Headlines for August 19 - August 25

A Stand For Justice


Mossad in America By Philip Giraldi
As tensions with Iran increase, sources in the counterintelligence community report that Israeli agents have become more aggressive in targeting Muslims living in the United States as well as in operating against critics. There have been a number of cases reported to the FBI about Mossad officers who have approached leaders in Arab-American communities and have falsely represented themselves as “U.S. intelligence.” Because few Muslims would assist an Israeli, this is done to increase the likelihood that the target will cooperate. It’s referred to as a “false flag” operation...In another bizarre case, U.S.S. Liberty survivor Phil Tourney was recently accosted in Southern California by a foreigner who eventually identified himself as an Israeli government representative. Tourney was taunted, and the Israeli threatened both him and journalist Mark Glenn, who has been reporting on the Liberty story.


PA Claims US Threatened to Withdraw Aid
Palestinian Authority officials claim that the United States threatened PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas with ending financial aid if he did not agree to direct negotiations with Israel.


UN official criticises Israel over flotilla probe
Israel is not co-operating with the UN
Human Rights Council's probe of May's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, a UN official said today.


UN Report: IDF Barring Gazans' Access to Farms, Fishing Zones
All in all the IDF restricts access to 17 percent of Gaza's territory. At sea, the fishermen are completely barred from 85 percent of the naval territory to which they are entitled under the Oslo Accords......According to OCHA, the IDF enforces uses life fire on individuals who enter restricted zones. Though in most cases the troops fire warning shots, 22 people have been killed and 146 have been wounded in such incidents since the end of Operation Cast Lead in January 2009. The report further argues that this method of enforcement violates international humanitarian law, and that the local Palestinian population was never informed by Israel of the exact nature of the restrictions. Lovely people, aren't they?


Benjamin Netanyahu rejects demands to continue settlement freeze
Mr Netanyahu leads a largely right-wing and religious coalition which is committed to Jewish settlement across the West Bank, and the Israeli prime minister has already warned that extending the moratorium would risk the future of his government.


Declassified: Massive Israeli Manipulation of US Media Exposed
A huge trove of newly declassified documents subpoenaed during a Senate investigation reveals how Israel’s lobby pitched, promoted, and paid to have content placed in America’s top news magazines with overseas funding. The Atlantic (and others) received hefty rewards for trumpeting Israel’s most vital – but damaging – PR initiatives across America. Wow. How many media outlets, magazines, newspapers, radio programs are they funding now? 99 percent of the mainstream media carries Israel's side of the story 99 percent of the time. Not a coincidence.


Russia: Israel need not fear reactor
Israelis should not be concerned about the uranium fueling of a Russian-built nuclear reactor in the southern Iranian city of Bushehr that is set to take place on Saturday, diplomatic officials at the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv told The Jerusalem Post.


U.S. support for Israel is decreasing, new poll shows
One of the questions that the poll presented was "Does the U.S. need to support Israel?" In August of 2009, 63% of Americans polled said that the U.S. does need to support Israel. In June of this year, 58% of respondents shared the same view; by July only 51% of respondents said the U.S. needed to support Israel. This means that the Israeli PR machine will be in full swing, much stronger than it normally is. Be on the lookout (for increased BS).


Iran unveils long-range bomber drone
The presentation of the drone came a day after Iranian and Russian technicians began fuelling Iran's first nuclear power station, something Israel called "totally unacceptable."

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/iran_unveils_long_range_bomber_drone_8CvLKX48uNQrfmrdagy2wN?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME=#ixzz0yE6Hv1ay



UN official says Israel not co-operating with Human Rights Council probe of Gaza flotilla raid



Hamas: Direct Israeli-Palestinian talks illegitimate, coerced by U.S.



Israel tells UN it will stop Gaza aid flotilla



Military Computer Attack Confirmed
A top Pentagon official has confirmed a previously classified incident that he describes as “the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever,” a 2008 episode in which a foreign intelligence agent used a flash drive to infect computers, including those used by the Central Command in overseeing combat zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.


Lieberman: Settlement building should restart in September


Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Wednesday that there was no reason why building should not restart in the major West bank settlement after a 10-month freeze expires next month Peace, perhaps?


.Israel faces difficult choice on settlement freeze
"If Israel resumes settlement activities in the Palestinian territories, including east Jerusalem, we cannot continue negotiations," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, quoting from the letter. He said the document also was sent to other members of the "Quartet" of Mideast mediators, the EU, U.N. and Russia.
Peace or piece. Can't keep taking someone else's land and expect them to be at peace with it.


Abbas: End of settlement freeze would end direct peace talks
Renewed Israeli construction in settlements after the end of the construction freeze in late September would bring the newly-launched direct negotiations to a grinding halt, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has warned in letters sent to U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and the High Representative of the European Union on Foreign Policy, Catherine Ashton. "It's impossible to conduct negotiations alongside settlement construction," wrote Abbas. Peace or piece. Israel chooses piece every time - as in, another piece of Palestine.


UN report: IDF barring Gazans' access to farms, fishing zones
Over the last ten years, the Israel Defense Forces have increasingly restricted Palestinian access to farmland on the Gazan side of the Israeli-Gaza border as well as to fishing zones along the Gaza beach, a United Nations report revealed Thursday.


Netanyahu rejects peace talks based on 1967 borders
The Quartet - the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia - issued the statement after a meeting in Moscow on March 19. It calls for 24 months of talks between Israel and the PA that would result in an agreement on the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The statement said that the founding of the Palestinian state would end the occupation that began in 1967. It also called on Israel to institute a total freeze of construction in West Bank settlements and to refrain from home demolitions in East Jerusalem. The declaration even went so far as to mention that the international community does not recognize Israel's annexation of East Jerusalem.


Amnesty Int'l Finland: Israel scum state
Asked why he termed Israel a “scum state,” Johansson told the Post in a telephone interview that it was because Israel has “repeatedly flouted international law,” and due to his “personal experiences inside and outside of Israel with meeting Israelis.” Well, Israel in fact does flagrantly violate international law and has since its inception.


Aussie parties support Israel
As the two major parties in Australia's federal election vie for the title of Israel's most ardent backer, most Jewish leaders believe that Australia’s longstanding, strong bilateral support for the Jewish state will not be jeopardized regardless of the outcome. Why, it's just like it is here in America - the power of Israel and its lobbies over Western governments.


United Against Knowledge
The Guardian reported today that two Israeli groups have set up training courses in subversive Wikipedia editing aiming to 'show the other side' of the Jewish State....Yesha Council, representing the Jewish settler movement ran their first workshop this week in Jerusalem, teaching participants how to ‘rewrite’ and ‘revise’ some of the most “hotly disputed pages of the online reference site.” I'm not really surprised. I have encountered people like this since I began this fight 8 years ago. The Israelis and their supporters here will do anything to whitewash Israel's past and ongoing crimes against not just Palestinians, but Americans too (USS Liberty, Rachel Corrie).


Palestinians: Arab states are not paying
Arab states have cut financial aid to the Palestinian Authority so far this year, according to PA figures seen by Reuters, and the United Nations has warned of a looming Palestinian cash crisis


Cyprus says will not allow Gaza-bound aid ship
Cyprus will not allow a ship carrying women activists and aid for the blockaded Palestinian territory of Gaza to sail from its ports, the island's police said on Friday.


PLO defends Abbas statements on Jewish rights
The 22 July letter, signed by dozens of scholars, activists, and civil society leaders, specifically expressed concerns that Abbas had denied Palestinians their basic rights and accepted an "exclusive Jewish claim to Palestine" in remarks during a conversation with American Jews in the US capital.


Palestinians learn about the Holocaust in Israel



Fatah accepts Haniyeh unity invite
Fatah officials, in Gaza to offer condolences to family members of a former PA intelligence chief, will begin meetings with Hamas officials to discuss Palestinian unity, sources confirmed Friday.


Jews elected to new Australian parliament
3 chosen, including Israel's most ardent representative in parliament.


Internet Killed Israeli PR An interview with Minor Demographic Threat
Israel understands the threat of a medium that bypasses intermediaries and allows ordinary people to disseminate content to a mass audience. Journalists aboard the Mavi Marmara have said that the top priority for soldiers boarding the ship appeared to be the seizure of all the photographic equipment they could find, thus allowing their government to control the media narrative. The only way Israel could exert any measure of control was by cutting off the flow of information. And despite their best efforts, information still got out, some of it during the attack itself. As the web continues its evolution into a real-time medium, this strategy will become increasingly unsustainable.



Is Canada passing information on its citizens to Israel?
The ardently pro-Israel Conservative government led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper has repeatedly equated expressions of support for Palestinian rights with extremism. In March 2009, Ottawa barred British parliamentarian George Galloway from Canada for delivering humanitarian aid to Hamas officials who were the elected administration in the Gaza Strip.


US jobless claims jump to 500,000; nine-month high



America Has Disgraced Itself
Once upon a time, Republicans were so confident that the vast majority of Muslims preferred freedom to jihad that they believed the U.S. could install democracy in Iraq within months. Now, confronted with a group of Muslim Americans who want to build a cultural center that includes Jews and Christians on the board (how many churches and synagogues do that?), GOP leaders call them terrorists because they don’t share Benjamin Netanyahu’s view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict..... I wonder how David Petraeus feels about all this. There he is, slogging away in the Hindu Kush, desperately trying to be culturally sensitive, watching GIs get killed because Afghans believe the U.S. is waging a war on Islam, and back home, the super-patriots on Fox News have… declared war on Islam. Good point.


A Threat From Within
No surprise that the number of millionaires in Israel soared by 43% in just one year, from 2008 to 2009, a rate bested only by Hong Kong and India. Then why exactly is my government sending billions of American taxpayer dollars to Israel, when clearly, that money could be better spent at home?


Canada Halts Mail to Gaza



Aid ship Mariam now looks to set sail from Greece
The Mariam, a Bolivian-flagged cargo ship, was to have left from Tripoli in north Lebanon later the same day for Cyprus on the first leg of a crossing to Gaza despite an Israeli warning it could use force to keep the blockade intact.


The Peace Process is Still Going Nowhere Stephen M. Walt



Report: Iran needs year to develop nuclear weapon
American and Israeli officials believe that Iran has only enough nuclear materials for two weapons. And to build those two would require the country to kick out international inspectors, which would make it clear what its intentions were.

It would also take some time for Iran to convert its nuclear facilities to produce weapons–grade uranium.



Statement of Muslim American Imams and Community Leaders on Holocaust Denial



Will US Navy board Iranian ships for AIPAC/Israel next month?!



Gary Hart Is Right
4. Bombing Iran would virtually assure an attack of considerable dimensions carried out against Israel. This would involve both Iranian and Lebanon-based missiles. Israel would necessarily retaliate. We would then have all-out war in the Middle East.


Senior Hezbollah member killed in Beirut clashes
Two Lebanese men, including a senior member of Hezbollah, were killed in Beirut on Tuesday in clashes between supporters of the Shi'ite militant group and a Sunni faction, security sources said


Two Minutes to Midnight?: Cutting Through the Media's Bogus Bomb-Iran Debate
The pièce de résistance in the most recent drum roll of bomb-Iran alerts, however, came from Jeffrey Goldberg in the Atlantic Monthly. A journalist influential in U.S. pro-Israeli circles, he also has access to Israel's corridors of power. Because sanctions were unlikely to force Iran to back down on its uranium enrichment project, Goldberg invited readers to believe that there was a more than even chance Israel would launch a military strike on the country by next summer.


The Erosion of America's Middle Class
Finley calls them "the new poor." "That is a different category of people that I think we're seeing," he says. "They are people who never in their wildest imaginations thought they would be homeless." They're people who had enough money -- a lot of money, in some cases -- until recently......the United States, in the wake of a real estate, financial economic and now debt crisis, which it still hasn't overcome, is threatened by a social Ice Age more severe than anything the country has seen since the Great Depression......While 90 percent of Americans have seen only modest gains in their incomes since 1973, incomes have almost tripled for people at the upper end of the scale. In 1979, one third of the profits the country produced went to the richest 1 percent of American society. Today it's almost 60 percent. America can ill afford to buy planes for the defense of Israel


Israel Places Order For 20 F-35s; U.S. Picks Up The Tab
To sweeten terms of the deal, Lockheed Martin agreed to buy more component parts for the JSF from Israeli firms; at a price of around $4 billion.

Read more: http://defensetech.org/2010/08/16/israel-places-order-for-20-f-35-jsf-u-s-picks-up-the-tab/#ixzz0yDlrjmGi
Defense.org
America can ill afford to buy planes for the defense of Israel


22 cities in danger of a double-dip recession
A new report from Moody's Economy.com singled out 22 cities that are at risk of slipping back into a recession in as early as three months. To come to this conclusion, the economists considered dwindling progress in employment, housing starts, home prices and industrial production. (See the map above for the full list.) America can ill afford to buy planes for the defense of Israel


US Says Bankruptcies Reach Nearly 5-Year High
U.S. bankruptcy filings have reached the highest level since 2005, government data released on Tuesday show, as the economy slows and the unemployment rate hovers just below double digits. America can ill afford to buy planes for the defense of Israel.


Al Qaeda Already Gaming Out War Between Israel and Iran
Israel will stage air strikes on Iran’s nuclear installations to start. Shehri expects the Iranian Shia regime to try to take advantage of an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities to seize the holy cities of Mecca and Medina by blaming Saudi Arabia for helping Israel attack. In turn, the Israelis will seize territory in the Levant to establish “the greater state of Israel.” The Sunni Arab population of the Middle East will be caught between the “Jews in the Middle East and Iran in the Peninsula.”


Bad news on homes, goods adds to air of recession
It's starting to feel like another recession. Businesses are ordering fewer goods. Home sales are the slowest in decades. Jobs are scarce, and unemployment claims are rising. Perhaps most worrisome, manufacturing activity, which had been one of the economy's few bright spots, is faltering Let's send a few more billion to Israel.


Hebron: Open Shuhada St. Action Changes Tactics
The activists used the day to build up relationships in the Old City with certificates of appreciation to the shopkeepers for continuing to open their shops every day in the midst of this Occupation


Pentagon computers attacked with flash drive
A foreign spy agency pulled off the most serious breach of Pentagon computer networks ever by inserting a flash drive into a U.S. military laptop, a top defense official said Wednesday.



Obama's Silent Jewish Majority
The Wall Street Journal reported last week, “U.S. military aid to Israel has increased markedly this year. Top-ranking U.S. and Israeli soldiers have shuttled between Tel Aviv and Washington with unusual frequency in recent months. A series of joint military exercises in Israel over the past months has included a record number of American troops.” Even AIPAC is on board, at least when asked a direct question


Iran says it's ready to sell arms to Lebanon
Iran is prepared to sell weapons to Lebanon if Beirut asks for help in equipping its military, Iran's defense minister said Wednesday.



Fidelity: 401(k) hardship withdrawals, loans up
Let's give a couple more billiion to Israel.


Iran to supply Lebanon with anti-missile system: report
Iran is expected to make the offer to Lebanon during Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's upcoming visit to Beirut shortly after the holy month of Ramadan. Iran would also offer to supply some other weapons during his visit, said the report.


40 Bizarre Statistics That Reveal The Horrifying Truth About The Collapse Of The U.S. Economy
What we are now witnessing are the early stages of the complete and total breakdown of the U.S. economic system. The U.S. government, state governments, local governments, businesses and American consumers have collectively piled up debt that is equivalent to approximately 360 percent of GDP. At no point during the Great Depression (or at any other time during our history) did we ever come close to such a figure. America can ill afford to buy planes for the defense of Israel


Steinitz demands ultimatum for Iran
The US should issue a strict ultimatum to Iran, warning that the possibility of a military strike will turn into reality within weeks should Tehran fail to curb its nuclear program, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Thursday. ....Steinitz, who is a close associate of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Whose war is this?


US to Fund Israeli Purchase of 20 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters
he $2.75 billion arms deal will be paid for by American taxpayers as part of the US military aid package to Israel. Israel will become the first foreign country to sign an agreement to buy the F-35 outside the eight international partners that helped to develop the plane. America can ill afford to buy planes for the defense of Israel


Battle for Jewish Votes In a Florida Race That Threatens To Oust Incumbent
On the Middle East, West has sounded an even more hawkish note. Speaking to Jewish voters, he has explained that any two-state solution should consist of Israel and Jordan and that by establishing an independent Palestinian state “all you will be doing is creating a terrorist state.”


Lebanon moves to address widespread use of weapons

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