Nobel-winning economist supports ‘Occupy Wall Street’

Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz showed up at “Occupy Wall Street” this week to show his support for the protest and clearly outline what he sees as the worst crimes of the American financial sector.

In a brief speech amplified by an “echo chamber” of protesters (who shouted Stiglitz’s own words as a group because they’re banned from using megaphones), the Colombia University professor said that Wall Street had become wealthy by “socializing losses and privatizing gain,” calling it a scheme that’s “not capitalism.”

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Islamic Artisans Constructed Exotic Nonrepeating Pattern 500 Years Before Mathematicians

As early as the 15th century, elaborate symmetrical tile work on medieval Islamic buildings contained patterns straight out of modern math
Scientific American

ELABORATE SYMMETRICAL tile work on medieval Islamic buildings, such as this 15th-century Turkish mosque, seem to have been constructed from sets of decorated tiles.

Medieval Islamic artisans seem to have developed a procedure for creating jigsawlike mosaics that ultimately led them to an exotic pattern that mathematicians would discover nearly half a millennium later. Researchers report that 15th-century buildings in Iran feature tiles arranged in a so-called quasicrystal, which is symmetric but does not repeat itself regularly.

"Here is evidence it [the pattern] was being used, if not understood, 500 years ahead of when we had any idea what was going on with [it] in the West," says physics graduate student Peter J. Lu of Harvard University. Lu began poring over photos from Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan after seeing hints of the pattern while traveling in Uzbekistan. The Islamic artisans seem to have spun a wide variety of symmetric traceries from a set of five shapes, according to a report Lu co-authored, published online February 22 in Science.

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Settlers' sexually abuse activist. Their wives applaud

Anatot Pogrom Victims Suffered Sexual Abuse

Image from settlers publication, 'The True Right' with caption: 'Nazileftist smashed with blows.'

If all I did in this post was tell you about the suffering of Israeli peace activists who were beaten and brutalized at a pogrom at Anatot a few days ago, I would be telling you little that was newsworthy or that you didn’t know already. I’ve already reported here that senior Israeli police officers not only stood by and did nothing while bones were broken and one settler attempted to knife a protester, but that the police actually directly beat up the activists who’d come to support a Palestinian farmer whose land had been stolen by the settlement.

No, all this would be old news. But what Idan Landau has done is to focus very specifically on the level of sexual violence meted out to the female protesters by the settlers. But not just by the male settlers, by the female settlers specifically. I’ve read about the violence of which settlers are capable for years. That’s nothing new. But what Idan has collected in his blog post is new. Here is my translation (pardon the strong language which is in the original Hebrew) along with links to the original Hebrew eyewitness sources. Israeli journalist Haggai Matar quotes this victim:

“Outside [the vehicle], settlers are banging on the windows making a sign with their fingers drawn across their throats to show that they would slash my throat. They shriek: ‘Bring her outside [the vehicle]. We’ll deal with her. Give her what she has coming to her, the whore!’”

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Why the UN must abolish the 'Quartet' that Tony Blair uses for personal profit.

Tony Blair has been accused of using his position in the Quartet to further his personal business interests [GALLO/GETTY]

It was formed to assist in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, in reality, envoy Tony Blair uses it for personal profit.
Quartet envoy Tony Blair has been the target of stinging criticism of late from officials close to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas. There have even been murmurs that Abbas' officials may formally request Blair's removal.

While Blair's Quartet role, which he took up the day he left office as UK prime minister in 2007, has undoubtedly been harmful to the Palestinian people and to any semblance of international law, it would not be enough to call for Blair to go.

It is the Quartet itself - an ad hoc committee of US, EU and Russian officials, and the UN Secretary General, that monopolises the so-called "peace process" - that has destroyed what little credibility the United Nations has left on the question of Palestine.
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Bloggers say Arab Spring has gone global

Prominent Arab bloggers, who meet in Tunis, say their methods are being picked up by activists in the West.

Some of the participants pose for a photo during the opening of the third Arab Bloggers Conference in Tunis [EPA]

TUNIS, Tunisia – New forms of activism that have evolved in the Arab world in 2011 are being picked up by activists in the West, speakers at the Third Arab Bloggers' Meeting have affirmed.

The meeting is the first since the uprisings began, and brings some of the most prominent bloggers in the region together for a three-day gathering.

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UK has 'worst quality of life in Europe'

Survey of 10 developed European countries puts UK at bottom of the pile due to high costs of living, while France takes top spot

The UK has the second lowest hours of sunshine a year of the countries included in the uSwitch quality of life index.

The UK has been named the worst place to live in Europe for quality of life, behind countries with damaged economies such as Ireland and Italy, according to the latest uSwitch quality of life index.

The UK emerged as having the second lowest hours of sunshine a year, the fourth highest retirement age, and the third lowest spend on health as a percentage of GDP.

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Nasser’s Anniversary: Toward a Reassessment, As'ad AbuKhalil

As'ad Abu Khalil
This year’s anniversary of Nasser’s death passed with more notice in the Egyptian press and culture than years past. Even the military ruler, Field Marshal Tantawi, paid tribute to Nasser and spoke about his achievements. Nasser has been a reference point in the Egyptian uprising: not so much in terms of revival of Arab nationalism, because Egyptian nationalist fervor is quite strong, but in terms of the elevation of his stature after decades of vicious propaganda campaigns by the Sadat-Mubarak regime against Nasser and his family. The memoirs of Nasser’s wife, Tahiya, were published only months prior to the eruption of the Egyptian uprising. It is arguable that the life of the Nasser couple, as revealed in her memoirs, was one of many sparks that triggered the Egyptian uprising. The modesty and frugality of the Nasser’s household was a great contrast with the imperial lifestyle of emperors Sadat and Mubarak.
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The Palestine conference in Tehran: discourse that does not get reported in Zionist media

angryarab
It is amazing how much Zionists control the media coverage (and congressional deliberations and decisions) in the US. How many of you, for example, were aware that the Supreme Guide in Iran spoke against the slogan of "throwing the Jews into the sea" and explicitly said that it was not "their intentions". In fact, comrade Ibrahim Amin in Al-Akhbar wrote that this ostensible goal was never a stated goal for any serious resistance group in the region and yet Zionist hoodlums made it out to be a cherished goals for Arabs when no Arab was found to have made it (I only found one sentence uttered by the founder of the Muslim Brothers, Hasan Al-Banna in 1948 in Al-Musawwar--research the archives here). Of course, the Israeli military (air force to be exact) gave a military communique-order in 1967 in which it explicitly and categorically called for pushing the Arabs into the desert (you may find it in Michael Oren's Six Days of War--again, search the archives here). It was mentioned in passing and the impulses of ethnic cleansing of Zionists never get attention in Western media. In other words, if Khamenei said: we don't want to throw Jews into the sea, it is not news. But if some unknown unidentified Muslims in a village in some faraway land said it would be front page story in the New York Times. Now, of course, the conference in Tehran is empty and has no agenda except the delivery of long boring speeches. But my favorite part of the entire conference was the presence of Ahmad Chalabi there.

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Masters of deceit: Israel Builds Settlements and Wants Talks

JERUSALEM — Days after his halfhearted conciliatory U.N. appearance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had already approved the construction of 1,100 flats in occupied East Jerusalem. Yet on Sunday, he threw his support behind the new Mideast Quartet’s peace plan with the Palestinians.

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Kuwait demands Israeli crimes against Palestinians be put before ICC

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 4 (KUNA) -- Addressing a UN gathering on international terrorism, the State of Kuwait demanded the Israeli crimes against the Palestinians be put before the International Criminal Court (ICC) and to hold perpetrators of violations of Human Rights and International Law accountable for their actions.

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Obama Turns to Biden to Reassure Jewish Voters, and Get Them to Contribute, Too

In his 1,000-word letter to the editor, Mr. Blinken went into a full exposition of all the ways in which Mr. Obama has been helpful to Israel, highlighted by an unparalleled $3 billion in military assistance, including an additional $205 million to build the Iron Dome rocket defense system for communities on Israel’s border with Gaza. He also emphasized the United States’ effort to block a declaration of statehood at the United Nations by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and intervening to protect the Israeli ambassador when a violent mob stormed the embassy in Cairo. At his Boca Raton meeting with the rabbis — at the home of a former Democratic congressman, Ron Klein — Mr. Biden went through the same list, adding some flourishes of his own.

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Abbas Makes Continuous Efforts to Gain Ninth Vote

RAMALLAH, October 4, 2011 (WAFA) – Minister of Foreign Affairs Riyad al-Malki said the Palestinian Authority is making continuous efforts to gain the ninth vote in the United Nations Security Council. He told Voice of Palestine that he will be visiting Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina to guarantee their votes in favor of the Palestinian application to the Security Council. He said all Palestinian and Islamic diplomatic means will be used to in order to support the Palestinian bid, as it is the only Palestinian option. Al-Malki explained that these means include Arab and Islamic investments in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Russian and Serbian influence to support the bid.

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Swedes call for academic boycott of Israel

More than 200 students, professors and lecturers across Sweden have signed on to a growing academic boycott call demanding that Swedish universities not participate in any academic cooperation with Israeli educational institutions. They also called on the Swedish government to “act [towards] the cessation of the [European Union’s] research support to Israel.”
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UN statistics show that Israel's occupation is more aggressive

New statistics from the United Nations demonstrate that Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip is becoming more aggressive and dangerous for Palestinian civilians. A report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied territories (UNOCHA) has revealed an increase in Israel's demolitions of Palestinian houses and other buildings in 2011. The number of Palestinians injured by Israeli forces this year has more than doubled compared with last year. The UNOCHA report said that the Israeli Occupation Authorities demolished 409 Palestinian structures in 2011 compared with 290 over the same period in 2010. Just over 800 Palestinians have been injured to-date in 2011; the figure for January to September 2010 was 374.

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Al-Ahram: Egypt to draft new Israel gas deal

File picture shows an attack in July on a pipeline delivering gas from Egypt
to Israel at el-Arish in the north of the Sinai peninsula.

CAIRO (Reuters) -- Egypt will soon finish drafting a new contract for gas exports to its neighbor Israel that includes a big increase in prices, a newspaper cited the petroleum minister as saying on Tuesday.

Gas supplies to Israel have been disrupted by a series of attacks on the pipeline in the Sinai border region by assailants believed to oppose the sale of gas to Israel.
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Can't be always bad news, I guess. A Nazi settler dies..

Hanan Porat, a former Israeli parliamentarian who was a driving force behind the Jewish settlement movement in the West Bank, died of cancer Tuesday, his family said. He was 67.
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It's now customary: Settlers run over two Palestinian sisters

Two women from the northern West Bank were injured on Tuesday morning in a hit-and-run incident involving an Israeli settler car, medics said.
The women were hit as they crossed the main road of Huwwara village, south Nablus. Ahlam Bilal Hamad, 19, and her sister Saja, 18, suffered mild injuries in the incident.
A settler driving a Subaru pickup truck fled the scene, Palestinian medical sources said.
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Nobody Can Predict The Moment Of Revolution ( Occupy Wall Street )

Video shot during the 5th and 6th day of the occupation.
This idea to occupy the financial district in New York City was inspired by recent uprisings in Spain, Greece, Egypt, and Tunisia
which most of us were following online.
Despite of the corporate media's effort to silence the protests, and Yahoo's attempt to to censor it in e-mail communication,
the occupation is growing in numbers and spreading to other cities in the US and abroad.

Occupy Wall Street rediscovers the radical imagination

The young people protesting in Wall Street and beyond reject this vain economic order. They have come to reclaim the future

People protest during the 'Occupy Wall Street' rally in New York, 17 September.

Why are people occupying Wall Street? Why has the occupation – despite the latest police crackdown – sent out sparks across America, within days, inspiring hundreds of people to send pizzas, money, equipment and, now, to start their own movements called OccupyChicago, OccupyFlorida, in OccupyDenver or OccupyLA?

There are obvious reasons. We are watching the beginnings of the defiant self-assertion of a new generation of Americans, a generation who are looking forward to finishing their education with no jobs, no future, but still saddled with enormous and unforgivable debt. Most, I found, were of working-class or otherwise modest backgrounds, kids who did exactly what they were told they should: studied, got into college, and are now not just being punished for it, but humiliated – faced with a life of being treated as deadbeats, moral reprobates.

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Wall Street occupation spreads to Canada

Police officers reach into a crowd of protesters to make an arrest on the Brooklyn Bridge during an Occupy Wall Street march in New York October 1, 2011.

"Organizers in Toronto and several other Canadian cities say they plan to follow the example of anti-Wall Street activists in the United States by taking to the streets later this month to protest the global financial system.

The New York activists say they are protesting to bring attention to corporate greed and government-backed bailouts of American banks. Similar demonstrations have already spread to Albuquerque, N.M., Boston and Los Angeles."

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Netanyahu: Master of Deception

By Samuel Dowell

I tend to believe things that a son says to his father in private. To this end, we should go back to 2009, to the words revealed by the father, Benzion Netanyahu, regarding the conduct of his son, Benjamin. With the consent of his son, the prime minister, the father gave an interview to Amit Segal on Channel 2 News, and this is what he said about the Bar-Ilan speech advocating the establishment of a Palestinian state: "He [the prime minister] doesn't support it. He supports it under conditions that they [the Arabs] will never accept. That's what I heard from him, not from myself. He proposed the conditions. They will never accept those conditions, not one of them," said Netanyahu Sr.” [One of those conditions was acceptance of a “Jewish” State.] [1]

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Odds (4/1) favor Adonis for the Nobel Prize for literature

Nobel prize for literature: place your bets
Here in London it may still feel like it's summer, but autumn begins in earnest this week, with the announcement of the Nobel prize for literature. The Swedish Academy has announced that special pleading, prediction and speculation will come to an end at lunchtime this Thursday.

So is it finally Philp Roth's turn? The much-touted Syrian poet Adonis sits atop the betting at 4/1, with last year's favourite, the Swedish poet Thomas Tranströmer, following at 11/2. The Hungarian novelist Péter Nádas comes next, with the Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami close behind – both seem to have important books out this year in Swedish translation. As I write, Philip Roth languishes at 25/1.
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Daily Express’s porn baron owner donated thousands to anti-Palestinian group

Asa Winstanley -Electronic Intifada
Yesterday I blogged about an attack on Palestinian leader Raed Salah by the Daily Express. The trashy, racist British tabloid slandered him as a “hate preacher” after Sheikh Raed won a case in the UK High Court on Friday. The judge ruled he had been wrongfully detained in June, because the arresting officers had given incorrect reasons for the imprisonment. They had told Salah he was being arrested for “immigration offences”. But since then, barristers acting for the Home Office have stated on multiple occasions that Salah did nothing wrong in entering the country, since Home Secretary Theresa May had not actually told Salah about her banning order .
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Dissidents in Syria finally unite against Assad regime

A wide-ranging coalition of dissidents dealt the most significant political challenge yet to President Bashar al-Assad yesterday by declaring an opposition government-in-exile and calling for the toppling of their leader.

Members of some of the country's most prominent political factions, including the Muslim Brotherhood and other high profile Syrian émigrés, formally announced the birth of the Syrian National Council (SNC) in Istanbul and committed themselves to routing the Assad regime.

Read more-The Independent

Israel’s Kristallnacht: Police Demolish Bedouin Mosque

Rahat mosque built with Islamist support demolished (Lewis Levin)

Richard Silverstein

Saturday night was the Bedouin town of Rahat’s version of Kristallnacht. And if that historical analogy offends you, let’s just call this an episode out of the Crusades in which the invaders sacked mosques on their way to claim the Holy Land for their own. It was the day 5,000 Israeli police invaded their town under cover of darkness to destroy one of the town’s mosques. In only two hours, the hooligans declared victory, the damage done.

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Israeli wins right to be classed as 'no religion'

An Israeli writer has won a historic court victory granting his request to
be officially registered as "without religion" rather than "Jewish," Israeli
newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday.

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- An Israeli writer has won a historic court victory granting his request to be officially registered as "without religion" rather than "Jewish," Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on SundayYoram Kaniuk turned to the courts in May after the interior ministry refused to alter his official religious status from Jewish to "without religion," Haaretz said.
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Israel's Gilo housing plan leads to unprecedented diplomatic crisis with Germany

Merkel was incensed by the green light given to build beyond the Green Line as she has been helping to thwart the Palestinian statehood bid on Israel's behalf.

Read more-Haaretz

NYTime's readers reject Ethan Bronner

The jury is in – Times readers decide against Bronner
Adam Horowitz
Today's New York Times features letters responding to Public Editor Arthur Brisbane's column last week on Ethan Bronner's conflict of interest regarding his relationship with Lone Start Communications. The letters run 6-1 against Bronner.
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Anti-Qaddafi Fighters Are Accused of Torture

September 30, 2011 TRIPOLI, Libya — First there were the blindfold, the wrist-scarring handcuffs and the death threats. Then came beatings and electric shocks. In the fog of pain, the detainee, who said he had done nothing wrong, would have confessed to anything, he later recalled. The techniques were familiar to Libyans, but the perpetrators were not: they were former rebels, according to the detainee, a 36-year-old man who said he had worked in military intelligence for the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Read more

UK government conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism in Salah trial

Sheikh Raed Salah was arrested in the UK on 28 June and has been since been subject to deportation proceedings.

Asa Winstanley

The Electronic Intifada

Renowned Palestinian activist and religious leader Sheikh Raed Salah was at the UK’s Sheldon immigration court in Birmingham this week. His appeal against the government’s decision in June to ban him from the country is now being heard in earnest, with testimonies from Salah and several expert witnesses on Monday and Tuesday. In a related development, the High Court in London today ruled that part of Salah’s dention in June was unlawful.
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UK rewrites war crimes law at Israel’s request

Electronic Intifada

Legal mechanisms developed after the end of the Second World War to more easily prosecute war criminals are now being taken off the books to preserve Israeli impunity from accountability.

In the aftermath of the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes an outraged international community demanded justice — a demand that resulted in the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the introduction of the new legal concept of universal jurisdiction. Justice, it seemed, would be impartial and hiding places for criminals scarce.

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Iran 'totally rejects' UN statehood bid

Iran's supreme leader rejected the Palestine UN statehood bid on Saturday, saying any deal that accepted the existence of Israel would leave a "cancerous tumor" forever threatening the security of the Middle East.
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Shaath: US trying to avoid veto by pressuring members to vote against bid

RAMALLAH (Ma'an) -- Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath said Saturday the US was trying to avoid using its veto by pressuring UN Security Council members to vote against a Palestinian bid for UN membership.

At a news conference in Ramallah, Shaath said nine countries in the 15-member council had already recognized the state of Palestine and established diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority.
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Settlers 'steal 150 sheep' near Hebron

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Armed Israeli settlers seized 150 sheep from shepherds south of Hebron in the southern West Bank, a popular committee leader said.

They took the sheep to Shima settlement after assaulting several shepherds and threatening to shoot them if they returned to the area, the local official said.
Meanwhile, other residents of the same settlement chopped down 10 olive trees belonging to Mousa Samamrah, Shouyoukhi said, adding that settlers destroyed 45 trees in the same field on Thursday.
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OCHA ( The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs): “Home Demolitions Doubled in 2011”

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the occupied territories (OCHA) reported that Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes have doubled in 20111 comparing to the figures of 2010.

OCHA reported that Israel demolished 409 Palestinian homes and structures during this year comparing to 290 in 2010, while 804 Palestinian were displaced this year comparing to 374 last year.

The report further indicated that 139 Palestinians were wounded in several attacks carried out by Israeli settlers since the beginning of this year until the date of this report, comparing to 74 Palestinians injured in similar attacks carried out by the settlers last year.
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Settlers Uproot Dozens Of Olive Trees Near Nablus

A group of extremist armed Israeli settlers uprooted on Saturday dozens of Palestinian olive trees that belong to residents of Madama village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Clashes were reported; soldiers fired gas bombs at the protesters leading to a number of injuries.

Armed settlers uprooted more than 45 olive trees that belong to the residents of Al Khalla and Qattan Al Soura villages, south of Madama.

The uprooted trees belong to residents Zakariyya Nassar and Mohammad Mustafa Al Qit.
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Merkel: Netanyahu Foils Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has foiled Palestinian-Israeli negotiations when he approved building 1100 housing units in East Jerusalem.

She said, following a phone call with Netanyahu described by her as “very difficult,” that “I am unable to believe anything Netanyahu says.”

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Palestinian leaders renew attack on Tony Blair over Israel

Middle East envoy accused of 'parroting' Israeli demands during negotiations

Tony Blair in New York. He has lost his credibility as a neutral mediator by ‘parroting’ Israeli demands, say Palestinian leaders.

The Palestinian leadership has stepped up its attack on Tony Blair in his role as envoy of the Middle East Quartet, saying that his "parroting" of Israeli demands casts doubt on his credibility.

Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, confirmed that Palestinian leaders had discussed whether to make a formal request to the Quartet that Blair be removed from his position, but had decided against such a move.

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Why Israel can't be a 'Jewish State'

The Israeli demand to be recognised as a "Jewish state" by the Palestinians is an inherently problematic concept

Sari Nusseibeh- Al Jazeera

The Israeli government's current mantra is that the Palestinians must recognise a "Jewish State". Of course, the Palestinians have clearly and repeatedly recognised the State of Israel as such in the 1993 Oslo Accords (which were based on an Israeli promise to establish a Palestinian state within five years - a promise now shattered) and many times since. Recently, however, Israeli leaders have dramatically and unilaterally moved the goal-posts and are now clamouring that Palestinians must recognise Israel as a "Jewish State".

In 1946, the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry concluded that the demand for a "Jewish State" was not part of the obligations of the Balfour Declaration or the British Mandate. Even in the First Zionist Congress in Basel in 1897, when Zionists sought to "establish a home for the Jewish people", there was no reference of a "Jewish State". The Zionist Organisation preferred at first to use the description "Jewish homeland" or "Jewish Commonwealth". Many pioneering Zionist leaders, such as Judah Magnes and Martin Buber also avoided the clear and explicit term "Jewish State" for their project of a homeland for Jews, and preferred instead the concept of a democratic bi-national state.

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30,000 Palestinian Bedouin to be uprooted

While attention is focused on the Palestinian Authority’s UN recognition initiative, Israel is quietly taking hugely significant steps to transfer 30,000 Palestinian Bedouin in the Naqab (Negev) desert from their ancestral lands.

Recently, Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, approved plans for another large-scale cleansing of the Bedouin community in the Naqab. The plan would “relocate” 30,000 of those who managed to remain on their land after more than two thirds of all Bedouin were uprooted during the establishment of Israel.

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In blow to government, UK High Court rules Raed Salah was "wrongfully detained"

The UK High Court in London has within the last hour ruled that Palestinian activist Raed Salah was wrongfully detained after his entry to the country, and is thus entitled to compensation.

The full ruling is available online here, and is also included at the end of this post. The judge, Mr Justice Nicol ruled that:

I have accepted his [Raed Salah’s] argument that he was not given proper and sufficient reasons for his arrest on 28th June nor was he given them until some time on 30th June. He is entitled to damages for wrongful detention during that period
Read more-Electronic Intifada

Uri Avnery: Mutiny on the Titanic

"Can you really chant "the People Demand Social Justice" and ignore the daily oppression of four million Palestinians in the occupied territories? When you abandon your principles on the way to power, what are you likely to do with that power?"
Read more- InformationClearenceHouse

Congress blocks $200m in aid for the Palestinians

The United States Congress has blocked nearly $200m in aid for the Palestinians, threatening projects such as food aid, health care, and support for efforts to build a functioning state.

The decision to delay the payments runs counter to the wishes of the Obama administration and reflects Congressional anger at Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's so far unrealised pursuit of Fatah-Hamas reconciliation and statehood recognition at the UN.

Read more- The Independent

What's behind the scorn for the Wall Street protests?

By Glenn Greenwald

A few hundred demonstrators protesting against corporations march from nearby Zucotti park to Wall Street, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2011, in the Manhattan borough of New York.

It's unsurprising that establishment media outlets have been condescending, dismissive and scornful of the ongoing protests on Wall Street. Any entity that declares itself an adversary of prevailing institutional power is going to be viewed with hostility by establishment-serving institutions and their loyalists. That's just the nature of protests that take place outside approved channels, an inevitable by-product of disruptive dissent: those who are most vested in safeguarding and legitimizing establishment prerogatives (which, by definition, includes establishment media outlets) are going to be hostile to those challenges. As the virtually universal disdain in these same circles for WikiLeaks (and, before that, for the Iraq War protests) demonstrated: the more effectively adversarial it is, the more establishment hostility it's going to provoke.

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Son of Israeli general, Miko Peled, speaks for Palestine

Miko Peled.

Israeli activist and author Miko Peled, currently touring Australia, is convinced that the Israel-Palestine conflict can be solved.

But, he told public meetings in Sydney and Newcastle, he doesn't believe that it will happen while the government of Israel remains committed to Zionism (the maintenance of Israel as an exclusively "Jewish" state) and continues its ethnic cleansing operation by moving Palestinians off their land.

“It is not some inexorable process of nature,” Peled said. “It is a conflict between people, and it is therefore something over which people can have control.”

Peled was raised in a prominent Zionist family in Jerusalem. His grandfather, Dr Avraham Katsnelson, was a Zionist leader and signatory to the May 14, 1948 Israeli Declaration of Independence.

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Palestinians were under curfew today for Jewish New Year, but for settlers it was just like any other day

Palestinian farmers inspect their destroyed olives trees.
Jewish settlers Thursday from Shima, a settlement built illegally on the land of Ad Dahriyeh, a town south of Hebron, destroyed 55 fruitful olive trees and wrote several threatening slogans to Palestinian residents, according to security sources. Sources said that settlers attacked an area located between two agricultural valleys in the town, destroying 55 fruitful olive trees and writing threatening slogans to Palestinians such as ‘you will pay the price’.

The Best Among Us

Protesters march past Federal Hall on Wall Street on Monday. The Occupy Wall Street protest is in its second week in New York City as demonstrators speak out against corporate greed and social inequality.

By Chris Hedges

There are no excuses left. Either you join the revolt taking place on Wall Street and in the financial districts of other cities across the country or you stand on the wrong side of history. Either you obstruct, in the only form left to us, which is civil disobedience, the plundering by the criminal class on Wall Street and accelerated destruction of the ecosystem that sustains the human species, or become the passive enabler of a monstrous evil. Either you taste, feel and smell the intoxication of freedom and revolt or sink into the miasma of despair and apathy. Either you are a rebel or a slave.

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Why Fewer Young American Jews Share Their Parents' View of Israel

Lauren Fleishman for Time
"What I didn't hear much about was the lives of Palestinians. It was only after I went to college, met Muslim friends and enrolled in a Middle Eastern history and politics course that I was challenged to reconcile my liberal, humanist worldview with the fact that the Jewish state of which I was so proud was occupying the land of 4.4 million stateless Palestinians, many of them refugees displaced by Israel's creation."

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US donations funding radical settlers and extreme yeshivas in the settlements

For years, many bloggers and journalists including myself, Phil Weiss, Didi Remez, Akiva Eldar and David Ignatius have been calling for cutting off tax-deductible donations to radical settlers, settlements and the organizations that support them. The NY Times reported that total giving to such groups reached $200 million over a number of years. As far as the Obama administration and the IRS, it’s fallen on deaf ears. Now, perhaps the most credible source imaginable has weighed in in favor of the proposition: the Shin Bet:

The army’s GOC Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi, recently issued restraining orders that forbid several students affiliated with the yeshiva to enter the West Bank. This decision was based on what security sources termed well-founded suspicions that these students had been involved in attacks on Arabs, including “price tag” attacks on Arab property (so-called because they seek to deter the army from razing houses in the settlements ) and the torching of mosques in nearby Palestinian villages.

The head of the yeshiva, Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, was filmed in the past accompanying some of his students to a nearby Arab village; the students then threw stones while the rabbi looked on. Shapira is the author of the controversial work “The King’s Torah,” which, among other things, discusses circumstances under which Jewish law might permit the killing of non-Jews.

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Extremist settler attacks shepherd and brutally abuses flock

"With ideology based on extreme interpretation of Judaic law, his reaction was to start beating Ahmad’s sheep with stones and sticks. 3 sheep lost their eyes, one died, another one was pregnant but lost her kid, and four others tried desperately to escape."
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Tony Blair's job in jeopardy as Palestinians accuse him of bias

Tony Blair's future as Middle East peace envoy was in jeopardy after the Palestinian Authority said it was set to sever all contact with him because of his "bias" towards Israel.

"There is no one within the Palestinian leadership that supports or likes or trusts Tony Blair, particularly because of the very damaging role he played during our UN bid," a second Palestinian official said.

"He is considered persona non grata in Palestine. Although we can't prevent him from coming here, we can hopefully minimise the role he can play because he is not a mediator, he is totally biased on one side.”

Palestinian anger towards Mr Blair exploded into the open last week when Nabil Shaath, a senior negotiator, denounced him for peddling a US-backed peace plan that failed to call for a halt to Israeli settlement building.

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Expert says New Settlement to Divide West Bank

Israel’s approval of a plan to build new 1100 housing units in the East Jerusalem settlement of Gilo is a prelude to an Israeli project to build a new settlement that will separate south of the West Bank from the Palestinian villages bordering Jerusalem, Wednesday said Khalil Toufakji, a Palestinian expert on Israeli settlements.
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Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year): Will God forgive?

Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks

Chief Rabbi, do you really believe that God will forgive the Jews if they don’t say sorry to the Palestinians and then play their necessary part in righting the wrong done?

Alan Hart
At the start of the Jewish New Year I have some questions for Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks. They are for him in particular because of what he said in a recorded message of preparation for the New Year, but they are also questions that could and should be asked of rabbis everywhere.
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Settlers' monstrous children destroy vine. Soldiers look away

Israeli journalist (Amira Hass) visiting Vancouver has tough words for home country

VANCOUVER -- Amira Hass, a reporter and the daughter of Holocaust survivors, doesn’t pull any punches in her description of Israeli-Palestinian relations in the West Bank.

“You have a policy of ethnic cleansing in vast areas of the West Bank....It’s very open,” she said.

“You just go and count the number of people who are being driven out of their places where they lived for tens of years, if not more. And this goes without notice mostly, on the part of the Israelis,” she said, noting that there are some Israeli groups that are aware and are fighting against this practice.

“But it goes without notice of the general public and of course without the international media noticing. So that’s why I say I don’t need hidden information. I just need to write about what people don’t want to know.

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Look what land (and culture ) thieves are up to. "Israeli zaatar manquish"! In Wikipedia no less!

File:Israeli zaatar manakeesh.jpg

Here

Settler runs over an 8 year old boy and kills him. The settlers preferred method of slaughter

On Tuesday morning, 8-year-old Farid Jaber died of injuries sustained last Friday when an Israeli settler struck him with his car on a settler bypass road 60 east of Hebron. During his funeral, Hebron governor Kamel Hamid demanded "actual international protection" for Palestinians in his province...
On Friday, September 23, eyewitnesses told AFP that the incident happened at the entrance to the illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, and that the driver fled the scene immediately. Israeli troops arrested two of the boy’s relatives for “attacking a police officer” afterwards.
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In memory of the only Arab leader in modern history who was worth his salt.

Oh, he had his faults all right but in retrospect he was a visionary. Every single other Arab leader is dwarfed in comparison. One might argue that Nasrallsah has it and I believe he does, but I'll never ever feel comfortable with all the theocratic nonsense. If only...

Knesset to vote on full Israeli annexation of the West Bank

Danny Danon, who recently appeared with Rick Perry in New York, announced today that the Knesset will vote on his bill to annex the West Bank at the end of October. The bill also nullifies the Oslo Accords, ending all Israeli agreements with the Palestinian Authority.

The JTA reports it mirrors a bill being considered in the U.S. congress and seems to have support among leaders of the coalition government:

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Take this Obama, Hillary and Co.

Israel okays new 1,100 buildings in east Jerusalem
Construction of 1,100 housing units cleared, despite Palestinian demands for settlement freeze to renew peace talks.

Netanyahu has refused to halt settlement building despite repeated calls from Palestinians

Israel's government has granted the go-ahead for construction of 1,100 new housing units in illegally occupied east Jerusalem, raising already heightened tensions fuelled by last week's Palestinian move to seek full UN membership.

Israel's interior ministry said on Tuesday that the homes would be built in Gilo, a Jewish enclave in southeast Jerusalem. It said construction could begin after a mandatory 60-day period for public comment, a process that is largely a formality.

The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as their future capital. They have demanded that Israel halt all settlement construction in east Jerusalem and the adjacent occupied West Bank - territories captured and illegally occupied by Israel since1967 - as a condition for resuming peace talks.

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A Facebook hunt for Israeli Navi Marmara assassins

Intelligence units have successfully identified the names of the Israeli soldiers that took part in the Mavi Marmara raid, through the use of social media and images. The individual names on the 174-person schema have been handed over to Prosecutor Mehmet Akif Ekinci.

Important details have been acquired in the investigation into the raid by Israeli soldiers on the Mavi Marmara aid flotilla which was headed for Gaza. Practically each and every name of the soldiers involved in the May 31st, 2010 raid in which Israeli forces killed nine Turks and injured 30 others have been detected by Turkish intelligence.
According to information obtained by SABAH's Special Intelligence Department, when the Israeli government refused to pay heed to the Turkish judiciary's request, Prosecutor Mehmet Akif Ekinci, who is leading the investigation into the ongoings on the Mavi Marmara ship, decided to go about obtaining the necessary information in another manner. Turkish intelligence units proceeded to inspect footage of the Mavi Marmara raid second by second. Later, agents hunted down the commandos on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.
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Turkish Intelligence Identifies 174 IDF Soldiers Allegedly Responsible for Mavi Marmara Massacre

IDF personnel allegedly involved in Mavi Marmara assault (Sabah)

Turkish media reports (Hebrew report and Zaman’s English version) that a special Turkish intelligence unit delved into social networking sites and used its fluency in the Hebrew language to identify 174 IDF personnel who participated in the Mavi Marmara assault. By reviewing frame-by-frame video footage of the attack, the investigators have also identified those who killed the nine Turkish passengers. The list has been transferred to the Turkish prosecutor pursuing the case and will eventually be given to Israel as well. Israel will be asked to confirm whether or not the individuals took part in the operation.

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Map redux

Political recognition:
Green=Recognises the state of Palestine
Grey= Does not recognise the state

Special diplomatic status:
Light green=Palestinian general delegation
Khaki= Palestinian special delegation
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The Mystery Behind Gadhafi's Birth: Some Say He's Jewish

What if the biggest mystery surrounding Col. Moammar Gadhafi had nothing to do with his long, brutal reign as the world's most eccentric and violent leader turned pariah?

And what if a long-lost letter from a Catholic cardinal who knew Gadhafi's true identity was evidence that could have solved the mystery?

To many Libyan people, the biggest question mark about Gadhafi does not involve his repressive and dictatorial rule, delusional statements or brazen lies. Behind closed doors, for years, they've wondered if he is Jewish. Last week the issue came out in the open, as NBC's Richard Engel reported from Libya that one in five rebels was fighting Gadhafi because he believes the leader is Jewish.
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Has Western capitalism failed?

BBC News
Twenty years ago, the fall of communism in Eastern Europe seemed to prove the triumph of capitalism. But was that an illusion? Constant shocks to the world's financial system over the past few years prompted the BBC World Service's Business Daily programme to ask leading figures whether they thought Western capitalism had failed.
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Mecca for the rich: Islam's holiest site 'turning into Vegas'

Historic and culturally important landmarks are being destroyed to make way for luxury hotels and malls, reports Jerome Taylor

Over the past 10 years the holiest site in Islam has undergone a huge transformation, one that has divided opinion among Muslims all over the world.

Once a dusty desert town struggling to cope with the ever-increasing number of pilgrims arriving for the annual Hajj, the city now soars above its surroundings with a glittering array of skyscrapers, shopping malls and luxury hotels.

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Map of countries that will support Palestine's UN bid for statehood this month.

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Gideon Levy: Netanyahu proved Israel doesn't want peace

Netanyahu shows to the world that Israel wants neither an agreement nor a Palestinian state, and for that matter not peace, either.

Every decent Israeli must be ashamed of their prime minister, who stands before the world and tries to sell it the same old shopworn, even rotten goods that are long past their expiration date, expounding on ancient, irrelevant chapters of history and attempting to market cheap sentimentality like a beggar who exposes his wounds, both real and imaginary, to passersby. And the beggar is in fact a regional power.
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UN Security Council to begin consultations on Palestinian state full memembership

The UN Security Council is to begin consultations on an application by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for full state membership of the UN.

The request needs the support of nine of the 15 members of the council, but the US has said it will veto the bid.

Diplomats say it could take weeks before the issue comes to vote.

Mr Abbas last week urged the council in New York to back a state with pre-1967 borders. Israel reiterated its call for peace talks without preconditions.

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Historic victory for the French left

French left captures Senate in setback for Sarkozy
French President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative government has lost its majority in the Senate for the first time in recent French history.

The Socialist Party and its Communist and Green allies have won enough seats to gain control of the upper house.

Their victory comes just seven months before the country's presidential election in April.

Right-wing parties have controlled the Senate since the Fifth Republic was founded in 1958.
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Women in Saudi Arabia to vote and run in elections (At long last, I should add!)

Women in Saudi Arabia are to be given the right to vote and run in future municipal elections, King Abdullah has announced.

He said they would also have the right to be appointed to the consultative Shura Council.

The move was welcomed by activists who have called for greater rights for women in the kingdom, which enforces a strict version of Sunni Islamic law.

The changes will occur after municipal polls on Thursday, the king said.

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Mahmoud Abbas: the Second Coming

Electronic Intifada

One could be forgiven for thinking de facto President Mahmoud Abbas seemed like the second coming since Jesus of Nazareth not only by the reception he was given at the UN General Assembly when he spoke there on Friday but by the reaction throughout his speech from crowds amassed in West Bank cities.

Abbas’ speech, calling for admission of Palestine as a full member state of the United Nations, was surprising in that it was unusually strongly worded and lacked the usual skirting of core issues regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Characteristically, Abbas’ public addresses to audiences reflect the interests of the Palestine Authority (PA) and not of the Palestinian people, highlighting the importance of negotiations with Israel to achieve any lasting peace agreement as the sole tactic, effectively undermining resistance in all of its forms to the occupying regime.

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French far right terrorist group JDL joining settlers in the West Bank

Armed French citizens 'tanning under the sun' in a West Bank settlement [Photo: Jewish Defence League]

Two weeks ago, an announcement appeared on a French website, calling for "militants with military experience" to participate in a solidarity trip to Israel between September 19 and 25. "The aim of this expedition is to lend a hand to our brothers facing aggression from the Palestinian occupiers, and to enhance the security of Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria," it explained. The dates of the trip coincide with the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations.

As of yesterday, in response to this call, there were 55 French citizens, both men and women, with military experience, stationed inside the illegal Israeli settlements up and down the West Bank. Organised into five separate groups of 11, their mandate is to "defend the settlements against any attack from Palestinians", and to "aid" in areas where they feel there is a lack of Israeli army personnel or police forces.

The website belongs to the French chapter of the Jewish Defence League (JDL), a far-right Jewish group founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane in the United States in 1968. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has refered to the JDL as a "violent extremist organisation".

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Alquds: Abbas is considering dismantling the P.A.

According to Alquds newspaper, on September 14, President Mahmoud Abbas had a confrontational meeting with Tony Blair, the current Quartet envoy. During the meeting, which took place in Amman, Abbas presented Blair with a possible plan B should the Palestinian UN bid fails

Alquds quoted Abbas as saying, “I will return to the Palestinian leadership, which will make a decision on whether the time has come for Israel to re-assume its responsibility as an occupying authority.” He also said, “We will not keep the Palestinian Authority as a name.”

Yesterday, the Palestinian Authority president called upon the international community to recognize the right of the Palestinian people to an independent state.

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Palestinians Declare Independence from U.S.

Henry Siegman
The outpouring of commentary on the request that Palestinians intend to submit to the United Nations to affirm their right to statehood within the pre-1967 borders has fallen into two categories. The first supports the Israeli and American view that sees the Palestinian initiative as endangering the Oslo Accords and prospects for a two-state solution. As described by President Obama, it is a “distraction” from the serious business at hand. The second view supports the Palestinian right to apply for UN membership, or for non-member-state observer status, and rejects the notion that this would set back the peace process.
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Lieberman warns Netanyahu of coalition break-up if punitive measures aren't taken against the Palestinians

Israel, claimed Lieberman, "won't stand still" if a Palestinian state is recognised by the UN.

Israel's Foreign Minister has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that the governing coalition will fall part if the Prime Minister doesn't take punitive measures against the Palestinian Authority for its decision to bid for independent statehood at the United Nations. A report in Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper claims that Avigdor Lieberman has demanded that Netanyahu responds to the unilateral Palestinian step by cancelling the Oslo Accords, annexing the large West Bank settlement blocs and withholding tax transfers to the Authority.

Earlier reports said that Lieberman had threatened the Palestinians with "very serious" consequences in the event of a UN vote in favour of an independent state. Israel, claimed Lieberman, "won't stand still" if a Palestinian state is recognised by the UN. Lieberman's deputy, Danny Ayalon, backed the call for punitive measures, although he expects the UN to reject the Palestinian application.
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(Thanks vza)

Abbas at the United Nations a game changer? Maybe.

Phyllis Bennis
There was a potential game changer in Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas’ speech at the General Assembly – but it wasn’t in the words he said: that this marks the end of the 20-year-long U.S.-backed failed peace process, and the potential beginning of a whole new approach to Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy, one based on international law, human rights and equality for all.
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Villagers v settlers

Outgunned, outnumbered, but now fighting back

The Economist

AT MIDNIGHT the Palestinian vigil against the predations of nearby Jewish settlers begins. Five students, armed with a pocket-torch, stand guard at the hilltop entrance of the small Palestinian village of Kfar Qusra. Farmers and their wives pitch camp in their fields, watching their flocks.

It is not an even fight. Jewish settlers wield M-16 rifles. Villagers have mobile phones and stones. But after religious zealots from the nearby Esh Kodesh (“Holy Light”) outpost scrawled “Muhammad is a pig” in Hebrew on the walls of the village mosque and rolled burning tyres inside its prayer hall, the villagers decided that the moral high ground was no longer enough. “The age of sumud (stubborn steadfastness) has passed,” says a local businessman. “We must defend ourselves. The whole town is prepared.” At an evening planning meeting, an 85-year-old landowner encourages his sons to abduct the next settler who chops down trees in his olive groves or slaughters one of his sheep.

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