Uprooted Palestinians

Palestinians need high calibre leaders

2012-02-02T07:29:00.000+04:00

William Hague & Mahmoud Abbas

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was in London recently. Did anyone know? Did Western media care? No. Not until reports appeared that Jewish community leaders cancelled a meeting with him after intervention by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s Office and Israel’s embassy in London, and Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi condemned the move as

“seeking to suppress and manipulate Jewish public opinion”.

It was also typical of Netanyahu’s “persistent efforts” to prevent dialogue, she said, according to the Palestinian Ma’an news agency. Even then, Western media were not much interested.

The Palestinian London embassy’s smart new website carries … nothing journalists can get their teeth into. It doesn’t introduce us to Palestinian chiefs and their ‘team’. It offers no strategic briefing material on current events. And, crucially, there is no attempt to set the news agenda.

I put it to the Palestinian ambassador in London, Professor Manuel Hassassian, that such a blunder by Israel was a gift to any alert Public Relations/Public Affairs team. Why didn’t the Palestinian Authority seize it?

Hassassian denied the Palestinians asked to meet with the Jewish community. It seems odd that Ashrawi, a shrewd, well respected politician and close colleague of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, could have got it wrong. Or indeed the normally reliable Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which reported that Hassassian himself, together with British diplomats, had pushed for Jewish leaders to meet with Abbas.

Confused? Me too. Whatever the truth, the Palestinian administration is in the habit of missing open goals. It has dumbed right down. The London embassy’s smart new website carries a selection of items from news agencies but nothing journalists can get their teeth into. It doesn’t introduce us to Palestinian chiefs and their “team”. It offers no strategic briefing material on current events. And, crucially, there is no attempt to set the news agenda.

Information the embassy sends direct to people like me is mostly notification of social events and similar “froth”. After all these years, and with momentous opportunities and threats looming, Ramallah still fails to give a good account of itself. Is that by accident or design? If it was never Abbas’s intention to meet Jewish community leaders, what exactly did he come to the UK for?

What passes for “success”

The embassy says his “successful visit” included meetings with Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. President Abbas also met opposition leader Ed Miliband and other parliamentarians. In addition, he met the archbishop of Canterbury and other church leaders to brief them on the ongoing violations of places of worship and the Judaization taking place in East Jerusalem.
Cameron told him:

Obviously, as a friend of Israel and a friend of the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, we want to see a strong, democratic, peaceful Israel alongside a strong, democratic and peaceful Palestine. We believe that is achievable, but we can’t achieve it without the two parties coming together and talking and discussing. In the end, this two-state solution can only come about from the two parties talking to each other. We cannot want it more than you want it.
So, we wish you well … and we say that as a friend of Israel but also a very strong friend of the Palestinian people…

To which I understand Abbas replied:

Of course, nothing can be achieved without negotiations … we hope that there will be something tangible as a result of these negotiations.
“Of course, time is of the essence; there must be speed, we must be fast in achieving those things because the settlements and the whole thing will go on – seeing the settlements going on, is going to help everything; it’s what stands in the face of everything at the same time. So, settlements have to stop. Settlements have to stop in order for us to be able to continue our negotiations; to come to some sort of solution and a solution which will encompass the vision of the Palestinian state to come in the future.
I personally know very well that you have a very balanced relationship, be that towards Israel or the Palestinian Authority. This at the same time is of great importance because you could play a political role, so to speak, so that we can find the balance that we all want to seek. We always need your help, sir.

Good grief, is that the best Ramallah’s speech-writers can do? And what was that about Britain’s Israel-firster government having “a very balanced relationship”…?
“Where was Abbas’s concern for Gaza, or isn’t Gaza part of Palestine any more? Doesn’t the blockade of Gaza have to end before Palestinians even think about getting once again embroiled in futile negotiations?”

Where was Abbas’s concern for Gaza, or isn’t Gaza part of Palestine any more? Doesn’t the blockade of Gaza have to end before Palestinians even think about getting once again embroiled in futile negotiations?

The idea, voiced by Zionist Cameron and repeated by Abbas, that nothing can be achieved without negotiation is of course utterly false. There’s no mention – on either side – of international law enforcement and the essential role it must play before any negotiations can be considered fair or honourable.

Hague said after his meeting with Abbas:

“I stressed the importance Britain attaches to a secure and universally recognized Israel living alongside a sovereign and viable Palestinian state, based on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem the future capital of both states, and a fair settlement for refugees.”

Only weeks earlier Hague, a fanatical Israel flag-waver, was preparing to betray the Palestinians by abstaining if their quest for statehood was pushed to a vote at the UN.
More pretty words devoid of meaning were paraded in the archbishop of Canterbury’s press release:

We continue to share the hopes of the Palestinian leadership for a lasting and just peace in the Holy Land, and we pray for the courage on all sides to break the current deadlock. Young people in Israel and in the Palestinian territories long for justice and stability and they must not be let down. We were deeply grateful to President Abbas for taking time to share with us his concerns and aspirations.

The only genuine boost he received was a remark by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, referring to Israel’s illegal settlements:

Once you place physical facts on the ground which make it impossible to deliver what everyone has for years agreed is the ultimate destination, then you do immense damage.
It’s an act of deliberate vandalism to the basic premise upon which negotiations have taken place for years and that is why we have expressed our concerns as a government in increasingly forceful terms.

He prefaced his comments by saying there was

“no stronger supporter of Israel than myself as a beacon of democracy in the region”

. It’s a sad reflection on the Westminster scene when Clegg, a Liberal Democrat and supposedly possessed of certain principles, feels obliged to say such a silly thing when it’s tantamount to defending the indefensible.

“This dreary ‘grey suit’ of a man might have done better to just meet ordinary people – people like the 40,000 or so displaced Palestinians living in the UK and longing to return, and the numerous activist organizations that devote much time and energy putting across the Palestinian case…”

Didn’t Abbas remind him about Israel’s abduction and imprisonment without trial of the 26 elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, including its head, Dr Aziz Dweik? Dweik is reported to have been arrested by Israel three times since 2002 and twice held without formal charges. This wholesale kidnapping of democratically elected officials underlines yet again Israel’s disregard for international law and the absurdity of its claim to be the only beacon of democracy in the Middle East.
So, does Abbas seriously believe his visit was “successful”? This dreary “grey suit” of a man might have done better to just meet ordinary people – people like the 40,000 or so displaced Palestinians living in the UK and longing to return, and the numerous activist organizations that devote much time and energy putting across the Palestinian case, slapping down Israel’s propaganda lies and generally doing the job that Abbas and his lacklustre Fatah outfit have failed to do.
That’s if he wanted their ongoing support. Maybe he’s not bothered.

Under orders not to rock the Israeli boat?

Some time ago Hamas complained that the Palestinian Authority was not getting its message across thanks to “poorly qualified or unqualified spokespersons with inadequate political and linguistic abilities”. Diplomacy had failed and Palestinians needed “professional spokespersons with excellent knowledge of the world and mastery of foreign languages, especially English, to tell the world in a straightforward manner that Israel is a murderer, liar and land thief…”

Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, who ran rings round the Palestinians while ambassador in London, recently addressed the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East. He said:

And how many times have members of this Council – and many others – repeated: “settlements are the primary obstacle to peace”?… The primary obstacle to peace is not settlements. The primary obstacle to peace is the so-called “claim of return”. Let me repeat that: the major hurdle to peace is the Palestinians’ insistence on the so-called “claim of return” [he means the “right of return”].

Any press team worth its salt could make mincemeat of Prosor. A competent Palestinian administration would have had a news release in every activist’s inbox and on every mainstream editor’s desk within hours and made spokespersons (speaking perfect English) available to follow through with additional briefings and further comment. It would have gone worldwide via all embassies and missions. But Prosor broadcasts his toxic nonsense non-stop, knowing there will be no effective rebuke from the Palestinians.

It is six years since the Palestinian Authority/Palestine Liberation Organization was urged to have all their key people professionally trained in media skills. They haven’t done so. Consequently, for the last six critical years the Palestinian people have continued to lose ground.

“Will the Palestinians ever seize the opportunity and gear up properly for the communications struggle to win justice? If it’s left to the likes of Abbas the answer is no and the outcome will be disastrous.”
The Palestinian high command behaves as if under strict orders not to rock the boat and not to make waves or even the slightest ripple. They continue to squander their chances and make little impact, even though truth and justice are on their side. So Israel has been the undeserving winner in the propaganda war.

Will the Palestinians ever seize the opportunity and gear up properly for the communications struggle to win justice? If it’s left to the likes of Abbas the answer is no and the outcome will be disastrous.
As campaigner Robert Stiver commented a few days ago, we need

“ideas and commitments on how we can finally get serious, via a mass uprising, to ‘out’ Zionism beyond the choir and bring an end to the Palestinians’ unbearable torment”.

But hopes of mobilizing the necessary numbers are thwarted by the continuing presence of Mahmoud Abbas. His presidential term ran out long ago and he’s clinging to power unlawfully. He needs to step down or be removed. Someone with unquestionable legitimacy and true leadership qualities must fill the void and deploy skilled resources.

On Abbas’s watch disunity has triumphed. He rides roughshod over the Basic Law and has a crime sheet as long as your arm. He’ll be remembered mostly for doing the Israeli occupation forces’ dirty work.

Another problem is chief negotiator Saeb Erekat who has occupied that vitally important position for nearly 20 years and achieved – well, what? He must be the most unsuccessful negotiator on the planet. Why is he still there?

If Palestinians are to retain worldwide sympathy and support, build additional strength and galvanize the whole movement into action against the corrupt political class, they will have to find leaders of a much higher calibre – and fast.
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!

Waterfront, luxury residential development, a Libyan-Qatari Joint Venture

2012-02-02T07:14:00.000+04:00

Posted on February 2, 2012 |

From “The Tripoli Post”:

- “The Waterfront to Include 5-Star Resort, Residences, Shops, and More.
Work has begun at The Waterfront, a luxury residential and resort development located near Tripoli along Libya’s Mediterranean coast, announced Al-Libya Al-Qataria (ALAQ), a joint venture between Oyia (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Libya’s Economic and Social Development Fund) and Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority)”……

…… Eng. Mohammed bin Ali Al-Hedfa, Group CEO of Qatari Diar, added, “We are delighted to be breaking ground on The Waterfront, and we consider it an important symbol of the deep friendship between Libya and the State of Qatar. Furthermore, we believe that The Waterfront’s world-class resort and residences have the potential to herald a new era of luxury living for both Libyan residents and the growing number of business and leisure travelers who visit Tripoli”.
Numerous international consultants are providing assistance to the project. The initial phase of The Waterfront is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012″……….

……….read the full article at the page:

http://www.tripolipost.com/articledetail.asp?c=11&i=5107

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Eng. Mohammed bin Ali Al-Hedfa, Group CEO of Qatari Diar, added, “We are delighted to be breaking ground on The Waterfront, and we consider it an important symbol of the deep friendship between Libya and the State of Qatar. Furthermore, we believe that The Waterfront’s world-class resort and residences have the potential to herald a new era of luxury living for both Libyan residents and the growing number of business and leisure travelers who visit Tripoli.”
Numerous international consultants are providing assistance to the project. The initial phase of The Waterfront is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012.

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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!

BBC censors ‘Palestine’ from rap

2012-02-02T00:48:00.000+04:00

by Jonathon Blakeley

PRESS RELEASE for immediate release: 31st January 2012: -

The BBC has admitted it was ‘overcautious’ in editing the word ‘Palestine’ from an artist’s performance on Radio 1Xtra and has said it is ‘looking to learn’ from the way it handled the situation.

However, in a ruling released today (31/01/12), the BBC Trust said the final content that was broadcast on the Charlie Sloth Hip Hop M1X – a music programme – was not biased and therefore did not breach its editorial guidelines.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has spent eight months trying to find out why the decision was made to censor the lyrics of a freestyle performance by the rapper,. Appearing on the Charlie Sloth show in February 2011, he sang:

I can scream Free Palestine for my beliefs”.

BBC producers replaced the word ‘Palestine’ with the sound of breaking glass, and the censored performance was repeated in April on the same show.
Amena Saleem, of PSC, said:

In its correspondence with us, the BBC said the word Palestine isn’t offensive, but ‘implying that it is not free is the contentious issue”,

and this is why the edit was made.

“Putting aside the BBC’s ignorance of international law, which states unambiguously that Palestine is under occupation, we have argued that this decision clearly shows the BBC’s bias against Palestine. Unable to counter this point, the BBC Trust has moved the goalposts and decided to look at the censored content that was broadcast in February and April 2011.

“And the Trustees have decided that the content from which the word ‘Palestine’ had been edited was not biased against Palestine. This level of manipulation and duplicity would not be out of place in Catch 22.”

Ms Saleem added:

“It’s a great shame that, in the year of the Arab Spring when the BBC was covering the struggle of millions of people for freedom, it remained wedded to its institutionalised bias against the Palestinians and refused to even recognise the fact of their occupation.”

In May 2011, 19 artists, MPs, academics and lawyers signed a letter to the Guardian protesting at the edit as ‘an attack on the principles of free speech’. Signatories included the director Ken Loach, and comedians Mark Thomas, Jeremy Hardy, Mark Steel and Alexei Sayle.

Here is a video that you won’t see or hear on the BBC TV or Radio – Enjoy.
Long Live Palestine by Lowkey.

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BBC censors own report on Tunisia’s Jews

2012-02-02T00:35:00.000+04:00

by Alan Hart

There was a moment in a report from Tunisia by the BBC’s Wyre Davies when I could not stop myself laughing. I was listening to it on the Corporation’s generally excellent World Service radio. (In my view this particular BBC service is generally excellent because unlike all other BBC news and current affairs outlets, radio and tv, it often reflects some of the truth about what is happening in and over Palestine that became Israel).

Davies was in Tunisia to find out how its remaining 2,000 Jews (down from 300,000 once upon a time) were responding to a call from an Israeli government minister for them to move to Israel. The case the minister made was, apparently, that their security and wellbeing were no longer guaranteed in an Arab country with an Islamist government in place of what Davies called a

sectarian dictatorship”.

In other words, Tunisia’s Jews were in danger and would be safe in Israel. (My guess is that the greatest concern of the Israeli minister and his colleagues was less the fate of Jews in Tunisia and more the need for Jews from anywhere to go to Israel to help defuse the ticking demographic time-bomb of occupation).
The story as told by Davies for the BBC’s World (radio) Service was honest reporting at its best. Its explicit message was that Tunisia’s Jews have rejected the Israeli call.
One of those interviewed by Davies said to him and a listening world, “No one here is afraid.”
Another said,

Go to Israel?… I’m not crazy!”

That’s what made me laugh.
A subsequent development wiped the smile from my face.
A friend in Italy sent me a web link for the television version of the Davies report from Tunisia. I opened the link to check that it was the same report I’d heard on the World (radio) Service. It started in exactly the same way so I assumed it was, and I tweeted it as “MUST WATCH: Tunisia’s Jews reject (Israel’s) call to leave,”
An hour or so later I made the time to view the complete television version. The Jewish gentleman who said, “Go to Israel…? I’m not crazy!” had been edited out.
On past BBC form there are four possible explanations.

Driven by a personal commitment to Zionism and support for its monster child right or wrong, a senior BBC executive ordered the quote to be dropped on his own initiative,
A senior BBC executive received a telephone call from the Israeli Embassy in London, or possibly the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, telling him or her that Israel would not be pleased if the BBC gave more air time to a Tunisian Jew who was saying “No” to Israel in a way that suggested he had some contempt for the Zionist state and thought that many Israelis were crazy.
A senior BBC executive anticipated that giving the Jewish gentleman in Tunisia a wider audience would provoke Zionism’s wrath and decided (as BBC excutives often do) that it was better for the Corporation to censor itself than provoke that wrath.
For reasons of limited space in a television news bulletin, the report for the World (radio) Service had to be edited, shortened.

I have to say that I consider the fourth possible explanation as summarized above to be the least likely one. Why? There are many very good journalists in the BBC and they know as well as I do that the single most revealing and therefore newsworthy statement in the original Davies report was that of the Jewish gentleman who said, “Go to Israel…? I’m not crazy!”

The censored (or edited) version of the Davies report can be found at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/news/world-africa-16805329
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!

Receiving Islamic Jihad SG, Imam Khamenei Stresses Tehran’s Strong Opposition to Foreign Interference in Syria

2012-02-02T00:30:00.001+04:00

Local Editor
Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Imam Sayyed Ali Khamenei confirmed Tuesday that "Syria's support for the resistance movements in the region is the main reason behind US hostile policies against the county."

Receiving the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, His Eminence voiced "Tehran's strong opposition to foreign interference in Syria."

"Iran's stance on Syria is support for any reforms in favor of people and opposition to US and its allies' interference in Syria's domestic affairs," Ayatollah Khamenei.

Haneyya discusses Palestinian
developments with Amir of Qatar

His Eminence further explained that "if one considers the developments in Syria with a comprehensive analysis, the US project in that country can be easily seen."

"Unfortunately, some other countries and some regional countries are participating in the American plot," Imam Khamenei said.

Mishaal meeting with Jordanian
monarch turned new page

The Leader underlined that the main goal of the US in Syria is to strike the resistance line in the region "because Syria supports Palestinian resistance and Islamic resistance in Lebanon."

“If the Syrian government promises the US that it stops its support for Islamic resistance in Palestine and Lebanon, then all problems will be solved because Syria's only crime is supporting the resistance,” the Leader added. “US and certain western countries want to revenge their recent defeats in the region, including in Egypt and Tunisia,” Ayatollah Khamenei underscored.

Source: News agencies, Edited by moqawama.org

The enemy is this American Administration and its “tool” not “ally”in the region, Israel,
Ayatollah Taskhiri: US, “Israel” Seek Control of Region, Syria to Target Resistance

Syrian Paper ... Blown Away By Hard Choice?!

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Inoculating Israel? Some Uncomfortable Doubts about BDS

2012-02-02T00:05:00.000+04:00

by Francis Clark-Lowes

When I shop at my local Sainsbury’s I check the usual suspects to see if they are produced in Israel, and if so I don’t buy them. I refuse to treat Israel as if it were a normal state, and this is my little gesture to say so.

But if I’m given a Marks and Spencer’s gift voucher for Christmas, or if I urgently need some coleslaw and can only find it at our local after-hours M&S, I don’t tear up the voucher or forego coleslaw with my baked potato. And when I arrived at Sainsbury’s the other day to find the air resounding with amplified cries of ‘West Bank’, ‘Gaza’, ‘Jordan valley’, ‘Palestinians’, ‘Israeli settlers’ I scurried into an out-of-sight aisle.

Why this lack of moral fibre? Is it that I no longer have the undoubted courage it takes to engage in such actions? Do I feel guilty at abandoning my one-time comrades (which I had done some time before my expulsion)? Perhaps a bit of both. But I’m afraid it’s more that I no longer feel confident, at a gut level, about BDS.

I ask myself: What is BDS, at best, likely to achieve? Without the support of the international community, I can’t see it bringing Israel to its knees. The US is committed to Israel’s survival. But what, then, of the moral effect of significant pressure? Won’t this bring about a touchier-feelier Israel, or Israel-Palestine, one which respects universal rights?

Those who argue for such an effect seem to fall into three camps; two-staters, one-staters and vague humanitarians. The two-state solution is dead, and would in any case almost certainly have required the Palestinians to accept a severe curtailing of their rights vis-à-vis Israel. On the other hand, the one-state solution, if it granted Palestinians equal rights, would involve the end of Zionism. Let’s think about that a little.

Without the end of Zionism the oppression of the Palestinians will continue. Those who favour BDS argue that there is a parallel between Apartheid South Africa and Israel. They say the equivalent of BDS in the anti-Apartheid movement played an important part in overthrowing that regime.

I have two reservations about this theory. The first is that there was very little ideological support for Apartheid beyond South Africa, while there is massive ideological support for Zionism. The second is that the demise of Apartheid came immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. It is not difficult to see how the two were connected. In other words, Apartheid was more vulnerable than Zionism, and even then it was a global shift in power which really brought about the change.

But to return to the vague humanitarians, they don’t think, they just feel that if we believe firmly enough in BDS there will somehow be a just outcome, even if we can’t conceive at present what that might be. They are inclined to say: ‘Israel is there. You can’t change facts.’ Well, the British Empire, Apartheid South Africa and the Soviet Union were there, and now they are no more. The question is how such a change might be achieved in Israel-Palestine? I’m doubtful that BDS is the answer.

The main attraction of BDS, it seems to me, is that it offers the possibility of almost unlimited activity in a campaigning situation which is otherwise almost totally stalemated. It feels good to be doing something, and the less we think about it the better. I have already stated how I believe that stalemate could be broken, so I won’t restate my position here.

If I am right in doubting the effectiveness of BDS, is it possible that it could actually be counter-productive? For example, while it’s reasonable for an oppressed people to say that they are prepared to suffer further for the sake of a campaign which will eventually liberate them, if that campaign is a forlorn hope, will they simply suffer further (e.g. from lack of employment) in vain?

And then there is the question of targeting companies which in some way support Israel. Our entire political, economic and cultural system is complicit in Israeli crimes. Is it then wise to target particular firms like Marks and Spencer’s, thereby implying that complicity is limited?

And lastly there is a really uncomfortable thought. Could it be that the pin-pricks of BDS inoculate Israel against further effective action, by strengthening its resolve and resources, rather than delivering a lethal injection?
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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!

Militias battle it out in Libyan capital

2012-02-01T23:53:00.000+04:00

In case you missed it: Will 2012 Bring Tribal War to Libya?
In case you missed it: Gordon Duff Calling for unity??? What Time is It?
In case you missed it: On Sabir Nureddin's alternative strategy for liberation of Libya

Militias battle it out in Libyan capital

Published Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Rival militias engaged in a gun battle near office buildings and a five-star hotel in the center of the Libyan capital on Wednesday, underscoring how volatile the country still is three months on from Muammar Gaddafi's death.

A Reuters reporter said exchanges of both heavy and light weapons could be heard coming from the Tripoli district of El-Saadi beach, a stretch of Mediterranean coast overlooked by office skyscrapers and the Marriott Hotel.

Ambulance sirens could be heard and plumes of smoke rose from the area of the fighting, which had continued for at least 40 minutes.

Interior ministry forces had blocked a one kilometer section of road alongside the beach, but they did not appear to be intervening. Two militia pick-up trucks, with anti-aircraft guns on the back, were seen driving past towards the fighting.

An interior ministry official said the fighting was between militiamen from the city of Misrata, and units from Zintan. Both groups fought to oust Gaddafi and now are using their military power to underwrite a campaign for influence in the new Libya.

"There are two groups fighting," said the official, Naji Awad, who was monitoring the battle from near the Marriott Hotel. "Misrata controls a police academy building up the road and they are fighting with Zintan. We do not know why they are fighting," he said.

Libya's ruling National Transitional Council (NTC) is struggling to impose its authority on the country and form a functioning national police force and army.

Western intervention into the Libyan uprising last year brought with it an influx of weapons, many of which are now in the hands of rogue militias unwilling to relinquish their new found power.
Heavily-armed militias have carved the country into local fiefdoms and their fighters, though they express loyalty to the NTC, answer only to their own commanders.

Several militias from outside the capital have set up bases in Tripoli. They clash with each other intermittently often because of disputes over who controls which neighborhoods of the city.
The violence on Wednesday was the first time in weeks that a major gun battle had broken out in the center of the capital.

(Reuters, Al-Akhbar)

Blame NATO for the Mess in Libya
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Blame NATO for the Mess in Libya

2012-02-01T23:04:00.000+04:00

Situation in Libya is promising a multi-layered conflict. (Onislam)

By Ramzy Baroud

The British Foreign Office and the US State Department are seriously concerned. Human rights officers in the United Nations are angry. Canada, for some reason, seems particularly enraged. The target of all this fury is Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC), which is berated for failing to curtail widespread human rights violations throughout the country.

The story sounds somewhat typical. Rights watchdog groups sound the alarm regarding violations in some third world country. Western powers respond by demanding accountability. The media reports on the story until it eventually fades away.

However, this story requires more than a mere acknowledgement of the self-serving approach to human rights violations. The accusers include the UN and leading members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). It was the selective wording and interpretation of UN Security Council Resolution 1973 that led to a devastating war against Libya. The war destroyed one brutal regime and replaced it with another — at the expense of tens of thousands of Libyan lives.

As for the accused, it is no other than the NTC, which itself was a Nato political construct aimed at leading the political transition in Libya to serve western interests.

The whole Libyan affair was choreographed in a way that actually resembles the management of Iraq following the March 2003 invasion. Western powers purported to serve as the enforcers of international law, with the altruistic aim of ridding the world of vile dictators who ‘kill their own people'. But the situation in Libya is apparently less manageable than anticipated.

Iraq Misadventure

It turned out that ‘mission accomplished' in Libya was yet another hoax. The result is no less devastating than what transpired in Iraq.

The current situation in Libya is promising a multi-layered conflict involving numerous militias, tribes and factions, all organised around ideological, familial and political objectives that are unique to Libya itself.

The war on Libya has empowered some parties and given them the chance to settle scores. This is highlighted in the current violence in Bani Walid, which saw widespread killings and tortures of those accused of being loyalists of Muammar Gaddafi.

All it takes for one militia to justify its onslaught against any town in Libya is to declare that it hosts Gaddafi loyalists. This was the case in Bani Walid, one of the last cities to surrender. The denunciation is enough to render every act of aggression and torture somehow acceptable by Arab and western media alike. The NTC is merely choosing sides to ensure that emerging powerful militias remain loyal to it, even if only verbally.

All of this goes against Nato's initial calculations. Nato had hoped that a strong NTC, backed by well-controlled militias, would eventually merge to become the country's next government and national army. This didn't happen. The NTC was organised haphazardly without a real popular mandate, while the militias are still in their trenches to ensure that future Libya will not be dismissive of their tribes, cities and factional interests. It is a recipe for a civil war.

The situation worsened as rights groups issued stinging criticism of the dire situation in Libyan prisons. Amnesty International spoke of inmates dying under torture. In Davos, The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, told Associated Press that various militias hold up to 8,000 prisoners in 60 detention centres around the country. In these centres, "there's torture, extrajudicial executions, rape of both men and women".

The Nato allies are concerned, of course. If the Libyan model — regime change from the air — completely fails, their military adventurism in the Middle East will suffer yet another setback. More, the unfolding of the Libyan travesty will continue to reawaken allegations of serious war crimes committed by Nato itself, who supposedly unleashed the war on Libya "to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack".

The Nato war on Libya was commanded by a Canadian, Lt Gen Charles Bouchard. Last June, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird was quoted as saying that Libya should not be expected to go from "Gaddafi to Thomas Jefferson". He failed to elaborate on what kind of democracy Nato intended to achieve with its 9,600-strikes mission.

To berate Libyans for failing to adhere to human rights is brazen hypocrisy, especially as many of Nato victims are still not fully counted for. The behaviour of militias, and the unrepresentative NTC are simply a continuation of the very violent legacy set forth by the very Nato countries that are demanding accountability, democracy and the rule of law.

- Ramzy Baroud is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story. (This article was originally published in Gulf News, February 1, 2012)

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What makes the holocaust so important?

2012-02-01T22:55:00.000+04:00

by Paul Barrow

Following weeks of harasment by Zionist infiltrators Tony Greenstein and Abraham Weizfeld; Paul Barrow, an American solidarity activist told the two tribal activists what he thought of them both. ~ the Editors…

I wouldn’t be so generous as to call you or Weizfeld an “anti-Zionist Jew,” Tony (Greenstein). You look pretty Zionist to me. Zionism is not just the affirmation of the right of a Jewish claim to a bunker along the shores of the Mediterranean. It is this belief in something universally sacrosanct about Jewishness, despite lack of any evidence that there is anything universal about Jews, other than a claim to being “Jewish” that we are not allowed to criticize, regardless of how ugly “Jews” become as a political force in asserting their control over the universe in the name of their tribe. I’m not even sure of your qualifications as a Jew. No one has asked me what my preferences are as to a claim of any sort of identity, and perhaps you should establish your credentials for being a Jew in the first place, since you are so earnest in your desire to defend their honor, whatever they might have left of it after you have done with the subject. Whether one believes in the holocaust or not was not a qualification for being invited to this group any more than whether or not I believe that the Mongols invaded Finland and raped all the wives and brought about the dilution of the Finnish race. Since when is the Jewish tragedy any more important than the Finnish tragedy? No one has asked me if I acknowledge that Kashmir is an integral part of India. Is this also a demand? To question this is also a crime in India. Should I also recognize that 2 million Indians were wiped off the face of the earth by the invasion of Europeans in America? Why isn’t that on the table as well? Why isn’t every genocide in history on the table? Am I also required to admit that the Turks are guilty of Armenian genocide without question, without investigation, without any query at all?

What makes the holocaust so damned important?

Why is holocaust denial now more important to so-called Jews than acknowledging a Jewish god? What does being Jewish mean to you? To admit that there was a holocaust? Are you semitic? Who are the semites? Are you Judaic? Do you believe in the Exodus, the invasion of Palestine, the massacre of the people of Palestine, and the right of return to massacre them AGAIN? Can a white whose origins can only be traced back to the Kazars be considered semitic?

Apocalypse in Gaza

A far greater crime than being a holocaust denier is to be a Palestinian genocide denier, a Palestinian genocide ignorer, of which Jews as a lot are guilty of. There is no massive outcry. You see far more wealthy Jews funding AIPAC than funding the Palestinian cause, and funding other criminal agencies that have fundamentally taken over the American government and made us all, Jews and non Jews alike, a party to perhaps the greatest tragedy ever recorded in history of massive slaughter of Arabs and Muslims across the globe. Refusing to stand up against the crimes of Israel makes every jew complicit, because this is being done in the name of Jews. Yet I have been personally physically threatened by Jews in my own community for asking them to do this. If someone robs a bank and kills all the bank employees and says, I’m doing this for the Barrow family, are not the police going to come to me and ask me if I know anything about this, and am I reponsible for this? What am I to say?

“Shut up. Get off my porch. Get out of my face. You don’t have any right to interrogate me.”

Don’t I have an obligation to deny any role or responsibility for it? If I am silent, doesn’t that make me inherently complicit? Doesn’t at least the appearance of that seem rather suspicious? So why shouldn’t the entire world be looking at the jews and saying, “Hello. What’s up, folks?” Perhaps we should now be calling Jews Holos instead. Have you also established the synagogue of the Holos? Would that be preferable to you? Suppose I deny that there was ever an Exodus? Isn’t that far more fundamental to Jews than Auschwitz? I never heard anyone calling another an “Exodus denier.” Supposing I say that the story of Moses was stolen from the Assyrians. I’ve never heard of anyone accusing another of being a Moses denier. Supposing I say that the story of the flood was stolen from the Sumerian Gilgamesh epic? What does that make me then? A Hebrew denier? Supposing I say that Cain must have scr3wed his mother Eve or that he was a sister f**ker of some future sister because there was no one else to screw to create a global population? Are we all criminals when we say that the Hebrews were notorious liars?

Despite your protestations about ‘Atzmonites’, I notice in your blog that Atzmon is one of your favorite pasttimes, perhaps even far and above your supposed concern for the Palestinians. You have become his publicist, fundamentally. It would be interesting to me to know if there is any other person in this group who has ever written a single word about Gilad Atzmon. I’m sure he appreciates your notice, because it will certainly add much to his take at the cash register in the sale of his latest book. If he is a holocaust denier, I have yet to see any evidence of it. Certainly not from you. I have seen evidence that he asserts the right to question it, as every generation should any other aspect of historical information. Can you go beyond that? To deny something is to say that it never happened or does not exist.

I have read The Wandering Who?, perhaps Atzon’s strongest polemic on Jewish identity, and did not find a single instance of such a statement. I’ll admit that you’re an expert at reducing a fine activist mission to absolute rubbish and have a few skills in the use of epithet and meaningless distractions, however irrelevant and unsubstantiated they may be, but I have yet to see any substance to your babble. You’re nothing but a troll, Tony. You and Weizfeld both. You insist upon changing the subject and making Jewish honor more important than the Palestinian cause, which, at this point, is perhaps the most inane thing I have ever contemplated, given what 6 million Jews are now doing in that part of the globe.

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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!

Haneyya, Qassam insist on retaining Mishaal as Hamas leader

2012-02-01T22:38:00.000+04:00

[ 01/02/2012 - 04:12 PM ]

DOHA, (PIC)-- Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya has renewed Hamas’s insistence on retaining Khaled Mishaal as supreme leader of the movement.

Haneyya told London-based Al-Hayat newspaper in an interview published on Wednesday that Hamas maintains a balanced relations with each of Iran and the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

He said that the Palestine cause was in big trouble and needed support from all Arab and Islamic countries.

Asked whether Hamas was planning to move from Syria to Qatar or to any other country, Haneyya said that nothing was being discussed within Hamas institutions on this issue.

The Palestinian premier, who arrived in Doha on Monday evening, discussed with the Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani, on Tuesday Palestinian developments especially the national reconciliation and Judaization threats in occupied Jerusalem in addition to the Arab spring.

Meanwhile, Quds Press quoted unidentified sources as saying that a senior delegation of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, has asked Mishaal to reverse his decision not to nominate himself for chairmanship of the political bureau.

They said that Mishaal met with the delegation led by commander Ahmed Al-Ja’bari last month and that the delegates refused his decision.

Jihad prisoners go on hunger strike in solidarity with Adnan
	Islamic Jihad prisoners in Megiddo jail have vowed to continue in their hunger strike, which they started a week ago, in solidarity with Jihad leader Sheikh Khader Adnan.

Hundreds of Jewish settlers storm Nablus village
	Hundreds of Jewish settlers stormed the southern Nablus village of Awarta before midnight Tuesday and remained there until dawn Wednesday to tour a number of historical sites

Refugees intend to take up UNRWA schools to pressure it to rebuild their homes
	Angry Palestinian citizens threatened to occupy the UNRWA schools in the Gaza Strip if this UN organization failed to reconstruct their homes it had demolished eight years ago.

Israeli commander bans Jerusalemite activist from entering West Bank
	Avi Mizrahi, the Israeli military commander of the central region, has issued an order banning the Jerusalemite human rights activist Rasim Obaidat from entering the West Bank for six months

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Radwan Ziadeh fails to convince the Kremlin!

2012-02-01T22:29:00.000+04:00

Via FLC

"MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia signaled on Wednesday it would veto a draft U.N. resolution calling on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down unless it explicitly ruled out military intervention...

Arab and Western states urged the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to act swiftly ...But Moscow's envoy to the European Union, Vladimir Chizhov, said there was no chance the Western-Arab draft text could be accepted ... The draft "is missing the most important thing: a clear clause ruling out the possibility that the resolution could be used to justify military intervention in Syrian affairs from outside. For this reason I see no chance this draft could be adopted," Chizhov said....
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the resolution could not be used to authorize military intervention and his French counterpart Alain Juppe said such an idea was a myth.
But Chizhov's remarks suggested Moscow, would not accept such assurances....
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, who has led the Arab League's efforts to tackle the Syrian crisis, attempted to allay Moscow and Beijing's objections,... (while the lackey on bank roll)Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby called on the U.N. Security Council to take "rapid and decisive action" by approving the resolution....
"China is firmly opposed to the use of force to solve the Syrian problem and resolutely opposes pushing for forced regime change in Syria, as it violates the United Nations Charter and the basic norms guiding the practice of international relations," Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese Ambassador to the United Nations Li Baodong as telling the Security Council..."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 9:18 AM

Russia to Veto Any Unacceptable Syria Resolution in Coming Days

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America's War Kills over A Million Iraqis

2012-02-01T22:21:00.000+04:00

By Danny Lucia

'Over a million Iraqis are dead from America's war.' That sentence is a cognitive litmus test. Some people's immediate reaction is, 'That can't be right,' because the United States couldn't do that. Or because crimes on that scale don't still happen. Or because they do happen, but only in horrible places that the United States hasn't rescued.

One million is a "Grandpa, what did you do to stop it?" number. It's a number that undeniably puts the American state among history's villains. Those who are not willing or able to accept this are physically unable to retain the fact that over a million Iraqis are dead. Their brains expel it like a foreign germ.
Noam Chomsky once wrote that the "sign of a truly totalitarian culture is that important truths simply lack cognitive meaning and are interpretable only at the level of 'Fxxx You,' so they can then elicit a perfectly predictable torrent of abuse in response."

That pretty much sums up the how the media reacted to the one million figure in 2007 when it was announced by the British polling firm Opinion Research Business (ORB). (In fact, the firm estimated 1,220,580 Iraqis had died, confirming and updating a separate study done the year before by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and published in the Lancet medical journal.)

Take Kevin O'Brien, deputy editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Upon receiving a media advisory about the findings from ORB, whose clients include the British Conservative Party and Morgan Stanley, this was his response: "Please remove me from your mailing list and spare me your transparent propaganda."

"We don't do body counts," Gen. Tommy Franks once famously answered a reporter's question about civilian casualties. He's not alone.

Amid all the somber reflections last month (December 2011) about the end of the Iraq War, a specific number of how many Iraqis had died was rarely given. Reporters often described the tally of Iraqi casualties as an "untold number," a somber-sounding phrase that reflects the same level of journalistic effort used for finding the death toll of squirrels in a forest fire.

This line from Reuter's Mary Milliken was typical: "[T]oday was about remembering the untold number of Iraqis and nearly 4,500 Americans who died in the war."

How many Americans died, Mary? Nearly 4,500. And how many Iraqis? Oh, you know, lots. A whole bunch.

"Untold number" implies that there are no available estimates of just how many Iraqis died. In fact there are two: an organization called Iraq Body Count (IBC) has tallied about 110,000 deaths, based on media accounts and health ministry records. IBC admits that its total is surely too low since occupying armies and sectarian civil wars are not known for meticulous bookkeeping, but it disputes the higher figures from ORB and Johns Hopkins.

Methodology debates aside, there are numbers on hand to describe the Iraqi death toll. They are "untold" only by reporters like Kevin O'Brien and Mary Milliken.

The silence around numbers is not so much a conspiracy as a reflection of the fact that some information is simply incompatible with the American imperial mindset.

Consider a different grisly number from a previous decade: According to the United Nations Children Fund, 500,000 Iraqi children died in the 1990s due to United Nations sanctions (rammed through by the U.S.) that barred medicines and other basic necessities from entering the country.

In 2000, the UN humanitarian aid coordinator resigned to protest the sanctions, two years after his predecessor had done the same. Both of these life-long diplomats later used the word "genocide" to describe the American policy.

If you are ignorant of or forgot this information, you are not alone. So did the people who planned the Iraq War. There is no other way to explain the fact that America's war and occupation strategy rested on the expectation that its soldiers would be greeted as liberators by the parents of half a million dead children. (The sanctions, by the way, weren't imposed in the Kurdish north, the only part in Iraq that did not offer massive resistance to the U.S. occupation.)

It's not by chance that many of the most committed antiwar activists are revolutionaries of one stripe or another. We are able to process and comprehend the staggering evil been done to Iraq because we are radicals. And vice versa.

Revolutionaries face the ironic conventional wisdom that because we want to see society radically transformed, we are ends-justifies-the-means fanatics who think nothing of how much blood might be spilled in the process.

But it was then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright who said of the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children that "the price is worth it." And it is current Defense Secretary Leon Panetta who used the exact same phrase recently regarding the second invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Those are the words of a fanatical order that anyone should be proud to oppose with all of their being.
- Danny Lucia is a socialist activist. (A version of this article was first carried by Socialist Worker on January 30, and was provided by IDN-InDepthNews, Analysis That Matters. Visit: www.indepthnews.info.)
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Beyond Belief

2012-02-01T21:19:00.001+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.

Pity Palestine . . . Pity 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 Paper ... Blown Away By Hard Choice?!

2012-02-01T21:18:00.000+04:00

By Reda Al-Chab

More than ten months have passed and the Syrian crisis hasn't witnessed yet its track towards solution... The crisis has attracted all the key players on the regional and international political stage.

Some have drawn the direction of their diplomatic positions with the quill of interests associated with the fall of the current regime, including the United States, the European Union's countries, Turkey, as well as Arab countries and particularly Crown kingdoms.

However, others like Iran, Russia and China remained firm in support of their strategic ally.

Damascus' reply to its loyal friends was manifested by political and economic reforms that the Syrian leadership announced its adoption through launching the process of their application in more than one occasion.

And between the battle of positions and international countermeasures, the decisive word lies in Syria's internal front.

This is what the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad clearly read in the book of recent field developments in his country what drove him to declare openly in his recent speech that "what Syria is facing is an unprecedented battle.

Al-Asaad remarks came in parallel to the outbreak of terrorist bombings and assassinations that hit for the first time the neighborhoods and streets of the capital, Damascus, which was until the near time away from security disturbances.

Today, the political and ground scene reflects the following:

In the field: As clashes between the Syrian army and militants in some troubled areas such as Homs, Daraa, Idlib and other parts of central and northern Syria floated to the surface, the scene included new factors resembled by armed groups' control to areas and entire neighborhoods.

A fact that resulted from army's reluctance in moving towards a speedy settlement in order to prevent the loss of citizens' lives and thus waiting the right time to attack.

Meanwhile, another factor of Syrian army's hesitation is manifested by the reinforcement and cross-border support to these armed groups, especially from Turkey and some European countries.

In this context, Iran uncovered that it "possessed documents proving West's and particularly French arming to weaponry groups in Syria."

All these mentioned factors enhanced the ability of these armed groups to impose their military presence which is no longer a secret to be covered, not even on the Arab observers' mission to Syria, whose Sudanese Chief General Mohammad Ahmad al-Dabi asserted that "some Syrian areas have become resistant to authorities."

Similarly, the development was also recognized by the Secretary General of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi, who said in the latest Arab Ministerial meeting in Cairo, which approved the renewal of the Observers' Mission, that "there are areas controlled by armed and undisciplined groups," warning "of the possibility of civil war."

At the political level, the US-France front is characterized by chilliness taking into account the presidential election that the two countries are preparing for.

In parallel, The Turkish axis is busy re-counting its calculations after the late waking up on the nightmare of political and economic losses it is suffering.
Ankara's losses began to appear on more than one level as a result of the deep gap between the target of toppling President al-Assad's regime and the tools to achieve this goal on the ground.

Moreover, the ongoing confrontation continues in the Arab camp, between callers to the necessity of giving the Syrian regime an opportunity to perform its reformist intentions, and between those who adhere to topple the regime even at the expense of the last drop of Syrian blood.

Here, political backstage talks about current clash of visions that is taking place behind closed doors between Cairo on one hand, and Qatar and Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, in dealing with the Syrian paper.

The two kingdoms are pressuring towards dragging military Arab forces to Damascus to be followed by an international military intervention of blue hats (UNIF) type under the title of the Security Council.

The two Gulf countries aim is particularly linked to excluding a strong regional player, a partner to Iran and the resistance forces in the region i.e. Syria.

Cairo defends the option of peaceful solution suggesting the need to give the Syrian regime opportunity of applying promises of reform.

As the Egyptian military keeps in mind the threat of armed groups, it notes to roots of ideas that are established on killing all those who carry contrary views even if they belonged to the same sect and religion.

This was clearly reflected in the recent meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo.

The desire of the AL's Secretary-General and former Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Arab appeared in his willingness to extend the Observers' Mission to another month, speaking of "relative cooperation of the Syrian authorities."

In return, Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jassim highlighted his country's desire for "dragging Arab troops and UN interference" while the Saudi wrath appeared in the speech of the Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal talking of the "withdrawal of his country's delegation from the Arab mission in Syria."

On the other front of the battle, Iran, Russia and China haven't stopped reiterating their support for the Syrian regime in its edition of reforms, warning of the of civil war phantom whose first and last loser would be the Syrian people.

In this context, and after the Russian's and Chinese's repeated letters through the veto in the Security Council against any decision aimed at targeting Damascus, the announcement of a clearly defined military aspect was delivered from Moscow through sending a warship to the Syrian coasts of Tartous.

The well-read message clearly warned all those concerned that "any aggression against Damascus is a red line that Western countries mustn't try to pass."

Source: moqawama.org

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!

Another 11 Iranian Visitors Kidnapped in Syria

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

At least eleven Iranian visitors have been kidnapped in Syria on a road between the city of Hama to Damascus, according to Press TV.

No further details of the incident have surfaced yet.
This is not the first time that Iranians have become the target of abduction by unknown gunmen in Syria over the past months.

A group of unidentified armed men attacked a bus carrying Iranian visitors on January 26 on the road connecting Damascus to the northwestern city of Aleppo.

The assailants kidnapped 11 men and drove off to an unknown destination, leaving the female passengers in the vehicle. Their whereabouts still remain unknown.

Meanwhile, five Iranian electrical engineers were also kidnapped by unknown gunmen in the restive Syrian city of Homs on December 21, 2011. Later, two other Iranians, who were trying to obtain information about the missing men, were also kidnapped, and their whereabouts were still unknown.

Source: Press TV

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Syrian Free Army Commander: "I control 50% of Syria!" 'We will settle scores with Hassan Nasrallah'

2012-02-01T20:43:00.000+04:00

Supreme Commander of 'Syrian Army Deserters' from his little Turkish hideout: " Damascus is in panic: I control 50% of Syria!"

"Syria's rebel forces claimed Wednesday to have taken over 50% of the country, asserting previous statements that "Damascus is in a panic."
Free Syria Army commander Colonel Riad al-Assad said that despite his forces control of half of Syria, the troops were avoiding taking over entire areas for fear that their fighting with President Bashar Assad's forces would leave havoc in their wake..."

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
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“Divide et Impera”

2012-02-01T17:36:00.003+04:00

“Divide et Impera”

by Laura Stuart

It appears that the policy of “Divide and Rule” that has served the super-powers of the day so well since the times of Caesar and the Roman Empire, is again being put to use in the Middle East. Setting Muslim against Muslim is becoming a real possibility. Perhaps the realisation that it was fighting protracted and unwinnable wars in Muslim lands, has led the United States/Israel to consider ways of stirring up Shia against Sunni. This surely would maximise the shedding of Muslim blood with the minimum of investment and effort and, as ever, provide rich pickings for the weapons industry.
Reading an article in “The Jewish Chronicle” entitled “P.A. Share Israel’s Nuclear Iran Fears”, two issues spring to mind. The first is that the Palestinian Authority is the worst of collaborators, and wholly unfit to represent the brave Palestinian people. This much was made clear on the release of the Palestine Papers last year.

“The Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, Salam Fayyad, has attacked the behaviour of Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and said that he shares Western – and Israeli – concerns with the Iranians’ nuclear project”.

The second thought is that there may be a much bigger long-term strategy here – a strategy which may have been in the planning even before the invasion ofIraq. The post- invasion Shia/Sunni unrest might have been a coincidence but it is still one which, in my opinion, is now being heavily manipulated to Western advantage.
After Iraq; Bahrain another country with a Shia majority but ruled by Sunnis and where Shia are treated unequally, has erupted into protests. Civilian protesters are being crushed with terrible force and these protests have been brutally suppressed with the seemingly tacit approval of Western governments who, at the same time have bandied about empty words about human rights to Arab leaders. On a sincerity-scale of 1 to 10 these measure about one and a half – that is, marginally better than the completely empty statements they occasionally issue chiding Israel for its murderous acts against Palestinian civilians (or indeed American and Turkish Human Rights Activists). And of course, an ex British police officer is helpfully supplying the Bahraini leadership with the “know how” to deal with protesters, while the U.S.A. supplies the tear gas and the practical weaponry needed to do the job. The result is an ongoing and steadily-climbing death-toll.
Less well-publicised is Yemen, another country where Saudi forces have been active in invading, bombing and fighting the Houthi Shia. Yemeni civilians get no press coverage when they are killed by American drones, or by Western backed Yemeni forces. Even the completely unconstitutional murder of an American child warrants only a miniscule mention in the International Main Stream Media.
Playing on the historical schism between Sunni and Shia Muslims may be fruitful but it is still just a continuation of an old and proven policy of “Divide and Rule” – a policy to which Muslim leaders should have long since become wise, but sadly they have not. Money is there to be made as Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Emirates spend millions of dollars increasing their fighting capability to counter a perceived threat from an increasingly belligerent Iran. The question is whether this present increase in tension between the Gulf States and Iran is part of a long-term strategy to keep the Middle East weak and destabilised for decades to come.
A strong and united Muslim world is something Israel/America would not want to see and they are seemingly ready to go to great lengths to prevent it from ever becoming a reality.

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
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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.

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!

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..."

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!

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

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!

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.

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!

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

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
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!

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.

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!

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

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!