Activism roundup: Israeli forces fire at demonstrators

Report, The Electronic Intifada, 21 January 2011

Israeli forces arrest an Israeli activist during a demonstration against the wall and settlements in the occupied West Bank village of al-Masara, 21 January 2010. (Anne Paq/ActiveStills)

Israeli forces swept through the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan today, firing rubber-coated steel bullets and tear gas at Palestinians during public prayer near the al-Bustan protest tent. The tent is a public gathering place and organizing center for residents of the al-Bustan area in Silwan who are faced with imminent home demolitions or settler takeovers of their houses. The invasion resulted in clashes throughout the area.

The Wadi Hilweh Information Center reported that a number of Palestinians and a cameraman were injured by tear gas inhalation and rubber bullets during the clashes ("Clashes erupt after Friday prayer in East Jerusalem," 21 January 2011).

Meanwhile, Ma'an News Agency reported that a Palestinian child was pepper sprayed during weekly unarmed protests elsewhere in the occupied West Bank.

In Nabi Saleh, Palestinian and international protesters marched against the ongoing confiscation of village land and the expansion of the nearby Halamish settlement colony. Israeli soldiers attempted to break up the demonstration, and attacked an 11-year-old boy with pepper spray ("Israeli army shuts down West Bank rallies," 21 January 2011).

Protests against Israel's wall and the settlements were also reported in al-Masara village, near Bethlehem; in Bilin; and in Nilin. Ma'an reported that local activist committees documented the Israeli military's use of "riot dispersal means" in Bilin and Nilin, which include the firing of tear gas and spraying protesters with fetid "skunk water."

One Israeli solidarity activist was detained in al-Masara.

Beit Ommar
Fourteen-year-old Mohammed Awwad from the West Bank village of Beit Ommar was released from Israeli prison on 7 January after being detained for more than a month and a half.

Awwad was arrested by Israeli soldiers at a weekly demonstration in the village on 20 November 2010, and was charged by the Israeli military with throwing stones, which is punishable up to ten years in prison.

The Palestine Solidarity Project (PSP) reported on 9 January that Israel wrongfully charged Awwad with stone throwing, citing numerous eyewitnesses present at the demonstration who claimed that he was not throwing stones "but merely participating in an unarmed demonstration in his own village against the neighboring Israeli settlement of Karmei Tsur ("14-year-old Beit Ommar resident released from Israeli prison," 9 January 2011)."

PSP added that five adult solidarity activists were arrested along with Awwad, but they were released later in the day.

"After his arrest, [Awwad] was first brought to Karmei Tsur settlement by Israeli forces and held there for three hours," PSP stated. "He was then transferred to [a detention facility inside] Kiryat Arba settlement in Hebron for an additional eight hours."

Awwad's parents were not informed of his whereabouts by the Israeli military, PSP added, and he was "repeatedly interrogated" at Kiryat Arba and later during his detention at Ofer prison. Interrogators apparently asked him about the activist committee in the village that plans the weekly demonstrations against the encroaching settlements.

"Despite the fact that [Awwad] is a minor and has a medical condition that chronically affects his skin, the Israeli military courts denied him bail and held him for over a month and a half," PSP stated.

The Electronic Intifada has reported on the Israeli military's ongoing policy of interrogation and detention of Palestinian children from the Hebron area at Kiryat Arba and Ofer prison.

Meanwhile, on 20 January, PSP reported that the Israeli military arrested four children south of Beit Ommar, after detaining them "in an isolated area out of sight of the road" where they were put into "stress positions" with their hands behind their backs and their heads down.

International observers with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI), a group that monitors Israeli human rights abuses, took pictures and called the media as well as notified prominent human rights organizations that work in the area.

"Despite these efforts, after some time, the soldiers forced all four children into a jeep and drove them to an unknown location," PSP reported. "No reason was given for their arrest" ("Israeli forces arrest four children south of Beit Ommar," 20 January 2011).

Tear gas company protested
Protesters held a demonstration outside the corporate headquarters of tear gas manufacturer Combined Systems, Inc. (CSI), in Jamestown, Pennsylvania, on 17 January, demanding the company stop its sales to the Israeli military.

The protest, which was held on the birthday of the assassinated American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., was coordinated by solidarity activists in response to the 1 January death of 36-year-old Jawaher Abu Rahmah, a resident of the West Bank village of Bilin. Abu Rahmah participated in a weekly nonviolent protest against Israel's wall and confiscation of village land on 31 December, and was exposed to a lethal amount of tear gas fired by Israeli troops. The gas was later confirmed as being manufactured by CSI.

The Pittsburgh Palestine Solidarity Committee (PPSC) stated on its website on 10 January that the protest was organized "in solidarity with Palestinian nonviolent demonstrations and in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy" ("Regional Palestine solidarity groups to protest PA manufacturer of tear gas on MLK day," 10 January 2011).

Jonas Moffat of PPSC told The Electronic Intifada that approximately forty persons protested outside of CSI's offices on Monday.

"Many of us [activists] living in Pittsburgh have been to occupied Palestine," Moffat said. "And when we found out what was going on at CSI, and that they were in our backyard, we felt we needed to get out there."

Moffat said that their letters, calls and requests for a face-to-face meeting on the day of the protest all went unanswered, but that the solidarity groups are determined to keep protesting outside the CSI offices.

The Jamestown protest followed a similar demonstration on 11 January in New York City, where 35 activists gathered outside the midtown Manhattan offices of Point Lookout Capital Partners, a firm that facilitates investment in CSI.

According to a press release from Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, the protesters reenacted scenes from the weekly marches held in Bilin, including a mock tear gassing by an actor dressed as an Israeli soldier. "The protesters then choked and collapsed motionless on the sidewalk outside the office of Point Lookout Capital," Adalah-NY stated ("Protesters tell New York business to stop providing Israel's lethal tear gas," 11 January 2011).

Others held signs with photographs of Palestinian and international solidarity activists who have been killed or severely injured by tear gas canisters fired by the Israeli military during nonviolent protests in the occupied West Bank.

In the press release, Adalah-NY organizer Dave Lippman said that the Israeli military's use of CSI's tear gas -- partially financed by Point Lookout Capital -- is being used "as a weapon to crush the growing unarmed protest movement against Israel's illegal confiscation of Palestinian land for Israeli settlements."

Lippman added that American taxpayers are helping foot the bill for Israel's weapons cache. "The US government needs to stop providing this deadly aid, and CSI and Point Lookout need to end their complicity in Israel's violent repression of legitimate protest," he said. Adalah-NY stated that since it published its recent action alert, nearly nine hundred individuals have emailed CSI, Point Lookout Capital Partners and the asset management firm The Carlyle Group, another CSI investor with ties to the presidential administrations of both George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Another 1,900 persons have signed a similar petition to CSI drafted by the activist group CodePink ("No More Tears: Tell the Profiteers at CSI to Stop Selling Tear Gas to Israel").

Additionally, Adalah-NY reported that hundreds of individuals have emailed the US State Department asking it to stop its provisions of tear gas and military aid to Israel.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

STUART LITTLEWOOD : LONDON’S FOREIGN OFFICE MIGHT AS WELL RELOCATE TO TEL AVIV

British Foreign Office Minister for the
Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt

The Foreign Office is stuffed with them, all appointed by our new prime minister, David “I’m-a-Zionist” Cameron

By Stuart Littlewood

- 23. Jan, 2011
What our Foreign Office minister said on his recent visit to Israel and Occupied Palestine shows more clearly than ever why the struggle in the Holy Land extends all the way to our own front door here in the UK.

The new minister in charge of Middle East affairs, Alistair Burt, was there to reward the sterling work of the Palestinian Authority’s prime minister Salam Fayyad and his boss, president Mahmoud Abbas, with a gift of £17 million. This largesse no doubt made the British government feel better about doing naff-all to right the catalogue of wrongs going back to 1917.

The official reason was that Burt is impressed by the dynamic duo’s progress towards creating an independent, viable Palestinian state “living in peace with a secure Israel”.

Their only real achievement, however, is the way they have turned the Occupied Territories into a police state of the most sinister kind with torture, rape and other extreme forms of cruelty a regular feature of the prisons they run.

This bonus from the British taxpayer is supposed to pay for schooling for over 4,400 children, fund 340 teachers, and help 15,000 people continue to receive clean water, says Burt.

More likely it’s a sweetener to get the Palestinian leaders back to the negotiation table. Burt seems desperately keen for that to happen, though God knows why. “It is critical that both sides find a way to return to talks. The current impasse is of great concern and I urge all parties to take immediate steps to secure a lasting peace…

“We firmly believe that this should see a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders and with East Jerusalem as its capital. This is the solution which offers the best prospect of a just and sustainable peace.

“I also hold firmly the view that settlement construction is illegal, wrong and should stop. It blights the lives of Palestinians and is an obstacle to peace.”
Talk is easy when you have no intention of following it up with action. Mr Burt is not about to transform himself into a man of action for peace. Why not? Because he’s an Israel lobby stooge. He used to be (and maybe still is, for all I know) an officer of that infamous bunch of Israel-firsters, the Conservative Friends of Israel.

The Foreign Office is stuffed with them, all appointed by our new prime minister, David “I’m-a-Zionist” Cameron. This misguided individual is famously quoted on the Friends of Israel website as saying: “The friendship… will deepen, because the ties between this party and Israel are unbreakable. And in me, you have a Prime Minister whose belief in Israel is indestructible.”

What a ridiculous commitment for a British prime minister to make to a lawless, racist state that respects nobody’s human rights, continually defies international law and shoots children for amusement (see ‘The methodical shooting of boys at work in Gaza by snipers of the Israeli Occupation Force’, a horrific article by surgeon David Halpin).

It is a disgrace that the Conservatives, who were not given a clear mandate to govern, nevertheless vomit their infatuation with the thuggish Israeli regime all over their much more level-headed coalition partners (the Liberal Democrats), the whole British nation and the Arab world.

Go to http://ukinisrael.fco.gov.uk/en/news/ministerial-visits/alistair-burt/qanda where Burt “answers your questions” and see the way he tells everyone how “clear” or “firm” the UK government position is on this and that. When challenged to say what exactly he is doing to uphold the official position or enforce official policy, he sidesteps every time.

Burt’s indoctrination

In a speech to the Board of Jewish Deputies in London last year, Burt told his audience he had worked from the age of fifteen for an MP who was a president of the Board and founder of the Conservative Friends of Israel, and how this “had a lasting effect upon me, and on my interests in Parliament”.

He said: “Israel is an important strategic partner and friend for the UK and we share a number of important shared objectives across a broad range of policy areas.”

Offhand, can anybody think of a single objective they would wish to share with those people?

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict he said that “without an agreement between the Palestinians and the Israelis then peace in the Middle East is unobtainable”.
He added, apparently oblivious to the irony of his remarks: “Those who are enemies of peace will continue to use the conflict for their own purposes… We cannot allow those who want to pursue a violent agenda to succeed… As a friend to both sides, we are committed to a two state solution and we will continue to support the efforts of the US to broker a peace deal between both sides.

“And as an honest broker, the UK Government does not believe that economic sanctions or embargoes on Israel [are] the way to engage or to influence it.”

The “friend to both sides” and “honest broker” he refers to has been happy to use economic sanctions to collectively punish the Gazans, who are no threat to us, and thinks nothing of threatening the Iranians, who are no threat to us. Why so queasy about doing the same to Israel, which is a threat to everyone? All else has failed. Could it be that Mr Burt is actually no more interested in peace than the Israelis?

“And I know some of you here are concerned about Universal Jurisdiction…. We have prioritised resolving this and look to see legislation introduced to Parliament…”

His eagerness to sabotage the Geneva Convention’s principle of Universal Jurisdiction so that suspected Israeli war criminals can walk the streets of London without fear of arrest, reflects his party’s eagerness to appease the whining of the psychopaths.

Needless to say the Jewish Chronicle was ecstatic about Burt’s appointment as a Foreign Office minister, which it said sent “as clear a message as possible about the direction of the new government in the region. Mr Burt is listed as an officer in the parliamentary group of Conservative Friends of Israel and has been passionate in campaigning for visiting rights to Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier held hostage by Hamas for the past four years… The appointment of Mr Burt and Mr Lidington will be seen as an attempt to distance the Foreign Office from its Arabist, ‘Camel Corps’ reputation.”

The JC continued: “Mr Burt will have to work hard within the Arab world to build credibility and prove that he is an honest broker. He will not be helped by his commitment to the Evangelical Christian movement.”

Burt’s deep concern for Shalit, whose capture and detention he calls “outrageous” while ignoring the thousands of Palestinian civilians (including women and children) abducted and left to rot in Israeli jails without trial, wins him no credibility.

At the Jerusalem Post they were rubbing their hands in glee. The director of the Conservative Friends of Israel called Burt’s appointment excellent news. “I have traveled to Israel with Alistair on numerous occasions. He has an excellent knowledge and understanding of the complex issues of the region and is well-placed to approach the brief with the balance and fairness it requires.”

London Muslim, on his blog, confessed he had been “under the impression that one of the qualities needed to be a Minister in the FCO was that you championed Britain rather than a foreign government that practices Apartheid and fakes British passports before carrying out assassinations. My impression was also that when MP’s take the oath… they swear allegiance to Liz [Queen Elizabeth] and her heirs not Israel.

“Burt is a Christian Evangelical who like many of his eschatology ilk particularly in America will be hoping for Armageddon in the Middle East”.

Yes, let’s hang on to that bleak thought.


Britain’s Israel-firsters ditch law and justice for lopsided “negotiation”

Stopping off in Jordan, Burt announced that Britain would not recognise a Palestinian state unless it emerged from a peace deal with Israel. London could “not recognise a state that does not have a capital, and doesn’t have borders.”
London recognizes Israel. Where does Burt suppose Israel’s borders are? And is Israel sitting inside them? Where does he think Israel’s capital is? And where does Israel claim it to be? In other words, is Israel where Israel is supposed to be, within internationally defined borders? If not, how could he possibly recognise it let alone align himself with it?

Burt had talked the previous day about a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. In the space of a few short hours he seemed to have completely lost the plot.

“We are looking forward to recognising a Palestinian state at the end of the negotiations on settlements because our position is again very straightforward: We wish to see a two-state solution, a secure and recognized Israel side by side with a viable Palestine, Jerusalem as a joint capital and agreed borders,” Burt said.
Negotiations about illegal settlements? Since when did Her Majesty’s Government negotiate over criminal acts and crimes against humanity? Unless of course Alistair Burt is now answering to Queen Hillary Clinton, who has rejected in advance an anticipated Palestinian resolution in the UN condemning unlawful Israeli settlement building. Queen Hillary says the issue of illegal squats can be resolved through “negotiations” between Palestinians and Israelis and to hell with international law. Mr Burt obliges by chiming sweetly with this conspiracy. “That’s where we want to get to. When we get there, that of course will imply recognition of a state of Palestine.”

Many people are betting that, compared to the borders already defined by law and UN resolution, any “negotiated” solution will be worth diddly-squat.

As for a unilateral declaration of independence by the Palestinians, he said it would mean ambiguity on crucial issues like the capital of the state, its borders and the fate of refugees.

Again, Mr Burt hasn’t been paying attention. These things were ruled on long ago. But instead of enforcing international law and upholding justice, as he should, he co-operates with the most dishonest peace brokers on the planet to revive discredited, lopsided talks between dispossessed victim and criminal occupier. Where’s the honour in that?

Aiming to grab Gaza’s gas too

And talking of boundary recognition, where does Mr Burt suppose the Palestinian state’s offshore boundaries are?  Huge reserves of marine gas and oil have been found in the Levantine Basin, which comprises Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and their territorial waters.

In a report by Manlio Dinucci http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2011/01/arabs-keep-out-israel-lays-claim-to-all-the-resources/ the Israeli government with Washington’s backing considers it is entitled to all the energy reserves.

A coastal state may exploit offshore gas and oil reserves within a zone extending 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the shore, so the Palestinian Authority also has a claim. According to the map drawn up by the US Geological Survey, the major portion of the gas deposits (around 60%) lie in the waters and territory belonging to Gaza, so we can expect the US-Israeli ‘Axis of Greed’ to ruthlessly exploit the Palestinians’ disunity and deprive them of their natural resource, just like they’ve stolen their water.

If the Israelis plan to grab the lot “with Washington’s backing”, is London signed up to this act of grand larceny too?

The question for many years has been: will Gaza ever get a whiff of its own gas? What does Mr Burt, wearing the British government’s “honest broker” hat, say?

Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. For further information please visit : www.radiofreepalestine.co.uk.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Gilad Atzmon on ARTE (German TV)

Saturday, January 22, 2011 at 10:16AM Gilad Atzmon


Talking about Israel, Nazism, Palestine, German Guilt and multiculturalism...

The Assassins of Lebanon

Who's to blame for the death of Rafiq Hariri?

by Justin Raimondo, January 19, 2011

| Antiwar Forum

Those who believed we would see a significant change in America’s misguided – indeed, suicidal – foreign policy of global intervention, especially in the volatile Middle East, have surely been sorely disappointed by what President Obama has wrought. In Afghanistan, Iraq, and throughout the region, the present administration has simply continued and even amplified the same failed policies that have brought us to our present pass. Continuity, rather than change, is the leitmotif of US foreign policy in the Age of Obama: like a great ship that is steering its own path, rather than being steered by the captain, America’s imperial course is on automatic pilot.

Nothing underscores this automatism quite so eloquently than the recent handing down of a sealed indictment by the UN Tribunal investigating the assassination of Lebanese politician and businessman Rafiq Hariri. The indictment is widely expected to name Hezbollah, Lebanon’s Shi’ite political party, as the culprit – this in spite of voluminous evidence to the contrary, including a surveillance video and DNA testing that points to one Abu Adas, a Lebanese Palestinian convert to Wahhabism, who claimed responsibility for the deed in the name of an al-Qaeda affiliate. (NOT to ABU ADAS)

US and Israeli officials (or do I repeat myself?) have their own conspiracy theory that blames both Hezbollah and the Syrians for Hariri’s demise. Their theory is based on the premise that the Lebanese leader was killed by a bomb hidden in a previously-unknown underground tunnel, which was detonated by remote control once Hariri’s car reached the appointed spot. The problem with this theory, however, is that no such tunnel exists, or has ever existed. (TRUE)

Furthermore, it seems clear from the physical evidence that the assassination was carried out by a suicide bomber, not a remotely controlled explosive device.


 (Here I adivise readers to read Thierry Meyssan ) 

What really happened?

The explosion generated a blast of an exceptionally intense heat and exceptionally brief duration. Thus, the flesh exposed to the blast was instantly carbonized, while the body underneath was not burnt.

High-density objects (such as the gold watch) absorbed the heat and were destroyed. Conversely, low-density objects (like the delicate fabric of Hariri’s shirtcollar) didn’t have enough time to absorb the heat and were unaffected....the explosion sucked up all the oxygen and dehydrated the bodies, ...

In the hours that followed, several on-the-spot witnesses complained of breathing ailments. Wrongfully, the authorities interpreted them as a psychosomatic reaction following their psychological trauma.

According to a number of military experts the explosives capable of generating such damage, could be a new type of weapon. A "combination of nuclear and nonotechnology science can trigger an explosion the exact strength of which can be regulated and controlled. The weapon is set up to destroy everything within a given perimeter, down to the nearest centimeter.

Always according to the same military specialists, this weapon ......exerts a very strong pressure on the area of the explosion. The minute it stops, the heaviest objects are propelled upwards. Accordingly, cars were sent flying through the air. There is one unequivocal fact: this weapon is equipped with a nano-quantity of enriched uranium, emanating radiations which are quantifiable.

Now, it just so happens that one of the passengers in Rafik Hariri’s armoured car survived the explosion. Former Minister Bassel Fleyhan was taken to a topnotch French military hospital for treatment. The doctors were astounded to discover that he had been in contact with enriched uranium. But no one linked this to the attack.

Technically speaking, the weapon is shaped like a small missile, a few tens of centimeters long. It must be fired from a drone. Actually, several witnesses assured they had heard an aircraft flying over the scene of the crime. The investigators asked the United States and Israel, whose surveillance satellites are permanently switched on, to provide them with the pertinent images. On the day of the attack, the United States had deployed AWACS aircraft over Lebanon. The live feeds could help to establish the presence of a drone and even to determine its flight path. But Washington and Tel Aviv – which indefatigably urge all parties to cooperate with the STL – turned down the request.

At a press conference held on 10 August 2010, Hassan Nasrallah showed a video which, according to him, was shot by Israeli military drones and intercepted by his organisation. All of Rafik Hariri’s movements had been registered for months, until the final day when all the surveillance converged on the bend in the road where the attack was staged. Thus, Tel-Aviv had been surveying the area prior to the assassination. Which is not to say, as Mr Nasrallah himself points out, that they were the authors of the crime."

So, who fired the missile?

More here

Back to Justin Raimondo,

But facts have never gotten in the way of US officials intent on pursuing their chosen course: they “reason” that, since Syria was in control of Lebanon during the years of occupation, the assassination couldn’t have taken place without the knowledge and consent of the Syrian authorities – an assumption belied by the many acts of terrorism which have taken place inside Syria itself, before and since.

While Tribunal officials have warned the Lebanese not to indulge in “rumors” as to the contents of the indictment, which will remain sealed for months until a Belgian judge decides if the case can proceed, there is little doubt as to what it contains. Rejecting the conclusion of the Lebanese government that Hariri was murdered by al-Qaeda, which subsequently denounced Hariri as a “Saudi puppet,” the UN Tribunal was constituted to come to one and only one conclusion: Syria and Hezbollah were behind the killing.

No one in the region takes seriously Hillary Rodham Clinton’s rhetorical theatrics, as reported by the Associated Press:

“Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said those who oppose the tribunal ‘seek to create a false choice between justice and stability in Lebanon; we reject this.

“’We are confident that the tribunal will continue to operate according to the highest standards of judicial independence and integrity. We call on all parties to promote calm and continue to respect the tribunal as it carries out its duties in a professional and apolitical manner.’”

Operating behind a thin pretense of “legality,” the strategy of the US and Israel is to keep the Lebanese cauldron boiling, preventing the creation of a government of national unity and creating a power vacuum where there might be a countervailing force against Israel. Tel Aviv has sent its troops into Lebanon three times since 1978, with US backing. A weak and divided Lebanon presents no obstacle to the expansionist designs of extremist Israeli politicians, who can count on unconditional US support for their dream of a Greater Israel no matter what the cost to US interests and prestige in the region.

To get some idea of what is going on in Lebanon, imagine if a major US politician had been assassinated, and his killer identified by the authorities – and then imagine further that the United Nations stepped in to nullify the verdict, and conduct its own investigation at the instigation of, say, Russia and China.

This is precisely what has occurred in Lebanon, and the results are likely to detonate the always volatile Lebanese political landscape, perhaps unleashing another civil war along the lines of the decade-long struggle that reduced the country to ruins.

The media narrative being spun out by the US and its international enablers is simple: Hezbollah, backed by Syria and Iran, is to blame not only for Hariri’s death, but also for the tumult that keeps Lebanon and the entire region in a permanent state of destabilization. Taking into account the operating principle behind our Bizarro World foreign policy, which inverts reality in the service of a rapacious imperialism, this storyline is the exact opposite of the truth.

The Tribunal investigation is a ticking time bomb, designed to explode just as the US and Israel are ramping up their campaign against Iran and its regional allies (Syria and Hezbollah).

And make no mistake: Iran is the real target of this whole operation, which is being assaulted not only with economic sanctions but also a joint US-Israeli covert campaign of terrorism: Jundallah’s attacks in southeastern Iran and the Stuxnet worm are two prongs of the same offensive.

The US-Israeli strategy is to suck the Iranians into a proxy war pitting the UN against Hezbollah – the chief military counterweight to the IDF in the region. The Israelis are still chafing from the humiliation of their defeat at Hezbollah’s hands in the 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. With US – and UN – help, they are counting on getting their revenge.

The Lebanese people have the sovereign right to conduct their own affairs without interference from the US, Israel, or the UN – and we only feed anti-Americanism, and act as a recruiting agent for our enemies, when we intercede on Israel’s behalf.

Furthermore, the campaign to discredit Hezbollah as a mere agent of Iran discredits us in the eyes of Lebanese and the Arab world: Hezbollah is a recognized political party in Lebanon, with a considerable bloc of supporters in the parliament and an extensive network of social service agencies at its command.

The “special” UN Tribunal is a sword pointed at the throat of the biggest single political party in Lebanon. It has no more legitimacy or credibility than such a body would have in deciding who assassinated John F. Kennedy, and why. Yet American commentators and government officials – including President Obama – invoke it as an instrument of “justice.”

The “justice” of the American hegemon has no use for evidence, or legality, except insofar as it can give the appearance of “impartiality” to a process rooted in its imperial designs. Whether Washington is really intending to ignite the Lebanese tinderbox, and start its long-planned war to take down the Iranians, remains to be seen. Israel’s powerful lobby in the US will certainly be pushing for just that outcome – and certainly a new war would provide a welcome diversion for the Obama administration, which is mired in economic and political difficulties.

Somewhere in a cave in the wilds of Waziristan, Osama bin Laden is smiling. Just as the 9/11 terrorist attacks set the Americans rampaging through Iraq and Afghanistan, so one of his assassins sent to create chaos in Lebanon has succeeded in drawing the Americans ever closer to yet another unwinnable conflict. Observant readers will note this strange confluence of interests, with Washington, Tel Aviv, and al-Qaeda the beneficiaries of a “legal” process designed to explode any hopes of peace in Lebanon.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Chabad in the US Senate and Congress‏

CHABAD LUBAVITCHER RABBI opens a US Congress session with a prayer !


In Senate, the same thing happens

Rabbi Cohen Opens CA Senate Session




For those who don't know who or what "CHABAD" is, here is a brief insight into CHABAD ideology:

Quotes:

“There are TWO different and DISTINCT entities: the HUMAN being, and the JEW WHO IS PART of G-D”
..
“We are a G-dly people, we have G-dly SOULS. Our place is in Heaven, in fact HIGHER than Heaven because Heaven is also a created place, and WE are a PART of G-d”
…
“The world wants LEADERSHIP and who are they going to look to for moral LEADERSHIP if not the JEWS?”
….
“We are to treat other JEWS as DIVINE BEINGS, because that’s what they are”
(quotes by Rabbi Manis Friedman author and lecturer, dean of Bais Chanah Women's Institute of Jewish Studies):

Excerpts from:
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2902/jewish/What-Is-the-Cause-of-Antisemitism.htm
***********************************************************


The epithets affirming that the people of Israel are really special:
"Am Segula" (the CHOSEN people),
"Goy Kadosh UMamlechet Kohanim" (a HOLY PEOPLE and a NATION of PRIESTS),
"MeAl HaTeva" (ABOVE NATURE),
"Ba'alei Nevuah" (MASTERS OF PROPHECY),
"Ba'alei Hashpa'a Nissit" (EXERCISERS of MIRACULOUS INFLUENCE )
"Kol Yisrael Tzaddikim" (ALL ISRAEL ARE RIGHTEOUS),

Excerpts from:
http://www.projectmind.org/exoteric/kabbalah.html
***********************************************************


“We are JEWS because G-d CHOSE us to be His "CHERISHED TREASURE FROM ALL THE NATIONS … a kingdom of PRIESTS and a HOLY PEOPLE" (Exodus 19:5-6).
"We are JEWS because G-d chose us to play THE CENTRAL ROLE in the implementation of His purpose in creation"

Excerpts from
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/45132/jewish/What-Makes-a-Jew-Jewish.htm
***********************************************************


"It is this SOUL that gives the JEW the power to be G-dly in a human world, and SUPERNATURAL in a natural universe."

Excerpts from:
http://www.askmoses.com/en/article/192,2172582/Can-you-describe-the-Jewish-soul.html#article_email_loc
***********************************************************


"We have proved ourselves to be the LEADERS of ENLIGHTENMENT, PROGRESS and REVOLUTION wherever we have traveled.."
"If it were not for JEWS, there would be no concept of HUMAN DIGNITY, of meaning and purpose, of the right of every person to education and knowledge, of social justice and of the value of world peace"
Excerpts from:
http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/743998/jewish/How-do-you-get-a-Jewish-soul.htm
***********************************************************


"This SOUL, the irrevocable inheritance of EVERY SINGLE JEW, is PURE and UNSULLIED, HOLY and POWERFUL."
Excerpts from:

http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/743998/jewish/How-do-you-get-a-Jewish-soul.htm
***********************************************************


"Gentile souls are of a completely different and inferior order. They are totally inferior with no redeeming qualities whatsoever."
"When a Jew acts in a benevolent manner he is motivated mainly out of concern for the welfare of his fellow"
"all the good that the nations do, is done out of selfish motives"
“The kindness of the nations is sin” — that all the charity and kindness done by the nations of the world is only for their self-glorification"
http://www.myyeshiva.org/library/tanya/tanya_cdo/aid/460084/jewish/Chapter-1.htm



For more info:

The worm is in the can
Supremacist and Racist Chabad
Chabad around the world
Chabad & EDL
Chabad Lubavitch & the zionist Law-Makers
Why the Rebbe hates Islam?
BEHOLD WORLD.. BREAKING NEWS
NO... This is not a Synagogue
Meet the Rebbe

Nahida Izzat: "I am -Jerusalem born- Palestinian refugee living in exile for over 40 years. I was forced to leave my homeland, Palestine at the age of seven during the six-day war.

I am a mathematician by profession but art is one of my favourite pastimes, I love hand-made things, so I make dolls, cards, and most of my own clothes.

I also write poetry, and participate in dialogues with known and unknown friends as I believe that communication is the first step of understanding, I believe in building bridges not walls.

My shy and extra sensitive nature hinders me from public speaking, so I try to compensate for my shortcomings by writing! I started writing about three years ago when my friends insisted

I should write about my memories, experiences, and my feelings as a Palestinian. So I self published two books (I Believe in Miracles and Palestine, The True Story) [Biographical information: Growing Gardens for Palestine]

ACLU Sues Seattle for Placement of Human Rights Ads on Buses

Human Children in Gaza

January 21, 2011 posted by Veterans Today · 10 Comments 

 

The ACLU of Washington filed suit on behalf of the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign, seeking a preliminary injunction to uphold the Campaign’s free speech rights to publish a paid bus ad expressing its views on actions of the Israeli government.  

Filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the lawsuit says that King County’s refusal to allow the ad on Metro buses violated the Campaign’s First Amendment rights.

“In a free and democratic society, we cannot allow the government to suppress lawful speech, even speech that may stir emotions. Chipping away at fundamental free speech rights is not the answer,” said Kathleen Taylor, ACLU of Washington executive director. “We should keep in mind that mild speech doesn’t need protection. It is when we are faced with controversial speech, speech that is intensely upsetting to some people, that our adherence to the First Amendment is most important,” added Taylor.

The Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign (SeaMAC), a nonprofit grassroots organization that seeks to educate the public about U.S. policy on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, intended to place a paid advertisement on the outside of King County Metro buses. The ad’s text read “Israeli War Crimes: Your Tax Dollars at Work.”

Read the Legal Complaint and Exhibits

Kathleen Taylor statement: Free Speech in a Free Society

SeaMAC submitted the ad on Oct.15, 2010 to Titan Outdoor LLC, the company that handles advertising on Metro buses. Titan informed SeaMAC on Nov.10 that the ad had been approved and accepted for placement on Metro buses.  SeaMAC signed a contract on Dec.13 to run the ad and paid Titan the following day. SeaMAC paid for the printing of the ad, which was delivered to King County on Dec.17. The ad was scheduled to run on 12 Metro buses for four weeks, beginning on Dec. 27.

King County has a long-established practice of publishing on its buses a wide variety and spectrum of ads containing non-commercial speech. For example, paid ads related to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza previously have run on Metro buses, as have ads with atheist messages. The SeaMAC ad was submitted and approved under King County’s written Advertising Policy concerning its practices and procedures of placing paid ads on buses.

The prospect of the ad generated an outpouring of strong opposition.  On December 23, King County issued a press release announcing that the county now would not permit the ad to run. The county also announced that its existing Advertising Policy was no longer in effect and that it was immediately implementing a new interim policy. Later that day Titan formally notified SeaMAC that the previously accepted ad had been cancelled.

The lawsuit seeks a court declaration that King County’s decision not to publish the ad violates the First Amendment and a preliminary injunction against King County and an order that it publish the ad, as originally promised.

Representing SeaMAC are ACLU-WA cooperating attorney Jeffrey Grant of Skellenger Bender, PS and ACLU-WA staff attorneys Sarah Dunne and Lindsey Soffes.

Related Posts:

• Israeli War Crimes Ads Banned in Seattle‏

• Seattle: ‘End U.S Paid War Crimes’  Signs to Go on Metro Buses

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

GORDON DUFF: ELVIS, BIN LADEN AND ASSANGE (VIDEO)

January 22, 2011 posted by Gordon Duff ·

TWO HEADS OF THE SAME COIN, “ELVIS BIN LADEN” AND “WIKI-ISRAEL”

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

In 1977 Elvis Presley, “King of Rock and Roll”, died.  Since his death, sightings of Elvis around the world have numbered in the tens of thousands.  In 2001 Osama bin Laden, CIA asset and critic of Israel’s policies in Palestine, died.  Since his death several video tapes and a string of audio recordings have been attributed to him.

In a sense, bin Laden has become “Elvis bin Laden,” the “King of Terrorism”. 

However, unlike the real Elvis, whose musical legacy will live forever, the legacy of “Elvis bin Laden”, the “Al Qaeda” organization and the illusory underground Tora Bora “terror-plex” is only kept alive by the charlatans of the military-industrial complex and their media partners.

NOT ANOTHER PHONY BIN LADEN TAPE…

A new “bin Laden tape,” audio only, reputed to sound “something like bin Laden,” was released today.   Media insiders have, for years now, referred to bin Laden as “Elvis bin Laden,” a name coined by UPI’s Arnaud de Borchgrave.

“TERROR-PLEX”  BIN LADEN’S “UFO FORTRESS”

YouTube - Veterans Today -

(link to Veterans Today’s Tim Russert obituary)

“THERE AREN’T ONE OF THOSE, THERE ARE MANY OF THOSE”…Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense

“10 YEARS AND STILL LOOKING…STILL LOOKING…STILL LOOKING…WHAT WE NEED IS RUMSFELD STRAPPED DOWN,  A FLASHLIGHT, A BLOWTORCH AND A PROCTOLOGIST. “…Gordon Duff, Veterans Today

CIA OR CIA AND MOSSAD

You see, across the Islamic world, Osama bin Laden’s obituary was front page news back in 2001.  His “obit” was in the papers then because that was when he died.

In the years since his death, bin Laden, or more correctly “Elvis bin Laden,” has been a busy boy.  The first crude attempts at videos, routinely “found” on the internet by an Israeli group, were laughable.  Actors playing bin Laden were chosen like department store Santas.  Eventually the videos ceased and Elvis bin Laden went “audio cassette only”, but audio experts quickly debunked these as phony also.

The most recent Elvis bin Laden debacle, one those of us in the media have been dreading as we are tired of writing about this trash, has the long dead bin Laden discussing the fate of two French journalists held in Afghanistan.  A few minor inconsistencies are ignored, as is one very major inconsistency, which we will deal with in a moment:

• The Taliban managed to supply video of the kidnapped journalists, but only audio of Elvis Bin Laden.  Perhaps the physical deterioration of years of decomposition has made him camera shy;
• The Taliban, warlike, proud Pashtun tribesmen of Afghanistan and Pakistan never accepted bin Laden or any Arab as a leader.  In fact, Arabs are barely tolerated as guests, when they “behave”, and then only because the teachings of the Koran demand it.  They are not held in esteem and are seen by the Taliban as a nuisance.

As “leaders” or “fighters”, Afghan tribesmen look on outsiders as amateurs, something a thousand years of history seems to support quite easily.  In Afghanistan and Pakistan current estimates of Arab strength, a group the US labels as “Al Qaida,” is less than 20.  No Arab, especially not one who has been dead for a decade, would ever be allowed to speak for the Taliban.

THE ASSANGE FACTOR

Elvis bin Laden and Julian Assange of Wikileaks have one very major thing in common, both are very “sensitive” to the needs and feelings of Israel.  Osama bin Laden, when actually alive, continually berated the United States as being controlled by Israel.  The real bin Laden couldn’t order tea without using the word “Zionist”.  The phony bin Laden tapes have a “Wikileaks” aspect to them.

• They come from Israeli sources
• They blame America and Arabs for everything
• They call for attacks on America, implying that Israel’s actions against Palestinians are entirely America’s responsibility.

TWO HEADS OF THE SAME COIN

Elvis bin Laden, like Julian Assange, seems to have a powerful “pro-Israel” filter.  In continual calls for “holy war”, there is always a suspicious absence of calls to actually attack Israel.  Targets are always “America and the West”, even during “Operation Cast Lead”, the Israeli attack on Gaza, which killed thousands of civilians.  Elvis bin Laden, instead of calling for a holy war or “Jihad” against Israel, for some strange reason said the following:

Calling Arab leaders “hypocrites”….. “liberating Jerusalem needed honest Arab leadership….It has become clear that some Arab leaders were complicit with the Crusade Zionist alliance against our people”.

Elvis bin Laden then called the Gaza attacks an “historic event and a tragedy”.   In place of a the murderous Jihad of Osama bin Laden, Elvis bin Laden called for “devoted committee from the Islamic world to establish an advisory body”.

Does blaming Arab leaders have a familiar “Wiki-ring?  Despite Elvis bin Laden’s mention of “Crusader Zionists”, those he holds responsible for Israel’s targeted attack on Gaza schools and hospitals using cluster bombs, depleted uranium and white phosphorous,  all war crimes and crimes against humanity, not a word about Israel.  No, Elvis bin Laden, like Julian Assange, blames Arabs but mostly blames America.

“Crusader-Zionists” are Americans, Evangelical “Christians”, the “Israel-firsters” that Israel lobbies for money, but “throws under a bus” when “blamin’ time” comes.  Elvis bin Laden doesn’t blame Israel nor considers Operation Cast Lead a war crime.  He calls it an “historic event and a tragedy”.  Murder can be an historic event.  Murder can be a tragedy.  Murder, however, is still murder.  Someone needs to remind “Elvis bin Laden” of that.

Our Elvis bin Laden, like Wikileaks Julian Assange, certainly sounds Israeli, but not just Israeli.  Elvis bin Laden never demands attacks on Israel. In fact, he never even suggests that Israel bears any responsibility whatsoever.  To the new guitar playing bin Laden, Zionism is an American problem.

Assange, however, is far more insidious than bin Laden was ever accused of being. He doesn’t just censor things for Israel, but actively plants “leaks” fabricated by Israel as disinformation. This has been both admitted and widely acknowledged.

Assange lives to punish the enemies of Israel’s ultra-nationalist faction.  In America, collecting money for an orphanage, which takes in children whose parents were killed by drone attacks, is considered “material support of terrorism” and makes one subject to immediate rendition.  Under this policy, long deemed “legal” by the United States and Britain, Julian Assange would have been named an “enemy combatant” and taken to Bulgaria, Poland or perhaps Southern Sudan for torture or even a shallow grave.

With him would go every person helping him, his “co-conspirators”, not merely a dozen employees at the New York Times, the Guardian and other papers, but his “special internet friends” as well.  Anyone who can’t see that amongst his “best friends” and co-conspirators the best of all is Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, simply isn’t paying attention.

Much the same, Elvis bin Laden seems to be equally allied with Netanyahu.  If “bin Laden” – albeit a “ghost”, an actors voice on an audio tape or a clownish stooge in Arab “fancy dress” as though going to a masquerade – is considered a terrorist,  isn’t  Israel, indeed Netanyahu himself, to be considered equally complicit?

Consider this.  If bin Laden was responsible for 9/11 why is it that the only terrorists arrested on 9/11 worked for Israel?  Five Israelis, dubbed the “dancing Israeli’s for their celebration of joy,  later admitted on live television that they were sent to “document the attack.”  Of course, the more likely scenario is that this Mossad camera crew was there to guide the planes to their targets,  given that they were strategically set up well in advance of the attack, cameras perfectly aligned for either filming the most dramatic footage since Zapruder…

Or were they “painting” the World Trade Center towers with target lasers?  Was it something else?  10 weeks of interrogation and they were shuttled back to Israel while Americans hunted for that other bin Laden, by that time dying, his last CIA paycheck uncashed.

Assange, Elvis bin Laden, custom leaks on demand, bizarre threats from a dead man, all have the same things in common.  They are two heads on the same coin.  Both are Israel.

Assange, now fighting exposure by feinting at attacking Israel, is trying to appear less the Mossad operative by “releasing” stories through selected newspapers and claiming they are secret documents.

Bin Laden, however, remains a mixed bag. His messages are supposedly intended to recruit and inspire real terrorists yet continually advocate only the death of American troops.  The even more ridiculous coincidence, if you consider such things either ridiculous or coincidence, and they are neither, is that the same sources who have been caught passing off Elvis bin Laden as real have also released video of  Americans being killed by snipers or IED attacks.

Whoever is managing the Elvis bin Laden franchise also seems to be murdering Americans and filming that also.  This much is not conjecture.  Murdering Americans seems to be the Assange agenda too. An agenda not of peace nor of “openness”, not even of “freedom of speech” emanates from the “Wikileaks Censorship Bureau.”

Two heads of the same coin.

Related articles:

The making of the terror myth | Media | The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/oct/15/broadcasting.bbc

http://www.wanttoknow.info/powerofnightmares

Osama bin Laden, among the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted Fugitives”: Why?

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=3246

Assange Admits WIKILEAKS a fraud run by Press for Israel  …

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/12/23/gordon-duff-julian-assange-wikileaks-a-fraud-run-by-press-for-israel/

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Masri slams PA for blocking MP Abu Juhaisha from heading to mosque on Friday

Masri slams PA for blocking MP Abu Juhaisha from heading to mosque on Friday

[ 22/01/2011 - 10:12 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Senior Hamas official and lawmaker Mushir Al-Masri condemned the Fatah-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA) for sending its security militias to stalk and harass MP Mohamed Abu Juhaisha and preventing him from going to the mosque on Friday afternoon.

MP Masri stated in a press release that the PA militias prevented Abu Juhaisha from going to the mosque near his house to give his Friday Khutba (sermon) and hold the congregational prayer, adding that militia men pursued the lawmaker until they forced him to go back to his home where he had to perform his prayer.

He stressed that this act is part of the war being waged by the PA on Islam and its manifestations in the West Bank, represented in preventing many preachers and mosque imams from assuming their religious duties and closing hundreds of charities and centers of Qur'anic studies.

For his part, MP Mohamed Abu Juhaisha said that a number of PA militias kept following him from one street to another as he was on his way to the mosque for Friday prayer and encircled his house after he had to resort to it to avoid his detention.

PA security militias on several occasions harassed MP Abu Juhaisha and his family and still refuse to release his elder son Mu'ad who is imprisoned in Jericho jail, although he received a release order from the higher court of justice.

In a separate incident, the PA militias kidnapped in the last two days 11 Palestinian citizens affiliated with Hamas, including senior official Sheikh Salim Shamasneh, in the occupied cities of Bethlehem, Nablus, Jerusalem, and Jenin, according to different local sources on Saturday.

In Bethlehem, six other senior Hamas officials stood trial on Friday before the civil court which extended their detention and listened to the indictments filed against them by the PA.

Informed sources in Jenin reported that PA militia men attacked Friday evening Islamic Jihad leader Khadr Adnan during his presence at the funeral ceremony of martyr Salem Sammoudi in Yamoun village.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian