Netanyahu admits on video he deceived US to destroy Oslo accord

(Cartoon by Khalil Bendib)

An Important Story

By Jonathan Cook
The National

"NAZARETH // There is one video Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, must be praying never gets posted on YouTube with English subtitles. To date, the 10-minute segment has been broadcast only in Hebrew on Israel’s Channel 10. Its contents, however, threaten to gravely embarrass not only Mr Netanyahu but also the US administration of Barack Obama.

The film was shot, apparently without Mr Netanyahu’s knowledge, nine years ago, when the government of Ariel Sharon had started reinvading the main cities of the West Bank to crush Palestinian resistance in the early stages of the second intifada. At the time Mr Netanyahu had taken a short break from politics but was soon to join Mr Sharon’s government as finance minister.......

Seated on a sofa in the house, he tells the family that he deceived the US president of the time, Bill Clinton, into believing he was helping implement the Oslo accords, the US-sponsored peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, by making minor withdrawals from the West Bank while actually entrenching the occupation. He boasts that he thereby destroyed the Oslo process.

He dismisses the US as “easily moved to the right direction” and calls high levels of popular American support for Israel “absurd”.

He also suggests that, far from being defensive, Israel’s harsh military repression of the Palestinian uprising was designed chiefly to crush the Palestinian Authority led by Yasser Arafat so that it could be made more pliable for Israeli diktats.

All of these claims have obvious parallels with the current situation, when Mr Netanyahu is again Israel’s prime minister facing off with a White House trying to draw him into a peace process that runs counter to his political agenda......

But he has also enlisted the powerful pro-Israel lobby to exert pressure on the White House, which appears to have relented on its most important stipulations.

The contemptuous view of Washington Mr Netanyahu demonstrates in the film will confirm the suspicions of many observers – including Palestinian leaders – that his current professions of good faith should not be taken seriously.....

Writing in the liberal Haaretz newspaper, the columnist Gideon Levy called the video “outrageous”. He said it proved that Mr Netanyahu was a “con artist … who thinks that Washington is in his pocket and that he can pull the wool over its eyes”. He added that the prime minister had not reformed in the intervening period: “Such a crooked way of thinking does not change over the years.”......

When asked if the US will object, he responds: “America is something that can be easily moved. Moved to the right direction … They won’t get in our way … Eighty per cent of the Americans support us. It’s absurd.”.......

“The trick,” he says, “is not to be there [in the occupied territories] and be broken; the trick is to be there and pay a minimal price.” The “trick” that stopped further withdrawals, Mr Netanyahu adds, was to redefine what parts of the occupied territories counted as a “specified military site” under the Oslo accords. He wanted the White House to approve in writing the classification of the Jordan Valley, a large area of the West Bank, as such a military site. “Now, they did not want to give me that letter, so I did not give [them] the Hebron Agreement. I stopped the government meeting, I said: ‘I’m not signing.’ Only when the letter came … did I sign the Hebron Agreement. Why does this matter? Because at that moment I actually stopped the Oslo accord.”

Last week, after meeting Mr Obama in Washington, the Israeli prime minister gave an interview to Fox News in which he appeared to be in no hurry to make concessions: “Can we have a negotiated peace? Yes. Can it be implemented by 2012? I think it’s going to take longer than that,” he said."

Here is the video (Hebrew):


English Translation:

"Bibi:...The Arabs are currently focusing on a war of terror and they think it will break us. The main thing, first of all, is to hit them. Not just one blow, but blows that are so painful that the price will be too heavy to be borne. The price is not too heavy to be borne, now. A broad attack on the Palestinian Authority. To bring them to the point of being afraid that everything is collapsing...

Woman: Wait a moment, but then the world will say "how come you're conquering again?"

Netanyahu: the world won't say a thing. The world will say we're defending.

Woman: Aren't you afraid of the world, Bibi?

Netanyahu: Especially today, with America. I know what America is. America is something that can easily be moved. Moved to the right direction.

Child: They say they're for us, but, it's like...

Netanyahu: They won't get in our way. They won't get in our way.

Child: On the other hand, if we do some something, then they...

Netanyahu: So let's say they say something. So they said it! They said it! 80% of the Americans support us. It's absurd. We have that kind of support and we say "what will we do with the..." Look. That administration [Clinton] was extremely pro-Palestinian. I wasn't afraid to maneuver there. I was not afraid to clash with Clinton. I was not afraid to clash with the United Nations. I was paying the price anyway, I preferred to receive the value. Value for the price.

In the following segment, Bibi boasts about how he emptied the Oslo Accords of meaning by an interpretation that made a mockery of them:

Woman: The Oslo Accords are a disaster.

Netanyahu: Yes. You know that and I knew that...The people [nation] has to know...

What were the Oslo Accords? The Oslo Accords, which the Knesset signed, I was asked, before the elections: "Will you act according to them?" and I answered: "yes, subject to mutuality and limiting the retreats." "But how do you intend to limit the retreats?" "I'll give such interpretation to the Accords that will make it possible for me to stop this galloping to the '67 [armistice] lines. How did we do it?

Narrator: The Oslo Accords stated at the time that Israel would gradually hand over territories to the Palestinians in three different pulses, unless the territories in question had settlements or military sites. This is where Netanyahu found a loophole.

Netanyahu: No one said what defined military sites. Defined military sites, I said, were security zones. As far as I'm concerned, the Jordan Valley is a defined military site.

Woman: Right [laughs]...The Beit She'an Valley.

Netanyahu: How can you tell. How can you tell? But then the question came up of just who would define what Defined Military Sites were. I received a letter -- to me and to Arafat, at the same time -- which said that Israel, and only Israel, would be the one to define what those are, the location of those military sites and their size. Now, they did not want to give me that letter, so I did not give the Hebron Agreement. I stopped the government meeting, I said: "I'm not signing." Only when the letter came, in the course of the meeting, to me and to Arafat, only then did I sign the Hebron Agreement. Or rather, ratify it, it had already been signed. Why does this matter? Because at that moment I actually stopped the Oslo Accord.

Woman: And despite that, one of our own people, excuse me, who knew it was a swindle, and that we were going to commit suicide with the Oslo Accord, gives them -- for example -- Hebron...

Netanyahu: Indeed, Hebron hurts. It hurts. It's the thing that hurts. One of the famous rabbis, whom I very much respect, a rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, he said to me: "What would your father say?" I went to my father. Do you know a little about my father's position?

...He's not exactly a lily-white dove, as they say. So my father heard the question and said: "Tell the rabbi that your grandfather, Rabbi Natan Milikowski, was a smart Jew. Tell him it would be better to give two percent than to give a hundred percent. And that's the choice here. You gave two percent and in that way you stopped the withdrawal. Instead of a hundred percent." The trick is not to be there and be broken. The trick is to be there and pay a minimal price."

At a point in the middle of the video Netanayhu asks the camera man to stop taping, but he continues...
Netanyahu says what he really thinks for the first time:
He brags about how easy is to manipulate the USA and he proudly explains how he sabotaged the Oslo process."

The Pharaoh is Almost Dead.....
Get the Shovels Ready.

Will They Mummify Him?

Al-Jazeera Video: Israel dumps waste on Palestinians

"Israeli settlements have been dumping untreated waste directly into a sewage canal that runs through the occupied West Bank, affecting Palestinian villages along its banks.

The hazard posed is compounded by the dumping of toxic chemical waste on agricultural land, with villagers reporting a rash of skin diseases and respiratory problems.

The Israeli government has banned plans by the Palestinian Authority to build pipes and pumps to treat and divert wastewater away from the affected villages.

Al Jazeera's Nisreen El-Shamayleh reports."

Iranian Scientist Would Not Play Curveball

by Ray McGovern

"Useful insights often must be seen through a glass darkly. But some can be pulled through the smoke and mirrors shrouding the wanderings of Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri, who is now back home in Iran after 14 months in the U.S. as guest of the CIA.

The confusing/amusing spin applied by both countries to L' Affaire Amiri can detract from the real issues. The facts beneath the competing narratives permit a key conclusion; namely, that U.S. intelligence has learned nothing to change its assessment that Iran halted work on the nuclear-weapons related part of its nuclear development program in the fall of 2003 and has not restarted that work....

U.S. Military Prevented War

Keenly aware of the disaster that would ensue if Israel and fellow travelers in Washington persuaded President Bush to attack Iran or encourage Israel to do so, senior U.S. military leaders joined with those in Congress who had originally requested the NIE and pressed successfully for releasing the key judgments to the public.....

Looking for a Curveball

A brief refresher for those who have put out of mind the lead-up to the attack on Iraq: Curveball was the name assigned to a defector who provided detailed reporting on those "mobile chemical warfare laboratories," which were rendered by CIA graphic artists into visuals to accompany Secretary of State Colin Powell's bogus presentation to the UN Security Council on February 5, 2003.

The biological weapons labs did not exist, but the images helped to get a war started the following month. Smoke and mirrors can be consequential....

Pressure Building

What is abundantly clear is that Israel and the neocons are determined to ratchet up the conclusions of the 2007 NIE and make them sound far more ominous in the Memorandum to Holders.

And if no one better than Amiri shows up, they can always make him into Curveball #2 anyway, and then order the excellent CIA graphics shoppe to create artists renderings of the kind they did for Curveball's imaginary mobile chemical weapons labs. (The danger here is that this ruse would be all too reminiscent of Powell's bravura performance in February 2003.)....."

They're all grovelling and you can guess the reason

Freedom and democracy

A Good Comment
By Robert Fisk

"It is the season of grovelling.

Only a week after CNN's Octavia Nasr and the British ambassador to Beirut, Frances Guy, dared to suggest that Sayyed Hassan Fadlallah of Lebanon was a nice old chap rather than the super-terrorist the Americans have always claimed him to be, the grovelling began. First Ms Nasr, already fired by the grovelling CNN for her effrontery in calling Fadlallah a "giant", grovelled herself. Rather than tell the world what a cowardly outfit she had been working for, she announced that hers was "a simplistic comment and I'm sorry because it conveyed that I supported Fadlallah's life's work. That's not the case at all".

What is this garbage?....

....But like victims of the Spanish Inquisition, Nasr actually ended up apologising for sins she had never even been accused of. Then within hours, British ambassador Guy began her own self-flagellation....

...while Britain proclaims the virtues of democracy and the free press to the grovelling newspaper owners and grotty emirs of the Middle East, it is the first to grovel when anything might offend you know who.

For that was the collective sin of Misses Nasr and Guy. What they said might have made Israel's supporters angry. And that will never do. The reality is that CNN should have told Israel's lobbyists to get lost....

Which brings us, of course, to the Grovel of the Week, the unctuous, weak-willed, cringing figure of Barack "Change" Obama as he strode the White House lawn with Netanyahu himself. For here was the champion of the underdog, the "understanding" president who could fix the Middle East – finding it "harder than he thought", according to his spokesman – proving that mid-term elections are more important than all the injustice in the Middle East. It is more than a year now since Netanyahu responded in cabinet to Obama's first criticisms with the remark: "This guy [Obama] doesn't get it, does he?" (The quote comes from an excellent Israeli source of mine.) Ever since, Netanyahu has been McChrystalling Obama on a near-weekly basis, and Obama has been alternatively hissing and purring, banning Netanyahu from photo calls, but then – as those elections draw nearer – rolling over and talking about how the brave Netanyahu, whose government has just destroyed some more Arab homes in East Jerusalem, is taking "risks for peace".....

Looking back, the Obama grovelling started in that famous Cairo reach-out-to-the-Muslim-world speech, when he referred to the Palestinian "relocation" of 1948 (as if the Palestinian Arabs got up one morning on the birth of Israel and decided that they all wanted to go on holiday to Lebanon).....

...And now? Well, we've all been watching the little groveller this week. Middle East peace? Further colonisation of Arab land? Crisis in southern Lebanon? The continued siege of Gaza? Forget it. Think of mid-term elections. Remember the fate of Nasr and Guy. And grovel."

Larijani blames US for terrorist attack

Press TV

"Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani has blamed the US for the recent terrorist attack that left at least 27 dead in the southeast of the country.

On Thursday, two bombs were detonated in quick succession in front of the Zahedan Grand Mosque in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan. At least 27 people lost their lives and more than 100 others were injured in the incident.

"Americans should be held accountable for the Sistan terrorist attack," IRIB quoted Larijani as saying Friday.

The Iranian official further added that the deadly attack was carried out under the auspices of the United States. "The US cannot make up any excuses in this incident," he said, arguing that it was earlier proved that the terrorist Jundallah group, which has carried out many terror attacks in Iran, had close links with the US government.

Despite the US denial of any links with the group, Jundallah leader, Abdolmalek Rigi, who was arrested in February and executed in June, said in his confessions that he had received financial support form the US government.

Although Jundallah has claimed responsibility for the blasts, analysts say the group is unlikely to have carried out the attack since it was effectively disbanded after Rigi was executed in Iran last month. Extremist Wahhabis and Salafis trained by US intelligence agents in Pakistan are believed to have carried out the bombings. "

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll

This brand new poll deals with spies for Israel in Lebanon; it asks:

Do you support executing spies for Israel in Lebanon?

With about 250 responding (it is early), 93% said yes.

Al-Jazeera Cartoon

Palestine Supplement in Assafir (Arabic)

(Click on picture to enlarge)

What the Presbyterian Statement Didn't Say About Israel

The Missing "Plea for Justice"

By N. H. GORDON
CounterPunch

"The Presbyterian Church USA at its General Assembly (GA), July 1-10, 2010 held in Minneapolis, MN passed the recommendations of its Middle East Study Committee (MESC) after negotiations among the leadership of the MESC and the GA committee for Middle East Affairs. Among the recommendations of the Church are....

There is much that is good in these and other recommendations; however there is much that is not said.

All settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal under international law. An immediate freeze both on the establishment or expansion of settlements is not sufficient. Military aid to Israel should be contingent on not only Israel’s creation of new West Bank settlements but also on its continuation of the occupation, its ignoring of United Nations Security Council resolution including resolution 194 calling on the right of return or compensation of Palestinian refugees.

The recommendations do not use the word ‘apartheid’ with respect to Israel even though clearly the laws and practices of the government of Israel constitute apartheid as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid as a crime against humanity. Further, the Presbyterian Church (USA) document refers to the wall/fence as a separation barrier which is presumably more palatable than wall/fence; however ironically separation barrier implies apartheid, which is the Afrikaans word for ‘separateness’ or ‘apartness’......"

Al-Jazeera Video: Has Syria changed for the better?

"It has been 10 years since Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, assumed leadership following his father's death.

He came into power promising many changes of freedom and growth to a country that was largely ruled with an iron fist.

Al Jazeera's Stefanie Dekker reports on Assad's achievements so far and whether he has delivered on his promises of change."

Real News Video: A DEFINING MOMENT OF THE 2006 WAR IN LEBANON

Modern history of Lebanon Pt.12- Traboulsi: People watched on TV as a Hezbollah rocket hit Israeli ship




"Fawwaz Traboulsi is Associate Professor teaching history and politics at the Lebanese American University in Beirut and American University in Beirut. is an associate professor of Political Science and History at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Dr. Traboulsi has been a visiting professor at New York University; University of Michigan, Columbia University and Cairo University and a visiting fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford. Dr Traboulsi has translated several works, including Edward Said’s Out of Place and Humanism and Democratic Critique. He writes in both English and Arabic on Lebanese history, Arab politics, and social movements, with his most recent book A History of Modern Lebanon (published by Pluto Books, London, 2007)."

A trail of clues .... but few answers

By Gareth Porter
Asia Times

"First, Iranian scientist Shahram Amiri claimed he had been kidnapped and taken to the United States, then he said he was living there of his own accord. Now he has returned to Iran the theories are really flying, with one of several confusing signals from US intelligence indicating that it had come to realize that Amiri may have been acting on Iranian government orders to defect temporarily....

Even before Amiri posted yet another video portraying himself as a kidnap victim on June 30, US intelligence officials apparently suspected they had been duped by him and retaliated by leaking the story that Amiri had been a long-term CIA intelligence asset in Iran.

The CIA's eagerness to claim an intelligence coup on Iran's nuclear program appears to have set the agency up for the Amiri defection scheme. They viewed his affiliation with Malek-e-Ashtar Industrial University, which has connections to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, as evidence that he must be linked to the assumed Iranian plans for a "nuclear weapons capability". "

"They want us to be loyal to the occupation": Muhammad Totah interviewed

Max Blumenthal, The Electronic Intifada, 15 July 2010

"On 9 July, as Israeli Border Police officers brutalized demonstrators at the weekly protest in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East Jerusalem, forcing them away from a street where several homes had been seized by radical right-wing Jewish settlers, I visited the Jerusalem International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) headquarters just a few hundred meters away.

Though the din of protest chants and police megaphones could not be heard from the ICRC center, the three Palestinian legislators who had staged a sit-in there for more than a week to protest their forced expulsion from Jerusalem insisted that their plight was the same as the families forced from their homes down the street.

"All the Israeli steps in East Jerusalem are designed to evacuate Jerusalem of its Palestinian heritage," remarked Muhammad Totah, an elected Palestinian Legislative Council member who has been ordered to permanently leave Jerusalem by the Israeli government. "Whether it's through home demolition, taking homes or deporting us, the goal is the same."...."

Palestinians Suffer as Courts' Authority Hits All-time Low

By Jonathan Cook - Nazareth
Palestine Chronicle

"The Israeli government is facing legal action for contempt over its refusal to implement a Supreme Court ruling that it end a policy of awarding preferential budgets to Jewish communities, including settlements, rather than much poorer Palestinian Arab towns and villages inside Israel.

The contempt case on behalf of Israel’s Palestinian minority comes in the wake of growing criticism of the government for ignoring court decisions it does not like -- a trend that has been noted by the Supreme Court justices themselves......."

The Shahram Charade

Could US propaganda be any lamer?

by Justin Raimondo, July 16, 2010

".....As the facts emerge, it’s clear the truth is closer to Shahram’s account, given on two YouTube videos he made while on the run, and in interviews after his arrival in Iran: "My kidnapping was a disgraceful act for America… I was under enormous psychological pressure and supervision of armed agents in the past 14 months."......

Speaking of persuasiveness, how convincing is that video of Shahram – sitting on a leather couch in a room with a chess set and globe – in which he says all is well and he’s just pursuing his "studies" in America? By now even the US media is acknowledging this as a CIA production – no doubt recorded as an insurance policy against the possibility Shahram might get away......"

Syria's decade of repression

Bashar al-Assad promised much when he came to power in Syria a decade ago but he has failed to broaden human rights

Nadim Houry
(Nadim Houry is Human Rights Watch's senior researcher for Syria and Lebanon, and director of the Beirut office. )
guardian.co.uk, Friday 16 July 2010

".... As Human Rights Watch's researcher for Syria, I have interviewed many of the Syrians who in good faith and sincere hope for their country's future took up the mantle of criticism and democratisation, and were arrested as a consequence. They include a former member of parliament who Syria's rulers decided was too "independent"; human rights lawyers who denounced rampant torture by the country's notorious security services; bloggers who criticised everyday corruption; and Kurdish activists who demanded official recognition of their language. (Assad's human rights record is reviewed in a new Human Rights report here.)

We initially talked in hushed conversations in Damascus cafes, following their release from prison, and they would describe their ordeals. But soon I started seeing more of them in Beirut, where they had escaped from Syria, on their way to be resettled as refugees in far-away lands. With each passing year, the space for communication shrank, with meetings in Syria becoming more dangerous for activists and lawyers constantly tailed by government spies. Today, the internet remains one of the few areas where we can communicate "freely" – or so I hope, given Syria's increasing sophistication in monitoring online communications......

Assad enters his second decade in office with a much tighter grip on power. He is unchallenged internally and has solidified his international standing. But his legacy will ultimately depend on whether he will act on the promises he made in that distant July 2000. Otherwise, he will merely be remembered for extending his father's domestic one: government by repression."

Syria: Al-Asad's Decade in Power Marked by Repression

Rights Suppressed, Activists Detained, Media Censored, Kurds Sidelined

Human Rights Watch

"(New York) - President Bashar al-Asad has not delivered on his promises to increase public freedoms and improve his government's human rights record during a decade in power, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today on the eve of the anniversary of his accession to power.

The 35-page report, "A Wasted Decade: Human Rights in Syria during Bashar al-Asad's First Ten Years in Power," reviews al-Asad's human rights record in five key areas: repression of political and human rights activism; restrictions on freedom of expression; torture; treatment of the Kurds; and Syria's legacy of enforced disappearances. The verdict is bleak.

"Whether President al-Asad wanted to be a reformer but was hampered by an entrenched old guard or has been just another Arab ruler unwilling to listen to criticism, the outcome for Syria's people is the same: no freedom, no rights," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "Al-Asad's record after 10 years is that he has done virtually nothing to improve his country's human rights record.".....

Syria's security agencies, the feared mukhabarat, detain people without arrest warrants and torture with complete impunity. Two years after prison authorities and military police used firearms to quell a riot that began on July 5, 2008, at Sednaya prison, Syrian authorities have not revealed the fate of at least 42 detainees, at least nine of whom are believed to have been killed.

Censorship is prevalent and extends to popular websites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Blogger......"

Al-Manar… Islamic Resistance's Most Effective Arm!

Al-Manar

"15/07/2010 Four years after the building of Al-Manar Television was destroyed as part of the Israeli July 2006 war against Lebanon, the Resistance's voice continues to be one of the main targets for the Israeli enemy…

On that day in 2006, the Zionist entity leveled Al-Manar TV building in an attempt to silence the station during the war.

Al-Manar's broadcast stopped for less than five minutes and then resumed as usual from undisclosed locations, what perplexed the enemy who failed throughout the aggression to silence the "Station of the Resistance".

It was necessary for the Israeli enemy to silence Al-Manar for many reasons on top of which is Israel's endeavor to spare itself a media war that could eventually expose its crimes, save its already cracking community from another psychological war and inspire the Lebanese people with its steadfastness.

However, Israel failed in its strategy against Al-Manar with Israeli analysts and experts saying that the steadfastness of Al-Manar was one of the most vital factors that made the victory a reality....."

'West, Israel linked to SE Iran blasts'

Press TV

"A ranking official with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has implicated "the US, Israel and some European countries" in the deadly blasts in the southeastern Iranian city of Zahedan.

Yadollah Javani, the head of IRGC's political bureau, said late Thursday that the latest terrorist attack in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan points to the involvement of terrorist groups under the auspices of the United States, Israel and some Western countries, which seek sectarian division, Fars news agency reported.

Two explosions in the front of Zahedan's Grand Mosque on Thursday left more than 20 martyrs and over 100 injured.....

"The enemy seeks out division between Shia and Sunni Muslims in order to create chaos in the country," Javani noted. "One could not doubt the involvement of secret foreign services in the efforts to generate tension amongst Muslims," he further explained.

The Iranian official also noted that confessions made by Abdolmalek Rigi, the Pakistan-based Jundallah terrorist group's ringleader, before his execution last month, unveiled widespread US support for waging an insurgency against the Islamic Republic.

"Rigi's confessions prove that the US, Zionists and some European countries are directly linked with the Zahedan blasts, because he had confessed that the US wants bomb attacks to be carried out across Iran," he said.

After Rigi's execution, Jundallah was effectively disbanded and experts say that the group is highly unlikely to have carried out the latest blasts. It is widely believed that hard-line Wahabis and Salafis trained by the CIA in Pakistan are the main elements behind the bombings."

US embarrassment in Iranian kidnapping

Interview with Mohammad Marandi and investigative journalist Gareth Porter
By Press TV

"Shahram Amiri has been a big name in Iran since he went missing in June last year. And he's been making headlines across the world over the last few days. He says the US abducted him and psychologically tortured him over the last 14 months. He's back in Iran now and has been telling his story.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Mohammad Marandi, a professor of American Studies at the University of Tehran, and investigative journalist Gareth Porter to learn their views on Shahram Amiri's case. The following is a transcription of the interview....

...Mr. Porter: Of course the United States has been guilty of kidnapping and holding people in detention in very harsh conditions, and even torturing people who they considered to be their enemies. In this case it seems to me that there is a particular instance where they thought he was a real asset. In fact, we haven't mentioned the fact that ABC news has reported that US intelligence officials are claiming that Amiri was a long term CIA asset inside of Iran reporting on the nuclear program for years. Now, I don't believe that for a moment, but I think they are putting that out in the hope of creating some kind of suspicion on the Iranian government towards Amiri because I think they now understand that they were taken in by him....."

PA 'must not bow to blackmail'

By Lamis Andoni
Al-Jazeera


(Left: The only constant you can count on.)

".....No confidence in confidence-building

George Mitchell, the US special envoy, is due to arrive in the region on Saturday with a promised "package of confidence-building measures" to lure the PA into direct negotiations.

It is not clear exactly what kind of measures this might include, but a further relaxation of the blockade of Gaza and Israeli "readiness" to stop or reduce its continued raids and arrest campaigns in the West Bank may be among them.

But these will not be enough for two reasons. Firstly, experience has shown that Israel almost always reneges on such "confidence-building measures" whenever it sees fit and secondly such measures cannot compensate for the land rapidly vanishing from beneath Palestinian feet.

Vague promises to extend the partial freeze on settlement building and to alleviate some of the daily hardships encountered by Palestinians are no more than the blackmail tactics Israel has always employed against those under its control.

Promises to make the occupation and the siege more palatable, while blackmailing the occupied, is not acceptable. Only ending the occupation will do."

MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN: IMPACT AND EFFECTS (14-page Report)

Oxford Research Group Briefing Paper – July 2010

"EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report concludes that military action against Iran should be ruled out as a means of responding to its possible nuclear weapons ambitions. The consequences of such an attack would lead to a sustained conflict and regional instability that would be unlikely to prevent the eventual acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran and might even encourage it.

Oxford Research Group’s (ORG) analysis in its last report on the issue in 2006 (Iran: Consequences of a War) examined the capabilities and intentions of the United States and Israel to carry out military action.

While US action against Iran may now be unlikely, given the policies of the Obama administration, Israel’s potential for action against Iran has increased. This report examines the improvements in Israeli strike capabilities in the past four years and points to Israel’s newly developed ability to conduct major attacks on Iranian nuclear and missile programmes. Long-range strike aircraft acquired from the United States, combined with an improved fleet of tanker aircraft, the deployment of long-range drones and the probable availability of support facilities in north-east Iraq and Azerbaijan, all increase Israel’s potential for action against Iran.
Many sections of the Israeli political elite regard the Iranian nuclear and missile programme as an existential threat to Israel. If there is no progress to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions by other means, there is significant Israeli support for military action. This might also extend to renewed action by Israel in southern Lebanon to counter the progressive re-arming of Hezbollah militias by Iran.

Iran regards a civil nuclear programme as a technological right, and sees its missile force as primarily defensive, however this might be viewed in Israel. While there is little evidence of a nuclear weapons programme, there are indications that Iran is moving towards the means to acquire that capability, even if it does not plan to take the final steps and withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

While an Israeli military strike could not be initiated entirely without the knowledge of the United States, it could avoid over-flying US-controlled airspace. The operation would target a wide range of nuclear and missile facilities and would also be aimed at the technical support, including factories, research centres and university facilities that would underpin the rebuilding of the facilities after attack. There would be significant civilian casualties.

An Iranian administration under attack would experience considerable national unity and would work rapidly to redevelop its weapons programmes, withdrawing from the NPT and prioritising nuclear weapons. This would lead to further Israeli military strikes, resulting in prolonged conflict – the start of a long war with potential regional and global consequences. Iran could, if it chose, take many other actions, including operations to affect world oil markets and to increase instability in Iraq and Afghanistan. Prospects for regional stability and wider global security would be very seriously damaged.

The report concludes that military action against Iran should be ruled out in responding to its possible nuclear ambitions....."

Petition to TIAA-CREF to divest from Israel

Please sign the petition (they need 10,000 signatures and so far they have 5900):

TO TIAA-CREF:

Please refrain from investing in any company that contributes to violations of human rights or international law by:

• Directly profiting from, or contributing to, the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
• Providing products or services that contribute to the construction and maintenance of Israeli settlements and/or the Separation Wall, both of which are illegal under international law.
• Providing products or services that contribute to or enable violent acts that target civilians.

I also request that you establish investment criteria to exclude any such investments in the future.

As one of the largest financial services companies in the world, changing your policies will send a message of hope to Palestinians and Israelis who seek peace and justice.

We are participants and investors in TIAA-CREF funds who are deeply concerned that TIAA-CREF invests in many companies that profit from Israel's occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Some of these companies provide weapons and covert surveillance supplies that maintain the occupation by force. Others take or exploit Palestinian resources, including scarce water and even the land itself. All are profiting from Israel's violations of international law and international human rights standards.

Some examples:

• CATERPILLAR profits from the destruction of Palestinian homes and the uprooting of Palestinian orchards by supplying the armor-plated and weaponized bulldozers that are used for such demolition work.
• VEOLIA profits from the construction and expansion of illegal Jewish-only settlements by operating a landfill in the West Bank, exploiting Palestinian natural resources to serve the settlements, and by contracting for the future operation of an illegal light rail system connecting these settlements with Jerusalem.
• NORTHROP GRUMMAN profits from the production of parts for the Apache helicopters and F-16 aircrafts used by Israel against civilians in Gaza during Israel's 2008-09 assault.
• ELBIT profits from the confiscation of Palestinian land by providing surveillance equipment that is mounted on the Separation Wall, which was declared unlawful by the International Court of Justice.
• MOTOROLA profits from Israel's control of the Palestinian population by providing surveillance systems around Israeli settlements, checkpoints, and military camps in the West Bank, as well as communication systems to the Israeli army and West Bank settlers.

While the specific companies held change over time, TIAA-CREF's investment criteria do not screen out such investments, which are incompatible with our values and with corporate social responsibility.

Out of commitment to equality, freedom and international law, we therefore urgently request that:

• TIAA-CREF divest from companies that:
  • Directly profit from or contribute to the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
  • Provide products or services that contribute to the construction and maintenance of Israeli settlements and/or the Separation Wall, both of which are illegal under international law.
  • Provide products or services that contribute to or enable violent acts that target civilians.
• TIAA-CREF establish investment criteria to exclude any such companies in the future.

For almost 100 years, TIAA-CREF has striven to provide financial services for the greater good, helping those of us in the academic, medical, cultural, and research fields to plan for and live in retirement. Please help us invest the fruit of our labor and enjoy our retirement in good conscience.

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Democracy for Sale, by Khalil Bendib

الحروب على الشعب الفلسطيني

حرب الرواتب والمراتب
حرب الأسرلة
حرب الحصار
حرب الملاحقة والإذلال والتذويب
حرب التهجير
حروب فاشلة
الحرب المضادة

"....
الشعب الفلسطيني لا يتعرض لحرب واحدة وإنما لعدة حروب وفي أغلب أماكن وجوده الكثيف، وذلك من أجل توازن الإنهاك. المتكالبون على الشعب والقضية الفلسطينية حريصون على إضعاف الشعب ككل، وليس إضعافه جزئيا لكي لا يبقى هناك من يحمل القضية ويصر على انتزاع الحقوق الفلسطينية. إنهم يعملون على تذويب القضية الفلسطينية (وليس حلها) من خلال تذويب الشعب الفلسطيني إلى مجرد أفراد يبحثون عن مصالحهم ولقم خبزهم، وهذا لا يتأتى إلا إذا كانت الحرب متشعبة إلى عدة أنواع وذلك وفق مكان الوجود الفلسطيني. إنهم لا يخططون لإنهاك جزء من الشعب الفلسطيني، ومن ثم الانتقال إلى جزء آخر، وإنما يعملون على إنهاكه كله في آن واحد وبصورة متوازنة حتى لا يشكل جزء عنصر تغذية للبقاء. وفيما يلي أبرز هذه الأنواع:
....
يبدو أن المشكلة الأكبر التي تواجه الفلسطينيين في الحروب التي يواجهونها موجودة في الضفة الغربية التي تشهد نجاحا ملحوظا في تطويع الفلسطينيين وإذلالهم. تعيش الضفة الغربية وضعا بائسا من الناحية الوطنية إلى درجة أن أناسا كانوا متهمين بالعمل مع إسرائيل قد أصبحوا قادة ويقررون للشعب، وينسقون مع إسرائيل في مجالات عدة. وقد بينت أعلاه الخطوط العريضة التي تأخذها الحرب في الضفة. لكن لا أظن أن هذا الوضع سيستمر، ولن تكون نهايته بعيدة
...."

Al-Jazeera Video: Iran scientist alleges US torture

"The Iranian scientist who says he was kidnapped by US agents over information on Iran's nuclear programme, has returned to his home country.

Shahram Amiri claims he was drugged and abducted by US agents during a Hajj pilgrimmage to Saudi Arabia and flown to the United States against his will.

He also says he was tortured physically and psychologically during the 14 months he was held for interrogation in the US.

But that contradicts an earlier Youtube posting in which he said he was in the US of his own free will.

Al Jazeera's Alireza Ronaghi reports from Tehran."

Real News Video: WHY DID ISRAEL ATTACK LEBANON IN 2006?

The modern history of Lebanon Pt.11- Traboulsi: Invasion supposed to be a victory in "war on terrorism"


"Fawwaz Traboulsi is Associate Professor teaching history and politics at the Lebanese American University in Beirut and American University in Beirut. is an associate professor of Political Science and History at the Lebanese American University in Beirut. Dr. Traboulsi has been a visiting professor at New York University; University of Michigan, Columbia University and Cairo University and a visiting fellow at St. Antony’s College, Oxford. Dr Traboulsi has translated several works, including Edward Said’s Out of Place and Humanism and Democratic Critique. He writes in both English and Arabic on Lebanese history, Arab politics, and social movements, with his most recent book A History of Modern Lebanon (published by Pluto Books, London, 2007)."

Fadlallah and the Western media's dangerous complicity

Matthew Cassel, The Electronic Intifada, 14 July 2010

"There is a lot to say about Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the Lebanese Shia Muslim cleric who passed away on 4 July 2010 at the age of 75. Unfortunately, much of what there is to say is being left unsaid for more of the same sensationalist reporting on this region and its people.

Fadlallah was a progressive Shia cleric, known for his defense of armed resistance and women's rights. He was outspoken against Israel's 22 year occupation of south Lebanon and cheered attacks against it. In 1985 the CIA is thought to have been behind a massive car bomb that attempted to take his life -- it missed the Ayatollah killing 80 other Lebanese civilians and injured hundreds more. However, his support for resistance didn't end with the Israeli invaders; Ayatollah Fadlallah also said that women have the right to use violence to resist domestic abuse....."

Israel Chokes Gaza Despite Announced Easing

By Mel Frykberg

"RAMALLAH, Jul 15, 2010 (IPS) - Israel has received international praise for its decision to ease its crippling blockade on Gaza following the country's deadly assault on a humanitarian flotilla trying to bring desperately needed humanitarian aid to the coastal territory. But according to the UN and human rights organisations, the easing of the blockade is insufficient in meeting Gaza's needs.

"Even if the blockade is eased it remains illegal under international law as it is a collective form of punishment on a civilian population," Chris Gunness from the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) told IPS.

"Eighty percent of Gaza's population is aid-dependent. Allowing more aid in is perpetuating this dependency and not addressing the issue of self- sufficiency or the root causes of the crisis," added Gunness.....

"Operation Cast Lead destroyed at least 60,000 homes and structures which need to be urgently repaired and rebuilt. The easing of the blockade is not addressing this adequately," Gunness told IPS.

One of the biggest humanitarian issues remains the continued restrictions on movement, including Gazans trying to leave for medical treatment, to continue their studies, or to visit family in the West Bank....."

Beyond Violence and Non-Violence: Resistance as a Culture

By Ramzy Baroud
Palestine Chronicle

"Resistance is not a band of armed men hell-bent on wreaking havoc. It is not a cell of terrorists scheming ways to detonate buildings.

True resistance is a culture.....

In Gaza, Palestine, while the media speaks endlessly of rockets and Israeli security, and debates who is really responsible for holding Palestinians in the strip hostage, no heed is paid to the little children living in tents by the ruins of homes they lost in the latest Israeli onslaught. These kids participate in the same culture of resistance that Gaza has witnessed over the course of six decades. In their notebooks they draw fighters with guns, kids with slingshots, women with flags, as well as menacing Israeli tanks and warplanes, graves dotted with the word ‘martyr’, and destroyed homes. Throughout, the word ‘victory’ is persistently used.

When I was in Iraq, I witnessed a local version of these kids’ drawings. And while I have yet to see Afghani children’s scrapbooks, I can easily imagine their content too."

Manufacturing Consent to Attack Iran: Taliban claims over soldier deaths in doubt as killer is linked to Iran

The Independent

"The investigation into the killings of three British soldiers by an Afghan colleague will try to discover if he was involved with groups other than the Taliban. Officials said they would try to ascertain whether Talib Hussein, 22, had any connection with Shia Muslim organisations linked to Iran.

He fled after attacking the men from 1st Battalion, The Royal Gurkha Rifles, in their base in the Nahr-e Saraj district of Helmand province on Tuesday. Hussein is a member of the Hazara community which traditionally has strong ties to Iran, and which suffered at the hands of the Taliban when they were in power in Afghanistan....."

Syria is yet to play its cards

President Bashar al-Assad may not be the moderniser the west had hoped for, but his regime shows signs of progress

Ian Black
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 14 July 2010

"Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, can allow himself a moment of quiet self-congratulation this weekend when he marks 10 years in power. His father, Hafez, was a hard act to follow ....

Syria teems nowadays with western tourists who can enjoy boutique hotels in Damascus, puff shisha pipes in smart cafes and visit breathtaking sights from Palmyra to Krak de Chevaliers. The oldest capital on the planet now has a stock exchange.....

Still, Syrians like to point to progress: al-Watan has the distinction of being the country's only privately owned newspaper. It prides itself on being more critical than the turgid state media. The revealing snag is that it is owned by Assad's brother-in-law, one of the most powerful businessmen in the country.

Repression has returned with the usual suspects such as lawyers and human rights activists gaoled under emergency laws at the price of pro forma protests from the US and EU – still waiting for Syria to play those cards....."

“Nuclear Iran less Threat than Chance of Binational State”

Al-Manar

"15/07/2010 “A nuclear Iran is not the end of Israel. A binational state is the end of Israel,” political commentator and former consul-general in New York Alon Pinkas told members of the Israel Britain and the Commonwealth Association on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Sheraton Hotel in Tel Aviv prior to the IBCA general meeting, Pinkas initially addressed outgoing British Ambassador Tom Phillips, to whom he said that “in an ambassador’s average three-to-four year in Israel there are two wars, two elections and one peace process.”
“One thing we owe you is a peace process,” said Pinkas. It is the absence of a peace process that has contributed to Israel’s isolation in the world today, said Pinkas. Israel is fast reaching a point in which realities that were suppressed, ignored or dismissed since 1967 have to be acknowledged and decisions made, he added.

“We’ve been living in the Six Day War for too long,” he said. “We’re living in a situation of protracted temporariness. We know we can’t stay in the West Bank.”...."

Iranian scholar speaks about abduction

Press TV

"Iranian academic Shahram Amiri, who was abducted by US and Saudi agents last year, says the United States aims to put the Iranian government under pressure.

"The US administration has connected my abduction to Iran's nuclear case to pursue certain goals and exert pressure on the Iranian government," Amiri told reporters upon his arrival in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Thursday.

"While I was being interrogated by US intelligence agents, they urged me to announce that I carried a laptop containing important information and applied for asylum," he said.

He further added that he had resisted pressure by the US government and Western media.

The Iranian scholar said the US agents had threatened to "transfer me to prisons of the Zionist regime if I refused to cooperate with them."

Amiri added that some Israeli agents were also present in his interrogation sessions......

The Iranian academic said he has been under "psychological pressure" and was offered $10 million to appear on CNN and announce that he had willingly defected to the US. "

Israel's boat problem

By Sherine Tadros

Al-Jazeera

"Israel’s siege on Gaza essentially consists of one thing – surrounding the territory and controlling all exit and entry points. Logically, to break the siege you enter or exit the territory against Israel’s will. Exiting without permission is not an option, so on came the boats...

In theory it’s a simple, perhaps even genius idea....

Ship vs siege: Fair fight?

The real success of the flotilla should be seen within a wider context. It has become the beacon of a non-violent form of resisting Israel’s occupation that is making huge strides.

The current boycott movement in the West Bank is attracting attention – it’s an embarrassment for Israel casting a shadow over the democratic, moral state it purports to be with many comparing this boycott to the divestment policy against South Africa during apartheid in the 1980s.

Events onboard the Marmara ended in bloodshed and violence but the theory behind the flotilla was logical and peaceful. Israel is a highly militarized state. Dealing with violence is what it knows how to do best. An Israeli soldier confronted by a man holding a gun moving towards him knows exactly what to do. But swap that gun for a banner saying ‘Free Gaza’ and the soldier will panic. He was trained for combat not crowd control.

And that’s why whether it’s a ship, a boat, a truck or a plane, both the success and the danger of this movement lies in the way it plays so simply to Israel’s weakest point."

Twelve US-led soldiers killed in 48 hours

Press TV

"Five more American soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan's volatile south, bringing to 12 the number of foreign soldiers killed over the past 48 hours.

NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said on Wednesday that four of the soldiers lost their lives in a bomb attack, while the other one was killed in a gunfight with the Taliban in the volatile south.

The latest casualties come a day after seven NATO soldiers -- four British and three American -- were killed in the war-torn country.

Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed that militants have killed 13 American troops and seven Afghan soldiers during an attack on a military outpost in Kandahar.

Over 350 foreign troops have been killed in Afghanistan so far this year......"

Bill Kristol's 'Emergency Committee?' Give me a break

By Stephen M. Walt

"Via Ben Smith at Politico, we learn that the usual suspects have started yet another organization whose objective is to promote a hard-right, Likudnik agenda in the Middle East. The new group apparently intends to go after anyone who thinks U.S. Middle East policy has been less than totally successful in recent years, and who is willing to think for themselves (and U.S. interests), instead of reflexively echoing the positions favored by AIPAC and other groups in the "status quo" lobby.

To be more specific, Smith reports that hardline neoconservatives such as William Kristol, Michael Goldfarb, Noah Pollak, and Rachel Abrams have joined forces (again) with rightwing Christian evangelical Gary Bauer to establish a new group: the "Emergency Committee for Israel." The group says it is going to target candidates in key Senate and Congressional races, along with the Obama administration. It is directing its initial salvo (in the form of a TV ad) at Congressman Joe Sestak (D-PA), who defeated incumbent Arlen Spector in the Democratic primary and is now running for the Senate. Sestak was targeted because he had the temerity not to sign an AIPAC-sponsored letter awhile back, and though he's a strong defender of Israel, he's been critical of Israel's counterproductive blockade of Gaza......"

The Shahram Affair

Kidnapped Iranian scientist exposes US government as a criminal enterprise

by Justin Raimondo, July 14, 2010

"Confronted with the accusation that Iranian nuclear scientist Shahram Amiri had been kidnapped by US and Saudi intelligence agencies while on a trip to Mecca, and brought to the US for interrogation, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley averred: “We are not in the habit of going around kidnapping people.”

To which the only proper response is: Oh, really?

Given the numerous instances of “extraordinary rendition” in which our government has been engaged, and no doubt continues to be engaged, one wonders how Senor Crowley can say that with a straight face. But then again, being an official spokesman for the US Department of State no doubt requires some sort of facial surgery – or, perhaps, an industrial-strength shot of Botox – to achieve the desired results......

In any case, I did warn you far in advance that we’d soon be treated to a veritable cornucopia of “news” stories detailing the nefarious plans of Iranian ayatollahs to nuke Israel, and Brooklyn, too. The Obama-ites are under increasing pressure from the Israel lobby to abandon the CIA’s assessment that Iran ended a nascent nuclear weapons program in 2003: Shahram’s “defection” was supposed to have facilitated this development. Instead, the whole scheme backfired, and, rather than making the case for war with Iran, the Shahram affair has confirmed what some of us knew already: that the US government is a criminal enterprise with no morals, no credibility."

US General: Iran-Backed Group Eyes US Bases in Iraq for Attack

Al-Manar

"13/07/2010 “Iranian-backed militants have received specialized training inside Iran to help mount an attack on American bases in Iraq,” the top US commander in Baghdad told reporters on Tuesday.

General Ray Odierno said security measures had been increased at US military facilities following intelligence reports that “Ketaib Hezbollah” was planning an attack. "There has been some intelligence of Iranian surrogates attempting to attack US bases, which we are watching very carefully," said Odierno, who later named Ketaib Hezbollah as the group concerned.

"In the last couple of weeks there has been an increased threat of a potential Iran attack ... so we have increased our security in some of our bases. "This is another attempt by Iran and others to attempt to influence the US role here inside of Iraq," he said......"

Amiri: CIA abduction game failed

Interview with Shahram Amiri
Press TV

"Iranian national Shahram Amiri, who was kidnapped by Saudi and US intelligence agents last year, has left the United States for the Iranian capital, Tehran.

The Iranian scholar took refuge in Iran's interest section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington on Tuesday, demanding an "immediate return" to Iran.

The embassy preserves Iran's interests in the United States, since the two countries have no diplomatic relations.

American officials had previously denied any knowledge of Amiri's whereabouts. Iran says Amiri was kidnapped and taken to the US while on Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia in June 2009.
Iran also says the CIA and Saudi intelligence agents were behind the abduction. Amiri has already posted two video messages online, revealing some details about his ordeal in the US custody.

In an exclusive interview with Press TV, Iranian academic Shahram Amiri told us more about his abduction:

Shahram Amiri: My abduction is a detailed story. In the video broadcast on the Iranian television, I have thoroughly explained key factors about how I was kidnapped.

In fact, in the video I managed to broadcast after escaping from the hands of the US intelligence with the help of my friends, I stressed that the video broadcast on Iranian TV is completely accurate and that it is not falsified.

I will briefly tell viewers how I got to Iran's Interests Section....."

The Pharaoh is Almost Dead....

Long Live (Not) The New Pharaoh.