Uprooted Palestinians

Beyond Belief

2012-02-01T21:19:00.000+04:00

Recently, we have witnessed a vicious campaign orchestrated by certain Jewish-anti-Zionist elements inside the solidarity movement in UK, resulting in the alienation and excommunication of Palestinians and other dedicated activists up and down the country.

Such elements left no stone unturned to ensure the exclusion of activists, the removal of articles and the elimination of links to Palestinian websites from the Solidarity websites. THEY demanded the removal of materials which THEY consider “racist” and “anti-Semitic”, according to THEIR OWN definition, and on the sole evidence of THEIR SAY-SO.

One example of entities involved in that campaign, can be found right in my local Friends of Palestine group (LFOP) of which I used to belong before it was seized by crypto-zionists *****. In this local case the entity is called Merseyside Jews for Peace and Justice, MJPJ, and is affiliated with JFJFP.

The plot became public matters when these MJPJ, endorsed a vicious letter of libellous accusation of racism, and association with Holocaust deniers. Subsequently they also disseminated false information, altogether to further their dubious political objectives, i.e. smearing, crippling and interfighting.

They attempt to justify their actions by expressing alleged “concern(ed) that credence should not be given to contributors who are holocaust deniers or racist”, which defies logic and evidence to the contrary.

And so this same small MJPJ group who endorsed the removal of my article and of the link to Palestinian websites, the removal of articles which examine Jewish-Zionist global networking and the role of world Jewish communities in supporting the Zionist entity, simultaneously demands that links to Jewish-Israeli campaigning groups should be added on LFoP Website; “... links to Jewish campaigning groups like ICAHD, New Profile, Combatants for Peace and Jewish for Peace.”

But it gets worse, and it even defies belief:

On the same LFoP website from which they demand Palestinian articles to be removed, this same Merseyside Jews for Peace and Justice (MJPJ) has published a hagiography of an "Israeli peace activist", who notoriously is a convicted paedophile and a child-rapist.

The convicted Paedophile Ezra Itzhak Nawi (Hebrew: עזרא יצחק נאווי‎; born 1952) was forty years old at the time of committing his criminal act, and his victim was a fifteen years old child. Source

“He has had other convictions, including illegal use of a weapon and possession of drugs - he freely admits to smoking hash - for private use". Source

"According to Ben-Gurion university professor Neve Gordon, in the video Nawi is seen disarming a Palestinian woman of a rock she had picked up some minutes before the alleged assault." Source

"Nawi is on record as saying that, "I’m here to change reality . . The only Israelis these people know are settlers and soldiers. Through me they know a different Israeli" Source

Worse still, the paedophile rapist glorified by MJPJ, who "disarmed a Palestinian woman" of her stone of resistance, and who engages with Palestinians "to change reality" and beautify the face of "Israelis" is a Jewish-Israeli, former IDF who served in the a combat engineering unit, while his victim was a Palestinian child.

The same paedophile Ezra is praised as an "Israeli" Ghandi by another self-proclaimed "supporter of Palestine" in the UK, who also took a leading role in the recent fiasco at AGM of PSC, to ensure that PSC stays focused on its "aims" of "fighting anti-Semitism" and "educating" people about the "unquestionable ideological dogma of the primacy and exceptionality of Jewish suffering".

In civilized countries, children welfare comes before any other. Child predators and convicted paedophiles are prohibited from having free access to children, children are protected by law. The opposite is true if you happen to be a Palestinian child living under "Israeli" occupation, and most certainly the opposite is true in the case of the convicted paedophile Ezra Nawi:

“For the last decade he has set up summer day camps for their children, brought in projectors to show them films, and taken them on trips to Jericho where, for the first time in their life, they can have an opportunity to swim." Source

“I’m not just another activist" . Ezra brags. "Over the years I’ve come into contact with dozens of supporters from all over the world..... The fact that in Ireland and Europe they care about me – this is our strongest weapon.” he proclaims.
While Palestine, Palestinians their heartrending struggle and their incessant sacrifices fades into the background as the "light" of this "hero" illuminates the scene and his plight captures the hearts of the world of activism.

Never mind the ten thousand unknown, unnamed Palestinians languishing in "Israeli" prisons many of them for decades.

Never mind the hundred of thousands of Palestinians who have been in "Israeli" prisons at some point in their lives.

Never mind the hundreds of Palestinian children who are still being tortured, raped and abused by "Israeli" terror squads.

The value of life of Palestinian people cannot be compared to that of Ezra Nawi, the "extraordinary human being" who is certainly "not just another activist", and who "deserves" hundred of thousands of letter of support from across the globe.

Let me get this right: LFOP's Jewish-anti-Zionist members engage in defamation against a Palestinian co-member, under the typical Zionist false and ludicrous pretext “anti-semite racist” allegation. They then demand the removal of articles and links to Palestinian websites. Then the same individuals engage in implicit promotion of an Jewish-Israeli who has been convicted of statutory rape of a Palestinian boy, by portraying him as a Jewish-Israeli humanist hero-victim! All this, we are supposed to believe "for the sake of Palestine".

I for one, doubt it is the agreed position of the majority of LFOP's members, that MJPJ is given a virtual platform to promote on one hand the welfare of paedophile-rapists predators whose victims are vulnerable children living under duress of occupation, and on the other hand to use the LFOP website to dupe its members toward concentrating their efforts to yet another “Jewish-Israeli-hero-victim” and thereby diverting their energy, time and attention away from the Palestinians.

Activism that involves the promotion of the welfare of such an individual is at best detrimental to Palestinians and their children, as the promoters ignore as irrelevant the behaviour of paedophile-rapists "Israeli" predators whose victims are vulnerable Palestinian children living under duress of occupation, and at worst criminal as their praise and promotion indicates an implicit apologetic endorsement of such behaviour.

This is appalling.

How could MJPJ and LFoP fail to perceive the distasteful obscenity of such positioning.

Indeed recently some of us met a refugee from Gaza. A brilliant young man who has suffered atrocious torture and statutory rape by Israeli soldiers. He almost died under torture. Almost two decades after the facts, his body is still covered with shocking scars, and his soul is affected by far worse scars. Due to his tormentors, he had to escape from Gaza for 21 years. He was not there when his father died. He was not there when all his siblings were killed during the winter 2008-09 Israeli invasion.

While improbable, it can not be excluded that this Jewish-Israeli rapist for which MJPJ wants you to concentrate your activism on, could well be the rapist and tormentor of this young Gazan refugee; and as a matter of fact, there is at least one verified Palestinian victim of this Jewish-Israeli predator "peace-activist".

And yet, MJPJ has the gall to ask from supporters on LFOP's website, to be active for the sake of this Jewish-Israeli rapist paedophile, and to campaign for him, and even present him in glorifying terms, almost religiously gloating in admiration for him!!!

“His name is Ezra”

“Without Ezra.....” international activists would not be able to stay in south Hebron villages.
“Without Ezra.....” Palestinian school children would still go the long way, under attack.
“Without Ezra.....” Palestinian farmers would not be able to go to their land.
“Without Ezra.....” Palestinians would still be attacked by settlers.
“Without Ezra.....” Palestinians would have no one to call when they worry, under attack.

“His name is Ezra”

…. Wow, all this by himself, single handedly? Oh My Oh My... What a Jewish-Israeli hero we have here....! What would poor internationals, poor Palestinians and their children do without him?

Does it not appear obvious, how obscenely manipulative this is?

This appalling obscenity did not happen in a vacuum, by sheer coincidence.

Is it really difficult to comprehend that beyond all this attention, exaggeration and hyper-celebration of a such a persona there must be an agenda that is obviously divergent from Palestinians' agenda?

Thus, is it hard to see that those who engage in diverting the attention from Palestinians to "Israelis", from Palestinian suffering to "Israeli" suffering, from defending Palestinians to defending "Israelis" and from the aspiration of Palestinians to the aspirations of "Israelis" are indeed sabotaging the consensus that unite supporters of Palestine? Is it not obvious that such diversion stands in stark contradiction with the general aims of any group that supports the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinians?

How in the world would this reflect well on a group which calls itself “Friends of Palestine”?

So far, the picture does look pretty grim: they have alienated many activists, including the only Palestinian on board. No method was spared: lies, false accusations, defamation, personal attacks, meddling in private affairs and even psychological and emotional manipulations. Thus the humanist aims being polluted, discourse being stifled, information filtered, and without even realizing the Friend of Palestine group has been steered away from supporting the Liberation of Palestine, to supporting "peaceful coexistence" with "Israeli" war criminals and "former-terrorists" to be.

One would've hoped that a group calling itself “Friends of Palestine”, would have more capacity of independent thinking, and more astute ability to refuse to be hoodwinked or manipulated.

How would this reflect on an organization that was established to support Palestine and the Palestinian struggle for Liberation? Considering the category of crimes Palestinians are exposed to, namely Genocide, considering the intensifying nature of such crimes, daily theft of land and property and the abhorrent hasbara that accompany such wickedness; these type of betrayals and crippling behaviour are a disgrace.

But alas, the group has succumbed to the manipulations of few individuals who while hiding behind some faked efficiency which can be resumed in one sentence: “There's nothing to think about or scrutinize, let's go out distribute leaflets or let's do a fundraiser”, thus preventing other members from perusing true understanding of the ENORMITY of the CATASTROPHE of Palestine:
Never mind using intelligently the individual talents and competences of LFOP's members;
Never mind the ever-diminishing size of the group;
Never mind the abuse of the website and its potential by few members;

And above all: Never mind that the achievement of our goals of defeating the Jewish-Zionist occupiers of Palestine is simply not possible without comprehensive understanding of their ideology, their motivations, their method of operation and the VITAL ROLE of the global network of their supporters.

Petty Palestine . . . Petty the World . . . to have such Control-Freaks and Political Commissars as "Peace-Activists" !

***** crypto-zionists: They believe that "Jewish-Israelis" who occupied Palestine by wars of aggression have the right to keep what they acquired by conquest, have the right to colonize and reside in Palestine permanently (according to them giving land and property back to Palestinians will create another injustice!).

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From LFOP's website:

"Merseyside Jews for Peace and Justice is an independent Merseyside organisation that campaigns for peace and justice in the Middle East. We work closely with Liverpool Friends of Palestine, e.g. organising public meetings, doing educational work and participating in joint activities.
We also are in close contact with other Jewish organisations with similar aims, across the world.

Some months ago, Jewish Voice for Peace and Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky and Neve Gordon reported the arrest of one of Israel’s most courageous human rights activists.
His name is Ezra Nawi.

Since then, over 11,000 people have written 110,000 letters to the Israeli attorney general and various embassies, and 20,000 have watched the remarkable video of his false arrest for trying to stop the demolition of a Bedouin Palestinian home.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/t/9462/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27357

The outpouring has been amazing, and has strengthened all of us working to make a moral and just world. But the message has not gotten through, not yet.
In the last month alone, Ezra has been arrested four times, twice in Susya and twice in Hebron, only to be released a few hours later with no charges. The last time he was arrested was right after this campaign began.

His name is Ezra Nawi

We need more letters, more media stories and more activism.
This time, we will not only direct your letters to the embassies but also to the Minister of Public Security demanding that the police stop harassing Ezra.

Ezra is just weeks or even days away from the sentencing. He may be sent to jail.
I find myself starting to imagine the unimaginable, life without Ezra.

Without Ezra, it would be extremely difficult for international activists to stay permanently in the south Hebron villages so they can help and protect families.

Without Ezra, the school children of Tuba might still be taking the long way to school to avoid walking near the violent settlers.

Without Ezra, the farmers of Gawawis, a small village that was occupied by settlers, would not have been able to return to their lands.

Without Ezra, the people of Tuwane might still be enduring attacks by settlers from the Ma’on outpost every Friday night, and have no access to most of their lands.

Without Ezra, many of the families in the South Hebron area would have no one to call when they are under attack, trapped at checkpoints, or worried about their homes.

Write a letter now so none of us has to imagine life without Ezra Nawi, not even for a day.

His name is Ezra Nawi.

Syrian Free Army warns Hassan Nasrallah: 'We will settle scores with you!'

2012-02-01T14:07:00.001+04:00

Via FLC

"...The secretary general of the Free Syria Army's military council warned that Syrian rebels will settle the score with Nasrallah and his group at court once the Syrian leader is deposed..."

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Haneyya discusses Palestinian developments with Amir of Qatar

2012-02-01T08:30:00.000+04:00

Palestinian Flag and New Palestinian Map as approved by "Arab Spring"

And New Page
Mishaal meeting with Jordanian monarch turned new page

Haneyya discusses Palestinian developments with Amir of Qatar

[ 31/01/2012 - 06:19 PM ]
DOHA, (PIC)-- The Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, discussed Palestinian developments with Gaza premier Ismail Haneyya and the accompanying delegation on Tuesday.
Haneyya and the accompanying delegation arrived in Doha on Monday night on a few days visit at the onset of a tour, the second in a month, that would also take them to Iran and a number of Arab capitals.

The Palestinian delegation was received at Doha airport by Qatari state minister Sheikh Hamad Bin Nasser.

Taher Al-Nunu, the government of the Gaza government who is accompanying Haneyya, said that the premier would discuss with the Amir bilateral relations, dangers threatening Jerusalem, and other issues of mutual concern.

Haneyya’s first tour took him to Egypt, the Sudan, Turkey, and Tunisia over a period of two weeks.

Haneyya told a meeting for businessmen in Gaza on Sunday that Qatar was willing to contribute in the reconstruction of Gaza and that he would take with him a group of projects to be discussed in this framework.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Some Nazi leaders betrayed by Zionists

2012-02-01T08:13:00.000+04:00

Posted on February 1, 2012 |

“Had I been a Jew, I would have been a fanatical Zionist. I could not imagine being anything else. In fact, I would have been the most ardent Zionist imaginable,” Adolf Eichmann, 1955, published in Life magazine in 1960. The Zionist-regime executed Eichmann in 1961 for ‘war crimes’.
Zionist Professor Peter Longerich (University of London), in his latest book, “Heinrich Himmler”, has claimed that Heinrich Himmler and his assisstant Reinhard Heydrich played a major role in extermination of Jews in Europe. Zionist leaders and historian are affraid that if public find out Zionist collaboration with Nazis – it would the end of Holocaust, and hundreds of billions of dollars industry. Its importance was shown by an Israeli poll results released last week ahead of International Holocaust Day. According to poll over 90% Israelis believe that Israel can survive without Jewishness but not without Holocaust which has become the new Jewish religion.
Towards the end of World War II Adolf Eichmann (on behalf of Heinrich Himmler) offered Rezso Kasztner, a Zionist Hungarian leader, the freedom of up to one million Jews in return for 10,000 trucks. Surprisingly enough, this offer was ignored by the Zionist organizations that had realized by then that the annihilation of European Jewry would help generate enough support among the nations for the future establishment of the Zionist entity. Apparently, the Nazi offer was reduced to a single train and just 600 devoted Zionist Hungarian Jews. Clearly, the Zionists were interested in saving neither assimilated nor Orthodox Jews.
The SS (Schutz-Staffel, or Protective Echelon) was organized by Heinrich Himmler on Hitler’s orders, and it functioned as a Nazi brain trust. According to Zionist Jewish historian, Lenni Brenner, by 1934, several Zionist German had reached top positions in the SS, like von Mildenstein and chief of the SS Security Service Reinhard Heydrich. Both of them penned articles in praise of Zionism in Nazi propaganda organs – Der Angriff:”A Nazi went to Palestine” and extolling racist Zionism for Das Schwarze Korps. Hitler’s propaganda minister, Dr.Goebbels had a long pro-radical Zionist article published in a Nazi publication named Der Angriff and had a medal struck, bearing on one side the swastika, on the other the Star of Zion (aka David).
Close ties existed between the SS and some of the armed European Jewish organizations, like Haganah, the military arm of the Jewish Agency in Palestine, which was under the control of the WZO. Israeli leaders such as Moshe Dayan and Yitzhak Rabin had served in the Haganah.
Heinrich Himmler committed suicide on May 23, 1945 in British intelligence custody. He was buried inside an unmarked grave on Luneburg Heath – its precise location kept secret for fear of it becoming a place of pilgrimage for German nationalists. In March 2011, Corporal Guy Adderley’s family tried to auction Himmler’s photo on his deathbed in Bristol. However, just before the sale, the photo was withdrawn as result of threats from Zionist groups.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Historic Revision is a gift to humanity

2012-02-01T08:02:00.000+04:00

by Mister Cellophane

The twentieth century could be marked as the holocaust century; it was a time like no other for it’s scale of mass-murders and genocides. The holocausts of the twentieth century — each of them — should be studied, revised with an eye toward historic accuracy; and those revisions should be described in publications as often as opportunity permits. The more people know about the genesis — the driving forces behind these atrocities, the better they will be able to recognize the behaviors and events that lead to such holocausts.

Yagoda

The holocaust that can teach us the most is the Ukrainian Holocaust, also known as the Holodomor. But there has been something of a blackout on this worst holocaust of the first half of the twentieth century. I think the reason this holocaust has not received the study and exposure in publications that it deserves, is that many of the key players in this mass-murder of 8-11 million people were Jewish men and women. The influence that Jews have in controlling what is studied at the college level, published in the mainstream, and what movies get made and distributed, has kept this sad chapter hidden from most of the world. Because Jews were among the perpetrators of this, the worst holocaust in Europe, it has been stuffed down the memory hole. Luckily, several books have slipped past the gatekeepers, and they tell a tale that is among the most tragic I have ever studied.

Of course, the leader of the Soviet Union at that time was Stalin. When a person reads anything about the Ukrainian holocaust, his name is usually the only one you will see connected to that crime; and the genocide is generally minimized, or made to look like something that it wasn’t. But just as Hitler couldn’t have carried out the Nazi holocaust alone, Stalin didn’t carry out the Ukrainian holocaust by himself. Hitler had Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, Rudolf Hess and Hermann Goring, while Stalin had Lazar Moiseyevich Kaganovich, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Skryabin (Molotov) and Enokh Gershevich Ieguda (Genrikh Grigoryevich Yagoda), to name just a few. While it’s quite common to point-out the German ethnicity of Hitler’s helpers, it is also quite common (and expected) for members of the Jewish community — or any non-Jewish writer of that history — to attempt to hide the Jewish ethnicity of Stalin’s comrades in mass-genocide.

There are many good reasons why the Ukrainian genocide needs further study, and recognition world-wide. At this point in time, many Jews and Gentiles alike believe that the word holocaust is a Jewish trademark; a word that belongs to the Holocaust Industry and Jewish shoah merchants; to use and profit from as they see fit. The misuse and promotion of the Nazi holocaust narrative has stripped all the victims of that crime of their sacred place in history, and turned them into a commodity, to be traded-on for large sums of money, political arm-twisting, and as fuel for culturally destructive victim-mythology. If the same amount of energy were given to learning about the Ukrainian holocaust, the Nazi holocaust might then be put into proper perspective and context. Nazi victims might no longer be used as leverage for profit, victim-mythology, and the theft of Palestinian lands. If the world knew that Jews were big players in the Bolshevik mass-murders that claimed upwards of 60 million people, Jews would ultimately benefit by being forced to face-up to the fallacy that they are superior. Jews willingly participated in the same kind of crimes as Nazis, and there can be no claim to superiority when such truths undoubtedly exist.

All of the worlds greatest historians have been revisionists, constantly looking back at primary sources in an effort to bring clarity and truth to history. The two historic events that face an uphill battle in that regard, are the Ukrainian and the Nazi holocausts. The only obstacle to bringing truth and clarity to those events by means of continued historic inquiry and revision, is Jewish tribal chauvinism. All other events in history are welcome and respected subjects for historical revision. The truth of those holocausts, when compared and put into context, threaten many Jews in their belief that they are the worlds singular victims; superior in their morality and intellect, and chosen by the God they have invented. Telling the whole truth about the holocausts of the first half of the twentieth century could work to deflate the Jewish ethos of superiority, and force them to face the fact that they are human, just like the rest of us.

Unfortunately, many Jews fight and dread the equalization that would occur if they were forced to face these simple truths. Many choose to expend enormous amounts of energy attempting to stigmatize revisionists as misfits. They curse them with words like anti-Semite, neo-Nazi and racist, in an effort to paint them as perverted social deviants. But how can a person who seeks truth and clarity in history possibly be considered a deviant? How is it possible to stigmatize a person for simply wanting to reach a truthful understanding of historic events? It isn’t, of course. The only thing revisionists are deviating from is Jewish demands to control historic narrative, for their own benefit. It’s about control: It has nothing to do with respecting historic truth. If it did, Jews would welcome revisionism with open arms. Calling a person an anti-Semite for seeking the truth is the true social perversion. It’s the true deviation from decency, and it should be stigmatized for the dishonest act that it represents.

Of course, the people who might benefit the most from the truth of twentieth century holocausts are the Palestinians. They are presently suffering a slow motion genocide by a group of people who’s ancestors willingly participated in the Ukrainian holocaust, and the rest of the Bolshevik mass-murders. But the Palestinians can’t hold-out as long as the Ukrainians could. If Jews would only face up to the facts surrounding their participation in the murder of 60 million people in Soviet Russia, then they might — if only out of shame — stop repeating genocides, and the Palestinian people might not perish for good. Holocausts need to be looked at honestly. The participants need to be named, and the profiteers need to be exposed, and that includes the ongoing Palestinian holocaust. Historic revisionism is a gift to mankind, as it continues to clarify the mistakes we have made through time. We cannot learn from these terrible events if they are guarded by clownish anti-Semitic thought police, and turned into orthodox Jewish religious dogma. Or as in the case of the Ukrainian holocaust, simply white-washed out of existence to hide the criminal complicity of communist Jews.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Gilad Atzmon: The Wannsee Conference- Truth and Myth

2012-02-01T00:04:00.002+04:00

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at 8:10AM

Gilad Atzmon

Last week, as Jewish Lobbies continue to invest enormous efforts in dictating and imposing a rigid and unquestionable Holocaust narrative, Israeli Haaretz published a short, succinct and courageous report challenging the validity of the Wannsee Conference as proof of the Nazi final solution.

Just ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, the Israeli paper reported that Dr. Norbert Kampe (63), director of the "Wannsee Conference" Memorial Centre in Berlin, has challenged some of the most widely-accepted historical facts associated with the conference and its meaning.

Jewish Holocaust scholars have always insisted that the master plan for the Nazi Judeocide was conceived at the Wannsee Conference but Dr. Kampe is quoted as saying that the conference dealt only with "operational matters"‌ instead of being a platform of any form of "decision making"‌. To prove his point, Kampe pointed to the fact that Hitler and his ministers were not present at the conference. Furthermore, he says, "At the time, January 1942, there was no organized plan for extermination camps."

And yet, Haaretz admits, "Make no mistake. Kampe is not anti-Semitic. Certainly not a Holocaust denier. On the contrary. As expected of a professional historian, he studied countless relevant texts, documents and testimonies on the particular eventâ€¦His conclusion is the direct outcome of an educated analysis of written material in his possession."‌

So courageously, a Hebrew paper praises Kampe and his "fascinating historical lesson"‌ and also acknowledges that the Israeli Ministry of Education lacks the capacity to engage in any form of informed Holocaust debate. Haaretz clearly admits that

"to this day no one knows with complete certainty and confidence what exactly happened on 20 January 1942, in this pretty villa in the wealthy suburb of Berlin."‌

Only one copy of the Wansee Conference protocol, found in 1947, survived the war, others having been deliberately destroyed by the Nazis in an effort to conceal evidence. This protocol is the only authentic documentation as to what happened in Wannsee and one of the few that made explicit use of the term "final solution". However, Haaretz concedes that, like any historical document, the Wannsee document should be read carefully. The words "death" or "murder" do not appear in the conference protocol. Instead, it refers to â€œnatural diminution", "appropriate treatment", "other solution options" and "different forms of solutions." In fact, the only explicit references in the document deal with deportation rather than extermination. Even the famous table attached to the protocol that counts the Jews in each occupied country, does not state that those Jews are destined to be destroyed.

Just a few days ahead of Holocaust Memorial Day, a Hebrew paper found the courage to admit that "decades of Holocaust research could not find a clear and explicit command made by high-level Nazi officials to engage in systematic mass extermination of Jews."‌

According to the Israeli paper, the Nazis disguised their true intentions in some "ambiguous orders and"secret codes"‌, which were supposed to lead officers to interpret and to react upon what they believed to be Hitler's will.

The moral here is simple. Once again we learn that some Israelis are far ahead of the Western press and academia in their criticism of Jewish ideology in general and the Zionist Holocaust narrative in particular.

Gilad Atzmon's New Book: The Wandering Who? A Study Of Zionist's global interests and influence Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Likely Hezbollah Drone Explodes at Secret Israeli Airbase

2012-01-31T23:52:00.000+04:00

Monday, January 30, 2012 at 8:59AM Gilad Atzmon

Source

An exclusive report from a confidential highly-placed Israeli source says that a booby-trapped drone crashed and exploded at the top-secret Israeli airbase Sdot Micha. Sdot Micha (also profiled here) is the home of the Israeli missile arsenal including its long-range Jerichos capable of striking Iran. There were civilian and military eyewitnesses to the crash, which happened within the perimeter fence of the facility, which covers a large area just outside Bet Shemesh.

Sdot Micha airbase

The eyewitnesses and Israel’s wish to avoid pressure to retaliate against the Iranians, necessitated the publication of a media cover story. The story claims an advanced Israeli drone crashed near the Yesodot moshav, 10 miles from Sdot Micha. Israel also claims the drone took off from Tel Nof airbase. Eyewitnesses may be able to produce video documentation of the precise location of the crash unless it is impounded by the IDF.

The cover story reminds me in crucial ways of a similar one put out by the U.S. when it lost control of its advanced drone inside Iran. It did everything in its power to make the world believe that the drone crashed by accident and we vehemently denied it was brought down by Iranian electronic warfare capability. The more we denied the more people believed we were protesting too much.

Though crashing a drone inside Israel would appear to have Iran’s fingerprints all over it (they would certainly have greatest motivation), it’s hard to believe that Iran could fly a drone 1,000 miles with such precision. So blame will inevitably fall upon Hezbollah, a Syrian-Iranian ally, which often procures its most advanced weaponry from Iran. Hezbollah would’ve launched the drone from southern Lebanon. But I find it unlikely it could master the technological know-how to bring this off without Iranian engineering assistance.

There were no Israeli casualties and the drone explosion caused no significant damage at the base. But the very fact that Iran or its allies have escalated the psychological war of nerves in such a fashion will raise the temperature inside Israel once the true story is known. It will confirm among the hawks like Bibi, Barak and Bogie Yaalon the imperative to attack Iran. And the average Israeli man in the street will be that much more accepting of war given this new level of threat. But the “beauty” (if such a phrase is appropriate) of a drone attack is that, like the Mossad assassination of nuclear scientists, it’s hard to figure out precisely who is to blame for the attack. In that sense, it raises the temperature, but does so in a carefully calibrated way.

The fact that Israel could not detect such a threat and stop it before it did its damage indicates also some gaps in Israel’s defensive systems. Admittedly, drones are hard to defend against and Iran/Hezbollah may not have many at their disposal. But they clearly can do significant damage as we’ve seen from U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan. Imagine a drone equipped with a warhead (the current one appeared only to be booby-trapped, but not equipped with a warhead or missile) taking aim at the Kirya? That, of course, would be the next stage of development and one Israel might expect in the not too distant future. Certainly, a far more sophisticated step than merely crashing a drone into an airbase. But by no means beyond the realm of possibility for Iranian engineers at some point.

I have always argued that there is a price to pay for Israel’s black ops campaign against Iran. In this case, the price was very low. But it will not always be so. There’s always a price to pay. The only question is when you’ll have to pay and how much.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble: Eye of Newt and the ‘Invented’ Palestinians

2012-01-31T23:49:00.000+04:00

“Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble”

“Perhaps unsurprisingly, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives seems to have a history of deserting the women in his life precisely at moments they find themselves battling debilitating illnesses. Gingrich divorced his first wife, Jackie, as she was being treated for cancer, and then said adios to his second wife, Marianne, after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The 68-year-old is now on his third marriage…”

By Richard Edmondson

Normally I don’t write a whole lot on presidential politics for the simple reason that it’s such a Zionist-controlled cesspool it often seems hardly worth commenting on. Moreover, it has always struck me as intellectually dishonest to single out this or that Republican—as a lot of leftwing bloggers do—for criticism, when the Democrats, including the one presently in the White House, are just as bad if not worse. Even so, here are a few items I couldn’t let pass, the first having to do with Newt Gingrich’s comment about the Palestinians being an “invented” people.
Gingrich seems like a reasonably intelligent fellow, and I’m guessing he knows enough about American history to know that white Europeans were not the original Americans. Here are what the original Americans looked like:

Here is what Gingrich looks like:

Gingrich is a white European. For white Europeans to come to America and kill off and displace the original Americans, turn around and claim to be the rightful owners of the land, all the while designating themselves as “Americans” while consigning the original Americans to squalid reservations in the process—very much required a considerable amount of “inventing.” So where does Gingrich get off accusing another people of being “invented”?

Here is what those whom Gingrich dismisses as “invented” look like. These are the original, native, indigenous Palestinians. Notice the brown skin—very similar in shade to the original Americans…

…however, these are Semites. Semites are the people indigenous to the Middle East—just like Native Americans are the people indigenous to America. In other words, the Middle East is the part of the planet Earth in which these people originated. Am I going too fast for you, Newt? Slow me down if I am.

Now as it so happens, there is one other group of people I would like to mention—Ashkenazi Jews. Here is what an Ashkenazi Jew looks like (who happens to be named Benjamin Netanyahu.):

Ashkenazi Jews are not Semites. They are white Europeans. Compare the two photos. Notice a certain familial resemblance:

Let me repeat: Ashkenazi Jews are not Semites, they are white Europeans. For white European/Ashkenazis to come to Palestine and kill off and displace the original Semites, turn around and claim to be the rightful owners of the land, all the while designating themselves as “Semites” while consigning the original Semites to squalid reservations in the process—very much required a certain amount of “inventing.”

(Yes, I know—the terrain is starting to get repetitious, but given the subject matter, it’s inevitable.)

U.S. map showing Native American reservations

Occupied Palestine map showing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians

Are “Ashkenazi Jews” an invented people? Gingrich should avail himself of a book written by a man named Shlomo Sand. And before he makes any more references to the Palestinians as “invented” he should actually, well, open the book and read it. Of course, we don’t know if he’ll bother to do that. Gingrich’s comment about the Palestinians is the bombast of an ignoramus, but rather than suffer public rebuke over his utterance, Gingrich, who in 1999 resigned from Congress after being found guilty of ethics violations, was rewarded with a $5 million check from Zionist Sheldon Adelson—with an additional $5 million donation recently being announced by Adelson’s wife.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives seems to have a history of deserting the women in his life precisely at moments they find themselves battling debilitating illnesses. Gingrich divorced his first wife, Jackie, as she was being treated for cancer, and then said adios to his second wife, Marianne, after she had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. The 68-year-old is now on his third marriage. It was the second wife, Marianne, who recently offered some telling revelations about her former husband in an interview with ABC News, disclosing, among other things, that Gingrich wanted to have an “open marriage” in which he would be free to see other women while still remaining married to her—a request Marianne rejected. Moreover, it seems there was one woman in particular Newt was desirous of spending time with—the blonde congressional aide who went on to become his present wife, Callista.

Gingrich and wife Callista in November of 2000--3 months after their wedding

Marianne today

Marianne told ABC her husband had been advised by the doctor treating her for MS that stress should be avoided, but that this evidently did not stop him from moving for a divorce just months after she had been diagnosed.

In her most provocative comments, the ex-Mrs. Gingrich said Newt sought an “open marriage” arrangement so he could have a mistress and a wife.

She said when Gingrich admitted to a six-year affair with a Congressional aide, he asked her if she would share him with the other woman, Callista, who is now married to Gingrich.

“And I just stared at him and he said, 'Callista doesn't care what I do,'" Marianne Gingrich told ABC News. "He wanted an open marriage and I refused.”

Marianne described her “shock” at Gingrich’s behavior, including how she says she learned he conducted his affair with Callista “in my bedroom in our apartment in Washington.”

He always called me at night,” she recalled, “and always ended with ‘I love you.’ Well, she was listening.”

Perhaps even more eye-brow-raising is that, according to ABC, all this was going on at the same time Gingrich was publicly denouncing Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky. If you go to the ABC link and watch the video, you’ll see film footage taken from that era showing Gingrich declaring in a speech he delivered, “There’s no administration in American history with less moral authority than the Clinton-Gore administration.”

One would be hard-pressed to point to a more glaring example of hypocrisy. What are we to make of the fact that such an unscrupulous hypocrite has been embraced by a prominent and wealthy Zionist contributor? Does this not tell us something about, a) presidential politics in America, and, b) the state of Israel itself?

Adelson’s support is widely acknowledged as having been a key factor in Gingrich’s victory in the South Carolina primary. According to Wikipedia, the casino magnate, with a net worth of $21.5 billion, is the 8^th wealthiest American and 16^th wealthiest person in the world. Speaking of Gingrich, Adelson has said , “There is not a better advocate for Israel”—and now thanks to this spigot of wealth, the Georgia Republican has notched up his first presidential primary win. Could there possibly be a plainer, more illustrative example of how Zionism, and Zionist money, have corrupted American politics?

And here’s another rhetorical question: Why does Israel seem to draw so much of its support from some of the most corrupt people on the planet? What is it about the Zionist state that they find so likeable and praiseworthy? I’m not simply talking about the 535 members of the U.S. Congress. No. From France to Germany, from Britain to America, from Belgium to the Netherlands to Denmark, from Spain to Italy to Greece, and from the IMF to the World Bank to the UN Security Council—virtually throughout the entire Western world—the most seriously corrupt, repressive, and dishonest specimens of humanity walking upright on the earth all seem to share one thing in common: they all love Israel.

Imagine that.

All of which brings me to a second point—one which I very much wanted to make about the American political system (although it probably applies to the political systems in all the other countries mentioned as well): namely that it’s a rigged game. It is rigged to ensure that one outcome and one outcome only will occur. Moreover it’s an outcome that will occur repetitively, over and over, time and time again, regardless of the changing faces, the evolving issues, or the advancing body of human thought and knowledge. What I’m speaking of is this: that the system is geared to ensure that the only candidates who stand more than a snowball’s chance in hell of getting elected are the absolute dregs of American society. The most unprincipled. The most corrupt. The most deceitful, profligate, hypocritical, and immoral. The absolute dregs. This is the way the process has been engineered.

In her interview with ABC, Marianne expressed the opinion that Gingrich “lacks the moral character to be president,” but with all due respect to this good lady who endured 18 years of marriage to a hypocrite, she seems a bit confused as to what exactly the job qualifications are for serving as chief executive in this country. Certainly—as we all know—there are bright and talented Americans, Americans who, if given the chance, could, and definitely would, bring the country out of the morass in which it presently finds itself, people of courage, honor, and rectitude, people who remain true to their principles, who would react with indignation were someone to offer them money to invade another country and kill millions of its people, and who would probably even have the person offering such a bribe arrested. Yes. There are lots of Americans like that. They are all over the place. Quite literally. But the thing to keep in mind is that these are the very last people the top 1 percent would ever, ever want to see running the country. Far preferable to them are the moral degenerates. Moral degenerates and miscreants are invariably the ones who get the most money and most media attention, and don’t for a moment believe that’s by accident. As I say the system is rigged. There is no longer anything even resembling a democracy.

Another presidential issue I wanted to comment on, and which kind of ties in with everything I said about Gingrich, is Mitt Romney’s recent impromptu encounter with an Occupy Wall Street protester. Here it is. Check it out.

Now let me see if I understand him correctly. Romney is saying that the rich should continue getting richer and the poor poorer (the trend of the last 30 years or so), and anyone who objects to this state of affairs is being—“divisive”? It isn’t merely that his logic fails the infallibility test. The twin arguments he’s advancing—that wealth should be concentrated and that America should remain united—are diametrically, contradictorily opposed to one another. Wealth disparity, by definition, is a divide. It is a divide between rich and poor. America is very much a divided nation at this moment. It is a country in which CEOs make 325 times the average worker’s pay (up from 263 times as recently as 2009). By trying to reduce economic inequality, the OWS movement is essentially trying to restore unity to the country. If Romney really wanted a united America—rather than an America with a vast gulf between rich and poor—he would actually champion the OWS protesters rather than attack them, but we won’t hear anything like that from Romney because the richest 1 percent are funding his campaign.

Romney, who by the way also insists that corporations are people , vows that if elected president, his first foreign policy trip will be to Israel. No surprise there. But perhaps we could expect him to make a stop at the Cayman Islands on his way home. According to his tax returns, Romney holds a stake in an enterprise called BCIP Trust Associates III, but regulatory filings show that the partnership, valued at $5 million to $25 million, is registered in the Cayman Islands. This presumably would render it sheltered from U.S. taxation. However, with the predictability of a military press office flack denying civilian casualties in the latest drone attack, Romney’s campaign spokesperson, Andrea Saul, has insisted everything is strictly legal and on the up and up.

“The Romney’s investments in funds established in the Cayman Islands are taxed in the very same way they would be if those funds were established in the United States. These are not tax havens and it is false to say so.”

Romney and his wife Ann made $27 million in 2010, and up until that same year held millions in a Swiss bank account. Despite this, their 2010 federal tax rate worked out to 13.9 percent, “a rate typical of households earning about $80,000 a year,” reported the New York Times.

As I said, it’s a bit intellectually dishonest to criticize Republicans while omitting the sins of the Democrats, so let’s talk for a moment about Obama. In his state of the union address last week (full text here ), the chief executive spouted a lot of faux populism, painting himself as a man of action who intends to impose new regulations on Wall Street and close loopholes favoring the rich (apparently hoping people will forget that Wall Street bankers have consistently been among his biggest backers), while championing average Americans. In fact this seems to be his strategy for defeating the Republicans this year: let them flap their jaws about the wonders of the “free market” system while in turn casting himself as a populist—when in fact he is every bit as pro-rich as the Republicans are. In this respect, Obama is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. And of course, significantly missing from his speech was any mention of his recent signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, giving the military the authority to arrest U.S. citizens and hold them indefinitely without trial, essentially shredding the last remnants of our constitutional safeguards. It is an ominous, ill-boding development (one of many these days, it seems) that places all of us in jeopardy.

But bad as the NDAA is—and it is indeed bad—that is not the only issue pertaining to the current president that merits attention. A recent campaign video has been the focus of considerable discussion of late, a video so bad, so exaggerated in terms of its worshipful tones, its deference to the Israeli lobby, that it seems to have left some people almost literally cringing. We see images of Obama wearing a yarmulke, visiting the Western Wall, etc.—as well as footage from various speeches in which he extols the virtues of the Zionist state, not his own country mind you, but Israel. Take a look:

The tone is quite reverential, would you not agree? Particularly striking I think is this image:

Obama is in essence worshipping at the altar of the Holocaust religion. Ali Abunimah, at the Electronic Intifada, says the video “takes Israel pandering to dangerous levels,” but actually even more than that is going on. The video is in essence presenting the Zionist state as an object of religious adoration. This is the kind of thing you’d expect to see at a Christians United for Israel conference—not from the Obama campaign. “When I touched my hand against the Western Wall and placed my prayer between its ancient stones, I thought of all the centuries in which the children of Israel had longed to return to their ancient homeland.” What we have here basically is adulation to a deity. Israel is being deified. And of course interjected through it all are Israeli officials bestowing their kosher seal of approval upon the U.S. head of state.

A question has arisen as to whether this is actually an “official” Obama campaign video—or possibly something put together simply to make the commander-in-chief of the United States look like a beggarly, brownnosing fawner. In point of fact, though, if you examine closely you will see that it appears to have been uploaded to YouTube by BarackObamadotcom. So yes, it does look as if it’s a genuine campaign video. But of course, what would you expect? Populist rhetoric is all well and good—it plays well to the masses—but it takes fawning to get Zionist money, and it takes Zionist money to get elected.

And so it goes in the rigged system of U.S. politics. And of course if all else fails, our 1 percent may always fall back upon the electronic voting machines to ensure this year’s election results are the ones they desire…

“For a charm of power trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble…”

***

The Smirk

Thought I would throw this into the mix (or the cauldron, if you prefer) as well. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human being smirk quite this often in a 23-minute time segment as does one of the guests on this program. Are facial expressions an indicator of what resides in the heart? Speaking purely subjectively here—and based upon my own limited contact with habitual smirkers—the thing we see forming and dissipating…forming and dissipating…at periodic intervals throughout much of the show, seems to suggest something abnormal, an almost psychopathological disgust for any and all things decent.

One statement made on the show is in fact correct, however. The American people are not sheep. They are in fact much worse off than sheep. Sheep follow a herd instinct, a trait that is in their DNA. The herd instinct is a product of nature, one that functions to help ensure the survival of the entire herd, not simply single individuals, and it is a behavior observable in many species of animals. What the American people have succumbed to is not an innate, naturally-occurring herd instinct, but something far more sinister.

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Jews in Iran

2012-01-31T23:33:00.000+04:00

Monday, January 30, 2012 at 3:38AM Gilad Atzmon

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UN Resolution Draft Urges Al-Assad to Step Down, Russia Opposes

2012-01-31T22:53:00.001+04:00

"Bashar al Assad lost control of the country ... (he) is a threat to peace & security"

White House:

"...Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "has lost control of the country" and it is inevitable that his "brutal regime" will fall from power, according to a spokesman for the White House."..."

'I can't hear you!'

Clinton

"... The Security Council must act and make clear to the Syrian regime that the world community views its actions as a threat to peace and security. The violence must end, so that a new period of democratic transition can begin.
Tomorrow, I will attend a United Nations Security Council meeting on Syria where the international community should send a clear message of support to the Syrian people: we stand with you. The Arab League is backing a resolution that calls on the international community to support its ongoing efforts, because the status quo is unsustainable. The longer the Assad regime continues its attacks on the Syrian people and stands in the way of a peaceful transition, the greater the concern that instability will escalate and spill over throughout the region..."

"It seems that our arm-twisting with the Russians hasn't borne fruit!"

"... Syrian human rights activists said they are placing increasingly desperate hopes on the UN.

"It has become the last chance for the Security Council to Act," Syrian pro-democracy activist Radwan Ziadeh told Yahoo News in a telephone interview from New York Monday.

Ziadeh is one of a group of Syrian opposition activists who had just come from a meeting Monday with Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin. So far, Ziadeh said, the Russian envoy gave no sign Moscow would budge on its opposition to a resolution condemning Assad.

Syria is Russia's closest ally in the Middle East. "But we hope in last minute negotiations Russia agrees to not use its veto, to at least not block a resolution," Ziadeh said.

US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice said Monday that the United States and allies would back a resolution drafted by Morocco on behalf of the Arab League. She said that since the draft does not call for Libya-style military intervention or even new sanctions, the resolution should not raise objections or require extended debate. Still, she did not rule out the idea that Russia would block the measure.

Russia's continued objection to Security Council condemnation of Assad has both political and economic components.

"Basically there are domestic constraints that [Russian Prime Minister Vladimir] Putin is under because has his own election process and â€¦ his giving in to pressure abroad and dumping Assad would not look good for him domestically given he has faced protests at home," Andrew Tabler, a Syria analyst at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Yahoo News Monday. "It seems that our arm-twisting with the Russians hasn't borne fruit yet."

UN Resolution Draft Urges Al-Assad to Step Down, Russia Opposes

Local Editor

Russia will not ask Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to step down, not only because of the alliance between the two countries but also because this is not something up to other nations to interfere in, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.
"I don't think the Russian policy is about asking people to step down. Regime change is not our profession," Lavrov told the national broadcaster ABC during his visit to Australia.

"It is up to the Syrians themselves to decide how to run the country, how to introduce the reforms, what kind of reforms, without any outside interference," he added.

This comes as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, head of the Arab League Nabil Al-Arabi, and the foreign ministers of Britain and France were gathering in New York Tuesday to push forward the UN resolution on Syria and persuade Russia to drop its opposition.

The United Nations called on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to hand over power to his deputy and to “stop the violence against protestors”.

The New UN resolution draft on Syria, which was seen by AFP Tuesday, claimed there will be no foreign military intervention in Syria. However, it demanded the Syrian president to “delegate his full authority to his deputy and then to form a national unity government leading to "transparent and free elections under Arab and international supervision".

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Fear of Abuse in Libyan Prisons Haunts New Libya

2012-01-31T22:31:00.001+04:00

Documents with photographs and details of people wanted by the Libyan External Security office are seen in the abandoned office where Muammar Gaddafi's former spy chief and foreign minister Moussa Koussa was based in Tripoli 3 September 2011. (Photo: REUTERS - Anis Mili)

By: Ali al-Mabrouk

Published Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Allegations of torture made against Libya’s rebel forces have prompted a major humanitarian organization to halt its operations in the country. Libyan authorities, however, strongly reject accusations that such abuses are taking place.

Misrata – The issue of human rights in Libya after the fall of its dictatorial regime remains a controversial one. This is especially true in light of criticisms by international humanitarian organizations over what is happening in prisons run by the new Libyan authorities.
All eyes were on Misrata (east of Tripoli) during the revolution against former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, thanks to its resilience against a lengthy blockade imposed by the former regime’s brigades.

The city is back in the spotlight after a report by the organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) was issued last Thursday, which announced that it was stopping its operations at detention centers in Misrata because of what it described as the exposure of detainees to torture.

However, the authorities in the city were surprised by these accusations, and the head of the national security agency in Misrata, Ibrahim Beit al-Mal, rejected MSF’s allegations in an interview with Al-Akhbar, saying that the information in the report was not true.

He described the report by the organization as “mendacious” and said it had come to serve an agenda hostile to the 17 February revolution.

In contrast to the MSF report, Beit al-Mal stressed that the prisoners were treated well and received excellent care and attention, in addition to the provision of food throughout the day.

As for the national security prison, which contains 680 inmates, he explained that he has dealt with human rights organizations with complete transparency and allowed them to inspect the prison and meet prisoners without any conditions or constraints.

In the same context, the official previously responsible for the security committee prison in Misrata, Ali Aswiti, denied that there had been any cases of beating or torture inside the prison.
He said that if any such cases were uncovered, the mistreatment would most likely have occurred before the detainees were handed over to the security committee and were probably due to the actions of an irresponsible individual. He was taken aback by the decision of the organization which “ran counter to the situation inside the prison.”

For his part, the deputy chair of the National Council for Civil Liberties and Human Rights, Abdul Basit Abu Mazairiq, asked the office of the public prosecutor to open an investigation into MSF’s “allegations” and “to hold accountable officials and pseudo-rebels who are trying to discredit the revolution.”

Abu Mazairiq, who was the official spokesman for the rebels in Misrata, spoke to Al-Akhbar on behalf of the human rights council, saying: “This council has its own character and independent financial standing, answerable directly to the legislative authorities while enjoying wide powers to monitor the performance of the government.”

He continued, saying: “Its members have the status of law enforcement officers, meaning that they can collect evidence at the scene of any crime carried out against human rights. The law requires that prosecutors provide the council with the results of any investigation referred to them by the council or any case that is related to human rights.”

Abu Mazairiq, who is a lawyer, a playwright, and intellectual, added that “among the additional functions of the council is to advise parliament on everything that relates to civil liberties and human rights and to review all laws and regulations and to recommend modifications, so that it complies with international treaties and covenants that govern human rights.”

As for MSF’s accusations, Abu Mazairiq commented that: “I cannot confirm or deny the truth of this, although I could not imagine that of any person, especially within the agencies of the transitional government. I think that if this kind of torture happened, it would have happened at the hands of one of the groups who are considered rebels and are hunting for individuals loyal to Gaddafi who participated directly in the fighting. Therefore, if these people are subjected to torture, it is usually before they have reached the security committee or the National Security Agency. During my repeated visits to places of detention, none of the detainees ever complained of mistreatment or torture.”

In terms of human rights after the revolution, the deputy chair of the national council said: “We in Libya are living through exceptional circumstances. The government has not extended its control entirely, and its agencies are still weak. There is a major role for the rebels in maintaining order. But that does not prevent the existence of a range of abuses which stem from the absence of a culture of human rights in Libya for 42 years under Gaddafi’s rule.”

However, he stressed that “the government must be tough on its members in the event that any of them violate human rights, which means what happened in Misrata is a matter that cannot be ignored. We must confirm the reasons which led MSF to stop working in Misrata and it is a matter that I will follow through on personally to find out the truth behind it.”

This article is an edited translation from the Arabic Edition.

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12th Herzliya Conference Addresses Challenge of Iran, Syria, Resistance “Arabs” Participate

2012-01-31T21:51:00.003+04:00

By Abdul Nasser Fakih

"The Herzliya Conference", hosted by "the Interdisciplinary Center" at Herzliya in occupied Palestine; also one of the "Israeli" strategic security conferences and one aiming at assisting the enemy's entity to determine the present security risks and the means to face them, is being held on the 30th of January through the 2nd of February in occupied Palestine, where a big number of economic, military, and political Zionist leaders are participating, as well as international, influential figures including European presidents and prime ministers and senior officers of international institutions and organizations. Yet, it is significant that some Arabs from Qatar, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) are taking part in "the Herzliya Conference" and in normalization, therefore. This complies with a previous declaration by "the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)" concerning "an Iranian threat", which has matched with Zionist calls for the alliance of Arabs and "Israel" in confrontation with "an Iranian threat for both".

"Tahsine al-Halabi", a Palestinian political writer and "Israeli"-affairs researcher residing in Damascus, has spoken to "al-Intiqad" Website, confirming that "the major concern of "the Herzliya Conference" is confronting the axis of the resistance, whose power and withstanding are increasing upon its steadfastness." As well, al-Halabi points out, "The kind of Arab participation in the Conference is significant as it reveals the appearance of a new axis in alliance with "Israel" involving Doha, Oman, and Ramallah." The Palestinian writer also sees that "among the central topics of the Conference are: first, the effect of the economic financial crisis on "Israel"; second, "Israel's" current strategic asset with respect to the United States and the question on the continuity of the Zionist entity's protection for the US interests in the Middle East; third, Tel Aviv's and Washington DC's security, military, and political conflict with Tehran; fourth, the influence of the current evolutions, evoked by the so-called "Arab Spring" ("the Arab Awakening"), on the resistance movements (Hizbullah and Hamas)."

Al-Halabi considers that "the most significant urgency the Conference deals with this year is the means to handle the Arab evolution and the prospect on the Iranian matter." Then he talks about "an "Israeli"-US-European agenda, with which some Arab regimes familiarize in confrontation with Tehran." Al-Halabi warns that "the Conference aims at preparing the Arab wisdom to accept this familiarization." Besides, al-Halabi clarifies that "the participants' proposals and debates in the Conference are to recommend working for the promotion of a media plan executed by numerous Arab-speaking media." Al-Halabi points out that "this plan aims at addressing the public consciousness to view Iran as "the major enemy" and to promote a sectarian incitement; these are excellently two "Israeli" requests."

Now al-Halabi explains, "The Conference is handling the ways "Israel" can benefit from the Arab evolutions and diminish the consequent harms these evolutions inflect on the Zionist entity." Though al-Halabi says, "The Arab participants' role serves to promote the principle of "non-opposition" of the so-called "Arab Spring" and "peace" with the Zionist-Occupation entity," he notices "the apparent weakness in representing the countries of the uprisings, except Egypt, from which a participant is presented as an international character; that is, none of the Arab-uprisings countries dares normalize with the "Israeli" enemy in such circumstances." Al-Halabi denounces "the representation for Qatar by one of the figures when no direct normalization agreement with the Occupation entity exists; this actually signifies the presence of secret "Israeli"-(Arab) Gulf affairs."

In comparison, al-Halabi sees that Turkey "has taken no part in the Conference so as to guard its prestige and evade the accusation of participation in plotting against Syria." Al-Halabi considers that the participation of Jordan and the Palestinian Authority "is no more than a mere ornament for the Conference, and this makes "Israel" seem as it were adherent to "peace" and as if it were sustaining the negotiations with Palestine."

Now the Palestinian writer talks about the European participation in "the Herzliya Conference", revealing that "the purpose beyond this participation is the "Israeli" cooperation with the European governments to counter the activity of some non-governmental organizations in "the old continent", which are working for depriving the "legal and ethical legitimacy" of the Zionist entity." He adds, "The means to develop the European-"Israeli" relations are being debated in consequence with the recent political conflict between Europe and "Israel"."

Thereon, al-Halabi reveals that "the Turkish State has displayed a documentary film on the so-called "Jewish Holocaust" in parallel with the commemoration of "the International Remembrance Holocaust Day", which the United Nations held in the UN Headquarters in New York last Friday, the 27th of January." The Palestinian writer refers this act to "Ankara's will to lessen the pressure on it, which the Zionist Lobby has been creating through Paris consequently after the French Congress ratified a law that incriminated the denial of the occurrence of "the Armenian Genocide" ("the Armenian Holocaust") in time of the Ottoman Reign", pointing out that "this has been the first time for an Islamic state to display such film, and this hasn't evoked public agitation in Turkey since the public realizes that its government is suffering European pressure concerning the issue of "the Armenian Genocide"." Al-Halabi concludes that this pressure is one of the outcomes of the "Israeli"-European cooperation, for which preparations have been made in common conferences held earlier, including "the Herzliya Conference"."

Here are epitomes of the Arabs declared as participants in "the Herzliya Conference":

1. Prince al-Hassan Bin Talal: the Regent of Jordan since 1965 until his discharge on the 25th of January, 1999, and the youngest son of King Talal and Queen Zein ash-Sharaf. Western institutes describe him as "an outstanding Arab economist and intellect" as he is actively involved in international forums and conferences for economy and intellect, which twin with the Western ideology. He is making a direct speech via video-link in the opening of "the Herzliya Conference".

2. Dr. Saeb Erekat: Chief Palestinian Negotiator for "the Process of Settlement" with the Zionist entity since 1996 and senior member of the Palestinian-"Israeli" negotiations, which accomplished "the Oslo Accords" in 1993. On the 12th of February, 2011, he made his resignation to the President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas after "the Process of Settlement" had reached a dead end. Seldom has Erekat missed membership in the negotiations of Palestinian delegations with the representatives of the "Israeli" Occupation. In the Conference he is addressing the recent developments of the Palestinian-"Israeli" relations entitled:
"NO PEACE, NO PROCESS: "ISRAEL"-PALESTINIAN RELATIONSHIPS"

3. Riad el-Khouri: Jordanian economist "specialized" in Middle East and Africa affairs; previously participated in "the Herzliya Conference"; a former member of "the Carnegie Middle East Center"; a professor at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Lebanese-American University (LAU); consultant for the European Commission, the World Bank, the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the US Aid Program (USAID); member of the International Council of "Questscope" in Amman, Jordan, a British organization involved in "changing and merging" communities. El-Khouri is lecturing on these topics:
"SHORT-TERM SCENARIOS FOR THE MIDDLE EAST"
"THE RISE OF POLITICAL ISLAM ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST: ARAB SPRING OR ISLAMIST WINTER?"

4. Salman Sheikh: a Qatari researcher; Director of "the Brookings Doha Center" and Fellow at the corresponding "Saban Center for Middle East Policy". Sheikh's researches involve "settlement" issues and "solutions" for the Middle East struggle. Among his researches is "A Chance for Hamas to Seek Friends outside Damascus". He has held several earlier positions, including: the Personal Representative of the Secretary General for Lebanon; the UN the Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General on the Middle East; the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East "Peace Process"; and "the Director for Policy and Research at the office of Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser el-Missned". Currently he is the Special Representative to the European "Muslim West Facts Project"; he is also "the Counselor of Oxford Research Group for Middle East Affairs". Sheikh is lecturing on:
"THE RISE OF POLITICAL ISLAM ACROSS THE MIDDLE EAST: ARAB SPRING OR ISLMAIST WINTER?"

5. Tony Badran: Lebanese-American Research Fellow at "the Foundation for Defense of Democracies" (FDD) in Washington DC, which is sponsored by the "Israeli" Lobby and the Neo-Conservatives of the US; whereby he is specialized in the Lebanese and Syrian political affairs. He is known for his extremism and discrimination against Arabs; yet, he is in contact with the Lebanese "Future Party" (of "the March 14 Alliance") and has been considered to be "the foreign secretary of the Future Party" for many US lobbies. Previously he joined "the Lebanese Forces", and he has actually acknowledged this when interviewed by several US media, including "Fox News"; whereby he bragged about taking part in the perpetration of "the Sabra and Shatila Massacre" against the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon (in 1982). Actually, even some "Israeli" associations refrain from inviting him to their conferences as he has called for killing Muslims - even American Muslims. Badran is lecturing on:
"POST ASSAD: WHAT NEXT FOR SYRIA AND LEBANON?"

6. Sherif el-Diwany: an Egyptian economist and Director of "al-Marsad Incorporation". He has held the position of the Director of "the Middle East and North Africa for the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos", the policies of which are quite known. Though el-Diwany has no publicity or post in Egypt, he's going to lecture on:

"THE SHIFTING BALANCE OF POWER: SAUDI ARABIA, IRAN, EGYPT, AND TURKEY IN THE MIDDLE EAST"

"MIDDLE EAST 2020: SCENARIOS FOR THE COMING DECADE".

7. Advocate Basha'er Fahoum Jayoussi: a Palestinian of the lands occupied in 1948, one of the founders and the Chairwoman of "the Jewish-Arab Center" at the University of Haifa, which concentrates on "merging Arabs with the "Israeli" community" and establishing "common actualities" between Jewish and Arab students; whereby the Center offers awards and scholarships to students doing researches on the issue of "common Arab-Jewish livelihood", as well as to students reinforcing this "common livelihood" in appreciation for their "social activity". Most of Jayoussi's activities focus on the normalization between Palestine and "Israel". She is lecturing on:
"GOVERNING "ISRAEL'S" ECONOMY: SOCIAL JUSTICE VS CAPITALISM"

8. Nahed Khazem: Mayor of the Shafa Amr (Shfaram) Municipality in the Western al-Jalil (Galilee) in the north of occupied Palestine; is well known for his cooperation and good terms with the Zionist-government ministers, particularly with the Culture Minister Gideon Saer. Khazem also participates in merging Arabs with "the "Israeli" community" in the Galilee Region. He is lecturing on:

"GALILEE: SETTING PRIORITIES FOR REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT"

Here are epitomes of the prominent Arab attendees of "the Herzliya Conference":

1. Muhammad Darawshe: a Palestinian of the lands occupied in 1948; Fellow Member at "the Abraham Fund", an "Israeli" foundation; has held the position of the Foreign Affairs Director of "the Abraham Fund Initiatives" since 1996, of which he and Amnon Be'eri-Sulitzeanu have been the Co-Executive Directors since 2004. The foundation actually aims at eliminating the Arab presence in occupied Palestine; claiming the conduct of a "Merging and Equality Policy" targeting the Jews and Arabs in occupied Palestine. For more than twenty years, Darawshe has been significantly involved in the field of "Jewish-Arab co-existence".

2. Masad Barhoum: a Palestinian of the lands occupied in 1948; the M.D. Director General of "the Nahariya Governmental Hospital" in Western al-Jalil (Galilee). Barhoum is known for his activity and cooperation with the "Histadrut" ("the "Israeli" General Federation of Laborers"), as well as his outstanding relations with the consecutive governments of the Zionist entity, particularly with the Zionist health ministers.

3. Ayman Seif: the Director of "the Center for the Development of the Arab Minority" at the office of the Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In 1996 through 2008, he was in charge of "the "Israeli" Financial Committee" of the Prime Ministry, an economist at the Economy and Planning Ministry, and a member of "the Governmental Committee" in charge of securing the backgrounds of Arabs, claiming "Convenient Representation of Arab Scholars at Governmental Centers" as a policy; also a member of "the Special Committee for Promoting Work Opportunities and Initiatives in the Arab Mainstream".

4. Dr. Khaled Abu Asbah: a Palestinian of the lands occupied in 1948; the Director of "the Massar Institute for Research, Planning, and Educational Counseling"; a Sociology-Department Lecturer at the Zionist "Beit Berl Academic College" in "the Third Sector" in occupied Palestine. He received his Sociology and Anthropology PhD from "the Bar Ilan University" in occupied Palestine. His dissertation addressed "Family and School Perceptions: Indicators for Arab-"Israeli" Students' Involvement in Violence". Abu Asbah is a pioneer as to merging Palestinians with the Zionist entity; whereby he is in charge of "the Strategy for the Advancement of Arab-"Israeli" Citizens in "Israel"", a project regarding which he has made studies at "the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute".

Source: Al Intiqad Online Newspaper, Translated and Edited by moqawama.org

Hizbullah Slams Arab Participation in Herzliya: Reflection of Normalization, Commitment to “Israel’s” Security

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Iranian nuclear bomb a matter of political will - US Determined on More Sanctions

2012-01-31T20:56:00.002+04:00

US spy chief: Iranian nuclear bomb a matter of political will

Published Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Iran is keeping open its option to develop a nuclear weapon, but US intelligence agencies do not know whether it will eventually decide to build one, the US intelligence chief said on Tuesday.

New US sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear program were likely to have a greater impact than previous ones, but were not expected to lead to the downfall of Tehran's leadership, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in prepared testimony on the annual worldwide threat assessment for the Senate intelligence committee.

"We assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons, in part by developing various nuclear capabilities that better position it to produce such weapons, should it choose to do so," Clapper said.

"We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons."
Iran is expanding its uranium enrichment capabilities, which can be used for either civil or weapons purposes, he said.

"Iran's technical advancement, particularly in uranium enrichment, strengthens our assessment that Iran has the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity to eventually produce nuclear weapons, making the central issue its political will to do so," Clapper said.

"These advancements contribute to our judgment that Iran is technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon, if it so chooses," he said.

President Barack Obama signed into law December 31 sanctions on Iran's central bank.

The new US sanctions will have a greater impact on Iran because the Central Bank of Iran handles a large volume of foreign bank transactions and receives the revenue from roughly 70 percent of Iranian oil sold by the National Iranian Oil Company, Clapper said.

"Despite this, Iran's economic difficulties probably will not jeopardize the regime, absent a sudden and sustained fall in oil prices or a sudden domestic crisis that disrupts oil exports," he said.

The US has been lobbying Asian countries to cut its imports of Iranian oil with little success so far.
Only Japan and South Korea have hinted at cutting oil imports from Iran, but have also sought waivers from US sanctions to continue purchasing a minimum amount.

China, Iran's major client, rebutted US calls for it cooperate with its sanctions, while India has said it has no plans to cut Iranian oil imports at this point.

Iran has sought to "exploit the Arab Spring but has reaped limited benefits, thus far," the testimony said. Its biggest regional concern is Syria where a change in leadership would be a major strategic loss for Tehran.

Clapper's annual assessment also highlighted the main espionage threats to the United States, most notably China, Russia and Iran.

Russia and China are aggressive and successful in economic espionage against the United States, and "Iran's intelligence operations against the United States, including cyber capabilities, have dramatically increased in recent years in depth and complexity."

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards' cyber warfare unit hacked into a US spy drone, the RQ-170 Sentinel, in December, forcing it to land, almost entirely intact, as it hovered over Iranian airspace.
CIA operations were also dealt a serious and embarrassing blow in Lebanon, with Iran's powerful ally, Hezbollah, revealing details of its spies in the country last year, including the whereabouts of their meetings.

(Reuters, Al-Akhbar)

IAEA’s Three-day Visit Ends, US Determined on More Sanctions

Local Editor
Officials from the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, were scheduled on Tuesday to wrap up a three-day visit to Iran as US lawmakers signaled they intended to keep up the pressure on the Islamic republic by unveiling plans for yet more economic sanctions, on top of those already infuriating Iran.

Iran's foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, said on Monday his country was prepared to host the International Atomic Energy Agency officials for longer, "if they want" to extend their mission. It was not known if the offer was made officially to the IAEA team, whose visit was taking place entirely out of public view.

Tehran's position, repeated by Salehi, is to call on the European Union and the United States to "replace their policy of sanctions with interaction" with the Islamic republic.
US adamant on sanctions policy

But key US lawmakers on Monday said a senate banking commission would soon vote a text to punish Iran further with more economic and political sanctions. The legislation "sends a clear signal through strong measures that Iran must abandon its nuclear weapons program and its designs for the spread of international terror," said the top Republican senator on the panel, Richard Shelby.

The bill targets firms that have anything to do with helping Iran mine, produce or transport uranium anywhere in the world. It also requires US-listed companies to disclose if they or their affiliates could have run afoul of US sanctions on Iran by investing in energy investments, or through the sale of communications monitoring or surveillance technology. The bill would additionally deny US visas to Iranian students wanting to study in energy-related fields if it is deemed they plan to return to work in Iran's energy sector or nuclear program. And it would tighten sanctions on Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, including targeting "anyone who materially assists" the Guards.

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Israeli Racism Against Non Jews Especially Africans

2012-01-31T20:37:00.000+04:00

by Laura Stuart

Report for the African Refugee Development Center (ARDC) to the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) – submitted January 30, 2012

The State of Israel, which demands that non Jews will recognise it as “The Jewish State” has been involved in the ethnic cleansing of non Jews i.e. Palestine Christian and Muslim Arabs since its creation. Whilst the Israeli Government passes more and more laws which disadvantage non Jews, less well known is the situation of immigrants and asylum seekers from Africa. This video by the African Refugee Development Center is being presented to the United Nations today. The video explains in detail the basis for the racism of Israelis against non Jews.
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Turkish Finesse: "There is no [good] end for this. The end is certain. The question is how painful it will be!"

2012-01-31T18:00:00.000+04:00

VIA FLC

The president said authoritarian rulers in the Middle East have two options, which he said are either carry out reforms or face foreign intervention. “If they do not do that and do not bring order to their lands, foreign intervention will be inevitable,” he said.
“Some think that we want war in Syria. Turkey has done everything in its power for a transformation under the leadership of the president. We did everything except beg for it, ...We worked so hard [to convince Assad]. We told him that one day you will regret it, one day you will say, ‘I did this and that, but it will be too little, too late, ... Syria is unfortunately on a path of no return. The important thing is that this process is not dragged out. There is no [good] end for this. The end is certain. The question is how painful it will be,” the president also said...
The president was also asked about the comments that the region has been dominated by Iran during the interview. He played down an alleged Turkey-Iran rivalry in the Middle East..."

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Israel’’, Settlements and’’ Democracy

2012-01-31T17:44:00.000+04:00

ROBERT FANTINA

As "Israel" continues to defy international law, including countless United Nations resolutions, and builds more and more settlement on land stolen from the Palestinians, its reputation as a model democracy is taking a well-deserved beating.

Last year, "Israel" took a dramatic step in violating whatever semblance of democracy it ever had. On July 11, 2011, the New York Times reported this: "The "Israeli" Parliament on Monday passed contentious legislation that effectively bans any public call for a boycott against the state of "Israel" or its West Bank settlements, making such action a punishable offense."

While opponents say that this law compromises the freedom of expression, its supporters, ironically, say that it is necessary to fight the ‘global de-legitimization of "Israel".

Shortly prior to the passage of this law, "Israelis" successfully brought down the price of cheese, by boycotting that industry. One wonders why the price of cheese is seen as a legitimate purpose for a boycott, but human rights is not.

There are a number of global initiatives to boycott "Israel", and apparently they are all legal, except for any such efforts in Israel itself. The obvious question, ‘What does "Israel" have to be afraid of,' is too easily answered to even be asked.

But does the further eroding of democracy, such as it is, in "Israel", really matter? Not so, according to the words of wisdom from one Benny Katzover, described as a ‘veteran settler,' having joined the first group of occupiers in the northern West Bank nearly forty years ago.

Mr. Katzover makes no bones about "Israel's" purpose. In a recent interview he said: "We didn't come here to establish a democratic state, we came here to return the Jewish people to their land." He continued: "Across the country, these ideas, that democracy needs dramatic change, if not dismantling then at least dramatic change, these ideas are very widespread."

How "Israel" can be seen as a democracy when it has occupied another nation and oppressed its people for decades, after a policy of radical ethnic cleansing followed by one of gradual ethnic cleansing, is a mystery that only members of the US Congress, who have been bought and paid for by the American "Israeli" Political Affairs Committee, can answer.

When settlers, residing in homes that violate international law, can, with impunity, burn mosques, destroy orchards and burn cars, the concept of democracy is a distant one indeed.

But Mr. Katzover has pulled the veil back from the eyes of those not blinded by AIPAC dollars. A secure, democratic "Israel" is not now, and never has been, the goal.

Returning the Jewish people to land that they have determined is rightfully theirs, regardless of the centuries during which another people has populated that land, is, and always has been, the goal. Depriving Palestinian farmers of their livelihood by destroying their orchards, or establishing such convoluted roadblocks that a 10-minute walk ‘as the crow flies' turns into an hours-long ordeal; preventing students from going to school by the same means; forbidding the injured and ill from obtaining medical services, do not promote national security, or demonstrate democratic principles.

They are, simply, racist practices of an oppressive, imperial government dead set on the ethnic cleansing of the land they illegally occupy.

And what, one may reasonably ask, does that shining star, the world's foremost beacon of peace and freedom (at least according to its own cheerleaders), have to say about this?

What does the illustrious United States of American, the so-called land of the free and the home of the brave, say about the repression of the Palestinian people, and the continual murders of these truly brave people? Well, basically, not much. Without a powerful lobby, really, why should Congress or the President pay much attention? Can the Palestinian people pay for the votes of members of the U.S. Congress? Can they wield sufficient electoral influence to terrify the men and women who walk those hallowed halls?

Do those members of Congress salivate to bow before some Palestinian lobby, as they do before AIPAC? Well, until these conditions are met, "Israel's" constant, inhuman, shocking violations of the most basic human rights of the Palestinian people will be ignored by the US government. Human rights, we must remember, are for the wealthy and influential.

Once again, so-called negotiations, this time at a very low level, have broken down. "Israel" claims it wants to ‘negotiate' with no pre-conditions, and the Palestinians want an end to new, illegal settlement activity before they will return to the negotiating table. It's all pointless. "Israel" has always wanted all of Palestine, and has succeeded in seizing most of it in the last 60-plus years.

"Israel" has one of the most powerful military machines in the world, and is sponsored by the most powerful government in the world. Why negotiate with a nation it has turned into a third world country? What do the Palestinians have that "Israel" cannot simply take? When was ‘compromise' ever wanted, if, as Mr. Katzover says, providing all the land of Palestine for the nation of "Israel" has always been the goal?

Any sense of fairness compels one to recognize the need for "Israel" to surrender this stolen land, so it can be returned to its rightful owners, people whose families have owned it for generations, not people who believe themselves promised it in the Bible.

But, one might ask, should the over half a million illegal settlers who now make their home in Palestine really be forced to leave? Wouldn't that be a gross injustice? The answers to these two questions, this writer can categorically say, are yes, they should be forced to leave, and no, it wouldn't be an injustice of any kind. One does not have to look far to see a precedent. In the time span of 1947 to 1948, more than half of Palestine's native population, nearly 800,000 people, were uprooted, many of them killed, and over 500 villages were entirely destroyed. If "Israel" could cause that atrocity to occur, certainly the orderly, planned removal of half a million "Israelis" who are illegally occupying the land can and should be accomplished, with no concern about injustice.

The U.S. has proven to be a stumbling block to the rights of the Palestinian people to live in peace, dignity and freedom. President Mahmoud Abbas is right to petition the United Nations for recognition as a member state. It can only be hoped that that request is soon acted upon, so the suffering Palestinian people can begin to see a glimmer of hope for a free and independent nation.

Source: Counter Punch

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Is Israel on the road to self-destruction?

2012-01-31T11:05:00.000+04:00

Again and again Mr. Alan Hart is repeating the song (Blackmail): His friend "Mother Israel" told him: "In a doomsday situation," she said, "Israel would be prepared to take the region down with it.”

Is Israel on the road to self-destruction? Alan asked, though he knows the answer.

Israel is in a doomsday situastion, and Alan's "nightmare" may come true.

To prevent Israel from destroying itself and taking the world with it, he involved him self in the what he called "Peace conspiracy" and served as a linkman between Arafat "Father Palestine" and Perez. Oslo is the bastard child of his peace conspiracy. After two decades Alan is still woried

On september, 2010, Mr. hart called the Saudi King to follow the advise of Thomas L. Friedman: "King Abdullah should invite Mr. Netanyahu to Riyadh and present it to him personally.”
He called Fatah-Hamas to declare in the most explicit terms, "we are a pragmatic people and we hereby declare that we are prepared to recognise and live in permanent peace with the reality of an Israel inside its borders as they were on the eve of the 1967 war, with Jerusalem an open, undivided city and the capital of two states… We further declare that our pragmatism extends to accepting that the right of the dispossessed Palestinians to return must and will be confined to the Palestinian state, which means that many of those who wish to return will have to settle for compensation for the loss of their homes and their land.”

"Is there any power on Planet Earth that could assist Israeli Jews to save themselves from themselves – perhaps I should say save themselves from their deluded leaders?" He asked..
The more He think about this question, the more he is convinced that "there is only one power that could do it – the Jews of the world."

SO PALESTINIANS SHOULD WAIT TILL JUDGEMENT DAY.

Who is trying to bluff the Palestinians?

by Alan Hart

One very well informed and courageous Israeli who thinks the answer is ‘Yes’ is Merav Michaeli, a radio and television presenter who also writes for Ha’aretz. She is completely without fear when it comes to telling it like it is. On 2 January this year, for example, she wrote:

The Israeli government doesn’t want peace. There’s nothing new in that. It has been the proven way since the establishment of the state.”

The headline over her latest article is Israel’s never-ending Holocaust. One of her main points is that Israel has never confronted the trauma of the Nazi holocaust and has

turned it into a placard in the service of the national trauma, to reinforce the constant existential fear and the aggressiveness that comes with it.”

Because what she wrote is so important, and in my view ought to be read by all peoples of all faiths everywhere who want to understand why the Zionist state is what it is, I am going to quote her at some length.

She wrote:

The Holocaust is the primary way Israel defines itself. And that definition is narrow and ailing in the extreme, because the Holocaust is remembered only in a very specific way, as are its lessons. It has long been used to justify the existence and the necessity of the state, and has been mentioned in the same breath as proof that the state is under a never-ending existential threat.
The Holocaust is the sole prism through which our leadership, followed by society at large, examines every situation. This prism distorts reality and leads inexorably to a forgone conclusion… that all our lives are simply one long Shoah (experience of persecution and extermination – my amplification not Merav’s).
The ‘Hitlers’ are always there: Just a week ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said for the nth time that there is no shortage of those who want to exterminate us completely. In other words, there is no lack of reasons to continue to reinforce the fear of the Holocaust – which, according to his father, historian Benzion Netanyahu, has never ended.
So it is that we don’t have any rivals, adversaries or even enemies. Only Hitlers. This is how the Holocaust is taught in school, this how it is that Israeli students are taken to visit death camps – and how it came to be that, as Ha’aretz reported on Friday, just 2 percent of Israeli youth feel committed to democratic principles after studying the Holocaust… That’s the way it is with traumas. Because of our human limitations, a trauma that is not dealt with makes us constantly see yet another trauma approaching – even when whatever is coming has no connection to the previous trauma and may even be a good thing. Trauma leads to belligerence and a strong tendency to wreak havoc on one’s surroundings, but first and foremost on oneself.
What we consider rational is actually a frightened, defensive, aggressive pattern. Our current leaders have made Israeli Judaism just a post-traumatic syndrome, while they lead us to self-destruction.

I imagine that most if not all Arabs and other Muslims everywhere would welcome the prospect of Israel self-destructing, but in my Gentile view it is not actually a prospect to be welcomed. Why not?
If there comes a time when it seemed to them that the Zionist state’s self-destruction was imminent, Israel’s leaders would respond in the same way as they would if their state was in danger of being defeated on the battlefield. As readers of my book Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews know, that response was put into words by Golda Meir in the course of one of my BBC Panorama interviews with her when she was prime minister. In a doomsday situation, she said, Israel

would be prepared to take the region down with it.”

The question arising is something like this. Is there any power on Planet Earth that could assist Israeli Jews to save themselves from themselves – perhaps I should say save themselves from their deluded leaders?

The more I think about this question, the more I am convinced that there is only one power that could do it – the Jews of the world. But that must be the subject of another post and I will welcome thoughts from others before I write it.

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We are Nabi Saleh – Trailer

2012-01-31T07:57:00.000+04:00

by Jonathon Blakeley
Thanks to Jonathan Azaziah for this

an insight into real life in occupied Palestine ~ JB

…The trailer of the documentary We are Nabi Saleh!

We are Nabi Saleh is still looking for Co-funding, screening places and help with translation: Arabic-English. If you wan’t to collaborate, write an email to jan.beddegenoodts@hotmail.com. We can make it real together. Bless.

Posted by Jonathon Blakeley on January 30, 2012. Filed under Palestine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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The Jewish National Fund – “Greenwashing”

2012-01-31T06:50:00.000+04:00

by Laura Stuart

On December 21st 2011 the Israeli government demolished the village of Al Araqib for the 33rd time. The inhabitants of Al Araqib are Palestinian Bedouin Arabs who now hold Israeli citizenship. A film was recently made about the Beduoin of Al Araqib called “Sumoud” meaning steadfastness which is exactly what these amazing people are showing as they refuse to be removed from their land.

The people of al Araqib are resisting hard as they insist to stay on their land in the most difficult of conditions. Not only have they had their homes regularly demolished since 2010 but they have to live in the heat and cold of the desert without mains water and electricity. These previously nomadic people of Al Naqab desert used to graze their livestock over a huge area but since the formation of the State of Israel the land they used to roam has been either appropriated by the State for “security purposes” or bought up by “charities” such as the Jewish National Fund who have a policy of only marketing land to Jews. The J.N.F. is supposedly working to make the desert bloom but evidently they are engaged in ethnically cleansing Palestinians from their land, not just in Al Naqab but in other areas as well, I suspect this was the reason that David Cameron had to resign as a patron from the British J.N.F. last year.

The Jewish National Fund is campaigning on “Green Sunday”, February 5th 2012 by asking people to buy a tree to plant in Israel. I advise all those people who are for Human Rights and against Ethnic Cleansing to spread the word far and wide about this “Greenwashing” and to be active in promoting the truth about what the Jewish National Fund really stands for.

More information on how to help can be found on the website of the “Stop the Jewish National Fund Campaign http://www.stopthejnf.org/actionalerts_5feb2012.html
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Anti-Zionism in the 21st Century

2012-01-31T00:19:00.000+04:00

By Tariq Shadid

The struggle of the Palestinians is a struggle against Zionism.

The essence of the Palestinian struggle is the battle against Zionism. It is a battle against its racism, against its murderous war crimes, against its insatiable territorial hunger, against its disdain for non-Jewish human rights, and against its devoted attempts to destroy Palestinian national identity. As voices of normalization are on the rise, and social media is invaded by paid pro-Zionist bloggers, there is an increased need for anti-Zionists to draw attention to the crimes committed by 'Israel', and to speak up against the ongoing media silence and the apologist activities of those misleadingly portraying themselves as 'peace doves'. Let us first look briefly at the history of the anti-Zionist struggle, and then see where we stand today.

The Ideology of Zionism

Years before the creation of the state of 'Israel', there was already a full-blown battle going on against Zionism. On one side, the Palestinians were resisting against the usurpation of their land, having grown aware of the far-stretching implications of the Balfour declaration of 1917, which laid the foundation for the mass-immigration of European Jews into Palestine. In those same decades, there was also an ongoing struggle within the Jewish communities in Europe, where many were opposed to the tenets of Zionism either on a religious basis, or on the realization that colonizing an inhabited land would inevitably cause an injustice that would continue to reverberate for many years to come. A famous example of this in that period of time was the famous genius Albert Einstein, who in 1938 already expressed his opposition to the creation of a 'Jewish state', and in a letter to the New York Times that he wrote together with a number of prominent Jews in 1948, strongly denounced the horrendous Deir Yassin massacre.

The ongoing struggle of the Palestinians against Zionism and the continuing expropriation of their land is well-known, but not everyone is aware that within Jewish ranks, true ideological opposition against Zionism still exists. The most well-known group among these is Neturei Karta ('Guardians of the City'), an organization of international Jews united against Zionism. On another note, within the current framework of the Zionist state, a coalition of groups that call themselves 'Campus Watchdogs' recently went as far as labeling 10 % of Israeli academics as 'anti-Zionist'. It is likely that this number is highly overrated, since this McCarthyism-like approach can be expected to have lumped together a wide variety of people who expressed criticism at their government's actions. In a similar way that outside criticism of 'Israel' quickly gets labeled as 'anti-Semitism', many of the one thousand mentioned academics, publicists and journalists are likely to have received the label of 'anti-Zionist' despite adhering to many of Zionism's principles.

Tribal, Religious, or Ideological?

For some, the ongoing misery is a war between two peoples, basically a 'tribal war'. Others prefer seeing it as a war between religions, with Judaism on one side and Muslims on the other side. Those who adopt this view are ignoring the pluralistic ethnic and religious composition of the Palestinian people, and are for instance ignoring the fact that many Palestinians are Christians, who have not been spared the gruesome fate of their Muslim compatriots. Thirdly, there are those who view the struggle as a battle between ideologies: Zionism on one side, and anti-Zionism on the other.

As the original PLO manifesto (28 May 1964) stated, the organization declared that "Palestine with its boundaries that existed at the time of the British mandate is an integral regional unit" and that it sought to "prohibit the existence and activity of Zionism". It also contained statements calling for a right of return and self-determination for the Palestinians. When reading the manifesto, it becomes clear that the PLO, the first more officially organized Palestinian movement against the land theft and expulsion committed by the Zionist terrorist organizations that later declared the Zionist state, was an explicitly anti-Zionist movement. The PLO incorporated the various existing political movements in one body, and was declared to be the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. This was widely accepted by an overwhelming majority of Palestinians.

The Oslo Disaster

As illustrated above, the foundations of the Palestinian struggle were based on the territorial integrity of Palestine (i.e. the one state solution) and the right of return of all expelled Palestinians. These original foundations became embedded in an entire generation of Palestinians worldwide. In 1993, the leadership under Yaser Arafat adopted the two-state solution instead, which largely happened in a top-down manner and led to the Oslo accords, However, it soon became clear to all that the Oslo accords were only accepted by 'Israel' as a deceptive method to hypnotize the Palestinians as well as the masses of the world into an illusion of Israeli willingness for territorial concessions, while in truth confiscating huge swathes of land, building a separation wall and almost tripling the settler population (from 250,000 to 700,000). It should be no surprise that even early on, as the scam became blatantly clear to all except seemingly to the leadership of the newly created Palestinian Authority, the original tenets of the struggle were yet again embraced by many Palestinians inside of Palestine as well as in the diaspora.

Return to the Struggle

As the state of confusion created by the Oslo accords lingered on, some defeatist voices however also turned to normalization, instead of returning to the basics of the struggle. It is not to be wondered at that disillusion and opportunism play their role in such a complex situation, wherein many lose hope when faced with the overwhelming military, economical and strategic dominance of the Zionist state. Nevertheless, youth movements that are currently active in keeping the struggle for Palestinian rights alive, predominantly see anti-normalization as one of their main strategic goals. They adhere to the above-mentioned basic tenets of the struggle, and reject the failed formula of negotiations that is still pursued by the Palestinian Authority, despite its lack of popular mandate for it. For most Palestinians it is blatantly clear, that the so-called 'Peace Process' has only caused damage to their cause and has not brought even the slightest prospects of a better future, let alone of self-determination or independence.
Internationally, pro-Palestinian activists also largely adhere to the basic tenets of the Palestinian struggle, namely the one-state solution and the right of return of the Palestinian refugees. There are other issues as well that are deemed non-negotiable to the majority of Palestinians, such as strong opposition against the Judaization of Jerusalem (Al Quds) which is projected as the future capital of liberated Palestine, and the release of all thousands of Palestinian political prisoners.

There is definitely also a group of 'two-staters', but their numbers are dwindling fast, and they rarely engage in activism since their views are largely represented by the Palestinian Authority. The strongest cure for the fallacy of the two-state solution was seeing the Palestinian side of that solution being gobbled up by the Zionist state over the years, faster than one could issue statements of protest against them.

New Shape of the Struggle: Back to Anti-Zionism

It is clear nowadays that the Palestinian Authority is not a useful apparatus for waging any form of struggle, but an administrative body that functions mainly as an extension of the Israeli security apparatus, in a framework inherited directly from the Oslo agreements. This does not mean that the people have stopped struggling. The modern Palestinian struggle has moved towards preferring popular resistance over armed struggle, and employing BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) as a main strategy of generating pressure against the Zionist state. What has also changed, is that this struggle has gained large numbers of international supporters all over the world, who support the Palestinians in their pursuit of freedom from Zionist oppression.

These changes have also brought anti-Zionism back to the forefront, and this has far-reaching implications. Whereas a two-state solution almost automatically implies the undertaking of steps towards normalization, since it implies an acceptance of Zionism and relinquishing the claim of 78 % of Palestinian territory to it, a one-state solution which aims to create a state for all of its inhabitants that does not discriminate on the basis of race of religion, requires a strong and uncompromising return to anti-Zionism as a unifying strategy.

Anti-Zionism versus Normalization

In a struggle that aims to achieve this, normalization is an extremely damaging concession that can never be combined with the dismantling of Zionism, which is the ultimate goal of its strategy. After all, a struggle against racism cannot be successful if the inherently racist tenets of Zionism are accepted. The 'Oslo-period' has however sown its sorrowful seeds in more places than may directly become apparent. The vast majority of the Arab masses have not accepted Zionism in their midst, but there are stubborn strands of normalization that seem to be enjoying an increasing momentum within 'progressive' ranks of various Arab communities.

Two Egyptian examples can be mentioned in this context. One is Mona Eltahawy, who seems to consider 'Israel' to be a civilized state and refused to condemn the genocidal massacre in Gaza that claimed the lives of 1,400 Palestinians (including at least 300 children) by massive attacks from drones, tanks, Apaches and F-16's - on a population that possesses no bombing shelters or anti-aircraft artillery.

Another even more mind-blowing example is Maikel Nabil, an Egyptian blogger who enjoyed wide campaigns for his release when he was arrested for criticizing the SCAF military junta of post-Mubarak Egypt. He expressed his love for Israel on his blog and in Israeli media with an enthusiasm rarely ever seen before in the Arab world.

There are other examples too, such as Arab-American comedian Ray Hanania of Palestinian origin, who proclaimed himself a candidate for Palestinian presidency in a video that he posted on Youtube, wherein he called for an acceptance of Israeli settlements, and an end to the Right of Return.

The Only Ziocracy in the Middle East

It is true that these examples do not represent the sentiments of the majority of Palestinians and other Arabs, whether in the Arab world or outside of it, but these voices cannot be ignored either. The main reason for this is that voices of normalization like the ones mentioned above often receive disproportionate attention in Western-dominated mass-media, and thereby have a number of insidious destructive effects upon the struggle.

First of all, they make those who are true to the anti-racist struggle against Zionism seem extremist, by offering alternatives that at first sight strike the general public as being more inspired by peaceful motives. This is a distortion of reality: support for 'Israel', the most belligerent state in the Middle East, the only state in the region in possession of (over 300) nuclear arms, and the only 'Ziocracy' where ones ethnic background automatically categorizes one as having less rights than others, can never be truthfully designated as 'peace-loving'.

Secondly, the apparently human inclination of the masses to flock around the famous without delving deeply into their philosophies, brings multitudes of people close to positive truth-distorting evaluations of the Zionist state. For example, progressive Arabs who embrace Mona Eltahawy's feminist activities, are inclined to also automatically defend their idol's views on 'Israel', simply because they are already in a state of adoration of her person. Another example involves Maikel Nabil: when progressive activists rallied for him due to his unjust incarceration by SCAF, his shocking pro-Israel views seemed to be lumped together with his anti-SCAF views under the label of 'freedom of speech', effectively paving the way for the perceived 'right' of Egyptians to view 'Israel' in an undeservingly positive and gruesomely distorted loving manner.

The Struggle Goes on

The true and original struggle of the Palestinians is a struggle against Zionism, and this is entirely incompatible with the views mentioned above. Normalization must therefore be opposed, vocally, directly, loudly and clearly. There is definitely a need for increased activity on this front, since anti-normalization and BDS do not enjoy the support of mass media, unlike the voices of normalization.

If this means that these voices need to be confronted even on a personal level, then so be it. It may not be a pleasant thing to do, and some might argue that it distracts from calling attention to the continuing atrocities that the Zionist state is inflicting on a daily basis upon the defenseless Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. However, as has been argued in the article "Anti-normalization: an necessary part of BDS campaigning", calling attention to these injustices will remain highly ineffective if the public is simultaneously exposed by mass media to Arab voices that aim to paint a misleading image of 'Israel' as if it were a beacon of civilization, and a saviour for mankind.

In other words: if you value BDS and wish it to be effective, and if you believe in opposing the racist ideology of Zionism, one of your tasks is also to confront those who suck up to power for their own personal gain. And since their number is increasing, it looks like you have work to do.

- Tariq Shadid is a Palestinian surgeon living in the Middle East, and has written numerous essays about the Palestinian issue over the years. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Arab participation at Israeli security summit enrages BDS activists

2012-01-30T23:46:00.002+04:00

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad speaks during the annual international conference on security and policy in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, on 2 February 2010. (Photo: AFP - Jack Guez)

Published Monday, January 30, 2012

The participation of Arab officials and institutions at a major Israeli security conference has drawn staunch criticism from Palestinian and human rights activists.
The annual Herzliya conference, which includes high-profile guest speakers focusing on Israel's major security challenges, invited a number of key Arab speakers, including Jordan's Prince el Hassan bin Talal and senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat.

Omar Barghouti of the Palestinian chapter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel slammed Arab involvement at the conference as "an act of complicity in the promotion of Israeli occupation and apartheid."

The conference, which is being held for the 12th year, aims at enhancing Israel's national security through developing the country's military and intelligence fields.

“The participation of any Arab speaker...[is] a move that undermines our struggle for freedom and our right to return and self-determinism,” Barghouti said.

The conference is being held under the name of “In the Eye of the Storm: Israel and the Middle East” and will be attended by Israeli and international speakers as well as several Arab political, business and academic figures.

Riad al-Khouri

Salman Shaikh

Some of the most prominent participants also include Salman Shaikh, Director of the Brookings Doha Center, and Riad al-Khouri, a member of the International Council of Quest-scope in Amman as well as others.

“The Palestinian civil society calls on all Arab participants to immediately withdraw from the Herzliya conference and respect the demands of the majority of the Palestinians who fully support the BDS campaign,” Barghouti added.

Herzliya's website listed Saeb Erekat, the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) chief negotiator, as a speaker at the conference, but an official source told al-Akhbar that he was never invited to the conference and therefore will not be attending it.

The official, who wished to remain anonymous, said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior Palestinian official was the only member of the PLO to be invited to the Israeli conference, but declined the invitation.
A spokesperson for the Palestinian Embassy in Lebanon – who also wished to remain anonymous – declined to confirm who of the PLO was invited and would attend.

However, sources in Ramallah told Barghouti that Erekat had been invited to the conference, but withdrew following pressure from the Palestinian civil society.

“If true, this would crucially deny other Arab participants their Palestinian excuse,” Barghouti said.
“We hope that all Arab – and international – participants will withdraw from this shameful conference. Raising awareness about this form of Arab complicity is a key goal of our campaign.”

BDS campaigners aim to increase Israel's international isolation and raise awareness of the plight of Palestinians suffering under Israeli military occupation.

“Our campaign for a boycott of the Herzliya conference is based on this meeting’s singular importance in building Israel’s strategy, especially in the security and military fields, to enhance its oppressive system of settler-colonialism, occupation and apartheid,” he explained.

Barghouti said Israel is “keen to display” the Arab officials and figures at the conference since it “boosts its propaganda efforts and cover up its increasingly isolated regime.”

The BDS activist also condemned the participation of the Brookings Doha Center, whose director is participating in the event despite the institution working to cement itself in the Arab world.
An “academic endeavor should never justify complicity in covering up grave violations of human rights and international law,” Barghouti said.

“At a time when BDS is achieving spectacular successes and turning Israel into a world pariah, these Arab participants are knowingly colluding in Israeli propaganda efforts, siding with the wrong side of history."

Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Doha Center failed to respond to an interview request before this story went to publish.
(Al-Akhbar)

Hezbollah Denounces Arab Participation in Herzilya Conference

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30 years after the Massacre at Sabra-Shatilla Lebanese politicians still block Palestinian rights

2012-01-30T22:52:00.001+04:00

Franklin Lamb
Shatila Camp
Graphics by Alex

Al-Manar

We all know is it not just American and Lebanese politicians who use Palestinian refugees as political footballs during electoral campaigns. But they are currently the two most egregious apart from most Zionist politicians in temporarily occupied Palestine.

In the US, it would not be a difficult task to find even more revolting and groveling intellectual “half-men” to borrow a phrase from Syria’s beleaguered President Bashar Assad than Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich during their recent “debate” in Jacksonville Florida.

While a high percentage of Republican Jewish voters will go to the polls in this winner take all primary, Mitt and Newt are also pondering their national fundraising networks as they gratuitously misrepresented history and betrayed their claimed religious and moral beliefs.
Romney repeated his screed that President Obama “threw Israel under the bus” by following international law, seven UN Security Council Resolution and World opinion by designating the pre-1967 borders as the starting point for peace talks. He also complained that America’s President “disrespected” Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu when Obama spoke recently at the UN and mentioned in passing illegal Israeli settlement building but did not discuss retaliatory rockets being fired from Gaza into occupied Palestinian territory.

"Native" Gingrich

Genuflecting just as obsequiously to the Zionist lobby, Gingrich insisted to Florida voters once again that “Palestinians are an ‘invented people who historically were considered Jordanians and Syrians.” No one in the audience was so impolite as to remind the claimed student of history that Jordan did not even exist until created by the pro-Zionist British occupiers of Palestine, well into the 20^th Century, while Palestinians have lived in Palestine for more than 3000 years. While more than 95% of Zionist colonists have zero historical links to Palestine and their genealogical roots are in Europe, Russia and elsewhere, despite the fact that millions have invaded Palestine seeking free land and US government funded cash and housing handouts. Morally and legally these colonists have no right to even one grain of sand in Palestine.

Source:
In the 1890. At this time, the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine was still negligible by all accounts.
The Jewish population mainly due to immigration to about 10% .
During British Mandatory the Jewish settlement raied sharply specially between 1930 and 1947

Approximate population growth in Mandatory Palestine

Year	Source	Total	Moslems		Jews		Christians		Others
Year	Source	Total	(No.)	(%)	(No.)	(%)	(No.)	(%)	(No.)	(%)
1922	Census	752,048	589,177	78.34	83,790	11.14	71,464	9.50	7,617	1.01
1931	Census	1,033,314	759,700	73.52	174,606	16.90	88,907	8.60	10,101	0.98
1937	Estimate	1,383,320	875,947	63.32	386,084	27.91	109,769	7.94	11,520	0.83
1945	Survey²	1,845,560	1,076,780	58.35	608,230	32.96	145,060	7.86	15,490	0.84
1947¹	Projection	1,955,260	1,135,269	58.06	650,000	33.24	153,621	7.86	16370	0.84

Newt again promised his audience that on his first day as President, he will for sure issue an Executive Order moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, another violation of International law.

Florida’s nearly 640,000 Jews are just 3.4 percent of Florida’s population. But because they vote in extraordinarily high numbers, they are 6 to 8 percent of Florida’s general election turnout but not of course when it comes to Republican primaries. Yet one recent poll estimates that 52% of the state’s registered Jewish voters would support a Republican presidential ticket such is their mistrust of Obama and what he might do in a second term with respect to occupied Palestine.

As with his rival Mitt, President Newt’s first foreign trip will be to Israel. With these latter two pledges Newt joins 19 Presidential primary aspirants who since 1967 have made similar promises. Fortunately, for what is left of American Humanitarian values, not one has been elected President.

Lebanese style anti-Palestinian political speech is more sophisticated and subtle, like the Lebanese people themselves, and nearly always devolves to the gut wrenching warning, delivered with a straight face, that “if we allow Palestinian refugees the right to work or to own a home (as required by International Law and currently enjoyed by refugees in 192 other countries) it might encourage them to get lazy and become too comfortable in Lebanon and they might, God save us all, seek naturalization. And this could interfere with the Palestinian refugees internationally guaranteed Right to Return to their homes in occupied Palestine which Lebanese strongly support for their brotherly and sisterly guests.

Lebanese politicians, including every party and religious grouping bar not none, except the Druze and the National Syrian Socialist Party, use voter’s fear of naturalization (in American think immigration) to undercut growing human rights pressure for Lebanon to give Palestinians elementary human rights.

A rare exception for a Lebanese politician shocked many here when earlier this month, to his eternal credit and honor, Social Affairs Minister Wael Abu Faour became the first Lebanese Cabinet member to make an official visit to a Palestinian refugee camp in six years when he toured south Beirut’s Burj al-Barajneh camp before signing a memorandum of understanding with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA). The agreement will enable UNRWA for the first time to work in coordination with the Social Affairs Ministry to provide some services to some of the most vulnerable people in the camps.

The lack of employment opportunities for Palestine refugee prolong and intensify their hardship and poverty. In the five Southern Lebanon camps, according to a recent Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and UN International Labor Organization study, more than 81 per cent of all refugees are living in abject poverty. Young people are particularly affected, with unemployment for Palestinians between 15 and 24 reaching 60%. The employments figures are not must better in the northern camps.

Speaking at the event, Faour called on his fellow politicians to follow his lead and experience firsthand conditions in Lebanon’s 12 Refugee camps. “Whoever wants to rediscover his humanity has to see the living conditions in Palestinian camps in Lebanon” Minister Faour told Lebanon’s Parliament. “We are used to bringing Palestinians to discussions in fancy hotels and then sending them back to the misery in the camps. We decided to invert these traditions by coming to the camps.”

Unfortunately Minister Abu Faour undercut some of the positive contribution of his visit by emphasizing to the media “the difficult relationship between Lebanon and the Palestinian population. The Lebanese government has consistently declined to grant rights to Palestinian refugees for fear that it would pave the way to naturalization, which it argues would diminish their right to return to Palestine.”

It would be difficult to find one Palestinian in Lebanon, or any advocate of human rights here, who truly believes the Lebanese politicians claimed notion of concern for the sanctity of the Palestinians Right of Return justifies keeping a quarter million human being in the most degrading squalor while outlawing even the right to work or to own a home out of an altruistic concern to keep hallow some of the refugees other international rights. Palestinian refugees in Lebanon reject more than any of the politicians here any form of settlement, naturalization, implantation or tawtin. They have a county just across the southern Lebanese border and their goal, now in its 64^th year, is to return without more delay.

Many Palestinians in Lebanon’s camp mention a new energy among their fellow refugees as a result of the continuing, broadening and deepening Arab and Islamic Awakening which erupted one year ago in Tunisia and whose spread continues.

The swelling bud of intifada! is also being observed by foreigners here and as Palestinian camp residents invite Pope Benedict to visit their camps in the Spring during his reported visit to Lebanon, one idea from kids at Ramallah school in Shatila Camp is for the Vicar of Christ to hold a Mass for tens of thousands in the new Cite Sportiff, on the edge this Camp. For it was at this sports center 30 years ago that part two of the Massacre at Sabra-Shatilla was organized by Israeli and Phalange troops on September 18^th and for which, like the other 43 hours of uninterrupted slaughter, no one person has ever been held accountable. (See Children of Shatila - Part 1, Part 2)

It would be an enormously powerful historic event should Pope Benedict fill Cite Sportiff with people of good will, and there are many here like Minister Faour, from all the confessions and political parties, joined by all religious and civil society leaders in Lebanon, and with the Pope’s blessing and admonition for all of us to follow in the path of Mohammad and Jesus and their decuples, that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon might be granted even the most elementary human rights.

Franklin Lamb volunteers with the Sabra-Shatila Foundation and the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign. He is reachable c/o fplamb@gmail.com

He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel’s Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon.

He contribute to Uprooted Palestinians Blog

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Discrimination of the Jews

2012-01-30T22:48:00.000+04:00

FAD

A French opinion :" monopolist, exploiter and corrupter "

I cannot say, exactly, why almost all the Jews

were discriminated and persecuted

during the whole course of History.

I can only say 3 things, with certainty :

1- The Golden Age of any Jews and of Judaism

was only under the Arab/Muslim rule.

2- Until 1948 and until Palestine was stolen

we the Arabs , did not consider them as our enemies

nor as inferior , nor as aggressors ,
nor as occupiers , nor as usurpers,
nor as intruders,
nor as racist-colonialists...

3- The Israelis of the twentieth century
have nothing in common with
any character from the Bible stories
nor even any Bible myths.

(any Greek-person has more historical-claim on today´s Turkey
than any "Jew " has on Palestine )

Raja Chemayel
an Arab, born 6 weeks before Israel

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The Bible Unearthed (The Documentary)

2012-01-30T22:45:00.000+04:00

Two days ago I got the following article from Dr. Ashraf Ezzat,

The Bible Unearthed (The Documentary)

Dr. Ashraf looks so excited with Prof. Israel Finkelstein & Neil Silberman, asserting that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never existed,

"Dozens of digs in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon have changed experts’ understanding of ancient Israel and its neighbours- as well as their vision of the Bible’s greatest tales" In other words instead of digging somewhere else, the A masterful archaeological and biblical investigation, lead atheist the digs as a real evidence that "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never existed, that David and Solomon were not great kings but obscure chieftains and that the Exodus never happened" wrote Heather Campbell

"I think the genius and power lie with the scientists and scholars who have painstakingly put together what really happened, based on real evidence, even though it goes against what they have been told is holy and authoritative. This book is a testament to what the human mind can discover when it does not delude itself."

In his article, "Deconstructing the walls of Jericho" published by Ha'aretz.com Friday, October 29, 1999, Ze'ev Herzog asserted that:

"Following 70 years of intensive excavations in the Land of Israel, archaeologists have found out: The patriarchs' acts are legendary, the Israelites did not sojourn in Egypt or make an exodus, they did not conquer the land. Neither is there any mention of the empire of David and Solomon, nor of the source of belief in the God of Israel. These facts have been known for years, but Israel is a stubborn people and nobody wants to hear about it."

"The Bible Came From Arabia"

As a born-Muslim, who embraced Islam in his late fourties after extensive reading, and realized the very thin line seperating Islam (Quran) and the relative human understaing and the history of Islam (muslims), I accept archaeological facts, but at the same time I reject using it as an ideoligical tool to "Assert":

That "Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never existed", Kaaba, in Mecca is the evidence that Irahim and Ismael existed.
that "David and Solomon were not great kings but obscure chieftains". This conclusion is political designed to justfy, the Israeli failure to find a single archaeological evidence to support Jewish claims in Palestine, So David and Solomon were not great kings, they were Tribe cheifs living in TENT, and therefore, the conquest of Palestine is judstified.
That the men wrote the Bible, (Consequently Quran was written by Mohamad PUH).

We Muslims believe that the Bible is the world of God, Quran tells us that it was rewitten by men.

"2.79 . Therefore woe be unto those who write the Scripture with their hands anthem say , "This is from Allah , " that they may purchase a small gain therewith . Woe unto them for that their hands have written , and woe unto them for that they earn thereby ."

فويل للذين يكتبون الكتاب بأيديهم ثم يقولون هذا من عند الله ليشتروا به ثمناً قليلاً فويل لهم مما كتبت أيديهم وويل لهم مما يكسبون “79″)

One year ago, I commented on Juan Cole's article titled: Ten Reasons East Jerusalem does not belong to Jewish-Israelis, adding that Palestine from River to see does not belong to Jewish Israelis.

Moreover, the prominent Israeli archeologist Israel Finkelstein and the American historian Neil Asher Silberman, should have heard about the Lebanon's historian Kamal Salibi and his book "The Bible Came From Arabia"
In his book Kamal Salibi solved the problem of the "Two of archaeology’s leading scholars Prof. Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman," and the conflict within the the Bible as a religious and historical work. Salibi claimed that Asir near Yemen was the original Israel and the original Judah. And the Jordan was not a river, but the escarpment between the highlands of Asir and the coastal plain below.

Research and analysis of the Old Testament place names, corroborated by contemporary Pharaonic and Mesopotamian sources, Kamal Salibi locates the ancient land of Israel, not in Palestine, but in the Najran province of what is now Saudi Arabia. According to Salibi, The Promised Land was Asir

More here and here

So, the wo of archaeology’s leading scholars were looking on the wrong place, and their conclusions are nothing but political assumptions.

Israel Finkelstein

The Bible Unearthed (The Documentary)

January 28, 2012

“Prof. Israel Finkelstein & Neil Silberman, Two of archaeology’s leading scholars shed new light on how the Bible came into existence. They assert, for example, that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never existed, that David and Solomon were not great kings but obscure chieftains and that the Exodus never happened.”

For the first time, the true history of ancient Israel as revealed through recent archaeological discoveries-and a controversial new take on when, why and how the Bible was written. In the past three decades, archaeologists have made great strides in recovering the lost world of the Old Testament. Dozens of digs in Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon have changed experts’ understanding of ancient Israel and its neighbours- as well as their vision of the Bible’s greatest tales.

Yet until now, the public has remained almost entirely unaware of these discoveries which help separate legend from historical truth. Here, at last, two of archaeology’s leading scholars shed new light on how the Bible came into existence. They assert, for example, that Abraham, Isaac and Jacob never existed, that David and Solomon were not great kings but obscure chieftains and that the Exodus never happened.

They offer instead a new historical truth: the Bible was created by the people of the small, southern nation of Judah in a heroic last-ditch attempt to keep their faith alive after the demise of the larger, wealthier nation of Israel to the north. It is in this truth, not in the myths of the past, that the real value of the Bible is evident.

The Bible is both a religious and historical work, but how much is myth and how much is history? When and why was the Old Testament written, and by whom? What do contemporary archaeologists know about the Patriarchs? The Exodus? The Conquest of Canaan? Kings David and Solomon? Where do the people of Israel originally come from? Why were the historical accounts of the Bible written down?

A masterful archaeological and biblical investigation, The Bible Unearthed visits digs in Egypt, Jordan and Israel – including Megiddo, the cradle of biblical archeology, where 7,000 years of history have been excavated.

This far-ranging exploration of biblical history also makes use of archival footage of previous archaeological excavations, maps, biblical illustrations and computer animation, revealing ancient architecture, cuneiform tablets and other rare artifacts.

Based on the best-selling book (The Bible Unearthed) by prominent Israeli archeologist Israel Finkelstein & coauthored by American historian Neil Asher Silberman, this enthralling documentary features interviews with archaeological specialists and biblical scholars from all over the world, including experts from the Louvre, the Museum of Cairo, the Museum of Jerusalem, and the British Museum.

The Bible Unearthed does something which has never been done before: it reveals a still-unraveling revolution of what we know of the society, the history, and the men who wrote the Bible.

The Bible Unearthed By Larry Saltzman
The Bible Unearthed Reviewed by Dr. Stephen C. Meyers
Fiat Lux: Archeology and the Old Testament By Sarah Belle Dougherty
The Bible Unearthed: The Making of a Religion
Review of The Bible Unearthed By Heather Campbell
The Bible Unearthed by Richard S. Hess, Ph.D. Professor of Old Testament
The Bible Unearthed: Select Critical Review

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The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Nature of the Beast

2012-01-30T22:39:00.000+04:00

By Mark Glenn
Al-Manar

‘Since the Mossad had all the security arrangements in hand, it would not be a problem bringing the killers as close as they wanted to President Bush and then staging his assassination. In the ensuing confusion, the Mossad people would kill the ‘perpetrators,’ scoring yet another victory for the Mossad. With the assassins dead, it would be difficult to discover where the ‘security breach’ had been, except that several countries involved in the conference, such as Syria, were regarded as countries that assisted terrorists.’

—Ex-Mossad officer Victor Ostrovsky, describing in his book ‘The Other Side of Deception’ how Israel’s Mossad planned to assassinate President George Bush at the Madrid peace conference in October of 1991 for the purpose of blaming it on ‘Arab’ terrorists.

‘What are we accomplishing?’ they asked. ‘Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we allow him to go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away our place and our nation.’ Then one of them named Caiphas who was High Priest that year spoke and said “You fools know nothing at all. Do you not realize it is better that one man die than that the whole nation perish?’ —Book of John

Well, well, whadda ya know, YET ANOTHER Zionist goombah from within the Jewish community has ONCE AGAIN called upon Yahweh–the God of war and racial favoritism–to rain death and destruction down upon someone deemed ‘not friendly enough’ to Israel…

Pardon the seemingly inappropriate yawning and slight shrug of the shoulders here, but the truth is–
This is news?

While we’re having one of our ‘well, shut my mouth’ moments here, how about–
“Smoking believed to cause lung cancer”…

“New Year’s Day to fall on January 1st this year…”

As much as it may appear so, nevertheless the fact is this–we’re not being cute here, folks. We’re as serious as a heart attack despite what appears to be something of a cavalier demeanor.

‘Jewish terrorism’…We should be waaaay past getting excited over something like this, given recent events.

Remember (as if we could possibly forget) a good portion of last century’s major events has been just that—Biblically-inspired Jewish terrorism and its byproducts… A non-stop, revolving newsreel of horror and human suffering, a veritable ‘Jews Gone Wild’ docudrama featuring such blockbusters and bonecrushers as Gaza, Lebanon, Deir Yassin, the Six Day and Yom Kippur Wars, the destruction of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, the unrest in Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, Cast Lead, USS LIBERTY, 911, JFK, RFK, the bombing of the King David Hotel, etc, etc, etc…

The truth is, we could go on and on with examples such as these, and we can be rest assured it WILL go on and on with examples such as these, because, quite simply, it is in the nature of the beast to do so.

The 20th century has been epochal in the sense that the apocalyptic marriage between synagogue and state has resulted in Jewish interests (or their lackeys) rubbing the magic lamp, loosing the terrible Old Testament Genie and then sending him forth on a seek-and-destroy mission against Israel’s enemies, real or perceived…

So, using the past century as precedent, getting all hot-n-bothered about someone from within the Jewish community ‘Talking Torah’ as it were concerning ‘Mr. or Mrs. Anti-Semite’ biting the bullet because of some less-than-acceptable position viz-a-viz the Jewish state is (or should be) passé…
…and even when it involves something as ‘unique’ in its flavor as an American Jewish publisher threatening the life of the US President.

Oh, did we forget to mention that? Yes, that’s right, a Jewish individual writing for a Jewish newspaper dealing exclusively with Jewish issues is calling for the leader of the “free world” to be JFK’d…
Not Islamic…Not KKK…not NRA, IRA, or KLA…not Militia of Montana, Aryan Nations or any of those OTHER ‘terrorist’ groups the JMSM is constantly causing the rest of civilized society to wet its collective pants over with its non-stop screeching…

But rather, ‘Jewish,’ as in AIPAC, ADL, JDL, World Jewish Congress, Richard Perle, American Jewish Committee, Emergency Committee for Israel, Paul Wolfowitz, the Republican Jewish Coalition, Christians United for Israel, Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, Alan Dershowitz, Abe Foxman, Eric Cantor, Sarah Silverman, and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.....
In this case, we have before us one Andrew Adler, publisher/owner of the Atlanta Jewish Times, publically calling upon Israel’s assassination agency Mossad to send President Obama off on a one-way trip to eternity. Specifically, his (under NORMAL circumstances) criminally-actionable words
being to the effect that Bibi “9/11-was-good-for-Israel” Netanyahu should—“Give the go-ahead for US-based Mossad agents to take out a president deemed unfriendly to Israel in order for the current vice-president to take his place and forcefully dictate that United States’ policy includes helping the Jewish state obliterate its enemies”.

‘Take out’—Now, forgive the obvious naiveté here, but does our kind, gentle, harmless, moral, humanitarian, pure-as-the-wind-driven-snow, God-fearing Jewish man mean ‘take out’ in the friendly, cordial sense, as in a dinner engagement?

Or does he mean it in The Godfather sense, as in going on a deep-sea fishing expedition in a manner up close and personal?

A question that MUST be asked, because according to the narrative forced upon all thinking people today, the fact is that Jews don’t kill people, and they CERTAINLY don’t make threats against the life of the US President for something as seemingly-trivial as there being insufficient funds in his ‘Affection-for-all-things-Jewish’ bank account.

Either way, Gosh, there is something SOOOOOO familiar about that scenario Adler & co laid out…Lemme see, hmmmm…Wait. No, no, no, don’t tell me, I can figure it out…Right on the tip of my brain…

Why, of course…This is PRECISELY what happened in the aftermath of someone deciding to ‘take out’ JFK (after which time a pliant, pliable, and properly pro-Israel protagonist named LBJ took over) and before the dead president’s body had even begun to assume room temp, the floodgates for the Jewish state were opened in terms of money, no-questions-asked political support and an end to Kennedy’s insistence that Israel open up her nuclear weapons program for international inspection…
…all of that no more than an interesting coincidence, we can be rest assured…

And now, at a time when Jewish interests barely conceal the power they wield over the American political process–from who gets elected to which wars America fights–we have a wiseguy from La Famiglia talking about how the Prez needs to be smacked around for his insolence.

And just what–according to Adler & co–was the capital offence El Presidente committed warranting such a hefty fine?

–Did he threaten to withhold a penny of the $30 million per day that Israel gets from the US?

No.

–Did he threaten to open a new investigation into Israel’s deliberate attack on the USS LIBERTY that resulted in 34 American sailors being killed?

No.

–Did he call for the Mossad agents arrested on 9/11 who were seen by witnesses cheering as the towers were coming down to be extradited back to the US so that they could be further questioned by US law enforcement about the particulars surrounding their being ‘sent to document the event’, as they revealed on an Israeli television program shortly after they returned?

Nope.

–Did he instruct Attorney General Eric Holder to force AIPAC to register as a foreign agent under FARA, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, thus legally prohibiting the biggest lobby in Washington from bribing our lawmakers into rubber stamping Israel’s foreign policy demands upon the American people?

No.

Apparently, from what Adler wrote in his piece, Obama’s cardinal sin, the unpardonable crime on his ledger sheet exists solely in having not (yet) attacked Iran and killed tens of millions of innocent people per Israel’s order.
Yes, that’s right, because AMERICA, a sovereign country (the legal definition of which is that she doesn’t have to do Jack-Squat other than what’s in her own best interests) because this sovereign country refused to expend EVEN MORE of her money, blood, and resources in escalating the ‘clash of civilizations’ that Israel’s strategists have been planning now these last 20 centuries, Obama should be handed walking papers to his own grave. Forget the incalculably-high price America has paid—the TRILLIONS of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives destroyed on both sides of the equation in Israeli-orchestrated war theatres such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Pakistan, etc, etc, etc…The mere fact that Obama has not (yet) performed his designated role as angel of death in killing Iran’s first born, second-born, 3rd, 4th, and on and on and on is the reason his existence needs to be wiped off the map of the living.

Kinda says something about the mentality of these folks, does it not?

Which brings us back to our main point here, which is, simply—
The nature of the beast…

As crazy as it all sounds, what has to be remembered throughout all of this is that Adler’s ‘final solution’ to Israel’s ‘Obama Problem’ was/is not an aberration by any means. As much as the rest of his cousins and confreres within the Jewish community did an impressive job rending their robes, gnashing their teeth and in general uber-theatricizing their ‘outrage’ over his statements (as if Adler’s ‘going biblical’ on Obama was something as out of the ordinary as a snow storm in the Sahara) the fact of the matter is—as one theatricist famously put it many moons ago–they protesteth too much.

No, Adler was not ‘meshuggenah’, as Jewish interests have (with obvious panic) maintained in the immediate aftermath of his dangerous slip of the forked tongue. His statements were not ‘outrageous’ or ‘heretical’ in the ‘Jewish’ sense. Despite the recent well-funded, well-orchestrated and well-choreographed campaign of screeching on the part of organized pro-Israel interests (desperate to put the Mossad Genie back in the bottle and change the discussion towards something less, well, REVEALING) the fact is–religiously speaking—Adler was/is on terra firma in making the statements he did.

That’s right. In letting his religiously-fueled imagination get the better of his mouth in pushing for the assassination of a world leader deemed an enemy of Israel, Adler was the dictionary picture of a ‘good’ Jew. The course of action he was/is advocating is PRECISELY what former Old Testament luminaries such as Moses, Joshua, Solomon, David, Mordechai, Esther and the rest of the Kosher KKK would be advocating as well, were they here (as if they weren’t here already in personages such as Netanayhu, Barak, Omert, Livni, etc, etc, etc).

No point kvetching about it folks, it is what it is. Go back and read your bibles for yourselves and you’ll see how ‘God’ instructed ‘his’ people to deal with ‘existential’ threats like Obama.
Remember, these are people of ‘the book’, meaning their Torah, a book describing in Kristol-clear imagery what happens to those who act less-then-reverentially when handling that most precious apple of Yahweh’s eye.

Using just ONE INSTANCE–the fact that Egypt’s destruction is celebrated yearly in the Jewish religious feast known as Passover and that Obama has been referred to TIME AND AGAIN in the Jewish press as ‘the new Pharaoh’ and that now we have an important member from within the American Jewish community talking about him meeting with an untimely end is not by any stretch of the imagination one of the aforementioned ‘well, shut my mouth’ events.
What’s just as relevant to all this is the fact that Obama is black…

Now to those who have fallen hook, line and sinker for the agit-prop stinker that Jewish interests are and always have been the front line forces working against anti-black racism, here is a small spoonful of bitter reality you need to swallow before going any further—INSTITUTIONALIZED ANTI-BLACK RACISM BEGAN WITH JUDAISM.

The American president, being at least partly of African descent means—Judaically-speaking–he carries with him the biblical ‘Curse of Canaan’, meaning he can do nothing more/be nothing more in the ‘Jewish’ sense than a slave to Shem, from whom the Jews claim their descent.

So, in the bigger scheme of things, the same Jewish interests who spent a helluva lotta cheddar prior to 2008 in the semi-regular slave auction known as the Presidential campaign expect him to respond with YESSUH when given an order and to then carry out his tasks on the plantation known as the US…
…and organizing a slave rebellion isn’t one of those tasks.

A little harsh on the ears, you say? Well, then take it up with Israel’s former chief Sephardic Rabbi Ovadiah Yusef, who—in a small news item that barely received the kind of attention it should have–bemoaned the fact that “We live in a time when slaves are governing us and are trying to control us” and then threatened that the time of ‘Moshiac’—the Jewish messiah—was near, and when he gets here, boy oh boy, are the rest of us gonna be real sorry.

And here is the REAL kicker in all of this—the Jewish interests making all this noise in trying to change the subject concerning Adler’s frank discussion of Israel’s ‘should be’ kiss of death KNOW ALL OF THIS TO BE THE CASE.

Adler’s language and demeanor are no different in essence than that of Genovese wiseguy Joseph Valachi’s 1963 testimony before the U.S. Senate Committee on Government Operations. At the time, panicked-to-the-point-of-weting-their-pants organized crime interests assailed the Senate hearings as a ‘witchhunt’ born out of bigotry and sought to distance themselves and their activities from Valachi’s damning testimony by claiming he was insane and a congenital liar.

So too with Adler’s recent belching out loud and filling the air with the alarming and unpleasant odor indicating the kinds of mental processes taking place deep within the Jewish mental gut viz-a-viz Barack Hussein Obama and his Middle East policy,and the manner by which Jewish interests have made such a scene by holding their noses and going ‘EEEEEEYYYYUUUUUU!!!’ In essence, Adler’s piece is the dorsal fin sticking out of the water indicating something dangerous lurking below the surface, and we can just forget about the possibility—as put forth by his Jewish detractors—that the fin we are seeing is a figment of our anti-Semitic imagination.

The fact is, given that the very basis of Israel’s existence is all this Old Testamentism and the political intrigue it encompassed at an earlier time, the only thing that should be shocking is that Obama has not already been assassinated.

And let’s not kid ourselves about whether Israel possesses both the means and the motive to have such an event materialize with the wave of her magical Mosaic staff. If she could get away with it in 1963 she could certainly pull it off today, and particularly in a political environment such as now when various candidates for various high offices—including that of the presidency—are out-slutting each other in demonstrating who is willing to show more skin in what has become the political version of the Dance of the 7 Veils.

Furthermore, we can be rest assured of this as well—in the event (likely or not) that something ‘biblical’ were to happen to ‘the new Pharaoh’, there would be celebrating within the greater part of the pro-Israel Jewish community the world over, who have been wishing the worst and screaming like banshees ever since Obama began making unpleasant noises concerning Israel’s settlements in the West Bank.

Still too much of a stretch? Consider then that as President, Obama is YET to visit Israel. Now, are we to assume that this is due to his busy schedule, or rather to the fact that the various national security apparati of the United States responsible for protecting him explained in the clearest of terms that his security cannot be guaranteed in the Jewish state? George Bush, for all the trips that he made to the Middle East—IN WAR-TORN COUNTRIES HE WAS PERSONALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR DESTROYING MIND YOU–nevertheless reserved his first visit as Prez to the Jewish state until towards the end of his 2nd term.

And interestingly, as soon as he landed in Ben Gurion airport he was met on the tarmac by a group of rabbis who passed along to him an Old Testament-looking scroll outlining what was expected of him as President before leaving office. Entitled ‘Megillat Bush’, it read as follows–

To George W. Bush…who comes to Jerusalem, eternal capital of our land, joy of the entire earth…

…If you truly desire peace and wish to be counted in the company of the truly righteous, we call upon you to declare to all the world the following-

‘I George Bush declare that the Land of Israel was bequeathed to the nation of Israel by the Creator of the world which He gave to His people Israel, the eternal people. Therefore I call upon all the nations to save themselves from certain doom and recognize that this land is the exclusive rightful inheritance of the people of Israel. He who denies this truth endangers all life on earth.’

‘Or, Heaven forbid, you can choose the second option…to willfully aid in destruction…You certainly know what the God of Israel did to Egypt and to all Israel’s enemies from time immemorial. Do you imagine you can escape from the struggles in Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon? We cannot forget the deeds of our patriarchs, whose example guides us through every geneation…

…Understand this well–God ordained that the role of the nations of the world is to strengthen the nation of Israel. Therefore it behooves you to declare: “I, George Bush, Commander in Chief of the armies of the United States of America, will instruct all of my troops to protect the Divine rights of the nation of Israel, and remove from her any threat.” Before you is a choice: You can merit eternal life, or be inscribed for eternal disgrace. Your fate and that of all those with you hangs in the balance of the destiny of our land…’

Now, for those who will say that the aforedescribed were just the rantings of a few old men with no pull or influence, remember that they could not have gotten this close to Bush without clearance from the highest levels within the Israeli government, meaning that Jewish interests wanted to convey the idea that this was a diplomatic communique from the Jewish state to America.
‘New’ and ‘novel’, the image of pro-Israel thugs blowing poisoned kisses, sticking pins in dolls resembling their enemies and demanding as interest on their ‘loan’ of the Presidency to Obama a pound of his flesh like Shylock?
Nothing new under the sun, and especially with regards to the nature of the beast.
No, the truth is when it comes to Jewish terrorism–it’s always there, tugging at the sleeve, poking us on the shoulder, clearing its throat, tapping its watch, huffing-and-a-puffing and reminding us of our ‘obligations’ to the continued existence of the Jewish state. The only people to whom it’s news are those who long ago checked out of Hotel Reality and are now known as Mr. or Mrs. Comfortably Numb on Fantasy Island.
For the rest of us however–currently-registered guests at the Hotel Reality–witnessing what’s transpired has been like watching that old movie based on the Stephen King novel Cujo, with our larger-than-life (literally) St. Bernard slowly but surely succumbing to the inevitable effects of rabies—madness, violence, terror and death…
…Because at the end of the day, week, month, year or millenium, the truth is that once Mother Nature has spoken, she’s spoken and there is no negotiating, and in the case involving Israel, the mad dog of the Middle East (as former Israeli Defense Minister once described her) and her behavior—whether it is murdering millions in the Middle East or ruminating about murdering an American president who will not bend the knee before her, she is doing no more than what her nature dictates.

Therefore, let what is left of humanity do the same and recognize that there is nothing but disaster to be had by befriending this mad, rabid creature. Let a sane world decide that one century of unrestrained Jewish terrorism was more than enough and therefore make the executive decision to cancel the upcoming season of ‘Jews Gone Wild’ and replace it with a modernized, extended version of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’. Let immediate policies–designed to put as much distance as possible between a civilized, healthy world and this frothing-at-the-mouth canine—be immediately adopted until such time as this wild animal can be dealt with in a manner that is rational, humane and geared towards the common good of all men.

But above all else, let there be no more shock, awe and surprise when mutts and mongrels from the pack such as Adler & co wander into town, snarling and growling in the menacing fashion they do, because when all is considered in light of what has been known now for some time, such behavior is simply the nature of the beast.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
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Syrian Authorities Agree on Holding Talks, Opposition Rejects

2012-01-30T22:17:00.001+04:00

Local Editor

The Syrian authorities agreed to a Russian offer to hold talks with opposition representatives in Moscow to solve the problem in the country.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced Monday that it had suggested to both the Syrian authorities and the opposition that they should meet in Moscow for "informal contacts" without any preconditions.
“Our offer has already received a positive response from the Syrian authorities. We are expecting that the opposition will also give their assent in the next days and put the interests of the Syrian people before any other ideas," it said.
The foreign ministry added that “the talks in Moscow were acutely necessary for the immediate cessation of all violence in Syria and preventing a bloody split in society."
“They would also help ensure the success for profound democratic changes in the country, in line with the hopes of all Syrians,” it further explained, indicating that “its offer was motivated by its desire to see an end to the crisis through a peaceful mechanism worked out by the Syrians themselves, without international interference."
For its part, the Syrian opposition announced Monday its rejection to talk with the regime before President Bashar Al-Assad “steps down”.

Head of the Syrian National Council Burhan Ghalious told AFP that “the resignation of Al-Assad is the condition for any negotiation on the transition to a democratic government in Syria.”

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
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Europe's Losing Game - by Stephen Lendman

2012-01-30T21:54:00.002+04:00

by Stephen Lendman

Partnering with America has consequences. Europe's paying by shooting itself in the foot.

On January 23, EU representative for foreign and security affairs, Catherine Ashton, broke the news. She announced an "unprecedented" anti-Iranian oil embargo, effective July 1 and immediately from new contracts.

The ban covers crude oil, petroleum and petrochemical products, oil related business, equipment and technology, selling Tehran refined products, new investments, and dealing with its central bank.

Europe buys up to 20% of its oil from Iran. Ending it means greater strain on economically stressed countries. Making up lost volume won't be easy. Putting lipstick on this pig doesn't wash.

Alternatives are few and far between. Claiming Saudi Arabia can compensate is false. Iran's reserves are third largest globally. No combination of Gulf states can replace its shipments.
Seyyed Emad Hosseini, Iran Majlis (parliament) Energy Committee spokesman said:

Iran Oil Embargo Risks Closure of 70 EU Refineries

Iran's "powerful and oil sanctions imposed by European countries will only harm the European Union because Iran can easily prove its oil supremacy in the Middle East region."
MP Nasser Soudani said "Europe will burn in the fire of Iran's oil wells....the structure of (Europe's) refineries is compatible with Iran's oil," so what's their alternative.

Moreover, expect oil prices to spike. Economic damage will follow. Weak EU nations will crater. Policy makers behind this scheme should be fired and replaced.

It gets worse. On January 28, Soudani said Iran's Majlis (parliament) Energy Committee finalized a bill to "halt all oil exports to European countries as long as they continue to ban oil imports from Iran."
Moreover, another clause forbids importing goods from countries imposing sanctions. If adopted, EU oil shipments may end in days. Vital supplies will be lost. Rogue EU countries will be left high and around 20% dry.
Sanctions cut both ways. Iran's extracting its own price. Going along with America is misguided. Policy makers in other countries know better. China's Foreign Ministry said "blindly pressur(ing) and impos(ing) sanctions on Iran are not constructive approaches."

Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said:

"We have very good relations with Iran, and we are putting much effort into renewing Iran's talks with the 5+1 (the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany) mediators' group. Turkey will continue looking for a peaceful solution to the issue."

Too bad Ankara isn't like-minded on Syria and wasn't firm against join NATO's anti-Libyan alliance. As a result, its credibility falls short.
Rogue EU states gave Iran an ultimatum. Like Washington, they're using its alleged nuclear threat to pursue regime change plans. Direct intervention may follow if other measures fail. In response, Iran's hitting EU nations where it hurts.
At the same time, its saying partner with America's belligerence and suffer the consequences. As a result, some EU nations may have second thoughts.
Others already dismissed sanctions, including Russia, China, Brazil, India, and perhaps Japan and South Korea. Expect growing numbers to join them. Partnering with Washington's self-destructive. Wiser nations refuse when their own interests are sacrificed.

Washington's also harmed in other ways. It's showing up in non-dollar denominated bilateral trade agreements. America relies on global dollar hegemony.

China excludes dollar transactions in numerous bilateral deals. So do many other countries, including Russia, Brazil, India, Argentina, Indonesia, Iran, UAE, South Korea, Malaysia, Syria, Cuba, Belarus, Venezuela, and others.

In fact, swap agreements are proliferating. In 2009, seven Latin American nations established the Bank of the South. They include Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Ecuador.

Plans are to include all regional countries, outside the dollar, IMF and World Bank. Part of it's establishing a new SUCRE currency within the Union of South American Nations, independent of America.

Moreover, oil-rich Middle East countries plan their own monetary union and common currency. In the late 1990s, Asia's Chiang Mai Initiative (CMI) promoted financial cooperation among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

ASEAN swap agreements expanded to the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM), regional bond markets, and bilateral swap deals. China's arrangement with Japan is especially significant given their mutual trade volume. It also promises others regionally away from the dollar, weakening it in the process.

While China, Japan, India, Brazil, Russia and other developing countries build strong bilateral and multilateral ties, America's making more enemies than friends.
In May 2009, Nouriel Roubini warned about a dollar decline. It'll take a decade or longer, he believes, but could happen sooner if America doesn't "get its financial house in order."

Moreover, the more other countries diversify, the faster it'll happen. It's only a matter of time as long as Washington's wicked ways continue. So far, there's no ending them in sight.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen [at] sbcglobal.net.

Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com

Iran to Stop Oil Exports to Certain Countries Soon

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

A Camel never sees its own hump

2012-01-30T21:21:00.000+04:00

A Camel never sees its own hump

The Arab-League-of-States:
a dictator´s-club !!

The Arab League of States has about 20 members.

This league has recently demanded that Syria
changes its regimes into..... " more democracy " .

It is the first time in its history

that this League demands anything
from any of its member.......

With all due respect ,
(whenever and where respect is still due),

I say that only Tunisia , Egypt, Jordan and the Lebanon

would have the right to demand " more democracy "

from Syria or from any other Arab-country.......

All other members ought to refrain
from demanding any other member to become
better than what they ,themselves, are not :

1- half of those members do not even hold elections

2- the other half , never lost any elections........

To "shut-up"
would be my humble advice to them ,
but I shall also remind them of an Arabic-proverb
" A Camel never sees its own hump "

الجمل ما بيشوف حردبته

Raja Chemayel------رَجا شْمَيِّل

NB :The PA made an election, but it did not like the results,..................and the rest is now history.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

deLiberation - the future of journalism

2012-01-30T21:20:00.000+04:00

Sunday, January 29, 2012 at 1:17PM Gilad Atzmon

Greetings citizens of the World,

This is message regarding our online news website deLiberation, only a 3 weeks old but growing fast.

deLiberation are thinkers, writers, artists and activists, each committed to freedom of thought and to telling the stories that the mainstream media is there to conceal.

At deLiberation we hope for a better future – a Western ‘spring’. Unlike other journals committed to power, hegemony and mammon, deLIBERATION is committed to

Truth,
Justice &
Peace.

Come visit us at deLiberation. If you would like to help us, you can by putting in a link from your website/facebook/blog to deLiberation, help us spread the word, :)) ... of TJP, Truth - Justice - Peace.

deLiberation :- the future of journalism

Higlights this week on deLiberation

Glad not to be ….. in the PSC

Dr. Elias Akleh is a Palestinian. In 1948 and again in 1967 his family were displaced, and like millions of other Palestinians, he now finds himself living outside of his homeland. It is perhaps fortunate that he did not move to the UK and join the…

How to watch Press TV in the UK

Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster’s English-language outlet, has been forced off the air in the UK after Ofcom revoked its licence for ‘breaching the Communications Act.’ Though the British Government sends young soldiers to kill in the name of freedom, in the United Kingdom....

Stop Britain’s pro-Israel lobby

The Queen needs a new royal yacht. But the British government says it can’t afford to buy her one. The GBP 80 million for the project must come from private sources. “Leading British companies will … be asked to donate funds in exchange for naming rights to…

PSC, Racism and ‘The Two-State Solution’.

Things can only get worse for the PSC. So far, the PSC leadership has faced just the thin end of a derailment campaign which is sure to intensify now they have shown such willingness to bow to Jewish power tactics. Now that PSC has started to censor…

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

If a country wants.......

2012-01-30T21:17:00.000+04:00

FAD

made in Syria !!
( even under the " dictatorship " )

If a country has already an atom bomb ,

it should not complain about Iran´s .

If a country has not even a parliament
nor any elected-leaders (or head of state)

it should not complain about Syria´s elected-parliament.

If a country has introduced and practised terrorism into Palestine

it should not complain that (some) Palestinians also use it now,

as self-defence.

If a country wants to "save the Jews"
(from any probable anything )

it must take them back to where they came from
or take them into its own .

If any country wants any Peace,

it must start by recalling all its soldiers

back to within its own borders.

If any country wants to put me in a prison
,for what I write or what I say,
it must have its prisons
with ,
Chinese cooks and Swiss-hygiene
Syrian sweet + pastry shop
and
Swedish-prison´s-laws.

Raja Chemayel

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

NABULSI: Diary (on the Palestinian struggle)

2012-01-30T21:14:00.000+04:00

A4P

January 27, 2012

by Karma Nabulsi - London Review of Books - Vol 32 No 20, 21 October 2010

Editor’s note: Heartbreakingly frank, this analysis of the Palestinian struggle and its long tortuous journey from the early days of rugged resistance to today’s slick brigade of negotiators, is something every Palestinian and activist should read. The failure of the Palestinians to obtain the justice and the freedom to which they are entitled is so incredibly tragic, and yet, within that ongoing tragedy, the seeds of hope still find ways of escaping from under the layers of hopelessness. There are the enormously brave spirits in the refugee camps and in Palestine itself who still dare to ignite a flicker of revolutionary zeal in their people, but at enormous cost to themselves and their families. If not death, they can expect imprisonment, with all that it entails – torture, violence, isolation, abandonment – and for their families, the razing and theft of their lands, the destruction of their homes, and hundreds of humiliating laws and acts to make their lives as unbearable as possible. The unrecognisable Palestinian parties of the revolutionary years are no better in suffocating their peoples’ cries today. Don’t mobilise! Don’t protest! Don’t unite! Don’t do anything that might jeopardise the cosy arrangements that the leadership has with Israel and the US to keep the status quo. As if twenty years of failed talks aren’t enough to underscore Israel’s true intentions that its minions never tire of propagating – an exclusively Jewish state in all of Palestine. And yet, the Palestinians remain un-cowed by their never-ending ordeal – one generation after another just as determined as the last to throw off the utter misery forced upon them in the world’s cruellest experiment in human containment. In such circumstances, one can always expect a revolutionary spirit to emerge with the potential to “ignite a mobilisation large enough to create a truly national initiative”. What is rarely mentioned, says Karma Nabulsi, “ is the dangerous and seemingly interminable slog that is required to build up to any revolution’s launch”. Now, after 60 plus years of Israel vainly trying to make the Palestinians non-existent, there may yet be a revolution waiting to happen, especially with the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns so successfully raising the ante around the world.

Nowadays, when Palestinian activists in their twenties and thirties meet up with veterans of the Palestinian struggle, they show an unexpected thoughtfulness towards the older, revolutionary generation, to which I belong. This is nothing like the courtesy extended as a matter of course to older people in our part of the world: it is more intimate and more poignant. What brings us together is always the need to discuss the options before us, and to see if a plan can be made. Everyone argues, laughs, shouts and tells black jokes. But whenever a proper discussion begins, the suddenly lowered voices of our frustrated young people, many of them at the heart of the fierce protests on university campuses and in rights campaigns elsewhere, have the same tone I used to hear in the voices of our young ambulance workers in Lebanon in the 1970s and 1980s: an elegiac gentleness towards the hopelessly wounded, towards those who were already beyond repair.

The way Palestinians see things, the fragmentation of the body politic – externally engineered, and increasingly internally driven – has now been achieved. This summer, even the liberal Israeli press began to notice that the key people in Ramallah, the Palestinian Authority’s capital in the West Bank, no longer discuss strategies of liberation but rather the huge business deals that prey on the public imagination. Every institution or overarching structure that once united Palestinians has now crumbled and been swept away. The gulf between Gaza and the West Bank, between Hamas and Fatah, between Palestinians inside Palestine and the millions of refugees outside it, between city and village, town and refugee camp, now seems unbridgeable. The elites are tiny and the numbers of the dispossessed and the disenfranchised increase every day. There is, at this moment, no single body able to claim legitimately to represent all Palestinians; no body able to set out a collective policy or national programme of liberation. There is no plan.

The feeling of paralysis doesn’t only affect the Palestinians. It is found too among the hundreds of international institutions and less formal groups involved in the thriving carpet-bagging industry of the Middle East Peace Process. The US, the UN, the EU, their special envoys and fact-finding commissions, their human rights monitors, lawyers and NGOs, the policy think tanks, the growing legion of international humanitarian agencies, the dialogue groups and peace groups, all came to the same conclusion shortly after the start of the second Intifada in the autumn of 2000. Over the last decade, these bodies have produced thousands of institutional memos, governmental reports, official démarches, human rights briefings, summaries, analyses, legal inquiries into war crimes and human rights abuses, academic books and articles. And they have pretty much nailed it: Palestinians are enduring the entrenched effects not only of a military occupation, but of a colonial regime that practises apartheid.

The predicament is understood and widely accepted, yet Palestinians and non-Palestinians appear equally baffled. Protest and denunciation have achieved very little. How are we to respond in a way that will allow us to prevail? The vocabulary required to form a policy is entirely absent both nationally and internationally. Palestinians are currently trapped in a historical moment that – as the contemporary world sees it – belongs to the past. The language the situation demands had life only inside an ideology which has now disappeared.
Everyone else has moved on. In a world whose intellectual framework is derived from university courses in postcolonial or cultural studies, from the discourse of post-nationalism, or human rights, or global governance, from post-conflict and security literature, the Palestinians are stuck fast in historical amber. They can’t move on, and the language that could assist them to do so is as extinct as Aramaic. No one cares any longer for talk of liberation: in fact, people flinch at the sound of it – it is unfashionable, embarrassing, reactionary even to speak of revolution today. Twenty-first-century eyes read revolutionary engagement as the first stage on the road to the guillotine or the Gulag. Advanced now well beyond the epic and heroic stages of its history, the West views its own revolutionary roots through the decadent backward gaze of Carl Schmitt. Seen through that prism, Palestinians remain stubbornly – one could almost say, wilfully – in the anti-colonial, revolutionary phase of their history.

So the questions debated by Palestinians are the same now as they ever were: how to organise, how to mobilise, how to unify? There remains a constant sense of emergency, but Palestinians with long memories agree that we are at a nadir in our history of resistance. The only sign of forward movement lies in the tide of revulsion at Israel’s belligerent policies, which Palestinian civil society organisations have channelled into a vivid and well-organised campaign of solidarity through boycotts, divestment and sanctions.

Exactly 50 years ago, Palestinians were at a similar stage of social and political fragmentation brought about by defeat and dispossession and the anomie that followed the Nakba of 1948. Without a country or the protection of a sovereign state, they were confronting, on the one hand, Israel, and on the other, sundry Arab regimes: between them they controlled every aspect of Palestinians’ social and civic lives as well as their physical space. They lived deep in the dust and disease of tent cities, without personal papers or property.

In 1955, a young Palestinian writer, Ghassan Kanafani, moved to Kuwait from Syria, where he had been a teacher at a school set up for refugees by the UN, after himself being expelled from Palestine with his family in 1948. One of his people’s most perceptive chroniclers, he described their mood in his diary: ‘The only thing we know is that tomorrow will be no better than today, and that we are waiting on the shore, yearning, for a boat that will not come. We are sentenced to be separated from everything – except from our own destruction.’

But what appeared to Kanafani to be the collective end was in fact its extraordinary beginning. By the end of the decade, the revolution had found a language and a form. For the first time in a century of rebellions and uprisings against foreign rule, Palestinians could mount a collective challenge to international, Israeli and Arab coercion, and unify sufficiently to represent themselves. Even a cursory study of the history of revolutions over the last 300 years reveals three elements essential to their origins. First, a plethora of revolutionary pamphlets, declarations and discussions issuing from different factions together begin to shape a shared understanding of the injustices that have to be overturned. A call to arms requires a convincing appraisal of the balance of forces if enough people are to be persuaded to embark on such a risky enterprise. The history of Palestinian attempts to achieve freedom would give anyone pause: two generations who tried lie buried in the cemeteries of more than two dozen countries.

Second, it is revolutionaries who make revolutions, and not the other way around. During the national mobilisation of the 1960s and 1970s, some joined the party, others the movement, but most simply joined the Palestinian revolution. It was taken for granted that one belonged to one of the parties, which were themselves embedded in the broader national liberation movement under the umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, a formal institution set up in 1964 by Arab states, which was captured from the Palestinian elite by the resistance groups a few years later. Empowered by becoming part of a fast-moving popular revolution, Palestinians – exiled, scattered and defeated as they were – achieved the two elusive things they have constantly sought: representation and unity.

If you raise the painful subject of this earlier time among Palestinians today, the usual effect is to revive the over-theoretical debate about when exactly the revolution died. (A discussion of its strengths and weaknesses would be more useful.) Some say it ended after Black September in Jordan in 1970; others that it ended in 1975 at the start of the Lebanese civil war. The majority see Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982, which brought about the comprehensive destruction of the PLO’s infrastructure, as having killed it off. The communiqués and declarations issued during the first Intifada, which took place in the occupied Palestinian territories between 1987 and 1993, were expressed in the language of revolution, but everyone agrees that it was all over by 1991, when the Madrid peace process was accepted on such unequal terms. That entire period of Palestinian history has fallen into disrepute for a number of reasons – not least having to watch its ghoulish remains driving around in official cars in Ramallah or posing at the White House – so the benefits are never assessed, or potentially useful lessons drawn.

Unity and representation are the common goods Palestinians must realise in order to advance their cause, and these clearly can’t be achieved via any of the options currently being suggested to us: not the distribution of the PA’s power between Hamas and Fatah (since the only representative institutional structure for all Palestinians is the Palestinian National Council, the parliament-in-exile of the PLO); not a US-sponsored peace process; and not the plan for Palestinian statehood proposed by the prime minister, Salam Fayyad, according to which the institutions of an independent state will be built in the face of a still expanding military occupation. Already by the 1970s, thanks to its fluid institutional architecture, the revolution was able to overcome national borders, protect its independence from the Arab regimes and convey its demands to the solidarity movements who supported it and exerted pressure on its behalf. Other national liberation movements of the 1960s and 1970s – the FLN, ANC, Swapo, the Sandinistas – had to operate with their leaders underground and in exile, developing their strategy outside the country while the population remained rooted in the land they hoped to liberate. For Palestinians, whose national politics were undone in an instant over a single year in 1948, it took the concerted actions of tens of thousands of cadres across the region to hold the people together while at the same time putting sufficient pressure on those governments, both Western and Arab, that would have preferred to see us capitulate to Israel. The mood of that short period, as I remember it, was profoundly popular and democratic: pluralist, multi-party, universalist, secular and highly progressive. Palestinians who dared not join in – businessmen, academics, the money-grubbing classes – were carried along in its wake, and obeyed its mandate. Today we could not be further from that fleeting moment of unity the revolution once afforded.

The experience of revolutionary life is difficult to describe. It is as much metaphysical as imaginative, combining urgency, purposefulness, seriousness and hard work, with a near celebratory sense of adventure and overriding optimism – a sort of carnival atmosphere of citizens’ rule. Key to its success is that this heightened state is consciously and collectively maintained by tens of thousands of people at the same time. If you get tired for a few hours or days, you know others are holding the ring.

The third, counterintuitive feature of revolutions is that they are usually launched by astonishingly small groups of individuals. The Palestinian revolution was no exception. Young Palestinians today, caught in the grind of their daily struggle, feel unable to make contact with their own past: its stories are like fairytales, out of their reach. The appropriate model for the emergence of the Palestinian movement of the 1960s and 1970s isn’t the Leninist vanguard party but the revolutions that established democracies in 19th-century Europe, where the acts of a few were matched, and then rapidly overtaken, by an entire nation, all of whose members considered themselves leaders. No one here waits around for instructions.

What usually goes unmentioned in the history books is the dangerous and seemingly interminable slog that is required to build up to any revolution’s launch: it may take years, even decades, once the match is lit, for it to ignite a mobilisation large enough to create a truly national initiative.

One of the individuals who still keeps the revolutionary spirit alive in these bleak times phoned me this week, and this time I rang him back. (Often I can’t face talking to him because his situation is so terrible.) Ziyad was a key activist in the first Intifada when he was a student at Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, and for the last 20 years he has dedicated his life in Gaza to what is commonly known as ‘mobilising from below’. Ziyad is, or was, head of the Rafah refugee camp’s popular committee, the local elected body, legendary now for its history of civic resistance to Israeli rule. Ziyad is like an artist, restlessly exploring ways to preserve people’s humanity amid the oppression and misery of southern Gaza. His cool eye and steady nerve, together with a seemingly inexhaustible affection for others, have kept him from turning away in despair at the things he has seen. At the height of the war on Gaza, he managed to create and sustain the only committee that included all the factions, with Fatah members working alongside Hamas, or vice versa. Members of other committees that had previously tried this (including his own) had been kneecapped for their pains.

Ziyad spent much of last year in prison in Gaza, and, as it turned out when I returned his call, some of this year’s Ramadan as well. ‘Oh no!’ I said, ‘What happened this time?’ He said that he’d been trying to organise in the elementary schools. This struck me as one of the funniest things I had heard in a long time: Ziyad laughed, too, when he began telling me about it. He had tried to organise a prize-giving in the camp for some of the students, but the current administration in Gaza didn’t like the idea at all. ‘I am not selecting children from Hamas families or Fatah families,’ he said, ‘just those who had done well in school. I had to try something!’
What the administration in Gaza does not like, Ziyad said, is the idea of movement, of freedom, of opening things up from below, of bringing people together for any common purpose at all. I told him I had spoken to Adnan in Beirut only that morning, and that the story was no different there: Adnan has been forced to stay at home for months now, unable to move. Until last year, he had worked closely with another old friend of mine, Kamal Medhat, a child of the revolution who was not so different from Ziyad in his determination to go it alone while carrying everyone with him.

Just over a year ago Kamal was assassinated by a car bomb in south Lebanon. He had been trying to urge people forward towards national unity, and to attack the political corruption then entrenched in the refugee camps: these two objectives, it soon became clear, were intertwined. He was making a very successful job of it, for he brought formidable experience to the task. Already a legend as a young man, Kamal was responsible for, among many other things, the security of the leadership when the revolution was centred in Beirut, and attempts against it took place on an almost daily basis. An obituary in the Arab press noted that ‘he constantly criticised Arafat, who would laugh.’ This was true: Kamal could be brutally honest, but he made everyone in the room feel happy, taking and giving endless orders, joking, and being especially encouraging to young cadres, though also quite tough. I witnessed at least a dozen acts of bravery by Kamal in the 1970s and early 1980s. After the PLO leadership was evacuated to Tunis in 1982, he returned to Lebanon to help lift the military siege of the Palestinian refugee camps by the Syrians and their proxies. In the 1990s, in disagreement with the leadership’s negotiating strategy, he absented himself from public life, studying for a doctorate in international law, staying very quiet. We lost track of each other until a few years ago, when he burst back onto the scene in Lebanon, unchanged and undefeated, now the second in command at the PLO embassy that had finally been re-established there.

I went to his funeral; we all walked the familiar path to the Palestinian cemetery, accompanied by thousands of refugees, clapping and singing and shouting revolutionary slogans. After the 40 days of mourning I returned to Beirut, where the traditional memorial meeting was convened at the Unesco palace. The hall was packed with Palestinians from the refugee camps across Lebanon, and black and white images of the handsome Kamal at different stages of his life succeeded one another on a screen behind the stage. Most of the Palestinian leaders were at an urgent meeting in Amman, and couldn’t attend. The eerie pockets of silence at various moments throughout the ceremony were bound up, it seemed to me, with the implications of his death (don’t organise, don’t push, don’t try to change things for the better). Something felt as if it was about to give.

His family, with whom I was staying, had asked me to speak about him, as Kamal had been an early teacher of mine. Afterwards, in the foyer, a stream of young people came up to me. They wanted me to know exactly what he had meant to them: ‘Kamal was the only one who spoke up for us’; ‘Kamal listened to us, he stood with us’; ‘He fought for us’; ‘He encouraged us.’ One after another, they told me stories of what he did. Each had recognised his revolutionary spirit, I thought, as I watched them wander away afterwards into the streets of Beirut.
Karma Nabulsi, a fellow of St Edmund Hall, Oxford and tutor in politics, was a representative of the PLO in Lebanon, Tunis and the UK.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

The War on the non-obedient

2012-01-30T20:18:00.000+04:00

FAD

The wrong carpenter
with
the wrong approach....

The war on Iran

is primarily a war on a third-world-country

that did not , and shall not , bow its head for the west.

This war has started much earlier than we all thinks

it started in Gaza and in Beirut before moving to Damascus , now.

The road to Tehran has started ,
from Kabul, via Baghdad , via Gaza ,via Beirut, via Tripoli

and what has happened in Tunis and Cairo was simply a diversion ,
a smoke screen and a distraction.

The Third-world , whether Muslim or not ,
must again obey and serve the West.

Moscow is no more the guarantor of the National-Liberation's-worldwide
Islam , de-facto , has taking over this role.

But,the world of the Muslims is now divided into the "western-obedient "
and the non-obedient.

The best example would be Pakistan that has, anyhow ,an atom-bomb
while (or because) it is "Western-obedient "
while Iran is completely the opposite.

Most annoying for the West is, first of all ,
is Iran´s help and support for the Palestinian cause !!

Whether we agree with the Iranian-Mullah´s or not
they remain 10 times more honest than those obedient Saudi-Mullah´s.

The West could not enter into Gaza , the West failed in Beirut
and Damascus shall not be different.....

Raja Chemayel

NB:
Israel is the core of the Western-policies.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

The Truth Behind the "Coming Regime Change" in Syria

2012-01-30T20:16:00.000+04:00

by Shamus Cooke

After meeting again to decide Syria's fate, the Arab League again decided to extend its "monitoring mission" in Syria. However, some Arab League nations under U.S. diplomatic control are clamoring for blood. These countries — virtual sock puppets of U.S. foreign policy — want to declare the Arab League monitoring mission "a failure,” so that military intervention — in the form of a no fly zone — can be used for regime change.

The United States appears to be using a strategy in Syria that it has perfected over the years, having succeeded most recently in Libya: arming small paramilitary groups loyal to U.S. interests that claim to speak for the local population; these militants then attack the targeted government the U.S. would like to see overthrown — including terrorist bombings — and when the attacked government defends itself, the U.S. cries "genocide" or "mass murder,” while calling for foreign military intervention.

This is the strategy that the U.S. is using to channel the Arab Spring into the bloody dead end of foreign military intervention.

For example, the U.S. media and government are fanatically giving the impression that, in Syria, the local population would like foreign militarily intervention to overthrow their authoritarian president, Bashar Assad. But facts are stubborn things.

After spinning these lies, The New York Times was forced to admit, in several articles, that there have been massive rallies in Syria in support of the Syrian government. These rallies are larger than any pro-government demonstration that the U.S. government could hope to organize for itself. The New York Times reports:

"The turnout [at least tens of thousands — see picture in link] in Sabaa Bahrat Square in Damascus, the [Syrian] capital, once again underlined the degree of backing that Mr. Assad and his leadership still enjoy among many Syrians, nearly seven months into the popular uprising. That support is especially pronounced in cities like Damascus and Aleppo, the country’s two largest." (January 13, 2012).

The New York Times is forced to admit that the two largest cities — in a small country — support the government (or at least oppose foreign military intervention).

This was further confirmed by a poll funded by the anti-Syrian Qatar Foundation, preformed by the Doha Debates:

"According to the latest opinion poll commissioned by The Doha Debates, Syrians are more supportive of their president with 55% not wanting him to resign." (January 2, 2012).

If people in Syria do not want foreign intervention — a likely reason that so many attended pro-Assad demonstrations — what about the so-called Free Syrian Army, which the United States has given immense credibility to and which claims to speak for the Syrian people?

The Free Syrian Army — like its Libyan counterpart — appears to be yet another Made-in-the-USA militant group, by route of its ally Turkey, a fact alluded to by the pro U.S.-establishment magazine, Foreign Affairs:

"Why does the Syrian [government] military not rocket their [Free Syrian Army] position or launch a large-scale assault? The FSA fighters are positioned about a mile from the Turkish border, near enough to escape across if the situation turned dire."

The article also quotes a Free Syrian Army member who states: "Every [Free Syrian Army] group in Turkey has its own job," Sayeed said. "[The Turks] gave us our freedom to move." (December 8, 2011).

The article also mentions that the Free Syrian Army is calling for a "no fly zone" over certain regions of Syria, which would destroy the Syrian government military; the possible starting locations of this no fly zone are on the Syrian borders of either Turkey, Jordan, or Iraq — all three are either strong U.S. allies or client states.

A “no fly zone” is the new euphemism that means the U.S. and its European military junior partners in NATO will intervene to use their advanced fighter jets to destroy the Syrian military, as happened in Libya. In Libya the no fly zone evolved into a “no drive zone” and eventually a “no survival” zone for anything resembling the Syrian military — or anybody who armed himself in defense of the Libyan government.

As in Syria, Libya's largest city, Tripoli, never had large anti-government demonstrations. The anti-Libyan government/pro-U.S. paramilitary group that attacked Libyan forces was so tiny that it took months to take power after 10,000 NATO bombing sorties (bombing missions) that destroyed large portions of Libya's infrastructure, as documented by the independent Human Rights Investigations.

It's totally unimaginable that any large section of Syrian society would invite a NATO-backed no fly zone, i.e. war, into Syria. The examples of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya are too glaring for any Middle Eastern nation not to notice. For the Free Syrian Army to demand a NATO invasion of Syria is enough to label the FSA a U.S. puppet group striving for political power, deserving to be condemned.

This strategy of using a proxy army to undermine an anti-U.S. government has a grisly past. This strategy is celebrated in the book Charlie Wilson's War, which tells the true story of the U.S. government sending weapons and cash to Islamic extremists to wage a terrorist campaign against the Afghan government, which was an ally of the Soviet Union at the time. The attacks eventually led to the Afghan government asking for Soviet military re-enforcements, whose presence in Afghanistan created a degree of popular support for the extremists who eventually became known as the Taliban.

The same scenario also played itself out in Kosovo, where the tiny, U.S.-backed Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began a terrorist campaign against the government of Yugoslavia, intending to separate Kosovo into an independent nation. When the Yugoslav government attempted to defend itself from the KLA — while imitating its violent tactics — the U.S. and other western governments labeled it genocide, and invaded Yugoslavia, calling it a "humanitarian invasion.” To this day the U.S. is one of few nations that recognizes Kosovo as an independent nation while Kosovo faithfully serves the interests of the United States.

The same proxy war strategy — by the U.S. and other European powers — played a crucial role in numerous wars throughout Africa, which culminated in the massive Congo War that killed over five million people, as French journalist Gerard Prunier describes in his book, Africa's World War.

In Syria history is repeating itself, and some non-U.S. allies are very aware of it. The New York Times reports:

"[Russia's Foreign Minister] said that foreign governments [the U.S., Turkey, etc.] were arming ‘militants and extremists’ in Syria."

The Foreign minister also gave an accurate description of U.S. foreign policy towards Iran:

"Mr. Lavrov offered a similarly grave message about the possibility of a military strike against Iran, which he said would be a “catastrophe.” He said sanctions now being proposed against Tehran were “intended to have a smothering effect on the Iranian economy and the Iranian population, probably in the hopes of provoking discontent.” (January 19, 2012).

Most ominously, the Russian Foreign Minister said that U.S. foreign policy in Syria and Iran could lead to a "very big war,” i.e., a war that becomes regional or even international in scope, as other powers intervene to uphold their interests in the region.

Russia has offered a way to avoid war in Syria and is pursuing it through the UN Security Council; it is the same path being pursued by the pro-U.S. government in Yemen: maintaining the current government in power until elections are called. Unfortunately, Yemen is an ally of the U.S. and Syria is not — the U.S. and its allies are blocking the same approach in Syria in order to pursue war.

The Syrian government opposition bloc inside of Syria, the National Coordination Committee, opposes foreign military intervention. A leader of the NCC is Hassan Abdul Azim, who wisely states;

“We refuse on principle any type of military foreign intervention because it threatens the freedom of our country,” (January 19, 2012).

This is very likely the prevailing opinion inside of Syria, since the threat of no fly zones will result in the same mass bombings experienced by the citizens of Tripoli in Libya. The fake Syrian opposition outside of the country, The Syrian National Council, is yet another U.S. puppet — now allied with the Free Syrian Army — begging for a military invasion of Syria in order to "liberate" it. Of course the western media tells only the perspective of the pro-U.S. Syrian National Council.

The U.S. has proven on multiple occasions that military solutions solve nothing, having torn asunder the social fabric of Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Libya. The working people of Syria and Iran do not desire "help" from the U.S. government and its allies to prevent bloodshed. The working people of these countries could liberate themselves from their authoritarian governments, as did the Tunisians and Egyptians, which is precisely the point: the U.S. is intervening militarily to re-gain control over a region that slipped out of its hands during the Arab Spring. This military approach serves to push the working people of the targeted country into the hands of their government while creating a humanitarian catastrophe for the invaded nation. The working people of the United States have no interest in aggressive war and have a responsibility to learn about U.S. government propaganda so that they can demand its end in the streets.

Shamus Cooke is a social worker, trade unionist, and writer for Workers Action ( www.workerscompass.org )

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/world/middleeast/syrians-rally-in-support-of-assad.html
http://www.thedohadebates.com/news/item/index.asp?n=14312
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/12/08/syria_free_army_rebels?page=0,3
http://humanrightsinvestigations.org/tag/nato-bombing/
http://www.smh.com.au/world/russia-warns-west-it-risks-war-over-syria-iran-20120119-1q8ei.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/world/europe/russia-warns-against-support-for-arab-uprisings.html?_r=3&ref=world
http://rt.com/news/syria-protests-russia-dialogue-149/

Shamus Cooke is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Shamus Cooke

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!