Syria: Pro-regime Rallies & Anti-regime Protests

(Dp-news)

SYRIA- While Syrian citizens; youth and civil activities, continue all across the Syrian provinces, to rally in order to stress their rejection of all forms of foreign interference in Syria's affairs; some other Syrian citizens escorted their dead ones and mourn them as Martyrs; no matter if they were army members or civilians.

In expression of loyalty to Homeland and support to the reform program and to mark the 11th anniversary of Bashar al-Assad's taking the oath of office as a Syrian President, a huge carnival is to be arranged at Omayyad Square inside Damascus on Sunday evening. The concert supposed to host prominent Syrian and Lebanese artists and singers, and also to tell a pledge of loyalty toward Syria and Leader Bashar al-Assad, according to the organizers.

Syria State news Agency (SANA) also reported that tens of thousands of the citizens of Banias city in the coastal province of Tartous went out on a mass march to voice their support of the comprehensive reform program led by President Bashar al-Assad, responding to the incitement campaigns against the Syrian people.

In Homs province, central Syria, SANA reported hundreds of the residents of Khirbet Ghazi village raised on Saturday a Syrian flag along the main road in the village in cooperation with the neighboring villages. Citizens of Nibel town in Aleppo province, in northern Syria, did the same and hoisted an 8 m long and 4 m wide flag on a 22 m high flagpole erected on the town's hill in expression of national unity and rejection of foreign interference, according to SANA too.

SANA added that, on Sunday too, three martyrs from the army and security forces were escorted from Homs and Deir-Ezzor Military Hospitals to their final resting place after they were targeted by armed terrorist groups in Homs and Deir-Ezzor.

Regarding Syrian refugees in Turkey, SANA said that 183 citizens from Jisr al-Shughour and its countryside that were forced out of their homes by the armed terrorist groups, returned over Friday and Saturday.

For is part; Day Press correspondent in Hama confirmed that normal daily life have been back to Hama city, as people went on their daily tasks and issues normally and safely.

At northern-east Syria, the army was preparing to storm the eastern border town of Al-Bukamal, next to Iraq, where "armed groups" have created an "explosive" situation," Al-Watan newspaper reported.

"The situation in Al-Bukamal is explosive, so the army is preparing to intervene... because the authorities fear an armed revolt in this border town where (insurgents) can easily find logistical and political support," Al-Watan said early on Sunday.

For thier part; activists along with Local Co-ordination Committee (LCC) have confirmed this news and talked at the Pan-Arab TV al-Jazeera about an Army Troops operation at al-Bukamal that is taking place on the ground, they also added that another operation for the Syrian Army have been taking place at al-Zabadani and Qatana in Damascus suburb.

A Syria-based human-rights activist, Mustafa Osso, said that government forces entered Zabadani, some 40km northwest of Damascus, early on Sunday. The Local Co-ordinating Committees, which help organise and track the protests, confirmed the Zabadani raid and said about 2,000 military and security forces swarmed in after cutting the town's telephone services, internet connections and electricity.

LCC also confirmed that arrests campaign have been applied at Damascus suburb, Qatana, al-Zabadani, Daraa, Homs, Hama, Idleb, Deir Ezzour, al-Bukamal and other towns in Syria; where many activists have been arrested and detained, such as the wirter Ali al-Abdullah from Qatana and many others. Abdullah, a 61-year-old secular thinker, was released in May after spending four years in prison because of his membership of the Damascus Declaration, a pro-democracy group of intellectuals and opposition figures, and his criticism of Syria's alliance with Iran's clerical rulers.

Local Co-ordination Committee (LCC) said, their page at online social networks, that mourn was set for three days at Qaboun quarter where many were shot dead last Friday.

Videos that allegedly showed the funeral processions for those killed were posted Saturday on Facebook pages belonging to Syrian activists. They showed people marching on the streets, carrying coffins and chanting slogans against the Syrian regime. Protesters echoed the demands for reforms that they have voiced for months.

On the other hand; Members of Syria’s opposition in exile met this weekend and elected a council they say will challenge the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

The group in Istanbul went ahead and elected what it called a National Salvation Council, reports Reuters. Though the 25-member council includes Islamists, liberals, and independents, it is unclear how much support it has from protesters on the ground in Syria. It is mostly made up of aging figures that left Syria years ago.

A final statement on Sunday said activists in Damascus would elect another 50 board members, and that each would then elect smaller executive committees of 11 and 13 members respectively. It will choose an 11-strong cabinet that would take over the running of the country in the event of a sudden regime collapse. In the meantime, it would hope to win diplomatic recognition, as has the Transitional National Council formed by opponents of the Libyan regime in Benghazi.

"That would be the ultimate goal," said Iyas al-Maleh, one of the council members. "Our immediate aim is to organise ourselves so that we will be ready to take over on a temporary basis to avoid chaos."

The Post reports that one of the main groups organizing protests in Syria, the Local Coordination Committees, declined to send representatives to the gathering in Damascus that had planned to hold a video conference with the group in Istanbul. The group said it was unsure of the gathering’s motives.

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Israel: 'Delegitimization' is just a distraction

Israel can't be delegitimized, and no one is trying to do so. But the idea does serve the purpose of diverting attention from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
By M.J. Rosenberg

Suddenly, all the major pro-Israel organizations are anguishing about "delegitimization." Those who criticize Israeli policies are accused of trying to delegitimize Israel, which supposedly means denying Israel's right to exist.

The concept of delegitimization has been used as a weapon against Israel's critics at least as far back as 1975, when then-U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan accused the international body of delegitimizing Israel by passing a "Zionism is racism " resolution. That may have been the last time the term was used accurately.

In a May speech, President Obama used it in reference to the Palestinian effort to seek recognition of their national aspirations at the U.N. General Assembly, as Israel successfully did in 1947. He said that "for the Palestinians, efforts to delegitimize Israel will end in failure." But he failed to explain just how a Palestinian bid for statehood at the United Nations would delegitimize Israel.

The Palestinians are not, after all, seeking statehood in Israeli territory but in territory that the whole world, including Israel, recognizes as having been occupied by Israel only after the 1967 war. Rather than seeking Israel's elimination, the Palestinians who intend to go to the United Nations are seeking establishment of a state alongside Israel. (That state would encompass 22% of the British mandate for Palestine, approved by the League of Nations in 1922, with Israel possessing 78%.)

The whole concept of delegitimization seems archaic. Israel achieved its "legitimacy" when the United Nations recognized it 63 years ago. It has one of the strongest economies in the world. Its military is the most powerful in the region. It has a nuclear arsenal of about 200 bombs, with the ability to launch them from land, sea and air.

In that context, the whole idea of delegitimizing Israel sounds silly. Israel can't be delegitimized.

So why are the pro-Israel organizations talking about it? The answer is simple: They are trying to divert attention from the intensifying world opposition to the occupation of the West Bank and to the blockade of the Gaza Strip, both of which, by almost any standard, are illegitimate. They are trying to divert attention from the ever-expanding settlements, which are not only illegitimate but illegal under international law. They are trying to divert attention from the ever-louder calls for Israel to grant Palestinians equal rights.

The effort to change the subject from the existence of the occupation to the existence of Israel makes sense strategically. Israel has no case when it comes to the occupation, which the entire world, except Israel, agrees must end. But Israel certainly has the upper hand in any argument over its right to exist and to defend itself.

That is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu routinely invokes Israel's "right to self-defense" every time he tries to explain away some Israeli attack on Palestinians, no matter whether they are armed fighters or innocent civilians. If the Israeli-Palestinian discussion is about Israel's right to defend itself, Israel wins the argument. But if it is about the occupation — which is, in fact, what the conflict has been about since 1993, when the Palestine Liberation Organization recognized Israel — it loses.

It wasn't that long ago that neither the Israeli government nor the Israeli lobby worried about the "forces of delegitimization."

On the contrary, in 1993, after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's recognition of the Palestinians' right to a state in the West Bank and Gaza, nine non-Arab Muslim states and 32 of the 43 sub-Saharan African states established relations with Israel. India and China, the two largest markets in the world, opened trade relations. Jordan signed a peace treaty and several of the Arab emirates began quiet dealings with Israel.

The Arab boycott of Israel ended. Foreign investment soared. No one discussed delegitimization while much of the world, including the Muslim world, was knocking on Israel's door to establish or deepen ties.

That trend continued so long as the Israeli government seemed to be genuinely engaged in the peace process.

The most graphic demonstration of Israel's high international standing back then occurred at Rabin's funeral in 1995, which rivaled President Kennedy's in terms of international representation.

Leaders from virtually every nation came to pay homage to Rabin: President Clinton, Prince Charles, the leaders of Egypt and Jordan, every European president or prime minister, top officials from most of Africa and Asia (including India and China), Latin America, Turkey, Morocco, Mauritania, Oman, Qatar and Tunisia. Yasser Arafat went to the Tel Aviv apartment of Rabin's widow, Leah, to express his grief.

The world mourned Rabin because under him, Israel had embraced the cause of peace with the Palestinians. The homage was a clear demonstration — as was the opening of trade and diplomatic relations with formerly hostile states — that Israel was not being isolated because it is a Jewish state and hence illegitimate, but because of how it treated the Palestinians.

And that is the case today. It's not the Palestinians who are delegitimizing Israel, but the Israeli government, which maintains the occupation. And the leading delegitimizer is Netanyahu, whose contemptuous rejection of peace is turning Israel into an international pariah.

Sure, Netanyahu received an embarrassing number of standing ovations when he spoke before the U.S. Congress. But that demonstrates nothing except the power of the Israel lobby. It is doubtful that Netanyahu would get a single standing ovation in any other parliament in the world — and that includes Israel's. The only thing we learned (yet again) from Netanyahu's reception by Congress is that money talks.

So let's ignore the talk about delegitimization, even though Madison Avenue message-makers certainly deserve credit for coming up with that clever distraction. Israel's problem is the occupation, the Israeli government that defends it and the lobby that enforces support for it in Congress and the White House.

Once again, Israel's "best friends" are among its worst enemies.

M.J. Rosenberg is senior foreign policy fellow at Media Matters Action Network. He previously worked on Capitol Hill for Democratic members of the House and Senate and as a President Clinton political appointee at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rosenberg-israel-20110717,0,2484770.story
 

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Haaretz: Israel 'won' the July 06' war

Via FLC

"... The northern border has been quiet for five years... the Lebanese Army deployed in the south... Hassan Nasrallah, has in effect been in hiding ... True, Hezbollah has tripled its stores of missiles since the war, and upgraded them, but it presumably would have done so in any event.
But the war's most important consequence, arguably, was the disclosure of the extent of the connection between Hezbollah and Iran. It was Jordan's King Abdullah who coined the term "Shi'ite Crescent" to stress Iran's expansion into Lebanon via Iraq and Syria. In the years before the war, Arab leaders expressed their concerns about Iran's expansionist policy. However, they did so behind closed doors, as shown in WikiLeaks cables. They didn't dare talk openly about their fears. But the Second Lebanon War changed their attitude. The Arab Sunnis, represented by their leaders - Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states - wanted Israel to hurt Hezbollah to damage Iranian prestige....."

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Combatting Muslim Stereotyping Through Video

By Richard Edmondson

My Fellow American (MFA) is an online film and social media project dedicated to conveying the truth that Muslims are not our enemies, that in reality in many cases they are “our fellow Americans.” The group has produced a worthy three-minute video that features a number of American Muslims in various walks of life, all going about their jobs as doctors, firefighters, etc. What makes it interesting, however, is not so much what we see in the video, but what we hear, for none of the Muslims pictured actually speak.

Instead, the audio track serves up the voices of some of the most twisted and diseased minds in America, some of whom you will easily recognize, for they have high-profile platforms in the media…and not all of them work for Rupert Murdoch, either. That the words we hear conflict with the images on the screen goes perhaps without saying. What you will get is just a small, two-minute-forty-nine-second fusillade of the steady gush of Islamophobic hatred that goes rippling across the U.S. media on a daily basis. The video is entitled “My Fellow American” and can be viewed at the My Fellow American website, or also at YouTube, but I would recommend a visit to the former, as there is much else you can peruse including stories about friendships that have developed between Muslims and other American citizens, some of whom are Jewish. Many of the Jews can’t seem to resist germinating forth the standard “Oh by the way I’m Jewish” gasconade into their remarks, but (sigh) I guess we’ve all kind of grown more or less accustomed to that by now.

MFA seems to be targeting its appeals to the center-right of the political spectrum, and maybe that’s true of Muslim-American advocacy organizations in general. I don’t know. But you almost have to ask: what other choice is there? If your goal is to “change the narrative—from Muslims as the other, to Muslims as our fellow Americans”—then making your pitch to the political center would almost have to be the priority by default. And so we read the following on the MFA website:

Most Americans have never met an American Muslim. Many only know Muslims through the way they are portrayed in the media. American Muslims are so often vilified as “the other” that it is possible not to recognize that most were born in the U.S. Or that those who immigrated here came seeking the same freedoms and opportunities that have always attracted people to America.

I’m not sure how many “freedoms” could really be said to remain in a country whose leaders condone torture and grant themselves greater surveillance and incarceration powers seemingly with each new law they pass. But certainly it’s true that a good many in the U.S. mainstream continue believing in the idea of American freedom, and still retain cherished values of equality, freedom of religion, and such. And if your goal is to challenge growing anti-Muslim sentiments this is probably where the battle has to be fought.

But challenging ingrained prejudices and hatreds is not easy, and to say that MFA’s struggle is an uphill one would probably be an understatement. Available for viewing at YouTube are a total of 50 videos (at present) uploaded by the anti-Muslim hate group Act! for America which, earlier this year, launched its own cable TV show. One voice you won’t hear on the MFA soundtrack—but which probably deserves to be there—is that of Hanan Qahwaji, alias Brigitte Gabriel, the founder and president of Act! for America. A Lebanese ‘Christian’ who immigrated, first to Israel then later to America, Gabriel has gained considerable prominence in recent years expounding upon the dangers of “Islamic evil,” and today she is marketed as a leading expert on terrorism. Expert or not, however, her statements at times veer in what appear to be contradictory directions. In this video you can watch her taking pains, somewhat defensively, to assure CNN she distinguishes between “radical” and “moderate” Muslims, while in a separate video, here, she asserts, “There is no difference between radical Muslims and moderate Muslims.”

Gabriel has also formed common cause with Rep. Peter King, the New York Republican who earlier this year made American Muslims the subject of congressional hearings. The King-Gabriel alliance is the focus of an article entitled When Hanan Met Peter, written by Franklin Lamb, an American who has lived many years in Lebanon, who describes Gabriel/Qahwaji as being remembered with “contempt” by her former countrymen and women, some of whom, he says, recall her appearances on Israeli TV during the July 2006 war when she was seen “urging Israel to keep bombing Lebanon.”

Regardless how Gabriel may be viewed in her former homeland, in the U.S., the didactic poisons being pedaled by she and others of her like are getting imbibed in vast quantities by willing Americans. This was illustrated all too well by an article on the Nashville chapter of Act! for America that was published a week ago in The Tennessean. According to the newspaper, the local group has become “a potent political force in Nashville” with members who “see themselves as warriors in a clash between Western civilization and Islam.” Perhaps most pertinently for the rest of us, it isn’t only Muslims per se regarded now as enemies. Non-Muslims who don’t share the biased Act! for America view of Islam are also looked upon as enemies as well—or more specifically, as they term it, “near enemies.”

“The near enemy is the apologist for Islam, who, I have found, doesn’t know anything about Islam,” said Bill French, who on July 5 hosted a workshop entitled “Persuading the Near Enemy.”

The Tennessean article was the subject of a post at the blog Kenny’s Sideshow, where blog author Kenny commented on the unusually high number of reader comments posted on the piece (more than 350 at the time), observing, “I don’t know whether to be amused or sickened by many of the responses…” As of today, the comments, many of them, of course, made most likely by those who’ve never even met a Muslim, total 561— with the remarks of one “T6850” perhaps being typical: “What else do the true citizens of the United States need to know about these killers. (sic) Their goal in life is to kill as many of us as they can before they die too.”

How, we might wonder, is it possible to make such statements when all the numerous occupations, bombing campaigns, clandestine wars, drone attacks, etc. going on in the world today are being waged against—rather than by—Muslim countries, and with all too often Muslim civilians as the fatalities? Perhaps the answer can be found in George Orwell. The truest sign of servitude, the truest hallmark of slavery, Orwell said, is to hate someone for no other reason than because you are told to. That a video such as that produced by MFA is so direly needed—needed because so many Americans have been brainwashed into hating those whom they have been told to hate, becoming in the process captives essentially, surging with emotions felt for no other reason than they have been told to feel them—is perhaps the saddest possible commentary on American society. The voices overdubbed onto this video are telling people to hate Muslims, and a good many Americans, numbering at least in the hundreds of thousands, possibly even the millions, are obeying.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Sultan Erdogan to visit "Ottaman's" Gaza

Hebrew press: Erdogan to visit Gaza in two weeks

[ 17/07/2011 - 10:42 AM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Turkish premier Recep Erdogan is to visit the Gaza Strip within two weeks and meet with Hamas officials, Hebrew press reported on Sunday.

Hebrew daily Maariv quoted Israeli sources as saying that Erdogan asked the Egyptian authorities to allow him visit Gaza during his Cairo trip by the end of this month, adding that Erdogan received no reply to his request so far.

It said that those sources warned that such a visit would harm efforts to restore normalcy to relations between Turkey and Israel.

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Barghouthi: Pro-Palestinian activists have fulfilled purpose

[ 17/07/2011 - 10:49 AM ] 

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Palestinian MP Mustafa al-Barghouthi, head of the Palestinian National Initiative, said the international pro-Palestinian campaign achieved more than it set out to, despite measures Israel took to prevent them from landing in the occupied territories.

Barghouthi said in a statement to Quds Press that the measures still did not prevent hundreds of protesters from actually landing in the occupied Palestinian territories and demonstrating at checkpoints in Qalandia, Walaja, Bethlehem, Nabi Saleh and other areas in the West Bank.

Israel recently made far-reaching efforts to thwart the Freedom Flotilla II from breaching Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and delivering much needed aid. Israel also hiked security preventing hundreds of pro-Palestinians from flying in to protest in the occupied territories.

Israel incurred heavy losses preventing the activists' arrival and turning the Ben-Gurion Airport into a military barracks, Barghouthi told Quds Press. It put itself into problems with all European states, as no one can accept anymore Israel's exports and its suppression of freedom of expression.

Barghouthi, who was on board the Freedom Flotilla II, said the Greeks bitterly felt that they had been politically and economically extorted, as the country succumbed to Israeli pressure and banned the flotilla's ships from departing from its ports.

In the interview, Barghouthi also addressed American and European efforts to resume Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

He asserted that the US pressure on the Palestinians has been ongoing and actually increased recently. He cited the Congress's decision to boycott the Palestinian Authority should it follow through with steps towards national unity or unilaterally seeking statehood from the United Nations.

Barghouthi went on to say that it was actually Israel that closed the door to negotiations, with the conduct of Netanyahu's government. He questioned, how can the Palestinians sit at the negotiations table when the number of illegal settlers has risen a hundred percent since the signing of the Oslo Accords.

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Israeli thugs – organized criminals

July 17, 2011 by occupiedpalestine

By Paul J. Balles

A thug enters your home, decides to stay, makes you his servants and locks you up in the worst conditions.
When the neighbours complain about what’s going on in your home, the thug tells everyone that you are terrorists who want to destroy him and his family.
When the thug is told that he must treat you as equals in the house he has taken from you, he refuses, complaining that would leave him indefensible.

From VT

That’s Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister. He’s the latest in a long line of thugs who have burgled as many homes as arms from America could aid.
Krav Maga Instructor Nima Sirazi comments cogently on the double-talk used by burglars like Netanyahu to con the public:
“The oppressed becomes the oppressor, the culprit becomes the victim, occupation is security, illegal colonization is cultural liberation, aggressive expansion is righteous reclamation, genocide is self-defence, apartheid is justice, resistance is terrorism, and ethnic cleansing is peace.”
Netanyahu is not alone of course. An even worse thug is the ex-nightclub bouncer Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s foreign minister.

This larger-than-life burglar stole one of the settlement properties for himself, kicked out the Palestinian home owners, moved in, took over and insisted that the occupation was necessary as a defensible border for Israel.

Writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Gideon Levy reveals how Ilan Baruch, a veteran Israeli diplomat, acknowledged his inability to represent or explain Israeli policies. Last week he handed in his resignation letter.

Says Levy: “Our diplomatic corps today is comprised primarily of spineless propagandists void of values or a conscience.”

Levy points realistically to how Israel’s diplomats know what the world thinks of their country’s machinations, their thievery and attempts to cover it all up.

“They know that under Lieberman’s watch the Foreign Ministry has become a vessel of rage toward the entire world,” observes Levy. “They know that no ambassador is sufficiently adroit to explain the brutality of Operation Cast Lead, or the pointless killing on the Mavi Marmara ship.”
Israel’s diplomats “know that no country on the planet actually accepts the occupation, the settlements or the indications of Israeli apartheid,” adds Levy.

Despite what Israel’s diplomats know, they remain silent. After all, the leading thugs and robbers are their bosses.
If these thugs were Italian, they’d be called Mafioso, arrested and jailed for being guilty of organized crime.

But such a comparison with common thieves who steal others’ property is not possible for thugs who have protection.
The equivalent of organized crime judges being bought off can be seen in America simply by looking at the US congress who, like the family of a Mafia don, treat Netanyahu like the head of the Cosa Nostra.
How long can Israel’s thugs keep getting away with the travesty of justice that’s no better than organized crime in America?

“Although Jews constitute only two per cent of the American population, they have a disproportionate political impact: Pro-Israel interests have contributed 56.8 million dollars in individual, group and soft money donations to federal candidates and party committees since 1990,” reports activist-writer Bob Burnett.

Organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) do more damage to Jews than any organized Jew-hating group. They stimulate what they call anti-Semitism, meaning anti-Jew.
Notes writer Rand Clifford: “Americans have been so meticulously trained to ignore evidence in favour of what they want to believe, in conjunction with what they are wanted to believe, that too many have been rendered unable to objectively weigh evidence.”
They hold the position that nothing Israel does can be wrong, and everything their organizations do must be accepted – an extremely dangerous position to hold.

* Paul J. Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for many years. He’s a weekly Op-Ed columnist for the Gulf Daily News. Dr. Balles is also Editorial Consultant for Red House Marketing and a regular contributor to Bahrain This Month.

Last 5 posts by Paul J. Balles

• US Independence Day reflections – July 10th, 2011
• Islamophobia on the rise in USA – July 4th, 2011
• Changing cultures – June 20th, 2011
• Shifting focus – April 10th, 2011
• Israel, right or wrong – March 27th, 2011

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Fatah takes heavy loss in Nablus elections

[ 17/07/2011 - 02:10 PM ]
 

NABLUS, (PIC)-- The Fatah party lost heavily in the Nablus Chamber of Commerce and Industry elections, with independents winning most of the seats.

 

The results were devastating to the Fatah party, as it spent over a month and a half preparing and paid large sums of money for campaigning amid an acute rift that has emerged in statements by Fatah officials Ghassan Shaka, Sarhan Dweikat and Mahmoud Ishtyeh.

The committee responsible for overseeing the elections have announced the results and said the majority of votes went to the independents.

The results showed that the Independent party won seven seats, Nablus for All won four, and an independent figure won one in the Nablus Chamber of Commerce and Industry elections, giving independent parties 73 percent of the vote, as they took the vote of 2,284 out of 3,129 local traders. A total of 29 nominees ran in the elections.

The results mark an ongoing decline in Fatah's popularity. The party also lost in Al-Khalil chamber of commerce elections a short time ago.
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinianhttp://www.palestine-

Libya in Pictures: What the Mainstream Media Does Not Tell You

by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

Global Research reports from Tripoli

Mirage fighters, F16 fighters, B-2 Stealth bombers, 15,000 NATO air sorties. the bombing of thousands of civilian targets...

NATO is said to be coming to the rescue of the Libyan people. That is what we are being told.

Western journalists have quite deliberately distorted what is happening inside Libya. They have upheld NATO as an instrument of peace and democratization.

They have endorsed an illegal and criminal war.
They are instruments of US-NATO propaganda.
Global Research's Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya reporting from Tripoli refutes the media consensus which uphold's NATO's humanitarian mandate. He provides us with a review of the mass rallies directed against NATO including extensive photographic evidence.

Forward this article. Post it on Facebook. Spread the word.

Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, July 15, 2011




Friday of July 1, 2011 like many other Fridays has seen huge rallies in Tripoli's Green Square. It’s very hard to get an accurate number of the mass of people that have attended these rallies. Estimates have placed the size of the July 1st rally in Green Square at one million people.
(See the GRTV Video report by ANSWER with Cynthia McKinney and Ramsey Clark)

The rallies have been taking place almost weekly in Tripoli and other Libyan cities, including Sabha on July 8, 2011.
Western public opinion has been misinformed. People in Europe and North America are not even aware that these mass rallies have taken place.

The rallies express the Libyan people's firm opposition to NATO's "humanitarian" intervention ("on behalf of the Libyan people").
The large majority of the population are opposed to the Benghazi-based Transitional Council.

The rallies also indicate significant popular support for Colonel Qaddafi in contrast to the usual stereotype descriptions of the Western media.
The mainstream media has either casually dismissed the significance of these public gatherings directed against NATO intervention or has failed to even report them.
These rallies continue late into the night.

The following are pictures of Libyans converging on Green Square on July 1, 2011.
These pictures also show that the mainstream media was present and aware of these rallies.

So what is preventing them from reporting the truth?
Why are some of these journalists claiming that only a few thousand people attended?
It is important to note that the pictures were taken at the outset of the event.

Libyans headed throughout the day into the night towards Green Square. Highways and roads leading towards Green Square were packed.

1. Western journalists position themselves on rooftops

People move towards Green Square



































Libya's Children: The Victims of NATO bombings

Photographs: Copyright. Mahdi Darius Nazemoroaya, Global Research 2011

Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya reporting from Tripoli is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Syria: Armed Groups Attack Public Establishments

Syria’s state news agency (SANA) reported on Saturday that armed groups have attacked the Abu Kamal Area Directorate building and stole weapons from it, and that armed men are stationed on rooftops. SANA also reported that armed groups burned the police station, civil registry department and courthouse and attacked the Area Director's house. According to the agency, two law enforcement members were martyred by the gunmen's fire and a number of the guards of the public establishments targeted by the armed groups were injured.

Source: Agencies Hundreds of Thousands Swear Loyalty to Homeland in Umawiyeen Square, Rallies and Activities Continue Across Syria

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Israeli “Defense” Officials Mulling Apology to Turkey over Flotilla Raid

Local Editor

Israeli “defense” officials showed increased support for resolving the diplomatic crisis with Turkey over last year’s flotilla raid, as they voiced concern that Turkish organization might take legal actions against occupation soldiers who took part in the raid. Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that resolving the crisis would be “, even at the price of an apology to Ankara by” Tel Aviv. “Internal discussions between defense officials and Justice Ministry officials over the past few weeks have suggested that a cautious apology could stop possible lawsuits by Turkish organizations against Israel Defense Forces officers and bring the affair to an end”, Haaretz added. The daily said that photographs of several soldiers involved in the raid have been posted on the internet, and Israeli “defense” and justice officials feared that leftist and Islamic groups in Europe would take steps similar to those of British pro-Palestinian groups, which have prevented senior Israeli officials from entering Britain for quite some time. Haaretz quoted senior Zionist “defense” officials as saying: “Israel has a major stake in improving relations with Turkey in light of Turkey's standing in the region, its past economic relationship with Israel and the opportunity to renew defense-related export to Turkey”. These views didn’t represent the Israeli “Defense” Ministry’s official stance. However, “Defense” Minister stressed that the Zionist entity had an interest in ending the crisis with Turkey. “From a strategic point of view, we have an interest in smoothing things over with Turkey," Barak said last week on the Israeli television, Channel 1. "National pride is important [but] in the end, we have to understand that we have other interests here ... Turkey can have an important role in issues relating to Syria, Iran, Lebanon and Hamas."   For his part, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has recently opposed offering an apology, saying that such a move would “humiliate Israel and serve as a blow to national pride”. Last year Israeli occupation forces raided Mavi Marmara, a Turkish ship carrying aids to the besieged people in Gaza, killing at least nine Turkish activists and wounding dozens others. A report by the UN-sponsored Palmer Committee on the incident is scheduled to be released in a few weeks. The report, of which Israel received a draft earlier this month, considers that Israel's maritime closure of the Gaza Strip is “legal”. It looks at the Israeli decision to stop the flotilla as “lawful”. However, the report harshly criticized the way Israel acted in doing so, adding that the Zionist soldiers “used excessive force”, since “the deaths could have been prevented in several cases.

Source: Israeli Media

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