AUSTRALIAN TENNIS PROTEST: Against Israeli Shahar Peer J

USTRALIANS FOR PALESTINE

anuary 16, 2010

The Australian Open begins on Monday 18 January 2010 and runs for two weeks.  Shahar Peer will be playing in the first round and as soon as we know the date and time of her match, we will post the details.  Posters (see above) have already been distributed around Melbourne’s city centre and flyers have also been handed out.  The text is below:

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

“Israel” bullied Abbas into deferring UN vote

Via Silver Lining

Posted on January 17, 2010 by realistic bird

Sun, 17 Jan 2010, Press TV

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas was bullied by Israel to postpone a UN vote on the Goldstone report last year, an Israeli newspaper says.

Abbas’ decision to request the UN Human Rights Council to postpone a vote on the Goldstone report about the Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip followed a particularly tense meeting with the head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service.

Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin told Abbas that if he did not ask for a deferral of the vote on the critical report on last year’s military operation, Israel would turn the West Bank into a “second Gaza,” Haaretz reported.

Diskin also threatened to revoke the easing of restrictions on movement within the West Bank that had been implemented earlier last year.

The Shin Bet chief, during the meeting, warned that Israel would withdraw permission for the mobile phone company Wataniya to operate in the Palestinian Authority. That would have cost the Palestinian Authority tens of millions of dollars in compensation payments to the company.

The Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip last year killed over 1,400 Palestinians, including many women and children.

Haaretz: Abbas’s meeting with Diskin led to the deferral of Goldstone report

[ 17/01/2010 - 05:44 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli Haaretz newspaper revealed Sunday that Mahmoud Abbas took his decision to defer the UN vote on Goldstone report after his meeting with Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin in his headquarters in Ramallah.

The newspaper said that Diskin threatened Abbas during the meeting if he did not ask for a deferral of the vote on the report on war crimes, Israel would turn the West Bank into a “second Gaza.”

He also threatened to revoke the easing of restrictions on movement in the West Bank that had been implemented earlier last year and to withdraw permission for mobile phone company Wataniya.

The newspaper noted that a senior Israeli officer also made similar threats to officials in the Palestinian Authority at the same time, the thing which made Abbas hasten to undermine the report.


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 Uprooted Palestinian

Abbas’s militias kidnap senior Qassam leader in Al-Khalil

PIC

[ 17/01/2010 - 11:10 AM ]

Al-KHALIL, (PIC)-- The Hebrew radio reported that Ayoub Al-Qawasma, one of Israel’s most wanted resistance leaders affiliated with Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, was kidnapped at an early hour Sunday by Mahmoud Abbas’s militias in Al-Khalil city.

The radio noted that armed clashes took place during the attempts of these militias to kidnap Qawasma.

Eyewitnesses told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that Abbas’s militias stormed after midnight the neighborhood of Al-Khalil university amid intensive gunfire and encircled the house of Qawasma, who was wanted by Israel for more than 12 years.

They said that they heard gunfire in the vicinity of the house and the nearby mosque and saw Abbas’s militias opening fire at the mosque before they broke into it and searched some other homes in the neighborhood.

For its part, the Movement of Hamas confirmed the news of Qawasma’s arrest, pointing out that the militias of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Ramallah had tried to kidnap him many times, the first time was in 1998, and kept chasing him since then.

In Nablus, Abbas’s militias summoned and kidnapped many citizens for protesting the Friday Khutba (sermon) delivered at Al-Salahi mosque in the city after the preacher verbally abused Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradwi.

They also kidnapped in the city a citizen called Bashar Mansour, the brother of Al-Qassam fighters Omar and Jamal Mansour who were killed by Israeli troops.

Two other citizens from the village of Saida in Tulkarem called Munir Radad and Nawaf Radad were kidnapped by Abbas militias after storming their homes.

A teacher called Abdelrahman Al-Shawawrah was also taken hostage until his brother turn himself in to the militias in Bethlehem.

They also kidnapped in Jenin and Tulkarem three mosque preachers after their refusal to comply with orders issued by Abbas’s ministry of religious affairs demanding them to insult Sheikh Qaradawi during a Friday sermon.

The militias reportedly summoned many mosque preachers in different West Bank cities for the same reason.

For its part, the Palestinian government in Gaza on Saturday held Mahmoud Abbas and the central committee of Fatah responsible for the smear and incitement campaign waged against Sheikh Yousuf Al-Qaradawi, affirming that such positions do not represent the Palestinian people.

The government also disowned and condemned the campaign waged by the illegal government in Ramallah against Sheikh Qaradawi.

It said that Sheikh Qaradawi is one of the most prominent men in the Muslim world who defends and supports the Palestinian cause in word and deed.



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 Uprooted Palestinian

Jewish settlers beat up Palestinian child and attempt to storm village

Silver Linig

Posted on January 17, 2010 by realistic bird

Jewish settlers beat up Palestinian child
17/01/2010
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)– Tens of fanatic Jewish settlers on Saturday night assaulted a Palestinian child in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem under the very eyes of the Israeli occupation police who did nothing to stop the assault.
Eyewitnesses told the PIC that the settlers severely beat up Amna Al-Nashashibi, 16, during their provocative march, adding that they pulled her from her hair.
They said that the girl was among a group of people who arrived in the neighborhood in solidarity with its inhabitants who were thrown out of their homes by the Israeli occupation authority.
The settlers hurled abuse at the Palestinian women before withdrawing from the scene under police escort, the witnesses added.

Jewish settlers’ attempt to storm village foiled, IOF detain 8 Palestinians
17/01/2010
NABLUS, (PIC)– Palestinian citizens of the Iraq Burin village, Nablus district, on Saturday night repelled a group of Jewish setters who came from the nearby Yitzhar settlement to attack the village.
Witnesses said that the citizens monitored the settlers’ attempt and blocked their entry into the village.
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed the village and provided escort for the settlers after firing gas canisters to disperse the citizens.
Settlers of the notorious settlement have repeatedly stormed the village recently and burnt and sabotaged civilian property.
Meanwhile, IOF troops at dawn Sunday rounded up seven Palestinians in Nablus city including three brothers.
They also detained a Palestinian citizen in Beit Ummar village, Al-Khalil district, a dawn Sunday and took him for interrogation at the pretext that he is wanted for the IOF.

Filed under: Politics | Tagged: Israeli crimes, Israeli policies, news, palestine, Palestinians, Politics, settler violence | Leave a Comment »

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 Uprooted Palestinian

"....Obama may have to change his to-do list in his sophomore year ..."

Friday-Lunch-Club

McClatchy's/ here

"... AFGHANISTAN AND PAKISTAN

This will be the second year that Obama escalates the war in Afghanistan, sending 30,000 to 35,000 more U.S. troops to join the 70,000 who are there already. There were 31,000 there the month before he took office.As he works to stabilize the Afghan government and fight al Qaida there, he also must press against al Qaida terrorists and their allies in Pakistan.U.S. policy calls for working with the Pakistani government rather than invading its territory, but Pakistan hasn't been as aggressive as the U.S. would like, and American drone strikes on terrorist targets there have raised tensions.

IRAQ

This is the year that most U.S. troops are to withdraw from Iraq. Tensions between Sunni and Shiite Muslims and between Sunni Arabs and Sunni Kurds there remain high, though, and the political and humanitarian effects of the resulting security vacuum are of great concern to the region and to Obama.

MIDDLE EAST

Obama dispatched his national security adviser, retired Marine Gen. Jim Jones, to the Mideast this week in a new bid to get the Israelis and Palestinians to the peace table.It's unclear whether anything has changed, though, whether even modest progress is possible and what new leverage the U.S. could exert.

IRAN

With the failure of his effort to talk Iran into dropping its nuclear ambitions, Obama must decide this year whether and how to move on tougher sanctions.Congress is poised to act, but the administration and other U.N. Security Council members have a calculation to make: whether intervening now, when civil unrest is directed at the Iranian regime, would be counterproductive.

TERRORISM

After missing his one-year deadline to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, Obama still faces plenty of challenges to getting it done.He'll encounter congressional resistance as he seeks to prepare an Illinois state maximum-security prison as the new home for Guantanamo detainees who are facing military commissions or indefinite detention. He'll face domestic pressures from all sides over everything from limiting civil liberties to protecting the homeland from further attacks.The attempted Christmas Day airplane bombing further complicates the closing because of questions about detainees that were to be returned to Yemen, where the bombing suspect allegedly was trained."

Posted by G, Z, or B at 11:06 AM

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 Uprooted Palestinian

ABARBANEL: Israel’s growing insanity

Australians For Palestine

January 16, 2010


by Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig
by Avigail Abarbanel -  17 January 2010

I wrote this on 9th February 2009, the day before Israel’s election, after seeing an interview with Benjamin Netanyahu’s father on Israeli TV. Benjamin Netanyahu’s father—described as “sharp as a razor” at the ripe old age of 99—gave a rare interview to Amit Segel of Israel’s Channel 2 to support his son’s election campaign (Channel 2 website. 7 Feb. 2009).

At some point in the interview Professor Ben-Zion Netanyahu said, “Today we are facing plain and simple, a danger of annihilation. This is not only the ongoing existential danger to Israel, but a real danger of complete annihilation. People think that the Shoah (Holocaust) is over — but it is not, it is continuing all the time” (My translation from the Hebrew).

The views of Netanyahu Senior do not represent a lunatic fringe, but the Israeli mainstream. When I was growing up in Israel, things were much the same. I and everyone I knew believed in earnest that we were always at risk of annihilation. Fear of annihilation is at the heart of Jewish, not just Israeli culture and it pre-dates the Holocaust. But the climate in Israel today is far more extreme than it was in my time, as Israel on the whole moves further and further to an irrational fanatic position.

When a person’s perception of reality is completely out of touch with reality itself, we begin to get an uneasy feeling that something might be wrong with his or her mind. Where is the evidence that the Jews, right now are facing a “real danger of complete annihilation”? Where is the evidence that the Holocaust, a systematic and deliberate plan to eliminate all Jews during the Second World War, is still being carried out?

I would even argue that saying this is an insult to the victims of the real Holocaust. Israel is rumoured to have one of the most powerful military forces in the world but Israelis still believe that they are right now being annihilated. This is insanity.

Someone is indeed facing a risk of cultural, economic, political and even physical annihilation, but it’s not Israel or Jews, it’s the Palestinians, and the annihilator is Israel itself.

Our politics and our economics are both a product of our psychology, not something separate. We make political and economic choices based on who we are and what we feel and believe. Many rational people search for a rational analysis—often political or economic—for what is happening in Israel-Palestine. But the only way to interpret Israel’s behaviour during the past 61 years is through understanding the psychology of its society and its leaders.

To ignore Israel’s psychology is dangerous because it means that any intervention based only on political considerations, will miss the mark and risk being irrelevant. Indeed if you look at the history of diplomacy and `peace negotiations’ in the region, it is quite obvious that they have achieved nothing at all. Things seem to be progressing on a trajectory determined by something that to someone in my profession, looks more like a mental illness than a political plan, bearing no relation to any rational diplomatic efforts, `roadmaps’, peace plans or truces.

Israel’s behaviour is a direct product of its psychological struggle with the implications of Jewish identity, which in turn determines Israel’s very reason for existence. In his book Alternative to a Psychotic State Akiva Orr asks if Israel is a `Jewish state’ or a `state for the Jews’. Since it is clearly not a Jewish state—Israeli state law is different to religious law—then it must be a state for the Jews. And this begs the question of `who or what is a Jew’, and to that there has never been a satisfactory legal answer.

Israel has no constitution precisely because it cannot resolve the question of who or what it wants to be. The de-facto, modern secular Zionist definition of a Jew is someone who would have been considered a Jew by Hitler. Effectively Jews are allowing themselves to be defined by those who hated them and sought their annihilation. In other words, this identity was formed as a reaction to a particular set of circumstances.
But what happens if the circumstances change? What does that do to this identity? In other words, if the world is now safe for Jews and is no longer what Jewish people thought it was, then Jewish people no longer know who they are, in which case either Jewish identity needs to change, or you make sure that the world is back to what it was when the Jews were persecuted. That way there is no need to go through the difficult process of self-examination or live in a world that doesn’t make sense.

The reason for the existence of the state of Israel is a direct result of Jewish self-perception as victims of persecution. Israel was created to offer a safe haven for Jews from persecution. I could be wrong, I might be naïve, but I don’t believe that Israeli leaders are conscious that they are now hyping up more traditional forms of anti-Semitism—that is to say, I don’t think that they are consciously plotting to do it. They are operating without awareness and they probably believe in their own explanations for what they are doing, for example that they attacked Gaza to weaken Hamas. But we must look at the real consequences of Israel’s actions in Gaza and three years ago in Lebanon for example, to understand Israel’s real motivation.

If Israel’s actions lead to an increase in fanaticism and in anti-Jewish sentiment, this is because this is what Israel wants to achieve, albeit unconsciously.

But why does Israel need more fanaticism and antisemitism? An increase in real anti-Semitism and attacks on Jews would bring current reality into line with the outdated imaginary reality, and would help keep Jewish identity unchanged. The reality is that Jews have not been victims, certainly not of a genocidal regime for over sixty years—the Holocaust is not happening now and there is no attempt by anyone to annihilate the Jews.
The fact that Jews live in safety everywhere and are not persecuted makes Israel uncomfortable. If the Jews are doing well everywhere, then Jewish identity is being put to question, and so is the very reason for the existence of Israel. The very state that was created to save the Jews from persecution, now needs them to be persecuted again so that it can continue to exist. Escalating the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians is one of the means to achieving this end.

The Palestinians, who are desperately trying to understand what has been happening to them, are caught in this madness and are the victims of it. It’s not because of who they are or something they did, that they are suffering. It’s because they had the misfortune of living on the land that a neurotic Zionist movement was determined to take for itself regardless of cost. I think many Palestinians are beginning to recognise this but the world leaders still believe Israel’s racist propaganda, which says that there is something inherent in the Palestinian people that means that they deserve what they get.

This is why it is essential that the world intervene decisively. I do not trust Israel to suddenly develop sufficient self-awareness to understand what it’s doing and put a stop to it. Israel’s growing delinquency demonstrates the exact opposite. The Palestinians do not have any more time to spare.

Avigail Abarbanel (http://www.avigailabarbanel.me.uk/) was born and raised in Israel. She moved to Australia age 27 and has been an activist for Palestinian rights since 2001. Until recently, she was a psychotherapist/counsellor in private practice in Canberra, Australia.  She and her husband have now moved to Scotland.


River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Haneyya: We do not mind any party overseeing the reconstruction of Gaza

PIC

[ 17/01/2010 - 09:46 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya stated Saturday that his government has no objection to any regional or international party supervising the reconstruction of the post-war Gaza Strip.

“We do not mind that the UN and the European or Arab states form a committee for the reconstruction of Gaza and supervise it,” Haneyya said during his meeting with the visiting European delegation in Gaza city.

He pointed to the enormity of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and his government’s attempt to open up avenues for dialog with the major powers, but to no avail.

The premier also noted that his government does not oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state within 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital.

The premier hailed the visit of the European delegation as a historic step and the efforts made by the European campaign to end the siege to alleviate the suffering of Gaza people.

For his part, head of the delegation Gerald Kaufman expressed his dismay and regret that the Palestinian Authority (PA) failed miserably in achieving peace, security and prosperity for its people.

Kaufman also condemned the steel wall being built by Egypt on its borders with Gaza as a wall of shame and castigated the international boycott of the Palestinian government in Gaza, saying that this government is legitimate and came through democratic elections approved by all parties.

He stressed the need to prosecute Israeli war criminals who killed civilians, women and children in Gaza, affirming that any attempt to disrupt the prosecution and arrest of those criminals in Europe or America would be stopped.

Later, the European delegation which includes 56 lawmakers and officials left Gaza on Saturday evening after touring several areas destroyed by the Israeli brutal war.

For his part, MP Jamal Al-Khudari, the head of the popular committee against the siege, said in a press statement that this delegation did not come to visit Gaza only, but to activate the reconstruction of Gaza and relay the Palestinian demands to the international community.

Khudari added that the delegation admired the patience and steadfastness of Gaza people despite the devastating war and the four-year blockade, affirming that the delegation pledged to work on pressuring their governments into ending the siege on Gaza.

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 Uprooted Palestinian

NEW NIE to be in line with Mossad's agitprop: "Iran is building nuclear weapons!"

Via Friday-Lunch-Club

DECLASSIFIED/ here

"U.S. intelligence agencies are quietly revising their widely disputed assertion that Iran has no active program to design or build a nuclear bomb. Three U.S. and two foreign counterproliferation officials tell NEWSWEEK that, as soon as next month, the intel agencies are expected to complete an "update" to their controversial 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that Tehran "halted its nuclear weapons program" in 2003 and "had not restarted" it as of mid-2007. The officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss sensitive information, say the revised report will bring U.S. intel agencies more in line with other countries' spy agencies (such as Britain's MI6, Germany's BND, and Israel's Mossad), which have maintained that Iran has been pursuing a nuclear weapon.

Yet two of the U.S. sources caution the new assessment will likely be "Talmudic" in its parsing. They say U.S. analysts now believe that Iran may well have resumed "research" on nuclear weapons--theoretical work on how to design and construct a bomb--but that Tehran is not engaged in "development"--actually trying to build a weapon. "The intelligence communityis always reluctant to make a total retreat because it makes them look bad," says the third American.

This distinction between research and development is unlikely to satisfy hardline critics, who say the intel agencies, burned for overestimating Saddam Hussein's weapons-of-mass-destruction program, have underplayed Iran's bomb-building efforts. But the U.S. officials insist it's an accumulation of fresh intelligence, not political or diplomatic pressure, that prompted the reconsideration (sigh, sigh). Revelations that Iran excavated a secret underground nuclear-enrichment facility near Qum may have heightened alarm about Tehran's intentions. America and its allies, say the U.S. and foreign officials, have also been poring over documents that purport to show Iranian research on a "neutron initiator," a device most often used for bombs-not electricity, which the Iranians insist is their nuclear program's goal.

While the update will cause a stir in Washington, it's unlikely to have an immediate impact on the White House's Iran policy. The administration already bases its cautious diplomatic approach on the assumption that Iran has, in fact, been pursuing a bomb, despite intel agencies' reservations. Some officials also warn it's still possible that the update--a highly classified, on-again, off-again proposition for months--could be spiked at the last moment if the often-fractious intel bureaucracy can't agree on what it should say. The office of the national intelligence director, which would issue the update, had no comment."

Posted by G, Z, or B at 4:04 PM

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 Uprooted Palestinian

Scriptwriter of the "Valley of Wolves" preparing new movie on Israeli crimes

PIC

[ 17/01/2010 - 09:38 AM ]

ANKARA, (PIC)-- The scriptwriter Bahadir Ozdener, who wrote the Turkish television series "Valley of Wolves", has announced that he was writing a new script exposing Israeli crimes against humanity.

Ozdener told Turkish daily "Vatan" published on Saturday that his previous work only displayed a fraction of what Israel was committing against the Palestinians.

He said that his new movie would be dedicated to the Palestinian suffering in the Gaza Strip and would depict the real image of Israel as one with merciless bloody hands that disdain all human values.

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 Uprooted Palestinian

ESMEIR: The age of walls

Australians For Palestinians
 January 16, 2010

Trajan's Column: Roman soldiers building a fortress

by Samera Esmeir  -  Al-Ahram Weekly -  14-120 Jauary 2010

If Eric Hobsbawm were to add a fifth volume to his classic four-volume historical study on the Ages of Capital, Empire, Extremes and Revolution, and if he were to devote this new volume to the 21st century, he would probably consider the “The Age of Walls” as a title.

Admittedly, most people in the world thought that the Age of Walls had already tumbled down with the fall of the Berlin Wall, but Israel seems to have declared its commitment, in action, to perpetuating such an age. Israel is completing a concrete wall in the Palestinian territories it occupied in 1967, another iron wall is being constructed along Egypt’s borders with the Gaza Strip, and Israel is about to start the construction of a “technological wall”, or a “barrier”, as it puts it, along with the borders with Egypt. Concrete, iron, technological, these are the new walls being constructed in the region. Very soon, perhaps, we might begin to award prizes for the best wall plan made of other “material”.

The latest episode of “walling the region” was announced on Sunday, 10 January 2010 when Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu approved plans to erect the said barrier. The first stage will commence by building “fences along the sections of the border south of the Gaza Strip and north of Eilat”. In addition, “technological measures will be deployed along the entire border that will allow for the location of infiltrators and hazards in a timely fashion.”

Of his decision, Netanyahu said: “I decided to close Israel’s southern border to infiltrators and terrorists after prolonged discussions with government ministries and professional elements. This is a strategic decision to ensure the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel. Israel will remain open to war refugees but we cannot allow thousands of illegal workers to infiltrate into Israel via the southern border and flood our country.”

The threats that this barrier is said to protect Israel against are: “Illegal workers, infiltrators, smugglers, terrorists, Africans, Gazans, prostitutes, drugs, and arms.” Only by closing the border and securing Israel against these “threats”, Netanyahu in effect said, will Israel remain “Jewish and democratic”. But what does it mean to “close” a border that stretches over a couple of hundreds of kilometres? And how exactly do these persons and things threaten the “Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel?” In what way do walls, or barriers, protect the character of a state? And finally, what does the proliferation of walls tell us about the psyche guiding Israeli politics?

The use of the word “close” to describe how the border with Egypt will be policed is significant. “Close the border” is an expression that has been used in the US in reference to its border with Mexico. In Israel, the expression signifies an illusion that a population can preserve its purity by sheltering itself from its surroundings (and the lives it has displaced). At stake here is by no means the fear of others, but a deep sense of superiority against those who inhabit the same, or nearby, geographies, and a genuine desire to engineer a way of life that eradicates them, conceals them, or deports them. “The Promised Land” is after all far from abstract; it belongs to concrete geographies and histories. Its secularisation as an instrument of Israeli nation state formation in the midst of these geographies and histories transforms the land- turned-state into an engine of racism, colonisation and exclusion.

Indicative of this sense of superiority are the statements Netanyahu made about the proposed barrier last December. In a meeting of the Committee on Security and Foreign Affairs, he reportedly said that Southern Israel was the only place in the world where one could walk from the Third World to the First World: “The problem is that it is possible to walk from Africa to Gush Dan. This is impossible to do on the way to Paris or Madrid, because there is an ocean on the way.” He also added that “we shall have to wall all the country, we will not have any other option.”

Indeed, if Israel is to preserve its sense of itself as a superior and more advanced power in the region, it may have no other choice but to wall itself. That is to say, it may have no other choice but to literally construct this self-claimed superiority. But to entertain the idea of walling an entire country denotes that walling is not simply an act of sovereignty. Rather, walling here is the capacity to invent and to preserve the purity of a people, and of a territory, while keeping them in a constant state of paranoia. In this sense walling intersects with evil. As purity is sought more, the responses against practices that violate this purity are destined to become ever harsher. The effect of walling, therefore, is not simply the prevention of “Africans, terrorists, Palestinians, drug and arms dealers” from “infiltrating” the southern border. Rather, the far more reaching effect is the production of an enclosed space, which transforms attempts at claiming or reclaiming it into violation that legitimates bloody responses. The more walling, the more military campaigns.

To be sure, however, Netanyahu is not the author of this new plan. The idea has been in the making for several years and seems to be dating back to at least 2005, when a plan titled “Sand-Clock” was first prepared by Israel’s Ministry of Defence. Since then the Israeli Parliament Research and Information Centre has prepared a number of reports on the “threats” faced at the borders with Jordan and Egypt, while recommending closing the border with Egypt. In addition, several committees in the parliament discussed the southern border. And finally, Ehud Olmert’s government examined a number of plans to close the border, including the Sand-Clock plan. It took several years to formulate and approve a final plan because different options were considered, given the geological and topographic conditions of the borderline.

The identity of the politicians responsible for the new walling project is important. But what is most significant is the discourse, which frames the said threats and relates them to the supposed “Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel”. This discourse is both global and local. From its global end, it draws on the practices of other Western states against foreign labour and unwelcome immigrants (Black, Muslim, Arab, Asian, etc.); it deploys concerns against trafficking in women, drugs and arms as if border smuggling is their main cause or source; it transforms Africa into the source of eternal darkness, fuelling Western racist consciousness and projects; and finally it employs the vocabulary of the global war on terror.

But what reads like a contemporary typical Western discourse on borders contains additional local references. The talk about “infiltration” has a particular local history. The “infiltrator” in Israeli collective memory is the name that Israel gave to the Palestinian refugee, who attempted to return back home in Palestine after the 1948 war, and who was expelled again upon the discovery of this return. The term was also used to describe other Palestinians who did not leave Palestine during the war, but who were later labelled infiltrators in order to expel them. The infiltrator was therefore the Palestinian whose expulsion, and second expulsion, was necessary in order to construct a purely Jewish state.

It follows that the expansion of the identity of infiltrators to include other persons and things, by referencing the global discourse on immigration and security, fails to conceal the following two facts: first, the persistence of the Palestinian as one of the main figures to be expelled; and second, the extent to which the treatment of all other non-Jews will be modelled upon the treatment of Palestinians as infiltrators. And it is in this context that we can understand Netanyahu’s citation of the Jewish state. For this state until recently was mainly aimed at excluding the Palestinians. Nowadays, its Jewishness also serves to exclude Africans and other “infiltrators”. The work of racism and exclusion that birthed the Jewish state is the very work that continues to order its operations in relation to other populations. Ironically, Israel might be turning all other non-Jews in the world into Palestinians.

Citing the preservation of the Jewish and democratic state of Israel has additional consequences. This citation effectively legitimises the project of the Jewish state by associating it with a global discourse on immigration and security. Put differently, the preservation of the Jewish state becomes integral to this global discourse. But there is an irony to this new dimension of exclusion. Israel reveals itself once again to be insecure about the reality of its Jewishness. This insecurity is evident when Israel demands that the Palestinians recognise it as a Jewish state. It is also evident in the obsessive walling against everything outside its zone of self-claimed superiority. Palestinians, as it turns out, are not the only reminder of the factual impossibility of Israel’s “pure” Jewishness. And if it needs to wall itself in order to preserve its Jewishness, is not this an indication that Israel has never been Jewish? Might this walling project teach us that a Jewish state is either an illusion, or an aspiration that would require much more destruction and expulsion in order for this aspiration to tentatively be fulfilled?

Samera Esmeir is professor of rhetoric, University of California, Berkeley.

 

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 Uprooted Palestinian

Jihad lashes out at FBI for naming Shallah as a wanted person

PIC

[ 17/01/2010 - 09:52 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Islamic Jihad Movement has said that its secretary general Dr. Ramadan Shallah is a freedom fighter and a leader that struggles for the sake of his people's freedom.

Sheikh Nafedh Azzam, one of the Jihad leaders in the Gaza Strip, said in a press release on Saturday that putting the name of Shallah on the FBI's list of wanted persons means that "we are standing in the confrontation trench against the American administration's policy of hegemony and tyranny against our Nation".

He said that his Movement was not interested in winning the US satisfaction.

Azzam described the decision as a new addition to the American hostility to the Palestinian people, Arabs and Muslims.

The Jihad leader said that ever since the early establishment of the Movement its founders were convinced that the US could not be a friend to the Palestinian people or the Arab and Muslim Nation.

He charged that events proved that the US was an "accomplice in the aggression on our people".

Anthony Lawson/Jeff Gates- A Closer Look at Israel's Role in Terrorism - Parts 1, 2 and 3

Link

Sunday, January 17, 2010 at 11:24AM Gilad Atzmon

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 Uprooted Palestinian

Why Weren’t Spies Treated Like . . . Me?

Intifada Voice

By Jim Traficant

Steve Rosen, left, and Keith Weissman, right

“The Capitol Hill is an Israeli occupied territory”. — Patrick Buchanan (St. Louis Dispatch, 10/20/1990).
ON AUGUST 24, A FEDERAL INDICTMENT read that Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, two senior employees with the pro-Israel lobbying firm AIPAC, “did unlawfully, knowingly and willfully conspire to deliver and transmit information that could be used to the injury of the U.S.A.”
The indictment further read that Rosen and Weissman “influenced persons within the U.S. to gather classified information for subsequent unlawful use.”
Think about it. Conspire, transmit, unlawful, knowingly and willfully. These are words that relate to the behavior of spies. No other definition can be applied. Rosen and Weissman are stone-cold spies for Israel, who were spying on America. You agree? I’d bet on it.
But lo and behold, the courts disagreed. So did The Washington Post. Not even the U.S. Justice Department agreed that these two are spies.
And check this out: A deputy secretary of state said: “These so-called spy meetings were nothing more than ‘back channel’ communications to advance U.S. foreign policy goals.”
You read that correctly: The U.S. government now believes that all involved were examples of the U.S. government’s use of AIPAC as a diplomatic “back channel” to help America, not harm America.
Beam me up! How did Rosen and Weissman become patriots, not spies? What’s next, Congressional Medals of Honor for the two?
The Washington Post wrote that the government’s description of Rosen’s and Weissman’s actions made it a “high burden for U.S. prosecutors.” The government essentially gave “cover” for a dismissal of all charges here.
Furthermore, the government then claimed that the information, no longer referred to as classified documents, being passed on by Rosen and Weissman was “innocuous.” According to the dictionary, innocuous means not offensive and not even controversial. This is unbelievable.
So what happened next? You guessed it. On May 1, 2009, Rosen and Weissman were “exonerated” of all charges, meaning the charges were dismissed. Think about this: U.S. Attorney Dana Boente said he “didn’t want classified information to be disclosed at trial.” What? Come on, attorney general, I thought this information was “innocuous”? Who’s kidding who?
The truth is, Israel has been preying upon Uncle Sam since June 8, 1967, when Israel deliberately attacked the USS Liberty. That’s right: The Israeli military attacked a U.S. ship with the intent of destroying it. (Readers of AFP know more about this than just about anybody in America.)
This act of war was covered up both by Israel and by our government. Survivors and high-ranking U.S. naval personnel witnessed the deliberate attack. But Israel’s tentacles reached deep into our government to cover it up, going as far back as 1967.
Down to this day, the Liberty attack had been disguised as an “honest mistake” by Israel. My ascot, it was a mistake.
I recommend the book Ship Without a Country by Victor Thorn and Mark Glenn. You’ll learn the truth about the USS Liberty there.* And if you think you already know the truth, the gripping eyewitness accounts in the book just might bring you to tears.
The truth cannot be deceived nor denied. Israel has a stranglehold on the U.S. government. She has put America into war with Iraq and continues to push our country toward war with Iran.
It’s time for the American people to take back their government. You can start by taking a pilgrimage to Washington, D.C. I will be headlining a “National Town Hall meeting” at the Capitol Skyline Hotel, hosted by AMERICAN FREE PRESS where I will be discussing the hidden dynamics that have compromised our great nation. No holds barred, I plan to tell it like it is.** And as for AIPAC, if any other lobbyists engaged in the kind of espionage that AIPAC has, they would be in prison, disbanded and prohibited from further activity in the United States.
What are my recommendations? Treat AIPAC like everybody else. Investigate the organization and prohibit it from any further contact with our government. When the great coach of the Green Bay Packers Vince Lombardi died, his players remarked: “He treated us all alike—like dogs, but all alike.” That’s how it should be.
One more thing: Congress should terminate all aid for Israel. Israel knew what AIPAC was doing, because Israel planned and ordered it. Israel should also be compelled to answer for the USS Liberty.
Now that I’ve totally alienated myself from all mainstream media, I’ll conclude my series on AIPAC, with the following quote voiced by Ariel Sharon on Oct. 3, 2001: “We the Jewish people control America, and the
Americans know it.”
Source: American free press


See Related Articles by Jim Traficant
Remember Ariel Sharon’s Words
AIPAC’s Role in Spying & U.S. Foreign Intervention
It’s All AIPAC of Lies
Powerful Israel Lobby Has Death Grip On U.S. Politics, Elections, Policies
How AIPAC Corrupts U.S. Politicians for Israel

James Trafficant

James A. (Jim) Traficant, Jr. was born in Youngstown, Ohio on May 8, 1941. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was a well-known football star. He also received a M.S. degree from Youngstown State University in 1976. For ten years he served as executive director of the Mahoning County (Ohio) Drug Program and from 1981-1985 he served as sheriff of Mahoning County, prior to his election to the U.S. Congress as a Democrat in 1984. He was re-elected by overwhelming margins every year up until 2002 when, following his conviction on trumped up corruption charges, he was expelled from the House of Representatives. Despite his conviction and expulsion and being sent to prison for a seven year term Traficant still won 15% of the vote running for re-election to the House in the 2002 election as an independent. He recently completed a seven-year prison sentence, having refused to seek a pardon or clemency, refusing to admit to or apologize for crimes he did not commit.

January 16, 2010 - Posted by Elias

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

Speech of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah at the Arab International Assembly to Support the Resistance

The Vineyard of the Saker

In the Name of Allah, The Compassionate, The Most Merciful. Praise be to Allah, The Lord of the world. Peace be on the Seal of prophets, our Master and Prophet Abi Al Qassem Mohammad and on his chaste and pure Household, chosen companions and all prophets and messengers. Peace be upon you all and Allah's mercy and blessing.

Brothers and sisters! Ladies and gentlemen! I welcome you all in the city of Beirut, the capital of culture, freedom, Arabism, struggle and resistance. Welcome in powerful Lebanon which has forsaken the marvel of Lebanon's strength in its weakness to the truth of Lebanon's strength in the solidarity of its army, people and resistance. Welcome in Lebanon the victorious which could - thanks to the blood of its children and the sacrifices of its martyrs and lionhearted resistance - expel the occupier from its land and restore its captives from prisons and stand proud and revered in face of Israeli risks, challenges and threats. Thus it made for its people and nation a new advanced post in the way of the final victory Inshallah. I address you with my thanks after my welcome. Thank you for your massive and truthful attendance to support the resistance, its project, movements, peoples and cultures and to embrace and support the resistance in the time of challenges and difficulties. Brothers and sisters! Know that your blessed attendance and the views and stances which you will present will have great impact on the awareness, will, determination and resolution of our peoples and its confidence in the future.

Brothers and sisters! Because of the time limit, I resorted to writing. I would like to talk about the brilliant side of the ongoing struggle. Many in this world unfortunately do talk about the dark side. Since the powers of hegemony and arrogance founded Israel as an entity which usurped Israel and as an advanced military barrack for arrogance, these powers and their Zionist collaborators aspired to establish a strong expanding settlement entity which poses a permanent guarantee for their interests in our region. This was known as the project of Great Israel. Thus was the Israeli victory in 1948 and in 1967 which was more expansive. The Zionists and their masters thought that they were about to achieve the project of Great Israel. Then was the war of Ramadan - October 1973. Today I will talk about facts without any courtesies. They formed a historic and important turning point in the struggle with the Israeli enemy. Truly both the Egyptian and Syrian Arab armies made unforgettable historic and heroic epics. That put a limit to the Zionist aspirations to expand. Years later, the Egyptian regime put Egypt outside the struggle with Israel via Camp David. This was the most dangerous change in the history of the struggle. But Allah, the Benefactor, wished that Imam Khomeini let Iran in the struggle through the victorious Islamic revolution and toppling the Shah regime which is an agent to America and Israel. This also was the most critical change in the history of the struggle.

In 1982, Zionists troops invaded Lebanon and occupied the Arab capital Beirut. They wanted to control Lebanon and annex it finally to Israel. The Israeli invasion revived anew the dream of establishing Great Israel. Yet after few years of the resistance of the Lebanese, their sacrifices, chaste blood and legendary steadfastness, Israel was pulled out of Lebanon defeated and humiliated dragging its tail between its legs as the Zionists themselves said in May 25, 2000. This was a flagrant announcement for the final flop of the project of Great Israel. Thus started the theories of the great Israel which is outstanding in power in return for the previous project of Great Israel which has geographic expansion. Few months after the Lebanese victory Al Aqsa Intifada in Palestine started and then turned to great towering jihadi resistance. Great Israel thus started feeling perplexed, weak and worried. They started talking anew about the battle of existence and the second independence. Even remaining in historic Palestine seemed impossible. Here Gaza of the Resistance expelled the occupation with resistance. With their grudge and spite to Gaza, Zionists wished it would be drowned in the sea but it will not be drowned, it will rather drown them Inshallah. Walls were erected in the West Bank as an attempt to re-delineate anew borders in which Zionists might hide from the bravery of the Palestinian fighters and self-martyrs. Afterwards, Israel launched its aggressive war against Lebanon in July 2006 to crush the resistance but the resistance remained in Lebanon and it grew stronger and greater. It launched the war to restore the lost deterrence prestige but it lost what remained of this prestige. All of Israel acknowledged its defeat in July and the dreams of great Israel were dispersed in Maron Arrass, Aita Shaab and Bint Jbeil. And the dream of great Israel was branded with the sealing wax on the hands of those who fought until martyrdom and victory in Gaza in 2008.

Israel stepped out of its wars with the resistance in Palestine and Lebanon to examine Vin Grad and draw conclusions in an attempt to rebuild its army and its morals. Brothers and sisters! Frankly speaking and without exaggeration, Israel today is living in a true crisis of which its leaders, experts, newspapers, elites, parties and polls are talking. It's the crisis of the project and the dream… the crisis of leadership…the crisis of the undefeatable army which was defeated by a small group of resistance fighters. It's the crisis of trusting the regime, institutions and the future. Today Israel is trying to address all of that through the rattle of weapons, the beating of drums and daily threats on platforms against Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and Iran. These threats do not frighten anyone anymore but cowards and the defeated. But those who experienced the battles of jihad and tasted the divine victory look forward to encounter and confront to make for their nation a new pride and great victory Inshallah.

Here is defeated Israel seeking power against the resistance movements and powers from the international community, the Security Council, international institutions and some Arab regimes and intelligence. It is also seeking power through building steel walls, the campaigns of terrorizing, falsification and siege. But at the same time it is taking into account all the considerations of a direct military confrontation. Brothers and sisters! Israel is searching for guarantees for victory and triumph in any upcoming war.

As for the project of US hegemony in the region, I may also say that we have overcome one of the most dangerous stages in the history of our region and nation. The US military, security, economic and political strength has reached its peak in the past two decades. Its monopoly in the world has encouraged it to move with its project and aggressions in our region, nations and peoples to the end seizing what it considered a historic chance to put a decisive end to its struggle with out nation. Thus was the US occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, the incessant threat to the regime of the Islamic Republic in Iran and Syria, the attempt to control Lebanon and the support and sponsorship of the Israeli wars on Lebanon and Gaza. What was demanded was liquidating the resistance movements in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan and drying up the various sources of support in the world to these movements and toppling the regimes of opposition to the hegemony project which support the resistance especially in Iran, Syria and Sudan. They wanted to impose the culture of succumbing and failure on our peoples and governments. They wanted to achieve a settlement for the Palestinian cause with US-Israeli conditions. They wanted to thrust the region finally in the US-Zionist era. The title of this project, attack and fight was a new Middle East which Condoleezza Rice talked about its labor pains on the onset of July War 2006.

Anew the resistance, opposition and steadfastness project and people could make great historic achievements. The resistance movements remained steadfast in all battlefields, war and bodily and moral liquidation attempts. The opposition governments remained steadfast before all pressures, isolation and penalties. Our peoples adhered to the culture of nobleness, freedom and jihad. Thus they became more proud and more unwilling to succumb to humiliation and surrender. The settlement negotiations went into a coma. Many inadequate doctors are trying to revive it. The new Middle East project collapsed before the arms of the fighters, the awareness of the elites and the sacrifices of the people, children, women and elderly and the massive demolition which made with steadfastness and resistance great victories.

If we did not talk today about the final collapse of the US project in our region, at least we may talk about the US flop, retreat and feeling of weakness and loss of choices. These are prelude to the final collapse for this project and war on our nation Inshallah. This is a quick representation of the great victories and achievements of the resistance in our nation and region. They were achieved in the worst Arab conditions in the history of our Arab nation and this increases its brilliant historic greatness and importance. They were the worst Arab and international conditions which you are acquainted with. The resistance movements made the greatest achievements in the worst conditions of desolation, loneliness, siege, terrifying, conspiracy, connivance and backstabbing even from those "next of kin". Still it gained victory with its faithfulness, truthfulness, determination, sacrifices and the blood of its fighters and pure martyrs. We are saying this to stress to our peoples through your noble conference that the choice of resistance is the true, logical rational and victorious choice. It has great horizons and expectations. It is not a transient emotion or a whim of anger.

Brothers and Sisters! The resistance project, movements and people need all kinds of political, media, legal and financial support and embracement especially to confront the psychological war which is among the great risks which are still facing the resistance movements but is the most dangerous and critical. My hope at the end of my speech is to call on this conference with all the attendance is the true aid in face of this kind of war. It's the war of distortion to touch on its awareness, will, authority and the trust of its people in it on the national level and the trust of its nation in it on the general level. How? It's through questioning its futility and consequences and talking about the martyrs and demolition that took place in Gaza and Lebanon; through questioning its futility and consequences with its clear victories; through accusing it of perpetrating crimes which have no relation with the resistance but rather it condemn them in every occasion; through accusing it of moral corruption such as promoting drugs and the like; through challenging its personalities, leaders and factions; through branding it with sectarianism and factionalism; and through accusing it of betting on regional countries and especially Iran and Syria which must be thanked always and forever on their unlimited and unconditional support which they offer to the resistance. Still the resistance movements in our countries are among the most honorable national movements in history and among the most honorable national movements in the world. It's also through accusing it of promoting the culture of death which is in fact the culture of jihad and martyrdom in face of the culture of surrender which they call the culture of life; through thrusting it and dragging it to internal struggles which the resistance refuse to get engaged in; through pushing it to change its priorities; through misleading the nation through replacing the enemy with the friend and being antagonistic to Syria and Iran; through besieging the resistance and its voice and logical, rational, humanistic, noble, clear and faithful rhetoric; and through preventing it from attending conferences; through the act the US administration is seeking to issue to silence voices and which aims above all against Al Manar and Al Aqsa among other TV channels which are trying to say the truth. Unfortunately, brothers and sisters, many Arab media outlets and pens which are so called Arab are being used to serve this war against the resistance movements while great financial and technical capacities are being used in this perspective.

One final word if you allow me. I call on your honorable conference which gathers these political, intellectual, religious, cultural and jihadi elites from all around the world: support the resistance in the first hand in confronting this gigantic media war which they call today the soft war and which could be one of the important war means which led to the collapse of the USSR and the socialist campaign as Gates, the US War Minister himself acknowledged. I assert on you brothers and sisters to be assured. I know all the resistance movements. I assert to you we will not be defeated by this or any form of war. We will face them with faith, patience, awareness, determination and certitude. We are the children of that Divine Book which has been eternally calling on us for hundreds of years: "Men said to them: A great army is gathering against you, so fear them: but it only increased their faith: they said: for us Allah sufficeth, and He is the best disposer of affairs." In our previous wars we said "For us Allah sufficeth, and He is the best disposer of affairs" and we gained victory and today and in the future we say "For us Allah sufficeth, and He is the best disposer of affairs" and we will gain victory.

Today, I would like to promise you who love Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, the nation and the resistance in face of all of these threats against Lebanon which you hear daily – I promise you as I used to promise you always. In any future confrontation with the Zionists we will frustrate the aggression goals. We will beat the enemy. We will make great historic victory. We will change the face of the region Inshallah. I assert for you ladies and gentlemen the future of the region is that of the resistance, dignity, honor and freedom. Israel, the occupation, the hegemony and arrogance are to an end Inshallah. Peace be upon you and Allah's blessing and mercy.

Posted by VINEYARDSAKER: at 3:02 PM 

Labels: Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah, speech transcript

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian

‘If Israel Attacked, We’ll Consider Expelling Ambassadors’

Silver Lining

Posted on January 16, 2010 by realistic bird

{Conflict between Turkey and “Israel”-Turkey soap opera} by Eli Saliba-Al Watan newspaper-Qatar

Al Manar
16/01/2010 Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Saturday that if Israel was attacked, all options would be on the table, including the expulsion of ambassadors.

In the interview with Channel 2, Ayalon praised Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman’s policies. “His policy is proving to be effective. We will not allow a situation where every country will kick us. If there will be an attack on Israel, we will leave all options open, including the expulsion of ambassadors,” Ayalon said. “We do not want to argue with anyone, but we will not sit idly by.”
In the interview, Ayalon also claimed that the incident in which he reportedly ‘humiliated’ the Turkish ambassador by making him sit in a lower chair was intended to send the Turks a threatening message, not humiliate the ambassador.

“The story with the cameras wasn’t planed, I didn’t think it was being recorded, and if it was – I didn’t think it would be aired with sound. My intention wasn’t to humiliate, but to send a visual message. The ambassador didn’t feel humiliated either only once reporters started calling him. The picture was aimed at the Turks, to send them a message. I think what Erdogan did to Peres in Davos is humiliation, not this,” said Ayalon.

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Filed under: Caricature, Politics | Tagged: Caricature, cartoon, Israeli crimes, Israeli insults, Israeli policies, news, palestine, Politics, Turkey

River to Sea
 Uprooted Palestinian