Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Only Psychiatrists Can Explain Israel's Behavior


by Gideon Levy

".....Can it be rationally explained how a country, to which all of the Arab nations have presented a historic peace proposal, refuses to even discuss this? It is a country that the president of Syria (whose major ally, Iran, is threatening Israel) is begging to come to a peace agreement with, yet it remains insistent in its refusal. Only psychiatric experts could possibly explain how the continued occupation of the Golan Heights and the missed opportunities for peace relate to security or logic. At the same time, they should try to explain the connection between the sanctity of historic sites and sovereignty over them. And above all, they should clarify how such a smart and talented society participates in this march of folly without anyone objecting.

True, it's a difficult case to figure out - all the more reason to recommend the country be sent for observation."

Al-Jazeera Video: Riz Khan - GAZAS OPEN WOUNDS



"A year has gone by since Israel launched a crushing military offensive against the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. For 22 days in December 2008 and January 2009, Israel bombed the territory from the air, land and sea, killing 1,400 Palestinians. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the war.

Israeli officials gave many reasons for the war, including a stop to the Palestinian missile attacks launched from Gaza, ending the illicit tunnel trade between Egypt and the Palestinians, and even, at one point, ending Hamas' control of Gaza.

The United Nations found that both Israel and Hamas had committed war crimes in the course of the fighting. Israel was accused of deliberately targeting civilians, industrial sites and water installations, and using disproportionate force to destroy civilian property and infrastructure. Hamas was criticized for using civilians as human shields, and for firing rockets into Israel to spread fear among Israeli civilians.

A year on, Palestinians have largely not been able to rebuild their homes, schools, ministries, water and sanitation networks, roads or hospitals largely due to the ongoing Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.

In this episode, Riz takes a closer look at the human toll of the war. He speaks with Dr. Ezzeldeen Abu al-Aish, a Palestinian gynecologist who practiced medicine in Israel and Gaza, and who was well known to Israelis as a peace activist. He lost three daughters and a niece when the Israeli military bombed his home in Gaza 20 days into the war. Riz also speaks with Eyad Sarraj, a prominent Palestinian human rights activist from Gaza who also heads the efforts to reconcile the two main Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas. "

Al-Jazeera Video: Jordan embarrased by Al Qaeda links



"Jordanian authorities are struggling in their fight to curb Al Qaeda's influence in their country.

As news emerges of another Jordanian with Al Qaeda links, killed in Pakistan, Nisreen El Shamalyeh reports on the growing influence of Al Qaeda ideology amongst the US allied country's youth. "

Al-Jazeera Video: Israel to build wall along Egyptian border



"Israel has approved plans to erect a wall along part of its southern border with Egypt, a project that will cost at least $270 million dollars.

Benyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said in a statement on Sunday that the wall is a "strategic decision to ensure the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel."

However, Palestinians believe the new barrier is another example of Israeli land grab.

Israeli police estimate that 100 to 200 people infiltrate Israeli's 210-kilometer southern border every week while a large majority of those are refugees from northern Africa illegaly crossing the border.

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland reports from Jerusalem."

Soldiers Invade Ramallah, Kidnap a Czech Peace Activist


"The Israeli Army invaded on Monday at night the center of the West Bank city of Ramallah, and kidnapped a Czech citizen, identified as Eva Nováková, who started her activities as the media coordinator of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) three weeks ago.

The ISM reported that Israeli forces broke into the home of Nováková in Al Manara Square and kidnapped her. The raid was carried out by the Israeli army and members of the OZ Immigration Police. Soldiers occupied rooftops of nearby buildings and kidnapped Nováková before taking her to the Givon detention center in preparation to deport her to the Czech Republic....

Such raids have been conducted in the villages of Bil’in – where 32 residents have been arrested in the past six month, Ni’ilin – where 94 residents have been arrested in the past 18 months, the cities of Nablus and Ramallah and East Jerusalem. The past three weeks have seen raids on ex-ISM bases in both Bil’in and Ni’lin, near Ramallah.

Among those arrested in this recent campaign are five members of the Bil’in Popular Committee have been arrested in suspicion of incitement, including Adeeb Abu Rahmah, who has already been held in detention for almost six months and Bil’in’s Popular Committee coordinator, Abdallah Abu Rahmah, the ISM added.

Israel continues to hold captive dozens of grassroots activists from several Palestinian areas, especially in Ramallah, Nablus and Jayyous. Some of the prominent activists held by Israel are Wael Al Faqeeh from Nablus, Jamal Juma' from East Jerusalem, Mohammad Othman from Jayyous and member of the Stop The Wall NGO which is involved in nonviolent resistance against the Wall and divestment from Israel.

No charges were brought against the detained activists as they are being held captive under a so-called ‘secret file’. Israel does not show this ‘secret file’ even to the lawyers of the detainees. "

Empire reloaded


A Good Piece

By Pepe Escobar
Asia Times

"According to United States President Barack Obama, AfPak is still the epicenter of al-Qaeda, but the Yemen chapter is a more serious problem. Thus comes into play still one more rehash of the same old narrative: a fragile dictator, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, needs America to defeat the terrorists.....

It's Pearl Harbor time

As much as 9/11 was the "Pearl Harbor" dreamed of by the neo-conservatives to unleash the American Eagle - which started with the bombing of Afghanistan and morphed into the disastrous invasion of Iraq - Abdulmuttalab's failed attempt to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day in the skies above Detroit is a godsend mini-Pearl Harbor destined to advance the Pentagon's "full spectrum dominance" doctrine.

Yemen could not be a more strategically mouth-watering proposition - with Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, the Gulf of Aden to the south leading to the Arabian Sea, and on the other side, in Africa, Somalia......

The idea of "full spectrum dominance" is about threatening to cut energy flows not only to China but even to the European Union (EU) or anyone for that matter who crosses Washington's policy makers. And it's as much about Saudi Arabia as about China. As Saudi oil exports also have to negotiate the Bab el-Mandab, US "interest" in Yemen means a graphic warning to the House of Saud: don't even think of trading oil in euros or in a basket of currencies including the Chinese yuan.....

Obama is packaging his strategy as a "war on al-Qaeda". It's not a war. And even if the counter-insurgency gang in the Pentagon conducts it, it's destined to fail. Meanwhile, there's not the remotest chance in sight of a real US withdrawal from Iraq, the end of the AfPak war, or a viable, non-apartheid Palestinian state.

Now that would be a real, concerted counter-terrorist operation, to finish once and for all with the ghost of all those "al-Qaedas". It won't happen. The name of the game is "full spectrum dominance" and empire reloaded. Fasten your body scanners; the decade promises a bumpy ride."

'We're Sailing Again – Join Us!'


The Free Gaza Movement

"This spring, the Free Gaza Movement is sending at least six boats to Gaza to break Israel’s illegal blockade on 1.5 million Palestinians. This blockade constitutes an act of collective punishment, a crime prohibited under international humanitarian law. Gaza's man-made and internationally perpetuated crisis is set to deepen as Egypt builds an Iron wall 30 meters deep and 20 meters high on the southern Rafah border, closing off the final route for Palestinians to get basic supplies.

The urgency of breaking the blockade grows by the day as Palestinians living in this prison are denied their most basic rights....

We sailed four more successful missions to Gaza since August 2008, and we intend to come back this year with a small flotilla, so you still have time to get boats and come with us. We are calling on all NGOs, human rights organizations and communities around the world to join us. If you already have funding for boats, we can provide the logistical and technical advice on how get them ready to join the flotilla. If you want to help in other ways, we have listed five below.....

To help, organize a fundraiser, suggest passengers and offer support, please email us at friends@freegaza.org This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , and we will follow up immediately. We have only two to three months to finish organizing, raise the additional funds, and to set sail.

Join us as we sail together to Gaza this spring!"

Marching to the Empire's Orders....Syria's Assad to Visit Saudi Arabia


Al-Manar

"12/01/2010 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is to travel to Riyadh on Wednesday for talks with King Abdullah, who paid a landmark visit to Damascus last October, Saudi Arabia's official news agency SPA said.

The visit on Wednesday comes amid stepped-up efforts by Riyadh to build Arab unity around the Palestinians ahead of a possible resumption of peace talks with Israel. [providing the Arab fig leaf to the Palestinian traitor to "resume negotiations." Next will come an "emergency" meeting of Arab eunuchs, AKA Arab foreign ministers, ....How many times have we seen this old and boring film? ....Barf!!.....This is "Arab unity" in surrender and defeat.]

Damascus-Riyadh ties were severely strained for years, partly over Syria's role in Lebanon and its support for Hezbollah, before a thaw marked by King Abdullah's trip to Damascus. But the two countries still differ over Lebanese politics, over the Palestinian division between the Hamas and Fatah factions, and Iran's role in the region, according to diplomats and analysts."

Yemen 'cannot contain al-Qa'ida'


Donald Macintyre ventures into the new stronghold of extremism – and finds out why the battle against terror is failing

The Independent

"....The difficulties faced by Abyan's most senior official provide a rare insight into the problems in conducting the so-called "war on terror" in a relatively remote, rugged and undeveloped country where deep poverty, tribalism and religious conservatism allow radical influences to flourish.

Despite reports from Sana'a, the capital, that Yemen is currently moving reinforcements into areas like Abyan in a new crackdown on the resurgent militants, the governor said he had seen no sign of it........"

Galloway right to relish Egypt expulsion


In making an enemy of Hosni Mubarak's regime, George Galloway has taken a lead western governments should follow

Ajmal Masroor
guardian.co.uk, Monday 11 January 2010

"George Galloway was deported from Egypt on Friday as "persona non grata" by the Egyptian authorities, accusing him of undermining Egyptian security. What a bizarre, twisted and demented accusation from a dictatorial regime that has ruled Egypt for over 30 years and which has been an accomplice with Israel to the Gaza blockade causing untold suffering of the Palestinian people.

Let me declare my interest from the outset, I am not a great fan of Galloway, in fact I am standing as the Liberal Democrats' parliamentary candidate for Bethnal Green and Bow, where he is the current MP, and in the next general election I will be providing a direct challenge to his party, Respect.

However, leaving aside party or political differences I agree with Galloway when he says "It's always been a badge of honour to be deported by a tinpot dictator"......."

Terror Unto The Nations: Bomb blast kills Iranian professor


Al-Jazeera

"An Iranian nuclear physics professor has been killed in a bomb blast in the north of the capital, Tehran, state media has reported.

Massoud Mohammadi, a professor at Tehran University, was killed on Tuesday when a bomb strapped to a motorcycle was triggered by remote control outside his home.

"The explosion took place near the professor's home in Qeytariyeh neighbourhood, in northern Tehran," the state-run Press TV said.....

Baqer Moin, an Iranian author and journalist in London, said Iranian media have accused "Zionist agents" as being behind the blast......."

Monday, January 11, 2010

ضغوط أميركية وعربية أفشلت التبادل


Al-Jazeera

"كشفت مصادر دبلوماسية موثوق بها للجزيرة نت أن ضغوطًا أميركية وعربية دفعت إسرائيل للتراجع وسحب بعض الموافقات التي أنجزها الوسيط الألماني في صفقة تبادل الأسرى لإحراج حركة المقاومة الإسلامية (حماس).

وكانت مصادر فلسطينية قد كشفت للجزيرة نت في وقت سابق من الشهر الماضي أن إسرائيل تراجعت عن بعض ما وافقت عليه سابقًا في صفقة التبادل، وأهم ما تم التراجع عنه هو رفض إطلاق سراح مروان البرغوثي وأحمد سعادات
وزيادة أعداد الأسرى المتوقع إبعادهم.

وقالت المصادر التي فضلت إغفال هويتها إن المبعوث الأميركي لعملية السلام في الشرق الأوسط جورج ميتشل ووزيرا عربيا مارسا ضغوطا على إسرائيل لحثها على عدم تقديم تنازلات لحماس من شأنها أن ترفع شعبيتها وتزيد التأييد لها.

وأشارت نفس المصادر إلى أن ميتشل أجرى اتصالا قبل شهر مع رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو وطلب منه وضع الإدارة الأميركية في صورة تطورات صفقة التبادل، وحينما سمع من نتنياهو مواقف إسرائيل طلب منه التراجع.

تحتاج لهذه الفرصة
وقالت المصادر إن ميتشل أبلغ نتنياهو أن حماس تحتاج لهذه الفرصة وأن عملية السلام ستتراجع إذا ما قدمت هدية كهذه للحركة، موضحا –حسب ميتشل- أنها ستضعف السلطة الفلسطينية والرئيس محمود عباس.

وأكدت المصادر أيضا أن وزيرا عربيا نشيطا دعا نتنياهو إلى عدم الاستجابة لحماس وشروطها لتبادل الأسرى، مؤكدا أن هناك حلاً أفضل يركع الحركة وهو خنقها وجعل حياة قطاع غزة جحيمًا، مما قد يؤدي لتراجع من حماس. (has to be Break-Their-Legs-Abul-Gheit; who else??)

ونقلت المصادر عن الوزير العربي قوله لنتنياهو إن "حماس ستعود راكعة إذا ما ضيقنا عليها الحصار أكثر وقطعنا شريان الأنفاق التي تمد غزة بالطعام والمحروقات، ولكن علينا أيضا أن نمنع حركتهم عبر معابرنا الحدودية".

وأكدت المصادر أن الوزير العربي أكد أن إسرائيل سوف تحصل على الأسير الإسرائيلي جلعاد شاليط بأقل الأثمان إذا ما عملت على تخويف قيادة حركة حماس في غزة ودمشق
."

The shameless lies of Mubarak's official media

A Very Good Editorial
Palestine Information Center

"The state-run media in Egypt is shamelessly indulging in wild lies about Hamas’s efforts to break the cruel blockade being clamped on more than 1.6 million Palestinians seeking freedom and food. The largely-stupid propaganda would have us believe that Hamas is threatening Egypt, causing the blockade of Gaza to persist, working with Iran to destabilize Egyptian security, and so on and so forth.

Well, this is the classical way tyrannical regimes behave when they face bankruptcy in terms of their relations with their masses. People simply stop believing the lies of the regimes as is the case now all over the Arab world.

In fact, however, the main reason behind the Egyptian media attacks on Hamas is because the Palestinian Islamic movement is refusing rather stubbornly to surrender to Israel and the U.S. as Egypt had done more than three decades ago when the Egyptian leadership accepted an arrangement barring the Egyptian armed forces from accessing the bulk of the Sinai peninsula.

Another reason has to do with Hamas exposing the naked Egyptian collaboration and collusion with the cancerous Zionist entity against the forces of resistance and freedom in the Arab world......

With this in mind, it seems that the autocratic Egyptian regime is sensing a different threat coming from the small coastal enclave called Gaza. It is terrified by the prospects of its 80-million masses contracting the disease of freedom from across the border. That is the real reason behind this outburst of rabid propaganda against Hamas, a freedom movement that has given the word dignity a new meaning.

As we all know, the Egyptian regime worships itself and is planning to stay in power until its natural, e.g. biological end. This is the regime’s ultimate goal and strategy. This is why the entire country and its means, resources, and potentials are being utilized to sustain the regime for as long as possible.

Some say that Egypt has never witnessed a regime so despotic and so morally bankrupt since the era of the Pharaohs.

Of course, the Egyptian media are nothing more than mouthpieces for Mubarak, the American-Israeli puppet tyrant who has morphed Egypt from a decent, civilized country into a mere fiefdom for himself and his family. They are Mubarak’s barking dogs, with no freedom or independence of their own to think for themselves.........

A brief look at the situation in Egypt today reveals a dilapidated country resembling a hapless police state where the state is even unable to provide sufficient food, especially bread, for its citizens. It is a state where every sector is collapsing, including industry and agriculture, all because serving Egypt is actually not on the agenda of the regime whose main, if not only, strategy is remaining in power.

We all remember that this regime has been collaborating with Israel against the people of Gaza. Well, didn’t the former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni declare the war on Gaza in December, 2008, during a press conference with her Egyptian counterpart Abu al Gheit?

Moreover, Hasn’t Egypt been trying to perfect and complete the Israeli siege of Gaza by preventing the people of Gaza from accessing food and other vital consumer products on the Egyptian side of the borders?

This treasonous policy, which is now manifesting its brutal ugliness once again by building this shameful steel wall, with American and French aid and presumably with behind-the-scene Israeli supervision, constitutes a national blasphemy, to say the very least.

And now the disgraced regime is instructing its parroting media, even its hypocritical Sheikhs, to vilify Hamas, as if Hamas were responsible for all the ills of Egypt and sins of the bankrupt Mubarak regime. Well for what? For defending the Arab and Muslim honor and refusing to surrender to Jewish murderers and terrorists? For standing up to the Israeli army while a neighboring Arab-Muslim country with 80 million people and a strong army looking on as if all the massacre were happening on a different planet?

Or perhaps for having the guts to win the elections in occupied Palestine in 2006 which the Egyptian regime viewed as constituting a looming danger that could awaken the dormant Egyptian masses and make them rise up against the tyrannical regime which torments and impoverishes Egypt on Israel’s behalf and in order to serve the interests of the United States?

I don’t know what is the ultimate price that the Egyptian and Palestinian peoples have to pay so that Mubarak and his cohorts remain in power? The obscenely ugly equation is very simple. In order for Mubarak and his son Jamal to stay in power, he has to have a permanent certificate of good conduct from Israel and the U.S. But Mubarak can’t obtain such a certificate, saturated with disgrace and perfidy, without pacifying and repressing the Egyptian masses and killing and starving the Palestinians across the borders.

And since Mubarak lacks the national credentials of a dignified Arab or Muslim leader, he sees nothing wrong in shamefully submitting to the Israeli-American conditions for obtaining the certificate of “good” conduct. Hence, the shameless surrender and disgraceful capitulation to Israel.......

Well, but who colluded with Israel against the Gazans in the first place? Who conspired with Israel to shut off Gaza from the West while Israel does the same from the east? Let the Egyptian regime look itself in the mirror to see its ugliness........

In truth, the Egyptian regime, or any other tyrannical Arab regime, is in no moral position to attack or lecture Hamas, a movement which is unlike these regimes has earned its survival by refusing to give in, even in the face of the imminent danger of death."

Uphill battle for academic freedom in US universities


Nora Barrows-Friedman, The Electronic Intifada, 11 January 2010
(Nora Barrows-Friedman is the co-host and Senior Producer of Flashpoints, a daily investigative newsmagazine on Pacifica Radio. She is also a correspondent for Inter Press Service. She regularly reports from Palestine, where she also runs media workshops for youth in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.)

"In 2009, Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, became the first American higher educational institution to successfully pressure its Board of Trustees to divest from Israel-tied mutual funds. The victory came three decades after the college similarly disinvested from funds linked to apartheid South Africa. Across North America, student-led Palestine activism groups have used the methods formulated by the Palestinian-led call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) "to implement divestment initiatives against Israel, similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era, until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with international law." Hampshire College's divestment move was a victory for the students and the administration of Hampshire College, and an inspirational model for hundreds of activism groups across North American campuses.

But despite the expanding and momentous student-led BDS movement, open dialogue around the reality of the situation in occupied Palestine continues to be an uphill battle for many professors inside the classrooms. Educators who openly align with the BDS movement, or speak out against Israeli-US policy in Palestine and the region, are being harassed, threatened, blacklisted, denied tenure and fired from their academic posts...."

Entering Egypt, by Khalil Bendib


(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

Khalil is too polite to call the Pharaoh by his true name (Asshole), but that is what the bird is trying to say (lower right hand corner of the cartoon).

One Year After Israeli Assault on Gaza, Survivors From Samouni Family Remember the Tragedy that Killed 29

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman



"One year after Israel’s assault on Gaza, we back to a deadly attack that took place on one Gazan neighborhood. The Samouni family, who live in an agricultural area in the Zaytoun area of Gaza City, lost 29 members of their family in the attack. Anjali Kamt and Jacquie Soohen visited the surviving members of the family in March.

We go now to Gaza where at least five Palestinians have been killed in Israeli raids over the weekend....

Also this weekend Egypt said it would ban all humanitarian aid convoys to Gaza from traveling across Egypt. On Friday Egypt deported British lawmaker George Galloway who had led the Viva Palestina aid convoy to Gaza last week and declared him “persona non grata,”.....

Report from Gaza, filed by Anjali Kamat and Jacquie Soohen."

Real News Video: Rio: Olympic City - Pt. 2

Rio de Janeiro between favelas and Olympic plans


More at The Real News

"An explosion of joy on the streets of Rio greeted the announcement that the city would be hosting the 2016 Olympic games. Two weeks later, and Rio saw an explosion of violence when a police helicopter was shot down by drug traffickers. The governments reaction has been to intensify the crackdown on the citys slums or Favelas. A Human Rights Watch report last month accused Rio and Sao Paolo police of killing over 11,000 people since 2003. Many, the report claims, were executed by the police, shot at point blank range. Many were innocent. And on many occasions, the police tried to cover up the evidence. This week, Fault Lines travels to Rio to look at the crackdown in Rios Favelas, and what it means for the people of the city."

Israeli general Brigadier-General Uzi Eilam denies Iran is nuclear threat


Times Online

"A general who was once in charge of Israel’s nuclear weapons has claimed that Iran is a “very, very, very long way from building a nuclear capability”.

Brigadier-General Uzi Eilam, 75, a war hero and pillar of the defence establishment, believes it will probably take Iran seven years to make nuclear weapons.

The views expressed by the former director-general of Israel’s Atomic Energy Commission contradict the assessment of Israel’s defence establishment and put him at odds with political leaders....."

The Weird Factor

The panty bomber mystery deepens

by Justin Raimondo, January 11, 2010

".....The official narrative has been in flux, due in part to the political firestorm that surrounds the event: President Obama’s characterization of the Undie Bomber as an "isolated" individual, unconnected to a larger network, began to fall apart almost before it was uttered. As the links between Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab and the specter of "al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula" surfaced – along with the incredible story of how Mutallab’s father, a prominent Nigerian banker, personally reported his son to the US embassy and the CIA – the official story had to be amended. Now it’s "the buck stops here," an admission of failure, and the inevitable calls for making everyone’s flying experience more problematic and unendurable than ever......

What we do know is this: the bare bones scenario, aired by the President in his earliest remarks, is incorrect. What we don’t know – yet – is how much broader was the conspiracy to down flight 253. If the eyewitnesses are right, then the activities of Mutallab’s well-dressed companion certainly point to a pro-terrorist auxiliary, of some sort, providing Mutallab with invaluable assistance. This scenario is also implied by the "man in orange," whose identity and whereabouts are a complete mystery at this point. As for the person who videotaped the entire proceedings – I have no idea what to make of it. It’s the Weird Factor – and it’s pretty strange, even considering how far down this particular rabbit hole we have gone."

Iran Uses Fear of Covert Nuclear Sites to Deter Attack


by Gareth Porter, January 11, 2010

".....But all the evidence indicates that the real story is exactly the opposite: far from wanting to hide the existence of nuclear facilities from the outside world, Iran has wanted Western intelligence to conclude that it was putting some of its key nuclear facilities deep underground for more than three years.

The reason for that surprising conclusion is simple: Iran’s primary problem in regard to its nuclear program has been how to deter a U.S. or Israeli attack on its nuclear sites. To do that, Iranian officials believed they needed to convince U.S. and Israeli military planners that they wouldn’t be able to destroy some of Iran’s nuclear sites and couldn’t identify others.....

One indication of that the Iranian strategy has had an impact on Israeli calculations is that Maj. Gen. Aharon Ze’evi Farkash, the head of intelligence for the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) from 2002 to 2006, supported an attack on Iran by the U.S. Air Force – a standard Israeli position – at a meeting at the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy last October.

But Farkash warned that Western intelligence still may not know about all of Iran’s nuclear sites. In other statements, Farkash has opposed an Israeli strike."