Headlines for June 2 - June 8

A Stand For Justice


The cover-up of Israel’s crime against the USS Liberty crewmen continues
Despite the official Israeli story of mistaken identity, two Israeli pilots radioed base and clearly identified the ship as American. They were ordered to attack the ship anyway, both refused. The pair was immediately arrested upon returning to base.




Supervisor insists roads not holding up
* Adopted a resolution to declaring June 8 "Remember the USS Liberty Day," and ordered that flags be flown at half staff that day to honor the memories of the 34 men who died and 172 wounded June 8, 1967, when the ship was torpedoed by Israeli forces during the six day Arab-Israeli war.


Re-open the USS Liberty Case 44 years after attack, US Politicians still cover for Israel
According to the ‘Independent Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on the USS Liberty’, this accidental air and naval attack lasted two hours “during which time unmarked Israeli aircraft dropped napalm canisters on the Liberty’s bridge, and fired 30mm cannons and rockets, causing 821 holes, more than 100 of which were rocket size; survivors estimate 30 or more sorties were flown over the ship by a minimum of 12 attacking Israeli planes which were jamming all five American emergency radio channels.”

This ‘accident’ happened after only eight, yes eight, hours of aerial surveillance, on the Liberty, which had unmistakable American markings.


Letter: Lest we forget
June 8 is the 44th anniversary of the attack on the USS Liberty during the 1967 Six-Day War. With bombs, napalm and torpedoes, 34 Americans were killed, 171 wounded and the lightly armed ship was damaged beyond repair.


USS Liberty hero dies without seeing justice
With the encouragement of his wife, Mary Ann, John Hrankowski dedicated much of his personal time to telling Americans about the Liberty and the US cover-up that continues to this day.

He was one of the most active and committed members of the Liberty Veteran’s Association.


Cooper: US, Israel shove USS Liberty under rug
All of the facts about the attack on the USS Liberty need to be aired in public before a congressional panel. It is astounding that Congress has found time to conduct hearings into just about everything under the sun but our elected representatives have not been able to delve into the sneak attack on a U.S. naval vessel.

It is time for the voices of the Liberty's dead to be heard.


Attack on ship not forgotten
For the last two decades, the Liberty survivors and some current high-ranking military and U.S. government officials have asserted the attack was intentional, and have been embroiled in a battle of words with supporters who claim the attack was a case of "mistaken identity." Many have continuously lobbied for a U.S. congressional investigation into the attack and the subsequent cover-up, but without success.


June 8, 1967 - Americans have no idea what happened on this date
It's when Israel killed 34 Americans in an attack by air and by sea that lasted for 75 minutes.


Report: 14 Palestinians shot dead in Syrian refugee camp
Palestinian security guards reportedly killed 14 Palestinians Monday in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Syria. According to witnesses, an angry crowd of mourners began to charge toward leaders of Palestinian factions, prompting their security guards to open fire.


Egypt and Hamas reopen Rafah crossing with Gaza
The Gaza Strip's border crossing with Egypt reopened on Wednesday after a four-day closure caused by a dispute between Cairo and Gaza's Hamas rulers over travel arrangements, officials said.


Gen. Keane Keen on Attacking Iran
It was like waving a red flag before a four-star bull. “What’s your question?” he barked.

I asked: “Why do you join with those neoconservatives who have such difficulty distinguishing between the strategic needs of Israel on the one hand and those of the U.S. on the other? Why do you keep claiming the Iranians ‘are acquiring nuclear weapons,’ when you know that this is not true. How can you keep a straight face in telling us that Iran is our ‘main strategic enemy?’ That is also not true, and you know it.” God love ya, Mr. McGovern.


US Spying Detects No Iranian Nukes
The former Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA) said in a new published report that he had not seen “a shred of evidence” that Iran was “building nuclear-weapons facilities and using enriched materials.”....El Baradei’s remarks are contained in an article by Hersh titled “Iran And The Bomb,” published in the June 6 issue of The New Yorker magazine.

Hersh points out that the last two U.S. National Intelligence Estimates (N.I.E.s) on Iranian nuclear progress “have stated that there is no conclusive evidence that Iran has made any effort to build the bomb since 2003.”....Hersh quotes W. Patrick Lang, a retired Army intelligence officer and former ranking Defense Intelligence Agency(DIA) analyst on the Middle East as saying that after the disaster in Iraq, “Analysts in the intelligence community are just refusing to sign up this time for a lot of baloney.” Thank God for that, Mr. Lang. Kudos to our intel community.


Hamas shuts Egyptian border crossing
The ruling Hamas militant group has closed the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt to protest what it says are repeated delays at the crossing since Egypt permanently opened it last week.


Israeli prime minister Israeli prime minister is misguided
Although Israel was founded under a U.N. resolution and agreed to loyally uphold the principle of the U.N. charter, it continuously ignores U.N. resolutions, including the call for termination of illegal settlements and return to pre-1967 war boundaries — the same war during which the Israeli Navy and Air Force sank the USS Liberty with the loss of 34 U.S. sailors and the wounding of 174 for which there has never been an accounting to the American people, as promised


Palestinians agree to attend Mideast conference
The Palestinians on Saturday accepted a French invitation to attend a conference in Paris aimed at reviving peace talks with Israel, as their strategy to bypass negotiations and seek U.N. recognition of a Palestinian state appeared to be unraveling.


Settlers from Acion Destroy Roof on Farmer’s House
On May 17, settlers near Acion Settlement destroyed the roof over two rooms of Mohammed Saleh Abu Swai’s home. Mohammed is a farmer who primarily cultivates olive trees. Just two days before this destruction he had come to see and fertilize his trees.


Settlers Cut Down 21 Grape Trees near Beit Ummar
On June 1, settlers cut down 21 grape trees in a Palestinian farmer’s vineyards close to the Bet’Ayn Settlement near Beit Ummar. The farmers said the destruction happened during the night. The field is some distance from the village; therefore, it cannot be monitored every hour. These settlers from Bet’Ayn, according to the people of the village, have a reputation of being aggressive toward the farmers in the area.


Settlers injure Palestinian with Stones
In the old city in Hebron, two boys, ages 14 and 15, residents of Beit Hadassah
Settlement, threw multiple stones, some as large as 5 inches, at Palestinians
walking past in the market place. One nine year old boy was struck with two
stones causing a head injury that splattered the sidewalk and storefront with
blood.


Path to Palestinian Unity Revealed: The Untold Story of the Deal that Shocked the Middle East by Robert Fisk
President Obama virtually dismissed the Palestinian unity initiative. But 1967 borders means that Hamas is accepting Israel and the ‘resistance’ initiative means an end to Gaza rockets on Israel. International law and UN resolutions mean peace can be completed and a Palestinian state brought into being. That, at least, is the opinion of both Palestinian sides. The world will wait to see if Israel will reject it all again.


UN agency report shows West Bank economy not flourishing
The report's findings challenge assertions that the Palestinian economy is growing, helped by the removal of Israeli roadblocks and other movement restrictions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a speech to the U.S. Congress last month that the Palestinian economy was booming.


Rafah border crossing still shut Palestinians



Settlers try to burn down mosque: Palestinians
The attackers lit tyres inside the mosque in Al–Mughayyir village, some 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Ramallah, which damaged prayer mats inside the building.

They also spraypainted on the walls anti–Arab slogans and the words Alei Ayin, the name of a nearby settlement outpost which was demolished by Israeli police last week in an operation that sparked fierce clashes with the settlers.


Palestinians storm shut Egypt crossing: witnesses
"We have not been notified of any reason for the closure, passengers are angry,"


Phil Giraldi Spills Beans on Israeli Espionage in America
An Israeli company was caught monitoring a Department of Defense telecommunications system to obtain classified information, while other Israeli entities targeted avionics, missile telemetry, aircraft communications, software systems, and advanced materials and coatings used in missile re-entry. The GAO concluded that Israel “conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any US ally.”.....It would be nice to think that the Pentagon wants to keep the maintenance in American hands to preserve jobs during these tough economic times, but the Defense Department has never cared about US workers before when the issue is Israel.The real reason for the standoff is that Lockheed-Martin and the Pentagon both know that Israel will steal whatever it can if it gains access. It would then use the technology to market its own products at a price below that of US defense contractors.

The result would be a triple whammy for Uncle Sam Extorting billions each year from the American taxpayers evidently isn't enough for Israel.


The USS Liberty



Iran sends submarines to Red Sea in move that could anger Israel



Americans Demand Justice Department Regulate AIPAC as Israeli Foreign Agent [Video, Documents]
According to 2010 civil court filings AIPAC obtained classified annual U.S. arms transfer data, secret U.S. policy accords with Saudi Arabia, classified signals intelligence flows that were used in lobbying Congress, National Security Decision Directives, Justice Department investigation files and troves of other government classified information. Petitioners argue that AIPAC is trafficking classified U.S. government secrets for the same reason its parent organization laundered overseas funds into the U.S. during the 1960s–to serve the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs–where AIPAC's founder worked until 1951.
Wow. Read on.


Israeli Firm’s Trade With Iran Proves Awkward for Activists Pushing Sanctions
Adding to the drama is the fact that the owners of Ofer Brothers have close, personal connections to the top echelon of Israel’s political, military and economic leadership. After one of the founding brothers, Sammy Ofer, died June 3, Netanyahu issued a statement calling him “a true Zionist.”




Guest column: Netanyahu lied to Congress yet drew applause
Netanyahu began by declaring that "America has no better friend than Israel." Congress stood and applauded.

That's the same Israel that attacked the USS Liberty in international waters and tried to sink it with all hands aboard in 1967, and then lied about it. The same Israel that prompted the FBI to declare Israel the second most aggressive nation mounting espionage operations in the U.S., and the Justice Department head of internal security to say, "those of us who worked in the espionage area regarded Israel as being the second most active foreign intelligence service in the United States." China was first. Thank you, Ron Estes, for speaking out, my hat's off to you, Sir.


Is Israel Really A Staunch Ally
And, lest we forget, Israel’s unprovoked June 8, 1967, attack, in neutral waters, on the USS Liberty by Israeli aircraft and torpedo boats, killing 34 U.S. sailors and extensively damaging our flag-flying ship.

With “staunch allies” like this, who needs enemies?


Israeli troops battle protesters in Syria, 20 dead
Israeli troops on Sunday battled hundreds of pro–Palestinian protesters who tried to burst across Syria's frontier with the Golan Heights, killing a reported 20 people and wounding scores more in the second outbreak of deadly violence in the border area in less than a month.


About Israel & 9/11: Caller is Correct, Politician is Wrong
Wow. Listen to Congressman Garamendi lie about the real reason for 911: our support for Israel. The 911 Commission did include that fact in its report. And also it was the reason given by the mastermind of 911, Khaled S. Mohammed. Watch the rest of this video which includes footage of the 911 Commission, among other things.


The Tie that Binds by Philip Giraldi
Completely frustrated by his experience as peace negotiator, George Mitchell resigned shortly before Netanyahu appeared in Washington to attend the AIPAC conference and also to lecture President Obama. Obama’s eagerly awaited speech on the Middle East delivered the night before Netanyahu’s arrival was actually reviewed by the Israeli Prime Minister before it was given, demonstrating clearly whose foot was on whose neck. Netanyahu reportedly responded angrily to any mention of the 1967 borders in a phone conversation with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the speech was delayed for forty minutes while the president and his staff worked in other rewrites demanded by the Israeli Prime Minister. Another great article by former CIA counterterrorism officer, Philip Giraldi.


Annual NYC Parade Celebrates Israel
The thousands of marchers who stepped off at 57th Street late Sunday morning included New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, followed later by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and U.S. Sens. Kristen Gillibrand and Charles Schumer.


US, France seek consensus on Mideast peace meeting
He pointed out that the Palestinians have embraced the proposal, while acknowledging that Israelis have said only that they are studying it.


Lebanon seals off Israel border ahead of planned demonstrations



Fear is driving Israelis to obtain foreign passports



Freedom for Palestine by OneWorld.
Proceeds from the single will go to UK Charity War on Want for projects in Palestine.


Israeli PM orders restraint if Arabs rush border
Laughable.


Seymour Hersh U.S. Could Be Headed for Iraq Redux Veterans Today



Israeli defense minister: Syrian regime doomed
Ehud Barak says Assad, who has launched a deadly crackdown on the Syrian opposition, has lost his legitimacy.


Gaza, the most Facebook friendly place on earth
Per capita, says Saidam, the largest number of Facebook users in the world is in Gaza.

"That's one thing people don't know," he says. Per capita, the largest number of video conferencing in the world is also in the Palestinian territories. "The legislative council used to meet through video conferencing in the West Bank and Gaza," says Saidam.


Deference is a two-way street
My friends keep telling me that Israel must show more deference to the suggestions and wishes of the United States because, after all, the United States is the only friend that Israel has in the Mideast. How very correct.

I would however like to remind these same friends that the United States must show full deference to Israel.

Really? And you call yourself an American?


Israeli left-wing leader: IDF used 'excessive force' in Naksa Day protests
Uri Avneri, former MK and activist with Gush Shalom left-wing organization, said Sunday that the IDF used excessive force against the protesters in the Golan Heights. "The trigger-happy behavior stands out in particular when compared to the softness with which violent settlers are treated," he said.


Palestinians cancel Naksa Day march to Israel-Lebanon border
The organizers say that Sunday's planned march marking the 1967 Arab-Israeli war's anniversary would be replaced by strikes across all 12 of Lebanon's Palestinian refugee camps.


Israel's Netanyahu thanks France for intervening in Libya
Meeting visiting French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, Netanyahu noted that Gaddafi had 'was never a friend of Israel or the Jewish people and Israel will not be sorry to see him disappear from the map.'


Could Obama Veto Palestine's Application to the United Nations
Palestine is a member state of the League of Arab States and of the Organization of Islamic Conference (O.I.C). When the International Court of Justice in The Hague—the World Court of the United Nations System—conducted its legal proceedings on Israel’s apartheid wall on the West Bank, it invited the State of Palestine to participate in the proceedings. In other words, the International Court of Justice recognized the State of Palestine.


What Is Really Happening in New Square?
This incident came to mind after the recent events in New Square in which eighteen-year-old Shaul Spitzer, a yeshiva student and attendant to the community’s grand rabbi, attempted to firebomb the house of a dissident member of the community. He ended up inflicting third-degree burns on over 50% of the body of Aron Rottenberg, whose home was the target of the attack. Rottenberg’s crime: he prayed at the wrong synagogue. Instead of the main synagogue, which belongs to grand rabbi David Twersky, Rottenberg attended services at a synagogue a short distance outside the village.

Sounds like something that Islamic extremists would do. If it in fact was perpetrated by Islamic extremists, this story would have been plastered all over the news by now. Not so.


Weiner admits to lying about underwear photo
Weiner, who is Jewish and an ardent pro-Israel lawmaker, said none of the relationships had ever become physical, nor had he met any of the women.


DE BORCHGRAVE: Netanyahu’s conundrum
ex-Mossad chief Meir Dagan is a dagger in Mr. Netanyahu’s body politic. And Mr. Dagan is not alone. Several former intelligence chiefs are lined up with him. They also know firsthand how anxious Mr. Netanyahu is to detract from Palestinian pressure for their own state in the West Bank and Gaza – by bombing Iran ‘s nuclear installations.

As Mr. Dagan put it, “This would mean regional war and in that case, you would give Iran the best possible reason to continue its nuclear program.”...

Mr. Dagan, Yuval Diskin, head of Shin Bet, the internal security agency, and Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, the military chief of staff, all stepped down this year. Mr. Dugan made clear he and his retiring colleagues served as a brake on the gung-ho Mr. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak.

According to Israeli media reports, a week before retiring, Mr. Dagan tried to send a message to the Israeli public to warn about Mr. Netanyahu’s plans for an attack on Iran . But military censorship blocked any reporting of Mr. Dagan’s views. No sooner officially retired than he evaded the censors Really.


Glenn Beck: Israel never shot protesters like the Syrians - an outright lie



Ex-Israeli spymaster takes swipe at Netanyahu
Just days after his retirement, an Israeli newspaper quoted him as saying Israel "should not hurry" to attack Iran. Last month, he was quoted as saying a military strike on Iran would be "stupid."


'Iran could produce a nuclear weapon within two months' it is claimed as UN atomic watchdog reveals concerns
Amano said the U.N. agency had received 'further information related to possible past or current undisclosed nuclear-related activities that seem to point to the existence of possible military dimensions to Iran's nuclear programme'.

The Japanese later told a news conference, without disclosing the source of the information

I bet we all can guess from which nation they received this new 'information', hmm? Starts with an 'I', ends in 'L'.


Israeli Stealth Ships in Raids on Iran
Last week Richard Silverstein, an American blogger who specialises in breaking Israeli defence secrets, claimed Mossad, Israel’s national intelligence agency, used Ofer Group cargo ships to smuggle its agents into Iran.

Last year Mossad agents allegedly assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhuh, a senior Hamas militant, in his Dubai hotel room. It is now believed some of the agents left Dubai hidden in one of Ofer’s ships.



Archbishop Tutu Stands For Justice Against Apartheid Israel



Video - Seymour Hersh: Despite Intelligence Rejecting Iran as Nuclear Threat, U.S. Could Be Headed for Iraq Redux



Thousands rally in Tel Aviv against occupation
On the West Bank, Christians organised a religious service for "peace and justice" at a military checkpoint near Bethlehem, which also denounced the continuing occupation.


Why are the Libyan Rebels seeking Israel's support?
"The main point was that the future Libyan regime would be moderate and anti-terrorist and will be concerned with justice for the Palestinians and security for Israel,"


Weiner repeatedly lied (about Israel and Palestine– does anyone care)
Here are five of those lies: There is no Israeli occupation of the West Bank, the Goldstone Report was not based on the laws of war, Israel is at war with 20 neighbors, American progressives should support the absence of free speech in Israel when it comes to its character as a Jewish state, and Egypt is an Islamic state.


State Annuls Attempted Sale of Public School to New Square-Based Yeshiva
The commissioner of the New York State Education Department has annulled the sale of a New York elementary school to a New Square Orthodox yeshiva, criticizing the local school board for failing to take steps to get the best price for the property.

The rejection of the sale is the latest development in an ongoing dispute between the largely non-Jewish parents of children in the East Ramapo Central School District and the Orthodox majority on the district’s board of trustees, members of religious communities that send children to private yeshivas.




'More Israeli Arabs would have been killed in 2000 riots had I been in charge'
Upper Nazareth Mayor says his town would never be a mixed Arab-Jewish city and that a mosque would never be built despite the fact that 16 percent of its residents are Arab.


East Jerusalem: Sharing our house with settlers - video
How Israel's slow ethnic cleansing proceeds. How many of those tourists were Americans (future Israeli settlers)? Oops, look at the very last few seconds as a woman tourist with an American accent assails the Palestinian whose land was taken over by Israeli settlers, calling them a 'murderer'. Disgusting racism. But then, that's what one would expect from people who support supremacism. These Palestinians are actually getting off easy at the moment as compared to what has happened to others. Settlers can be violent. And they act with impunity. Thus does Israel's pillage and plunder of Palestine continue.


Progressive Democrats Of America Endorses New Flotilla Against Israel



Shavuot 2011: obscenities as words of Torah
"Death to the Arabs, death to the leftists," they chanted. "The Temple will be rebuilt, the mosque will be destroyed." "Kahane lives, Mohammed is dead." "Itbach al-Arab" ("Death to the Arabs" in Arabic ). Thus they elevate Jerusalem as their chief sin: May their tongues cleave to their palates.


Ukraine professors defend Palestinian engineer
Israel would not immediately comment on the incongruities concerning the professor's name or the purported military academy.

Vlasov, an expert in civilian electrical and mineral processing systems, said he had no connection to the military, never sent any of his students to a military academy and has never even seen a missile.

"This is all lies, there isn't a single word of truth in it," Vlasov, 80, said in a telephone interview. "I have never lectured at any military academy and never had anything to do with anything military. I have only seen missiles on TV." Israel never lets the truth get in the way of its BS.


Do the American people support the 'special relationship?' Stephen M. Walt
a survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League in 2005 found that 78 percent of Americans believed that Washington should favor neither Israel nor the Palestinians. A 2010 survey by the Brookings Institution found similar results: although 25 percent of Americans thought the United States should "lean toward Israel" in its efforts to resolve the conflict, a healthy 67 percent believed the United States should "lean toward neither side." I'm glad somebody besides myself drove this point home. Americans by and large want the US to take no side in that conflict, according to numerous polls over the years. Yet Congress does not reflect that. We have a serious problem here. The Congress does not reflect the will of the people. And that needs to change, folks.

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