Israel land grab law 'ends hope of two-state solution' [Archive] - Page 2

سيف الله

01-29-2018, 12:07 AM

Salaam

Another update. Review of Norman Finklesteins latest book Gaza an inquest into its martyrdom.

Norman Finkelstein’s new book on Gaza is a meticulous account of Israel’s crimes

Norman Finkelstein has the moral gravity of an Old Testament prophet, the scrupulous attention to detail of a Talmudic scholar, and the mordant sense of humor of a Yiddish novelist. All these attributes are on display in Gaza: An Inquest into its Martyrdom, an indictment of Israel’s crimes in the overcrowded Palestinian territory from 2008 up to the present.

The criminal pattern of Israel’s ongoing blockade, punctuated by murderous assaults against the civilian population of the beleaguered territory, will not be news to anyone who follows Israel/Palestine. But the cumulative impact of Finkelstein’s meticulously-documented 408-page chronicle is devastating, and it will leave the reader stunned that the worldwide reaction is so muted.

Finkelstein does have one major new finding. He argues that the major international human rights organizations, after effectively denouncing Israel’s assault on Gaza in 2008-09, have since quieted down, to the point that Human Rights Watch issued only one feeble report after the biggest Israeli attack of all in 2014. Israel’s hasbara (propaganda), along with other kinds of pressure, is successfully whitewashing Israeli crimes.

Finkelstein deals in turn with Operation Cast Lead (2008-09; 1400 Gazans dead, including 350 children); the assault on the Mavi Marmara ship that was bringing medical and other supplies to the territory (9 dead); the less well-known Operation Pillar of Defense (2012; 100 dead, 35 children); and the most savage attack to date, Operation Protective Edge (51 days in 2014; 2200 dead, 550 children). He points out that by contrast, a total of 86 Israelis died in all these assaults, and of the 73 Israeli casualties in the 2014 invasion, fully 67 were Israeli combatants.

Throughout, Finkelstein thoroughly disproves Israel’s justification for its assaults, that they constituted “self-defense.” He points out that Hamas, the largest Palestinian political force in Gaza, did not start the regular hostilities; in fact, the organization showed growing signs of compromise with the reality of Israel, as Hamas’s policy was characterized by what Finkelstein calls “flagrant pragmatism.” Hamas also signed on to a 2014 agreement to end its feud with its rival, Fatah. Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, threatened by the specter of Palestinian unity, staged raids across the West Bank; Finkelstein explains that “the rampage was patently tailored to elicit a violent response from Hamas, so as to ‘prove’ it was a terrorist organization.”

Netanyahu issued propaganda during the 2014 Protective Edge assault over what he called “terror tunnels” under the Gaza border, supposedly aimed at Israeli kindergartens. Finkelstein reminds us that in fact not one single attack through the tunnels targeted Israeli civilians. He also dismisses the Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, calling most of them “bottle rockets” or “fireworks,” nearly all of which landed harmlessly. He quotes the Hamas leader Khalid Meshal: “Our modest, home-made rockets are our cry of protest to the world.”

Finkelstein also crushes the hasbara charge that Hamas and Gaza used civilian “human shields” during the fighting, which Israel and its apologists say partly excuses the high Palestinian civilian death toll. He finds that there is not a single credible piece of evidence for the human shield claim, nor is there any proof that Hamas hid weapons in mosques and schools.

He is impatient with the tortured efforts by Israelis and others, including lawyers and ethics professors, to justify Israel’s criminal tactics. He explains that one such scholar, Professor Gerald Steinberg of Bar-Ilan University, said that “Israel had the moral right to flatten all of Gaza.” Finkelstein adds wryly, “Steinberg founded the university’s program on conflict resolution and management.”

Finkelstein devotes considerable energy to the Goldstone Report, the 2009 mission sponsored by the UN Human Rights Council, which concluded that Operation Cast Lead was “designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population.” He has scorn for Richard Goldstone’s eventual recantation of his own panel’s report, mixed with some understanding of the overwhelming pressure Israel brought to bear on the previously respected South African jurist. Finkelstein does show that hard facts still rebut Goldstone’s recantation.

Israel’s 2010 assault on the Mavi Marmara is next, and Finkelstein demolishes Tel Aviv’s dishonest argument that its commandos were fighting for their lives during a desperate melee on board the ship. He asks how the ship’s passengers somehow “plotted and armed themselves to kill Israelis, but didn’t even manage to kill those in their custody, whereas the Israelis took every precaution and exercised every restraint not to kill anyone, but ended up killing nine people.” (Ultimately ten with the death of a Turkish man left in a coma.)

In the book, Finkelstein relies heavily on Breaking the Silence, the truth-telling organization of former Israeli soldiers, and points out, “None of the hundreds of testimonies collected over more than a decade has ever been proven false. . .”

His most original finding — and one of the most alarming — is that the mainstream international human rights organizations have been silencing themselves about Gaza. He writes that Human Rights Watch “just barely issued one report” after the 2014 Protective Edge attack, which was the deadliest assault so far. Amnesty International did somewhat better, but he goes on at great length to argue that Amnesty’s reports were so contorted as to constitute a “whitewash.” He also charges that B’Tselem, the most prominent Israeli human rights group, also “acquitted itself without distinction in its reporting on Gaza.”

His conclusion is deeply pessimistic. He unsurprisingly dismisses the “peace process” as a fraud, and warns that Israel’s power and influence in growing, both in the Mideast and worldwide. “Meanwhile,” he concludes, “Palestine’s star is on the wane,” partly because “the cause of Palestine has now been eclipsed by the numberless humanitarian crises wracking the Middle East.” He predicts that Palestine “will be reduced to the minuscule weight of its demography and territory, and come more slowly to resemble the self-determination struggles in East Timor and Western Sahara.”

Norman Finkelstein has been at the top of Hasbara Central’s Enemies List for more than 3 decades. Over the years, the pro-Israel forces have slandered him, tried to deprive him of his teaching career, and even sought to prevent him from publishing. He is unbowed, continuing to bear witness from his study in the far reaches of Brooklyn. The hasbarists will certainly try to discredit his new book on Gaza. They should be daunted by the fact that he has never once been successfully challenged on matters of fact and hard evidence. Never once.

http://mondoweiss.net/2018/01/finkel...ulous-account/

سيف الله

01-30-2018, 10:10 PM

Salaam

Another update

Connecticut church’s interfaith group detained by Israel for holding Palestine flag

https://videos.files.wordpress.com/O...li-army_hd.mp4

They went to Jerusalem to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and to witness for themselves the sites of the Holy Land. They ended up seeing Israeli army soldiers carting them off to jail.

It was frightening.

“When you see those heavy guns and hear those heavy voices,” said Jhoufran Annababiar, one of five people detained. “When you see the madness on those soldiers’ faces.”

“They wouldn’t talk to us and explain to us what was going on,” said Reza Mansoor, President of the Islamic Association of Greater Hartford and another person who was detained. “They just confiscated our passports, put five people in a corner, then kind of paraded us down the cobble streets.”

Mansoor and 4 others were held for 7 hours — they are all Muslim.

“We didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “We didn’t think that we had done anything wrong.”

They were arrested when their group from the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme posed for a picture they took while hoisting the Palestinian flag in Jerusalem. There were a total of 29 people in the group, but only the five Muslims were detained.

Church leaders say the annual trip is a chance to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, while exploring the Holy Land.

“It is an opportunity to travel as a group of Christians, as a group of Muslims, as a group of Jews all travelling together, reminding ourselves of our common faith together, our common humanity,” said Steve Jungkite, the senior minister at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme.

What they saw happen to some in their own group was disturbing.

“I was upset that it happened,” Jungkite said.

They say they want to turn their anger into an educational moment. They say what happened to them is similar to what happens to the Palestinian people on a daily basis there.

“There seems to be an escalation of the kind of discrimination that we witnessed,” Jungkite said.

They hope that by sharing their story, they can help to bring justice and a better life in modern-day Jerusalem for Israelis and Palestinians.

“I really wish for that land to live in peace again,” Jhoufran said.

Now that they’re home, they say they are on a mission to do that by continuing to share their story. No one knew why the five members of the group were initially taken away and into Israeli custody.

The trouble happened when the group stopped to pose for a picture in Jerusalem while hoisting the Palestinian flag. Eventually they were told that the Israeli soldiers thought they were trying to incite a riot.

Members of the church group called the American embassy and the offices of Connecticut’s senators back here at home. A lawyer from Jerusalem was able to convince the authorities that the Connecticut group was not breaking any laws and they were released.

They were held about two weeks ago and returned to Connecticut last week.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180128-connecticut-churchs-interfaith-group-detained-by-israel-for-holding-palestine-flag/

- - - Updated - - -

Salaam

Hmmm Americans are asking questions there not meant to ask.

سيف الله

02-01-2018, 10:11 PM

Salaam

Another update

Qatar welcomes head of Zionist Organization of America

Morton Klein, the President of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) visited Doha earlier this month at the invite of Qatar’s leader. News of the trip comes as Qatar’s foreign minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said on Thursday that Doha welcomes such visits and has a “strong alliance” with the US and the Trump administration. Klein said he used the opportunity of the visit to tell Qatar’s emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani that his “speech on Jerusalem before the United Nations was wrong” and that “Jerusalem has been a Jewish city for thousands of years,” assuring The Jerusalem Post that he was “tough, very tough” with the emir.

The emir “listened” as Klein criticized Qatari leaders for “anti-Israel speeches” and their stance on Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Post reported. The visit comes amid a public relations campaign by Qatar to salvage itself from regional isolation by reaching out to right-wing Americans and staunch supporters of Israel. Klein also told the emir that the Arab Peace Initiative, which Doha supports, “would be a total disaster.” But the emir said they’d have to disagree on this issue, according to Klein, citing the support for the proposal by some Israelis, including Shimon Peres, a former Israeli president, architect of the Oslo process and champion of illegal Israeli settlements in occupied territory.

Klein said he was asked to speak to members of US Congress, but said he wouldn’t until he sees change. Klein met a number of government officials during his visit, he said, and some told him that if the US asked Doha to expel Hamas members from the emirate, they would “throw them out in a minute.”

They also stressed that they no longer provide funds for the Muslim Brotherhood in hopes of being “part of the civilized world,” according to Klein.

“Everyone is already going”

In an apparent attempt to escape its regional isolation, Qatar hired a Washington lobbying firm to arrange meetings with major American Jewish groups for the emir while he was in the US for the annual United Nations General Assembly last September. Klein told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that Qatar invited him to visit every month since then, but he refused every time because of the Gulf state’s “support for Hamas and the anti-Semitism being broadcast on Al Jazeera television.”

He said he changed his mind when he saw other influential American Jewish individuals visiting, realizing that “they won’t be able to to use me for propaganda because everyone is already going, but I might use the visit to push them on these issues.”

The Qatari government has been sponsoring numerous trips for right-wing American Zionists. These include Israel apologist and Harvard professor Alan Dershowitz, Christian Zionist and former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee, conservative radio host and Israel supporter John Batchelor, former Republican congressman Thaddeus McCotter, CEO of the Orthodox Union Kosher Division Rabbi Menachem Genack, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish organizations Malcolm Hoenlein, president of the American Jewish Congress Jack Rosen and the president of the Religious Zionists of America Martin Oliner.

Most of these trips were paid for by the Qatari government.

Documentary release still pending

When asked about those visits, Qatar’s foreign minister told Haaretz that “all of them are welcome and we are building good relations with them.” He also talked about concerns regarding Al Jazeera – the Qatari broadcaster – and its coverage of Israel.

“There were some complaints filed against Al Jazeera in the United Kingdom,” Sheikh Mohammad told Haaretz, referring to an investigative documentary exposing the extent of the Israel lobby’s influence on the UK government and Labour party.

The complaints were all rejected by the UK’s broadcasting regulator in October, he noted.

Al Jazeera has produced a similar investigation into the pro-Israel lobby in the US, but initially said it held up on broadcasting pending the UK complaints process.

That the documentary still hasn’t aired has prompted some to speculate that politics is interfering, specifically Qatar’s push to burnish its image in the US and Israel.

Israel rejects Qatar’s efforts

Dershowitz, one of the Israel lobby’s most prominent US figures, wrote an article upon his return in which he reflected on numerous meetings with Qatari officials. He suggested, among other things, that Qatari-Israeli normalization is on the horizon.

“I heard a lot of positive statements regarding Israel from Qatari leaders, as well as hints of commercial relationships between these isolated nations.”

Meanwhile, a spokesperson at Israel’s embassy to the US told Haaretz that it does not support Qatar’s campaign to burnish its image through American supporters of Israel, even though Haaretz reported that some of those claimed to have received the blessing of Israeli officials.

Klein claims he spoke to Israeli officials before his trip to Doha, telling The Jerusalem Post that “one said I shouldn’t go, but others said I should.” On 30 January, the first Inaugural US-Qatar Strategic Dialogue was held in Washington.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and US Defense Secretary James Mattis co-hosted Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, and Qatari defense minister Khalid bin Mohammad al-Attiyah at the event.

Mattis celebrated “excellent military-to-military relations” between the US and the emirate and both expressed their concern at the gulf crisis and isolation of Qatar.

“As the Gulf dispute nears the eight-month mark, the United States remains as concerned today as we were at its outset,” Tillerson said.

“This dispute has had direct negative consequences economically and militarily for those involved, as well as the United States.”

The US, Tillerson continued, is keen that Gulf Cooperation Council countries present a united front that “bolsters our effectiveness on many fronts,” specifically counterterrorism as well as countering Iran’s “malign influence.”

Bahrain has also reached out to Israel, while Saudi Arabia is reported to be looking to improve relations. Gulf countries appear motivated by an enmity toward Iran they share with Israel.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/qatar-welcomes-head-zionist-organization-america

More on Israel relations with Muslim states.

On Egypt

On Turkey

سيف الله

02-03-2018, 06:38 PM

Salaam

Another update

Anti-Hamas editorial exposes schism in Iran

Ghanoon, an Iranian newspaper with ties to Iran's Reformists, attacked Hamas Jan. 21, publishing a photo of the movement's political chief Ismail Haniyeh holding the flag of the Syrian revolution. The newspaper presented Hamas' project and positions as no longer compatible with Iran's policy in the region.

Khaled Kaddoumi, Hamas' representative in Iran, argued that relations between Hamas and Iran are strong and positive. “They have an agreed-upon strategy to unite efforts to help Palestine. They also have a common enemy, the Zionist entity, to which they have always declared public hostility,” he told Al-Monitor.

The newspaper lashed out at Hamas, describing it as a tool that is no longer useful and denouncing its ideological support of the Syrian revolution. It claimed the movement is ideologically close to the Islamic State, calling it “a treacherous movement that worships money.”

“The newspaper article reflects an [internal] Iranian split over the relationship with Hamas," Fatima al-Samadi, a researcher at the Al-Jazeera Center for Studies specializing in Iranian affairs, told Al-Monitor. "The two had mended their ties on Iranian terms. At the height of their political dispute over the Syrian revolution, Iran maintained its support for the movement’s military wing. Although the Iranian authorities are on good terms with Hamas, the Iranian people and media seem to have a different take on this relationship. Hamas has failed to establish ties with the Iranian people.”

The article came after Haniyeh sent a letter to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Jan. 18 about the US decision on Jerusalem in December. Haniyeh stated that the United States wants to put an end to the Palestine cause and called for a popular uprising to foil the conspiracy against Palestine and Jerusalem. He also lauded Iran for its support in countering the US project.

The Hamas leadership is seeking to convince its constituents that oppose relations with Iran of the need for rapprochement in light of the US and Israeli policies against the Palestinian cause. Hamas is also trying to convince them of its urgent need for the financial and military aid that Iran exclusively offers to the movement. A Hamas spokesperson told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, "No other country that is close to Hamas has expressed its readiness so far to provide the movement with what Tehran is currently offering.”

Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot announced Jan. 2 that Iran has increased its spending for Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad to $100 million a year.

In an interview with Al-Quds on Jan. 20, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a member of Hamas' political bureau, affirmed that relations with Iran had been restored and Hamas was seeking to promote them.

However, a member of the Iranian Islamic Shura Council told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “There is no absolute consensus in Iran on supporting Hamas, amid declining interest by Iranian circles in the Palestinian issue. The priority is now on internal issues. The newspaper’s attack on Hamas does not represent the official Iranian position toward Hamas, but exposes a muffled disagreement in some Iranian circles on the need to support Hamas in light of the economic crisis Tehran is battling.”

In Ghanoon's article, Ismail Kothari, a former member of the Iranian parliament's National Security Committee, is quoted as saying that Hamas made strategic mistakes that it has yet to learn from.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Embassy's Charge d'Affaires Muhammad Sadiq al-Fadhli, representing Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Fathali, visited Mohammad Hamdan, a Hamas member who was injured during an assassination attempt in Beirut on Jan. 14.

Speaking at a conference in Tehran on the defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque on Jan. 22, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Khamenei, noted that Hamas officials had told him the movement is counting on Iran to support the resistance.

Qassem Kassir, a Lebanese political analyst close to Iran, told Al-Monitor, “The article in Ghanoon reflects different Iranian views on supporting the Palestinian resistance. Some Iranian political parties have reservations about this support. They do not represent the official authorities.”

He continued, “We keep hearing about increasing Iranian financial and military support to Hamas, but we also keep hearing Iranian voices objecting to this support. The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and current Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei have the final say. Iran's support for Hamas will not change unless there is a coup or a total change in the Iranian regime.”

Iranian voices against Hamas, though few, come in tandem with statements by figures close to Hamas in the Gaza Strip and elsewhere who are not thrilled about the rapprochement with Iran but lack decision-making power. Their objections are not likely to undermine the strategic Iran-Hamas relations.

Hamas seems reassured that its relationship with Iran is stable, strategic and not governed by short-term and temporary interests such as defying the US political solution to the Palestinian cause. Therefore, one article or one newspaper is unlikely to affect the continuation of Iranian support for Hamas and undermine the strong ties between the two sides.

“The newspaper's article reveals an internal divergence of opinions on Iran’s support for Hamas,” Belal Shobaki, a professor of political science at Hebron University in the southern West Bank, told Al-Monitor. “In the past, the relationship between Hamas and Iran was more of a solid and comprehensive alliance, but today it is purely interest-based. In the future, we may see an escalated attack on Hamas by the Iranian media.”

Notably, the article slamming Hamas was published in direct response to Iranian efforts to develop the relationship. Hamas-Iran ties seem to be in a new strategic stage despite their divergent positions on regional developments.

However, it also seems that the decision-makers in Iran today are inclined to support Hamas regardless of the opinions of the Iranian people. During the Iranian protests in late December, participants chanted, “Neither Gaza nor Lebanon … my soul is searching for the redemption of Iran.”

The Ghanoon article has also stirred an uproar among Iranian academic and media circles that support Hamas. Iranian journalist Mohammad al-Ahwazi told Al-Monitor, "Iranian Reformists are attacking Hamas to confront Iran's conservatives. This could also be a message from circles close to President Hassan Rouhani to US President Donald Trump that Tehran is moving toward cutting support for Hamas in a bid to maintain or salvage the [nuclear] deal signed in 2015.”

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/02/palestine-hamas-iran-support-qanoon-newspaper-attack-aid.html#ixzz564Vk3r9W

سيف الله

02-07-2018, 03:32 PM

Salaam

Another update

Israel warns Slovenia against recognising State of Palestine

Israel warned Slovenian against recognising the State of Palestine as planned, Quds Press reported yesterday.

According to the Israeli TV Channel 10, the Israeli Ambassador to Slovenia Eyal Sila spoke to the Speaker of the Slovenian Parliament Milan Brglez and the chair of the Foreign Policy Committee Jozef Horvat in Ljubljana to warn them against the move.

According to the TV channel, Sila told the Slovenian authorities that recognising Palestine would have “negative consequences” on Israeli-Slovenian relations.
Slovenia’s Foreign Affairs Committee yesterday postponed a vote on a draft resolution which would be a first step towards recognition of the State of Palestine.

Sweden is currently the only country in Europe which recognises the State of Palestine.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180201-israel-warns-slovenia-against-recognising-state-of-palestine/

Futuwwa

02-07-2018, 08:56 PM

Wow, such hubris from the Israeli government. Slovenia is in the EU anyway, which for pretty much all purposes that matter conducts foreign policy as a bloc. One that Israel has everything to lose from picking a fight with.

I have little doubt Israel will fall. Its position may be strong on the face of it, but its leadership and establishment are blinded by hubris and groupthink. It will bumble its way to its own undoing.

jazzyj7

02-07-2018, 10:43 PM

Muslims- so in Islam they believe Allah sent Jabril(Angel Gabriel) to Muhammad and that's where he got revelations on islam but the first time you hear about the angel Gabriel in the Bible is with the prophet Daniel. Daniel was before Jesus which means he's way before Muhammad so if the quran doesn't align with the book of Daniel then you can prove it's a imposter angel. The Bible say's satan disguises himself as a angel of light. In Daniel chapter 9 the angel comes to Daniel and gives him a prophecy, the messiah will be cut off, not for himself and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and sanctuary. Jesus was killed not for himself but for the world and then in 70AD that's when the romans came and destroyed the city and the sanctuary just like the bible says. In Daniel chapter7:13 He gets a vision of one like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven, He was given authority, glory, and soverign power, all nations and people of every language worshipped him and his dominion is a everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will be destroyed. This is talking about when Jesus returns at his 2nd comeing to rule on earth as king of kings and lord of lords that's when all the nations will "worship him." In the quran this is obviously a conflicting message because they don't believe any man should be worshipped so therefore the angel that Muhammad encountered can not be real angel Gabriel considering Daniel encounterd the angel before him. once again, the Bible says satan disguises himself as a angel of light. In Isaiah it gives you the 5 pointed plan of the devil. 1. I will ascend into heaven 2. I will exalt my throne above the stars of god. 3 I will sit in the mount of congregation in the utter most parts of the north. 4 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. 5 I will be like the most high. satan wanted to accomplish two things with islam 1. mess up the identity of god. 2. remove the cross which is mans salvation. He has muslims praying 5 times a day to mock them because they are oblivious of his 5 pointed plan to be like the most high.

Atheist- Satan used the opposite foundation of the reverse trick to take you back to the original lie within your minds. If you go back into the bible In the garden of eden you will see that it was two trees. Tree of knowledge of good and evil and Gods tree of life. Put the original lie at the root of the tree of knowledge of good and evil symbolically. Surely you will not die when ye eat therof, your eyes will be opened, ye will become as god, knowing good and evil. What was produced on the exterior was sin, death, wickidness, fall of man, nakedness. Now remove gods tree of life from the garden and replace it with the modern day tree of life(tree of evolution) The bait the trap at the root to get you to eat is fact, logic, reason, science, intelligence, Once you take the bait and become atheist what's produced on the exterior is the original lie. Your eyes are opened(something came from nothing) ye will become as god(you remove god from the equation you become your own god), knowing good and evil(you can be a good person without believing in god) Surely death is not eternal. All that is within your inner subconscious from taking the bait of fact, logic, reason, science, intelligence. Opposite foundation, reverse trap because the interior is the exterior and the exterior is the interior(formula) to take you back to the original lie within your subconscious. Satan set up a dummy god in the east to counter the real god and a dummy tree of life in the west to counter gods tree of life. Blessed is the one who is victorious for he will be granted access to eat from the tree of life which is in the paradise of god.

Futuwwa

02-08-2018, 06:58 PM

Cool story bro.

Karl

02-08-2018, 11:11 PM

Originally Posted by jazzyj7

Religion is not an issue between the Jews of Israel and Muslims and Christians of Palestine. The issue here is racial dominion and apartheid. I have no problem if the Jews want to live like that, but they should stop incessantly crying about the "holocaust" and the far right people wanting to annihilate them. They should just have a good long look in the mirror.

سيف الله

02-09-2018, 12:34 AM

Salaam

Another update

Israel's worst kept secret: An embarrassing alliance with Egypt in Sinai
#EgyptTurmoil

The brutal and corrupt nature of the Egyptian rule is not something an Israeli missile or jet can fix. Israel cannot singlehandedly maintain Sisi in power

Last week, the New York Times' Cairo bureau chief, David Kirkpatrick, published a purported expose of a hitherto secret Israeli campaign against Islamist insurgents in the northern Sinai.

Since 2011, the militants, who were an amalgam of disgruntled Bedouin and Islamic State (IS) operatives, had launched attacks both against targets on a southern highway near Eilat and against Egyptian military targets in northern Sinai.

Kirkpatrick noted the great pains taken by both the Egyptians and Israelis to conceal their joint efforts. He asserts in two places in the report that Israeli media could not report most of the attacks because of military censorship.

He pointed to one Israeli drone strike in 2013 which killed five Islamist fighters, as if this was the first of the joint attacks in Sinai. But it wasn't. The first such drone assault which killed a Sinai Islamist was in 2012.

Then he added: "It was…in late 2015, that Israel began its wave of air strikes, the American officials said, which they credit with killing a long roster of militant leaders." This, too, is imprecise, at best, although the details of the actual Israeli operations portrayed and the underlying reasons for the Israel-Egypt alliance are accurate.

Israel's worst kept secret

If the Israeli military intervention in Sinai was secret, it was one of the worst-kept secrets as far as Israel is concerned. No less a figure than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself in 2016 bragged at a Likud Party meeting about the daring steps Israel was taking to protect itself from "the Sinai terrorists".

Israel did not commence operations in the Sinai in 2015 or even 2013. In fact, it began the attacks in 2012 (more on this later), while the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi was still in power (he would be overthrown by a military junta in June 2013). This complicates the narrative that NYT presents of a bilateral alliance formed, as far as Israel was concerned, to prop up Egyptian military rule.

While it is true that the Israelis prefer strongmen generals running the show to Islamists like Morsi, the fact is that Israel saw these Islamists in Sinai as a threat before Abdel Fattah al-Sisi came to power.

Steven A Cook, the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told me: "When Morsi was in power, the Egyptian presidency left the Israel file to General Intelligence and the Ministry of Defense. It is plausible that the Israelis and Egyptian security forces were coordinating without Morsi knowing it, which was likely OK with him."

Cooke also pointed out that the commentary around the NYT article has made the Sisi-era Egypt-Israel coordination into a bigger deal militarily than it is. "The Egyptians have carried out probably thousands of strikes whereas the Israeli number is no doubt much lower."

Kirkpatrick also said: "It is unclear if any Israeli troops or special forces have set foot inside Egyptian borders, which would increase the risk of exposure."

This, too, is not correct. In 2011, in one of the most daring attacks originating from the Sinai, fighters crossed the border into Israel and raked heavy fire on a southern highway near Eilat. A bus and several civilian vehicles came under attack and seven Israelis were killed including a soldier.

Afterward, the attackers slipped back across the Egyptian border pursued by Israeli military and Border Police. Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces were hunting down the militants as well. When the two forces met, the Israelis opened fire on the Egyptian police, killing five.

Egypt quickly swept the matter under the rug. No Egyptian media reported that its own troops were killed by Israeli forces which had invaded Egypt in order to track down Sinai terrorists. Then prime minister Ehud Barak issued an apology and everything was hunky-dory.

Alex Fishman reported Israel's violation of Egyptian sovereignty in the Israeli daily, Yediot Achronot. Israeli blogger Idan Landau published a hard-hitting series of exposes as well. I published a number of blog posts on the subject as well, beginning in 2011.

The most trusted source

There were other Israeli incursions into Egypt. The Mossad kidnapped a Palestinian, Wael Abu Rida, in the Sinai and imprisoned him in Israel. Though Egyptian intelligence cooperated with the apprehension, Israeli agents were inside Egyptian territory and facilitated the operation there.

In 2012, I also reported that Israeli soldiers were crossing the Egyptian frontier in order to stem the flow of African refugees entering Israel via the Sinai.

It was facilitated in large part by questionable political alliances and national unity governments orchestrated by Barak.

Ben-Eliezer later drifted away from Barak's orbit and left politics altogether in 2014. By then, he was suffering from kidney failure and faced corruption charges filed by Israeli police.

But in the four years preceding, he offered me scores of scoops on major stories which could not be published in Israel due to judicial gag orders or military censorship.

It was Ben-Eliezer who came to me with the story of the first Israeli drone attack in Sinai in 2012. He also revealed to me the lies both Egypt and Israel were proffering the media about the terror attack in southern Israel mentioned above.

These lies were necessitated by the fact that Israel was embarrassed by the ease with which the Sinai fighters penetrated its defences; and Egypt was embarrassed that Israeli troops penetrated its territory and killed five of its own security personnel.

Here is a recounting of some of the stories related to Israel's campaign in the Sinai and burgeoning relationship with Egypt published before 2015: Israel's first Sinai drone strike killed a Bedouin militant (2012); Israeli violates Egyptian sovereignty killing four Sinai militants (2013); Israel and Egypt’s Junta: Birds of a Feather (2013); Israel encouraged Egyptian military coup and urged generals not to negotiate away their power in its aftermath (2013).

The wrong narrative

Clearly, the NYT sources didn't follow the entire history of Israeli involvement in the Sinai. They knew part of the story, and weaved those facts together to create a narrative to advance their interests.

The piece also amplifies the value of the Egypt-Israel joint military operations, claiming Israeli anti-terror operations have stemmed the tide of Islamist violence which might have otherwise toppled the military junta.

However, this argument has gone too far. Israel has not stopped or even significantly impeded the Islamist insurgency. If anything, it has only put a dent in it, and a fairly small one at that. IS wages almost daily attacks there against both military and civilian targets.

As this Haaretz report notes, the brutal and corrupt nature of the Egyptian rule is not something an Israeli missile or jet can fix. Israel cannot singlehandedly maintain Sisi in power. Eventually, he will go the way of Mubarak before him, with or without Israeli support.

If a truly democratic or populist figure ever comes to power in Egypt, both he and the Egyptian people will remember it was Israel that helped the corrupt and murderers maintain their hold on power.

Similarly, when the House of Saud is someday overthrown, whoever replaces it will remember the corrupt alliance forged between a corrupt, kleptocratic monarchy and its Israeli allies.

Dictatorship's short shelf life

It's astonishing that the US is seeking to tell such a warped, twisted narrative. Contrary to what US and Israeli intelligence would have us believe, it is not a good thing that Israel is forging these alliances with the most corrupt, repressive elements of the Arab world.

If it helps Israeli interests at all, it will only be in the short-run. Dictatorships and military strongmen have a limited shelf life in this part of the world, as recent events have shown. Once they are toppled, those who follow will not view Israel so favourably.

But in stories like these, involving tremendous amounts of dissembling, obfuscation and opacity by politicians and intelligence officials, it doesn't work.

Reporters and their editors must recognise that in closed societies like Egypt and Israel (yes, for all you liberal folk out there, even Israel), critical information comes from non-conventional sources that should be treated with the same respect reserved for sources the mainstream media considers kosher.

In a society like Israel, which imposes criminal sanctions on whistleblowers and other forms of dissent from the security consensus, journalistic standards must take this into account.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/israels-worst-kept-secret-1501690046

jazzyj7

02-09-2018, 01:46 PM

Originally Posted by Karl

Set up for humanity to despise Israel That's how god intervenes on Israels behalf.

²I will gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against it; the city will be captured, the houses ransacked, and the women raped. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. ³Then the Lord will go out and fight against those nations, as he fights on a day of battle. ⁴On that day his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half of the mountain moving north and half moving south. ⁵You will flee by my mountain valley, for it will extend to Azel. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake^[a] in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him. ⁶On that day there will be neither sunlight nor cold, frosty darkness. ⁷It will be a unique day—a day known only to the Lord—with no distinction between day and night. When evening comes, there will be light. ⁸On that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it east to the Dead Sea and half of it west to the Mediterranean Sea, in summer and in winter. ⁹The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and his name the only name.

سيف الله

02-09-2018, 10:12 PM

Salaam

Another update

Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's Capital Was High Point of My Term in Office, Trump Tells pro-Netanyahu Paper

In an interview to Israel Hayom, which is owned by Sheldon Adelson and is considered supportive of Netanyahu, Trump said both Israel and the Palestinians would need to compromise for peace

In an interview for an Israeli newspaper, President Donald Trump said that his Dec. 6 declaration recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was the high point of his time in office. In the Hebrew-language translation of an excerpt from Trump’s interview with Israel Hayom editor-in-chief Boaz Bismuth, Trump said that both Israel and the Palestinians would need to compromise significantly to achieve peace. Trump said this in replying to Bismuth’s question on whether Israel would have to give something in return for the declaration.

Trump abruptly reversed decades of U.S. policy in December when he recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, generating outrage from Palestinians and the Arab world and concern among Washington’s Western allies.

Calling the city “your wonderful capital,” he added that the recognition of it as Israel’s capital was very important for many people whom Trump said thanked him. Others did not thank him for it, he added, but he described the move as an important promise he made and kept.

Trump also said he understands why previous presidents who said they would recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital ended up not doing it. He cited “enormous pressure” through intensive lobbying by those opposed to the move. Bismuth asked Trump what he meant when he said last month at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland that with the declaration “we took Jerusalem off the table.”

Trump said that he meant to say that the declaration clarified that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, but when it comes to specific borders he would support the ones agreed upon by both parties.

The full interview is scheduled to be published Sunday.

Israel Hayom is owned by Sheldon Adelson and is considered close and supportive of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump has given similar "exclusive" interview to the paper in the past, both as president and during his time as president-elect.

https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/trump-jerusalem-declaration-was-high-point-of-my-time-in-office-1.5806145

سيف الله

02-14-2018, 03:37 PM

Salaam

Another update

Activist detained after questioning Saudi-Israel ties

A Saudi activist, who questioned the normalisation of ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, has been detained in her home country, and could face up to five years in prison, a UK-based rights group said. Noha al-Balawi has reportedly been under detention in the northwestern region of Tabuk for more than two weeks, ALQST, a group advocating for human rights in Saudi Arabia, said on Thursday. According to ALQST, al-Balawi was asked to report to a police station in Tabuk on January 23, only to be arrested, and has been detained ever since.

Authorities reportedly questioned al-Balawi about her social media activities, including posts questioning the normalisation of ties between her country and Israel, the rights group said.

n one video clip widely circulated on social media, Balawi declared, "Normalisation means accepting the occupation", in reference to Israel's continued control of Palestinian land.

"Let me make it clear; we will never recognise Israel no matter what it will cost us. "There is not a single benefit for Arabs when we normalise relations with Israel. It only serves the best interests of the Zionist state," she added.

In recent months, relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel have warmed up, with a flurry of diplomatic activities between Riyadh and Tel Aviv. ALQST said that al-Balawi was also questioned for calling on the state to allow women to drive. In September 2017, the government of Saudi Arabia had already announced that it would allow women to drive starting in June 2018. According to the report, the investigating officer had referred al-Balawi's case for trial under the country's cybercrime law.

Article 6 of the law states that a person "who creates or transmits anything prejudicial to public order" could face up to five years in jail, and/or a fine of up to $800,000.

ALQST said Saudi authorities are trying to mislead the public by denying al-Balawi's detention. Earlier, ALQST said Saudi authorities had promised to release al-Balawi after five days. Instead, they have kept her for the past 18 days.
The group said al-Balawi's detention is an "obvious attempt" to silence public opinion.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/0...093154369.html

سيف الله

02-14-2018, 04:07 PM

Salaam

How perceptive.

'If the Ottomans ever withdraw from Palestine bloodshed will not stop there until the day of judgement'

Sultan Abdülhamid II : B 21 Sep 1842 - D 10 Feb 1918

سيف الله

02-15-2018, 12:16 AM

Salaam

A little humour to lighten up this thread.

Karl

02-15-2018, 10:50 PM

Originally Posted by jazzyj7

Set up for humanity to despise Israel That's how god intervenes on Israels behalf.

Yeah but the Israelites have forsaken their Lord. They live by the laws of Baal not Jehovah. Israel is a secular state now and the Jewish religion is in tatters. Only money protects them not God. And for how long as the Beast turns on the Wh#re of Babylon and devours her.

- - - Updated - - -

I made a mistake the laws of Baal are not as illogical as the atheist laws of Israel.

سيف الله

02-17-2018, 09:17 AM

Salaam

More comment

JustTime

02-19-2018, 04:18 AM

Originally Posted by Junon

Salaam

More comment

You should be ashamed for disseminating such vile propaganda from such a vile man and quoting him on multiple subjects.

سيف الله

02-19-2018, 09:22 PM

Salaam

No I dont, I find his perspective unusual and informative, I dont agree with everything he says and hes no friend, but hes worth a listen.

JustTime

02-20-2018, 03:15 AM

Originally Posted by Junon

Salaam

No I dont, I find his perspective unusual and informative, I dont agree with everything he says and hes no friend, but hes worth a listen.

No he isn't he is a vile polytheist and liar, he exaggerates and conspires in comprising the faith of the believers he is a friend only to apostates like Imran Hosein and Qadryov this vile priest and Imams of shame like Imran Hosein are the Musaylimahs of today in the trenches with the Ahzab of today.

سيف الله

02-23-2018, 10:38 PM

Salaam

Another update

US to open Jerusalem embassy in May 2018

Announcement labelled 'provocation to Arabs' as May 15 marks Nakba Day and the mass displacement of Palestinians.

he US State Department has said the new US embassy in Jerusalem will open in May 2018, to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Israel's declaration of independence. The state department called the move a "historic step" in a statement issued on Friday. The announcement means the relocation comes much faster than expected. US Vice President Mike Pence in late January saidthe controversial embassy would open in 2019.

The US decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem prompted deadly protests in Palestine and solidarity rallies across the world. For Palestinians, May 15 marks Nakba Day, or the "catastrophe", when they commemorate the mass displacement of Palestinians to make way for the state of Israel. Between 1947 and 1949, at least 750,000 Palestinians, out of a population of 1.9 million, were expelled from or fled their homes in Palestine.

A senior Palestinian official told news agency AFP the announcement was "a provocation to Arabs" and a "blatant violation of international law". Saeb Erekat, Palestine Liberation Organization secretary-general, said the result would be "the destruction of the two-state option".

Israel Katz, Israeli intelligence minister, thanked Trump for the announcement.

"There is no greater gift than that! The most just and correct move. Thanks friend!" Katz said in a tweet.

Israel proclaimed its independence on May 14, 1948.

Embassy location

Reporting from Washington, DC, Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan said that it is still unclear where the new embassy will be located.

"I am told that the ambassador, David Friedman, as well as a few aides, will take up their assignment in the current consulate general building in the Arnona neighbourhood in Jerusalem. "The additional staff will be transferred from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem over time, but there's also still the outstanding matter of trying to find a location to build a permanent embassy."

Speaking to Al Jazeera from Ramallah, Mustafa Barghouti, former Palestinian information minister, said the decision meant "adding insult to injury".

"When they want to move the embassy exactly on the worst anniversary in the history of Palestinians, the anniversary not of the establishment of Israel but of the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and the creation of the system of racial discrimination and apartheid ... this represents a very serious provocation to the Palestinian side," he said.

Clashes erupted in Gaza and the occupied West Bank on Friday during weekly protests against the US decision. At least 20 Palestinians have been killed in protests against the move since December 6, Palestinian health officials have said.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/0...155726882.html

- - - Updated - - -

Salaam

More to add

Jimmy Carter warns against one-state for Israel-Palestine

UNITED NATIONS — Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter is warning that the two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “is being overtaken by a one-state reality which will have dire consequences for Israel in the long-term.”

Carter concluded that the establishment of an independent Palestinian state “is in Israel’s best interest.”

In a statement to the Security Council read Thursday by former U.S. ambassador Richard Murphy, Carter said that a two-state solution “must be anchored on 1967 borders with agreed upon adjustments and with Jerusalem as the capital for both Israelis and Palestinians.”

He said Gaza “is teetering on the brink of a humanitarian disaster” and warned that another war in the Hamas-ruled territory is “a real possibility — and the consequences would be catastrophic.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world...=.7006d1d5ddd9

سيف الله

02-24-2018, 01:08 PM

Salaam

Another update, another viewpoint.

Egypt Has Always Held the Palestinians of Gaza in Contempt

Every Egyptian military regime has sealed off Gaza, blamed Gazans for Cairo's own problems and sown fear, humiliation and misery among the enclave's Palestinian population. Al-Sissi is no exception

Egypt, the only Arab country bordering Gaza, is strongly associated with the beleaguered population’s suffering and misery, but also nostalgia and lingering hope. But for as long as Egypt continues to be hijacked by military dictators, Gaza is doomed to suffer.

In the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the Jordanian and Egyptian armies captured 22% of historic Palestine. Jordan annexed the West Bank, and gave its residents almost full rights, including Jordanian citizenship. Until today, Palestinians in the West Bank hold permanent or temporary Jordanian passports, or at least can travel to Jordan without restrictions.

Egypt, however, refused to annex the Gaza Strip, but rather fenced it off, installed an occupying force made up of military intelligence, and appointed a military governor in full control of it. The first governor was Mahmoud Riad, who later became the third Secretary General of the Arab League.

Riad’s first move in office was to give up a third of the Gaza Strip (about 200 square kilometers) to Israel in 1950, after the Israeli military complained that Palestinian refugees in Gaza were crossing the armistice line to visit their demolished villages, or to move to the West Bank and Jordan.

Gaza, flooded with Palestinian refugees displaced from 247 destroyed villages, was Egypt’s last priority, and it refused to assume any responsibility over its then-population of one million. Although Gaza was one of Egypt’s frontlines of defense in its conflict with Israel, the Egyptian regime’s position on Gazans was to never accept the burden of their care, but rather pivot responsibility to Israel as the overall occupying force, a position that it has held consistently until now.

Egypt actively thwarted Palestinian efforts to mobilize politically or choose their own leadership, and repeatedly denied Palestine’s Grand Mufti Amin al-Husseini entry to Gaza to attend national conferences. It also demilitarized the Gaza Strip and disarmed the rebel groups that were fighting against Israel under the premise of an Egyptian promise, which never materialized, that, "It’s our job to set you free, not yours!"

Furthermore, Egypt's first president, Gamal Abdel Nasser’s domestic persecution campaign against the Muslim Brotherhood, the communists and the Jews extended to largescale arbitrary arrests of Palestinian activists, unionists and intellectuals in the Gaza Strip.

Recently, in Copenhagen, I met Umm Fadi, a Palestinian mother of three from Gaza, now in her 80s. She recalled over dinner how, in 1959, the Egyptian military arrested thousands of Gazan activists overnight and took them to a military prison in Egypt. Her husband, Fakhri, was amongst the detained activists, for no obvious reason.

At the crack of dawn, Umm Fadi hastened to the Rafah land crossing to visit her husband. But passing from Gaza to Egypt has traditionally been an impossible task unless one pays some unaffordable bribe to the gatekeepers. Palestinians in Gaza only held an Egyptian-issued refugee travel document that didn’t even allow them to cross into Egypt freely.

My late grandmother, Egyptian herself, went through the same experience at the borders when trying to return to Egypt. She once told me, just as Umm Fadi described, "All passengers had to slip some money along with their passports to the border officers to let them cross to Egypt." Passengers were always afraid they'd given less than what the officer expected - in which case, the officer would arrest them on charges of attempted bribery.

That tradition continues today: Gazans are explicitly blackmailed to pay a bribe, at a minimum of $2000, to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing.

Upon finally arriving at the Egyptian military prison, Umm Fadi asked to visit her husband or find him an attorney, but both requests were denied under the pretext of "national security concerns." Luckily, she had a friend, Afaf Abu Hasira, who was married to an Egyptian military officer. He facilitated a meeting for Umm Fadi with infamous prison governor Hamza Al-Bassiouni to petition to see her husband.

Al-Bassiouni asked Umm Fadi to supply a list of bribes in order to see her husband in prison. She had to sell her jewelry in return for a visit permit. When she walked into the prison yard, she was shocked to find famous Gazan activists and leaders like Muin Bseiso, Samir Al Barqouni, Khalil Oweida and others, in torn clothes, perspiring profusely under a boiling sun, almost starved to death and covered in blood, bruises and scars from dog bites and the guards' lash.

She was blackmailed again to spare her husband the daily torture and humiliation in prison. She eventually had to sell their land in Gaza at an undervalued price to pay a huge bribe to move her husband to a non-military prison called Al-Wahat. The torture was no less severe in there, but she was able to visit him more often. Her husband remained in prison for four years with no trial, with no charges brought against him and no announced release date.

In 1967, Egypt lost control over Gaza, but the regime remained relatively hostile to its population. Anwar al-Sadat’s presidency differed little from Nasser’s; in 1978, Sadat launched a largescale arrest and deportation campaign against Palestinian students in Egyptian universities.

My father was studying medicine at Cairo University when the Egyptian national security forces arrested him; forces of ill-repute whose nominal specialty was, and is, counter-terrorism, but whose main aim has always been to target the regime’s political opponents. My grandmother, too, was forced to sell her gold jewelry to bribe her son out of prison and return him to the university.

It wasn’t until the 2011 revolution that Egypt, for the first time, had a government truly representative of its population. The borders with Gaza reopened, the claustrophobic population no longer felt imprisoned, the economy boomed, there were visits by Egyptian delegations to Gaza and vice versa; Gazans were treated like human beings again. It brought Gaza back to life. And Gazans took pride, for the first time in decades, in their identity when they visited Egypt.

Unfortunately, that golden era was short-lived.

It lasted two years before another military dictator led a coup against the elected government, sealed off Gaza from the world again, vilified it as the devil and key cause of Egypt’s repeated crises, and brought back a dark era of fear and misery.

By now, it’s almost a punishable offense to be a Gazan in Egypt; Egypt's population, subjected to interminable state propaganda, fear contact with Gazans as if they had the plague, or a contagious moral defect. And Gazans are the Egyptian regime's easiest targets for arbitrary arrests.

In 2014, my cousin was randomly picked up on the street to be a witness in a case with which he had no connection. When the officer learned he was from Gaza, although he held Egyptian citizenship, the officer called him a "terrorist" and threw him into detention for several weeks without even informing his family, who searched for him, increasingly desperately, without a single clue as to his whereabouts. Luckily, my uncle had some connections in the national security services who got his son out for a "decent price."

Ever since al-Sissi’s rise to power, it’s been virtually impossible for Gaza’s two million inhabitants to travel out of their open-air prison to a fellow Arab country. Egypt opens Gaza’s one gate to the world only occasionally: for three days every three months. Egypt decides who goes in or out and denies that right to thousands of people. Passengers must pay huge bribes to be allowed to leave Gaza, and then they are liable to humiliation, plunder, blackmail or arrest at countless checkpoints that punctuate that transit route.

Two weeks ago, Egypt opened its borders for three days after a long closure. My own family, waitlisted to travel for two years, failed to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing for the fifth consecutive time because they couldn’t pay the bribe.

The day before, I had called the Egyptian embassy in Sweden to check on my four-month-old visa application to see my family in Cairo. Once the employee heard me say the word "Gaza," his tone immediately became condescending, and reminded me that Gazans, and only Gazans, have to pass through an endless high-level security check by the national security authorities to obtain a permit to visit Egypt. A well-connected friend in Egypt told me that the current rate for a bribe to get that permit exceeds a thousand dollars.

I had a flashback to the 70 years of suffering that Egypt has dealt successive generations of Gazans. I felt the pent-up anger for that – and I also felt the shame of how the world continues to abandon Gaza as the Egyptian military regime's easy prey.

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-egypt-has-always-held-the-palestinians-of-gaza-in-contempt-1.5827868

Gaza is on the verge of collapse.

Alamgir

02-24-2018, 01:10 PM

Originally Posted by Junon

Salaam

A little humour to lighten up this thread.

Why are you posting a music video? Instruments are haram.

سيف الله

02-24-2018, 01:21 PM

Salaam

Please brother lets stick to the topic at hand. If you don't like it don't listen.

Alamgir

02-24-2018, 01:25 PM

Originally Posted by Junon

Salaam

Please brother lets stick to the topic at hand. If you don't like it don't listen.

Or how about you just don't post? This is an Islamic forum, not a music concert.

سيف الله

02-24-2018, 11:46 PM

Salaam

Another update

South Africa to cut diplomatic ties with Israel

South Africa has been a staunch ally of the Palestinian struggle and regularly spoken out against the atrocities committed by the Israeli government

The South African government is intending to cut diplomatic ties with Israel in protest of its treatment of the Palestinian people, the country’s Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor announced yesterday.

Pandor informed parliamentarians of the government’s resolution during a ten-hour joint debate on South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) that he delivered last week.

“The majority party has agreed, that government must cut diplomatic ties with Israel, given the absence of genuine initiatives by Israel to secure lasting peace and a viable two-state solution that includes full freedom and democracy for the Palestinian people,” she said.

The comments were made in response to opposition leader Kenneth Meshoe, who had argued that it was disappointing that national and provincial authorities in South Africa had refused help from Israeli companies to address the country’s current water crisis.

However, the proposal was applauded by parliamentarians and Pandor, who is expected to be appointed vice president in Ramaphosa’s new Cabinet, was given a standing ovation as she left the podium.

The government’s decision was further confirmed on the South African Parliament’s official Twitter account.

South Africa has been a staunch ally of the Palestinian struggle and regularly spoken out against the atrocities committed by the Israeli government.

Last month, the South African representative to the UN told the Human Rights Council that Israel is the “only state in the world that can be described as an apartheid state”, just days after the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party called for government ministers to strengthen the country’s visa restrictions with Israel.

Last year, the government also resolved to downgrade the South African Embassy in Israel to a liaison office, and cautioned Tel Aviv for blacklisting supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which included prominent figures of the ANC.

The BDS South Africa campaign has witnessed significant support from the nation’s public, with universities and churches backing a cultural and economic boycott of Israel affiliated organisations.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180220-south-africa-to-cut-diplomatic-ties-with-israel/

سيف الله

02-28-2018, 07:55 PM

Salaam

Good debate. Like to share. Liked the part where they discuss how NGO are bought and used to 'buy off' activists.

سيف الله

03-01-2018, 10:08 AM

Salaam

A leftish perspective on how we got to the current situation.

Blurb

Scholar As'ad AbuKhalil says Saudi Arabia is a strategic partner of the U.S. and Israel, promoting Zionism though its powerful media while increasing its hostility to Iran

Futuwwa

03-02-2018, 08:08 PM

Khamenei for Amir al-Mumineen :D

سيف الله

03-05-2018, 08:36 PM

Salaam

Another update.

Muslim Brotherhood Spokesman: Egyptians Will Not Hand Over Sinai to the Zionists

It is indisputable that confronting any terror that targets Egypt is a well-established national affair; also, preserving its territorial integrity and independence is a national duty and a religious obligation. However, the current war on Sinai has nothing to do with that. Egyptian people got used to blatant lies of the military coup, especially with regard to its repeated campaigns on Sinai under the disguise of fighting terror, which usually results only in creating terror itself, killing and displacing civilians, and the destruction of entire townships as happened in the town of Rafah.

Today, the military coup is launching a new military campaign accompanied by the declaring of the state of maximum alert in Egypt, coinciding with the news of Zionist military maneuvers around the Gaza borders, amid growing news about the imminent implementation of the Trump "Deal of the Century," which provides for turning Sinai into an 'alternative' homeland for the Palestinian people after being forcibly displaced from Palestine.

The military campaign was launched under the Emergency Law provisions, accompanied by a massive media campaign claiming that Egypt was in grave danger to justify further crimes of detention, forcible disappearances, indiscriminate killings, the expansion of death sentences, and arresting or terrorizing any dissenting voice.

We are witnessing a futile process of deception and cover-up of the military coup failure to provide the basics of life for citizens, and an attempt to persuade them to support El Sisi in the coming presidential election farce.

The Muslim Brotherhood demands the Egyptian army to distance itself from this great betrayal, and not to link itself and future to this treacherous coup. The Muslim Brotherhood reiterates what it has repeatedly reaffirmed before, that what is happening against Sinai and its people by empowering the Zionists, is a great crime and a high treason that history will never forget or forgive.

The Muslim Brotherhood calls on Egyptian people to pay ultimate attention to evils schemed against their country. Yesterday it was Tiran and Sanafir and today it is Sinai!

Dr. Talaat Fahmy, Spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood

Saturday, 24 Jamada I, 1439 AH

February 10, 2018

http://www.ikhwanweb.com/article.php?id=32900

سيف الله

03-05-2018, 09:26 PM

Salaam

Another update

AIPAC speakers praise Saudi Arabia and UAE leadership

Iran labelled 'common enemy' of Israel and Arab Gulf states while Palestinian leadership comes in for criticism.

Washington, DC - The chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in the US has urged the pro-Israel lobbying group, AIPAC, to support Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the leadership of the United Arab Emirates. Stephen Greenberg told the annual conference, under way here in the US capital, on Monday that he visited both countries and was encouraged by the leaders of the UAE for their "tolerance" and "commitment to fight terrorism".

He also urged the gathering to support Mohammed bin Salman's efforts to change Saudi Arabia.

"Real change must be encouraged," he said.

In his trademark strident tones, Naftali Bennett, Israel's minister for education and diaspora affairs, said: "Israel is strong and stronger than all of its enemies combined."

Describing Iran as the head of the octopus that needs to be attacked, Bennett, an extreme rightwing member of Israel's security cabinet, said: "We also must not allow other countries from going nuclear. We should prevent Saudi Arabia from having nuclear power."

Danny Ayalon, former Israeli deputy foreign minister, who also spoke at the conference, told Al Jazeera that he has "good relations with Saudi leaders" and that Israel has a lot in common with the Arab Gulf states of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain, especially in countering Iran's rising power in the region.

"Iran is our common enemy," he said.

'Demilitarised state'

Using his main address, Avi Gabbay, the leader of Israel's Labour Party, declared that Israel must separate itself from the Palestinians by establishing a demilitarised Palestinian state on parts of the occupied Palestinians territories in the West Bank and Gaza. Gabbay, who is running for election to be the next prime minster of Israel, said Palestinians must first meet several conditions before Israel should consider agreeing to their demands of having their independent state.

Echoing one of AIPAC's signature lobbying efforts this year, Gabbay said the Palestinian National Authority must first stop its economic support of families of Palestinian imprisoned and detained by Israel for their activism against the Israeli occupation. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, there are more than 6,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Gabbay, who said his family emigrated to Israel from their ancestral home in Morocco in 1964, described all of Palestinians imprisoned by Israel as "terrorists".

Emphasising the separation from the Palestinians as key to Israeli maintenance of its Jewish majority, Gabbay said his parents "left a Muslim-majority country to be part of a Jewish-majority country".

Avoiding acknowledgement that Palestinians have a right to be free in their independent country, Gabbay kept the focus on Palestinians confined to improving their economic situation, something he said would ultimately help Israel.

"We must have economic cooperation to improve the Palestinian economy to have a secure peace with Israel," he said. "We not only are part of the Middle East but we want to lead the Middle East."

On the issue of the illegal settlements that Israel is building in the occupied territories, Gabbay's views did not vary from the standard line of the current Likud-led government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Sole objection

Gabbay's only objection on the Israeli settlement project inside the occupied territories was over "hill-top posts" that were built by enterprising Jewish settlers without government sanction.

"We must stop on building on hill tops because they don't provide any security value to Israel," he said.

According to the Israeli human rights organisation B'Tselem, about 600,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank, which Israel siezed from Jordan during the 1967 war. He also carefully avoided any mention of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories over which Palestinians hope to establish their independent state. For his part, Ayalon, the former deputy foreign minister, echoed Gabbay sentiments and said the Palestinian leadership was to blame for not reaching a peace agreement with Israel.

He also refused to acknowledge that Israel is occupying Palestinian territories but said Israel would be willing to negotiate if the Palestinian leaders recognise Israel as a "Jewish state" and end all of their claims inside Israel, including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in what is now Israel. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which signed the Oslo peace agreements with Israel in 1994, has recognised Israel's existence over pre-1967 war lines.

Palestinians are demanding the establishment of an independent state encompassing the West Bank and Gaza with Arab East Jerusalem at its capital. The PLO has renounced claims to the parts of historic Palestine that now make up Israel, but insists on a solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/...184008667.html

"We not only are part of the Middle East but we want to lead the Middle East."

سيف الله

03-06-2018, 10:44 PM

Salaam

Another update

Saudi grants airspace approval for flights to Israel

For the first time, Saudi Arabia grants permission for Air India flights headed to Israel to use its airspace.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Saudi Arabia agreed to allow Air India to use its airspace in flights to and from Israel, but Air India denies having received the approval from Saudi authorities. Speaking to reporters in Washington on Monday, Netanyahu said Air India had reached an agreement with Saudi Arabia to use their airspace.

Saudi approval

Air India said on Tuesday that while it had issued such a request, the regulator had yet to give it a positive answer.

"We have applied for the route with [India's] directorate general of civil aviation," a spokesman told the AFP news agency.

"It is for them to decide on our request, but we haven't yet received any communication about it from the regulator."

A spokesman for the Israel Airports Authority confirmed Air India has received permission to land at Israel's Ben Gurion airport, but could provide no further details. In February, Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Saudi Arabia had granted permission, for the first time, for Air India flights headed to Israel to use its airspace. The new route, Haaretz said, means that the airline would reduce fuel costs and sell cheaper tickets to passengers.

Israel - India route

The new Israel-India route was first announced by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Israel in July. In his January reciprocal visit to India, Netanyahu implied the route could pass over Saudi Arabia, which, beyond significantly shortening flight time, would be a public indication of a warming of ties with Israel. If the new route is confirmed, flying through Saudi Arabia will shorten the flights from New Delhi to Tel Aviv by two and a half hours.

Air India has not published when it would begin its flights to Tel Aviv, with media speculating they are due to start later in March. The Saudi government had banned flights headed to Israel from using its airspace for 70 years. While it is no secret that private jets can fly from Saudi and other Gulf airports to Israel, they could not use the direct route and had to make a stopover in Amman airport first.

Israel's national carrier El Al currently operates an India service that takes a detour over the Red Sea to avoid flying over Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Regional politics

The move is seen as a nod to India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's influence in the region, who visited the occupied West Bank on February 10. Last year, he became the first Indian premier to go to Israel on an official state visit. But the decision also signifies warmer ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which have been seen as having increasingly covert relations over the last year. This has been credited to the shakeup of Saudi domestic and foreign policy, spearheaded by the young and ambitious Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

"The political changes in Saudi Arabia and the desire to consolidate power are the main reason why these relations with Israel were opened," Mahjoob Zweiri, an associate professor in the Gulf Studies Program at Qatar University, had previously told Al Jazeera.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/saudi-grants-airspace-approval-flights-israel-180207115134490.html

- - - Updated - - -

Salaam

Originally Posted by Futuwwa

Khamenei for Amir al-Mumineen :D

Even though he might genuinely care about the issue I don't think they are that much better.

I remember watching a debate a while back where a globalist said straight out to the Iranian guest, open up your economy and you'll be rewarded, they were quite willing but on the condition that they control their own polity and culture. If the Europeans/ USA/Globalists eventually manage to to a deal the Iranians they will quite likely ditch the Palestinian cause if that is the price to be paid.

Politics :facepalm:

سيف الله

03-07-2018, 07:39 PM

Salaam

Another update

Israel passes law to strip residency of Jerusalem's Palestinians

Palestinians slam new 'breach of loyalty' legislation as 'extremely racist' and a violation of international law.

The Israeli parliament has passed a law that allows the minister of interior to revoke the residency rights of any Palestinian in Jerusalem on grounds of a "breach of loyalty" to Israel.

The bill, ratified on Wednesday, will also apply in cases where residency status was obtained on the basis of false information, and in cases where "an individual committed a criminal act" in the view of the interior ministry. Under the new measure, Israel's Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, leader of the ultra-Orthodox political party Shas, will be able to strip the residency documents of any Palestinian whom he deems a threat.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), described the law as "an extremely racist piece of legislation.

"By unethically stripping the residency of Palestinians from Jerusalem and depriving the rights of those Palestinians to remain in their own city, the Israeli government is acting in defiance of international law and is violating international human rights and humanitarian laws," said Ashrawi, according to a statement published on Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency.

'Security of Israeli citizens'

Despite Israel's claims that occupied East Jerusalem is part of its "eternal, undivided" capital, the Palestinians who are born and live there do not hold Israeli citizenship, unlike their Jewish counterparts. Palestinians in the city are given "permanent residency" ID cards and temporary Jordanian passports that are only used for travel purposes. They are essentially stateless, stuck in legal limbo - they are not citizens of Israel, nor are they citizens of Jordan or Palestine.

The new bill will only worsen the difficult conditions for the 420,000 Palestinians living in occupied East Jerusalem, who are treated as foreign immigrants by the state.

Any Palestinian who has lived outside of Jerusalem for a certain period of time, whether in a foreign country or even in the occupied West Bank, is at risk of losing their right to live there.

Since 1967, Israel has revoked the status of at least 14,000 Palestinians.

In a statement on his Twitter page, Deri, the interior minister, said this law would allow him to protect the "security of Israeli citizens".

Deri, who was, in the past, convicted of bribery, fraud and "breach of trust", said the law would "be used against permanent residents who plan to carry out attacks against Israeli citizens".

Illegal under international law

Adalah, a Palestinian rights group in Israel, said the law is illegal under international humanitarian law.

"East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory under international humanitarian law (IHL) - like all other areas of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - and its Palestinian residents are a protected civilian population. It is therefore illegal under IHL to impose upon them an obligation of loyalty to the occupying power, let alone to deny them the permanent residency status on this basis," a statement by the group said.

In a recent report, Human Rights Watch said such residency revocations, which force Palestinians out of Jerusalem, "could amount to war crimes" under the treaty of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The development comes amid heated tensions in Jerusalem, after US President Donald Trump decided to publicly recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital in December. Trump also vowed to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv - the Israeli commercial capital - to Jerusalem.

No country in the world recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital, with the exception of the US and Russia. The latter had recently announced its recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and East Jerusalem as "the capital of the future Palestinian state".

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/03/israel-passes-law-strip-residency-jerusalem-palestinians-180307153033538.html

سيف الله

03-10-2018, 11:18 PM

Salaam

Another update

Israeli and Saudi officials reportedly hold series of secret meetings in Egypt

Palestinian official says warming Jerusalem-Riyadh ties are undermining the PA, with the Saudis no longer viewing Israel as 'the greatest enemy in the region anymore'

Top Israeli and Saudi Arabian officials reportedly held a series of secret meetings in Cairo last week, ahead of US President Donald Trump’s expected unveiling of his long-awaited Middle East peace plan.

A Palestinian Authority official told the UAE-based Al Khaleej Times on Friday that Egyptian officials were mediating talks that he described as “significant development” in the slowly warming ties between Jerusalem and Riyadh, a trend that he said was undermining the authority of the Ramallah-based Palestinian government.

“The warm relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia are damaging the Palestinian Authority,” he said. “It seems that Israel is no longer the greatest enemy in the region anymore.”

In one of the first visible signs of the ties, this week, the Saudis granted Air India permission to fly through Saudi airspace to Israel, a first in 70 years.

According to the PA official, the talks — held at a luxury hotel, with Egyptian officials present — also dealt with the economic interests of Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, particularly in the Red Sea region.

The US administration is expected to announce the main points of its peace plan in the coming weeks, the Egyptian newspaper said. Administration officials have said the plan is close to being finished, but have also refused to give a timeline for when it might be published.

Earlier on Friday, a report in the privately owned Egyptian newspaper Al Shorouk said several unnamed Arab countries were advising PA President Mahmoud Abbas to accept whatever plan the Trump administration put forth, or risk “regretting” it later.

Abbas has denounced the purported plan as the “slap of the century” — a reference to the phrase “deal of the century” used by Trump himself to describe his peace initiative. Furious over the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move its embassy there, Ramallah has blackballed negotiators Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, and has pushed for a multilateral peace effort that sidelines Washington.

The Americans, according to the Egyptian report, have notified some Arab capitals that Trump’s decision to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is “part of an American effort to persuade Israel, especially the hardliners, to agree to possible concessions to the Palestinians.”

Trump has repeatedly said Israel will have to “pay a price” for the recognition of Jerusalem, though he has not detailed what concessions are expected. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters after meeting Trump this week that the issue had never come up between them.

At least one Arab country made it clear to the Trump administration that Arab states would reject any peace plan that does not recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, the report said.

A senior Hamas official told the newspaper the Egyptians have assured the terror group that Cairo would not accept any plan that does not call for the establishment of a Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, “on the 1967 borders.”

The Egyptians also affirmed their “commitment to the right of return” for Palestinian refugees and their descendants to their former homes inside Israel, according to the Hamas official.

Last month, a senior Hamas delegation headed by Ismail Haniyeh spent three weeks in Cairo, where its members held talks with Egyptian government officials on a number of issues, including the floundering reconciliation agreement with Abbas’s Fatah movement and ways of enhancing security measures along the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas official quoted the Egyptians as saying that Cairo was strongly opposed to the idea of “settling Palestinians in Sinai.”

The Egyptian stance came in response to unconfirmed reports in some Arab media outlets that claimed that Trump’s peace plan includes transferring parts of Sinai to the future Palestinian state.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/egypt-hosted-secret-meetings-between-israeli-saudi-arabian-officials-report/

Sho Islam

03-18-2018, 06:50 PM

Can't say I'm surprised with these developments.

Saudi and Egypt are both excluded from Trump's 'Muslim Ban'.

Here's an interesting video of an Egyptian intelligence officer instructing talk show hosts of what position to hold regarding Trump's Jerusalem decision as revealed by the New York Times (I know it's been mentioned earlier but this video summarizes it quite well for those who still aren't aware):

سيف الله

03-20-2018, 12:18 AM

Salaam

Another update

US Smooths Israel’s Path to Annexing West Bank

Seemingly unrelated events all point to a tectonic shift in which Israel has begun preparing the ground to annex the occupied Palestinian territories. Last week, during an address to students in New York, Israel’s education minister Naftali Bennett publicly disavowed even the notion of a Palestinian state.

“We are done with that,” he said. “They have a Palestinian state in Gaza.”

Later in Washington, Bennett, who heads Israel’s settler movement, said Israel would manage the fallout from annexing the West Bank, just as it had with its annexation of the Syrian Golan in 1980. International opposition would dissipate, he said.

“After two months it fades away and 20 years later and 40 years later, [the territory is] still ours.”

Back home, Israel has proven such words are not hollow. The parliament passed a law last month that brings three academic institutions, including Ariel University, all located in illegal West Bank settlements, under the authority of Israel’s Higher Education Council. Until now, they were overseen by a military body.

The move marks a symbolic and legal sea change. Israel has effectively expanded its civilian sovereignty into the West Bank. It is a covert but tangible first step towards annexation.

In a sign of how the idea of annexation is now entirely mainstream, Israeli university heads mutely accepted the change, even though it exposes them both to intensified action from the growing international boycott (BDS) movement and potentially to European sanctions on scientific co-operation. Additional bills extending Israeli law to the settlements are in the pipeline. In fact, far-right justice minister Ayelet Shaked has insisted that those drafting new legislation indicate how it can also be applied in the West Bank.

According to Peace Now, she and Israeli law chiefs are devising new pretexts to seize Palestinian territory. She has called the separation between Israel and the occupied territories required by international law “an injustice that has lasted 50 years”.

After the higher education law passed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his party Israel would “act intelligently” to extend unnoticed its sovereignty into the West Bank. “This is a process with historic consequences,” he said. That accords with a vote by his Likud party’s central committee in December that unanimously backed annexation. The government is already working on legislation to bring some West Bank settlements under Jerusalem municipal control – annexation via the back door. This month officials gave themselves additional powers to expel Palestinians from Jerusalem for “disloyalty”.

Yousef Jabareen, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament, warned that Israel had accelerated its annexation programme from “creeping to running”.

Notably, Netanyahu has said the government’s plans are being co-ordinated with the Trump administration. It was a statement he later retracted under pressure. But all evidence suggests that Washington is fully on board, so long as annexation is done by stealth.

The US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, a long-time donor to the settlements, told Israel’s Channel 10 TV recently:

“The settlers aren’t going anywhere”.

Settler leader Yaakov Katz, meanwhile, thanked Donald Trump for a dramatic surge in settlement growth over the past year. Figures show one in 10 Israeli Jews is now a settler. He called the White House team “people who really like us, love us”, adding that the settlers were “changing the map”. The US is preparing to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in May, not only pre-empting a final-status issue but tearing out the beating heart from a Palestinian state.

The thrust of US strategy is so well-known to Palestinian leaders – and in lockstep with Israel – that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is said to have refused to even look at the peace plan recently submitted to him. Reports suggest it will award Israel all of Jerusalem as its capital. The Palestinians will be forced to accept outlying villages as their own capital, as well as a land “corridor” to let them pray at Al Aqsa and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. As the stronger side, Israel will be left to determine the fate of the settlements and its borders – a recipe for it to carry on with slow-motion annexation.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has warned that Trump’s “ultimate deal” will limit a Palestinian state to Gaza and scraps of the West Bank – much as Bennett prophesied in New York.

Which explains why last week the White House hosted a meeting of European and Arab states to discuss the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. US officials have warned the Palestinian leadership, who stayed away, that a final deal will be settled over their heads if necessary. This time the US peace plan is not up for negotiation; it is primed for implementation.

With a Palestinian “state” effectively restricted to Gaza, the humanitarian catastrophe there – one the United Nations has warned will make the enclave uninhabitable in a few years – needs to be urgently addressed.

But the White House summit also sidelined the UN refugee agency UNRWA, which deals with Gaza’s humanitarian situation. The Israeli right hates UNRWA because its presence complicates annexation of the West Bank. And with Fatah and Hamas still at loggerheads, it alone serves to unify the West Bank and Gaza. That is why the Trump administration recently cut US funding to UNRWA – the bulk of its budget. The White House’s implicit goal is to find a new means to manage Gaza’s misery.

What is needed now is someone to arm-twist the Palestinians. Mike Pompeo’s move from the CIA to State Department, Trump may hope, will produce the strongman needed to bulldoze the Palestinians into submission.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/us-smooths-israels-path-to-annexing-west-bank/5632659

سيف الله

03-22-2018, 12:35 AM

Salaam

Like to share

The Israeli Lobby - A Danger To The World

سيف الله

03-26-2018, 09:22 PM

Salaam

This is related. The Jewish establishment in Britain are most displeased with Jeremy Corbyn, being the first leader (of a major political party) in a long time who doesn't automatically genuflect to their interests. He has to go.

The sharks circling around Corbyn scent blood

After a short reprieve following Jeremy Corbyn’s unexpected success in Britain’s general election last year, when he only narrowly lost the popular vote, most of the Labour parliamentary party are back, determined to bring him down. And once again, they are being joined by the corporate media in full battle cry.

Last week, Corbyn was a Soviet spy. This week we’re in more familiar territory, even if it has a new twist: Corbyn is not only a friend to anti-semites, it seems, but now he has been outed as a closet one himself.

In short, the Blairites in the parliamentary party are stepping up their game. Corbyn’s social justice agenda, his repudiation of neoconservative wars of aggression masquerading as “humanitarianism” – lining the coffers of the west’s military-industrial elites – is a genuine threat to those who run our societies from the shadows.

The knife of choice for the Labour backstabbers this time is a wall mural removed from East London in 2012. At that time, before he became Labour leader, Corbyn expressed support on Facebook for the artist, Kalen Ockerman, known as Mear One. Corbyn observed that a famous anti-capitalist mural by the left-wing Mexican artist Diego Rivera was similarly removed from Manhattan’s Rockefeller Centre in 1934.

Interestingly, the issue of Corbyn’s support for the mural – or at least the artist – originally flared in late 2015, when the Jewish Chronicle unearthed his Facebook post. Two things were noticeably different about the coverage then.

First, on that occasion, no one apart from the Jewish Chronicle appeared to show much interest in the issue. Its “scoop” was not followed up by the rest of the media. What is now supposedly a major scandal, one that raises questions about Corbyn’s fitness to be Labour leader, was a non-issue two years ago, when it first became known.

Second, the Jewish Chronicle, usually so ready to get exercised at the smallest possible sign of anti-semitism, wasn’t entirely convinced back in 2015 that the mural was anti-semitic. In fact, it suggested only that the mural might have “antisemitic undertones” – and attributed even that claim to Corbyn’s critics.

And rather than claiming, as the entire corporate media is now, that the mural depicted a cabal of Jewish bankers, the Chronicle then described the scene as “a group of businessmen and bankers sitting around a Monopoly-style board and counting money”. By contrast, the Guardian abandoned normal reporting conventions yesterday to state in its news – rather than comment – pages unequivocally that the mural was “obviously antisemitic”.

Not that anyone is listening now, but the artist himself, Kalen Ockerman, has said that the group in his mural comprised historical figures closely associated with banking. His mural, he says, was about “class and privilege”, and the figures depicted included both “Jewish and white Anglos”. The fact that he included famous bankers like the Rothschilds (Jewish) and the Rockefellers (not Jewish) does not, on the face of it, seem to confirm anti-semitism. They are simply the most prominent of the banking dynasties most people, myself included, could name. These families are about as closely identified with capitalism as it is possible to be.

There is an argument to be had about the responsibilities of artists – even street artists – to be careful in their visual representations. But Ockerman’s message was not a subtle or nuanced one. He was depicting class war, the war the capitalist class wages every day on the weak and poor. If Ockerman’s message is inflammatory, it is much less so than the reality of how our societies have been built on the backs and the suffering of the majority.

Corbyn has bowed to his critics – a mix of the Blairites within his party and Israel’s cheerleaders – and apologised for offering support to Ockerman, just as he has caved in to pressure each time the anti-semitism card has been played against him.

This may look like wise, or safe, politics to his advisers. But these critics have only two possible outcomes that will satisfy them. Either Corbyn is harried from the party leadership, or he is intimidated into diluting his platform into irrelevance – he becomes just another compromised politician catering to the interests of the 1 per cent.

The sharks circling around him will not ignore the scent of his bloodied wounds; rather, it will send them into a feeding frenzy. As hard as it is to do when the elites so clearly want him destroyed, Corbyn must find his backbone and start to stand his ground.

UPDATE:

This piece in the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz by their senior columnnist Anshel Pfeffer sums up a lot of the sophistry (intentional or otherwise) underscoring the conflation of leftwing critiques of neoliberalism and globalism with rightwing ultra-nationalism and anti-semitism.

Pfeffer writes:

The conspiracy theories of globalist bankers utilizing mainstream media and corrupt neoliberal politicians to serve their selfish sinister purposes, rather than those of ordinary people, are identical whether from left or right.

And on either side, most of the theorists will never admit to being anti-Semitic. They are just “anti-racist” or “anti-imperialist” if on the left, or “pro-Israel” on the right. And most of them really believe they have nothing against Jews, even while parroting themes straight out of the Protocols [of the Elders of Zion].

Notice the problem here. If you are a radical leftist who believes, as generations of leftists before you have done, that military, political, media, and financial elites operate in the shadows to promote their interests, to wage class war, then not only are you a conspiracy theorist, according to Pfeffer, but you are by definition anti-semitic as well. If you believe that an Establishment or a Deep State exists to advance its interests against the great majority, you must hate Jews.

The logic of Corbyn’s critics has rarely been articulated so forthrightly and so preposterously as it is here by Pfeffer. But make no mistake, this is the logic of his critics.

https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2...n-scent-blood/

سيف الله

03-27-2018, 09:07 PM

Salaam

More comment. This was written in the middle of last year.

Corbyn and the Jews By Gilad Atzmon

British Jews have made no secret of their united political opposition to Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party under his direction. Since Corbyn’s selection as its leader, the Labour party has been subjected to a relentless defamation campaign by the MSM and Jewish bodies. The Jewish anti Corbyn campaign rapidly devolved into a ruthless purge conducted by the Jewish Labour Movement and the Labour Friends of Israel. And then it didn’t take long before we saw some clear evidence that the assault against Corbyn was directed by Tel Aviv.

The reaction of many prominent Jewish voices and Jewish media outlets to Corbyn's recent electoral success leaves no room for doubt - we are witnessing an emerging clash between the Brits and Judea.

On June 9th just a few hours after Corbyn’s popularity amongst Brits was formally established, Stephen Pollard, the editor of the staunch Zionist Jewish Chronicle, wrote in The Daily Telegraph (AKA The Daily Tel Aviv) an extended tirade about the Brits, the gist of which is captured in the headline: “to the millions of people who voted for Jeremy Corbyn: you scare me.”

Pollard is tormented by the democratic choice of almost half of the British voters. “In fact forgive me, please, if I say this to each of the 12.8 million people who voted Labour on Thursday: you scare me.”

Pollard is distressed by Ken Livingstone’s truth telling about Zionism’s early collaboration with Hitler. He is dismayed that so many young Brits are excited by Corbyn’s platform of truthfulness and universal cooperation.

To support his argument Pollard ask us to engage in a “thought experiment.” Imagine that instead of having a problem with Jews, “many Corbyn supporters were misogynists. Instead of tweeting about ‘Zios’ they tweeted about ‘-----es’ who had got above themselves.”

I will help Pollard out. It wasn’t women’s lobbies that pushed us into immoral interventionist wars in Iraq, Syria, Libya and Iran. It was Lord Cashpoint Levy and the LFI that dominated Blair’s government’s fundraising when Britain launched its criminal war in Iraq. It was David Aaronivitch and Nick Cohen, two of Pollard’s Jewish Chronicle writers, who advocated these wars in the media.

Being kind natured, I’ll use this opportunity to advise Pollard that pretty much half of British adults go to bed every night with a woman. They form families with them and bring up kids together. We see women as our partners; something we cannot say about Stephen Pollard, Jonathan Pollard, Michael Foster, Lord Janner or Sir Philip Green. Pollard should spend some time and produce a better analogy in support of his ludicrous tribal politics.

Pollard is not alone. James Rubin, a former American diplomat and the ‘husband of’ is also scared of Corbyn.

“Who’s Afraid of Jeremy Corbyn? Me that’s who,” was the title of Rubin’s Politico article. Unlike Pollard who is scared as a Jew, Rubin claims to be scared on behalf of all Americans. According to Rubin“all Americans who fear for the future of the West” should be fearful of Corbyn. Rubin attempts to spread a duplicitous message that Corbyn puts the West at risk.

Rubin is kind enough to enumerate Corbyn’s ‘crimes: he has been “a public opponent of British and American foreign policy for some 25 years, and so his record and his views are impossible to hide.” He has “made a career of attacking U.S. foreign policies time and again.”

Rubin misses the point. Corbyn was supported last Thursday by more than 12 million Brits, in large part because he has a clear record of opposition to Anglo-American Zio-con immoral interventionist wars.

Rubin goes on, Corbyn has always found a way “to be supportive of America’s enemies and critical of American policies.” Correct and this is exactly why close to half of the British voters trusted him last Thursday. I would take it further, would Corbyn be brave enough to call a spade a spade and name our foreign wars for what they are: Israeli wars, his share of the vote would increase from 40% to 70%. Corbyn would be the British Prime Minster by Friday and the Tories would be reduced to a marginal political entity.

Rubin complains that Corbyn finds that “America is almost always in the wrong for the wrong reasons.” If so, Corbyn is absolutely right. America is too often on the wrong side, capitulating to AIPAC’s demands or desperately attempting to appease the Goldman Sachs and Soroses of this world.

Those who still fail to see that British Jews are at war with Corbyn and the Labour party should read The Jewish Algemeiner. According to Ben Cohen, it was the Jewish vote in London that saved Theresa May. Despite the popular swing towards Labour in most of London, it was the “voters in four London districts with significant Jewish populations have likely made it much easier for embattled British Prime Minister Theresa May to form a coalition government.”

Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis released a statement that the election demonstrated the dramatic polarization of British society: “The General Election results make it quite clear that it is not only our political representatives who are sharply divided on what is in the best long term interests of our country, but also that the electorate is similarly divided.”

I am not convinced at all that Britain is ‘divided’ as the chief Rabbi claims. If anything, the election reveals a growing unity amongst young Brits who are disgusted by the politics of Theresa Je Suis Juif May and her Zio-friendly government.

“As Theresa May seeks to form a new Government, my prayer is that she be blessed with the insight and the wisdom to lead the country with a spirit of understanding and a commitment to the common good,” the Rabbi added. I can advise the British Jewish leader that his prayers may fall short of delivering the good. What Theresa May needs at this stage is divine intervention and the Jewish institutions rallying for her and her dirty politics is a curse rather than a blessing.

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2017/6/11/corbyn-and-the-jews

سيف الله

03-27-2018, 10:49 PM

Salaam

Old but relevant.

Israeli diplomat who plotted against MPs also set up political groups

Shai Masot is filmed covertly as he boasts about establishing several groups, at least one intended to influence Labour policy

An Israeli embassy official who plotted to “take down” MPs regarded as hostile has also set up a number of political organisations in the UK that operated as though entirely independent.

Shai Masot was filmed covertly as he boasted about establishing several groups, at least one of which was intended to influence Labour party policy, while appearing to obscure their links to Israel.

The disclosure comes as Labour demanded the government launch an immediate inquiry into “improper interference in our democratic politics”. A former Tory government minister also called for an inquiry into the Israeli embassy’s links with two organisations, Conservative Friends of Israel (CFI) and Labour Friends of Israel (LFI).

Meanwhile, Masot is being sent back to Israel in disgrace, and a civil servant and Conservative official who was also filmed discussing ways to discredit MPs has resigned from her post.

Masot and Maria Strizzolo, a manager with the Skills Funding Agency and aide to Robert Halfon, an education minister, were filmed by a man they knew as Robin, who they believed to be an LFI activist but who was actually an undercover reporter with al-Jazeera’s investigative unit.

Among the MPs that Masot and Strizzolo discussed “taking down” was Sir Alan Duncan, a foreign minister and a vocal supporter of a Palestinian state.

In the latest recordings, Masot boasts of establishing organisations “in Israel and here [in the UK]”. When asked what he means, the Israeli official replies: “Nothing I can share, but yeah,” adding: “Yeah, because there are things that, you know, happen, but it’s good to leave those organisations independent. But we help them, actually.” LFI and CFI are established organisations, founded in the 1950s and 1970s respectively to support Israel and combat antisemitism. The footage taken by al-Jazeera shows Masot wanted Robin to head up a new organisation, Young Labour Friends of Israel.

At a meeting last July, Masot explains that he had the idea for a group called Young Conservative Friends of Israel in 2015, and wanted to set up a Young Labour Friends of Israel at that time. “When I tried to do the same in Labour they had a crisis back then with Corbyn. So instead of that I took a delegation to Israel … I took a Fabians group to Israel,” he says. Masot also says in the footage of that meeting that he does not wish to see Jeremy Corbyn win the leadership contest with Owen Smith. During another meeting, he describes Corbyn as “a crazy leader”.

“I would prefer that the party will not stay with Corbyn,” he says. Referring to a number of Labour MPs who had recently visited the West Bank, he adds: “Some of them are against Corbyn, so who knows?”

Masot advised Robin that he should launch the Young Labour Friends of Israel by first organising a reception, and then setting up an email list. LFI needs to be rejuvenated by a new youth group, he adds.

“Not a lot of young people want to be affiliated. For years, every MP that joined the parliament joined the LFI. They’re not doing it any more in the Labour party. CFI, they’re doing it automatically. All the 14 new MPs who got elected in the last elections did it automatically. In the LFI it didn’t happen. We need to get more people on board. It’s a lot of work, actually.”

At a meeting the following month, Masot suggests Robin might want to be chairman of the group he is establishing. He also says Robin should not tell other people that the embassy has established the group. “LFI is an independent organisation. No one likes that someone is managing his organisation. That really is the first rule in politics.”

In September, while on a train to Liverpool for the Labour conference, Masot tells Robin he is also establishing a group called City Friends of Israel. Once in Liverpool, the footage shows Masot introducing Robin at conference social events as the “Young LFI chairman”. The disclosure that Masot was also attempting to influence Labour affairs by establishing new political groups is likely to enrage the party’s leaders, who have already characterised the threat to “take down” MPs as a serious national security issue.

The shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, said: “The exposure of an Israeli embassy official discussing how to bring down or discredit a government minister and other MPs because of their views on the Middle East is extremely disturbing. “This is a national security issue. The embassy official involved should be withdrawn and the government should launch an immediate inquiry into the extent of this improper interference and demand from the Israeli government that it be brought to an end.”

One former minister in David Cameron’s government said the embassy’s efforts to exert improper influence on British public life went far further than any plot to “take down” unhelpful members of parliament. Writing anonymously in the Mail on Sunday, the former minister said: “British foreign policy is in hock to Israeli influence at the heart of our politics, and those in authority have ignored what is going on.

“For years the CFI and LFI have worked with – even for – the Israeli embassy to promote Israeli policy and thwart UK government policy and the actions of ministers who try to defend Palestinian rights.”

The former minister said there needed to be a full inquiry into the Israeli embassy’s links with CFI and LFI, and that while political parties should welcome funding from the UK’s Jewish community, they should not accept any engagement linked to Israel until it ceases new developments on Palestinian land.

“This opaque funding and underhand conduct is a national disgrace and humiliation and must be stamped out,” he wrote.

After an apology from the Israeli ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev, the British government said it considered the matter closed. However, Alex Salmond, the Scottish National party’s foreign affairs spokesman, said this position was not acceptable.

“I would expect the UK government to fully investigate this matter so that we can be confident our elected officials are free to carry out their jobs to the best of their ability and without fear of having their reputation smeared by embassy officials who do not agree with their views.”

Masot’s precise role at the embassy is unclear. He is known to be a former officer in the Israeli navy and is thought to remain an employee of the Israeli defence ministry. His embassy business card describes him as a senior political officer, but the embassy says he is not a diplomat. In his LinkedIn profile, Masot says his work includes “founding several political support groups in the UK to maximise the Israeli ‘firewall’”. He also says he helped to secure “adjustments to legislation” in the UK.

Former diplomats said Masot was highly unlikely to be operating without authority. Sir William Patey, a former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan, said: “The idea that he would be operating on his own I find fanciful. We know there is a lobby in this country that seeks to portray in the best possible light and seeks to isolate and denigrate critics of Israeli policy.” A senior Conservative said: “No MP who has taken an active interest in the affairs of the Middle East, not least the central issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will be unaware of the strength of the Israeli lobby. Like Israel itself they are powerful and effective and sail pretty close to the line of what is normally acceptable.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-groups-labour

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Salaam

Another update. British establishment is piling on the pressure on Corbyn

Enough is More Than Enough!

Jewish power, as I define it, is the power to suppress criticism of Jewish power.

For the last few days the Brits have been shown a spectacular display of that power and the manner in which it is mobilised. Without any attempt to hide their behaviour, a bunch of Jewish leaders have chosen to slander Europe’s biggest party and its popular leader in the name of ‘Jewish sensitivities.’

This blitz attack was sparked by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s reaction to a mural back in 2012. The mural was painted by US street artist Kalen Ockerman. Apparently, at the time Corbyn defended the public display of the painting on the grounds of freedom of speech.

The Labour leader was heavily criticised by Jewish institutions for supporting a mural “depicting Jewish bankers playing Monopoly on the backs of the poor.” The clumsy British media didn’t do its homework and failed to actually examine the mural, but instead immediately delved into the hookedness of the noses of those alleged Jewish bankers.

Embarrassingly for them, Ockerman has came forward and identified the men he depicted in the mural. They are from left to right, “Rothschild, Rockefeller, Morgan, Aleister Crowley, Carnegie & Warburg“. Of the six men, only Rothschild and Warburg were Jewish. In fact, Aleister Crowley was noted for his antisemitic views. The take home message for the BBC & co is that maybe capitalists of all races share similar shaped noses.

I am left wondering if the British Zionist league was offended by the mural because it is they, the Zionists, who see the capitalist as the Jew and vice versa. After all, Labour Zionism began as an avowed attempt to liberate Diaspora Jews of parasitic capitalist traits. Zionism promised to cleanse the Jew of gluttony by means of a ‘homecoming.’

Yesterday 1500 British Jews took to the streets outside Parliament. They protested Corbin’s “systematic failure to deal with antisemitism.”

If you wonder what ‘systematic antisemitsm’ means, the Jewish Chronicle provides the answer. In his speech at the protest Jonathan Arkush, the leader of the ardent Zionist Board of Deputies of British Jews, cited Labour’s failure to take proper action on the claims of antisemitism against former London mayor Ken Livingstone and other Labour Party members.

Zionists do not like Ken Livingstone. This is understandable. The man is a legendary icon of ethical thinking. Despite their protests, it is still not easy for the Labour party to expel one of its legends simply for telling the truth about Hitler’s collaboration with Zionism. Maybe Arkush should just give it more time.

Arkush told the crowd that the “the Labour Party must go back to being the enemy of racists - not the refuge.” Of course Corbyn doesn’t have a drop of racism in his entire body, but maybe Jonathan Arkush can meet his own standards and tell us how many Blacks or Muslims are members of his own Jews-only Board of Deputies of British Jews.

The Jewish Leadership Council’s chair Jonathan Goldstein said that Mr Corbyn had become the “figurehead for an antisemitic political culture based upon obsessive hatred of Israel, conspiracy theories and fake news.”

Maybe the Jewish community leader could try to remember that obsession with justice is not a bad thing and also that interfering with freedom of speech can easily backfire.

It is clear why some Jews are upset by Corbyn. The Labour leader treats the Jews as ordinary people. He fails to respect their choseness and ignores their sense of exceptionalism. Perhaps he believes that Jewish politics like all other politics, ought to be subject to criticism. And now it is clear that Corbyn’s approach to Jewish politics is not acceptable to Britain’s Zionist Jewish establishment.

MP John Mann who has operated as a Zionist mouthpiece within the Labour party for more than a while, bemoaned to the Jewish gathering about his Labour comrades that “Some of them glory in being called anti-Zionists - racists that is the word for them.”

Does Mann think that opposing a political movement is ‘racism?’ Is opposition to Britain or the USA, or even North Korea also to be castigated as racism? And then, in an uber-Orwellian manner Mann added “we have to drive these people (the anti Zionists) out of the Labour Party.”

Maidenhead Synagogue Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain told the JC that this ‘antisemitism crisis’ was Mr Corbyn’s “Watergate moment.” I suggest the Rabbi learn some Jewish history. This tsunami of Jewish self-love and empowerment could turn into a total disaster as it has time after time in the past.

British Jewish leadership is panicking. It has declared open war against a mainstream British political party. This is far from a reasonable move and if it is intended to oppose antisemitsm, its effect will inevitably be the opposite. Maybe gestalt psychology offers us the tools to understand such silly behavior. Jewish history teaches us that attitudes toward Jews resemble a gestalt switch. So that, for instance, once you see Israel for what it is you just can’t un-see it. Once you grasp that the Jewish State is a racist oppressive force no one will be able to uproot that perception in you. Jewish Zionists do face a growing wall of resentment. Instead of dealing with it by means of self reflection, they repeat Israel’s mistake and adopt the most oppressive authoritarian agenda. They are desperately trying to turn Britain into an Orwellian dystopia.

Left open is the question of how it is possible that the Jewish elite, despite its sophistication and education, never learn from the Jewish past. How is it possible that Jews keep repeating the same mistake time after time? I guess one possible answer is that Jewishness (יהודיות) is a form of severe blindness—and that this may be the dark side of choseness.

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2018...re-than-enough

Another viewpoint

سيف الله

03-30-2018, 08:53 PM

Salaam

Jeremy Corbyns response

سيف الله

03-30-2018, 09:24 PM

Salaam

Another update. Protests at the Gaza border.

سيف الله

03-31-2018, 07:47 AM

Salaam

Another update

Upset With Israel's 'Muslim-Christian' Look, Minister Aims to Make It More 'Jewish'

Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Galant is launching a project that would see Star of David-shaped decorations appearing in public spaces all over Israel

Housing and Construction Minister Yoav Galant is launching a project that would see Star of David-shaped decorations appearing in public spaces, in an attempt to counter what his ministry calls the country’s “Muslim-Christian look.”

“Along the country’s highways and footpaths, from the Golan Heights in the north to the Negev in the south, one can mainly see tall minarets which dominate the landscape, giving the country a Muslim-Christian look,” says an internal presentation prepared by the ministry, as reported on Thursday in Yedioth Ahronoth. “The landscape does not reflect the fact that the country is Israeli and Jewish,” it adds.

The proposed project will be discussed by the cabinet at its next meeting on Sunday.

The presentation features photos of the landscape today as well as images of what it will look like after the project is completed. The photos were taken in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, along Highway 6 and in other locations. They show minarets surrounded by red circles, alongside which are prominent structures on which projected images of a Star of David are shown.

According to the new proposal, the administration charged with the 70th state anniversary celebrations will be responsible for placing the symbol at aerial and maritime entry points to Israel, at key points along the country’s lengthwise and transverse highways and in key locations in Jerusalem and other major cities.

“Even though the state’s Jewish character is a key element in its definition, standing at the base of its identity, as specified in the Declaration of Independence, this is not appropriately expressed in the state’s public spaces. In practice, anyone traveling the country’s roads will not encounter the symbols of a Jewish state which would emphasize its Jewish character” says the proposal which will be brought to the cabinet for approval.

Galant’s office would not comment on this report.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/upset-with-israel-s-muslim-christian-look-minister-aims-for-change-1.5962107

سيف الله

03-31-2018, 11:37 PM

Salaam

Another update. The correct headline.

Israeli troops wound dozens on Gaza border as Palestinians bury dead from earlier violence

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot and wounded about 70 Palestinians among crowds demonstrating at the Gaza-Israel border on Saturday, health officials said, after one of the deadliest days of unrest in the area in years.

Thousands of people marched through the streets of Gaza in funerals for the 15 people killed by Israeli gunfire on Friday, and a national day of mourning was observed in the enclave and in the occupied West Bank.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel was responsible for the violence. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was protecting its sovereignty and citizens.

An Israeli military spokesman said he was checking the details of Saturday’s unrest. It broke out when Palestinians gathered on the border between the Hamas-run enclave and Israel then began throwing stones. Palestinian health officials said about 70 were wounded.

On Friday at least 15 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces confronting protesters. The military said some had shot at them, rolled burning tyres and hurled rocks and fire bombs toward troops across the border.

Hamas said five of them were members of its armed wing. Israel said eight of the 15 dead belonged to Hamas, designated a terrorist group by Israel and the West, and two others belonged to other militant groups.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians had gathered on Friday along the fenced 65-km (40-mile) frontier, where tents had been erected for a planned six-week protest pressing for a right of return for refugees and their descendents to what is now Israel.

But hundreds of Palestinian youths ignored calls from the organizers and the Israeli military to stay away from the frontier and violence broke out.

The protest, organized by Hamas and other Palestinian factions, is scheduled to culminate on May 15, the day Palestinians commemorate what they call the “Nakba” or “Catastrophe” when hundreds of thousands fled or were driven out of their homes in 1948, when the state of Israel was created.

Israel has long ruled out any right of return, fearing an influx of Arabs that would wipe out its Jewish majority. It says refugees should resettle in a future state the Palestinians seek in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza. Peace talks to that end have been frozen since 2014.

Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but still maintains tight control of its land and sea borders.

Egypt also keeps its border with Gaza largely closed.

Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said: “The message of the Palestinian people is clear. The Palestinian land will always belong to its legitimate owners and the occupation will be removed.”

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-i...-idUSKBN1H70AU

To add they were prepared, this tweet was deleted by the IDF

سيف الله

04-01-2018, 08:08 PM

Salaam

Wasn't expecting this opinion from Haaretz.

The Israel Massacre Forces

The shooting on the Gaza border shows once again that the killing of Palestinians is accepted in Israel more lightly than the killing of mosquitoes

The death counter ticked away wildly. One death every 30 minutes. Again. Another one. One more. Israel was busy preparing for the seder night. TV stations continued broadcasting their nonsense.

It’s not hard to imagine what would have happened if a settler had been stabbed – on-site broadcasts, throw open the studios. But in Gaza the Israel Defense Forces continued to massacre mercilessly, with a horrific rhythm, as Israel celebrated Passover.

If there was any concern, it was because soldiers couldn’t celebrate the seder. By nightfall the body count had reached at least 15, all of them by live fire, with more than 750 wounded. Tanks and sharpshooters against unarmed civilians. That’s called a massacre. There’s no other word for it.

Comic relief was provided by the army spokesman, who announced in the evening: “A shooting attack was foiled. Two terrorists approached the fence and fired at our soldiers.” This came after the 12th Palestinian fatality and who knows how many wounded.

Sharpshooters fired at hundreds of civilians but two Palestinians who dared return fire at the soldiers who were massacring them are “terrorists,” their actions labeled “terror attacks” and their sentence – death. The lack of self-awareness has never sunk to such depths in the IDF.

As usual, the media lent its appalling support. After 15 deaths Or Heller on Channel 10 News declared that the most serious incident of the day had been the firing by the two Palestinians. Dan Margalit “saluted” the army.

Israel was brainwashed again and sat down to a festive meal in a spirit of self-satisfaction. And then people recited “Pour out Thy wrath upon the nations that know Thee not,” impressed by the spread of plagues and enthusing at the mass murder of babies (the killing of the first-born Egyptians, the 10th plague).

Christian Good Friday and the Jewish seder night became a day of blood for the Palestinians in Gaza. You can’t even call it a war crime because there was no war there.

The test by which the IDF and the pathological indifference of public opinion should be judged is the following: What would happen if Jewish Israeli demonstrators, ultra-Orthodox or others, threatened to invade the Knesset? Would such insane live fire by tanks or sharpshooters be understood by the public? Would the murder of 15 Jewish demonstrators pass with silence? And if several dozen Palestinians managed to enter Israel, would that justify a massacre?

The killing of Palestinians is accepted in Israel more lightly than the killing of mosquitoes. There’s nothing cheaper in Israel than Palestinian blood. If there were a hundred or even a thousand deaths Israel would still “salute” the IDF. This is the army whose commander, the good and moderate Gadi Eisenkot, is received with such pride by Israelis. Of course, in the holiday media interviews, no one asked him about the anticipated massacre and no one will ask him now either.

But an army that prides itself on shooting a farmer on his land, showing the video on its website in order to intimidate Gazans; an army that pits tanks against civilians and boasts of one hundred snipers waiting for the demonstrators is an army that has lost all restraint. As if there weren’t other measures. As if the IDF had the authority or right to prevent demonstrations in Gaza, threatening bus drivers not to transport protesters in territory where the occupation has long ended, as everyone knows.

Despairing young men sneak in from Gaza, armed with ridiculous weapons, marching dozens of kilometers without hurting anyone, only waiting to be caught so as to escape Gaza’s poverty in an Israeli jail. This doesn’t touch anyone’s conscience either. The main thing is that the IDF proudly presents its catch. Palestinian President Mahmous Abbas is responsible for the situation in Gaza. And Hamas, of course. And Egypt. And the Arab world and the whole world. Just not Israel. It left Gaza and Israeli soldiers never commit massacres.

The names were published in the evening. One man was rising from his prayers, another was shot while fleeing. The names won’t move anyone. Mohammed al-Najar, Omar Abu Samur, Ahmed Odeh, Sari Odeh, Bader al-Sabag. This space is too small, to our horror, to list all their names.

https://www.haaretz.com/amp/opinion/...mpression=true

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Salaam

Another update

Palestinians to lead their own liberation

At last Palestinians are taking care of their fate and their Right of Return. Israeli leadership and the IDF are clearly confused by the March of Return. It is possible that the paralysis inflicted on Palestinian liberation by Jewish solidarity groups may come to an end. I briefly spoke with Alimuddin Usmani in Prague (31.3.2018)

سيف الله

04-02-2018, 06:27 PM

Salaam

Another update

Shooting Protesters in Cold Blood

The Israeli army snipers who were ordered to shoot unarmed Palestinian protesters last Friday at the Gaza border, killing 17 outright and wounding hundreds of others, were acting according to the contemporary script of Middle Eastern dictators.

The Israeli army initially admitted in a tweet that the tactic was premeditated and preceise, but then deleted the tweet, as the Israeli peace group B’tselem pointed out.

Sociologists who study how people mobilize to challenge an oppressive situation have noted that one possible response of any regime under pressure from below is to raise the cost to dissidents of their social action.

Imposing the death penalty is of course the ultimate in raising such costs. But randomly shooting into crowds is more than just threatening people with death. It is a means of terrorizing the dissidents. Simply taking hundreds of people out and executing them has dangers as a course of action for the oppressive rulers, as well, inasmuch as it threatens to create large numbers of martyrs and impel reprisals. Moreover, large massacres can impose costs on the regime in the form of boycotts from other states or civil society actors. Randomly shooting into a crowd, killing a few people but wounding many others, has the advantage for the regime of creating uncertainty and fear.

This tactic was deployed during the youth protests of 2011. Secret police in Tunisia shot into peaceful rallies in provincial towns in late December 2010 and early January 2011 and then denied it and ordered the state press not to cover it. Blogger Lina Ben Mhenni took her smartphone to the hospitals down there and got pictures of and interviews with the victims and put them up at her blog (very bravely, since the regime could have direly punished her; but it fell before it could do so).

In Sana’a, Yemen, during the demonstrations at Change Square, dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh had his troops occasionally fire into the crowd. In one such incident one night, 350 people were injured. Over time a couple thousand people were killed in this way (that is, being sniped at by professional soldiers while peacefully protesting– I’m not talking about clashes among fighters).

In Syria in 2011, the regime would station snipers on rooftops above town squares around the country. In each town a few people would be killed at each demonstration this way by army live ammunition. The regime was trying to discourage rallies by raising their cost, and indiscriminate such fire is a force multiplier, since the uncertainty of where the bullet will come from and whom it will strike is excruciating. Syria’s brave protesters never were cowed by this cowardly tactic, and even today would protest if they were allowed to.

One downside of sniping unarmed noncombatants is a negative reaction from other countries. Israel’s current far right wing leadership does not worry about that. They think that the US and the UK are the only countries that matter. Like Putin, they have tried to shape the US political scene to suit them, targeting uncooperative congressmen and senators for reprisals. This is not only a matter of campaign donations by the Israel lobbies but of government covert ops. They also do this in the UK.

Of 535 members of Congress, exactly one, Bernie Sanders, has condemned the massacre.

The Likud Party can also rely on an American television news blackout. Palestine is almost never reported on the airwaves and when it is, it is replete with propaganda. There are even problems with print news.

@Robert mackey observed,

“By my count, there are currently 163 stories on the @nytimes home page and 116 on @washingtonpost but not 1 is about the Israeli massacre in Gaza, which was featured in print by both. There is also no mention among 126 stories on @CNN’s US home page, or in 100 stories on @Lati mes .”

Academics in communications departments should look into this remarkable phenomenon. How it is arranged?

Be careful, though— even professors can be fired.

It may be objected that Israel is not a dictatorship like that of Yemen or Syria. But for Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, that is precisely what it is. The Israeli military controls the Palestinian West Bank, though it farms out some duties to the PLO. The Israeli military encircles and blockades little Gaza with its 1.8 million concentration camp inmates. Stateless Palestinians experience Israeli military rule as a foreign military dictatorship. Palestinians are probably a majority of the people ruled by the Israeli government.

Moreover, dictators such as Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, had no bigger boosters than the Likud government in Israel.

So it is not really surprising that the Israeli military would adopt the same tactics as its peers, with which it often collaborates in maintaining the rotten status quo.

سيف الله

04-03-2018, 09:48 AM

Salaam

More comment

Israel s------s at a cowardly world

The Palestinian people have been abandoned by an impotent and sycophantic international community

Faced with Israel’s crimes against humanity Western leaderships mirror the proverbial see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil Wise Monkeys bending their heads before the chest-beating Goliath on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Those self-appointed champions of human rights, those whose outrage knows no bounds over the poisoning of a traitorous double agent in the UK, shrink from any criticism of the Jewish state.

After all, who dares to risk being branded anti-Semitic, like the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, poor old Jeremy Corbyn! Or worse, being the recipient of tongue-lashings and threats from Trump’s enforcer in the United Nations, American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (Aipac) darling Nikki Haley.

Israeli army snipers mowed down upto 1,400 unarmed Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip peacefully protesting close to the border fence with Israel last Friday to mark ‘Land Day’. Seventeen were killed including children.
Evidenced by videos on social media, several were shot while fleeing from the hail of bullets and clouds of tear gas. All the estimated 30,000 protesters were on their own side of the border when they came under this vicious attack, which if committed anywhere else on the planet would have been called what it was, a massacre.

What was planned to be a peaceful occasion complete with picnics, social interaction and traditional dances was described by Danny Danon, Israel’s odious ambassador to the UN as an organised provocation forcing Israel “to defend its sovereignty” — as though this military state masquerading as the only Middle East democracy requires defending from civilians whose only weapons are stones.

The BBC reports I watched on Friday evening referred to “clashes”, a term which usually implies that both sides were armed and neglected to make mention of the numbers of dead and injured. Israel’s prominent human rights organisation B’Tselem was more forthright than any of Israel’s allies; its spokesman characterised shooting at unarmed demonstrators as “manifestly illegal”, noting that some Palestinians were shot in the back.

Kuwait requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council. “Let us be clear here, what happened today was a peaceful demonstration to express their desire for their legitimate rights,” said the Kuwaiti representative, adding, “These were defenceless people.” The UK and France uttered mealy mouthed expressions of “concern”. The meeting ended minus any official statement. No surprise there! In a statement, the UN’s Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged an independent and transparent investigation. He did his duty but that’s that because Israel will not cooperate. It never has. The Israeli government, supported by the US, accuses the United Nations of anti-Semitic bias.

Just days ago, Haley said the United States would withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council over resolutions condemning Israel, accusing the body of being “grossly biased”. In December, the US cut $285 million (Dh1.05 billion) from its share of the UN budget.

Let’s not beat about the bush, folks. Only weak states outside the higher echelons of the Western club are obliged to comply with human rights laws that are frequently cited as a weapon with which to beat them into compliance.
As for Israel, it enjoys absolute immunity from any legal challenge. It would have been provided impunity from censure, let alone prosecution, even it had used its 100 plus IDF snipers to murder 5,000 or 10,000 Palestinians in cold blood. Israel for all its nuclear might and America’s slavish diplomatic cover remains the eternal victim.

In short, the Palestinian people have been abandoned by a cowardly, sycophantic international community. Very soon Donald Trump’s plan to relocate the US embassy to [occupied] Jerusalem, he calls Israel’s eternal capital, will reach fruition, hammering the last nails into the coffin of even a semblance of a Palestinian state.

While it is true that Hamas’ takeover of Gaza has been a disaster for the 1.5 million people caged inside the world’s largest open-air prison camp, deprived of basic necessities, blockaded by land, sea and air that should not mean that the population is open to being treated worse than penned cattle.

However, many Palestinian residents of occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank are only marginally better off faced with apartheid walls, checkpoints, house demolitions and land grab. Their ongoing plight is a dark stain on the community of nations and the ever more impotent body founded in the aftermath of Second World War to safeguard human rights and freedoms. Time to say it like it is. The US and Israel have got western democracies by the jugular.

http://gulfnews.com/opinion/thinkers...orld-1.2198563

s------s

Filter its s n i g g e r s (a half-suppressed, typically scornful laugh.)

More perspectives

سيف الله

04-03-2018, 10:52 AM

Salaam

Like to share

سيف الله

04-03-2018, 10:06 PM

Salaam

A little humour to lighten up this thread.

سيف الله

04-04-2018, 06:48 PM

Salaam

More comment on what is happening to Jeremy Corbyn.

Who are the true Semites in the topsy-turvy world of anti-Semitism?

As the Israeli general’s son Miko Peled warned Labour activists last year, “They are going to pull all the stops, they are going to smear, they are going to try anything they can to stop Corbyn… the reason anti-Semitism is used is because they [the Israelis] have no argument, there is nothing to say.”

And now the Zionist Inquisition and mainstream media have ganged up to crucify Corbyn for the crimes of others. Of course, Corbyn could and should have done more to crush or at least distance himself from the loonies who post deliberately hateful anti-Jewish comments. But it seems likely that many of those vile scribblers are part of the vast army of Israeli hasbara trolls and dirty-tricks agents deployed to torpedo Corbyn and the pro-Palestinian cause. They will simply re-appear in different guise.

Isn’t this a matter for the Jewish “family” to resolve?

Israel is the criterion according to which all Jews will tend to be judged. Israel as a Jewish state is an example of the Jewish character… Any flaw in Israeli conduct, which initially is cited as anti-Israelism, is likely to be transformed into empirical proof of the validity of anti-Semitism. It would be a tragic irony if the Jewish state, which was intended to solve the problem of anti-Semitism, was to become a factor in the rise of anti-Semitism. Israelis must be aware that the price of their misconduct is paid not only by them but also Jews throughout the world.

Not my words, of course, but an observation by former Israeli Director of Military Intelligence Yehoshafat Harkabi in his book Israel’s Fateful Hour. His view is held by many others.

So, if nothing is done to address the causes of anti-Israelism (which is the outrage many people feel) it may turn into anti-Semitism. Anti-Semitism therefore appears to be a matter between Jews everywhere and best left to them. Why bother Jeremy Corbyn with it?

Too late, the knives are out and stabbing furiously.

On the other side of the coin, as I write I’m receiving reports that Israel has blocked hundreds of Palestinian Christians in Gaza from travelling to pray at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem this Easter. Only those who are over 55 are allowed out of the prison camp, so many of them will have to travel without their relatives. Israel routinely imposes age restrictions, often announcing holiday permit policies at the last minute, or even after a holiday begins, making it almost impossible for Palestinians to make travel plans.

It’s all part of the usual lockdown of the West Bank and Gaza Strip for the eight days around the Jewish Passover holiday. And I’ve just seen videos taken in Jerusalem showing Israeli police attacking Palestinians during a Palm Sunday procession. These and other outrages are committed again and again by “the only democracy in the Middle East”, which claims to guarantee freedom of worship.

We’ve all watched in horror on TV Israeli tanks and snipers firing at unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza on their own side of the border, killing 15 and injuring 1,400 with live fire, rubber-coated steel pellets and tear gas for going too near the prison fence that prevents them returning to their homes and farms. Some 773 had bullet wounds. This was a non-violent gathering organised by civil society. It should be remembered that Israel imposed a 300 metre no-go buffer on the Gaza side of the border fence, sometimes extending well beyond and creating a very wide high-risk zone that robs thousands of Gazans of valuable agricultural land. These killing fields are often used by sadistic Israeli snipers for sport.

Several sources report that the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) threatened the owners of 20 Gaza bus companies that “you and your families will be held personally responsible” if their buses brought protesters to the border. This is another typical outrage by the “the world’s most moral army”. How low, how gross its unbridled barbarism, how brutal its behaviour before anti-Israel reaction flips into anti-Semitism?

Yet Corbyn still sends out his Happy Passover messages!

Lecturing Corbyn like he’s a naughty schoolboy

While Israel ratchets-up its criminal behaviour, what are we to make of the latest instructions to Corbyn from the self-appointed leaders of the UK Jewish community, Jonathan Arkush (Board of Deputies of British Jews – BDBJ) and Jonathan Goldstein [Jewish Leadership Council – JLC]? Note the rude, dictatorial tone.

For whatever reasons, you have not, until now, seemed to grasp how strongly British Jews feel about the situation…

Any meeting between us must produce concrete, practical outcomes to be implemented by the party; there is no point in meeting if the situation remains the same or continues to worsen… We propose an agenda of actions for discussion:

The party leadership, and you personally, must be seen and heard to lead this work. Only your voice can persuade your followers that this a necessary and correct course of action. If actions need to be passed by the NEC [National Executive Committee] or other party bodies, you need to take personal responsibility for ensuring this happens.
Outstanding and future cases to be brought to a swift conclusion under a fixed timescale. An independent, mutually agreed ombudsman should be appointed to oversee performance, reporting to the party and to the Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council.
MPs, councillors and other party members should not share platforms with people who have been suspended or expelled for anti-Semitism and CLPs [Constituency Labour Parties] should not provide them with a platform. Anybody doing so should themselves be suspended…
The party should circulate the IHRA [International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance] definition of anti_Semitism, with all its examples and clauses, to all members and branches. The party should work with mainstream Jewish community organisations to develop and implement education about anti-Semitism. This should include a clear list of unacceptable language, such as the use of “Zio” and “Zionist” as terms of abuse…
Public confirmation that the party will seek to understand and engage with the Jewish community via its main representative groups, and not through fringe organisations who wish to obstruct the party’s efforts to tackle anti-Semitism.
Nobody should be vilified for opposing anti-Semitism. Those Labour Party members and Labour-supporting blogs pushing the abuse are largely doing so in your name. They need to hear you say, publicly and in your own voice, that we had every right to protest about anti-Semitism, and that Labour MPs had every right to support us; that our concerns about anti-Semitism are sincere and not a “smear” as has been widely alleged (including on your own Facebook page)… and that anyone directing abuse, intimidation or threats at those of us who oppose anti-Semitism is damaging your efforts to eliminate it and to start rebuilding trust. We firmly believe that this must happen urgently, and certainly before we meet.

Disrespectful

There’s plenty wrong with this missive besides its arrogance. Many admirable Jewish groups vehemently campaign against Israel’s crimes. The idea that Labour should only engage with the Jewish community through the BoD and JLC is ludicrous and an insult to those Jews who’ll have nothing to do with them.

The idea that anyone involved with deciding disciplinary cases within the Labour Party should report to the BDBJ and JLC is simply insane.

And the idea that the Labour Party, down to branch level, should be “educated” by Jewish community organisations using the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is a non-starter. Here’s why. It says:

Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred towards Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

The House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee accepted this definition subject to the inclusion of two caveats:

It is not anti-Semitic to criticise the government of Israel, without additional evidence to suggest anti-Semitic intent.
It is not anti-Semitic to hold the Israeli government to the same standards as other liberal democracies, or to take a particular interest in the Israeli government’s policies or actions, without additional evidence to suggest anti-Semitic intent.

The Select Committee recommended the amended definition be “formally adopted by the UK government, law-enforcement agencies and all political parties”. The government agreed but dropped the caveats saying they weren’t necessary.

Consequently, it has been condemned by experts as “too vague to be useful”. Eminent human rights lawyer Hugh Tomlinson QC said it wasn’t a legally binding definition and lacked clarity. Therefore, any conduct contrary to the IHRA definition couldn’t necessarily be ruled illegal.

In Tomlinson’s view, it was “most unsatisfactory” for the government to adopt such a definition, and it could only be considered as a freestanding statement of policy. Public bodies were under no obligation to adopt or use it, nor should they be criticised for refusing. If public authorities did decide to adopt it they must interpret it in a way that’s consistent with their statutory obligations and with the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides for freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Freedom of expression applies not only to information or ideas that are favourably received or regarded as inoffensive, but also to those that “offend, shock or disturb the state or any sector of the population” – unless, of course, they encourage violence, hatred or intolerance.

Public authorities are also under an obligation “to create a favourable environment for participation in public debates for all concerned, allowing them to express their opinions and ideas without fear, even if these opinions and ideas are contrary to those defended by the official authorities or by a large part of public opinion, or even if those opinions and ideas are irritating or offensive to the public”.

Calling Israel an apartheid state or advocating BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) against Israel couldn’t properly be characterised as anti-Semitic. Furthermore, any public authority seeking to apply the IHRA definition to prohibit or punish such activities “would be acting unlawfully”.

Retired Lord Justice of Appeal Sir Stephen Sedley also offered advice, criticising the IHRA working definition for lack of legal force and because “it is not neutral: it may well influence policy both domestically and internationally”.

He added that the right of free expression, now part of our domestic law by virtue of the Human Rights Act, “places both negative and positive obligations on the state which may be put at risk if the IHRA definition is unthinkingly followed”. Moreover the 1986 Education Act established an individual right of free expression in all higher education institutions “which cannot be cut back by governmental policies”.

In Sedley’s view, the IHRA definition is open to manipulation. “What is needed now is a principled retreat on the part of government from a stance which it has naively adopted.”

In any case, Labour Party members will surely know that Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights bestows on everyone “the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”. Such rights, of course, are subject to the usual limitations required by law and respect for the rights of others.

An inconvenient truth?

So, how could the IHRA definition ever be accepted by Labour? Would the party really allow itself to be pushed by the BDBJ and JLC into such a minefield? Who are the Semites anyway?

Recent DNA research indicate that most of those living today who claim to be Jews are not descended from the ancient Israelites at all and the Palestinians have more Israelite blood than the Jews – they are the real Semites. Research conducted by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and published by the Oxford University Press in 2012 on behalf of the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution, found that the Khazarian hypothesis is scientifically correct, meaning that most Jews are Khazars. Probably no more than 2 per cent of Jews in Israel are actually Israelites.

The Khazarians, who were never in Israel, converted to Talmudic Judaism in the 8th Century. So, even if you believe the myth that God gave the land to the Israelites, he certainly didn’t give it to the Khazarians. Russian “Jews” like the thug Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s defence minister, and countless others who flooded into the Holy Land intending to kick the Palestinians out, have no biblical or ancestral claim to Old Israel. Lieberman rejects UN calls for an inquiry into the Easter slaughter of Palestinians on the Gaza border, mentioned above and condemned across the world, and says his soldiers “deserve a medal”. That other unpleasant individual, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, was also full of praise, saying “well done to our soldiers”.

The Johns Hopkins study was published five years ago. Has it been refuted? If they got it right, and Palestinians are the true Semites, the whole anti-Semitism thing becomes an upside-down nonsense. The anti-Semites are actually the racist Israeli regime, its nasty witch-hunters and the brainwashed stooges among our politicians, in our government and embedded in our political parties – including Corbyn’s accusers.

Yes, Jeremy Corbyn needs to dislodge the anti-Jew morons and racist crackpots, of which there are many in all parties. They are drawn to politics like moths to a flame and always will be. He should also disband Labour Friends of Israel – an aggressive mouthpiece for a foreign terror regime has no place in a British political party. For balance the pro-Palestine camp inside and outside the political parties needs to purge its foul-mouthed nitwits.

What to do with the Goldstein/Arkush letter? It would be politically incorrect to bin it. Maybe it ought to be filed in Labour’s pending tray until the BDBJ and JLC publicly admit that there’s something very rotten in the State of Israel, condemn the Israeli regime’s wanton cruelty and mega-crimes against the Palestinian people, and promise to help sort out their “family” problem.

http://www.redressonline.com/2018/04/who-are-the-true-semites-in-the-topsy-turvy-world-of-anti-semitism/

سيف الله

04-04-2018, 08:59 PM

Salaam

More on the ever changing techniques of Israeli hasbra.

Digital occupation: What's behind Israel's social media in Arabic

Israeli social media accounts in Arabic aim to normalise Israel's occupation and whitewash its image, Palestinians say.

On any given Friday, spokesperson for the Israeli army Avichay Adraee sends out a message to his more than 186,000 followers on Twitter.

"Have a blessed Friday," he tweets in Arabic. Sometimes the message is accompanied by a Quranic verse or a hadith, a saying of the Prophet Muhammad.

Every so often his posts turn to contemplations that address his Palestinian and Arab followers.

"How would you like to be remembered by people, as respected and successful or as troublemaking terrorists?" he posted last month. "The successful Mohamad Salah and Mostafa al-Agha or the cowardly terrorist Ahmad Jarrar? Think twice."

The references to Saleh, a popular Egyptian football player, and Agha, a Syrian presenter of a sports programme on the Saudi-owned MBC channel, are used as an ideal model of what an Arab man should be like.

In contrast there is Jarrar, a Palestinian man who was suspected of being behind the killing of a Jewish settler near the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank in January. Jarrar was killed after a month-long manhunt by the Israeli forces last February.

Whitewashing occupation

Adraee's Twitter and Facebook pages are among several mushrooming social media accounts in Arabic by Israeli military and government officials that target Arab citizens. According to Fidaa Zaanin, an outspoken Palestinian critic of these accounts, they have one unified objective, which is to penetrate the ranks of Arabic-speaking world.

"By conversing with them in their mother tongue, these Israeli officials are opening communication channels, and disseminate lies and propaganda with the aim to normalise the Israeli occupation and to whitewash the image of the Zionist entity," Zaanin, who is from Gaza but now lives in Berlin, told Al Jazeera.

"Israel is portrayed as the only democracy in the Middle East, a progressive humane state, and the victim of violence and terrorism," she continued, "thus censoring a whole history of colonisation, murder and forced displacement."

One example is of Adraee tweeting about the Land Day protests that took place near the Gaza Strip's eastern border last week, in which 17 Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces.

"Sending 30,000 troublemakers to fight at the security fence only points to Hamas's terrorism and their attempt to exploit the citizens of Gaza," he said.

Nadim Nashif, the executive director of 7amleh, the Arab Centre for Social Media Advancement, said that the Israeli accounts in Arabic have become more popular among Palestinian social media users in the last year.

"This constitutes the first time Palestinian citizens have direct online contact with high ranking Israeli officials, given that [most] Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip don't speak or read Hebrew," he told Al Jazeera.

The accounts also provide practical information to Palestinians, such as the opening and closing hours of checkpoints and how to obtain military-issued permits for travel or medical purposes.

"The Israelis are therefore capitalising on the needs of Palestinians to attract attention and engagement in order to serve the purpose of their political agenda," Nashif said.

Al Jazeera reached out to the Israeli army's media office for comment but did not receive a reply at the time of publication.

'Digital occupation'

Following the Arab uprisings in 2011, Arab usage of social media platforms increased, representing an alternative to traditional media outlets that are mostly seen as mouthpieces of Arab regimes.

It is not a coincidence, Zaanin said, that the social media accounts of Adraee and Ofir Gendelman, the spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, were set up in the same year.

"It is not surprising that the Israeli army added new units of Arabic-speaking pages to its arsenal of various weapons," she said.

In 2016, an account was also set up for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit of the Israeli military in the occupied West Bank. Other pages on Facebook include Israel Speaks in Arabic, which has 1.4 million followers, and pages belonging to Israeli embassies in Egypt and Jordan. According to Zaanin, the open communication channel is set up to extract information from Palestinians and other Arabs, intimidate Palestinians from carrying out individual attacks against Israelis, and to vilify any form of Palestinian resistance.

"COGAT also exploits the bad situation in the Gaza Strip by blackmailing residents by promising them medical or travel permits or financial help to poor families, in exchange for providing them with information required by intelligence agents," she explained. "They then drop them and extort them as a form of recruitment."

Nashif calls this phenomenon "digital occupation" through which Israel is expanding its control, surveillance and oppression of Palestinians from reality to the virtual sphere.

One page, called Bidna Na'eesh in Arabic (We want to live), provides a telephone number for Palestinians to report information on wanted individuals and "perpetrators of attacks" against Israelis.

"Inform us, and you will benefit," the banner's page says, showing a picture of a wad of 100 dollar bills above a cartoon of a hand shake with an Israeli flag.

"This is extremely dangerous as it forms part of Israel's militarisation of the digital sphere, as there are tens of pages that have been created by military forces and secret services," Nashif said.
Arab interaction

Zaanin believes that the increase of Arab interaction with these Israeli accounts largely stems from ignorance and an underestimation of the effect that these interactions have in the short and long term. Far from using firebrand rhetoric, Israeli accounts in Arabic cushion their propaganda in inoffensive, seemingly reasonable language, peppered with Arab proverbs and Quranic verses. They also present themselves as being concerned with the wellbeing of the Arab citizen, and the dangers of being led astray by "terrorists" or any resistance to the Israeli state and occupation.

"There's also the possibility that a large number of followers of the accounts, whether on Facebook or Twitter, are Israelis aiming to trick Arab citizen to interact positively with them to break the barrier of fear," Zaanin said, adding that there are no official statistics about the followers' details.

According to Zaanin, Arab interaction with the accounts falls into two categories; those who know what they represent and respond by taunts, curses, or arguing the case for Palestinian rights, and those who see no problem in normalising relations with Israel and seek to satisfy their curiosity.

"One important point to me is that the appearance of Israeli officials on Arab television news channels has contributed to the Arab citizen's acceptance of them [on social media]," Zaanin said.
'Free service' to Israeli intelligence

Both Nashif and Zaanin agree that the proliferation of Arabic-language Israeli accounts is testament to the absence of any form of grassroot tactics, including raising awareness about the dangers these pages pose to Arab social media users, such as potential extortion. One way is to boycott the pages, and to raise awareness about their real motives, they said.

"Arabs are providing Israelis with a free service," Zaanin said. "They unwittingly provide Israeli intelligence officers with information, which is then used to infiltrate the accounts of Arab users.

"It's like handing over the keys to your home to your enemy," she added.

"More awareness should be raised around the issue," Nashif agreed. "Especially on a local level for Palestinians who should be advised to dissociate with these pages for their own personal safety and security."

'Facebook collaboration'

Another way to confront the Israeli accounts in Arabic is by setting up Palestinian and Arab accounts that refute Israeli propaganda.

"Unfortunately, social networking sites such as Facebook actively fight Palestinian content and delete such accounts," Zaanin said.

The collaboration between Israeli surveillance and Facebook is not new. According to 7amleh's annual Palestinian Digital Activism Report published on Tuesday, the cyber unit of the Israeli government officially stated that Facebook accepted 85 percent of the government's requests to delete content, accounts and pages of Palestinians in the year 2017.

"This kind of Israeli monitoring and control of Palestinian digital content on social media has become a tool for mass arrests and gross human rights and digital rights violations," the report stated.

In fact, more than 300 Palestinians from the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, were arrested by Israeli forces and tried in military courts because of social media posts, 7amleh said.

"These accounts are nothing more than a different combat unit," Zaanin said, "which is why it is very dangerous to interact with them at all."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/...121518782.html

سيف الله

04-05-2018, 10:41 PM

Salaam

More developments

Hundreds of Jewish settlers storm al-Aqsa compound

Flanked by heavily armed Israeli forces, more than 1,700 Jewish settlers have entered the religious site since Sunday.

Hundreds of Jewish settlers, flanked by heavily armed Israeli special forces, have stormed al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem to mark the Jewish holiday of Passover.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that around 500 settlers entered al-Aqsa Mosque in the early hours of Thursday before performing Jewish religious rituals near the Dome of the Rock Mosque.

Firas al-Dib, a spokesman for the Religious Endowments Authority, said at least 491 settlers and 13 special forces officers "broke into the compound", bringing the total number of Jewish settlers illegally entering the religious site since Sunday to 1,731.

The ancient marble-and-stone compound - known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif - houses al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, and the 7th-century Dome of the Rock.

Visits by Jewish groups, including politicians, have triggered violence over the years, with Palestinians fearing that Israeli hardliners are trying to take control of the site.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/hundreds-jewish-settlers-storm-al-aqsa-compound-180405181320434.html

سيف الله

04-06-2018, 10:06 PM

Salaam

Another update

Corbyn and Israel: Anti-Semitism row has silenced Labour leader on Gaza massacre
#Racism

It is appalling to use accusations against the Labour leader to cover up UK support for the dispossession of Palestinians

Recent publications about anti-Semitism - such as the excellent volume On Anti-Semitism by Jewish Voices for Peace - say that although every decent person opposes the phenomenon, there is no unified definition of it.

This philosophical, dare I say ontological, discussion is not very helpful for engaging with the recent row about alleged anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. Within the context of this particular debate, there is a handy definition that we all can use. It is clear, common, sensible and effective.

Hating Jews for who they are is anti-Semitism. It does not differ from the definition of modern-day racism. Any hate based on race, religion, colour or gender that leads to bigoted attitudes from below, and discriminatory, at times genocidal, policies from above, is racism.

There are six million Jews living today in historic Palestine next to six million Palestinians. Any generalisation about either community is racist, and since both communities are Semitic, such racism is anti-Semitism.

The role of the pro-Israel lobby

However, condemning people for their actions, whether they happen to be Jews or Palestinians, as opposed to their identity, is not anti-Semitism. This is also true for ideologies which are racist.

Condemning Zionism as a settler-colonial ideology that has led to the dispossession of half of the Palestinian population from their homeland, and for the current discriminatory and brutal Israeli policies against those who remain, is not anti-Semitism. It is in fact anti-racism.

The latest row about anti-Semitism, which is the culmination of a series of allegations and counter-allegations triggered by the election - for the first time since the 1917 Balfour Declaration - of a Labour leader who sympathises with the Palestinian struggle for justice and independence, illustrates well the difference between condemning an action and condemning an identity.

Since Jeremy Corbyn’s election, the pro-Israel lobby staff, as has also been exposed in the excellent Al Jazeera documentary The Lobby, has tirelessly gone over every tweet, Facebook post and speech he made since he began his life as a politician, in order to trash him as an anti-Semite.

It was not easy to find proof for this, as Corbyn is categorically against all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism. However, finally they discovered that he had supported, in the name of freedom of expression, a mural that could be interpreted as anti-Semitic (and was declared to be so, by some reports, by the artist).

As Corbyn himself admitted at the time, he should have studied the mural a bit longer. He did not. He apologised. Case closed.

He was elected by young people across Britain because of his human fallibility and not because he was yet another shallow, spineless, superhuman politician who has never admitted to making a mistake.

Another Labour politician, Christine Shawcroft, resigned after she lent her support to Alan Bull, a council candidate due to stand in Peterborough who she thought was unfairly accused of being a Holocaust denier. The candidate claimed the allegations were based on content that had been doctored and taken out of context.

How to silence a critic

The insignificant slip and Corbyn’s ill-informed support, if that is what it was, were enough for a show of force and unity by the organised Jewish community, whose activists staged a demonstration in front of parliament. Along with banners likening the Labour Party to Nazis, protesters waved Israeli flags.

The flags are the key issue here, not Corbyn’s support for the mural nor Shawcroft’s endorsement of Martin Bull. This was a demonstration against Corbyn’s pro-Palestinian stance, not against anti-Semitism.

Corbyn is not an anti-Semite and the Labour Party, until his election, was a pro-Israeli bastion. Therefore, the timing and disproportional response to the mural issue is, to say the least, bizarre - or not.

It is actually not so strange, if you understand the machinations of the Zionist lobby in the UK. The demonstration was staged at the start of a week in which Israel used lethal force against a peaceful march by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, killing 17 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more.

The Israeli flags show clearly the link between the attacks on Corbyn and his honourable and humane positions on Palestine. The dividend for the Zionist lobby in Britain was that Corbyn would be silent in the face of the new massacre in Gaza – and without him, we have very few brave politicians who would dare to utter a word in the new atmosphere of timidity.

The current politicians who run Israel have very few qualms, as we have seen, about systematically killing or arresting Palestinian children. Their allies in the Anglo-Jewish community, to their credit, are embarrassed by it. Their job of defending Israel is far more difficult nowadays, when Palestinians have clearly opted for non-violent popular resistance.

It is only a matter of time before the inhuman brutality that the Israeli army employs will be noted by public opinion, even in Britain, where the BBC and Sky News work hard to sidetrack the issue of Palestine from its reporting and discussion: both channels devoted more time to the mural than to the new Gaza massacre.
Appalling allegations

The Israel lobby would like all of us in Britain to discuss murals and latent anti-Semitism in a society where Jews have never been safer or more prosperous. Yes, there is anti-Semitism among all British parties - and much more on the right than on the left, by the way. It should be eradicated and condemned, as should any other form of racism, be it directed against Muslims or Jews in a predominantly Christian and white society.

What is appalling is to use the accusation of anti-Semitism to cover up Britain’s continued tacit, and at times direct, assistance to the dispossession of Palestinians, which began with the Balfour Declaration 100 years ago and has not stopped since.

It is deplorable to use such allegations to stifle debate on Palestine or to bring down politicians who are unwilling to toe the Israeli line.

It is not the Labour Party that is infested with anti-Semitism; it is the British media and political systems that are plagued by hypocrisy, paralysed by intimidation and ridden with hidden layers of Islamophobia and new chauvinism in the wake of Brexit.

Upon the Balfour Declaration’s centenary, all British parties should join a public inquiry commission on its legacy, rather than blowing a few missteps out of proportion either through ignorance or successful manipulation.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/corbyn-israel-palestine-how-anti-semitism-row-has-silenced-voice-gaza-massacre-962148956

Just to add

سيف الله

04-07-2018, 07:40 PM

Salaam

Protests in Gaza are leading to many deaths and injuries among Palestinians, yet Israel has faced little criticism

The political price of besieging or blockading urban areas like Gaza is rising because it is impossible to prevent information about the sufferings of those trapped inside such an enclaves becoming public

Thousands of protesters returned to the border this Friday, burning great heaps of tyres to produce a black smokescreen which they hoped would hide them from Israeli snipers. Gaza’s health ministry has said that five people were killed and 1,070 people were wounded on Friday, including 293 by live fire.

The demonstrators know what to expect. A video from the first day of the march shows a protester being shot in the back by an Israeli sniper as he walks away from the fence separating Gaza from Israel. In other footage, Palestinians are killed or wounded as they pray, walk empty-handed towards the border fence, or simply hold up a Palestinian flag. All who get within 300 yards are labelled “instigators” by the Israeli army, whose soldiers have orders to shoot them.

“Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed,” claimed a tweet from the Israeli military the day after the mass shooting on 30 March at the start of 45 days of what Palestinians call the “Great March of Return” to the homes they had in Israel 70 years ago. The tweet was deleted soon after, possibly because film had emerged of a protester being shot from behind.

The sheer scale of the casualties on the first day of the protest a week ago is striking, with as many as 16 killed and 1,415 injured, of whom 758 were hit by live fire according to Gaza health officials. These figures are contested by Israel, which says that the injured numbered only a few dozen. But Human Rights Watch spoke to doctors at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City who said that they had treated 294 injured demonstrators, mostly “with injuries to the lower limbs from live ammunition”.

Imagine for a moment that it was not the two million Palestinian in Gaza, who are mostly refugees from 1948, but the six million Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan who had staged a march to return to the homes that they have lost in Syria since 2011. Suppose that, as they approach the Syrian border, they were fired on by the Syrian army and hundreds of them were killed or injured. Syria would certainly claim that the demonstrators were armed and dangerous, though this would be contradicted by the absence of casualties among the Syrian military.

The international outcry against the murderous Syrian regime in Washington, London, Paris and Berlin would have echoed around the world. Boris Johnson would have denounced Assad as a butcher and Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UN, would have held up pictures of the dead and dying before the Security Council.

Of course, Israel would furiously deny that there was any parallel between the two situations. Its government spokesman, David Keyes, rebuked CNN for even using the word “protest” when “what actually happened is that Hamas engineered an event where they wanted thousands of people to swarm into Israel, to crush Israel, to commit acts of terror. Indeed, we have captured on camera pictures of people shooting guns, people placing bombs, people shooting rockets.”

In the event, no pictures of these supposedly well-armed protesters ever emerged. But four days later, Human Rights Watch published a report entitled Israel: Gaza Killings Unlawful, Calculated. Officials Green-Light Shooting of Unarmed Demonstrators, which said that it “could find no evidence of any protester using firearms”. It added that footage published by the Israeli army showing two men shooting at Israeli troops turned out not to have been filmed at the protest.

Israeli ministers are unabashed by the discrediting of claims that the demonstrators pose a military threat to Israel. Defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said that Israeli soldiers had “warded off Hamas military branch operatives capably and resolutely ... They have my full backing.” The free-fire policy is continuing as before and, as a result, the Israeli human rights organisation, B’Tselem, has launched a campaign called “Sorry Commander I Cannot Shoot”, which encourages soldiers to refuse to shoot unarmed civilians on the grounds that this is illegal.

Why is the surge in Palestinian protests coming now and why is Israel responding so violently? There is nothing new in Palestinian demonstrations about the loss of their land and Israel’s aggressive military response. But there may be particular reasons that a confrontation is happening now, such as Palestinian anger at President Trump’s decision in December to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the move of the US embassy to there from Tel Aviv. This trumpeted Washington’s unconditional support for the Israeli position and the US disregard for the Palestinians and any remaining hopes they might have to win at least some concessions with US support.

Strong support from the Trump administration is reported by the Israeli press to be further reason why the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, feels that bad publicity over the shootings in Gaza will not damage Israel’s position in the US. In the past, controversy over the mass killings of Palestinian or Lebanese by Israel has sometimes provoked a negative US response that has curbed Israel’s use of force.

So far, Israel has faced little criticism from an international media uninterested in the Gaza story, or else is happy to go along with Israel’s interpretation of events. The vocabulary used by news outlets is often revealing: for instance, the BBC website on 31 March had a headline reading “Gaza-Israel border: Clashes ‘leave 16 Palestinians dead and hundreds injured”. The word “clashes” implies combat between two groups capable of fighting each other, though, as Human Rights Watch says, the demonstrators pose no threat to an all-powerful Israeli military machine – a point reinforced by the fact that all the dead and wounded are Palestinian.

Possibly, the Israelis are miscalculating the impact of excessive use of force on public opinion: in the age of wifi and the internet, graphic images of the victims of violence are immediately broadcast to the world, often with devastating effect. As in Syria and Iraq, the political price of besieging or blockading urban areas like Gaza or Eastern Ghouta is rising because it is impossible to prevent information about the sufferings of those trapped inside such an enclaves becoming public, though this may have no impact on the course of events.

Contrary to Keyes’ claims, the idea of a mass march against the fence seems to have first emerged in social media in Gaza and was only later adopted by Hamas. It is the only strategy likely to show results for the Palestinians because they have no military option, no powerful allies and their leadership is moribund and corrupt. But they do have numbers: a recent report to the Israeli Knesset saying that there are roughly 6.5 million Palestinian Arabs and an equal number of Jewish Israeli citizens in Israel and the West Bank, not counting those in East Jerusalem and Gaza. Israel has usually had more difficulty in dealing with non-violent civil rights type mass movements among Palestinians than it has had fighting armed insurgencies.

Keyes claims that the demonstrations are orchestrated by Hamas, but here again he is mistaken on an important point because witnesses on the spot say that the impetus for the protests is coming from non-party groups and individuals. They voice frustration with the failed, divided and self-seeking Palestinian leaders of both Hamas and Fatah. The most dangerous aspect of the situation in terms of its potential for violence may be that nobody is really in charge.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/israel-palestine-gaza-march-of-return-protest-deaths-a8292601.html

Jeremy Corbyn responds.

سيف الله

04-07-2018, 09:59 PM

Salaam

If this is true, it wont be a surprise :hmm:.

Report: Egypt, Saudi Arabia urge Hamas to end 'Great March of Return' protests

Over 20,000 Gazans participated in Friday's protests, in which 10 people, including 2 minors and one journalist, were killed.

Both Saudi Arabia and Egypt have called on militant organization Hamas to end the annual weekly protests it is holding for the "Great March of Return," according to an Egyptian source.

An Egyptian Foreign Ministry official was anonymously quoted as saying that, in exchange for halting the protests, Egypt would ensure that the Rafah border crossing, which Egypt controls, would be regularly opened. The source said that the agreement had come under the direction of the Saudis.

"The situation in the Gaza Strip is nearing an explosion towards anyone blockading it," the source said, "and therefore there is a fear that Palestinian anger will turn towards Egypt in the coming weeks."

The source also added that Saudi and Egyptian officials had opened contacts with Hamas leaders to urge calm in Gaza.

The London-based Al Hayat newspaper reported that an Egyptian delegation was being sent to Gaza to meet with the Hamas leadership, and one source told the paper that the head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service, General Abbas Kamel, had been tasked by Saudi Arabia to send a team to "neutralize the explosive situation."

Earlier in the week, Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman asked Kamel to pass on a message to Hamas leaders concerning the protests, saying that Israel has "no tolerance" for the goings-on in Gaza.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia, in communicating with Hamas, are also reportedly aiming to prevent greater confrontations between the Palestinians and Israel.

While Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1979 and have retained a relatively stable relationship since then, no official contact exists between Israel and Saudi Arabia. However, Israeli officials said in the fall that covert contacts had been made between the two countries. Saudi Arabia's recent ruling to allow India Air flights between Tel Aviv and New Delhi to fly over its sovereign air space signals a general warming trend between Israel and the region's largest Sunni state.

Friday's protests marked the second week of the "Great March in Return" in Gaza. Crowds of approximately 20,000 turned out to protest on the border between Gaza and Israel. 10 Gazans, including two minors and one journalist, were killed in the clashes. While estimates of the number of protestors injured vary, it is assumed that over 1000 Palestinians were wounded.

The protests are expected to continue each Friday for the next several weeks.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Report-Egypt-Saudi-Arabia-urge-Hamas-to-end-Great-March-of-Return-protests-549077

سيف الله

04-08-2018, 08:23 AM

Salaam

Like to share. Drone footage of the Gaza protests.

سيف الله

04-08-2018, 10:57 PM

Salaam

Another update

The only serious question is, Why does killing unarmed protesters in the back only “raise serious questions”? (Cowardly, hypocritical Europe)

EU: Gaza Border Deaths Raise ‘Serious Questions’ About Israel’s Use of Force

After nine killed, the EU calls on the IDF to clarify how Palestinian protesters targeted Israeli forces and attempted to breach border

The European Union released a statement Saturday in response to deadly clashes at the Gaza-Israel border Friday, saying they raise “serious questions about the proportionate use of force.”

Nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli army gunfire after clashes resumed between Palestinian protesters and Israeli forces along the Gaza border on Friday, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported. The dead include photojournalist Yaser Murtaja, who was shot in the chest while wearing a vest marked “press.”

“Yesterday, at least nine Palestinians, including a minor and a journalist wearing a ‘press’ jacket, were killed in Gaza and hundreds were injured by Israeli live fire,” reads the EU statement. “This raises serious questions about the proportionate use of force which must be addressed.”

It was the second consecutive Friday of mass protests known as the “March of Return,” a series of demonstrations along the border leading up to Nakba Day.

The EU statement continued: “Reports by the Israeli Defense Forces about throwing stones and firebombs against their positions and attempts to cross the fence into Israel must also be clarified.” It also called for restraint, access to medical supplies for the injured and for the Palestinian Authority to assume full responsibility in Gaza.
In response to the death of Murtaja, the IDF has said that it “does not intend to shoot at journalists, and the circumstances in which journalists were allegedly injured by IDF gunfire are unknown and are being investigated.”

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini called on Saturday for an independent and transparent investigation into the Israeli military’s use of live fire during mass rallies last week, in which 15 were killed.

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/04/08/the-only-serious-question-is-why-does-killing-unarmed-protesters-in-the-back-only-raise-serious-questions-cowardly-hypocritical-europe/

سيف الله

04-08-2018, 11:30 PM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

04-09-2018, 07:57 PM

Salaam

Another update. Could you imagine if your favourite bad guy said this.

سيف الله

04-10-2018, 08:20 PM

Salaam

Extensive analysis of recent events. Take your time.

Killing Mosquitoes: The Latest Gaza Massacres, Pro-Israel Media Bias And The Weapon Of ‘Antisemitism’

The Palestinians have long been seen as an obstacle by Israel's leaders; an irritant to be subjugated. Noam Chomsky commented:

'Traditionally over the years, Israel has sought to crush any resistance to its programs of takeover of the parts of Palestine it regards as valuable, while eliminating any hope for the indigenous population to have a decent existence enjoying national rights.'

He also noted:

'The key feature of the occupation has always been humiliation: they [the Palestinians] must not be allowed to raise their heads. The basic principle, often openly expressed, is that the "Araboushim" - a term that belongs with "------" or "kike" - must understand who rules this land and who walks in it with head lowered and eyes averted.' (Noam Chomsky, 'Fateful Triangle,' Pluto Press, 1999, p.489)

Recent events encapsulate this all too well. On Friday, March 30, Israeli soldiers shot dead 14 Palestinians and wounded 1400, including 800 hit by live ammunition. By April 5, the death toll had risen to 21. During a second protest, one week later on Friday, April 7, the Israelis shot dead a further 10 Palestinians, including a 16-year-old boy, and more than 1300 were injured. Among those killed was Yasser Murtaja, a journalist who had been filming the protest. He had been wearing a distinctive blue protective vest marked 'PRESS' in large capital letters. The brutality, and utter brazenness with which the killings were carried out, is yet another demonstration of the apartheid state's contempt for the people it tried to ethnically cleanse in 1948, the year of Israel's founding.

On the first day of the protest, on March 30, many Palestinians had gathered in Gaza, close to the border with Israel, as part of a peaceful 'Great March of Return' protest demanding the right to reclaim ancestral homes in Israel. 100 Israeli snipers lay in wait, shooting at protesters, including an 18-year-old shot in the back while running away from the border. The Israel army boasted in a quickly-deleted tweet that the massacre had been planned, deliberate and premeditated:

'Nothing was carried out uncontrolled; everything was accurate and measured, and we know where every bullet landed'

BBC News and other 'mainstream' news outlets, including the Guardian, carried headlines about 'clashes' at the Gaza-Israel border 'leaving' Palestinians dead and injured. As we noted via Twitter, an honest headline would have read:

'Israeli troops kill 16 Palestinians and injure hundreds'

When the Israelis shot dead yet more Palestinians on the second Friday of protests, the BBC reported, 'Deadly unrest on Gaza-Israel border as Palestinians resume protest'. BBC 'impartiality' meant not headlining Israeli troops as the agency responsible for the 'deadly unrest'.

Adam Johnson, writing for Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, observed of news reports carrying inappropriate headlines about 'clashes':

'We do not have one party's snipers opening fire on another, unarmed party; we have "violent clashes"—a term, as FAIR has noted before, that implies symmetry of forces and is often used to launder responsibility.'

Later, the Guardian quietly removed the word 'clashes' from its headlines, while adding Israeli military spin: that the protest was a Hamas ploy to 'carry out terror attacks'; compare this early version with a later version.

On the first Friday of mass killing, we noted that the Israeli newspaper Haaretz had reported the presence of Israeli snipers. We asked the public to look for any mention of this on BBC News. Around the time we made the request, the Newssniffer website picked up the first reference to 'snipers' on the BBC News website (albeit buried in a tiny mention at the bottom of a news article). Coincidence? Or were BBC editors aware that their output was under public scrutiny?

Within just one day, the BBC had relegated the news of the mass shootings in Gaza to a minor slot on its website. It considered 'news' about television personality Dec presenting Saturday Night Takeaway without Ant, and royal couple Harry and Meghan choosing wedding flowers, more important than Israel killing and wounding many hundreds of Palestinians.

When BBC News finally turned to Gaza, with a piece buried at the bottom of its World news page, it was from Israel's perspective:

'Israel warns it could strike inside Gaza'

and:

'Palestinian groups using protests as a cover to launch attacks on Israel'

This disgraceful coverage strongly suggested that Israel was the victim. As political analyst Charles Shoebridge observed:

'Editors especially at the BBC aren't stupid, they know exactly what they're doing, and the use of very many devices such as this isn't somehow repeatedly accidental. Indeed, it's a good example of how the BBC is perhaps history's most sophisticated and successful propaganda tool.'

By contrast, a powerful article in Haaretz from veteran Israeli journalist Gideon Levy pointed to the reality that the mass shooting by Israeli 'Defence' Forces:

'shows once again that the killing of Palestinians is accepted in Israel more lightly than the killing of mosquitoes.'

The Silence of Liberal 'Interventionists'

Last year, Jeremy Corbyn was hounded by 'mainstream' media jounalists, demanding that he condemn acts of violence by the socialist government in Venezuela. But there was no corporate media campaign calling upon Theresa May to denounce much worse Israeli violence. The same media that devoted sustained, in-depth coverage of Spanish police brutality during the Catalan independence referendum swiftly relegated Israel's mass murder to 'other news'.

Imagine if Russian or Syrian troops had shot dead almost 30 civilians, and injured well over 1000, during peaceful protests. 'MSM' headlines and airwaves would be filled with condemnations from senior UK politicians and prominent commentators. But not so when it is Israel doing the killing.

We tweeted:

'Twitter task for today: think of any of the famously impassioned, outraged "humanitarian interventionists" in the Guardian, The Times, the Observer and so on, and check how much they've tweeted about the mass killings and woundings in Gaza. Go ahead, try it.'

Examples were glaring by their absence.

Writing for The Intercept, journalist Mehdi Hasan asked rhetorically:

'Where is the moral outrage from former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, the famously pro-intervention, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of a "A Problem From Hell," which lamented U.S. inaction in Rwanda [...]?

'Where is the demand from Canadian academic-turned-politician Michael Ignatieff, who was once one of the loudest voices in favor of the so-called responsibility to protect doctrine, for peacekeeping troops to be deployed to the Occupied Territories?

'Where are the righteously angry op-eds from Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, or Richard Cohen of the Washington Post, or David Aaronovitch of The Times of London, demanding concrete action against the human rights abusers of the IDF?'

Hasan concluded:

'The ongoing and glaring refusal of liberal interventionists in the West to say even a word about the need to protect occupied Palestinians from state-sponsored violence is a reminder of just how morally bankrupt and cynically hypocritical the whole "liberal intervention" shtick is.'

Global realpolitik was highlighted yet again when the US government blocked a vote at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council calling for an international investigation into the mass shooting of civilians by Israeli troops on March 30. The US repeated its block a week later after the second wave of Israeli killing. We have found no coverage in the UK 'mainstream' media of the US blocking a UN investigation. In other words, Israel can act with impunity when committing grievous crimes against humanity, backed to the hilt by its biggest sponsor in Washington.

Weaponising 'Antisemitism' Against Corbyn

Meanwhile, the 'MSM' was continuing to deploy charges of alleged antisemitism against Corbyn-led Labour; and, seen in a wider political context, against realistic hopes of even moderately progressive changes to UK government policy.

A Facebook comment made in 2012 by Corbyn about a mural depicting Jewish and non-Jewish bankers was unearthed and used to mount a remarkable barrage of vehement media attacks. BBC News took its lead from the obviously right-wing, anti-Corbyn agenda across the 'spectrum' of the country's 'free press'.

The attacks continued with a vicious front-page 'exclusive' in the extreme right-wing Sunday Times:

'Exposed: Corbyn's hate factory'

The article, based on a trawl of Facebook posts, painted a hugely exaggerated picture of 'racism, violent threats and abuse by leader's fan base'. Alex Nunns, author of The Candidate, a book about Corbyn's 'improbable path to power', pointed out the absurdly cynical nature of this Murdoch 'journalism'. Nunns undertook his own Facebook search for posts by Conservatives and quickly discovered examples of misogyny, abuse, an implied threat of violence and implicit racism. The Tory Facebook page he found:

'appears to have links to The Bruges Group, which in turn has links to leading Conservative politicians including Iain Duncan Smith. Headline: "EXPOSED: Iain Duncan Smith's hate factory." See how this is done?'

Guardian columnist Owen Jones picked up Nunns' tweets and pointed out in a live BBC interview:

'Why has there been no coverage of the despicable racism and abuse found in Conservative Facebook groups'?

The BBC news presenter replied:

'Because Labour is the story at the moment'.

That the 'MSM', including the BBC, had made Labour 'the story at the moment' was simply not worthy of comment by corporate journalists or, perhaps, permissible thought.

Shamefully, the BBC published a big splash based on the Sunday Times article on 'Jeremy Corbyn's hate factory'. The BBC piece was almost gleeful in saying that there was 'no let up for Labour':

'With negative stories on the front pages of at least four newspapers, this is not a happy Easter Sunday for Labour.'

In other words, as it so often does, the BBC was following the lead of the right-wing, anti-Corbyn 'mainstream' press. The onslaught of 'news' linking Corbyn to 'antisemitism' continued with an account of how Corbyn had attended a 'left wing Jewish event' organised by Jewdas. The BBC stated:

'Jewdas, which describes itself as a "radical" and "alternative" Jewish collective, is at odds with mainstream Jewish groups over allegations of anti-Semitism in Labour.'

Three of the principal pro-Israel bodies in the UK, the Jewish Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council and Jewish Labour Movement, criticised Corbyn for attending the event. The BBC reported:

'Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: "If Jeremy Corbyn goes to their event, how can we take his stated commitment to be an ally against anti-Semitism seriously?"'

The BBC not only ran with this latest 'story' linking Corbyn to antisemitism, but promoted it as the lead item on the BBC News website.

However, there is nothing that says we must allow BBC News to determine what is 'mainstream' and what is not. And, in particular, when it comes to the Jewish Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council and Jewish Labour Movement, journalist Asa Winstanley of Electronic Intifada notes:

'Their primary function is to lobby for Israel, an institutionally racist, apartheid state.'

A measure of the Jewish Board of Deputies' staunch pro-Israel stance can be seen from the tweet they sent in the wake of the brutal Israeli killings in the first Friday border protest:

'Alarming developments at Gaza border as Hamas once again using its civilians - inc children - as pawns.'

The lack of condemnation from 'mainstream' voices in politics and the media to such a disgraceful message reveals widespread deep fear of being accused of antisemitism. This fear, used to constrain reasoned debate, needs to be seen in a broader historical context. In 2002, former Israeli minister Shulamit Aloni explained the rationale behind the charge of antisemitism:

'Well, it's a trick – we always use it. When from Europe somebody's criticising Israel then we bring up the Holocaust.'

And it works. Professor Greg Philo of the Glasgow Media Group related that he was once told by a senior BBC News editor:

'The BBC waits in fear for the telephone call from the Israelis.'

None of the above is to deny that there is a significant problem of antisemitism in British politics, or in wider British society. But, as the group Jews for Justice for Palestinians notes, the facts are that:

'Levels of antisemitism among those on the left-wing of the political spectrum, including the far-left, are indistinguishable from those found in the general population.'

Moreover, antisemitism has decreased in Labour under Corbyn, and public polling indicates that it is more prevalent among Conservative and UKIP members than among Labour and Liberal members. Indeed, there is ample evidence of an extraordinary scale of Tory racism and abuse.

In summary, then, here is the horrible irony of recent coverage on Israel and antisemitism: the corporate media continued to headline Corbyn's 'antisemitism crisis' - supposedly triggered by a comment about a mural in 2012 – while quickly relegating Israel's massacres of civilian Palestinians to 'other news' at the bottom of the page and running order.

The truth is that the deadliest racism today is indicated by the casual way in which the West and its allies rain violence down on countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen. Although human rights are typically used as a pretext, the real goal is control of natural resources and the global economy; the tears of compassion evaporate the instant that an Official Enemy obstructing Western control has been overthrown. As Chomsky has noted, this is actually closer to a kind of speciesism than racism:

'Namely, knowing that you are massacring them but not doing so intentionally because you don't regard them as worthy of concern. That is, you don't even care enough about them to intend to kill them. Thus when I walk down the street, if I stop to think about it I know I'll probably kill lots of ants, but I don't intend to kill them, because in my mind they do not even rise to the level where it matters. There are many such examples. To take one of the very minor ones, when [President Bill] Clinton bombed the al-Shifa pharmaceutical facility in Sudan, he and the other perpetrators surely knew that the bombing would kill civilians (tens of thousands, apparently). But Clinton and associates did not intend to kill them, because by the standards of Western liberal humanitarian racism, they are no more significant than ants. Same in the case of tens of millions of others.'

A further example, as we have seen, are the yawns of indifference from the corporate media as hundreds of civilian protestors – Palestinian 'mosquitoes' - are gunned down by Israeli snipers.

http://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/alert-archive/2018/867-killing-mosquitoes-the-latest-gaza-massacres-pro-israel-media-bias-and-the-weapon-of-antisemitism.html

سيف الله

04-12-2018, 07:46 PM

Salaam

Another update

'Greater Jerusalem means no churches and no mosques'

'There can never be peace until the Jerusalem file is satisfactorily resolved,' says chairman of Jerusalem Endowment.

Palestinian interfaith officials have warned against monopolising the city of Jerusalem by the Israeli government and the effects that would have on Christianity and Islam.

Hanna Issa, secretary-general of the Palestinian Authority's Muslim-Christian Committee said that more than 95 percent of Jerusalem had already been "Judaised" by Israel, and that "Greater Jerusalem" would alter the city's identity and importance to Christianians and Muslims.

"Israel wants to establish its so-called 'Greater Jerusalem' on an area of 600sq km, which would mean the destruction of the city's churches and mosques," Issa said.

The warning came during the 9th International Conference on the Holy City of Jerusalem on Wednesday, which kicked off in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. The conference was attended by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and numerous delegations from across the Arab and Muslim world. Munib Masri, chairman of the Jerusalem Endowment, stressed Jerusalem's importance for both Muslims and Christians.

"The world must understand that there can never be peace until the Jerusalem file is satisfactorily resolved," he said.

He added: "Jerusalem requires practical initiatives and financial support with a view to strengthening the resolve of its people."

Speaking at the event, Youssef Edies, Palestinian minister of religious endowments, described Jerusalem as "the birthplace of religions".

"We must focus on Arab, Muslim and international efforts on resisting the fierce Western onslaught against the Holy Land," he asserted.

Israeli control

Israel occupied and annexed East Jerusalem in the aftermath of the June 1967 War, in a move that was never recognised by the international community. Since then, Israel has built more than a dozen housing complexes for Jewish Israelis, known as settlements, some in the middle of Palestinian neighbourhoods in East Jerusalem. Israel's settlement project, which is aimed at the consolidation of Israel's control over the city, is also considered illegal under international law. About 200,000 Israeli citizens live in East Jerusalem under army and police protection, with the largest single settlement complex housing 44,000 Israelis.

Such fortified settlements, often scattered between Palestinians' homes, infringe on the freedom of movement, privacy and security of Palestinians.

Call for free access

Last Saturday, a United Nations envoy accused Israel of trying to block him and other diplomats from a pre-Easter "Holy Fire" ritual in the packed Jerusalem church Christians revere as the burial site of Jesus. Robert Serry, the UN's peace envoy to the Middle East, said in a statement that Israeli security officers had stopped him and a group of Palestinian worshippers and diplomats in a procession near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, "claiming they had orders to that effect". Last month, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said church authorities had applied for around 600 permits for Palestinian Christians in Gaza to travel to Jerusalem to celebrate Easter, but none were granted.

Father Ibrahim Shomali, chancellor of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said: "We have to have free access to the Holy Land, free access to our holy places."

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/jerusalem-means-churches-mosques-180411192421173.html

سيف الله

04-13-2018, 04:19 PM

Salaam

Another update. BBC is is morphing into the Pravda.

BBC (British B******t Corporation)

A Sad Excuse for Objectivity: My Interview With the BBC, a Broadcaster in Israel’s Pocket

Use the term ‘disputed territory’ for the West Bank and you’re ignoring the fact that Palestinians are subjected under Israeli rule without rights for 50 years

LONDON — The interviewer’s questions on local BBC radio reflected another arena in which the Israeli government has scored a victory. After the preliminary “good morning,” first she asked the opinion of her Israeli guest about the public debate surrounding anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party. Unfortunately, I, the radio guest, fell for it.

I related to the question itself instead of saying: “Excuse me, but my expertise is not British politics but rather the Israeli occupation,” or “I’m still studying the matter. Let’s talk about Israel imprisoning two million people in the Gaza Strip,” or “The killing of almost 30 unarmed demonstrators by Israeli sharpshooters should concern British Jews and Israel’s other friends.” “What’s more,” I could have said: “There are probably a few Israeli soldiers with dual Israeli and British citizenship who are involved somehow, perhaps spokespeople, explaining in fine English to your colleagues why the demonstrators were killed according to the rules.” Instead air time that should have been devoted to Israel’s policies was wasted on questions that were in no way connected to me.

The second question, “How was it to live in Gaza?” was also a surprise and provided a lesson in how to ask an open-ended question. I failed again. I could have said that I lived in Gaza a long time ago. I could have said: “Let’s talk about something recent. For example, last week I gave the annual Edward Said memorial lecture in London. I spoke there about the methodical way in which Israel planned the Palestinian enclaves, as a domestic Israeli compromise between the desire for the Palestinians to disappear, 1948-style, and the realization that the geopolitical circumstances would not permit this. But there is a danger that nationalistic-messianic forces, whose strength in Israeli politics is growing and who are wizards at strategic planning, will push for mass expulsion of Palestinians beyond the country’s borders. To prevent this scenario, it should be discussed and warned against.”

From there, the interviewer moved on to the peace process and why the forces seeking to bring about peace have not managed to do so. My response, that Israel has done everything to thwart an agreed-upon solution based on the establishment of a Palestinian state, prompted my interviewer to ask whether it was not too simplistic to put all the responsibility on Israel. Crusading journalism was answered with Israeli rudeness: It’s not simplistic, I retorted. In a few minutes on the air, the listeners are receiving a summary of 25 years of research on Israeli policy, I said, and I cited the settlementsas an example. If Israel wanted peace, it would not have expanded the settlements and imprisoned Palestinians in reserves.

A third surprise: The BBC journalist said: “But the Israelis say that it’s theirs.” Once again, I summoned up Israeli rudeness. “The Israelis will say that the moon is theirs. So what?” A few more words on the settlements, and then came the cherry on top. This is disputed territory, my interviewer said.

I don’t know whether she meant all the territory conquered in 1967 or Area C, the portion of the West Bank under full Israeli control, which the Habayit Hayehudi party is working to annex as a first step. As I recall, even according to Britain’s conservative governments, this remains occupied territory that is meant to become a Palestinian state, and Israeli actions to forcibly uproot the Palestinian population there are a violation of international law.

More than the neutral questions, the interviewer’s choice of the term “disputed territory” instead of “occupied territory” shows that Israeli or pro-Israeli occupation-justifying propaganda has sunk in — in the guise of objective or neutral journalism. Use of the term “disputed territory” clearly means ignoring the fact that the Palestinians who live there are subjects who have been without rights for 50 years under Israeli rule. This is not a demonstration of professional neutral journalism. Instead it highlights an attitude of disregard of the natives, erasing them, if not out of identification with the Israeli rulers then out of fear that complaints will be lodged with BBC management.

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/04...t-corporation/

Good interview

Futuwwa

04-14-2018, 08:02 PM

The fallout over Corbyn and the Jewdas Seder has been hilarious. The Pharisees are mightily butthurt that the whole affair has revealed their dirty little secret, that they are far from as representative of British Jewish opinion as they'd want you to think.

Whoever invited Corbyn will probably be wearing his best trollface for a long time ;D

سيف الله

04-14-2018, 11:39 PM

Salaam

Like to share.

سيف الله

04-16-2018, 04:11 AM

Salaam

The Jewish establishment moving in on Gilad Atzmon.

Gilad Atzmon Needs Your Support!

I am being sued for libel in the High Court in England by Campaign Against Antisemitsm’s chairman Gideon Falter. I have made the decision to fight this crucial battle for freedom of expression even though this fight poses a real risk of bankrupting me and my family.

I choose to fight their suit because I believe that the CAA and its chairman and its use of libel laws pose a danger to freedom of speech and the future of this country as an open society. Enough is enough!

Mr. Falter has sued me for comments I made on my own website.

My comments were made in the context of expressing my opinion about the situation where, lastJuly, The British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) attested that there had been no increase in anti-Semitism in Britain, and Gideon Falter and the CAA refused to accept the CPS’s verdict. Falter and the CAA insisted that anti Semitism was on the rise. Sky news reported on the discrepancies between the findings of CPS and the CAA.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2LgDoRqgN8

My article focused on the choice examined by Sky News between two accounts, one maintained by Falter and the CAA, an NGO that is dedicated to prosecuting antisemitism with “zero tolerance”, and the judicial approach of the CPS: a public body, subject to scrutiny and committed to impartiality.

My comments about the CAA are the basis of their lawsuit. I believe that I have the right to express my opinions on my own website: freedom of political expression is at the heart of freedom of speech. Mr Falter claims that my criticisms of him do not amount to an opinion at all, and is seeking an order that would stop me from saying anything similar about him again, as well as paying him huge sums in libel damages and legal costs.

The CAA has contacted Jazz venues, community centres, concert halls and even overseas companies demanding that my events be cancelled. They have now escalated this battle and if they win this will ruin me financially.

I can not fund my defence alone. I am obliged to ask every peace loving human being who cares about freedom and ethics for funds to help me defend this case. Fighting this battle may cost tens of thousands of pounds. I am going to need some four figure donations to fund the ludicrous amount required. But every single penny mounts up and please do give something.

If you have ever enjoyed my writing – join the fight. If you don’t agree with me yet support freedom of speech – my fight is your fight. If you support the right to point at the truth without being labeled ant-Semitic – this lawsuit is the battle ground, my fight is your fight.

I appreciate any help you can give.

http://www.gilad.co.uk/

سيف الله

04-16-2018, 11:22 AM

Salaam

Another update, missed this

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh blacklisted as ‘terrorist’ by US

State Department says Haniyeh has been ‘involved in terrorist attacks’ on Israeli citizens and is a ‘proponent of armed struggle… against civilians’

The United States on Wednesday put the head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, on its terrorism blacklist in a move that will raise tensions already high due to Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“Haniyeh has close links with Hamas’ military wing and has been a proponent of armed struggle, including against civilians,” the State Department said in a statement.

“He has reportedly been involved in terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens. Hamas has been responsible for an estimated 17 American lives killed in terrorist attacks.”

The 55-year-old Haniyeh, who was named head of Hamas in May 2017, is now on the US Treasury sanctions blacklist, which freezes any US-based assets he may have and bans any US person or company from doing business with him.

He is now a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”, or SDGT, a title used to describe leaders of international terrorism organisations or perpetrators of mass-scale terrorism attacks. Hamas, which controls Gaza, has been officially considered a terrorist organisation by the US for decades.

‘A failed attempt’

A spokesperson for Hamas told Middle East Eye that placing Haniyeh on the list was an attempt to legitimise the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Putting the Hamas leader on the list is “is a failed attempt to put pressure on the resistance, and will not deter us from continuing to uphold resistance as a tool to expel the occupation,” the spokesperson said.

“The decision of the US treasury reveals the extent of US bias towards the Israeli occupation and their participation in denying the rights of our people, and this decision is an attempt to legitimise the occupation,” he said.

Leaders committing crimes against the Palestinian people should be on the list instead, he added.

The State Department also designated Harakat al-Sabireen, a group which operates in Gaza, and two Egyptian groups – Liwa al-Thawra and Harakat Sawa’d Misr (HASM) – as terrorist organisations.

“Some of the leaders of the violent splinter groups, Liwa al-Thawra and Hasm, were previously associated with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood,” a statement by the State Department noted.

The Trump administration reportedly considered blacklisting the Brotherhood last year. Muslim American groups had warned against such designation, saying that it would be used to target all Muslims in the US.

The popular Islamist movement has been outlawed in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

In Egypt, where the military overthrew Mohammed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group says it is committed to peaceful political activism.

The department said Wednesday’s designations “target key terrorist groups and leaders… who are threatening the stability of the Middle East, undermining the peace process and attacking our allies Egypt and Israel”.

“Ismail Haniyeh is the leader and president of the political bureau of Hamas, which was designated in 1997 as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and in 2001 as an SDGT.”

“These designations seek to deny Ismail Haniyeh, Harakat al-Sabireen, Liwa al-Thawra, and HASM the resources they need to plan and carry out further terrorist attacks.”

rest here

https://www.middleeastobserver.org/2018/02/01/hamas-leader-ismail-haniyeh-blacklisted-as-terrorist-by-us/

سيف الله

04-17-2018, 07:20 PM

Salaam

Another update

Israel celebrates 'pyrrhic' victory as it turns 70

Israel benefits from a strong military and even stronger allies, but analysts warn the state faces major challenges.

It appears Israelis have every reason to be in a festive mood this week as they celebrate the 70th anniversary of their state's founding. This "Independence Day", which Israel marks according to the Hebrew calendar, on April 19, the regional, security and diplomatic environment looks to be the most favourable Israel has faced in its short history. The Palestinians have been crushed and Israel faces no international pressure to concede a two-state solution. The Arab states are in disarray, with growing signs that Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states may be ready to normalise relations.

The Trump administration is little more than a cheerleader for Israel, and has pre-empted Palestinian ambitions for statehood by moving its embassy to Jerusalem next month. And Israel has one of the few economies that is thriving despite the global recession sparked by the financial meltdown a decade ago. Nonetheless, analysts warn, the picture over the coming decades may prove to be far less rosy than it appears now. The relatively free hand Israel currently enjoys comes with new costs and dangers, they argue.

"This is more like a pyrrhic victory," Amal Jamal, a politics professor at Tel Aviv University, told Al Jazeera.

"Israel has won this round of the battle, but at a price it probably can't afford in the coming rounds."

'The end of the Jewish state'

That sentiment is shared in unlikely places. Last month, Israel's popular Yedioth Aharonoth daily published the assessments of six former heads of Israel's spy agency Mossad, headlined: "The country is in grave condition."

One, Dani Yatom, went so far as to predict "the end of the Jewish state". Another, Nahum Admoni, warned that the rift within the Israeli Jewish public was "greater than at any other time" in Israel's history. Michal Warschawski, an Israeli analyst and founder of the Alternative Information Centre, argued that Israel was suffering from "classic hubris".

"Israel is strong, rich and has powerful allies. That explains its extreme arrogance at the moment," he told Al Jazeera.

"We are now in a strange situation in which the security apparatus has more insight into Israel's problems than the politicians."

An indication of Israel's troubles ahead are the popular, unarmed protests that have exploded on to the Palestinian political scene along Gaza's perimeter fence. For decades Israel's internal security has been carefully built on an intricate system of containing, isolating and repressing Palestinians with walls, checkpoints and blockades. But the Gaza protests suggest to some observers that Israel's complex fortifications could quickly turn into a house of cards if unarmed resistance by Palestinians grows or spreads.

Israeli military commanders have repeatedly warned that they have no strategy for countering a mass popular revolt. The use of snipers to terrify away protesters was a sign of Israel's desperation, say analysts. Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery observed in a column at the weekend: "Like the British in India and the white racists in the US, the Israeli government does not know how to deal with unarmed protest." Assad Ghanem, a political scientist at Haifa University, told Al Jazeera: "What happens to Israel will depend in part on what Palestinians choose to do, and Palestinians aren't going to accept third or fourth-class status forever."

He noted that historically Palestinians had looked to the wider Arab world for support, including military assistance.

"For the first time, the Palestinians are on their own. They have slowly internalised the fact that Israel cannot be defeated with arms, and they must move towards a non-armed struggle."

Israel would be in "serious difficulty" if the protests in Gaza spread, unifying Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, Israel and the refugee camps of Lebanon and Syria. "Israel cannot repress all these fronts at the same time," he said.

Jamal, of Tel Aviv University, observed that the Palestinian struggle would be influenced by changing international circumstances.

"The Israeli right is behaving as if the shift to the right in the west will last forever. It won't - there will be a backlash," he argued.

'No depth to international support'

But if Israel has reason to worry about where increasing hopelessness may drive the Palestinians, it has additional dark clouds looming on the horizon. International support for Israel has no depth, according to Jeff Halper, an Israeli analyst.

"Israel may have the support of Western governments, but it has lost the fight for international public opinion. Its defenders sound increasingly shrill and isolated," he told Al Jazeera.

Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian, noted that Israel's position was severely weakened by its explicit abandonment of any peace process.

"While the two-state framework was formally on the table, it was much easier for people to accept the current reality," he told Al Jazeera. "But without it, Israel is naked, it is exposed as an apartheid state."

That, said Jamal, would make it much harder for Israel to maintain alliances with progressives movements in the US and Europe. He pointed to Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour party, as an example of the new breed of politician prepared to be outspoken in support of the Palestinians. Polls have also revealed for the first time widespread antipathy towards Israel from within the ranks of the Democratic Party in the US.

"Palestinian strategies of resistance can accelerate this trend," Jamal added.

Shift to the right

The dramatic shift in Israel towards the far right in recent years, with a series of ever more ultranationalist governments under Benjamin Netanyahu, has provoked growing polarisation among Israeli Jews and mounting alienation from liberal Jews overseas.

Traditionally, the latter have been vocal advocates for Israel abroad, especially in the US. In the run-up to the 70th-anniversary celebrations, there has been an outpouring of fears from liberal commentators about the future. Bradley Burston observed that Israel was now led by "a government of the racist, by the racist, for the racist", while Chemi Shalev warned that it was time for liberal Jews in Israel and the US to "circle their wagons" against the Israeli leadership.

Emilie Moatti argued that the "thuggery" of the current government would soon seem moderate in comparison to the "nightmarish circus up the road".

Meanwhile, analyst Yossi Klein argued: "A clerical fascist state will rise here much faster than you think." He added that Israel was rapidly becoming a country that "you have to get out of, and fast".

Such fears have been exacerbated by a raft of discriminatory and racist legislation and relentless efforts to delegitimise the Israeli Supreme Court and human rights groups.

"It is not just the illusion of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state that is crumbling, Israel is actively abandoning any pretence of being democratic. It is more interested in its Jewishness," Warschawski said.

Jamal said Israel was becoming "a theocratic, nationalist state" dominated by religious extremists and the settlers. "That is not a direction those Israelis who want peace can go in. The secular population will have to fight for what's left of Israel's democracy," he said.

Pappe said growing economic gaps between a rich elite and the country's middle classes were also straining traditional internal solidarity. In 2015, the finance ministry warned that over the coming years Israel was on track for a Greek-style fiscal meltdown.

"Israel has the largest gap between rich and poor in the OECD (an organisation promoting economic cooperation between the world's 35 most developed countries)," said Pappe.

"The middle classes can hardly survive, and mostly are living off overdrafts. They are on the verge of protests."

All agreed that Israel risked a brain drain - and a loss of legitimacy - as younger liberal Israelis looked for options to leave.

Jamal said: "Israel has traded on the claim that the occupation is temporary. But clearly, that is no longer tenable. So, Israelis will have to choose. There can one sovereign state for everyone living here, or there can be apartheid."

Halper struck a similar note. "What has saved Israel has been the fact that there is no countervailing push for a resolution of the conflict," he said. "Israel has won the argument by default.

"One state is in the air, and it could quickly build a dynamic of its own, both locally and outside. The churches, trade unions, solidarity groups, civil society organisations are all looking for someone to articulate a new way ahead."

And Israel could soon find itself deprived of its traditional supporters abroad to help it counter the intensified international solidarity with Palestinians, such as the boycott (BDS) movement. Warschawski said: "In a generation, the unconditional support Israel has enjoyed from Jewish organisations overseas will become a thing of the past. Young Jews either don't care about Israel or are openly critical of it."

A survey in February found only 40 percent of American Jews under the age of 35 in the San Francisco area were "comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state", compared with nearly three-quarters of those over 65. In a sign of the Israeli right's growing fears, settler leader Naftali Bennett, the Jewish diaspora minister, announced last month plans for Israel to forge ties with tens of millions of people it has classified as "potential Jews" or those with an "affinity" to the Jewish people.

Anshel Pfeffer, an analyst with the Haaretz daily, argued that Israel realised it could no longer rely on overseas Jews, in an article headlined: "Disappointed with the Diaspora, Israel is now looking to replace it".

Pappe said in practice, as liberal Jews abandoned Israel, it would have to climb into bed with US Christian Zionists, religious conservatives who backed Trump in large numbers in the last presidential election.

"Jews have needed to believe that Israel embodies moral and universal values. Christian Zionists don't care. They will support it whatever it does," he said.

Rising global powers could also make a difference to Israel's long-term fortunes, acting as a counterweight to current US dominance.

Jamal noted that, in preparation, Israel was already trying to develop closer economic and military ties to India and China. Halper said: "Israel has depended on the US being the main player in the Middle East. But Russia is already getting more involved, and there are signs that China will eventually do so too.

"That will require Israel to navigate a more difficult military and diplomatic environment."

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/israel-celebrates-pyrrhic-victory-turns-70-180417065357314.html

سيف الله

04-18-2018, 08:07 PM

Salaam

Another update,

South Africa president hails Palestinians’ defiance in face of Israel aggression

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa hailed defiant Palestinians during a memorial service held on Saturday for South African anti-apartheid icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Addressing thousands of mourners at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg’s Soweto, Ramaphosa said Madikizela-Mandela “lives on in the Palestinian teenager who refuses to stand by as he’s stripped of his home, his heritage and his prospects for a peaceful and content, dignified life.”

Eighty-one-year-old Madikizela-Mandela died on 2 April after a long illness for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year.

Madikizela-Mandela was the ex-wife of the late Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president. She was one of the country’s greatest icons in the struggle against apartheid.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180416-south-africa-president-hails-palestinians-defiance-in-face-of-israel-aggression/

Futuwwa

04-19-2018, 07:09 PM

Originally Posted by Junon

Salaam

Another update

Israel celebrates 'pyrrhic' victory as it turns 70

*snip*

Dat article. Eerily similar to what I've been thinking.

Especially the part about hubris causing the Israeli leadership to be blind to what's happening. I would add, an extreme case of groupthink, with all the characteristic that makes it susceptible to it: Strong pressure towards in-group conformity, and a towering superiority complex causing confidence in the opinions and the wisdom of said in-group.

سيف الله

04-19-2018, 10:02 PM

Salaam

Most interesting discussion.

سيف الله

04-20-2018, 09:43 PM

Salaam

Another update, wasn't expecting this

Natalie Portman Refuses To Visit Israel For Genesis Prize Gala

Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman has refused to travel for Israel to accept a $2 million award known as the “Jewish Nobel” because she is “uncomfortable with recent events” there, apparently referring to the deadly violence directed against Palestinian protesters in Gaza.

“She cannot in good conscience move forward with the ceremony,” a statement from the Hollywood superstar said.

Natalie Portman Slammed For Falling Into ‘Dark’ Hands Of Israel Haters

JTAApril 20, 2018

The Genesis Prize quickly announced it was canceling its June prize ceremony for Portman saying it was “saddened” at her decision, which it said could “politicize” the award, which has previously gone to Michael Bloomberg, Itzhak Perlman and Michael Douglas.

The Israeli government wasted no time in lashing out at Portman, accusing the Jerusalem-born actress of betraying the Jewish state.

Culture minister Miri Regev slammed the “Black Swan” star for falling “like ripe fruit into the hands of BDS supporters.”

“Natalie, a Jewish actress who was born in Israel, joins those who relate to the story of the success and the wondrous rebirth of Israel as a story of darkness,” Regev said.

Natalie Portman Isn’t The Problem. The Genesis Prize Is.

Liam HoareApril 20, 2018

A leading lawmaker from the ruling Likud Party called for her citizenship to be revoked.

Oren Hazan labeled her “an Israeli Jewess who … makes cynical use of her origins in order to advance her career.”

But others urged Israel to take note that it is pushing away supporters with its outspoken rejection of criticism — and by its increasingly hardline stance towards the Palestinians.

Rachel Azaria of the centrist Kulanu Party called Portman a Jewy canary in the coal mine who reflects the increasing antipathy of younger Jews in the Diaspora.

“Natalie Portman’s cancellation should be a warning sign,” she tweeted. “She’s totally one of us, identifies with her Jewishness and Israeliness. She’s expressing the voices of many in US Jewry, and particularly those of the younger generation.”

The move caps a shocking week for friends and foes of Israel alike. Just Wednesday, students at heavily Jewish Barnard College voted overwhelmingly for a measure calling for divestment from Israel.

The actress, who was born in Jerusalem and moved to the United States as a toddler, still expects to receive the $2 million prize, which she has said will be donated to Israeli and international women’s charities.

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/04...se-for-israel/

سيف الله

04-21-2018, 09:54 PM

Salaam

Another update

Palestinian scholar killed in Kuala Lumpur, family blames Mossad

Fadi al-Batsh's father accuses Israeli intelligence agency of 'assassination' after fatal shooting in Malaysian capital.

A Palestinian scholar has been shot dead by two assailants in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, as he was heading to a mosque for dawn prayers, according to local police.

Fadi al-Batsh, a 35-year-old Palestinian academic and member of Hamas, was instantly killed by the unknown attackers in a residential neighbourhood of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.

Al-Batsh's father told Al Jazeera that he accuses Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, of being behind his son's killing and called on the Malaysian authorities to look into who carried out the "assassination" as soon as possible.

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Malaysia's deputy prime minister, said the suspects were believed to be Europeans with links to a foreign intelligence agency, according to state news agency Bernama.

According to police chief Datuk Seri Mansor Lazim, the two attackers had waited for al-Batsh in front of a residential building in Setapak district for almost 20 minutes, and fired at least 10 bullets, four of which instantly killed him.

Al-Batsh was shot in the "body and head", the police said, adding that they are investigating all angles including "terrorism".

Hazem Qassem, spokesperson for Hamas, the governing party in the Gaza Strip, confirmed to Al Jazeera that al-Batsh was a member of the movement.

In a statement on Twitter, Hamas described al-Batsh as a "young Palestinian scholar" from Jabalia in the Gaza Strip. It called al-Batsh a "martyr" and said he was a "distinguished scientist who has widely contributed to the energy sector".

Palestinian websites identified al-Batsh as a relative of a senior official in the Gaza branch of the Islamic Jihad movement.

Palestinian Ambassador to Malaysia Anwar H al-Agha was quoted by the New Straits Times newspaper as saying the victim was a second imam at his mosque.

He had been reportedly living in Malaysia for 10 years.

Agha said Imam Fadi was supposed to have left for a conference in Turkey on Saturday. He was survived by his wife and three children.

In December 2016, Palestinian drone expert Mohamed al-Zawari, was shot dead in Tunisia, with Hamas accusing Israel of killing him.

Israel is widely believed to have killed numerous Palestinian activists in the past, many of them overseas.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/palestinian-scholar-fadi-al-batsh-killed-kuala-lumpur-family-blames-mossad-180421084317423.html

سيف الله

04-21-2018, 11:38 PM

Salaam

Protestors being sniped at the Gaza fence.

Blurb

The Palestinian - who says he's the man shown being shot by an Israeli sniper in a video that emerged this week - insists he was in no way a security threat or a legitimate target. Tamer Abu Daka was shot in the leg in Gaza on December 22 last year, when the video, which depicts Israeli soldiers celebrating the shooting, was filmed. Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett reports from Gaza.

سيف الله

04-22-2018, 11:14 PM

Salaam

Another update

How Mossad carries out assassinations

Fatal shooting in Malaysia puts spotlight on Israeli spy agency's policy of targeted killings of Palestinian operatives.

The killing of 35-year-old Palestinian scientist Fadi al-Batsh in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur has taken the wraps off a covert programme of targeted killings of Palestinians deemed a threat by Israel. Al-Batsh studied electrical engineering in Gaza before going on to earn a PhD in the same subject in Malaysia. He specialised in power systems and energy saving and had published a number scientific papers on the subject.

Gaza's ruling Hamas said al-Batsh was an important member of the group and accused Israel's Mossad intelligence agency of being behind Saturday's incident. Calling him a "loyal" member, Hamas said al-Batsh was a "scientist of Palestine's youth scholars" who made "important contributions" and participated in international forums in the field of energy.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, al-Batsh's father said he suspected Mossad of being behind his son's killing and appealed to Malaysian authorities to unravel the "assassination" plot as soon as possible. According to the Israeli investigative journalist Ronen Bergman, who is one of the foremost experts on Israeli intelligence and author of the book Rise and Kill First, the murder of al-Batsh bears all the hallmarks of a Mossad operation.

"The fact that the killers used a motorcycle to kill their target, which has been used in many other Mossad operations before and being done as a clean, professional killing operation far away from Israel, points to Mossad's involvement," Bergman told A Jazeera by phone.

Identification of target

Identifying a target for assassination by Israeli intelligence usually runs through several institutional and organisational steps within Mossad, the broader Israeli intelligence community and the political leadership. Sometimes the target is identified by other Israeli domestic and military services.

The assassination process

Once al-Batsh was identified as a target, Mossad would then have evaluated available intelligence to decide whether he should be killed, what the benefits of killing him were and the best way to do it. Once the Mossad's specialised unit finishes its file on the target, it takes its findings to the heads of Intelligences Services Committee, which comprises the chiefs of Israeli intelligence organisations and is known by its Hebrew acronym, VARASH, or Vaadan Rashei Ha-sherutim.

VARASH would only discuss the operation and provide input and suggestions. However, it does not have the legal authority to approve an operation.

Only the prime minister of Israel has the authority to approve such an operation. Bergman says that Israeli prime ministers typically prefer not to take that decision by themselves for political reasons.

"Oftentimes the prime minister would involve one or two other ministers in the decision to approve, which oftentimes includes the minister of defence," Bergman said.

Once the approval is obtained, the operation then moves back to Mossad for planning and execution, which could take weeks, months or even years, depending on the target.

The Caesarea unit

Caesarea is an undercover operational branch within Mossad in charge of planting and running spies mainly inside Arab countries and around the world. The unit was established in the early 1970s, and one of its founders was a famous Israeli, spy Mike Harari. Caesarea utilises its vast spy network in Arab states and the wider Middle East to collect information and conduct surveillance against current and future targets.

Harari then established Caesarea's most lethal unit, known in Hebrew as Kidon ("the bayonet"), made up of professional killers specialised in assassination and sabotage operations. Kidon members are often drawn from Israeli military branches including the army or special forces. It is likely Kidon members who killed al-Batsh in Kuala Lumpur; sources told Al Jazeera.

Mossad targeted not only Palestinian leaders and operatives but also Syrian, Lebanese, Iranian and European ones. For example, al-Batsh could have been identified as a target through general collection of intelligence via units inside Israeli military and intelligence organisations that follow Hamas. Al-Batsh could also have been identified through other Israeli intelligence operations and Israeli spy networks around the world.

Sources tell Al Jazeera that Hamas communications between Gaza, Istanbul (Turkey) and Beirut (Lebanon) are tightly monitored by Israeli intelligence networks. As such, the initial selection of al-Batsh could well have been made through these channels. Friends of al-Batsh who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity said he did not hide his ties to Hamas.

Targeted killing operations

Caesarea is equivalent to the CIA's Special Activities Center (SAC), which used to be called Special Activities Division before its reorganisation and name change in 2016.

The CIA conducts its top-secret paramilitary missions - including targeted killing operations - through its Special Operation Group ( SOG), which is part of the SAC and bears some similarities to Mossad's Kidon.

Bergman writes that, until 2000, which marked the beginning of the second Intifada in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel had conducted more than 500 assassination operations that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 people, including the targets and bystanders.

During the Second Intifada, Israel conducted 1,000 more operations, of which 168 succeeded, he writes in his book. Since then, Israel has carried out at least another 800 operations aimed at killing Hamas civilian and military leaders in the Gaza Strip and abroad.

"He was known within the Palestinian community for his ties to Hamas," one friend said.

Arab-Mossad cooperation

Mossad maintains formal organisational and historical links with a number of Arab intelligence services, notably the Jordanian and Moroccan spy agencies. More recently, and in light of shifting alliances in the region and rising threats from armed non-state actors, Mossad has expanded its links with Arab intelligence agencies to include a number of Arab Gulf states and Egypt.

Mossad maintains a regional hub for its operations in the wider Middle East in the Jordanian capital Amman.

When Mossad attempted to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Amman in 1997 by spraying a lethal dose of poison into his ear, it was a threat by the late King Hussein to close down the spy agency's Amman station and sever Jordanian-Mossad ties that prompted Israel to provide the antidote that saved Mashaal's life. In his book, Bergman cites Mossad sources to claim that General Samih Batikhi, Jordan's spy chief at the time, was angry with Mossad for not keeping him informed about the assassination plot because he had wanted to plan the operation together. Another Arab country that maintains strong ties to Mossad since the 1960s is Morocco, according to Bergman's research.

"Morocco has received valuable intelligence and technical assistance from Israel, and, in exchange, [late King] Hassan allowed Morocco's Jews to emigrate to Israel, and Mossad received the right to establish a permanent station in the capital Rabat, from which it could spy on Arab countries," Bergman writes.

The cooperation reached a peak when Morocco allowed Mossad to bug the meeting rooms and private chambers of Arab heads of states and their military commanders during the Arab League summit in Rabat in 1965.

The summit had been convened to establish a joint Arab military command.

rest here

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/mossad-carries-assassinations-180422152144736.html

سيف الله

04-25-2018, 05:09 PM

Salaam

Another update. How Israeli hasbra works.

And another on the Zionist propaganda outlet Memri.

سيف الله

04-26-2018, 10:24 PM

Salaam

Another update

Corbyn Prevailed

The BBC reported last night that Britain’s self-appointed ‘Jewish leaders’ continue to be disappointed by Jeremy Corbyn. Following a meeting with the Labour leader, the Jewish Leadership Council and Board of Deputies of British Jews (BOD) announced that Corbyn “did not agree to any of the concrete actions they asked for.” This must have been upsetting for them.

The ‘leaders’ provided the commands that Corbyn rejected.

They wanted Corbyn to commit to “a fixed timetable to deal with anti-Semitism cases.” I suppose that teaching ‘Labour type’ Goyim that time is of the essence is not such a bad idea.

They wanted Corbyn to “expedite the long-standing cases involving Mr. Livingstone and suspended party activist Jackie Walker.” This command is understandable; bearing in mind centuries of Jewish suffering, the time is ripe for a bit of revenge.

Consistent with Talmudic Herem (excommunication) culture, the British Jewish ‘leaders’ insisted that “No MP should share a platform with somebody expelled or suspended for anti-Semitism.” This sounds reasonable so long as thieves, war criminals and sex offenders remain on the kosher list so that British MP can share platforms with Israeli prime ministers and presidents.

The Jewish leaders complained that Corbyn has yet to “adopt in full the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.” I imagine that this is troubling as it indicates that Corbyn still regards Jews as ordinary people. Following some bizarre universalist ethical perception, Corbyn refuses to accept the primacy of Jewish suffering.

I guess that sooner or later Brits will have to decide whether they prefer to live in a United Kingdom or in an occupied territory…

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2018/4/25/corbyn-prevailed

- - - Updated - - -

Salaam

Another update

How anti-semitism row MPs turned lynch mob

If you force me to choose – and tragically, the mischievious confection of an “anti-semitism crisis” in the Labour party does require me to choose, because it turns racism into a competition between worthier “victims” – Marc Wadsworth, a black activist and the founder of the Anti-Racist Alliance, is a much bigger victim of racism than Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth.

The proof is in the 50 Labour MPs who marched with her to an internal party hearing that they expect will expel Wadsworth. The MPs wanted to give the impression of serving as a bodyguard; in fact, they looked more like a lynch mob.

Wadsworth’s “crime” is his accusation at a meeting to unveil the Chakrabarti report nearly two years ago that Smeeth had been leaking stories to the rightwing press to harm Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

We can argue the facts about whether Wadsworth’s claim is true: whether Smeeth did indeed connive with the anti-Corbyn press. But even if he is wrong, that would not make his allegations anti-semitic.

Furthermore, the accusation itself is hardly far-fetched. The Blairite wing of the parliamentary party, of which Smeeth is very much a part, barely bothers any more to conceal its desire to oust Corbyn from the leadership.

In fact, the Blairites now seem determined to terminally wound not just Corbyn but their own party, as they did at the instigation of the Conservative government last week in a debate on anti-semitism. The opportunistic pummelling of Corbyn, jointly conducted by Labour and Conservative MPs, comes just days before local authority elections that were supposed to be Labour’s chance to seize the initiative from the government.

Smeeth and other Labour MPs have relied on personal anecdotes to argue that anti-semitism is far worse in Labour than any other party, and worse than in British society generally. That is the only possible meaning of the term “crisis”. But the actual statistics give the absolute lie to their claims.

Anti-semitism in Labour is so dire, so endemic, according to Smeeth and her allies, that the party must be eviscerated in public day after day, its energies sapped in the hunt to root out any traces of Jew hatred, and its political programme (and the chances of beating the Tories) set aside until the purges are complete.

But the Wadsworth case illustrates quite how sham the “anti-semitism crisis” is.

His attack on Smeeth was political, not racist. If she took offence, it should have been because she regarded his comments as a political insult, and an untrue one, not a racist insult.

But Smeeth preferred to mischaracterise the attack, not least because she would have been hard pressed to offer a political defence. Instead she weaponised anti-semitism to divert our attention from the real issue at the heart of the spat between herself and Wadsworth. She accused him of promoting “vile conspiracy theories about Jewish people”. Wadsworth pointed out that he did not even know Smeeth was Jewish until she brought the issue into play.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Smeeth believes, because she is Jewish, that any criticism of her is anti-semitic by definition. And she now has 50 MPs on her side, trying to bully Wadsworth out of the party – and by implication, not only him but anyone else who might try to unmask their McCarthyite tactics.

Smeeth, it should be remembered, is not a credible witness in the prosecution of Wadsworth. Unfortunately, I do not enjoy Smeeth’s parliamentary privilege, so I will have to be more circumspect in what I say than Smeeth makes a habit of being. But as I pointed out in an earlier post, at least one of her major claims cannot withstand the most cursory scrutiny, once it is fact-checked.

After her row with Wadsworth she claimed to have been inundated with anti-semitic abuse, some 25,000 messages, most of them on Twitter – though given her own inflated and egocentric ideas about what constitutes anti-semitism, she can hardly be viewed as a competent judge.

But you don’t need to rely on my scepticism. The Community Security Trust, a British Jewish lobby group ever-vigilant about anti-semitism, has discredited her claims too, even if in their case they did so inadvertently. Their study of anti-semitic activity on Twitter for a year-long period that included the few days in which Smeeth was supposedly overwhelmed with abuse found only 15,000 anti-semitic tweets – in a whole year, for the whole of the UK. Smeeth’s self-serving figures simply don’t add up.

But if Labour is now committed to witchhunts, as it seems to be, then it needs pointing out that there are more serious problems of racism in Labour than the current “anti-semitism crisis”.

How about Labour launching an investigation into its “anti-black racism crisis”? It should not be hard to identify. It is being led by the Blairite wing of the party, which has been using anti-semitism as a pretext to hound out of the party black anti-racism activists like Wadsworth and Jackie Walker who support Corbyn, also a lifelong anti-racism activist.

These targets are concerned about racism in all its guises, and about real victims in all their shades of colour. Not opportunists like Smeeth who have hijacked racism narrowly to serve their political cause.

Equally serious is Labour’s real anti-semitism crisis – the one no one talks about. That is being led by an unholy alliance of Labour’s Blairite MPs, rightwing Jewish establishment bodies like the Board of Deputies, and the corporate media to vilify individual Jews and Jewish organisations like Jewish Voice for Labour and Jewdas because they dare to be critical of Israel.

Again unmentioned, Jews are being hounded out of the party on the ridiculous pretext that they are anti-semites – just ask Moshe Machover, Tony Greenstein, Jackie Walker (black and Jewish!), Glyn Secker, Cyril Chilson and others.

The disturbing implication is that these are not “proper” Jews, that their voices not only don’t count but their arguments are dangerous and must be shunned. And further, that those who “consort” with them, as Corbyn has done, are contaminated and guilty by association.

Ruth Smeeth is not a victim of the Labour party “anti-semitism crisis”, because that crisis does not exist. It is a political construct. There are doubtless examples of anti-semites and other racists who are members of the Labour party, as there are in all walks of life, but there is no crisis.

Real victims of racism suffer because they are isolated, vulnerable and easily vilified. The Labour party should stand with such people. Instead it is allowing privileged MPs and party bureaucrats to promote the demonisation, abuse and persecution of black activists like Marc Wadsworth and anti-Zionist Jews like Cyril Chilson. We are living through a truly shameful period in Labour’s history.

UPDATE:

Sadly, the lynch mob won. It was announced on Friday that the Labour party had expelled Marc Wadsworth. These witchhunts will only intensify and, unless Corbyn can really take control of the party away from the Blairites, as its members have shown they desperately want, the reinvention of Labour as an electoral force capable of addressing the huge economic, social and environmental challenges ahead is finished.

https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2018-04-26/labour-anti-semitism-mps-lynch-mob/

Futuwwa

04-27-2018, 08:04 AM

I don't know what makes the Pharisees more butthurt: That a major party leader doesn't kiss their asses, or the fact that he can survive politically no matter how hard they rail against him ;D

سيف الله

04-27-2018, 06:20 PM

Salaam

Ill post this here, life under occupation.

سيف الله

04-27-2018, 09:20 PM

Salaam

Blurb

As Natalie Portman refuses to attend an award ceremony in Israel, journalist Ali Abunimah says liberal Zionists are increasingly unable to ignore the brutal oppression of Palestinians.

سيف الله

04-28-2018, 10:00 PM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

04-29-2018, 06:53 AM

Salaam

Another update

“The weekly killing on the Gaza Strip border is a campaign of barbarism” (Sternhell is the world’s leading authority on fascism)

Gaza Border Killings Expose Israel’s True Mentality

And Bezalel Smotrich, like the cynical face of Avigdor Lieberman, reflects our own face, the face of Netanyahu’s advance guard for the West

Benjamin Netanyahu, Anshel Pfeffer reminded us, doesn’t see the Israeli-Arab conflict as a problem in itself, but as an inseparable part of the clash of civilizations between Islam and the Western world (“The Netanyahu vision, in 467 pages,” April 18). Israel to him is the West’s spearhead in a 1,500-year-long struggle.

When his book “A Place Among the Nations” was published, I saw it as nothing more than propaganda, intended to invent an ideological cover for perpetuating the occupation sponsored by American neoconservatism in its most simplistic form. It’s too bad that good people still fall into that trap.

Netanyahu has long understood the Palestinians are incapable of resisting the occupation by force, so the occupation won’t end in the foreseeable future. But since no reality can remain for long without an ideological cover, and the biblical narrative doesn’t sell well in the United States outside evangelical circles, he cast his lot, in the spirit of the neoconservative trend of the late 20th century, with protecting Western culture.

However, for more than 300 years Western culture has presented two approaches: the liberal approach from which democracy and human rights developed from the French and British Enlightenments, and the approach that subordinates the individual to an ethnic community and seeks legitimacy for politics in history. This branch began sprouting already at the end of the 19th century the various nationalist and racist rightist movements, including those that developed into fascism and Nazism.

These movements knew how to exploit the universal right to vote to obliterate the equality principle among human beings. Then they obliterated democracy itself. Racist nationalism wasn’t invented by Hitler, but grew gradually out of the rightist revolution that began washing over Europe. This radical nationalist approach is Netanyahu’s “West,” in which he finds the legitimacy for the colonialist policy of annexation and oppression, which he has been orchestrating since he rose to power.

This is the approach the young Israeli who was educated in America adopted for himself: His imagination wasn’t fired over there by the civil rights movement’s legacy, but rather by the dark content of American political culture. While the French Revolution released the Jews and black slaves, in America – along with almost religious devotion to individual freedoms and checks and balances to power, anchored in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence – slavery existed for another 100 years. For 100 more years, brutal social oppression of blacks prevailed. The young Netanyahu learned there that the West contains everything, the best and the worst, and everyone can choose for himself what he needs.

Indeed, that’s how the Israeli right wing works: After fortifying colonialism, it treats Arabs basically as natives. The British in Kenya and the French in Algieria showed the way. The weekly killing on the Gaza Strip border is a campaign of barbarism, exposing the mentality of the society in whose name the army acts: We can do anything we like. Like Elor Azaria, who executed a wounded terrorist and will soon emerge from prison as a hero, so the uniformed youngsters slaughtering unarmed civilians on the Gazan border are the “children of us all.” And Bezalel Smotrich, who wants to shoot Ahed Tamimi in the knee, is the lawmaker of us all. We didn’t hear the leaders of his party or the education and justice ministers cry out in horror. Smotrich, like the cynical face of Avigdor Lieberman, reflects our own face, the face of Netanyahu’s advance guard for the West. That’s the hard truth that the 70th year independence celebrations made all the more conspicuous.

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/04/27/the-weekly-killing-on-the-gaza-strip-border-is-a-campaign-of-barbarism-sternhell-is-the-worlds-leading-authority-on-fascism/

Or in visual form

He mentions the Neoconservatives, of course were not allowed to mention that this movement is dominated by members of a certain ((tribe))

A history of the movement.

Blurb

Dr. E. Michael Jones returns to discuss Neoconservativism, it's origins and takeover of US foreign policy. We also delve into the CIA's efforts to undermine the presidency of Jimmy Carter, the October Surprise, David Rockefeller's machinations, and the infiltration of the Catholic Church by organized crime and Western intelligence agencies during the Papacy of John Paul II.

سيف الله

04-29-2018, 05:35 PM

Salaam

Another update.

Jordan to 'revoke citizenship' of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, senior PA officials

Jordan has begun the process of revoking Jordanian citizenship for dozens of senior Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas.

Around thirty top Palestinian officials are slated to lose their citizenship, including Abbas, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and ex-Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, London-based Raialyoum reported on Wednesday.

It is unclear why Jordan decided to revoke the citizenship of senior Palestinian officials at this time.

The report said Jordan will also make major changes to visa entry arrangements for the senior officials, granting them only temporary visitors rights.

Several senior Palestinian Authority officials, including Abbas and his two sons, were granted Jordanian citizenship over a decade ago.

The citizenship requests were made by Palestinian officials themselves and it was not offered by Jordan, media reports said at the time.

Thousands of Jordanians of Palestinian origins have been arbitrarily stripped of their citizenship by Jordan over the past decade, rights groups say.

Jordanian officials have defended the policy as a means to counter future Israeli plans to transfer the Palestinian population of the Israeli-occupied West Bank to Jordan.

Jordan granted citizenship to Palestinians in the West Bank after extending sovereignty to the territory following its capture in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.

King Hussein officially severed Jordan's legal and administrative ties to the West Bank in 1988, relinquishing claims to sovereignty and withdrawing Jordanian nationality from Palestinian residents.

While there are no precise statistics, it is estimated that up to half of Jordan's population is of Palestinian origin.

There are ten recognised Palestinian refugee camps in the country, with most residents, but not all, holding full citizenship.

https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/News/2018/4/26/Jordan-to-revoke-citizenship-of-Palestinian-president-Mahmoud-Abbas

سيف الله

04-29-2018, 06:48 PM

Salaam

Heh with friends like these.

Palestinians must make peace or shut up, Saudi crown prince said to tell US Jews

Israel's Channel 10 news: In meeting last month in New York, Mohammed bin Salman castigated Abbas and predecessors for spurning opportunities for 40 years

New York City, March 27, 2018. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP)

At a meeting with Jewish leaders in New York last month, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman castigated the Palestinian leadership for rejecting opportunities for peace with Israel for decades, and said they should either start accepting peace proposals or “shut up.”

Citing what it said were multiple sources, Israel’s Channel 10 News on Sunday night quoted what it said were remarks made by the crown prince at the meeting that left those who were present “staggered” by the ferocity of his criticism of the Palestinians.

“For the past 40 years, the Palestinian leadership has missed opportunities again and again, and rejected all the offers it was given,” the Saudi leader reportedly said.

“It’s about time that the Palestinians accept the offers, and agree to come to the negotiating table — or they should shut up and stop complaining,” he reportedly went on.

Prince Salman also told the US Jewish leaders that “the Palestinian issue is not at the top of the Saudi government’s agenda” and elaborated, “There are much more urgent and more important issues to deal with — such as Iran,” according to the TV report.

Nonetheless, the crown prince reportedly stressed that there would have to substantive progress toward an Israeli-Palestinian accord before the Saudis and other Arab states would deepen their relationships with Israel. “There needs to be significant progress toward an agreement with the Palestinians before it will be possible to advance negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the Arab world and Israel,” he was quoted saying.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/palest...-tell-us-jews/

سيف الله

04-30-2018, 08:13 PM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

05-01-2018, 11:02 PM

Salaam

British ambassador to Israel visiting the Gaza fence.

- - - Updated - - -

سيف الله

05-02-2018, 12:34 AM

Salaam

Originally Posted by Junon

Salaam

Another update. How Israeli hasbra works.

Oh dear, youtube in censorship mode again, Ill try again

More on Israeli hasbra.

سيف الله

05-02-2018, 06:20 PM

Salaam

Another update.

سيف الله

05-02-2018, 11:03 PM

Salaam

Like to share, old news but posting so that nobody forgets.

سيف الله

05-03-2018, 09:03 AM

Salaam

Another update, interesting perspective, seems to the Jews of Israel aren't that happy with their diaspora.

Goodbye, Jewish-American busybodies

I want a divorce. Not from my wife, whom I love dearly, but from the liberal and progressive American Jewish community. From those American Jews who believe that they have a special right to judge and advise the state of Israel because their parents were Jewish.... Your Jewish DNA does not make you any more knowledgeable than anyone else, nor does it give you a greater stake in the Jewish state, unless you decide to accept the generous offer it has made to all Jews everywhere by its Law of Return.

The fact that you had a Bar or Bat Mitzvah does not mean that your piece in the Forward or your letter to the New York Times in which you explain why, as a Jew, you are traumatized by Israel’s efforts to defend her southern border, should be published any more than that of any other person’s.

Even the fact that at some point in your life you have experienced antisemitism doesn’t qualify you to talk about how Israel should behave toward her own antisemitic enemies. If antisemitism in the US is problem for you, there is always that Law of Return.

There is no reason that the pronouncements of “If Not Now” are any more worth listening to than those of the American Nazi Party. Peter Beinart isn’t a more authoritative source about Israel and the Arabs than David Duke just because he has a bigger nose.

The head of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, likes to talk about how the demands he makes of Israel are made out of “unconditional love,” because he wants to “repair it” according to his notion of tikkun olam. What he calls “love,” I call hypocrisy. He owns an apartment in Jerusalem. He should live in it, send his kids to be combat soldiers in the army, pay taxes, and learn to practice situational awareness when he walks the streets or gets on a bus. Then he can try to fix things here (he probably would still give wrong advice, but then at least he would suffer the consequences).

http://abuyehuda.com/2018/04/goodbye-jewish-american-busybodies/

سيف الله

05-03-2018, 03:52 PM

Salaam

Another update

President Abbas on Jewish History

Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas as anti-Semitic after the latter claimed past massacres, including the Holocaust were related to the “social function” of Jews in banking. “[H]ostility against Jews is not because of their religion, but rather their social function”, were Abbas’ exact words.

Abbas’ view is not a new one, and it was a view accepted by early (Labour) Zionists who tended to agree with the so-called ‘antisemitic argument’ that Jews were removed from labour and proletarian life and were too involved in capitalist adventures. Neither Abbas nor Early Zionists justified antisemitsm however, they attempted to grasp it roots. Labour Zionism was actually a promise to change the Jewish people and their fate by means of ‘homecoming.’

“It would appear that, once a Holocaust denier, always a Holocaust denier,” the Israeli prime minister said of Abbas on Twitter on Wednesday. “I call upon the international community to condemn the grave antisemitism of Abu Mazen [Abbas], which should have long since passed from this world.”

But is Bibi correct? Has this kind of debate faded away? During the last American presidential election, contender Donald Trump was repeatedly accused of antisemitsm for ‘dog whistling’ on the connection between Jews and Wall Street. Abbas’s comment, to a certain extent, helps us to locate Trump’s victory in an historical context.

Israel’s foreign ministry accused Abbas of fuelling religious and nationalist hatred against the Jewish people and Israel. I can’t figure out where the religious hatred is to be found in President Abbas’ words. Abbas didn’t argue that Jewish banking is a Judaic ritual or a mitzvah. He specifically referred to culture. In my book, Palestinians are more than entitled to oppose Jewish nationalism. However there was no nationalist hatred there either.

PM Netanyahu asked the international community to condemn Abbas. David Friedman, the US ambassador to Israel was quick to deliver. He tweeted the following: “Abu Mazen has reached a new low in attributing the cause of massacres of Jewish people over the years to their ‘social behavior relating to interest and banks.’ To all those who think Israel is the reason that we don't have peace, think again?”

I am left puzzled, when Friedman says “WE don’t have peace” what ‘WE’ does he have in mind? Is it the Israeli ‘WE’ or maybe he refers to the American ‘WE” whom he is paid to represent. I ask because for the time being America and Palestine are in peace.

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2018...jewish-history

سيف الله

05-03-2018, 07:28 PM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

05-06-2018, 10:01 PM

Salaam

Like to share. Passionate speech, caution some strong language.

Blurb

Ken O'Keefe discusses the 'Great March of Return' that is ongoing in Palestine and has resulted in hundreds of Palestinians being shot with thousands of injuries in total.

سيف الله

05-07-2018, 01:21 AM

Salaam

More commentary

سيف الله

05-07-2018, 06:43 PM

Salaam

Another update. Well at least this is out in the open, partially at least.

Poisoned toothpaste and exploding phones: New book chronicles Israel’s ‘2,700’ assassination operations

Intelligence correspondent Ronen Bergman persuades Mossad agents, Shin Bet and military personnel to disclose their stories on state-sponsored killings

Poisoned toothpaste that takes a month to end its target's life. Armed drones. Exploding mobile phones. Spare tyres with remote-control bombs. Assassinating enemy scientists and discovering the secret lovers of Muslim clerics.

A new book chronicles these techniques and asserts that Israel has carried out at least 2,700 assassination operations in its 70 years of existence. While many failed, they add up to far more than any other western country, the book says.

Ronen Bergman, the intelligence correspondent for Yediot Aharonot newspaper, persuaded many agents of Mossad, Shin Bet and the military to tell their stories, some using their real names. The result is the first comprehensive look at Israel's use of state-sponsored killings.

Based on 1,000 interviews and thousands of documents and running more than 600 pages, Rise and Kill First makes the case that Israel has used assassination in the place of war, killing half a dozen Iranian nuclear scientists, for instance, rather than launching a military attack. It also strongly suggests that Israel used radiation poisoning to kill Yasser Arafat, the long-time Palestinian leader an act its officials have consistently denied.

Mr Bergman writes that Mr Arafat's death in 2004 fit a pattern and had advocates. But he steps back from flatly asserting what happened, saying that Israeli military censorship prevents him from revealing what - or if - he knows.

The book's title comes from the ancient Jewish Talmud admonition, "If someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill him first." Mr Bergman says a huge percentage of the people he interviewed cited that passage as justification for their work. So does an opinion by the military's lawyer declaring such operations to be legitimate acts of war.

Despite the many interviews, including with former prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert, Mr Bergman, the author of several books, says the Israeli secret services sought to interfere with his work, holding a meeting in 2010 on how to disrupt his research and warning former Mossad employees not to speak with him.

He says that while the US has tighter constraints on its agents than does Israel, President George W Bush adopted many Israeli techniques after the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 and President Barack Obama launched several hundred targeted killings.

"The command-and-control systems, the war rooms, the methods of information gathering and the technology of the pilotless aircraft or drones, that now serve the Americans and their allies were all in large part developed in Israel," Mr Bergman writes.

The book gives a textured history of the personalities and tactics of the various secret services. In the 1970s, a new head of operations for Mossad opened hundreds of commercial companies overseas with the idea that they might be useful one day. For example, Mossad created a Middle Eastern shipping business that, years later, came in handy in providing cover for a team in the waters off Yemen.

There have been plenty of failures. After a Palestinian terrorist group killed Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Israel sent its agents to kill the perpetrators - and shot more than one misidentified man. There were also successful operations that did more harm than good to Israel's policy goals, Mr Bergman notes.

Mr Bergman raises moral and legal concerns provoked by state-sponsored killing, including the existence of separate legal systems for secret agents and the rest of Israel. But he presents the operations, for the most part, as achieving their aims. While many credit the barrier Israel built along and inside the West Bank with stopping assaults on Israeli citizens in the early 2000s, he argues that what made the difference was "a massive number of targeted killings of terrorist operatives."

One of Bergman's most important sources was Meir Dagan, a recent head of Mossad for eight years who died in early 2016. Toward the end of his career, Mr Dagan fell out with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu partly over launching a military attack on Iran. Mr Netanyahu said intelligence techniques such as selling the country faulty parts for its reactors - which Israel and the US were doing - weren't enough.

Mr Dagan argued back that these techniques, especially assassinations, would do the job. As Bergman quotes him saying, "In a car, there are 25,000 parts on average. Imagine if 100 of them are missing. It would be very hard to make it go. On the other hand, sometimes it's most effective to kill the driver, and that's that."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/mossad-assassinations-israel-foreign-operations-arafat-book-shin-bet-ronan-bergman-interviews-a8181391.html

سيف الله

05-08-2018, 12:41 AM

Salaam

Another update

JustTime

05-08-2018, 04:59 AM

Originally Posted by Junon

Salaam

Another update

So far of all the things you post this has been my favorite, it shows a reality not seen by many and many will likely ignore or downplay. But with this I would like to say that in spite the tragedy of being separated from their ancestor's lands they should be thankful to live where they live even with all the challenges that come with it. If you took an Afghan, a Syrian, an Iraqi, and a Uyghur how many do you think would trade their situations for the ones of the brothers and sisters in this video.

They have overall security by a faction that cares enough to fight on their behalf with autonomy along with external support from numerous nations and multi-national organizations. They can pray freely, they can grow beards freely, they can wear hijab and niqab without fear of persecution. They have homes, schools, and food, they have access to the internet, telecommunications, and modern technology.

Compare this to Eastern Ghouta, Aleppo, Raqqa, Mosul, Grozny in the 90s, various regions of Afghanistan, Burma, and Turkestan in China. Most non-Muslims are familiar with Gaza some even sympathize and call for change yet a majority of these same individuals probably have no idea who the Uyghur people are.

While the situation in Syria gets worse and worse support for its people declines as well as evident with the cutoff of aid for the White Helmets because some very twisted indivudals lied enough times to where the lies became truth and the truth became rejected, you will hear individuals when discussing Syria admit to the crimes of the leadership there but justify it by his so called "Secularism" which is just code for not Sunni, I've yet to hear similar claims about Gaza I've heard plenty of support for Israel in various grounds and with different reasons for support.

East Ghouta, Syria 2018

Mosul, Iraq 2017

Benghazi, Libya 2017
benghazijpgitok3gVzSgaT 1?itok3gvzsgat -

Be consistent in what you say and believe, Allah loves those who are consistent, and Pray for this entire Ummah

سيف الله

05-08-2018, 07:28 PM

Salaam

Another update

keiv

05-08-2018, 10:45 PM

Originally Posted by JustTime

Be consistent in what you say and believe, Allah loves those who are consistent, and Pray for this entire Ummah

Not to downplay what's going on in other places but, there is a thread on Syria which you are well aware of. You're more than welcome to start threads on other places if you feel the need to do so as well. What exactly is your point in coming to a thread dedicated on one location and stating that other places have it worse? This is a thread on Palestine afterall. Also, what's going on in Gaza is way different than what's going on in Syria, Iraq, and Libya. How many governments and groups are involved in the latter countries? That comparison shot is also not accurately representing the situation. Was it not so long ago that Gaza suffered destruction? Don't hesitate to do some google imaging to remind yourself what they've gone through.

If we're going to talk about being consistent and all.

سيف الله

05-09-2018, 10:04 AM

Salaam

Yes I have to ask what is the purpose of trying to (intentionally or unintentionally) derail this thread with charges of Whataboutism? Hasbra agents use this tactic a lot but you get wise to it.

Oh and people do care what going on in other parts of the Muslim world. For example medical professionals (who come from the UK) went to Syria to help and have had to brave the dangers of working in such a unstable environment.

Massacre in Eastern Ghouta, Syria

Massacre in Eastern Ghouta, Syria
Asalaamu Alaikum, A massacre is taking place in Eastern Ghouta, Syria right now. A 5 year seige and constant bombardment has killed & injured hundr...

These people don't whine or complain, they take action, maybe you should adopt the same attitude Bro JustTime.

To finish sometimes I feel like a one man band here on the World affairs section :D, ( I understand people have other interests, specialties etc) I can only post so much, don't want to spam the forum.

سيف الله

05-09-2018, 08:58 PM

Salaam

Another update, its good to know what the other side is thinking.

The Israeli Army

Can you give us an overview of the actual situation of the Israeli armed forces?

One could argue that, taking a grand strategic perspective and starting with the establishment of the State of Israel seventy years ago, some things have not changed very much. First, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) remain the armed organization of a democratic country, one in which it is the politicians who decide and the military which obeys. Second, the objective of the IDF was and remains to defend the country, a outrance if necessary, against any military threats that may confront it. Third, Israel remains in a state of war with several other Middle countries; nor is there any way in the world it can bring the conflict to an end by defeating them and compelling them to make peace against their will. Fourth, the occupation of the West Bank and the Golan Heights notwithstanding, Israel remains a small country with very little strategic depth. Fifth, the lack of strategic depth implies a heavy reliance on intelligence to detect threats before they materialize. Sixth, and for the same reason, Israeli military doctrine remains basically offensive, with a strong emphasis on destroying the opposing armed forces.

How is composed the Israeli military apparatus?

The Israeli military still retains the basic structure it assumed in 1949-50. It is made up of 1. A standing army, consisting of officers, NCO’s, and conscripts, numbering about 176,000 men and women altogether; and 2. A considerably larger number of reservists, who bring the total to about 620,000. As these numbers show, the IDF places heavier reliance on reservists than most modern armed forces do. Many reservists, moreover, serve in their own units and are expected to go into battle almost immediately and not after a period of organization as is the case in most other countries.

In charge of the IDF is the chief of staff, a lieutenant general. Under him is the general staff, including the divisions of manpower, operations, intelligence, computers (C4I). technology/logistics, and planning. Like most modern armed forces, the IDF has ground forces, an air force and a navy. Each of these three has its own general staff. There are three territorial commands: north, south, and central. There is a home defense command as well as a long-range command intended for “deep” operations in the enemy’s rear. Just recently the establishment of yet another command, armed with surface to surface missiles and apparently meant to supplement the air force, on missions up to 300-500 kilometers deep into enemy territory, has been announced.

Can you explain in detail which are the weapons currently owned by Israel?

The IDF is one of the most modern forces in the world. The ground forces rely on heavy Israeli-designed and produced tanks (the Merkava), of which there have now been four successive generations). It also has modern, heavy, armored personnel carriers (produced, in Israel, on a Merkava hull and undercarriage) as well as various kinds of surfaces-to surface missiles, multiple-launch rockets, and artillery The infantry, including a paratroop brigade and special operations units, has modern personal arms (the Tavor assault rifle) as well as machine guns and various anti-tank missiles.

The air force is in charge of a number of earth-circling intelligence satellites. It also has a number of medium and intermediate range (1,500-5,000 kilometer) ballistic missiles capable of reaching well beyond the Middle East. Combat power in the air consists mainly of US-built F-15. F-16 and F-35 fighter-bombers. Other important weapon systems are attack helicopters, AWACS aircraft, and tankers. A very important element are anti-missile defenses, a field in which Israel is a world leader.

Traditionally the Navy has been the least important among the three services. However, the need for a second-strike nuclear force as well as the discovery of enormous reserves of gas under the Mediterranean, which need to be defended, has caused this situation to change. Currently the Navy has a number of corvettes armed with various surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missiles. These ships are sufficiently large to carry helicopters for over-the horizon work. Four more corvettes are on order in German shipyards. The Navy also has five submarines (with a sixth on the way) which, according to foreign sources, can launch sea-to-land cruise missiles over a range of up to a thousand miles or so. That, incidentally, should be enough to reach a target as far away as Tehran from positions opposite the Syrian coast.

About the nuclear: can you give us an overview of their allocations and actual potential?

These matters are secret. After all Israel has never openly admitted to having nuclear weapons in the first place. All one can say, on the basis of foreign sources which have long been discussing the issue at length, is as follows.

First, the number of warheads in Israel’s nuclear arsenal is probably in the low hundreds. Yields may vary between 20 kilotons, the equivalent of the device dropped on Nagasaki back in 1945, and a megaton. There have also been rumors about tactical nukes, but they have never been confirmed. Whether the larger warheads are fusion-based or simply boosted fission-ones is unknown.

Second, the delivery vehicles that can carry these weapons include fighter-bombers, various kinds of surface-to-surface missiles, and submarines. Between them, these weapons and these delivery vehicles should enable Israel to wipe any enemy in the Middle East and beyond off the map.

Third, absolutely nothing is known about the doctrine that governs the use of the weapons in question. In other words, about their strategic mission, the circumstances in which they may be used, the way in which they may be used, the targets against which they may be used, and so on.

About new generation weapons (drones, long range missiles), what is the situation? Are the Israeli armed forces still greater than its neighbors?

Israel technology in all these fields is as good as any available in the world. The more so because it is assisted by joint programs not just with the US, the largest weapon-manufacturer of all, but with and several other advanced countries. Israeli computers, satellites, optical- and communications equipment, radars, and drones are excellent. However, there is no room for complacency. Israel’s enemies, including both state- and non-state ones, are doing their best to challenge its superiority. As they do so, some of them are supported by Russia. Which is why constant vigilance and innovation are required.

In its short history, the State of Israel often fought and won wars in which it was outnumbered and trapped: is this because of its only technological superiority or is there also a strategic and tactical factor?

Starting in 1948 and ending with the 1973 war inclusive, the most important factor behind Israel’s victories has always been the quality of its troops. Both in terms of education—Israel, unlike its enemies, is not a third-world country but a first-world one with educational, technological and scientific facilities to match. And—which is more critical still—in terms of motivation and fighting morale.

After 1973, and especially the 1982 First Lebanon War, things began to change. Education, technical skills and scientific development continued to improve, turning this a nation of less than eight million people into a world center of military (and not just military) innovation. There are, however, some signs that, as some of its former enemies concluded peace with it and its own military superiority came to be taken for granted, motivation suffered. To this was added the need to combat terrorists in Gaza and the West Bank—the kind of operations that contribute nothing to overall fighting effectiveness and any even detract from it.

Can the logistic organization represent a decisive factor – militarily -?

Logistics, it has been said, is “that which, if you do not have enough of, the war will not be won as soon as.” As recently as the Second Lebanon War against Hezbollah in 2006, so heavy was expenditure of air-to-surface missiles and other precision-guided munitions that the IDF had to apply for US aid even as hostilities were going on. This situation which has its origins in budget constraints, may well recur.

Furthermore, in all its wars from 1948 on the IDF has enjoyed near-absolute command of the air. As a result, it was able to attack enemy lines of supply whereas the enemy was unable to do the same. The buildup of reliable and accurate surface-to-surface missiles in the hands of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran may very well change this situation, causing supply bases and ammunition dumps, as well as communications-junctions and even convoys on the move to come under attack. This scenario, which is not at all imaginary, is currently giving the General Staff a lot of headaches.

We know that the intelligence is the decisive element to ensure strength to Israeli Armed Forces: can you explain what is this strength?

Israeli technological, tactical and operational intelligence has always been very good. Two factors help account for this fact. First, there exists in Israel a large community of first-class experts (known as Mizrahanim, “Easterners” who know the countries of the Middle East, their language, culture, traditions, history, and so forth as well as anyone does. Many members of this community spend their periods of reserve duty with the IDF intelligence apparatus.

Second, modern intelligence rests on electronics, especially various kinds of sensors and computers. As the famous Unit 8200 shows, these are fields where nobody excels the IDF. Nobody.

That said, it is important to add that Israeli top-level strategic and political intelligence is nowhere as good as it is on the lower levels. Starting at least as early as 1955, and reaching all the way to the present, IDF intelligence has often failed to predict some of the most important events. That included the 1967 war, the 1973 War, the 1987 Palestinian Uprising, the 1991 Gulf War, the “Arab Spring,” and the outbreak of the 2011 Syrian Civil War.

Compared to its actual friends, which are its strengths and weaknesses from a military point of view?

As I said, strengths include a well-educated and highly skilled society, excellent technology, and vast experience in fighting various enemies (though some of that experience is now dated). The chief weaknesses remain the country’s relatively small size and lack of strategic depth—Iran, for example, is eighty times as large as Israel. Perhaps most important of all, there is reason to think that motivation, though much higher than in the NATO countries, is no longer what it used to be.

If the situation between Israel and Iran (or Hezbollah in Lebanon) comes to a showdown, which could be the reactions of some States as Turkey, Syria, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt or USA?

Hard to say. Iran will use Syria as a forward base for fighting Israel. Assuming the regime stays, Saudi Arabia will probably retain its ties with Israel, at least unofficially. Ditto Egypt. Turkey will probably not engage in a shooting war with Israel, but it will support an anti-Israeli coalition in other ways while at the same time fighting the Syrians (and the Kurds). Russia will try to support Hezbollah and Syria, but without becoming deeply involved. The US on its part will support Israel and Hezbollah, but without directly taking on the Russians.

There seems to be a fear about a large scale conflict; militarily, what do you think that Israel could put in place?

With its vital infrastructure—power plants, fuel depots, factories, and the like—exposed to precision-guided missiles launched by Hezbolla Syria and possibly Iran, Israel will find itself in a difficult situation. As well as doing its best to protect these assets by means of its highly-developed surface-to air missile system, it will mount air- and missile attacks on enemy air defenses, missile launching sites, and infrastructure targets (one Israeli officer has recently warned that, should Hezbollah get involve in a war with Israel, the latter would bomb Lebanon back into the Stone Age). One can also expect Israeli commando raids against military targets which, for one reason or another, cannot be tackled by airpower on its own.

http://www.martin-van-creveld.com/the-israeli-army/

سيف الله

05-09-2018, 10:13 PM

Salaam

Another update

Jewish Boomerang

jewishboomerang 1?format750w -

If political terror is defined as the use of fear to achieve political aims then the activities of the self-elected British Jewish Zionist pressure groups seem to fit that definition. Some of these groups have openly tried to coerce political parties by threatening them, setting ‘ultimatums’ and harassing individuals. Political activists have lost their jobs and been ejected from their political institutions merely for criticising Israel or for citing historical facts deemed by some to be anti semitic.

Yet, the recent Local elections in Britain proves that the Brits are strong people, not easily deterred by political terrorism. Despite the relentless campaign against the Labour Party and the vicious slander of Corbyn and his supporters, the Party didn’t lose power. In fact, Labour saw its best London results since 1971. A BBC statistical exercise that applied the local election results to a possible parliamentary election predicted that the Conservatives would lose 38 seats while Labour would gain 21!

bbc 1?format750w -

The message to the Israeli Lobby is clear. Your game appears to be counter effective. Further, if these threats are viewed by the public as political terrorism they could lead to a backlash against British Jews and perhaps others. Despite your efforts, Labour voters stayed with Corbyn. By now they are likely frustrated by your relentless activity. The British are not blind to your lobbying, and how could they be? The Zionist pressure games are openly aired in public.

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2018...wish-boomerang

سيف الله

05-10-2018, 08:46 PM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

05-13-2018, 08:53 AM

Salaam

Another update.

Blurb

Norman Finkelstein says that Israeli forces have conducted "a murderous assault on non-violent protesters" in Gaza's Great March of Return because non-violent protest threatens not Israel, but its occupation

Blurb

In part two, Norman Finkelstein says that while Palestinian protesters in Gaza have bravely resisted their ghettoization under merciless Israeli fire, international solidarity is falling short

Blurb

With the final demonstrations of the Great March of Return ahead, Israel could be preparing its worst killings of non-violent Palestinian protesters in Gaza to date, warns Norman Finkelstein

سيف الله

05-14-2018, 06:26 PM

Salaam

Another update.

Blurb

Ivanka Trump: "On behalf of the 45th president of the Unites States of America, we welcome you officially and for the first time to the Embassy of the United States here in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel."

Trump moving the US embassy to Jerusalem may cause a chain reaction in the Middle East that he can’t control

The outlook in the region, so rarely optimistic, is dismal for peace, the scene set for intensification or the extension of the proxy wars and campaigns of terror beyond their present borders of geography and ferocity

It is easy, and often correct, to dismiss President Trump’s initiatives in foreign affairs as dangerous, ill-judged, badly timed and about as ill-informed as it is possible for them to be.

The decisions to relocate the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and to recognise the city as the capital of the Israel, provides ample evidence for that view. Already dozens of people have died as a direct, immediate consequence of this high profile and highly provocative move. It was all entirely predictable, which makes it so much the more unforgivable, though the speed with which the Israeli Border Police moved through their armoury from teargas to rubber bullets and then live rounds was perhaps surprising, even for them. It was, so far as can be judged, a disproportionate response driven by the need to maintain appearances for the sake of the various dignitaries gathered for this move. It had the opposite effect.

Despite the pomp and circumstance, the presence of the president’s daughter and son-in-law (a surely unprecedented use of the first family on highly politicised diplomatic business) and the video message from Donald Trump himself, this was in truth a lonely little ceremony. For the rest of the world has not, and will not, recognise Jerusalem as the “eternal capital of the Jewish people” as the various Trumps put it. Not only has the move divided and inflamed emotions in the region, and built more hostility towards Christianity, but it has appalled America’s friends in the West, and, inasmuch as either side care, Russia and China.

The Trumpian rhetoric about a “strong commitment to peace” sounded especially empty when juxtaposed on the split-screen rolling global news coverage with the scenes of burning, shooting and ambulances around the occupied territories. Briefings about a Trump Middle East peace plan sounded almost an act of sarcasm in the circumstances, and there is now open talk of a third intifada.

Moreover, the embassy move comes swiftly after America’s withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which will merely encourage Iran to go nuclear, if only to balance Israel’s missiles. If the United States wanted to consciously set the Shia against the Sunni world and then overlay that with a boost for Israel’s increasingly close-combat conflict with Iran, they could hardly have mapped out a more effective roadmap than the last few weeks’ diplomacy.

So the outlook in the region, so rarely optimistic, is dismal for peace, the scene set for intensification or the extension of the proxy wars and campaigns of terror beyond their present borders of geography and ferocity. Isis, driven out of much of Iraq and Syria, is already starting to operate closer to Israel, and a third intifada would provide all the motivation they require to regroup and renew their murderous efforts. They are adept at exploiting grievances, and what some might perceive as a diplomatic US-Israeli annexation of the holy site of Jerusalem provides a particularly painful one.

The consequences are all too clear. Conflict in Lebanon, long feared, now also looks increasingly inevitable, and the war in Yemen will continue, as will Turkey’s war of attrition against Kurdistan, while the coming peace in Syria is merely the quiet of a graveyard, and not necessarily sustainable, even with Russia’s brand of ruthlessness backing President Assad. Somalia, Egypt and Libya remain unstable, Qatar is blockaded by its Gulf neighbours and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia is running risks with his own conservative theocrats in the name of modernisation and crushing the Houthi rebels.

The Middle Eastern “order” has never been closer to collapse.

The best that can be said for Mr Trump’s Jerusalem policy is that it somehow shocks the Palestinians towards a lasting settlement, and with that might come a wider lowering of regional tension. The idea is that it is such an act of naked partisanship towards Israel that the Palestinians become so dispirited that they beg the Americans and Israelis to offer them any kind of “peace” deal – an “unequal treaty” under duress.

This – the logic runs – they will then accept as gracefully as they can for fear of worse to come – yet more humiliations and cruelties being heaped upon them, until they have no rights, territory or independence left – and they capitulate.

Yet that has not been the lesson of history so far: occupation, illegal settlements, the wall, trigger-happy Israeli soldiers – all have merely pushed peace further out of sight. Besides, the likes of Isis and other groups will offer different methods to defeat the Israelis, as politics and confidence in the United States is seen to have failed. There will be no shortage of “martyrs”.

Any single one of the pitiless wars now burning their way through the Middle East has the potential to run out of control and towards an all-out conflagration, escalating, most likely accidentally, to direct fighting among the regional superpowers, including nuclear and wannabe nuclear states. What would an Israel-Iran nuclear war do for American security interests? Will Mr Trump tell us that?

So it is difficult to envisage that the security of the United States or of Israel will be much improved by the US withdrawal from the JCPAO and the embassy move, and all too easy to see how more innocent peoples of every nationality and religion will lose their lives or find themselves homeless through war and terror. There will be more casualties, more refugees and more misery. It need not have been so. We will know who to blame.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/us-embassy-jerusalem-netanyahu-middle-east-iran-palestine-a8351456.html

سيف الله

05-14-2018, 09:35 PM

Salaam

More comment and opinion :raging:

Silas

05-14-2018, 10:25 PM

I saw Trump's speech on TV today, or at least some of it.

I couldn't watch all of it. The whole thing is outrageous and unnecessary, and simply portrays the US as an Israeli puppet

سيف الله

05-14-2018, 11:11 PM

Salaam

Originally Posted by Silas

I saw Trump's speech on TV today, or at least some of it.

I couldn't watch all of it. The whole thing is outrageous and unnecessary, and simply portrays the US as an Israeli puppet

There's an explanation somewhere, I don't understand the US 'on the surface' servile behaviour, though Israel did become a strategic asset after the 1967 war, its one of the gendarmes that keeps the surrounding countries in line.

Ive got a feeling the US doesn't want to be the guarantor of the Middle East anymore, they want out, so its leading to a lot of jockeying for position and influence, its complicated, lots of smoke and mirrors.

Another update.

This is deeply disappointing :o

“Hamas Violence”? In the Moment of Truth, Bernie Sanders’ Big Lie Betrays the People of Gaza

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/05...eople-of-gaza/

And another

In response to Ben Shapiro

سيف الله

05-15-2018, 06:56 PM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

05-15-2018, 09:59 PM

Salaam

Gaza Now Has a Toxic 'Biosphere of War' That No One Can Escape

Undrinkable drinking water is just one example of how blockades and war have permeated an entire ecosystem.

Gaza has often been invaded for its water. Every army leaving or entering the Sinai desert, whether Babylonians, Alexander the Great, the Ottomans, or the British, has sought relief there. But today the water of Gaza highlights a toxic situation that is spiralling out of control.

A combination of repeated Israeli attacks and the sealing of its borders by Israel and Egypt, have left the territory unable to process its water or waste. Every drop of water swallowed in Gaza, like every toilet flushed or antibiotic imbibed, returns to the environment in a degraded state.

When a hospital toilet is flushed, for instance, it seeps untreated through the sand into the aquifer. There it joins water laced with pesticides from farms, heavy metals from industry, and salt from the ocean. It is then pumped back up by municipal or private wells, joined with a small fraction of freshwater purchased from Israel, and cycled back into people’s taps. This results in widespread contamination and undrinkable drinking water, about 90% of which exceeds the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines for salinity and chloride.

Incredibly, conditions are getting worse, thanks to the emergence of “superbugs”. These multi-drug resistant organisms have developed thanks to an over-prescription of antibiotics by doctors desperate to treat the victims of the seemingly endless assaults. The more injury there is, the more chance there is of re-injury. Less regular access to clean water means infections will spread faster, bugs will be stronger, more antibiotics will be prescribed – and the victims will be ever-more weakened.

The result is what has been termed a toxic ecology or “biosphere of war”, of which the noxious water cycle is just one part. A biosphere refers to the interaction of all living things with the natural resources that sustain them. The point is that sanctions, blockades and a permanent state of war affects everything that humans might require in order to thrive, as water becomes contaminated, air is polluted, soil loses its fertility and livestock succumb to diseases. People in Gaza who may have evaded bombs or sniper fire have no escape from the biosphere.

War surgeons, health anthropologists and water engineers – including ourselves – have observed this situation developing wherever protracted armed conflict or economic sanctions grind on, as with water systems in Basrah and health systems throughout Iraq or Syria. It’s now well past time to clean it up.

There is water – for some

It’s not as if there is no fresh water nearby to alleviate the situation in Gaza. Just a few hundred metres from the border are Israeli farms that use freshwater pumped from Lake Tiberias (the Sea of Galilee) to grow herbs destined for European supermarkets. As the lake is around 200km to the north and lies 200 metres below sea level, a massive amount of energy is used to pump all that water. The lake water is also fiercely contested by Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Palestinians in the West Bank, each of which is seeking their legal entitlement of the Jordan River basin.

Meanwhile, Israel desalinates so much seawater these days that its municipalities are turning it down. Excess desalinated water is being used to irrigate crops, and the country’s water authority is even planning to use it to refill Tiberias itself – a bizarre and irrational cycle, considering the lake water continues to be pumped the other direction into the desert. There is now so much manufactured water that some Israeli engineers can declare that “today, no one in Israel experiences water scarcity”.

But the same cannot be said for Palestinians, especially not those in Gaza. People there have resorted to various ingenious filters, boilers, or under-the-sink or neighbourhood-level desalination units to treat their water. But these sources are unregulated, often full of germs, and just another reason children are prescribed antibiotics – thus continuing the pattern of injury and re-injury. Doctors, nurses, and water maintenance crews meanwhile try to do the impossible with the minimal medical equipment at their disposal.

The implications for all those who invest in Gaza’s repeatedly destroyed water and health projects are clear. Providing more ambulances or water tankers – the “truck and chuck” strategy – might work when conflicts are at their most acute, but they are never more than a band aid. Yes, things will get better in the short term, but soon enough Gaza will be onto the next generation of antibiotics, and dealing with teflon-coated superbugs.

Donors must instead design programmes suited to the all-pervasive and incessant biosphere of war. This means training many more doctors and nurses, providing more medicines, and infrastructure support for health and water services. More importantly, donors should build-in political “cover” to protect their investments (if not the local children), perhaps by calling for those who destroy the infrastructure to foot the bill for repairs.

The ConversationAnd there is an even bigger message for the rest of us. Our research shows that war is more than simply armies and geopolitics – it extends across entire ecosystems. If the dehumanising ideology behind the conflict was confronted, and if excess water was diverted to people rather than to lakes, then the easily avoidable repeated injuries suffered by people in Gaza would become a thing of the past. Palestinians would soon find their biosphere a whole lot healthier.

https://thewire.in/world/gaza-now-has-a-toxic-biosphere-of-war-that-no-one-can-escape

سيف الله

05-16-2018, 05:51 PM

Salaam

Our friend Mark Regev is rising up in the world. Hes now the Israel's Ambassador to the UK.

He's being rewarded for doing what he does best.

A heated debate

سيف الله

05-16-2018, 07:14 PM

Salaam

imsad

Harsh as his words are he's not being entirely fair.

سيف الله

05-16-2018, 11:33 PM

Salaam

Another update

Israel Celebrated the Catastrophe Day in Cairo

Israel’s Embassy in Egypt celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Catastrophe(Nakba Day), which commemorate the catastrophe day of the establishment of the State of Israel, on Tuesday in Cairo.

It is the first such event since the 2011 Arab Spring uprising and the 25 the January Revolution. Israel closed its Cairo embassy in 2011 after crowds stormed the building, but it has since reopened in a more secure facility.

The celebration took place at the Nile Ritz Carlton in Cairo, where relations with Israel have deepened under the rule of Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who came to power after ousting Egypt’s first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

It was attended mostly by foreign diplomats, businessmen, as well as representatives from the Egyptians government.

The event also raised eyebrows in the Egyptian media, traditionally known for its opposition to the Zionist State. Moreover, one commentator voiced opposition to the event, especially given Israeli soldiers’ recent killing of Gazan demonstrators.

In a speech, Israeli Ambassador David Govrin welcomed the Arab world’s recent warming toward Israel, led mostly by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, underlining how the Palestinian issue has largely taken a back seat amid years of revolutionary fervor and counterrevolution shook the region. He also took a few shots at Israel’s enemy Iran.

“The joining of the Saudi Crown Prince to the vision of stability and economic development shared by Egypt and Israel constitutes an important cornerstone. We have to broaden this partnership to additional states in order to advance common interests and in order to combat states and terror organizations, that are acting under Iran’s inspiration,” he said.

“Only a regional common struggle may confront Iran’s striving for nuclear weapons and undermine its consistent support to the terror organizations in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon.”

Growing signs of a diplomatic opening between Saudi Arabia and Israel have been traced recently.

During his US tour last month, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 32-year-old son of the king and heir to the Saudi kingdom, said that Israel also had a right to its own land.

King Salman called Trump hours later to reaffirm the kingdom’s support for “the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to establish their own independent state with its capital in Jerusalem.”

In the same context, Saudi daily newspaper Al-Riyadh published an editorial entitled before the last Arab Summit in April 2018,”Dhahran summit: peace with Israel and confrontation with Iran.

It argued that “the Arabs must realize that Iran is more dangerous to them than Israel.”

In an unprecedented statement for Saudi newspaper, it said,”The Arabs have no other option than reconciliation with Israel, signing a comprehensive peace agreement and freeing themselves up to tackle the Iranian project in the region.”

Regarding Egypt, both countries signed a peace treaty in 1979. Before the peace accords in Camp David, the two countries had specifically fought many wars. However, since the peace treaty, wars between Israel and Arab states have stopped as Egypt came out of the scene.

Nevertheless, the Egyptian-Israeli peace has remained “cold” in the Egyptian public opinion spectrum due to their popular support to the Palestinians cause. In 2011, Pew survey reported that 98% of Egyptians were holding anti-Semitic sentiments.

However, since Abdel Fattah al-Sisi reached power through a military coup in 2013, the relations with Israel has flourished in an unprecedented way on the security and intelligence levels in Sinai Peninsula.

Moreover, al-Sisi had pointed in different occasions his intention to enhance intimate diplomatic relation with Israel-in other words full normalization or what al-Sisi called “warmer peace”.

In 2016,al-Sisi promised Israel “warmer” peace adding that Egypt is ready to mediate to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In the same year, Egypt’s FM Sameh Shoukry to Israel, which was the first state visit for an Egyptian foreign minister in nine years.

The visit looked like the meeting of old friends and partners as both Shoukry and Netanyahu watched football together, exaggeratedly exchanged pleasantries, and met in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv.

In a former separate occasion, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has also considered Israel practices against Palestinians within the context of “security” rather than “aggression” during a meeting with High School top students at the foreign ministry headquarters last August.

At that time, Shoukry’s statement on the Israeli policies was reported by the Israeli media as a move from the Egyptian Foreign Minister for defending Israel. “Egypt FM defends Israel, Says Policy, not Terrorism”, said the Times of Israel news heading on Shoukry’s comments.

On the economic front that has thawed recently however with a $15 billion deal with an Israeli company to supply natural gas to Egypt. Al-Sisi has come out publicly in support for the deal, saying it brought big advantages to Egypt and will help turn the country into a regional energy hub.

https://www.middleeastobserver.org/2...-day-in-cairo/

Salaam

Can anybody else confirm this? If true you can't make this up.

Some reaction

سيف الله

05-17-2018, 01:05 AM

Salaam

Another update

Norman Finkelstein: Outrage over Israeli Massacre Shows Power of Nonviolent Palestinian Resistance

Blurb

The United States is refusing to criticize Israel after Israeli forces shot dead at least 61 unarmed Palestinian protesters taking part in the Great March of Return in Gaza Monday. More than 2,700 Palestinians were injured. At the United Nations, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley has blocked a call for an international investigation into Israel’s actions. On Tuesday, she repeatedly blamed the violence on Hamas while praising Israel for showing restraint. During her remarks, Nikki Haley refused to place any blame on Israel.

She later walked out of the Security Council chamber when the Palestinian ambassador to the U.N., Riyad Mansour, addressed the council. Since Palestinian protests began on March 30, Israel forces have killed at least 112 Palestinians and injured more than 12,000. On Tuesday, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court said she was closely following the situation in Gaza and would “take any action warranted” to prosecute crimes. Meanwhile, the United Nations human rights office has condemned the “appalling deadly violence” by Israeli security forces in Gaza. For more, we speak with Norman Finkelstein, author and scholar whose most recent book is titled “Gaza: An Inquest into Its Martyrdom.”

سيف الله

05-17-2018, 12:00 PM

Salaam

Another update

An Honorable Statement by the Ever-Diminishing Number of Decent Israelis

Calls for inquiry into Israel’s Gaza killings

Nine prominent Israelis compare the shooting of Palestinians to South Africa’s Sharpeville Massacre

We, Israelis who wish our country to be safe and just, are appalled and horrified by the massive killing of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza (Reports, 15 May). None of the demonstrators posed any direct danger to the state of Israel or to its citizens. The killing of over 50 demonstrators and the thousands more wounded are reminiscent of the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 in South Africa. The world acted then. We call upon decent members of the international community to act by demanding that those who commanded such shootings be investigated and tried.

The current leaders of the Israeli government are responsible for the criminal policy of shooting at unarmed demonstrators. The world must intervene to stop the ongoing killing.

Avraham Burg Former speaker of the Knesset and chairman of the Jewish Agency
Prof Nurit Peled Elhanan 2001 co-laureate of the Sakharov prize
Prof David Harel Vice-president of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, and recipient of the 2004 Israel Prize
Prof Yehoshua Kolodny Recipient of the 2010 Israel prize
Alex Levac Photographer and recipient of the 2005 Israel prize
Prof Judd Ne’eman Director and recipient of the 2009 Israel prize
Prof Zeev Sternhell Historian and recipient of the 2008 Israel prize
Prof David Shulman Recipient of the 2016 Israel prize
David Tartakover Artist and recipient of the 2002 Israel prize
Michel Norman Hod Ha’sharon, Israel

Since 30 March, each week has seen more protests by Gazans at the border with Israel and more killings of largely unarmed protesters by Israeli snipers using live ammunition. As of the morning of 15 May, Nakba Day, more than 100 Palestinians have been killed and some thousands injured. The position has been aggravated by the provocation of the opening of a new US embassy in Jerusalem, hammering another nail into the coffin of an already moribund peace process.

The Independent Jewish Voices steering group wishes to express our horror at the flagrant disregard for the human rights of the Palestinians and the norms of international law, and our support for those many thousands who have been demonstrating their opposition around the world. We call upon the UK government to condemn the actions of the Israeli authorities, to demand an independent inquiry into the use of force on the Gaza border, to make clear that the UK embassy will remain in Tel Aviv, and to redouble all diplomatic efforts to bring the occupation to an end.

Dr Anthony Isaacs
Dr Vivienne Jackson
Dr Katy Fox-Hodess,
Dr Tamar Steinitz,
Professor Jacqueline Rose,
Ann Jungman,
Merav Pinchassoff,
Professor Adam Fagan,
Professor Francesa Klug

Independent Jewish Voices steering group

Good news, the word is getting out.

سيف الله

05-17-2018, 06:25 PM

Salaam

Another update

"We Are All Palestinians Now"

By Minister John Shuck

Anti-Semite

Holocaust Denier

Conspiracy Theorist

People are beginning to awaken to the fact that the name-calling is connected to the violent oppression. The name-calling and the smearing is the weapon the oppressors use to silence the resistance. When someone is labeled as an anti-Semite, Holocaust Denier, Conspiracy Theorist and what have you, then we don't need to listen to what they have to say. You don't need an argument. Call someone an icky name, then avoid them and tell others to avoid them.

The surprising thing is that the name-calling often comes from the mouths of those in opposition to the oppressors. When pro-Palestinian activists call other pro-Palestinian activists these names, then we know the true power of the oppressor. The oppressor controls the language of the opposition.

When I met with divestment activists in the Presbyterian Church (USA) four years ago, I was surprised when one of them told me that we can now use the word "occupation." When the divestment movement in the PCUSA had begun over a decade previous, calling what Israel was doing to Palestine "an occupation" was not allowed. I asked, "Who makes those rules?" The answer had to do with strategy and who might be offended and who would support and not support their particular goals and so on and so forth.

The rules are self-made and guided by the oppressors.

The oppressors allow the little victories as long as the truth of what keeps the oppressors in power is not allowed to be revealed. When someone like for instance, Gilad Atzmon, starts talking about the ideology behind the oppressors, then an artificial line that has been drawn by the oppressors is crossed. All forces are then unleashed to smear not only Mr. Atzmon but anyone who might even give him space to defend himself against such attacks.

Meanwhile, mass murder continues while churches in America either cheer it on, satisfy themselves with smaller goals that won't offend the sensitivities of the oppressors, or, as in most cases, remain deadly silent.

I do think people are beginning to awaken to the fact that the name-calling is connected to the violent oppression and that the name-calling says much more about the name-caller than the name-called. The next step is heart or courage. If we are going to dismantle the oppressor by dismantling their control of the discourse, then we must accept that we, too, will be smeared when we give space to those who cross the oppressors' line. This may affect our reputations, our jobs, our livelihoods.

But that is nothing compared to what is happening to our sisters and brothers in Gaza on this 70th anniversary of the ongoing Nakba. As Mr. Atzmon writes, "We are all Palestinians now."

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2018...lestinians-now

سيف الله

05-18-2018, 12:13 AM

Salaam

More comment

Opinion The Gaza Fence That Separates the Brave From the Cowardly

What is cowardice if not the decision to kill masses of unarmed detainees who are demonstrating against their prolonged imprisonment?

By Amira Hass

In the Gaza Strip the border fence separates the brave from the cowardly. It separates those armed with empty hands, kites and burning tires from a military power and its soldiers. It separates detainees serving a life sentence from their wardens.

The desperate courage demonstrated by tens of thousands of citizens of Gaza over the past few weeks in general and on Monday in particular hints at the energies, the talents, the dreams, the creativity and the vitality of the inhabitants of this strip of land — who has been subjected to a 27-year policy of closure and siege aimed at suffocating and crushing them. That policy has not been a total success, but it’s proved successful enough that so many people are willing to commit suicide with open eyes. In their death they are bequeathing to their friends and families the hope that someone there, in the world beyond the fences, will become alarmed and will finally understand.

The arrogant cowardice demonstrated by the well-protected soldiers and commanders – when I began writing these lines on Monday they had already taken the lives of 18 human beings – is Israel’s real calling card. Because what is cowardice if not the decision to kill masses of unarmed detainees who are demonstrating against their prolonged imprisonment?

Journalists report that four of those killed by Israeli fire are commanders in the Palestinian security lookout posts. In that case, every Israeli soldier in every one of the hundreds of lookout posts in the West Bank and around the Gaza Strip should also be doomed.

The earlier report by the Israel Defense Force’s spokesman mentions three people who were killed by gunfire when they tried to place an explosive device near the border fence. Even if that’s true (and incidentally, if Gaza is sovereign and independent, as Israel claims – it has the right to defend itself from inside, from enemy invasions) – what is the IDF spokesman’s explanation for all the rest? At the moment of writing these lines the number of Palestinian dead has already reached 37, including two minors. How many soldiers were required to kill dozens and to wound hundreds with live fire?

Despite the clear Israeli warnings, and the signals that the army intended to kill and wound indiscriminately, tens of thousands of residents of the Strip attended the demonstration. They did so even though they knew that the hospitals in the Gaza Strip are incapable of treating the hundreds and perhaps thousands of additional wounded, and that more than ever, the snipers’ bullets wound and destroy tissue and bones and muscles to the point of permanent disability. This is a desperate demonstration of courage, addressed to the nations of the world and to Europe in particular, which to their shame enabled Israel, which they consider democratic, to turn the Palestinian enclave into this terrible prison facility.

Despite the pleas of Israeli and international human rights organizations and of this newspaper that the IDF desist from the policy of slaughtering the demonstrators, despite their warnings that shooting unarmed civilians contradicts international law and will only add fuel to the fire — the army did as it pleased. Under the command of Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, the IDF lawyers always say that we are the supreme interpreters of international law, because after all, U.S. President Donald Trump is on our side.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lieberman and Eisenkot gave the orders, and the commanders and soldiers are only obeying them. But in that sense we’re a democracy: Behind Netanyahu, Lieberman and Eisenkot stands most of the Jewish Israeli public, which gives them its full support. No fact and no demonstration will convince that majority that those who are jailed without trial are rebelling against their imprisonment. The warden is asserting his supremacy.

In that sense we are also a startup nation of manufacturers and profiteers and exporters of weapons, who make a living from the availability of the human laboratories on which we constantly test and develop our profitable and popular products for killing. And now, on Tuesday evening, we reach the last line and the number of dead is 61.

https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-gaza-fence-that-separates-the-brave-from-the-cowardly-1.6093491

سيف الله

05-18-2018, 03:40 PM

Salaam

How low will they go :omg::facepalm: . . . . .

سيف الله

05-18-2018, 07:08 PM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

05-18-2018, 07:56 PM

Salaam

Another update

While Many US Outlets Equivocate on Israel's Massacre of Unarmed Palestinians, The Onion's Piercing Satire Destroys IDF Talking Points and War Crime Apologists

The searing satire of headline writers at this outlet over the last two days have perhaps done more than most mainstream journalists to expose just how wantonly cruel the actions of the IDF have become and how ludicrous and vile the arguments of its defenders remain

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/16/while-many-us-outlets-equivocate-israels-massacre-unarmed-palestinians-onions

سيف الله

05-19-2018, 08:31 AM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

05-19-2018, 01:25 PM

Salaam

The taboo on criticising Israel is being broken. Saudi and the French come in for criticism as well.

سيف الله

05-19-2018, 07:29 PM

Salaam

Another update. How familiar.

Mind you India and Israel have the most special of relationships

Freedom

05-20-2018, 01:42 AM

I hope the 20+ Arab countries in the region welcome the Palestinians. An Israeli land grab is the only peaceful way to end this conflict. Seeing as Palestinians are not distinct from Jordanians or other Levantines, I think Jordan or Syria would be good places for them. The Israelis and the Kurds are the only people in the Middle East who deserve our support.

سيف الله

05-20-2018, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by Freedom

You trolling. . . . . . ?

Futuwwa

05-20-2018, 09:32 AM

Originally Posted by Freedom

And if the Palestinians won't peacefully go away and instead choose to resist being peacefully ethnically cleansed, I suppose they are at fault for there not being peace, eh?

سيف الله

05-21-2018, 01:02 AM

Salaam

Another update

Oh and this

سيف الله

05-21-2018, 02:26 PM

Salaam

More comment

Sixty dead in Gaza and the end of Israeli conscience

When will the moment come in which the mass killing of Palestinians matters anything to the right? When will the moment come in which the massacre of civilians shocks at least the left-center? If 60 people slain don't do it, perhaps 600? Will 6,000 jolt them?

When will the moment come in which a pinch of human feeling arises, if only for a moment, toward the Palestinians? Sympathy? At what moment will someone call a halt, and suggest compassion, without being branded an eccentric or an Israel hater?

When will there be a moment in which someone admits that the slaughterer has, after all, some responsibility for the slaughter, not only the slaughtered, who are of course responsible for their own slaughter?

Sixty people killed didn't matter to anyone - perhaps 600 would? How about 6,000? Will Israel find all the excuses and justifications then also? Will the blame be laid on the slain people and their "dispatchers" even then, and not a word of criticism, mea culpa, sorrow, pity or guilt will be heard?

On Monday, when the death count spiked alarmingly, Jerusalem celebrated the embassy and Tel Aviv rejoiced over Eurovision, it seemed that such a moment will never come again. The Israeli brain has been washed irrevocably, the heart sealed for good. The life of a Palestinian is no longer deemed to be worth anything.

If 60 stray dogs were shot to death in one day by IDF soldiers, the whole country would raise an outcry. The dog slaughterers would be put on trial, the nation of Israel would have devoted prayers to the victims, a Yizkor service would be said for the dogs slaughtered by Israel.

But on the night of the Palestinians' slaughter, Zion rejoiced and was jubilant: We have an embassy and a Eurovision. It's difficult to think of a more atrocious moral eclipse. Neither is it difficult to imagine the reverse scenario: 60 Israelis are killed in one day and the crowds celebrate the embassy in Ramallah and rejoice over a concert in El Bireh to cheer the winning of the Arab "A Star is Born," while television hosts and interviewees giggle during the live broadcasts. Oh, those Palestinian animals, oh, the monsters.

On the eve of this black Monday, I found myself sitting in one of the television studios beside a giggling right-winger. Giggling isn't the right term, he was bursting with laughter. It made him laugh so hard, the mass killing, and he found it even funnier that someone was appalled by it. Israel Hayom opened with the "Shehecheyanu" blessing in its main headline about another matter, unaware of the dark irony. Yedioth Ahronoth held a learned discussion over whether Hamas leaders should be eliminated now or not, who's in favor of the murder and who's against it. Imagine a discussion in a Palestinian newspaper: for and against murdering Gadi Eizenkot.

The truth is that Israel is well prepared to massacre hundreds and thousands, and to expel tens of thousands. Nothing will stop it. This is the end of conscience, the show of morality is over. The last few days' events have proved it decisively. The tracks have been laid, the infrastructure for the horror has been cast. Dozens of years of brainwashing, demonization and dehumanization have borne fruit. The alliance between the politicians and the media to suppress reality and deny it has succeeded. Israel is set to commit horrors. Nobody will stand in its way any longer. Not from within or from without.

Apart from the usual lip service, the Trump-era world won't lift a finger, even when Gaza becomes, heaven forbid, Rwanda. Even then our observers and analysts will recite that the IDF has accomplished its goals, that the IDF displayed restraint, that it's the most moral and "what would you suggest doing instead?"

The chief of staff would be crowned man of the year, the moderate, good man, the opposition would tweet their applause. In the town square the "leftist" singer's victory will be celebrated, nobody would even think of canceling the party going on, or at least set aside a moment for the dead.

We're already there. That moment is here. Rwanda is coming to Gaza and Israel is celebrating. Two million human beings we've imprisoned already, and their fate matters to no one. The pictures that occasionally flicker of children without electricity and parents without water, of crippled people being shot to death and of leg amputees, all children of refugees from the 1948 disaster we landed on their heads.

What has that to do with us? It's Hamas' fault. Sixty individuals killed in one day, and not a shred of sorrow has been sighted in Israel. From now on, it never will be.

http://johnpilger.com/articles/sixty-dead-in-gaza-and-the-end-of-israeli-conscience

Freedom

05-22-2018, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by Futuwwa

And if the Palestinians won't peacefully go away and instead choose to resist being peacefully ethnically cleansed, I suppose they are at fault for there not being peace, eh?

Correct. I have no sympathy for them.

سيف الله

05-22-2018, 01:26 PM

Salaam

Heh whats happened to the quality of hasbra trolling? They don't even make a effort anymore.

The sociopaths at the Economist weigh in with their 'considered' opinion.

The Economist’s front page betrayed the victims of Gaza. But the truth is much stronger.

The Economist’s latest front cover shows a provocative image of a young boy firing a slingshot. It leads with the headline: Gaza: There is a better way.

Social media has now responded to this naked bias, saying: ‘Yes, there is a better way’.

“Fixed it!”

On 14 May, Israeli troops killed at least 60 Palestinian protesters. The extent of the violence was so great that, on 18 May, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) voted to investigate violations of international law in Gaza. It suggested that Israel’s actions were “wholly disproportionate”.

In response to the Economist‘s front cover, Media Lens had the perfect response on Twitter:

There has been widespread condemnation of the violence. Because over 2,400 people were injured as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) opened fire. Children and a baby are among the dead and injured. But Israel and the US have defended the violence. And the Economist‘s original cover plays straight into the Israeli-US narrative: that Palestinians (and specifically Hamas) were somehow to blame for Israel’s slaughter of civilians.

https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2018/05/21/the-economists-front-page-betrayed-the-victims-of-gaza-but-the-truth-is-much-stronger/

سيف الله

05-26-2018, 01:10 PM

Salaam

Another opinion piece. More bad news, but at least the mask is coming off.

Trump, Israel and the Gulf States prepare to destroy the Palestinian cause

Veteran Arab journalist Abdel Bari Atwan argues that last week’s celebrations of the transfer of the US embassy to occupied Jerusalem were a crucial first step in implementing the so-called “Deal of the Century” which the Trump administration hopes will result in the final collapse of the Palestinian cause.

By rushing to relocate the embassy, and timing the move to coincide with the anniversary of the Nakba, the US and Israel were launching a “trial balloon” to gauge Arab and international reactions prior to unveiling this “deal.”

Regrettably, the reaction was very muted in most of the occupied Palestinian territories other than the Gaza Strip, where mass demonstrations were held for six consecutive weeks in which more than 100 people were killed and 3,000 people injured by Israeli sniper bullets. The same can be said of the response from most Arab and Islamic capitals.

The “leaking process” aimed at marketing the deal in advance began via the Associated Press news agency, which quoted five anonymous US officials as saying that President Donald Trump plans to unveil his plan – drawn up chiefly by his son-in-law Jared Kushner and “peace” envoy Jason Greenblatt under the direct supervision of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu — in late June after the end of Ramadan.

The official Arab reaction to the embassy move and the Israeli massacre in Gaza was not only muted but complicit, suggesting that the US’s main Arab allies – especially Egypt, Jordan and most of the Gulf states – are aware of the details of the forthcoming American plan. They failed to call for an emergency Arab summit in response, and their attendance at the Islamic summit convened by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was (with the exception of Jordan) notably low-level, with most of the Gulf states (other than Kuwait) represented by their foreign ministers.

The fact that the Arab states which have formal diplomatic relations with Israel (Egypt and Jordan) did not dare recall their ambassadors or expel Israeli diplomats from their capitals in protest — even though such measures were taken by non-Arab countries like Turkey, Bolivia, South Africa, Ireland and Belgium — is significant. It could presage some shocking developments in the months to come.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah as-Sisi summoned Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh from Gaza to Cairo – sending a private plane to pick him and his delegation up at al-Arish airport — in an attempt to persuade them, at the request of the US, to put an end to the Return Marches and calm the situation down in the Gaza Strip, and also to discuss proposals for a ten-year truce with Israel. Some Hamas insiders began leaking word that some kind of agreement, which would result in the lifting of the siege on Gaza, could be on the cards.

Carrot and stick

The US and its Arab clients are pursuing a carrot-and-stick approach towards the Palestinians, or rather towards their leaders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The stick is to cut off financial aid and tighten the siege, and the carrot is the promise of Arab and Western cash for the Occupied Territories as payback for relinquishing Jerusalem and the Right to Return and for not opposing the deal.

Sisi’s unexpected and unprecedented decision to reopen the Rafah border crossing to Gaza for the duration of Ramadan was intended to pave the way for an accord under which the March of Return protests would be halted or scaled down, while popular anger would be assuaged by the prospect of improved living conditions.

That, at least, is the idea, after Gaza’s inhabitants, at Hamas’ urging, spoiled the embassy celebrations and exposed the ugly terrorist face of Israel. But things might not go to plan if the Hamas leadership refuses to take the American carrot being presented to it on an Arab plate. It could go either way: there is a strong current within Hamas that advocates opposition.

The details that have been leaked so far about the substance of Trump’s deal speak of enlarging the Gaza Strip by incorporating 720 square kilometres of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, perhaps including the towns of al-Arish and Sheikh Zuweida, where a port and airport would be built. In return, Egypt would obtain an equivalent area of occupied Palestinian territory in the Naqab desert.

Meanwhile, the envisaged ultra-modern mega-city of Neom would be built in the Egyptian-Jordanian-Saudi border area, attracting $500 billion of investment, providing ample employment and attracting additional indirect investment into the Egyptian economy. The West Bank, for its part, is offered no more than “economic peace” plus improved self-administration conditions.

The big stick being wielded by the US is the threat to deprive the Palestinian Authority (PA) of financial aid if it declines to go along with this plan. It has already had $200 million frozen from this year’s budget, plus another $65 million withheld from UNRWA’s budget.

The cut-off of all financial support to Jordan from the Gulf states has the same objective: to put pressure on the country, and on its resident Palestinians, to either accept the deal or put up with the consequences. The process of trying to marginalise Jordan and its role began some time ago and is set to intensify.

Media campaign

In the Gulf states, meanwhile, there has been an escalating media campaign aimed at vilifying the Palestinian people in the eyes of the public – including by depicting them as having sold their land to the Israelis and so being undeserving of support. The “electronic army” of Gulf state social media propagandists has been fully enlisted in this controlled and coordinated campaign, as have prominent pro-regime writers, in parallel with the gradual process of normalisation with Israel.

This, too, is part of Gulf regimes’ contribution to easing the way for Trump’s deal. So was the arrest of five Saudi male and female activists who were known for their opposition to normalisation. More such moves can be expected.

To this must be added the targeting of the Resistance Axis region-wide – the attacks on Iranian positions in Syria by Israeli warplanes and missiles, the imposition of sanctions on Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah and nine other party leaders, and the placing of the party’s political and military wings alike on the “terrorist” list. All these measures fall in line with US steps to impose the “deal of the century,” exploiting the current weakness of the Arab and Islamic worlds as a historic opportunity that will not recur.

It will be no surprise if Israel soon announces its acceptance of the Saudi-authored Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 – minus its key provisions, of course, and with the status of occupied Jerusalem having been settled and taken off the table of any future negotiations. We may also see exchanges of visits between Gulf Arab and Israeli officials after Ramadan.

It seems we are set for a summer of normalisation, as the wraps are lifted from this cynical deal.

https://5pillarsuk.com/2018/05/25/tr...stinian-cause/

Futuwwa

05-26-2018, 06:09 PM

Trump's "Deal of the Century" isn't going to be worth the paper it's written on. He may be able to coerce the Palestinian Authority to sign the agreement, but the PA won't have any standing to implement or impose it onto its constituents. If anything, it might lead to its final collapse or slide into irrelevancy. Israel would have to do the imposition, which effectively means full military occupation again, back to square one. Nor would Israel be particularly likely to gain any additional internationally recognized legitimacy for it, if the deal has come about in such a way.

The Deal of the Century will blow up in Trump's face. The Arab regimes he has currently herded together for the purpose are temporary, and so are their interest in going along with it. As long as support for the Palestinian cause runs broad and deep in Arab civil society, the compliance of said Arab regimes with the deal isn't going to last. US influence in the Middle East is going to end up in shreds. Spasiba, says Putin.

سيف الله

05-29-2018, 05:52 PM

Salaam

Another update

Israel intercepts Gaza boat after setting sail to break blockade

Vessel carrying Palestinian patients, students and activists was captured by Israeli warships and taken to Ashdod port.

Israeli naval forces have intercepted a Palestinian vessel hours after it sailed off the coast of the besieged Gaza Strip.

The boat, carrying patients, students and people wounded in recent mass protests, was transferred on Tuesday to the Israeli port of Ashdod, according to the Israeli army.

The 17 people on board were attempting to break an Israeli-imposed siege for the first time in more than a decade, and had set off with the intention of reaching Limassol, a coastal city in southern Cyprus.

The intercepted boat had crossed nine nautical miles (16km) before four Israeli warships flanked the vessel.

Under the Oslo Accords signed in 1993, Israel is obligated to permit fishing up to 20 nautical miles, but this has never been implemented.

The widest range Israel has allowed boats in the past 10 years is 12 nautical miles (22km), and at times, the limit was reduced to one nautical mile (1.85km).

Boats are often limited to six nautical miles (11km), and Israeli forces regularly fire warning shots to boats attempting to breach it.

Although hundreds of people boarded more than 30 fishing boats in support of the main vessel, they did not cross the six-nautical-mile permitted boundary, Ramadan al-Hayek, one of the organisers of the voyage, told Al Jazeera

Fifteen boats attempted to cross more than nine nautical miles (16.7km) but met open fire by Israeli forces. These boats sailed in a show of support and were not aiming to reach Cyprus, al Hayek added.

Organisers of the voyage, called Break the Siege committee, also told Al Jazeera the captured boat went as far as 14 nautical miles (26km) when Israeli forces started shooting towards the vessel.

They lost contact with those on board shortly after that.

Passengers had valid passports, with the wounded having made arrangements to receive medical treatment in Turkey prior to leaving Gaza's seaport.

According to al-Hayek, 17 people were detained by Israeli forces in Ashdod.

Committee members said they were working with international agencies, including Human Rights Watch and The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to ensure the wellbeing of the boat's passengers and to hold Israel responsible for their safety.

Al-Hayek also said the committee would soon announce the launching of a second boat in response to Israel's actions.

The Israeli military blamed Hamas, the party governing the Gaza Strip, for the naval "breach".

In a series of posts on Twitter, it said the Palestinians will be returned to Gaza and warned the move would only "harm" residents of the strip.

It also said Israel would continue to enforce the blockade.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/israel-intercepts-gaza-boat-setting-sail-break-blockade-180529133702126.html

What a surprise

anatolian

05-29-2018, 06:07 PM

Originally Posted by Junon

Thats the capitalist democrasy and why it will never bring peace to World.

سيف الله

05-29-2018, 06:39 PM

Salaam

Bro Mohammed managed to get an interview with Norman! Nice one.

Blurb

Did you know that Israel has been compelling black Jews to receive long-term birth control shots? This is a big controversy in Israel. In this video, I will discuss racism and apartheid in Israel.

سيف الله

05-29-2018, 07:58 PM

Salaam

Originally Posted by anatolian

Thats the capitalist democrasy and why it will never bring peace to World.

Yes they have a record, UK for several centuries now by money men, lawyers and bankers, its evolved over the years to include new players (globalists) but its essentially the same. Its elite want to maintain its grip in influencing the world for its benifet and undermine those who will interfere (regardless of the rights or wrongs of it). Good read if you want an introduction on British covert operations.

Blurb

British leaders use spies and Special Forces to interfere in the affairs of others discreetly and deniably. Since 1945, MI6 has spread misinformation designed to divide and discredit targets from the Middle East to Eastern Europe and Northern Ireland. It has instigated whispering campaigns and planted false evidence on officials working behind the Iron Curtain, tried to ferment revolution in Albania, blown up ships to prevent the passage of refugees to Israel, and secretly funnelled aid to insurgents in Afghanistan and dissidents in Poland. MI6 has launched cultural and economic warfare against Iceland and Czechoslovakia. It has tried to instigate coups in Congo, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and elsewhere. Through bribery and blackmail, Britain has rigged elections as colonies moved to independence. Britain has fought secret wars in Yemen, Indonesia, and Oman ― and discreetly used Special Forces to eliminate enemies from colonial Malaya to Libya during the Arab Spring.

This is covert action: a vital, though controversial, tool of statecraft and perhaps the most sensitive of all government activity. If used wisely, it can play an important role in pursuing national interests in a dangerous world. If used poorly, it can cause political scandal ― or worse.

In Disrupt and Deny, Rory Cormac tells the remarkable true story of Britain's secret scheming against its enemies, as well as its friends; of intrigue and manoeuvring within the darkest corridors of Whitehall, where officials fought to maintain control of this most sensitive and seductive work; and, above all, of Britain's attempt to use smoke and mirrors to mask decline. He reveals hitherto secret operations, the slush funds that paid for them, and the battles in Whitehall that shaped them.

سيف الله

06-05-2018, 12:08 PM

Salaam

Should of added this earlier, in relation to arms deals this is how the British establishment operates.

Blurb

A clip from The Death of A Nation - The East Timor Conspiracy. The journalist & documentarian John Pilger in an interview with Alan Clark the Ex British Minister of Defence over the sale of British arms to Indonesia for the express purpose of conquering the neighboring island nation of East Timor.

Have to say this I respect his honesty.

سيف الله

06-05-2018, 02:41 PM

Salaam

Another update

Just to add

سيف الله

06-07-2018, 03:50 PM

Salaam

More comment

On Accountability in the Light of Israeli Brutality

For the last few weeks Israel has displayed a new level of institutional criminality. Fearing that Palestinian protestors attempting to return to their land would cross the Gaza border fence, Israel deployed hundreds of snipers, scores of tanks and drones across the Gaza Strip border. The government ordered forces to shoot at anyone who managed to reach the border. (although it is clear that Israeli forces also shot well inside the border.) This was a premeditated massacre: a cold blooded governmental decision to shoot at protestors. The outcome of this disastrous decision is known and it reveals the murderous nature of the Jewish State.

The world reacted in disgust. The UN voted two days ago to send an international war crimes probe to Gaza. Israel has already refused to cooperate with this fact finding mission.

These events in Gaza proved that the nature of Israeli barbarism has no precedent in human history. Israel is not a tyrannical dictatorship deploying death squads against protestors, nor were the killings the result of an outburst by a lone commander on the battlefield. Instead, Israel’s actions resulted from a non-ethical continuum that stretched from the Israeli PM to the last IDF sniper on the Gaza dunes. The Jewish state is a democracy. Its army is a popular army. The events in Gaza were the direct outcome of a policy that remained unchanged for 6 weeks despite the high level of civilian casualties on the Palestinian side. We are talking about an murderous system that is institutionalised at all levels of the state that repeatedly defines itself as ‘The Jewish State.’

This has exposed a complete absence of moral awareness. Israel has acted with impunity to kill on a mass scale as if ethics had never made it to Israel. However John Adlington from Treflach seems to be really upset that I insist that Jews must look into themselves so that they can understand what is it about their culture and politics that evoke so much fury. John Adlington from Treflach wrote to his local paper (Oswestry Advertiser) complaining about a local music venue inviting me to perform and run Jazz workshops. In Adlington’s eyes I am ‘anti-Semitic’ for insisting that Jews, like everyone else, must reflect on their actions to understand once and for all why their history has been a chain of total disasters and how they bring misfortune on themselves.

I remain firmly behind those words that upset Mr. Adlington “…maybe the time is ripe for Jewish and Zionist organisations to draw the real and most important lesson from the Holocaust. Instead of constantly blaming the Goyim for inflicting pain on Jews, it is time for Jews to look in the mirror and try to identify what it is in Jews and their culture that evokes so much fury. It may even be possible that some Jews would take this opportunity to apologise to the Gentiles around them for evoking all this anger.” http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/holocaust-day-the-time-is-ripe-for-a-jewish-apology.html

I insist that it is well past the time for the Jewish State and Jewish institutions to figure out why the entire world has been disgusted by the actions of the IDF in Gaza. It is time for the Jewish State and Jewish organisations to grasp that Israeli criminality paints Jews in a disastrous light. It is time for Israelis and Jews alike to accept that as long as Israel defines itself as the ‘Jewish State,’ the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians doesn’t reflect well on Jews. The on going Gaza siege doesn’t present the Jewish State as a humanist adventure either. I would advise Mr. Adlington that in this imaginary ‘racist contest’ he is well ahead of me. Expecting Jews not to self reflect and to understand their role in their own misfortune is actually a surrender to Jewish racial exceptionalism.

If the Jewish State and its many satellite lobbies and advocacy bodies around the world were taking responsibility for their actions, the Gaza massacre wouldn’t have happened because the Palestinians would, by now, be living back on their land and peace would have been prevailed. However, if promoting Jewish accountability and peace is ‘anti-Semitism’ one may wonder, what is a real bigot?

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2018/5/19/onaccountability-in-the-light-of-israeli-brutality

سيف الله

06-08-2018, 06:30 PM

Salaam

Another update

'Subterranean normalisation': Netanyahu hails 'friendly relations' with Arab states

Israeli prime minister says better relations would 'eventually also impact the one percent of the Arab world who are Palestinians'

Israel is pursuing a policy of “subterranean normalisation” with Arab countries that will eventually bring a peace deal with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday in an interview with BBC television. Speaking to the Newsnight programme during a visit to London, Netanyahu said he believed that cooperating more closely with Arab states was a “path to peace” and suggested that relations with the Arab world had never been better.

“I would never believe that in my lifetime we would have the kind of friendly relations and cooperation between Israel and the Arab states,” said Netanyahu.

“And here is the most promising thing: that is beginning to affect public opinion in some of the Arab countries. They are beginning to think of Israel differently and this is what Israelis long for.

“I am deliberately pursuing this policy of cooperation with the Arab world not only because it is good on its own merits but also because I believe it is a path to peace.”

Middle East Eye has reported exclusively on deepening relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia, which have included Riyadh’s support for US President Donald Trump’s so-called “deal of the century” for Palestine. Palestinian officials told MEE in March that the US and its Arab allies planned to push through the deal, even without Palestinian support for the plan. Details of the proposed deal have yet to be officially revealed, but it is reported to press the Palestinians to give up East Jerusalem as their capital, and to rescind their right of return to lands taken by Israel in 1948 and 1967.

Last November, MEE reported that the Jordanian monarchy was concerned that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was rushing to normalise relations with Israel at the expense of both the Jordanians and Palestinians.

“We are having this subterranean normalisation and I think that as we normalise relations with Arab nations – not necessarily to full-fledged peace treaties that we have with Egypt and Jordan, but it will take time to get with the others – that it will eventually also impact the one percent of the Arab world who are Palestinians,” said Netanyahu.

“I say normalise relations with the 99 percent and you’ll eventually get peace with the one percent, although I think we should do it in tandem.”

Netanyahu said Israel and Arab states were drawing closer together because of the perceived shared threat posed by Iran, but also because Arab nations wanted to benefit from Israeli technology and innovation.

“There is a massive change that is taking place today in the relations between Arabs and Israelis,” he said.

“Most of the Arab governments now are coming close to Israel because of the Iranian threat which they understand as we do as something that would threaten their survival. Second, once that happened they began to see the benefits of civilian technology.

“They want a better life for their people and they know that Israel is this fountainhead of innovation that can change and better their lives.”

Currently, Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab states that formally recognise Israel.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-pursuing-subterranean-normalisation-arab-states-netanyahu-1207295773

سيف الله

06-09-2018, 07:37 AM

Salaam

Another update

Blurb

Today, Israel shot hundreds of Palestinian civilians, killing 4 - including a child. The world is speaking out against this unjustified aggression that is tantamount to a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

Some comments

6 Gorillion D Chess

The Palestinians need a different approach... I side with them 100% but these tactics are just getting them killed and giving Israel the pretext to further destroy them. I wish I had an answer but I'm at a loss.

Mohammed Haj Daoud

6 Gorillion D Chess what do you suggest they do? They’re not allowed to be armed. And if they go to the UN the US vetoes everything and if they boycott the US will slap whoever does that with sanctions. They’ve been getting slaughtered for 70 years, so you tell me what are they supposed to do?

Blackstone Intelligence Network

The Palestinians have been cast aside by most of their Arab neighbors. Why? Because some of these countries care more about foreign welfare money from the United States than they care about their own blood relatives. They have sold the Palestinians in exchange for money. Sure, they talk a good talk. But they don't follow through in substantive ways. I agree that the tactics of the Palestinians (especially of Hamas) are not resulting in positive changes in their situations. Like you, I've looked at this and I just don't see a clear answer.

What we need is for our Congress to cut off foreign aid to Israel (and to the Arabs), get out of their business, stop the CIA from controlling the Middle East - and let the Arab states get back to supporting one another against Israel. Trump talks big about North Korea, but he doesn't take military action. That's because the Chinese will intervene. The Palestinians don't have anyone backing them up. If Israel had to square off against today's nations of Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and the Gulf States, then Israel would not be so awful in its treatment of the Palestinians.

a

Blackstone Intelligence Network Jake if you observe even more deeply, gaza civillians specifically asked hamas to not interfere, what did hamas do? they just said a political statement that they support the protest, they did not send their joke of a millitia they did not send their rockets for 3 months now since march why do you think Gazans requested that...

and how do you think it was effective i say as a palestinian this is THE MOST SUPPORT we EVER had from the populations of the world... that a city in spain made an action. because when they chose to go out on these fields they demonstrated, the lies of propaganda across the world , each palestinian is killed is a martyr, a martyr of truth also i would like to comment ,

it boils my blood to say kuwaiti and other gulf and egyptian media spread israeli propaganda about the palestinian issue WHAT A SURPRISE the nurtures of al qaeda and destruction of syria are also for the annhilation of palestinians Syrians have initiated a movment( atleast among themselves) to remove the word Arab from their coutry name, and we support it, palestinians never put it in their names i rather we go by our ancestors names canaanites and Assyrians ....

سيف الله

06-09-2018, 07:56 PM

Salaam

More anti Semitism

سيف الله

06-09-2018, 09:07 PM

Salaam

Principled stand.

Not so much.

سيف الله

06-09-2018, 09:46 PM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

06-10-2018, 06:08 PM

Salaam

Another update. New York Times slandering the slain medic. How low will they go.

The New York Times’ Second Assassination of Razan at-Najjar (By Norman G. Finkelstein)

On 1 June 2018, an Israeli assassin poised along “the largest concentration camp ever to exist”[*]killed 20-year-old paramedic Razan al-Najjar.

On 7 June 2018, the New York Times assassinated her a second time.

It surely does not surprise that the Times provides yeoman’s service for Israeli hasbara. Indeed, one reads Times coverage not to be better informed but from quaint curiosity: How will it filter the damning facts to make them more palatable to its target audience on the Upper East Side?

What happened is not in doubt. As the young woman, dressed in her white medical uniform and with her hands raised in the air, approached an injured protester, she was shot dead by an Israeli sniper.

A few days later, Israeli hasbara released a video purporting to show that al-Najjar was a Hamas dupe and Hamas human shield. The video contained a clip from a past interview in which she is quoted as saying: “I am here on the front line and I act as a human shield.” In fact, the Israeli video falsified al-Najjar’s words. Her actual statement was: “I’m acting as a human rescue shield to protect the injured inside the armistice line.”

If there was a news story here, it should have been headlined, “Israel Releases Doctored Video to Justify Murder of Gaza Paramedic.”

But Times reporter Herbert Buchsbaum instead deployed the Israeli video to sow doubt on the incontrovertible facts (“Israeli Video Portrays Medic Killed in Gaza as Hamas Tool,” 7 June). Even as it shocks and disgusts, still, this second assassination of Razan al-Najjar fits the standard Times template:

1) Recast uncontroversial facts as dueling “narratives.” Buchsbaum depicts the Israeli video not as a crude falsification of al-Najjar’s interview, but as the “tightly edited” Israeli entry in “the battle over her story’s narrative,” which is then counterposed to the “version” of “Hamas officials.”

2) Bury the critical facts deep inside the article. Whereas Buchsbaum quotes the doctored Israeli video in the third paragraph, he strategically buries al-Najjar’s original words in the twentieth paragraph at the tail end of the article.

3) Drag in Hamas to discredit the victim. Buchsbaum repeatedly invokes Hamas’s wholly irrelevant name, reporting, for example, that “Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules Gaza, has portrayed her as a hero and an innocent victim of Israeli aggression.” Only Hamas sees her as a hero and an innocent victim?

After release of the doctored video, an Israeli military spokesman tweeted, “Razan al-Najjar is not the angel of mercy Hamas propaganda is making her out to be.” Faithfully echoing him, Buchsbaum broods that, although Razan al-Najjar presents “the image of fresh-faced innocence,” the reality is “more complex.” This deep thinker discerns that “While she said she saw her role as a health care worker, she also saw herself as part of the protest.”

Buchsbaum quotes this supposedly damning avowal by her: “With all my strength, will and persistence, no matter what you do to me, what dangers I’m subjected to, bullets, explosives or tear gas, I will continue on my course and journey. I will save all the injured so that they can go back and defend their land, and take back our land.”

Only in the perverted universe of the Times is it problematic to selflessly oppose one’s dispossession and incarceration.

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/06...zan-at-najjar/

سيف الله

06-10-2018, 08:03 PM

Salaam

:o

“Mass lifelong disability is now the prospect facing Gazan citizens, largely young”

The Gaza shootings: a massive orthopaedic crisis and mass disability

I am the Head of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in Gaza and I am writing in follow-up of the rapid response “The Maiming Fields of Gaza” of 4 May. (1) As of 18 May, the death and injury toll, rising every day, is 117 dead, including 13 children, and no less than 12,271 injured. 6,760 have been hospitalised, including 3,598 with bullet wounds. 19 clearly identified medics have been shot to date. (2)

The humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has been operating in Gaza and says that people have been shot with bullets that have caused fist-sized wounds of “unusual severity”. Marie-Elisabeth Ingres, head of MSF Palestine says in their report that “half of the more than 500 patients we have admitted in our clinics have injuries where the bullet has literally destroyed tissue after having pulverised bone”. (3) This is what we are facing. I have seen a great deal of physical trauma in Gaza following Israeli attacks but have not seen these kind of injuries before. From the appearance of the wounds there appears to have been systematic use by Israeli Defence Force snipers of ammunition with an expanding ‘butterfly’ effect.

There are currently between 300 and 350 high energy compound tibial fractures in Gaza as a result of live fire. These are the most difficult of all open fractures to treat. Complex lower limb injuries of this severity may require between 5 and 7 surgical procedures, with each operation taking 3-6 hours. Even with state-of-the-art reconstruction, healing takes 1-2 years. Most of these patients will develop osteomyelitis. A steadily increasing toll of secondary amputations is inevitable. They will also need intensive rehabilitation, but the only rehabilitation hospital in Gaza was destroyed by Israeli bombing in 2014 and has not been re-built. Mass lifelong disability is now the prospect facing Gazan citizens, largely young, who were merely gathering in unarmed protest about Israeli occupation and siege that has rendered their political and social futures impossible.

To reconstruct such injuries is entirely beyond the capabilities of Gazan medical services already depleted by the 12 year Israeli siege described in the earlier rapid response. Shifa hospital is anyway swamped and there are no beds. Moreover the level of expertise required for such reconstructive surgery is beyond that generalist orthopaedic surgeons, requiring dedicated Limb Salvage Teams. I am sure that if over 6000 injured patients, more than half with bullet wounds, required admission to hospitals in London over a short period of time, your services would be stretched even though you are fully resourced. I am told that no single limb reconstruction service in the UK has ever been confronted with such mass leg casualties. How are we here in Gaza to manage this situation?

I understand there is now the question of an investigation by the International Criminal Court.

We in Gaza cannot but ask why has no European government spoken out about events which if they had happened elsewhere would surely have been called an international outrage and probable war crime?

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/06/10/mass-lifelong-disability-is-now-the-prospect-facing-gazan-citizens-largely-young/

سيف الله

06-12-2018, 02:18 AM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

06-12-2018, 09:00 PM

Salaam

Another update

Silas

06-12-2018, 09:01 PM

the Irish have a pretty good understanding of what it means to live under occupation

سيف الله

06-12-2018, 09:10 PM

Salaam

Yes, given their history, they have been consistent supporters for a just solution to the Israel Palestine conflict, contrast their stance with the Arab regimes (who have sold them out)

This needs to be verified but I can believe.

سيف الله

06-16-2018, 04:16 PM

Salaam

Another update

Blurb

Witnesses say Israeli soldiers shot dead 21-year-old Palestinian medic Razan al-Najjar as she ran toward the border fence to provide medical aid to a wounded protester. Since nonviolent protests began at the end of March, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 119 people, including 14 children. More than 13,000 have been wounded. “It was clear to everybody that she was a paramedic, that that was murder. I mean, that was a crime committed before cameras,” said Dr. Medhat Abbas, director of Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip. We also speak with Najjar’s cousin, Dalia al-Najjar, who says the response of the international community to the Gaza crisis has been “really disappointing,” and notes the U.S. vetoed a draft U.N. resolution urging the protection of Palestinians on Friday, the same day Najjar was killed. “It’s a shameful side that the United States decided to take.”

سيف الله

06-16-2018, 09:17 PM

Salaam

Another update

Why is the Palestinian Authority attacking Palestinian protests?

The Palestinian Authority is struggling with its loss of legitimacy as it clamps down on anti-Gaza-sanctions protests.

On Wednesday night in Ramallah, people mobilised once again around a new campaign calling for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to lift the sanctions it imposed on Gaza.

The sanctions include slashing the salaries of government employees by over 30 percent and the forced early retirement of nearly a third of PA employees in Gaza. Drastic moves at any time, these sanctions are made even more brutal in the context of the ongoing Israeli siege on Gaza, which has aggravated unemployment and poverty.

The protesters view the sanctions as a tool in the siege of Gaza and a mechanism of collective punishment. They also reject political polarisation and the power struggle between Fatah and Hamas.

Wednesday’s demonstration came on the back of a similar demonstration that took place in Ramallah on Sunday and was attended by nearly two thousand people. There was very little violence in Sunday’s demonstration, but what happened on Wednesday night was another story.

On Tuesday, one day before the planned demonstration, the PA announced a ban on all forms of protests until the end of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the month of Ramadan. This allowed the PA to brand the planned demonstration "illegal" and organise its forces to shut it down.

Prior to the protest, the streets of Ramallah were filled with police. Officers were placed in strategic locations in an obvious effort to intimidate activists.

Soon after the protesters started to gather, armed with nothing but posters that read "Gaza unites us", security forces started to fire tear gas and throw stun grenades. Heavily armed police officers in riot gear also wielded batons and used tasers against unarmed protesters. By the end of the night, over 40 protesters had been arrested. Detained protesters suffered beatings in police vehicles and police stations. Most detainees were released promptly, but they sustained injuries.

The worst violence came not from the police, but the paid thugs loyal to the Fatah party, known colloquially as "baltajiyeh", who showed up to beat and intimidate protesters. Identifiable by the white caps they wore, these men were incredibly violent towards protesters and sexually harassed and assaulted several women in the crowd.

The intimidation of activists in Palestine, particularly those critical of the PA, is not new. Many similar protests have been suppressed in the past, what happened on Wednesday night shouldn't surprise anyone. The leadership that attacked peaceful protesters this week has been stifling political opposition for years. It also failed to hold democratic elections for over a decade.

Yet despite all its authoritarianism and aggression towards its own people, the PA still has the support of the international community and its security forces are celebrated for their efficiency. In 2006, the PA security forces were reformed and retrained in an initiative led by the United States Security Coordinator (USSC) and the European Union Coordinating Office for Palestinian Police Support (EUPOL COPPS). They have since been praised by various Israeli politicians for their cooperation and assistance in preventing so-called "terrorist activities".

After last Sunday's protest, the PA claimed the ongoing campaign in Ramallah against Gaza sanctions was organised directly by Hamas. However, this clearly is not the case. The campaign against Gaza sanctions is a non-partisan grassroots movement. Palestinians from all backgrounds and political affiliations gathered in Ramallah on Wednesday to protest.

The main goal of the campaign is to lift the sanctions that are exacerbating the suffering caused by the Israeli siege. But it is also attempting to challenge the fragmentation of the Palestinian people, stressing that they are one - from Gaza to Haifa to Ramallah - and that their adversary is not each other but the Israeli settler colony and all its mechanisms of control.

What is clearer than ever today is that the PA has lost its legitimacy. As a product of Oslo, it remains a mechanism that aims to keep the Palestinian people occupied and subdued within the 1967 territories. It fails to represent Palestinian refugees in other countries or the Palestinians living in the 1948 territories.

But the international community continues its partnership with the PA and even worse, continues to fund its brutality towards its own people.

The beginning of the Great March of Return protests in Gaza several months ago has shown the revival of Palestinian grassroots organising. Indeed from Haifa to Ramallah, Gaza is uniting the Palestinian people.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/op...100149988.html

سيف الله

06-19-2018, 07:37 PM

Salaam

Another update

Blurb

Norman Finkelstein, Scholar & Author of “Gaza: An Inquest Into Its Martyrdom,” discusses Gaza, its people, and its future.

سيف الله

06-20-2018, 09:30 AM

Salaam

Another update

UAE accused of purchasing homes for Zionist settlers in al-Aqsa’s vicinity

In an incriminating revelation, Vice President of the Islamic Movement inside 1948 Occupied Palestine, Sheikh Kamal al-Khatib has again accused the UAE of paying huge sums of money in an attempt to speed up the Judaisation of Eastern Jerusalem.

In a Facebook post, [1] al-Khatib asserted that a businessman:

“Very close to Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi was involved in purchasing homes and estate in the occupied Old City in Jerusalem, namely in the vicinity of al-Masjid al-Aqsa with the help of a Jerusalemite associate of expelled Fatah ‘National Security Advisor’ Mohammad Dahlan…” [2]

In the post, al-Khatib added that:

“This businessman offered a resident in Jerusalem $5M to purchase his home, one that neighbours al-Masjid al-Aqsa. When the owner rejected the offer, the (purchaser’s) offered price increased to $20M for the same home.”

ccording to al-Khatib, this purchase attempt failed because “the principled homeowner’s mouth did not water over this filthy wealth,” reiterating previous revelations that had suggested “Mohammed bin Zayed’s regime in the UAE was complicit in purchasing the homes of Jerusalmites (in Silwan and Wadi Hilwah) in 2014 before transferring their ownership to (Zionist) settlements institutions.”

The Sheikh implored residents of al-Quds not to cooperate with anyone seeking to sell homes or estate to anyone or for any reason, concluding that “the rulers of the UAE are germs lurking in the body of the Ummah.” In an interview with Aljazeera, Sheikh al-Khatib said:

In his response, Dahlan, who lavishes in his Abu Dhabi home featuring plush sofas, vaulted ceilings, chandeliers and an infinity pool, accused al-Khatib of being an “Ikhwani liar”. The aide to George W Bush, chosen to lead a coup against the elected Hamas government in Gaza in 2007, [4] said al-Khatib was “hiding behind religiosity” and launched a scathing attack against Aljazeera network who broadcast the disclosures. Remarkably, Dahlan did not deny the allegations. [5]

It is noteworthy to mention that Sheikh al-Khatib has dedicated his life to the service and protection of al-Masjid al-Aqsa, becoming famous for leading the ‘Murabitū al-Aqsa’ (the Protectors of al-Aqsa). Under this movement, regular convoys are sent to the third Masjid of Islām to liven it with circles of knowledge and I’tikāf (prolonged stays) whilst providing it protection against the incursions of Zionist settlers. Al-Khatib has been repeatedly prevented from entering al-Aqsa and has suffered persecution and arrests. [6]

High Treason

Palestinians recognise selling their homes to Zionist settlers as a form of high-treason seeing that it facilitates the occupation and Judaisation of the holy land. Only 13% of Occupied East Jerusalem is permitted for Palestinian construction as it is already more or less built up. Regular coerced evictions, home demolitions and appropriation of Palestinian-owned properties occur under the pretext of those properties not having Israeli-issued building permits. [7]

Zionist NGOs that champion Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem receive hundreds of millions of dollars from private donors, and using intermediaries wedged as middle-men to make it look like an ordinary Palestinian to Palestinian transaction, occupy the city ‘one house at a time’. [8] For many, it beggars belief that at least one Arab government is assisting the Judaisation of the Islamic city and facilitating a demographic shift; one that that is likely to have extreme and dire consequences for al-Masjid al-Aqsa.

https://www.islam21c.com/news-views/uae-accused-of-purchasing-homes-for-zionist-settlers-in-al-aqsas-vicinity/

سيف الله

06-23-2018, 08:50 AM

Salaam

Another update

Chief Palestinian negotiator says US peace plan will 'normalise Israeli apartheid'

Veteran mediator Saeb Erekat says Trump's 'deal of the century' isn't a deal - and is already being implemented on the ground

US President Donald Trump's proposed "deal of the century" peace plan for Israel and Palestine is not a deal and is already being implemented by Washington and its allies on the ground, the chief Palestinian negotiator has told Middle East Eye.

Amid mounting speculation that the Trump administration will announce details of its plan within days, Saeb Erekat, a veteran negotiator, said Palestinian negotiators had yet to see an official draft of the so-called deal.

And he said the Americans had become "nothing else than spokespeople for the Israeli occupation" whose intention was to "normalise Israeli apartheid".

MEE reported in March that Saudi officials had delivered a copy of the deal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but he refused to open the document.

"If there's any plan, this is being implemented on the ground: with moving the US embassy to occupied Jerusalem, withdrawing support for the two-state solution, cutting funds to UNRWA and, eventually, trying to normalise the Israeli apartheid in Palestine," Erekat said.

Erekat's comments come as Jared Kushner, the US envoy to the Middle East and Trump's son-in-law, and Jason Greenblatt, Trump's Middle East peace negotiator, are meeting with leaders in the region to discuss the plan.

Sources told Israeli daily Haaretz that the Americans aim to convince Gulf leaders to invest in economic projects in the Gaza Strip, including energy projects, as a first step.

A rare meeting earlier this week between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan's King Abdullah II in Amman fuelled speculation about whether a backdoor deal was being made over the peace plan.

Anti-austerity protests rocked the kingdom earlier this month leading one Jordanian official to suggest that Gulf leaders had withheld aid to pressure the king over Jerusalem where Jordan has had custodianship of the holy sites since the British mandate of Palestine in the early 20th century.

After the meeting, Netanyahu's office released a statement saying that the prime minister "reiterated Israel's commitment to maintaining the status quo at the holy sites in Jerusalem".

Asked whether he was worried that Jordan would give in to parts of the deal in exchange for holding on to its custodianship, Erekat told MEE that Palestinian relations with Jordan were "very strong".

"King Abdullah has been clear in his statements calling for a free Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem. We are coordinating everything with the Jordanian side," he said.

'No table to walk from'

Erekat has been involved in Palestinian-Israeli negotiations since 1991 when a friend reportedly passed him a note from Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat asking if he would join the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid peace conference as deputy head of delegations. Erekat refused at first, but then eventually agreed.

Since Trump came to power, Erekat has had several contentious exchanges with Kushner over recent American interventions in the conflict, according to an account this month in the New Yorker magazine.

When Erekat complained to Kushner that the Palestinians were struggling to organise meetings with the Israelis, Kushner reportedly said: "We told them they shouldn't meet with you now."

Erekat responded that it didn't make sense. "It's much better for us to meet with the Israelis," he was quoted as saying. "You're not going to make peace for us."

"You think all of a sudden you're going to meet at your house, and have tea, and you'll be able to agree on something you haven't been able to agree on for 25 years?" Kushner was quoted as responding.

"That's all in the past... Show me what you think is an outcome that you can live with."

According to the New Yorker, Erekat likened the conversation to dealing with stockbrokers: "If I don't take 30 cents on the dollar now, I'll get 15 cents next year."

MEE asked Erekat what the consequences would be if the Palestinians walk away from what the Americans eventually put on the table.

"I disagree with your assumption," he said. "There is no table to walk away from. It's not like we were negotiating and suddenly we decided to leave.

"If anyone walked away, it was the Trump emissaries whose plan has nothing to do with a just and lasting peace and a lot to do with normalising the Israeli apartheid regime."

The Palestinian position, he said, is based on international law and UN resolutions. "We are not going to accept anything short of that, and nobody could impose anything upon us," he said.

In January, a month after Trump announced that the US would move its embassy to Jerusalem, Palestinian President Abbas told the Palestinian Central Council that the Palestinians were being offered Abu Dis, a small East Jerusalem suburb, as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

The president didn't expand on which party had proposed Abu Dis, which is 4km east of Jerusalem and was cut off from the city entirely by Israel's separation wall more than a decade ago. Some reports have suggested it was the Saudis.

Erekat, who is from Abu Dis, said it wasn't a Saudi proposal, but that, in any case, it was a non-issue.

"The boundaries of the city of Jerusalem, our eternal capital, are very well-known. There will be no Palestinian state without Jerusalem as its capital," he said.

He became a Palestinian negotiator in 1995, and was first elected as a member of the Palestinian parliament a year later. He has resigned several times over the years from his role as head negotiator, but holds the position again today.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-us-trump-deal-of-century-Paletinians-jared-kushner-jerusalem-saeb-erekat-1261563896

Related

سيف الله

06-25-2018, 07:09 PM

Salaam

Another update. More madness

The BBC is in serious decline.

They don't have to be this slavish.

On a brighter note, more decency from Jeremy Corbyn

سيف الله

06-26-2018, 07:43 AM

Salaam

Another update

“The PA leaders needs to recognize that the model they are perpetuating in the West Bank is the inspiration for what Israel and the Trump administration seek to do in Gaza, and that they are indirectly serving the interests of Jerusalem and Washington. The goal is to rule the Palestinians for generations, with no diplomatic agreement that necessitates determining borders and resolving the core issues.”

Abbas Opposes Plan to Rebuild Gaza, but He Has Only Himself to Blame

Palestinian Authority leaders needs to recognize that the model they are perpetuating in the West Bank is the inspiration for what Israel and the Trump administration seek to do in Gaza

What should be done with the Gaza Strip? The question comes up every time tension in the south rises.

Leading pundits ask the question of retired generals in the hope of getting an answer that promises salvation, rather like ancient Greeks longing for an answer from the gods on Olympus. But all the answers revolve around the same old colonialist approach that has characterized Israel’s security policy for generations.

Not human rights, freedom and self-determination, but control via carrots and sticks: defeating Hamas, but leaving it in power. Controlling the sea and the air and the border crossings, but giving people a glimmer of hope through minor relaxations of the siege and the introduction of infrastructure projects that will provide jobs. The main thing is for Gaza to remain a territory surrounded by fences, deterred and barely breathing, but alive.

This model wasn’t developed in the past few months or years. It also operates in the West Bank, despite efforts to conceal it. And for now, the model is working well, despite the geographic and demographic differences between the territories.
The West Bank is divided into canton centered on the main cities. With them, there is a semblance of freedom of movement and freedom of commerce, but nobody can enter or leave without Israeli permission. Many Palestinians do leave for work, despite occasional terror attacks.

Overall, Israeli control over the West Bank is almost absolute. As far as Israel is concerned, the Palestinian Authority and its security services are supplying the goods by preventing escalation. All the threats by senior PA officials to dismantle the deal and hand back the keys no longer impress anyone.

This is the model Israel would like to advance in the Gaza Strip. It would like to stay as far away as possible from a comprehensive political arrangement and promote a plan for its continued control based on the same parameters as in the West Bank. The Strip would become one big canton. Hamas would be the de facto sovereign, policing and keeping the peace. Unlike the West Bank, Gaza has no Israeli settlements, so as long as there’s no rocket and mortar fire into Israel, everything’s under control.

But Hamas, unlike the PA, is hard to restrain, mainly because of its rockets and tunnels. That’s why Israel invested billions to develop the Iron Dome anti-missile system and build the new fence around Gaza.

The entry of U.S. envoys Jason Greenblatt and Jared Kushner, in cooperation with Arab states like Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, is meant in the eyes of Netanyahu’s Israel to complete this plan. Egypt, which has a vital interest in calming Gaza down because of the territory’s impact on Sinai, will play the policeman who restrains Hamas. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and perhaps the United Arab Emirates will pay for the projects, which will be under United Nations auspices.

The hope is that curbing Hamas while improving Gaza’s infrastructure will ensure long-term quiet, safeguard Israel’s security interests and sever the connection between Gaza and the West Bank, so that all talk of a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders would become irrelevant.

Hamas understands this plan quite well, and therefore, it will officially oppose and assail it. But in practice, it won’t oppose civilian projects in Gaza as long as its rule isn’t in danger.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the rest of the PA leadership will continue to warn against separating Gaza from the West Bank and to attack the plan, as they did over the weekend.

In a statement, Abbas said: “the American delegation has to realize that there’s no point in looking for alternatives and illusions that are meant to divide the Palestinian homeland and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state.”

His spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, added on his behalf that “true peace obligates the implementation of decisions made by the international community, that are based on a two-state solution, a Palestinian state built on the 67’ borders with East Jerusalem as its capital and the creation of an international mechanism to put the peace process back on the right track.”

The PA leaders needs to recognize that the model they are perpetuating in the West Bank is the inspiration for what Israel and the Trump administration seek to do in Gaza, and that they are indirectly serving the interests of Jerusalem and Washington. The goal is to rule the Palestinians for generations, with no diplomatic agreement that necessitates determining borders and resolving the core issues. For Israel and the United States, it would be a huge success if the Arab states adopted and promoted this formula.

The Palestinian leadership in Ramallah and Gaza can kick and scream, but their complaints should be directed first and foremost at themselves and only afterward at the rest of the world. For unless they end the internal schism and return their mandate to the Palestinian people via free and democratic elections, which would produce a new leadership with a new strategy and a new agenda, the Palestinians will be left with few weapons to fight the plans being concocted to liquidate their national aspirations.

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/06/24/the-pa-leaders-needs-to-recognize-that-the-model-they-are-perpetuating-in-the-west-bank-is-the-inspiration-for-what-israel-and-the-trump-administration-seek-to-do-in-gaza-and-that-they-are-indirect/

سيف الله

06-27-2018, 11:11 AM

Salaam

This so called 'leader' is beyond pathetic.

Leader of World’s Largest Muslim Organization Meets Netanyahu, Wants Closer Ties with Israel

The leader of the world’s largest Muslim organization, Yahya Staquf, said he wants to see closer ties between Israel and Indonesia in a surprise meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, The Times of Israel reported.

The Muslim cleric from Indonesia, who is the secretary-general of the 60 million-member Nahdlatul Ulama, is visiting Israel at the invitation of the American Jewish Committee.

Staquf, a strong advocate of interfaith dialogue, met with several religious leaders this week. His meeting with Netanyahu, however, was not officially on the agenda. After talks with the cleric, Netanyahu spoke of Israel’s warming ties with Muslim countries, and expressed his hopes “that we have some movement with Indonesia.”

In Indonesia, social media has been filled with negative comments about the visit. Israel and Indonesia do not have diplomatic relations, and the visit has prompted protests in the country.

In an exclusive interview with The Israel Project, Staquf responded to the criticism, saying he needed to reach out “because I want peace” between Israel and the Palestinians. “If you want peace, then you have to talk to everyone,” he said.

Staquf urged different communities of faith and no faith to embrace the concept of “rahma,” meaning compassion and caring about others.

He explained one reason why people in Muslim countries have a negative perception of Israel is because they “haven’t thought about it deeply.” Instead, Staquf urged people to “think towards peace.”

The cleric said while he knows that “Israel did bad things in the past” and “Palestinian people did bad things in the past,” what is needed now is a dialogue about “what we want for our future, together.” When asked if he’s hopeful for the future, Staquf replied: “This is why I came here. I want the hope of peace to be alive.”

In a final message, he once again pleaded for people to embrace “rahma.”

http://www.thetower.org/6362-leader-of-worlds-largest-muslim-organization-meets-netanyahu-wants-closer-ties-with-israel/

سيف الله

06-27-2018, 04:33 PM

Salaam

Another update

Palestinian Authority proves to be good student of Israeli repression

The tension was palpable in Ramallah’s city center as numerous Palestinian security forces gathered around al-Manara Square on the evening of 13 June. Wearing helmets and carrying batons, they peered through the square, waiting for the first person to raise their voice.

On the second of three days of protests, Palestinians gathered in Ramallah – a city in the occupied West Bank – to demand the Palestinian Authority lift sanctions it imposed on the Gaza Strip.

The protests were the first clear expression of solidarity with Gaza in Ramallah since the beginning of the Great March of Return.

As PA security officials waited for the 13 June protest to begin, women’s voices rose up chanting, “with our blood, with our souls, we will sacrifice for you Gaza.”

It only took seconds for the militarized forces to shoot stun grenades into the crowd, chase protesters and beat them with full force.

It became clear that there were many security forces in plain clothing present as young men were violently dragged away.

“We have seen violence from the PA before, especially during peaceful protests,” Dalia Nassar, a protester at the scene, told The Electronic Intifada.

“But to this extent, no. This is violence like never before.”

Some of the security forces present wore caps bearing the emblems of Fatah, the dominant party in the PA.

“We are used to the men in uniform,” said Wafa Abdel Rahman, founder of women’s rights group Filastiniyat. “But these gangs, they were new.”

Abdel Rahman noted that the men in caps were harassing women and girls. Some of the men in caps were heard shouting “-----” at women and telling them to go home.

In at least one case, a woman was sexually abused before being rescued by acquaintances.

“I thought that they would still have some respect for women and girls, being Arabs. But I saw undercover forces beating up women the age of their mothers,” Abdel Rahman said.

Punitive measures

The protest had been organized under the banner “lift the sanctions,” and came as a response to the Palestinian Authority’s recent salary cuts of public employees in Gaza.

“First, they cut benefits, like transportation, health insurance, child support,” Hussein, a Gaza resident who was reached by phone, stated.

In April 2017, the Palestinian Authority cut the wages of public employees by 30 percent in Gaza.

“People had to live on 70 percent of their salaries for 10 months,” said Hussein (not his real name). “Then they cut 50 percent more. Then the salaries stopped for two months, then they kept paying the 50 percent.”

“But most of the money goes to banks because many people here have loans.”

Hussein asked for his real name not to be used, as he is waiting for an exit permit for medical treatment. He fears the Palestinian Authority – which processes such permits for Gaza residents – would not allow him to leave.

Tug of war

Since Hamas expelled Fatah forces and took power of the interior of Gaza in 2007, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has been trying to force Hamas out of power through imposing various sanctions on the strip, political analyst Mouin Rabbani told The Electronic Intifada.

The PA has “believed that a combination of Israeli military pressure against Hamas and punishment of the population of Gaza would lead to Hamas’ voluntary departure from government, or a popular rebellion against them,” Rabbani added.

Rabbani explained that as this strategy has not worked, Abbas and his associates are increasing pressure. In doing so, they do not shy away from appealing directly to the Israeli occupation authorities.

Last year, the PA asked Israel to cut Gaza’s electricity supply.

“We have come to see a disgraceful situation in which the self-proclaimed Palestinian leadership is openly soliciting for collective punishment from the occupation against its own people,” Rabbani stated.

The battle between the two parties is one for political power, stated Wafa Abdel Rahman moments before protests commenced on 13 June.

“Abbas and Hamas are both taking the Gaza people hostage,” she explained to The Electronic Intifada. “Abbas wants Gazans to rebel against Hamas, but they have done it before. They were attacked and killed. You are asking them to commit suicide.”

Abdel Rahman added, “nobody is answering the essential question: If Hamas is gone, what is the alternative?”

Rabbani expressed a similar sentiment, stating that while Abbas is attempting to oust Hamas, he is not showing a willingness to take responsibility over the Gaza Strip himself.

“The PA talks about the Gaza Strip as a foreign country to which it is providing aid, and about those who receive the salaries as if they are somehow recipients of a donor project, rather than their own people,” he said.

Diana Buttu, a former negotiator for the Palestine Liberation Organization, said that Abbas is seeking to punish the people of Gaza for voting for Hamas.

“The scary part is that the actual security services were willing to follow his orders,” Buttu told The Electronic Intifada.

Buttu emphasized that the Palestinian Authority seemed to have learned well from Israeli repression techniques.

“I watched the events via Facebook live feeds, and it was very reminiscent of what the Israelis did to solidarity protests in Haifa,” she said.

Buttu was referring to Israeli police’s violent suppression of a Palestinian protest in Haifa, a city in Israel, on 18 May. The protest had been called against Israel’s massacre of unarmed civilians in Gaza.

“From wearing riot gear when there is no riot, to stun grenades, to approaching it from a standpoint that this needs to be shut down, rather than allowing people to express themselves,” Buttu said. “They [the PA’s forces] have proven to very good students.”

https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestinian-authority-proves-be-good-student-israeli-repression/24731

سيف الله

06-29-2018, 12:27 AM

Salaam

Another update

Arabic press review: Jerusalem not for sale, say Islamic and Christian leaders

Preventing a Jerusalem fire sale

Islamic and Christian organisations in Jerusalem are taking measures to ensure that Gulf countries are unable to buy up Palestinian properties in the city, news site Arabi21 reports.

Jamal Amro, a member of the Jerusalem supreme Islamic committee, told Arabi21 that the associations will form a committee of experts to monitor suspicious purchases.

"The committee will carry out a property survey to document all the Arab properties in the Old City in Jerusalem and identify the owners and the date of purchase of the property," Amro said.

Amro said that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, in particular, are the countries of most concern.

The UAE, he said, is offering inflated prices for houses in the Old City while Saudi Arabia wants to replace Jordan as the custodian of Jerusalem's holy sites.

"Some residents of the city would sell their properties because of the difficult economic conditions that the residents of Jerusalem have been going through as a result of the high taxes imposed by the occupation authorities," he added.

The issue came to head recently when the deputy head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, Kamal al-Khatib, said that the former leader of the Fatah movement, Mohammed Dahlan, was involved in an Emirati plan to build an Israeli settlement next to the al-Aqsa Mosque.

Jordan under pressure

Jordan's newly appointed prime minister says that the kingdom is under extraordinary pressure to change its political stances, according to the Jordanian newspaper al-Ghad.

Omar al-Razzaz did not specify what kind of pressure he meant or what position needed to change. However, several months ago, King Abdullah II said that Jordan was being pressured to change its position concerning Jerusalem in return for the resumption of financial aid.

After several consecutive days of anti-austerity protests last week, Razzaz replaced Hani al-Mulki as prime minister and was put in charge of forming a new government.

Razzaz made his comments during a meeting with representatives of political parties in Jordan in which he assured them that consultations around the new government are ongoing.

The king, he told them, has asked him not to rush so that he won't have to reshuffle any time soon.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/arabic-press-review-802064618

while Saudi Arabia wants to replace Jordan as the custodian of Jerusalem's holy sites.

سيف الله

06-29-2018, 01:48 AM

Salaam

Another update

'Jordan, Palestine and Saudi Arabia warn Israel against Turkey'

Israeli daily Haaretz alleges the three Arab states have warned Israel of creeping Turkish influence in East Jerusalem.

Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Palestine have warned Israel on separate occasions about Turkey's creeping influence in East Jerusalem, according to a report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

The report notes that senior officials from the three Arab countries told Israel that Turkey was "extending its influence in Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem" which they said was "part of an attempt by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to "claim ownership over the Jerusalem issue."

Israeli sources claimed to have been aware of Turkey's expanding influence and say they have been monitoring Ankara's efforts for more than a year.

According to the report, Jordanian officials are said to have been upset with Israel's slow response which they described as "sleeping at the wheel", especially since the signing of a 2016 reconciliation agreement which Israel is adamant to maintain.

Officials from the Palestinian Authority also expressed concern at Turkey's drive to further its influence in East Jerusalem which comes in the form of donations to Islamic organisations in Arab neighbourhoods or through organised tours by Turkish Muslim groups with close ties to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Israeli defence officials told the Israeli daily that the phenomenon had reached its peak in 2017 with hundreds of Turkish nationals establishing "a regular presence in and around the city" and increasingly clashing with police forces during Friday prayers at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque.

"They're trying to buy real estate and strengthen their political standing," an unnamed police source is quoted as saying.

"It's also a source of concern for the PA, which doesn't want to have another country claiming responsibility for East Jerusalem."

Jordan's concerns stem from the fact that Turkey's efforts to widen its influence risk compromising the Hashemite Kingdom's position as the custodian of Islam's third holiest site.

Saudi Arabia for its part is worried that Erdogan's ambitions in Jerusalem may help boost his image in the Arab and wider Muslim world which would, in effect, present him "as the only leader truly standing up to Israel and the Trump administration".

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/06/palestine-saudi-arabia-warn-israel-turkey-180628195454983.html

سيف الله

06-29-2018, 06:18 AM

Salaam

Another update

Nothing to hide? Israel considers ban on filming IDF soldiers, 5yr jail terms for offenders

A draft Israeli bill proposes to ban filming of soldiers and jail offenders for up to 5 years. Here are some videos that would qualify as an offense under the proposed ban, slammed as an attempt to hide abuse of Palestinians.

The controversial legislation states that anyone who “filmed, photographed, and/or recorded soldiers in the course of their duties, with the intention of undermining the spirit of IDF soldiers and residents of Israel, shall be liable to five years imprisonment,” according to reports in Hebrew-language media earlier in May.

The document, which critics see as a new way of silencing criticism of the Israeli army, says that the country “has witnessed a worrying phenomenon of documentation of IDF soldiers” in recent years. It accuses human rights groups such as B’Tselem, Machsom Watch Women, and Breaking the Silence of waiting patiently for any IDF activity “that can be presented in biased and tendentious form.”

The Knesset member behind the bill, Robert Ilatov, insists that Israel has “a responsibility to provide IDF soldiers with optimal conditions for carrying out their duties.”

The legislation was proposed amid worldwide condemnation of the IDF’s use of lethal force during the Palestinian ‘Great March of Return’ protests, which saw at least 119 people killed since the end of March. The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) called the bill a “serious breach” of freedom of media and expression. It insisted that if IDF troops have nothing to hide, “there is no harm in documenting their actions against Palestinians.”

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2018/05/28/nothing-to-hide-israel-considers-ban-on-filming-idf-soldiers-5yr-jail-terms-for-offenders/

No wonder.

سيف الله

06-29-2018, 03:33 PM

Salaam

Another update

The two-state solution means Palestine’s destruction, so why does Jeremy Corbyn support it?

If Jeremy Corbyn really cares about Palestine why does he keep talking about a two-state solution, asks Roshan Muhammed Salih.

The vast majority of Palestinians I know think that the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is dead. Religious Palestinians think it’s dead; secular Palestinians think it’s dead; even many of those who publicly support it because they’re part of the “peace process industry” will privately admit it’s dead.

What’s more, a majority of Israelis think it’s dead, including members of the cabinet.

Since the Oslo Accords of 1993 the “peace process” and the “two-state solution” have been the mantras of the so-called international community which has lamentably failed to deliver either. A mythical peace deal would include a demilitarised Palestinian state; an Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 lines with territorial swaps; repatriation of 100,000 Palestinian refugees; west Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and east Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital; the Old City’s Jewish Quarter and Western Wall under Israeli sovereignty, and Muslim and Christian quarters and the Haram al Sharif under Palestinian sovereignty.

But the truth is that Israel killed the Oslo peace process and the two-state solution by launching wars and implementing a brutal occupation. They killed it by building more and more settlements on Palestinian land and populating them with Jews from all over the world. They killed it by constructing the Apartheid Wall. They killed it by separating the West Bank from Gaza. They killed it by isolating Palestinians from the world and from each other and by making them economically dependent on their oppressors.

This means that if a two-state solution were implemented today a Palestinian state would simply not be viable. After all, how can a state be viable when it has no contiguous territory, when it is under siege, when it has no control over its borders or its economy, or when it is not allowed to have an army?

Not to mention the fact that while millions of Palestinians and their deceendants who were ethnically cleansed from their towns and villages will not be able to return to their ancestral homes, any Jew living in any country in the world can go there any time.

Corbyn’s fudge

Yet “pro-Palestinian” Jeremy Corbyn still talks about the two-state solution (code for the destruction of the Palestinian cause) virtually every time he speaks about Palestine.

Just last week he said the UK would swiftly “recognise Palestine as a state” under a Labour government, and would take steps towards “a genuine two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “very early on” if Labour won a general election.

Now we all know that Jeremy Corbyn has been a friend of Palestine throughout his life. I’m not disputing that. He has visited the region several times and has constantly condemned Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians. I have personally interviewed him many times about Palestine and can testify to his detailed knowledge of the country and its people.

Moreover, I believe he is genuinely concerned about the dire predicament of the Palestinians and would be far more equitable to them than any Prime Minister in British history. And the Zionist lobby in the UK are well aware of that and that’s why they have targeted him relentlessly with false accusations of anti-semitism.

So deep down I believe Corbyn knows that a two-state solution is nonsense, but let’s face it he’s running to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom so he has bigger fish to fry.

My feeling is that Corbyn talks about a two-state solution because he has bigger issues on his plate than Palestine and doesn’t want to cause further divisions in his party because of it. After all, there are many members of the Parliamentary Labour Party who would prefer to see the Tories continue in power than Labour win under Corbyn. And many of these people are die-hard supporters of Israel.

But Corbyn is at his best when he’s at his most radical. I’m talking about the Jeremy Corbyn who was allowed to be himself in the run-up to last year’s general election, not the Jeremy Corbyn who has at times bent over backwards to appease his party’s right-wing.

The people who will vote for Corbyn are those who want to see his radicalism come to the fore – the Corbyn who will nationalise the railways, who will tax the rich, who will reinvigorate the NHS and the education system, who will cut arms sales to Saudi and Israel, who will not launch wars. And yes, a Jeremy Corbyn who stops talking nonsense about a two-state solution and who calls for one state and for everyone to share the land – one person, one vote.

The truth is there is no solution

But one or two-state solution, the truth is that there is no solution to the Palestine issue at the moment. There is no military solution because Israel is much more powerful in this regard, and there is no political solution because the countries that supposedly support Palestine are divided and weaker than the countries that support Israel.

So the only thing the Palestinians can do is sit and wait for a better historical moment and not leave the land. I know I have no right to say this living in the comfort of the West, but maybe the highest calling of a Palestinian today is to literally give up any hope for a better future by staying where they are and not emigrating. I would never condemn Palestinians who choose to leave Palestine for a better life, but I only have the upmost admiration for those who choose to stay in Palestine despite the fact that they know they’re signing away their lives.

Let me end with a sign of hope – Israel may be sitting pretty now but will it be in in 50 years time? It’s facing a demographic timebomb with a rapidly rising Palestinian population, and also a rapidly rising ultra-orthodox Jewish population which doesn’t serve in the army and doesn’t contribute much to the economy.

Will Israel’s main backer – America – still want to support a Western colonial outpost in the Middle East when the whole region becomes less strategic with the end of the energy age? Will America still have the same cultural affinity with Israel as internally it inevitably becomes a more Hispanic and non-white nation?

With the advent of a multi-polar world and rising Muslim powers, will Palestinians finally get the financial, military and political backing they deserve?

None of us know the answers to these questions but I do know that time is against Israel and an argument can be made that they need a deal more than the Palestinians do.

But non-Palestinians should not tell Palestinians what to do; our role is to simply support them. Whatever the Palestinian consensuses is I’m fine with that. If the consensus is to fight Israel with arms I support that because an occupied people has the right to resist an occupation militarily. If they want to struggle by peaceful means through cultural boycotts or politics then I also support that. And if they want to do a combination of both then that’s great too.

But like the majority of Palestinians I do not support a two-state solution. And neither should Jeremy Corbyn.

https://5pillarsuk.com/2018/06/29/the-two-state-solution-means-palestines-destruction-so-why-does-jeremy-corbyn-support-it/

سيف الله

06-30-2018, 10:24 AM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

07-01-2018, 09:43 AM

Salaam

The 'ultimate deal' that Jared Kushner is proposing for Palestine would strip the people of all their dignity

After three Arab-Israeli wars, tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths and millions of refugees, does Kushner really believe that the Palestinians will settle for cash?

Is there no humiliation left for the Palestinians? After Oslo, after the “two state solution”, after the years of Israeli occupation – of “Area A” and “Area C” to define which kind of occupation the Palestinians must live under – after the vast Jewish colonisation of land thieved from its Arab owners, after the mass killings of Gaza, and Trump’s decision that Jerusalem, all of Jerusalem, must be the capital of Israel, are the Palestinians going to be asked to settle for cash and a miserable village? Is there no shame left?

For the Palestinians are soon to be awarded the “ultimate deal” – “ultimate”, as in the last, definitive, terminal, conclusive, no-more-cards-to-play, cash-in-your-chips, go-for-broke, take-it-or-leave-it, to-hell-with-you, cease-and-desist, endgame “deal”. A pitiful village as a capital, no end to colonisation, no security, no army, no independent borders, no unity – in return for a huge amount of money, billions of dollars and euros, millions of pounds, zillions of dinars and shekels and spondulix and filthy lucre, the real “moolah”.

“I believe,” quoth Crown Prince Kushner this week, “that Palestinian people are less invested in the politicians’ talking points than they are in seeing how a deal will give them and their future generations new opportunities, more and better paying jobs and prospects for a better life.” Is Trump’s son-in-law – “adviser” on the Middle East, real estate developer and US investor – delusional? After three Arab-Israeli wars, tens of thousands of Palestinian deaths and millions of refugees, does Jared Kushner really believe that the Palestinians will settle for cash?

Did he not notice – ever – that the Palestinians who have protested and suffered and died and lost their lands for 70 years, have not been demonstrating in their streets for better roads, duty free zones or another airport? Does he think that the people of Gaza have come onto their streets and marched towards the lethal border fence because they are demanding new prenatal clinics? How can he humiliate an entire Arab people by suggesting that their freedom, sovereignty, independence, dignity, justice and nationhood are merely “politicians’ talking points”? Is there no end to this insanity?

No, there is not. For the drip-feed of detail which is emerging about the Trump-Kushner “ultimate deal” in Israeli newspapers – the venerable Haaretz in the lead – is that Palestinians will have to abandon East Jerusalem as the capital of a future “Palestine”, that Israel will withdraw from a handful of villages east and north of Jerusalem – the measly Abu Dis among them – to create a Potemkin “capital”, but will remain forever in the Old City. That a Palestinian state will be completely demilitarised (so much for “security”), but that every Jewish colony constructed illegally on Arab land – for Jews and Jews only – will remain, and that Israel will control the entire Jordan Valley. Right of return? Forget it.

And all this for billions of dollars in infrastructure projects, a free trade zone at Al Arish in the Sinai, an outpouring of money into the West Bank, a new Palestinian leadership – out would go corrupt, arrogant, senile, dictatorial Mahmoud Abbas whose leadership has “no ideas” and has made no “efforts with prospects of success” (this latter from Kushner, of course) in favour of a new and pragmatic man who will (here more delusional thinking) be even more pliant, peace-loving and grovelling than Abbas himself.

All this nonsense depends on the largesse of Saudi Arabia – whose bungling crown prince appears to be arguing with his kingly father, who does not want to abandon the original Saudi initiative for a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital – and the feebleness of King Abdullah of Jordan, whose country’s IMF-imposed financial suffering has provoked unprecedented riots and the fall of his government, and the support of Egypt’s field marshal/president who will supposedly be happy to impose law and financial benefits on the Egyptian-Gaza border. Oh yes, and there will be no real contact between Gaza and the West Bank. Hamas has been forgotten, it seems.

Does one laugh or cry? When Trump moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem amid the massacre of Gaza, the world screamed – but then fell silent. The split screen of diplomatic adulation and mass killing scarcely a hundred miles apart has somehow normalised the combination of death and injustice in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Yes, they got away with it. If American diplomats can stand to attention in Jerusalem against the crackle of sniper fire along the Gaza frontier, what’s next?

There is something strange, almost comical, about the photographs of America’s diplomatic “peacemakers” sitting around Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the West, we choose – with good moral reason – not to emphasise the religious or ethnic background of these men. But the Israelis do, philosopher Uri Avnery does, and Haaretz points it out: that all are Jewish – at least two of them enthusiastic supporters of the Israeli colonisation of Palestinian West Bank land, including the US ambassador to Israel who called the moderate J Street Jewish lobby group “worse than kapos”.

Was it not possible, within the entire US diplomatic corps and America’s “advisers”, to find even one Muslim American to join the team? Would the “peacemakers” not have benefited from just one voice from a man or woman who shared the same faith as the “other” half of the proposed Arab-Israeli peace?

But no. Nor would it have mattered. Abbas has broken off all diplomatic relations with the White House since Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, and withdrawn his ambassador to Washington. The “ultimate deal” – originally the Oslo agreement, although even that was a poisoned chalice, and then a whole series of miniature retreats and withdrawals and further occupations, and then ad hoc “anti-terror” conferences – now represents only the total humiliation of the Palestinian people: no East Jerusalem, no end to colonisation, no recognition of the right to return, no state, no future. Just cash.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/palestine-jared-kushner-ultimate-plan-israel-donald-trump-jerusalem-right-to-return-a8420836.html

سيف الله

07-05-2018, 06:51 PM

Salaam

Another update

Sisi holds key to Trump's Sinai plan for Palestinians

Reports suggest Trump could be about to unveil massive relief programme, but on condition Palestinians work in Egypt under Israel's 'Greater Gaza' plan

Israel and the US are in a race against time with Gaza. The conundrum is stark: how to continue isolating the tiny coastal enclave from the outside world and from the West Bank – to sabotage any danger of a Palestinian state emerging – without stoking a mass revolt from Gaza's two million Palestinians?

In Gaza, Israel does not have the luxury of time it enjoys in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the two additional Palestinian territories it occupies. In those areas, it can keep chipping away at the Palestinian presence, using the Israeli army, Jewish settlers and tight restrictions on Palestinian movement to take over key resources like land and water.
Gaza: A death camp

While Israel is engaged in a war of attrition with the West Bank's population, a similar, gradualist approach in Gaza is rapidly becoming untenable. The United Nations has warned that the enclave may be only two years away from becoming “uninhabitable”, its economy in ruins and its water supplies unpotable.

More than a decade of a severe Israeli blockade as well as a series of military assaults have plunged much of Gaza into the dark ages. Israel desperately needs a solution, before Gaza's prison turns into a death camp. And now, under cover of Donald Trump's "ultimate peace plan", Israel appears to be on the brink of an answer.

Recent weeks have been rife with reports in the Israeli and Arab media of moves by Washington and Israel to pressure Egypt into turning over a swath of territory in northern Sinai, next to Gaza, for infrastructure projects designed to alleviate the enclave’s "humanitarian crisis".

Late last month Hamas, which rules Gaza, sent a delegation to Cairo to discuss the measures. This followed hot on the heels of a visit to Egypt by Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law who is overseeing the Middle East peace plan.

Exploiting Egyptian fears

According to reports, Trump hopes soon to unveil a package – associated with his "deal of the century" peace-making – that will commit to the construction of a solar-power grid, desalination plant, seaport and airport in Sinai, as well as a free trade zone with five industrial areas. Most of the financing will come from the oil-rich Gulf states.

Egyptian diplomatic sources appear to have confirmed the reports. The programme has the potential to help relieve the immense suffering in Gaza, where electricity, clean water and freedom of movement are in short supply. Palestinians and Egyptians would jointly work on these projects, providing desperately needed jobs. In Gaza, youth unemployment stands at over 60 per cent.

It has been left unclear whether Palestinians from Gaza would be encouraged to live close to the Sinai projects in migrant workers' towns. Israel will doubtless hope that Palestinian workers would gradually make Sinai their permanent home.

Egypt, meanwhile, will benefit both from the huge injection of capital in an economy currently in crisis, as well as from new infrastructure that can be used for its own population in the restive Sinai peninsula.

It is worth noting that for more than a year an Israeli cabinet minister has been proposing similar infrastructure projects for Gaza located on an artificial island to be established in Palestinian territorial waters. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly baulked at the proposal.

Locating the scheme instead in Egypt, under Cairo’s control, will tie Egyptian security concerns about Gaza to Israel's, and serve to kill the Palestinian national cause of statehood.

A decade of arm-twisting

It is important to understand that the Sinai plan is not simply evidence of wishful thinking by an inexperienced or deluded Trump administration. All the signs are that it has enjoyed long and vigorous support from the Washington policy establishment for more than a decade.

In fact, four years ago, when Barack Obama was firmly ensconced in the White House, Middle East Eye charted the course of attempts by Israel and the US to arm-twist a succession of Egyptian leaders into opening Sinai to Gaza’s Palestinians.

This has been a key Israeli ambition since it pulled several thousand settlers out of Gaza in the so-called disengagement of 2005 and claimed afterwards – falsely – that the enclave’s occupation was over.

Washington has reportedly been on board since 2007, when the Islamist faction Hamas took control of Gaza, ousting the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It was then that Israel, backed by the US, intensified its severe blockade that has destroyed Gaza’s economy and prevented key goods from entering.

A Palestinian statelet

The advantages of the Sinai plan are self-evident to Israel and the US. It would:

* make permanent the territorial division between Gaza and the West Bank, and the ideological split between the rival factions of Fatah and Hamas;

* downgrade Gaza from a diplomatic issue to a humanitarian one;

* gradually lead to the establishment of a de facto Palestinian statelet in Sinai and Gaza, mostly outside the borders of historic Palestine;

* encourage the eventual settlement of potentially millions of Palestinian refugees in Egyptian territory, stripping them of their right in international law to return to their homes, now in Israel;

* weaken the claims of Abbas and his Palestinian Authority, located in the West Bank, to represent the Palestinian cause and undermine their moves to win recognition of statehood at the United Nations;

* and lift opprobrium from Israel by shifting responsibility for repressing Gaza’s Palestinians to Egypt and the wider Arab world.
'Greater Gaza' plan

In summer 2014, Israel’s media reported that, with Washington’s blessing, Israeli officials had been working on a plan dubbed “Greater Gaza” that would attach the enclave to a large slice of northern Sinai. The reports suggested that Israel had made headway with Cairo on the idea.

Egyptian and Palestinians officials publicly responded to the leaks by denouncing the plan as "fabricated". But, whether Cairo was privately receptive or not, it provided yet further confirmation of a decade-long Israeli strategy in Gaza.

At around the same time, an Arab newspaper interviewed a former anonymous official close to Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president ousted in 2011. He said Egypt had come under concerted pressure from 2007 onwards to annex Gaza to northern Sinai, after Hamas took control of the enclave following Palestinian elections.

Five years later, according to the same source, Mohamed Morsi, who led a short-lived Muslim Brotherhood government, sent a delegation to Washington where the Americans proposed that "Egypt cede a third of the Sinai to Gaza in a two-stage process spanning four to five years".

And since 2014, it appears, Morsi’s successor, General Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, has faced similar lobbying.

Carrots and sticks

Suspicions that Sisi might have been close to capitulating four years ago were fuelled at that time by Abbas himself. In an interview on Egyptian TV, he said Israel’s Sinai plan had been "unfortunately accepted by some here [in Egypt]. Don’t ask me more about that. We abolished it."

Israel's neoconservative cheerleaders in Washington who reportedly leant on Mubarak in 2007 during George W Bush’s presidency, are now influencing Middle East policy again in the Trump administration.

And although Sisi appears to have stood his ground in 2014, subsequent dramatic changes in the region are likely to have weakened his hand.

Both Abbas and Hamas are more isolated than ever, and the situation in Gaza more desperate. Israel has cultivated much closer ties to the Gulf states as they fashion joint opposition to Iran. And the Trump administration has dropped even the pretence of neutrality in resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In fact, Trump's Middle East team led by Kushner adopted from the outset Israel’s so-called "outside-in" paradigm for arriving at a peace agreement.

The idea is to use a carrot-and-stick approach – a mix of financial inducements and punitive sanctions – to bully Abbas and Hamas into making yet more major concessions to Israel that would void any meaningful idea of Palestinian statehood. Key to this idea is that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates can be recruited to help Israel in its efforts to force the Palestinian leadership’s hand.

Egypt, current reports indicate, has come under similar pressure from the Gulf to concede territory in Sinai to help Trump with his long-delayed "deal of the century".

Muslim Brotherhood threat

Sisi and his generals have good reason to be reluctant to help. After they grabbed power from Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood government, they have done everything possible to crush homegrown Islamist movements, but have faced a backlash in Sinai.

Hamas, which rules Gaza, is the sister organisation of the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt’s generals have worried that opening the Rafah border crossing between Sinai and Gaza could bolster Islamist attacks that Egypt has struggled to contain. There are fears too in Cairo that the Sinai option would shift the burden of Gaza onto Egypt’s shoulders.

This is where Trump and Kushner may hope their skills at wheeler-dealing can achieve a breakthrough.

Egypt’s susceptibility to financial inducements from the Gulf were on display last year when Sisi’s government agreed effectively to sell off to Saudi Arabia two strategic Red Sea islands, Tiran and Sanafir. They guard the entrance to the Gulf of Aqaba and the Suez canal.

In return, Egypt received billions of dollars in loans and investments from the kingdom, including large-scale infrastructure projects in Sinai. Israel reportedly approved the deal.

Analysts have suggested that the handover of the islands to Saudi Arabia was intended to strengthen security and intelligence cooperation between Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in dealing with Islamic militants in Sinai.

This now looks suspiciously like the prelude to Trump’s reported Sinai plan.

Over the Palestinians' heads

In March, the White House hosted 19 countries in a conference to consider new ideas for dealing with Gaza’s mounting crisis. As well as Israel, participants included representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The Palestinians boycotted the meeting.

Much favoured by the Trump team was a paper delivered by Yoav Mordechai, an Israeli general and key official overseeing Israel's strategy in the occupied territories. Many of his proposals – for a free trade zone and infrastructure projects in Sinai – are now being advanced.

Last month Kushner visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, and Jordan to drum up support. According to interviews in the Israel Hayom daily, all four Arab states are on board with the peace plan, even if it means bypassing Abbas.

Jackie Khoury, a Palestinian analyst for the Israeli Haaretz newspaper, summed up the plan’s Gaza elements: “Egypt, which has a vital interest in calming Gaza down because of the territory’s impact on Sinai, will play the policeman who restrains Hamas. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and perhaps the United Arab Emirates will pay for the projects, which will be under United Nations auspices.”

Israel’s efforts to secure compliance from Hamas may be indicated by recent threats to invade Gaza and dissect it in two, reported through veteran Israeli journalist Ron Ben-Yishai. The US has also moved to deepen the crisis in Gaza by withholding payments to UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. A majority of Gaza's population are refugees dependent on UN handouts.

An advantage for Hamas in agreeing to the Sinai plan is that it would finally be freed of Israeli and Palestinian Authority controls over Gaza. It would be in a better able to sustain its rule, as long as it did not provoke Egyptian ire.

Oslo's pacification model

Israel and Washington's plans for Gaza have strong echoes of the "economic pacification" model that was the framework for the Oslo peace process of the late 1990s.

For Israel, Oslo represented a cynical chance to destroy the largely rural economy of the West Bank that Palestinians have depended on for centuries. Israel has long coveted the territory both for its economic potential and its Biblical associations.

Hundreds of Palestinian communities in the West Bank rely on these lands for agriculture, rooting them to historic locations through economic need and tradition. But uprooting the villagers – forcing them into a handful of Palestinian cities, and clearing the land for Jewish settlers – required an alternative economic model.

As part of the the Oslo process, Israel began establishing a series of industrial areas – paid for by international donors – on the so-called "seam zone" between Israel and the West Bank.

Israeli and international companies were to open factories there, employing cheap Palestinian labour with minimal safeguards. Palestinians would be transformed from farmers with a strong attachment to their lands into a casual labour force concentrated in the cities.

An additional advantage for Israel was that it would make the Palestinians the ultimate “precariat”. Should they start demanding a state or even protest for rights, Israel could simply block entry to the industrial areas, allowing hunger to pacify the population.

New prison wardens

There is every reason to believe that is now the goal of an Israeli-Trump initiative to gradually relocate Palestinians to Sinai through investment in infrastructure projects.

With the two countries' security interests safely aligned, Israel can then rely on Egypt to pacify the Palestinians of Gaza on its behalf. Under such a scheme, Cairo will have many ways to teach its new workforce of migrant labourers a lesson.

It can temporarily shut down the infrastructure projects, laying off the workforce, until there is quiet. It can close off the sole Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Sinai. It can shutter the electricity and desalination plants, depriving Gaza of power and clean water.

This way Gaza can be kept under Israel's thumb without Israel sharing any blame. Egypt will become Gaza's visible prison wardens, just as Abbas and his Palestinian Authority have shouldered the burden of serving as jailers in much of the West Bank.

This is Israel's model for Gaza. We may soon find out whether it is shared too by Egypt and the Gulf states.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/has-cairo-caved-israel-s-sinai-aid-plan-gaza-1521237499

Abz2000

07-06-2018, 06:03 AM

Israeli army attacks activists at Khan al-Ahmar, block all access to area

JERUSALEM, July 5, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli forces attacked on Thursday morning Palestinian and international activists on a vigil at Khan al-Ahmar community east of Jerusalem to prevent its anticipated demolition and displacement of its 180 Palestinian residents, most of them children, according to activists at the site.

Abdallah Abu Rahmeh, one of the activists, told WAFA that an army unit raided the area where they were holed up, attacked them and the residents and detained three international activists – a Canadian woman, an American and a British citizen.

He said the army is keeping the activists ed to a small area to prevent them from standing in the way of the bulldozers working on opening roads for facilitate entry of heavy machinery to demolish the community.

Israeli plans to demolish Khan al-Ahmar has provoked strong local and international condemnation.

M.K.

http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=...8470876axr31n5

Israeli forces demolish structures near Jerusalem

JERUSALEM, July 5, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli forces on Thursday demolished three stalls used for growing plants and a commercial store in the village of Hazma, to the east of Jerusalem, according to a local source.

An Israeli army force raided the village before proceeding to demolish the three stalls and the store which belong to local residents. The Israeli military claimed that the demolitions took place because the four structures lacked Israeli construction permits.

Israeli authorities carried out similar demolitions in the village for the same reason during the past week.

M.N

http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=...1795418aYhEGEW

By holding part of the tax revenues, Israel will be adding strain to Palestinian budget, says finance minister

By Jafar Sadaqa

RAMALLAH, July 5, 2018 (WAFA) - Minister of Finance and Planning Shukri Bishara said Thursday that despite the strains on the budget the Israeli decision to hold part of the Palestinian tax revenues will cause, the government will nevertheless continue to pay the families of the Palestinians killed or injured by Israel and the prisoners, regardless of the repercussions.

"This decision will increase the financial burden and raise the budget deficit,” he told WAFA, adding that “the Palestinian society as a whole must face this challenge because it is an ethical and moral obligation to our sons and daughters and their families."

Bishara stressed that “it is the responsibility of the state and the nation to take care of our sons and daughters when they are illegally held in Israeli jails. We are committed not to turn our backs on them, but rather to embrace them. Let them cut whatever they want. We will not abandon our responsibility."

The Finance Minister said Israel gave itself the “legal right” to cut the money after passing a law on this matter in its parliament.

"There are about 6,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails at the moment. We are committed to caring for their families and some we are obliged to educate them and provide them with health services, even after their release," he said.

Since 1967, added Bishara, about 1 million Palestinians were imprisoned by Israel, 60% of them between the ages of 18 and 25. Incarceration in Israeli jails is a unique matter for the Palestinians as a result of a 50-year occupation."

The average financial allocation to the families is about $28 million a month (about $300 million annually).

"It is true that the amount is not easy on the budget, but we have a not so small a number of prisoners, too. We are obliged to educate them and provide them with medical care for free and to take care of their families because they were illegally arrested by an occupying power," said Bishara. “They are not the reason for the war and the conflict, but rather victims of half a century of unjust and illegal occupation."

Bishara considered the Israeli decision an attempt to compensate for the failure of Israelis in their legal claims against the Palestinian government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in US courts, which were completely dropped last year after years of litigation.

"This matter is spearheaded by a certain group in Israel, who tried to blackmail us by filing legal suit against us in US courts, but found that going through the courts is not working, because our defense was distinctive and effective. So they realized that it will be possible to obtain 'legal means’ to seize some money from our tax revenues, which is money paid by the Palestinian public, by working through the Israeli government," said the Finance Minister.

M.K.

http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=...7988406aNbY3FR

Abz2000

07-06-2018, 07:10 AM

Important Information:

Israeli army attacks activists at Khan al-Ahmar, block all access to area

JERUSALEM, July 5, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli forces attacked on Thursday morning Palestinian and international activists on a vigil at Khan al-Ahmar community east of Jerusalem to prevent its anticipated demolition and displacement of its 180 Palestinian residents, most of them children, according to activists at the site.

Abdallah Abu Rahmeh, one of the activists, told WAFA that an army unit raided the area where they were holed up, attacked them and the residents and detained three international activists – a Canadian woman, an American and a British citizen.

He said the army is keeping the activists ed to a small area to prevent them from standing in the way of the bulldozers working on opening roads for facilitate entry of heavy machinery to demolish the community.

Israeli plans to demolish Khan al-Ahmar has provoked strong local and international condemnation.

M.K.

http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=...8470876axr31n5

Israeli forces demolish structures near Jerusalem

JERUSALEM, July 5, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli forces on Thursday demolished three stalls used for growing plants and a commercial store in the village of Hazma, to the east of Jerusalem, according to a local source.

An Israeli army force raided the village before proceeding to demolish the three stalls and the store which belong to local residents. The Israeli military claimed that the demolitions took place because the four structures lacked Israeli construction permits.

Israeli authorities carried out similar demolitions in the village for the same reason during the past week.

M.N

http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=...1795418aYhEGEW

By holding part of the tax revenues, Israel will be adding strain to Palestinian budget, says finance minister

By Jafar Sadaqa

RAMALLAH, July 5, 2018 (WAFA) - Minister of Finance and Planning Shukri Bishara said Thursday that despite the strains on the budget the Israeli decision to hold part of the Palestinian tax revenues will cause, the government will nevertheless continue to pay the families of the Palestinians killed or injured by Israel and the prisoners, regardless of the repercussions.

"This decision will increase the financial burden and raise the budget deficit,” he told WAFA, adding that “the Palestinian society as a whole must face this challenge because it is an ethical and moral obligation to our sons and daughters and their families."

Bishara stressed that “it is the responsibility of the state and the nation to take care of our sons and daughters when they are illegally held in Israeli jails. We are committed not to turn our backs on them, but rather to embrace them. Let them cut whatever they want. We will not abandon our responsibility."

The Finance Minister said Israel gave itself the “legal right” to cut the money after passing a law on this matter in its parliament.

"There are about 6,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails at the moment. We are committed to caring for their families and some we are obliged to educate them and provide them with health services, even after their release," he said.

Since 1967, added Bishara, about 1 million Palestinians were imprisoned by Israel, 60% of them between the ages of 18 and 25. Incarceration in Israeli jails is a unique matter for the Palestinians as a result of a 50-year occupation."

The average financial allocation to the families is about $28 million a month (about $300 million annually).

"It is true that the amount is not easy on the budget, but we have a not so small a number of prisoners, too. We are obliged to educate them and provide them with medical care for free and to take care of their families because they were illegally arrested by an occupying power," said Bishara. “They are not the reason for the war and the conflict, but rather victims of half a century of unjust and illegal occupation."

Bishara considered the Israeli decision an attempt to compensate for the failure of Israelis in their legal claims against the Palestinian government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in US courts, which were completely dropped last year after years of litigation.

"This matter is spearheaded by a certain group in Israel, who tried to blackmail us by filing legal suit against us in US courts, but found that going through the courts is not working, because our defense was distinctive and effective. So they realized that it will be possible to obtain 'legal means’ to seize some money from our tax revenues, which is money paid by the Palestinian public, by working through the Israeli government," said the Finance Minister.

M.K.

http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=...7988406aNbY3FR

سيف الله

07-09-2018, 05:31 PM

Salaam

Another update, the despair is real imsad

How one of Palestine's preeminent journalists lost hope for peace

Nasser Laham, the editor-in-chief of Palestine’s biggest independent media outlet, used to be an ardent supporter Abbas and the peace process. But after decades of failed attempts, something inside him changed. Today he believes Palestinians must stop talking about peace. ‘We’ll wait a thousand years, the Israelis will be defeated. What’s the hurry?

You won’t find a Palestinian journalist who understands Israel and the Israelis like Nasser Laham. He took advantage of the Hebrew he learned while serving time in prison to become the most prominent commentator on Israeli affairs in the Palestinian media, hosting a popular daily television show that analyzes and translates the Israeli media for the Palestinian public. For years he served as a daily source for many Israeli journalists, hosting them in his Bethlehem office, even in his home, and speaking to them on the phone. Many are daily readers of Ma’an News Agency, the popular Palestinian news site where he serves as editor in chief.

I have known Laham for over 15 years. Despite the bloody days of the Second Intifada, the international community still believed that if only Palestinian and Israeli journalists met, they would reach an understanding that would help usher in peace. In many cases, the meetings that did take place — in countries such as Cyprus, Turkey, and Jordan — only served to deepen the divide between the two sides. But Laham and I connected, and we have remained in touch all these years.

The phrase “man of peace” is a bit contrived, but throughout the years Laham continued to support negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, believing that a peace agreement was possible. He was close to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, justifying the latter’s decision to establish a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders — through a negotiated settlement, rather than armed struggle — the moment Abbas replaced Yasser Arafat as the head of the PLO and the PA. Laham says Abbas even used to refer to him as “my son.”

Over the past few years, Laham has taken a different approach. Like many Palestinians, he has lost faith in Abbas’ path. The last straw was Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem. A short while after the declaration, Nasser wrote an article titled “The Jews’ Journey has Ended.” In another piece, Nasser wrote that at this point, we can only discuss Jews leaving the country.

When his father passed away two weeks ago, I went to visit the family in a small hall in Dheisheh refugee camp, where Laham was born and raised. After shaking the hands of the men, Laham came and sat next to me. “My father was 90, he was older than the State of Israel by 20 years,” he told me. “He was 20 years old during the Nakba, and all his life he waited to return to his village in Beit Itab (not far from present-day Beit Shemesh, M.R.). He waited in 1949, he waited in 1956, he waited in 1967, he waited during Oslo. They told him he would return. When I moved from Deheisheh to Bethlehem in 2006, he told me: ‘why are you hurrying? We’ll wait.’”

My father was right, Arafat was wrong

In addition to paying my respects, I had traveled to Bethlehem to try to understand Laham’s transformation, especially since clearly he is not the only Palestinian to undergo it. I can’t say I left feeling encouraged. Although it often seems as if he is trying to be provocative, it is clear that his beliefs reflect something deeper: the growing sense among Palestinians that there is no chance for peace with Israel; that Israel is uninterested in peace. That Israel wants to continue to occupy and kill, and therefore the only solution is for Zionism to disappear and for Zionists to leave Palestine. Not by force, he says. But the solution is clear.

When we met 15 years ago, you had hope that the conflict could be solved. Why did you think that then?

“Because Yasser Arafat convinced us, the Palestinian people, that there was a solution, and that Israel had its own DeGaulle. Now we have discovered that we were wrong. We do not need to apologize to anyone. Israel needs to apologize. The occupation needs to apologize. The occupation needs to apologize to every Jew and Arab that has been killed. The occupation needs to apologize to the Jews and the Arabs. There was plenty of blood 15 years ago, but far less hatred.”

“Today there is hatred in every home. Hatred has turned into a wild beast that roams the streets. This hatred needs 100 years until it disappears. Never in my entire life have I seen such hatred. The laws in the Knesset, the racism, the fascism, the Nazism, the barbarism. The Zionist movement is the worst in history when it comes to sowing hatred between nations. There is no hope for peace with it. No possibility for peace.”

But there was no return of refugees during Oslo. What did you tell your father back then?

“My father wanted to return to his village near Ramla. When he heard that Arafat had agreed to reconciliation with Israel, he said: Arafat is wretched, and I thought that my father was wretched and that Arafat was a great leader. In the meantime both passed away, and now it has become clear that my father was a great leader and Arafat was wretched because the Israelis killed him. My father’s fears were justified. You cannot make peace with Zionists unless you force them. We cannot fight them, we do not want to kill them. We have no armies, no weapons, no means, and no possibilities. That is why we need to respond to hatred with silence, with apathy. We will liberate Palestine quietly.”

What does that mean?

“All the politicians, from the days of Gamal Abdel Nasser, have said that we must find a solution to the conflict. Then came Kissinger and the rest of the leaders of the world and asked the Arabs: “What is your solution?” Until this very day the Israelis think that the Palestinians must come up with a solution. I am telling you that there is no solution. I am from Ramla and I want to return to Ramla. There is no other solution. There is no solution in Ramallah, there is no solution in any other city, and no Arab country can provide another solution. If the Jews and Israelis have a problem, they must solve it themselves. Trump and Nicki Haley are responsible for the devastation of the next 100 years. Let them solve your problems.”

“So how do we find a solution? We wait a thousand years. The Israelis will be defeated and flee. What’s the hurry? Why are the Arabs hurrying? You remember what Hafez al-Assad told Ehud Barak and Bill Clinton at Geneva? They said: if you don’t do this and that, there won’t be a solution. He responded: we’ll wait another 100 years. And I’m also telling you, we’ll wait another 100 years. What’s the problem? There is no solution apart from taking all of Palestine and living in all of Palestine. From Metulla and Naqura until Eilat. The solution is waiting. No initiating any talks. The Palestinian leadership is wrong. Abbas is wrong to look for a solution. In France, in Italy, in Germany, in America. Why is he searching for a solution? Let the Israelis search for a solution.”

The Israelis must search for a solution?

“This is the Zionists’ problem, let them find a solution.”

The Palestinians do not have problems?

“No. I don’t have a problem. I am a fighter, I have patience, I hold steadfast to my occupied country. It is my honor to be here, it is my honor to be a prisoner, it is my honor to be a shaheed, respect to the people of Gaza for living under siege. Israelis should be ashamed of being Israeli. Abbas is old and I wish him health, but after he goes, I don’t think you’ll find a single Palestinian who will talk to you about solutions. Not Saeb Erekat, not Majd Farj, and not Jibril Rajoub. No one will dare say “I have a solution.” The solution is for the occupation to end.”

You’re not giving your people any hope.

“The people will wait.”

You say the Jewish journey has ended. Does that mean there is no room here for any Jews?

“This place isn’t convenient for you. You can go live in America. The Americans love the Jews. If the Zionist movement decides to move to America, the Palestinian leadership will travel to the airport in Lod and wave them goodbye. The Jews can return as tourists without visas. Why should they stay, fight, and die?”

There are six million Jews here. That’s the reality.

“Nations have moved throughout history. The Tatars, the Kurds. It happened. Zionism expelled six million Palestinians (referring to the current number of Palestinian refugees – M.R.). It happens. I think that the best place for Jews is America. What are you looking for in the backwards and Islamic Middle East?”

Is living together impossible?

“There is no possibility of that.”

And if Israel ends the occupation?

“Too late, too late.”

In South Africa they found a solution.

“You don’t have a de Klerk and we don’t have a Nelson Mandela.”

And if we do find our own de Klerk and Mandela?

“There is a one in a hundred chance. If Marwan Barghouti is freed and I sit with him in Ramallah and he tells me that there is a possibility, I’ll listen and believe it. If this doesn’t happen, I won’t believe anyone. Neither to the leadership in Ramallah nor the leadership in Gaza. I don’t want to hear them.”

Abbas is more extreme than me

Despite his criticisms of Abbas, is it possible that Laham is actually expressing what the Palestinian president wants to say but cannot? “Abbas is more extreme than me,” he says. That’s how Laham interprets Abbas’ comments directed at Trump (“May your house be destroyed”), his remarks about U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman (“son of a dog”) or his most recent speech to the PLO Executive Committee, in which he called Zionism a European colonial project, and said the persecution of Jews in Europe was a result of their charging interest. “When Abbas says we were here before Abraham, this is exactly what he means,” says Laham.

You have many Israeli friends. What do you say to them?

“I lost three-fourths of them. Anyone who supports the occupation is not my friend. My friend is the person who opposes the occupation. Who fights for justice and for children, for humanity. Most of those who were my friends support the occupation. I see what they write, what they say. Anyone who justifies shooting dozens of bullets at a 12-year-old boy is no friend of mine, and I don’t want him as my friend, even if he is Arab or Muslim.”

The Palestinian people are very political. You are effectively suggesting to give up on political thinking.

“The Palestinians are a smart, educated people who have paid a high price in lives lost, in prisons. It is not a violent nation. Angry, but not violent. I am angry, but I am not violent. The occupation is violent and not angry. The Zionist is violent and not angry. When Salam Fayyad established the government in 2007, he asked Israel for a list of wanted Palestinians. They gave him a list of 480 people — 280 in the West Bank, 200 in Gaza. That means that 500 people were behind the Second Intifada. These are statistics provided by the Shin Bet. This is a tiny percentage of the Palestinian people. Less than a hundredth.”

“That is why I say that the Palestinian people are angry — not violent. They are smart. They understand that there is no military solution, no political solution, no economic solution, and no historic solution. What kind of understanding can I bring to Itamar Ben-Gvir (a far-right activist and lawyer associated with the anti-Arab Kahanist movement – M.R.), or Uri Ariel? What kind of common thinking do we have about the meaning of life, the meaning of history, the meaning of religion and politics?”

Not all Israelis are Itamar Ben-Gvir.

“I don’t see them.”

What responsibility do Palestinians have?

“We have no responsibility. Is your family in Europe responsible for the rise of the Nazis?”

The question is what responsibility the Palestinians have for managing their own affairs and politics.

“I will make an effort in the media so that no Palestinian makes a proposal. Had we a direct Palestinian leadership, it would have apologized to the Palestinian people for Oslo and its fake peace and illusions, which caused us to lose 30 years of our lives. But I do not think that there is a Palestinian leader — in Fatah, Hamas, the left or in any party — that has the courage to apologize to the Palestinian people.”

“The Palestinian leadership needs to apologize for peace with Israel, it must feel remorse, because the new generations are now growing up. Every year, 43,800 Palestinian students graduate from Palestinian universities. The government employs 1,200 of them. The rest are unemployed and sit on the streets. Seventy percent of Palestinians are under 45, but there is not a single person in the Palestinian leadership under the age of 45. This is a young, educated, and oppressed society.”

Before I leave Laham’s office, I meet a member of that generation at the reception table. The young woman, her hair covered by a hijab, says she has never met a Jew in her life. She was born in Kuwait, came to the West Bank after the First Gulf War in 1991, and has never spoken spoke to a Jewish person who was not a soldier. Both of us are clearly a bit embarrassed by the situation. “You see what the wall does,” Laham says. “We don’t know each other. That’s the greatest disaster. You drive straight to Tel Aviv, I stay here.”

https://972mag.com/israel-is-uninter...appear/136621/

Relevant

Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair

Blurb

This book claims that Palestine is fast disappearing and fulfilling the objectives of Israel's founding fathers. Over many decades, Israel has developed and refined policies to disperse, imprison and impoverish the Palestinian people, in a relentless effort to destroy them as a nation. It has industrialized Palestinian despair through ever more sophisticated systems of curfews, checkpoints, walls, permits and land grabs. Cook analyzes how Israel has transformed the West Bank and Gaza into laboratories for testing the infrastructure of confinement, creating a lucrative "defense" industry by pioneering the technologies needed for urban warfare, crowd control and collective punishment.

سيف الله

07-09-2018, 06:04 PM

Salaam

Interesting, what game are the Gulf Sheiks playing?

Saudi Religious Diplomacy Targets Jerusalem

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: A United Arab Emirates-backed Saudi effort to wrest control from Jordan of Islam’s holy places in Jerusalem signals a sharper, more overt edge to Saudi religious diplomacy. The kingdom’s quest for regional hegemony risks deepening divides in the Muslim world.

The Saudi effort to take control of Islam’s holy places in Jerusalem serves, among other things, to support President Donald Trump’s plan for a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – a plan that has split the Muslim world even before it has officially been made public, and that has been clouded by Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

At the very least, Saudi Arabia hopes – at the risk of destabilizing Jordan, where Palestinians account for at least half the country’s almost ten million people – to drop its resistance to the Trump initiative.

Riyadh’s and the UAE’s focus on Jerusalem has broad regional implications as they are battling Turkey for ownership of the Jerusalem issue. Both countries have tried to downplay the significance of two Islamic summits in Istanbul convened by Turkey to counter Trump’s moving of the US embassy to Jerusalem.

Turkey and the Gulf states are also at odds over the Saudi-UAE-led economic and diplomatic boycott of Qatar and policy towards Iran.

The power- and geopolitics-driven effort constitutes a marked shift in Saudi religious diplomacy, which, for much of the past four decades, involved a $100 billion public diplomacy campaign to globally promote Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism. More recently, Saudi Arabia has sought to project itself as a beacon of tolerance, interfaith dialogue, and an unidentified form of moderate Islam.

Riyadh has not officially announced its quest to wrest control from Jordan of the Temple Mount, home to the al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third most holy site after Mecca and Medina, but evidence is piling up against a backdrop of ever closer relations among Israel, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Bahrain.

Flexing the kingdom’s financial muscle, Saudi King Salman told an Arab summit in Dhahran in April that he was donating $150 million to support Islam’s holy places in Jerusalem. The donation counters a multitude of Turkish bequests to Islamic organizations in Jerusalem and efforts to acquire real estate.

But unlike Saudi Arabia, Turkey can capitalize on the fact that it maintains diplomatic relations with Israel to organize Islamist tours to the city. Thousands of Turkish supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Democracy Party (AKP) visited the city in the past year. Turkish activists allegedly participated in last year’s protests on the Temple Mount.

Striking a different chord from that of his powerful son, Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, who has been vocal in his support for Trump and his empathy with Israeli positions, King Salman denounced the “invalidity and illegality” of the US decision to recognize Jerusalem.

Saudi Arabia, in opposition to the Jordanian endowment that administers the Temple Mount, last year backed Israel’s installation of metal detectors following an attack that killed two Israeli policemen.

Some Jordanians saw the Saudi support as a precursor to a US-backed agreement with Israel that would give the Gulf states a foothold on the Temple Mount by allowing Saudi and UAE personnel to be posted at its entrances.

According to Kamal Khatib, an Israeli Arab Islamist leader, as well as Arab media reports, the UAE – in competition with Turkey – is seeking to purchase real estate adjacent to the Temple Mount. Khatib asserted that the UAE is operating through an associate of Muhammad Dahlan, an Abu Dhabi-based former Palestinian security chief with presidential ambitions.

Jordan and Saudi Arabia clashed in December during a gathering of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union when the kingdom attempted to challenge Jordan’s custodianship of holy places in Jerusalem.

Saudi Arabia, together with the UAE and Kuwait, pledged US$2.5 billion to Jordan after mass anti-government protests rocked the country earlier this year in a bid to gain leverage and prevent it from turning to Turkey for help.

Al-Monitor quoted Raed Daana, a former director of preaching and guidance at Al-Aqsa Mosque Directorate, as saying that Saudi Arabia had secretly invited Palestinian Muslim dignitaries in a bid to garner support for a Saudi power grab.

Saudi officials are further believed to be pressuring Palestine Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to allow Saudi Islamic scholars to visit Palestine. In a rare outreach, Iyad Madani, a Saudi national and secretary-general of the Jeddah-based, 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), visited the Temple Mount in January.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have used Bahrain, a financially weak state whose ruling family was bolstered in 2011 by the intervention of a Saudi-led military force to counter a popular revolt, as a front for some of their overtures towards Israel.

Bahrain, which recently granted entry to an Israeli delegation to participate in a UNESCO meeting, has been at the forefront of the Gulf states’ religious diplomacy and propagation of interfaith dialogue.

Israel’s only official presence in the Gulf is its under-the-radar mission to the International Renewable Energy Agency in Abu Dhabi, which is widely seen as the Jewish state’s embassy to the region.

A prominent American rabbi, Marc Shneier, and evangelist Reverend Johnnie Moore, a member of Donald Trump’s faith advisory board, keynoted at a dinner in Washington in May hosted by the Bahrain Embassy. Reverend Moore led a delegation of Bahraini and expatriate civic and business leaders on a visit to Israel last December, days after Trump had recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the Jewish state.

The delegation’s Palestinian reception suggests that Saudi-UAE efforts to gain a geopolitics-driven religious foothold in Jerusalem may not be straightforward. Palestinian guards barred the delegation from entering the Temple Mount while protesters in Gaza blocked it from visiting the Strip.

Said Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) executive committee member Hanan Ashrawi in a comment about the visit that could have applied to the broader Saudi-UAE effort: “I don’t believe this whole lovey-dovey approach of ‘we’re here to show tolerance’. Then go home and show tolerance at home.”

https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/temple-mount-saudi-arabia/

سيف الله

07-10-2018, 08:35 PM

Salaam

Another update, oh yes this will work. . . . . . .

Qatari Envoy Says Letting Gazans Work in Israel Would Calm Border

For weeks Palestinians have been letting loose incendiary balloons and kites, setting fire to thousands of acres of farmland and forests in southern Israel

A Qatari diplomat working behind the scenes to ease tensions at the Israel-Gaza border suggested that Palestinians would stop protests and sending incendiary kites across the border if Israel were to allow in 5,000 Gazans on work permits.

Qatari envoy Mohammed Al-Emadi floated the idea during an interview with Israeli public broadcaster Kane.

Israeli and Hamas officials had no immediate comment on the Qatari proposal.

For weeks Palestinians have been letting loose incendiary balloons and kites, setting fire to thousands of acres of farmland and forests in southern Israel.

At least 136 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli troops during mass demonstrations along the Gaza border since March 30 and the Gazans sending the kites over the fence believe they have found an effective new weapon.

Gaza is controlled by the Islamist militant group Hamas. Israel, citing security concerns, restricts movement of goods and people across the border.

Al-Emadi said that were Israel to let in workers from the Gaza Strip, where much of the population lives in poverty, the border protests and kite attacks would cease.

"It could start for example with 5,000 people in Gaza who would work in Israel. That is good. That would stop the protests, the fires, the kites and the balloons," Al-Emadi said.

Al-Emadi, who said he has mediated between sides when things get tense, added that there was no significant progress in efforts to secure the release of Israelis who are missing or being held prisoner in Gaza.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/qatari-envoy-says-letting-gazans-work-in-israel-would-calm-border-1.6255056

Karl

07-11-2018, 12:23 AM

There is only 2 ways to fix the problem in Israel and the rest of the world 1 kill all the Zionists (freedom wins) or 2 kill all the non Zionists (Satan wins). Peace can only exist when you kill all your enemies, otherwise troubles will just fester on forever. Peace talks are futile. There is a saying "whatever you can survive makes you stronger" so those that can endure the attacks from the Zionists will get stronger and one day crush their enemies. The Zionist problem is not just in Palestine or Israel it is everywhere.

سيف الله

07-11-2018, 09:57 PM

Salaam

Another update

Irish Senate backs law banning trade with Israeli settlements

Proposed law prohibits the import or sale of goods and services produced in occupied territories around the world

The Irish Senate gave its support on Wednesday to legislation prohibiting the import or sale of goods and services produced in occupied territories around the world, including Israeli settlements considered illegal under international law.

The proposed law, which passed 25 to 20 to make it an offence to trade in such goods and services, was introduced by independent senator Frances Black and drew support from all Ireland's major political parties except the governing Fine Gael party.

Senior Palestinian Authority official Saeb Erekat hailed it as a "historic" vote and a "courageous gesture", which "sends a clear message to the international community and in particular to the rest of the European Union - to speak of a two-state solution is not enough without concrete measures".

It must now be considered by a parliamentary committee, before being eventually getting presented to MPs.

The campaign organisation Avaaz hailed the "unprecedented" vote and said: "Irish citizens, trade unions and civil society like Senator Black are determined to take advantage of this momentum for sanctions to become law".

Israel reacted angrily to the proposal calling it "populist, dangerous and extremist".

Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney, who did not back the bill, warned it risked "fanning flames" in the Middle East.

"I respect this house and its decision, but respectfully disagree," he said.

Proponents of the measure argued that Israel is profiting from its illegal settlements in the Palestinian territories and the stalled peace process shows no signs of yielding a resolution.

"The status quo has failed... that is why we are seeking a change," said Senator Colette Kelleher, who co-signed the bill.

"I'm asking you to lead Europe," she added, addressing her comments to Coveney.

But those opposed to the move said it could draw Ireland into trade disputes over contested territories in places like China, Cyprus and Crimea.

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/irish-senate-backs-law-banning-trade-israeli-settlements-1374832484

سيف الله

07-13-2018, 07:22 AM

Salaam

Another update

Arab public overwhelmingly reject Trump's foreign policy, poll shows

Palestine remains important issue for Saudis, but fear of giving honest answers in survey sparks unprecedented high attrition rate

As the Trump administration prepares to unveil its much-vaunted plan for peace between Israel and the Palestinians, it is likely to face an Arab public that is wary of US foreign policy in the region, specifically on the question of Palestine.

In a survey unveiled in Washington DC, which interviewed more than 18,000 Arab citizens in 11 countries, most respondents said they held a negative view of US policy towards Palestine – 87 percent – up from 79 percent in 2016.

The Arab Opinion Index, conducted by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies in Doha, Qatar, found that 81 percent of Arabs also perceived US foreign policy towards war-ravaged Syria negatively, as did 82 percent on Iraq.

The Trump administration would benefit from really understanding the real concerns of the Palestinian people, which are not economic, as the Trump peace team might think

-Tamara Kharroub, Arab Center Washington DC

"Over the years, we said, 'It can't get any worse, it can't get any worse,' and it does get worse," said Shibley Telhami, a leading pollster and the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland.

"It's quite stunning when you look at [the Arab publics'] views of American foreign policy, but also in terms of ranking US foreign policy in comparison with other countries. That is striking, that the US is lowest of all those countries," he said, referring to Iran, Russia, France, Turkey and China.

The Index, which has been published yearly since 2011, has become a barometer of Arab public opinion from Lebanon to Mauritania on issues ranging from local economy to global foreign affairs.

Deal of the century

The poll showed that more than 75 percent of the Arab world population believes that the Palestinian cause is also an Arab one, while identifying Israel and the US as the top two threats to national security. Almost 90 percent of Arabs cited Israel as a source of instability in the region.

Saudis reticent

For the first time since 2011, pollsters had a difficult time gauging Saudi citizens on Palestine; a large number of Saudi respondents quit the survey when asked about the Palestinian cause. About 36 percent of Saudi Arabian survey participants said they did not know or declined to answer, in contrast with 5 percent in the rest of the countries polled.

Saudi Arabia's repressive domestic political atmosphere coupled with the ascension of Mohammed bin Salman to position of crown prince as well the regional shift in Gulf-Israeli relations have affected the way Saudis engaged with the survey, pollsters said.

Saudi commentators have recently used public platforms to normalise relations with Israel. In a column published by UK-based international Arabic newspaper Alsharq Alawsat in May, Saudi author Amal Abdul Aziz Al Hazzani, for instance, played down the impact of the US embassy move to Jerusalem and praised Trump as a man of his word.

"We've seen the Trump administration's Middle East peace team shop around the deal of the century to Arab leaders," said Tamara Kharroub, assistant executive director and senior fellow at the Arab Center Washington DC.

"What's remarkable about this deal is the profound lack of understanding of what the Palestinian people want; but not only that, it largely underestimates how the Arab people feel about Palestine."

She added that Palestinians, who are the main players in any peace plan, are being ignored.

For the first time since 2011, pollsters had a difficult time gauging Saudi citizens on Palestine; a large number of Saudi respondents quit the survey all-together when asked about the Palestinian cause

"It's counterproductive," Kharroub said. "The Trump administration would benefit from really understanding the real concerns of the Palestinian people, which are not economic, as the Trump peace team might think."

As Gulf countries like Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain recently began to court Israel more overtly (united in their animosity towards Iran), the survey showed that an overwhelming majority of respondents (87 percent) disapproved of their home countries recognising Israel. Asked to elaborate on their reasons, many cited Israel's mistreatment of Palestinians and its colonial policies.

Only eight percent said they would accept some kind of formal diplomatic recognition. Those who did made such recognition conditional upon the end of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the formation of an independent Palestinian state.

According to Dana al-Kurd, a researcher at the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, political – not religious – reasons were given when asked whether or not countries should recognise Israel.

"Arab opposition to Israel is [often] painted in religious terms or it's claimed to be some sort of inherent anti-Semitism," al-Kurd said. "But our data shows that across self-identified religiosity levels, the majority of respondents oppose recognition of Israel. Religiosity or Islam versus Judaism are not the reasons behind this rejection."

Al-Kurd said that pollsters used various survey methods, including what's known as 'list experiments' to illicit true feelings, and were able to ascertain that Saudis still supported Palestinians, despite reports to the contrary.

"The Palestinian cause remains important to the Saudi sample, but that fear of responding truthfully explains the lack of response and high attrition rate," al-Kurd said.

The issue of Palestine remains a central issue for Arabs, agreed Kharroub. Since polling started in the Arab world, the data has been showing that the Palestinian cause is "an issue of justice that the Arabs see or lack thereof in the US approach to the region," she said.

"That's why it remains an important factor driving developments in the region, from recruitment by extremist groups to regional stability, Arab attitudes towards the United States and even US national security."

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/arabs-overwhelmingly-rejects-trumps-foreign-policy-poll-shows-1430487455

سيف الله

07-14-2018, 12:21 PM

Salaam

Another update

Kuwait must get with Trump’s Middle East policy or face his wrath: Report

Kuwait best get with the US program – or be prepared to face Trump’s wrath

The New York Post has published a report by Jonathan Schanzer* & Varsha Koduvayur* about the relation between Kuwait and the United States under Donald Trump’s Administration, particularly after Kuwait’s recent position in the United Nations about the Israeli-Palestinian developments.

The United Nations Security Council has recently failed to adopt two competing draft resolutions; one produced by Kuwait, in response to the killing of dozens of Palestinian protesters in Gaza, and the other tabled by the United States, which vetoed the initial resolution saying it was “grossly one-sided” against Israel. Kuwait, a non-permanent council member that represents Arab countries, has blocked a US-drafted United Nations Security Council statement that strongly condemned an attack by Gaza fighters on Israel recently. Kuwait said it blocked the US-drafted statement to allow for consideration of a draft resolution it has put forward on the protection of Gazan civilians. Earlier, Kuwait blocked another US-proposed statement that criticised Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ remarks about Jews and the Holocaust as “unacceptable.”

“There’s a new hitch in President Trump’s plan to form a united front among Gulf states and Israel against Iran,” the report sys.

Kuwait’s ambassador to the United Nations this month lambasted Israel, charging the Jewish state with “deploying a vast and well-developed arsenal of weaponry against an unarmed people.” A Kuwaiti cleric, just weeks later, denied the Holocaust and the existence of gas chambers, claiming the scale was impossible: “How many ovens would you need to burn 6 million human beings?”

Of course, this is a notable exception to the pattern of Gulf Arab states lately increasing their outreach to Israel. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman tacitly acknowledged Israel’s right to exist in April. The UAE and Bahrain sent national teams to compete in the first leg of a major cycling race this spring in Israel. In June, an Israeli delegation visited Bahrain, and in May, Bahrain’s foreign minister tweeted about Israel’s right to defend itself.

Kuwait remains staunchly resistant to this trend. It’s the one “conservative Gulf Arab state” that still engages in the systematic condemnation of Israel. To put this in perspective, even Hamas-supporting Qatar maintains low-level ties with Israel.

For Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, it all comes down to their shared concerns over Iranian adventurism and the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. As Mohammed bin Salman said, Iran’s supreme leader “makes Hitler look good.” So they have sought out Israel, which has stood up to Iranian aggression — both by striking Iranian assets in Syria and even stealing nuclear secrets out of Iran.

Kuwait, however, maintains neutrality with Iran. It doesn’t need Israel as a partner to challenge the regional aggression of the Islamic Republic, and it’s trying to keep it that way.

Moreover, in Kuwait’s political system, being anti-Israel is just good politics. In October, Kuwait’s speaker of parliament Marzouq al-Ghanim lashed out at two Israeli Knesset members, calling them “occupiers and child murderers.” Amid applause, al-Ghanim yelled at the Israelis, “grab your bags and leave this hall.” As thanks, Palestinians named him “Personality of the Year 2018.”

In May, Islamist MP Waleed al Tabatabai decried Israelis as “Zionist dogs” after the IDF struck Iranian targets in Syria. Tabatabai famously visited Syrian rebels in Idlib and was photographed wearing a rebel uniform while holding a gun. In early June, another MP thanked the Kuwaiti people, emir and government for their permanent, resolute response to the “Zionist occupation.”

The popularity of Israel-bashing in Kuwait’s political system can also be explained by the prevalence of Salafis. Their political power is actually derived in part by their fierce opposition to Israel and blatant anti-Semitism. The monarchy co-opted Kuwait’s Islamists as a bulwark against its opposition following anti-government protests in 2011. The emir plays the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood off each other, while encouraging both to serve as counterweights to domestic opposition.

Salafis’ influence may also explain Kuwait’s abysmal terror-finance record. Three individuals currently under US sanctions for funding al Qaeda are also faculty members at state-funded Kuwait University, earning public benefits. The Revival of Islamic Heritage Society — which the US Treasury designated as a terror group in 2008 for funding an al Qaeda network — still operates in Kuwait.

Kuwait’s opposition to Israel has hardened since becoming a rotating member of the UN Security Council. Kuwait has stymied US efforts to censure Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for an anti-Semitic speech, and it has blocked US condemnation of Hamas attacks against Israel from Gaza. Reports suggest that Jared Kushner, feeling undermined by Kuwait’s efforts, held a “brief and stormy” meeting with the Kuwaiti envoy to Washington.

Kuwait is clearly signaling its intent to dissent from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain on normalization with Israel. But if Trump’s regional peace plan is released in the coming weeks or months, Kuwait may be caught in the crossfire.

Defying the United States is quite different from maintaining independence in an internal Gulf Cooperation Council squabble. Nor is there likely room for nonalignment in Trump’s strategy to contain Iran.

https://www.middleeastobserver.org/2018/07/13/41579/

سيف الله

07-16-2018, 06:02 PM

Salaam

They are getting desperate, one does not ignore the demands of the tribe, just waiting for them to play the 'antisemitic' card.

Right on que

A response

سيف الله

07-17-2018, 06:42 AM

Salaam

Another update

Life in Gaza

Some hope.

BlackFlags

07-17-2018, 07:44 PM

Jerusalem will be conquered again by the Caliphate, we need to be patient. Meanwhile, this two state solution is no solution at all.

سيف الله

07-19-2018, 07:22 AM

Salaam

Another update

سيف الله

07-19-2018, 09:10 PM

Salaam

Perceptive.

سيف الله

07-22-2018, 09:03 AM

Salaam

Like to share

Blurb

Informers: Working for the Enemy: The Palestine territory of Gaza’s isolation from the West Bank permits Israeli forces to have significant leverage over residents. Tactics vary from blackmail to coercion, or even appealing to extremist ideals. This groundbreaking new report delves deep into this complex hidden world.

“Do you want to be treated, Kholoud? You want chemotherapy? You have to talk.” Gaza resident Salwa describes the demands made by Israeli officers of her critically ill daughter Kholoud, to permit her to be treated in Jerusalem. Kholoud had no useful information and was denied treatment. She died three weeks later. The Israeli state has been accused of using Palestinians’ weaknesses as leverage for collaboration. “They use financial problems to put pressure on some young men”, says a convicted collaborator. “And then you fall into a bigger trap.” Avi Dichter, who heads the Israeli defence committee, justifies this approach: “Better the tears of the mothers of a thousand terrorists, than the tears of my mother.” He points to the potential lives saved, by using the received intelligence to pre-empt attacks on civilians. Even jihadis have been recruited by the Israeli special forces, despite their highly conflicting ideals. This new report explores this extensive moral quagmire, and what it means for Gaza residents.

سيف الله

07-23-2018, 08:31 PM

Salaam

Some good news on the solidarity front, credit to the legend :thumbsup:

Blurb

'I am a Palestinian',

Maradona tells President Abbas As PA president met with Argentine soccer star in Moscow ahead of the World Cup final, the two exchanged gifts, hugged and took pictures, with Maradona writing the ‘man wants peace in Palestine.’

سيف الله

07-24-2018, 06:05 PM

Salaam

Another update, this antisemitism shtick is getting old.

The purpose of it.

Confirmed

How low will the 'liberal' Guardian descend?

Seems beating the antisemitism drums not having the desired effect

More hasbra

More importantly

سيف الله

07-24-2018, 11:32 PM

Salaam

Another update

Blurb

Mikkel Gruner, member of the city council of Bergen, Norway, says Europe has reached a “watershed” moment for Palestinian rights

سيف الله

07-25-2018, 07:57 AM

Salaam

A least one Muslim leader is showing a spine.

Erdoğan rebuked for claiming Israeli officials have 'Hitler spirit'

Netanyahu calls Turkey a ‘dark dictatorship’, in diplomatic spat over new law defining Israel as a Jewish state

Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has said that “Hitler’s spirit” was resurgent among Israeli officials, while Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said Turkey was becoming a “dark dictatorship” as the two regional powers clashed over a new law defining Israel as a Jewish state.

At a meeting with lawmakers from his Justice and Development (AK) party on Tuesday, Erdoğan condemned the nation state law passed in the Knesset last week, which he said mirrored the Nazi obsession with Aryan racial purity.

“This law is evidence that, without doubt, Israel is the most Zionist, fascist, and racist state in the world,” Erdoğan said.

“The Israeli administration’s view to identify those ancient lands as belonging to Jews alone is no different from Hitler’s obsession with the Aryan race,” he added. “The Hitler spirit, which dragged the world into a major disaster, has risen again among some Israeli officials.”

Netanyahu hit back on social media, describing Turkey under Erdoğan as a “dark dictatorship”.

“Erdoğan is massacring Syrians and Kurds and has jailed tens of thousands of his citizens. The fact that the great ‘democrat’ Erdoğan is attacking the nation state law is the greatest compliment for this law.

“Turkey, under Erdoğan’s rule, is becoming a dark dictatorship whereas Israel scrupulously maintains equal rights for all its citizens, both before and after introducing this law,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

The war of words escalated further, withİbrahim Kalın, a top aide to Erdoğan and the presidential spokesman, describing Netanyahu as “the prime minister of a Zionist apartheid state” who lacked the moral authority to lecture the Turkish president.

The spat was the latest in a string of diplomatic crises between the two countries, whose relations have collapsed over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians and Erdoğan’s adopted role as a leader of global Muslim causes.

Ankara and Tel Aviv severed diplomatic ties in 2010 over the MV Mavi Marmara incident, in which Turkish activists on board the vessel were killed during a raid by Israeli commandos while trying to break the naval blockade around the Gaza Strip. Israel had refused to apologise over the incident.

Relations were restored in 2016, but it was a cold peace at best. The two countries continued to clash, particularly over Palestine, with Turkey leading opposition to the Donald Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the decision to move the US embassy there.

In two summit meetings in Istanbul, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation condemned the decisions that had otherwise earned meek criticism by America’s Arab allies, and declared majority-Arab East Jerusalem as the capital of the Palestinian state.

In May, Ankara asked the Israeli ambassador to leave Turkey “for a while” over the killing of dozens of Palestinian protesters on the anniversary of Israel’s founding.

The Israeli ambassador endured a full security screening in front TV cameras in Istanbul’s Atatürk airport, and Turkey withdrew its ambassador for consultations. Both countries expelled each other’s consuls general. Most trade relations continued unabated.

Turkey had already denounced the nation state law, which defines Israel as a Jewish state, as “racist” after it was approved late last week.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...-state-dispute

سيف الله

07-26-2018, 07:50 PM

Salaam

Wow didn't expect this, credit to this brave young man.

سيف الله

07-27-2018, 06:47 PM

Salaam

Another update, my my what a surprise.

Qatar funded Zionist Organization of America

Qatar donated $250,000 to some of the most extreme pro-Israel organizations in the United States, including one that funds senior Israeli military officers to go on propaganda tours.

Joseph Allaham, a lobbyist working for the Qatari government, transferred the money through his firm Lexington Strategies in late 2017 and early 2018.

The sums included $100,000 to the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), $100,000 to Our Soldiers Speak and $50,000 for Blue Diamond Horizons, Inc.

Our Soldiers Speak describes itself as the “vehicle through which the IDF [Israeli army] and the Israeli National Police dispatch senior officers to select campuses overseas” and to give “briefings” to members of the US Congress.

Blue Diamond Horizons is a company controlled by Mike Huckabee, the Christian Zionist former governor of Arkansas.

Huckabee, who happens to be the father of Donald Trump’s White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders, opposes any Israeli withdrawal from Jerusalem and has suggested Israel should annex the West Bank.

In US government disclosure documents, Lexington Strategies describes the payment to Huckabee’s company as an “honorarium for visit,” while the donations to the ZOA and Our Soldiers Speak are labeled as contributions for “charitable goodwill.”

In January this year, Huckabee traveled to Doha, as one of a parade of far-right and pro-Israel figures invited to Qatar as part of the Gulf emirate’s intensive outreach to Israel and its lobby.
Working for Emir

The disclosure, filed by Lexington Strategies on 15 June under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), reveals that the money given to the Zionist organizations came out of $1.45 million provided by the State of Qatar for lobbying on its behalf.

The document explicitly names Qatar’s ruler, Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, as the client of Allaham’s lobbying efforts.

One of the stated purposes of the money paid by Qatar to the lobbying group is to encourage “dialogue with [the] Jewish community abroad and in the United States.”

In reality, Qatar has been reaching out to some of the most extreme supporters of Israel as part of its effort to curry favor with the United States.

For more than a year, Qatar has faced isolation and blockade by regional rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The Trump administration initially expressed strong support for that blockade, labeling Qatar a sponsor of “terrorism.”

Doha fears that under the influence of the Saudi-led bloc, the US could withdraw its massive Al Udeid air base from Qatar, making the tiny state vulnerable to invasion from bigger neighbors.

In order to fight back, Qatar is competing with its Gulf rivals for US affections, and like those rivals it views the support of Israel and its lobby as the fastest route to Washington’s heart.

As part of this effort, Qatar hired lobbyist Nick Muzin and his firm Stonington Strategies and was in 2017 paying him a monthly retainer of $50,000. This was later increased to $300,000 a month, according to FARA filings.

With Allaham’s disclosure it now emerges that Qatar has hired more than one Washington firm to win the favors of the Israel lobby.

Shielding the lobby

One of the key concessions Qatar has made is to suppress an explosive Al Jazeera documentary revealing the inner workings of the US Israel lobby.

As The Electronic Intifada exclusively revealed in March, the film identifies a number of lobby groups as working directly with Israel to spy on American citizens using sophisticated data gathering techniques.

The documentary is also said to cast light on covert efforts to smear and intimidate Americans seen as too critical of Israel.

The Zionist Organization of America, one of the recipients of the Qatari emir’s largesse and hospitality, took public credit for getting the film censored.

But amid criticism within pro-Israel circles, ZOA president Morton Klein claimed to be “shocked” when he learned that the money had originated from Qatar, and told The Jewish Week he would return the donations.

Our Soldiers Speak, the group that promotes the Israeli military, affirmed to the publication that it is “very pleased to take every penny.”

The Jewish Week also reported that one of the guests Allaham invited to the ZOA’s gala dinner last year was Ahmed al-Rumaihi, who had been a Qatari diplomat and the former head of Qatar Investments, a $100-billion sovereign wealth fund whose holdings include Qatar Airways.

While there, al-Rumaihi reportedly asked to be introduced to Steve Bannon, the former senior Trump adviser who gave a speech at the ZOA gala.

In an article published days before Allaham filed his FARA disclosure, Mother Jones magazine reported that Klein was questioned about al-Rumaihi’s presence at the dinner. The ZOA president responded, “What’s the problem? Joey [Allaham] paid me $100,000 for that table!”

Occupation advice

While courting those who facilitate and justify Israel’s crimes against Palestinians in Washington, Qatar presents itself as one of the key supporters of Palestinians in Gaza.

Qatar funds projects and provides aid in the territory that has faced massive Israeli military assaults and a devastating siege over more than a decade.

Israel also regularly sprays Palestinian farmland in Gaza with herbicides, destroying crops.

But recent comments by Qatari diplomat Mohammed al-Emadi suggest that Qatar’s agenda is effectively to help Israel pacify Gaza and manage its occupation better.

Al-Emadi is in charge of Qatar’s activities in Gaza. He suggested in an interview with Israel’s public broadcaster Kan on Sunday that the Great March of Return protests on the Gaza-Israel boundary fence would quiet down if Israel were to allow Palestinians in Gaza to work in Israel.

“It could start for example with 5,000 people in Gaza who would work in Israel. That is good. That would stop the protests, the fires, the kites and the balloons,” al-Emadi said.

Since the end of March, Israel has killed more than 140 Palestinians and injured more than 4,000 others with live fire during protests aimed at ending the siege and calling for the right for refugees to return to their original lands from which Israel excludes them because they are not Jews.

But while Israel is undoubtedly happy to see Qatar pay to keep Palestinians in Gaza at the edge of survival, there is no sign it is interested in taking Qatari advice.

On Monday, Israel announced it was closing the only goods crossing to Gaza in retaliation for incendiary kites launched from Gaza that have caused damage to crops on the Israeli side of the boundary.

The Israeli human rights group Gisha said that “collectively punishing nearly two million people in Gaza by closing its only official crossing for the movement of goods is both illegal and morally depraved.”

https://electronicintifada.net/content/qatar-funded-zionist-organization-america/24936

سيف الله

07-27-2018, 10:06 PM

Salaam

Another update, the antisemitism hysteria is going up another notch.

Jewish papers unite against Jeremy Corbyn 'threat'

The papers describe a "Corbynite contempt for Jews and Israel" and call for the party to change course in a "make or break" vote.

https://news.sky.com/story/jewish-pa...hreat-11448848

And finally

سيف الله

07-28-2018, 07:13 AM

Salaam

Another update

Israeli forces storm Al-Aqsa Mosque with tear gas, stun grenades

Israeli police close Al-Aqsa's gates after firing tear gas and stun grenades at worshipers gathered for Friday prayers.

Israeli forces have reopened the gates of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem after closing them for several hours, preventing all entry into one of Islam's holiest sites.

Earlier on Friday, Israeli soldiers stormed the compound, firing tear gas and stun grenades at Muslim worshipers who had gathered for prayers.

"At least 50 policemen raided the Al-Qibali Mosque, attacking worshipers and arresting 20 others," Firas al-Dibs, a spokesman for al-Waqf, Jerusalem's Religious Endowments Authority, said in a statement.

According to the Jordan-run body, a total of 15 Palestinians were injured, including three mosque guards, in the melee.

Al-Dibs said the Israeli authorities sealed Al-Aqsa Mosque with iron chains and prevented Palestinian worshippers from entering it.

The closure consequently led to confrontations with worshipers, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Al Jazeera's Andrew Simmons, reporting from the entrance of the al-Aqsa mosque compound, said there was "a five-hour standoff with the security forces in which they surrounded the entire with barricades".

He added that there was a "very tense atmosphere" inside the compound.

"There had been an 'attack', as it was described by the custodians of this mosque's complex, who said it had been an invasion by Israeli security forces.

"However, the Israeli security forces accused some people of throwing rocks and fireworks and that was the reason that back-up was called and so many security forces opened fire with sound grenades and also tear gas at some point," added Simmons.

"People were told evacuate the whole complex but many refused, and that led to a situation whereby four gates stopping people from getting in or getting out."

The unrest coincides with the first anniversary of the Al-Aqsa protests in July 2017 when tens of thousands of Palestinians prayed outside the compound for nearly two weeks, protesting against the new metal detectors installed by Israeli authorities.

The Al-Aqsa compound is one of the most fractious issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Al-Aqsa is the name of the silver-domed mosque inside a 35-acre compound referred to as al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, by Muslims, and as the Temple Mount by Jews.

For Muslims, the Noble Sanctuary hosts Islam's third-holiest site, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Dome of the Rock, a seventh-century structure believed to be where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

Jews believe the compound is where the Biblical Jewish temples once stood, but Jewish law and the Israeli Rabbinate forbid Jews from entering the compound and praying there, as it is considered too holy to tread upon.

The compound's Western Wall, known as the Wailing Wall to Jews, is believed to be the last remnant of the Second Temple, while Muslims refer to it as al-Buraq Wall and believe it is where the Prophet tied al-Buraq, the animal upon which he ascended to the sky and spoke to God.

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

In late 2000, a visit to the Al-Aqsa by controversial Israeli politician Ariel Sharon sparked a years-long popular uprising against the Israeli occupation in which thousands of Palestinians lost their lives.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middl...123354710.html

Whats it like to live in Gaza

Another terrorist caught. . . . . .

Abz2000

07-28-2018, 07:54 PM

The rothschild usurers have been criminally pushing this argument purposefully with the aim of deceiving the planet and keeping turmoil going in the region - and they have been provoking and stirring up the palestinian people to protest whenever they see the public opinion towards themselves and their stooges including current stooge netanyahoo dwindling.

Looking at the map of the place demonstrates clearly to any thinking mind that this turmoil is criminally orchestrated by greedy secularist, freemasonry utilizing, babylonian sorcery wielding, satanist usurers.

For as long as they can keep the world ignorant, at each others throats, and ready to pounce at each other, they have armies willing to face each other and shed blood based on nothing meaningful - it keeps people distracted from the real problem of global debt bondage to parasites who care little for the struggles of the common person.

Read further on post #3 here:

War, Slavery, and Compound Tribute Extraction

سيف الله

07-28-2018, 09:30 PM

Salaam

Another update

JustTime

07-29-2018, 04:53 AM

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cbzk8g8W0AE9VOv.jpg

...

Futuwwa

07-29-2018, 06:27 PM

Junon, frankly, I used to wonder the same, why Corbyn isn't fighting back. Then I realized he's handling himself very wisely. Answering the incendiary accusations in kind would just create more drama for the media to gorge itself on. Better not help the attackers get the publicity they want. Parry the attacks by being calm, reasoned and conciliatory, and the attackers will publicly come off as vicious, aggressive and making much ado about nothing. There are plenty others who can answer in kind, and plenty others do.

When it comes to the struggle within the Labour Party, Corbyn can't do much on his own, since his position is anyway entirely dependent on the support of the grassroots activists and the rank and file membership. Let Momentum organize the rank and file to do the dirty knife and hatchet work of wresting power from the old party establishment, they've made constant progress at that since 2015.

سيف الله

07-29-2018, 10:41 PM

Salaam

Another update

Blurb

Palestinian teen activist Ahed Tamimi has been released from Israeli prison after completing an eight-month sentence in a case that sparked international condemnation. Tamimi broke down in tears as an emotional crowd welcomed her in the village of Nabi Saleh on Sunday. She was released with her mother, Nariman, who also served an eight-month sentence. Addressing the crowd, Tamimi thanked activists and the media for their support during her prison stay. She said she was "extremely happy" to be "in the arms and embrace of my family" but added that her "happiness is not full" when others are still behind Israeli bars.

سيف الله

07-30-2018, 02:31 AM

Salaam

The take over of Jerusalem continues.

Israel to Open Jewish Heritage Center in Palestinian Neighborhood in East Jerusalem

Israel to spend more than $1 million on the center in Silwan, devoted to Yemenite immigrants in the 19th century

Israel is set to open a Jewish heritage center in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem. A ceremony will be held at the site under the watch of heavy security this Wednesday to mark the project's launch.

For the past two decades, the pro-settler organization Elad has worked to Judaize the neighborhood by purchasing homes from Arabs and litigating against them, sometimes with assistance from the Israeli government.

The new center, which will be constructed at a cost of 4.5 million shekels ($1.23 million) is to be housed in an old synagogue near the Beit Yehonathan settlement in what is known as the "Yemenite village" - a neighborhood established in Silwan by Yemenite immigrants at the end of the 19th century and abandoned before the establishment of Israel following violence in the British Mandate period, specifically the events of 1929 and the Arab Revolt of 1936.

A Palestinian family was evicted from the building in which the center will open in 2015 after it was determined in legal proceedings that they were squatting in a sacred property that had belonged to a religious Yemenite Jewish body decades before.

Settlers entered the building after the eviction of the Abu Naab family. There were rumors at the time in the neighborhood that the Palestinian residents voluntarily evacuated the house in exchange for monetary compensation.

The State plans to invest millions of shekels in order to turn the place into a heritage center of the "Tamar Aliyah," the immigration of Yemenite Jews to Israel in 1881. The Ministry for Jerusalem Affairs will invest 3 million shekels and the Ministry of Culture and Sport will invest 1.5 million shekels.

The Silwan neighborhood has become a symbol for the Palestinian struggle in East Jerusalem. In December 2017, more than 100 residents petitioned the Supreme Court in an attempt to prevent Ateret Cohanim from evicting them from their homes. Their petition attacks the Custodian General of the Ministry of Justice, who 17 years before transferred a plot of about five dunams, in which hundreds of Palestinians live, to the control of the settler organization's members without informing the Palestinian residents.

Israel’s High Court of Justice ordered the state’s administrator general’s office in June to explain its decision to transfer land in the Batan al-Hawa neighborhood of Silwan, inhabited by some 700 Palestinians, to the right-wing Ateret Cohanim organization.

The court’s order came in response to a petition submitted by more than 100 residents of the East Jerusalem locale, who claim that the decision to transfer the property, 17 years ago, was illegal. Since then settlers have moved in and many Palestinian residents have been evicted.

The case involves 5.5 dunams (1.4 acres) of land in the Silwan neighborhood where some hundreds of Palestinians are still living. The deed was issued to the Benvenisti Trust, established about 120 years ago to provide homes to Jews immigrating to Palestine from Yemen. But the trust has, for the last 17 years, been controlled by Ateret Cohanim, a rightist nonprofit group that encourages Jews to move to predominantly Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem.

The main issue in the petition concerns whether the original, Ottoman-era trust covered the administration of the land in question or the buildings erected on it, all but one of which was demolished in the 1940s. The petitioners seeking to halt the eviction claim that the original trust and the recent transfer of the title deed pertained to the buildings, but not to the land itself, based on Ottoman law. The Palestinians claim that the trust’s authority should be voided and the evacuation halted because the trust covered structures that no longer exist – not the land.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...hood-1.6318916

سيف الله

07-30-2018, 06:08 PM

Salaam

Another update

Blurb

In Gaza, thousands gathered Saturday for the funeral of 11-year-old Majdi al-Satari, who died after he was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper Friday at protests near the separation fence with Israel. 17-year-old Moumin al-Hams and 43-year-old Ghazi Abu Mustafa were also shot and killed by Israeli snipers at the protests. In total, Israeli soldiers have killed at least 150 Palestinians since the Palestinians’ nonviolent Great March of Return protests began on March 30. For more we speak with world-renowned political dissident, author, and linguist Noam Chomsky.

سيف الله

08-01-2018, 08:19 PM

Salaam

Originally Posted by Futuwwa

Yes, its so preposterous, of all the things you can accuse Jeremy Corbyn, racism? Really? Racism, Jeremy Corbyn?! Its insane.

Though Im sad to report he's buckling under the pressure.

Oh what a surprise!

سيف الله

08-01-2018, 10:07 PM

Salaam

Another update

Israel reimposes blockade of fuel deliveries to Gaza

Israel has reimposed a blockade of fuel supplies to Gaza in response to a resurgence of the flow of fire kites across the border.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the crackdown was in response to "the pursuit of terrorism" using fire kites and balloons amid persistent protests along the border.

Israel already imposed a blockade on fuel deliveries to Gaza on 17 July but lifted it a week later in response to a reduction in the number of kites and balloons carrying firebombs into Israeli territory.

Israel says the devices have sparked hundreds of fires since April and caused hundreds of thousands worth of damage.

Palestinians in Gaza see the kites and balloons as legitimate resistance against Israel's decade-long blockade of the territory.

The coastal enclave suffers from a severe lack of electricity and relies on fuel-powered generators during outages that last hours at a time.

Israel controls all access to and from the territory apart from a single crossing with Egypt which has been only rarely opened.

It has fought three wars with Palestinian militants in Gaza since 2008 and says the blockade is necessary to keep them from obtaining weapons or materials that could be used for military purposes.

UN officials have called repeatedly for the blockade to be lifted, citing deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the territory, where some 80% of its population of over two million depend on aid.

Mass protests for the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in Israel began along the border on 30 March, triggering a deadly response from the Israeli army.

At least 157 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire. One Israeli soldier has been killed.

https://www.rte.ie/news/world/2018/0...gaza-blockade/

Just to add

talibilm

08-02-2018, 06:09 AM

Asalamualaikum Dear Brothers and Sisters

Hope you had watched these videos a good info From A BRAVE AMERICAN LADY on this conflict from the start to have enough knowledge to debate on this matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TSEtOD5Gfk

even this another oldest video of 1896 is a witness for her demographic statistics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vaIK8wlAl0

Hope the world at least follows Live and Let Live policy instead of killings and oppression.

سيف الله

08-02-2018, 04:11 PM

Salaam

Another update

Blurb

According to reports, a senior diplomat in Riyadh has said King Salman will now take charge of Saudi Arabia's Palestine policy suggesting a rift in the Royal Court. The Saudis deny there is any issue between them.

سيف الله

08-05-2018, 05:25 PM

Salaam

More anti semitism

Whats the purpose of this hysteria?

Why Corbyn should not give in

سيف الله

08-07-2018, 06:59 PM

Salaam

Another update

UK Labour Party is right to drop racist IHRA guidelines of anti-Semitism

As Jewish people in Manchester, England, we resent the despicable racism shown towards the Palestinians by Guardian stalwarts such as Jonathan Freedland, Polly Toynbee, Jessica Elgott, Eddie Izzard, Nick Cohen, Marina Hyde and Gaby Hinsliff among others, all saturating comment sections on mainstream news websites with attacks designed to bring down the UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, and to protect Israel from accountability. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Anti-Semitism definition guidelines the Labour Party are correctly omitting, are designed by Israeli propagandists to aid their many mass lobby attempts to stop international solidarity with the Palestinians and to deny Palestinians the right to express the nature of Israel’s 70 years of violence and racism towards them.

We call on everyone to see that creating a largely-mythical anti-Semitism ‘crisis’ in the Labour Party is one of the few tools left to ailing and desperate establishment hacks wanting to smear Corbyn and maintain UK support for Israel, no matter how many Palestinians the Israeli army slaughters, or how many houses, schools, and hospitals Israeli jets destroy in Gaza. In the face of this, Zionist groups with a history of uncritical support for Israel claim that Corbyn presents an existential threat to British Jews? This is obscene, hypocritical scaremongering.

We’ve seen this pattern repeatedly; UK commentators take the morally defunct option of backing right wing mainstream Zionist organisations’ outrageous cries of ‘anti-Semitism’ the moment Corbyn’s Labour get ahead in the polls, or the moment there is a risk of serious public condemnation of Israel’s horrific crimes against the Palestinians. All of these organisations spend a disproportionate amount of time promoting Israel in the UK, and cynically covering up the State’s crimes, be it Israel’s sporadic mass-murders, such as the 500 Gazan children in 50 days in 2014, or the gradual ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs that has happened since Israel came about in 1948.

In the months of the Great Return March, over 150 Palestinians have been shot and killed for protesting peacefully at the Gaza boundary – including young medics, clearly-marked journalists, disabled men in wheelchairs, and children – many children. And it was during these months of carnage that the UK media’s perpetual main story was that Jeremy Corbyn has created a ‘safe harbour’ in the Labour Party for anti-Semites, even though official figures suggest that rates of anti-Semitism in the party have decreased since Corbyn became leader.

There is a disproportionate media furore insinuating that Labour did not back some guidelines of an anti-Semitism definition drawn up by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. The definition in question is completely unofficial, and is legally non-binding, but has clearly been exploited by pro-Israeli propaganda groups around the world to use as a rhetorical weapon against politicians, Universities, councils, companies and of course Labour party members; basically against anyone who dares to question the Apartheid system of control that Israel has violently imposed on the Palestinians for some seven decades.

Most disgusting of all was the ease with which people like Eddie Izzard, Polly Toynbee, Tom Watson and other Labour opponents of Corbyn, have happily adopted the most racist position imaginable against an oppressed people – by attempting to make Palestinians invisible from the whole debate. All four of the IHRA ‘examples’ that Labour dropped from their anti-Semitism guidelines were those that conflated Jews with Israel.

Why were Palestinians not consulted on the whole debate about Israel and anti-Semitism, when they are the people being slowly squeezed out of existence by Israel? Where are thePalestinian voices in the Guardian? If this public row was really about Jews, we would have the definition “Anti-Semitism is hostility to Jews as Jews”. It would be all we would require. But it is not just about hostility to Jews for being Jews, it has always been about protecting and validating Israel, it has always been about getting Corbyn out at all costs to prevent the UK from electing a pro-Palestinian Prime Minister, and that is why the definition has become corrupted. We, as Jews, will not mindlessly pretend that protecting the Jewish people and protecting Israel are the same thing, on the hopeless say-so of a crew of establishment hacks at the Guardian.

Countless cut-throat journalists and politicians have condemned Corbyn for letting this anti-Semitism saga run and run, accusing him of never getting to grips with the supposed omni-presence of Jew-hate within the Labour left. In truth, it is these cut-throats themselves who have propagated and prolonged the saga, largely by unquestioningly echoing the never-ending propaganda tirades of groups like the Board of Jewish Deputies (BoD). The BoD have made no bones about why they are against Corbyn. Jonathan Arkush, the outgoing BoD president has openly stated that, ultimately, Jeremy Corbyn’s position on the state of Israel are at the centre of his accusations against him.

According to the IHRA guidelines, for which every white liberal Guardian writer is screaming from the rooftops, a holocaust survivor like Marika Sherwood, a historian who survived the Budapest ghetto and says, “I can’t say I’m a Palestinian, but my experiences as a child are not dissimilar to what Palestinian children are experiencing now,” should be thrown out of the Labour Party on grounds of anti-Semitism.

We have no doubt the same pro-Israel/Zionist trolls would have no hesitation hunting down Marika Sherwood either, for being, like us, “the wrong kind of Jew.” They would impugn her integrity, no matter what her experiences were, no matter that her uncle died on the march to Auschwitz, no matter that she lost many other members of her extended family to the Holocaust. Indeed, hunt her down is precisely what they did when she spoke at the University of Manchester; with a campaign attacking her, the majority of email complaints including a manipulation of the IHRA definition. Even Israel’s UK ambassador got involved.

We as Jews are used to these relentless bullies, as we have faced the same barrage of abuse from them as we also chose to speak out against Israel’s crimes against the Palestinians. But even worse has been the way the UK media establishment have not only parroted the attacks, they’ve actually taken them up a notch further. Most recently in unison they attacked a now deceased Holocaust survivor Dr Hajo Meyer who compared aspects of his own experiences under Nazi Germany to that of what the Palestinians were going through, in an event chaired by Jeremy Corbyn 8 years ago. Liam O’Brien on LBC radio was disgraceful enough to say that Dr Meyer, who was a prisoner at the Nazi death camp Auschwitz whilst his parents were gassed to death, had made his speech in support of the Palestinians behind the “camouflage” of being a Holocaust survivor.

We know what these smear merchants are doing, and so do many Jews across the UK who want no associations with an Israeli state that has officially proclaimed itself an Apartheid regime in all-but-name, with the passing of ‘The Jewish Nation State Law’. In truth, this Law only formalises what was already reality for decades. Absurdity is hitting unprecedented heights, notable when Britain’s three main Jewish newspapers called Corbyn, one of the most dedicated and consistent anti-racist campaigners in the country, an ‘existential threat’ to British Jews. No mention of the existential threat faced by the Palestinians, only paranoid claims of a fictitious existential threat faced by British Jews.

While the real European threat, the far right, rises and rises, hand-in-hand with the far right of Israel (especially in the Knesset), we can only hope that more Jews come to perceive just how ridiculous this controversy is becoming.

Jonathan Freedland, one of the UK’s most effective propagandists for Israel, while giving Palestinians occasional lip service so he and the other liberal elitists can make doubtful claims to ‘impartiality’, has been the most relentless in his attacks on Corbyn. Freedland routinely uses his opinion editorial position in the Guardian to do more than most to ‘strong-arm’ the Labour Party into backing the whole IHRA definition, flawed examples and all. It is unsurprising that he would push for the guideline, “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour” to be included as anti-Semitic trope, given he is on record excusing the crime against humanity that was Israel’s foundational act -the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population in 1947/1948. Racism appears to be an unspoken requirement for becoming comments editor at the Guardian – how much Freedland would love to bury that part of Israel’s history though an IHRA guideline.

With the full IHRA definition, it would be ‘anti-Semitic’ for Palestinians to describe their brutal dispossession. Worse, a Palestinian member of the Labour Party would be barred from even condemning the father of modern Israel, Ben Gurion, for saying in 1937, “We must expel the Arabs and take their place” – 11 years before he and his fellow Zionists carried it out. There is no ‘moral collapse’ in criticising this absurdity. The only such collapse taking place here is in the normalisation of an entire people becoming officially ‘disposable’ – both in Israel’s physical treatment of the Palestinians, and in Zionist attempts to blot out Palestinian history.

Did Israel’s most fervent supporters, who are pushing this definition, believe that no one would actually read these examples and think for themselves?

Kenneth Stern, the American who drafted the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, has said himself that the definition had been abused on US university campuses to “restrict academic freedom and punish political speech”, and had the effect of “chilling pro-Palestinian speech”. Stern described how the misuse of the definition had led to the cancellation of “Israeli Apartheid Week” in the UK at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston (UCLAN), due to an enormous censorship campaign that exploited these guidelines, even though the University had not even signed up to them. The unsuspecting University executive folded under pressure, panicked by the barrage of threats, no matter how empty and misdirected.

Were the IHRA examples to be universally adopted, Israel’s lobbyists, lawyers, paid-up trolls, and diplomats, who openly boast about their work of suppression, would be free to go into overdrive. We can then expect to see a lot more Israeli Apartheid Weeks banned, for one thing, despite countless Black South Africans such as Mandela and Tutu visiting Palestine andcomparing Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians with how the White South African Apartheid regime treated them.

Judging by Freedland’s latest efforts to distort this whole picture, this suppression seems to be something he and many other liberal Zionists are happy to overlook.

We as Jews know keenly the suffering of our ancestors. We have family members who survived concentration camps, relatives who escaped Pogroms, relatives who were shot dead for being Jewish while playing on the streets in Warsaw, relatives forced to live in Ghettos, relatives who were part of resistance movements helping to hide Jewish refugees, endangering their own lives. We will not allow our shared history of the Shoah and other campaigns of anti-Semitic oppression to be manipulated in this cynical way, just to get Western governments to turn a blind eye to Israeli massacres of innocent people who demand only freedom and dignity. We know injustice, and we know that there is nothing moral, or even Jewish, about ferreting around the UK, policing the thoughts of other people, bullying them into supporting Israel, or portraying some of the most committed anti-racist campaigners around as the complete opposite.

We do not believe that any of the high-profile members suspended by the Labour Party – Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth or Tony Greenstein, are anti-Semitic. Jackie and Tony are Jewish, as were Moshe Machover, Glyn Secker and Cyril Chilsom, who were initially suspended until a campaign brought them back. Not only was what they said not in any way racist, but knowing our Jewish dinner chats, there is not a single Jew who would still be in the Labour Party if every word we uttered was historically scrutinised in the way theirs have. The common thread here is that they were all people who have fought tirelessly their entire lives against racism, much more consistently than their accusers have, and they were not afraid, like so many others in Labour, to criticise the horrors committed by Israel against the Palestinians.

Are there anti-Semites in the Labour Party? It’s impossible for there not to be, given that there are anti-Semites in all walks of life. Should they be clamped down upon when they are discovered? Of course, that should happen at every turn, as with any form of racism.

But when the Pew report and UK parliamentary committee found there was no disproportionate amount of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, and indeed it was much more prevalent on the right, under no circumstances should this “Labour rife with anti-Semitism” lie be propagated.

While this Labour red herring of widespread anti-Semitism persists, the really dangerous anti-Semites are resurfacing. It will be too late to call out the real anti-Semitism of these people, when the term’s meaning will have been utterly compromised by those exploiting it to protect the Israeli state. For the record, our group has no links to the media, does not strive for world dominance, and far from hogging lots of money, we are all pretty skint.

The real racists in the Labour Party are the Labour friends of Israel, who released a statement blaming the deaths of over a hundred Palestinian protesters in Gaza on Hamas, not the Israeli soldiers who shot and killed them. No uproar in being a friend of an apartheid regime.

The spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn had it exactly right when he said, “We have concerns about one half of one of the IHRA’s 11 examples, which could be used to deny Palestinians, including Palestinian citizens of Israel and their supporters, their rights and freedoms to describe the discrimination and injustices they face in the language they deem appropriate.”

As a Jewish organisation, we cannot and will not accept any more of these mainstream Zionist organisations’ claiming to speak on our behalf, always without consulting us. We will not accept the complete censoring of Palestinian voices in the mainstream media and the ongoing racism directed towards them. We call for a boycott and divestment of Israel, and for sanctions to be imposed on the country until Palestinians get the same human rights as the Jewish population. We call on Jews, not just in the UK but around the world, to look at how Israel has persecuted the Palestinians for decades, to hear and amplify Palestinian voices, and to say together in one voice, “Not in Our Name”.

https://mondoweiss.net/2018/08/labour-definition-semitism/

سيف الله

08-08-2018, 10:26 PM

Salaam

Just a reminder, they know what they are doing.

سيف الله

08-09-2018, 10:25 PM

Salaam

Another update

More antisemitism

On the Israeli lobby influence

Arresting Journalists

On the deteriorating situation in Gaza

Getting to the crux of the matter

سيف الله

08-11-2018, 10:11 PM

Salaam

Labour Friends of Israel in action

On Gaza

More antisemitism

On what you can do

سيف الله

08-13-2018, 10:07 PM

Salaam

Corbyn responds to Bibis attack.

سيف الله

08-14-2018, 11:54 PM

Salaam

Another update, the smear campaign against Corbyn continues.

To be fair Corbyn has been known to hang around unsavory types

سيف الله

08-16-2018, 07:49 PM

Salaam

Another update, looks like Corbyns capitulating under all the pressure.

It’s kind of like what you see with Jeremy Corbyn. I mean, both the Tories and the Labour Party — the Labour Parliamentarians, the Blair guys, the media, like The Guardian— they’re all trying to destroy him. These latest attacks on him for anti-Semitism are just insane, but they’ll do anything to try to destroy his chances because he’s trying to create a political party in which people actually participate; not just the rich and powerful guys who tell you what to do, and that’s intolerable. So, I think maybe it’s going to be a real fight.

https://zcomm.org/znetarticle/taking...-in-elections/

سيف الله

08-23-2018, 08:46 PM

Salaam

More twisted humour from the Zios.

سيف الله

08-24-2018, 04:53 PM

Salaam

Another update, daily life in the territories.

More antisemitism

سيف الله

08-28-2018, 10:20 PM

Salaam

Another update

Israel is building another 1,000 homes on Palestinian land. Where's the outrage?

Never in the field of human rights has so much been owed by so many to so few

In the week that Uri Avnery, the scourge of colonialism, died in Tel Aviv, the Israeli government announced a further enlargement of its massive colonial project in the occupied West Bank. Plans were now advanced, it said on Wednesday, for a further 1,000 “homes” in Jewish “settlements” – still the word we must use for such acts of land theft – and final approval had been given for another 382. Today, 600,000 Jewish Israelis live in about 140 colonies constructed on land belonging to another people, the Palestinians, either in the West Bank or east Jerusalem.

There is a state of normalcy about all this, the world’s last colonial conflict; a weariness with the figures, a lacklustre response to the huge construction enterprise on Palestinian territory. Charting the spread of red roofs across the hilltops of the West Bank, the swimming pools and the lawns and smart roadways, the supermarkets and orchards – all encircled by acres of barbed wire and now also by the grotesque Wall – has become not so much a “story” for us reporters covering the Middle East, but a tired routine, a tally, a scorecard of land theft, a tale to be updated with each new “settlement” announcement and subsequent protest from Palestinians whose land is taken from them, and from the woeful and corrupt Palestinian Authority. The same is true of the small Israeli activist and leftist groups – B’Tselem, for example and Avnery’s own Gush Shalom – who have bravely fought on, when even Israel stopped listening, to tell the truth of this unique form of aggression.

Never in the field of human rights has so much been owed by so many, to so few. The number of Jewish colonists living on Palestinian land – illegally under international law – rose from 80,000 at the time of the Oslo agreement in 1993, to 150,000 within seven years. Every one of those 70,000 new Jewish colonists was making a forbidden “unilateral step” – to use the Oslo prose for continued land seizures – when he or she crossed the threshold of their new home, but it mattered not.

Article 49 of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s 1949 Geneva Conventions is quite specific: “The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” The UN security council and general assembly, the ICRC and the International Court of Justice agreed Article 49 applied to Israeli-occupied territories. This too, mattered not.

Enlarging the colonies in the West Bank was sometimes publicly stated to be not just a return to the Biblical land of Israel but a punishment for Palestinians. The Israeli government specifically stated in 2012 that an announcement of 3,000 new “settler” homes in the West Bank was a response to the UN decision to grant Palestine non member observer status. This week Avigdor Lieberman, Israel’s defence minister – whose language has embarrassed his own right wing colleagues – said he would build 400 Jewish housing units as a response to the murder of an Israeli civilian by a Palestinian in the Adam colony.

No one disputes the violence of Palestinian groups – nor that the monstrous wall which encompasses even more Palestinian land has prevented suicide bombers from entering what we call “Israel proper” – the West Bank presumably being “Israel improper”. Indeed the wall and the colonies have become a concomitant part of the occupation. Cambridge scholar Yonatan Mendel has given us an explanation of the phenomenon which is breathtaking in its simplicity and honesty: “A single settlement only marked the beginning of a ‘securing’ project: it was not enough in itself. Logic required that more settlements be built around it. Then, in order to secure the newly established blocks of settlements, a secure network of roads was needed to run between them. But in order to secure the roads, more settlements needed to be constructed along them. Which is not to forget the wall that is needed to secure Israelis from the Palestinians, as well as securing the army patrols that secure the fences around the settlements, which secure the roads that altogether, in a bizarre way, secure Israeli citizens living in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Beer Sheba.”

This evolving masterplan, Mendel wrote, which “ends with layer upon layer of security to secure security, ignores the crucial fact that the settlers and settlements were the central cause of security threats, and a major incitement to Palestinians. In other words, the security imperative is one of the greatest threats to Israel’s security.”

If this almost burlesque analysis prevents journalism from its primary task of explaining the facts in a comprehensible way – since the official Israeli and American version of the colonisation is so different from the reality – the response of the US government to the illegal act of dispossession has only added to our unwillingness to confront the truth.

Take then-secretary of state Madeleine Albright’s pusillanimous remarks during a Middle East tour in 1997. She urged Israel to “refrain from unilateral acts”, including “what Palestinians perceive as the provocative expansion of settlements, land confiscation, home demolitions and confiscation of IDs”. Colonies, property theft – confiscation – and the taking of identity papers, in the Albright lexicon, had become merely “what Palestinians perceive as provocative”. Did she not see these internationally illegal and morally disgraceful deeds as cruel and wicked, let alone provocative? How could she, when Ariel Sharon himself would describe “settlers” in 2001 as “a quality component of Israeli society”?

And thus we were confronted by the special language of colonisation: “facts on the ground”, a phrase coined by the Israelis, “new realities on the ground”, said George W Bush in his infamous 2004 letter to Sharon, “settlements”, “neighbourhoods”, “suburbs”, ”population centres” – all in a West Bank no longer to be referred to as the “occupied territories” according to a prohibition by former US secretary of state Colin Powell, but rather: “disputed territories”. And if Israelis were not present in “occupied” territories – only in “disputed” territories – surely the Geneva Conventions did not apply. And so it went on.

In these disputed territories, of course, there were “terrorist attacks” when Palestinians assaulted Israelis – but “deadly clashes” when Israelis shot Palestinians. The wall was not a wall but a “barrier” or ”fence”, or ”security barrier” or a “security fence” or ”separation barrier”. A halt to colonisation would become a “freeze”, a “moratorium”, or – my personal favourite – a “time out”.

So why, the innocent reader or viewer might ask of us – we who reported this nonsensical stuff – did Arabs use violence against an innocent “settlement” on land which was “disputed” and marked off by a fence, something normally used to mark the boundary between gardens and fields? Surely, all this – neighbourhoods, fences, disputes – could be solved over a cup of tea or by resorting to lawyers? We had desemanticised this terrible conflict. Even Barack Obama, in his panegyric in Cairo nine years ago, spoke of the “displacement” and “dislocation” of Palestinians, rather than their dispossession and exile; as if they awoke one morning, checked the weather and decided to visit the beach in Gaza or enjoy a weekend in Lebanon, but then couldn’t get home again.

The statistics – dull, boring and indeed familiar – are available to all who wish to know. And the figure today is 600,000 Jewish settlers in the West Bank and east Jerusalem – and in the West Bank, of course, another 1,000 families on their way – all participating in what Avnery believed was a suicidal project which will create an apartheid Israeli state, because if a minority of Jews is to rule over a disenfranchised majority of Arabs – currently upwards of 2.75 million people – that will be the result.

Back to Avnery, I suppose.

Six years ago he told me things looked “pretty discouraging”. More so in the week of his death, I fear. He raged against Netanyahu, Trump, the president’s adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner and Lieberman. He didn’t support the boycott campaign, by the way, but said in 2012: “I do believe there will be a break and a complete change along the way, something like the fall of the Berlin Wall, which no-one expected the day before.” And he used to love repeating Donald Rumsfeld’s most infamous expression: “Stuff happens!”

Right now, I’m not sure I agree.

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/israel-settlement-expansion-1000-new-homes-palestinian-land-robert-fisk-wheres-the-outrage-a8504471.html

سيف الله

08-29-2018, 11:08 PM

Salaam

We are not meant to know about this.

The attacks on Corbyn continue.

However Jerusalem Post makes counter claim he didnt take part in the 'march'

Walker also pointed out that Sacks had promoted a visit by World Mizrahi to Israel in May 2017, which included participation in the Jerusalem Day March of Flags. The march, starting at the Old City’s Damascus Gate and wending through the Muslim Quarter, has been strongly criticized for marchers’ inflammatory chants against Arabs and provocative behavior to the Arab residents of the Old City.

Sacks did not, however, take part in the march, but Walker nevertheless falsely accused him of having done so.

Oopsie slip of the tongue dearest Rabbi.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’s antisemitism accusations against Corbyn are offensive and unfounded

I was disappointed that Jonathan Sacks, whom I have always considered to be a man of sound reason, has lent his voice to a campaign that to the neutral observer can only be seen as a weakly argued case to sustain the worst government of my long life by traducing an already weak opposition. This is at a time when the country needs a strong political process.

I was becoming politically aware at about the time that the horrors of the holocaust were becoming known. Like many, I hoped that the revulsion we felt would forever draw a line under the discrimination against Jews that the teachings of the derivative religions had mainly caused.

However, the rest of society will not long tolerate any group’s demands that discrimination must always be in its favour. At this time there is much anger in our country, which inevitably seeks a target. It is surprising that the same people who are leading, or riding, on the current campaign also refer to a rise in anti-Jewish sentiment, but do not relate cause and effect. I fear that their short term gain is possibly resulting in a return to the bad old ways.

I use the proper term “anti-Jewish”, because it unreasonable to call someone who thinks the Palestinians have had a raw deal an antisemite. Arabs are Semites too.

Ian Dillamore
Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham

Well done Sasha Simic for having the courage to defend Jeremy Corbyn against the manufactured and tirelessly nasty campaign being orchestrated against him. You are brave.

This is now a rampaging witch hunt and all rationality has gone out the window. This is well demonstrated by the ex-chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks now smearing Corbyn with an accusation that he is as bad as Enoch Powell. This is frankly off the radar in terms of being grossly insulting and wildly unfair.

The sector accusing Corbyn of everything short of being the actual devil incarnate seem to have no innate sense of restraint, and no respect whatsoever for the feelings of their target, despite being ready themselves to be offended, scandalised, outraged and so on, on a permanent basis.

Penny Little
Oxfordshire

Jonathan Sacks was disingenuous in calling Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite who courts terrorists, haters and racists. The former chief rabbi has resolutely and unerringly defended Israel’s stance as a lightning rod of tolerance, justice and equality amid the darkness of terror, delegitimisation and defamation.

Sacks might reread the story of Rachel Currie, the American activist who was crushed under the blades of the bulldozer while she was protecting Palestinian homes from being demolished, or ruminate over the ceaseless proliferation of illegal Jewish settlements, cultural appropriation and land expropriation, and the Judaisation of Jerusalem, economic siege and ethnic and religious persecution in the occupied Palestinian territories. Sacks should sow the seeds of peace, not those of schism and communal discord and hatred.

Dr Munjed Farid al Qutob
London NW2

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letters/jonathan-sacks-rabbi-jeremy-corbyn-antisemitism-enoch-powell-a8513101.html

Umm Malik

08-30-2018, 09:39 PM

https://mobile.twitter.com/NPMPParty...31143595376644
https://mobile.twitter.com/Zionocrac...60224191127552

سيف الله

08-31-2018, 08:35 PM

Salaam

Another update

Parts of Censored Al Jazeera Documentary on D.C. Israel Lobby Leaked

"Astroturfing" - the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated marketing or public relations campaign in the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public.

As Britain is coming to terms with the depth and the vile tactics employed by Zionist political organisations, Haaretz reports today on the Israeli Lobby's activity that is set to obliterate what is left of American values and political culture. Watch this now,

Leaked clips from film, pulled by Al Jazeera in bid to appease American Jewish community, shows 'astroturfing' by college students involved with right-wing think tank, claims to reveal top U.S. donor of BDS blacklist.

Haaretz reports: Video excerpts and new details from the censored Al Jazeera documentary about the Israeli lobby in the United States have been leaked to select media outlets in recent days.

New details about the contents of the censored documentary appeared this week in the French monthly newspaper Le Monde Diplomatique, and video excerpts from it were published by Max Blumenthal and on the website Electronic Intifada.

Two sources from pro-Israeli organizations who were contacted at the time by Al Jazeera's undercover reporter confirmed to Haaretz on Thursday that the new video excerpts were indeed filmed by the reporter, who has gone underground since early 2017.

The reporter managed to become an intern at The Israel Project, a pro-Israeli organization in Washington, as Haaretz first reported last year.

In one of the leaked excerpts from the film, he is seen speaking to one his bosses at The Israel Project, who tells him that Adam Milstein, an Israeli-American millionaire who supports a number of pro-Israeli groups in America, has been funding the secretive organization Canary Mission, which targets activists against Israel and the occupation on American campuses.

Milstein denied this week, following the publication of this excerpt from the film, that he has been funding Canary Mission, which has been criticized by other pro-Israeli organizations for its aggressive tactics.

Another excerpt shows how a "pro-Israeli" demonstration of American college students is put together, even though some of the demonstrators are in fact not interested at all in the subject.

The Al Jazeera reporter joined a group of students who received a fellowship from the right-wing Hoover Institution, and they are seen telling him that their presence in a small pro-Israeli demonstration has been declared mandatory by their supervisors.

"This is actually the first foot-soldier activity that we've been forced to do," one of the students says. Another describes it as "a chance to shout at Arabs" who will protest against Israel at the same location.

The students also describe their presence at the demonstration as "astroturfing" - a political term that describes inauthentic political activism, which pretends to be grass-roots based activism. "It's when you set up fake protests," one student says. The same students are later seen holding "pro-Israel" signs at the demonstration.

Since June 2017, Qatar has been placed under a partial blockade by two of its neighbors, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. As a result of that blockade, Qatar has intensified its lobbying efforts in the United States, in hopes of convincing the Trump administration to support it in the spat with the Saudis and the UAE. A major pillar of that lobbying effort has been an attempt by Qatar to win over the support of major Jewish American organizations, especially those considered right-wing and supportive of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

Qatar has invested millions of dollars in courting those Jewish organizations. That has included first-class flights and luxurious visits to Doha that were offered to influential figures in the American Jewish community; six-figure donations to right-wing Jewish organizations; generous honorariums paid to certain individuals who spoke favorably of Qatar after visiting the country, such as Mike Huckabee, a former Republican politician and the father of President Trump's press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders; and other expenses.

http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2018...l-lobby-leaked

Blurb

The first leaked excerpt of Al Jazeera's censored film on the Israel Lobby in the U.S. claims to identify the funder behind the Canary Mission, an anonymous website devoted to smearing and silencing vocal supporters of Palestinian rights. We play a clip from the film and speak to Asa Winstanley of the Electronic Intifada, which exclusively revealed it

سيف الله

09-04-2018, 08:41 PM

Salaam

Jewish establishment victory, Labour adopts IHRA antisemitism definition in full

Bogus anti-Semitism smears unmask UK democracy as little more than a fraud

"Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools," said August Bebel. And fake anti-Semitism is as dangerous as the boy crying wolf argues George Galloway.

Anti-Semitism is real and present, in Britain and in the world, even where there are no Jews. I well remember during the revolutionary swirl in Bucharest in January 1990, which I witnessed, hearing men fulminating against the post-coup leadership of Ion Iliescu and Petre Roman as "Jews" and the whole "communist" leadership being a "nest of Jews." For them "Jews" and "communists" was a synonym and Jews were everywhere even though they were in fact almost nowhere to be found. Most Romanian Jews had been slaughtered in the Holocaust and the rest had long since gone to Israel.

In my book 'Downfall: the Ceausescus and the Romanian Revolution' there is a chapter entitled 'The Romanian Jews' in which I describe my long discussion with Romania's Chief Rabbi Dr Moses Rosen as the three stars twinkled in the sky over Poiana Brasov marking the end of the Sabbath. "Anti-Semitism without Jews," was how he described the situation in his country.

Mind you the Rabbi had long been a man of ring-craft, having to deal with the suddenly dead dictator Ceausescu and accusations that he had collaborated with him. He had, in fact, because the Romanian potentate had been an early example of an anti-Semite who loved Israel. Rabbi Rosen saw it as his prime responsibility to facilitate the exodus of the surviving Romanian Jews to Israel. Nowadays these are common around the world, all the way from Steve Bannon to the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban or the far-right in Britain which once made Jews their whipping boy and now cavort on all-expenses paid trips atop Israeli tanks.

From anti-Semitism without Jews to anti-Semitic Israelophilia is just one of the unexpected journeys of the last 30 years.

There is anti-Semitism in Britain and there always has been. But the kind of brutal pogroms of Jews which were a regular feature of European life and death have not happened in Britain since the York and London massacres almost a thousand years ago. Grim repression and vile prejudice carried on for centuries after that but in modern times there has been nothing like what happened in modern Europe. In European countries - West and East - sections of the population fell upon the their own Jewish countrymen even before the Nazis and their trains arrived to take them to the death camps.

From Ukraine to the Netherlands, Jew-hating locals committed murder against the Jews and many more collaborated with the Occupation forces to entrain their fellow citizens to the gas-chambers. But not in Britain.

For a time, Britain stood alone against the beast of fascism and it was our finest hour. Whilst Britain did not fight WWII to liberate Jews, liberate what was left of them, we did, along with the Red Army advancing from the east - an army of a state which bore the overwhelming brunt of fascist depredation.

Whilst groupuscules of the British far-right kept the flame of anti-Semitism alight - together with their "Empire-Loyalist" friends in the Conservatives - the vast majority of British people, and especially those on the left, saw clearly where racism can end up - in Auschwitz and Treblinka - determined to fight it as one of the first banners in their ranks.

The Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, whom I have known for 40 years, remains an icon of that tradition as were his parents before him. His own mother fought at Cable St in London's East End against Britain's fascists in 1936 - defending the huge Jewish community then there under the slogan 'They Shall Not Pass'.

Yet, if you google the words "anti-Semitism" today the first name which will pop-up is not the name of the architects and mass-murderers of Hitler's "Final Solution" but the name of Jeremy Corbyn.

That is the stupendously stupid achievement of the leaders of the Israeli lobby in Britain - and Tel Aviv - today. Because Corbyn would not turn his face away from the suffering of the Palestinian people, would not eschew condemnation of the brutal Netanyahu regime, he is now - hourly - denounced as an anti-Semite, a Jew-hater, a Nazi.

Some say the Israeli lobby is the architect of this Salem-style witch-hunt but I disagree. It would be easier if it were true. In my view the true architects are Britain's - and the US - ruling elites. Having tried to smear Corbyn as a Russian agent, a KGB operative, a Czech spy, an IRA man they have fastened on the only smear which appeared to have traction - anti-Semitism. They have weaponized the suffering and the murders of millions of Jews in the Holocaust in their coup against Corbyn.

It's not a coup against Labour - the kind of Labour Party we had in the past was easily accommodated by the ruling class. It's not even a coup against Corbyn's frankly social-democratic economic program, less radical even than Harold Wilson's Program For Britain back in 1974.

This is a very British coup against Corbyn's imagined foreign policy. A British government which might put a spoke in NATO's wheel. A British government which could no longer be dragooned into the anti-Russia front. A British government which would end the grisly but profitable arms trade with the despots of Arabia. A British government fighting for justice for the Palestinians, standing with Mexico, Venezuela, South Africa…

This coup unmasks British democracy as little more than a fraud, lipstick upon a pig. The militarised mendacity of the entire mass media - led by the state broadcaster the BBC - the use of deep-state subversion methods against Corbyn has led many in Britain to fear even for the personal safety of the Labour leader. I used to read about things like this in my callow youth. I knew them to be true, in theory. But not in practice, not in Britain. It has taken this very British coup to change my mind.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/437593-anti-semitism-israel-uk-corbyn/#WeStandWithCorbyn

سيف الله

09-04-2018, 10:51 PM

Salaam

Another update, WEll it is their money, but there's more to this than meets the eye.

UNRWA and Trump's attempt to erase the Palestinian people

By cutting the funding to the UNRWA, Trump wants to eliminate the Palestinians' demand for the right to return.

President Donald Trump appears to enjoy experimenting on human beings.

First came the separation of young children from their parents. In May 2018, Trump ordered the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE) to send all adults caught crossing the border to federal jail to await trial, while transferring their children to either foster care or detention centres. Most of these children have been kept in what are essentially cages, and some have even been given psychotropic drugs without parental consent.

The assumption is that pain, agony and suffering alter human behaviour, and that traumatising a large group of children and their parents serve to deter other people, even those fleeing life-threatening conflict zones, from trying to enter the US. The moral perspective is that the end justifies the means, even if the means include cruel and inhuman policies.

Now comes Trump's latest experiment, this time with education, medical care, and famine. Adopting warped rhetoric, this experiment is presented as part of a groundbreaking Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.

The idea is to cut all funding to the United Nations Relief Works and Agency (UNRWA), which, for the past 70 years, has been providing lifesaving assistance to more than five million Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan.

UNRWA's spokesperson, Chris Gunness, spelled out the repercussions of such actions: "Let there be no mistake," he said, "this decision is likely to have a devastating impact on the lives of 526,000 children who receive a daily education from UNRWA; 3.5 million sick people who come to our clinics for medical care; 1.7 million food insecure people who receive assistance from us, and tens of thousands of vulnerable women, children and disabled refugees who come to us."

Indeed, if the funding gap is not covered by other countries, Trump's decision will have a devastating impact on the lives of millions of Palestinians.

This experiment seems to have two distinct - if related - goals.

First, Trump apparently wants to see if a policy of destruction and anti-humanitarian intervention can be used as a peacemaking device in this protracted conflict.

This is an inversion of parts of the Oslo paradigm, where the European Union and other international players decided to spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year on Palestinian state-building projects. Even though Oslo's goal may never have been the creation of an independent Palestinian state, Palestinian life was still considered to have some value.

As it turns out, the idea informing the 1993 peace accords was to transfer control of a number of institutions and policies - such as education, healthcare, and food security - to the Palestinians in order to free Israel from the responsibility of managing the daily lives of the population it had colonised. And, while Israel abdicated responsibility for the Palestinian people, it continued to retain its hold over most of their land.

Trump's current idea, by contrast, is to simply force a "peace process" by destroying all of the institutions that modern states use to manage their population while bringing the inhabitants to the brink of social death.

Therefore, it is no coincidence that at exactly the same moment that Trump is cutting all funding from UNRWA, he has also decided to cut aid to the Palestinian Authority. The strategy is straightforward: the Palestinians must first be reduced to what Italian political theorist Georgio Agamben has called bare life in order to force them to accept the "great deal" that President Trump intends to offer them.

The experiment's second goal is to erase Palestinian refugeehood.

It is important to remember that UNRWA was set up to assist the 700,000 Palestinian refugees after the creation of Israel in 1948. Whether these Palestinians fled or were forcibly expelled from their towns and villages may be a point of contention, but there is no argument that, after the war had subsided, Israel refused to allow the Palestinians to return to their homes, thus violating article 11 of United Nations Resolution 194. This is how Israel created the refugee problem.

Today, the descendants of these refugees number over five million people and it was always assumed that their status would be resolved through the creation of a Palestinian state. Since it is extremely unlikely that a viable Palestinian state is a component of Trump's "peace deal", the strategy now endeavours to erase the vast majority of Palestinian refugees from the historical and contemporary record.

Parroting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's accusation of "fictitious" Palestinian refugees who threaten the state of Israel by perpetuating the right of return, Trump is currently claiming that only the people born and who had actually lived in Mandatory Palestine before the 1948 war - people who are now more than 70-years old - can be considered refugees. Their descendants cannot.

The logic here, too, is clear. If the funding to the agency that feeds millions of refugees is stopped, then they will no longer be considered refugees, thus paving the way for a deal on Israel's terms. Stopping US funding, in other words, merely attempts to reinforce the deranged post-truth reality that has become Trump's trademark: in this case, that refugees are not refugees.

While, the notion that property rights can be abrogated after one generation would seem anathema in Trump's business world, actually, viciously attacking the downtrodden fits perfectly with his modus operandi. His world view is perhaps best expressed in a recent tweet posted by his ally Netanyahu:

"The weak crumble, are slaughtered and are erased from history while the strong, for good or for ill, survive. The strong are respected, and alliances are made with the strong, and in the end, peace is made with the strong."

From Cambodia to China and all the way to Europe, the 20th century saw its share of experiments on humans, all of which had horrific consequences. Tragically, Trump is no student of history. He is trying hard to present his introduction of new experiments as the pursuit of a peace deal, but as Gideon Levy recently wrote in Ha'aretz, it is actually a declaration of war against the Palestinian people.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/unrwa-trump-attempt-erase-palestinian-people-180903135218614.html

Futuwwa

09-05-2018, 07:22 PM

Junon, you're missing one thing. While Labour did adopt the annex with examples to the IHRA definition, it did so by adding its own caveat that it does not infringe on freedom of speech on Israel or on advocacy on behalf of the rights of the Palestinians.

I would have preferred if they had trashed the whole IHRA text and denounced it as imprecise to the point of being useless for anything but making spurious accusations of antisemitism. Still, it's not so bad. These extra caveats should greatly mitigate the ability to use the IHRA text for that. Furthermore, if the Corbyn-haters still protest (which they quite predictably already are doing), it will make it harder for them to credibly deny that their purpose is anything but to shut down the debate on Israel.

Furthermore, making such an apparent concession that in fact concedes little of substance, they're making it harder for the haters to use the matter as a pretext for outrage. All this happens in a wider context where Momentum has gradually seized control of the party, and having gotten the long knives out and started deselecting Blairite MPs who won't get onboard with the party programme. The Blairites are getting desperate, they've thrown everything and the kitchen sink at him and failed to bring him down. All that's left for them is to do a last-ditch attempt through coordinated mass resignation in protest, there's been murmurs of that some time now. Adopting a caveated IHRA makes the Corbynite faction look conciliatory and any Blairites who go through with the mass resignation to look silly.

سيف الله

09-09-2018, 09:58 PM

Salaam

Maybe, a lot of Blairite Mps are under pressure.

Mind you Chukas opinion is as reliable as the Scottish weather.

Response to Chuka.

With the definition passed, it makes it increasingly difficult to have straight forward debates on the issue, criticising Israel will be like walking over a minefield.

- - - Updated - - -

More importantly

سيف الله

09-10-2018, 10:45 PM

Salaam

Another update

Bulldozing Palestinian homes: The global firms aiding Israeli demolitions

Multinational construction companies sell vehicles to the Israeli authorities for demolitions that activists condemn

Human rights groups have condemned international construction firms for their role in the destruction of Palestinian villages including Khan al-Ahmar, which is set to be razed in the coming days.

Photographs, video and social media posts show vehicles and equipment that have been sold to the Israeli army by Caterpillar, JCB and LiuGong being used in the demolition of Palestinian homes. All three companies have declined or failed to respond to MEE's requests for comment.

In early September, the Israeli High Court of Justice rejected several last-ditch petitions filed by Khan al-Ahmar's residents and said that authorities could raze the homes from 12 September onwards.

Amnesty International described the High Court's decision as sanctioning a "war crime" while UK-based NGO War on Want condemned the companies, which it says profit from sales of the equipment to the Israeli government.

War on Want's Senior Campaigns Officer, Ryvka Barnard added that video and images incriminated Caterpillar, JCB, and Liugong for their role in Palestinian house demolitions.

"We've seen photographic and video evidence of equipment from JCB and Liugong, for example, being used by the Israeli army and waiting to go into places like Khan al-Ahmar," Barnard told MEE.

Activists have been exposing the complicity of companies like JCB and Caterpillar for many years, but the companies tend to respond in the typical manner of saying the human rights violations sadden them, but that they have no power over their equipment is used."

Khan al-Ahmar is located between the Israeli settlements of Maale Adumim and Kfar Adumim in the occupied West Bank, and has been a home for Bedouin since the 1950s. It has been at risk of demolition since 2010 after Israeli authorities accused the estimated 200 residents of illegal construction.

Residents have rejected a government offer to rehouse them to West Jahalin, near the Palestinian community of Abu Dis, saying that the new site is adjacent to a landfill. Rights advocates say that a forcible transfer of the residents would violate the international laws that apply to occupied territories.

Caterpillar (CAT)

The US-based heavy equipment company has long been the target of boycott campaigns for its sale of bulldozers to the Israeli army.

In July, villagers who spotted the CAT-branded heavy drilling equipment outside Khan al-Ahmar feared that it would lead to the construction of a new road for the nearby Israeli settlements of Maale Adumim and Kfar Adumim.

CAT bulldozers have been used previously by the Israeli army to demolish homes across the occupied Palestinian territories, including the D9 bulldozer, which killed American activist Rachel Corrie in 2003.

The Corries sued the company over their daughter's death, but a US federal district judge dismissed the case in November 2005.

In 2012, CAT was removed from the index of "socially responsible" companies put together by American investment support firm MSCI Inc; it cited concerns about CAT bulldozers being used by Israel in controversial operations.

CAT said that it "does not equip tractors with armour or sell directly to the Israeli military but through the US government. And it cannot monitor the use of every piece of its equipment around the world".

The company did not respond to calls for comment when asked by MEE about the presence of its equipment in Khan al-Ahmar.

JCB

The British-based company is famed for its yellow bulldozers. Israel has used its equipment in occupied East Jerusalem, Gaza, the Jordan Valley and across the West Bank.

Pictures taken earlier in July showed JCB drilling equipment outside Khan al-Ahmar.

In the past, its vehicles have been used by the Israeli government to build illegal Israeli settlements and by the army to destroy Palestinian homes, mosques and agricultural areas.

In 2012 JCB's equipment was used to demolish homes in Silwan, a Palestinian neighbourhood in East Jerusalem. It dominates the Israeli market with a 65 percent market share of all excavators and a 90 percent market share of commonly used loading vehicles.

The company only started to produce specially built military-grade construction vehicles in 1984: through offshoot JCB Defence Products it has supplied 3,500 vehicles to the military forces of 57 countries.

JCB declined to comment after requests from Middle East Eye.

LiuGong

Chinese company LiuGong, a new player in the Israeli market, was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Liuzhou.

Like JCB and CAT, the company supplies bulldozers and other types of heavy construction equipment. Operating out of the Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai, it opened its Middle East office in 2011.

Footage showed LiuGong bulldozers being used to dismantle Bedouin homes in early July, while other Palestinian activists sat on top of the diggers in a bid to stop them destroying Khan al-Ahmar.

The use of LiuGong bulldozers by the Israeli army represents the growing Chinese presence in the country and across the Middle East, as European and American based construction companies face growing pressure to stop trading with Israel.

LiuGong did not respond to requests for comments at the time of writing.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-bulldozers-palestinian-village-demolish-khan-al-ahmar-jcb-caterpillar-cat-liugong-1208431690

سيف الله

09-12-2018, 06:40 PM

Salaam

Another update

Trump administration announces closure of Washington PLO office

Palestinians decry US administration's decision as 'a declaration of war' on efforts to bring peace.

The United States announced the closure of the Palestinian mission in Washington, DC, in what Palestinian leaders described as "a declaration of war" on peace efforts by the administration of President Donald Trump.

In a statement on Monday, the US State Department said the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) office "has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel".

"We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective of achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between Israelis and the Palestinians since the expiration of a previous waiver in November 2017," the statement said.

It added the PLO leadership "has condemned a US peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the US government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise".

In response, the Palestinian Authority (PA) said the move would allow Israel to continue "their policies against the Palestinian people and land".

"It is a declaration of war on efforts to bring peace to our country and the region," PA spokesman Yousef al-Mahmoud was quoted as saying by Wafa news agency.

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat said in a statement the decision was "yet another affirmation of the Trump administration's policy to collectively punish the Palestinian people, including by cutting financial support for humanitarian services including health and education".

Targeting the ICC

Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, threatened the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday with sanctions if it carries out investigations into the US and Israel.

"The United States will always stand with our friend and ally, Israel," Bolton said in a speech to the Federalist Society, a conservative group, in Washington, DC.

"The Trump administration will not keep the office open when the Palestinians refuse to start direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel."

Bolton said the US will target the ICC it it formally proceeds with opening an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by US service members and intelligence professionals during the war in Afghanistan.

Deteriorating ties

The action against the PLO, which serves as the main entity representing the Palestinian people, is the latest in a series of measures by the Trump administration against the Palestinian leadership.

Over the past year, Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, has repeatedly questioned Mahmoud Abbas' commitment to peace and the US president's so-called "deal of the century".

The Palestinian leadership, which sees East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, has suspended contacts with the US, after Washington recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel late last year.

The Palestinians insist the status of the city is an issue to be negotiated between them and the Israelis.

Officials in the Gaza Strip, which has been administered by Hamas since 2007, have also previously blasted the US for its support to Israel, saying Washington has long lost its regional credibility.

The US gives Israel annual military aid of $3.1bn. Next year, that figure will increase to $3.8bn under a 10-year deal agreed by Barack Obama shortly before he stepped down as president.

While the details of Trump's so-called "deal of the century" have not officially been released, leaks have suggested that the Palestinians would initially control the Gaza Strip and less than half of the occupied West Bank, while a Palestinian capital would be created from villages surrounding Jerusalem.

The Israelis would retain security control over the Jordan valley and have total control over Palestinian travel between the West Bank and Gaza, while a corridor will be created between Palestinian territory and Jerusalem's holy sites.

It appears meanwhile that Palestinians would have to surrender the principle of the right of return of Palestinian refugees expelled during the creation of Israel, while the future of illegal Israeli settlements and the final border between Palestine and Israel would be decided at a later date.

'Siding with the bully'

According to Diana Buttu, a Palestinian lawyer and analyst who served as a legal adviser to the Palestinian negotiating team from 2000 to 2005, Monday's decision is part of a list of requests the Israeli government made to the Trump administration last year.

"The US was handed a wishlist by Israel, and that wishlist has everythig the Netanyahu government wants the Trump government to do," Buttu told Al Jazeera.

"Slowly, piece by piece, the Trump administration is checking off everything that is on this list."

"First we saw the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in May," Buttu said.

"Then we saw the limiting of the number of refugees and stop funding for UNRWA last week, and lastly there not allowing the Palestinians to have official representation in the US, which is what happened now."

According to Buttu, the US is rewarding Israel for "bad and illegal behaviour", while at the same time punishing Palestinians living under occupation.

"The US is saying they are always going to side with the bully while punishing those that demand to live under freedom."

According to Buttu, Monday's decision will not affect the already failed peace process.

"The fact that we're still talking about a peace process is laughable," she told Al Jazeera.

"All they are doing is keep talking about this "deal of the century", but they haven't presented anything yet and I think it is just an attempt to bring Palestinians to their knees," Buttu added.

"But that is not going to happen, because the Palestinian people have been through the Nakba and more, and if the US thinks these decisions will bring them to their knees they're wrong."

Cut in funding

Monday's announcement comes just weeks after the US said it would cut more than $200m in economic aid for the Palestinians.

The US had planned to give the Palestinians $251m for good governance, healthcare, education and funding for civil society in the current 2018 budget year that ends on September 30.

On Sunday, Haaretz reported that the US has also decided to cut more than $20m in foreign aid meant to support hospitals in East Jerusalem.

According to Haaretz, the hospitals treat Palestinian patients who require cancer and eye treatments.

The decision to cut funding comes amid a severe humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip, where more than 160 Palestinians protesting for their right to return to the areas from which they were forcibly expelled from in 1948 have been killed by Israeli gunfire since March 30 during weeks-long demonstrations near the fence with Israel.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/09/trump-administration-close-plo-office-washington-dc-180910064915646.html

http://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje...nishingMap.mp4

Futuwwa

09-13-2018, 06:26 PM

Those Blairite MPs who are protesting over attempts to deselect them and demanding Corbyn protect them, after three years of having tried to bring about his downfall. I seriously can't believe the irony is lost on them. I suspect it's just a last-ditch effort to bring down Corbyn, hoping that he'll say or do something stupid in response that they can use to bring him down.

سيف الله

09-15-2018, 09:50 PM

Salaam

More comment on the Corbyn affair.

سيف الله

09-18-2018, 11:00 PM

Salaam

Another update

IHRC petitions Charity Commission about “vindictive campaign” to silence its director

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) has lodged a complaint with the Charity Commission about what it calls “the continued harassment of one of its directors” in “a vindictive campaign to silence anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist voices.”

The complaint comes after the pro-Israel Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAA) launched a judicial review of a decision last month by the Crown Prosecution Service to throw out an attempted private prosecution against Nazim Ali on the grounds that chants he made during last June’s Al-Quds demonstration in London caused alarm or distress to Zionists taking part in a counter demonstration.

The IHRC said it had hoped that would be the end of the matter but “the CAA seems intent on pursuing a case that clearly has no merit in law.”

Mr Ali, an Islamic Human Rights Commission speaker, made several anti-Israel and anti-Zionist comments during the march but the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) found that he had no case to answer.

Zionists took particular offence when Ali said: “Some of the biggest corporations who are supporting the Conservative Party are Zionists. They are responsible for the murder in Grenfell. The Zionist supporters of the Tory Party.”

In the letter to the Charity Commission, the IHRC calls on the regulator to investigate whether the CAA is in breach of charity law by using charitable funds to relentlessly pursue “false, vindictive and patently flawed cases.”

It is certainly “not in the interest of the public for charitable funds to be used to pursue personal vendettas against political opponents,” says the letter.

“The Commission should decide whether it is appropriate for CAA to keep their status as a charitable organisation whilst squandering their funds to silence and attack people who exercise their freedom of expression.”

The Campaign Against Antisemitism was formed in August 2014 during a major Israeli offensive against Gaza.

It says it works closely with police forces around the country, the Crown Prosecution Service, regulatory bodies and the government to ensure that antisemitism is detected, investigated and punished with the full force of the law.

Last week it issued court proceedings against the national prosecuting agency after the CPS derailed CAA’s own private prosecution of Nazim Ali.

CAA has alleged that Ali made anti-Semitic statements during the pro-Palestinian rally, including a suggestion that “Zionists” were in part responsible for the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

However, CAA said it was now challenging that CPS decision “on the basis that it was irrational and unreasonable.”

“This is a case that the CPS should have prosecuted itself,” said CAA chair Gideon Falter. “Our emphatic legal advice is that their decision to prevent us from doing so was irrational. We hope to succeed and resume the prosecution.”

In response to the CAA’s decision to pursue a judicial review, a CPS spokesman said: “We will be opposing the application.”

He added: “The CPS stopped the case after a senior prosecutor carefully reviewed all the available evidence and considered legal representations from the CAA and the suspect.

“After applying the relevant law we concluded there was no realistic prospect of conviction and therefore the evidential test for prosecution set out in the Code for Crown Prosecutors was not met.”

https://5pillarsuk.com/2018/09/12/ihrc-petitions-charity-commission-about-vindictive-campaign-to-silence-its-director/

سيف الله

09-20-2018, 10:55 PM

Salaam

Can anybody else confirm this?

Saudi Arabia bars Palestinians in Jordan from Umrah and Hajj

Umrah and Hajj tour agents say Riyadh has stopped issuing visas to Palestinians who hold temporary Jordanian passports.

Saudi Arabia bans 300,000 Palestinians from Makkah

Saudi Arabia issued new directives banning up to 300,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon from performing pilgrimage, Alarab.qa reported yesterday.

Reporting the Palestinian Institution for Human Rights (Shahed), the Qatari news website said that Saudi Arabia stopped issuing visas for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon who do not hold a Palestinian Authority (PA) passport.

Shahed reported travel agents were informed by the Saudi embassy in Lebanon not to accept applications from Palestinians who do not have PA passports.

The rights group said it was worried about the “sudden” Saudi decision, calling on Kingdom to identify its reasons which have “dangerous consequences” on the Palestinian refugees and their future.

According to Alarab.qa, Shahed could not reach officials at the Saudi embassy in Lebanon to get information about the issue, but said the PA embassy in Beirut did not receive official directions in this regard.

Shahed said the move adds further burdens on Palestinian refugees as it restricts their freedom of movement and limits their chance of obtaining jobs in the Kingdom, in addition to preventing them from performing the Hajj.

It is worth mentioning that thousands of Palestinians, who hold Jordanian passports, were banned from applying for Hajj visas this year.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been prevented from performing Umrah since the Egyptian military coup in 2013 saw the Rafah crossing on an almost permanent basis.

https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180919-saudi-arabia-bans-300000-palestinians-from-makkah/

This is related, only opened last month.

Blurb

The Palestinian president has visited a new departure hall for Hajj pilgrims. The site has been opened in the West Bank city of Jericho.

The Palestinian president arrives in Jericho. He's come to see a newly-inaugurated departure hall for Hajj and Umrah pilgrims. The site aims to make it easier for thousands of people to travel from the West Bank through Jordan to Mecca for the annual pilgrimage. "We are very pleased to offer all the facilities for the rest of the pilgrims to Mecca to travel comfortably and do the rites of pilgrimage and come back satisfied," says Mahmoud Abbas. Pilgrim City, as the departure hall is known, has overnighting facilities and will make customs controls easier.

Israel is in charge of all crossings from the West Bank into Jordan. The hall is located just outside the West Bank city of Jericho. Palestinian media said some 1,800 pilgrims departed Monday for Amman, Jordan and will then continue to Mecca. The facilities were built by the Palestinian Authority and have so far cost around 1.2 million US dollars.

سيف الله

09-21-2018, 01:11 AM

Salaam

Another update

Turkey’s Erdogan Is All Over East Jerusalem

From the golden Dome of the Rock mosque to the ragtag stalls of the Old City’s market, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is all over east Jerusalem.

Muslim worshipers raise his picture at Friday prayers, restaurants display the Turkish flag on their walls, and tens of thousands of his citizens have been sent to the Israeli-controlled holy city on pilgrimages to prevent its “Judaization.” Inside the cobble-stoned market, Arab merchants on Khan al-Zeit street point to once-crumbling masonry patched up by the Erdogan government, and praise Turkey for its handouts to the poor.

Perceived as one of the few Muslim leaders still championing the Palestinian cause, Erdogan’s focus on Jerusalem is part of a broader ambition to establish Turkey as the world’s foremost proponent of political Islam and resurrect its past influence in a troubled region. His growing footprint is unsettling the three governments with a direct stake in this contested city: Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan. It also presents a challenge to Saudi Arabia, whose oil wealth and status as the birthplace of Islam have long established it as a patron of east Jerusalem.

Sacred to Christians, Muslims and Jews, Jerusalem lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Israelis claim it as the undivided capital of a Jewish state but Palestinians want the mostly-Arab eastern side, home to the holiest sites, as the capital of their future state. Most countries do not recognize Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, but with peace talks stalled and Palestinians divided, rival governments have sought to assert their influence.

“The Saudis have Mecca and Erdogan wants Jerusalem,” says Pinhas Inbari, an Israeli analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs research center. “Israel has a critical security interest in making sure that Turkey doesn’t try to exercise authority over Al Aqsa and upset the status quo.”

A vehement critic of Israel, Erdogan is seeking to do just that. When Washington recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, over Palestinian objections, it was Erdogan who led the charge on their behalf, calling the Trump administration a ‘‘partner in bloodshed.” The Arab response was more measured. Many Arab leaders value Trump’s uncompromising policy on their regional rival Iran and it was four months before they held an Arab League summit reinforcing high-level commitment to Palestinian claims.

Leading Champion

Erdogan has gone as far as restoring the Islamic crescent to the Dome of the Rock’s glittering cap, which dominates Jerusalem’s skyline from the hilltop compound revered by Muslims as the Al Aqsa mosque complex and by Jews as Temple Mount, the site of their biblical temple.

“Protect Mecca and Medina. Protect these holy lands as your honor. Protect Jerusalem,” Erdogan said in a speech last month.

Erdogan “is a strong man who loves Palestine,” said Salahadin Nasradin, owner of a cut-rate electronics store in the market. “We pray that he will lead all Islamic countries one day.”

Hamas Benefactor

The Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas doesn’t share the enthusiasm for Erdogan felt in the Old City alleys, where shopowners in a cacophony of Arabic and Hebrew hawk jewelry, religious relics and T-shirts, and the aromas of cumin and turmeric mix with the smoke from sizzling chunks of lamb.

While the Palestinian Authority welcomes Ankara’s investment in the Old City, Turkey also supports Abbas’s bitter rival, the Hamas militant group that rules the Gaza Strip, and its parent group, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. That makes Palestinian officials reluctant to speak on the record.

“Since Erdogan took office he’s been working to restore Turkey’s role as a strategic player in the region and as a rival to Sunni countries such as Saudi Arabia,” said Jehad Harb, an analyst at the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah. “The Palestinian Authority wants the financial support that Turkey is offering, but is very cautious in its dealings” because of Turkey’s ties to Hamas, Harb said.

Potential Restrictions

Israel, whose once-warm relations with Ankara have soured under Erdogan, is watching Turkey’s growing Jerusalem foothold with suspicion, and may restrict its activities if it’s seen to be stepping up support for radical Islamist groups, said Michael Oren, Israel’s deputy minister for public diplomacy.

“We’re monitoring it,” Oren said.

Turkey’s foreign aid agency said in its 2015 annual report -- the last with details on Jerusalem investments -- that it has undertaken more than 500 projects valued at nearly $30 million in the Palestinian territories, 81 in east Jerusalem.

Erdogan’s presence there has fueled concern in Jordan that he may challenge its historic guardianship over the eighth-century Al Aqsa complex. After Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, it allowed the Jordanian religious administration known as the Waqf to continue managing the compound, with Israeli forces maintaining security control.

“We will not accept any competition,” said Sheikh Omar al-Kiswanii, director of the Al-Aqsa mosque, from his office near the shrine, where a giant portrait of Jordan’s King Abdullah overlooks the building’s stone staircase.

Commercial Facelift

Turkey’s activities could also pose a challenge to Saudi Arabia, which has poured more than $6 billion into Palestinian programs since 2000 -- including $285 million earmarked for Jerusalem -- according to a statement in May by Abdullah Al Rabeeah, an adviser to the Royal Court and supervisor-general of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.

The Saudi king, officially the “custodian” of Islam’s holiest mosques in Mecca and Medina, also pledged $150 million to the Palestinians in April, with a focus on maintaining Jerusalem’s Islamic heritage.

Just as Khan al-Zeit street has been adopted by Turkey, Saudi Arabia has spruced up shops along Al-Wad Street, the artery that leads from Damascus Gate to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews are allowed to pray. Until a few months ago, a building on the street bore a stone plaque describing the work Saudi Arabia financed there, said Ziad Ghnem, 60, who owns the adjacent toy store.

“They took it down because people would line up outside hoping to get some money,” Ghnem said, chuckling amid piles of knockoff Barbie dolls, beach balls and toy guns.

Seesawing Acceptance

Israel’s acceptance of Turkish and Saudi activities has seesawed in line with diplomatic developments, said Alon Liel, a former Israeli envoy to Turkey. Erdogan was given a relatively free hand after the countries mended their rupture over a deadly 2010 Israeli naval raid on a Turkish ship challenging the Israeli blockade of Gaza. The detente fell apart in December.

By contrast, Saudi Arabia’s involvement in Jerusalem is being encouraged as secret business ties and communications through the Trump administration and other intermediaries blossom, Liel said. While Trump’s Middle East peace team has consulted closely with the Saudis, Erdogan has been among the president’s harshest critics.

“The Saudis are friends now,” Liel said. “They probably have our blessing.”

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-20/turkey-s-erdogan-is-all-over-east-jerusalem

سيف الله

09-25-2018, 08:12 AM

Salaam

Another update

UK Labour Party to Debate Palestine and Arms Embargo on Israel

The issue is in the top four of all issues to be discussed Tuesday in Liverpool. It gained more votes than the issues of Brexit, and the National Health System (NHS).

Delegates of the U.K. Labour Party have voted to debate Palestine at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool. The motion was backed by 188,000 votes from local party members. The debate, a first in many years, will also include a motion for a U.K. arms embargo against Israel.

Palestine solidarity campaign director Ben Jamal said, commenting on the overwhelming response from members, “Ordinary members of the party want Labour to stand up for Palestinian rights. And today for the first time in many years a Palestine motion is on the agenda of the conference."

The issue is in the top four of all issues to be discussed on Tuesday in Liverpool. The vote to debate Palestine was fourth after housing, school systems, and justice for the Windrush generation. It gained more votes than the issues of Brexit, and the National Health System (NHS).

During the debate on Palestine, the party will also deliberate on U.K. arms sales to Israel, suggesting they end until an independent investigation into the killing of more than 180 protesters in Gaza since Mar. 30 can be carried out.

Though conference votes are not binding on leaders, Jeremy Corbyn, a supporter of the Palestinian cause, has promised to recognize Palestine as a state if his party comes to power. A new Labour and Palestine parliamentary group will be launched at the conference.

Amidst the cries of anti-Semitism that has engulfed the party in recent months, this decision is welcomed by party members. Labour’s General Secretary Jennie Formby said, “We must not allow the voices of Palestinians to be silenced and members must be able to speak out about the terrible injustices they face.” But she added that nobody would be allowed to be anti-Semitic while speaking about Palestine.

The anti-Semitism charges against Corbyn were rejected by him, his supporters, and Palestinians, citing Israel's attempt to shut down any criticism of its policies and abuse against Palestinians and its occupation of their land.

“If you pass racist laws, if you operate in a racist way, there is nothing racist in calling you a racist state. If Israel wants to stop that accusation, it needs to end the occupation and stop operating in a racist way,” said Jamal.

But not all Palestinians are overjoyed with the polls. Some are critical of the U.K.’s stand on the Oslo agreement which supports the creation of two states. For U.K.-based Palestinian author and academic, Ghada Karmi said during a Palestine Solidarity meeting that Labour cannot go on supporting a “defunct idea”. She also asked the party to stop being apologetic about Israel’s atrocities and to confront Israel and call out its actions against Palestinians.

According to Hazem Jamjoum, a Palestinian-American academic, the British empire helped create the state of Israel. Hence, it has a greater responsibility to support Palestine. He also warned that Israel’s impunity regarding apartheid, racist laws and ethnonationalism is creating precedences all over the globe which is witnessing an increasing identity-based nationalism in each country.

https://www.telesurtv.net/english/ne...0924-0004.html

سيف الله

09-25-2018, 11:25 PM

Salaam

The Hasbra operations are getting more and more desperate.

Jewish establishments reaction to Corbyns speech.

Bad news.

Futuwwa

09-26-2018, 07:20 PM

The massive support at the Labour conference for Palestinian solidarity. Looks like they are determined to show the Pharisees and the Optimates that they won't be cowed by the threat of being branded antisemitic. Chances are the usual suspects are going berserk right now spamming the Labour Party with reports of antisemitism ;D

سيف الله

09-28-2018, 09:44 PM

Salaam

Another update

Defying Israel lobby, Labour votes for arms freeze

In a historic move, the Labour Party’s annual conference on Tuesday voted to end UK arms sales to Israel.

But The Electronic Intifada has learned that Emily Thornberry, the woman who would become foreign minister were a Labour government elected tomorrow, had privately tried to scupper the motion.

Although Thornberry is a close ally of Labour leader and Palestine solidarity veteran Jeremy Corbyn, she is also a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel and opposes an arms embargo.

Amid a sea of waving Palestinian flags, and chants of “Free Palestine,” delegates debated a motion condemning Israel’s killing of Palestinian protesters – more than 140 to date – since the Great March of Return protests began on 30 March.

The motion, passed with almost no votes against, calls for an immediate freeze on UK arms sales to Israel.

Since 2014, the UK government has approved licences for exports to Israel of arms and other military technology worth $660 million, including components for aircraft missiles, drones and sniper rifles, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign stated in a press release.

The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, the steering group of the international BDS movement, praised the Labour Party vote for “rekindling hope that Israel’s South Africa moment is getting closer.”
“Review” or “freeze”?

Thornberry has said in the past that a Labour government would “review” arms sales to Israel – far short of the freeze called for by Tuesday’s motion.

She repeated her promise to review arms sales to Israel at a meeting of Labour Friends of Palestine at the conference on Monday night, a campaigner told The Electronic Intifada.

But multiple sources told The Electronic Intifada that Thornberry had put pressure on Labour activists behind the motion to make changes to its text that would have gutted it.

Not only did Thornberry demand that the call for an immediate arms trade freeze be removed, she had wanted a line mentioning “Palestinian victims of the Nakba” taken out as well – a reference to Israel’s expulsion of some 800,000 Palestinians to establish a “Jewish state” in 1948.

The proposers of the motion declined to comment on the record.

But sources with knowledge of the discussions told The Electronic Intifada that during an hour-long meeting Thornberry and her people pressured the activists from Harlow and Wolverhampton South West local Labour parties to water down the draft.

Proposer Colin Monehen made a thinly veiled reference to Thornberry’s interference in his speech to delegates.

As Thornberry sat on the stage nearby, he stated: “There are those that are nervous about the word Nakba. But the Nakba did happen and those people were forcibly removed from their homes, and there has to be a recognition of that.”

Thornberry’s pressure tactics failed and, if anything, the final motion ended up slightly stronger. The original draft stated that the arms freeze was pending the results of an independent investigation into Israel’s killings in Gaza, while the adopted text doesn’t make the freeze conditional on an investigation.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s director Ben Jamal stated: “This incredible show of support and this historic motion demonstrate the strength of feeling at the grassroots of the party. Labour members want to show real solidarity with Palestinians.”

“Given Israel’s continuing use of live fire to kill unarmed Palestinian demonstrators, it is no surprise that there’s clear support for an immediate freeze of arms sales to Israel,” Jamal added.

There is no Labour Friends of Israel stall at conference this year. Pro-Israel newspaper the Jewish News reported this was the first time in “recent memory” the LFI stall was absent.

An anonymous source claimed to the paper, that “Last year the LFI stand at conference became a magnet for conspiracy theorists and young staff members were put in uncomfortable positions.”

In January 2017, undercover footage shot by Al Jazeera at the LFI stall at Labour conference in 2016 revealed that the Israeli embassy had promised LFI’s Joan Ryan that lawmakers would receive “more than one million pounds” ($1.3 million) worth of propaganda junkets to Israel.

The footage also revealed that Ryan had outright fabricated an instance of “anti-Semitism” arising out of a discussion at the stall, where a Labour Party activist had questioned Israel’s colonization of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank in violation of international law.

Shut down

During the debate academic Hilary Wise was shut down by the chair after encouraging delegates to watch the Al Jazeera film, The Lobby.

Rhea Wolfson chided Wise: “I would ask you to be very careful with your language.”

Wolfson is a member of the Jewish Labour Movement, a group with intimate ties to the Israeli embassy.

The massive level of popular support for Palestine at the Labour grassroots put into stark relief the failure of the Israel lobby’s attempts to court support within the party.

As it has become clear how isolated pro-Israel activists are within Labour, some appear to be turning to ever more extreme tactics.

On Tuesday night, a film screening focusing on Black anti-Zionist Jewish activist Jackie Walker was cut short after a bomb threat.

The Political Lynching of Jackie Walker was due to be premiered at a conference fringe showing on Tuesday night. The screening got only 15 minutes in before the venue was forced to call off the event.

Walker told The Electronic Intifada that a phone call to the venue from an unknown person claimed that “There are two bombs in the building that will kill many people.”

Walker has been a vocal critic of the Labour Party’s witch hunt against anti-Zionists, and was suspended from the party for her views.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/defying-israel-lobby-labour-votes-arms-freeze

سيف الله

10-01-2018, 10:22 PM

Salaam

Another update. Ahed Tamimi honoured by Real Madrid football club.

The predictable Israeli response.

Everything they 'disapprove' of is 'terrorism'.

سيف الله

10-03-2018, 10:08 AM

Salaam

Another update

The Spectacular Zionist Boomerang

All that is left for us to do is to thank British Zionist institutions, the BOD, the CAA, the Jewish Chronicle and the Zionist stooges within British media for making the British Labour party not only the biggest and most united political party in Europe but also a party united behind its leader Jeremy Corbyn and unequivocally opposed to Israeli criminality.

Christians United for Israel, an ultra Zionist outlet, complained that “hundreds of Palestinian flags were flown on the main floor of Labour’s Party conference yesterday despite the British flag not being allowed. The flags, which were flown with approval of the Labour leadership, were handed out to delegates by activists before the Conference passed a motion demanding a freeze on arms sales to Israel and an investigation into the deaths of Palestinians on the Gaza border.”

It is worth mentioning that Israel doesn’t actually need obsolete British weapons. Likely the British army would also benefit by avoiding the use of locally manufactured lethal toys. But what is crucial is that despite the relentless Zionist campaign against Corbyn and the British media’s shameless compliance with the Zionist call, the Labour party has prevailed magnificently. It is more focused and united than it has been in the past five shameful decades.

Noticeable of late is that Israel firsters are changing their strategy. Tossing antisemitsm accusations against Corbyn and the Labour party was counterproductive, the accusations only ended up contributing to the popularity of Corbyn and the party. So now the Zionist clan is trying to mobilize new opposition by accusing the Labour party and its many supporters of being ‘unpatriotic.’ “Shockingly, earlier in the week Labour constituencies chose to debate ‘Palestine’ with more than 188,000 votes – making it the only international issue to receive a dedicated debate in Liverpool and thousands more votes than for concerns such as the NHS, the welfare system, or Brexit.”

Labour party members waved the Palestinian flag en masse grasping that by now -We Are All Palestinians-like the Palestinians we aren’t even allowed to utter the name of our oppressor. I suspect that blaming Labour for holding a meeting that Israel’s supporters claim failed to pay sufficient attention to the NHS or welfare is not going to work, but obviously, I welcome the new Zionist strategy. As we have seen, each and every one of their acts boomerangs spectacularly.

https://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2018/9/27/the-spectacular-zionist-boomerang

Right on cue.

سيف الله

10-03-2018, 11:52 PM

Salaam

This book has been released recently.

Blurb

Finding peace in the holy land is a perfectly timed memoir told with brisk honesty and sharp humour. Sweeping from the suburbs of North London to the olive groves of Palestine, it explores a life of excess-to-spirituality impacted by the struggle of a distant people.

Paddling the celebrity shallows of the 1990’s as ‘Tony Blair’s sister-in-law’, Lauren Booth explored everything city life had on offer; appearing on reality TV shows and at the opening of a paper bag (if i meant freebies). Yet, as a cautious Christian, she was drawn to the Holy Land too.

Given the chance to visit Palestine, instead of finding the faith of her Catholic heritage, she became embroiled in the people’s struggle, accidentally breaking a deadly siege by land and sea, playing handball with Hamas and witnessing daily acts of patience and courage which would change her forever.

Above all Finding Peace in the Holy Land is a witty personal odyssey calling the reader to consider the universal question; ‘what’s this life thing all about?’

سيف الله

10-05-2018, 08:46 AM

Salaam

Another update

Jerusalem municipality to remove UN agency for Palestinians from city

City's mayor says cut in US aid to agency creates 'rare opportunity to replace UNRWA's services with services of the Jerusalem municipality'

Jerusalem's mayor has said he plans to remove a UN agency for Palestinian refugees from the city, accusing the body of operating illegally and promoting incitement against Israel.

Nir Barkat said on Thursday schools, clinics and sports centres, among other services operated by UNRWA in occupied East Jerusalem, will be transferred to Israeli authorities.

The municipality did not provide an exact timeline but it said schools serving 1,800 students would be closed by the end of the current school year, the AP news agency reported.

Barkat, who is set to step down following municipal elections at the end of the month, said the US decision at the end of August to cut $300 million in aid to the agency prompted the move.

Seen by the Palestinians and most of the international community as providing a valuable safety net, the European Union has called on Washington to reconsider its ending of funding to UNRWA.

"The US decision has created a rare opportunity to replace UNRWA's services with services of the Jerusalem municipality," Barkat said in a statement, claiming the schools and clinics were illegal and operate without an Israeli license.

"We are putting an end to the lie of the 'Palestinian refugee problem' and the attempts at creating a false sovereignty within a sovereignty."

Jerusalem's municipality said the move was coordinated with the Israeli government.

UNRWA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, AP said.

Founded in 1948, UNWRA was established to deal with the mass displacement of approximately 700,000 Palestinians, following the establishment of the state of Israel, to Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt.

Since then, the descendants of those Palestinians who continue to be displaced have benefited from several UNRWA initiatives, including educational facilities.

'Political attack'

Last month, Israeli news outlet Channel Two reported that the Trump administration wanted to redefine the status of the agency, as well as the definition of Palestinian refugees, with the ultimate aim of eventually closing down the agency.

Officials familiar with the decision told the Washington Post that the new definition would exclude the descendants of those originally displaced, reducing the current five million figure to fewer than a tenth of that number.

Palestinian groups continue to demand the right of return for refugees and their descendents who were displaced since 1948.

In the absence of a solution, the UN General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA's mandate.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said UNRWA should be abolished and its responsibilities taken over by the main UN refugee agency.

Last month, UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness said the US funding cuts were a "political attack" on the Palestinian people and the agency, but that only the UN could change the status of refugees and UNWRA's mandate.

"You cannot airbrush out of history 5.4 million people who belong to a UN-protected community, you cannot wish away their rights, their right to education, their rights to health and their rights to self determination," he said.

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/jerusalem-remove-un-agency-palestinians-city-1601472090

سيف الله

10-05-2018, 05:53 PM

Salaam

Another update

Bus stop posters calling Israel a 'racist endeavour' condemned by London Assembly

'A concerted effort by racist, antisemitic and politically motivated people to intimidate London’s Jewish communities'

Illegal posters put up in London bus shelters declaring Israel a “racist endeavour” have been unanimously condemned by the London Assembly.

On Wednesday, bus stops in at least four different sites across the capital were spotted featuring the statement “Israel is a racist endeavour” - apparently in protest at Labour’s decision to adopt all internationally recognised examples of antisemitism.

The posters were a reference to one of the examples of modern antisemitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

Labour’s adoption of the IHRA document came after months of prevarication that threatened to further engulf the party over accusations of deep-rooted antisemitism.

Mr Corbyn, in a rare defeat, was forced to withdraw a clarification, because he lacked support, which argued it should not be “regarded as antisemitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist”.

On Thursday, the Assembly passed the motion condemning the posters and thanking London mayor Sadiq Khan for his “swift criticism of this vandalism”. It also urged Transport for London and the police to “ensure that those responsible are identified, found and brought to justice."

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/anti-israel-posters-london-bus-stops-assembly-antisemitism-labour-jeremy-corbyn-a8526486.html

In contrast.

Varied reactions.

سيف الله

10-06-2018, 06:47 AM

Salaam

:heated::raging:

Blurb

We are witnessing before our eyes an act of consummate evil by #Israel as it engages in the ethnic cleansing of #Palestinians from Khan al Ahmar. Hundreds of officials and professionals across Europe have expressed outrage. But in America, the media is totally silent.

سيف الله

10-07-2018, 07:54 AM

Salaam

Another update

Dr M: Want to end terrorism? Recognise Palestine and stop Israeli atrocities

Recognise Palestine and stop Israel’s blatant atrocities to stand a chance of ending terrorism.

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said the present war against terrorism would only be elongated if the root causes were not addressed.

“This present war against the terrorists will not end until the root causes are found and removed and hearts and minds are won.

“What are the root causes? In 1948, Palestinian land was seized to form the state of Israel. The Palestinians were massacred and forced to leave their land.

“They tried to fight a conventional war with help from sympathetic neighbours. The friends of Israel ensured this attempt failed. More Palestinian land was seized.

“Frustrated and angry, unable to fight a conventional war, the Palestinians resort to what we call terrorism,” Dr Mahathir said at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, today.

No country and individual, he said, was safe because of this.

“To fight the 'terrorists', all kinds of security measures, all kinds of gadgets and equipment are deployed. Big brother is watching. But the acts of terror continue.”

He said the world had done nothing to stop Israel’s indiscretions.

“The world does not care even when Israel breaks international laws, seizing ships carrying medicine, food and building materials in international waters. The Palestinians fired ineffective rockets which hurt no one.

“Massive retaliations were mounted by Israel, rocketing and bombing hospitals, schools and other buildings, killing innocent civilians including school children and hospital patients.”

Ironically, he said the world rewarded Israel including deliberately “provoking Palestine by recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel".

“It is the anger and frustration of the Palestinians and their sympathisers that cause them to resort to what we call terrorism. But it is important to acknowledge that any act which terrify people also constitute terrorism.

“And states dropping bombs or launching rockets which maim and kill innocent people also terrify people. These are also acts of terrorism.

“Malaysia hates terrorism. We will fight them. But we believe that the only way to fight terrorism is to remove the cause.

“Let the Palestinians return to reclaim their land. Let there be a state of Palestine. Let there be justice and the rule of law. Warring against them will not stop terrorism. Nor will out-terrorising them succeed.”

Dr Mahathir also criticised the Myanmar government and Aung San Suu Kyi for the massacre of the Rohingyas.

“I believe in non-interference in the internal affairs of nations. But does the world watch massacres being carried out and do nothing? Nations are independent. But does this mean they have a right to massacre their own people, because they are independent?” he asked

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/09/415935/dr-m-want-end-terrorism-recognise-palestine-and-stop-israeli-atrocities

This man has a spine

Meanwhile

Israel to reduce Gaza fishing zone by one-third

Israel's defence ministry said that it will reduce the fishing zone from nine nautical miles to six nautical miles.

Israel has announced further reductions of the Gaza Strip's fishing zone, stating it was in response to the weekly protests near the fence east of the coastal enclave.

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman's office said in a statement on Saturday that the fishing zone will be reduced from nine nautical miles to six nautical miles.

Lieberman cited Friday's "riots" at the fence dividing Gaza and Israel as contributing to his decision, in addition to the midweek beach protests in which fishing boats and protesters gathered at the northwest end of the Gaza Strip.

Three Palestinians, including a 12-year-old boy, were killed in Friday's protest, bringing the total death toll to at least 183 Palestinians since the demonstrations began on March 30.

Fishing zone restrictions

Under the Oslo Accords, fishermen are supposed to be allowed to operate up to 20 nautical miles off the coast.

However, Israel has restricted Palestinian fishing boats to a much smaller area since it imposed an economic blockade on Gaza in 2007.

Palestinian officials have accused Israeli forces of opening fire at fishermen off the Gaza coast based on claims they have violated the set fishing zone.

Earlier on Saturday, Israeli naval forces also detained two Palestinian fishermen off the coast of northern Gaza City.

Around 50,000 Gazans earn their living from fishing, according to Palestinian estimates.

After Israel's devastating military offensive on Gaza in the summer of 2014, in which some 2,150 Palestinians were killed, Israel began allowing Palestinian fishermen to fish up to six nautical miles off the Gaza coast, up from the previous three nautical miles.

Last May, Israeli authorities increased the fishing area to nine nautical miles.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/10/israel-reduce-gaza-fishing-zone-181006152457024.html

سيف الله

10-07-2018, 09:55 AM

Salaam

Another update

Councillor who criticised Labour over Palestine flags apologises for “misunderstanding”

A Peterborough councillor who appeared to criticise Labour members’ support for Palestine at the Conservative Party conference this week has insisted that she supports the Palestinians and has apologised for any “misunderstanding.”

Shazia Bashir told Conservative delegates in Birmingham: “Recently in the media I’ve been watching the Labour conference and them raising the flag of Palestine. Jeremy Corbyn, you can’t pour from an empty jug. Charity begins at home.”

Bashir was referring to the huge support for Palestine at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool last week which included a large number of Palestinian flags being flown in the conference hall.

But later Bashir issued a statement on Facebook explaining that she supports Palestine but feels the issue is being used for political purposes.

In the statement on Facebook, Bashir said: “First of all I’m a Muslim, my pain and love for oppressed Muslims and countries as Palestine, Kashmir, Burma, Syria is the same as my fellow brothers and sisters.

“My point was that the Palestinian cause is a very serious issue where men women and children are being displaced and killed every day by the Israelis. I object to this issue being used for electioneering and political gain purposes. Empty words of support and gestures are nothing more than paying lip service to a cause that deserves our wholehearted support and action.

“Under the last Labour government we did not see the Palestinian issue as being an important part of their foreign policy and even now we have not seen a robust policy brought forward by the Labour Party and so I object to these empty and meaningless gestures designed to win sympathy from Muslim voters.

“Secondly I am a local councillor for the Conservatives. As a member of the party I defended my party as I feel the opposition use the Palestinian cause for political gain. Charity comes in all forms.

“We are all aware that most UK Political Parties policies for Muslims are similar. Palestinian Cause is sensitive and should not be used by anyone for any personal gain.

“I have always supported the Palestinian cause and will continue to do so but not for political gain. However, I sincerely apologise if anyone felt offended due to misunderstanding.”

https://5pillarsuk.com/2018/10/04/co...understanding/

JustTime

10-08-2018, 04:37 AM

The Safawi Republic of Iran never has been nor will it ever be an ally to Islam, Palestine, Arabs or anyone with virtue, humanity and dignity.

سيف الله

10-09-2018, 11:46 PM

Salaam

Oh dear more talk about 'peace'. Perhaps we will have another 'peace process' that drags on and on and on.

Saudi cleric calls for faith leaders to travel to Jerusalem 'for peace'

Sheikh Muhammad Al-Issa, who is close to Saudi crown prince, urges three main religions to join forces to resolve 'Palestinian crisis'

An influential Saudi cleric, who is close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), has called on faith leaders to travel to Jerusalem in a bid to quell tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Speaking at an interfaith conference in New York, Sheikh Muhammed Al-Issa, Secretary General of the Saudi-funded Muslim World League (MWL), urged Christian and Jewish representatives to join Muslim leaders to launch a "peace caravan" to resolve the "Palestinian crisis".

"This convoy should represent the three religions to visit all the holy places in Jerusalem," said Issa.

"The crisis cannot be tackled except by great influential men powered with logical wisdom and justice.

"Leaders attending should have no political agenda whatsoever. They will be more influential without a political agenda because they are independent."

Such a convoy "is not from Saudi Arabia and it should not represent Saudi Arabia. It comes from the Muslim world, the Christian world and the Jewish world. It has no relevance to any country whatsoever," Issa said.

The plea is unusual given that Riyadh has no formal diplomatic relations with Israel and that most Arab nations do not recognise Israel and reject its claims to Jerusalem.

Issa called for the Jerusalem visit at the New York MWL's second "Cultural Rapprochement Between the US and the Muslim World" conference.

During his remarks at the conference, Issa also stated that the prospective meeting in Jerusalem would be to "keep extremists" from taking advantage of the deteriorating political situation.

"The chief role of this conference is to keep extremists from taking any advantage of any intellectual holes that they can use to promote their extremist ideologies and have the opinions of well-established scholars," said Issa.

"The extremists are not happy with this conference. We encourage civilized dialogue with the United States, and this does not make the extremists happy. We are here to thwart this extremism."

While Israel and Saudi Arabia have no formal diplomatic relations, Israeli officials have previously claimed mutual cooperation over combatting Iran's growing presence in the Middle East.

Earlier this year, MBS hinted at supporting the idea of an Israeli state during an interview with the Atlantic magazine, saying that Israelis have "the right to exist on their own land".

Issa's call followed pleas for peace by Jewish and Christian American religious leaders at the conference.

Shawki Allam, the Grand Mufti of Egypt, said he hoped to make a "positive contribution in the effort to place the foundation of a holistic approach to dialogue".

Meanwhile, Charles Small, president of the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy, said the greatest victim of antisemitism in the US today were Muslims.

Quoting the late Elie Wiesel, the Jewish writer and Holocaust survivor, he said that "while antisemitism begins with Jews it doesn't end with Jews".

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/s...ace-1388550536

Meanwhile back in the real world.

سيف الله

10-13-2018, 02:01 PM

Salaam

Lets talk about peace.

سيف الله

10-17-2018, 05:09 AM

Salaam

Another update

Asked if he would also instruct the army to shoot and kill Palestinian children who breach the border fence, Bennett said, “They are not children — they are terrorists. We are fooling ourselves. I see the photos.”

Bennett says IDF should shoot to kill Gazans who cross border

Stepping up attacks on defense minister, Jewish Home leader says Israel must destroy homes of terrorists, not just prepare them for demolition

Education Minister Naftali Bennett said Monday that if he were defense minister, he would instruct the IDF to shoot and kill any Palestinians who cross into the country from Gaza or send arson balloons toward Israeli border communities.

Speaking both on Army Radio and at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Bennett, who heads the Jewish Home party, said not enough was being doing to prevent terror attacks from the West Bank, claiming that there were 102 homes of terrorists that had been prepared for demolition and were still standing.

“We need to destroy the home of the terrorist. Not measure, destroy,” Bennett said, in a swipe at Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.

Bennett was speaking shortly after visiting the home of Kim Levengrond Yehezkel, 28, who was killed in a terror attack Sunday along with 35-year-old Ziv Hajbi in the Barkan Industrial Park in the northern West Bank.

The Israel Defense Forces said Sunday that it had measured the home of Ashraf Walid Suleiman Na’alowa, the suspected gunman in the attack, ahead of its eventual demolition.

Bennett, who is a member of the security cabinet, also said that the state had to prevent the Palestinian Authority from paying terrorists, claiming that the family of the suspected terrorist in Sunday’s shooting will begin receiving NIS 15,000 a month starting in November.

“This must be stopped,” Bennett said in reference to the PA’s policy of paying monthly stipends to families of security prisoners.

Following days of verbal sparring with Liberman, Bennett was asked by Army Radio what he would do differently if he were defense minister.

“Everything,” he replied. “I would not allow terrorists to cross the border from Gaza every day… and if they do, we should shoot to kill. Terrorists from Gaza should not enter Israel… Just as in Lebanon, Syria or anywhere else we should shoot to kill.”

Asked if he would also instruct the army to shoot and kill Palestinian children who breach the border fence, Bennett said, “They are not children — they are terrorists. We are fooling ourselves. I see the photos.”

He also said that the army should shoot to kill anyone sending incendiary devices over the border.
“If someone sends arson balloons from Gaza, we should shoot to kill… Tactically, we need to shoot those who send arson balloons from Gaza,” he said. “We did not deal with the problem when it was small. Now they are sending thousands of kites at us. Eventually, we will do what we should have done half a year ago, only with interest.”

Bennett added that Israel should not make any further territorial concessions to the Palestinians.

“I would not give another centimeter to the Arabs. We have to drop the idea that if we give them more territory the world will love us,” he said. “The defense minister is ready to give up Nokdim, his home, for a Palestinian state. I am not prepared to do this.”

Liberman’s party, Yisrael Beytenu, hit back at Bennett, mockingly calling him a “hilltop youth,” a reference to far-right groups that set up illegal settlements in the West Bank.

“The hilltop youth from Ra’anana and big talker from Jewish Home continues to play political games at the expense of the security of Israeli citizens,” it said in a statement.

Gaza border riots, dubbed the “Great March of Return,” have increased dramatically in recent weeks. They began as weekly events from late March through the summer, but appeared to slow as Hamas entered indirect talks with Israel aimed at a ceasefire.

As the talks have stalled, Hamas has increased the pace of rioting and demonstrations against Israel, and created new units tasked with sustaining tensions along the border fence including during nighttime and early morning hours.

The clashes along the border, which Israel maintains are being directed by Hamas, have included regular rock and Molotov cocktail attacks on troops, as well as shooting and IED attacks aimed at IDF soldiers, and attempts to breach the border fence.

Gazans have also launched incendiary kites and balloons into Israel, sparking fires that have destroyed forests, burned crops, and killed livestock. Thousands of acres of land have been burned, causing millions of shekels in damages, according to Israeli officials. Some balloons have carried improvised explosive devices.

At least 140 Palestinians have been killed during the protests since late March, according to AP figures. Hamas has acknowledged that dozens of the fatalities were its members.

On Monday, thousands of Palestinians were demonstrating along the Gaza Strip’s border with Israel, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying some 30 people were injured in riots in several locations. Meanwhile, dozens of boats challenged the Israeli blockade and were intercepted by Israeli Navy boats.

http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/10/10/asked-if-he-would-also-instruct-the-army-to-shoot-and-kill-palestinian-children-who-breach-the-border-fence-bennett-said-they-are-not-children-they-are-terrorists-we-are-fooling/

سيف الله

10-22-2018, 12:43 AM

Salaam

Like to share.

Blurb

I'm in Jerusalem today - and will be in other locations throughout the week.

Blurb

In Greensboro, NC and then in Newark, NJ, a pair of suspicious men followed me everywhere I went. They might have been Israeli Intelligence, though I can't say with certainty.

Edit

:hmm: These videos were deleted 'involuntary'. Ill upload them if they are re released.

سيف الله

10-25-2018, 12:47 AM

Salaam

Edit - Seems Jake gone off the radar.

Leah Matson

2 hours ago

Has anyone heard anything about Jake since he said he was in Israel? Because those videos were took down and it seems like these out of the darkness ones might be on auto upload... surely with the things he's exposed in the stuff he talks about Israel is an unsafe place for him to be and I'm a little worried having not heard anything new in days....

Yaffa

1 hour ago

His twitter is gone, wth ... i go to twotter for his update in israel ... but its gone today

Hope there's a explanation for his sudden 'disappearance'.

More generally another update.

Education on Israel and Palestine just got shut down in Scottish schools

Under pressure from pro-Israel lobbyists, Scottish deputy first minister John Swinney has removed teaching resources on Israel and Palestine. CommonSpace revealed that Swinney, who is also cabinet secretary for education and skills, told Education Scotland to “pause all activity on the resources” in August 2018. That’s after Swinney met with pro-Israel groups such as the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities.

“Useful and fit for purpose”

Swinney removed the education materials despite an academic review finding them “useful and fit for purpose”. Education Scotland also said:

in all honesty we do not understand why there would be any issues with using them in schools

“Antisemitism”

Some pro-Israel lobby groups have insisted outright that teachers cannot educate on Israel and Palestine without it leading to antisemitism. Groups such as Scottish Friends of Israel are opposed to even the concept of education on the topic, branding it “inappropriate and divisive”. The group also claimed teaching students about the occupation will “bring anti-Semitism into the classroom”.

A spokesperson for the Scottish government told CommonSpace:

It is important that schools have access to appropriate materials that provide the broadest possible learning experience, including about the impact of conflict.

Any resources on a sensitive subject such as Israel and Palestine are going to attract a range of differing opinions. That is why there has been a considerable amount of work over a long period to take account of stakeholder views and ensure the materials in this case are as balanced and objective as possible before being made available

“Grave danger”

But academics, education professionals, teachers, Scottish Jews for a Just Peace, students and Palestinian groups have said they support the resources, which Education Scotland certified as “quality assured”.

Palestinian groups also issued a statement criticising the “privileged access” they say Swinney has given pro-Israel groups during a three-year process. They said that there had been “no attempt to inform the other stakeholders of emerging obstacles” and warned that there was a “grave danger of allowing political lobbyists to interfere in the teaching and learning of our pupils”.

https://www.thecanary.co/uk/news/201...ttish-schools/

سيف الله

10-26-2018, 08:06 PM

Salaam

Another update

HRW report on abuse by PA, Hamas: A system designed broken

The HRW report demonstrates Palestinian leadership's weakness, inability to lead their people and deliver liberation.

On October 23, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published an extensive 149-page report titled "Two Authorities, One Way, Zero Dissent" on the abuses and crushing of dissent by both the Hamas led government in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank. The report comes out of 2 years' worth of research including interviews with former prisoners and activists and an analysis of the systematic abuses of human rights.

It provides an overview of a deteriorating situation in Palestine wherein the context of Israeli occupation and colonisation, the Palestinian leadership is crushing dissent and political organising. The interviews collated by HRW detail some horrific cases of torture and interrogation. One particular method known as "shabeh" was described - where detainees are held in excruciating positions for hours and even days upon end. Sometimes they are made to crouch or squat, others are hung from ceilings. In addition, prisoners held in custody are routinely beaten, often leaving scars or life-long injuries and threats are made to their families. More recently there has also been a cyber crackdown targeting journalists and activists who have been arrested for writings and social media posts.

These arbitrary arrests and interrogations of students, activists, journalists and political opposition is characteristic of many despotic regimes in the region and around the world.

While the report does not reveal anything new - indeed various Palestinian NGOs and organisations have long documented this kind of repression - it elevates these extensive and troubling details to an international platform. Importantly, it also calls on the international community to suspend the assistance to the PA security forces until it complies with international conventions.

Rather than placing the onus solely on the Palestinian leadership, this report needs to be considered in the wider political and historical context which has facilitated these abusive regimes. The creation of the PA by the Oslo Accords sought to contain and maintain the Palestinian populations in the 1967 territories. In Fanonian terms, this created a colonised elite that would watch over the rest of the colonised peoples on behalf of the coloniser. Essentially the PA and its security forces became an extension of the Israeli occupation. Furthermore, the intense development of the security sector in the years following Oslo intertwined politics and security, resulting in security personnel being elevated to politically powerful positions.

The merging of the political and security elites created the perfect environment for a police state. Meanwhile, this has all happened under the watchful eye of Israel and the donor community. The security coordination that exists between the PA and Israel demonstrates this par excellence. This coordination among many things involves the sharing of intelligence, the arresting of activists and the quelling of political mobilisation, all conducted under the false auspice of preventing terror. Indeed, the security coordination facilitated the assassination of the political activist Basil Al Araj nearly a year-and-a-half ago in Ramallah. Al Araj had previously been held and tortured by the PA, and upon his release went into hiding knowing full well that the Israeli occupation forces would come after him. He resisted arrest for six months before they found him with the assistance of the PA.

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Hamas is similarly accused by HRW of abuses and violations of human rights to those under their rule. In addition to living under an Israeli imposed siege and regular Israeli bombardment, Palestinians contend with an oppressive authority determined to quell political criticism.

The abuse of power documented in the new HRW report is not a sign of strength from the Palestinian leadership. Rather it demonstrates its weakness and its inability to lead their people let alone deliver liberation. These testimonies thus present an important challenge to a system that was designed broken. They reveal an intricate system of abusers and abused which services the Israeli regime in its endeavour to conquer fully the Palestinian people. However, perhaps one of the most important aspects of this report are the questions that it provokes among Palestinians themselves. The time has come for us to think about what kind of leadership we actually want and what comes next after Abbas, rather than who comes next.

https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/hrw-report-abuse-pa-hamas-system-designed-broken-181025130302123.html

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