31/01/2009 Thirty years have passed on the Iranian Revolution, but its reflection is still witnessed day after day worldwide…
At a ceremony marking the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday that Iran's Islamic revolution was not limited to its borders. "The revolution is lively and alive after 30 years," Ahmadinejad stressed.
"We are still at the beginning of the path and greater changes are ahead. This thunderous revolution will continue until justice is implemented," the Iranian president said. "Although the Islamic revolution happened in Iran it is not limited to Iranian borders," he emphasized.
Crowds chanted "Death to America! Death to Israel!" at the ceremony at Khomeini's mausoleum in southern Tehran also attended by supreme leader Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, government ministers and military commanders.
"Because of Islam we saw victory in Gaza and Lebanon," said the revolutionary leader's grandson Hassan Khomeini. "Iranians are proud because Khomeini was the flag bearer of this Islamic awakening worldwide."
Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said the "Gazans and Hezbollah were able to defeat the army of the Zionist regime because of the effective influence of Iran."
Meanwhile, Iranian school bells rang throughout the country Saturday morning to mark the glorious return home of the Founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, after 15 years of exile. Trains, ships and factories also sounded their whistles as a token of marking the start of the Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution.
On this day in 1979 the Imam arrived at Tehran International Mehrabad Airport amidst a warm enthusiastic welcome and later proceeded towards the city’s cemetery Behesht-e Zahra where he made a historic speech.
Khomeini's shrine was decorated with a large poster of the elderly bearded cleric, then 76, as he disembarked from an Air France jumbo jet helped by a steward -- an image etched in world history. "The Islamic revolution is the result of sacrifices made by martyrs," read a banner inscribed with one of Khomeini's famous quotes. "We will guard the great legacy and principles of Imam Khomeini," vowed Sayyed Khamenei on another banner of his mentor who died in 1989.
In related developments, Education Minister Ali-Reza Ali-Ahmadi rang the bell of a secondary school in southern Tehran Saturday morning. Addressing the students and teaching staff of the school, the minister said the leadership of the late Imam Khomeini and vast presence of people in all aspects of life led to the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Today, the Islamic Republic is free and independent and follows the Islamic values and principles, he added.
Gaza Genocide Turned the Holocaust Magic against the Zionist Magician
Using the Holocaust to Attack the Jews
Are all those who have accused Israel of being a Nazi state anti-Semites? Hardly. Walter Reich opines that the Holocaust is now being used to criticize Israel, not to defend it. From the former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum:
Dozens of cities held ceremonies last week to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The good news is that the dead were remembered. The bad news is that even as the Holocaust is becoming a fixture in the world's memory, it is also being increasingly used as a weapon against the Jews and the Jewish state.
For some, ironically, the acknowledgment of the Holocaust's reality has become a screen behind which anti-Semitism has gathered new force. The hard-core Jew-haters spent decades denying that the best-documented genocide in world history ever took place. That won them such derision that even many anti-Semites have begun to admit the reality of the Holocaust -- and now are hoping that simply by doing so, they can immunize themselves from the charge that they're anti-Semites in the first place. How can you be an anti-Semite, they figure, if you recognize the Holocaust?
But as some people who don't like Jews have found, it's worth acknowledging the Holocaust if you can then turn it into a cudgel against the Jews. And that they've done, in spades. According to this crowd, the Jews today have become Nazis. The Jewish state is now supposedly carrying out a Holocaust against the Palestinians. Jews, the haters say, have always been evil, and their evil is only growing.
Of course, not all criticisms of Israel are the product of such bigoted logic. People of good will around the world are naturally shocked by the tragic and appalling deaths of Palestinian civilians, including those killed in the recent war in the Gaza Strip. Like any country, Israel can be criticized. But the massive and unceasing eruptions of outrage against the Jewish state -- in a world in which other countries and groups have, often provoking barely any outrage, engaged in immensely more destructive and immoral behavior -- can only be explained in a few ways. One is that attacking Israel has become a means of attacking Israel's ally, the United States. Another is that over-the-top attacks on Israel, particularly those invoking Holocaust language, have become a means of once again attacking the Jews.
The Anti-Defamation League has documented the way this weapon was used during the recent war with Hamas. Here are a few of the placards spotted at rallies: In Times Square, the group reported such signs as, "Israel: The Fourth Reich," "Stop Israel's Holocaust," "Holocaust by Holocaust Survivors," "Stop the Nazi Genocide in Gaza" and "Nazi Genocide, Israeli Genocide." In Chicago: "Palestinian Holocaust in Gaza Now." In a Los Angeles demonstration, the Star of David in an Israeli flag was said to have been replaced by a swastika, accompanied by the words, "Upgrade to Holocaust Version 2.0." In San Diego: "Stop the Israeli Holocaust on Gaza." And the league reported that one rally in Washington included an effigy of the Israeli prime minister wearing a swastika armband and holding a dead baby.
The Gaza war provoked similar attacks from some world leaders and people of influence. "The Holocaust, that is what is happening right now in Gaza," Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said in televised comments, according to Reuters. The New York Times quoted a Catholic cardinal who argued that Gaza increasingly "resembled a big concentration camp." And according to the Jerusalem Post, a Norwegian diplomat based in Saudi Arabia sent out an e-mail from her Foreign Ministry account in which she wrote, "The grandchildren of Holocaust survivors from World War II are doing to the Palestinians exactly what was done to them by Nazi Germany." She reportedly also attached paired photos designed to suggest that Gaza was equivalent to the Holocaust: Next to the iconic photo of the Jewish child in the Warsaw Ghetto being menaced by a rifle-toting Nazi soldier, the diplomat is said to have placed an "image of an Israeli soldier aiming his weapon at a Palestinian boy."
Are all those who have accused Israel of being a Nazi state anti-Semites? Hardly. There's genuine anger in the Muslim world, as well as in Europe and elsewhere, about Israel's actions in Gaza. The suffering is terrible. So are the images of devastation Israel left behind. And there are also plenty of people who are angry at Israel because it stands for the reviled United States.
But the reality is that much of the vitriol directed at Israel has indeed been spouted by anti-Semites. Not only have they hurled the Nazi canard at Israel, they've expressed clear anti-Semitism -- some of it openly violent or even eliminationist. The pro-Israel but reliable Middle East Media and Research Institute has been documenting anti-Semitism on Palestinian television for years, including calls for the murder of Jews. It reports that, the day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, one Egyptian cleric admitted on an Islamist TV channel that the Holocaust had happened -- and added that he hoped that one day Muslims would do to the Jews what the Germans had done to them. To demonstrate what he had in mind, according to the institute, he showed footage of heaps of Jewish corpses being bulldozed into pits.
In designating an International Holocaust Remembrance Day back in 2005, the U.N. General Assembly acted with noble intentions, even if parts of the world body still aim to delegitimize Israel. Such commemorations help the world understand that the goal of the Holocaust was the annihilation of an entire people -- and help them appreciate the vast differences between that event and, for example, the war in Gaza. But even as the Holocaust has been increasingly acknowledged and explained, it also has been increasingly used as a cudgel to beat Jews and the Jewish state.
Walter Reich, a professor of international affairs at George Washington University, is a former director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
GUESS WHO CAME TO AIPAC’S DINNER
January 31, 2009 at 8:16 am (AIPAC, Activism, Ethnic Cleansing, Gaza, Genocide, International Solidarity, Israel, Palestine, Photography, War Crimes)
Image by Skulz Fontaine
AIPAC held a dinner in New York yesterday to raise funds to support the ongoing holocaust in Gaza and the rest of Occupied Palestine.
Hundreds of angry New Yorkers were there to protest the event…. my cousin Bud, the photographer was among them…. here is a sampling of his photos…..
Photos © by Bud Korotzer
We the "CHOSEN" are untouchable
Because we are "untouchable": Spain to amend law to avoid trying "CHOSEN" war criminals
THUS ORDERED THE QUEEN OF ISRAEL
Miguel Moratinos has no Turkish balls
By Naser Jafari
[ 31/01/2009 - 03:03 PM ]
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Spanish government has decided to amend the country's law dealing with prosecuting military commanders involved in war crimes.
Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni announced the news following a meeting with her Spanish counterpart Miguel Moratinos after a Spanish court accepted a lawsuit against former Israeli war ministry Benjamin Ben Eliezer and the then head of the air force Dan Halutz on charges against humanity.
The Israeli 2nd TV channel quoted Livni as expressing satisfaction over Moratinos's decision and informed both Israeli premier Ehud Olmert and justice minister Daniel Friedman on the latest developments in this regard.
She stressed that Israel would continue in its efforts to settle such cases not only in Spain but in the whole world, the TV report said.
Spanish judge Fernando Andreu agreed to look into the case against Ben Eliezer and Halutz along with five other former Israeli officials for ordering the assassination of Hamas commander Salah Shehade that also led to the killing of 14 innocent civilians mostly women and children.
The judge said that the assault on the densely populated Gaza Strip was a "crime against humanity" and the lawsuit was in conformity with the international law that incriminates mass murder in any country.
Shehade was killed in July 2002 in the Israeli air raid that bombed his home using a one ton bomb.
CONTRIBUTED BY LUCIA FROM SPAIN
Note: This article was written by Tanya Hsu soon after the Israeli war on
Lebanon more than two years ago. It is posted here as a reminder of
Israel’s Nazi nature in light of the ongoing genocidal campaign Israel is
carrying out in the Gaza Strip.
Arab News
The Middle East's Leading English Language Daily
Friday, 4, August, 2006 (10, Rajab, 1427)
By Tanya Hsu (*)
We are Israel. WE ARE UNTOUCHABLE. No matter what we do the international community will not act against us. Oh, there will be talks at the United Nations but we know that the United States will intervene on our behalf. There will be Arab League discussions but we know that no state will take action against us. There will be mass protests and demonstrations; there will be activists and advocates begging for peace; there will be rallies and fundraisers to help the targets of our bombs. And we know that nothing will make a difference because we are Jews – we are victims of the Holocaust. We have suffered such that we have the right to make the rest of the world pay (even though organised Zionism officially declared war on Germany in 1933, long before Hitler's Final Solution). Because we are victims.
Yes, we know that peoples all over the world have suffered worse crimes than ours, but they were not the Chosen People. We know that over 22 million Russians were killed under Stalin, 15 million Chinese killed by the Japanese, millions elsewhere in the world who suffer the same fate in the bloodiest 20th century.
We know that Zionism is an atheist Marxist creation using Judaism as its weapon; that we were founded upon terrorism and our leaders became Israel's prime ministers and Nobel Peace Prize winners; that less than 10% of Jews worldwide supported the Zionist cause for decades until WWII.
We know that the crimes committed by Hitler equally affected Communists, gypsies, the handicapped, and political prisoners. That does not matter - we are special. The rest of the world will not touch us because they are terrified of the label "anti-Semite". World leaders: terrified of this most glorious ad hominem even though we are mostly not Semitic peoples.
Jews of Israel, the Sephardim Jews, were almost non existent when we arrived from Russia, Poland, Austria- Hungary and elsewhere in the 20th century and demanded Arab land. They had spread out and moved on. We did not come from Yemen, Ethiopia or Iraq, but who cares? We are the victims and that is all that counts.
Time and again we wonder at how far American gullibility will take us. We push it to the limits on cable television and get away with it repeatedly. We know that the majority of the world is aware we blatantly lie when we express our "deepest regrets" because "terrorists" were hiding in the villages we destroy. We even have the gall to pick the precise same targets as a decade ago, ignoring the cries of outrage from America and the West. We'll just repeat the mantra "a tragic mistake".
Honestly, we too are rather surprised to see that America patiently sits back and buys our words each time.
We have trained our diplomats well, not only in the art of deception to the media, but by using powerful strong arm behind the scenes tactics to mould the views of US Congressmen and women in our favour.
We have worked on this for decades and it has been perfected for the one place it counts: our bank America. We rely upon those weapons; we need to create constant conflict so as to receive a perpetual $13 billion annual aid package from the US, including unsecured loans that we have never been, nor ever will be, required to pay back.
We are living a dream: what we want is given to us on a silver patter because we are Jews, and we have the Holocaust.
The above is only daring in that it is never voiced publicly in the West. The world is watching as Israel incinerates the Lebanese, next the Syrians and Palestinians, then Iran.
Diplomats call for peace, a cease -fire, and negotiations. They speak the language of non committance. It takes a few brave men and women in leadership positions to dare to speak the truth; losing that AIPAC support in government is the kiss of death, and academics who dare write the facts know that their tenured careers are over. Israel is in the position of dominating the US government to an extent never before seen in history, creating a regime who will fully fund a "new Middle East" which in reality means Eretz Israel consisting of Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, northern Saudi Arabia and even Cyprus by some accounts. There is nothing speculative about these plans for hegemony – everything has been laid out, written down, and presented for years.
This war will not end with a cease-fire next week. This war will not end with a security zone controlled by the UN. This war will not end of Hezbollah and Hamas disappeared tomorrow. This war will not end as long as leaders and diplomats continue to fear the trump card charge of anti-Semitism by Israel.
So when hundreds of children are torn apart by uranium tipped missiles provided courtesy of the US government, look in the mirror.
Have you dared to offend Israel? Have you risked? Ask yourself what role you may have played in contributing to this global disaster.
Nothing will change until you do.
(*)Tanya Cariina Hsu is a British Saudi-US Political Analyst. She lives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
anti-semitism, Hamas, Hezbullah, Talmud At Work, Tax Dollars at Work, The War on Gaza
Top Hamas Leader: We are Victors, It is time for our people to have new leadership
[ 31/01/2009 - 08:12 AM ]
GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Khalil Al-Hayya, a prominent Hamas leader, stated Friday that it is time for the Palestinian people to see a new leadership carrying their burdens and concerns at home and abroad and protecting their resistance, adding that the Palestinian people would not condone anymore a leadership that accepted humiliation.
This came during a massive rally called for by the Hamas Movement in the Gaza city with the participation of the visiting Turkish delegation. The rally was held in support of Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal's call for forming a new authority for the Palestinian people and to pay a tribute to the position of Turkish premier Recep Erdogan in Davos.
In a speech delivered before the rally, Dr. Hayya underlined that Hamas had always extended its hands for the national dialog and called for the rebuilding of the PLO.
The Hamas leader stressed that the Palestinian people after all these sacrifices would not accept a leadership compromising the national constants and rights, noting that the PLO was silent during the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip awaiting the chance to announce the defeat of Gaza.
Hayya hailed the Turkish premier for the honorable positions he voiced in all forums and meetings in defense of Gaza and its people.
Top Hamas Leader: We are Victors
31/01/2009 A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in a field near the city of Ashkelon, the army said on Saturday, but there were no casualties or damage reported.
It is the third rocket attack since ceasefires on January 18.
Israel had launched its war on Gaza on the 27th of December allegedly to stop rocket fire into occupied territories and change the status-quo in the Strip.
A senior member of the Hamas leadership on Friday made his first public appearance since independent ceasefires were declared by Israel and Hamas.
Khalil Al-Hayya told supporters at a rally that the group had achieved victory in the war and was now engaged in a political battle.
"We promised to come out to you either as martyrs or as victors," Hayya told supporters. "Today I come out to you and you are victors."
Hayya reassured Palestinians whose houses had been destroyed by Israel. "The reconstruction is coming, do not be worried about that," he said, adding the Hamas government intended to pay the salaries of its employees. "I tell the resistance fighters, I tell the Qassam fighters, do not drop your weapons, do not put your weapons aside and do not abandon your trenches," Hayya said.
"I assure our people that the leaders who led the battle of victory are now leading the battle of politics. We are still in the midst of the battle and we are engaging politically," he said.
Hamas had not yielded on its demands that the Israeli blockade of the Gaza be lifted and Gaza's borders opened to normal trade, he said.
Hayya reaffirmed his group's demands to conclude a prisoner swap with Israel that would see the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners for the return of Israeli captured soldier Gilad Shalit. "Gilad Shalit will never see the light and life until our prisoners see the light among their families," he said.
BARAK: ISRAEL TO HIT HAMAS AGAIN IF NECESSARY
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday that Israel will strike Hamas again if necessary and if Hamas continues to fire rockets at “southern Israel.”
"Hamas was hit like it was never hit before," the defense minister told Channel 10 TV. "If we need to hit Hamas again, we will."
Israel launched its offensive on Dec. 27 against Gaza and killed within 22 days more 1,350 civilians, half of them women and children, and injured over 5,000 people with internationally banned white phosphorus weapons. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, three of them civilians.
Abu Zuhri: The victory of Gaza is a turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stated that the victory of Gaza is a turning point in the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, adding that the next stage is the stage of the victory of the resistance.
