Well back to the topic of the above post which was the anti-Palestinian act. The Senate still has not acted but it is a moot point anyways because the Treasury Department which releases all funds has Hamas on their terror list which precludes them by American law of receiving funds. There was info on this just yesterday concerning the EU and the World Bank headed by none other than Paul Wolfowitz (ZIONIST). So the way I see it, this anti-Palestinian act is just a big political ploy by the Zionists to dig the knife in deeper because the laws already exist to stop the funds going to Palestine. Icing on the cake with some razor blades as decoration.
(PS today is “Sareera’s” 28th birthday. That makes me 29, oh heck, 39 and holding! I’m getting OLD and I’ll attach any damn number I please to myself thank you very much :) )

And then there’s the threat by Israel made yesterday to assassinate Haniya http://www.eitb24.com/portal/eitb24/noticia/en/international-news/israel-palestine–israels-senior-member-threatens-palestinian-pm-?itemId=D36682&cl=%2Feitb24%2Finternacional&idioma=en

Don’t we get mad at people for saying things like this? :)
Woops, it all depends on WHO’S saying it and whether or not they are “justified”. Why would we be giving aid to a bunch of jackals? (Israeli jackals recieve aid while the “portrayed” jackals, the Palestinian people do not receive aid.) Surely you gest!! This is just plain CRAZY!!! We live in a land of CRAZIES and there is no getting out of this house of mirrors. I’m FRUSTRATED, just plain dumb-founded and discouraged. SOMETHING’S got to give and you are absolutely correct, cut off the bottomless well supplying this dragon. But part of me also says to get rid of all the Palestinian leadership which have failed their people and start fresh with the picture of all the innocent civilians who FAR outnumber the loud-mouth Palestinian politicians. That’s just the part of me that wants to remove ANY trace of an excuse and get down to brass tacks. I am not suggesting the Palesinians do not have a right of representation and I am also not saying they don’t have a right to be loud mouths. I just simply cannot see a way of getting around this stalemate. No it’s not a stalemate, that would infer two equals standing off face to face. This is not the case in the mere fact that the Israelis FAR overpower the Palestinians in military capabilities. Get rid of the Zionists, there you go, hog-tie them and lock them up, both in Israel and here in the US. I’m at the total point of rambling now. My question is this, how do we begin to do this as ordinary very concerned citizens? Is there ANY hope or channel to go through in order to try to influence our stupid politicians here in the US?

That would be SOMETHING.

Since they’ve turned off the taps to Palestine, then they should turn off the taps to Israel.
Let’s be fair.

and how much military aid has Palestine ever received from the US? If the answer is anything but zero, I’d like to see the evidence of that foreign aid bill.

As for the conspiracy theories that never entered your mind, I beg you to reread your opening statement in entry 55.

You accuse contributors of evoking conspiracy theories to support the false notion that the Middle East was a paradise before the US became involved. Most of us are all too familiar with the history of the Middle East and the absolutely devastating effects that French and British colonialism had in dividing and conquering the region. I’m not saying that the Ottoman Empire was a dream of a situation for the Palestinians either, but at least the Palestinians were allowed a relative autonomy that was reduced after WWI and certainly stripped of it after the occupation was passed to the Israelis.

There is plenty of evidence to support that even before 1948 the Zionists were very manipulative of the situation in regards to land and labor rights. They systematically bought land from absentee landowners and then kicked the Falastin farmers off of that land. They also formed movements to set up industry on these lands and then block the hire of Palestinian labor. This took the land and evicted the Palestinians, robbing them of their livelihoods, and added insult to injury by denying them jobs. This would be the equivalent of kicking all of the Native Americans off of the Reservations, razing their homes, building new communities and industry on the land, and then denying the Native Americans jobs.

And again, this was not 200 years ago, but rather occured within the last 100.

And again, the US has seen to it, at least since Kissinger was in the White House, that Israel be allowed carte blanche in every detail of their occupation and oppression. And again, the US has seen to it that many other countries have been run under dictators, and democracies overthown, so that the US might stay on top.

So, yes, there is some disagreement over the way the US doles out its foreign policy in favor of oppressive regimes.

You said: “If the US had sat out that war, do you really doubt that all of Europe would be under the thumb of either Germany or the USSR. Remember, before the US got involved, the only ‘Free’ people left were the British, the Swiss and….maybe the swedes?”

First of all, Europe was, and is, full of free people. My forefathers were under occupation, but they were indeed free people and because of them I have unviolated freedom today. People who resist occupation are not subdued; they are free people who do not recognize that somebody can take their freedom away!

Second. Yes, I very much doubt that Europe would be under the thumb of either Germany or the USSR. By the time the USA entered the war, Hitler had already decided on the path to his own destruction. The megalomania of Hitler enabled the demise of Nazi Germany, the Russians and, especially, the Russian winter, made it a reality. Nobody single-handedly defeated Nazi Germany and Hitler played a not insignificant part as well!

As a thought-experiment, let’s assume that the USSR managed to occupy all of Europe instead of only Central Europe. They may have had enough resources to hold Central Europe under their iron fist, but if they had to occupy something like three-four times that geographical area and three-four times as many people, then they would be spread out so thin that it would only be a matter of time before European resistance fighters would have been able to kick them out. You seem to forget that the Red Army was not in superb condition by the time they arrived in Berlin, they had suffered heavy losses already and were just as worn down by the war as everybody else. It was a political decision (unfortunate, especially for the Central Europeans) to end the war and let the USSR enjoy occupation of our fellow Europeans in Central Europe as the spoils of war. Due to that decision the USSR could regenerate in realative peace and quiet. They would never have had that peace and quiet if they had tried to occupy all of Europe!

Third. I know that your history books like to portray the USA as the ‘winner’ of WWII, but only people in the USA really believe that the world is/was that black and white. Sorry to burst your bubble, but Europeans (on both sides of the lines of German occupation) did not just sit with their hands in their labs and wait for somebody to give them freedom.

I know this is hard to believe for [Sarcasm]somebody who reads in the official history books that all Danish men are called Peter, and that the most fortunate of them manage to immigrate to the USA in order to start a bakery![/Sarcasm]

I went to school one year in the USA, so I can tell you that this is not just something I am making up – this was part of the reading in “American History” class. A class that was taught by some old, fat, redneck bastard who was of the opinion that “Denmark is a horrible place to live, because that is the first country the USSR will take over when they will try to rule the world!” Quote, unquote (I went to the USA before the USSR split up!). To me, that is very descriptive of the arrogant culture of self-righteous paranoia that way too many US Americans have been indoctrinated with for decades.

By the way, a ‘positive impact on’ or just ‘impact on’ is very different from ‘decisive impact on’ or ‘resulting in’! I appreciate that the USA helped my forefathers during WWII, but that appreciation does not mean that I have to fall on my ass in awe and amasement or that I have to blindly support the government of the USA.

PS: No ‘maybe’ about Sweden. Sweden was (and is) a neutral country!

I think I may have found someone I can have interesting dialog and perhaps respectfull disagreement. As I stated in my original post, I do not necessarily disagree with many of the statements made here. I am confused about your conspiracy theory, because I never mentioned such, and it never entered my mind. I will be the first to admit that the US has done some pretty unsavory things. However, they were done in the context of the cold war, when our opponent was doing equally unsavory things. But we could argue forever on whether the US chose the best method to confront the Soviet Union.

You ask me to name 10 nations which have their freedom because of the US. How about all of Western Europe. If the US had sat out that war, do you really doubt that all of Europe would be under the thumb of either Germany or the USSR. Remember, before the US got involved, the only ‘Free’ people left were the British, the Swiss and….maybe the swedes?

Again, the point I was attempting to make, perhaps poorly, is that many people on this blog and certainlly those who post the most often, would rather cut off a finger than admit that the US has in any way had a positive impact on the world. This results in a whole lot of preaching to the choir and very little dialog which could change minds or perspectives.

Also, you are casting the US as the benign benefactor of freedom. Where? We’ve already named many that lost it because of the US. Name 10 countries that have freedom because of the US.

Also, why are you crying “conspiracy theories” here? We’re merely stating facts. The CIA did, in fact, overthrow democracy in Iran, Guatemala and other nations, and replaced them with dictatorships. The Zionist lobby AIPAC does, in fact, have the support of much of Congress. As much as I wish they were, these are not fabrications.

I am not necessarly disagreeing with many of the charges you make against the US, but when you totally demonize a country which any objective person can see is not all bad, you tend to look like fanatics, and you definately drive away many who might find common ground with you.

They do not show you the unsensational body of the murdered. They do not explain that the man, woman, or child was in their kitchen scrubbing dishes, or in their bed, standing on a sidewalk with friends, or sitting in their backyard with neighbors. And even if they were throwing stones (stones?!) at soldiers or tanks or bulldozers, they were answered with bullets and mortar shells. Have you ever seen a rubber bullet? They are about 2 inches long as as big around as a quarter. Fired from a gun at the head they can, and do, kill. Usually, live rounds are fired from M-16′s, usually at the head, usually fatal.

And those are the ones who are killed. Nearly every Palestinian male (and some females), many from an early age, will or has been detained without provocation or merit. They are taken in the middle of the night from their homes, thrown into the back of jeeps, and held indefinitely. They are left in their own feces, insulted, beaten, berated. They are held in this manner until the IDF finds crimes to accuse them of. Their families are not told of their whereabouts. They are usually innocent of any crime, and when the IDF finds nothing, they are released. When they emerge, they are never the same again. Many become more political, many retreat into themselves, broken into compliance.

In light of this, you tell me:
Why is it that so many politicians go to annual AIPAC dinners and applaud Israel? Why did Olmert get so many standing ovations from the US Congress? Why does Israel, with the 54th highest GDP in the world, receive billions in military and foreign aid and loan guarantees from the U.S. every year? What other nation on earth receives such accolades, honors and assistance for the promotion of their systematic occupation and oppression of their native population? There are others, but none so public, so openly and blatantly spitting in the face of human rights and international law, as Israel.

It is true that hate mongers have taken up the Palestinian cause for the promotion of their own agenda. I am not a white supremacist, a bigot, or a racist. I do not hold Jews accountable for the acts of Israel, but rather the responsible. I don’t believe in meeting violence with violence. I have no such agenda, no such hate.

Truth must be sought. It will not fall into your lap, predigested and served with a cold beverage to wash it down. It is often bitter, often inedible, often leaves you hungrier still. It is disturbing, and depressing, sad and horrific. It may leave you numb, angry or suicidal. It may move you to act, to speak, to shout, to make a difference. At the chance that it might have the latter effect, denial of the truth is foolish, and silence in the face of it is criminal.