Iran opposition accused of insulting founder Khomeini

Iran's Supreme Leader has accused the opposition of breaking the law by insulting the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Cleaners 'worth more to society' than bankers - study

The research, carried out by think tank the New Economics Foundation, says hospital cleaners create £10 of value for every £1 they are paid.
It claims bankers are a drain on the country because of the damage they caused to the global economy.
BBC News

Close shave! British court issued Gaza arrest warrant for former Israeli minister Tzipi Livni

Warrant issued over war crimes accusations was withdrawn when it emerged former minister had cancelled plan to visit
The Guardian

Christmas cards for Palestine

Courtesy from 'Desertpeace'

Ariel colony's sewage flooding Palestinian farms

The Palestinian City of Salfit in the West Bank is affected by the sewage which flows from the neighbouring Israeli Settlement of Ariel. This waste includes industrial and chemical residues from the industrial area of the Settlement. This impacts on the quality of the agricultural land in the surrounding area. The Ariel Municipality has refused to build a treatment plant to purify the effluent.

'Bomb Iran' Petition Features Lots of Questionable Names!

Pro-Israel Lobby Group's Iran Petition Features Lots of Questionable names!
"Our petition now has more than 90,000 supporters, which you can see by clicking here."

Besides 220 Vince Vinces from many different states, including nonexistent ones, signatory number five is listed as Comfylovely ……. — and no, those aren’t ellipses I’ve placed in for dramatic effect; that’s Comfylovely’s listed last name — from the proud city of Davao in the historic state of XX.
That’s not even the most disturbing part of the signatories. The Israel Project lists the following as enthusiastic supporters of sanctioning Iran: Viagra Kaufen Viagra Kaufen, London, N.Y. (signatory #84,570); Porn Sex Video from London, N.Y. (signatory #62,751-62,756); Stupidwhiteman V, who declined to list an address (signatory #83,780); and Xbox 360 accessories — that’s a first and last name — from New York, N.Y. (signatory #90,046).

Author of "The Handbook for the Killing of Gentiles" Yitzhar colony rabbi, linked to the torching of mosque

"A number of the settler rabbis voiced their support for that mode of action and, by so doing, increased awareness about the issue and created a type of internal buzz among the activists. For example, Rabbi Yosef Elitzur of the Od Yosef Hai yeshiva in Yitzhar published an article in the extremist right wing newsletter called Hakol Heyhudi [The Jewish Voice] in which he explicitly called for operations like the arson at the Yasouf mosque. “Operations of reciprocal responsibility,” is how Rabbi Elitzur chose to define them. “We too have strength and we too shall use it at a time and place of our choosing,” he wrote. “If the Jews don’t have quiet—the Arabs won’t have quiet either; If the Arabs win because of violence against Jews—the Jews too will win because of violence against Arabs.”"
Coteret

Maariv’s defense analyst: Rabbis own the IDF

"Ofer Shelah, Maariv’s defense analyst, has become a regular feature on Coteret. On November 17 2009 he told the IDF top brass they should have taken into consideration the consequences of allowing fanatical Rabbis into the combat units during the Gaza war and on November 17 2009 he was very blunt in his analysis of the IDF’s culture of lies.

This morning (December 13 2009,) he takes on the defense establishment’s pathetic attempt to bring into line Rabbi’s of affiliated yeshivas who order soldiers to refuse to move against settlements. Shelah all but says outright that these Rabbis own the IDF. Senior officers are afraid of them because of the power they hold over their future political careers. More importantly, their disciples have become so integral to the IDF’s combat forces, that taking them on might spark major disintegration."
Coteret

It’s the occupation, stupid / some thoughts on the Intifada’s 22ed anniversary

Hebron 1990
"The occupation, not anti-Semitism, is the reason for the anti-Israeli sentiment around the world. The occupation, and the Jewish automatic identification with Israel, makes it harder to fight anti-Semitism. It shouldn’t be this way, but it is. The occupation makes Israel more and more isolated politically, and quiet rightly so. No reasonable person and no nation should accept what we are doing. The world gave Israel four decades to solve this issue, but enough is enough. Personally, I would never support physical attacks on Israelis, but all other moves, from demonstrations to boycotts, are fair game.

It’s the occupation, stupid."

Hannukah Without the Taliban

Tony Karon
In a country occupied by a Western power, the locals are faced with a choice. Some have opted to reconcile their own traditions with those of their occupier, borrowing from Western ways that open the path to philosophy and science, and integrating themselves into a wider culture. Others fiercely resist, waging a bitter and bloody war not only on the occupier, but also on those in their own community who seek to collaborate or integrate with the occupiers who are denounced as defilers.

If this were contemporary Afghanistan-Pakistan, you’d know who was whom, right? But before you bite into that latke or sing the dreidel song, you may want to consider that in Judea in the second century BC, the Taliban role is played by the Maccabees. And it is the Maccabees, of course, who are lionized in the Hanukah tale.

Honduran Elections Exposed As Fraud

Honduran coup regime's claims about 60% turnout at free and fair elections is revealed as fraud. Also implicated in the video are the wide array of media outlets and governments that have unquestioningly accepted the electoral data of a regime that overthrew the last elected president.

Learn From Vietnam: No Winning In Afghanistan

Have we not learned the lessons of Vietnam and Iraq? No! Listen to defense strategists and generals. How about McNamara, Westmoreland, Rumsfeld and the many generals replaced in Iraq? As for supporting democratic governments, what about those puppet governments in South Vietnam and the fragile coalition now ruling Iraq? As for greater troop strength, have we forgotten the 500,000 for Vietnam?

Negev group: Israel misinformed UN about woes of Bedouin

The United Nations requested in October an official Israeli response to a report claiming the state was inaccurate in describing the status of Bedouin living in the Negev.....
...."How does this jibe with Israel's claim that it is the only democracy in the Middle East? It is inconceivable that in 2010, tens of thousands of citizens are not connected to the electricity grid, do not have running water and do not have basic civil and political rights."

Gideon Levy: Lawless settlers are an inseparable part of Israel

Anyone upset by their behavior ought to direct his anger at the state, not at them. The state that permitted, funded, secured, invested in, paved and built, turned a blind eye and kept silent in the face of all the violations of the law that accompanied this enterprise from day one. The state cannot come and say now: We didn't know that this is how they are. We didn't know they would spit in our face like this. We didn't know that this is what grew there, in the land of lawlessness, which is an inseparable part of the State of Israel.
Haaretz

‘I’m sorry but we had to blow up your laptop’(welcome to Israel)

"Lily Sussman works with refugees in Cairo as part of the Resettlement Legal Aid Project. I understand that she’s a student at Northeastern in Boston. She wanted to visit Israel and was grilled at the border about her travel in Arab countries. They took her laptop… Apparently she has saved the hard-drive."
"I was sitting on the deck overlooking the Red Sea. Israeli security officers (most who looked around 18 years old) had completed around two hours of questioning and searching me. They had pressed every sock and scarf with a security device, ripped open soap and had me strip extra layers. They asked me tons of questions–where are you going? Who do you know? Do you have a boyfriend? Is he Arab, Egyptian, Palestinian? Why do you live in Egypt? Why not Israel? What do you know about the ‘conflict’ here? What do you think? They quized me on Judaism,which I know nothing about."
Via Mondoweiss

Venezuela widens purge of bankers

"These bankers should be shown for what they really are to the public: vulgar robbers, thieves in ties, pickpockets and obstinate kleptomaniacs," Chavez said in a newspaper column published on Sunday.

Iraq oil development rights contracts awarded . US companies left out in the cold

A joint venture between the UK's Shell and Malaysia's Petronas oil companies has won the right to develop Iraq's giant Majnoon oil field.

A total of 44 companies took part in a bid for 10 fields in the second such auction since the invasion in 2003.

Tony Blair admits: I would have invaded Iraq anyway

WMD were not vital for war says ex-PM ahead of appearance at Chilcot inquiry
He said he would have invaded Iraq even without evidence of weapons of mass destruction and would have found a way to justify the war to parliament and the public.
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The problem is that he didn't state such a thing before the invasion but maintained the WMD pretext. What does that say about this creep?

Stealing their land is ok, hurting their religious beliefs is not!

Settler rabbi condemns mosque arson
The illegal Israeli colony of Teqoa's chief rabbi condemned his fellow settlers for allegedly setting a mosque on fire early Friday morning in the northern West Bank village of Yasouf.
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Well, I'm sure you're a sensitive guy and everything but could you please bugger off to where you came from?

EU presidency 'dismayed' after settlers torch mosque

Bethlehem - Ma'an - The presidency of European Union is dismayed at Friday's vandalization of a Palestinian mosque in the northern West Bank village of Yasouf, Swedish Consul General to Jerusalem Nils Eliasson said