May 29, 2010 Breaking the Israeli Siege of Gaza: Attack at Sea, Detention Camps and Deportation Await, by Ann Wright | Veterans Today By the time you read this, we will be on the high seas of the Mediterranean (we hope the seas will not be too high). Our two U.S. flagged Free Gaza boats, will join two other passenger ships, a 600 passenger ship from Turkey sponsored by the Turkish humanitarian organization, Insani Yardim Vakfi (IHH) and a 50 passenger ship from Athens sponsored by the European Campaign Against the Siege and the Greek/Swedish Ships to Gaza campaign, to sail to the shores of Gaza to break the Israeli naval blockade of the 1.5 million citizens in Gaza... Read more... A question of time, by Ari Shavit | Haaretz ..."The right believes that Israel has plenty of time, because time gives Israel the opportunity to create facts on the ground. The right believes that Israel was established as a fact on the ground, and will succeed as a fact on the ground. But that is wrong... Read more... A battle for the high seas, and the high ground, by Lauren Booth | Gilad Atzmon If you’re hoping to see news about the extraordinary events taking place in the Med sea around Cyprus on either the BBC or Sky this weekend. Forget it. For now... Read more... Will Barack Obama face up to Israel lobby blackmail? | Redress Information & Analysis Uri Avnery considers how Israel, through its lobby in the USA, is blackmailing Barack Obama – so far successfully – and wonders whether the US president will finally summon the courage to stand up to it... Read more... Brazil-Turkey-Iran nuclear deal and US resistance to the real new world order | Redress Information & Analysis Richard Falk views the hypocrisy displayed by the US in rejecting the Brazilian-Turkish nuclear exchange deal with Iran, which offered a credible solution to the Iranian-Western dispute over nuclear enrichment, and argues that Washington’s reaction reflects a reluctance to accept the real new world order... Read more... Godspeed to Gaza | Israel Shamir The Turks did it! The world as we know it has changed with the new-found independence of Turkey. Within one month, this erstwhile American semi-colony under the charismatic leadership of Recep Erdogan has made two strong moves that have brought it to the forefront of policy-making:.. Read more... Freedom flotilla ready to break through blockade | Russia Today Yesterday the Freedom Flotilla was waiting for the last group of campaigners to get onboard. A group of European parliamentarians was to set out from Cyprus to join the fleet, but Cyprus authorities would not let them... Read more... May 28, 2010 Humanitarian Flotilla Vs Evil Navy | Gilad Atzmon Haaretz reports today that Israel will attempt to block the humanitarian Freedom Flotilla heading toward Gaza. However, according to the Israeli paper, the humanitarian cargo would then be unloaded, inspected and sent to Gaza overland via the United Nations. Typical for Israel, it tries to win a lost battle... Read more... A strategy of liberation requires emancipation, by Nahida | Uprooted Palestinians After almost one century of Zionist terrorism in Palestine, the world is gradually waking up to this racist and destructive ideology. Contributing to the heroic Palestinian Resistance, this growing awareness will incidentally precipitate the abolition of the Zionist ideology and its hideous manifestation, just like slavery or Nazism were abolished... Read more... Afghanistan: Reading between the lines | Eric Walberg The movement to “get the troops out now!” has found unlikely converts in the form of the Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition in Britain. The election campaign suggested nothing new could be expected from any of the parties on Afghanistan, despite the fact that over 70 per cent of Britons want the troops home. So eyebrows were raised with the news that Afghan President Hamid Karzai was Prime Minister David Cameron’s first visitor at Chequers. They went higher still when Foreign Minister William Hague made his first foreign destination Kabul, where he called for the withdrawal of troops as soon as possible... Read more... Mercy Flotilla for Gaza About to Set Off: Israelis Threaten to Block it with War Ships, by Juan Cole | Informed Comment An 8-ship aid flotilla will likely set sail from Turkish ports on Wednesday in an attempt to reach the Occupied Gaza Strip. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu called on the Israelis to lift their siege of Gazan civilians and warned them not to block the aid flotilla. Turkey had for decades been close to Israel, its secular generals preferring Tel Aviv to the Arab powers. But the ruling AK Partisi is imbued with more respect for Islam and for popular opinion than was common with most Turkish governments. Since two of the 8 ships in the flotilla are Turkish-sponsored, any naval confrontationof Turkey’s vessels by an Israeli warship could turn ugly in the diplomatic realm... Read more... Humor Dept: Jon Stewart on the oil spill | Salon Apparently, the best idea for closing the oil flow is to shoot it with golf balls and tire shards. Guess what Jon Stewart thinks... {Hey, gallows humor can be funny, and what else ya gonna do, go apeshit?] Watch...British election: Everyone lost | Eric Walberg The hung parliament will be a huge hangover Britain is poised for a long period of political instability as it enters its first coalition government since WWII, when the wartime unity government was led by Winston Churchill with Labour in tow. There was an almost identical situation to the current hung parliament in February 1974, when the Conservatives tried to form a coalition with the Liberal Party, but balked at the demand for electoral reform to allow proportional representation, and Labour was able to cobble together enough votes to survive a few months and win a snap election that year, as it turned out, the last Labour government before the advent of Thatcher...Read more... Roger Waters takes The Wall on tour | BBC News Pink Floyd released The Wall thirty years ago, which remains one of the biggest selling albums of all time. To mark the anniversary, the man who wrote it, Roger Waters, is taking it on tour, with performances in America and Europe. Roger Waters speaks to arts correspondent Rebecca Jones about the album and tour... [He says he ain't going to Israel until they tear down that damned wall - it's interesting how the real artists say hell no and the second raters say sure, love to] Listen... Ezra Pound on Money, by Carolina Hartley | Occidental Observer We're never far from money. We spend most of our time and energy in quest of money. But how did this thing become an intermediary between us and the world around us? Before money, we bartered. Why did money supplant barter and who is custodian of the money system?.. Read more... Forget Dialogue, by Mary Rizzo | Palestine Think Tank For quite a while, people involved in activism (as advocates of Palestinian nationalism and the Palestinian cause) have been part of a “dialogue movement”. This follows an extended period of time wasted in the failed “peace movement”. Once we figured out it was another Zionist trap (and it admittedly took several decades too long, since no Palestinian advocacy participant is against peace, so it was difficult to communicate to all that peace was not its objective and thus our participation was enabling Zionism) we were well out the door... Read more... Demands of Trials for Journalist Murders | Kawther Salam “All the Journalist Unions should move from statements of solidarity with the Palestinian journalists to real actions and measures, as going to the international courts to try the Israeli officials who are responsible for horrific crimes and murders of Palestinian Journalists” stated the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate delegation during the World Congress of the International Federation of Journalists: Journalism in Touch with the Future” which was held in Cadiz in Spain on May 25 2010... Read more... Judaism, a self serving monotheism, by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat | Veterans Today The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it, a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak, a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser, a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. How jealous and proud is he? Well, his name is Jealous. And he named himself!.. Read more... Iran, Brazil, Turkey and the Ghost of Lord Palmerston, by Conn Hallinan | Foreign Policy in Focus Lord Palmerston—twice England’s prime minister during the middle 1800s—once commented, “England has no permanent friends and no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.” Watching the fallout over Brazil’s and Turkey’s recent diplomatic breakthrough on Iran brings Palmerston’s observation to mind: while U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was hailing our “friends” support for tough sanctions aimed at Teheran, much of her supporting cast were busy hedging their bets and deciding that their interests just might lay elsewhere... Read more... Government by dicts: my comprehensive resources to prove US fascism and rigged-casino economics, by Carl Herman | LA County Nonpartisan Examiner Fellow Americans: literally for the love of God, it’s time. It’s time to recognize the overwhelming evidence of unlawful and lie-based US Wars of Aggression, rigged-casino economics, and a complicit corporate media that echoes propaganda for our lying sacks of spin “leaders” who operate above and in contempt of US law... Read more... May 27, 2010 Gaza Aid Ships Set to Leave: A Confrontation Looms, by Jason Ditz | Antiwar Israel's Navy Awaits PM's Instructions on Foiling Aid Delivery A flotilla of eight aid ships carrying thousands of tons of civilian and medical aid is poised to leave Cyprus in the next few days in an attempt to deliver the badly needed supplies to the Gaza Strip, setting up a major confrontation with the Israeli Navy...Read more... Gaza, Here We Come to Break the Siege, by by Ann Wright | Common Dreams I am honored to be a part of the latest international citizen effort to break the Israeli and Egyptian governments' siege of Gaza. This week, hundreds of persons from 20 countries will challenge the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza in an eight ship flotilla... Read more... Reclaiming Self-Determination, by Ali Abunimah | Al-Shabaka Will a Palestinian state, no matter how sovereign, fulfill the Palestinian right to self-determination?.. Read more... Israel's bomb out of the shadows, by Jonathan Cook | Redress Information & Analysis Israel faces unprecedented pressure to abandon its official policy of “ambiguity” on its possession of nuclear weapons as the international community meets at the United Nations in New York this week to consider banning such arsenals from the Middle East... Read more... Watching Israel Delegitimize the U.S., by Jeff Gates | Veterans Today The U.S.-Israeli relationship has long been America’s Achilles heel. Our first president warned against “entangled alliances” particularly when, as here, there’s a “passionate attachment.” Our “special relationship” with this rogue state has placed the U.S. outside the same system of international law that we now seek to impose on others, including Iran... Read more... Who says Jews and racism don't go together?, by Akiva Eldar | Haaretz Those who are celebrating disclosures about Richard Goldstone's relationship with apartheid-era South Africa ought to read a new book about Israel's ties with that regime... Read more... Teaneck harassment trial involves pro-Palestinian bumper stickers, by Philip Weiss | Mondoweiss Bernie Thau is on the board of the Hebron Fund, which raises money for settlers in the West Bank. Rich Siegel is on the board of Deir Yassin Remembered. Tomorrow morning Thau goes on trial in Teaneck Municipal Court for allegedly harassing Siegel a month back over Free Palestine bumperstickers on Siegel's car... Read more... The PA's disingenuous boycott campaign, by Ali Abunimah | The Electronic Intifada In recent weeks, the US- and Israeli-backed Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has made a show of calling on Palestinians to boycott goods manufactured in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Despite the rhetoric of defiance and resistance, and exaggerated screams of anguish from Israeli settler groups, the PA effort actually appears designed to co-opt, undermine and abort the much broader Palestinian civil society campaign... Read more... 10 Years of Israeli Variations on the Term “Withdrawal”, by Belén Fernandez | Palestine Think Tank As the Israeli occupation army withdrew from southern Lebanon on May 24, 2000, Zeinab al Mohammad, a resident of Tyre, set out for the liberated village of Adaisseh with her sister Siham, Siham’s husband—a native of the village—and their children. En route, Zeinab’s jeep was attacked by Israeli helicopters, causing the passengers to abandon the vehicle, which was subsequently destroyed... Read more... The Arms Circus, Israel Keeping The World In Turmoil, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today This week, newspapers around the world received reports and signed documents from South Africa. The reports said that, in 1975, Israel agreed to sell South Africa nuclear weapons. South Africa then released an arms agreement signed by current Israeli President Shimon Peres. This is the document “heard round the world.”.. Read more... Caught In The Act! Is The Murder Of President Obama Being Planned?, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today Call for Elections to be Halted, Government Seized Publication Demands “Interim Military Dictatorship” for America, says Scaife publication Newsmax published it but pulled it quickly but not until it was sent to every senior member of Americas military. I got it from a former military intelligence officer. It has done the circuit there. The call I received, from a retired senior intelligence officer and former Defense Attache to Israel went like this, “Gordie, What do you think of this thing? There is only one way to read it, they are calling for the assassination of the president.”..Read more... Framing Pakistan: how the pro-Israel media enables India's surrogate warfare | Redress Information & Analysis Maidhc Ó Cathail views the media component of India's alliance with Israel. He argues that this affords India a powerful weapon to wage surrogate warfare against Pakistan and enables both Tel Aviv and Delhi to pursue their common objective of destabilizing the nuclear-armed Muslim nation... Read more... Is it raining oil in Florida? | Earthwatchers Making this quick, don't feel well. About 4:15pm or so eastern, coming back from Tampa, Florida north on Veteran's Expressway...about 7 miles perhaps from SR 54...it sprinkled some gray watery and solid black oil on my car. Thought it was bugs, but so fast did not make sense and windshield wipers just smeared it. Got out of car at store and looked on the paint and solid black dots on my car...I touch? huh? it's wet? it's OIL!!!!!.. Read more... May 26, 2010 The Biggest Threat to Peace in Middle East, by Dr. Elias Akleh | Sabbah Report A build up of heightened tension in the Middle East is escalating in the last few weeks. American and Israeli postures towards Lebanon, Syria, and Iran have become more threatening. Listening to speeches of political leaders one hears talks only about war not peace... Read more... Israel's war on international law, by Mehmet Nedim Aslan | Uruknet Before the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government was formed in Britain, Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper carried an article voicing concerns about LibDem leader Nick Clegg’s stance on the policies of the Jewish state. Clegg called for an arms embargo during the Israeli assault on Gaza last year, during which 1,400 Palestinians were killed and thousands more were wounded. Meanwhile, the Jewish Chronicle has reported that Israel and its supporters are happy with the appointment of William Hague as Foreign Secretary in the new government... Read more... "It's a Trick, We Always Use It." | Representative Press (YouTube) Amy Goodman interviews a former Israeli minister and she helps expose this trick used against dissidents, the defamation tactic of calling people "anti-Semitic.".. Read more, watch... Is the “Times Square Terrorist” an Asset of Organized Crime?, by Jeff Gates | Veterans Today Why is no one reporting that “Faisal the Fizzler” is tied to Israeli-American Leon Black and Israel-dominated organized crime syndicates dating back to the 1920s? Why is no one reporting the ties to junk bond king and Israeli-American Michael Milken? How can Americans make informed choices without access to the real facts?.. Read more... If Americans Knew What Israel Is Doing! | Representative Press (YouTube) "It is the goal of If Americans Knew to provide full and accurate information on this critical issue, and on our power -- and duty -- to bring a resolution.".. Read more... Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Not just another Middle East crisis, by Ron Forthofer | Palestine Chronicle The U.S. corporate media have provided little coverage on some important happenings in the Middle East during the past 18 months. You might ask what's the big deal -- bad stuff happens there all the time and it doesn't concern me. In this case, recent events have the potential to create an international crisis in the coming days... Read more... The Jewish Role in the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia's Early Soviet Regime, by Mark Weber | Institute for Historical Research ...A solid understanding of history has long been the best guide to comprehending the present and anticipating the future. Accordingly, people are most interested in historical questions during times of crisis, when the future seems most uncertain... Read more... Israel's authorities toughen the line on political corruption at top | The National The former PM Ehud Olmert is being investigated in a property bribery case, on top of the trial he is currently involved in over allegations of corruption. Corruption in Israel’s top political echelon is not showing any signs of abating... Read more... Palestine and the Demise of Conscience, by Terrell E. Arnold | Middle East Online For the past sixty years the invaders have systematically undertaken the ethnic cleansing of Palestine to make way for new Israelis. For this purpose the invaders have constructed a narrative the central theme of which is 'God gave this land to us'.. Read more... Journalism and ‘the words of power’, by Robert Fisk | Australians for Palestine Robert Fisk, The Independent newspaper’s Middle East correspondent, gave the following address to the fifth Al Jazeera annual forum on May 23... Read more... Even picnics in Israel are political | Redress Information & Analysis Neve Gordon describes the growing criminalization in Israel of civil disobedience and the restriction of peaceful resistance to extremely passive modes of protest, such as “standing on the side of the road with some kind of placard”... Read more... The Israeli Role in the Plundering of Iceland | Christopher Bollyn ...Although it may come as an unpleasant surprise to some, it is a proven fact that the same network of Zionist Jews is behind the false-flag terrorism of 9-11 and the huge financial crimes of the past few years... Read more... Conference Aims To End Normalization With Israel, by Monique Poupon | Palestine News Network Over the weekend About 300 people gathered at the Protestant Church in Ramallah to attend The Conference Against Normalization With Israel... Read more... 'No better friend?': America, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, by Geoffrey Wawro | Australians for Palestine America has “no better friend” than Israel, Vice President Joe Biden recently declaimed, even as the Israelis kicked him in the teeth with the announcement of 1,600 new settler homes in East Jerusalem. Israel’s U.S. ambassador called the flap “a crisis of historic proportions … the worst crisis since 1975,” when President Ford attempted to “reassess” the relationship because of Israeli foot-dragging on the same issues as today: borders, sovereignty and refugees... Read more... More Blank Checks to the Military-Industrial Complex, by Rep. Ron Paul | Antiwar Congress, with its insatiable appetite for spending, is set to pass yet another “supplemental” appropriations bill in the next two weeks. So-called supplemental bills allow Congress to spend beyond even the 13 annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government. These are akin to a family that consistently outspends its budget and therefore needs to use a credit card to make it through the end of the month... Read more... May 25, 2010 I want to tell the world, by Nahida Izzat | TLAXCALA [Nahida's site is Poetry for Palestine - "A collection of my writings of prose, poems and dialogues with my friends; from a personal perspective"] Read more...Obama's Jewish minefield is Israel's bomb, by Akiva Eldar | Haaretz ...It appears that the Obama administration has realized that it will not succeed where its predecessors have failed. If no peace with the Arabs emerges from the president's initiative, why should he fight with the Jews? When Republicans are threatening to take over the House of Representatives in six months, it's not so bad if the Israeli occupation continues for another 43 years... Read more... Creeping Terror: The New American Way of War, by Chris Floyd | Empire Burlesque The American way of war is a marvelously ingenious thing. And thoroughly modern too. No more of that "don't shoot until you see the whites of their eyes" jazz; your modern "warfighter" (they aren't called "soldiers" anymore, you know) prefers to view his targets through, say, a computer screen safely ensconced back in the Homeland or thousands of feet in the sky, or else through the unearthly greenish glow of night-vision scopes. And open combat? Forget it. The new American way is the sneak attack on civilian homes in the dead of night... Read more... Israel's secret relationship with apartheid South Africa, by Glenn Frankel | Foreign Policy A new book reveals that Israel’s secret relationship with apartheid South Africa went far deeper than previously understood... Read more... America's exalted capacity for murder, by Pankaj Mishra | The Guardian What does the new British government make of its war in Afghanistan? While we await a clear statement, events in the blighted country hurtle with their own menacing momentum towards the endgame... Read more... What John Lennon Might Say To Sir Elton And A Call For 21st Century Artists Against Apartheid, by Eileen Fleming | Lebanese Campaign for the Boycott of Zionism ...On Lennon’s 1974 release, Walls and Bridges, which yielded Lennon’s only number one single in his lifetime; “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night” Elton played piano and sang backing vocals. That led to Lennon’s last live performance, when the pair performed it at Elton’s Thanksgiving Day concert in Madison Square Garden... Read more... The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment, by Peter Beinart | The New York Review of Books In 2003, several prominent Jewish philanthropists hired Republican pollster Frank Luntz to explain why American Jewish college students were not more vigorously rebutting campus criticism of Israel. In response, he unwittingly produced the most damning indictment of the organized American Jewish community that I have ever seen... Read more... Reut Institute Admits Critics Have Many Valid Points: Israeli Think Tank Calls for Sabotaging "Delegitimizers" of Israel, by James Marc Leas | Counterpunch While a report by an Israeli think tank has been widely condemned for advocating that the Israeli government use its intelligence services to attack and sabotage non-violent human rights advocates, the report is worth detailed study because it is chock full of admissions of illegitimate features of the Israeli government it desperately seeks to protect... Read more... Humor Dept: Miss Me Yet? An Interview with George W. Bush, by Gavin McInnes | Taki's Magazine Getting an interview with the president is virtually impossible. Getting an interview with the president when he’s no longer president—and his wife has a book out—and he’s writing his memoirs, is simply a matter of calling his agent and setting up a time... Read more... Israel's Permanent War on Palestine, by Stephen Lendman | OpEd News The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) provides weekly snapshots of Israeli killings, targeted assassinations, arrests, home demolitions, destroyed farmland, assaults on peaceful protesters, community incursions, home invasions, and more besides full-scale attacks at its discretion - a decades-long onslaught against 1.5 million Gazans and over 2.5 million West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinians... Read more... Truth, Non-Violence and the Palestinian Hills, by Samah Sabawi | Uprooted Palestinians Where is the Palestinian Gandhi? I get this question at the end of almost every presentation I’ve given on Palestine. This fascination with finding a Palestinian Gandhi has been reflected time and again in newspapers commentary, and political discourse... Read more... How Will the Global and U.S. Media Deal with the Gaza Flotilla's Encounter with the Israeli Navy?, by Edward Teller | The Seminal Were I the commodore of the flotilla of eight or nine vessels preparing to head straight from Cypress to the Gaza coast near the end of May, I’d want Joe Meadors next to me on the bridge. He’s joining the flotilla. Joe’s one of the survivors of the brutal Israeli attack on the U.S.S. Liberty, for which Joe’s previous skipper won the Congressional Medal of Honor. Joe says "It’ll be like old home week.".. Read more... Bilin Builds Links At Home | Palestine Monitor 11-year old Tarek Aden was shot in Bilin yesterday The hub of the Popular Struggle is winning friends and influencing people from Galway to Genoa. Yesterday’s protest was typically cosmpolitan. Report includes details of other West Bank protests...Read more... Amos Oz, A.B Yehoshua and the Military Industrial Complex | Udi Aloni The Berkeley students senate has decided to divest from two American companies (General Electric and United Technologies) that profit from the ongoing Israeli occupation and from war crimes committed by Israel in Gaza. This decision draws a clear distinction between the inherently criminal occupation, on the one hand, and the state of Israel as a sovereign state, on the other hand - a resolution which members of the Zionist left should have embraced with open arms. However, Israeli authors Amos Oz and A.B Yehoshua, instead of doing so, have weighed in with their prestige to undermine it... Read more... Unending Nakbas, by Eva Bartlett | In Gaza This is the month for Palestinians to remember their Nakba, or “catastrophe”, in which more than 700,000 women, men and children were pushed off their land and rendered homeless refugees by the Zionist attacks before, during and after the founding of Israel in 1948... Read more... On being an Arab lawmaker in Israel, by Edmund Sanders | Los Angeles Times As one of Israel's few Arab lawmakers, Ahmad Tibi knows how to fight to be heard, even when colleagues don't want to listen. That determination was never clearer than last month when Tibi, a top political advisor to PLO chairman Yasser Arafat before being elected to the Knesset in 1999, refused to yield the floor during a particularly acrimonious debate... Read more... The world is sickened by USrael hypocrisy, Mr. Feaver, spare us the gibberish, by Mozhgan Savabieasfahani | Palestine Think Tank The language of oppression cultivated and promoted by U.S. and its mouthpieces, must be exposed and challenged just as fiercely as U.S. and Israel’s (USrael) criminal policies in the Middle East must be condemned and resisted... [the interview - if there were real justice in this world, people like Feaver would be indicted for treason] Read more...A Loser White House: Guilty by Association, by Robert S. Becker | Information Clearing House Long before Year One ended, progressives understood President Obama’s focus was routine wheeling and dealing, not regrowing the New Deal. Between victory and governance, Obama “reform” switched from promises to make government serve people to insure government serves business. The result is mounting guilt by association as Obama got himself entrenched only months into power, a speed record for a reform guy, now the establishment president defending every party incumbent... Read more... 'Continuity of Government' Planning: War, Terror and the Supplanting of the U.S. Constitution, by Peter Dale Scott | Asia-Pacific Journal In July 1987, during the Iran-Contra Hearings grilling of Oliver North, the American public got a glimpse of "highly sensitive" emergency planning North had been involved in. Ostensibly these were emergency plans to suspend the American constitution in the event of a nuclear attack (a legitimate concern). But press accounts alleged that the planning was for a more generalized suspension of the constitution... Read more... Christians: Zionism's Useful Idiots, by Tim Campbell | Pak Alert You know the imagery– millions of Christians around the world have spontaneously disappeared - where did they go? Some say aliens, others terrorists. Now airplanes are plummeting to destruction, trains derailing, cars crashing, nuclear power plants are melting down and dumbfounded people staggering around in confusion looking for their children… Who unleashed this insanity on mankind?.. Read more... The End of the Legends, by Wolfgang Strauss | VHO It may be said without hesitation that Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s 200 Years Together. The Jews in the Soviet Union is one of the most important books on the Russian Revolution and the early Bolshevik period ever to appear. After publication of this work with its many revelations about the role of the Jews during the Leninist period, the history of the Bolshevik October putsch will have to be rewritten, if not completely, then with substantial additions... Read more... 'Israel awaiting US nod to hit Lebanon' | Press TV Leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party Walid Jumblatt Lebanon's Druze leader Walid Jumblatt says Israel is looking for pretexts to launch a new offensive on Lebanon while awaiting the green light from Washington. "Israel can't survive without expansion and war,"..Read more... Current Issues TV with Hesham Tillawi: Guest Antoine Raffoul | My Catbird Seat Guest Antoine Raffoul of 1948.0rg.uk discusses the Palestinian Nakba.. After 62 years of massacres... Watch... May 24, 2010 “Flintstone” Weapons And “Custer” Tactics Rake In Billions For War Profiteers, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today How the Dimmest and Dumbest Give us their Worst, Losing Wars and Promoting Chaos for Profit A recent analysis has shown the 40 year old American M-16 rifle to be a failure in Afghanistan. The weapon that caused more American deaths in Vietnam than the enemy is still junk technology today, even with its Star Wars derivitives. The result is still “Palinesque” or as I would call it, “lipstick on a pig.” The wrong design, the wrong cartridge, no range, no stopping power and poor reliability, 40 years of failure in the most important area of the battlefield, our combat rifle. This wasn’t an accident but part of our defense tradition, fighting wars with junk, fighting wars meant to eat money, put fighting men and women under the dirt, fighting wars meant to go on forever, as long as the money flows... Read more... Annual Nakba Commemoration Dinner Speech | Alan Hart ...Nakba Denial – the denial by all supporters of Israel right or wrong of Zionist ethnic cleansing – is as obscene and as evil, repeat EVIL, as denial of the Nazi holocaust. But today is not just about remembering what started to happen in Palestine that became Israel 63 years ago. It’s also about saluting the incredible, almost superhuman steadfastness of the occupied and oppressed Palestinians... [I never say this, but I will this time. This is a MUST READ.] Read more...The 2nd Haifa Conference, 28-30 May: For the Return of Palestinian Refugees, For the Democratic Secular State in Historic Palestine In recent years there were a number of conferences concerning the subject of the right of return, which had a basic role in expressing and consolidating a growing political and public consensus in support of the return of the Palestinian refugees to their lands and homes from which they were forcibly displaced during and after the Nakba. The Haifa conference is a qualitative addition to these efforts, proposing a specific political framework, logical and moral, for the implementation of the right of return... Read more... American arrogance, by Javed Hussain | Dawn Nine years on into the occupation of Afghanistan, Americans have finally On March 8, 1965, when the US Marines landed on the beaches of Da Nang in South Vietnam, history was poised to repeat itself as the Americans were poised to repeat the mistakes made by the French in 1946 when they returned to colonise Indo-China...understood that it will be far more difficult to withdraw than it was to go in Read more... Rand Paul and the Special Relationship with Israel, by Kurt Nimmo | Infowars I defended Rand Paul when the Democrat operative Rachel Maddow tried to take him to the woodshed over this remarks about the Civil Rights Act (remarks he has in part retracted in response to the collective lib howl amplified over the corporate media megaphone). Paul said that while he abhors racism the law violates the property rights of the individual. Paul was spot on about that. Paul has made other comments, however, that deserve attention... Read more... Humor Dept: Tinsley’s Off to the Hamptons, Jude and Sienna Have a Row, and Padma Gets Teary, by Bunky Mortimer | Taki's Magazine Meanwhile, back in the real world...honey, turn on the TV Summer is heating up and the bold-faced names have come out to play—and fight, and declare their love. Read on for their trials and tribulations... Read more... Israelis' state of denial over treatment of Palestinians, by Yitzhak Laor | Haaretz Israelis love military secrets. Books by retired security officers, former spies and former members of the Shin Bet security service and Mossad sell well. An entire culture is built around "what it is forbidden to talk about but nevertheless we like to know."..There is one thing the public does not want to know, or perhaps "most of the public" is a more cautious expression, and we are not talking about a military secret... Read more... Former US Army Colonel Joins Freedom Flotilla To Break Gaza's Siege Ann Wright, retired U.S. Army Reserve Colonel and former U.S. diplomat who resigned in March, 2003 in opposition to Bush’s war on Iraq, will join the 8-ship Free Gaza boat flotilla that will break the Israeli government naval siege/blockade of Gaza... Read more... Brand Israel: What Justice Goldstone Learned the Hard Way, by Neve Gordon | Counterpunch Richard Goldstone has learned a lesson or two in the past year. Ever since Goldstone, a self-proclaimed Jewish Zionist South African judge, authored a UN report charging Israel (and Hamas) with war crimes, he has been subjected to a well-orchestrated delegitimization campaign... Read more... Two of Italy's biggest supermarket chains suspend sales of settlement produce | Global BDS Movement Following lobbying efforts by the Italian Coalition Against Carmel-Agrexco, two major Italian supermarket chains, COOP and Nordiconad, announced the suspension of sales of products from Agrexco, the principal exporter of produce from Israel and the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Nordiconad director Mr. Covili announced that as of the end of April Agrexco products will no longer be found in their supermarkets... Read more... PACBI: UNICEF should quit Jerusalem conference | The Electronic Intifada The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) is shocked and greatly concerned that UNICEF as well as one Palestinian and several international academics intend to participate in a conference organized by the Minerva Centre for Human Rights at the Hebrew University... Read more... The Gathering Darkness and it's Inescapable Destiny | Smoking Mirrors Here’s how it has to be and how it damn well better be. BP needs to be seized by The World Court or some body of influence and all of its assets commandeered. Its executives must be arrested and charged with crimes against humanity. Its stockholders must be placed last in line for financial satisfaction of any claims they may have. The intentionally criminal behavior which caused this massive environmental disaster is only one of the reasons. Here is another and there are many more as well... Read more... American Ambassador Recalls Israeli Assassination Attempt - With U.S. Weapons, by Andrew Killgore | Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Just before John Gunther Dean was to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for his confirmation hearing as American ambassador to Lebanon in 1978 he received an urgent telephone call from the office of the secretary of state. “John,” the caller said, “we have just noticed that your mother’s [maiden] name is Ashkenaczi. Does this make a serious problem for you?” “Absolutely not,” the near legendary Dean replied, “my father was Jewish, too. I represent a secular America, so that’s all there is to it.”.. [The last of a dying breed? Jews in positions of power who aren't in bed with the Israelis? Well, Marcy Winograd could restore some sense of hope and pride among the righteous Jews. Let's give her a helping hand.] Read more...May 23, 2010 Ghoshwood’s Mendacity, by Robin Yassin-Kassab and Claire Chambers | Pulse "Keeping Doors Open" ...Of course it would be a mistake to expect writers to attain to higher moral standards or to to display more political intelligence than anyone else. Two things stick in the craw in this case, however. The first is that both Ghosh and Atwood have made names as ‘progressive’ and ‘postcolonial’ writers. We aren’t surprised when an openly-declared Zionist like Martin Amis visits Israel, but when writers who sell books on the basis of their opposition to oppression visit, the resultant hypocrisy is quite nauseating...Read more... Boycott Targets Stars From Elvis to Elton, by Nathan Guttman | The Jewish Forward It was a feather in the cap of pro-boycott activists, but for Israelis, a major setback. With battle lines drawn across concert halls and stadiums hosting rock bands, the decision by mega-star Elvis Costello to cancel his planned concerts in Israel is being viewed as a game changer... Read more... Today in Palestine! | The Headlines A daily chronicle of Israeli crimes against humanity and related stories, compiled by Shadi Fadda... Read today's edition... In Memorium: Oyoun Qarra Massacre, 20 May 1990, by Reham Alhelsi | My Palestine In the early hours of Sunday, May 20th, 1990, a group of 100 Palestinian labourers from the Gaza Strip were waiting at the Oyoun Qarra (Rishon Lezion) bus stop to be transported to their working place. An Israeli occupation soldier, Ami Popper, from nearby Rishon Lezion Zionist colony approached the workers and asked them for their IDs. After making sure all the workers were Palestinians, Popper lined them up, asked them to kneel down in 3 lines and using his M16 sub-machine gun he opened fire killing 7 on the spot and injuring others... [Things are much worse now than they were 20 years ago. Fanatics like Popper commit atrocities like this on a regular basis - and they aren't even arrested.] Read more...Palestinian non-violence relies on global non-silence, by Yousef Munayyer | The Guardian The world cannot expect Palestinians to abandon violence while remaining silent on Israel's repression of nonviolent activists... Read more... IDF planning re-entry, mass detention camps in Gaza?, by Helena Cobban | Uruknet ...The mass detention operation, the "monitoring" of the population registry, and the "classifying" of the detainees or the population in general are all highly coercive steps, reminiscent of some of the most abusive moments in world colonial history like the "Pipeline" system that the British deployed against Kenyan nationalists (including Pres. Obama's own grandfather) back in the 1950s... [Isn't it cheaper and easier to leave it as an open air concentration camp, without the need to feed and clothe the prisoners? Or are they planning on not doing that.] Read more... Palestinian children tortured in Israeli occupation jails | Uruknet Hiba Masalha, a Palestinian lawyer who visited child-prisoners at the Majedo and Rimonim prisons said that a number of them were subjected to barbaric torture before being questioned or charged... Read more... Democracy according to Reichman, by Gideon Levy | Haaretz As Israel closes its gates to anyone who doesn't fall in line with our official positions, we are becoming more and more like North Korea... Read more... Very Cross CrossTalk: Finkelstein vs Morris | YouTube On this edition of Peter Lavelle's CrossTalk, he asks his guests whether the current "indirect talks" between the Israelis and Palestinians are a waste of time... Watch... Don't confuse us with facts, by Akiva Eldar | Haaretz Baseless beliefs and deeply rooted misconceptions are the main obstacles that prevent Israelis from supporting negotiations as a solution to the conflict with the Palestinians, according to recent research... Read more... The Invention of the Jewish People: Book Review by Jim Miles | Palestine Chronicle Historians living within their own nations develop within the mythology peculiar to their nation, in which “various spheres of memory coalesced into an imagined universe representing the past.” The historian is a combination of his own personal experiences and the larger societal “instilled memories.” Recognizing that, Shlomo Sand very capably steps away from the created mythology of Israel, of the national myth of the wandering people for two thousand years before finding home again, in a land that belonged only to that people even though others had lived there during the same two thousand years. The Invention of the Jewish People is his groundbreaking historical study of the nature of the Jewish “nation” and its created mythologies... Read more... Who Succeeded in Frightening the Israeli Settlers?, by Roi Katz | Alternative Information Center The war of the Palestinians against settlements is currently focusing on the pocket, and in essence on the legitimacy of settlements. Roi Katz on the new direction of the struggle... Read more... Museum of Tolerance Special Report: Holes, Holiness and Hollywood, by Nir Hasson | Haaretz On the connection between the California-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, run by one of America’s most famous rabbis, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and a feverish excavation at what is probably Israel’s most secret civilian building site... [See also Part II and Part III - Museum of Tolerance indeed; an Orwellian obscenity against language itself] Read more...Philip Weiss: “The American Jewish revolution is over”, by Kevin MacDonald | The Occidental Observer How the world now sees Jews Philip Weiss is a unique American Jewish voice — a Jew without all the usual rationalizations and blind spots–at least most of them. A recent piece of his, titled “This is how the world now sees Jews,” consisted simply of this photo, with a note that it probably depicted Israeli settlers...Read more... Free Enterprise Gone Wild: How We're Getting Screwed in 4 Easy Steps, by Stephen Pizzo | AlterNet Good morning suckers. How are we doing today? Okay, enough pleasantries. Take the position. Go ahead, you should be getting good at it by now; lean over, grab your ankles and get ready for another dose of Free Enterprisers Gone Wild!.. Read more... The Karzai Rebirth, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today ...The Karzai yelling about joining the Taliban, the Karzai confronting the United States was, as I am being told now, a person tired of being a puppet and ready to really do something, someone who finally “gets it.” The simple message, working to restore Pashtuns, the population that represents the majority of Afghanistan, a nation totally splintered today, will work except for one major problem. The United States doesn’t get it... Read more... Iran Threatens to Pull out of Nuclear Deal over new UN Sanctions, by Juan Cole | Informed Comment ...Secretary of State Hillary Clinton more or less rejected the Turkey-Brazil deal as soon as it was announced, in favor of increased sanctions. Veteran Iran observer Gary Sick predicted this course, calling it “moving the goalposts”– an email observation. Yesterday Roger Cohen wrote an op-ed for NYT to the same effect. Obama would no longer take ‘yes’ for an answer... [In order to justify making war on your chosen "enemy," you just have to keep arbitrarily upping the ante...] Read more...U.S. And NATO Accelerate Military Build-Up In Black Sea Region, by Rick Rozoff | Global Research In the post-Cold War era and especially since 2001 the Pentagon has been steadily shifting emphasis, and moving troops and equipment, from bases in Germany and Italy to Eastern Europe in its drive to the east and the south. That process was preceded and augmented by the absorption of former Eastern Bloc nations into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization beginning in 1999. In one of the first nations in that category, Poland, the initial contingent of what will be over 100 U.S. troops arrived in the town of Morag this week, as near as 35 miles from Russian territory, as part of a Status of Forces Agreement... Read more... Obama at West Point: 'Long Hard Road Awaits You' But U.S. Won't Go It Alone President Barack Obama told graduating cadets at West Point Saturday the U.S. would fight on in its campaign to "disrupt, dismantle and to defeat" the terrorist network, but he said the country would go forward as "part of an international effort that is necessary and just.".. [In order to help parse this speech by the Warmonger-in-Chief, see "War without Borders": Obama's "Long War"] Read more...Ruled by paranoia: from the Truman to the Bush doctrine | Redress Information & Analysis Time for Barack Obama to choose paranoia or sanity Paul J. Balles views the various doctrines that have guided US foreign policy since World War II, from the Truman to the Bush doctrine. He says that President Obama will have to decide to keep or scrap the Bush doctrine, which “Israel and its supporters in America desperately want misused against Iran”...Read more... Capitalism Denial?, by Frank Scott | Legalienate “What we are seeing is not just a climate , energy , food or financial crisis but the systemic crisis of capitalism itself, which is bringing about the destruction of humanity and nature. If the cause is systemic, then the solution must be systemic as well.” - Bolivian President Evo Morales... Read more... May 22, 2010 Who's Who of Banned Israeli Visitors | The Only Democracy? At this point, you could have quite the dinner party with the folks Israel leaves out! How do I get on that guest list?.. Read more... The Second National Conference on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) | U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel The BDS National Committee (BNC) cordially invites you to the Second National Conference on BDS: a strategy for civil resistance [May 31, Nablus]. The conference aims to raise awareness about BDS as an effective and critical civil resistance strategy, expand the adoption by Palestinian civil society of boycott as a principle tool of resistance, and encourage civil society worldwide to join the global BDS movement, whose anchor and reference is the BNC... Read more... Chomsky to Deliver Bir Zeit Lecture on Al Jazeera, by Richard Silverstein | Tikun Olam Well, maybe this will teach the petty bureaucrats at the Israeli Interior Ministry a lesson. After lecturing him for four hours on the errors of his ways in criticizing Israel and telling him what he could or should do to be allowed admittance, they sent Prof. Noam Chomsky packing back to Amman. Later, Israeli PR flacks attempted to backtrack by lying and claiming it was all a clerical error by a desk jockey... Read more... Weekly Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory | PCHR A disabled child and an old man wait to be allowed to travel through Rafah International Crossing Point on the Egyptian border, which has been closed since June 2007 13 – 19 May 2010)... [Everything is being chronicled] Read more... Noam Chomsky Was Not Prevented From Entering Israel, by Sam Husseini | Uruknet Many reported that Noam Chomsky was recently stopped from entering Israel. This is false. Totally false. He was prevented from going to the Palestinian city of Ramallah by Israeli forces. This important distinction highlights among other things that Israel controls the borders into occupied Palestinian areas, a large part of the problem... Read more... Land of Security Know-How, by Neve Gordon | LRB blog Since the publication of his UN report charging Israel (and Hamas) with war crimes, Richard Goldstone has been subjected to a well-orchestrated delegitimisation campaign by Israel. Most recently, new ‘revealing information’ was disseminated to the press, accusing the Jewish Zionist South African judge of sentencing 28 black South Africans to death during the apartheid years. ‘The judge who sentenced black people to death,’ said the speaker of the Knesset, Reuven Rivlin, ‘should not be allowed to lecture a democratic state defending itself against terrorists.’.. Read more... Israel's Exclusion and Restriction of Goods to Gaza, by Stephen Lendman | Uruknet After Hamas was overwhelmingly elected in January 2006, Israel, Washington and the West ended all outside aid, imposed an economic embargo and sanctions, and politically isolated the new government... Read more... Israel calls for expelling anyone marking Nakba from occupied Palestinian lands | Palestine Info Center Israeli minister of finance Yuval Steinitz called for withdrawing the nationality from everyone inciting against Israel and commemorating the 62nd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe)... [So when exactly are they going to roll out the Final Solution? Probably not until they've transported all the Palestinians to the Konzentration Lager called Gaza.] Read more...Being pro-humanity is not anti-Semitic, by Ibrahim Hewitt | Middle East Monitor The importance of the Israel-Palestine conflict cannot be stressed enough. The high profile the issue has across the world illustrates its key status in world affairs. All the more reason, therefore, that debate surrounding it is not clouded by accusations of racism in place of open discussion... Read more... Restoring Jewish Homeland Means Turning Jerusalem into “Miami Beach”, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today The onslaught from the south, started by the Cubans escaping Castro, destroyed 7 decades of Jewish tradition in South Florida, centered around the holy city of Miami Beach... Read more... Jeff Halper on Talking Stick TV | P U L S E Co-founder of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions Jeff Halper’s recent interview on Talking Stick TV... Watch... PFLP: International complicity maintains the continuing Nakba against our people | Uruknet The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine recognizes, on the 62nd anniversary of Al-Nakba, that if Nakba is the usurpation of land; the displacement of our people; violence, carnage and terror; the replacement of the original inhabitants of the land of Palestine with settlers and the theft of their heritage; and the violation of their right to self-determination amid the silence and complicity of the official Arab order and the international community, then it continues today throughout occupied Palestine... Read more... Dirty Harry in Baghdad, by Dr. Ashraf Ezzat | Veterans Today When it comes to America, most people from various parts of the world agree on two things, they all like the American films, and they all dislike the American foreign policy... Read more... Israel urged to ensure safety of Irish on aid ship to Gaza, by Mark Weiss | The Irish Times ...The plea from ambassador Briefne O’Reilly came during a meeting at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem on Monday where he was informed by the ministry’s director of European affairs, Naor Gilon, that Irish peace activists, together with other European participants in the “freedom flotilla”, will be turned back by Israeli naval patrols before they reach the shores of Gaza... Read more... Declaring war on the intellect: Israel and Noam Chomsky | Haaretz Editorial In barring a renowned academic from Israel and the West Bank, the government's outrageous treatment of its critics has reached new heights... Read more... Lebanon Uncovers 22 Spy Networks Working For Israel, by Saed Bannoura | International Middle East Media Center Flag of Lebanon ...The sources added that the security forces managed to uncover most of the spy networks working in the country, and that only a few are currently active but will be uncovered by the country and apprehended...Read more... How LSD Destroyed God's (and Dad's) Rigid Authority and Ended the Dull 1950s, by John Perry Barlow | AlterNet One can make a non-ludicrous case that the most important event in the cultural history of America since the 1860s was the introduction of LSD... Read more... Corexit is Killing the Gulf, by J. Speer-Williams | Infowars The private, foreign International Monetary/Banking Cartel controls its puppets in Washington as it controls its oil company executives. And everything the Cartel does is anti-life, there are absolutely no exceptions; and their pretended Gulf oil clean-up is a glaring case in point... Read more... May 21, 2010 The heresy of the Greeks offers hope, by John Pilger | New Statesman As Britain's political class pretends that its arranged marriage of Tweedledee to Tweedledum is democracy, the inspiration for the rest of us is Greece. It is hardly surprising that Greece is presented not as a beacon, but as a "junk country" getting its comeuppance for its "bloated public sector" and "culture of cutting corners" (Observer). The heresy of Greece is that the uprising of its ordinary people provides an authentic hope unlike that lavished upon the warlord in the White House... Read more... Not Another War, Mr. President! by Justin Raimondo | Antiwar Nothing, but nothing, is going to get in the way of this administration’s path to war with Iran. This was brought home in a dramatic way when the Brazilians and the Turks announced Iran had agreed to implement the nuclear exchange deal proposed by the US some seven months ago.. Peace seemed to be breaking out all over – but not if the US government and its allies on the UN Security Council could help it. They refused to take yes for an answer, and promptly announced they were proceeding with the sanctions campaign... Read more... Fear Comes of Age, by David Michael Green | Common Dreams Elena Kagan is the perfect Supreme Court pick for Barack Obama. In fact, in so many ways, she is Barack Obama. Moreover, they both represent their generation well. They are the leading edge of Generation X, and they embody its character fully... Read more... Holocaustism vs. Islam, by Kevin Barrett | Rebel News Kevin Barrett Sometimes it seems like there are only two major religions left: Holocaustism and Islam. According to Gilad Atzmon, "The Israeli Philosophy professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz was probably the first to define the holocaust as the ‘new Jewish religion'." But as the persecution of Bishop Williamson makes clear, Holocaustism has replaced Christianity as well as Judaism...[I prefer the term "the Holycause"] Read more...Humor Dept: Israeli elite army unit duped into revealing secrets by fake Facebook beauty, by Sarah Stricker | Sabbah Report An enchanting young woman befriends Israeli military men on Facebook – and elicits secrets from them. According to a press report, 20 elite soldiers fell into the trap. The Lebanese Shiite militia is presumably behind it... [Hey, Mossad, two can play the deception game - go Hezbollah!] Read more...The return of the colonial: Laor's "The Myths of Liberal Zionism" reviewed, by Max Ajl | The Electronic Intifada The West has been sold a bill of goods. Burnished bronzed Jewish soldiery protecting settlers founding kibbutzim in a decadent, violent backwater in the Near East, terraforming the desert into farmland, steadfastly creating a cosmopolitan outpost in the center of Barbary -- beautiful, innocent, pure, a perfect redemption for the West's historical sins against European Jewry. Decent if saccharine and overwrought ad-copy for Zionism, and it's gone over well for decades in Paris, New York, Brussels and Berlin. Like most ad-copy, it has been dishonest. Unlike most ad-copy, it is outright mendacious, something like 1940s cigarette ads advertising tobacco's salubrious effects... Read more... Israel's rebranding strategy focuses on delegitimizing critics and opponents | Redress Information & Analysis Neve Gordon argues that personal smears and character assassinations of critics of Israeli policy are a central plank in Israel’s rebranding strategy, which also targets local and international NGOs and their donors, particularly the European Union, the Ford Foundation and the New Israel Fund... Read more... Why Are So Many Christians Conservative?, by Mike Lux | AlterNet ...Conservatives believe that the rich and powerful got that way because they deserve to be, that society owes its prosperity to the prosperous, and that government's job when they have to make choices is to side with those businesspeople who are doing well, because all good things trickle down from them. Progressives, on the other hand, believe it is the poor and those who are ill-treated who need the most help from their government, and that prosperity comes from all of us -- the worker as well as the employer, the consumer as well as the seller, the struggling entrepreneur trying to make it as well as the wealthy who already have... Read more... Jewish Democratic group asks syndicate to nix Pat Buchanan's column | The Hill ..Buchanan found himself in hot water last week after he penned a piece saying that if Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan is confirmed, the number of Jews on the Court will be highly disproportionate to the U.S. population... [If these "Democratic" watchdogs (one of innumerable manifestations of the new Holy Inquisition) get their way there will be room only for ZioNazi propaganda, which is already 95% of what the public gets from the mainstream politicians and media anyway. Next on their list is the Internet - if they can control that they'll have near total control of information.] Read more...Talking about Athens and Jerusalem in Athens | Gilad Atzmon On the eve of the Gaza Flotilla Mission - A talk given in Kyttaro Athens 19.5.10 ...If Athens stands for universalism and inclusive ideologies and Jerusalem stands for tribal and exclusive thinking, Zionism was a promise to introduce Athens to the Jerusalemite. The Zionist Jew was supposed to eventually look into the mirror with pride. Zionism may have been, at one stage, a genuine attempt to bring this about... Read more... Jews are eight times over-represented in UK parliament | Redress Information & Analysis Stuart Littlewood considers the phenomenal over-representation of Jews and non-Jewish Zionists in the UK parliament which, in terms of support for Israel, is magnified even further when viewed alongside the Conservative and Labour party leaders’ umbilical ties to the Israel lobby... Read more... Russia-America Relations: Rediscovering Realpolitik, by Eric Walberg | Global Research As Russia returns to its logical, regional, strategic roots, the US under Obama is slowly waking up after its neocon nightmare... Read more... Apartheid Israel, Bunker Israel: Elvis Costello and Noam Chomsky, by Juan Cole | Informed Comment The repercussions of the brutal shooting-fish-in-a-barrel Gaza War, of the continued Israeli siege and boycott of the Gaza Strip, and of the vigorous colonization of the Palestinian West Bank by militant Israelis, continue to grow. The clear resistance of the far rightwing government of Binyamin Netanyahu to the two-state solution sought urgently by US president Barack Obama, in favor the massive and ongoing theft of Palestinian land and resources, has increasingly tarred Israel with the brush of Apartheid policies. The greatest danger facing Israel is no longer, as in the past, neighboring Arab armies, tank corps and missiles. It is a series of humiliations in the realm of cultural politics, most of them self-inflicted... Read more... US, Israel paid for assassination | Press TV An interview with captured Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi Captured Jundallah leader Abdolmalek Rigi has said that while in Morocco, suspected Israeli or US agents had given him a list of people to assassinate in Tehran... Read more... Coalition: another example of Britain's sham democracy | Redress Information & Analysis Tim Coles considers how Britain’s fundamentally undemocratic government is continuing with its predecessors’ policies of sucking up to the United States and buying into Washington-inspired foreign policies, such as hostility towards Iran, that have little to do with the national interest... Read more... Hamas rules out recognition of Israel | Al Jazeera Magazine Hamas has proposed a phased establishment of a Palestinian state, insisting its acceptance of the 1967 borders will not involve the recognition of Israel. The proposal would see the acceptance of a Palestinian state "in stages" on the 1967 armistice line, with the currently Israeli occupied East al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital... [This is definitive proof, if any such were needed, that Hamas represents the Palestian people, as opposed to the Vichy collaborationists in Ramallah.] Read more...US overture to Hezbollah raises doubts | Press TV John Brennan, assistant to the president and deputy national security ...Brennan.. expressed concern about a number of elements within the Lebanese resistance movement. "What we need to do is to find ways to diminish their influence within the organization and to try to build up the more moderate elements,".. adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism [Translation: find members of Hezbollah who have the potential to become the Lebanese equivalent of the Quislings Abbas and Fayyed of the PA and support their rise to power within the organization - a familiar game. Good luck with that.] Read more...God's Jewish Warriors | AOL Video This great documentary is first in a series of 3 about religious fundamentalism within the 3 Abrahamic faiths. This one deals with the Israeli settler movement, the pro-Israel lobby in the US as well as the Evangelicals. It covers a wide range of issues and asks tough questions... Read more, watch video... James Angleton and Ezra Pound, by Carolina Hartley | Occidental Observer Before James Angleton became an institution at the CIA as czar of the counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1975, he was friends with the poet Ezra Pound. Both men sacrificed themselves in an attempt to save their country from plutocrats. Pound did this by speaking his mind, while Angleton sold his conscience for “the greater good.” .. Read more... Shaping the Story on Iran, by Philip Giraldi | Antiwar There have been recent reports that Iran has enabled the travel of al-Qaeda leaders to Afghanistan and Pakistan where they will be able to confront and kill American soldiers. If you think you have heard the story before, you have, in another context. In the earlier rendition it was Saddam Hussein who was hand-in-glove with al-Qaeda, helping the group in its nefarious planning to attack the United States and kill Americans. Saddam, who was in reality only a threat to his own people, was on the receiving end of a barrage of fabricated information claiming that he was secretly developing weapons of mass destruction and clandestinely dealing with the terrorists who were responsible for 9/11. Or so the story goes. And now it is Iran’s turn and the story and the storytellers are exactly the same... Read more... Israel Obstructs Entry Of Medicine, Medical Equipment To Gaza, by Saed Bannoura | International Middle East Media Center Photo by the Palestinian Ministry Of Health Despite Israeli guarantees to the International Community, the Israeli Authorities are still obstructing the entry of medicine and medical equipment to the besieged Gaza Strip. The last time medicine was allowed into Gaza was mid October 2009...Read more... Zionist settler beats 90-year-old Palestinian woman, her grandson | Uruknet Zionist settler Yitzhak Hircovich assaulted 90-year-old Palestinian woman Sheeha Ali in the tent she has pitched after he took her own house in Beit Safafa village south of occupied Jerusalem in mid April. Sheeha said that the settler insulted her then kicked and beat her then threw her to the ground, along with her four-year-old grandson... [Quite in keeping with their heroic tradition of attacking defenseless people] Read more...No Cause for Celebration: Sestak, Israel and Iran, by Jeffrey Blankfort | Counterpunch Readers who are already celebrating the long overdue departure of Arlen Specter from the the US Senate should be advised, to borrow a phrase from noted plagiarizer, Joe Biden, that there was “no space between” the foreign policy positions of long-time Pennsylvania Senator and the ex-Navy admiral, Rep. Joe Sestak who defeated him in Tuesday night’s primary balloting... Read more... May 20, 2010 Emanuel to rabbis: US 'screwed up' | Jerusalem Post  The Obama administration has “screwed up the messaging” about its support for Israel over the past 14 months, and it will take “more than one month to make up for 14 months,” White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said on Thursday to a group of rabbis called together for a meeting in the White House... [And which country did they say this guy was working for?] Read more...Rahm Emanuel's father specialized in bus bombings in Palestine, by Wayne Madsen | Online Journal A well-placed British source informed WMR that Rahm Emanuel's father, Benjamin Emanuel, specialized in the terrorist bombings of buses carrying British troops and policemen during the British Mandate in Palestine. British MI-6 files contain information on the elder Emanuel's participation in the terrorist activities of Irgun Zvai Leumi, a Jewish terrorist organization that targeted British forces, UN officials, and Palestinian Arabs in the lead up to Israeli independence in 1948... [Like father, like son] Read more...High Noon: Winograd vs. Harman California Primary Challenge, by Linda Milazzo | WRMEA U.S. or Israeli Interests First? March 14, 2010, ushered in two welcome events to Southern California: the inauguration of the headquarters of the bustling Winograd For Congress primary campaign, and an extra hour of daylight to help Marcy Winograd's horde of supporters evict Jane Harman, the wealthiest Democrat in Congress, from her eight-term seat in the House...[This should be top of the fold stuff. There couldn't be a starker contrast between good and evil in American politics.] Read more... Silenced for speaking the truth about Guantanamo, by Robert Fisk | The Independent  Canadian defendant Omar Khadr with his defence team in Guantanamo's court I began my column last week with the words "We know all about Guantanamo". I was wrong. Courtesy of the Toronto press – until a few days ago, when half of them were censored out of the drumhead courts martial that pass for "justice" in this execrable place – I have been learning a lot more...Read more... DCI - Palestine submits 14 cases of sexual assault and threats to the UN for investigation | Defense for Children Int'l On 18 May 2010, DCI-Palestine submitted 14 cases to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture for investigation. The submission relates to the sexual assault, or threat of sexual assault, of Palestinian children at the hands of Israeli soldiers, interogators and police between January 2009 and April 2010. The ages of the children range from 13 to 16 years... Read more... WHO demands immediate end to Gaza blockade | AFP The World Health Organization demanded Tuesday that Israel end a blockade on the occupied Palestinian territories, saying that it was causing a shortage of medicines, particularly in the Gaza Strip... Read more... Special Place in Hell: Rebranding Israel as a state headed for fascism, by Bradley Burston | Haaretz No one knows fascism better than Israelis. They are schooled, drilled in the history, the mechanics, the horrendous potential of fascist regimes. Israelis know fascism when they see it. In others... Read more... "Stability and Justice and Right of Al-Quds and Palestine, by Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed | Sabbah Report  Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamed Speech by Yabhg Tun Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamad At The General Conference For The Support of Al Quds...Read more... 'We want to live' | Al-Ahram Weekly Salam Fayyad's plans for Palestine and the Palestinians are nought but a contrived folk festival where the occupied bow to their oppressors, writes Azmi Bishara... Read more... Two Massachusetts Towns Welcome Guantánamo Detainee Ordered Released by a Federal Judge | Common Dreams On Thursday, US District Judge Henry H. Kennedy, Jr., granted Guantanamo detainee Ravil Mingazov’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus and ordered the Obama administration to release him from the military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, finding the administration had no legal basis for holding him. Mingazov is the 35th detainee to win his habeas petition out of 48 whose petitions have been reviewed... [It's a delight to be able to report something positive happening in the midst of so much darkness] Read more... Franklin Lamb and Gordon Duff on Truth Jihad Radio! | Intifada Palestine  Those who might be turned off by the word “JIHAD” thanks to the Zionist propaganda war against the noble word “jihad” which is an extreme example of Islamophobic bigotry; if one considers how they have kidnapped perfectly rational English words like “holocaust” and anti-Semite” and what they have done with them, what chance do you think anyone would have with trying to untangle the distortion in which they have ensnared foreign words like “Jihad?” Jihad, means struggle — the struggle to become a better person and to make the world a better place... Read more... Risking Israel's ire, US takes 1,350 Palestinian refugees | Christian Science Monitor The State Department confirmed today that as many as 1,350 Iraqi Palestinians – once the well-treated guests of Saddam Hussein and now at outs with much of Iraqi society – will be resettled in the US, mostly in southern California, starting this fall... Read more... How to Break Up the Banks, Stop Massive Bonuses, and Rein in Wall Street Greed, by Nouriel Roubini | AlterNet The prominent economist explains why the model of the financial supermarket is a disaster, and why it's so dangerous that Wall Street is back to business as usual... Read more... Israeli Media Celebrates the War Crimes of Mossad Chief, Meir Dagan, by Khaled Amayreh | Wake Up From Your Slumber  Meir Dagan In Israel, the murder of Palestinians and their mutilation is openly applauded at the highest levels. Is anyone in the West watching?..[Yes, well, at least a few of us.] Read more...Itching to Fight Another Muslim Enemy, by Robert Parry | Consortium News If you read the major American newspapers or watch the propaganda on cable TV, it’s pretty clear that the U.S. foreign policy Establishment is again spoiling for a fight, this time in Iran... Read more... Israel to Europe: Stop your citizens from sailing to Gaza with aid | Haaretz Israel to deport Turkish volunteer arrested by Shin Bet for allegedly belonging to outlawed Islamist group organizing aid boat to Gaza... Read more... Woody Allen Says Obama Should Become a Dictator, by Kurt Nimmo | Infowars  Woody Allen and his adopted daughter-wife “I am pleased with Obama. I think he’s brilliant. The Republican Party should get out of his way and stop trying to hurt him,” Allen said in an interview.. “It would good… if he could be a dictator for a few years because he could do a lot of good things quickly.”..Read more... Former New Republic editor, Peter Beinart, on the collapse of the "Pro-Israel" establishment | Palestine Note Peter Beinart, former editor of Marty Peretz' New Republic has written a groundbreaking piece in the New York Review Of Books about the end of the "pro-Israel" lobby's hold on American Jews. Beinart, in his late 30's, is one of the journalistic stars of his generation (he was editor of TNR at 28). He comes from an Orthodox background... Read more... "A Bomb is a Bomb is a Bomb": When Will the Real Terrorists Stand Up, by Saul Landau | Counterpunch I propose President Obama end the war against terrorism and admit the phrase means “Muslims should scare you!”.. Read more... Challenging Canada's myths about its role in Palestine, by Sean McMahon | The Electronic Intifada  Read more... Humor Dept: Bye Bye American Pie, by The Capitol Steps | Coreys Views Uncle Sam points out the problems we have when we buy cheap products from China... [The fruits of "free trade" and cowboy capitalism] Enjoy...Who murdered UK weapons inspector Dr. David Kelly? | Redress Information & Analysis Christopher King examines the death of UK weapons inspector Dr David Kelly in 2003 and argues that, in the light of fresh analyses of the circumstances of his death, it is vital that the new British government make public Dr Kelly’s post mortem report and other documentation relating to his death... Read more... May 19, 2010 BP and the 'Little Eichmanns', by Chris Hedges | Truthdig  Cultures that do not recognize that human life and the natural world have a sacred dimension, an intrinsic value beyond monetary value, cannibalize themselves until they die. They ruthlessly exploit the natural world and the members of their society in the name of progress until exhaustion or collapse, blind to the fury of their own self-destruction... Read more... After being denied entry to West Bank, Chomsky likens Israel to 'Stalinist regime', by Amira Hass | Haaretz The Interior Ministry refused to let linguist Noam Chomsky into Israel and the West Bank on Sunday. Chomsky, who aligns himself with the radical left, had been scheduled to lecture at Bir Zeit University near Ramallah, and visit Bil'in and Hebron, as well as meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and various Palestinian activists... Read more... Can 1% Stop The Global Criminal Syndicate?, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today  I was asked during an interview on Al Jazeera the question that every Muslim lives with every day, “How can a small country like Israel control America.” My answer was simple. Imagine a friend comes to you screaming, “Someone stole my house!” You ask him what happened. His response; “I put my house up for sale, I asked $200,000 dollars. A man came to the door and said he wanted my house. He gave me $200,000 bucks and now I have no home.”.. Read more... Torture Inc: Americas Brutal Prisons, by Deborah Davies (Video) | Information Clearing House Savaged by dogs, Electrocuted With Cattle Prods, Burned By Toxic Chemicals, Does such barbaric abuse inside U.S. jails explain the horrors that were committed in Iraq?... Read more, watch videos... Palestinians win Intel Science Fair award | Palestine Telegraph Three fourteen year-old girls from the UNRWA school at Askar refugee camp in Nablus have won an award at the Intel Science and Engineering Fair in San Jose, California... Read more... An Israeli on Nakba Day: ‘Our humanity is bound up with your right to return’, by Eitan Bronstein | Mondoweiss  My sisters and brothers the refugees of Palestinian, today is the 15th of May, the Nakba Day, and I have one request from you; a heartfelt request from the son of occupiers, as an occupier, to those who paid the price for this occupation... Read more... The Jews of Conscience, by Mohannad El-Khairy | The Daily Star Before the state of Israel was founded in 1948, and during its 60-year history, the Jews of Conscience have existed. They were opposed to what was to come and are opposed to what is happening now. Over time, their number across the globe, especially within the very state they hold citizenship in, has grown significantly. They are found in academia, in art and in media. They are former Knesset politicians and even former IOF soldiers. They are moms and dads, students and activists, religious and secular. And they come with one goal in mind: the dismantlement of the Apartheid system in the state of Israel and the freedom of the Palestinian people... Read more... Beyond the Nuclear Mordechai Vanunu, by Eileen Fleming | Salem-News.Com  In June 2005, and just a few days before my first of seven journeys to Israel Palestine, a Palestinian American friend warned me, “Don’t visit Mordechai Vanunu, if you see him; don’t speak to him. He’s not allowed to speak to foreigners and you could cause him trouble.”.. Read more... Evil Ed, inc: the Wall Street-charter school connection | Open Left ..If you thought that Wall Street couldn't get more destructive, think again. And if you thought that the charter school movement couldn't get even more removed from serving the public good, you also need to think again. On Friday, NY Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez wrote a column about how big investors can double their money in seven years using a special tax credit to invest in charter schools... Read more... Politically Incorrect Joke by The Editor "How many Jews does it take to screw in a light bulb?" "Six million." Religious edict to expand targeting of Palestinians in "Price Tag" campaign | Middle East Monitor  Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, leader of the Yosef Chai Yeshiva; a religious institution in the Yitzhar settlement, has called for an expansion of the 'price tag' campaign - a settler policy of retribution against Palestinians and their property in response to government operations to evacuate settlement enclaves in the West Bank... Read more... How U.S. Aid Puts A Happy Face On Afghan Occupation, by James A. Lucas | Information Clearing House The White House tells us that we are releasing funds to rebuild Afghanistan. The reality, however, is that very little of the money actually will benefit the Afghan people. We are told that our nation is being very generous, mostly as a balm to our collective conscience to convince us to give our stamp of approval for that war which so far has cost over $260 billion in U.S. taxpayers’ money. This deception also helps to put a happy face on this war so that our attention is diverted from the people who are dying and wounded there... Read more... Is the Middle East on a peace process to nowhere?, by Ian Black | The Guardian  A Palestinian demonstration in the West Bank Meron Benvenisti has been talking, writing and arguing about the Israel-Palestinian conflict for much of the last 40 years. Now aged 76 he is as forceful, articulate and unconventional as ever – and convinced that President Barack Obama is doomed to fail in his attempt to cajole the two sides to hammer out a solution at the negotiating table...Read more... How the Israel Lobby undermines US economy (Video) | P U L S E PULSE columnist and IRMEP director Grant F. Smith on Press TV’s Autograph with Susan Modaress... Watch... Traffic signals in the service of a racism!, by Mike Odetalla | Window into Palestine Just a few days ago, reports began surfacing about the traffic lights and how they are managed by the Israelis to favor Jewish drivers. Even Al-Jazeera did a story about this not too long ago. Below is my original piece that I did after returning home from Palestine in 2007 and which I submitted to many sources, even Al-Jazeera at the time, but no one would touch it and as a matter of fact, I was ridiculed for "noticing such trivial things" by people who were supposed to be on "our side"… Read more... Who Wants This American Dead?, by Jeff Gates | Palestine Chronicle  Why was Awlaki imprisoned? Why was he released? Why kill Anwar al-Awlaki, an American who inspired the Times Square Fizzler and advised the Crotch Bomb Sizzler? This Islamic preacher is “out there.” No doubt about it. So is Christian preacher John Hagee. Hagee promises his flock a Rapture that will beam them up to Heaven. But not just yet. First God’s Chosen People must recover Jerusalem. Remind me: isn’t the status of Jerusalem THE most contentious and volatile issue in the entire Middle East?..Read more... Why Talk of "Realism" is Unrealistic: The Nakba and the Two-State Solution, by Dina Jadallah | Counterpunch On the surface and viewed from the perspective of dominating powers, their designated minions, and entrenched cohorts, it may appear that the Nakba is diminishing. Several facts corroborate that view: the passage of time, the very dispossession and dislocation of millions, the tendency of official Palestinian “leadership” to accept whatever scraps they are given, the seemingly insurmountable military superiority of Israel and its main backer, the United States, to name a few... Read more... Blame the Grand Mufti, by Gilbert Achcar | Le Monde diplomatique Many Israelis and Palestinians would like peaceful coexistence, but myths, propaganda and denial have a habit of getting in the way... Read more... May 18, 2010 Play, by Nahida | Uprooted Palestinians  Shoot them; Kill them; Burn them; Don’t leave any of them Venue: The Holy Land/ Palestine Time: 1948 am- 2010 pm (62 years) Tickets: free to all nations "War without Borders": Obama's "Long War", by Michel Chossudovsky | Global Research The concept of the "long war" has characterised military doctrine since the end of World War II. The broader objective of global military dominance in support of an imperial project was first formulated under the Truman administration in the late 1940s at the outset of the Cold War... Read more... The American art of war | Al-Ahram Weekly  Three new publications from the leading radical British press are the tip of a growing iceberg of passionate pleas for sanity in international affairs. Most of us prefer to stick our heads in the sand as the world goes to hell in a hand-basket, but there are works that can fascinate and uplift, perhaps even inspire us to do something before it is too late... Read more... Margaret Atwood Cashes In, by Jennifer Matsui | Dissident Voice Novelist Margaret Atwood’s decision to travel to Tel Aviv to share a literary prize worth a million dollars has ignited a controversy in which the septuagenarian author and vice-president of the literary human rights organization PEN International has come under fire by Palestinian rights activists... [Great piece - you go, girl] Read more... Elvis Costello | Yellow Press "It is after considerable contemplation that I have lately arrived at the decision that I must withdraw from the two performances scheduled in Israel on the 30th of June and the 1st of July..." [You can send your thank you notes via this address] Read more...Iran accepts nuclear-fuel swap deal | Al Jazeera  Monday's deal was agreed after 18 hours of negotations Iran has signed an agreement brokered by Brazil to ship low-enriched uranium to Turkey in exchange for nuclear fuel for its power plant, according to official media...Read more... The Shame of Noam Chomsky and the Gatekeepers of the Left, by Barrie Zwicker | Educate Yourself ...On the left, the feelings are more complicated. The main emotions are gratitude and admiration - sometimes to the extent of near idol worship. As Daniel Abrahamson puts it: "Noam Chomsky is often hailed as America's premier dissident intellectual, a fearless purveyor of truth fighting against media propaganda, murderous US foreign policy, and the crimes of profit hungry translational corporations... [I've gotta admit it; he's one of my favorite Zionists, along with Uri Avnery, and they both need to take a simple enema. They would feel so much better afterwards, and the whole situation would change for the better.] Read more...Noam Chomsky denied entry into Israel and West Bank, by Amira Hass | Haaretz Interior Ministry seeking IDF approval to let American professor just into West Bank; rights group: Decision characteristic of totalitarian regime... [Why? He's a Zionist, someone who believes in the legitimacy of the Jewish State. Nor is he just any old Zionist, he is one of the most influential of Israel's intellectual allies, almost single-handedly paralyzing the American Left.] Ah, now I get it. His usefulness lies in the impression that people have that he is a danger to Israel, a supporter of the Palestinian cause. They wouldn't want to blow his cover.] Read more...Planet Chomsky vs. Dershowitz’s Orbit by Gilad Atzmon | Gilad Atzmon  The Israeli Interior Ministry on Sunday denied entry to Jewish American linguist Prof. Noam Chomsky turning him back from the Allenby Bridge border crossing in the Jordan Valley. Seemingly, the moral ash cloud that is pouring out of the morbid Jewish ghetto known as Israel is not going to clear. It is there to stay... [This came in after I'd prepped the two other links. As usual Gilad nails it.] Read more...Just Released Book: Shifting Sands | Cafe Intifada The newly released book, Shifting Sands, Jewish American Women Confront the Occupation, edited by Osie Adelfang, with forwards by Amira Hass and Cindy Sheehan, and contributions from Cafe Intifada’s Emma Rosenthal as well as: Hanna Mermelstein, Tomi Laine Clark, Starhawk, Alice Rothchild, Hedy Epstein, Sandra Butler, Kim Goldberg, Maia Ettinger, Anna Baltzar, Linda Dittmar and Susan Greene, is now available from Cafe Intifada... Read more... Israel Negotiates Only to Extort Concessions, by Hasan Afif El-Hasan | Palestine Chronicle  There is a possibility that Abbas negotiating team may capitulate to the Israelis Palestinians, let down by the betrayed promises of peace, are at a loss on how to achieve liberation without using violence against the tyranny of a state that has been subjecting them to violence, repression and racism...Read more... The Jews And The Concentration Camps: No Evidence Of Genocide | Rense A Factual Appraisal Of The 'Holocaust' by The Red Cross There is one survey of the Jewish question in Europe during World War Two and the conditions of Germany's concentration camps which is almost unique in its honesty and objectivity, the three-volume Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross on its Activities during the Second World War, Geneva, 1948...Read more... May 17, 2010 Dogs for Jews | Gilad Atzmon  The Israelis indeed internalised the Shoa experience. Very much like notorious Ivan the Terrible from Treblinka who reportedly unleashed his dog against camp inmates, the IDF Border Guard employs dogs against Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli political opposition... Read more... Arabs shut out of Israeli public sector, by Jonathan Cook | The National The unemployed computer engineer Morad Lashin would like to work in Israel’s Electricity Company, a large state utility, but said his chances of being recruited are slim... Read more... Fox News Rant: Iran Nukes Ready, Israel To Be Attacked By “Jack In The Box” Teen Terror Army, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today  “Fox News uses Pentagon “Psy-ops” specialist to push for nuclear war in Middle East. General Paul Vallely’s wild reports on impending Iranian nuclear missiles attack on Israel part of “end of days” Armageddon ploy. Vallely claims armies of “teen terrorists” hiding in tunnels all over Israel, the “Jack-in-the-Box” army of doom.”.. Read more... Israel's Intimidation Tactics Won't Stop Us: First Ship Sets Sail for Gaza! | Freegaza 14 May 2010 – At 22:45 local time tonight, the MV Rachel Corrie, a 1200-ton cargo ship, part of the eight-vessel Freedom Flotilla, set sail from Ireland on its way to the Mediterranean Sea. There, ships from Turkey and Greece will join her, then sail to Gaza... Read more... About anti Semitism, by Nahida the Exiled Palestinian | Gilad Atzmon  Here are just a few lines from Nahida's deconstruction of 'Anti Semitism': ...This occupying entity called “Israel” (a word that I myself detest to even pronounce and generally avoid to use) is not a theoretical being, nor does it operate in a vacuum; it’s neither an abstract concept nor a conjectural void. It’s an entity run by PEOPLE... Read more... AP Reporter Explains What "Israel's Right to Exist" Really Means, by John Spritzler | Turn the World Upside Down AP reporter Rizek Abdel Jawad broke a taboo by providing truthful background in his report today on Palestinians in Gaza marching to commemorate the Nakba, which means "catastrophe" in Arabic and refers to the Zionist removal of Palestinians from what is now Israel in 1948. Jawad may have sacrificed his career by letting the cat out of the bag... Read more... A generals' revolt against Zionist domination of US policy? | truthjihad  Tonight's radio guest, Religious Studies professor Ira Chernus, just published an article entitled Blood or Treasure: Obama's Crucial Choice in the Middle East. The article begins: "Writing about U.S. Middle East policy used to be a boring job. You'd start out with 'The U.S. supports Israel's stand on...' and then just fill in the details. No longer. Many pundits claim to smell the winds of policy change blowing from the White House.".. Read more... Mervyn King: "World's Worst Financial Crisis Ever" | Washington's Blog Bank of England Governor Mervyn King says: "We are still halfway through the world's worst financial crisis ever." He is in good company. The following experts have said that the economic crisis could be worse than the Great Depression:.. Read more... A Message from Argentina: Our Sympathies to the People of Greece!, by Adrian Salbuchi | Voltairenet  A woman gives the V sign as she holds a banner reading ’Greece is There are disconcerting parallels between Argentina’s catastrophic decade, 1991-2001, which ended in massive default, and Greece’s recent and impending difficulties. In both cases, international credit organisations were to blame and both countries were beset by widespread protests and riots over austerity measures imposed by the IMF. Argentinian economist Adrián Salbuchi offers a hard-hitting analysis of this engineered crisis which knows no boundaries...not for sale, Long Live Greece, Long Live Theodorakis’ Read more... 'Obama funding Israel for new war' | Press TV ...The United States from the beginning [of Israel] has been the principle arms financier. The United States completely subsidizes the entire military and intelligence apparatus and, in fact, the entire [Israel] itself... Read more... End the Ongoing Palestinian Nakba?, by Kawther Salam | Palestine Think Tank  At their core, the circumstances surrounding the Palestinian struggle today do not differ from those circumstances that led to the 1948 Nakba and the colonization of Palestine. Today, on the sixty-second anniversary of the Nakba, the nature of the western-backed Zionist-Israeli colonial enterprise appears all the clearer... Read more... Why the 'Experts' Failed to See How Financial Fraud Collapsed the Economy, by James K. Galbraith | AlterNet Galbraith to senators: "I write to you from a disgraced profession. Economic theory ... failed miserably to understand the forces behind the financial crisis.".. Read more... ME mourning Israel occupation | Press TV  A Palestinian girl attends a rally in the Gaza Strip, marking Marches continue across the Middle East to mark the Israeli seizure of the Palestinian lands as well as its expulsion and killing of hundreds of Palestinians...the 62nd anniversary of the 1948 Israeli occupation Read more... May 18: 9-11 Truth Demonstration at Israeli Consulate in L.A., by Christopher Bollyn | Rebel News On May 18 there will be a public demonstration at the Israeli Consulate in Los Angeles by people who believe that Israel’s Mossad (along with Zionist Gentile and Jewish agents) carried out 9/11. The demonstration will take place in front of the Israeli Consulate at 6380 Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles between 2 PM and 4PM on Tuesday, May 18th, 2010. We hope you will join us!.. Read more... Boycotting the boycotters, by Gideon Levy | Haaretz  While the international boycott against apartheid South Africa is credited with leading to the regime's downfall, here it is considered irrelevant and unworthy of comparison... Read more... Ex-communicated – enclosed landscapes in Palestine (video) | Australians for Palestine Ex-Communicated tells the story of Israeli occupation in Palestine through the genre of landscape and the perspective of a camera lens. In his series of remarkable photographs, Gary Fields, a professor of communication at the University of California, San Diego takes us behind the walls, gates, and fences of this deliberately fragmented geography in revealing Palestinian life under Israeli military rule... Read more, watch video... The Ongoing Erasure of Palestine, by Naseer Aruri | ZNet  While many still entertain the idea of two sovereign states, Palestine and Israel, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, history, politics, and geography have made this solution unattainable for certain people -- whatever rhetorical changes in American foreign policy may emerge from the Obama Administration. In fact, if the handling of the Goldstone report by Obama and his UN ambassador Susan Rice is an example, then the difference between Bush and Obama on Palestine/Israel is perhaps imaginary... Read more... Report on the Palestinian Tragedy April 2010, by Christopher Titmuss | Dharma E-News (AFP) We sat together in a large circle of chairs in the conference room. Apart from myself, women occupied every seat. Their ages ranged from young women in their early 20’s to women in the 50’s and 60’s. Some wore black. Some wore the hijab, the headscarf; others neither wore the colours of mourning nor the hijab. Rawda Basir, director of the Women’s Studies Centre in Nablus, the main Palestinian city of 200,000 residents, told me an hour before the workshop with me got underway. “Christopher. Prepare yourself. You will listen to stories of terrible suffering today.”.. Read more... May 16, 2010 US funds 'apartheid' road network in Israel, by Jonathan Cook | The National  Jerusalem is seen in the background as workers in the West Bank town The construction of sections of a controversial segregated road network in the West Bank planned by Israel for Palestinians – leaving the main roads for exclusive use by settlers – is being financed by a US government aid agency, a map prepared by Palestinian researchers has revealed...area of Beit Jala south of Bethlehem build a road funded by USAID Read more... Legal Persecution: Israel's Disappeared, by Nadia Hijab | Counterpunch At first it seemed bizarre. Israel slapped a blanket gag order to prevent media coverage of the May 6 arrest of Ameer Makhoul, a prominent Palestinian citizen of Israel who heads Ittijah, a coalition of 64 major civil society organizations. Yet in no time at all the news had shot round the world, and Facebook pages were up calling for his freedom and for a demonstration in Haifa to demand his release... Read more... UN group to probe Israeli crimes | Press TV ...The UN special committee investigating Israeli actions in the occupied Palestinian territories said in a recent account that "in addition to the grave situation caused by Israel's unlawful colonial settlement campaign and the continuing illegal blockade of Gaza Strip, Israel has granted itself the power to arbitrarily detain, imprison and deport Palestinian civilians for being 'infiltrators,'".. Read more... The Inevitable Collapse of McChrystal's Afghan War Plan: Bound to Fail, by Franklin Spinney | Counterpunch  Read more... Jews Who Don’t Support Actions of Israeli Government Increasingly Demonized, by Peter Marmorek | Alternet This is a story I have always known, a story I grew up with. It is the story of how in Germany on Kristallnacht, Nov 9th, 1938 the mob which was destroying the houses of all the Jews in Mainz came to the house in which my Jewish grandparents lived. There they were met by Maria, my family’s Catholic cook, who faced the mob and said, “Why are you here? You know these people and you know they have done nothing to harm you.” And the people left the house untouched... Read more... Israeli gunships open fire at Palestinian fishermen in Gaza | KUNA Israeli gunships opened fire Friday at Palestinian fishing boats out at sea, off the coasts of Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources told KUNA that the Israeli gunships were out at sea, and fired several rockets at dozens of fishing boats. None of the fishermen were hurt in the attack, but two boats were severely damaged, the sources added, noting that the fishermen had to head to shore for safety. Israel attacks Palestinian fishing boats almost daily, claiming that they exceeded the three-mile fishing area limit. Link... Wanted Posters Issued for Alleged Israeli War Criminals, by Tim King/ Salem News | My Catbird Seat  A group in Israel is exposing members of its government charged with war crimes By now many already know that a series of wanted posters have been issued to help identify and possibly some day bring to justice, a number of Israeli officials who are suspected of acts of genocide and illegal warfare...Read more... Israeli Provocation Gives U.S. Leaders a Chance to be Strong And Right, by Ira Chernus | Common Dreams Advocates of Middle East peace are circulating a letter in the U.S. House of Representatives, urging President Obama to "continue your strong efforts to bring U.S. leadership to bear in moving the parties toward a negotiated two-state solution." The key word is "strong." It's easy enough to say we want peace and a two-state solution. To take the steps necessary to make it happen, including putting serious pressure on Israel, is something else again. That's what it means for a leader to be strong... [When "progressive Zionist" observers like Chernus finally abandon the fraudulent "two-state" solution, the struggle will be nearly over] Read more...Portrait of a Jihadist: New Documentary ‘The Oath’ Reveals ‘Human Side’ of al-Qaeda, by Emily Wilson | Guernica Documentary filmmaker, Laura Poitras, who has won a Peabody and been nominated for an Oscar and an Emmy, is making a trilogy of documentaries about America post-9/11. Her first film in the trilogy, My Country, My Country, told the story of the war in Iraq from the perspective of an Iraqi doctor. In her latest, The Oath, she profiles Abu Jandal, a Yemeni taxi driver who was Osama bin Laden's bodyguard... Read more... How the Tea Partiers Are Getting Screwed by Their Own Ideology, by Noam Chomsky | Orwell's Dreams  We should not underestimate the depth of moral indignation that lies behind the furious, On Feb. 18, Joe Stack, a 53-year-old computer engineer, crashed his small plane into a building in Austin, Texas, hitting an IRS office, committing suicide, killing one other person and injuring others. Stack left an anti-government manifesto explaining his actions...often self-destructive bitterness about government and business power.” Read more... The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Afghanistan, by Chris McManus | Dailycensored In the movie ”American Gangster” the Harlem druglord Frank Lucas is played by Denzel Washington. The movie portrays the smuggling of tons of heroin into the US from Vietnam using the coffins of dead American servicemen. Lucas bragged in a magazine article that the coffins were modified with false bottoms” big enough to load up with six, maybe eight kilos”... Read more... Blackwater infiltrates streets of Islamabad, by Sikander Shaheen | The Nation (Pakistan) Almost each and every street of the Federal Capital is infiltrated by the notorious Blackwater, The Nation's investigations reveal...In addition, 43 residences are operating in the name of one fake humanitarian NGO that neither exists on the ground nor carries any legal documentation. 350 Blackwater personnel are residing in the city along with an unspecified number of US marines and spies of the Central Intelligence Agency... Read more... Cartwright: Expect war for 5-10 more years | Marine Corps Times  For the next “five to 10 years,” the military likely will remain engaged in the same kinds of conflicts it has been fighting since 2001, said Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright. The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs on Thursday told a conference in Washington that “no one I know thinks we’ll be out of” these kinds of conflicts any time soon... [The audience must have loved the speech. Nothing like guaranteed job security to make a fighting man feel good, or guaranteed profits for the armaments industry vultures.] Read more...The Banquo's Ghost of Israeli Foreign Policy, by Max Blumenthal | The Nation A May 6 "expose" from the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot gave Israeli government officials and their hardline American proxies the ammunition they had been seeking against Judge Richard Goldstone. After Goldstone, a Jewish former South African judge who describes himself as a proud Zionist, charged Israel with crimes against humanity for its assault on the Gaza Strip in late 2008 and 2009, the Israeli government sought to destroy him. Now, thanks to Yediot's report, which documented Goldstone's career as a judge in South Africa's apartheid system and ignored his heroic role in guiding the country's democratic transition, Israel and its allies have renewed their assault... Read more... The Struggle Forward, by Zahir Ebrahim | Palestine Think Tank  I have realized over my many years of interaction with Zionists, that many among them genuinely believe what this anonymous person under the nom de plume Ahmad Yaqeen, has stated in his comment to Joseph Massad's Al-Ahram Weekly article 'The Language of Zionism'... [Extremely informative, well researched piece] Read more...Obama's Pakistan Strategy Is Not Working, by Mosharraf Zaidi | AlterNet Among the many lessons gleaned from the failed Times Square bomber, the one that may be hardest to absorb is that America's Pakistan problem is getting worse, not better... Read more... Will Hezbollah support the right to work for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon?, by Franklin Lamb | Palestine Think Tank  Local political pressures are mounting on the Party of God The current relationship between Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Hezbollah is not as clearcut as often assumed, despite the frequent inspiring brotherly words of Hezbollah’s leadership and the fact that the Party enjoys the support of more than 90% of the camp refugees, none of whom can vote...Read more... Finance 202: How We Became Debt Slaves (And Learned to Love It), by Gordon Arnaut | Information Clearing House Who is in charge of these United States? If you guess that it’s the people with the money, then you are correct. Not the elected representatives of the people. Not the men and women in uniform, not the factory workers, or farmers, or teachers, or bus drivers and pilots. Just the guys and gals with the moneybags... Read more... The Truth About the Big Banks' Unprecedented Lobbying Avalanche, by Kevin Connor | AlterNet The six biggest banks have hired at least 243 lobbyists to infiltrate and buy out the regulatory framework that's supposed to keep the financial industry in check... Read more... Don't Rock the Boat: A Critique of a Pamphlet Defending Zionism in the American Left | Palestine Think Tank  from the pamphlet promoting focus on anti-semitism as the core to all activism movements "It seemed like that word 'anti-semite' had so much power over all the people in the gathering" – a reporter on KBOO radio describing the way the allegation of anti-semitism was used to shut up a major campaigner against support for Israeli war crimes, in a supposedly 'anti-racist' meeting, in Portland, in April 2010. As if to confirm the power of Zionism in the left, the report was censored...["By way of deception, thou shalt do war" - Mossad motto] Read more...Let’s Rejoice in Terror’s Benefits!, by John Kirby | Common Dreams On May 6, The New York Post ran the following story on its front page: “THANKS, FAISAL! Inept terror thug saves 900 cop jobs” “That’s how many cops were going to be cut before Faisal’s botched bid at Times Square terror. His effort prompted the city to restore $55 million to the NYPD, saving those jobs and making New York a safer place.”.. Read more... America Held Hostage: Year 62, by Sina Alavi | Sabbah Report  We are approaching another ominous anniversary in American History without anyone acknowledging it- not even a peep from the mainstream media. When Iranian students took hostages in Tehran and kept them for 444 days, for those of us who remember those terrible days know that the Media reported for hours about that ordeal on daily basis- and there was no Fox News and CNN. But, this ominous anniversary has nothing to do with Iran. To learn about this ongoing ordeal, we need to go back in time- more than 60 years... Read more... New Bill in Congress Aims to Shut Down Mideast Media Outlets | American Free Press Washington is notorious for funding television stations and other media outlets around the world that promote U.S. and Israeli propaganda. Don't think you can readily get the other side of the story. U.S. policymakers believe you should get all sides of the news - but only if you're careful not to question the United States or Israel. A new bill making the rounds in Congress would ban in the United States more than 17 television stations that broadcast from the Middle East... Read more... May 15, 2010 On my way to Athens | Gilad Atzmon  Next week I am going to be traveling between Istanbul, Athens and Nicosia. I will be giving concerts and talks in support of the coming Free Gaza flotilla... Read more... Israel seeks to silence dissent, by Ben White | The Guardian Repressive practices long used in the West Bank and Gaza are now being used to limit civil liberties within Israel... Read more... Why You Should Care about the Hikers Held in Iran | Anna Balzer Nine and a half months ago, two of my friends, Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd, were arrested along with their friend Josh Fattal while hiking near the Iranian border with Iraqi Kurdistan. You probably heard about the hikers in the news, but most people don't know much about them personally. They are incredible people I spent a lot of time with while living in Damascus, Syria last year... Read more... Who are the Palestinians?, by Mazin Qumsiyeh | Australians for Palestine  The Palestinians by Ismail Shammout Arnaiz-Villena et al published a paper in this journal titled “The origin of Palestinians and their genetic relatedness with other Mediterranean populations.. The paper demonstrated with ample evidence the similarity of certain Jewish populations to Palestinians. After some pressures because the data appears inconsistent with Zionist ideology and mythology (including the preposterous claims that Palestinians are recent immigrants to the “land of Israel” and Jews as a distinct race), the paper was pulled from web pages and the society took an unprecedented and in my humble opinion illegal action of penalizing an author (removing him from the editorial board) to satisfy a political constituency within the society...[AFP was hacked and taken down by Zionist cyberterrorists about a week ago, but they're back up and running as we speak. I offer my humble admiration and respect for Sonja Karkar and her team for doggedly publishing perhaps the finest Palestinian support site on the Web.] Read more...Iron Dome defense system gets new backer: Barack Obama | Haaretz U.S. agrees to fund anti-missile defense system, long delayed due to budgetary difficulties, beyond regular annual defense assistance afforded to Israel... [Who knows - maybe they'll get such a Rube Goldberg Star Wars contraption to work - but ultimately they have no defense against the weapons of truth, justice, human decency, outrage against apartheid and genocide and so on. The Jewish State has no future. As usual, the U.S. is backing the wrong horse.] Read more...America's Ten Most Corrupt Capitalists | AlterNet Wall Street's captains of industry and top policymakers in Washington are often the same people. A lot of them get rich by playing for both teams... Read more... A people who refuse to be vanished, by Farid Farid | The Age  A section of the controversial Israeli barrier is seen between the Shuafat "The land is like an open book on which nature and humans continuously write," says Palestinian lawyer and writer Raja Shehadeh describing the ecological formation of the majestic geological textures of Ramallah...refugee camp, in the West Bank near Jerusalem, and Pisgat Zeev Read more... To the participants in the 2nd Haifa Conference | ROR ...We call on all supporters of the goals of the conference to contact us in order to work together for the building of an international coalition for the return of the Palestinian refugees and for the Democratic Secular state in Historic Palestine... Read more... Live Webinar From Shatila Refugee Camp (May 20): Palestinian Civil Rights in Lebanon and the Right to Return | My Catbird Seat This informative visual presentation by Dr. Franklin Lamb will cover the very modern concept of the Palestinian Right to Return and the question on everyone’s mind Can Lebanon finally come in from the Cold?... Read more... Prognosis 2012: Towards a New World Social Order, by Richard K. Moore | Global Research  ...The business of the capitalist is the management of capital, and this management is generally handled through the mediation of banks and brokerage houses. It should not be surprising that investment bankers came to occupy the top of the hierarchy of capitalist wealth and power. And in fact, there are a handful of banking families, including the Rothschilds and the Rockefellers, who have come to dominate economic and political affairs in the Western world... Read more... Financial Chaos And The Smell Of Napalm In The Morning, by Peter Ewart | Information Clearing House What in God’s name should we make of it all? On Thursday, the New York Stock Exchange had its most severe plunge in history - nearly 1000 points, before it recovered minutes later. On Monday, it shot up 400 points, one of the biggest spikes in memory. All told, the variance was around 1400 points over the period of a couple of days. The context for this, of course, is the financial turmoil that has spread from Greece and is sweeping across Europe, threatening the very existence of the European Union and the Euro as a common currency. Last week alone, it is estimated that global stock markets lost $3.7 trillion of their value as a result of this crisis... Read more... Keep Hope Alive, by Eileen Fleming | Expressions of Nakba Gallery Twenty-one year old Khaled Diab, his sister and two cousins fled for fear of their lives from their home in Majd Al Krum, which was surrounded by the Israeli army on a cold night in October 1948. Khaled eventually made his way to the USA and had a lucrative career in the Defense Industry with Top Secret Clearance during the Cold War. The events of that day we call 9/11 led him to establish the non-profit Olive Trees Foundation for Peace dedicated to raising awareness and funds to replace the olive trees destroyed by The Wall... Read more... Lost on the Fearless Plain | Joe Bageant Big Brother's got that ju-ju, Gaia's got the blues -- hologram, carry me home  I've spent most of this week watching American television and movies. I leave the TV on all night long. I toss and turn with my bad back, and bad lungs, catch a rerun episode of Two and a Half Men, or CSI, and conk out again. Then I awaken to the U.S. morning talk shows. It's a grueling regimen, only for the strong. Or the lonely... [Well, whaddaya know - he's an ass-kicking buddhist like me - only he writes better.] Read more...When Your Neighbor Does Not Love You, by Maria C. Khoury | HLCEF Here in the Holy Land, as Christians we should be in the forefront of non-violent action since one of our very basic commandments is not just to love our neighbor but love our enemy also. We know this directly from Christ who always forgave others no matter what. However, in a high conflict area like the West Bank, this is easier said than done... Read more... A Disastrous Metaphor: Waging Domestic War, by J. Reed Brundage | Del Parentesco Americano How the metaphor of ‘war’ came to define US law and policy on drugs and other major social issues A review and summary of “The Model of War”, by Jeremy Elkins...Read more.. Israel deliberately destroyed Gaza | Press TV  One of the Palestinian homes destroyed by Israeli bulldozers ...The report, released Thursday, said there is evidence that Israeli forces destroyed civilian property, including homes, factories, farms, and greenhouses, in areas under their control although there was no fighting in that area or the fighting had stopped...Read more... Secret GAO Report: US Investigations of Israeli Weapons Grade Uranium Diversions 'Inadequate' | Yahoo! News A declassified Government Accountability Office report entitled "Nuclear Diversion in the U.S.? 13 Years of Contradiction and Confusion" reveals serious flaws hampering investigations into diversions of US weapons grade uranium to Israel... Read more... In the Beginning and the Now of Nakba | We Are Wide Awake Every May 15th since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, the Palestinian Exodus from the Holy Land, known as Nakba, meaning their "day of the catastrophe" is commemorated as the day the expulsions and flight of Palestinians from their towns and villages began when Israeli troops forced them from their land and created over 750,000 refugees who are still denied the right to return to their property... Read more... Israel increasingly resembling a police state, by Mel Frykberg | Electronic Intifada  Israel is continuing to crackdown on protesters and community leaders in Israel and the OPT Israeli nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu has been sentenced to another three months imprisonment for allegedly refusing to perform community service in West Jerusalem...Read more... Netanyahu will be pleased: Now UK has an upper-class coalition “fagging” for Israel | Redress Information & Analysis Stuart Littlewood views the Zionist roots of Britain’s senior coalition party, the Conservatives, especially its leader David Cameron and the foreign secretary, William Hague, both self-confessed Israel stooges. He asks whether Nick Clegg, leader of the junior coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats, will have the guts to neutralize the Conservatives’ Zionism and uphold his party’s position on Gaza and war crimes... Read more... Israel's red line: real democracy | Redress Information & Analysis Jonathan Cook reports on the growing persecution of Israeli Arab civil society leaders by the Israeli secret police as part of a strategy designed to castrate the country’s Arab community politically and to prevent it from helping to expose Israeli racism and apartheid internationally... Read more... Friday Nakba events, by Mazin Qumsiyeh | HumanRights Newsletter In this digest: The meaning of Nakba and the right of return, video of events in Bethlehem area including our Nakba commemoration in Al-Maasara, review of popular actions this week including in Sheikh Jarrah, Bil'in etc... Read more... The lesser known settlement freeze deal, by Michael Sfard | The Middle East Channel  Proximity talks between the Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership have just begun. It took Barack Obama's administration almost 15 months to obtain the consent of the parties to talk to each other indirectly, through George Mitchell's team. For the 19-year-old peace process (if counted from the Madrid summit) it is doubtful whether this new phase deserves even the modest "small step" label... Read more... Many Voices Singing One Song, by Philip Giraldi | Antiwar Several weeks ago the redoubtable Charles Schumer of New York announced the Yahweh himself had anointed him Israel’s defender in the US Senate. In a radio interview Schumer explained "You know, my name.. comes from the word shomer, guardian, watcher. My ancestors were guardians of the ghetto wall in Chortkov. And I believe Hashem (God) actually gave me that name... [Yeah, Chuck, you're either the Messiah, the Second Coming or, most likely, just meshugge] Read more...Politicians: Far More Dangerous than Terrorists, by Becky Akers | New American So the dictatorial Attorney General of a dictatorial administration has opined that keeping the homeland secure requires “modifying” the Miranda warning read to criminal suspects (“You have the right to remain silent…”). His excuse is the usual one: “We're now dealing with international terrorism," Eric Holder announced last weekend... Read more... Revenger's tragedy: The forgotten conflict in Pakistan | The Independent  Blowback: US marines test an unmanned drone, The arrest of Faisal Shahzad for planting the Times Square car bomb has forced America to confront the bloody conflict in Pakistan that inspired his actions. The West has ignored this war for too long, writes Patrick Cockburn...their preferred weapon in Pakistan's tribal areas Read more... Still Fighting Them Here, by Jack Hunter | The American Conservative Politicians and pundits continue to discuss alleged terror suspect Faisal Shahzad’s attempt to detonate an explosive device in New York City’s Time Square, but few are asking the obvious—how could our wars on terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere have prevented an individual like Shahzad from trying to carry out a terrorist attack on US soil? Furthermore, to what extent do our wars in the Middle East inspire such attacks? Aren’t we “fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them here?” And if so, why are we still fighting them here?.. Read more, watch video... "Over My 21 Years on Wall Street, I Never Saw Anything Remotely So Suspicious": The May 6 Stock Crash Revisited, by Pam Martens | Counterpunch Procter & Gamble may have to put the second half of its name in bold in the future or maybe add an exclamation point. Cowboy capitalism threw a lasso around the staid 173 year old household products company on black Thursday, shaving some $62 billion off its market cap at the low point in trading... Read more... Humor Dept: Black hole expelled from its galaxy | Press TV  The red circle shows the possible location of a black hole ...According to the study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the bright X-ray source could be the big black hole being hurled from its parent galaxy at high speed... [or it might be the abominable snowman with a red eye] [Heartening news from the universe. Could Israel be next?] Read more...Doubts Grow Even in the Pentagon: McChrystal's Afghan War Plan Unravels, by Gareth Porter | Counterpunch Although Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's plan for wresting the Afghan provinces of Helmand and Kandahar from the Taliban is still in its early stages of implementation, there are already signs that setbacks and obstacles it has encountered have raised serious doubts among top military officials in Washington about whether the plan is going to work... Read more... Iran, China and Israel's Weapons of Mass Disruption: China in the Catbird Seat, by Peter Lee | Counterpunch There were two major nuclear non-proliferation conferences in April, one in Washington (President Barack Obama's Nuclear Security Summit) and one in Tehran (International Conference on Disarmament and Non-Proliferation). A third, aka the Big One - the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference held in New York City under the auspices of the United Nations - is now taking place in New York... Read more... IAEA: Pressure on Israel to disclose nukes | Press TV  IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano ...International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Yukiya Amano has asked the watchdog's 151 member states to share views on how to implement a resolution demanding that Israel "accede to the NPT" and open its nuclear facilities to inspections... Read more... The Ghosts of Gandamak, by William Dalrymple | NYT The name Gandamak means little in the West today. Yet this small Afghan village was once famous for the catastrophe that took place there during the First Anglo-Afghan War in January 1842, arguably the greatest humiliation ever suffered by a Western army in the East... Read more... Jordan Union To Fight For Boycott | International Middle East Media Center  Read more... The Meaning and Importance of Cultural Boycotts, by Cathy Gulkin | Canadian Dimension This past September, just a few months after the bombardment of Gaza by Israel, John Greyson, Naomi Klein and 1,500 others including myself signed the Toronto Declaration: No Celebration of Occupation to protest the Spotlight on Tel Aviv at TIFF 2009... Read more... Israeli government urged not to jail nuclear whistleblower again | Amnesty International Amnesty International has urged the Israeli government not to imprison nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who is facing a return to jail within days.. Vanunu, 56, who is banned from leaving the country, told Amnesty International on 12 May: “Whether I go to prison or not, it doesn’t matter to me. I feel like I’m in prison already, trapped in Israel.”.. Read more... Gold stones, glass houses: Israel's relationship with apartheid South Africa, by Sasha Polakow-Suransky | The Middle East Channel  The Israeli government has it in for Richard Goldstone. Ever since Goldstone, a Jewish South African judge, issued a report in September charging Israel (and Hamas) with war crimes during the January 2009 invasion of Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attacked him -- and his report -- as a grave threat to Israel's legitimacy... Read more... Times Square Rorschach Test, by Stephan Salisbury | Informed Comment ...the response to the Times Square car bomb incident is only the latest iteration of one of the most disconcerting and persistent features of the American landscape since Sept. 11. “I am concerned,” Robert Mueller, head of the FBI, told a Senate intelligence panel a few years ago, “about what we are not seeing.” In former times – before 9/11 changed everything – there was a notion that what we cannot see is not there. Now, what we cannot see is trumped by what we can imagine, and what can be imagined becomes what is... Read more... Seymour Hersh: US Troops Executing Prisoners in Afghanistan, by David Edwards | Global Research The journalist who helped break the story that detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were being tortured by their US jailers told an audience at a journalism conference last month that American soldiers are now executing prisoners in Afghanistan. New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh also revealed that the Bush Administration had developed advanced plans for a military strike on Iran... Read more, watch video... Letter to Obama: You've Sold Your Soul for Kosher Dollars, by Mohamed Khodr | Palestine Think Tank  ...If the U.S., the most powerful nation on earth can easily be "slapped" and "insulted" and still remain politically paralyzed to respond and deal with a small nation who's very founding and support is due to this nation, do you then expect the Palestinians to have any say in their future or for that matter Arab leaders who's regimes are dependent on our protection? What conceivable concessions can the Palestinians offer Israel except to voluntarily leave their remaining land, a mere 12% of their previous homeland... Read more... Capitalism Without Capital, by Mike Whitney | Eurasia Review Volatility is back and stocks have started zigzagging wildly again. This time it's Greece in the hotseat, but tomorrow it could be someone else. The real problem is there's too much leverage in the system, so crises keep popping up one after another... Read more... Is the Time Square Terrorist more Field-Based Warfare?, by Jeff Gates | Criminal State ...For those skilled at Information Age warfare, the relevant battlefield is the public’s shared field of consciousness. In that intangible realm, the power of association is routinely deployed to create lasting impressions as a means of mental manipulation... Read more... More on the Kagan Nomination Elena Kagan and the Supreme Court: A Barnyard Smell in Chicago, Harvard and Washington, by James Petras | My Catbird Seat No doubt Kagan had been very busy as the greatest fundraising Law School Dean in Harvard’s history ($400 million), which may account for the fact that she never found time to write a single academic article during her nine year tenure.. The issue of the composition of the US Supreme Court is increasingly crucial for all Americans, who are horrified by Israel’s devastation of Gaza, its threats to launch a nuclear attack on Iran and its Fifth Column’s efforts to drag us into a third war in ten years... Read more... Elena Kagan is Obama's not-so-liberal appointee, by Dan Kennedy | The Guardian In nominating Elena Kagan for the supreme court, Obama has gone too far in a futile attempt to appease the Republicans. The viciousness and stupidity of the right's attacks on Elena Kagan are such that my first instinct is to defend the poor woman... Read more... Elena Kagan's shaky record | Boston Phoenix ...On matters of executive authority — where the judicial branch has been a vital bulwark against post-9/11 “war on terror” civil-liberties violations — Kagan’s record indicates an ideological departure from Justice Stevens, who authored watershed detainee-rights opinions and organized the five-justice majorities that struck down other Bush administration power grabs... Read more... Israel OKs super-settlement in WB | Press TV  The complex planned to be built on 741 acres of land in the West Bank village of Walaja -- lying east of the 1967 armistice line and inside the West Bank -- will include 12,000 settlement units and will provide accommodation for 40,000 Israeli settlers... [They're not even bothering to hide it anymore. They now feel confident that they own the President and Congress, so why bother?] Read more... War is a Racket, by Smedley Butler | YouTube War is a Racket by Smedley Butler is a famous speech denouncing the military industrial complex. This anti-war speech by two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient exposes war profits that benefit few at the expense of many. Throughout his distinguished career in the Marines, Smedley Darlington Butler demonstrated that true patriotism does not mean blind allegiance to government policies with which one does not agree... Watch video... Eisenhower warns us of the military industrial complex | YouTube Dwight D. Eisenhower exit speech on Jan.17,1961. Warning us of the military industrial complex... Read more... Russia, Turkey call for Hamas inclusion | Press TV  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Turkish Prime Minister Russia and Turkey have called for the inclusion of the democratically elected Palestinian government of Hamas in Middle East peace talks...Recep Tayyip Erdogan speak at a joint press conference Read more... Who is bombing in Iraq? Are the bombers Al-Qaeda, the CIA or Israel? | Redress Information & Analysis Christopher King argues that it is likely that the American CIA – or Israel acting on its behalf – is responsible for recent atrocities in Iraq, in order to extend and consolidate the occupation, just as it is probable that the Times Square bomber was, wittingly or otherwise, acting for the CIA or Israel, to justify the US military intervention in South Asia... Read more... May 13, 2010 Israel training to block Freedom Fleet | Maan News  An Israeli navy vessel patrolling the waters near Haifa Israel's naval forces are allegedly in training to prepare to seize eight boats scheduled to dock in the Gaza Strip on 24 May...Read more... The Kagan Nomination Kagan appointment shows, Jews are the new WASPs | Mondoweiss U.S. Jews 'proud' of Obama Supreme Court nominee | Haaretz Kagan Helped Shield Saudi Royal Family from 9/11 Lawsuits | AlterNet Once Again Israel is Being Rewarded, by Samia Khoury | MIFTAH The vote to accept Israel into the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) while it continues to violate Palestinian Human rights and to flout UN resolutions, indicates that something is very wrong with the values of the world community. But then politics have never had moral values, and that is why the world is in such a mess... Read more... Joel Whitney interviews Noam Chomsky: Chomsky Half Full | Guernica  ...Chomsky’s central question is how do you punish the crook who owns the jailhouse, pays the police their salaries, and fails consistently to see his crimes as such? Or perhaps, how do you get a self-enamored hypocrite to reckon with his pathology?.. Read more... Iraq genocide and more, by Mazin Qumsiyeh | Human Rights Newsletter In this digest: Resumption of indirect negotiations a waste of time, video of protest in Nabi Saleh, John Greyson calls on Elton John to cancel his appearance in Tel Aviv, Obama’s wrong appointment to the Supreme Court, proposal for an commemoration of Iraq Genocide, how an Israeli general tried to cover-up the murder of Rachel Corrie, and two Nakba articles... Read more... Delusions and illusions of press freedom: The Israel lobby’s control of Western media, by Paul J. Balles | Redress Information & Analysis Paul J. Balles compares China’s open control of the press with the “lies under pretence of freedom” of the Western media under the control of special interests, especially the Israel lobby... Read more... Palestinian Civil Society Slams OECD Over Israel’s Accession | Palestine Monitor A BNC spokesperson commented,“By accepting Israel, OECD member countries show a blatant complicity with Israeli war crimes, destroying the very foundations of international law. Rewarding Israel entrenches its impunity and dashes any realistic hope for achieving a just peace in the region.”.. Read more... Seizing War Protesters' Assets | VoltaireNet  Masked protestors are arrested by police after they would not move out George W. Bush signed more laws and executive orders trampling civil rights and liberties than any president in US history. The two examined below, specifically crafted to stifle and criminalize antiwar protesters in the United States, fly in the face of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution.. They still remain in full force under the Obama Administration...of an intersection, as part of a protest against the war in Iraq Read more... A Historic Breakthrough for U.S. Billionaires, by Sam Pizzigati | Too Much In 2010 America, schools, students, and teachers share the pain. The heirs to our mega rich, meanwhile, don’t have to share anything... [Jared Diamond, in his seminal work "Guns, Germs and Steel," states that all governments, from the earliest tribal societies to today's dictatorships and democracies, have always been kleptocracies. They survive as long as they share enough of the take with the people that the latter don't revolt and establish a new government (yet another kleptocracy no doubt, but hopefully one with greater discretion). It looks like the U.S. is perilously close to that tipping point.] Read more...Two videos from Gaza Friends | YouTube Nakba and the Two State Solution: Unrealistic 'Realism', by Dina Jadallah | Palestine Chronicle  And yet, all these things aside, the Nakba continues unabated On the surface and viewed from the perspective of dominating powers, their designated minions, and entrenched cohorts, it may appear that the Nakba is diminishing. Several facts corroborate that view: the passage of time, the very dispossession and dislocation of millions, the tendency of official Palestinian “leadership” to accept whatever scraps they are given, the seemingly insurmountable military superiority of Israel and its main backer, the United States, to name a few...Read more... Did You Say $33 Billion?, by David Swanson | TomDispatch In case you hadn’t noticed, our Afghan War, like some oil-slicked bird in the Gulf of Mexico, has been dragged under the waves. It’s largely off front pages and out of the TV spotlight (despite the possible linkage of the Times Square failed car bombing to the Pakistani Taliban). As a result, most Americans undoubtedly have little idea just how large the American war effort there has grown... Read more... John Mearsheimer and the Future of Israeli Apartheid, by Kevin MacDonald | Occidental Observer John Mearsheimer has given a fascinating prognosis of the situation in Israel. The basic argument is as follows... [MacDonald might be right, but I doubt it. I think his objectification of tribal identities (his affinity is with the European White "race") prevents him from seeing that there are many people, including many Jews (like myself), who aren't tribal at all, whose primary identification is with the entire human community. I guess time will tell.] Read more...$1 Trillion Was Not Enough, by Kurt Nimmo | Prison Planet The dizzy honeymoon created by the EU and IMF pledge yesterday to throw a trillion dollars at eurozone debt has faded as predicted. Investors realize the “fiscal tightening” — pensions looted, social services slashed, standards of living sent into free fall — will negatively impact growth in the euro zone and result in central bankers cranking up interest rates in anticipation of looming default... Read more, watch video... Howard Berman: Lead Singer for Israel-is-always-right Chorus, by William James Martin | Palestine Chronicle  The dual loyalty of Congressman Berman should not be in any doubt On January 26, Israeli's Ha'aretz reported that.. "Howard Berman, the influential California congressman and staunch Israel ally, praised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for making 'difficult decisions' since returning to office."..[It is downright depressing when one comes to the realization that more than 90% of the members of the House and the Senate are traitors, mass murderers, liars, hypocrites, thieves and just downright human scum - but there you are. What happens when the scales fall from the eyes of the American people? Your guess is as good as mine.] Read more...Why do they hate us?: Is the War Coming Home? | Patrick J. Buchanan ...By Occam’s razor, the simplest explanation is usually the right one. Looking at America’s wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, Maj. Hasan, Abdulmutallab and Shahzad decided that what we call the war on terror was in reality a war on Islam. All decided to use their access to exact retribution for our killing of their fellow Muslims. We are being attacked over here because we are over there... Read more... US website Salem-News under attack for Israel stories | Redress Information & Analysis Tim King, Executive News Editor of the US website Salem-News.com, vows to continue highlighting the plight of the Palestinian people and the brutality of their Israeli oppressors, following a relentless attack and false accusations of “anti-Semitism” by a pro-Israel bigot... Read more... A Tale of Two Apartheids, by Mats Svensson | South African Civil Society Information Service ...During my years in Palestine, I worked for short periods close to persons who were near President Mbeki and the Mandela couple. We worked in the Gaza Strip talking with factions. Often my South African colleagues would cry out that apartheid in South Africa was a picnic compared to the West Bank and Gaza... Read more... May 12, 2010 A massacre of Arabs masked by a state of national amnesia, by Catrina Stewart | The Independent  More than one unwitting visitor to Jerusalem has fallen prey to the bizarre delusion that they are the Messiah. Usually, they are whisked off to the serene surroundings of Kfar Shaul psychiatric hospital on the outskirts of the city, where they are gently nursed back to health. It is an interesting irony that the patients at Kfar Shaul recuperate from such variations on amnesia on the very spot that Israel has sought to erase from its collective memory... Read more... Bob Dylan to tour France, Turkey, but not Israel | The Examiner The Desolation Row Information Service has reported in its newsletter that a "European Agent" has confirmed Dylan's rumored tour of Israel is not going to happen this summer. It is a "recent decision," and no explanation was given... [Thank God, or Dog or Whatever, there's hope yet] Read more, see videos...Was Last Week's Market Crash a Direct Attack By Financial Terrorists?, by David DeGraw | AlterNet In a market where 70 percent of all trades are executed by computer algorithms via High Frequency Trading, Goldman Sachs has the power to make the market crash or rise at will... Read more... Humor Dept: Exhausted Noam Chomsky Just Going To Try And Enjoy The Day For Once | The Onion  Chomsky tries to clear his head and think of anything but the ills of neoliberalism Describing himself as "terribly exhausted," famed linguist and political dissident Noam Chomsky said Monday that he was taking a break from combating the hegemony of the American imperialist machine to try and take it easy for once...Read more... Declassified GAO Report Exposes Fatally Flawed Israel Investigations, by Grant Smith | Antiwar The 2010 Review Conference of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons is underway at UN Headquarters in New York. A working paper calls for a nuclear-free Middle East. It would require member states of the NPT to “disclose in their national reports on the implementation of the resolution on the Middle East all information available to them on the nature and scope of Israeli nuclear facilities and activities... Read more... Documentary, by Jeff Gates | Criminal State Jeff Gates along with Anthony Lawson produce this startling new video that is an absolute necessity for every American who genuinely loves his country and knows something has gone very very wrong... Read more, watch... Rats In Wolves Clothing, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today  First we are told opium and heroin are financing world terrorism, then General McChrystal tells us that we have to allow the harvest to be finished, processed into 65 billion dollars of heroin and shipped out on rendition flights and American Global Hawk UAV aircraft for distribution around the world... Read more... The Price of Courage: On Goldstone’s Bar Mitzvah and Finkelstein’s Book, by Ramzy Baroud | Common Dreams In his report on Gaza issued late last year, prominent South African jurist Richard Goldstone accused Israel and Hamas of committing war crimes. His language also showed awareness of the fact that the former is an occupying power with most sophisticated weapon arsenal (as reflecting in the number of Palestinian victims), and the latter is a besieged, occupied faction in a state of self-defense... Read more... Israeli study: Most Jerusalem Palestinians live in poverty | Daily Star Palestinians in East Jerusalem, including three out of every four children, live below the poverty line, an Israeli rights group said on Sunday, accusing the state of neglect and discrimination... [Some readers might be surprised to learn that so many Israeli Jews are impoverished. Don't be. Zionism is just as merciless with them as it is with everyone else. In another survey done a couple of years ago a majority of Holocaust survivors in Israel stated they'd go back to where they came from if they had the means.] Read more...Special Place in Hell: If the secret police ran a Jewish state, by Bradley Burston | Haaretz  If the secret police ran the Jewish state, any and every move could be explained in two words and never more than two. Security reasons... Read more... Kagan (Goldman Sachs) Shifting Court to Right? | Institute for Public Accuracy The Wall Street Journal reports: "The White House said Friday that Elena Kagan's membership on an advisory panel for the securities firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc. wouldn't disqualify her for a position on the Supreme Court. .. [Kagan, it turns out, was the name for "the Supreme King of Khazaria" - they're no doubt related. It was a Kagan in the 8th Century who converted Khazaria to Judaism. Someone wrote on an email list I receive that "She would be a horrible addition to the Supreme Court as she would help to permit despicable policies of extreme cruelty." Someone else responded "Which makes her the perfect choice for anything having to do with law or justice in the last days of America."] Read more...OECD Bends Rules for Israel, by Nadia Hajib | Agence Global Israel’s inexorable accession to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development -- the rich country club -- is set to be confirmed this month barring last-minute hitches. Although several OECD members have doubts about Israel’s qualifications both on technical grounds and lack of shared values, no state has dared publicly oppose... Read more... [The conventional wisdom earnestly dismisses the notion that the Zionists are in the driver's seat - but isn't it obvious?] Read more...After Religion Fizzles, We’re Stuck With Nietzsche, by Chris Hedges | Truthdig  Papa go bye-bye It is hard to muster much sympathy over the implosion of the Catholic Church, traditional Protestant denominations or Jewish synagogues...[There is another alternative - the world's wisdom (aka spiritual) traditions. They've always been there, because wisdom is born within all of us and is therefore inextinguishable (albeit barely perceptible in these dark days.)] Read more...Israeli Military Fires on Media Crew in West Bank, by Tim King | Salem-News Al Jazeera Correspondent Jacky Rowland was fired on today by Israeli soldiers while covering protests at an Israeli separation barrier in the West Bank village... Read more, watch video... From Shas to Hamas: the group behind the South Park controversy | Redress Information & Analysis Maidhc Ó Cathail views the role of supposed Jewish converts to Islam in confirming the Islamophobic propaganda of US neo-conservatives and the Murdoch-owned media who try to scare Americans into fighting Israel’s wars with dire warnings that the Muslims are coming... Read more... Postcard from Tehran, by Hooman Majd | Foreign Policy  Memo to Secretary Clinton: Iran is neither a military dictatorship nor or a police state. Yet. There is no visible military presence at the international airport, where despite a European ban on flights to and from its capitals in mid-April when I arrived, jumbo jets discharged and loaded thousands of passengers a day arriving and leaving for points east and west... Read more... Vanunu Returns to Prison and The End of Israel's Nuclear Ambiguity | We Are Wide Awake On May 11, 2010, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Mordechai Vanunu, will “serve a three-month jail sentence handed to him by Jerusalem District Court and not community service.” The ‘justices’ refused Vanunu’s offer to do community service in occupied east Jerusalem, because they do not view that side of town to be a part of their community... Read more... Verdict on UK's hung parliament: a plague on all your houses! | Redress Information & Analysis Come away, Clegg. Leave them to stew in their own juices Stuart Littlewood views the unappealing suitors of Britain’s Liberal Democrats – the kingmakers in the new hung parliament – and the problems of the Liberal Democrats themselves...[Already too late; the hilarious alliance with the Tories has since been announced and the Red Queen couldn't be more pleased. Some more tea?] Read more...US, Israel hold war game in Germany | Press TV  The United States and Israel have staged a joint aerial war game in Germany, using live ammunition in their first such maneuver on German soil... Read more... Banksters Throw a Trillion Bucks Down a Black Hole, by Kurt Nimmo | Prison Planet The EU apparatchiks are in crisis mode. European Union boss Jose Manuel Barroso told us not to worry, though. They’re on it... Read more, watch videos... Progressives Shocked At Obama Nomination of Kagan, Urge Strong Opposition | Uprisingradio  President Barack Obama formally announced yesterday the selection of Solicitor General Elena Kagan as his nominee for the United States Supreme Court. From the East Room of the White House, Obama described his choice as “one of the nation’s foremost legal minds,” and an “acclaimed legal scholar with a rich understanding of constitutional law.”.. [Shocked? By what - the fact that the sun rises every day? Maybe they were on a long vacation and using heavy drugs.] Read more, listen...Greece Today, US Tomorrow: The People v. the Bankers, by Michael Hudson | Counterpunch Financial lobbyists here in the U.S. are using the Greek crisis as an object lesson to warn about the need to cut back public spending on Social Security and Medicare. This is the opposite of what the Greek demonstrators are demanding... Read more... Netanyahu deputy: Israel primed for war on Iran | Reuters  Israel is primed for a war on Iran, a deputy to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, in a rare break with his government's reticence as world powers try to talk Tehran into curbing its nuclear plans... Read more... A Tale of Lies, Deceit, and Terrorism: the Birth of Israel, by William A. Cook | Media with Conscience The Untold Story of the Zionist intent to turn Palestine into a Jewish State ...Based on classified documents from the Jewish Agency and its affiliated organizations seized by the British Mandate Police, materials that confirm that the Zionist controlled Jewish community intended to remove the Arab inhabitants of Palestine from their land and make the whole of Mandate Palestine a Jewish State...Read more... May 11, 2010 Harman vs. Winograd: The Last Democratic Primary Worth Watching, by Jeffrey Blankfort | Counterpoint  Marcy with Jim Hightower What may be the last Democratic primary race worth paying attention to is taking place in the 36th Congressional District along the Southern California coastline where incumbent Jane Harman is facing a serious challenge from Los Angeles school teacher, Marcy Winograd, with the candidates’ widely separated positions on the Israel-Palestine conflict dominating a critical section of the political landscape...Read more... Look Out, Obama Seems to Be Planning for a Lot More War, by Jack A. Smith | Global Research There's more war in America's future -- a great deal more, judging by the Barack Obama administration's reports, pronouncements and actions in recent months... Read more... From Two States to One, by Ran HaCohen | Antiwar Last week in Tel Aviv, a judge imposed a $25,000 fine on three tenants who extended their balcony illegally by annexing 23 sq. meters (250 sq. ft.). Well, that’s not really a scoop. Illegal construction is a punishable offense everywhere, even if there are no immediate victims like in this case.. Unless you are in the occupied territories, of course... Read more... Getting to the Hart of the Matter with One of the World's Most Experienced Reporters, by Tim King | Salem-News  Alan and his ITN crew reporting from the Gulf of Aqaba One of the biggest names in the history of Mideast TV reporting, former BBC and ITN Reporter Alan Hart of London, will soon be in the U.S. on tour to share his intimate knowledge of this place where the world's cultures collide, often violently...in 1967, in the countdown to the Six Day War Read more... The language of Zionism | Al-Ahram Weekly The reason for the ongoing "violence" in Israel and Palestine is not on account of Israeli colonialism at all but rather a direct result of mistranslation. Joseph Massad provides an abridged lexicon of Zionist terminology... Read more... Infant Dies After Inhaling Gaza Fired By The Army In Hebron, by Saed Bannoura | International Middle East Media Center  Palestinian medical sources in Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, reported Sunday that an infant died due to inhaling gas fired by the army at protestors in the nearby Beit Ummar town... [I was going to post this link under the heading "Humor Dept," because of the typo in the title, but, needless to say, the story isn't funny at all - it's just one of many atrocities committed on a daily basis by the Israelis in the "Holy Land."] Read more...Bread and Circus, by Danny Weil | Dailycensored The fall of the Roman Empire has been the subject of much debate and comment for many centuries. Indeed, the founding of our own republic was built on the founder’s of this country’s understanding of the Roman Empire, its rise, decline and fall. Thus, attempts to learn from history were present in the period of this country’s constitutional development known as the ‘Enlightenment’... Read more... IAEA to discuss Israel's nuclear activities for first time | Haaretz  Dimona Israeli nuclear capabilities are on the provisional agenda for the International Atomic Energy Agency's June 7 meeting...Read more... OECD Accepts Israel as Member, Group Expanding to 34 | BusinessWeek The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which groups the world’s most developed economies, accepted Israel for membership today... [Sad news indeed, albeit hardly unexpected] Read more...Lieberman Looks to Strip the Citizenship of 1 Million Americans Without Charge or Trial, by Keith Farrell | Infowars  The dangers of Lieberman’s legislation are vast The climate of fear, created out of the well exaggerated Times Square incident last week has allowed Joe Lieberman and fellow establishment lawmakers to introduce a bill that would drive the final nail into the coffin of the Bill of Rights...[Smilin' Joe looks more like one of Hitler's favorite Gauleiters every day] Read more...WA VA Director Collaborates with "Jewish Extremists" in Pairing US & Israeli Vets | Dissident Veteran for Peace In his latest update, John Lee, Director of the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs, reports: "Several months ago I was contacted by Rabbi Chaim Levine, President of an organization known as Hope for Heroism." He continues: "This year Hope for Heroism will bring a group of injured Israeli Soldiers to the Seattle area to participate in a series of events with disabled U.S. Soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars..." Read more... PLO under fire over US-backed talks | Press TV A major faction within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has denounced the party's decision to enter US-mediated indirect talks with Israel... Read more... May 10, 2010 Dear Ms. Atwood, I regret to inform you that you have failed the lie detector test | One Democratic State Margaret Atwood By going to Israel to accept the Dan David Prize you have chosen to go over to the Dark Side. If you do make the trip, there is no turning back. Please consider well what people who have appreciated your literary work and heretofore took seriously your vaunted support for human rights have to say. I have copied below some of their comments from emails that have been circulating. First, here is an exchange of letters between Atwood and Antoine Raffoul...Read more... Hey Elton! | YouTube Palestinian civil society has called on Elton John to respect their boycott call and cancel his June 17th concert in Tel Aviv. If he does so, he'll be joining Santana and Gil-Scott Heron, who recently cancelled their spring concerts in Israel. This video suggests six reasons why Elton should join the BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement... Watch... Ghosts of War Crimes Past, Present and Future Haunt Retired Politicians | Dailycensored On April 24, 2010, lured to Malaysia and Singapore by a hefty £350,000 speaking fee, Tony Blair, the former prime minister of Britain, carefully hid from protestors armed with slippers to throw at him, as well as from a posse of delegates charged with serving Blair an indictment for war crimes... Read more... Sixty Two Years of Israeli Independence, by Miko Peled | Palestine Chronicle This year, people of conscience might want to take stock Yom Ha’atzmaut as we call it in Hebrew was a big day. The main event was the military parade in the streets of Jerusalem and as I recall, it began in the main stadium of Hebrew University. We would sit among dignitaries because my father, the late General Matti Peled, was a member of the Israeli army’s top brass...of what the last 62 years have yielded Read more... Which whore should UK Liberal Democrat leader Clegg jump into bed with? | Redress Information & Analysis Stuart Littlewood argues that, while Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg contemplates whether to ally himself with the Conservative or Labour party, the fact is that “never before in electoral history were the British public presented with such a rubbish choice”, with “no-one ‘clean’ enough, honourable enough and Britain-first enough to take the helm”.. Read more... Lula adamant on Iran talks | Press TV Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva “I want to exhaust every possibility up until the last minute of finding a pact with the president of Iran so that it can carry on enriching uranium but assuring us that it's only for peaceful purposes”..Read more... U.S. Senate Candidate Richard Curtis Calls for Removal of Sens. Lieberman, Graham and McCain | Total Truth Sciences Calls for Resignation of Senators Who Violate Oath of Office [Based on that principle we'd have to throw them all out] Dr. Richard Curtis, a professional philosopher and candidate for the U.S. Senate (I-WA) issued the following statement and analysis... Read more... Merkel's historic loss in German vote | Press TV German Chancellor Angela Merkel German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition has sustained a major loss in important regional elections, according to the latest exit polls... [Germany's whore for the Holycause might be in a spot of trouble] Read more...Humor Dept: Lebanon wins Hummus battle with Israel | YouTube Giant dip anyone? Chefs in Lebanon make the world's largest ever tub of Hummus... Watch... Apartheid State or a Bi-national State?, by Uri Avnery | Palestine Chronicle Mearsheimer: Israel will not allow the Palestinians to have a viable state of their own ...A few days ago, Prof. Mearsheimer delivered an impressive lecture in Washington DC. He presented a profound analysis of the chances of Israel surviving in the long term. Every Israeli who is concerned about the future of his state should grapple with this analysis...[Poor Uri Avnery, an admirable man, a true hero even, but still stuck in the basic Zionist fallacy that a Jewish State in Palestine can have any legitimacy whatsoever] Read more...What I Learned in Afghanistan – About the United States, by Dana Visalli | Lew Rockwell ...I was in Afghanistan for two weeks in March of this year, meeting with a large number of Afghans working in humanitarian endeavors – the principal of a girls’ school, the director of a school for street children, the Afghan Human Rights Commission, a group working on environmental issues. The one thing that all of these groups that we met with had in common was, they were penniless... Read more... Judge Hellerstein’s Connection to Israeli 9-11 Defendant | Attending the World Alvin K. Hellerstein is the judge who handles all 9-11 litigation. His son is an Israeli lawyer who emigrated to Israel in 2001 and whose law firm works for and with the Rothschild-funded Mossad company responsible for the 9-11 terror attacks. This presents a clear case of criminal conflict of interest and explains why Hellerstein has protected the Israeli culprits of the false-flag terrorism of 9-11 by preventing a trial and blocking any legal discovery of what really happened... Read more... River Jordan near death | UPI Without fresh water flowing into the River Jordan soon, the river could run dry as early as next year, Jordanian environmental activists warn... Read more... 'Israel hijacked Middle East peace' | Press TV A Palestinian woman carries a Palestinian flag as a girl flashes the victory sign, ...Meeting in the Turkish capital, Ankara on Saturday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul and his visiting Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad blasted Tel Aviv's illegal settlement expansion in occupied al-Quds (East Jerusalem)...during a sit-in in support of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails Read more... War, this summer?, by Galal Nassar | Al-Ahram Weekly Israel has only fought pre-emptive wars. All indications show it is gearing up to fight another, one that may change everything,.. Read more... Quartet ex-envoy's investment helps Israel greenwash settlements, by Ali Abunimah | Electronic Intifada Better Place's Tel Aviv headquarters Former World Bank president and Middle East Quartet envoy James D. Wolfensohn is an investor in an Israeli company that is developing transport infrastructure for Jewish-only settlements built in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law...Read more... Two pieces from John Spritzler on "free speech" Freedom of Speech for Zionist recruiters? Israeli Foreign Ministry considering stopping lectures in US and UK because of heckling The report indicates that the Israeli government is re-thinking the wisdom of sending speakers to universities because they have been prevented from speaking by anti-Zionist demonstrators. Is this good news, or is it an example of a dangerous trend of people trampling on the sacred right of FREEDOM OF SPEECH? It is very good news! I want to say why the worry about freedom of speech is wrong-headed... Wake up call! "The first American citizen on the CIA's list of terrorists approved as a target for killing" ...But wait, you say. "I'm not a terrorist like this fellow Awlaki." "Whew!" you say, the government won't touch innocent people like me, only the really bad violent terrorist American citizens, like Awlaki, will be approved as a target for killing." Not so fast. Has Awlaki committed violence? Not according to the Globe article. His only supposed crime is saying things that the government does not approve of, you know.the kinds of things they wrote the First Amendment to protect, what they used to call "free speech.".. Read more... Al-Awda: Return, so be it | Al-Ahram Weekly Barghouti; Buttu; Finkelstein; Abunimah The eighth Annual International Al-Awda Convention kicked off in Anaheim, California, this past weekend to a packed audience of Palestinians and their growing supporters. Commemorating 62 years of Nakba, the three-day convention also marked 10 years of the existence and strong commitment of the Al-Awda Palestine Right to Return Coalition...Read more... Popular resistance continues, by Mazin Qumsiyeh | Human Rights Newsletter A poll reveals that a majority of Israeli's are willing to see the banning of human rights organization in the 'Jewish state' and a bill was introduced in the Knesset to outlaw any Israeli human rights organization which exposes Israeli war crimes. Yesterday, one peaceful protester hurt and 6 detained in Bilin weekly protest against the apartheid wall (itself declared a war crime in violation of the 4th Geneva convention)... Read more... Israel envoy to New Zealand greeted by pro-Palestinian jeers | Haaretz Israel's first ambassador in New Zealand for eight years was jeered by a group of pro-Palestinian supporters when he arrived to present his credentials at Government House on Friday... Read more... What Price Peace for Israel and Palestine?, by Ira Chernus | TomDispatch It does seem as if something may be changing, however slowly, in Washington when it comes to policy towards Israel and the Palestinians. Rumors, for instance, are spreading in the media that the Obama administration is threatening to take Middle East peace negotiations out of the hands of the Israelis (and Palestinians) and put them in the hands of an "international peace conference," should there be no breakthrough in peace talks by the fall... Read more... Europe conference to draft declaration on right of return | Maan News Agency Palestinians across Europe will gather in Berlin on Saturday, for the 8th annual Palestinians in Europe conference, to remind the international community that millions of Palestinians exist outside of the holy land, and that the refugee problem is ubiquitous... Read more... Shin Bet deports Spain's most famous clown upon arrival in Israel | Haaretz Ivan Prado, the most famous clown in Spain, did not expect to be put on a return flight back to Madrid soon after arriving at Ben-Gurion International Airport late last month, after spending six hours with officials from the Shin Bet security service and the Interior Ministry... Read more... Palestine needs support, by Sameh Habeeb | Palestine Telegraph Sameh Habeeb is a founder of the Palestinian Telegraph I arrived at the counter to have my own passport inspected and stamped with the entry visa. My passport was stamped, but unlike my fellow travellers I was prohibited from moving on. I was asked to step aside. Two security officers approached to welcome me to Australia...Read more... Comrade Sa'adat: End occupation in all of historic Palestine | Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ..the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, denounced any negotiations with the occupation, saying that "the solution to the critical historical conflict in the Middle East will only be the establishment of one state on the entire Palestinian national soil, from river to sea, with full equality for all.".. Read more... New Israeli order allows for mass expulsion from West Bank, by Mel Frykberg | Electronic Intifada After finishing his prison sentence, Ahmed Sabah was deported to the Gaza Strip Several Palestinians have set up a protest tent in no-man's land in the northern Gaza Strip, near the Erez border crossing into Israel, as they protest their deportation from the Israeli occupied West Bank into Gaza where Hamas authorities have refused them entry...Read more... How the US and Israel Draw Ever Closer Together: Cementing Relationships, by Brian Cloughley | Counterpunch ...Mr Obama’s pronouncement that “the United States of America will never waver in our efforts to stand up for the right of people everywhere to determine their own destiny” was only speechifying baloney. Washington doesn’t stand up for Palestinians; and their rights are debased and doomed by the barbaric, racist state of Israel... Read more... General 'tried to cover up truth about death of Rachel Corrie', by Ben Lynfield | The Independent The peace activist Rachel Corrie died on 16 March 2003 Seven years after the American activist Rachel Corrie was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer in Gaza, evidence has emerged which appears to implicate Israel's Gaza commander at the time, in an attempt to obstruct the official investigation into her death...Read more... The next 9/11 – made in Israel?, by Maidhc Ó Cathail | Redress Information & Analysis Maidhc Ó Cathail views the evidence indicating that dual loyalty officials in the US administration are funnelling American nuclear secrets not only to Israel, but also to terrorist organizations in order to facilitate a “nuclear 9/11” and a massive US attack against Iran or Pakistan... Read more... Humor Dept: Miracle Cure For Holocaust Denial Syndrome | Historiography Project Frankfurt, Germany - Governments, police services, and prison authorities around the world are reportedly "overjoyed" by the launch of a new prescription drug that cures people who doubt the veracity of the so-called Jewish Holocaust. Shares in Israel-based Goy & Goy Pharmaceuticals Incorporated rocketed to 89 US dollars following the long-awaited announcement of a miracle cure for Holocaust Denial Syndrome (HDS)... Read more... How Ehud Barak Pulled Off 9-11 | Christopher Bollyn Hillary Clinton laughing at her "friend" Ehud Barak's joke ..Ehud Barak, Israel's defense minister, has been in the United States for a week of meetings and speeches. He is, in my opinion, the key suspect of being the mastermind of the false-flag terror attacks of 9-11. I am providing this brief article to explain how I think he did it...Read more... US food stamp handouts hit new record | Press TV US distribution of food stamps among its poverty-stricken citizens has broken yet another record as nearly 40 million Americans use the vouchers to feed themselves... Read more... Netanyahu To “Legalize” Illegal Outposts, by Saed Bannoura | International Middle East Media Center Responding to a request from the Israeli High Court regarding two illegal settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli government stated that it intends to “legalize” Hersha and Givat Hayovel... Read more... Israel defiant on its 'nuclear arsenal' | Press TV An aerial image of Israel's Dimona nuclear facility A senior Israeli official insists that Tel Aviv will not change its nuclear policies despite international calls for the denuclearization of the Middle East...Read more... Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana, by Steve Watson | Infowars Video of a SWAT narcotics raid in Columbia, Missouri has gone viral on the internet after officers stormed into a house, shooting one family pet dog and killing another in front of a small child, only to discover an insignificantly small amount of marijuana... Read more... May 8, 2010 Voting in Britain for war. Take your pick | John Pilger In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes how Edwardian notions of war are again being promoted in western democracies, along with the militarising of history, journalism and parliamentary politics. In Britain, the three main candidates for prime minister are declared warmakers; and yet popular feeling is very different... Read more... Either way, Zionists win in Britain’s confused election, by Stuart Littlewood | Redress Information & Analysis Stuart Littlewood argues that the emergence of the Conservative Party as the largest party in the UK parliament following the 6 May general election, in which Labour came second, will guarantee the continued stranglehold of Israel’s stooges over British politics and put British security at considerable risk... Read more... A Timetable For War, by Philip Giraldi | Antiwar Readers of my articles will know that I am extremely pessimistic about the prospects for peace in the Middle East. I do not believe for a second that the leaders of Israel actually consider Iran to be an "existential" threat but the fact that they have cried wolf so often has convinced the Israeli public that it is so... Read more... Pastor John Hagee: Is the Devil in Him?, by Thomas L. McFadden | American Free Press John Hagee, the megachurch televangelist, is approaching the Washington, D.C. area again, ready to land in his private jet on July 20. An army of politicians and wide-eyed believers will follow this professed “man of God” who outdoes, in a sinister way, televangelists Pat Robertson and the late Jerry Falwell combined... Read more... Iran sanctions and worse | Redress Information & Analysis Paul J. Balles views the campaign by Israel lobbyists in the US administration and Congress to impose sanctions on Iran as a precursor to direct aggression à la Iraq, and the few lone voices of common sense... Read more... No joke: Goldman Sachs shorted Gulf of Mexico, by Sterling D. Allan | Pure Energy Systems News It turns out that Goldman Sachs really did place shorts on TransOcean stock days before the explosions rocked the rig in the Gulf of Mexico sending stocks plunging while GS profits soared -- benefitting once again from a huge disaster, having done the same with airline stocks prior to 911 then again with the housing bubble... Read more... Anti-Semitism is Zionism's Bread and Butter | Henry Makow ..The Zionist Jewish leadership regards the Jewish rank-and-file as pawns to be manipulated. "Anti Semitism is indispensable to us for the management of our lesser brethren," says the author of Protocols of the Elders of Zion (9-2) a "forgery" that reads like the blueprint of the New World Order.... Read more... The Rothschilds Exposed (1 of 3) | YouTube This video shows the history of the family and how they have accumulated their vast wealth, and I hope this will give you an insight on their plan to dominate the world through central banking... Watch... Mapping the Zionist Terror Network | Christopher Bollyn “We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.” Read more...- David Ben-Gurion, aka David Grün (1886-1973), Israeli Prime Minister and Chief Architect of Zionist terrorism and the state of Israel; revered by Israelis as "Father of the Nation"... Two Little Girls: Murder in the Jordan Valley | International Solidarity Movement The single grave of Maasa (5) and Janaa (8) We stopped by the roadside at the spot where the two little girls had been killed. Their blood still stained the cushion on which they had been sitting, fragments of the military jeep which had rammed their father’s tractor still littered the ground. Janaa Fakha (8), her sister Maasa (5) and their brother Hussein (9) never saw what hit them as they waited for their father to take them from the family fields to their home...[Courtesy of "the most moral army in the world"] Read more...The Freedom Flotilla Coalition Welcomes UNRWA Gaza Director's Call to Send Ships to Gaza | Freegaza John Ging, the Director of Operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza, has called upon the international community to break the siege on the Gaza Strip by sending ships loaded with desperately needed supplies to the beleaguered territory. "We believe that Israel will not intercept these vessels because the sea is open, and human rights organizations have been successful in similar previous operations proving that breaking the siege of Gaza is possible.".. Read more... Arab states: Israel's nuclear program is destabilizing Mideast | Haaretz Arab countries sought to turn attention Tuesday to Israel as delegates from 189 countries debated how to stem the spread of nuclear weapons... Read more... MIT student introduces internet boycott platform | Palestine Note Read more... New York Car Bomb Incident: Another False Flag? | Stephen Lendman ...We've seen this too often not to be suspicious. This one, like others, has all the earmarks of a false flag, more likely given its coverage and location in Times Square on Saturday night, followed by a May 2 video saying the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility... Read more... Gooey Black Corporate Greed, by David Swanson | OpEd News Corporate persons aren't like you and I. They have eternal life and legal immunity. No death, no taxes, no joy or pain or moral feeling. No sweat and no tears. When they move their mouths, out come dollars, and we call those dollars speech. But when they stub their toe and bleed, out comes thick black goo in a gusher that could turn the ocean into a dead black pit, and we call that goo petroleum... Read more... Angry Greeks 'carrying the can' for politicians | BBC News Like the sting of police tear gas, popular anger hangs heavy in the air as protesters take to the streets of Athens, for the third time in less than a week... Read more... Hugo Chavez Interviewed by Cindy Sheehan: "We Are Not Anti-US, We Are Anti-Imperialist" | Monthly Review President Chavez, thank you for allowing the truth to be told about Venezuela, and about you and your revolution. Before the revolution, Venezuela was a nation ruled and used by the oligarchy. How did the revolution begin and how has it remained relatively peaceful?.. Read more... Vietnamese Derision Once The Beastly Merciless US Military-Economic Empire Collapses?, by Jay Janson | Countercurrents April 30, 2010 Vietnamese celebrated, many in sorrow for lost loved ones, the 35th anniversary of its costly victory over the mass murdering Army, Navy and Air force of the United States of America... Read more... Activists Disrupt Israeli Propaganda Event at Museum of Science | United for Justice with Peace Local activists protested the so-called “Israeli Innovation Weekend” (IIW) at the Museum of Science in Boston through multiple, disparate actions on Sunday. IIW’s sponsors, including the Consulate General of Israel to New England, were left flummoxed by the activists’ efforts and largely unable to prevent their successful, multi-pronged disruption of the event... Read more... Secret Erik Prince Tape Exposed, by Jeremy Scahill | The Nation Erik Prince, the reclusive owner of the Blackwater empire, rarely gives public speeches and when he does he attempts to ban journalists from attending and forbids recording or videotaping of his remarks.. Despite Prince's attempts to shield his speeches from public scrutiny, The Nation magazine has obtained an audio recording of a recent, private speech delivered by Prince to a friendly audience... Read more... The Push to Isolate Iran, by Robert Dreyfuss | The Nation Sometime this month, various branches of the government will orchestrate a series of measures to further isolate Iran economically.. Behind all these actions - which will, in fact, inflict real suffering on ordinary Iranians - is a dirty little secret, however: virtually no one, including the proponents of sanctions, thinks they can work as intended, namely, to compel Iran to change its policy, suspend its uranium enrichment program and accept stricter oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)... Read more... Israel's repression of its Palestinian citizens unites us in struggle, by Ameer Makhoul | Electronic Intifada Ameer Makhoul Ameer Makhoul, director of Ittijah and chairman of the Popular Committee for the Defense of the Political Freedoms, was arrested by Israeli forces today during a raid of his home, two weeks after a travel ban was imposed on him by the Israeli Ministry of the Interior. Police have also raided the offices of Ittijah and confiscated equipment and documents. Makhoul, a Palestinian with Israeli citizenship, submitted the following op-ed to The Electronic Intifada prior to his arrest:..Read more... O'Reilly and Co. want everyone to declare Islam 'the enemy', by David Neiwert | Crooks and Liars Bill O'Reilly's been on a tear lately in pushing the notion that Islam itself is the Enemy of America. Last night -- while sneering that "the media" gave Muslims a break by not blaming Islam for the failed Times Square bombing attempt -- he declared that there are "millions of jihadists" out there. "Millions of them!" he shouted... Read more, watch videos... Veto on Israel's OECD membership | The Irish Times On May 11th, 2010, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) will vote on whether or not to complete Israel’s application to join its ranks. Supporting Israel’s ascension to the OECD would be tantamount to supporting its actions in the Occupied Territories... Read more... Israel, Judaism, and Anti-Semitism, by Sameh A. Habeeb | Palestine Telegraph Unlike children worldwide, Palestinians, including myself, growing up in Gaza, the West Bank or East Jerusalem never had a normal childhood. My friend and I would play with sand rather than toys... Read more... Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, by Stephen Lendman | OpEd News Established in 1998, the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights (BRC) "defend(s) and promote(s) the rights of Palestinian refugees and IDPs (to) advance (their) collective rights." In January 2010, BRC published a report titled, "Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons, 2008 - 2009.".. Read more... 1,451 Palestinians kidnapped in four months | Uruknet Specialist in prisoners’ affairs Abdelnasser Farwana said that Israel kidnapped during only four months 1,451 Palestinians including nine women and 100 children under age 18... Read more... Gazans cut through Egypt's border barrier | BBC News "Every problem has a solution. The Egyptian steel barrier was a problem but we found a solution," says Mohammed, a grimy-faced Gazan tunnel digger who didn't want to give his real name... [Where there's a will there's a way, and this is about bare survival] Read more, watch video...May 7, 2010 Humor Dept: Study Says Neanderthals May Have Mated With Humans | NYT The Vindija cave in Croatia where three small Neanderthal bones were found Neanderthals mated with some modern humans after all and left their imprint in the human genome, a team of biologists has reported in the first detailed analysis of the Neanderthal genetic sequence... [This could help to explain many things. Is Zionism the revenge of the Neanderthals? Are they extracting their pound of flesh?] Read more...Does Jewish financial misbehavior have anything to do with being Jewish?, by Kevin MacDonald | The Occidental Observer As expected, the fraud charges brought against Goldman Sachs by the SEC and now the Senate hearings are producing a lot of anxiety in Jewish quarters... [Is it a question of "genetic ancestry," as McDonald and other proponents of genetic psychology believe? No, I don't think so. A matter of cultural inheritance? You bet.] Read more...Our arrests in Al-Walaja, by Mazin Qumsiyen | Human Rights Newsletter Former Yale professor among 4 detained in Walaja... Read more... Slick Operator: The BP I've Known Too Well, by Greg Palast | t r u t h o u t I've seen this movie before. In 1989, I was a fraud investigator hired to dig into the cause of the Exxon Valdez disaster. Despite Exxon's name on that boat, I found the party most to blame for the destruction was ... British Petroleum (BP)... Read more... UN Security Council permanent members back nuclear-free Mideast | Haaretz U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China voice support for 'full implementation' of nuclear non-proliferation treaty... [Well, shiver my timbers] Read more...Did You Hear the Joke About the Predator Drone That Bombed?, by Medea Benjamin and Nancy Mancias | AlterNet ...it's odd that President Obama would make a crude joke about deaths that he is responsible for. But that's just what he did at the May 1 White House Correspondents Dinner. "Jonas Brothers are here, they're out there somewhere," President Obama quipped as he looked out at the packed room... Read more... In The Name Of Greater Israel, by Anait Brutian | Sabbah Report On February 2, 2010, the Israeli Knesset held the inaugural meeting of The Lobby for Greater Israel. According to Knesset members Arye Eldad (National Union), "This kind of lobby should have been unnecessary We could have expected that after disengagement [from Gaza and parts of northern Samaria in 2005] all talk of creating a Palestinian state would have been taken off the table and that no one would try to get rid of settlements… Instead, we are once more hearing about a two-state solution and a [construction] freeze. I am certain that with this unity we can save the Land of Israel".. Read more... JudeoFascists Attack Home of Progressive Rabbi Michael Lerner, by Joshua Holland | Alternet The northern California home of Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of the progressive Tikkun magazine, was vandalized. Posters attached to his door and the fence around his Berkeley home attack Lerner personally, and liberals and progressives, as being supporters of terrorism and “Islamofascism,”.. Read more... Break siege ships to head to Turkey, Greece then Gaza, Khudari hails step | Palestine Info European vessels loaded with relief material to the Gaza Strip would first head to Greece and Turkey in mid May to group with other boats boarded by solidarity activists en route to Gaza... [Not a very imposing looking fleet, but Dog works in mysterious ways] Read more...What BP's Oil Mess and Goldman Sachs' Rip-off Schemes Have in Common, by Robert Reich | AlterNet After 30 years of deregulation, it's no wonder everything from oil production to banking is screwed up... Read more... Jenny Tonge: A 'Woman of Substance', by Felicity Arbuthnot | Palestine Telegraph Politicians with backbone are a rarity. (UK) Liberal Democrat M.P., Jenny Tonge (The Rt. Hon., The Baroness Tonge of Kew) has one. Liberal Democrat Leader, Nick Clegg, does not... Read more... Colombia: State Terror in the Name of Peace, by James Petras | Global Research The first casualty of state terror is the corruption of language, the invention of euphemisms, where words mean their opposite and slogans cover great crimes. There is no longer a world consensus that condemns crimes against humanity. This is because mass murder and assassinations secure investor ‘confidence’, because Indians are dispossessed so the mines can be exploited; oil workers disappear so the petroleum will flow; and the international financial press praises the success of el Presidente for “pacifying the country”.. Read more... The Flying Carpet Institute interviews Israeli socialist Tikva Honig-Parnass: On the Apartheid nature of Israel, Matzpen and the contradictions of the Zionist Left Israeli socialist activist Tikva Honig-Parnass fought in the 1948 War as a Zionist. Years later she would break with Zionism and join the ranks of the Socialist Organization in Israel, also known by the name of its publication, Matzpen (“Compass”)... Read more... British candidates court U.K. Jews ahead of election | Haaretz U.K. Jews are considered a strong voting bloc as they are mainly clustered in a few constituencies in London, Manchester... [It's not so much the Jewish vote they're courting, but the Jewish purse] Read more...Proposed bill seeks to outlaw human rights NGOs based in Israel working on accountability issues in the Occupied Palestinian Territory | EMHRN The undersigned organisations express their serious concern at the new threats faced by human rights organisations in Israel involved in the struggle to uphold international law and the rule of law... Read more... Army may release all Deir Yassin docs | Jerusalem Post Are the events that took place in Deir Yassin so sensitive that 62 years later, the state still refuses to release all of the documents and photos stored in the IDF archive to the public?.. Read more... Like a plane without a pilot, by Amira Hass | Haaretz Even if not one more Jewish home is built in the occupied territories (including East Jerusalem), the enormous apparatus of domination continues to operate there with an inner logic of many years’ duration... Read more... Soldier committed violence against Palestinian detainees, by Stephen Lendman | Palestine Telegraph Child prisoner The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PACTI ) calls "torture and ill treatment of any kind....incompatible with" moral democratic values. It "advocates for all persons" in Israel and Occupied Palestine to protect them from abusive treatment of all kinds...Read more... Iran sanctions and worse | Redress Information & Analysis Paul J. Balles views the campaign by Israel lobbyists in the US administration and Congress to impose sanctions on Iran as a precursor to direct aggression à la Iraq, and on the few lone voices of common sense... Read more... Wiesenthal's PR Exercise to Counter 'Anti-Israel Lies', by Iqbal Jassat | Palestine Chronicle Wiesenthal Center has produced a brochure: '2010 Top Ten Anti-Israel Lies As Israel reels from successive blows to its image as a 'civilized democracy' its supporters have in another desperate attempt to salvage this bruised profile come up with a rescue plan. This time the Simon Wiesenthal Center has produced a brochure titled “2010 Top Ten Anti-Israel Lies” that they plan to distribute to millions of people worldwide...Read more... 'US only snag in global N-disarmament' | Press TV ..Upon returning from his three-day trip to New York on Wednesday, Ahmadinejad said Washington is the “one and only obstacle” in the way of global disarmament... Read more... May 6, 2010 Bereaved Gaza astronomer opens up the heavens, by Rami Almeghari | Electronic Intifada Suleiman Baraka stargazing in Gaza As the sun set on a clear evening in Gaza City, Suleiman Baraka was setting up his telescope on the rooftop of the French Cultural Center as two dozen visitors waited anxiously to gaze into the stars. It was a rare occasion to break away -- at least momentarily -- from the siege on the ground in the Gaza Strip...Read more... The savior in each of us, by Mazin Qumsiyeh | Human Rights Web We live in an era of psychological warfare and mass hysteria generated by mass communication that already led us to the catastrophic first and second world wars. And after the US dropped nuclear bombs on civilian cities in Japan, all gloves were off instead of people being horrified enough to forsake war all together. Over 100 major conflicts in the last 60 years costing tens of millions of lives. It is even getting worse as wars are started by a few special interest groups, a few rich media owners can push for them, and a few soldiers can execute them via remote control and pilot-less planes that butcher thousands at the push of a button... Read more... ISM apartment in Hebron broken into - Israeli Intelligence Services suspected | International Solidarity Movement In the early hours of the morning on Saturday 1st May, the International Solidarity Movement’s Hebron apartment was broken into. Laptops, video cameras, photo memory cards and USB flash drives were stolen. Cash and credit cards that had been left in the apartment were not taken... Read more... Mosques demolished and burnt by Israeli army and settlers | Middle East Monitor As the start of indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority approaches, sources inside occupied Palestine have confirmed that two mosques have been attacked in the past 24 hours... Read more... Settler Violence Report March-April 2010 | Alternative Information Center In the last week of March, hundreds of settlers - some of them armed - came to the Old City of Hebron and organized marches during the celebrations of the Jewish feast of Pesach, which occurred in those days. The settlers stoned and attacked the Palestinians in the streets. The shops in the area were also targeted. These marches and attacks took place within full view of the Israeli soldiers placed there to guard the settlers... Read more... Surprising Facts About 'Our Enemy' Iran Remind Us That We Don't Know Squat, by Jeffrey Rudolph | | AlterNet What can possibly justify the relentless U.S. diplomatic (and mainstream media) assault on Iran? It cannot be argued that Iran is an aggressive state that is dangerous to its neighbors, as facts do not support this claim. It cannot be relevant that Iran adheres to Islamic fundamentalism, has a flawed democracy and denies women full western-style civil rights, as Saudi Arabia is more fundamentalist, far less democratic and more oppressive of women, yet it is a U.S. ally... Read more... Under siege, Gaza organizes its own World Cup, by Pam Bailey | Electronic Intifada Competitors for Gaza's World Cup Football is the world's most popular sport, boasting more than an estimated 2 billion fans. And despite its isolation from the world through Israel's four-year-old blockade, the Gaza Strip is no exception. When a football match is on, tea and shisha cafes are packed with people gathered around the TV sets...[Gaza is a monument to the human spirit shining forth under the worst imaginable circumstances] Read more...Singing for Justice as a Life-long Commitment, by Marta Rodriguez | Dissident Voice Recently, those of us who care about justice received with great joy and relief the news that Mr. Gil Scott-Heron canceled his scheduled concert in “Tel Aviv.” In view of the destruction and suffering the Palestinians have endured for the sake of that racist colonial enterprise known as “Israel,” the cancellation of this concert couldn’t have been more just and appropriate... Read more... Ahmadinejad gives exclusive interview to RT | YouTube The U.S. is trying to put pressure on organizations like the UN Security Council in order to get its own way on major international issues. That's the view of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who's spoken exclusively to RT in an interview. He says that such pressure and new sanctions - if imposed - would harm the U.S. rather than Iran... Read more... Declaring War On The Universe?, by Jim Kirwan | People's Voice It is one thing to declare war upon poor or struggling nations to improve the bottom-lines of the Plutocracy that runs the world at the moment: But it is something else entirely to attack the DNA of the this tiny blue planet at its molten core; especially when such a death blow cannot then be stopped by the puny efforts of those that chose to attack the very forces of nature that give all of us the lives we are trying to live today... Read more... War is a Force that Gives us Meaning, with Chris Hedges | You Tube Veteran New York Times correspondent Chris Hedges has covered conflicts in Bosnia, El Salvador and Israel. Tune in for this thought-provoking lecture based on his best selling book that argues life is lived most intensely in times of war, often with tragic consequences... Read more... Iraq: Bloody Policies And Criminal Authorities | The BRussells Tribunal Arrests, Assassinations, Deportation Of Millions, Torture Repression in Iraq takes multiple forms: deprivation of resources and services, arrests, assassinations, deportation of millions, torture of every kind, death squads, hanging and other death penalties, confiscating property and houses, blowing up residences, markets and groupings, killing at checkpoints and in the streets for no reason, trade of children and women, inhuman conditions in secret or public prisons, rape of children, men and women, killing from the air, killing on identity, kidnappings, stealing during investigation, extorting money from prisoners, stealing organs in hospitals, killing academics, journalists, doctors and state servants, threats, deprivation of legal rights and human rights, imprisonment without charge for long periods of time, re-imprisonment of the innocent after release, illegal and unfair trials, etc. All Iraqi communities are victims of this repression...Read more... Not Much Time Remains for Israel: A Film Review by Gilad Atzmon The London Palestinian Film Festival opened this year with Elia Suleiman’s latest feature “The Time that Remains”, a monumental reflective and poetic take on Palestine since 1948... Read more... Worse Than 1789?, by James Howard Kunstler | Countercurrents Senator Levin pretty much had Goldman Sach's Lloyd Blankfein dead in a casket with that now-notorious email from GS's head of sales and trading, Tom Montag, describing one of their billion-dollar investment "products" as "one shitty deal." Levin seemed to delight in crossing the boundary into the realm of the unspeakable, knowing that even the so-called "family" newspapers and cable TV networks would have to report it... Read more... A Letter To the American people From The Heart Of A Muslim Woman | Countercurrents I am writing this letter to you because of the devastation that is caused by your government in our lands, and because of the immanent threat to world peace that I see your government pushing for, again. The way things are moving now, I foresee great danger, and terrible risk to peace and security to the whole world... Read more... Another Acre And Another Goat, by Amos Gvirtz | Desertpeace During my childhood in the 1950s I still heard echoes of the argument (from pre-state days) between the Zionist Labor Movement and the Zionist Right. The Labor Movement people criticized the Zionist Right for declaring the intention of the Zionist Movement to inherit the Land of Israel... Read more... Kali Yuga Report, from Dirk Chardet Editor's note - the Kali Yuga Report is a compilation of articles sent by Dirk Chardet to his mailing list. It is the source of many of the links that I post to this site on a daily basis. Today, however, rather than cherry pick items from the Report I am simply copying it to a new page on the site. I'm doing this for two reasons. First, there are already more than enough links in today's postings and, secondly, I would like to draw your attention to his excellent compilation of pieces on Holocaust history (I call it the "Holycause," the religion of Israel which has in turn become the dominant religion of the West, just as Zionism has become the dominant political ideology). Together they comprise the two-headed hydra that is laying waste to the world - both heads must be cut off simultaneously if the human race is to survive this century. To subscribe to the Kali Yuga Report, write to Dirk Chardet. Read more... Divestment gains momentum | Arizona Daily Wildcat More than 50 members of the UA and Tucson medical community have signed a letter calling for the UA to end its contracts with the Motorola and Caterpillar corporations because of their alleged roles in health and human rights violations in Palestine and Israel... Read more... Yes, We Could... Get Out!: Why We Won't Leave Afghanistan or Iraq, by Tom Engelhardt | TomDispatch The Urge to Stay Yes, we could. No kidding. We really could withdraw our massive armies, now close to 200,000 troops combined, from Afghanistan and Iraq (and that's not even counting our similarly large stealth army of private contractors, which helps keep the true size of our double occupations in the shadows). We could undoubtedly withdraw them all reasonably quickly and reasonably painlessly...Read more... No One Cares, Chris Hedges | Truthdig ...We sustain these wars, which have no real popular support, by borrowing trillions of dollars that can never be repaid, even as we close schools, states go into bankruptcy, social services are cut, our infrastructure crumbles, tens of millions of Americans are reduced to poverty, and real unemployment approaches 17 percent... Read more... Was There a Plan to Blow Up the Economy?: The Subprime Conspiracy, by Mike Whitney | Counterpunch Many people now believe that the financial crisis was not an accident. They think that the Bush administration and the Fed knew what Wall Street was up to and provided their support. This isn't as far fetched as it sounds... [The best analysis of the recent (and upcoming) economic meltdown that I've yet come across. Mike Whitney frequently writes on the economy for Counterpunch.] Read more...True Torah Jews Kicks Off Ad Campaign | Jews Against Zionism Recently, self-proclaimed Jewish leaders launched a provocative campaign of newspaper advertisements regarding the policies of the American administration on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Perhaps some are left with the impression that these individuals indeed represent American Jewry. The fact is, they represent only themselves... Read more... The Boiling Frogs Presents Professor Francis Boyle (Podcast) Professor Francis Boyle discusses the October 2001 anthrax attack, the technology behind the letter to Senator Daschle, and assesses the case based on his years of expertise with America's bio-weapons programs, and as an expert who was responsible for drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989... Read more... Jewish mystics on the Sufi path, by Nimet Seker | Common Ground Jews do not traditionally destroy texts that include the name of God - even when they are no longer needed. Such texts are kept in the synagogue in a special room called the geniza (hiding place in Hebrew). Over 100 years ago, the geniza of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo was opened, and extraordinary things came to light... Read more... Listen to Affected Voices and We Will Have Middle East Peace, by Dan Lieberman | Palestine Chronicle Action must be taken to coerce Israel to stop the occupation as a start A question continually asked: Why has peace in the Middle East not been attainable? Clues to the answer are shunted from biased minds but are revealed in the Lebanese and Gaza conflagrations...Read more... Israeli Democracy: Bubble about to Burst? by Inna Michaeli | The Only Democracy? Just last Wednesday a new poll was published.. indicating that a vast majority of Jewish Israelis think that human rights organizations that expose immoral conduct by Israel should not be allowed to operate freely. Most of the respondents also stated that Israeli citizens who support international pressure on Israel should be punished, as well as journalists who publish news "that reflect badly on the actions of the defense establishment". At the same time, 98% of those polled claimed that they believe in freedom of expression... Read more... [Gilad Atzmon wrote to me a few years ago that Israel would end with a whimper, not a bang, due to its mind-blowing internal contradictions. He may have been right.] Read more...'Zionist myth' book on prize shortlist | The Jewish Chronicle A controversial book which argues that the idea of a Jewish people descended from the ancient Israelites is a Zionist myth, has been shortlisted for British Jewry's main literary award. The Invention of the Jewish People by Tel Aviv University Professor Shlomo Sand is one of four books up for the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize... Read more... UK general election: Shhh... don't mention the Israeli occupation | Redress Information & Analysis Stuart Littlewood views the conspicuous absence of any mention of the Israeli occupation in the British general election campaign, against the background of the paralysing influence of the Israel lobby on the three main political parties and the silent complicity of the mainstream media, including the BBC and the Church, in Israeli crimes... Read more... Discrimination is flourishing in East Jerusalem, by Akiva Eldar | Haaretz While children in West Jerusalem schools are celebrating 'Jerusalem Day,' thousands of children in East Jerusalem will stay home or crowd into rickety schoolrooms... Read more... Elitism and Empathy in American Presidents: Who Cares for the Suffering Children? by William John Cox | Dandelion Salad Read more... EU Jews take stand against Israel | Press TV Thousands of European Jews, including a number of EU parliament members, have signed a petition warning against systematic support for Israeli policies... Read more... The Vaudeville routine that has taken over American Jewry | Haaretz No matter how the Mideast conflict ends, American Jews will lose, says J.J. Goldberg of The Forward... Read more... Schumer: I'm on a Mission From God (to Be Israel's Guardian in Senate), by MJ Rosenberg | Huffington Post You know the old definition of chutzpah? A guy kills his mother and father and pleads for mercy on the grounds that he is an orphan. I think we are ready for a new definition. It is the neoconservative response to the argument that an Israeli bombing attack on Iran would put American soldiers in the Middle East at serious risk... Read more... Camped Out at Erez Crossing | Gaza Gateway The eleven-day protest of Ahmed Sabeh, released from an Israeli prison on Wednesday, April 21, 2010, and taken to the Gaza Strip - even though his home, wife and son are in Tulkarem - raises an interesting challenge to Israel's control over the borders and population registry of the occupied Palestinian territory. Mr. Sabeh has camped out inside the Erez Crossing, refusing to enter Gaza, in protest of Israel's refusal to allow him to return to his home in the West Bank. The Hamas government, in turn, has announced that it will not allow him back into Gaza, in order to avoid facilitating the Israeli policy of removing Palestinians from the West Bank... [Israel's Theater of the Absurd] Read more...Knesset speaker goes One State | Dimi's Notes Haaretz reported yesterday that Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin appears to have gone One State. Rivlin, a veteran and decidedly right-wing member of the Likud, told the Greek Ambassador:.. [The unassailable logic of it is beginning to penetrate even the densest of heads] Read more...Statement of Support from Nobel Women Peace Laureates | Cal Divest From Apartheid We the undersigned Nobel Women Peace Laureates support your courage and call on you to reaffirm the ASUC Bill in Support of UC Divestment from War Crimes. We stand united in our belief that divesting from companies that provide significant support for the Israeli military provides moral and strategic stewardship of tuition and taxpayer-funded public education money... Read more... Iran: What is the green movement?, by Arshin Adib-Moghaddam | Bitterlemons Caught in the intoxicating effects of a violent moment in the history of a nation, one is particularly susceptible to reactionary outbursts. But it is exactly during such moments that intellectual discourse must prevail over ideological cacophony. And the cacophony about the causes and consequences of the recent unrest in Iran has been deafening... Read more... The Cross of Bethlehem: The Memoirs of a Refugee by Ro'i Tov | Amazon The Cross of Bethlehem is a memoir of a Christian Israeli military officer caught in the crosshairs between a country that demands total obedience, even if that means firing on rock-throwing women and children, and following his conscience. In a story of faith and courage, tragedy and hope, the author, Ro'i Tov, shares the heartache of growing up an outsider in the tight-knit kibbutzim along the Jordan Valley. It is here that his sharp intelligence, instead of buying him the freedom he so desperately desires, traps him in a company without a moral compass and a military that challenges his spiritual and moral beliefs... Read more... Israel's Stasi watch over imams | Redress Information & Analysis Jonathan Cook reports on a case which revealed that job interviews for the position of imam at mosques in Israel are conducted not by senior clerics but by Israel's secret police, and that the Israeli government uses spies to report on the political opinions of Muslim clerics and relay gossip about their private lives. Meanwhile, hate-spouting rabbis go unmonitored... Read more... May 4, 2010 Annals of Scum: Glenn Beck, by Bob Cesca | The Greanville Post Ruport Murdoch, Fox News' Chief Malefactor, and abettor of Glenn Beck Everything that is revolting about abject careerism in America and success for the sake of success is embodied in Glenn Beck, an opportunistic media criminal that fits the times. But these creatures—given their pitiful stock of talents—could never make it to the top without the support and encouragement of the puppetmasters at the top, the media owners, who represent an important segment of the ruling class, and its main instrument of ideological defense...Read more... Washington and Wall Street: A ‘Democracy’ in Denial, by Sam Pizzigati | Too Much Some Americans get all bent out of shape when they hear someone label the United States a ‘plutocracy.’ But if we have an honest-to-goodness democracy, where the people really rule, then how can we explain Goldman Sachs? Read more... Mobilizing for Egyptian Democracy | Palestine Telegraph Egyptian flag The Islamic Human Rights Commission, a UK-based NGO that holds Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, embarks on an international campaign to bring awareness to the Egyptian Government’s use of Emergency laws against opposition members, activists and bloggers...Read more... Governmental Atrocities Have Exploded Since WWII, by J. Speer-Williams | PPJ Gazette Down through the annuals of history, central governments have been notorious in their consistent and repeated crimes against humanity; but perhaps, at no time was their crimes more heinous than during the years of the Second World War. Since WWII, however, the severity and magnitude of governmental crimes have exploded exponentially... [too many orcs, too few hobbits] Read more...Rights groups attack Israeli bill to shut down military critics, by Rory McCarthy | The Guardian Proposed law could allow closure of any organisation that investigates and legally challenges abuses by Israeli military Rights groups say the bill is the latest in a series of efforts to curb their activity in the wake of Israel’s war in Gaza ...The bill was introduced in the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, yesterday with the support of at least 17 MPs from different parties. If it became law it would prevent any organisation from being registered, or would close down existing groups if they were found to be passing information "to foreign entities" or were "involved in legal proceedings abroad against senior Israeli government officials or IDF officers for war crimes"...Read more... Two videos from Sleepless in Gaza (YouTube) Get down underground on a tour of the tunnels that run under the old town of Jerusalem where Israel takes groups of tourists to push its version of history. Despite the fact that no real proof has been found of the existence of Solomon's Temple, the Temple Mount, see a mock dummy of the temple placed in the tunnel and used by tour guides to push assumptions about where it used to be...Watch... So if you are in the door of your house, you are in the West Bank. A step outside the door, you are in Jerusalem; an illegal infiltrator that will be arrested! Join Ashira in Anata where Sami, his family and his house are West Bankers by the decision of Israel, and by the same decision the only entrance to their home is in Jerusalem... [Rube Goldberg has been working overtime] Watch...Why Mr. President? Open Letter to Mahmoud Abbas, by Nidal Azza | Uruknet Since the adoption of the strategy of the "peace of the brave" which seeks to achieve Palestinian rights through negotiations, Palestinian officials have never missed an opportunity to raise the demand for the international community to intervene and ensure respect of its international law and UN resolutions... Read more... Can “Proximity Talks” Avert Boycotts of Apartheid Israel? | Juan Cole President Obama threatened that he would take over the Israel-Palestine peace process himself, along with European allies, and recognize a Palestinian state, if Israeli-Palestinian negotiations had not begun by September 1. Despite the howls of outrage from the far right Israeli government and its American acolytes, the threat seems to have worked... [Yes, there is the danger of an internationally imposed "two-state" solution. Something, of course, that will be acceptable to the Israelis, albeit accompanied by the usual howling. Bantustania here we come.] Read more...Ethiopian Jews experience Israeli racism at a very early age | Aletho News Response to Falasha demonstration against discrimination An Israeli kindergarten in Beir al-Saba’ (Beersheba) in southern occupied Palestine was reported in the Israeli media to segregate Jewish children of Ethiopian descent from the rest of Jewish children...Read more... And what happens in our community? by Gideon Levy | Haaretz The rule is that, even 62 years after its establishment, Israel is run by an ethnically pure Ashkenazi elite... Read more... Are Israeli Policies Entrenching Anti-Semitism Worldwide? by Tony Klug | Tikkun Magazine Are Jews who protest Israeli policies necessarily "self-hating"? Even posing the question is painful, for after all the suffering anti-Semitism has caused the Jewish people over the centuries, the last thing we need or deserve is to have it become a permanent state of affairs. Nonetheless, the proposition that the State of Israel, which was conceived as a way of normalizing relations between Jews and all other peoples, might instead be normalizing anti-Semitism is not one we can simply close our eyes to in the forlorn hope that it will go away of its own accord...Or do their ideas offer Israel its best hope for survival? Read more... Arab MPs in Israel condemn the "racist campaign" against them | Middle East Monitor Arab members of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, have reiterated the right of Palestinian citizens to communicate with the outside world, especially in the Middle East. The MPs' statement came in response to moves in the Knesset to strip some Arab MPs of their parliamentary immunity for taking part in a Palestinian delegation to Libya... Read more... Palestinian Roads: Cementing Statehood, or Israeli Annexation? by Nadia Hijab & Jesse Rosenfeld | Australians for Palestine Israeli-only roads in the Israeli-occupied Bethlehem Governorate of the West Bank Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has staked his political credibility on securing a Palestinian state by 2011 in the entire West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, a program enthusiastically embraced by the international community. Ambitious PA plans include roads and other infrastructure across the West Bank, with funds provided by the United States, Europe and other donors...Read more... Israel's democratic values: Punish human rights organizations, not war criminals, by Alex Kane | Mondoweiss Were you scared by the recent poll finding that the majority of Israeli Jews have profoundly anti-democratic attitudes and support restricting human rights groups, punishing Israeli citizens who call for boycotting the country, and punishing journalists who expose news that expose immoral actions by the military? Well then get all the way underneath your covers... Read more... Palestinians Gassed in Tunnels Since beginning of 2010, by Saed Bannoura | International Middle East Media Center Killing Civilians In Tunnels, A Crime Punishable By Law The Palestinian Human Rights Foundation (PHRF) reported Friday that since the beginning of this year, 52 Palestinian residents were killed in border tunnels after the Egyptian Authorities gassed the tunnels while the residents were in them...Read more... Strengthening Those Who Belong to the Land: Mahmud from Susya, the Organic Farmer | The Villages Group Mahmud from Susya got up one day from his depression, and built a very basic green house. With simple tools and techniques he succeeded to surprise us with excellent organic vegetables... Read more... U.K. comedian slams BBC over apology for anti-Israel skit | Wake Up From Your Slumber The BBC's apology for an anti-Israel comedy skit is cowardly, Scottish comedian Frankie Boyle said in an open letter published in British media outlets Saturday, saying he was right to criticize Israel for being an "aggressive terrorist state.".. Read more... Council Delays Decision On Human Rights Violations, by Angela Chen | UCSD Guardian After emotional public input and a complete rewrite of the divestment resolution, proponents plan to reintroduce original language next week The resolution, which was modeled after a similar effort at UC Berkeley, called for the UC Board of Regents to divest endowment funds from corporations such as General Electric and United Technologies... Read more... Stand firm, Mr Clegg | Middle East Monitor Nick Clegg is unpretentious, which is probably why he is capturing the imagination of the British electorate. Most commentators refer to his apparent honesty, despite attempts by the right-wing media and the Israel lobby - often one and the same thing - to smear him... Read more... Protesters hold rally in Egypt | Press TV An Egyptian opposition activist scuffles with riot police during a rally Opposition groups and social movements in Egypt have protested against the country's President Hosni Mubarak in the capital city of Cairo...Read more... Loaded opposition, by Eva Bartlet | Palestine Telegraph One can imagine that were US soldiers to open fire with live ammunition on American protesters, this would not be acceptable. Likewise for Canada and most democratic nations... Read more... What's Next from Israel: Entropy or Outrage? by Jeff Gates | Veterans Today Israel or IsraHell? Israeli war-planners face a dilemma. After more than six decades of duplicitous behavior, their playbook is pretty well played out. Not that Tel Aviv will not deceive again. Or at least try. Odds are we’ll see another round of either entropy or outrage or some lethal combination...Read more... May 3, 2010 Brother of Afghan Leader Said to Be Paid by C.I.A. | Global Research Ahmed Wali Karzai, the brother of the Afghan president and a suspected player in the country’s booming illegal opium trade, gets regular payments from the Central Intelligence Agency, and has for much of the past eight years, according to current and former American officials... Read more... Times Square Bomb Hoax, Israeli Intel Group Shows It’s Hand, by Gordon Duff | Veterans Today Who would have believed it? Only days after a warning of an Israeli “false flag” bombing against the US “in the works” a massive car bomb is discovered in Time Square! Better yet, though no intelligence organization in the world could discover anyone claiming responsibility for this embarrassing failure, SITE Intelligence, a group rumored as the “voice of the Mossad” has placed the blame on the Pakistani Taliban... Read more... Is Obama A Congenital Liar & Sadistic Torturer? | Daily Bell Read more... Israel is useless to US power projection, by Chas Freeman | Mondoweiss The other day Stephen Maher published a piece on Electronic Intifada saying that American thirst for hegemony in the region, and not the Israel lobby, is the prime motivator of US policy in Israel and Palestine. What follows is an excerpt of a private email exchange responding to Maher's post, reprinted by permission of the author, Chas Freeman, a former assistant secretary of defense... Read more... Surrender to Injustice Never an Option: A Gaza Story, by Dr. Ludwig Watzal | Palestine Chronicle Ramzy Baroud and his father stand for the alternative: freedom and self-respect 'Not one refugee will return. The old will die. The young will forget.' This prediction, uttered by David Ben-Gurion in 1948, did not come true. Not only the keys of the houses, that the Palestinians were forced to leave, passed on from generation to the other, but so did the memoirs and the deep roots and emotional attachment to the Land of Palestine endured over the years...Read more... No US visas for Iran press | Press TV An Iranian press delegation slated to accompany President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his upcoming visit to New York have been denied US visas... [Land of the Free, Home of the Brave and, to be sure, exemplar of Freedom of the Press] Read more...Countdown to Israel-Palestinian Impact, by James Gundun | Palestine Chronicle It appears going forward that Obama will be judged by his ability to influence Israel ...Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will then travel to Washington to officially rekindle the peace process while shaking a smiling President Obama’s hand. These movements will be accompanied by a high decimal level of diplomatic and media chatter. We’ll be told that every party is firmly and finally committed to achieving a lasting peace in the region, and that those who spoil the quest will be held accountable. The problem is, we’ve been here many times before...Read more... A Cloud over Jerusalem, by Uri Avnery | Dissident Voice Everyone has the right to change his or her mind. Even Danny Tirzeh. Colonel Tirzeh was responsible for planning the wall that “envelopes” Jerusalem – the one that cuts the city off from the West Bank in order to turn it into the United Capital Of Israel For All Eternity... Read more... If there's no Mideast peace process, what then? by Stephen M. Walt | Foreign Policy If you're feeling cheerful these days and would like to be brought down to earth, go read about the Greek financial crisis. Or you could read Aaron David Miller's essay in the current FP. It is a disheartening read on several levels: Miller is in effect saying that the peace process is dead, yet his analysis also unintentionally illustrates the myopia that has doomed U.S. efforts for twenty years or more... Read more... UC Berkeley Student Senate Fails to Override Veto of Israel Divestment Measure | Democracy Now The student senate at the University of California–Berkeley has failed to override a veto of a bill calling on campus officials to divest from companies that supply weapons the Israel uses in its occupation of the Palestinian territories... Read transcript, watch video... Insulting the Memory of an Anti-Apartheid Activist | Badil Ain al-Zaytoun before its destuction In recent years, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) has announced its plans to rebuild a section of the Birya forest, located in the Galilee, and to name it after the late Coretta Scott King, the renowned civil rights and anti-apartheid activist and wife of Martin Luther King Jr. The Coretta Scott King Forest is being built as part of ‘Operation Northern Renewal,’ a $400 million JNF campaign that aims to rebuild its forests in the North that were destroyed during Israel’s brutal assault on Lebanon the summer of 2006...Read more... In Israel's pockets: the shame of Britain's political parties | Redress Information & Analysis As British voters head for the ballot box to elect the government that will run them for the next five years, one key question is conspicuous by its absence from the election campaign and the party leaders' televised debates: to what extent are the two main parties, the Conservative Party and the incumbent Labour Party, answerable to their members and to the British people, rather than to a foreign power, the State of Israel?.. Read more... Israeli tourism maps annex Palestinian lands, by Daoud Kuttab | Palestine Note ...While many might say that this is a symbolic issue, there is no doubt that this particular symbolism runs counter to the two-state solution, which has been declared a strategic national interest of the United States and which the prime minister of Israel has publicly said he supported... Read more... Breaking the Middle East impasse, by Ali Abunimah | The Hill A new conventional wisdom is rapidly taking shape that the United States can resolve the 130-year-old conflict in Palestine by advancing its own peace plan... Read more... Israel's dog and pony show, by Sherine Tadros | Al Jazeera I recently jumped at the chance to take an all expenses paid helicopter ride over Israel and part of the West Bank. The trip was courtesy of The Israel Project (TIP) which describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan group working to impact world opinion for the sake of Israel's security... Read more... European MPs and Ministers Assess Gaza Today, by Stephen Lendman | OpEd News During a recent visit, a 50-person European Campaign to End the Siege of Gaza (ECESG) assessed conditions on the ground firsthand, one year after Operation Cast Lead... Read more... Gil Scott-Heron boycotts Tel Aviv, sends powerful message to Israelis | Promised Land A small commotion erupted this week among the public that appreciates black music in Israel upon learning that ground-breaking artist, poet and musician, Gil Scott-Heron apparently canceled his Tel Aviv show for political reasons... Read more... A surgical strike on Israel's wallet could end the occupation, by Matthew A. Taylor | Haaretz What on earth will it take to persuade Israel to leave the occupied territories? Sometimes it seems as if nothing will work. For eight years now, the Arab Peace Initiative, which early Zionist leaders would have seen as a dream-come-true, has been collecting dust... Read more... A Tradition of Dehumanizing: The CIA's Psycho-War and Torture Schemes in The Philippines, by Prof. E. San Juan Jr. | Global Research The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) occupies center-stage again in the Philippines, the laboratory in 1950-1960s for the Phoenix assassination program in Vietnam inspired by CIA agent Edward Lansdale who is credited for defeating the communist-led Huk uprising. Attention is being given to the CIA systematization of coercive techniques in handling prisoners, including diverse forms of torture, zealously implemented by the police/military officials of the corrupt, unpopular Gloria Arroyo regime... Read more... Ten Israeli negotiating strategies, by Dr Mohsen Saleh | Middle East Monitor Israel has a negotiating strategy that is designed to prolong the negotiations allowing more time for the construction of facts on the ground, putting it in a position to impose its will on "final status" talks. In fact, the strategy can be broken down into ten distinct strategies... Read more... Volvo equipment: Israel's weapons to destroy al-Walaja homes, by Adri Nieuwhof | Electronic Intifada Read more... Cairo denies gassing Gaza smugglers, by Catrina Stewart | The Independent Egypt yesterday denied accusations by Hamas that it had pumped toxic gas into smuggling tunnels between Gaza and Egypt, killing four Palestinians and injuring three. An Egyptian intelligence official said that Egypt had blown up the entrances to several tunnels earlier this week in an effort to seal them off. He added that the blasts may have sparked a fire that sucked air out of the tunnels, suffocating the workers... Read more... Pro-Israel group monitoring, intimidating Columbia faculty, by Jared Malsin | Electronic Intifada Critics of Israeli policy and sympathizers with Palestinians In the summer of 2000, preeminent scholar Edward Said sparked what became conventionally known as a "controversy" when he was photographed hurling a small stone into the no-man's land between Lebanon and Israel. What Said, one of the 20th century's most important literary theorists, considered a trivial gesture of jubilation following the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon was, for pro-Israeli groups like the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an act of violence and evidence of political extremism...have been subjected to intimidation at Columbia University Read more... A light is cast upon pro-Israel groups, by Rami G. Khouri | The Daily Star One of the fascinating aspects of recent tensions between the American and Israeli governments over Washington’s Middle Eastern diplomacy has been a sea-change in the public posture of what is usually called “the Israeli lobby” in the United States... Read more... May 2, 2010 Sculpture offends and 'hurts' poor little Israel | Sabbah Report Stairway to Heaven by Spanish artist Eugenio Merino A controversial art piece on exhibition at the Madrid art fair, was condemned by the Israeli Embassy in Madrid as being "offensive to Judaism. The hurtful message this piece conveys doesn't hurt less because it is displayed under the veil of art," the Israeli embassy wrote in a letter to the organizers of ARCO art fair, one of the world's top contemporary art fairs...Read more... The Anti-Imperialist League and the Battle Against Empire, by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. | Lew Rockwell ...That American forces were engaged in a colonial war to suppress another people's independence led to a great deal of soul-searching among important American thinkers, writers, and journalists. What eventually became the American Anti-Imperialist League began at a June 1898 meeting at Boston's Faneuil Hall, where people concerned about the colonial policy that the US government may choose to adopt in the wake of the war gathered to speak out against the transformation of the United States into an imperial power... Read more... Well Done Frankie Boyle! | Gilad Atzmon Scottish hero comedian Frankie Boyle has accused the BBC Trust of cowardly behaviour. Boyle published an open letter describing the situation in Palestine as "in essence, apartheid" and lamenting the fact that the BBC was "now cravenly afraid of giving offence and vulnerable to any kind of well-drilled lobbying"... Read more... Revisiting Freedom in Iraq, by Jacob G. Hornberger | FFF How often have we heard proponents of the unlawful war of aggression against Iraq say that the real purpose of their invasion (after U.S. troops and the CIA failed to find those infamous and scary WMDs that were about to fired at the United States) was to bring freedom and democracy to Iraq? How many times have they attempted to justify the deaths of almost 4,400 U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis on that basis?.. Read more... Canadian/Israeli Stamp of Shame, by Dr. Elias Akleh | Sabbah Report Read more... The decline of Israel's left, by Catrina Stewart | New Statesman Nearly 30 years ago, 400,000 Israelis marched in protest over the injustices of the 1982 war in Lebanon. Where are today’s progressives?.. Read more... The Future of Palestine: Righteous Jews vs. the New Afrikaners, by Prof. John J. Mearsheimer | Jerusalem Fund US professor says that Gaza and the West Bank will be incorporated into a 'Greater Israel,' "Regrettably, the two-state solution is now a fantasy. Instead, those territories will be incorporated into a Greater Israel,which will be an apartheid state bearing a marked resemblance to white-ruled South Africa. Nevertheless, a Jewish apartheid state is not politically viable over the long term. In the end, it will become a democratic bi-national state, whose politics will be dominated by its Palestinian citizens. In other words, it will cease being a Jewish state, which will mean the end of the Zionist dream."..which will be an Apartheid state similar to white-ruled South Africa [Some dreams have a way of turning into nightmares, particularly fascist dreams] Read more...Moving Beyond Sanctions on Iran, by César Chelala | Common Dreams If past experience with authoritarian regimes is any guide, new sanctions on Iran will not succeed in curbing its nuclear power development and will, instead, strengthen the hardliners in government. Much more can be gained by improving the relationship between U.S. and Iranian citizens... Read more... When will time run out for a two-state solution? by Yousef Munayyer | The Guardian Read more... Israel will not be a Jewish state - Gilad Atzmon | YouTube Gilad Atzmon talks of the inevitability of Israel being a state of its citizens and therefore no longer a Jewish state... Watch... Jeff Blankfort critic of Noam Chomsky [Podcast] | Palestine Think Tank Read more, Listen... UK politicians fail the Afghanistan, economics and banking tests | Redress Information & Analysis Christopher King argues that Britain’s leading politicians lack the courage to acknowledge the only moral conclusion to the Afghan fiasco – withdrawal – and lack the vision, integrity and competence to tackle the country’s economic and banking crises... Read more... Danish artists wipe Israel off the map | Press TV Danish art duo "Surrend” A Danish modern art duo, Surrend, has gained attention over a series of posters in which Israel is wiped off the map of the Middle East. In the posters, the territory presently named Israel has been renamed "Ramallah" by the two artists Jan Egesborg and Pia Bertelsen...Read more... Archbishop of Canterbury's deafening silence over Israeli bullying | Redress Information & Analysis Stuart Littlewood considers Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams’s feeble acceptance of, and silence over, Israel’s humiliation of him – and the Anglican Church which he leads – during his visit to Gaza... Read more... Meanwhile, back in the real world: Halle Berry Splits, Princess TNT Takes Paris, and Prince Harry Up in the Air | Taki's Magazine Humor Department Gloria in excelsis Princess TNT aka Gloria Thurn und Taxis is celebrating her birthday this weekend in Paris with a half dozen parties organized by her children. The Princess will likely be spotted on the Seine boat hopping, and partying like only she knows how. Whether or not her on off Italian lover Alexandra Borghese will be there is anybody’s guess...Read more... The next 9/11 – made in Israel? | Redress Information & Analysis Maidhc Ó Cathail views the evidence indicating that dual loyalty officials in the US administration are funnelling American nuclear secrets not only to Israel, but also to terrorist organizations in order to facilitate a “nuclear 9/11” and a massive US attack against Iran or Pakistan... Read more... $50-60 Billion Laundered from US into Illegal Colonies | IRMEP The following document case file reveals the failure of US law enforcement agencies to act on credible, specific public and private allegations that up to $60 billion has been laundered from the United States into illegal colonization of the West Bank. The US national security interest in averting another 9/11style attack motivated by this type of ongoing illegal activity continues to be high. The Jewish Agency was identified in the 1960's as a source of $35 million illegally laundered into the United States for stealth grassroots action, PR and lobbying... Read more... Wake up and smell the System, by Frank Scott | Media Monitors Network ...The president of Bolivia and the writer from India speak for the majority population of earth which has born the brunt of the worst aspects of western culture. They are sending a wake up call to humanity to solve our existential problems as a race, the only one existing despite the propaganda, ignorance and hatred dividing us into competing national and ethnic entities that confuse learned culture with biological difference and jeopardize our future in the process... Read more... USS LIBERTY: The Fifth Fleet Sacrifice - " Why did it happen? by Debbie Menon | My Catbird Seat We have long wondered, and conjectured, the “why” of the USS Liberty incident, as it has become known and referred to; “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... Read more... Kidnapping & Trading in Iraqi Children, by Layla Anwar | An Arab Woman Blues While quite a bit of a fuss was raised regarding the kidnapping, smuggling and trafficking of Haitian children and rightly so, the same can't be said about the fate of Iraqi children... Read more... Who Are the Jews Behind Palin in 2012? by Gal Beckerman | Jewish Forward Palin at the GOP national convention in 2008. When Sarah Palin was asked by Barbara Walters late last year whether she supported a freeze on settlement growth in the West Bank, Palin issued an emphatic no. But her reasoning confounded many: “More and more Jewish people will be flocking to Israel in the days and weeks and months ahead. And I don’t think that the Obama administration has any right to tell Israel that the Jewish settlements cannot expand.” Who were these Jews, and why were they “flocking”?..She has garnered plaudits from prominent neo-conservatives Read more... 10 Ways the American Economy Is Built on Fraud | AlterNet Fraud has become so endemic in this country that it's woven its way into America’s DNA... Read more... Testing the Limits of Freedom of Speech: Ernst Zundel Speaks Out, by Kourosh Ziabari | Foreign Policy Journal An exclusive interview with one of Europe's most well-known political prisoners Ernst Zundel in a courtroom in Mannheim, Germany Ernst Zundel is a German author and historian who has spent seven years of his life behind bars as a result of expressing his controversial viewpoints and opinions. He is a revisionist who has denied the Holocaust as described by most historians. He has been one of the most prominent political prisoners in Europe and has been jailed in three countries on two continents... Read more... As Britain votes, Liberal Democrats’ record on Israel draws scrutiny, by Winston Pickett | JTA With Britain’s three-way race for prime minister entering the final lap, many Jews in Britain are wondering what Nick Clegg’s meteoric rise - and the possibility of a “hung parliament” - means for them... ["Uh oh, they're on to us. Rachel, pack the bags"] Read more...May 1, 2010 What's At Stake in the Issue of Iran, by Noam Chomsky | Pravda In an interview with the German publication, Freitag, Noam Chomsky talks about U.S. pressure on Israel and Iran and its geopolitical significance. "Iran is perceived as a threat because they did not obey the orders of the United States. Militarily this threat is irrelevant. This country has not behaved aggressively beyond its borders for centuries. Israel invaded Lebanon with the blessing and help of the U.S. five times in thirty years. Iran has not done anything like this," he says.´.. Read more... How the News Promotes a Mistaken View of the World: The South Reduced, by Ramzy Baroud | Counterpunch ...The western media will continue to reduce non-Westerners, for they have a vested interest in doing so, and it has become habitual. A first step in overcoming this would be to empower our own local and regional media, and to create rapport amongst them. We can only challenge the abhorrent narratives about us when we start to present our own truth and experience, and support others to do the same... Read more... The Complete Manual for The British Jewish Voter | Gilad Atzmon With Britain’s three-way race for prime minister entering the final lap, many Brits are still wondering who to vote for. As if it makes any difference. However, if you are interested in my take on the subject, I would suggest you opt for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. If you want to know why, it is pretty simple - just because the Jews don’t like Clegg at all... Read more... Crippling, Crushing, and Suffocating Iran, by Robert Dreyfuss | The Nation On Wednesday afternoon, members of the House and Senate gathered for a conference committee meeting to discuss the bills passed by each house to impose sanctions on Iran. As I sat down at my desk to write this, I pulled out my Roget's Thesaurus to see how many synonyms for "crippling," 'crushing," "overwhelming," "suffocating," and so on there are... Read more... Gaza prepares to remember the Nakba by emphasizing refugees' right of return | Middle East Monitor This year is the 62nd anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba and the people of Gaza have been preparing commemoration events to remember the calamity of May 1948... Read more... Israelis and Egyptians are Killing Youth Who Challenge the Siege of Gaza: Gaza Death Zone, by Ann Wright | Counterpunch The Palestinians in the Death Zone called Gaza are being slaughtered again as Israel and now Egypt kill and wound more innocent civilians who challenge their illegal siege, blockade and quarantine... Read more... Dual Loyalty Revisited, by Jeff Gates | Criminal State Four-fifths of the U.S. House and Senate recently declared in correspondence to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the U.S. must reaffirm its “unbreakable bond” with Israel. What persuaded our Congress to proclaim their loyalty to Israel while our military is waging war in the Middle East based on fabricated intelligence?.. Read more... Death, Taxes and Holocaust Remembrance, by Mark Glenn | The Ugly Truth ...Having spent a fortune putting padlocks on every door and window in the house in trying to prevent thieves from breaking in and ransacking the place, nevertheless we left the key to the front door under the welcome mat right smack dab in the middle of the front stoop. Indeed, our worst fears – although unanticipated and unrealized by those with limited vision responsible for planning and preparing our national defense – have come to pass. Rather than a limited strike, we as a people have been carpet-bombed, and not just for days, weeks, or months, but rather for decades relentlessly... Read more... Another conflict with Lebanon? by Linda S. Heard | Online Journal Jordan’s King Abdallah has recently disclosed that he believes an Israel-Hezbollah-Lebanon conflict is “imminent.” The fact that Israeli authorities are handing out gas masks and have launched a media campaign stressing their importance lends credibility to the monarch’s chilling prediction... Read more... America's Phony War in Afghanistan, by F. William Engdahl | Global Research One of the most remarkable aspects of the Obama Presidential agenda is how little anyone has questioned in the media or elsewhere why at all the United States Pentagon is committed to a military occupation of Afghanistan. There are two basic reasons, neither one of which can be admitted openly to the public at large. Behind all the deceptive official debate over how many troops are needed to “win” the war in Afghanistan, whether another 30,000 is sufficient, or whether at least 200000 are needed, the real purpose of US military presence in that pivotal Central Asian country is obscured... [He neglects to mention the other reason, unrelenting pressure from the bloodthirsty Lobby] Read more...PFLP leader calls for dismantling PA | Maan News Agency Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) politburo member Laila Khaled called Tuesday for dismantling the Palestinian Authority "if that body is the cause of Palestinian division." In Damascus, Khaled said division among Palestinians "is threatening the Palestinian national project." She said Palestinians "have not struggled throughout their history for an Authority, but for a homeland for a displaced people and people under occupation.".. Read more... An Open Letter to UC Berkeley Students from Mustafa Barghouthi: Passing the Israel Divestment Bill | Huffington Post ...I urge you to seize this moment as an opportunity to help secure Palestinian freedom and a just peace, but most particularly as an opportunity to help Palestinian students you may never meet. These students struggle to achieve their educational aspirations under an occupation that blocks opportunities and destroys dreams... Read more... Urgent Appeal | Adalah Support Adalah’s Campaign to Counter Incitement against Adalah & Palestinian Citizens of Israel Read more... Israel must unpick its ethnic myth, by Tony Judt | Signs of the Times What exactly is "Zionism"? Its core claim was always that Jews represent a common and single people; that their millennia-long dispersion and suffering has done nothing to diminish their distinctive, collective attributes; and that the only way they can live freely as Jews - in the same way that, say, Swedes live freely as Swedes - is to dwell in a Jewish state... Read more... Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict | UN Human Rights Council "Israel's attack on civilians was a "deliberate policy" designed to inflict 'humiliation and dehumanization of the Palestinian population'.. Read more... The Freedom Flotilla Sails to Gaza in May | Freegaza On May 24, 2010, the Freedom Flotilla sets sail for Gaza determined to, once again, challenge Israel’s blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians trapped in an open-air prison... Read more... Netanyahu is not the obstacle to peace, Israel is, by Hasan Abu Nimah | Jordan Times US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell was in the region again last week. His visits no longer stir much interest or speculation about what he has brought with him to break the deadlock. Most concerned parties know well by now that he has not much left in his sack... Read more... The Ultimate Israeli Obstacle to Peace with the Palestinians, by Dave Lefcourt | OpEd News The ultimate Israeli obstacle to any peace accord with the Palestinians appears to rest with "Israel's Holy Warriors," the messianic Jewish settlers in the West Bank, (and previously in settlements in Gaza before they were torn down by the IDF in 2005 when Ariel Sharon unilaterally withdrew from Gaza)... Read more... Israel official: Accepting Palestinians into Israel better than two states | Haaretz Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said Thursday that he would rather accept Palestinians as Israeli citizens than divide Israel and the West Bank in a future two-state peace solution... Read more... Fomenting Armageddon: Jerusalem's Colonization and Western Apathy, by Dr. Ahmad Yousef | Palestine Chronicle This time, the violence will take on a distinctly religious theme The Israelis are instigating a Jewish holy war staged in Jerusalem; and they are playing a superb game of propaganda painting the Palestinians as the “real” fundamentalists, despite the fact that the Knesset has more active right-wing political parties than any state in the civilized world. It’s a strategy that has caught the West by surprise as they continue to react with disappointment...Read more... Israel tries new tactics against Palestinian protesters, by Edmund Sanders | LA Times As civil disobedience has largely replaced suicide attacks and other deadly violence, soldiers respond with tamer weapons. When the Skunk truck arrives, people hightail it... Read more... Why Is the Government Delaying over Israeli Passports Scandal? | Palestine Telegraph Foreign minister Stephen Smith has received the findings about what happened with four Australian passports used in the assassination of a Hamas leader in Dubai, but it is still no enough, says Asem Judeh, human rights activist and Israeli Terrorism Monitor founder. "Mr Smith says he needs 'further advice' and 'further work' and 'further discussion,".. Read more... Gaza Death Zone: Israelis and Egyptians are Killing Palestinian Youth Who Challenge the Siege of Gaza, by Ann Wright | AfterDowningStreet The Palestinians in the Death Zone called Gaza are being slaughtered again as Israel and now Egypt kill and wound more innocent civilians who challenge their illegal siege, blockade and quarantine... Read more... Tunneling for Life in Gaza | t r u t h o u t ...Tunnel work was good money amidst the economic devastation Israeli policy has wrought in the Gaza Strip. According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in December 2008, unemployment reached 50 percent, the highest such number in the world... Read more... Write to the Turkish PM Erdogan to veto Israel’s accession to the OECD | IHRC Turkey is the only Muslim member of the OECD and holds right and responsibility to veto Israel's admission to the OECD. Write to the Turkish PM Erdogan to veto Israel's accession to the OECD... Read more... Jewish National Fund | Badil In this issue of al-Majdal, we look at the Jewish National Fund from various vantage-points. Joseph Schechla examines the ideological roots of Zionist organizations such as the JNF. He shows how the conflation of religion, race, nationality and citizenship, and its incorporation into Israeli law and statutes of Zionist agencies constitutes the pillar of the colonial apartheid regime that harms not only Palestinians but also Jews worldwide... [When I was a kid in Hebrew School I bought a bunch of "Plant a Tree in Israel" stamps for a penny apiece. Hey, what did I know? I want my money back.] Read more...National Public Radio's Pro-Israeli Bias, by Stephen Lendman | OpEd News Since establishment in 1970, NPR ignored its public trust in favor of privilege, corporatism, militarism, imperial wars, and Israel's vilest crimes, including collective punishment, illegal occupation, targeted killings, land theft, dispossessions, home demolitions, crop destruction, mass incarcerations, torture, violence, and the 2008 - 09 Gaza war inflicting mass deaths, permanent injuries, vast devastation, and human misery against defenseless civilians, imprisoned under siege since June 2007, and afflicted by a dire humanitarian crisis as a result - exacerbated by conflict and intermittent attacks, issues NPR ignores or understates... Read more... |
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