Stephen M. Walt: Why they hate us (II): How many Muslims has the U.S. killed in the past 30 years?

Tom Friedman had an especially fatuous column in Sunday's New York Times, which is saying something given his well-established capacity for smug self-assurance. According to Friedman, the big challenge we face in the Arab and Islamic world is "the Narrative" -- his patronizing term for Muslim views about America's supposedly negative role in the region. If Muslims weren't so irrational, he thinks, they would recognize that "U.S. foreign policy has been largely dedicated to rescuing Muslims or trying to help free them from tyranny." He concedes that we made a few mistakes here and there (such as at Abu Ghraib), but the real problem is all those anti-American fairy tales that Muslims tell each other to avoid taking responsibility for their own actions.
Foreign Policy

British General Calls for Prosecution of Blair

Why I believe Blair should stand trial - and even face charges for war crimes, by General Sir Michael Rose

Huh?

LONDON -- American troops didn't expect to play a role in stabilizing Iraq after overthrowing Saddam Hussein, a key adviser to former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday.
David Manning, who served as a Blair's top foreign policy aide before being appointed ambassador to Washington in 2003, told a British inquiry into the Iraq war the American military didn't believe peacekeeping was their responsibility.
"The American military thought that they were fighting a war and when the war was over they were expecting to go home," he said.

Evolution at work

Amazing..Simply amazing!

Swiss minaret vote unlikely to be copied in Europe

PARIS (Reuters) - Switzerland's vote to ban minarets is the blunt expression of wider worries about Islam in Europe, but the typically Swiss option of holding a national debate and referendum on them looks unlikely to be repeated elsewhere.

"WALLACE: Senator Bayh, you brought up the question of cost, and the administration has put the cost -- and this is kind of astonishing to, I think, a lot of people -- $1 million per soldier per year, so if you sent 30,000 soldiers, that would be a $30 billion price tag."

Tom Friedman galore..On Mondoweiss and Glenn Greenwald

Smashing, punching, writing– it’s the amazing Friedman
""Have no doubt: we punched a fist into the Arab/Muslim world after 9/11, partly to send a message of deterrence, but primarily to destroy two tyrannical regimes."
Friedman is a study case on Greenwald's too:
"And what they needed to see was American boys and girls going from house to house, from Basra to Baghdad, and basically saying: which part of this sentence do you understand? You don't think we care about our open society? . . . . Well, Suck. On. This. That, Charlie, was what this war was about.....
"We could have hit Saudi Arabia. It was part of that bubble. Could have hit Pakistan. We hit Iraq because we could. That's the real truth."

'Foreign Policy ' survey: Most Dangerous Countries in the World

"Foreign Policy just released a survey from what it calls its "Top 100 Global Thinkers," a list that includes Friedman, Robert Kagan, Henry Kissinger, and David Petraeus, among others, and here were the results for this question: "What is the Most Dangerous Country in the World"
"Ten percent of Foreign Policy's so-called "Smart Crowd" say the U.S. is "the most dangerous country in the world" (tied with Iran and Somalia), while 4% say it's Israel (tied with North Korea). It seems that the mentality Friedman condemns as the province of primitive, paranoid Muslims extends a bit farther than that."
Glenn Greenwald

Henry Siegman on Israel's pathology

"This pathology has been aided and abetted by American Jewish organizations whose agendas conform to the political and ideological views of Israel’s right wing. These organizations do not reflect the views of most American Jews who voted overwhelmingly — nearly 80 percent — for Mr. Obama in the presidential elections."
Henry Siegman, a former national director of the American Jewish Congress, is director of the U.S./Middle East Project.
The New York Times
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I told you they're kind of, well..sick!

The way they go about it!

When American Jewish Zionists do not like a paper criticising Israel, they not only boycott or lobby intensively for its removal from sale, they STEAL it from the shops!
"After the May issue, newspaper thefts intensified. Craig Slater, the Coastal Post’s distributor, said issues were stolen from approximately 20 locations. At a food store in Fairfax alone, thousands of papers went missing."

Oh! Those "invading" Arab armies!

"Prior to March 1948, the activities the Zionist leadership carried out to implement their vision could still be portrayed as retaliation for hostile Palestinian or Arab actions. However, after March this was no longer the case; the Zionist leadership openly declared- two months before the end of the Mandate- it would seek to take over the land and expel the population by force: Plan Dalet."
Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine
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And the Arabs countries were meant to sit back and enjoy the show!

Is Belief in God Hurting America?

"According to a new study, prosperity is highest in countries that practice religion the least.
From Dostoyevsky to right-wing commentator Ann Coulter we are warned of the perils of godlessness. "If there is no God," Dostoyevsky wrote, "everything is permitted." Coulter routinely attributes our nation's most intractable troubles to the moral vacuum of atheism."

Bin Laden 'within grasp' in 2001

""Removing the al-Qaeda leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat," the report said."

Honduras votes for new president

"But Zelaya, who is unable to vote and still inside the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa where he has been for the past 10 weeks, has been urging supporters to boycott the vote, saying that it will only legitimise the coup."

Minaret ban wins Swiss support

The initiators have achieved something everyone wanted to prevent, and that is to influence and change the relations to Muslims and their social integration in a negative way," Taner Hatipoglu, the president of the Federation of Islamic Organisations in Zurich, said.

This would probably win in many Western countries if people instead of politicians voted, like in Switzerland.

Terrorist and proud she is!

Them Ayrabs are terrorists aren't they? I wonder what could be said of this one "exquisite" character that I discovered, Cohen Geulah, who has written her memoirs with obviously so much pride:
Cohen Geulah :"Woman of Violence: Memoirs of a Young Terrorist"..
She even shunned Menachem Begin, another major terrorist himself, and his far right party the Likud, too soft, in order to form Banai, a more extreme brand of fascism mostly composed of settlers and the like.
How come we rarely hear about those delicious characters who have been at the core of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine?

" Obama regime anti-Semitic"

About 200 Likud activists slam settlement freeze declared by PM Netanyahu.
Yup! And Obama is a reincarnation of Hitler! Next!

Breaking news: IAEA Adopts Anti-Iran Resolution

"In a 25-3 vote, the P5+1 (the permanent five members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) succeeded in getting their draft resolution condemning Iran’s civilian nuclear program passed through the IAEA. Every major nation supported the resolution, with Venezuela, Malaysia and Cuba voting against it."
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Yeah, Iran's nuclear "ambitions" are a huge concern. The existing Israeli warheads aren't. We got it. We no shtoopid!

Why Does AIPAC Spy on Americans?

"Newly emerging declassified facts are reminders to concerned Americans that AIPAC is not at all what it claims to be. Rosen’s lawsuit will not likely make good on his and former lobbyist Douglas Bloomfield’s implicit threats to reveal AIPAC as a stealth, unregistered foreign agent of the Israeli government."

Facts on the run

1938: The Irgun (terrorist organisation) bombings killed 119 Palestinians. Palestinian bombs and mines killed 8 Jews
Source :"The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" by Ilan Pappe

Certain things never change except for a higher ratio in "favor" of the Israeli state terror, of course..Nowadays (as in Gaza) it is 140 to just 1. Just as a reminder the Nazis applied a 100 per one ratio..

Let Them Eat Patty Cake

"Are we going to escalate the war in Afghanistan for the sake of saving face? Defense Secretary Robert Gates says we have to stay the course in Afghanistan to deny al-Qaeda a "propaganda win."

A propaganda win, as best I can tell, is a condition where someone can say "nyah, nyah" to us and we can’t say "nyah, nyah" back. Except that wouldn’t be the case if we left Afghanistan. They could say they ran us off. We could say so what, we live in the richest country in the world and you live in Afghanistan."
Antiwar.com

STUC calls on Celtic fans to fly flag for Palestine at Israeli match

• The Rangers-Maccabi Haifa match was disrupted by a fan draped in a Palestinian flag. Picture: SNS

CELTIC fans are being asked to wave Palestinian flags during a football match against Israeli team Hapoel Tel Aviv in protest at the invasion of Gaza last year.
The controversial call by the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) came in advance of the Europa League match next Wednesday, which will be seen by millions of football fans.
The gesture is aimed to cause maximum embarrassment to the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Ron Prosor, who is travelling from London to attend the game.
(The Scotsman via the Palestinian Pundit)
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The "hic" here though, is:
"The move might also cause division within the club itself – the Celtic chairman and former home secretary John Reid was an early member of Labour Friends of Israel, and his wife, Carine Adler, is Jewish."
In my opinion this is not going to be as easy as it looks.

2,000 protest Haredi religious coercion in Jerusalem

About two thousand secular Israelis demonstrated in central Jerusalem on Saturday evening, to protest police weakness in the face of what they branded ultra-Orthodox religious coercion and violence.

Likudniks blast 'enemy of the Jews' Obama over settlement freeze

Member of Netanyahu's party: Obama regime is 'worst ever' for Israel;
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Ah yes, be careful, sickos! Obama is about to launch a second Holocaust, that's for sure!

Mondoweiss: NYT protects its readers from a small newspaper’s criticisms of Israel

"When you are reading the Times article, notice that this is not some casual business. No: businesses are waging a war against the Daily Planet( for its criticism of Israel), it has lost 60 percent of ad revenues because of the stance that the brave editor has taken. She has laid off reporters and is doing a fundraising drive."
And here is what happened to the New York Times itself (and two other papers) when they tried a more balanced view on the conflict!..

Larry Derfner: Mouths filled with hatred

I've only read Larry Derfner, from the Jerusalem Post, once. He's the author of that amazing piece that I posted a while ago about how Israel reacting to the Goldstone report still saw itself as a hopeless victim. An article which, in its time a month ago, caused a huge stir( some reactions to it here and here.. Published in the JP, this was, for me at least, a huge surprise as the Post is VERY far right wing. This week, an article (thanks vza) about this despicable practice those ultra religious Jewish wackos bred in Yeshivas schools of hate, indulge into whenever they see a Christian passing by..Well pardon the pun but really, a spitting image of Israel today.

Wahhabi wackos witch hunters

Saudi Arabia urged to quash witchcraft death sentence
The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has called on Saudi Arabia to overturn a death sentence given to a man convicted of practicing witchcraft.
BBC Online

Threat of war in the Middle East

"With the western allies having been entangled in two destructive and illegal wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Benny Morris (Obama's nuclear spring, 24 November) is eager and willing to start a third one. The history professor who now believes that the Nakba in 1948 did not go far enough, with too few Palestinians being ejected out of their land, is now of the opinion that Obama must give Israel the go-ahead for an attack on Iran, to destroy its nuclear potential. The coming war, which he admits will engulf not just the Middle East, but regions far beyond, is, for him and for most Israelis, seemingly unavoidable. Interestingly, there seems to be no problem with a nuclear Israel. Let's hope that for once the US president will show some resolve and fight back against the Zionist lobby, and stop this terrifying prospect of an all-out conflict in the Middle East. The advice given by Morris, Lieberman and Netanyahu is the promise of doom for us all."
The Guardian

Fear of a BDS planet

"It's getting hard to keep track of Israeli press mentions of the boycott, divestment & sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Their frequency & tenor bespeaks a growing alarm at the BDS threat — notably, amongst establishment journos. To whit:

Sever Plocker, Chief Economics Editor and Commentator for Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest daily, in an article noting "Israel in midst of freefall on global front,"
Jews Sans Frontieres

Daniel Levy: Netanyahu’s stubbornness on settlements produces American call for 1967 borders

"Today's statements appeared to be part of an elaborate and ongoing dance of suspicion between the two supposed allies. During his first term as prime minister in the late 90's, Benjamin Netanyahu made an enemy of then US President Clinton and played the Republican congress against the Democrat president. This directly led to the collapse of Netanyahu's government and his fall from office. Judging by today, Netanyahu is keen for a repeat performance albeit under circumstances even less propitious for him politically. The response of the Obama team might be an interesting pointer as to where things might be headed on the peace front."

Israel approves 28 schools for West Bank colonies

Israel's government has approved 28 new schools for settlements in the West Bank, a day after it announced a 10-month halt to new residential building.
(BBC Online via the Palestinian Pundit)

Israel's Purging of Palestinian Christians

By JONATHAN COOK, Counterpunch
"A similar pattern can be discerned inside Israel too, where Christians have come to comprise an ever smaller proportion of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship. In 1948 they were nearly a quarter of that minority (itself 20 per cent of the total Israeli population), and today they are a mere 10 per cent. Most are located in Nazareth and nearby villages in the Galilee.
Certainly, the continuing fall in the number of Christians in the Holy Land concerns Israel's leadership almost as keenly as the patriarchs and bishops who visit Bethlehem at Christmas -- but for quite the opposite reason. Israel is happy to see Christians leave, at least of the indigenous Palestinian variety.
(More welcome are the crazed fundamentalist Christian Zionists from the United States who have been arriving to help engineer the departure of Palestinians, Muslims and Christians alike, in the belief that, once the Jews have dominion over the whole of the Holy Land, Armageddon and the "End Times" will draw closer.)
"Without Palestinian Christians confusing the picture, it will be much easier for Israel to persuade the West that the Jewish state is facing a monolithic enemy, fanatical Islam, and that the Palestinian national struggle is really both a cover for jihad and a distraction from the clash of civilisations against which Israel is the ultimate bulwark. Israel's hands will be freed."
(Posted by V on Mondoweiss)

A People's History of Thanksgiving

By Ramzy Baroud
This week Americans will observe “Thanksgiving” commemorating a romanticized era in their nations record, celebrating the supposed solidarity and brotherhood enjoyed by the first settlers and the indigenous people of what is now called the United States. However, this fantastic tale of friendship contradicts the candid remarks of many notable personalities in US history.
Few can be as blunt regarding the legacy of the United States toward the native people of this land as the 26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt. In his narrative, "The Winning of the West," Roosevelt spoke about the "spread of the English-speaking peoples over the world's wasted spaces." He wrote: "The European settlers moved into an uninhabited waste...the land is really owned by no one.... The settler ousts no one from the land. The truth is, the Indians never had any real title to the soil."
In an interview with the British Sunday Times, on June 15, 1969, former Israeli Prime Minister, Golda Meir made similar claims, stating, "There was no such thing as Palestinians. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country from them. They did not exist."

While Native Americans and Palestinians were the ancient indigenous peoples of their lands, this was of little or no relevance to the foreign settlers. What really mattered was "Manifest Destiny", what really mattered was "Zionism".

Why They Hate Us (I): on military occupation

Stephen M. Walt
One of the many barriers to developing a saner U.S. foreign policy is our collective failure to appreciate why military occupations generate so much hatred, resentment, and resistance, and why we should therefore go to enormous lengths to avoid getting mired in them. Costly occupations are an activity you hope your adversaries undertake, especially in areas of little intrinsic strategic value. We blundered into Somalia in the early 1990s without realizing that we weren't welcome; we invaded Iraq thinking we would be greeted as liberators, and we still don't fully understand why many Afghans resent our presence and why some are driven to take up arms against us.

Deconstructing BS.. or the latest Netanyahu's "freeze" announcement

MARY RIZZO
I get the Israel Foreign Ministry press releases everyday. As I have often pointed out, they are somewhere between science fiction and fairy tales. To find a bit of truth in there takes effort. But today's really does seem to go beyond the beyond in its attempt to make one think there is a change in some kind of policy that will be "historic", of all things. Netanyahu is going to get the Roadmap back on track by freezing settlements? Oh boy. Let's have a look at that and see how this new fable is told before all the children of the world get sleepy and nod off to such a fanciful story:
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Mary Rizzo is an art restorer, translator and writer living in Italy. Editor and co-founder of Palestine Think Tank, co-founder of Tlaxcala translations collective. Her personal blog is Peacepalestine.

Israel to suspend settlement growth.....selectively

"The Israeli proposal excludes areas of the West Bank that Israel annexed to its Jerusalem municipality after occupying the territory in the 1967 Middle East war and building projects already under way.
Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, reporting from Jerusalem, said that the suspension would only apply to "new residential permits and new residential starts".
"We are only talking about housing here. This freeze does not apply to public buildings such as schools or police stations or whatever, and it also means any existing building permits that have been granted they will go ahead," she said."

South Africa: Israel actions in East Jerusalem akin to apartheid

The South African government has issued an unusually harsh statement condemning Israel for approving 900 new housing units in Gilo and evicting Palestinians from their East Jerusalem homes, comparing Israel's actions to the "forced removals" of the apartheid era.
Haaretz

Israeli police 'arrest Mossad spy on training exercise'

"The young trainee was spotted by a female passer-by as he planted a fake bomb under a vehicle in the city."
BBC

The Nine Nations of China

"We tend to imagine China as a monolith: 1.3 billion people sharing the same language, history, and culture. The truth is far more interesting. China is a mosaic of several distinct regions, each with its own resources, dynamics, and historical character."

First programmable quantum computer created

First time I heard of the idea of quantum computers was ten years ago. Few things between then and now but discouraging news. But as things go here it is:
"Using a few ultracold ions, intense lasers and some electrodes, researchers have built the first programmable quantum computer. The new system, described in a paper to be published in Nature Physics, flexed its versatility by performing 160 randomly chosen processing routines."
ScienceNews

ATHEISTS have accused the Brumby Government of Victoria, Australia, of discriminating against them by refusing to fund the movement's global conference in Melbourne but giving $2 million to a religious conference starting 3 Dec..

Richard Dawkins: Why Darwin matters

"Big enough to undermine the idea of creation but simple enough to be stated in a sentence, the theory of natural selection is a masterpiece."
"Charles Darwin had a big idea, arguably the most powerful idea ever. And like all the best ideas it is beguilingly simple. In fact, it is so staggeringly elementary, so blindingly obvious that although others before him tinkered nearby, nobody thought to look for it in the right place."

Schoolchildren face daily settler attacks

Palestinian schoolgirls (right) in Hebron walk across rough ground to avoid Israeli settlers (left) blocking their route.


Mel Frykberg, The Electronic Intifada, 24 November 2009
"It is really scary walking to school. We never know when the settlers will attack us and beat us," said Rima Ali, 10, from the village of Tuba in the southern West Bank, about two hours drive south of Jerusalem.
Settler attacks -- including arson attacks on agricultural fields, chopping down olive trees, poisoning water wells, killing livestock and assaulting Palestinian villagers living near settlements -- have become a way of life for Palestinians all over the West Bank as the Israeli authorities continue to turn a blind eye.

Part 1: Ali Abunimah: Campus BDS Conference keynote speaker : “Be patient and do your work — history is on our side.”

Ali Abunimah, co-founder of Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse delivers the keynote address at the 2009 Campus BDS Conference at Hampshire College in Amherst, MA.
Absolutely extraordinary.. A must.

Plan Dalet (for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine) for the idiots

1. What is Plan Dalet?
2. Who devised Plan Dalet?
3. When was Plan Dalet implemented?
4. What resulted from Plan Dalet?
5. Why is Plan Dalet relevant today?

1. What is Plan Dalet?

On March 10, 1948, Zionist political and military leaders met at the "Red House" in Tel Aviv and agreed to Plan Dalet, which called for the systematic expulsion of Palestinians from areas sought for the soon-to-be-founded state of Israel. The plan led to what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba.

At that time (1948), Jews owned only about seven percent of the land in Palestine and constituted about 33 percent of the population. The Palestinians' presence and predominant ownership of the land were obstacles to the creation of a Jewish state. Moshe Sharett, Israel's second prime minister, said "We have forgotten that we have not come to an empty land to inherit it, but we have come to conquer a country from people inhabiting it."
Continue here.
Additional information here
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Note: This post addresses the issue of one of the most fraudelent hasbara myths widely spread today: "They were not forced out, they fled"

'World's biggest animal sacrifice' begins..in Nepal!

UP to a million Hindu devotees have gathered in a village in Nepal to witness the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of animals in a mass sacrifice that has drawn widespread criticism.
Worshippers travelled long distances, many coming from India, to attend the two-day Gadhimai festival, which honours the Hindu goddess of power and takes place once every five years in southern Nepal.
A huge cry of "Long Live Gadhimai!" went up after the village temple's head priest launched the event with the ritual sacrifice of two wild rats, two pigeons, a rooster, a lamb and a pig.
The crowd then rushed to a nearby field where 250 sword-wielding butchers were waiting to begin the mass slaughter of about 20,000 buffalo, brought by devotees to be sacrificed near the holy temple.
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And with the Eid Adha (sacrifice) on, it's a very bad time to be an animal I guess!

Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran (says Jewish historian, Benny Morris)

"Israeli historian Benny Morris, a man with a serious dislike of Arabs and Iranians, yesterday unloaded in the UK Guardian and urged nothing less than a military strike against the Islamic Republic.
Once again, a leading Zionist voice defines his ideology as nothing other than violence and devastation:
The talk in Israel, explicit and open – including in the country’s leading daily, Haaretz, last week – is about a war in the coming spring or summer. The skies will have cleared for air operations, Israel’s missile shields against short- and medium-range rockets will at least be partly operational, and the international community, led by President Obama, will palpably have failed to stymie Iran’s nuclear weapons programme. And the Iranians will be that much closer to a bomb."

US builds up its bases in oil-rich South America

From the Caribbean to Brazil, political opposition to US plans for 'full-spectrum operations' is escalating rapidly
By Hugh O'Shaughnessy. The Independent
The United States is massively building up its potential for nuclear and non-nuclear strikes in Latin America and the Caribbean by acquiring unprecedented freedom of action in seven new military, naval and air bases in Colombia. The development – and the reaction of Latin American leaders to it – is further exacerbating America's already fractured relationship with much of the continent.
(Thanks Mara)

Film Competition Winner: No Way Through

No Way Through highlights mobility restrictions imposed in the West Bank, that are limiting its habitants access to health care, thus violating a fundamental human right.

Take Action to help people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories get justice.
(Thanks Mojo)

Young Bedouin girl gang raped and murdered. Israel learns of a hidden shame in its early years

This horrific story in my mail..

The Guardian UK.
Soldiers raped and killed Bedouin girl in the Negev
For 54 years the fate of a young Bedouin girl who disappeared in the Negev desert was relegated to rumour and a single entry in the diary of David Ben-Gurion, the prime minister of the fledgling Israeli state.
"It was decided and carried out: they washed her, cut her hair, raped her and killed her," he wrote.
In August 1949, an army unit stationed at Nirim in the Negev shot an Arab man and captured a Bedouin girl with him. Her name and age remain unknown, but she was probably in her mid-teens.
In the following hours she was taken from the hut and forced to shower naked in full view of the soldiers. Three of the men then raped her.
After the Sabbath meal the platoon commander, identified by Ha'aretz as a man called Moshe who had served in the British army during the second world war, proposed a vote on what should be done with her.
Most of the 20 or so soldiers present voted for the alternative by chanting: "We want to fuck". The commander organised a rota for groups of his men to gang rape the girl over the next three days. Moshe and one of his sergeants went first, leaving the girl unconscious. Next morning, she complicated matters by protesting about her treatment. Moshe told one of his sergeants to kill her.

Afghanistan: "These people just want to be left alone"

The Guardian's Sean Smith spent a month embedded with the US Army's 501st Parachute Regiment in June this year, and reports now that with inadequate vehicles, relations with Afghan security forces at a standstill and the constant threat of IEDs, US Troops in the country are losing heart for a fight they feel their presence is only prolonging, while many Afghanis say that the presence of the troops is causing problems for them because that is what is attracting the Taliban.
Video

UK inquiry into Iraq war begins public hearings

The Iraq war inquiry's public hearings have begun in London with top civil servants and a former spy chief giving evidence on the conflict's origins.

I was right to be cynical - Adam Shapiro

President Obama, unlike a well-trained and increasingly sycophantic Congress, has set out to change America's image in the world. This image is not undermined because of our relationship with Ireland, Thailand or Chile - or even by North Korea, Iran, Pakistan or Afghanistan, despite the seeming inadequacy of US policy to meet these challenges. No, the consistent lack of US credibility in the world spans Democrats and Republicans and is a consequence of our relationship with Israel and the exceptionalism applied to an occupier nation foisting apartheid on the Palestinians. Most of the world grasps immediately the hypocrisy of the Congress when it votes against the carefully documented work of Judge Goldstone, who has devoted his life to fighting racism and apartheid.

Uri Avnery: A Federation (as a compromise between a two-state solution and one-state solution). Why not?

Lately, the term "federation" has come into fashion again. Some people believe that it can serve as a kind of compromise between the "two-state solution," now a world-wide consensus, and the "one-state solution" that is popular in some radical circles. "Federation" sounds like a miracle: there will be both "two states for two peoples" and a single entity. Two in one, one in two.

Germany criticizes settlements before Israel visit

Germany assailed Israel on Monday in unusually stark terms over plans to expand settlements on land taken from Palestinians, a week before the two counties leaders meet in Berlin.

West Bank Formaggio

A group of Italian agronomists have helped start the first West Bank Italian cheese factory at the Golden Sheep cheese factory in Tubas. Three Palestinian farmers have been trained in Italian cheese-making and so far the project has been a success.
Bloggin' Banat

The worst of two extinct worlds

Stumbled across this great quote by A'zmi Bishara"
"Zionist colonialism inhabits the space between two extinct models -- those provided by South Africa and French practice in Algeria. It is not a blend of the two, but rather a distillation of the worst in each."

Jerusalem Post's Michael Freund:" The Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel because the God of Israel said so"

"These areas are ours by Divine right, and we should not shy away from asserting as much. The Palestinians do not hesitate to invoke their beliefs, so why on earth should we? Just think how refreshing it would be to hear an Israeli leader stand up and declare this most elementary of truths to the world: that the Land of Israel belongs to the people of Israel because the God of Israel said so."
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BTW, liar! The Palestinians claim to the land has nothing to do with "beliefs". They've been living there since time immemorial when your "people" were away for 2000 years!

How many Hitlers are there in the world (Zionists need to know now)?

"Zionist hysteria is as old as Zionism itself. But this recent example only proves the point over and over again. Zionism is an inherently insecure ideology that thrives on victimhood and aggression. This entire post from Promised Land has to be read to be believed:"

Could Obama’s apparent surrender to the Zionist lobby turn out to be good for justice and peace?

Could it be that in the quietness of his unspoken mind, President Obama is counting on this growing anti-Israel sentiment, if and when it takes hold in America, to give him the freedom to respond to Netanyahu’s two-fingered gestures by taking on the Zionist lobby’s stooges in Congress?
Alan Hart

Lies

"For his part, Aronson claimed that he was attacked. "It was all self-defense," he said. "Essentially, Arabs cannot cross the riverbed to come up in the direction of Mitzpeh Yair( A colony). I know this because the army gets rid of them every day."
Despite these claims, the police have accepted the Palestinian version of the story after an Israel Defense Forces soldier present at the scene testified that the settlers had approached the shepherds despite her warnings"

Ignorance

I often come across this argument, on online discussions (from mostly Americans) that "what the hell, Israel and the Palestinians have been fighting over this land for thousands of years and they'll fight over it forever!". This level of incredible ignorance is alarming..

Leaked documents reveal UK Government cover-up over Iraq invasion

"Fresh evidence has emerged about how Blair misled MPs by claiming in 2002 that the goal was "disarmament, not regime change". Documents show the government wanted to hide its true intentions by informing only "very small numbers" of officials."

Wind of change

"The students meeting at Hampshire represented over 40 campuses from across the U.S. and Canada. From what I can tell there are at least 10 active divestment and boycott campaigns underway now, with about at least 10 or 15 more just about to get kicked off. The ideas being discussed range from forcing universities to divest their investment holdings to canceling vendor contracts with companies benefiting from the occupation to challenging study abroad programs in Israel that discriminate against Palestinian students (and lots more in between). All options are on the table, and enthusiasm, creativity and hope abound."
Adam Horowitz(Mondoweiss)

Fans hurt by a non racist remark

Beitar Jerusalem Foot Club captain: Sorry for wanting Arab player
Beitar Jerusalem captain Aviram Baruchyan met Thursday evening with fans belonging to the "La Familia" organization and apologized for saying that he would like to see an Arab play in the football team.
The fans told him they were hurt by the remark he made about 10 days ago at an anti-violence conference.

US concerned about definition of aggression as international crime

US concerned about definition of aggression as international crime
THE HAGUE — A United States ambassador said Thursday that Washington was concerned about how aggression will be defined as an international crime.

"I would be remiss not to share with you my country's concerns about an issue ... to which we attach particular importance: the definition of the crime of aggression," US war crimes ambassador Stephen Rapp told a gathering in The Hague of the International Criminal Court's Assembly of State Parties (ASP).

"Israeli politicians are reportedly setting out their ideas for the creation of a Palestinian state in a move that comes after the PA suggested asking the UN to recognise the Occupied Territories as an independent Palestinian state. Is this just an attempt to buy time and draw attention away from the stalled peace process?"

Kahane's children today..

60 Minutes Rabbi MEIR KAHANE PART 1 and 2

Kahane tribute may damage peace talks
By Jonathan Cook, The National, November 19, 2009
A plan by right-wing legislators in Israel to commemorate the anniversary this month of the death of Meir Kahane, whose banned anti-Arab movement is classified as a terrorist organisation, risks further damaging the prospects for talks between Israel and the Palestinians, US officials have warned.
(Thanks VAA)

Blogs on a roll

I've added a couple of blogs to the blog roll (in addition to Jemmy's) that I recommend. One of them is the much needed "The Hasbara Buster"..Throw in an oeil, s'il vous plait, they're bros!

"Swearing At The Telly"

Found this gem on Jemmy's blog, " Swearing At The Telly " that I heartily recommend:..
"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell."
Edward Abbey.
And we all know the end of it.. Death of the body on/in which it thrives..

The fight for survival

They have farmed these fields for 300 years. They once owned 60 dunums (60,000 square metres) but now have four (4,000 square metres) - the rest has been confiscated by Israeli settlers. The Jabers fight to farm on the land they have left.
As his family clashes with workers from Israel's water authority, employed to rip up the irrigation systems for their tomato plants, and the Israeli soldiers protecting them, Yosri Jaber, a school teacher, explains: "These clashes with the Israeli authorities are a regular thing; they happen every two to three months or so.

"People try to make out that the conflict is more profound than it is: a clash of civilisations, a clash of religions, about what the bible says. It is not. It is about one group of people trying to steal another people’s country. I don’t find that so complicated! I don’t believe it requires a degree in rocket science to decipher its mysteries, in the same way that it doesn’t require any profound knowledge to understand why Native Americans fought back. It wasn’t because of a clash of civilisations, or because of anti-Christianism or anti-Europeanism or some such, it was because they were being displaced and dispossessed from their homeland – and so they resisted."

The American threat of radicalism

The US-based Anti-Defamation League is usually far more interested in slamming critics of Israel, but its latest report makes for sobering reading:

Since the election of Barack Obama as president, a current of anti-government hostility has swept across the United States, creating a climate of fervor and activism with manifestations ranging from incivility in public forums to acts of intimidation and violence.

How do Palestinians build a state with 500,000 colonists in the way?

"Two recent articles in the Israeli press indicate the direction some of the Middle East debate is moving. Praise the “moderate” Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad while ignoring the ever-growing colonies in the West Bank. We should always be suspicious when occupiers praise the occupied:"
Antony Loewenstein

Anyone knows of a cure for epilepsy? Fleming is having a fit. Hehe..

Rights not equal

Anna Baltzer, author, and Haithem El-Zabri, founder of the Palestine Online Store. Austin, TX.

Sa'id Barghouti – Palestinian History and Identity in Israeli Schools

"Of course Palestine was, and has remained, inhabited by its Arab-Palestinian population, who have marked it with its culture, landmarks, and language. But the Zionist narrative avoids facing this reality. This is expressed in Israeli educational texts and curricula through:
* the secularization of myths from the Torah, i.e. their transformation into facts: the myth of the promised land, for example, is turned into an actual land of the forefathers and the presentation of Israel as the historical homeland of the Jewish nation;
* promotion of a system of social beliefs, such as we are victims, we call for peace, our wars are defensive, our arms are pure, Palestinians hate us, they are the aggressors;10
selectiveness in the choice of facts and explanations, ignoring contradictory arguments, especially facts connected to Arab-Palestinian history, or at best, presenting them as a narrative that is part of distorted history.
Palestine think tank

Barak: We must crush IDF refusal with an iron fist

Defense Minister Ehud Barak reiterated on Saturday his pledge to crack down on Israel Defense Forces soldiers who refuse to carry out orders, saying Israel should not hesitate to act forcefully to crush the phenomenon.
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No you won't, you war criminal! The only blood you'll ever want to spill is non-Jewish blood!

Ok, who's left open the door of the oven? We can hardly breath in here! But then again it's Summer.

Iran cleric: We'll hit 'heart of Tel Aviv' if attacked

Ok, Who wants to bet that the mention "if attacked" will be dropped from the headlines in the... US?
Btw, the headline above is from Haaretz..

Ultra-Orthodox say no way to mosque, church at Ben-Gurion airport

Ultra-Orthodox political pressure has stalled the construction of a church and a mosque at Ben-Gurion International Airport for the past five years, aviation sources told Haaretz.

Hamas and Gaza militants 'to end Israel rocket attacks'

Hamas says it has agreed with other Palestinian militant groups in Gaza to stop firing rockets into Israel.
Fathi Hammad, who acts as Hamas interior minister, said the ceasefire aimed to prevent retaliatory attacks by Israel and build stability.

But he said rockets would continue to be fired from the Gaza Strip in the event of any Israeli incursions.

Settlements aren’t really colonies, says the Washington Post

Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting on the continuing ability of the US corporate press to evade telling the truth about the Middle East:

The big news out of the Middle East yesterday was the Israeli government’s decision to approve an expansion of the Gilo settlement near Jerusalem. The White House’s muddled position on settlement expansion has been a key part of Israel-Palestine negotiations. Many headlines framed the news as you’d expect (New York Times: “Plan to Expand Jerusalem Settlement Angers U.S.”, for example) .

The Washington Post, though, went with this headline today: “Housing Plan for Jerusalem Neighborhood Spurs Criticism.”
Antony Loewenstein

Robert Fisk : Obama will be worse than Bush

Johann Hari: The real reason Obama is not making much progress

(contributed by Maracatu)

A group of Democratic senators have tried to amend the latest customs bill to ensure that nothing produced by slaves should be sold in the United States. It sounds uncontroversial – as uncontroversial as punishing rapists, in fact. Yet corporate lobbyists are militating behind the scenes to oppose it. As the private subscription-only newsletter "Inside US Trade" reported: "Business groups are worried by the potential effects", and a source tells them there will be, "a push from lobbyists closer to the Finance Committee mark-up of the bill... US industry groups and foreign governments [ie those that use slave labour] could form ad hoc coalitions to help send a united message." They will fight for their right to use slave labour.

Yesterday was the quietest day in record for this blog! What was up with you fellows?

Oprah Winfrey announces her retirement. I'm not sure if I should give a rat's bottom or not!! Actually I'm sure. I don't!

Einstein, Israel etc...

Does it really matter if Einstein opposed or supported the idea of a "Jewish state" in Palestine? Does this make it legitimate or less legitimate either way? If the answer is yes, it matters, then, well, he OPPOSED it!

Israeli Poll: Transfer (Ethnic cleansing) Tops Solutions to Arab-Israeli Problem

Transfer of Arabs from the Palestinian Authority to actual Arab countries was the most popular solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, according to a poll this week by Israel National News. Of the more than 6,400 people surveyed, 53.2 said 'Transfer of Palestinians to another Arab country' when asked, "What's the best solution for the Arab-Israeli conflict?"

The "two-states for two peoples" solution being pushed by the United States and the international community received 30.8 percent support, while the idea of giving Palestinians Jordanian citizenship was approved by 14.5 percent. Maintaining the status quo received 1.3 percent of the vote.
Via the Palestinian Pundit
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In a poll where I was the only participant, 100% are in favor of a transfer of the racist and sick israeli state back to Europe!

Culture and mental illness

"Psychological disorders, or at least our labels for them, differ across cultures. But are these and other non-Western conditions truly distinct from those in the U.S. and Europe?"
Scientific American

Gene therapy success

Gene Therapy Success in Monkeys. Muscles were 15% bigger, 78% stronger and the effect lasted for the 15 month study with no negative health effects. Human Trials start in 2010

...and a wall runs through it.

One should ask himself. Why should a "security fence" run in the MIDDLE of a town and not around it( if it had to!!)?

This could be titled" All the good things we missed on by electing the tall black dude".. A moron

The rape is still going on Mr. Sand

I take an issue with Shlomo Sand's view that the birth of Israel, though a fruit of a rape, the child, still should be recognised. My humble view is that the rape in question did not end with the birth of the "cute" little thing, it is STILL going on as we speak! I'm surprised that Sand has overlooked such an important point. The whole question of legitimacy is to be reconsidered in the light of this broad light collective rape.

Opposition to Shlomo Sand's book goes apoplectic

"Goodness gracious, coincidentally I had just been discussing, not so much the Khazar hypothesis itself, but if it has any genuine or valid ramifications for, well anything at all really. Then I get this email linking to a Jerusalem Post article headed TAU historian accused of anti-Semitism about how the Board of Deputies and its provisional wing, the Community Security Trust, are saying that the book by Shlomo Sand taking issue with the idea that the Jews of today are the direct descendants of the Israelites of biblical times is actually antisemitic."
Jews Sans Frontieres
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No kidding!!

Jonathan Cook on how the media's reports on the colonists numbers are manipulated and concealed

I came across this while reading a rather "old" (3 June 2009) article by Jonathan Cook..It's a gem..

"There are about half a million Jews living illegally on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. Give or take the odd few thousand (Israel is slow to update its figures), there are nearly 300,000 settlers in the West Bank and a further 200,000 in East Jerusalem.
Sounds simple. So what is to be made of this fairly typical line from a report issued by AFP last week: "More than 280,000 settlers currently live in settlements dotted throughout the Palestinian territory that Israel captured during the 1967 Six Day War"?
Or this from AP: "The US considers the settlements -- home to nearly 300,000 Israelis -- obstacles to peace because they are built on captured territory the Palestinians claim for a future state"?

Where are the missing 200,000 settlers?

The answer is that they are to be found in East Jerusalem, which increasingly means for agency reporters that they are not considered settlers at all.

Zionist "StandWithUs" money trail reveals neocon funders

Eli Clifton, The Electronic Intifada
StandWithUs -- an "organization that ensures that Israel's side of the story is told"
has become increasingly aggressive in challenging the "pro-Israel" credentials of moderate Jewish-American groups, going so far as to suggest that receiving money from Arab donors and supporters of Human Rights Watch undermines a group's commitment to Israel and peace.
But an IPS (Israel Lobby Watch) investigation into the tax records of the donors to StandWithUs, which professes to be ideologically neutral, found a web of funders who support organizations that have been accused of anti-Muslim propaganda and encouraging a militant Israeli and US foreign policy in the Middle East.

A Palestinian century in a poet's life

This land is a whore
holding out a hand to the years ...
Our land makes love to the sailors
and strips naked before the newcomers ...
there seems to be nothing that would bind it to us,
and I -- if not for the lock of your hair,
auburn as the nectar of carob ...
Your braid
is the only thing
linking me, like a noose, to this whore.

And so I come to the place itself ...
Where are the bleating lambs
and pomegranates of evening --
the smell of bread
and the grouse?
Where are the windows,
and where is the ease of Amira's braid?
Palestinian poet Taha Muhammad Ali

Goose bumps as I read this poet that I only heard of a couple of times. Here, a review of a biography of Taha, "My happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness" by Adina Hoffman.

Austria: Israel Undermining Any Peace Process

"Israel's ongoing settlement policy is increasingly becoming a targeted effort to undermine any peace process," AFP quoted Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger as saying in a statement on Thursday.

In a NY synagogue, Roger Cohen (The New York Times) demolishes neoconservative Bret Stephens

It may not be going too far to say that New York Times columnist Roger Cohen fell in love with the people of Iran during his lengthy visits earlier this year. He met noble, intelligent, and independent people, whose civilization affected him "deeply"– as he says it affects anyone who spends time there. Running through clouds of teargas during the political crisis of June, he seems to have made a complete identification with the protesters’ spirit, and have vowed to defend these people against all prejudice in the west.
Philip Weiss

I'd like to thank Anan, yes yes, for rushing to my defense on a blog where I've been poking fun and cracking jokes, maybe a bit impolitely I should add, at some Russian Israeli supremacist thugs. Anan asked them to excuse me because, though I have a big heart for Palestine and smart, I'm not one to argue "rationally". The big irony and the fun part here is that last time I checked I wasn't the one who was arguing on many occasions that George W. invaded Iraq because Saddam tried to kill his dad, were I your honor? Or that Gore Vidal is an "idiot", were I? Thanks anyway for such a well articulated and rational plea. I know you meant well and everything but please, next time, allow me to be in charge of my own defense, thank you.

Encaged

The Architecture of Apartheid
By Sarah Lazare
and Clare Bayard
The word "Revenge" is scrawled in Hebrew on a Palestinian school in Hebron. The windows are covered with screens and the play yard obstructed with more screens tipped with barbed wire, to obstruct the stones regularly pelted down by Jewish settlers. The space between the school and the neighboring building is blocked off with large, wooden slabs, to ensure that Palestinian school children do not encroach into settler territory. Nearby checkpoints and cameras placed on rooftops serve as constant reminder that these kids' every movement is monitored and contained.
ZNET via the Palestinian Pundit

A call for boycott

The Palestine Authority has called on the public to boycott several large supermarket chains in the West Bank that carry Israeli products.
The decision targets upscale markets in Ramallah, in an attempt to pressure the stores to discontinue the sale of fruits and vegetables grown and processed on Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Militants' possession of Israeli arms raises questions

ISLAMABAD – Use of Israeli-made light arms by militants against security forces in Waziristan has raised several questions amongst many recently.
TheNation has learnt on good authority that militants are using Israeli-made light arms including “Uzi gun” and “Rapid-fire pistol” against security forces in North Waziristan as the operation Rah-I-Rast reached its final stage.

Plus ca change..

"Treat all men alike. Give them the same laws. Give them all an even chance to live and grow. All men were made by the same Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers. The earth is the mother of all people, and all people should have equal rights upon it. You might as well expect all rivers to run backward as that any man who was born a free man should be contented penned up and denied liberty to go where he pleases. If you tie a horse to a stake, do you expect he will grow fat? If you pen an Indian up on a small spot of earth and compel him to stay there, he will not be contented nor will he grow and prosper. I have asked some of the Great White Chiefs where they get their authority to say to the Indian that he shall stay in one place, while he sees white men going where they please. They cannot tell me.
I only ask of the Government to be treated as all other men are treated. If I cannot go to my own home, let me have a home in a country where my people will not die so fast. I would like to go to Bitter Root Valley. There my people would be happy; where they are now they are dying. Three have died since I left my camp to come to Washington."
Chief Joseph upon a trip to Washington–1876

American Jews wanted to build more colonies

(Robin Benosf, right, an American Jew from Teaneck, N.J., helps to lay the cornerstone for Nof Tzion, a new east Jerusalem neighborhood( yeah right!), Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009)
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat is coming to the US to drum up support among American Jews for his plans for the city. He hopes to find Jewish "shareholders" for several special economic zones that will focus on culture, life sciences and tourism
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There's something pornographic about this photo..Obscene!

Boycott pressure on Gulf states

Dubai: A pressure campaign targeted at Gulf states was launched in Occupied Jerusalem on Monday by a coalition of 170 Palestinian organisations urging Arab states to boycott companies complicit in Israel's expansion in the holy city.

Poor women 'bear climate burden'

"But women, particularly in poor countries, will be affected differently from men, the UNFPA added.

Describing "a cycle of deprivation", the report said that women in developing countries did a larger share of farming and had less access to income-earning opportunities."

Wackos galore rereredux

Somali woman stoned for adultery
A judge working for the militant group al-Shabab said she had had an affair with an unmarried 29-year-old man.
BBC

Rabbi 'offered cocaine for sex'

A rabbi financed a drug-dealing business and offered cocaine to girls in exchange for sex, a court heard.
BBC

Death of an Iran prison doctor raises suspicion

An Iranian doctor who treated victims of torture at Tehran's most feared prison has died, amid conflicting reports of a heart attack, a car accident or suicide — raising opposition accusations that the 26-year-old was killed.

New Zealand tops Denmark as world's least corrupt nation

New Zealand topped the table with a score of 9.4 after coming second last year. In second place was last year's leader, Denmark with 9.3 followed by Singapore and Sweden tying at 9.2 and Switzerland at 9.0.
Countries at the bottom of the table were those which are unstable or impacted by war and ongoing conflicts that have affected the public sector and torn apart governance infrastructure.
Somalia had a score of 1.1, Afghanistan was 1.3, Myanmar ranked 1.4 and Sudan tied with Iraq at 1.5.

Silicon Sweatshops

Despite strict "codes of conduct," labor rights violations are the norm at factories making the world's favorite high-tech gadgets.
"Hourly wages below a dollar. Firings with no notice. Indifferent bosses. Labor brokers that leech away months of a worker's hard-earned wages. A corporate shell game that leaves no one responsible."

Colonies must go!

"For decades, residents of Tuba Village had a direct road to the village of At-Tuwani, and onward to the regional economic hub of Yatta. The Israeli settlement of Ma’on and its neighbouring illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on were built directly on that road, blocking all Palestinian traffic and forcing villagers onto long dirt paths through the hills, adding as much as two hours to a journey."

Manipulation by design. Not very intelligent

Today the minions of Ray Comfort handed out a reprint of Darwin's 'The Origin of Species' with a 50 page intro by a religious fundamentalist.

Baseball team ( Mets) urged to cut ties with settler (colonist) organization

A coalition of 11 US, Israeli and Palestinian groups are calling on the New York Mets baseball team to cancel a fundraiser by the "violent and racist" Israeli Hebron Fund which is scheduled to be held at the Mets' stadium, Citi Field, on 21 November.
Electronic Intifada

Israeli judge rules Arabs need "protection" from justice system

An Israeli judge made an historic ruling last week when he decided that an Arab teenager needed "protection" from the justice system and ordered that he not be convicted despite being found guilty of throwing stones at a police car during a protest against Israel's attack last winter on Gaza.

Prosecutors had demanded that the juvenile, a 17-year-old from Nazareth in northern Israel, be convicted of endangering a vehicle on the road, a charge that carries a punishment of up to 20 years' imprisonment, as a way to deter other members of Israel's Palestinian Arab minority from committing similar offenses.
Electronic Intifada

Meanwhile, Israeli bulldozers have demolished two homes in East Jerusalem, a further cause of Palestinian anger.

Thirty people were displaced when the first home was knocked down in the Beit Hanina area of East Jerusalem on Tuesday evening, rights groups said.

Israel to build 900 house units in occupied Jerusalem.Obama warns !

US President Barack Obama has said Israel's approval of 900 extra housing units at a settlement in East Jerusalem could lead to a "dangerous" situation.
BBC
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Why? Is it not "dangerous" enough already?

Norman Finkelstein's approach..No nonsense... Just where international law stands on the issue

No personal opinions..No nonsense! Just straightforward statements about where international law stands in regards to the conflict..Composure, calm and cold blooded demolition of a pathetic and biased TV journalist. Oh, yes, and that 'Khhamaas' from the Israeli representative is now legendary!

Gideon Levy: Israel is addicted to the occupation

"...and benefits from it economically"

Israel says would have to respond by annexation to any unilateral move

JERUSALEM, Nov 16 (Reuters) - Israel warned the Palestinians on Monday that declaring a state without concluding a peace agreement would lead to Israeli counter-measures that could include annexation of more of the occupied West Bank

China today: socialist or capitalist?

The privatisation of industry proceeded very rapidly during the 1990s, and continued more slowly thereafter. The state sector's share of industrial production fell from 100% in 1978 to 37.5% in 1999 and 31.6% in 2004. The private sector's share was 62.1% in 2004, while the share of collectively owned enterprises was 4.6%.

Israeli soldiers protest razing of settler (colonist) homes

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A group of Israeli soldiers disobeyed orders Monday to help in the dismantling of several structures that Jewish settlers(colonists) had built without government authorization in the occupied West Bank.
The mutiny followed a similar incident last month that raised concern in Israel about rebellion in the ranks of soldiers opposed on religious or political grounds to any settler(colonist) evacuation in a future peace deal with the Palestinians.

Right-wing groups creating climate of fear at Israeli universities

Jonathan Cook, The Electronic Intifada
Right-wing groups in Israel want to create a climate of fear among left-wing scholars at Israeli universities by emulating the "witch-hunt" tactics of the US academic monitoring group Campus Watch, Israeli professors warn.

The watchdog groups IsraCampus and Israel Academia Monitor are believed to be stepping up their campaigns after the recent publication in a US newspaper of an Israeli professor's call to boycott Israel.

"I have no hesitation in calling this a McCarthyite campaign," said David Newman, a politics professor at Ben Gurion University, in Israel's southern city of Beersheva. "What they are doing is very dangerous."

Argentina protesters to Peres: You deserve Nobel for murder

Thousands of people in Buenos Aires protested against President Shimon Peres' visit to Argentina on Monday, some of whom carried a banner telling the octogenarian he deserved a Nobel Prize for murder.

U.S. politician wants American Jews to buy West Bank homes

An influential Jewish community leader and Democratic State Assemblyman from New York is currently heading a mission of about 50 Americans through the West Bank and East Jerusalem to promote home purchases in the area and to protest U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East policy.
"Our goal is to send a clear message to Washington and President Obama that Jews will continue to live in Judea and Samaria and the ultimate commitment American Jews can make is to actually come and buy property in these areas as this will ensure these communities" security and growth," said Dov Hikind, 59, who has been representing Brooklyn's 48th district since 1983.

Rabbi who endorses killing babies has an unexpected donor

Akiva Eldar, Haaretz
Right-wing spokesmen, including some elected officials, rushed to place Yaakov "Jack" Teitel in the fringe group alongside Yigal Amir, Eden Natan Zada, Eliran Golan, Asher Weisgan, Danny Tikman and a few other "political/ideological" murderers.
True, they acknowledge, there are among us several lunatic rabbis who agitate to violence. Really, just a handful; even a toddler could count them.
The more stringent will note that unlike the Hamas government, our government does not pay the salaries of rabbis who advocate the killing of babies.
Is that so? Not really.

Palestinians under world pressure not to declare state unilaterally

The Palestinian Authority is coming under increasing pressure ­ from Israel and the international community ­to back down from its threat to unilaterally declare a state without first concluding a peace agreement with Israel.
On Monday evening, The United States on Monday reaffirmed its support for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through negotiations, in its first official response to the Palestinian plan.
Haaretz

United States of Canaan

"There are various forms of having democracy and plurality in the Land of Canaan. My book on Sharing the Land of Canaan basically summarizes the mythologies used to prevent this logical solution and articulates a vision shared by millions around the world. Indeed it is the only viable and durable solution to the conundrums of the Middle East.
All solutions that are durable would have to be based on basic human rights and equality. In fact these principles are articulated admirably in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Exhibit 1). This would obviously include the right of refugees to return to their homes and lands and abolishing any discriminatory and racist laws (such as the so called "Jewish Law of Return" guranteeing any Jew including converts automatic citizenship whilE denying it to natives who happen to be Christian or Muslim). The Constitution of the ANC in South Africa provides a good model."
Qumsiyeh: A Human Rights Web

Palestinian push for an independent state causes Israeli alarm

Netanyahu to denounce Prime Minister's drive to sidestep Israel and secure support from UN Security Council

By Donald Macintyre in Ramallah
Palestinian leaders from President Mahmoud Abbas down have alarmed Israeli ministers by swinging their weight behind a planned effort to secure UN backing for a unilaterally declared independent state in the West Bank and Gaza.
In an innovative strategy which would not depend on the success of currently stalled negotiations with Israel, the leaders are preparing a push to secure formal UN Security Council support for a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders as a crucial first step towards the formation of a state.
The independant(thanks vza)

"loyalty to the Zionist vision" a condition of acceptance into the community

Less than six months after two northern communities proposed changing their bylaws to make "loyalty to the Zionist vision" a condition of acceptance into the community, a third has just followed suit.
Haaretz
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This comment on the article:"Thank goodness this sort of thing is illegal in the U.S."

A Science Fiction Story by Fidel Castro

"I very much regret to have to criticize Obama knowing that there are in that country other could-be presidents worse than him. I am aware that that position in the United States is today a major headache. The best example of this is the report in yesterday's edition of Granma that 237 US members of Congress, or 44%, are millionaires. This does not mean that every one of them is an incorrigible reactionary but it is extremely difficult that they feel like the many million Americans who do not have access to medical care, who are unemployed or who need to work very hard to earn their living."
ZNet

Egypt launches first Arabic web domain

Egypt will open the world's first Arabic language internet domain, its communications minister has said.
Tarek Kamel said the new domain name would be ".masr" written in the Arabic alphabet. It translates as ".Egypt".

Hasbara in detail..It's all about how to use deceit

The Israel Project's 2009 Global Language Dictionary
Newsweek
And here: "The Hasbara Handbook- Promoting Israel on Campus"
(The Irony here is that their logo is a...SPIN!!)
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I've always been intrigued by the fact that pro-Israel and Israel groupies use basically exactly the same arguments. For example: Why this argument "They teach their children to hate" is one of the most recurrent arguments used on blogs? I can see now why.

Pro-Israel lobby group bankrolling Tories( British Conservative Party), film claims

Pro-Israeli organisations in Britain look set to see their influence increase if the Conservatives win the next election, a film scrutinising the activities of a powerful but little-known lobby warns today.

At least half of the shadow cabinet are members of the Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI), according to a Dispatches programme being screened on Channel 4. The programme-makers describe the CFI as "beyond doubt the most well- connected and probably the best funded of all Westminster lobbying groups".
The Guardian(Thanks vza)

"1967 was a turning point in global attitudes to Israel"

“I believed it all. When the Life Magazine cover came out after the 1967 war, with the Israelis on the tank, I thought, This is really a miracle. The people who were almost wiped out in the Holocaust have been reborn. They’re so goodlooking, and they have kibbutzes, they’re on the land, and they won’t be defeated. I never thought that it involved displacing other people. I’ve come to think that I was brainwashed.”

Mustapha Barghouti: Palestinian People Will Not Live As Slaves Under Occupation

“We witness today the complete death of the so called peace process” concluded Barghouti “but nothing will prevent the Palestinian people from declaring their independent state. Israel does not respect the law and it contravenes Oslo agreements, increasing the number of illegal settlements in West Bank, perpetrating the siege on Gaza and stealing Palestinian land with the ongoing construction of the wall. Why should a declaration of an independent state on June 4 1967 borders, including east Jerusalem constitute a violation of the Oslo agreement?”

“We refuse to be slaves of occupation, slaves in ghettos.”

Helena Cobban: 3,800 factories and workshops employing 130,000 workers were destroyed in Gaza

"We had a meeting with a local business leader, Wadih al-Masry, who told us that 3,800 factories and workshops, that previously employed 130,000 workers were destroyed during the invasion.
He was completely scathing about the Israelis’ claims that the assault/invasion had done anything to combat terrorism. Quite the opposite, he said."

IDF Chief Rabbi: Troops who show mercy to enemy will be 'damned'

The Israel Defense Forces' chief rabbi told students in a pre-army yeshiva program last week that soldiers who "show mercy" toward the enemy in wartime will be "damned."
Speaking Thursday at the Hesder yeshiva in the West Bank settlement of Karnei Shomron , Rontzki referred to Maimonides' discourse on the laws of war. That text quotes a passage from the Book of Jeremiah stating: "Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord with a slack hand, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood."
Haaretz
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"doeth the work of the Lord" !?
Oh! How I love this one!

Iraqi freedom coming through cancer and deformities

Antony Loewenstein
"Evidence of US war crimes in Iraq are almost too frequent to document. “Our” side is brutal and remains so. Back in 2006, I heard two speakers in Sydney explain the situation at that time and included were discussions of the use of napalm by the US in Fallujah.

So how to explain this?
"Doctors in Iraq’s war-ravaged enclave of Falluja are dealing with up to 15 times as many chronic deformities in infants and a spike in early life cancers that may be linked to toxic materials left over from the fighting.

The extraordinary rise in birth defects has crystallised over recent months as specialists working in Falluja’s over-stretched health system have started compiling detailed clinical records of all babies born.

Neurologists and obstetricians in the city interviewed by the Guardian say the rise in birth defects – which include a baby born with two heads, babies with multiple tumours, and others with nervous system problems – are unprecedented and at present unexplainable."

Claude Levi-Strauss on his visit to Israel

"Je suis allé une fois en Israël. J'ai dit à mes interlocuteurs que je les considérais comme les acteurs de la neuvième croisade. Ils m'ont répondu que c'était vrai, mais eux avaient amené leurs femmes. Pendant ce voyage en Israël, le seul endroit où je me sois vraiment senti chez moi est une église Franciscaine. A peine une chapelle, je crois."
Translation:
"I visited Israel once. I told people whom I talked to that I consider them as the actors/players in the ninth crusade. They said yes but unlike them we brought our women with us. During this visit the only place I felt at home was a Franciscan church. Hardly a chapel, I believe."
Claude Levi-Strauss passed away last week. A giant intellect, author of the groundbreaking 'Tristes Tropiques' ( Sad Tropics), an essay in Anthropology which researches the devastating impact of colonisation on the indigenous people of Brazil and the Caribeans. He's also considered as central figure of the Structuralist school of thought..

Best joke of the decade and probably the century!

Israel Seeks Fairness From ‘New York Times’
"I write in connection to a series of articles published in The New York Times in recent weeks regarding the Report of the United Nations Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, colloquially referred to as the Goldstone Report. I am deeply concerned by the subjective and often damning language that The New York Times uses towards Israel as it fails to accurately reflect the nature and scope of the report."
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Very funny..

Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver :Morocco has more women in gov't than Israel

Immigrant Absorption Minister Sofa Landver speaks at Euro-Med conference on status of women held in Morocco, says Israel falls behind even some Arabs states with regards to number of female ministers in office
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What I find outrageous here is that Morocco has ties with the occupying state.

Israel 'personally attacking human rights group' after Gaza war criticism

The Guardian
America's leading human rights organisation has accused Israel and its supporters of an "organised campaign" of false allegations and misinformation, including "extremely personal attacks" on its staff, in an attempt to discredit the group over its reports of war crimes in Gaza.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) ties the campaign – which has included accusations that the group's reports on the Jewish state are written by "anti-Israel ideologues" and that it has sought funds from Saudi Arabia – to a statement by a senior official in the Israeli prime minister's office in June pledging to "dedicate time and manpower to combating" human rights organisations.

“Why can’t they”?

From the Angry Arab
I hate it when I hear American liberals say: why can't the Palestinians resort to peaceful resistance? Answer: 1) why is the Palestinian national movement the only movement that is asked to resort to non-violence? American liberals supported the struggle for blacks against apartheid without requesting or insisting that their struggle strictly adhere to non-violence. 2) the Palestinians largely stuck to peaceful struggle from 1948 to mid-1960s: and Israeli occupation troops killed thousands of Palestinian civilians who tried to peacefully enter Israel to check on their properties and houses (read the tally in Benny Morris' Righteous Victims). 3) some Palestinians still resort to non-violence, and Israel still manages to shoot at them: "Naalin: Protestors say IDF using live fire."

The Israel lobby and the Jewish kings

Philip Weiss
When people ask why Obama has capitulated to the prime minister of a tiny state– Bibi Netanyahu– various theories are offered about Health care first, or the economy, or Afghanistan, or oil. Few say directly: Netanyahu feels invulnerable because of the Israel lobby in the U.S. As readers of this site know, I am a bull on this issue: I think the lobby has a tremendous amount of power. And all efforts to poohpooh its influence strike me as foolish until such time as the media address it openly and vigorously, as they do, say, the gun lobby. Once there’s information and sunshine, we can argue about its magnitude.

Ynet: Israel in midst of freefall on global front

"A thorn in the world’s side"

"The current anti-Israel wave is particularly dangerous especially because it is not limited to the media and to leftist groups that traditionally were classified as “Israel haters.” This wave is rising, expending, drawing young people, and painting the perceptions of the well-established middle class and influential elites.
Israel’s image has hit a nadir; it is isolated, unwanted, and perceived as bad. The world is telling us that should we continue along the same contemptible path, we will lose our legitimacy."
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A lot of nonsense in the article too. Especially when he attributes the causes for a deteriorating "image" to the Netanyahoo govt conveniently overlooking the onslaught on Gaza.

Colonists attack school children

(School children from Twaneh school being accompanied by Israeli military)
"Sometimes they chase us with their horses, ride them at us and try to use them to hurt us. The horses are so fast we can't get away. It's very frightening. But they don't harass us nearly so much when the military are there."
Unfortunately, the patrol is not always reliable. Last Monday, Ali and the other children waited as they do every morning at 7am for their Israeli escorts but they didn't come. Eventually, they decided to walk the long way, a 12km detour around the settlements, which took them two hours.