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March 21, 2010
19:12
Palestinians Must Not Stay On The Sidelines
» ‎ Ramallah Online (palestine)

The Palestine Monitor Mustafa Barghouti, a member of the PLO, sees a weakening of the Palestinian Authority over the hobbled peace process and is skeptical that the U.S. will keep the pressure on...
19:11
The Doomsday Weapon
» ‎ Ramallah Online (palestine)

Uri Avnery It is already a commonplace to say that people who don’t learn from history are condemned to repeat their mistakes. Some 1942 years ago, the Jews in the province called ...

18:28
JUSTICE: Palestinians warn Israel after troops kill 4
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) – Four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank were buried on Sunday following violence that has exacerbated growing tensions. The Israeli army shot dead...
18:28
Window Into Palestine: Breaking News : Most alarming phenomenon...the "Mistarafim" infiltrators
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

by Iqbal Tamimi Iqbal Tamimi The most alarming phenomenon now is spreading in different areas of Palestine, young men look Palestinians, dress like Palestinians, master all local Arab...

18:28
Breaking News : Most alarming phenomenon...the "Mistarafim" infiltrators
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

by Iqbal Tamimi

Iqbal Tamimi

The most alarming phenomenon now is spreading in different areas of Palestine, young men look Palestinians, dress like Palestinians, master all local Arab dialects and behave like Palestinian ....except they are not.

They infiltrate demonstrations wearing the Palestinian Kefiyah and in the middle of whatever activity they join they start gathering information about the activists, after they finish they reveal their real savage personalities and start attacking, beating, bashing the Palestinian demonstrators since they are armed unlike the Palestinian demonstrators.

The Israeli occupation forces call them "Mistarafim" and the Palestinians call them Mustarebeen.
They are working in groups within two units, one works with the Israeli police force and the other with the Israeli army and border guards.

The Mistarafim Unit began working undercover in different Arab towns and in the occupied area of East Jerusalem, but their operations expanded to include the Palestinian Arab towns inside the Green Line, hitting their targets without attracting much attention.

It is usually difficult to identify them since they look like any civillian, but the Israeli police and the Israeli soldiers do know them well, and they supervise their activities when they penetrate the lines of demonstrators with the coordination of the army.

They engage in demonstrations, they seem most enthusiastic, masked and carrying Palestinian flags, wearing a kaffiyeh, or necklaces bearing slogans of national revolution.

They are seen most of the time in groups of 3-4, trying to lead the demonstrators as much as possible to where the Israeli police forces are ambushing them, or towards closed or narrow alleyways where they can attack their victims and control them well while one of them will be protecting the back of his gang. They never hesitate to fire their guns.

The units get their training in the most crowded Arab areas especially in the city of Nazareth. A trusted source said that some of these units even live with Arab families in Nazareth to get some training on Arab customs and traditions and how to get dressed and how to speak. One of the people who is training them is claimed to be from the village of Taraan, he teaches them the slang language of the local Arabs and even teaches them how to make the coffee the Palestinian way.

Should the "Mistarafim" have to appear before a Court, there are laws and regulations especially for them, the police takes the responsibility of protecting their identities and their names and other details which are kept in confidential files and disclosed only in the court before the judge, they are also provided with full protection to ensure that no one will know their identities.

18:15
Filasteen: Wind of change
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

[You Tube Link] [via Shalom Rav]

18:15
Wind of change
» ‎ Filasteen (palestine)

Wind of change

18:01
Filasteen: A song for Palestine
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

[Song for Palestine written by Yperastikoi for A ship to Gaza mission - - You Tube Link]

18:01
A song for Palestine
» ‎ Filasteen (palestine)

A song for Palestine

17:46
Great graphics for a BDS effort
» ‎ Israel Palestine Blogs (palestine)

Jam'a al-yad, an artists' collective in Beirut, produced half a dozen powerful posters during the city's recent Israeli Apartheid Week. Though the most prominent captions on them are in Arabic, those could easily be translated into other languages, too.

You can access and download PDF versions of the posters here. Peronally, I don't endorse the one that seems to advocate stone-throwing, but the rest look great.

17:46
My Own World: بطاقــة معايـــدة
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

مع انه بنحاول ما نعمل موضوع كبير من مناسبة عيد الأم لانه الام تستحق حبنا دائما وكل يوم .... لكن الوالدة بتحس انه يوم مميز ولذلك بكون في جمعة وهدايا وبنعـيّـد عليها لانها بتحب هاليوم كتبت موضوع لكن...
17:29
Filasteen: “Capital Punishment”
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

From Palestine Monitor: Once again on Friday, Israeli authorities limited the entrance of male Palestinians to Al-Aqsa Mosque, in the old city of Jerusalem. Men under the age of 50 were prevented...

17:29
“Capital Punishment”
» ‎ Filasteen (palestine)

“Capital Punishment”

17:29
Yezid Sayigh on Hamas, Fayyad
» ‎ Israel Palestine Blogs (palestine)
The distinguished Palestinian historian and analyst Yezid Sayigh gave a tremendous talk Friday at the Palestine Center in Washington DC, where he reported on a recent, four-day visit to Gaza and assessed the situation and standing of the two rival Palestinian administrations in Gaza and Ramallah.

While he started off by noting that both the administrations have succeeded in stabilizing themselves since the terrible rift that occurred between them in June 2007, a lot of the content of what he said seemed clearly to indicate that he thinks the Hamas-led administration in Gaza has been significantly better at achieving more public goods at less cost than the Fayyad administration in Ramallah.

Sayigh is Professor of Middle East Studies in the Department of War Studies at King's College London and is currently a visiting senior fellow at the crown center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University in Massachusetts. He is also the author of the magisterial 1997 book Armed Struggle and the Search for a State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993, from Oxford University Press.

Kudos to Brandeis for having brought someone of Sayigh's stature and breadth as a scholar to stay there for this semester. And special kudos, of course, to the Palestine Center for hosting this talk. You can see the whole video of it, I think, here.

I can't do complete justice to the talk here, so I urge you to go and listen to it yourselves. But I wanted to share my impressions of some of his key insights and get them into the written-in-English public arena.

The original event was supposed to feature two speakers: Sayigh talking about Ramallah and Khaled Hroub, from Cambridge, UK, talking about Hamas. However, Hroub could not get his flight to DC-- because of the BA strike, I think, rather than any 'Flying While Arab' security issues. So Sayigh stepped in and gave us his analysis of both administrations; and we were lucky to hear it.

He referred to Ismail Haniyyeh's government in Gaza as "the elected government" and the Fayyad government in Ramallah as "the emergency government." Later he made a point of noting that-- while he has great personal affection for Salam Fayyad-- the Fayyad government is wholly unconstitutional, while he described the Haniyyeh government as "partly constitutional."

He underlined, regarding the Fayyad government, both the unconstitutionality of the way it was established and has been maintained since June 2007, and the rights-abusng nature of many of the practices of the security forces that are supposedly under Fayyad's command.

He did not say anything nearly as harsh about the rights practices of the Hamas-controlled security forces there. Indeed, he noted that during a four-day stay in Gaza back in January he was able to travel freely throughout the length of the Strip and,
At a later point he blamed the 2007 bifurcation of power between Gaza and Ramallah squarely on parties he identified as "the president's men [i.e. Abu Mazen's men-- though notably not Abu Mazen himself] and certain people here in the Bush administration."

Sayigh said his main argument is that,
Looking at the economic situation and the ability of the two governments to administer economic affairs, he said that the economic growth that's been reported from the West Bank,
Sayigh noted that the Haniyyeh government has been able to establish many of the administrative mechanisms required to support good government, including in the areas of financial, economic, and security-sector planning:
My quick back-of-the-envelope calculation: The Ramallah government's budget is for about $121 of per capita spending, while the Gaza government's is for about $36.

Sayigh gave serious consideration to the security policies of both governments, and made these important points:
On human rights issues, Sayigh spoke about the real concern he has about the anti-Hamas campaign in the West Bank having led to "a real and serious erosion of the rule of law" there. In Gaza, meanwhile, he noted that Hamas "suppresses any sizeable public expression of affiliation with Fateh-- though you do see Fateh posters on the walls and they do hold small meetings and marches and so on."

He warned that,
He stressed too that,
I asked him a question about the terrible dilemma that so many western (and also now Arab) aid-donors find themselves in, in which they are now giving significant amounts of aid each year to the PA and thereby relieving Israel of having to bear the costs of running the occupation-- "financing the occupation", as representatives of some of the more thoughtful European aid donors now call this process.

Sayigh confirmed the difficulty of this dilemma:
He said he didn't see any alternative in sight to the present bifurcation of power between the West Bank and Gaza. (My thought was that, based on what he said and what I myself have seen, analyzed, and surmised, the best hope for ending the bifurcation would seem to be to see Hamas's supporters in the West Bank truly express their own social and political power. But of course, preventing that is precisely what all the American "security" aid to the Fayyad government is intended to prevent.)

Sayigh said he had concluded in 2001 that the window of opportunity for the two-state solution had closed:
He was asked about the political situation inside Hamas-- and he noted in passing some Fateh intelligence people have been involved in supplying arms to salafist groups in Gaza.

He said the inability of the Hamas leadership to deliver on its big political program has led to the emergence of some salafist networks, of different types and orientations, and that some of these have supporters both inside some of the grassroots organizations of Hamas and some outside, though he indicated that these networks do not yet seem to pose an unmanageable threat to the leadership.

He said he didn't think it likely that the Netanyahu government-- or any other parties, including the U.S. and Egypt-- really wanted to make the siege so much tighter that it starts to threaten mass starvation inside Gaza. ("Imagine what that would do to the standing of the Fayyad government, if thousands of starving Gazans took to the streets or started marching towards Eretz.") And he reflected a little on why the Netanyahu government even continues to maintain the siege as tight as it does, since very evidently the siege is doing nothing to weaken the Haniyyeh government.

"I think the main reason is because Netanyahu doesn't dare to lift it and get accused of being 'soft' on Hamas," he said.

(Which indicates to me that if the U.S. and the rest of the so-called international community really wanted to lift the siege, they could-- and that would give Netanyahu the pretext he might fell he needs to present to his own voters, saying "Washington made me do it!". But of course, there are no indications yet that the U.S. government does want to see the siege lifted. And this the people of Gaza continue to suffer... )

Sayigh warned forcefully that if the Haniyyeh government should be brought down, it would not be replaced by any political force that would be more pro-western: "If we bring down Haniyyeh, we risk Gaza becoming Afghanistan," he said.

17:29
Nizo's Blog: Nizo The Shaheed
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

Next week, from the warmth of the penis-shaped state, I'll be blogging from an exclusive all-male resort that caters to the excessively hirsute. May Allah bless me with many monkeys like the one...
17:27
Window Into Palestine: Madoff in Jerusalem
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

Gilad Atzmon Zionism, at least in its early days was premised on the belief that once back in their ‘homeland’, Jews would mature into ethical beings. For early Zionists it was the Diaspora...

17:24
Madoff in Jerusalem
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

Gilad Atzmon

Zionism, at least in its early days was premised on the belief that once back in their ‘homeland’, Jews would mature into ethical beings. For early Zionists it was the Diaspora conditions that corrupted the Jews. Ber Borchov blamed it on the difference between ‘the socio-economic structure of the Jewish people’ and other nations (Ber Borochov- The Economic Development of the Jewish People 1917). Max Nordau repelled the “Jewish lack of notion of honour, morality, patriotism and idealism…." (Max Nordau - Address at the 1st Zionist Congress 1897).

It is transparently evident that Zionism failed to erect a modern ethical collective. Considering the Zionist agenda to celebrate a Jewish national aspiration at the expense of the indigenous people of Palestine, it shouldn’t take us by surprise that Zionism evolved into an unethical morbid entity. As we read in a poll in Haaretz today. The Israelis themselves are coming to terms with their non-ethical setting. More than half of the Israelis are convinced that the leadership of their Jewish State is corrupted.

In a poll that took place in June 2009, 45% of respondents judged Netanyahu's government to be "highly corrupt," 25% thought it was "moderately corrupt" and the remaining third thought it was only slightly corrupt or not tainted.

However, Netanyahu still has a long way to go. Ehud Olmert won by a landslide. He is the most corrupt prime minister in Israeli history with 52% of the vote. Netanyahu placed second, with 17.8%, while Ariel Sharon was judged the third-most corrupt. Olmert currently faces charges that include fraud, breach of trust, forgery (of corporate documents) and failure to report income. Olmert is the first prime minister in Israeli history to face graft charges.

The majority of the Israelis polled feel that things are getting worse when it comes to ethics: 70% said they feel that Israel is more corrupt now than ever before, while only 10% think that matters are improving.
Unlike Borochov and Nordau who mistakenly identified Jewish cultural morbidity with Jewish Diaspora conditions it is pretty evident that the Jewish state has managed to establish a gruesome continuum between swindler Madoff and Jerusalem. The Israel that was there to become a celebration of a revived Jewish civilization, a light onto the nations, is in fact the epitome of moral deficiency in all its facets. It is the lowest form of political existence. Zionism has managed to erect the biggest and ugliest Jewish ghetto in Jewish history. The only positive news is that the Israelis seem to be aware of it all.

17:20
Window Into Palestine: Israeli education ministry censors Universal Declaration of Human Rights
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

By Ben White on March 21, 2010 On March 17, the following note appeared on the Promised Land blog: And this also happened this week: the office of the minister of education forbade...

17:19
Israeli education ministry censors Universal Declaration of Human Rights
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

By Ben White on March 21, 2010

On March 17, the following note appeared on the Promised Land blog:

And this also happened this week: the office of the minister of education forbade distributing a booklet for kids about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, because it didn’t like two articles in the declaration, as well as some of the illustration in the booklet.

The relevant link was to an article in Hebrew. I asked Noam which two articles had been specified, and he replied that the nrg.co.il article implied Article 14 and Article 18. These two articles are as follows:

“Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” (Article 14)

“Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.” (Article 18)

But apart from that Hebrew language piece, there is also a translated version of the story available here. Here is an extract:

The Ariel municipality decided to buy hundreds of copies of the book to distribute them as a gift to kindergarten children. But after the Education Ministry’s intervention, the books were returned, even though they had already been bought with money and a message from the municipality pasted in them. This is because the Education Ministry inspectors from the state religious department did not like two illustrations and two sections of the declaration, and decided to disqualify the book…

Mayor Ron Nahman said, “it is positive and good to hand out a book about children’s rights. But our attention was drawn to two sentences that are not exactly what we teach the children. The Education Ministry said this was wrong and we accepted its decision.”

17:17
Window Into Palestine: Israel Expands Settlements To Washington D.C.
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

In a bold move that shocked Wall Street, Main Street and J Street, Israel expanded its settler housing to Washington DC . President Obama and his family were ordered to vacate the White House so that...

17:14
Israel Expands Settlements To Washington D.C.
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

In a bold move that shocked Wall Street, Main Street and J Street, Israel expanded its settler housing to Washington DC . President Obama and his family were ordered to vacate the White House so that it would be available to Israeli officials when they visit the occupied territories in the Senate and the House.
Speaker Pelosi expressed surprise when told that Netanyahu had asked for her congressional leadership position in another bold move that showed Israel practicing its political chutzpah as never before.

“ I thought he would ask for the presidency and am flattered and of course only too willing to accede to any demands made by our most important friends in the world, the Israelis ” said Pelosi.

The ADL accused her of practicing thinly veiled anti-Semitism by only mentioning the world instead of the universe.

Obama supports Wealth Care for all Americans

In soaring emotional rhetoric not heard since his last soaringly emotional speech, the president expressed soaring emotional support for all wealthy Americans and for the overwhelming 90% majority who are not yet wealthy but will be someday if our free markets and credit purchases can fully flower and bloom and blossom and, uh, whatever.

“This nation will thrive and survive as long as people are free to get wealthy and I intend to fight to the last breath to keep the freedoms we enjoy that allow wonderful hard working billionaires to get even more rich and then help the rest of us with tax deductible donations to charity.”

When asked about health care for all Americans the president said he supported it, but it would only be possible when more rich people were given tax breaks that enabled them to buy more private health insurance companies and then make tax deductible donations to charity.

Bankers Urge Freeing Madoff: Say Fed Needs His Help

A consortium of bankers, financiers, entrepreneurs and gourmet chefs joined in calling for the release of convicted fraudster Bernie Madoff. A spokesperson for the group said that only someone with his skill sets could lead the Fed and help the nation out of its most serious financial crisis.

“Let’s face it, our economy has been a massive Ponzi scheme for years now and the person who can best get investors to buy into this mess has to be the man who did it before with absolutely nothing but his mouth and an enigmatic smile. Now he’ll be able to peddle shares in our new Financial Utilization of Credit Kleptocracy Unions of Penury fund, a derivative collateral fandango perceptivity subtracting coercion swapperama market which, along with that Mona Lisa quality of his, will be impossible for egotistical and exceptionally dumb investors to resist . Nothing will more insure the survival of our leaking ship of state than to have captain Bernie at the helm.”

Reality Celebrities?

Producers of reality shows and celebrity gossip programs have joined forces to create an all new viewing consumer product. It will combine the most appealing candid moments of real life embarrassing drama lived by ordinary people who thereby become celebrities, and scandalously embarrassing moments in the lives of celebrities which may reduce them to lives as ordinary people.

The new show will feature celebrities during unguarded moments as they use their toilets, or have sex or beat their children. Then ordinary people will be shown having the same experiences affording viewers the double pleasure of watching people who are better looking , more talented and have far more money than they make complete asses of themselves while also enjoying their peers who have little money, looks or talent becoming celebrities by virtue of being portrayed using toilets, having sex and beating their children.

A spokesperson for Humping International Values productions , which owns the rights to the proposed show said “ We know our viewers love watching their slightly better looking peers making asses of themselves enough to make them stars and they also love gossip about the flaws of celebrities they love and also hate. This will afford them a double pleasure . We expect it to be bigger than American Idol. The twits twixt twelve and twenty market will love it and bring the older mob of wannabes along with them.”

The working title for the show is: U HV NO LIFE SO WTCH THS

stay tuned to The Garlic for all the really important news
Source
17:09
Message to President Obama and Americans with a Conscience
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

eileen fleming

"There comes a time comes when silence is betrayal...History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people...We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for victims...We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people...The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy...Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular- but one must take it simply because it is right."-Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
Since 1967, the Israeli authorities have demolished more than 24,000 Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories. Some are considered “collateral damage” in military operations; such as the 4,000 homes that were demolished in Israel's December-January assault on Gaza.

Some are as collective punishment; such as the obliteration of the Jenin refugee camp in 2002.

Many are for lack of a building permit, which Israel denies to Palestinians; and due to the unjust justice system of Israel, the courts have ordered thousands of Palestinian families to demolish their own homes while threatening them with fines and imprisonment.

Currently there are tens of thousands of demolition orders on Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem and the West Bank .

The Fourth Geneva Convention forbids an Occupying Power from extending its law and administration into an occupied territory.

The very process of granting or denying permits to Palestinians is blatantly illegal under international humanitarian law.

"Missing from Israel’s security framing is the very fact of occupation, which Israel both denies exists…and that “security” requires Israel control over the entire country…rendering impossible a just peace based on human rights, international law, reconciliation."- American Israeli, Founder and Coordinator of ICAHD/Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Jeff Halper, in Obstacles to Peace, A Re-Framing of the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, page 1.

International Law states occupation is to be temporary, but Israeli courts rule on the basis that there is no occupation and therefore the Fourth Geneva Convention protecting civilians under occupation is irrelevant to their sense of justice.

Jeff also informed this reporter, "Before 1947, the Palestinians owned 94% of the country. Then the UN gave away 56% to the Jews and today they have 78% of the land. Hamas cannot accept the legitimacy of Israel stealing their land, just as no colonial people would ever give up the claim to their homeland."

The first house ICAHD rebuilt was in 1998-the Beit Arabyia house-the name for the home of the Arabiya family with seven children which has been rebuilt at least four times by the efforts of ICAHD and the JCHR/Jurist Center for Human Rights, a Palestinian NGO focused on legal advocacy for Palestinians in the Jerusalem area.

Jeff said, “Israel has no constitution but has a Declaration of Independence which promised that Israel would abide by conditions and UN resolutions. They have not fulfilled the agreement which was the basis of their independence.”

The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel was signed on May 14, 1948 the day the British Mandate over Palestine expired: "On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel

Jeff continued, "We really are only but actors in a play. When we wake up to that, and become an active participant in the human drama and pursue justice, things must change because injustice is unsustainable…One out of three Israeli children lives below the poverty line. It’s probably about 80% for Palestinians. Jews are like everyone else, those who have been abused grow up to be abusers. Things here have been turned on their head: its victim mentality and denial about the occupation. Once Israelis accept the fact that they are occupiers they will have to admit their State Terrorism.

"Since 1967 the Israeli government has destroyed over 22,000 Palestinian homes. 95% of the cases have nothing to do with security. All these homes are on Palestinian private property. The Israeli government will not grant permits for them to build on their own land, and in reality are quietly transferring the Palestinians administratively from the land. They make conditions so intolerable that the Palestinians give up and leave and this is exactly what they are after. Not only do the Palestinians receive no warning when their homes are to be destroyed they are fined $1,500.00!

"The reasons for the demolitions are: for The Wall, to establish illegal settlements, build roads and because the Israeli government wants to keep Palestinians confined to the islands [areas A and B] in the West Bank and so Palestinian land remain under the control of the Israeli government.

"When you incorporate occupied territories, highways, settlements and use resources it is all illegal according to the Fourth Geneva Convention which states the status quo must be retained so that negotiations can happen. Unilateral actions are illegal. The occupying power is responsible for those under its control.

"Tony Blair said 70% of all the conflicts in the world can be traced back to the Israeli Palestinian conflict. This conflict impacts the global community and especially everyone in the USA. This whole issue is based on Human Rights and it is a global issue requiring global intervention.

"There have been three stages to make this occupation permanent. The first was to establish the facts on the ground; the settlements. There are ½ million Israeli’s and four million Palestinians here. They have been forced into Bantustan; truncated mini states; prison states. It is apartheid and Israel is not a democracy, it is an ethnocracy: full rights to Jews, but not Palestinians.

"In 1977, Sharon came in with a mandate, money and resources to make the Israeli presence in the West Bank irreversible. The second stage began in April 2004 when America approved the Apartheid/Convergence/Realignment Plan and eight settlement blocs. This is just like South Africa!

"The Bush Sharon letter exchange guaranteed that the USA considers the settlements non-negotiable. The Convergence Plan and The Wall create the borders and that is what defines Bantustans. Congress ratified the Bush plan and only Senator Byrd of West Virginia voted no and nine House Representatives.

"Israel denies there is an occupation, so everything is reduced to terrorism. It is our job to insist upon the human rights issue, for occupied people have International Law on their side.

"Israel has set up a matrix of control; a thick web of settlements guaranteed to make the occupation permanent by establishing facts on the ground.

"Israeli policy is to maintain a 72% Jewish and 28% Arab population. Palestinians cannot get building permits to build upon their legally owned land. The Arab land has been re-zoned as green space, and the green space will be re-zoned for the settlements.

"Every single Palestinian home in Jerusalem has a demolition order. The entire West Bank has been zoned as agricultural land by Israel, and that will also be re-zoned again for more settlements."

Under international law all the settlements are considered illegal colonies-but they are spun as "neighborhoods" by politicians and a limp and lazy media.

During an ICAHD bus tour in Nov. 2007, on our way to the Beit Arabiya Peace House, we witnessed acres of tree stumps that had once been miles of olive trees; but they were chopped off by the Israeli army.

Jeff commented, "It has been said that the Israelis do not love this land, they just want to possess it. I don’t just have a political problem with this Judiaization of the Old City; it is ecologically and environmentally offensive."

It also is spiritually impoverished for the raping and pillaging of what is claimed holy ground refutes and denies the biblical meaning of dominion. The ancients understood dominion meant to nurture, love and protect but the destruction of indigenous peoples homes, the stealing and destroying of their legally owned property, has got to be an abomination unto God as well as a crime against humanity.

The Beit Arabiya Peace House, is at the crossroads of Areas A, B and C and the home has become a symbol of nonviolent persistent resistance and a meeting place for Israelis, Palestinian and International peace activists at the intersection of Areas A, B, and C. The smallest of the three is Area A, which is under Palestinian authority. Areas B and C are under Israeli control.

When I saw Jeff last in June 2009, he told me there was another demolition order of the Beit Arabyia home, but during my visit there, I was captivated by a mural painted on the outer wall created by the North American Workers Against the USA occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

The mural depicted Rachel Corrie, the American who was run over by a USA made Caterpillar bulldozer in Gaza when she stood up to defend the home of a pharmacist with five children four days before the USA began bombing Baghdad. Also depicted was a pregnant Palestinian woman of ten who had also been run over by a Caterpillar in Gaza.

The angelic images of the two women floated above a depiction of a USA made Caterpillar bulldozer that had tipped to one side and was flanked by tanks and images of weapons of destruction along with images of people and a railroad track; a reminder that prior to 1948, Jews and Palestinians had worked together in peaceful solidarity to build a railroad.

The Arabyia home/Peace Center is at the cornerstone of the village of the Anata and the Shufat refugee camps, in the very area where the prophet Jeremiah in the 6th century B.C. critiqued the violent conflicts in the Mid East, which were already old news: "I hear violence and destruction in the city, sickness and wounds are all I see." [Jeremiah 6:7]

Mohammad Alatar, film producer of "The Iron Wall" addressed my group after we broke bread and ate a typical Palestinian feast prepared by the Arabiya family:

"I am a Muslim Palestinian American and when my son asked me who my hero was I took three days to think about it. I told him my hero is Jesus, because he took a stand and he died for it.

"What really needs to be done is for the churches to be like Jesus; to challenge the Israeli occupation and address the apartheid practices as moral issues.

"Even if every church divested and boycotted Israel it would not harm Israel. After the USA and Russia, Israel is the third largest arms exporter in the world. It is a moral issue that the churches must address."

The Obama Administration has demanded Israel freeze all construction of its illegal settlements; but the building continues. Money talks louder than words and people of conscience are exerting pressure to get Israel to change its behavior. The quickest and most effective way to do this is by ending U.S. military aid, which is being misused by Israel in violation of U.S. law to kill and injure Palestinian civilians and sustain Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip.

Vanunu's Message to Hillary Clinton re: The Apartheid Wall

Learn More:

[endtheoccupation.org]

"By far the most dangerous foe we have to fight is apathy – indifference from whatever cause, not from a lack of knowledge, but from carelessness, from absorption in other pursuits, from a contempt bred of self satisfaction." Dr. William Osler, (1849-1919)

"He who allows oppression, shares the crime."- Erasmus Darwin

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Only in Solidarity do "we have it in our power to begin the world again."-Tom Paine

Eileen Fleming,
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com
Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory"
Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13 Minutes with Vanunu"
[www.youtube.com]
17:02
Happy Passover: Settlers, Immigrants, and the Perversion of Jewish Values
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

“You shall not oppress the stranger [immigrant] because you know the soul of the stranger for you yourselves were immigrants in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 23:9) [translation, R.S.]

This verse recalls the migration of Jacob’s sons to Egypt during an ancient Israelite famine. It invokes the history of oppression that Jews suffered there as economic migrants who ultimately escaped slavery at the hands of Pharaoh during the miraculous exodus orchestrated by Moses during the holiday we are about the celebrate, Passover.

Ruth and Naomi (Leonard Baskin)

The Bible calls on Jews to treat immigrants (the term ger in Hebrew, which is often translated as “stranger”) with respect no less than eight different times in at least four different books. In addition, there is the deeply moving story of the Book of Ruth, whose entire plot revolves around an Israelite economic migrant, Naomi, who travels with her family to Moab to escape famine at home (not unlike current Israeli immigrants from Sudan, Ethiopia and Asia). While in Moab, Naomi’s sons marry Moabite women, but when the sons and her husband die, she decides to return to Israel and urges Ruth, her daughter-in-law, to return to her Moabite family. Ruth refuses with one of the most gracious, moving speeches to grace the entire Tanach:

“Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.” (Ruth 1:16-17)

In more recent history, we have the accounts of righteous Gentiles who gave Jews refuge during the Holocaust at great risk to themselves and their families. Conversely, we have a darker history of those like the Roosevelt administration which turned Jews away from ports of refuge, as the St. Louis was shunned when it unsuccessfully attempted to deposit 900 Jewish refugees in the New World

This is not a general subject that is peripheral, but rather is at the heart of Judaism. Without the tender mercy of strangers, we might have long ago ceased to exist as a people. Therefore, we see ourselves as a generous people, one attuned to suffering and therefore bound to treat the stranger in our midst with kindness and respect.

So how else should a Jew react when they read disgusting incitement (for the full effect in the original Hebrew, read here) from none other than a member of the Israeli Knesset, Yaakov “Ketzeleh” Katz, who is also a prominent extremist settler leader. Here Katz (whose nickname oddly invokes the Yiddish diminutive for “kitty-cat”) inveighs against the thousands of economic migrants pouring into Israel’s economy from dire African places like Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia. One linguistic note: the term “infiltrator” used here has a charged connotation in modern Hebrew, as it historically referred to Palestinian fighters who “infiltrated” Israel to engage in terror attacks:

The State of Israel is facing a hard problem: Between 1,000 and 2,000 persons infiltrate each month through the porous southern border…In an increasing arithmetic progression we will reach, in six or seven years, 75,000 or 100,000 African infiltrators, most of whom will live in Tel Aviv…

With a century of hard labor, Am Yisrael has built here a Jewish state. In ten years, these infiltrators could make it all go to waste. We are losing the state to insanity.

…Our committee has visited schools and kindergartens in Arad and we couldn’t believe our eyes: The city is slowly being taken over. The schools in Arad and Eilat are filling up with Eritrean and Sudanese children. Already, close to a tenth of the city’s inhabitants are Sudanese or Eritrean, Muslims and Christians.

We got used to thinking that we are defeating our enemies in battles and here they have surprised us from the rear. The rulers of Sudan and Eritrea, in collusion with the Egyptians are conquering Israel.

Note in this passage, echoes of the Nativist rants of yesteryear against the oncoming hordes and unwashed masses bearing hard down on our shores. Note the language akin to that used to describe a plague of locusts or other form of vermin. The racism is mind-boggling. Also note that Katz, comfortably ensconced in his West Bank settlement home, is attempting to gin up hysterical fear among the wealthy denizens of Tel Aviv’s northern suburbs, which are akin to places like Evanston, Scarsdale, Beverly Hills and Napa Valley in the U.S.

…The infiltrators are penetrating Hatikva neighborhood, are flooding south Tel Aviv and every day they advance a few tens of meters towards Dizengoff on their way to Akirov and Ramat Aviv…As I see it, there is no choice but for the prime minister to declare martial law for everything regarding infiltrators.

In the following passage, Katz suggests establishing an entire city for migrants that would be a cross between a concentration camp and Hooverville:

…I have suggested…to start [constructing] a city that will be a decent distance from the border, where only there the infiltrators will be allowed to live. They will be employed in government projects for building the city itself [and] building the border fence [to prevent further immigration].

It may be that this kind of labor would take it’s toll on the infiltrators in a way that they will advise their relatives not to follow in their footsteps to Israel. They may even wish to pay again $2,500 per head to the corrupt guides who brought them here, this time in order to return them to their home.

For some time no one is surprised how many of Tel Aviv’s residents are willing to sell Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. But it is unbelievable for me to behold how it does not bother them that their own city is becoming Eritrean and Sudanese. A thought sneaks to my mind that this secular, liberal and elitist community has simply lost all will to live…Is this what they hoped for when they built their homes in Tel Aviv? That it will become an African city? What kind of person wants to sell himself and his home? [translation: Eitan Issacson]

The Jewish people both within and outside Israel should know that when they continue supporting the Occupation, they are supporting racism like this. Do we want to be judged and measured as a people by the hate of such hooligans? Further, I challenge the settlers who define Judaism and Jewish values for us as they do here in the comment threads. Theirs is not Judaism. It is a perversion of Judaism. Let’s call it Judea-ism, an idolatry based on worship of land over the spiritual values which our Biblical Prophets represented. We do not need a Third Temple in order to be good Jews. We do not need armed outposts in Hebron to maintain our covenant with God. Let us take back our religion from such people. They do not represent us, nor should they represent Israel.
Tikum Olam

16:58
Harper Government obstructs visit of Respected Palestinian Leader
» ‎ Filasteen (palestine)

Harper Government obstructs visit of Respected Palestinian Leader

16:49
Avi Shlaim: Cut off the cash and Israel might behave
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

President Netanyahu is undermining US interests. The sooner President Obama makes his support conditional, the betterIsraelis are not renowned for their good manners, but their treatment of Vice-President Joe Biden during his recent visit to their country went beyond chutzpah. Biden is one of Israel's staunchest supporters in Washington, and the purpose of his visit was to prepare the ground for the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. An official announcement that Israel planned to build 1,600 new Jewish settler homes in East Jerusalem scuppered the talks, alienated the Palestinians, and infuriated Biden. It was a colossal blunder that is likely to have far-reaching consequences for the special relationship between the two countries.

America subsidises Israel to the tune of $3bn (around £2bn) a year. America is Israel's principal arms supplier, enabling it to retain the technological edge over all its enemies, near and far. In the diplomatic arena too, America extends to Israel virtually unqualified support, including the use of the veto in the UN Security Council to defeat resolutions critical of Israel. America condemns Iran for its nuclear ambitions, while turning a blind eye to Israel's possession of a large arsenal of nuclear weapons.

This unparalleled generosity towards a junior partner is largely the result of sentimental attachment and shared values. Israel used to present itself as an island of democracy in a sea of authoritarianism. But its own actions have shredded this image to pieces. It is now well on the way to becoming a pariah state. During the Cold War, Israel also used to promote itself as a "strategic asset" in helping to check Soviet advances in the Middle East. But since the end of the Cold War, Israel has become more of a liability than an asset.

America's most vital interests lie in the Persian Gulf; to ensure access to oil, the US needs Arab goodwill. Here Israel is a major liability, as a result of its occupation of Palestinian land and its brutal oppression of the Palestinian people.

There is a broad international consensus in favour of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and America is part of this consensus. A previous Democratic administration provided the most realistic blueprint for such a solution. On 23 December 2000, four weeks before leaving the White House, Bill Clinton unveiled his proposals. He called for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state over the whole of the Gaza Strip and 94 to 96 per cent of the West Bank, with a capital city in East Jerusalem. Both sides rejected this peace plan.

In May 2003, after the invasion of Iraq, the Quartet – America, Russia, the UN, and European Union – issued the "Road Map", which envisaged the emergence of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel by the end of 2005. This time, the Palestinians accepted the plan with alacrity, whereas Israel tabled 14 reservations that amounted to a rejection. In August 2005, Israel carried out a unilateral withdrawal from Gaza but, far from being a contribution to the Road Map, this was the prelude to further colonisation of the West Bank.

Ever since 1967, Israel has rarely missed a chance to miss an opportunity to make peace with the Palestinians. Its determination to hold on to the West Bank and East Jerusalem translates into rigid diplomatic intransigence. Settlement expansion has been a constant feature of Israeli policy under all governments since 1967, regardless of their political colour. Settlement expansion, however, can only proceed by confiscating more and more Palestinian land. The basic problem is that land-grabbing and peacemaking cannot proceed together: it is one or the other.

The official American position since 1967, except under George W Bush, held that Jewish settlements on occupied Arab land are illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Obama administration upholds this position. One can make the argument that maintaining the occupation of the West Bank is in Israel's interest, though I utterly reject this argument. But it cannot be argued that the Israeli occupation of the West Bank serves the American national interest. Should America subordinate its own interests to those of its land-hungry ally? A growing number of Americans think not – and some are prepared to say so publicly.

General David Petraeus, the head of Central Command, told the Senate armed services committee last week that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was a root cause of instability in the Middle East and Asia, and that it "foments anti-American sentiment due to a perception of US favouritism for Israel". In private, Joe Biden told the Israelis that their intransigence was undermining America's credibility with Arab and Muslim nations and endangering American lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Small wonder that the announcement of 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem provoked such intense anger at all levels of the Obama administration. Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's apology related only to the timing and not to the substance of the announcement. Hillary Clinton, the Secretary of State, demanded the cancellation of the housing project, a substantial confidence-building measure towards the Palestinians, and a pledge to negotiate on all the core issues of the dispute, including the borders of a Palestinian state. Senator George Mitchell's visit to Israel was postponed.

President Obama correctly identified a total settlement freeze as an essential precondition for restarting the stalled peace talks between Palestinians and Israel, but he allowed Netanyahu to fob him off with a vague promise to exercise restraint for 10 months in building on the West Bank. The promise, however, did not apply to the 3,000 housing units that had already been approved or to East Jerusalem, which Israel had annexed following the June 1967 Six-Day War.

Netanyahu knows that the Palestinians will refuse to resume peace talks unless there is a complete freeze on Jewish house construction there. But he is an aggressive right-wing Jewish nationalist and proponent of the doctrine of permanent conflict. It is because of him and his ultra-nationalist coalition partners that there is no light at the end of the tunnel.

Obama has backed down once, but he is determined to face Netanyahu down this time. His best bet is to use economic leverage to force Netanyahu into meaningful negotiations with the Palestinians on a two-state solution. Even if the current crisis is resolved and the peace talks are resumed, they will go nowhere slowly unless President Obama makes American money and arms to Israel conditional on its heeding American advice.

Avi Shlaim, professor of international relations at the University of Oxford, is author of 'Israel and Palestine: Reappraisals, Revisions, Refutations'

16:12
Verbal Rocks: Slingshot of the Mind: Expulsion and Prayer Part 2
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

I spent a long night with my cousins, joking about how my blood had become Nescafe from all the nights we stayed up joking about those inconsistencies in culture and society. It was 4am. I smashed my...
16:10
Annie's letters: Catherine Ashton: Lessons From a Gaza Trip
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

"We need to move from conflict management to conflict resolution, involving the whole region. Peace is urgent and it is achievable. I look forward to the day when I can meet the captured Israeli...

16:09
U.S. TELLS ISRAEL: “YOU ARE UNDERMINING AMERICA, ENDANGERING TROOPS”
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)
Gordon Duff
THE “SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP” IS DEAD

LEARN SOME OF THE “WHY” BEING KEPT FROM YOU

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Clinton and Joint Chief’s Chairman Mike Mullen have all recently visited Israel on two issues, reliable information that Israel was planning an attack on Iran, a plan designed to push America into a war our leaders believe is both wrong and likely to risk a global nuclear confrontation with Russia and the building of a massive housing project on the Arab side of Jerusalem in violation of numerous agreements, a project that is likely to cause a spike in world terrorism and send thousands of new fighters to Afghanistan to face American forces there.

This is the worst point in the history of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel since the founding of that nation in 1948 but these are not the only reasons, not these and the arrogant and intractable attitude of Israel’s leaders nor being caught in lie after lie, lies told to their financial backer and closest ally, the United States. Here is some background on CENTOM Commander, General Petraeus’ shocking briefing:

On Jan. 16, two days after a killer earthquake hit Haiti, a team of senior military officers from the U.S. Central Command (responsible for overseeing American security interests in the Middle East), arrived at the Pentagon to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The team had been dispatched by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus to underline his growing worries at the lack of progress in resolving the issue. The 33-slide, 45-minute PowerPoint briefing stunned Mullen. The briefers reported that there was a growing perception among Arab leaders that the U.S. was incapable of standing up to Israel, that CENTCOM’s mostly Arab constituency was losing faith in American promises, that Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region…

“Everywhere they went, the message was pretty humbling,” a Pentagon officer familiar with the briefing says. “America was not only viewed as weak, but its military posture in the region was eroding.” But Petraeus wasn’t finished: two days after the Mullen briefing, Petraeus sent a paper to the White House requesting that the West Bank and Gaza (which, with Israel, is a part of the European Command — or EUCOM), be made a part of his area of operations. The Mullen briefing and Petraeus’s request hit the White House like a bombshell… pressing Israel once again on the settlements issue, sending Mitchell on a visit to a number of Arab capitals and dispatching Mullen for a carefully arranged meeting with the chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi. … Certainly, it was thought, Israel would get the message.

Israel didn’t. When Vice President Joe Biden was embarrassed by an Israeli announcement that the Netanyahu government was building 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, the administration reacted. But no one was more outraged than Biden who, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, engaged in a private, and angry, exchange with the Israeli Prime Minister:

“This is starting to get dangerous for us,” Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. “What you’re doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace.” Yedioth Ahronoth went on to report: “The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel’s actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism.” The message couldn’t be plainer: Israel’s intransigence could cost American lives.

The deterioration started long before this and can be tracked by changing perceptions in the Obama administration whose leaders are heavily “pro-Israel” but lack the extremist convictions of the Zionist/extremist group that surrounded President Bush. When Obama took office, even Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, one of the most prominent Israeli proponents in the country, had become aware of the extent of Israeli involvement in areas that had taken the “special relationship” into an area of disaster for the United States. This is what was discovered:
- The military and intelligence organizations in the United States had been penetrated by Israel, not only through our normal broad partnership but the planting of “moles,” many from the Christian Zionist community who were taking direction from Israel and not the United States. The result wasn’t just limited to falsification of intelligence, both leading to endless phony terror alerts and non-existent enemies but to skewing operations in a manner to guarantee their failure with significant American cost in both lives and money.
- The massive spy network uncovered by Sibel Edmonds had been tracked, almost entirely to Israel. Edmonds had been silenced by National Security Letters issued by John Ashcroft, leading Christian Zionist in the Bush Administration and constant “private” visitor to Israel. After 6 years of spying at the highest levels of the White House, Department of State, Congress and the Pentagon, the network grew even more, accessing nearly all top US intelligence and selling it on the open market.
- Most disastrous of the stolen intelligence was the data on the new JSF, the F35 Joint Strike Fighter. All data on this new $300 billion dollar project fell into Israeli hands in 2008, information that may have turned the air superiority fighter meant to rule the skies for the next 30 years into a “target sled.” This is the biggest intelligence attack on the US since the Pollard/Israeli scandal. Pollard, an American Jew reputedly associated with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, stole America’s battle plans for the defense of NATO, our entire spy/surveillance network plans and full ultra-top secret detailed plans that could have negated America’s nuclear deterrent during the most dangerous times of the Cold War. Pollard’s information was sold to the Soviets by Israel, information that could have let Russia win World War III.
- The Israeli attack on Gaza was timed to an American change of administration and done without consultation. Broad intelligence sources indicate that the attacks were not in relatiation to any terrorist activity but are spoken of “behind closed doors” by top US officials as ethnic cleansing not unlike the issues that brought NATO into conflict with Serbia. The systematic nature of the attack, destroying water-treatment, schools, hospitals, food storage, power generation and the massive loss of life, especially among children, has soured many in the Obama camp on Israel
- Israel’s use of the Jewish lobby in the US to hold up President Obama’s domestic agenda and their use of Jewish controlled media to embarrass the President has caused more bitterness. With Jewish controlled/owned Fox, CNN (Wolf Blitzer, formerly of the Jerusalem Post), ABC, CBS, NBC networks and other major news sources all working in concert against, particularly President Obama’s health care initiative, Israel is seen as “flexing its muscle” even more. The believed rationale is the removal of all non-Jews from Israel, dead or alive, with a powerless US government paying the bills and fighting the massive terrorist backlash for generations.
- The Israeli agenda of working with India to destabilize Pakistan, organize terror attacks there and, less publicly known, in Afghanistan and Iraq, some against American targets, can no longer be ignored by the current administration, Secretary Gates, General’s Mullen and Petraeus. Israeli’s “dynamic duo,” Senators McCain and Lieberman, though still holding important committee assignments on the hill, are being held increasingly in disrepute in the United States. When Israel sends these two on errands, it no longer carries the weight and power of the United States as it had during the Bush administation.
- Re-examination of a number of terrorist attacks during the Bush administation, particularly in Europe, show a clear “Mossad footprint,” something adding credence to the hypothesis that the “war on terror” and intelligence failures in Iraq had been heavily influenced by Israeli sources, many of the same individuals tied to the Edmonds spy affair, many close to, not only Israel but President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Recently a secret El Al/Israel flight from JFK in New York has been discovered, a flight authorized by top Bush officials, one previously kept secret and now being tied covering up 9/11 intelligence failures. The El Al Boeing 747 left only hours after the 9/11 attack, at a time all air traffic in the United States was grounded.
With nearly all Arab/Muslim governments aligned behind the US, including a softening of tensions with Iran, Israel feels it must act quickly. However, the US no longer has any strategic requirement for a relationship with Israel. What had been seen as a potential ally, perhaps now wrongly so, in the region is now generally perceived as a “runaway train” that the United States can no longer go to the United Nations time after time to protect from sanctions, 32 times thus far. Israel clearly feels it has the United States “over a barrel” with control of media, a massive AIPAC lobby working against American policy and huge new financial influence over the upcoming Congressional elections handed over to them by the highly controversial 5/4 Supreme Court “free speech” election funding decision clearly meant to aid Israel further in her ability to intimidate Congress.

Unofficially, Israel has moved to the top of America’s “terrorist watch list” and is now drifting toward “evildoer” status, not only by the White House but, more broadly, through top defense officials who now perceive Israel as a threat to the United States.

16:08
Window Into Palestine: Obama invites defiant Israeli PM for talks
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

US President Barack Obama on Sunday invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet him at the White House, even as the Israeli leader rebuffed a key US demand to halt settlement construction in...

16:07
Obama invites defiant Israeli PM for talks
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

US President Barack Obama on Sunday invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet him at the White House, even as the Israeli leader rebuffed a key US demand to halt settlement construction in east Jerusalem.

The invitation for the Tuesday meeting to discuss Middle East peace efforts was handed to Netanyahu by Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell at the start of a meeting Sunday, Netanyahu's office said.

Netanyahu, who has angered the US administration over Israeli settlement building in east Jerusalem, was due to leave for Washington later Sunday to meet US officials and Jewish leaders.

Earlier, Netanyahu vowed there would be no halt to settlement building in east Jerusalem but, in an apparent concession to the US, said Israel was willing to widen the scope of planned indirect talks with the Palestinians.

His comments on settlements were quickly denounced by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas as unhelpful to attempts to restart talks. Abbas also condemned the recent killing of four Palestinians in the West Bank by Israeli forces.

"Our policy on Jerusalem is the same as all previous governments of Israel for the last 42 years, it has not changed," said Netanyahu, speaking ahead of Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting.

"As far as we are concerned building in Jerusalem is the same as building in Tel Aviv and this is something we have made very clear to the US administration," he said.

The hardline prime minister said he had spelled out his position in a letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had demanded a series of Israeli steps to end a crisis over settlement-building in the Holy City.

Israel and the US have been at loggerheads for the past two weeks after the Jewish state announced plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem during a visit by US Vice President Joe Biden.

Netanyahu's office said he had suggested "mutual confidence-building measures" that could be carried out by Israel and the Palestinians.

Netanyahu also said on Sunday that Israel had agreed that all issues could be discussed at planned indirect, or "proximity", talks that were delayed by the settlement row, reportedly another US demand.

"We have also made clear that in the proximity talks both sides can raise any issues that are in dispute," he said.

"But a real solution to the basic problems between us and the Palestinians can only be solved during direct talks and peace negotiations.

Netanyahu was to also meet later Sunday with UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who earlier toured the Gaza Strip where he slammed Israel for its blockade of the Hamas-ruled territory, saying it was causing "unacceptable suffering."

It was Ban's second visit to Gaza since the war that ended in January 2009 in which some 1,400 Palestinians were killed and thousands of houses were severely damaged or destroyed. Thirteen Israelis were killed in the conflict.

Mitchell, who arrived in the region on a visit originally set for last week, but postponed by the controversy, was also set to hold talks on Monday with Abbas, who had threatened to call off the resumption of indirect talks with Israel in protest at the settlement announcement.

Abbas's spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said on Sunday "Netanyahu's declarations don't help the return to negotiations."

"The Israeli escalation and the killing of Palestinians on a daily basis is the actual response of the Israeli government to the Palestinians, the Arabs and to American (peace) efforts, and an answer to the Quartet's statement," Abu Rudeina said, quoting Abbas.

Meeting in Moscow on Friday, members of the Middle East peace Quartet -- the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States -- came out with an ambitious prescription for getting moribund peace talks back on track.

They called on Israel to freeze all settlement activity, dismantle settlement outposts erected since March 2001 and stop house demolitions in annexed east Jerusalem.

The latest political manoeuvring came amid an uptick in violence in the occupied West Bank, where four Palestinians were killed in weekend clashes with Israeli soldiers, including two on Sunday who the military said were shot dead after they tried to stab a soldier.

Peace talks have been frozen since Israel's invasion of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in December 2008.

15:58
Window Into Palestine: Netanyahu to Ask Obama for Bunker Buster Bombs against Iran
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

politicaltheatrics Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will press the American administration during his upcoming visit to Washington to release sophisticated...

15:56
Netanyahu to Ask Obama for Bunker Buster Bombs against Iran
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

politicaltheatrics

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will press the American administration during his upcoming visit to Washington to release sophisticated bunker-busting bombs needed for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, the Sunday Times reported in its website.

Netanyahu will leave for the United States on Sunday evening in order to attend a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). He is also expected to meet with senior administration officials.

In Washington, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. A meeting with President Barack Obama is in the works.

The Scotland Herald reported last week that hundreds of powerful US “bunker-buster” bombs were shipped from California to the British island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for a possible attack on Iran.

The newspaper quoted a manifest from the US navy as saying that the shipment included 387 “Blu” bombs used for blasting hardened or underground structures.

Experts told the paper that the ammunition was being put in place for an assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Although Diego Garcia is part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, the Herald said, it is used by the US as a military base under an agreement made in 1971.

According to the newspaper, the preparations were being made by the US military, but it would be up to President Obama to make the final decision.

The London Weekly said that for the first time since Operation Cast Lead against Gaza, Israel has agreed to ease the blockade on the Strip, discuss all core issues during the proximity talks, with the condition of reaching final conclusions only in direct talks with the PA.

It added that Netanyahu will seek returns for the concessions, asking Washington to provide the IAF with the ‘bunker-buster’ bombs.

Without proof, Israel and the West accuse Iran of using its enrichment program to build a nuclear bomb, a charge Tehran firmly denies.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued on Saturday a Persian New Year’s address to Iranians, in which he said that Iran would resist Western pressure even more determinedly in the coming year.”
Notes/Sources:

The above article was written by Al Manar Staff;entitled: “Netanyahu to Ask Obama for Bunker Buster Bombs against Iran”.The article can be found on Al Manar.
15:48
Ariel Sharon - Man of Peace?
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

It always bothers me when people say Israel wants "peace." It is a statement that is made to get you to accept a false premise - that "peace" is the objective. A strong arm robber wants "peace" - for you to peacefully hand over what is yours. It is obviously arguable what is "justice" in the situation but at least that is what is at issue here - not some distraction called "peace."

http://whatreallyhappened.com/content/library-links-no-lol-israel-does-not-want-peace

15:46
Window Into Palestine: Depleted Uranium: A War Crime Within a War Crime
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

William BOWLES March 20, 2010 As if destroying a country and its culture ain’t bad enough, how about destroying its future, its children? I want to scream...
15:46
DesertPeace: RUN SOLDIERS, RUN!
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

The ‘bravest, most moral soldiers’ in the world in action….. not a shot was fired, not a stone was hurled, yet they ran for their lives. One small victory for Palestine, One GREAT...

15:46
RUN SOLDIERS, RUN!
» ‎ DesertPeace (palestine)

RUN SOLDIERS, RUN!

15:45

Depleted Uranium: A War Crime Within a War Crime

» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

William BOWLES

March 20, 2010

As if destroying a country and its culture ain’t bad enough, how about destroying its future, its children? I want to scream it from the rooftops! We are complicit in crimes of such enormity that I find it difficult to find the words to describe how I feel about this crime committed in my name! In the name of the 'civilized’ world?

"Forget about oil, occupation, terrorism or even Al-Qaeda. The real hazard for Iraqis these days is cancer. Cancer is spreading like wildfire in Iraq. Thousands of infants are being born with deformities. Doctors say they are struggling to cope with the rise of cancer and birth defects, especially in cities subjected to heavy American and British bombardment." — Jalal Ghazi, for New America Media

According to Dahr Jamail,

"The U.S. and British militaries used more than 1,700 tons of depleted uranium in Iraq in the 2003 invasion (Jane’s Defence News, 4/2/04)-on top of 320 tons used in the 1991 Gulf War (Inter Press Service, 3/25/03). Literally every local person I’ve ever spoken with in Iraq during my nine months of reporting there knows someone who either suffers from or has died of cancer.

/../

Ghazi reported that in Fallujah, which bore the brunt of two massive U.S. military operations in 2004, as many as 25 percent of newborn infants have serious physical abnormalities. Cancer rates in Babil, an area south of Baghdad, have risen from 500 cases in 2004 to more than 9,000 in 2009. Dr. Jawad al-Ali, the director of the Oncology Center in Basra, told Al Jazeera English (10/12/09) that there were 1,885 cases of cancer in all of 2005; between 1,250 and 1,500 patients visit his center every month now. — 'The New 'Forgotten’ War’ By Dahr Jamail, 15 March, 2010

Even the BBC was forced to acknowledge the reality (Listen: 'Child deformities 'increasing’ in Falluja’ 4 March, 2010). True to form I searched the BBC Website in vain for the video clip I watched last week, so you are spared the horrific scenes I witnessed, recorded in Fallujah’s main hospital. Had this been Saddam’s legacy, we would have seen images like the one above endlessly repeated in the mass media, complete with UN resolutions and the like.

The short piece posted on the BBC Website ends thus:

"In a statement, the Pentagon said that "No studies to date have indicated environmental issues resulting in specific health issues. Unexploded ordinance, including improvised explosive devises, are a recognised hazard.""

End of story as far as the BBC is concerned. So how come this isn’t a headline? Even Stop the War Coalition barely mentions it, more concerned it seems with the plight of imperialism’s warriors, Britain’s warriors who have shooting this foul stuff at not only Iraq’s innocents but at the innocents of the former Yugoslavia and Afghanistan. But then we are the citizens of Empire which explains why Stop the War has little or nothing to say on the subject.

"When they said that depleted uranium was the US empire’s weapon of choice, they lied. The word "depleted" is a public relations spin. It makes it sound like the nuclear material is worn out. It’s not. It’s Uranium. Let’s just call it Uranium. In other words, DU is low-level nuclear waste. DU can also contain trace amounts of "neptunium, plutonium, americium, technitium-99 and uranium-236." — http://tuberose.com/

British and US government statements that Depleted Uranium is a 'conventional’ weapon are contradicted by the facts:

Depleted uranium (DU) weaponry meets the definition of weapon of mass destruction in two out of three categories under U.S. Federal Code Title 50 Chapter 40 Section 2302.
Since 1991, the U.S. has released the radioactive atomicity equivalent of at least 400,000 Nagasaki bombs into the global atmosphere. That is 10 times the amount released during atmospheric testing which was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs. The U.S. has permanently contaminated the global atmosphere with radioactive pollution having a half-life of 2.5 billion years.
The U.S. has illegally conducted four nuclear wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and twice in Iraq since 1991, calling DU "conventional" weapons when in fact they are nuclear weapons.
DU on the battlefield has three effects on living systems: it is a heavy metal "chemical" poison, a "radioactive" poison and has a "particulate" effect due to the very tiny size of the particles that are 0.1 microns and smaller.
The blueprint for DU weaponry is a 1943 Manhattan Project memo to Gen. L. Groves that recommended development of radioactive materials as poison gas weapons – dirty bombs, dirty missiles and dirty bullets.
DU weapons are very effective kinetic energy penetrators, but even more effective bioweapons since uranium has a strong chemical affinity for phosphate structures concentrated in DNA.
DU is the Trojan Horse of nuclear war – it keeps giving and keeps killing. There is no way to clean it up, and no way to turn it off because it continues to decay into other radioactive isotopes in over 20 steps.
Terry Jemison at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs stated in August 2004 that over 518,000 Gulf-era veterans (14-year period) are now on medical disability, and that 7,039 were wounded on the battlefield in that same period. Over 500,000 U.S. veterans are homeless.
In some studies of soldiers who had normal babies before the war, 67 percent of the post-war babies are born with severe birth defects – missing brains, eyes, organs, legs and arms, and blood diseases.
In southern Iraq, scientists are reporting five times higher levels of gamma radiation in the air, which increases the radioactive body burden daily of inhabitants. In fact, Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan are uninhabitable.
Cancer starts with one alpha particle under the right conditions. One gram of DU is the size of a period in this sentence and releases 12,000 alpha particles per second. — http://tuberose.com/

So come on all you allegedly civilized people, what are you going to about it?

PS: Oh, I forgot about the DU weapons supplied to Israel by the US, also dropped on the people of Gaza.

15:39
Window Into Palestine: Lights, Camera, Distraction!
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

by Keith Johnson Days after our tough talking Vice President Joe Biden returned from his trip to Israel with a handful of broken glass, the Obama administration announced that it has blocked...

15:37
Lights, Camera, Distraction!
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

by Keith Johnson

Days after our tough talking Vice President Joe Biden returned from his trip to Israel with a handful of broken glass, the Obama administration announced that it has blocked delivery of armaments slated for delivery to the state of Israel. This announcement brought cheers and jeers from opposite ends of the political spectrum while leaving those in the middle, well…perplexed.
The diplomatic theatre going on between Israel and the Obama administration has everybody fooled. But this entire political circus is purely for public consumption. The short-term goal is to create the illusion that there is a riff between the two nations, while the larger scheme is intended to give Israel complete inculpability when the U.S. finally decides to strike Iran. The move yesterday by the Obama administration to divert delivery of 387 bunker-busters from the state of Israel to the island of Diego Garcia is just another slight-of-hand maneuver in the shell game that is being played out in the days leading up to the inevitable attack on the Islamic state.

Quoting from a Thursday article in the World Tribune “In January 2010, the administration agreed to an Israeli request to double the amount of U.S. military stockpiles to $800 million. Officials said the bunker-busters as well as Patriot missile interceptors were included in the agreement.” Now, are we expected to believe that it was Israel’s announcement to construct new illegal settlements in disputed East Jerusalem that has compelled the administration to go back on its promise? Give me a break! Is Israel’s expansionist campaign something new? They’ve never stopped building. They’ve never stopped destroying. They’ve never stopped killing. They have been engaged in an ongoing military adventure that has violated the human rights and cost thousands of Palestinian lives for as long as this writer has been alive.

The whole staged crisis between the U.S. and Israel is to secure delivery of those weapons to a more strategic location. That’s always been the plan. If not, why would they even put those munitions into transit at all? It’s obvious that a direct delivery of those weapons to Diego Garcia would be just too obvious. But by creating the illusion that those weapons were intended on being delivered to Israel, the contrived “last-minute decision” to divert them to housing on Diego Garcia appears to be merely an innocuous logistics decision. But it’s anything but innocuous. When you realize the strategic significance of this move it makes the reality of the world crisis we are now facing even that more ominous. Diego Garcia is a U.S. air and naval stronghold in the Indian Ocean. It is a giant, sprawling military complex that was solely responsible for launching air strikes against Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. More recently, coalition aircraft at Diego Garcia dropped more ordnance on Taliban and Al Qaeda forces in Afghanistan than any other unit during the war on terror. This is not a place where bombs go to sit in storage. This is a place they go before they’re launched.

Delivering the bunker-busters to Israel would have been a major strategic blunder. It would have made Israel appear even that more threatening and lend credibility to both nations’ critics who have been saying all along that there is no clear distinction between Israel and the United States. It would have created a larger crisis throughout the world and lend justification for Iran and its allies to fortify their borders against a well-armed Israel. The United States and Israel are very conscious of this; and that is why they unilaterally played this out the way they did. This strategy to make Israel look like an estranged child from its parent gives them complete deniability once the bombs start dropping. They believe that this staged feud between Israel and the U.S. will put the kibosh on any allegations that the two are working in concert. But behind the scenes, they hope to provoke Iran into a retaliatory strike on Israel in order to lend justification for their involvement and compel the American people to come to their defense.

But still, many are buying into this illusion that was created to keep one guessing about the true nature of relations between Israel and the Obama administration. The whole scenario is being played on the American people like a Hollywood script. It reminds me of the scene from Chinatown when Private Detective J.J. Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is slapping around Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) trying to get her to confess what her relationship is to the daughter of millionaire Noah Cross (John Huston).

Evelyn: She’s my daughter.
[Gittes slaps Evelyn]
Gittes: I want the truth!
Evelyn: She’s my sister…
[slap]
Evelyn: She’s my daughter…
[slap]
Evelyn: My sister, my daughter.
[More slaps]
Gittes: I said I want the truth!
Evelyn: She’s my sister AND my daughter!

Such is the game being played on us concerning Obama, his motivations and his true relationship with Israel. He’s a Muslim… He’s a Jew… He’s black… He’s white… He’s for Israel…He’s against Israel. It’s all drama, intended on keeping the audience confused and deceived as they try to follow a plot as convoluted as one you’re likely to find in the pages of a Raymond Chandler novel.

This whole mystery centered on Obama has been going on from the day he became a strong contender for the Presidency and cumulated during his 2009 Middle Eastern trips to three “so-called” Islamic countries. This was proof positive to some that he was acting on behalf of the Muslims. Actually, the opposite was true. Just look at the three countries he visited during that trip: Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

Now why in the world would Obama choose these, and only these three destinations on his Middle Eastern trip? Surely, the people from war torn regions of Palestine, Iraq and certain African regions would like to hear words of comfort and compassion from a fellow Muslim. But his mission was not to reach out to defeated Muslims, his was to act as Israel’s envoy to repair relations with a nation it depends upon for trade and to solidify alliances with nations they are hoping to depend upon when they go to war against Iran.

For instance, Israel and Turkey have had a long history of favorable relations. Turkey is NOT an Arab nation. It is European. Though ninety plus percent of the population is Islamic, the government is secular and pseudo-democratic based on European/Anglo principles and intent on smashing any attempt by the religious leaders to usurp their power. Turkey is an applicant to the European Union. Turkey is a member nation of NATO. Turkey is not anti-Christian. Turkey has a significant Jewish demographic. Turkey is an ally to the United States and enjoyed a great relationship with Israel until the Israeli Offensive on Gaza. This is where relations strained and that is why Obama was sent there. Israel depends on Turkey. They have been long trading partners both in goods and services as well as weapons and technology. They had plans and hope to continue plans to build a pipeline to supply oil, natural gas, water, electricity and fiber optic cables to Israel. Israel’s ability to keep free-trade open with Turkey and secure that pipeline is vital to Israel’s existence.

How about Saudi Arabia and Egypt? Both countries are western client states and some kind of alliance with them (or at least their neutrality) is vital once war is finally declared upon Iran. Both Saudi Arabia and Egypt are Sunni while Iran is Shiite—they are sworn enemies. Both countries are strong trading partners with the United States and though they do not engage in diplomatic relations with Israel, the United States acts as a conduit to do their bidding.

The strained relations between Israel and the Arab nations is another reason why Israel needs to stay out of the picture when the Iranian conflict gets underway. If Israel makes a first strike against Iran, or if the United States and Israel strike together, that could cause a severe breach in cooperation from the Arab nations in the region.

Remember what happened shortly after Obama’s Middle-Eastern trip and his so-called “reaching out” to the Muslim world? A little more than a month later his puppet masters George Soros and Zbigniew Brzenzski attempted to overthrow the Iranian government by way of a “color revolution.” Now we see yet another hand reaching out in an assumed gesture of peace. I guess we’ll just have to wait to see how long it takes before that hand turns into a fist…and comes down smacking hard!

15:36
Window Into Palestine: Why this AIPAC conference is different from all other years
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

WRH Israel cannot make its intentions more clear than if they had a knife to this country's throat ; that US must attack Iran in Israel's defense, to "neutralize" yet another "existential threat" to...

15:34
Why this AIPAC conference is different from all other years
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

WRH

Israel cannot make its intentions more clear than if they had a knife to this country's throat ; that US must attack Iran in Israel's defense, to "neutralize" yet another "existential threat" to Israel's existence.

Israel doesn't want any Israelis to fight, get killed or maimed, in the process: they insist on the US military do the killing, getting killed, and maimed for them.

That is the message of this AIPAC Conference.

And unfortunately, the US Congress, having actually resigned their collective responsibilities of listening to, and actually representing We the People, will probably give AIPAC and Israel the war it wants.

It is not, however, a war which is in any way morally justified, or supported in any way American citizens. Of course, that will make utterly no difference to Congressional members.

They understand without question what happens to a Congress member who doesn't support Israel's agenda.

And if you don't believe that, ask Cynthia McKinney

http://www.aljazeerah.info/News%20archives/2006%20News%20Archives/July/28%20n/Cynthia%20McKinney%20Targeted%20by%20the%20Israel%20Lobby,%20AGAIN!.htm

Why This AIPAC conference is different from all other years
By Nathan Guttman,

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual parley is known for pulling in top names from the administration, Congress and the Israeli government.

But this year, the pro-Israel lobby's policy conference will put many of the key players in the American-Israeli relationship onstage, as relations between the two allies are at a rare pitch of tension.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will get a chance to explain her views on Israel's settlement activity only 10 days after scolding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a 45-minute phone conversation. Netanyahu himself will take the stage later that day, expecting to receive a needed dose of support before facing President Obama at the White House on March 23.

The conference will host hundreds of lawmakers, many of them torn between supporting the administration and wishing to show their friendship to Israel. Some 7,000 AIPAC activists are also expected to attend during the course of the three-day conference.

AIPAC's annual show of force comes at a crucial time for the organization. The group that prides itself on maintaining strong and intimate ties with any administration has taken the unusual step of openly criticizing the Obama administration's treatment of the settlement dispute with Israel as a source of "serious concern."

The criticism, in the form of a March 14 official statement, came in response to the administration's strong and repeated public criticism of Israel's announcement of new, exclusively Jewish housing construction in predominantly Palestinian East Jerusalem just as Vice President Joe Biden was visiting to reinforce the two allies' ties.

Immediately after this revelation, Netanyahu apologized for the timing of the announcement but reaffirmed his government's commitment to continue such construction.

Since Clinton's March 12 dressing-down of Netanyahu, AIPAC's call to lower the flames and return to a more friendly way of doing business was echoed by many other major Jewish groups. The calls now seem to have taken root within the administration.

The White House and the State Department have toned down their rhetoric, and Clinton even praised Netanyahu's response to America's demands regarding building in Jerusalem, calling them "useful." According to press reports, the prime minister told Clinton that Israel would take "confidence-building measures" in the West Bank but would not announce a building freeze in East Jerusalem.

Pro-Israel activists hope the conference emerges as a pivotal point back toward warmer ties between America and Israel. They certainly want to avoid it becoming a source of deeper conflict caused by AIPAC delegates booing Clinton during her speech, as some commentators have suggested could happen. For these activists, the focus on American-Israeli ties and on the Palestinian issue is a major distraction.

This year, the lobby has built its annual conference, and its entire lobbying agenda around the issue of Iran. When AIPAC activists mount the buses March 23 to go meet their representatives on Capitol Hill, they?ll be carrying an advocacy message that emphasizes Iran as the immediate and current concern.

In lobbying meetings following the conference, AIPAC will also ask members of Congress to complete the new Iran sanctions bill, which has passed both chambers and is now awaiting reconciliation between the two versions in the conference committee.

In addition, AIPAC will urge lawmakers to sign a letter to the White House calling for the United States to bypass the United Nations Security Council by enacting sanctions against Iran without waiting for the international body to take action.

Another issue on the lobbying agenda will be reiterating the need to keep up foreign aid to Israel. Activists will also ask their representatives to sign a letter supporting Israeli- Palestinian peace negotiations and affirming the strong friendship between the United States and Israel.

AIPAC's stated mission of strengthening ties between American and Israel could prove to be just a little more difficult this year. While declarations of support for the strong relations poured in from the administration and Congress in the days leading up to the conference, some of Israel?s strongest supporters chose to criticize the Netanyahu government over the settlement dispute.

Among those making their reservations public were Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland and California Democratic rep. Howard Berman, who chairs the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Public opinion polls still show that AIPAC is entering its conference with a comfortable level of support among Americans for the Jewish state. According to a new poll by Rasmussen Reports, conducted after Biden's visit to Israel, the number of Americans who view Israel as an ally of America remains steady.

Most Americans also support the idea of military aid to Israel from the United States. At the same time, the poll found that 49% of Americans believe Israel should be required to stop building settlements.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com

15:25
International Solidarity Movement: Second youth from Iraq Burin dies overnight
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

Popular Struggle Coordination Committee 21 March 2010 Ussayed Qaddous, 19, who struck in the head with live ammunition and critically injured passed away in the Rafidya hospital in Nablus this...
15:13
Video Palestine: Mossad Did 9/11 Says Former US Army Director
» ‎ Palestine Blogs Aggregator (palestine)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMsdNl_13q4endofvid [starttext] Dr. Alan Sabrosky, former director of studies at the US Army War College says that the military brass now know that Israel and those...

13:43
Demonstration in Beit Jala / Manifestation a Beit Jala, 21.03.2010
» ‎ chroniques de palestine (palestine)

(c) Anne Paq/Activestills.org, Beit Jala, 21.03.2010 A group of Palestinians, Israelis and internationals walked towards the lands of Beit Jala which were bulldozed earlier this month by the Israeli...

13:17
FIRST THEY EVICTED US FROM OUR HOMES, THEN THEY REFUSED TO RENT US ONE
» ‎ DesertPeace (palestine)

FIRST THEY EVICTED US FROM OUR HOMES, THEN THEY REFUSED TO RENT US ONE

13:17
Protest against an ethnic cleanser in London
» ‎ Jews sans frontieres (palestine)

URGENT ACTION: Protest against Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, Monday 22nd March, 5pm, London
Nir Barkat, the mayor of Jerusalem behind the announcement of 1,600 new settlement units in East Jerusalem, will be visiting London early next week. A total of 50,000 housing units have [www.haaretz.com] [www.haaretz.com] href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1155639.html">planned in the coming years - doubling the settler population - and reducing the Palestinian population to a third. Israel's plans to restore Hurva synagogue a few hundred meters from Al-Aqsa mosque has led to clashes over the last few days - men under 50 have been refused entry into Al-Aqsa since Friday. Israel has deployed some 3,000 security forces across the city.

He will be speaking at Chatham House (10 St James's Square, London SW1Y 4LE). Come along and protest against the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from East Jerusalem.

Organised by: Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, British Muslim Initiative, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Friends of Al Aqsa; Friends of Lebanon, Friends of Sabeel UK, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, Liberal Democrat Friends of Palestine, Britain Palestine Twinning Network.

You can let Chatham House know what you think about their recent briefing ‘Jerusalem: the Cost of Failure' and the event by ringing 020 7957 5700 or emailing: contact@chathamhouse.org.uk.
Palestine Solidarity Camoaign
13:05
Ban Ki-Moon delivers rare rebuke to Israel and its partner in crime
» ‎ Jews sans frontieres (palestine)

I'm surprised to see the UN General Secretary criticising Israel and Egypt over the Gaza blockade but it's there in black and white on the Voice of America site:
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has made a visit to the Gaza Strip and repeated his condemnation of the blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt. Meanwhile, international efforts to get Israelis and Palestinians back to negotiations are stepping up.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon came the region to press Israelis and Palestinians to return to negotiations. On Sunday, while visiting the Gaza Strip, he condemned Israel for the blockade it and Egypt have on the enclave.

"I have repeatedly made it quite clear to Israel's leaders that the Israeli policy of closure is not sustainable and that it is wrong," Mr. Bn said. "It poses unacceptable suffering of human beings. This policy is also counterproductive. It undercuts moderates and empowers extremists."
It seems to have escaped his notice that the blockade is being imposed by rather powerful extremists.

13:00
Is This Dubai reloaded? More information on alleged Mossad hit in Budapest
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

Crime sceneBy JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |
IntelNews reported on Friday that a Syrian man was shot dead in Budapest on Wednesday morning, as he was driving his car. Witnesses reported that the assailant stole a small black briefcase from the 52-year-old victim’s vehicle, before fleeing the scene of the crime on foot. It also emerged that, in the week prior to the mysterious shooting, Hungarian air controllers located two Israeli Gulfstream spy planes hovering over the Hungarian capital, close to the airport, where Wednesday’s shooting occurred.

Is this Dubai reloaded? Late on Friday, Reuters news agency reported the dead Syrian-born man’s name as Bassam Trache, 52. Meanwhile, Hungarian officials continue to deny any link between Trache’s murder and the alleged Israeli spy planes. Hungarian government spokesman, Domokos Szollar, said the overflight was “routine” training that was cleared in advance with Hungary’s National Transport Authority by the Israelis. However, Hungarian “defense ministry officials appear not to have been informed” of the alleged training exercise. The New York Post, (owned by Fox News), so far the only American news outlet currently reporting the incident, reports announced that the Israeli jets had requested and received authorization to fly over Romanian airspace, en route to Hungary. that the “Israeli spy planes flew uninvited and unannounced over Budapest”. Finally, the Romanian government has announced that the Israeli jets had requested and received authorization to fly over Romanian airspace, en route to Hungary.
12:56
Another Mossad assassination, this time in Hungary?
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

Crime sceneBy JOSEPH FITSANAKIS| intelNews.org |

IntelNews got word last night that an unidentified Syrian man was shot dead in Budapest early on Wednesday morning, as he was driving his car. Witnesses reported that the assailant stole a small black briefcase from the 52-year-old victim’s vehicle, before fleeing the scene of the crime on foot. A few hours later, it emerged that, in the week prior to the mysterious shooting, Hungarian air controllers located two Israeli Gulfstream spy planes hovering over the Hungarian capital, close to the airport, where Wednesday’s shooting actually occurred. The Hungarian government is so far refusing to release precise information as to the identity of the Syrian victim in Wednesday’s shooting. The country’s Ministry of Defense has also refused comment on the Israeli spy planes, except to say that they were “on a diplomatic mission”. Meanwhile, Aliza Bin-Noun, Israel’s ambassador to Hungary, denied the Gulfstream aircraft were in any way collecting intelligence. She also alleged that the two Israeli Air Force planes were on a “routine” mission and had received permission to enter Hungarian national airspace from the Hungarian National Transport Authority.
12:51
An open letter to Ban Ki Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations
» ‎ Window Into Palestine (palestine)

Your Excellency:

You are already well aware of the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza consequent on Israel’s devastating military attacks and its siege. As recently as December 27of 2009, you called the blockade of Gaza “unacceptable.” While this statement is certainly valid, it constitutes a gross understatement of the actual situation which amounts to slow genocide. Such understatement suggests that you are trimming your language to accommodate US pro-Israeli policy. We live an ongoing, illegal, crippling Israeli siege that has shattered all spheres of life, prompting the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights, Richard Falk, to describe it as “a prelude to genocide”. Your own UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, headed by the highly respected South African judge, Richard Goldstone, found Israel guilty of “war crimes and possible crimes against humanity,” as did major international human rights organizations, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The Goldstone report concludes that Israel’s war on Gaza was “designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability.”

Mr. Ban,

The 1948 Genocide Convention clearly says that one instance of genocide is “the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a people in whole or in part.” That is what has been done to Gaza since the imposition of the blockade by a UN member state, namely Israel, and the massacre of 1434 Palestinians, 90 per cent of whom were civilians, including 434 children.

On your second short visit to Gaza since the end of the Israeli onslaught in 2008-09, you will find what Professor Sara Roy, an expert on Gaza, describes as “a land ripped apart and scarred, the lives of its people blighted. Gaza is decaying under the weight of continued devastation, unable to function normally…” Professor Roy concludes that “[T]he decline and disablement of Gaza’s economy and society have been deliberate, the result of state policy–consciously planned, implemented and enforced… And just as Gaza’s demise has been consciously orchestrated, so have the obstacles preventing its recovery.” Israel is intent on destroying Gaza e because World official bodies and leaders choose to say and do nothing.

As civil society organizations based in Gaza, we call on you to use your position as Secretary General of the UN, the world body responsible for holding all governments accountable for the safeguarding of the human rights of all peoples under International Law to bring to bear on Israel the full force of your mandate to open the borders of Gaza to allow the import of building materials as well as all the other requirements for decent living conditions for us, the besieged Palestinians of Gaza.

We understand you are coming to Khan Younis to inspect an UNRWA housing project designed to provide housing for Palestinians whose homes were demolished by Israel’s war machine and who have been waiting for over five years for replacement. Of course the building project will not have been completed because of the blockade, even though it is an UNRWA project. The brazen refusal of Israel to cooperate with the decision of the International Community to re-construct Gaza, for which several billions of Euros were pledged, should not be tolerated. Israel’s attacks have damaged or completely destroyed many public buildings and have according to the UN’s own OCHA report as of April 30, 2009, severely damaged or completely destroyed some 21,000 family dwellings. Many other Palestinians who have spent the past several winters in flimsy tents have also been promised the means to rebuild homes and schools, though to date nothing has been done to alleviate their suffering.

In addition to the very visible lack of shelter, we, in Gaza, also suffer from the contamination of water, air and soil, since the sewage system is unable to function due to power cuts necessitated by lack of fuel to the main generators of the Gaza power grid. Medical conditions due to injuries from phosphorous bombs and other illegal Israeli weapons as well as from water contamination cannot be treated because of the siege. In addition to the ban on building materials, Israel also prevents many other necessities from being imported: lights bulbs, candles, matches, books, refrigerators, shoes, clothing, mattresses, sheets, blankets, tea, coffee, sausages, flour, cows, pasta, cigarettes, fuel, pencils, pens, paper… etc.

Mr. Secretary General,

When you visit Khan Younis, keep in mind that a huge UN storage depot was directly targeted by Israeli phosphorus bombs only last year destroying tons of badly needed food and other essentials. At that time your UNRWA chief John Ging spoke of massive obstacles preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the civilian population of Gaza: those obstacles must be removed. The Red Cross called the Israeli assault “completely and utterly unacceptable based on every known standard of international humanitarian law and universal humanitarian principles and values.”

We sincerely hope you will live up to your responsibility and speak for the suffering people of Gaza to those who hold the keys that could easily end the barbaric blockade, as the first step towards the implementation of all UN resolutions in Palestine.

Gaza,

2010-03-21

Signed by:

University Teachers’ Association in Palestine

General Union for Health Services Workers

General Union for Public Services Workers

General Union for Petrochemical and Gas Workers

General Union for Agricultural Workers

Union of Women’s Work Committees

Union of Synergies—Women Unit

Union of Palestinian Women Committees

Women’s Studies Society

Working Woman’s Society

Arab Cultural Forum

Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel

One Democratic State Group

Al-Quds Bank for Culture and Information Society

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