Sabbah Report » Ashkenazi

MEMO To The Brave Nations Uniting To Defend Civilians In Libya…

Stuart Littlewood — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 13:48:40 +0000

By Stuart Littlewood * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Are any of you willing to protect the unarmed humanitarians sailing with latest freedom flotilla to Gaza?

The European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza (ECESG) has issued a press release to remind everyone of that what promises to be the largest flotilla yet, comprising 15 ships carrying passengers from 12 European states as well as Latin America, Africa, Asia, Canada and the United States, is due to sail for Gaza in late May.

Passengers will include hundreds of peace advocates, including parliamentarians and human rights activists, and representatives of more than 40 media institutions.

These decent people face Israeli snipers and attack dogs

Campaign organisers say that Israel has responded by threatening to once again use deadly force to stop the flotilla, including snipers and attack dogs. According to the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, Israeli Defense Forces chief-of-staff Gabi Ashkenazi has warned that "if the IDF is faced with a similar situation in the future, there may be no alternative to deploying snipers to minimize troop casualties."

The Jerusalem Post reports that the IDF will deploy attack dogs from its Oketz canine units.

The release says Israel's deputy foreign minister, Danny Ayalon, is summoning foreign diplomats to Jerusalem to urge them to work with Israel to stop the flotilla from taking place. According to the Irish Times, he justified his call for co-operation by claiming the flotilla would violate international law.

"There is nothing in international law that supports Israel's four-year-long blockade of Gaza, or its attacks on humanitarian shipments in international waters," says the campaigners' spokesman Rami Abdo.

Funny how HMS Cumberland and HMS York magically appeared in the Mediterranean during the Libyan crisis to protect the victims of Qaddafi. HMS York unloaded tons of medical supplies and other humanitarian aid for the Benghazi Medical Centre. Where were these ships when British nationals on the Mavi Marmara and the Dignity and other vessels were being assaulted in international waters and terrorized by Israeli thugs, abducted and thrown in their stinking jails?

Why weren't they bringing life-saving aid to Gaza's hospitals after Israel's indiscriminate 'Cast Lead' blitzkrieg on innocent civilians?

Israel still bombs, strafes and blockades Palestinians in Gaza with impunity on a daily basis, so when the Libyan crisis dies down can we expect to see HMS York load up with more supplies and sail for the Gaza Strip, along with the rest of the NATO fleet, where the humanitarian crisis continues unabated?

I have asked my MP to find out what the British Government is planning to do to safeguard British subjects (and indeed the other humanitarians) sailing with this latest flotilla on its peaceful mission to Gaza. Do ministers agree, I wanted to know, that the Cumberland and York should be made available to escort the mercy mission and protect it from Israeli psychopaths, who have amply demonstrated their eagerness to resort to lethal force and total lack of civilised restraint?

Of course, one letter isn't enough. A thousand may not be enough. Let's hit all MPs and MEPs in Europe with an avalanche demanding that they discover their backbone and do the right and honourable thing by the Palestinians in Gaza.

Deeply committed to UN Resolutions 1970 and 1973 but what about 194 and 242?

Tomorrow 40 foreign ministers from all over descend on London for a summit chaired by William Hague to:

Strengthen and broaden the international community's commitment to implementing UNSCRs 1970 and 1973 [a no-fly zone and another jolly bombing-fest].
Reaffirm the importance of urgent humanitarian assistance...
Call for a political process which helps create the conditions in which the people of Libya can chose their own future.

What a pity they aren't as passionately committed to UN Resolutions 194, 242 and all the other solemn pronouncements that they signed up to but Israel still defies.

It's certainly a busy week in London. On Wednesday the Chatham House think-tank. aka the Royal Institute of International Affairs, holds a conference on the theme 'Sixty Years of British-Israeli Diplomatic Relations'. One of the agenda items asks 'Are we there yet? 60 years of bilateral relations and the search for common ground'.

Common ground???

President of the delinquent entity, Shimon Peres, is attending and Hague will be there to deliver a keynote speech and no doubt stand guard over Mr Peres to ensure he is not slapped with a universal jurisdiction arrest warrant.

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

WikiLeaks and The Sound of Silence

Jeff Gates — Sat, 04 Dec 2010 09:07:47 +0000

By Jeff Gates * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

The scope and scale of WikiLeaks is a marvel to behold. Some praise it as the ultimate form of democracy. Others as the epitome of the most sacred of liberty's principles: the right to know.

Yet the real story here is not what's revealed but what's withheld. The marvel is not what we now know but what is already known that is left unsaid. And what's given an interpretive spin by those newspapers granted priority access.

The facts suggest that WikiLeaks is less about the right to know than the right to deceive.

Take for example the release of diplomatic cables on the August 2008 war between Georgia and Russia and the interpretative gloss given by The New York Times.

Ashkenazi General David Kezerashvili returned to Georgia from Tel Aviv to lead an assault on separatists in South Ossetia with the support of Israeli arms and Israeli training. That crisis reignited Cold War tensions between the U.S. and Russia.

Then as now, it appeared there was a possibility of resolving Israel's six-decade occupation of Palestine. At that time, The Quartet was coordinating the peace-making efforts of Russia and the U.S. along with the European Union and the United Nations.

Tel Aviv was not pleased.

Then as now, efforts to broker a peace were thwarted by creating a crisis within a coalition of those willing to invest their geopolitical capital to end a conflict that has long served its Zionist purpose as a source of other conflicts.

The resulting rift between the U.S. and Russia ensured some well-timed entropy and reduced the possibility of ending a decades-long occupation. Then as now, that occupation must end to bring peace to the region.

The Sound of Silence

Without that broader context, it's not possible to isolate the motivation for that well-timed war. Yet the cables released by WikiLeaks say nothing about that. Nor does The New York Times.

Nor do the cables mention Tel Aviv's interest in a pipeline across Georgia meant to move Caspian oil through Turkey and on to Eurasia, using Israel as a fee-collecting intermediary.

As with so much that is left "un-leaked," the silence is telling.

What is leaked is accurately reported: "Official Georgian versions of events were passed to Washington largely unchallenged." Yet The Times says nothing about the undisclosed bias motivating that behavior. That silence is deceptive.

Instead Times reporter C.J. Chivers notes only that the bombardments by Georgia of South Ossetia "plunged Georgia into war, pitting the West against Russia in a standoff over both Russian military actions and the behavior of a small nation that the United States had helped arm and train."

Now as then, there's no mention in the paper of record of the role played by an Ashkenazi general, the Israeli training of Georgian troops or the arms and equipment that Israel provided.

Tel Aviv must be pleased.

The Greatest Threat to Peace

The Times notes "the reliance on one-sided information" as Georgian President Saakashvili told the U.S. Ambassador "the Russians are out to take over Georgia and install a new regime."

After the Russian Army dealt the Israeli-trained Georgians a quick defeat, President George W. Bush, as the U.S. economy was sliding into a recession, announced a $1 billion aid package to help Georgia rebuild. Rest assured those funds were borrowed.

In the netherworld where Colonial Zionists excel in catalyzing well-timed crises and generating interest-bearing debt, WikiLeaks has already achieved iconic status. Much as The Quartet faded into memory, the peace talks that showed promise just last week have been displaced by talk of yet another crisis-with Iran.

For those skilled at gaining traction for a storyline and then advancing a narrative, WikiLeaks is akin to a script doctor. With The Clash of Civilizations losing traction, this latest crisis helped put it back on track.

Only time will tell if this traction suffices to take the "coalition of the willing" from Iraq and Afghanistan into Iran. Occasionally those played for the fool turn their attention to the deceiver. An October 2003 poll of 7,500 respondents in the European Union found that Israel was considered the greatest threat to world peace.

The U.S. military is not without considerable knowledge confirming the common source of the fixed intelligence that induced America to invade Iraq.

With the Israel lobby seeking to induce the U.S. into Iran, events may take an unprecedented turn. A coalition of the willing might well be persuaded to secure Palestine along its 1967 borders with troops deployed to protect Jerusalem as a site of significance to three major faith traditions.

Should the U.S. Commander-in-Chief decide to earn his Nobel peace prize, he may order U.S. troops to secure the only known nuclear arsenal in the Middle East.

Tel Aviv will not be pleased.

This is the fourth in a series chronicling the disinformation/espionage component of WikiLeaks. The first three are posted here, here and here.

* Jeff Gates is a widely acclaimed author, attorney, investment banker, educator and consultant to government, corporate and union leaders worldwide, Jeff Gates' latest book is Guilt by Association -How Deception and Self-Deceit Took America to War (2008) his first release in the Criminal State series. His previous books include Democracy At Risk and The Ownership Solution. See his website Criminal State

Jewish Scholar – ‘Jewish People’ Were Invented

Haitham Sabbah — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 09:47:51 +0000

Israeli Bestseller Breaks National Taboo

by Jonathan Cook

No one is more surprised than Shlomo Sand that his latest academic work has spent 19 weeks on Israel's bestseller list â€“ and that success has come to the history professor despite his book challenging Israel's biggest taboo.

Dr. Sand argues that the idea of a Jewish nation â€“ whose need for a safe haven was originally used to justify the founding of the state of Israel â€“ is a myth invented little more than a century ago.

An expert on European history at Tel Aviv University, Dr. Sand drew on extensive historical and archaeological research to support not only this claim but several more â€“ all equally controversial.

In addition, he argues that the Jews were never exiled from the Holy Land, that most of today's Jews have no historical connection to the land called Israel and that the only political solution to the country's conflict with the Palestinians is to abolish the Jewish state.

The success of When and How Was the Jewish People Invented? looks likely to be repeated around the world. A French edition, launched last month, is selling so fast that it has already had three print runs.

Translations are under way into a dozen languages, including Arabic and English. But he predicted a rough ride from the pro-Israel lobby when the book is launched by his English publisher, Verso, in the United States next year.

In contrast, he said Israelis had been, if not exactly supportive, at least curious about his argument. Tom Segev, one of the country's leading journalists, has called the book "fascinating and challenging."

Surprisingly, Dr. Sand said, most of his academic colleagues in Israel have shied away from tackling his arguments. One exception is Israel Bartal, a professor of Jewish history at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Writing in Haaretz, the Israeli daily newspaper, Dr. Bartal made little effort to rebut Dr. Sand's claims. He dedicated much of his article instead to defending his profession, suggesting that Israeli historians were not as ignorant about the invented nature of Jewish history as Dr. Sand contends.

The idea for the book came to him many years ago, Dr. Sand said, but he waited until recently to start working on it. "I cannot claim to be particularly courageous in publishing the book now," he said. "I waited until I was a full professor. There is a price to be paid in Israeli academia for expressing views of this sort."

Dr. Sand's main argument is that until little more than a century ago, Jews thought of themselves as Jews only because they shared a common religion. At the turn of the 20th century, he said, Zionist Jews challenged this idea and started creating a national history by inventing the idea that Jews existed as a people separate from their religion.

Equally, the modern Zionist idea of Jews being obligated to return from exile to the Promised Land was entirely alien to Judaism, he added.

"Zionism changed the idea of Jerusalem. Before, the holy places were seen as places to long for, not to be lived in. For 2,000 years Jews stayed away from Jerusalem not because they could not return but because their religion forbade them from returning until the messiah came."

The biggest surprise during his research came when he started looking at the archaeological evidence from the biblical era.

"I was not raised as a Zionist, but like all other Israelis I took it for granted that the Jews were a people living in Judea and that they were exiled by the Romans in 70AD.

"But once I started looking at the evidence, I discovered that the kingdoms of David and Solomon were legends.

"Similarly with the exile. In fact, you can't explain Jewishness without exile. But when I started to look for history books describing the events of this exile, I couldn't find any. Not one.

"That was because the Romans did not exile people. In fact, Jews in Palestine were overwhelming peasants and all the evidence suggests they stayed on their lands."

Instead, he believes an alternative theory is more plausible: the exile was a myth promoted by early Christians to recruit Jews to the new faith. "Christians wanted later generations of Jews to believe that their ancestors had been exiled as a punishment from God."

So if there was no exile, how is it that so many Jews ended up scattered around the globe before the modern state of Israel began encouraging them to "return"?

Dr. Sand said that, in the centuries immediately preceding and following the Christian era, Judaism was a proselytizing religion, desperate for converts. "This is mentioned in the Roman literature of the time."

Jews traveled to other regions seeking converts, particularly in Yemen and among the Berber tribes of North Africa. Centuries later, the people of the Khazar kingdom in what is today south Russia, would convert en masse to Judaism, becoming the genesis of the Ashkenazi Jews of central and eastern Europe.

Dr. Sand pointed to the strange state of denial in which most Israelis live, noting that papers offered extensive coverage recently to the discovery of the capital of the Khazar kingdom next to the Caspian Sea.

Ynet, the website of Israel's most popular newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, headlined the story: "Russian archaeologists find long-lost Jewish capital." And yet none of the papers, he added, had considered the significance of this find to standard accounts of Jewish history.

One further question is prompted by Dr. Sand's account, as he himself notes: if most Jews never left the Holy Land, what became of them?

"It is not taught in Israeli schools but most of the early Zionist leaders, including David Ben Gurion [Israel's first prime minister], believed that the Palestinians were the descendants of the area's original Jews. They believed the Jews had later converted to Islam."

Dr. Sand attributed his colleagues' reticence to engage with him to an implicit acknowledgement by many that the whole edifice of "Jewish history" taught at Israeli universities is built like a house of cards.

The problem with the teaching of history in Israel, Dr. Sand said, dates to a decision in the 1930s to separate history into two disciplines: general history and Jewish history. Jewish history was assumed to need its own field of study because Jewish experience was considered unique.

"There's no Jewish department of politics or sociology at the universities. Only history is taught in this way, and it has allowed specialists in Jewish history to live in a very insular and conservative world where they are not touched by modern developments in historical research.

"I've been criticized in Israel for writing about Jewish history when European history is my specialty. But a book like this needed a historian who is familiar with the standard concepts of historical inquiry used by academia in the rest of the world."

This article originally appeared in The National, published in Abu Dhabi.

Racism turns on itself

Haitham Sabbah — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 19:20:35 +0000

(Note: Ashkenazi Jews are those with a European background.)

Jewish Rightist: "Finish Hitler's work, kill Ashkenazi Jews"
By Uri Blau, Haaretz Correspondent

A right-wing Jewish extremist has been disseminating calls for the assassination of leftists and Ashkenazim on Internet sites in Israel and abroad.

One film clip posted on YouTube, for instance, declares: "You are about to view a handful of leftist Ashkenazim that Hitler and Eichmann did not manage to incinerate. Before we begin, please remember: 90 percent of the moderate left are Ashkenazim!! 100 percent of the extreme left are Ashkenazim!!"

Next comes a picture of President Shimon Peres with the caption: "The murderer!" It is followed by pictures of Benjamin Netanyahu, Yossi Beilin and other politicians.

The clip concludes: "Now, after you have seen these unclean Ashkenazim, how degraded the Ashkenazi race is, and what a pity it is that Hitler and Eichmann did not finish off the Ashkenazim, I ask of you: Search for information on Google about Stiven Malik; there 'the document' awaits you."

The document in question is also full of incitement to violence: "If only we, too, could finish what Hitler began by destroying all the Ashkenazim, the descendants of the Jews who betrayed Germany."

Supportive comments have been posted on the Stiven Malik forum on the Israeli portal 2all; the forum has received thousands of visitors in recent month. Malik's anti-Ashkenazi incitement can also be found on the Israeli portals Tapuz and goop.co.il and on sites such as fresh.co.il.

A Haaretz investigation has concluded that "Malik" is a fictitious name used by a right-wing extremist who was once affiliated with Baruch Marzel's Jewish Front party, but was later expelled from it.

After Haaretz approached the relevant Israeli portals, some of Malik's writings were removed. Tapuz said it had given the material to the police, and Peres's office said it had given it to the Shin Bet security service. YouTube had not responded by press time.