Israel land grab law 'ends hope of two-state solution'
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Or how about you just don't post? This is an Islamic forum, not a music concert.
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/
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/
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
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
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
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
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...di-arabia-uae-leadership-180305184008667.html
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...di-arabia-uae-leadership-180305184008667.html
"We not only are part of the Middle East but we want to lead the Middle East."
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
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:
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
Khamenei for Amir al-Mumineen
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:
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
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
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/
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/
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):
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):
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
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
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/2018-03-26/the-sharks-circling-around-corbyn-scent-blood/
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/2018-03-26/the-sharks-circling-around-corbyn-scent-blood/
Last edited:
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
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
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/2...ed-against-mps-set-up-political-groups-labour
- - - Updated - - -
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/2018/3/27/enough-is-more-than-enough
Another viewpoint
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/2...ed-against-mps-set-up-political-groups-labour
- - - Updated - - -
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/2018/3/27/enough-is-more-than-enough
Another viewpoint
Last edited:
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
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