Clinton Dances With Netanyahu - Who Leads?

Clinton Dances With Netanyahu - Who Leads?

By BOUTHAINA SHAABAN

Most Arab and world media expressed astonishment when the US secretary of state Hilary Clinton described the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s willingness to “restraint the policy of settlements” as “unprecedented”. Perhaps, many of the reporters did not have sufficient time to read the script of the press conference she held with Netanyahu in occupied Jerusalem, which deserves to be called “unprecedented”.

So, before I address the subject and language of the press conference, let me quote precisely what Mrs. Clinton said, by way of explaining and interpreting what Netanyahu said on the settlement issue: “What the prime minister has offered in specifics of a restraint on the policy of settlements, which he has just described – no new starts, for example – is unprecedented in the context of the prior two negotiations”. Thus Mrs. Clinton volunteered to explain, praise and promote Netanyahu’s statement, forgetting that dismantling and freezing settlements were two main conditions in the Madrid frame of reference. The United Nations and the whole world, including her country, the United States, affirm that Israeli settlement in occupied Palestinian and Syrian land is illegal.

Thus, what is striking is this serious u turn in her position as secretary of state. She has stressed many times, before TV cameras, that putting an end to settlement by Israel is an essential prerequisite for the resumption of negotiations. What is also remarkable is that the US secretary of state should take upon herself to interpret and promote the pronouncements of the prime minister of an entity which carries out genocide and siege against an unarmed population.

This was not the only example in this press conference when the secretary volunteered to interpret, confirm and promote Netanyahu’s pronouncements. It would seem strange, even if she were Netanyahu’s foreign secretary. Netanyahu started by ignoring the main demand put forth by president Obama, stopping the settlements, and jumped to negotiations. Nevertheless, the secretary responded by saying: “I appreciate the very positive words about the need to get back into a negotiation that would be in the best interests of Israel and Israel’s security,” adding for appearances sake, “as well as create a state for the Palestinian people”. She did not mention the best interests and the security of the Palestinian people, because, for her, interests and security are associated only with Israel.

In her second answer she moved from this point which established Israel’s security and interests as the ultimate goal of the negotiations without mentioning the rights or security of the Palestinian people, to say: “I want to see both sides begin negotiations as soon as possible”. This means that she wants the Palestinians to start the negotiations which will be in “the best interests of Israel and Israel’s security,” adding: “The important thing, as the prime minister just said, is to get into the negotiations. I gave the same message today when I met with President Abbas”.

So, the US secretary of state stands in a press conference with the prime minister of an aggressive entity which committed war crimes against the unarmed Palestinian people only to explain what he says to reporters, confirm it, and call on the Palestinians to commit themselves to it. That was not enough. Concluding her answer, she said: “I think the best way to determine the way forward is, as the prime minister said, get on the path”. I thought for a moment: what if the prime minister had nothing to say. What would Mrs Clinton say or confirm?

As soon as I turned the page to read the next question put by Mark Landler of The New York Times, my fears were confirmed. He asked her: “When you were here in March on the first visit, you issued a strong statement condemning the demolition of housing units in East Jerusalem. Yet, that demolition has continued unabated, and indeed, a few days ago, the mayor of the city of Jerusalem issued a new order for demolition. How would you characterize this policy today?” But since the prime minister did not answer this question, the secretary of state did not either. Instead, she said: “Well, let me say I have nothing to add to my statement in March. I continue to stand by what I said then”.

Secretary of State Clinton did not condemn the demolition of Palestinian homes by Israeli occupation troops, not even the confiscation of the tent which housed the Hanoun and al-Ghawi families. She did not condemn making thousands of Palestinians homeless and torturing them on roads and checkpoints. Maybe Mrs Clinton does not know what it means to have a racist and brutal occupation authority demolish a human being’s home, but at least she could imagine returning to her comfortable house, not to see it demolished, but to find that a thief has stolen her books, photos, history and favorite clothes, damaged the water and electrical systems so that the place is uninhabitable, and then stands on the pavement homeless, without shelter, memory, warmth or a place to make food.

If Mrs. Clinton could not even imagine that, she could have walked only a few steps to see what Netanyahu and the mayor of Jerusalem did to East Jerusalem and the people of Palestine. If she does not know any of that, she should know that demolishing houses is banned internationally under the Geneva conventions and that the human right to live in dignity on one’s land in one’s home is the most sacred after the right to live. After all this performance on the part of the secretary of state, Netanyahu stressed: “that Israel will accept the vision of two states for two peoples, a demilitarized Palestinian state that recognizes the Jewish state of Israel,” and that he agreed with US administration officials that they are “willing to engage in peace talks immediately without preconditions”.

Here, Netanyahu took the initiative and spoke for himself and on behalf of the United Sates after stressing that he discussed this with the United States and agreed with it about what he would say, relieving the Secretary of her responsibility of re-explaining, confirming and promoting what he says. After this, it is no longer important to know what the Secretary of State said to Arab ministers in Morocco, nor her retracting her statements or reinterpreting them. She said, before TV cameras, that the US position towards the Arab-Israeli conflict is the position of the Netanyahu government.

For Netanyahu, even the possibility of carrying arms to those trying to defend themselves against aggression is a war crime, while the German chancellor Angela Merkel arms Israel with nuclear submarines without facing such an accusation. Thanks to Western powers, Israel has become an arms exporting country and is armed to the teeth with nuclear weapons. Does this mean that Israeli aggressors can possess all the weapons they want and use them against civilians just because they are Jews? And the Palestinians, who are at the receiving end of this aggression, cannot have arms to defend themselves, only because they are Arabs? It is important to note that the ship story only aimed at diverting attention from Israeli crimes mentioned in the Goldstone report and to gain sympathy.

Western officials iinflict great damage on democracy when they justify the crimes of war, killing, torture and siege committed by the rulers of Israel against unarmed civilians. When will Arab rulers and their media understand the depth of Western racism hatred against them as represented by the blacklist of countries which voted against the Goldstone report in order to justify Israel’s crimes against civilian Arabs, only because they are Arabs, and unite their stances and their policies? And when will honorable and conscientious people around the world stand firmly and courageously against the horrible crimes committed against the Palestinian people so that their nations do not get tarnished by the shame of conniving with criminals committing genocide and ethnic cleansing?

Bouthaina Shaaban is Political and Media Advisor at the Syrian Presidency, and former Minister of Expatriates. She is also a writer and professor at Damascus University since 1985. She has been the spokesperson for Syria and was nominated for Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. She can be reached through nizar_kabibo@yahoo.com

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Posted by JNOUBIYEH at 11:47 AM

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[ 09/11/2009 - 07:56 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) handed 17 new demolition orders to Palestinian families residing in Silwan village in occupied Jerusalem.

Fakhri Abu Diyab, member of the committee defending Silwan real estate, said that the IOA-controlled municipality of occupied Jerusalem has distributed eight notifications in Bustan suburb and the rest in Ein Al-Louze and Yemen suburbs.

He said that the municipality renewed the notifications to most of the 88 homes threatened with flattening in Silwan village, south of the holy Aqsa Mosque.

Abu Diyab said that the demolition orders issued late last month gave owners of those homes 20 days to appeal the orders.

He said that the demolition of the entire Bustan suburb is about to materialize, and asked Jerusalemites to frequent the protest tent to block the demolitions and to support the steadfastness of the targeted families.

In another context, the chairmanship of the Palestinian legislative council issued a statement on Sunday appreciating the "noble and courageous" stands of the forum of Islamic parliamentarians that was held in Kuwait recently for its support of Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque.

"The good news is that despite the division on the streets, when it comes to the nuclear programme, there is still a clear & solid chain of command"

Link

In the Guardian, here

"An analysis in the New York Times attributed Iran's negative reaction to deep divisions within the regime, and the political system's inability to make decisions of this magnitude. However, if we look closely at the decision-making body for the nuclear programme, we see that this conclusion is inaccurate......

It is very possible that there are certain individuals, such as Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's representative to the IAEA, who may back the deal. However there is no sign whatsoever of a consensus large enough that could challenge the supreme leader's opposition to the point that it would render him and Iran's decision-making process powerless to take "a decision of such magnitude"........

There is good news and bad news for President Obama. The bad news is that Khamenei is still intent on pursuing the military part of Iran's nuclear programme......"

Posted by G, Z, or B at 10:31 AM

ZIONISTS SAY~KILL EM ALL

EVEN THE CHRISTIANS

Never mind about Al-Qaeda, or any of the so called “evil Muslim threats” Israel keeps pushing on the world. No the REAL threat is much closer, hidden away right under your noses. It’s time to look closer to home, especially for Americans, especially for all those Christian Zionist Americans with their collective heads up the arse of Israeli Zionists. It’s not the Muslims who want to kill you, it’s your pals instead. Finally the truth comes out for all to see. They want to kill us all and believe they have the right to do so, dictated by their twisted Zionist farce of a religion, of course:

Jews have the right to kill non-Jews in just about any circumstance, quoting Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the illegal Yitzhar settlement's Od Yosef Chai yeshiva.

"If we kill a gentile who has sinned or has violated one of the seven commandments... there is nothing wrong with the murder," Shapiro wrote, according to Hebrew-language Israeli newspaper Maariv on Monday.

His new book, The King's Torah, Shapiro justifies the slaying of "non-Jews who demand the land for themselves," and for, among other transgressions, "hostile blasphemy."

"Those who, by speech, weaken our sovereignty" – deserve to die, the book explains. "It is permissable... even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation."

Witness the Re-birth of Hitler or what? Hey, now don’t you be talking bad about Israel or you die. Pardon me, but this sounds like a threat to any and all humans beings who speak out regarding Israel’s actions. If I were a journalist I’d file suit against this asshat for making threats on my life. Same goes for bloggers or any other speakers who criticize Israel. Perhaps we should all take a worldwide class action suit against the Settlers and the Israeli government for encouraging them via their “hands off” approach? More from the minds of insane people:

According to Maariv, the book is a manifesto, "230 pages, no less, on the laws of the killing of gentiles, a guide to deciding whether and when it is permissible to take the life of non-Jews."

Shapiro and his followers began selling the guide at Saturday's memorial in Jerusalem for Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Oh and by the way, America has a gang of these followers operating inside America, and they do nothing about it, even though their American Leader has been convicted of bombings inside America, go figure.......more:

Shapiro based the majority of his teachings on passages quoted from the Bible, to which he adds his opinions and beliefs. Several prominent rabbis, including Rabbi Yithak Ginzburg and Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, have recommended the book to their students and followers

The book includes a chapter titled, "Intentional Harm to Innocent People." The book explains that it is permissible to kill civilians in other nations if the population "helps a murderer of Jews... Any case in which the life of the civilian endangers Israel - it is allowed to kill a gentile."

"The permit also applies when the persecutor is threatening to kill indirectly rather than directly," Shapiro wrote. "If the civilian is aiding fighters it is permissible to kill. Anyone who helps the army and the wicked in any way strengthens pursuers."

He added, "Citizens [of the enemy nation] contribute to the war... So any citizen who supports the war or the fighters or expresses satisfaction with their deeds - the killing is permitted. And those who, by speech, weaken our sovereignty."

Think they would spare little Christian babies and children, sorry, nope, nada:

Even babies and children are fair targets, "if it is clear they will grow up to harm us," the rabbi wrote. "If hurting an evil king's children will pressure him to stop acting maliciously - you can hurt them," Maariv reported, quoting the book.

Don’t believe they are talking about Christians? Think again and read this:

However, the book does not mention Palestinians or Arabs "even by implication," Maariv pointed out, explaining that the author clearly meant to discuss the killing of gentiles as a theoretical concept rather than in the context of the region's politics. The newspaper noted that Shapiro was "careful not to explicitly encourage private individuals to take the law into their own hands."

Shapiro's book touched on the topic of revenge, as well.

"To defeat the wicked one should be vengeful, tit for tat," he wrote. "Revenge is a necessity... and sometimes doing savage things intended to create a true balance of terror." source

Hey Mike Huckabee and all you Christians who support Zionists and settlers, how do you feel about your buddies now?

Posted by Irish4Palestine at 4:53 PM

THREATEN ISRAEL AND DIE!

November 9, 2009 at 2:19 pm (Extremism, Israel, Religion, zionism)

Once again the wisdom of the dark ages has surfaced in Israel. It is now permissible to kill Gentiles who threaten Israel. God only knows what they have in store for Jews who do the same.

So, according to the ’sages’ of the West Bank, terrorists should go free…..

murderers of innocent children should go unpunished…..

And …. this is the type of behaviour that is supported by the US House of Representatives, minus 36 members.

West Bank rabbi: Jews can kill Gentiles who threaten Israel

Just weeks after the arrest of alleged Jewish terrorist, Yaakov Teitel, a West Bank rabbi on Monday released a book giving Jews permission to kill Gentiles who threaten Israel.

Rabbi Yitzhak Shapiro, who heads the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva in the Yitzhar settlement, wrote in his book “The King’s Torah” that even babies and children can be killed if they pose a threat to the nation.

Shapiro based the majority of his teachings on passages quoted from the Bible, to which he adds his opinions and beliefs.

“It is permissable to kill the Righteous among Nations even if they are not responsible for the threatening situation,” he wrote, adding: “If we kill a Gentile who has sinned or has violated one of the seven commandments – because we care about the commandments – there is nothing wrong with the murder.”

Several prominent rabbis, including Rabbi Yithak Ginzburg and Rabbi Yaakov Yosef, have recommended the book to their students and followers.

Source

HASBARA IN MOTION ~~AIPAC WINS ~~ THE PEOPLE LOSE

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November 9, 2009 at 10:42 am (AIPAC, DesertPeace Editorial, Gaza, Israel, Palestine, War Crimes)

Image by Bendib

In a blatant show of contempt for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, the US House of Representatives voted to oppose the Goldstone Report on the war crimes committed in Gaza last year. The vote was 344 to 36.

Those that voted against the House resolution are to be thanked, supported and reelected…..

Baird
Baldwin
Blumenauer
Boustany
Capps
Carson (IN)
Clarke
Clay
Davis (KY)
Dingell
Doggett
Edwards (MD)
Ellison
Filner
Grijalva
Hinchey
Johnson, E. B.
Kilpatrick (MI)
Kucinich
Lee (CA)
Lynch
McCollum
McDermott
McGovern
Miller, George
Moran (VA)
Olver
Pastor (AZ)
Paul
Price (NC)
Rahall
Snyder
Stark
Waters
Watt
Woolsey (CA)

Those that supported the resolution to defeat the report referred to it as “irredeemably biased and unworthy of further consideration or legitimacy.”

Their position must be remembered as well in the next election.

The vote demonstrates the influence that AIPAC has over the policies of the US Government, an influence that will stifle any efforts to attain a genuine lasting and just peace in Israel/Palestine.

Despite the fact that every Human Rights Group in Israel supports the Goldstone findings, it was still defeated in the House. This not only shows contempt for the progressive forces in Israel, it shows contempt for the United Nations General Assembly that passed the resolution.

For over 61 years Israel has literally gotten away with crimes against humanity by ignoring every resolution passed by the world body condemning them. Now, thanks to AIPAC and the US House of Representatives, they have literally been handed a green light to continue in their course leading to the ‘final solution’.

THIS IS NOT THE CHANGE WE HAD HOPED FOR

TRAGEDY AT FT. HOOD: A CATALYST FOR CHANGE?

Link

By: Dr. Alan Sabrosky*

The incident at Ft. Hood was a genuine tragedy. I’m only surprised it didn’t happen sooner, there or somewhere else. It is going to take time for the details to be sorted out.
Generalizing from a single incident is always dangerous, no matter how compelling it seems. Sometimes an isolated tragedy is just that, an outpouring of individual dementia rather than a wide-ranging political statement.
But that generalization is already happening, with people across the political spectrum musing about assorted conspiracies. There is the instant and renewed Ziobabble demeaning Muslims generally and Arabs in particular, all false but popular in America today. And there are dire warnings about Mossad “false flag” operations, no matter how unlikely a candidate the shooter was for such a role.
Precedents
So let’s look at this issue from a broader perspective while assorted conspiracy theorists have another day in the sun. This is certainly the first incident involving an American Muslim (I am discounting the so-called “Black Muslim” sect), but in the 1960s and 1970s the US generally faced eruptions of black violence, with cities burning in the “long hot summers” and troops deployed to combat it.
Nor was the US military immune. Many units in combat in Vietnam encountered extensive racial divisions and violence, almost all of it initiated by “black power” militants. Several warships had mutinies from the same sources. US bases around the world were littered with similar racially motivated tensions and incidents for years. There were many specific reasons, but generally it was because many black Americans felt the government they served was not serving them.
To their great credit, that simply has not been the experience of American Muslims in US society or in the US armed forces. Certainly, few American Muslims in or out of uniform give even a small fraction of the political allegiance to their countries of origin, that so many American Jews give to Israel as dual Israeli-US citizens or under the false and hypocritical rubric of “dual loyalty.” The allegiance of the American Muslim community has been steadfast.
But their frustration with events must be great. They have been the victims of widespread and carefully contrived anti-Muslim sentiment before and after the events of 9/11, whatever their origin. And they have been tested severely by the actions of a US Government in thrall to Israel, in whose interest it has killed, wounded or dispossessed literally millions of people to date in Iraq and Afghanistan, with comparable plans for Iran in play from the same people who brought us those wars and 9/11 besides.
At some point and in some place, someone was going to lash out. At Ft. Hood, whether alone or not, incited or not, affected by an impending deployment or interviews with returning veterans (or both), someone did.
Portents
It must be terribly difficult for American Muslims, especially those of Palestinian heritage, to serve a US Government that is an indictable accessory of Israel, a country whose abuses, war crimes, and crimes against humanity are well known and copiously documented everywhere except in the US.
In their place, I could not do so, despite a decade of service in the US Marines and a lifelong commitment to supporting the US on campuses and in public forums when it was not popular at all to do so.
But my country is more important than my government, and the American people are more important to me than a relative handful of elected and appointed officials whose words and actions violate both the letter and the spirit of their oaths.
A US Government hostage to a lobby serving the interests of a foreign country has lost all legitimacy. It is in violation not only of the Constitution, but also of the tenets of the Declaration of Independence, which is the distillation of the spirit of the land, and specifies the ends for which government is instituted.
This is the stuff of tragedy and death, and if America does not alter the way it does its business in the world, what we have experienced at Ft. Hood may well be only a portent and not an isolated event. No one likes or tolerates indefinitely a government indifferent to the fate of their families overseas, and manipulated by a foreign country that is the agent of their misery.
None of this excuses Hasan’s act. Over 50 people are dead or wounded because of him, and I do not and would never condone that. I also do not and would never condone 60,000 Americans killed or wounded so far because of the 9/11 tragedy and our ongoing wars fabricated by the Zionists in Israel’s interest. What Hasan did was murder, pure and simple. What the neo-cons and their allies have done and are doing is treason, pure and simple. Both are crimes, and both should be punished.
Sometimes tragedy can be a catalyst for change. What happened at Ft. Hood may open a long overdue debate that will be such a catalyst for American policy in the Middle East, transforming Obama’s excellent words at Cairo into equally admirable actions that have so far been woefully absent.
Let us make it so.

______________________________________________________________________
*Alan Sabrosky (Ph.D, University of Michigan) is a ten-year US Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the US Army War College. He can be contacted at docbrosk@comcast.net
November 8, 2009 Posted by Elias

Making Sense of the Tragedy at Fort Hood

By: Eddie Zawaski Salem-News.com

Since he survived the shootings, Major Hasan will now have his forty years to relieve the massacre and try to make some sense of it. War just isn’t worth it and this shooting proves it.
(PATAGONIA, Argentina) – Making sense of the Fort Hood shootings will be a difficult process for Americans. While some may swiftly

Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan

consign this tragedy to the context of a black and white struggle between Islam and Christianity or Arab vs. American, others will look for more complex and more personal explanations.
How Americans and our military interpret and respond to this event will determine whether we have more or fewer tragedies like this in the future.
Thus, I would like to offer a personal and more complex explanation of what happened yesterday, an explanation that rings true for me.
When I read of the circumstances surrounding Maj. Hasan’s recent life, I broke into a cold sweat. His nightmare was my nightmare. I had been down the same road as he forty years earlier.
Like Major Hasan, I had been trained by our military to work with returning combat veterans suffering from PTSD. In my case, it was the Philadelphia Naval Hospital in the wake of the Tet Offensive and stressed-out Marines were arriving in droves every day.
I was the admissions corpsman on ward T-15, the first place a medically evacuated psychatric casualty came to in the US. My job was to listen to their stories and then file a report for the doctor who would care for them in our hospital. It didn’t take long for this job to wear me down.
Day after day, I listened to horrific stories. One Marine had shot his best friend in the back of his head and couldn’t get his buddy’s blood off his uniform. Another had “blown away” an innocent mother and child and had transformed himself into a german shepherd to avoid the responsibility for his action.
Six to ten times a day, I heard stories full of gore told by men unable to bear the burden of what they had done and seen. Even the glassy-eyed catatonics with no stories could not conceal the horror that they brought into my interview room.
The only way I could continue in this job was to disassociate, to refuse to believe that these stories were real or that any of it could happen to me. Then, one day in August of 1968, my armor was stripped away.

When I got my orders to be shipped out to Vietnam, I went into a complete panic. It was one thing to go into a war zone blind, not knowing what to expect, but it was an absolute nightmare when you already knew all the worst of it.
This was the point of the sword that both Major Hasan and I had been placed upon. Both he and I had been placed in positions of supreme responsibility on account of our intelligence and steady good judgement, but when the horror of the war became immediate and immanent, intelligence and judgement vanished. Panic set in.
I didn’t know what to do as, I am sure, Major Hasan didn’t know either. The real horrors that we had been living and working with so long tumbled over us and screamed at us to do something and do it fast.
Since we had been putting so much effort into disassociating, remaining objective about our PTSD victims and their circumstances, we hadn’t given a glimmer of a thought to what we would do when faced with the possibility that we, too, would get in line for horrors of our own. Under such conditions, only the most irrational solutions seem possible. The use of force seemed the only way out.
In my case, the force I used was on myself; I attempted suicide. I had seen so many others pass through my station on their way to a lifetime of reliving war’s deepest agony that I thought it better to take the quickest detour to a peaceful end. I did not want a life of veterans hospitals and tranquilizers. It was a stupid decision made by a man incapable of thinking clearly. I have no idea what Major Hasan could have been thinking.
Perhaps he sought to save the soldiers he killed from the horrors of war by dispatching them swiftly and unexpectedly at home. Whatever he may have thought, I’m sure he was certain that he would not survive his deeds, that he, too, was attempting suicide. Any explanation for what he did, no matter how crazy, has to be correct because what was done was done in a panic. When you are nuts, anything goes. When you are going to die, die now.
Both Major Hasan and I survived our moments of extreme panic. He will recover from his wounds, stand trial, be convicted and will have a lifetime to think about the consequences of his deeds.
I have been thinking about mine for forty years. While some may make conclusions about what happened based on Major Hasan’s name, religion or origins, I choose to make my own conclusion based on my eerily similar experience during an earlier war. Here’s how I see it.
War is the culprit in this tragedy, war and the people who declare it and wage it. It is easy for the Osama bin Ladens and George Bushes of this world to declare wars and prosecute them for they are the sons of wealth and privilege who will never suffer the consequences of the conflicts they seek.
Take away the war and everything is different. I end up going straight through college without being drafted and Major Hasan has a nice career as an army psychiatrist. Osama bin Laden and George Bush get lost in history. No matter what justification there may be for war, any war, the consequence of the horrors of combat are so deep and so lasting that all of us, even the best of us, are ruined by it.
Since he survived the shootings, Major Hasan will now have his forty years to relieve the massacre and try to make some sense of it. War just isn’t worth it and this shooting proves it.
Source: Salem-News.com

November 8, 2009 Posted by Elias

Support Bil’in Amidst the Ongoing Israeli Arrest and Intimidation Campaign

By LATUFF

Link

Edited: Elias Farhud

“Just as a simple man named Ghandi led the successful non-violent struggle in India and simple people such as Rosa Parks and Nelson Mandela led the struggle for civil rights in the United States, simple people here in Bil’in are leading a non-violent struggle that will bring them their freedom. The South Africa experience proves that injustice can be dismantled.”

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, during a visit to Bil’in on 27 August 2009

The Palestinian village of Bil’in has become an international symbol of the Palestinian popular non-violent struggle. For almost 5 years, its residents have been continuously struggling against the de facto annexation of more than 50% of their farmlands, confiscated for the construction of the Apartheid Wall.

The Israeli military’s most recent attempt to crush Bil’in village’s ongoing popular non-violent resistance campaign against the Apartheid Wall is a wave of night raids and arrests targeting protesters and the leadership of Bil’in’s Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements.

Once again the night in Bil’in was disrupted by a raid ending with the arrest of one Palestinian man. This occurred in the night after the children’s demonstration Wednesday morning where the children had chanted slogans like “We want to sleep,” “Stop the night raids” and others.

The house of Mohammed Ibrahim Achmed Hassan Abu Rahma (age 50) was invaded shortly before 2am on Thursday morning, 20.08.09, ending with his arrest. His son Nashmi Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Rahma (age 14) had been arrested 5 days ago.

About 25 soldiers had come to the village on foot with their faces disguised. While taking the victim away, the soldiers threw a sound bomb into Palestinian and international activists who tried to interfere and de-arrest the man. A shuffle occurred during which the soldiers hit Palestinians and international activists, knocking one international female activist to the ground and pulling the hair of another.

As the cameraman, Haitham al-Katib, was filming the arrest, one soldier hit and broke his camera. The occupation forces succeeded in taking the victim away escaping through the fields, closely followed by Palestinian and international activists. Jeeps were waiting at a fair distance and picked up the soldiers with their victim.

The Head of the Bil’in Popular Committee, Iyad Bornat, says that in spite of the continuing arrests, the resistance and demonstrations against the military occupation and the Apartheid Wall will continue. “This is our right and we want our lands back now, not tomorrow.”

Around 3:30 am, the Israeli occupation forces invaded Bil’in once again arresting 2 Palestinians.

Two houses were raided simultaneously by at least 40 soldiers. In the first house, Ashraf Mohammad Jamal Tofik Al-Khatib (age 29) was arrested. In the second house, they arrested Hamru Hisham Bornat (age 33).

The cameraman, Haitham Al-Khatib, who was filming in his own house, one victim being his brother, was repeatedly forcibly moved and hit, and threatened with arrest unless he stopped filming. They declared his house a “closed military zone” but did not produce any military order. 3 Jeeps and 2 Humvee jeeps were used for the operation. The Israeli Army invaded Bil’in from three directions, the neighbor villages Kofr Ni’ma and Saffa, and through the gate from the Apartheid Wall. They parked their vehicles, engines running, opposite the mosque. With the victims inside the Jeeps, the vehicles exited the village toward the Wall.

The international activists present were challenging the soldiers regarding their operation, but they were unable to de-arrest the victims. Upon repeated requests for information, activists were ignored, pushed, and had rifles pointed at their faces. They were told on more than one occasion that the village had been declared as a “closed military zone,” but soldiers refused to show proof.

The recent raids began concurrently with the opening of a legal trial in Montreal. The village of Bil’in has taken two companies registered in Canada (Green Park International & Green Mount International) to court for participating in war crimes by building settlements on Bil’in’s land under the 2000 Canadian Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Statute (which incorporates both the articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Rome Statute into Canadian federal law).

According to one of Bil’in’s attorney Emily Schaeffer, the judge Justice Louis-Paul Cullen is meant to give a decision very soon about whether the Canadian court has jurisdiction to hear Bil’in’s claims.

Since the trail began Israeli forces have arrested 30 people (most of which are under 18). Twenty-one residents of Bil’in remain in Israeli detention.

Through Israel’s interrogation and intimidation tactics, some of arrested youth have falsely ‘confessed’ that the Bil’in Popular Committee urges the demonstrators to throw stones. With such ‘confessions’, Israeli forces then proceed to raid the village at night , invade homes and arrest leaders of the non-violent struggle in the community.

Two of the three popular committee members who traveled to Montreal to represent the villages case, Mohammad Khatib and Mohammad Abu Rahme were arrested and have since been released on bail. (see B’Tselem report).

Another leading Bil’in non-violent activist, Adeeb Abu Rahme, remains in detention since his arrest during a non-violent demonstration on 10 July 2009 (see report & video). Adeeb has been charged with “incitement to damage the security of the area.”

People arrested in Bil’in since the beginning of this intimidation campaign

1. 24/06/2009 : Mohammed Khalil Abu Rahma (age 23)
   
2. 24/06/2009 : Moatassem Faisal Al-Khatib (age 17)
   
3. 26/06/2009 : Khaleel Ibraheem (age 15)
   
4. 26/06/2009 : Kamel Alkhateeb (age 15)
   
5. 29/06/2009 : Emad Mahmoud Yassin (age 16)
   
6. 29/06/2009 : Hosni Rasim al-Khatib (age 16)
   
7. 29/06/2009 : Mohsen Kateb (age 16)
   
8. 29/06/2009 : Hamoda Yaseen (age 16)
   
9. 30/06/2009 : Suleiman Seif (age 17)
   
10. 5/07/2009 : Oda Rebhe Abu Rahma (age 20)
    
11. 5/07/2009 : Mahmoud Issa Yassein (age 17)
    
12. 7/07/2009 : Majdi Abdel Muamer Abu Rahma
    
13. 10/07/2009 : Adeeb Abu Rahme
    
14. 17/07/2009 : Muhammed abde al fatah Burnat (age 21)
    
15. 19/07/2009 : Imad Burnat (age 37)
    
16. 1/10/2009 : Basel Mansour (age 32)
    
17. 3/08/2009 : Khaled Show gut Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 23)
    
18. 3/08/2009 : Mustafa Show gut Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 18)
    
19. 3/08/2009 : Mohammed Show gut Abd-Alrazic al-Khateeb (age 16)
    
20. 3/08/2009 : Abdullah Ahmad Yassen (age 18)
    
21. 3/08/2009 : Abdullah Mohammed Ali Yassen (age 16)
    
22. 3/08/2009 : Issa Mahmoud Issa Abu Rahma (age 40)
    
23. 3/08/2009 : Mohammed Khatib (age 35), released on 18/08/2009 on the condition that he report to a police station with a monitor every Friday until 5pm for the duration of his trial
    
24. 15/08/2009 : Nashmi Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Rahma (age 14)
    
25. 20/08/2009 : Mohammad Abu Rahma aka Abu Nizar (age 50), released on 23/08/2009 on a 5.000 NIS bail
    
26. 29/08/2009 : Ashraf Mohammad Jamal Tofik Al-Khatib (age 29)
    
27. 29/08/2009 : Hamru Hisham Bornat (age 24)
    
28. 1/09/2009 : Abed Baset Mohammed Abu Rahme (age 19)
    
29. 25/09/2009 : Haetham Al Khateeb (age 33), released on 25/09/2009, forced to sign an undertaking to stay away from the fence in his own home, Bil’in, and ordered to show up to a court hearing in six months
    
30. 1/10/2009 : Basel Mansour (age 32), released on 8/10/2009 after paying a penalty fine of 1000 shekels

What you can do?

CALL FOR RELEASE OF ALL BIL’IN’S POLITICAL PRISONERS.

Attempts to criminalize the leadership of non-violent protests were curbed in the past with the help of an outpouring of support from people committed to justice from all over the world.

1. Please protest by contacting your political representatives, as well as your consuls and ambassadors to Israel to demand that Israel stops targeting non-violent popular resistance and release Adib Abu Rahme and all Bil’in prisoners.
   
2. The Popular Committee of Bil’in is in desperate need for funds in order to pay legal fees both for the trial in Montreal and for representing the arrested protesters in the military courts and bail.

Please donate to the Bil’in legal fund through paypal. If you would like to make a tax deductible donation in the US or Canada contact: bilinlegal@gmail.com.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

Note : Tax deductible donations in Canada can also be made online or by check through Medical Aid for Palestine in order to pay legal fees for the trial in Canada, see here for more information.

— The Bil’in Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements

Background

The Palestinian village of Bil’in has become an international symbol of the Palestinian popular struggle. For almost 5 years, its residents have been continuously struggling against the de facto annexation of more than 50% of their farmlands, confiscated for the construction of the Apartheid Wall.

The West Bank village of Bil’in is located 12 kilometers west of Ramallah and 4 km east of the Green Line. It is an agricultural village, around 4,085 dunams (988 acres) in size, and populated by approximately 1,780 residents.

Approximately 55% of Bil’in’s agricultural land has been declared ‘State Land’ by Israel and confiscated for the construction of the settlement bloc, Modi’in Illit. Modi’in Illit holds the largest settler population of any settlement bloc, with over 42,000 residents and plans to achieve a population of 150,000.

Prior to 1948, Bil’in spanned 4,085 dunams. Starting in 1982 and again in 1991, around 1,980 dunams were taken. Another 260 dunams were taken for construction of the Wall in 2005.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruled that the Wall was contrary to international law, particularly International Humanitarian Law. The Court went on to rule that Israel’s settlements are illegal under the same laws, noting that the Wall’s route is intimately connected to the settlements adjacent to the Green Line, further annexing 12% of the West Bank to Israel.

Despite the advisory opinion, early in 2005, Israel began constructing the separation Wall on Bil’in’s land, cutting the village in half in order to place Modi’in Illit and its future growth on the “Israeli side” of the Wall.

In March 2005, Bil’in residents began to organize almost daily direct actions and demonstrations against the theft of their lands. Gaining the attention of the international community with their creativity and perseverance, Bil’in has become a symbol for popular resistance.
Almost five years later, Bil’in continues to have weekly Friday protests.

Bil’in has held annual conferences on popular resistance since 2006, providing a forum for activists, intellectuals, and leaders to discuss strategies for the non-violent struggle against the Occupation.

Israeli forces have used sound and shock grenades, water cannons, rubber-coated steel bullets, tear gas grenades, tear gas canisters and 0.22 caliber live ammunition against protesters.

In a celebrated decision, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled on the 4 September 2007 that the current route of the wall in Bil’in was illegal and needs to be dismantled; the ruling however has not been implemented. The struggle of the village to liberate its lands and stop the illegal settlements has been internationally recognized and has earned the popular committee in Bil’in the Carl von Ossietzky Medal award.

On 17 April 2009, Bassem Abu Rahma was shot with a high-velocity tear gas projectile in the chest by Israeli forces and subsequently died from his wounds at a Ramallah hospital.

Out of the 75 residents who were arrested in connection to demonstrations against the Wall, 27 have been were arrested after the beginning of a night raid campaign on 23 June 2009.

In addition to its grassroots movement, Bil’in turned to the courts in the fall of 2005. In September 2007, 2 years after they initiated legal proceedings, the Israeli High Court of Justice ruled that due to illegal construction in part of Modi’in Illit, unfinished housing could not be completed and that the route of the Wall be moved several hundred meters west, returning 25% of Bil’in’s lands to the village. To date, the high court ruling has not been implemented and settlement construction continues.

Source:

www.bilin-village.org

Iyad Burnat- Head of Popular Commitee in Bilin
co-founder of Friends of Freedom and Justice - Bilin

Email- bel3in@yahoo.com
Mobile- (00972) (0) 547847942
Office- (00972) (2) 2489129
Mobile- (00972) (0) 598403676
www.bilin-ffj.org

November 8, 2009 - Posted by Elias

Uri Avnery Plishing Abbas: Abbas betrayed. And the traitor is Barack Obama.

Translation:

He was an American Palestinian who rejected violence; he believed in America and joined its army; where he was subjected to the worst humilation, discrimination, humiliation and blackmailing; desperate as all doors were slammed in his face, he did what he did in this tragic ending with unknown consequences. He is president Mahmoud Abbas.

Line in the Sand

Uri Avnery's Column


07/11/09

MAHMOUD ABBAS is fed up. The day before yesterday he withdrew his candidacy for the coming presidential election in the Palestinian Authority.
I understand him.
He feels betrayed. And the traitor is Barack Obama.
A YEAR ago, when Obama was elected, he aroused high hopes in the Muslim world, among the Palestinian people as well as in the Israeli peace camp.
At long last an American president who understood that he had to put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, not only for the sake of the two peoples, but mainly for the US national interests. This conflict is largely responsible for the tidal waves of anti-American hatred that sweep the Muslim masses from ocean to ocean.
Everybody believed that a new era had begun. Instead of the Clash of Civilizations, the Axis of Evil and all the other idiotic but fateful slogans of the Bush era, a new approach of understanding and reconciliation, mutual respect and practical solutions.
Nobody expected Obama to exchange the unconditional pro-Israeli line for a one-sided pro-Palestinian attitude. But everybody thought that the US would henceforth adopt a more even-handed approach and push the two sides towards the Two-State Solution. And, no less important, that the continuous stream of hypocritical and sanctimonious blabbering would be displaced by a determined, vigorous, non-provocative but purposeful policy.
As high as the hopes were then, so deep is the disappointment now. Nothing of all these has come about. Worse: the Obama administration has shown by its actions and omissions that it is not really different from the administration of George W. Bush.
FROM THE first moment it was clear that the decisive test would come in the battle of the settlements.
It may seem that this is a marginal matter. If peace is to be achieved within two years, as Obama’s people assure us, why worry about another few houses in the settlements that will be dismantled anyway? So there will be a few thousand settlers more to resettle. Big deal.
But the freezing of the settlements has an importance far beyond its practical effect. To return to the metaphor of the Palestinian lawyer: “We are negotiating the division of a pizza, and in the meantime, Israel is eating the pizza.”
The American insistence on freezing the settlements in the entire West Bank and East Jerusalem was the flag of Obama’s new policy. As in a Western movie, Obama drew a line in the sand and declared: up to here and no further! A real cowboy cannot withdraw from such a line without being seen as yellow.
That is precisely what has now happened. Obama has erased the line he himself drew in the sand. He has given up the clear demand for a total freeze. Binyamin Netanyahu and his people announced proudly - and loudly - that a compromise had been reached, not, God forbid, with the Palestinians (who are they?) but with the Americans. They have allowed Netanyahu to build here and build there, for the sake of “Normal Life”, “Natural Increase”, “Completing Unfinished Projects” and other transparent pretexts of this kind. There will not be, of course, any restrictions in Jerusalem, the Undivided Eternal Capital of Israel. In short, the settlement activity will continue in full swing.
To add insult to injury, Hillary Clinton troubled herself to come to Jerusalem in person in order to shower Netanyahu with unctuous flattery. There is no precedent to the sacrifices he is making for peace, she fawned.
That was too much even for Abbas, whose patience and self-restraint are legendary. He has drawn the consequences.
“TO UNDERSTAND all is to forgive all,” the French say. But in this case, some things are hard to forgive.
Certainly, one can understand Obama. He is engaged in a fight for his political life on the social front, the battle for health insurance. Unemployment continues to rise. The news from Iraq is bad, Afghanistan is quickly turning into a second Vietnam. Even before the award ceremony, the Nobel Peace Prize looks like a joke.
Perhaps he feels that the time is not ripe for provoking the almighty pro-Israel lobby. He is a politician, and politics is the art of the possible. It would be possible to forgive him for this, if he admitted frankly that he is unable to realize his good intentions in this area for the time being.
But it is impossible to forgive what is actually happening. Not the scandalous American treatment of the Goldstone report. Not the loathsome behavior of Hillary in Jerusalem. Not the mendacious talk about the “restraint” of the settlement activities. The more so as all this goes on with total disregard of the Palestinians, as if they were merely extras in a musical.
Not only has Obama given up his claim to a complete change in US policy, but he is actually continuing the policy of Bush. And since Obama pretends to be the opposite of Bush, this is double treachery.
Abbas reacted with the only weapon he has at his command: the announcement that he will leave public life.
THE AMERICAN policy in the “Wider Middle East” can be compared to a recipe in a cookbook: “Take five eggs, mix with flour and sugar…
In real life: Take a local notable, give him the paraphernalia of government, conduct “free elections”, train his security forces, turn him into a subcontractor.
This is not an original recipe. Many colonial and occupation regimes have used it in the past. What is so special about its use by the Americans is the “democratic” props for the play. Even if a cynical world does not believe a word of it, there is the audience back home to think about.
That is how it was done in the past in Vietnam. How Hamid Karzai was chosen in Afghanistan and Nouri Maliki in Iraq. How Fouad Siniora has been kept in Lebanon. How Muhammad Dahlan was to be installed in the Gaza Strip (but was at the decisive moment forestalled by Hamas.) In most of the Arab countries, there is no need for this recipe, since the established regimes already satisfy the requirements.
Abbas was supposed to fill this role. He bears the title of President, he was elected fairly, an American general is training his security forces. True, in the following parliamentary elections his party was soundly beaten, but the Americans just ignored the results and the Israelis imprisoned the undesirable Parliamentarians. The show must go on.
BUT ABBAS is not satisfied with being the egg in the American recipe.
I first met him 26 years ago. After the first Lebanon War, when we (Matti Peled, Ya’acov Arnon and I) went to Tunis to meet Yasser Arafat, we saw Abbas first. That was the case every time we came to Tunis after that. Peace with Israel was the “desk” of Abbas.
Conversations with him were always to the point. We did not become friends, as with Arafat. The two were of very different temperament. Arafat was an extrovert, a warm person who liked personal gestures and physical contact with the people he talked with. Abbas is a self-contained introvert who prefers to keep people at a distance.
From the political point of view, there is no real difference. Abbas is continuing the line laid down by Arafat in 1974 (I would say in 1958): a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital. The difference is in the method. Arafat believed in his ability to influence Israeli public opinion. Abbas limits himself to dealings with rulers. Arafat believed that he had to keep in his arsenal all possible means of struggle: negotiations, diplomatic activity, armed struggle, public relations, devious maneuvers. Abbas puts everything in one basket: peace negotiations.
Abbas does not want to become a Palestinian Marshal Petain. He does not want to head a local Vichy regime. He knows that he is on a slippery slope and has decided to stop before it is too late.

I think, therefore, that his intention to leave the stage is serious. I believe his assertion that it is not just a bargaining ploy. He may change his decision, but only if he is convinced that the rules of the game have changed.

OBAMA WAS completely surprised. That has never happened before: an American client, totally dependent on Washington, suddenly rebels and poses conditions. That is exactly what Abbas has done now, when he recognized that Obama is unwilling to fulfill the most basic condition: to freeze the settlements.
From the American point of view, there is no replacement. There are certainly some capable people in the Palestinian leadership, as well as corrupt ones and collaborators. But there is no one who is capable of rallying around him all the West Bank population. The first name that comes up is always Marwan Barghouti, but he is in prison and the Israeli government has already announced that he will not be released even if elected. Also, it is not clear whether he is willing to play that role in the present conditions. Without Abbas, the entire American recipe comes apart.

Netanyahu, too, was utterly surprised. He wants phony negotiations, devoid of substance, as a camouflage for the deepening of the occupation and enlarging of the settlements. A “Peace process” as a substitute for peace. Without a recognized Palestinian leader, with whom can he “negotiate”?
In Jerusalem, there is still hope that Abbas’ announcement is merely a ploy, that it would be enough to throw him some crumbs in order to change his mind. It seems that they do not really know the man. His self-respect will not allow him to go back, unless Obama awards him a serious political achievement.

Michigan Woman Imprisoned by Israel Following Settler Takeover of Palestinian Home

Link

Imprisoned American citizen and Michigan resident Ahlam Mohsen to be deported to the US after being arrested in a Palestinian home taken over by Israeli settlers in Occupied East Jerusalem.

Ahlam was a guest of the al-Kurd family when on the morning of 3 November 2009 Israeli settlers burst in and seized part of the building. Contrary to eyewitness accounts, the police claim the 21-year-old attacked them.

From the Givon prison in Ramle where Ms. Mohsen is currently awaiting deportation she reported that: “The Israeli police were violently pushing an elderly Palestinian woman. So I stepped in front of them. They told me to move and when I refused they started forcefully pushing me. Then they grabbed me and carried me into a police van. While I was waiting at the Israeli Ministry of Interior, the police officers kept telling each other that I was a `dirty Arab’ and introducing me as ‘Osama Bin Laden’s sister’. One of them, threatened to `break my head’. None of the other non-violent demonstrators were targeted; the way they treated me, it’s obvious that I was arrested because I’m of Arab descent.”

The 40 settlers, accompanied by private armed security and Israeli police forces, entered a section of the home, threw out the family’s belongings and locked themselves in.

The take-over came after an appeal submitted by the family’s lawyer was rejected by the District Court. In their appeal, the Palestinian family was challenging an earlier court decision that deemed a section of the house illegal and ordered that the keys be given to settlers. The settlers proceeded to enter the house, while the court did not grant them the right to enter the property.

The al-Kurd home was built in 1956. An addition to the house was built 10 years ago, but the family was not allowed to inhabit the section because the municipality refused to grant them a building permit. Visibly unequal laws are used to make it possible for settlers to move into a home where it was declared illegal for Palestinian residents to inhabit. The Israeli authorities exercise their abilities to demolish and evict Palestinian residents, while ignoring building violations from the Israeli population in East Jerusalem.

The al-Kurds have become the fourth Sheikh Jarrah family whose house has been occupied by settlers in the last year. So far, 60 people have been left homeless. In total, 28 families living in the Karm Al- Ja’ouni neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah, located directly north of the Old City, face imminent eviction from their homes.

See video:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/11/03/hancocks.fight.for.jerusalem.cnn

Ahlam is imprisoned in the Givon prison in Ramle. She is available for interviews.

Please contact:
Ahlam Mohsen +972.548.845.924
Sasha Solanas, ISM Media office +972.54.903.2981
******************************

Source: alethonews

WORLD VIEW NEWS SERVICE

November 7, 2009 Posted by Elias

Charity society: Number of disabled in Gaza increasing with each IOA aggression

Link

[ 09/11/2009 - 10:30 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The "charitable safety society" has handed a number of electric wheelchairs to Palestinians in Gaza who were wounded in the Israeli war on the Strip.

The society's board chairman Dr. Atef Ismail said in a ceremony organized on the occasion on Sunday that the number of the disabled in Gaza was increasing with each Israeli attack.

Ismail asked the human rights groups to expose the Israeli occupation authority's (IOA) practices and its use of internationally banned weapons in its aggression on the Palestinians.

He pointed out that the society detects new and strange injures with each IOA aggression as a result of the use of new and advanced weapons in those attacks.

The injured Palestinians are in need of assistance on the part of government and private institutions in addition to the donor parties, he added.

Remember Daniel Pearl?

Link

By Jenifer Dixon

Daniel Pearl was an American Jewish journalist, who was assassinated by the Afghans in 2002. I looked his name up on the Internet, and after 55 references to him, I quit. What do I bring this up? I do it because at that time, I remember hearing about Daniel Pearl 24/7 on more than one “mainstream” station. There are biographies of Daniel Pearl. There are celebrations of Daniel Pearl. There are endless stories about Daniel Pearl’s assassination. There is a Daniel Pearl Foundation. Etc. etc. etc.

Now, here is some information that was never presented on “mainstream” media. According to Palestine Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Dr. Tareq M. Suwaidan there were 9 Palestinian journalists killed in the Intifada between 29 September 2000 to 30 December 2003 by the IDF. That is 9 journalists killed by the Israelis and not a word mentioned.

I was listening to an Internet broadcast from Global Research on the question of Palestine. Both the interviewer and interviewee were Jewish. Nonetheless, they expressed a concern about the “Israeli Palestinian conflict.” They had on their show an interview with a Palestinian journalist from Gaza, but his accent was so thick as to be incomprehensible. They then decried the tragedy of the cycle of violence, but assured the audience that this too would end. However, I noticed that the woman being interviewed by Mr. Lendeman, a Rachel somebody, a professor at Emory University, was the author of of several blocks on “Islamic terrorism”. I also noticed that they did not go into any detail on the situation in Gaza or in Palestine. They also told the audience that the censorship of these stories from the Occupied Territories originated high up in the chain of command in a “mainstream media.”

They fail to mention that at the end of July of 2006 Israeli military forces attacked Al Manar TV in Beirut. In January of 2002, the Israeli military forces blew up a Palestinian broadcasting center in Ramallah. In April 2002, Israeli military forces inflicted devastating damage to the offices of the Palestine Monitor. In August of 2009 Israeli troops raided Radio Bethlehem and ordered the staff to stop broadcasting.

I then pulled a report that detailed, some 75 assaults from Israeli security forces on journalists working in the Occupied Territories, both Palestinian and foreign, in the year 2000 alone. Nine were attacked on the 1st day of the Intifada. 9 again? Ready for some numerology?

This obviously indicates an intended desire to squelch the truth on the ground as it happened, and the heavy-handed suppression of Palestinian press, indeed of all press.

Then to beat all, I found this item entitled “Israeli media mogul Haim Saban mulls stake in Al Jazeera.” This story dated October 8, 2009 in Ha’aretz states that the Israeli businessman is negotiating for 50% of this “beacon” of the voice of the peoples of the Middle East. Okay. What more needs to be said? Or as Washington Post promotional copy puts it “if you don’t got it, you just don’t get it”

Remember Daniel Pearl? Of course, you do

Source: Sabbah

* Jenifer Dixon is a writer and former activist who lives in the Washington, DC area. She has published in the Washington Post, Voices of Women, WomenWise, Rainbow Visions, the Palestine Chronicle and Arab-American News. The website GlobalSpin was her contribution to the Net for three years. She was also a contributing writer to the book Challenge to Genocide: Let Iraq Live. The Holy Land Unveiled is her first book.

November 7, 2009 Posted by Elias

In defence of Larry David by Gilad Atzmon

by Gilad Atzmon

Monday, November 9, 2009 at 05:58AM

Gilad Atzmon

Don’t Blame the Messenger

Critics of Larry David say he has gone further than any other Jewish comic or intellectual in insulting Christianity and Christian values.

In an episode of the highly popular HBO series “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” which caricatures David’s true personal life, David accidentally splashes a drop of urine on a framed picture of Jesus that is hanging in his devout secretary’s bathroom.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35ixBASYA9c

Having been prescribed a drug that makes him urinate like an Israeli police anti-riot water-jet cannon, a drop of urine splashed right under the eye of Christ. In the scene David seems to be aware that some of his water has ended up on the face of Jesus. Before leaving the bathroom he stares at the drop closely, he is just about to clear it but guess what, he doesn’t. The man wouldn’t touch his own urine. He prefers to leave the mess behind. He doesn’t take responsibility. In the following scene, David’s secretary springs into his office overwhelmed with divine excitement, announcing that she and her mother have witnessed a miracle in their bathroom just after David left. They saw Jesus crying with a fresh tear running down his cheek.

People in America and around the world are outraged. ‘A Jewish comedian urinated on Jesus Christ they say.

Henry Makow was very eloquent in describing what is so wrong in David’s comedy. In his ‘toilet accident’ David managed to express contempt for “Jesus, Christianity and millions of Christians. First, No Christian would keep a portrait of Jesus in the bathroom. Only an arrogant, disrespectful, ignorant person like Larry David could imagine that. Second, no writer with respect for human dignity and decorum talks about toilet accidents. What is this childish fetish comedy-writers have with bodily and sexual functions? Is this the last taboo? Third, this scene would be classified as a hate crime if it were aimed at anyone but Christians. Imagine the reaction if he peed on a Menorah, an Israeli flag or a Koran? I don't believe this scene is an accident. It's a deliberate attack on the Christian majority, designed to humiliate, shame and disinherit.”

I obviously agree with the thrust of Makow’s argument, yet I would suggest to him to leave out the Jewish Menorah, for not many Jews know what the Menorah stands for. Let’s try instead, to imagine what would have happen if a Gentile would urinate by mistake on a Holocaust symbol. What would have happen if, for instance, a French Muslim comedian splashed a drop of urine on a portrait of Elie Wiesel? Let me tell you, hell would break loose.

I Spit Therefore I am

One must bear in mind that contempt towards others beliefs and spiritual symbols, is well imbued in the Jewish value system. This applies to the religious secular, left, right and centre. It is an established fact that Orthodox Jews are taught to spit whenever they come across a Crucifix or pass by a Church. Not many Gentiles are aware also of the devastating fact that Yeshu, the Hebrew name for Jesus, corresponds to the abbreviation for the Hebrew expression ‘yimmach shemo vezikhro’, meaning "May his name and memory be blotted out", an expression saved for the most hated enemies of the Jewish people such as Hitler and Amalek.

I learned recently from an American Jewish professor who teaches in Prague, that convoys of young American Jewish students make their way to the beautiful Czech capitol every summer. They apparently use the opportunity to spit on the many Churches and golden crucifixes around. I also learned from the professor that the Crucifixes on Prague’s famous Charles Bridge were initially decorated with the Hebrew words Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh Adonai Tzvaot, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts” back in the 17th century just to stop Jews spiting on Christian symbols and the Crucifix in particular. *

But it isn’t just the orthodox Jews who spit on others precious symbols. In fact Jewish secular ideology is just as spiteful towards other ideologies. The so called Jewish Humanists, Liberals, progressives and atheists happen to spit on every form of spirituality and divinity.

Jewish emancipation has led Jews towards a new form of Atheist zeal that has matured into zero tolerance towards religion. The emancipated believes in ‘reason’ and the ‘spirit of enlightenment’. But it goes further; the Zionists spit on human rights and universal values in the name of Jewish national revival. The Israelis spit white phosphorous on civilians in the name of the war against terror. The Marxist mocks God and religion in the name of ‘working class politics’. In fact to be a Jew is to spit on something. Even the so-called ‘self hating Jews’ spend much of their intellectual effort spitting on themselves.

Here Comes the Twist.

Larry David is a TV genius. I came across him for the first time a year or so ago. In the band wagon I was touring with at the time, the English Jewish manager played ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ all day long. My first reaction was total resentment towards the self-centric skinny sociopath. But soon he grew on me. In fact I fell in love, I became addicted and so were all the other band members who rushed to buy the entire DVD box. Interestingly enough, many of my Arab Friends happen to love David as well. I have recently learned from my friend Mamoon Alabbasi, an Iraqi born writer and editor, that he is a devoted Larry David fan. He insists that David could easily be an Arab character. Seemingly the Jewish protagonist has managed to bring to light some tribal tendencies that may as well cross the divide. David, the protagonist of Jewish autism, greed and selfishness somehow touches the universal.
In ‘Curb your Enthusiasm,’ David manages to blur the distinction between Larry David the protagonist and David the person. He invites the camera to his home, to his kitchen, to his bed, into his wife’s knickers. He is far more than just a glimpse into a Jewish, modern, Godless life. He is a dark satirical portrayal of everything that could ever go wrong with Jewish secular identity.

David spits on everything: you name it, he spits on it. It was David who exposes the Jewish fetish with body organs long before we all started to discuss Israeli organ harvesting. David ridicules the Shoa obsession, the Jewish and anti Wagner fetish. David spits on every possible American value one can think of. He mocks the celebrity culture, materialism and greed. He exposes Jewish supremacy, ignorance and arrogance. Yet, he is doing it all by putting himself in the line of fire. He doesn’t just bring to light to Jewish ugliness, he often embodies this ugliness himself.

David is probably the most courageous Jewish comedian of all time. He is there to provide us with the ultimate possible devastating portrait of Jewish emancipation. He is the self centric, egotistic, sickening character and yet, he is totally beloved and adorable.

In fact, it is not Larry David we should ‘pick on’, it is not David who is caught in a ‘toilet incident’. It is the disastrous identity he exposes and portrays on the little screen, which was once again caught spitting. Rather than David, it is those who are indoctrinated to hate whom we should criticize. Those who spit on Crosses, Churches, Koran, Islam, God, the prophets, spirituality, divinity and so on.
The above should lead us into a different interpretation of David’s latest incident.

The complexity that is exposed by David’s scene has very little to do with his accidental urine spray. It is not even David’s conscious decision not to clean the mess he left behind. Far more crucial and deep is David’s role in ridiculing and dismissing of divinity. By presenting the secretary as a fool who sees God in a ‘drop of urine’, David actually shows contempt to billions of believers. The sad truth is that constant rage against spirituality and divinity is the real message of the emancipated Jew to the Western World. The modern Jew regards him or herself as the embodiment of rationality, they dismiss the possibility of supernatural forces, they are logical, rational and positivist. They believe in empiricism, science and technology.

But in David’s ‘toilet scene’ it is not just Christ and the Christians who are being insulted, it is an insult to anyone who believes that life is more than just physical matter. And yet, David should be thanked for providing us once again with a glimpse into the emancipated Jewish mind.

Far more concerning is the fact that even the Catholic leaders who were outraged by David's toilet scene failed to grasp or articulate where the problem was. Even they lost the capacity to think in spiritual terms. They themselves fell into the Judeo centric material symbolic trap thinking about ‘a urine drop’ and a ‘portrait of Christ’.

David’s Catholic critics failed to grasp it all because they are already spiritually suppressed, silenced, robbed and indoctrinated by different enlightened rational ‘Davids’. They are pushed into the corner by an extremely intolerant institutionalised liberal discourse that is there to serve one emancipated tribe in particular.

David, bless him, took upon himself the courageous responsibility to portray the ugly face of Jewish atheism and Jewish liberal identity. He took it upon himself to embody the dismissal of divinity and spirituality. Rather than blaming the messenger we better be brave enough to read the message.

* “On Charles Bridge, the visitor will observe a great crucifix surrounded by huge gilded Hebrew letters that spell the traditional Hebrew sanctification Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh Adonai Tzvaot, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts.” According to various commentators, this piece, degrading to Jews, came about because in 1609 a Jew was accused of desecrating the crucifix. The Jewish community was forced to pay for putting up the Hebrew words in Gold letters. Another explanation is that a Jew spit at the cross and for this he was to be put to death as punishment. When this man begged for his life, the king, seeking to have good relations with the Jews, said the Jewish community had to rectify the offence….” (To read more: Travel Guide for Jewish Europe, pg 497)