Settlers Torch Mosque South Of Nablus

"A group of fundamentalist settlers torched the main mosque of the Al Lubban Al Sharqiyya village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Jamal Daraghma, head of the Al Lubban Village Council, stated that the settlers attacked the mosque approximately at 3 A.M, rounded up several copies of the Holy Koran in one place and set them ablaze.

Daraghma added that the mosque is located in the center of the village which is surrounded by three settlements built on %30 of lands stolen from the residents. The village, 22 kilometers south of Nablus, is inhibited by 3000 residents. He stated that the village is subject to frequent attacks carried out by the settlers who previously set ablaze farmlands and uprooted trees.....


The mosque was totally torched, some fifty copies of the Holy Koran were burnt and its walls and ceilings became cracked with significant parts of its ceramics falling down.....

This is the third mosque to be torched by the settlers this year as the settlers torched a mosque in Yasuf village near Salfit and another mosque in Huwwara town, near Nablus."

Corruption Muddies Egypt’s Labour Pool

By Cam McGrath

"CAIRO, May 3, 2010 (IPS) - Saeed El-Masry was born poor, raised poor and, unless he can get ‘kosa,’ will probably die poor. Kosa is the Arabic word for zucchini, but it also means someone in a position of power who can open doors to gainful employment.

"There are no good jobs unless you know a cabinet minister or pay off a high-ranking official," El-Masry resigns. "That’s the way it’s always been in Egypt."

Nepotism is a glaring facet of the Egyptian workforce, research has shown. Nowhere is it more apparent than in the bloated public sector, where landing a job often has more to do with who you know than your career qualifications.

"Social background and networks are part of the selection criteria," Transparency International (TI) said in a report released in March. ...."

Israel, Iran Targeted at Nuke Non-Proliferation Meet

By Thalif Deen

"UNITED NATIONS, May 3, 2010 (IPS) - A month-long Review Conference on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) began Monday with a predictable target: Israel.

As the only Middle Eastern country armed with nuclear weapons, Israel has been treated as a political sacred cow, one whose weapons programmes have not been publicly challenged either by the United States or Western powers.

But on Monday an overwhelming majority of U.N. member states - 118 out of 192 - wanted the defiant Jewish state to come clean with its nuclear weapons programme and sign the NPT, which is aimed at halting the spread of these devastating armaments.

Speaking on behalf of the 118-member Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said the fact that Israel has refused to sign and ratify the NPT has resulted in the continued exposure of non-nuclear weapon states of the region to nuclear threats by the only country possessing these weapons of mass destruction......."

Israel's Stasi Watch over Imams

By Jonathan Cook - Jaffa
Palestine Chronicle

"Job interviews for the position of imam at mosques in Israel are conducted not by senior clerics but by the Shin Bet, Israel’s secret police, a labour tribunal has revealed.

Sheikh Ahmed Abu Ajwa, 36, is fighting the Shin Bet’s refusal to approve his appointment as an imam in a case that has lifted the lid on Israel’s secret surveillance of the country’s Islamic leaders.

At a hearing last month, a senior government official admitted that 60 undercover inspectors were employed effectively as spies to collect information on Muslim clerics, reporting on political opinions they expressed in sermons and relaying gossip about their private lives.....

During one Shin Bet interview, he said, he had been told: “We know everything about you, we are always watching you.”

The goal of such interviews was often to recruit Muslim clerics to become informers themselves, he added."

Who is fanning the flames of this campus conflagration?

After a Jewish-Muslim initiative to defuse student tension was thwarted, critics of Israel are liable to be vilified as 'extremist'

Azzam Tamimi
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 May 2010

".........In a bid to intimidate students and dissuade them from inviting me to speak, the Jewish Chronicle has repeatedly claimed that I was reported to the police after speaking at Soas in February and that "the Crown Prosecution Service is considering whether to press charges" because of comments I made against Israel.

If anything, these interventions by pro-Israel lobbyists in the media and parliament prove that the flame of tension on campus is not without external fanners. The extremism and the hate-speech often referred to as reasons to stifle free speech are nothing but code words for any attempt to criticise Israel or shed light on the plight of the Palestinians, its victims."

Why Elton John is considered a danger to Egypt

A move to ban Elton's gig is about fear of social discord. Yet in other ways the Arab world fails to address 'the public good'

Brian Whitaker
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 4 May 2010

"Elton John is due to give a private concert in Egypt later this month. Or rather, he was, until the Egyptian musicians' union stepped in.

Mounir al-Wasimi, head of the union, announced on Sunday that he is "co-ordinating" with the authorities to stop the concert going ahead because Elton John is gay, believes Jesus was gay too, and has been critical of organised religions.

Now, you might be wondering why that should be of any concern to a musicians' union or why a union set up (presumably) to promote music should be trying to ban a concert, but it's none of your business. As Wasimi points out, his union is the only body "authorised to allow performances by foreign singers in Egypt".....

It was a lack of this type of regulation that contributed to the deaths of more than 150 people when floods swept through Jeddah in Saudi Arabia last November. One important factor was the unregulated construction that had taken place over many years in normally dry river beds.

But protecting against disasters like that has never figured strongly in the Saudi concept of the public good. Instead, a huge amount of effort goes into ensuring that people comply with the rules of morality set by religious scholars....."

"Proximity" Talks

"Proximity" Talks Start Wednesday....
Don't You Think This is Proximate Enough?
Way to Go O'Bummer!

Obama Renews Sanctions on Syria for a Year

Al-Manar

"04/05/2010 President Barack Obama Monday renewed US sanctions on Syria for a year, accusing Damascus of supporting what he called "terrorist" groups and pursuing missile programs and weapons of mass destruction.

There had been no expectation that Obama would lift the measures, but the renewal came at an especially sensitive time in often tense US-Syria relations, despite efforts by the administration to return an ambassador to Damascus.

The United States has also recently accused Syria and Iran of arming Hezbollah with increasingly sophisticated rockets and missiles, which it says are undermining stability in the region....."

"بدنا نعيش" وهموم فلسطينية راهنة

COMMENT:

In this article Azmi Bishara has sharpened and focused his message. He is openly attacking the treason of Abbas and Fayyad, which I do not recall him doing up to now.

He is (in my opinion) the best Palestinian to lead the new nationalist coalition representing all Palestinians, inside and in the Diaspora, to reorganize a new PLO and to challenge the traitorous PA.

Overall, an excellent piece. Waiting for the English version.

Highly recommended reading.

"تهنئة إسرائيل بـ"استقلالها"، أو بإنشائها تساوي تهنئتها بالنجاح في عملية سرقة وطن بالسطو المسلح على فلسطين وتشريد شعبها. هذا في حال قدّم التهنئة، أو أقدم عليها، رئيس الولايات المتحدة، أو فرنسا، أو ساحل العاج. أما إذا قُدِّمَت التهاني لـ"رئيس دولة إسرائيل في يوم تأسيسها" من قبل رئيس دولة عربية، فيستحسن الصمت. وليس صمت المتأمل، بل صمت العاجز، لأن البحث عن كلمات لا يجدي، يفترض أن اللغة وطن مشترك لكن "الفتى العربي فيها غريب الوجه واليد واللسان"، فيهب أبو الطيب لنجدتنا في كل مرة.

ليست هذه أول تهنئة، وربما لن تكون آخر تهنئة. وقد يتمنى أحدنا للآخر أن تكون خاتمة التهاني. وعلامَ الصدمة (؟) فلا غريب إلا الاستغراب. ومع ذلك طفح الكيل هذا العام. فغالبية أهل غزة تشكل جزءا من اللاجئين الذين شرِّدوا من ديارهم في عام 1948. وفيما تقدم التهاني للفاعل يُحاصَر الضحايا في سجن كبير. شيء ما جعل الأمر خانقا هذه المرة، حتى بدت أنفاق غزة، التي يزحف فيها الناس لفتح ممرات من أجل الحياة، أرحبَ من أنفاق السياسة العربية الحالية.

وسبق أن قاد أحد أنفاق السياسة العربية إلى مقابلة منحها الرئيس المعيّن للحكومة الفلسطينية المعيّنة لصحيفة هآرتس يوم 2 أبريل/نيسان 2010. وقال فيها أمورا من نوع: "ليست لدي مشكلة مع من يعتقد أن إسرائيل هي أرض التوراة، "التناخ"... ولكن يوجد الكثير من التلال والمساحات غير المأهولة، لماذا لا تبنون فيها وتمنحونا إمكانية أن نعيش حياتنا؟"، "النزاع الرئيس في المنطقة ليس بيننا، بل بين المعتدلين والمتطرفين"، "نحن نبني لاستقبال اللاجئين في الدولة الفلسطينية"، وغيرها من الدرر. إنها لغة الإسرائيليين، والحقيقة أن بعض هذه العبارات مقبول حتى على المستوطنين الذين يدعون أنهم يبنون "على تلال غير مأهولة".
....
أجرى هذه المقابلة المتطرفة في ابتعادها عن الخطاب الوطني الفلسطيني رئيس الحكومة الفلسطينية المعيّن إثر انقلاب على حكومة منتخبة، والذي حاز على 1% من أصوات الشعب الفلسطيني، والذي كان وزير مالية معيّنا من قبل الأميركان مفروضا على ياسر عرفات في حصاره. وقد أغدقت عليه الصحافة الإسرائيلية بلقب بن غوريون فلسطين. وما أدراك من هو بن غوريون؟ ومؤخرا حظي بمرتبة عاشرة على لائحة أهم مائة شخصية قررتها مجلة تايم. كيف ولماذا؟ هكذا. فما قيمة الإمبريالية إن لم يكن بمقدورها أن ترتبنا وفق منازل ومراتب، وأن تقرر من منا المعتدل ومن المتطرف، وإن لم يكن بوسعها أن تمنحنا جوائز، وتحدد لنا أولّنا وثانينا؟.
.....
لكن ما إن أنهيت قراءة هذه المقابلات التي تستحق لغتها وحدها بحثا، وإذا برئيس السلطة ينافس رئيس حكومته بالتقرب إلى الرأي العام الإسرائيلي. فبعد أن تبيّنت حدود رغبة إدارة أوباما في الضغط على إسرائيل، وبما أن "الحياة مفاوضات"، وبما أنه لا بديل للتفاوض، فإن الحل للجمود هو المزيد من التفاوض. وقد انتقل رئيس السلطة إلى "هجوم" لكسب الرأي العام الإسرائيلي يشبه الانتقال من مفاوضة حكومة إسرائيل إلى مفاوضة كل مواطن إسرائيلي على حدة. لقد أعلن رئيس السلطة عن إستراتيجيته الحكيمة هذه بشكل هجومي في اجتماع للمجلس الثوري لحركة فتح
....
لم يصبر رئيس السلطة. فبعد إعلانه بيومٍ عاجَلَ الإسرائيليين، وربما عاجَلَنا، بمقابلة في القناة الإسرائيلية الثانية قضى فيها بالنقاط على ما أبقى رئيس حكومته من الخطاب الفلسطيني. "لا توجد أزمة ثقة مع نتنياهو"، وبالنسبة لحق العودة "الحديث هو عن حل عادل ومتفق عليه، لا توجد مرونة أكبر من هذه"، "سوف نتفق على الحل ثم آتي به للشعب الفلسطيني". لقد منح رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية دولة الاحتلال حق قبول أو رفض حق العودة. فما سيعرضه هو فقط الحل المقبول لدى إسرائيل. ويأمل أن يتجاوب معه نتنياهو، لأنه لا يريد كما يقول "أن يفكر فلسطيني حتى في مظاهرة
....
فموظف البنك -الذي يتباهى بأنه شخص عملي يقدم للناس حلولا يومية بدل القضية الوطنية، ويسمي ذلك توجها عمليا- يحصد إعجاب وترويج الغرب "العملي جدا" لأنه لا يضيِّع وقته في السياسة، أي يتركها للغرب والرباعية وإسرائيل، وينشغل هو ببناء المؤسسات الاقتصادية
....
وظيفة القيادة أن تطرح للشعب "كيف نعيش؟" و"لماذا نعيش؟" و"هل سيدعنا الاحتلال نعيش بعد أن نسلم كافة أسلحتنا؟"، "ومن سوف يُمَوِّل هذه المؤسسات بعد أن تفقد الدول المتبرعة اهتمامها"، "من سيمول ما يقارب 200 ألف وظيفة تعيل أكثر من مليون شخص يعيشون على رغبة ما يسمى المجتمع الدولي في دعم التسوية غير العادلة؟"، "وماذا نكون من دون بقية شعبنا؟ وما هو التزامنا للقدس واللاجئين؟"، و"أي حياة يعيشها شعب تنازل عن سيادته من أجل الفتات؟".

هذه مهمة القيادة الوطنية. أما إذا وُفِّقَ شعبٌ تحت الاحتلال بقيادة سوّقها أو فرضها الممولون في مرحلة الأزمة، ولا تقول إلا ما يقوله أي إنسان للابتعاد عن السياسة: "بدنا نعيش"، فلا حاجة للتسويق. هذه بضاعة رخيصة لا تحتاج إلى أي تسويق. ولكنها مثل أي بضاعة رخيصة قصيرة الأجل والمفعول.
"

Details of Gaza blockade revealed in court case

BBC News has seen documents, submitted to an Israeli Court, which give more detail than ever before about how and why Israel maintains its Gaza blockade.

In one document, Israel describes the import curbs as "a central pillar in the armed conflict with Hamas".

It also confirms estimates were made of how many calories Gazans need, but says these were not used for policy-making.

Israel says the blockade is to pressure Hamas, which does not recognise Israel and backs attacks on its citizens

The Israeli authorities also confirm the existence of four documents related to how the blockade works: how they process requests for imports into Gaza, how they monitor the shortages within Gaza, their approved list of what is allowed in, and a document entitled "Food Consumption in the Gaza Strip - Red Lines" which sets out the minimum calorie intake needed by Gaza's million and a half inhabitants, according to their age and sex.

This paper was however, the state insists, just a draft power-point presentation, used for "internal planning work", which "never served as a basis for the policy of the authority".

European Jews decry Israel policies

[Another Zionist Light Organization ala JStreet]

A group of over 3,000 European Jews, known as JCall, have signed a petition, speaking out against Israel, that was presented to the European Parliament in Brussels.

"We are speaking as friends of Israel and we are saying: You are going to make a mistake. You have to decide how to behave, not us," David Chemla, head of the group, told the Haaretz newspaper on Monday.

...

"However, I find the "Call for reason" wholly inappropriate, due to its failure to mention the fact that these settlements are illegal," Kahn, chair of a UK-based activist group, Islington Friends of Yibna, said.

"I am utterly appalled by the failure of the petition to mention Gaza and the barbaric siege Israel imposes on the 1.5 million Palestinians living there," she said.

Will Obama adopt a dangerously simplistic peace plan?

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 3 May 2010

"A new conventional wisdom is rapidly taking shape that the United States can resolve the 130-year-old conflict in Palestine by advancing its own peace plan. Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and former US Congressman Stephen Solarz outlined such a plan in The Washington Post recently, and argued that President Obama could boost its prospects with a "bold gesture" -- a trip, to Jerusalem and Ramallah in the company of Arab and other leaders to unveil it ("To achieve Mideast peace, Obama must make a bold Mideast trip," 11 April 2010)......

I write from downtown Pretoria, once the all-white capital of the South African apartheid state, which also argued that ending white rule would be "political suicide." The notion that people of different groups cannot or should not mix is belied by the vibrant multiracial reality in the streets of Pretoria outside my window today.

And precedents for the actual return of refugees abound....

By endorsing Israel's self-definition as a "Jewish state," Brzezinski and Solarz not only ratify the violation of the fundamental rights of refugees, but consign another 1.4 million Palestinian citizens of Israel to permanent second-class status within an increasingly intolerant and ultranationalist Israel. A more likely outcome than "two states living side by side in peace" is that Palestinian citizens of Israel will come under increasing threat of expulsion to the Palestinian state -- in other words, a new round of ethnic cleansing....."

35 Years Since the Fall of Saigon

Why the U.S. Still Doesn't Get the Message

By GABRIEL KOLKO
CounterPunch

"....When the Korean war ended, the U.S. leaders swore they would never fight another land war in Asia. The Korean war was fought to a draw, basically a defeat for U.S. objectives to reunite the country. Vietnam proved yet again that the U.S. could not win a land war—and it failed entirely there, at least in the military sense. Their ultimate success was due to the confusion of the Vietnamese Communists themselves, not the success of the Saigon regime or American arms. The U.S. has always been vulnerable militarily precisely because its enemies have been primarily poor and compelled the adapt to the limits of their power.


After its defeat in Vietnam in 1975 the U.S. leaders once again resolved yet again never to fight a land war without massive military power from the inception of a conflict and the support of the American people — which gradually eroded during the Vietnam war. The Weinberger doctrine in 1984 enshrined this principle. The U.S. has won wars against small, relatively weak enemies, as in Nicaragua, but in both Iraq and Afghanistan it has made the mistakes of the Korea and Vietnam wars all over again. It still wishes to be the “indispensable power,” to quote former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, but it cannot win the victories it covets. Like a drunken person, it no longer controls itself, its environments, or makes its actions conform to its perceptions. It is therefore a danger both to itself and the world."

Iran offers to help contain US oil spill. How About That for PR?

Press TV

"The National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) has offered to assist the US in efforts to prevent an ecological disaster caused by the spreading oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Following an explosion on a BP-operated oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico last month, at least 210,000 gallons (5,000 barrels) of crude oil are thought to be spilling into the water every day.

NIDC managing director Heidar Bahmani announced the firm's readiness to use its decades-long expertise to fight the oil slick, the company's public relations office told Press TV......"

Al-Jazeera Cartoon

The Difference Between....
Direct and ......Indirect....
"Negotiations!"

Why Ahmadinejad (Hearts) NY

By Tony Karon

"....Somewhere in Tehran, Mrs Clinton’s remarks will have prompted Mr Ahmadinejad to smile his pantomime villain’s smile. He’s going to New York because he believes he’ll have an opportunity to confound US objectives.

Sure, he’ll be the focus of much opprobrium – senators from Mrs Clinton’s own party tried to reverse her administration’s decision to grant him a visa, apparently ignorant of their country’s obligations as host to the United Nations. And there will be hundreds of demonstrators across from the UN headquarters, perhaps some waving Israeli flags. At least, Mr Ahmadinejad hopes so, because he too intends to make an issue of Israel – not by threatening to wipe it out, but by pointing that Israel possesses a nuclear arsenal capable of wiping out Iran 20 times over, and yet doesn’t feature in Washington’s non-proliferation agenda.

So while the US hopes to use Iran’s failure to fully comply with the transparency requirements of the treaty to raise support for new sanctions against Tehran, the Iranians plan to draw attention to western double standards in applying the NPT....."

No One Cares

By Chris Hedges

"We are approaching a decade of war in Afghanistan, and the war in Iraq is in its eighth year. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thousands more Afghans and Pakistani civilians have been killed. Millions have been driven into squalid displacement and refugee camps. Thousands of our own soldiers and Marines have died or been crippled physically and psychologically. We sustain these wars, which have no real popular support, by borrowing trillions of dollars that can never be repaid, even as we close schools, states go into bankruptcy, social services are cut, our infrastructure crumbles, tens of millions of Americans are reduced to poverty, and real unemployment approaches 17 percent. Collective, suicidal inertia rolls us forward toward national insolvency and the collapse of empire. And we do not protest. The peace movement, despite the heroic efforts of a handful of groups such as Iraq Veterans Against the War, the Green Party and Code Pink, is dead. No one cares.....

Liberals, who failed to grasp the dark intentions of the corporate state and its nefarious servants in the Democratic Party, bear some responsibility. But even an enlightened liberal class would have been hard-pressed to battle back against the tawdry emotional carnivals and the political theater that have thrust the nation into collective self-delusion. We were all seduced. And we, along with thousands of innocents in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and beyond, will all be consumed. "

الزهار: الأردن حافظ على عروبة الضفة منذ 48

أشاد بدوره في احتضان اللاجئين الفلسطينيين

There he Goes Again!
How Do You Spell Idiot?
Z-A-H-H-A-R.

"غزة - المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام
أشاد الدكتور محمود الزهار القيادي في حركة المقاومة الإسلامية "حماس" بدور المملكة الأردنية الهاشمية في خدمة الشعب الفلسطيني، مشيرًا إلى جهود عمَّان في الحفاظ على عروبة الضفة الغربية بعد حرب 1948م، واحتضان الأردن للاجئين الفلسطينيين ورعايته المستمرة للمسجد الأقصى والإشراف عليه وإعادة إعماره.
....."

"Palestinian" Ben Gurion Retracts Previous Announcement, Says: 'We Won’t Declare Independence.' Now That's a GOOD Puppet!

Al-Manar

"03/05/2010 PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said Sunday that a Palestinian state will not be declared by August 2011, adding that "as far as government institutions are concerned, we will be prepared for the establishment of a Palestinian state."

Fayyad recently presented a two-year plan for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

The PA premier has stated a number of times in the past that in case the negotiations with Israel continue to advance at a slow pace he would promote unilateral state-building measures and work towards getting the UN Security Council's recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

Speaking to Al Hurra, a US-based satellite TV channel ahead of the launching of indirect talks with Israel, Fayyad criticized the Israeli government saying it is disrupting the work of Palestinian security forces in the occupied West Bank [Puppet: We are doing your dirty work; leave us alone and don't embarrass us!]....."

The US nuclear obsession with Iran

By Marwan Bishara
Al-Jazeera

"As the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) Review Conference convenes here in New York this week to assess compliance and to agree on steps to achieve its goals, the world cannot afford a repeat of its 2005 fiasco.

There is a general perception that the NPT regime is in bad shape. In reality, it is worse.

Behind its failures lie double standards and narrow strategic thinking by its five certified nuclear powers, which hampers implementation of its decisions and erodes its credibility.

At the heart of the NPT crisis are three failures relating to the treaty's three main pillars: Disarmament, non-proliferation and access to civilian nuclear energy.....

Double standard ...

When it comes to the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, the words that trump all others are double standard.

While certain states have pursued nuclear weapons programmes to fulfill national ambition or to achieve hegemony, generally their pursuit was possible thanks to a double standard on the part of the world's five nuclear powers.

Take the countries that did not sign and/or violated the non-proliferation regime in one way or another: Israel, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Iran.

They are listed above according to the potency of their nuclear weaponisation and deployment. But in terms of Western-led reaction, Iran tops the list with Israel last on the Western agenda.

Iran then North Korea, and on to Pakistan with India and notably Israel accepted as de facto nuclear powers with little or no comment.....

Alas, the US/Western obsession with Iran has been devoid of geopolitical consideration, and the need to emphasise the importance of a world, or at least a Middle East region, free of nuclear weapons.

When the new round of sanctions fail to force Iran to back track on its nuclear programme, as other sanctions have failed before, the non-proliferation efforts will have been damaged, leaving the region at the mercy of less diplomatic means."