Sunday, 27 March 2016

Following Palmyra, Syrian Army, Hezbollah Cut off Palmyra-Raqqa Road



Syrian army, backed by Hezbollah fighters and Russian warplanes, kept on advancing Homs countryside on Saturday, a day after the allied forces retook the ancient city’s castle.Syria's Palmyra
Field sources told al-Manar that the Syrian army and Hezbollah cut off Palmyra-Raqqa road in a bid to cut off supplu route to ISIL insurgents.
The sources added that the allied forces established control on the town of Al-Amiriyah, northwest of Palmyra following fierce clashes with Takfiri group, ISIL (so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant).
“The clashes are taking place now in the Amiriyah neighborhood, which is Daesh’s gateway into the city,” AFP news agency quoted another Syrian military source as saying, referring to Arabic acronym of ISIL.
Meanwhile, the sources told al-Manar that the Syrian air forces were combating the area near Palmyra, adding that several arms were seized in the area.
Source: Al Manar TV
26-03-2016 – 14:06 Last updated 26-03-2016 – 14:37
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The "Islamophobia" Industry Feeds War Abroad, Grows Police State at Home

March 26, 2016 (Tony Cartalucci – LD) – It’s real simple. Create a threat, predicate expanding autocracy at home and endless wars of hegemony abroad upon confronting that threat, and all the while intentionally perpetuate fear, hysteria, hatred, and division to keep that threat relevant in the hearts and minds of as many people as possible.
Image: Groups like the UK EDL, PEGIDA, and others are created and run directly by special interests – ironically the same special interests organizing, funding, and directing the very extremists Islamophobes are scapegoating all of Islam for. Many EDL/PEGIDA members are concurrently violent football hooligans and/or Neo-Nazis, thus, a lack of informed discernment should be no surprise.  
Described above is an elementary tactic used by special interests throughout human history, and today’s special interests being no exception. Today, the contrived threat of choice is “terrorism.” It is a well-documented fact that organizations like Al Qaeda and the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS), are creations and geopolitical tools of the United States, its European allies, and its Middle Eastern subordinates, including Turkey and the Persian Gulf states.
The means of keeping this contrived threat fresh in the minds of the public is Islamophobia – the scapegoating of some 1.6 billion Muslims around the world for the deeds of US-Saudi indoctrinated, armed, funded, and backed extremists.
The role the United States and Saudi Arabia played in the inception of Al Qaeda during the 1980’s to wage proxy war on the Soviet Union in Afghanistan is documented history. What is less widely known, is the role these same two nations played in the creation of ISIS -which admittedly branched off from Al Qaeda.
However, America’s own Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) admitted in a leaked 2012 memo that indeed, just as Al Qaeda was created to wage proxy war in Afghanistan, a “Salafist” (Islamic) “principality” (State) was intentionally created in eastern Syria to wage proxy war against Damascus.
The leaked 2012 report (.pdf) stated explicitly that:
If the situation unravels there is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime, which is considered the strategic depth of the Shia expansion (Iraq and Iran).
To clarify just who these “supporting powers” were that sought the creation of a “Salafist” (Islamic) principality” (State), the DIA report explains:
The West, Gulf countries, and Turkey support the opposition; while Russia, China, and Iran support the regime.
It is clear then, that if the US and its allies are behind ISIS, than attacks attributed to ISIS are either directly or indirectly related to US foreign policy. It is very clear that ISIS serves Western objectives in the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) by waging war against precisely those governments the US itself has slated for “regime change.” ISIS also serves as a convenient pretext for direct military intervention abroad when possible.
What may be less clear to some, is what the US and its allies have to gain when ISIS launches attacks in France, Belgium, and other targets across both East and West.
However, it is indeed clear – clear that they serve to bolster the contrived threat of “global terrorism” and both the growing autocracy at home and expanding wars abroad,
Islamophobia Industry Run by Familiar Faces 
Wouldn’t it be curious if those most vocal in promoting fear, hysteria, hatred, and division against Muslims to perpetuate the contrived threat of “global terrorism” represented the same special interests both involved directly in arming, funding, training, and exploiting the violence of terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and ISIS, as well as the same special interests profiting the most from the perpetual “War on Terror?”
It would be curious – and it also happens to be the verified truth.
A growing ecosystem of Islamophobia networks is centered around a cadre of Neo-Conservatives who led the United States into the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, as well as advocated for wars against Iran, Libya, Syria, Sudan, and many more in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in Washington, New York, and Pennsylvania.
One of the highest level former US government representatives publicly involved, John Bolton, was a vocal advocate for global war including in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, and Iran, and  has for years served as the gravitational center of at least America’s Islamophobia subsidiary. Around him orbits media personality, racist, bigot Pam Geller, Robert Spencer, and Project for a New American Century (PNAC) signatory, Daniel Pipes.
Image: Not only is America’s Islamophobia subsidiary linked directly to US government representatives directly involved in both the arming, funding, and exploitation of terrorist groups and the various wars fought upon the pretext of “fighting terrorism,” but this subsidiary interlocks with those across Europe including the UK’s “English Defense League” and PEGIDA. The special interests characters like Bolton, pictured posing with Geller top, right, represent, have made literally trillions off of the wars predicated on the fear, hatred, and hysteria perpetuated by Islamophobia.   
Further in the peripheries, are faux-alternative media cognitive infiltrators likeWorldNetDaily run by Joseph Farah, a card-carrying member of the Neo-Conservative war lobby and an associate with many advocates who have played a direct role in the subversion and destruction of Syria. Farah himself is Syrian-Lebanese, and involved heavily in organizations created by the US aimed at the overthrow and reordering of the Levant.
WND, Pam Geller, Robert Spencer, and many others who lead the American Islamophobia subsidiary, in tandem with their European counterparts, have invested years in fanning the flames of misunderstanding, hatred, fear, and hysteria among Western populations. They do this to both divert from the fact that the very interests they represent are the source of global terrorism carried out by Al Qaeda and ISIS – creations not of Islam, but of US foreign policy, and to create sufficient rhetorical justification for continued American intervention overseas across MENA and beyond.
The West has scarcely managed to justify its many and still multiplying wars abroad, and global consensus regarding America’s role in the creation and perpetuation of Al Qaeda and ISIS is reaching critical mass. It is not difficult to see that without the significant Islamophobia being spread through at least segments of the world’s population, just how much more tenuous US foreign policy would be.
Those in the Alternative Media Selling Out 
It has been a stated matter of US policy, best articulated in former-US Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs Cass Sunstein’s “Conspiracy Theories” paper, to infiltrate and redirect the alternative media, who even years ago, had already begun to significantly undermine US spheres of influence within global information space.

Called “cognitive infiltration,” the idea was to infiltrate the alternative media with messages not directly contradicting the truth, but contradicting it enough to slowly bring readers, viewers, and listeners back into government controlled narratives. That is precisely what WND and those that have since found themselves in close cooperation with them and paid lobbyists like Pam Geller and Robert Spencer have done.
“Co-opted alternative media organizations that had for years warned the public of the dangers of false flag terrorism, US government involvement behind both Al Qaeda and more recently ISIS, and who had warned of Western attempts to scapegoat religions, races, and political systems to divide and control people, are now directly complicit in doing all of the above.”
Now, throngs of weaker-minded readers who had drifted toward alternative media, have been successfully brought back through the vector of Islamophobia – employing many of the most elementary ploys used throughout the history of propaganda to manipulate and control public perception. With establishment media platforms and alleged alternative media personalities peddling precisely the same narrative so closely, these supposed alternative media platforms no longer are “alternative.”
What is left is for genuine alternative media to recognize this split and continue focusing on telling the truth overall – and in particular – the interests and agendas being served by the Islamophobia industry. Co-opted alternative media organizations that had for years warned the public of the dangers of false flag terrorism, US government involvement behind both Al Qaeda and more recently ISIS, and who had warned of Western attempts to scapegoat religions, races, and political systems to divide and control people, are now directly complicit in doing all of the above.
Image: It is a hard sell for US policymakers to justify the price in public treasure and blood paid to maintain global hegemony like that depicted on the map above. It would be infinitely harder without the contrived threat of “terrorism,” and to ensure the longevity of the “terror” narrative, much has been invested in the Islamophobia industry.
The goal should not be to fall into perpetual infighting with these co-opted individuals and organizations. The goal should be to treat these sell-outs precisely as the rest of the corporate-controlled media is treated – a voice to be exposed by simply documenting and reporting the truth.
Lying about Groups of People to Start Wars = Oldest Trick in the Book: Why are Some Still Falling for It? 
While in hindsight, considering the lies that have been told to sell wars to the Western people, and the documented wealth, power, and influence these wars have brought special interests at the cost of the rest of humanity, it should seem obvious to people that those peddling Islamophobia have vested monetary and political interests in doing so, and that the truth certainly lies well beyond their simplistic generalizations, slurs, and vitriol.
But because indulging  in racism and bigotry is a path of lesser resistance than informed inquiry, research, and self-guided learning, the establishment has found a means of diminishing the impact of alternative media. It will be up to genuine alternative media to find a way of restoring and even expanding upon its previous impact.
Lying about groups of people to justify perpetual war profiteering is one of the oldest tricks in the book. If the alternative media is unable to confront and confound such elementary tricks, something is systemically weak within the alternative media itself. If the alternative media is content with reporting whatever will bring in readers and revenue, they are no longer the alternative media – they are bad copies of establishment propagandists. If the alternative media is serious about the truth and a future for themselves, their friends, family, and communities, this Islamophobia – and all ploys like it – must be confronted and crushed alongside all the other lies told by special interests.
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Clinton: Destroy Syria for ’Israel’


All in serve of "Israel"...A newly-released Hilary Clinton email confirmed that the Obama administration has deliberately provoked the war in Syria as the "best way to help "Israel"."

Clinton: Destroy Syria for "Israel"

In an indication of her murderous and psychopathic nature, Clinton also wrote that it was the "right thing" to personally threaten Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's family with death.

In the email, released by Wikileaks, then Secretary of State Clinton says that the "best way to help "Israel"" is to "use force" in Syria to overthrow the government.

The document was one of many unclassified by the US Department of State under case number F-2014-20439, Doc No. C05794498, following the uproar over Clinton's private email server kept at her house while she served as Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.
Although the Wikileaks transcript dates the email as December 31, 2000, this is an error on their part, as the contents of the email [in particular the reference to May 2012 talks between Iran and the west over its nuclear program in Istanbul] show that the email was in fact sent on December 31, 2012.

The email makes it clear that it has been US policy from the very beginning to violently overthrow the Syrian government-and specifically to do this because it is in "Israel's" interests.

"The best way to help "Israel" deal with Iran's growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad," Clinton forthrightly starts off by saying.

Even though all US intelligence reports had long dismissed Iran's "atom bomb" program as a hoax [a conclusion supported by the International Atomic Energy Agency], Clinton continues to use these lies to "justify" destroying Syria in the name of "Israel".

She specifically links Iran's mythical atom bomb program to Syria because, she says, Iran's "atom bomb" program threatens "Israel's" "monopoly" on nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

If Iran were to acquire a nuclear weapon, Clinton asserts, this would allow Syria [and other "adversaries of Israel" such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt] to "go nuclear as well," all of which would threaten "Israel's" interests.

Therefore, Clinton, says, Syria has to be destroyed.

"Iran's nuclear program and Syria's civil war may seem unconnected, but they are. What "Israeli" military leaders really worry about - but cannot talk about - is losing their nuclear monopoly.

An Iranian nuclear weapons capability would not only end that nuclear monopoly but could also prompt other adversaries, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to go nuclear as well. The result would be a precarious nuclear balance in which "Israel" could not respond to provocations with conventional military strikes on Syria and Lebanon, as it can today.

If Iran were to reach the threshold of a nuclear weapons state, Tehran would find it much easier to call on its allies in Syria and Hizbullah to strike "Israel", knowing that its nuclear weapons would serve as a deterrent to Israel responding against Iran itself.

It is, Clinton continues, the "strategic relationship between Iran and the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria" that makes it possible for Iran to undermine "Israel's" security.

This would not come about through a "direct attack," Clinton admits, because "in the thirty years of hostility between Iran and "Israel" this has never occurred, but through its alleged "proxies."

The end of the al- Assad regime would end this dangerous alliance. "Israel's" leadership understands well why defeating al-Assad is now in its interests.

Bringing down al-Assad would not only be a massive boon to "Israel's" security, it would also ease "Israel's" understandable fear of losing its nuclear monopoly.

Then, "Israel" and the United States might be able to develop a common view of when the Iranian program is so dangerous that military action could be warranted.

Clinton goes on to asset that directly threatening Bashar Assad "and his family" with violence is the "right thing" to do:

In short, the White House can ease the tension that has developed with "Israel" over Iran by doing the right thing in Syria.

With his life and his family at risk, only the threat or use of force will change Bashar al-Assad's mind.


The email proves-as if any more proof was needed-that the US government has been the main sponsor of the growth of terrorism in the Middle East, and all in order to "protect" "Israel".

It is also a sobering thought to consider that the "refugee" crisis which currently threatens to destroy Europe, was directly sparked off by this US government action as well, insofar as there are any genuine refugees fleeing the war in Syria.

The real and disturbing possibility that a psychopath like Clinton-whose policy has inflicted death and misery upon millions of people-could become the next president of America is the most deeply shocking thought of all.

Clinton's public assertion that, if elected president, she would "take the relationship with "Israel" to the next level," would definitively mark her, and "Israel", as the enemy of not just some Arab states in the Middle East, but of all peace-loving people on earth.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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"Suicide Bombers" Known to, Imprisoned by Security Agencies BEFORE Brussels Attack

One suspect was arrested twice, imprisoned once, released both times, and warnings of his terrorist activities ignored by Belgium government.
March 23, 2016 (Tony Cartalucci – NEO) – It is now revealed that not only were at least three bombers involved in the March 22 Brussels attack well-known to Western security agencies, two – brothers Brahim and Khalid El Bakraoui – were both arrested, charged, and imprisoned for violent crimes in 2010 and 2011, the elder brother for shooting at police with an AK-47s automatic rifle during a holdup, and the younger brother for carjacking and possession of several AK-47s, respectively.
It is also now confirmed that the elder brother, Brahim El Bakraoui, was arrested and deported from Turkey last year for suspected terrorist activity, but not before Ankara attempted to notify Brussels in order for El Bakraoui to be detained upon his arrival back in the EU. Brussels, however, failed categorically to act on the alert, allowing El Bakraoui to return home without consequence.

The third suspect, Najim Laachraoui, had traveled to Syria between 2012-2013 and has had an international warrant out for his arrest since 2014 for allegedly aiding in the recruitment of Europeans for the so-called “Islamic State” (ISIS).
Germany’s largest press agency, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, reported in their article, “Reports: Brothers known to police were among Brussels suicide bombers,” that:
Two Brussels brothers who were known to police are among the suicide bombers who carried out deadly terrorist attacks on the international airport and subway in the Belgian capital, local media reported Wednesday.
And that:
[Khalid El Bakraoui] had been sentenced in early 2011 to five years in prison for carjackings, after having been arrested in possession of Kalashnikov rifles, according to the Belga news agency. 

His brother, 30-year-old Brahim, had been sentenced in 2010 to nine years in prison for having shot at police with a Kalashnikov rifle during a hold-up, Belga said.
The New York Times, in their article, “Brussels Attack Lapses Acknowledged by Belgian Officials,” would report regarding Brahim El Bakraoui’s arrest and deportation from Turkey that:
The Belgian justice and interior ministers acknowledged that their departments should have acted on a Turkish alert about a convicted Belgian criminal briefly arrested in Turkey last year on suspicion of terrorist activity, who turned out to be one of the suicide bombers. And the Belgian prosecutor’s office said that person’s brother — another suicide bomber — had been wanted since December in connection with the Paris attacks.
Apparently in Belgium, you can possess a small military arsenal, even use it against police, and still get out of jail early enough to travel to Syria to join a known terrorist organization before being deported without consequence, then join a terrorist network back home lined by equally known criminals to Belgium security agencies, before carrying out a deadly high profile terrorist attack.
And unlike most ISIS suicide attacks, featuring suicide belts or vests, the bombers involved in the Brussels attack appear to have been pushing carts that contained bombs. It is more than possible that the brothers were unaware of the “one-way” nature of their attack, as a third bomber – Laachraoui, the suspected “bomb maker” – managed to escape, and several reports indicate at least one of the brothers may have possibly dropped off a device at the airport which was remotely detonated before moving onward to the Brussels metro to carry out a second bombing.
Suspects “Escaped” Police Raid a Week Before the Attacks 
In addition to the El Bakraoui brothers’ previous arrests in 2010 and 2011, as well as the eldest brother’s arrest and deportation from Turkey last year for suspected terrorist activity, they were also allegedly involved in a police raid just one week before the Brussels attack. During the raid, at least one suspect was killed while two others escaped, the El Bakraoui brothers.
The London Telegraph in their article, “Brussels shootout: Four arrested as Islamic State flag found near the body of gunman,” reported that (emphasis added):
According to Dernière Heure, the two suspects at large are thought to be Khalid and Ibrahim El Bakraoui, respectively 26 and 30. Known for gangster-related crimes, the name of one has cropped up in anti-terror investigations, according to Le Monde. 

After the standoff, police and special forces expanded their search and homed in on a neighbouring street, rue de l’Eau, after finding two gun cartridges and dark clothing in the area. During a raid on a house, they picked up another Kalashnikov. 
The Belgium police and the Western media have categorically failed to foster understanding and help form a clear picture of the terrorists they are allegedly attempting to apprehend. At least four suspects were arrested after the raid, but then released without charges. The identity of the suspects and the circumstances of their release have not been reported.
Terrorists Under Security’s Noses, in their Clutches, Yet Still Carrying Out Attacks 
Virtually every single terror suspect involved in the Charlie Hebo massacre and Paris attacks last year in France, and the Brussels attack this week, have been long-known to Western security agencies.
Many have even been detained, convicted, and even imprisoned for violent crimes, with at least one Charlie Hebo massacre suspect having had been previously arrested in 2005 specifically for terror-related charges.
Slate Magazine would report in their article, “The Details of Paris Suspect Cherif Kouachi’s 2008 Terrorism Conviction,” that:
Kouachi was arrested in January 2005, accused of planning to join jihadists in Iraq. He was said to have fallen under the sway of Farid Benyettou, a young “self-taught preacher” who advocated violence, but had not actually yet traveled to Iraq or committed any acts of terror. Lawyers at the time said he had not received weapons training and “had begun having second thoughts,” going so far as to express “relief” that he’d been apprehended.
Kouachi would be later released before travelling to the Middle East to train and fight alongside Al Qaeda. CNN would report in an article titled, “France tells U.S. Paris suspect trained with al Qaeda in Yemen,” that:
Western intelligence officials are scrambling to learn more about possible travel of the two Paris terror attack suspects, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi, with new information suggesting one of the brothers recently spent time in Yemen associating with al Qaeda in that country, U.S. officials briefed on the matter told CNN. Additional information from a French source close to the French security services puts one of the brothers in Syria.
Many of the other suspects have also been on terror watch lists for their travels to Syria where they have fought alongside ISIS before inexplicably being allowed to return to Europe and rejoin society without consequence, including at least one of the suspects involved in the recent Brussels attack.

Considering that the US itself admitted in a 2012 US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report that it and its allies, including “the West, Gulf countries, and Turkey,” sought the creation of a “Salafist” (Islamic) “principality” (State) in eastern Syria precisely where ISIS now resides, it should not be surprising to find what appears to be an intentionally ineffective security policy put in place, allowing known, violent criminals, with obvious ties to terrorist organizations to operate freely both overseas in open combat against the West’s enemies, and at home to carry out a constant procession of attacks that foster fear, hatred, hysteria, and above all obedience to Western special interests at home.Just as with the Charlie Hebo massacre, where the backstories of the suspects raised questions as to why they were not already long-ago jailed, the multiplying indicators that Western security agencies knew about, but inexplicably failed to stop known terrorists before this week’s attack will likely conjure up familiar excuses of “incompetence” or “overtaxed” security organizations.
And just like the terrorists security agencies have repeatedly failed to stop despite tracking and even capturing and detaining them multiple times, those among Western security agencies and governments responsible for negligence ahead of this most recent attack are very likely never to see the inside of a jail cell.
All that’s left is for the public to reconcile the West’s alleged claims it is fighting ISIS versus its actions which appear to be aiding, abetting, and perpetuating this global menace, at home and abroad.
Tony Cartalucci, Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazineNew Eastern Outlook”.
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Talmud At Work: "Make Sure You Marry A Jewish Girl"


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Gay, Neocon and Islamophobe



By Gilad Atzmon
Milo Yiannopoulos doesn’t like Islam or Muslims. He doesn’t want them in Europe.
Like the Hasbra merchants, Yiannopoulos performs at zero capacity in historical thinking. Like the Zionists, for Yiannopoulos the ‘problem’ starts when he identifies himself as a victim. “As a gay man I am terrified by the mass immigration of Muslims into Europe,” he declares.
I wonder, is he also troubled as ‘a gay man’ that our Western governments have been throwing bombs on Muslims that have killed millions of innocent people? As a ‘supporter of the Iraq war,’ can’t Yiannopoulos figure out that we have, once again, brought this wave of terror on ourselves? Isn’t the tidal wave of Muslims migrating to Europe the outcome of Western imperial wars? We have been wiping out Arab countries one after the other.
“Why are we surprised that Muslims blow thing up, this is what they do,” Yiannopoulos says. Really? Were Muslims in Syria or Iraq blowing things up before they faced the lethal reality of Zionised imperialism? Were the Palestinians blowing themselves up before they met with the reality of the Jewish racist state?
Unlike the polite Zio-cons who sketch a deceptive demarcation between ‘kosher Muslims’ and ‘evil Islamism,’ Yiannopoulos admits that he hates Muslims as a whole.  It is not Isis, he says. Something is “structurally wrong” in Islam, for instance, “there is no peace movement.”
Yiannopoulos is actually accusing the Muslims of failing to be Jews.  Jewish politics is exceptionally effective in forming and controlling the dissent to Jewish politics.  By doing so, Jewish political institutions take care of the dissent to different problematic cultural elements associated with Jews, Jewish politics and Jewish culture.  Muslims do not play the controlled opposition game. Muslims are largely impervious to ID politics.  Unlike Yiannopoulos who speaks ‘as a Gay,’ Muslims rarely speak ‘as Muslims’ because Islam is not a system of identification, it is a matter of belief.  Those who believe in Allah ‘are’ Muslims; they have no reason to identify ‘as’ Muslims. Believers see no reason to take responsibility for the actions of other believers.  Similarly, my friend Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro, sees no need ‘as a Jew’ to apologise for Israel’s actions. For him, Israel has nothing to do with his Judaism or his Judaic values.*
For Yiannopoulos,  Islam is incompatible with modern free liberal democracy and will “turn the clock back.”  Who is to blame? Yiannopoulos’ answer is emphatically simplistic and misleading: the “regressive Left.”  Not so. Hasn’t the Jewish ‘progressive Left’ been leading the pro immigration campaign for decades?  Wasn’t it the so-called ‘regressive leftists,’ the orthodox Marxists and Stalinists, who actually opposed cultural Marxism and ID politics realising that these social experiments were designed to divide the Working Class?
But Yiannopoulos is not totally wrong. He is apt in his criticism of cultural Marxists and their tyranny of correctness that promoted the delusional idea that by ‘shaping language you can suppress bigotry.’ Yiannopoulos himself proves how wrong this mantra is. Yiannopoulos operates as an ID politics merchant while spewing hatred towards Islam and Muslims. In the most self-contradictory manner he ends up claiming that civilised society is all about living with “one another despite prejudices and differences” yet, he continues, “we were doing a good job at that right up until we started to import Muslims.”  This is Yiannopoulos articulating the most banal form of the new Zio-con mantra. You should love the ‘Other,’ you must respect the ‘Other’ but make sure you let us decide first who the Other is. Yiannopoulos dehumanises Muslims. He speaks about them being ‘imported’ like commodities or products. This view of society has nothing to do with Western tolerance and values. It is a radical form of choosen-ism.
His vision of Western tolerance is phantasmic and historically inaccurate. It took the West more than a while to let women vote. It took the West a long time to open its heart to gays and their rights. Slavery is not yet over in the West, although it morphs constantly to hide its vile symptoms.
Shouldn’t Yiannopoulos give it a bit of time and dialectics to allow peace between West and East to prevail? After all it was we, the West, that declared a criminal war on Islam in the name of the War Against Terror.

* Of course, many other Orthodox Rabbis insist that Israel is the embodiment of the Judaic thought.
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How The NY Times Trashes Palestinian Society

Once again, The New York Times has provided us with a Palestinian “slice of life,” a look at that society from within, and once again the portrait is unflattering. In recent articles the newspaper has shown us Palestinian sexism, patriarchy, prudery, violence and general backwardness. Now we get a close look at the “dysfunction of Palestinian politics.”
The latest piece by Diaa Hadid is titled “A Legislature Where Palestinian Lawmakers Go to Hide,” and it introduces us to Najat Abu Baker, a member of the defunct Palestinian parliament, who took refuge in an “all-but-abandoned legislative building” in Ramallah. She was avoiding prosecutors who had summoned her to answer charges of insulting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
The building is considered a “protected space” where security forces do not enter, but it serves for little else. A few guards patrol the site, and some 120 employees show up in order to collect their paychecks, although they have little real work to do.
No doubt the system is dysfunctional, but in all her 1,200 words about the subject, Hadid never once mentions the Israeli occupation as a factor in the breakdown of Palestinian governance. Israel has arrested and currently imprisons elected members of parliament, for instance, but in her telling it is all a Palestinian problem, fed by rivalries between the Fatah and Hamas factions and nothing else.
Hadid fails to mention the occupation in other stories that depict a “slice of life” in Gaza, the West Bank and Israel proper, and these articles also present Palestinian society in a censorious light. Since the beginning of the year, she has published the following in theTimes:
  • An article about nightlife in Haifa, shown as a “liberal” refuge from the backward and conservative Palestinian community. (1-3-16)
  • A story about Gaza women who ride bicycles in defiance of the sexist norms of local society. (2-23-16)
  • A piece about the killing of a Hamas fighter, allegedly for homosexual acts and theft.(3-2-16)
  • An article about a Gaza woman who was allowed to sing in public under the watchful eyes of prudish Hamas officials. (3-14-16)
The Haifa piece was the subject of comments by Times public editor Margaret Sullivan, who noted that the story lacked context. “While it’s impossible (and a bad idea) to summarize the history of Israel and Palestine in every piece of news coverage or every feature article, this article needed more political and historical information to put it in perspective,” she wrote.
But neither Hadid nor her editors took this advice to heart. In each of the following feature stories context is almost totally missing. The three Gaza articles fail to mention the eight-year blockade of the strip—a stunning omission.
The best Hadid can manage is this vague reference in the article about the Gaza singer:“In recent months, Hamas officials have been quietly loosening the reins as Gaza residents chafe under years of restrictions on their movement by neighboring Israel and Egypt. They have endured three wars in a decade, and poverty and unemployment are rampant.”
Readers are left with no real sense of Israel’s role in these successive disasters. Once again, the focus is on Palestinian shortcomings.
If they were so inclined, Times reporters could choose to write any number of positive stories underscoring Palestinian resilience, perseverance and achievements. Here are just a few:
  • Only last week Hanan al-Hroub, a Palestinian elementary school teacher in the occupied West Bank, won the $1 million Global Teacher Award for 2016, beating out other talented educators throughout the world with her inspired teaching of nonviolent conflict resolution.
  • Gaza fishermen have been braving the constant harassment of Israeli gunboats, the threat of arrest and live fire each time they go to sea in search of their daily catch. They continue to work even as Israeli sailors damage and confiscate their boats and equipment.
  • Herding communities in the Jordan Valley and the South Hebron Hills cling to their land in spite of repeated demolitions and encroaching settlements. Some of them take refuge in caves after bulldozers destroy their tents and houses.
  • Authorities have demolished the Israeli Bedouin community of Al Araqib at least95 times, but the residents keep returning to rebuild in an incredible show of determination.
  • The Nassar family has held off Israeli confiscation of their ancestral land in the West Bank for decades, drawing on international support for their community, theTent of Nations, where they operate under the slogan, “We Refuse to Be Enemies.”
The Times has shown no interest in highlighting any of these topics, although they provide first-rate material for profiles and “slice of life” feature stories. It appears that such articles would also carry the risk of challenging the accepted narrative by exposing Israeli brutality as well as Palestinian efforts at peace-building.
Times editors and reporters can claim that they have provided sketches of Palestinian life from inside the occupied territories and in Israel proper, but they show little interest in moving beyond facile stereotypes. Robbed of context and viewed through a prejudicial lens, Palestinian society takes a beating in the Times.
Barbara Erickson

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   
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