PA absent from funeral of man hailed as ‘symbol of steadfastness’

August 7, 2011 by occupiedpalestine

انّا للہ و انّا الیه راجعون

Published today (updated) 07/08/2011 16:31

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Former Bethlehem governor Salah Tamari expressed disappointment on Sunday that Palestinian Authority officials did not attend the funeral of Hajj Ibrahim Atallah, who he praised as “a symbol of Palestinian steadfastness.”
Hajj Ibrahim Atallah remained in Zakariyya, a small hamlet built on his land, until his death aged 101.

He managed to stay in Zakariyya, south Bethlehem despite huge pressure from Israeli forces and settlers as the Gush Etzion settlement block was being built nearby.

Shortly before his death Atallah dug a grave near Israel’s separation wall bordering his land and told his sons to bury him there “no matter what,” relatives said.

Tamari said no PA officials took part in Atallah’s funeral, “not even a representative of Bethlehem governor’s office despite the fact that the deceased deserves to be awarded the Jerusalem decoration more than many businessmen and officials who were given that decoration.”

Mourners from neighboring villages and across the Bethlehem district joined the funeral procession.
Atallah’s son also criticized PA officials for their absence.

“Settlers from Etzion came to express condolences, but Palestinian officials did not,” he said.

Source

In case you missed it: Embracing the Land

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Gilad Atzmon: The Landlord Wannabe Protest

Sunday, August 7, 2011 at 10:32AM Gilad Atzmon

"the Israelis cannot rescue themselves from their own doomed fate, , because they are blindly hijacked by their own destructive culture. As myself and a few others have been predicting for a decade or more, Israeli society is about to implode. It is really just a question of time."

It is almost amusing to find out that some of the most clichéd Marxists around are so taken by the current Israeli popular protest, which they foolishly interpret as a manifestation of the ‘Israeli revolutionary spirit’. They are convinced that now that the Israeli ‘working class’ are rising, peace will necessarily prevail.

Yet in fact, what we are really seeing unfold in Israel (at least for the time being) is the total opposite of a ‘working class’ re-awakening. Indeed, some in Israel are calling it the ‘Real Estate Protest,’ because basically, those protesting want assets: they all wish to have property, a house of their own. They want to be landlords. They want the key, and they want it now. What we see in Tel Aviv has no similarity whatsoever to the struggles taking place in al-Tahrir or in Athens. At the most, the Israeli demonstrations mimic some manifestations of a struggle for justice or Socialist protest.

But that is where the similarities end.
Motti Ashkenazi (a legendary Israeli anti establishment figure) wrote in ynet yesterday that “another Left is needed (in Israel), a Left that is primarily concerned with the poor of its country rather than with the plight of our neighbours.” In clear terms that cannot be interpreted otherwise: Motti Ashkenazi is exploring what he considers to be a necessary shift in Israeli ‘progressive’ thought, and what he appears to conclude is, forget about Palestine; let’s once and for all concentrate on ‘us,’ the Jews. Ashkenazi continues, “we need another Left, a modest one. Instead of a vision for the entire Middle East, it had better present a vision of the State of Israel.”

Professor Nissim Calderon (a lecturer in Hebrew literature ) also presented a similar line: “We have erected a Left that has been focusing on the fight for peace, and peace only. But there is a huge hole in our struggle- we failed to struggle for social justice.” Again ‘Lefty’ Calderon refers to the social struggle within the Israeli Jewish population.

The mass protest in Israel is, in fact, the complete opposite of a genuine social revolution: whilst it may present itself as a popular protest, in practice, it is a ‘populist festival’. According to reports from Israel, the leaders of the emerging protest are even reluctant to call for Netanyahu’s resignation. The same applies to security matters, the occupation the defence budget- the organizers wouldn’t touch these subjects in order not to split their rapidly growing support.

What we see in Israel is neither a socialist revolution; nor is it a struggle for justice. It is actually a ‘bourgeoisie wannabe revolution’, and the Israelis took to the street because each of them wants to be a landlord, to own a property. They do not care much about politics, ethics, or social awareness, and neither do they seem to care much about the war crimes they are collectively complicit in. Malnutrition in Gaza is really not their concern either. They seem to not care about anything much at all, except themselves becoming property owners.

But why do they want to own a property? Because they cannot really rent one. And why can’t they rent? It is obviously far too expensive. But why is it too expensive? Because Israel is the ultimate embodiment of a corrupted, hard speculative, capitalist society. And I guess that this is the real untold story here. If Zionism was an attempt to solve ‘the Jewish Question’ , as the author Shahid Alam so insightfully explores, it has clearly failed since it has only managed to relocate ’the Jewish Question’ to a new place, i.e. Palestine.

Zionism promised to bring about a new productive and ethical Jew as opposed to what it defined as the ‘Jewish Diaspora speculative capitalist’(1). It clearly failed, and the truth of the matter is, that in the Jewish State, Israeli Jews are now being subjected to the symptoms of their own very problematic culture.(2)

Israel, that was supposed to be the state of the Jewish people, has become a haven for the richest and most corrupted Jews from around the world: according to The Guardian, “out of the seven oligarchs who controlled 50% of Russia’s economy during the 1990s, six were Jewish.” During the last two decades, many Russian oligarchs have acquired Israeli citizenship. They also secured their dirty money by investing in the Blue & White financial haven.

Wiki leaks has revealed lately that “sources in the (Israeli) police estimate that Russian organised crime (Russian Mafia) has laundered as much as US $10 billion through Israeli holdings.” (3) Mega-swindlers such as Bernie Madoff have been channeling their money via Zionists and Israeli institutions for decades. Israel is also a leading trader in blood diamonds. Far from being surprising, Israel is also the fourth biggest weapon dealer on the planet. Clearly, blood diamonds and guns are proving to be a great match. And it doesn’t stop there — every so often, Israel is caught engaging in organ trafficking and organ harvesting.
Increasingly, Israel seems to be nothing more than a vast money-laundering haven for Jewish oligarchs, swindlers, weapons dealers, organ traffickers, organised crime, and blood-diamond traders. But on top of that, rich Jews buy their holiday homes in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem: there are reports that in Tel Aviv alone, thousands of holiday properties are empty, all year round, while native Israelis cannot find a roof.

The Israeli people are yet to understand their role within this horror show: the Israeli people are yet to grasp that they are nothing but the foot soldiers in this increasingly horrendous scenario. They do not even gather that their state maintains one of the world’s strongest armies, to defend the assets of just a few of the wealthiest and most immoral Jews around.

I actually wonder whether Israelis can grasp it all. Yet the truth of the matter is, that the leaders of the present Israeli ‘real estate revolution’ want to maintain the struggle as a material seeking adventure, and they are clearly avoiding politics: the driving sentiment and motivation here is, obviously, ‘give us the keys to our new homes and we clear the square.’

I guess that it is not surprising that within such an inherently greedy and racially oriented society, the dissent that manifests will inevitably, also be reduced to sheer banal materialism.

It seems the Israelis cannot rescue themselves from their own doomed fate, , because they are blindly hijacked by their own destructive culture. As myself and a few others have been predicting for a decade or more, Israeli society is about to implode. It is really just a question of time.

1. Marxist Zionist Ber Borochov (1881-1917) argued that the class structure of European Jewry resembled an inverted ‘class-pyramid’, a structure in which a relatively small number of Jews occupied roles within the ‘productive layers’ of society as workers, whilst a significant number were settled in capitalist and speculative trades such as banking.

2. In Haaretz today Beni Ziper wrote, “I saw on television people shouting against the rich, or tycoons who control the country. Seemingly everyone thinks it’s exciting and daring and nobody reflects on the chilling historical equivalence with the Depression in Germany at the time of Weimar Republic, when the ‘rich Jews who control us’ were targeted by everyone.” Ziper is clever enough to notice a close and disturbing repetition in Jewish history. However, Ziper is also very critical of his countrymen. “So I’m all for protests against the state, but in no way against people or groups of people, be they ‘rich’ or ‘ (Jewish) Orthodox’ or even ‘settlers’. Whoever gives privileges to the settlers in this country and it’s not that the settlers come and rob the cashier at gunpoint.” Whether we agree with Ziper or not, it is clear that he also admits that there is a similarity between the arguments voiced in Israel against the rich, and the German right wing’s anti Semitic attitude towards Jews in the 1920’s-30’s

3. For more information about global organised crime connections with Likud or other major Israeli political parties, follow this link http://cosmos.ucc.ie/cs1064/jabowen/IPSC/php/topic.php?tid=147

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Shaaban: If Davutoglu to Deliver Firm Message to Syria, the Reply Will Be Even Firmer

Aug 07, 2011

DAMASCUS, (SANA) - Presidential Political and Media Advisor Dr. Bouthina Shaaban on Sunday said "If the Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is to deliver a firm message to Syria, he will hear a firmer reply regarding the Turkish stance which didn’t condemn the brutal killing and crimes committed by the armed terrorist groups against the civilians, military and police members till now.

"If the Turkish government does not consider the issue of Syria as foreign matter due to the historic and cultural relations, Syria has always welcomed consultation among friends, but it categorically rejected all regional or international attempts of interference in its internal affairs," Dr. Shaaban added.

Earlier, the Turkish Anatolia News Agency quoted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying that he is sending his Foreign Minister to Syria on August 9th to hold necessary talks and "deliver our messages in a firm way".

He added that Turkey doesn’t consider Syria as a foreign issue but as an internal issue as the two countries share a 850-kilometer border, historical, cultural and familial ties.
R. Raslan/ Ghossoun/ H. Sabbagh

• Anatolia Conference Decide to Get Hama Involved in the Bloody Confrontation?

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How Israel Has Almost Bankrupted America.

War On Error:
 By Paul J. Balles

August 06, 2011 "Information Clearing House

Error is not a typo. Israel’s terror has been America’s error.

I've never been much of a fan of conspiracy theories, though most raise questions that should be answered.

In 2003, I questioned both the official story of 9/11 and several of the conspiracy theories advanced at the time. My concern then was who benefitted from 9/11? My conclusion? Israel.

In January 2010, I repeated the fact that without 9/11, the U.S. had no excuse for invading Afghanistan. That made G W Bush's "war on terror" with Afghanistan and Iraq (with Iran in his gun sights) even more irrelevant.

The battle against Al-Qaeda and bin Laden was the precursor to the invasion of Iraq; and the trumped up connection between Iraq and Al-Qaeda provided one excuse for invading Iraq.

In an article entitled 9/11 revisited, I summarized 21 questions raised by David Ray Griffin's book The New Pearl Harbor Revisited. In that work, Griffin pointed out unequivocally that virtually every dimension of the official account of 9/11 was false beyond a reasonable doubt.

Ever since G W Bush proclaimed America's War on Terror we've had reason to question the veracity of many of the wars that have engaged America.

The real evidence of who the terrorists are comes from several studies done on the roles played by Israel from its beginning through six decades to 9/11 and beyond.
A video clip from a British-made documentary from 2002 titled ‘The Age Of Terror’ examines the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on 22nd July 1946 by Zionists.

The south wing of the hotel, then occupied by British civil-military authorities, was bombed killing ninety-one people. Twenty-eight of the victims were British, forty-one Arabic, while seventeen were Jewish.

The Zionists who carried-out the attack, known as the Irgun, were led by a future prime minister of Israel, Menachem Begin. The King David Hotel bombing was an act of terrorism widely-considered to be the first real incidence of 20th century terrorism.

Since that time, Zionists with the complicit intelligence gathering and plots of Mossad have engaged in more terrorist acts against Israel's perceived enemies than those committed by the world's celebrated terrorists combined.

In January of this year, Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and reputed syndicated columnist Wayne Madsen made a revelation that completely discredited the official story of 9/11.

Madsen revealed that "British intelligence reported in February 2002 that the Israeli Mossad ran the Arab hijacker cells that were later blamed by the U.S. government's 9/11 Commission for carrying out the aerial attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. WMR has received details of the British intelligence report which was suppressed by the government of then-Prime Minister Tony Blair."

The entire article should be read by all interested in the unveiling of a true conspiracy beyond theory: http://www.opinion-maker.org/2011/01/british-intelligence-reports/.

Madsen concludes his exposure with a comment that connects the terrorism of the 9/11 prime minister-to-be to the entire history of Israel.

"Israeli Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu commented on the 9/11 attacks on U.S. television shortly after they occurred. Netanyahu said: 'It is very good!'

It now appears that Netanyahu, in his zeal, blew Mossad's cover as the masterminds of 9/11."

It's now well established that neo-cons in the Bush administration and Israel-firsters including William Kristol, Richard Perle, Ari Fleischer, Paul Wolfowitz, Elliott Abrams, Douglas Feith were responsible for getting America into war with Iraq.

Now, a decade after invading Afghanistan and continuing the costly game of protection for Israel in the Middle East, America is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Israel has almost bankrupted America. China owns what’s left.

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NATO Probes Death of 30 US Troops in Afghan Helicopter Crash

NATO in Afghanistan said Sunday it was probing the Taliban's claim that they shot down a helicopter, killing 30 American troops, including special forces.
Seven Afghan commandos and an interpreter were also among the dead when the Chinook helicopter plummeted after a firefight with the insurgents late Friday in Wardak province, southwest of the capital Kabul.

The crash site had been sealed off by Sunday, with reports that fighting was still going on in the area where a rocket propelled grenade is thought to have downed the aircraft.

The incident was the biggest single loss of life for foreign occupation forces since 2001.
A witness said the crash followed a raid on a Taliban commander's home. "Afghan and foreign troops are still in the area," provincial spokesman Shahidullah Shahid told AFP on Sunday. ““The phones are not working in the area," he said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack and local and Afghan army authorities said an insurgent rocket had brought the chopper down.

The NATO-led ISAF (International Security Assistance Force) mission in the troubled country, confirmed an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the deadly crash.
US President Barack Obama paid tribute to those who died and said the incident was a reminder of the "extraordinary sacrifices" made by the men and women of the military and their families.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta vowed the US would "stay the course" in Afghanistan despite the latest loss.

US television networks reported that 25 of the dead in Friday's attack were US Navy SEALs. Sources in the Obama administration told AFP that those killed came from the army, navy and air force, without saying if they were SEALs.

Contrary to several US media reports, the dead were not part of the special forces team that killed Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a raid in Pakistan in May, the sources said.

31 US Occupation Troops Killed in Afghan Helicopter Crash

Local Editor

Thirty-one members of the US occupation special forces were killed when a helicopter crash in eastern Afghanistan. "This helicopter crashed in Wardak province last night, as a result of which including the crew members, 31 personnel of American Special Forces lost their lives”, a statement from Afghan President Hamid Karzai's office said Saturday "The president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan expresses his sympathy and deep condolences to US President Barack Obama and the family of the victims”, the statement added. The statement also said that seven Afghan troops were also killed in the incident. The crash late Friday represents the biggest death toll in a single incident for international forces in Afghanistan since the US-led invasion in 2001. The helicopter from the NATO-led foreign force has crashed during an anti-Taliban operation in the eastern province of Wardak, southwest of Afghan capital Kabul, a provincial spokesman, Shahidullah Shahid, said. TALIBAN CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY In a written statement, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the group claimed responsibility for the crash. He said NATO had attacked a house in Sayd Abad where Taliban fighters were gathering on Friday. The Taliban then fired on NATO and downed the helicopter, killing the crew, Mujahid said. Earlier before the presidential statement, a spokesman for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it was still looking into what had happened. "An International Security Assistance Force helicopter crashed in eastern Afghanistan today and recovery operations are under way”, a spokesman for ISAF, the foreign military force in Afghanistan, said. "ISAF is still in the process of assessing the circumstances to determine the facts of the incident. Reporting indicates there was enemy activity in the area." An eyewitness told AFP news agency that the helicopter had crashed as it was trying to take off after landing on the roof of a Taliban commander's home during a firefight.

Source: Agencies 06-08-2011 - 13:02 | 194 View

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Fatah: Dahlan Involved in Poisoning Arafat, Planning a Coup

Fatah has accused ousted party strongman Muhammad Dahlan of "having a hand" in poisoning late President Yasser Arafat, Al-Jazeera's Arabic-language news site reported Saturday.

Arafat died in a Paris hospital in November 2004. The exact cause of his death remains a mystery, but popular belief among Palestinians holds that he was poisoned.

According to Al-Jazeera, Fatah's commission of inquiry also found that Dahlan was linked to assassination attempts on other Palestinian leaders and that he had planned a coup in the West Bank.

Senior Fatah leaders Azzam Al-Ahmad, At-Tayyib Abdul-Rahim, Othman Abu Gharbiyya and Nabil Shaath submitted the findings of the inquiry, according to the news site.

Palestinian ambassadors were urged to avoid dealing with Dahlan and Interpol was asked to help arrest the former strongman, the report said.

Palestinian Authority sources told the news site that the West Bank government had come under international and regional pressure not to pursue Dahlan.

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Pressure Builds on Netanyahu after Massive Protests

Pressure Builds on Netanyahu after Massive Protests

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was set to announce on Sunday a new bid to calm anger over the cost of living in the Zionist entity, a day after nationwide protests by more than 250,000 people. A senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Netanyahu would address the protests at his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday. "Netanyahu wants to form a special team, bringing together ministers and professors to hear the protesters demands as quickly as possible and present recommendations," the official told AFP. "These recommendations will include ways to combat the high cost of living and allow easier access to housing," the official added. The expected announcement comes a day after crowds that police said were more than 250,000-strong flooded cities across “Israel”, with protesters demanding the government ease the costs of everything from food to health care. The turnout is believed to be the biggest for protests over any social issue in Israel's history. In Tel Aviv alone, some 200,000 people were in the streets, many chanting "the people want social justice" and "the people against the government." Police estimated another 30,000 protested in occupied Jerusalem, with 20,000 taking part in demonstrations in towns ranging from Kiryat Shmona in the north to the southern cities of the Negev desert. Protesters have accused Netanyahu of failing to take their demands seriously. They also say the government has failed to understand the breadth of the reform they seek, which has grown to include lower taxes, an expansion of free education, lower medical costs and a break-up of monopolies. Israel's media has largely thrown its support behind the protesters, with commentators in Haaretz newspaper on Sunday describing the movement as a revolution. "With emotion but great order, the masses marched through the city shouting 'revolution'," wrote Yair Ettinger of the Jerusalem protest. "Is this rebellion here to stay? Will it die out? For the time being it's only picking up strength." Writing in the top-selling Yediot Aharanot, Sima Kadmon called the protests "the largest demonstration of no confidence in the history of Israel." Israel Hayom, considered close to Netanyahu, offered a lone voice of caution, warning any reforms should be made "with utmost responsibility." "The government can, with reason, be pleased with its brilliant results in the economic field," wrote Boaz Bismuth. "But at the protests yesterday, it seemed that the people prefer to relinquish the certificate of excellence that has been achieved."

Source: AFP 07-08-2011 - 11:46 | 147 View

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"It is not the best outcome we could hope for, but the Islamists will probably play a role..."

Via FLC

While secular and military figures have fallen into factional fighting, Mr. Busidra, 53, has brought together Libya’s disparate moderate Islamist leaders into the country’s only united political force. This has made him, in the view of many people here, the figure who will wield the most political power, and likely control the country’s leadership, in the event of the dictator’s demise. "We have to prepare our country politically now, to prevent any political vacuum from occurring when the criminal Gadhafi is gone,” Mr. Busidra said in the first interview he has given since early March. “And I can assure you, when we Islamists establish a party, which will be on a national basis, I think we will win comfortably.”
This assessment is shared, sometimes with alarm, by many of his opponents.
“The Islamist opposition are much better organized and financed than us because they are focused entirely on politics,” says Mohammed Bujamaya, founder of the Liberal Gathering, one of several secularist proto-parties struggling for recognition in Benghazi. “We are tied up with the crisis, while they have their figures outside of Benghazi and sometimes out of the country, scheming.”
The prospect of the multinational NATO air-warfare campaign, in which Canada is a participant, effectively helping usher in a democratic Islamist government is causing some unease among member nations. “It is not the best outcome we could hope for, but the Islamists will probably play a role,” says one European diplomat.
On the other hand, some Western figures say they prefer to keep Mr. Busidra empowered because he has worked to prevent Islamic extremists – such as al-Qaeda fighters and jihadist veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns – from becoming influential in post-Gadhafi politics.
“I make a point of meeting with these fighters,” Mr. Busidra says, “And what I say is: ‘Let us be clear from now on. If you are here to represent your ideologies, or to represent al-Qaeda, please leave our country.’ “ His group is presenting itself as a moderate Islamist option, opposed both to the sharia-law absolutism of the Salafists, al-Qaeda and other jihadi fighters, and to secularism.
“I can tell you one thing. I know the Libyan people, and they will not accept very strict Islam – that is definite,” he says...But his moderation only goes so far. For those Libyans hoping that their country will become a liberal-minded holiday destination like neighbouring Tunisia, or a place with European-style equality of gender and sexuality, these Islamists will go only so far."

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Wikileaks: 'US not doing enough for Syria regime change!'

Wikileaks 

"... A cable from December 13, 2006, opens with the conclusion that the Syrian government has ended 2006 “in a position much stronger domestically and internationally than it did [in] 2005.” It features a collection of possible actions that could be taken to undermine the Assad regime.
The vulnerabilities listed include: the Rafiq Hariri investigation and tribunal (Hariri was a Lebanese Prime Minister who was assassinated in a major car bombing); the alliance with Tehran; the regime’s “inner circle”; divisions in the military-security services; the corrupt Baathist elites; previous failures of reform; the economy; the Kurds; extremists and the “Khaddam factor” (Abdul Halim Khaddam is an exiled former Syrian Vice President, whose name appears in a number of the cables released thus far.)
Some of the proposed actions for exploiting these vulnerabilities are outlined in the cable:
"...ENCOURAGE RUMORS AND SIGNALS OF EXTERNAL PLOTTING: The regime is intensely sensitive to rumors about coup-plotting and restlessness in the security services and military. Regional allies like Egypt and Saudi Arabia should be encouraged to meet with figures like Khaddam and Rifat Asad as a way of sending such signals, with appropriate leaking of the meetings afterwards. This again touches on this insular regime,s paranoia and increases the possibility of a self-defeating over-reaction.
THE KHADDAM FACTOR: …We should continue to encourage the Saudis and others to allow Khaddam access to their media outlets, providing him with venues for airing the SARG,s dirty laundry. We should anticipate an overreaction by the regime that will add to its isolation and alienation from its Arab neighbors…
HIGHLIGHT KURDISH COMPLAINTS: Highlighting Kurdish complaints in public statements, including publicizing human rights abuses will exacerbate regime,s concerns about the Kurdish population. Focus on economic hardship in Kurdish areas and the SARG,s long-standing refusal to offer citizenship to some 200,000 stateless Kurds. This issue would need to be handled carefully, since giving the wrong kind of prominence to Kurdish issues in Syria could be a liability for our efforts at uniting the opposition, given Syrian (mostly Arab) civil society’s skepticism of Kurdish objectives.
PLAY ON SUNNI FEARS OF IRANIAN INFLUENCE: There are fears in Syria that the Iranians are active in both Shia proselytizing and conversion of, mostly poor, Sunnis. Though often exaggerated, such fears reflect an element of the Sunni community in Syria that is increasingly upset by and focused on the spread of Iranian influence in their country through activities ranging from mosque construction to business. Both the local Egyptian and Saudi missions here, (as well as prominent Syrian Sunni religious leaders), are giving increasing attention to the matter and we should coordinate more closely with their governments on ways to better publicize and focus regional attention on the issue. (more,here)..."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 3:47 PM
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Busy In Syria, Turkey "refuses" to take part in joint naval exercises with Israel, USA

Turkey refuses to take part in joint naval exercises with Israel, USA
[ 06/08/2011 - 10:09 AM ]

ANKARA, (PIC)-- Turkish officials said that their country’s fleet would not take part in the annual naval exercises “Reliant Mermaid” launched by USA and Israel in the Mediterranean Sea for the second straight year.

Turkish daily Zaman on Friday quoted foreign ministry officials as saying that no “joint” exercises could be launched with Israel in light of the tense relations between them.

The last Turkish participation in the decade old drill was in summer 2009.

Ankara refused to participate in last year’s maneuvers to protest the Israeli naval attack on the Turkish ship Mavi Maramara, which was among a fleet of humanitarian aid sailing to Gaza Strip, killing nine Turkish activists and wounding many others.

Davutoğlu to visit Syria as Turkey's 'patience running out' over crackdown

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Madame Teyss-aud!

Via FLC

'No arrest warrant for 'Gran' Treason' yet?'

"Siniora said during an Iftar on Friday that he does not want to interfere in Syrian affairs, ... Siniora also said that the new cabinet’s ministers are “almost like wax museum figures, clean and bright but without life... inactive and ineffective,” and is controlled by the party that brought it into power, in reference to Hezbollah. “Lebanon’s free [people] will [continue] to confront the coup… imposed on the Lebanese people.”

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Be Careful: US Navy Spying on Lebanese Internet!

Local Editor After military and security, telecommunication sector has also been a victim of US espionage activities in Lebanon. Under the title, "Call of the Ocean" U.S. Navy conducted tests in the Mediterranean Sea in order to improve the ability of warships to monitor threats, mainly the torpedo. According to "as-Safir" newspaper one of the examples of these tests is resembled when the cruiser "USS Leyte" passed the Mediterranean Sea late February through the Strait of Gibraltar, coming from the Atlantic Ocean. The US specifically uses this relatively small size and low weight cruiser in the Mediterranean since it is difficult for large pieces (weighing up to 90 thousand tons) coming from the Atlantic to cross the strait of which depth of water ranges between a thousand and three thousand feets, in addition to the "overcrowding" resulting from the presence of other vessels at this point in the world. The "USS Leyte" crew of experts in the sonar (marine radar) techniques experienced the "soft murder" technology, known as «Niksie» AN | SLQ-25A assigned to intercept torpedo missiles. The technique works to influence the course of the torpedo, which may be launched against any vessel through a device that sends electronic signals similar to those of the ship, but more strongly so that this leads to modify the torpedo's sensors noting that the device being tested works under a certain depth in the water, if needed, after being lowered through a hole in the bottom of the ship. During the tests, the Internet service in Lebanon experienced a jamming to discover later that its source is an American warship stationed off the coast eastern of the Mediterranean. It should be noted that the experts at the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications have experienced a similar something during July 2006 war, when they noticed strong jamming on the local airwaves of, mentioning that pieces of offensive "Enterprise" were stationed at that time off the Lebanese coast and they spread on a regular basis in the Mediterranean . If during the July war the cause of jamming was clear and "sense", what explains the jamming in the waves caused by American military units located at least once each year off the Lebanese coast? (A replacing process is carried every six months to switch ships in the Mediterranean and the Gulf). We can't be sure about the jamming cause since the public reports issued by the Navy do not specify the coordinates of the warships, but tend to talk about their tasks. For further illumination on the subject, we should provide a simplified technical explanation of jamming process that affects radio waves. The process of jamming is defined as radio waves that arise from outside the system and target waves of a transmitting (e.g. radar or broadcast station), to revoke its work. Jamming may be deliberate, as is the case in the military uses in the context of the so-called electronic war, and may be unintentional, as in the case of any overlap in waves so that two different devices use the same broadcasting wave. It should be noted that the most vulnerable devices to jamming during the U.S. Navy test are those operating within the scope of C-Band, i.e. those wireless Internet networks in Lebanon, as well as in the case of meteorological waves which commonly use "Wi-Fi" technique on 5.4 GB Hz wave . Regardless of the cause of jamming that Lebanon witnesses, it is certain that the U.S. Navy has a prior knowledge of waves used by the Lebanese state in its operating of local networks in various fields. Whatever the motives or causes behind jamming, a big question is raised on Washington's ships respect to Lebanese sovereignty. Source: "as-Safir" newspaper

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Breaking News: “Bin Laden” Heroes Probably Murderered to Keep Them Quiet

Some Possibly Killed in Abbottabad Helicopter Crash Months Before

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor

Today 31 NATO troops, 20 of them Navy Seals from the Osama bin Laden operation died in what is reported as a helicopter crash in Afghanistan. The chances of this story being true is almost nil. The chances of this being a staged coverup is over 80%. We believe these people were murdered to silence them. This is why.

We have solid information on two areas:

1. Osama bin Laden died in 2001 as an active CIA employee and his body was recovered in Afghanistan and taken to “the sand box.” We were told it was frozen. We have so much verification from this, CIA, US military and top officials. I have a direct confirmation from Bin Laden’s CIA handler who I grilled mercilessly on this.
2. The Abbottabad operation involved numerous American deaths, witnessed, bodies all over, a helicopter crash. These bodies were recovered by land vehicle from Islamabad and there was NO “successful” bin Laden operation of any kind. There was and has been a CIA safe house in Abbotabad where terror suspects were stored for years.

This gave the US several areas of severe vulnerability. Generally, Navy Seals are the best people in the world at keeping their mouths shut, these are real team players, as the term “Seal Team” belies.
We at VT were informed that the bin Laden operation was staged at this time, a theatrical farce, to cover the exit of Secretary Gates, the move by former CIA Director Leon Panetta into the DOD as Secretary of Defense and to stem any heroic claims by new CIA Director Petraeus of killing the long dead Osama bin Laden, the long frozen CIA operative.

Petraeus is a possible presidential contender and had to be denied this “gift from heaven,” a fast track to the oval office for sure.

Again, I remind you, I went over specific meetings with bin Laden with his handlers, getting every last detail. Watching what has gone on, the continuing need to vilify a long dead top CIA operative to provide residual cover for the Bush administration….

The reason? Bush and his cronies are all facing charges of war crimes, not just in minor jurisdictions by heading for the ICC, putting them on the dock with Gaddafi ( a far less harmful character).
As for the timing of this incident? This we will work on. What we can easily surmise is that some of the dead have been dead since their bodies were taken away from the helicopter crash site in Abbotabad.

Who would order such a thing? We are going to have to wait but we are going to find out. However, we expected this, the timing is exactly as predicted.

HOW VT TRIED TO SAVE THEM

When the phony Abbotbad operation came out, I immediately understood what happened. I also saw much potential good from it other than the tragedy of the dead Americans from the crash. I wrote of this and see their deaths as more heroic than many recognize.

They died to erase for all time remnants of the Bush era fairly tale of badguy and evildoer Osama bin Laden. Not long afterward, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, another able public servant announced the near defeat of Al Qaeda, another Bush fairly tale.

Al Qaeda has never existed, there are no magic worldwide terror conspiracies other than those run by governments. There are several of those and I have written extensively on these. Google will help you with this if you are curious.

When VT saw why the government staged this, we saw we could accomplish two things:

1. We could simply report the truth for those willing to believe it, something we believe is the right thing to do.
2. We could also support the United States in a very real way, knowing Pakistan would weather this crisis, timed, in some ways, as a face saving move in response to the embarrassing Raymond Davis affair. I believed if the truth came out, clear enough for insiders, intel and miliary for sure, to understand that we knew and other insiders knew, there would be no reason to “clean house” afterward, to stage a coverup and get rid of any involved.

I had felt that we had provided cover for the Seal Team, we hadn’t trashed them, we acknowledged the dead at Abbotabad where no one else bothered, this is our job as fellow members of America’s military forces (current and former).

More importantly, we got out word, I certainly did enough radio and TV on this, enough that, for anyone who care, the “truth was out there.”

This is all we could do but I hoped it would stem a need for covering tracks. After all, anyone leaking real information on the operation would only seem like they had gotten it from me and I put it out there in such a manner that I allowed room to be “debunked.”

I do this to protect myself but I really was thinking of them. These are great guys, Seals are among the best people on earth. The Seal and Special Forces communities are, of the military groups in the US, some of the finest people I know.

They also help cover my “behind,” which I appreciate.

This is just too obvious, too brazen. I can’t imagine it started at the White House or even cabinet level but maybe I am deluding myself. Bin Laden was all about the election.

After the bond collapse and credit disaster yesterday, anything threatening President Obama’s reelection is seen, by some, as a threat to America’s financial survival. This debt crisis is a bigger threat to the US than a Japanese invasion in 1942 would have been.

You may not see it that way and you certainly cant get out your hunting rifle to fix it. (Don’t be a sap, kill a Jap!)

Someone had gotten to someone. Best guess and this is a guess, an expose by the mainstream media, perhaps Murdoch, another guess, conjecture I admit, regarding the farce at Abbottabad, information possibly gotten through spying, bribery and blackmail, threatened to take down Obama.

With Murdoch’s good friend and “monkeyboy,” Netanyahu ‘on the ropes,” with crowds marching in Israel’s streets demanding his ouster, we have more timing to factor in.

The bin Laden killing, the third rate drama of capturing an unarmed frozen dead guy and throwing him into the ocean had probably become an albatross around certain high ranking necks.

Norway was no accident, it was a warning too. It has been containerized, just as the Murdoch espionage issue is now “poor Rupert and the pie thrower.”

These Americans are casualties in a game, one like 9/11, sacrificial pawns, like Britain’s 7/7, all lies, all theatre, all evil.

This is not for public consumption. There are those who know exactly who I am talking to.
There are many of us here who still keep our mouths shut about so many things. There are too many who don’t even care, most of us at VT do. Yes, I am aware I can be jailed, I am aware my passport can be pulled, I already see the damned surveillance.

Amateurs.

We aren’t anti-American. I am simply sick of seeing solutions that go one direction, stealing everything that isn’t nailed down. I am also sick of the fact that Washington can’t visit the “head’ without Israel’s permission.

This today, this is too much, it is unforgivable. We are not going to allow this to stand. We have a long standing history of “cleaning house” after operations of this kind. Usually its dead senators in plane crashes, heart attacks, car wrecks, like the Minot Barksdale or 9/11 incidents. I could name a dozen more. Does the name Wheeler meaning anything to you?

But this many?
g
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Anatolia Conference Decide to Get Hama Involved in the Bloody Confrontation?

Nidal Hamadeh كيف قرر مؤتمر أنطاليا زج حماه في مواجهة دامية مع الجيش السوري؟ It is not a secret for any observer for the riots in some Syrian areas which occurred during the past week namely in the City of Hama that the Arabian Syrian Army entering this City has been a political strategic measure before it is considered a military security stepping up. Furthermore, one can never differentiate between the messages Syria has wanted to pass to more than one regional and international party through such a strategic move by the Arab Syrian Army in Hama and those regional and international messages Syria passed about two months ago when it sent divisions of the Syrian Army to the borders with Turkey. Here the geographic dimension is a mere factor for coverage confirming the linkage between the two files. In fact, the nature of the plot being executed in order to topple down the Syrian regime makes the Hama file complementary for Al-Shughur Bridge file and the Syrian refugee camps in Turkey. The first goal of such linkage is to arrive at executing a military Turkish intervention plan in Syria, which was exclusively released by Al-Manar Website in detail last June. Now that Syria is practically in confrontation with the second part of the plot, and that it is absolutely aware of the international diplomatic escalation through the Security Council, we find it necessary to uncover the linkage between the two files in the external plot for the purpose of toppling down the regime in Syria. Syrian opposition conference in Antalia, Turkey Here we would enumerate what the Syrian protestors in Europe narrated after their return from Anatolia Conference for the Syrian Protestors regarding the responsibility of this conference for the fleeing of Syrian in thousands for safety in Turkey and the riots in Hama which started directly after the conference in Anatolia, Turkey. The protestors described the consequences as a catastrophe that struck the opposition. The Syrian opposition held the conference in Anatolia, Turkey, under the auspices of Turkey last May 31st amid a wave of Turkish declared threats on the basis of the current events taking place in Syria. The conference was the result of absolute coordination between Turkey and Qatar, the latter was described by some Syrian opposition figures as the real financer for all the Syrian opposition conferences despite the fact that they were done through Syrian businessmen residing in the U.S.A. and Europe. The end of the aforementioned conference went through disputes among the Muslim Brothers and the Syrian secular and the leftist parties on the basis of the Turkish inclination observed upon their interference to have the Muslim Brothers outweigh the participants. The dispute was also over how to come out with a unified opposing assortment that would remain under the influence of the Muslim Brothers in Syria and still be careful to decorate the committee-to-be with some secular figures strictly for interest purposes. However, those disputes did not prevent the participants from endorsing the plan for their movement in Syria, according to main figures in the Syrian opposition who attended the conference but left not only due to the disputes with the Muslim Brothers but also due to their protest against the Turkish and the Qatari roles in dominating the decisions of the Syrian opposition through the Turkish affective and the Qatari promotional roles. According to opposing Syrian sources, the plan clandestinely endorsed is divided into two parts: a. Instigating the Syrian villagers adjacent to the Turkish borders to leave for refugee Turkish camps on the Turkish side ready to accommodate them. b. Getting Hama involved in the protests against the Syrian regime after its very long delayed lagging. While the part related to the City of Hama, the Syrian opposition sources warns that Hama in its symbolic value due to the troubles in 1981 has made the stakeholders overseeing the project "The Soft Hand to Topple down the Syrian Regime" insist on getting the city in a direct struggle with the regime. It was both Turkey and Qatar along with the Muslim Brothers in Syria who used to say that Hama would create a local and an international problem for the regime in case it joined the turmoil. Also, for this reason, it has to get involved in any possible means so that the rate of international pressures on the Syrian president, Bashar Al-Assad, would be accelerated. The sources proceed to say that the Muslim Brothers Movement had started to get ready namely in two cities Homs and Hama two years ago. This was done through dormant cells depending on some imams of mosques in addition to laying the ground for an armed confrontation with the regime. Such preparations were also done by smuggling weapons from Lebanon to those two cities particularly because of their adjacency to the Syrian – Lebanese borders. In addition, the familial and commercial relations that connect the people on both sides of the borders have facilitated, in some respect, the continuous smuggling of weaponry till today.

Source: Al-Manar Website 06-08-2011 - 14:07 | 288 View

• The SOLIDERE marina & arms transfer to Syrian 'elements'!
• نائب لبناني وراء تهريب سلاح ومسلحين إلى سورية

Jewish Voice for Peace? Really??

By Nahida the Exiled Palestinian




It appears that, yet again, Anti-zionist Jewish organizations are trying to silence Palestine's supporters, to frame the debate, to secure the future of their brethren in occupied Palestine and to steer the course of Liberation of our Homeland

I would invite people to hear a Palestinian voice, here:

A strategy of liberation requires emancipation

* No decent human-being would demand to live on STOLEN land and still claims to have a fiber of morality.

* No decent human-being could claim that the perpetrator should have the same rights as the victim while claiming to be a humanist.

* Palestinians are under no obligation to hold back their march for freedom, to curtail their aims or to smother their rights for the sake of accommodating and not offending their Jewish supporters.

* Palestinians are always grateful and appreciative of the hard work and dedication of all their supporters whomever they are, however, Palestinians have NO obligation to adopt the aims and objectives of the anti-zionist Jewish supporters instead of their own.

* Dismissing the Palestinian voice as radical, reactionary, intolerant, or unreasonable, and requiring instead the Jewish-anti-zionist stamp of approval to have legitimacy to speak for Palestine, is preposterous and contradicts basic concepts of human rights and does not do justice to Palestinians.

* Palestinians have the ultimate right to choose their vision for their future, of a FREE and sovereign Palestine including the type of government, the writing of constitution, the construction and implementation of their legal and juristic system, which stems from and corresponds to their ethics and reflects and protects their culture.

* Palestinians have the ultimate right to make the final decision on who is allowed to stay in liberated Palestine and who is not, using the legal procedure of their own choice.

* The future of the Palestinian struggle and the aim of liberation of Palestine should not be designed to shield the occupier from paying the full price of his crimes; including the punishment of all those who participated in transgression, and the deportation of the illegitimate Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants who colonized Palestine forcefully and were engaged in acts of aggression against Palestinians including serving in the IOF.

* All refugee and their descendents have the unconditional right to come back home, they as the rightful indigenous owners are also entitled to the reinstatement of ALL confiscated (stolen) land and property, compensation for all their losses over the many years of exile and they are also entitled to Palestinian citizenship wherever they are.

* The aims and aspirations of most Palestinians are not confined to the change of zionist regime or the vacuous declaration of abandonment of zionism by the Jewish-zionist occupiers, but rather to the FULL Liberation of Palestine and the restoration of all their rights.

* It is the privilege of Palestinians to decide who should stay in their homeland and who not.

* After a century of terror, theft and crimes; had the Zionist shown any signs of remorse, respect or willingness to be decent guests, had they embraced with open arms the hospitable people of Palestine rather than destroying them with fire-arms; they might have had a chance to be accepted and forgiven. Not any more, as far as I am concerned. They have lost that opportunity.


As a Palestinian, I see the role of any "Jewish voice for peace" who sincerely desire to contribute to the Liberation of Palestine and justice for Palestinians, and who desire to be identified through their contributions "as Jews", then their role ought to be focused on cleaning their own house before sorting other people's houses; i.e. that is to exclude any major role in influencing, leading or directing the Solidarity and/or Liberation Movement of Palestine.

Through taking a leading role in campaigning to blacklist organizations and publications, label intellectuals and limit the spectrum of debate by censoring topics which they deem "controversial"; by framing the debate they act against intellectual integrity, box Palestinians and their supporters mentally and knowingly or not act as gatekeepers. They force people to self-censorship to avoid been accused of antisemitism; hence preventing them from acquiring, sharing or discussing information freely that would allow them to make their own informed decisions.


Palestinians' grievances against the zionist theft of their land do by no means justify antisemitism accusations, Palestinians and their supporters are no lesser human beings, they are well capable to sieve through information and make their own evaluation, henceforth it is completely unacceptable that some of our anti-zionist Jewish supporters try to dictate to Palestinians:

who they should accept as a supporter and who should they boycott;

what speaker to invite and whose lecture to avoid;

who they should consider progressive and who can be labeled reactionary;

what religion and religious group are above all criticism and what faith is deemed to be "backward looking and inherently unable to deliver progress";

what books should be read, and which articles should be thrown away;

what narrative of events should be adopted as "reasonable" and which should be considered a "conspiracy theory";

what chapter of history should be seen as a "dogmatic unquestionable religion"; and which one should be seen as "hoax" or as a "useless hateful rumors";

what course of action should be taken and which one should be dismissed a "distraction";

Furthermore, when censorship is practiced, when some books become forbidden and certain speakers are silenced, it appears to any self-respecting free-thinker that their brain, their ability to analyze and evaluate are being demeaned and patronized.

Rather than wasting their energy campaigning to ostracize or silence some of the most outspoken allies and honest supporters of Palestine, they should rather direct their efforts towards their OWN communities where the rot is anchored and festering: where supremacist ideologies reign supreme, chauvinistic anti-humanist beliefs flourish, delusional concepts entrenched and fostered, and criminal Mossadic activities thrive, and where mossers are ostracized and sayanim are promoted.
This ought to be our Jewish allies' battlefield.


It is only in this specifically Jewish frame of activity, that separate organizations identified as exclusively Jewish can affect significant change and eventually their claim to speak in the name of their Jewishness be vindicated.

The Jewish community: Friends of IDF in a fund-raising dinner

On the contrary, when specifically Jewish organizations or activists ubiquitously claim to be the true representative of Jewish people, or the voice of Judaism, whereas they are but a tiny, minute, insignificant and ineffective minority, and what is more an ostracized and despised minority amidst their larger Jewish communities, then these Jewish organizations by making their false claim of representing Jews or Judaism as they bravely expose Israeli crimes, are projecting nothing less than a smoke screen deflecting from the sinister racist ideology which has produced Zionism in the first place.

Is this the Jewish community? or is it this?

Since it is quite obvious that the Jewish members of organizations who claim to be Anti-Zionist, rarely are -if ever, active members of their local Jewish communities and when they try to reach out, they are generally rejected;

since they pretend that exposing the ideologies and activities of their community is a "distraction";

since they accuse of being "anti-semite" whomever questions the thriving racism and the powerful lobby within the Jewish communities and

since they fail to infiltrate the nefarious Judeo-Zionist network in order to affect real change from within:

therefore the claim that they speak for the Jewish people or Judaism is invalid, and the only reasonable consequence is to dissolve their separate "Jewish only" Anti-Zionist or Pro-Palestinian organizations, in order to become an integral part of the Solidarity Movement.

.

Syria to Hold Free, Transparent Elections by End of 2011

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem declared on Saturday that elections to a new parliament will be held by year's end. "Syria will hold free and transparent elections that will give birth to a parliament representing the aspirations of the Syrian people," Moallem said in a meeting with foreign ambassadors posted to Damascus. "The general elections will be held before the end of the year," Mallem was quoted by the official SANA news agency as saying. The foreign minister stressed "the commitment of the Syrian leadership to the continued reform process and implementation of measures announced by President (Bashar al-) Assad." According to SANA, Moallem underlined Syria's keenness on security, stability and stopping vandalism acts, and leading the country along the path of democracy and progress. Answering the questions of some ambassadors, Moallem said there will be free and fair elections that lead to a people's assembly representing the Syrian people through political pluralism guaranteed by the political parties' law and the numerous assurances in the elections' law. Moallem reiterated that national dialogue is the way to solve the current crisis. “In the absence of such dialogue due to the opposition's negative stances, we have no other choice but to go down the path of reforms without leaving it hostage to any hindering factor," he said.

Source: Agencies 06-08-2011 - 17:34 | 62 View

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian