Sabbah Report » Israel

Israelis rejoice at the death of Palestinian children in bus accident

Paul J. Balles — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 08:58:28 +0000

A story appeared in Israel's Haaretz newspaper last month about what happened after nine Palestinian children and one adult were killed in a school bus accident north of Jerusalem.

Firefighters at the site of a crash between a truck and a school bus transporting Palestinian children between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah on Feb. 16, 2012. At least ten Palestinian children from east Jerusalem were killed when their school bus was hit by a truck on a road in the West Bank. Ahmad Gharabli / AFP - Getty Images

In "Enemies, a hate story", Gideon Levy described the coverage of the story as "Workmanlike overall if faceless and depersonalized."

The accident would have been followed by "a lot more blood and tears" if the children had been Jewish, adds Levy.

But worse than ignoring the tragic deaths of the children when an Israeli truck overturned their bus were the nasty, hateful things that Israelis had to say on the internet.

They revealed their names and their Facebook photos, spewing forth nauseating, hate-permeated racism that seemed to exceed anything seen here previously," wrote Levy.

"Relax, these are Palestinian children," Benny Dazanashvili wrote on Twitter.

"It seems these are Palestinians ... God willing," posted Tal Biton.

"I hope every day there is a bus like this," chipped in Itai Viltzig.

"Dozens, if not hundreds, of Internet surfers said a prayer of thanks – for the terrible death by fire of young children on a school field trip – and the responses were featured on the web pages of the prime minister and the Israel Police and the Walla! Web portal," wrote Levy.

The only light came from Meira Baruch, who wrote: "I'm 63 years old. Only a few times in my life have I been ashamed to be a Jew. Today I am ashamed. How can anyone rejoice over the death of little children?"

What Levy says next should be covered in every major newspaper and TV station in the West: "Enemies, a hate story. In the past few years, anti-Arab hatred and racism have reached monstrous proportions and are no longer restricted to a negligible minority."

These Israelis are inviting a blowback of hatred from Palestinians who have generally been placid. Of all who should know better, young Jews should have learned how high a price accompanies racial hatred.

Levy comments on the difference in attitudes between the Palestinians and Israelis: "Palestinians I have met over the years, all of them victims of the occupation, speak about their dream of living together in peace while the majority of Israelis dream of 'the separation'."

Herein lies the problem for both Israelis and Palestinians. If the Israelis dream of "the separation" they anticipate the elimination of all but Jews from Palestine.

Many of these Israelis still have illusions of eliminating Palestinians by forcing them out of both Gaza and the West Bank and into refugee camps in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.

Despite the talk about a two-state solution, the evidence of real Israeli intentions exists in the Apartheid Wall (meant to divide farm lands), the theft of water sources and the continued development of settlements.

On many occasions recently, Palestinians have reported unprovoked abuse by Israelis in the settlements. The government does nothing to stop this kind of behaviour; fitting only what Gideon Levy called "a dream of separation".

On 22 February Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee member and lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi called on the European Union to rescue the two-state solution. "We call on European countries to translate policy into action and implement new creative initiatives to rescue the two-state solution before Israel destroys the chances for peace."

Ashrawi's is the voice Levy referred to as the Palestinian's "dream of living together in peace". Her call to the European Union to act conveys her hope that the Europeans may help the peace process where others have failed.

Meanwhile, Israel approves building over 500 settlement units.

* Paul J. Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for many years. He's a weekly Op-Ed columnist for the Gulf Daily News. Dr. Balles is also Editorial Consultant for Red House Marketing and a regular contributor to Bahrain This Month.

Ignore the intelligence reports, let’s make war on Iran

Stuart Littlewood — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 07:40:59 +0000

Let's shred and vapourize a few million more innocents... But first we'll strangle them with sanctions, say our elected leaders

Is this what we voted for?

Is this what Western diplomacy has come to in the 21stt century?

Thank heaven for Dr David Morrison's very timely briefing document entitled "Iran hasn't got an active nuclear weapons programme, says US intelligence". Morrison is the noted political researcher from Northern Ireland. He sets out the position in easy-reading form so that even our dimmest politicians can understand.

As he points out in a covering note, US intelligence believes Iran hasn't got an active nuclear weapons programme and Israeli intelligence agrees. "When this became the view of US intelligence in 2007, President Bush had to abandon any thought of taking military action against Iran's nuclear facilities. As he wrote in his memoir Decision Points:

How could I possibly explain using the military to destroy the nuclear facilities of a country the intelligence community said had no active nuclear weapons program?

Today, President Obama should be asking himself the same question, since US intelligence is still saying that Iran has no active nuclear weapons programme.

So too should David Cameron, William Hague and the entire European Union.

Dr Morrison's report boils down to this:

According to the US intelligence community Iran hasn't got an active nuclear weapons programme and Israeli intelligence agrees.

The US intelligence community set out this view in a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) in November 2007 and it remains their opinion today. Their assessment was that Tehran halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003. "We assess with moderate confidence Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons programme as of mid-2007..." (NIEs express the consensus view of the 16 US intelligence agencies).

The November 2011 report on Iran's nuclear activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) did not say that Iran has an active nuclear weapons programme despite the impression given by the media and ministerial rantings.

Iran has declared to the IAEA 15 nuclear facilities (including its uranium enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordow) and nine other locations. These are all being monitored by the IAEA. In its February 2012 report, the IAEA confirmed yet again there was no diversion of nuclear material from these facilities.

The IAEA on 4 December 2007 noted that the NIE tallied with the agency's statements over the last few years that, although Iran still needs to clarify aspects of its nuclear activities, the agency has no concrete evidence of an ongoing nuclear weapons programme or undeclared nuclear facilities.

On 16 February this year, the present director of the National Intelligence Agency, James Clapper, reported to the Senate Armed Services Committee: "We assess Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons... We do not know, however, if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons... That is the intelligence community's assessment..."

On the same day US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta gave the same assessment to another congressional committee, saying that Iran has not made a decision on whether to proceed with development of an atomic bomb. A month earlier, when asked about Iran's nuclear programme on "Face the Nation" on CBS, he replied: "Are they [the Iranians] trying to develop a nuclear weapon? No."

So why the mismatch between intelligence and the loud clamour for war – economic and military? The answer, presumably, is because war is good – good for business. Hence war can be highly beneficial to a senior politician's post-political career.

A Middle East nuke-free zone... really?

The international community, including the US and the EU, says it is committed to a nuclear weapons free zone in the Middle East. The only impediment, of course, is Israel's possession of nuclear weapons, which menace the whole region and perhaps beyond. Some experts believe that Israel has around 400 nuclear warheads and, naturally, various means of delivering them.

Iran has none.

Iran's nuclear facilities are open to IAEA inspection; Israel's are not.

Furthermore, UN Security Council resolution 487, in 1981, called on Israel "urgently to place its nuclear facilities under IAEA safeguards". Israel has ignored it for over 30 years.

Yet the US and the EU choose to impose vicious economic sanctions on Iran, and threaten military action, while taking no such measures against Israel, not even uttering a word of criticism.

Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, in December at the Conservative Friends of Israel Annual Business Lunch said:

I think Israel is right to identify this [Iran's nuclear programme] as one of the greatest threats to peace and human life in the world at the moment... Any excuse that Iran had that there was a peaceful purpose for what they were doing has been blown out of the water. There was a report recently from the IAEA which made that clear.

Did it? Has Osborne actually read the IAEA report or is he mouthing off some Tel Aviv script?

He said he recently authorized the imposition of new sanctions, "stronger than any we've ever imposed before with a country", cutting off the British financial system from the Iranian banking system.

He added: "David Cameron, myself and other prominent members of the government, as well as the many Conservative MPs who are here, are all good friends of Israel."

And at a dinner of the Community Security Trust (CST) in London recently Osborne went so far as to announce his support for the present mayor of London, Boris Johnson, in the coming election, saying that Boris, like him, was a lifelong friend of Israel, and the leader of London should be committed to securing the interests of Israel.

As if any mayor of London should bother himself with the interests of a foreign racist regime! That is not what the people of London elect him to do, nor did the people of Britain elect Osborne to fly the Israeli flag on the roof of the Treasury.

What they say and do make it very clear that Prime Minister David Cameron, Foreign Secretary William Hague and Middle East minister Alistair Burt are also Israel's ardent stooges. Cameron is a self-declared Zionist, Hague a member of the Friends of Israel since he was a juvenile in short trousers, and Burt was not just a member of that fan club but an officer.

Here's a flavour:

Cameron: "We will not stand by and allow Iran to cast a nuclear shadow over Israel or the wider region" (CST Annual Dinner, 2 March 2011)

Cameron: "I've read the reports, and I have had the briefings: they are stockpiling enough uranium to make a nuclear weapon over time. Of course, that's a huge threat to the world but it's a particular threat to Israel. Since we came into power we have wasted no time in securing tougher sanctions. We backed tough sanctions in the United Nations – and we championed and led, at meeting after meeting, even tougher sanctions at the European level. Iran needs to know if they continue on this course they will feel international pressure and international isolation". (Conservative Friends of Israel Annual Business Lunch, 13 December 2010)

Hague: "Iran's actions not only run counter to the positive change that we are seeing elsewhere in the region; they may threaten to undermine it, bringing about a nuclear arms race in the Middle East or the risk of conflict". (Middle East Statement, 9 November 2011)

Burt: "Israel's strength is a regional bulwark for good... Iran does not just threaten Israel. It threatens those who would be Israel's allies in the Gulf, and in the Arab world who need Israel as part of a common cause against a regime dangerously loose... Israel's strength is not a regional threat, but an anchor of regional stability. And the world needs Israel's values, of tolerance and justice..." (Speech to Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 10 January 2012)

Burt: "We share Israel's determination to prevent Iranian proliferation. Israel is not facing the threat of a nuclear Iran alone..." (Speech to Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 10 January 2012)

Burt: "I care as someone who has for decades counted himself as an ardent friend of Israel."(Speech to Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 10 January 2012)

These people at the heart of British government claim Iran is pursuing military objectives through its nuclear programme but provide us with not a shred of evidence. In the circumstances their propaganda offensive linked with Washington's sounds insane and is unraveling fast because no amount of media lies can hide a crude fabrication. Nobody's buying it.

If our leaders have trouble understanding the NIE and IAEA reports, help is now at hand. I suggest they get themselves a copy of Dr Morrison's "idiot's guide" before they land this country – and indeed the whole West – in more trouble than we can handle and bring down the world's everlasting hatred on our heads.
Postscript
Just as I was signing off I skimmed Obama's annual speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). It's a regular reach-for-the-sickbag occasion where the American president has to account for his commitment to the Zionist project and plead for his job. Yes sir, "over the last three years, as president of the United States, I have kept my commitments to the state of Israel. At every crucial juncture, at every fork in the road, we have been there for Israel. Every single time."

Bravo.

When the Goldstone report unfairly singled out Israel for criticism, we challenged it. When Israel was isolated in the aftermath of the flotilla incident, we supported them... and we will always reject the notion that Zionism is racism. When one-sided resolutions are brought up at the Human Rights Council, we oppose them...

And so forth. As an exercise in grovelling it has no equal, and the theme is always the same: Israel's security. But for "security" read "dominance", requiring all the other nations in the region to remain vulnerable and unresisting to predatory Israel's nuclear and military superiority, and its ever expanding borders.

"I've made it clear that there will be no lasting peace unless Israel's security concerns are met," says Obama, adding:

That's why we continue to press Arab leaders to reach out to Israel... That's why just as we encourage Israel to be resolute in the pursuit of peace we have continued to insist that any Palestinian partner must recognise Israel's right to exist and reject violence and adhere to existing agreements.

If only Israel would do the same.

And who'd have thought Obama would stoop to making mischief with that old Khomeini misquote – saying that "no Israeli government can tolerate a nuclear weapon in the hands of a regime that threatens to wipe Israel off the map".

And what about this gem: "A nuclear-armed Iran would thoroughly undermine the non-proliferation regime that we've done so much to build."

Obama tells AIPAC the only way to truly solve this problem and end the sanctions pain is for the Iranian government to forsake nuclear weapons, although, as he must have been told time and time again, they don't have any while Israel is bristling with them.

Obama sure does cut a sad figure these days.

* Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. Read other articles by Stuart.

Obama and AIPAC

Antoine Raffoul — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 06:34:40 +0000

Obama goes all the way to AIPAC just one day before he welcomes Netanyahu. Listen to what he says about Shimon Perez and his Hagana involvement. For this, Obama will honour Perez later this Spring with American highest civilian honour: the Presidential Medal of Freedom!

Worse yet to come if you can bear listening to the whole 32 minute speech:

America on Israel’s Altar

Paul J. Balles — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:14:00 +0000

Artwork by Barbara Broido

The Boston Globe called U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul a "Republican maverick".

The label has been attached to Paul primarily because he differs from the other Republican presidential candidates on foreign policy. Said The Globe after the presidential debate In Des Moines, Iowa on December 10th:

"While most of the Republican candidates are open to military action against Iran, Paul advocates diplomacy. While several of the candidates oppose cutting the defence budget, Paul wants to slash it. Paul was one of the only candidates in the debate to oppose extending the Patriot Act."

For those unfamiliar with the Patriot Act, it was enacted presumably to help fight terrorism after 9/11 while sacrificing individual rights.

According to The Globe,

"Dean Spiliotes, an independent political analyst from New Hampshire, said Paul's foreign policy contradicts core Republican tenets of strong national security and defence. But it appeals to Americans who are tired of war and focused on economic issues."

The foreign policy differences between Ron Paul and his adversaries make him an ideal candidate for those tired of America's war hawks bankrupting the country.

During the Republican candidates' debate, Paul didn't believe Israel would actually strike Iran--but if it did, "we need to get out of their way," he cautioned.

"When they want to have peace treaties, we tell them what they can do because we buy their allegiance and they sacrifice their sovereignty to us," admonished Paul.

"They decide they want to bomb something?" asked Paul. "That's their business, but they should suffer the consequences. Israel has 200--300 nuclear missiles and they can take care of themselves."

For an American politician to make comments like that took courage. The one that followed would certainly upset American Israeli supporters:

"We don't even have a treaty with Israel. Why do we have this automatic commitment that we're going to send our kids and send our money endlessly to Israel?"

In the debate, the other candidates were falling all over themselves, attempting to show their dedication to Israel. The leading candidate, Mitt Romney groaned:

"There's no price which is worth an Iranian nuclear weapon. And the right course is to show that we care about Israel, that they are our friend; we'll stick with them."

This is the same pre-emptive war hawk rubbish that Bush and Cheney and the Zioncons fed the public as the way to combat terrorism when, in fact, they were telling Israel and its lobbies that America will eternally fight Israel's wars.

Promised Romney,

"If I'm president of the United States, my first foreign trip will be to Israel to show the world we care about that country and that region."

The Republican candidates, except Ron Paul, all go overboard in their attempts to prove to the supporters in America that they will serve the interests of Israel at any cost.

Of course, the rest of the world doesn't need to be shown that the U.S. cares about Israel. The only politician unwilling to sacrifice America for Israel is Ron Paul.

The American Arab Anti-discrimination Committee (ADC) recently illustrated the problem with Republicans' unabated support for Israel:

"Among politicians, Newt Gingrich called the Palestinian people an 'invented people', Eric Cantor said that Palestinian culture was 'infused with hatred and resentment,' and Mitt Romney said that he would consult with Benjamin Netanyahu in making U.S. policy toward Palestinians because, apparently, Israel does not have enough say in U.S. policy toward the Middle East."

If Ron Paul miraculously receives continuing strong support, his voting public will be tired of sacrificing America on Israel's altar.

Palestinian Children Detained Oppressively in Isolation

Stephen Lendman — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:41:05 +0000

DCI/Palestine "is a national section of the international non-government child rights organisation and movement (dedicated) to promoting and protecting the rights of Palestinian children," according to international law principles.

On December 28, it submitted a complaint [PDF] to several UN authorities titled, "The use of solitary confinement on Palestinian children held in Israeli detention." It's specifically for five children held at Al Jalame and Petah Tikva interrogation centers in Israel.

Their cases follow 29 others since February 2008. At both facilities, "solitary confinement is routinely used."

Though no universally agreed on definition exists, the Istanbul Statement on the Use and Effects of Solitary Confinement defines it as physically isolating prisoners in cells for 22 to 24 hours daily. Human contact is minimized, including quantitative and qualitative stimuli.

The harmful psychological and physical effects are well documented. They include:

severe anxiety;
panic attacks;
lethargy;
insomnia;
nightmares;
dizziness;
irrational anger, at time uncontrollable;
confusion;
social withdrawal;
memory loss;
appetite loss;
delusions and hallucinations;
mutilations;
profound despair and hopelessness;
suicidal thoughts;
paranoia; and
for many, a totally dysfunctional state and inability ever to live normally outside of confinement.

As a result, UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez called for totally banning it for children. Calling it "torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment," he stopped short of demanding its prohibition against everyone.

In 2007, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child urged the practice be "strictly forbidden."

Israel Spurns All International Laws with Impunity

Israel frequently isolates adults and children, notably Palestinians. Facilities most commonly used include Al Mascobiyya interrogation center in Jerusalem, Petah Tikva near Tel Aviv, and Al Jalame near Haifa.

Israel's Prison Service (IPS), Israel Security Agency (ISA), and Israeli police administer these facilities.

From February 2008 through November 2011, DCI/Palestine documented 34 child abuse cases. They endured "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and in some cases, torture, in violation of the" Torture Convention, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Fourth Geneva.

Israel spurns all international laws with impunity, including those pertaining to war, occupation, and fundamental humanitarian and human rights.

At Al Jalame, children are held in 2 x 3 meter cells. In 2009, one child endured 65 days of punishment. All of them sleep on concrete beds, or on the floor on thin, dirty, foul-smelling mattresses. Meals pass through door flaps, depriving them of human contact.

Al Jalame's "Cell No. 36 (like all isolation ones) has "sharp protrusions preventing the children from leaning against them for support." It's windowless with artificial light only coming from dim internal lighting kept on 24 hours a day.

As a result, "(s)ome children report suffering pain behind their eyes and adverse psychological effects."

Harsh treatment, including prolonged isolation, painful shackling, physical violence and torture are used to extract confessions.

Children at Al Jalame and other interrogation facilities are generally denied access to lawyers and family visits in violation of Fourth Geneva and other international laws.

DCI/Palestine submitted complaints for five Palestinian children. They were identified only by initials, age, gender, ID No., and place of origin.

On October 15, 2011, Israeli soldiers arrested OA at 2AM from home. He was blindfolded, painfully shackled, placed in a military vehicle, taken to Huwwara interrogation center in Palestine, forced to sit on the ground until dawn, and refused permission to use a toilet.

Later that morning he was taken to Petah Tikva interrogation center in Israel in violation of Fourth Geneva. He was stripped searched, and denied legal counsel. With his hands tied to a chair, he was interrogated by a man called "Morris."

Accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli jeep, he denied it. After two hours of interrogation, he was placed in isolation he described as follows:

"It was a very small cell with a mattress on the floor, a toilet and two concrete seats. It did not have any windows, just a vent for air conditioning. It was very cold because of the air conditioning. I could not sleep because there was a yellow light on 24 hours a day. I was detained in the cell for two days, before being transferred to Al Jalame."

There, he was isolated for five days. His detention was extended. He wasn't in court and doesn't know if counsel represented him. He was then sent back to Petah Tikva, held another nine days under identical conditions, and interrogated twice before confessing, saying:

"I was in a very bad psychological state, so I decided to confess. I confessed to throwing Molotov cocktails and stones at army jeeps," even though he was innocent.

Isolated for 16 days, he's now at Megiddo prison in Israel.

Others DCI/Palestine represented told similar stories. They were falsely charged, arrested, interrogated, isolated and harshly treated overall. Israel treats children like adults, some young as 10.

International laws were grievously violated, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). It's Article 37(b) states:

"The arrest, detention or imprisonment of a child...shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time."

In fact, Palestinian children are routinely arrested at checkpoints, on streets, going to or coming from school, tending olive groves, at play, and (most commonly) at home in the middle of the night.

Usually it's from midnight to 4AM. Family members are threatened not to intervene. If they try, they're assaulted and forced onto streets in their nightclothes, regardless of weather, and given no explanation.

Typically, arrests are lawless and violent. Homes are broken into unannounced. Property is damaged or stolen. Children are blindfolded, shackled, often beaten, then thrust into jeeps, sometimes face down.

In interrogation centers, inhumane treatment continues, including beatings, verbal abuse and intimidation. Most often, lawyers aren't present until questioning ends with a signed Hebrew confession children can't read or understand. Once gotten, they're used to convict even though torture extracted evidence is inadmissible under international law.

Article 15 of the UN Convention Against Torture states:

"Each State Party shall ensure that any statement which is established to have been made as a result of torture shall not be invoked as evidence in any proceedings, except against a person accused of torture as evidence that the statement was made."

In custody, children endure:

blindfolding and painful shackling;
beatings;
violent shaking;
sleep deprivation;
solitary confinement;
other forms of sensory deprivation;
no food and water for extended periods;
poor quality or inedible food when gotten;
no access to toilets, showers and clean clothes;
exposure to extreme heat or cold;
painful stress positions for extended periods;
sexual abuse;
threats, insults and cursing; and
extremely loud noises.

Often parents and siblings are also arrested, beaten, detained, and their homes sometimes demolished.

Under Military Order 132, children aged 12 - 13 receive maximum six month sentences. Those aged 14 - 15 usually face 12 months, but can receive up to five years.

More serious offenders face no limits. Military Order 378 permits up to 20 years for stone-throwing (the most common offense charged). Moreover, children 16 or older are considered adults and treated no differently. Under international law, adulthood begins at age 18.

Under military occupation, Israel's system is rigged to convict and brutalize before and after incarceration, despite Fourth Geneva's Article 147 requiring fair trials, and holding those responsible for denying them criminally liable.

International law also forbids torture, other abuse and inhumane treatment at all times, under all conditions with no allowed exceptions. Israel ignores all international laws. It does what it please, including against children young as 10 no matter their innocence.

DCI/Palestine and other human rights organizations demand these crimes against humanity end and those responsible held accountable. So far it hasn't happened.

The use of solitary confinement on Palestinian children held in Israeli detention

* Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon.

Israeli Checkpoint On-Camera with no shame [Must watch video]

Antoine Raffoul — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:11:57 +0000

If this goes on ON-CAMERA, just imagine what goes on OFF-CAMERA. Obama calls these people his 'eternal allies'.

Video link: http://youtu.be/QorJMPtz1Fw

"Animals. Animals. Like the Discovery Channel. All of Ramallah is a jungle. There are monkeys, dogs, gorillas. The problem is that the animals are locked they can't come out. We're humans. They're animals. They aren't humans we are."
- Israeli border police (you can find at 5:03 of this video)

"We let them suffer, in the sun, in the rain, that's it. That's what I wanted to say. Let the whole world know."
- Israeli border police

"When the Palestinians come...we put on our show."
- Israeli border police

"Nobody knows about us here. Nobody in the world."
- Palestinian businessman

"Look at what they do to us, do to our children. Look!"
- Mother with two children

"Food for my wife, Christmas tomorrow. Meal for my family! I'll be back in the morning!"
- Elderly Palestinian man

* Antoine Raffoul is a Palestinian architect living and practising in London. He was born in Nazareth and was expelled with his family from Haifa in April 1948. He is the Founder and Co-ordinator of 1948: Lest.We.Forget. a campaign group for truth about Palestine. He can be reached at info@1948.org.uk.

The Camp David treaty is not a sacred text

Khalid Amayreh — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:28:35 +0000

It is quite heartening that leaders of the Egyptian Muslim Brothers are speaking of their disdain and contempt of the 1979 Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel.

It seems also prudent that the Islamist party, evidently the largest in Egypt, will not embark on a rash feat that could invite uncalculated reactions from the Zionist entity and its western allies, especially her guardian-ally, the United States.

The Muslim Brothers have said that they will respect Egypt's international obligations.

None the less, the Camp David treaty was not really a treaty of peace, but rather a treaty of submission and capitulation to Zionist regional hegemony, arrogance and military supremacy.

True, the Sinai Peninsula was "returned" to Egypt to the last inch. However, it is also true that vast swathes of the Sinai desert became off limit to the Egyptian forces. This is why smugglers, terrorists, saboteurs and foreign agents seem to act freely throughout that territory, blowing up gas pipelines, smuggling narcotics and other contrabands, and even attacking symbols of Egyptian sovereignty, including police centers and tourist resorts.

The defunct Egyptian regime of ex President Hosni Mubarak claimed mendaciously that the Sinai desert was completely liberated from the Israeli occupation. But how can Sinai are really completely liberated when the bulk of its territory is still off limit to the Egyptian army and air force?

In addition, it is quite scandalous how Israel came to understand the infamous treaty, e.g. that it gave the Zionist entity a carte blanch to gang up on the Palestinians, liquidate the Palestinian cause, though gradually and by desensitizing the world's moral conscience, and carrying out recurrent genocidal campaigns aimed at murdering, incinerating and maiming as many Palestinians as possible.

If evidence were needed, we are all invited to revisit the 2008-09 Israeli blitzkrieg on the Gaza Strip which did to Gaza what the allies bombing did to Dresden in the last phases of the Second World War.

Well, under these circumstances, one is prompted to ask whether Egypt, especially under an Islamist-ruled or Islamist influenced regime, is under any legal or moral obligation to abide by such a treaty.

Of course, the final say in this regard belongs to the Egyptian people. But the Egyptian people, who have suffered so much and for so long from Israeli criminality and aggression, and barbarianism doesn't seem to give that treaty the benefit of the doubt, that is if there is any doubt about the treaty's ignominious nature and disastrous legacy.

I realize that spasmodic and uncalculated statements may do more harm than good. However, there should be no question as to the pressing need to renegotiate that treaty if only because the government that signed that treaty back in 1979 was not a democratic government, which didn't enjoy the Egyptian people's acceptance.

This week, a Muslim Brotherhood's leader, Rashad Bayoumy, made it very clear that the Brotherhood will not recognize the "criminal state of Israel."

"Is it a pre-condition to recognize Israel in order to govern? This is not possible, no matter what the circumstances are. We don't recognize Israel at all. It is a criminal occupier."

Bayoumy, who is deputy to the Brotherhood's Supreme Guide, stressed that no member of the Brotherhood will ever sit down with an Israeli.

"I will not allow myself to sit with a criminal. We will not deal with them in any way."

He added that the Brotherhood may hold a national referendum to measure public opinion before taking a final decision about the treaty.

"We will take all the correct legal procedures with the treaty, it is not biding for me, and the people will have the final opinion about it.

"We didn't agree to the peace treaty; we will take all respectable legal procedures towards it. I believe we have the right to present it to the people and the elected parliament so that they can come to a decision about it."

The above words spell resolve but impetuousness as they reflect the long-suppressed disdain and rejection among Egyptians of a so-called peace treaty that enabled Israel to gang on the Palestinians and arrogated the remainder of their homeland.

In the final analysis, Egypt can and should hold Israel to account over the clauses of the treaty which make it an integral part of a wider process which also includes resolving the Palestinian question in accordance with UN Security Council 242 and 338.

However, since Israel has violated these resolutions rather starkly and scandalously, if only by building hundreds of Jewish colonies on occupied land, and by transferring hundreds of thousands of its citizens to live on land that belongs to another people, Egypt should be able to downgrade its commitment to and compliance with the infamous treaty to the bare minimum.

Such a posture on Egypt's part wouldn't be viewed as declaration of war or even a unilateral promulgation of the treaty. It would only be viewed as a necessary measure reflecting Egypt 's sovereignty and national will.

There is no doubt that the treaty and relations with Israel will be a litmus test for the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) as well as the other Islamist party, the Nur, representing the Salafi brothers.

The Islamists under all circumstances must keep a distance from Israel even if bullied, coerced and pressured by the United States to behave otherwise. Any concession, real or imagined, in this regard will cost the Islamists dearly in terms of their standing in the eyes of the people.

The Islamists must not allow themselves to gain acceptance and favor from the criminal entity and her supporters, especially the Jewish-controlled US Congress, at the expense of the Egyptian people's acceptance of the Islamists.

In Egypt as elsewhere in the Arab and Muslim world, there is a mutually exclusive relationship between having normal relations with Israel and being accepted and respected by the masses. A government, including an Islamist or quasi-Islamist government, can only have either good relations with Israel and her supporters on the one hand, or acceptance and respect from the people, on the other. It can't have both, period.

* Khalid Amayreh a journalist based in the Occupied Palestinian town of Dura. He obtained his MA in journalism from the University of Southern Illinois in 1983.

No need for New Year’s Resolutions for Israel – they can use the old UN ones

SR Editor — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:52:54 +0000

By Julie Webb-Pullman

In response to the nameless Israeli Embassy Official's criticisms of a recent photo-essay published in SCOOP, I feel compelled to point out the ventriloquisms this wooden dummy is mindlessly purveying, and to suggest some appropriate New Year's Resolutions.

The photo essay complained of showed the face of Hamas that Israel wishes to deny but that is the reality on the ground - that of a broad-based, popular movement comprised of every sector of Palestinian society, seeking the application and implementation of international law to achieve the Palestinian right to self-determination. A similar photo essay was planned for another factional celebration, that of the Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) the week before, but the invitation to the event was not followed up with notification of time and place, so I missed it. It would have presented a problem for our wooden friend, had I not.

Not that a reality check would make much difference - restating Ismail Haniyeh's affirmation that "armed resistance is our strategic option..." as a determination to "...use any kind of violence and terrorist attacks to wipe Israel from the map" sees the dummy trying to be the ventriloquist, and flies in the face of the facts. Firstly, because the right to resist occupation is a right guaranteed to ALL occupied populations by Article 1(4) of Protocol 1 to the Geneva Conventions, and secondly, because the principle of self determination itself provides that where forcible action has been taken to suppress that right, force may be used in order achieve self determination.

Contrary to the spin our wooden friend put on it, Ismail Haniyeh's statement outlined an available strategy for Palestinian self-determination which is in accordance with international law. Like an out-of-control top, the wooden dummy twisted the statement in a superb display of hypocrisy, in its resolve to demonise Hamas as a terrorist organisation -which predictably surfaced a few paragraphs - and nose-lengths - later.

At the risk of knocking on wood, I suggest the dummy, or better still, the ventriloquist languishing in a very fragile glasshouse, looks at the history of both the founding of the State of Israel, and its terrorist record, before throwing stones.

As Alan Hart pointed out in 2010, "Zionism's assertion that Israel was given its birth certificate and thus legitimacy by the UN General Assembly partition resolution of 29 November 1947 is pure propaganda nonsense". ^[1]

He noted that while the UN General Assembly did pass a resolution to partition Palestine and create two states, it was only a non-binding proposal ie it could have no effect, and would not become binding, until and unless it was approved by the Security Council. However, the partition proposal never went to the Security Council, thus it was'vitiated' (became invalid) and went back to the General Assembly for more discussion. "It was while the General Assembly was debating what do that Israel unilaterally declared itself to be in existence - actually in defiance of the will of the organised international community,"writes Hart.

He concludes that "...Israel, which came into being mainly as a consequence of Zionist terrorism and pre-planned ethnic cleansing, had no right to exist and, more to the point, could have no right to exist unless .....unless it was recognised and legitimized by those who were dispossessed of their land and their rights during the creation of the Zionist state. In international law only the Palestinians could give Israel the legitimacy it craved."

Aha! We find the real reason wood-head has a big problem with Hamas's refusal to recognise Israel –because without it, Israel has no legitimacy, never has had, and as long as Hamas is around, never WILL have.

And if that rather glaring example of Israel's lack of legitimacy is not enough, there is more – Israel's admission to the United Nations in 1948 was on the explicit condition that it respect the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people as embodied in UN resolutions 181 (which gave international legitimacy to two states in Palestine) and 194 (the right of return and compensation for Palestinian refugees) - both of which Israel continues to violate. (hmmm, surely that also renders Israel's 'conditional' UN membership invalid? Illegitimate, perhaps?)

It is not only Hamas that has problems with Israel's lack of legitimacy, but a considerable body of worldwide opinion.

As for violence and terrorism, our nameless (and now apparently stateless) ventriloquist should consult the words of Holocaust survivor and then-Chairman of the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, the late Israel Shahak, who said:

"There is nothing new in the fact that Israel is a terrorist state, which, almost from its inception, has used its intelligence service (the Mossad) to assassinate people on foreign soil with any violence or terror it considers necessary for its ends."

Ismail Zayed lists several such examples, following that quote. ^[2]

"Terrorism" he says,"has been the hallmark of Israeli leaders, including Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Ehud Barak, Benjamin Netanyahu and Ariel Sharon, and others. The massacres, including Deir Yassin, Doueima, Safsaf, Tantura, amongst scores of others, and war crimes that they have orchestrated, would take volumes to relate."

His documentation reveals that Israel holds the record for several 'firsts' in terrorism - the first act of air piracy in the history of civil aviation, (a civilian Syrian airliner forced down in Tel Aviv in 1954), the first act of shooting down a civilian flight (a Libyan airliner shot down by Israeli jet fighters over Sinai in February 1973, on the orders of Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, killing 107 of its passengers and its entire French crew), and the first murder by letter bomb, carried by Yitzhak Shamir's Stern terrorist gang, killing British student Rex Farran in England in May 1948.

Even the United States, Israel's poodle, has not been spared - in 1954 in what became known as the Lavon Affair, Israeli secret agents bombed the U.S. diplomatic centres in Cairo and Alexandria in an attempt to put the blame on the Egyptians. In June 1967, Israeli forces attacked the U.S. spy ship USS Liberty, and strafed rescue boats, killing 35 and injuring 170 U.S. servicemen, in an attempt to conceal its own secret communications - and again tried to blame it on the Egyptians. (The U.S. Congress still continues to refuse to hold an inquiry into this crime.)

Nor has the Zionist terror machine hesitated to kill its own. In 1940, Menachem Begin's Irgun Zwei Leumi terrorist gang bombed the ship Patria in Haifa harbor, killing 240 Jewish refugees, (while blaming the British) and in 1950-1951, Israeli agents tossed hand grenades into the crowded Massauda Shem-Tov synagogue in Iraq, causing numerous deaths, in order to blame it on the Iraqis and encourage reluctant Iraqi Jews to emigrate to Israel.

Every resistance group in the Arab world rolled together would be hard-pushed to beat Israel's record..

Going on to quote a few figures from Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades'website, and ignoring the numerous other sources of data that explicitly condemn the disproportionate killing of Palestinians by Israel compared to the killing of Israelis by Palestinians, the ratio of which rose from 100:1 in 2009 to 180:1 in 2011 (one Israeli death to 180 Palestinian deaths ^[3]) is as suspiciously selective as describing Hamas as "...an internationally recognized terrorist organization." The countries that so designate it are Israel, Canada, the United States, and the 27 countries of the European Union, totalling 30 – hardly a majority of the 195+ countries of the world that constitute the international community.

The fact is, that while Hamas has publicly declared its commitment to peaceful resistance, and is widely acknowledged, even in the Israeli press, to have observed the ceasefire and stopped firing rockets at Israel, Israel continues to commit land, sea and air incursions into Gaza almost daily, carrying out extrajudicial killings of alleged (but acknowledged as non-Hamas) militants, as well as killing and injuring civilians, while continuing to beat the drums of war. ^[4]

As Gaza's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh travels internationally meeting with heads of state in the region (they must have a different list to our wooden friend), Ma'an news agency reported on New Year's Day:

"...Hamas is now committed to prioritizing nonviolent resistance in all its activities. This position is translated on the ground in Gaza by the movement refraining from launching missiles towards Israel and in arresting or otherwise preventing any individual or group from doing so...Politically the Hamas movement is slowly removing all the issues that caused it international isolation." ^[5]

It seems the dummy can not only not identify or speak for itself, nor can it apparently read –including its own press – which might have kept its nose a few inches shorter. Gideon Levy wrote in Haaretz on the same day:

"Instead of encouraging moderation, whether genuine or imaginary, whether strategic or tactical, Israel is rushing to nip it in the bud. .. If it's "no" to the Palestinian Authority and "no" to Hamas, "no" to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and "no" to Khaled Meshal, "no" to Europe and also "no" to the United States, who are we saying "yes" to? And above all, where are we headed? The writing is clearly on the wall..." ^[6] Wake up, woody.

As to the question "why does Scoop disseminate such material, isn't this photo essay anything else but a pro-Hamas propaganda exercise?" – SCOOP is an independent news service presenting information from a multiplicity of sources and perspectives, including that of this faceless and nameless minion of the Zionist state. One could equally ask, does SCOOP's publication of this whining attempt at spin-doctoring constitute a pro-Zionist propaganda exercise?

No, the very suggestion is about as insulting and unwelcome to us as the clutch of nameless faceless Zionist Mossad agents, who came to New Zealand to steal the identities of dead New Zealand children, and obtain passports in their names with which to carry out terrorist murders and assassinations in other countries.

New Zealand's Prime Minister might have his own personal reasons for choosing to forget such behaviour and welcome a Zionist embassy in New Zealand, but most other New Zealanders have long memories, and a strong commitment to social and political justice, human rights, and the right to self-determination. We have repeatedly shown our willingness to take a stand - against apartheid, against nuclear power and weaponry, and against breaches of national and international laws, conventions, and treaties.

Our own Treaty of Waitangi is a case in point – we determinedly overcame ingrained racism, colonialism, and illegitimacy in our quest as a nation to create a fair and just society based on international law and human rights.

Now it is Israel's turn. It is way past time to stop whingeing, and start reading – given the current lack of imagination, a good place to start their 2012 New Year resolutions would be with this list borrowed from the United Nations Security Council - all of the resolutions directly critical of Israel for violations of U.N. Security Council resolutions, the U.N. Charter, the Geneva Conventions, international terrorism, and other violations of international law. ^[7]

Imagine!! TWO legitimate states instead of none – now THAT would be something worth writing about.

[1] http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/04/04/israel-and-the-de-legitimization-oxymoron/

[2] http://www.fromoccupiedpalestineorg/node/23

[3] http://www.middleeastmonitor.org.uk/news/middle-east/3228-israel-killed-180-palestinians-including-21-children-in-2011

[4]http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/dec/28/israel-gaza-offensive-sooner-later

[5] http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=449254

[6] http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israeli-war-drums-ignore-hamas-move-for-change-1.404822

[7] http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/01/27/rogue-state-israeli-violations-of-u-n-security-council-resolutions/0/

Source: Scoop

America’s Chickens Are Coming Home to Roost

William A. Cook — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 08:34:14 +0000

(An end of the year lament)

"Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y'all, not a black militant (Ambassador to Iraq, Edward Peck). Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised..."
(Jeremiah Wright, September 16, 2001)

Prophets fare poorly in their own country, yet countries would do well to hearken to their prophets. Scorn, ridicule, and innuendo attend their pronouncements as the righteous defend their actions as logical, existential and necessary. Jeremiah Wright suffered such scorn and mockery because he understood the consequences of revenge on the innocent and the defenceless, justified by whatever inane discourse. Wright spoke truth to power that Sunday after 9/11 and the righteous cried to heaven condemning him to perdition for defaming America, for even suggesting that revenge for the sake of revenge is the motivation of the arch fiend against the Almighty, the foulest, most ignorant, most amoral rational for action.

Prophets anticipate truth; they review a nation's past history and can predict its future. Witness America's past as the Reverend Wright did that Sunday morning, and what America is doing now repeats its ugliness. Wright said this about America's past:

He pointed out, a white man, an ambassador, he pointed out that what Malcolm X said when he was silenced by Elijah Mohammad was in fact true, he said Americas chickens, are coming home to roost."

"We took this country by terror away from the Sioux, the Apache, Arikara, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo. Terrorism.

"We took Africans away from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism.

"We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians, babies, non-military personnel.

"We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with stealth bombers and killed unarmed teenage and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard working fathers.

"We bombed Qaddafi's home, and killed his child. Blessed are they who bash your children's head against the rock. (See Psalm 137 to understand how the righteous take revenge against the innocent and defenceless.)

"We bombed Iraq. We killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed a plant in Sudan to pay back for the attack on our embassy, killed hundreds of hard working people, mothers and fathers who left home to go that day not knowing that they'd never get back home.

"We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.

"Kids playing in the playground. Mothers picking up children after school. Civilians, not soldiers, people just trying to make it day by day.

"We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff that we have done overseas is now brought right back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost.

That was the Sunday after 9/11, 2001 when Wright quoted Ambassador Peck. But even that list of America's atrocities is not complete as Mark Twain would attest in his recounting of the massacre of the Moro's at the turn of the last century 1900 and our disastrous foray into Vietnam when we lost 58,000 American soldiers and killed millions of Vietnamese and Cambodians.

This is the America that exists now: we preach righteousness, but lie with impunity; declare God's mission to bring freedom to the mid-east, then decimate the women and children, the old and infirm as necessary collateral damage; proclaim the existence of Weapons of Mass destruction, then massively destroy a nation's infrastructure, steal its natural resources, take control of its government replacing it with a favoured puppet; and then write the history to extol our righteousness while defaming the defenceless people decimated. Wright knew.

Perhaps our President might hearken back to a time when principles mattered, when truth mattered, when might did not make right, when the souls and hearts of people mattered, when justice and equality mattered not deceit and dominance over all. When did America become a dictatorial empire manipulated by an elite few using the Presidency like some houseboy to do their bidding? When did the founding documents get trashed, mocked and ridiculed as weak, worthless, and obsolete? When did the American people vote to become the dominant empire in the world? What interests of the people demand that this nation establish military bases in about 140 nations around the world then threaten the nations of the world with pre emptive slaughter should they dare to embark on economic or military equality with the United States? How do the actions implicit in these questions reflect a nation based on the rule of law, on justice for all its citizens, on equity of rights and recognition of rights, on the morals inherent in the Bill of Rights and the ideals enunciated in the Declaration of Independence?

Let's say it loud and clear, the America of our founding fathers no longer exists; America is owned in mind and pocket book by those who have purchased our representatives, propagate their news through the corporate controlled media, determine the receivers of our tax dollars salvaging those who wrought havoc with our economy, write the legislation that controls the American people orchestrated through the largest conglomerate of a police state ever assembled, Homeland Security, and in its final nail in the coffin of human rights has legislated the abolishment of habeas corpus and rule of law by installing the draconian National Defence Authorization Act (NDAA 2012). This act in the words of Jonathan Turley, expert in constitutional law (December 21, 2011 on C-Span, gives dictatorial power to the President:

President Obama has just stated a policy that he can have any American citizen killed without any charge, without any review, except his own. If he's satisfied that you are a terrorist, he says that he can kill you anywhere in the world including in the United States.

Two of his aides just ... reaffirmed they believe that American citizens can be killed on the order of the President anywhere including the United States.

You've now got a president who says that he can kill you on his own discretion. He can jail you indefinitely on his own discretion

I don't think the Framers ever anticipated that [the American people would be so apathetic]. They assumed that people would hold their liberties close, and that they wouldn't relax...

This is the President that rejected the Reverend Wright's prophecy, that capitulated to his new masters who demanded that he repudiate him, that now elevates himself to the role of Judge, Jury and executioner, the role that used to be played by the Sheriffs of the old segregated south when they turned a blind eye to those dragging a slave to the hanging tree. Indeed, we have turned back in time to that denunciated by a real leader of men, a man born into slavery, Frederick Douglass, when he described the America he lived in just before the Civil War:

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelly to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciations of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade, and solemnity, are, to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices, more shocking and bloody, than are the people of these United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the old world, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

The American people are now in Douglass' shoes; they have been put on notice that any pathological employee of Homeland Security, of the armed forces of the United State, of our local police and National Guard, can suspect a citizen of associating or being engaged somehow with "terrorists," can be arrested, interrogated, imprisoned indefinitely, without charge, without review except his own. The America Douglass so graphically describes existed up through the 100 years of segregation until the Civil Rights movement of 1954 got under way. We've had a modicum of equality for the past 50 years brought on by national movements that made clear to the government that they were elected to serve the people, not arrest them.

But let it also be said that the America Douglass describes, the one grounded in "bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy," still exists outclassing its past a hundred fold. Our savagery knows no bounds: we decimate people wantonly throughout the world as Dresden, the fire-bombing of Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Vietnam, the sanctions against Iraq, the illegal invasion of Iraq, the unqualified military support we provide to the Zionist government in Israel against a defenceless people, the abominable use of drones against the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan, the continuing development of weapons of mass savagery and our willingness to develop further atomic weapons graphically illustrates.

The numbers slaughtered in this review is in the millions--not all dressed in combat fatigues. The numbers of the defenceless and the innocent outstrips those trained to kill. All of those slaughtered happened outside the United States and every son and daughter, mother and father, sister and brother, aunt and uncle, grandfather and grandmother felt the pain of loss that was to our forces a "body count." "Revenge is mine sayeth the Lord." "Violence begets violence, hatred begets hatred, terrorism begets terrorism," so rings the prophetic knell of the Reverend Wright to his congregation one of whom happened to be our current President Barack Obama. Would that he had listened, for if any man was ever elected to the office of President to change the world, this was the man and he has failed.

* William A. Cook is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California and author of The Rape Of Palestine: Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied, Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy and The Chronicles Of Nefaria. He can be reached at: wcook@laverne.edu.

Israel and the Celebration of the Anniversary of Genocide in Gaza

Dr. Christof Lehmann — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 15:22:31 +0000

When observing the aerial bombardment, heavy artillery and haubitzer shelling of Gaza, three years ago, I remembered Erich Maria Remarqe's, book All quiet on the Western Front, and the passage that has been deeply imprinted into my memory, where he described the shelling of a graveyard during the first world war, while a platoon of troops that got caught in artillery fire while passing the site was desperately seeking cover in the craters riddled with the bones of their rotting fellow human beings. The dead were killed for a second time, he wrote. ^[1]

The mere fact that Remarqe and this passage of his book come to mind when contemplating the situation in Gaza is sufficient for me to know that I need no further contemplation to know that something is going terribly awry in our sense of humanity when it comes to Palestinians, and who would wonder that the people of the world stand idly by when schools, women and children are bombed to unrecognizable pieces of flesh, and when children are taken hostage by IDF troops who are using them as human shields, as occurred during operation Cast Lead. One could read "Palestine Israel, History and Theirstory " ^[2] if one wants to know more about why much of the world does not care about Palestinian suffering.

Early this morning Israeli jets shelled areas in Northern and central Gaza. According to Israeli military forces because the areas had been used to fire a few home made Katusha rockets into what is now called Israel. After having had a look at what these dreaded Qassam Missiles are it becomes obvious that they are nothing more than some super sized firecrackers. The damage that can be caused by 10 of them can hardly be compared to the energy that is released by a single tank shell with a killing radius of the size of a football field.

There is a very useful term called proportionality which elicits much of the problem. When an entire people is systematically deprived of it's humanity by corporate media, entertainment industry and propaganda experts, who are euphemistically called spin doctors, then it becomes understandable that the merciless butchering of a thousand Palestinians by a thousand highly explosive high tech artillery shells plus bombs and rockets, is a proportionate response to two firecracker like Qassam missiles that injured a goat and frightened someone who chose to live on illegally occupied land.

It's absolutely proportional to keep hundreds of Palestinian child prisoners, thousands of adult male and female prisoners who have been illegally arrested in prison, because those terrorists have kidnapped one of the heroic Israeli soldiers who valiantly defend the genocide.

Israeli military sources are reporting that the bombing raid a couple of days ago, on the anniversary of Cast Lead as well as the bombing raid this morning, may be precursors of a new offensive.

It seems Israel is developing a delicate sense for the celebration of genocide. "Bibi, it's the three year anniversary of our murder of 1.200 Palestinian women and children, lets celebrate."

If Bibi Netanyahu and company need a pretext for another large scale massacre, why not wait until New Year. Imagine the awesome firepower of all those celebratory rockets sent into the skies and the countless firecrackers at new years eve. Bibi could even blame the Chinese for delivering those dangerous weapons to the terrorists, right? Or when was the last time you have seen fireworks not made in China?

"There "must" be one or two of them that fall into our liberated Holy Land, so we cam murder a few thousand more Palestinians". "Bibi, you could also have a couple of delicious preemptive strikes against Gaza, because I am sure that those damned tunnels are used to smuggle all kinds of food that they use to celebrate ." "No, General, we must have the tunnels open so they can get their new years firecrackers to Gaza, how else should we find an excuse for bombing them."

My best wishes to the people who are condemned to live within the worlds largest extermination camp, Gaza. My deep respect for those who live in the worlds largest extermination camp and still make full use of their right to resist against the genocide on their people, rather than behaving like a sheep waiting for the slaughter.

And my deepest respect for them not giving up to insist on their right to live on their own land, to self determination, statehood, peace, and their right to defend themselves from an attacking, occupying or besieging military force.

Happy New Year Gaza

Happy new year Palestine

Happy Anniversary of the Cast Lead Genocide, Israel.

Slideshow photos from Gaza Massacre - Cast Lead, 2008:
[[Show as slideshow]]

1) All quiet at the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque, 1928, https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/All_Quiet_on_the_Western_Front

2) Palestine Israel, History and Theirstory, Lehmann Ch. 2011, nsnbc http://nsnbc.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/palestine-israel-history-and-theirstory/

Israeli navy attacks international observers, injures Palestinian, on monitoring boat in Gaza waters

SR Editor — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 17:58:03 +0000

At 10:55 am, an Israeli naval warship attacked the international observers and Palestinian captain of the Civil Peace Service Gaza (CPSGAZA) boat Oliva, injuring its captain in an apparent attempt to capsize it.

Photo: Rosa Schiano, Civil Peace Service Gaza (CPSGAZA)

The two international observers, both Italian citizens, are available for media questions or interviews.

"The Israeli navy passed near us and the fishermen, and started to go around us, creating waves," said Rosa Schiano, one of the international observers. "The fishermen escaped, but we couldn't because of a problem with our engine. We couldn't move, and they went around us very quickly. The Israelis saw that we couldn't move, and that the captain was trying to fix the engine, but they didn't stop. We told them, 'Please stop! Please stop!' But they didn't."

When the warship was two meters away from the Oliva, one of the waves it had created nearly capsized the small boat, filling it with water and causing the Palestinian captain to fall out, injuring his left leg.

"Their intentions were to do something very bad," said international observer Daniela Riva. "Coming so close to us was very dangerous, and they obviously knew that."

After more than twenty minutes, the warship retreated, and the Oliva was rescued by a small Palestinian fishing boat, or hasaka, which threw it a line and towed it toward the shore.

Photos are available for free use with attribution to Rosa Schiano, Civil Peace Service Gaza (CPSGAZA): http://bit.ly/CPSGAZAphotos. Additional photos and video will be available upon request: email press@cpsgaza.org.

The incident followed similar attacks on the Oliva during previous missions. Video footage is available: http://bit.ly/CPSGAZAvideos.

Background

Restrictions on the fishing zone are of considerable significance to Palestinian livelihood. Initially 20 nautical miles, it is presently often enforced between 1.5 - 2 nautical miles (PCHR: 2010). The marine 'buffer zone' restricts Gazan fishermen from accessing 85% of Gaza's fishing waters agreed to by Oslo.

During the Oslo Accords, specifically under the Gaza-Jericho Agreement of 1994, representatives of Palestine agreed to 20 nautical miles for fishing access. In 2002 the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan empowered Catherine Bertini to negotiate with Israel on key issues regarding the humanitarian crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and a 12 nautical mile fishing limit was agreed upon. In June 2006, following the capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit near the crossing of Kerem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom), the navy imposed a complete sea blockade for several months. When the complete blockade was finally lifted, Palestinian fishermen found that a 6 nautical mile limit was being enforced. When Hamas gained political control of the Gaza Strip, the limit was reduced to 3 nautical miles. During the massive assault on the Strip in 2008-2009, a complete blockade was again declared. After Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli army began imposing a 1.5 - 2 nautical miles (PCHR: 2010).

The fishing community is often similarly targeted as the farmers in the 'buffer zone' and the fishing limit is enforced with comparable aggression, with boats shot at or rammed as near as 2nm to the Gazan coast by Israeli gunboats.

The fishermen have been devastated, directly affecting an estimated 65,000 people and reducing the catch by 90%. The coastal areas are now grossly over-fished and 2/3 of fishermen have left the industry since 2000 (PCHR: 2009). Recent statistics of the General Union of Fishing Workers indicate that the direct losses since the second Intifada in September 2000 were estimated at a million dollars and the indirect losses were estimated at 13.25 million dollars during the same period. The 2009 fishing catch amounted to a total of 1,525 metric tones, only 53 percent of the amount during 2008 (2,845 metric tones) and 41 percent of the amount in 1999 (3,650 metric tones), when the fishermen of Gaza could still fish up to ten nautical miles from the coast. Current figures indicate that during 2010 the decline in the fishing catch continues. This has caused an absurd arrangement to become standard practice. The fisherman sail out not to fish, but to buy fish off of Egyptian boats and then sell this fish in Gaza. According to the Fishermen's Union, a monthly average of 105 tons of fish has been entering Gaza through the tunnels since the beginning of 2010 (PCHR 2009).

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR). "The Buffer Zone in the Gaza Strip." Oct. 2010.

Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. "A report on: Israeli Attacks on Palestinian Fishers in the Gaza Strip." August 2009.

For More Information
Daniela Riva, 059 913 2853
Rosa Schiano, 059 250 8778

Netanyahu Rejects Peace After Hamas and Fatah Reconciliation

Stephen Lendman — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 11:09:41 +0000

Sham Israeli peace negotiations were stillborn from inception. Writer Henry Siegman once called them "the most spectacular deception in modern diplomatic history."

Netanyahu once said they're "a waste of time." Previous Israeli officials called occupation and status quo conditions "permanent."

Republican presidential aspirant Newt Gingrich calls Palestinians an "invented" people. Decades ago, former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir (a transplanted Ukrainian American) said:

"There is no such thing as a Palestinian people. It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist....How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to."

No wonder Edward Said once called the occupation an "atrocity" and the peace process "a disheartening bloody impasse.....to reduce the Palestinian actuality to nil, to efface Palestinians as a people with legitimate rights, to render them alien in their own land."

Israeli repression reached new extremes under Netanyahu. His government is Israel's worst ever. He exceeds the worst of Ariel Sharon and previous hard-line leaders.

On December 25, Haaretz writer Barak Ravid headlined, "Netanyahu: Israel will not negotiate with Palestinians should Hamas join government," saying:

Netanyahu vowed no talks if Fatah and Hamas unite for all Palestinians. In a speech at a conference for Israeli ambassadors, he said:

"If Hamas joins the Palestinian government, we will not hold negotiations with the Palestinian Authority....The peace process can only advance while maintaining security arrangements, which is becoming more difficult in light of the current situation in the region."

In April, Hamas and Fatah announced reconciliation and plans for transitional government ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections within a year to produce unity. Currently, they're set for May 2012.

Netanyahu reacted angrily saying, "choose between peace with Israel or peace with Hamas." Reconciliation shows "weakness," he added. "There cannot be peace" if both sides unite. "What happened....in Cairo is a tremendous blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism."

Despite reservations on both sides, signing ceremony comments signaled hope. Abbas suggested turning a page, saying:

"Four black years have affected the interests of Palestinians. Now we meet to assert a unified will. Israel is using the Palestinian reconciliation as an excuse to evade (peace. It) must choose between peace and settlement."

Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said:

"Hamas was ready to pay any price for internal Palestinian reconciliation. The only battle of the Palestinians is against Israel. Our aim is to establish a free and completely sovereign Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza strip, whose capital is Jerusalem, without any settlers and without giving up a single inch of land and without giving up on the right of return."

In mid-December, Abbas and Mashaal met again in Cairo after Hamas and Islamic Jihad announced Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) membership plans.

They'll form a committee ahead of next May's presidential, parliamentary and Palestinian National Council (PLC) elections. Once held, they'll join the PLO as sole legitimate Palestinian representative.

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded supportively, saying "Moscow welcomes the serious talks between the Palestinian factions that aim to end Palestinian division."

According to the Turkish Anatolian news agency, so did Ankara. It also praised Egypt's sponsoring role.

On December 24, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero announced full support, saying:

"This is an important element for the unity of the future State of Palestine, and in that sense, this reconciliation is in Israel's future interests."

He added that reconciliation depends on Israel ending Gaza's siege, as well as both sides denouncing violence and respecting past agreements.

During Bethlehem's Christmas midnight mass, Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal called Palestinian self-determination the main thrust for achieving peace, adding:

"We ask for peace for the Palestinian people and for the Israeli people. We ask for peace, stability and security for the entire Middle East so that our children and their children may live their childhood in innocence, in a healthy environment where they may play together without fear or complex."

Israel and Washington, of course, remain significant obstacles very much unresolved.

Unity Discussions Scheduled to Continue

In late January, unity discussions will continue to select transitional government members until elections. In February, Palestine's parliament will resume operations.

At issue is Israel's response. Elections in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem depend on cooperation. In 2005, Israel manipulated the process for Abbas.

Leading opposition figure Marwan Barghouti was imprisoned on bogus murder charges. In addition, Mustafa Barghouti's candidacy was sabotaged for "demand(ing) total and complete reform, (ending all) form(s) of corruption, (and) mismanagement, and (working to) consolidate the rule of law."

As a result, Israel arrested him while campaigning, expelled him from East Jerusalem, excluded him from Nablus and Gaza, harassed and intimidated him repeatedly, and effectively rigged the process for Abbas.

In 2012, Israel may either prevent Palestinian elections with Hamas candidates or sabotage them to assure Israeli-friendly officials only gain power.

Another obstacle involves registering Palestinians worldwide to participate and letting them vote in PLO mission offices. Doing so depends on cooperation from countries where they live.

The PNC will have 350 delegates, 150 from the Territories and 200 diaspora ones. PNC Chairman Salim Zanoun has his hands full. He heads a committee charged with making this possible. Doing so's not easy. Nor is it for millions of occupied Palestinians or diaspora ones prevented from returning home.

According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), Palestinians worldwide number 11.22 million as of year end 2011. About 4.23 million live in Palestine (including 1.6 million in Gaza), another 1.37 million in Israel, 4.99 million in Arab countries, and around 636,000 in other countries.

PCBS also said 44% of those in Palestine are refugees - 42% in the West Bank and 58% in Gaza. Numerous others live in Arab countries, notably Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.

Ultra-nationalist Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's extremism is also troubling. Repeatedly he said Israel won't return to 1967 borders. Settlement expansions will continue, and doing so's no obstacle to peace. In fact, they violate international law and obstruct any possibility of resolution.

Targeting Hamas at Israel's Behest

Baseless accusations are Israel's stock in trade. In January 1995, at its behest, the State Department duplicitously declared Hamas a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Its emergence began after 1967. In the late 1970s, Israel offered financial aid to counterbalance PLO influence. During the first Intifada (1987 - 1993), it gained prominence. Israel remained supportive.

At issue was manipulating both sides to prevent peace. Like America, Israel needs enemies to justify conflict and violence. Hamas was chosen strategically to advance Palestinian divisions.

In Arabic, Hamas means courage and bravery. Since established, it's resisted oppression and occupation. It prefers negotiation and international consensus, not violence.

However, its charter says it'll fight for its rights if Israel prevents peaceful reconciliation. It rejects Zionist intentions to destroy Palestinian society, its values and "wipe out Islam."

It calls itself "a humane movement, which cares for human rights and is committed to the tolerance inherent in Islam as regards attitudes towards other religions. It is only hostile to those who are hostile towards it....(Under Islam) it is possible for the members of the three religions: Islam, Christianity and Judaism to coexist in safety and security" as long as other religions "desist from struggling against Islam over sovereignty in this region."

It wants peace, equity and justice for all Palestinians. It prefers negotiating on the basis of "hudnah" or temporary truce. It's founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, said Hamas would end its liberating struggle "if the Zionists ended their occupation of Palestinian territories and stopped killing Palestinian women, children and innocent civilians."

It current leaders are willing to recognize Israel in return for self-determination in peace inside pre-1967 borders - 22% of historic Palestine. Moreover, numerous times it agreed to unilateral ceasefires in spite of repeated Israeli violations.

Nonetheless, it responses defensively after continued provocations. Washington and Israel call it "terrorism." Under international law, it's legitimate self-defense.

Besides being Palestine's legitimate government, Hamas provides vital social services, including medical clinics, education, free meals for children, help for orphans, financial and technical assistance for homeless families, aid to refugees, special youth and sports clubs, and more as their resources allow.

It also maintains an elite military wing for self-defense, policing and security, the Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades.

It wants equitable peace and reconciliation. So do Arabs and Jews. Israel and its Washington paymaster/partner choose violence. That Gordian Knot remains to be cut.

Settlers run rampage in West Bank

Khalid Amayreh — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 10:01:09 +0000

Nazi-like Jewish settlers have continued to attack mosques and churches in the West Bank as part of a seemingly concerted effort to force Palestinians to leave their homes.

A mosque in Qusra village was damaged when settlers threw burning tires into it, damaging its entire first floor. West Bank, Palestine.

The government-backed settlers often describe their frequent attacks on Palestinians and their properties as "price tag" reprisals against the Israeli army for daring to dismantle some isolated Jewish settler outposts.

As to why the settler terrorists choose to target innocent Palestinians, not the army, settler spokespersons argue that attacking Palestinian mosques -- and to a lesser extent churches -- creates headlines, and effectively highlights the settlers' "grievances" in addition to embarrassing the occupation army.

Another reason for the wanton terror has to do with the simple fact that the settlers can do it virtually with impunity. Indeed, despite the fact that as many as 20 mosques and six churches have been targeted of late, not a single settler has been apprehended for the attacks.

This colossal failure, say Jewish commentators, may be attributed to two main reasons. First, lack of political will on the Israeli government's part to harm or collide with the settlers since a confrontation with the settlers would probably bring down the government, or at least make a sizable segment of Israelis lose confidence in it.

The current coalition government includes key fundamentalist Talmudic parties that are largely considered "settler parties". These include the so-called National Union, which advocates ethnic cleansing of non-Jews, Shas, the Haredi ultra-orthodox party representing Middle Eastern Jews, as well as the Likud, which is no less demagogic and racist vis-à-vis the Palestinians.

Second, Israeli settlers and their supporters have infiltrated both the Israeli army itself as well as the justice system, hence the "kid gloves" treatment settlers receive from the political and military establishment as well as the courts.

Israeli leaders, embarrassed by the horrifying regularity of settler attacks on mosques, vowed ad nauseam that they would catch the perpetrators and bring them to justice. However, the persistence of the attacks and the defiance displayed by the settlers suggest that the government is either unable or unwilling to enter into a confrontation with the settlers for the sake of the Palestinians and even if Israel's already tarnished image suffers further harm.

The seemingly coordinated campaign of terror and vandalism continued unabated for the third consecutive week with no sign of a let-up. The latest violence occurred at Al-Sahaba Mosque in the town of Bani Naim near Hebron on Sunday, 18 December, when settlers attempted to torch the holy place. The vigilance of locals forced the would-be arsonists to flee. However, they did so only after they inscribed sacrilegious graffiti on the exterior of the mosque.

At the same time, another gang of young settlers set several Palestinian cars in the village of Tebbin on fire. The Israeli media reported that two settler boys were arrested in connection to this attack. However, according to Israeli law, Jewish minors can't be arrested and the harshest measure that could be taken against them is a brief house arrest, a symbolic and insignificant measure in real terms.

This is in sharp contrast to the stringent and harsh punishments inflicted on Palestinian minors, even as young as eight or nine years old. The use of children and minors by settlers to attack Palestinians is a potentially serious phenomenon.

Last week, two other mosques -- one in Jerusalem and the other in the village of Burqa near Ramallah -- were torched by settler terrorists. The mosques were defaced by racist and sacrilegious Hebrew graffiti. Carpets, chairs, Quranic texts and other items were burned.

The two incidents happened hours after dozens of Talmudic settlers overwhelmed an army camp in protest against intentions to dismantle an isolated settler outpost. One soldier was reportedly injured after a stone hit him on the head.

Observers in the occupied Palestinian territories argue that many if not most of the soldiers serving in the West Bank are themselves settlers answerable their rabbis and Talmudic "sages" rather than to their immediate army superiors.

The settler-soldiers also follow rather meticulously an elaborate regime of instructions, such as proving alibi and other evasive "evidence", aimed at exonerating themselves from possible charges stemming from their involvement in terror and vandalism against Palestinians.

Despite the shocking frequency of settler attacks and what could be a looming religious war in Israel-Palestine, the Israeli government is still refusing to call a spade a spade, even the culpability of settlers is crystal clear.

Earlier this week, Binyamin Netanyahu refused to call the settlers "terrorists" although he wouldn't refrain from using the same epithet against Israel's Palestinian victims. Netanyahu used the innocuous term "troublemakers" to describe settler gangsters, giving the false impression that the settlers are much like small children who are naughty but without direct intention.

Last week, this writer asked a Jewish liberal commentator why the Israeli government refuses to use the authority of the law against settler terrorists in the West Bank. The commentator, who didn't want his name to be mentioned, said the following: "We Jews usually answer a question with another question. Do you think a venomous snake would bite its own tail?"

* Khalid Amayreh a journalist based in the Occupied Palestinian town of Dura. He obtained his MA in journalism from the University of Southern Illinois in 1983.

A Doomsday View of 2012

James Petras — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:05:04 +0000

The economic, political and social outlook for 2012 is profoundly negative. The almost universal consensus, even among mainstream orthodox economists is pessimistic regarding the world economy. Though even here their predictions understate the scope and depth of the crises.

There are powerful reasons to believe that beginning in 2012, we are heading toward a steeper decline than what was experienced during the Great Recession of 2008 – 2009. With fewer resources, greater debt and increasing popular resistance to shouldering the burden of saving the capitalist system, the governments cannot bail out the system.

Many of the major institutions and economic relations which were cause and consequence of world and regional capitalist expansion over the past three decades are in the process of disintegration and disarray. The previous economic engines of global expansion, the US and the European Union, have exhausted their potentialities and are in open decline. The new centers of growth, China, India, Brazil, Russia, which for a 'short decade' provided a new impetus for world growth have run their course and are de-accelerating rapidly and will continue to do so throughout the new year.

The Collapse of the European Union

Specifically, the crises wracked European Union will break up and the de facto multi-tiered structure will turn into a series of bilateral/multi-lateral trade and investment agreements. Germany,France , the Low and Nordic countries will attempt to weather the downturn. England, namely the City of London, in splendid isolation, will sink into negative growth, its financiers scrambling to find new speculative opportunities among the Gulf petrol-states and other 'niches'. Eastern and Central Europe, particularly Poland and the Czech Republic, will deepen their ties to Germany but will suffer the consequences of the general decline of world markets. Southern Europe (Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy) will enter into a deep depression as the massive debt payments fueled by savage assaults on wages and social benefits will severely reduce consumer demand.

Depression level unemployment and under-employment running to one-third of the labor force will detonate year-long social conflicts, intensifying into popular uprisings. Eventually a break-up of the European Union is almost inevitable. The euro as a currency of choice will be replaced by or return to national issues accompanied by devaluations and protectionism. Nationalism will be the order of the day. Banks in Germany, France and Switzerland will suffer huge losses on their loans to the South. Major bailouts will become necessary, polarizing German and French societies,between taxpaying majorities and the bankers. Trade union militancy and rightwing pseudo 'populism' (neo-fascism) will intensify the class and national struggles

A depressed, fragmented and polarized Europe will be less likely to join in any Zionist inspired US-Israeli military adventure against Iran (or even Syria). Crises ridden Europe will oppose Washington's confrontationalist approach to Russia and China.

The US: The Recession Returns with a Vengeance

The US economy will suffer the consequences of its ballooning fiscal deficit and will not be able to spend its way out of the world recession of 2012. Nor can it count on 'exporting' its way out of negative growth by turning to previously dynamic Asia, as China, India and the rest of Asia are losing economic steam. China will grow far below its 9% moving average. India will decline from 8% to 5% or lower. Moreover, the Obama regime's military policy of 'encirclement', its economic policy of exclusion and protectionism will preclude any new stimulus from China.

Militarism Exacerbates the Economic Downturn

The US and England will be the biggest losers from the Iraqi post war economic reconstruction. Of $186 billion dollars in infrastructure projects, US and UK corporations will gain less than 5% (Financial Times, 12/16/11, p 1 and 3). A similar outcome is likely in Libya and elsewhere. US imperial militarism destroys an adversary, plunging into debt to do so, and non-belligerents reap the lucrative post-war economic reconstruction contracts.

The US economy will fall into recession in 2012 and the "jobless recovery of 2011" will be replaced by a steep increase of unemployment in 2012. In fact, the entire labor force will shrink as people losing their unemployment benefits will fail to register.

Labor exploitation ("productivity") will intensify as capitalists force workers to produce more, for less pay, thus widening the income gap between wages and profits.

The economic downturn and growth of unemployment will be accompanied by savage cuts in social programs to subsidize financially troubled banks and industries. The debates among the parties will be over how large the cuts to workers and retirees will be to secure the 'confidence' of the bondholders. Faced with equally limited political choices, the electorate will react by voting out incumbents, abstaining and via spontaneous and organized mass movements, such as the "occupy Wall Street" protest. Disatisfaction, hostility and frustration will pervade the culture. Democratic demagogues will scapegoat China ,the Republican demagogues will blame the immigrants.Both will fulminate against "the islamo-fascists" and especially Iran..

New Wars in the Midst of Crises: Zionists Pull the Trigger

The 52 Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations and their "Israel First" followers in Congress, State, Treasury and the Pentagon will push for war with Iran. If they are successful it will result in a regional conflagration and world depression. Given the extremist Israeli regimes' success in securing blind obedience to its war policies from the US Congress and White House, any doubts about the real possibility of a major catastrophic outcome can be excluded.

China: Compensatory Mechanisms in 2012

China will face the global recession of 2012 with several possibilities of ameliorating its impact. Beijing can shift toward producing goods and services for the 700 million domestic consumers currently out of the economic loop. By increasing wages, social services and environmental safety, China can compensate for the loss of overseas markets. China's economic growth which is largely dependent on real estate speculation will be adversely affected when the bubble is burst .A sharp downturn will result.. This will lead to job losses, municipal bankruptcies and increased social and class conflicts. This can result in either greater repression or gradual democratization. The outcome will profoundly affect China's market - state relations. The economic crises will likely strengthen state control over the market.

Russia Faces the Crises

Russia's election of President Putin will lead to less collaboration in backing US promoted uprisings and sanctions against Russian allies and trading partners. Putin will turn toward greater ties with China and will benefit from the break-up of the EU and the weakening of NATO.

The western media backed opposition will use its financial clout to erode Putin's image and encourage investment boycotts though they will lose the Presidential elections by a big margin. The world recession will weaken the Russian economy and will force it to choose between greater public ownership or greater dependency on state funds to bail out prominent oligarchs.

The Transition 2011 – 2012: From Regional Stagnation and Recession to World Crises

The year 2011 laid the groundwork for the breakdown of the European Union. The crises began with the demise of the euro, stagnation in the US and the outbreak of mass protests against the obscene inequalities on a world scale. The events of 2011 were a dress rehearsal for a new year of full scale trade wars between major powers, sharpening inter-imperialist struggles and the likelihood of popular rebellions turning into revolutions. Moreover, the escalation of Zionist orchestrated war fever against Iran in 2011 promises the biggest regional war since the US-Indo-Chinese conflict. The electoral campaigns and outcomes of Presidential elections in the US, Russia and France will deepen the global conflicts and economic crises.

During 2011 the Obama regime announced a policy of military confrontation with Russia and China and policies designed to undermine and degrade China's rise as a world economic power. In the face of a deepening economic recession and with the decline of overseas markets, especially in Europe, a major trade war will unfold. Washington will aggressively pursue policies limiting Chinese exports and investments. The White House will escalate its efforts to disrupt China's trade and investments in Asia, Africa and elsewhere. We can expect greater US efforts to exploit China's internal ethnic and popular conflicts and to increase its military presence off China's coastline. A major provocation or fabricated incident in this context is not to be excluded. The result in 2012 could lead to rabid chauvinist calls for a new costly 'Cold War'. Obama has provided the framework and justification for a large scale long-term confrontation with China. This will be seen as a desperate effort to prop up US influence and strategic positions in Asia. The US military "quadrangle of power" – US-Japan-Australia-South Korea – with satellite support from the Philippines, will pit China's market ties against Washington's military build-up.

Europe: Deeper Austerity and Intensified Class Struggle

The austerity programs imposed in Europe, from England to Latvia to southern Europe will really take hold in 2012. Massive public sector firings and reduced private sector salaries and hiring's will lead to a year of permanent class warfare and regime challenges. The 'austerity policies' in the South, will be accompanied by debt defaults which will result in bank failures in France and Germany.. England's financial ruling class, isolated in Europe but dominant in England, will insist that the Conservatives 'repress' labor and popular unrest. A new tough neo-Thatcherite style of autocratic rule will emerge ; the Labor-trade union opposition will issue empty protests and tighten the leash on the rebellious populace. In a word, the regressive socio-economic policies put in place in 2011 set the stage for new police-state regimes and more acute and possibly bloody confrontations with workers and unemployed youth with no future.

The Coming Wars that Ends America "As We Know It"

Within the US, Obama has laid the groundwork for a new and bigger war in the Middle East by relocating troops from Iraq and Afghanistan and concentrating them facing Iran. To undermine Iran, Washington is expanding clandestine military and civilian operations against Iranian allies in Syria, Pakistan, Venezuela and China. The key to the US and Israeli bellicose strategy toward Iran is a series of wars in neighboring states, world- wide economic sanctions , cyber-attacks aimed at disabling vital industries and clandestine terrorist assassinations of scientists and military officials.

The entire push, planning and execution of the US policies leading up to war with Iran can be empirically attributed to the Zionist power configuration occupying strategic positions in government, mass media and 'civil society'. A systematic analysis of policymakers designing and implementing economic sanctions policy in Congress finds prominent roles for mega-Zionists like Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Howard Berman; in the White House, Dennis Ross and Jeffrey Feltman in State; Stuart Levy and his replacement David Cohen in Treasury. The White House is totally beholden to Zionist fund raisers and takes its cue from the '52' Presidents of the Major American Jewish Organizations. The Israeli-Zionist strategy is to encircle Iran, weaken it economically and attack its military.

The Iraq invasion was the US's first war for Israel; the Libyan war the second; the current proxy war against Syria is the third. These wars have destroyed Israel's adversaries or are in the process of doing so. During 2011, economic sanctions, which were designed to create domestic discontent in Iran were the principle weapon of choice. The global sanctions campaign engaged the entire energies of the major Jewish-Zionist lobbies. They also faced no opposition in the mass media, Congress or the White Office. The Zionist power configuration (ZPC) faced virtually no criticism from any of the progressive, leftist and socialist journals, movements or grouplets – with a few notable exceptions.

The past year's relocation of troops from Iraq to the borders of Iran, the sanctions and the rising Big Push from Israel's fifth column in the US means War in the Middle East. This likely means a "surprise" aerial and maritime missile attack by US forces. This will be based on a concocted pretext of an "imminent nuclear attack" cooked up by Mossad and transmitted by the ZPC to the Congress and White House for consumption and transmission to the world. It will be a destructive, bloody, prolonged war for Israel. The US will bear the direct military cost by itself but the rest of the world will pay a dear economic price. The Zionist promoted US war will convert the recession of early 2012 into a major depression by the end of the year and probably provoke mass upheavals.

Conclusion

All indications point to 2012 being a turning point year of unrelenting economic crises spreading outward from Europe and the US to Asia and its dependencies in Africa and Latin America. The crises will be truly global. Inter-imperial confrontations and colonial wars will undermine any efforts to ameliorate this crisis. In response mass movements will emerge which will move over time from protests and rebellions , hopefully to social revolutions and political power.

* James Petras is the author of more than 62 books published in 29 languages, and over 600 articles in professional journals. Petras' latest books, Global Depression and Regional Wars (Atlanta, Clarity Press, 2009) is the third in a series, including Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power (Atlanta, Clarity Press 2008) and The Power of Israel in the United States (Atlanta, Clarity Press 2006), analyzing the influence of militarism and Zionism in American foreign policy.

An American past in an Israeli future for an ever present and brutal occupation

Clive Hambidge — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:09:38 +0000

American Presidents: Romancing A Stone

An American past in an Israeli future for an ever present and brutal occupation

Happy Christmas Mr President or may I call you Barack this Yule Tide? As you know "Christmas is the day that holds all time together" (Alexander Smith) certainly as you rustle through your Christmas stocking and wrestle with your conscience perhaps to find as you dig deep in both and past 'hegemonic imperatives' an olive twig or a so-called 'peace process'? Perhaps not. But as you dig, can you hear the whispers? No. They are not the whispers from the Presidents of Christmas past, we will come to them; no? You are not listening attentively Mr President; that's because you've been genuflecting on the Christmas message of that other great statesman Prime Minister Netanyahu, "we are living in a time of great uncertainty and instability in the Middle East and Israel, throughout this instability, remains a beacon of religious freedom and pluralism." Wow. On what rock is Israel built and how Netanyahu bestrides it as America holds it, for "As the builders say, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser" (Plato). And which is which?

No Mr President the whispers are coming from the stones of Palestine and Israel and they do "cry out" for past Presidents have remained quiet behind lofty rhetoric and where are they now? "It was [is] the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."(Dickens). You're a "keen student of history" Mr President what about the human condition and the children lost to a sordid history created by Israel and paid for by American tax dollars? Below are some of their names, the stone told me to tell you their names. God Bless you and God Bless America. Which way are you going?

Remember these Children Mr President:

"Yael Ohana, 11, of Hamra settlement, killed by Palestinian gunfire while in her home. 6 February 2002."
"Fadi Tayseer al-Azazi, 16, of Rafaha, Gaza, killed by IDF shelling to his chest. 6 February 2002."
"Total Israeli Deaths since September 2002," 125 children."
"Total Palestinian Deaths since September 2002," 1470 children. ^[1]

The Stoned

The American stone cast, that gave rise to the ripples that became the waves that is the American Israeli tsunami that engulfs Palestine today, was even in the beginning unusually dense, in the sense obtuse. Quarried and romanced in the USA this stone was to be formed, scuffed then ruthlessly scored by matchless Zionist discontent and ambition, tossed, retrieved, polished and tossed again by successive American Presidents into the same murky American Zionist Israeli foreign policy sea. The rising waves, Israeli aggression and ambition, supported by Zionist America and Presidential weakness, merciless waves beating against the blameless lives of countless Palestinian children past and present and their valiant resistance through the lengthening shadows and dark hours of a brutal occupation as the international community crept decade after supine decade to rectify this grave and ongoing crime against humanity with all the energy of a sloth on diazepam.

American Presidential rhetoric the becoming edict that led to endless Israeli atrocities "unlawful Israeli behaviour [supported by US Aid] that start[ed] out as "facts" have over time been transformed into "conditions", or in the words of the American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, "subsequent developments" that are treated [unlawfully] as essentially irreversible." Moreover, "USAID and American taxpayers [are] financing, and thereby further entrenching, the Israeli de facto annexation of the West Bank." (Richard Falk, UNHRC, 16^th Session, Agenda Item 7, A/HRC/16/72, 10 January 2011), and the ruinous blockade and the deaths of Palestinian children.

For these two states America and Israel have been / are up to no good; are, in this criminality together, up to their necks "because everything that Israel does is done up to the limits that the United States supports and authorizes. So it's U.S. Israeli atrocities." (Noam Chomsky, Power And Terror). America and Israel justifying, "represent[ing] the institutionalization of a system of power in which justice is inoperative and its perversion hidden in clouds of rhetoric and obfuscation." and where, "The rule of law implicitly applies only to others." (Edward S. Herman and David Peterson)

Successive American and Israeli Administrations, each, an apostate to the other: "See!" he said to all the people "This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God." Joshua 24:27.

All the Presidents then

President John Adams, his mind high on effulgent heroic, saw conquest, envisioning Mordeca Manue Noah in 1819 "Marching with them [the Israelites] into Judea & making a conquest of that country & restoring your nation to the Dominion of it". An "independent nation" thought John Quincy Adams, because, they deserved declared Abraham Lincoln a "leg up". All saw the stone that would be a rock and declared it an American good. And the die and the dying in the stone were cast. Time then, wrapped around the stone, ran through it, became beloved in an American Hegemonic Zionist dream warping space and time, imprisoning Palestinians in a boxed 'continuum'. An American red hot wax seal legitimising the continuum making it 'official' in 1948 as the Ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the stealing bit by bit of 'Mandated Palestine' had begun and in ferocious fashion. The Israeli aggression rewarded with a hundred thousand US dollars in 1949 and Israel's aggression rewarded with billions of dollars in 2011.

The Children of Palestine in 1948 were standing in an American Israeli wind tunnel they are standing in it today. And as we come back from the future and indeed as we move from the past to the present, we see the pernicious results of successive Presidential and illegal leg ups the art of hubris and a continuum of failure. Here then an American Presidential Israeli nightmare and the subtitles of the Palestinian river of suffering that runs through it:

"14^th November 2011, Israeli aircraft attacked a small naval post building in North Gaza district. As a result, one police officer was killed and ten persons were injured, including one woman and six police officers."
"In 2009 in North Gaza, Gaza, Dair El Balah, Khan Younis, and Rafah, 1061 Palestinians lost their lives to Israeli aggression. In the Gaza strip in that same year, 323 children and 104 women were killed by the occupying forces." ^[2]

Remember this Child Mr President:

"Basel Muhammad Nafe abu-Edwan, 14 killed by an unexploded IDF ordinance while he and his brother were herding sheep near their home." Died 27th January 2011. ^[3]

The stone was picked up and skimmed across the surface of the brimming Zionist sea by the deft wrist of Woodrow Wilson 3^rd of March 1919 in reaction to the Balfour Declaration, the text of which was presented to him for approval before publication, "The allied nations with fullest concurrence of our government and people are agreed that in Palestine shall be laid the foundation of a Jewish commonwealth." Then President Warren G. Harding grabbed the stone from the Zionist air stating, "The Hebrew people restored to their historic national home," would enter a "new and yet greater phase of their contribution to the advance of humanity."

"Number of houses demolished in Gaza strip, since the beginning of the intifada until the end 2009. North Gaza, houses 5399, residents, 54900. Gaza houses, 7060, residents,73149. Dair El Balah, houses 1004, residents, 8925. Khan Younis, houses, 1596, residents, 12247. Rafah, houses, 3774, residents, 32284. Total houses 18833, Total residents, 181505."
"The number of damaged water wells. North Gaza, 120. Gaza, 154. Dair El Balah, 62. Khan Younis, 23. Rafah, 14. Total, 373."
"2008 Women and children killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip. Children, 107, women, 23." ^[4]

Remember this child Mr President:

"Shiran Ismail Abdullah abu-Shawareb 11, of Nuserat refugee camp, Gaza died of heart problems at Nasr paediatric Hospital in Gaza, which lacked necessary equipment, after Israel denied her entry for medical treatment. Doctors had requested transfer to an Israeli hospital on Dec. 27 [2010] On Jan. 10, believing permission for a transfer had been granted, Shiran's father took her to the Erez checkpoint where Israel again denied her entry." Died 15^th January 2008 ^[5]

The stone retrieved by Coolidge was polished with expressed "sympathy with the deep and intense longing which finds such fine expression in the Jewish National Homeland in Palestine." then caressed in short sighted rhetoric by President Hoover who as other Presidents before and after him couldn't see around histories sharp corner or dint want to saying 1932, "I am interested to learn that a group of distinguished men and women is to be formed to spread knowledge and appreciation of the rehabilitation which is going forward in Palestine under Jewish auspices."

"Number of damaged industrial establishments by IOF's, in 2006 19, 2005 7, 2004 86, 2003 77."
"Number of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupying forces in the Gaza strip; 2006 531, 2005 99, 2004 646, 2003 398."
"Number of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupying forces in the Gaza strip (women, children) 2006 children 115, women 34, 2005 children 32, women 1, 2004 children 156, women 10, 2003 children 81, women 17." ^[6]

Remember this child Mr President:

"Muhammad Jaber hassan Adila Said, 15, of osreen, near Nablus, killed by IDF gunfire to his chest." January 2004. ^[7]

Franklin Roosevelt viewed the stone empathetically, could feel its vital pulse, perhaps he had a pet name for the stone perhaps it was ineluctable? Or was it inexorable he had in mind as he sat to write to Senator Tydings on October 19, 1938 as The Nakba loomed. "I have on numerous occasions, as you know, expressed my sympathy in the establishment of a National Home for the Jews in Palestine and, despite the set backs caused by the disorders there during the last few years, I have been heartened by the progress which has been made and by remarkable accomplishments of the Jewish settlers in that country."

"Number of Palestinians killed by Israel occupying forces in the Gaza Strip, 2003 North Gaza 89, Gaza 118, Dair El Balah 75, Khan Younis 42, Rafah 72."
"Palestinians killed by Israeli occupying forces in the Gaza strip (women children) 2002 children 94, women 25, 2001 children 69, women 4, 2000 children 38 women 0." ^[8]

Remember this child Mr President:

"Muhammad Jamal Muhammad al-Durrah, 12 of Burejj refugee camp, Gaza, killed by IDF gunfire to his chest as his father tried to protect him during a demonstration at Netzarim Junction." ^[9]

Then shining with Zionist zeal, it was to morph into a rock in 1948 enfolded in to Israel's emboldened clenched fist, and as the British looked the other way, smashed Palestine leaving Palestinians between it and a hard place, supported by intellectuals with nothing in their heads but the propaganda they were fed, and a Presidential endorsement. Eleven minutes after Israel's proclamation of independence President Harry Truman declared, "I had faith in Israel before it was established; I have faith in it now." He further said in 1952 "I believe it has a glorious future before it- not just another sovereign nation, but an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization."

"The majority of these [Palestinian] children were killed and injured while going about normal daily activities, such as going to school, playing, shopping, or simply being in their homes. Sixty-four percent of children killed during the first six months of 2003 died as a result of Israeli air and ground attacks, or from indiscriminate fire from Israeli soldiers".(Catherine Cook)

Remember these children Mr President:

"Ophir Rahum, 16, of Ashkelon, killed by Palestinian gunfire in al-Birah after being led to believe he was meeting an internet acquaintance, 17^th January 2001."
"Omar Farouq Khaled 11,of al-Bireh, died of head wounds sustained Jan.7 2001 from IDF gunfire during a demonstration." ^[10]

And after 1948, a Presidential stream of consciousness compounding the problem for Palestine with unquestioning and ever increasing aid for Israel's gluttony, her voracious appetite to oppress and appropriate, and kill those who would thwart her:

Eisenhower: "our forces saved the remnant of the Jewish People of Europe for a new life and a new hope in the reborn Israel. Kennedy: "Israel was not created to disappear- Israel will endure and flourish." Nixon: "The United States stands by its friends. Israel is one of its friends Peace can be based only on agreement between parties and agreement can only be achieved only through negotiations between them. The United States will not impose the terms of peace. [But] The United States is prepared to supply military equipment necessary to support the efforts of friendly governments, like Israel's to defend the safety of their people." Carter: "a few days ago in a conversation with about 30 members of the House of Representatives, I said that I would rather commit suicide than hurt Israel." President Regan: Israel exists; it has a right to exist in peace behind secure and defensible borders; and it has a right to demand of its neighbours that they recognize those facts." Bush Sr: "The friendship, the alliance between the United States and Israel is strong and solid, built upon a foundation of shared democratic values." Clinton: "The United States admires Israel for all that it has overcome and for all it has accomplished." And President George W. Bush: "Israel is a small country that has lived under threat throughout its existence. At the first meeting of my National Security Council, I told them a top foreign policy priority is the safety and security of Israel."

Remember this child Mr President:

"Sara Abdul-Azim Abdul-Haq Hasan, 18 months, of Sarah, near Salfit, killed by Israeli settler gunfire to her head while riding with her father in a car. 1^st October 2000." ^[11]

And last but not the least short sighted lacking historical memory, also will as did the others President Barack Hussein Obama: "The American people and the Israeli peoples share a faith in the future and believe that democracies can shape their own destinies and that opportunities should be available to all. Throughout its own extraordinary history, Israel has given life to that promise."

Remember this child Mr President:

"Haitham Ahmad Mustafa Maruf, 13 of Beit Lahiya, Gaza, died in Shifa Hospital, Gaza, of wounds sustained from an IDF drone attack while working on his family farm 29 August 2011." ^[12]

[1] http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2011.html

[2] http://www.mezan.org/en/messege.php?view=losesen

[3] http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2011.html

[4] http://www.mezan.org/en/details.php?id=12933&ddname=IOF&id2=9&id_dept=9&p=center

[5] http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2011.html

[6] http://www.mezan.org/en/details.php?id=12933&ddname=IOF&id2=9&id_dept=9&p=center

[7] http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2011.html

[8] http://www.mezan.org/en/details.php?id=12933&ddname=IOF&id2=9&id_dept=9&p=center

[9] http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2011.html

[10] http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2011.html

[11] http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2011.html

[12] http://www.rememberthesechildren.org/remember2011.html

* Clive Hambidge is Human Development Director at Facilitate Global. He can be contacted at: clive.hambidge@facilitateglobal.org