As cars plastered with the flags of Brazil, Germany, Argentina and other favorite World Cup teams drove across Beirut on Sunday, Palestinian refugees and their supporters carried Palestinian and Lebanese flags as they marched through the capital. They called for their human rights in Lebanon, where they have lived without them for more than six decades.
Closing off some of Beirut’s main roads, thousands of demonstrators marched to revolutionary Arabic music carrying signs and chanting slogans like “we want our civil rights,” and “we will never forget the right of return.”
Milad Salameh, coordinator of Palestinian Youth Organization in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, explained “We came to march because it’s important for Palestinians in Nahr al-Bared and elsewhere in Lebanon to take our rights. We can study and finish university, but we can’t work. After 62 years we have to take our protest outside the camps to show the Lebanese people and the government what we want and what we need.”
The Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, Lebanon’s second largest Palestinian camp, was destroyed in 2007 during fighting between the Lebanese army and militants from Fatah al-Islam, a shadowy organization with fighters from across the region. The camp remains in ruins and under a tight army blockade that greatly restricts the movement of people and goods into the camp. It highlights the struggle for many Palestinian refugees in the country who increasingly fear that other refugee camps could soon follow the “Nahr al-Bared model.”
Salameh added “Usually when we demonstrate it’s against the war in Gaza or the war in Palestine. This march is important because it’s the first time that we demonstrate specifically for Palestinians in Lebanon.”
Lebanon currently hosts more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees who were expelled or fled from Palestine during the 1948 Nakba, when Zionist forces ethnically cleansed Palestine and founded the state of Israel. The UN General Assembly passed Resolution 194 in December 1948 which called for the right of return for Palestinian refugees and their descendants and compensation for their losses. Today the Palestinian refugee population is the oldest and largest refugee population in the world, numbering more than six million.
Demonstrators chant: “We will never forget the right of return.” (Matthew Cassel)
In Lebanon, Palestinian refugees have lived under discriminatory laws that deny them most basic civil rights. They are not allowed to work in more than 20 white collar professions, including medicine, law and engineering. Meanwhile, blue collar jobs require that Palestinians obtain work permits that must be renewed annually or if a worker changes employers. They are unable to own property and they are excluded from most social services offered by the state, even though they must pay social security fees to the Lebanese government in order to obtain a work permit. Large numbers of Palestinian refugees can also be found in nearby Syria and Jordan where they also face various forms of discrimination, although most human rights organizations have declared that the situation in Lebanon is the worst.
Sunday’s march, which was held under the slogan “We want to live in dignity in order to return,” was endorsed by more than 100 Palestinian, Lebanese and international non-governmental organizations in Lebanon. Buses brought Palestinians from the 12 refugee camps located across the country to two locations in Beirut where they marched separately across the city, coming together downtown. Organizers of the march originally planned to converge outside the Lebanese parliament, but after being denied a permit by the authorities they instead gathered outside the United Nations headquarters located nearby.
Rola Badran, organizer and Program Director of the Palestinian Human Rights Organization, explained that “The point of this event is to show Palestinians that we cannot stay waiting in the camps. We have to march and call for our rights.”
Badran said that the march was part of ongoing campaign to put pressure not only on the Lebanese government, but also on the international community to recognize the Palestinian refugees’ right of return.
The issue of granting rights to Palestinians refugees has always been controversial in Lebanon due to the uneasy sectarian balance established in the country’s constitution. Christian politicians recently rejected four draft laws in the Lebanese Parliament that would have granted Palestinians the right to work and own property. Christian groups insist that respecting Palestinians’ basic rights would lead to their naturalization as Lebanese citizens and tilt the sectarian balance in favor of Sunni Muslims. Palestinian groups have long refuted this, and state that it isn’t Lebanese citizenship they want, only their human rights and to return to Palestine.
“We’re not Sunni Palestinians, we are Palestinians,” Badran said. “We are humans, we are here, we need to enjoy our dignity. That is the first step to go back to Palestine.”
Matthew Cassel is based in Beirut, Lebanon and is Assistant Editor of The Electronic Intifada. His website is http://justimage.org.
This year’s top rabbi is Yehuda Krinsky (center), leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.
In the fall of 2006, Sony Pictures chairman and CEO Michael Lynton and his pal Gary Ginsberg, now an executive vice president of Time Warner Inc., began working on a list of the 50 most influential rabbis in the U.S. The friends devised the following unscientific criteria to rank the leaders, whose specialties range from kashrut to Kabbalah: Are they known nationally/internationally? (20 points.) Do they have political/social influence? (20 points.) Do they have a media presence? (10 points.) Are they leaders within their communities? (10 points.) Are they considered leaders in Judaism or their movements? (10 points. ) How big are their constituencies? (10 points.) Have they made an impact on Judaism in their career? (10 points.) Have they made a greater impact beyond the Jewish community and their rabbinical training? (10 points.) NEWSWEEK published that first list around Passover, 2007, with this caveat: “Is the list subjective? Yes. Is it mischievous in its conception? Definitely.” Now in its fourth year, Lynton and Ginsberg’s list includes eight fresh names and a new rabbi in the top spot.
1.Yehuda Krinsky—As the leader of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, Krinsky is the contemporary face of the Hasidic branch. (2009 Ranking No. 4)
2.Eric Yoffie—Yoffie represents 1.5 million Jews in more than 900 synagogues in his role as president of the Union of Reform Judaism. (2009 Ranking No. 8)
Kevin Winter / Getty Images
Marvin Hier, number 3. He founded the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
3.Marvin Hier—Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, Hier is No. 3 for his tireless work combating issues such as anti-Semitism, bigotry, and hate. Hier’s many connections with major world leaders, politicians, and entertainment-industry bigwigs give him an international platform from which to speak on various matters affecting the Jewish people. (2009 Ranking No. 2 )
4.Mark Charendoff—A leading authority on the future of Jewish philanthropy, Charendoff serves as president of the Jewish Funders Network, an international organization of family foundations, public philanthropies, and individual funders. (2009 Ranking No. 3)
5.David Saperstein—Having just completed his term as the only rabbi serving on President Obama’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, Saperstein continues to act as a major influence in Washington in his role as director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. (2009 Ranking No. 1)
6.Schmuley Boteach—Calling himself “America’s Rabbi,” Boteach continues to share his views on marriage, parenting, and relationships with the world, appearing on The Oprah Winfrey Show, counseling various celebrities in their times of crisis and releasing his most recent book, The Michael Jackson Tapes. (2009 Ranking No. 7)
7.Irwin Kula—Kula, a bestselling author who serves as co-president of CLAL (the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership), is nationally known for his commitment to reshaping America’s spiritual landscape. (2009 Ranking No. 10)
8.David Ellenson—Under Ellenson’s leadership as president, Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion continues to develop, train, and support the dynamic Jewish leaders of tomorrow. (2009 ranking No. 5)
9.Robert Wexler—Wexler continues influencing generations of Jewish students and scholars as president of American Jewish University. (2009 Ranking No. 6)
10.Morris Allen—As program director for Magen Tzedek, the ethical kosher seal, Allen is changing the way the world thinks about kashrut and the ethical issues surrounding the hechsher. (NEW)
11.Uri D. Herscher—Herscher is the founder, president and CEO of the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. (2009 Ranking No. 9)
12.Norman Lamm—Lamm is the chancellor of Yeshiva University in New York City. (2009 Ranking No. 14)
13.David Wolpe—Considered by many to be the No. 1 pulpit rabbi in America and a major leader of the Conservative movement, Wolpe is the rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles. (2009 Ranking No. 11)
14.Yehuda Berg—Berg is known as the world’s leading authority on the Kabbalah movement. (2009 Ranking No. 13)
15.Joesph Telushkin—Telushkin is an internationally known bestselling author and speaker. (2009 Ranking No. 15)
16.Menachem Genack—In his role as CEO of the Orthodox Union Kosher Division, Genack has steadily supervised and maintained the organization’s stringent kosher requirements throughout a series of recent scandals. (2009 Ranking No. 17)
17.Ellen Weinberg Dreyfus—As president of the CCAR (Central Conference of American Rabbis), Dreyfus represents nearly 2,000 Reform rabbis. (2009 Ranking No. 18)
18.Avi Weis—A leading Modern Orthodox rabbi who heads the Hebrew Institute if Riverdale, N.Y., Weiss recently caused a stir in the Orthodox community with his controversial decision to grant his student, Sara Hurwitz, the title of “rabba.” (2009 Ranking No. 38)
19.Jeffrey Wohlberg—Wohlberg is president of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis. (2009 ranking No. 19)
20.Steve Gutow—Gutow is president and CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the public-policy and community-relations coordinating agency of the American Jewish community. (2009 Ranking No. 20)
21.Yehiel Eckstein—As founder and president of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, Eckstein is recognized as the world’s leading Jewish authority on evangelical Christians. (NEW)
22.J. Rolando Matalon—As senior rabbi for Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York City, Matalon presides over a congregation of more than 1,800 families. (2009 Ranking No. 16)
23.Dan Ehrenkrantz—In his role as president of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Ehrenkrantz is recognized as a leading expert in issues pertaining to the Reconstructionist movement and American Jewish history.
24.Haskel Lookstein—Lookstein is principal of New York’s Ramaz School and rabbi at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun. (2009 Ranking No. 22)
Timothy A. Clary / AFP-Getty Images
Sharon Kleinbaum, number 25. She runs the world’s largest synagogue for GLBT Jews.
25.Sharon Kleinbaum—Kleinbaum is senior rabbi of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the world’s largest synagogue for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered Jews. (2009 Ranking No. 25)
26.Jack Moline—Moline, the spiritual leader of Gauds Achim Congregation in Alexandria, Va., is also the Rabbinical Assembly’s newest director of public policy. (NEW)
27.Steven Wernick—Wernick is the newly appointed executive vice president and CEO of United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. (NEW)
28.Art Green—As dean of Hebrew College’s Rabbinical School, Green is internationally recognized as an authority on Jewish thought and spirituality. (2009 Ranking No. 27)
29.Peter J. Rubinstein—As senior rabbi for New York’s Central Synagogue, Rubinstein presides over a congregation of more than 1,700 families. (2009 Ranking No. 12)
30.M. Bruce Lustig—As senior rabbi for Washington’s largest synagogue, Washington Hebrew Congregation, Lustig presides over a congregation of more than 3,000 members. (2009 Ranking No. 26)
31.Sharon Brous—Founder of Los Angeles’s progressive spiritual community, IKAR, Brous has received international attention and acclaim for her leadership and impact within the Jewish community. (2009 Ranking No. 31)
32.Michael Siegel—In addition to serving as senior rabbi at Chicago’s Anshe Emet congregation, Siegel is also nationally known as the co-chair of the Heksher Tzedek Commission. (NEW)
33.Abraham Cooper—As the associate dean of the Simon Weisenthal Center and its Museum of Tolerance, Cooper is internationally known as an activist for human and Jewish rights. (2009 Ranking No. 29)
34.Arthur Schneier—Known as the first rabbi to host the pope at his Park East Synagogue in New York, Schneier is also the founder and president of the Appeal of Conscience Foundation. (2009 Ranking No. 36)
35.Ephraim Buchwald—Buchwald is the founder of the National Jewish Outreach Program, which aims to address issues such as intermarriage and Jewish assimilation. (2009 Ranking No. 35)
36.Sara Hurwitz—Hurwitz rose to national attention when Rabbi Avi Weiss (No. 18) bestowed her with the title of “rabba.” She is considered the first Orthodox woman rabbi ordained in the United States, and in this role she has had an impact on the roles considered acceptable for modern Orthodox women. (NEW)
37.Kerry M. Olitzky—As executive director of the Jewish Outreach Institute, Olitzky is one of the leading rabbinical advocates for outreach to interfaith and unaffiliated families in America. (2009 Ranking No. 34)
38.Bradley Shavit Artson—Artson is dean of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University. (2009 Ranking No. 40)
39.Naomi Levy—Considered a leader in the Conservative movement, Levy is a nationally recognized speaker and author as well as founder and leader of the Los Angeles-based Jewish outreach organization Nashuva. (2009 Ranking No. 39)
40.Harold Schulweis—In addition to being considered one of the leading voices of the Conservative movement, Schulweis is internationally known for founding Jewish World Watch. (2009 Ranking No. 21)
41.Marc Schneier—Schneier is president and founder of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which seeks to strengthen relationships between ethnic communities in the United States. (2009 Ranking No. 33)
42.Zalman Schacter-Shalomi—Schacter-Shalomi is known as the founder of the Jewish Renewal movement in America. (2009 Ranking No. 45)
43.Elliot Dorff—As chairman of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. Dorff serves as the leader of Conservative Judaism’s top lawmaking body. (2009 Ranking No. 41)
44.Bradley Hirschfield—A nationally known proponent for interfaith dialogues and pluralism, Hirschfield is co-president of CLAL. (2009 Ranking No. 42)
45.Steven Leder—In addition to serving as Senior Rabbi at Los Angeles’s Wilshire Boulevard Temple, Leder is also a bestselling author. (Returning from 2008)
46.Ed Feinstein—A noted author and speaker, Feinstein is senior rabbi of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, Calif. (2009 Ranking No. 44)
47.David Stern—As senior rabbi for Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Stern presides over the largest congregation in the Southwest. (2009 Ranking No. 30)
48.Michael Paley—Paley is the scholar in residence and director of the Jewish Resource Center of the UJA-Federation of New York. (2009 Ranking No. 50)
49.Jill Jacobs—A leading expert in Jewish social-justice issues, Jacobs serves as the rabbi in residence at the Jewish Funds for Justice. (2009 Ranking No. 48)
50.Mark Dratch—As founder of JSafe (The Jewish Institute Supporting an Abuse-Free Environment), Dratch is a nationally recognized speaker and consultant in matters of domestic violence, child abuse, and professional abuse within the Jewish community. (NEW)
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29/06/2010 The toll of the occupation forces killed in Afghanistan this month hits 100. However these forces are achieving “progress” according to the new appointed US commander in the occupied country General David Patreaus.
In the deadliest month for occupation troops in Afghanistan, a total of 100 foreign occupation soldiers have been killed in June, intensifying concerns about the conduct of the war.
An announcement by the US Department of Defense of the death of a US soldier on June 24 in the strife-torn western province of Farah took the toll for the year to date to 320, compared with 520 in all of 2009, according to AFP tally based on the independent icasualties.org website.
But s spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said 81 international troops had been killed in combat so far in June. The previous highest monthly toll was last August, at 77.
Although this expensive price the occupation troops are paying, Petraeus, touted signs “progress” in the Afghan war but warned of a “tough fight” ahead against Taliban militants. The NATO-led force “has achieved progress in several locations” this year, including in the southern Helmand province, Petraeus told senators at a hearing on his nomination as the next commander.
“My sense is that the tough fighting will continue; indeed, it may get more intense in the next few months,” he said. “As we take away the enemy’s safe havens and reduce the enemy’s freedom of action, the insurgents will fight back.”
US President Barack Obama called on Petraeus to take the helm in Kabul after sacking General Stanley McChrystal as commander last week. McChrystal was forced to step down over a bombshell magazine article that quoted him and his staff disparaging the administration, including Obama himself, the US envoy to the region and the US ambassador.
Petraeus also vowed to forge close cooperation with his civilian counterparts in the administration. “We are all firmly united in seeking to forge unity of effort,” Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee. Petraeus said there had been “security gains” over the past year in Afghanistan and credited McChrystal for reshaping the campaign.
PETRAEUS TO REVIEW WAR RULES
On other hand, Petraeus promised to review war rules in Afghanistan laid down by his successor McChrystal saying he was aware of soldiers’ complaints over them. These rules, according to occupation troops, are widely perceived as too restrictive, playing into the hands of the Taliban, costing American lives.
Petraeus told senators he is “keenly aware of concerns by some of our troopers on the ground about the application of our rules of engagement and the tactical directive.” “They should know that I will look very hard at this issue,” he told senators at a hearing on his nomination as commander.
“When our troopers and our Afghan partners are in a tough spot, it is a moral imperative that we use everything we have to make sure that they get out of it,” the general said.
He said he had conveyed his view to Afghan President Hamid Karzai and the defense and interior ministers in Kabul since he was nominated to the commander’s post last week. “They are in full agreement with me on it,” he said.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, said last week Petraeus would have flexibility as commander to review tactics in the Afghan mission.
I will be very busy meeting friends, activists and journalists.
Some of the meetings are open to the public. In case you happen to be around here is the list:
29.6 7 PM Flying Squirrel Community Space 285 Clarissa St. Rochester, NY
30.6 7 PM Billsboro Winery 4760 West Lake Road Geneva, New York. The event is orgenised by Deir Yassin Remembered.
1.7 7PM Mercury Cafe Denver Colorado
2.7 6 PM Aspen Community Church, 200 East Bleeker Street Aspen, Colorado
03.07 7:30 PM Plaza Americas – Houston, Texas (Sponsors: Al-Awda, Houston and KPFT -Radio For Peace. Co-sponsors: Arab American Cultural Center (PACC) and Palestinians for Peace and Democracy (P4PD) 06.07 6:00 PM University of Texas – Austin Texas (Sponsor: Al-Awda)
If you want to schedule an interview with me, please contact me via the sidebar contact box (on the right). Peace Gilad
29/06/2010 For the second consecutive day, the discovery of the dangerous ‘Alfa spy’ made the headlines in Lebanon…
Everyone in Lebanon believes the catch is hefty. They even believe is the very most precious treasure in terms of services and data the detainee has been providing Israel for more than 14 years.
Investigations with the spy are ongoing after confessions made by him showed the seriousness of the work he did for the Israelis over the past 14 years in his capacity as both an Alfa employee and communications ministry staffer.
According to Lebanese daily As-Safir, the Telecoms spy confessed that he had planted software and chips made available to him by Israel across Alfa’s broadcasting stations, making the possibility of manipulating the data in any contact lines much easier for Israeli communications experts.
Meanwhile, President Michel Sleiman lauded the Lebanese army for arresting an employee with a mobile network operator accused of spying for Israel. Sleiman said in a statement that the seizure of Alfa’s Charbel Qazzi was part of a series of arrests that the army made in uncovering cells spying for Israel’s Mossad.
For his part, Army Commander General Jean Qahwaji hailed the achievements made by the military’s intelligence bureau that led to the arrest of the Alfa spy. He called for military vigilance “to prevent enemy penetration of Lebanese civilians, thus, threatening national security.”
Yet, the most remarkable comment was made by the head of the Democratic Gathering MP Walid Jumblatt who joined Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah in calling for hanging Israeli spies in Lebanon.
“Spy networks are planted everywhere. Security in Lebanon is exposed and fear mounts of new assassinations that could lead the country to a disaster,” Jumblatt told Lebanese daily As-Safir on Tuesday.
“These networks necessitate that we be on full-scale alert at all levels,” he stressed. “It is time to strike with an iron fist all the way to the execution of spies,” he warned.
FADLALLAH WARNS: ISRAEL CONTROLS TELECOMS SECTOR!
The head of the Information and Telecoms parliamentary committee MP Hasan Fadlallah, meanwhile, warned that Israel took control over Lebanon’s telecommunications sector after the Alfa employee was arrested on suspicion of spying for the Israeli Mossad.
In a press conference he held at the Parliament, Fadlallah said that the Israeli enemy has managed to seize technical control of the telecommunications network and to harm national security thanks to information provided by the collaborator over past years.
“This is an Israeli collaborator who has been active since 1996 and who for 14 years has been giving the enemy vital information on Lebanese communications and security,” Fadlallah said.
Fadlallah, who’s also a member of the Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc, said the suspect helped provide Israeli intelligence with unrestrained access to all phone calls on the Alfa network. He urged the government to take “immediate action to assess the damage and take necessary action” to ensure the security of Lebanon’s telecommunications sector against any further Israeli interference.
In the wake of the Gaza Holocaust, high seas murder of Turkish citizens during the Israeli flotilla raid and echoes of the UN’s Goldstone Report enunciating crimes against the humanity of a virtually defenseless Palestinian people. All these simmer in our outrage even in the midst of an American media blitz waged against Iran, while simultaneously Zionist threats of bombing scenarios are in the air along with their having recently launched spy satellite over Iran. Deemed guilty is the vocal leadership of the Iranian peoples who can be construed as implicitly asserting their right to govern and defend themselves, and who incidentally, are also guilty of raising scholarly questions as touching what I will characterize as the strategically employed movie versions of the Jewish Holocaust.
Nonetheless, outrage of a global community to the war crimes and crimes against humanity, lambaste the ‘Old Ship of Zion.’ Necessity for justice demanded one come to the global stage imbued with the necessary courage, vision and heart of compassion. As these become the requisite necessity in a challenge to the paranoid insanity of a militaristic Israel. These qualities of leadership help to make possible the garner of the required support imperative to mobilizing assets on behalf of the global voice; cries of the Palestinian peoples under Zionist occupation and the Turkish martyrs aboard the MV Mavi Marmara.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been described as a “complex” leader. Where not only religion charts Turkey’s new course, Mr Erdogan’s foreign policy realigns Turkey with its history and geography, in the process raising its regional and global status, says Dilip Hiro. But, he enters upon a stage where a ball of chaos formed by elusive and shifting alliance of agendas, disinformation on a global scale, digital wealth controlled by blocs of dominant capital holders. All assimilated to provide an almost impenetrable cloud cloaking a society built upon collective global imperialism advancing the ideology and sustaining the power of a US ruling class – “the dominant segments of capital”.
Samir Amin, Africa’s foremost political economist and an intellectual of international stature who was born in Cairo, Egypt sets forth the following. The US ruling class has five objectives: (1) to neutralize and subjugate the other triad partners (Europe and Japan) and to minimize their capacity to act outside the American fold; (2) to establish military control over NATO and to “Latin Americanize’ the former parts of the Soviet World; (3) to assert undivided control over the Middle East and its oil resources; (4) to break up China, to ensure the subordination of the other major states (India, Brazil); and to prevent the constitution of any regional blocs that might renegotiate the terms of globalization, and (5) to marginalize regions in the South that are of no strategic interest. “Beyond US Hegemony? Assessing the Prospects for a Multipolar World,” pages 9-10.
Through the eyes of another understanding it now becomes imperative we re-orient our individual and collective assessments of the Nation of Palestine’s subjugation and the Zionist place in global domination.
According to American founding father Benjamin Franklin the Zionist agenda represented a people who have built up a state within a state; and when opposed have tried to strangle that country to death financially.”Diary of Charles Cotesworth Pinckney of South Carolina. Constitutional Convention. From historical perspective we spy the unflinching determination of this body to seize and maintain power rather than negotiate transference of same.
Such as is eminently personified in 1980 when General Sharon signed an oath with his blood along with very many senior IDF officers who aligned themselves with the same blood oath throughout the years since, “In the event of a government of Israel seeking to withdraw from Judea and Samaria for peace with the Palestinians, the oath commits those who signed it to make common cause with the settlers and fight that government to the death.” See Alan Hart’s “Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews,” in a chapter titled ‘The Blood Oath.’
Here lies the underbelly of the beast. Our destiny is to rule over the inferior races, our earthly kingdom will be ruled by our leader with a rod of iron. The masses will lick our feet and serve us as our slaves.” –Menachem Begin (Israeli Prime Minister, 1977-1983)
Thus, strategic necessity required preserving on the global stage what some have come to term as ‘The Religion of the Holocaust” as the foundational tenant for advancement of the Menachem Begin global agenda. Hence, deeper and more meaningful significance can be assigned to understanding the political brute force and beatings for challenging tenants of the Holocaust by French Professor Robert Faurisson who suffered at the hands of ‘The Sons of the Memory of the Jews.’ Later Professor Faurisson was subsequently prosecuted and fined after the French passed the Gayssot Act; which in effect silenced any and all opposition to taking issues with the published tenants of the Holocaust and he consequently was removed from his university pulpit position.
While we also find rendition of Ernest Zundel from American soil and his seven year incarceration under German laws literally synonymous to the Gayssot Act. Such, brings justification for European outcry of undue Israeli influence on their political systems. And additionally upon the laws governing the courts of Belgian: a universal tribunal where Zionist goons are susceptible to prosecutions for crimes against humanity. In particular it becomes critical in our assessment of facts and motives to gauge the dynamics and lend greater significance to the gravity and outcomes of Zionist influence on Germany and France. Published to have been central in opposing a too rich, too influential and too Muslim a Turkey – who did in the most honorable manner – attempt to become a part of the European Union (EU). We see more fully the destabilizing influence of Israel’s assignments when we consider the published works of Jeff Gates and How Israel is Destabilizing Pakistan. Of a certainty we are compelled to not overlook the powerful significance of the digital algorithms of Israel’s game theory warfare employed by the children of the Holocaust.
From these we can extract and identify a symbiotic relationship between a predatory ruling class striving for global domination and the parasite of Zionism who sucks the blood of the US Hegemony’s ruling class, while not so secretly going about the business of biting off the hand that feeds them. Rationale can now be assigned to understanding the never ending, “some day there are going to be real negotiations to restore the Nation of Palestine and the people of Gaza being empowered and made able to dwell securely in a land that rightfully belongs to them anyway.” One is able to discern ever so quietly the workings of a good cop bad cop scenario rearing its ugly head and assembling its cronies around the negotiation table, which is no negotiation. Whereby, the good cop seemingly comes to the rescue of the open air prison inmates and offers them a cup of coffee with a smile while the bad cop is beating the head of the victims until they are bloodied; made compliant, and unable to build a nation themselves.
What further becomes evident for me as an African American, are the devices now being employed since the Middle Eastern oil boom and subsequent OPEC embargo of the 1970’s. Strategic aims of US Hegemony, runs parallel with the enslavement and exploitation of Black Africa in whose design the slave economy even now sustains itself. In 1712 Willie Lynch left his West Indies plantation and traveled to the Colony of Virginia in the United States where he outlined a method to control black slaves. His fool-proof method involved outlining the number of differences amongst the slaves and then making them bigger. Willie used fear, trust, and envy for control purposes and encouraged the mobilization of every mommy, every daddy and every institution to carry out the social engineering.
Willie Lynch discourse states, “On the top of my list is “Age”, but it is there because it only starts with an “A”; the second is “Color” or shade; there is intelligence, size, sex, size of plantations, attitude of owners, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, East, West, North, South, have fine or coarse hair, or is tall or short. Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an outline of action–but before that, I shall assure you that distrust is stronger than trust, and envy is stronger than adulation, respect, or admiration. The Black Slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry on and will become self refueling and self generating for hundreds of years, maybe thousands.
Don’t forget, you must pitch the old Black vs. the young Black male, and the young Black male against the old Black male. You must use the dark skinned slaves vs the light skinned slaves, and the light skinned slaves vs. the dark skinned slaves. You must use the female vs. the male, and the male vs. the female. You must also have your servants and overseers distrust all Blacks, but it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us. They must love, respect, and trust only us. My plan is guaranteed, and the good thing about this plan is that if used intensely for one year, the slaves themselves will remain perpetually distrustful.” Samir Amin wrote in his 1982 work “The Arab Economy Today” that in the Arab world there was no Arab economy, rather each of the Arab states integrated as a separate unit into the world capitalist system. Where we are now able to discern opportunity was instantly provided for the US ruling class to utilize historical differences in the Middle East as a mechanism of control. Palestinian plight becomes a necessary tenant to distract the eyes of Arab and global aspiration to the wrong villain through a slight of hand spawned by craft and deception. Confusion, issues, dissemination and media spawned outrage born of Zionist game theory, creates a cloudy sphere of chaos wherein hides the true criminals agenda
Bishop Donald R. Corder is the spiritual leader of the Spirit of Life International Believers Fellowship and Senior Pastor for the Pillar of Truth Ministries.
Mr. Corder is a published author, grassroots organizer and community activist, in addition to his work in urban and international development as a business consultant and entrepreneur. Email: DonCorder@gmail.com
This Article may be used without permission but with proper attribution to Intifada Palestine.
“The US Congress and White House are zionized occupied territory.“
The Report published by the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, better known by the name of its head, as the “Goldstone Report” was a major breakthrough in three senses. In the first place the Report was the most systematic, detailed study of Israeli violations of international law in its wars against the Palestinian people. Secondly it caught the attention of the broadest sections of world opinion and ignited a firestorm of disapproval of Israel from almost all of the worlds’ leaders.
On the negative side the publication of the Report and the vehement rejection by all of the mainstream American Jewish Organizations, revealed their utterly craven disregard for human rights on the one hand and their absolute power and control over Washington’s policy toward the Middle East on the other. The US Congress voted by a margin of over ten to one to denounce the Report and instead support Israeli war crimes, as did the White House.
The texts and illustrations in this book provide graphic accounts and visual evidence of why Israel has provoked a worldwide ‘Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions’ campaign by human rights activists, trade unions and a multitude of other groups, including individuals in Israel and Jewish organizations in Europe and North America. The Goldstone Report is an in depth case study of Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, including the blockade of such essential goods, as food and medicine, the systematic and deliberate targeting and destruction of civilian targets, including the murder of civilians in homes, schools and UN facilities; the use of weapons designed to inflect maximum pain and death to civilians (white phosphorous bombs); the gratuitous destruction of the foundations of civilian life including food production, water installations and sewage treatment facilities. Like their Nazi predecessors, the Israeli forces used Palestinian civilians as “human shields”, rounded up thousands of civilians, including women and children who were forcibly detained, humiliated and tortured. The Report concludes that the actions of the Israeli Government could lead to a “competent court finding that crimes against humanity have been committed.” The Report was approved by a vast majority in the United Nations General Assembly.
While it was beyond the mandate of the UN to discuss other Israeli war crimes, the Goldstone Report did give fleeting reference to Israel’s use of the same methods during its invasion of Lebanon in 2006. What the Goldstone Report described with regard to Israel’s savaging of Gaza has a long and ignoble history, which needs to beaddressed, especially in light of what some liberal Zionists charge as “picking on” Israel.
Most critics especially on the Left condemn all brutal acts of war and torture whenever they are committed, so this charge is a phony cover-up of Israel’s especially brutal conduct from the founding of the state. .Israel holds ‘world records’ in the number of towns and villages ethnically cleansed (over 500 and counting); number of refugees deported (4 million and counting); number of homes demolished (60 thousand and continuing); and has imprisoned more civilians per capita than any other country (250,000 and growing). Israel is the country with the highest number of protective US Security Council vetoes (over 100) preventing the world body from condemning Israeli war crimes.
Here is the great political and moral challenge. How do we explain the US governments’ sustained complicity with Israeli war crimes in the face of worldwide reprobation? How do we explain the utterly depraved conduct of the Obama White House and nearly 90% of the US Congress in denouncing the Goldstone Report? These and other related questions are addressed in the chapters discussing the political, economic and cultural power of the Presidents of the Major American Jewish organizations, including but not confined to AIPAC.
Even as I write these lines, April 25, 2010, the news from Washington is that Congress has passed a new war-sanctions act, by a 95% majority imposing a virtual blockade of Iran, authored by AIPAC and backed by all the major Americans Jewish organizations. With the exception of a handful of writers and anti-Zionist Jewish activists, the vast majority of the progressive leftist, Marxist, anti-war and Palestinian organizations and intellectuals, even those critical of the Congressional vote, in fear and cowardice, refuse to name the intellectual authors and political promoters of this vile act of Congress.
The Goldstone Report energized many, especially young Jews who were reticent to criticize Israel, to speak out against Israeli war crimes. A few cracks appeared in the Zionist monolith, as liberal lobbyists like J Street, condemned the Jewish State’s excesses in Gaza. Hopeful signs, alas which were, in great part, dashed when it came time to raise a hue and cry about AIPAC and mainstream Jewish-organized backing for the war-sanctions act against Iran. The silence was deafening. The saying that the Jewish left’s opposition to Israel war policies ends when a war begins, applies to the present war-sanctions bill. The terrible power of the Zionist Power Configuration has run amok: the Jewish Congressional lobby, the liberals, progressives and neo-cons all together signed and promoted an act of Congress signed by over 330 Congress people rebuking Obama for publicly disagreeing with Netanyahu over the land grab in Arab Jerusalem. This book not only provides a detailed account and illustration of Israeli war crimes in Gaza but equally important it provides a comprehensive analysis of the reasons why more and more people are recognizing that the US Congress and White House are zionized occupied territory.
James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 64 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, Temps Moderne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet. His publishers have included Random House, John Wiley, Westview, Routledge, Macmillan, Verso, Zed Books and Pluto Books. He is winner of the Life Time Career Award, Marxist Section, of the American Sociology Association, the Robert Kenny Award for Best Book, 2002, and the Best Dissertation, Western Political Science Association in 1968. Some recent titles include Unmasking Globalization: Imperialism of the Twenty-First Century (2001); co-author The Dynamics of Social Change in Latin America (2000), Unmasking Globalisation (2001), System in Crisis (2003), co-author Social Movements and State Power (2003), co-author Empire With Imperialism (2005), co-author) Multinationals on Trial (2006). His most recent titles are The Power of Israel in the United States and Rulers and Ruled in the United States, (acquired for Japanese, German, Italian, Indonesian, Czech and Arabic editions), Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power, and Global Depression & Regional Wars. He has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. In 1973-76 he was a member of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Repression in Latin America. ___________________________________________________________________________________ Source: http://www.claritypress.com/PetrasV.html
Across the West Bank, Friday was a day of protest against Israel’s blood diamonds, which are harvested while infringing on human rights in African countries and then polished in apartheid Israel and then exported. The diamond trade accounts for 30% of Israel’s total manufacturing exports:
After the ceremony in honor of Palestinian prisoners, the people of Nebi Salah continued in their weekly march toward the town center. As usual, the army intercepted violently against a resilient civil troop of women and girls.
In Bil’in blood diamonds with an emphasis on the boycott was the theme. The army, yet again, dispersed violently, sparking fires in the olive groves, and trying to make arrests, but this time all demonstrators got away.
More nonviolent demonstrations took place during the week and are taking place as we speak in the villages Beit Jalla, Ma’asara, Beit Ummar, al-Wallaje, Biddu and many others.
Michel Collon, a Belgian journalist and author, in his book “Israel, let’s talk about it,” has slammed European media over decades of “lying” to people in order to support Israel.
Collon, in his book, has recounted “10 big lies” spread by Western media in order to “justify the existence and actions of Israel”, which are concisely presented below:
1. The first lie is that Israel was established in reaction to the massacre of Jews during the World War II. This notion is completely wrong. Israel is in fact a domineering project which was approved in the First Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, in 1897, when nationalist Jews decided to occupy Palestine.
2. The second justification for establishing and legitimizing Israel is that the Jews are returning to their forefathers’ land, from where they had been driven away in 70 A.D. This is a tale. I have spoken to the famous Israeli historian Shlomo Sand and other historians and they all believe that there has been no “exodus,” so “return” is meaningless. The people living in Palestine have not left their land in the ancient era.
In fact the descendents of Jews residing in Palestine are the people who are currently living in Palestine. Those who claim they want to return to their lands originate for Western and Eastern Europe and Northern Africa.
Sand says there is no Jewish nation. The Jews do not have common history, language or culture. The only common thing between them is their religion, and religion does not make a nation.
3. The third lie is that when Jewish immigrants occupied Palestine, it was an empty and uninhibited country.
However, there are documents and evidences that prove that in the 19th century the agricultural products of Palestine were exported to different countries, including France.
4. Fourth, some people say Palestinians left their country on their own free will.
This is another lie, which lots of people believed, including myself. Until Israeli historians like Benny Morris and Ilan Pappe said that Palestinians were driven away and banished from their lands by using force and terror.
5. It is said that today Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and it should be protected; it is the “government of law.”
But in my opinion not only it is not the government of law; it is the only regime that no law defines its territory and boundaries. All the countries of the world have a constitution which defines their boundaries, but no such thing applies to Israel. Israel is an expansionist project which knows no boundary, and its law is completely racist; according to this law Israel is the country for Jews, and its non-Jew citizens are not considered human. Such law is a contradiction to democracy.
6. It is said that the US tries to protect democracy in the Middle East by protecting Israel. And we know that the US annual financial aid to Israel amounts to 3 billion dollars. This money is used for bombarding Israel’s neighbor countries.
But America is not after establishing democracy in the Middle East; it wants the undisturbed flow of oil.
7. They pretend that the US seeks an agreement between Israel and Palestine.
This is also completely wrong and a lie. EU former Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana told the Israel that “you are the 21st country of the European Union.” The European weapons industries cooperate with the Israeli military industries and support them financially. But when Palestinians elected their government, Europe did not recognize it and gave the green light to Israel to attack the Gaza Strip.
8. When one talks about these facts and the history of Israel and Palestine, when one reveals the US interests in this situation, they call you anti-Semite to keep you silent.
But we should say that when we criticize Israel, it is not racism or anti-Semitism. We criticize a government that does not believe in the equality of Jews, Christians and Muslims, and so destroys the peace between followers of different religions.
9. The mass media say that Palestinians cause violence and terrorism. We say Israel army’s occupation is violence, the policy that has stolen land and home from Palestinians is violence.
10. An issue which is often raised is that there is no way for resolving this situation, and there is no solution for the hatred and the grudge caused by Israel and its accomplices.
But there is a solution. The only thing that can stop this process is the public pressure on the accomplices of Israel in the US and Europe and other parts of the world; public pressure on the mass media which refrain from telling the truth about Israel; and using the Internet or any other media out let to publish real news about Palestine.
To further nothing else than the status quo, it suffice to be solely realist and never challenge the forces in presence, especially when the balance of forces are disproportionally unfavorable.
There is nothing new in this principle, since after all conquest and occupation are nothing else than the direct result of precisely unfavorably disproportional forces.
Fortunately, this is never where the story ends.
Indeed even ultra-microscopic infectious agents can cause havoc or death to human bodies million times stronger, larger and equipped with massive medical weaponry.
Indeed antique Rome was invaded, conquered and sacked by a tiny band of Barbarians haphazardly armed with forks and sticks, and a visionary leader named Adalric.
They defeated the mightiest army in the world at that time. Before the battle, sons of powerful Romans came to the Barbarian’s compound, to mock them. Adalric sardonically replied to their snarling questions, that “the thicker the grass, the easier to cut”
Indeed history is replete of stories of the underdog overthrowing his master, ever heard of Achille’s heel, of David and Goliath, of Fidel Castro liberating Cuba, of the Algerian Liberation… etc etc ?
Indeed most discoveries in science, in practically every field, are the fruit of challenging the mighty certitudes of the time, and the inflexible powers that enforce them.
Realistically, those who hijacked power and capital, those who hold entire populations at check with armies, tanks, prisons and walls, do everything to protect their privileges, so they discourage change, disillusion populations, shackle them in debt, make them feel inferior and impotent.
That is why those who really do change the paradigm always appear at first to be just “dreamers” envisioning the impossible.
Yet there always comes a moment when the status quo, whilst protected by means “too powerful to fail”, gets challenged by forces emerging from where they are expected the least, and who aim with great vision and great precision at Achille’s heel.
Furthermore, this emergence generally gains momentum at the very time when the holders of power and capital have become incompetent, and fallen into the puerile belief that they are “invincible”.
Concurrently some are tricked into acceptance, by letting them believe that polite requests for some clemency and crumbs of freedom, will change the tyrant’s nature. They say that diplomacy will convince an oppressor regime to accept as his equals its subjects and slaves from whom he took everything! What a lack of logic, since the premise to conquest, occupation and cruel oppression is the strict opposite of compassion, social justice and equality.
When the tyrant occupation regime is bent on annihilating you, it is totally delusional to seek compliance and diplomacy. At least that is how it appears at first.
In Palestine, just as anywhere else, when a mad dog enters and tries to take over the house, you have but three options:
1. you ruin your life by running away and let him have the house
2. you get killed while you gently pet him in the hopes he would become a friendly dog.
3. you place yourself strategically, so that you can kill the mad dog,
At closer inspection the adroit coordination of both the unrealistic polite diplomacy and the dreamer’s asymmetric resistance, does exponentially increase the chances to reverse the balance of results and achieve the third option -fully. There is no coincidence that most movements of Liberation operated with this dual political-military approach, whether in Ireland, Algeria, Chiapas, etc.
Knocking gently at the gates of oppression does not open the doors to freedom and progress. You need to dream their opening, and then to break them open, and finally you must chase to hell those who built and locked these somber gates and doors.
I would like to remind here that the “Peace” melodies played by fake sirens, are crypto-zionist lullabies designed to neutralize the Resistance.
“Extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice”* and “Moderation in the pursuit of Justice is no virtue”*
In conclusion, the return of lasting Peace to Palestine and the Middle East will coincide with the return home of its Arab people. It will be preceded by a deafening clamor coming from everywhere around the planet, ordering to the gory occupier:
“GET THE HELL OUT OF PALESTINE”**
———————————————— quotes by *Barry Goldwater and **Helen Thomas
When will the time come when justice is addressed for this outrage against humanity?
instablogsimages.com
(TRIPOLI) – This is the second in a series as I wait for the Boat Brigade to leave from Tripoli, an event that may or may not happen as politics and legalities intertwine. This is not intended to be news reportage, but rather a reaction to the broader issues revolving around the boat flotillas attempting to breech the siege of Gaza.
“It was the flies that told us. There were millions of them, their hum almost as eloquent as the smell. Big as bluebottles, they covered us, unaware at first of the difference between the living and the dead.” (Robert Fisk, Pity the Nation, 359)
This quote opens Robert Fisk’s account of his encounter with the massacre at the Chatila refugee camp in 1982, a massacre controlled by the invading Israeli army here in Beirut. This blatant act of horrific barbarity occurred roughly 30 years ago, half the time the state of Israel has been in existence, transforming the mid-east into a seething cauldron of internecine conflicts, smoldering hatred, and absolute vengeance.
As I walked the alleyways of Chatila yesterday, I could not help but reflect on the consequences of the mentality that justified it or the consequences caused by those devastated by it. As I wait here 30 years later to board a boat to defy the Israelis’ continuing occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people in Gaza, I cannot avoid the reality on the ground that Israel has created. As I wait, a march gathers around Lebanon from all the refugee camps, a march that will culminate at the Parliament buildings today at 4PM. Some 5000 are expected, organized by the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign to bring through legislation civil rights to the Palestinians living in Chatila and the other refugee camps, rights denied for over 62 years.
As I wait, days pass filled with uncertainty about the legislation that could give hope to parents for some economic relief from absolute poverty, hope to children for a future of promise, hope to Lebanese who would no longer have to live in the presence of justice denied. As I wait, days pass, not years, for the boat to leave Tripoli to go to Gaza, and I wait impatiently annoyed that matters have not been organized and problems resolved before more time passes.
Time. What is it after all? Didn’t the “eloquent hum” of the flies Fisk heard ring the death knell of innocents slaughtered by Israeli “trained militaries”?
We were breathing death, inhaling the very putrescence of the bloated corpses around us. Jenkins immediately realized that the Israeli defence minister would have to bear some responsibility for this horror. ‘Sharon!’ he shouted. ‘That fucker Sharon! This is Deir Yassin all over again. (360)
Time. How do we account for it? Why these mothers carved and slashed, babies cut from wombs? Why these yet unborn children? Why these girls raped so violently? Lives lived in time, unexplainable and unremembered. And those who lived throughout Shabra, how do they live now? What is time to those who have nothing, time only to sit through because there is no work; time as remorse to weep for those lost; time as agony and torment for children that will live without hope, without fulfillment, without a future. I saw them caught in the confines of dark alleys, sloshing through stagnant puddles, surrounded by stench, the new stench of decaying garbage, not the “eloquent smell” of death Fisk describes. Thousands upon thousands of refugees imprisoned in one square kilometer of space, an area surrounded by embassies, highways, high rises, warehouses, car dumps, abandoned buildings, decrepit skeletons of past splendor, the visible metaphor of human indifference and disdain.
They must have been armed by the Israelis. Their handiwork had already been watched—clearly observed—by the Israelis, by those same Israelis who were still watching us through their field-glasses. (364)
Has time stood still for the residents of Chatila? How could it not. Lacking means to move, lacking legitimacy elsewhere, lacking a homeland because foreigners have stolen it, lacking a nation—indeed, lacking a community of nations that shows a heartfelt concern for their own, the refugee is crucified to the streets and alleys of Chatila, stuffed into the cement bunkers that grow only in filth and decay as time passes, living daily the horrifying memory of this heinous slaughter, passing the grounds that had been piled with decaying bodies.
When does a killing become an outrage? When does an atrocity become a massacre? Thirty? A hundred? Three hundred? When is a massacre not a massacre? When the figures are too low? Or when the massacre is carried out by Israel’s friends rather than Israel’s enemies.
When will the time come when justice is addressed for this outrage against humanity? When will the world declare an end to Israel’s evil? How many times must we witness the wanton slaughter of the helpless justified by “right of self-defense” when the people killed have no defense and no rights because the United States stands alone as it justifies the evil before the world; defying International law and all agreements that have united the nations of the world under the banners of justice from the foundational documents of the United States—the International Declaration of Human Rights. How ironic, how pathetic.
Perhaps today the lives lived and lost in time—the ghosts of Shabra and Chatila—will image for us what must not be if our future is to exist and we are not to live as the residents of Chatila must live, frozen by the mindset of those who commit such slaughter, lacking conscience, lost to indifference, the very image of the human without a soul.
The eyes of these young men were all open. The youngest was only 12 or 13 years old. They were dressed in jeans and coloured shirts, the material absurdly tight over their flesh now that their bodies had begun to bloat in the heat. They had not been robbed. On one blackened wrist, a Swiss watch recorded the current time, the second hand still ticking round uselessly, expending the last energies of its dead owner. (361) Thus does time measure the mentality of men, a conscienceless recording of its darkest hours.
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William A. Cook is Professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California where he served for 13 years as Vice President for Academic Affairs before assuming his faculty position in 2001. Prior to coming to California, he served as a Dean of Faculty, Chair of Department of English and faculty member at institutions large and small, public and private in four eastern states. He is an activist and a writer for numerous Internet publications including Counterpunch, Salem-News.com, Pacific Free Press in British Columbia, Dissident Voice and Information Clearing House, serving as senior editor for MWC News out of Canada, and contributing editor at the Palestine Chronicle, the Atlantic Free Press in the Netherlands, and the World Prout Assembly, his polemics against the Bush administration and the atrocities caused by Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert in Israel, now our 51st state, have been spread around the Internet world and translated into French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Italian. Cook also serves on the Board of the People’s Media Project, interviews on radio and TV in South Africa, Canada, Iran and the United States and contributed for five years yearly predictions to the Hong Kong Economic News. This volume follows his Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy, Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied: The Rape of Palestine and continues his scourge against the hypocrisy, deceit, and destructive policies that have characterized American mid-east policy and its destructive alliance with the Zionist forces that have turned Israel into an apartheid state determined to destroy the Palestinian people. In addition to his polemics, he writes plays (The Unreasoning Mask, co-authored with his wife, D’Arcy, and The Agony of Colin Powell), satires (see “Advancing the Civilized State: Inch by Bloody Inch” in The Rape), and poetry (Psalms for the 21st Century). His most recent fictional work creates a morality tale based upon real life figures that haunt our lives, The Chronicles of Nefaria He can be reached at wcook@laverne.edu or www.drwilliamacook.com..
The Plight of the Palestinians: a Long History of Destruction is a collection of voices from around the world that establishes in both theoretical and graphic terms the slow, methodical genocide taking place in Palestine beginning in the 1940s, as revealed in the Introduction. From Dr. Francis A. Boyle’s detailed legal case against the state of Israel, to Uri Avnery’s “Slow Motion Ethnic Cleansing,” to Richard Falk’s “Slouching toward a Palestinian Holocaust,” to Ilan Pappe’s “Genocide in Gaza,” these voices decry in startling, vivid, and forceful language the calculated atrocities taking place, the inhumane conditions inflicted on the people, and the silence that exists despite the crimes, nothing short of state-sponsored genocide against the Palestinians.
Posted on June 28, 2010 by Nahida Exiled Palestinian
I dream of liberation of Palestine.
My dream is not blurred by illusions or hindered by hardships. A cornerstone for a Liberation movement is clarity of vision, to keep our objectives in focus.
It is perhaps the disproportional difference of power which makes our aims and vision look like foolish dreams to those who think of themselves as being “realists”.
It is unrealistic to fight against a tyrannical occupation force with deference and only meek means of persuasion and appeasement, because it never stops the crimes, never pushes back the tyrant. Instead, it confirms the tyrant’s authority, which in return will trigger him to pursue unchanged his ruthless methods of conquest and enslavement.
It is realistic and can not be ignored that only creative and surprising means of pushing out occupying tyrants, be it radical, will defeat a tyrant equipped with overwhelming military powers and determined to annihilate the conquered. The uncompromised principle is the key to liberation.
An unrestrained vision toward clearly defined objectives can not be intimidated or suffocated by “facts on the ground”, as these “facts” are the artificial fruits of a temporary force, and not the timeless result of natural unconstrained evolution. To omit this evidence would negate the possibility of peaceful change and evolution. Strictly no human achievement would have ever been possible throughout history, without aiming toward what seems impossible.
In any negotiations (let alone with one’s oppressors) raising up the ceiling of demands is a prerequisite to achieve the nearest possible level of your objectives, hopes and expectations.
Palestinians do not demand anything else than the implementation of their inalienable, historical and human rights. Palestinians have not fallen to discouragement, not lowered their honest expectations, and it is our duty to continue to plant hope, to nurture imagination and to foster optimism.
“Imagination is more important than knowledge” according to Albert Einstein; if that is true in the field of “hard” sciences like mathematics and physics, as I believe it is, it is even more true in the field of humanity and social sciences.
Through imagination, we leap beyond the boundaries of the known, the permitted and the understood to embrace the entire universe and further afar, where questions bounce back and forth and answers run forever.
People who managed to open their eyes to the truth about what happened to Palestine are generally astounded by the steadfastness and persistence of Palestinians;
How come they never give up!
What is it that keeps them going!
Why are they able to survive against all odds!
How are they able to stand up to such oppression with such little means!
How can they endure such losses with faces still smiling!
Where do they get their strength from!
The answer to all these questions lies in one word; Free-spirit
A spirit that has its worldly roots intertwined with the soil of its land while its branches extend to heaven
A spirit aware of its potential and weaknesses; is only answerable to its creator
A spirit that thrives and blossoms through the wisdom of its ancestors and prophets
A spirit that cherishes its two wings of freedom: Faith and Hope
If small numbers, lack of means, limited abilities, and restricted resources were to be considered as limits, instead of mere obstacles, no prophet or visionary would’ve left a mark in our human history.
To confine ourselves only to “what we can do here and now”, nullifies any forward strategy, and brings upon a future similar to the unacceptable present occupation and oppression, though it might be dressed differently. This is not an option.
If Palestinians were to comply and abide by the rules of the game as defined by the colonial “super-powers” the sheer word “Palestine” would have disappeared by now. There would be no mention of us anywhere, and yet we achieved already so much. We have more than ever the strength to resist, to dream and to force our way to expose and defeat the criminal Zionist project. If you ponder as to what has kept the Palestinian’s plight for Justice and Liberation alive, the answer is our inflexible determination.
May be in that sense Palestinians ought to become an example, an inspiration for a global movement of Resistance against the New World Order.
The human spirit is magnificent when allowed to fly, and the extent of achievements can be astounding when we set our imagination free.
From this perspective I view the world, as a Palestinian, a Muslim, and a human being, and it is from this starting point that my own thoughts and words emerge.
When I write, I never do so as politician, never as a leader, never as a negotiator, never as chairwoman, and certainly never ever as an army general.
When I write, I do so as a mother whose main concern is to take part in preparing the grounds for a better future for her children, grand children and other children of the world, a world where justice is the foundation, peace is the cement and compassion the warmth that adds comfort to this sustainable building.
I write as a child, who believes she can find an answer for every question, imagine a story behind every picture, hear music in the passing of breeze, see wonders in the most ordinary, a child who sees miracles in every common incident.
I write as a visionary whose worldly limitations does not hinder her from looking forward and rejoicing in what she sees way beyond the horizon, and if possible bring that horizon nearer.
I write as a poet in the hope that the melodies of my songs would help to keep going those who march for justice, freedom and humanity.
I write as an artist who paints images not of a world that she sees but rather of a world that she loves, yearns for and endeavours to see.
I write as a sky-gazer, who can still see stars despite the light-pollution.
I write as an idealist flying toward an idyllic world.
I write as a dreamer, who will never stop dreaming, until my dreams become reality.
The detection of this female spy happened as a result of the vigorous counterespionage campaign carried out lately by the Palestinian security in Gaza that led to the dismantling of dozens of spy rings including female elements.
According to Al-Majd website concerned with security affairs, the husband of this woman was behind her detection, where his wife made a small mistake led him to discover her connection with the Israeli intelligence.
The website did not mention any further details about the circumstances of this incident or whether she was arrested or her matter was amicably settled with her family.
Vice dean of academic affairs at the faculty of Palestine for security sciences Hisham Al-Maghazi told the Palestinian information center (PIC) that there were many female spies who were detected before and whose issues were solved confidentially for the sake of the reputation of their families.
OxFan: Excerpts:“….. Since the murder of former Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri in 2005, Lebanon has seen heightened sectarian tensions and periodic violent scuffles, fed by a prolonged political standoff with sectarian overtones between the March 8 and March 14 coalitions. The fact that Lebanon came precariously close in 2008 to a relapse into sectarian violence similar to the 1975-1990 civil war has urged some groups to organise demonstrations, public meetings, exhibitions, media campaigns and various projects aimed at tempering sectarian divisions. A reform movement has also gained pace within political parties, particularly among Shia leaders who may see an advantage in removing sectarian quotas, since they are the majority population group:
Barring the Shia Amal and Hizbollah parties, the milieu supporting a secular system in Lebanon has roots in leftist parties which formed the National Movement during Lebanon’s 1975-90 civil war.
It includes academics, human rights lawyers and civil society stalwarts — some of whom, like Interior Minister Ziad Baroud, are today legislators.
They face a tough task on many levels, as sectarianism is ingrained in social norms, media, public institutions and — most importantly — in Lebanon’s constitution…..
Entrenched sectarianism. Sectarian practices have become more entrenched since the end of the civil war in 1990:
The 1989 Taif Agreement that ended the war merely shelved some of the key political conflicts of the war, and Lebanon’s Christians in particular felt excluded during the period of Syrian military presence in Lebanon. Continued political instability and unresolved conflicts between political and sectarian groups have fed the population’s need for protection within their sects.
The civil war saw many areas and neighbourhoods of Lebanon turned into near-homogenous zones along sectarian lines. Despite plans to resettle the internally displaced from the war, urban space is still divided.
Lack of educational and electoral reforms has perpetuated institutional sectarianism.
A sectarian division of the media sector, which has grown exponentially since the 1990s, reifies sectarian affiliation and political dividing lines……
…. Proportional representation was a key recommendation of the 2006 Boutros Commission, appointed by the government, and is likely to be taken up and debated ahead of the 2013 parliamentary elections. Shia secularists. Fundamental changes to the constitution depend on support from sectarian political leaders. Long-time parliament speaker, Nabih Berri, has recently declared himself a champion of the abolition of political sectarianism. In January, Berri called for a national committee to be established to focus on eradicating sectarianism. Similar gestures have been made by his Shia ally in the March 8 coalition, Hizbollah head Hassan Nasrallah. Reactions have been mainly critical:
Many secularists point out that the initiative comes from leaders who take advantage of the sectarian system. Shia sectarian parties have at times attempted to co-opt Shia secularists through reference to secularism, and particularly, calls to change the electoral law.
Berri’s remarks stoked deep-seated Christian fears that abolishing sectarianism would leave them underrepresented as a result of their dwindling numbers, whereas the Shia, thought to be the largest sect in Lebanon today, would dominate parliament.
The Maronite Church, a key player in Christian politics, is strongly opposed to the idea, with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir arguing on several occasions that sectarianism ought to be “removed from the souls before being removed from the texts”.
…. Outlook. These groups represent a minority of largely well-educated, urban middle classes, and are likely to stay marginal for the time being. However, despite their limited ability to influence politics, they have become more visible in the last five years, and could play a notable role in shaping public debate. The leftist parties have much greater political influence, but they are remnants of an older project to reform Lebanon which has seen little real success. The electoral law is likely to remain central to the political debate about sectarianism, and it is possible that the 2006 draft will eventually pass, with the help of these parties. However, this would require a much calmer and more stable regional and domestic political environment, and is not likely in the near future.Much like nuclear disarmament, the dismantling of sectarianism is regarded as a desirable prospect, but one which needs key security guarantees for the beneficiaries of the current system. Moreover, there is little chance that the system will change as long as the sectarian parties maintain their power bases in the population, and the wider population depends on their sectarian representatives financially. Such factors add weight to the argument that sectarianism must be dismantled from below, through a change in mentality, ahead of any major constitutional reforms — and such a change cannot be expected in the short term.”
Via:Atlantic Free Press. Based on classified documents from the Jewish Agency and its affiliated organizations seized by the British Mandate Police, materials that confirm that the Zionist controlled Jewish community intended to remove the Arab inhabitants of Palestine from their land and make the whole of Mandate Palestine a Jewish State, an intent that continues to the present day as the new book, The Plight of the Palestinians: a Long History of Destruction, available at Macmillan.com, demonstrates.
The Untold Story of the Zionist intent to turn Palestine into a Jewish State
“Jewish villages were built in the place of Arab villages. You do not even know the names of these Arab villages, and I do not blame you because Geography books no longer exist, not only do the books not exist, the Arab villages are not there either … There is not one single place built in this country that did not have a former Arab population.” (Moshe Dayan, Address to the Technion, Haifa, as quoted in Haaretz, 4-4-1969)
Thus began in November of 1947 what is euphemistically called the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by the combined forces of the Jewish armies, the Haganah, the Stern, and the Irgun as they drove more than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs from their homes leaving them destitute, homeless and abandoned without a country in what is now the largest refugee Diaspora in the world.
More truthfully, the plight of the Palestinians that began so ruthlessly in 1947, and is now called the Nakba, was an intentional, calculated campaign to force the Palestinian Arabs out of Palestine, a systematic genocide of a people as defined by the United Nations in its adoption of Genocide Convention, Article II. The United Kingdom had mandatory authority from the League of Nations to govern the Palestine area with the establishment of the Palestine Mandate in 1922. Prior to the official implementation of the Mandate in 1922, the British Government had enunciated a “declaration” concerning the desirability of His Majesty’s Government in the “establishment of a national home for the Jewish people,” called the Balfour Declaration. Command Paper 1922 from the Avalon Project at Yale Law School underlines this intent: “His Majesty’s Government therefore now declare unequivocally that it is no part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State.”
The View from Inside the Mandate
One of the curious ambiguities that surrounds the decade that preceded the declaration by the Jewish leaders in Palestine of the state of Israel is the dearth of information and perspective from the British Mandate forces governing Palestine between 1940 and May 15, 1948, the date of implementation of the partition resolution. Fortunately, Sir Richard C. Catling has left us a file that provides insight into conditions that prevailed in Jerusalem while he was Deputy Head of the Special Branch of the Criminal Investigation Division in Jerusalem in 1944 and a year later Assistant Inspector General. Catling’s “TOP SECRET” file has lain untouched in the Rhodes House archives of the Bodleian Libraries of Oxford University until two years ago.
Two documents dominate the file with 62 appendices of evidence totaling close to 500 pages of materials. The first is a dispatch sent to the Secretary of State, dated 16th of October, 1941, by the High Commissioner of Palestine, Harold MacMichael, labeled “Most Secret”; the second, a Top Secret “Memorandum on the Participation of the Jewish National Institutions in Palestine in Acts of Lawlessness and Violence,” prepared by the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters, The Palestine Police, Jerusalem, dated July 31st, 1947. [Sir Richard C. Catling, #145, Mss.Med. S20]1
What should be obvious now, with the materials preserved by Sir Richard C. Catling, is the truth about the creation of the state of Israel: acceptance of UN Resolution 181 by the Jewish Agency Provisional Government as the designated Jewish state was not done with intent to abide by the goal of the UN General Assembly, to provide a state for two peoples in the land of Palestine, but rather to use it as a means to gain eventual control of all the land and cleanse that land of its indigenous people to whatever extent possible. Put bluntly, as the chapters in Macmillan’s new book, The Plight of the Palestinians attests (to be released in June), the current government in Israel continues the practices of past Israeli governments: cleanse the land of its rightful inhabitants to make that land part of the Jewish state. This is what is termed in numerous chapters in this volume, “slow motion genocide.”
Jump Starting the State
Consider the events of April 9-11, 1948, the eradication of the citizens of the town of Deir Yassin, a month before the Agency declared the existence of the Israeli state and the implementation of the UN Resolution to partition. This massacre became then and remains the signature example of the intent of the Zionist Consultancy and its agents to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its non-Jewish inhabitants.2
During the six months between the adoption of UN Resolution 181 and in subsequent months, the new state of Israel launched a massive military incursion into territory designated by that same Resolution for the Palestinian people, creating in its wake “three quarters of a million Palestinian refugees,” the destruction of “hundreds of entire villages … not only depopulated but obliterated …and houses blown up or bulldozed.” Walid Khalidi’s massive study focuses on 418 villages, once the homes of Palestinians, 292 completely destroyed, 90 others “largely destroyed,” the remainder replaced by Jews called Israeli settlers.3
Perceiving the Reality
The “despatch” sent by MacMichael to the Secretary of State resulted from an investigation into the funding practices and use of those funds by various Jewish organizations.
The memorandum illustrates … the fact that the Mandatory is faced potentially with as grave a danger in Palestine from Jewish violence as it has ever faced from Arab violence, a danger infinitely less easy to meet by the methods of repression which have been employed against Arabs. In the first place, the Jews … have the moral and political support … of considerable sections of public opinion both in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. … all the influence and political ability of the Zionists would be brought to bear to show that the Jews in Palestine were the victims of aggression, and that a substantial body of opinion abroad would be persuaded of the truth of the contention.4
Quite obviously, MacMichael understands that the Mandatory has little power at home over the zealous actions of the Zionists as they manipulate public and political opinion even as they expand their terrorism against the British Mandate government in Palestine. This is an untenable position to be in, responsible for government control and security of those under its authority, i.e. Palestinians as well as Jews, knowing that the Jews are set on driving the British out of Palestine, and knowing that the home government can offer little help.
To bolster his points, MacMichael offers the following:
… the Jews in Palestine are by no means untrained in the use of arms … large numbers have received training in the Palestine Police… or in His Majesty’s Forces. At the present time, in addition to approximately 10,000 Jews in His Majesty’s Forces, there are 5,800 in various units of the police force and 15,400 special policemen (31,000) … When to those men … are added the illicit ‘defence’ organizations of the Jews (Haganah alone had an estimated 60-70,000 men by 1945, see Mss, Med. S20 Appendix XXI), it will be evident that the Jewish people in arms would numerically and in calibre be a very formidable adversary.5
This is in 1941before the full deployment of Jewish terrorism against the legitimate Palestine government got under way.
MacMichael and Catling found themselves missing one of Catling’s primary supports for the waging of “irregular warfare” drawn from his image of the 3-legged stool that required the support of the people, the commander and his army and the government, an image, no doubt, from his childhood in Suffolk where his family were butchers and farmers. But the situation only got worse as the end of WWII loomed. The Haganah carried out anti-British military operations, including the kidnapping, killing and booby trapping of soldiers’ bodies, conducted against the Mandate Government while the home government remained silent under the pall of Israeli Zionist propaganda.6
But recording the acts of terrorism does not do justice to the conditions the Mandate government faced. MacMichael describes the reality of the forces aligned against the police in Palestine.
A second matter which deeply impressed me is the almost Nazi control exercised by the official Jewish organizations over the Jewish community, willy nilly, through the administration of funds from abroad, the issue of labor certificates in connection with the immigration quota…. The Royal Commission were, in my view, fundamentally at error in describing the Jewish community in Palestine as “intensely democratic”. … The Zionist organization, the whole social structure which it has created in Palestine, has the trappings but none of the essentials of democracy. The community is under the closed oligarchy of the Jewish official organizations which control Zionist policy and circumscribe the lives of the Jewish community in all directions…. The reality of power is in the Agency, with the Haganah, the illegal military organization, always in the background.7
And so the authorities in Palestine, the legal authorities, have no power to enforce measures that would curtail terrorism against their own police. “The use of force cannot be contemplated at present as any such action would have to be on a very large scale.” MacMichael understands that he can get no help from the Jewish community, even from those who find themselves at odds with the Agency’s methods or morality. The consequences to the individual Jew for disobedience is horrendous as the second document seized from the Zionists in 1947 attests.
Between Two Worlds
Nothing makes more obvious the meaning of the “Zionist Juggernaut” than Catling’s TOP SECRET “Memorandum of the Criminal Investigation Department” of July 31, 1947.
The purpose of this memorandum is to furnish documentary evidence of the extent to which the supreme Jewish national institutions in Palestine and their principal officials have been parties to acts of sedition, violence, incitement and other offences against the laws of Palestine….The bulk of the memorandum concerns the war and post war years… the memorandum will therefore concern itself solely with an attempt to establish the links between the supreme Jewish bodies and illegal activity…8
Catling’s memorandum begins with an understanding of the “intricate Jewish political, social and economic structure in Palestine.” A series of appendices chart these structures marking in passing that “…the Palestine Royal Commission Report of 1937 understood ‘The Agency is obviously not a ‘governing body’; it can only advise and cooperate in a certain wide field.’ But allied as it is with the Vaad Leumi, and commanding the allegiance of the great majority of Jews in Palestine, it unquestionably exercises, both in Jerusalem and in London, a considerable influence on the conduct of government” [emphasis mine]. Catling’s frustration with the actual control of the Jews over British policy in Palestine glares through this document. “This powerful and efficient organization amounts, in fact, to a government existing side by side with the Mandatory Government…” (2-3) [emphasis mine].9
What Catling doesn’t state in that sentence, but what he demonstrates in the memorandum, is that the Jewish Agency and its affiliated organizations are at war with the UN authority in Palestine, the British Mandate Palestine Government. The appendices include detailed information on the personnel in interlocking Jewish organizations and the function of each. The memorandum goes further. It notes that the activities of the Jewish Agency through its controlled organizations send emissaries and instructors abroad “to stir up Zionist sentiments among the Jewish communities and displaced persons, to bring pressure to bear upon the Palestine problem, to organize illegal immigration and engage in espionage.” As a result of its investigations, the Department itemizes six areas of subversive activities undertaken by the Jewish Agency against the British Mandate Government:
Maintenance of a secret army and espionage system;
Smuggling, theft and manufacture of arms;
Illegal immigration;
Violence and civil disobedience;
Seditious and hostile propaganda;
Encroachment upon the civil rights of Jewish citizens.10
In short, the Zionist controlled Jewish Agency, the Yishuv, actively undermined the legal authority in Palestine even as it operated to undermine support for that government in Britain, placing UK forces in harms way as they attempted to fulfill their authorized responsibilities in Palestine. It also demonstrates the determination of the Agency’s leadership in undermining the very nation that gave it a means of establishing a “homeland” in Palestine through the Balfour Declaration. Needless to say, Catling and his CID forces recognized the impossible position this defiance placed them in and understood the deception and violent means used by the Zionists to ensure that their will and theirs alone would be fulfilled at any cost.
However, the real power behind their efforts, what effectively held together the multiple strands of the web, was the use of extortion on all the Jewish people in Palestine, “…the extortion of money for unauthorized funds and self imposed taxes to further the illicit political ends of the national institutions” (42). Catling’s Memorandum provides evidence of how effective this consolidation of the web’s network operated including the systematic compilation of all wage earners, measures to be adopted in event of refusal to pay, publishing of names of those who failed to contribute, deductions from salary, sanctions on businesses, compulsory assessment, withholding of immigrants certificates, and Jewish Agency officials assessments. There follows the measures to be taken against shirkers including actions to be taken against anyone aiding a shirker. There is no need to go into the details of these imposed actions; the consequences amount to total ostracism of an individual from his/her community to kidnapping and disappearance. For those entering the military forces of the Jewish Agency, the Hagana, there is the Hagana Oath (XVI A 157).
I hereby declare that of my own free will and in free recognition I enter the Jewish defence organization of the Land of Israel, (Irgun Haganana Haivri Be’Eretz Israel).
I hearby swear to remain loyal all the days of my life to the defense organization, its laws and its tasks as defined in its basic regulations by the High Command.
I hearby swear to remain at the disposal of the defense organization all my life, to accept its discipline unconditionally and without limit, and at its call to enlist for active service at any time and in any place, to obey all its orders and to fulfill all its instructions.
I hearby swear to devote all my strength, and even to sacrifice my life, to defense and battle for my people and my Homeland, for the freedom of Israel and for the redemption of Zion.11
In one sense, these two methodologies of control, one imposed by fear, the second by moral obligation, make comprehensible the complete control the Zionists were able to achieve over a protracted period of time toward their distant goals. The fear imposed by extortion rests on its use in providing access to jobs, the protection offered by the “gangs” and Haganah forces, and the enforcement of the rules and regulations as itemized above.
The Haganah Oath goes deeper than fear. In effect, it declares that an individual has turned his/her conscience over to the High Command thus accepting what is right and what is wrong as determined by that authority regardless of local, state or international law, indeed, regardless of the morals, values and traditions of Judaism. This commitment is forever, to death. It is bolstered by a document issued to the Commander and Troops of the Haganah labeled “Security Instructions” that notes at the outset, “Remember, you are a member of an illegal military organization according to the Laws of the government, its existence, activity and membership of it is forbidden” The remainder of the document obligates the recruit to unconditional obedience, absolute silence, and the pragmatic and utilitarian virtues of deceit and lying.12
Selling the Soul
From the moment an individual takes the oath, they are committed to a life of secrecy and hence of disloyalty and betrayal to those they are most intimate with in their day to day life. Neither their actions nor their true identity is discernible to those with whom they interact regularly. This is a life that encapsulates the necessity of lies, deceit, coercion, extortion, and obedience to a group that dictates the actions one must pursue; freedom no longer exists, self-direction no longer exists, loyalty to others no longer exists, indeed, friendship with others is compromised or impossible, one becomes the subject of that group, a veritable slave to their desires and wills. The mindset that promotes such control allows for spying, for deception of friends, for ostracism in one’s own community for thinking differently, for imprisonment without due process, for torture, even for extrajudicial executions. It is a total commitment to a cause that supersedes all others determined and dictated by an oligarchy in silence and subject to no legitimate institution and to no one. Notes:
Catling, Sir Richard C. Personal Classified “Top Secret” files. Rhodes House Library Archives. #145. Mss. Medit. S 20 (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) Appendices circa 475 pages of seized documents. Oxford: Bodleian Libraries.↩
Morris, Benny. (1999). Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001. Knopf. 208.↩
Khalidi, Walid. (1992). All That Remains. Institute for Palestinian Studies: Washington, D.C. xv.↩
MacMichael, Harold. (1947). “Memorandum on the Participation of the Jewish National Institutions in Palestine in Acts of Lawlessness and Violence” The Palestine Police, Jerusalem, 7-31-1947 in Catling file.↩
28/06/2010 Syrian President Bashar Assad has invited Brazil to help negotiate peace in the Middle East, a sign that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has strengthened his country’s standing abroad.
In an interview in Brazil’s Estado de S. Paulo newspaper published on Sunday, Assad said he would discuss the possibility of Brazil helping bring Israel to the table with other Arab countries to diffuse tensions stemming from its policy on Gaza.
Lula along with Turkey unsuccessfully sought to broker a solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis. “In my view, the combined effort of Brazil and Turkey in the Iranian nuclear question has raised Brazil’s role to a new level. For this, we hope Brazil can act to stabilize the Middle East,” Assad said.
In a rare visit to Latin America that started on Friday, Assad is traveling to Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and Cuba in a bid to extend his diplomatic reach as Syria emerges from isolation from the West and seeks needed investments in its tattered infrastructure.
Nearing the end of a successful and extremely popular two-term presidency, Lula has intensified his efforts to bring Brazil greater international recognition.
“Brazil’s foreign minister (Celso Amorim) said Brazil is interested in the peace process and we welcome Brazil’s help,” Assad said, suggesting that Brazil might help bring the Israelis to future negotiations with Arab countries in the region.
Israeli security forces killed nine pro-Palestinian Turkish activists on May 31 when it boarded an aid ship attempting to break its blockade on Gaza. Bowing to international pressure, Israel has eased its blockade but tensions between Israel and neighboring countries remain high.
Brazil and Turkey helped broker an agreement announced in May under which Tehran would send uranium abroad, similar to an earlier fuel swap plan drafted by the United Nations to keep Iran’s nuclear activities in check.
This quickly fell apart as the UN Security Council pushed through tighter UN sanctions against Iran in June, arguing that Iran was merely attempting to stall international demands that it curb its uranium enrichment program.
In the following videos you can watch a BBC presenter going out of her way to justify the Israeli hasbara murderous narrative. She is no doubt the devil’s advocate but she fails. Sentence by sentence, Ken O’Keefe manages to teach her and us what kindness and humanity are all about.
Aggression immersed in victimhood is a striking reality of the Israeli discourse [GETTY]
When an advisor to Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, tried to attack Helen Thomas’ remarks in which she said Israelis should “go home … [to] Poland, Germany …” all he did is remind her that some of his relatives were killed in Poland and Germany more than half a century ago, as if that is a good reason to starve the Palestinians to death and to kill humanitarian activists in international waters today.
After all, the Israeli politician was just confirming what Thomas said: you belong there; not here.
By Mohamed El-Moctar El-Shinqiti
An American academic once told me: “Many people in the Islamic world think America does not believe in human rights, but they are wrong; America believes in human rights indeed, the problem is the American definition of human.”
In other words: the American definition of ‘human’ is not a universal one. This is not purely an American characteristic; every culture faces the challenge of broadening its cultural limits and universalising its moral norms.
But among all human cultures and ideologies, the Israeli case is unique in its double standard.
Criminality wrapped in self-righteousness and aggression immersed in victimhood are a few striking characteristics of the Israeli reality and discourse.
Israel uses past atrocities as a moral justification for present brutalities [GETTY]
The Israeli personality
The duality of “Israel’s insistent emphasis upon its isolation and uniqueness, its claim to be both victim and hero,” as Tony Judt wrote in Haaretz a few years ago, reflects the fragility and self-centeredness of the Israeli personality. This is not, unfortunately, exclusive to Israel’s political elite, but rather it extends to their Zionist supporters worldwide, including those, such as novelist Elie Wiesel and philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who portray themselves in humanistic and aesthetic images.
I was profoundly moved by the graphic description of the atrocities committed during the Holocaust in Elie Wiesel’s Night, which depicts his and his father’s experience of a terrifying process that violates human life and degrades human dignity.
But I was struck by the tone of self-righteousness and self-justification in Wiesel’s fictional Dawn, particularly when he writes: “The commandment thou shalt not kill was given from the summit of one of the mountains here in Palestine, and we were the only ones to obey it. But that’s all over … in the days and weeks and months to come, you will have only one purpose: to kill those who have made us killers.” When the Jewish South African judge, Richard Goldstone, exposed Israeli war crimes in Gaza, Wiesel called that “a crime against the Jewish people”. But this is simply an immoral use of past atrocities as a moral justification for present brutalities and oppression.
Moreover, one cannot but entertain two questions here: Firstly, what kind of moral claim does Wiesel, who was born of a Romanian father and a Hungarian mother, have over the divine call at Mount Sinai in the heart of a Middle Eastern desert? And secondly, by which moral or legal norm are the Palestinians of today responsible for the wrongdoings of the Germans of yesterday?
Self-serving myths
The worst of this hypocritical language, however, can be found in Bernard-Henri Lévy’s article about Israel’s aggression against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla published in Haaretz on June 8, 2010.
Lévy presents himself in self-glorifying terms as being “someone who takes pride in having helped to conceive, with others, this kind of symbolic action (the boat for Vietnam; the march for the survival of Cambodia in 1979)…”. But when it comes to Gaza’s plight, Lévy simply dismisses the tragedy by denying the existence of the Israeli blockade and attacking easy targets, such as “the fascislamist government of Ismail Haniya” and “the Islamist gang who took power by force three years ago”.
Thus, he shamelessly dismisses the grand effort of the multiethnic, multinational and religiously diverse group of humanistic leaders and activists on the Freedom Flotilla.
Moreover, Lévy lacks the objectivity to address the fascizionist – to borrow from his own terminology – gangs who aggressively invaded Palestinian land over six decades ago, and uprooted a whole population forcing them into the new Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps – Gaza and the West Bank. Indeed, for those who put their selfish desires above the moral principles of justice and compassion, their self-serving myths are better in their eyes than the ugly truth.
Jewish humanistic intellectuals, such as Professor Tony Judt and musician Gilad Atzmon deplore Israel’s self-indulgence and lack of maturity. Judt writes: “Israel still comports itself like an adolescent: consumed by a brittle confidence in its own uniqueness; certain that no one ‘understands’ it and everyone is ‘against’ it; full of wounded self-esteem, quick to take offence and quick to give it … that it can do as it wishes, that its actions carry no consequences, and that it is immortal.”
Atzmon writes: “We are dealing here with a uniquely and seriously disturbed immature nation. We are dealing with a self-loving narcissistic child …. The more the Israelis love themselves and their delusional phantasmic innocence, the more they are frightened that people out there may be as sadistic as they themselves proved to be. This behavioural mode is called projection …. Jews have a very good reason to be frightened. Their national state is a racist genocidal entity.”
‘Holocaustianity’
What is most disappointing, however, is not the Zionist self-righteousness and narcissism; rather it is the Western acceptance and support of this attitude – an attitude that is better understood when placed in a historical context.
The main theoretical basis of the acceptance of Israeli exceptionalism in Western culture is the diversion, mainly within the Protestant branch of Christianity, of the Christian incarnation of God in the person of Jesus to a new incarnation of God in the Jews as a people – the Chosen People.
This tendency started with Martin Luther (1483-1546) who subdued Christianity theologically and morally to the Jewish factor in his small epistle That Jesus Christ was Born a Jew. Luther wrote in that epistle: “When we are inclined to boast of our position, we should remember that we are but Gentiles, while the Jews are of the lineage of Christ. We are aliens and in-laws; they are blood relatives, cousins, and brothers of our Lord.”
Through this Luther – who was paradoxically a staunch anti-Semite – inadvertently opened a theological window, that would centuries later allow the ‘cult of Israel’, as it has been dubbed by the American writer Grace Halsell, to replace Christianity in most Protestant denominations, especially among American Baptists. After all, what they are doing is no more than a literal implementation of Luther’s deification of the Jews.
Professor Yvonne Haddad of Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding calls this heresy ‘Holocaustianity’. And within this new heresy lie the roots of the Israeli exceptionalism.
Israel is becoming a moral burden for those who value social justice [GETTY]
Trivialising the Holocaust
Professor Judt writes that: “What Israel lost by its continuing occupation of Arab lands it gained through its close identification with the recovered memory of Europe’s dead Jews.” But he knows well that the memory of the dead is the worse moral justification for murdering innocents: “In the eyes of a watching world, the fact that the great-grandmother of an Israeli soldier died in Treblinka is no excuse for his own abusive treatment of a Palestinian woman waiting to cross a checkpoint. ‘Remember Auschwitz’ is not an acceptable response.”
But that is exactly the kind of moral justification we have from the Israelis today.
When an advisor to Shimon Peres, the Israeli president, tried to attack Helen Thomas’ remarks in which she said Israelis should “go home … [to] Poland, Germany …” all he did is remind her that some of his relatives were killed in Poland and Germany more than half a century ago, as if that is a good reason to starve the Palestinians to death and to kill humanitarian activists in international waters today.
After all, the Israeli politician was just confirming what Thomas said: you belong there; not here. This is how the Holocaust memory, a memory of a human tragedy by any and every measure, is trivialised by Israeli criminality.
A moral burden
Many political thinkers and politicians have recently realised that Israel is becoming a liability and a strategic burden for the US. It has always been a strategic burden. But the problem is much deeper. Israel is becoming a moral burden on all those who have an ethical conscience, including Jews who value human dignity and social justice.
Even those who spent their lives advancing the Zionist cause are today realising the moral paradox of their life’s achievement. Henry Siegman, a German-born American writer who served as the executive director of the American Jewish Congress from 1978 to 1994, wrote in Haaretz on June 11, 2010: “A million and a half civilians have been forced to live in an open-air prison in inhuman conditions for over three years now, but unlike the Hitler years, they are not Jews but Palestinians. Their jailers, incredibly, are survivors of the Holocaust, or their descendants.”
All decent human beings must support the oppressed Palestinian against the Israeli oppressor. The oppressed Arabs of Palestine (Muslims and Christians) are rendering through their suffering a great service to the entire body of humanity, by exposing the most self-centered and supremacist ideology in our world – an ideology that is wrapped today in a bloody sacredness.
Mohamed El-Moctar El-Shinqiti is an author in political history and history of religion. He is a research coordinator at Qatar Foundation.
27/06/2010 Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez described Israel on Saturday as a genocidal state that acted as an assassin for the United States, predicting the Zionist entity would one day be “put in its place.”
The socialist Chavez is a harsh critic of both Israel and the United States and cut relations with Israel after accusing it of “holocaust” for its 2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip where it killed over 1400 Palestinians, including 420 children and injure more than 5300 others.
“It has become the assassin arm of the United States, no one can doubt it. It is a threat to all of us,” Chavez said, during a visit by Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Chavez said he supported a peaceful struggle for the return to Syria of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967. “The territory will one day return to the Syrian hands,” Chavez said, adding “Of course we want it to be peaceful because we don’t want more war.”
“But one day the genocidal state of Israel will be put into its place, and let’s hope that a really democratic state emerges there, with which we can share a path and ideas.”
US attempts to isolate Syria and reshape the Middle East have failed, he said, and Israel was fast losing allies.
Israel last week eased its land blockade on the Gaza Strip, allowing in all goods except for arms and related materials. That move followed widespread criticism for a raid on a blockade-busting group of boats, in which nine activists died.
Hugely popular in the Arab world for his fierce “anti-imperialist” stance, Chavez received a hero’s welcome when he visited Syria in 2006. He returned to Damascus on a tour last year.
President Assad arrived in Venezuela on Friday, the first stop on a rare Latin American tour. He is also due to visit Argentina, Brazil and Cuba.
Syria has started to raise its international profile in recent years, shrugging off Western efforts to weaken it and developing ties with former foe Turkey, Russia and with Latin American nations.
Assad’s tour is expected to focus on bilateral issues and Syria’s hopes to attract $44 billion in private foreign investment over five years to repair its infrastructure.
He applauded Chavez’s loud criticism of the United States and Israel. “Few politicians are brave enough to say no, when it is necessary to say no,” Assad said as he arrived at the Miraflores presidential palace.
“He has revealed an image of Venezuela in resistance, creating a place for Venezuela on the international map. He has been on the side on just causes both in Latin America, in our region the Middle East and in the whole world.”
CARACAS, (PIC)– Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez described Israel as a “state of genocide acting as a murderer for the United States,” expecting that one day it will be put “in its proper place”.
Chavez said during Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s visit to Venezuela on Friday, “It has become an arm of murder for the United States, no one can doubt about this … It is a threat to all of us.” He added, “But one day the genocidal state of Israel will be put it its proper place.”
On the other hand, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad praised Chavez’s strong criticism against the U.S. and Israel, commenting that “few politicians have enough courage to say no, when it is necessary to say no.”
Chavez is a harsh critic of Israel and the United States. He cut ties with Israel after its bloody attack on the Gaza Strip in 2009.
Uprooted Palestinian
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 
