Headlines for June 9 - June 15

A Stand For Justice


Ex-CIA officer: Israel spies on US
An example, Giraldi said, is the Chinese Chengdu Jet J-10 that has been built with technologies that originally came from the US.

This is despite the fact that Israel relies heavily on the US for political and military support.

“It should almost be seen as an act of war,” Giraldi emphasized. Please take a few minutes to give a listen to former counterterrorism officer, Philip Giraldi.


Settlers burn land adjacent to outpost
On 8 June 2011 fire burned 20 to 30 dunums (4 dunums equal about 1 acre) of Palestinian land owned by five different families. The land was part of a plot of 50 dunums planted with different kinds of fruit trees and garden plants.


Abbas's Fatah expels ex-Palestinian strong-man
The ousting of Mohammed Dahlan, for years Fatah's strong–man in the Gaza Strip, and the splits it has revealed, could damage the movement's standing in unity talks with its rival faction, Islamist Hamas.


Haaretz exclusive: Secret cables show Israel's battle plan over Palestinian UN bid
"The goal we have set is to have the maximum number of countries oppose the process of having the UN recognize a Palestinian state," Barak wrote to Israel's ambassadors in his cable, which was sent June 2. "The Palestinian effort must be referred to as a process that erodes the legitimacy of the State of Israel... Read on for more. Notice that the local Jewish community will be used like sheep to further the cause of Israel - increasing the likelihood for anti-Semitism. And you had better believe that our government officials will also be in Europe doing this very same thing. Because after all, we are Israel's bitch. Mark my words, kids.


Human Rights Groups Denounce Israeli Destruction of Bedouin Villages
Human rights groups have denounced an Israeli government plan to destroy 35 Bedouin villages that it has declared illegal in the Negev desert.

The move - reportedly planned to enable the building of homes for 10,000 people - threatens the livelihoods of Bedouins who have been living in the area for 60 years.


Police, Palestinians clash at Jerusalem holy site
Also Friday, a Hamas leader said Israel had stepped up a campaign of arrests against members of the Islamic militant group in the West Bank, which Israel controls.

Mushir al–Masri, a Hamas official in the Gaza Strip, said around 100 Hamas members had been arrested by the Israeli military in the last two weeks in the West Bank, including eight of the group's leaders.


European Parliament: East Jerusalem should be Palestinian capital



Jobless Gaza enters 5th year of Israeli blockade
"It is hard to understand the logic of a man–made policy which deliberately impoverishes so many and condemns hundreds of thousands of potentially productive people to a life of destitution," Gunness said.

Israel continues to blockade Gaza, controlling the flow of imports and tightly restricting access to Israeli territory mainly to urgent humanitarian cases, to prevent Hamas militants who are supported by Iran and Syria from obtaining weapons, explosives and ammunition.


Hamas rejects Fayyad as next Palestinian PM
Fatah has nominated Salam Fayyad, the prime minister of the West Bank–based Palestinian Authority, to head the caretaker government.


Obama’s Dilemma — and Ours by Patrick J. Buchanan
We overextended ourselves. We bankrupted ourselves.

We undertook the defense of nations all over the world having little to do with our vital national interests. We fought unnecessary wars. We doled out trillions in foreign aid to ingrates, incompetents, opportunists and thieves.


Palestinians grapple with opposition to UN plan
Top Palestinian and Israeli negotiators were in Washington this week, meeting separately with U.S. officials in search of ways to resume negotiations. There was no word on any breakthrough.


Target: Iran by Philip Giraldi
An ‘article’ by Seymour Hersh that appeared last week in the New Yorker reveals some details of the still classified 2011 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran. To put it succinctly, there is no actual evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapon program. None. Hersh’s article elicited a response from a number of anonymous White House sources who disputed the article’s conclusions, suggesting very clearly that the Obama Administration embraces the Iranian threat narrative, if only to be able to cite Tehran as the reason for the repeated American failures in the region. Hersh also reported that the NIE had been delayed for four months because the White House had wanted a harsher judgment on Iran’s likely intentions. The intelligence community, having been burned once over Iraq, refused to comply. Read on for the legislation put forth by Israel-firsters on Capitol Hill.


AIPAC Pushes Hard for War With Iran
The overarching problem is the Israel lobby’s subversion of American governance through election fraud, the evasion of tax regulations and laws regulating foreign lobbies, and the systematized, ongoing infiltration of operatives into key government posts to advance the interests of a foreign state. Unfortunately for AIPAC, the Americans gathering to challenge it cross party lines. Whether they wear American flag pins on their suit lapels or Birkenstocks over wool socks is of ever declining significance. Thank God for that. But Americans need to get in the know and take action at a quicker pace, before it's too late.


Activists cry foul over FBI probe
The apparent targets, all vocal and visible critics of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and South America, deny any ties to terrorism. They say the government, using its post-9/11 focus on terrorism as a pretext, is targeting them for their political views....

All 23 of the activists invoked their right not to testify before a grand jury, defying U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, whose office is spearheading the investigation. Patrick Fitzgerald, now a stoolie to the neocons, rather than a prosecutor thereof. Sad.


US activists prepare to break Israel's blockade on Gaza
Other passengers on the boat besides Wright include Alice Walker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author; Hedy Epstein, an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor; Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK; and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern.


Did Kissinger Urge Egypt to Attack Israel?



Lebanon PM: New government to liberate land under occupation of 'Israeli enemy'



Eastern Europe new battleground in Mideast rift
With the stakes so high, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans visits soon to Poland, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, while envoys are also working hard in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to make their case for opposing the Palestinian initiative in the expected U.N. vote.



"60 Minutes" Reports on Jerusalem
Notice again that these Jewish settlers are American, and also witness the settler crash his car into the Palestinian kid then speed away. Lovely, lovely people. And we are handing that nation billiions of dollars. Many settler charities are tax deductible here in the States, to round out their swindling of American taxpayers.


EU in Kosovo says Turk, Israeli trafficked organs
Organ trafficking is evidently becoming a common thing in Israel.


EU: Palestinian state vote could be 'dangerous'
Concerned about the possibility of Palestinian riots in September, Israeli police conducted a drill Tuesday simulating large–scale disturbances. Hundreds of police in riot gear took part.

Bentzi Sau, commander of the police Central District, told reporters that police were aware that a unilateral declaration of statehood by the Palestinians "could cause disturbances of the kind we've seen in neighboring Arab countries."


Jewish American Teenage Hero Lucas Koerner takes on two World Powers
Israel's hand will ultimately be forced into respecting human rights and international laws, but not because an American President or the U.S. Congress will force it into complying, because they won't. They lack the moral courage to stand up to Tel Aviv. It will, in fact, be forced by courageous Jewish heroes like Lucas Koerner and Rae Abileah who will be joined by hundreds of thousands of peace-loving Israelis


YouTube - Irish Rugby Players for Irish Ship to Gaza
Excellent.


Fighter-jet engines 'stolen from Israeli base'
Air force officials quoted in the Maariv newspaper said the stolen parts were eight engines from F–15 and F–16 fighter jets which were taken from Tel Nof air base.


On Shavuot, Women Asked To Walk a Longer Kotel Route
why then, should Jewish women today have to walk separately from men to the Kotel to pray this year on Shavuot, which begins tonight? Actually, if certain Haredi authorities had it their way, not only would women walk a different route through the Old City of Jerusalem, but they wouldn’t go to the Kotel tonight at all.

And again.


Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Risks Taking Over Milan's Central Piazza
Pro–Palestinian activists have posted an online plea against the event, and have threatened to organize a rally against it on June 18. "We do not want Milan to become the stage for Zionist imperialism's propaganda," they wrote.


Israel holds drill for next Gaza-bound flotilla
The Israeli military says it's holding a drill ahead of the next Gaza–bound flotilla with pro–Palestinian activists who could try to breach Israel's naval blockade of the territory.



‘... and an unshakable commitment to the security of Israel’ — RT
a bipartisan group of US senators wants to prove that American exceptionalism is alive and well by demanding the US recognize the results of the war of 1967 as legitimate.


Syrians flee as troops mass, West concern grows
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday said 2,400 people had already crossed into Turkey.


Israel’s ‘Mr. Security’ Goes Rogue
In a series of semi-public talks with academics, journalists and a Knesset committee, Dagan has been arguing since January that Iran is further from gaining a nuclear weapon than Israel’s leaders claim and that the notion of attacking Iran’s nuclear installations, a cornerstone of Benjamin Netanyahu’s defense strategy, is “stupid.” He says that an attack wouldn’t succeed in eliminating Iran’s dispersed, heavily fortified nuclear sites. It would, however, spark a regional war which could threaten Israel’s existence. Moreover, he says, issuing military threats in order to deter Iran and stiffen Western resolve has the perverse effect of spurring Iran to speed up its efforts, in self-defense.

Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/138492/#ixzz1Q337ki5s
Thank you for your honesty and cojones, Mr. Dagan. While you are looking out for your country, I am looking out for mine.


New Square: Where Tradition And the Rebbe Rule
Among other things, New Square residents must walk streets strictly divided by gender, with women on one side and men on the other, as Yiddish signs posted on telephone poles lining those streets dictate. Women are not allowed to drive

....This is not New Square’s first turn in the spotlight in connection with a scandal. In January 2001, President Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of four New Square officials who had been convicted earlier in a multi-million dollar federal Pell Grant scandal. This was shortly after the village overwhelmingly voted for Clinton’s wife in the November 2000 Senate campaign.

What? Guess where this takes place? Yes, good old America. Who owns this place? Wait, I thought we were in danger of Sharia Law here?


The Republicans Heart Netanyahu
Republicans see an opportunity to seize on the distance between a recalcitrant, right-wing Israeli regime and a liberal Democratic American president for their own political gain. What’s more, the party’s base is increasingly dominated by the conservative Christian Zionists, whose love for Israel is, according to their interpretation of Scripture, commanded by the Almighty.




American Diplomacy 101 by Philip Giraldi
It seems that Rohrabacher and some fellow wingnuts to include Ileana Ros Lehtinen, the committee chairman, have a soft spot in their hearts for MEK because it is an enemy of the Mullah regime in Tehran. They have tried a number of times to get it delisted as a terrorist organization. Not coincidentally, the congressmen who are fond of MEK are also passionate supporters of Israel. My enemy’s enemy…


Debate Rages over US Withdrawal
"I would hope that (the withdrawal) is very small," the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, told the Financial Times this week. "I would hope that it is 3,000. We need another fighting season (against the Taliban)." McCain wants to keep our troops over there so that they can protect Israel. McCain: Iraq troop pullout bad for Israel


Iran and the Issue of Nuclear Weapons
Israeli politicians are addicted to the Iran threat. Iran serves, alongside the Palestinians, as the latter day ruthless anti-Semite who would destroy the Jews. Zionists seem to need this kind of “existentialist” enemy. This is the equivalent of the Islamic fundamentalist taking the place of the hateful communist as the great enemy that the United States also seems to need. The Israeli lobby is more influential in formulating U.S. foreign policy toward Iran than all of the nation’s intelligence services put together.


The No-Longer Temporary Occupation
Netanyahu’s speech has left the peace process dead in the water and presents Israelis with a harsh reality they had been ignoring: Permanent occupation which can only be maintained through a form of apartheid governance. His theoretical framework sent a clear message that Israel not only requires permanent occupation for its continued existence, but also, in fact, desires it because of religious, cultural and security concerns.




Why Google Earth Pixelates Israel
Israel's low–resolution e–presence can be traced back to the 1997 National Defense Authorization Act. Tucked inside the 2,870–page bill is a two–bullet point section titled "SEC. 1064. PROHIBITION ON COLLECTION AND RELEASE OF DETAILED SATELLITE IMAGERY RELATING TO ISRAEL" (page 2653). Below, the full–text:


Report: Suspected Israeli spy arrested in Egypt was traveling to Libya
A former paratrooper in the Israel Defense Forces with dual American-Israeli citizenship, Grapel reportedly travelled to several parts of Egypt, and was given the task of gauging the public's reaction to the policies of the Egyptian high military council.


Lebanon gets Hezbollah-led cabinet after 5-month lag
Lebanon's Prime Minister Najib Mikati announced Monday a long–delayed government dominated by Iranian–backed Hezbollah and its allies, which is likely to cause alarm among Western powers at a time of regional turmoil.


Key US lawmaker urges aid cut-off for Lebanon
A key US lawmaker called Monday for cutting all US aid to Lebanon's new government, in which Hezbollah and its allies hold the majority, and to any Palestinian government in which Hamas is a partner.

"The US should immediately cut off assistance to the Lebanese government as long as any violent extremist group designated by the US as foreign terrorist organizations participates in it," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Ileana Ros–Lehtinen, a Republican and frequent White House critic. Ros-Lehtinen is one of Israel's top shills on Capitol Hill.


The Missing Headlines Israelists Schumer, Lieberman, Chertoff turning U.S. into Islamophobic police state
In an interview last year with a Jewish radio talk show in New York, Senator Schumer said he believed that HaShem(an Orthodox Jewish term for “God”) gave him the name “Schumer” — which means “guardian” — so that he could fulfill his “very important” role in the U.S. Senate as a “guardian of Israel.” Presumably, Schumer’s God-given role also includes turning the country he is actuallypaid to represent — the United States — into an Islamophobic police state.


Iran urges world community to pressure Israel into joining Non-Proliferation Treaty
"The world community should put pressure on the Zionist regime (Israel) to join the NPT and allow inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said.


Backing Away from September
A Jerusalem Post article quotes senior Palestinian Authority officials saying that after a visit this week to Washington by Saeb Erekat and Nabil Abu Rudaineh, two top PA negotiators, the Palestinians are rethinking their strategy. It’s also clear that pressure from the administration is the decisive factor.

“We are under pressure from the Americans and some Europeans to postpone the plan to ask for UN recognition in September,” the official told The Jerusalem Post. “They are even threatening to impose financial sanctions on us if we don’t comply.”

As predicted, the US acts as Israel's bitch.


Hebron: "Vacations" from the Occupation



Pentagon Sees Libya Military Costs Soar - FT
U.S. military operations in Libya are expected to cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than the initial $750 million outgoing defense secretary Robert Gates estimated last month, the Financial Times reported on its website Thursday, citing figures it obtained. And for what? And is not Syria's Assad doing exactly the same thing Ghaddafi was allegedly doing to his people? And the US takes no action against Syria. Why? Because Israel prefers Assad.

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