West Is East, When Israel Decides

By Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler

"JERUSALEM, Nov 18 (IPS) - Along a wall not about to come down - a hotel no longer a hotel, but an outpost.

(Left: what used to be the Cliff Hotel)

The three-storey, 36-room Cliff Hotel used to be a favourite for Western pilgrims in quest of the 'authentic Holy Land flavour' because of its extensive gardens; it was a favourite also among Jerusalem Palestinians for wedding parties.

Perched on a hillock opposite the biblical Mount of Olives, The Cliff offered (still offers) imposing views - eastward through the Judean desert down to the Dead Sea and up the mountains of Moab across the Jordan River; southwards to the church spires of Bethlehem; and westwards to the walled Old City and the Golden Dome of the Rock.

Five years ago, in the wake of the Palestinian Intifadah uprising, Israel began to build its concrete security wall to fend off would-be bombers coming into Jerusalem. Border police seized the hotel and turned into a security outpost.

Last week, the world united in celebration of the coming down of another infamous wall......

"There's no hope here, no point of staying," Deif adds, "I plan to move to the U.S. to further my studies, and from there to Canada."

The prevailing sentiment about living in Jerusalem is one of impotence: "Nothing can change here - they hold all the cards." Back in 2005 just at the time of The Cliff takeover, Condoleezza Rice was making her first trip to the region as former president George W. Bush's secretary of state. In meetings with Israeli leaders, she warned against one- sided actions that could influence the city's status: "We do believe that unilateral steps in Jerusalem, particularly those that might appear to prejudge future discussions, would be unhelpful at this time."

Same old same when Barack Obama's secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, made her first visit to Jerusalem earlier this year.

Nothing changed indeed, except a deepening of Palestinian incapacity, and of pain - as the wall graffiti says, around "This Wall of Tears". "

Afghan Lessons from the Iraq War

You don’t have to go back 40 years to the Vietnam War to feel the sting of déjà vu. Returning to the Iraq War just three years ago will suffice.

By Ray McGovern
November 17, 2009

"Last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates summed up the administration’s dilemma on Afghanistan in a single question: “How do we signal resolve and at the same time signal to the Afghans and the American people that this is not open-ended?”

It is the same question that policymakers and generals were grappling with three years ago with respect to Iraq. Let’s hope they learned the right lessons from that experience, but it’s doubtful since the Fawning Corporate Media (FCM) has been no help in shedding light on what actually happened......

If Obama is to resist the pressure to escalate in Afghanistan, he will find himself tacking into the stiff wind of the FCM’s “successful surge myth” and having to maneuver around the recommendations of his field commanders and his Defense Secretary.

Though Democratic officials are notoriously disinterested in history, Obama may find that his acceptance of a false history for Iraq has real-life consequences in Afghanistan.

At least on the Vietnam War, thanks to Daniel Ellsberg’s leaking of the Pentagon Papers, Americans have a relatively clear understanding of how they got dragged into that mess......"

Exposing Britain’s Pro-Israel Lobby: Channel 4 TV Makes a Bold Start

By Stuart Littlewood
Palestine Chronicle

"Last night Channel 4's ‘Dispatches’ program set out to investigate the pro-Israel lobby in Britain, and to boldly go where no TV team had gone before.

On the Dispatches website we were told that the lobby "aims to shape the debate about Britain's relationship with Israel and future foreign policies relating to it".....

Interesting though the program was, it left out too much. For example, it didn’t name and shame enough individuals. It didn't tell the nation that our most important security bodies – the Intelligence & Security Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee and Defense Committee – are all headed by Israel flag-wavers. How can that possibly be in our national interest?

It didn’t reveal that our Labor and Conservative leaders are both patrons of the Jewish National Fund or explain the sinister purpose of that organization.

According to Mr Oborne, ”the pro-Israel lobby, in common with other lobbies, has every right to operate and indeed to flourish in Britain. But... the present obscurity surrounding it can, paradoxically, give rise to conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact.” However, he spent the best part of an hour convincing us (well me, anyway) it is indeed a conspiracy and a very large and well organized one.

He didn’t mention that two years ago a group of individuals asked the Committee on Standards in Public Life to investigate the undue influence of the Friends of Israel lobbies...."

Face down the militarists and get out of Afghanistan. No strings attached

Obama must call time on the Afghan war. Retreat can be spun as victory. But it can't be conditional on impossible objectives

Simon Jenkins
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 November 2009

".....This war was never to be won, any more than that in Iraq. Both were neocon nation-building stunts that ran amok on too much money. Three million Iraqis, including almost all Iraq's Christians, were driven into exile. The same is starting in Afghanistan and will become a flood as Nato retreats. That nation's agony is not over yet, but the end cannot begin until the invaders depart. That will happen only when the pain outweighs the pride. The question is, how many corpses will that take?"

Our Chief Industry: War

The economy may be collapsing, but the war business is booming

by Justin Raimondo, November 18, 2009

"We often hear the complaint that America doesn’t make anything anymore: that is, our economy seems driven not by producing actual things, but utterly intangible creations such as credit default swaps and securitized sub-prime mortgages. Our once-bustling factories are rusted relics. Entire industries have collapsed. Ghost towns have sprung up where cities once thrived, like mushrooms sprouting in a cemetery. Baffled Americans, who – mistaking debt for wealth – thought they lived in the wealthiest country in the world, struggle to define what is happening. Old words like "correction," contraction," and "recession" give way to talk of a second Great Depression, and, in this context, the question "What does America make anymore?" is raised with renewed vigor.

While our factories have long since moved abroad, where wages are lower and regulation is lax, and our crippled industries are in Dr. Obama’s economic intensive care unit, on life support and awaiting last rites, America’s number-one export – representing, by far, our single largest capital investment – is our overseas military presence. What Chalmers Johnson referred to as our "empire of bases" is the framework of an international economic system in which the division of labor is roughly as follows: while Asia is the factory of the world, South America the farmland, and Europe increasingly a theme park/museum, the U.S. role is that of world gendarme........"

Brown can't even stick to his own nonsense on Afghanistan

By Mark Steel
The Independent

(Cartoon by Dave Brown)

"Bit by bit, as happened with Iraq, the reasons for staying in Afghanistan slide into gibberish. So Gordon Brown's reasons for the war seem to change every week.

At one point we were there to stop the opium, then to install democracy, now to prevent terrorist attacks in Britain. Next week he'll tell us the Taliban must be defeated as emissions from burqas are the greatest cause of climate change, or the plan is to buy the Taliban with public money until Afghanistan is back on its feet, and sell off the profitable sections such as Jihad training camps at a rate that makes sound economic sense.

At least Tony Blair used to come up with a pile of nonsense and stick to it......"

Withdrawal from Afghanistan: Another way out of the mire

The international community is attempting to shore up an inherently defective government while trying to fight an increasingly effective enemy. The military tactic has failed

Editorial
The Guardian, Wednesday 18 November 2009

(Cartoon by Carlos Latuff)

"The case for continuing the war effort in Afghanistan is buttressed by negatives: the west can not afford to cede al-Qaida the space to regroup; there will be a civil war if foreign troops leave; Pakistan's fight against the Taliban would be undermined; Afghanistan would be abandoned for the second time in eight years. We can say what our forces are fighting against, but not what they are fighting for. Is it a second term of Hamid Karzai, whose inauguration tomorrow the west will endorse? The most devastating description of his government was provided by a former US marine captain, Matthew Hoh, who resigned as a US foreign serviceman in Zabul province. He described the government's failing as legion and metastatic: glaring corruption; a president whose confidants comprise drug lords and war criminals; provincial and district leaders who live off US handouts ; an election dominated by fraud and discredited by low voter turnout....."

Islamic Groups Rally for Livni's Morocco Visit

Al-Manar

"17/11/2009 The Islamic party and other groups in Morocco are preparing to rally against the upcoming visit of Israeli opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni, and a protest focusing on the former Israeli foreign minister's part in Operation Cast Lead is scheduled to take place in Tangier on Thursday.

Saad Al-Din Al-Othmani, the secretary general of the Islamic-leaning Justice and Development party in Morocco, called for the cancellation of Livni's participation in the Amadeus Institute's conference set to take place in the country.

"We reject the visit of Livni or any other official representative of the Zionist entity to our country, especially after the UN General Assembly has accepted the Goldstone report, which condemns it and accuses its leaders – wanted in European courts – of committing war crimes in Gaza," Othmani said.

Moroccan news agencies have reported that pro-Palestinian groups in the country plan to file a law suit against Livni for her part in the Gaza conflict in January, and the Foreign Ministry's claims department has begun research on the possible effects of this move.

"We are familiar with this issue and see it as part of a global trend to try and harm Israeli leaders' images in court," Yossi Levy, the ministry's spokesman, told Ynet. He added that the ministry was preparing for any scenario, but that it would not recommend Livni cancel her visit. "

ليفني في المغرب: استفزاز مهين

ليفني في المغرب: استفزاز مهين
رأي القدس

"يتجنب المسؤولون الاسرائيليون، سياسيين كانوا او عسكريين، زيارة اي عاصمة غربية خوفاً من ان يتعرضوا للاعتقال والمثول امام المحاكم بتهم ارتكاب جرائم حرب ضد الشعبين الفلسطيني واللبناني، ولكنهم لا يواجهون الخطر نفسه، في حال زيارتهم لعواصم عربية تلبية لدعوات من حكومات او مؤسسات بحثية او سياسية، لانهم يستقبلون بحفاوة وتكريم بالغين.
السيدة تسيبي ليفني وزيرة الخارجية الاسرائيلية السابقة وزعيمة حزب 'كاديما' شاركت بحماس غير مسبوق في العدوان الاسرائيلي على قطاع غزة، والحصار التجويعي الظالم الذي سبقه لأكثر من مليون ونصف المليون فلسطيني من ابناء القطاع، ومع ذلك تتلقى دعوة للمشاركة في ملتقى سياسي ينظمه في طنجة نهاية هذا الاسبوع معهد 'اماديوس' الذي يترأسه ابراهيم الطيب الفاسي ابن وزير الخارجية المغربي.
لا نعرف ما اذا كان السيد الفاسي الذي وجه الدعوة هذه للسيدة ليفني قد سمع عن تقرير القاضي اليهودي الصهيوني ريتشارد غولدستون الذي ادان حكومة كاديما وجنرالاتها، وأكد انهم استخدموا المدنيين والاطفال كدروع بشرية اثناء عدوانهم على القطاع، ناهيك عن استخدامهم قنابل الفوسفور الابيض، وقتل اكثر من 1400 انسان عربي مسلم من العزل، وتدمير آلاف المنازل فوق رؤوس اسرهم.
ولا نعرف ايضا اذا كان السيد الفاسي قد شاهد ابناء الشعب المغربي في جميع انحاء البلاد وقد خرجوا في مظاهرات غاضبة بالملايين استنكارا وادانة لهذا العدوان، وتضامنا مع ضحاياه، مؤكدين اصالتهم ومعدنهم الانساني الصلب، وانتماءهم الى هذه العقيدة السمحاء. ولو جرى فتح ابواب التطوع للجهاد ضد الاسرائيليين لشاهدنا عشرات الملايين من ابناء المغرب يتدفقون الى حدود الارض المحتلة طلبا للشهادة.
المحامون المغاربة الذين طالبوا باعتقال السيدة ليفني فور وصولها الى ارض المغرب الطاهرة كانوا يعبرون عن المشاعر الوطنية المتأصلة لدى الغالبية الساحقة من ابناء شعبهم، وينتصرون لاشقائهم في فلسطين المحتلة وضحايا المجازر الاسرائيلية.
مأخذنا على هؤلاء المحامين انهم اقتصروا في طلبهم للاعتقال والمحاكمة على السيدة ليفني فقط، ولم يشملوا ايضا الذين جرحوا مشاعر الشعب المغربي بتوجيه دعوة استفزازية كهذه اليها، وفي هذا الوقت الحرج حيث ما زالت دماء شهداء جرائم السيدة ليفني وجنرالاتها طرية، وما زال هناك اكثر من ستين الف فلسطيني يعيشون في العراء على انقاض بيوتهم المدمرة.
مجرمو الحرب الاسرائيليون لا مكان لهم على ارض المغرب او اي ارض عربية او اسلامية اخرى، فمكانهم الحقيقي خلف القضبان امام محكمة جرائم الحرب الدولية مثلهم مثل النازيين الالمان والصرب مثل سلوبودان ميلوسفيتش ورادوفان كراديتش، والسيدة ليفني على رأس هؤلاء.
دعوة السيدة ليفني الملطخة يداها بدماء اطفال غزة ولبنان الى ندوة مغربية، في طنجة المعروف ابناؤها بوطنيتهم، وللحديث عن السلام هي اهانة للمدينة وتاريخها الوطني العريق اولا، مثلما هي اهانة للسلام، واستفزاز لكل ابناء المغرب.
"

Video: Dispatches: Inside Britain's Israel Lobby (48 min.)

"Dispatches investigates one of the most powerful and influential political lobbies in Britain, which is working in support of the interests of the State of Israel. This film contains scenes of the aftermath of war conflicts which some may find upsetting."

Interview with single-state and BDS activist Dr. Haidar Eid

Dialogue : A parallel is often drawn with South Africa . Yet, in South Africa, wasn’t it fear of a popular uprising, fear of a violent end to the apartheid regime that pushed the UN and largely the USA to demand reforms to save the essential, i.e. South African capitalism ? There are many South African activists who believe that the Kempton Park negotiations actually saved the economic power of the whites by putting some blacks in power. What is your view on this ?
Haidar Eid : I tend to agree with this analysis and I think that in South Africa we have witnessed an end to political Apartheid, but, unfortunately, we have not witnessed yet the end of economic Apartheid. I believe it is the task of conscious progressive powers in South Africa now to uphold the original principles defended by the Freedom Charter. Unfortunately, the struggle of the Black masses of South Africa had definitely been hijacked by Black fat cats. But, the agenda now is purely social. Whereas as the South African struggle has managed to bring Apartheid South Africa to an end, it has failed to come up with a new agenda that guarantees the socio-economic rights of the majority of Black masses of South Africa . In other words, yes South Africa has fallen within the trap of what Frantz Fanon calls the pitfalls of national (racial) consciousness, by prioritizing race over class.

Help Palestinian Refugees through Amazon

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Cornered and Abandoned Rats....

You Can Run Around......
But You Can't Hide From Your Failure and Treason.

The Palestinians Hold You Responsible.

Israel's Two-Tiered Justice System

Judge Rules Arab Teens Need Protection from Israeli Justice

By JONATHAN COOK, in Nazareth
CounterPunch

"An Israeli judge made an historic ruling last week when he decided that an Arab teenager needed “protection” from the justice system and ordered that he not be convicted despite being found guilty of throwing stones at a police car during a protest against Israel’s attack last winter on Gaza.

Prosecutors had demanded that the juvenile, a 17-year-old from Nazareth in northern Israel, be convicted of endangering a vehicle on the road, a charge that carries a punishment of up to 20 years’ imprisonment, as a way to deter other members of Israel’s Arab minority from committing similar offences.

But Judge Yuval Shadmi said discrimination in the Israeli legal system’s treatment of Jewish and Arab minors, particularly in cases of what he called “ideologically motivated” offences, was “common knowledge”.

In the verdict, he wrote: “I will say that the state is not authorised to caress with one hand the Jewish ‘ideological’ felons, and flog with its other hand the Arab ‘ideological’ felons.”

He referred in particular to the lenient treatment by the police and courts both of Jewish settler youths who have attacked soldiers in the West Bank and who violently resisted the disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005, and of religious extremists who have spent many months battling police to prevent the opening of a car park on the Sabbath in Jerusalem......"

US Politician Wants American Jews to Buy West Bank Homes

"An influential Jewish community leader and Democratic State Assemblyman from New York is currently heading a mission of about 50 Americans through the West Bank and East Jerusalem to promote home purchases in the area and to protest U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East policy.

"Our goal is to send a clear message to Washington and President Obama that Jews will continue to live in Judea and Samaria and the ultimate commitment American Jews can make is to actually come and buy property in these areas as this will ensure these communities' security and growth," said Dov Hikind, 59, who has been representing Brooklyn's 48th district since 1983.

"People buy properties in different places, and I can't think of any reason why people dedicated to the land of Israel shouldn't own something here, whether they will use it or use it as an opportunity for young families to live in that particular home," the politician told Haaretz yesterday in Elon Moreh, an Israeli settlement in the Samarian Hills...."

Lieberman: “P.A Asks Israel To Crush Hamas Then Complains To The International Community”

"Israeli Foreign Minister of the Yisrael Beiteinu fundamental party, Avigdor Lieberman, stated Monday that the Palestinian Authority seeks Israel’s support in fighting and countering Hamas, and at the same time files complaints to the international community.

Lieberman claimed that during the offensive against the Gaza Strip earlier this year, Abbas asked Israel to crush Hamas, and when the war was over, the Palestinians filed complaints to the International Criminal Court.

He also claimed that the Palestinian Authority encouraged thousands of complaints against Israel even before the report of Judge Richard Goldstone was published.

Referring to the statements of President Mahmoud Abbas regarding resorting to the international community to support a Palestinian unilateral declaration of statehood, Lieberman threatened that any unilateral step by the Palestinians would be met with Israeli unilateral moves.

He also said that such unilateral moves disregard past peace deals. Yet, Lieberman himself does not respect previously signed deals......"

Obama's Afghan Dilemma: Missing Security Forces

By Tony Karon
Time

".....Even if Karzai did a more effective job of governing, it's far from clear how many Afghans would be willing to fight their fellow Afghans in the Taliban. While poverty and corruption at the local level certainly fuel the resentment on which the Taliban capitalizes, it is not a protest movement against bad governance as much an insurgency rooted in Islamic and nationalist identities that challenges a political order installed and defended by foreign armies.

Rather than allowing himself to be drawn blindly into a quagmire, Obama is insisting on a clear-eyed view of the prospects for success and ultimately, withdrawal. And that's likely to confirm that even pursuing the most limited kind of success in Afghanistan might require an expanded troop commitment that goes well beyond the next U.S. presidential election."

Video: Norman Finkelstein Interviewed on Danish TV November 13 2009

"Norman Finkelstein interviewed on Danish public service TV by Jewish, and pro-Zionist host Adam Holm.

Adam Holm was corrected by his superiors from Danmarks Radio recently for having published a news paper article expressing his strong support for Israel.

On this occation a stoic Finkelstein manages to get Adam Holm off balance as Holm more and more desperately tries to counter Finkelsteins simple message: Uphold international law in connection with Israel as with any other state. Adam Holms clearly emotional approach says more than a thousand words."

Great and Exciting News! Habila Says, "Gaza welcomes private investment!"

"GAZA, (PIC)-- The Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haneyya, told a delegation of Egyptian businessmen on Monday that there are no longer centres of political and economic power in Gaza making the atmosphere favourable for investment, stressing that his government does not interfere in private investment. [This is so surreal, that it is hard to find words to describe this Habila.]

He met with the delegation in the presence of his deputy and the Minister of economy Ziad al-Zaza, the general secretary of the council of ministers Muhammad Awad, the head of land authority, Faris Abu Muammar and the head of the government information office Hasan Abu Hashish.

He welcomed the delegation and expressed his appreciation for their efforts against the challenges facing the Palestinian people and said that his government provided all the necessary administrative, security and legal facilities to help investment companies succeed in their task.

Haneyya told the delegation that his government does not interfere in the private sector, nor acts as a partner to investors.

He welcomed all companies that want to work legally and responsibly to rebuild the Gaza Strip and promised that his government will facilitate their work......."

Militants change tack in Pakistan

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times

"ISLAMABAD - After a month of operations against militants in the South Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, Pakistan's military establishment realizes it is chasing shadows; the adversary has simply melted into the vastness of the inhospitable surrounding territory.

Unlike in previous operations in other troubled tribal areas, though, there is unlikely to be any peace agreement. The militants, headed by the Pakistani Taliban - the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) - are bent on a long-term insurgency against the security apparatus, which they now see as heretic as the United States forces in Afghanistan.....

Militants are concerned over the close collaboration between the ISI and the US. The ISI has established a Counter-Terrorism (CT) cell, which works strictly in coordination with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central Intelligence Agency against the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Pakistan. The CT is completely segregated from the ISI's top hierarchy.

Background interviews with several detainees from ISI centers suggest they were interrogated in closed rooms by Pakistanis with headphones seemingly being guided in the questions they asked. Asia Times Online has been told that the recent attacks on ISI offices in Peshawar and Lahore were undertaken by militants who had been interrogated jointly by Americans and Pakistanis.

The Pakistan army is looking for familiar options under which it battles the militants in their strongholds of South Waziristan and North Waziristan, and then strikes ceasefire deals. This is no longer likely to work."