The Palesinian IDIOT got an Urgent Message About Egypt

>

Comment: 

Since Mubarak send his F16 and Heocopters It was clear that it was a message to the army, more than the people on streets. Having read between the lines of the released army statement, and knowing that the airforce and Repulic Gurds stand with Mubarak, I dare to say the army would stay aside, indirectly protect the popular uprising leavinf Pharaoh to face his slow death.



Protesters wrote on army tanks: “No to Mubarak. Fuck Mubarak.”



The Idiot -“Hamas Lover” – picked and highlighted “He’s trying to turn Cairo into Gaza.”.

How?

I realy don’t know?

First Cairo is not  Gaza.

In Caza Hamas failed Dahlan’s coup, agaist Hamas elected government and saved the Palestinian cause.

In Cairo the Popular Uprising, so far, kicked the ass of Mubarak’s thugs.
Most likely, the idiot is worried, like Perez  of the “nightmare” of Muslim Brotherhood controlling  Egypt, though most likely its not going to happen.

*************************************************
Urgent Message About Egypt

From Yasmin
“Mubarak switched off Internet, Mobile phone networks, cancelled all national railway services, stopped petrol supplies to petrol stations, stopped food supplies to shops, ordered police agents to loot & start chaos & got police to fire at protesters. He’s trying to turn Cairo into Gaza.

Call the WH (White House) switchboard at 202-456-1414 and tell them we have to stop supporting Mubarak to get him out of there.

In other news, according to BBC the Egyptian army released a statement that they refuse to shoot at protesters. Hearing rumours though that Air Force is 100% behind Mubarak. I do think there is a division in the military.”

# posted by Tony : 10:39 AM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Protesters, Unfazed by Mubarak’s Pledges, Escalate Moves Monday-Tuesday

>

31/01/2011 Egyptian protesters have been unfazed by the Egypt President Hosni Mubarak’s promises and bids to satisfy them calling on Monday for an indefinite strike and a “million man march” on Tuesday in Cairo.

In Cairo’s Tahrir square, hundreds of protesters camped out overnight, defying a curfew that has been extended by the army.

Mubarak pledged institute economic, social and political reforms but people feel that such pledges “are too little, too late”. He appointed the first vice president in his 30-year-rule, the intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, and a new prime minister in a desperate attempt to cling to power. The new Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq has chosen on Monday two new ministers for his cabinet.

The announcement had little discernible effect on the more than 1,000 people encamped at Tahrir square, the protest epicentre, early Monday, marching and shouting their determination to stay there until Mubarak quits.

Early on Monday morning, unconfirmed reports said the police had been ordered back on the streets. The army has positioned tanks around the square and was checking identity papers but letting protesters in. Civilian popular committee members were also checking papers to make sure no plainclothes police get in. the 7-days-old protests have left at least 125 people dead.

Top dissident Mohamed ElBaradei late Sunday told a sea of angry protesters in the square that they were beginning a new era. The former IAEA chief, who was mandated by Egyptian opposition groups including the Muslim Brotherhood to negotiate with Mubarak’s regime, hailed “a new Egypt in which every Egyptian lives in freedom and dignity.” “I ask you to be patient, change is coming.”

European Union chief diplomat Catherine Ashton urged Mubarak to immediately hold talks with the opposition and respond to the aspirations of anti-government protesters.
Several foreign governments said they would evacuate their nationals, while the United States authorized the departure of embassy families, AFP reported.

Washington, a key ally of Egypt, called on Mubarak to do more to defuse the crisis but stopped short of saying he should quit.

International press institutes have come out strongly against Egyptian authorities’ suppression of the media, following the withdrawal of Al Jazeera’s license to broadcast from the North African country.
Egyptian police on Monday arrested six foreign journalists working for Al-Jazeera English news channel at their Cairo hotel after authorities forbade them covering anti-regime protests, the channel said.
Mobile services were partly restored on Saturday, though the CPJ says that 90 per cent of internet connections in the country remain disconnected.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

INTERVIEW IDF ‘OPERATION CAST LEAD’

>

Via MCS

– 31. Jan, 2011

INTERVIEW YOU WILL NOT SEE IN ZIONIST CONTROLLED AMERICAN MEDIA

ISRAELI DEFNCE FORCES AFTER ‘OPERATIONS CAST LEAD’

They were told:

“ENTRY WOULD BE DIS-PROPORTIONATE”

The orders were to:

“CLEANSE THE NEIGHBOURHOOD”

“Every house gets a shell, that was our job…”
“We were to shell the top and shell the bottom…”
“The moment the tank hit the second shell, we see processions of the family walk out with children, with babies, with white flag on a stick….”
“We entered the city in a big hullabaloo…”
“The squadron… with a lazer marked clearly the houses that had to be shelled….”
Alex Thompson has their story…

Channel 4 News – Dispatches from Gaza – 26 January 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-SWTw9n2os

ED NOTE:  Enough of  Hamas Rocket fire ?

After Sabra & Shatila, Jenin, Nablus, Rafah, and Gaza massacres.  Sixty years of brutal Israeli Defence Force?
Can someone arm Hamas with modern weapons to defend themselves, perhaps we can then witness a real war?
Also see:

Journalist and author Robert Fisk who was one of the first on the scene of the Sabra& Shatila massacre, returns 15 years later to the Sabra & Shatila Palestinian refugee Camp in Lebanon…

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Gilad Atzmon Discusses American Foreign Policy on Press TV

>http://www.presstv.ir/usdetail/162623.html

The American foreign policy is at cross-roads. For decades, Washington has advertised equality and human rights in international circles. But, at times, the U.S. has contradicted its own alleged values, philosophy and democratic approach.

Some argue that America’s self-interest supersedes the spread of democracy worldwide. However, there are those who say Washington’s approach serves neither the national interest of Americans, nor does it promote equality and democracy.

So, the question arises: who then benefits from current American policies?

Press TV’s U.S. Desk discussed the issue with Gilad Atzmon who is a political activist, musician and author in London.

Atzmon argues that American policy is a ‘total mess’ because the American administration has gambled on authoritarian regimes who have been sympathetic and obedient to Washington.

All the while, this support contradicts Washington’s claims of spreading democracy in the world. Atzmon writes: “The American government is very confused at the moment. They don’t know whether to support Hosni Mubarak or the people. The same goes for Tunisia last week. America was also supporting the Shah. And there is a big question why America is getting it wrong all the time.”

In regards to American policy in the Middle East, Atzmon attributes U.S.’ failed approach to a foreign policy that is shaped by Israeli interest and exploited by such Zionist lobbies as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).

If Washington persists in this path, Atzmon says, “America is doomed to fail in its foreign policy.”

In conclusion, Atzmon reiterates “There is a lot of love for Americans, but definitely very little respect for American expansionist imperialism that is driven by Zionist ideology.”

FACTS & FIGURES
Israel has received more U.S. military assistance than any other country in the world.

Israel receives about $3 billion in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one-fifth of America’s foreign aid budget.

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees approved Obama’s request for $3 billion in military aid to Israel in the 2011 budget.

In 2007, the U.S. increased its military aid to Israel by over 25% to an average of $3 billion per year for the following ten year period.

FM/KA/DB

KENNETH O’KEEFE UNDER ASSAULT: IN DEFENSE OF A HERO

>“Those who have besieged Mr. O’Keefe like rabid dogs are fully aware of who they are. Their names remain far away from this piece as a common courtesy and as an extension of brotherhood and sisterhood; so they recognize the error in their ways and return to the fold in the fight to free the planet of Zionist gangsterdom.” – Jonathan Azaziah

With full repect to Jonathan they are part of the Zionist gangsterdom.

Let us call spade, spade

In case you missed it: After Galloway, Ken O’Keefe under fire at HTT (Hasbara think thank).
**************************************************

KENNETH O’KEEFE UNDER ASSAULT: IN DEFENSE OF A HERO

Via SNIPPITS and SNAPPITS

A pensive Kenneth O’Keefe.

I have more than once expressed appreciation and admiration for Ken O’Keefe. To me, this deeply spiritual man is what all of us should strive to be in the face of international injustices to the downtrodden. The concept of being a “citizen of the world” is beautiful.

Everything about Ken O’Keefe is of value to humanity. But enough of that, he will blush if he read this because above all things, he is driven by conscience, not ego, and is a humble hero. Those are the best kind.

One evening while digging around the net I found an article on Ken. What really surprised me were the over 600 hate comments about him. I think it was 653 comments. So many peaple saying such ugly things, of course it was a Zionist site. My only thought was, “Wow, he sure is doing something right!”

Needless to say, Kenneth O’Keefe will never receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his unselfish dedication to true peace between people; that dubious honour is reserved for warmongers and international criminals like Menachim Begin, Henry Kissinger and Barack O’Bama!

At the end of Jonathan Azariah’s article you will find links to the entries I have made about Kenneth O’Keefe. Do yourself a favour and get inspired.

Freedom Flotilla survivor and activist Kenneth O’Keefe

By Jonathan Azaziah
Mask of Zion
January 26, 2011

“The problem facing our people.. is bigger than all other personal or organizational differences. Therefore as leaders, we must stop worrying about the threat we seem to think we pose to each other’s personal prestige (1)…” ~ Malcolm X ~The words of martyred revolutionary giant El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz reflect the nature of the particular instance about to be discussed undoubtedly.

The words of martyred revolutionary giant El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz reflect the nature of the particular instance about to be discussed undoubtedly.

It is an undeniable fact that the Zionist entity remains extraordinarily steadfast in its daily routine of illegality and criminality.

It commits crimes against humanity, like shooting a 66-year old Palestinian man 13 times to death in his bed (2), keeping the people of Gaza under siege and starving them of basic living essentials like cooking gas (3), and ethnically cleansing Palestine of indigenous Palestinians, including issuing demolition notices to families who are already humiliatingly living in tents (4).

The Israeli regime of usurpation violates international law, like sending its warplanes into Lebanese airspace and breaching Lebanese sovereignty on a daily basis (5), stealing the natural gas in Lebanon’s territorial waters between occupied Palestine and Cyprus (6), terrorizing Palestinian fishermen in illegally besieged Gaza, by firing at their boats and disrupting their only way to provide for their families (7), and quintessentially expanding Zionist settlements in occupied Jerusalem, zionizing the holy city a little bit more with each passing day (8).

The Zionist entity’s illegal nuclear facility in Dimona.

Israel carries out environmental terrorism, like leaking uranium from its illegal Dimona nuclear facility in occupied al-Naqab, subjecting Palestinians in the West Bank to cancer, sterility and abnormal births (9), and inflicting Palestinian surfers in Gaza with harsh skin disorders due to the Zionist entity dumping toxic waste into the Strip’s coastal waters (10).

Tel Aviv also spreads division throughout the region, like its financing of military helicopters for secessionist rebels in southern Sudan (11), part of the greater Zionist plot to divide the African nation into ‘sectarian’ states to keep the Sudanese people fractured and weakened (12), or Mossad’s false flag terrorism, like the brazen bombing of al-Qiddisin Church in Alexandria, Egypt (13) and the Zionist-admitted destruction across occupied Iraq, from Nineveh in the north, to the Karada neighborhood of Baghdad in the central region, to Najaf, Karbala and Basra in the south (14).

Instead of dedicating each waking moment of their time to documenting and exposing these crimes in every detail that they can find, some personalities in the ‘activist community’ have unfortunately, pathetically and disgustingly directed their efforts towards attacking a man who has done just that, as well as put his life on the line in defense of his fellow activists and the Palestinian people themselves. A man who has dedicated the better half of his life to fighting for truth, justice and peace: Kenneth O’Keefe.

This abominable group masquerading as activists has slandered a man who has shown no fear in standing up to the powers that be, whether they are residing in Zionist-occupied territory in Washington or Palestine. These abhorrent persons posing as members of the solidarity movement have attempted to discredit a man who has never acted in any other way other than honorably in regards to his activism.

These detestable excuses for truth-seekers have assaulted a man who stands with the oppressed in the homeland of the oppressed, while they sit behind the fortress of their computer screen in disdainful envy of another’s heroism, which they are too cowardly to duplicate. Shameful doesn’t begin to provide the proper description of such deplorable behavior.An ex-Marine and veteran of the genocidal Gulf War which bred the criminal sanctions afflicting Iraq to this very day, Mr. O’Keefe began his fight for freedom in 1994 when he was arrested for protesting against the Zionist-occupied American government’s nuclear testing. His activism would extend to animals in a massive way when he moved to the occupied kingdom of Hawaii years later, and started a mission out of his dive shop to rescue turtles and clean up toxic pollution terribly affecting the oceans.

While living in Hawaii, Mr. O’Keefe also became acutely aware of the United States government’s ‘blood quantum’ conspiracy against the Hawaiian people; a little-known and scarcely talked about genocide that eclipses the highest peaks of racism and ethnic cleansing. He stood in solidarity with his Hawaiian brothers and sisters to his detriment, resulting in perpetual harassment from traffic police and the exceedingly corrupt traffic courts. He cemented his solidarity with the indigenous Hawaiian people when he swore allegiance to the kingdom of Hawaii, which America considered an enemy nation (15).

From occupied Iraq to occupied Palestine,

Kenneth O’Keefe stands with oppressed peoples

.In 1999, Mr. O’Keefe announced his intention to renounce his United States citizenship, and did so in March 2001, infuriating his government tormentors to an even greater degree, but remaining steadfast in his activist efforts (16).

Ken, who was subjected to contaminated immunizations and pills during the Gulf War and who has relentlessly campaigned against the usage of depleted uranium (17), returned to Iraq and founded the Human Shield program in late 2002, where civilians from Western countries would place themselves in front of non-military targets to show solidarity with the Iraqi people in the face of an illegal occupation.

Mr. O’Keefe was ultimately deported, as well as many other volunteers, and the humanitarian project had to be disbanded (18). To drive the point deeper into the US-Zionist trachea, that he wasn’t going to stop fighting for humanity, Ken O’Keefe burned his American passport on January 8, 2004 (19).

These noble actions alone cast doubt on the intentions of anyone attempting to fire shots of falsehood at Mr. O’Keefe. But the intentions of these aforesaid attention gluttons are exposed in an even more extensive manner, after examining Mr. O’Keefe’s actions on May 31st, 2010 and the subsequent events in the blood-drenched aftermath.

The Freedom Flotilla was mercilessly assaulted by IOF.

On that fateful morning at the end of May, nearly 43 years to the day of Israel’s napalming and massacring of the USS Liberty which left 34 American sailors dead and 171 others wounded, Israeli commandoes stormed the humanitarian aid project known as the Freedom Flotilla, and murdered 9 activists including a 19-year old Turkish-American named Furkan Dogan aboard the Mavi Marmara, one of the ships part of the flotilla. It was an act of war, an act of mass murder, an act of terrorism and an act of piracy.

The Zionist entity’s typical, shameless and maniacal act of brutality was broadcasted by the Zionist media with spin provided by agents from Zionist lobby organizations and pathetically defended by the Obama regime, which is no more than an extension of the Knesset. The reason for the attack? To defuse the historic Iran-Turkey-Brazil diplomatic agreement for nuclear fuel and to show the international community that it remains under the control of the illegitimate Israeli state, powerless in the face of Zionist terror (20).

Former IOF terrorist and son of one of the bombers of the King David Hotel, Zionist warmonger Rahm Emanuel, made a trip to the Zionist state just days before the murderous assault to issue ‘American’ approval to Tel Aviv for the attack (21).

Kenneth O’Keefe was aboard the Mavi Marmara. He saw 9 of his brothers murdered in cold blood by Zion’s brigade of killers and dozens of others critically injured within an hour of the IOF assault. Mr. O’Keefe displayed an unprecedented form of valor, confronting the armed commandoes and disarming two of them. Once the murderers were disarmed by Mr. O’Keefe and another activist, they were taken below deck by other Flotilla activists and treated for injuries.

Zionist war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu orchestrated

the massacre of 9 unarmed Flotilla activists.

Kenneth, along with numerous other activists aboard the Mavi Marmara and other ships of the Flotilla, was punched and kicked while he was restrained. He witnessed as his fellow activists and friends were abused by IOF. Elderly people were physically abused, women were sexually abused during IOF’s body searches, O’Keefe and his brothers and sisters were denied food, water and access to a toilet as well as access to a lawyer. The activists had their cash, credit cards, laptops, cameras and other personal possessions stolen by Israel. Mr. O’Keefe was one of the last activists to be deported from Port Ashdod where the Flotilla was held illegally by the Zionist entity (22).

Beaten and choked to the point of blacking out in an Israeli prison cell, this by no means deterred Mr. O’Keefe. He called out any and all who would defend the Zionist regime’s actions on May 31st, including the leaders of Tel Aviv themselves (23). Israel responded by labeling Mr. O’Keefe a ‘terrorist,’ ridiculously stating that he was attempting to reach Gaza to train and establish Hamas commando units (24).

Kenneth O’Keefe was invited onto the Zionist-owned BBC program Hard Talk several weeks after the attack, as a means for Israel and its allies to desecrate his image to an even greater extent and finish him once and for all. The attempt failed horribly, as O’Keefe stood his ground in defiance, relentlessly defending the Palestinians, the Freedom Flotilla and speaking unadulterated truth to the BBC propagandist portraying herself as a talk show host (25).

Mr. O’Keefe’s name spread across news headlines again not too long thereafter when he made an appearance on the Press TV program, The Agenda, where he not only fearlessly defended 9/11 truth, but went on the record to state it was an inside job carried out by elements within the American government and Israel’s mass murder organization, the Mossad (26), proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that O’Keefe’s only concern is the truth, and his only dedication is to the truth.

Kenneth O’Keefe’s most recent mission took him back to illegally besieged Gaza aboard the Road To Hope aid convoy. The convoy arrived at Egypt’s El-Arish port, carrying 30 vehicles and 101 humanitarian workers, including 8 survivors from the Freedom Flotilla massacre.

Though the Road to Hope accomplished its goal of breaking the Zionist siege and delivering its aid to the suffering people of Gaza, its journey wasn’t without tumult and turmoil. The Road to Hope was stranded on the Egyptian-Libyan border for 9 days over a technicality and moreover, the captain of the ship brought Ken O’Keefe and the other courageous activists to the Piraeus port in Greece against their will, where the ship was boarded by Greek commandos and the activists were ‘treated like terrorists (27).’

Greek commandos invading the Road to Hope

convoy to illegally besieged Gaza.

Due to meddling from war criminal Hosni Mubarak’s Zionist dictatorship, only 35 members of the original 101-man crew were allowed to enter occupied Gaza, including Kenneth O’Keefe, who has remained there to conduct daily video reporting which focuses on the Palestinian children of the besieged coastal enclave (28).

Mr. O’Keefe’s activism, heroism and clear genuineness regarding the Palestinian struggle and other struggles of oppressed against oppressor have been covered by Press TV, Russia Today, Al-Jazeera English and countless pages of social networking websites and blogs of activists, journalists and average folk alike. His heroic actions are undeniable. The evidence supporting these actions is irrefutable. So how has Mr. O’Keefe been labeled by the previously discussed persons of abhorrence?As a Zionist. Yes, a man who has fought against Zionism from America to occupied Iraq to occupied Palestine and who has exposed the prominent Israeli role in the 9/11 false flag attack is a Zionist.

The MV Mavi Marmara stained with the blood of 9 unarmed activists.

As a fraud who uses his activism as a front to make money. Yes, a man who doesn’t have any money whatsoever and who spends time getting shot at by the Israeli terrorists of IOF in Beit Hanoun (29) uses his activism as a fraud to make money.

And as a liar, who faked his injures at the hands of the Zionist entity’s thugs on the Mavi Marmara, who didn’t renounce his US citizenship and who lied about being kidnaped aboard the Road To Hope, despite all accurate media reports of the Road To Hope being abducted and the activists being kidnaped. Yes, a man who can’t seem to do anything except tell the truth, which is verified by physical evidence and documentation, and who is respected across the ‘truth movement’ and activist community is a liar.

What egregious, disgusting and slanderous accusations against a decent, honest individual from personalities who exemplify the twisted and darkened opposite end of the spectrum.
A hero is classically defined in two parts. A) a man distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength. B) champion: someone who fights for a cause.

An enemy is also classically defined in two parts. A) an armed adversary. B) any hostile group of people.

Kenneth O’Keefe is the personification of the former, and his detractors, armed with falsehood as their chief form of ammunition, flamboyantly personify the latter. While Mr. O’Keefe marches forward with ‘ambitious projects’ to break the criminal and savage Zionist siege against the people of Gaza (30), his atttackers continue to smear him with baseless insults of ‘agent provocateur’ and ‘plant (31).’ Insulting someone and lying about someone says more about the type of person that you are than the person that you are insulting and slandering. It is the lowest form of intellectual expression and a tactic that resembles the intelligence wings of Zionism like the ADL, the ZOA and the AJC.

Kenneth O’Keefe after being beaten by Israeli goons.

His enemies despicably suggested that he faked these injuries.

In this struggle for truth, justice and peace for all oppressed people, the slandering of activists like Kenneth O’Keefe must not be confronted with cowardice and silence, but firm defense and steadfast Resistance. Mr. O’Keefe campaigns for the people of Palestine with passion and dignity, and his efforts must be upheld by those who support the struggle for one Palestinian state, free of Zionism, and Mr. O’Keefe’s efforts to make this dream a reality, with the same passion and dignity.

Those who have besieged Mr. O’Keefe like rabid dogs are fully aware of who they are. Their names remain far away from this piece as a common courtesy and as an extension of brotherhood and sisterhood; so they recognize the error in their ways and return to the fold in the fight to free the planet of Zionist gangsterdom. This extension of mercy is a fleeting one however, and if the barrage of falsehoods continues to be slung Mr. O’Keefe’s way, the slingers will be dealt with accordingly. Additionally, this declaration of Resistance and defense pertains to all other righteous activists under siege from fakers, actors and agents.

Mr. O’Keefe has gone on record, as a matter of humbleness, to state that he isn’t a hero and he would appreciate it if people would stop referring to him as such. Unfortunately Mr. O’Keefe, I regretfully have to inform you that everything that you do, and everything that you are, fits the description of ‘hero’ down to the most minute detail. And I, Jonathan Azaziah, for one, salute you, and thank you.~ The End ~

Kenneth O’Keefe’s renunciation of his US citizenship. For more on Ken O’Keefe here are some of my own writings on him. This man deserves to be honoured, but then, those who tell the truth are too dangerous for those in power. By their very existence alone, they are a threat.

• KEN OKEEFE INTERVIEW ON BBC RE MAVRI MARMARA
• PRESS TV WITH NADA HASWI, KEN O’KEEFE & SAMEH HABEEB
• AN AMERICAN “TERRORIST” IN LONDON: KEN O’KEEFE
• SNIPPITS and SNAPPITS: ROAD TO HOPE CONVOY REACHES GAZA
• SHOCKING TRUTH FROM KEN O’KEEFE ~ MAVRI MARMARA ~ MORE ISRAELI CULTURAL IGNORANCE

Sources:

(1) Malcolm X Speaks: Selected Speeches And Statements by Malcolm X and George Breitman

(2) No Discharge For Soldier Who Initiated Hebron Slaying by Ma’an News Agency

(3) Gas Shortage In Gaza by Middle East Monitor

(4) IOA Serves Demolition Notifications To Owners Of Five Tents by The Palestinian Information Center

(5) Israeli Jets Violate Lebanese Airspace by Press TV

(6) Another Episode In The Conflict: Israel Set To Steal Lebanese Gas! by Al-Manar

(7) Israeli Navy Fire Damages Dozens Of Palestinian Fishing Boats by The Palestinian Information Center

(8) Israel Plans 1,400 New Units In Al-Quds by Press TV

(9) ‘Israeli Reactor Linked To WB Deaths’ by Press TV

(10) Palestinians Find Freedom In The Surf Of Gaza by Adel Zaanoun, Ma’an News Agency

(11) Israel Fiances Military Helicopter Deal For South Sudan by Middle East Monitor

(12) Israelis Can Tell The Whole Story Of Sudan’s Division ~ They Wrote The Script And Trained The Actors by Fahmi Howeidi, Al-Khaleej Times

(13) The Alexandria Church Bombing: Mossad, Who Else? by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(14) Occupied Iraq: New Year, Same Zionism by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask of Zion

(15) Auto-Biography (Short Version) by Ken O’Keefe, P10K

(16) Back To Iraq As A Human Shield by Ken O’Keefe, The Guardian

(17) Gulf War Human Guinea Pig by Ken O’Keefe, P10K

(18) Body Blow As Human Shields Ordered Out by Paul McGeough, The Age

(19) Burning Passport Baghdad by Ken O’Keefe, P10K

(20) Israeli War Crimes: From The USS Liberty To The Humanitarian Flotilla by James Petras, Veteran Today

(21) The Reality Of Zionism by Jonathan Azaziah, Mask Of Zion

(22) Kenneth O’Keefe Speaks by Kourosh Ziabari, Opinion Maker

(23) Ken O’Keefe: ‘We The Defenders Of The Mavi Marmara, Are The Modern Example Of Gandhi’s Essence’ by Pulse Media

(24) IDF: Five Gaza Flotilla Activists Linked To Hamas, Al-Qaida by Anshel Pfeffer, Haaretz

(25) Kenneth O’Keefe On BBC’s Hard Talk by Aletho News

(26) VIDEO: Ken O’Keefe On Press TV’s ‘The Agenda’ ~ Aug. 2010 by World News

(27) ‘Road To Hope’ Aid Convoy Enters Gaza by Press TV

(28) PRESS RELEASE ~ Road To Hope Convoy Reaches Gaza by The Weblog Of Ken O’Keefe

(29) Getting Shot At In Beit Hanoun by Ken O’Keefe, Pacific Free Press/VIDEO: Israelis Shoot At Demonstrators In Gaza ~ Ken O’Keefe, Beit Hanoun, Gaza 29-11-10 by 1worldcitizen, Youtube

(30) Road To Hope Aid Convoy: ‘Ambitious’ Projects Are Under Way by The Palestinian Information Center

(31) Can O’Keefe Lick The Palestinian Campaign Into Shape? by Stuart Littlewood, Veterans Today

Posted by Noor al Haqiqa at 11:07 PM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

‘Peace of the Slave’: a dead end street on a journey to independence

>

Source

Photo: 2001, Israel destroyed road to Birzeit from Ramallah!

Tariq Shadid, 10 Dec 2010
Albert Einstein, a man recognized as one of the greatest geniuses in the history of mankind, once said: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” It seems blatantly clear that those who are in power in the Palestinian ‘National’ Authority have either never read this wisdom, or are stubbornly refusing to understand its meaning, let alone put it into practice.

The Americans have announced in the clearest of wordings that they have abandoned efforts to pressure Israel into enforcing a new moratorium on the expansion of settlements, even though what they were trying to achieve was already deemed insufficient by both the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League.

The Americans were not demanding that Israel stop its expansions in East Jerusalem, though this was a precondition put on the table by the Palestinian Authority for the resumption of negotiations. The fact that Washington was not even trying to achieve this from the Israelis, without losing the confidence of Mahmoud Abbas, indicates that the PA would probably have dropped its demands on freezing settlement expansion in East Jerusalem, if Obama’s Administration would have managed to convince the Israelis to – temporarily – freeze it only in the West Bank.

Showcasing weakness

By assuming this position, Abbas and his colleagues were already sending out a signal of such flagrant diplomatic weakness that the failure of achieving the new West Bank ‘settlement freeze’ was practically a done deal from the start. In fact, it would have come as a complete surprise should the Israelis have decided to impose the new temporary ‘freeze’, since it would have indicated that the Israelis would have suddenly lost their diplomatic chess-playing skills.

Still, this display of lousy diplomatic maneuvering by Mahmoud Abbas was clearly not enough. Apparently, his PA is insisting on proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that it has no clue whatsoever when it comes to strategy, exploiting diplomatic support, or exerting political pressure. To top off the already embarrassing display of failed politics, Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio what the new PA strategy would be: “This impasse has led the US Administration to choose another method, which is returning to indirect talks … to move the peace process past this impasse and address the final-status issues.” The new plan: to resume proximity talks, and go to Washington simultaneously with the Israelis. Go figure.

In other words, the PA’s diplomatic strategy in the past year can be summed up as follows: to first accept proximity talks despite the continuation of illegal Israeli settlement expansion, to then enter direct talks under a ‘settlement freeze’ – which never entailed a complete stop in building but in fact meant that Israel made some temporary cosmetic changes in order to be able to continue building unabated – and then to finally return to proximity talks when Israel refuses to prolong a fake freeze.

How is Israel supposed to understand this posturing except as a sign of incredible weakness on the Palestinian side, and how are we supposed to expect Israel not to exploit this attitude, when it has become a well-known fact all around the world that Israel has no real intentions of forging any kind of peace agreement with the Palestinians?

Is there is any clearer way to demonstrate your political impotence and thereby totally undermine your negotiating position, than to set an ultimatum and allow it to pass without action? This is exactly what Abbas did, and even twice at least; first he gave the Americans ‘one more month’ when they failed to pressure Israel at the expiration of the ‘settlement freeze’ at the end of September. Then, when the month expired, he still was not brave enough to walk away.

Jerusalem Report 2010

One might have had some understanding for the weak attitude of the Palestinian Authority, if there was a complete lack of support for the Palestinian position on the level of international diplomacy. In reality, it is the other way around. Rarely in the recent history of the Oslo-drama, have there been so many clear signs of support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state in the territories occupied in 1967, as there have been in recent times.

The European Union publicized the ‘Jerusalem Report 2010′ on December 1st, which contains a series of EU policy recommendations. The European Union has seldom been so explicit in its opposition against the Israeli occupation and its settlement policies. The document even stipulates: “If current trends are not stopped as a matter of urgency, the prospect of East Jerusalem as the future capital of a Palestinian state becomes increasingly unlikely and unworkable. This in turn seriously endangers the chances of a sustainable peace on the basis of two states, with Jerusalem as their future capital.”

Is this not enough for Mahmoud Abbas, to give him courage in dealing with the Israelis and Americans? We would all wish that he would be this demanding; it would somewhat counter his image of almost limitless weakness that he has been building up throughout the years. But this report fortunately goes a lot further than this. It draws attention to the “serious humanitarian consequences” of Israel’s settlement planning in East Jerusalem, combined with increased demolitions and evictions of Palestinians and curbs on Palestinian building in the sector. We are hard pressed to find any strong public statements even from Abbas himself about these issues.

The EU report continues to assume a position that we can only dream of hearing said out loud in a major political venue by the current leader of the PA. It states that such policies are also harming East Jerusalem’s “crucial role” in Palestinian political, economic, social and cultural life, and causing it to be increasingly isolated from the rest of the occupied West Bank. It also says that Israel’s attempts to exclusively emphasize the ‘Jewish identity’ of the city are threatening to “radicalize the conflict, with potential regional and global repercussions.” And the report even warns of the EU’s increasing concern about Israel’s “use of archaeology as a political-ideological tool” in a bid to cement the Jewish state’s hold over the entire city.

As AFP reported on December 1, the report concludes with a series of recommendations which call on senior EU officials “to regularly host Palestinian officials” at their offices in East Jerusalem, and to avoid having Israeli officials or security accompanying them on visits to the city’s Eastern sector. It also recommends advising EU tour operators to avoid settler businesses in East Jerusalem, such as hotels and archaeological sites run by settler groups. Finally, it proposes ensuring an EU presence when there is a risk that people may be evicted or have their homes demolished in East Jerusalem.

Support for a unilateral declaration of independence
Still, Abbas seems to be insisting that the Americans and Israelis are the only parties he will take seriously. He fails to utilize whatever is available in terms of diplomatic support, and continues to put himself and the Palestinian people completely at the mercy of the Israeli occupiers and their die-hard allies in Washington.
Has there been any loud message of approval from the Palestinian Authority for the support that was recently extended from the South American continent for the declaration of Palestinian statehood, first by Brazil, and then followed by Argentina and Uruguay?

According to PressTV, even France on December 7th expressed its support for a free and independent Palestinian state, based on borders before the 1967 war, quoting Bernard Valero, spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry. Have those who lead the PA tried to capitalize on these new outside initiatives to help break free from an intolerable impasse? Could their lack of response be an explanation for the fact that the buck seems to have stopped with Uruguay?

The strongest words Abbas has spoken so far have been his threats to dissolve the Palestinian Authority, which is something many Palestinians have been waiting for for years. However, even in these bold statements, he chose words that can only illustrate his total subservience to the Israelis: “I’ll ask Israel to take over.” While dissolving the Palestinian Authority is supposed to be an act of rebellion, which is what could have given true weight and strength to his words, Abbas apparently would go about it in a way that would mean nothing more or less than a total surrender. One can hardly expect the unelected leader of an occupied people waging a struggle for their independence, to make a more embarrassing and damaging statement.

Israelis light fires, Palestinians fight them

It is therefore not so surprising that his threats to make moves towards the unilateral declaration of the Palestinian state, which is the exact opposite of saying “I’ll ask Israel to take over”, are barely being taken seriously by anyone. The ‘cry wolf’ phenomenon has already taken its toll; you only have a few chances to say something without adding action to your words, before they start sounding like the whimpering of the desperate.

On that same day, December 4th, his office issued a statement proudly announcing that Abbas had received a telephone call from Benjamin Netanyahu, thanking him for sending Palestinian firefighters to help control the raging inferno on mount Carmel. Of course there was no reason at all for him to send firefighters in the first place, considering the support the Israeli army has been giving on numerous occasions to settlers setting fire to Palestinian orchards, farmlands and olive plantations.

But to go as far as to boast about a telephone call which may well have been initiated by Abbas himself rather than by Netanyahu, practically amounts to putting one’s weakness on blatant display in a fashion that is totally out of tune with the resilient attitude of the Palestinian people he supposedly represents.

The ‘Peace of the Slave’

The real drama is not even described by these deplorable decisions, declarations, and political maneuvers. The real drama of Mahmoud Abbas and his administration is their stubborn dedication to subservience to Israel, the magnitude of which is not even illustrated by the repeated embarrassments they have brought upon the Palestinian people.

Acting in exactly the opposite way of Einstein’s famous advice quoted above, Abbas simply will not change the mentality that has been sowing the seeds of disaster for the Palestinians ever since the Palestinian Authority embarked on the road of the so-called ‘Peace of the Brave’, which obviously deserves the much more realistic name ‘Peace of the Slave’. This failed diplomatic strategy has done nothing but aggravate the situation of the Palestinians living under an oppressive and racist occupation, year after year.

The people of Palestine are being held hostage by an authority, that has no authority except over the income of a considerable percentage of Palestinian families, and they are being dragged towards an abyss of desperation, by an imposed captain who simply does not have the will nor the courage to change course. According to Einstein’s advice this will not lead to any solution nor to any improvement of the situation, and considering the magnificent contributions of that genius to mankind, we have every reason to believe it.

Tariq Shadid is a Palestinian general surgeon, currently working as the head of department in a hospital in the Middle East. He was born and raised in the Netherlands, and wrote numerous articles of political analysis for the Palestine Chronicle in the first years of the Al Aqsa Intifada, which are now bundled in the book “Understanding Palestine“, available on Amazon. For several years, he was an active board member of the Dutch organization “Stop de Bezetting” (Stop the Occupation) headed by prominent pro-Palestine activist Gretta Duisenberg. For almost five years, he was the official media spokesperson for the board of the Palestinian Community in the Netherlands (PGN), and became a well-known defender of the Palestinian cause in Dutch national media such as television, radio and newspapers. He is also a prolific singer/songwriter and producer of songs for the Palestinian cause, which can be found on his website at http://www.docjazz.com. More articles by Dr. Tariq Shadid on RamallahOnline here.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Revolutionary Middle East Change

>

by Stephen Lendman

Democratic Middle East birth pangs may have legs enough to spread regionally, including in Occupied Palestine.

Officially launched in Cairo in 1959, the General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) offers hope, driven by a commitment for Palestinian liberation. With more than 100 chapters and over 100,000 members, it’s organized rallies, political debates, cultural programs, and other initiatives to spread truths about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Perhaps inspired by events across the region, on January 27, its press release headlined, “Palestinian students claim right to participate in shaping our destiny,” saying:

“….(I)n order to reassert our inalienable rights, (we) claim our right to democratically participate in the shaping of our destiny. We begin a national initiative to campaign for direct elections to the Palestinian National Council (the PLO’s legislative body) on the clear understanding that only a reformed national representative institution, that includes all Palestinians, those struggling in the homeland and those struggling in exile, can create a representative Palestinian platform, and restore the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.”

If popular uprisings offer democratic hope in Tunisia, Algeria, Jordan, Yemen and Egypt, why not Palestine freed from occupation!

Currently, Egypt is the epicenter of regional change, and since the 1978 Camp David Accords, the linchpin of US Middle East imperial policy. However, under Mubarak’s brutal dictatorship, perhaps its day of reckoning has arrived, Robert Fisk saying:

What’s wrong is visible and clear. “The filth and the slums, the open sewers and the corruption of every government official, the bulging prisons, the laughable elections, the whole vast, sclerotic edifice of power has at last brought Egyptians on to the streets….This is not an Islamic uprising – though it could become one – (it) is just one mass of Egyptians stifled by decades of failure and humiliation.”

Even New York Times writer Michael Slackman noticed, headlining his January 28 article, “Egyptians’ Fury Has Smoldered Beneath the Surface for Decades,” saying:

“The litany of complaints against Mr. Mubarak is well known….The police are brutal. Elections are rigged. Corruption is rampant. Life gets harder for the masses as the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer. Even as Egypt’s economy (grew, so did) people living in poverty….”

Around half its 80 million people are impoverished, living on $2 a day or less. Unemployment is high, especially for youths. In contrast, “walled compounds spring up outside cities with green lawns and swimming pools.” It’s a nation “where those with money have built a parallel world of private schools and exclusive clubs, leaving the rundown cities to the poor.”

Wesleyan University Professor Anne Mariel Peters says “The whole system is seen as (Mubarak’s) fault. People do believe (he’s) the absolute dictator.”

They remember the hypocrisy of his 1981 inaugural address, saying:

“We will embark on our great path: not stopping or hesitating, building and not destroying, protecting and not threatening, preserving and not squandering.”

Instead, he solidified absolute power. According to American University Professor Diane Singerman:

“Once you hollow out civil society and repress the unions and you concentrate so much power around your hands, you are vulnerable and it becomes the flip side of stability. I think he is hated for good reason: the constant humiliation, the over-the-top sort of need to control everything, the excessive force.”

For three decades, absolute power, cronyism, corruption, and repression defined his rule, including its Emergency Law power to arrest anyone without charge and detain them indefinitely. According to the International Federation for Human Rights:

It grants “broad power to impose restrictions on the freedoms of assembly, movement or residence; the power to arrest and detain suspects or those deemed dangerous, and the power to search individuals and places without the need to follow the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code.”

It’s how despotism works, violating “rights guaranteed by the Egyptian Constitution, which provides for personal freedom in article 41, the inviolability of private homes in article 44, (and) freedom of movement and residence in article 54.”

It also let Mubarak censor or shut down critical publications as well as try suspects in military tribunals convened to convict, not exonerate. As a result, many thousands of political opponents, activists and Islamists languish in prisons, many tortured, others killed.

Some compare his regime to the last days of Iran’s Shah, including mass poverty and unemployment, repression, cronyism and corruption, near universal contempt for Egypt’s ruling class, a capitalist dictatorship, a leadership with no legitimacy, anger for allying with Washington and Israel, and a profound sense of humiliation.

In 2005, the Egyptian Movement for Change (EMC – a coalition of leftists, Nasserists and Islamists) held a series of Cairo demonstrations, criticizing Mubarak publicly, including calling for him to step down. Since then, demands have grown for ending Emergency Law powers, letting judges supervise elections, raising wages, allowing independent unions, redistributing land to poor farmers, and other democratic reforms.

However, no broader movement for change emerged, and Mubarak neutralized dissent by allowing public criticism and privately owned opposition newspapers. According to one EMC member, however: “We were given a license to scream and vent, but what good did it do?”

Until now, most Egyptians remained quiet, largely because Mubarak’s intimidation includes the omnipresent state security in neighborhoods, on campuses and wherever opposition might emerge. In addition, the hated Interior Ministry has an army of informers, targeting leftists, human rights activists and Islamists. It’s one of Mubarak’s most powerful tools, along with the army supported by generous Washington aid.

After 30 despotic years, his day of reckoning has arrived, human rights activist Ghada Shabandar, saying:

“Egyptians are sick and tired of being corrupted and when you live on 300 pounds a month (about $51), you have one of two options: you either become a beggar or a thief. The people sent a message: ‘We are not beggars and we do not want to become thieves.’ “

Youth Movement co-counder Asmaa Mahfouz added: “We want to fight corruption. These are all things that we have agreed on” besides demanding Mubarak go.

Mass Protests Continue
On January 29, Al Jazeera headlined, “Thousands in Cairo defy curfew,” saying:

Anti-Mubarak protests include (t)ens of thousands of people” on Cairo streets, demanding he go. Defying the 4PM – 8AM curfew, soldiers haven’t intervened. Some, in fact, said that “the only way for peace to come to the streets of Cairo is for Mubarak to step down.”

Similar crowds again massed in Alexandria, Suez and other cities. At least three more killings were reported. “The Egyptian cabinet meanwhile has formally resigned, (and) Ahmed Ezz, a businessman and senior (ruling party) figure….also resigned (as) Planning and Budget Committee” chairman.

Protestors, however, want regime, not cabinet change. Reuters reported that police used live fire at protesters. A military officer said troops would “not fire a single bullet on Egyptians,” adding that the only solution is “for Mubarak to leave.”

Scores of deaths have been reported, including 22 in Cairo, 23 in Alexandria and 27 in Suez. Moreover, on Friday alone, over 1,000 were injured, and many hundreds have been arrested.

Under house arrest, Mohamed ElBaradei told Al Jazeera that protests would continue until Mubarak goes followed by systemic political changes. He also called his midnight speech “disappointing” and expressed similar sentiment about Washington’s response, while saying change must be internal.

Obama Expresses “Partnership” with Egypt’s Government and People

Obama, in fact, expressed hollow people support while allying strongly with Mubarak’s dictatorship, saying:

“(T)hose protesting in the streets have a responsibility to express themselves peacefully. Violence and destruction will not lead to the reforms that they seek. (The) United States has a close partnership with Egypt and we’ve cooperated on many issues, including working together to advance a more peaceful region.”

Washington, in fact, supplies nearly $2 billion in aid annually, mostly to repress dissent and assure Mubarak remains a reliable imperial ally. Obama also ignored decades of tyranny that fed up Egyptians demand end. Moreover, he expressed support for human rights on the same day WikiLeaks released cables disclosing US complicity in his use of torture and assassinations of political opponents.

At his January 28 briefing, White House press secretary was asked if Obama’s support for Mubarak is unchanged. His response:

“Well, we are – again, we’re monitoring a very fluid situation….this is not about picking a person or picking the people of a country.”

Then asked what’s next if legitimate grievances aren’t resolved, he said: “(T)his is a situation that will be solved by the people of Egypt.”

In other words, Washington unconditionally supports Mubarak. Egyptians must solve their own problems, America is complicit in causing.

Commenting on January 28, London Guardian columnist Simon Tisdall said “Washington needs a friendly regime in Cairo more than it needs a democratic government,” adding that backing authoritarian rule is “pragmatic” for the same reasons Saddam Hussein was supported in the 1980s and numerous other despots today.

He also called “the balancing act performed by (Obama) and (Secretary of State Clinton) excruciating to watch,” against “a backdrop of street battles, beatings, tear gas, flying bricks, mass detentions and attempts to shut information networks….”

An aroused Mohamed ElBaradei said:

“If you would like to know why the United States does not have credibility in the Middle East, that is precisely the answer.”

Regular Live Coverage

Providing live updates, the Guardian quoted London School of Economics Professor Fawaz Geges calling events:

“the Arab world’s Berlin moment. The authoritarian wall has fallen – and that’s regardless of whether Mubarak survives or not. The barrier of fear has been removed. It is really the beginning of the end of the status quo in the region….Mubarak is deeply wounded. He is bleeding terribly. We are witnessing the beginning of a new era.”

Other regime changes are likely, while Mubarak clings momentarily to power. His likely successor may be spy chief Omar Suleiman, named vice president, a newly created post never tolerated during three decades of his rule. Foreign Policy magazine ranked him the region’s most powerful intelligence official, ahead of Mossad’s Meir Dagan.

Ahmed Shafiq, former civil aviation minister and air force commander, was named prime minister. Egyptians reject them, demanding clean sweep changes, removing all despotic vestiges.

On Saturday, Army vehicles protected wealthy compounds in Cairo suburbs, five-star hotels, and government ministries.

According to City University, London Professor Rosemary Hollis:

“I think it will take a couple of days to organize (Mubarak’s) departure if it happens. It’s going to be a messy process and there will probably be (more) bloodshed. I don’t think (you’ll see) a war with the army on one side and the people on the other. (It) has to decide” which side to back. “It’s one of those moments where….individual lieutenants and soldiers” choose which course to take. Splits in the ranks may occur. An interim government is likely. “The question is what replaces it.”

Maan News said:

“Palestinian officials in Ramallah offered no comment on the Friday events in Egypt. (In Gaza), Palestinians have been watching the unrest in Egypt attentively, and while civilians say they are pleased with the prospect for change, demonstrations in the north and southern Strip on Friday (focused on condemning) the PA and PLO for” leaked Palestine Papers revelations.

“Gaza’s Hamas-run government, like their compatriots in the West Bank, remained mum on the situation.” Gazans agree that regime change is positive.

On Friday, Israel’s daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth said a “revolution in Israel’s security doctrine” could follow, according to a defense ministry official.

On January 29, Haaretz writer Anshel Pfeffer headlined, “In Egypt, protesters and soldiers declare: The army and the people are one,” saying:

“(M)ilitary officers stationed in the area embraced the protesters, chanting” the above slogan “hand in hand.” Hoisted on protesters’ shoulders, they removed their helmets, chanting, singing, and saying we’ve already crossed the point of no return. “Game over,” read signs. Haaretz columnist Amos Harel called it an “intelligence chief’s nightmare.” Netanyahu instructed all ministers and officials to stay silent, a senior one saying:

“Israel is in no way interested in involving itself in Egypt’s affairs, and therefore we have received clear instructions to keep a low profile in the Egyptian matter.” Clearly, they’re concerned. According to Harel:

“(C)hanges could even lead to changes in the IDF and cast a dark cloud over the economy….If the Egyptian regime falls….the riots could easily spill over to Jordan and threaten the Hashemite regime. On Israel’s two long peaceful borders, there will then prevail a completely different reality.”

On January 30, in his first public comment, Netanyahu said:

“We are following with vigilance the events in Egypt and in our region….at this time we must show responsibility and restraint and maximum consideration….Our efforts have been intended to continue to preserve stability and security in our region. I remind you that peace between Israel and Egypt has lasted for over three decades,” adding that efforts will be made to “ensure that these relations will continue to exist.”

On January 29, an Amnesty International (AI) action alert said:

“Thirty years of repression is spilling onto the streets of Egypt in the forms of tear-gas, blood and bitter demonstrations. For four days, Egyptian protesters have suffered at the hand of (Mubarak’s) security forces.”

AI’s fellow Egyptian activists want “their voices heard at various Egyptian embassies and consulates. We intend to do all we can to make that happen….That is why we’re asking (support) to place an urgent call to” Egypt’s Washington embassy at 202-895-5400, then press 1 to speak to a real person on repressive conditions.

“(D)on’t take ‘no’ for an answer.” Demand respect for human rights. “Help us make (the) embassy’s phone ring off the hook” for democracy and justice!

Saturday evening, protesters again defied curfew orders. Soldiers aren’t intervening in Cairo, Alexandria, Suez or elsewhere. Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood leader, Hamman Saeed, warned the Egyptian unrest will spread, toppling other Arab regimes allied with America.

Conditions remain fluid. Millions demand change and intend getting it. Mubarak’s era has passed. Egyptian writer Mona Eltahawy spoke for many saying, “We’ve waited for this revolution for years. Other despots should quail. Change is sweeping through the Middle East….” It remains to be seen what follows. Follow-up articles will explain more.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

posted by Steve Lendman @ 2:20 AM

Gilad Atzmon: Liberating the American People

>

In his latest Newsweek article Stephen Kinzer wonders who America is betting on to counter the popular rising forces in the Middle East : “The same friends it has been betting on for decades” he answers. “Mubarak’s pharaonic regime in Egypt, Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority, the Saudi monarchy, and increasingly radical politicians in Israel. It is no wonder that Iran’s power is rising as the American-imposed order begins to crumble,” he concludes.
Kinzer explains America’s stance succinctly and accurately : “The U.S. keeps Mubarak in power – it gave his regime $1.5 billion in aid last year -mainly because he supports America’s pro-Israel policies, especially by helping Israel maintain its stranglehold on Gaza.

It supports Abbas for the same reason; Abbas is seen as willing to compromise with Israel and is, therefore, a desirable negotiating partner….. American support for Mubarak and Abbas continues, although neither man is in power with any figment of legality; Mubarak brazenly stage-manages elections, and Abbas has ruled by decree since his term of office expired in 2009.”

In the light of Kinzer’s statement, the following questions surely need answering — Why does America support those regimes, whose leaders’ dictates, ideologies and methods of ruling are totally and openly incongruous with America’s alleged value system? And If America is genuinely concerned with the so-called ‘rise of Islam’, why then, did it eradicate Saddam Hussein’s distinctly secular regime? And if America is, as it claims, enthusiastic about encouraging ‘non radicalised’ secular Arabs, why is it constantly seeking conflict with Bashir Asad, leader of another secular stronghold? And If America does indeed champion democracy, why does it support the Saudi regime, Mubarak and Abbas? Why does it not seek friendship with the democratically elected Hamas?

In short American policy seems to be a total mess — unless one is willing to openly admit that there is a clear coherent thread running through American foreign policy : it simply serves Israel’s interests.

For decades American foreign policy has been dictated by Zionist forces within their administration. For decades, America has been exhausting its resources to chase the enemies of the Jewish state. It even sends its young boys and girls to fight and die in Zionist wars. The second Iraq War was obviously such a war. It is becoming clear that America’s decision makers have sacrificed the interests of the American people.

We learned yesterday that the Jewish Lobby in America shamelessly slammed Republican Senator and Tea Party representative Rand Paul for suggesting that the “United States should halt all foreign aid including its financial aid to Israel”. Even the alleged ‘peace seeking’ J Street was quick to attack the patriotic senator. And clearly they didn’t mince their words : “Senator Paul’s proposal would undermine the decades-long bipartisan consensus on U.S. support for Israel. Any erosion of support should concern Israel’s friends on both sides of the political aisle, and we call in particular on leaders and donors in Senator Paul’s party to repudiate his comments and ensure that American leadership around the world is not threatened by this irresponsible proposal,” the statement issued by J Street read.

 

National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) President and CEO David Harris repeated the same line of thought saying that “Paul’s suggestion is negligent, shortsighted, and just plain wrong….Senator Paul’s statement is yet another illustration of how the Republican Party continues to grow increasingly out of touch with the values of the vast majority of the American Jewish community.”

But NJDC’s spokesman David Harris must have failed to grasp that the patriotic senator Paul is actually concerned with the interest of America, rather than the tribally orientated ‘values of the vast majority of the American Jews’, because Senator Rand Paul obviously points at a clear conflict between American interests and the foreign interests promoted by the Jewish lobby.

In his Newsweek article, Kinzer astutely points out that America needs “new approaches and new partners. Listening more closely to Turkey, the closest U.S. ally in the Muslim Middle East, would be a good start. A wise second step would be a reversal of policy toward Iran, from confrontation to a genuine search for compromise.”

But, It is clear beyond doubt here that America will not be able to integrate Kinzer’s very reasonable suggestions into its foreign policy unless it first liberates itself from the grip of the Jewish Lobby. And It has been proven that it is not easy for our greed-driven politicians to emancipate themselves voluntarily from the Lobby. As we read above, the ‘liberal’ J Street group have called upon donors to cut off the very life supply of Senator Rand Paul. And The Jewish Lobby in America would do the same to every American politician who dared to break the links.

However, in the wake of the current financial turmoil, I am convinced that more and more Americans are beginning to identify the root cause at the bottom of their flawed foreign policy. By the time this happens, America may well be liberated.

And here is my musical take on the subject. Liberating the American People (2006)

Amazon.co.uk

Posted by Gilad Atzmon at 12:55:00 PM  

Saadat: PA protecting Israeli security

>

[ 29/01/2011 – 10:32 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– Ahmed Saadat, the secretary-general of the popular front for the liberation of Palestine (PFLP), lashed out at the Palestinian Authority’s security cooperation with Israel.

He stated in a letter leaked from his solitary cell his position about the information reported by Al-Jazeera channel concerning the circumstances of his arrest in January 2002.

In a letter published by Maan news agency on Friday, Saadat held the PA responsible for his kidnapping from its prison in Jericho in March 2006 by Israel after it had signed an agreement with the latter.

He said that the detention of many Palestinian leaders like him in PA or Israeli jails is a reflection of the security cooperation policy pursued by the PA and its role in protecting Israel’s security.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

WILLIAM COOK : AS THE DOMINOES FLOW TOWARD ISRAEL

>

Via MCS

– 30. Jan, 2011

Ultimately it comes back to Israel, a nation that defies the continuous cries from the United Nations to abide by international law, to heed the decisions of the International Court, to accept the efforts of the UN to investigate its actions so the rule of law can prevail, to see that force is not the way to peace in the mid-east, that subjugation of the people of Palestine rings from Lebanon to Algeria like a knell awakening the world to the suffering imposed on those shackled by the Eurocentric colonial mind of the 19^th century.

By William A. Cook / My Catbird Seat

While the people of the mid-east rise in protest against their respective American supported dictators in Tunisia and Egypt, with the American-Israeli attempts to control Lebanon on the brink of chaos and collapse, and the “peace negotiations” between the Palestinians and the Israelis torpedoed by both Netanyahu and Abbas, the confusion at the State Department could be eased if it spent some time reviewing the United States’ prior efforts to control the people of the mid-east, especially in Iran. It’s one thing for the Secretary of State and the President to reiterate America’s purported policy on human rights and another to acknowledge the hypocrisy of it.

After all, our policy appears clear, “We have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and free of corruption; and the freedom to live as you choose. These are human rights, and we support them everywhere,” Mr. Gibbs said, speaking on behalf of the President. America supports human rights everywhere, with words …  as our dutiful TV channels give Gibbs, Crowley, Clinton and Obama extensive time to demonstrate … but there are no words directed at the Palestinian people’s rights.

How strange to watch our CNN talking heads, especially the Israeli trained Wolf Blitzer, former editor of AIPAC’s in house “Near East Report,” stuttering before the cameras as he recalled the fall of the Shah of Iran, America’s staunch ally for 25 years, as a direct result of similar riots by Iranian civilians, and the resulting loss of America’s control in Iran. He failed to mention that our friend had subjugated the Iranian people beneath the boots of his SAVAK mercenaries that protected his elegant life style while the people suffered under his despotic regime. Then as now our Presidents spoke of America’s support of human rights neglecting to mention the CIA’s overthrow of the elected nationalist (1951) Mohammed Mossadegh as Prime Minister.

Why should Blitzer express such concern? Why see danger lurking in the streets where the people of Tunisia and Egypt have gone to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with pseudo-democratic governments that hold rigged elections to ensure the continuation of their dictatorial rule propped up by American tax dollars so readily evident in the labels on the gas canisters (made in America) hurled at them by the police mercenaries who benefit from those same tax dollars? Perhaps because Blitzer knows, though he does not say it, that the Shah was the first mid-east dictator to recognize Israel, and with his loss Iran has become the number one “existential enemy” of that militaristic state. Perhaps he realizes that the “new” Iraq has an umbilical cord to Iran, that Afghanistan remains and will remain unfettered by America’s dictates, and that Syria continues to maintain meaningful control in Lebanon despite the efforts of the Israeli-American alliance to destabilize it. Perhaps he sees that the fall of Mubarak will mean that Egypt will no longer be a puppet of the Israeli state, and then perhaps Jordan will follow, and the dominoes will tumble one upon the next toward Israel leaving it standing naked before the world, delegitimized by the people of the mid-east dictating in their own way that tolerance of bought regimes is not the way to democracy and human rights.

Ultimately it comes back to Israel, a nation that defies the continuous cries from the United Nations to abide by international law, to heed the decisions of the International Court, to accept the efforts of the UN to investigate its actions so the rule of law can prevail, to see that force is not the way to peace in the mid-east, that subjugation of the people of Palestine rings from Lebanon to Algeria like a knell awakening the world to the suffering imposed on those shackled by the Eurocentric colonial mind of the 19^th century.

The Obama administration has a chance to right this silent complicity that gives license to Israel to violently control the people of Palestine and perhaps thereby save the state of Israel from itself. Lebanon has brought forward to the United Nations Security Council a resolution that would force the council to address Israel’s illegal occupation and revert to Resolutions 181 and 242 that define the two states that should exist in Palestine. All Obama needs to do is abstain. That silent protest against AIPAC and the Neo-Cons would declare what no other President since WWII has been able to assert, that America’s policy on the prohibition of illegal settlements cannot be ignored and that America’s “…unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things: the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and free of corruption; and the freedom to live as you choose. These are human rights, and we support them everywhere,” remains the true foundation of America’s commitment to international law and human rights.

William A. Cook is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California and author of The Rape Of Palestine: Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied, Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy and The Chronicles Of Nefaria.

He is editor of MWCNEWS. The Plight of the Palestinians: a Long History of Destruction by Dr. William A. Cook is out now, available to order from Palgrave Macmillan!

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Matthew Rothschild: U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Goes After Richard Falk

>

Professor Richard Falk

January 29, 2011 posted by Michael Leon ·

Professor Richard Falk of Princeton has long been a thorn in the side of the U.S. foreign policy establishment because he has been an outspoken critic of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.

By Matthew Rothschild in McCarthyism Watch

Currently, he serves as U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Palestinians.

But what’s raised the ire of the State Department this time has nothing to do with his views on the Palestinians but rather on 9/11.

For some time now, Falk has been skeptical of the official story around 9/11 and has blurbed the writings of David Ray Griffin, one of the leading critics.

On a long blog posting on January 11 concerning the Tucson shootings, Falk briefly discussed the 9/11 controversy. He wrote that there is an “apparent cover-up,” and he also condemned “the eerie silence of the mainstream media, unwilling to acknowledge the well-evidenced doubts about the official version of the events.”

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice seized on these comments as a means for ousting Falk.
“Mr. Falk’s comments are despicable and deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the strongest terms,” she said in a statement on Jan. 25.

She added: “Mr. Falk’s latest commentary is so noxious that it should finally be plain to all that he should no longer continue in his position on behalf of the UN.”

In response, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned Falk for his “inflammatory rhetoric,” and called it “preposterous” and “an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in that tragic attack.”

Ban did not, however, remove Falk from his position.

Falk answered on his blog on Jan. 27.

“I certainly meant no disrespect toward the collective memory of 9/11 in the country and elsewhere,” he wrote. “On the contrary, my intention was to encourage an investigation that might finally achieve closure with respect to doubts that remain prevalent among important sectors of the public, including among some 9/11 families.”

Here’s my take on all this: While I wrote a critique of Griffin’s work many years ago and don’t put any stock in the 9/11 Truth movement, another investigation wouldn’t hurt. And what’s crucially important is this: Falk shouldn’t be punished for a thought crime.

As he himself wrote: “What seems apparent from this incident, which is itself disturbing, is that any acknowledgement of doubt about the validity of the official version of the 9/11 events, while enjoying the legal protection of free speech, is denied the political and moral protection that are essential if an atmosphere of free speech worthy of a democracy is to be maintained.”

If you liked this story by Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine, check out his other “McCarthyism Watch” pieces by clicking here.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Joe Biden on Shalom TV: I am a Zionist

>

Saturday, January 29, 2011 at 8:38AM Gilad Atzmon

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

TWO VIEWS: ‘EGYPTIAN UPRISING’– EDWARD PECK / RAMZY BAROUD

>

January 28, 2011

posted by Debbie Menon

Interview with former US ambassador Edward Peck

The United States has spoken for democracy in Egypt, but it is not stopping aid to security forces, now killing Egyptians.

An analysis on the recent Egypt uprising was provided by former US ambassador Edward Peck in an interview with Press TV’s Waqar Rizvi. The transcript of the interview follows.

Press TV: Netanyahu’s government believes Mubarak will survive this unrest by having to exercise force, power on the street. It says Mubarak’s well rooted in the military and security apparatus. Is this true?

Peck: Well, we are going to find out I suppose, but I think it’s fairly typical of the Israeli government to urge the use of force, which of course, is what Israel does whenever it faces anyone who is unhappy with the situation in occupied territories for example.
They get pretty violent there. You remember not too long ago when Arabs in Israel, Israeli-Arabs, demonstrated and a fairly large number of them were brutally killed, which is how the Israeli government believes it should be done. I’m not sure I agree with that approach, but it’s certainly what they do.

Press TV: Though the US has spoken for democracy, it isn’t standing by protestors by ending aid to security forces now killing Egyptians. Why is that?

Peck: Because the relationship is supposed to transcend what could be a minor bump on the road to the sort of things that the American government would like to see.
When you have an assistance relationship with another country, any relationship between two countries where one country is giving something to another country, you definitely have to give them what they want or not give them anything at all, because you can’t give them things that they don’t want.
So our relationship has been largely based on support for the government to be able to maintain its borders and protect itself and some of that, of course, spills over into what we would call “maintaining order,” police, that sort of thing.
That is a typical relationship and it looks as if in a country such as Egypt the military aspect of the government has grown pretty strong, perhaps too strong, and I’m afraid and very concerned that we might see a great deal of violence tomorrow which an awful lot of people expect and some people want and I think that could be bad for everybody in the area especially in the short run.

Press TV: Egypt is a powerhouse in the region, with its citizens spread far and wide within the Middle East. How, then, will countries with large populations of Egyptian expatriates react if Mubarak’s government collapses?

Peck: That is a very pertinent question. I remember back in the days of Saddam Hussein and Iraq, where there were lots of Egyptians that went to Iraq for the purposes of helping to build the economy and I remember what happened when the Palestinians, who also had lots of expatriates working in other parts of the Arab world, there were sometimes a tendency on the part of the governments where expatriates are in large numbers to perceive a possible security threat from those people.
I do not know how realistic that appearance of the threat is, but I think it is rational to expect governments that face that internal problem will be watching carefully to see what it is they need to do to maintain stability and security in their own countries and that could affect Egyptian expatriates.

Press TV: The 2011 has begun on a tense-filled note for Arab dictatorships. How lasting, if at all, will demands by people for freedom and rights, that the US was never able to push for successfully, be in the long-term?

Peck: You know, the United States seems to have the tendency to believe that other people should do things the way we do even if those other people do not necessarily see it the same way.
If I were in charge of the American government… I would be very careful as to what I said in commenting about this kind of a problem in another country, especially when it is a potentially serious problem, not just for the country itself but for the region, and speaking too much on the subject when it is not directly our problem. We have not caused it, then we are not going to control it.
We would be better off not saying much certainly much less than we are saying now as everybody has to tell the Egyptians, both the government and the people, what they should do and what they shouldn’t do. It is not really our affair.

HSN/HGH

Ramzy Baroud

‘Egyptians hope for true democracy’

Interview with Ramzy Baroud

US authorities have warned the Egyptian government and protesters to avoid violence as conflict might escalate with the presence of Egyptian opposition figure Mohamed ElBaradei on Friday.

Press TV’s Waqar Rizvi has conducted an interview with Ramzy Baroud, author and journalist from Seattle, regarding this issue:

Press TV: How do you see ElBaradei’s return to Egypt affecting the intensity of the protesters?
Baroud: I think there is a possibility that ElBaradei’s return might be part of an contingency plan if you oversee the post Mubarak era, I think there is a growing sense that the Mubarak regime will either be eradicated after all of this, especially considering what could happen tomorrow or at least there would be some serious changes in the nature of the regime in the coming days and weeks.
Therefore, ElBaradei’s return might be related to all of this, I hope that this is not the case and ElBaradei’s return is more or less a personal initiative related. He has involvement in the democratic association and various political parties in Egypt are also involved. What really matters right now is not ElBaradei frankly. What truly matters is the Egyptian revolution, the popular uprising in Egypt. It is not co-opted and it is not reduced to be that of the character of one individual or one specific political party. It is represented of the consensus being witnessed in Egyptian streets right now.

Press TV: … [US President Barack] Obama has now asked for reform as absolutely critical in Egypt and the state department spokesman refuses to say if the US would in fact cut aid to security forces that are now killing Egyptians. Do you see that as a bit hypocritical or as the US being simply smart?

Baroud: Very much so. I think it is a position that is tainted with hypocrisy and the term reform and democracy as far as US reform policy is concerned in the Middle East, it is not really the same or it has not been understood the same way that the popular uprising in Egypt, Tunisia and other countries actually understand these terms. Democracy and reform means something entirely different. We are also looking at the term stability here, what does stability mean? Stability means the maintenance of the current oppressive regime and as far as he is willing to serve the interest of outside powers, stability is not what Egyptian people are concerned about at all. So, when we hear such terms as reform and democracy coming from the Obama administration, we have to be extremely careful on how we decide for them and how we understand them. Frankly, I do not think that at all means what the Egyptians have in mind right now.

Press TV: As you know, Friday is always an important day for Muslims in the week. Will the Imams have the courage to speak out about the current unrest or is Mubarak’s hold on them strong?

Baroud: It is really interesting, because I’ve been listening the whole day to statements made by people who affiliated with the Egyptian regime and their positions are no longer consistent with their past positions. I think this is a very golden opportunity. What is going to happen on Friday is to determine the future of this movement. If it ends up being co-opted or politicized this might be the demise of the popular movement. Tomorrow is a very important day as far as the Imams are concerned. As we know, in Egypt even the mosque is divided. I am sure all groups are going to hold on the collapsing regime very tightly, because they are also tying their own future, their own interest to that of the regime. So, we are going to see some of these voices tomorrow, trying to basically name the popular movement tainted or also make statements regarding a decree, declaring them to be Haram and that sort of things. So, it is very important that we understand that they are those people who will always be insistent or consistent with the official position of the Egyptian regime and we cannot be allowed to define the legacy of Egypt, neither tomorrow nor in the future.

Press TV: Many … caution needs to be taken when we have been speaking on Egypt because it is no Tunisia, do you agree and does that mean change will be a lot harder to come to this US ally?

Baroud: Yes and no. Egypt and Tunisia are two different countries and have different histories and political contexts perhaps, but at the end of the day oppression is oppression. The Egyptian youth and behind them their societies and communities are seconding a call on reform, change and democracy. That is very much genuine and very much similar to that of Tunisia, I think Tunisia is a microseism to what has happened in Egypt and the reflection of each other but again we have to respect the uniqueness and the historical specificity of each country.

AE/HRF

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Palestine was NEVER a "lost cause"

 

In his article Palestine does not have to be a lost cause, Alan Hart advices Palestinian that the only way to save their “lost cause” is by declaring to their occupiers “… we will never accept anything less than a complete end to Israel’s 1967 occupation, as required by UN Security Council resolutions and international law.”

WRONG MR Alan Hart … WRONG

Nothing short of FULL LIBERATION of Palestine is acceptable to us, Palestinians

****************

Mr Hart continues to advice them to give up on their right of return and to accept the “crumbs of zionism” mini state, saying“…the right of return would have to be limited to the territory of the Palestinian state, with compensation for those who wished to return and for whom there was no space…. but it does not necessarily have to be the end of the right of return story. Why not? Because it’s not impossible that after a generation (perhaps two) of living side by side in peace with the Palestinians in a mini state of their own, many Israeli Jews would conclude, or at least be open to the idea that there should be one democratic state for all”

WRONG Again MR Hart … VERY WRONG

Neither Mr Hart, nor any of the zionist Jews of the world, nor any of their allies, or crypto-allies have the right to tell Palestinians what rights to give up, what rights to keep or what rights to fight for

Any decision on the solution for the Palestinian problem and any future decision about the status of ILLEGAL COLONIZERS in Palestine should be a PALESTINIAN DECISION; they, and ONLY they, can make such choices

The aims and aspirations of Palestinians cannot be imposed on them, neither by their enemy who illegally occupies their land nor by friends.

The boundaries of Palestinian longing for justice, their yearning to get back their stolen rights and freedom should not be defined by the imagination of any one, but themselves

A pathetic “mini” state, a nominal acceptance of a few thousands of refugees to return, a deceleration of some changes of zionist regime, or some vacuous declaration of abandonment of zionism do not come close enough to the fulfillment of the Palestinian aim.

The Palestinian aim is the strict, legally and morally necessary, FULL Liberation of Palestine, and the FULL restoration of all their rights.

During the almost a century time, since they began to invade Palestine, the Judeo-Zionists would have had enough time to begin to notice their own crimes, and begin to exhibit signs of remorse, of respect and willingness to behave like decent human beings. Had they embraced the hospitable people of Palestine, rather than methodically annihilating them they might have had a chance to be accepted and forgiven.

Not any more, as far as, I am concerned, they have lost that opportunity.

Furthermore, in the context of shifting balance of power, the rest of the world begins slowly to wake up to the truth, and the Muslim world will certainly not remain lethargic forever.

People of the world are opening their eyes to the alarming level of zionist infiltration in their own affairs; governments manipulations, media control, financial corruption It is not going to be a pleasant reckoning.

Moreover, the truth about the catastrophic, supremacist, genocidal Talmudic ideologies only just began to “leak” out and to attract the attention of truth-seekers, despite the fact that many who are infatuated with the “chosen”, continue to dance around these facts while looking the other way, or worse, they try to obfuscate the dangers and the horrors inherent in such extreme Jewish ideologies by pointing their finger instead at what they call “Islamic extremism”

Even decades of deception do not prevent karma.

As the world wakes up to all this, it will become evident that in order for justice and human rights to have any meaning, there need to be a global stance against the zionist monster

Unrelenting Judeo-zionist blackmail of mass genocide and world annihilation, will not bring them much support, but rather bring the world to stand up like the brave Palestinians and STOP this madness once and for all.

Indubitably, the world will regurgitate those who drive for its annihilation, Samson-ists and Armageddon-ists. The world will unite and rid itself of this Frankenstein.

In the end, zionists and their associates will not find many to shed tears for them, nor will they find many open doors to welcome them. The only open doors will be the EXIT doors of expulsion out of Palestine.

Time, perhaps another couple of thousand years, might help them to learn the lesson, bring them to their senses, back into humanity.

Then and only then, only when animated by peaceful intentions, can they try to knock at Palestine’s doors again. Not now, and not for a long time.

With patience, steadfastness and time (and Palestinians have lots of all that) it becomes evident that the only possible outcome is the unconditional, FULL LIBERATION of Palestine!

Now, I would like to invite Mr Hart to get to know Palestinians a little better, let me introduce some of them

After that, does any one still think that Palestine is a lost cause?

The only lost cause I see, is the cause of such barbarians:

.

Posted by nahida the Exiled Palestinian at 6:57:00 AM

How to Help the Egyptian Revolution

>Useful information:

If you know anyone in Egypt right now please send them this info to allow folks to get around Egypt’s censorship.

IP Address:
Web site addresses are actually a code that gets translated into the actual computer-language address that the site is at. A government can try and disconnect the alphanumeric address (twitter.com) from the real computer language-address (128.242.240.52) but you can still enter it by using these:
for twitter “128.242.240.52”
for google “72.14.204.99”
for facebook “69.63.189.34”

Tor:
Another way to get around any sort of censorship is to route your internet through a series of random servers around the world. This makes it nearly impossible for the government to block your access. (i.e. A hypothetical example is this: Say SF airport wants to stop flights from going from SF to Dallas. But they only control the SF airport. Its a lot harder to stop flights from going SF-Denver-Dallas or SF-LA-Dallas since they can’t control those airports. Hope that makes sense.)
So they can get access to it tell folks to download Tor http://www.torproject.org/ which allows them to do this. It is awesome. Its a bit slower but totally designed for this kind of thing.

PS- This info applies to folks in any country to sidestep government censorship- China, Iran, etc.
PS- Protests have started in N. Yemen, citing solidarity with protestors in Tunisia/Egypt

Shorter version for forwarding:

for twitter “128.242.240.52”
for google “72.14.204.99”
for facebook “69.63.189.34”

for all internet (slower and requires download)  http://www.torproject.org/

Mohannad El-Khairy
Money & Mud Uncensored: http://mohannadelkhairy.blogspot.com/
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/MohannadKhairy 

—

nahidazionists ‘get the hell out of Palestine’
~ Helen Thomas

To defeat the aggressors is not enough to make peace durable. The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war.
 ~ Ludwig von Mises

Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says . . .  I’ll try again tomorrow.      
 ~ Anne Henninghake

Ravenise said…

How to BYPASS EGYPT CENSOR تخريب الانترنت الرقيب :

So it looks like they have shut down the DNS servers, and that is all? You can use programs like “TREEWALK” to bypass the ISP DNS server and use the backbone DNS servers of the internet… I’m not completely sure but this program should allow you to get around that problem: http://ntcanuck.com/
With TREEWALK YOU CAN:

1. Your ISP’s DNS servers are slow or offline
2. Accurately resolving web sites is a problem
3. You wish to capture or debug DNS routing data
4. You want to custom configure DNS settings and servers
5. You’d simply like faster repeat visits to sites via cached lookups
6. You have poor DNS with your wireless or satellite Internet connection
7. You use Internet Connection Sharing and want to improve surfing speeds

تخريب الانترنت الرقيب :

لذلك يبدو وكأنه لديهم إيقاف خدمة نظام أسماء النطاقات، وهذا هو كل شيء؟ يمكنك استخدام برامج مثل “TREEWALK” لتجاوز الملقم أسماء النطاقات مقدمي خدمات الإنترنت واستخدام نظام أسماء النطاقات خوادم العمود الفقري للإنترنت… لست متأكدا تماما ولكن هذا البرنامج يجب أن تسمح لك للتغلب على هذه المشكلة : http://ntcanuck.com/

مع TREEWALK يمكنك :

1. مزود خدمة الإنترنت الخاص بك دياناس بطيئة أو غير متصل
2. حل بدقة المواقع على شبكة الإنترنت مشكلة
3. كنت ترغب في التقاط أو تصحيح البيانات توجيه نظام أسماء النطاقات
4. تريد تكوين مخصص إعدادات نظام أسماء النطاقات وخوادم
5. كنت ترغب ببساطة تكرار الزيارات أسرع إلى المواقع عن طريق عمليات البحث مؤقتا
6. لديك نظام أسماء النطاقات الفقيرة مع اتصال الإنترنت اللاسلكي أو الأقمار الصناعية
7. كنت تستخدم مشاركة اتصال إنترنت وترغب في تحسين تصفح بسرعة

Egypt can use this number for dial up: +33172890150 (login ‘toto’ password ‘toto’) – thanks to French ISP (FDN) http://www.fdn.fr/ on +33172890150. LOOKS LIKE IT’S WORKING FINE. FEEL FREE TO USE AND SHARE. PASSWORD & LOGIN : TOTO

ويمكن لمصر استخدام هذا الرقم ليصل الرقم : (‘توتو’كلمة السر ‘توتو’ دخول) +33172890150 — شكرا لمقدمي خدمات الإنترنت الفرنسية (قوات الدفاع الوطني) على http://www.fdn.fr/ +33172890150. يبدو انه يعمل بشكل جيد. لا تتردد في استخدام ونصيب.

كلمة السر والدخول : TOTO

12:52 AM, January 29, 2011 

Ravenise said…

IP Address:
Web site addresses are actually a code that gets translated into the actual computer-language address that the site is at. A government can try and disconnect the alphanumeric address (twitter.com) from the real computer language-address (128.242.240.52) but you can still enter it by using these:
for twitter “128.242.240.52”
for google “72.14.204.99”
for facebook “69.63.189.34”

Tor:
Another way to get around any sort of censorship is to route your internet through a series of random servers around the world. This makes it nearly impossible for the government to block your access. (i.e. A hypothetical example is this: Say SF airport wants to stop flights from going from SF to Dallas. But they only control the SF airport. Its a lot harder to stop flights from going SF-Denver-Dallas or SF-LA-Dallas since they can’t control those airports. Hope that makes sense.)
So they can get access to it tell folks to download Tor http://www.torproject.org/ which allows them to do this. It is awesome. Its a bit slower but totally designed for this kind of thing.

Hope all is well,
Chris

PS- This info applies to folks in any country to sidestep government censorship- China, Iran, etc.
PS- Protests have started in N. Yemen, citing solidarity with protestors in Tunisia/Egypt

Shorter version for forwarding:

for twitter “128.242.240.52”
for google “72.14.204.99”
for facebook “69.63.189.34”
for all internet (slower and requires download) http://www.torproject.org/

الملكية الفكرية العنوان :
عناوين مواقع الويب هي في الواقع رمز أن يحصل على ترجمتها إلى العنوان الفعلي الحاسوب واللغة التي هي في الموقع. ويمكن للحكومة ومحاولة قطع عنوان أبجدية (twitter.com) من عنوان الكمبيوتر الحقيقي اللغة (128.242.240.52) ولكن يمكنك إدخال أنها لا تزال باستخدام هذه :
عن “128.242.240.52” التغريد
عن “72.14.204.99” غوغل
عن “69.63.189.34” فيس بوك

تور :
طريقة أخرى للالتفاف على أي نوع من الرقابة لتوجيه الإنترنت الخاص من خلال سلسلة من خوادم عشوائي في جميع أنحاء العالم. وهذا يجعل من المستحيل تقريبا على الحكومة لمنع الوصول الخاص بك. (أي سبيل المثال الافتراضي هو هذا : قل سادس مطار تريد وقف الرحلات الجوية من الانتقال من سادس الى دالاس لكنهم لا يسيطرون الا على المطار سادس لها الكثير من الجهد لوقف الرحلات الجوية من الذهاب سادس – دنفر ، دالاس أو سادس لوس انجليس دالاس. نظرا لأنها لا تستطيع السيطرة على تلك المطارات. على أمل أن يجعل من معنى.)
حتى يتمكنوا من الوصول إليها أخبر الناس بتحميل تور http://www.torproject.org/ الذي يسمح لهم بذلك. ومن رهيبة. من أبطأ قليلا لكنها مصممة تماما لهذا النوع من الشيء.

الأمل هو كل شيء حسنا ،
كريس

ملاحظة : هذه المعلومات ، ينطبق على الناس في أي بلد لحكومة الصين وتجنب الرقابة ، وإيران ، وما إلى ذلك
وبدأت الاحتجاجات في فرع فلسطين ، اليمن الشمالية ، نقلا عن التضامن مع المتظاهرين في تونس / مصر

نسخة مختصرة للشحن :

عن “128.242.240.52” التغريد
عن “72.14.204.99” غوغل
عن “69.63.189.34” فيس بوك
الإنترنت للجميع (أبطأ ، ويتطلب تحميل) http://www.torproject.org/

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

A undermined accountability for Gaza victims, papers reveal

>Report, The Electronic Intifada, 27 January 2011

The Palestinian Authority scuttled accountability at the United Nations for victims of Israel’s winter 2008-09 attacks on Gaza, leaked documents reveal. (Wissam Nassar/MaanImages)

Yesterday Al Jazeera released the final cache of the Palestine Papers, the network’s publication of secret documents culled from the last ten years of negotiations between the Palestinian Authority, Israel and the United States.

Among some of the latest revelations are agreements between all three parties to push the United Nations Human Rights Council to delay a vote on the Goldstone report, the fact-finding probe of alleged war crimes committed during Israel’s winter 2008-09 attacks on the Gaza Strip. Approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the 22-day assault, and more than 5,000 were wounded.

Al Jazeera reported that documents prove the Palestinian Authority sacrificed potential legal accountability for Palestinian victims of Israel’s attacks “in exchange for favorable assurances on negotiations from the United States and, they hoped, from Israel” (“PA stonewalled the Goldstone vote,” S. Farhan Mustafa, 26 January 2011).

Reporting for Al Jazeera, S. Farhan Mustafa wrote yesterday: “What the Palestine Papers demonstrate is that, in the weeks preceding the vote, the United States apparently urged the PA to stall the report as a means of restarting negotiations with Israel.”

In a meeting in Washington, DC, in October 2009, US envoy George Mitchell presented Palestine Liberation Organization chief negotiator Saeb Erekat “with a document containing language that, if agreed to, would nullify one of the PA’s few weapons — the chance to prosecute Israeli officials for war crimes in Gaza at the International Criminal Court at The Hague,” Mustafa added.

According to documents contained within the Palestine Papers, the PA accepted Mitchell’s document, and agreed to call for a delay in the vote at the UN Human Rights Council.

“Unsurprisingly,” reported Mustafa, “this decision was met by outrage, as Palestinians and Arab nations condemned the PA leadership for kowtowing yet again to American and Israeli pressure.

Abbas alerted prior to Gaza attack

Additional revelations in Wednesday’s document leak included the possible foreknowledge of Israel’s 2008-09 assault on Gaza.

Al Jazeera reported that Erekat told Mitchell in another meeting in October 2009 that the director of Israeli military intelligence, Amos Gilad, “alerted Abbas prior to the Gaza attack” (“PA’s foreknowledge of Gaza war?,” David Poort, 26 January 2011).

“The Palestine Papers confirm here what was previously revealed by second hand sources that were quoted in some of the thousands of US State Department cables published by WikiLeaks in December last year,” Poort wrote for Al-Jazeera.

Al Jazeera began releasing the documents last Sunday, and has shared its information with the UK’s Guardian newspaper. More than 1,600 transcripts, memos, maps, notes, meeting minutes and papers exposing the willingness of the PA to concede the rights of their constituents under occupation have been made public over the last week.

The Electronic Intifada’s co-founder and executive director, Ali Abunimah, was given special access to the documents and helped analyze them for Al Jazeera.

On Sunday, it was revealed that the PA was preparing to concede significant areas of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to the Israeli state, including major illegal settlements in Jerusalem itself.

Monday’s exposé included proof of shocking concessions made by the PA on the issue of the Palestinian refugees’ right of return.

On Tuesday, Al Jazeera released documents detailing the security cooperation between the PA, Israel, the United Kingdom and the US. These revelations included proof that the PA was behind — or collaborated with Israel in — extra-judicial assassinations of Palestinian opposition and resistance leaders.

Palestine Papers provoke protests

Since the release of the Palestine Papers, the PA has launched a campaign against Al Jazeera, accusing the network of slander. Ma’an News Agency in Bethlehem reported today that the PA’s justice ministry is preparing a lawsuit against Al Jazeera with claims that it aimed to “tarnish the image” of the Ramallah-based government (“Justice Ministry says it will sue Al Jazeera 26 January 2011“).

PA officials have accused several Al Jazeera journalists of being the source for the document leak, including Clayton Swisher and Alastair Crooke. Erekat claimed that the two are former members of the CIA and the British intelligence agency MI6, respectively.

A protest was held in the West Bank city of Nablus today to demonstrate against Al Jazeera’s release of the Palestine Papers, the Palestine News Network (PNN) reported (“Nablus governor calls for anti-Jazeera protests on Thursday,” 26 January 2011).

Earlier in the week, pro-PA demonstrators rallied outside Al Jazeera’s West Bank offices in Ramallah.

However, PLO official Nabil Shaath admitted on Monday that the documents contained in the Palestine Papers cache were authentic. Al Jazeera has maintained the veracity of all the documents, and says they will not reveal their source or how they were obtained.

Elsewhere, protests against the PA following the release of the Palestine Papers have been reported in Gaza and in London.

Ma’an reported on Thursday that protests were held against the PA in the southern Gaza Strip, and offices of the PA’s Civil Administration were sacked earlier this morning (“PA-controlled offices in Gaza ransacked,” 26 January 2011).

At the time of publication, Palestinian students in London were staging a sit-in at the offices of the Palestine Liberation Organization delegation to the UK, calling for direct elections to the Palestinian National Council and the reform of the PLO.

The students are demanding that the PLO recognize the “Palestinian neglected voice … the voice of the Palestinian youth … in exile. (“Sit-in underway at Palestinian embassy in London,” Indymedia UK, 27 January 2011)”

The students state that they are responding to the recent revelations in the Palestine Papers that outline the PLO and the PA’s willingness to give up the rights of Palestinian refugees and disenfranchise them from the political process.

In the aftermath of the release of the Palestine Papers, The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah said on Al Jazeera yesterday that the repercussions, though unclear at the moment, will be significant in the coming days and months.

“This is a bombshell,” he said during a televised panel discussion. “It’s going to take time for all the ripples to go out. One conclusion though is that the peace process, as we know it, is dead. It’s time for an approach based on equal rights, putting pressure on Israel, and [expanding the movement of] boycott, divestment and sanctions. Meetings behind closed doors are not going to bring peace and justice.”

Related Links

• BY TOPIC: Leaked Palestine Papers reveal diplomatic secrets

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Fear and The Palestine Papers‏

>

Ignoring the hype about the Palestine papers is hard. I spent a lot of time reading through page after page of the documents showing minutes of meetings and other exchanges regarding the Palestinian-Israeli “negotiations” (the quotes are warranted). The Guardian newspaper summed up the back and forth
arguments about these papers as follows:

” PA and PLO leaders such as Saeb Erekat can be expected to point out that one of the core principles of the negotiations is that ‘nothing is agreed until everything is agreed’. As such they are not necessarily committed to provisional positions that in the event failed to secure a settlement – though Erekat made clear to US officials in January 2010 that the same offers remained on the table. Critics are likely to argue that concessions – such as accepting the annexation of Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem – are simply pocketed by the Israeli side, and risk being treated as a starting point in any future talks.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/23/story-behind-leaked-palestine-papers

For me two things come out clearly from these painful documents (some of them have parallel data in the US embassy cables on Wikileaks). First it is not that the Palestinian officials are traitors but merely (and this is bad enough) mistakenly and passionately going through motions hoping against all odds that by talking and compromising more they could achieve a tiny fraction of what we are entitled to. The second observation is that Israel will not sign a peace deal regardless of how low and ridiculous the concessions on the Palestinian side: hunt down resisters (abandoning the internationally recognized rights of resistance to occupation even unarmed one), give up on most settlements built illegally on Palestinian lands, allow Israel sovereignty over nearly 1/3rd of the occupied old city of Jerusalem, give up on the refugee rights, allow Israel to keep looting natural resources in the West Bank, give Israel the right to control our airspace, and even assure a statelet devoid of sovereignty. Not even tourism income would be allowed in this emasculated state. Some critics asked: if, as the documents show, the Palestinian negotiators were willing to accept all of this then WHY did Israeli politicians hold out?

The answer is obvious to anyone who ever faced Zionism. They believe (rightly or wrongly) they can get 100% so why should they settle for 91% or even 99% especially when the ceiling of the Palestinian requests kept dropping in the past 22 years (since they accepted in 1988 to let Israel keep most of the looted parts of Palestine 1948). Today, Israel’s three main sources of income are dependent on a continued conflict and occupation: the 6.5 billion military and security exports, the 6 billion US and other western direct aid, and 3 billion from the captive markets in the West Bank and Gaza. All three would be threatened with end of conflict even if Israel gets to keep most of its stolen loot. Israeli officials are keen to keep negotiations going to avoid an anti-Apartheid scenario and for PR and normalization to keep pumping more money and more settlers into the remaining small shriveling Palestine because it is economically profitable.

The recorded meetings show no real interest or even emotion or any sense of urgency on the part of the Israelis or their American benefactors. Saeb Erekat comes out basically pleading and begging sometimes and other times using the presence of Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran to try and convince these officials. Jim Jones, David, Hale, and (Israeli lobbyist Dennis Ross), Tzipi Livni, Mofaz etc. all just repeat utter few selective words and simply drag their feet to keep the “process going”. What would be the nature of the conversations if there was no Hamas to wave as the boogeyman to US officials and claim success in containing Hamas and other “extremist movements” (In Egypt Hosni Mubarak uses the same notion of containing Islamic Jihad but for the sinister goal of justifying his dictatorship)? US officials are very confident of their strength and the Israeli strengths and the fact that they only need the Palestinians to prevent any attempts at international isolation of Israel. This they get just by innuendo or hintsof threats on the Palestinians authority. They studied the situation carefully and think that Abbas and company have no other options but to simply keep negotiating and compromising even if it takes another 20 years.

In some very rare instances the negotiators seem to connect with their humanity and actually feel sorry for the fate of these Palestinian negotiators. But then you could sense how they curb their own feelings (as irrelevant) and go back to the scripted positions of their governments which are simply antagonistic to anything that is not 100% in support of Zionism. Erekat’s occasional threats of a one state seem vacuous and not serious. My book on Sharing the Land of Canaan showed with lots of data that “two state for two people” approach can never lead to genuine peace (if apartheid was the problem in South Africa, why is it considered a solu tion here?).

I have a suggestion for the Palestinian authority: try to deal with the issues and do release your own documents instead of trying to shoot the messenger. Take lemons to make lemonade. Help introduce an even stronger resolution at the UN security council (e.g. in support of the Goldstone report or to recognize a Palestinian state along the borders of 1967) or a resolution at the UN General Assembly that calls for expelling Israel from the UN since it has never honored its commitments when it was admitted in 1949. Maybe announce publicly that the Oslo Process was a mistake or at least is now dead (now every idiot knows it was and most of those who are getting salaries from the authority know in their hearts that it was
contrary to basic human rights and to basic international law). This suggestion essentially is to show courage and backbone. It could also mean the difference: making mistakes is human, continuing the path as in the past only validates those who accuse the authority figures of treason. Abbas says he will surprise us in September but I believe he and those around him do not have that kind of time.

I, like Edward Said and millions of Palestinians, disagreed strongly with the choices made by this Oslo group to built the Palestinian autonomous administration (of the Palestinian people warehouses or concentration camps) that relieved Israel from the burdens of managing us and from International isolation based on not even promises of freedom or return of rights. But I also can’t help but feel sorry for those who took that path. It must be very painful for a human being to go down a tunnel where there is no possibility of a light at the end and during this trip into the depths of darkness feel the leaches crawling up his back sucking his blood and voices from behind calling him back (some of them his political enemies, others ex-comrades in
Fatah). Palestinian negotiators are fearful of going back because they think it might give political opponents a PR tool. They are just fearful of losing face; I am always grateful to a wise advisor who 30 years ago convinced me to drop this fear of admitting mistakes (a fear common especially among men). They may also be fearful of losing a job. The Palestinian people are very angry though many feel afraid to speak out for fear to lose their sources of income, fear that the alternative to Fatah maybe just as bad, fear of Israel, fear of the US or just simply fear of their own power. But ultimately fear is a lack of self-confidence to take another course. And their fear should be balanced by the fact that people are literally dying for justice and wanting leaders to care about them and not about themselves.

[Here we must remember the thousands of martyrs who gave their lives and hundreds of thousands who were injured or lost homes and livelihood and still yearn for freedom].

The status quo is to many humans a comfort in the known/predictable. Taking another path is feared because humans fear the unknown. I believe that fear is the most destructive and paralyzing human emotion. Common people around the world are just beginning to break the barrier of fear and speak up more for themselves. From Tunisia to Egypt to Lebanon, the walls of fear are cracking. We common people and even some leaders must realize that many of these walls are far weaker than we may think. I can actually hear them
cracking.

The Arab world is in revolt. The fire is spreading. Responsible people need to step forward with courage and conviction. There could be surprises along those lines even from Central Committee members of Fatah. Already Nabil Shaath took a position different than Mahmoud Abbas. This is just the beginning. Palestine will survive. The Palestinian people are not sheep.

They are mature enough to take the truth and to rebuild our national liberation movement. History marches on and I am 100% sure that Zionism will fail and Palestine will be free.

——————–
Palestinian Students take over Palestine London offices demanding representation of all Palestinians. I think their call for representation based on the Prisoner’s documents and the Cairo Declaration) should be
taken-up by all Palestinians of conscience. See ;http://ploembassysitin.tumblr.com/ and http://ploembassysitin.tumblr.com/

A Call to the People and Governments of the Free World from the Egyptian National Coalition: We call upon all of you to support the Egyptian people’s demands for a good life, liberty and an end of despotism. We call upon you to urge this dictatorial regime to stop its bloodshed of the Egyptian people, exercised throughout Egyptian cities.. We believe that the material and moral support offered to the Egyptian regime, by the American government and European governments, has helped to suppress the Egyptian people. We hereby call upon the people of the free world to support the Egyptian people’s non-violent revolution against corruption and tyranny. We also call upon civil society organizations in America, Europe and the whole world to express their solidarity with Egypt, through holding public demonstrations, particularly on People’s Anger Day (28/01/2011), and by denouncing the use of violence against the people. We hope that you will all support our demands for freedom, justice and peaceful change.

The Guardian Newspaper: Palestinian distrust of Iran revealed in leaked papers. Mahmoud Abbas asked businessman to donate $50m to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s opponents, according to the documents

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/26/palestinian-distrust-iran-leaked-papersd-papers

Media Matters M.J. Rosenberg stated about the Papers: “The bottom line is that, despite the assurances the Palestinian Authority gave to the Palestinian people that it was driving a hard bargain with the Israelis, the
Palestinian Authority accepted Israel’s position on every key point: borders, Jerusalem, settlements, refugees. On no major issue did the PA hold the line. None. The Palestinians offered Israel everything Israel wants
and Israel still said “no” with the backing of the United States.”

http://politicalcorrection.org/fpmatters/201101240004

It is interesting to see such analysis as from former top CIA official Robert Grenier:

But even though career diplomats are voicing interesting opinions and diversions from official policy, the Obama administration still shows the notion of just drawing on AIPAC associated fossilized brains. (see
Why Obama’s “new thinking” initiative on Middle East peace is doomed to fail – By Lawrence Davidson

Palestinian intellectuals and activists articulated why this is the end of the charade of the peace process industry Karma Nabulsi gives a pointed analysis

Prof. Saree Makdisi shows more emotion as he writes “The Palestinian people betrayed”

Yet another BDS victory: John Lewis stops stocking Ahava products in Britain

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD
http://qumsiyeh.org/

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Gilad Atzmon: The Palestine Papers and Us

>

I have a rule — I never intervene in Palestinian political matters. I never comment on Palestinian internal debate. I do not think that I have the right to do so : I am an ex-Israeli and an ex-Jew, and I write about Israel, Jewish Identity politics, and Zionism.

For me, the leaked Palestinian Papers provide us with a valuable glimpse into Israeli politics and Western complicity in the crimes carried out against the Palestinian people.

I do realise that most Palestinian commentators agree that the leaked papers have “damaged whatever little credibility the Ramallah-based authority still enjoyed among Palestinians” ; yet, more than anything else, the Papers prove beyond doubt that Israel is not a partner for peace — In spite of the weaknesses that have been shown by the PA since the 1990’s, Israel has failed to secure a peace deal, and has consistently failed to show any will to bring the conflict to an end. In short — Israel has always wanted more.The Papers have also clearly shown that whilst Israel likes to present an image of ‘political pluralism’ , that is little more than a deception : there is not much difference at all between Tzipi Livni and Avigdor Lieberman. Both are Zionist enthusiasts, and both are interested in a ‘Jews only state’ — Indeed, just like Lieberman Livni too,offered to “transfer Israeli Arabs.”Yesterday, we learned that as far back as 2004, the British MI6 was assisting the PA in the war against Hamas : according to The Guardian “The Palestinian Authority’s security strategy to crush Hamas and other armed groups on the West Bank was originally drawn up by Britain’s intelligence service, MI6”.So, at the time that the British Government was supposedly advocating “democracy” in Palestine, the reality was quite different : British ‘James Bonds’ were investing enormous effort in trying to destroy the rising political power in Palestine. One may wonder : what kind of ‘British interests’ was the MI6 serving in doing so ? It is far from being a secret that in 2004 Tony Blair was primarily funded by Labour Friends of Israel ; his NO 1 fund raiser was Lord Levy.

The Palestinian people will liberate themselves eventually — but it is also about time we all liberate ourselves from the grip of Israeli and Jewish lobbies.

Why the Fuss? Bizarre Call to Arms Against UN Rapporteur Richard Falk for Alluding to Gaps in the 9/11 Official Story

>

January 27, 2011 posted by Veterans Today

“What seems most disturbing about the 9/11 controversy is the widespread aversion by government and media to the evidence that suggests, at the very least, the need for an independent investigation that proceeds with no holds barred,” wrote Falk.

By Elizabeth Woodworth in Foreign Policy Journal

A former Princeton international law professor has been condemned by the UN Secretary General and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations for alluding to “an apparent cover-up” of the events of September 11^th, 2001. On January 11, 2011, UN Special Envoy to Palestine Richard Falk posted on his personal blog an article entitled “Interrogating the Arizona Killings from a Safe Distance.”[1]

Dr. Falk made a tangential point in his blog-post that governments too often abuse their authority by treating “awkward knowledge as a matter of state secrets”.

To illustrate the point, he referred to gaps and contradictions in the official account of the 9/11 attacks, which have been documented in the scholarly works of Dr. David Ray Griffin, a professor emeritus of philosophy of religion and theology.

“What seems most disturbing about the 9/11 controversy is the widespread aversion by government and media to the evidence that suggests, at the very least, the need for an independent investigation that proceeds with no holds barred,” wrote Falk.

On January 20^th, executive director Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, a European NGO, called upon UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to condemn the remarks made by Falk, and to fire him, claiming that Falk had “endorsed the conspiracy theory that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were orchestrated by the U.S. government and not Al Qaeda terrorists.” [2]

On January 24^th, in a reply to Hillel Neuer, Vijay Nambiar, Ban Ki-moon’s Chief of Staff, responded that the Secretary-General “condemns these remarks. He has repeatedly stated his view that any such suggestion is preposterous — and an affront to the memory of the more than 3,000 people who died in the attack.”[3]
The US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, called for Falk’s removal, stating that “Mr. Falk’s comments are despicable and deeply offensive, and I condemn them in the strongest terms.” [4]

Surely, in light of what Falk actually said, these indignant cries on behalf of the victims seem more than a little apoplectic.

If Falk’s suggestions were so “preposterous” and “offensive”, they might have been dismissed as the ravings of a madman.

So why did officials bring out their cannons to shoot at a sparrow?

Well, turning to the work of Professor Griffin we find that there were 115 omissions and distortions in the 9/11 Commission Report, though Falk did not, in his brief remarks, provide details. [5]

A search of the Internet reveals 12 professional organizations calling for a new investigation, including Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth (with over 1,400 professional members), Firefighters for 9/11 Truth, Intelligence Officers for 9/11 Truth, Lawyers for 9/11 Truth, Medical Professionals for 9/11 Truth, Pilots for 9/11 Truth, Political Leaders for 9/11 Truth, Military Officers for 9/11 Truth, and Scientists for 9/11 Truth.

In August, 2005, the New York Times printed the oral testimonies of 118 firefighters and emergency workers who reported stunning, graphic evidence of enormous explosions, including mysterious blasts in the deep sub-basements of the buildings long before the towers fell.[6]

More recently, a nine-author peer-reviewed study, which showed that the World Trade Center dust appeared to contain residue of explosive material (nanothermite), made headlines for the first week of February 2010 in major Danish newspapers. [7]

Blackout in America

This news never reached the North American media.

A December 2010 poll by the prestigious Emnid Institute showed that 89.5% of Germans doubt the US official story about the September 11^th attacks.[8]

The 9/11 commissioners themselves, in a 2008 op-ed piece to the New York Times, bemoaned the withholding of witness evidence to the 9/11 Commission by the CIA:  “What we do know is that government officials decided not to inform a lawfully constituted body, created by Congress and the president, to investigate one the greatest tragedies to confront this country. We call that obstruction.” [9]

Perhaps this sparrow is worth a cannon or two.

In other words, was Falk attacked so strongly to try to make people fear suggesting in public even the possibility that the official story is problematic?

– Elizabeth Woodworth is a writer and retired medical librarian. The current focus of her writing is social justice issues, and she has extensively researched the evidence presented on both sides of the 9/11 controversy. Read more articles by Elizabeth Woodworth.

Notes
[1] Richard Falk. “Interrogating the Arizona Killings from a Safe Distance.” http://richardfalk.wordpress.com/2011/01/11/interrogating-the-arizona-killings-from-a-safe-distance/
[2] “U.N. Chief Urged to Fire Official for Promoting 9/11 Conspiracy Theory” http://www.unwatch.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=bdKKISNqEmG&b=1316871&ct=9039887
[3] Letter to Mr. Neuer, January 24, 2011, http://blog.unwatch.org/index.php/2011/01/25/ngo-says-richard-falk-has-zero-credibility-urges-un-chief-to-fire-him/
[4] Rice calls for removal of U.N.’s Palestine rapporteur, JTA, January 26, 2011, http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/01/26/2742718/rice-calls-for-removal-of-uns-palestine-rapporteur
[5] David Ray Griffin. The 9/11 Commission Report:  Omissions and Distortions, Olive Branch Press, 2004.
[6] “The September 11 Records,” New York Times, August 12, 2005, http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20050812_WTC_GRAPHIC/met_WTC_histories_full_01.html
[7] Niels H. Harrit, Jeffrey Farrer, Steven E. Jones, et al., “Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe,” Open Chemical Physics Journal, Vol. 2 (April 3, 2009): 7-31 http://www.bentham.org/open/tocpj/articles/V002/7TOCPJ.pdf.
[8] “Exklusiv-Umfrage des Wissensmagazins Welt der Wunder: Wem glauben die Deutschen noch?” December 22, 2010, http://www.bauermedia.de/weltderwunder.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=750&tx_ttnews[backPid]=4&cHash=6e15318bbc#content
[9] Thomas H. Kean and Lee H. Hamilton, “Stonewalled by the C.I.A.,” New York Times, January 2, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/opinion/02kean.html

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Richard Falk Reponds to The Lobby’s Vilification

>

Richard Falk on UN Podium

January 27, 2011 posted by Veterans Today ·

By Richard Falk in Foreign Policy Journal

Because my blog prompted by the Arizona shootings has attracted many comments pro and con, and more recently has been the object of a more selective public attack on me personally, I thought it appropriate to post a supplementary blog with the purpose of clarifying my actual position and re-focusing attention on the plight and suffering of the Palestinian people being held in captivity. In the background, are crucial issues of free speech, fairness in public discourse, and responsible media treatment of sensitive and controversial affairs of state.

Both the UN Secretary General and the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations harshly criticized some remarks in my personal blog that mentioned the 9/11 attacks. They referred to the views expressed there as ‘despicable and deeply offensive,’ ‘noxious, ‘inflammatory,’ and ‘preposterous.’ Their comments were apparently made in response to a letter written to the UN Secretary General by the head of UN Monitor, a Geneva-based highly partisan NGO, that called misleading attention to this passage in the blog. Ambassador Rice called for my dismissal from my unpaid post as an independent Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Council with a mandate to report upon the Israeli observance of “human rights in Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.”

For anyone who read the blog post in its entirety, it should be plain that the reference to the 9/11 issues is both restrained and tangential. What is stressed in the blog is the importance of carefully examining evidence before drawing conclusions about political and legal responsibility for highly sensitive public acts, and the importance for the serenity of the society of achieving closure in a responsible manner. I never endorsed doubts about the official version of 9/11 beyond indicating what anyone who has objectively examined the controversy knows — that there remain certain gaps in the official explanation that give rise to an array of conspiratorial explanations, and that the 9/11 Commission unfortunately did not put these concerns to rest. My plea was intended to encourage addressing these gaps in a credible manner, nothing more, nothing less. I certainly meant no disrespect toward the collective memory of 9/11 in the country and elsewhere. On the contrary, my intention was to encourage an investigation that might finally achieve closure with respect to doubts that remain prevalent among important sectors of the public, including among some 9/11 families.
What seems apparent from this incident, which is itself disturbing, is that any acknowledgement of doubt about the validity of the official version of the 9/11 events, while enjoying the legal protection of free speech, is denied the political and moral protection that are essential if an atmosphere of free speech worthy of a democracy is to be maintained. When high officials can brand someone who raises some doubts in the most cautious language as ‘an enemy of the people,’ then there are either things to hide or a defensive fury that is out of all proportion to the provocation. To seek further inquiry into the unanswered questions about 9/11 is surely not an unreasonable position

What is dismaying to me is that neither the office of the Secretary General nor the U.S. Mission to the United Nation made any effort to contact me to seek clarification of my remarks on these issues that are not connected with my UN role prior to making their insulting criticisms damaging to my reputation. I would think that as a representative of the UN and a citizen of the United States, I am at least entitled to this minimal courtesy, and more substantially, that whatever criticisms are made are based on what I said rather than on a manifestly inflammatory letter written by the UN Monitor, that has made a habit of publicly attacking me in consistently irresponsible and untruthful ways, presumably with the intention of diverting attention from my criticisms of Israel’s occupation policies in the Palestinian territories. It is always more tempting to shoot the messenger than heed the message. A similar tactic, what I call ‘the politics of deflection’ was deployed over a year ago in a shabby attempt to discredit the distinguished South African jurist, Richard Goldstone, a person of impeccable credentials as an international public servant. The intention was again to avoid a proper focus upon the devastating findings and recommendations of the Goldstone Report submitted to the United Nations after conducting a scrupulous inquiry into the allegations of violation of law associated with the Israeli attacks on Gaza between December 27, 2008 and January 18, 2009.

I remain determined to report as fully and honestly as possible about the massive human rights violations confronting Palestinians who have now lived without rights under occupation for more than 43 years, and to do my best not to let such personal attacks impair my capacity to carry out the assignment that I was invited to perform by the UN.

What the United States Government, the Secretary-General and the media should be focused on is the ongoing, widespread and systematic violation of Palestinians’ human rights by Israel. Only since the beginning of 2011, at least four Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli forces and more than 33 others have been injured. This is in addition to the expansion of settlements, home demolitions, forced evictions and displacement of Palestinian families, revocation of residency permits and forced transfers, particularly devastating in East Jerusalem, detention and mistreatment of over 6000 Palestinians, including children, as well as the illegal blockade of Gaza. My forthcoming report to the Human Rights Council addresses these and other severe ongoing violations of Palestinian rights by Israel.

– Richard Falk is an international law and international relations scholar who taught at Princeton University for forty years. Since 2002 he has lived in Santa Barbara, California, and taught at the local campus of the University of California in Global and International Studies and since 2005 chaired the Board of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Read more articles by Richard Falk.
http://richardfalk.wordpress.com

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian