Two Hamas legislators call for prosecuting Abbas after his term ends

"Hama legislators of the Change and Reform Bloc, Dr. Salim Salama, called for detaining president Mahmoud Abbas after his term in office ends on January 8, 2009. Legislator Ismail Al Ashqar of Hamas said that after January 9, Abbas will be regarded as an ordinary citizen and should be “prosecuted for his coup against the Palestinian legitimacy”, the Palestine News (psnews.ps) reported.

Legislator Salama said during a parallel PLC session in Gaza and in Ramallah that the basic Palestinian law does not allow renewing Abbas’ term in office.

Meanwhile, Al Ashqar stated that starting on January 9, Abbas should be considered ordinary resident and should be prosecuted in a court of law for what he described as the “coup against legitimacy and attacks against the residents”, the psnews added.

Al Ashqar accused Abbas of cutting the salaries of government employees and of collaborating with the occupation through “fruitless negotiations with Israel”."

COMMENT: It is much more than that! He should be tried for treason, giving aid and comfort to the enemy, targeting and killing resistance fighters, direct coordination with and working for the IOF, conspiring with the CIA to overthrow the elected Palestinian government, arbitrary arrests, torture and murder of political prisoners, shutting down the press and freedom of expression, establishing the basis for a police state, without the state, holding secret "negotiations" with the enemy to sell out Palestinian rights, advocating Israel as a "Jewish homeland," besieging and starving 1.5 million Palestinians, and much, much more!

Try the bastard and convict him; don't wait another day!

Syria plays hardball with the Saudis

By Sami Moubayed
Asia Times

"Saudi Arabia's refusal to denounce the deadly September 27 attack in Syria has enflamed relations between Damascus and Riyadh. The Syrians believe the Saudis, furious over defeat in Beirut and Syria's diplomatic successes, are now financing radicals in Lebanon to strike at both Hezbollah and Syria - a move that could set the region ablaze......"

Syria marks 35th anniversary of Yom Kippur War with call for peace

"Syrian military leaders marked the 35th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War Monday by saying that Syria was interested in peace, not war, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported.

"In their speeches, military leaders spoke about the just and comprehensive peace that Syria hopes for," SANA said.

Both Syria and Egypt consider the Yom Kippur War a victory over Israel, even though it ended with Israel still holding the land they ostensibly went to war to regain......"

Israeli security officials: Time running out on Shalit deal

"Security officials have warned that the time for making a deal for the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit is running out. The officials told Haaretz that the more time that passes, the more things can go wrong and the greater the danger that an opportunity will be missed to bring Shalit home.

Talks are to open Tuesday in Cairo between Hamas and Fatah, mediated by the Egyptians, with an Egyptian-proposed package deal on the agenda that would include the release of Shalit......

Officials said that as far as they know, no option now exists for a military option to release Shalit. Referring to the kidnapping, an official said, "there was a failure, and now the price has to be paid, even if it means releasing terrorists who are murderers."......."

TIME TO FACE FACTS IN AFGHANISTAN

By Eric Margolis

"For those who savor historical irony, the Soviet Empire collapsed in the years 1989-1991 because of an implosion of its economy brought on by a ruinous arms race with the United States and the heavy costs of occupying Afghanistan.

Seventeen years later came the turn of the world’s other great imperial power, the United States. Lethally bloated by runaway debt, and burdened by 50% of the world’s military spending, the house of cards known as the US economy finally collapsed......"

Brits Say: We Can't Win in Afghan

By Robert Dreyfuss
The Nation

"For all the talk about Afghanistan being the "right war," and with both Obama and McCain insisting that they want to send thousands of additional US forces there, our British allies have let the camel, so to speak, out of the bag. Meanwhile, more and more information is coming out to confirm that the government of Afghanistan is negotiating with (gasp!) the Taliban. This is important stuff......."

الشعب المصري يتضامن مع المحاصرين

الشعب المصري يتضامن مع المحاصرين

رأي القدس

"اعتقلت سلطات الامن المصرية اكثر من عشرين ناشطا سياسيا امس، بينهم السيد مجدي حسين زعيم حزب 'العمل' المجمد كانوا يحتجون على الحصار المفروض على قطاع غزة امام بوابة صلاح الدين الحدودية في مدينة رفح، مما يعني ان المواطن المصري ممنوع من امرين اساسيين، الاول هو الوصول الى حدوده مع القطاع او التجول في سيناء، لان هؤلاء المحتجين وصلوا من خلال طرق جانبية لتجاوز حواجز الامن المصري، والثاني انه بات محظورا على ابناء الشعب المصري اظهار اي نوع من التضامن مع اشقاء لهم محاصرين في الجانب الآخر من الحدود في قطاع غزة.
....
عمليات التدمير والقاء الغازات السامة داخل انفاق رفح لاغلاقها وقتل من فيها دون اي انذار مسبق، تتم تحت نظر مراقبين امريكيين، مثلما كشفت الصحف الامريكية والاسرائيلية، حيث جرى تدمير 42 نفقا بمشاركة خبراء امريكيين حضروا خصيصا لاداء هذه المهمة غير الانسانية.
ومن المفارقة ان الحكومة المصرية تعتبر اي اجتياح للحدود المصرية من قبل الفلسطينيين الجوعى انتهاكا صارخا للسيادة المصرية، وتعديا سافرا على كرامة مصر الوطنية، ولكنها لا ترى في وجود خبراء امريكيين يفجرون انفاقا ويتفحصون الحدود، ويتأكدون من احكام الحصار على ابناء قطاع غزة اي انتهاك للسيادة او الكرامة الوطنية.
ونذهب الى ما هو ابعد من ذلك ونقول ان مفهوم مصر لسيادتها وكرامتها الوطنية فيه العديد من الثقوب والعيوب الفاضحة، فكيف يستقيم الحديث عن السيادة في ظل عدم قدرة الحكومة المصرية على ارسال جندي امن واحد الى سيناء دون التشاور مسبقا مع الاسرائيليين، وهو تشاور ينتهي دائما برفض الطرف الاسرائيلي الحازم في هذا الشأن.
النشطاء المصريون الذين تجاوزوا الحواجز الامنية ونجحوا في الوصول الى بوابة صلاح الدين، بعد ان تكبدوا الكثير من المعاناة في السير في الصحراء عبر طرق ملتوية، انما يؤكدون اصالة الشعب المصري وعمق انتماءاته العربية والاسلامية، ومدى ايمانه بقضايا الامة، وتضامنه المطلق مع اشقائه المحاصرين المجوعين المعتقلين في سجن كبير، اسمه قطاع غزة."

Hamas says Abbas must step aside

Al-Jazeera

"The Palestinian group Hamas that governs Gaza says it will stop recognising Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian president in three months.

Hamas, citing a Palestinian law, said one of its own leaders must fill the top post after Abbas's tenure officially expires on January 8.

The announcement came after Hamas legislators voted on a resolution in Gaza City on Monday, a move seen as at attempt to step up pressure on Abbas and his Fatah party ahead of talks brokered by Egypt over a power-sharing deal between the rival camps.......

But a loophole in the law, which Fatah is relying on, suggests that Abbas's term could be extended another year if it were deemed to be in the "national interest".

Abbas was elected president in January 2005 but a year later Hamas defeated his movement by a landslide in parliamentary elections in Gaza........"

Real News Video: Russia, Bolivia ink helicopter deal

Forrest Hylton: There used to be a recognition of US spheres of influence - all that is over



"Russia and Bolivia strengthened their ties this week. With Moscow concluding a deal with La Paz to purchase five Russian civil defence helicopters. The deal also forms part of a strategy of Latin American integration, sidelining the United States, as countries like Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina among others, attempt to re assert control over their own progress. Forrest Hylton states that " there used to be a recognition of spheres of influence all that is over. ""

Real News Video: The encirclement of Russia

Chalmers Johnson: "We have to back down unless we are looking for real confrontation with Russia" Part 3



"Chalmers Johnson: "It's amazing that we have gone this far pushing the Russians around ... They are the only people on earth who could literally destroy us.""

Real News Video: Americans and reality

Robert Parry: The Reagan presidency further detached Americans from world reality - Part 3

The commander is right... you'll never beat the Taliban

In Afghanistan the US policy has been catastrophically misconceived

By Patrick Cockburn

".......The admission by a senior British Army commander, Mark Carleton-Smith, over the weekend that absolute military victory in Afghanistan is impossible has been overtaken by the talks in Mecca. "If the Taliban were prepared to sit on the other side of the table and talk about a political settlement, then that's precisely the sort of progress that concludes insurgencies like this," said Brigadier Carleton-Smith. "That shouldn't make people uncomfortable."

This sounds as if Britain's latest military venture in Afghanistan is going to end in a retreat with none of its ill-defined objectives achieved. In the US, an understanding of the real situation on the ground has been slower to come. John McCain and Barack Obama still speak as if a few more brigades of American soldiers sent to chase the Taliban around the mountains of southern Afghanistan would change the outcome of the war.

US policy in Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein has been constantly denigrated as a recipe for self-inflicted disaster. But President Bush's policy in Afghanistan in the wake of the fall of the Taliban was just as catastrophically misconceived. In both countries the administration's agenda was primarily geared to using military victory to make sure that the Republicans won elections at home......."

European Financial Disarray

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)
By Steve Bell, The Guardian

NATO chief: Israel entitled to nukes

Press TV

"NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer says he would never expect Israel to abandon its 'supposed nuclear arsenal'.

Israel is widely believed to have acquired some 200-300 nuclear warheads from its Western allies. Former US president Jimmy Carter confirmed in late May that Tel Aviv is the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East.

Speaking at a conference in France, Scheffer said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) would never question Israel's nuclear drive because of Iran's nuclear activities.

Iran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), is entitled to the civilian application of nuclear technology, such as generating electricity for its growing population......."

Secrets of Iraq's death chamber

Prisoners are being summarily executed in the government's high-security detention centre in Baghdad.

By Robert Fisk

"......The Independent has learnt that secret executions are being carried out in the prisons run by Nouri al-Maliki's "democratic" government.

The hangings are carried out regularly – from a wooden gallows in a small, cramped cell – in Saddam Hussein's old intelligence headquarters at Kazimiyah. There is no public record of these killings in what is now called Baghdad's "high-security detention facility" but most of the victims – there have been hundreds since America introduced "democracy" to Iraq – are said to be insurgents, given the same summary justice they mete out to their own captives.

The secrets of Iraq's death chambers lie mostly hidden from foreign eyes but a few brave Western souls have come forward to tell of this prison horror. The accounts provide only a glimpse into the Iraqi story, at times tantalisingly cut short, at others gloomily predictable. Those who tell it are as depressed as they are filled with hopelessness......."

Naomi Klein: Wall St. Crisis Should Be for Neoliberalism What Fall of Berlin Wall Was for Communism

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

"AMY GOODMAN: The credit crunch is spreading to financial markets around the world. Nearly 160,000 jobs were lost here in the United States in September. That’s not including losses directly resulting from the financial meltdown. Wall Street might be breathing a little easier since Congress passed the more-than-$700-billion bailout plan Friday, but there are no signs of an easy or quick recovery.

Today we take a look back at the economic philosophy that championed the kind of deregulation that led to this crisis. We spend the hour with investigative journalist and author Naomi Klein, bestselling author of The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.

Naomi Klein spoke at the University of Chicago last week, invited by a group of faculty opposed to the creation of an economic research center called the Milton Friedman Institute. It has a $200 million endowment and is named after the University’s most famous economist, the leader of the neoliberal Chicago School of Economics......"

We run the road

Nir Rosen reports from Majd al Anjar, where the rage of young men mixes with the sectarian fervour spilling over Iraq’s borders.

A Good Article
By Nir Rosen

Contributed by Datta

"......Majd al Anjar occupies a strategic location on the road to Syria, but it is also a crossroads for the sectarian fervour unleashed across the region by the American invasion of Iraq. The town has dispatched numerous suicide bombers and fighters to Iraq, where they have targeted American troops and Shiite civilians alike. The war – and the rise of a US-backed Shiite government in Iraq has stoked fury here that borders on racism, fired by irrational fears of a “Shiite crescent” encircling vulnerable Sunnis.

Analysts talked of the “Lebanonization” of Iraq as the country spiralled into civil war after the fall of Saddam, and now Lebanon – a weak state awash in oceans of arms – faces the spectre of Iraqification. In Majd al Anjar, angry young men are not waiting for leaders to emerge; they are prepared to take matters into their own hands......

Like many salafis I have met, Saadi was openly envious of Hezbollah’s confrontation with Israel but contemptuous of its failure to fight beyond Lebanon’s borders. “Hizbollah protects the Jewish border with orders from the Syrian regime,” he said. The goal of Hizbollah’s “takeover” of Beirut was to weaken Sunnis in the Arab world, he argued.

“Sunnis have woken up,” Saadi continued. “Sunnis around the world are mad after what happened in Beirut. The result will be a thousand Zarqawis going after Hizbollah.”"

Egypt police block aid convoy to Gaza, arrest 30

"CAIRO (AFP) - Egyptian police blocked an opposition convoy carrying medical supplies to the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip and arrested at least 30 activists on Monday, security officials said.

Police surrounded campaigners outside the Journalists' Syndicate offices in Cairo, where the convoy was due to leave from, and detained 25 opposition members, a security official said.

They also arrested five opposition members, including the head of the suspended Labour Party Magdi Hussein, who had travelled on their own to Rafah, another official said........"

The Palestinian Left and RoR (Right of Return)

By Haidar Eid

"The status of the left and its' role in the liberation of Palestine continues to be the focus of analysis and discussion. Some argue that the Palestinian left is dead and that it has subsumed its' historic role to that of the right wing within Fateh for too long to be considered an independent force anymore. Others argue that the lefts‘ participation in the PLO is necessary because the PLO is a Palestinian national achievement that was created to embody the national aspirations of the Palestinian people. This view sees the PLO as a coalition of most Palestinian political organizations who subscribe to the Palestinian National Charter and the Interim Program. A key demand in the Interim Program is the right of Palestinians refugees to return to the villages and towns from which they were ethnically cleansed in 1948 - a right also guaranteed by UN resolution 194.

With the rise of the two-state solution as a possible resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and more especially following the signing of the Oslo Accords, the official leadership of the PLO began to use the right of return as a bargaining chip in its' endless rounds of negotiations with the Israelis. However, in spite of this, they have never clearly and directly indicated a willingness to abandon this right in its' entirety. It was only in the semi-official Geneva Document-- rejected outright by almost all political parties and civil society organizations in the Gaza Strip, West Bank, 1948 Palestine, and the Diaspora-- that an attempt was made to force Palestinians to give up this right in exchange for a truncated ‘state.'

Mahmoud Abbas has in two recent interviews (with the Dubai based Al-Arabiya TV satellite channel and with the Israeli Haaretz newspaper) indicated that as he does not expect Israel to accept the return of 5 million Palestinian refugees, he therefore is willing to accept a symbolic return......"

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

The US Pushing the "Peace Process" Forward!
By Naser Jafari

Bush's final Iran blunder?

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Asia Times

"The George W Bush administration's decision to turn down the opportunity of a diplomatic presence in Iran - despite Tehran's strong signals welcoming the idea - can be seen as a move to avoid undermining Republican Senator John McCain's presidential chances. More ominously, it could be tied to the drumbeats of war sounded by Israel....

In that case, Bush's latest blunder may may yet rival his other greatest blunders, including attacking Iran's neighbor Iraq under the false pretext it had weapons of mass destruction. In Iran's case, even US intelligence's own estimate is that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program. This has been scoffed at in the Israeli media and by the government from the moment the estimate was leaked - for one good reason: any good news that Iran is not a threat is bad news for Israel."

Dennis Kucinich on the Democrats’ Bailout Betrayal

By Chris Hedges

"The passing of the $850-billion bailout pulled the plug on the New Deal. The Great Society is now gasping for air, mortally wounded, coughing up blood. It will not recover. It was murdered by the Democratic Party....."

Still on the Edge of the Abyss

By MIKE WHITNEY
CounterPunch

"French Premier François Fillon: "We're on the edge of the abyss”

Years from today, when the current financial crisis is over, historians are likely to agree that it would have been far better if the Bush administration had declared a state of emergency earlier in the process so that the necessary steps could have taken to avoid a complete financial meltdown. The media could have been used to bring the American people up to date on market-related developments and educated in the bizarre language of structured finance. Knowledge is power; and power can prevent panic.

Now we're in a terrible fix. People are scared and removing their money from the banks and money markets. This is intensifying the freeze in the credit markets and driving stocks into the ground like a tent stake. Meanwhile, our leaders are caught in the headlights, still believing they can finesse their way through the biggest economic cataclysm since the Great Depression......"

A Futile Bailout as Darkness Falls on America

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
CounterPunch

"America has become a pretty discouraging place. Americans, for the most part, will never know what happened to them, because they no longer have a free and responsible press. They have Big Brother’s press. For example, on September 28, 2008, a New York Times editorial blamed the current financial crisis on “antiregulation disciples of the Reagan Revolution.”

What utter nonsense. Every example of deregulation that the New York Times editorial provides is located in the Clinton Administration and the George W. Bush administration. I was a member of the Reagan administration. We most certainly did not deregulate the financial system.

The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial from investment banking, was the achievement of the Democratic Clinton Administration. It happened in 1999, over a decade after Reagan left office......

The same reckless leadership that gave us expensive wars based on false premises has now concocted an expensive bailout that does not address the problem, which will fester and become worse. "

حماس تستدرج إلى مقتلها في حوار القاهرة

عدنان أبو عامر

"شواهد على عدم جدية الحوار

تكتل فلسطيني إقليمي ضد حماس

مشكلة الرئاسة ذريعة للحل الأمني
لم يعد سرا أن ما يجري التحضير له في القاهرة أبعد ما يكون عن مفردات الحوار والمصالحة والوفاق بين الفرقاء الفلسطينيين، ذلك أن هناك الكثير من الشواهد والمعطيات التي "زكمت رائحتها أنوف الفلسطينيين" وتركت بما لا يدع مجالا للشك أن "طبخة" ما تدبر، وأن هناك أيد كثيرة قد تكون مشاركة فيها، فلسطينية وعربية وإسرائيلية ودولية.
ولئن كان المقام هنا لا يتسع لتوزيع الاتهامات يمنة ويسرة، إلا أن وضع النقاط على الحروف، وتحمل المسؤوليات، أصبح محتما قبل فوات الميعاد، بعيدا عن عبارات الإطراء والمديح لحساب جهة، وكلمات التجريح والهجاء ضد جهة أخرى.

.......

....."

Al-Jazeera Video: Inside Story - The War in Afghanistan - Oct 5

Part 1:



Part 2:



"According to a British military officer the war in Afghanistan can not be won unless political negotiations with the Taliban take place."

Talks with Taliban the only way forward in Afghanistan, says UK commander

• Britain urges allies to use diplomacy to end conflict
•There will be no decisive victory, says brigadier

Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian, Monday October 6 2008

"Britain is stepping up pressure for a political and diplomatic settlement to the conflict in Afghanistan, a move set in sharp relief yesterday by the commander of UK troops who warned that the war against the Taliban was not going to be won.

The message is being delivered with increasing urgency by British military commanders, diplomats and intelligence officers, to Nato allies and governments in the region, the Guardian has learned.......

Aid agencies say the Taliban and associated groups are controlling more territory and it is increasingly difficult to provide the population with their humanitarian needs, let alone physical security.

After months of indecision and attacking western diplomats and military officials for approaching Taliban forces and their local commanders, Karzai said last week he had asked the king of Saudi Arabia to mediate in negotiations."

Livni Tells Kouchner: I Oppose Olmert's Peace Plan

Al-Manar

"06/10/2008 Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told her French counterpart Bernard Kouchner that she opposes the agreement in principle that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has offered Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

"I do not believe in far-reaching proposals and an attempt to expedite matters, especially in light of the political situation," Livni, the prime minister-designate, told Kouchner on Sunday.

In the morning, Kouchner met with Olmert, who said he was frustrated that Abbas had not accepted his proposal. "You've read what I said in the interview," Olmert told Kouchner, referring to his statements in Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth favoring concessions. "Still, the Palestinians do not want to sign."......

“ANNAPOLIS WILL CONTINUE, REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL UPHEAVAL”

Earlier Sunday, in her first foreign policy address since winning the Kadima party primary, Livni voiced her commitment to continue peace negotiations with the Palestinians.

"Annapolis will continue," Livni said, referring to a U.S.-sponsored peace conference last November that restarted negotiations on a Palestinian state.

"Let us not allow dates or political changes to stand in our way," she said, in her address to Foreign Ministry conference on policy and strategy in occupied Jerusalem......

"We are waiting to see who will be the next president, (Barack) Obama versus [John] McCain, and believe me there is a big difference between the two vis a vis the situation in the Middle East ... the Middle East peace process and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Malki said [COMMENT: Dream on, stupid "Foreign Minister;" keep smoking that Annapolis Hashish].

"We hope that [Livni] will succeed [in forming a new government] because this will also show continuity and commitment to the peace process and to the negotiations [for] a Palestinian state," Malki said. [COMMENT: What else! The Palestinian "Foreign Minister" is cheering for the Mossad agent! What a travesty; bury that rotten PA now! Who needs it beside USrael??]

Commenting on a key issue that has blocked progress in Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, Malki described Israel's settlement activity in the West Bank as a "time-bomb."

But he said the Palestinian Authority remained committed to the talks as a "strategic choice" ........."

طالبان تقترب من حسم الحرب

طالبان تقترب من حسم الحرب

عبد الباري عطوان

"......
وهكذا فان الحديث عن وساطة سعودية مع حركة طالبان بطلب من حامد كرزاي لا يستند الى اي منطق، فالعلاقات السعودية مع حركة طالبان متوترة، والاولى تعلن حرباً دموية ضد تنظيم 'القاعدة'، وشاركت بقوة في الحرب الامريكية للاطاحة بتنظيمي 'طالبان' و'القاعدة' في افغانستان.
طالبان تشعر انها على ابواب نصر كبير في الحرب ضد امريكا وحلفائها، ولهذا لن تقبل مطلقاً بالتفاوض إلا اذا ضمنت انسحاباً امريكياً غربياً كاملاً وتسلم الحكم في كابول، واعادة قيام إمارتها الاسلامية مجدداً.
اما تنظيم 'القاعدة' فيعتبر نفسه شريكاً في هذا الانتصار، بل وتشير ادبياته الى انه يقف خلف مسلسل الانهيارات الاقتصادية والعسكرية الامريكية الحالية، فليس صدفة ان ما يطلبه الرئيس الامريكي جورج بوش من مبالغ مالية (700 مليار دولار) لانقاذ الاقتصاد الامريكي، هي نفسها كلفة الحرب على الارهاب التي يتبنى التنظيم اطلاقها.
بداية الانهيار السوفييتي بدأت بالهزيمة في افغانستان وبداية الانهيار الامريكي تبدأ مثلها ايضاً، فنظرية البروفسور بول كندي استاذ التاريخ في جامعة ييل الامريكية حول صعود وهبوط القوى العظمى تتجسد بوضوح حالياً، فقد قال ان هناك ثلاثة اسباب لسقوط الامبراطوريات العظمى، اولها تصاعد الانفاق على الامن الداخلي، وثانيها التوسع في الحروب العسكرية في الخارج، وثالثها ظهور منافسة قوية تجارية واقتصادية من قوى عظمى ناشئة.
هذه الاسباب جميعاً تنطبق على امريكا. فتكلفة الانفاق على الامن الداخلي في ذروتها تحسباً لعمليات ارهابية، وحربا العراق وافغانستان استنزفتا الخزانة الامريكية، والقوى العظمى الجديدة التي تنافس امريكا تجارياً واقتصادياً تتمثل حالياً في الصين وروسيا والهند واوروبا."

Obeying the Princess of Darkness Rice's Orders.......
One by One, the Arab Eunuchs Make Their Way to the Green Zone in Baghdad......
Today it was the Turn of Break-Their-Legs-Abul-Gheit, the Pharaoh's FM

Time to quit Afghanistan

By Eric Margolis
Edmonton Sun

".....The Taliban are not "terrorists." The movement had nothing to do with 9/11 though it did shelter Osama bin Laden, a national hero of the war against the Soviets. Only a handful of al-Qaida are left in Afghanistan.

The current war is not really about al-Qaida and "terrorism," but about opening a secure corridor through Pashtun tribal territory to export the oil and gas riches of the Caspian Basin to the West. Canada and the rest of NATO have no business being pipeline protection troops. Canada's military intervention in Afghanistan has jeopardized its national security by putting it on the map as an anti-Muslim nation joined at the hip with Bush and his ruinous policies.

As the great Benjamin Franklin said, "there is no good war, and no bad peace."

I hope Ottawa will have the courage to admit it was wrong about Afghanistan and bring its troops home -- now."

Spain, don’t succumb to Israeli pressure

By Khalid Amayreh in Occupied Jerusalem
The Peoples Voice

"The Israeli government has been quietly pressing (and pressuring) Spain to reconsider issuing warrants for the arrest of high-ranking Israeli army officers accused of committing war crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Earlier this year, a lawsuit was filed at the National court of Spain with the aim of issuing an arrest warrant against seven Israeli military officials.

The seven included former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, former Defense Minister Benyamin Benalizer, former Shin Beth Chief Avi Dichter, former Chief of Staff Moshe Ya’alon, former Air Force Commander Dan Halutz, Operation Branch Commander Giora Eiland and Southern Command Chief Doron Almog.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), which filed the lawsuit, urged the Spanish Judicial authorities to issue an international arrest warrant against the seven in connection with their role in the bombing of an apartment building in Gaza on 22 July, 2002, in which a Hamas chief was killed along with his family and 15 other civilians, including 11 children.....

To be sure, no one is suggesting that Spain play the role of world judge or world policeman.

However, Spain is a sovereign state and has the right to bar suspected war criminals from entering its territory.

This is the least civilized countries can do to discourage and prevent the recurrence of more war crimes and crimes against humanity."

Lessons from the Collapse of Wall Street

By James Petras

"......
6.The ascendancy of militarism and financial capital facilitated the increase of influence of a virulent power configuration promoting the regional hegemonic interests of a colonial-militarist state specifically, a previously marginal political lobby – the pro-Israel-Zionist power configuration (ZPC). The military-driven empire builders saw in the ZPC a strategic ally in pursuit of their global conquests; the ZPC saw an open door to high office and multiple opportunities to promote Israel’s expansionist agenda through their influence in Congressional Committees, electoral campaigns and direct White House appointments. The ZPC surge to the top echelon of power was aided and abetted by the increase of financial support they received by members in strategic positions in the most lucrative financial institutions. The ZPC was an economic beneficiary of the speculative bubble: it was the massive infusion of financial contributions that allowed the ZPC to vastly expand the number of full-time functionaries, influence peddlers and electoral contributors that magnified their power – especially in promoting US Middle East wars, lopsided free trade agreements (in favor of Israel) and unquestioned backing of Israeli aggression against Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. Economic recovery is contingent on ending budget busting military imperialism. That will not happen unless there is a wholesale replacement of the political elite nurtured on the metaphysics of military-based global power.

No economic recovery is possible now or in the foreseeable future as long as the US Congress and executives provide trillion dollar bailouts to Wall Street’s insolvent speculators, bankroll 700 billion dollar budgets of ever expanding war spending and while Zionist power brokers dictate US Mideast policies.

The lessons of the past tell us a great deal about what paths we should and shouldn’t take.

Social Security still exists precisely because the US public rebelled and defeated its proposed handover to Wall Street and it remained a publicly run program. The financial system collapsed because the US economy ‘specialized’ in a single crop – finance – at the expanse of a diversified productive economy. The political system is totally discredited because it is run by a failed political elite which blatantly represents and acts on behalf of a few thousand financial oligarchs; a couple hundred militarist oligarchs and a few dozen zealous Zionist organizations.

The ‘power elite’ is only as powerful as it is able to manipulate, intimidate and beguile three hundred million plus US citizens into thinking that they are indispensable to their lives. The overwhelming popular rejection of the privatization of social security and the Wall Street bailout suggests that the ruling oligarchy is not invincible. "

We Will Keep On Going Offshore Fishing

Vittorio Arrigoni. Date : 10-05-2008
The Free Gaza Movement

"......If the Israeli army, or the puppeteer who is moving its barbed wire in Israel, believes they put me out of order wounding me I just want to make a statement for them: poor deluded.

Me, Vittorio Arrigoni, with Darlene, Donna, and others fellow travellers committed in this mission for the protection of human rights, will never retreat facing the insult of justice, the abuse of legality and every raped freedom. You will have to kill all of us and accept this responsability in front of the world and of God who both in the Torah and in the Koran doesn't justify in any way the cool-headed murder of innocent people. Kill all of us.

I would like to talk with the Israeli soldiers who attack us every day and that the day I was wounded I could see so closely I could focus the white in their cold eyes; I would like to ask them if they really believe that they are defending Israel (IDF) when they shoot at unarmed civilians, internationals or Palestinians, while they are simply fishing on Palestinian vessels.

As a pacifist I don't wish it in any way, but I would really not be surprised if one day one of these young Palestinian fishermen, of whom Israel steals the hope for a worthy life, having collected mourning over mourning for fathers, friends, brothers, killed or wounded or buried for years in an inhuman Israeli prison, I was saying I would not be surprised if one of them would choose to leave the fishing nets and shoulder a Kalashnikov.

Because this is what Israel is teaching the young Palestinians, with its warships, raids, the military occupation of borders, imposing the siege as a collective punishment and denying all human rights; in this way, teaching hate to its innocent victims and providing them with daily lessons of pure gangrenous hate, Israel becomes responsible for the risk all Israeli are submitted to, from Ashkelon to Tel Aviv.

We will keep on going offshore fishing, not scared at all by all terror threats shot on us by the Israeli navy, until politics, high-class activism and the politically committed civil society will stop to turn their back on the "moral issue of our times" as Nelson Mandela defines the Palestinian issue.

We want to show to the Palestinians, who adopted us, that in this world a minority group of men and women is still alive, ready to redeem on their skin, now healed, the conspiracy of silence and the indifference of a majority group of people totally apathetic facing this huge tragedy.

I believe that, everywhere on the planet, there are still many human beings immune to the indifference and selfishness virus, and this is the reason why I'm making a plea, don't leave us alone, don't turn your back on your brother dominated by a horrible injustice.

Come here to help us or support us in other ways.

Try to be close to us from far away.

Stay human.

Vittorio Arrigoni"

Al-Jazeera Video: Gulf markets fall among uncertainty - 5 Oct 08. Comment: I Hope They Lose Their Shirts; Jump Fuckers!

Real News Video: Last days of the American Republic?

Chalmers Johnson: USA must cut back on military spending and build green infrastructure or face ruin (Part 2)



"Chalmers Johnson: "Something has happened to us comparable to what happened to the former USSR after 1989 ... And that led finally to the dissolution of the USSR.""

Real News Video: Will a new US President mean a new foreign policy?

Gareth Porter: McCain subscribes to extreme neo-con ideas, but Obama is not a break with the past



"In George W. Bush's final speech to the UN as head of state, he provided a series of reasons to view his administration's policies as having succeeded in conducting a global war on terrorism. Despite his regime's demonstrated aversion to multilateralism, Bush called on the UN and all international institutions to take a lead role in the War on Terror in the future. Investigative reporter and historian Gareth Porter tells Senior Editor Paul Jay why he believes that while Obama and McCain represent different visions of US foreign policy, neither truly represent a clean break from the legacy created by the Bush administration."

We can't win Afghanistan war - Commander

"The public should not expect "a decisive military victory" in Afghanistan, Britain's most senior military commander in the country warned today.

Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith said the aim was to reduce the uprising to a level at which it could be managed by the Afghan army and made clear that this could involve talking to the Taliban.

It was necessary to "lower our expectations" and accept that it would be unrealistic to expect that multinational forces can entirely rid Afghanistan of armed bands, he suggested........"

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

The Arab Puppets and Their Subservience to Sinking US Financial Empire

By Baha Boukhari

Kouchner: Israel Will ‘Eat’ Iran Before it Gets Bomb

Al-Manar

"05/10/2008 French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner dismisses the idea that even one nuclear bomb makes the Iranians immune to attack, he told Haaretz in an interview Friday.

"I honestly don't believe that it will give any immunity to Iran. First, because you will eat them before. And this is the danger. Because Israel has always said that it will not wait for the bomb to be ready. I think that they [the Iranians] know. Everybody knows," he said.

Kouchner says he is pleased with developments over the past few months in the Middle East. He is happy with what he has heard about the work of the Palestinian Authority in Jenin, where he visited Saturday, and with the indirect talks between Israel and Syria, the political arrangement in Lebanon and the cease-fire in Gaza.

Only two issues worry him, he told Haaretz during his sixth visit to Israel - Iran and the future of the Annapolis process. Kouchner says he knows Israel is preparing a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, and wants more time for diplomacy.......

"I know that some people in Israel and in the army are preparing a military solution or not a solution but a military attack. I don't know. This is not the solution in my opinion."......

Kouchner was asked if Israel were to attack Iran, would it not improve the basis for dialogue, considering that Syria started negotiating with Israel after Israel attacked it........

According to Haaretz, the top French diplomat has two main goals for his visit to the region. To assess the political situation in Israel and try to save the Annapolis process, he is to meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, ministers Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak, and opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu. Kouchner is worried that the diplomatic process with the Palestinians "will be lost" during the transition period between the present and future U.S. administrations......

...... If there is a perception coming out of the Palestinian people that things are getting better and moving a bit - this is an additional asset to calm down this main danger which is Iran. To cut the reason and the roots of the Middle East angriness - and the biggest asset is Mr. Abu Mazen," he said, referring to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.......

"It has been a big hope - yes - and they were talking in a good way to each other - the main argument for hope in the peace process - but unfortunately he left - and the victim was Abu Mazen - because without Olmert he must restart the process. Fortunately, Tzipi Livni was talking to Abu Ala," Kouchner said, referring to the Palestinians' negotiating chief, Ahmed Qureia....... "

Will Israel's Next War be a Repeat of Lebanon 2006?

Al-Manar

"05/10/2008 What will the next war look like? Recent statements from several senior Israeli military officials offer a surprising answer: Perhaps much like the last one, Haaretz analyzed.

Following on the Israel Defense Forces' failure in the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the army is likely to resume fortifying its maneuvering capability, represented by the Armored and Infantry Corps, at the expense of its firepower, particularly that of the Air Force.

However, a recent interview with GOC Northern Command Gadi Eisenkot, and articles written by two senior reserve officers, indicate that the Israeli army will continue to give first priority to firepower, even if the targets it chooses are different than those chosen in previous conflicts.......

In an interview Friday with the daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Eisenkot presented his "Dahiye Doctrine," under which the Israeli army would expand its destructive power beyond what it demonstrated two years ago against the Beirut suburb of Dahiye, considered a Hezbollah stronghold.

"We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases," he said. "This isn't a suggestion. This is a plan that has already been authorized."

Colonel (Res.) Gabriel Siboni recently authored a report through Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies backing Eisenkot's statements.

The answer to rocket and missile threats from Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, he believes, is "a disproportionate strike at the heart of the enemy's weak spot, in which efforts to hurt launch capability are secondary. As soon as the conflict breaks out, the IDF will have to operate in a rapid, determined, powerful and disproportionate way against the enemy's actions."

WE ARE FIGHTING WRONG ENEMY; HEZBOLLAH INSTEAD OF LEBANON GOV’T
Major General (Res.) Giora Eiland, formerly head of the National Security Council, believes Israel failed in the Second Lebanon War and is liable to fail in a third such war, because it is fighting the wrong enemy: Hezbollah, instead of the state of Lebanon itself.

Writing for an INSS publication set to come out this week, Eiland states it is impossible to beat an efficient guerrilla army supported by a state immune from retribution. The fact that Hezbollah has rebuilt its strongholds beneath villages in southern Lebanon will make any Israeli army maneuvering efforts difficult, he writes, adding that targeted strikes against rocket launch sites will not decrease the number of rockets fired at Israel.

Eiland recommends preemptive action: that Israel passes a clear message to the Lebanese government, as soon as possible, stating that in the next war, the Lebanese army will be destroyed, as will the civilian infrastructure.

"People won't be going to the beach in Beirut while Haifa residents are in shelters," he writes.

While Eisenkot and Siboni deal primarily with striking southern villages, Eiland sees Lebanon's infrastructure as a primary target, in a plan highly reminiscent of the one proposed by then-Israeli army chief of staff Dan Halutz, which was eventually shot down by U.S. opposition.

Eisenkot's "Dahiyah Doctrine" also raises a number of questions about a possible international backlash, which could end the conflict under conditions favorable to the enemy.

What the three officials have in common, surprisingly, is their emphasis on air power, the Haaretz analysis said. Anyone who thinks the Air Force will step aside given the results of the last Lebanon war will likely be proven wrong, it added."

Crossing the Line speaks with Norman Finkelstein

Podcast, Crossing the Line, 3 October 2008

"This week on Crossing The Line: As Israel continues to colonize Palestinian land and deny the Palestinian people their right to self-determination, a world-wide boycott and divestment campaign is gathering pace. But how do supporters of the boycott movement best approach confrontation with Israel and its supporters? In the first of a series, Crossing the Line will rebroadcast a talk by noted scholar, lecturer and author Dr. Norman Finkelstein about the movement for peace and justice and what kind of solution is possible to bring an end to the conflict....."

Click Here to Listen

ISRAEL: Up Against the Red Light on Attacking Iran

Analysis by Peter Hirschberg

"JERUSALEM, Oct 4 (IPS) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will travel to Moscow next week for talks that will focus largely on Iran's nuclear programme at a time when there seem to be growing signs that the U.S. is unenthusiastic about the idea of an Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

Since President George W. Bush's visit to Israel in May to mark the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state, there have been reports that Washington is sticking to its policy of sanctions on Iran and that, for now, Israel does not have a green light to strike at its nuclear sites.

Media reports emerged about two months ago that the U.S. had denied an Israeli request for a weapons package that would have increased its capability of launching an attack on Iran's nuclear installations. Last month, the daily Haaretz reported that the security aid package included "a large number of bunker-buster bombs, permission to use an air corridor to Iran, an advanced technological system, and refuelling planes."......

Without U.S. consent, says Ephraim Kam, deputy head of the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, it is highly unlikely that Israel would carry out an attack. But, he adds, if the U.S. does not give Israel the green light, then they need to offer an alternative.

"Some have mentioned the possibility of a (U.S.-Israel) defence treaty," he told IPS. "We need a clear-cut statement saying that any nuclear attack on Israel will be considered an attack on the U.S. That America would respond with nuclear weapons against Iran. This would be an important deterrent."......."

U.N. Report Castigates Israel for Harassing Journalists

By Thalif Deen

"UNITED NATIONS, Oct 3 (IPS) - A new United Nations report on the human rights situation in Palestinian territories blasts the Israeli government for its heavy-handed treatment of journalists reporting on the military occupation.

The 20-page report, which will go before the 63rd sessions of the General Assembly currently underway, singles out the mistreatment of award-winning Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer who was stripped, interrogated, kicked and beaten up when he returned from Europe to his home town in the occupied territory of Gaza last June.

A stringer for Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, Omer, 24, was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism for "displaying courage and ability in covering war zones".

The U.N. report, by Richard Falk, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, says that Omer was convinced the brutal assault on his person was carried out by personnel from Shin Bet, the Israeli security agency.....

Nadia Hijab, senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Palestine Studies, told IPS: "Richard Falk is absolutely right." She said other journalists have been killed or injured by Israeli security forces, even though they and their vehicles were clearly marked as "press".

But there are several particularly chilling aspects to Israel's assault against Mohammed Omer, she added. "He had just been on a successful European speaking tour and received a prestigious award, and he was being met by European diplomats on his return home," she noted. Through its actions, said Hijab, Israel was sending a message that no Palestinian, journalist or otherwise, is safe and that even European diplomats are no match for Israel......"

Tunnels feed besieged Gaza

Al-Jazeera

"Hundreds of tunnels under the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt are keeping many of the Palestinian territory's 1.5 million impoverished residents supplied with food and fuel.

On Saturday, Egyptian authorities found the entrances of three tunnels and confiscated a large amount of fuel about to be smuggled into the territory.

Sources say there are more than 6,000 Palestinians employed in the clandestine industry, which merchants say is heavily controlled by the Hamas authorities. Strict rules are imposed on what can be brought in - weapons, drugs and people-trafficking are prohibited - and tunnel operators are taxed.

Ehab Gheissen, a Hamas spokesman, said: "It is the right of the Palestinian people to do whatever they can to break the siege they live under. "They have a right to do whatever they can to get what they need, including through tunnels, but at the same time we are watching all of the things that are being brought in."

Basic necessities

The tunnels were previously used to smuggle weapons to fight the Israeli occupation, but the blockade that was enforced after Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007 has made the smuggling of basic supplies a necessity.

Shortages have sent prices of flour and milk soaring, and the industry established around the tunnel smuggling system is now worth millions of dollars.

Sami Abdel Shafi, a Gaza-based business analyst, said: "These days, most of the anecdotal evidence we hear is that the tunnels are being used to bring in very human items, for lack of proper medicine in the Gaza Strip. "They are used to bring in shoes, chocolate and 7-Up, things like that. "Then again, all of the quantities being brought in are being blown out of proportion I feel, 1.5 million people deserve a lot more than having to operate under ground, they deserve a much better chance at operating an economy above ground."

Al Jazeera's Ayman Mohyeldin visited a nondescript warehouse in Rafah where one tunnel operator was waiting for merchants to pick up the goods that they had ordered. A diverse range of items, such as cigarettes, teacups and spare parts for motorcycles, were among the items awaiting collection.

But no matter how important the tunnels are in keeping the Palestinian economy going, there is a human cost. At least 35 people have died in the tunnels since the beginning of the year, according to the UN......."

Real News Video: Massive US military budget passed

Chalmers Johnson: US wrong to believe it can maintain both a military and civilian economy



"While debate over the Paulson bailout package dominated the headlines, the US Congress quietly passed a landmark $615 Billion defense spending bill. One of the few people to comment on the measure was Chalmers Johnson, in his article "We have the money". Chalmers explains to Real News Senior Editor Paul Jay how the military-industrial complex is a driving force behind the current financial crisis and a determinant of much of what happens in Washington. He also criticizes the omission of the military-industrial complex from the political discourse determined by the two major parties and the media."

Real News Video: Bailout a "really big number"

Bailout bill no relief on foreclosures as159,000 more jobs were lost in September, markets down again



"The financial bailout package was passed by the US House of Representatives on Friday but 108 Republicans and 63 Democrats still refuse to approve the bill. Markets drop anyway with the Dow Jones losing 818 points on the week. Jobs in September slashed by 159,000 and home foreclosures at 770,000 since August 2007 expected to continue to rise. The Real News Network talks to Michael Perelman, Professor of Economics at California State University, Chico."

When it comes to Palestine and Israel, the US simply doesn't get it

Biden and Palin hid like rabbits from the centre of the Middle East earthquake

Contributed by Lucia in Spain

By Robert Fisk
(Cartoon by Carlos Latuff)

"Palestinians ceased to exist in the United States on Thursday night. Both Joe Biden and Sarah Palin managed to avoid the use of that poisonous word. "Palestine" and "Palestinians" – that most cancerous, slippery, dangerous concept – simply did not exist in the vice-presidential debate. The phrase "Israeli occupation" was mercifully left unused. Neither the words "Jewish colony" nor "Jewish settlement" – not even that cowardly old get-out clause of American journalism, "Jewish neighbourhood" – got a look-in. Nope.

Those bold contenders of the US vice-presidency, so keen to prove their mettle when it comes to "defence", hid like rabbits from the epicentre of the Middle East earthquake: the existence of a Palestinian people. Sure, there was talk of a "two-state" solution, but it would have mystified anyone who didn't understand the region.

There was even a Biden jibe at George Bush for pressing on with "elections" – again, the adjective "Palestinian" went missing – that produced a Hamas victory. But Hamas appeared to exist in never-never land, a vast landscape that gradually encompassed all the vast and black deserts that stretch, in the imagination of US politicians, from the Mediterranean to Pakistan......

Israelis deserve security. But where were the promises of security for Palestinians? Or the sympathy which Americans would immediately grant any other occupied people? Absent, needless to say. For we must gird ourselves for the next struggle against world evil in Pakistan.....

But it's the same old story. All we have learned in America these past two weeks, to quote Joan Littlewood's Oh! What a Lovely War, is that the war goes on."

Real News Video: America pays the piper, big time Part 2

Robert Parry: Reagan told the American people the magic of the market will work



"There was an effort to build an infrastructure to sell the free market and reduced regulation for business society. Cut taxes and cut the social net was sold as the magic fix."

The Illusions of Hamas About France's Role! Is Hamas Copying (without thinking) Syria's Illusions?

Masri: Kushner's visit to Palestine incomplete

"GAZA, (PIC)-- Hamas lawmaker in the Palestinian legislature MP Mushir Al-Masri said on Friday that his Movement stresses the importance of the French role in the Middle East, but he criticized the "incomplete" visit of French foreign minister Bernard Kushner to occupied Palestine.

"This is an incomplete visit", Masri said about the visit of Kushner to the occupied Palestinian territories on Friday, explaining that the French official was meeting those "who appointed themselves as representatives of the Palestinian people without a mandate from the people", which would make his visit fruitless.

"If the French want this visit to be fruitful, then they should meet with all concerned parties", the Hamas's official added.

However, Masri stressed the crucial role of France in the Middle East, and that his Movement was keen on making that role successful.

He underlined, "France has its history, place, and weight in the political equation, and thus, it is capable of playing a positive role in the region, and in the Palestinian arena in particular away from the American influence and dominance, and we [in Hamas] are concerned to see a balanced French role where France should stand the same distance from the Palestinians and the Israelis".

According to Palestinians and Israeli sources, Kushner is expected to meet high-ranking PA and Israeli officials in order to discuss the PA-Israeli negotiations, especially on the points of the final status issues."

Message to Wall Street

Real News Video: America pays the piper, big time part1

Robert Parry: After 28 years of drunken optimism and blind nationalism the US wakes up to a grim future

Real News Video with Pepe Escobar: The banality of it all

Paul Jay and Pepe Escobar search for meaning in the VP debate

Dueling Partners: Pakistan and the U.S.

An Interview with Tariq Ali

By WAJAHAT ALI
CounterPunch

"....... Even Sarah Palin received a surreal crash course in U.S.-Pakistan relations due to a memorable and friendly meeting with newly elected Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari. However, as respected and prolific commentator, author and critic Tariq Ali observes in his new book “The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power,” the selfish, inequitable relationship between both countries has far reaching, historical roots directly contributing to the tenuous geopolitical stability of modern day Central Asia. In this exclusive interview, TariqAli, a seasoned journalist and Pakistani insider, focuses on all major players, including the Bush Administration, Bhutto, Musharraf, the Pakistani military, and a self centered and oppressive elite as prime contributors to Pakistan’s current volatility. .........."

Can't Afford it by Khalil Bendib

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)

The Souring of a West Bank Romance

Israeli Army and Settlers Fall Out

By JONATHAN COOK
CounterPunch

"The Israeli army officer in charge of the occupation of the West Bank, Gen Gadi Shamni, has lambasted extremist Jewish settlers, blaming rising levels of violence on the encouragement of their leadership and right-wing rabbis.

It is rare for a senior commander to speak so critically of the settlers, many of whom themselves serve in senior positions in the army.......

Akiva Eldar and Idit Zertal, two Israeli analysts, recently documented in their book Lords of the Land the close ties between the settlers and the army over many decades. They note that most of the settlements were originally set up as military posts; that army units are used to defend the settlements, even those unlicensed by the government; and that the settlers are given weapons by the army.

In addition, the army has established special units composed entirely of settlers and allowed them to serve in the occupied territories close to their settlements. Today, about one-third of the army’s company commanders are religious men, likely to have strong sympathies with the aims of the settlers.

Last year, Haggai Alon, a senior official in the ministry of defence, accused the army of furthering the settlers’ goals. He said it was co-operating with the settlers to implement “an apartheid policy” in which Palestinians were being ethnically cleansed from parts of the West Bank........"

Israel tries quashing arrest warrants against officials

Dan Halutz

"Israel and Spain have reportedly been trying to untangle a diplomatic mess of sorts, brought on by a Spanish human rights group, which is demanding seven Israeli officials involved in the 2002 assassination of Hamas operative Salah Shehade, be arrested if they set foot on Spanish soil.

Salah Shehade, who led Hamas' Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was targeted in a Gaza Strip operation in the summer of 2002. The operation carried an unfortunate civilian toll, as 15 Palestinians, including 11 children, were killed and dozens of other were wounded.

According to a Friday report in Yedioth Ahronoth, the Spanish rights group petitioned a Madrid court in June, demanding it issues arrest warrants against the Israeli officials involved in ordering Shehade's assassination.

The group named Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, then-Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, then-Shin Bet Chief Avi Dichter, former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon, then-Air Force Commander Dan Halutz, Giora Eiland, then-head of the IDF Operation Branch and Doron Almog former IDF Southern Command chief.

The Spanish authorities have recently relayed a secret communiqué to the Israeli government, advising it on the proceeding and inquiring as to what – if any – measures had been taken against each of the people involved; and whether or not any of them still hold official state positions which grant them diplomatic immunity.

Israel expects the Spanish government to quash the petition, as the UK before it........"

Stern US warning to Syria not to invade Northern Lebanon

"Washington accompanied this warning to Damascus, DEBKAfile has learned, with its first explicit threat of military intervention to aid Lebanon should Syria go through with its planned incursion of the North.

DEBKAfile first revealed the concentration of 10,000 Syrian troops on the Lebanese border on Sept. 20 and again on Sept. 27.
Click HERE

The warning, according to our sources, was delivered on Sept. 28 by secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to the Syrian foreign minister Walid Mualem whom she invited for an urgent meeting in New York. The day after they met, Mualem was handed a second warning by undersecretary of state David Welch, who specified precisely whic Syrian movements the US government would deem crossing the Lebanese border.

The harsh words from the top two American diplomats left the Syrian minister with little option but to promise there would be no Syrian incursion. However, in a number of subsequent interviews, Mualem claimed his talks with the two American officials focused on Washington’s support for the indirect talks between Jerusalem and Damascus, a tale made of whole cloth.

In the week since Washington warned Damascus off, nothing has changed in the Syrian military deployment on the Lebanese, our military sources confirm.

Syrian officials talking to Western diplomats are now maintaining that Islamic extremists are setting up an emirate in northern Lebanon which will jeopardize the stability of the entire region......."

Breaking the Silence

By Cherrie Heywood

"RAMALLAH, West Bank, Oct 2 (IPS) - An Israeli police commander has called them "provocateurs", "militants", and, "lawbreakers". Earlier in the year the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) decided that their presence in the city of Hebron, 30km south of Jerusalem in the Palestinian West Bank, constituted a security threat and banned them from the city, stating that any member of the organisation caught there would be expelled forthwith.

They've been spat at, stoned and assaulted, but these former members of the IDF, many of whom served in Hebron, are determined to expose what is being done in their name and in the name of Israel's security.

Breaking the Silence (BTS) was co-founded in 2004 by Yehuda Shaul, 26, an Israeli soldier who served for nearly three years in the volatile city of Hebron.

The organisation's main aim is to break the silence and taboo surrounding the behaviour of Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian territories in an endeavour to enlighten ordinary Israelis on what happens behind the scenes as their sons and daughters, husbands and wives serve the Jewish state.......

While hundreds of Yesh Gvul activists have been jailed for being conscientious objectors, Ofer Neiman, 37, a computer science lecturer from Jerusalem, was kicked out of an intelligence unit of the Israeli Air Force (AIF) where he served.

"I refused to be part of an intelligence unit which provided information on the possible bombing of civilian targets in the territories," Neiman told IPS. "I also began a campaign of letter writing to the then IDF chief of staff, Dan Halutz."

Halutz was responsible for ordering the dropping of a one-tonne bomb on a crowded residential apartment building in a densely populated Gaza neighbourhood in 2002. The bomb killed Hamas leader Salah Shehade. Amongst the civilian casualties were 14 children."