Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted on Thursday taking cash from a U.S. businessman but resisted calls to resign over a police investigation into alleged hefty bribes over almost a decade.
Unless the Israeli Knesset is able to create a majority vote for early elections, it appears that Olmert is staying as PM, at least for now. - M. R.
ISRAELI Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is suspected of taking bribes from a US businessman, the country's judiciary said today in a case that threatens to shake up the political landscape as the country marks its 60th birthday.
As I mentioned a few times, this year's Independence Day celebrations were non participatory events in Israel. Hardly a flag was flying, hardly a song was sung..... but the government and the press here completely ignored that phenomenon, as does most of the Western governments.
In the US and Britain, there is a campaign to smear anybody who tries to describe the plight of the Palestinian people. It is an attempt to intimidate and silence -- and to a large degree, it works. There is nobody these self-appointed spokesmen for Israel will not attack as anti-Jewish: liberal Jews, rabbis, even Holocaust survivors.
The European campaign to lift the siege on Gaza has charged that the rising number of patients who die in Gaza as a result of the Israeli occupation authority's siege was "cold-blooded execution".
That Israel can allow the death of children who could be helped by medical intervention is perhaps the most shocking aspect of this campaign of denying medical treatment to sick Gazan Palestinians.
How can they, with a straight face, call a 2 month old kid who has a heart murmur and desperately needs surgery "....a terrorist"?
What the world should be doing right now is stopping any and all aid to Israel immediately until this siege stops. - M. R.
I asked myself the other day, when our child is finally born, what will the hospital records read; height, weight, Muslim, and Palestinian? What does Palestinian mean now? It means no clean water, no security, no freedom of movement and no certainty.
The United States has been Israel's staunchest, often (it has seemed) its only, friend. It has sacrificed money, material and political capital to bolster the Jewish state. It will likely have that role for generations to come.
Faced with a new corruption probe by police, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert canceled the interviews, which have become Independence Day fixtures and often platforms for upbeat assessments of the government's performance and the road ahead.
The scandal also could cast a shadow over a visit here next week by President George W. Bush to participate in the anniversary commemorations. Bush and Olmert are expected to discuss the state of peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
The most intense conversations, I would be willing to bet, will be about when the attack against Iran will go forward.
Both men are cornered by scandals and failed policies.
Both are desperate to have something happen which will deflect from their current problems.
It may be that Olmert's scandals will accelerate a military move against Iran, perhaps more quickly than those in this administration might want.
Men, like animals, can be at their most dangerous when they are cornered. - M. R.
With Iran racing forward with its nuclear program, Israel now believes the Islamic Republic will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Translation: Israel is racing toward pressuring a US-led military confrontation with Iran, because they are unsure as to just how carnage-prone the next president of the US will be.
When Bush goes to Israel for its 60th anniversary celebration next week, you can be reasonably certain that this will be the highest item on their agenda. - M. R.
The world is witnessing a terrible human rights crime in Gaza, where a million and a half human beings are being imprisoned with almost no access to the outside world by sea, air, or land. An entire population is being brutally punished.
The world knows precisely what is going on in Gaza.
By any name you call it, Gaza is a territory under Israeli siege, which is causing incredible hardship, and death, for Gazan Palestinians.
Every country in the world should,immediately, stop any and all aid to Israel until this siege stops. - M. R.
An Iranian Jewish leader on Wednesday said his community would not mark this week's 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel, which he accused of "killing innocent" Palestinians.
The ministry of agriculture in Gaza warned Monday that the poultry and hatchery sector stopped completely because of the depletion of natural gas used for warming eggs and young chicken which threatens to deprive Gaza citizens from white meat after the red meat had already become scarce from the domestic food basket as a result of the closure of crossings for more than ten months.
No country on earth does collective punishment better than Israel. - M. R.
The police investigation of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - details of which cannot be published because of a gag order imposed on the case - means that Palestinians do not have a peace partner, a senior Palestinian official said yesterday.
I would imagine that the Israeli police have known about these charges for some time.
But if the timing of the presentation of allegations against Olmert could possibly be worse, it would be hard to imagine how.
Some back-channel conversations are going on with Syria, and Olmert has mentioned the possibility of leaving the Golan Heights as a sweetener for a peace deal.
Bush comes to Israel next week to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for a sovereign Palestinian state .
It appears that there may be elements in the Israeli government who want an election for Prime Minister to come about quickly, and postpone the possibility for any true and lasting peace for Israel and the entire region yet again. - M. R.
This week, the "hero" of the Qana-1 massacre, told foreign correspondents based in Israel that "Hamas was standing in the way of Palestinian statehood."
Well, this is, of course, a blatant lie, to say the least, because every honest person under the sun, Jew or gentile, knows well that the main obstacle impeding the realization of peace in the Middle East has been the intensive colonization of Palestinian land and unending expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied territories that belong to another people.
In Google's continuing attempt to silence the pro-Palestinian community on the Blogesphere, they have been claiming that it is 'Robots' that are locking blogs, not actual people. In a post I wrote yesterday I countered that claim with the charge that it is a well organised cell of zionists at work.
That very 'cell' I spoke of now openly confesses and are proud to make Google censor the anti-zionist websites!
Especially if the 'CAMERA' in question is the name of an organisation called The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America. Accuracy to a group such as this means lying and rewriting history, which is exactly what they are doing by editing entries on Wikipedia's Internet site. This is specifically done to entries dealing with Palestinian history.
I still wonder just who it was who kept distorting the Wikipedia articles about me, kept reinserting the errors after I corrected them, then blocked me from editing the article because Michael Rivero was not considered an authority on Michael Rivero (no kidding, that was what they said), then when they realized I was the Michael Rivero simply deleted the articles entirely. - M. R.
This elusive peace is widely proclaimed as both essential and achievable. But while the former is true and desirable, the latter is a widespread misperception. The solution to the conflict exists and is well known, but it cannot be implemented in the foreseeable future.
Both sides have to want peace. Palestine wants peace, but Israel wants land. - M. R.
The New York Post on Tuesday named an American businessman at the center of an Israeli police investigation which has sparked intense speculation that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert may be forced to resign.
The newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying New York financier Morris Talansky was questioned in Israel and was set to disclose a role in passing cash to Olmert when he was mayor of Jerusalem in the 1990s.
Of the 40,000 fishermen and others who make a living from the catch, only about 700 are still busy, according to the Fishing Syndicate in Gaza. The boats need oil, and Israel will not let the fishermen have it.
The spokesperson of the Gaza-based anti-siege popular committee Rami Abdo has warned on Tuesday that the Israeli blockade on Gaza Strip caused a sharp decrease in drinking water, putting lives of the 1.5 million Gazans at risk.
Mayor Gavin Newsom's acceptance of an all-expense-paid trip to Israel this week exhibits poor moral and political judgment.
This is the understatement of the hour - given the once fiercely independent politics of San Francisco, and the fact that
this city is dying from inattention, from homelessness, from a huge spike in local crime and murder, not to mention a budget
situation that has spun out-of-control. This is another case of a child-politician pretending to be a man. Newsom should
be recalled, not applauded!
- M. R.
About 70% of families living in the Gaza Strip receive water once every five days, and 30% have access to water only once every week, says Rami Abdu the spokesperson of the Popular Committee for Countering the Siege on the Gaza Strip.
Polluted water leads to epidemic diseases, such as cholera.
But of course, the Israeli politicians who invoked the siege of Gaza understand this clearly. - M. R.
In theory and strategy, in pursuit of defeating the Iraqi resistance, General Petraeus was a disastrous failure, an outcome predictable form the very nature of his appointment and his flawed wartime reputation.
In the first instance Petraeus was a political appointment. He was one of the few high military officials who shared Bush and the Zioncons' assessment that the 'war could be won'. Petraeus argued that his experience in Northern Iraq were replicable throughout the rest of the country.
It was Petraeus who charged Iranian weapons were blowing up US armored carriers; Iranian agents were training the Iraqi resistance and defeating his army of 200,000 Iraqi collaborators. Petraeus could not face the fact that he was losing Iraq. He deflected attention from the failure of his entire military-political strategy in Iraq by dragging in Iran as a key military player.
When some kind of attack against Iran comes (possibly sooner, rather than later), we will very much have Petraeus to thank for it.
This occupation of Iraq will at some point morph into a war against Iran, which could go even more disastrously wrong than have the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. - M. R.
Rarely seen archival photographs alongside Palestinian survivors remembering the 1948 ' Nakba ' (Catastrophe), describing the expulsion from their land on which the suburbs of Tel Aviv have since been built and their subsequent struggles as refugees. Memories include the terror immediately prior to fleeing, the slow realisation that they would not be returning home soon, the struggle to rebuild their lives in cramped refugee camps, and the increased resistance that grew once the Israeli military pursued them to the refugee camps.
UNRWA spokesman says fuel would be enough to continue food delivery operations for 20 days
This only happened because UNRWA made the issue a global issue by letting the world know that Israel was refusing to provide fuel to deliver food to the Palestinians.
Had they not, Gazan Palestinians would be starving by now. - M. R.
State Prosecutor Moshe Lador on Tuesday said the sweeping gag order placed over the new criminal probe into Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will not be lifted before Independence Day, which begins Wednesday night and ends 24 hours later.
From a standpoint of timing, the timing of this investigation is very interesting.
Bush is scheduled to meet with Olmert later this month, theoretically regarding the "peace process" regarding Israel and Palestine.
If Olmert has to step down and an election is held for the position of prime minister, this meeting might never take place, or will have to be postponed until an new Israeli Prime Minister is elected.
The two top possible contenders, Ehud Barak and Bibi Netanyahu, are both considerably less inclined to any rapprochement with the Palestinians than Olmert has at least appeared to be, which may potentially lead to his downfall. - M. R.
An Iranian envoy said Monday his government will not submit to extensive nuclear inspections while Israel stays outside the global treaty to curb the spread of atomic weapons.
We really didn't mean to do it. Again we didn't mean to do it. We have never meant to do it. Yet as usual, even though we didn't mean it - we hit them. We hit them 1,000 times already without meaning to do it. We have killed a total of 1,000 Palestinian children since the second Intifada broke out on September 29, 2000. A thousand.
Israeli President: Nuclear Iran would be 'nightmare'; Israel must remain sole Mideast nuclear power...
Aside from confirming once again that "poor helpless Israel(tm)" has nuclear weapons, this article confirms that the real agenda in the planned war on Iran is not to defend Israel from potential attack but in fact to guarantee Israel's continued monopoly in nuclear weapons, and the ability for Israel to attack its neighbors with impunity, safe from counter-attack behind its nuclear deterrent.
The nightmare for Israel is an Iran which, if armed with nuclear weapons, would be safe from an Israeli attack; an Iran able to say "no."
- M. R.
The American bodyguards of a Bush administration envoy who was dispatched to the region to monitor the implementation of the road map engaged in a violent confrontation with right-wing Israelis who sought to disturb a visit to Hebron on Friday, Israel Radio reported.
I felt then - and still feel now, when I look back - deeply and frustratingly misunderstood. My motives had nothing to do with self-hatred or any feeling about being Jewish. Nor did they have anything to do with compassion for a people - the Palestinians - about whom I knew nothing. I was merely following, as best I could, and in typical 14-year-old fashion, what seemed to be the dictates of logic. If in following them, the results appeared to defy assumptions, then that just made them more curious and compelling. Judging people by their colour or religion was wrong. Racism - making a generalisation about a whole people, stereotyping a whole people - was wrong.
During this past week, Israeli military forces invaded civilian villages trapped within Gaza's closed borders with tanks, helicopters, warplanes, and drones, massacring 39 and wounding over 100, including scores of unarmed children, babies, and women. Israel says this is punishment for the homemade Qassam rockets fired this week toward Sderot. The total number of Israelis killed by these Qassams was zero.
The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, B'Tselem, has issued a report finding that the Israeli government has continued to maintain severe and comprehensive restrictions on movement in the West Bank, despite claims to the contrary.
THE UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees is to suspend its food aid distribution in Gaza tomorrow because of a lack of fuel caused by the Israeli blockade, a spokesman said today.
There is one area where Israel is certainly a world leader: collective punishment. - M. R.
An Israeli military investigation has cleared its air force in last Monday's deaths of a Palestinian mother and her four children, the Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces said Friday.
Meanwhile, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said Sunday that he hopes the time does not arrive when the US decides to discontinue sanctions against Iran and instead tries to solve the nuclear standoff militarily.
"With all its success, I am a tremendous admirer and have great respect for Israel," he said, expressing particular admiration for establishing a state "representing democracy and freedom."
The statement that Israel is "....a state "representing democracy and freedom." is the statement of someone who has never been to Gaza, or spoken to an Arab Israeli citizen.
And this standing by Israel "...for the next 1,000 years"; what is the true benefit for the US, other than for its defense contractors?
For way too long, we've been Israel's "big stick" in the region, neutralizing other nations which Israel perceives as an "existential threat", which is just about every neighboring country. Iraq is in ruins, and now can Iran be far behind on Israel's "extermination list"?
These wars, concocted on packs of lies, are fought by American soldiers, fighting, getting maimed, and dying......for Israel?? - M. R.
"I am asked a question about what I would do if Iran attacked our ally, a country that many of us have a great deal of, you know, connection with and feeling for," the Democratic hopeful continued.
Dear Hillary
Most Americans do NOT "have a great deal of, you know, connection with and feeling for" Israel. About 2% of the US population does. Even the so-called Christian Zionists have little regard for Israel itself but see Israel only as a means to bring about Armageddon so that Jesus will come down and invite them all up to the big house.
Most Americans' primary concern is with America. If you do not share that priority, if you yourself "have a great deal of, you know, connection with and feeling for" Israel I suggest you quit the race for US President and go run for the Knesset where your heart lies. And kindly take your supporters Jorge Cabreras and Ng Lap Seng with you.
Because America needs leaders that put America first, second, and third.
- M. R.
During this past week, Israeli military forces invaded civilian villages trapped within Gaza's closed borders with tanks, helicopters, warplanes, and drones, massacring 39 and wounding over 100, including scores of unarmed children, babies, and women. Israel says this is punishment for the homemade Qassam rockets fired this week toward Sderot. The total number of Israelis killed by these Qassams was zero.
The Qassams are a perfect weapon from Israel's point of view. They are home-made, therefore untraceable, never hit anything important, and are always fired just when Israel needs an excuse to go bulldoze some more of Palestine. - M. R.
Are We Witnessing the Death of Israel by a Thousand Cuts?...
Ever see someone so obsessed with fear of something happening that they unconsciously bring it about? That's what has happened with Israel. They have filled their own heads with apocalyptic visions of biblical horrors that the rest of the world wishes to heap upon them, and out of that paranoia, continue to take actions that only anger the rest of the world against them.
- M. R.
One would think any fair-minded reviewer would at least make mention of the fact that Morris has made such comments. But, of course, The New York Times is rarely fair-minded when it comes to Israel.
Three IDF combatants indicted for severely abusing Palestinian taxi station dispatcher in Hebron. Defendants allegedly forced their victim to strip naked and then hit him with their rifles until he lost consciousness.
The IDF indulges in this behavior all the time: they just hate like hell getting caught at it. - M. R.
Islamic Hamas movement on Sunday warned of military escalation if Israel rejected an Egypt-brokered ceasefire initiative.
Unfortunately, escalation is precisely what Israel's planning for as its "justification" for further military attacks in Gaza, Lebanon, and elsewhere. - M. R.
On her 15th visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in less than two years, Rice was expected to press both sides to stick to their goal of striking a peace deal by the time US President George W. Bush leaves office in 2009.
On her 15th visit to Israel, is it possible Secretary Rice still doesn't get that Israel is interested in claiming territory, and not peace? - M. R.
HOW MUCH MONEY HAS THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER SPENT TO SUPPORT ISRAEL SINCE 1948?...
Israel was supposedly created to be an independent nation for the safety of the Jewish people. But few Jewish people want to live there. And everything the government of Israel does makes the world MORE dangerous for Jews everywhere. And having cost the American taxpayer four times the entire cost of the Apollo Moon Program (and who knows how much from other nations), Israel hardly qualifies as "Independent." - M. R.
There is an old Yiddish expression that goes...."es'retsic azoi".... it basically means that if you repeat something enough times you might actually believe it. So is the case with Condi's multi visits to Israel to bring about a Peace agreement.... she actually believes she is making progress.
He was questioned under caution, suggesting that the investigation could end in an indictment and resignation, according to a report on Channel 2, an Israeli television station. (AP)
Whether these charges are true or not, the timing is very interesting, from a standpoint of a potential new election for Israel's prime minister.
This will have a profound effect on what will happen for Palestinians in their quest for legitimate and recognized statehood. - M. R.
Whether true or not, the reports regarding the latest investigation are very grave. Even if there is an iota of truth in them, it is hard to believe that Ehud Olmert would be able to continue serving as prime minister; the thought of bundles of cash reaching the hands of the most important man in our political hierarchy prompt deep revulsion.
An election in Israel will possibly slow down the drumbeat to a US-led attack against Iran, but probably not by very much.
In fact, most of the potential candidates for the seat of Prime Minister will be very familiar faces to both the Israeli and the US public. - M. R.
Methinks Israel is in for a big surprise on it's 60th birthday..... no one is in 'celebration mode'... or mood. The war, the economic situation, the recent scandals among high government officials could be part of the reason. The ongoing crisis between Israel and Palestine is probably the main factor, people on both sides of the wall are sick and tired of the needless killing.
The American bodyguards of a Bush administration envoy who was dispatched to the region to monitor the implementation of the road map engaged in a violent confrontation with right-wing Israelis who sought to disturb a visit to Hebron on Friday, Israel Radio reported.
The US could, I am sure, find some other, really helpful uses to those billions of dollars we spend in aid and military support we give Israel every year. - M. R.
This picture was a press release from Israeli sources purported to show Palestinian terrorists. However one of the suspected terrorists forgot to take off his star of David before being photographed.
Mazin Qumsiyeh of the excellent Wheels of Justice peace initiative has drafted this list furnishing facts about why good people of conscience everywhere will not be celebrating Israel at its 60th anniversary this month, just as apartheid-era South Africa was not accepted or celebrated. There are many more reasons, and he invites people to add to it.
The report's authors blamed Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip for the Gazans' inability to treat the sewage.
"This sewage cannot be treated due to the lack of a steady electricity supply within the Gaza Strip, Israel's restrictions on fuel imports and prohibitions on the import of materials and necessary spare parts," according to the report.
But a security source familiar with the situation told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that the vast majority of Gaza's electrical needs were being met by Israel and Egypt.
Note that the alleged "source" claiming that "the vast majority of Gaza's electrical needs were being met by Israel and Egypt." is never named.
This is how the Israeli media consistently turns the blame back on the Palestinians, this time by insinuating that the Palestinians have the resources to treat the sewage, but won't do it. - M. R.
Sheetrit, who is also a deputy prime minister, said Israel's goal should be to break up Hamas, which European Union and the United States join with Israel in blacklisting as a terror group.
"We must break Hamas, not hold negotiations with them, because their demands are unacceptable," he said. "The armed forces must attack those terrorists night and day to break their arms and their legs."
There is no truce proposal on Gaza that Israel will accept from Hamas, period, end of discussion. What Israel wants is the entire West Bank and Gaza for itself, and will do anything necessary to achieve that goal (including the current siege of Gaza, and the denial of life-saving medical treatment of sick Gazan Palestinians).
Sheetrit also deliberately misses the point that Hamas is, from the last free and fair election in Palestine, the duly elected party representing the Palestinian people. - M. R.
With 200-300 nuclear weapons in its arsenal, the Israelis enjoy a nuclear monopoly in the Middle East. They mean to keep that monopoly and are pressing for the U.S. to obliterate Iran's fledgling nuclear program.
"There will be no choice but to overthrow Hamas. They are essentially Iranian offshoots sitting within us. It's intolerable that Israel allows its cities to be fired upon; we must move from a war of attrition to a war of decisivness," said Opposition Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday in a meeting with local journalists in Netivot as he addressed Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza.
This sounds like the statement of a man with massacre on his mind.
And of course, the timing couldn't be more ironic, because a number of Palestinian groups have said that they are willing to respect an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire, which Egyptian officials will be presenting to Israel. - M. R.
this time the air is truly gloomy. Soldiers had never gathered in such numbers and remained for that long. Muneer, crawling back and forth, between the door and the kitchen -- where we often hid -- the only room with a concrete ceiling, thus much safer than the rest of the house -- reported increasingly disturbing news. "There are men in white." He divulged the latest development with total bewilderment. "They are wearing masks. And there is a robot." For once, we felt in doubt of Muneer's version of events, which were most often sharp and truthful. Only my father seemed to understand. "Bomb squads," he whispered. His words left us in a state of dread and speechlessness.
This is the kind of situation with which Gazan Palestinians have to live every day. - M. R.
Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman is expected to arrive in Israel shortly to receive Israel's official response to the Egyptian cease-fire proposal, Palestinian sources in Cairo said yesterday.
Watch for Israel to either reject this out of hand, or create some circumstance which will make it impossible for the Palestinians to keep this cease-fire. - M. R.
Iran will likely have nuclear bomb technology in 2008, Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said Wednesday, citing an updated Israeli intelligence assessment.
A new U.N. Human Rights Council official assigned to monitor Israel is calling for an official commission to study the role neoconservatives may have played in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell
you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." --
US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring and its connections to 9-11. - M. R.
Worrying strife breaks out between top Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qureia and Israeli counterpart after latter presents proposal of regional division in which Israel maintains claim to large settlement blocs, Jordan River Valley and Jerusalem
No mystery here; Israel simply wants it all. - M. R.
Just as Israel inaugurated its misbegotten birth with genocidal ethnic cleansing sixty years ago, the evil brat of Zionism is marking its 60th anniversary with yet another spate of bloodletting.
Army did not know it was firing at TV crew: Israel...
"Hey, the soldier in the tank has his finger on the trigger button, he looks through the eyepiece and sees the word "PRESS", what do you EXPECT him to do???"
- M. R.
In these two programmes, journalist Jonathan Freedland explores how British Jewish attitudes to the idea of a Jewish homeland - and to the reality - have evolved, examining the perspectives of both secular and religious Jews and exploring Zionism's dual role as a religious and political movement.
The zionists are in a frenzy. Their crimes are being exposed and that has them running in circles. Their cries of anti-Semitism have been falling on deaf ears so new tactics had to be developed...
The latest slaughter in the Gaza Strip is generating the predictable claims and counter-claims about responsibility for the loss of innocent lives. The Palestinians say a mother, her four children and another youth were killed by Israeli tank fire, while the Israelis insist that explosives belonging to militants were accidentally set off. As is generally the case, though, whatever the immediate cause on this specific occasion, these and the thousands of civilian deaths that have preceded them are the result of the impunity with which the Israeli government is habitually allowed to run roughshod over Arabs.
Perhaps Israelis should look at the following videos to help them remember..... after all, it all happened just this week..... Perhaps the words NEVER AGAIN will get a new meaning....
BUT..... they can't! They have already been censored...
As far as the organisers of the exhibition are concerned, these photographs of Arab refugees, displaced from their homes in Israel in 1948, are merely an artistic slice of life from a dramatic point in Middle Eastern history.
But the Barbican Arts Centre's show Homeland Lost, consisting of 16 black and white images taken by the photojournalist Alan Gignoux soon after Israel gained independence, is the unlikely frontier of new hostilities between Britain's Israeli and Arab communities.
Jonathan Hoffman, of the Jewish umbrella group the Zionist Federation, has complained to the London arts venue's director Nicholas Kenyon about captions accompanying the photos, which state that the 800,000 Palestinians who left their homes were "uprooted" and "dispossessed". He accused the Barbican of "falsifying" history.
A wide-ranging group of U.S. Jewish leaders plans to release a statement Wednesday urging Jews worldwide to boycott the Summer Olympics in Beijing, citing China's troubling record on human rights and Tibet.
American security officials this week presented members of Congress with evidence supposedly showing that Syria, with North Korean assistance, was building a nuclear reactor on the target site and that this facility was "not intended for peaceful activities". Pictures have been released allegedly taken inside the facility showing a reactor core being built as well as an image of North Koreans working there.
There is no independent way to verify any of this, especially since the installation has now been destroyed. We must rely on the integrity of the Israeli and US intelligence services. That is where we hit a problem.
Ten North Koreans helping build a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria may have died in an Israeli air raid last September, Japanese public broadcaster NHK said on Monday, citing South Korean intelligence officials.
It's not nice killing other countries' citizens without cause. - M. R.
What country would have an interest in hiring a mercenary company to shot at Iraqi's and US Marines? This same company was given a lucrative contract to "manage" ammunition storage depots containing captured Iraqi munitions.
Nibaal Shriteh may soon be homeless. The 17-year-old Palestinian lives in a Hebron orphanage but, if the Israeli military has its way, she and 240 fellow orphans like her will be out on the streets.
Rabbi Arik Ascherman, executive director of Rabbis for Human Rights, said Jewish tradition requires witnesses and evidence be brought forward before the court. Since no proof has yet been submitted, the military order is "incompatible with the Jewish concept of justice," he said.
Let's hope that these kids won't wind up homeless again, courtesy of the IDF.
and to those people like Rabbi Arik Ascherman in Israel, working for both peace and justice: your moral courage and honesty should be celebrated. - M. R.
This comes from Médecins Sans Frontières: "Doctors without Borders" in English. Not only is the UNRWA stopping its food aid to the destitute population of the Gaza Strip due to the Israeli ban on fuel imports, so is MSF decreasing its medical services. The Israeli government issued a statement late last week claiming, "There is no fuel crisis in Gaza."
There needs to be an immediate, world-wide boycott of all military and financial aid to Israel until this siege stops, and concrete steps are taken to create a viable Palestinian state.
Israel must be made to realize, in the most tangible (and peaceful) ways possible, that they cannot continue this collective punishment against Gazan Palestinians any more. - M. R.
IOF shelling of the Beit Hanun electricity transformer station during its incursion into the town in northern Gaza on Monday knocked out power in the area and paralyzed water supplies.
There is one area in which Israel truly leads the world: the application of collective punishment. - M. R.
Israeli forces have been attempting to seize the Palestinian land for years, and now the Israeli court system has given them the green light. However, under international law the Israeli Supreme Court has no jurisdiction in the occupied West Bank to make such a decision.
A succession of Israeli governments have been "playing out the clock" with regard to a Palestinian state, so that by the time it happens, it won't be much larger than a postage stamp. - M. R.
Like the pilot-less drones that have become a mainstay of air forces in Israel, the U.S. and elsewhere, the four-wheeled Guardium is operated from a command room that can be far from the front line. It can be mounted with cameras, night-vision equipment and sensors, as well as more lethal tools like machine guns.
Standing near one of these long, stinking brown-and-yellow rivers of waste recently, the local chief medical officer, Dr Bassam Said Nadi, explained to me: "Recently there were very heavy rains, and the shit started to flow into the reservoir that provides water for this whole area. I knew that if we didn't act, people would die. We had to alert everyone not to drink the water for over a week, and distribute bottles. We were lucky it was spotted. Next time..." He shook his head in fear. This is no freak: a 2004 report by Friends of the Earth found that only six per cent of Israeli settlements adequately treat their sewage.
Meanwhile, in order to punish the population of Gaza for voting "the wrong way", the Israeli army are not allowing past the checkpoints any replacements for the pipes and cement needed to keep the sewage system working. The result? Vast stagnant pools of waste are being held within fragile dykes across the strip, and rotting. Last March, one of them burst, drowning a nine-month-old baby and his elderly grandmother in a tsunami of human waste. The Centre on Housing Rights warns that one heavy rainfall could send 1.5m cubic metres of faeces flowing all over Gaza, causing "a humanitarian and environmental disaster of epic proportions".
So how did it come to this? How did a Jewish state founded 60 years ago with a promise to be "a light unto the nations" end up flinging its filth at a cowering Palestinian population?
One of the biggest problems with the Israelis is that they can no longer confront what has been done in their names. They have to resort to denial, bolstered with alcohol, and scream abut how everything is just the way God wants it to be.
A big military operation against Hamas in the Gaza strip? A cease-fire with Hamas?
Our media discuss these questions dispassionately, as if they were equivalent options. Like a person in a showroom making a choice between two cars. This one is good, and so is the other one. So which should one buy?
And nobody cries out: War is the height of stupidity!
In the next few days, a new Israeli settlement will be established in the Palestinian neighborhood of Ras al-Amud, east of Jerusalem, according to the former Israeli police commissioner Moshe Karadi.
Former US President Jimmy Carter says that following his meetings with Hamas leaders the group offered a truce in Gaza but Israel rejected the offer. During an interview with NBC, Carter also blamed Israel for denying the citizens of Gaza basic supplies such as water and food.
One has to notice the beginning of the sentence at the top of this headline, in bold, which states "blaming Israel, again:"
Carter is telling the truth, something to which certain elements in the Israeli government and press appear to be consistently allergic. - M. R.
At start of weekly cabinet meeting, prime minister says Israel regrets 'tragic incident which left a mother and her four children dead.'
One can always count on Olmert's making some sort of phony statement of condolence when an incident like this happens gets televised, and is all over the news feeds in such a way that Israel can't deny that it happened.
Of course, his statement will not stop the IDF for one moment from maiming and killing Palestinian kids with impunity, particularly when there are no cameras around. - M. R.
Tensions in the north? Lebanon says 'enemy' airplanes violated its airspace Monday, flew over Lebanese cities; Meanwhile, Israel complains that UNIFIL forces fail to report illegal Hizbullah activities.
Unfortunately for the Lebanese people, it looks as though Israel, right on cue, is about to create a situation where there will blame UNFIL and Hezbollah about not sticking to the terms of the cease-fire, and go in again with guns and bombs blazing. - M. R.
I'm sure you haven't heard on TV news that the IDF killed a Palestinian family of four small children and their mother, among others, as they were getting ready to eat breakfast. I mean, if an Israeli family was killed we'd be hearing about it non-stop; but this was just a Palestinian mother and her four little children. Just some collateral damage...
The North Korea Syria claim is based on no evidence and yet the press carried it anyway. Israel was Beta testing its invasion of Iran the same way they tested both the PR of kidnapped soldiers and the targeting of infrastructure in the Gaza Strip just before they invaded Lebanon.
The scandal of the international community's impotence in resolving one of history's longest bloodlettings is that it knows what the problem is but does not have the courage to speak the truth, much less deal with it. The next peace conference in Germany (or in Moscow, where the Russians want to hold it) will suffer from the same gutlessness that has marked all previous efforts. It will deal with everything except the problem primarily responsible for this
conflict's multi-generational impasse.
The anchorwoman was clearly shocked: I don't have time now to respond to what you have said, she told the former U.S. president, allowing Jimmy Carter to make a narrow escape from her clutches. Then she added that she did not want to imagine what would happen to him if he bumped into her colleague from the security affairs desk in Channel 2's dark alley. And the pundit sitting there, sunk in deep thought as always, nodded his heavy head, confirming: He's lucky, the bastard, that we didn't gang up on him and cut him to shreds.
That's how it is here: The rulers set the tone, and the media begins to gripe: Not only did Carter's mission not help, it did damage. He alone was the reason Gilad Shalit was not ransomed out of captivity during the holiday. That's what happens when an enemy of the human race, the twin of the Twin Towers' bin Laden, sticks his nose where it does not belong.
You heard me right! Israel is no longer responsible for the genocide and continued holocaust of the people living in Gaza.... it's all Hamas' doing....
The fact is, this is hardly the first journalist to be killed by Israeli fire while covering events in the occupied Palestinian territories. At least 10 journalists have been killed since the start of the Intifada in September, 2000, including two Europeans. According to a December 2006 report by Reporters Without Borders, the Israeli army attacked or threatened 16 journalists in that year alone along with destroying three news media offices. Since the Intifada, journalists have been harassed, beaten, denied entry and killed or wounded by the Israeli army without any so-called investigation resulting in holding the army accountable for the death. When confronted with this fact by Reporters Without Borders, head of the foreign press section of the Israeli army Avital Leibovich replied, "The investigations have not resulted in charges because the evidence proved insufficient for prosecuting any particular officer."
Were the Jews who massacred the Roman families garrisoned at Masada freedom fighters or brutal terrorists? Was the Zealots leader, Eleazar Ben Yair, a mass murderer and a terrorist or a religious hero? When Eleazar Ben Yair ordered all of the Jewish families murdered, were they willing martyrs for their faith or innocent, terrified victims of an extremist leader? When the Zealot soldiers killed each member of their own families, were they fanatical followers or faithful believers? Perhaps the interpretation depends on which Masada tour guide you get.
Masada's powerful legacy of Zionist values appears to strongly influence todays Palestinians, too. The Palestinian Arabs never really shared the Zionist values before, but todays Palestinians may someday have a Masada of their own, as their national symbol. The Likud Party is certainly doing all it can to help them produce one.
Tove Johansson from Stockholm walked through the Tel Rumeida checkpoint with a small group of human rights workers (HRWs) to accompany Palestinian schoolchildren to their homes. They were confronted by about 100 Jewish extremists in small groups. They started chanting in Hebrew "We killed Jesus, we'll kill you too!" -- a refrain the settlers had been repeating to internationals in Tel Rumeida all day.
Lately I've been catching a lot of flack about not denying a particular holocaust that affected a Jewish population 'along with a number of other populations'. This particular holocaust was just another of the ongoing holocaust routine that is part and parcel of life (and death) on Earth. It wasn't the biggest holocaust or even the second biggest. One of the biggest is going on right now in The Congo but since that is primarily happening to black people it isn't a real holocaust. When I mentioned it once, a Zionista Israeli told me not to "compare those animals with my people."
An Israeli tank shell slammed into a tiny Gaza Strip home Monday during a skirmish with gunmen, killing a Palestinian woman and four of her children as they prepared to sit down for breakfast, officials and relatives said.
ADVERTISEMENT
The new violence threatened to hobble Egyptian attempts to bring a cease-fire to the area.
... which may be the whole point of the exercise. - M. R.
The Israelis already have the Gaza Strip under military siege, carefully controlling what and who goes in and out of it. They have now cut off most fuel, and the United Nations has been forced to stop distributing food aid.
This Israeli government action is an unvarnished war crime. It is known as collective punishment. There was already hunger and malnutrition among Palestinian children, which will now be worsened.
Hamas told Jimmy Carter it was ready to negotiate.
Despite Israel's refusal to acknowledge its nuclear weapons status, its secret arsenal is an open secret that Israeli policy makers don't go out of their way to deny. From its beginnings in the mid-1960s, Israel's program has developed into one that rivals those of larger powers like France and Britain. Here, based on interviews with U.S. intelligence officials and nuclear experts, is a portrait of Israel's strategic weapons programs.
Perhaps without realising that he has let a great, big cat out of the bag, Joel Gilbert has provided the answer. He says (my empasis added): "Even without attacking Israel, the mere capabilty of Iranian missiles to lay waste to Tel Aviv would create a 'strategic umbrella,' preventing Israel from using its superior strategic assets in a conventional war. With Israeli missiles neutralised, Muslim countries could overwhelm Israel with their superior numbers, conventional armor and short range missiles."
And that's the real point. Israel's military leaders and their political yes-men don't believe, and never have believed, that Iran, if it possessed nuclear weapons, would unleash them in a first strike against the Zionist state. The real problem for its leaders is that the moment Israel ceased to be the only nuclear-armed power in the region, would be the moment it lost its ability to impose its will on the region. And actually the world.
Israel is about to celebrate sixty years of human rights violations against the region, Palestinians and destruction of their ever diminishing lands, revelling, in effect on graves, ancient bulldozed groves and over half a century of decimation of dreams, homes, heritage. The travesty of the theocracy's founding on the above untruth, its betrayal, from the State's inception, is encapsulated in the story of one child, caught in the early displacement of nearly three quarter of a million souls from the land of their birth. A forced flight and fragmentation of families, friends, communities, unceasing over six grinding decades.
Certain things are not talked about among Jews, diseases in particular. If a loved one gets ill he is wished the best, wished long life and that's it. The disease itself is never mentioned or talked about. The common attitude is that it will eventually go away and all will be well.
It seems that the cancer of zionism is thought of in that same light, you don't hear it discussed much, it's hardly mentioned. In years gone by every car in Jerusalem had a small Israeli flag attached to the window in celebration of the day of Independence. This year is a big one... but hardly a flag in sight. Municipalities have put up signs and lights on all major roads... but nothing from the people themselves.
You don't see a lot of those cheap plastic made-in-china American flags on cars here in the US any more. - M. R.
American officials demand Israel provide explanations for how U.S.-made choppers sold to Israel ended up in service of Columbian drug cartel. Incident may cloud relations between countries
The dubious affair, which was already investigated by the Israeli Defense Ministry, and later turned over to the hands of the police, was uncovered about two years ago.
Israel's rejection of Hamas' ceasefire proposals means a declaration of war, a senior leader of the Islamic movement said on Sunday.
Unless Hamas (as the duly elected government of Palestine, per the last elections) is included as a serious and vital component to the peace process, there can be no peace. - M. R.
Seriously, if you were a REAL Palestinian, firing a rocket into Israel in retaliation for the blockade that was starving your people, wouldn't you aim at living targets? - M. R.
The UN is to halt food handouts for up to 800,000 Palestinians from tomorrow because of a severe fuel shortage in Gaza brought on by an Israeli economic blockade.
The more likely explanation for the US invasion of Iraq is the neoconservative Bush Regime's commitment to the defense of Israeli territorial expansion. There is no such thing as a neoconservative who is not allied with Israel. Israel hopes to steal all of the West Bank and southern Lebanon for its territorial expansion. An American colonial regime in Iraq not only buttresses Israel from attack, but also can pressure Syria and Iran from giving support to the Palestinians and Lebanese. The Iraqi war is a war for Israeli territorial expansion. Americans are dying and bleeding to death financially for Israel. Bush's "war on terror" is a hoax that serves to cover US intervention in the Middle East in behalf of "greater Israel."
"I want to thank you for your support of Israel and in particular for waging a war against Iraq."
Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger to President George W. Bush Wed January 09,2008(J.Post)
The United States registered an official protest with Israel against its ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, for calling former U.S. President Jimmy Carter an "enemy of Israel" prior to Carter's recent visit to the region.
In addition, the State Department is planning to issue a public statement condemning comments made by Gillerman at a press conference in New York on Thursday, where he called Carter a "bigot."
Subdued as this statement is, I'm glad that someone in the state department decided that this comment was not going to go stand without at least some kind of response.
The true reaction should have been a complete and abrupt halt to any and all military and financial aid, from the US, period, end of discussion. - M. R.
The United Nations nuclear monitoring agency on Friday slammed Israel for an Israel Air Forces strike last September on an alleged nuclear reactor in Syria.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said "the unilateral use of force by Israel as undermining the due process of verification that is at the heart of the nonproliferation regime," in a statement released Friday.
A big military operation against Hamas in the Gaza strip? A cease-fire with Hamas?
Our media discuss these questions dispassionately, as if they were equivalent options. Like a person in a showroom making a choice between two cars. This one is good, and so is the other one. So which should one buy?
And nobody cries out: War is the height of stupidity!
One of the most shocking indications of this repressive atmosphere is
a campaign by Zionist organizations to convince university
administrations to ban the phrase "Israeli Apartheid". At McMaster
University in Hamilton, for example, students organizing IAW events on
their campuses were issued with a letter from the Provost office
informing them that the university had banned the term "Israeli
Apartheid" from use by student clubs. This effectively ended their
participation in the week as they were then barred from attaining the
necessary approval to advertise, book rooms, etc. A massive
mobilization by students and community allies forced the university to
backtrack from this position. Nevertheless, letters and articles by
Zionist organizations and supporters continue to appear in local
Hamilton newspapers calling for further repression.
Carter may have used the term "Israeli Apartheid", but I believe that it may have been Bishop Desmond Tutu to characterize it this way.
Bishop Tutu, was one of the great champions of freedom for all South Africans, right along with Nelson Mandela.
And if Bishop Tutu describes what he sees happening with the Palestinian people as "Israeli Apartheid", trust me; this guy is in a really solid position to know. - M. R.
Arab media have reported that IDF jets attacked several targets in southern Lebanon Wednesday, including the cities of Nebatiyeh, Tyre and the western Bekaa Valley. Lebanese anti-aircraft positions fired Israeli aircraft, but all IDF servicemen are believed to have returned safely to Israel.
This is from a few days ago, but I relinked it to remind everyone that when the next round of killing starts, just wh9 started it all (again). - M. R.
The more likely explanation for the US invasion of Iraq is the neoconservative Bush Regime's commitment to the defense of Israeli territorial expansion. There is no such thing as a neoconservative who is not allied with Israel. Israel hopes to steal all of the West Bank and southern Lebanon for its territorial expansion. An American colonial regime in Iraq not only buttresses Israel from attack, but also can pressure Syria and Iran from giving support to the Palestinians and Lebanese. The Iraqi war is a war for Israeli territorial expansion. Americans are dying and bleeding to death financially for Israel. Bush's "war on terror" is a hoax that serves to cover US intervention in the Middle East in behalf of "greater Israel."
A new survey of American Jewish opinion, released by the American Jewish Committee, demonstrates several important propositions: (1) right-wing neocons (the Bill Kristol/Commentary/ AIPAC/Marty Peretz faction) who relentlessly claim to speak for Israel and for Jews generally hold views that are shared only by a small minority of American Jews; (2) viewpoints that are routinely demonized as reflective of animus towards Israel or even anti-Semitism are ones that are held by large majorities of American Jews; and (3) most American Jews oppose U.S. military action in the Middle East -- including both in Iraq and against Iran.
The Gaza Strip has fallen eerily silent as day-to-day life grinds to a halt in the face of an Israeli fuel blockade that has forced the UN to halt its food shipments into the territory. Michael Bailey of Oxfam in Jerusalem tells The Real News Network that some 300,000 Gaza residents have drinking water at home for less than five hours per day, every four days, and the UN can no longer get supplies to the 700,000 refugees living in Gaza.
This, courtesy of the country described as "...the only true democracy in the Middle East" by most of our politicians, to the tune of billions of US taxpayer dollars every year. - M. R.
He figured if he was going to be drafted anyway, he would agree to serve in the Israeli-occupied territories, "to see what really happens, and maybe to change things," he says. "But I didn't succeed."
Today, he is one of 39 recently discharged soldiers whose testimonies are part of a grim new report on the situation in the West Bank city of Hebron, where the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) oversee a volatile population of 700 to 800 Jewish settlers living amid nearly 170,000 Palestinians. The 118-page report, which tells of systematic mistreatment of local Palestinians by both soldiers and settlers, was released during this week's Passover holiday.
Convicted of espionage in 1986, Pollard did such damage to U.S. national security that top intelligence officials threatened to resign if Bill Clinton acceded to Israeli demands to pardon him. He is serving a life sentence for stealing secrets deemed so valuable that the Soviet Union reportedly agreed to trade them for the release of tens of thousands of Russian Jews for resettlement in Israel.
"The role of the president of the United States is to support the decisions that are made by the people of Israel."
-Ann Lewis, Senior Advisor for Hillary Clinton, March 17, 2008
Recently, in their much lauded paper, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, Harvard professor, Stephen Walt, and University of Chicago professor, John Mearsheimer, focused attention on the strong Israeli lobby which has a powerful influence over American foreign policies (see BBC article). They detail the influence that this lobby has exerted, forming a series of international policies which can be viewed as in direct opposition to the interests and security of the American people. These acts and policies are more often than not carried out by US government appointees who hold powerful positions and who are dual American-Israeli citizens. Since the policies they support are often exclusively beneficial to Israel, often to the detriment of America, it has been argued that their loyalties are misdirected.
There were no sirens in towns near the border with Gaza. Those communities are often targeted by Palestinian rockets, and authorities decided residents didn't need the additional stress of more sirens.
The head of the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency angrily criticized Israel on Friday for bombing an alleged Syrian nuclear facility, and chastised the U.S. for withholding information on the site.
Why does the Bush Regime want to rule Iraq? Some speculate that it is a matter of "peak oil." Oil supplies are said to be declining even as demand for oil multiplies from developing countries such as China. According to this argument, the US decided to seize Iraq to insure its own oil supply.
This explanation is problematic. Most US oil comes from Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela. The best way for the US to insure its oil supplies would be to protect the dollar's role as world reserve currency. Moreover, $3-5 trillion would have purchased a tremendous amount of oil. Prior to the US invasions, the US oil import bill was running less than $100 billion per year. Even in 2006 total US imports from OPEC countries was $145 billion, and the US trade deficit with OPEC totaled $106 billion. Three trillion dollars could have paid for US oil imports for 30 years; five trillion dollars could pay the US oil bill for a half century had the Bush Regime preserved a sound dollar.
The more likely explanation for the US invasion of Iraq is the neoconservative Bush Regime's commitment to the defense of Israeli territorial expansion. There is no such thing as a neoconservative who is not allied with Israel. Israel hopes to steal all of the West Bank and southern Lebanon for its territorial expansion. An American colonial regime in Iraq not only buttresses Israel from attack, but also can pressure Syria and Iran from giving support to the Palestinians and Lebanese. The Iraqi war is a war for Israeli territorial expansion. Americans are dying and bleeding to death financially for Israel. Bush's "war on terror" is a hoax that serves to cover US intervention in the Middle East in behalf of "greater Israel."
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations on Thursday called former President Jimmy Carter "a bigot" for meeting with the leader of the militant Hamas movement in Syria.
