Ben Shapiro is a bright mind. I don’t agree with him 51 percent of the time but on this charade of congressional hearing, I agree; Completely!
In the video I shared bellow, Shapiro is shredding to pieces the “mass charade” of Mark Zuckerberg “testifying in Congress.”
In my opinion, the Mark Zuckerberg Congressional hearing was a circus for mass entertainment. Somehow, Congress is directing the attention away from the orders of President Donald Trump to invade a foreign state bypassing with this UN Security Council. This is another whole issue that I will discuss in another post.
I totally agree that Facebook has the responsibility to protect its user’s data–Not to sell it, not to lend it as the case with Cambridge Analytics, specially because, Cambridge Analytics is a foreign institution. It is a British political consulting firm, a corto its own website. Whose parent company SLC Group,” A private British behavioral research and strategic communication company.
What is interesting if you follow down the rabbit’s hole, you find out that SLC group joins the US State Department.
“Robert Mercer-funded dedicated Cambridge Analytics foreign parent company signs a deal to do propaganda work for State’s Global Engagement Center” says Text fire, at medium.com
According to medium.com, SLC Group was recently awarded a defense contract with the US State’s Department. To my opinion the whole scandal was because US State Department was caught with its pants down due to the leak by Christopher Wylie, “A whistle blower who exposed Cambridge Analytica’s role in a data breach affecting 50 million Facebook users earlier this month, tweeted documents that suggested the firm’s parent company,” said The Washington Post and its Asia&Pacific section of March 28 article, “Whistleblower claims Cambridge Analytica’s partners in India worked on elections, raising privacy fears.”
On the other hand, Facebook as a private business reserves the right to change the internal policies of its organization.
The users are given the tools to change the privacy settings, but nobody takes a day off to read Facebook privacy settings.
Mass hysteria will start when somebody does it and raise hell in his wall then everybody starts to share the “raise hell post,” then people go to change their privacy settings.
Now, regarding Facebook’s practices of gatekeeper of news, that is a whole new issue. Congress should ask the proper questions.
Also, monitoring our political views and sharing that information to parties that will use them against us in a “psychological experiment,” to sway our opinions, it is atrocious, right? But isn’t that exactly what main streammedia does, and for that matter our own government as well.
News networks chose and pick commentators that are sharp, well-mannered, and well groom into the network’s agenda. The guests are as well leaned to that agenda and to ‘make the audience’ believe they are unbiased, they’ll invite somebody on the other side of the political spectrum, and either, the guests are caught up with questions he/she can not answer with a short response, or the guest will be aggressive re-battled. If the guest is brave enough to make his voice heard, his/her microphone volume is decreased to the point where his voice is inaudible.
The same behavior is used by lobbyists, and politicians campaigns. They all use physiological behavioral strategies to impact the subconscious of the population.
Now, does Facebook have the right to do the same with their users?
The sponsors of Facebook do that job and because of those sponsors it’s that users have a free platform to share whatever they want to share.
The issue becomes skewed and spooky because Facebook is a global organization and serves a global market. Of course there always will be foreign interference and adds will flow freely to target audiences. Where is the illegally on that?
If this is so offensive and damaging to our democracy then foreign agencies as AIPAC should be illegal to operate in US soil.
Is Facebook guilty of treason? Then so is Congress, they take money from foreign entities such AIPAC, which clearly is a foreign agency working on behalf of Israel. It doesn’t matter that Israel is a friend of the US still is a foreign state.
Or, Is Facebook guilty of violating its own privacy policies? Well that crime won’t take anybody to jail but certainly can teach us that in a free marketplace everything is free game. Right?
After all we live in a Capitalist system where “supply and demand,” rules the game.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.– Sept. 29, 2016. Cornel West at Press Conference at Sacramento State University.
I was aware of West’s role in advising the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, particularly on the Palestine Issue. For over 40 years, West has been a vocal advocate and supporter of the Palestinian people in their struggle against the Zionist occupation of their nation; Knowing West’s position on this important issue-of-the-day, I was intrigued by his deep concern about the plight of the Palestinian people and the need for people in this country to gain an objective and historical understanding of the roots of the current plight of Palestinians.
In my familiarity with West’s books, he has almost maintained a very progressive stance by tying their oppression to foreign occupation of their country. Therefore, I was eager to hear more about his views when I attended his lecture and press conference at Sacramento State University.
Knowing that the mainstream media would not only shy away, but ignore the conflict in the Middle East, particularly in regards to the Palestinian issue, I made it a point to ask West about his role in advising the Sander’s campaign regarding the rights of Palestinians that live under Israel’s occupation. His response made it clear that he remained firm in his conviction that the people of this country must understand and support the Palestinian struggle to regain statehood.
When I asked why the Democratic Party after the primaries refused to acknowledge the Palestinian issue, his reply was unequivocally clear,
“If they didn’t address it, they were just wrong, this was cowardly and too indifferent, too unwilling to engage the level of suffering and misery and injustice of precious Palestinians brothers and sisters.”
West went on to explain that the position of the Democratic Party has been “tied too long to American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee.” He went on to explain that “AIPAC is not representative of Jewish-Americans, it represents a slice of centrist and conservative Jewish-Americans.” He then went on to explain that the AIPAC is “very powerful, like the NRA, and any other powerful lobby that is shaping U.S. policy … and for too long the kind of policies that the AIPAC promotes has not recognized the humanity (of the Palestinians) and the evil of Israeli occupation …. I am against foreign domination, I think what we are about is that every human being has some security from domination.”
There is a broad campaign both nationally and internationally to boycott, divest and impose sanctions upon companies that financially benefit from the Israeli seizure of Palestinian lands and resources.
This campaign included a boycott of those products from the occupied territories. The intent of Governor Brown bill is to protect the Israel by silencing and suppressing the groundswell support of an ever-growing number of people in this country and worldwide of the Palestinian people. Therefore, I asked West for his opinion of Assembly Bill 2844 and whether he thought groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union would challenge it on the basis of a denial of free speech. He felt that there would be legal challenges to this bill because he considers himself a libertarian when it comes to freedom of speech.
He went on to state that “there’s no doubt that there are many brothers and sisters in the BDS movement who are being targeted and demonized because they have a critique of not just Israeli occupation, they have a critique of the Israeli state that is perceived by very powerful elite at the top as being anti-Semitic …” “It is very difficult to have that conversation in the United States and so those of us who are part of the BDS we get demonized, we get viewed as if we are anti-Jewish, anti-Semitic and we just have to make it clear that we have to rob that kind of shallow characterization of the substance, we have to be very explicit about that fact that we take principled stance against anti-Jewish hatred and anti-Jewish prejudice and anti-Jewish sensibilities and still have fundamental commitment to the self-determination of Palestinians…”
I was very heartened by West’s formulation of the Middle East conflict and his wholehearted opposition to bigotry of any type. It was evident that he has pondered the issue long and hard or in his words for “30 to 40 years.” I found that his comments about President Obama’s neoliberal identity that leads him to support the State of Israeli to be on-target. He bravely criticized President Obama for his support and allowing himself to be captive to the right-wing elements in Israel. This included the passage of the $38 billion bill to the State of Israel. West concludes that the Middle East conflict is a very complex issue that demands “that we have enough people who are willing to tell the truth the best way they know it.”
Neturei Karta member in Jerusalem holding a Palestinian flag with the text, “Boycott Israel”.
Israel loves the spotlight of the cameras but this time the spotlight is for Boycott Divestment and Sanction, which recently has been taking center stage in every major news outlet, alternative media and blogging systems. Everyone is writing about BDS and its power over Israel. This time Israel can not control the camera and the narrative, this time consumer power and aware people are making the waves.
“The Israeli government is dependent on a strong export-orientated economy. Europe is Israel’s largest trading partner. Almost 200 organizations representative of a broad spectrum of Palestinian civil society – trade unions, professional bodies such as all the academic unions and associations, medical unions, and most of the major NGOs – have called on the international community to endorse the call for a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, similar to that which helped to end the apartheid regime in South Africa.” Ireland BDS campaign
Peace activists are directing the tune of the BDS campaign. There is no big money behind the efforts of boycotting Israel products, artists, academia and or financial Israel supporters but a broad movement of activists using social media like twitter, facebook and youtube between others to spread activities of boycott: products produced in any of the 125 illegal settlements like SodaStream
“Israeli Extremism Will Encourage Global Boycott-Israel has elected the most fanatic government in its history. But many Palestinian human rights activists and politicians expect this government, an unpalatable cocktail of right, far-right and fundamentalist Jewish parties, to be the mother of all silver-lined clouds.” NYTimes.com, May 11, 2015
Never in the past newspapers dared to publish news that would tarnish Israel public relations but now days Israel arrogance had made impossible for newspapers and even governments to keep quiet in front of the facts.
“Israel’s Rightward Shift Helps Make It Its Own Worst Enemy,” said Anne-Marie Slaughter, a former director of policy planning for the State Department, It is a difficult and immensely frustrating time to be a friend of Israel, Salughter said for an opinion piece for the NYTimes.com
The boys killed in the beach in front of the international media are images difficult to make up.
The bodies of the four children Mohammed Baker, 9-year-old; Ahed Baker, 10-year-old; Zakaria Baker, 10year-old; and Mohammed Baker, 11-year-old, are seen here being mourn by his male relatives.
Images such this had changed people’s perception of Israel. Last massacre in Gaza put Israel face in the news under its true colors. No public relation campaign could change the images of children killed and entire families wiped out of the map.
Israel Missiles destroys buildings in Gaza city, July 2014, Gaza, Palestine
How can Israel justify bombing entire neighborhood killing entire families and expect the world to support its actions
Finally people said; enough!
When tax time rolls around each year, every American citizen gives $21.59 in military aid to Israel, according to the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation. But that’s not the only way American citizens contribute to the Israeli military, which has occupied Palestinian land for 46 years, and the West Bank settlement project that accompanies the occupation.
Consumers may not know it, but buying products like Sabra hummus and Sodastream helps fuel Israel’s military control over Palestinians. Some companies have factories located in one of the 125 officially recognized settlements in occupied Palestine, which are illegal under international law. Other companies contribute to the maintenance of an occupation through cooperation with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), whose main goal is to protect illegal settlements and exercise dominion over the lives of millions of Palestinians. Buying these products gives profits to companies who exploit Palestinian land and resources. Alternet.org
Israel is suffering the fruits of its intransigence, arrogance and criminal activities in Occupied Palestine. Its friends are abandoning the boat before it sinks.
There should be no surprise, history repeat itself, but, lets be clear on Israel intentions; it will try its gimmicks until the end. There wont be two-state solution, because Israel will be dismantled the same way Apartheid South Africa did. The criminals will start running for cover like the Nazi did after Germany felt to the allies. They will change their names, their religion and will try to disappear into friendly countries and is doubtful that there will be another Operation Paperclip for Israelis scientists, because as its stand now thousands of Israelis enjoy double nationality. You can have a glimpse of the operation paperclip in the CIA webpage.
Last year the mood was already changing in Czech Republic; the winds of change were started being blown in the press, “At present the Czech Republic’s approach to the Middle East is slowly changing. The nascent Cabinet of the Social Democrats (ČSSD) and the centrist ANO and Christian Democrats (KDU-ČSL) no longer intends to give preferences to the Prague-Tel Aviv axis, Šídlová said in her Analysis: Czech gov’t to shift from Israel
Czech Republic minister in its recent visit to occupied Palestine left some very clear to Israel government, “As a close friend of yours, it is important for the Czech Republic to say that if the situation does not change it will be hard to maintain our position,” Zaorálek, who was visiting Israel, warned. “We want to avoid initiatives against Israel, but it is getting more difficult with the current government and with the opposition to the two-state solution,” he said. “What is the alternative, to deteriorate towards apartheid?
Israel long time allies are finding more difficult every day to support Israel in the international arena. United States the closest Israel supporter had put the cards on the table.
Haaretz published last week Obama’s interview where the president said that “Stalled peace process makes it harder for U.S. to defend Israel at UN” and showed slights indications that the U.S. won’t veto French resolution on ending Israeli-Palestinian conflict at the United Nations Security Council.
“Indulging Israel hasn’t worked – maybe the boycott will
How long will Netanyahu act like Putin, Erdogan and Berlusconi, but ask to be rewarded like Nelson Mandela?” Haaretz.com
“Suddenly, again, Israel is seeing new threats everywhere. The latest come not from rockets, the Israelis say, but from students armed with petitions and Palestinians seeking sanctions against the Israeli soccer team.” WashingtonPost.com
“Israel is unable to make peace. It has to go forward in domination, expansion, apartheid, and its legitimacy will be more and more contested. And I believe the zioniste state will come to en end.” Jacob Cohen, Jewish Moroccan author said in a facebook interview.
The stories are building Israel’s case in front of the world. Israel’s shows of racism, oppression, repression, murder, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, genocide, extreme violence, apartheid, segregation and the wall are sinking Israel’s long propaganda of the only democracy in the middle east.
A report from the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem [link]: “IDF soldiers expel Palestinians from pool in Palestinian village to Enable Settlers to Bathe”
Also mobile Apps are helping in the BDS campaing. Buycoott the mobile is designed to find products in the list of boycotted products. Long Live Palestine boycott Israel campaign has the first place in the buycott app with 417,410 members. Buycott is a tool that lets you organize your consumer spending to help causes that you care for, and to oppose those that you don’t.
Ultimately Israel is its worse enemy and will fall by its own hands.
“When those in power refuse to act to stop this injustice(All of Palestinian occupation) we need a Global Citizens Response to stand along side Palestinians in their struggle for freedom, justice and equality” #BDS but this is just the beginning of restoring complete Palestinian’s rights to their land.
Hamed Zamani’s live performance in Isfahan to mark the International Quds Day (July 25, 2014)
Hamed Zamani attended as a guest in the penning ceremony of “Children of Gaza Are Children of Iran Show” for supporting the oppressed children of Gaza, which was held on August 4, 2014.
There is no news that Iran is a country that supports Palestinian without having to hide their support. We could not expect less of their celebrities that can openly speak out their mind regarding Palestine.
Celebrities in other parts of the world are not bound to the yoke of Hollywood, which it is a town run by Jews, correctly asserted by Mel Gibson and Gary Oldman, which remarks had got them into the hot sit in the American media, controlled by Jews, mostly.
There is no crime to say it, but the crime is when celebrities are single out for speaking against Israel’s crimes committed against the innocent population of Gaza. Celebrities in US live their artistic live with a invisible single cord around their necks, for some inexplicable reason you see photos of celebrities praying in the Kotel wall in the occupied side of Palestine, Jews or not. It is as, if they have to “show their support” for Israel photographing themselves by the whaling wall, also it is almost obligatory for celebrities to take photos with the Israeli Prime Minister in turn. Not Iranian celebrities’ case! It is your talent that buys your fan’s heart not your support for Israel.
“Zamani a 25-year-old Iranian singer who has emerged in Iran’s music arena in the past two years. Zamani -who belongs to the new generation of Iranian pop singers-has been able to attract a wide audience especially among the youth.” PRESS TV, published an article on its online version last February.
Most of Zamani’s songs are based on national and religious themes, defending the values of Iran’s Islamic Revolution., said PRESS TV
Last August 4, where the first Iran TV “Children of Gaza Are Children of Iran” show was broadcasted, Zamani was a guess to the show, here is what one his fans has to say:
This was so touching!! I hope inshallah the people of Gaza, especially the children, are able to see this and know we love them and that they to us “the children of iran”! Also, when I say that Br. Zamani is as rare as gem, This is proof. Him and I are the same age, and yet he speaks and thinks so much wiser mashallah! The hadith from the Holy Prophet (swaw) is so powerful and needs to be read and acted. I agree with him that we can help in our ways! as he is doing with his beautiful music and awareness. I am moved by this interview and the singing live was wow! I cried, only because the truth hurts me so much. Inshallah one day soon there will be peace for the innocent. As Always, Thank you to Br. Zamani for doing what he does best, and to his english based website. Mashallah to you all! May Allah always be with you. Amaneh
The TV show “Children of Gaza Are Children of Iran” — produced for supporting the oppressed children of Gaza — broadcasted its first episode on August 4, 2014 simultaneously on different IRIB TV channels. Hamed Zamani appeared as a guest on the first show
“I’m the voice of voiceless”; this is what Hamed Zamani told in describing his role in the music area. In his opinion, part of the people and their beliefs and ideals – which are Hamed Zamani’s beliefs and ideals indeed – have been ignored in most of musical works, while this group of people form a big part of society that were deprived from having an artist who addresses their values and intellectual concerns explicitly and with no preciosity or concealment. Hence, Hamed Zamani has always tried to express the concerns of this type of music audience in the form of art, through making songs with sublime themes about Islam and Infallible Imams (A.S), Islamic revolution, Holy Defense, martyrs and war veterans, struggling with the Global Arrogance and International Zionism, resistance against pressures and sanctions imposed by enemies, martyrs of nuclear technology, and many other similar notions which have been less considered or completely ignored in other artists’ works. (From his official Website)
An Israeli soldier poses with Palestinian detainees in an undated photo taken by an Israeli soldier and made available by the campaign group Breaking the Silence.
I was born in Israel. I served in the Army. Israel is the only home I know. You would think my speaking to students at Hillel would be welcomed. Yet my presentation to students at Washington University’s Hillel in St. Louis last month sparked a storm of controversy.
I had been invited by J Street U and was graciously hosted by Hillel at their beautiful new building. As a member of Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli combat veterans that collects and publishes the testimonies of soldiers who served in the occupied territories, I was on campus to discuss the practices and principles of Israel’s military rule.
In the days leading to my visit, many in the Jewish community called for the event’s cancellation, claiming our sole goal was to “bash Israel.” Jacqueline Ulin Levey, executive director of St. Louis Hillel at Washington University, backed the event. She did, however, impose certain restrictions, asking that I not show any photographs or mention any testimonies besides my own. Hillel also flew in an Israel Fellow from Yale University to “balance” my talk by debriefing the students before and after.
Despite the constraints, the talk went well, with a long question and answer session. After the event, Lawrence Wittels, the chair of the school’s Hillel board, congratulated me.
But in the days following, the assault on Hillel and J Street U escalated. Eric Fingerhut, President and CEO of Hillel International, subsequently wrote to members of the Hillel community defending the organization’s decision. “While we join with the majority of the community in deeply resenting the actions of the former IDF soldiers in Breaking the Silence, who come to college campuses in America to disparage the IDF,” Fingerhut wrote, “it is, regrettably, part of the broad tent of dialogue regarding Israel.” By housing the event within Hillel, he argued, the staff could control and mitigate an unfortunate debate.
I applaud Hillel’s work facilitating a broad dialogue within the American Jewish community. But Fingerhut and those whom his letter addressed, seem to be more concerned with their own feelings toward Israel — their “tent” — than with Israel. Mention of the actions of the IDF, the values to which Israel is committed, and concern for the well being of Israel’s residents, whether Israeli or Palestinian, are noticeably absent from Fingerhut’s letter.
I don’t doubt Fingerhut’s genuine concern for Israel. I am sure those who called for the event’s cancellation are also sincerely dedicated to my country. But their concern does not protect Zionism. Rather, it threatens it. If Zionism is the dream of Jews to overcome a state of mere survival and forge our own destiny, then claiming that the occupation is necessary, that Israel “has no other choice,” is the betrayal of Zionism. Israel’s rule of force over a civilian population threatens our democratic integrity, moral character, and international standing – in short, it threatens that future.
Israel is a strong and thriving country. We can take responsibility for our actions, hold our institutions and military accountable, acknowledge our mistakes, and correct them. We can forge our own future, but only by ending the occupation.
Naturally, our claims are met with doubt. But we encourage critical debate based on evidence. We have testimony from over 950 soldiers about their service, many of them on film. Incidents we exposed have been confirmed by the Israeli media and we have been invited to speak at the United States Air Force Academy. Carmi Gillon, former head of the Shin Bet, has praised our work.
The testimonies portray a system of control and expropriation of land that is founded on the use of military force. Arbitrary violence is of the essence of military rule, which cannot rely on democratic legitimacy.
Instead of an actual dialogue about our reality and future, they are content to have a conversation about the conversation about Israel. Rather than respond to what they hear, they argue over whether they should plug their ears. This may serve some staff and some donors of Hillel International, but it doesn’t serve Israel. It takes some chutzpah to claim that by silencing our voices you are protecting our own country from us.
Oded Na’aman served in the IDF between November 2000 and October 2003. Since 2005 he has been a member of Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli veterans that collects soldiers’ testimonies from the West Bank. Oded is currently pursuing his PhD in Philosophy at Harvard University.
One step at the time.
Lessons in economy of global systems. This is of course my very personal lesson in economics of the poor. “For a Capitalist System to exist, the slaves masses have to produce the goods and buy them back.
The basic neccesities for humans are food, sleep, sex, entertainment and shelter. When the system keeps those neccesities to a bare minimum, the masses do not live, they merely survive. Now, when the masses stop buying the goods they produce, the system collapse. If the reasons are to boycott the system, the system will respond by making some changes, but if the reasons are political in nature where ideas and ideals clash with the system, the masses as united force can bring the system down. It calls revolution.
Now, I’m not talking of an armed revolution but of a revolution from within the system where the masses start thinking in their behalf and get it of the box.
That is what we are doing now boycotting Israel, the capitalist system that supports Israel can not itself survive if the masses stop buying the goods, first in the settlements, then Israel and finally the corporations that support Israel. We could start big, and start from the corporations but now it is impossible to do that, we need our jobs, so we think. We are programed to our life style of comfort. It is easy to look the world with a magnifying glass and think we are outside, wrong we all part of the mess
But…. One step at the time.
BDS and Academic boycott of Israel institutions, why because Israel is shaping our world Read more…
by Marivel Guzman
On August 10, International Solidarity Movement called the international community of Palestinians supporters to come to Palestine to help the residents to harvest the 2013 Olive Harvest. Every year the settlers makes the harvest almost impossible, the presence of ISM members with their cameras y their bodies as human shields help Palestinians to get to their groves without being molested by the settlers.
Every year hundreds of Olive trees are burn or uprooted by settlers, the IDFs presence is obsolete, they do not defend the rights of the Palestinians, for the contrary their presence strengthen the settlers bully attitude.
Harvesting the olives in Gaza, 2013
“We often post distressing news of settlers uprooting, burning or wrecking the olive trees of Palestinians. There is such a report from Sarta, in the north-west West Bank at the foot of this post. But first, we post some lovely photos from Palinfo.com of Palestinians – men and women, young and old – picking and sorting their olives in settler-free Gaza.” Jews for Justice for Palestine
Settlers burned around 35 olive trees in the Palestinian village of Sarta late on Thursday night, following the area being declared a closed military zone in preparation for the construction of a new settler road.
Around 60 settlers from the illegal Bruchin settlement and surrounding area, many armed with guns, set fire to the trees late on Thursday 26th September. At around midnight, the settlers arrived in Sarta. The town mayor asked the Palestinian Authority to liaise with the Israeli army in order to intervene, but when Israeli forces arrived on the scene they informed villagers that the area had been declared closed and told them to leave.
Two days earlier, town residents witnessed four bulldozers arrive in the village to prepare the ground for the construction of the road, which will connect the settlement with road five and is part of an expansion plan for the settlement which will take it from 40 houses to around 550.
The proposed road and settlement expansion is a source of concern to local Palestinians, who stand to lose much of their land under new plans, including local features such as a 500-year-old cemetery.
Europe Union is taking seriously PRISM spying program, they know well that this could very well be use to spy on EU officials.
Now nobody is sure of the extent of this intrusion, and more important, they should be concerned with the Anonymous collective and the other hackivists that could get their keyboards in these mass of information.
Could be Government secrets, private emails, satellite images, memos just name it, all the governments are in shock, not because they did not know, but because they were exposed as well. This is not US only surveillance program, this is a global enterprise spying program. They might call it with different code names, but they all have their own spying on their citizens programs. They could all be coordinating with US and Israel, knowing to be The spying entity number One in the world.
Thomas Drake is one of the few people who understands from personal experience what the future may hold for Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old former NSA contractor who exposed the U.S. government’s top secret phone and Internet surveillance.
In an video interview with Tomas Drake ex-NSA official, Andrea Elsal-Esa defense correspondent for Reutter, she asked the hard questions to Mr. Drake.
Drake, a 56-year-old former intelligence official at the National Security Agency, was prosecuted under the Espionage Act in 2010 for allegedly revealing classified information about the agency’s sweeping warrantless wire-tapping program. The government later dropped all but a misdemeanor charge.
He said that Snowden is a whistle-blower and not a traitor. There is no room in a democracy for these types of secrets, he said.
Saying that the government data can be used for purposes that have nothing to do with terrorism. It’s being used to silenced persons like dissidents, activists,and those who become enemies of the state, he said.
AVAAZ.org, EFF, and other online petitions sites had started a massive campaign of support for Edward Snowden, and at the same time to demand to the US government to stop its NSA’s PRISM spying program. Organizations, social groups, and head of states are demanding answers to the Obama administration.
Snowden leak had awaken the people and now are demanding answers, asking the government to terminate this intrusive program.
There has not been so much outrage from the people against the US government since 2004 when CBS News and the New Yorker published photos and stories that introduced the world to devastating scenes of torture and suffering inside the decrepit prison in Iraq.
Not since the Abu Grabi scandal people had not shown its outrage and depiction of the US practices and policies.
AVAAZ.org had collected close to a million signatures in its online petition website, that since 2007 had collected more signatures than any other online petition site, surpassing Electronic Frontier Foundation.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
UN Declaration on Human Rights
German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberg has also requested Holder for information about the legal foundation of the Prism program.
Chancellor Angela Merkel plans to raise Germany’s concerns about U.S government surveillance with President Barack Obama when he visits Berlin next week. Her government also sent a list of questions to the U.S. government as well as Internet companies following reports of wide-scale American spying, German government spokesman Steffen Seibert said yesterday.
Unwarranted government surveillance is an intrusion on basic human rights that threatens the very foundations of a democratic society. Tim Berners Lee Wired
Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. Benjamin Franklin
The National Security Agency’s capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide. Senator Frank Church, 1975
Now all the congressmen, the president, his cabinet, lobbyist and others know that the snooping is global, and this means that everyone is in this mass of information collected. Just anybody with access of this data can chose and pick and create an scenery that can be used to charge somebody with what ever they want to, to remove somebody from their job, even to remove a President. Every body that is everybody has something hidden in their closet, and the others the less important are used to create diversion, or simply to send messages of fear to others.
Comes to mind former former CIA Director David Petraeus (peh-TRAY’-uhs) over an extramarital affair, and defending the agency’s performance over the attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.
How do we know that they did not build the case of Petraeus out of thin air to take him out of the CIA, after all Benghazi fiasco still floating with answering questions. Obviously he was being spied on also.
Carefully watch the videos I m posting here, assimilate every word you hear, tied the lose ends and see how outrageous this program is, and it needs to go. The citizens of the world, we all need to work diligently in every one of our countries to make sure this programs and others disguise spying programs go, they are unnecessary surveillance programs that need to be scraped from the government agenda. This PRISM spying program makes all vulnerable in little or big scale.
Nothing New is going on, Whistleblowers come and go, some get indicted some don’t. Some are rotten in Jail, some are walking free making conferences in Universities and other public forums, others are hiding and making public conferences and others just underground.
I had been thinking lately really thinking about whistleblowers. We know that every government, not just the US, but every government that exist in the world had thugs, mercenaries, private eyes, private contractors, private guards,secret service, Able to do ANYTHING..
I mean a real army of snoopers and mercenaries working to protect the interest of the corporations that use the government officials to draw laws and policies that allows them to keep pillaging the nations. ABLE TO DO ANYTHING they want. Harassed, scare, employ, terminate, indict, incarcerated, set you free, impeach , coup,sit presidents, crown kings. I mean E V E R Y T H I N G
Saying that, I wonder if, ….just if…..the same government OR the people behind the curtain “unleash” once and while these whistleblowers to “expose” the secret of the governments, juts to show the governments WHO IS THE BOSS and the “smart’ ones are walking free and the real heroes are rotten in jail.???????? Whats going on? Are the governments OR THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE CURTAIN ARE testing the will of the people?, or they spreading false information to divert the attentio, or to confuse the already confused people. I do not know if write in first or third person because I m confused as well. Just like the rest…It is hard being journalist where you are obliged to write what other said, never talk in first person because the article lose “credibility”, I was told by my journalist teacher that being a blogger was not being journalist, because our “sources” are not credible.
So, what you think.
Be the opinion makers, where the truth is the news and you are the Opinion Makers.
The Israeli documentary putting military rule in Palestine on trial
The Law In These Parts documentary builds a strong case against the judges responsible for Israel’s draconian occupation laws
What is legal and what is just? Through candid, first-ever, interviews with Israeli judges, prosecutors and legal advisors, The Law In These Parts – winner of the Documentary Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival – is a gripping and revelatory investigation into the legal framework put in place by Israel to govern the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
‘Why are Palestinans attempting to enter Israel labelled “infiltrators”?’
The Law In These Parts, an Israeli documentary awarded this year’s Sundance World Cinema Grand Jury prize, examines how the country created a military-legal system to control the Palestinians in the lands Israel occupied in 1967. And at some point during the film, it becomes clear that it’s the judges who are on trial. The documentary, which just screened as part of the UK Jewish Film Festival, features forceful archive footage, alongside a line-up of Israeli legal experts, explaining how they made Israel’s occupation laws.
Since Israel conquered the territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in the 1967 war, the military has imposed thousands of orders and laws, established military courts, sentenced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, enabled half a million Israeli “settlers” to move to the Occupied Territories and developed a system of long-term jurisdiction by an occupying army that is unique in the entire world.
Each judge sits in a black leather chair at a heavy wooden desk intended, you might first assume, to evoke a serious courtroom. But then, each is quietly interrogated by the film’s narrator; asked to explain the military rule that they created. Why did Israel even need hundreds of new laws for occupied Palestinians? What was wrong with the existing legal system? Because Israeli law, one judge says, can only be applied if you give citizenship to the Palestinian population. Why aren’t Palestinian fighters described as “prisoners of war”? Why are Palestinians attempting to enter Israel labelled as “infiltrators”? One judge is asked to recount a case from the mid-1970s, where a Palestinian woman giving bread and sardines to a Palestinian “infiltrator” from neighboring Jordan was sentenced to a year and a half in prison – as deterrent. “How did you find out about the pitta bread?” asks the narrator. Don’t worry about that, the military judge replies, the walls have ears.
The evidence against these Israeli judges slowly mounts as they try to justify an unjustifiable tangle of what they thought would be temporary laws, devised to control and subdue Palestinians in the occupied territories. One judge recounts how he told former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon of an obscure law from the Ottoman era, which Sharon swiftly deployed to seize Palestinian land. The film’s narrator asks the judge if he thinks, with hindsight, that this was a good idea. “History will decide,” the judge replies, but the narrator leaves no room for evasion: “But when will that be?” he asks, of a system that has been in place for 45 years.
This film successfully depicts the dense, crushing absurdities of Israel’s military rule in a way that words don’t always manage. While reporting from the region, I spent hours talking with lawyers, who would deconstruct the maze of rules that mean Palestinians always end up penalized. I have notebooks full of explanations of these small, complicated, crucial details. But how do you distil this system into one line of a short news piece? How do you condense the overlapping Ottoman rulings, laws from the British mandate era and brand new Israeli edicts that all fuse into a controlling mesh of military rule over Palestinians, while keeping Jewish settlers free – because as Israeli citizens, they are governed (or, mostly, not governed) by regular Israeli law? And how do you explain why 99.74% of military trials end up convicting Palestinians?
The Law In These Parts ends with a focus on Bassem Tamimi, one of the organizers of weekly demonstrations in Nabi Saleh, a West Bank village whose land and main water source, a spring, has been appropriated by a nearby settlement. He was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment after protesting last month at an Israeli supermarket in the West Bank, which stocks settlement, but not Palestinian, produce. Amnesty has described him as a prisoner of conscience and demanded his release, castigating the Israeli military’s “campaign of harassment, intimidation and arbitrary detention” against this 45-year-old father of four.
As one of the organizers of the al-Nabi Salneh protests and a coordinator of the village’s popular committee, Bassem Tamimi and his family have been the target of harsh treatment by the Israeli army. Since the demonstrations began, his house has been raided and ransacked numerous times. His wife has been arrested twice and two of his children have been injured — Wa’ed was in hospital for five days after he was hit in the leg by a rubber bullet and Mohammed was injured by a tear-gas canister that was shot directly at him and hit him in the shoulder. Bassem Tamimi has been arrested by the Israeli army 11 times to date, though he has only once been convicted by a military court – on charges that Amnesty International believes were unfounded. Amnesty International
During a trial last year, Tamimi, a schoolteacher, told the military court: “Your honor, I was born in the same year as the occupation, and ever since I’ve been living under its inherent inhumanity, inequality, racism and lack of freedom. I have been imprisoned nine times for a sum of almost three years, though I was never convicted of any crime. During one of my detentions I was paralyzed as a result of torture. My wife was detained, my children wounded, my land stolen by settlers and now my house is slated for demolition … You, who claim to be the only democracy in the Middle East, are trying me under laws written by authorities I have not elected, and which do not represent me”. Shortly after this hearing, Tamimi was convicted of inciting protesters to throw stones at soldiers (he was cleared of more serious charges, including “perverting the course of justice”, in May, after 11 months in military prison, because a judge decided that key evidence, obtained from a coerced 14-year-old Palestinian boy, was unreliable).
“What actually incited them,” Tamimi told the courtroom, “was the occupation’s bulldozers on our land, the guns, the smell of tear gas.” And then he asked: “If the military judge releases me, will I be convinced that there is justice in your courts?”
When Iran brought down the US drones, their specialist insisted that Iran had hijacked the GPS system of the drones making with this outmaneuvers easy to drive down the drone without damage the computer system. Now we started to understand how easy is to divert planes, to drive planes onto buildings, or simply to highjack their computer systems.
Some conspiracy theories circulated on the internet circles about the remote control of the planes that crashed the Twin towers in New York in 2011, now does not look that hard, does it?
If a teenager can hijack a Multi Billion dollars system, imagine what an specialist trained on software field for years can do?
Years earlier the Israeli Michael Goff working for PTech, an Arab owned software company that develops key enterprise software for many government institutions like NORAD and FAA, using his secure channel with another israeli Amit Yoran, somehow manages to give Israeli army computer programmers access to this critical computer code. It was due to this manipulation that the hijackings on 9/11 remained unnoticed by the flight controller of NORAD. Once this was in place the planes could be taken over by remote control and flown into the World Trade Center. How 911 was done
An ongoing multibillion-dollar overhaul of the nation’s air traffic control (ATC) system is designed to make commercial aviation more efficient, more environmentally friendly and safer by 2025.
But some white-hat hackers are questioning the safety part. The Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) will rely on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) instead of radar. And so far, several hackers have said they were able to demonstrate the capability to hijack aircraft by spoofing their GPS components.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has declared that it already has multiple measures to detect fake signals. But it has so far not allowed any independent testing of the system.
On June 19, when University of Texas researchers successfully hijacked a drone by “spoofing” it — giving it bad GPS coordinates – they showed the Department of Homeland Security how civilian drones could fall into the wrong hands, exposing a potentially serious security flaw. It was exactly what Todd Humphreys, the lead researcher, anticipated in a TEDx talk in February: “You can scarcely imagine the kind of havoc you could cause if you knew what you were doing with a GPS spoofer.” July 20, 2012
The hacking exploits are not new. National Public Radio’s “All Tech Considered” reported last August that Brad Haines, a Canadian computer consultant known online as “RenderMan,” noted that the radio signals aircraft will send out to mark their identity and location under NextGen, called automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B), were both unencrypted and unauthenticated.
By spoofing those signals, Haines said he could create fake “ghost planes.”
“If I can inject 50 extra flights onto an air traffic controller’s screen, they are not going to know what is going on,” he told NPR. “If you could introduce enough chaos into the system – for even an hour – that hour will ripple though the entire world’s air traffic control.”
Haines presented his findings at the Defcon hacking conference in Las Vegas last summer
The system used to hijack the drone cost about $1,000. The NextGen program is expected to cost taxpayers $27 billion, plus another $10 billion spent by the commercial aviation industry.
In a third case, NPR reported that Andrei Costin, a Romanian graduate student in France, was able to build a software-defined radio hooked to a computer that created fake ADS-B signals in a lab. It cost him about $2,000. Costin made a presentation at last summer’s Black Hat conference.
Paul Rosenzweig, founder of Red Branch Law & Consulting and a former deputy assistant secretary for policy at DHS, wrote in a post last week on Lawfare that this amounts to the FAA continuing to dig itself into a deeper hole. One problem, he wrote, is that the eventual goal is to eliminate radar, which is inefficient because it requires planes to fly on designated radar routes.
“But the hardware for radar broadcasting and reception can’t (that I know of) be spoofed,” he wrote. “Today, when planes fly using GPS they ‘double check’ their location with radar. [But] the entire plan behind NextGen is to eventually get rid of the radar system — an expensive 20th century relic, I guess. But then we are completely dependent on GPS for control.”
The FAA told NPR that besides confirming ADS-B signals with radar, the NextGen system will automatically check to make sure the correct receivers are picking up the correct signals. If a “ghost plane” is sending a signal to the wrong receiver, it would be spotted as fake. Third, it will use a technique called “multilateration” to determine exactly where every ADS-B signal is sent from.
Nick Foster, a partner of Brad Haines, praised the use of multilateration. “But I still wonder if it would be possible to fool the system on the edges,” he told NPR. “I think the FAA should open it up and let us test it.”
The risks of GPS hacks extend beyond aviation. Logan Scott, a GPS industry consultant, told Wired magazine last year [http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/07/drone-hijacking/2/] that GPS is also used to control the power grid, to power banking operations including ATMs and to keep oil platforms in position. The world’s cellular networks also rely on it.
And given that it is free, unauthenticated and unencrypted makes it vulnerable. “The core problem is that we’ve got a GPS infrastructure which is based on a security architecture out of the 1970s,” Scott said.
Not everybody sees the GPS vulnerability as a major safety problem, however. Martin Fisher is now director of information security at Wellstar Health System, but worked previously in commercial aviation for 14 years. He said radar will still be around, even when the transition to NextGen is complete.
“Don’t for a moment believe there won’t be radar anymore,” he said. “Commercial aircraft will still have anti-collision radar and proximity alarms.”
Beyond that, he said, “do not make the assumption that the pilots flying your aircraft simply follow the instructions of ATC like automatons. These are very highly trained men and women with years of experience flying day, night, good weather, bad weather.”
Paul Rosenzweig said he would still be much more comfortable if the FAA would allow the system to be “stress tested.”
Whatever bugs are in the system, there may be more than 12 years available to fix them. The Washington Postreported in September that Calvin L. Scovel III, inspector general for the Department of Transportation, told a House subcommittee that the program was “four years behind schedule and $330 million over budget.”
The Trojan Horse than landed in Iran – Drones are Spies on the air, steel birds that fly at low altitude and can pick up signals of conversations from cell phones, cordless phones, digital radios, digital TV’s sets and they have the capabilities to take images using infrared technology, and snap pictures as small a few pixels, this amazing and surprising disturbing technology that have taken away the peace of mind, sleep and every bit of privacy to the citizens of the world. These steel birds have the spies agencies and best reverse engineers (theives) of the world fighting each other for the software and hardware blue prints.
Cyber criminals could increasingly look to attack, hijack smartphones in 2013 (Yahoo Security) – Some cyber criminals who disseminate viruses and malware in attempts to hijack computers are beginning to shift their focus. Your smartphone may be their next target. PC users have learned to be constantly vigilant to the threat of viruses, which attack relentlessly, slow down computers and potentially put valuable personal information at risk. Windows computers will continue to be targeted going forward but cyber thieves are casting a wider net in the hunt for digital prey.
Using a laptop, a small antenna and an electronic GPS “spoofer” built for $3,000, GPS expert Todd Humphreys and his team at the University of Texas took control of the sophisticated navigation system aboard an $80 million, 210-foot super-yacht in the Mediterranean Sea.
Source Daily Kos
by James Risser
If you give it some thoughts to the UN Vote for Palestine only 5 countries VOTE NO, US, Israel, Australia, Panama and Czech Republic, the other 4 countries couldn’t even be considered independent countries. Even thought they are declared independent Nations, they wholly depend on US.
So Israel should really be concerned about its standing against the world.
The only time I personally ever hear or read about the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau is after a vote at the United Nations.
There has never been a diary written about this grouping of four countries, so why are they considered ‘the usual suspects’? In fact, I have no idea why anyone would even click on this diary, and if there is an award for the least significant diary of the day, this may be it.
But, if you did click here, you may now be curious and are asking: ‘why oh why are they ‘the usual suspects”? Well, these countries form the supporting block of countries that the United States can depend on, along with Israel and Australia, to customarily vote as a block of six.
In fact, the only time I personally ever hear or read about the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and Palau is after a vote at the United Nations.
This brief diary offers an explanation of why this unbreakable pact exists.
For the geographically-challenged, such as myself, who have no idea where these four countries are, here is a map, courtesy of wikipedia.
NAURU-Population 14,000
The first secretary in the Australian Embassy, Jonathan Chew, gently but firmly set me straight. Nauru is an independent nation, he explained to me. He could assure me that Australia does not dictate to independent nations how to vote in the UN. Australia opposed the draft resolution this time, too, as it has before, because it felt that it was not sufficiently balanced and therefore would do nothing to promote peace, and Australia, of course, supports efforts to promote peace. Evidently, this is also the view of the United States, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Palau and Nauru. At least half the people of Israel support the main points of the UN resolution, as does the vast majority of the people on the planet, but it’s nice to know, that we have friends and that we’re not alone.
Nauru is very much dependent on Australian financial support. It is hardly a tourist resort and its main service for Australia is running an offshore detention centre.
Parenthetically, the writer adds:
(While the conditions there are atrocious it is no Guantanamo Bay. The people kept there are asylum seekers who fell foul of the Howard government’s “pacific solution” policy.)
I had never heard of this ‘pacific solution‘ before today; maybe everyone else knew about it. Sounds rather sick though:
The Pacific Solution was the name given to the Australian government policy of diverting asylum seekers to detention camps on small island nations in the Pacific Ocean, rather than allowing them to land on the Australian mainland.
Regardless, it does have a vote at the United Nations. I leave it to the reader to ponder on how many votes it has cast inconsistent with Australia.
REPUBLIC OF THE MARSHALL ISLANDS-Population 54,816
Between 1946 and 1958 the United States tested 67 nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, including the largest nuclear test the United States ever conducted, Castle Bravo.
The results of these ‘nuclear tests’ are still to be found in its residents. Here is young child:
The United States also maintains the U.S. Army’s Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll. It is an important aspect of the Marshallese economy, as the Marshallese land owners receive rent for the base, and a large number of Marshallese work at the base.
The combination of the litigation over the nuclear remains of America’s experiments, and the fact that the
United States Government assistance is the mainstay of the economy.
may be the reason why we can count on their vote, no?
Palau has a constitutional government in free association with the United States. The Compact of Free Association was entered into with the United States on October 1, 1994, also marking Palau’s independence.
Following the defeat of Japan in WWII, the Carolines, Marianas and Marshall Islands became United Nation’s Trust Territories under US administration. Palau was named one of six island districts. As part of this arrangement, the US was to improve Palau’s infrastructure and educational system in order for it to become a self-sufficient nation. This finally came about on October 1, 1994, when Palau gained its independence upon signing of the Compact of Free Association with the United States.
The Compact of Free Association with the United States provides Palau with $500 million in US aid over 15 years in return for furnishing military facilities
Those freely associated states are where we tested some dozens of atomic bombs even as the locals went about their daily routines. As a Nation we did great harm to the indigenous peoples of these islands and we owe them some restitution. In 1986 we entered into a Compact of Free Association (Compact) with the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI). Each year between 1986 and 2003 the US sent $1.5 billion to FSM and $1 billion to RMI. It may be these large sums of money that helped to attract Abramoff and the GOP to the Pacific. It certainly helped to attract the Tan Family to the islands.
Now, in November 2003, Congress passed and Bush signed the Compact of Free Association Amendments Act of 2003. This increased the funding to $2.1 billion for FSM and $1.5 billion for RMI for every year until 2023.
Under the terms of the Compact of Free Association with the United States, Palau will receive more than $450 million in assistance over 15 years and is eligible to participate in more than 40 federal programs. The first grant of $142 million was made in 1994. Further annual payments in lesser amounts will be made through 2009. Total U.S. grant income in 2005 was $25.9 million.
Having once boasted the second highest per capita GDP in the world thanks to its fabled phosphate mines, Nauru is today destitute. With the seeming depletion of readily accessible phosphate reserves in 2000, mining on a large-scale commercial basis ended [snip]
Although Nauru had a nominal per capita GDP in excess of $2,700, its economy is in deep crisis, and the resumption of mining promises only a limited respite as the country seeks to find a sustainable economic future. [snip]
Trade between the United States and Nauru is limited by the latter’s small size and economic problems. The value of two-way trade in 2005 was $1.6 million
MICRONESIA-Population 111,542
They too, are part of the Compact of Free Association, and receive millions of dollars of support for furnishing the United States military facilities.
Hmmm, that may explain it.
It is rather sad that the only way America can get people in the world to vote in accordance with its extremist ideology is to simply buy them from states whose people, if they want to eat and live, have to sell their vote to the United States.
So there you have it; ‘the usual suspects’ explained. Four countries, spread over hundreds of the world’s tiniest islands, most uninhabited, each of the four with a vote in the United Nations. Each beholding to either the United States or Australia for their very existence. It is downright shameful that this country stoops so low…
But, 150-something to 6 or 7 sounds a lot better than 150-something to 2 or 3, doesn’t it?
“Behind the plotters are drug cartels that have penetrated the US government, former lobbyists who were moved into government during the Bush administration and now are suspected of being involved in a coup attempt.”
IPAC designed to made policy in the US. Israel first, Jews next then US
Seventy hours ago, at this writing, while on Air Force One, President Barack Obama issued a press release that has been utterly ignored by the Western Press.
The president has openly announced a move against violent plotters inside the US government and espionage agents. He does not use the terms “AIPAC” or “the Israel lobby” but it is highly unlikely he could be referring to anything else.
In fact, we can think of no other group.
I was privately briefed on some of the reasons behind this document. On what is known, not “surmised,” I will explain:
There is, currently, within the US military, the Executive branch of government and among extremist “power brokers” in America an active plot to “alter” America’s form of government through “decapitation.”
Let me be clear. Where the memo, printed in full below, refers to “violent”, it means “assassination” of many top leaders in America including but not limited to the President, Vice President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense and others.
The plot makes use of the resources of major private defense contractors and their intelligence and special operations personnel. There has been active recruiting that has been noted and is why the memo was released and why many members of the military have been subjected to investigation.
The Benghazi attack was planned and financed by this group.
Many writers in the alternative media have noted much of what is going on but not all. Some have shown access to very knowledgeable sources.
Behind the plotters are drug cartels that have penetrated the US government, former lobbyists who were moved into government during the Bush (43) administration and now are suspected of being involved in a coup attempt.
There is no direct evidence tying any foreign government to this plot though most are “fanatically” aligned with the militant Likudists in Israel under Netanyahu’s regime.
The President’s text below, unedited:
The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release
November 21, 2012
Presidential Memorandum — National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs
Memorandum for the heads of executive departments and agencies
Subject: National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs
This Presidential Memorandum transmits the National Insider Threat Policy and Minimum Standards for Executive Branch Insider Threat Programs (Minimum Standards) to provide direction and guidance to promote the development of effective insider threat programs within departments and agencies to deter, detect, and mitigate actions by employees who may represent a threat to national security. These threats encompass potential espionage, violent acts against the Government or the Nation, and unauthorized disclosure of classified information, including the vast amounts of classified data available on interconnected United States Government computer networks and systems.
The Minimum Standards provide departments and agencies with the minimum elements necessary to establish effective insider threat programs. These elements include the capability to gather, integrate, and centrally analyze and respond to key threat-related information; monitor employee use of classified networks; provide the workforce with insider threat awareness training; and protect the civil liberties and privacy of all personnel.
The resulting insider threat capabilities will strengthen the protection of classified information across the executive branch and reinforce our defenses against both adversaries and insiders who misuse their access and endanger our national security.
Barack Obama
A very real threat to world stability
To some, at a glance, this might actually sound like a response to leaks within the CIA and White House except for some extraordinary language. Please make very special note of the following:
“…to deter, detect and mitigate actions by employees who may present a threat to national security…These threats include…violent acts against the Government and the Nation…”
Please note that they refer to “violent acts” and speak of both the “government” and “nation.”
By “government,” they are indicting, with no “wiggle room,” assassination plots.
By “nation,” they may well be referring to false flag terrorism that may well include use of weapons of mass destruction. Britain was subject to such a threat during the London Olympics, one that would never have been successfully overcome without the help of journalists who put themselves at great risk.
Espionage
The US government has had a twelve-year moratorium against arrest and prosecution of spies within our government and military other than those who can be tied to China.
The most famous Chinese “spy” was Wen Lee Ho, a nuclear scientist at Los Alamos Labs. He was arrested in 1999, held in solitary confinement for a year and then released.
In order to get an accurate picture I phoned two friends, one a senior FBI counter-intelligence operative and the other a very senior US Army intelligence officer.
The question I put before them, while eating breakfast, was:
“Please list the nations that represent the greatest threat of espionage against the United States and, which nations, in order, are believed to represent the “penetration threat” that President Obama is referring to.”
From the FBI, their appraisal not intended for the “pop culture” media:
“Our greatest direct threat is Israel and the Israel lobby. They have systematically penetrated every aspect of government and the military and, if they cannot get documents from those branches, friends in congress will give them access to anything that branch has available. After that is India, with every research facility at risk from RAW (Indian Intelligence) penetration and then Cuba, Mexico and Turkey.
The primary end users of this intelligence, the “clients,” are Russia and China.”
From the US Army:
“I agree with Israel and the rest but we have not had Turkey on our radar. The obvious end users are, of course, Russia and China based on capability.
The issue I have is how a presidential press release, an extraordinary and almost “draconian” document has gone without an uproar from congress and wide press coverage. Who has the power to suppress reporting on something like this, though, I know that you will say it is Israel, I would want proof.
Though there has been no official notification of this, I am of the impression that we now consider any mention of Israeli spying to be highly classified. Only Russia and China are officially listed, entirely out of concern not to offend lobbyists whose feelings outweigh real issues of national security.”
Then I turn on my television, hour after hour of TV shows about espionage and terrorism. Both American and British TV are the same.
All spies are from Iran and Pakistan; nations that our actual intelligence agencies indicate represent no espionage threat to speak of.
In fact, in my two Saturday morning phone interviews, which can, of course, be confirmed by Homeland Security who has tapped my phones, I have reflected with great accuracy. Thus, we ask you to read what President Obama really did not say “between the lines,” the message is quite clear.
We do not see a roundup of AIPAC spies, not like in the early days of the Bush administration although Attorney General John Ashcroft quashed that investigation.
What we are seeing is a hunt for traitors within the American government and military, some of which is working its way onto the news.
The question of the moment, however, is this:
How can a President of the United States announce that the government is infiltrated with terrorists and spies and no newspaper, television network or other form of media notices?
AIPAC Inside the US Government
AIPAC Inside Britains Israel Lobby
Related Posted:
It’s Time to Challenge the Propaganda Regarding Who is Killed by U. S. Drones: The CIA runs the drone program and it is shrouded in secrecy, which enables people like Brennan to characterize the program in glowing terms, which go mainly unchallenged by the media, and contribute to the public assumption that drones are accurate, safe, and taking out the bad guys.
The Gaza Ceasefire, unlike a similar ceasefire achieved after Operation Cast Lead four years ago, is an event that has a likely significance far beyond ending the violence after eight days of murderous attacks. It is just possible that it will be looked back upon as a turning point in the long struggle between Israel and Palestine. Many have talked about ‘the fog of war,’ but it pales besides the ‘the fog of truce making,’ and in our media-infected air, the outcomes along with conjectures about the future are already being spun in all possible directions. Supporters of every position give their own spin, and then proclaim ‘victory.’ But as with the violent phases of the conflict, it is clarifying to distinguish the more persuasive contentions and interpretations from those that are less persuasive. What follows is one such attempt at such clarification.
It remains too soon to tell whether the ceasefire will hold for very long, and if it does, whether its central provisions will be implemented in good faith. At this early moment, the prospects are not promising. Israel has already used excessive violence to disperse Palestinian civilians who gathered on the Gaza side of the border, with a few straying across into Israel, to celebrate what they thought was their new freedom now to venture close to the border. This so-called ‘no-go-area’ was decreed by Israel after its 2005 ‘disengagement’ has been a killing field where 213, including 17 children and 154 uninvolved, had lost their lives according to Israeli human rights organizations. Israeli security forces, after firing warning shots, killed one Palestinian civilian and wounded another 20 others with live ammunition. The Israeli explanation was that it had given warnings, and since there had been no agreement on new ground rules implementing the ceasefire, the old regime of control was still in place. It is notable that Hamas protested, but at this point has made no moves to cancel the ceasefire or to retaliate violently, but the situation remains tense, fragile, and subject to change.
Putting aside the precariousness of the current situation and the accompanying uncertainties, it remains useful to look at the process by which the ceasefire was brought about, how this sheds light on the changing dynamics of the conflict itself, as well as discloses some underlying shifts in the regional and global balances of forces.
First of all, the role and outlook of the Arab governments was far more pro-active than in past interludes of intensified Israel/Palestine violence. During attacks several leading foreign ministers from the region visited Gaza and were received by the Hamas governing authorities, thus undermining the Israeli policy of isolating Hamas and excluding it from participation in diplomacy affecting the Palestinian people. Egypt played the critical role in brokering the agreement, and despite the Muslim Brotherhood affiliation of its leaders. Mohammed Morsi, the Egyptian President, emerged as the key diplomatic figure in the process and widely praised by the West for his ‘pragmatism.’ This can be understood as recognition of Morsi’s capability as a statesman to address the concerns of both sides without intruding his own pro-Palestinian outlook. Indeed, the auspices of this brokered agreement inverted what Americans have brought to the table in past negotiations, a pretension of balance, a reality of partisanship. Read more…
At least 20 confirmed injured and three critical in an explosion on a bus in central Tel Aviv near Shaul Ha Melech Street. Police have reported that the blast was a terrorist attack.
Police are now reportedly searching for two men involved in the attack, contradicting previous reports of a single suspect. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the bomber run away from the scene, Israeli radio said.
“There was an apparent explosion on a bus in Shaul HaMelech Street in Tel Aviv. The background and circumstances are not clear yet,” police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP.
IDF spokesperson Avital Leibovich says in her twitter that bus explosion happened “under my Tel Aviv office”, possibly due to a bomb or suicide bomber. Ambulance sirens heard. The bus’ which exploded in Tel Aviv belongs to Eged Company and stops in front of the Defence Ministry.
The bomb was not a suicide attack and was triggered remotely, RT’s Tel Aviv bureau reported.
Another explosive that did not detonate was reportedly found on the bombed bus.
This bombing is the first terror attack in Tel Aviv since 2006, Israel’s Channel 10 reported.
We must entertain the idea that Israel could be the perpetrator of this attack. Feeling the heat of the world pressure to stop the massacre in Gaza we must wonder if Israel it is the hand that directed this bus attack to blame the Palestinians, and to divide the attention of the world. Israel knows well how to play the tune of the propaganda. Its favorite note, “Victim-hood”
The White House quickly condemned the bus bombing, calling attacks on innocent civilians “outrageous”:
The United States condemns today’s terrorist attack on a bus in Tel Aviv. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of those injured, and with the people of Israel. These attacks against innocent Israeli civilians are outrageous. The United States will stand with our Israeli allies, and provide whatever assistance is necessary to identify and bring to justice the perpetrators of this attack. The United States reaffirms our unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security and our deep friendship and solidarity with the Israeli people.
Israel News are reporting that Hamas claimed responsibility. There is no official statement from Hamas of such claim. Beside Hamas is looking for cease of fire, it is not possible to such atrocity to happen, when Hamas is seen the carnage that Israel is doing in Gaza. Do not believe the Israeli News or any West Outlet.
Never forget the explosion of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. Jews are able deliver pain in their own people to fulfill an agenda.
“It will be recalled that after Black Sabbath (Saturday), Menahem Begin received a letter from Moshe Sneh (chief of the Haganah General Headquarters) with instructions to blow up the King David. After preparatory work and several postponements, Irgun fighters gathered at 7 am. on Monday, July 22, 1946 at the Bet Aharon Talmud Torah seminary in Jerusalem. They arrived one by one, gave the password and assembled in one of the classrooms. They realized that they were being sent on a mission, but none of them knew what the target was. Shortly afterwards, the senior command arrived and it was only when the briefing began that the assembled fighters discovered that they were going to strike at the King David Hotel. After the weapons had been distributed, the first unit – the group of “porters” – commanded by Yosef Avni, set out. Their assignment was to reach the hotel by bus and to wait at the side entrance so as to assist in unloading the explosives from the van when it arrived. All six “porters” were disguised as Arabs so as to avoid arousing suspicion. The strike force left next in a van loaded with seven milk-churns, each containing 50 kilograms of explosives and special detonators. The commander of the operation, Yisrael Levi (Gidon), rode in the van dressed as a Sudanese waiter, while his deputy, Heinrich Reinhold (Yanai), and the other members of the unit, were dressed as Arabs.”
Bashar al-Assad ‘betrayed Col Gaddafi to save his Syrian regime’, was as a heading all over the news few days ago as a bait to change the mood of the world against Syria. Since the conflict started last January Syria has been victim of barbarism according to people in Syria is mostly paid by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, US its allies but knowing the economic situation of the West economies is safe to say that these wars are being paid with Middle Eastern Oil Money.
Never forget the lessons of 1991 and 2003 when all the Middle Eastern Countries allied themselves with the US collision to attack Iraq.
We must remember the blood shed in Libya by the NATO forces, and the army of mercenaries that get infiltrated in the internal fight. While the Media was showing fake imagines of tortures by Gadaffe forces. Some of the videos were certified to be forgery, they were circulating in youtube as real, until the truth came out and those videos were exposed of events that happened in Iraq.
“The Assad regime in Syria brought about Muammar Gaddafi’s death by providing France with the key intelligence which led to the operation that killed him, sources in Libya have claimed.”
The Center Media plays it’s role as paid by it’s masters, the tactics have not changed. The propagation of scripted stories run wild until someone spots the truth and the truth surfaces and the commotion dies down.
We must be careful where we take our news or what we believe because our mind is so eager of new information that everything we feed it get processed but most of the time it is toxic media that we see in the big channels of TV.
Col Gaddafi, killed almost exactly a year ago Photo: AFP/GETTY
All the pictures that Big Media portrayed of Col Muammar Gaddafe were carefully chosen to give you an Ugly face, “The Face of the Dictator” as they repeated over and over.
The subliminal messages sent on the news are powerful tools of propaganda that few notice when they turn on their Silver Screen. Mind Control is being perfected over the years, billions of dollars invested studying the mind, and now is being paying off for the powerful Elites.
The Next article published 2 days ago, supposedly exposed Bashar Al-Alssad the President of Syria as traitor to Gaddafee. Some of the “information” they included in this article can not be verified, so as News goes, this could just be a gossip thrown around for the people to chew on something while Syria is being destroyed by the thugs.
Mr El Obeidi the same source named in this article according to telegraph, it is saying in its twitter that he would have say if he witnessed french agents killing Gaddafe! but apparently he did not.
Read it and be your own opinion maker.
French spies operating in Sirte, Gaddafi’s last refuge, were able to set a trap for the Libyan President Muammar Gaddafe after obtaining his satellite telephone number from the Syrian government, they said.
So why now the big fuss, this was a news published on October 23, 2011, The telegraph is even using the same picture of that article. Now they make headlines!?
It is obvious that they want to change the mood of the readers against Assad, now that all the blogs and independent media outlets are discounting the “Big Media News” as propaganda. They try to infuse interest back to their outlets.
The end of Gaddafi perhaps began with a phone call to Damascus by his apparatus satellite intercepted by NATO in Sirte, the last stronghold. And ended with a summary execution, preceded by a lynching, including sodomy of Colonel. An outrage In just a few seconds of video shot by a mobile phone immediately after capture and announced last night on YouTube. Il Gionale Italy
In what would amount to an extraordinary betrayal of one Middle East strongman by another, President Bashar al-Assad sold out his fellow friend in an act of self-preservation, a former senior intelligence official in Tripoli told the Daily Telegraph.
With international attention switching from Libya to Syria, Mr Assad offered Paris the telephone number in exchange for an easing of French pressure on Damascus, according to Rami El Obeidi.
Rami El Obeidi Twitter: I’m a revolutionary, former NTC Official, and a firm believer in justice fighting for a free, pluralist, sovereign, and democratic Libya – @ramielobeidi
“In exchange for this information, Assad had obtained a promise of a grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime – which is what happened,” Mr El Obeidi said.
A National Transitional Council (NTC) fighter holds a picture of the Libyan fallen leader Muammar Al Gaddafi
While it was not possible independently to verify his allegation, Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, played a leading role in both the NATO salvage intervention to bomb Libya and in bringing international pressure to bear on the Assad regime. Libya from one side was ready to free the African Union from the wrath of the International Monetary Fund, when he will have announced the opening of the first Muslim African Bank using billions of petro dollars backed up by Gold. On the other hand the Government of Syria is the last bastion of Arab power in the Middle East. Besides to be an Ally of Iran, China and Russia which players has been a continuous headache for Washington. Specially for its pet pariah state Israel,for Syria supports of Hezbollah and for being the HQ of Hamas the party that won the elections in Gaza in 2007
The claims by Mr El Obeidi, the former head of foreign intelligence for the movement that overthrew Gaddafi, followed comments by Mahmoud Jibril, who served as prime minister in the transitional government and now leads one of Libya’s largest political parties. He confirmed over the weekend that a foreign “agent” was involved in the operation that killed Gaddafi.
He did not identify his nationality. However the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted Western diplomats in Tripoli as saying that if a foreign agent was involved “he was almost certainly French”.
The news of the Syria deal could potentially embarrass NATO, which initially claimed that it did “not target individuals”.
According to the alliance’s official version, an RAF reconnaissance plane spotted a large convoy of vehicles trying to flee Sirte on Oct 20th last year, two months after Gaddafi fled Tripoli.
NATO warplanes then bombed the convoy, apparently unaware of who was travelling in it, before militia fighters later found Gaddafi hiding in a drainpipe. He is believed to have been killed by his captors en route to the city of Misurata, west of Sirte.
But Mr El Obeidi said that France had essentially masterminded the operation by directing Libyan militiamen to an ambush spot where they could intercept Gaddafi’s convoy.
He also suggested that France had little interest in how Gaddafi was treated once captured, although the fighters were encouraged to try to take him alive.
“French intelligence played a direct role in the death of Gaddafi, including his killing,” Mr El Obeidi said.
“They gave directions that he was to be apprehended, but they didn’t care if he was bloodied or beaten up as long as he was delivered alive.”
Bashar al-Assad, right, and his brother Maher
These picture of the two brothers, showing two perfect faces, clean shaved and probably wearing expensive Italian Sun Glasses, goes along with the propaganda. In the past the Media “exposed” email from Bashar’s wife online shopping while the country is in fire. Nothing that you see in the Main Media it is coincidence. Every photo and every article is perfectly studied and chosen to serve a purpose.
According to Mr El Obeidi, French intelligence began to monitor Gaddafi’s Iridium satellite telephone and made a vital breakthrough when he rang a senior loyalist, Yusuf Shakir and Ahmed Jibril, a Palestinian militant leader, in Syria.
As a result, they were able to pinpoint his location and monitor his movements. Although Turkish and British military intelligence officers – including the SAS – who were in Sirte at the time were informed of the ambush plans in advance they played no role in what was “an exclusive French operation”, Mr El Obeidi said.
At the time of Gaddafi’s death, Mr El Obeidi had fallen out of favour with the most powerful faction in Libya’s transitional government because of his links with Gen Abdul Fatah Younes, a senior rebel commander killed by his own side in July last year.
Even so, he continued in his intelligence role in a semi-official but senior capacity.
Sources quoted by Corriere della Sera said one reason for the French lead in the operation was that then President Nicolas Sarkozy wanted Gaddafi dead after the Libyan leader openly threatened to reveal details of the large amounts of money he had donated to Sarkozy for his 2007 election campaign.
“Sarkozy had every reason to want to get rid of the colonel as quickly as possible,” Western diplomats said, according to the newspaper.
A spokesman at the French foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny the claims.
Congresswoman Illena Ros-Lehtinen will have her hands full as she makes the political and social rounds at this month’s Republican National Convention. Illena, is the only female committee chair in the House of Representatives and arguably Israel’s most ardent agent. She is a constant thorn in the Obama administration’s side, regularly castigating the president for playing “political games with U.S. foreign policy” and being “soft on Iran” and undermining the legitimacy of Israel. Ros-Lehtinen is a congressional cheer leader also for her Jewish voters in Florida — a key battleground in the rapidly approaching US presidential election. Most recently, Ros-Lehtinen helped shepherd through Congress yet another bill tightening sanctions against Iran while calling for US military action against the Assad regime in Syria.
The Congresswomen’s focus will likely not be on pushing the republican’s talking points regarding her party’s nominee, Mitt Romney the former “moderate Massachusetts governor” who she is aware is unlikely to win the White House. Nor, according to a source at the Democratic National Committee, frantically putting together final touches on their own Convention, to be held the week of September 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina,will Ileana spend much time with or promoting Mitt’ running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan. Ryan, an Ayn Rand (author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged as well as founder of the Objectivism movement) follower, regularly tells audiences that “ Ayn Rand’s teachings have been one of the most profound philosophical influences of my life,” Well, except for religion and abortion, as Ayn who passed away in 1982 was an avowed atheist and strongly pro-abortion, the opposite of what Ryan tells audiences he is.
Rather, Ros-Lehtinen will be meeting with local, national, and international Jewish leaders in this must win state where she has been assigned the task of reassuring them that the Republican Party is Israel’s best friend and that a recent US government draft report urging a US re-think of its relationship to Israel is the responsibility of none other than Barack Obama, and it reveals his true disdain for Israel.
Helping her smear the White House with the findings in the draft analysis will be William Kristol, publisher of the neoconservative Weekly Standard and Director of the New American Century, an “Israel first” Washington-based lobby “promoting joint Israeli and American political and military leadership across the globe, while bringing democracy to the Middle East”.
So what is all the fuss about?
It’s a paper entitled: Preparing For A Post Israel Middle East, an 82 page analysis that concludes that the American national interest in fundamentally at odds with that of Zionist Israel. The authors concludes that Israel is currently the greatest threat to US national interests because its nature and actions prevent normal US relations with Arab and Muslim countries and, to a growing degree, the wider international community.
The study was commissioned by the US Intelligence Community comprising 16 American intelligence agencies with an annual budget in excess of $ 70 billion. The IC includes the Departments of the Navy, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, Defense Intelligence Agency, Departments of Energy, Homeland Security, State, Treasure, Drug Enforcement Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Security Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Agency and the
Central Intelligence Agency commissioned the study.
Among the many findings that Ros-Lehtenin and Kristol and other unregistered agents of Israel will likely try to exploit politically between now and November 6, by using them to attack the Obama Administration are the following:
Israel, given its current brutal occupation and belligerence cannot be salvaged any more than apartheid south Africa could be when as late as 1987 Israel was the only “Western” nation that upheld diplomatic ties with South Africa and was the last country to join the international boycott campaign before the regime collapsed;
The Israel leadership, with its increasing support of the 700,000 illegal settlers on the occupied West Bank is increasing out of touch with the political, military and economic realities of the Middle East;
The post Labor government Likud coalition is deeply complicit with and influenced by the settlers’ political and financial power and will increasingly face domestic civil strife which the US government should not associate itself with or become involved with;
The Arab Spring and Islamic Awakening has to a major degree freed a large majority of the 1.2 billion Arab and Muslims to pursue what an overwhelming majority believe is the illegitimate, immoral and unsustainable European occupation of Palestine of the indigenous population;
Simultaneous with, but predating, rapidly expanding Arab and Muslim power in the region as evidenced by the Arab spring, Islamic Awakening and the ascendancy of Iran, as American power and influence recedes, the US commitment to belligerent oppressive Israel is becoming impossible to defend or execute consistent given paramount US national interests which include normalizing relations with the 57 Islamic countries;
Gross Israeli interference in the internal affairs of the United States through spying and illegal US arms transfers. This includes supporting more than 60 ‘front organizations’ and approximately 7,500 US officials who do Israel’s bidding and seek to dominate and intimidate the media and agencies of the US government which should no longer be condoned;
That the United States government no longer has the financial resources, or public support to continue funding Israel. The more than three trillion dollars in direct and indirect aid from US taxpayers to Israel since 1967 is not affordable and is increasingly being objected to by US taxpayers who oppose continuing American military involvement in the Middle East. US public opinion no longer supports funding and executing widely perceived illegal US wars on Israel’s behalf. This view is increasingly being shared by Europe, Asia and the International public;
Israel’s segregationist occupation infrastructure evidenced by legalized discrimination and increasingly separate and unequal justice systems must no longer be directly or indirectly funded by the US taxpayers or ignored by the US government;
Israel has failed as a claimed democratic state and continued American financial and political cover will not change its continuing devolution as international pariah state;
Increasingly, rampant and violent racism exhibited among Jewish settlors in the West Bank is being condoned by the Israeli government to a degree that the Israel government has become its protector and partner;
The expanding chasm among American Jews objecting to Zionism and Israeli practices, including the killing and brutalizing of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, are gross violations of American and International law and raise questions within the US Jewish community regarding the American responsibility to protect (R2P) innocent civilians under occupation;
The international opposition to the increasingly apartheid regime can no longer be synchronized with American claimed humanitarian values or US expectations in its bi-lateral relations with the 193 member United Nations;
The Draft ends with language about the need to avoid entangling alliances that alienate much of the World and condemn American citizens to endure the consequences.
Interestingly, it notes Iran as an example of a country and people that have much in common and whose citizens have a real interest in enjoy bilateral associations (here an apparent reference to Israel and its US lobby) not determined by the wishes of other countries and their agents. It also highlights the need for the US to undertake “the repairing relations with Arab and Muslim countries including the drastically curtained use of drone aircraft.
The coming days will clarity the success of Israel’s in making an issue of the finding in the soon to be published daft report and the degree to which the Republican Party will gain for its findings in the race for the White House.
More on Israel
The loss of human lives was and still pain our history but more hurtful is when is by design. There is no doubt that in every war or every conflict that humanity have suffered, the hand that planed the horror will be the main benefactor of such a tragedy. We can go back in history and pin point to every event and every time the winner is shown to gain the most. Will Israel fall in five years? CIA Predicts 20, Israelies are seaking a way Out!
Guilt by Association. I Recommend this book to to Anyone that is alive and directly or indirectly was and is a supporter of the State of Israel. Also I recommend to reading the Nuremberg Trials,
Before you make your mind be sure to look the map of the Sinai Peninsula, which situated very strategically so Israel can not lose control of it, even thought officially gave it back to Egypt in the famous treaty of 1979, where there were conditions that Egypt has to comply with; like not to have military presence in the area, only Israel could patrol the Sinai peninsula. Also the commerce between Egypt and Israel has to stay active.
Sometimes our activism and our Passion for Palestine takes to take Palestine’s side. –I ‘m looking a different picture here.
At the beginning when the news got published, I immediately thought of Israel–We know that in conflicts of this nature Israel is the one country that gets the benefit most of the time, well that’s what we–Palestinian supporters think most of the time.
There are other elements into the Palestine resistance side of the conflict: the armed wings or militias that, on one instance we praise for their courage to stand up against Israel trying sometimes almost suicide missions, on other, we see them as an obstacle for peace.
There are many groups not aligned with Hamas nor with Fatah and they act independently, and diplomacy does not work for them. They see diplomacy as a waste of time.
One of those groups in 2007 carried the attack in the Israel base that captured the IDF soldier Gilda Shilat. Hamas was not in control of the situation but after many underground talks with the leaders of the group Hamas consolidated the famous exchange of prisoners for Shilat few months ago.
Also do not forget that the Israel-Egypt treaty was due to security, Israel nor Egypt could control the Bedouins and the constant attacks to Israel so Israel exchange peace and security and gave back the Sinai Peninsula. Those same tribes that now control and profit from the tunnels in the Egyptian Side.
So it is premature to say that Israel did it, or say that Palestinians factions did it crossing to Israel knowing that they will be killed, kind of suicide mission.
Every one have motives to create conflict between Israel-Palestine, Palestine-Egypt and Egypt-Israel, there are many in Egypt that oppose the peace treaty with Israel, so they could be the ones, to make believe that Israel did it, to take advantage of the animosity of the Egyptians against Israel, because after all Egyptian and Palestinians are like brothers united by ancestral ties and religion.
Could be possible that Egyptian tribes could have done it, making sure to looks like Israel prints to keep the tunnels open, do not forget they control and profit from them. They do not want Rafah crossing to be officially and permanently to be open to commerce and transit, is not good for business.
Or could be any of the groups, the armed militia that act independently from the central government …all of them have motives to create conflict…But something for sure..if it was a Palestinian group, they usually take responsibility for their acts, or maybe they are learning deceit and treason as Israel do, and do it under the veil of the doubt …..
Before you make your mind, be sure to look the map of the Sinai Peninsula, situated very strategically so Israel can not lose control of it, even thought officially gave it back to Egypt in the famous treaty of 1979, where there are conditions that Egypt has to comply with; like not to have military presence in the area, only Israel could patrol the Sinai peninsula. Also the commerce between Egypt and Israel has to stay active.
It’s quite simple: Israel needs an outlet to the Red Sea for its shipping. The only Israeli presence on the islands is military to ensure that the shipping lanes are kept clear for its imports and exports, including military hardware to fight against Arab states. By international agreement, a multinational UN force is also stationed on the islands which “monitors the compliance of all parties” with this agreement. In reality, this means that American and Egyptian troops help to protect Israel’s shipping lanes through the Straits of Tiran, Saudi Arabia’s occupied sovereign territory. What would the people of Saudi Arabia say if they knew?
You be the judge..
What ever the truth is will emerge eventually but off course not before thousands of lives and maybe millions of innocent lives are lost.
Could be just my nauseated imagination that it’s sick of so much Zionism, or, I’m exhausted of witness so much death, destruction and misery caused by their hand. “The chosen Ones” , and please forgive me to use those words in a sarcastic way. I am not trying to insult Judaism , that believes that the 12 tribes were chosen by God. I’m simply stating my state of mind.
Watch “London Olympics 2012 ‘ Zion’ Logo” on YouTube, all you have to do is type Olympic Logo or London Olympic Games and you find by yourself. (Olympic logo images could not be used-they intent to sell 2 billions euros out of that image)
One Monday, 4 June 2007 the logo of the London Olympic Games was unveiled in a star-studded ceremony in London, funny thing is that few people paid attention of the logo back then. We were too busy probably getting duped with the First Black President that will take the white house – Not trying to be racist or anything, but in the US just until few months before Obama even run for President, America was still one of the most racist societies in the world. The media played that black card for many years, when it came to Black Presidents.- so Obama running for President and winning the elections was prime time event in US history
Soon after the 2012 London Olympic logo was released to the press, Iran- the country led by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad- protested and announced they may boycott the Games. Why? According to representatives of Ahmadinejad’s circle, the scrambled, jagged figures within the logo don’t form ‘2012’, but rather the word ‘Zion’. The man who first unscrambled the logo’s ‘numbers’ and determined they are actually letters spelling the word ‘Zion’ did so in 2008, soon after the 2012 symbol was announced and provided to the public.
He was a young (25 years old or so) British man named Rik Clay, and he was a student of secret societies and their symbolism in everyday logos, on the U.S. dollar bill, etc. Clay, who seemed in good spirits during interviews just subsequent to his logo revelation, allegedly committed suicide soon after coming out with his discovery. Check out the YouTube video Rik Clay & 2012- RIP 1/9.
Choosing the logo of the Olympics Games is a lengthy process, hundreds or probably thousands of designs are submitted to the Olympic committee to choose one for this mighty global event. So we wonder what are the chances that this logo symbolizing the year London Olympics games 2012, could be move around and spell the word Z I O N, right?
Don’t forget that Israel was asking the London Olympic Committee to hold a minute of silence during the ceremony of aperture of the games as a tribute to the 11 Israeli athletes sacrificed on September 6, 1972. Munich 72 left a scores of hate and spilled blood without purpose, other that satisfy the arrogance of the Apartheid State of Israel. Their unwillingness to the fulfill the demands of the captors, ended the life of the 11 members of the Israel Olympic Team. After all they had promised to do so, the life of the athletes was hanging out on the promise that Israel government did to the captors. There is plenty evidence and witness testimonies that the police opened fire first without regards of the life of the Israeli Athletes.
Who ever picked the Olympic logo did it with the well acknowledgement of the Israel request to hold a minute of silence, now there is not just a moment of silence but the whole event will be a remembrance of the Zionist State.
The logo was designed by Wolff Ollins at the ticket price of 400,000 Euros. According to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge the logo will inspire the youth. Really? how 4 letters with a dot that switch around spelling Zion will inspire the youth?. On his words
“This is a truly innovative brand logo that graphically captures the essence of the London 2012 Olympic Games – namely to inspire young people around the world through sport and the Olympic values”
If they want to inspire the youth, they should have invited the youth of United Kingdom to summit their designs, that, could have been a truly inspiration for them, second with the world entrenched in violence; the occupy movement, the Arab springs, the European Union coming to pieces, the miners fighters for rights around the world, the teachers demanding decent salaries, the workers unions asking better conditions for their workers. And in top of everything Israel and the US mingling in the business of everyone on Earth, what inspiration that logo spelling ZION will give to the youth?
The designer of the Olympic logo is a multi billion dollars company, whose parent company Omnicom Group, it is in charge of the propaganda industry on almost the whole world.
Companies such Omnicom shape our reality. It is easy to create a wonderland where we all can be controlled. Once Zbigniew Brzezinski, said in an interview with CBS it is easier to kill a million people than to control a million people. But I think that they can still control 6 billion people, using the Media Propaganda Machine.
“You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.” -Morpheus in the Matrix
The Relation between TV, News Agencies and Adverting Companies
All the three companies form the real axis of evil, they are in charge of the creation of propaganda, which it is the best weapon to defeat the masses.
They all go hand and hand together, after all in 2003 they sold to the world the Iraq War which had killed more than one million Iraqis and counting. They did not spare lives to recreate the perfect scenario for a war of that magnitude. Even the 911 tragedy which evidence suggest to be staged by no other than the American Government was an event well sold, which case was solidified by the well advertised News and movies and documentaries purposely and conveniently made to convinced the most skeptic minds. Remember the movie Wag the Dog, where a fake war was constructed and distributed in the news to distract the electorate from a sex scandal in election time. When we see the reality and make comparative analysis of what the Media has giving us and what really had happened in Real life, we see clearly the deception where our own government is the culprit, planer and executioner of every staged event in our history.
Over the history of these 3 Machines, they have killed more than a billion people. They are as guilty as the bullets that kill the innocents they target. The governments develops strategic alliances with them to sell anything they want to portray in the theater of the world. Let’s take as example Omnicom: The company oversees a global network of more than 175 marketing services companies, as well as Omnicom Media Group, and provides services for over 5,000 clients in more than 100 countries worldwide. As a strategic holding company, Omnicom manages a portfolio of global market leaders; Omnicom’s agencies provide marketing and communications services in the disciplines of advertising, customer relationship management (CRM), strategic media planning and buying, digital and interactive marketing, direct and promotional marketing, public relations (PR) and other specialty communications.
Omnicom, which Revenue $13.9 billion (2011), where all this money coming from? Presidential Campaigners, Arms Manufactures, Energy and Pharmaceutical Lobbyist firms and off course the Governments of the world that sell wars and protection to the world, using UN and NATO as a front.
On February 9, 1944, in the small farming community of Eatonton, GA, Willie Lee and Minnie Grant gave birth to their eighth and final child, a girl, they named Alice. Little did her parents know that their youngest daughter would become one of the most prolific, controversial and respected African-American novelists of the later-half of the 20th Century. But the potential in Willie Lee and Minnie Grant’s baby may not have been recognized early on by others living in their farming community. Alice would have to overcome a number of difficulties in her lifetime that would profoundly influence the way she pictured herself and the world around her and would later help shape her views as a writer.
Poet, Writer and Activist Alice Walker makes her position clear on BDS and Cultural Boycott Against Israel Apartheid State. She does not give her permission to Israeli Publisher House to publish “The Color Purple” , even thought that it was published in Hebrew Language before , Now She adds her voice to the BDS Campaign, her Moral Standing it is stronger than her Ego as an Author
“The Color Purple,” which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, was adapted into a movie in 1985 directed by the American filmmaker Steven Spielberg.
She born in the State of Georgia, one of the more racist states of the US, that fact could have contributed to her formation as a writer, “The Color Purple” Book explore the situation of the blacks in the South, the exploitation of the black woman by the black males and the white society.
Alice Walker has lived the injustice of being black in a white ruled society, she grew up with the sores of racism and even being lived the Racist American Period and survived it, she does not show any signs of hate against this White Society, on the contrary if you read her books, and you hear her experiences that she kindly shares on her interviews, you notice her beautiful soul, how she thanks God for the transformation of our society and sees some of the changes, she reveals herself as a revolutionary mind offering to us with her writing the thought process that keeps evolving, and we can say now, that some blocks of our society are civilized in their ideas and their behavior
She has visited many places that have suffered injustices like Post Apartheid South Africa and knows of the terrible life the Afrikaans had it, and because she knows thru her own experiences the real story, she adds her voice to the people of Palestine, which sufferings are very similar to the blacks of the south where she grew up, or the South Africans of the Apartheid Era.
She has the courage to stand tall against Israel Bully of the Middle East, she was part of the Gaza Flotilla last year, unfortunately Israel Political pressure made the voyage impossible to reach Palestinians Waters, but the awareness keeps sparking out, and sees Hope for a Non Violent transition to peace.
I bow to this amazing lady that puts her name to use for a good cause without minding the professional risk.
“Alice Walker! She has absolutely nothing to gain in terms of ego, popularity, power, or Money. Her stance comes from her heart, conscience, compassion, and genuine concern for justice.” Professor Gail Baker
“Walker’s use of Celie’s own voice, however underdeveloped, allows Walker to tell the history of black women in the rural South in a sympathetic and realistic way. Unlike a historian’s perspective, which can be antiseptic and overly analytical, Celie’s letters offer a powerful first-person account of the institutions of racism and sexism. Celie’s simple narrative brings us into her isolated world with language that reveals both pain and detached numbness: “My momma dead. She die screaming and cussing. She scream at me. She cuss at me.”
Like her voice, Celie’s faith is prominent but underdeveloped. Celie relies heavily on God as her listener and source of strength, but she sometimes blurs the distinction between God’s authority and that of Alphonso. She confesses that God, rather than Alphonso, killed her baby, and she never makes any association between the injustice she experiences in her life and the ability of God to overturn or prevent this injustice.”
Thank you so much for wishing to publish my novel THE COLOR PURPLE. It isn’t possible for me to permit this at this time for the following reason: As you may know, last Fall in South Africa The Russell Tribunal on Palestine met and determined that Israel is guilty of apartheid and persecution of the Palestinian people, both inside Israel and also in the Occupied Territories. The testimony we heard, both from Israelis and Palestinians (I was a jurist) was devastating. I grew up under American apartheid and this was far worse. Indeed, many South Africans who attended, including Desmond Tutu, felt the Israeli version of these crimes is worse even than what they suffered under the white supremacist regimes that dominated South Africa for so long.
It is my hope that the non-violent BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, of which I am part, will have enough of an impact on Israeli civilian society to change the situation.
In that regard, I offer an earlier example of THE COLOR PURPLE’s engagement in the world-wide effort to rid humanity of its self-destructive habit of dehumanizing whole populations. When the film of The Color Purple was finished, and all of us who made it decided we loved it, Steven Spielberg, the director, was faced with the decision of whether it should be permitted to travel to and be offered to the South African public. I lobbied against this idea because, as with Israel today, there was a civil society movement of BDS aimed at changing South Africa’s apartheid policies and, in fact, transforming the government.
It was not a particularly difficult position to hold on my part: I believe deeply in non-violent methods of social change though they sometimes seem to take forever, but I did regret not being able to share our movie, immediately, with (for instance) Winnie and Nelson Mandela and their children, and also with the widow and children of the brutally murdered, while in police custody, Steven Biko, the visionary journalist and defender of African integrity and freedom.
We decided to wait. How happy we all were when the apartheid regime was dismantled and Nelson Mandela became the first president of color of South Africa.
Only then did we send our beautiful movie! And to this day, when I am in South Africa, I can hold my head high and nothing obstructs the love that flows between me and the people of that country.
Which is to say, I would so like knowing my books are read by the people of your country, especially by the young, and by the brave Israeli activists (Jewish and Palestinian) for justice and peace I have had the joy of working beside. I am hopeful that one day, maybe soon, this may happen. But now is not the time.
We must continue to work on the issue, and to wait.
In faith that a just future can be fashioned from small acts,
Alice Walker
“Whereas international institutions and governments fail to take action in support of justice and equality for the Palestinian people, the Russell Tribunal will raise awareness about the urgency of holding Israel accountable for its violations of international law,”
“This tribunal will serve as an effective tool with which to educate a wider public about the nature of Israel’s system of oppression of Palestinians and will help to mobilise support for popular resistance and the BDS movement,” Juma Juma – Representative of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)
Alice Walker
Alice Walker in Berkeley, California, April 1983. Walker uses a variety of narrative forms and levels of diction to create vivid, memorable, and larger-than-life characters.
Set in Georgia between 1920 and 1960, Alice Walker‘s first novel The Third Life of Grange Copeland describes the economic oppression African-Americans suffered under the share-cropping system and its tragic effects on black families and the black community. Walker asks to what degree blacks themselves have been accomplishes in their victimization by the white power structure, which destroys their dignity and dreams. She also explores the intersection of racism and sexism in the oppression of African American families, depicting black men who vent their anger and frustration, not on the whites who exploit them, but on their wives and children. The two main male characters, Grange and Brownfield Copeland, both try to prove their manliness through methods endorsed by white patriarchy: through assertions of power over women in the form of sexual conquests and wife abuse.
Meridian is energized by a younger generation coming into its full power and raising its voice in dissent against the institutional racism that prevailed through the 1960s. Through occasionally violent protests and demonstrations, Meridian and other activists attempt to institute change and alter perceptions. Idealistic as they are, they ultimately find various degrees of satisfaction with the goals and ideals of the civil rights movement. Meridian feels that she will always stand on the fringes of the movement since she is unprepared to take her dissent to a radical, if not murderous, level. Lynne struggles with adapting and applying her own idealism to meaningful change in the lives of southern blacks. Truman eventually sours to the movement, having lost sight of its intentions in his self-absorption. In the end, Meridian realizes the fatuousness of dying or killing for the movement, concluding that the battle is won in small ways, such as getting blacks registered to vote and improving the lives of people victimized by the unchecked expression of racism.
THE TEMPLE OF MY FAMILIAR (1989),
POSSESSING THE SECRET OF JOY (1992),
BY THE LIGHT OF MY FATHER’S SMILE (1998),
NOW IS THE TIME TO OPEN YOUR HEART (2004),
OVERCOMING SPEECHLESSNESS (2012).
Her poetry is collected in ONCE: POEMS (1968),
REVOLUTIONARY PETUNIAS & OTHER POEMS (1973),
ABSOLUTE TRUST IN THE GOODNESS OF THE EARTH:
NEW POEMS (2003).
Some of her short fiction has been published in:
IN LOVE & TROUBLE: STORIES OF BLACK WOMEN (1973).
She became a major figure in feminism — which she called “womanism” — through such writings as IN SEARCH OF OUR MOTHERS’ GARDENS: WOMANIST PROSE (1983) and LIVING BY THE WORD (1988). These collections of essays, speeches, and letters focus on Walker’s experiences as a black woman in America, and on racial and class inequality.
How Alice Walker become Palestinian Activist: In her interview with Amy Goodman in Democracy Now she explains how the lost of her sister and the story of a woman in Palestine that lost everything and everyone in her family made her be more out spoken about the Palestinian Issue.
ALICE WALKER: Well, I was actually mourning the death of my own sister, and I thought that, oh, she was, you know, much older, and she was sick, and she died, and we’d had a horrible five or six years before she died. And so I thought, you know, when she dies, I won’t be devastated. And I was completely devastated. It was so painful.
And I was out trying to deal with my own devastation, when I learned about a woman in Palestine, during the bombing, who had been — who had lost five of her daughters, and she herself was unconscious. And it just instantly connected me to her. I felt, what will this be like? Who will tell her? Who will tell this woman when she wakes up that “your five daughters are dead”?
And so I felt that I had to go and present myself to this situation and to be attentive to it in a way that I had started being many years before, except that at the time I was married to and then related to, in many ways, to a Jewish person who always said, well, if you see the Palestinian side, almost anything, you know, positive about the Palestinian side, then it means that you are anti-Semitic. And so, this was so shocking to me that it silenced me for a while. I mean, I said a few things, I wrote a few things. But I felt that I had left something undone. And I realize at this point in my life, and years earlier, actually, that there are things in life that call to us, and they’re ours to do. And this was one of the things that was mine to finish.
And so I went to Gaza, and I met with women who had lost everything, and their children, their houses. You know, I sat on the rubble, even though there was the phosphorus powder, because it was just overwhelming to see the injury and the damage that had been done to these people by the Israeli government. And I knew that it was my responsibility as a writer and as a human being to witness this and to write about it. I mean, why else was I — why else am I a writer? You know, why else do I have a conscience? I think that all people who feel that there is injustice in the world anywhere should learn as much of it as they can bear. That is our duty.
“I speak a little about this American history, but it isn’t history that these women know.” These are the women, the Palestinian women, I’m with. “They’re too young. They’ve never been taught it. It feels irrelevant. Following their example of speaking of their families, I talk about my Southern parents’ teachings during our experience of America’s apartheid years, when white people owned and controlled all the resources and the land, in addition to the political, legal, and military apparatus, and used their power to intimidate black people in the most barbaric and merciless ways. These whites who tormented us daily were like Israelis who have cut down millions of trees planted by Arab Palestinians, stolen Palestinian water, even topsoil. Forcing Palestinians to use separate roads from those they use themselves, they have bulldozed innumerable villages, houses, mosques, and in their place built settlements for strangers who have no connection whatsoever with Palestine: settlers who have been the most rabidly anti-Palestinian of all, attacking the children, the women, everyone, old and young alike, viciously.”
AMY GOODMAN: Alice, I wanted to go back to March 2009 -—
ALICE WALKER: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: — when you were in Gaza, to a video of you there.
ALICE WALKER: It’s shocking beyond anything I have ever experienced. And it’s actually so horrible that it’s basically unbelievable, even though I’m standing here and I’ve been walking here and I’ve been looking at things here. It still feels like, you know, you could never convince anyone that this is actually what is happening and what has happened to these people and what the Israeli government has done. It will be a very difficult thing for anyone to actually believe in, so it’s totally important that people come to visit and to see for themselves, because the world community, that cares about peace and cares about truth and cares about justice, will have to find a way to deal with this. We cannot let this go as if it’s just OK, especially those of us in the United States who pay for this. You know, I have come here, in part, to see what I’m buying with my tax money.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Alice Walker in 2009, interviewed by my colleague here at Democracy Now!, Anjali Kamat. When you look back at you walking through the rubble of Gaza, your thoughts?
ALICE WALKER: My thought is that I am so glad I was there. I am so glad that I managed to gather myself and present myself to this situation, because it is my responsibility, you know, as a person, as an elder, as someone who cares about the planet, who really wants us all to thrive, you know, or just survive. This is a very thorny issue, and it takes all of us looking at it as carefully as we can to help solve it. It’s not that it’s impossible to solve. But what will help a lot is the insistence by all of us on fairness and on people actually understanding what they’re looking at.
AMY GOODMAN: You say that the Middle East solution is beyond the two-state solution, and you also talk about restorative justice.
ALICE WALKER: Yes, I do, because I believe in restorative justice. I think we could use that here. I mean, I don’t feel great about the past leaders here not being brought to trial, actually, you know. But if we can’t have trial, we could at least have council. I mean, but to let people, any people, just go, after they’ve murdered lots of people and destroyed a lot, is not right. It destroys trust. So — what was the rest of the question?
AMY GOODMAN: And you believe in a one-state solution.
ALICE WALKER: Oh, the one-state solution. Yes, I do. I mean, when I think about my tax money, and I think about, well, you know, given that I’ve already given, and we as a country have given over a trillion dollars to Israel in the last — since, I don’t know, ‘48 or something, but a lot of money that we could have used here, where would I be happiest to see, you know, my money spent? Well, I would be happy seeing my money spent for all the people who live in Palestine. And that means that, you know, the Palestinians who are forced out of their houses, forced off of their land, should come back and share the land, all of it, including the settlements. You know, if I am going to be asked to help pay for settlements, I would like to be, you know, permitted to say who gets to live in them. And I would like the women and children, the Palestinian women and children that I saw, I would like to say — take them by hand and say, “You know what? Look at this. We built this for you. You’re home now.”
The following link contain Alice Walker entire interview with Amy Goodman from Democracy now
All the rights reserved for Addammer, article published only for information purpose, not intended for commercial use.
Administrative Detention
Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial. Although administrative detention is used almost exclusively to detain Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), which includes the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, Israeli citizens and foreign nationals can also be held as administrative detainees by Israel (over the years, only 9 Israeli settlers have been held in administrative detention). Israel uses three separate laws to hold individuals without trial:
Article 285 of Military Order 1651, which is part of the military legislation applying in the West Bank;
Internment of Unlawful Combatants Law (Unlawful Combatants Law), which has been used against residents of the Gaza Strip since 2005;
Emergency Powers (Detentions) Law, which applies to Israeli citizens.
Palestinians have been subjected to administrative detention since the beginning of the Israeli Occupation in 1967 and before that time, under the British Mandate. The frequency of the use of administrative detention has fluctuated throughout Israel’s occupation, and has been steadily rising since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000.
On the eve of the second intifada, Israel held 12 Palestinians in administrative detention. Only two years later, in late 2002-early 2003, there were over one thousand Palestinians in administrative detention. Between 2005 and 2007, the average monthly number of Palestinian administrative detainees held by Israel remained stable at approximately 765. Since then, as the situation on the ground stabilized and violence tapered off, the number of administrative detaines has generally decreased every year. As of 1 April 2012, there were at least 322 Palestinians from the West Bank and East Jerusalem being detained in administrative detention, of which 24 were members of the Palestinian Legislative Council.
ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW
Although international human rights law permits some limited use of administrative detention in emergency situations, the authorities are required to follow basic rules for detention, including a fair hearing at which the detainee can challenge the reasons for his or her detention. Moreover, to use such detention, there must be a public emergency that threatens the life of the nation, and detention can only be ordered on an individual, case-by-case basis without discrimination of any kind. (International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 9).
Administrative detention is the most extreme measure that international humanitarian law allows an occupying power to use against residents of occupied territory. As such, states are not allowed to use it in a sweeping manner. To the contrary, administrative detention may be used against protected persons in occupied territory only for “imperative reasons of security” (Fourth Geneva Convention, Art.78).
In practice, Israel routinely uses administrative detention in violation of the strict parameters established by international law. Tellingly, Israel has claimed to be under a continuous state of emergency sufficient to justify the use of administrative detention since its inception in 1948. In addition, administrative detention is frequently used – in direct contravention to international law – for collective and criminal punishment rather than for the prevention of future threat. For example, administrative detention orders are regularly issued against individuals suspected of committing an offense after an unsuccessful criminal investigation or a failure to obtain a confession in interrogation.
In practice, Israel’s administrative detention regime violates numerous other international standards as well. For example, administrative detainees from the West Bank are deported from the occupied territory and interned inside Israel, in direct violation of Fourth Geneva Convention prohibitions (Articles 49 and 76). Further, administrative detainees are often denied regular family visits in accordance with international law standards, and Israel regularly fails to separate administrative detainees from the regular prison population as required by law. Moreover, in the case of child detainees, Israel regularly fails to take into account the best interests of the child as required under international law.
ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION IN THE WEST BANK: MILITARY ORDER 1651
In the occupied Palestinian West Bank, the Israeli army is authorized to issue administrative detention orders against Palestinian civilians on the basis of article 285 of Military Order 1651. This article empowers military commanders to detain an individual for up to six-month renewable periods if they have “reasonable grounds to presume that the security of the area or public security require the detention”. No definition of “security of the area” or “public security” is given. On or just before the expiry date, the detention order is frequently renewed; there is no explicit limit to the maximum amount of time an individual may be administratively detained, leaving room for indefinite legal detention.
Administrative detention orders are issued either at the time of arrest or at some later date and are often based on “secret information” collected by the Israeli Security Agency (formerly known as the General Security Service). In the vast majority of administrative detention cases, neither the detainee nor his lawyer is ever informed of the reasons for the detention or given access to the “secret information”.
A Palestinian detainee subjected to an administrative detention order must be brought before a military court in a closed hearing within eight days of his or her arrest, where a single military judge can uphold, shorten or cancel the detention order. In most cases, however, administrative detention orders are confirmed for the same periods as those requested by the military commander. While the detainee can appeal the decision at the judicial review, in practice, the vast majority of appeals are rejected. By comparison, administrative detention under Israeli domestic law requires a detainee to be brought before a judge within 48 hours, and orders can be given only up to three month periods.
In practice, Palestinians can be detained for months, if not years, under administrative detention orders, without ever being informed about the reasons or length of their detention. Detainees are routinely informed of the extension of their detention on the day that the former order expires. Under the existing administrative detention procedures, Palestinians have no effective means by which to challenge their administrative detention.
ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION IN THE GAZA STRIP: UNLAWFUL COMBATANT LAW
In the Gaza Strip, Israel uses the Unlawful Combatants Law to hold Palestinians for an unlimited period of time, without effective judicial review. The law was approved by the Israeli Knesset in 2002 in order to enable the state to continue holding Lebanese “bargaining chip” detainees after the Israeli Supreme Court ruled the practice illegal. Although all Lebanese detainees were released in 2004, the law was not revoked. Instead, starting in 2005 after Israel’s unilateral “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip and the accompanying end of the application of Israeli military orders there, it began to be used to detain residents of the Strip.
The law defines an “unlawful combatant” as a “person who has participated either directly or indirectly in hostile acts against the State of Israel, or is a member of a force perpetrating hostile acts against the State of Israel,” and who is not entitled to prisoner of war status under international humanitarian law.
The Unlawful Combatants Law allows for the sweeping and swift detention without trial of large numbers of foreign citizens and Palestinians resident of the Gaza Strip. To date, the law has been used to detain 54 individuals, including 15 Lebanese nationals and 39 Gazans, most of whom were detained during Israel’s winter 2008-2009 military action against Gaza codenamed “Operation Cast Lead” and have since been released. As of April 2012, Israel was holding 1 Gazan under this law.
Detainees under the law may be held for 96 hours before the issuance of a permanent detention order, or up to seven days if the government declares the “existence of wide-scale hostilities”. Judicial review of an order in a closed hearing must take place within 14 days of its issuance; if it is approved, the detainee must be brought before a judge once every six months. If the court finds that his release will not harm state security, the judge shall cancel the order.
In practice, the Unlawful Combatants Law contains fewer protections for detainees than even the few that are granted under administrative detention orders in the West Bank. For example, judicial review is conducted less often; the legality of the detention does not require the existence of a state of emergency; and, the detention “is carried out pursuant to an order issued by the chief of staff or by an officer holding the rank of major general”. In addition, the law establishes two troubling presumptions that shift the burden of proof to the detainee: first, the release of an individual identified as an “unlawful combatant” will harm national security unless proven otherwise; second, the organization to which the detainee belongs carries out hostilities, if the Israeli Minister of Defense has made such a determination, unless proven otherwise. This practice patently violates the accused’s right to a presumption of innocence in any criminal proceeding, and results in a system of indefinite detention justified by mere speculation and stacked heavily against the detainee.
ADDAMEER’S POSITION ON ADMINISTRATIVE DETENTION
The government of Israel should release all administrative detainees;
In the meantime, administrative detainees must be granted their rights in accordance with international law;
The government of Israel should immediately cease using the Incarceration of Unlawful Combatants Law and take action to repeal it;
EU member states should raise cases of administrative detainees with the Israeli government under the EU-Israel political dialogue.
More On Administrative Detention
The defense and promotion of the rights of administrative detainees has been a central focus of Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights
Association’s (Addameer) legal activities. Addameer has also sought to expose the ways in which Israel’s use of administrative detention, as a
means of collective punishment and of exacting revenge on Palestinians in retaliation for exercising their political and civil rights, contravenes the permitted uses of administrative detention in international law. In March 2009, Addameer notably launched an international advocacy and lobbying campaign to stop administrative detention and highlight Israel’s illegal practices in this regard. Administrative Detention in The Occupied Palestine
Administrative Detainees
Administrative detention is a procedure that allows the Israeli military to hold prisoners indefinitely on secret information without charging them or allowing them to stand trial.
Palestinians have been subjected to administrative detention since the beginning of the Israeli Occupation in 1967 and before that time, under the British Mandate. The frequency of the use of administrative detention has fluctuated throughout Israel’s occupation, and has been steadily rising since the outbreak of the second intifada in September 2000. Palestinians Administrative Detainees
Palestinians from the OPT are currently held in a total of 4 interrogation centers, 4 military detention centers, and approximately 17 prisons. While the 4 military interrogation centers are located inside the OPT, all the interrogation centers and prisons—except for one prison, Ofer—are located within the 1948 borders of Israel, in violation of international humanitarian law. The location of prisons within Israel and the transfer of detainees to locations within the occupying power’s territory are illegal under international law and constitute a war crime. The Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly states that “Protected persons accused of offences shall be detained in the occupied country, and if convicted they shall serve their sentences therein” (Article 76). Prison and Detention Center
Posted on March 10m 2012 By Marivel Guzman in collaboration with Omar Karem from Gaza, Palestine
Updating!
Israeli Airstrikes Terrorizes Gaza
GAZA — Israeli airstrikes killed 15 Palestinians, most of them civilians, in the Gaza Strip on Friday and early Saturday, and the armed militants retaliated in response to the attacks, sending home made rockets at southern Israel.
Web sites affiliated with Hamas, the Government of Gaza, reported early Saturday that the death toll in the Palestinian enclave had risen to 13, and the the injures 26 so far, 5 in critical conditions. This come when Gaza is deep in the darkness, where the only electrical plant stopped working completely after the fuel stopped entering Gaza. Israel and Egypt has played a great role on this situation. Israel has maintained an illegal siege of the strip for more than 4 years, and Egypt have not been cooperative to help in the enter of oil, and diesel to operate the plant.
The first airstrike, part of the illegal target assassinations of Israel killed Zuhair Al-Qissi and his son and law, Mahmoud Hanani, Zuhair Al-Qissi was the leader of PCR-Popular Resistance committee one of the political parties in Gaza.
Around 100 rockets have hit southern Israel as Israeli warplanes bombard the Gaza Strip, wounding 26 Palestinians and four Israelis. Five Palestinians and one Israeli are seriously injured.
In statements to the media on Saturday, the PRC armed wing said it had fired 29 rockets into Israel, while the PFLP’s brigades said it fired two rockets towards Israeli cities
After the first strike, and in retaliation for the assassination Zuhair Al-Quassi at least 20 rockets were fired at Israeli territory. Three civilians were wounded, one seriously, according to the police and emergency services. Israel Radio reported that they were foreign workers. Two rockets were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome anti rocket missile defense system, one crashed into a village near the Israeli port city of Ashdod, shaking the grounds near a house, while others landed in open areas or the sea, causing no injures.
We wonder if the celebrated Israel’s Iron dome anti rocket missile defense system is just waste of money, if they have not been able to stop the “barrage of Rockets” coming from Gaza. According to their own sources they stopped few rockets out of more than 100
As a result of the sudden escalation, the Israeli authorities called for the cancellation of all outdoor public activities in southern Israel that were scheduled for Saturday.
On another attack of Israel past March 22, 4 innocents lost their lives in a similar manner.
“Israel Defense Forces said that Palestinian militants had fired at them. In returning fire, they accidentally hit four members of the same family in the Gaza neighborhood of Sagaya.”, it is common occurrence that Israel target civilians, remember the deadly Attack on 2008-2009 “Cast Lead”, where Israel killed 1500 Palestinians including 600 children, between 3 months and 16 years old.
A Palestinian carries an injured boy into Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, after Israeli tank fire struck a home on March 22, 2011
Photo Credit
Reuters
Palestinian medics said those killed in the attack were aged 12, 16 and 17 and 58.
The leader who was killed, Zuhair Al-Qissi, was the secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees, the group that Israel says was responsible for the attack last August, from across the border with Egypt in which eight Israelis were reported killed, those claims were dismissed by independent sources and PRC have denied their involvement.
The Palestinians factions are known for acknowledge their attacks, when they are responsible. The Egyptian border attack could just been another of Israel flag operations to excuse the militarization of the border with Egypt, after the fall of Mubarack, and planting the attack to create the “facts” on the ground.
The P.R.C. came into being after the start of the second uprising, or intifada. It was founded by a group of that split out from the older factions like Hamas, Fatah and the Islamic Jihad. The group maintains good relations with Hamas and joined it to seize an Israeli soldier, in a cross-border raid in 2006. The Israeli soldier was released last year in exchange for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners, an historical deal negotiated by Hamas and Egyptian authorities.
Hours after the first airstrike, Israeli aircraft struck in eastern Gaza City, killing three other civilians. Witnesses said they were on a hilly area near the “buffer zone” land seized by Israel along the illegal fence, between Gaza and Israel and according to Israel were planing to fire rockets to Israel.
This area is part of cultivation lands, and the villagers need to approach their lands to harvest their crops, International Solidarity Movement activists a group of International stationed in Gaza often are seen accompanying the villagers to get to their lands, waving white flags in an attempt to stop the targeting of civilians.
Vittorio Arrigoni RIP was part of ISM, and he was often going to the fields and to the sea to serve as a shield for the villagers and the fishermen.
Friday’s strikes came after months of Israel incursions in the Gaza Strip, the Israel drones are seen invading Gaza airspace very often, and the activity of IOF personal on the border is a common thread for the besiege population that lives close to the border with Israel.
Israel has been airing videos regarding their tunnel practice in “case of another war” scenario intended to keep the population in fear.
Mr. Qissi was appointed as leader of the P.R.C. after Israel killed his predecessor, Awad al-Nirab, and five other civilians with an airstrike on a house in southern Gaza.
In January, Mr. Qissi had been reported killed, but another militant died in that episode.
Mr. Qissi’s son and law was Mahmoud Hnani, who was deported from the West Bank and settled in Gaza more than four years ago, the PRC. said in a statement.
The two men were traveling in a car when they were hit. Yasmeen Nabeeh, a resident of the southern Gaza City neighborhood of Tal al-Hawa, said she heard a powerful blast and, from her window, saw a blue Volkswagen car burning on the street. A spokesman for an ambulance service said that a bystander was seriously wounded in the bombing.
Israel often targets Gaza “militants” it says are preparing attacks. Al-Qaissi, who is also known as Abu Ibrahim, is the highest profile casualty in Gaza since his predecessor, Kamal Nairab, was killed seven months ago in similar fashion.
Mr. Hnani spent six years in an Israeli prison .
After the first Israeli strike on Friday, a spokesman for the P.R.C. known as Abu Mujahed said that his group was no longer committed to the shaky cease-fire with Israel that has been largely observed by Hamas.
“The response to this crime is open,” Abu Mujahed told reporters.
The funeral for the victims of Israel strikes will be done according to Islam tradition, the third day . Mr Zuhair Al-Qissi will be bury in Rafaf, Palestine on Sunday March 11, 2012.
Timeline:Of Friday Attacks
The Latest Attacked raise the victims to 17 in Gaza Palestine, Israel have not stopped the shelling since Friday..Gaza TV News
NUMBER OF MARTYRS TILL THIS MOMENT SINCE FRIDAY REACH TO 16 AND HERE IS THE NAMES :
1. martyr Fayeq Saad 2-martyr Mutasim Hajjaj 3. martyr Obeid Mohammad Al-garably 4-5 hararh-martyr Hazem karika 6. martyr Shadi Al-seiqali 7-martyr Commander Zuhair Al-Qaysi 8. martyr Mahmoud Hanani 9-martyr Mohammed Maghazi 10. martyr Mahmoud Najem 11. Martyr Ahmed Haggag 12. martyr Mohammed Mansour BORO 13. martyr Kamal Abu champions 14. martyr Hussein Barham Hammad 15. martyr Mahdi Abu Shawish 16. Ahmed Salem Ali
4:20 am; ISRAELI ARTILLERY SHELLING THE EASTERN AREA OF GAZA CITY WITH 2 MISSILES AT LEAST , ONE MARTYR AT LEAST HIS BODY COMPLETELY BURNED , AMBULANCES RUSHING TO THE AREA Hani Siliman Gaza Palestine
Just in 4 am: Beach Camp Police Station has been attacked by by three missiles from Israeli F16! At least, three people have been injured! Glass chattered and havoc spread! Prof. Said Adbelwahed Gaza Palestine
2:00 am: ISRAELI GUN BOATS OPENING FIRE ON THE WESTERN COAST MIDDLE OF GAZA STRIP WHILE THE DRONES FLYING AT LOW LEVELS Hani Siliman Gaza Palestine
MORE NEWS:
An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip killed five Palestinians belonging to the Islamic Jihad militant group, Gaza emergency medical services spokesman Adham Abu Selmeya told reporters. 20 other people were also reported to have been injured in the attack. The escalation started on Saturday morning when Israel attacked Gaza Khan Younis Camp. Gaza Is being Attacked Again
The Holy Land fighting ancient enemies The Holy Books
And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites. It was a good land, flowing with milk and honey and inhabited by several tribes of people.- Exo 3:8
Palestine have many enemies, unfortunately!. …and against all the Odds, Palestinians resilience has proved to be stronger than the most powerful forces on the face of the Earth. Even thought that for the last 100 years this ancient holy land has been victim of criminal intent, pillage and murder, she still standing because you can defeat the armies but you can’t defeat a Nation.
The information being distributed in the social networks has been great to raise awareness inside Palestine and around the world, but has not been enough to contra-rest the propaganda being spread for more than 65 years, and certainly not enough to fight the Religious notion that Palestine is the promise Land and the Jews the chosen people.
Sadly there are thousands of Palestinians inside West Bank, and Gaza that live in a state of imaginary peace and comfort and they conform a block designed by the Zionist Entity with years of tricks with military strangulation and social makeup , these Palestinians Citizens have no mood or humor to side with the resistance fighters of the rest of the Palestinians Society, to join their voices with the thinkers, the fighter minds, the displaced in refugee camps,.. they themselves are enemies of the Palestinian Cause, living inside an occupied country where they have their work, they do not suffer to survive, they can travel abroad with ease and their sons and daughters live in shielded comfort zone. Their children don’t see the need to throw rocks, they don’t feel the necessary to voice their anger to the occupier forces, they grew up to their pain and their settle inside the occupation with built tirelessness transformed in apathy, they finally have left the fight to the politicians, which at the same time do nothing other to live the occupation.
Some of the higher ranking politicians in Palestinian Politics were swallowed by this phenomenon and they don’t see it other way, they were also molded to the occupation. They live in an endless planing for the future, where meetings take their full schedule that there is no time to really act as a citizen living in an occupied land. Off course there are the few dissidents minds which mostly are sitting inside Israel, Hamas and PA jails.
According to Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics and prisoner advocacy groups, there are currently over 6000 Palestinian prisoners, including legislators, in Israeli jails, many of whom have been rounded up without charge or trial. Independent sources put the number of the inmates at 11,000. The latest arrests are part of an Israeli suppression campaign targeting senior Palestinian figures’ activities. The crackdown is believed to be aimed at preventing reconciliation between Hamas and its rival Palestinian faction, Fatah. Press TV
It is very sad to recognized millions of Palestinians in the exile think more or less this way, and even the militias are accustomed to fight, they have been mentally trained to die for the land, they become to think that as long as they keep fighting and dying they believe to fulfill their duty as a Muslim and as Palestinians and they are not ready to accept changes that goes against what they grew to live and believe. They are exhausted to try and they keep doing the only thing that “works”…keeping Israel in an endless state of uncomfortably bother, if they kill one “Jew” is a victory even if it mean nothing in the big scale, but Israel uses it as an excuse to kill: The Ratio is 8 to 1.
All the divisions we see in Palestine were engineered in that way, the political factions do not want to let go the little thing they think they have “achieved”. The UN Club-former league of Nations created the facts in the ground to make more believable the division of the land.
There are hundreds of NGO’s around the world that are collecting millions of dollars in Palestine Name or using Palestine Cause but they have become operational businesses, most of the money being used primarily in renting expensive hotels to “Expose the Occupation” and to collect donations, even the real concerned citizens that take part of the convoys that are continuously entering Gaza, they are more and more being attached to the occupation system.
I hate to give any score of victory to the Zionist Entity, but our compassion being used to add more efforts to bring Aid to Gaza and to helping few patients to foreign hospitals for treatment, all being done with good heart but it seems that is not really helping to end the occupation, or stopping the apartheid system, unfortunately we are being sucked to be part of the occupation.
Yesterday I was discussing the situation with Hassan Hammad, he has lived in and out the US for more than 30 years, he lost his Palestinians Identity Card and can not live nor work in Palestine, but can visit. He has completely lost hope on Palestine, according to him Israel control the PA, education, money, road, borders and in simple words, “Israel has created a sense of political Palestinians Participation with the PA, but in reality Israel control everything that is said and done and the little achievement that we have in Palestine is because Israel wanted that way, but if she want she will militarily occupy Ramallah tomorrow, and none can do anything, but Israel does not want to bother again, it is too much hustle ”
I tell him that the situation is different now, that the world is supporting Palestine, than more than 150 countries have recognized Palestine, and again he said. “Where are the 150 country armies, are they defending Palestine or they just talking?”
It is hard to argue against his hopelessness, he have lived the occupation, the curfews, checkpoints, tear gas, jail, bullets, humiliation, his first son died inside her wife womb because the curfew was enforced severely during the first intifada and she needed cesarean to deliver. He has bad memories of Palestine and see a bleak future.
Off course I do not really blame Palestinians, they have been the victims all along, victims that they have forged their mind, living, and misery to fit inside the occupation, I whole blame the Zionist Entity, the Christian loonies and the Elite around the world that have used the “Middle East” conflict to divide the minds and lands of the world in their path of destruction making with this The Stronger Industry men have ever seen. “The War Complex Machine”.
Palestine is One Nation under Siege, The psychological war that Israel wages against her people is more provocative than the physical one. The uncertainty of tomorrow is in every Palestinian mind, they are not allowed to plan a future for themselves, for their children or for their lands.
Israel continual incursions in Gaza air space and overnights raid in West Bank keep the population in an upheaval situation every day. The destruction of Gaza dwellings and the complete disruption of their social life have made Palestinians to look for ways to heal their uncertain condition as a ‘Nation’ under the grip of a military power that have drained the natural resources and the energy of the people of the Holy Land.
The world is changing their view on the Palestine-Israel conflict and every day more and more people around the world are adding their efforts to the global resistance, against the occupation, being virtual activist or International Observer we all are taking part of Palestine struggle, just do not allow to be part of the Apartheid System.
Views articulated by Palestinians in Gaza are more optimists than those in the exile, the hopes for a better tomorrow are stronger than the oppression of the occupation.
Now days in Gaza where the intifada continue until now and the borders between Israeli and Gaza people are closed the numbers of educated people is rising and reaching high levels. Now in Gaza, we have the best computer programmers, best scientists and the most percentage of highly educated people Compared to census thousands of master degrees hundreds of Ph Ds
Youth groups aiming to raise the The level of social awareness: In radio stations, media, news agencies took the obligation to show to the world about our case, which has been covered by the Israel’s media propaganda machine all the time dispersing lies, making itself look as a victim, but now our case, our voices is full of freedom and power, willing from all our hearts to make every one in this world to understand and to know about our rights.
He could not imagine his son, as a journalist struggling with his pen to write against the corruption that prevents such things as justice, purity and freedom, because the advocates of justice and freedom in and around Gaza have their own law, which prevents others from speaking the truth.
This is the bleak picture cameras can pick up if approached from Gaza borders, and the question arises, what is needed from the Palestinian Gazans to do in order to live their life with dignity, freedom, justice, security and Peace?. Gaza Heart and Mind – by Kamal Sobeh
A longer headline would have added the words because of President Obama’s grovelling for Jewish campaign funding and votes.
On 19 December, in the Jewish Daily Forward, Josh Nathan-Kazis wrote this:
“Top-level Jewish fundraisers from President Obama’s 2008 campaign are sticking with the president in 2012.
“Despite reports that President Obama faces a loss of Jewish funders due to his Middle East policy, analysis of a list of elite bundlers from his 2008 race shows no defections among the president’s top Jewish supporters in 2012.”
That’s not good news for the would-be presidents on the Republican side who are grovelling for Jewish campaign funds and votes.
On the same day, in what the BBC’s Barbara Plett called “a highly unusual move”, all the regional and political groupings on the UN Security Council sharply criticised Israeli settlement activities. They said in their statements that “continued settlement building threatened the chances of a future Palestinian state.” They also expressed dismay at rising settler violence. (“They” were the envoys representing the European Union, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Arab Group and a loose coalition of emerging states known as IBSA).
It was UK Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant who read the statement of the EU group.
“Israel’s continuing announcements to accelerate the construction of settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, (1000 new housing units tendered for last week), send a devastating message. We believe that Israel’s security and the realisation of the Palestinians’ right to statehood are not opposing goals. On the contrary they are mutually reinforcing objectives. But they will not be achieved while settlement building and settler violence continues.”
As Barbara Plett noted, “Despite the unanimity of views, the envoys did not try to draft a single Security Council statement because they knew the US would veto it.” She also noted that the Obama administration’s stance was that “anything to do with Israeli-Palestinian peace talks belongs in a US-led bilateral process, not at the UN.” (In my opinion that’s hypocrisy of the highest order).
It could be said, and I do say, that such criticism of Israel’s settlement activities is 44 years too late. So what, really, is its significance?
My answer is in three parts.
The first is that it’s a strong indication of America’s growing isolation because of the Obama administration’s unconditional support for Zionism’s monster child.
The second, related, is that it seems to confirm what I have been saying and writing for several months – that behind closed doors almost all of the governments of the world, European governments in particular, are more than fed up with Israel’s contempt for and defiance of international law.
The third is that the governments of most of the member states of the UN have come to terms with the fact that Zionism’s assertion that a Palestinian state on the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip could and would pose a threat to Israel’s existence is propaganda nonsense of the highest order. (This, of course, is only of academic interest because the two-state solution has long been dead if not yet buried).
When I am thinking about Obama’s grovelling, my memory recalls a comment made to me by Dr. Hajo Meyer, the passionate anti-Zionist Nazi holocaust survivor and author of An Ethical Tradition Betrayed, The End of Judaism.
We had shared a platform in London and over breakfast the following morning I asked him a question. I said: “Hajo, you’re well into your eighties and you are being vilified by Zionism’s verbal hit-men for your efforts to unmask the Zionist monster. Why are you continuing with your truth-telling? Why don’t you sit back in peace and quiet and enjoy what’s left of your life?”
He replied with nine little words. “The first person I see every morning is me,” meaning “I have to live with myself.”
It’s more than reasonable to assume that Obama looks in the mirror from time to time. I wonder if he can live with himself.
Footnote: My comments on Israel’s response
Israel’s response as delivered by Karean Peretz, spokeswoman for Israel’s UN Mission, included this: “The main obstacle to peace, has been, and remains, the Palestinians’ claim to the so-called right of return and its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state,”
That, too, is Zionist propaganda nonsense of the highest order.
Israel is not a Jewish state. How could it be when about a quarter of its citizens are Arabs and mainly Muslims? Israel could only be a Jewish state after it had resorted to a final round of ethnic cleansing. Israel is a Zionist state.
Because Arafat kept them informed through a secret channel, Israel’s leaders have long known that in the event of a two-state solution, the PLO was reluctantly reconciled to the reality of the right of return being confined to the territory of the Palestinian state, which would mean that only about 100,000 refugees would be able to return, with the rest having to accept financial compensation for the loss, theft, of their land and rights.
As I explain in my book Zionism, The Real Enemy of the Jews, when they decided they had no choice but to be pragmatic, Arafat and his leadership colleagues took a degree of comfort from two hopes. One was that all Palestinian refugees everywhere could and would have a Palestinian passport. The other was that if there was a two-state solution, it could evolve over one or two generations into one state for all – i.e. because in peace and partnership enough Israeli Jews would say something like, “We don’t need two states”. In the event of a one-state solution coming about by mutual consent, it was assumed on the Palestinian side at leadership level that, over time, all Palestinians who wanted to return would be able to return. So in theory the two-state solution was not necessarily the end-game on the right of return.
The Elite is a group of shadows that moves in every sphere of power of the world, they have dreams of conquer, their power’s appetite is insatiable, the pain of humanity do not bother them at all, the destruction of the Natural Resources of our Mother Earth don’t concern this group, they thrive on the misery of others, the sweat and blood of the working class, the masses of the world is their labor force.
They seems to be invisible because they hide behind umbrellas groups, sisters companies, shadowy corporations around the world, affiliate groups and companies that moves behind the Banking Industry, Food Industry, War Complex Machine and Oil Industry.
One group support the other because they are so entwined with each other that one can not live without the other, if one falls the rest will follow like a domino effect. Really simple to understand their pyramid scheme, we have been told of them for years, they have been present since ever, but since economy was invented they got organized in hierarchy levels, and in really the lower levels will never reach the top of the pyramid, Why? because the tip of the pyramid has set up a set of rules, ladders and traps that allow them to always be in the top.
As soon as a family, group, or individual reaches its limit, the one set up by the tip of the pyramid, they will stay there and if they try to surpass their level, they will be promptly eliminated, discredited and its power and fortune will be lost, and if they were not killed or disappeared or whatever is chosen for them, they have two choices; kill themselves in disgrace or desperation because they do not know how to live the lower simple life, or they cross to the other side.
They are the pawns of the king, they are bendable to the circumstances, they are swingers in their ideas, they are mold-able in their behavior, they have strange sense of humanity. If we search history for this types, we can find quite many.
The more recent examples and more notorious will be the ones in the recent economic sector, moguls that amazed huge amounts of fortune enough to buy whole countries, but some how they felt in disgrace to the top, either by greed, lack of loyalty, or exposure. They were killed, prosecuted and put in jail, or their fortune stripped from them. The most famous of the examples will be Kennedy Family, they that broke the mold of the Elite. This family amazed their fortune during the slave trade in the 1800, their fortune as long as they follow the rules set, they raise up in the spheres of power and money, but a little misstep and the family was put in the black list.
The Powers that move the strings, are at the top of the Pyramid and the pawns on the chessboard think they are the players, but they are only the pawns that move in straight line and do not see the king, they defend the king with their life without knowing that they are being played.
“The Elite network in general, can manipulate and deceive most of its own membership because it is structured like a pyramid. If you look at any organisation, from a small business to a multinational corporation, you will see the same pyramid structure. At the top will be a very few people who know everything there is to know about the organisation, its motivation, agenda, and the direction it wishes to go. The further you descend from the peak, you meet more and more people who know less and less about that overall picture. They are only aware of their part in the organisation and not everyone else’s. This is a manipulator’s dream and it is the means through which the Elite can control so many people and organisations across the world.” David Icke
These men do not make the mistakes, as they themselves are part of the same programs, they are disposable, usable and trash-able when they finish their mission.
We need to be vigilant of any actions that will come in the next few months, as the global awareness movement is taken new levels and so the Globalist Agenda. But as always We The People have the upper hand if we stay united.
There is nothing stronger than a United Family and in these volatile days we the “Human Family” needs to stay more united than ever to win the battle of the classes that has been waged against us.
And I m not talking in any socialist agenda or political agenda of any kind I m talking of the awareness that it is taking place in every block of society.
Because they have no choice or said, US leaders’ backers and Israel leaders’ backers are the same entities, if Israel fails which is inevitable, US will fail which is inevitable.
We must be blind if we do not see what our leaders are doing, they are taking us to the gutters with them in their unwilling “blindly” support for Israel.
There is no hope for us as a super power, we are broke, the revolution have started in here and in Israel and in every country that follow our own system of deceit by the banking establishment, oil industry, and enrichment of the war complex machine on our backs and sweets.
Every society that have reach the level of power that we had, and I mean the western societies is doomed to succumb under the same weight of abuse of power and citizen abused. Really we still have to see in our history, that a Revolution have started in a equal happy society.
It’s too late for the west system to be saved, at least the system of inequality in place, the people is angry, the people is hungry and only need to be little bit more desperate and a false move from the oppressive forces (Police,Army,Security) a false step and the Violent Revolution will spark. Does not take an intelligent mind to see whats is going on, it takes an empty stomage, a desperate father, or a Dreamer to spark the flame. I think if all the world at once, and I mean the 99 % will wake up at once, we will avoid a global massacre. God help us all, in the mean time, we need to keep doing what we doing, putting our 2 cents in our own cause to save us from a carnage from part of the 1 % paid mercenaries. “Private Contractors” Aka mercenaries, they are hundreds of thousands around the world, being paid and trained by the various Western Countries.
The main event during the period in which Murdoch asserted that the Arabs were trying to “overrun” Israel was the 1967 war. Zionism’s story of it, which the mainstream media still peddles to this day, is that Israel went to war either because the Arabs attacked first or were intending to attack. Both, the either and the or, are Zionist propaganda nonsense. It was a war of Israeli aggression. Opinion-Maker
The power to the people is pushing aside the “legends” of the Media, characters made famous for their unrestricted use of Power to divert, their impunity to bend the truth with catastrophic consequences.
People like Rupert Murdoch involved by power given to him by not other than you, your indifference to play a role in your own affairs. His power is vested on nothing more than propaganda and lies.
Take your power back and Murdoch and his empire of Adds and Money will dissipate with the silver screen, and the Flash News, that the only flash is the light in the face of the actor of the scenery of the theater they mount everyday. Wake Up to reality and take back your rights, exercise your power to decide for your Present and Your Future.
They are very much aware of the situation in the world, at this stage there is no business as usual, his own empire is suffering the Social Networks taking their viewers and readers away from their outlets, even Abraham Foxman with all his ADL power is suffering the downs of the People waking up to the truth, learning the real agenda of his ADL as a front to kill any attacks on the Zionist Agenda, the ADL and the Jewish Lobby worked tirelessly to kill dissent but now we are seeing that their stage is falling down.
ADL was created to keep the antisemitism myth alive, the Paid media tool of propaganda used very diligently, the shadowy groups around the work, burning mosques, synagogues firing up the religious mood, which become one of the best weapons they created in the last 20 years.
“Muslims converts ” fueling the Muslim rage against the Jews. Cartoons enraging the Muslim religious faith.
Holocaust business soaring as a bad omen in the media and in the mind of the newbies, the ignorant of the agenda Hittlerist of the second world.
The “Self Hater Jews” new term and its promoters working wonders in the social networks with their cheap hasbaras that can be smell miles away.
The invented wars that terrorized, murdered and put the last nail in the coffin of the middle east hard worked stability that devastated the region and inserted military opps all over the middle east.
Their (Puppets) positions on issues are going to change with the Times, because that is what they do good these characters like the lizards will change the color of their skin as the times change and the heat turn on their vulnerable side. Their ancestors did it in the past they changed religion as convenience permitted, now these lizards will change even their views and responses to the times that are changing.. Murdoch is not stupid but he goes where the money is, he goes where the money will be generated.
I see with sadness that my once great United Sates is isolating itself and its been pulled to the abyss by its blindly support of Israel. Both United States and Israel more and more are becoming irrelevant in the international arena, besides Israel is cornered like a wounded animal, that its throwing its last blows, but as its seen lately its throwing blows to the wind, because the whole world it is her enemy, and for United States the luck is not better and being in the worse financial crisis of its time, and with her population raising by the minute against the governmental apparatus, there is not too much hope.
Let’s hope that the leaders use the last common sense and reverse their policies of blindly support for Israel. And I mean this needs to be pronto, as the time we are living are dangerous. The anger is piling up, the aggression of Israel, and United States and few other allies are surpising the level of acceptance or swallowable existence from part of their population.
The West it is fire, they should not try to kill it with wind, Common Sense is the only exit. Israel does not have many years to live, take the lessons from South Africa Apartheid System. Take the lessons from The Great Rome, From Japan, Germany, Soviet Union and others entities that did not survived the extensive power they grasped in detriment of the masses.
Life is not fair, and has not been less unfair for Palestinians since the Zionist Movement started at the beginning of the century. The situation in Gaza is deplorable worse than in the West Bank, and we know that everything that we people of the world wanted to happen for the good of Peace in the world, will only going to be possible if WE THE PEOPLE take the initiative and the lead in our world affairs.
All the Middle East Conflict Israel/Palestine used as convenience to keep the rage, the energies exhausted, to keep the people taking sides, while they are waging more wars, destroying our Earth, starving the world, wasting our natural resources. They are making us angry, they are steering our last fiber of patience, they are brewing the revolution that will put end to the American empire, they are making impossible the peaceful revolution, where we change the old world order for a new world order, where we all have fair share of our world, where we all enjoy Peace.
From Facebook by Hiam Tabbarah-Odds on Sunday, October 9, 2011 at 12:57pm
AN EMAIL I HAVE RECEIVED, UNFORTUNATELY IT HAS NO SIGNATURE, BUT IS WORTH READING. IT NEEDS NO AUTHENTICATION AND SHOULD BE THE ADDRESS OF EVERY AMERICAN TO THE PRESIDENT OR TO ANY PRESIDENT IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
Dear Mr. President,
I am neither an expert on history nor a political activist; I am just an average American who is gravely concerned about the direction I see my country taking. I know you inherited a snake-pit of problems when you first took the oath just three years ago, but somehow when you said ‘Yes, we can!’ I believed you could find a way to return our country to its basic beliefs in liberty and justice for all.
I grew up being proud to be an American, inspired by Patrick Henry’s heroic words of ‘Give me liberty or give me death’, instilling in me a belief that liberty was indeed worth dying for. My grandfather enlisted in the army in 1914, thinking that his involvement would help make it the war to end all wars. Then just twenty-five years later, my father enlisted in the navy with the belief he was fighting against imperialism and tyranny. I am still proud of my grandfather and father for they left the safety of America to fight for the freedom of others.
Although neither my father’s nor my grandfather’s generations were able to being about the end to war, we as a nation have always been ready to fight for our own freedom as well as that of others. We have always admired any people who fought against the occupation of their nation, regarding the French resistance movement as especially inspirational. It seems the Palestinians who also live under occupation are not regarded as a people who have that same right.
Quite frankly, Mr. President, it appears to me that we no longer believe in justice and freedom for all, but only for those who can either be of financial benefit to us or for those who have the strongest lobby in Washington, D.C. How can we condemn UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) and threaten to withhold millions of funds from them if they recognize Palestine as a valid member of the UN? Israel never had any problem when it asked for official recognition in the UN even though they were a nation created on land that was already populated by Palestinians. But Palestine, the land that is divided into shards of broken up city states, unable to even control who enters its own cities, its own borders or its own roads, is not seen as worthy of being part of the UN. And why? Because according to Israel, the Palestine Authority refuses to recognize it? I am sorry to tell you this, but they have recognized Israel over and over again. Are we suddenly deaf to anything a Palestinian says and open-eared for anything that comes from an Israeli? Why, might I ask, has Israel not recognized Palestine? Isn’t that a key to establishing a peaceful situation in the Middle East?
Just a quick look at UN Resolution 242 shows that Israel has been thumbing its nose at the UN for well over forty years. The preamble of this resolution makes it perfectly clear about the “inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war and the need to work for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East in which every State in the area can live in security.” Does this not include Palestine or am I missing some tiny print that excludes them and only refers to Israel as having this right?
Let us not forget as well that this resolution also calls for the withdrawal of Israel’s armed forces from territories occupied in the 1967 conflict. Has that happened yet? All I see is the world turning a blind eye to what Israel continues to do, illegally entering into cities like Ramallah and Gaza claiming it is for security reasons. I wonder if we would feel the same if Mexican or Canadian troops violated the sovereignty of our borders with similar claims. I find it odd that Israel is the only nation in the world that is given carte blanche to do so.
I am confused between the America I thought we were, the nation that professes to stand for the rights of all, regardless of their religious beliefs, their color, their creed and the America I have seen over the past few years. I now see us as a 21st century Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that one moment sends troops to fight for people’s rights and the next moment supports the strong-armed treatment of peaceful protesters when they stand against Israeli occupation.
Are we now a nation that stands like Caesar in the amphitheater of politics that either thumbs up or thumbs down the fate of a people? Is it thumbs up if we can benefit from what they have? Thumbs up if their lobby is so powerful we fear their power? Thumbs down if they are only fighting for freedom and independence? Thumbs down if they are Palestinian?
The people of Palestine need a voice in the United Nations which is an organization that my country fought very hard to establish in 1945. Let us not forget that all the Palestinians are asking for is to be recognized as the very nation the UN in Resolution 181 had tried to establish as far back as 1947. Yes, it was rejected by the Palestinians at that time because it meant giving up what was rightfully theirs in order to provide a safe haven for people who survived the holocaust in Europe. Now that the Palestinians have swallowed their pride, their wounds have scarred over and they are willing to accept that resolution, they are being denied. Have they waited too long? Was there an expiry date on the offer?
Why do we now oppose the recognition of Palestine if we tried to establish it over sixty years ago? What has changed? The people of Palestine lost everything when Israel came into being. They are an occupied people, like the French under the Nazis, but have we decided their resistance is wrong because it against the Israel? It can’t be because of religious differences because Palestinians are Jews, Muslims and Christians… but then you knew that already, right?
Why are we so afraid to stand up to Israel, the country that is the recipient of most of our tax money…the same country that blatantly ignores every UN Resolution concerning the Middle East…the same nation that contrary to UN orders, continues to build settlements and occupy land that is not rightfully theirs…the same country that openly practices state-supported terrorism of a people who, like David, throw stones at the Israeli Goliath who responds with tank fire, gas and bullets…the same country lead by a man who continues to openly insult you and our people? Netanyahu has consistently lied to the world about his intentions. He has done everything in his power to ensure that a Palestinian state is not created. Peace negotiations are nothing more than a cover to gain time to steal more land and water resources from the Palestinians. Mr. President, can you not see this or are you blinded by Israel’s control over whether you get re-elected or not?
Why do we allow ourselves to remain joined at the hip with a Siamese twin that is destroying our very core, our principles of human rights and justice? I am hoping you too can follow in the courageous footsteps of Presidents Eisenhower and Carter who stood up to Israel and said ‘No!’ Be the man who cuts this Gordian Knot and set us free!
Mr. President, do you really think our forefathers would be proud of what we have become? Don’t you think it is time to stand up to tyranny and break free of the chains that are holding us all back from supporting justice and freedom? Until that day, I shall weep for my nation and apologize to our forefathers for what we have become and for what we have done to our great nation.
It is up to All of us in the free world, to speak, to protest, to boycott, to question against the US or any other country that do not agree with the Independence of Palestine.
There is no more time for mockery “Peace Talks”, they were never intended to solve the conflict but to continue the occupation which some how in the road of 65 years has become “Legal”, go figure how the “Elite” understand democracy and freedom for others. All we know is that UN (Club of 5) were never partners for peace, not for the Palestinians or for no one. Now the best they can do is to stay on the sidelines and let the people to choose their destiny.
The Arabs Spring, this is how the Media have baptized the will of the people, the people revolutions have shown to the world, to the leaders that we still have the power to move, and those revolutions will keep growing even if the Elite thinks they can stop them.
Now is the time for us to yell loud and clear that we are not spectators no more, we want peace for Palestinians, we want their rights, their seat in the UN. We the People Choose not to let few leaders to Choose for all of us.
Remember; The leaders are few, WE THE PEOPLE are Many, we are billions of people that can rise to the occasion. Injustice is one of the reasons the revolutions started not only in these past few months, but throughout history. We are to the brink of starvation, because injustice is to the order of the day. The Leaders can not afford a global boycott, a global march, a global Protest, a global REVOLUTION, because WWIII will be imminent, and why will they want to use nuclear weapons. Why for the benefit of few. NO, Nonsense.
Palestine has been an ongoing conflict that needs to be solved now, and this is a great opportunity for Israel to move forward and stop their aggressive tactics and finally get it, that enough is enough.
The disinformation going around is a real knock out of Israel against Palestine, there is no Indefinite Veto Power, the Security Council will make a recommendation on the Request from Palestine Authority to Be accepted as a Full Member of the UN being the 194 state. But the real power is in the General Assembly of the UN, that needs 3/4 of of the countries to pass a resolution. And nothing is written in stone, any compromise reach on this historic resolution should be implemented and could be change for the good of the parties involved. Especially for Palestinians that have always get the worse part in any accords in the past. And by the way, those accords should be obsolete, they were never implemented from Israel part, but were forced on the Palestinians.
In the past, all the veto resolutions done by US or any other country never seek the General Assembly because they were weak requests in the eyes of the General Assembly, but this time is different, the world is tired of Israel mockery of International Law, tired of Israel violating every convention and International Human Rights Statutes . The world is tired to see the full support that Israel gets from the Club of 5 (UN Security Council/illegal in my view)on every crime she commits. I think now we finally are seeing ourselves as awaken from a long dream.
Before we will hear Obama, or Bush or Blair or any Leaders excusing Israel for killing Palestinians with the well known statement; “Israel has the right to defend itself”, com’on defend itself from who, from patients in hospitals being bombed from F16, or drones, defend itself from 10 years old being killed and called collateral damaged, when Israel bomb their homes. Defend from the Olive trees, being uprooted for the buffer zone or to plant settlement inside Palestine?
We seen it all with Israel the latest slap to all of us, was the massacre of the Mavi Marmara where the Palmer Report got to the conclusion that the Block of Gaza is Legal, and the murder of 9 unarmed peace activists were in an act of self defense. Really! it is ludicrous, ridiculous how, time and time again we see Israel being exonerated with a pad in the back for her crimes. The way we seen lately the disproportionate use of force against International Peace Activists and the Non Violent movement, is how the world attention has finally paid attention to the Palestinian Cause. It’s like we went back time, and found ourselves inside South Africa Apartheid, but in Palestine, in the Occupied Territories, and we using this term Occupied Territories as we were in the medieval times, when the law of the jungle ruled. We are in the 21 century and we still have some Military States oppressing entire populations and our leaders and news treat the phenomenon as it is normal.
Israel is not the only Military Dictatorship that it is committing crimes against humanity, India also is in flagrant abuse of power in the region of Kashmir, but the eyes of the world are now in Palestine and it is time to start cutting heads, Israel is a new beginning because it is from this spot on earth that the globalist agenda is planned.
Our history is full of Mass Murderers not only the revered Kings of the history books have killed thousands of people and usurped the rights of those same people, but Popes and revered religious figures in our past have ordered the mass murdered of thousands of people, even The God of the Old Testament had ordered the killings of thousands of people and we were ok with those stories. Now in this modern era we see the savagery that took place in the past, and we start realizing that we never really stand together as a race, in no other time in history we did were together, we always been divided by Religion, Cultural Values, Political ideas and other divisive tools. In the last 40 years I can say, since the hippie movement is that the world started their awakening, and now we are more and more standing with my brother, speaking for his rights, and suffering his pains. Palestine is the great example, but does not stop there, we are moving to a new era, this is it..Natayahu is only one of many which heads will fall. With your help, my help and that of 6.7 billions more people that are awakening…
The Beginning of new era for Palestine start in that theater, that was the same that created Israel. With the difference that Israel is losing support, and Palestine support is growing day by day. And I know that it seems that if we accept the idea of two states solutions we will be given legitimacy to Israel, I see it from the positive side and the realistic fact, that the population of Palestine is growing exponentially, and Israel population is diminishing, in two ways; lots of Israelis are abandoning the boat and leaving the Land, and also, they do not reproduce as fast as Palestinians do, so I see it, as the power of the people will take over, and with the help of the International Community of Peace and Social activists and conscience objectors, Israel will eventually disappear from the Map with the same pen that was created. The UN.
And it is exactly in this spot on earth, the Holy Land where history said conflicts started, when so it is a good place to start with the cleaning of our Planet. Welcome to Humanity 1.01, the program is fresh upgrade yours it is free. ……….STAY HUMAN
My favorite Radio Host Michael Rivero and his very own and truthful views of our world
The instant the US government Vetos the Palestinian measure in the security council the whole world is going to know that the US government is full of crap. When it comes to middle east peace when it comes to a Palestinian state, everybody is going to see the US government grovel for Israel before the eyes of the entire world. The US governments credibility is going to be destroyed, not that there is very much left anyways. So everybody in Washington DC might as well get your tee-shirts that say “proud to be Israels bitch” and you might as well put them on right now… because after Friday that is what everyone on planet earth is going to be thinking about you. Everybody who’s in congress and washington DC if you want to support Israel GO THERE! But as long as you stand on the soverign territory of the USA and as long as your salary is paid by the American tax payer and you work in the buildings that belong to the people of the USA you better darn well be taking care of this country, because we have HAD IT.
A Strategy for Israel in the 1980′s…Read this article in entirely and see how the agenda is been followed to the last step. So do not get discourage, we keep fighting, we moving to a new era
People we do not know.…….We interact few times in the walls, in the channels, the spaces and we call ourselves, friends, brothers, comrades. We go to extreme lengths to fight for your rights, to fight for your country, to fight for your causes. We stand strong for a reason we do not completely understand, other than doing social justice to peace and friendship. What really Happen to all of us?, that suddenly we raise our voices for your flag, for the protection of your individual liberties, your civil rights
Would UN General Assembly Vote for an Independent Palestine?…..Since the Fall of the Berlin Wall ,there are enough existential and serious problems for regimes and states in the Arab and Muslim world ,from Morocco to Saudi Arabia, and beyond , greedy , ruthless White Christian Crusaders pursuing mostly illegal policy of destruction and loot of sovereign states like Libya ,Iraq etc .There is relentless pressure on Assad regime in Syria, but the next hot item on the Middle East agenda is going to be the vote on Palestine Independence in United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in September, 2011.
Who Controls Yemen, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden?
Where does the strait lead to?
Why is there famine in Somalia, when it is an oil rich land, and is strategically positioned on the map.
Do you ever took a minute to explore the world?
Gulf of Aden is an extension of the Indian Ocean, which is located between Africa and Asia, it forms the natural separation between the countries of Somalia and Yemen.
The waters of the Gulf of Aden flow into the Red Sea through the Bab el Mandeb (strait), and because it provides an outlet to the west for the Persian Gulf Oil, it’s now one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. So I ask again Who Controls Yemen?
All this little regional control that lead to strategist position being for oil distribution, military deployment or control of traffic of arms, goods, illegal products, such drugs or illegal arms.
Follow the Maps, from Somalia Coast through the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Gulf of Aqaba, Gulf of Suez and other important seas shorelines areas.
Open your Google Maps and Type Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Somalia, or Yemen and you will see why
the media’s narrative is about Somali Piratest. The media in general haven’t write an investigative piece because, MSM, haven’t send their reporters to the area to survey those countries’s oil shipping lines, whose is buying that, whose companies are doing the extraction and all those important aspects.
Israel is still occupies Saudi Arabian islands
Tuesday, 18 May 2010 14:05
Israel has been occupying parts of Saudi Arabia since 1967. Tiran and Sanafir are two islands with a combined area of 113 square kilometres, so they are small, and are in a very strategic location at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, through which sea traffic to Israel’s southern port of Eilat must pass en route to and from the Red Sea. Israel maintains an early warning post on the islands.
Although the Saudi Arabian government might claim that the islands are small, unimportant coral reef islands, their position is such that whoever controls them controls the Gulf of Aqaba. They are as important as the Hanish archipelago at the other end of the Red Sea over which a conflict raged in 1995. International arbitration determined that Hanish belongs to Yemen. The Israeli occupation of Tiran and Sanafir determines that, if nothing else, the Israelis control the islands and don’t really care who they belong to. Saudi Arabia has fought for similar islands but seems to be reluctant to challenge the Israeli occupation. Is it because the islands have no material value?
The islands were occupied by Israel after the late King Faisal had given control of them to Egypt to prevent Israeli ships being able to get to Eilat during the Six-Day War. After the ceasefire, Saudi Arabia and Egypt each claimed that the islands belonged to the other, leaving them free for the Israeli occupation to begin. When Egypt made peace with Israel in 1978, President Anwar Sadat refused to include them in the peace agreement, arguing that they belong to Saudi Arabia. A computer search reveals that even Google labels them as “Saudi Arabia” and maps of the country in governmental offices show clearly that they are Saudi territory, so why the reluctance to challenge Israel, and why is there a media blackout?
It’s quite simple: Israel needs an outlet to the Red Sea for its shipping. The only Israeli presence on the islands is military to ensure that the shipping lanes are kept clear for its imports and exports, including military hardware to fight against Arab states. By international agreement, a multinational UN force is also stationed on the islands which “monitors the compliance of all parties” with this agreement. In reality, this means that American and Egyptian troops help to protect Israel’s shipping lanes through the Straits of Tiran, Saudi Arabia’s occupied sovereign territory. What would the people of Saudi Arabia say if they knew?
The division of the former British mandate of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel in the years after the end of World War II have been at the heart of Middle Eastern conflicts for the past half century.
The creation of Israel was the culmination of the Zionist movement, whose aim was a homeland for Jews scattered all over the world following the Diaspora. After the Nazi Holocaust, pressure grew for the international recognition of a Jewish state, and in 1948 Israel came into being.
Israeli president: Shimon Peres
The Israeli president has a mainly ceremonial role; executive power is vested in the cabinet, headed by the prime minister.
Israel’s elder statesman: Shimon Peres
On 13 June 2007, the Israeli parliament chose the veteran politician Shimon Peres to succeed Moshe Katsav, who had taken leave of absence from the presidency earlier in the year after being accused of various sexual offences.
Mr Katsav formally resigned on 29 June after agreeing to plead guilty to several of the offences as part of a plea bargain that removed two rape charges against him.
Israeli prime minister: Binyamin Netanyahu
Binyamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-wing Likud party, became prime minister after an inconclusive early election in February 2009, a decade after holding the office once before.
Mr Netanyahu campaigned on a policy of toughness towards Palestinian militancy
The vote was called when his predecessor, Ehud Olmert, of the centrist Kadima party, resigned amid corruption allegations, and Mr Olmert’s designated successor, Tzipi Livni, failed to put together a new centre-left coalition.
Mrs Livni and Kadima actually won one more seat in the Knesset (parliament) than Likud, but right-wing parties emerged stronger than the left overall.
ISRAELI MEDIA
Israel’s press and broadcasters are many and varied, and account for differences in language, political viewpoint and religious outlook.
The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA), set up along the lines of the BBC, operates public radio and TV services and is funded mainly by licence fees on TV sets.
Channel 2 and Israel 10 are the main commercial TV networks. Most Israeli households subscribe to cable or satellite packages. HOT cable and YES satellite TV are the main multichannel providers.
Commercial radio arrived in 1995, but faces competition from unlicensed radio stations, some of which carry ultra-Orthodox programming.
Israel has 13 daily newspapers and at least 90 weeklies. All titles are privately-owned; many are available on the internet.
In the view of watchdog Reporters Without Borders, “the Israeli authorities are capable of both best and worst practice when it comes to respect for press freedom. Despite military censorship, its press still enjoys latitude that is unequalled in the region.”
Israel has a large IT industry and one of the world’s most technologically-literate populations. Around 5.3 million people – around 71% of the population – had internet access by May 2008 (InternetWorldStats).
Palestinian leader: Mahmoud Abbas
Former Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, the candidate of the Fatah faction, won the January 2005 poll to replace the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
President Abbas succeeded Yasser Arafat as PLO leader
Mr Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, had already succeeded Yasser Arafat as leader of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO), having been Mr Arafat’s deputy since 1969.
The surprise victory of the militant Islamic movement Hamas in parliamentary polls in January 2006 led to heightened tension between the Palestinian factions. There were recurring bouts of violence between Hamas and Mr Abbas’s Fatah faction, raising fears of civil war. In February 2007, Hamas and Fatah agreed to form a government of national unity.
However, in June 2007 Hamas took control of the Gaza strip, seriously challenging the concept of a coalition, which Abbas subsequently dissolved.
Mr Abbas’s current term was set to have ended in January 2009, but in 2008 announced he was extending his term by another year, in order to allow presidential and parliamentary elections to be held at the same time. The move was denounced by Hamas.
In November 2009, Mr Abbas said he would not stand again in elections scheduled for 24 January 2010, in protest against the continuing impasse in attempts to resurrect peace talks with Israel.
Many analysts regard Mahmoud Abbas as a moderate. He has condemned the armed Palestinian uprising and favours the resumption of negotiations with Israel. But he faces the challenge of persuading armed groups to stop their campaign of anti-Israeli attacks.
Mahmoud Abbas was born in 1935 in Safed, a town in present-day northern Israel. He co-founded Fatah – the main political grouping within the PLO – with Yasser Arafat in the late 1950s.
He established contacts with left-wing Israelis in the 1970s and was the main Palestinian architect of the 1993 Oslo accords, which led to the foundation of the Palestinian Authority.
His brief stint as premier was plagued by power struggles with Mr Arafat over the control of the Palestinian security apparatus and over planned reforms. Mr Abbas resigned in September 2003.
The former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat died in a French hospital on 11 November 2004, aged 75.
The Peace Activists of the world in their efforts to stop the slaughter in Gaza by Israeli Missiles, is demanding that the UN members to draft a resolution addressing this matter, and that in their provisions include that:
“No country will have the right to override the power of the majority of its members”, and with this to set a precedent for future resolutions involving peace in the world.
For so long we have seen how That UN members have played a game of politics for the only purpose of distracting the world.
We have seen how resolution over resolution have been ignored by Israel or veto by US, when the resolutions involve in any way the protection of Palestinians.
UN Club have for many years insulted our intellect with their endless sessions that don’t serve any purpose but to legalize wars and conflicts. It seems that UN is not the enforcer of peace but the legitimizer and stamper of wars.
The World in this moments suffer the worse of the conflicts ever seen in the history of humanity, we have developed the most dangerous weapons that anybody can imagine, we count with weapons:
Able to pulverize entire buildings, to melt the most strong of the metals leaving no trace, to burn and disintegrate organic matter in matter of seconds, we are able to shake whole cities by the push of few bottoms, we can created storms and droughts in a matter of hours, we can change the directions of the currents of the oceans and disrupt the reproductive cycle of the ocean creatures, we control the weather and with that we change the pattern of the migrations of the birds. We really should be afraid of our technology.
Israel being one of the most advance technologically speaking entities in the world, it makes her the most dangerous for peace in the middle east and in the world, for her arrogance and disregards of international law. And also because she never abide by the rules of war and conflicts already established by the Geneva Convention and the Human Rights Status, does not share her military inventions, does not disclosure her illegal reverse engineer technology, and her nuclear capabilities.
The UN should retake its role in the pacification of the world, and should start with Israel.
And abolish the Veto Power of the Club of 5.
We need as a humanity to step our efforts to stop the rogue nations that do not serve the world, but their own agenda of destruction and control.
Students protest in Egypt to end the split PALESTINE
Stand and saw several interventions for the children of Palestine, particularly of students of different social strata
And groups to calls for emphasizing the importance of the unity of Palestinian ranks; has asked Mohammed Amarna (Doctor of Law – Cairo University) wondered: “How we live each day and the … occupation Jassim to our hearts, if not split ends Fsndao to change in favor of?? How to fall asleep our eyes and we We still say I’m from the West Bank and Gaza!! Palestine is One .. enough of the names scattered .. so it came to stress the importance of the Palestinian legitimacy and the transfer of all of our leadership Palestinian Let the people stand up by himself to end the division .. how long will insist on wearing the dress division? ”
He said student David David (spokesman for the students of Arab Media Research Institute) on the importance of the fooled BC rallies in Gaza and the West Bank and abroad and at home for one goal: to bridge the divide Filstiniy behind the legitimacy of President Abu Mazen, and Mohammed Al-Baghdadi (official Palestine Students in the academy naval branch of the Sheraton) In the appeal, saying: “For all the youth of Palestine and they are voice of the nation working to end division to guide the effort against the real enemy of Israel and to establish our Palestinian state and Jerusalem as its capital. ”
And crossed the press Salsabil Bseiso hoped that culminated in the revolutions of the Palestinian Popular, which was launched both on Facebook-style revolutions in the Arab region to the inevitable outcome in the near future, she said: “We have noticed in recent times in various countries how the collapsed every official of adherence to chair his reign in order to the protection of personal interests and narrow in front of the voice and will of the people reject him; and therefore everyone must learn a lesson and takes care of the national interests of the public to back Palestine as it was and return the brothers loved ones as they were .. Gaza is known flesh sons together enough of the accounting both for differences in our policy only; and we promise to Palestine just do not and to come back the Palestinian social fabric is known for its history as it was to live Palestine .. again ”
The Fady Madhoun (human medicine – University of Alexandria), saying: “came in this student delegation to emphasize the principles established in our dictionary Palestinian We are all talking and his eyes on Palestine, which in the most difficult their situations over the past five years, if we revisit the years of the five that have elapsed in the history of our Snagdna harvested Segmentation is not is that brought us back This could spur us to terminate as soon as .. the Palestinian cause is stronger humanitarian issue passed in human history; and here the aspects of a letter of thanks to the Ambassador of Palestine to assimilate to our demands in order to uphold our voice, hence the call for a protest in all embassies world, because the national unity is the main Mnfzna, Fadi and the message to the brothers to end the division in order not to reach the abyss and said: “We have a lot to go back Palestine as it was before 2005, why not start now ..”.
The sound Talouli embassy official student activities at the end of paragraph hair stand calling for national unity, and concluded by the Palestinian stance on the Palestinian Ohtav revolutionary songs which merged the votes of those present, saying: Hamas and Fatah unity is the foundation.
Gaza, Palestine(Akashma Web Blogs) The Day is March 15, 2011, Palestine Youth have made a call to all sectors of Palestine Society to come forward and unite as one force, forgetting differences of the past. Hamas as the leading Party in Gaza and Fatah as representative of West Bank they should unite their confidence with the people that is tired of so much violence, division and diversion. The occupation have for 62 years worn out their energy, is time to regain their fighter spirit that have characterized Palestinians but United as one Force, because the enemy have rejoice with their division and used it against them. “The People United will not be Defeated” is has been a slogan of fighters for centuries, lets remember that and be One Nation. Gaza and West Banks are districts of Palestine, and Palestine is One.
Gaza is under attack, Israel have stepped up her attacks in the Besieged Gaza Strip and even under such circumstances the Youth of Gaza leading “The Initiative Call Home” staged a protest in the Square of the Unknown Soldier in Gaza City before they were ordered to evacuated the Plaza. The protest led by Young Palestinians to end the internal divisions is a sign that the Revolution that started in Tunisia and Egypt has sparked the light in Palestine. There is not to say that they did not want to brake the old rule, but with the air of Revolution and the global support is a good moment to engage the world in their calls for Freedom.
The protest was broken up by security agencies of the Government by force, today they organized a sit-in group where
Young People peacefully gathered to demand an end to the internal divisions, in the Square of the unknown soldier in Gaza City, Palestine. Their demands have been growing stronger since last December when the Youth of Gaza Broke Out, a movement started growing support around the world, when they declare in their Famous “Gaza Youth’s Manifesto For Change” made public by blogger, Opinion Maker Online Newspaper and many others News Outlets around the world.
Such Manifesto was not welcome for factions inside Palestine and for many activists around the world, they saw in this Youth Manifesto more divisions, but in reality was a desperate call for a change.
“F**k Israel!,F**k USA! F**k Hamas!, F**k Fatah!, F**k UN. F**k UNWRA. We, the youth in Gaza, are so fed up with Israel, Hamas, the occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community! We want to scream and break this wall of silence, injustice and indifference. Like the Israeli F16’s breaking the wall of sound; we want to scream with all the power in our souls in order to release this immense frustration that consumes us because of this f*****g situation we live in.” Excerpt from the Gazan Youth’s Manifesto for change.
Said Hassan Farhat, one of the coordinators of youth initiative “Call Home” Monday, said that the security services of the Government blocked a sit in the courtyard of the Unknown Soldier in Gaza City to end the internal division in Palestine.
He said in a telephone Farhat told “together”: “A group of young people and the founders of “The Initiative Call Home” visitor in the courtyard of the soldier carrying Palestinian flags and posters but the police officers asked the protesters to withdraw from Square to the young people that started gathering in the Square of the Unknown Soldier.”
Farhat Said: “Despite the rejection of young men to withdrawal they were resolute to sit-in, police officers intensified their presence in the place, and was attended by four security agents dressed in civilian clothes that mix with the crowd and arrested Ahmed Arar coordinator of The Initiative Call Home among the demonstrators and took him to an unknown place and in addition to three others activists.”
Demands to End the Division: From here we call on the governments of the West Bank and Gaza to respond to the legitimate demands of the people:
1 – the release all political detainees in the prisons of the PA and Hamas
2 – the end of all forms of media campaigns against each others
3 – the resignation of the governments of Haniyeh and Fayyad to re-build a government of national unity agreed by all Palestinian factions representing the Palestinian people.
4 – the restructuring of the Palestine Liberation Organization to contain all the Palestinian factions and get back to its initial aim: Palestine’s freedom
5 – the announcement of the freeze of negotiations until the full compatibility between the various Palestinian factions on a political program
6 – the end of all forms of security coordination with the Zionist enemy
7 – the organization of presidential and parliamentary elections simultaneously in the time chosen by all the factions
To Be or Not To Be
The initiative called for protests to call home in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and abroad to end the division.
For his part, said Mizan Center for Human Rights; “Had been almost a heavy police presence in the yard of the Unknown Soldier in Gaza City at around the morning of Monday of February 28, and they beat the coordinator of the campaign Call Home Ahmed Atawneh, where eyewitnesses have reported that he had been beaten before being stopped by police and transport out of the place and the whereabouts where unknown.”
This pool of about (20) people, including journalists on Monday morning, in response to a call launched by the campaign “Call Home”. The invitations were distributed via the Internet and short messages via mobile phones.
The invitations Identify Square Unknown Soldier as a center for gathering in the Gaza Strip, after the lifting of the sitters banners people want to end the division, people want to end the occupation, end the internal division is the way to building a Palestine State), according to eyewitnesses, one police personnel to Atawneh and got between them altercation then the police beat him and when journalists tried to take pictures of the attack warned members of the police take any photos.
The participants broke up the rest of the demonstration after the security forces attack, and came to the place in a civilian silver car and Atawneh was forced to step out and taken to an undisclosed location.
Mizan Center for Human Rights in a statement received by the Agency “together” connote concern over the use of force in the resolution of a peaceful gathering, adding that the Public Meetings Law No. (12) for the year 1998, provides special protection measures to ensure the right of citizens to organize public meetings, without the requirement to obtain a prior authorization, where only actions on the notice in writing to the governor or police chief before (48) hours in advance of the date of the meeting and for the police to make its observations on the details of peaceful assembly for the purpose of protecting and ensuring the safety of participants, and without prejudice to the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, before they are in writing, in the absence of receipt by the Organization of any written answer has the right to organize public meeting in a timely manner. Which is what I think they Astvuoh organizers notify the Ministry of the Interior.
PCHR calls upon the dismissed government in Gaza to open an investigation into the incident, calling for meetings to facilitate the peaceful and protected by the law enforcement bodies.
According to Hassan Farhat, a participant in the sit-in, and the Last Sunday morning in the courtyard of the soldier, that the coordinator of the campaign has notified the Ministry of Interior, under the book was delivered in the ministry’s headquarters complex, located in government ministries (Abu Khadra) on 02.24.2011, did not receive a response.
It is noteworthy that the activist Hassan Farhat has a “memorandum of review issued by the Department of custody and interrogation in the Internal Security Agency should come as 2/3/2011 in the central governorate.
Farhat also pointed out that the activity has not been implemented in the West because of calls to the security organs of the coordinators who have declared their names earlier.
The unrest inside Palestine have been felt since December after the Manifesto of the youth of Gaza Broke out, in a response to the unwelcome for their request the Youth of Gaza released a second document on January 05, 2011.
“We’re NOT calling for a political coup, let’s be clear on this. We’re young people who want to work for the PEOPLE, we denounce the misery we live in, we denounce their division, and reject their fight, because they are not helping us. But more than Fatah and Hamas, who remains Palestinians just like us, ABOVE ALL we denounce the Occupier & its puppet the International Community who fails, day after day, in its duty to impose sanctions on “Israel”. From Do not Distort Our Speech
Such divisions are sweet deal for Israel who entertained the idea for many years to brake down Palestine in two Lands and disengage completely from Gaza.
Hezbollah Strong Army
Gaza have become a liability for Israel as their policies and political ideas are back up by Hezbollah a strong political party in Lebanon and sworn enemy of Israel. Israel was defeated by Hezbollah back in 2006 and they have become stronger than ever. If There got to be Freedom in any society, Justice must be the base of the same. Human Rights is an inalienable right of every human being, being Gaza, US, Germany, Lebanon, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba(should not exist),Cuba, China, Iran, Mexico, Congo, Russia..or any place on Earth that humans co-habit under any authority of any type.
The right to disagree, the right to have a different opinion, or different feelings is a right that we all humans have a primordial born right, it calls dissent from the Status Quo, governments of the world dissenters are not criminals, they are free minders that choose their own path, and oppression only make them more aware of the situation that you want to force them to be.
This right is inalienable is part of the human rights that we all must enjoy as a citizen of this Earth.
Life is not easy in Gaza, Palestine. Palestinians are in a continuous battle for survival, Physical and Emotionally. Israel makes sure that the population feel unsafe on their persona and their future.
The psychological war that Israel wages against her people is more provocative than the physical one.
Israel continual excursions in Gaza air space and in West Bank keep the population in an upheaval situation every day. The destruction of Gaza dwellings and the complete disruption of their social life have made Palestinians to look for ways to heal their uncertain condition as a ‘Nation’ under the grip of a military power that have drained the natural resources and the energy of the people of the Holy Land.
For more than Six Decades, Palestinians parents have tried to give their children a better future, they have tried to send their children to foreign schools and Universities, or have them married to other Palestinians that have ‘successfully’ established in the ‘Exile’, two main reasons push them to do this:
– To save them from their uncertain future
– Guarantee the future of Palestine.
The seed and future of a Nation reside in every human.
Culture of Palestine.
Anybody that have made it outside of Palestine have the responsibility in their hands to grow as a Nation on the exile and to keep the history of the land from being corrupted, as well as the costumes, and traditional recipes intact.
Every year few Palestinians manage to escape the daily struggle that is living inside a Territory Occupied by a Military Power, specially the people of Gaza where every day more and more try to cross to freedom using what they called Under the Line (illegally crossing from the tunnels). Another modality of human trafficking with their consent but without the authorization of their local Government.
The series of Tunnels that started as illegal corridors to import products, goods and construction material to Gaza, have become part of the official Gazan bureaucracy as Hamas control the import/export of products and they issue permits to dig tunnels.
The people that have escaped through the tunnels have exhausted all the official mechanism such visas, medical care and scholarships as a last resort they use the tunnels to leave, not easy task because they see themselves exposed to the greed of the tunnel operators that take bribes as a payment, after all they are exporting prohibited merchandise. and they encounter another obstacle the handles in Egyptian side that have to be paid as well, and
transported them to the closest Port to take Ships to sail out of Egypt or to the Airport, every step of the way is a risky business for Palestinians as they are not well perceive by the Egyptian authorities, the sentence for being in Egyptian territory is 6 months to a year, step price to paid for trying to get a better future.
“As all of us watched recently on CNN, BBC and Aljazeera news networks, Gaza is being subjected to a new style of holocaust. What the Gazans have to counter the IDF’s state-of-the art high-tech weapons with? They have their right to resist, and they improvise in making their primitive missiles. After all, they are imprisoned by the IDF.
Gazans are denied the necessities of existence. Why? Don’t we campaign for animal protection? Don’t we argue with the Japanese over whaling, don’t we pass laws against foxhunting? Why then ignore what is happening to the millions of refugees from Palestine? They are under attack on daily basis, for demanding the implantations of the UN resolutions that definitely granted them the right to return to their homes. The irony is that the same resolutions gave birth to the State of Israel!”
Dr. Saeb Shaath is a writer, thinker and public speaker on Middle Eastern affairs, and a former diplomat
For the ones hat choose to stay in Palestine or have no other options to leave, life in Palestine is double jeopardy, resisting the occupation inside Palestine is painful, dramatic and sometimes deadly.
The Palestinians that have got out of Palestine on Student Visas or other type of Visa and they have expired them, or simply they got to another country illegally they still face many obstacles that the host countries place on them, their stateless situation make them target of the draconian Immigration Laws that many countries have adopted in the last 15 years, thousand of Palestinians are in Immigration detention facilities around the world, when their Visa expired and their Passport expired they lost their ability to travel, some of them being in infinite detention until their status change, if they have any family or friend that pay for lawyer they have a slim chance to leave those detention camps but for many their only hope is that Palestine Become a state so they can return.
The world is changing their view on the Palestine-Israel conflict and every day more and more people around the world are adding their efforts to the global resistance, against the occupation, being virtual activist or International Observer we all are taking part of Palestine struggle.
May soon all of our brother Palestinians enjoy of freedom of movement and freedom to chose their own destiny as a Free Nation.
Gaza and West Bank As One Nation. Viva Free Palestine.
As the world is united to support the Egyptian Revolution and press around the world for the ouster of the Dictator Hosni Mubarak, the police in Egypt have come back to the streets after running out scare for their lives as they did not know if Mubarak plans to step down or cling to the chair. The hours have pass and Mubarak still refuses to let go, with that gesture the police relieved of being caught up en between the will of the people and their jobs.
The situation might be blurry and confused for the foreigners, the spectators of this chain of events that started on December 27, 2010 with a person in the main square of the Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, where Mohammed Bouazizi set himself on fire and sparked a revolution, The Jasmine Revolution that ousted another Dictator.
Tunisia has asked Interpol to help arrest ousted president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, his wife Leila Trabelsi and other members of the family who fled the country during an uprising, the justice minister said Wednesday.
Lazhar Karoui Chebbi told a news conference that Tunisia wanted to try Ben Ali and his clan for “possessing of (expropriated) property and transferring foreign currency abroad,” Reuters reported.
The spark the set Egyptians in an unexpected uprising that culminated with the Revolution that wants Hosni Mubarak out of the Chair, have kept The Western, Israel and Gaza Government afraid of any moves that can spark more unrest in the Palestinians Territories. With the Egyptian Revolution getting momentum in the Streets of Egypt and else where in the world, the uncertainly of the outcome have forced the Egyptian Military to seal the border of Rafah the only official open border to Gaza, Palestine, and The Authorities in Gaza afraid of the influx of Egyptian Refugees that try to cross to Gaza in the last days, have forced them to seal also the Tunnels, the lifeline of Gaza for the last 3 years after Israel imposed the Siege.
Sources in Gaza confirmed that the Erez Crossing that connect Israel with Gaza is being completely sealed since yesterday, the excuses always come handy for Israel to block the entrance of goods to Gaza.
People are required to put all their luggage on a metal detector, which funnels the baggage to unseen security guards for possible hand checks. Travelers then are buzzed through a glass door and enter the crossing’s most sophisticated security check: an advanced body screener created by a California company.
The Erez crossing is the official crossing point for products and goods that enter Gaza from Internationals Organizations such UNRWA and other financed by European countries. The Erez Open only to Arab residents under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, Egyptian nationals, and international aid officials
– Scanning equipment built by L-3 Communications Inc.
– Cost more than $35 million to construct
The crossing is largely unused as Israel prohibits the vast majority of Gazans from coming out, and almost no one from Israel goes in. These days, many simply call the high-tech crossing point the “terminal to nowhere”
People are required to put all their luggage on a metal detector, which funnels the baggage to unseen security guards for possible hand checks.
Travelers then are buzzed through a glass door and enter the crossing’s most sophisticated security check: an advanced body screener created by a California company.
The scanner is so sensitive, officials say, that it creates a complete holographic image of the traveler and allows the screener to see even a tissue or penny stuck in a pocket.
Travelers step into the scanner through a plastic portal and raise their hands above their heads. The translucent plastic doors close and a scanner whizzes around them in a complete circle.
The scanner’s manufacturer, L-3 Communications Inc.
With the unrest in the region Israel seal the Erez crossing, making with this the situation in Gaza unbearable. For the last 3 years the booming of the tunnels have relieved the population of Gaza, as most of the food and products were imported by the tunnels operators that control both sides of the border.
The Gaza Tunnels have served as a life line for the besieged population of Gaza
The prices have raised dramatically in Gaza since the Revolution sparked in Egypt. “You know that everything in the Gaza Strip, such as food and drink, gas, petrol and everything here comes from Egypt, now anything enter from Egypt and here in Gaza and the high prices of many things lacking in Gaza, when they become available they are very expensive” my source explained. “They will arrest any journalist from Gaza that try to portray anything about Gaza to the world”.
The situation in Gaza is deplorable in all the senses, politically, economically and if the situation does not change for the better the Revolution of Egypt can be easily imported to Gaza, and for that they do not need the tunnels.
The people is tired of waiting from the West to do anything to make Israel to lift the blockade, they are tired to wait from their own government to implement an emergency measures to alleviate their lack of food, the absent of jobs and the insecurity in the Strip.
Something has to be done in the next few days. Gazans are impatient also and they might want to unite their voices to the general struggles and protests that have swept the world in the last 4 weeks.
Let’s hope for the good of the people that Mubarak sees his time over and move out of the way so the change can start taking place and Gaza siege be lifted once and for all.
The people have spoken “When people speak, despots, dictators, tyrants should shut up, or pack up and leave” Hamza El Alami said in one of his comments posted in facebook, the social network that have served as a meeting forum for social and peace activist of the world.
Hamza El Alami said “the US has not called on Mubarak to resign, and if they can control events in the M.E. as it used to, they will not hesitate to act and defend the SOB Mubarak. The people in Egypt has spoken, and so the rest of the oppressed people …in the Arab world; one by one they will rise against tyranny. American policy makers are not for democracy; the US rejected the Palestinian election’s results, and decided along with Israel and Mubarak to starve and strangulate 1.5 million people in Gaza. The US is for Israel and its racist policy, dictators, corrupt rulers and not democracy, at least not for Arabs. America has to face a new reality and reassess its policy that must be based on justice and not the support of ruthless dictators.”
Mubarak falling in pieces, as the days pass and Egypt unrest grows, no words from Obama or Old Crazy Joe Biden can stop the will of the people from shaking the dictator from their country
THE WHITE HOUSE can not keep supporting Mubarak or other dictators and terrorist states for long time, risking being caught up in the same situation as Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen, Pakistan where the people had spoken their rage throwing themselves to the streets to ask for justice.
In the past people in the US has revolved against policies, Domestic and Foreign, but never before since the civil war, the government has seen something like what is happening in Egypt, or what just developed in Tunisia, they are analyzing and tasting the intelligent and resolve of the people of the US.
They know that we are not silence any more, they can not risk to enrage 10 millions or 20 or 30 million people, not even imagine 100 millions of Americans in the streets of the US protesting, injustice in the courts, discrimination in the Tax System, Wages under the living standards of decency, Under Funded Education, Draconian Laws enacted by Bush and Company, Contaminated Food, Health Care unacceptable, really the government of the US is not ready to confront 100 million people claiming for equality and justice.
The white house is worry of the wave of dissent around the world is rolling down as an avalanche, a ball of protests growing every moment and they refused to speak the right words, “Mubarak Reign of Terror has to Stop, once and for all”.
I THINK WE ARE SEEING THE FALL OF THE EMPIRE, The emperor is Naked and refuse to recognized it.
When the people finally speak the leaders shut up and Lead, that will be the lessons that every leader have to learn if they want to hold to the Chair a little longer.
It is a cheaper solution for the government to sacrifice a few dictators and one Terrorist State and live comfortable for another 10 or 20 years, enough time for the people of the world to completely wake up and smell the coffee.
Gaza, Palestine
While all the unrest is growing in the world, Gaza is waiting for the world to speak for them, to help them to Tear the Walls down.
Revolution is at their Gates and is tempting, the blood is already boiling, the rage is in every mind, the RESISTANCE is standing stronger every day, there short time to lose. Every Citizen of the world STAND for Peace, Demand your leaders to fight for Peace and Justice for all.
Free the World, Stand for your Rights, Raise your Voice. We own it to us, if you want to stay free, you have to fight for it.
Out of the 600 passengers of the Mavi Marmara, the Turkish ship that suffered the deadly attack in Internationals Waters by Israeli commandos killing 9 peace activists, 30 of those have risked their life again joining the land convoy from the UK based organization Viva Palestine.
Today October 22 marked a day in the calendar for the besieged Gaza whom has suffered a blockage of goods for more than 1300 days.
The highly publicized news from Israel of the ease of the blockage is nothing but propaganda aimed to calm the public opinion for its inhumane siege, that has been criticized by international organizations and heads of state.
The entrance of the convoy is just a bandage in the deep wound of Gaza, after being almost paralyzed for this siege.
This convoy and the previous can bring so little being the great necessity of Gaza after 5 years of Israel continuous attacks, and the blockade that Israel imposed under the indifference and almost official approval of the United Nations and its signatories countries.
The situation in Gaza is sad and deplorable after more than 5 years of assaults, destruction of her infrastructure and destruction of thousands of homes, added to the blockade imposed by Israel, with lame excuses, as the imports come to Gaza throughout the thousands of Tunnels between Gaza and Egypt. Illegal corridors that are more difficult to control than the established borders that count with military personal.
The real history of the making and sustaining of the conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel invites the conclusion that the Arab regimes – more by default than design in my view – betrayed the Palestinians. The question this article addresses is: Will future historians conclude that the Palestinian diaspora betrayed its occupied and oppressed brothers and sisters?
There’s no mystery about the Arab (regime) betrayal. When the Palestine file was closed by Israel’s 1948 victory on the battlefield and the armistice agreements, the divided and impotent Arab regimes secretly shared the same hope as the Zionists and the major powers. It was that the file would remain closed for ever. The Palestinians were supposed to accept their lot as the sacrificial lamb on the altar of political expediency.
Nor is there any mystery about why the Arab regimes were at one with the Zionists and the major powers in hoping that there would never be a regeneration of Palestinian nationalism. They all knew that if there was, there would one day have to be a confrontation with Zionism; and nobody wanted that.
When Yasser Arafat, Abu Jihad and a few others lit the slow burning fire of the regeneration, it was the security services of Eygpt, Jordan and Lebanon which took the lead in trying to put it out.
Fast forward to today.
The incredible almost superhuman steadfastness of the occupied and oppressed Palestinians is the reason why Zionism will never be able to close the re-opened Palestine file again unless it resorts to a final round of ethnic cleansing, to drive the Palestinians off the West Bank and into Jordan or wherever. In my analysis it is more likely than not that Zionism’s in-Israel leaders will create a pretext to do just that at a point in the foreseeable future
What point?
When it becomes apparent even to them that with bombs and bullets and brutal repressive measures of all kinds they can’t break the will of the occupied and oppressed Palestinians to continue the struggle for their rights and compel them to accept crumbs from Zionism’s table.
As things are I think it is unrealistic to expect the governments of the major powers either to use the leverage they have to call and hold the Zionist state to account for its past crimes, or to intervene to prevent the crimes it will commit in a foreseeable future.
And it can be taken as read that the Arab regimes will not lift a finger to prevent a final Zionist solution to the Palestine
problem. (Before Sharon sent the IDF all the way to Beirut to exterminate the PLO’s leadership and destroy its infrastructure, Gulf Arab leaders met in secret, without advisers present, in order to agree a message to the Reagan administration. The message was to the effect that they would not intervene in any way when Sharon made his move. After that message was sent, one of the Arab leaders present, Oman’s Sultan Qaboos, said to Arafat: “Be careful. You are going to ask for our help and it will not come.” Last year I had a private conversation in London with a major royal from the Arab world. I said to him, “Nothing is going to change in the Arab world until your regimes are more frightened of their own masses than they are of offending Zionism and America”. He replied, “You’re right.” I also said to him, “If the Zionists do resort to a final round of ethnic cleaning to close the Palestine file, Arab leaders, behind closed doors, will give thanks and celebrate.” His reply was the same, “You’re right.”)
Question: What can the Palestinians do to help themselves?
My view is that they should wind-up (close down) the discredited Palestine National Authority (PNA), and put policymaking and implementation back into the hands of the Palestine National Council (PNC), which is supposed to be (it once was) the highest and most supreme Palestinian decision-making body. To become relevant again it would have to be reconstructed and re-invigorated by elections in every place where there are Palestinians – the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, the Gaza concentration camp and the diaspora.
The fact that the PNA is corrupt, impotent and discredited is reason enough for it to be put out of its misery, but there’s more to it.
In their claim for justice, the Palestinians have 100% of right, legal and moral, on their side (whereas the Israelis have 99% of the might, conventional and nuclear, on their side). If this claim was properly presented and pressed by a credible Palestinian leadership, by definition a democratically elected leadership duly authorized to represent the views of all Palestinians, it would be more difficult for the governments of the major powers, the one in Washington DC especially, to go on refusing to use the leverage they have to end Israel’s occupation of Arab land grabbed in the Zionist state’s 1967 war of aggression. (Not self defense as Zionism asserts).
Because Israel and the major powers won’t talk to Hamas (despite the fact that its leaders have signalled their willingness to live in peace with an Israel inside its pre-1967 borders), and because the Fatah-dominated PNA is so discredited (I imagine Arafat is revolving with anger in his grave), the occupied and oppressed Palestinians are effectively leaderless in the sense that they are without an institution to represent them in the corridors of power.
It follows, or so I believe, that a demand for putting policy making and implementation back into the hands of a reconstructed and re-invigorated PNC must come from the Palestinian diaspora – from Palestinian communities in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Eygpt, Kuwait, Iraq, Yemen, Western Europe, the USA, Canada, Australia, Chile, Honduras, Brazil, Columbia and Guatemala.
The question arising is the one of the headline for this article: Does the Palestinian diaspora care enough to become engaged?
I have long been of the view that the major difference between Jews and Arabs is that Jews know how to play the game of international politics and Arabs don’t. The Palestinians could prove me wrong. The world, not just the occupied and oppressed Palestinians, needs them to do so.
Alan Hart has been engaged with events in the Middle East and their global consequences and terrifying implications – the possibility of a Clash of Civilisations, Judeo-Christian v Islamic, and, along the way, another great turning against the Jews – for nearly 40 years…
He’s been to war with the Israelis and the Arabs, but the learning experience he values most, and which he believes gave him rare insight, came from his one-to-one private conversations over the years with many leaders on both sides of the conflict. With, for example, Golda Meir, Mother Israel, and Yasser Arafat, Father Palestine. The significance of these private conversations was that they enabled him to be aware of the truth of what leaders really believed and feared as opposed to what they said in public for propaganda and myth-sustaining purposes.
It was because of his special relationships with leaders on both sides that, in 1980, he found himself sucked into the covert diplomacy of conflict resolution…Now Alan is an Institution in himself. Now, Alan is a regular contributor to Opinion Maker.
The suggestion that he should was made by Thomas L. Friedman in his column for the New York Times on 7 September. My first response was to say to myself, “That proves Friedman doesn’t understand the complexities of the conflict and is at least a little bit bonkers.”
But the more I thought about it, the more it seemed to me that King Abdullah should do what Friedman suggested. In a moment I’ll get to what I think the Arabs and the Palestinians especially would have to gain without losing anything, but first here’s the essence what Friedman wrote.
He noted that eight years have passed since the Arab peace initiative pushed by Abdullah when he was Crown Prince was presented to, and approved by, an Arab League summit in Beirut. (It offered a full and final peace, including the normalizing of relations between the entire Arab region and Israel, in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from all territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem, and a “just solution” to the Palestinian refugee problem).
Friedman then commented that the plan has been “floating out there in the ether of diplomatic possibilities” ever since its approval in 2002. “It is time to bring it out of the air. King Abdullah should invite Mr. Netanyahu to Riyadh and present it to him personally.”
Friedman went on:
“Abdullah need not go to Jerusalem, as Anwar Sadat did, or recognize Israel. He can, though, still have a huge impact on the process by simply handing his plan to the leader for whose country it was intended. I can’t think of anything that would get these peace talks off to a better start. It feels to me as though Netanyahu is taking this moment seriously, but he is still very wary. By handing him the Abdullah plan, the Saudi monarch would unleash a huge peace debate in Israel. It would make it more difficult for Netanyahu to continue settlement building – and spur an Israeli public that is also still wary to urge Netanyahu to take risks for peace and support him for doing so. Netanyahu is the only Israeli leader today who can deliver a deal.
“The Saudis can’t just keep faxing their peace initiative to Israelis. That has no emotional punch. It actually says to Israelis: if the Saudis are afraid to hand us their plan, why should we believe they’ll have the courage to implement it if we do everything they suggest? Israelis are isolated. Seeing their prime minister received by the most important Muslim leader in the world in Riyadh would have a real impact.
“Both Israelis and Palestinians are going to have to do something really hard to produce a two-state solution. Saudi officials have developed a reputation in Washington for being experts at advising everyone else about the hard things they must do, while being reluctant to step out themselves. This is their moment – to do something hard and to do something important.”
Netanyahu has apparently said that he will go anywhere for peace, so let’s suppose for the sake of discussion that King Abdullah does invite him to Riyadh and he goes.
Either at his meeting with Abdullah to take personal delivery of the Arab peace plan or afterwards, Netanyahu would say there was one element of it that was completely unacceptable to all Israelis – the proposal that a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem should be on the basis of UN Resolution 194 of 11 December 1948. Its key words are the following:
“… the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.”
Down the years (and consistent with its Nakba denial), Israel has put two fingers up to Resolution 194 and denied the Palestinians a right of return, on the grounds that conceding the right would be an act of national suicide. As it was put, for example, by Likud spokesman Zalman Shoval in March 2007, “If 300,000-400,000, or maybe a million, Palestinians would invade the country, that would be the end of the state of Israel as a Jewish state.”
A truth, which all of Israel’s leaders have known for many years, is that the Palestinian right of return does not have to be an obstacle to peace unless they want it to be. Under the pragmatic Arafat’s leadership, the decision was taken to accept that in the event of a genuine and viable two-state solution, the right of return would have to be limited to the territory of the Palestinian state. Though they could not say so in public, Arafat and his leadership colleagues were completely aware this would mean that probably not more than 100,000 refugees would be able to return and that the rest would have to settle for compensation.
Another truth is that Jerusalem does not have to be an obstacle to peace unless Israel’s leaders want it to be. If they don’t want Jerusalem to be divided again, the Arabs will say, “Okay. Let it be an open, undivided city and the capital of two states.”
My point so far is that if Netanyahu did go to Riyadh, he would discover that the Arab peace plan of 2002, subject only to clarifications of the flexibility of the Arab position on the right of return and Jerusalem, actually offers what a rational Israeli government and people would accept with relief.
What would the Arabs and the Palestinians especially have to gain if King Abdullah did invite Netanyahu to Riyadh and he went?
In one scenario, and assuming that most Israelis are not beyond reason (an assumption I do not make), it might unleash what Friedman described as a “huge peace debate in Israel.” And that just might open the door to peace on terms virtually all Palestinians and most other Arabs and Muslims everywhere could just about accept.
In another scenario – continued Israeli rejection of the Arab peace plan of 2002 – it would enable King Abdullah and all of his Arab brothers at leadership level to say to the world, and America especially, something like: “Now you cannot be in any doubt about what the obstacle to peace is – Zionism. If you really want peace, you must now play your part and use the leverage you have to call and hold Zionism to account for its crimes.”
If that didn’t mobilize support in the Western world for an acceptable measure of justice for the Palestinians and peace for all, nothing ever will.
Footnote:
Some readers will say that a genuine and viable two-state solution, even if it was possible, is unacceptable because it would not provide the Palestinians with enough justice. My response is quite simple. One state for all is by far the best solution for all; but because of the reality of the existence of a nuclear-armed Zionist entity, the two-state solution is the best deal the Palestinians are ever likely to get.
Alan Hart has been engaged with events in the Middle East and their global consequences and terrifying implications – the possibility of a Clash of Civilisations, Judeo-Christian v Islamic, and, along the way, another great turning against the Jews – for nearly 40 years…
He’s been to war with the Israelis and the Arabs, but the learning experience he values most, and which he believes gave him rare insight, came from his one-to-one private conversations over the years with many leaders on both sides of the conflict. With, for example, Golda Meir, Mother Israel, and Yasser Arafat, Father Palestine. The significance of these private conversations was that they enabled him to be aware of the truth of what leaders really believed and feared as opposed to what they said in public for propaganda and myth-sustaining purposes.
It was because of his special relationships with leaders on both sides that, in 1980, he found himself sucked into the covert diplomacy of conflict resolution…Now Alan is an Institution in himself.
We the people, the thinkers of this era, the intellectuals, the workers, the weak, the disenfranchised, the poor, the oppressed, we have to make the first move, the Elite, is so used to our silence that they do not care to fight for our rights.
We need to speak loud and clear, we have to take the fear out of our heart, and claim for justice, for peace.
We the collective conscientiousness has to step forward and speak for the ignorant.
So the Western Governments are not going to move a finger, but we are moving the rug under their feet.
Can you see the people is awakening, is clamoring for justice. They craving for peace, they are hungry and they are demanding equality.
Do you think that the Elite want a revolution?, off course NO, they will throw grumps to the crowd to calm them to buy time, to change the mood. A made up revolution somewhere far away from home, those are good ways to show us that we are doing…just….fine. Maybe a great event to disperse the stress, such a world soccer match…Very clever entertainment of the 20 century.
Beauty contests work just fine: for the glamor, the addicts to fashion, to magazine followers. Christmas time has worked perfectly, I love that red Santa Claus, I’ll make sure to have my son in his knees for a picture for my family room.
But not soon Christmas snows is melting in the drive way, when the rabbits are jumping in my grass, those eggs, darn it..where did they go?
We have more holidays to celebrate that heroes in our history books. They keep you busy, entertain and without money, luckily we have credit cards and personal bank loans.
All designed for you, and if that is not enough, we have games boys for the youth, soap operas for the housewife, soccer for the European Mind, and Latino brother. But wait, we have some time left.
Are you mad? Do you think your leaders care how you feel? I do not think so. They are too comfortable in their chairs, they are killing the poor, while the middle class stay silence, right?…..Well! no more seems to be the case because they have destroyed the middle class, the cushion is gone, now there is a even field of poverty all around the globe, and there is discontent, there is dissent every where..
And not that dissent is a crime, is only a state of conscientiousness, the thinker mind is taking over, the lethargic consumer that for years was a client of the TV adds, in this society sick of consumerism.
The logic is being use more and more, and People is finally thinking,…. but we will prefer that the heart will speak for the change that love will brings togetherness, instead of drums of war.
So, what are they going to do? They do not want to be lynched outside of their offices or homes, they do not want to be afraid of their maids.
No, they will act upon the situation, that it is too tense too ignore.
The masses are awakening, can you see the winds of revolution, but not the revolution that extremists ask for, that Christian crusaders miss so dearly in their churches engraved with gold, their Popeteer jumping in his popemovil spreading..God’s messages, what? …the good news…yes, the Vatican thinks that, maybe intelligent life in another places outside the Earth.
War and Peace
The war complex machine is at work, they are pushing the bottoms, they are creating world madness, but I am not talking of that kind of revolution, not an arm conflict, that certainly in this nuclear age, will wipe us all for sure, I am talking of the the revolution of ideas, the mentality is evolving.
We are evolving as a human race, our programs are being upgraded. Humanity 1.01 program is ready to be download it, get yours is Free and once in your brain is auto up grade able…
Europe Union is taking seriously PRISM spying program, they know well that this could very well be use to spy on EU officials.
Rami EL OBEIDI 
Congresswoman Illena Ros-Lehtinen will have her hands full as she makes the political and social rounds at this month’s Republican National Convention. Illena, is the only female committee chair in the House of Representatives and arguably Israel’s most ardent agent. She is a constant thorn in the Obama administration’s side, regularly castigating the president for playing “political games with U.S. foreign policy” and being “soft on Iran” and undermining the legitimacy of Israel. Ros-Lehtinen is a congressional cheer leader also for her Jewish voters in Florida — a key battleground in the rapidly approaching US presidential election. Most recently, Ros-Lehtinen helped shepherd through Congress yet another bill tightening sanctions against Iran while calling for US military action against the Assad regime in Syria.
Akashma Online News 
