Headlines for February 24 - March 2

A Stand For Justice


IDF kills Palestinian approaching Gaza border



Housing for Jews approved in east Jerusalem
"They (the Jewish settlers) will expand. They attack residents, trying to create anger and anexiety and to push people to leave."


Iran warships dock in Syria, Israeli fears dismissed
The ships arrived on Wednesday night after passing through the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean, the first Iranian navy vessels to do so since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution.



Pete Seeger Officially Joins BDS Movement
Seeger contributes half of the royalties from "Turn, Turn Turn" to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

On Monday, Seeger withdrew his support of a project associated with the Jewish National Fund's American branch, after Israeli and Palestinian activists told him of the JNF's role in driving the Bedouins out of their Negev areas. Kudos to you, Pete Seeger!!!


Gaza Protesters Prepare for March 15
a broader coalition of youth has now coalesced around plans for a March 15 sit-in, demanding that Hamas and Fatah halt their propaganda campaign against each other, include all Palestinian factions in a restructured PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), force their senior representatives in the two governments (West Bank and Gaza) to resign their posts, and call new elections after agreeing to work together.


Israel investing $1.6 million in new media warriors
In early February, military spokesperson Avi Benayahu announced that approximately $1.6 million would be invested to train more than a hundred Israeli "media warriors," who would use social media tools to disseminate Israeli propaganda to audiences around the world. Beware, my fellow Americans, this is aimed at YOU. For, without American taxpayer dollars and the use of the American veto at the UN Security Council, Israel would be finished. All they care about is that the American people remain brainwashed into believing that Israel is good, and a victim.


Israel: Pressure must be mounted on Iran
The officials were responding to a confidential document leaked over the weekend that signaled the UN body’s growing frustration at Iran’s lack of cooperation.

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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has conveyed this message in recent days during private meetings, including one on Sunday with a congressional delegation Now you know why McCain and Lieberman were over there.


Merkel chides Netanyahu for failing to make 'a single step to advance peace'
Netanyahu told Merkel he was disappointed by Germany's vote and by Merkel's refusal to accept Israel's requests before the vote, the source added. Merkel was furious.

"How dare you," she said, according to the official. "You are the one who disappointed us. You haven't made a single step to advance peace." It's pleasing to see people treat Israeli leaders as they should be treated. Too bad American leaders are too gutless to do so.


Obama talks Mideast peace with Jewish leaders at White House
U.S. President Barack Obama held a meeting with a 50-member delegation of Jewish leaders at the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations at the White House on Tuesday, stressing Washington's support for Israel and its security.


How the System Works by Philip Giraldi
It is reassuring to note that at a time when governments are toppling left and right Ros-Lehtinen has the time to assure her fellow GOPers that some things will never change. I wonder, however, why her letter had absolutely zero content relating to the national interest of the United States. Surely Ros-Lehtinen understands the giving $3 billion to Israel every year makes the United States a safer, though somewhat poorer, place?

Possibly connected to Ros-Lehtinen’s effort is an announcement posted on the AIPAC website that boasts that all 67 freshman GOP congressmen have signed a letter pledging “no cuts” in aid to Israel. So much for any change coming from the Tea Parties.


The Veto from Hell by Philip Giraldi
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen criticized the resolution: "Support for this anti-Israel statement is a major concession to enemies of the Jewish State and other free democracies. Offering to criticize our closest ally at the UN isn’t leadership, it’s unacceptable." And just to make sure that Israel will have the money to expand its settlements, last Wednesday sixty-seven freshmen Republican House members sent a letter to their party’s leadership supporting full funding of aid to Israel. The letter cited the lawmakers’ "recognition that the national security of the United States is directly tied to the strength and security of the State of Israel." Congress = Israeli occupied territory (to the detriment of all Americans).


Two wounded in Gaza in Israel bombing raids: medics
Israeli warplanes bombed half a dozen targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, wounding a seven–month–old girl and a Palestinian man, medics in the coastal territory said.



UN Delegates 'Walked Out' During Clinton Speech
Palestine's delegation to the UN Human Rights Council walked out Monday in protest of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's speech in which she criticized the council for bias against Israel.


Pro-Peace Jewish Lobby Group Urges Obama to Seize Moment



Protesters picket Portland event launching an Oregon-Israel business alliance
Former Gov. Ted Kulongoski spoke to more than twice that number at the Oregon-Israel Business Alliance kickoff inside the University of Oregon White Stag Building in Old Town. Kulongoski, who led a trade mission to Israel last year near the end of his term, favors increased dealings with Israel.


Palestinian-American Entrepreneur Re-Envisions West Bank Development
His intended purchase was Nof Zion, a private neighborhood where 90 Jewish families live in the predominantly Arab Jebl Mukaber district. He had hoped to market the remaining 300 apartments in the blueprint to Arabs, but the deal fell through after right-wing Israelis voiced their fury and the contracting company, Digal Holdings, accepted an offer from Israeli businessman Rami Levy instead......Masri remains unfazed. “When the radicals on both sides are criticizing you, you know you are doing something right,” he said.




Palestinians Can Propose Temporary Government Ministers on Facebook



Benayahu: I entered UK with pseudonym
In an interview with the British magazine Defense News, IDF Spokesperson Avi Benayahu revealed he had recently flown to Britain using a pseudonym so as to avoid getting arrested and investigated for war crimes.


Don’t Mess With Jewish Porn King Michael Lucas
Lucas went on the attack. “I’m preparing to organize a boycott that would certainly involve some of the Center’s most generous donors,” he said in the release. “It was an inexcusable decision on the Center’s part to associate itself with a hate group like Israeli Apartheid Week.”




Father of Furkan Dogan, slain on flotilla, seeks justice
he left the airport and went the short distance to the forensics building. He found his 19-year-old son lying among the unidentified victims, his young body riddled with bullets that, according to a UN report, were fired execution style at "point-blank" range. The report was published and submitted to the UN General Assembly on 27 September 2010.

The report, the result of an independent investigation conducted by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), found Israel responsible for "grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention," and guilty of "willful killing, torture or inhumane treatment, and willfully causing great suffering or serious injury." Furthermore, the killings of at least six of the passengers were in a manner "consistent with arbitrary and summary execution" ("Report of the international fact-finding mission ..." [PDF]).


Diplomats: Syria evades nuke probe
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano had directly asked Syria's foreign minister in November to allow a new visit — in an unprecedented direct request. But a senior diplomat said Friday the foreign minister's response avoided mention of that site, promising only cooperation in vague terms.

Other diplomats said that amounts to a rejection of the request Say, I wonder from which country those other diplomats would hail?


Israel could still strike Iran, despite Mideast unrest



Middle East protests: Jordan sees biggest reform rally



U.S. lawmaker, Syria's Assad working to renew peace talks with Israel
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been briefed on Kerry's talks with Assad, opposes the plan, since he does not believe Assad is serious about making peace with Israel.


U.S.:Neo-Con Hawks Take Flight over Libya
In a distinct echo of the tactics they pursued to encourage U.S. intervention in the Balkans and Iraq, a familiar clutch of neo-conservatives appealed Friday for the United States and NATO to "immediately" prepare military action to help bring down the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and end the violence that is believed to have killed well over a thousand people in the past week.

Two prominent senators whose foreign policy views often reflect neo-conservative thinking, Republican John McCain and Independent Democrat Joseph Lieberman, called Friday in Tel Aviv for Washington to supply Libyan rebels with arms, among other steps, including establishing a no-fly zone over the country. Leiberman and McCain were in Tel Aviv, where US foreign policy in the Middle East is dictated.


Russia to sell anti-ship rockets to Syria
Russia will press ahead with plans to sell anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria despite Israeli concerns, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov was quoted as saying on Saturday.


Republicans and Democrats Agree: Cut Aid for Poor People, Not Israel
Paul's fellow Tea Partiers aren't any better. Of the 87 freshmen House Republicans elected on platforms of cut-baby-cut, at least three-fourths have now signed a letter declaring that, “As Israel faces threats from escalating instability in Egypt” – where have we heard that line of argument before? – “security assistance to Israel … has never been more important.” Subsidies are for militaries, you see, not poor people. Get with the program, Tea Partiers.


High-Profile Law Professor Dershowitz Joins WikiLeaks’ U.S. Defense Team
Dershowitz is a noted Israel firster. Given that, would his decision to represent Assange be because Assange's release of Wikileaks information somehow bolstered Israel's position on some issues?


For Israel, a Lonely Day at Turtle Bay
Israel, of course, says it’s all the Palestinians’ fault. It says their U.N. gambit is just the latest move in their campaign to isolate and delegitimize Israel, proving again that they won’t accept Israel’s existence. Israel has no choice but to resist their assault using the tools at its disposal, including the American veto.


This coming straight from the horse's mouth : the Jewish Forward, a well respected newspaper that has been around for nearly 100 years, basically telling you that Israel runs the show here, folks. Believe it.


Arab revolt is a tidal wave. Does the West get what's really behind it
This tidal wave is not about Islam, nor Israel, nor the West. It is an internally driven demand for rights and freedoms from a new generation of Arabs who see the way their societies have been stolen by their own rulers. The institutions of democracy may have been denied for decades, but the human spirit’s demand for freedom remains universal and unchanged. This is what our prudent intelligence analysis and policy constructs fail to understand.

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