- 10 juni 2012
Israel accuses Syria of genocide
Jerusalem - A senior Israeli minister on Sunday made the Jewish state's most explicit call yet for military intervention to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and accused him of committing genocide to suppress the 15-month-old uprising against his rule.
Deputy Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz urged world powers to oust Assad in the same way that last year's Western-backed campaign in Libya overthrew former strongman Muammar Gaddafi.
“A crime against humanity, genocide, is being conducted in Syria today. And the silence of the world powers is contrary to all human logic,” Mofaz told Israel's Army Radio.
“Since in the not-distant past the powers chose military intervention in Libya, here the required conclusion would be immediate military intervention to bring down the Assad regime.”
Israel had so far taken a cautious line on the uprising in its Arab neighbour. While the overthrow of Assad would weaken his close ally and Israel's main enemy Iran, it has been wary of what might happen if the Syrian leader were to be replaced by an Islamist government more hostile to the Jewish state.
The military chief, Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz, said last week he saw a “lose-lose prospect” for Israel whichever way the Syria conflict played out.
But with Israeli public opinion appalled by media reports of mounting Syrian civilian deaths, some officials had begun to suggest privately that they would welcome foreign military intervention.
A belief that the uprising may have reached a tipping point and can no longer be rolled back has also given more space to hawks who see in Assad's fall an opportunity to weaken Iran - whose nuclear programme is Israel's biggest security concern.
Assad, from the minority Alawite sect, considered an offshoot of Shia Islam, has close ties both with Shi'a Iran and the Lebanese Shi'a political and military group Hezbollah, which was originally set up to oppose Israel.
But during his rule, Israel maintained what it believed to be a manageable standoff with Syria which might spin out of control were an organisation like the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood - ruthlessly crushed by his father Bashar al-Assad - to take charge next door.
Comments by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, however, suggested that concerns about Iran may be starting to predominate in Israel's calculations.
“This is a slaughter carried out not only by the Syrian government. It is being helped by Iran and Hezbollah,” he said in broadcast remarks to his cabinet. “The world should understand what kind of environment we live in.”
Iran denies helping Assad to crush dissent.
Netanyahu has steered clear of explicitly calling for military intervention in Syria, telling Bild newspaper last week: “That's a decision for the leading powers who are now talking about it. The less I say as prime minister of Israel, the better.”
Mofaz, a former top general and political centrist who became junior partner in Netanyahu's conservative coalition government last month, said Israel had limited options on Syria.
“We cannot get involved, for understandable reasons. But I think that the West, led by the United States, has an interest in guarding the threshold (so) genocide does not take place.”
Soldiers and militias loyal to Assad have killed at least 10 000 people, including many majority Sunnis, according to UN figures.
The Assad government puts its own losses at more than 2 600 dead. It has condemned the killing of civilians in Syria, and blamed the violence on Sunni Islamist terrorism.
Israel's comments on Syria come at a time of intense frustration with the west's failure to curb Iran's nuclear programme. World powers have so far used sanctions and negotiations to stop a programme they believe is geared towards producing nuclear bombs. Israel has hinted it could attack Iran pre-emptively should it deem diplomacy a dead end.
Iran dismisses accusations it is secretly developing nuclear arms and has vowed wide-ranging reprisals if attacked, raising the spectre of a Middle East war in which Syria and Hezbollah would support Tehran against Israel.
Ehud Yaari, Middle East correspondent for Israel's top-rated Channel Two television, described Syria as a test-case for international resolve in the Middle East.
“When you see the lassitude (by world powers) regarding goings-on in Syria, you cannot but draw discouraging conclusions about their readiness to act to stop Iran,” he said.
Israeli officials other than Mofaz have preferred to frame prospective foreign intervention in Syria in terms of humanitarian aid.
Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Sunday offered Israeli relief to Syrian refugees - either in countries like Jordan and Turkey that recognise Israel, or in Israel itself.
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Israel smuggling weapons to Syria through Iraqi Kurdistan, sources say
Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani
Israeli airplanes are smuggling weapons into Syria through Iraq's Kurdistan region, Syrian sources told Press TV.
According to the sources, Israel sends weapons to Iraqi Kurdistan, which are then smuggled into Syria with financial assistance from Qatar.
Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government President Massoud Barzani has facilitated the operations of illegal Israeli firms in the region.
Barzani also refused to hand over fugitive Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi, who is accused of involvement in terrorist attacks, to the Iraqi government and helped him flee from the country.
Hashemi, who is accused of running a terror squad in Iraq, flew to Turkey on April 10 after visiting Qatar and Saudi Arabia on the third leg of what he called an “official visit” to regional countries. He still resides in Turkey.
Meanwhile, the Syrian sources said that Washington has trained 400 al-Qaeda militants in European countries. They are then reportedly transferred to Syria to carry out acts of violence.
The unrest in Syria began in March 2011, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government.
The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing protesters, but Damascus blames “outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorist groups” for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
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Can Israel defy the World?
Talk is cheap. The right accuses the left of pursuing a fantasy, namely, that peace is possible. At the same time it suffers from what others consider, a fantasy of its own, namely, that Israel can defy the World. While many on the right believe it is no fantasy and can be done, they represent a minority of Israelis only.
You can count the instances where Israeli prime ministers defied the US on the fingers of one hand. Ben Gurion’s declaration of Statehood is one such example as was his refusal to withdraw in the ‘48 war to the Partition line. He insisted instead on the Armistice lines. In part for his intransigence, he was punished with the creation of UNRWA. Eshkol’s decision to pre-empt the Six Day War and Begin’s courageous decisions to bomb Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak, and to push on to Beirut in the first Lebanese War, were perhaps, others.
Begin, uncharacteristically gave up every inch of the Sinai, after much pressure and prodding. He even came to the conclusion that doing it was a good thing. The most important reason was that, Egypt, then Israel’s biggest Arab enemy, was prepared to break the Arab rejectionist front by making peace with Israel. This was considered a very big deal at the time.
Shamir was forced to participate in the Madrid Conference in 1991 and to negotiate indirectly with the PLO. He was also forced to put Jerusalem on the table. He may have given in as he desperately needed a US loan guarantee on a $10 billion line of credit in order to finance the aliya of close to one million Jews, or nearly Jews, from Russia. There may have been pressures applied to him as well, as he was dealing with James Baker who had no love for Jews.
It was due to the pressure and threats that he and therefore Israel was subject to, that Rabin, when he became Prime Minister, opted to by-pass the pressure and to secretly negotiate a deal directly with Arafat, the head of the PLO. What resulted was the Declaration of Principles in 1993 and the Interim Agreement in 1995, together known as the Oslo Accords. These agreements were favourable to Israel as US was not in a position to support the Palestinian position. That is not to say that it wasn’t a huge mistake to invite Arafat back into Judea and Samaria. It was.
After Rabin’s assassination, Benjamin Netanyahu, in 1996, narrowly defeated Shimon Peres for the job of Prime Minister. He based his campaign on his rejection of the Oslo Accords or on his demand for reciprocity before Israel acts on them. Within two years he betrayed his long standing positions and signed the Wye Agreement in which he turned over to the PA, control 40% of the territories as required by Oslo without demanding reciprocity. Douglas Feith wrote on Wye and the Road to War, in Commentary which explains the significance of the agreement.
It was a known fact that Pres Clinton had promised to release Jonathan Pollard but I doubt that this was why Netanyahu signed the agreement. He may have thought he had no choice but to continue the Oslo process even in the face of Arafat’s non-compliance. In any event, it contributed to his defeat at the hands of Ehud Barak in the elections one year later.
Because of a wave of devastating suicide bombings, Barak resigned in 2001 and Ariel Sharon, the noted war hero, replaced him as Prime Minister. For all his toughness and his defense of the settlement enterprise, expectations were that he would not succumb to pressure. His first task was to put an end to the killings and accordingly he announced:
“All of our efforts to attain a cease-fire have been torpedoed by the Palestinians. The fire did not cease, even for one day. The Cabinet has therefore instructed our security forces to take all necessary measures to bring full security to the citizens of Israel. We can rely only on ourselves. [The following sentence, significantly, was said in Hebrew only] And from this day forward, we will rely only on ourselves.”
But the thrust of Sharon’s remarks [here translated from Hebrew] were directed westward:
“We are currently in the midst of a complex and difficult diplomatic campaign. I turn to the western democracies, first and foremost the leader of the free world, the United States. Do not repeat the dreadful mistake of 1938, when the enlightened democracies of Europe decided to sacrifice Czechoslovakia for the sake of a temporary, convenient solution. Don’t try to appease the Arabs at our expense. We will not accept this. Israel will not be Czechoslovakia. “
Some in Israel though Sharon’s remarks were over the top, but I for one, and I was not alone, was thrilled to read them. Reuven Koret wrote about the statement and what may have caused it:
“Israeli officials were uncharacteristically reticent to comment on Sharon’s remarks. Army Radio reported in the morning that they were unable to extract any quote from any government minister with whom they spoke.
“Part of the reason for the barely-veiled hostility the Prime Minister expressed with regard to the United States is evidently a less than understanding response of the Bush Administration to his request to include Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hizbullah to the “A-list” of terror groups, especially after each of the groups launched attacks on Israel in recent days, with little or no action by the Palestinian Authority.
“Another explanation is believed to be the new Middle East “initiative” reportedly being introduced by the Bush Administration to gain support from reluctant Arab would-be coalition partners [for the invasion of Iraq.]
“The U.S. initiative reportedly calls for an independent Palestinian state, division of Jerusalem (Jewish areas to Israel and Arab areas to Palestine, including the Temple Mount), and the halt of all Israeli construction in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
Sharon never once reiterated these sentiments and a year and a half later grudgingly was forced to accept this American initiative, then called the Roadmap. He did so with 14 reservations which were never heard from again even though the US agreed to “seriously consider them”.
This Roadmap, by including the Saudi Plan, drastically changed the terms of the Oslo Accords and put Israel into a strait-jacket. Oslo had made no mention of Res 194 which is the basis for the “right of return”, nor did it put a limitation on Israeli settlement construction. Thus the US was back in the game. The US forced Israel to agree because that was the price Saudi Arabia was demanding in exchange for her agreeing to the invasion of Iraq by the US.
Once again, as with Rabin, the pressure that Sharon was subject to resulted in him proposing to unilaterally disengage from Gaza on his terms. Such a proposal stood in the face of everything Sharon had stood for. To make the disengagement more palatable to Israelis, he negotiated with the George Bush administration for a letter which ostensibly allowed Israel the right to keep the settlement blocks and to reject the so-called right of return. (Pres Obama made short shrift of that letter declaring the US not bound by it.)
Sharon originally intended to remain in control of the border between Gaza and Egypt in order to prevent smuggling. Condi Rice forced Sharon to accept the Rafah Agreement which provided for the monitoring to be done by the EU with Israel video access, albeit a day later. In time, the EU abandoned its post leaving no monitors in place. We all know with what results.
Similarly Rice spearheaded the formulation of UN Res 1701 to end the second Lebanon war in 2006 at the request of PM Livni. That too proved worthless. Thank you Condi.
In fact, every time Israel went to war she was on a very tight leash. The UNSC always passed a Chapter VII cease fire resolution sooner or later depending on the US position and Israel never violated such resolutions except perhaps for a few hours. This was so even when it was in Israel’s best interest to finish the job.
In 2009 Netanyahu once again became Prime Minister. Within a few months of taking office, he gave a speech at BESA in which he accepted the two-state solution contrary to the Likud platform and his own previous pronouncements. In the fall of that year he announced a ten month settlement freeze in Judea and Samaria seemingly as a gesture. No reason was given. No reciprocity demanded.
Netanyahu proudly made the point that it didn’t apply to Jerusalem. Nevertheless for all intents and purposes he imposed a de-facto freeze, when the freeze expired, which applied to both the territories and Jerusalem. He merely allows the odd building project to go ahead in order to pacify his right wing. How can anyone have any confidence in his declarations that Jerusalem will remain the undivided capital of Israel.
Don’t ever underestimate the ruthless pressure Israel is subjected to. Last September, MK Aryeh Eldad said he had reliable information that Obama put a “gun” to Bibi’s head to prevent Israel from annexing Area C in response to the unilateral move by the PA for recognition at the UN. The “gun” was Obama’s threat not to veto the UNSC resolution recognizing Palestine.
When Netanyahu was invited to form the government based on the support he received from Parties on the right he began immediately to water down the influence of the right by forming a coalition with Labor headed by Barak. He also appointed establishment lawyer Yehuda Weinstein as Attorney General. In this position he is the legal advisor to the Government and is responsible for protecting the rule of law.
Prior to the elections he also engineered that Moshe Feiglin would be low on the list so as to exclude him from the Knesset and he inviting Dan Meridor to join Likud. Meridor was subsequently given a senior cabinet post. And now he has added Kadima to the coalition. He is no longer threatened by the right as he was first time around. With Kadima, Labor and Likud in the coalition, he can comfortably rule from the centre.
A series of laws have been proposed by his colleagues on the right in order to make Israel more democratic and to handcuff the radical NGO’s supported by the EU and the NIF. In almost all cases he has opposed the legislation either because he didn’t want to alienate the left or because he didn’t want to alienate the EU.
Besides that he has followed the dictate of the international community not to do anything that would imperil the two-state solution. Obviously the freeze and the opposition to the legislation is part of that but something else is going on. In the last three years the EU has encouraged and financed the Palestinian’s efforts to take over “Area C” by planting or building.
According to Regavim this program has resulted in the loss of thousands of acres and the rate of loss is growing exponentially. Not only is Netanyahu’s government not doing anything to stop them but it is aiding and abetting them. A recent example of that is Barak’s decision to uproot olive trees planted by Jews while permitting the Arabs to plant.
The Arabs acquire title to the lands by doing so. The GOI required the Jews to waive their right to acquire title by planting which they did.. They said their sole purpose was and is, to stop the Arabs from acquiring title. Still Barak wants to uproot the trees which the Jews have planted.
Another example is the government’s policy to demolish homes built by Jews on “private Palestinian land”, though no one is claiming ownership to such lands and though well accepted law in the west and even in Israel, allows for compensation when the homes have been built in good faith. The government policy is to direct the Court to issue demolition orders rather than to allow the residents the right to argue they built them in good faith.
Furthermore Netanyahu has opposed recent bills that would legalize houses built on “private Palestinian Land”. He threatened to fire any Minister that voted in favour of the bills resulting in their defeat. He didn’t even wait for the report of the Levy Commission appointed by him to recommend solutions. My guess is that Netanyahu was aware that the report would support the settlers.
Pres. Obama has taken position that a solution to the conflict can only be arrived at through direct negotiations. He uttered such a position to prevent the PA from circumventing negotiations by going to the UNGA or to the UNSC for recognition. He also uttered this position recently when Barak threatened to unilaterally withdraw. But the problem with negotiations is that the UN, US and EU meddle in them on the side of the PA.
And now the PA, with the support of the EU and US, is putting facts on the ground which essentially pre-determine the outcome. At the same time they prevent Israel from putting facts on the ground. Inherent in the idea that one can negotiate, is the right to say “no”, to not offer what one doesn’t want to offer or to reject what one wishes not to accept.
Thus negotiations, whether to buy a house of arrive at a peace agreement, don’t necessarily result in a deal. So negotiations are not the answer and Obama knows it. Putting facts on the ground is.
Israel must find the resolve to end the peace process and take the heat. Otherwise she is doomed to subservience. She must put the right’s “fantasy” to the test.
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Israeli president supports armed groups in Syria
Israeli President Shimon Peres has put his weight behind armed groups in Syria despite Damascus efforts to bring calm to the crisis-hit country.
Peres said in an interview with Israeli public radio on Sunday that he respected the armed gangs, who "expose themselves to live fire and I hope that they will win."
This is while the Syrian government has announced that the armed groups are behind the killings and the unrest in the country.
Syria has been the scene of violence since March 2011. Many people, including security forces, have lost their lives in the unrest.
In March, UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan proposed a six-point peace plan to end the violence in Syria. However, armed groups abandoned the plan last week.
Meanwhile, Russia on Saturday proposed an international conference on Syria and reiterated Moscow's support for Annan’s peace plan.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow would not allow the UN Security Council to approve foreign military intervention in Syria, which could lead to "the gravest consequences for the entire Middle Eastern region."
The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the Syrian government of killing the protesters.
But Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, stating that it is being orchestrated from abroad.
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Shin Bet ex-chief warns of third Palestinian intifada against Israel
NAZARETH, (PIC)-- Former Shin Bet chief Yaakov Perry warned that a third Palestinian intifada (uprising) may happen as the peace talks with the Palestinian authority always reach a deadlock.
According to the 1948 Arabs website, Perry believes that the PA is falling apart, and cannot keep suppressing the uprising of its people for a long time.
The Shin Bet chief also criticized the Israeli government, saying it lacks strong leaders who are able to address Israel's challenges.
Among these challenges, he stated, is the establishment of a binational state that will kill the Jewish dream of a greater Israel.
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13 jun 2012, 11:12 , Respect -
Maria 11 juni 2012
Yad Vashem entrance vandalized
"Hitler, thanks for the Holocaust"
Walls of Holocaust Museum's plaza defaced with multiple slogans lauding Nazis, slamming Israel. Police launch investigation.
The entrance to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem was vandalized overnight.
Museum workers discovered the damage upon arriving on the premises Monday morning.
According to available details, unknown vandals sprayed graffiti reading "Hitler, thanks for the Holocaust" and "If Hitler didn’t exist the Zionists would have had to invent him" on one of the walls.
Some 10 other slogans of the same nature were daubed in several other areas as well, including "Israel is the secular Auschwitz of the Sephardic Jewry," and "Jews wake up – the Zionist regime is dangerous."
One of the slogans was reportedly signed "The global Zionist mafia" and another was signed "the global haredi Jewry."
[media id=1501049760P916 size=large]'Enough with manipulative Shoah services in Auschwitz'
Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vshem, said: "I'm appalled by this blatant act of hatred towards the state and towards Zionism. This has crossed a red line. I've informed the education minister of this incident and he too was outraged."
Crime scene investigators were sent to the museum to collect evidence.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld confirmed that the police were investigating the case, adding that no suspects have been identified yet.
The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and Research Center was established in 1953. It is dedicated to commemoration of the six million Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War II.
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14 jun 2012, 10:54 , Respect -
Maria 12 juni 2012
Israeli civics exam: explain why Jewish girls shouldn’t hang around with Arabs
A brave teacher in Israel has circulated on Facebook the text of a racist civics preparatory exam approved by Israel’s Ministry of Education. In it, pupils are asked to use concepts from civics to express their opinion about a letter calling on “daughters of Israel” (i.e. Jewish girls) not to hang around with Arabs. Racism and misogyny disguised as civics.
“The wives of rabbis published a letter calling on daughters of Israel not to hang around with Arabs. There are those who support this letter and those who think it’s not appropriate. Express your opinion about the letter. In your answer, present two reasons and explain using concepts you learned in civics.”
The preparatory exam further provides a sample response in support of the aforementioned letter:
“I support the letter of the wives of rabbis.
1 If the daughters of Israel will hang around with Arabs, they are liable to have relationships and marry them. This would harm the Jewish majority of the state.
2 If the daughters of Israel will hang around with Arabs, they are liable to fall victims of violence for nationalistic reasons. This would harm their right to life and security.
Israel’s Minister of Education, Gideon Sa’ar (Likud), has proclaimed that he is “conducting a Jewish revolution” in Israeli schools. Sa’ar is the mastermind behind, amongst other things, the plan to conduct school “field trips” to the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
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Israel paves path toward self-destruction
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VlbCHRaU1I
An entity such as Israel which continually and brutally oppresses Palestinians cannot expect to last, an analyst tells Press TV defending the recent comments of a British politician on the issue.
The comments come as Baroness Jenny Tonge has been forced to resign as a Liberal Democrat frontbencher in the House of Lords after saying she sees the Israeli regime's end coming.
"It will not go on for ever; it will not go on for ever. Israel will lose support and then they will reap what they have sown," Tonge was filmed as saying during a student panel address at Middlesex University in February.
"Beware Israel... One day, the United States of America will get sick of giving £70 billion a year to Israel to support what I call America's aircraft carrier in the Middle East - that is Israel. One day, the American people are going to say to the Israel lobby in the USA: enough is enough," She added.
Following her remarks, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg apparently gave Tonge an ultimatum to apologize or step down, but she refused to make an apology and resigned.
This is so sick I can't even come uo with a proper headline for it -- Lets just call it ‘EXPULSIONMANIA’
Palestinian children in Hebron looking on as Shovrim Shtika lead a tour of the city, Feb. 26, 2012.
Since many of those who lost their residency rights from 1967 to 1994 in both Gaza and the West Bank were students or young professionals, their descendants today presumably number in the hundreds of thousands. Of the original people affected by the policy – nearly 250,000 – many have since died. But several thousands who were affiliated with the PA were granted the right to return in 1994; still other Palestinians have since been allowed to return for a variety of reasons.
Israel admits it revoked residency rights of quarter million Palestinians since 1967
Israel stripped more than 100,000 residents of Gaza and some 140,000 residents of the West Bank of their residency rights during the 27 years between its conquest of the territories in 1967 and the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994.
As a result, close to 250,000 Palestinians who left the territories were barred from ever returning.
Given that Gaza’s population has a natural growth rate of 3.3 percent a year, its population today would be more than 10 percent higher, had Israel not followed a policy of revoking residency rights from anyone who left the area for an extended period of time. The West Bank’s population growth rate is 3 percent. Many of those prevented from returning were students or young professionals, working aboard to support their families.
The data on Gaza residency rights was released by the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories this week, in response to a freedom-of-information request filed by Hamoked – The Center for the Defense of the Individual. In its letter, COGAT said that 44,730 Gazans lost their residency rights because they were absent from the territory for seven years or more; 54,730 because they did not respond to the 1981 census; and 7,249 because they didn’t respond to the 1988 census.
It added that 15,000 of those deprived of residency are now aged 90 or older.
In May 2011, Haaretz obtained the figures on West Bank residents who were stripped of their residency rights. The report noted that Israel had, for years, employed a secret procedure to do so. Palestinians who went abroad were required to leave their identity card at the border crossing. Unlike those from Gaza, who were allowed to leave for seven years, these Palestinians received a special permit valid for three years. The permit could be renewed three times, each time for one year. But any Palestinian who failed to return within six months after his permit expired would be stripped of his residency with no prior notice.
Former senior defense officials told Haaretz at the time of that report’s publication that they were unaware of any such procedure.
Today, a similar procedure is applied to East Jerusalem residents: A Palestinian who lives abroad for seven years or more loses his right to return to the city.
GOGAT’s letter to Hamoked regarding the Gaza natives said that there are various ways for Palestinians to get their residency restored, and in fact, some of those Gazans who lost their residency rights later regained them. However, it added, it lacks the resources to comply with Hamoked’s request to be told the specific reason behind each such restoration.
Since many of those who lost their residency rights from 1967 to 1994 in both Gaza and the West Bank were students or young professionals, their descendants today presumably number in the hundreds of thousands. Of the original people affected by the policy – nearly 250,000 – many have since died. But several thousands who were affiliated with the PA were granted the right to return in 1994; still other Palestinians have since been allowed to return for a variety of reasons.
Consequently, the number of Palestinians still listed today as having lost their residency rights is about 130,000.
Among the more prominent West Bank residents who have been barred from returning are the brothers of the PA’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, who went abroad to study and subsequently lost their residency. They now live in California. Erekat said that having learned from their experience, he was careful to return to the West Bank periodically while he was studying abroad, so as to keep his residency permit valid.
Hamoked, which learned of the existence of this policy by chance while investigating the case of a West Bank resident jailed in Israel, charges that stripping tens of thousands of Palestinians of their residency – and thus effectively exiling them permanently from their homeland – is a grave violation of international law.
Source
The ‘luck’ of those that stayed at home….
The entrance to Neve Shalom’s bilingual school.
Vandals slash tires, spray racist graffiti in East Jerusalem neighborhood.
One car in the Shuafat neighborhood sprayed with the word ‘Ulpana,’ the part of the Beit El settlement where the High Court has ordered homes demolished.
Vandals slashed the tires of seven cars in the Arab neighborhood Shuafat in East Jerusalem early yesterday – one car was sprayed with the word “Ulpana,” the part of the Beit El settlement where the High Court has ordered homes demolished.
“We got up in the morning and that’s what we saw,” said Ibrahim Salah, a resident of Shuafat. “The people here are simple folk who want to live in peace. I don’t understand why people are doing this. This country is becoming racist …. Now foreign laborers are being targeted as well. Racism is rife in Jerusalem because of radical Jewish groups.”
Late Thursday night, vandals slashed the tires of 14 cars and sprayed racist slogans on three of them at the Jewish-Arab village Neveh Shalom near Latrun. Graffiti was also scrawled on the entrance to the community’s bilingual Arab-Jewish school.
The slogans included “Death to Arabs,” “Revenge,” and “Ulpana.” The secretary of the Neveh Shalom Association, Gideon Suleimani, sees the vandalism as “an attack on the idea of coexistence – the political idea on which the village was founded.” The police are investigating the incident.
“It’s a racist act directed against our community,” added Neveh Shalom resident Nava Sonnenstein.
“They did it so the children would see it when they went to school in the morning. We’ve been trying to bring Jews and Arabs closer for 33 years, but the waves of racism are stronger than we are.”
In recent months hate graffiti has been sprayed several times on the walls of the bilingual school near Jerusalem’s Beit Safafa neighborhood. The slogans have included “Death to Arabs” and “Kahane was right,” referring to the far-right American-Israeli rabbi who was assassinated in 1990.
The school is a symbol of coexistence in the capital, with an equal number of Jewish and Arab students.
Source
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15 jun 2012, 11:22 , Respect -
Maria 13 juni 2012
Israeli Minister Claims: Palestinians Teach Their Children Hatred and Terrorism
picture of Israeli kids performing a play about torturing Palestinians
Wednesday, 13th June, Israeli Minister of Education. MK, Gideon Sa`ar and based on a report the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahranot published on its website on Tuesday showing pictures for Gaza's Children wearing a military uniform,said that Palestinians are teaching their children hatred and terrorism.
Sa`ar said that we in Israel educate our children on peace while Palestinians teach hatred and terrorism in a profound change in the education provided by Palestinians to their Children, as he claimed.http://fwd4.me/133L
Israel’s Dublin embassy planned to smear Palestine activists as sexual deviants and Mossad agents
Israel’s deputy ambassador in Dublin proposed to her superiors a plan to personally smear Palestine solidarity activists – especially Israelis – to “humiliate and shame them” as suffering from psychological and sexual problems and imply that they work for Israel’s spy agency Mossad.
Deputy Ambassador Nurit Tinari-Modai, who is also the wife of Ambassador Boaz Modai, made the suggestions in a memo to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs that was exposed by Israel’s Channel 10.
The full text of the Channel 10 report has been translated from Hebrew by Dena Shunra, with emphasis added:
Deputy to the ambassador in Ireland: the pro-Palestinian activists are motivated by problems in sexual orientation
By Moav Vardi
Senior diplomat Nurit Tinari-Modai, has come up with a new plan to combat the delegitimization activities against Israel: to fight directly with the Israeli activists who take part in it. [“][b][i]You have to hurt their soft underbelly, publish their pictures, with the hopes of local activists understanding that they might actually be working on behalf of the Mossad,[/b]” she wrote the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and claimed that their motivation is not ideological.
An exceptional statement by a senior Israeli diplomat is published for the first time today (Tuesday), on Channel 10 News. The deputy to the ambassador to Ireland, Nurit Tinari-Modai, has argued that pro-Palestinian Israeli activists who defame Israel abroad are acting from psychological motivation, including problems of sexual identity. Ireland is one of the sharpest hot-spots of the pro-Palestinian activism against Israel, and some of the people who take part in that activity are Israeli.
In a cable Tinari-Modai sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem she proposes a new strategy: work directly against those Israeli activists, humiliate and shame them. “It is possible to obtain names of the Israelis… you have to try and hit their soft underbellies, to publish their photographs, maybe that will cause embarrassment from their friends in Israel and their family, hoping that local activists would understand that they may actually be working on behalf of Mossad,” writes the deputy ambassador.
“The activity of those activists against the state is, in my evaluation, not necessarily ideological (!) but grounded in psychological reasons (generally of disappointment with the parents, [or] sexual identity problems) or the need to obtain a residency visa in one of the countries in Europe,” adds Tinari-Modai.
This letter was met with fury by senior figures at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The deputy ambassador has become entirely confused, this result of going against the Israelis will empower the objectors. It would be better to fight against the delegitimization than to propose deranged ideas,” they told Channel 10 News there.
The official response by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is that “the Ministry of Foreign Affairs unrelentingly fights the delegitimization of Israel everywhere, but does not engage in witch hunts. Such proposals are not aligned with the spirit and customary practice of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.”[/i]
Despite denials, this is Israel’s modus operandi
While, as the report says, Israeli officials denounced Tinari-Modai’s plan – perhaps because it was publicly exposed – “naming and shaming” so-called “delegitimizers” is a fundamental part of the influential Reut Institute’s advocacy strategy adopted by the Israeli government and anti-Palestinian lobby groups around the world.
Indeed, Israel’s UN ambassador Ron Prosor publicly enunciated a similar strategy in February 2011 at the Herzliya Conference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM2n4OFeI3Y
Prosor also presented his idea of what the response should be to those “hardcore delegitimizers” as he put it.
“It’s important to out them, name them, and shame them so that respectable organizations don’t coordinate with them,” he said.
On top of the repugnance of these kinds of tactics, Nurit Tinari-Modai’s emphasis on alleged “sexual identity problems” of those to be smeared, indicates an innate homophobia that is at odds with Israel’s efforts – known as pinkwashing – to portray itself as supportive of the rights of people who identify as LGBTQ.
Irish campaigners urge Dublin to tell Israel to withdraw its deputy ambassador
Irish human rights activists are calling on their government to ask Israel to withdraw its deputy ambassador Nurit Tinari-Modai following the exposure of her plan to smear them.
“This type of behaviour is indicative of the mindset of apologists for Apartheid Israel. They have no legal, political or moral arguments. Instead of questioning Israel’s illegal actions and occupation, they opt to attack human rights activists’ characters and motivations,” said Martin O’Quigley, Chairperson of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) in a statement posted on the group’s website.
Urging the Dublin government to take action, O’Quigley added, “that these kind of proposals are being seriously touted by the Israeli Embassy in Ireland is incredibly worrying, and the Irish government should, at the very least, demand Ms. Modai be withdrawn immediately. Support for such intimidatory behaviour, interference and personalised attacks on human rights activists by a foreign diplomatic mission should be unacceptable in a democratic and sovereign country.”
O’Quigley also pointed out the heightened atmosphere facing those campaigning for Palestinian human rights in Ireland: “in recent weeks, there has been an unprecedented attack on both the campaign for a cultural boycott of Israel and the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) in the Irish media, much of it based on inaccurate and misleading reporting.
These attacks have often been highly personalised against individual IPSC members. While this would fit with the modus operandi of the Israeli Embassy, whether or not the embassy has influenced such reporting is impossible to say. However, there is no doubt that the Israeli Embassy can only have been happy with the skewed misrepresentation of the campaign.”
As David Cronin wrote in May, Irish newspapers had declared “open season” on Palestine solidarity activists.
http://fwd4.me/135a
Crime boss Nissim Alperon escapes hit
Explosives planted under reputed underworld figure's car leave one man lightly injured; Alperon walks away unscathed.
Reputed underworld figure Nissim Alperon, 57, escaped yet another attempt on his life Wednesday, as an explosive planted under his car left him unscathed.
One man, 50, was lightly injured in the explosion, which took place on Rashi Street in Ramat Gan.
Police and Magen David Adom emergency services were dispatched to the scene. The identity of the injured man remains unknown.
Alperon has survived several assassination attempts, the last two taking place in 2003.
In 2008, Alperon's brother, Yaakov, was killed by a bomb planted in his car.
http://fwd4.me/1337
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Maria 14 juni 2012
MK Michaeli: Most gays were sexually abused
Rightist lawmaker slams Channel 10 programs that show 'how nice it is to be gay'; claims most homosexuals are 'miserable, eventually kill themselves'.
"Most homosexuals are people who experienced sexual abuse at a very young age," Knesset Member Anastassia Michaeli posited Wednesday.
MK Michaeli (Yisrael Beitenu), who spoke during a session of the Knesset's Committee on the Status of Women, slammed Channel 10 for featuring programs that show "how nice it is to be gay," and added: "They are miserable, these homosexuals… Eventually they commit suicide at the age of 40."
The rightist lawmaker questioned Channel 10's "right to air such programs - which my children (could be watching). How fun it is to put on make-up and wear skirts. These are the same people who want to be women.
"In these shows the homosexual's mother is interviewed and says how miserable she is and that she is divorced from her husband. I want to ask what the (homosexual) went through when he was three years old and why (the parents) are divorced," she told the committee.
"I think most homosexuals are people who experienced sexual abuse at a very young age, and things deteriorated from there," the MK said.
Yisrael Beiteinu issued a statement disassociating the party from Michaeli's comments about homosexuals. "Michaeli's statements are her own opinion and do not represent the party," the statement read.
Michaeli's comments drew harsh criticism from several lawmakers and organizations. MK Ilan Gilon, from the leftist Meretz party, said the Knesset cannot accept "homophobic remarks" and called on the Yisrael Beitenu lawmaker to "delve into her own past."
Kadima MK Nino Abesadze called Michaeli's remarks "dark and antiquated."
"MK Michaeli is originally from St. Petersburg, which recently passed an illiberal law that forbids any public expression of homosexuality, so maybe it's possible to understand where the legislator's (opinions) come from," said the MK, who chairs the Lobby for the Struggle Against Homophobia.
Israel Gay Youth director Avner Dafni said he was "shocked that in 2012 there remain public officials who express themselves in such an archaic and dangerous manner. Such comments can push homosexual teens to the brink of suicide."
In January Michaeli was suspended from the Knesset plenum for a month after she threw water on MK Ghaleb Majadele's face during an Education, Culture and Sports Committee meeting.
"Majadele will learn not to insult women. He hurt the honor of the Knesset and of this place," Michaeli said afterwards.
A confrontation broke out between Arab MKs and Michaeli after the latter spoke against a school principal who decided to take his students to a human rights march in the Arab town of Arara in the Galilee.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4242382,00.html
US and Israel violate international law with total impunity: Chomsky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20PMtrKGeR8
A renowned American political analyst says Israel gets away with numerous violations of international law as the Jewish entity is a client of the US and therefore enjoys “total impunity,” Press TV reports.
“…it (Israel) is a client state of the United States; the United States has total impunity and that is inherited by its allies and clients,” American philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky told Press TV in an exclusive interview on Wednesday.
The comments come as US President Barack Obama on June 5 once again voiced unwavering support for Tel Aviv, reiterating that Washington is “decidedly more attentive” to Israel than it is to the Palestinians.
Obama, who made the remarks at a meeting between White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew and a visiting delegation of the US Orthodox Jewish community, also called on the audience not to cast doubts on his loyalty to his Israeli allies.
“That’s what power is,” Chomsky noted, “so for example the United States itself cannot be brought before any international tribunal. The one attempt to do so, the International Court of Justice- US simply dismissed it.”
The celebrated academic went on to say that what the US means when it refers to the international community is different from what is generally understood by the term.
“Where the term (international community) is used in the West, the international community refers to the United States and anyone who happens to be going along with it. If the world happens to be, most of the world is opposed, they’re just not part of the international community,” Chomsky said.
http://fwd4.me/1375 17 jun 2012, 09:23 , Respect -
Maria 15 juni 2012
US Honors Israeli Criminal - "One criminal honors an other criminal"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-Iy4onXGhk - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvdmNanaNoM
Turkish newspaper: Israel is increasing its international isolation
ISTANBUL, (PIC) -- The Turkish media dealt with the special session held by the Knesset to discuss historical allegations about the Armenian genocide in 1915 in Turkey during Ottoman rule.
Several Turkish newspapers such as "Zaman" and "Yeni Safak" and "Milliyet" belittled the re-production of such scenario, especially after the failure of the previous French government, led by Sarkozy, in issuing a resolution criminalizing the denial of the alleged Armenian genocide.
The Turkish press addressed also reactions inside the Zionist entity itself, leading the Knesset speaker Reuven Rivlin to say: "We do not have any intention to hold Turkey or the current Turkish government responsibility for this issue," stressing on the need not to exploit it politically.
Many analysts view that Israel has become in an awkward position due to the mistakes it continues to commit against Turkey, which is still waiting for Israel to implement the three Turkish conditions to restore the Turkish-Israeli relationships, namely, to apologize for its crime, which caused the death of nine Turks who had been on Marmara ship and to compensate their families and to end the unjust siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
For his part, the spokesman for Kadima party Robert Tibayev said that Netanyahu's government should not interfere in the Armenian issue because it must be left to the historians and the international community.
Some Hebrew reports confirmed that the Israeli current government led by Netanyahu is moving towards the point of no return with Turkey through searching for issues that would increase estrangement with Ankara and is enhancing its international isolation through provoking side battles with countries that were recently classified as friendly states of the Zionist entity.
http://fwd4.me/13GQ
‘Obama speaking of Israeli peace and freedom, joke’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gwDt72eCT8
US President Barack Obama’s use of the expression “peace and freedom” in relation to Israeli President Shimon Peres is a “sick joke,” as the entity is incompatible with such concepts, says an analyst.
The comment comes as US President Barack Obama has awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Israeli President Shimon Peres, the man who has overseen the killing of Palestinian women and children by Israeli forces in the occupied territories for decades.
Obama awarded the 88-year-old Israeli president the highest civilian honor in the United States during a dinner ceremony in the White House on Wednesday.
“No individual has done so much over so many years to build our alliance… as the leader we honor tonight -- our friend, Shimon Peres,” Obama said during the event, which also hosted former US President Bill Clinton.
Obama also stated that the “bonds” between the United States and Israel are “unbreakable” and “non-negotiable.”
The Israeli president has been honored by Obama a few months ahead of the US presidential election of November 2012.
The Washington ceremony in honor of a major Israeli figure comes two weeks after Israeli aircraft carried out an attack on the southern Gaza Strip, injuring three Palestinians.
Israel conducts airstrikes and ground attacks on the occupied Palestinian territories on an almost regular basis.
Press TV has conducted an interview with freelance journalist and blogger, Michael Santomauro, to further discuss the issue.
The video also offers the opinions of two additional guests: Paul Larudee of the Free Palestine Movement and co-President of the Palestinian and Jewish Unity, Bruce Katz. The following is a rough transcript of the interview.
Press TV: Peres said he has “a vision of Israel living in full, genuine peace, with Jerusalem becoming the capital of peace.” Now peace seems a virtue untouched by the Israelis looking at the wars and aggressions that it has been involved inside the region, and most of all the annexation of Jerusalem al-Quds is not recognized by the international community, illegal settlement building continues, not to forget the segregation wall. These elements don’t constitute a capital of peace. How do you perceive that?
Santomauro: I agree it’s not when Obama expressed himself using peace and freedom concerning Peres in the same sentence, it’s a sick joke. Obama and Peres are both war criminals in expensive clothing, it’s ironic that they both won the noble peace prize and if you want to do a gradation Peres is more of a war criminal than Obama, extensively more so.
There is a reason why Peres got the award during the election year here in the United States because more than half of the funding that Obama is going to be receiving and he has to rely on is from the Jewish pact money that dominates the political arena here in the United States. The Jewish American affluence is the political elite and the financial elite in the United States in Washington politics, both national and local politics.
But concerning national politics you have to filter everything through Jewish pact money. There is a heavy, heavy reliance on Jewish pact money here in the United States, 35 percent of the money for the Republican Party comes from Jewish pact and 60 percent of the funding for the Democratic Party comes from Jewish pacts.
Press TV: What do you think about Peres receiving the medal for freedom. Let’s look at his report card in 1996 during his brief stint as prime minister for the Israeli regime following the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin and interestingly just two years after he received the Noble peace prize, he ordered the Israeli army to bomb the UNIFIL headquarters at the village of Qana in Southern Lebanon. In that attack a 106 people were killed and at least 110 were seriously injured.
Santomauro: Well, it could have been stopped if the United States at the time, president Clinton or any president since 1967 has stood up to the Israel lobby, none of these atrocities or war crimes would have been committed, you know, in many ways when it comes to the Middle East and maybe even most of the foreign policy worldwide it’s really being dictated in Israel not in Washington but getting back to your specific question about 1996, could Clinton have picked up the phone and stopped it?
Yeah, but that was also the year for Israel election he had to rely on the funding that’s provided here in the United States by Jewish pacts. You know, Jews only represent about 2 percent of the population of the United States but you have to realize there are over 200 major ethnic groups in the United States, the top 30 ethnic groups in the United States represent about 90 percent of the population.
Jewish Americans are somewhere in the middle, like 15, 16- yet they represent the bulk either in majority or in plurality for the funding on presidential elections. 40 percent of the billionaires in the United States are Jewish Americans. Jews in the United States are the most affluent ethnic group of that top 30 that I was referring to.
And if you’re getting 60 percent of your funding for the Democratic Party coming from Jewish pacts and 35 percent of the funding for the Republican Party from Jewish pacts and this is according to Richard Cohen who is a Jewish American and he wrote this in his column sometime in 2005 in The Washington Post.
He was just updating something that was researched by J.J. Goldberg in his book called Jewish Power that was published in the early 1990s, but getting back again to president Clinton in 1996 he could not have picked up the phone and stopped Peres from doing that atrocity because he was running for reelection.
Santomauro: [In response to another guest: Paul Larudee] I strongly disagree.
Press TV: Mr. Santomauro, if you have anything to add, please do so.
Santomauro: Well, he is referring to American interests, I think the parallel he was trying to make is not correct. Israel is not a foreign policy issue, it’s a domestic issue. It has to do with pact money and funding for the Democratic Party, in majority money and the Republican Party in plurality money. You can’t compete with that, it’s a very cohesive ethnic group here in the United States, they will dictate the terms just based on financial elite power that they have.
Larudee But where is the money coming from. Where are they getting their money? Their money is coming from a contract that Israeli consumers or the Israeli government has with US companies that are paid through US aid to those companies and therefore that money gets recycled back to the US and those who receive US money are investing some of that money in the influence of the Israel lobby in Washington. It’s a circular process there and they donate money to create groups like the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Santomauro: First of all, there is no obligation on the part of...
Press TV: Mr. Santomauro, is Israel an asset or a liability to the United States and why?
Santomauro: It’s an extreme liability. It’s caused a lot of headaches and problems for America. 9/11 would not have happened had we not had a lopsided foreign policy in the Middle East and I just want to touch on the other guest about the money, some of the money does get funneled back to the United States, the billions and billions that we give to Israel every year but there is no strings attached and there is no obligation how Israel spends that money as opposed to Egypt where there are strings attached.
http://fwd4.me/13Du
Obama's award for Israeli criminal, affront to US public: Analyst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHksHD2oQL4
US President Barack Obama has honored the Israeli President Shimon Peres with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Obama awarded 88-year-old Peres the highest civilian honor in the United States during a dinner ceremony in the White House on Wednesday.
Peres receives the medal at a time when he has overseen the killing of Palestinian women and children by Israeli forces in the occupied territories for decades.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Franklin Lamb, an international lawyer in Beirut, to further talk over the issue. Below is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: First of all, I would like to have you impression on the story.
Lamb: Of course, it is grotesque. It is an offence to every American except those who put Israel first.
It is an offence to every person of good will that this indictable war criminal, serial war criminal, would be so honored but of course we know that the main reason is the election that is coming up for president Obama and I view this as a down payment on the Jewish vote which, according to Haaretz, has dropped 22 percent in New York stayed alone because of the mistrust or distrust they have of Obama.
So now we are seeing the period where they are demanding that he gravel, that he genuflect to the lobby and this is part of that and it is frankly revolting and it is disgraceful.
Press TV: What impact will this have politically on the image of America worldwide?
Lamb: Cash for Obama from the Jewish community but for the international community, obviously it sends the continuing message that Zionists and Israel first above Americans; do not ask about the details of the USS Liberty which this month occurred 45 years ago and killed 30 Americans and wounded more than 70; do not talk about Muslims or Arabs or Spanish or anybody else because this groups is number one ahead of America and Obama is sending that message to the world.
And it is an affront to the American people because that is not what is in the Americans’ heart and that is not what is in the main street of America and he is selling his office for campaign cash and I hope the world can forgive him because a lot of Americans, I think, will find it very difficult.
Press TV: Speaking about the elections, how do you see this move taking into consideration the upcoming election year in the US?
Lamb: I think it is overwhelmingly election0driven. There are some other motives but sure it is that he needs that cash; he is getting a competition for Mitt Romney on fundraising and he is being criticized, as you know, by Israeli leaders.
They know he is weak on this position. So now we will see a series of these kinds of events where the Zionists demand obedience from Obama and even humiliation to assure the voters that he is going to be alright and the only question that matters to certain Americans and that is the welfare of Israel: Israel first, America second.
Press TV: Considering Obama being a Democrat, how well do both parties in the US --Republicans and Democrats-- resonate with the Israeli lobby?
Lamb: Sure, typically any president usually gets about 74 percent of the Jewish vote. That is why he is concerned this time because the polls are unclear. The Zionists have organized a campaign to reduce their support or to appear.
They are flooding the media with articles showing that people do not trust Obama; Jewish voters in America do not trust him; they are trying to present the straw man to frighten him and to get him to say virtually anything they want.
Also I think it is related to the Iran issue. I personally do not think Israel is going to attack Iran but raising that red herring again allows the Israeli lobby to get more out of the American government and from the pockets of the American tax payers by raising this so-called existential fear from Iran which is of course nonsense and they know it.
But it is wanting to dominate this election and make sure not just that the president but that the Congress elects people who will vote Israel first, second and last.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/246297.html
US-Israel relations-A Simple Question
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRMZ_AZGf5Q
The US and Israel are engaged in extensive strategic, political and military cooperation. This cooperation is broad and includes American aid, intelligence sharing, and joint military exercises. American military aid to Israel comes in different forms, including grants, special project allocations and loans.
According to ifamericansknew.org, Israel receives about $3 billion from the U.S. in direct foreign assistance each year, which is roughly one-fifth of America's foreign aid budget. According to the U.S. General Accounting Office, Israel "conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the U.S. of any ally." Antiwar.com.
According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)'s "Greenbook," which reports "overseas loans and grants," Israel has received $140,142,800 (in constant 2003 dollars) from the United States through 2003.
Report: Israeli army concerned by Gaza sniper
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Israel's military is concerned about a Palestinian sniper operating from Gaza's border, the Israeli news site Walla reported Friday.
Israeli army officials believe a professional sniper is responsible for three incidents of gunfire targeting Israeli farmers and soldiers on foot patrol in recent days, Walla said.
A senior officer in Israel's Gaza battalion told Walla the rogue sniper was not thought to be affiliated to Hamas.
Hamas forces are also patrolling the border searching for the sniper, the officer said.
The sniper is highly professional and able to shoot his targets from hundreds of meters, he added.
On Thursday, an army spokesman said a Palestinian sniper opened fire toward an Israeli farmer east of Khan Younis.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=495539
Border Guard wins military's snipers title
The Border Guard's Mistaarvim Unit has won the IDF's sharpshooters championship, held Thursday.
The Mistaarvim ("Arabized") Unit is an elite counter-terrorism force whose members serve in various IDF divisions.
The Mistaarvim force is lead by Chief Superintendent Y. – the defense establishment's most decorated officer.
Second place went to the Navy Commandos, while the IAF's elite Shaldag ("Kingfisher") commando unit took the third place.
The championship was held at the Adam Base, which houses the defense forces' counter-terror training facility.
According to a Friday report in Yedioth Ahronoth, all military units participated in the championship – each sending a team of two – excluding Sayeret Matkal, the IDF's elite Special Forces unit.
The judging panel comprised former military sharpshooting instructors as well as reservists who serve as judges in civilian sharpshooting contests.
Lt.-Col Lior Kenan, commander of the IDF's counter-terrorism unit, congratulated the winners, adding: "The true victory is holding the competition and having all IDF units participate in future events."
http://fwd4.me/13Cf
18 jun 2012, 13:11 , Respect -
Maria 16 juni 2012
Report: Grad rocket explodes in southern Israel
TEL AVIV, Israel (Ma'an) -- Remains of a Grad rocket were discovered early Saturday in southern Israel after reports of an explosion nearby, Israeli media reported.
There were no reports of injury or damage, Israel's Ynet news service reported.
According to the report, an initial probe suggested the rocket was fired from the Sinai Peninsula. The report speculated that the incident was related to the presidential elections in Egypt.
Ynet quoted the Israeli military as saying that "forces scanned the area and located the remnants of a 122 millimeter Grad rocket that exploded in an open area. The IDF is probing the incident."
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=495727 19 jun 2012, 11:01 , Respect -
Maria 17 juni 2012
15 Soldiers Injured In West Bank Accident
Israeli sources reported Saturday that sixteen soldiers were wounded when a bus transporting them flipped over near an Israeli military roadblock on the Tunnel Road, otherwise known as Road #60, linking between Hebron and Jerusalem.
The sources added that the bus driver lost control over the vehicle, and that all soldiers on board were wounded.
Their injuries were described as mild but one of the soldiers suffered serious wounds; they were all transferred to Israeli hospitals for treatment, the Palestine News Network reported.
http://www.imemc.org/article/63744 20 jun 2012, 23:01 , Respect -
Maria 18 juni 2012
Tourists venture to West Bank to 'shoot terrorists'
First she cried, then she fired
Thrill-seeking tourists of all ages brave West Bank shooting range to be taught by settlers how to shoot terrorists.
Summer camp, warfare style: Like a frozen turkey plunged into boiling oil, a group of American tourists descend from an air-conditioned van into the scorching heat of the West Bank. Flashing smiles all around, they march into Caliber 3, a local shooting range.
"Move it!" the Israeli guide suddenly yells. "Destroy that terrorist," he orders them, and they charge, guns loaded, at cardboard targets.
Summer camp, warfare style: Like a frozen turkey plunged into boiling oil, a group of American tourists descend from an air-conditioned van into the scorching heat of the West Bank. Flashing smiles all around, they march into Caliber 3, a local shooting range.
"Move it!" the Israeli guide suddenly yells. "Destroy that terrorist," he orders them, and they charge, guns loaded, at cardboard targets.
Three seconds to take terrorist down
Gush Etzion has become a hot destination in recent months for tourists seeking an Israeli experience like no other: The opportunity to pretend-shoot a terror operative. Residents of the nearby settlements, who run the site, offer day-trippers a chance to hear stories from the battleground, watch a simulated assassination of terrorists by guards, and fire weapons at the range.
The fact that the tourist attraction is located beyond the Green Line only intensifies the thrill for the visitors, who often appear disappointed when told by their guides that they are not in any danger.
'Mommy can't protect you'
Shay, a gray-haired guide with a throaty voice, demonstrates the best way to grab hold of an assailant, while shots sound in the nearby range. A variety of rifles and faux explosive belts lay on a desk in front of him, while the pictures of smiling "terrorist" targets line the walls.
"Grab me," he orders 19-year-old Michael, who finds himself on the ground within moments of touching his muscular instructor.
According to reports in the foreign media, Shay was one of the combat troops who took part in Operation Entebbe, the mission that rescued the passengers of a hijacked Air France flight in 1976. When the tourists hear about it, their eyes light up.
"Suppose that the terrorist in front of me has an automatic weapon," Shay tells the captivated audience. "He can spray a cartridge within 2.8 seconds, which means I have less than three seconds to take him down. And that is what I will do."
He turns around and lodges a bullet in each target, prompting loud cheers all around.
But the tourists don’t come out all the way to Gush Etzion for a lecture; they want to push the trigger as well.
Shay hands a dummy gun to the 14-year-old Brian, who excitedly blurts out, "Jesus!"
"Your mommy won't be here to protect you, so stand up like a man," Shay yells at the teen. "Are you ready to take out a terrorist?"
"Yes I am," Brian retorts.
One by one, the combatants-for-a-day don protective glasses and approach their Tavor or M16 rifles.
Five-year-old sniper
They should know where they come from
Michel Brown, 40, a Miami banker, chose to take his wife and three children to the range with the purpose of "teaching them values."
Upon entering the range, his five-year-old daughter, Tamara, bursts into tears. A half hour later, she is holding a gun and shooting clay bullets like a pro.
"This is part of their education," Michel says as he proudly watches his daughter. "They should know where they come from and also feel some action."
Sharon Gat, the range's manager, says all the instructors at the site have served in elite IDF units.
"This is a special program created due to popular demand," he says. "Travelers from all over the world come here to meet former combat troops and hear stories about elite units. It's a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
"We heard on the news about shootings in the West Bank," the mother, Olga, says. "We came to see it in person."
Her son, Jacob, 24, puts down his rifle and exclaims: "This is an awesome experience. I learned how to stop a terrorist and how to rescue hostages. Now, when I find myself in distress, I will know how to deal."
Davidi Pearl, who heads the Gush Etzion Regional Council, notes that this kind of experience turns the district into a world-famous "tourist gem."
At the end of the thrill-filled day, the tourists get a diploma indicating they "completed a basic shooting course in Israel."
"Boom, boom," the 13-year-old Riley mutters on the way out of the range.
"Boom, boom!" Jacob responds, knowingly.
http://fwd4.me/13RA 23 jun 2012, 01:05 , Respect -
Maria 19 juni 2012
Assessing the Israel Palestine Conflict on U.S.S. Liberty Day
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_D10f0x3xl8
Thank you so much. It’s intimidating for me to be in this sacred space to begin with, but I think I’ve never had the experience of three introductions. I’m not sure I can live up to one, but three is quite overwhelming. I also want to thank Rev. Lang for allowing us to meet here in this very imposing atmosphere. And let me express gratitude to all of these groups that joined together to sponsor this event. They deserve our deep appreciation, because no issue confronting American society more needs the kind of open discussion that I hope we will have this evening than the realities of the Israel-Palestine conflict and how it is distorting the American role in the Middle East.
There is an important price that is more than the monetary price tag. There is a moral and a political price tag that has been associated with allowing such an oppressive structure as Israel maintains in relation to the Palestinian people to be subsidized and for the United States to be complicit through such a long period of time in the subjugation of a people deprived of its land and deprived of its rights.
I wanted to say at the outset that my approach to the Israel Palestine conflict does not proceed very much from my religious identity as a Jew or on the basis of my national identity as an American, but it is mostly an expression of my human identity. And I think if we want to live on this planet successfully we have to more and more think as humans not as Americans, not as Jews or Christians or Muslims. We have to retain the pride of those identities, but they have to be part of a human experience, and the more that we allow ourselves to be human, the more likely we are to take suffering seriously. And when we take suffering seriously, we become inevitably committed to the struggle for justice.
And I really think that’s what this whole set of issues, in the end, is about. Rev. Lang referred to the importance of courage and compassion, and I think that also is an essential part of what is involved here. I would say less courage, although the hostility to truth-seeking in this area sometimes requires at least stubbornness, if not courage, but what I really think it demands of all of us is responsibility, taking seriously our sense of freedom and opportunity as citizens to engage as much as we can in trying to solve a situation that has been so productive of violence and suffering and injustice.
I would contend that it is responsibility and compassion are what guides my understanding of these issues, and that compassion is something very fundamental in our historical space, I believe. Because living in a more and more crowded planet that is fragile and exquisitely complex, we need increasingly to be able to think, feel, and act as if the other is not an object but a subject. We have to find ways to have sympathy with the circumstances of the other, and if we allow ourselves to do that, the suffering of others does become intolerable. In a way I think what seeking the truth leads us to do is to bring us into contact, if we allow ourselves, with such suffering and therefore to recognize that it is intolerable to live passively in its presence.
We meet tonight June 8th on the 45th anniversary of the Israeli attack on the American espionage vessel the USS Liberty. In that attack 34 American naval personnel were killed and 170 wounded This incident happened a long time ago, but it illustrates for me the fundamental distortion of our sense of reality that has been fostered by a very disturbing relationship between our government and the government of Israel. Evidence has long confirmed that this attack on the USS Liberty was a deliberate attack by the Israeli government. This is well documented, including by a former CIA operative, Stephen Green among others. The reason for the Israeli attack was that this ship was listening to message traffic between Tel Aviv and the Israeli forces on the Egyptian border during the Six Day War. The Israeli leadership, particularly the military commander Moshe Dayan, at the time didn’t want the US to hear about Israeli plans to shift its forces so as to mount an attack on Syria and occupy the Golan Heights. The U.S. Government at that time opposed such an attack. It was very nervous about doing anything provocative in Syria, which was allied with Moscow, and could easily draw the Soviet Union into an open conflict with the West, and this was quite likely to escalate the situation in ways that were potentially extremely dangerous. So there was a clear Israeli strategic motive for attacking the U.S.S. Liberty.
I think it is really extraordinary that Israel, America’s supposed close ally, would actually carry out such an attack. The Liberty was well marked and in international waters, but what is more, I think, and more revealing and most disturbing is that the American government would suppress the reality of what happened and engage in a cover up all these years, a dynamic of misinformation originally insisted upon by Lyndon Johnson, the president at the time.
Even then, 45 years ago, the U.S. government was more prepared to allow this criminal sacrifice of its own people without a whimper of protest than to tell the American people the truth about what happened and why. It seems that even in 1967 Johnson was worried about a domestic Jewish backlash that would hurt his political standing if Israel were to be blamed for the attack.
What I really think is most important about this sorry story is the degree to which we need, as citizens and as human beings, to pursue the truth on our own. We cannot rely on our government, which is most unfortunate, to transmit the truth, even in such a situation where Americans serving as naval officers and seamen were the deliberate objects of lethal attack by the government of a foreign country. I think we should all think about what the saga of the Liberty tells us about our government, as well as about this unhealthy relationship with Israel.
The other anniversary that overlaps with what happened to the Liberty was the Six-Day War, the June war in 1967, which again was presented to all of us, including myself I must admit, as a war in which Israel had no choice but to defend itself against the prospect of imminent Arab aggression. It’s only now that we in the public are beginning to get a more accurate sense of the reality. There was an important article by Miko Peled the son of one of the leading Israeli generals at the time, who wrote, and somewhat surprisingly his piece was published in the Los Angeles Times, and many of you may have seen the article, in which he recounts on the basis of very reliable documentation that Israel did not perceive a threat in 1967 and that they understood that there was no danger at all that its Arab neighbors could attack them with any harmful effects on Israeli security. But what the Israeli leadership at the time did see was an attractive opportunity for expanded their territorial domain, and as well, they saw an excellent opportunity to destroy the military capabilities of their Arab neighbors. And so what was presented, again with the active complicity of our government, whose intelligence operative knew better, was a complete false conception. Put simply, a war of aggression was portrayed as a war of necessary self-defense, the overall claim being that Israel’s survival was at stake unless it struck first. To indulge such a fiction was to cast aside the most fundamental inhibition embedded in the UN Charter, namely, the absolute prohibition on a war of aggression, what the Nuremberg Judgment treated as Crimes Against the Peace.
This is very disturbing on a number of levels. To begin with, at the most fundamental level, it illustrates that even in relation to these most vital issues of war and peace, one cannot trust our own popularly elected government to tell its own citizens the truth. In situations where people are dying and being killed, one would have hoped that this kind of cover-up and dishonesty would be a form of treason that is regarded as a severe national crime against the people. But we tolerate, almost we legitimize, lying by the state for whatever strategic or domestic priorities it may have at a particular time. This experience also informs us that we have to depend on our own capacities to find the truth and pursue the truth without accepting public manipulations of a sensitive and controversial political reality.
In light of these preliminary remarks, I would now like to call our attention to three areas of falsehood or myth that explain in part the rationale for this unhealthy tight bonding between the United State Government and Israel. It seems almost unique in the history of international relations, particularly the degree to which the much smaller and weaker partner country is able to manipulate the superpower in such a manner as to distort its own interests and subvert its professed values. In this extreme situation, the superpower has actually relinquished its own capability to offer criticism or expose the truth, however justified such clarifications may be from the point of view of American national interests.
Can you appreciate how radical and unusual is such a posture of deference? That this government – no matter which party is in power – is intimidated or inhibited from expressing its own understanding of its own national interests because it doesn’t want to offend pro-Israeli media and domestic Jewish constituencies, agitate Congress, and antagonize certain sectors of public opinion. And nothing illustrates this intimidation more vividly, I think, than the way in which the Iran war is being promoted on the basis of contrived fears and implanted expectations. There has for several months been an insidious build-up toward a confrontation with Iran, threats that have been posed by Israel continuously and by the United States less vigorously have proceeded despite the widespread understanding that to carry out these threats would be disastrous – economically, politically in the region, and would likely have very adverse military repercussions.
And my point is not to make that substantive argument so much as to say our elected leaders are unwilling even to put the policy issue before the people as an issue for debate. In fact, as some of you who follow this question may have learned, all 16 American intelligence agencies are agreed that the overwhelming evidence points to Iran’s abandonment of a program to acquire nuclear weapons back in 2003. If you listen to our leaders or follow the media, you would never even know about this essential dimension of the situation, which should be itself shocking. You would never know that there was any ambiguity about what Iran is doing, which is what these various intelligence capabilities that we pay billions of dollars to possess are telling us about, and yet we refuse to listen or heed their assessment despite the reassurance that would undercut this dangerous drift toward a disastrous war.
I would have expected that at least President Obama would mention when talking about these issues that there substantial doubts exist was currently seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. Instead, the U.S. Governemt has joined with Israel in threatening Iran continuously, while imposing ever harsher sanctions, and we have taken such coercive measures without even daring to refer to the relevance of Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Now why is this seeming oversight serious? It’s serious because it indirectly supports what I would call Israel’s incredible geopolitical hypocrisy, and makes clear that for Washington there is one set of rules for our friends and another for our adversaries. Such double entry bookkeeping deeply compromises the rule of law, because you can’t expect a system of law in which equals are treated so unequally to engender respect. Such a regime is not law at all, but power, a form of hard power, because it deals with an essential security issue.
What is I regard as deeply troubling beyond what I’ve already said is that there exists a perfectly attractive alternative to this kind of war diplomacy, and that is to establish a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East that would include Israel. Nothing could be better actually for the genuine longer term security of Israel, among other things, than to get rid of these weapons and their threat. All of the governments in the region would be welcome such an initiative that would denuclearize the region and avoid what almost any objective observer would view as a disastrous encounter, that is already generating acute tensions in the region and further destabilizing a situation that is already highly unstable.
But my main point here, which is part of my wider effort to convey an understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict, is that because Israel is intent on this threat diplomacy directed at Iran, the U.S. leadership cannot even mention the fact that there exists an alternative to this military approach. Even a coercive sanctions approach is basically trying to impose a solution by force, where there is present a much more constructive way to proceed that is well known and quite obvious.
So there are two problems here that are both in my view fundamental. One problem is the inability or, let me express this more forthrightly, the political unwillingness of our elected leadership to criticize Israeli approaches to problems even when we know they are wrong. And you should be aware of what an extreme claim is being made: I’m saying that even when we know that Israel is taking a wrong course, we can’t propose an alternative, at least not in public, and our leaders are utterly unwilling to offer criticism of even the most ill-advised Israeli behavior.
The other point that I think is equally serious is that Israel and the United States, more than any other important governments in the world, have confined their understanding of security to a matter of choosing among military options. They see security through an outmoded optic that biases policy toward military approaches that have been proven to be, among other things, unsuccessful over and over again in recent decades.
One of the most important unlearned lessons of the post -colonial world is that the stronger military side usually over time loses a conflict. That was the main lesson of the Vietnam war, or should have been. The U.S. had complete military superiority- in the air, on sea, on land. Lyndon Johnson derisively referred to Vietnam as “a tenth-rate Asian power” that couldn’t hope to stand up to the might of the United States– and yet as we all know they eventually won the war. The Pentagon has stubbornly refused to learn this lesson, and so we keep reinventing technology and doctrines to say “Next time we can win.” And the most recent next times have been Iraq and Afghanistan, which only the most befuddled or corrupted observer would call victories.
In other words, our leadership and our media have great difficulty thinking outside the military box, and therefore they tend to ignore peaceful alternatives in conflict situations. Their political imagination is blinkered, in such a way as to incline the response to situations of conflict to select military instruments no matter how dysfunctional these may. This is a most disturbing situation if it is a generally accurate commentary on how our leadership approaches these issues of international peace and security.
Let me now consider directly some of the ideological infrastructure of this unconditionally pro-Israeli approach that has been adopted by our government. I think there are three main ‘myths’ that have been widely disseminated so as to constitute conventional wisdom, yet are essentially misleading. The first is that the Jewish people, having endured the Holocaust, have long been persecuted and that only when Jews act from strength can the Jewish people find security in a world that remains essentially anti-semitic. And besides that, in addition to that sense of permanent victimization, is the coupled belief that the only political language that the Arab world understands is the language of force. So it is this complementary set of ideas that shapes this first myth: when Jews are weak and passive, they have been mercilessly persecuted; but when they are strong and use their power aggressively, they are respected and their existed is treated as a valuable asset for others.
I think that such an outlook, admittedly in a somewhat exaggerated form, is being expressed by Israel’s current leadership, particularly by Netanyahu and Lieberman. In a recent essay in the New York Review of Books, David Shulman, who is a widely known and admired Israeli peace activist, conveyed a similar understanding: “Like many Israelis, he (Netanyahu) inhabits a world where evil forces are just about to annihilate the Jews, who must strike back in daring and heroic ways to snatch their life from the jaws of death. I think that like many other Israelis, he is in love with such a world and would reinvent it even if there was no serious threat from outside.”
I believe that this sense of political paranoia, coupled with a stereotyping of the Arab adversary as disposed toward violence unless faced with greater violence, explains a lot about the mentality that has emerged in Israel. Almost everything is wrong with such a stance, including that it greatly undervalues the relevance of peaceful diplomacy, the sort of diplomacy that I just discussed with reference to Iran. Those who subscribe to this first myth become unduly distrustful of genuine efforts to achieve peace by compromise and normalization, and thinking that does move in a political zone that is not dominated by militarist analysis and understanding is discredited. So I think there are many things wrong with such an approach, and its prevalence helps explain this willingness by the United States over the years to subsidize such a world view that is excessively militarist and has made the relationship with Israel unnecessarily costly in a number of different ways.
Peter Beinart challenges this myth in his important recent book The Crisis of Zionism. Beinart is himself an ardent Zionist, but what he persuasively argues is we need a new American Jewish narrative, built around this basic truth: Jews are not history’s permanent victims. To perpetuate this identity as victim is a choice partly being made by the victim and does not fit the world situation that now confronts Israel. Jewish victimization not in any sense a matter of destiny or necessity, and to rely on such an identity in order to justify the victimization of the Palestinians is neither morally acceptable nor politically viable.
A second widely endorsed explanation of this special American relationship is that Israel is the only democracy in the region, which is what you hear sanctimoniously declaimed so often in the halls of Congress – [laughter from the audience] – although you don’t often hear this asserted greeted with such welcome laughter. There are several things wrong with such a generalization. At least since the Arab Spring of 2011, it’s no longer accurate to not recognize that Tunisia and possibly Egypt as at least have become fledgling democracies that are operating within a framework of respect for law and fundamental human rights. These countries have seriously problems, but they are definitely moving toward establishing democracies after engaging in largely peaceful revolutionary movements. Even before the Arab Spring Turkey had established a successful democratic governing system that was also economically extremely robust and pursuing a foreign policy that has resulted in the Turkish leader becoming by far the most respected political leader in the Middle East, and has led Turkey to be the most admired country outside of the Western world. It certainly no longer fits the reality, that Israel is the only democratic country in the region, even if one does not cast doubt upon Israel’s claim to be ‘democratic.’
And if you are more in touch with the circumstances of Israel, you would realize that Israel in many respects doesn’t deserve to be called a democratic county. Not only is it not the only democracy– it may be a democracy at all. There exist at least 26 separate laws in Israel that discriminate against the Palestinian minority living there, which is 1.5 million people or 20 percent of the total population. So it’s a very serious thing to claim, to paper over the reality of this discriminatory structure that has been present in Israel since its inception. The Palestinian minority in Israel are at best second-class citizens and in many ways are living with increasing vulnerability and in an atmosphere where they’re not wanted, in a state that is proclaiming itself as dedicated to the purification, to the ethnic purification of the population, with the goal of making Israel as Jewish as possible in all its dimensions.
In addition to this pattern of discrimination, Israel’s democratic credentials are tarnished by its the consistent defiance of international law. It is one of the characteristics of a democratic society in the 21st century that it shows respect for international law and international institutions. Israel rejected without bothering to give its own version of the legal issues a nearly unanimous of the International Court of Justice in 2004 declaring that the separation wall built on Palestinian occupied territory was unlawful, should be dismantled, and Palestinians compensated. It’s very rare to have a 14-1 decision rendered by the International Court of Justice. The judges come from all over the world. This was a clear case when it comes to deciding the legal issues present, there was not room for responsible legal dissent. I am sure that you can guess which country the one dissenting judge came from, and of course, you would be right.
But what should have been embarrassing, again from the picture of this Israeli bias that has crept into all corners of our public life, is that the U.S. Government rejected the International Court of Justice’s opinion even before Israel did, seemingly eager to demonstrate that it was more pro-Israeli than Israel itself. And Washington did the same thing after the release of the Goldstone Report on the Gaza war of 2008-2009. Contrary to Israeli this was a very balanced report that identified with clarity those battlefield practices Israel relied upon that were inconsistent with international law. From my perspective the report was actually quite pro-Israeli. It overlooked some very important Palestinian issues, such as the fact that the civilian population of Gaza was locked into the combat zone during the war. This is very unusual. It meant that Palestinians were not permitted to become refugees, they were not allowed to leave the combat zone, which both cruel and harmful to the civilian population, as well as violative of Israel’s obligation to the people of Gaza in its continuing role as the occupying power.
Another example of the Israel disregard of international law involved the Turkish ship, Mavi Marmara, in May of 2010. At that time Israeli naval commandos attacked a humanitarian ship that was trying to bring medical supplies to Gaza that were very much needed and was trying to challenge a blockade that was a form of collective punishment that is itself a war crime prohibited by Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. And so in a way this defiance of international law and the support that the U.S. has consistently given to such defiance is one further expression of the degree to which American foreign policy cannot fulfill its national ideals because of this readiness to exempt Israel from criticism, despite the fact that we have provided Israel with so much military and economic assistance, and should at least be able to voice our opinions to uphold national interests and core values.
The third of these myths that I wanted to bring to our attention is a kind of hard-power myth, that Israel is the most reliable and important strategic ally possessed by the United States in the Middle East, which is crucial because the region contains such a large percentage of the world’s proven energy reserves. In my view this is a complete misunderstanding of the best means to ensure positive relations with the oil-producing countries in the region. Such a goal could be far better realized if the U.S. were to pursue a balanced approach to the conflict and exerted pressure on Israel to solve the conflict in conformity with respect for the rights of the Palestinians under international law, and thereby help establish conditions needed for a sustainable peace.
In other words, this idea that Israel is so important as a strategic ally is another misinterpretation, it seems to me, of security in the 21st century, because it identifies conflates security with military superiority. There is no question that Israel is the strongest military power in the region, and that its power can be thought of as an addition to American military power. The misunderstanding arises from the belief that security can be achieved by reliance on military superiority. Such a belief was more or less true in the nineteenth century, and it was generally accurate before the anti-colonial movement succeeded, but it isn’t true in the world as it’s constituted today. This change helps us understand why military superiority has generally not produced favorable political outcomes in the major conflicts of the last 75 years. More than ever military capabilities can destroy unlimited amounts of physical structures and kill people, but it can rarely control the political outcome of long and deep conflicts. Military agency is not how history is moving in the 21st century, and as long as we try to ignore the populist movement of history by continuing to believe in the military foundations of security, we will find ourselves more and more mystified by political frustrations in actual conflict situations.
The United States has never been militarily stronger in its history relative to the rest of the world, from a military perspective, yet at the same time never more insecure. It’s this disjunction that our leaders and citizens have yet to comprehend, and therefore our country has been unable to act globally in a rational fashion, unable to uphold its own security. I would revert to the approach being taken to Iran’s supposed program to acquire nuclear weapons as emblematic of this utter failure to understand both the limits of military superiority and the nonviolent alternatives to it that are most often more effective. Both sides of this 21st century reality are important in my view, and neither is being acted upon in an appropriate manner in American foreign policy, and the consequences are most unfortunate.
Beyond these features of the global setting, the absurdly one-sided relationship with Israel has damaged greatly U.S. credibility as a trusted global leader. It has reinforced an image of this country as hypocritical, exploitative, overbearing, and a purveyor of double standards. Activists who were participating in the Arab Spring movements made clear their insistence on gaining distance from the United States. One of the few shared element across was that the Arab publics were not only were eager to get rid of their domestic tyrants, but they also were intent in not having any successor political arrangement restore American influence in their governing process. So the American regional global role was seen in a largely negative way. This was due in large part to the American complicity in the denial to the Palestinian of their fundamental rights.
So what I’m trying above all to express is that the relationship to Israel has reinforced an independent militarist turn in this country that derives from the existence of a permanent war economy that came into being during World War II and persisted during the long Cold War. This wartime atmosphere produced a militarist bureaucracy, what Eisenhower 50 years ago tried to warn the American people about, what he called the military-industrial complex. A government that has become bureaucratized in a way that is biased toward adopting military approaches to problem-solving cannot be reconciled over time with maintaining the inner spirit of democratic government. The militarist turn creates a constant emphasis on security threats and generates fear of and hatred toward enemies, real and imagined. This leads to perceived justifications for many encroachments upon freedoms at home. The post 9-11 period has been dramatically illustrative of the unfortunate domestic consequences of militarizing security.
What I’m trying to convey is that a dominant mentality has emerged out of this long process of militarization that is crippling the national political and moral imaginations. It disables the country from pursuing a rational and moral course that is compatible with the particular challenges of our new century. The relationship with Israel is an extreme version, as well as being a microcosm of a much broader problem that makes it so difficult for the country at this stage to find workable and humane solutions for problems at home and abroad.
I want to say, before bringing these remarks to an end, that there are several important developments in relation to the Palestinian conflict that should be noticed by people such as yourselves who care about these issues, but also to remind us that our understanding of this conflict is filtered through an extremely biased media and an extremely one-sided government set of responses. These atmospheric factors deprive us of the opportunity to think for ourselves about what’s happening in this conflict.
The developments that I wanted to mention briefly are illustrative of this. The first of these is the almost total disillusionment with international negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority as at all relevant to a just resolution of the conflict. This mood of disillusionment is widespread, and for different reasons, is on both sides of the fence, Israel and Palestine. I want to point out is that time is not neutral as between the parties. The Israelis have used the failed negotiations ever since 1993, when the so-called Oslo framework was accepted, to gradually annex significant portions of the West Bank and to change the demographic character of West Jerusalem.
In other words, the Palestinians have lost and the Israelis have gained by the absence of progress during several decades of negotiations. Therefore, it has come to seem like a fool’s errand to continue to participate in such a game, at least from the Palestinian side. The most widely respected political leader, Marwan Barghouti, recently made a call from his prison cell to, what saying to his people, “give up the farce of the peace process” and negotiations and have recourse to massive nonviolent resistance. I find this sensible advice.
The second development that both follows from and was really anticipated prior to what Barghouti had to say, is to take proper note of the dramatic turn on the part of Palestinian activists, including its more radical elements, such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, toward nonviolence. What I would emphasize consistent with my theme is that you would have to be a reader of online, marginal publication to have any awareness of this trend. The media blackout should be shocking in view of the earlier discrediting of Palestinian resistance precisely because it was violent and had targeted those who were innocent.
It’s not only that for several years the Palestinians have essentially given up armed resistance, although not totally or with a principled rationale. Palestinian militia groups in Gaza have retaliated periodically when Israel has attacked or assassinated their leaders. These responses have been largely symbolic as the rockets and mortars used have been too inaccurate to cause much harm, although they do generate fear in the Israeli communities within range, and represent unacceptable tactics. The basic Palestinian political strategy is evidenced by how they have resisted for some years the construction of this unlawful separation wall. It has been exclusively by reliance on peaceful demonstrations that have been carried on courageously every week for seven years and have remained nonviolent despite enduring considerable Israeli violence that has produced death and injury. Palestinians and international solidarity groups, including some from Israel, have tried to break the blockade of Gaza by way of the Free Gaza Movement that is essentially a civil society initiative that seeks peacefully to challenge an unlawful regime of blockade that governments and the UN have not been able to do anything about except denounce. And Palestinian NGOs have initiated the global boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign, which is growing in strength and geographic reach and has had an increasing tangible effect on Israeli trade and investment.
And most, perhaps, impressive of all, Palestinians have recently challenged the use of imprisonment and administrative detention through a series of remarkable hunger strikes, which have gone almost completely unreported by the American media. We hear endlessly about Chinese human rights activists or about those that challenge the situation in Tibet, and we should hear about them—I am not suggesting that we shouldn’t – but these hunger strikes, currently there’s one Palestinian who’s a soccer star that’s been on a hunger strike for over 82 days, which is 16 days longer than Bobby Sands’ famous IRA hunger strike unto death back in 1981, and yet there is a complete blackout in the media
In stark contrast, the IRA hunger strike was covered on a daily basis. This anti-Palestinian media bias involves a double movement that has had a distorting effect on American public opinion: a politics of invisibility so far as Palestinian initiatives are concerned and Palestinian grievances are concerned, and there’s a politics of magnification as soon as the Palestinians engage in anything wrong. This style of reportage creates an unreal appreciation of what the circumstances, the existing circumstances are. And this damage is, I think, magnified further by the internal drift of Israeli politics, which has gone further and further in the direction of an expansionist, non-interest in a compromise, no feeling of pressure that there is any need to compromise with the Palestinians so as to reach an agreed solution. David Shulman, in this same essay that I quoted from before, said that what has happened in Israel is a take-over by the settler mini-state of the central institutions of the Israeli state system as a whole.
And this development should be regarded as quite alarming, because the whole settler movement has been premised from its outset on a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law. Article 49, Paragraph 6 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits transfer of population from an occupying country to the occupied country, an interpretation that is shared by virtually every government in the world.
So the whole settlement phenomenon is an affront to international law, and the fact that the Palestinian Authority has to be apologetic when they ask for a suspension or freeze of the settlement activity during direct negotiations suggests how distorted our expectations have become as to what is reasonable to expect. And for Netanyahu to be praised when a partial freeze was agreed to for a few months in the West Bank, which wasn’t observed in practice anyway, reinforces this sense that the United States Government is incapable of objective analysis and thought when it comes to addressing the conflict.
There is a further development that I think is important to realize and again has not received much commentary, and that is: American society, much more so than five years ago, I think would be ready to accept a balanced approach to the conflict. It’s the Beltway, that is official Washington, that is completely organized by AIPAC and by the right-wing evangelical movements, in such a way as to not only prevent a balanced approach, but to discourage a serious debate as to what might work equitably and effectively. It’s an extreme distortion that was I think dramatized for anyone who observed the wildly enthusiastic reception that Netanyahu received in the U.S. Congress a few months ago, a reception more favorable than would be accorded any leader of any other country in the world.
So what I’m really saying is that American society cannot find ways at the present time to translate its changed sentiments about the conflict, more desire for a more balanced approach, can’t translate this willingness into policy. There is this growing gap between what the government is doing and what the society would accept. And that is a challenge to all of us, I think, to exert pressure to close this gap.
Let me end with a couple of quotes and a reference to the challenge that we face in light of these circumstances. A famous, or celebrated, Jewish thinker and rabbi, Abraham Heschel, said “Few are guilty, but all are responsible.” And I think we as Americans have a particular responsibility. Our funds, taxpayer funds, are used to subsidize this unlawful and cruel occupation, this drift toward promiscuous Israeli and American militarism that is endangering the stability of the region. And there are opportunities to do things. We can certainly be more active in informing our representatives that the American people want a more balanced and truthful policy. We can do things to support the BDS movements in our communities, and I know there have been some initiatives here in Washington. We can certainly object to the sale of products that were made in the settlements and to corporations that profit from their dealings with occupied Palestine. We can also do our best to influence the media presentation of this conflict and oppose military assistance to Israel.
Israel has become a prosperous country with a high standard of living that should be taken into account in shaping U.S. policy. The continuation of lavish economic assistance despite the fiscal troubles here makes no sense, and considering that such funds are subsidizing Israeli militarism makes these contributions a real scandal, or should a policy that deserves to be treated as a real scandal.
Albert Einstein made many illuminating remarks on the human condition, and one of them fits with the tenor of my concluding sentiments: “Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” I think that we need to do our best to avoid such deference to authority to overcome the weight of conventional thinking on these issues, to get around the distortions of government policy, and to do something to correct for the biased media filter that gives us such a selective presentation of the facts as the conflict unfolds. And if you ask what is truth is this situation, I think it is getting to understand the experience and the facts as accurately as possible with as little interference from biased sources as can be achieved.
I think we are all challenged to do our part. I feel that the Palestinian people have displayed great courage and steadfastness, and they do need courage, and have expressed that courage in a variety of ways, that I find inspirational. We who are on the outside do not need courage but we do need commitment, thereby to strengthen a compassionate attachment to their struggle, the only path to a just peace for both peoples. Thank you very much.
Author's note: I am posting the edited and slightly modified transcript of a talk given on the evening of June 8, 2012 at the University Temple Methodist Church in Seattle. The actual talk is available via YouTube. It is published here in response to several requests. Comments of course welcome.
http://fwd4.me/13Xb
Author of The Color Purple refuses to authorize Hebrew version because 'Israel is guilty of apartheid'
Alice Walker says Israeli policies were 'worse' than the segregation she suffered as an American youth and said South Africans had told her it was worse than Apartheid.
Alice Walker, author of “The Color Purple,” refused to authorize a Hebrew translation of her prize-winning work, citing what she called Israel’s “apartheid state.”
In a June 9 letter to Yediot Books, Walker said she would not allow the publication of the book into Hebrew because “Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories.”
In her letter, posted Sunday by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel on its website, Walker supported the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and offered her hope that the BDS movement “will have enough of an impact on Israeli civilian society to change the situation.”
It was not clear when Yediot Books, an imprint of the daily Yediot Achronot newspaper, made the request, or whether Walker could in fact stop translation of the book. At least one version of the book has already appeared in Hebrew translation, in the 1980s.
Walker said Israeli policies were “worse” than the segregation she suffered as an American youth and said South Africans had told her it was worse than Apartheid.
“The Color Purple,” which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was adapted into a movie in 1985 directed by Jewish filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
The novel and the film, which was nominated for 11 Oscars, treat racism in the American South in the first part of the 20th century and sexism among blacks.
Walker has intensified her anti-Israel activism in recent years, traveling to the Gaza Strip to advocate on behalf of the Palestinians.
http://fwd4.me/13XS 23 jun 2012, 16:35 , Respect -
Maria 20 juni 2012
The Hard Life of Muslim Terrorists in Israeli Prison
Beit Shemesh: Woman attacked for dressing 'immodestly'
Haredim hurl stone at woman's car, smash vehicle's windowpane, police confirm. Woman emerges unscathed.
Haredim hurled a stone at a female car driver in Beit Shemesh on Wednesday, Ynet has learned. Vered Daniel's windshield was smashed but the she emerged unharmed, police confirmed. The attack apparently a response to her allegedly "immodest" attire.
Police have launched an investigation but no suspects have been traced thus far.
"My heart was pounding and all I wanted to do was get out of there," Daniel described her ordeal. "I was terrified. I had my baby with me."
Daniel told Ynet she arrived in Beit Shemesh to purchase a stroller, for her seven-month-old twins. "I was opening the trunk – I was on the phone – when I was pelted. Soon, actual rocks followed. I was helpless."
Two religious women exiting a nearby store rushed to the car to help Daniel get her daughter out of the way and all of them then ran back to the store to take cover.
According to Daniel, 10 minutes later the women helped her back to the car, and she was attempting to drive away when she was stoned once more.
"These were massive rocks. I held my hands up, I indicated that I was leaving, but they wouldn’t stop."
She further noted that her supposedly "immodest clothing" was a baggy, long black dress. "I knew where I was going and I took special care not to wear anything short or tight."
Beit Shemesh became notorious earlier this year after numerous reports began to surface about humiliation of and violence against women in the city.
Earlier this month, it was reported that a local supermarket had instructed its customers to dress in a modest manner and provided them with black gowns. The Osher Ad supermarket later removed the signs.
Six months ago, a woman was lightly hurt after being attacked in the city by dozens of haredim.
"They shattered all the windshields and threw stones at me. I begged them to stop, I promised to leave, but they wouldn't let me go," she later recounted.
http://fwd4.me/13hL
MK Anastassia Michaeli: Abortions turn women into lesbians
Last week the Israeli member of parliament angered gay groups and MKs alike by saying 'most gay people commit suicide at 40.'.
MK Anastassia Michaeli (Yisrael Beiteinu) continued her onslaught on homosexuals in an interview for the Israeli daily Maariv that will be published on Thursday.
"Young girls become pregnant and have abortions that hurt their chances to get pregnant in the future, and in the end they become lesbians," Michaeli said in an interview.
"Relationships between a man and a woman should be the norm in the State of Israel. And if some men feel it is the norm to live with a man, to participate in gay pride parades walking down the streets in underwear and even without – this is a breach of morality," Michaeli is quoted as saying. "This is an attack on children's rights, an attack on family rights, and an attack on women's rights. It is violent and vulgar content. It is ignorant and a completely unacceptable perversion."
Last week Michaeli angered gay groups and MKs alike by saying "most gay people commit suicide at 40." She accused Israel's Channel 10 of presenting homosexuality falsely. "When I turn on the channel, I see so-called entertainment shows on how nice it is to be gay. They suffer sexual harassment at a very young age, and it deteriorates from there."
In her interview with Sherry Makover-Balikov for Maariv's weekend section, Michaeli said she would not apologize. "There are people that will not accept that there are thinking women. If a man would say the same things instead of me, there wouldn't have been such a wide and robust response to it. I expressed my opinion and it should be respected. A sexual preference forms because we don't have enough advertising for normative family values and proper sexual education."
http://fwd4.me/13hK 24 jun 2012, 08:57 , Respect -
Maria 22 juni 2012
this is Israel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HIAmkl_WGI
the Israeli's fascist like treatment of the palestinian people. echo's of the warsaw ghettos.
23 juni 2012
Friends of Israel — Enemies Inside the Gates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UntixeRiEK8
http://fwd4.me/13wn
Tel Aviv protest: Stop anti-gay incitement
Protestors decry statements by politicians, urge 'stinking homophobes to get out of our lives'.
Homophobia, incitement, and hurtful statements by Knesset members were the focus of a "Small Gay Pride Parade" held Saturday night in Tel Aviv.
Some 300 demonstrators marched from Habima Square toward the Barnoar club, where three years ago Lizzie Trubeshi and Nir Katz were shot to death – in protest of recent anti-gay and lesbian remarks.
The demonstrators waved gay pride flags and spoke out against Yisrael Beiteinu MK Anastassia Michaeli, who recently made headlines with her assertions that "homosexuals are pitiful and kill themselves at 40" and that "lesbians are women who've had abortions."
In addition, marchers bore signs reading: "I'm a proud lesbian; I didn't have an abortion"; "Stinking homophobes, get out of our lives"; "Anastassia Michaeli – I don't like homophobia" and "Gays don't have horns."
Yair Hochner, 37, who directs the gay and lesbian film festival, told Ynet that "we oppose all the incitement by right-wing MKs. The only thing that's strange here is Anastassia Michaeli and her friends."
B, an officer in the IDF reserves, who marched in uniform and waved a rainbow flag, added that "it would be better for Anastassia to work for unification and love among different sectors of the population and stop looking for Arabs or gays to hate."
Another marcher, Shiri (23), said that "Michaeli's remarks were hurtful and make you feel that if you don't live in a normative family, you don't have the right to exist. I really hope that most of the public doesn't think like her, but sometimes we encounter this mindset. She doesn't deserve to be an MK."
MK Nitzan Horowitz (Meretz), who spoke at the event, said that "the murdered and the wounded at Barnoar were shot because they were gays and lesbians. They came here to find shelter from the hate that surrounded them. We don't know who the killer was, but we know who is constantly spreading hate and who is undermining our attempts to create a more tolerant society."
Horowitz refused to describe his Knesset cohort Michaeli as "delusional and an aberration."
"They aren't delusional, they are calculating, they flourish in the soil of hate and racism, and anyone who does this has to know that it ends in blood. In the blood of those who are beaten all week long. The prime minister shows off (Israel's gay and lesbian) community to the entire world, but here allows incitement against them."
Tel Aviv City Council member Yaniv Weizman stressed that the participants were there "to say 'enough, the writing is on the wall.' MK Michaeli and MK Ariel and Bibi and Barak and Lieberman, whom we haven't heard from, are the writing on the wall."
Nir Katz' mother, Ayala, also took part in the demonstration, saying that "every person has the right to live his life as he wants, in safety. Freedom of expression isn't freedom to vilify. You might not agree and you might be repulsed, but you don't have legitimacy to invalidate someone."
http://fwd4.me/13yw 25 jun 2012, 10:53 , Respect -
Maria 24 juni 2012
Rights groups: State practices 'zoning Apartheid'
Sansana settlement
Left-leaning groups accuse Civil Administration of grossly discriminating against Palestinians seeking to build in West Bank.
Civil rights groups advocating for Palestinian residents of the Israeli-controlled territories of the West Bank have accused the State of discriminating against villages seeking to expand.
For nearly two decades, a temporary agreement between Israel and the Palestinians has allowed the Jewish state to maintain full control of Area C, a territory that stretches across 62% of the West Bank and is inhabited by 50,000 Palestinians and over 300,000 Jewish settlers.
NGOs that include the Association for Human Rights in Israel (ACRI) and the Bimkom organization claim that the Civil Administration, which governs the territory, applies unequal policies to Palestinians and Jews in the area, branding the practice as a "zoning Apartheid."
Settler groups deny the charges, saying that the claims are nothing but a cheap attempt to grab Israeli land.
Palestinians go unrepresented
Village of Cardala
Alon Lifshitz, an architect at Bimkom, an organization that promotes equal planning rights, has said the administration has approved hundreds of plans allowing for the establishment of new settlements and expansion of existing ones, while almost entirely barring Palestinians from developing their towns across Area C.
While the IDF has special planning committees for settlements, no such committees exist for the Palestinians. Palestinian planning councils were eliminated by the IDF in 1971, leaving the sector unrepresented in the army the managers their land.
"Some of the settlements prefer to build in areas located hundreds of meters away, thus seizing land and expanding even though they have space to build new homes near the existing ones," Lifshitz said.
Take for example the town of Sansana, which was initially presented as a neighborhood in the Eshkolot settlement even though it was located three kilometers away. Or the so-called neighborhoods of Alon and Nofei Porat, which were built at a distance of 700 meters and 500 meters respectively from their supposed base settlement, Kfar Adumim.
Meanwhile, applications for construction permits made in the '90s by residents of Cardala, a 320-strong village built between two larger towns, were denied by the Civil Administration.
Another attempt to obtain planning authorization, led recently by the ACRI, failed as well. The administration claimed that Cardala was ineligible for expansion because it was located within 500 meters of the larger town of Bardala, which still has land suitable for housing, as does the nearby Tel al-Baida.
"The administration's response is unacceptable," said Attorney Raghad Jaraisy of ACRI. "This is not a new village, but one that already has water and electricity infrastructure. The administration has a duty, as per the international humanitarian law, to protect the lives of the occupied territory's residents, and to make changes in a manner that would raise their quality of life."
The Rabbis for Human Rights organization has recently petitioned the High Court of Justice to restore the Palestinian rights to build in Area C. The matter has also drawn criticism from the international community, with the European Union issuing damning reports over what it claims are discriminatory policies.
'Cynical attempt to grab land'
The Civil Administration refused to comment, but the Regavim organization, which monitors Palestinian construction in the West Bank, dismissed the rights groups' claims as "devoid of truth." If discriminatory practices exist, the organization's representatives said, they are directed against the Jewish settlers in the area. While the planning procedures for Israelis are marred in length bureaucracy, special regulations speed up the process for Palestinians.
"There is no law or an international duty that requires Israel to allow the Palestinians to live wherever they like," a spokesperson for Regavim said. "On the contrary, the international law requires Israel to maintain a professional planning system that benefits all of the area's residents.
"The claims made by ACRI and Bimkom are nothing more than cheap demagoguery and a cynical attempt to abuse international law to aid the Palestinians to take over more land in Area C."
"The groups should reveal the true political motives behind their actions instead of hiding behind the false premise of concern for human rights," he added.
http://fwd4.me/140z
US, Israel losing control over Arab world: Analyst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj1xZPbOVBs
The US and Israel have been losing their grip over the developments of the Middle East and North Africa following the rise of Islamic Awakening movement in the region, a political analyst tells Press TV.
“The balance of power is tilting. The United States of America is losing control in the Arab world. They cannot even sustain their position like last year. They are losing to the masses and losing to the resistance,” said Saeb Shaath, author and Middle East expert from Northern Ireland’s capital of Belfast, in a Saturday interview.
“There are rising powers and their facing the United States of America and the Zionist domination in the Middle East and they’re going to lose at some stage,” he added.
Shaath pointed to the behind-the-scene efforts hijack the Arab revolution and noted that such scheme are doomed to failure, arguing that the people who managed to overthrow the former authoritarian regimes are still capable of toppling any other puppet regime.
“The counter- revolution [plans] … in different areas of the Arab world is going to fail. A revolution doesn’t take a day, a month or a year, it takes more than that,” the analyst pointed out.
Since early 2011, a tide of popular uprisings and revolutions has swept across the Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
The developments have so far led to three revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya.
Many observers contend that the growing tide of Islamic Awakening has been inspired by Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979.
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Roadmap to Apartheid (Extended Trailer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8N0zgoBdVh4
'Rioters crossed every possible red line'
Morning after unprecedented socioeconomic riots in Tel Aviv, police gear to file charges against 20 protesters; say violence planned 'to get media attention'.
The police intend to file criminal charges against 20 protests who were arrested Saturday night during the violent demonstration in Tel Aviv, Ynet learned Sunday.
Some 85 people were arrested throughout the night, after social activists in Tel Aviv clashed with police across the city, blocked traffic, shattered and charged into banks in unprecedented socioeconomic riots.
Police sources told Ynet that intelligence indicated that rioters were intending to torch tires in various locations across Tel Aviv. One cache of tires was found in a building close to the main protest rally.
Yarkon Subdistrict Police Commander Yoram Ohayon denied the activists' claim of excessive police force, saying that the rioters broke the law and left the police little choice when it came to maintaining public order.
"Two of the rallies did not have permits but we had every intention of allowing them – we even made sure traffic was undisturbed during the early stages of the rally on Ibn Gvirol (Street).
"The problems began when the rioters strayed into the street, started stoning the forces, egging them and then vandalized the banks," he said.
"We have to enforce the law," he continued. "Protests are legitimate and we will allow them as long as they are held within the law. If we didn’t initiate arrests we would have seen looting as well.
"The rioters crossed every possible red line. I couldn’t believe this could happen in Israel. We were very close to seeing the harsh sights we see in violent rallies overseas, here."
Another police source said that "There is no doubt that this was planned. The protesters recent moves got very little attention and they realized that the only way to get headlines is violence."
http://fwd4.me/13yy
Violent protests in Tel Aviv; banks vandalized
Social protest turns violent: Demonstrators shatter windows in Tel Aviv, charge into banks; clashes between activists, police reported at several sites. Riots follow rally against police violence; 85 arrested.
Violent night in Tel Aviv: Social activists in Tel Aviv clashed with police across the city Saturday evening, at one point shattering windows and charging into banks in what is shaping up as unprecedented socioeconomic riots. Some 85 people were arrested throughout the night.
The night started with a rally against police violence, as some 2,000 protestors gathered in Tel Aviv's Habima Square a day after 12 activists were detained by police during a social protest.
The demonstrators claimed police used uncalled for violence during Friday's rally, holding up signs reading "Don't touch my body, I have a right to speak up" and "Dear police officer, please don’t disrupt this citizen in performing his duty."
Soon after, violent clashes erupted at various locations across Tel Aviv, including at banks near the city's Rabin Square. Protestors shattered windows at some banks, in one case making their way into the bank with a tent, the symbol of last year's housing protest, and barricading themselves inside.
Elsewhere, eggs were hurled at the Tel Aviv City Hall building. Protestors were also said to be heading towards the Arlozorov train station.
'Freedom is ours'
According to police, windows were shattered in at least five bank branches. Some protestors chanted slogans slamming the ties between Israeli politicians and industrialists.
Protestors blocked one of the city's main streets, Ibn Gvirol, and later also managed to halt traffic on the southbound lanes of the Ayalon Freeway.
Riot police attempted to contain he riots and keep roads clear of protestors, who kept on blocking traffic. More than 20 demonstrators were held for questioning by police. At one point, detainees were forced onto a bus by officers and taken away from the scene.
Attorney Barak Cohen, who said he was beat up by police officers and broke his nose, told Ynet that "we came here to make it clear to police that freedom is ours and not theirs."
"They can use forceful means, at most. They would never be able to touch our soul, which is drenched with freedom," he said. "They can only put our body in detention."
Stav Shaffir, one of the leaders of last year's social protest, told Ynet that "while we're struggling for what we've been fighting for throughout the year, we realized there's another struggle, a great one, for democracy."
"It's embarrassing to see the State of Israel using violent means and beating up protestors," she said.
Tel Aviv District Police Commander Aharon Aksol described the events: "When we arrived at Ibn Gvirol Street that group – which I call a group of violent offenders rather that a group of social protesters – began breaking into banks. That group does not represent social protest.
"We refrained from using force and did our best to allow the protest, despite the fact that it was an illegal protest. This was done with the sole purpose of provoking the officers for the sake of rating and we will not stand for it. Every possible red line was crossed here. We will pursue this to the full extent of the law." he said.
Aksol added that the police will "Allow anyone who wants to protest to do so as long as they abide the law."
http://fwd4.me/13yx
Israel witnesses renewed mass protest
Undated photo of last-year protest in Israel
The Israeli police have arrested almost 100 demonstrators in Tel Aviv as thousands of people protested in the city against social injustice and the police’s excessive use of force.
More than 6,500 people gathered in and around Tel Aviv's Habima Square on Saturday night.
The police clashed with protesters who blocked main thoroughfares in the city center.
The protesters shouted slogans against Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The rally took place one day after the police arrested 12 activists when protesters tried to reestablish a tent camp on the Rothschild Boulevard, the scene of a mass encampment in favor of social injustice protests one year ago.
Activist Dafni Leef was one of the detainees. She was one of the leaders of the social protest movement launched last summer.
Leef's lawyer said that the protest leader had been wounded during her arrest.
The opposition said police forces were employing repressive measures to prevent a rerun of last year’s protests, during which dozens of tent camps sprung up in major cities.
In July 2011, Leef, along with a group of young people, set up several tents on the boulevard to demand social justice and protest the high cost of living in Israel.
The protest action sparked a massive anti-regime movement, which swept Israel for several months.
The demonstrations rattled Netanyahu’s cabinet.
http://fwd4.me/13yk...Read more 26 jun 2012, 21:06 , Respect -
Maria 25 juni 2012
Netanyahu urges action on Iran after meeting Putin
By Gleb Bryanski
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday it was time to ramp up sanctions against Iran to try to curb its nuclear program after discussing the matter with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In his first public comments on the inconclusive round of talks in Moscow last week between world powers and Iran, Netanyahu repeated Israel's three core demands.
"I believe two things must be done now: strengthening the sanctions and also boosting the demands," Netanyahu said, without mentioning the possibility of Israeli military action should diplomacy fail.
The international community must call for the cessation of all uranium enrichment in Iran, the removal of all enriched uranium from the country and the dismantling of the Furdow underground nuclear facility, he added.
At the Moscow talks, Russia, the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany set no date for further political negotiations.
Last month, and again in the Russian capital, world powers asked Iran to close the Furdow facility where uranium is being enriched to 20-percent fissile purity, and to ship any stocks out of the country, demands that come close to those of Israel.
Israel wants all Iranian uranium enrichment to stop, but is uneasy about the West's current focus on halting only higher-percentage enrichment close to a level needed to produce material for nuclear bombs.
Oil embargo
European governments on Monday formally approved an embargo on Iranian oil to start on July 1. Debt-ridden Greece had pushed for a delay because it relies heavily on Iranian crude to meet its energy needs, but EU governments said the embargo would go ahead as planned.
"We had an opportunity to discuss the negotiations under way between the international community and Iran," Netanyahu said of his meeting with Putin.
"We agree that nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran represents a grave danger, first of all to Israel, but also to the region and to the entire world," he said.
Putin, in his own comments to reporters at Netanyahu's residence, said they discussed Iran's nuclear program and the situation in Syria "in great detail". He did not elaborate.
Russia takes a softer tack than the Western nations and opposes any further sanctions against Iran. Putin has said Russia has no proof that Tehran, which denies it is seeking atomic weapons, intends to become a nuclear-armed power.
His trip to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan is seen as an effort to increase Russia's clout in the region at a time when the West and some Arab nations have criticized Moscow for opposing their efforts to force out Syrian President Bashar Assad.
The visit, officially billed as an opportunity to dedicate a memorial in central Israel to the Red Army's battles against Nazi Germany in World War Two, began a day after the Muslim Brotherhood's Muhammad Mursi was declared the winner of Egypt's presidential election.
The outcome of the poll in Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has raised concerns in Israel.
On Syria, Russia has brushed aside US and Arab calls to stop sending weapons to the government there, saying it supplies only defensive arms. It has also used its veto power in the United Nations Security Council to protect Syria.
Assad has helped Russia keep a foothold in the Middle East by buying billions of dollars worth of weapons and hosting a maintenance facility for the Russian navy, its only permanent warm-water port outside the former Soviet Union.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=498670
Barzani set up Mossad den against Iran in Iraqi Kurdistan: Report
Iraqi Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani
A report says the “autonomous Kurdistan region” in northern Iraq, run by Massoud Barzani, has turned into a safe haven for Mossad spies to conduct their terrorist operations against Iranian nuclear scientists.
The Israeli intelligence service “has apparently even set up a military base in this area and is freely operating there,” fardanews.com reported Sunday.
The Islamic Republic officials have in the past made reference to the fact that the terror operations against Iranians are being directed from neighboring territories.
“The [Israeli] occupier regime of al-Quds (Jerusalem) is exploiting the soil of a region abutting our land and even has a terrorist training base and military site there,” Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said on June 17.
Regional media had previously reported that Mansour Barzani, Massoud’s son, had received two Tel Aviv officials, the Israeli chief of special operations and the coordinator for Israeli-Kurdish relations, in the Kurdistan region.
During their one-and-a-half-hour meeting, the two sides reportedly explored all avenues for increasing bilateral military relations and the ensuing trade with Israel.
On June 21, Moslehi said the architect of the Iranian nuclear scientists’ assassinations had been identified and apprehended, adding that the arrest had dealt a heavy blow to Western intelligence services.
A week earlier, Iran's Intelligence Ministry announced the capture of the main elements behind the assassination of two Iranian nuclear scientists - Majid Shahriari and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan - and Reza Qashqaei, the driver of the latter scientist.
Ahmadi Roshan and his driver were assassinated in January 2012 after an unknown motorcyclist attached a magnet bomb to his car in Tehran.
Professor Shahriari and Dr. Fereydoun Abbasi were targeted by terrorist attacks on November 29, 2010; Shahriari was killed immediately and Dr. Abbasi, the current head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, sustained injuries.
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Egypt's Mursi says wants to expand Iran ties
Mohamed Morsi Egypt's new president
DUBAI (Reuters) -- Egypt's Islamist President-elect Muhammad Mursi said in an interview with Iran's Fars news agency published on Monday that he wanted to expand ties with Tehran to create a strategic "balance" in the region.
Diplomatic relations between the two countries have been severed for more than 30 years, but both sides have signaled a shift in policy since former president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown last year in a popular uprising.
Fars quoted Mursi as saying better relations with Tehran "will create a balance of pressure in the region, and this is part of my program."
Mursi's comments may unsettle Western powers as they seek to isolate Iran over its disputed nuclear program, which they suspect Tehran is using to build atomic bombs. They cautiously welcomed the democratic process that led to Mursi's election, but made clear Egypt's stability was their main priority.
Fars said he was speaking a few hours before the result of the Egyptian election was announced on Sunday, and that a full version of the interview would be published later.
Asked to comment on reports that, if elected, his first state visit would be to Iran's regional arch-rival Saudi Arabia, Mursi said: "I didn't say such a thing and until now my first international visits following my victory in the elections have not been determined."
Mursi's victory over former general Ahmed Shafiq in Egypt's first free presidential election was subsequently hailed by Iran as a "splendid vision of democracy" that marked the final phase of an "Islamic Awakening".
Mainly Sunni Muslim Egypt and predominantly Shiite Iran are among the biggest and most influential countries in the Middle East, but they have had no formal ties since 1980, following Iran's Islamic Revolution and Egypt's recognition of Israel.
Egypt's foreign minister said last year that Cairo was ready to re-establish diplomatic relations with Iran, which has championed most Arab Spring uprisings as anti-Western rebellions inspired by its own Islamic Revolution in 1979.
But it has steadfastly supported Syrian President Bashar Assad, Tehran's closest Arab ally, who is grappling with a revolt against his rule, and at home it has continued to nullify demands for reform, which spilled into the street following the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=498467
Netanyahu: Israel, Russia agree on Iran
Jerusalem, Moscow agree that Iranian nukes would constitute grave danger, PM Netanyahu says following meeting with Putin; two leaders addressed Iran issue in detail, Russian president says.
A beautiful friendship? Israel and Russia agree that Iranian nuclear weapons would constitute grave danger for the Jewish state and for the whole world, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday following his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"I believe that we should be doing two things now: Boosting the sanctions (on Iran) and also boosting the demands," Netanyahu said.
Earlier Monday, President Shimon Peres greeted Putin in a dedication ceremony for a memorial to the Red Army’s victory over Nazi Germany in Netanya. Peres said he is certain that Russia, which fought fascism, will not tolerate similar threats, "not an Iranian threat and not bloodshed in Syria."
Signal to Egypt
During the press conference, Netanyahu also addressed regional realities, referring to the Islamist victory in Egypt's presidential elections.
The PM said that Israel "appreciates the democratic process in Egypt" and respects the Egyptian election results.
"We look forward to working together with the new administration on the basis of the peace agreement between us," Netanyahu said. "I believe peace is important for Israel. I believe peace is important for Egypt."
Meanwhile, President Putin addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, asserting that "against the backdrop of events in the Middle East, it is important to resolve longtime conflicts."
"We urge all sides to renew negotiations; this is the only way to resolve the problem," the Russian president said.
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Russia reiterates opposition to foreign interference in Syria
Russian President Vladimir Putin has once again warned against any foreign intervention in Syria while on a rare visit to the Middle East.
“From the very beginning of the so-called Arab Spring, Russia has been persuading its partners that democratic changes should take place in a civilized manner and without external intervention,” Putin said after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in East al-Quds (Jerusalem) on Monday, AFP reported.
He also called on all sides involved in the Syrian crisis to return to the negotiating table, adding that he considered negotiations as the only solution to the ongoing crisis in the Arab country.
He stressed that all disputes should be resolved on the basis of international law, saying "it is unacceptable to think of mutual destruction,” regardless of who is voicing such threats.
Moscow is pushing for an international conference on Syria and has already discussed the plan with some countries including Iran, Iraq and Jordan as well as the European Union.
Russia and China, two permanent members of the UN Security Council, have already vetoed two Western-backed UN draft resolutions against Syria.
The Russian president is also scheduled to meet acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday to discuss stalled Israeli-Palestinian talks which have been on hold since late September 2010.
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Did IDF troops aid Sinai drug smugglers?
Drugs were hidden in spare tire
IDF soldiers, career officers suspected of warning smugglers about army patrols along border.
Amid the escalating tension along Israel's southern border, several soldiers and career officers serving in the IDF appear to have aided smugglers in Sinai to sneak in hundreds of thousands of shekels worth of drugs into the Jewish state, according to an army investigation.
On Monday, a military court lifted a gag order to reveal that 15 people have been arrested for alleged involvement in the scheme, including seven soldiers, five non-commissioned officers and three civilians. Some of the suspects also allegedly sold NIS 800,000 (roughly $205,000) worth of the illicit materials.
The secret probe that concluded this past weekend found that the detained soldiers and NCOs, who serve as trackers along Israel's border with Egypt, warned the smugglers in Sinai about upcoming army patrols and ambushes.
Using cell phone calls and text messages, the trackers allegedly informed an Israeli smuggler about unguarded spots on the border. The smuggler then transferred the information to his Egyptian counterparts.
The Military Police fear that some of the smuggling passageways were located near the Gaza Strip. While the investigation focused on the criminal aspect of the operation, the IDF's Southern Command has repeatedly warned that the routes could be – and have been – used by terrorists aided by the same drug smugglers. Last week, a civilian working on the Egypt security fence was killed by terrorists on the border.
The smugglers had to increasingly rely on the information transfers once Israel stepped up efforts to build the border fence.
"The construction of the fence is heading towards completion and as result smuggling locations are growing scarce," Lt. Col. Gil Mamon, who heads the Military Police's special investigations unit.
Undercover agent
As part of the investigation, an undercover agent managed to buy two kilograms of heroin, worth NIS 250,000 (roughly $64,000,) from a dealer on Highway 6, near the southern city of Kiryat Gat. The drugs were hidden inside a faux spare tire loaded on the dealer's car.
According to a senior Military Police official, the detainees admitted to the charges and provided details about the operation. They claimed they received thousands of shekels for each bit of data they provided.
However, attorney Yossi Lin, who represents one of the trackers, said that his client denied any involvement in the scheme.
"My client is an excellent soldier who received two certificates of merit for uncovering explosives in Gaza while risking his life for the State of Israel," he said. "He adamantly denies the charges and he has nothing to do with these violations."
Approximately three kilograms of heroin, over 1,000 ecstasy pills, dozens of kilograms of hashish and half a kilogram of cocaine were sneaked in across the border, making the operation one of the biggest schemes uncovered by the Military Police in recent years, a military source said.
Two civilians, two career officers and a soldiers are suspected of selling the drugs, while the rest are suspected of transferring information and other smuggling violations.
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Israeli newspapers express fears of Islamic rule in Egypt
Israeli newspapers expressed concern about the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi in Egypt's presidential election.
Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper stated that Israel is worried about the arrival of Islamists to power in Egypt in spite of Morsi's pledge to respect the international treaties signed with his country.
In his editorial, Israeli writer Smadar Perry descried the victory of Morsi as a dangerous victory and warned that the new Egyptian president was the head of a committee against Zionism and that Hamas is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood group in Egypt.
For his part, specialist in military affairs Alex Fishman said Israel has to reiterate its position towards the peace treaties with Egypt and to get prepared for all possibilities.
Maariv newspaper also stated that Israel's fear became real after the Muslim Brotherhood group seized power in Egypt and warned that the peace treaty is in danger.
Military affairs expert of Jerusalem Post Yaakov Katz opined that nothing would change in the short term regarding Israel's relations with Egypt because Morsi has more pressing challenges ahead of him.
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Amnesty International censures Israel for cracking down on protests
Amnesty International has condemned Israel for using “serious violence” against protesters demanding social and economic justice during a recent demonstration held in Tel Aviv.
The international organization said in a letter sent to Israeli authorities on Sunday that it was concerned about the use of “much violence” by the Tel Aviv police to repress freedom of speech and assembly.
On June 24, the Israeli regime arrested nearly 100 protesters during clashes with police in Tel Aviv.
The demonstrators had taken out to the streets the night before, expressing anger about the detention on June 22 of 12 activists with the same demands.
One of the detained activists, who was later released on bail, said the police officers “bruised and humiliated” her upon arrest.
Amnesty also stated that there was “much evidence that… serious violence used by police on Friday and Saturday night went beyond reasonable use of force, especially in cases when it was directed… indiscriminately.”
In July 2011, the Israeli regime also witnessed demonstrations in Tel Aviv calling for social and economic justice, as well as affordable housing. A number of protesters were injured in clashes with the police.
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