Headlines for June 23 - June 29

A Stand For Justice


U.S. Senate Passes Resolution Threatening To Suspend Palestinian Aid
The United States Senate has passed a resolution threatening to suspend financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority if its leaders “persist in efforts to circumvent direct negotiations by turning to the United Nations or other international bodies,” and called on U.S. President Barack Obama to veto a UN vote on unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. Capitol Hill once again working for Israel, not America.


Masked Israeli Settlers Attack Palestinian Shepherds in Mesheha Vall
According to Shaadi Muhamari, the settlers came down from the illegal Israeli outpost of Havat Ma'on. Some of the settlers were masked as they ran toward the shepherds throwing stones, yelling blasphemies against Islam and stating that internationals were now not present to protect them. According to Shaadi Muhamari, a settler attacked his donkey with a knife, and when he attempted to stop the attacker and protect his donkey, settlers hit him with stones in the back and torso. The attack left Shaadi Muhamari with bruises and welts on his back.


Talks with Israel won't stop Palestinian UN bid
The Palestinians say they will be coming to the U.N. in September seeking membership as an independent state even if peace negotiations with Israel are underway.



US State Dept. Threatens Activists with 'Fines or Incarceration' if They Proceed to Gaza
"We underscore that delivering or attempting or conspiring to deliver material support or other resources to or for the benefit of a designated foreign terrorist organization, such as Hamas, could violate U.S. civil and criminal statutes and could lead to fines and incarceration,"


US, Israel Escalate Threats Against Flotilla, Including US Citizens
Condemnation of this outburst was pervasive but also easy: cheering for a foreign army to shoot unarmed protesters -- one's fellow citizens -- is self-evidently warped; that this came from a right-wing war-cheerleader-from-a-safe-distance with endless pretenses to uber-patriotism just added a layer of irony (Dear Foreign Nation: go ahead and shoot and kill Americans). US Israel-supporters are traitors.


Israel said to be clamping down on Hamas prisoners
Netanyahu said on Thursday that as the Palestinian Islamist movement refused to allow Red Cross visits to Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier it has held for five years, he would cut privileges of Hamas militants in Israeli jails, such as external university courses. It's preposterous to allege that any Palestinian prisoners are afforded education in Israeli jails. They're lucky if they're allowed family visits or lawyers.


Israel ministers slam flotilla threat as 'spin'
On Monday, Israeli military spokeswoman Lieutenant Colonel Avital Leibovitz said there were "radical elements" among the activists participating in the sea convoy, including some carrying "dangerous incendiary chemicals."

But security cabinet ministers told Maariv they were given no such information when they were briefed on the flotilla this week, and even accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office of being behind the disinformation.



Israel: Journalists on flotilla face expulsion
Israel said Sunday that any foreign journalist caught on board a Gaza–bound flotilla could face deportation and a 10–year ban from the country, in a move that threatened to worsen the nation's already strained relationship with the international media. Sounds like something the Nazis would do.


Israel backs away from threat to flotilla reporters
In an email to foreign news organisations on Sunday, the Government Press Office (GPO) said journalists' participation in the flotilla would be "an intentional violation" of Israeli law that could result in a 10–year entry ban to Israel and confiscation of their equipment.

The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem had described the GPO's warning as a "chilling message" that raised questions about Israel's commitment to freedom of the press. Several Israeli legislators also condemned the GPO's move. The Israelis are out of control. They always have been. It's just that now, the world is getting a clearer picture of it.


Palestinians use bulldozer to ram Israeli fence
Palestinian protesters rammed a bulldozer Friday into a contested barrier near the village of Bilin, days after the Israeli army said it would finally comply with a court order and reposition the fence.


Roger Waters The Wall
Roger Waters on Facebook. Read up on his advocacy for Palestine.


Israel arrests 'terror plot' Palestinians
Israel's Shin Bet internal security service said on Monday it had detained more than 20 Palestinians in Ramallah and annexed east Jerusalem on suspicion of planning attacks against Israelis.

The agency said the men belonged to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and were planning to kidnap Israelis, to acquire weapons to carry out shooting attacks and to kidnap a wealthy Palestinian land dealer to fund their plans.


Iran says U.S. exploits Syria uprising to save Israel
"As interests of America and its allies are endangered in the region ... they are trying to shift the crisis by creating problems for independent countries (like Iran and Syria)."


Polish FM: EU seeks joint position on Palestinians
Europe's position could prove critical: Without its support, a resolution could more easily be dismissed as a result of automatic anti–Israel majority in the General Assembly. But a pro–Palestinian groundswell by major European nations with deep ties to Israel, such as Britain and France, could make the event a watershed and provide a tail wind to talk of boycotts and mass protests against Israel.


Palestinian leaders vote to go for UN recognition
The West Bank Palestinian leadership on Sunday formally decided to press ahead with efforts in September to win U.N. recognition of a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, in what could be a blow to efforts to restart Israeli–Palestinian peace talks.



AP Exclusive: Palestinians ready to ease demands
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a sensitive diplomatic proposal, said the Palestinians will ease the demand for a full construction freeze and resume peace talks if Israel accepts President Barack Obama's proposal to base negotiations on a broad Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war.


Israel arrests 4 Hamas members in West Bank
The arrest of the MP from Salfit brings to 14 the number of Hamas parliamentarians detained by Israeli troops over the past eight months.

It also raises to seven the number of Hamas MPs detained by the army since the Islamist movement signed a surprise reconciliation deal with its Fatah rivals at the end of April, in a move which was roundly condemned by Israel.


Shoot First Diplomacy by Philip Giraldi
Once upon a time the Secretary of State was supposed to protect Americans overseas, particularly when the Americans are not doing anything illegal. But that was before Israel and its Lobby decided what American citizens can and cannot do. A good friend of mine Ray McGovern, who is on the American vessel, is a deeply religious former CIA senior analyst. He has friends on the National Security Council who informed him last week that the US government would let the Israelis do whatever they want to the flotilla and would, in fact, approve of any action taken. In the aftermath, the State Department would do nothing to help any US citizen killed, injured, or arrested. Except possibly have them arrested a second time.


Palestinians going ahead with UN statehood bid
"I say that if negotiations have failed we will go to the United Nations for membership," Abbas told a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and his Fatah party.


Something Rotten This Way Comes by Philip Giraldi
It is indisputable that Israel and its friends in the White House and Defense Department played a major role in creating the lies and generating the momentum in the drive to war against Iraq in 2002, a conflict that continues to claim American casualties and which has left Iraq in ruins. Now the push is on to “do something” about Iran. There have been a number of bills in Congress that stop just short of declaring war on the Mullahs and there are signs that the Israeli government might be planning a military action before the end of the summer. Does anyone doubt that the United States would immediately be drawn into such a conflict, with disastrous consequences in terms of a terrorist response and energy prices that would skyrocket? Wow. Read on for more groveling to Israel by US politicians, pundits and would-be presidents.


Israel preparing for September West Bank violence



Roger Waters - "We Shall Overcome"
Tribute to Palestine? If he really did that, that's incredible. Kudos to him. Update: It does indeed seem to be legit. God bless you, Sir.


Most Egyptians would keep peace with Israel: poll
The study, conducted by the cabinet's Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC), showed 67 percent of respondents believed it was important to uphold the 1979 Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty, state news agency MENA said.


Majority support Mideast peace
Because Israel refuses to define its borders, descriptions are always qualified. The "pre-1967" borders define the boundary drawn in the 1949 armistice. This boundary, the "Green Line," is the only boundary internationally recognized. Israel would be safest within that existing border.




Jewish Dems losing faith in Obama
At the 2007 AIPAC Policy Conference, Obama professed his love for Israel but then seemed, – to some who were there for his informal talk – to betray a kind of naivete about the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians: "The biggest enemy" he said, using the same rhetoric he applied to American politics, was "not just terrorists, it's not just Hezbollah, it's not just Hamas – it's also cynicism."

At the next year's AIPAC conference, he again botched the conflict's code, committing himself to an "undivided Jerusalem" and then walking it back the next day.

Those doubts and gaffes lingered, even for many of the majority who supported him.


It's Netanyahu who is delegitimising Israel by MJ Rosenberg
The "pro-Israel" lobby's latest hobbyhorse is "delegitimisation". Those who criticise Israeli policies are accused of trying to "delegitimise" Israel, which supposedly means denying Israel's right to exist.

Even President Obama has gotten into the act, stating in his May 19 speech that "for the Palestinians, efforts to delegitimise Israel will end in failure".


Hardline Arab-Israeli imam held in Britain
Saleh has had multiple run–ins with the law in Israel, including most recently being arrested at the Israeli border with Jordan after allegedly striking an interrogator.

In 2010, he spent five months behind bars for spitting at an Israeli policeman, and he has been detained on a number of other occasions, including in connection with an alleged arson incident.


U.S. Funding Rigorous Study of Palestinian and Israeli Textbook Incitement
The study, funded by a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of State, was commissioned by the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land (CRIHL), a Jerusalem-based consortium of senior Islamic, Jewish and Christian religious figures in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. The study seeks to provide the first rigorously empirical and objective analysis of how Palestinian and Israeli textbooks depict the “other.”

How much more American taxpayer money do we have to waste for Israel? Really. Couldn't that money be better spent at home? Don't we give Israel enough money. Let them fight their own battles.


Further delay for Gaza flotilla amid sabotage fears
Frustrated volunteers for the Gaza–bound flotilla milled helplessly around in Athens as organisers also admitted they were making little headway with the Greek government over getting the necessary permission to set sail.



A Veteran Washington Jew-Watcher Looks Back, and Forward
the Jewish groups are more and more focused on Israel, so I see a disconnect in that sense.

The author then goes on to say that Jews aren't that concerned with Israel, it's not their number 1 priority. But it would be if both houses of Congress weren't so pro-Israel. AIPAC makes sure of that,which is why pro-Israeli Jews can shift their focus elsewhere.


Cyprus bans all sailings to Gaza ahead of flotilla plan
Cyprus said on Thursday it had banned all sailings to Gaza, serving notice to any pro–Palestinian activists who might use the Mediterranean island as a springboard to challenge Israel's blockade of the territory.


Flotilla activists seek "blood": Israeli FM
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday participants in an aid flotilla planning to challenge an Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip were seeking "confrontation and blood." Delustional rantings from a delusional, arrogant regime.


Top settler rabbi briefly arrested in racism row
Israeli police briefly detained a leading settler rabbi on Monday in connection with an investigation into a book justifying the killing of non–Jews in some cases, police said.



Hamas prisoners stage hunger strike
Hamas prisoners being held in Israeli jails on Monday began a hunger strike to protest after seven of their number were put in solitary confinement, a minister told AFP.


Gaza: ICRC demands proof that Gilad Shalit is alive



Gaza activists say ship sabotaged in Greece
In a statement, Scandinavian organizers said "hostile divers" had cut the propeller shaft of the "Juliano," a ship shared by Swedish, Norwegian and Greek activists. They said the damage can be repaired and that it will not affect plans to sail for the Palestinian territory toward the end of the week.



Israel Told to Avoid Use of Military Force Against Irish
Ambassador to Ireland, Boaz Modai, that any interception of the flotilla must be peacefu Notice our government doesn't do that given that there will also be Americans on board. In fact, our government did NOTHING when Israel KILLED an American citizen last year.


Israel begins dismantling section of barrier
The rerouting marked a major victory for the residents of Bilin and the international groups that have backed their struggle, but they said it fell short of their demands to remove the structure from the village altogether and vowed to continue with their weekly protests.


‘JINSA John’ Bolton Tells Congress to Bomb Iran, Support Terrorist MEK
“I’ve argued for [military strikes against Iran] for about three and a half years,” John Bolton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee today. “Absent military action against Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Iran will have weapons much sooner rather than later,” Bolton said. “It’s a big mistake to conclude, as I believe the Administration has, that a nuclear Iran can be contained and deterred.”

Even as Bolton called for bombing Iran, President Bush’s controversial former Ambassador to the UN received a warm reception from Republicans and many Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The Chairwoman of the committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, even went so far as to say “I love John Bolton.” Israel's cheering squad in full display. Repulsive.


What’s a Neoconservative?
A neocon is someone who believes in Israel First!, and who cloaks that sentiment in American patriotism.


US 'could withdraw funding from UN if Palestine state is recognised'
Susan Rice, the American ambassador to the UN, said there was "no greater threat" to US support and funding of the UN than the prospect of Palestinian statehood being endorsed by member states. I doubt the rest of the world cares at this point. We've obstructed justice long enough, thanks to the efforts of the Israeli lobby.


Former CIA officer questions EU motives in Syria
EU and US intervention in Syria is designed to harm Iran and to protect Israel and Lebanese Christians, not Syrian people, according to Robert Baer, a retired CIA officer with experience of the region. Robert Baer, one of the good guys.


Lebanon expects Hariri indictments soon
The long–awaited indictments are expected to accuse members of Shi'ite group Hezbollah of involvement in the killing and have already triggered a political crisis which brought down the government of Hariri's son, Saad al–Hariri, in January.


Israpundit » Blog Archive » Michelle Bachmann For President
Bachmann grovels and kowtows to Israel and its US supporters. Repulsive. For which country is she seeking to serve? Bachmann is dead wrong on Israel and America sharing the same values. America is a nation that affords liberty and justice FOR ALL. Bachmann is also LYING when she said that Americans support her view on Israel. She evidently didn't see these two polls from 2010 which state that only 2/3 of the American people want to take Israel's side in that conflict.


Israel adopts tougher Iran sanctions
The measures, which do not need further parliamentary approval, were taken after a committee found in March that, despite years of calling for tough international action against arch–foe Iran, Israel's existing legislation did not live up to public policy.



Iran fires 14 missiles in 2nd day of war games
"Except America and the Zionist regime, we do not feel a threat from any other country,"


Brooklyn Hasid charged with felony hate crime after attacking neighbor
"F–––ing Arabs! F–––ing terrorists!" Schwartz screamed when he grabbed his neighbor, Selda Turan, 27. He shoved the woman against her car and poured beer on her head, a police source said.

Turan's husband of 13 months, Mustafa Turan, rushed out of their house to protect his wife, but Schwartz punched him in the face, the source said.

Neighbors said the Turans moved into the heavily Jewish neighborhood about a month ago. They said the victims were from Turkey; it wasn't clear if they were Muslim.


GOP's Pawlenty Blames Obama for Mideast Deadlock
“It breaks my heart that President Obama treats Israel, our great friend, as a problem, rather than as an ally,” Pawlenty said. “Today the president doesn’t really have a policy toward the peace process. He has an attitude. And let’s be frank about what that attitude is. He thinks Israel is the problem. And he thinks the answer is always more pressure on Israel.”

That is in fact the answer. Cutting off all aid to that nation until it can abide by international law would do wonders for the peace process.


Fighting Off Israeli Isolation With a Dose of Bob Dylan and Shakira
Note to Bob Dylan and Shakira: you're supporting an apartheid regime.


Introducing The Palestinian Gandhi Project
Pam Bailey, an American “corporate refugee” as she calls herself, traveled to Gaza to see for herself what was happening in the region. The product of her trips became “The Palestinian Gandhi Project” which Permission to Narrate is proud to feature here.


Nighttime Home Raids in Old City Hebron



With the Gaza Aid Flotilla: Israeli Assault on the Flotilla is Well Underway
If substantiated, rumors that Israel is threatening the Israeli-Greek trade relationship over the flotilla could mean that Israel is actually threatening the entire economy of the European Union. Given the depth of the Greek debt crisis, any change in the Greek economy would have profound effects on the European Central Bank and even the international economy.


State Department Officials Have an Obligation to Speak Out Against Israeli Threats to Attack U.S. Boat to Gaza
Passengers on the boat noted that the U.S. State Department has a legal obligation to act to protect U.S. citizens when they are traveling abroad. “So far, U.S. government officials have failed to use their influence to discourage Israeli authorities from ordering a physical assault on us,”


Kucinich: Ensure Safety of U.S. Citizens on The Audacity of Hope
These six Representatives were willing to publicly sign their names to this basic appeal, knowing full well that there is a dedicated and well-financed crew of pro-Likud activists in Washington determined to punish any deviance from the Likud line.


Israel Warns Foreign Journalists: Joining Gaza Flotilla Is Illegal
Haaretz correspondent Amira Hass will be joining the flotilla, along with several dozen other journalists and several hundred activists from some 20 countries. Also joining the flotilla will be American writer Alice Walker, despite an American advisory that doing so could be a violation of U.S. law.


Spirits of Justice Going to Gaza by Ray McGovern
The New York Times made an unusually candid revelation in 1982 quoting from a speech in which Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, who held that top post from 1977 to 1983, admitted that the 1967 war was carefully pre-planned by Israel.

“In June 1967, we had a choice,” Begin said. “The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.”


Israeli Video Blog Exposed as a Hoax



Alice Walker: Why I'm sailing to Gaza
Pulitzer Prize-winning author Alice Walker will join an international flotilla of boats sailing to Gaza to challenge Israel's blockade of the territory. Here, Walker, best known for her 1983 novel "The Color Purple," explains why she will be taking part.


Despite Tension, Obama Wooing Jewish Donors
A Democratic source said that this fundraiser was twice as long as any of the other donor events the president has held in the past several months.

Obama’s backers believe that paying this kind of attention to donors, coupled with his address at the AIPAC conference, has calmed potential donor anxiety over issues relating to Israel. From here, they hope to move on to a business-as-usual mode with Jewish campaign funders. “It is a pivot strategy,” a Democratic activist said. “You answer any questions that come up about Israel, and then pivot to take on any other issue under the sun that donors can come up with.”

It doesn't really matter who is in the White House when you have both houses of Congress in your back pocket.


'US Boat to Gaza' Invites Media to Inspect Boat and Passengers
The entire boat will be open for view, photography, and video. The captain, crew, and passengers on the boat will be available for interviews and inspection. The cargo of the ship - 3,000 letters from Americans to the people of Gaza - will also be available for view, photographs, and video. Everything that will be on the boat when it sets sail, including food and passengers' personal medications for use during their voyage, will be available for inspection.


Israeli PM's teen son maligns Muslims on Facebook
Palestinian spokesman Husam Zomlot interpreted things differently.

"That's the teaching of his father," Zomlot said. "That's what Netanyahu produced in terms of a family and that's what Netanyahu produced in terms of a society." This would've made headlines if it were the son of Mahmoud Abbas, and he said like things about Jews.


Israel's Vatican envoy backs off WWII pope praise

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