Headlines for March 4 - March 10

A Stand For Justice


European Parliament endorses Goldstone Gaza report
The parliamentary move, which would give the EU an unprecedented role in evaluating the progress of Israel's war crimes probe, was sharply criticized by Israel. Our Congress would never do so.


Mullen Wary of Israeli Attack on Iran
Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came home with sweaty palms from his mid-February visit to Israel. He has been worrying aloud that Israel will mousetrap the U.S. into war with Iran.....Mullen, for his part, seems acutely aware that the Constitution he has sworn to defend makes no provision for the kind of war he might be sucked into in order to defend Israel. God bless you, Admiral Mullen. Bless your heart.


Many Voices Calling for War with Iran by Philip Giraldi
Sarah Palin is on the Pipes bandwagon, showing up at the mid-February Nashville Tea Party convention sporting an Israeli flag lapel pin and subsequently urging the president to do the right thing in supporting Israel by attacking Iran. .... As Israel knows its air force cannot cripple Iran, its government has had to devise a scheme to get the US to do it instead, which is precisely what is being promoted by Anne Applebaum, Daniel Pipes, and all the other usual suspects who have already brought America fun and games in Iraq and Afghanistan....Cohen and Applebaum together make the case that preemptive war against Iran is somehow both justifiable and inevitable, ignoring the fact that Iran has never threatened the United States. Their Israel-centric view makes it appear completely acceptable for Washington to yet again go to war on behalf of Tel Aviv.
Excellent article.


PLO gives approval for indirect talks with Israel
The indirect format is meant to give the Palestinians the necessary political cover to resume talks. However, they warned they would walk away if the outlines of a border deal with Israel have not emerged after four months. They also ruled out subsequent direct talks without a complete Israeli settlement construction freeze.


U.S. Can't Afford Military Aid to Israel
Data published recently by the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation shows that U.S. military aid to Israel comes at a financial and moral price that this country cannot afford to pay. Its website reveals that this same $3 billion earmark for Israel could be used instead to provide more than 364,000 low-income households with affordable housing vouchers, or to retrain 498,000 workers for green jobs, or to provide early reading programs to 887,000 at-risk students, or to provide access to primary health care services for more than 24 million uninsured Americans.


US pledges 'unvarnished' commitment to Israel security
"The cornerstone of the relationship is our absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel's security," said Biden, who was in the region to encourage indirect Israeli–Palestinian peace talks and discuss international efforts to halt Iran's nuclear drive.
"Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the United States and Israel. There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security."


Irish FM urges EU to pressure Israel to end Gaza blockade
"What I witnessed in Gaza, amidst all the rubble and devastation, was a population traumatized and reduced to poverty by an unjust and completely counterproductive blockade." Evidently, the Irish are free from the taint of any Israeli lobby. Good for you, laddies!


AT-TUWANI RELEASE: Three children detained while gathering herbs



'Temple Mount clashes may spark religious war'
The permanent Palestinian observer to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, welcomed the council statement, adding that the U.S. decision not to block it "is a signal that the United States wants this effort to succeed" and Israel to restrain itself. A U.S. official, however, told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the American delegation had not agreed with the statement and said it was adopted due to what the official described as "procedural confusion". Translation: the US was later smacked down by its Israeli massa .


US lawmakers push for tougher Iran sanctions
Massa Israel pleased!


U.S. envoy seeks Mideast talks deal, tension rises
A demonstration against Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem by several thousand Palestinians and Israeli peace activists passed off peacefully on Saturday night. Trouble had been feared with settlers who claim a religious right to all of the city. In the West Bank, relatives buried six members of a single Palestinian family who were killed when their car collided with an Israeli military vehicle on Friday. Reflecting popular anger, officials from Fatah said the soldiers were to blame.


What’s In a Name by Philip Giraldi
The Mossad assassination could also result in real consequences from the European governments whose passports were cloned or stolen, though the French and Germans are unlikely to make waves and the British are already backpedalling to make sure they do not offend Israel.


Biden condemns new Israeli settlement plan
"With such an announcement, how can you build trust? This is destroying our efforts to work with Mr. Mitchell," Erekat said. "It's a really disastrous situation. I hope that this will be an eye–opener for all in the international community."



Israel apologizes for embarrassing Biden
Israel apologized Wednesday for disrupting the visit of Vice President Joe Biden with its announcement of 1,600 new homes in disputed east Jerusalem, but made clear it had no intention of reversing the order that has cast a shadow over the latest U.S. push for Mideast peace.



Israel OKs 1,600 new homes in east Jerusalem
Israel captured both areas in the 1967 Mideast war and subsequently annexed east Jerusalem. When the world said they wanted to see Middle East peace, Israel thought they meant PIECE, as in, another PIECE of Palestine.


Violent clashes in Jerusalem, West Bank
Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian stone–throwers at two contested holy sites and in a West Bank village Friday, seriously injuring a Palestinian woman and a 14–year–old boy, officials and witnesses said.


Biden to try to boost Middle East peace prospects
An Israeli cabinet minister, commenting on Joe Biden's visit, pointed to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's description of the September 11 attacks in the United States as a "big fabrication" as cause for concern. "What we have here is a madman, and crazy people can do only crazy things," Industry and Trade Minister Binyamin Ben–Eliezer told Israel Radio. "The Americans ... must see how they can create a reality in which they stop the madman." An Israeli political source said Israel expected Biden's main message would be "Don't bomb Iran," a cautionary note Washington has sounded before in contacts with Israeli leaders.......The Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will meet Biden, was "disappointed" by sanctions proposed thus far by the United States. "This is not what we've been promised," he said.



Arab director of Oscar film sparks Israeli outrage
"I cannot represent a country that does not represent me," he added. The remarks brought howls of outrage from cabinet ministers, legislators and a member of the Israeli Film Academy.



'Ajami' casts harsh light on Israel's other Arab conflict
"It shows you how deep the difference is, how segregated this reality is. And when you live in this reality, it's not surprising that every once in a while you see an outburst of horrifying violence," Shani said.



AT-TUWANI UPDATE: FEBRUARY, 2010



Rachel Corrie Family Finally Puts Israel in Dock
A judge in the northern Israeli city of Haifa was due to be presented with evidence that 23-year-old Corrie was killed unlawfully as she stood in the path of the bulldozer, trying to prevent it from demolishing Palestinian homes in Rafah.


'Jewish lobby behind U.S. Armenia genocide vote'
Pro-Israel lobbyists had previously backed Turkey on the issue ? but changed tack in retaliation for Turkish condemnation of Israel's policies in the Gaza Strip, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi daily said in an editorial, according to Israel Radio reports


Respected Danish journalist admits 'I was a Mossad agent'
In the 1960s, Mossad chief Isser Harel used a few journalists, including Yeshayahu Ben Porat and the late Uri Dan, for the purpose of finding the addresses of German scientists who had helped Egypt's missile program. When the addresses were obtained, the Mossad waged a scare campaign on their families and sometimes even sent explosive packages and tried to assassinate the scientists.


Bowing to Jewish Pressure
Clearly, Israeli lobby has much more influence within the British cabinet than the USA


In Israel, the Most Popular 'Jewish Mother' Is an Arab Muslim



Interpol seeks arrest of 16 more suspects in Dubai hit
The international police agency Interpol on Monday issued arrest notices for an additional 16 suspects over the assassination of a Hamas operative in Dubai earlier this year.


'4-8 Weeks Left for Diplomacy on Iran'
Four to eight weeks remain to test the option of diplomatic engagement as means of stopping Iran’s nuclear program before sanctions will likely be imposed, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told an audience of foreign military officers and government officials in Herzliya on Monday.


US-Israel row highlights quandary over settlements
Biden's handshakes and embraces gave way to one of the strongest rebukes of Israel by a senior U.S. official in years after Israel's announcement during his visit that it plans to build 1,600 homes in disputed east Jerusalem. Israel apologized for the poor timing but is sticking to its plan to build the homes, enlarging one of the settlements that have impeded negotiations with Palestinians.



Bunning’s Best Game
In George W. Bush’s last full year in office, we spent $29 billion for “international affairs.” The lion’s share of that was foreign aid. In FY 2011, the year for which Congress has begun to budget, spending for international affairs and foreign aid is to jump to $54 billion and continue to surge through the Obama years.
What is the rationale for the United States, the world’s greatest debtor nation, putting itself deeper in debt to China to send foreign aid to nations that will never repay us and that vote habitually with China and against us in the United Nations?
America cannot afford to keep sending foreign aid to countries such as Israel, especially at a time when American Jews are moving to Israel because of a better economy there.


Israel, Syria announce nuclear energy ambitions
Both countries laid out their hopes at an international conference on civilian nuclear energy at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.


Israel: Did the Alleged Mossad Hit in Dubai Really Help?
If Netanyahu authorized the hit, though, the real question is whether he really considered the strategic implications. Look at the map. If Israel goes ahead and bombs Iran's nuclear facilities, it will need over–flight clearances from the Gulf Arabs. Antagonizing the U.A.E. in this way, leaving almost no doubt Israel was behind Mabhouh's assassination, does not seem the best way to facilitate such clearances. Nor does it help build an Arab Sunni coalition against Iran and its Lebanese proxy, Hizballah.



New FBI Files Alleging AIPAC Theft of Government Property and Israeli Espionage Released
Declassified files detailing an FBI investigation targeting the American Israel Public Affairs Committee are now available on the Internet


Commentary: Move over Dubai
The worst case scenario came up at the Club of Monaco (retired senior statesmen and women from Europe, the Middle East, including Israel, and the United States) in Doha last week. Diplomatic code was "detonator," which was designed to conjure up an Israeli airstrike against an Iranian nuclear facility that would automatically unleash Iran's asymmetrical retaliatory capabilities against U.S. and pro-U.S. targets up and down the Persian Gulf. Most world governments would assume the United States had given Israel the green light, and Iran, in turn, would feel justified in "counterattacking" throughout the Gulf. Thus, Israel becomes the "detonator."


Iranian missiles pose no threat to U.S. and Europe - Lavrov
"It is evident that Iran currently poses no threat to the U.S. and European countries... At the moment, Iran has no missiles capable of striking Europe, let alone the U.S., and is unlikely to develop [such missiles] in the foreseeable future," Lavrov said.


Why Israel jailed me for ‘talking too much’
Israel has taken this opportunity to crack down on Palestinians who advocate nonviolent protests against the Israeli West Bank segregation barrier and charged them based on questionable or false evidence. Great read.


Israel to unveil plans to create nuclear generated power
Israel will unveil this week plans to produce nuclear-generated electricity, officials said on Monday, a move that could draw fresh international attention towards its assumed atomic arsenal.....Unlike other countries in the region, Israel has not signed the 1970 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which curbs the spread of nuclear technologies with bomb-making potential. Yet Israel does have a delegation at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN watchdog. Yeh, that makes sense.


Bolton: Israel's Options – Attack Iran or Accept Nuclear Power
Neocon John Bolton back making the rounds. His American citizenship should be stripped from him. He works for Israel, not us.


Barak: Iran not currently posing existential threat to Israel



Biden's Israel visit is a year too late
Biden's visit is designed to open a new chapter in relations between Netanyahu and the U.S. administration, with a two-fold message: recognition of the political importance of Israel and its supporters in America in advance of the November Congressional elections; and giving Netanyahu the credit he's not yet earned for his statement in support of "two states for two peoples" and his settlement construction freeze. He will get it now under the threat of a preemptive war against Iran. Israel has our officials alarmed. Israel is threatening to attack Iran. Such an attack would automatically implicate us, Israel's big brother. Our troops in the region would come under attack. Israel knows this, and is hanging this threat of an attack on Iran over our heads. It's blackmail.


Syria hints Israel planted nuclear traces on its territory
In a closed-door debate by the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors, Syria reiterated its assertion that the uranium traces came with munitions Israel used to destroy the complex.


Israel’s New PR Scheme: Healthy Zionism or Sinister Stalinism?
“We decided to give Israelis who go abroad tools and tips to help them deal with the attacks on Israel in their conversations with people, media appearances and lectures before wide audiences They all must do the Hasbara. Why not cease the illegal settlements and occupation of Palestinian land instead? Would do wonders for Israeli PR.


AIPAC calls for swift action to block U.S. companies supporting Iran
To which Congress will respond, 'Yes Massa!'


‘Ajami’ Co-Director Says He Does Not Represent Israel
“I’m not here representing Israel,” he said. “I’m an Israeli citizen, but I cannot represent a state that doesn’t represent me,” Copti, an Arab Israel from Jaffa said.

---