Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
Ultimately it comes back to Israel, a nation that defies the continuous cries from the United Nations to abide by international law, to heed the decisions of the International Court, to accept the efforts of the UN to investigate its actions so the rule of law can prevail, to see that force is not the way to peace in the mid-east, that subjugation of the people of Palestine rings from Lebanon to Algeria like a knell awakening the world to the suffering imposed on those shackled by the Eurocentric colonial mind of the 19th century.
By William A. Cook / My Catbird Seat
While the people of the mid-east rise in protest against their respective American supported dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, with the American-Israeli attempts to control Lebanon on the brink of chaos and collapse, and the “peace negotiations” between the Palestinians and the Israelis torpedoed by both Netanyahu and Abbas, the confusion at the State Department could be eased if it spent some time reviewing the United States’ prior efforts to control the people of the mid-east, especially in Iran. It’s one thing for the Secretary of State and the President to reiterate America’s purported policy on human rights and another to acknowledge the hypocrisy of it.
After all, our policy appears clear, “We have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and free of corruption; and the freedom to live as you choose. These are human rights, and we support them everywhere,” Mr. Gibbs said, speaking on behalf of the President. America supports human rights everywhere, with words … as our dutiful TV channels give Gibbs, Crowley, Clinton and Obama extensive time to demonstrate … but there are no words directed at the Palestinian people’s rights.
How strange to watch our CNN talking heads, especially the Israeli trained Wolf Blitzer, former editor of AIPAC’s in house “Near East Report,” stuttering before the cameras as he recalled the fall of the Shah of Iran, America’s staunch ally for 25 years, as a direct result of similar riots by Iranian civilians, and the resulting loss of America’s control in Iran. He failed to mention that our friend had subjugated the Iranian people beneath the boots of his SAVAK mercenaries that protected his elegant life style while the people suffered under his despotic regime. Then as now our Presidents spoke of America’s support of human rights neglecting to mention the CIA’s overthrow of the elected nationalist (1951) Mohammed Mossadegh as Prime Minister.
Why should Blitzer express such concern? Why see danger lurking in the streets where the people of Tunisia and Egypt have gone to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with pseudo-democratic governments that hold rigged elections to ensure the continuation of their dictatorial rule propped up by American tax dollars so readily evident in the labels on the gas canisters (made in America) hurled at them by the police mercenaries who benefit from those same tax dollars? Perhaps because Blitzer knows, though he does not say it, that the Shah was the first mid-east dictator to recognize Israel, and with his loss Iran has become the number one “existential enemy” of that militaristic state. Perhaps he realizes that the “new” Iraq has an umbilical cord to Iran, that Afghanistan remains and will remain unfettered by America’s dictates, and that Syria continues to maintain meaningful control in Lebanon despite the efforts of the Israeli-American alliance to destabilize it. Perhaps he sees that the fall of Mubarak will mean that Egypt will no longer be a puppet of the Israeli state, and then perhaps Jordan will follow, and the dominoes will tumble one upon the next toward Israel leaving it standing naked before the world, delegitimized by the people of the mid-east dictating in their own way that tolerance of bought regimes is not the way to democracy and human rights.
Ultimately it comes back to Israel, a nation that defies the continuous cries from the United Nations to abide by international law, to heed the decisions of the International Court, to accept the efforts of the UN to investigate its actions so the rule of law can prevail, to see that force is not the way to peace in the mid-east, that subjugation of the people of Palestine rings from Lebanon to Algeria like a knell awakening the world to the suffering imposed on those shackled by the Eurocentric colonial mind of the 19th century.
The Obama administration has a chance to right this silent complicity that gives license to Israel to violently control the people of Palestine and perhaps thereby save the state of Israel from itself. Lebanon has brought forward to the United Nations Security Council a resolution that would force the council to address Israel’s illegal occupation and revert to Resolutions 181 and 242 that define the two states that should exist in Palestine. All Obama needs to do is abstain. That silent protest against AIPAC and the Neo-Cons would declare what no other President since WWII has been able to assert, that America’s policy on the prohibition of illegal settlements cannot be ignored and that America’s “…unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and free of corruption; and the freedom to live as you choose. These are human rights, and we support them everywhere,” remains the true foundation of America’s commitment to international law and human rights.
Ali Abunimah,The Electronic Intifada, 29 January 2011
We are in the middle of a political earthquake in the Arab world and the ground has still not stopped shaking. To make predictions when events are so fluid is risky, but there is no doubt that the uprising in Egypt -- however it ends -- will have a dramatic impact across the region and within Palestine.
If the Mubarak regime falls, and is replaced by one less tied to Israel and the United States, Israel will be a big loser. As Aluf Benn commented in the Israeli daily Haaretz, "The fading power of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government leaves Israel in a state of strategic distress. Without Mubarak, Israel is left with almost no friends in the Middle East; last year, Israel saw its alliance with Turkey collapse" ("Without Egypt, Israel will be left with no friends in Mideast," 29 January 2011).
Indeed, Benn observes, "Israel is left with two strategic allies in the region: Jordan and the Palestinian Authority." But what Benn does not say is that these two "allies" will not be immune either.
Over the past few weeks I was in Doha examining the Palestine Papers leaked to Al Jazeera. These documents underscore the extent to which the split between the US-backed Palestinian Authority in Ramallah headed by Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction, on the one hand, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, on the other -- was a policy decision of regional powers: the United States, Egypt and Israel. This policy included Egypt's strict enforcement of the siege of Gaza.
If the Mubarak regime goes, the United States will lose enormous leverage over the situation in Palestine, and Abbas' PA will lose one of its main allies against Hamas.
Already discredited by the extent of its collaboration and capitulation exposed in the Palestine Papers, the PA will be weakened even further. With no credible "peace process" to justify its continued "security coordination" with Israel, or even its very existence, the countdown may well begin for the PA's implosion. Even the US and EU support for the repressive PA police-state-in-the-making may no longer be politically tenable. Hamas may be the immediate beneficiary, but not necessarily in the long term. For the first time in years we are seeing broad mass movements that, while they include Islamists, are not necessarily dominated or controlled by them.
There is also a demonstration effect for Palestinians: the endurance of the Tunisian and Egyptian regimes has been based on the perception that they were strong, as well as their ability to terrorize parts of their populations and co-opt others. The relative ease with which Tunisians threw off their dictator, and the speed with which Egypt, and perhaps Yemen, seem to be going down the same road, may well send a message to Palestinians that neither Israel's nor the PA's security forces are as indomitable as they appear.Indeed, Israel's "deterrence" already took a huge blow from its failure to defeat Hizballah in Lebanon in 2006, and Hamas in Gaza during the winter 2008-09 attacks.
As for Abbas's PA, never has so much international donor money been spent on a security force with such poor results. The open secret is that without the Israeli military occupying the West Bank and besieging Gaza (with the Mubarak regime's help), Abbas and his praetorian guard would have fallen long ago. Built on the foundations of a fraudulent peace process, the US, EU and Israel with the support of the decrepit Arab regimes now under threat by their own people, have constructed a Palestinian house of cards that is unlikely to remain standing much longer.
This time the message may be that the answer is not more military resistance but rather more people power and a stronger emphasis on popular protests. Today, Palestinians form at least half the population in historic Palestine -- Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip combined. If they rose up collectively to demand equal rights, what could Israel do to stop them? Israel's brutal violence and lethal force has not stopped regular demonstrations in West Bank villages including Bilin and Beit Ommar.
Israel must fear that if it responds to any broad uprising with brutality, its already precarious international support could start to evaporate as quickly as Mubarak's. The Mubarak regime, it seems, is undergoing rapid "delegitimization." Israeli leaders have made it clear that such an implosion of international support scares them more than any external military threat. With the power shifting to the Arab people and away from their regimes, Arab governments may not be able to remain as silent and complicit as they have for years as Israel oppresses Palestinians.
As for Jordan, change is already underway. I witnessed a protest of thousands of people in downtown Amman yesterday. These well-organized and peaceful protests, called for by a coalition of Islamist and leftist opposition parties, have been held now for weeks in cities around the country. The protesters are demanding the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Samir al-Rifai, dissolution of the parliament elected in what were widely seen as fraudulent elections in November, new free elections based on democratic laws, economic justice, an end to corruption and cancelation of the peace treaty with Israel. There were strong demonstrations of solidarity for the people of Egypt.
None of the parties at the demonstration called for the kind of revolutions that happened in Tunisia and Egypt to occur in Jordan, and there is no reason to believe such developments are imminent. But the slogans heard at the protests are unprecedented in their boldness and their direct challenge to authority. Any government that is more responsive to the wishes of the people will have to review its relationship with Israel and the United States.
Only one thing is certain today: whatever happens in the region, the people's voices can no longer be ignored.
Professor Richard Falk of Princeton has long been a thorn in the side of the U.S. foreign policy establishment because he has been an outspoken critic of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.
Currently, he serves as U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Palestinians.
But what’s raised the ire of the State Department this time has nothing to do with his views on the Palestinians but rather on 9/11.
For some time now, Falk has been skeptical of the official story around 9/11 and has blurbed the writings of David Ray Griffin, one of the leading critics.
On a long blog posting on January 11 concerning the Tucson shootings, Falk briefly discussed the 9/11 controversy. He wrote that there is an “apparent cover-up,” and he also condemned “the eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events.”
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice seized on these comments as a means for ousting Falk.
“Mr. Falk’s comments are despicable and deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the strongest terms,” she said in a statement on Jan. 25.
She added: “Mr. Falk’s latest commentary is so noxious that it should finally be plain to all that he should no longer continue in his position on behalf of the UN.”
In response, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned Falk for his “inflammatory rhetoric,” and called it “preposterous” and “an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in that tragic attack.”
Ban did not, however, remove Falk from his position.
“I certainly meant no disrespect toward the collective memory of 9/11 in the country and elsewhere,” he wrote. “On the contrary, my intention was to encourage an investigation that might finally achieve closure with respect to doubts that remain prevalent among important sectors of the public, including among some 9/11 families.”
Here’s my take on all this: While I wrote a critique of Griffin’s work many years ago and don’t put any stock in the 9/11 Truth movement, another investigation wouldn’t hurt. And what’s crucially important is this: Falk shouldn’t be punished for a thought crime.
As he himself wrote: “What seems apparent from this incident, which is itself disturbing, is that any acknowledgement of doubt about the validity of the official version of the 9/11 events, while enjoying the legal protection of free speech, is denied the political and moral protection that are essential if an atmosphere of free speech worthy of a democracy is to be maintained.”
If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his other “McCarthyism Watch” pieces by clicking here.
Matthew sent me this from Cairo: "i just drove by what used to be the israeli embassy in cairo. it's now completely empty, the staff has fled. there is no longer an israeli flag hanging in cairo or anywhere else in egypt."
Before I rush to my first class, I have to report this: the entire staff of the Israeli occupation embassy in Cairo have been evacuated by helicopters.
CAIRO, (PIC)-- News sources in Egypt said that the Israeli embassy personnel fled the embassy when a group of demonstrators passed near the Cairo University at the Geeza suburb.
The sources said that helicopters evacuated the embassy and took the personnel to an Egyptian air-base.
The Ambassador himself fled Egypt recently after the discovery by Egyptian security of a Mossad spy network in Cairo.
The embassy staff asked to be evacuated before the demonstrators reach the area despite the fact that it is situated on a high level of a tower building.
RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- De facto Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas phoned Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on Saturday to affirm his "solidarity" with him in face of the growing popular unrest in his country demanding his removal.
A statement by Abbas's office said that he expressed keenness on security and stability of Egypt during the phone call.
Abbas-controlled PA in Ramallah is panicked over its fate in the event Mubarak, its strong ally, was toppled.
Fatah-controlled websites adopt supportive stands of Mubarak.
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Israel is expressing deep concern as unprecedented protests demanding the removal of longtime Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak go on their fifth day.
Egypt, the most influential nation in the Mideast, shares significant strategic and economic ties with Israel. It was the first Arab state to sign a peace agreement with the Hebrew state.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry has been escalating consultations with its embassy in Cairo for the latest developments.
Concerns over any "substantial" changes in the Egyptian regime have prompted the Prime Minister's office and war ministry to closely monitor developments there, Israeli news outlets say.
The Foreign Ministry is discussing round the clock estimation of the current situation. Official comments have not yet been issued because of instructions by Prime Minister Netanyahu hampering media statements regarding the situation.
The ministry advised nationals to refrain from stepping foot in Egypt for non-urgent matters and Israelis there to avoid hot spots and protests.
GAZA, (PIC)-- As tensions rise high across Egypt, relatives of Palestinians held in Egyptian jails are expressing increasing concern.
The Abu Za'bel correctional facility, where a number of Palestinian political prisoners are being detained, has become a focus of danger.
Fire has erupted in warehouses neighboring the Cairo prison, said Emad al-Sayyid, the spokesman of the society of families of prisoners in Egyptian jails.
The Egyptian army and prison guards have also clashed with prisoners, killing eight and injuring several others, he told Quds Press.
Sayyid, who is brother to one of the prisoners there, has called on protesters and the army to free Palestinians detained by Egypt for political reasons.
Egypt holds about 25 of them. Courts have ruled for the release of some, but prisons have yet to implement.
The United States has spoken for democracy in Egypt, but it is not stopping aid to security forces, now killing Egyptians.
An analysis on the recent Egypt uprising was provided by former US ambassador Edward Peck in an interview with Press TV’s Waqar Rizvi. The transcript of the interview follows.
Press TV: Netanyahu’s government believes Mubarak will survive this unrest by having to exercise force, power on the street. It says Mubarak’s well rooted in the military and security apparatus. Is this true?
Peck: Well, we are going to find out I suppose, but I think it’s fairly typical of the Israeli government to urge the use of force, which of course, is what Israel does whenever it faces anyone who is unhappy with the situation in occupied territories for example.
They get pretty violent there. You remember not too long ago when Arabs in Israel, Israeli-Arabs, demonstrated and a fairly large number of them were brutally killed, which is how the Israeli government believes it should be done. I’m not sure I agree with that approach, but it’s certainly what they do.
Press TV: Though the US has spoken for democracy, it isn’t standing by protestors by ending aid to security forces now killing Egyptians. Why is that?
Peck: Because the relationship is supposed to transcend what could be a minor bump on the road to the sort of things that the American government would like to see.
When you have an assistance relationship with another country, any relationship between two countries where one country is giving something to another country, you definitely have to give them what they want or not give them anything at all, because you can’t give them things that they don’t want.
So our relationship has been largely based on support for the government to be able to maintain its borders and protect itself and some of that, of course, spills over into what we would call “maintaining order,” police, that sort of thing.
That is a typical relationship and it looks as if in a country such as Egypt the military aspect of the government has grown pretty strong, perhaps too strong, and I’m afraid and very concerned that we might see a great deal of violence tomorrow which an awful lot of people expect and some people want and I think that could be bad for everybody in the area especially in the short run.
Press TV: Egypt is a powerhouse in the region, with its citizens spread far and wide within the Middle East. How, then, will countries with large populations of Egyptian expatriates react if Mubarak’s government collapses?
Peck: That is a very pertinent question. I remember back in the days of Saddam Hussein and Iraq, where there were lots of Egyptians that went to Iraq for the purposes of helping to build the economy and I remember what happened when the Palestinians, who also had lots of expatriates working in other parts of the Arab world, there were sometimes a tendency on the part of the governments where expatriates are in large numbers to perceive a possible security threat from those people.
I do not know how realistic that appearance of the threat is, but I think it is rational to expect governments that face that internal problem will be watching carefully to see what it is they need to do to maintain stability and security in their own countries and that could affect Egyptian expatriates.
Press TV: The 2011 has begun on a tense-filled note for Arab dictatorships. How lasting, if at all, will demands by people for freedom and rights, that the US was never able to push for successfully, be in the long-term?
Peck: You know, the United States seems to have the tendency to believe that other people should do things the way we do even if those other people do not necessarily see it the same way.
If I were in charge of the American government… I would be very careful as to what I said in commenting about this kind of a problem in another country, especially when it is a potentially serious problem, not just for the country itself but for the region, and speaking too much on the subject when it is not directly our problem. We have not caused it, then we are not going to control it.
We would be better off not saying much certainly much less than we are saying now as everybody has to tell the Egyptians, both the government and the people, what they should do and what they shouldn’t do. It is not really our affair.
HSN/HGH
Ramzy Baroud
‘Egyptians hope for true democracy’
Interview with Ramzy Baroud
US authorities have warned the Egyptian government and protesters to avoid violence as conflict might escalate with the presence of Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday.
Press TV’s Waqar Rizvi has conducted an interview with Ramzy Baroud, author and journalist from Seattle, regarding this issue:
Press TV: How do you see ElBaradei’s return to Egypt affecting the intensity of the protesters?
Baroud: I think there is a possibility that ElBaradei’s return might be part of an contingency plan if you oversee the post Mubarak era, I think there is a growing sense that the Mubarak regime will either be eradicated after all of this, especially considering what could happen tomorrow or at least there would be some serious changes in the nature of the regime in the coming days and weeks.
Therefore, ElBaradei’s return might be related to all of this, I hope that this is not the case and ElBaradei’s return is more or less a personal initiative related. He has involvement in the democratic association and various political parties in Egypt are also involved. What really matters right now is not ElBaradei frankly. What truly matters is the Egyptian revolution, the popular uprising in Egypt. It is not co-opted and it is not reduced to be that of the character of one individual or one specific political party. It is represented of the consensus being witnessed in Egyptian streets right now.
Press TV: … [US President Barack] Obama has now asked for reform as absolutely critical in Egypt and the state department spokesman refuses to say if the US would in fact cut aid to security forces that are now killing Egyptians. Do you see that as a bit hypocritical or as the US being simply smart?
Baroud: Very much so. I think it is a position that is tainted with hypocrisy and the term reform and democracy as far as US reform policy is concerned in the Middle East, it is not really the same or it has not been understood the same way that the popular uprising in Egypt, Tunisia and other countries actually understand these terms. Democracy and reform means something entirely different. We are also looking at the term stability here, what does stability mean? Stability means the maintenance of the current oppressive regime and as far as he is willing to serve the interest of outside powers, stability is not what Egyptian people are concerned about at all. So, when we hear such terms as reform and democracy coming from the Obama administration, we have to be extremely careful on how we decide for them and how we understand them. Frankly, I do not think that at all means what the Egyptians have in mind right now.
Press TV: As you know, Friday is always an important day for Muslims in the week. Will the Imams have the courage to speak out about the current unrest or is Mubarak’s hold on them strong?
Baroud: It is really interesting, because I’ve been listening the whole day to statements made by people who affiliated with the Egyptian regime and their positions are no longer consistent with their past positions. I think this is a very golden opportunity. What is going to happen on Friday is to determine the future of this movement. If it ends up being co-opted or politicized this might be the demise of the popular movement. Tomorrow is a very important day as far as the Imams are concerned. As we know, in Egypt even the mosque is divided. I am sure all groups are going to hold on the collapsing regime very tightly, because they are also tying their own future, their own interest to that of the regime. So, we are going to see some of these voices tomorrow, trying to basically name the popular movement tainted or also make statements regarding a decree, declaring them to be Haram and that sort of things. So, it is very important that we understand that they are those people who will always be insistent or consistent with the official position of the Egyptian regime and we cannot be allowed to define the legacy of Egypt, neither tomorrow nor in the future.
Press TV: Many … caution needs to be taken when we have been speaking on Egypt because it is no Tunisia, do you agree and does that mean change will be a lot harder to come to this US ally?
Baroud: Yes and no. Egypt and Tunisia are two different countries and have different histories and political contexts perhaps, but at the end of the day oppression is oppression. The Egyptian youth and behind them their societies and communities are seconding a call on reform, change and democracy. That is very much genuine and very much similar to that of Tunisia, I think Tunisia is a microseism to what has happened in Egypt and the reflection of each other but again we have to respect the uniqueness and the historical specificity of each country.
“The greatest jihad is to speak the word of truth to a tyrant.”
–Islam’s Beloved Prophet Muhammad
Mohamed Khodr — My Catbird Seat
One down, twenty one to go. The young man who burned himself alive in Tunis,
Mohamed Bouazizi, was a university graduate prevented by police from selling fruit and vegetables to make a living He committed suicide to protest the loss of his humanity under Ben Ali’s tyrannical rule.
His death sparked a revolution in Tunis and awakened the minds and souls of oppressed Arabs across the region who sprang to the street to revolt against their own American owned and run tyrants.
Ben Ali was one of America’s favorite brutal Arab tyrants who for decades oppressed his people, denied their humanity, freedoms, and abused at will and whim their human rights. He embezzled billions of the people’s money for himself, his wife, family, and cronies. At the end he could not withstand the power of a spontaneous mass uprising demanding his removal. He escaped like a frightened mouse from the unleashed peaceful wrath of his subjugated subjects.
The light of this young man’s fire has lit a spark across the Arab world where people overcame their fear and apathy to demand their freedom from their American owned and run tyrants. From Algeria to Egypt; from Yemen to Jordan, from Lebanon, Syria, to Palestine, the streets are alive with the sounds of humanity long deprived of their most basic needs: freedoms, jobs, housing, an education, health care, clean water and sewage systems, electricity, and above all safety and security from multiple and brutal security services who only serve to protect the monarchs and military dictators
The Wikileaks papers proved the treasonous inhumane surrender of these tyrants to the will of America, a nation whose foreign policy in turn is surrendered to Israel. America and Israel have massacred millions of Arabs under the pretext of security and war on terrorism. To secure their power Arab tyrants have given a free hand to both imperial powers to commit genocide against those who seek freedom from their oppressive hegemony, occupation, and destruction of lives and property.
Thus these American tyrants have engulfed in whole without any conscience that all who oppose Israel in the region such as Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas, are also a threat to their power. Hence, protecting Israel’s security means protecting their own. Because these entities do not submit and surrender to the imperialism of Israel and America they are called “terrorists”. But murderous dictators who do are “moderate regimes”.
That’s why to these tyrants Iran is their primary enemy that must be attacked and bombed, not Israel, that is Judaizing Jerusalem, threatening Al Aqsa mosque with destruction, or massacring Palestinian children who go through the cracks of the Apartheid Wall to go to school.
Now come the “Palestinian Papers” that not only reveal but confirm what Palestinians and Arabs have always known–the Palestinian leadership of Mahmoud Balfour Abbas,Saeb Sharon Erakat, Ahmed Ben Gurion Qurei,Mlohammed Zionist Dahlan, and others, have practically conceded Jerusalem and Palestine to the murderous genocidal Zionists.
To these thieving traitors Hamas is the enemy, not Israel, that on a daily basis murders their people, including children, demolishes their homes, burns their olive trees, confiscates more land, continuously builds illegal settlements, steals precious water from thirsty masses, and permits settlers to kill at will innocent civilians.
These murderers not only knew but supported Israel’s genocide on Gaza that killed 1,500 civilians, including hundreds of children, as well as the deadly four year siege of 1.5 million people. As Saeb Sharon Erakat said: “I hate Hamas.” Yet in none of the documents does he say he hates Israel. Despite all the concessions the Palestinian Authority surrendered to Israel, Israel would slap them in the face with total rejection as it did to President Obama’s “request” to freeze settlements.
Erakat is the worst of these traitors. He is impulsive, thoughtless, willing to sell his family for a few photo ops in the White House. An insecure, weak, and inept man who’s overwhelmed by his sudden fame. Yet all are illiterate, inept, and corrupt in the art of politics, diplomacy, and negotiation. However all do live in palatial villas and possesses several Mercedes cars. Not even the late Arafat surrendered Jerusalem as these thugs have done.
Only the total resignation of these Palestinian leaders and their judicial prosecution can give the Palestinians the dignity and just righteousness of their cause. These traitors have now severed all remaining ties and good will with other Arab tyrants.
So my dear brothers and sisters in the Arab world raise your voices, fill the streets, have courage, and do not stop until every tyrant, monarch or military dictator has been toppled. This is your Islamic and humanitarian duty.
The greatest values in Islam are freedom, democracy, and justice. Always be just for that is a command from God. Islam calls for all affairs amongst people to be settled by democratic consultations. No matter what, protest peacefully to protect the sacredness of lives and people’s property.
“Their affairs are decided after due consultation among themselves” (Quran: 42:38)
The uniting power and energy for your Jihad is Islam. Unite under its banner and trust in God. Islam must be your weapon of mass demonstration.
Do not relent, do not give up, and do not rest until freedom rings from every mosque, every church, and every home. Bring these tyrants to justice to answer for their crimes against humanity and their theft of national wealth. .
The Arab world does have nationalistic patriotic men and women who can be democratically elected to be your leaders. Such as the Noble Laureate Dr. Mohamed El Baradei in Egypt, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti and Dr. Hanan Ashrawi in Palestine. There are many competent leaders both within the Arab world and living in exile.
Do not ever allow the military back into the political arena. Your leadership must all be civilian and a new constitution must never allow the military to rule but to be under civilian control The military is the most dangerous threat to any democracy. Democratically elected civilian leadership must replace all the Monarchs and Emirs who inherit power.
It is time to free your bodies and minds from the decade’s long scourge of tyranny. The biggest winner in these revolts will be you and the future of your children. The biggest loser in these revolts is America, long the protector and savior of these tyrants.
The eventual cutting off of all ties to Israel, boycotting its products and the products of any American or western company that deals or supports Israel, and ending all peace treaties with Israel will be the eventual path of freedom of Jerusalem and Palestine. All American military and intelligence bases in the Arab world must be removed. Islamophobia is rampant in Europe and America yet we offer them cheap oil and our land for their military and intelligence operations against Muslim nations? As the Jews say; “Never Again”.
Despite the Palestinian traitors many nations are recognizing Palestine as a State and upgrading its diplomatic representation to the status of Embassies.
America overthrew and killed Saddam Hussein because he was a tyrant who oppressed his people. How profoundly hypocritical that this land of the “free” supports such tyrants and supports the most racist, tyrannical, and genocidal regime in modern history—Israel.
Arab lives are cheap and expendable to America, Europe, Israel and most of all to Arab tyrants, willing to allow America to bomb at will and wipe out entire villages in the Arab world as long as they can remain on the payroll of the CIA.
Let Freedom ring throughout the Arab world and then learn the word “NO” to America and Israel’s genocidal policy for oil and land.
God be with you. Allah Akbar
Egyptians renew protests after curfew
AlJazeeraEnglish President Hosni Mubarak has ordered a nighttime curfew across the entire country, and the military has entered Cairo, Suez and Alexandria, but protesters continued to express their anger with the government by torching security vehicles and the headquarters of the ruling party.
Mohamed Khodr is a political activist who frequently writes on the plight of Palestinians living under the brutal occupation of Israel, U.S. Foreign Policy, Islam, and Arab politics.
Egypt has suffered long enough. I watched yesterday Biden's interview and he said, Hosseni Mubarak is not a dictator. I am shocked on this so-called foreign policy self-claimed guru of USA.
To start, he is the one who voted for the war resolution sponsored by King Bush. His son worked few monthsly in Iraq and now has become the attorney general of the state. What a quick reward? How come Mubarak is not a dictator? He is holding office for 30 years or more and never had a single election free and with opposition from another candidate. In most of the elections, he was the only candidate.
Now, he is grooming his son Jamal for this post. Egypt, in the last 55 years and after the overthrow of King Farooq, had only three presidents, Nassir, Saddat, and Mubarak, and all of them hailed from army and from one party. Had they allowed some opposition, Ziwahari must be still in Egypt, instead of living somewhere in Wazirstan or Afghanistan. They stifled the opposition so much that all of the political dissidents spread throughout the world.
When couple of year ago, Israelis massacred more than 1300 Palestinians in Gaza, the foreign minister of Israel had a smiling picture only couple of days ago with Egyptian dictator Mubarak. That was printed in Cairo's newspaper to the dismay of all of us. This dictator is no different thant Suharto of Indonesia, or Shah of Iran, or Tunisian dictator.
Time has come to change thse henious dictators. They are despicable people. The tsunami of revolution is coming, and it would prove one more thing that King Bush occupation of Iraq and bringing the so called democracy through the barrel of gun would be proven wrong for rest of the time.
I have for many years lived with the knowledge that we, the masses, the working class, the poor, the white, the black, the brown, the immigrants, the Christians, the Muslims, the atheists, the soldiers/ex-soldiers, the peaceniks, the communists, the anarchists, the students, the people, across the spectrum, we all have a common cause. And yet, we have so tragically allowed ourselves to be duped, to be pitted against each other, fighting each other, finding a million ways to divide ourselves, or simply to be indifferent to each other. In this the tyrant’s smile, they laugh and they joke, about how complete their control over us is. They have been laughing for far too long.
I know how this happens, growing up in my white middle-class Californian life; I was a mindless idiot like most, I had no idea that we in the West were living on the back of the blood sweat and tears of countless people around the globe. I was clueless about our reaping the benefits of the plunder of the world. I too was living in that bubble of indifference, a bubble that is finally bursting. I wonder if the billions who have suffered for our indifference can forgive us? I wonder if we will be honest about our criminal complacency which has resulted in an unfathomable amount of suffering and death?
Ah but alas, the American empire is crumbling, it is rotting from within, like every single empire before it. And how poetic that its accelerated demise was ignited by the rage and desperation of one Mohamed Bouazizi, one of the countless victims meant to be just another statistic; no no, this statistic just kicked off a global revolution.
Think about it, if a street vendor can do that, imagine the power of the people united, intelligent, fearless and indomitable.
And the people of the world are beginning to realize that all the bribe money, all the weapons, all the sleazy tyrants and their minions are nothing, they are spineless fleeing cowards, running away as cowards do. Let them run to the grotesquely corrupt hosts who will receive them, their day is coming soon as well. Soon there will be nowhere to hide, no gold for them to steal, no court to shield them and no stolen land to live on.
Moving forward with this revolution I am sure many such scoundrels will come home to America, the most corrupt land of them all, by virtue of the seeds of corruption it has sowed across the globe… America, possessor of the most disgusting, servile, traitorous government of them all, will soon play host to all its servile tin pot dictators.
America… the land of illusions, with the veneer of civility and prosperity, in truth the essence of destitution and lunacy. I know this land; it is my birth nation, I was indoctrinated in this nation and made insane, like the vast majority of its population. And yet I am blessed for my insanity because I have survived it, and more importantly I remember it, thus I can look at all my lost brothers and sisters and see myself.
I realized upon awakening that it was the height of arrogance to expect everybody else to awaken in unison with me, and so I accept people, as they are, collectively insane but capable of retaining their humanity. I knew for sure that if I could break free, anyone can. I remember how crazy and stupid I was, I remember believing my nation this and my nation that, and I remember pledging my allegiance to The United States of Hypocrisy by reciting the words “with liberty and justice for all”; what a bunch of bullshit! But I believed it.
I owe brother Malcolm X an incredible debt of gratitude for teaching me how stupid I was. I owe my native American brothers and sisters for teaching me of the genocidal history never mentioned in school. I owe my Hawaiian (kanaka maoli) brothers and sisters for teaching me true love of the land and the sea, as well as respect for my elders and the beauty of an extended family.
I owe the United States Marine Corps massively, for providing me my first real taste of injustice; undoubtedly the most critical event of my life. They gave me the rage, for having done the right thing and being punished, they connected me to everyone who knows injustice. How ironic… how beautiful.
I thank one president above all, thank you Dubya, my brother George W. Bush. You more than any other president taught my fellow Americans a lesson that I had known for years. I thank you Mr. President for uniting people around the world, like no other president in my lifetime. But most of all I thank you for forcing Americans to ask themselves, honestly; “do I live in the greatest nation on Earth?” And if so, how is it possible that “my president” is a silver spoon suckin, idiot Yale graduate, Skull & Bones tapped, cocaine snorting, Vietnam disserting, un-elected asshole?
Bill Clinton killed a good million and half Iraqis through inhuman sanctions, including 500,000 plus children. But Americans remained in their coma, oblivious to Clinton the mass-murdering war criminal; but then came George, thank you George, no president did more to wake Americans up, you were the turning point.
People were engaged with Dubya, he stirred them from their slumber, but Obama put them back to sleep. “It’s all good, there is a black man in the White House, everything is cool again!” What a joke. Meanwhile Americans sat by, waving flags and losing their jobs, losing their homes and making a bonfire of their Constitution and Bill of Rights. American sons and daughters turned into psychopaths and sacrificial lambs yet again. America, a nation of and for war criminals. America, making orphans by the millions. America, fighting and “leading” a farcical “War on Terror.”
America became some horrible B-movie, one big B-movie set in Fantasy Land, produced by Zionist lackeys. Only a nation and a world gone insane could have believed the movie was reality. Power to the prostitutes of propaganda, they did all they were ever called on to do. Meanwhile the working class continued working hard, bought their tickets and watched the movie, just so they could go further into debt by gifting the bankers trillions and trillions of dollars. “God bless America!”
Remember this my fellow Americans, a street vender from Tunisia kicked your ass; how beautiful is that? Somehow your slave masters could not manage to stop a single, insignificant man from knocking over the first domino and igniting the fire to which you shall soon be engulfed, literally. If you know what’s good for you, you will see your traitors on Wall Street, in the Congress and the White House for who there are, fast.
Speaking of which, let me say to Hillary Clinton and the other prostitute politicians calling for “restraint” in Tunisia and Egypt; fuck you and fuck restraint. Remain angry my brothers and sisters and channel that anger until the result is achieved, a revolution resulting in a dictators flight. He has shamed the Egyptian people for far too long, bought and paid for by the American taxpayer; there is no “reform” absent his departure. Let Egyptian rage manifest in the form of that cowardly, pathetic excuse of a man fleeing Egypt to join some pathetic and corrupt regime suitable of hosting him. I am not alone in waiting for the news that Israel and America’s Pimpdaddy Mubarak, and all his prostitutes, are fleeing Egypt for good.
And I am loving the “financial crisis, loving the fact that people are suffering in Europe and America, let it get worse and worse, please God I pray for a storm of discomfort. Let the middle and upper class people of the West in particular live like the Bedouins of Gaza I met today, nothing will jump start their conscience more. Let them feel a fraction of the pain and suffering we have dealt to the rest of the world. Soak it up, embrace it, live in the street, go hungry and homeless and get beaten for seeking shelter in the wrong place. Then look in the mirror and see the world you created in your own eyes.
Let us realize once and for all the truth, we are all connected, we, the working class, the un-employed, no matter color, religion, sex, nationality, we are the masses, we have the power. And if we have any sense at all we will see any and all attacks on fellow human beings as an attack on ourselves and our family. With this attitude we will crush any so-called leader/politician who even thinks to bamboozle us with the same bogus game that has played out for far too long.
Enough is enough, the world we created has been horrid, let us thank profusely those who fought while sat on our lazy, indoctrinated asses. Let us now stand together, brothers and sisters, with the people of Tunisia and Egypt in particular. Let us turn the page on the nicey nice social gathering protests that serve to diffuse our rage and absolve us of guilt by allowing us to say; “I protested.” No it is time now for much more effective measures. Direct Action is my chosen method, but general strikes are called for big time. It is time for the workers to bring the slave masters to their knees and to seriously, meaningfully, express solidarity with the people of every occupied nation, including but not limited to, Palestine, Kashmir, Iraq, Afghanistan and my beloved Hawaiian nation.
It is time to fight fire with fire if necessary and make clear to our police and military that if they turn on the people, then they will feel the wrath of the people.
Every government should be made to fear the people and respect the people, period. Let that be our credo, let us shed the fear and instill fear in every tyrant. The Tunisians and Egyptians have put the fear of god in their governments, so should we; our Western governments are every bit as corrupt.
And if our revolutions begin to be replaced by another form of tyranny, we shall rise again the moment it reveals itself.
As for irony, how about this, let us use the words of a despicable institution (The United Nations) and manifest the meaning of the words;
“Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,…” – Universal Declaration of Human Rights Let us live these words and draw a line in the sand. Either you live these values and protect these values or you are an enemy of the people. The bullshit war on terror and all who support that farce must be exposed and put in their place. Wars of aggression and occupation must end immediately. Those that rationalize and justify war and occupation must be exposed and recognized as enemies of the people. Banking, the fractional reserve system and the Federal Reserve, the central banks and the entire ponzi scheme they enslaved us with must be completely destroyed. Every secret society conspiring to benefit the few at the expense of the many must be exposed and destroyed.
Behind every empire remains the hidden powers and the removal of Ben Ali and Mubarak is merely the removal of their puppets; they have countless more so it is the powers in the shadows that we must finally see. These anti-humans care nothing for the religions or nations that the masses are so wedded to. They can slither from one place to another. Like a chameleon they can change color or camouflage themselves. They must be seen, the truth tellers are doing their part; we need only open our eyes. And open your eyes for this one, the greatest animated film ever made, The American Dream. Watch this 30 minute cartoon, get angry and get real.
I say again, if a street vendor can kick off a global revolution, imagine the power of the people united, intelligent, fearless and indomitable. We can achieve any damn thing we commit to. I say we destroy the banking system and replace it with genuine currencies of real value serving simply as a means for fair and ethical trade. I say we default on all of our loans to the criminal banks, both personal and national, and start over. I say we make criminals of the merchants of death who produce weapons of mass-destruction. And I say we sail to Palestine by the thousands and turn Israel’s ruthless, mass-murdering, fourth largest military in the world into an impotent irrelevance.
Why not?
Let us realize once and for all, that we the people are one, that we are human, that our most precious gift is that of our humanity. Let us never sacrifice it again. Together we are unstoppable. We are the sleeping giant, we are the waking lion, we are fierce and we are fearless.
If you the tyrants, the bankers, the prostitutes of propaganda and politics, if you are very fortunate indeed we will give you amnesty. But if you seek such mercy, then step down and speak honestly of the crimes against the people to which you aided and abetted and/or committed. Maybe, just maybe, you will become human again. And you can thank us all for being human with you.
If you are the police, the army, the servant of the tyrants, know that you are one of us, and you have the opportunity to serve your true purpose, which is to serve the people. Do this and you will be welcome. Remember, you are commanded by God and/or conscience to serve your fellow human beings; do so at the very moment your traitorous superiors order you to turn on the people. At that moment in which you are being ordered to sacrifice your humanity, put down your weapons and join the people; WE WILL EMBRACE YOU. You will transform from a vassal of tyranny to a hero. You have been placed in your position for this role, do not reject it.
To the tyrants, it matters not what you do to any one of us, we are the people, we are the true power and we are reclaiming it. Do not stand in our way.
To my brothers and sisters in Tunisia and Egypt, my deepest love and respect goes out to all of you. Thank you for showing us the way. May we follow in your footsteps, and without delay; I for one am with you 100%.
Mark Glenn, author and journalist in an Interview with Press TV
Mark Glenn offers his analysis on the recent unprecedented uprising in Tunisia, Egypt and the region. He expresses his concerns about why Israel and America don’t seem panicked about this situation.
Israel and the United States consider the current unrest in the Arab world as an opportunity to impose their new preferred leaders in order to hold control in the Middle East.
Press TV: Now that these unprecedented protests for the region, which are not just in Egypt but also in Tunisia, Yemen etc., why is it that the amount of coverage being given by mainstream media does not reflect this fact?
Glenn: To be honest, I have been troubled getting the reason why Israel and America did not appear to be panicked over this. If these revolts that are taking place were truly what they appeared to be and it really looked as if Tunisians, Egyptians and Yemenis were about to replace this autocratic leaders with leaders who are more sympathetic towards the interests of their own people, then Israel and America would be panicked over this, but according to the news coverage that we are watching, they did not appear to be panicked and this has made me and other people who also watched the news troubled, because we have this question whether or not these revolts are taking place with least approval of Israel and America who draw attention on purpose to make up their show of getting rid of these old autocrats with the intention of bringing a new one. This is what makes me troubled because I think in the end, what is going on here is Israel and America are going to exploit these protests that are taking place, in order to bring in new leaders who are going to keep things as they have been before. Well of course there would be a few small changes that will take place but in general, Israel will remain the sole power in the Middle East and no Arab countries will challenge that. That is my concern for everything that is taking place.
Press TV: As we have seen in Tunisia, the protesters and the people in general are not happy with the government in power and they are trying to see this to the end, will we see that in Egypt too?
Glenn: I think it is very possible. Let me make this clear, I think that the rage we see among the Egyptian and Tunisian people is a genuine rage. As we know Israel and America have a history of taking rages genuine to a rage like that and then take it into their own interest and I do believe that the Tunisians and Egyptians are intent to take this to the end and as I said the end of this rage leads to a younger Mubarak or a younger Ben Ali who will basically keep the same policies. Ahmadinejad in Iran, even though they do not enjoy the kind of popularity, among the Arab leaders who are firmly dependent on Israel and America, but among the Arab people themselves, they look up to men such as Ahmadinejad. So when we see these things taking place in Tunisia and Egypt we have to ask the question whether or not this is being allowed to take place so that these new leaders would be brought in, in order to overshadow the popularity of men such as Ahmadinejad in the Middle East.
Press TV: US continuously stresses upon the stability in Egypt and also Egypt’s exemplary ties with Israel. What democracy and freer society undermine the stability that the US prefers?
Glenn: Absolutely. If the people on the streets, whether in Tunisia, whether in Egypt, whether in Jordan or Saudi Arabia, were able to dictate policy for their countries, especially with regards to Israel and America’s position in the Middle East, we would see a radically different shift in the relationship that exists between these countries and the United States and Israel. If the people could speak, so yes, there is no question about the fact that bringing power to the people would be better for the region, but it would obviously not be better for Israel and America. AE/AKM
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