israeli military threatens piracy against Freedom Flotilla

Israeli army threatens to attack Gaza-bound Freedom Flotilla     

NAZARETH, (PIC)– An Israeli channel claimed on Sunday that the Israeli army had received orders not to allow the third Freedom Flotilla aid campaign to reach the Gaza Strip.

A military source told channel 2 that the Freedom Flotilla would not arrive in Gaza.

There are orders from the highest political echelons of the Israeli government to intercept the convoy and use force if necessary, the source affirmed.

Zionism a racist, evil, genocidal ideology

Bennett wants to see Palestinians become “water carriers and wood hewers” for Jews

By Khalid Amayreh

If you think that the UN was wrong in labeling Zionism as a racist movement, think again.

Of course, Zionist crimes, committed in the name of Judaism and the Jewish people, have not stopped ever since Zionist supremacists declared their plans to create an exclusive Jewish state in Palestine in the late 19th century.

Zionist Jews employed every form of depravity and immorality to achieve their goal.

But the goal was evil, just as the means used to reach that goal were decidedly evil. This was the case 68 years ago, when Israel was created through blood, fire and terror. It will always be evil.

The passage of 68 years will not morph a hideous crime into a charitable enterprise. Israel will always be a crime against humanity, no matter how many people celebrate its achievements and sing its hymns.

Israel is built upon a foundation of evil and sinfulness. Such a state will not prosper or have an everlasting longevity. It will eventually meet the same fate that other evil states and empires eventually met.

Bennett’s Talmudic fascism

Naftali Bennett, the number-2 figure in the new Israeli government was quoted recently as saying that he would never agree to give non-Jews in Israel equal rights.

When asked what he would tell Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas should he meet with him, Bennett said rather bluntly “I will order him to make me a cup of coffee.”

Needless to say, “asking the Arabs to make coffee for Jews” is a slogan often invoked by leaders of religious-Zionist settlers especially when explaining their attitudes toward the Palestinians.

This manifestly racist mindset is encapsulated by the Biblical terms “water carriers and wood hewers” which refer to the treatment non-Jews were entitled to receive in ancient Israel.

Of course, there are many other Biblical verses which exhort the Children of Israel not to oppress “strangers living amongst you… because you yourselves were once strangers in the Land of the Pharaoh”.

But Zionism, including religious Zionism, has very little to do with the sublime ideals of Prophetic Judaism. This is why, we notice that purportedly religious Zionists select the worst and most barbaric verses from the Old Testament and seek to apply it to the Palestinians.

Criminal versus genocidal

If classical Zionism is manifestly criminal, and it undoubtedly is, religious Zionism is decidedly genocidal.

Several years ago, a Jewish settler leader from the northern West Bank by the name of Daniela Weis gave a speech before a group of settlers in Hebron’s Old Quarter. In her speech, she urged the settlers to “adopt Joshua’s way to deal with the Palestinians.”

“Would you choose Rabin’s way or Joshua’s way in dealing with the Palestinians,” she asked. And the answer came loud and in unison: “We choose Joshua’s way.”

This genocidal fanaticism is not rhetorical or meant just to scare the Palestinians. It is rather a built-in character of the religious Zionist ideology as taught by its founder Abraham Kook.

This the same Kook that wrote that “the difference between a Jewish soul and souls of non-Jews– all of them in all different levels — is greater and deeper than the difference between a human soul and the souls of cattle.”

Evil ideology, evil conduct

The settler ideology cannot be innocuous since it is not confined to the theoretical framework.

In 1994, a settler from the settlement of Kiryat Arbaa near Hebron descended on the Ibrahimi Mosque nearby and sprayed Muslim worshipers with bullets, using his army-issued machinegun.

He murdered 29 worshipers and injured numerous other people, many with serious disabilities that would stay with them for the rest of their lives.

Most of the settlers and their supporters enthusiastically gloated over the massacre as the grave of the murderer became a pilgrimage site.

A few years later, another religious Zionist asked a Palestinian cabbie to give him a ride from Jerusalem to Kfar Saba, north east of Tel Aviv. When the settler got to his home, he invited the Arab driver to drink a cup of coffee. However, instead of the cup of coffee, the settler came up with a dagger, stabbing the taxi driver to death.

Still, when the murdered was interrogated by the police, he told them that he heard his neighborhood synagogue’s rabbis saying that the life of a non-Jew had no sanctity.

Last year, three settlers kidnapped an Arab child, Muhammad Abu Khdeir, and took him to an abandoned place. There they pumped gasoline into the boy’s mouth, and then set the boy on fire, burning him alive.

Who will call the spade a spade?

Now, the same kind of evil-minded people have a great influence on the upcoming Israeli government. For example, Ayelet Shaked from the far-right HaBayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) party was given the portfolio of justice minister as part of a deal that saw PM Netanyahu gather enough support to form a coalition and control the Israeli parliament, the Knesset.

Last year, Shaked, a nice-looking young woman, attracted global attention and criticism when she posted a Facebook status denouncing Palestinians, during Israel’s 50-day military offensive in Gaza.

“The Palestinian people [have] declared war on us, and we must respond with war … Not an operation, not a slow-moving one, not low-intensity, not controlled escalation, no destruction of terror infrastructure, no targeted killings.

“Enough with the oblique references. This is a war. Words have meanings. This is a war. It is not a war against terror, and not a war against extremists, and not even a war against the Palestinian Authority. These too are forms of avoiding reality. This is a war between two peoples. Who is the enemy? The Palestinian people.”

Now, do the governments and peoples of the world have the courage to call the spade a spade, especially when it comes to Zionist criminality?

It is not enough to celebrate the annual anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany. It is also imperative to fight Nazi ideals and Nazi ideas everywhere. Including in Israel.

Unfortunately this is not being done with regard to Israel as the capitals of Europe and North America will soon receive Shaked and her equally racist colleagues with all the required trappings.

That would be the ultimate insult to the victims of Nazism, Jews and non-Jews alike.

The US-Israel Relationship Has Changed Permanently

Posted: 03/12/2015 12:32 pm EDT

Source

 

Don’t believe it when you read that in a few days, weeks or months, everything will be back to normal in the U.S.-Israel relationship. They won’t be.

This is an old lobby mantra and it tends to emanate from friends of the lobby who simply cannot contemplate that anything will ever break the hold it has on policymakers. In one sense it’s true. It is as unlikely that AIPAC will go down as it was 10 years ago that most U.S. states would legalize gay marriage!

But it is going to happen because Prime Minister Netanyahu along with AIPAC (and its Congressional cutouts) have deeply embarrassed the American Jewish community in several ways.

Note: when it comes to the power of the lobby, the Jewish community is the ball game. Those millions of Christian Zionists out there do not fund Congressional candidacies, nor are their votes in play. Moreover, for them Israel takes a way back seat to such issues as gay rights, illegal immigration, abortion and hating liberals and secularism. AIPAC is focused on only one issue, and directs money to campaigns on only one issue. The conservative Christians are irrelevant.

That last point gets to one of the ways the Netanyahu/Letter of 47 brouhaha has permanently damaged Israel’s standing in America. It has made it partisan. Even before anyone contemplated Netanyahu coming to Congress to challenge President Obama, support for Israel was becoming a Republican issue, with Republicans in near solid support while Democrats were divided down the middle.

That trend is only accelerating now, as the Israeli government has made clear that it has no use for Democrats, and certainly not the Democratic president who it has treated with an open contempt rarely seen in international relations. Given that the overwhelming majority of American Jews are Democrats and Obama supporters, Netanyahu (with AIPAC’s connivance) has successfully launched a wrecking ball at the foundation of Israel’s support base in America.

Even more, Jews are mortified that AIPAC and Netanyahu have raised issues of dual loyalty, which pretty much disappeared in recent years. The Netanyahu speech suggested, more than suggested, that a choice must be made: Team Netanyahu or Team Obama. The fact that Republicans happily choose Netanyahu doesn’t alter the ominous implications of the posing of that choice for the overwhelming majority of Jews who are devoted and patriotic citizens who would never choose Israel over America.

After all, despite the loud voices of the lobby and its partisans like Sheldon Adelson and Bill Kristol, only about 4 percent of Jews even consider Israel policy when they cast their vote (invariably for Democrats) for president and Congress. American Jews have been liberals longer than they have been Israel supporters; for AIPAC and/or Israel to make them choose is a losing proposition.

Suddenly supporting Israel is controversial for Democrats. This is how it was before the Netanyahu speech. A Democrat could be as hardline on Israel as he chose to be because, so long as he was on the right side of all the domestic issues, he would not be challenged on Israel. No more. In the world that existed before this month, Senators like Al Franken and Elizabeth Warren were securely in the hardline camp (even during last year’s Gaza war). But, due to constituent and donor pressure (including, of course, from Jewish progressives), they boycotted the speech and issued statements denouncing it. So did about 50 others including prominent liberals, formerly in AIPAC’s corner on everything) and the Congressional Black Caucus.

All this means that during the 2016 campaign Democrats will have to tread infinitely more carefully on the Israel issue than ever before. Candidates will not be able to assume that their strong support of choice,a living wage and the environment will immunize them from attacks for supporting the forces that are opposing the Democratic president on Iran and, likely very soon, on Israel-Palestine too.

Candidates for the presidency on down will have to answer to Democrats who do not buy into the old rhetoric about Israel being our wonderful democratic ally who we must stick with through thick and thin. Not after this, and not after last year’s Gaza war which started the plunge in Israel’s standing among Democrats.

This is all good news for those of us who think the US-Israel “special relationship” is bad for the United States, that America should never be in a position where we are joined at the hip of any foreign country. The United States and Israel have interests in common but not all our interests are the same as is evidenced by the differences over Iran.

Neither country wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon but the United States, and not Israel, has an interest in the general improvement of our relations with that country as we confront a common enemy: ISIS. Israel is less concerned about ISIS than about maintaining its regional hegemony and nuclear monopoly. On the Palestinian issue, U.S. interests are not served by our lonely United Nations vetoes against establishing a Palestinian state, putting us in the unhelpful position where all Israel’s enemies become ours. This is absurd. We don’t even have a 100 percent commonality of interests with Canada. But, until this month, we acted as if we had one with Israel.

That seems to be ending and unfortunately for Israel even the previously sacrosanct strategic relationship with the Jewish state is suffering. Meir Dagan, former head of the Mossad under prime ministers Ariel Sharon, Ehud Olmert, and Netanyahu, took to the pages of Israel’s largest circulation daily, Yediot Achronoth, to remind Israelisthat Netanyahu’s confrontation with Obama is already affecting the day-to-day relationship between the two countries.

He noted that “the head of the CIA is a political appointee; the national security adviser is a political appointee; the secretary of state is a political appointee. They all, the lower-level officials too, work in keeping with the spirit of their commander… We depend on the Americans for strategic weapons. When senior administration officials say that Israel is acting against the national interests of the United States, it represents a grave long-term danger for us.”

As for the short-term: “We are already paying prices today. Some I know about but cannot elaborate on.”

In other words, everything is changing. This time the past is not prologue. Thanks to the hubris of Israel and its lobby, the United States is abandoning its knee-jerk support for every Israeli policy and action. In doing so, we are looking out for ourselves but also for Israel’s long-term interests which are peace and security, not endless war and occupation.

Follow MJ Rosenberg on Twitter: www.twitter.com/mjayrosenberg

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian 

  

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Let’s stop pretending there’s any difference between the Israeli and US governments, it’s a pantomine

Let’s stop pretending there’s any difference between the Israeli and US governments

Netanyahu knows he can get away with anything in America – with the same confidence that he can support his army when they slaughter hundreds of children in Gaza

In 2012, when Benjamin Netanyahu made himself the laughing stock of the UN Security Council – by producing an infantile cartoon of an Iranian bomb with a red line in the middle, indicating that Iran could build nuclear weapons by the end of 2013 – his charade was treated with indulgence by the American media.

FOR THE first time in 40 years, I disagree with Uri Avnery. He has just suggested that Benjamin Netanyahu’s agreement to address the US Congress at the invitation of Republicans tomorrow – two weeks before an Israeli general election – and Barack Obama’s decision not to see the old rogue, has destroyed Israel’s bipartisan support in America. For the first time, says Uri, Democratic politicians are allowed to criticise Israel.

Absolute Tosh.

Congressmen of both parties have grovelled and fainted and shrieked their support for Bibi and his predecessors with more enthusiasm that the Roman hordes in the Colosseum.

Last time Bibi turned up on the Hill, he received literally dozens of standing ovations from the sheep-like representatives of the American people, whose uncritical adoration of the Israeli state – and their abject fear of uttering the most faint-hearted criticism lest they be called anti-Semites – suggest that Bibi would be a far more popular US president than Barack.

And Bibi’s impeccable American accent doesn’t hurt.

And his aim – to earn votes for himself and to destroy the one foreign policy achievement within Obama’s grasp – will have absolutely no effect at all on Israeli-US relations.

When Bibi made himself the laughing stock of the UN Security Council – by producing an infantile cartoon of an Iranian bomb with a red line in the middle, indicating that Iran could build nuclear weapons by the end of 2013 – his charade was treated with indulgence by the American media.

These mythical deadlines have been expiring regularly for more than a decade, yet still we are supposed to take them seriously. Obama is struggling to reach an agreement with Iran which would protect the world from any nuclear weapon production by the Islamic Republic.

Bibi wants to destroy this opportunity. He wants more sanctions. He wants to win the Israeli elections on 17 March. He might even bomb Iran – which would bring an immediate military response against the United States. But he’s going to be telling Congress that the entire existence of Israel is at stake.

According to Uri, Bibi will be spitting in the face of President Obama. “I don’t think there was ever anything like it,” Uri Avnery wrote this weekend. “The Prime Minister of a small vassal country, dependent on the US for practically everything, comes to the US to openly challenge its President, in effect branding him a cheat and a liar… like Abraham, who was ready to slaughter his son to please God, Netanyahu is ready to sacrifice Israel’s most vital interests for election victory.”

I don’t wish to exonerate Bibi’s cynicism. Even Uri admits that he cannot imagine any more effective election ploy. “Using the Congress of the United States of America as a propaganda prop is a stroke of genius,” he says. But the Prime Minister of Israel knows he can get away with anything in America – with the same confidence that he can support his army when they slaughter hundreds of children in Gaza in the “self-defence” of Israel. Bibi’s speech to Congress will be as disproportionate as his soldiers’ bombardment of the world’s mightiest slum.

And he’ll do just fine. We’re told the Democrats are upset. We are informed that Obama is very, very – really – very angry. But the Democrat presidentess-in-waiting, Hilary Clinton, is no problem for Bibi.

It was Hillary, remember, who told us last summer that she wasn’t sure it was “possible to parcel out blame” for the Gaza slaughter “because it’s impossible to know what happens in the fog of war”. The media stories may have obscured what was happening. “I do think oftentimes that the anguish you are privy to because of the coverage, and the women and children and all the rest of that [sic], makes it very difficult to sort through to get to the truth.”

So the fewer reporters, the closer to the truth about the dead women and children and “all the rest of that”, we’ll all get. No wonder liberal Zionists, according to The New York Times, are worried that Hillary is getting too close to Bibi.

As for the Republicans, well take a look at ‘ol Jeb Bush, promising that all will be a clean sweep if he becomes the US commander-in-chief.

There’ll be no focus, understandably, on “the past” – Daddy George and Big Bro George W. But his probable advisers in a future presidency include Paul Wolfowitz, John Hannah (Cheney’s old “national security adviser”), Michael Hayden (who misled Congress about torture) and Condi Rice, after whom an entire oil tanker was once named and then un-named – in other words, the same mangy crew who produced “weapons of mass destruction”, the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, trillions of dollars in debt, torture and that infamous “mushroom cloud” (a real “fog of war”, if ever there was one).

Columnist Maureen Dowd says that Jeb Bush should be holding to account those who inflicted “deep scars on America”. But why should he? The only thing unmentioned by Jeb is that in 2003, Israel was also producing the same scams about WMD and Saddam’s links to “world terror”.

Bibi won’t be reminding Congress of this on Tuesday, of course. It will be Iran’s WMD and the Islamic State’s links to “world terror” which will have Congress on its feet.

It’s a pity Bibi wasn’t born in New York. Then we could have US President Netanyahu – and stop pretending there’s any difference between the Israeli and American governments.

Source: The Independent

More Zionist theft, israel monopolizes Dead Sea natural wealth

Economy ministry: Israel monopolizes Dead Sea natural wealth

RAMALLAH, (PIC)– The Palestinian ministry of economy has accused Israel of depriving the Palestinians of using the natural resources of the Dead Sea near Ariha (Jericho).

In a press release on Sunday, the ministry stated that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) has monopolized the available resources of the Dead Sea for itself and denied the Palestinian access to them.

The ministry noted that the Dead Sea is rich in unique minerals, especially potash and bromine, which are utilized by Israeli companies to generate billions of dollars every year.

A report issued by the World Bank in 2013 affirmed that Israel alone generates about three billion dollars annually from the sale of Dead Sea minerals, while Jordan makes annual sales of 1.2 billion dollars, according to the ministry.

“Taking as a benchmark the average value added by the Dead Sea industries to the Jordanian and the Israeli economies, the Palestinian economy could derive up to 918 million dollars every year, equal to nine percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in 2011, which is almost equivalent to the size of the entire Palestinian manufacturing sector,” the ministry quoted the World Bank as saying in its report.

The ministry also pointed out that Israel had allowed a number of companies to establish factories manufacturing Dead Sea products on Palestinian-owned land.

The ministry expressed its belief that if the Palestinians had access to the Dead Sea mineral resources and power sources, and was able to establish investment projects in the region, they could create a sustainable economic development for themselves.

Zionist-controlled media seeking to destroy all religions & not just Islam

Zionist-controlled media seeking to destroy religions:

The war on Islam is really a war on all religions

The New World Order is a freemasonic plan for a post-religious global dictatorship. It would be a “new” world order for two reasons: (1) It would be the first empire ever to embrace (or strangle) the entire planet. (2) It would be the first civilization to completely abandon religion.

It would also be a “new world” order in that it would be ruled from the New World – specifically, from that monstrous maze of freemasonic symbols known as Washington, DC. Once the plan is sufficiently advanced, they may intend to move the capital to Occupied Jerusalem, where a false messiah (antichrist/dajjal) would be installed as global dictator.

Zionism – a diabolical, idolatrous Jewish heresy that worships the State of Israel and the Jewish people rather than God – is a key element of the New World Order plot to destroy humanity.

To understand what is at stake here, read the Grand Inquisitor section of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov. The New World Order plotters think like the Grand Inquisitor. They want to create a perfect (or perfectly controlled) society in which the hallmarks of humanity – spirituality and free choice – have been erased.

<img class=”aligncenter size-large wp-image-341903″ src=”http://www.veteranstoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/1-nwo-640×465.jpg” alt=”1-nwo” width=”640″ height=”465″ />

Watch the video at Press TV

The Zionist-controlled media in the United States is seeking to “destroy” Islam and Christianity while promoting a “clash of civilizations,” an American scholar and journalist in Wisconsin says.

Radical secularists want to create a new world order in which religions are mocked and freedom of speech is considered sacred, said Dr. Kevin Barrett, a founding member of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance.

“The Zionist-dominated media here in the United states is helping foment a clash of civilizations against Islam, but which is secretly designed not only to destroy Islam, but also Christianity,” Barrett told Press TV on Wednesday.

A new survey suggests that a relative majority of Americans believe it is acceptable to ridicule Islam, highlighting the depth of anti-Islamic sentiment and widespread Islamophobia in the United States.

According to the HuffPost/YouGov survey, 46 percent of Americans thought it was acceptable to mock Islam, while 44 percent said it was unacceptable to mock Christianity, a consequence of the “Islamophobia project” promoted by US media outlets.

Moreover, 63 percent of Americans said it is more important to protect the freedom of speech than to protect the sanctity of religious beliefs. Only 19 percent said the sanctity of religious beliefs was more important than free speech and 18 percent were not sure.

The survey was taken shortly after 12 people were killed in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris. The French magazine has repeatedly provoked Muslim anger by publishing cartoons of the Prophet of Islam.

The Western media is “spinning this Charlie Hebdo affair, which actually appears to have been a false flag event created to unleash all this propaganda,” Barrett said.

“They’re doing this in order to try to get rid of the sacred from society and to put new sacred values in place of the traditional sacred values of traditional religions,” he noted.

 

Is Torah Jewish, or is it Zionist ?

 

by Nahida Exiled Palestinian

At every occasion, defenders of “Jewishness” and Jewish ideology, would repeat the mantra, Judaism has NOTHING to do with Zionism, and Zionism does not originate from Judaism, nor does it represent “Jewish values”.

Then when I ask about these “Jewish values”, and request to be shown what they are, I am faced with deafening  silence.

In my quest for answers, I dived into the heart of the matter, I set off on a mission, searching for these mystical values, by myself. What better place to start, but the Jewish Bible, Torah?

This is what I found

 

Yeshayahu- Isaiah – Chapter 60

10. And foreigners shall build your walls, and their kings shall serve you, for in My wrath I struck you, and in My grace have I had mercy on you. י. וּבָנוּ בְנֵי נֵכָר חֹמֹתַיִךְ וּמַלְכֵיהֶם יְשָׁרְתוּנֶךְ כִּי בְקִצְפִּי הִכִּיתִיךְ וּבִרְצוֹנִי רִחַמְתִּיךְ:

.

11. And they shall open your gates always; day and night they shall not be closed, tobring to you the wealth of the nations and their kings in procession. יא. וּפִתְּחוּ שְׁעָרַיִךְ תָּמִיד יוֹמָם וָלַיְלָה לֹא יִסָּגֵרוּ לְהָבִיא אֵלַיִךְ חֵיל גּוֹיִם וּמַלְכֵיהֶם נְהוּגִים:
12. For the nation and the kingdom that shall not serve you shall perish, and thenations shall be destroyed. יב. כִּי הַגּוֹי וְהַמַּמְלָכָה אֲשֶׁר לֹא יַעַבְדוּךְ יֹאבֵדוּ וְהַגּוֹיִם חָרֹב יֶחֱרָבוּ:

.

14. And the children of your oppressors shall go to you bent over, and those who despised you shall prostrate themselves at the soles of your feet, and they shall call you ‘the city of the Lord, Zion of the Holy One of Israel.’ יד. וְהָלְכוּ אֵלַיִךְ שְׁחוֹחַ בְּנֵי מְעַנַּיִךְ וְהִשְׁתַּחֲווּ עַל כַּפּוֹת רַגְלַיִךְ כָּל מְנַאֲצָיִךְ וְקָרְאוּ לָךְ עִיר יְהֹוָה צִיּוֹן קְדוֹשׁ יִשְׂרָאֵל:

.

16. And you shall suck the milk of nations and the breast of kings you shall suck, and you shall know that I am the Lord, your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. טז. וְיָנַקְתְּ חֲלֵב גּוֹיִם וְשֹׁד מְלָכִים תִּינָקִי וְיָדַעַתְּ כִּי אֲנִי יְהֹוָה מוֹשִׁיעֵךְ וְגֹאֲלֵךְ אֲבִיר יַעֲקֹב:

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 23

20. You shall not give interest to your brother, [whether it be] interest on money, interest on food or interest on any [other] item for which interest is [normally] taken. כ. לֹא תַשִּׁיךְ לְאָחִיךָ נֶשֶׁךְ כֶּסֶף נֶשֶׁךְ אֹכֶל נֶשֶׁךְ כָּל דָּבָר אֲשֶׁר יִשָּׁךְ:

.

21. You may [however,] give interest to a gentile, but to your brother you shall not give interest, in order that the Lord, your God, shall bless you in every one of your endeavors on the land to which you are coming to possess. כא. לַנָּכְרִי תַשִּׁיךְ וּלְאָחִיךָ לֹא תַשִּׁיךְ לְמַעַן יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכֹל מִשְׁלַח יָדֶךָ עַל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָא שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ:

.

 

Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 7

 

1. When the Lord, your God, brings you into the land to which you are coming topossess it, He will cast away many nations from before you: the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivvites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful that you. א. כִּי יְבִיאֲךָ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָא שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ וְנָשַׁל גּוֹיִם רַבִּים | מִפָּנֶיךָ הַחִתִּי וְהַגִּרְגָּשִׁי וְהָאֱמֹרִי וְהַכְּנַעֲנִי וְהַפְּרִזִּי וְהַחִוִּי וְהַיְבוּסִי שִׁבְעָה גוֹיִם רַבִּים וַעֲצוּמִים מִמֶּךָּ:

.
2. And the Lord, your God, will deliver them to you, and you shall smite them. You shall utterly destroy them; neither shall you make a covenant with them, nor be gracious to them. ב. וּנְתָנָם יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְפָנֶיךָ וְהִכִּיתָם הַחֲרֵם תַּחֲרִים אֹתָם לֹא תִכְרֹת לָהֶם בְּרִית וְלֹא תְחָנֵּם:

.

3. You shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, and you shall not take his daughter for your son. ג. וְלֹא תִתְחַתֵּן בָּם בִּתְּךָ לֹא תִתֵּן לִבְנוֹ וּבִתּוֹ לֹא תִקַּח לִבְנֶךָ:

.

5. But so shall you do to them: You shall demolish their altars and smash their monuments, and cut down their asherim trees, and burn their graven images withfire. ה. כִּי אִם כֹּה תַעֲשׂוּ לָהֶם מִזְבְּחֹתֵיהֶם תִּתֹּצוּ וּמַצֵּבֹתָם תְּשַׁבֵּרוּ וַאֲשֵׁירֵהֶם תְּגַדֵּעוּן וּפְסִילֵיהֶם תִּשְׂרְפוּן בָּאֵשׁ:

.

 6. For you are a holy people to the Lord, your God: the Lord your God has chosen youto be His treasured people, out of all the peoples upon the face of the earth. ו. כִּי עַם קָדוֹשׁ אַתָּה לַיהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּךָ בָּחַר | יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לִהְיוֹת לוֹ לְעַם סְגֻלָּה מִכֹּל הָעַמִּים אֲשֶׁר עַל פְּנֵי הָאֲדָמָה:

.

13. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your soil, your grain, your wine, and your oil, the offspring of your cattle and the choice of your flocks, in the land which He swore to your forefathers togive you. יג. וַאֲהֵבְךָ וּבֵרַכְךָ וְהִרְבֶּךָ וּבֵרַךְ פְּרִי בִטְנְךָ וּפְרִי אַדְמָתֶךָ דְּגָנְךָ וְתִירשְׁךָ וְיִצְהָרֶךָ שְׁגַר אֲלָפֶיךָ וְעַשְׁתְּרֹת צֹאנֶךָ עַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ לָתֶת לָךְ:

.

14. You shall be blessed above all peoples: There will be no sterile male or barren female among you or among your livestock. יד. בָּרוּךְ תִּהְיֶה מִכָּל הָעַמִּים לֹא יִהְיֶה בְךָ עָקָר וַעֲקָרָה וּבִבְהֶמְתֶּךָ:

.

15. And the Lord will remove from you all illness, and all of the evil diseases of Egypt which you knew, He will not set upon you, but He will lay them upon all your enemies. טו. וְהֵסִיר יְהֹוָה מִמְּךָ כָּל חֹלִי וְכָל מַדְוֵי מִצְרַיִם הָרָעִים אֲשֶׁר יָדַעְתָּ לֹא יְשִׂימָם בָּךְ וּנְתָנָם בְּכָל שׂנְאֶיךָ:

.

16. And you shall consume all the peoples which the Lord your God gives you; you shall not spare them, nor shall you worship their gods, for that will be a snare for you. טז. וְאָכַלְתָּ אֶת כָּל הָעַמִּים אֲשֶׁר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לָךְ לֹא תָחוֹס עֵינְךָ עֲלֵיהֶם וְלֹא תַעֲבֹד אֶת אֱלֹהֵיהֶם כִּי מוֹקֵשׁ הוּא לָךְ:

.

20. And also the tzir’ah, the Lord, your God, will incite against them, until the survivors and those who hide from you perish. כ. וְגַם אֶת הַצִּרְעָה יְשַׁלַּח יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בָּם עַד אֲבֹד הַנִּשְׁאָרִים וְהַנִּסְתָּרִים מִפָּנֶיךָ:

.

23. But the Lord, your God, will deliver them to you, and He will confound them with great confusion, until they are destroyed. כג. וּנְתָנָם יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לְפָנֶיךָ וְהָמָם מְהוּמָה גְדֹלָה עַד הִשָּׁמְדָם:

.

24. And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their namefrom beneath the heavens; no man will be able to stand up before you, until you have destroyed them. כד. וְנָתַן מַלְכֵיהֶם בְּיָדֶךָ וְהַאֲבַדְתָּ אֶת שְׁמָם מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם לֹא יִתְיַצֵּב אִישׁ בְּפָנֶיךָ עַד הִשְׁמִדְךָ אֹתָם:

.

Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 9 

 

5. Not because of your righteousness or because of the honesty of your heart, do you come to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and in order to establish the matter that the Lord swore to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ה. לֹא בְצִדְקָתְךָ וּבְישֶׁר לְבָבְךָ אַתָּה בָא לָרֶשֶׁת אֶת אַרְצָם כִּי בְּרִשְׁעַת | הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ מוֹרִישָׁם מִפָּנֶיךָ וּלְמַעַן הָקִים אֶת הַדָּבָר אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע יְהֹוָה לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ לְאַבְרָהָם לְיִצְחָק וּלְיַעֲקֹב:

.
6. You shall know that, not because of your righteousness, the Lord, your God, gives you this land to possess it; for you are a stiffnecked people. ו. וְיָדַעְתָּ כִּי לֹא בְצִדְקָתְךָ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ אֶת הָאָרֶץ הַטּוֹבָה הַזֹּאת לְרִשְׁתָּהּ כִּי עַם קְשֵׁה עֹרֶף אָתָּה:

 

.

 

 

Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 28

1. And it will be if you obey the Lord, your God, to observe to fulfill all His commandments which I command you this day, the Lord, your God, will place yousupreme above all the nations of the earth. א. וְהָיָה אִם שָׁמוֹעַ תִּשְׁמַע בְּקוֹל יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לִשְׁמֹר לַעֲשׂוֹת אֶת כָּל מִצְו‍ֹתָיו אֲשֶׁר אָנֹכִי מְצַוְּךָ הַיּוֹם וּנְתָנְךָ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ עֶלְיוֹן עַל כָּל גּוֹיֵי הָאָרֶץ:

.

12. The Lord will open up for you His good treasury, the heaven, to give your land its rain in its [right] time, and to bless everything you do. And you will lend many nations, but you will not [need to] borrow. יב. יִפְתַּח יְהֹוָה | לְךָ אֶת אוֹצָרוֹ הַטּוֹב אֶת הַשָּׁמַיִם לָתֵת מְטַר אַרְצְךָ בְּעִתּוֹ וּלְבָרֵךְ אֵת כָּל מַעֲשֵׂה יָדֶךָ וְהִלְוִיתָ גּוֹיִם רַבִּים וְאַתָּה לֹא תִלְוֶה:

.

 

 

Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 11

23. then the Lord will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will possess nations greater and stronger than you. כג. וְהוֹרִישׁ יְהֹוָה אֶת כָּל הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה מִלִּפְנֵיכֶם וִירִשְׁתֶּם גּוֹיִם גְּדֹלִים וַעֲצֻמִים מִכֶּם:

.
24. Every place upon which the soles of your feet will tread, will be yours: from the desert and the Lebanon, from the river, the Euphrates River, and until the western sea, will be your boundary. כד. כָּל הַמָּקוֹם אֲשֶׁר תִּדְרֹךְ כַּף רַגְלְכֶם בּוֹ לָכֶם יִהְיֶה מִן הַמִּדְבָּר וְהַלְּבָנוֹן מִן הַנָּהָר נְהַר פְּרָת וְעַד הַיָּם הָאַחֲרוֹן יִהְיֶה גְּבֻלְכֶם:

.
25. No man will stand up before you; the Lord your God will cast the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land upon which you tread, as He spoke to you. כה. לֹא יִתְיַצֵּב אִישׁ בִּפְנֵיכֶם פַּחְדְּכֶם וּמוֹרַאֲכֶם יִתֵּן | יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם עַל פְּנֵי כָל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר תִּדְרְכוּ בָהּ כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לָכֶם:

.

29. And it will be, when the Lord, your God, will bring you to the land to which you come, to possess it, that you shall place those blessing upon Mount Gerizim, and those cursing upon Mount Ebal. כט. וְהָיָה כִּי יְבִיאֲךָ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָא שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ וְנָתַתָּה אֶת הַבְּרָכָה עַל הַר גְּרִזִּים וְאֶת הַקְּלָלָה עַל הַר עֵיבָל:

.

31. For you are crossing the Jordan, to come to possess the land which the Lord,your God, is giving you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it. לא. כִּי אַתֶּם עֹבְרִים אֶת הַיַּרְדֵּן לָבֹא לָרֶשֶׁת אֶת הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם נֹתֵן לָכֶם וִירִשְׁתֶּם אֹתָהּ וִישַׁבְתֶּם בָּהּ:

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 12

 

1. These are the statutes and ordinances that you shall keep to perform in the land which the Lord God of your fathers gives you to possess all the days that you live on the earth. א. אֵלֶּה הַחֻקִּים וְהַמִּשְׁפָּטִים אֲשֶׁר תִּשְׁמְרוּן לַעֲשׂוֹת בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר נָתַן יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵי אֲבֹתֶיךָ לְךָ לְרִשְׁתָּהּ כָּל הַיָּמִים אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם חַיִּים עַל הָאֲדָמָה:

.
2. You shall utterly destroy from all the places where the nations, that you shallpossess, worshipped their gods, upon the lofty mountains and upon the hills, and under every lush tree. ב. אַבֵּד תְּאַבְּדוּן אֶת כָּל הַמְּקֹמוֹת אֲשֶׁר עָבְדוּ שָׁם הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר אַתֶּם יֹרְשִׁים אֹתָם אֶת אֱלֹהֵיהֶם עַל הֶהָרִים הָרָמִים וְעַל הַגְּבָעוֹת וְתַחַת כָּל עֵץ רַעֲנָן:

.
3. And you shall tear down their altars, smash their monuments, burn their asherim with fire, cut down the graven images of their gods, and destroy their name from that place. ג. וְנִתַּצְתֶּם אֶת מִזְבְּחֹתָם וְשִׁבַּרְתֶּם אֶת מַצֵּבֹתָם וַאֲשֵׁרֵיהֶם תִּשְׂרְפוּן בָּאֵשׁ וּפְסִילֵי אֱלֹהֵיהֶם תְּגַדֵּעוּן וְאִבַּדְתֶּם אֶת שְׁמָם מִן הַמָּקוֹם הַהוּא:

.

10. And you shall cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord, your God, isgiving you as an inheritance, and He will give you rest from all your enemies surrounding you, and you will dwell securely. י. וַעֲבַרְתֶּם אֶת הַיַּרְדֵּן וִישַׁבְתֶּם בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם מַנְחִיל אֶתְכֶם וְהֵנִיחַ לָכֶם מִכָּל אֹיְבֵיכֶם מִסָּבִיב וִישַׁבְתֶּם בֶּטַח:

.

20. When the Lord, your God, expands your boundary, as He has spoken to you, and you say, “I will eat meat,” because your soul desires to eat meat, you may eat meat, according to every desire of your soul. כ. כִּי יַרְחִיב יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת גְּבֻלְךָ כַּאֲשֶׁר דִּבֶּר לָךְ וְאָמַרְתָּ אֹכְלָה בָשָׂר כִּי תְאַוֶּה נַפְשְׁךָ לֶאֱכֹל בָּשָׂר בְּכָל אַוַּת נַפְשְׁךָ תֹּאכַל בָּשָׂר:

.

29. When the Lord, your God cuts off the nations to which you will come to drive them out from before you, and when you drive them out and dwell in their land, כט. כִּי יַכְרִית יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶת הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָא שָׁמָּה לָרֶשֶׁת אוֹתָם מִפָּנֶיךָ וְיָרַשְׁתָּ אֹתָם וְיָשַׁבְתָּ בְּאַרְצָם:

.
30. beware, lest you be attracted after them, after they are exterminated from before you; and lest you inquire about their gods, saying, “How did these nations serve their gods? And I will do likewise.” ל. הִשָּׁמֶר לְךָ פֶּן תִּנָּקֵשׁ אַחֲרֵיהֶם אַחֲרֵי הִשָּׁמְדָם מִפָּנֶיךָ וּפֶן תִּדְרשׁ לֵאלֹהֵיהֶם לֵאמֹר אֵיכָה יַעַבְדוּ הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה אֶת אֱלֹהֵיהֶם וְאֶעֱשֶׂה כֵּן גַּם אָנִי:

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 20

10. When you approach a city to wage war against it, you shall propose peace to it. י. כִּי תִקְרַב אֶל עִיר לְהִלָּחֵם עָלֶיהָ וְקָרָאתָ אֵלֶיהָ לְשָׁלוֹם:

.
11. And it will be, if it responds to you with peace, and it opens up to you, then it will be, [that] all the people found therein shall become tributary to you, and they shall serve you. יא. וְהָיָה אִם שָׁלוֹם תַּעַנְךָ וּפָתְחָה לָךְ וְהָיָה כָּל הָעָם הַנִּמְצָא בָהּ יִהְיוּ לְךָ לָמַס וַעֲבָדוּךָ:

.
12. But if it does not make peace with you, and it wages war against you, you shallbesiege it, יב. וְאִם לֹא תַשְׁלִים עִמָּךְ וְעָשְׂתָה עִמְּךָ מִלְחָמָה וְצַרְתָּ עָלֶיהָ:

.
13. and the Lord, your God, will deliver it into your hands, and you shall strike all itsmales with the edge of the sword. יג. וּנְתָנָהּ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּיָדֶךָ וְהִכִּיתָ אֶת כָּל זְכוּרָהּ לְפִי חָרֶב:

.
14. However, the women, the children, and the livestock, and all that is in the city, allits spoils you shall take for yourself, and you shall eat the spoils of your enemies, which the Lord, your God, has given you. יד. רַק הַנָּשִׁים וְהַטַּף וְהַבְּהֵמָה וְכֹל אֲשֶׁר יִהְיֶה בָעִיר כָּל שְׁלָלָהּ תָּבֹז לָךְ וְאָכַלְתָּ אֶת שְׁלַל אֹיְבֶיךָ אֲשֶׁר נָתַן יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ לָךְ:

.
15. Thus you shall do to all the cities that are very far from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. טו. כֵּן תַּעֲשֶׂה לְכָל הֶעָרִים הָרְחֹקֹת מִמְּךָ מְאֹד אֲשֶׁר לֹא מֵעָרֵי הַגּוֹיִם הָאֵלֶּה הֵנָּה:

.
16. However, of these peoples’ cities, which the Lord, your God, gives you as aninheritance, you shall not allow any soul to live. טז. רַק מֵעָרֵי הָעַמִּים הָאֵלֶּה אֲשֶׁר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָה לֹא תְחַיֶּה כָּל נְשָׁמָה:

.
17. Rather, you shall utterly destroy them: The Hittites, and the Amorites, theCanaanites, and the Perizzites, the Hivvites, and the Jebusites, as the Lord, yourGod, has commanded you. יז. כִּי הַחֲרֵם תַּחֲרִימֵם הַחִתִּי וְהָאֱמֹרִי הַכְּנַעֲנִי וְהַפְּרִזִּי הַחִוִּי וְהַיְבוּסִי כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוְּךָ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ:

.

 

 

 

 

 

Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 25

 

5. If brothers reside together, and one of them dies having no son, the dead man’s wife shall not marry an outsider. [Rather,] her husband’s brother shall be intimate with her, making her a wife for himself, thus performing the obligation of a husband’s brother with her. ה. כִּי יֵשְׁבוּ אַחִים יַחְדָּו וּמֵת אַחַד מֵהֶם וּבֵן אֵין לוֹ לֹא תִהְיֶה אֵשֶׁת הַמֵּת הַחוּצָה לְאִישׁ זָר יְבָמָהּ יָבֹא עָלֶיהָ וּלְקָחָהּ לוֹ לְאִשָּׁה וְיִבְּמָהּ:

.
11. If [two] men, a man and his brother, are fighting together, and the wife of one of them approaches to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she stretches forth her hand and grabs hold of his private parts יא. כִּי יִנָּצוּ אֲנָשִׁים יַחְדָּו אִישׁ וְאָחִיו וְקָרְבָה אֵשֶׁת הָאֶחָד לְהַצִּיל אֶת אִישָׁהּ מִיַּד מַכֵּהוּ וְשָׁלְחָה יָדָהּ וְהֶחֱזִיקָה בִּמְבֻשָׁיו:

.
12. you shall cut off her hand You shall not have pity. יב. וְקַצֹּתָה אֶת כַּפָּהּ לֹא תָחוֹס עֵינֶךָ:

.

17. You shall remember what Amalek did to you on the way, when you went out of Egypt, יז. זָכוֹר אֵת אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה לְךָ עֲמָלֵק בַּדֶּרֶךְ בְּצֵאתְכֶם מִמִּצְרָיִם:

.

19. [Therefore,] it will be, when the Lord your God grants you respite from all your enemies around [you] in the land which the Lord, your God, gives to you as aninheritance to possess, that you shall obliterate the remembrance of Amalek from beneath the heavens. You shall not forget! יט. וְהָיָה בְּהָנִיחַ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ | לְךָ מִכָּל אֹיְבֶיךָ מִסָּבִיב בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן לְךָ נַחֲלָה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ תִּמְחֶה אֶת זֵכֶר * (זֶכֶר) עֲמָלֵק מִתַּחַת הַשָּׁמָיִם לֹא תִּשְׁכָּח:

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 21 

 

10. If you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord, your God, will deliver him into your hands, and you take his captives, י. כִּי תֵצֵא לַמִּלְחָמָה עַל אֹיְבֶיךָ וּנְתָנוֹ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּיָדֶךָ וְשָׁבִיתָ שִׁבְיוֹ:

.
11. and you see among the captives a beautiful woman and you desire her, you maytake [her] for yourself as a wife. יא. וְרָאִיתָ בַּשִּׁבְיָה אֵשֶׁת יְפַת תֹּאַר וְחָשַׁקְתָּ בָהּ וְלָקַחְתָּ לְךָ לְאִשָּׁה:

.
12. You shall bring her into your home, and she shall shave her head and let her nails grow. יב. וַהֲבֵאתָהּ אֶל תּוֹךְ בֵּיתֶךָ וְגִלְּחָה אֶת רֹאשָׁהּ וְעָשְׂתָה אֶת צִפָּרְנֶיהָ:

.

15. If a man has two wives-one beloved and the other despised-and they bear him sons, the beloved one and the despised one, and the firstborn son is from the despised one. טו. כִּי תִהְיֶיןָ לְאִישׁ שְׁתֵּי נָשִׁים הָאַחַת אֲהוּבָה וְהָאַחַת שְׂנוּאָה וְיָלְדוּ לוֹ בָנִים הָאֲהוּבָה וְהַשְּׂנוּאָה וְהָיָה הַבֵּן הַבְּכֹר לַשְּׂנִיאָה:

.

18. If a man has a wayward and rebellious son, who does not obey his father or his mother, and they chasten him, and [he still] does not listen to them, יח. כִּי יִהְיֶה לְאִישׁ בֵּן סוֹרֵר וּמוֹרֶה אֵינֶנּוּ שֹׁמֵעַ בְּקוֹל אָבִיו וּבְקוֹל אִמּוֹ וְיִסְּרוּ אֹתוֹ וְלֹא יִשְׁמַע אֲלֵיהֶם:

.
19. his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place. יט. וְתָפְשׂוּ בוֹ אָבִיו וְאִמּוֹ וְהוֹצִיאוּ אֹתוֹ אֶל זִקְנֵי עִירוֹ וְאֶל שַׁעַר מְקֹמוֹ:

.
20. And they shall say to the elders of his city, “This son of ours is wayward and rebellious; he does not obey us; [he is] a glutton and a guzzler.” כ. וְאָמְרוּ אֶל זִקְנֵי עִירוֹ בְּנֵנוּ זֶה סוֹרֵר וּמֹרֶה אֵינֶנּוּ שֹׁמֵעַ בְּקֹלֵנוּ זוֹלֵל וְסֹבֵא:

.
21. And all the men of his city shall pelt him to death with stones, and he shall die. So shall you clear out the evil from among you, and all Israel will listen and fear. כא. וּרְגָמֻהוּ כָּל אַנְשֵׁי עִירוֹ בָאֲבָנִים וָמֵת וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע מִקִּרְבֶּךָ וְכָל יִשְׂרָאֵל יִשְׁמְעוּ וְיִרָאוּ:

.

 

 

 

 

 

Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 22 

 

15. Then the girl‘s father and her mother shall obtain evidence of the girl’s virginity, and take it out to the elders of the city, to the gate. טו. וְלָקַח אֲבִי הַנַּעֲרָה וְאִמָּהּ וְהוֹצִיאוּ אֶת בְּתוּלֵי הַנַּעֲרָה אֶל זִקְנֵי הָעִיר הַשָּׁעְרָה:

.
16. And the girl’s father shall say to the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as a wife, and he despised her; טז. וְאָמַר אֲבִי הַנַּעֲרָה אֶל הַזְּקֵנִים אֶת בִּתִּי נָתַתִּי לָאִישׁ הַזֶּה לְאִשָּׁה וַיִּשְׂנָאֶהָ:

.
17. And behold, he made libelous charges, saying, ‘I did not find evidence of yourdaughter’s virginity.’ But this is the evidence of my daughter’s virginity!’ And they shall spread the garment before the elders of the city. יז. וְהִנֵּה הוּא שָׂם עֲלִילֹת דְּבָרִים לֵאמֹר לֹא מָצָאתִי לְבִתְּךָ בְּתוּלִים וְאֵלֶּה בְּתוּלֵי בִתִּי וּפָרְשׂוּ הַשִּׂמְלָה לִפְנֵי זִקְנֵי הָעִיר:

.
18. Then, the elders of that city shall take the man and chasten him. יח. וְלָקְחוּ זִקְנֵי הָעִיר הַהִוא אֶת הָאִישׁ וְיִסְּרוּ אֹתוֹ:

.
19. And they shall fine him one hundred [shekels of] silver because he defamed a virgin of Israel, and he give it to the girl’s father. And she shall be his wife; he shall not send her away all the days of his life. יט. וְעָנְשׁוּ אֹתוֹ מֵאָה כֶסֶף וְנָתְנוּ לַאֲבִי הַנַּעֲרָה כִּי הוֹצִיא שֵׁם רָע עַל בְּתוּלַת יִשְׂרָאֵל וְלוֹ תִהְיֶה לְאִשָּׁה לֹא יוּכַל לְשַׁלְּחָהּ כָּל יָמָיו:

.
20. But if this matter was true: [indeed,] no evidence of the girl’s virginity was foundכ. וְאִם אֱמֶת הָיָה הַדָּבָר הַזֶּה לֹא נִמְצְאוּ בְתוּלִים לַנַּעֲרָה:

.
21. they shall take the girl out to the entrance of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall pelt her with stones, and she shall die, for she did a disgraceful thing in Israel, to commit adultery [in] her father’s house. So shall you clear away the evil from among you. כא. וְהוֹצִיאוּ אֶת הַנַּעֲרָה אֶל פֶּתַח בֵּית אָבִיהָ וּסְקָלוּהָ אַנְשֵׁי עִירָהּ בָּאֲבָנִים וָמֵתָה כִּי עָשְׂתָה נְבָלָה בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל לִזְנוֹת בֵּית אָבִיהָ וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע מִקִּרְבֶּךָ:

.
22. If a man is found lying with a married woman, even both of them shall die the man lying with the woman and the woman. So shall you clear away the evil from Israel. כב. כִּי יִמָּצֵא אִישׁ שֹׁכֵב | עִם אִשָּׁה בְעֻלַת בַּעַל וּמֵתוּ גַּם שְׁנֵיהֶם הָאִישׁ הַשֹּׁכֵב עִם הָאִשָּׁה וְהָאִשָּׁה וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל:

.
23. If there is a virgin girl betrothed to a man, and [another] man finds her in the city, and lies with her, כג. כִּי יִהְיֶה נַעֲרָה בְתוּלָה מְאֹרָשָׂה לְאִישׁ וּמְצָאָהּ אִישׁ בָּעִיר וְשָׁכַב עִמָּהּ:

.

24. you shall take them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall pelt them withstones, and they shall die: the girl, because she did not cry out [even though she was] in the city, and the man, because he violated his neighbor’s wife. So shall you clear away the evil from among you. כד. וְהוֹצֵאתֶם אֶת שְׁנֵיהֶם אֶל שַׁעַר | הָעִיר הַהִוא וּסְקַלְתֶּם אֹתָם בָּאֲבָנִים וָמֵתוּ אֶת הַנַּעֲרָ עַל דְּבַר אֲשֶׁר לֹא צָעֲקָה בָעִיר וְאֶת הָאִישׁ עַל דְּבַר אֲשֶׁר עִנָּה אֶת אֵשֶׁת רֵעֵהוּ וּבִעַרְתָּ הָרָע מִקִּרְבֶּךָ:

.

28. If a man finds a virgin girl who was not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, כח. כִּי יִמְצָא אִישׁ נַעֲרָה בְתוּלָה אֲשֶׁר לֹא אֹרָשָׂה וּתְפָשָׂהּ וְשָׁכַב עִמָּהּ וְנִמְצָאוּ:

.
29. the man who lay with her shall give fifty [shekels of] silver to the girl’s father, andshe shall become his wife, because he violated her. He shall not send her away all the days of his life. כט. וְנָתַן הָאִישׁ הַשֹּׁכֵב עִמָּהּ לַאֲבִי הַנַּעֲרָה חֲמִשִּׁים כָּסֶף וְלוֹ תִהְיֶה לְאִשָּׁה תַּחַת אֲשֶׁר עִנָּהּ לֹא יוּכַל שַׁלְּחָהּ כָּל יָמָיו:

.

 

 

 

 

Vayikra – Leviticus – Chapter 26

38. I am the Lord, your God, Who took you out of the land of Egypt, to give you the landof Canaan, to be a God to you. לח. אֲנִי יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֵיכֶם אֲשֶׁר הוֹצֵאתִי אֶתְכֶם מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרָיִם לָתֵת לָכֶם אֶת אֶרֶץ כְּנַעַן לִהְיוֹת לָכֶם לֵאלֹהִים:

.

44. Your male slave or female slave whom you may have from the nations that are around you, from them you may acquire a male slave or a female slave. מד. וְעַבְדְּךָ וַאֲמָתְךָ אֲשֶׁר יִהְיוּ לָךְ מֵאֵת הַגּוֹיִם אֲשֶׁר סְבִיבֹתֵיכֶם מֵהֶם תִּקְנוּ עֶבֶד וְאָמָה:

.

45. And also from the children of the residents that live among you, from them you may acquire [slaves] and from their family that is with you whom they begot in your land, and they shall become your inheritance. מה. וְגַם מִבְּנֵי הַתּוֹשָׁבִים הַגָּרִים עִמָּכֶם מֵהֶם תִּקְנוּ וּמִמִּשְׁפַּחְתָּם אֲשֶׁר עִמָּכֶם אֲשֶׁר הוֹלִידוּ בְּאַרְצְכֶם וְהָיוּ לָכֶם לַאֲחֻזָּה:

.
46. You shall hold onto them as an inheritance for your children after you, asacquired property, and may thus have them serve you forever. But as for your brethren, the children of Israel, a man shall not work his brother with rigor. מו. וְהִתְנַחַלְתֶּם אֹתָם לִבְנֵיכֶם אַחֲרֵיכֶם לָרֶשֶׁת אֲחֻזָּה לְעֹלָם בָּהֶם תַּעֲבֹדוּ וּבְאַחֵיכֶם בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל אִישׁ בְּאָחִיו לֹא תִרְדֶּה בוֹ בְּפָרֶךְ:

.

 

 

 

 

 

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Israeli Gov’t to Build New Jerusalem Settlement in Memory of Dead Settlers

Local Editor

The Zionist government decided on Wednesday to build new settlements in occupied East Jerusalem in memory of the three settlers, who were found dead in the West Bank earlier this week.

“Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said the new units will be built in Gush Etzion in East Jerusalem in response to the abduction and killing of the three settlers,” Zionist Channel Two reported.

Ya’alon had earlier called on his government to respond to the death of three settlers by embarking on a fresh settlement drive that would include new settlements built in the trio’s memory.

Two months ago, the Zionist government announced the annexation of 980 acres from the area of Gush Etzion for building new settlement homes, refusing to hand over the region under any future peace deal with the Palestinians.

Zionist entity occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It unilaterally annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.

International law considers the West Bank and East Jerusalem occupied territories taken by the Zionists in 1967, viewing all Jewish settlement building as illegitimate.

Palestinian negotiators insist that Zionist settlement building must stop before the resumption of stalled peace talks with the entity.

Source: Websites	03-07-2014 – 15:35 Last updated 03-07-2014 – 15:36

 

Related Articles

• Zionist Airstrikes Injure 10 Palestinians in Gaza
• Israeli Attacks against Palestinians Escalate As Netanyahu Vows Retaliation
• IOF Kills Palestinian Teen in WB Operation, Strikes Gaza
• ’Israel’ Confirms 3 Settlers Found Dead, Says Hamas Responsible
• Zionist Troops Hand out Palestinians Candy with anti-Hamas Note
• Israeli Foreign Minister Calls for Reoccupying Gaza
• Israeli Army Launches Airstrikes across Gaza Strip

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Infographic: Identity crisis, the Israeli ID system

(Photo: Visualizing Palestine)

Published Thursday, May 15, 2014

The Nakba (“the catastrophe”), which refers to the ethnic cleansing of over 50 percent of the Palestinian population, was a defining moment of the long and ongoing history of forced displacement and separation of the Palestinian people that began with the events leading up to the creation of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948.

Today, 66 years after this date, the fragmentation of the Palestinian people both inside and outside of historic Palestine remains as concrete as ever.

The infographic represents the first time that this reality has been highlighted in a single visual, including each population group falling under de-facto Israeli sovereignty today. It de-constructs how different groups of Israelis and Palestinians experience segregation based on an Israeli-controlled system of colored ID cards. The graphic is based on data from UN agencies, and from Israeli and Palestinian government sources and NGOs.

The issue of prolonged Israeli sovereignty over Palestinians is also pertinent in light of growing talk among prominent Israeli politicians such as Naftali Bennet of permanently and unilaterally annexing large portions of the occupied Palestinian territory, and by Avigdor Lieberman of de-nationalising some Palestinian citizens of Israel. A recent Associated Press articlediscusses how a shifting demographic balance and continuing de-facto Israeli control over the Palestinian population weigh heavy in Israel’s calculations.

Visualizing Palestine is an organization that uses visuals to describe a factual rights-based narrative of Palestine.

(Photo: Visualizing Palestine)

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian   

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Blog!

Israel steals Palestinian Authority’s (PA) tax receipts

http://www.presstv.com/detail/2014/04/30/360658/israel-not-to-pay-tax-money-to-pa/

The Israeli regime has decided to use tax money collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA) as a nine-month deadline for the so-called peace talks expired on Tuesday.

Israeli officials said that Tel Aviv would use the tax money to offset debts to Israeli electricity and water companies. The measure by Tel Aviv is aimed at putting more pressure on the Palestinians.

The efforts to reach a deal between the two sides hit a snag in March after Israel refused to release 26 Palestinian prisoners despite earlier pledges to do so. Israel also continued constructing illegal settlements on occupied lands.

The move prompted acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas to respond by signing letters of accession to 15 international conventions on April 1.

On April 8, Riyad Mansour, the PA ambassador to the United Nations, said Palestine would officially become a state party to 13 of the 15 conventions on May 2.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspended the talks after the Fatah movement signed a reconciliation deal with the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas on April 23.

“As long as I’m Prime Minister of Israel, we will not negotiate with a government that is backed by Hamas, an organization that is committed to our destruction,” Netanyahu said in an interview with an American TV channel on April 27.

Last Palestinian-Israeli talks broke down in September 2010, after Tel Aviv refused to freeze its settlement activities in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, East al-Quds (Jerusalem), and the besieged Gaza Strip and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories.

The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle for the efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

Refuting Zionist Propaganda “Palestine Didn’t Exist”

Refuting Zionist Propaganda “Palestine Didn’t Exist”

One of the common assertions one finds in Zionist propaganda is that there “was never any Palestine.”  This odd allegation is simply not true.  Palestine has been used for a very long time to refer to the geographical area south of Sidon and north of the Sinai.

There are medieval Muslim coins from a mint in that area with “Filastin” (Palestine) written on them.  In the nineteenth century, diaries survive of locals who visited Damascus e.g. and wrote about how they missed “Filastin”, i.e. Palestine.  At the Versailles Peace Conference,  the Class A Mandate of Palestine was created, and in 1939 it was scheduled for independence within 10 years.  I.e. British colonial administrators believed there was a Palestine and that it would soon become an independent country (as happened to similar Class A Mandates in Lebanon & Syria and Iraq).

There is currently an ironic Twitter meme by Palestinians, #there_was_no_Palestine, to which people are contributing visual evidence of Palestine.  In 1920 when the League of Nations created the Palestinian state, it had a population of 700,000, of which about 76,000 were Jews.

Almost all of the latter had immigrated in the previous 70 years.  In 1850 only 4% of the population had been Jewish.  In 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte found only 3,000 Jews.  There had been hardly any Jews in Palestine since about 1100 AD.

So not only was there a Palestine, full of hundreds of thousands of people, over millennia, but there was a very long period of near-absence on the part of Jews.  This absence was not because of a forcible expulsion.  Rather, Jews in Palestine had converted to Christianity, and then many of those converted to Islam.

If what is being alleged is that there was no nation-state called Palestine, at least before the League of Nations created one, that is banal.  There were no nation-states until the 19th century.  There was no “Italy” before 1860.  Venice was Austrian, Genoa French.  There was no “Germany” before 1870.

Lots of small principalities, some of them under other rule or influence.  It is common for Romantic Nationalists of the early 19th century variety to imagine that the Greece that came into being in the 1820s (after having been an Ottoman province for some 300 years) was somehow a revival of the ancient land known as Greece.  But it isn’t.  That is a naive “Sleeping Beauty” theory of nationalism.  There was no nation-state of Israel before 1948.  That some ancient tribes might have been called that is irrelevant.  Ancient tribes were also called Philistines, a form of the modern Palestinian.

The history made up in the Bible is a huge part of the mythology of modern Zionism

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2014/feb/13/old-testament-camels-zionism-genesis

A detail from The Sacrifice of Isaac, by Jacopo da Empoli. Scientists have proved that the camels in the story of Abraham and Isaac are a fiction. Photograph: Corbis

There are 21 references to camels in the first books of the Bible, and now we know they are all made up.

Some of them are quite startlingly verisimilitudinous, such as the story of Abraham’s servant finding a wife for Isaac in Genesis 24: “Then the servant left, taking with him 10 of his master’s camels loaded with all kinds of good things from his master. He set out for Aram Naharaim and made his way to the town of Nahor. He made the camels kneel down near the well outside the town; it was towards evening, the time the women go out to draw water.”

But these camels are made up, all 10 of them. Two Israeli archaeozoologists have sifted through a site just north of modern Eilat looking for camel bones, which can be dated by radio carbon.

None of the domesticated camel bones they found date from earlier than around 930BC – about 1,500 years after the stories of the patriarchs in Genesis are supposed to have taken place. Whoever put the camels into the story of Abraham and Isaac might as well have improved the story of Little Red Riding Hood by having her ride up to Granny’s in an SUV.

How can you tell whether a camel skeleton is from a wild or tamed animal? You look at the leg bones, and if they are thickened this shows they have been carrying unnaturally heavy loads, so they must have been domesticated. If you have a graveyard of camels, you can also see what proportion are males, and which are preferred for human uses because they can carry more.

All these considerations make it clear that camels were not domesticated anywhere in the region before 1000BC.

Lidar Sapir-Hen and Erez Ben-Yosef, the scientists who carried out the research, point out that the domestication of camels was hugely important economically, because they made trade possible over much larger regions of the Arabian peninsula. But that is not what has provoked excitement about their claim.

Obviously it has upset fundamentalists. Everyone else has known for decades that there is even less evidence for the historical truth of the Old Testament than there is for that of the Qur’an. But the peculiarly mealy-mouthed nature of the quotes they gave the New York Times (which is not much concerned with the feelings of Christian fundamentalists) shows where the real problem is.

The history recounted in the Bible is a huge part of the mythology of modern Zionism. The idea of a promised land is based on narratives that assert with complete confidence stories that never actually happened. There are of course other ways to argue for the Zionist project, and still further arguments about the right of Israelis to live within secure boundaries now that the country exists. But although those stand logically independent of the histories invented – as far as we can tell – in Babylonian captivity during the sixth century BC, they make little emotional sense without the history. And it is emotions that drive politics.

Peace Talks, Part Two: Apartheid Adventure

Watch part one here.

Ron Paul – Federal Reserve Steals From The Poor & Gives To The Rich

THE HOST AND THE PARASITE, USA AND ZIONISM

Ron Paul ‘Constitutionally Correct’ 2012.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ronpaulcc2012
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ron-Pa…
Website: http://www.ronpaulcc2012.com

Federal Reserve Steals From the Poor and Gives to the Rich

Last Thursday the Senate Banking Committee held hearings on Janet Yellen’s nomination as Federal Reserve Board Chairman. As expected, Ms. Yellen indicated that she would continue the Fed’s “quantitative easing” (QE) polices, despite QE’s failure to improve the economy. Coincidentally, two days before the Yellen hearings, Andrew Huszar, an ex-Fed official, publicly apologized to the American people for his role in QE. Mr. Huszar called QE “the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time.”

As recently as five years ago, it would have been unheard of for a Wall Street insider and former Fed official to speak so bluntly about how the Fed acts as a reverse Robin Hood. But a quick glance at the latest unemployment numbers shows that QE is not benefiting the average American. It is increasingly obvious that the Fed’s post-2008 policies of bailouts, money printing, and bond buying benefited the big banks and the politically-connected investment firms. QE is such a blatant example of crony capitalism that it makes Solyndra look like a shining example of a pure free market!

It would be a mistake to think that QE is the first time the Fed’s policies have benefited the well-to-do at the expense of the average American. The Fed’s polices have always benefited crony capitalists and big spending politicians at the expense of the average American.

By manipulating the money supply and the interest rate, Federal Reserve polices create inflation and thereby erode the value of the currency. Since the Federal Reserve opened its doors one hundred years ago, the dollar has lost over 95 percent of its purchasing power —that’s right, today you need $23.70 to buy what one dollar bought in 1913!

As pointed out by the economists of the Austrian School, the creation of new money does not impact everyone equally. The well-connected benefit from inflation, as they receive the newly-created money first, before general price increases have spread through the economy. It is obvious, then, that middle- and working-class Americans are hardest hit by the rising level of prices.

Congress also benefits from the devaluation of the currency, as it allows them to increase welfare- and warfare-spending without directly taxing the people. Instead, the increase is only felt via the hidden “inflation tax.” I have often said that the inflation tax is one of the worst taxes because it is hidden and because it is regressive. Of course, there is a limit to how long the Fed can facilitate big government spending without causing an economic crisis.

Far from promoting a sound economy for all, the Federal Reserve is the main cause of the boom-and-bust economy, as well as the leading facilitator of big government and crony capitalism. Fortunately, in recent years more Americans have become aware of how the Fed is impacting their lives. These Americans have joined efforts to educate their fellow citizens on the dangers of the Federal Reserve and have joined efforts to bring transparency to the Federal Reserve by passing the Audit the Fed bill.

Auditing the Fed is an excellent first step toward restoring a monetary policy that works for the benefit of the American people, not the special interests. Another important step is to repeal legal tender laws that restrict the ability of the people to use the currency of their choice. This would allow Americans to protect themselves from the effects of the Fed’s polices. Auditing and ending the Fed, and allowing Americans to use the currency of their choice, must be a priority for anyone serious about restoring peace, prosperity, and liberty.

Ten Explosive U.S. Government Secrets about Israel

The USA’s reputation is at an all time low and it’s hardly surprising when they allow Israel to walk all over them. Time the USA declared independence and kicked these Zionists into touch because right now it’s a question of “The Host and the Parasite”

http://www.irmep.org/ten.htm#6._Audio_of_AIPAC_pushing_for_a_US_war_on_Iran

Absent greater transparency,  Americans should assume the worst by Grant F. Smith, IRmep

In 1968 Director of  Central Intelligence Richard Helms wrote urgently to Attorney General Ramsey  Clark and President Lyndon B. Johnson that some highly enriched uranium fueling  Israel’s Dimona nuclear reactor was stolen from America.  LBJ reportedly uttered,  “Don’t tell anyone else, even [Secretary of State] Dean Rusk and [Defense  Secretary] Robert McNamara.”  The FBI immediately launched a deep investigation into the inexplicably heavy losses at the  Nuclear Materials and  Equipment Corporation NUMEC in Pennsylvania and the highly suspicious  activities and Israeli connections of the Americans running it.  The CIA was tasked to find out what was  going on in Israel, and compiled thousands of documents about the incident. (PDF) Although CIA officials  in a position to know unofficially went  on record claiming a diversion had occurred, for decades the CIA has  thwarted declassification and release of the LBJ memos.  On  October 18, 2013  the only appeals panel with the power to overrule the CIA—the Interagency Security Classification Appeals Panel ISCAP—sent  notification that Americans are not yet ready to know the contents of the memos (ISCAP decision PDF). This denial of public release of decades-old secrets  concerning U.S.-Israel relations is far from unique.  Although the Obama  administration promised unprecedented transparency, it has emasculated the public’s ability to give  informed consent on a wide range of key foreign policy issues. A review of ten particularly  toxic U.S. secrets about Israel suggests stakeholders should start assuming the worst  but most logical  explanation.

In 2006 former Secretary  of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously told reporters at an Iraq war briefing “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.”  Bush administration secrecy and Rumsfeld’s pithy quotes failed to quell gradual public awareness that the  ill-fated invasion was launched on purposely fabricated pretexts.   And yet the  Iraq debacle could have been avoided if Americans had been better informed over time how government truly functions through  greater access to  the fourth category left unmentioned by Rumsfeld:   “unknown knowns.”

“Unknown knowns” are  the paradigm-shifting bits of information known  only by a select few in government but kept from  their fellow American citizens because they would reveal indefensible, secret policies and  institution-level corruption that  favor a special interest.  By locking “unknown knowns” under heavy guard in  document archives, covering them in secrecy classification stamps and making an  example out of whistleblowers who release them without authorization, busy  bureaucrats with the highest security clearances maintain a vast  and growing  trove of “unknown knowns.”   Historians and watchdog organizations are continually thwarted in their mandate to contextualize and educate the public about relevant past  events that could deeply inform the governed—and ultimately improve  governance.  Senator Carl Schurz said, “My country right or wrong, if right, to  be kept right, and if wrong, to be set right.” “Unknown knowns” obliterate the  public’s ability to execute the latter two-thirds of that sage advice.

Even the  passage of time does not guarantee “unknown knowns” ever become “known knowns.”   Under  current government records preservation guidelines—particularly for information  that researchers are not actively seeking to declassify—some “unknown knowns”  quietly become “unknown unknowns” as they decay, are  physically destroyed, erased or “lost.”  Many knowledgeable  former officials take their secrets to the grave. As a product of the ill-gotten power and influence of the Israel lobby, the pile of “unknown knowns”  about U.S.-Israel policy  is particularly large. Curious  Americans who rightfully question official narratives about the  U.S.-Israel “special relationship” have often requested “unknown knowns” under the Freedom of Information Act.  Former government  insiders who know firsthand about explosive secrets often  seek their public release to  alert others using the Mandatory Declassification Review,  even requesting documents  by name, subject, location, author and date.  After such “unknown knowns”  (like the LBJ memos) are  unsuccessfully sought for decades by multiple researchers,  well-warranted suspicions arise about the  reasons behind the impermeable government wall of refusal.  The  following ten US-Israel  policy “unknown knowns” suggest the Israel lobby’s  ongoing corrupt power is the only  possible explanation for why they are still secret.

1. Henry Morgenthau  Jr’s Israel policy is the stuff of legend in accounts about the birth of Israel. Some researchers claim that FDR’s former Treasury  Secretary was present at the original 1945 meeting of American Zionists  with Jewish Agency executive director David Ben-Gurion to set up the massive Haganah smuggling network to steal,  illegally buy and smuggle surplus WWII arms from the  U.S. to Jewish fighters in Palestine.  (report PDF)  This was the first  major broadly organized  Israel lobby challenge to U.S. sovereignty.  It successfully overrode  American policy enshrined in neutrality and arms export laws.  Others claim  Morgenthau was also instrumental in the illicit financing Israel’s clandestine nuclear weapons  program in direct opposition to policy set by American presidents.

The FBI’s dusty 10,000  page file on Morgenthau, numbered 105-HQ-188123 (the 105 code signifies “foreign counterintelligence”) including intercepts to  Morgenthau from Israel, could finally clear up many of these allegations,  especially when compared to current research.  Although the FBI—after a process that began in 2010—in September 2013 claims it has fully declassified the Morgenthau file,  censors have blanked out nearly every page with a paint-roller of black ink (sample  PDF).  How do high officials with strong ties to Israel and its lobby who  are politically appointed to the U.S. Treasury Department flout U.S. laws with  their own  foreign-coordinated foreign policy movements?  The FBI and Justice  Department do not believe Americans are quite yet ready to know.

2. Eisenhower and the  Lavon Affair.  In 1954, the Israeli government launched its “Operation  Susannah” false flag terrorist attack on U.S. facilities in Egypt.   Israel’s operatives were quickly arrested when bombs exploded prematurely.  The  operation’s utter failure resulted in a political crisis known as the Lavon  Affair.  President Dwight D. Eisenhower, periodically swarmed by American  Zionist Council lobbyists urging him to send money and arms to Israel, must have  learned some very hard lessons about U.S.-Israel relations from the incident.   Yet the Eisenhower presidential archive—which is not subject to FOIA—has never  released anything revelatory about the administration’s reaction to the  attempted false flag attack.  A narrow request for such files yielded only a  single non-specific declassified opinion that the commander-in-chief believed  the Israelis were “fanatics.”  (National Security Council PDF) Yet the false flag operation’s objective,  attacking to keep U.S. troops stationed in the Suez Canal Zone to respond to  “Egyptian militants,” seemed entirely rational to Israel, and possibly to some  of its U.S. supporters who struggled for years afterwards to minimize the  importance of the affair.  Today Eisenhower library archivists claim that huge  quantities of Eisenhower’s papers are still “unprocessed,” but may hold some  private reflections or lessons learned.

3. Israeli theft of  nuclear material from NUMEC.  In 2013, the CIA continues to resist  release of thousands of files about the NUMEC diversion by referring to CIA Deputy Director for Operations John H. Stein’s secret  decision in 1979 (2013 FOIA denial PDF).  Stein claimed that release of even a  few of CIA’s closely-held files—especially if they were compared with Science Advisor of the  Interior Commission Henry Meyer’s blunt allegations (PDF) to  Congressman Morris Udall in 1979 that NUMEC was an Israeli smuggling front—was  impossible “because of the need to have a coordinated Executive Branch position  and our desire to protect a sensitive and valuable liaison equity.”  In plain  English, that appears to mean Americans still cannot have official  CIA confirmation of the  uranium theft because the U.S. president would have to drop the ongoing nonsense  of “strategic ambiguity” and forego intelligence Israel is funneling to  America.

4.  FBI files of Israeli (but not Russian) spies Russia’s dashing red-headed spy, Anna Chapman, was arrested in 2010 and sent packing  back Russia.  Any interested American can now watch Chapman’s moves in  surveillance videos and read the FBI counterintelligence files.  Not so with most of Israel’s top spies  who targeted American economic, nuclear and national defense infrastructure.   America is still crawling with Israeli spies (our “constant  companion” according to intelligence expert Jeff Stein).   The 2010 revelations  of nuclear equipment smuggling from Telogy (prohibited  export smuggling PDF) in California and Stewart Nozette’s 1998-2008 Israel Aerospace Industries-funded penetrations of  classified U.S. information storehouses around Washington reveal that while  Israeli spying has never stopped, secret prosecution  strategies now emphasize  quietly rolling up Israeli operations via industry  regulators, fines and penalties or isolating  and entrapping American spies on lesser charges but  steering around their  Israeli handlers.

Unlike  its treatment of information  requests about Russian spies, the FBI and Justice  Department have denied every individual FOIA request  for the files of major Israeli spies.  Access to Rafael Eitan’s many harmful exploits against U.S. targets are banned from release  unless Eitan personally waives his privacy rights (FOIA  denial).  The FBI claimed it can no longer find files about  deceased nuclear  espionage mastermind Avraham Hermoni, even though his name appears across many  previously released NUMEC files  (FOIA  denial PDF).  Flooding from Hurricane Sandy is the excuse the FBI gives for  not being able to find files on spy-for-Israel Ben Ami-Kadish (Flood  FOIA denial PDF).  One might argue it is merely a series of unfortunate events  that keeps Israeli spy files out of public hands, except that the Justice Department  has now issued a blanket ban on declassifying any files about the FBI’s  decades-long counterintelligence tango with Israel’s Mossad. (Justice Department blanket denial PDF).

The results of  the Justice Department’s kid-glove approach to Israel propagates into mandatory counterintelligence reports  to Congress.  Although Israel unambiguously ranked as a top economic and  national defense intelligence threat in past assessments of agencies like the Office of  National Counterintelligence Executive, because criminal prosecution strategies toward  Israel (through not Iran, Russia or China) have been undermined from within, Israel has  disappeared from the most current reports.

 5. Jonathan J.  Pollard’s most heinous crime. Israel’s only American spy ever to do serious time in  jail—despite the best efforts of his many American and Israeli supporters to  spring him—once confidently claimed before he was  convicted that “…it was the  established policy of the Department of Justice not to prosecute U.S. citizens  for espionage activities on behalf of Israel.”  Many believe it was only Defense  Secretary Casper Weinberger’s classified briefing to sentencing Judge Aubry  Robinson that made Pollard the near sole exception to that curious rule.

Some Pentagon insiders  and national security reporters believe Pollard’s sentence was so harsh because  Israel used stolen U.S. intelligence as “trade goods” with the Soviet Union to  increase Russian émigrés to Israel.   As Pollard’s sentence draws to a close,  few know exactly what Weinberger told Robinson that caused him to deliver a life  sentence.  The recent partial releases of a CIA damage assessment and a DIA video about Pollard shed little light.

In 2010,  the Department of Defense disclaimed all ownership of the still-classified  “Weinberger declaration” passing the FOIA ball to the Justice Department’s  Criminal Division (FOIA  transfer PDF).   In a novel approach, the Executive Office of US  Attorneys now claims that it cannot find its own copy but that FOIA  does not require EOUSA FOIA officers to travel two blocks to the DC District  Court to retrieve a sealed copy of the memorandum for review (FOIA  denial PDF) or even ask DOD for a copy.  The National Archives and Records  Administration Office of Government Information Services OGIS agrees that there is no  “duty for agencies to retrieve records that are not physically present in their  own files.” Although the 2008 case of Ben-Ami Kadish proves the Pollard espionage  ring was much larger than was publicly  disclosed in the late 1980s, the FBI has also  not allowed release of its Jonathan Pollard investigation files (FOIA denial PDF)  for overdue public review of how the investigation might have—like  many others—been short-circuited by the Department of Justice because it  involved Israel.

6.  Wiretap of AIPAC pushing  for a US war on Iran. When AIPAC executives Keith Weissman and Steven J. Rosen  dialed up Washington Post reporter Glenn Kessler in 2004, they were determined  to leverage purloined classified U.S. national defense information into a story  that Iran was engaged in “total war” against the US in Iraq. FBI special agents  played audio intercepts of their pitch to AIPAC’s legal counsel and AIPAC  promptly fired the pair to distance itself from activities it had long supported.  Rosen and Weisman were later indicted under the Espionage  Act, although the case was later quashed under an intense Israel lobby pressure  campaign shortly after President Obama entered office.

What  exactly did AIPAC’s two officials tell the Washington Post in its unrelenting  drive to gin up a U.S. war with Iran?  A decade later, the U.S. Department  of Justice doesn’t believe the American public is entitled to hear a tape long ago played to AIPAC’s lawyer Nathan Lewin, even as AIPAC continues to agitate for more  wars. (MDR  denial PDF)

 7.  Niger uranium forgery underwriters. Although Ike may or may not have worried  much about the implications of Operation Susannah, the Senate Foreign Relations  Committee certainly did.  A secret memo touched off years of Senate and Justice Department investigations into  Israel lobbying over fears that American operatives might engage in  other overseas  clandestine provocations aimed at duping the U.S. into ill-advised conflicts  that would benefit Israel (the short memo references the Lavon affair twice). The Iraq war proves those fears were well-founded.

Many  have long  suspected that the Niger uranium forgeries, fake documents the Bush  administration trumpeted to falsely accuse Iraq of buying uranium  from Africa for nuclear  weapons, were chartered by American neoconservatives in order to provide a pretext  they desperately needed for war.  Perhaps the FBI’s investigation into the  matter definitively proves it.  However, despite years of requests for the 1,000  pages of that investigation, the FBI after initially duly proceeding with a FOIA,  has now suddenly clammed up. (Niger  uranium denial PDF)

8.  Israel lobbyists embedded in the Treasury and Justice Departments. Israel lobbying organizations have been  very effective at embedding their operatives in key positions across the Federal government, such as Stuart Levey  in the Treasury Department’s economic warfare unit, or former AIPAC director Tom  Dine as a contractor at the floundering US government-funded Arabic-language broadcaster Alhurra. It used to  be possible to get a phone directory or conduct a comprehensive audit of which  key political appointees (and the people they brought in) were running  critical divisions of federal agencies by obtaining detailed Office of Personnel Management  and other public records.  Not anymore.  (FOIA  response PDF) Leveraging heightened post-911 sensitivities, the US  Treasury Department now claims the same protections against disclosure formerly  enjoyed only by intelligence agency employees.

Since the 1940s, the U.S. Department of Justice has  earned a reputation as a place where Israel lobby criminal investigations go to die.  Justice is  also where an AIPAC official like Neil Sher can while  away a few years on pet projects at taxpayer expense before moving on to more  lucrative outside work.  DOJ also routinely denies files about its past official decisions not to  pursue criminal cases on the basis that doing so could jeopardize privacy,  ongoing investigations, or factors underlying its coveted “prosecutorial  discretion” (e.g. charging the disenfranchised but not powerful insiders for wrongdoing). Like Treasury, it is now almost impossible to survey and  produce an organization chart of the Israel lobby’s political appointees embedded at high and mid-level Justice Department  posts or the biographies of the staff  and contractors they  bring in with them.

9.  Unclassified IDA report about US charities funding the Israeli  nuclear weapons program. Sensitive reports need not  be classified for the government to hang on to them indefinitely.  In 1987  the Institute for Defense Analyses delivered an unclassified report to the  Department of Defense titled “Critical Technology Issues in Israel.”  The  study implicates the Israeli Weizmann Institute for Science and Technology in  nuclear weapons research, raising deep questions about the group’s U.S.  tax-exempt charitable fundraising and U.S. commitment to enforce the Nuclear  Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Department of Defense withheld the IDA report from  release on the basis of FOIA exemptions covering trade secrets and “intra-agency  communications protected by the deliberative process privilege,” among others. (FOIA  denial PDF)

10. Justification for NSA funneling raw intelligence on Americans to Israel. If  former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has taught Americans anything, it is that “unknown knowns” are  usually even worse than many might have first imagined.  Some careful observers knew about  massive NSA surveillance, while others  alerted the public about the danger of “backdoor” U.S. intelligence flows to Israel.   But who ever suspected the NSA was shipping wholesale raw intercepts gathered on  Americans to Israel under a secret deal struck in 2009?  No government that  wholly denies such relevant information can claim  legitimacy via consent of the governed.   There can be little doubt why these ten files  are kept closed: it serves the Israel lobby.  The means by which this closure is  sustained is  also no secret.  The millions of dollars that line politician’s  pockets, promote media pundits and quietly spirit political appointees into key  gatekeeper positions maintain closed files and prevent informed  public debate.

Because  of this, Americans  should proceed assuming the worst conceivable, most logical explanation for  any given U.S.-Israel “unknown known” is correct—until proven otherwise.  Under this  guideline, it is prudent to believe that LBJ—properly warned by his intelligence  services and advisors that Israel was stealing the most precious military  material on earth from America—was simply  too marinated in Israel lobby campaign  cash to faithfully uphold his oath of office. It is similarly reasonable to believe the  Justice Department and FBI won’t release Israeli spy files because Americans  would finally understand that, despite massive ongoing harm to America,  political appointees in the Justice Department thwart warranted prosecutions.   DOJ finds it much easier to stay “on  message” through a long line of lobby-approved but  mostly bogus “Islamic terrorism cases” (many made  via sketchy  undercover informants goading members of targeted  minority communities into “terror” plots). According to its own records,  every time it tried to uphold the law in the 1940s the DOJ suddenly found itself internally and externally swarmed by Israel lobbyists with  inexhaustible financial war chests and  legal experts working to quash  warranted prosecutions in secret coordination with Israel.  The DOJ now likely believes it can never win against  Israel lobby generated  media and political agitation when it moves to prosecute,  and has now simply given up.

It is logical  to assume that Israel was found selling out America to the Soviets in  Pollard’s case, since little else explains the unusually harsh impact of Weinberger’s  secret memo.  It is similarly likely that the FBI’s AIPAC wiretaps would, if released  today, accurately reveal Rosen and Weissman to be what they actually  were—unregistered foreign agents operating on behalf of and in ongoing contact  with the Israeli government rather than legitimate domestic lobbyists.  It is  similarly more productive to assume that  at least one neoconservative operative with  strong ties to the involved entities in Italy—such as Michael Ledeen—served as  barker to the Italian sideshow that disseminated forged documents.

According  to documents released by Edward  Snowden, the transfer of raw NSA intercepts on American citizens to Israel was  authorized under a secret doctrine that “the survival of the state of Israel is a  paramount goal of US Middle East policy.”  This “prime directive” was probably a  secret because it is a blank check obligating American blood  and treasure to a cause American citizens never approved via advise and consent.  But why did the Obama administration—even as it  dismissed espionage charges against AIPAC staff in 2009—so deeply betray  American privacy?  Under “unknown known” doctrine, most  would assume that like LBJ before  him, Obama sold out America because his Israel lobby handlers secretly demanded  and paid for it on behalf of a foreign country.  What other  goodies Obama doled out to Israel in exchange for help  gaining the highest office remain to emerge.

The  official process for obtaining official public disclosure of “uknown knowns”—the  Freedom of Information Act—does not  function when the stakes in disclosure are high and Israeli  interests are involved.  Agencies (and ISCAP) correctly perceive government  credibility is at stake when there  is real openness, and that bona fide  transparency would positively impact how government  behaves.  Visibly corrupt federal government officials and institutions are counting on  continued secrecy to accumulate illegitimate power by undermining public accountability.

Eye on the Enemy: ’’Israeli’’ Gas Masks Used to Smoke Weed, Marijuana

“Israeli” Gas Masks with Bong Attachments in Manhattan

Ynet- Yitzhak Benhorin

In “Israel”, there is a shortage of gas masks that protect from non-conventional weapons, but in Manhattan they sell it for $ 25 and not because they fear a chemical attack on the Big Apple (New York). At different stores in East village, they provide masks which their protective filters have been removed and replaced with bongs that are used to smoke Marijuana, weed or other drugs.

What’s behind the mask?

“The “Israeli” gas masks make you go high”, reported the Jewish newspaper “Forward”. The newspaper noted that the “Israeli” gas mask 4A1 is placed on the shelves of the shops next to the spare parts of smoking. It is used to boost the impact of drugs.

According to the “Forward” report, the masks in Manhattan are stamped with the telltale rubber-triangle seal of “Shalom Chemical Industries Ltd”, the Tel Aviv-based company that manufactures all the civilian gas masks of “Israel”.

According to distributors in the U.S., the gas masks used to hook up with the bong are likely surplus, sold by the “Israeli” government in bulk without filters. Via the Internet, you can buy 4A1 “Israeli” masks with a filter for only $ 19.90.

In January 2012, the Home Front Command published that only 400 masks remained of the reserve, which was endorsed and funded by the government. The distribution of masks began in April 2010. According to estimates, 55% of the Blue ID card holders in the country would have a mask. This fact shows that approximately half of the population won’t be immune from non-conventional attacks, so as tens of thousands of illegal immigrants and other foreigners.
_____________

“Israeli” Army not ready for modern war

NFC news website – Yoram Har-Lev

monument at Maroun ar Ras, site of Hezbollah defeat of Israeli army

“The battle in the modern battlefield is resolved through the same public opinion that affects the policy-making of the Western countries. The heads of the army and the state should have learned from all the victories that were robbed from us in the past and all the failures that we made in the modern battlefield.”

The modern battlefield is endless; it is being documented by cameras in TV studios, where there is a hall for viewers too. The soldiers in the modern battlefield are only those who are in direct confrontation, while in TV studios, there are another kind of “soldiers” who give a hand in choosing images and captions.

The victims of the modern battlefield are not those who are directly being shot at, but they are the western public opinion who is being damaged as a result of the flow of distorted information.

The battle in the modern field is resolved through the same public opinion that affects the policy-making in the west. The heads of the army and the state should have learned from all the victories that were robbed from us in the past and all the failures that we made in the modern battlefield concerning the public opinion.

The story of Lt. “Eisner” is only a reminder of the urgent need to change the structure of the “Israeli” army and prepare it for modern war.

He didn’t know the camera was shooting. Lt. Eisner’s mistake wasn’t in the way he hit the Danish demonstrator; in the latter’s country, the demonstrators are being beaten more brutally, yet his mistake was not being aware of the camera set as a trap for him. The heads of the army lost this battle because they weren’t trained on how to behave in the battlefield, they were not provided with intelligence, defensive weapons to disperse the demonstrators, and most importantly with confrontational weapons, i.e. cameras, journalists, editors, and loving analysts.

The heads of the army failed to train the soldiers on new combat ideologies that fit the new modern battlefield.

The weapon of Media is as important as the armored corps. Cameras are no less important than canons. pir

Drills under the glare of cameras are no less important than drills in residential hoods. The heads of the state failed for they didn’t take care of the friendly media outlets, even within “Israel”.

On this scale, our enemies are stronger.

They have internal media support – Aljazeera for example. They are also capable of bringing “free” western media outlets to their side. They have supplied their fighters with cameras since the war of Hizbullah with the “Israeli” Army that settled in south Lebanon.

They use “informative idiots” from leftist parties to support their goals.
They use international bodies such as the UN and the Court as heavy weaponry.
Indeed, the privileges of our enemies are clear: the United Nations structure, which was controlled by the block of enemy countries; features of the Media outlets who are looking for “a direct story; the new religion of the West – the multicultural liberalism; the Islamic cultures that encourage lying.”

But we have important privileges as well: we have the same values of the West, particularly, we have a common enemy. If only the heads of the army and the state learn from Lt. Eisner failure in order to prepare well for the coming battle. “
_____________

“Israeli” Navy gains control over a merchant vessel with Liberia’s Flag

Ynet – Yossi Yehoshua

Last night, the commander of unit “Shayetet 13”, Colonel A., was summoned suddenly after he was ordered to directly head to the unit’s base in Atlit.

These sudden orders meant that he received urgent info, and that no mission was already planned.

After a short while, commandos’ fighters seized control in the heart of the sea, 260 km off the “Israeli” shores, over the merchant vessel “Beethoven”. According to international site of vessels, this is a large ship of 282 meters length, which departed from Beirut’s harbor in Lebanon on 20 April carrying Liberia’s flag and made its way to the port of Alexandria in Egypt. However, the intelligence estimate says that the ship was heading to Gaza carrying weaponry to the “terrorist” organization residing in the strip. After halting ship – that didn’t show any resistance- the commandos’ fighters began to search the big ship, and until yesterday, no weaponry had been found. The containers’ inspection lasted throughout the night.

The “Israeli” army reported that, “in the framework of current operational missions implemented by the “Israeli” naval forces to maintain security and halt smuggling, an “Israeli” naval force unit captured a merchant vessel “Beethoven” flying the flag of Liberia in order to be inspected after gaining the approval of the captain. Had we found no suspicious materials on board, then the vessel shall continue its way. The “Israeli” army and security forces will work tirelessly to fight against the efforts seeking to arm the “terrorist” organization that intend to intimidate the citizens of “Israel”. “

Source: Hebrew Press, translated and edited by moqawama.org

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Zionist Piracy in Mediterranean: Israeli Navy Intercepts Liberian Ship

Local Editor

Israeli navy has intercepted on Sunday a cargo ship in the Mediterranean off the Lebanese coast in the International waters.

The ship was intercepted “on suspicion” it was carrying arms destined for countries in the region, “apparently to either Lebanon or Gaza”, Israeli daily, Haaretz reported.

Israeli occupation forces spokesman said in a statement that the Hs Beethovan, bearing a Liberian flag, was intercepted 160 sea miles of the coast of the occupied territories, and that the inspection of the ship was carried out with the permission of the ship’s captain.

An Israeli military source said that occupation troops were conducting a “very thorough search of its cargo.”
The official said so far “nothing outstanding has been found” on the ship, and declined to provide details, describing the interception as “routine protection of our territorial waters.”

Israeli navies repeatedly intercept cargo ships in the Mediterranean. Last year in March, the Zionist entity seized a cargo ship, the Victoria, on suspicion that it held arms intended for the Gaza Strip.

Source: Agencies
23-04-2012 – 14:05 Last updated 23-04-2012 – 14:05

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian  
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!

Hijacking of Freedom Waves aid ships “Violent and Dangerous”

Source
[ 07/11/2011 – 11:18 AM ]

A press release by Irish ship to Gaza on Sunday stated that contrary to Israeli claims, the hijacking of the two Freedom Waves ships was violent and put the lives of passengers and crews at risk. Water cannons and tasers were used during the takeover.

Irish Ship to Gaza National Coordinator Fintan Lane was able to make a phone call this afternoon from the Israeli prison in which he and 13 other Irish citizens are being held. He communicated the following to the Irish Ship to Gaza team in Dublin:

The takeover of the MV Saoirse was violent and dangerous. Despite very clear protests from the occupants of the two boats that they did not want to be taken to Israel, they were forcibly removed from the boats in a violent manner. The whole takeover took about three hours.


I was hosed down the stairs It began with Israeli forces hosing down the boats with high pressure hoses and pointing guns at the passengers through the windows. I was hosed down the stairs of the boat. Windows were smashed and the bridge of the boat nearly caught fire. The boats were corralled to such an extent that the two boats, the Saoirse and the Tahrir, collided with each other and were damaged, with most of the damage happening to the MV Saoirse. The boats nearly sank. The method used in the takeover was dangerous to human life. The Israeli forces initially wanted to leave the boats at sea, but the abductees demanded that they not be left to float at sea, for they would have been lost and possibly sunk. All belongings of the passengers and crew were taken from them and they still do not know if and what they will get back. The 14 Irish citizens remain in Givon prison.

The phone call was very rushed and ended abruptly with Fintan saying, “I have to go.”

Claudia Saba, spokesperson for Irish Ship to Gaza, who received the call from Lane, said:

“The account received from Fintan Lane flatly contradicts the Israeli narrative that Israel ‘took every precaution necessary to ensure the safety of the activists on board the vessels’. It is a small miracle that no one was seriously injured during this obviously very violent boarding of the Freedom Waves boats.”

Irish Ship to Gaza spokesperson Laurence Davis added:

“This account confirms our fear that the hijacking of the boats was very violent, and explains the time lag between the point at which we lost contact with the boats on Wednesday at 11:12 am (Irish time) and news of the passengers’ arrival at Ashdod not before 5pm.”

In an interview he gave to www.Omniatv.com, Greek captain of the Tahrir Giorgos Klontzas has confirmed the use of violence on him by Israeli soldiers during his interrogation.

The Canadian boat lawyers are today being denied access to the detainees by the prison authorities. We were informed by the Canadian land team: “They kicked the lawyers out at 5pm yesterday, after only three hours, and today they have not been responding to any calls (either on the main line or the cell number of one of the prison officials) to coordinate a visit or arrange phone contact with the detainees.”

We also have reports that at least one of the Canadian boat participants was electrically tased and beaten. Canadian David Heap is now limping as a result.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

On Flotillas and the Law

Via End Israeli Aparthied

By Lawrence Davidson

Civil Society Movements vs. Corrupt Politics

July 07, 2011 “Information Clearing House” — When it comes to the struggle against Israel’s policies of oppression there are two conflicting levels: that of government and that of civil society. The most recent example of this duality is the half dozen or so small ships held captive in the ports of Greece. The ships, loaded with humanitarian supplies for the one and half million people of the Gaza strip, are instruments of a civil society campaign against the inhumanity of the Israeli state. The forces that hold them back are the instruments of governments corrupted by special interest influence and political bribery.

Most of us are unaware of the potential of organized civil society because we have resigned the public sphere to professional politicians and bureaucrats and retreated into a private sphere of everyday life which we see as separate from politics. This is a serious mistake. Politics shapes our lives whether we pay attention to it or not. By ignoring it we allow the power of the state to respond not so much to the citizenry as to special interests. Our indifference means that the politicians and government bureaucrats live their professional lives within systems largely uninterested in and sometimes incapable of acting in the public good because they are corrupted by lobby power. The ability to render justice is also often a casualty of the way things operate politically. The stymying of the latest flotilla due to the disproportionate influence of Zionist special interests on U.S. and European Middle East foreign policy is a good example of this situation.

There are small but growing elements of society which understand this problem and have moved to remedy it through organizing common citizens to reassert influence in the public sphere. Their efforts constitute civil society movements. Not all of these efforts can be deemed progressive.

The “Tea Party” phenomenon in the United States is a radical conservative movement that aims at minimizing government to the point of self-destruction. But other movements of civil society, in their expressions of direct action in the cause of justice, are much healthier. The worldwide movement for the boycott, divestment and sanctioning (BDS) of Israel, of which the flotilla movement is an offshoot, is one of these.

The Forum of International Law

The resulting struggle between the corrupt politics that keeps the West aligned with the oppressive and racist ideology that rules Israel and the civil society movement that seeks to liberate the victims of that ideology goes on worldwide and in many forums. One is the forum of international law. Presently, the debate revolves around the legality of Israel’s blockade of Gaza and the effort of the flotilla movement to defy it. Let us take a look at this aspect of the conflict.

1. The well known American Lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a strong defender of Israel, has blatantly stated, “Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza is legal under international law–anyone who tries to break it can be arrested and prosecuted in a court of law.” Of course, Dershowitz is not an expert on international law. Rather he has made his reputation as a defense lawyer with a passion for murder cases (which makes him quite suited to defend the Israeli state). This being said, what is the basis for his assertion that the Gaza blockade is legal?

2. The argument for the legality of the blockade is based on the 1909 Declaration of London and the 1994 San Remo Manual on Armed Conflict at Sea. Both are part of an international treaty system that sets down the parameters of much international law. According to these documents two states engaged in armed conflict can legally blockade one and other for clear military reasons. However, any blockade would cease to be legal if “damage to the civilian population is, or may be expected to be, excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the blockade.” Defenders of Israeli actions such as Dershowitz do a very superficial reading of the documents and reason that Israel is in an armed conflict with Hamas, which is the ruling authority in Gaza, and so Israel can legally blockade Gaza so as to stop the importation of weapons and “terrorist” fighters.

3. The holes in this reasoning are big enough to sail a flotilla of small ships through (if only they were not imprisoned in Greek ports). Thus, Israel certainly does not consider itself engaged in an armed conflict with another state. If you doubt this just ask any member of the present Israeli government whether he or she would define Palestine, including Gaza, as a state. In truth, the proper definition of Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Gaza is that of an occupying colonial power whose policies and actions are stark violations of the Geneva Conventions. That is, by virtue of their colonizing actions and treatment of residents of the Occupied Territories, their presence in Palestine beyond the 1967 borders is not legal (one can also argue over the legality of Israel within the 1967 borders). That means those they are in armed conflict with are those resisting illegal occupation. There is no international law that makes it legal for Israel, itself acting illegally, to blockade those legally resisting its actions. The arbitrary labeling of those resisting as “terrorists” does not change this legal situation.

4. As noted above, “legal” blockades must have a military objective and must not do excessive harm to the civilian population. Yet there is evidence that Israel’s goals for the blockade are not primarily military but are, instead, aimed at committing excessive harm to the people of Gaza. The Gaza blockade was not done out of fear of weapons smuggling or terrorist infiltration, but rather constituted a conscious act of economic warfare against the people of Gaza for having the audacity to be ruled by Hamas, the winner of a 2006 free and fair election. There is documentary evidence for this interpretation of events. For instance, in 2006 Dov Weisglass, an adviser to then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, publically stated that the goal of Israeli policy in Gaza was to “put the Palestinians on a diet, but not make them die of hunger.” Then, in June of 2010 McClatchy Newspapers published Israeli government documents attesting to the fact that Jerusalem primarily saw the blockade as an act of economic warfare, and not as a security measure. To this you can add the fact that Israeli gunboats keep shooting at Gaza fisherman who they know are doing nothing except fishing. What we have here is the collective punishment of 1.5 million Palestinians. As such it is not legal, it is illegal–a violation of the Geneva Conventions. The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, usually so responsive to U.S. demands, momentarily broke free and in his 2009 annual report told the Israelis they should end their unwarranted blockade. He was ignored.

We Cannot Count on Governments or International Law

So how is it that the Israelis can get away with these crimes? It is because, at the level of government, their lobbyists and advocates wield enough influence to successfully warp the policy formulation of Western governments. Against this corruptive influence, international law means very little. Even embarrassing historical analogies mean little. Nima Shirazi, whose blog, Wide Asleep In America can be found at http://www.wideasleepinamerica.com/ wrote a very good piece entitled “The Deplorable Acts: The ‘Quartet Comments on Gaza.” In this piece he points out the relative similarity between the Gaza blockade and the blockade of Boston set up by imperial Britain in late 1773. The Americans of that time labeled the action, “the Intolerable Acts.” Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and her boss in the White House ought to consider this analogy, but then there is that lobby power factor that would prevent them from ever acknowledging it.

As a consequence, those who seek justice for the Palestinians must, for the moment, not place much hope in government or international law. They must act within the realm of civil society, building the BDS movement and its offshoots. Where government moves in and attempts to block civil society actions, these actions must be turned against government if only by using them as campaign tools to expand the BDS movement further. If we persist there will come a time, as was the case with South Africa, when the power of civil society will be such that politicians and bureaucrats will see the cost of defying popular opinion as greater than defying Zionist lobbies.

For all intents and purposes, when it comes to the Palestine-Israeli conflict, the United States and Israeli governments have placed themselves above all law. That means not just international law, but selective domestic law as well. The ubiquitous and improper use of such categories as “terrorist” or “rendering material aid to terrorists” are the corruptive vectors here.

The only hope for justice and the integrity of law is in the realm of civil society which might in the foreseeable future redeem not only Palestine, but the US and Israel too.

Lawrence Davidson is professor of history at West Chester University in West Chester PA. His academic work is focused on the history of American foreign relations with the Middle East. He also teaches courses in the history of science and modern European intellectual history.

Posted by End Israeli Apartheid at 3:53 PM

 

‘US needs A Declaration of Independence – from Israel’

US BOAT TO GAZA — THE AUDACITY OF HOPE!

var addthis_product = ‘wpp-261’;var addthis_config = {“data_track_clickback”:true}; The Audacity of Hope passengers call for US Independence from Israel

by Henry Nor

Henry Norr reports on a “Declaration of Independence from Israel” written by the passengers of the US boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope, and handed to the US Embassy in Athens, in protest at Israel’s use of its powerful influence inside the US to secure Washington’s backing for its illegal policies and the use of US taxpayer money in military aid for Israel.

Click here : PRESS TV INTERVIEWS HENRY NOR

Two hundred and thirty-five years after the American colonies declared independence from Britain, the passengers on the US boat to Gaza call for a new American Declaration of Independence, this time from Israel.

The passengers issued their call from the decks of the US-flagged boat, The Audacity of Hope, which is currently confined to a Greek military pier near Athens, while its captain sits in jail.

Like the Founders in Philadelphia, the passengers in Athens recognize that “When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them to another, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

Just as the Founders cited “a long train of abuses and usurpations” committed by the British, The Audacity of Hope passengers detailed the Israeli abuses motivating their call for US independence:

• For generations, Israel has engaged in a systematic campaign to dispossess Palestinians of their lands and drive them from their ancestral homes.

• Since 1967 Israel has occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights in open defiance of UN Security Council resolutions and the Geneva Conventions. Residents of these occupied territories have been subjected to numerous forms of mistreatment, including military attacks, arbitrary arrests, home demolitions and the confiscation of vast areas for the construction of illegal Jewish-only settlements and roads.

• Since the mid-1990s Israel has imposed an ever-tightening regime of economic strangulation on the Gaza Strip. In particular, since 2006 the 1.5 million people of Gaza have been kept in isolation and under siege, with severely limited access to medical care, clean water and construction materials needed to rebuild after Israeli military attacks. They have been prevented from fishing in their coastal waters, growing crops on much of their farmland or exporting almost anything.

• Israel has used its powerful influence inside the US to secure Washington’s backing for these illegal and counterproductive policies. In addition to more than 3 billion dollars per year of US taxpayer money in military aid, Israel has gained uncritical American diplomatic support, including repeated use of the American veto in the Security Council to stymie any UN effort to enforce international law and to hold Israel accountable for its crimes.

• In recent years Israel has reacted with brutal violence against international as well as Palestinian and Israeli activists who have dared to step in where the US and the UN have feared to tread. On 31 May 2010, Israel’s vicious assault on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in international waters caused the deaths of nine unarmed human rights volunteers, including 18-year-old American citizen Furkan Dogan.

• This year, Israel, in collusion with the US, has deployed a variety of economic, diplomatic and other pressure tactics to undermine the sovereignty of Greece, Turkey, and other nations and force them to obstruct the Gaza Freedom Flotilla II in defiance of their own maritime regulations and procedures. In addition, Israel has carried out a campaign of unbridled distortion and defamation against the organizers and participants in this year’s flotilla. When that failed, Israel’s agents resorted to life-threatening sabotage operations against at least two of the flotilla’s ships.

“In light of this long — but still very partial — list of abuses and usurpations committed by Israel, it is past time for the US to end its ‘special relationship’ with Israel and declare its independence from that country,” said a letter that the passengers will deliver to the US Embassy in Greece on 4 July. “Just as the original American Declaration of Independence inspired popular struggles for independence and democracy all over the world, we humbly call on other countries that have been subjected to Israeli pressure and manipulation, particularly Greece and Turkey, to join us in our campaign to rid our country of this scourge.”

Henry Norr, a passenger on the US Boat to Gaza called The Audacity of Hope, is a former technology writer. This article first appeared in Common Dreams.Org

• MOHAMED KHODR: VETERANS – AMERICA NEEDS YOU ONE MORE TIME..

 

Global Revolution 2011 Tribute Ken O’Keefe [ALawson911 edit]

Related Posts:

• A Zionist’s Response to “What’s the Difference Between Zionism and Racism?”
• What’s the Difference Between Zionism and Racism?
• GORDON DUFF: THE MACRO-ECONOMICS OF PHONY TERROR AND CONTRIVED CONFLICT
• The Economy is Just a Symptom – it’s Hypocrisy, Stupid!
• The Iraq Legacy: Tell It Like It Is

Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=119454
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian