Simon Kelner: Would you be saying this, Mr Blair, if we supported your war in Iraq?

"Most days The Independent speaks for itself. We like to think that we do our little bit to make sense of an often bewildering world. But today is different: our editorial approach, and the values that underpin it, have come under attack from the Prime Minister, Tony Blair.

In a wide-ranging speech on politics and the media, he singled out this newspaper as a metaphor for the corrosive relationship between the public and the body politic, and on behalf of our journalists, and more particularly our readers, we felt it would be wrong to let his assertions go unchallenged......

As the only representative of the multifarious British media mentioned by name, it's hard not to be flattered. Or, indeed, vindicated - our principled opposition to his policy on Iraq (or the Middle East as he quaintly put it: note he couldn't refer to Iraq by name) has clearly exasperated him. But that misses the point. We are unabashed about the way in which The Independent has evolved, although we would point out that this newspaper was not established as an antidote to the idea of journalism as views, but as an antidote to proprietorial influence and narrow political allegiance......."

Brown's bane will be getting dragged into an American attack on Iran

If he is not going to suffer Blair's fate with Iraq, his most important foreign policy task will be dissuading Washington

Jonathan Freedland
Wednesday June 13, 2007
The Guardian

".......Still, there could be a much graver blow to come, as Iraq and Afghanistan come to look like the relatively simple files in Brown's foreign policy in-tray. Knottier and more urgent will be the one marked "Iran". The evidence is mounting that Brown could suffer the turmoil that came to define his predecessor - and be asked by a US president to join in a military adventure......

Other rumblings are just as telling. On Sunday Senator Joe Lieberman suggested "aggressive military action" against Iran, to punish it for training Iraqis to kill American soldiers. At the Hay festival last month former Pentagon adviser and super-hawk Richard Perle talked openly of bombing Iran, offering a clue as to timing: the US would wait till it had fewer troops in Iraq, so denying Tehran an easy target for retaliation.

Now Perle is not as tightly woven inside the loop as he once was; many of his neocon comrades have fallen by the wayside. But his predictions are worth taking seriously. I remember visiting him in Washington the day Kabul fell, in November 2001. Matter-of-factly he made clear that Washington's next target was Saddam Hussein. And so he was.

The military clues are harder to detect. Veteran analyst Dan Plesch of the School of Oriental and African Studies wonders why the US is strengthening airbases in Afghanistan, Kurdistan and Iraq, forming a ring around Iran: "You don't need air power to fight the insurgency, do you?" It has to be preparation for an attack on you-know-who. He also notes the two or three US expeditionary strike forces in the Gulf, each one with an aircraft carrier twice the size of the Ark Royal. Iran's neighbours certainly reckon something is up. This week Kuwait's defence minister said he would not allow the US to use his country's territory to attack Iran, and other Gulf states have made similar noises. They wouldn't be saying that if they thought the prospect was purely hypothetical......."

Preaching to the Press

By Steve Bell, The Guardian

Former UN Mideast envoy says UN subservient to U.S., Israel

"A former UN Middle East envoy quit his job last month with bitter allegations that UN policy in the region had failed because it was subservient to U.S. and Israeli interests, a newly leaked document shows.

In a confidential end of mission report, Alvaro de Soto poured scorn on the Quartet negotiating group of the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations, and suggested the world body should pull out.

De Soto, a Peruvian diplomat who formerly worked on El Salvador, Cyprus and the Western Sahara, spent two years on the Middle East before resigning in May, ending a 25-year UN career. He was replaced by Briton Michael Williams.

His scathing 53-page farewell, addressed to a handful of top UN officials made clear he left in frustration that he was not being listened to.

In the document dated May 5, he railed at restrictions he said were placed on him by UN headquarters against talking to the Hamas-led Palestinian government and to Syria.

De Soto condemned economic sanctions imposed by Israel, the United States and the EU on Hamas after it won Palestinian elections last year and said their effective endorsement by the Quartet had had "devastating consequences" for Palestinians......

De Soto blasted what he called "the tendency that exists among U.S. policy-makers ... to cower before any hint of Israeli displeasure and to pander shamelessly before Israeli-linked audiences."

But much of his criticism was directed at the United Nations itself, where, he said, "a premium is been put on good relations with the U.S. and improving the UN's relationship with Israel.".......

The Peruvian diplomat said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should "seriously reconsider" continued membership in the Quartet, which he said had become a "side-show" and "pretty much a group of friends of the U.S.""

Full text: Alvaro de Soto's end of mission report (pdf)

Hamas on the verge of a complete conquest of the Gaza Strip

"Hamas was on the verge of completing its conquest of the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, with positions in Gaza City remaining as the only significant bastions of Fatah resistance.

Hamas gave Fatah-linked security officers in northern Gaza a two-day ultimatum to relinquish their arms, according to a statement sent by text message and announcements made on Hamas-linked radio stations Wednesday.

The militant group said that if the security forces don't turn over their weapons by 7 P.M. Friday, they will take the weapons by force........

Hamas seized control of the refugee camps in the central Gaza Strip, after it swept into the headquarters of Abbas' powerful National Security Forces facing only token resistance.......

Establishing A NATO Foothold in Gaza?

Solana says EU would consider military role in Gaza if asked

"The European Union would consider participating in an international force in Gaza if asked by the major players in the region, the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Wednesday.

"If we are asked, of course, we will consider the possibility," Solana told reporters.

He spoke in response to a suggestion by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that international forces could be stationed along the Gaza Strip's volatile border with Egypt to prevent arms from reaching Palestinian militants......."

One Ugly Arab......
And I am Not Referring to Appearance

No justice without right of return

Dr. Mona El-Farra, The Electronic Intifada, 12 June 2007

The following is a speech made at a special meeting at the United Nations headquarters in New York marking 40 years of occupation by Israel of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip:


"......How many UN resolutions must be passed by the UN? How many years of calling for two states before there is an understanding that Israel continues its aggression on the ground against women, children and men, the demolition of thousands of homes and the continued building of the apartheid wall?

Let us not just speak of the Palestinians in the West Bank [and] Gaza. We must never forget those who live as second-class citizens inside Israel and most of all, those who were forced from their homes and lands in 1948.

Now is the time to call for a real peace, with justice for all the children in the region. This can only be accomplished by supporting the right of return of all Palestinians.

Now is the time to acknowledge that the two-state solution is not the answer.

From Gaza I came, where the children of my country have no safe homes, no safe streets, no proper and adequate health facilities, no proper food, clean water, or regular electrical power, no recreational activities and no good education. The list of deprivation of their basic needs is too long to count.

I lived this occupation as a child, and am still living it as an adult. I can see it in the eyes of my daughter when she is afraid, tired, restless and exhausted because of the unsafe and unpredictable quality of life in Gaza under occupation. I saw it as soon as we crossed the borders on our way to Egypt, where she sensed something new and different: freedom, safety and space. Gaza is like a big, unsafe prison. And it is a very small place for 1.4 million people, half of whom are children......"

Hamas seizes Fatah security headquarters

"GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Hundreds of Hamas fighters firing rockets and mortar shells captured the headquarters of the Fatah-allied security forces in northern Gaza on Tuesday, scoring a key victory in the bloody battle for control of the seaside strip......

Tuesday's battles marked a turning point, with Hamas moving systematically to seize Fatah positions in what some in the Islamic militant group said would be a decisive phase in the yearlong power struggle......

In one desperate attempt to boost morale, disorganized Fatah forces attacked Hamas' main TV station, but were repelled after a heavy battle.....

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed stationing international forces along the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt to prevent arms from reaching Palestinian militants, including Hamas. However, he ruled out assistance to Abbas' forces.......

"Decisiveness will be in the field," said Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Hamas military wing.

In contrast, Fatah commanders complained they were not given clear orders by Abbas to fight back and that they had no central command. Fatah's strongman in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, has spent the last few weeks in Cairo because of a knee injury. Other leading Fatah officials left Gaza for the West Bank after previous rounds of bloodshed.

"There's a difference between leading on the ground and leading by mobile phone," police Col. Nasser Khaldi said of Dahlan's absence. "Hamas is just taking over our positions. There are no orders."....."

We won't fight for Fatah, says Olmert

"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed concern Tuesday over the escalating situation in the Gaza Strip, during a briefing with Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen.

"The situation in Gaza is very disturbing in terms of the pragmatic Palestinians' fight against the extremists among them," he said, referring to the decision not to send IDF troops into the Strip to assist Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"Should Gaza fall to Hamas, it would affect the entire region;" said Olmert, stressing that "Israel has and will protect its citizens against any acts of terror."

Olmert told the Dutch FM the West must intervene in the situation as soon as possible. "We must consider sending international troops such as UNIFIL to the Philadelphi route to stop the extremists from getting any stronger," he said.

Both the IDF and political echelons are following recent events in Gaza very closely, as Hamas moves in on much of the northern strip......"

9 said killed as Hamas seizes Fatah HQ in N. Gaza

"Hamas captured the headquarters of the Fatah-allied security forces in northern Gaza on Tuesday, seizing a key prize in the bloody battle for control of Gaza.

A Fatah security official confirmed the building had been fallen, saying nine people were killed and 30 wounded.

About 200 Hamas gunmen surrounded a compound, where some 500 Fatah fighters were holed up. Hamas fired mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at the building.

"They are attacking from all sides," said one of the officers, Khaled Awad....."

Las fuerzas de Abu Mazen ordenan aplastar 'el golpe de Estado' de Hamas

El Mundo

In Spanish, contributed by Lucia who commented:

"The biggest traitor amongst all the traitors agents of the zionists, Mahmood Abbas aka Abu Mazen has instructed his armed gangs "to smash the Hamas' coup d'etat"

Yeah, he himself, the golpist Abbas!, is shifting his blame onto others, and asking for more palestinian blood to be spilled.

Such a pork! "

"GAZA.- Comandantes de las Fuerzas de Seguridad Nacional palestinas, leales al presidente Mahmud Abas (Abu Mazen), han ordenado a sus unidades defender sus puestos contra ataques de Hamas y aplastar lo que llamaron un "golpe de Estado" de los radicales islámicos....."

The Writing on the Wall

Miko Peled, The Electronic Intifada, 12 June 2007
(Miko Peled is an Israeli peace activist and writer living in San Diego, and co-founder of the Elbanna Peled Foundation. He is the son of the late Israeli General Matti Peled)

".......The difficulty a writer faces in writing about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is that it is buried in decades of mythmaking. Most writers and readers are still in awe of the Zionist narrative and are either afraid or lack the tools with which to challenge it. Even people with experience in Mideast politics like Zbigniew Brzezinski and Dennis Ross, still claim that if only America pursued the right foreign policy or the Palestinians had different leaders then the Palestinian people would have a state of their own and Israel would be living in a state of peace and security. Clearly they do not see the writing on the wall.

Jamil Hilal's book Where Now for Palestine, the Demise of the Two State Solution (published by Zed Books) is like the biblical Daniel interpreting the writing on the wall. Thorough and compelling, this book contains eleven illuminating essays with razor sharp analysis on the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the demise of the two-state solution.

"The policy imperatives of political Zionism have been oriented towards occupying land with no, or the minimum of, Palestinians." Hilal writes, and indeed, from the earliest days of the Zionist enterprise Zionist strongman David Ben Gurion made it clear that this was a zero sum game: Us or them, there will be no compromise on the issue of land. To guarantee the success of his plan to win the land and get rid of its people he orchestrated Israel's massive military buildup......

If Israel has its way things will get progressively worse for the Palestinians as well as the Israelis. This book suggests a clear and courageous direction by which both people should move forward together: Dismantling the PA and establishing a democratic, secular state in all of Israeli/Palestine that will protect the national rights of all its citizens and will focus on human rights.

For sixty years Israelis have been living as occupiers in Palestine. From the day it was established, Israel has been governed by an extremist, uncompromising political movement with a colonialist agenda. In this book, Jamil Hilal and ten other brilliant writers offer Israelis a way to be liberated from the daunting, self-destructive task of policing an occupied nation: "A secular democratic state with no distinctions between citizens according to religion, ethnicity or national origin." "

Occupation by Other Means

Olmert calls for international force along Gaza-Egypt border

"Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called Tuesday for the deployment of an international force along the Gaza-Egypt border in order to stop the ongoing strengthening of extremist groups in the Gaza Strip.

In a conversation with Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen, Olmert said, "Should the Gaza Strip ultimately fall to Hamas, it will have regional implications.

"We cannot go into the Gaza Strip in order to fight the battle between Palestinian pragmatists and extremist forces," added the prime minister......"

The Neocon Threat to American Freedom

The War on Truth and Liberty

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
CounterPunch

".......The absurd analogy with Korea is so far-fetched that it raises the question whether the Bush/Cheney regime has entered a new, higher level of delusion. Bush cannot keep troops in Iraq permanently unless he intends to remain permanently in the White House. Even some Republicans in Congress are talking about beginning withdrawals of US troops in September. Republicans believe that if withdrawals do not begin, their party will be wiped out in the 2008 election.

The wild card is the neoconservatives and their long-standing alliance with Israeli Zionists. The neoconservatives still have a death grip on the discredited Bush regime. Jim Lobe describes the extensive international organization that the neoconservatives have put into place for the purpose of orchestrating an attack on Iran.

A sane reader might wonder why neoconservatives would want to expand a conflict in which the US has failed. Surely, even delusional "cakewalk" neoconservatives must realize that attacking Iran would greatly increase the threat to US troops in Iraq and perhaps bring missile attacks on oil facilities and US bases throughout the Middle East. An attack on Iran would further radicalize Muslims and further undermine US puppets in the Middle East. It could bring war to the entire region.

The point is that the neoconservatives do realize this. Their defeat in Iraq and Israel's defeat in Lebanon has taught the neoconservatives that the US cannot prevail in the Middle East by conventional military means. As I have previously explained, the neoconservatives' plan is to escape the failure of their Iraq plan by orchestrating a war with Iran in which the US can prevail only by using nuclear weapons. As previously reported, the neoconservatives believe that the use of nuclear weapons against Iran will convince Muslims that they must accept US hegemony.

The neoconservatives have put the elements of their plan in place. They have powerful naval forces on station off Iran's coast. They have convinced President Bush that only by attacking Iran can he prevail in Iraq......"

War Foretold

Mark Twain and the Sins of Empire

By RAMZY BAROUD
CounterPunch

"......As the Iraq war rages on, Twain's words ring truer by the day. "The loud little handful will shout for warThen the handful will shout louder. A few fair men on the other side will argue and reason against the war with speech and pen, and at first will have hearing and be applauded; but it will not last long; those others will out shout them and presently the anti-war audiences will thin and lose popularity. Before long you will see the most curious thing: the speakers stoned from the platform, and free speech strangled by hordes of furious men. And now the whole nation will take up the war-cry, and shout itself hoarse, and mob any honest man who ventures to open his mouth; and presently such mouths will cease to open.

"Next the statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after the process of grotesque self-deception."

Twain, whose genius undoubtedly surpasses time and space, wrote the above passages nine decades before the world's leading statesmen, President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair forged their case for war, based on falsities and refused to examine any refutations; they rallied millions, investing on their ignorance and blind patriotism to carry out a war whose outcome is akin to genocide. The text was also written long before the thousands who stood for human rights, rallied and organized against the war, defended the constitution and civil liberties were "shouted out" and "stoned from the platform"......"

Palestinian Contras Reveal Their Real Aim

General Secretary of Fatah in the West Bank urges Abbas to declare a state of emergency and call early elections

"Ramallah - Ma'an – The General Secretary of the Fatah movement in the West Bank, Hussein Ash Sheikh, called on Palestinian President Mahmous Abbas to "take action, measures and decisive decisions in order to put an end to the lawlessness in the Gaza Strip."

Ash Sheikh urged Abbas to declare a state of emergency, call for early elections or dissolve the Palestinian Authority as; he said "it is not reasonable to have the PA as a nightmare on the Palestinian minds."

In an interview with the Pal Media agency, Ash Sheikh criticized the Palestinian factions and urged them to act responsibly.

He added that what is going on in the strip is "a coup, which is being attempted by a specific current in the Hamas movement against the PA and against the Palestinian factions, these factions should raise their voice and say enough is enough to what is going on in the strip.""

Haneyya survives assassination attempt at hands of Israel’s agents in Gaza

"GAZA, (PIC)-- Elements of the mutiny trend within Fatah faction, which is widely believed to be led and directed by Fatah MP Mohammed Dahalan, have fired an RPG projectile at home of PA premier Ismail Haneyya Tuesday in a clear attempt to kill him.

Haneyya and his family members survived the assassination attempt, close aides of the premier affirmed.

Local sources affirmed that elements of the PA presidential guards believed to be associated with the mutiny trend unleashed an RPG at the premier’s home, inflicting big damage on the place; but no casualties were reported.

Haniyeh's home after attack (photo: Reuters)

PA PG is part of the PA security apparatuses under the direct command of PA chief Mahmoud Abbas.

The attempt on Haneyya’s life Tuesday came one day after that vandal group assaulted and peppered office of PA youth and sports minister Dr. Basim Na’im on Monday in a bid to kill him. The assassination bid failed.

Hours earlier, the mutineers spoiled the weekly session of the PA council of ministers after they intensively fired at the council’s headquarters, prompting Haneyya to adjourn the meeting......"

The Stooge is Seeking Israeli Arms While Hiding in the Green Zone in Ramallah.....
The U.S. Consul in Jerusalem and General Keith Dayton Will Ensure His Safety

اتهم من ينفذ مخطط "دايتون" بالانقلاب على الحكومة

أبو زهري: الرئاسة تقلب الحقائق وتغطي على جرائم ميليشيات التيار الانقلابي العميل

"غزة – المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام

أكد سامي أبو زهري، القيادي في حركة المقاومة الإسلامية "حماس"، أن تصريحات الناطق باسم الرئاسة "تمثل محاولة لقلب الحقائق وللتغطية على الجرائم التي ترتكبها ميليشيات رئيس السلطة محمود عباس والتيار الانقلابي العميل في شوارع غزة".

وقال أبو زهري، في تصريح خاص أدلى به لـ "المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام" اليوم الثلاثاء (12/6): "عن أي شرعية يتحدث عنها أبو ردينه (الناطق باسم الرئاسة)؛ فإذا كانت حماس هي التي فازت بالانتخابات التشريعية، والتي حظيت برئاسة الحكومة السابقة والحالية، فكيف تكون غير شرعية؟!".

وأضاف: "إن الذي ينقلب على الحكومة هو الذي ينفذ مخطط دايتون العميل الخائن، والذي يأخذ مئات الملايين من الدولارات من الأمريكان وغيرهم لا لإطعام شعبنا وإنما لقتله عبر مجموعاته المأجورة والمنتشرة في شوارع غزة".

وحول سيطرة "كتائب الشهيد عز الدين القسام"، الجناح العسكري لحركة "حماس" على مقرات الأجهزة الأمنية بغزة؛ علق أبو زهري قائلاً: "إن حركة حماس أعطت فرص كثيرة لإعادة الهدوء، ولكن صبرها بدأ بالنفاذ بعد أن تعرض عدد كبير من أبناءها للخطف والإعدام".

وبشأن عقد لقاءات مع حركة "فتح"؛ أوضح القيادي في "حماس" أن "أي لقاءات تعقد بين الطرفين ستبقى فارغة المضمون وعديمة الجدوى ما لم تتخذ حركة فتح قراراً جريئاً تجاه هذه الثلة المجرمة العميلة".

وأكد أبو زهري أن التعرض لمقرات الأجهزة الأمنية "جاء بعد أن أصبحت تستخدم تلك المواقع لقتل المجاهدين"، مضيفاً إن "المجاهدين يخطفون على أبواب هذه المقرات ومن ثم يعدمون بداخلها، لذلك اتخذت حركة حماس هذا القرار الجريء، وقد أعطت الفرصة لمن ليس لهم علاقة بالاقتتال".

وكان بيان صادر عن الناطق الرسمي باسم الرئاسة الفلسطينية نبيل أبو ردينه قد اتهم وبعد صمت طويل على جرائم الانقلابيين، حركة المقاومة الإسلامية "حماس" بالتخطيط "بالانقلاب على الشرعية الفلسطينية"، والسعي للسيطرة على قطاع غزة بالقوة، متجاهلاً حقيقة أن "حماس" تمتلك الغالبية الساحقة في المجلس التشريعي الفلسطيني وتقود حكومة الوحدة الوطنية."

In Nahr El-Bared and in Gaza, The target is the same
By Baha Boukhari

The mouse that cheered

Bush went to Albania and Bulgaria for a sympathetic hearing. But he should have had a history lesson in Rome - seat of another fallen empire.

By Ian Williams
The Guardian

"......Rome should have been a learning experience for the president. All around are the ruins that show that even the mightiest empires can come a cropper. But even the founding fathers missed that message when they set up the American Republic and modelled it on its Roman antecedents rather more closely than they thought.
The rose-tinted view of history, like the equally rose-tinted view of the present, lends itself to simplification: civilisation against the barbarians, the democracies against the terrorists.

Rome at its apogee was a ferocious aggressor, whose politics were fuelled by massive corruption and injustice, and which felt no need for diplomats because they had the legions. It made war on all its neighbours and sold the defeated as slaves, with no thought for anything like the Geneva conventions. Its major public buildings, like the Stadium of Domitian - now the Piazza Navona - were places where prisoners were forced to kill each other in public for the entertainment of the masses. Empires are built on moral decline. The fall follows.......

But one cannot help suspecting that they are in some measure as intellectually isolated as they were under Enver Hoxha. Those Italian demonstrators in Rome showed no hostility to Americans, but to Bush. Roman taxi drivers and waiters alike had the courtesy to assume that their English-speaking guests shared their antipathy to the president and his policies. Someone should tell the Albanians that few Americans share their support for George Bush - and that there is no crock of gold waiting for them.

And the rest of us should note that Bush is feeling so isolated that he needed to go to two of the smallest countries in the world to get a sympathetic hearing."

A true land of opportunity

Where there's death and destruction, there's profit - as security companies in Iraq know only too well

Terry Jones
Tuesday June 12, 2007
The Guardian

"Gordon Brown was in Iraq yesterday on a "fact-finding mission". It needn't all have looked gloomy for the next prime minister, however - not if he did some fact-finding about Blackwater, a North Carolina company that is now one of the most profitable military contractors operating in Iraq, and proves just what a land of opportunity Iraq really is. Blackwater's president, Gary Jackson, acclaimed a "staggering" 600% growth in 2004: "This is a billion-dollar industry," he said, "and Blackwater has only scratched the surface of it." So if Gordon, or any of us, wants to get on this Iraqi gravy train, we could do worse than see how Blackwater goes about it.

First you need your father to leave you a billion dollars or so, as happened to Erik Prince, Blackwater's founder. Then use the money to set up a company that specialises in shooting people. Of course, you say the company's vision is "to support security, peace, freedom and democracy everywhere".......

The families of the four men decided to sue Blackwater to find out why they died - but the company can seek profit even in this situation: last Friday it was announced that Blackwater is suing the dead men's estates for $10m, according to the families' lawyers, "to silence the families and keep them out of court".

So there it is - more ways to make money out of Iraq than you or I would have dreamt of. And companies like Blackwater are showing us the way."

Lessons to Learn

By Steve Bell, The Guardian

Gambit to link Iran to the Taliban backfires

By Gareth Porter
Asia Times

"WASHINGTON - A media campaign portraying Iran as supplying arms to the Taliban fighting US and North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces in Afghanistan, orchestrated by advocates in the US administration of a more confrontational stance toward Iran, appears to have backfired. Last week, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, General Dan McNeil, issued unusually strong denials.

The allegation that Iran had reversed a decade-long policy and was now supporting the Taliban, conveyed in a series of press articles quoting "senior officials" in recent weeks, is related to a broader effort by officials aligned with US Vice President Dick Cheney to portray Iran as supporting Sunni insurgents, including al-Qaeda, to defeat the United States in both Iraq and Afghanistan......."

Neocon Kristol: Lieberman makes attack on Iran politically easier

"On Sunday's Face the Nation, Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) recommended an attack on Iran to get their leaders to "play by the rules." On Monday, Fox News asked Neocon William Kristol, editor of the Weekly Standard, about Lieberman's remarks.

The neoconservative editor replied that when Lieberman was recently in Iraq, "He was struck by the depth and breadth of Iranian involvement in helping the terrorists attack US soldiers ... and also that Iran is now helping not just their fellow Shia but all kinds of groups, including Sunni al-Qaeda-related groups who are attacking US soldiers."

"Does that mean there is planning on the table or does that make it at least easier for the administration to consider it?" Kristol was asked. "It sure does," he responded, as Fox ran the banner, "Showdown with Iran: Is an attack with the Islamic Republic imminent?"

Kristol then said that an anti-war Democratic congressman had recently called him and said he would support tougher measures against Iran, suggesting the possibility of a bipartisan consensus for military action.

General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff whose replacement was announced on Friday, raised doubts last February about whether the Iranian government was really involved in arming Iraqi insurgents. Fox News did not report on Pace's remarks at that time."

Barhoum: Fatah mutineers crossed all red lines by targeting council of ministers

"GAZA, (PIC)-- Spokesman of Hamas Movement in Gaza Strip Fawzi Barhoum strongly condemned the shooting incident at the headquarters of the PA council of ministers in Gaza city at the hands of Fatah mutineers.

“This is a coward crime that comes after the botched attempt to assassinate PA Youth and Sport minister Dr. Basim Na’im, and serves as clear message from that vandal group of their intention to escalate tension in the Palestinian street, and of trespassing all red lines”, Barhoum said.

Last week, elements affiliated with the mutiny trend within Fatah faction kidnapped and severely tortured one of PA premier Ismail Haneyya’s bodyguards before dumping him between life and death at a remote site in Gaza city.

“Matters are getting more serious and thus we couldn’t any more stand idle before them as the mutineers are systematically targeting the Palestinian legitimacy through attacks on the PLC, the PA public institutions, and now the PA council of ministers”, the Hamas official underlined.

But he asserted that Hamas along with the Palestinian people will not allow that group to carry out the Zio-American plans that aim at destroying the Palestinian people and the just Palestinian question.

The attack forced a suspension of the weekly session of the PA cabinet that was supposed to discuss the implementation of the PA security plan which aims at curbing lawlessness in the Palestinian arena once and for all."

***

Now We Know Why:

Fatah seeks weapons deal with Israel

Thanks, Lucia.

I think that Dahlan and his Contras are trying to meet Condoleezza's "Benchmark" by June 21. This time, I think it is very serious; it could be an all out attempt by Elliott Abrams and his Palestinian Contras.

High Cost of Subservience to Israel

All U.S. citizens must accept a measure of responsibility for Israel’s grip on America. Those of us who knew what was happening did not protest with sufficient force and clarity.


By Paul Findley

"......How did Israel gain this influence?

It all started 40 years ago. On June 8, 1967, the U.S. commander-in-chief, President Lyndon B. Johnson, turned his back on the crew of a U.S. navy ship, the USS Liberty, despite the fact that the ship was under deadly assault by Israel’s air and sea forces. The Israelis were engaged in an ugly scheme to lure America into their war against Arab states. They tried to destroy the Liberty and its entire crew, then pin the blame on the Arabs. This, they reasoned, would outrage the American people and immediately lead the United States to join Israel’'s battle against Arabs.

The scheme almost worked. It failed because, despite the carefully-planned multi-pronged assault, the Liberty crew managed to broadcast an SOS over a makeshift antenna. When the appeal reached U.S. aircraft carriers nearby, the commanders immediately launched fighter planes to defend the ship. Informed of the launch, President Johnson ordered the rescue planes to turn back immediately.

For the first time in history, forces of the U.S. Navy were denied the right to defend a Navy ship under attack. Johnson said, “I don't care if the ship sinks, I am not going to embarrass an ally.” Those were his exact words, heard by Navy personnel listening to radio relays. The ally Johnson refused to embarrass was Israel. To him, saving Israel from embarrassment was more important than saving the lives of the Liberty crew.

The day yielded infamy, —deceit, lies and cover-up at the highest level. When the SOS reached the top military commanders in Israel, they immediately canceled ousHous the assault, claiming it was a case of mistaken identity. ousHous At the White House, Johnson accepted Israel’s claim, even though he knew it was a lie. Then Johnson magnified the day’s infamy by ordering a cover-up of the truth. Liberty survivors were sworn to secrecy. Even those in hospital beds and badly wounded were threatened with court martial if they told anyone what actually happened. The cover-up has been continued by every administration since Johnson’s.

It proved to be a fateful turning point in Israel’s power over U.S. foreign policy. The Liberty experience convinced Israeli officials that they could get by with literally anything--—even the murder of U.S. sailors--in their manipulation of the U.S. government. Financial aid to Israel began to pour like a river, all of it with no stings attached......"

Equality, Not Zionism, Will Save Israel

"On the same day that we learn that Norman Finkelstein has been denied tenure at De Paul University largely because of an aggressive campaign by Israel supporters to silence the (to them) menacing figure of a Jew, son of a Holocaust survivor, as combatively anti-Zionist as Finkelstein is, it is with great pleasure that I welcome Antony Loewenstein as a guest contributor. Antony is a generation younger than me, but he’s further evidence of the fact that the efforts of the nationalists to police Jewish identity in a way that enforces a narrow Zionism are failing — despite their victory over Finkelstein. The sweet smell of Jewish dissent is suddenly everywhere in the air, most recently last week when Avram Burg released his new book, renouncing Zionism and warning of its dangerous consequences for his Judaism and his humanity — it’s not exactly every day that a former Speaker of the Knesset turns around and rejects the very principle of a “Jewish State.” I have a long posting of my own on this in the works. In the mean time, please give Antony Loewenstein a resounding Rootless Cosmopolitan welcome!" -- Tony Karon

Guest post:

By Anthony Loewenstein

"As an Australian anti-Zionist Jew writing about Israel/Palestine, the rules of the game are made clear to me on an almost daily basis. All Jews must support the “Jewish State,” no matter what. Any action carried out by the state is defensible, justified and moral. Any public criticism of Israel will be assumed to be anti-Semitic; if Israel is to be criticized at all, it should only be in hushed tones and in private. Dare to challenge these rules, and you can expect to be bombarded with hate-mail, death-threats and public abuse, invariably from fellow Jews......

I write as I do because I believe it to be the truth, not because of the associated controversy or fame. As an atheist Jew, I struggle with my identity only so far as I wonder how my religion has been hijacked by a militaristic and exclusionary ideology.

Israelis are not Nazis, but I wonder, as Harvard academic Sara Roy, herself a child of Holocaust survivors, put it , how have children of the Holocaust ended up as brutal occupiers and oppressors? And why do so few Jews speak out against it?"

Sudan is secret partner of U.S.

Khartoum supplies information to the CIA on insurgents in Iraq

"Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq - an example of how the United States has continued to cooperate with the Sudanese regime even while condemning its role in the killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Darfur......

Sudan has become increasingly valuable to the United States since the Sept. 11 attacks because the Sunni Arab nation is a crossroads for Islamic militants making their way to Iraq and Pakistan.

That steady flow of foreign fighters has provided cover for Sudan's Mukhabarat intelligence service to insert spies into Iraq, officials said.

"If you've got jihadists traveling via Sudan to get into Iraq, there's a pattern there in and of itself that would not raise suspicion," said a former high-ranking CIA official familiar with Sudan's cooperation with the agency. "It creates an opportunity to send Sudanese into that pipeline."

As a result, Sudan's spies have often been in better position than the CIA to gather information on al-Qaida's presence in Iraq, as well as on the activities of other insurgent groups......

They said that Sudan has assembled a network of informants in Iraq providing intelligence on the insurgency. Some may have been recruited as they traveled through the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

The U.S.-Sudan relationship goes beyond Iraq. Sudan has helped the United States track the turmoil in Somalia, working to cultivate contacts with militias and Islamic courts in an effort to locate al-Qaida suspects hiding there. Sudan also has provided extensive cooperation in counter-terrorism operations, acting on U.S. requests to detain suspects as they pass through Khartoum......."

The Silence of the Bombs

"Bring Home the Troops" is No Longer Enough

By NORMAN SOLOMON
CounterPunch

".......The present situation has a different twist along the same lines. The Iraq war drags on, the United States is certainly not the victor -- and the U.S. president, a fervent believer in war and violence, still has a lot to prove.

Faith that American might makes right is apt to be especially devout among those who command the world's most powerful military -- and have the option of trying to overcome wartime obstacles by unleashing even more lethal violence.

These days, there's a lot of talk about seeking a political solution in Iraq -- but the Bush administration and the military leaders who answer to the commander in chief are fundamentally engaged in a very different sort of project. Looking ahead, from the White House, the key goal is to seem to be winding down the U.S. war effort while actually reconfiguring massive violence to make it more effective.

Two sets of figures have paramount importance in mainline U.S. media and politics -- the number of U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and the number of them dying there. Often taking cues from news media and many lawmakers on Capitol Hill, antiwar groups have tended to buy into the formula, emphasizing those numbers and denouncing them as intolerably high......"

Targeted killing won't bring peace

By Mustafa Barghouti

"RAMALLAH, West Bank: As we enter the 41st year of Israel's military occupation, one of the more sinister policies inflicted upon us is what Israel calls "targeted killings."

Israel applies no death penalty, except against Palestinians living under Israeli military government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

There, suspected opponents of Israel's occupation are routinely executed without charge, judge or jury. Innocents who happen to be in the vicinity of Israel's "target" just as often suffer summary execution.

In April, 17-year-old Bushra Breghish was pacing her bedroom, studying for an exam. An Israeli sniper, from a squad dispatched to arrest her brother, shot her through the forehead, killing her instantly. All she held in her hands was a book.

Last week in Ramallah's central square, in broad daylight, Israeli undercover forces shot a fleeing 22-year-old, Omar Abu Daher, in the leg. After he fell, and was entirely vulnerable to arrest, an Israeli assassin shot him in the back of the head from close range, then kicked his body, apparently to confirm the kill.

The deaths of these young Palestinians are not rare, nor were they unintentional. They were the victims of an openly acknowledged policy......"

Iran threatens a 'missile blitz' against Gulf states if attacked

"Iran threatened Monday to launch a "missile blitz" against Persian Gulf states that would drag the entire Middle East into a war, should the United States strike its nuclear facilities.

"The objective will be to stun the American missile defense system using dozens if not hundreds of missiles that will be launched simultaneously at certain targets," Iran's former defense minister, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, told the U.S. journal Defense News.

Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman all host key U.S. and British military bases, and Shamkhani's comments were rare for a senior Iranian official in that they were directed at Gulf states and not Israel.

Shamkhani directed his comments primarily at those states that cooperate with the U.S., adding that the missiles would be fired not only at the American bases but also at strategic facilities such as oil refineries and power stations.

To date, it was widely believed that the brunt of any Iranian retaliation for an attack on its nuclear facilities would be directed at Israel. Experts who have been closely following developments in Iran believe, however, that an Iranian attack on Saudi Arabia is not entirely out of the question.

It should be emphasized that this is one of the few times that a senior Iranian official has spoken in such detail regarding what Iran's "response plan" for an attack on its nuclear facilities."

Selling Kirkuk for a mess of potage

By Ali al-Fadhily
Asia Times

"It seems like a pact between devils, but Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki reportedly returned from the Kurdish north with a deal - a Kurdish Kirkuk in exchange for a free hand for Shi'ites in the south. It is a further reflection of the crisis that the US faces in Iraq and shows there is no single group capable of achieving control of the ever-worsening situation.......

Speaking on condition of strict anonymity inside the heavily fortified Green Zone of central Baghdad where the Iraqi government meets, the member told IPS that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki "sold Kirkuk in exchange for Kurdish support for his collapsing government, and other matters such as not being in the way of Shi'ite militias in Baghdad".

He clarified that he believes Maliki made a pact with Kurdish MPs to relinquish plans for trying to have the central government in Baghdad control economic and oil issues in the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, but did not express confidence that the deal would be honored....."

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)
By Bendib

God’s lying people

"Israel is actually waging, slowly but definitely, a real genocide against the
Palestinian people..."

By Khalid Amayreh

"“As a Jew, I see my role as a defender of Israel, I defend even her mistakes. I feel that as a Jew who resides outside Israel I must identify with whatever Israel does, even with her errors.” - Elie Wiesel

Ever since the British University and College Union (UCU) voted to consider an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions nearly two weeks ago, the shipyard dogs of Zionism have been raving and ranting against everything British.

In addition to invoking the ready-made but increasingly cheap charges of anti-Semitism or Jew-hatred, fanatical Zionist leaders have been waging a vitriolic campaign of vilification against British academics for daring to question the manifestly immoral and criminal Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories.......

Last week, Tzipi Livni, the flamboyant Israeli foreign minister, warned rather arrogantly that “those promoting this measure will have to pay a price.” Moreover, she and another Israeli cabinet minister named threatened to form a “worldwide front” against British academics, a clear allusion to the possible mobilization by international Zionist circles of the “American front” where a growing number of Zionist Jews are bragging about their “control of America from coast to coast.”.....

Like all exposed thieves and criminals, Israel and her supporters are adopting the adage “offense is the best defense.” Hence, the virulent and vitriolic attacks on the British academics and other high-profile critics of Zio-Nazism.

Indeed, if Israel were not a thief, liar and murderer, it would confidently seek to refute, point by point, all the charges leveled by the British Academics, instead of throwing the stale charges of anti-Semitism and accusing British professors of being under the influence of “Islamo-fascism”!!!......

I know very well, as do many people around the world, that Israel will never dare invite the British academics to tour the West Bank to see for themselves and decide for themselves whether Israel is innocent or guilty of all these crimes.

The reason is very simple. Israel knows better than anybody else that any human being with an iota of conscience and honesty will condemn it for committing crimes against humanity which put Israel more or less on equal footing with apartheid South Africa if not Nazi Germany......"

Gangs of Iraq: military quietly enlisting thousands of active gang members

"A ghost army of gangbangers presents a terrifying challenge for the military. It is “setting the stage for a disaster,” says one longtime military advisor

Lax enlistment standards have inadvertently allowed known members of the Crips, Bloods, Latin Kings, and various white supremacist groups to join the military

With the unintended help of the U.S. Army, the Gangster Disciples are extending their reach worldwide.....

Now, with the unintended help of the U.S. Army, the gang is extending its reach worldwide. According to a Chicago Sun-Times article last year, Gangster Disciple graffiti has been spotted all over Iraq. The gang’s initials and main symbol, the six-pointed star, have been tagged on concrete blast barriers, armored vehicles, and even remote firebase guard shacks. In an astonishing study of just three Army bases over the past four years, a Department of Defense detective identified more than 300 active gang members. Some experts estimate that up to 2 percent of the soldiers on active duty—perhaps as many as 20,000—have sworn allegiance to one gang or another."

برهوم: "حماس" ستخوض معركة ضد العملاء والمندسين والاحتلال في آن معاً

هدد بأن الحركة ستحرق بالنار كل يد تمس مجاهديها

"غزة - المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام

أكد فوزي برهوم، الناطق باسم حركة المقاومة الإسلامية "حماس" على أن ما يجري في غزة هو "مؤامرة تقوم بها فئة عميلة تنفذ مخططات أمريكية صهيونية"، مضيفاً أن هذه الفئة الانقلابية هي "فئة إمبريالية عميلة تنفذ أوامر تأتيها من الخارج".

وأضاف برهوم، تعقيباً على حادثة إعدام إمام مسجد العباس محمد الرفاتي على يد الانقلابيين من حركة فتح قائلاً: "هؤلاء مجموعات اختلطت عقولهم بالامبريالية الأمريكية، ونحن قلنا لوفد حركة فتح في حوارات القاهرة ومكة ودمشق بأن حركة فتح قد سُرقت وسُلبت من قبل فئة عميلة مجرمة".

ولفت القيادي في حركة "حماس" إلى أن هذه المجموعات التي يصفها بالعميلة "تقوم بمخطط ممنهج من خلال استهداف العلماء والمشايخ من أبناء الشعب الفلسطيني، بحيث يقومون بتطبيق ما يقوم به الاحتلال الأمريكي في العراق من تدمير للمؤسسات التعليمية وإعدام الكوادر العلمية والمشايخ".

وأوضح برهوم أنه "تم إبلاغ الوفد الأمني المصري خلال حوارات القاهرة أن جهة من حركة فتح ستقوم خلال 48 ساعة بعرقلة الحوار"، وأضاف أن الأحداث بدأت بالفعال في رفح باستهداف وقتل أحد قيادات كتائب الشهيد عز الدين القسام في حي تل السلطان في رفح.

وأوضح أن حركة "حماس" ستحرق بالنار كل من يمسها أو يمس أبناءها، وطالب برهوم الفصائل باتخاذ "مواقف حازمة لحماية المواطن الفلسطيني"، متهما إياها بالتلعثم في الكلام، وأنها تتقاعس عن اتخاذ القرار.

وقال الناطق باسم "حماس"برهوم مخاطباً الحكومة والمجلس التشريعي والفصائل: "ما فائدتهم على كراسيهم ما لم يستطيعوا لجم هؤلاء المجرمين الذين يعبثون بأمن الوطن والمواطن"، مؤكداً على أن حركة "حماس" ستخوض المعركة ضد العملاء والاحتلال في آن واحد. "

Architects threaten to boycott Israel over 'apartheid' barrier

By Oliver Duff, Rob Sharp and Eric Silver in Jerusalem
The Independent

Contributed by europe(boycott israel)

"A group including some of Britain's most prominent architects is considering calling for an economic boycott of Israel's construction industry in protest at the building of Israeli settlements and the separation barrier in the Occupied Territories.

Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, whose members include Richard Rogers and the architectural critic Charles Jenckes, met for the first time last week in secret at the London headquarters of Lord Rogers' practice. He introduced the meeting, and the 60 attendees went on to condemn the illegal annexation of Palestinian land and the construction of the vast fence and concrete separation barrier running through the West Bank and Jerusalem.

The group said that architects, planners and engineers working on Israeli projects in the occupied territories were "complicit in social, political and economic oppression", and "in violation of their professional code of ethics".

It said that: "Planning, architecture and other construction disciplines are being used to promote an apartheid system of environmental control."......."

Pressure mounts on Israel's architects

Susannah Tarbush, The Electronic Intifada, 10 June 2007

"Just days before 5 June's 40th anniversary of the start of the June 1967 war, some of the biggest names in British architecture signed a petition calling on Israeli architects and their fellow professionals to stop participating in the creation of "facts on the ground", which obliterate the idea of a viable future Palestinian state. Susannah Tarbush follows the controversy that has surrounded the London-based Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine's efforts to hold accountable their Israeli peers' involvement in projects that make them complicit in the violation of Palestinians' rights......."

War Pimp Alert: Senator Lieberman advocates military strike on Iran

"Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) on CBS's Face the Nation this morning laid out a case for the US taking military action against Iran.

"Iraq is now the main front in the long war we are fighting against the Islamist terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. In fact 90% of the suicide bombers in Iraq today killing Iraqis and American soldiers are foreign Al Qaeda fighters. Iran is training and equipping soldiers, Iraqis, to come in and kill American soldiers and Iraqis," said Lieberman.

Host Bob Schieffer then asked Lieberman what the United States should do about Iran.

Lieberman said that Iran is at war with the US and "the moderates" and that while he supports sitting down and talking with the Iranian government, that might not be enough.

"If we're going to sit and talk with the Iranians, tell them what we want them to do, which is to stop doing that because it's killing Americans, we can't leave it at that. I think we have to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," he said. "To me that would include a strike into, over the border into Iran where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers."

"Let's just stop right there," said Schieffer. "You're saying that if the Iranians don't let up that the United States should take military action."....."

Latuff Cartoons in Support of Professor Norman Finkelstein

(Click on each cartoon to enlarge)

DePaul denies tenure for Norman Finkelstein

(Click on to enlarge)

"For a man who has just lost his job after a highly public battle, DePaul University assistant political science Professor Norman Finkelstein is calm and accepting.

That's because Finkelstein, whose tenure bid drew widespread interest because of the Jewish professor's blunt criticism of Jews and the state of Israel -- and the attack on those views waged by Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz -- stands firmly on the beliefs that may have got him fired.

"There is a song by the folk singer Keith Seeger, 'Die Gedanken sind frei,'" the controversial academic reflected in a rare interview with the Sun-Times.
"That means, 'thoughts are free.' No one can deny that 'die gedanken sind frei.' They can deny me tenure, deny me the right to teach. But they will never stop me from saying what I believe."

What Finkelstein -- the son of Holocaust survivors -- believes is that his people are culpable in the plight of the Palestinians. He drew wrath from prominent Jewish leaders when he accused some of exploiting Jewish suffering to block criticism of Israel, and made other enemies when he accused some survivors of conducting a "shakedown" to get payments from Germany......

DePaul said the political science department and the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences recommended tenure for Finkelstein, but the college's dean and the University Board on Promotion and Tenure recommended against it and were upheld by Holtschneider.

"I would be disingenuous if I said I were not disappointed," Finkelstein said.

"On the other hand, both of my parents survived the Nazi death camps. Growing up, what I remembered most was my late mother used to say, 'Some people are beasts, and there's nothing to be done with them. But what about the silence of everyone else? That I cannot understand.' Those were thoughts that left a deep mark on me."

Finkelstein has a year left at DePaul. "I met the standards of tenure DePaul required, but it wasn't enough to overcome the political opposition to my speaking out on the Israel-Palestine conflict," he said.

"As it happens, I was just this past week teaching about Paul Robeson in my political science class. When Robeson was crucified for his beliefs, he said, 'I will not retreat one-thousandth part of one inch.' That's what I say to the thugs and hoodlums who are trying to silence me. They don't want to talk about what Israel is doing to the Palestinians. So they make Norman Finkelstein the issue." "

Al-Jazeera Cartoon

"International" Rulings

"Peace Overture" To Syria?

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace and justice?

By Mazin Qumsiyeh

"An old saying in the fight against segregation in the South was "free your mind and your ass will follow". I was thinking about this in the past few days in several events that ranged from racists lecturing their audience about how muslims treat non-muslims to supposed peace gatherings that did not want to deal with violations of human rights and international law when it is done to Palestinians (too controversial! even though funded by our taxes) to gatherings of few dedicated activists discussing the growing (but still in its infancy) movement of boycotts, divestments, and sanctions. Hypocricy, racism, and infiltration of peace movements by government agents, racists and others is not new (read e.g. David Dellinger's book "From Yale to Jail" about the 1960s). But in this short article, I want to focus on something else, 70% of the US public thinks the invasion and occupation of Iraq was wrong, nearly 100% of Arabs and Muslims in America think both the occupation of Iraq and of Palestine are wrong. Yet of these millions few want to change their routine to effect change. I want to take time to address those who have yet to do so by asking them the question How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice? and till when will those who are silently observing (or cursing the darkness instead of lighting a candle) remain silent......

After 60 years of ethnic cleansing, 6 million Palestinians refugees and displaced people. After 530 depopulated villages and towns and more land being confiscated daily (All done with Western governments direct and indirect support).

How willing are we to be inconvenienced to get peace/justice?

After American-made Caterpillar bulldozers uprooted over 1 million olive and other fruiting trees. After colonial settlers (some of them soldiers) with US made M16 killed thousands of native civilians in their own lands including when the natives were protesting peacefully......

It is true that it is not the professors in the universities who are oppressing Palestinians, but in their silence, they are approving of the atrocities. And with their huge egos they ignore what is happening at spitting distance from them: that there are professors and lecturers just like them who can be treated like dogs by every pissy soldier, whose decision it is whether or not they will give their lesson today, and all this because they are Palestinians.

England, cradle of civilization, I salute those civilized people amongst you, who finally found the courage to to say to Israeli academics that they can't just worry about their own academic freedom, and that true civilization means fighting for the academic freedoms and for the rights of those who do not have them.

You know what? I'm am looking forward to the day when every Israeli who took part in the evils of the occupation will be refused entry into England. I want to see the faces of all those young heroes, who throw tear gas canisters at elderly women and who chase a disabled man in a wheelchair, and then when they're done with the army travel to India and become spiritual......."

Killing the Palestinians

An Excellent Piece

by Sonja Karkar
(founder and President of Women for Palestine in Melbourne, Australia)

"......The final solution – ethnic cleansing

The diabolical endgame is closing in. Left on the board are apartheid, enslavement, transfer, ethnic cleansing and genocide. Unpalatable as these terms are, more and more people are beginning to see just where Israel’s policies and practices are heading.

The first person to coin the term “genocide” was a Polish-Jewish legal scholar Raphael Lemkin whose idea was widely accepted by the international community and it became one of the legal bases of the Nuremburg Trials. It is interesting to see the parallel between his definition and what is happening to the Palestinians today:

“Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves. The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of the personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.” Axis Rule in Occupied Europe (Wash DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1944), p79.

For those people who think that what is happening to the Palestinians is not apartheid or ethnic cleansing or genocide, ask the Palestinian parents who have just lost their children, the Palestinian families who are watching bulldozers rip into their homes, the Palestinian children who are too afraid to go to school, the elderly and the handicapped who are too afraid to stay at home, the Palestinian mothers who have lost their babies, the Palestinian children who wet their beds, the half-alive Palestinians without legs and arms and only half their face.......

You might well ask the Palestinians to make the concessions for the sake of peace: to desist from violent resistance; to give up the right of return; to forfeit East Jerusalem as their future capital; to agree to Israeli control of their borders; to accept the Jewish settlements, the Israeli-only roads and military posts in their midst; to agree to a Wall that separates them from those they love; to accept that they can never own their own piece of land or their own house; to suppress the feelings of humiliation and shame that they have borne for over half a century; and then what? That is really the question.

Forty years of oppression and almost sixty years of dispossession are too many years of pain for any human being. It is time for the Palestinians to be released from Israel’s vice-like control. It is time to balance the scales of justice. It is time to stop killing the Palestinians."

Little Ahmadinejads

By Gideon Levy

"......The Qassams on Sderot presaged the disgusting continuation, this time in poetry as well. "If not the roof beams, destroy the foundations ... Attack Lebanon and also Gaza with plows and with salt, destroy them so no inhabitant remains. Transform them into barren desert, piles of rubble ... kill them, spill their blood, frighten the living," wrote poet Ilan Scheinfeld, who has recently published a novel whose boycott no one has called for.

Former chief rabbi Mordechai Eliahu has called for returning fire on homes; Minister of Pensioner Affairs Rafi Eitan has proposed that Israel manufacture a domestic version of the Qassam and launch it on Gaza; Public Security Minister Avi Dichter has said that targeted assassinations are not enough; his successor at the Shin Bet security service, Yuval Diskin, has complained that "in Beit Lahiya and in Beit Hanoun they are living in tranquility;" our old acquaintance Lieberman has proposed a hit on the quarter where Gaza City's well-off reside for every hit on Sderot; Major General (Res.) Amiram Levin has called for dividing the Gaza Strip into squares, and after every Qassam destroying one; former justice minister Yosef Lapid supported this proposal; former chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon, the progenitor of the theory of "consciousness-searing," has proposed "cleansing the territory;" Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal has said that he prefers "a dead child in Gaza to a dead child in Sderot," and a bereaved father from the Second Lebanon War, Ami Schreier, has called for the wiping out of a neighborhood in Gaza, with advance warning of three hours, for every Qassam. Not one of them has been castigated for his words, not one of them shunned.

This is what we look like. This is our moral portrait. "

A dispatch from the frontline

What I experienced on my visit to Israel and the West Bank was worse than I could have imagined.

By Ajmal Masroor

The Guardian

"The style of questioning at Tel Aviv airport seems deliberately designed to test a person's patience and level of tolerance in the face of insults. My story is not the first, nor is it likely to be the last told about Israel. However, my experience there was worse than I could have imagined. Now I believe that Israel pursues racist policies and deliberately targets Muslims travelling there......

I was so shocked and in tears when I saw the wall built by the Israelis that has devastated Palestinian lives and economy. It snakes through the West Bank, almost grotesque in its ugliness. Families have been force to live on two sides of the wall and schools have been closed down because communities have been forcefully divided. I felt outraged with my government for not doing enough to prevent this.

Berlin Wall came down and I believe this wall will come down too. The destruction of the former marked the beginning of the end of cold war; I hope the destruction of the latter would bring an end to the occupation of the Palestinian land and hostilities in the region.

No country, no people or nation can succeed by oppressing others. Peace and security can never be obtained by erecting walls or confiscating lands. Prosperity can not be attained by causing misery to others. Daily suffering and humiliation of the Palestinians people would not make peace in the region possible."