best available information? It is, as they say, a no-brainer. An Open Letter to Representative David Price (D) 4th District, NC Read more... Israel Apartheid Week in Canada welcomes Ronnie Kasrils and fights censorship and interference Read more... Israel's Ugly Face: Pure and Unadulterated Racism, by REUVEN KAMINER| Counterpunch It might be difficult for the uninitiated observer to accept the fact that a racist, crypto-fascist politician is on his way to becoming the second most important figure in the Israeli political arena. It is, therefore, worth re-establishing the factual basis of the charge that we are dealing with the truly ugly face of racism, pure and unadulterated. Avigdor Lieberman is on his way to becoming the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Netanyahu’s new government. It is clear that the person who shouts “fire” in a crowded theatre cannot claim the privilege of free speech and is responsible for the results of his action. Compare this with the prominent political figure, Avigdor Lieberman, who in Israel centered his recent electoral campaign on the slogan: No citizenship without loyalty. The slogan, which is only one of the many items in Lieberman’s racist arsenal, is a clear provocation directed against Israel’s Arab population which comprises one fifth of Israeli citizens... Read more... Jewish Criticism of Zionism - MEPC The Palestinian uprising or intifada and the Israeli campaign to suppress it have caused considerable anguish for many Jews around the world. A large number of Jews have even begun to reassess their support for Israel and critically analyze the ideology of Zionism which legitimates the Jewish state. One example of this phenomenon is a statement that appeared in The Nation on February 3, 1988. It was endorsed by 18 prominent American Jews. The advertisement called upon American Jews to "dissociate from Israel." It expressed the concern that "the close identification in the public mind between Israel and Jews -- an equation vigorously fostered by both the Zionist movement and the American Jewish lobby, which has come under its control... Read more... Calls for investigation into Gaza attacks: Israel’s war crimes, by Richard Falk | Le Monde Diplomatique Israel blamed its earlier wars on the threat to its security, even that against Lebanon in 1982. However, its assault on Gaza was not justified and there are international calls for an investigation. But is there the political will to make Israel account for its war crimes?... Read more... The lowest common denominator - Haaretz The surprise of the elections is the party championing "No loyalty, no citizenship." One out of every eight voters (and if you discount the sectarian votes of the Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox, one out of six voters) reported for the Israeli loyalty roll call. The new demand for loyalty is the natural continuation of our everyday, banal attitude toward the Arab minority. The Arabs are citizens, but to a limited extent. They face discrimination in the civilian realm, and they are excluded from the political arena and the Israeli experience as a whole. Yisrael Beiteinu's slogan did not change things. Rather, it bluntly articulated the facts of life in Israel... Read more... Everyone agrees: War in Gaza was a failure, by Gideon Levy - Haaretz Suddenly we're all in consensus: The recent war in Gaza was a failure. The bon ton now is to list its flaws. Flip-floppers say its "achievements" were squandered; leftists say the war "should never have started" and rightists will say the war "should have lasted longer." But on this they all agree: It was a blunder. Because we consider the war to have been almost cost-free, with just 13 Israeli dead, it will be the first in 36 years without a Commission of Inquiry formed in its wake. Of course, the war's blunder was just as serious as its predecessors, but because we did more killing than being killed, because we caused more damage than we sustained, there's nothing deemed worthy of investigation... [Can you imagine what would happen if these articles that Ikeep linking to, printed in Haaretz, the largest circulation Israelidaily newspaper, were to appear in the American mainstream press? TheLobby's hasbara harpies would be all over them, demanding that theseJewish staff writers be fired for "antisemitism," and that the paperissue a public apology.] Read more... Gaza 2009: De-Osloizing the Palestinian Mind, by Dr. Haidar Eid Not only have the whites been guilty of being on the offensive, but by some skillful maneouvres, they have managed to control the responses of the blacks to the provocation. Not only have they kicked the black, but they have also told him how to react to the kick. For a long time the black has been listening with patience to the advice he has been receiving on how best to respond to the kick. With painful slowness he is now beginning to show signs that it is his right and duty to respond to the kick in the way he sees fit. - Steve Biko One of the most important outcomes of the Gaza massacre (2009) has been the unprecedented tremendous outpouring of popular support for the Palestinian cause; something the signatories of the Oslo accords (1993) must have not been happy with. The return of the pre-Oslo slogans of liberation, as opposed to independence, have, undoubtedly, created a new dilemma, not only for Oslo political elites, but also for the NGOized, Stalinist Left. The process of "Osloization"i.e, a combination of corruption, Ngoization, and a selling-out of revolutionary principles and sloganeering, fused with the fiction of the two-prison solution, has been dealt a heavy blow in the 2009 elections... Read more... Letters of Support Needed: Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi Op-ed in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution This morning’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution included a guest column by Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi. In his column, Dr. Barghouthi outlines the obstacles to peace, including AIPAC, an increase in settlement activity and the newly elected right-wing Israeli government. The United States has not been a fair peace broker in the past, and this has resulted in a dwindling chance for a peaceful two-state solution. As Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu is tasked with forming a coalition government that will surely include Avigdor Lieberman’s racist Yisrael Beiteinu party. Lieberman has been quoted on several occasions for his anti-Palestinian rhetoric, including suggesting that Israel should drown Palestinian prisoners. Most recently during the Gaza war, he suggested that Israel should drop atomic bombs on Palestinian territories, as the U.S. did in Japan during WWII, in order to defeat Hamas... Read more... Smoking Satellite Pics, by Gordon Prather | antiwar.com According to a report by The Associated Press, Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, finds it "baffling" that there are apparently no commercial satellite pictures available of a site in Syria taken in the months just after the Israelis allegedly destroyed whatever was allegedly there prior to September 6th, 2007. Except, of course, for the before/after photos, allegedly taken via commercial satellite, somehow obtained and published last year by David Albright at the Institute for Science and International Security.Curiously, as Alblright himself notes, in order for someone to obtain such photos, they would have had to tell the commercial satellite controllers precisely where and when to properly position their satellites and would have had to have paid them big-bucks to take the aforementioned before/after pictures... Read more... March 12, 2009 More on the Freeman Cause Celebre Freeman's withdrawal: a pyrrhic victory for the Israel lobby? | Stephen M. Walt First, for all of you out there who may have questioned whether there was a powerful "Israel lobby," or who admitted that it existed but didn't think it had much influence, or who thought that the real problem was some supposedly all-powerful "Saudi lobby," think again. Second, this incident does not speak well for Barack Obama's principles, or even his political instincts. It is one thing to pander to various special interest groups while you're running for office -- everyone expects that sort of thing -- but it's another thing to let a group of bullies push you around in the first fifty days of your administration. But as Ben Smith noted in Politico, it's entirely consistent with most of Obama's behavior on this issue. Read more... Freeman Withdrawal Marks Victory for Israel Lobby, by Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe | IPS Amb. Chas Freeman withdrew from consideration for a top intelligence post in the Obama administration on Tuesday, following a vitriolic battle that pitted Republican lawmakers and pro-Israel hardliners opposed to his appointment against liberals and members of the intelligence and diplomatic communities who had come to his defence. Freeman’s withdrawal came as a surprise to many in Washington, particularly since it came only hours after Adm. Dennis Blair, the administration’s director of national intelligence (DNI) who made the appointment, issued a strong defence of Freeman during his testimony before the U.S. Senate. His withdrawal is likely to be viewed as a significant victory for hardliners within the so-called "Israel lobby," who led the movement to scuttle his appointment, and a blow to hopes for a new approach to Israel-Palestine issues under the Obama administration... Read more... A Straight Look at the Jewish Lobby, by Mark Weber | IHR For many years Israel has violated well established precepts of international law and has defied numerous United Nations resolutions in its occupation of conquered lands, in extra-judicial killings, and in its repeated acts of military aggression. Most of the world regards Israel’s policies, and especially its oppression of Palestinians, as illegal and outrageous. This international consensus is reflected, for example, in numerous UN resolutions condemning Israel, which have been approved with overwhelming majorities. “The whole world,“ said United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, “is demanding that Israel withdraw [from occupied Palestinian territories]. I don’t think the whole world... can be wrong.” Only in the United States do politicians and the media still fervently support Israel and defend its policies. For many years the US has provided Israel with crucial military, diplomatic and financial backing, including more than $3 billion each year in aid. Why is the US such a staunch bastion of support for Israel?... Read more... Letters Needed: Washington Post Editorial Lacks Credibility on Freeman Debacle Today, a Washington Post editorial 'Blame the Lobby' (3/12) offered a ridiculous critique of the Charles W. Freeman debacle -- which ended on Tuesday with Mr. Freeman withdrawing his nomination for chairman of the National Intelligence Council. Mr. Freeman, formerly chairman of the Middle East Policy Council, is known for his strong criticism of Israeli policies against Palestinians --- and claims he withdrew his nomination mostly as a result of heavy pressure from supporters of Israeli policies. The Washington Post editorial page took issue with Mr. Freeman's claim of the role of an influential Israeli lobby and rejected Freeman's argument that there is an 'inability to discuss Middle East policies opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics.'... Read more... YouTube - AIPAC Universal Hilton (DC) Protest March 8 Demonstrators protest the AIPAC donor arrivals at the fund raiser dinner held at the Hilton Universal March 8.09. The scene mocks the Israeli checkpoints that are all too common for the Palestinian... Read more... Socialism Without a Soul, by Robert Scheer | t r u t h o u t Homeless mother and child in DC Newt Gingrich is right: "It is European socialism transplanted to Washington." How else to describe an economy in which the government controls the entire financial center and is now supplying life support for the auto industry? That's on top of the existing socialist economy run by the military-industrial complex, which, thanks to George W. Bush, now absorbs upward of 60 percent of the non-entitlement federal budget...Read more... How do you say political correctness in Chinese? Apparently it has something to do with "river crabs" Read more... The Dalai Lama’s Speech | NYT The Dalai Lama is a man of peace and forbearance. So it is a measure of Tibet’s suffering and growing desperation that he accused China’s government on Tuesday of turning Tibet into a “hell on earth.” We only hope Beijing heeds his warnings before it is too late. The Tibetan spiritual leader still advocates a “middle way” of nonviolence. But China stubbornly refuses to pursue serious compromise on Tibet... Read more... Remember Ophira?, by Uri Avnery | Daily Times Nobody from Gaza was there. As in the heyday of European imperialism, 150 years ago, the fate of the natives was decided without the natives themselves being present. Who needs them? After all, they are primitives. Better without them. If you stop any ten random passers-by in a Tel Aviv street and ask them what they think about the chances of peace, nine of them will shrug their shoulders and answer: It won’t happen. No chance. The conflict will just go on forever. They will not say: We don’t want peace, the price of peace is too high. On the contrary, many will declare that for peace they are ready to give back the occupied territories, even East Jerusalem, and let the Palestinians have a state of their own. Sure. Why not? But, they will add: No chance. There will be no peace... Read more... Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh describes 'executive assassination ring' | MinnPost Journalist Seymour Hersh speaking in Doha at an Al Jazeera forum on the media in 2007 At a “Great Conversations” event at the University of Minnesota last night, legendary investigative reporter Seymour Hersh may have made a little more news than he intended by talking about new alleged instances of domestic spying by the CIA, and about an ongoing covert military operation that he called an “executive assassination ring.” Hersh spoke with great confidence about these findings from his current reporting, which he hasn’t written about yet..."Under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That’s been going on, in the name of all of us."...[Monkey see, monkey do. We really have the Israelis to thank; we've learned so much from them.] Read more.. Jewish settlers in Hebron shoot Palestinian men (Video) | The Guardian The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem has released graphic video footage showing settlers fighting with Palestinians in Hebron and shooting two men at close range in the hours after a settler house was evacuated by police yesterday. The film, recorded by a Palestinian resident in Hebron, shows settlers attacking his house, which was in a valley close to the three-storey building where dozens of settlers were evicted by Israeli riot police. In the hours after the eviction, Jewish settlers rioted in Hebron, throwing stones at police and Palestinians and setting fire to Palestinian trees and attacking Palestinian homes. Most of the violence took place between the evicted house and the nearby hardline Jewish settlement of Kirya Arba... Watch... Lasso that dogie! Attention Officer in Charge of RCMP War Crimes Section: George W. Bush is reported to be planning to visit Calgary Alberta on or before March 17, 2009 as a guest of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce... Read more... YouTube - Iran War & the USS LIberty 27 year CIA Veteran, Ray McGovern, relates the real push to go to war with Iran via false flag operations like the covered up attack on the USS Liberty 40 years ago. Watch... Israeli court orders Palestinian to demolish his own home or face penalty OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: The Israeli district court in occupied Jerusalem has ruled that Adel Tamimi, a Jerusalemite, should knock down his own home in the Old City of Jerusalem. The court said that if Tamimi did not tear his own home down he would have to pay for the expenses of its demolition in addition to serving six months in jail. Tamimi said in a statement, "How can I destroy the house in which I lived for 17 years with my own hands! Where will I go with my family? I have paid all fines with the hope of obtaining a construction permit but to no avail". He said that the land is owned by his family and that he had the required documents to prove it. The Israeli occupation authority bans construction or even maintenance of Palestinian homes in occupied Jerusalem's Old City in a bid to empty the holy city from its indigenous population and replace them with Jewish immigrants. Link... NGO condemns public prosecution, implicates it in detention of blogger CAIRO: Egyptian NGO the Arab Network for Human Rights Information (ANHRI) has launched a stinging attack on the public prosecution office for what it describes as its “contribution” to the detention of a blogger who disappeared 19 days ago...Gad, who runs the “Angry Voice” blog on which he posted criticism of the Egyptian government's policy on the Israeli invasion of Gaza, disappeared on the afternoon of Feb 6. According to his mother, Amal Abdel Fattah Ahmed, Gad was attacked by four men wearing civilian clothing outside his home in Qotour, near Tanta in El-Gharbeyya governorate before being bundled into central security forces truck. His whereabouts remained unknown for almost three weeks. According to ANHRI, he is currently being held in the El-Qata prison, Giza... Read more... March 11, 2009 One Nation, Indivisible, Under Israel Freeman's unpardonable 'sin', by Arnaud de Borchgrave | Washington Times Charles W. Freeman Jr. A rarity in Washington, the secret was well kept until the announcement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair. His deputy as chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC) is Charles "Chas" Freeman, a Chinese-speaking iconoclast with a brilliant analytical mind that is anathema to the Israel lobby and the neocons. Lucky for former Ambassador Freeman that Judaism, in contrast to Christianity, does not believe in mortal sins. But his sin is beyond redemption in Washington. Mr. Freeman is convinced that U.S. and Israeli strategic interests are not necessarily one and the same... Read more... Criticize Israel and lose your job: US academic freedom in peril Paul J. Balles considers how Zionists in positions of authority at academic institutions in the United States are persecuting and defaming anyone who dares to criticize Israel or even mention Palestinian rights. About the worst thing one can do in America or Europe is to criticize Israel. “Freedom” even in academia doesn’t allow critical comments about Israel or Zionism. Those who risk it can lose their jobs and be labelled anti-Semitic bigots. Joel Kovel was terminated from Bard College after 20 years of service because of "differences between myself and the Bard administration on the issue of Zionism". The president of Bard, Leon Botstein, didn’t consider Kovel’s critiques of Zionism to be protected academic freedom. The worst of the critic bashers is Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz. He spearheaded a campaign against Norman Finkelstein's tenure for writing Beyond Chutzpah, documenting in detail the falsifications in Dershowitz's book The Case for Israel... Read more... Breaking the Taboo on Israel's Spying Efforts on the United States | AlterNet Scratch a counterintelligence officer in the U.S. government and they'll tell you that Israel is not a friend to the United States. This is because Israel runs one of the most aggressive and damaging espionage networks targeting the U.S.. The fact of Israeli penetration into the country is not a subject oft-discussed in the media or in the circles of governance, due to the extreme sensitivity of the U.S.-Israel relationship coupled with the burden of the Israel lobby, which punishes legislators who dare to criticize the Jewish state... Read more... Freeman speaks out on his exit | The Cable You will by now have seen the statement by Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair reporting that I have withdrawn my previous acceptance of his invitation to chair the National Intelligence Council. I have concluded that the barrage of libelous distortions of my record would not cease upon my entry into office. The effort to smear me and to destroy my credibility would instead continue. I do not believe the National Intelligence Council could function effectively while its chair was under constant attack by unscrupulous people with a passionate attachment to the views of a political faction in a foreign country. I agreed to chair the NIC to strengthen it and protect it against politicization, not to introduce it to efforts by a special interest group to assert control over it through a protracted political campaign... Read more... Letter from Mazin 3/11/09 Below is a listing of excellent opportunities to visit Palestine where everyday here brings an experience that lasts a lifetime and in totality makes for a positive change in our life. Connecting us with our humanity while having fun is the true definition of the Buddhist mantra "having joyful participation in the sorrows of this world". Here is where we feel fully alive and fully connected with the best parts of ourselves. Come visit us. Here are videos to give you a preview of these trips... Read more... Dalai Lama Harshly Condemns China - NYT The Dalai Lama spoke to the media Tuesday morning in Dharamsala, India, as he marked his 50th year of exile The Dalai Lama delivered one of his harshest attacks on the Chinese government in recent times on Tuesday, saying that the Chinese Communist Party had transformed Tibet into a “hell on earth” and that the Chinese authorities regarded Tibetans as “criminals deserving to be put to death.” “Today, the religion, culture, language and identity, which successive generations of Tibetans have considered more precious than their lives, are nearing extinction,” said the Dalai Lama, 73, the spiritual leader of the Tibetans...Read more... t r u t h o u t | Crowds Protest Around World for Freedom in Tibet A woman wearing a Tibetan flag raises her fist New York - Tibetans and their supporters marched through the city and elsewhere Tuesday, saying they wanted to speak up for a silenced people on the 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that forced the Dalai Lama into exile. Carrying a portrait of the Tibetan spiritual leader and chanting such slogans as "we want free Tibet," more than 1,000 protesters followed a more than eight-mile route and rallied near the United Nations and the Chinese Consulate...Read more... A Song for Tibet Filmed in the Indian Himalayas and in Canada, A Song for Tibet tells the dramatic story of the efforts by Tibetans in exile, including the Dalai Lama, to save their homeland and preserve their heritage against overwhelming odds. Since the invasion of their territory by China in the late 1950s, Tibetans have been struggling for cultural and political survival. [A wonderful, beautiful, heartbreaking and inspiring film]Watch... Jon Stewart bashes CNBC | YouTube I guess he was getting bored with eviscerating Fox Watch... They have no shame: Instead of saying "sorry" Israel’s stooges keep pumping out the poison, by Stuart Littlewood Stuart Littlewood highlights the disinformation and lies of Israel’s stooges in the British Liberal Democratic Party – and the Labour and Conservative parties – who would not be shamed even by Israel’s mass murder of civilians in Gaza. In January, while Israel's military was pulverizing Gaza for 22 days and nights and incinerating its women and children with phosphorus bombs, the Liberal Democrat Party in the UK published an article by its Friends of Israel wing, entitled “Israel has no option but to defend itself against Hamas and Iran”...Read more... Judge Allows Defense to File Motion to Dismiss: Says Justice Department's Integrity at Stake Judge Leonie Brinkema ruled in favor of a defense request to file a motion to dismiss the charges against Dr. Sami Al-Arian at a hearing in federal court today. Her decision follows new revelations that prosecutors in Florida were opposed to efforts by a Virginia prosecutor to call Dr. Al-Arian to testify in another case. The judge's important decision raises the possibility that Dr. Al-Arian's ordeal could be resolved and that he can finally regain his freedom after six years of grueling legal battles... Read more... Opening eyes in Israel: The dominant strand of Zionism does not make a comfortable bedfellow with core Jewish values, by Seth Freedman In the wake of the devastating earthquake of 1927, the early Zionist pioneers were quick to come to the aid of the local Arab community, regardless of the political schism between the two camps. Millionaire Nathan Straus sent an unsolicited $5,000 to the residents of Nablus, where scores of homes had been levelled, while the impoverished Jews of Tel Aviv immediately despatched three truckloads of food aid to the battered city. "This is the way we are," noted Chaim Shalom Halevi in a letter to his family in the Diaspora, referring to the millennia-old Jewish adherence to the commandment "love thy neighbour as thyself"... Read more... Imagined affinities, imagined enmities: The strange tale of Iran and Israel, by Alastair Crooke The early Zionists never believed they would be accepted in the Arab world and pinned their hopes on the non-Arab periphery instead, particularly Iran. Israel reversed that policy by opening talks with a weakened Arafat in the early 1990s. But peace with the Palestinians did not happen and the ‘radicals’ grew more radical... Read more... Canada Park: lesson in forgotten history Israelis enjoy a picnic in Canada Park on what were concrete water tanks As spring sets in early, Israelis have been pouring into one of the country’s most popular leisure spots. Visitors to Canada Park, a few kilometres north-west of Jerusalem, enjoy its spectacular panaromas, woodland paths, mountain-bike trails, caves and idyllic picnic areas...“In fact, though you would never realise it, none of this park is even in Israel,” he told a group of 40 Italians on a guided tour this past weekend. “This is part of the West Bank captured by Israel during the 1967 war. But the presence of Palestinians here – and their expulsion – is entirely missing from the signs.”... from the Palestinian village of Yalu until the 1967 war Read more... Watch CBC: Racist JNF's "Canadian cover-up to a war crime"... Press TV - Chomsky: State intervention common in 'free market' In an exclusive interview with Press TV, Chomsky was asked why economic analysts did not predict the latest economic crisis...Chomsky explained that over the past two decades, countries like China experienced breakneck economic growth through export orientation and the rejection of Washington's neoliberal rules, which surprised economic analysts. Asked about the recent bailouts in the US and Europe and the fact that state intervention is contrary to a free market economy, Chomsky replied that there has always been economic intervention by the state in rich countries but this was never openly acknowledged. Commenting on the economic boom or the tech bubble during the Clinton administration, Chomsky noted that advanced technology such as pharmaceuticals and information technology was handed over from the state sector to the free market after 30 years at that time. Chomsky said Ronald Reagan, the "high priest of the free economy", was actually an economic protectionist whose bailout of the Continental Illinois National Bank and Trust Company resulted in a huge deficit... Read more... Press TV - UN to investigate CIA gulag archipelago Two UN special rapporteurs say that they plan to investigate secret detention centers used by the CIA in its counter-terrorism campaign. "We call on all governments to cooperate, not just in clarifying the facts, but in ensuring that such secret detention centers will no longer be used in the future," Manfred Nowak, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture said on Tuesday... Read more... Press TV: Dr Doom offers dim US economic outlook A New York University professor who predicted the financial crisis two years ago paints an even gloomier outlook for the US economy. Economist Nouriel Roubini, nicknamed Dr. Doom for predicting the meltdown, Monday offered the opinion that the US recession could drag on for years without drastic action... Read more... March 10, 2009 Anti-Israel protest turns violent | Al Jazeera The match was played without fans in the arena Anti-Israel protesters have clashed with police outside a Davis cup match played in Malmo in southern Sweden. The game between Sweden and Israel is being played without an audience because the police could not guarantee the security of the players...[The writing is on the wall - barely legible now, but it will become progressively clearer.] Read more... Tibetans rally to mark anniversary | Al Jazeera Protesters in the US gathered near the White House Tibetan exiles have kicked off worldwide rallies outside the White House marking the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising that led to the exile of the Dalai Lama...In Washington DC, hundreds of exiles holding Tibetan and US flags bowed their heads in Lafayette park facing the White House at 16:00 GMT on Monday - midnight in Tibet on March 10, the day 50 years ago that the Dalai Lama fled – before marching to the Chinese embassy...before marching to the Chinese embassy [...but there is little hope for the Tibetans, at least in the foreseeable future.] Read more... Seven Jewish Children: A Play for Gaza, Written by Caryl Churchill A ten minute history of Israel, ending with the bombing of Gaza. From the review in The Guardian: "What she captures, in remarkably condensed poetic form, is the transition that has overtaken Israel, to the point where security has become the pretext for indiscriminate slaughter."... Read more... Kadima to democracy's rescue, by Zeev Sternhell | Haaretz Admittedly, the choice is not an easy one, but the political reality and moral climate in Israel are beginning to be far too reminiscent of Europe between the two World Wars. The danger of the break-up of democracy lurking behind a Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu-National Union government is far greater than the pull to the right that Kadima would risk in a Benjamin Netanyahu-Tzipi Livni government... [See Commentary by Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Peace News] Read more.. The Pope Is Not Welcome in Jerusalem, by Israel Shamir "Pope Benedict is not welcome in the Holy Land in the present circumstances", said Archbishop Theodosius of Sebaste, the highest ranking native Palestinian Christian clergyman in Jerusalem, after it was announced in Israel that the head of the Church of Rome will begin his May pilgrimage to the Holy City with obeisance to the Jewish Holocaust Memorial 'Yad Vashem'...We are not against the Pope's visit to Yad Vashem, but before expressing solidarity with the Jews, he should show solidarity with the Christians of Palestine. We have our own tragic memories; our Yad Vashem is in Gaza, said the Archbishop, and then added: "let the Pope begin his visit with Gaza first"... Read more... IRAQ – Pull Out, or Dig In?, by Eric Margolis A lot of Americans who voted for candidate Barack Obama because of his promises to end George Bush’s war in Iraq are feeling dismayed, or even betrayed...In short, in spite of Obama’s vows to pull out of Iraq, the powers that be in Washington may be intent on keeping Iraq a US military, political and economic protectorate. Obama’s withdrawal deadline could easily be voided by claims of terrorism and growing instability in Iraq. The plan for Iraq follows exactly the same control model the British Empire used to rule Iraq and to exploit its oil:.. Read more... Press TV - Al-Manar slams Germany over ban On Friday, Germany's Interior Ministry said that the country has banned Hezbollah-affiliated al-Manar satellite television on grounds that it violates the country's constitution. Interior Ministry spokesman Markus Beyer said Al-Manar television programming was forbidden under Article 9 of Germany's constitution, which says that organizations cannot operate with the purpose of violating "international understanding." In a statement on Saturday, al-Manar administration condemned the German "strange" move and said that the decision was the result of an organized campaign launched against the resistance and liberation channel by the Zionist lobby... Read more... Criminals With Badges: How the Police Create Crimes, by Paul Craig Roberts Take heed, ye red-blooded American males. The police are operating a new sting designed to destroy your life. The police are planting attractive women half-naked in parks. They entice passing males, engage them in conversation, lay back, spread their legs and rest their feet on the men's shoulders. After being as friendly and suggestive as possible, they ask to see your penis. Don't show it to them. You are being filmed by police. If you show your penis, you will be arrested as a pervert. Only American police, judges and juries could think that responding to a seductress's invitation is proof of perversion. But, hey, you live in America, where Christians believe that killing as many Muslims as possible for Israel is God's work. Don't expect a dumb Amerikan jury, or a self-righteous Republican judge, or a mindless law professor to understand entrapment... Read more... Press TV - Lady Justice an apparition for Palestinian Mahmud Abu-Rida The following is an exclusive Press TV interview with Mahmud Abu-Rida, a Palestinian refugee in the UK who tells the tale of his plight in the British kingdom... Read more... All Be Aware | Palestine Think Tank The surge in "Pro-Palestinian" activities in the United States after the Zionist massacre in the Gaza Strip is at least suspicious if not alarming. I am not saying this because I do not want the support for our people to be the norm in this country, but because I see who is riding this wave, and understand that those elements and what they represent are still dangerous and their agenda will not die unless we reach liberation and return. The fundamentals of the Palestinian struggle are clear and not complicated: - Palestine is not that section that was occupied in 1967, or Gaza or Jericho. Palestine is from the River to the Sea and from the Lebanese border to Egypt. Read more...Israeli Policy Gives Jews a Bad Name, by Saul Landau | Institute for Policy Studies Most Jews I know get little pleasure from the existence of Israel; just the opposite. They feel disgusted by the behavior of their tribal kin toward Palestinians. This antipathy doesn’t concern Israel’s right to exist, a phony argument still maintained by hard line Zionists. Israel exists, period. Most of the world recognizes that. Anyone wanting to eliminate it belongs in the loony bin or prison... [Gosh, if I cop a plea do I get to choose between them? I think I'll take the loony bin - it couldn't be any crazier than the world we live in. For godsake (and everyone else's), help terminate the Zionist entity!] Read more... God Damn the International Criminal Court | Sudanese Media Center Read more... Middle East reality check, by Roger Cohen | IHT Secretary of State Hillary Clinton grabbed headlines with an invitation to Iran to attend a conference on Afghanistan, but the significant Middle Eastern news last week came from Britain. It has "reconsidered" its position on Hezbollah and will open a direct channel to the militant group in Lebanon. Like Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah has long been treated by the United States as a proscribed terrorist group. This narrow view has ignored the fact that both organizations are now entrenched political and social movements without whose involvement regional peace is impossible... Read more... Charles Freeman, Roger Cohen and the changing Israel debate, by Glenn Greenwald Anyone who doubts that there has been a substantial -- and very positive -- change in the rules for discussing American policy towards Israel should consider two recent episodes: (1) the last three New York Times columns by Roger Cohen; and (2) the very strong pushback from a diverse range of sources against the neoconservative lynch mob trying, in typical fashion, to smear and destroy Charles Freeman due to his critical (in all senses of the word) views of American policy towards Israel. One positive aspect of the wreckage left by the Bush presidency is that many of the most sacred Beltway pieties stand exposed as intolerable failures, prominently including our self-destructively blind enabling of virtually all Israeli actions... Read more... New patterns in Israel-Palestinian and intra-Palestinian politics ...Ironically, after months of stalemate, there is now a sense of renewed expectation of significant and genuine movement in political terms. Far from ending anything, Israel's brutal and murderous tantrum in Gaza was in fact an expression of its recognition that its previous approach had failed and would have to be replaced by a different one; and having vented its anger and demonstrated its power, Israel is now preparing to do precisely what it had previously refused to do: accept that it has to deal with Hamas, however reluctantly... Read more... Soldiers Refuse to Serve in Gaza, Tel-Aviv Protest 1/8/09 (Video) Social TV is an Israeli initiative for independent media and public education for social change Watch... Clinton Foundation Fueled By Blood Money | AlterNet When President-elect Barack Obama nominated Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of state, the Clintons agreed to release the donor lists of the Clinton Foundation, the global charity created by former President Bill Clinton. The Clintons agreed to air their dirty laundry in a deal with the new Obama administration, as Secretary Clinton tries to clean up the smoldering diplomatic wreckage of the Bush years. The donor list is extremely revealing, and not only for being what the Wall Street Journal called "a who's who of some of the world's wealthiest people." The list also shows that the foundation is funded by the people, governments and companies that help create the problems the charity seeks to address... Read more... YouTube | BBC Interview with Yonatan Schapira, a former Israeli Air Force Captain, who states that Israel is committing mass War Crimes in Gaza Watch... YouTube | George Galloway's first speech from inside Gaza Viva Palestina has landed... Watch... March 9, 2009 Viva Palestina: GROWN MEN CRYING...THE SIEGE IS BROKEN And they entered side by side like heroes, some on foot some in their vehicles, tears, smiles, hugs, flowers. It was historic, it was legendary. Gaza we are here. We have fulfilled the promise - Viva Palestina! The lifeline from the people of Britain to you, the people of Gaza, has arrived... Read more... Why Did So Few Americans Give a Damn? | Truthdig The documents currently being released by the Justice Department that demonstrate the Bush administration’s view of the president’s constitutional power in a “state of war” tell us things we suspected but didn’t want to know. The first seven of these official memorandums issued last week dealt with claimed presidential powers to unilaterally abrogate international treaties; suspend constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech and press; and order warrant-less searches, wiretaps and seizures of documents and indefinite imprisonment inside the U.S. without trial or criminal charges. The memorandums claimed that Congress has no overriding authority in these matters. The authors of all but one of these documents were John Yoo and Jay Bybee (both then of the Justice Department but now, respectively, a member of the University of California at Berkeley Law School faculty and a federal judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals). They were also the authors early in the Bush administration of two special memorandums defining torture much more narrowly than in the United States code of military justice or U.S. civil law... Read more... The WINEP-Weenies' Insane Iran Advice, by Gordon Prather A motley crew – assembled by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and misleadingly labeled The Presidential Task Force on Iranian Proliferation, Regional Security, and US Policy– has just issued President Obama a warning: "If the international community appears unable to stop Iran's nuclear progress, Israel may decide to act unilaterally. Whatever Americans may think, Israeli leaders seem convinced that at least for now, they have a military option."..Great Zot! This gratuitous warning to our new President follows closely upon the report of the Grand Pooh-Bahs at The Bipartisan Policy Center, made just before the election, that whoever became the next president would probably have to Bomb-Bomb-Iran... Read more... The Skeleton In Alan Dershowitz's Closet: The Resurrection Of Sue Barlach, His First Wife In the running for the world's most repulsive scumbag According to an article written on March 25, 2007, by internet author Myles O. Morales, the controversial lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz has a big skeleton in his closet. It is the story of his first wife Sue Barlach, whom Dershowitz had been completely successful with hiding in his closet until the publication of that article made the rounds on the internet in 2007. Until now, an internet search to find Dershowitz's first wife's name came up empty...Other independent, anonymous sources have now come forth to corroborate the story of how the ambitious, controversial lawyer, known for defending wife-beaters, wife-killers, the use of torture, and the apartheid militant Jewish state of Israel, was responsible for beating his first wife Sue Barlach so badly that she had to be hospitalized, and how Dershowitz then used his formidable litigious clout to intimidate local and nationwide news sources, including CNN, from publicizing the wife-beating event and her subsequent suicide, apparently by jumping off a bridge in New York...Read more... Call to 'Resist and Deter' Nuclear Iran Gains Key Support, by Jim Lobe A new report on how the United States should "resist and deter" Iran's alleged ambitions to acquire a nuclear-weapons capability by a think tank closely tied to the so-called "Israel Lobby" has been endorsed by two key officials who are expected to exercise major influence on Iran policy in the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama. The 10-page report, which was released here Wednesday by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), argues that the United States should engage with Iran diplomatically but at the same time ratchet up pressure on many other fronts if it fails to heed demands to suspend and eventually abandon its uranium enrichment program... [Well, there you have it, folks - plus ca change, plus la meme chose] Read more... The Ultimate Earmark: U.S. Military Aid to Israel, by KATHLEEN and BILL CHRISTISON In these days of economic crisis, budget overruns, earmarks, and multi-billion dollar bailouts, when Americans are being forced to tighten their own belts, one of the most automatic earmarks—a bailout by any measure—goes to a foreign government but is little understood by most Americans. U.S. military aid to Israel is doled out in annual increments of billions of dollars but remains virtually unchallenged while other fiscal outlays are drastically cut. The United States and Israel signed a Memorandum of Understanding in August 2007 committing the U.S. to give Israel $30 billion in military aid over the next decade. This is grant aid, given in cash at the start of each fiscal year. The only stipulation imposed on Israel’s use of this cash gift is that it spend 74 per cent to purchase U.S. military goods and services... Read more... Setback for pro-Israel hawks in US The brutal oppression of the Palestinians by the Israeli occupation shows no sign of ending ...Israel no longer even pretends to seek peace with the Palestinians, it strives to pacify them ...American identification with Israel has become total." These are excerpts from a 2007 speech by Charles (Chas) Freeman, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, whose appointment as chairman of the National Intelligence Council was announced on February 26 and is turning into a test case for the strength of Washington's right-wing pro-Israel lobby. Signs are that its influence might be waning under the administration of President Barack Obama. Does that mean the days of unquestioning American support for Israel are coming to en end? Probably not. But the furious reaction to Freeman's appointment from some of the most fervent neo-conservative champions of Israel points to considerable concern over the possible loss of clout... [We should start taking bets on whether or not Freeman will survive the onslaught. If he does, then maybe, maybe, there could be light at the end of the tunnel.] Read more... ICC and travesty of justice The International Criminal Court’s (ICC) verdict against President Omar Bashir of Sudan has some people wondering what benchmarks of justice, if any, are being used by that agency. According to the ICC charges, some 300,000 people had lost their lives in the Darfur region of Sudan in an ongoing tribal conflict. In an immediate response, the Sudanese president, addressing a Khartoum rally, countered by claiming that the ICC was a tool in the hands of imperialists targeting Sudan for its oil, natural gas and other resources. “We have refused to kneel to colonialism, that is why Sudan has been targeted ... because we only kneel to God,” he told the crowd outside the Republican Palace. UN General Assembly President Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann regretted that a warrant had been issued to arrest President Bashir stating, “I am sorry about this decision of the ICC and I think it’s more a decision motivated by political considerations than really for the sake of advancing the cause of justice in the world.” ... Read more... War Crimes and Double Standards, by Robert Parry New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof – like many of his American colleagues – is applauding the International Criminal Court’s arrest order against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for his role in the Darfur conflict that has claimed tens of thousands of lives...By all accounts, Kristof is a well-meaning journalist who travels to dangerous parts of the world, like Darfur, to report on human rights crimes. However, he also could be a case study of what’s wrong with American journalism. While Kristof writes movingly about atrocities that can be blamed on Third World despots like Bashir, he won’t hold U.S. officials to the same standards... [I long ago concluded that Kristof is a "case study of what’s wrong with American journalism," precisely because he's so selective in his outrage. The rule: don't ruffle feathers that can ruffle back. And as far as Darfur is concerned, Kristof appears to be blissfully unaware of the complexities of the conflict, as well as the role of a Zionist hate group called The David Project in fanning the Islamophobic flames by inspiring the "Save Darfur" movement. Kristof is sort of a poster boy for what my teacher called "idiot compassion." He's made to order for the hypocritical NYT, "the Zionist paper of record."] Read more... One More Farcical Tour of the Middle East by a Secretary of State: This Time It's Mrs. Clinton's Turn, by JAMES G. ABOUREZK It was almost dreamlike, watching Secretary of State Clinton make her visit to Israel, one that can be called the first of many trips pretending to encourage peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. It’s a dream I’ve had several times over; one needs only to simply fill in the names of the various U.S. Secretaries of State, say that they’ve met with the Israeli leadership and with Mahmoud Abbas, (who is about as popular with the Palestinians as Rush Limbaugh is with Democrats), and that no progress was made. Aside from saying that Abbas heads the only legitimate government of Palestine, Mrs. Clinton did say that the building of new settlements was, “unhelpful,” or maybe it was the demolition of several Palestinian apartment blocks in Jerusalem that was unhelpful. It’s hard to remember which one did not help. She did conveniently forget that Abbas’ term as President of the Palestinian Authority has expired, and she also forgot that Hamas won the Parliamentary elections big time. It’s not that the Parliament has been meeting regularly, mostly because Israel arrested most of the Hamas members of Parliament, all of them still behind bars. It was the kind of election that the U.S. did not believe iin. It was legal, and showed the preferences of the Palestinian public, something which the U.S. chose to ignore... Read more... YouTube - Ethnic Cleansing Gone Wild - Robert Fisk Israelis openly practice Apartheid and ethnic cleansing Watch... ISRAELI TERRORISM AND THE TALMUD (Video) Youneed a good stomach to watch this. It's not so much the scenes ofcarnage from Gaza (we've already seen many such), but the quotationsfrom the Talmud. Someone would do the world a great favor bytranslating the Talmud into English. Then we would know for sure. Watch... Hatred has turned him into a Jew - Deconstructing Nick Cohen, by Gilad Atzmon A Born Again ZioNazi In an article published by the Jewish Chronicle, Observer columnist Nick Cohen argued that ‘Hatred turned him into a Jew’. Initially, I was rather amused by the revealing confession. Cohen must have a lot of hatred in him. He was one of the very few supporters of the illegal war against Iraq within the British media. He really believed that liberating the Iraqis was the way forward. Incidentally he also possesses an incredible record of Islamophobic ranting. Hence, I at first tended to interpret Cohen’s declaration as an acknowledgment that it was the loathing towards others which he finds in himself that made him into a Jew. I was obviously wrong, Cohen was quick to clarify that it is actually other people’s hatred, specifically that of the ‘British Left’ that ‘indulges antisemitism’, which made him ‘feel Kosher’... Read more... Press TV - Hezbollah hails UK 'policy revision' Hezbollah has welcomed a change in Britain's tone which signals London's willingness to hold talks with the Lebanese resistance movement. Ibrahim al-Moussawi, a spokesman for the Islamic group, said on Friday that "this policy revision is a step in the right direction and we shall see how it translates in practical terms." Another official for Hezbollah said that the "movement was waiting on what steps Britain would take after," dpa reported. The remarks follows those by British Foreign Office Minister Bill Rammell who earlier said Britain had reconsidered its stance on Hezbollah for its contribution in forming a national unity government in July - which was aimed at putting a political standoff in Lebanon to rest... Read more... Press TV - US spills the beans on Israel nukes A US military document has classified Israel as "a nuclear power" -- a status Tel Aviv has for years refused to either confirm or deny. A document approved for publication in late 2008 by the US Joint Forces Command (JFCOM) has termed Israel "a nuclear power" on a par with Russia, China, India, Pakistan and North Korea, Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported Sunday... Read more... Elders of Zion to Retire | Jewish Forward The Elders of Zion, the venerable and shadowy Jewish organization that controls the international banking industry, news media and Hollywood, has announced that it is disbanding so that members can retire to Florida and live out their golden years on the golf course. “We had a good run,” said one senior Elder, reminiscing over old photographs of world leaders in his musty, wood-paneled office at an undisclosed location. “Maybe we ran the world for just a little too long. Anyway, now it’s Obama’s problem.” After a humiliating year left most of its financial holdings, as well as the entire civilized world, on the verge of collapse, the organization has re-defined its mission in terms of bridge games and making it to restaurants for the Early Bird Special... [Good for a laugh, but on second thought maybe it's not all that amusing.] Read more... Freedom in the Air, by Israel Shamir “Britons never shall be slaves”, claims the song. Never say “never”. They were so free that they could rhyme ‘the queen’ with ‘her fascist regime’ and ‘she ain't no human being’, in the Sex Pistols song. But that was then, and anyway the queen had enough of a sense of humour to invite the Pistols to the Palace. Now, a British gentleman, Mr Rowan Laxton, watched the Jews pour napalm and brimstone on hapless children of Gaza on live TV. "Oh bloody Jews," said he, and I am sure so would you. He was immediately arrested and charged with “inciting religious hatred”. Mr Laxton can be sentenced to seven years of jail. Never mind that none of the Israeli top war criminals (Olmert, Barak, Livni) is religious. Multiple identities of Jews (class, race, religion, nation, state) are used to protect the lot from every side. I checked some blogs covering the story – right-wing bookworms are furious about Laxton. Incidentally, they do not mind “inciting religious hatred”: they freely refer to “Muslim savages” and “Islam’s demonstrable bloody-minded nihilism”. On the leftist sites Laxton is described as “racist”, and whoever defends his righteous anger is asked to move to a White Power site. These antiracists also disapprovingly mention Laxton’s marriage to a Muslim lady. Even his highly commendable wish to see the killer army going up in smoke is re-described as a “desire to murder every Israeli teenager”... Read more... March 8, 2009 Letter from Mazin 3/8/09 Driving from Beit Sahour to Birzeit yesterday, I was listening to a program on radio Falastin titled “Wala Budda LilQayd An Yankasir”. The term is a verse from a poem that roughly translates that “the chain is destined to be broken”. The program is a lifeline for the nearly 13,000 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails to hear from their families outside the prison walls. Since visitation rights are routinely denied or highly restricted, family members call in and have three minutes to say something on air. For those prisoners who have access to radio, it is a way to hear and connect with their loved ones. I listened for nearly one hour to impassioned messages and harrowing stories. All the voices I heard were of women... Read more... U.S. hires 10,000 Ugandan mercenaries for deployment in Iraq Ugandan recruits hoping to work as private security guards As President Barack Obama announces plans to withdraw US troops from Iraq, thousands of young Ugandans are increasingly desperate to be sent to the war-torn country. Already, the Ugandan government says there are more than 10,000 men and women from this poverty-stricken East African nation working as private security guards in Iraq. Hired out to multibillion-dollar companies for hundreds of dollars a month, they risk their lives seeking fortunes protecting US Army bases, airports, and oil firms. The war in Iraq is the most privatized conflict in history. Since the invasion in 2003, the US Department of Defense has doled out contracts worth an estimated $100 billion to private firms. Covering a vast range of services from catering to dry cleaning to security, one in every five dollars the US spends in Iraq ends up in the pockets of the contractors, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office. Increasingly these jobs have been outsourced to developing countries... in Iraq undergo basic firearms training in Kampala, Uganda Read more... International conference: ‘Re-envisioning Israel/Palestine’ 12-14 June 2009 in Cape Town, South Africa Read more... The Baseline Scenario What happened to the global economy and what we can do about it “One of the most informative news sites in the blogosphere.” — Bill Moyers“A must read.” — Paul Krugman The Baseline Scenario is dedicated to explaining some of the key issues in the global economy and developing concrete policy proposals. Since it was launched in September 2008, articles on this blog have been cited by The Wall Street Journal (Real Time Economics), The Economist (Free Exchange), The Financial Times, NPR (Planet Money), and many other sites around the Internet. The authors of the blog have also published articles in The Washington Post, The Financial Times, and the online editions of The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New Republic, The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, and Reuters. The blog was the subject of an interview with Simon Johnson in The Wall Street Journal... Read more... Call For Counter Demonstration In Appreciation Of Jane Fonda Jane Fonda, a true American hero Vietnam Vets Protest Fonda During Her Return to Broadway "About a dozen Vietnam veterans and other protesters picketed the theater where the 71-year-old actress is starring in the Broadway play "33 Variations," telling passersby that she had once visited their communist enemy in Hanoi." It seems most probably that the glamour of Fonda's opening night will attract a repeat of those pro-war veterans. Whether they think that it was fine that three million Vietnamese died, or that, like many, they regret that the U.S. gave up trying to conquer them, one hopes that members of Veterans For Peace and other anti-war veteran organizations will be drawn to be there in support of Jane Fonda's brave and inspiring opposition to that American merciless bombing and slaughter... Read more... Palestine And The Post-State Era Those of us appalled by Israel’s latest attacks on the civilian infrastructure of Gaza would likely have been delighted to hear the announcement by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno-Ocampo, that the Court was actively considering whether Palestine was “enough like a state” for the ICC to investigate those attacks...Even more interesting, is that there is a very strong legal case that Palestine does indeed constitute a ‘state’ under international law, and that Israel should therefore not be surprised by any ICC investigation into its latest crimes... Read more... Kafka and Israel: The Double Standard | ZMag The U.S. political class and those of the EU and the new "hope" and "change" leader of the United States, Barack Obama, justify Israel's attack on Gaza as based on its "right of self-defense." There is, of course, the question of whether it is acceptable to defend yourself by a massive attack on a civilian population when this is not the only route to self defense—the Israelis could withdraw from an illegal occupation, they could stop starving the Gaza population, and they could abide by negotiated ceasefires (in this case, effectively and almost surely deliberately ended by their November 6 killing of six Gaza Palestinians). There is also the problem that the Israeli action violated the UN Charter. Article 51, the self-defense exception, requires immediate notification of the Security Council and, after any immediate attack is contained, giving over remedial action to the Security Council. There is also the problem that this "self-defense" operation was planned six months in advance and is widely believed in Israel to be linked to Israeli politics, with the two ruling parties seeking an improved standing—which they achieved—by military action... Read more... On the lighter side: Stop Funding Israel calls Pat Robertson 700 Club - YouTube May I speak to Elmer Gantry, please? Steve Johnson calls the donation line at the CBN (Christian Broadcasting Network) to ask about the facts of Israel's rocket attacks...Watch... Viva Palestina Convoy Update: FRUSTRATIONS AT RAFAH CROSSING The Viva Palestina convoy is still stuck 40km from the Rafah border crossing at Al Arish after failing to progress through the border gates to Gaza. During the day new obstacles have been placed in the path of the convoy passing into Gaza via the Rafar crossing. However, the whole convoy is determined to stay united in purpose and in one piece - and that all vehicles and equipment including the convoy's mascot, the red fire engine as well as the boat and the Bolton generator will enter Gaza together. George Galloway and other convoy leaders have been involved in lengthy negotiations all day with the Egyptian authorities to find a solution and remove these obstacles. Negotiations will carry on for the rest of the day but it does look likely that the convoy will not cross into Gaza today. Indeed, Yvonne Ridley reports, from the Viva Palestina compound in Al Arish, that there is now a football match taking place between the British and Libyan drivers... Read more... Must Jews always see themselves as victims? | The Independent In the wake of Israel's attack on Gaza, eager voices are telling us that anti-Semitism has returned – yet again. Eight years of Hamas rockets and the world unfairly cries foul when Israel retaliates, they say. Biased media are delegitimising the Jewish state. The Left attacks Israel as uniquely evil, making it the persecuted Jew among the nations. Even theatres keep wheeling out those anti-Semitic stereotypes, Shylock, Fagin and the "chosen people", just to torment us. If this bleak picture were an accurate portrayal of what Jews are experiencing today, who could deny that suffering is the determining feature of the Jewish condition?...Some pioneering research, published as Israel's bombing of Gaza began, throws some light on this. It reveals just how much the feeling that no matter what we do, we are perpetually at the mercy of others applies to Jewish Israelis. A team led by Professor Daniel Bar Tal of Tel Aviv University, one of the world's leading political psychologists, questioned Israeli Jews about their memory of the conflict with the Arabs, from its inception to the present, and found that their "consciousness is characterised by a sense of victimisation, a siege mentality, blind patriotism, belligerence, self-righteousness, dehumanisation of the Palestinians and insensitivity to their suffering". The researchers found a close connection between that collective memory and the memory of "past persecutions of Jews" and the Holocaust, the feeling that "the whole world is against us". If such a study were to be conducted among Jews in Britain, I suspect the results would be very similar... [Comment from Jews for Peace: In this article, Antony Lerman, former director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, addresses the question of why so many Jews, in Israel and around the world, seem blind to Palestinian suffering. The answer he gives - that many Jews see themselves as permanent victims - is not particularly new, but this article gives a particularly lucid account of this sense of victimhood and the effect it has in legitimating policies that lead to great suffering for Palestinians. Not only do many Jews view themselves as victims, the nature of Jewish suffering is thought to be uniquely profound and intense. Jewish suffering is given a quasi- (or even downright) religious character; it transcends experience and is therefore irrefutable. Every anti-Semitic incident is regarded as far more sinister than it seems - it is a symptom of a smoldering global epidemic of Jew-hatred. Given this reasoning, it is impossible for Israel to over-react to any act of Palestinian hostility, because every Palestinian attack is a symptom of the same global existential threat that the Jews have (supposedly) faced for millennia. Needless to say, this mindset has done enormous harm, not least to Israeli Jews, who are unable (even unwilling) to contextualize current events or sympathize with Palestinian suffering (Lerman cites empirical evidence for this), and are thus led to support a belligerent agenda that ultimately blocks any solution to the conflict. The antidote Lerman offers is the very courageous and basic act of empathy: there is nothing unique about Jewish suffering, and it should be used as the key to understanding Palestinian suffering, not a justification for increasing it. - Judith Norman and Alistair Welchman/JFP] Read more...Israel's Military Supplies to India India's main supplier of advanced military hardware is Israel. In the 1990s India took a major decision to procure arms from Israel after its much-touted Defense Research and Development Organization failed to develop any high-end weapons systems...Military contracts under negotiation between India and Israel include the development of Barak -2, worth US$2.5 billion; additional AWACS at $1.8 billion; UAVs worth $500 million; the Arrow anti-missile system at $4 billion; and miscellaneous electronics worth $2 billion... Read more... A short selection of pieces relating the ongoing genocide in the OPT Israeli Occupation exposes Palestinian Women to harassement and abuse | IMEMC The Al Haq Institute, a human rights center based in Palestine, issued a statement marking International Womens' Day yesterday, stating that Palestinian women are subjected to continual abuse of their basic human rights by the 40-year old Israeli occupation. The Institute added that Palestinian women are also denied their basic rights and protection within Palestinian society. Additionally, it was stated that Israel continuing occupation of Palestine, including East Jerusalem. They note that the siege and military assault on the Gaza Strip is one of the main examples of Israeli policy of collective punishment of civilians. Collective punishment is in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions and International Law. Ongoing restrictions of movement, the Annexation Wall, settler-only roads, and more than 500 military roadblocks are restricting the movement of the residents, according to the Institute, preventing access to education, employment, and medical care. The Institute also stated that several Palestinian women were forced to give birth at Israeli roadblocks due to the Israel's policy of closures and siege in the Occupied Territories... Read more... The heroes of southern Bethlehem: steadfastness and compassion It was rough in Umm Salamuna today: no Jayyous or Bi’lin as far as the weaponry employed by the army (no gas, no bullets), but a hatred was palpable. Clearly ready to pounce it was still surprising the amount of aggression in the eyes of 35, maybe 50, Israeli soldiers in green with army vehicles and the border police: the type sporting blue with white jeeps ready to arrest the foreigners. Rushing attacks, soldiers swinging fists and rifle butts, was the scene as the southern Bethlehem nonviolent resistance movement demonstrated against land confiscation for the Wall and settlements. Tens more acres are being taken by an Israeli court decision last week. The resistance shouted for justice, for freedom... Read more... Israel annexing East Jerusalem, says EU | The Guardian 40-year-old Palestinian Mahmoud al-Abbasi stands amid the rubble of his home after it A confidential EU report accuses the Israeli government of using settlement expansion, house demolitions, discriminatory housing policies and the West Bank barrier as a way of "actively pursuing the illegal annexation" of East Jerusalem. The document says Israel has accelerated its plans for East Jerusalem, and is undermining the Palestinian Authority's credibility and weakening support for peace talks. "Israel's actions in and around Jerusalem constitute one of the most acute challenges to Israeli-Palestinian peace-making," says the document, EU Heads of Mission Report on East Jerusalem. The report, obtained by the Guardian, is dated 15 December 2008. It acknowledges Israel's legitimate security concerns in Jerusalem, but adds: "Many of its current illegal actions in and around the city have limited security justifications."...was demolished by the Jerusalem municipality in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan Read more... Rising Beyond Bullets Acres of land across the borders are lost because farmers are targeted by Israeli bullets There is a limit to the sea, and there is a limit to the land. To a Palestinian's life in Gaza, there is a limit that is not determined by natural death or an unfortunate accident. The harvest seasons forcibly altered, and the fishing boats from their routes blocked. Tanks and bulldozers have plucked the roots of citrus fruits and olive trees kilometers away from the northern and eastern borders of the strip, pushing the borderlines further in, and forcing the inhabitants around these areas out of their homes and into other areas within. The population is already strangled with an Apartheid wall and a suffocating siege and the rope around its neck continues to tighten with the encroachment of the occupation forces from the boundaries inwards by weapons no one is supposed to defy...Read more... Nablus: Israel to destroy 20 more homes in latest mass-demolition order Israeli authorities ordered the demolition of more than 20 homes in the northern West Bank villages of Burin and Aqraba. Residents received the notices on 2 March. The order marks the third such mass demolition notification this month, after Israeli authorities ordered 88 homes in Silwan (East Jerusalem) destroyed and another 12 residential and farming buildings in Al-Baqa’a (Hebron). All homes are in Israeli controlled areas and all were served demolition papers based on the accusation that they were not built with proper permits. In the case of Aqraba/Burin and Al-Baqa’a, they are near illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank... http://www.maannews.net/en/index.php?opr=ShowDetails&ID=36275 Sheikh Sabri: Third Intifada to defend the al-Aqsa Mosque, not far off | IMEMC Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, Head of the Higher Islamic Committee, the grand Mufti of Jerusalem, said that a third Palestinian Intifada in defense of Jerusalem and its holy sites, combined with resisting Israel's transfer policies against the Palestinians, is not a far stretch. In a Friday interview with the al-Khaleej (The Gulf) newspaper, based in Emirates, Sheikh Sabri said that an Intifada against injustice does not wait for a political decision. Sheikh Sabri added that Israel's ongoing attacks against the Palestinians and Jerusalem is pushing towards a third Intifada. He said that the occupation is implementing its plans that aim at uprooting the Palestinians from Jerusalem. “This became clear after Israel said it intends to demolish dozens of homes in Ras Khamis, al-Tour, Silwan, Beit Hanina and al-Bustan,” Sheikh Sabri said. “This is part of the Israeli plan to empty the holy city of its indigenous people”... Read more... East Jerusalem Settlements Ratchet Up Tensions, by Helena Cobban As the fires of human misery continue to smolder in Gaza, the situation in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem is emerging as another potentially explosive issue in, and far beyond, the Middle East. The future of the city is considered an issue of prime importance to both Palestinians and Israelis, as well as to their supporters around the world. Jerusalem-related tensions have sparked several earlier rounds of violence between the two peoples, including when former (and future) Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu started work on the new East Jerusalem settlement of Har Homa in 1997. In September 2000, it was a visit by opposition leader Ariel Sharon to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount - accompanied by 1,000 armed security people - that sparked the Second Intifada. Now, Israeli and Palestinian peace activists warn that the provocative actions of government-backed settler activists within Jerusalem could spark yet another serious escalation of tensions. Some 220,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem, which until 1967 was the commercial and administrative hub of the whole West Bank region, of which it is an integral part. Since Israel occupied the city in 1967, successive Israeli governments have implanted vast (and very expensive) Israeli settlements into the city, whose boundaries they also unilaterally expanded... Read more... Palestinian Human Rights center Director challenges travel ban in Israeli court A final decision in the case against the travel ban on General Director of the Palestinian rights institution Al-Haq was postponed again pending a four-day period for Israeli officials to “reconsider the absolute and unconditional ban” that prevents the director from leaving the West Bank. Shawan Jabarin brought the case to court after Geuzenpenning, a Dutch Human Rights organization, selected his organization to receive their Prize for Human Rights Defenders in the Netherlands. The awards ceremony will be held next week. In a statement, Al-Haq described the day’s proceedings: "Having heard the arguments of Mr Jabarin's lawyer, Adv.Michael Sfard, and the lawyer for the State of Israel, the three-judge panel then dismissed everyone present in the courtroom except the State's lawyers and a representative of the General Security Services (GSS), who would present secret "evidence" against Mr Jabarin ex parte. Having reviewed this alleged evidence, the court recalled the public and Mr Jabarin's lawyer, and announced that another hearing will take place on Monday 9 March at 5:00 pm, in order to give the Israeli authorities time to consider alternatives to on Mr Jabarin leaving the occupied West Bank." According to the Al-Haq statement, “It was clear that the presence of a large number of observers had a bearing on the judges' decision not to dismiss the petition out of hand.”...Read more... March 7, 2009 The Two-State Solution and the Ruin in Gaza, by Virginia Tilley We all carry little Mandelas inside us – that is why we wept when watching that historic moment in South Africa, because it resonated inside us with something universal. Let us all find within ourselves those deeper resources of moral courage to pitch in and help steer Israel-Palestine to a second global triumph against apartheid and lay a foundation for real democracy and justice in the Middle East. God knows the world must defeat this old ogre of the last century, racial nationalism, in order to confront collectively the great challenges facing us in the next one... Day 21 - Aid Convoy crosses into Egypt, by Sonja Karkar Crossing into Egypt from Libya After some consultation between the convoy leaders and Libyan officials, it was decided to by-pass the towns of Benghazi and Bayda in Libya to cut the time it would take to get to Gaza. This meant a desert crossing of some 400km - enduring not what many would think to be hot and stifling conditions, but rather the bitter cold of winter winds unbroken by vast expanses of emptiness. Perhaps few thought of what would await them on this journey when they first set out, but certainly despite the hardships no one is complaining. What the Palestinians in Gaza are suffering is so much more and that is uppermost in everyone's minds. Nevertheless, poor and oftentimes non-existent phone signals, no landmarks, breakdowns, sandstorms and security restrictions are just some of the hiccups that have made the epic journey a writer's dream story - after all, there are some 300 people sharing in the experience and each with their own story to tell. Under normal circumstances, it would be splashed in large headlines with a blow-by-blow account of various travellers' tales. Not so on this voyage. The media is strangely silent, seemingly uninterested even in the historic opening of the border between Morocco and Algeria that has been closed since 1994...Read more... [late breaking news] Press TV - 'Viva Palestina' activists denied entry to EgyptFour activists, heading for Gaza with humanitarian aid convoy 'Viva Palestina', have been returned to Libya short after crossing into Egypt...Press TV's correspondent Yvonne Ridley, who is accompanying 'Viva Palestina', said a lawyer was to contact the British Foreign Office to find out why the four were deported Egypt. "The Egyptian authorities have not come up with an explanation as to why these men should be separated from the convoy. There is a feeling that they could mere political pawns in a much wider game is being played out in Egypt at the moment with Libya, Egypt and Israel," she said... Read more... Gaza donor conference: conspiracy wrapped up as compassion The donor conference Monday at Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt had nothing to do with alleviating the appalling humanitarian crisis in Gaza and rebuilding the homes, factories, infrastructure and schools destroyed by Israel—its ostensible purpose. This stated goal was a cover for furthering Washington's geopolitical interests in the oil-rich Middle East, by overthrowing Hamas and restoring the discredited Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas to power in Gaza so as to help police the region in American and Israel's interests... Read more... Lancet Withdraws Gaza Article, Author Responds | Pulse On 2 February 2009, The Lancet Medical Journal’s Global Health Network online published Dr Swee Ang and Dr Ghassan Abu Sitta’s ‘The Wounds of Gaza’, first published here at PULSE. It introduced the article by stating: Two Surgeons from the UK, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr Swee Ang, managed to get into Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Here they describe their experiences, share their views, and conclude that the people of Gaza are extremely vulnerable and defenseless in the event of another attack. On 2 March, the Journal removed the article (though The Lancet Student still has it), stating: “We have taken down the blog post The Wounds of Gaza because of factual inaccuracies.” No specific faults or amendments to the alleged inaccuracies are suggested. The reader comments, overwhelmingly in support, remain posted. A letter penned by four Israelis (surprise, surprise!) that objects to the article was published on February 18. Our friend Dr Swee responds to this development and elaborates on the figures...Read more... Shame on Congress Over Gaza Resolutions, by Claiborne Clark | MMN The media, as always, are central to the problem. There have been large protests in the US and around the world, including Israel where 700 were arrested, but you would not know it from American media coverage. News coverage about Israeli military actions, US expenses on Israel, and Israel politics in the US, including the Israel lobby, is generally more thorough and more fair in Israel than it is here. Americans are poorly informed on international topics, but as the price they pay continues to increase with congressional selling-out of foreign policy, Americans may wake up... Read more... Sustaining Global Solidarity after Gaza | EI Latin America is the only region wherein popular anger was reflected in official action The Israeli bombing and invasion of Gaza, which has now claimed more than 1,400 lives, generated serious popular backlash the world over. The overwhelmingly weak official positions and statements, especially in the Arab world, stood in stark contrast to the outpouring of rage that was witnessed in the streets of capitals, cities and towns across the globe. This recent wave of protests has a particular quality, however, that differentiates it from past mobilizations: The initial flare up of energy is being channeled into effective grassroots political action, primarily in the form of an ongoing campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS). The tangible victories and rise of BDS activism immediately following Gaza are a direct result of the many years of often little-acknowledged organizing, building, and mobilizing that was undertaken following the 2005 call from Palestinian civil society. It is important to look at these last four years in order to make sure that we continue to build on these victories. We have moved beyond questioning the efficacy of BDS and must now work to incorporate the growing numbers of people who, while outraged at the events in Gaza, are not yet connected to the BDS movement. We also must expand the actors and struggles involved in BDS by linking the Palestinian cause to other similar fights for social, economic and political justice...Read more... The Appointment of Charles Freeman and the Coming War with Iran, by Edmund Connelly When I was a child, we had in our living room a copy of Time magazine that came out just after JFK had been assassinated. It was the only article in the drawer of an end table, thus creating a kind of family shrine for the fallen president. I sometimes wonder if the March 24, 2003 issue of The American Conservative doesn’t deserves the same kind of reverential treatment, for the cover story was Patrick J. Buchanan’s iconic jeremiad "Whose War?" In that story, he railed against a group of neoconservatives clamoring for a pre-planned attack on Iraq following 9/11. He minced no words in laying down his position: “We charge that a cabal of polemicists and public officials seek to ensnare our country in a series of wars that are not in America’s interests. We charge them with colluding with Israel to ignite those wars.”... Read more... Students (and everybody else): This is your world. Unless you want to live under a ZioNazi dictatorship, take action! Columbia U. Palestine ForumWe, as Columbia University Students, join the growing number of universities world-wide that are standing up for Palestinians’ rights to education, to academic freedom and to self-determination in the face of the Israeli Occupation. We do so in honor of the academic code to which Columbia University is also obligated. In particular, we stand with our peers at the University of Rochester, Hampshire College, New York University and numerous UK Universities, and issue to Columbia an affirmative statement of our demands:.. Read more... On Israel, Shifted Ground | Inside Higher Ed The ground seems to have shifted, activists on all sides say. What they make of it varies. A shift toward more visible pro-Palestinian or anti-Israel sentiment has been profound on some campuses, prompted, in part, by the winter war in Gaza. Where some describe a corresponding disintegration of civil discourse or a scapegoating of Israel for a complex set of problems, others celebrate a newfound space in which to be critical of Israel -- to mount a challenge to what they see as a dominant discourse, so to speak... Read more... Submission misrepresents ‘Human Rights and Gaza’ symposium | The Daily Bruin (UCLA) I am writing as the chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee of the Center for Near Eastern Studies to respond to the grossly misleading submission by Ben Meiselman, a member of Bruins for Israel (“One-sided Gaza debate a disservice to UCLA,” Feb. 5). I have to wonder, as anyone who attended the symposium might have wondered, if Meiselman had actually attended the panel or if a member of the neo-conservative Campus Watch (all too present at the event) reported it to him. At any rate, giving Meiselman the benefit of the doubt, I am curious how he could have heard and interpreted what he did. First of all, I feel it is incumbent on me to inform readers of the august academic figures who spoke at the event and to remind Meiselman that the title of the symposium was “Human Rights and Gaza,” and was intended to inform the audience of the human rights tragedy unfolding in front of their eyes. A special emphasis was placed on the toll on Gaza’s children (even before the invasion) as a result of Israel’s blockade of any goods or humanitarian relief, including medical supplies... Read more... Group to protest Israel troupe's N.Y. show with dance of its own - Haaretz Protesters in New York were set on Thursday evening to demonstrate against an upcoming performance by the Israeli Bat Sheva dance company with a dance of their own. The dance protest, titled Freedom Dabke vs. Batsheva Dance Company (after the traditional Eastern Mediterranean folk dance), will also feature anti-Apartheid songs, and a performance by the hip-hop artist Invincible. It was to be staged as part of a bid by pro-Palestinian groups to rally support for a boycott of the Israeli dance troupe's show at Brooklyn's Howard Gilman Opera House... Read more... The United States of Israel, by Khalid Amayreh | People's Voice It seems that one doesn’t have to wait four years to find out that Hillary Clinton is just a fraud, very much like her predecessor in the job, Condoleezza Rice. The infamous Rice paid 24 visits to Occupied Ramallah and Occupied Jerusalem, babbling about the “peace process” and George Bush’s vision of two states living side by side in peace, Israel and Palestine. Eventually, however, it was proven beyond any doubt that she was a lying emissary representing even a more lying boss. So one may really wonder if Hillary Clinton will be re-enacting the same absurd show, same lies, and same deception. In her recent visit to Occupied Palestine, the former NY senator, who had proven herself a submissive pawn in the service of Zionist circles, reiterated the same old platitudes about US commitment to the “two-state” solution... Read more... Israeli Occupation Forces Continue to Shell and Tighten Siege on Gaza Strip Al Mezan Center Calls on International Community to Take Immediate and Effective Action The Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have resumed shelling the residents of Gaza. Attacks carried out on the evening of 4 March 2009 and the morning of 5 March 2009 killed four Palestinians, injured four others and caused material damage to eight homes. The IOF also continues to tighten its siege on the Gaza Strip which prevents the movement of people and goods to and from the Gaza Strip... Read more... Premier Quits, Hoping to Unify Palestinians - NYT Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, on Saturday submitted his resignation, saying he hoped that it would help efforts to form a Palestinian unity government with the Islamic group Hamas...The move was widely seen as a conciliatory gesture to Hamas. But a senior adviser to Mr. Fayyad said it was also intended as “a shock to the system” and a message to Israel and the United States. The adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the resignation with reporters, said that Mr. Fayyad felt that he was being “taken for granted” by Israel and the United States, especially because Israel had continued settlement construction in the West Bank, and the United States had not done enough to stop this... Read more... Press TV - How the world can stop Israeli crimes Tony Benn renounced his inherited title of 2nd Viscount The following is an exclusive Press TV interview with Tony Benn -- British socialist, former Labour MP and Cabinet Minister -- on the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip: Stansgate in 1963. He was the first peer to do so. Press TV: Tony Benn, you just gave a speech a few minute ago. Could you summarize what you said, and what your message is to Israel? Benn: What is happening in Gaza is a crime against humanity. It is a moral issue and we are all morally responsible now, wherever we live, to help the people of Gaza...The Israelis, however many weapons they have, are going to lose this war. And I think the greatest enemy of the Jewish people is the Israeli government itself... Read more... A public stoning in Germany | EI Hermann Dierkes is a respected politician with an honorable record of campaigning for social and political justice in the German Rhineland city of Duisburg. He represented his party Die Linke (The Left Party) on Duisburg City Council, campaigning tirelessly on anti-racist and anti-fascist issues. Most recently, he was his party's candidate for the post of Lord Mayor...On 18 February 2009 Dierkes addressed a public meeting on the question of Palestine. To the question of how to take action against the injustice being suffered by Palestinians, he responded that the recent World Social Forum in Belem, Brazil had proposed an arms embargo, sanctions and the boycott of Israeli exports. He added: "We should no longer accept that in the name of the Holocaust and with the support of the government of the Federal Republic [of Germany] such grave violations of human rights can be perpetrated and tolerated ... Everyone can help strengthen pressure for a different politics, for example by boycotting Israeli products."...All hell broke loose. In the 25 February edition of Bild -- Germany's best-selling and most obnoxious daily paper -- Dieter Graumann, Vice-President of the Central Jewish Council, accused him of "pure anti-Semitism." WAZ editorialist Achim Beer decried Dierke's "careless Nazi utterances," comparing his words to "a mass execution at the edge of a Ukrainian forest." Hendrik Wuest, General Secretary of the CDU, warned that "the Nazi propaganda" emanating from Die Linke is "intolerable."... Read more... March 6, 2009 Bishop Attallah Hanna: a Palestinian Christian Hero, by Iqbal Tamimi | Palestine Think Tank ...not many know about the suffering of the Christians in Palestine caused by the Israeli state. And that it is an Israeli policy to keep the people thinking that the struggle in Palestine is something caused by religion, and that this struggle is going on only between Jews and Muslims, which is utterly false. Palestinians of the three faiths lived in peace and harmony long before the Zionist state started its looting and destruction...Bishop Attalah Hanna, enjoys great popularity and love of the Palestinian masses, he is in the heart of every Muslim and Christian living on the land of Palestine or forced to exile. His home is in the humble building of the Orthodox Church, in the midst of the Old City of Jerusalem....When the Bishop of Jerusalem was asked about his opinion regarding the suggestion of creating two states in Palestine, one for Israelis and another for Palestinians, he answered, "I will never agree to such a view, I believe in one state for all citizens, where Arabs Muslims, Christians and Jews live together. I believe in the right of Palestinians of return. And then the results of the Palestinian elections will determine the outcome. Talking about a two state solution in Palestine is unfair and unworkable."... Read more... Look to the West Bank | Jewish Peace News Commentator Ben White writes: "For a real sense of where the conflict is heading, look to the West Bank, not just Gaza." While media attention is focused on the Israeli elections and the continuing humanitarian crimes in Gaza, White argues that events in the West Bank are perhaps of greater political significance. These events include Israeli raids and abductions that seem to be targeting Palestinian civil resistance (second item below – which includes a video link and action alert); further restrictions on Palestinian movement and rights in East Jerusalem; and a massive increase in settlement activity (third item below). Taken together, these represent a firm and confident consolidation of the (Israeli military) gains of the occupation: and, as White puts it, "a further reminder that the two-state solution has completed its progression from worthy (and often disingenuous) aim to meaningless slogan."... Read more... Viva Palestina: A fine tribute to human goodness | Online Journal The caravan of 300 kind hearts that set out on Feb. 14 from London to Gaza, under the auspices of the Viva Palestina organization, is nearing the Libyan/Egyptian border. And the great news is Egypt has agreed to open its Rafah border long enough to let their 100 aid-bearing vehicles, including fire engines, ambulances, trucks, vans and a boat, through. This is more than just an aid convoy. As the participants of several ethnicities and faiths admit, UNRWA and other NGOs are far more effective distributors of essentials urgently needed by the 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip still subsisting under the shameful 14-month long Israeli siege. The message due to be delivered by these 300 extraordinary “ordinary people” is all important: “We truly care and we’ve driven across continents to prove it.” For the rest of us it surely signifies the goodness of human nature and the strength of people power, which if correctly channeled, can move mountains...“We’re like one big family,” Yvonne Ridley said. “We love one another, we fight and we complain. Everyone will emerge stronger and more capable from this. One young man told me ‘I think we need the people of Gaza more than they need us.’” Surely, the moral of this good news story is that all of us, regardless of nationality, race or religion, need each other... Viva Palestina Convoy Update: A SMOOTH CROSSING INTO EGYPT [email report] The convoy was over 3 miles long and contained about 220 vehicles. So it was an awesome sight when finally, at about 1pm local time, the first vehicles rolled into Egypt, where they were met at the borders by officials and a jubilant crowd. Read the latest from Viva Palestina. John Lewis Interviews Gilad Atzmon: Manic beat preacher | The Guardian Jazz musician Gilad Atzmon ... 'I rarely make jazz records these days' A few days before I meet Gilad Atzmon, he finds himself at the centre of an international storm. The prime minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoǧan, has approvingly cited Atzmon during a debate with Israeli president Shimon Peres. "Atzmon, a Jew himself," said Erdoǧan, "says that Israeli barbarity is far beyond even ordinary cruelty."..."A world leader quoting an artist?" he laughs. "Isn't that incredible? Not a singer, not even a fucking pianist, but a stupid fucking saxophonist! Ha!" It may come as a surprise to some that Atzmon is a saxophonist at all. His career as a musician has long been drowned out by the clatter of his extra-curricular activities: the furious attacks on Israel (he writes and edits for the website Palestine Think Tank); the philosophical texts on Jewish identity that get discussed by the likes of Noam Chomsky; the two comic novels that have been translated into 24 languages... Read more... YouTube - Closed Zone release me from the besieged Gazawi cage!!! An animator of the celebrated Israeli war film "Waltz with Bashir" has illustrated a new film depicting the life of a fictional boy in the Gaza Strip during the Israeli blockade of the coastal territory. Yoni Goodman's short film "Closed Zone" runs only a minute and a half and was created for the NGO Gisha, a group devoted to freedom of movement...Watch... Israel’s Dirty Secret: Hamas Was Creation Of Zionist Intriguers The Washington Post has finally acknowledged—albeit buried in an “analysis” on its back pages—the explosive and little-known point first made by American Free Press as long ago as Oct. 29, 2001 (and later on July 8, 2002 and Feb. 13, 2006): that Israel had a secret agenda vis-a-vis Islamic fundamentalist groups such as Hamas, that Israel had a long, well-documented history of propping up Islamic fundamentalism (including terrorist organizations) for its own purposes. Read more... What’s Next, “Zionism Denial”?, by Arthur Topham The recent shackling and incarceration of Horst Mahler in Germany over charges of “Holocaust Denial” is the latest example of the degree of absurdity that this trend by the Zionist forces is leading mankind toward. There is now occurring, worldwide, an ideological war (vaguely masked as a ‘religious’ one) between the forces of darkness and deceit and the forces of light and truth. It’s as simple (and yet, as complex) as that. Following upon the heels of the other absurdity of this nature, that of Bishop Richard Williamson and the grossness and degree of the attack upon his name and his position within the beleaguered Catholic hierarchy by the Zionist zealot rabbis and their lackeys whose raison d’etre rests upon a professed foundational belief in their false messiah – the Holocaust god... Read more... Did Clinton sabotage a Palestinian reconciliation? | EI Still reeling from the Israeli massacres in the occupied Gaza Strip, Palestinians have lately had little to celebrate. So the strong start to intra-Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo last week provided a glimmer of hope. An end to the schism between the resistance and the elected but internationally-boycotted Hamas government on the one hand, and the Western-backed Fatah faction on the other, seemed within reach. But the good feeling came to a sudden end after what looked like a coordinated assault by United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, European Union High Representative Javier Solana, and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas whose term as president of the Palestinian Authority (PA) expired on 9 January... Read more... US might have delayed in salvaging a two-state solution, by Jonathan Cook Peace Now’s revelation this week that Israel plans to build more than 70,000 homes in the West Bank is the latest in a string of troubling disclosures about settlement expansion. The plans were released with a transparent goal in mind: embarrassing the Israeli leadership as Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, arrived on her first visit to the region since her appointment... Read more... Israel's death squads: A soldier's story | The Independent A former member of an Israeli assassination squad has broken his silence for the first time. The Israeli military's policy of targeted killings has been described from the inside for the first time. In an interview with The Independent on Sunday, and in his testimony to an ex-soldiers' organisation, Breaking the Silence, a former member of an assassination squad has told of his role in a botched ambush that killed two Palestinian bystanders, as well as the two militants targeted...The incident described by the ex-soldier appears almost trivial by comparison with so much that has happened since in Gaza, culminating in more than 1,200 Palestinian casualties inflicted by Operation Cast Lead this January. It might have been forgotten by all except those directly affected, if it had not been for the highly unusual account of it he gave to Breaking the Silence, which has collected testimony from hundreds of former troops concerned about what they saw and did – including abuses of Palestinians – during their service in the occupied territories... Read more... Checkpoints - The National Newspaper Mobility, contact, freedom of movement. These are the issues constantly raised by Palestinians. ...When I visited Qalqilya in January, entering was easy enough, but exiting was a problem. The soldiers stationed at the checkpoint demanded to know why we were “entering Israel”. My companion, a journalist from Tubas, a town in the northern West Bank, was taken aback by the question – we were headed away from the coast. “We’re going that way,” he said, “not into Israel. We’re going to Ramallah.” But for these soldiers, everything not penned in by a wall was Israel, even in the West Bank, even between Qalqilya and Ramallah. “But now you are going into Israel,” they said. “You go to Israel before you go to Ramallah.”...Not only freedom of movement inside the Green Line, but also between the occupied territories and Israel. Read more... Bishop Williamson and `Holocaust Denial’: Why the Uproar?, by Mark Weber(Director, Institute for Historical Review) The furor over the “Holocaust denial” remarks of Bishop Richard Williamson is not a controversy about historical truth, the role of history in society, anti-Semitism or “hate.” This affair is really about power -- about those who really wield it in our culture, as well as about how and why that power is used...In our society, “The Holocaust” is held up as an icon of virtually religious stature. Jewish leaders, supported by many non-Jewish political figures and much of the media, insist on everyone’s dogmatic affirmation of this totem -- one that is used to further Jewish-Zionist interests... Read more... Iranian leader says Mideast peace efforts are doomed to fail - Los Angeles Times Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech during a conference in Tehran in support of Gaza and Palestinians Iran's supreme leader delivered a blistering speech today in support of militant opposition to Israel, describing Obama administration and moderate Arab efforts to bring peace to the Middle East as doomed to failure...But Khamenei stopped short of calling for the military destruction of the Jewish state, instead proposing a referendum in which all those with a stake in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, including Jews and those living abroad, would vote on a new government...Read more... March 5, 2009 Amanpour 'transfixed' by Dalai Lama - CNN The Dalai Lama cracked jokes and chatted when a storm I never knew much about Buddhism, and was not expecting much, spiritually, from covering the Dalai Lama. But what happened just goes to show how the unlikeliest events can affect you at the unlikeliest times. I flew from covering the historic visit of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in North Korea to Dharamsala, India. This is the home-in-exile of the Dalai Lama and his government, as well as thousands of Tibetan monks and supporters. Our visit coincided with the events that commemorate each March 10, the date the Dalai Lama fled Tibet on horseback in 1959. He managed to evade the Chinese Communist forces, disguised as a soldier and escaping at night. The somber remembrance is a little like what the Palestinians do every year. They call it al-Nakba, or "catastrophe," which marks 1948 when they lost much of their land as the state of Israel was founded...knocked out power during his interview with CNN Read more... Letter from Mazin 3/4/09 Every day brings new sophisticated ways of ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinians while expanding the colonial settlements that increasing surround the few remaining Bantustans where those of us who remain here try to cling to a semblance of life (and not just the areas occupied since 1967 but also in places like Jaffa, the Negev, and the Galilee). I would like to impose on you to read a few of these case studies that are compiled by the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ) for the West Bank. You will be disturbed to see extremely well documented examples of the violence of land confiscation and ethnic cleansing. If you review just a few of those hundreds of stories, you will likely ask yourself why there is so little violent resistance!... Read more... America the Illiterate | Truthdig We live in two Americas. One America, now the minority, functions in a print-based, literate world. It can cope with complexity and has the intellectual tools to separate illusion from truth. The other America, which constitutes the majority, exists in a non-reality-based belief system. This America, dependent on skillfully manipulated images for information, has severed itself from the literate, print-based culture. It cannot differentiate between lies and truth. It is informed by simplistic, childish narratives and clichés. It is thrown into confusion by ambiguity, nuance and self-reflection. This divide, more than race, class or gender, more than rural or urban, believer or nonbeliever, red state or blue state, has split the country into radically distinct, unbridgeable and antagonistic entities... [This essay is worth printing, framing and mounting on the wall, and it goes a long way towards explaining the successful propagation of the Zionist ideology.] Read more... A shattering moment in America's fall from power | The Observer Our gaze might be on the markets melting down, but the upheaval we are experiencing is more than a financial crisis, however large. Here is a historic geopolitical shift, in which the balance of power in the world is being altered irrevocably. The era of American global leadership, reaching back to the Second World War, is over. You can see it in the way America's dominion has slipped away in its own backyard, with Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez taunting and ridiculing the superpower with impunity. Yet the setback of America's standing at the global level is even more striking. With the nationalisation of crucial parts of the financial system, the American free-market creed has self-destructed while countries that retained overall control of markets have been vindicated. In a change as far-reaching in its implications as the fall of the Soviet Union, an entire model of government and the economy has collapsed... Read more... Auschwitz Survivor Claims Elie Wiesel is an Impostor Miklos Gruner, 15, was deported from Hungary to Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1944, with his mother, father as well as a younger and an elder brother. He says that his mother and his younger brother were immediately killed after their arrival in the camp. Then he, his elder brother and their father had an inmate number tattooed on their arms and were sent to perform hard work in a synthetic fuel factory linked to IG Farben where the father died six months later. After that, the elder brother was sent to Mauthausen and, as the young Miklos was then alone, two elder Jewish inmates who were also Hungarians and friends with his late father took him under their protection. These two protectors of the young Miklos were the Lazar and Abraham Wiesel brothers... [We knew The Weasel was a fraud, but this is the icing on the cake.] Read more... I'm a holocaust denier, but I also believe the Nazis planned the extermination of the Jewish people | Independent.ie Let me say from the outset; I'm with Bishop Richard Williamson on this. There was no holocaust and six million Jews were not murdered by the Third Reich. These two statements of mine are irrefutable truths, yet their utterance could get me thrown in the slammer in half the countries of the EU. Why, they could in the right circumstances even get me extradited for trial in Sweden, a country which heroically kept the Third Reich supplied with iron ore, even as the last victims of the Nazi genocide were being murdered...As it happens, the figure 'six million' was originally a round-estimate of the total numbers of concentration camp victims of the Third Reich: this was then turned by popular perception, aided by activists such as the Simon Weisenthal Centre, into the Jewish death toll... [Actually, the number was invented in 1919, if not earlier. See this article. Moreover, there is no credible evidence that I'm aware of that there was any plan for "the extermination of the Jewish people."] Read more... Mossad Link Found to One of Key 9-11 Hijackers | AFP A NEW ISRAELI CONNECTION to the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001 has recently been unveiled. Buried in a New York Times story on Feb. 19 was the eye-opening revelation that a Lebanese Muslim Arab who has been taken into custody by the Lebanon—which has accused him of being a spy for some 25 years for Israeli intelligence—just happens to be a cousin of one of the Muslims alleged to have been one of the 9-11 hijackers. Although Ali al-Jarrah was—publicly—an outspoken proponent of the Palestinian cause, it now turns out that he was actually working as a paid asset of the Mossad for more than two decades, betraying his own nation and conducting spying operations against Palestinian groups and the pro-Palestinian party Hezbollah... Read more... 50 Years After Revolt, Clampdown on Tibetans - NYT Riot police officers recently marched in Xiahe, where more than 1,000 monks and Enraged nomads stormed through this windswept town on the Tibetan plateau a year ago this month, raiding a police compound, setting fire to squad cars and forcing police officers to flee. To the north, Tibetans on horseback galloped into a schoolyard, ripped down a Chinese flag and hoisted a Tibetan one, shouting “Free Tibet!” Now, the authorities have imposed an unofficial state of martial law on the vast highlands where ethnic Tibetans live, with thousands of troops occupying areas they fear could erupt in renewed rioting on a momentous anniversary next week. And Beijing is determined to keep foreigners from seeing the mass deployment...lay people protested for two days and attacked government buildings last March. Read more... In Loving Memory Of America: UK album launch March 2009 [I just have to put in a plug for Gilad Atzmon, an Israeli self-exiled to London, a superlative jazz musician, and one of the most interesting supporters of the One State Solution. You can listen to some of the cuts from his new album on the website.] Read more... The pasta, paper and hearing aids that could threaten Israeli security | The Independent Members of the highest-ranking American delegation to tour Gaza were shocked to discover that the Israeli blockade against the Hamas-ruled territory included such food staples as lentils, macaroni and tomato paste. "When have lentil bombs been going off lately? Is someone going to kill you with a piece of macaroni?" asked Congressman Brian Laird. It was only after Senator John Kerry, the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, raised the issue with Defence Minister Ehud Barak after their trip last month that Israel allowed the pasta in. Macaroni was considered a luxury item, not a humanitarian necessity, they were told. The total number of products blacklisted by Israel remains a mystery for UN officials and the relief agencies which face long delays in bringing in supplies..Yet since the end of the war in January, according to non-government organisations, five truckloads of school notebooks were turned back at the crossing at Kerem Shalom where goods are subject to a $1,000 (£700) per truck "handling fee"... [As Hannah Arendt put it, evil is indeed mundane.] Read more... Intel Council Head Draws Ire of Israel Lobby | IPS The appointment of a top-ranking retired diplomat and vocal critic of Israel to a key intelligence post has triggered an intense backlash from hawkish Israel supporters in Congress and the media who are pressing the administration of President Barack Obama to reconsider. Critics have seized upon retired Amb. Charles "Chas" Freeman’s ties to Saudi Arabia and views on human rights in China to argue against his appointment as chairman of the National Intelligence Council (NIC), but Freeman’s defenders charge that their real aim is to impose an ideological litmus test on top government officials and ensure a continued policy of reflexive U.S. support for Israel. Observers are watching the campaign against Freeman, who enjoys strong support among intelligence professionals and realists in the national-security bureaucracy, as an early test of how much influence the so-called "Israel lobby" will be able to exert on the new administration... Read more... Obama’s Coalition of the Unwilling, by Amy Goodman President Barack Obama met recently with the prime ministers of Canada and Britain. This week’s meeting with Britain’s Gordon Brown, who was pitching a “global New Deal,” created a minor flap when the White House downsized a full news conference to an Oval Office question-and-answer session, viewed by some in Britain as a snub. The change was attributed to the weather, with the Rose Garden covered with snow. It might have actually related not to snow cover, but to a snow job, covering up the growing divide between Afghanistan policies... Read more... Kathleen and Bill Christison: U.S. Military Aid to Israel Israhell In these days of economic crisis, budget overruns, earmarks, and multi-billion dollar bailouts, when Americans are being forced to tighten their own belts, one of the most automatic earmarks—a bailout by any measure—goes to a foreign government but is little understood by most Americans. U.S. military aid to Israel is doled out in annual increments of billions of dollars but remains virtually unchallenged while other fiscal outlays are drastically cut...Israel is by far the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid. Since 1949, the United States has provided Israel with $101 billion in total aid, of which $53 billion has been military aid. For the last 20-plus years, Israel has received an average of $3 billion annually in grant aid...Read more... March 4, 2009 Systemic Failure: Capitalism "Lays An Egg", by Stephen Lendman After the 1929 October 24, 28 and 29 market crash, the weekly entertainment industry magazine Variety (on October 30) published its most famous ever headline: "Wall Street Lays an Egg." In October 2008, history repeated, and since the October 2007 peak, equity prices plunged over 50% after the Dow and S & P (in February) posted their second worst ever monthly percentage declines - topped only in 1933 during the depths of the Great Depression. So far, the current market drop matches its 1929 - 1932 pace, and like then, shows no signs of abating...On February 28, Warren Buffett told shareholders that 2008 was Berkshire Hathaway's worst year, and he's "certain that the economy will be in shambles throughout 2009 - and, for that matter, probably well beyond...." As for government responses so far, his comment reflected gloom: "Economic medicine previously meted out by the cupful has recently been dispensed by the barrel. These once-unthinkable dosages will almost certainly bring on unwelcome aftereffects."... Read more... Why Are We "Surging" into Afghanistan?, by Jim Hightower | AlterNet Excuse me for being impolitic, but why the -- is America "surging" so unquestioningly into Afghanistan? Not for nothing is that country called "the burial ground of empires," "a guerilla's paradise" and "the theme park of problems." Yet, President Obama insists that America must act now to "stabilize" Afghanistan and its dizzyingly disparate, ethnically fractious, heavily armed tribal factions. Actually, our military has already been trying to do this for more than seven years. Despite having 36,000 U.S. troops on the ground and spending $2 billion a month, the current situation there is described by our intelligence agencies as in a "downward spiral."... Read more... Israel may face war crimes trials over Gaza | The Guardian A Palestinian man carries an injured boy into Shifa hospital in Gaza City The latest moves in The Hague come amid mounting international pressure on Israel and a growing recognition in Israeli government circles that it may eventually have to defend itself against war crimes allegations. The Guardian has also learned that a confidential inquiry by the International Committee of the Red Cross into the actions of Israel and Hamas during the recent conflict in Gaza is expected to accuse Israel of using "excessive force" - prohibited under the fourth Geneva convention...during an Israeli attack on Gaza in January Read more... The monumental folly at Sharm el-Sheikh, by Rami Khouri | The Daily Star The international pledges at Sharm el-Sheikh on Monday of some $4.5 billion in aid to the Palestinians to rebuild the Gaza Strip and promote the development of the West Bank seem like a monumental folly in view of the surrounding political context of this gesture. The financial generosity of the donors was largely offset by their political cowardice on two fronts: in challenging Israel to live according to the norms of law in its treatment of the Palestinians under its occupation; and in coming to grips with Palestinian political realities, especially the legitimacy and role of Hamas...Repeating the mistakes and biases of the past is a foolish way of approaching peacemaking. We have enough adults in the Middle East who act like animals; the last thing we need is adults in the international donor community who act like children. Read more... The Educational System Was Designed to Keep Us Uneducated and Docile It's no secret that the US educational system doesn't do a very good job. Like clockwork, studies show that America's schoolkids lag behind their peers in pretty much every industrialized nation. We hear shocking statistics about the percentage of high-school seniors who can't find the US on an unmarked map of the world or who don't know who Abraham Lincoln was. Fingers are pointed at various aspects of the schooling system—overcrowded classrooms, lack of funding, teachers who can't pass competency exams in their fields, etc. But these are just secondary problems. Even if they were cleared up, schools would still suck. Why? Because they were designed to... Read more... John Dean: Bush almost became an 'unconstitutional dictator' | The Raw Story It was during the Civil War that President Abraham Lincoln became known as a "constitutional dictator," said former Nixon White House counsel John Dean during a Monday broadcast of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. Responding to the recent release of several legal justifications for President Bush's most criticized policies, Dean summarized, "Reading these memos, you've gotta almost conclude we had an unconstitutional dictator. It's pretty deadly and pretty serious, what's in these materials." The memos, released by Obama's Justice Department on Monday, outline possible methods for the president to ignore treaties and International laws, kidnap and torture American citizens and overrule the First Amendment to the Constitution which ensures freedom of speech and of the press... Read more... "The Ultimate Aim is the Transfer of Arab-Israelis": Ethnic Cleansing and Israel | Counterpunch One of the more disturbing developments in the Middle East is a growing consensus among Israelis that it would acceptable to expel—in the words of advocates “transfer”—its Arab citizens to either a yet as unformed Palestinian state or the neighboring countries of Jordan and Egypt. Such sentiment is hardly new among Israeli extremists, and it has long been advocated by racist Jewish organizations like Kach, the party of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, as well as groups like the National Union, which doubled its Knesset representation in the last election. But “transfer” is no longer the exclusive policy of extremists, as it has increasingly become a part of mainstream political dialogue. “My solution for maintaining a Jewish and democratic state of Israel is to have two nation-states with certain concessions and with clear red lines,” Kadima leader and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told a group of Tel Aviv high school students last December, “and among other things, I will be able to approach the Palestinian residents of Israel, those whom we call Israeli Arabs, and tell them, ‘ your national solution lies elsewhere.’” Such talk has consequences... Read more... Williamson on God's Grandeur: Hoffman on Williamson As some of you may know, Bishop Richard N. Williamson has a weekly blog, "Dinoscopus." His latest entry is very moving. Warning: it contains no polemics or historical controversy of any kind. It is a purely contemplative rumination on western literature at a high order of magnitude. Here one discerns that Bishop Williamson is a culture-bearer. We need not comment on the characteristics of those of his adversaries who wish to cast him into a German dungeon on a European Union warrant. O Tempora! O Mores! You can read his Feb. 28 entry here:.. Read more... Ex-JDL Member Gets 20 Years in Prison - Los Angeles Times Former Jewish Defense League member who admitted plotting to bomb a Culver City mosque and the field office of Arab American Rep. Darrell E. Issa was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in federal prison... [Just imagine the media coverage had it been a Muslim plotting to bomb a synagogue.] Read more... Finding Ways to Stay in Iraq | antiwar.com Those who bought into the slogans "Hope" and "Change" last fall should have read the fine print. We were warned. Over and over during the campaign for the presidency Barack Obama made it clear that "withdrawal" from Iraq on his flexible 16-month timetable meant only the removal of "combat forces." He has also made it clear all along that "combat forces" means whatever he wants it to mean – until he decides to change his mind...Many Iraqis watching Obama's speech may have been surprised to hear what a great favor the U.S. has done them by invading and destroying their country. They may be sorry to find out there's more help where that came from... Read more... A Choice Between Peace and Peril, by Chris Hedges Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at a Bibi Netanyahu’s assumption of power in Israel sets the stage for a huge campaign by the Israeli government, and its well-oiled lobby groups in Washington, to push us into a war with Iran. Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program, according to U.S. and European intelligence agencies. But reality rarely impedes on politics. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama, along with Netanyahu, all talk as if Iran is on the brink of dropping the big one on the Jewish state... ceremony in Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz [Iran hasn't attacked another country in over 200 years] Read more... Return of the War Party | Patrick J. Buchanan “Real men go to Tehran!” brayed the neoconservatives, after the success of their propaganda campaign to have America march on Baghdad and into an unnecessary war that has forfeited all the fruits of our Cold War victory. Now they are back, in pursuit of what has always been their great goal: an American war on Iran. It would be a mistake to believe they and their collaborators cannot succeed a second time. Consider: On being chosen by Israel’s President Shimon Peres to form the new regime, Likud’s “Bibi” Netanyahu declared, “Iran is seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon and constitutes the gravest threat to our existence since the war of independence.”... Read more... IRAN AND THE WEST: A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, by Eric Margolis Iran is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its historic Islamic revolution after three decades of siege warfare by the western powers. To understand why relations between Tehran and the West are so bitter, we must understand their historical context. Iran’s jagged relations with the West began during World War II. In 1941, the British Empire and Soviet Union jointly invaded and occupied the independent kingdom of Persia, as it was then known. This oil-motivated aggression was every bit as criminal as the German-Soviet occupation of Poland in 1939, but has been blanked out of western history texts... Read more... Israel deliberately forgets its history, by Schlomo Sand - Le Monde An Israeli historian suggests the diaspora was the consequence, not of the expulsion of the Hebrews from Palestine, but of proselytising across north Africa, southern Europe and the Middle East ...Until about 1960 the complex origins of the Jewish people were more or less reluctantly acknowledged by Zionist historiography. But thereafter they were marginalised and finally erased from Israeli public memory. The Israeli forces who seized Jerusalem in 1967 believed themselves to be the direct descendents of the mythic kingdom of David rather than – God forbid – of Berber warriors or Khazar horsemen. The Jews claimed to constitute a specific ethnic group that had returned to Jerusalem, its capital, from 2,000 years of exile and wandering. This monolithic, linear edifice is supposed to be supported by biology as well as history. Since the 1970s supposedly scientific research, carried out in Israel, has desperately striven to demonstrate that Jews throughout the world are closely genetically related...[See next article for latest DNA evidence.] Read more... A Reassessment of the Jewish DNA Evidence The focus of the present study is to analyze and reassess Ashkenazi results obtained by DNA researchers and synthesize them into a coherent picture of Jewish genetics, interweaving historical evidence in order to obtain a more accurate depiction of the complex genetic history of this group. Many of the DNA studies on Ashkenazim fail to adequately address the complexity of the genetic evidence, in particular, the significant genetic contribution of European and Central Asian peoples in the makeup of the contemporary Ashkenazi population. One important contribution to Ashkenazi DNA appears to have originated with the Khazars, an ancient people of probable Central Asian stock that lived in southern Russia during the 8th-12th centuries CE. Significant inflow of genes from European host populations over the centuries is also supported by the DNA evidence. The present study analyzes not only the Middle Eastern component of Ashkenazi ancestry, but also the genetic contribution from European and Central Asian sources that appear to have had an important impact on Ashkenazi ancestry... Read more... What's wrong with America? Case in point: Richard Perle | Stephen M. Walt ..In a recent article in The National Interest and a public appearance at the Nixon Center, Perle has tried to sell the story that neither he nor his fellow neoconservatives had any significant influence on the foreign policy of the Bush administration, and especially the decision to invade Iraq. Specifically, he denounces the supposedly "false claim that the decision to remove Saddam, and Bush policies generally, were made or significantly influenced by a few neoconservative 'ideologues.'" He suggests that no one has ever documented this claim, either conveniently ignoring the many books and articles that did exactly that, or misrepresenting what these works actually say... Read more... America must stop underwriting Israeli aggression | The Register-Guard With the merciless demolition of Gaza — the killing and maiming of thousands; the destruction of public buildings, housing, water and sewerage systems and commercial facilities; 1.5 million people left imprisoned and destitute — Israel proceeds unimpeded toward its long-evident goals. One distraught Palestinian carrying an injured child stated that Israel will be unable to remove Hamas — only kill more citizens, creating more hatred in Palestinian territories and beyond. Like it or not, the people elected Hamas in a fair, U.S.-promoted election with international oversight. The Palestinians, Israel’s citizens and the rest of the world know Israel’s goals as confirmed in the 2009 Likud Party Platform: “The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (the West Bank) are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the state of Israel. … Read more... “The Jordan Valley and the territories that dominate it shall be under Israeli sovereignty. The Jordan River will be the permanent eastern border of the state of Israel. … Israel Boycott Movement Gains Momentum | IPS "Standing United with the People of Gaza" is the theme of this week's Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), which kicked off in Toronto and another 39 cities across the globe Sunday. A movement to boycott Israeli goods, culture and academic institutions is gaining momentum as Geneva prepares to host the UN's Anti-Racism Conference, Durban 2 next month amidst swirling controversy. Both Canada and the U.S. are boycotting the Durban 2 conference in protest over what they perceive as a strongly anti-Israel agenda. The first UN Anti-Racism conference, held in the South African city Durban in 2001, saw the Israeli and U.S. delegates storm out of the conference, accusing other delegates of focusing too strongly on Israel. U.S. and Canadian support might have offered some comfort for Israel. However, international criticism of Israel's three-week bloody offensive into Gaza, which left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead and thousands more wounded, most of them civilian, has breathed fresh life into a Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) campaign. The BDS campaign followed a 2005 appeal from over 170 Palestinian civil society groups to launch a divestment campaign "as a way of bringing non- violent pressure to bear on the state of Israel to end its violations of international law."... Read more... Answer Joel Kovel's Allegations of Politically-Motivated Termination: Petition "Mandela’s greatness derived, it seems to me, from his rejection of South Africa's version of the two-statesolution - the Bantustan system....It is futile to build a movement for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine that does not radically challenge the racist state: the goal is simply not worthy enough. In a vision of a post-racist society we find, however, the moral force capable of inspiring and drawing in people of good will from all sides of the conflict. If such people were able to demand the downfall of apartheid, why should they not do the same for Zionism, and unify themselves under this banner? It will be a long and hard struggle, and only a vision worthy of its sacrifices will suffice for the path ahead." - Joel Kovel Read more... UK Government Boycotts Israeli Tycoon Lev Leviev over Settlement Construction | Indybay The government of the United Kingdom has decided to boycott Israeli diamond and real estate mogul Lev Leviev over his companies’ construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in the Occupied West Bank, the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz Daily reported today. The decision by the UK government followed a coordinated advocacy campaign by human rights advocates in New York, the UK, Palestine and Israel demanding that the UK government end plans to rent the new UK Embassy in Tel Aviv from Leviev’s company Africa-Israel. The UK’s Tel Aviv Ambassador notified Leviev of the decision by letter, following a British parliamentary debate, and inquiries with Leviev’s company Africa-Israel over its activities in the West Bank, Ha’aretz reported. According to Ha’aretz, “The embassy in Tel Aviv confirmed the details of the story.”... Read more... March 3, 2009 Missing From the Afghan "Surge": A Congressional Debate | t r u t h o u t During a house search in Semkar, Afghanistan, ...But another key element is missing with regard to Afghanistan that was present in 2006 to 2007 with regard to Iraq: public and Congressional debate. An escalating sequence of political events, including the Lamont Senate campaign, the recapture of the Congress by a Democratic majority, the Congressional fight in the spring of 2007 over a timetable for withdrawal - all sent a clear message to the Bush administration, the US military, the Iraqi government, Parliament and Iraqi society generally that time was running out for the US occupation, and that was a key cause of the change in policies...This public and Congressional pressure is missing today. President Obama has ordered more troops to Afghanistan. But while Obama administration officials have made suggestions in the direction of other elements - working to get the assistance of Iran and other neighbors, working with elements of the Taliban - the actual change we've seen so far in Afghanistan is: more troops...Robert Greenwald's Brave New Foundation is working to spark that debate. They've produced a ten-minute "mini-documentary" [embedded in article] questioning the wisdom of sending more troops in support of the same failed policy. Help spread the word by watching and sharing the video.a US soldier walks past a group of Afghan men Read more... Wars, Endless Wars, by Bob Herbert | NYT The singer Edwin Starr, who died in 2003, had a big hit in 1970 called “War” in which he asked again and again: “War, what is it good for?” The U.S. economy is in free fall, the banking system is in a state of complete collapse and Americans all across the country are downsizing their standards of living. The nation as we’ve known it is fading before our very eyes, but we’re still pouring billions of dollars into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq with missions we are still unable to define...In short, we’re committed to these two conflicts for a good while yet, and there is nothing like an etched-in-stone plan for concluding them. I can easily imagine a scenario in which Afghanistan and Iraq both heat up and the U.S., caught in an extended economic disaster at home, undermines its fragile recovery efforts in the same way that societies have undermined themselves since the dawn of time — with endless warfare... Read more... Whilethe ethnic cleansing and genocide escalate, our leaders and punditsonly talk about Hamas "terrorism" (carried out with their dreadedslingshots) - Could anything be more surreal? Peace Now: Israel planning 73,300 new homes in West Bank - Haaretz A report by the Israeli left-wing NGO Peace Now released Monday says that the government is planning to build more than 73,300 new housing units in the West Bank. Peace Now estimates that if all of the units are built, it would mean a 100-percent increase in the total number of Israeli settlers. The report says that some settlements, including the two largest Ariel and Ma'aleh Adumim, would double in size... Read more... Eviction in Haifa | Atheo News A large police unit forcibly evicted the Abu Shimla family from Haifa this week, a city with a large Palestinian population within the boundaries of the Israeli state...Of the Abu Shimla family Ghanayim said, "The process carried out to evict them was a military operation organized by special units and this illustrates the racism and barbarism that Arab citizens are subjected to in the Israeli state. This would not happen to Jewish citizens." The Palestinian member of Israeli Knesset went on to say that, like Jerusalem, Haifa is undergoing an intense Judaization process... Read more... Al-Kurd Family Becomes Symbol of Palestinian Struggle: Father Dies of Sorrow, Future of the Family Unknown Mohammad al-Kurd, 62, also known as abu-Kamal, the father of a Palestinian family who were evicted from their home in East Jerusalem on November 9 by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) died at the weekend of sorrow after his family’s eviction from the house where they had lived for more than 50 years...This situation of the al-Kurd family is quickly becoming a symbol of the Palestinian struggle and during the funeral procession, slogans for Palestinian unity and liberation were chanted... Read more... Hamas: Its Strange Enemies and the Tunnel Network that Feeds Gaza | Global Research It is a miracle that 1.4 million Gazans have survived Israel‘s secret weapon—starvation. Israel has been throttling the flow of food and goods into Gaza not just for months, but for years. Recent UN press releases state that since Israel’s “cease fire,” Israel allows only a fraction of needed food through the produce gate into Gaza. The Director of Operations in Gaza for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), John Ging, said on Feb 5: “The Agency is responsible for feeding 900,000 refugees in Gaza, yet can only get food packets out at a daily rate of 30,000, giving an idea of just how long those at the end of the queue have to wait.”... Read more... The despicable smear campaign against Charles Freeman | Stephen Walt Stephen M. Walt Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s infamous witch hunt against alleged communists in the U.S. government relied primarily on lies, innuendo, and intimidation. Then, at a particularly odious hearing, after McCarthy had falsely accused a young Army officer of being a communist agent, Army counsel Joseph Welch turned on the senator and shot back: "At long last, Senator McCarthy, have you not a shred of decency?" I am reminded of that moment as I watch the all-too-predictable smear campaign against Charles Freeman’s appointment as chairman of the National Intelligence Council. As soon as the appointment was announced, a bevy of allegedly “pro-Israel” pundits leapt to attack it, in what The Nation’s Robert Dreyfuss called a “thunderous, coordinated assault.” Freeman’s critics were the usual suspects: Jonathan Chait of the New Republic, Michael Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, Gabriel Schoenfeld (writing on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal), Jonah Goldberg of National Review, Marty Peretz on his New Republic blog, and former AIPAC official Steve Rosen (yes, the same guy who is now on trial for passing classified U.S. government information to Israel)...Read more... Evangelical Zionist’s Dilemma: Love Your Enemy or Starve Him ...Evangelicalism Zionism is basically a feel good religious disease, not a true Biblical faith. It exists for two related reasons; First, Evangelical Zionism works financially for those who promote it; second, it furthers the political cause of World Zionism, therefore it enjoys enormous support from Zionist financial, political, and media sources. Its success can be seen in the growth of the mega-churches Evangelical Zionist media. Barely 100 years old, it dates back approximately to the first publishing of the Scofield Reference Bible in 1908. The Scofield movement replaces Jesus’ clear teaching of love and peace with a spiritual obsession for the political state of Israel. It exists in a fairy tale of a political kingdom growing out or present day Israel, arising in Jerusalem, and ruled by Jesus himself, whose recorded words do not support it... Read more... Limbaugh in the Lead: A Gift for Obama | Huffington Post Looking for all the world like the sweating floor manager on the late afternoon shift at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club in an unbuttoned shiny black shirt and undersized sport coat, Rush Limbaugh leaned his meaty hands on the lectern at the CPAC conference and slipped a greasy dollar bill into the G-string of the writhing conservative dead-enders packed into the garishly lit Omni Shoreham in Washington DC... Read more... Stand in solidarity to end dirty coal, by Bill McKibben | 350 In a few hours, the first big protest of the Obama era -- and the largest-ever civil disobedience against global warming in this country -- will take place against the not-very-scenic backdrop of the coal-fired Capitol Hill Power Plant in Washington DC. Myself and thousands of people of every stripe will be risking arrest today, and I'm asking you to stand with me as it unfolds. I'm asking you add your voice to mine, and thousands of others, to show that people everywhere are uniting behind a future free of coal--a future safe from the ravages of climate change... Read more... Pew Study Shows Criminal Corrections Spending Outpaces All but Medicaid - NYT One in every 31 adults, or 7.3 million Americans, is in prison, on parole or probation, at a cost to the states of $47 billion in 2008, according to a new study. [That's about 3.5%, a new record]...Only Medicaid spending grew faster than state corrections spending, which quadrupled in the past two decades...The increases in the number of people in some form of correctional control occurred as crime rates declined by about 25 percent in the past two decades...About $9 out of $10 spent on corrections goes to prison financing (that includes money spent to house 780,000 people in local jails)... [Gladwe've got our priorities right - and at least the Prison Industry isbullish. Have we caught up with the Israelis yet? Not even close - theyincarcerate about 40% of the population, though it's rumored they areworking on a "final solution," which would bring that number downsignificantly. In the meantime, it costs them far less per capita, asthey don't bother to feed, house or clothe the great majority of them.] Read more... Mission Accomplished Indefinitely | Antiwar.com "[They] were not fighting this perpetual war for victory, they were fighting to keep a state of emergency always present as the surest guarantee of authoritarianism." - George Orwell, 1984 It looks like the fat lady will become a Victoria's Secret model before she sings the finale of our woebegone war in Iraq. On Friday Feb. 27, at Camp Lejeune, N.C., young Mr. Obama announced that, "by August 31, 2010, our combat mission in Iraq will end." We can speculate till the troops come home why Obama chose to make this announcement on a Marine Corps base as opposed to, say, on an aircraft carrier, but it's a dead cert that the mission will be no more accomplished by August 2010 than it was in May 2003... Read more... It’s Obama’s War Now, by Chris Hedges | Truthdig This is the text of a talk by Chris Hedges that will be read at anti-war gatherings to be held by The World Can’t Wait in New York’s Union Square, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Nashville, Louisville, Chicago and Berkeley on March 19 to protest the sixth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq. Barack Obama has shown that he is as capable of doublespeak as any other politician when he announced an end to the war in Iraq. Combat troops are to be pulled out of Iraq by August 2010, he said, but some 50,000 occupation troops will remain behind. Someone should let the Iraqis know the distinction. I doubt any soldier or Marine in Iraq will notice much difference in 19 months... Read more... Science Museum accused over links to Israel | The Independent The Science Museum, one of Britain's most prestigious public institutions, was embroiled in a row last night after being accused of promoting Israeli universities whose research was used in the country's military campaign in Gaza. More than 400 academics, a Nobel laureate and the former chair of the Science Select Committee called on the museum to cancel workshops due to be held this week that promote Israeli scientific achievements to schoolchildren. The critics plan to picket the event and accused the museum of promoting scientists and universities who are "complicit in the Israeli occupation and in the policies and weaponry recently deployed to such disastrous effect in Gaza"..The Zionist Federation is running the "educational seminars" at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry today and at the Science Museum on Thursday... Read more... A Banana Republic by 2012?: Obama's Budget, by PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS President Obama has presented the most irresponsible budget in US history. His fiscal year 2010 budget projects federal spending of $3.5 trillion and a federal deficit of $1.75 trillion. In other words, 50 percent of the government’s budget consists of red ink. And Americans are angry that sub-prime borrowers took mortgages they couldn’t afford. The bald fact is that the US government is going to have to borrow -- or print -- half of the money it intends to spend in Obama’s first budget.. As presidential budgets are marketing devices rather than financial statements, they are imbued with optimistic assumptions. Obama’s budget is based on optimistic assumptions about the extent of decline in GDP. A more realistic projection of GDP decline would reveal that Obama’s budget is the first since World War II in which more than half of the government’s expenditures must be financed by red ink... Read more... Zardari's Days are Numbered: Pakistan Lurches Toward the Abyss | Counterpunch There will be plenty more screw-ups in Pakistan, but the Pakistan Supreme Court’s decision banning Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from elected office will probably be remembered as the biggee, the reckless piece of political gamesmanship by Asif Zardari that sent Pakistan’s current experiment in democracy sliding into the abyss. Briefly put, the Pakistani government led by Benazir Bhutto’s widower, Asif Zardari, is unpopular because of its pro-U.S. policy vis a vis the insurgency and Zardari’s personal reputation for corruption and feckless Machiavellianism. Sharif--who was Prime Minister until Musharraf removed him in 1999-- leads the other democratic party, the PML-N. He’s probably the most popular politician in Pakistan because of his conciliatory attitude toward the border militants, his distance from the United States, and an ostentatious regard for Islam. His political base is the economic and electoral powerhouse of Punjab, which—until yesterday—was run by his brother Shahbaz... Read more... Let's Make It Personal Let us reveal real people with real names behind the bias and wars, as opposed to an amorphous "corporate media" After years of war, the voices of dissent have been only marginally successful in correcting the general public’s misconceptions regarding Israel's illegal colonization of Palestine and the resulting wars in the Middle East. These misconceptions persist among a majority of Americans and Britons largely because of flagrant bias in mainstream news coverage and commentary on both sides of the Atlantic. Therefore, it would seem that exposing the underlying source of that bias, with a special focus on the reasoning behind the editorial decisions of real people with real names (as opposed to an amorphous "corporate media"), would be a useful first step in countering the unfortunate effects of what has amounted to pro-war/pro-Israel propaganda from the mainstream media, coupled with the censoring of information and the voices of dissent.. Read more... March 2, 2009 Jaffa: from eminence to ethnic cleansing | EI A view from the sea at Jaffa looking east onto the city, 1898-1914. (Matson Collection) Jaffa was the largest city in historic Palestine during the years of the British mandate, with a population of more than 80,000 Palestinians in addition to the 40,000 persons living in the towns and villages in its immediate vicinity. In the period between the UN Partition resolution (UNGA 181) of 29 November 1947, and the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel, Zionist military forces displaced 95 percent of Jaffa's indigenous Arab Palestinian population...Jaffa was the epicenter of the Palestinian economy before the 1948 Nakba. Beginning in the early 19th century, the people of Jaffa had cultivated citrus groves, particularly oranges, on their land. International demand for Jaffa oranges propelled the city onto the world stage, earning the city an important place in the global economy... Read more... Letter from Mazin 3/2/09 A donor conference is underway in Sharm Alshaikh in Egypt “to raise funding” for Gaza, but is turning out to be similar to all such previous conferences: lots of huff, puff, and posturing. For the US administration, it is a way to prop up the government of Mahmoud Abbas (whose term ended January 9). The US “pledged” $900 million but $200 million of those will go to cover deficits of the administration of Mahmous Abbas, $400 million to West Bank projects (many profiting Israel), and the remaining $300 million will be slated for Gaza but may never get there because the US refuses to deal with or help anything associated with Hamas, and Hamas is the de facto government (and most of the people) of Gaza. The European Union is trying to buy its way out of its nagging conscience for having supported a failing US/Israeli policy (a policy that tries to bypass democracy and find compliant leaders or pressure them into compliance)... Read more... The voice of Avrum Burg: The wisdom of an Israeli Jew Paul J. Balles considers former Israeli legislator and cabinet member Avrum Burg’s thought-provoking views on Jewish identity and Israeli psychology, arguing that, if American Jews and Israelis could learn from Burg, “there might be a chance for an enduring peace in the Middle East”... Read more... Israel's Lurch to the Right Could Be Far Indeed | Antiwar.com The continuing efforts by Israel's presumptive next prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, to assemble a rightwing-dominated government have sparked serious concern about the effects such a government might have on peace efforts with the Palestinians. In addition, the fact that Netanyahu has invited Avigdor Lieberman, leader of the openly anti-Arab Yisrael Beiteinu party, to join the government has sparked fears that this government might take harsh actions against the Palestinian Arabs who form over 20 percent of Israel's citizenry. Netanyahu's invitation to Lieberman has also raised the question of whether a government containing Lieberman should be treated any differently than governments elsewhere that might contain racists like the Austrian Joerg Haider or the French Jean-Marie Le Pen... Read more... WRITE! For Justice, Human Rights and International Law in Palestine Today, the Wall Street Journal published a deceitful and frankly racist piece by Tom Gross, who labels all Palestinians as "terrorists," repeats the myth of the Camp David generous offer, and urges US Foreign Policy makers to deny Palestinians their basic human rights and statehood. We need you more than ever to do what you do best and that is to WRITE! We urge you to take a few minutes and call or write to the Wall Street Journal and Tom Gross who writes for the National Review and set the record straight:.. Read more... Ex-Commander: Afghan War Should Last Until 2025 The Iraq war may be winding down. But the battle for Afghanistan could continue until 2025. That's the view, at least, of Lt. Gen. (Ret.) David Barno, the former head of coalition forces in Afghanistan. In testimony yesterday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Barno outlined a strategy that anticipates keeping U.S. troops there for another 16 years... [I doubt it - it's much more likely that well before that the Afghanswill do to U.S. forces what they did to the British and Russians.] Read more... Obama's Iraq plan draws fire from Left President Barack Obama's plan to pull US combat forces from Iraq by August 2010 have drawn fire from his Democratic allies who expressed concern the withdrawal was not quick or complete enough. "I support President Obama for taking a step in the right direction in Iraq, but I do not think that his plan goes far enough," said Democratic Representative Dennis Kucinich. "You cannot leave combat troops in a foreign country to conduct combat operations and call it the end of the war. You can?t be in and out at the same time," said Kucinich, an early opponent of plans to invade Iraq. After years of denouncing exit timetables as a sure recipe for defeat, Obama's Republican foes generally applauded the blueprint, saying it showed that Iraq, once given up for lost, was making steady if fragile gains... [President Johnson's pride wouldn't let him put an end to the Vietnam War - pride goeth before a fall.] Read more... Sen. Whitehouse Prepares the Nation for Torture Horrors Senator Whitehouse is on both the Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary Committee. Thus he perhaps more than anyone else has access to ALL of the available information on the Bush Torture Network. Including the remaining pictures and videotapes from Abu Ghraib that were concealed from the public view. Pictures and videotapes that even Rumsfeld was shocked by, even though, as has become apparent since, he authorized them..."As we work toward a brighter future ahead, to days when jobs return to our cities, capital to our businesses, and security to our lives, we cannot set aside our responsibility to take an accounting of where we are, what was done, and what must now be repaired. We also have to brace ourselves for the realistic possibility that as some of this conduct is exposed, we and the world will find it shameful, revolting. We may have to face the prospect of looking with horror at our own country's deeds. We are optimists, we Americans; we are proud of our country. Contrition comes hard to us... Read more... Lieberman: I want to be foreign minister | Jerusalem Post Israel Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman said that while he was capable of holding every government portfolio, he would like to serve as Israel's foreign minister. "I think I can hold every portfolio-defense, finance and Foreign Ministry. I think personally I'd like the foreign office," Lieberman was quoted as telling Newsweek in an interview published on Saturday... [Israel's Von Ribbentrop from the shtetl] Read more... Terrorism: Disentangling Layers of a Loaded Term in Search of a Thread of Peace - NYT CAIRO - If President Obama is serious about repairing relations with the Arab world and re-establishing the United States as an honest broker in Middle East peace talks, one step would be to bridge a chasm in perception that centers on one contentious word: terrorism. The recent fighting in Gaza offered a potent reminder of the challenge Washington faces in mediating a dispute when the United States refuses to speak directly with some of the main players, including Hamas and Hezbollah, which it calls terrorist groups. Whether the United States has declined to speak with hostile groups because it considers them terrorists, or whether it slaps the terrorist label on groups it wants to sanction or marginalize, a battle over the term terrorist has become a proxy for the larger issues that divide Washington and the Arab public... Read more... Terror watchdog calls for inquiry into MI5 ‘torture role’ | The Times (UK) THE government’s terrorism watchdog has asked for a full judicial inquiry into the role of British intelligence and security personnel in the torture and rendition of Al-Qaeda suspects. Lord Carlile of Berriew QC has accused ministers of providing only a “limited” account of the UK’s role. In comments that will add to the growing political clamour over the issue he called for Gordon Brown to appoint a senior judge to investigate UK complicity “in the rendition of captured men and women to foreign governments”... Read more... What Foreign Policy?, by Ximena Ortiz | National Interest ...Still, on the most important element of his foreign policy, his plan for Afghanistan, the president told the country to stay tuned. Indeed, he has decided upon a troop increase of seventeen thousand before announcing a comprehensive strategy for the country or those new troops. While Obama has effectively articulated why Afghanistan is important, he has not given an inkling of why military forces could succeed where they are currently failing...It seems difficult to believe that for all of Obama’s obvious talent, intelligence and political dexterity, he could get Afghanistan terribly wrong... [Just look at the photo and you'll get it] Read more... YouTube - Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 Trailer Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of events held in cities and campuses across the globe. The aim of IAW is to educate people about the nature of Israel as an apartheid system and to build Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns as part of a growing global BDS movement... Watch... Day 16 - Egypt WILL allow convoy into Gaza They are in their thousands in the Green Public square of Tripoli attending a big rally to welcome the Viva Palestina humanitarian Gaza convoy...This morning it was announced at the rally that Egypt has agreed to let the convoy through to Gaza to the cheers of all the people and to the relief of our convoy members. It will be one less matter to worry about and to only concentrate on the noble goal they set out to achieve when their vehicle rolled from the UK on the 14th February... Read more... "NOBODY EXPECTED THE SPANISH INQUISITION!" - Monty Python Pope Pius XII and Bishop Williamson vs. Elie Wiesel and the Holocaust Fundamentalists: Whom Do You Believe?"To put it bluntly, Pope Pius XII did not believe then or at any time later in his life that a program of extermination of the Jews ever existed." Professor David O'Connell Catholics in the pew, like myself, now observe from afar the sorry spectacle of the princes of the church, from the Bishop of Rome on down, groveling at the feet of the Holocaust Fundamentalists who lead the principal Jewish organizations. Meanwhile, in the background, those who control the Zionist media turn the desired level of pressure up or down, as needed. Yes, the dialogue that began some forty years ago has now degenerated into a monologue in which the Jewish abuser heaps insult, scorn, and ridicule on the willing Catholic victims. We have here a classic example of an abuse scenario: the perpetrator, with his quick temper, is bossy and possessive. He pressures the victim to do things that bring dishonor upon him and to say things that are simply not true. Of course, the worst feature of this paradigm is that the abused party, once having grown accustomed to this treatment, no longer even thinks about ending the degrading situation in which he is trapped...Read more... Iran, the Jews and Germany, by Roger Cohen - NYT ...“Iran — the supposed enemy — is the one society that has gone through its extremist fervor and is coming out the other end. It is relatively stable and socially dynamic. As my father, who continues to live there, says, ‘It is the least undemocratic country in the region outside Israel.’ ” This notion of a “post-fervor” Iran is significant. The compromises being painfully fought out between Islam and democracy in Tehran are of seminal importance. They belie the notion of a fanatical power; they explain Jewish life... Read more... AIPAC, Espionage and the US-Israel Free Trade Agreement The following document case file tracks the first US Free Trade Agreement signed with Israel in 1985. The lobbying battle pitted large US corporations, American industry associations, small fruit and vegetable growers and thousands of individual petitioners against the "American-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc." and American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC...American industries were shocked when the FBI began investigating AIPAC for obtaining and distributing the 300 page report containing their trade secrets titled "Probable Economic Effect of Providing Duty Free Treatment for U.S. Imports from Israel, Investigation No. 332-180" in the midst of the negotiations...Since the agreement was signed, US trade with Israel swung from surplus to a $71 billion cumulative deficit in 2008—an anomaly among all other US bilateral agreements... Read more... China tensions high after Tibet monk sets himself alight A Chinese military policeman gestures to stop taking photos near the Potala Palace in the Tibetan capital Tensions were high in a flashpoint town of southwest China Saturday after a Tibetan monk set himself on fire in protest against Chinese rule, activist groups and residents said. Chinese authorities confirmed a man had set himself alight, but did not acknowledge claims by activist groups that police shot the monk and that he embarked on his protest after officials banned prayers at his monastery. The incident on Friday came amid reported protests across the Tibetan plateau ahead of the ultra-sensitive 50th anniversary on March 10 of a failed uprising against Chinese rule that led to the Dalai Lama fleeing to India...Read more... "Consumerism" Is Dead -- Can Obama Lead Us to a Downscaled Lifestyle? | AlterNet Dear Mr. President, your assignment is to handle our economic decline in such a way as to avoid wars, civil disorder or both. The public perception of the ongoing fiasco in governance has moved from sheer, mute incomprehension to goggle-eyed panic as the scrims of unreality peel away revealing something like a national death-watch scene in history's intensive care unit. Is the USA in recession, depression, or collapse? People are at least beginning to ask. Nature's way of hinting that something truly creepy may be up is when both Paul Volcker and George Soros both declare on the same day that the economic landscape is looking darker than the Great Depression... Read more... March 1, 2009 The Wounds of Gaza | The Lancet Global Health Network All that is left of a child after Israel bombed a school in Gaza Two Surgeons from the UK, Dr Ghassan Abu Sittah and Dr Swee Ang, managed to get into Gaza during the Israeli invasion. Here they describe their experiences, share their views, and conclude that the people of Gaza are extremely vulnerable and defenseless in the event of another attack. The wounds of Gaza are deep and multi-layered. Are we talking about the Khan Younis massacre of 5,000 in 1956 or the execution of 35,000 prisoners of war by Israel in 1967? Yet more wounds of the First Intifada, when civil disobedience by an occupied people against the occupiers resulted in massive wounded and hundreds dead? We also cannot discount the 5,420 wounded in southern Gaza alone since 2000. Hence what we are referring to below are only that of the invasion as of 27 December 2008... Read more... One Democratic State: A Way Out of the Israeli-Palestinian Quagmire, by John Collins It's time to admit that the "two-state solution" is no longer a desirable option for resolving the conflict in Israel/Palestine. Nationalism has failed both Israeli Jews and Palestinians, leaving the field open for a more forward-looking idea: a single democratic state for all who live in it. The two-state solution has been at the center of the "peace process" for years, but its time has passed. It is based on a denial of how Israel was created, and, while the moral arguments for having a separate Jewish state are compelling in the abstract, such a state can only be created and maintained through the violent removal and repression of Palestine's indigenous Arab population. A one-state solution would enable Israeli Jews to live together without doing so at the further expense of their Palestinian neighbors... Read more... The Grand Inquisitor Has Spoken His Holiness Abe Foxman, the New Pope Bishop Richard Williamson has yet to recant his Holocaust denial, said the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which today called his most recent attempt to apologize for the controversy surrounding his denial of the existence of the Nazi gas chambers, "a sham." In a statement published by Zenit news agency, the schismatic Roman Catholic bishop said he regretted having made remarks in an interview denying the existence of the Nazi gas chambers and downplaying the full extent of the Holocaust. "This is another sham statement that doesn't recant any of his earlier remarks about the Holocaust," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor. "Bishop Williamson must unequivocally acknowledge the full extent of the Holocaust and recognize the fact of the existence of the gas chambers. He must make clear that six million Jews were systematically murdered by the Nazi regime."...[Publicly confess to our dogma or we will destroy you.] Read more... Why Israel's war is driven by fear | The Observer Yeela Raanan says she would prefer not to know about the war in Gaza. She doesn't want to see the pictures of dead children cut down by Israeli shells or read of the allegations of war crimes by her country's army as it kills Palestinians by the hundreds... Read more... Israel planned expansion of West Bank settlements, documents show A key Israeli government agency has been promoting plans to build thousands of new houses in illegal West Bank settlements, government documents made public on Friday show. Documents from Israel’s Civil Administration, the government organ responsible for nonmilitary affairs in the occupied West Bank, were obtained by the organization B’Tselem through a Freedom of Information request. The plans, developed over the last two years, were approved by the Environment Subcommittee of the Civil Administration’s planning wing and plot out a major expansion of the Gush Eztion settlement bloc. If realized the plan will cut a swath of the West Bank adjacent to the Palestinian city of Bethlehem, and annex it to the new settlement areas... Read more... Strike paralyses West Bank | Al Jazeera Palestinians held Friday prayers in Silwan neighbourhood to protest [AFP] A general strike to protest against Israel's plans to evict 1,500 Palestinians from their homes in the Silwan district of Jerusalem has paralysed much of the occupied West Bank. Shops and schools were closed and the streets were deserted as the strike was observed on Saturday. The Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) had called the strike after Israeli officials and soldiers visited several homes in Silwan, raising fears that the houses would be demolished soon... Read more... James Petras' New Book: The Power of Israel in the United States | Review by Stephen Lendman “Reflexes that ordinarily spring automatically to the defense of open debate and free enquiry shut down—at least among much of America’s political elite—once the subject turns to Israel." Financial Times ..Petras' powerful new book is titled The Power of Israel in the United States. It's a work of epic writing and essential reading documenting the enormous influence of the pro-Israeli Lobby on US policy in the Middle East. It focuses like a laser to assure that policy conforms with Israel's long-term goal for regional hegemony. The Lobby's influence is broad and deep enough to include officials at the highest levels of government, the business community, academia, the clergy (especially the dominant Christian fundamentalists/Christian Zionists) and the mass media. Petras shows how together they're able to assure the full and unconditional US support for all elements of Israel's agenda going back decades even when that agenda harms our interests such as the unwinnable war in Iraq, any future one against Iran if it's undertaken, and the appalling and brutal subjugation and colonization of the Palestinian people that serves no US interest whatever. In spite of it, the Lobby is able to get the US to go along with Israel unconditionally with no serious opposition to it tolerated...Read more... Multi-billion Dollar Mining Boom: The economics of war and empire in Afghanistan Some of the richest mineral deposits in the world, said Aziz, exist within a few kilometres of where we stood. Many more deposits are scattered throughout the rest of Afghanistan. A promotional brochure distributed by the Afghanistan Ministry of Mines claims the Hajigak iron deposit in Bamiyan contains 1.8 billion tonnes of ore with a concentration of 62 percent iron. There is also abundant coal nearby that can be used for the coking process and to generate electricity making this a world class site for mine development...While the privatization program is overseen by an office of USAID, the ultimate decision to accept a winning auction bid rests with the Afghan government. However, there are questions about whether the Karzai government has the power to make autonomous decisions. Some Afghan critics complain that American, British, and Canadian diplomatic and military advisors act as Karzai’s shadow cabinet... [Now, tell me again, why are we still in Afghanistan?] Read more... |
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