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The Jewish establishment moving in on Gilad Atzmon.
Gilad Atzmon Needs Your Support!
I am being sued for libel in the High Court in England by Campaign Against Antisemitsm’s chairman Gideon Falter. I have made the decision to fight this crucial battle for freedom of expression even though this fight poses a real risk of bankrupting me and my family.
I choose to fight their suit because I believe that the CAA and its chairman and its use of libel laws pose a danger to freedom of speech and the future of this country as an open society. Enough is enough!
Mr. Falter has sued me for comments I made on my own website.
My comments were made in the context of expressing my opinion about the situation where, lastJuly, The British Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) attested that there had been no increase in anti-Semitism in Britain, and Gideon Falter and the CAA refused to accept the CPS’s verdict. Falter and the CAA insisted that anti Semitism was on the rise. Sky news reported on the discrepancies between the findings of CPS and the CAA.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2LgDoRqgN8
My article focused on the choice examined by Sky News between two accounts, one maintained by Falter and the CAA, an NGO that is dedicated to prosecuting antisemitism with “zero tolerance”, and the judicial approach of the CPS: a public body, subject to scrutiny and committed to impartiality.
My comments about the CAA are the basis of their lawsuit. I believe that I have the right to express my opinions on my own website: freedom of political expression is at the heart of freedom of speech. Mr Falter claims that my criticisms of him do not amount to an opinion at all, and is seeking an order that would stop me from saying anything similar about him again, as well as paying him huge sums in libel damages and legal costs.
The CAA has contacted Jazz venues, community centres, concert halls and even overseas companies demanding that my events be cancelled. They have now escalated this battle and if they win this will ruin me financially.
I can not fund my defence alone. I am obliged to ask every peace loving human being who cares about freedom and ethics for funds to help me defend this case. Fighting this battle may cost tens of thousands of pounds. I am going to need some four figure donations to fund the ludicrous amount required. But every single penny mounts up and please do give something.
If you have ever enjoyed my writing – join the fight. If you don’t agree with me yet support freedom of speech – my fight is your fight. If you support the right to point at the truth without being labeled ant-Semitic – this lawsuit is the battle ground, my fight is your fight.
I appreciate any help you can give.
http://www.gilad.co.uk/
Salaam
Another update, missed this
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh blacklisted as ‘terrorist’ by US
https://www.islamicboard.com/images/...h678x381-1.jpg
State Department says Haniyeh has been ‘involved in terrorist attacks’ on Israeli citizens and is a ‘proponent of armed struggle… against civilians’
The United States on Wednesday put the head of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, on its terrorism blacklist in a move that will raise tensions already high due to Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
“Haniyeh has close links with Hamas’ military wing and has been a proponent of armed struggle, including against civilians,” the State Department said in a statement.
“He has reportedly been involved in terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens. Hamas has been responsible for an estimated 17 American lives killed in terrorist attacks.”
The 55-year-old Haniyeh, who was named head of Hamas in May 2017, is now on the US Treasury sanctions blacklist, which freezes any US-based assets he may have and bans any US person or company from doing business with him.
He is now a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist”, or SDGT, a title used to describe leaders of international terrorism organisations or perpetrators of mass-scale terrorism attacks. Hamas, which controls Gaza, has been officially considered a terrorist organisation by the US for decades.
‘A failed attempt’
A spokesperson for Hamas told Middle East Eye that placing Haniyeh on the list was an attempt to legitimise the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Putting the Hamas leader on the list is “is a failed attempt to put pressure on the resistance, and will not deter us from continuing to uphold resistance as a tool to expel the occupation,” the spokesperson said.
“The decision of the US treasury reveals the extent of US bias towards the Israeli occupation and their participation in denying the rights of our people, and this decision is an attempt to legitimise the occupation,” he said.
Leaders committing crimes against the Palestinian people should be on the list instead, he added.
The State Department also designated Harakat al-Sabireen, a group which operates in Gaza, and two Egyptian groups – Liwa al-Thawra and Harakat Sawa’d Misr (HASM) – as terrorist organisations.
“Some of the leaders of the violent splinter groups, Liwa al-Thawra and Hasm, were previously associated with the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood,” a statement by the State Department noted.
The Trump administration reportedly considered blacklisting the Brotherhood last year. Muslim American groups had warned against such designation, saying that it would be used to target all Muslims in the US.
The popular Islamist movement has been outlawed in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
In Egypt, where the military overthrew Mohammed Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected president who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the group says it is committed to peaceful political activism.
The department said Wednesday’s designations “target key terrorist groups and leaders… who are threatening the stability of the Middle East, undermining the peace process and attacking our allies Egypt and Israel”.
“Ismail Haniyeh is the leader and president of the political bureau of Hamas, which was designated in 1997 as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation and in 2001 as an SDGT.”
“These designations seek to deny Ismail Haniyeh, Harakat al-Sabireen, Liwa al-Thawra, and HASM the resources they need to plan and carry out further terrorist attacks.”
rest here
https://www.middleeastobserver.org/2018/02/01/hamas-leader-ismail-haniyeh-blacklisted-as-terrorist-by-us/
Salaam
Another update
Israel celebrates 'pyrrhic' victory as it turns 70
Israel benefits from a strong military and even stronger allies, but analysts warn the state faces major challenges.
It appears Israelis have every reason to be in a festive mood this week as they celebrate the 70th anniversary of their state's founding. This "Independence Day", which Israel marks according to the Hebrew calendar, on April 19, the regional, security and diplomatic environment looks to be the most favourable Israel has faced in its short history. The Palestinians have been crushed and Israel faces no international pressure to concede a two-state solution. The Arab states are in disarray, with growing signs that Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf states may be ready to normalise relations.
The Trump administration is little more than a cheerleader for Israel, and has pre-empted Palestinian ambitions for statehood by moving its embassy to Jerusalem next month. And Israel has one of the few economies that is thriving despite the global recession sparked by the financial meltdown a decade ago. Nonetheless, analysts warn, the picture over the coming decades may prove to be far less rosy than it appears now. The relatively free hand Israel currently enjoys comes with new costs and dangers, they argue.
"This is more like a pyrrhic victory," Amal Jamal, a politics professor at Tel Aviv University, told Al Jazeera.
"Israel has won this round of the battle, but at a price it probably can't afford in the coming rounds."
'The end of the Jewish state'
That sentiment is shared in unlikely places. Last month, Israel's popular Yedioth Aharonoth daily published the assessments of six former heads of Israel's spy agency Mossad, headlined: "The country is in grave condition."
One, Dani Yatom, went so far as to predict "the end of the Jewish state". Another, Nahum Admoni, warned that the rift within the Israeli Jewish public was "greater than at any other time" in Israel's history. Michal Warschawski, an Israeli analyst and founder of the Alternative Information Centre, argued that Israel was suffering from "classic hubris".
"Israel is strong, rich and has powerful allies. That explains its extreme arrogance at the moment," he told Al Jazeera.
"We are now in a strange situation in which the security apparatus has more insight into Israel's problems than the politicians."
An indication of Israel's troubles ahead are the popular, unarmed protests that have exploded on to the Palestinian political scene along Gaza's perimeter fence. For decades Israel's internal security has been carefully built on an intricate system of containing, isolating and repressing Palestinians with walls, checkpoints and blockades. But the Gaza protests suggest to some observers that Israel's complex fortifications could quickly turn into a house of cards if unarmed resistance by Palestinians grows or spreads.
Israeli military commanders have repeatedly warned that they have no strategy for countering a mass popular revolt. The use of snipers to terrify away protesters was a sign of Israel's desperation, say analysts. Veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery observed in a column at the weekend: "Like the British in India and the white racists in the US, the Israeli government does not know how to deal with unarmed protest." Assad Ghanem, a political scientist at Haifa University, told Al Jazeera: "What happens to Israel will depend in part on what Palestinians choose to do, and Palestinians aren't going to accept third or fourth-class status forever."
He noted that historically Palestinians had looked to the wider Arab world for support, including military assistance.
"For the first time, the Palestinians are on their own. They have slowly internalised the fact that Israel cannot be defeated with arms, and they must move towards a non-armed struggle."
Israel would be in "serious difficulty" if the protests in Gaza spread, unifying Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, Israel and the refugee camps of Lebanon and Syria. "Israel cannot repress all these fronts at the same time," he said.
Jamal, of Tel Aviv University, observed that the Palestinian struggle would be influenced by changing international circumstances.
"The Israeli right is behaving as if the shift to the right in the west will last forever. It won't - there will be a backlash," he argued.
'No depth to international support'
But if Israel has reason to worry about where increasing hopelessness may drive the Palestinians, it has additional dark clouds looming on the horizon. International support for Israel has no depth, according to Jeff Halper, an Israeli analyst.
"Israel may have the support of Western governments, but it has lost the fight for international public opinion. Its defenders sound increasingly shrill and isolated," he told Al Jazeera.
Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian, noted that Israel's position was severely weakened by its explicit abandonment of any peace process.
"While the two-state framework was formally on the table, it was much easier for people to accept the current reality," he told Al Jazeera. "But without it, Israel is naked, it is exposed as an apartheid state."
That, said Jamal, would make it much harder for Israel to maintain alliances with progressives movements in the US and Europe. He pointed to Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain's opposition Labour party, as an example of the new breed of politician prepared to be outspoken in support of the Palestinians. Polls have also revealed for the first time widespread antipathy towards Israel from within the ranks of the Democratic Party in the US.
"Palestinian strategies of resistance can accelerate this trend," Jamal added.
Shift to the right
The dramatic shift in Israel towards the far right in recent years, with a series of ever more ultranationalist governments under Benjamin Netanyahu, has provoked growing polarisation among Israeli Jews and mounting alienation from liberal Jews overseas.
Traditionally, the latter have been vocal advocates for Israel abroad, especially in the US. In the run-up to the 70th-anniversary celebrations, there has been an outpouring of fears from liberal commentators about the future. Bradley Burston observed that Israel was now led by "a government of the racist, by the racist, for the racist", while Chemi Shalev warned that it was time for liberal Jews in Israel and the US to "circle their wagons" against the Israeli leadership.
Emilie Moatti argued that the "thuggery" of the current government would soon seem moderate in comparison to the "nightmarish circus up the road".
Meanwhile, analyst Yossi Klein argued: "A clerical fascist state will rise here much faster than you think." He added that Israel was rapidly becoming a country that "you have to get out of, and fast".
Such fears have been exacerbated by a raft of discriminatory and racist legislation and relentless efforts to delegitimise the Israeli Supreme Court and human rights groups.
"It is not just the illusion of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state that is crumbling, Israel is actively abandoning any pretence of being democratic. It is more interested in its Jewishness," Warschawski said.
Jamal said Israel was becoming "a theocratic, nationalist state" dominated by religious extremists and the settlers. "That is not a direction those Israelis who want peace can go in. The secular population will have to fight for what's left of Israel's democracy," he said.
Pappe said growing economic gaps between a rich elite and the country's middle classes were also straining traditional internal solidarity. In 2015, the finance ministry warned that over the coming years Israel was on track for a Greek-style fiscal meltdown.
"Israel has the largest gap between rich and poor in the OECD (an organisation promoting economic cooperation between the world's 35 most developed countries)," said Pappe.
"The middle classes can hardly survive, and mostly are living off overdrafts. They are on the verge of protests."
All agreed that Israel risked a brain drain - and a loss of legitimacy - as younger liberal Israelis looked for options to leave.
Jamal said: "Israel has traded on the claim that the occupation is temporary. But clearly, that is no longer tenable. So, Israelis will have to choose. There can one sovereign state for everyone living here, or there can be apartheid."
Halper struck a similar note. "What has saved Israel has been the fact that there is no countervailing push for a resolution of the conflict," he said. "Israel has won the argument by default.
"One state is in the air, and it could quickly build a dynamic of its own, both locally and outside. The churches, trade unions, solidarity groups, civil society organisations are all looking for someone to articulate a new way ahead."
And Israel could soon find itself deprived of its traditional supporters abroad to help it counter the intensified international solidarity with Palestinians, such as the boycott (BDS) movement. Warschawski said: "In a generation, the unconditional support Israel has enjoyed from Jewish organisations overseas will become a thing of the past. Young Jews either don't care about Israel or are openly critical of it."
A survey in February found only 40 percent of American Jews under the age of 35 in the San Francisco area were "comfortable with the idea of a Jewish state", compared with nearly three-quarters of those over 65. In a sign of the Israeli right's growing fears, settler leader Naftali Bennett, the Jewish diaspora minister, announced last month plans for Israel to forge ties with tens of millions of people it has classified as "potential Jews" or those with an "affinity" to the Jewish people.
Anshel Pfeffer, an analyst with the Haaretz daily, argued that Israel realised it could no longer rely on overseas Jews, in an article headlined: "Disappointed with the Diaspora, Israel is now looking to replace it".
Pappe said in practice, as liberal Jews abandoned Israel, it would have to climb into bed with US Christian Zionists, religious conservatives who backed Trump in large numbers in the last presidential election.
"Jews have needed to believe that Israel embodies moral and universal values. Christian Zionists don't care. They will support it whatever it does," he said.
Rising global powers could also make a difference to Israel's long-term fortunes, acting as a counterweight to current US dominance.
Jamal noted that, in preparation, Israel was already trying to develop closer economic and military ties to India and China. Halper said: "Israel has depended on the US being the main player in the Middle East. But Russia is already getting more involved, and there are signs that China will eventually do so too.
"That will require Israel to navigate a more difficult military and diplomatic environment."
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/israel-celebrates-pyrrhic-victory-turns-70-180417065357314.html
Salaam
Another update,
South Africa president hails Palestinians’ defiance in face of Israel aggression
https://youtu.be/ks-prFmqCTc
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa hailed defiant Palestinians during a memorial service held on Saturday for South African anti-apartheid icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
Addressing thousands of mourners at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg’s Soweto, Ramaphosa said Madikizela-Mandela “lives on in the Palestinian teenager who refuses to stand by as he’s stripped of his home, his heritage and his prospects for a peaceful and content, dignified life.”
Eighty-one-year-old Madikizela-Mandela died on 2 April after a long illness for which she had been in and out of hospital since the start of the year.
Madikizela-Mandela was the ex-wife of the late Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president. She was one of the country’s greatest icons in the struggle against apartheid.
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180416-south-africa-president-hails-palestinians-defiance-in-face-of-israel-aggression/
Dat article. Eerily similar to what I've been thinking.Quote:
Originally Posted by Junon
Especially the part about hubris causing the Israeli leadership to be blind to what's happening. I would add, an extreme case of groupthink, with all the characteristic that makes it susceptible to it: Strong pressure towards in-group conformity, and a towering superiority complex causing confidence in the opinions and the wisdom of said in-group.
Salaam
Most interesting discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46h_nP_vcQ4
Salaam
Another update, wasn't expecting this
Natalie Portman Refuses To Visit Israel For Genesis Prize Gala
Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman has refused to travel for Israel to accept a $2 million award known as the “Jewish Nobel” because she is “uncomfortable with recent events” there, apparently referring to the deadly violence directed against Palestinian protesters in Gaza.
“She cannot in good conscience move forward with the ceremony,” a statement from the Hollywood superstar said.
Natalie Portman Slammed For Falling Into ‘Dark’ Hands Of Israel Haters
JTAApril 20, 2018
The Genesis Prize quickly announced it was canceling its June prize ceremony for Portman saying it was “saddened” at her decision, which it said could “politicize” the award, which has previously gone to Michael Bloomberg, Itzhak Perlman and Michael Douglas.
The Israeli government wasted no time in lashing out at Portman, accusing the Jerusalem-born actress of betraying the Jewish state.
Culture minister Miri Regev slammed the “Black Swan” star for falling “like ripe fruit into the hands of BDS supporters.”
“Natalie, a Jewish actress who was born in Israel, joins those who relate to the story of the success and the wondrous rebirth of Israel as a story of darkness,” Regev said.
Natalie Portman Isn’t The Problem. The Genesis Prize Is.
Liam HoareApril 20, 2018
A leading lawmaker from the ruling Likud Party called for her citizenship to be revoked.
Oren Hazan labeled her “an Israeli Jewess who … makes cynical use of her origins in order to advance her career.”
But others urged Israel to take note that it is pushing away supporters with its outspoken rejection of criticism — and by its increasingly hardline stance towards the Palestinians.
Rachel Azaria of the centrist Kulanu Party called Portman a Jewy canary in the coal mine who reflects the increasing antipathy of younger Jews in the Diaspora.
“Natalie Portman’s cancellation should be a warning sign,” she tweeted. “She’s totally one of us, identifies with her Jewishness and Israeliness. She’s expressing the voices of many in US Jewry, and particularly those of the younger generation.”
The move caps a shocking week for friends and foes of Israel alike. Just Wednesday, students at heavily Jewish Barnard College voted overwhelmingly for a measure calling for divestment from Israel.
The actress, who was born in Jerusalem and moved to the United States as a toddler, still expects to receive the $2 million prize, which she has said will be donated to Israeli and international women’s charities.
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/04...se-for-israel/
Salaam
Another update
Palestinian scholar killed in Kuala Lumpur, family blames Mossad
Fadi al-Batsh's father accuses Israeli intelligence agency of 'assassination' after fatal shooting in Malaysian capital.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smhmo9Y0Pb0
A Palestinian scholar has been shot dead by two assailants in the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, as he was heading to a mosque for dawn prayers, according to local police.
Fadi al-Batsh, a 35-year-old Palestinian academic and member of Hamas, was instantly killed by the unknown attackers in a residential neighbourhood of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.
Al-Batsh's father told Al Jazeera that he accuses Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad, of being behind his son's killing and called on the Malaysian authorities to look into who carried out the "assassination" as soon as possible.
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Malaysia's deputy prime minister, said the suspects were believed to be Europeans with links to a foreign intelligence agency, according to state news agency Bernama.
According to police chief Datuk Seri Mansor Lazim, the two attackers had waited for al-Batsh in front of a residential building in Setapak district for almost 20 minutes, and fired at least 10 bullets, four of which instantly killed him.
Al-Batsh was shot in the "body and head", the police said, adding that they are investigating all angles including "terrorism".
Hazem Qassem, spokesperson for Hamas, the governing party in the Gaza Strip, confirmed to Al Jazeera that al-Batsh was a member of the movement.
In a statement on Twitter, Hamas described al-Batsh as a "young Palestinian scholar" from Jabalia in the Gaza Strip. It called al-Batsh a "martyr" and said he was a "distinguished scientist who has widely contributed to the energy sector".
Palestinian websites identified al-Batsh as a relative of a senior official in the Gaza branch of the Islamic Jihad movement.
Palestinian Ambassador to Malaysia Anwar H al-Agha was quoted by the New Straits Times newspaper as saying the victim was a second imam at his mosque.
He had been reportedly living in Malaysia for 10 years.
Agha said Imam Fadi was supposed to have left for a conference in Turkey on Saturday. He was survived by his wife and three children.
In December 2016, Palestinian drone expert Mohamed al-Zawari, was shot dead in Tunisia, with Hamas accusing Israel of killing him.
Israel is widely believed to have killed numerous Palestinian activists in the past, many of them overseas.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/palestinian-scholar-fadi-al-batsh-killed-kuala-lumpur-family-blames-mossad-180421084317423.html
Salaam
Protestors being sniped at the Gaza fence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjTkJIPKj80
Blurb
The Palestinian - who says he's the man shown being shot by an Israeli sniper in a video that emerged this week - insists he was in no way a security threat or a legitimate target. Tamer Abu Daka was shot in the leg in Gaza on December 22 last year, when the video, which depicts Israeli soldiers celebrating the shooting, was filmed. Al Jazeera's Harry Fawcett reports from Gaza.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue40ymJMLng
Salaam
Another update
How Mossad carries out assassinations
Fatal shooting in Malaysia puts spotlight on Israeli spy agency's policy of targeted killings of Palestinian operatives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex_EUIwhZJc
The killing of 35-year-old Palestinian scientist Fadi al-Batsh in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur has taken the wraps off a covert programme of targeted killings of Palestinians deemed a threat by Israel. Al-Batsh studied electrical engineering in Gaza before going on to earn a PhD in the same subject in Malaysia. He specialised in power systems and energy saving and had published a number scientific papers on the subject.
Gaza's ruling Hamas said al-Batsh was an important member of the group and accused Israel's Mossad intelligence agency of being behind Saturday's incident. Calling him a "loyal" member, Hamas said al-Batsh was a "scientist of Palestine's youth scholars" who made "important contributions" and participated in international forums in the field of energy.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, al-Batsh's father said he suspected Mossad of being behind his son's killing and appealed to Malaysian authorities to unravel the "assassination" plot as soon as possible. According to the Israeli investigative journalist Ronen Bergman, who is one of the foremost experts on Israeli intelligence and author of the book Rise and Kill First, the murder of al-Batsh bears all the hallmarks of a Mossad operation.
"The fact that the killers used a motorcycle to kill their target, which has been used in many other Mossad operations before and being done as a clean, professional killing operation far away from Israel, points to Mossad's involvement," Bergman told A Jazeera by phone.
Identification of target
Identifying a target for assassination by Israeli intelligence usually runs through several institutional and organisational steps within Mossad, the broader Israeli intelligence community and the political leadership. Sometimes the target is identified by other Israeli domestic and military services.
The assassination process
Once al-Batsh was identified as a target, Mossad would then have evaluated available intelligence to decide whether he should be killed, what the benefits of killing him were and the best way to do it. Once the Mossad's specialised unit finishes its file on the target, it takes its findings to the heads of Intelligences Services Committee, which comprises the chiefs of Israeli intelligence organisations and is known by its Hebrew acronym, VARASH, or Vaadan Rashei Ha-sherutim.
VARASH would only discuss the operation and provide input and suggestions. However, it does not have the legal authority to approve an operation.
Only the prime minister of Israel has the authority to approve such an operation. Bergman says that Israeli prime ministers typically prefer not to take that decision by themselves for political reasons.
"Oftentimes the prime minister would involve one or two other ministers in the decision to approve, which oftentimes includes the minister of defence," Bergman said.
Once the approval is obtained, the operation then moves back to Mossad for planning and execution, which could take weeks, months or even years, depending on the target.
The Caesarea unit
Caesarea is an undercover operational branch within Mossad in charge of planting and running spies mainly inside Arab countries and around the world. The unit was established in the early 1970s, and one of its founders was a famous Israeli, spy Mike Harari. Caesarea utilises its vast spy network in Arab states and the wider Middle East to collect information and conduct surveillance against current and future targets.
Harari then established Caesarea's most lethal unit, known in Hebrew as Kidon ("the bayonet"), made up of professional killers specialised in assassination and sabotage operations. Kidon members are often drawn from Israeli military branches including the army or special forces. It is likely Kidon members who killed al-Batsh in Kuala Lumpur; sources told Al Jazeera.
Mossad targeted not only Palestinian leaders and operatives but also Syrian, Lebanese, Iranian and European ones. For example, al-Batsh could have been identified as a target through general collection of intelligence via units inside Israeli military and intelligence organisations that follow Hamas. Al-Batsh could also have been identified through other Israeli intelligence operations and Israeli spy networks around the world.
Sources tell Al Jazeera that Hamas communications between Gaza, Istanbul (Turkey) and Beirut (Lebanon) are tightly monitored by Israeli intelligence networks. As such, the initial selection of al-Batsh could well have been made through these channels. Friends of al-Batsh who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity said he did not hide his ties to Hamas.
Targeted killing operations
Caesarea is equivalent to the CIA's Special Activities Center (SAC), which used to be called Special Activities Division before its reorganisation and name change in 2016.
The CIA conducts its top-secret paramilitary missions - including targeted killing operations - through its Special Operation Group ( SOG), which is part of the SAC and bears some similarities to Mossad's Kidon.
Bergman writes that, until 2000, which marked the beginning of the second Intifada in the occupied Palestinian territories, Israel had conducted more than 500 assassination operations that resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 people, including the targets and bystanders.
During the Second Intifada, Israel conducted 1,000 more operations, of which 168 succeeded, he writes in his book. Since then, Israel has carried out at least another 800 operations aimed at killing Hamas civilian and military leaders in the Gaza Strip and abroad.
"He was known within the Palestinian community for his ties to Hamas," one friend said.
Arab-Mossad cooperation
Mossad maintains formal organisational and historical links with a number of Arab intelligence services, notably the Jordanian and Moroccan spy agencies. More recently, and in light of shifting alliances in the region and rising threats from armed non-state actors, Mossad has expanded its links with Arab intelligence agencies to include a number of Arab Gulf states and Egypt.
Mossad maintains a regional hub for its operations in the wider Middle East in the Jordanian capital Amman.
When Mossad attempted to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Amman in 1997 by spraying a lethal dose of poison into his ear, it was a threat by the late King Hussein to close down the spy agency's Amman station and sever Jordanian-Mossad ties that prompted Israel to provide the antidote that saved Mashaal's life. In his book, Bergman cites Mossad sources to claim that General Samih Batikhi, Jordan's spy chief at the time, was angry with Mossad for not keeping him informed about the assassination plot because he had wanted to plan the operation together. Another Arab country that maintains strong ties to Mossad since the 1960s is Morocco, according to Bergman's research.
"Morocco has received valuable intelligence and technical assistance from Israel, and, in exchange, [late King] Hassan allowed Morocco's Jews to emigrate to Israel, and Mossad received the right to establish a permanent station in the capital Rabat, from which it could spy on Arab countries," Bergman writes.
The cooperation reached a peak when Morocco allowed Mossad to bug the meeting rooms and private chambers of Arab heads of states and their military commanders during the Arab League summit in Rabat in 1965.
The summit had been convened to establish a joint Arab military command.
rest here
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/04/mossad-carries-assassinations-180422152144736.html
Salaam
Another update. How Israeli hasbra works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XnQN9Jjh2Q
And another on the Zionist propaganda outlet Memri.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOSpQXOpl2g
Salaam
Another update
Corbyn Prevailed
The BBC reported last night that Britain’s self-appointed ‘Jewish leaders’ continue to be disappointed by Jeremy Corbyn. Following a meeting with the Labour leader, the Jewish Leadership Council and Board of Deputies of British Jews (BOD) announced that Corbyn “did not agree to any of the concrete actions they asked for.” This must have been upsetting for them.
The ‘leaders’ provided the commands that Corbyn rejected.
They wanted Corbyn to commit to “a fixed timetable to deal with anti-Semitism cases.” I suppose that teaching ‘Labour type’ Goyim that time is of the essence is not such a bad idea.
They wanted Corbyn to “expedite the long-standing cases involving Mr. Livingstone and suspended party activist Jackie Walker.” This command is understandable; bearing in mind centuries of Jewish suffering, the time is ripe for a bit of revenge.
Consistent with Talmudic Herem (excommunication) culture, the British Jewish ‘leaders’ insisted that “No MP should share a platform with somebody expelled or suspended for anti-Semitism.” This sounds reasonable so long as thieves, war criminals and sex offenders remain on the kosher list so that British MP can share platforms with Israeli prime ministers and presidents.
The Jewish leaders complained that Corbyn has yet to “adopt in full the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.” I imagine that this is troubling as it indicates that Corbyn still regards Jews as ordinary people. Following some bizarre universalist ethical perception, Corbyn refuses to accept the primacy of Jewish suffering.
I guess that sooner or later Brits will have to decide whether they prefer to live in a United Kingdom or in an occupied territory…
http://www.gilad.co.uk/writings/2018/4/25/corbyn-prevailed
- - - Updated - - -
Salaam
Another update
How anti-semitism row MPs turned lynch mob
If you force me to choose – and tragically, the mischievious confection of an “anti-semitism crisis” in the Labour party does require me to choose, because it turns racism into a competition between worthier “victims” – Marc Wadsworth, a black activist and the founder of the Anti-Racist Alliance, is a much bigger victim of racism than Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth.
The proof is in the 50 Labour MPs who marched with her to an internal party hearing that they expect will expel Wadsworth. The MPs wanted to give the impression of serving as a bodyguard; in fact, they looked more like a lynch mob.
Wadsworth’s “crime” is his accusation at a meeting to unveil the Chakrabarti report nearly two years ago that Smeeth had been leaking stories to the rightwing press to harm Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.
We can argue the facts about whether Wadsworth’s claim is true: whether Smeeth did indeed connive with the anti-Corbyn press. But even if he is wrong, that would not make his allegations anti-semitic.
Furthermore, the accusation itself is hardly far-fetched. The Blairite wing of the parliamentary party, of which Smeeth is very much a part, barely bothers any more to conceal its desire to oust Corbyn from the leadership.
In fact, the Blairites now seem determined to terminally wound not just Corbyn but their own party, as they did at the instigation of the Conservative government last week in a debate on anti-semitism. The opportunistic pummelling of Corbyn, jointly conducted by Labour and Conservative MPs, comes just days before local authority elections that were supposed to be Labour’s chance to seize the initiative from the government.
Smeeth and other Labour MPs have relied on personal anecdotes to argue that anti-semitism is far worse in Labour than any other party, and worse than in British society generally. That is the only possible meaning of the term “crisis”. But the actual statistics give the absolute lie to their claims.
Anti-semitism in Labour is so dire, so endemic, according to Smeeth and her allies, that the party must be eviscerated in public day after day, its energies sapped in the hunt to root out any traces of Jew hatred, and its political programme (and the chances of beating the Tories) set aside until the purges are complete.
But the Wadsworth case illustrates quite how sham the “anti-semitism crisis” is.
His attack on Smeeth was political, not racist. If she took offence, it should have been because she regarded his comments as a political insult, and an untrue one, not a racist insult.
But Smeeth preferred to mischaracterise the attack, not least because she would have been hard pressed to offer a political defence. Instead she weaponised anti-semitism to divert our attention from the real issue at the heart of the spat between herself and Wadsworth. She accused him of promoting “vile conspiracy theories about Jewish people”. Wadsworth pointed out that he did not even know Smeeth was Jewish until she brought the issue into play.
It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Smeeth believes, because she is Jewish, that any criticism of her is anti-semitic by definition. And she now has 50 MPs on her side, trying to bully Wadsworth out of the party – and by implication, not only him but anyone else who might try to unmask their McCarthyite tactics.
Smeeth, it should be remembered, is not a credible witness in the prosecution of Wadsworth. Unfortunately, I do not enjoy Smeeth’s parliamentary privilege, so I will have to be more circumspect in what I say than Smeeth makes a habit of being. But as I pointed out in an earlier post, at least one of her major claims cannot withstand the most cursory scrutiny, once it is fact-checked.
After her row with Wadsworth she claimed to have been inundated with anti-semitic abuse, some 25,000 messages, most of them on Twitter – though given her own inflated and egocentric ideas about what constitutes anti-semitism, she can hardly be viewed as a competent judge.
But you don’t need to rely on my scepticism. The Community Security Trust, a British Jewish lobby group ever-vigilant about anti-semitism, has discredited her claims too, even if in their case they did so inadvertently. Their study of anti-semitic activity on Twitter for a year-long period that included the few days in which Smeeth was supposedly overwhelmed with abuse found only 15,000 anti-semitic tweets – in a whole year, for the whole of the UK. Smeeth’s self-serving figures simply don’t add up.
But if Labour is now committed to witchhunts, as it seems to be, then it needs pointing out that there are more serious problems of racism in Labour than the current “anti-semitism crisis”.
How about Labour launching an investigation into its “anti-black racism crisis”? It should not be hard to identify. It is being led by the Blairite wing of the party, which has been using anti-semitism as a pretext to hound out of the party black anti-racism activists like Wadsworth and Jackie Walker who support Corbyn, also a lifelong anti-racism activist.
These targets are concerned about racism in all its guises, and about real victims in all their shades of colour. Not opportunists like Smeeth who have hijacked racism narrowly to serve their political cause.
Equally serious is Labour’s real anti-semitism crisis – the one no one talks about. That is being led by an unholy alliance of Labour’s Blairite MPs, rightwing Jewish establishment bodies like the Board of Deputies, and the corporate media to vilify individual Jews and Jewish organisations like Jewish Voice for Labour and Jewdas because they dare to be critical of Israel.
Again unmentioned, Jews are being hounded out of the party on the ridiculous pretext that they are anti-semites – just ask Moshe Machover, Tony Greenstein, Jackie Walker (black and Jewish!), Glyn Secker, Cyril Chilson and others.
The disturbing implication is that these are not “proper” Jews, that their voices not only don’t count but their arguments are dangerous and must be shunned. And further, that those who “consort” with them, as Corbyn has done, are contaminated and guilty by association.
Ruth Smeeth is not a victim of the Labour party “anti-semitism crisis”, because that crisis does not exist. It is a political construct. There are doubtless examples of anti-semites and other racists who are members of the Labour party, as there are in all walks of life, but there is no crisis.
Real victims of racism suffer because they are isolated, vulnerable and easily vilified. The Labour party should stand with such people. Instead it is allowing privileged MPs and party bureaucrats to promote the demonisation, abuse and persecution of black activists like Marc Wadsworth and anti-Zionist Jews like Cyril Chilson. We are living through a truly shameful period in Labour’s history.
UPDATE:
Sadly, the lynch mob won. It was announced on Friday that the Labour party had expelled Marc Wadsworth. These witchhunts will only intensify and, unless Corbyn can really take control of the party away from the Blairites, as its members have shown they desperately want, the reinvention of Labour as an electoral force capable of addressing the huge economic, social and environmental challenges ahead is finished.
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2018-04-26/labour-anti-semitism-mps-lynch-mob/
I don't know what makes the Pharisees more butthurt: That a major party leader doesn't kiss their asses, or the fact that he can survive politically no matter how hard they rail against him ;D
Salaam
Ill post this here, life under occupation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDQUONGCRXk&t=45s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NMwohMhP10&t=186s
Salaam
Blurb
As Natalie Portman refuses to attend an award ceremony in Israel, journalist Ali Abunimah says liberal Zionists are increasingly unable to ignore the brutal oppression of Palestinians.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBDAwrFwegU&t=142s
Salaam
Another update
Salaam
Another update
“The weekly killing on the Gaza Strip border is a campaign of barbarism” (Sternhell is the world’s leading authority on fascism)
Gaza Border Killings Expose Israel’s True Mentality
And Bezalel Smotrich, like the cynical face of Avigdor Lieberman, reflects our own face, the face of Netanyahu’s advance guard for the West
Benjamin Netanyahu, Anshel Pfeffer reminded us, doesn’t see the Israeli-Arab conflict as a problem in itself, but as an inseparable part of the clash of civilizations between Islam and the Western world (“The Netanyahu vision, in 467 pages,” April 18). Israel to him is the West’s spearhead in a 1,500-year-long struggle.
When his book “A Place Among the Nations” was published, I saw it as nothing more than propaganda, intended to invent an ideological cover for perpetuating the occupation sponsored by American neoconservatism in its most simplistic form. It’s too bad that good people still fall into that trap.
Netanyahu has long understood the Palestinians are incapable of resisting the occupation by force, so the occupation won’t end in the foreseeable future. But since no reality can remain for long without an ideological cover, and the biblical narrative doesn’t sell well in the United States outside evangelical circles, he cast his lot, in the spirit of the neoconservative trend of the late 20th century, with protecting Western culture.
However, for more than 300 years Western culture has presented two approaches: the liberal approach from which democracy and human rights developed from the French and British Enlightenments, and the approach that subordinates the individual to an ethnic community and seeks legitimacy for politics in history. This branch began sprouting already at the end of the 19th century the various nationalist and racist rightist movements, including those that developed into fascism and Nazism.
These movements knew how to exploit the universal right to vote to obliterate the equality principle among human beings. Then they obliterated democracy itself. Racist nationalism wasn’t invented by Hitler, but grew gradually out of the rightist revolution that began washing over Europe. This radical nationalist approach is Netanyahu’s “West,” in which he finds the legitimacy for the colonialist policy of annexation and oppression, which he has been orchestrating since he rose to power.
This is the approach the young Israeli who was educated in America adopted for himself: His imagination wasn’t fired over there by the civil rights movement’s legacy, but rather by the dark content of American political culture. While the French Revolution released the Jews and black slaves, in America – along with almost religious devotion to individual freedoms and checks and balances to power, anchored in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence – slavery existed for another 100 years. For 100 more years, brutal social oppression of blacks prevailed. The young Netanyahu learned there that the West contains everything, the best and the worst, and everyone can choose for himself what he needs.
Indeed, that’s how the Israeli right wing works: After fortifying colonialism, it treats Arabs basically as natives. The British in Kenya and the French in Algieria showed the way. The weekly killing on the Gaza Strip border is a campaign of barbarism, exposing the mentality of the society in whose name the army acts: We can do anything we like. Like Elor Azaria, who executed a wounded terrorist and will soon emerge from prison as a hero, so the uniformed youngsters slaughtering unarmed civilians on the Gazan border are the “children of us all.” And Bezalel Smotrich, who wants to shoot Ahed Tamimi in the knee, is the lawmaker of us all. We didn’t hear the leaders of his party or the education and justice ministers cry out in horror. Smotrich, like the cynical face of Avigdor Lieberman, reflects our own face, the face of Netanyahu’s advance guard for the West. That’s the hard truth that the 70th year independence celebrations made all the more conspicuous.
http://normanfinkelstein.com/2018/04/27/the-weekly-killing-on-the-gaza-strip-border-is-a-campaign-of-barbarism-sternhell-is-the-worlds-leading-authority-on-fascism/
Or in visual form
https://www.islamicboard.com/images/...13666288-1.jpg
He mentions the Neoconservatives, of course were not allowed to mention that this movement is dominated by members of a certain ((tribe))
A history of the movement.
Blurb
Dr. E. Michael Jones returns to discuss Neoconservativism, it's origins and takeover of US foreign policy. We also delve into the CIA's efforts to undermine the presidency of Jimmy Carter, the October Surprise, David Rockefeller's machinations, and the infiltration of the Catholic Church by organized crime and Western intelligence agencies during the Papacy of John Paul II.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2gB9o0Qg7k
Salaam
Another update.
Jordan to 'revoke citizenship' of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, senior PA officials
Jordan has begun the process of revoking Jordanian citizenship for dozens of senior Palestinian Authority and Fatah officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas.
Around thirty top Palestinian officials are slated to lose their citizenship, including Abbas, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and ex-Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, London-based Raialyoum reported on Wednesday.
It is unclear why Jordan decided to revoke the citizenship of senior Palestinian officials at this time.
The report said Jordan will also make major changes to visa entry arrangements for the senior officials, granting them only temporary visitors rights.
Several senior Palestinian Authority officials, including Abbas and his two sons, were granted Jordanian citizenship over a decade ago.
The citizenship requests were made by Palestinian officials themselves and it was not offered by Jordan, media reports said at the time.
Thousands of Jordanians of Palestinian origins have been arbitrarily stripped of their citizenship by Jordan over the past decade, rights groups say.
Jordanian officials have defended the policy as a means to counter future Israeli plans to transfer the Palestinian population of the Israeli-occupied West Bank to Jordan.
Jordan granted citizenship to Palestinians in the West Bank after extending sovereignty to the territory following its capture in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
King Hussein officially severed Jordan's legal and administrative ties to the West Bank in 1988, relinquishing claims to sovereignty and withdrawing Jordanian nationality from Palestinian residents.
While there are no precise statistics, it is estimated that up to half of Jordan's population is of Palestinian origin.
There are ten recognised Palestinian refugee camps in the country, with most residents, but not all, holding full citizenship.
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/News/2018/4/26/Jordan-to-revoke-citizenship-of-Palestinian-president-Mahmoud-Abbas
Salaam
Heh with friends like these.
Palestinians must make peace or shut up, Saudi crown prince said to tell US Jews
Israel's Channel 10 news: In meeting last month in New York, Mohammed bin Salman castigated Abbas and predecessors for spurning opportunities for 40 years
New York City, March 27, 2018. (Bryan R. Smith/AFP)
At a meeting with Jewish leaders in New York last month, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman castigated the Palestinian leadership for rejecting opportunities for peace with Israel for decades, and said they should either start accepting peace proposals or “shut up.”
Citing what it said were multiple sources, Israel’s Channel 10 News on Sunday night quoted what it said were remarks made by the crown prince at the meeting that left those who were present “staggered” by the ferocity of his criticism of the Palestinians.
“For the past 40 years, the Palestinian leadership has missed opportunities again and again, and rejected all the offers it was given,” the Saudi leader reportedly said.
“It’s about time that the Palestinians accept the offers, and agree to come to the negotiating table — or they should shut up and stop complaining,” he reportedly went on.
Prince Salman also told the US Jewish leaders that “the Palestinian issue is not at the top of the Saudi government’s agenda” and elaborated, “There are much more urgent and more important issues to deal with — such as Iran,” according to the TV report.
Nonetheless, the crown prince reportedly stressed that there would have to substantive progress toward an Israeli-Palestinian accord before the Saudis and other Arab states would deepen their relationships with Israel. “There needs to be significant progress toward an agreement with the Palestinians before it will be possible to advance negotiations between Saudi Arabia and the Arab world and Israel,” he was quoted saying.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/palest...-tell-us-jews/