A Stand For Justice
Israeli air strike kills 2 militants in Gaza Strip
Israeli army shoots teenage boy in Gaza
Israeli forces have shot yet another Palestinian teenager near the Gaza Strip's border with Israel for collecting rubble often used as building material.
MKs seek ban on East Jerusalem Arabs guiding in the city
A bill sponsored by MK Gideon Ezra (Kadima ) and seven other Knesset members proposes to ban residents of East Jerusalem from serving as tour guides in the city, potentially putting hundreds out of work. Ezra, who said he was temporarily freezing work on the bill so as not to damage the negotiations with Palestinians, said in the introduction to the bill he believed Palestinian residents of Jerusalem should not be certified guides because they did not represent Israel's national interest well enough "and in an appropriate manner.".....
The bill proposes that a guide leading a group of over 11 people, or traveling in more than one vehicle, must be a citizen of Israel. Most Arab residents of East Jerusalem have residency status but not citizenship, and so would be banned from guiding a majority of the tourist groups.
"Israel has valuable tourism sites," the text of the proposed bill reads. "Oftentimes there are disagreements on the manner of the presentation of these sites historically, religiously, culturally and more. The city of Jerusalem, with its many historic sites, is an example of a site about which there are such disagreements. Some of the residents of Israel, like those in East Jerusalem, often have 'dual loyalty,' since they vote in elections of the Palestinian Authority.
Shepherd made homeless, livelihood threatened, son in prison.
Turks accuse Israel of war crimes at int'l court
Turkish lawyers representing pro–Palestinian activists filed a complaint Thursday with the International Criminal Court accusing Israel of committing war crimes in May when its troops raided a boat trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.
PLO chief: We will recognize Israel in return for 1967 borders
Abed Rabbo continued, "It is important for us to know where are the borders of Israel and where are the borders of Palestine. Any formulation the Americans present – even asking us to call Israel the 'Chinese State' – we will agree to it, as long as we receive the 1967 borders. We have recognized Israel in the past, but Israel has not recognized the Palestinian state."
Israel settlers start fires amid West Bank harvest
Thick black smoke billows from the olive grove under the gaze of Israeli soldiers as Palestinian farmers use branches to try to beat out the fires lit by Jewish settlers.
It's olive harvest time in the occupied West Bank.
The firebombers swooped down from Havat Gilad, a wildcat Jewish settlement unauthorised even by the Israeli government.
Every American should read this. These are the Israeli equivalent of Hamas, just as capable of murder and other crimes but with one main difference: the Israeli government supports them, and so does ours (and the US taxpayer dollars never stop flowing).
America's Poor Where Poverty Is Rising In America
Thanks to the recession, 2009 was one of the worst years for poverty in America in more than half a century. The total number of Americans living in poverty hit 43.6 million, the highest level in 51 years and the national poverty rate rose to 14.3 percent from 13.2 percent, according to data released last month by the Census Bureau. All of that money we pour into the Middle East in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and more, could be better spent here at home.
t r u t h o u t Israel Seals Unprecedented Weapons Deals With the US
Preceding the October 7 signing of the Lockheed contract, Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the United States, told The Washington Post on October 6 that "incentives" were offered to Israel to extend its so-called moratorium on the illegal settlement colonies in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem to keep the Palestinian Authority in direct talks. Oren told the Post that the Obama administration had come up with "a number of suggestions, incentives if you would, to the Israelis that would enable the government to maybe pass a limited extension of two or three months."
It was unclear whether the Lockheed contract was specifically offered as one of the incentives, but Oren added that the purchase agreement was "an event of great strategic and historic significance," and that it would "serve the common interests" of the US and Israel.
In late July 2010, the US House Appropriations Sub-Committee on Defense increased funding for Israeli missile defense programs to its highest level ever - approving $422.7 million for next year's budget - and adding $95.7 million to the original White House funding request for the long-range Arrow interceptor project and the medium-range David's Sling, according to sources quoted by the Jerusalem Post. "The lion's share - $108.8m. - will go to the Arrow 3 system, which the US signed off on after some initial hesitation," the Jerusalem Post reported. The funding also includes $205 million for the short-range missile interceptor program (dubbed "The Iron Dome") initially approved by President Barack Obama last Spring.
This defense spending package is more than double that of last year's. And that's just a fraction of the total aid that American taxpayers shell out to Israel (and its neighbors to keep the peace) each year. Americans would be shocked, and outraged, especially given the fact that more and more Americans are in POVERTY. Our money is funding a people whose economy is actuallly DOING WELL, and the government is committing war crimes ('settlements' in occupied territory) and has been since its inception.
Across the U.S., Long Recovery Looks Like Recession
At the current rate of job creation, the nation would need nine more years to recapture the jobs lost during the recession. And that doesn’t even account for five million or six million jobs needed in that time to keep pace with an expanding population All of that money we pour into the Middle East in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and more, could be better spent here at home.
Water Crisis in Palestine Is Worsening
According to current statistics by Amnesty International, Israel takes 80% of the water in the Mountain aquifers in the north (one of many water sources available to Israel, including the state's full access to the Jordan River, which runs inside the occupied West Bank); while Palestinians in the West Bank are left with just the remaining 20% of that one aquifer, and are prohibited from accessing water from the Jordan river altogether.
Israel takes center stage in Illinois election campaign
Forget the financial crisis; in the Ninth Congressional District of Illinois, it is Israel that has taken center stage in the election campaign. A Jewish candidate has been trying to convince the mostly Jewish voters that his Jewish opponent has not done enough to protect the Jewish interest. Don't read this if you have high blood pressure.
With statehood, Palestine ready to end all claims
The Palestinians are ready to end all historic claims against Israel once they establish their state in the lands Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday, addressing a long–standing Israeli demand.
Palestinians weighing alternatives to peace talks
The Palestinians will study alternatives to peace talks with Israel in the coming days, a top PLO official said Saturday, after Israel gave the green light to build 238 new houses for Jews on war–won land Palestinians seek for their state.
Israel rebuked at United Nations. Will Security Council take action?
Israel’s approval last week of 238 new Jewish housing units in Arab East Jerusalem provoked widespread condemnation in a United Nations Security Council session Monday focused on the stalemated Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Leading rabbi encourages IDF soldiers to use Palestinian human shields
"According to true Jewish values, your lives come before those of the enemy, whether he is a soldier or a civilian under protection. Therefore, you are forbidden from endangering your own life for the sake of the enemy, not even for a civilian," Shapira declared.
New east Jerusalem homes approved
Israel says Hamas has anti-aircraft missiles
Netanyahu gave no evidence to support his claim, and aides would not discuss details about the missiles.
East Jerusalem housing approval irks Palestinians
Carter in Syria: Israel Must Fully Lift Gaza Blockade
"The blockade is one of the most serious human rights violations on Earth and it must be lifted fully," said Carter from Syria.
Besides Carter, the Elders delegation includes former Irish president Mary Robinson and former UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. While in Gaza, the group described Israel's blockade as an "illegal collective punishment" and "an impediment to peace."
Families of Gaza flotilla victims accuse Israel of war crimes in The Hague
Turkish lawyers representing pro-Palestinian activists filed a complaint Thursday with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, accusing Israel of committing war crimes in May when its troops raided a boat trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza.
It was unclear whether the prosecutor would agree to pursue the case or whether the court has jurisdiction. But the filing reignited an issue that has severely strained Israel's relations with Turkey, previously its strongest ally in the Muslim world, and keeps Israel on the defensive over its much-criticized Gaza blockade.
Anti-Israel protest in Turkey, AP, June 6, 2010
Pro-Palestinian Turks demonstrating against Israel in Ankara, Turkey on June 6, 2010
Photo by: AP
A delegation representing some 300 activists and a Turkish nongovernment organization submitted the complaint to the prosecutor's office in The Hague seeking an investigation into the May 31 raid.
US 'disappointed' at Israel's settlement move
The United States said Friday it was "disappointed" with Israel's plans for 238 new settler homes in east Jerusalem, saying it undermined US efforts to revive Middle East peace talks.
Did Canada's support for Israel cost it a seat on UN Security Council?
In January 2010, Canada was the only country to reduce its financial contributions to the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which provides education, health care and emergency aid to Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and Gaza, cutting $18 million in aid, as reported by the Ma'an News Agency.
With Allies Like These
Israeli Sephardic leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef in his weekly Saturday night sermon said that non-Jews exist to serve Jews.
“Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world; only to serve the People of Israel,” he said during a public discussion of what kind of work non-Jews are allowed to perform on Shabbat.
No Knesset majority for loyalty oath for Jews and non-Jews
Edelstein and Elkin, both immigrants from the former Soviet Union, told Neeman at the meeting that they won't support the bill in its new form, as it discriminates between Jews born in Israel and Jews who immigrate under the Law of Return. That would undermine the point of the Law of Return, which was to treat any Jew who moves here as the equal of someone born here, they argued
This Peaceful Position Takes Courage
While Israel often gets a lot of negative publicity for its brutal treatment of Palestinians and the inherent racism within its society, there is a growing core of Israeli human rights activists who are challenging government policy -- and paying a high price for their courage.
Report: Suspect in Dubai Hamas assassination arrested in Canada
Arab League urges world leaders to boycott OECD conference in Jerusalem
The Arab League sent letters to world leaders on Sunday calling for a boycott of this week's international tourism conference in Jerusalem hosted by Israel.
US supports terrorism: Turkish PM
Erdogan touched on Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that killed nine Turkish human rights activists on May 31 and condemned the US "double standards," noting that Washington openly "supported the Israeli state terrorism," despite its claims that it supports peace, Turkey's Milliyet newspaper reported on Saturday.
New Loyalty Oath Unusual in Asserting Religion
It adds the words “as a Jewish and democratic state,
The Iran Report by Philip Girald
How about a White House-issued statement calling itself an NIE that says something like this: "Even though we have no hard evidence that Iran has a nuclear arms program we have decided that since Tehran has not been completely forthcoming on some aspects of its nuclear energy program it might be intending to develop a weapon. The White House is under constant pressure from Israel and its supporters in congress and the media to do something about the threat from Iran, so we have asked the CIA to prepare a document that will enable us to bomb Iran if we decide it is politically expedient to do so. Or alternatively not to bomb Iran if we decide not to do so because, in our judgment, the voters cannot stomach another war. The decision on what to do about Iran will be based on what happens in midterm elections next month and on a White House assessment of what has to be done to insure the re-election of President Obama. That might require a new war or maybe not, but rest assured that it will have nothing to do with the genuine threat that Iran might actually pose and nothing to do with any balance of power in the world or vital American national interests. It will all come down to appeasing the Israel Lobby and managing the election cycle. Thank you." Right on, Phil. Sad.
It’s the Palestinians’ Fault
You get the picture. Israel is now essentially saying: we will partially obey international law for 60 days (and then go back to violating it), as long as you sign away basic human rights–refugees and their descendants returning to homes they were expelled from and equality for all–forever. And media, both in the U.S., in Israel and around the world, are adopting Israel’s framing of the issue.
Turkish PM says will not talk with Netanyahu
Director Mike Leigh cancels Israel trip in protest
Leigh, the award–winning director of "Naked" and "Secrets & Lies," was to participate in a film festival next month. He is Jewish.
Writing to the school sponsoring the event, Leigh said he opposed Israel's policies on Gaza, but called the loyalty oath the "last straw."
'Ahmadinejad visit proves Lebanon has joined axis of extreme nations'
Israel's stance, which has been clearly expressed over recent days, is that Ahmadinejad's visit proves that Lebanon is becoming more extreme, on its way to becoming an Iranian outpost. "Lebanon has joined the axis of extreme nations which object to the peace process and support terror," said a senior Israeli official involved in preparations for the two-day visit.
Obama's Sinking Jewish Numbers--Is It Israel?
It does not mean that Jewish voters do not care about Israel, said David Harris, president and CEO of the National Jewish Democratic Coalition, but rather that Jewish voters feel comfortable with the level of support for Israel demonstrated by most candidates, Democrats and Republicans.
In other words, they know they're going to get an Israel-kowtower in Congress, so they don't have to worry.
Israel Is a Campaign Issue, but How Big?
“Jewish voters need to be comfortable that their candidates support Israel, and once they are sure of that, they move on to other issues,”
New York Candidates Court Hasidic Vote
While the true strength of the famous ultra-Orthodox voting blocs is up for debate, the Hasidic lifestyle, which calls for large families and private yeshiva education, leads its adherents to rely on significant infusions of government financial support. Relationships between community leaders and political leaders are based largely on the ability of the former to deliver bloc votes to the latter, and are seen as essential to keeping the aid flowing in the opposite direction.
“They don’t want to be on the outside,” New York Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said of the New York Hasidic leadership. “They’ll pick the winner. Why? Because they don’t want to be denied aid.”.......“Education, and how government can alleviate the financial burden on a typical Jewish family sending five or six children to yeshivas, is probably the issue of paramount importance to the community,”
Read that a few times.
Occupation and Withdrawal
The central fact is that overwhelmingly suicide-terrorist attacks are not driven by religion as much as they are by a clear strategic objective: to compel modern democracies to withdraw military forces from the territory that the terrorists view as their homeland [bold mine-DL]. From Lebanon to Sri Lanka to Chechnya to Kashmir to the West Bank, every major suicide-terrorist campaign—over 95 percent of all the incidents—has had as its central objective to compel a democratic state to withdraw.
Going After Iran (Again) by Philip Giraldi
Quite a lot to digest. One does not have to be an apologist for Iran to note that the editorial is a whole lot of innuendo wrapped in speculation. In reality, Iran has not attacked any neighbor or triggered any war either directly or by proxy while it has been Israel that has been doing all the attacking.
US, Israel agree Iran prime threat to Mideast
"While today's strategic dialogue covered many subjects, it is clear that Iran is among the greatest challenges we face today in the Middle East," said the statement, which was released by the State Department in the names of Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon. Israel=the tail that wags the American dog.
Musharraf's 'fish, duck and wine' lunch with Israeli MPs in London
Former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf is stated to have shared a lunch with a couple of members of Knesset, the Israeli Parliament, at a Chinese restaurant in Kensington area of central London a few days ago.
Ahmadinejad, near Israel border, says Zionists mortal
Israeli Policies are Manifestly Evil: Philip Giraldi
Most intelligence officers believe that Israel, which was conducting a massive and illegal spy operation inside the U.S. aimed at Arabs living here, knew at least parts of the 9/11 conspiracy. It did not share that information and it is also clear that leading Israeli politicians welcomed the attacks because they made Washington a totally committed ally in full agreement with the Israeli view of Islamic terrorism.
Without Protest or Funding, Columbia Opens Center for Palestine Studies
Unlike Israel Studies, which has expanded rapidly with support from wealthy Jewish donors, "Palestine studies" as an autonomous field of research has no ready–made set of foundations and donors to back it
turkey Iran sanctions affecting banking decisions
Turkey said Wednesday that U.S. and EU sanctions have led to hesitation by Turkish banks on doing business with Iran. But Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan told reporters in Washington that he expects overall Turkish trade with Iran to increase.
Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/10/20/1678148/turkey-iran-sanctions-affecting.html#ixzz13VZqdsTM
Pro-Israel groups deny role in Cyprus bill
A report last week in Congressional Quarterly said the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbied for the nonbinding resolution passed in the U.S. House of Representatives on Sept. 28 by voice vote.....The Congressional Quarterly story cast what it said was pro-Israel support for the resolution as part of deteriorating Israel-Turkey relations in the wake of the 2009 Gaza war and Israel's deadly May 31 raid on a Turkish-flagged aid flotilla attempting to breach Israel's blockade of Gaza.
It's the Occupation, Stupid - By Robert A. Pape
Israelis have their own narrative about terrorism, which holds that Arab fanatics seek to destroy the Jewish state because of what it is, not what it does. But since Israel withdrew its army from Lebanon in May 2000, there has not been a single Lebanese suicide attack. Similarly, since Israel withdrew from Gaza and large parts of the West Bank, Palestinian suicide attacks are down over 90 percent.
Foreign Policy Does Not Flow From the Will of the People
To the extent that a consensus on Israel exists on the right, it is something that has been fashioned by conservative political and intellectual leaders over decades, and it is something that has been reinforced through a steady diet of slanted or incomplete news coverage, government propaganda, and the constantly repeated claim that Israel is a reliable ally.......One side has effectively dominated the public discussion of the issue for decades, not because they happen to be telling the public what it already wants to hear, but because they have been trying to shape public opinion for decades
4 men are convicted in NY synagogue-bombing plot
The FBI assigned Hussain in 2008 to infiltrate a mosque in Newburgh, about an hour north of New York. After meeting Cromitie, he told him he was a representative of a Pakistani terror organization that was eager to finance a holy war on U.S. soil.
At Lebanon border, Ahmadinejad predicts Israel demise
"The whole world knows that the Zionists are going to disappear," he said Thursday to thunderous applause before a frenzied crowd in Hezbollah's bastion of Bint Jbeil, some four kilometres (two miles) from the Israeli border.
"The occupying Zionists today have no choice but to accept reality and go back to their countries of origin," he added.
Ahmadinejad in Lebanon: A Mideast Doctrine in Ruins
The Bush Administration may have hoped that its own invasion of Iraq and Israel's attacks on Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in late 2008 would strike decisive blows against Iran and its allies and turn the regional dynamic in favor of the U.S. But in all three places, Iran's influence was actually strengthened
Building to destroy the peace process
The only explanation for the government's approval of 240 new housing units in East Jerusalem is that it was an attempt to sabotage the efforts to renew direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
ADL's demonization of student activism denounced
U.S. lawmakers: Lebanon's embrace of Ahmadinejad may affect military aid
In August, two key Democrats, Representatives Nita Lowey and Howard Berman, announced they were holding up $100 million that had been approved for Lebanon's army but not yet spent. At the time, lawmakers said they were blocking U.S. funding due to a deadly border clash between Lebanon and Israel.
My Amazing and Disturbing Experiences in Israel Veterans Today
“Boy, you guys are really something – having served the military of our country (remember – they were AMERICAN citizens)
and then investing your time in a ‘feeling for duty’ to Israel”.
They answered proudly and without hesitation: ” Oh no – we haven’t served in the United States military – there’s no way”. Then they both broke out in a cynical mocking laughter. So if there is any doubt where their loyalties lie – consider their unabashed answer of contemptuous scorn for the notion of patriotically serving in uniform for America I don't agree with Mr. Cortina's inability to distinguish between Jews and Israelis but if true, his account of his travels is interesting.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Headlines for October 7 - October 13
A Stand For Justice
2 militants dead in Israeli raid in West Bank
Israeli troops in the West Bank killed two senior Hamas militants, and a settler leader struck a rock–wielding Palestinian youth with his car Friday in disputed east Jerusalem as tensions rose over stalled peace talks.
Third world America
The National Association of Counties estimates that local governments will eliminate roughly half a million employees in the next fiscal year, with public safety, public works, public health, social services, and parks and recreation hardest hit by the cutbacks. A July survey by the association of counties, the National League of Cities, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors of 270 local governments found that 63 per cent of localities are cutting back on public safety and 60 per cent are cutting public works. Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
Syria: Israel-U.S. fighter jet deal destabilizes region
Last month, a ministerial panel headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak made a final decision to purchase 20 new F-35 fighter jets, despite opposition from a number of senior defense officials over the high cost of the deal.
The entire deal will be funded by American military. Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
A record 30% of unemployed out of work at least a year
Put another way, a hefty share of the long-term unemployed — 71% — were out of work at least a year in August, up from 48% a year earlier, BLS figures show. Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
US Backs PM: Israel is Jewish State
Meanwhile, Israel plans to request next week that the US extend its $3 billion security package for another few years, but the state is also preparing for the possibility that the latter will cut the package by a billion, Ynet has learned.
Next week officials from the State Department are scheduled to arrive in Israel in order to receive a briefing on its economic standing and reforms.
Over the past few years, due to Israel's relatively buoyant economy, the state has not generally had to make use of US security in order to raise funds, but the Finance Ministry prefers to continue receiving it. Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
US Cities Face Half a Trillion Dollars of Pension Deficits
Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
Senior citizens brace for Social Security freeze
The government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million Social Security recipients will go through a second straight year without an increase in monthly benefits. This year was the first without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation started in 1975. Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
10,000 wait in line at Cal Expo in bid to save their homes
Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
Ahmadinejad makes a show of strength in Lebanon
Israeli lawmaker Arieh Eldad, from the ultranationalist National Union Party, went so far as to suggest that Israel assassinate the Iranian leader when he visits the border area.
Arab summit fails to address issues
Abbas sought Arab backing for possible fall back options in case troubled talks with Israel collapse, including urging the US to unilaterally recognise a Palestinian state.
The Arab Summit gave US mediators another month to keep the talks from collapsing, a deadline that comes just after the US midterm elections.
“Why Is the U.S. Government Deaf to What Has Been Done to My Son?” Asks Father of an American Murdered on the Gaza Flotilla
"Up to this moment, I still do not understand why the United States government is deaf to what has been done to my son, an American citizen. I urge the U.S. government to act to defend the rights of my son. I also would like to know why the U.S. voted against the Gaza Flotilla Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission at the Human Rights Council last week, as that report included information about the execution of my son, " said Dogan
Israeli Troops Accused of Shooting Children in Gaza
At least 10 Palestinian children have been shot and wounded by Israeli troops in the past three months while collecting rubble in or near the "buffer zone" created by Israel along the Gaza border, in a low-intensity offensive on the fringes of the blockaded Palestinian territory.....Last month a 91-year-old man and two teenage boys were killed while harvesting olives outside the official zone when Israeli troops fired shells. Forty-three goats also died in the attack.
Israelis, Palestinians signal deal on settlements
Israel indicated it, too, was edging toward a compromise. The country's ambassador to Washington confirmed for the first time that the U.S. is offering "incentives" for Israel to extend a just–expired settlement slowdown
How Will Jews React to ‘Budrus’?
A Film Highlighting Non-violent Resistance to Israeli Policies, and Israel’s Tough Response, To Get U.S. Premiere, With Jewish Support.
Abbas to Arab League: Israel has violated all agreements
Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat quoted Abbas as telling Arab leaders attending the summit that Israel has also scrapped the PA’s political, legal, functional and security authorities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian dream city hits snag from Israel
"I'm really glad the road is there to prevent them from building that city," she said, speaking in English, "and yay for us that we have established those communities so that the problem exists." [says an Israeli settler]
Netanyahu asking Palestinians to cede right of return
Netanyahu knows full well that any Palestinian leader who recognizes Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people also acknowledges that the Palestinians do not have any rightful place there. In other words, it is tantamount to an up-front concession on the right of return.
Obama’s Letter, Netanyahu’s Rejection, and Media’s Non-response
Israeli PM offers conditional settlements freeze
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said for the first time that he would extend the settlement restrictions in the West Bank – if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish national homeland.
The idea, while innocuous to Israel's supporters, is widely seen as undermining the rights of Arab Israelis, and was immediately rejected by the Palestinians. But it could signal that Netanyahu is willing to bend and save a U.S.–led peace effort in exchange for a different concession.
In Global Hunt for Hit Men, Tantalizing Trail Goes Cold
The findings raised hopes of nabbing one of the orchestrators of the hit, possibly providing proof for accusations by Dubai police that Israel's intelligence agency Mossad was behind it.......And despite an initial burst of tough talk from various governments, some international investigators are concerned that politics may be hampering cooperation from some governments that support Israel.....Two suspects, traveling with forged passports, appeared to have fled to the U.S. shortly after the killing.....But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has since said it doesn't have records of the two suspects in its system.
Push To Amend Civil Rights Act Forces Basic Questions About Jewish Identity
Now, two Jewish lawmakers are trying to amend the law, in order to have it include protection for Jewish students on college campuses. In the process, they are taking on a heavy historical question: Are the Jews of America part of a religion, or are they an ethnic group?.....the driving force behind this proposed legislation is the Zionist Organization of America, and the events triggering it took place at the University of California, Irvine, where tensions between Jewish and pro-Palestinian students have run high......In addition to incidents at UC, Irvine, ZOA also pointed to other campuses at which anti-Israel activity has left Jewish students feeling harassed. The Specter-Sherman bill mentions several incidents at other universities, as well, including the University of California’s Berkeley campus, where a student holding a pro-Israel sign was pushed and injured. At the University of North Dakota, anti-Semitic slurs were shouted at a Jewish student.
Soon criticism of Israel will be illegal, if the Zionists have their way. Already, the FBI is- under the auspices of the new definition of terrorism- rounding up people in the US for pro-Palestinian activity. Let the fascism of Israel and its supporters be fully known to the American people - so that we all finally DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
Critics: Israel loyalty oath undermines pluralism
Netanyahu's government is also smarting over harsh international criticism over a deadly naval raid on a Gaza–bound flotilla and suspicions that Israeli agents killed a Palestinian militant in Dubai after stealing the identities of some of its own citizens.
Nationalists are promoting a bill that would shut down groups that provide information that could be used to support war crimes allegations against Israel in court cases raised in other countries. Another would impose fines and entry bans on supporters of an anti–Israel boycott.
Earlier this month, controversy erupted after a high school principal used of an unapproved textbook that presents the Palestinian grief over Israel's 1948 creation. Palestinians mourn it as the "nakba" – the catastrophe – because hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from homes in what is now Israel. The principal faces possible disciplinary action.
Another bill that has drawn criticism recently would deny state funding to groups that mourn the "nakba."
Fascism.
Israel To Iran: Time’s Up
Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz called Monday for a naval blockade of Iran within two to six months, saying sanctions have failed to convince the Islamic republic to abandon its nuclear weapons program. THey'll do and say anything at this point to get the US to fight yet another war on their behalf.
Slumdog movie star turns defiant Palestinian girl
The Indian actress who starred in "Slumdog Millionaire" has moved from the slums of Mumbai to the squalid refugee camps of the West Bank in a new film: the story of a defiant Palestinian girl who wants to fight against Israel in a coming of age story with a Mideast twists.
"Miral," directed by award–winning artist Julian Schnabel and with cameos by Willem Dafoe and Vanessa Redgrave, stands apart for more than its star power.
Due for U.S. release in December, it's also likely to give Western audiences–some perhaps more used to movies depicting Arabs as violent Islamic militants–a compassionate view of the Palestinians.
"The ordinary American who knows nothing about Palestine and knows nothing about our cause–it will be the first time he will sit and watch this story," said Yasmine al–Massri, a 31–year–old Paris–based Palestinian actress who plays Pinto's mother.
Slain US activist's parents seek justice in Israel
The Corries have lobbied U.S. officials to pressure Israel to reopen the investigation into Rachel's death. And if the Supreme Court doesn't rule in their favour, the Corries say the will resume lobbying U.S. officials.
Settlers, Palestinians clash over olive harvest
Nasser, a carpenter from the village of Jit, took a day off on Sunday to pick olives from his 30 olive trees which provide him with oil for the entire season. He was shocked to discover a pianful sight when he reached his plot. "I saw that all my trees had been shaved," he said. "There's not one fruit left on any of the trees."
Nasser has no doubts as to who is behind the act. "The Havat Gilat settlers emptied them (the trees) completely."
Nasser is not alone. Farmers of the neighboring villages also found there was nothing left of their crop of hundreds of thousands of olives. Hundreds of trees have been stripped of their fruit.
IOC president invites Israel, Palestine for talks
The president of the International Olympic Committee has invited Israeli and Palestinian sports officials to meet at IOC headquarters to discuss travel restrictions on Palestinian athletes.
Jacque Rogge has expressed concern over travel obstacles facing Palestinian athletes, saying they should be granted free movement regardless of politics.
Jordan Valley joins list of peace obstacles
The Palestinians say they can't give up an inch of the fertile valley, which makes up a quarter of the West Bank and would be one of the few largely undeveloped territories of their crowded future state, a place to build new cities and settle refugees.
With an eye to the future, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad broke ground Monday on an agroindustrial park in the valley that, with funding and technical help from Japan, is to create 10,000 Palestinian jobs one day and transform the sleepy area into an economic hub.
Two Palestinians killed, four families made homeless.
Israel's Other "Peace" Plan Arm-Twisting Obama
CPT Serious Incident Report and Reflection
This particular incident speaks not only to the Israeli police’s lack of impartiality, but also to the reality that settlers’ accusations supersede preserving the educational environment of Palestinian children. The entry of soldiers into educational institutions signifies to children that schools are not safe places for them, thus creating further barriers to education.
French, Spanish FMs: Lieberman violated every rule of diplomacy
During a dinner meeting on Sunday, Lieberman told France's Bernard Kouchner and Spain's Miguel Angel Moratinos to "solve your own problems in Europe before you come to us with complaints. Maybe then I will be open to accepting your suggestions."
Dubai police: Suspect in Hamas assassination arrested abroad
In Monday's comments, Tamim said the suspect is not believed to be European.
"The suspect who was arrested played a key role in the killing, but we were informed by the ambassador ... that they did not wish to release the information," Tamim told the Abu Dhabi government-owned daily.
Gaza teens brave IDF fire to collect salvaged building materials
Every day dozens of people come to the ruins of the industrial zone and the settlements, such as Elei Sinai, in wagons drawn by donkeys or horses. One of the teens, who was shot on August 25, told Defence for Children that in recent months soldiers also shot and killed one of the donkeys and three of the horses.
J Street Board Sticks With Ben-Ami After Soros Flap
Video: The Two State Solution Is Effectively Dead
Short clip of John Mearsheimer, coauthor of The Israeli Lobby, giving the lowdown on Israel's future.
The Israeli Loyalty Oath: What is Netanyahu Up To?
Israel's loyalty oath: Discriminatory by design
The question that lies behind this is why, and why now? Are these the actions of a nation prepared to make a historical compromise, end occupation and live in peace with its neighbourhood? If they are and we are all wildly misinterpreting this, why alienate and incite the very people who could have helped by their example bring a historic settlement about, people who have accepted the existence of Israel, who have never in their history taken up arms against it? This applies to Christian as well as Muslim.
Russia to pay Iran $800 mln for shelved S-300 deal
Iran had criticised Russia for abandoning the deal, which the United States and Israel had urged Moscow to drop because of fears Tehran could use the missiles to protect nuclear facilities they suspect are part of a weapons programme.
Bagels and Ballots — Friday
Responding to MitzVote’s questionnaire, California’s Democratic incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer responds to our questionnaire. “When it comes to Iran, nothing should be taken off the table,” she wrote. (The San Francisco Chronicle)
Six More Years by Philip Giraldi
. The White House has promised Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu that it will pursue a hard line on Iran and has offered a complete surrender over the issue of settlements if Israel can come to some jury-rigged peace agreement with the Palestinians, possibly landing the United States in the middle of yet another conflict in the Persian Gulf. And to ice the cake there is fear-mongering that occasionally even exceeds the frenetic output of the Bush Administration.
Joseph Sobran, Antiwar Prophet, RIP
The Israeli/Likud lobby today is still dominant mainly because of its fanatical support from tens of millions of Christian Zionist evangelicals and the military-industrial complex.
Goldwater on the Israel Lobby
Kolbe: Is the Israeli lobby too powerful?
Goldwater: God, yes, way too powerful.
Kolbe: Has that had some detrimental effects on what comes out of Congress?
Goldwater: Yes. See, we have no treaty with Israel, but we have pledged ourselves to go to war if she has to go to war. And there are some of the actions that some of the Israeli groups take that, at times, I’ve felt would hasten that day when we have to live up to our promise. I can understand the feeling, but I’m getting awfully tired of the great influence they have and there’s no question about it.
Poll: 76% of American Jews think Arabs want to destroy Israel
If diplomacy fails, 59% would support military action against Iran to stop its nuclear program, while 35% would oppose it. 70% will support Israeli preventive strike, while 26% would oppose it.
With Emanuel and Axelrod Gone, Will the Jews Have Access to Obama?
the two individuals now running the policy in the White House -- National Security Council staffers Daniel Shapiro and Dennis Ross -- are sensitive to Jewish concerns.
“Rahm was not running Middle East policy,” Diament said. “Dennis Ross and Dan Shapiro are still there.”
Sarah Palin says if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, it could lead to Armageddon or World War III
"We have to realize that, at the end of the day, a nuclear weapon in that country's hands is not just Israel's problem or America's problem — it is the world's problem," Palin said of Iran.
Sarah Palin would appear to be a nitwit.
Chinese warplanes refueled in Iran en route to Turkey
Iran indirectly supported a secret military drill between the Turkish and Chinese air forces that took place in September, sparking concerns in the United States, daily Hürriyet reported Monday
They Hate Us for Our Occupations
In 2004, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld commissioned a task force to study what causes Terrorism, and it concluded that "Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather, they hate our policies": specifically, "American direct intervention in the Muslim world" through our "one sided support in favor of Israel"; support for Islamic tyrannies in places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia; and, most of all, "the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan" (the full report is here). Now, a new, comprehensive study from Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political science professor and former Air Force lecturer, substantiates what is (a) already bleedingly obvious and (b) known to the U.S. Government for many years: namely, that the prime cause of suicide bombings is not Hatred of Our Freedoms or Inherent Violence in Islamic Culture or a Desire for Worldwide Sharia Rule by Caliphate, but rather. . . . foreign military occupations.
US man suspected of trying to spy for Israel
In June 2006, Doxer e-mailed a foreign country's consulate in Boston with his offer to help. Court papers indicated the country was Israel because at one point he identified himself as a Jewish American who wanted "to help our homeland and our war against our enemies." A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny that it was Israel.
The Media's Construction of the 'Ground Zero Mosque'
CNN featured virulent Islamophobes on a number of occasions. Geller—who has called for the destruction of Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock, one of Islam’s holiest sites, and whose website depicted Muhammad with the face of a pig (FAIR Blog, 8/18/10)—appeared on the network twice (5/26/10, 8/17/10) to talk about her opposition to the project. Many are bile-spewing Israel-supporters, not surprisingly.
Venezuela Community in Eye of Storm As Chavez Assails Israel
“A Palestinian community lives here with us, which we adore and love, and there are also Jews that live here who we love, as well,” he said then. “But I wish the Jewish community would declare themselves against this barbarism. Do it. Don’t you strongly denounce any act of persecution and the Holocaust? What do you think we are looking at [in Gaza]? Put your hand on your heart, and be fair.”
Why defense spending won't go down much Stephen M. Walt
Q. How can you tell when William Kristol is giving bad policy advice?
A. His lips are moving. Or he's typing. Or he's writing an open letter for a bunch of hawks to sign. Or launching some new letterhead organization.
I refer, of course, to Kristol's recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (co-authored with the presidents of the the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute). The basic theme is that the world is very, very dangerous, and so the United States should not cut a nickel from its defense budget, even though we already spend more than the rest of the world combined, have most of the world's major powers on our side, and possess a robust nuclear deterrent. So even though the country is also facing massive budget deficits, at least partly due to policies that Kristol has previously promoted, we need to build a wall around the defense budget and make sure it doesn't get shrunk. At all.
Mr. Walt is the other author of the Israeli lobby.
The Real Israel Lobby
Neocon Bill Kristol attempting to further the lie that Americans support Israel. IF it were true, then there wouldn't be a need for AIPAC, WINEP, CAMERA, Honestreporting.com and many more lobbies, PACs, thinktanks, watchdogs : all dedicated to making sure the media and representatives toe the Israeli line. None of that would be necessary if the majority of Americans supported Israel. In fact, they don't according to a recent poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. My condolences to the Israel firsters (which includes the neocons).
Israel, Hurt by Belly-Dance Video, Fears Delegitimization - TIME
Israel's latest mortification, now playing on YouTube, features a Palestinian woman in modest Islamic dress, captive, blindfolded and standing stock still while an Israeli soldier undulates against her, trilling his fingers like the belly dancer he pretends to be as he grins at his friend who holds the camera. This follows the infamous Facebook posting of a female soldier beaming beside blindfolded and bound Palestinian men — her prisoners — in a photo album titled "IDF — The best time of my life." .......The need to nurture U.S. support against Iran was only one reason Netanyahu came around to the Obama Administration's bid for talks
Hero's welcome in Lebanon for Iranian leader
"We fully support the resistance of the Lebanese people against the Zionist regime and we want full liberation of occupied territory in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine,"
Helen Thomas on being anti-Semitic: 'Baloney!'
In a radio interview, former White House correspondent Helen Thomas acknowledges she touched a nerve with remarks about Israel that led to her retirement. But she says the comments were "exactly what I thought," even though she realized soon afterward that it was the end of her job.
"I hit the third rail. You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive," Thomas told Ohio station WMRN–AM in a sometimes emotional 35–minute interview that aired Tuesday
Israel Is Spying In And On The U.S.? Part 1
Palestinian Oktoberfest Entices Israeli Jews
This past weekend thousands of Palestinians, foreigners and a few Israelis flocked there for an Oktoberfest celebration where, as-per Oktoberfest tradition, beer flowed freely. For some of the Israelis who went the event was reminiscent of the days, before the First Intifada, when they regularly traveled to Palestinian areas to eat and drink.
Bagels & Ballots: The Governator Jumps In
The American Jewish Committee published a survey on Jewish voters is out, and it looks like Barack Obama is losing Jewish support because of his Israel policy. 61% of Jewish voters see the issue as “very important” in choosing mid-term congressional candidates, making it the sixth-highest concern.
Rick Sanchez Latest To Be Immediately Fired After Comments Hostile to Jews
Before Sanchez there was Octavia Nasr, CNN’s senior editor of Middle East affairs, who was sacked in June for publicly praising — via Twitter — a Muslim cleric associated with Hezbollah. And before her there was Helen Thomas, the 90-year-old veteran White House correspondent who lost her job this past summer when she said that Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Poland and Germany. In her case, she quit, but there was little chance of her staying on in her job after the uproar began.
Negotiator: Iran to show proof of US nuclear aid to Israel
2 militants dead in Israeli raid in West Bank
Israeli troops in the West Bank killed two senior Hamas militants, and a settler leader struck a rock–wielding Palestinian youth with his car Friday in disputed east Jerusalem as tensions rose over stalled peace talks.
Third world America
The National Association of Counties estimates that local governments will eliminate roughly half a million employees in the next fiscal year, with public safety, public works, public health, social services, and parks and recreation hardest hit by the cutbacks. A July survey by the association of counties, the National League of Cities, and the U.S. Conference of Mayors of 270 local governments found that 63 per cent of localities are cutting back on public safety and 60 per cent are cutting public works. Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
Syria: Israel-U.S. fighter jet deal destabilizes region
Last month, a ministerial panel headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak made a final decision to purchase 20 new F-35 fighter jets, despite opposition from a number of senior defense officials over the high cost of the deal.
The entire deal will be funded by American military. Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
A record 30% of unemployed out of work at least a year
Put another way, a hefty share of the long-term unemployed — 71% — were out of work at least a year in August, up from 48% a year earlier, BLS figures show. Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
US Backs PM: Israel is Jewish State
Meanwhile, Israel plans to request next week that the US extend its $3 billion security package for another few years, but the state is also preparing for the possibility that the latter will cut the package by a billion, Ynet has learned.
Next week officials from the State Department are scheduled to arrive in Israel in order to receive a briefing on its economic standing and reforms.
Over the past few years, due to Israel's relatively buoyant economy, the state has not generally had to make use of US security in order to raise funds, but the Finance Ministry prefers to continue receiving it. Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
US Cities Face Half a Trillion Dollars of Pension Deficits
Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
Senior citizens brace for Social Security freeze
The government is expected to announce this week that more than 58 million Social Security recipients will go through a second straight year without an increase in monthly benefits. This year was the first without an increase since automatic adjustments for inflation started in 1975. Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
10,000 wait in line at Cal Expo in bid to save their homes
Hey I know, let's send Israel a few more billion.
Ahmadinejad makes a show of strength in Lebanon
Israeli lawmaker Arieh Eldad, from the ultranationalist National Union Party, went so far as to suggest that Israel assassinate the Iranian leader when he visits the border area.
Arab summit fails to address issues
Abbas sought Arab backing for possible fall back options in case troubled talks with Israel collapse, including urging the US to unilaterally recognise a Palestinian state.
The Arab Summit gave US mediators another month to keep the talks from collapsing, a deadline that comes just after the US midterm elections.
“Why Is the U.S. Government Deaf to What Has Been Done to My Son?” Asks Father of an American Murdered on the Gaza Flotilla
"Up to this moment, I still do not understand why the United States government is deaf to what has been done to my son, an American citizen. I urge the U.S. government to act to defend the rights of my son. I also would like to know why the U.S. voted against the Gaza Flotilla Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission at the Human Rights Council last week, as that report included information about the execution of my son, " said Dogan
Israeli Troops Accused of Shooting Children in Gaza
At least 10 Palestinian children have been shot and wounded by Israeli troops in the past three months while collecting rubble in or near the "buffer zone" created by Israel along the Gaza border, in a low-intensity offensive on the fringes of the blockaded Palestinian territory.....Last month a 91-year-old man and two teenage boys were killed while harvesting olives outside the official zone when Israeli troops fired shells. Forty-three goats also died in the attack.
Israelis, Palestinians signal deal on settlements
Israel indicated it, too, was edging toward a compromise. The country's ambassador to Washington confirmed for the first time that the U.S. is offering "incentives" for Israel to extend a just–expired settlement slowdown
How Will Jews React to ‘Budrus’?
A Film Highlighting Non-violent Resistance to Israeli Policies, and Israel’s Tough Response, To Get U.S. Premiere, With Jewish Support.
Abbas to Arab League: Israel has violated all agreements
Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat quoted Abbas as telling Arab leaders attending the summit that Israel has also scrapped the PA’s political, legal, functional and security authorities in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian dream city hits snag from Israel
"I'm really glad the road is there to prevent them from building that city," she said, speaking in English, "and yay for us that we have established those communities so that the problem exists." [says an Israeli settler]
Netanyahu asking Palestinians to cede right of return
Netanyahu knows full well that any Palestinian leader who recognizes Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people also acknowledges that the Palestinians do not have any rightful place there. In other words, it is tantamount to an up-front concession on the right of return.
Obama’s Letter, Netanyahu’s Rejection, and Media’s Non-response
Israeli PM offers conditional settlements freeze
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday said for the first time that he would extend the settlement restrictions in the West Bank – if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish national homeland.
The idea, while innocuous to Israel's supporters, is widely seen as undermining the rights of Arab Israelis, and was immediately rejected by the Palestinians. But it could signal that Netanyahu is willing to bend and save a U.S.–led peace effort in exchange for a different concession.
In Global Hunt for Hit Men, Tantalizing Trail Goes Cold
The findings raised hopes of nabbing one of the orchestrators of the hit, possibly providing proof for accusations by Dubai police that Israel's intelligence agency Mossad was behind it.......And despite an initial burst of tough talk from various governments, some international investigators are concerned that politics may be hampering cooperation from some governments that support Israel.....Two suspects, traveling with forged passports, appeared to have fled to the U.S. shortly after the killing.....But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has since said it doesn't have records of the two suspects in its system.
Push To Amend Civil Rights Act Forces Basic Questions About Jewish Identity
Now, two Jewish lawmakers are trying to amend the law, in order to have it include protection for Jewish students on college campuses. In the process, they are taking on a heavy historical question: Are the Jews of America part of a religion, or are they an ethnic group?.....the driving force behind this proposed legislation is the Zionist Organization of America, and the events triggering it took place at the University of California, Irvine, where tensions between Jewish and pro-Palestinian students have run high......In addition to incidents at UC, Irvine, ZOA also pointed to other campuses at which anti-Israel activity has left Jewish students feeling harassed. The Specter-Sherman bill mentions several incidents at other universities, as well, including the University of California’s Berkeley campus, where a student holding a pro-Israel sign was pushed and injured. At the University of North Dakota, anti-Semitic slurs were shouted at a Jewish student.
Soon criticism of Israel will be illegal, if the Zionists have their way. Already, the FBI is- under the auspices of the new definition of terrorism- rounding up people in the US for pro-Palestinian activity. Let the fascism of Israel and its supporters be fully known to the American people - so that we all finally DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
Critics: Israel loyalty oath undermines pluralism
Netanyahu's government is also smarting over harsh international criticism over a deadly naval raid on a Gaza–bound flotilla and suspicions that Israeli agents killed a Palestinian militant in Dubai after stealing the identities of some of its own citizens.
Nationalists are promoting a bill that would shut down groups that provide information that could be used to support war crimes allegations against Israel in court cases raised in other countries. Another would impose fines and entry bans on supporters of an anti–Israel boycott.
Earlier this month, controversy erupted after a high school principal used of an unapproved textbook that presents the Palestinian grief over Israel's 1948 creation. Palestinians mourn it as the "nakba" – the catastrophe – because hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were expelled from homes in what is now Israel. The principal faces possible disciplinary action.
Another bill that has drawn criticism recently would deny state funding to groups that mourn the "nakba."
Fascism.
Israel To Iran: Time’s Up
Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz called Monday for a naval blockade of Iran within two to six months, saying sanctions have failed to convince the Islamic republic to abandon its nuclear weapons program. THey'll do and say anything at this point to get the US to fight yet another war on their behalf.
Slumdog movie star turns defiant Palestinian girl
The Indian actress who starred in "Slumdog Millionaire" has moved from the slums of Mumbai to the squalid refugee camps of the West Bank in a new film: the story of a defiant Palestinian girl who wants to fight against Israel in a coming of age story with a Mideast twists.
"Miral," directed by award–winning artist Julian Schnabel and with cameos by Willem Dafoe and Vanessa Redgrave, stands apart for more than its star power.
Due for U.S. release in December, it's also likely to give Western audiences–some perhaps more used to movies depicting Arabs as violent Islamic militants–a compassionate view of the Palestinians.
"The ordinary American who knows nothing about Palestine and knows nothing about our cause–it will be the first time he will sit and watch this story," said Yasmine al–Massri, a 31–year–old Paris–based Palestinian actress who plays Pinto's mother.
Slain US activist's parents seek justice in Israel
The Corries have lobbied U.S. officials to pressure Israel to reopen the investigation into Rachel's death. And if the Supreme Court doesn't rule in their favour, the Corries say the will resume lobbying U.S. officials.
Settlers, Palestinians clash over olive harvest
Nasser, a carpenter from the village of Jit, took a day off on Sunday to pick olives from his 30 olive trees which provide him with oil for the entire season. He was shocked to discover a pianful sight when he reached his plot. "I saw that all my trees had been shaved," he said. "There's not one fruit left on any of the trees."
Nasser has no doubts as to who is behind the act. "The Havat Gilat settlers emptied them (the trees) completely."
Nasser is not alone. Farmers of the neighboring villages also found there was nothing left of their crop of hundreds of thousands of olives. Hundreds of trees have been stripped of their fruit.
IOC president invites Israel, Palestine for talks
The president of the International Olympic Committee has invited Israeli and Palestinian sports officials to meet at IOC headquarters to discuss travel restrictions on Palestinian athletes.
Jacque Rogge has expressed concern over travel obstacles facing Palestinian athletes, saying they should be granted free movement regardless of politics.
Jordan Valley joins list of peace obstacles
The Palestinians say they can't give up an inch of the fertile valley, which makes up a quarter of the West Bank and would be one of the few largely undeveloped territories of their crowded future state, a place to build new cities and settle refugees.
With an eye to the future, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad broke ground Monday on an agroindustrial park in the valley that, with funding and technical help from Japan, is to create 10,000 Palestinian jobs one day and transform the sleepy area into an economic hub.
Two Palestinians killed, four families made homeless.
Israel's Other "Peace" Plan Arm-Twisting Obama
CPT Serious Incident Report and Reflection
This particular incident speaks not only to the Israeli police’s lack of impartiality, but also to the reality that settlers’ accusations supersede preserving the educational environment of Palestinian children. The entry of soldiers into educational institutions signifies to children that schools are not safe places for them, thus creating further barriers to education.
French, Spanish FMs: Lieberman violated every rule of diplomacy
During a dinner meeting on Sunday, Lieberman told France's Bernard Kouchner and Spain's Miguel Angel Moratinos to "solve your own problems in Europe before you come to us with complaints. Maybe then I will be open to accepting your suggestions."
Dubai police: Suspect in Hamas assassination arrested abroad
In Monday's comments, Tamim said the suspect is not believed to be European.
"The suspect who was arrested played a key role in the killing, but we were informed by the ambassador ... that they did not wish to release the information," Tamim told the Abu Dhabi government-owned daily.
Gaza teens brave IDF fire to collect salvaged building materials
Every day dozens of people come to the ruins of the industrial zone and the settlements, such as Elei Sinai, in wagons drawn by donkeys or horses. One of the teens, who was shot on August 25, told Defence for Children that in recent months soldiers also shot and killed one of the donkeys and three of the horses.
J Street Board Sticks With Ben-Ami After Soros Flap
Video: The Two State Solution Is Effectively Dead
Short clip of John Mearsheimer, coauthor of The Israeli Lobby, giving the lowdown on Israel's future.
The Israeli Loyalty Oath: What is Netanyahu Up To?
Israel's loyalty oath: Discriminatory by design
The question that lies behind this is why, and why now? Are these the actions of a nation prepared to make a historical compromise, end occupation and live in peace with its neighbourhood? If they are and we are all wildly misinterpreting this, why alienate and incite the very people who could have helped by their example bring a historic settlement about, people who have accepted the existence of Israel, who have never in their history taken up arms against it? This applies to Christian as well as Muslim.
Russia to pay Iran $800 mln for shelved S-300 deal
Iran had criticised Russia for abandoning the deal, which the United States and Israel had urged Moscow to drop because of fears Tehran could use the missiles to protect nuclear facilities they suspect are part of a weapons programme.
Bagels and Ballots — Friday
Responding to MitzVote’s questionnaire, California’s Democratic incumbent Sen. Barbara Boxer responds to our questionnaire. “When it comes to Iran, nothing should be taken off the table,” she wrote. (The San Francisco Chronicle)
Six More Years by Philip Giraldi
. The White House has promised Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu that it will pursue a hard line on Iran and has offered a complete surrender over the issue of settlements if Israel can come to some jury-rigged peace agreement with the Palestinians, possibly landing the United States in the middle of yet another conflict in the Persian Gulf. And to ice the cake there is fear-mongering that occasionally even exceeds the frenetic output of the Bush Administration.
Joseph Sobran, Antiwar Prophet, RIP
The Israeli/Likud lobby today is still dominant mainly because of its fanatical support from tens of millions of Christian Zionist evangelicals and the military-industrial complex.
Goldwater on the Israel Lobby
Kolbe: Is the Israeli lobby too powerful?
Goldwater: God, yes, way too powerful.
Kolbe: Has that had some detrimental effects on what comes out of Congress?
Goldwater: Yes. See, we have no treaty with Israel, but we have pledged ourselves to go to war if she has to go to war. And there are some of the actions that some of the Israeli groups take that, at times, I’ve felt would hasten that day when we have to live up to our promise. I can understand the feeling, but I’m getting awfully tired of the great influence they have and there’s no question about it.
Poll: 76% of American Jews think Arabs want to destroy Israel
If diplomacy fails, 59% would support military action against Iran to stop its nuclear program, while 35% would oppose it. 70% will support Israeli preventive strike, while 26% would oppose it.
With Emanuel and Axelrod Gone, Will the Jews Have Access to Obama?
the two individuals now running the policy in the White House -- National Security Council staffers Daniel Shapiro and Dennis Ross -- are sensitive to Jewish concerns.
“Rahm was not running Middle East policy,” Diament said. “Dennis Ross and Dan Shapiro are still there.”
Sarah Palin says if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, it could lead to Armageddon or World War III
"We have to realize that, at the end of the day, a nuclear weapon in that country's hands is not just Israel's problem or America's problem — it is the world's problem," Palin said of Iran.
Sarah Palin would appear to be a nitwit.
Chinese warplanes refueled in Iran en route to Turkey
Iran indirectly supported a secret military drill between the Turkish and Chinese air forces that took place in September, sparking concerns in the United States, daily Hürriyet reported Monday
They Hate Us for Our Occupations
In 2004, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld commissioned a task force to study what causes Terrorism, and it concluded that "Muslims do not 'hate our freedom,' but rather, they hate our policies": specifically, "American direct intervention in the Muslim world" through our "one sided support in favor of Israel"; support for Islamic tyrannies in places like Egypt and Saudi Arabia; and, most of all, "the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan" (the full report is here). Now, a new, comprehensive study from Robert Pape, a University of Chicago political science professor and former Air Force lecturer, substantiates what is (a) already bleedingly obvious and (b) known to the U.S. Government for many years: namely, that the prime cause of suicide bombings is not Hatred of Our Freedoms or Inherent Violence in Islamic Culture or a Desire for Worldwide Sharia Rule by Caliphate, but rather. . . . foreign military occupations.
US man suspected of trying to spy for Israel
In June 2006, Doxer e-mailed a foreign country's consulate in Boston with his offer to help. Court papers indicated the country was Israel because at one point he identified himself as a Jewish American who wanted "to help our homeland and our war against our enemies." A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny that it was Israel.
The Media's Construction of the 'Ground Zero Mosque'
CNN featured virulent Islamophobes on a number of occasions. Geller—who has called for the destruction of Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock, one of Islam’s holiest sites, and whose website depicted Muhammad with the face of a pig (FAIR Blog, 8/18/10)—appeared on the network twice (5/26/10, 8/17/10) to talk about her opposition to the project. Many are bile-spewing Israel-supporters, not surprisingly.
Venezuela Community in Eye of Storm As Chavez Assails Israel
“A Palestinian community lives here with us, which we adore and love, and there are also Jews that live here who we love, as well,” he said then. “But I wish the Jewish community would declare themselves against this barbarism. Do it. Don’t you strongly denounce any act of persecution and the Holocaust? What do you think we are looking at [in Gaza]? Put your hand on your heart, and be fair.”
Why defense spending won't go down much Stephen M. Walt
Q. How can you tell when William Kristol is giving bad policy advice?
A. His lips are moving. Or he's typing. Or he's writing an open letter for a bunch of hawks to sign. Or launching some new letterhead organization.
I refer, of course, to Kristol's recent op-ed in the Wall Street Journal (co-authored with the presidents of the the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute). The basic theme is that the world is very, very dangerous, and so the United States should not cut a nickel from its defense budget, even though we already spend more than the rest of the world combined, have most of the world's major powers on our side, and possess a robust nuclear deterrent. So even though the country is also facing massive budget deficits, at least partly due to policies that Kristol has previously promoted, we need to build a wall around the defense budget and make sure it doesn't get shrunk. At all.
Mr. Walt is the other author of the Israeli lobby.
The Real Israel Lobby
Neocon Bill Kristol attempting to further the lie that Americans support Israel. IF it were true, then there wouldn't be a need for AIPAC, WINEP, CAMERA, Honestreporting.com and many more lobbies, PACs, thinktanks, watchdogs : all dedicated to making sure the media and representatives toe the Israeli line. None of that would be necessary if the majority of Americans supported Israel. In fact, they don't according to a recent poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. My condolences to the Israel firsters (which includes the neocons).
Israel, Hurt by Belly-Dance Video, Fears Delegitimization - TIME
Israel's latest mortification, now playing on YouTube, features a Palestinian woman in modest Islamic dress, captive, blindfolded and standing stock still while an Israeli soldier undulates against her, trilling his fingers like the belly dancer he pretends to be as he grins at his friend who holds the camera. This follows the infamous Facebook posting of a female soldier beaming beside blindfolded and bound Palestinian men — her prisoners — in a photo album titled "IDF — The best time of my life." .......The need to nurture U.S. support against Iran was only one reason Netanyahu came around to the Obama Administration's bid for talks
Hero's welcome in Lebanon for Iranian leader
"We fully support the resistance of the Lebanese people against the Zionist regime and we want full liberation of occupied territory in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine,"
Helen Thomas on being anti-Semitic: 'Baloney!'
In a radio interview, former White House correspondent Helen Thomas acknowledges she touched a nerve with remarks about Israel that led to her retirement. But she says the comments were "exactly what I thought," even though she realized soon afterward that it was the end of her job.
"I hit the third rail. You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive," Thomas told Ohio station WMRN–AM in a sometimes emotional 35–minute interview that aired Tuesday
Israel Is Spying In And On The U.S.? Part 1
Palestinian Oktoberfest Entices Israeli Jews
This past weekend thousands of Palestinians, foreigners and a few Israelis flocked there for an Oktoberfest celebration where, as-per Oktoberfest tradition, beer flowed freely. For some of the Israelis who went the event was reminiscent of the days, before the First Intifada, when they regularly traveled to Palestinian areas to eat and drink.
Bagels & Ballots: The Governator Jumps In
The American Jewish Committee published a survey on Jewish voters is out, and it looks like Barack Obama is losing Jewish support because of his Israel policy. 61% of Jewish voters see the issue as “very important” in choosing mid-term congressional candidates, making it the sixth-highest concern.
Rick Sanchez Latest To Be Immediately Fired After Comments Hostile to Jews
Before Sanchez there was Octavia Nasr, CNN’s senior editor of Middle East affairs, who was sacked in June for publicly praising — via Twitter — a Muslim cleric associated with Hezbollah. And before her there was Helen Thomas, the 90-year-old veteran White House correspondent who lost her job this past summer when she said that Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine” and go back to Poland and Germany. In her case, she quit, but there was little chance of her staying on in her job after the uproar began.
Negotiator: Iran to show proof of US nuclear aid to Israel
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Headlines for September 30 - October 6
A Stand For Justice
Israelis kill Palestinian worker who sneaked in
Israeli police shot and killed a construction worker from this West Bank village Sunday after he used a rope to scale a towering wall meant to keep Palestinians from sneaking into Israel, police and a witness said.
Israeli rabbis visit torched West Bank mosque
The attackers left Hebrew slogans on the mosque walls, including the word "revenge." It appeared to be the latest action in a campaign that extremist Jewish settlers call the "price tag," their response to moves by their government to remove unauthorized settlement outposts and other similar measures.
Two Israeli soldiers ‘take fall’ for Gaza offensive
Despite over 150 internal investigations being opened by the Israeli military into alleged misconduct by its troops during the assault on Gaza, only 36 have been referred for criminal prosecutions, and – until yesterday's verdict – only one conviction has been handed down by the courts, in the case of a soldier accused of petty theft....Human rights groups have documented scores of cases of similar abuses by IDF fighters since the practice of using human shields was supposedly banned in 2005. Allegations backed by substantial evidence continue to surface - and the IDF continues to fail to instigate meaningful investigations in almost all incidences.
You will not see this story in our media anywhere, certainly not in any headlines on the local or national news. Refer to the video in this batch on how Israel controls our media.
Israeli troops used boy as shield
In Sunday's ruling, a military court said the soldiers asked the boy to open bags that troops suspected contained explosives.
10 days after settlement freeze expires, 350 new units under construction
Art sellers or Mossad spies?
In Saratoga Springs, in northern Utah, there were complains that these art peddlers were asking strange questions that had nothing to do with their sales pitch. Some residents said they were asked about the new National Security Agency's data center being built at Camp Williams. Art sellers resurface in America? They were around in the run up to 9/11, according to a Fox News report on Israel's spies in December of 2001. Round them up and deport them, posthaste.
Ahmadinejad says Mideast to expel US with 'kick in butt'
Ahmadinejad has already drawn international condemnation by repeatedly casting doubt on the Nazi Holocaust since coming to power in 2005.
On Sunday he branded Iran's regional arch–foe Israel a "savage dog unleashed in the region."
FBI Targets US Palestine Activists
Despite the searches and seizures of computers, cheque books, mobile phones, documents and photographs, Molm and other activists have not been charged with committing a crime.....Molm and other American activists travelled to Palestine in 2004 to see the conditions there for themselves.
Obama envoy ends Mideast talks with no breakthrough
Hundreds of activists from Muslim countries planning new Gaza-bound flotilla
The Turkish charity IHH, which sponsored a Gaza-bound flotilla that Israeli commandos boarded in a deadly raid last spring, said Monday that some 500 activists would take part in a new flotilla that hopes to reach Gaza by December 27.
Korans burnt in West Bank mosque attack
A Star of David symbol and the words "Price Tag" were found scrawled over the mosque's doorway. Militant settlers coined the slogan to warn of the cost of any threat to their presence.
Livni tells UN to mind its own business over flotilla probe
Livni told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that his decision to appoint a panel to investigate the May 31 commando raid, which left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead, was "unacceptable". ...."Israel is investigating the events of the flotilla itself, and that is enough," said Livni, who leads Kadima, the second largest party in Israel's Knesset. Arrogant much?
Israel: Principal faces hearing over textbook
An Israeli high school principal has been summoned for a hearing by the country's Education Ministry for using a textbook that presents the Palestinian narrative about events surrounding Israel's creation in 1948, officials said Friday.....The textbook in question gives the Israeli narrative of the country's founding next to that of the Palestinians, with blank space in the middle for students to insert their own thoughts, according to a report this week in the daily Haaretz.
Egypt, Jordan back Palestinians on settlements
Court upholds deportation of Nobel laureate
She won the peace prize in 1976 for her efforts to end sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, but has since turned most of her attention to the Palestinian cause.
Arsonists torch mosque in West Bank village
Arsonists torched a mosque in a West Bank village Monday, scrawling "revenge" on a wall in Hebrew and charring copies of the Muslim holy book in an attack that threatened to stoke tensions over deadlocked Mideast peacemaking.
Ancient tree to help turn Jericho into tourism hub
At the Oct. 10 launch of yearlong festivities, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will outline ambitious plans for Jericho, a Jordan Valley oasis that bills itself as the world's oldest and lowest–lying town, at some 780 feet below sea level.
"This is to promote Palestine as a destination," Palestinian Tourism Minister Khouloud Daibes said of the venture, which includes a resort to be built on the shores of the nearby Dead Sea. The Palestinians even hope for an airport in the area, though both projects hinge on Israeli approval.....On Friday, dozens of Palestinian and Russian workers laid brick, rushing to finish the white stone building with two domes and several graceful columns in time for the Oct. 10 opening. The museum, which sits on land bought by the Russian government in the 19th century, will feature Russian art and an exhibit on cultural ties between Russia and Palestine, as well as artifacts discovered during a salvage dig before construction began.
Peace talks come and go, but a settlement grows
In 1991, when the first Bush administration was coaxing Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table, 90,300 Israelis lived in settlements across the West Bank. Today there are 300,000 – and their population is growing by 5 percent a year, more than 2 1/2 times the growth rate inside Israel.
The settlements themselves, ranging from small cities to isolated enclaves, take up just one percent of the area of the West Bank, according to government maps analyzed by Israeli human rights campaigners. But their impact is much greater than that number would suggest; the settlements and their access roads form a web of Israeli control that Palestinians say rules out any chance of viable statehood.
Webclip shows Israel soldier dancing around prisoner
A grainy video of a male Israeli soldier bellydancing around a bound and blindfolded female prisoner which went viral overnight, on Tuesday provoked a furious response from the Palestinians.
Palestinians back Abbas on settlement slowdown
Dozens of senior Palestinians on Saturday backed President Mahmoud Abbas' refusal to negotiate with Israel as long as it builds in West Bank settlements, dealing a new setback to troubled U.S. efforts to salvage peace talks.
Obama pressed to weigh Iran strike
US President Barack Obama is under pressure to consider a military strike on Iran, according to the Financial Times.
Both Senator Joe Lieberman and Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have urged the president to consider setting a time limit of just a few months on the effectiveness of the most recent sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic for its nuclear advances. Joe Lieberman is one of Israel's top agents on Capitol Hill. Any strike on Iran would place our missions and troops in the region in grave danger. For whom do these representatives work?
Israeli premier weighing new settlement curbs
The Israelis are seeking various "assurances" in return for the extension.
Officials said the Israeli wish list included additional American military support, U.S. guarantees to veto anti–Israeli resolutions at the United Nations and guarantees that Washington would not impose an accord on Israel or force a full withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians seek both areas as part of a future state.
David Grossman, a Man Who Owns Israel
As to the “oppressor,” President Barack Obama, he plainly understood that the 10-month moratorium was scheduled to end just as the American midterm election campaigns were heading into their final stretch. Ten months is such an unusual time period — the mind inclines toward nine months or 12 — that Netanyahu’s choice of 10 months was plainly intended as a trap. Surely, no American administration would take the political risk of leaning on Israel just before elections; no one wants to incur the wrath of the Jews or the evangelicals. And the fact is that we do not yet know to what degree Obama is prepared to take that risk.
How Israel Controls Your Media:
Pay particular attention to the disparity in the news coverage - even between that of the Brits and ours. I have experienced it for the 8 years I have been reading the coverage of all things Israel-Palestine. Our media is in fact controlled by Israeli interests. Not so much that they own the media, it's by way of their intense 'lobbying' of our journalists, our news wires (AP), and the threat of anti-Semitism -this is how they accomplish getting our media to carry the Israeli side of the story, nearly all of the time.
Mossad 'issued death threats' to Dubai police chief
Dubai's police chief said he has received death threats from Israel's spy agency Mossad linked to his role in uncovering details of the assassination of a senior Hamas leader, a report said on Thursday.
Hamas leader: Arafat urged attacks on Israel
Avi Issacharov, an Israeli journalist who co–authored a book about the uprising, went further: "Arafat wasn't in favor of suicide attacks. He didn't demand, he didn't order, he didn't recommend" them
Flotilla ship is setting for anti-Israel movie (AP)
Part of a movie is being filmed on board the Mavi Marmara, where Israeli troops clashed in May with pro–Palestinian activists trying to breach the blockade in Gaza, said Salih Bilici, a spokesman for the Turkish Islamic charity that sponsored the flotilla, told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Syria wants Turkey to mediate talks with Israel
Rachel Corrie, an Israeli bulldozer, and our shared global fate
Last month, several state witnesses took the stand in a Haifa District Court to testify in the civil law suit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the state of Israel. Many may still recall the disturbing photographs that wallpapered the world’s media outlets of Ms. Corrie, a 23-year-old activist from Walla, Walla, Washington, being crushed under a military bulldozer while trying to defend a Palestinian home in Rafah, Gaza under threat of demolition
CNN fires host Rick Sanchez over controversial remarks
Sanchez called out Comedy Central host Jon Stewart as a "bigot" for mocking him, and complained that Jews – like Stewart – don't face discrimination. He also suggested that CNN, and perhaps the media industry more broadly, is run by Jews and elitists who look down on Hispanics like himself.
The Intifada, 10 Years Later: Why Israelis Don't Care About Peace Processing
Actually, what Time said wasn’t even new or shocking to anyone who’s spoken to a real live Israeli in the last five years or so. Newsweek carried an almost identical story this past January. Fortune magazine reported it all the way back in June 2005. Israelis themselves have been saying the same thing for years: There’s no point in trying to negotiate peace with the Arabs, either because it always backfires, or because the Arabs are bunch of bums and you can’t trust them, or because, as Time reports, things are fine the way they are and nobody believes it’ll get better.
Israel's unit 8200: cyber warfare
The Negev desert based Unit 8200 has evolved from the signal intelligence arm of the Israeli military into a respected leader in high technology warfare. One American consultancy rated Unit 8200 as the sixth biggest initiator of cyber attacks on the plants.
Netanyahu Humiliates Obama Again By MJ Rosenberg
"Netanyahu said he appreciated the letter but could not accept the American proposal because it included a two-month extension of the construction moratorium, which he said would damage his public credibility."
It’s Not Easy To Build a Mosque in Brooklyn, Either
“They brought people in who aren’t from the neighborhood,” he said. “They’re anti-Muslim. What other reasons would they be here? Do they care that I have a lot of traffic here? No, seriously — they live in Queens.”.....In the view of Michael Berenbaum, head of the Sigi Ziering Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Ethics at American Jewish University, the fact that so many of the Sheepshead Bay mosque opponents are Russian Jews — immigrants themselves — “may mean that they have not internalized the notion of religious freedom, which is essential to the American experience.”
Cracks in the Democratic Coalitionby Patrick J. Buchanan
Black-Jewish tensions inside the Democratic coalition have also arisen in recent years, as Jewish contributors have poured money into races to defeat black members of Congress seen as hostile to Israel.
Two smaller minorities, Muslim- and Arab-Americans, also vote Democratic, are growing rapidly in numbers and, like many African-Americans, take the side of the Palestinians as an oppressed Third World people of color.
Antiwar Activists Refuse to Appear in Court
Activists say the feds are trying to silence criticism of U.S. foreign policy.
Israel pressures Lebanon to cancel Ahmadinejad visit
Midnight Shopping On The Brink Of Poverty
Last year, 3.7 million Americans joined those already living in poverty, meaning families of four living on just under $22,000. That's 14 percent of the population Hey I know, let's give a couple more billion dollars to Israel so she won't steal any more Palestinian land (for 'settlements'). Unf'ingreal.
Obama’s Cave-In To Israel
According to the leak, Obama made a series of extraordinarily generous offers to Israel, many of them at the expense of the Palestinians, in return for a single minor concession from Netanyahu: a two-month extension of the partial feeze on settlement growth.
Video: Even Zbigniew Brzezinski says AIPAC is bad for USA and Israel stole Palestinian land
Jewish population in Israel is declining
There is no choice but to deal with forecasts for the next decade or two, and it turns out that by then the proportion of Jews will have declined to 42 percent
Israeli cyber unit responsible for Iran computer worm – claim
Ralf Langner, a German researcher, claims that Unit 8200, the signals intelligence arm of the Israeli defence forces, perpetrated the computer virus attack by infiltrating the software into the Bushehr nuclear power station
Did the West attack Iran's nukes... with a Biblically encoded computer worm?
experts found what might be a "fleeting reference to the Book of Esther" embedded deep in the worm's code. "Myrtus," the name of one of the files, may be an allusion to "the Hebrew word for Esther." The biblical book of the same name "tells the story of a Persian plot against the Jews, who attacked their enemies pre-emptively."
Millions of Computers Hit by Virus Across China
“Once Stuxnet successfully penetrates factory computers in China, those industries may collapse, which would damage China’s national security.”
Bill Clinton: Mideast peace would undercut terror
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that solving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict would take away much of the motivation for terrorism around the world.
Syrian leader: Mideast talks only to help Obama
Assad said the current attempt at dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians have brought "no change" and claimed that President Barack Obama only seeks a political boost.
"The talks are only aimed at supporting Obama's position inside the U.S," Assad said in his first public comments about the process since the latest round of negotiations began last month.
Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett, Mr. Ahmadinejad Comes to New York
Though we are more concerned about the risk of a bad U.S. decision in this regard than Secretary Powell appears to be, we certainly hope he is right about the chances of an Israeli or U.S. attack against Iran. And, of course, we strongly agree that acceptance of Iran's right to enrich uranium is an indispensable key to a serious and sustainable agreement on the nuclear issue. We hope that the Obama Administration is listening.
J Street Flap Shines Spotlight On George Soros And His Money
A tough critic of the pro-Israel lobby and a self-proclaimed non-Zionist, Soros has also led the campaign for democracy in Eastern Europe, a cause shared by many in the Jewish community. He has made business investments in Israel, and provides political donations to Jewish candidates.
Israel Is Now Punishing Palestinians Shamelessly
Behind a modest desk with a view of Beit Jala sits a nameless Shin Bet security service officer who is very pleased with himself. He has just saved the Jewish people in Israel from yet another grave security risk by preventing a 47-year-old woman, for five weeks now, from going abroad for urgent medical tests.
Obama faces humiliation over Middle East talks
Israel's refusal to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank is the ostensible reason for the halt in direct talks with the Palestinians. Speaking at the weekend after the PLO refused to continue the negotiations, executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said a line had to be drawn.....Netanyahu may be calculating that big Republican gains in next month's US midterm congressional elections will curtail Obama's capacity to put pressure on Israel. If the process does collapse, Netanyahu will be able to say, publicly, that it was the Palestinians, not he, who turned their backs on peace; and privately, that the inexperienced Obama screwed up, a verdict that the American right will gleefully endorse.
Assad, Ahmadinejad: Israel's actions prove it doesn't want peace
The leaders of Iran and Syria, during a meeting in Tehran Saturday, expressed hope of expanding the anti-Israeli bloc in the region, adding that Israel's actions in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem proved the country did not truly want peace, the Iranian presidential office said in a statement.
Poet Zach: Israel apartheid state
Batsheva Dances, Challenging Gender — and Demonstrators
on a recent evening, audience members had to make it past a cacophonous demonstration outside. The protesters’ chants, accompanied by drums, cymbals and a flute, were part of Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, whose demands include the so-called right of return for Palestinian refugees.
What J Street Can Learn From The Tea Party
here’s the critical distinction with the Tea Partiers: Those who have stuck with AIPAC haven’t paid a price. Consider the case of Rep. Jane Harman of southern California, a darling of AIPAC and hawkish Democrats. Harman was opposed in a bitter Democratic primary by Marcy Winograd, a leftist peace activist who would seem to be a prototypical J Street candidate: On the peace process and Israel’s need to make concessions, she was holier than the pope. But J Street stayed out of the primary battle, which Harman won (and I am glad she did).
Of Recognition, and Reality
if, as some of their spokesmen have recently confirmed, the Palestinians are refusing to recognize Israel as the Jewish State because such recognition undermines the “the right of return” of Palestinian refugees into properties inside Israel, the peace negotiations are, indeed, futile. Israel might well agree to absorb a small number of returnees. But even the most compromise-minded Israelis reject a wholesale “right of return,” as this would signal the end of the state’s Jewishness.
Israelis kill Palestinian worker who sneaked in
Israeli police shot and killed a construction worker from this West Bank village Sunday after he used a rope to scale a towering wall meant to keep Palestinians from sneaking into Israel, police and a witness said.
Israeli rabbis visit torched West Bank mosque
The attackers left Hebrew slogans on the mosque walls, including the word "revenge." It appeared to be the latest action in a campaign that extremist Jewish settlers call the "price tag," their response to moves by their government to remove unauthorized settlement outposts and other similar measures.
Two Israeli soldiers ‘take fall’ for Gaza offensive
Despite over 150 internal investigations being opened by the Israeli military into alleged misconduct by its troops during the assault on Gaza, only 36 have been referred for criminal prosecutions, and – until yesterday's verdict – only one conviction has been handed down by the courts, in the case of a soldier accused of petty theft....Human rights groups have documented scores of cases of similar abuses by IDF fighters since the practice of using human shields was supposedly banned in 2005. Allegations backed by substantial evidence continue to surface - and the IDF continues to fail to instigate meaningful investigations in almost all incidences.
You will not see this story in our media anywhere, certainly not in any headlines on the local or national news. Refer to the video in this batch on how Israel controls our media.
Israeli troops used boy as shield
In Sunday's ruling, a military court said the soldiers asked the boy to open bags that troops suspected contained explosives.
10 days after settlement freeze expires, 350 new units under construction
Art sellers or Mossad spies?
In Saratoga Springs, in northern Utah, there were complains that these art peddlers were asking strange questions that had nothing to do with their sales pitch. Some residents said they were asked about the new National Security Agency's data center being built at Camp Williams. Art sellers resurface in America? They were around in the run up to 9/11, according to a Fox News report on Israel's spies in December of 2001. Round them up and deport them, posthaste.
Ahmadinejad says Mideast to expel US with 'kick in butt'
Ahmadinejad has already drawn international condemnation by repeatedly casting doubt on the Nazi Holocaust since coming to power in 2005.
On Sunday he branded Iran's regional arch–foe Israel a "savage dog unleashed in the region."
FBI Targets US Palestine Activists
Despite the searches and seizures of computers, cheque books, mobile phones, documents and photographs, Molm and other activists have not been charged with committing a crime.....Molm and other American activists travelled to Palestine in 2004 to see the conditions there for themselves.
Obama envoy ends Mideast talks with no breakthrough
Hundreds of activists from Muslim countries planning new Gaza-bound flotilla
The Turkish charity IHH, which sponsored a Gaza-bound flotilla that Israeli commandos boarded in a deadly raid last spring, said Monday that some 500 activists would take part in a new flotilla that hopes to reach Gaza by December 27.
Korans burnt in West Bank mosque attack
A Star of David symbol and the words "Price Tag" were found scrawled over the mosque's doorway. Militant settlers coined the slogan to warn of the cost of any threat to their presence.
Livni tells UN to mind its own business over flotilla probe
Livni told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that his decision to appoint a panel to investigate the May 31 commando raid, which left nine pro-Palestinian activists dead, was "unacceptable". ...."Israel is investigating the events of the flotilla itself, and that is enough," said Livni, who leads Kadima, the second largest party in Israel's Knesset. Arrogant much?
Israel: Principal faces hearing over textbook
An Israeli high school principal has been summoned for a hearing by the country's Education Ministry for using a textbook that presents the Palestinian narrative about events surrounding Israel's creation in 1948, officials said Friday.....The textbook in question gives the Israeli narrative of the country's founding next to that of the Palestinians, with blank space in the middle for students to insert their own thoughts, according to a report this week in the daily Haaretz.
Egypt, Jordan back Palestinians on settlements
Court upholds deportation of Nobel laureate
She won the peace prize in 1976 for her efforts to end sectarian violence in Northern Ireland, but has since turned most of her attention to the Palestinian cause.
Arsonists torch mosque in West Bank village
Arsonists torched a mosque in a West Bank village Monday, scrawling "revenge" on a wall in Hebrew and charring copies of the Muslim holy book in an attack that threatened to stoke tensions over deadlocked Mideast peacemaking.
Ancient tree to help turn Jericho into tourism hub
At the Oct. 10 launch of yearlong festivities, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will outline ambitious plans for Jericho, a Jordan Valley oasis that bills itself as the world's oldest and lowest–lying town, at some 780 feet below sea level.
"This is to promote Palestine as a destination," Palestinian Tourism Minister Khouloud Daibes said of the venture, which includes a resort to be built on the shores of the nearby Dead Sea. The Palestinians even hope for an airport in the area, though both projects hinge on Israeli approval.....On Friday, dozens of Palestinian and Russian workers laid brick, rushing to finish the white stone building with two domes and several graceful columns in time for the Oct. 10 opening. The museum, which sits on land bought by the Russian government in the 19th century, will feature Russian art and an exhibit on cultural ties between Russia and Palestine, as well as artifacts discovered during a salvage dig before construction began.
Peace talks come and go, but a settlement grows
In 1991, when the first Bush administration was coaxing Israelis and Palestinians to the negotiating table, 90,300 Israelis lived in settlements across the West Bank. Today there are 300,000 – and their population is growing by 5 percent a year, more than 2 1/2 times the growth rate inside Israel.
The settlements themselves, ranging from small cities to isolated enclaves, take up just one percent of the area of the West Bank, according to government maps analyzed by Israeli human rights campaigners. But their impact is much greater than that number would suggest; the settlements and their access roads form a web of Israeli control that Palestinians say rules out any chance of viable statehood.
Webclip shows Israel soldier dancing around prisoner
A grainy video of a male Israeli soldier bellydancing around a bound and blindfolded female prisoner which went viral overnight, on Tuesday provoked a furious response from the Palestinians.
Palestinians back Abbas on settlement slowdown
Dozens of senior Palestinians on Saturday backed President Mahmoud Abbas' refusal to negotiate with Israel as long as it builds in West Bank settlements, dealing a new setback to troubled U.S. efforts to salvage peace talks.
Obama pressed to weigh Iran strike
US President Barack Obama is under pressure to consider a military strike on Iran, according to the Financial Times.
Both Senator Joe Lieberman and Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have urged the president to consider setting a time limit of just a few months on the effectiveness of the most recent sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic for its nuclear advances. Joe Lieberman is one of Israel's top agents on Capitol Hill. Any strike on Iran would place our missions and troops in the region in grave danger. For whom do these representatives work?
Israeli premier weighing new settlement curbs
The Israelis are seeking various "assurances" in return for the extension.
Officials said the Israeli wish list included additional American military support, U.S. guarantees to veto anti–Israeli resolutions at the United Nations and guarantees that Washington would not impose an accord on Israel or force a full withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The Palestinians seek both areas as part of a future state.
David Grossman, a Man Who Owns Israel
As to the “oppressor,” President Barack Obama, he plainly understood that the 10-month moratorium was scheduled to end just as the American midterm election campaigns were heading into their final stretch. Ten months is such an unusual time period — the mind inclines toward nine months or 12 — that Netanyahu’s choice of 10 months was plainly intended as a trap. Surely, no American administration would take the political risk of leaning on Israel just before elections; no one wants to incur the wrath of the Jews or the evangelicals. And the fact is that we do not yet know to what degree Obama is prepared to take that risk.
How Israel Controls Your Media:
Pay particular attention to the disparity in the news coverage - even between that of the Brits and ours. I have experienced it for the 8 years I have been reading the coverage of all things Israel-Palestine. Our media is in fact controlled by Israeli interests. Not so much that they own the media, it's by way of their intense 'lobbying' of our journalists, our news wires (AP), and the threat of anti-Semitism -this is how they accomplish getting our media to carry the Israeli side of the story, nearly all of the time.
Mossad 'issued death threats' to Dubai police chief
Dubai's police chief said he has received death threats from Israel's spy agency Mossad linked to his role in uncovering details of the assassination of a senior Hamas leader, a report said on Thursday.
Hamas leader: Arafat urged attacks on Israel
Avi Issacharov, an Israeli journalist who co–authored a book about the uprising, went further: "Arafat wasn't in favor of suicide attacks. He didn't demand, he didn't order, he didn't recommend" them
Flotilla ship is setting for anti-Israel movie (AP)
Part of a movie is being filmed on board the Mavi Marmara, where Israeli troops clashed in May with pro–Palestinian activists trying to breach the blockade in Gaza, said Salih Bilici, a spokesman for the Turkish Islamic charity that sponsored the flotilla, told The Associated Press on Sunday.
Syria wants Turkey to mediate talks with Israel
Rachel Corrie, an Israeli bulldozer, and our shared global fate
Last month, several state witnesses took the stand in a Haifa District Court to testify in the civil law suit filed by Rachel Corrie’s family against the state of Israel. Many may still recall the disturbing photographs that wallpapered the world’s media outlets of Ms. Corrie, a 23-year-old activist from Walla, Walla, Washington, being crushed under a military bulldozer while trying to defend a Palestinian home in Rafah, Gaza under threat of demolition
CNN fires host Rick Sanchez over controversial remarks
Sanchez called out Comedy Central host Jon Stewart as a "bigot" for mocking him, and complained that Jews – like Stewart – don't face discrimination. He also suggested that CNN, and perhaps the media industry more broadly, is run by Jews and elitists who look down on Hispanics like himself.
The Intifada, 10 Years Later: Why Israelis Don't Care About Peace Processing
Actually, what Time said wasn’t even new or shocking to anyone who’s spoken to a real live Israeli in the last five years or so. Newsweek carried an almost identical story this past January. Fortune magazine reported it all the way back in June 2005. Israelis themselves have been saying the same thing for years: There’s no point in trying to negotiate peace with the Arabs, either because it always backfires, or because the Arabs are bunch of bums and you can’t trust them, or because, as Time reports, things are fine the way they are and nobody believes it’ll get better.
Israel's unit 8200: cyber warfare
The Negev desert based Unit 8200 has evolved from the signal intelligence arm of the Israeli military into a respected leader in high technology warfare. One American consultancy rated Unit 8200 as the sixth biggest initiator of cyber attacks on the plants.
Netanyahu Humiliates Obama Again By MJ Rosenberg
"Netanyahu said he appreciated the letter but could not accept the American proposal because it included a two-month extension of the construction moratorium, which he said would damage his public credibility."
It’s Not Easy To Build a Mosque in Brooklyn, Either
“They brought people in who aren’t from the neighborhood,” he said. “They’re anti-Muslim. What other reasons would they be here? Do they care that I have a lot of traffic here? No, seriously — they live in Queens.”.....In the view of Michael Berenbaum, head of the Sigi Ziering Center for the Study of the Holocaust and Ethics at American Jewish University, the fact that so many of the Sheepshead Bay mosque opponents are Russian Jews — immigrants themselves — “may mean that they have not internalized the notion of religious freedom, which is essential to the American experience.”
Cracks in the Democratic Coalitionby Patrick J. Buchanan
Black-Jewish tensions inside the Democratic coalition have also arisen in recent years, as Jewish contributors have poured money into races to defeat black members of Congress seen as hostile to Israel.
Two smaller minorities, Muslim- and Arab-Americans, also vote Democratic, are growing rapidly in numbers and, like many African-Americans, take the side of the Palestinians as an oppressed Third World people of color.
Antiwar Activists Refuse to Appear in Court
Activists say the feds are trying to silence criticism of U.S. foreign policy.
Israel pressures Lebanon to cancel Ahmadinejad visit
Midnight Shopping On The Brink Of Poverty
Last year, 3.7 million Americans joined those already living in poverty, meaning families of four living on just under $22,000. That's 14 percent of the population Hey I know, let's give a couple more billion dollars to Israel so she won't steal any more Palestinian land (for 'settlements'). Unf'ingreal.
Obama’s Cave-In To Israel
According to the leak, Obama made a series of extraordinarily generous offers to Israel, many of them at the expense of the Palestinians, in return for a single minor concession from Netanyahu: a two-month extension of the partial feeze on settlement growth.
Video: Even Zbigniew Brzezinski says AIPAC is bad for USA and Israel stole Palestinian land
Jewish population in Israel is declining
There is no choice but to deal with forecasts for the next decade or two, and it turns out that by then the proportion of Jews will have declined to 42 percent
Israeli cyber unit responsible for Iran computer worm – claim
Ralf Langner, a German researcher, claims that Unit 8200, the signals intelligence arm of the Israeli defence forces, perpetrated the computer virus attack by infiltrating the software into the Bushehr nuclear power station
Did the West attack Iran's nukes... with a Biblically encoded computer worm?
experts found what might be a "fleeting reference to the Book of Esther" embedded deep in the worm's code. "Myrtus," the name of one of the files, may be an allusion to "the Hebrew word for Esther." The biblical book of the same name "tells the story of a Persian plot against the Jews, who attacked their enemies pre-emptively."
Millions of Computers Hit by Virus Across China
“Once Stuxnet successfully penetrates factory computers in China, those industries may collapse, which would damage China’s national security.”
Bill Clinton: Mideast peace would undercut terror
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that solving the Israeli–Palestinian conflict would take away much of the motivation for terrorism around the world.
Syrian leader: Mideast talks only to help Obama
Assad said the current attempt at dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians have brought "no change" and claimed that President Barack Obama only seeks a political boost.
"The talks are only aimed at supporting Obama's position inside the U.S," Assad said in his first public comments about the process since the latest round of negotiations began last month.
Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett, Mr. Ahmadinejad Comes to New York
Though we are more concerned about the risk of a bad U.S. decision in this regard than Secretary Powell appears to be, we certainly hope he is right about the chances of an Israeli or U.S. attack against Iran. And, of course, we strongly agree that acceptance of Iran's right to enrich uranium is an indispensable key to a serious and sustainable agreement on the nuclear issue. We hope that the Obama Administration is listening.
J Street Flap Shines Spotlight On George Soros And His Money
A tough critic of the pro-Israel lobby and a self-proclaimed non-Zionist, Soros has also led the campaign for democracy in Eastern Europe, a cause shared by many in the Jewish community. He has made business investments in Israel, and provides political donations to Jewish candidates.
Israel Is Now Punishing Palestinians Shamelessly
Behind a modest desk with a view of Beit Jala sits a nameless Shin Bet security service officer who is very pleased with himself. He has just saved the Jewish people in Israel from yet another grave security risk by preventing a 47-year-old woman, for five weeks now, from going abroad for urgent medical tests.
Obama faces humiliation over Middle East talks
Israel's refusal to extend a moratorium on settlement building in the West Bank is the ostensible reason for the halt in direct talks with the Palestinians. Speaking at the weekend after the PLO refused to continue the negotiations, executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi said a line had to be drawn.....Netanyahu may be calculating that big Republican gains in next month's US midterm congressional elections will curtail Obama's capacity to put pressure on Israel. If the process does collapse, Netanyahu will be able to say, publicly, that it was the Palestinians, not he, who turned their backs on peace; and privately, that the inexperienced Obama screwed up, a verdict that the American right will gleefully endorse.
Assad, Ahmadinejad: Israel's actions prove it doesn't want peace
The leaders of Iran and Syria, during a meeting in Tehran Saturday, expressed hope of expanding the anti-Israeli bloc in the region, adding that Israel's actions in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem proved the country did not truly want peace, the Iranian presidential office said in a statement.
Poet Zach: Israel apartheid state
Batsheva Dances, Challenging Gender — and Demonstrators
on a recent evening, audience members had to make it past a cacophonous demonstration outside. The protesters’ chants, accompanied by drums, cymbals and a flute, were part of Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel, whose demands include the so-called right of return for Palestinian refugees.
What J Street Can Learn From The Tea Party
here’s the critical distinction with the Tea Partiers: Those who have stuck with AIPAC haven’t paid a price. Consider the case of Rep. Jane Harman of southern California, a darling of AIPAC and hawkish Democrats. Harman was opposed in a bitter Democratic primary by Marcy Winograd, a leftist peace activist who would seem to be a prototypical J Street candidate: On the peace process and Israel’s need to make concessions, she was holier than the pope. But J Street stayed out of the primary battle, which Harman won (and I am glad she did).
Of Recognition, and Reality
if, as some of their spokesmen have recently confirmed, the Palestinians are refusing to recognize Israel as the Jewish State because such recognition undermines the “the right of return” of Palestinian refugees into properties inside Israel, the peace negotiations are, indeed, futile. Israel might well agree to absorb a small number of returnees. But even the most compromise-minded Israelis reject a wholesale “right of return,” as this would signal the end of the state’s Jewishness.
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Headlines for September 23 - September 29
A Stand For Justice
Gaza fisherman 'killed by Israeli navy'
n Gaza it is not uncommon to hear the sound of machine-gun fire off the coast, as the Israeli navy fires upon boats it says have breached the limit.
Obama urges Arabs and Israel to support fragile talks
The U.S.–brokered talks are in danger of collapsing almost before they have begun because of the September 30 expiration of Israel's self–imposed, partial moratorium on new construction in Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank.
Israel's refusal so far to maintain the freeze –– and the Palestinians' threat to walk out if it does not –– have imperiled the negotiations, which aim to resolve the main issues in the conflict within a year.
PALESTINIAN FAMILY AWAKES TO DISCOVER VANDALS DEMOLISHED ARBOR OF 100 MATURE GRAPE TREES
On the morning of September 20th 2010, the Abdul Rahman Sharif Sultan family of the Al Bweireh neighborhood awoke to find that Israeli settlers had cut down six dunams (6000 m²) worth of their mature grape trees and vines during the night.
Hungry in Gaza, More and More
In the Gaza Strip, where unemployment levels soar up to 65 percent, and more than 80 percent people are food aid dependent, the average income per day per person is just two dollars. According to the WFP and FAO, the food insecure in Gaza are an alarming 61 percent, with another 16 percent vulnerable to food insecurity.
UN panel: Israel suppressing footage of Gaza flotilla raid
An expert panel investigating Israel's boarding of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla four months ago said Tuesday that Israel is suppressing footage of the incident it seized from the passengers.
Obama Administration Silent on IDF Murder of 19-Year-Old American
Although the conclusions of the Human Rights Commissioner's report and of the Turkish medical examiners has been big news in Turkey for the past week, the US media has maintained a news blackout, even though one of the murdered victims was an American. It's a sad commentary on the extent to which the US corporate media have become propagandists for the US and Israeli governments.
Israelis "Executed" US Citizen Furkan Dogan
The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla released last week shows conclusively, for the first time, that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered execution-style by Israeli commandos.
Israel Seizes Gaza Aid Boat
Yousef Rizka, a Hamas official, said: "The government has received Jewish activists heading to Gaza before. The government positively views all attempts to break the siege on Gaza".
'Jews for Justice' aid boat sets sail for Gaza
Richard Kuper, an organizer with the U.K. group Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said one goal is to show that not all Jews support Israeli policies toward Palestinians.
The Influencer
He remains keenly interested in the world of business, but he is most proud of his role as political power broker. His greatest concern, he says, is to protect Israel, by strengthening the United States-Israel relationship. At a conference last fall in Israel, Saban described his formula. His “three ways to be influential in American politics,” he said, were: make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets......In targeting media properties, Saban frankly acknowledges his political agenda. He has tried repeatedly to buy the Los Angeles Times, because, he said, “I thought it was time that it turn from a pro-Palestinian paper into a balanced paper.”......As Saban has said, “I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel.”
If you love Israel so much, why not move there and leave America to those that care more about AMERICAN interests. Some of us count America's (not Israel's) interests as priority number 1.
Turkish president demands apology for flotilla at UN
Israel accused of war crimes by expert panel
''There is clear evidence to support prosecutions of the following crimes within the terms of article 147 of the fourth Geneva convention: wilful killing; torture or inhuman treatment; wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health,'' the report said.
Turkey lauds UN report on Gaza flotilla
Israel refused to cooperate with the panel, preferring instead to work with a separate UN group under New Zealand's former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe that is also examining the incident but has yet to publish its findings
"Israel is a democratic and law abiding country that carefully observes international law and, when need be, knows how to investigate itself," the Foreign Ministry statement said.
Israel used 'incredible violence' against Gaza aid flotilla, says UN Human Rights Council
Israel maintains that its soldiers acted in self-defence after coming under attack from activists wielding clubs, axes and metal rods.
However the report found that Israeli commandos' response to the flotilla was disproportionate and "betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality".
Obama challenges the world: Time for Mideast peace
To a hushed audience of global leaders, Obama made Mideast peace the dominant theme of his yearly address to the U.N. General Assembly, a sign of the fragile state of the latest talks and the importance he attaches to their success. Nearly every other topic of his international agenda was shoved to the margins, save for a vigorous call for support of human rights.
Israel, Palestinians look to salvage Mideast talks
Netanyahu – a hard–liner who only recently accepted the idea of a Palestinian state – has balked at extending the moratorium, saying that would fracture his pro–settlement coalition government.
Hamas says Palestinian reconciliation on the way
Hamas' Khaled Meshal said Monday in Damascus that the two groups have taken serious and real steps toward reconciliation and will meet in early October in Cairo. The rival sides had said Saturday they agreed on steps to end divisions.
Officials: Palestinians will consider compromise
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas himself appeared to back away from the extension demand in comments late Tuesday to prominent American Jewish figures. "I cannot say I will leave the negotiations, but it's very difficult for me to resume talks if Prime Minister Netanyahu declares that he will continue his (settlement) activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem," he said, according to a transcript of the event obtained by The Associated Press.
It would appear that the only peace Israel seeks is the peace with which to continue building settlements on Palestinian land.
Abbas says settlements block Mideast peace deal
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday there will be no peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish state stops settlement construction in areas the Palestinians claim for their future state.
Fatah official: Israeli settlements could kill two-state solution
Expanding Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory have reached a point of no return and could kill an internationally backed, two-state solution, a top Fatah official said on Monday.
Bulldozers roll out across West Bank as settlement freeze ends
Settlers currently have plans for around 2,000 new homes across the West Bank.
Some Zionist Groups Stoke Fear Of Islam for Political Profit
At an AIPAC conference in March 2009, to take just one example, terrorism expert Steve Emerson spent 40 minutes stoking the worst fears of the mostly elderly attendees with a talk called “Tentacles of Terror: The Global Reach of Islamic Radicalism.” It could just as easily have been called “Scaring the Living Crap Out of Bubbe and Zayde.” As long as Jews are encouraged to believe that scary Muslims are hiding under every American bed, the idea is perpetuated that support for the Jewish state is a zero-sum contest between favoring Israel and favoring Arabs and Muslims. For too many American Jews, smearing Islam is seen as a legitimate expression of Zionism.
Israel: Settlers brace for end of building freeze
Peace or piece, can't have both.
Delaware Jews First to Host Victorious Tea Party Nominee
The crowd, mainly made up of members of the Delaware Jewish community, asked questions about the Middle East peace process, foreign aid to Israel and the possibility of cutting foreign aid in order to deal with the growing deficit. All candidates (including candidates for the House who attended as well) gave answers that satisfied the audience, according to the organizers: They support Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, agree to continue foreign aid to Israel at the level of $3 billion, and do not wish to cut the foreign aid budget.
Hamas claims to have found Israeli 'sleeper cells' in Gaza
Syrian aid arrives at Rafah crossing
Jewish boat activists: Israel treated us harshly
The activists' comments contradict military statements that said no violence took place when soldiers commandeered the boat - statements that were released while the activists were still in detention. Military officials declined to comment Wednesday on Shapira's report.
Netanyahu to settlers: Keep low profile as building freeze expires
Netanyahu's bureau also approached cabinet ministers requesting that they refrain from giving interviews on the topic.
How U.S. Jews Strangle Peace Talks
So let’s get this straight. When Netanyahu agrees to a settlement moratorium, it’s a sign of his commitment to peace. And now that he has let the moratorium end? It’s still a sign of his commitment to peace because, as AIPAC now insists, negotiations must proceed without preconditions. It’s back to “the problem isn’t settlements.”
South Florida: An arms smuggler's paradise
In June, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and a former Israeli aviation executive were charged in Fort Lauderdale federal court with conspiring to export 2,000 AK-47s to Somalia -- after the Israeli allegedly wired $116,000 to a Wells Fargo branch in Broward County. The indictment charged Joseph O'Toole, 79, of California, and Chanoch Miller, 53, an Israeli citizen living in Tel Aviv, with scheming to obtain and transport the AK-47s from Bosnia to Somalia, an embargoed country. Miller was arrested in Miami after traveling here to close the deal.
Israeli leaders praise Fidel Castro
Israeli leaders are praising former Cuban President Fidel Castro for supporting Israel in a series of interviews
Settlement freeze? It was barely a slowdown
The official statistics supplied by the Central Bureau of Statistics describe the story behind the 10-month construction moratorium in the West Bank. The story can be called many things but "freeze" is certainly not one of them. What took place in the past few months is, in the best case scenario, not more than a negligible decrease in the number of housing units that were built in settlements.
Why Mitchell Said ‘No’ to Hamas
Stuxnet worm is the 'work of a national government agency'
The "Stuxnet" computer worm, which has been described as one of the "most refined pieces of malware ever discovered", has been most active in Iran, says the security company Symantec – leading some experts to conjecture that the likely target of the virus is the controversial Bushehr nuclear power plant, and that it was created by Israeli hackers.
FBI Serves Terrorism Warrants in Minnesota, Chicago
"The FBI is harassing anti-war organizers and leaders, folks who opposed U.S. intervention in the Middle East and Latin America," Kelly said before agents confiscated his cell phone.
THE THIRD TEMPLE'S HOLY OF HOLIES: ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS
In 1965, the U.S. government accused Dr. Zalman Shapiro, the corporation president, of “losing” 200 pounds of highly enriched uranium. Although investigated by the Atomic Energy Commission, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other government agencies and inquiring reporters, no answers were available in what was termed the Apollo Affair.29 Many remain convinced that the Israelis received 200 pounds of enriched uranium sometime before 1965.30 One source links Rafi Eitan, an Israeli Mossad agent and later the handler of spy Jonathan Pollard, with NUMEC.31 In the 1990s when the NUMEC plant was disassembled, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found over 100 kilograms of plutonium in the structural components of the contaminated plant, casting doubt on 200 pounds going to Israel.32..........Thus started the subtle, opaque use of the Israeli bomb to ensure that the United States kept its pledge to maintain Israel's conventional weapons edge over its foes.65 There is significant anecdotal evidence that Henry Kissinger told President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, that the reason for the U.S. airlift was that the Israelis were close to “going nuclear.”66......One other purpose of Israeli nuclear weapons, not often stated, but obvious, is their “use” on the United States. America does not want Israel's nuclear profile raised.144 They have been used in the past to ensure America does not desert Israel under increased Arab, or oil embargo, pressure and have forced the United States to support Israeli diplomatically against the Soviet Union. Israel used their existence to guarantee a continuing supply of American conventional weapons, a policy likely to continue.145
Why Russia will not sell the S-300 Air Defense System to Iran
Serdyukov's military reform and told that in the nearest future Russia would – oddly enough - be importing at least 30% of the weapons and equipment for its army from Israel and NATO countries. Another roundtable speaker from Russia - Gen. V. Dvorkin who, incidentally, paid a visit to Israel a short time ago - urged US senators to OK launching an attack against Iran as soon as possible and even presented a computer model of the conflict to US partners.
US walks out on Ahmadinejad's UN speech
Obama condems Iran leader's 'hateful' September 11 comments
Ahmadinejad said in a speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday that most Americans and nations around the world believe a theory that "some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East, in order also to save the Zionist regime."
The Iranian leader defended his actions on Friday. "I did not pass a judgement, I simply made proposals for a humane solution to the problems that have risen as a result of 9/11," Ahmadinejad told a New York press conference.
Military-Grade Malware Spurs Theories on New Cyberwar Threat
"Experts say it took a massive expenditure of time, money, and software engineering talent to identify and exploit such vulnerabilities in industrial control software systems. ... [It was] probably created by a team working for a nation state." Wired's Kim Zetter writes, "If Iran was the target, the United States or Israel are suspected as the likely perpetrators — both have the skill and resources to produce complicated malware such as Stuxnet."
Mobilizing Against FBI Raids
There was a concern that the FBI motivation covered support of Palestinians and Colombian activists.
Israel commandos 'peacefully' board Jewish Gaza-bound aid boat
The Floating Palestinian Pep Rally
How Christian Are the Tea Party’s Political Candidates?
“We want to look at the candidates as they mature, and see how they develop and shape their views on the issue of Israel,”
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/131516/#ixzz11cXaTUdv
Iran says it killed 30 militants behind bomb attack
"Investigations showed that intelligence services of America and the Zionist regime (Israel) as well as members of the Iraqi Baath party were behind the blast," Mahmoudabadi said. "Bandits backed by Mossad and the CIA … carried out the blast."
Israel Suspected in Worm Sabotage of Iran's First Nuclear Plant
So who is behind the attacks? The New York Times quotes a former U.S. intelligence office as saying that the attack was the work of Israel’s equivalent of America’s National Security Agency, known as Unit 8200. According to IEEE Spectrum's December issue, Israel had previously used a cyber-attack to shut off radar systems in Syria, allowing it to evaluate what it believed to be an under-construction nuclear reactor.
Lieberman presents plans for population exchange at UN
Lieberman believes peace with the Palestinians could never be achieved until the Middle East confronts a greater threat, Iran.
Anti-Israel IAEA resolution tossed
The United States swayed the 151-member states of the UN nuclear agency to reject the Arab-proposed resolution which called on Tel Aviv to open up its nuclear activities to inspection.
When Violence Overcame a Freedom Struggle
It started with Molotov cocktails. As the ’60s curdled into the ’70s, the teenage boys of Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League, like many other disaffected and angry young men of the time, found the flash and heat of violence irresistible. Dressing up in their bar mitzvah suits to lob balloons filled with chicken blood at the ballerinas of the touring Bolshoi didn’t cut it anymore. They began building crude pipe bombs and exploding them at the bottom of a drained pool at Kahane’s summer camp in the Catskills. These were the kind of bombs they then placed in the doorways of the Aeroflot and Intourist offices in Manhattan in the fall of 1970, causing a minor diplomatic crisis between the superpowers. The informers and undercover police officers that swelled the ranks of the JDL were warning their superiors that something bigger and more dangerous was in the works. One officer from the NYPD’s intelligence unit who had infiltrated the group gained access to their cache of weapons, which were hidden in closets all over Brooklyn. The JDL had enough shotguns and rifles to arm a small militia.
END ISRAEL LOBBY’S PERVASIVE AND DAMAGING INFLUENCE IN US POLITICS
It’s long past time to end one of the most damaging and pervasive cover-ups in the U.S. today and time for people and institutions to confront Israel’s lobbies.
Gaza fisherman 'killed by Israeli navy'
n Gaza it is not uncommon to hear the sound of machine-gun fire off the coast, as the Israeli navy fires upon boats it says have breached the limit.
Obama urges Arabs and Israel to support fragile talks
The U.S.–brokered talks are in danger of collapsing almost before they have begun because of the September 30 expiration of Israel's self–imposed, partial moratorium on new construction in Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank.
Israel's refusal so far to maintain the freeze –– and the Palestinians' threat to walk out if it does not –– have imperiled the negotiations, which aim to resolve the main issues in the conflict within a year.
PALESTINIAN FAMILY AWAKES TO DISCOVER VANDALS DEMOLISHED ARBOR OF 100 MATURE GRAPE TREES
On the morning of September 20th 2010, the Abdul Rahman Sharif Sultan family of the Al Bweireh neighborhood awoke to find that Israeli settlers had cut down six dunams (6000 m²) worth of their mature grape trees and vines during the night.
Hungry in Gaza, More and More
In the Gaza Strip, where unemployment levels soar up to 65 percent, and more than 80 percent people are food aid dependent, the average income per day per person is just two dollars. According to the WFP and FAO, the food insecure in Gaza are an alarming 61 percent, with another 16 percent vulnerable to food insecurity.
UN panel: Israel suppressing footage of Gaza flotilla raid
An expert panel investigating Israel's boarding of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla four months ago said Tuesday that Israel is suppressing footage of the incident it seized from the passengers.
Obama Administration Silent on IDF Murder of 19-Year-Old American
Although the conclusions of the Human Rights Commissioner's report and of the Turkish medical examiners has been big news in Turkey for the past week, the US media has maintained a news blackout, even though one of the murdered victims was an American. It's a sad commentary on the extent to which the US corporate media have become propagandists for the US and Israeli governments.
Israelis "Executed" US Citizen Furkan Dogan
The report of the fact-finding mission of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the Israeli attack on the Gaza flotilla released last week shows conclusively, for the first time, that US citizen Furkan Dogan and five Turkish citizens were murdered execution-style by Israeli commandos.
Israel Seizes Gaza Aid Boat
Yousef Rizka, a Hamas official, said: "The government has received Jewish activists heading to Gaza before. The government positively views all attempts to break the siege on Gaza".
'Jews for Justice' aid boat sets sail for Gaza
Richard Kuper, an organizer with the U.K. group Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said one goal is to show that not all Jews support Israeli policies toward Palestinians.
The Influencer
He remains keenly interested in the world of business, but he is most proud of his role as political power broker. His greatest concern, he says, is to protect Israel, by strengthening the United States-Israel relationship. At a conference last fall in Israel, Saban described his formula. His “three ways to be influential in American politics,” he said, were: make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets......In targeting media properties, Saban frankly acknowledges his political agenda. He has tried repeatedly to buy the Los Angeles Times, because, he said, “I thought it was time that it turn from a pro-Palestinian paper into a balanced paper.”......As Saban has said, “I’m a one-issue guy, and my issue is Israel.”
If you love Israel so much, why not move there and leave America to those that care more about AMERICAN interests. Some of us count America's (not Israel's) interests as priority number 1.
Turkish president demands apology for flotilla at UN
Israel accused of war crimes by expert panel
''There is clear evidence to support prosecutions of the following crimes within the terms of article 147 of the fourth Geneva convention: wilful killing; torture or inhuman treatment; wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health,'' the report said.
Turkey lauds UN report on Gaza flotilla
Israel refused to cooperate with the panel, preferring instead to work with a separate UN group under New Zealand's former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe that is also examining the incident but has yet to publish its findings
"Israel is a democratic and law abiding country that carefully observes international law and, when need be, knows how to investigate itself," the Foreign Ministry statement said.
Israel used 'incredible violence' against Gaza aid flotilla, says UN Human Rights Council
Israel maintains that its soldiers acted in self-defence after coming under attack from activists wielding clubs, axes and metal rods.
However the report found that Israeli commandos' response to the flotilla was disproportionate and "betrayed an unacceptable level of brutality".
Obama challenges the world: Time for Mideast peace
To a hushed audience of global leaders, Obama made Mideast peace the dominant theme of his yearly address to the U.N. General Assembly, a sign of the fragile state of the latest talks and the importance he attaches to their success. Nearly every other topic of his international agenda was shoved to the margins, save for a vigorous call for support of human rights.
Israel, Palestinians look to salvage Mideast talks
Netanyahu – a hard–liner who only recently accepted the idea of a Palestinian state – has balked at extending the moratorium, saying that would fracture his pro–settlement coalition government.
Hamas says Palestinian reconciliation on the way
Hamas' Khaled Meshal said Monday in Damascus that the two groups have taken serious and real steps toward reconciliation and will meet in early October in Cairo. The rival sides had said Saturday they agreed on steps to end divisions.
Officials: Palestinians will consider compromise
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas himself appeared to back away from the extension demand in comments late Tuesday to prominent American Jewish figures. "I cannot say I will leave the negotiations, but it's very difficult for me to resume talks if Prime Minister Netanyahu declares that he will continue his (settlement) activity in the West Bank and Jerusalem," he said, according to a transcript of the event obtained by The Associated Press.
It would appear that the only peace Israel seeks is the peace with which to continue building settlements on Palestinian land.
Abbas says settlements block Mideast peace deal
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday there will be no peace deal with Israel unless the Jewish state stops settlement construction in areas the Palestinians claim for their future state.
Fatah official: Israeli settlements could kill two-state solution
Expanding Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory have reached a point of no return and could kill an internationally backed, two-state solution, a top Fatah official said on Monday.
Bulldozers roll out across West Bank as settlement freeze ends
Settlers currently have plans for around 2,000 new homes across the West Bank.
Some Zionist Groups Stoke Fear Of Islam for Political Profit
At an AIPAC conference in March 2009, to take just one example, terrorism expert Steve Emerson spent 40 minutes stoking the worst fears of the mostly elderly attendees with a talk called “Tentacles of Terror: The Global Reach of Islamic Radicalism.” It could just as easily have been called “Scaring the Living Crap Out of Bubbe and Zayde.” As long as Jews are encouraged to believe that scary Muslims are hiding under every American bed, the idea is perpetuated that support for the Jewish state is a zero-sum contest between favoring Israel and favoring Arabs and Muslims. For too many American Jews, smearing Islam is seen as a legitimate expression of Zionism.
Israel: Settlers brace for end of building freeze
Peace or piece, can't have both.
Delaware Jews First to Host Victorious Tea Party Nominee
The crowd, mainly made up of members of the Delaware Jewish community, asked questions about the Middle East peace process, foreign aid to Israel and the possibility of cutting foreign aid in order to deal with the growing deficit. All candidates (including candidates for the House who attended as well) gave answers that satisfied the audience, according to the organizers: They support Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, agree to continue foreign aid to Israel at the level of $3 billion, and do not wish to cut the foreign aid budget.
Hamas claims to have found Israeli 'sleeper cells' in Gaza
Syrian aid arrives at Rafah crossing
Jewish boat activists: Israel treated us harshly
The activists' comments contradict military statements that said no violence took place when soldiers commandeered the boat - statements that were released while the activists were still in detention. Military officials declined to comment Wednesday on Shapira's report.
Netanyahu to settlers: Keep low profile as building freeze expires
Netanyahu's bureau also approached cabinet ministers requesting that they refrain from giving interviews on the topic.
How U.S. Jews Strangle Peace Talks
So let’s get this straight. When Netanyahu agrees to a settlement moratorium, it’s a sign of his commitment to peace. And now that he has let the moratorium end? It’s still a sign of his commitment to peace because, as AIPAC now insists, negotiations must proceed without preconditions. It’s back to “the problem isn’t settlements.”
South Florida: An arms smuggler's paradise
In June, a retired U.S. Air Force colonel and a former Israeli aviation executive were charged in Fort Lauderdale federal court with conspiring to export 2,000 AK-47s to Somalia -- after the Israeli allegedly wired $116,000 to a Wells Fargo branch in Broward County. The indictment charged Joseph O'Toole, 79, of California, and Chanoch Miller, 53, an Israeli citizen living in Tel Aviv, with scheming to obtain and transport the AK-47s from Bosnia to Somalia, an embargoed country. Miller was arrested in Miami after traveling here to close the deal.
Israeli leaders praise Fidel Castro
Israeli leaders are praising former Cuban President Fidel Castro for supporting Israel in a series of interviews
Settlement freeze? It was barely a slowdown
The official statistics supplied by the Central Bureau of Statistics describe the story behind the 10-month construction moratorium in the West Bank. The story can be called many things but "freeze" is certainly not one of them. What took place in the past few months is, in the best case scenario, not more than a negligible decrease in the number of housing units that were built in settlements.
Why Mitchell Said ‘No’ to Hamas
Stuxnet worm is the 'work of a national government agency'
The "Stuxnet" computer worm, which has been described as one of the "most refined pieces of malware ever discovered", has been most active in Iran, says the security company Symantec – leading some experts to conjecture that the likely target of the virus is the controversial Bushehr nuclear power plant, and that it was created by Israeli hackers.
FBI Serves Terrorism Warrants in Minnesota, Chicago
"The FBI is harassing anti-war organizers and leaders, folks who opposed U.S. intervention in the Middle East and Latin America," Kelly said before agents confiscated his cell phone.
THE THIRD TEMPLE'S HOLY OF HOLIES: ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS
In 1965, the U.S. government accused Dr. Zalman Shapiro, the corporation president, of “losing” 200 pounds of highly enriched uranium. Although investigated by the Atomic Energy Commission, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and other government agencies and inquiring reporters, no answers were available in what was termed the Apollo Affair.29 Many remain convinced that the Israelis received 200 pounds of enriched uranium sometime before 1965.30 One source links Rafi Eitan, an Israeli Mossad agent and later the handler of spy Jonathan Pollard, with NUMEC.31 In the 1990s when the NUMEC plant was disassembled, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found over 100 kilograms of plutonium in the structural components of the contaminated plant, casting doubt on 200 pounds going to Israel.32..........Thus started the subtle, opaque use of the Israeli bomb to ensure that the United States kept its pledge to maintain Israel's conventional weapons edge over its foes.65 There is significant anecdotal evidence that Henry Kissinger told President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, that the reason for the U.S. airlift was that the Israelis were close to “going nuclear.”66......One other purpose of Israeli nuclear weapons, not often stated, but obvious, is their “use” on the United States. America does not want Israel's nuclear profile raised.144 They have been used in the past to ensure America does not desert Israel under increased Arab, or oil embargo, pressure and have forced the United States to support Israeli diplomatically against the Soviet Union. Israel used their existence to guarantee a continuing supply of American conventional weapons, a policy likely to continue.145
Why Russia will not sell the S-300 Air Defense System to Iran
Serdyukov's military reform and told that in the nearest future Russia would – oddly enough - be importing at least 30% of the weapons and equipment for its army from Israel and NATO countries. Another roundtable speaker from Russia - Gen. V. Dvorkin who, incidentally, paid a visit to Israel a short time ago - urged US senators to OK launching an attack against Iran as soon as possible and even presented a computer model of the conflict to US partners.
US walks out on Ahmadinejad's UN speech
Obama condems Iran leader's 'hateful' September 11 comments
Ahmadinejad said in a speech to the UN General Assembly on Thursday that most Americans and nations around the world believe a theory that "some segments within the US government orchestrated the attack to reverse the declining American economy and its grips on the Middle East, in order also to save the Zionist regime."
The Iranian leader defended his actions on Friday. "I did not pass a judgement, I simply made proposals for a humane solution to the problems that have risen as a result of 9/11," Ahmadinejad told a New York press conference.
Military-Grade Malware Spurs Theories on New Cyberwar Threat
"Experts say it took a massive expenditure of time, money, and software engineering talent to identify and exploit such vulnerabilities in industrial control software systems. ... [It was] probably created by a team working for a nation state." Wired's Kim Zetter writes, "If Iran was the target, the United States or Israel are suspected as the likely perpetrators — both have the skill and resources to produce complicated malware such as Stuxnet."
Mobilizing Against FBI Raids
There was a concern that the FBI motivation covered support of Palestinians and Colombian activists.
Israel commandos 'peacefully' board Jewish Gaza-bound aid boat
The Floating Palestinian Pep Rally
How Christian Are the Tea Party’s Political Candidates?
“We want to look at the candidates as they mature, and see how they develop and shape their views on the issue of Israel,”
Read more: http://forward.com/articles/131516/#ixzz11cXaTUdv
Iran says it killed 30 militants behind bomb attack
"Investigations showed that intelligence services of America and the Zionist regime (Israel) as well as members of the Iraqi Baath party were behind the blast," Mahmoudabadi said. "Bandits backed by Mossad and the CIA … carried out the blast."
Israel Suspected in Worm Sabotage of Iran's First Nuclear Plant
So who is behind the attacks? The New York Times quotes a former U.S. intelligence office as saying that the attack was the work of Israel’s equivalent of America’s National Security Agency, known as Unit 8200. According to IEEE Spectrum's December issue, Israel had previously used a cyber-attack to shut off radar systems in Syria, allowing it to evaluate what it believed to be an under-construction nuclear reactor.
Lieberman presents plans for population exchange at UN
Lieberman believes peace with the Palestinians could never be achieved until the Middle East confronts a greater threat, Iran.
Anti-Israel IAEA resolution tossed
The United States swayed the 151-member states of the UN nuclear agency to reject the Arab-proposed resolution which called on Tel Aviv to open up its nuclear activities to inspection.
When Violence Overcame a Freedom Struggle
It started with Molotov cocktails. As the ’60s curdled into the ’70s, the teenage boys of Meir Kahane’s Jewish Defense League, like many other disaffected and angry young men of the time, found the flash and heat of violence irresistible. Dressing up in their bar mitzvah suits to lob balloons filled with chicken blood at the ballerinas of the touring Bolshoi didn’t cut it anymore. They began building crude pipe bombs and exploding them at the bottom of a drained pool at Kahane’s summer camp in the Catskills. These were the kind of bombs they then placed in the doorways of the Aeroflot and Intourist offices in Manhattan in the fall of 1970, causing a minor diplomatic crisis between the superpowers. The informers and undercover police officers that swelled the ranks of the JDL were warning their superiors that something bigger and more dangerous was in the works. One officer from the NYPD’s intelligence unit who had infiltrated the group gained access to their cache of weapons, which were hidden in closets all over Brooklyn. The JDL had enough shotguns and rifles to arm a small militia.
END ISRAEL LOBBY’S PERVASIVE AND DAMAGING INFLUENCE IN US POLITICS
It’s long past time to end one of the most damaging and pervasive cover-ups in the U.S. today and time for people and institutions to confront Israel’s lobbies.
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