Truth and Justice have been a historical anathema to all Empires and the powerful oligarchies throughout history.

From all divine revelations to the necessity of humanity's coexistence in peace, Justice has been the highest and noblest of virtues to ensure that no man, no government, and no nation is above the law of equality of rights for all mankind whereby the weakest, poorest, and oppressed, can exact and restore their freedom, equality of worth, dignity, and receive justice for the ills and evil perpetrated against them. Life, liberty, human rights, freedoms, and free will are divinely endowed, thus humanity's purpose is to allow no man usurp such virtues and blessings.

"There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity - the law of nature and of nations."
--Edmund Burke

For the first time in human history nations came together in a united institution to prevent and resolve conflicts, to settle disputes, and to provide an international venue where injustice and the inhumanity of man against man can be heard and adjudicated

Thus emerged from the ashes of two world wars in Europe, the United Nations, an institution of hope, freedom, justice, equality, and human rights for all, people's right to self determination, freedom from aggression and occupation; an institution that fosters peace; but sadly it became an institution of the powerful, for the powerful, at the expense of the lives of billions of people around the world. Since its inception the U.N. has served the political, economic, military, and social whims of the oligarchy of five Security Council nations each with a vote or veto that can preserve lives and peace, or commit wanton genocides allegedly acting in self defense and in the national interests. Much of these Security Council decisions are dependent on domestic politics and the power of special interests. It seems western appetite for imperialistic power has not been satisfied by centuries of imperial occupation of most of the world.

National interests boils down to money, especially in alleged democracies where elections are bought and paid for by the top one percent of their populations. Politicians and political institutions are held hostage by the very people who paid for their elections.

The most glaring examples in modern history are the illegitimate creation of the State of Israel in Palestine due to the influence and power of Britain and the United States who imposed their will on the United Nations as well as the illegal, immoral, and genocidal invasion of Iraq by the U.S. (and allies) due to the powerful influence of mostly Jewish Neocons operating in the interest of Israel, along with the unquenchable avarice of oil companies. They manufactured false intelligence and mass propaganda that created an unstoppable hysteria in the White House, Congress, and nation.

"The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservative intellectuals, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to change the course of history."
--Ari Shavit, "White Man's Burden", Haaretz, April 3, 2003

After nine years of death and destruction the U.S. finally pulls out of Iraq (not completely) leaving behind a previously prosperous nation converted into a desert, but which they label as a peaceful, democratic, and prosperous Iraq. They killed to spread democracy. Today Iraq is enduring the most violent sectarian violence that threatens the unity of the nation, thanks to Israel and the United States.

"In the emerging world of ethnic conflict and civilizational clash, Western belief in the universality of Western culture suffers three problems: it is false; it is immoral; and it is dangerous...Imperialism is the necessary logical consequence of universalism."
--Professor Samuel Huntington, "The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order", p. 310

These two examples showcase the ineptness, failure, and incompetence of the very United Nations created to prevent just such illegal, unjust and immoral genocidal acts by one nation against another committing unimaginable war crime, crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression.

Our world has indeed become an Israeli-centric planet where Israel's interest have become the focal point and obsession of all governments, no where more so than in the United States where Israel's interests form the basis of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. U.S. Presidents usually appoint Jewish Zionists to the National Security Council to direct MidEast policy. Is it any wonder that with U.S. backing Israel has rejected every U.N. Resolution, every International initiative or peace process, even opposing America's national interests, the very hand that feeds, arms, and protects it.

The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, speaking to the Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI) on September 6, 2011 publicly admitted what the entire world already knows; that U.S. foreign policy is an Israeli formulated policy that only serves Israel, not the United States.

He said:

"The first is this: the test of every policy the Administration develops in the Middle East is whether it is consistent with the goal of ensuring Israel's future as a secure, Jewish, democratic state. That is a commitment that runs as a common thread through our entire government, even while approaching the U.S.-Israel relationship and regional challenges from a variety of perspectives.....The test of our policy - that it advances Israel's status as a secure, Jewish, democratic state - also explains our commitment to vigorously battle against those who would attempt to isolate or delegitimize Israel in the international community."

Many American politicians, diplomats, military officials, academicians, journalists and national organizations have been saying this for decades, but they've been denied any media exposure to address the power of Israel and its lobby, mainly AIPAC, on the U.S. government.

"President Bill Clinton," said AIPAC was "better than anyone at lobbying in this town," or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who called it "the most effective general-interest group ... across the entire planet." Former Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC) said upon his retirement that "you can't have an Israel policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here," (Quote from Professor Stephen Walt, "The Mythical Power of the Arab Lobby", Dec.9, 2010) Thus for whom the bells toll; they toll for Israel and never for its millions of victimized dispossessed Palestinians. According to Golda Meir "There were no such thing as Palestinians."

The world has been indoctrinated to accept Israel's narrative of history of its creation and its professed innocence toward the suffering of the Palestinians. Israel has attacked Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Libya, and Yemeni - and now next stop: Iran.

All the while the U.N. and international community can only profess "concern"; which is meaningless to the dead and injured.

"Right and wrong are the same in Palestine as anywhere else. What is peculiar about the Palestine conflict is that the world has listened to the party that committed the offence and has turned a deaf ear to the victims."
-- Professor Arnold Toynbee, British Historian

Thus too whom do the victims of western and Zionist imperialism turn to for protection and justice? Who on this planet is courageous and principled enough to tell Israel, one of the smallest nations on earth, that its thievery of Palestine, its unabated ethnic cleansing, its utter destruction of hundreds of Palestinian villages, its demolition of thousands of homes, farms and orchards, its oppression and daily violation of the human rights of its subjugated people, its theft of Palestinian water to fill the settler's swimming pools, and its non stop construction of new settlements on stolen Palestinian land despite the repeated "concern" of the U.N., U.S., E.U., the Quartet, and hundreds of U.N. Resolutions that Israel ignores and stomps on with impunity, even humiliating the President of the United States in the Oval office who dared suggest a "freeze" of new settlements.

No such expressed "concerns" have ever stopped one brick from being laid in what the world calls "illegal settlements", but which the U.S. deems only as "illegitimate" as evidenced by the very pandering and humiliating veto cast by the U.S. in the Security Council against a resolution that identifies these settlements as "illegal".

Although fourteen nations in the Security Council somewhat redeemed themselves recently by criticizing the U.S. for blocking condemnation of Israel's continued settlement activity in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem. Tragically, Israel will once again thumb its nose at the Security Council.

The United Nations has embarrassingly failed in its stated mission and has lost all credibility, with the exception of the U.N. Human Rights Council, that it has any authority or legitimacy to impact Israel's decades of an illegal occupation of over three million Palestinians, much less the status of seven million Palestinian refugees living in squalor camps in neighboring Arab nations. Israel has tried hard to end UNRWA's mission to provide much needed assistance to the Palestinian refugees, even forcing Congress to threaten defunding the organization. According to Israel Palestinian children must not be fed, provided with health care and an education, nor clean drinking water. If it can't kill them with bullets, it'll kill them by starvation and disease.

As long as the world is impotent and cowardly to face Israel there will never be any justice for the Palestinians, or any peace in the region or western hemisphere.

The world has come to accept that Israel is always above the law, that it will never be held accountable for its wars, genocides, and oppression of the Palestinians; that it will continue to rule and act with impunity with American weapons and vetoes against hapless Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.

The world is holding its cowardly breath wondering when will Israel attack Iran, an action with serious consequences for the region, the U.S., Europe, China, and Japan, both militarily and economically.

But let's look at the other side of the coin where the United Nations Security Council flexes its muscle. The UNSC's power is only reflected against weaker nations, in particular in the Arab and Muslim world. Here harsh resolutions with serious political and economic consequences are routinely passed whereby these nations are held accountable and some leaders are sought for prosecution in the ICC.

The independent International Criminal Court, much like the U.N. Security Council, is hampered by its Statute, hypocrisy, double standards, and the political will of the same powerful nations who dominate the U.N. In practice it's a court against southern hemisphere nations and leaders, but never against the U.S., Britain etc, for their illegal invasion and devastation of Iraq; and never against Israel, the world's last colonial power.

According to the Associated Press, December 15, 2011, the International Criminal Court's Prosecutor, Mr. Luis Moreno Ocampo, said this regarding the issue of the potential arrest of the Sudanese President for alleged war crimes:

"The chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court (Luis Moreno Ocampo) said Thursday that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir's "destiny" is clear: he will face justice for alleged genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur... International justice is here to stay."

How courageous against Sudan, but oh, how cowardly against Israel. Is there no courageous state party member of the ICC. that will refer Israel for possible prosecution for its war crimes? Won't anyone refer the two murderous tyrants of Syria and Yemen for their slaughter of innocent civilians yearning to break free from their dictatorships?

Sadly, in the entire structure of the ICC there is not one single Arab or Muslim judge or prosecutor, a glaring omission of representation of 1.7 billion Muslims in the world residing in 57 Muslim nations representing 30% of all nations.
It is conceivable and inhumane that the entire international community has been watching in horror and silence the daily carnage of Syrian and Yemenie civilians without taking any action to stop the ongoing slaughter. The world is more than satisfied to let the impotent and incompetent Arab League, a league of tyrants, to deal with the Syrian issue and allow the Gulf Cooperation Council to resolve Yemen's potential civil war.

The Arabs are doomed to fail given their internal strife and political loyalties to foreign nations, in particular, to the United States and thus indirectly to Israel.

It is hard to fathom why the west, Russia, and China are still attached to Arab dictators given the Arab Spring which will spread to other nations despite its initial growing pains, unless they all fear the rise of "Islamists" who potentially may challenge their hegemony and economic greed.

The Arab Spring is unstoppable and in its conclusion across the Middle East will surely be antagonistic to all the nations that oppressed them, especially the United States and Israel, occupied them, monopolized their resources, and fought and smeared their beloved faith, Islam, and their beloved and revered Prophet Muhammad. The tragedy in the Arab Muslim world is that in their disunity they are their own worst enemies.

Thus the Arabs can vote, they can have a democracy but only if it's a democracy approved by the United States and Israel, free of Islamist, or else, "Remember Saddam.".

The U.N. must reform its charter regarding the Security Council's membership and abolish the Veto structure and adopt resolutions by majority vote. It must be funded in large part by the southern hemisphere nations, especially the wealthy Arab oil nations, to remove the constant American threat to defund the organization. Perhaps even consider moving its headquarters outside of the U.S.

"The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the states in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being."
-- Kofi Annan

* Mohamed Khodr is a political activist who frequently writes on the plight of Palestinians living under the brutal occupation of Israel, U.S. Foreign Policy, Islam, and Arab politics.

No related posts.

Ari Shavit

I am now going to quote the article in full (with my emphasis added) and conclude with a comment or two.

"We have never been so ugly. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayhu seeks to silence the call to prayer over the loudspeakers of the country's mosques, and to shut down Channel 10 television. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman expresses support for the Russian 'democtator' who has just rigged elections. Defense Minister Ehud Barak stands by while Jewish settlers victimize Palestinians and ultra-Orthodox religious nationalists victimize female soldiers.

Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman is trying to turn the Supreme Court into other one of his subsidiaries. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein is working to prevent the media from reporting on investigations against public figures. Deputy Health Minister Yaakov Litzman excludes women from participation in an official award ceremony.

Coalition chairman Zeev Elkin undermines and neuters civil society. Religious fanatics exclude women, tyrannize secular citizens and spit at priests. Jewish terrorists burn Muslim houses of worship, invade Israel Defense Force bases and attack soldiers.

We see what we would never believe with our own eyes. Darkness at noon, a dark Israel snuffing out an enlightened Israel. There have been dark moments in the past. The 1956 killing of Israeli Arabs at Kafr Qasem, the 1982 massacres by Israeli allies in Lebanon at Sabra and Chatila, the 1994 Hebron massacre by Baruch Goldstein. There have also been prior attempts at silencing the press, publications such as Kol Ha'am, Haolam Hazeh and Hadashot.

There have been assaults on the judicial system. Former Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, and Daniel Friedmann and Daniel Friedmann. Time after time there have been assaults by the secular right and the religious right on the principles of liberalism and on liberal institutions, but there has never been an all-out, multi-pronged and multi-dimensional attack on the core values of the Jewish democratic state.

There has never been such a comprehensive attempt to remake the face of Israel and to replace it with something else. Under Netanyahu and Lieberman's leadership, Israel been turned into a country with the values of Newt Gingrich and the look of Vladimir Putin. What's happening here? And why now exactly? Why are anti-democratic forces at work now to run roughshod over human rights and human dignity and freedom? Why are the Jewish nationalists and ultra-Orthodox fanatics, along with Russian statism, bursting forth now all at the same time?

The answer is Netanyahu. In the past he was conservative, cautious and democratic. With American Jewish leader Ron Lauder at his side and popular historian Paul Johnson in his hand, Netanyahu sought to turn Israel into a strong free-market country sharing the values of Republican America.

As a result, the first time around as prime minister he governed like a democrat and lost like a democrat. And when the left wing tripped him up and got him out of office, he was subdued and a gentleman about it. Just as the Republican Party has changed over the past decade, so too has Netanyahu. The follower of Ronald Reagan has become a Tea Partier. With Sheldon Adelson at his side and Avigdor Lieberman tying his hands, the second iteration of Netanyahu is an aggressive ruler.

He is not guided by the rules of the game, but by the desire to gain a position of strength. It is not protecting democracy that is uppermost in his mind but retaining power. He is therefore not interested or capable of demonstrating moral leadership. Netanyahu is letting his Rottweilers devour liberal democracy while he himself stands by watching. He is not fulfilling his role as the guardian of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Netanyahu's weak leadership and moral laxity are what unleashed this frenzy. The fact that he has not put a stop to the dark forces that have always oozed from our depths is what brought us to this situation, but it is not yet too late. Netanyahu can put a stop to this insanity in an instant. All he has to do is halt the totalitarian legislation and to deliver one major address extolling enlightened democracy and human rights.

He must make it clear that violence will not be tolerated, that women are equal. Arabs are equal and every human being is created in God's image. If the super-leader of the right wing would order the lunatic fringe on the right to stop, they would. If the leader of the State of Israel would say that liberty and equality and law and freedom of expression are the beating heart of the state, so it would be.

Not a single party would quit the government coalition. Not a single minister would quit the cabinet. But the young people who are called upon to defend this place would know what they are protecting. And the older generation who built this place would know what they built. The face in the mirror would again be our face."

If the Gentile me or any non-Jewish critic of Israel had written such things, I and they would have been smeared by Zionism's propaganda machine as a rabid Jew hater.

Ha'aretz reflects all Israeli points of view and prejudices but it my opinion it is second to none in the newspaper world for the honesty and integrity of its reporting about what is happening in the Zionist state and why. I sometimes wonder how different the situation might have been today if over the years Ha'aretz had been required daily reading for every occupant of the White House and every member of Congress.

If I was a very wealthy Arab I would create a foundation to make that happen.

* Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent who covered wars and conflicts wherever they were taking place in the world and specialized in the Middle East. Author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews. He blogs on www.alanhart.net and tweets on www.twitter.com/alanauthor

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My God, what a bizarre lot these Republican aspirants for the US presidency are!

Newt Gingrich grasping the hands of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, 1993

Is this the best a great and proud nation can produce? How frightening the thought that one of them may actually become the most powerful person in the world, with a finger on the biggest nuclear button!

But let's concentrate on the present front-runner (Republicans seem to change front-runners like a fastidious beau changes socks).

It's Newt Gingrich. Remember him? The Speaker of the House who had an extramarital affair with an intern while at the same time leading the campaign to impeach President Bill Clinton for having an affair with an intern.

But that's not the point. The point is that this intellectual giant - named after Isaac Newton, perhaps the greatest scientist ever - has discovered a great historical truth.

The original Newton discovered the law of gravity. Newton Leroy Gingrich has discovered something no less earth-shaking: there is an "invented" people around, referring to the Palestinians...

From its very beginning, the Zionist movement has denied the existence of the Palestinian people. It's an article of faith.

The reason is obvious: if there exists a Palestinian people, then the country the Zionists were about to take over was not empty. Zionism would entail an injustice of historic proportions. Being very idealistic persons, the original Zionists found a way out of this moral dilemma: they simply denied its existence. The winning slogan was "A land without a people for a people without a land".

So, who were these curious human beings they met when they came to the country? Oh, ah, well, they were just people who happened to be there, but not "a" people. Passers-by, so to speak. Later, the story goes, after we had made the desert bloom and turned an arid and neglected land into a paradise, Arabs from all over the region flocked to the country, and now they have the temerity - indeed the chutzpah - to claim that they constitute a Palestinian nation!

For many years after the founding of the state of Israel, this was the official line. Golda Meir famously exclaimed: "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people!" (To which I replied in the Knesset: "Mrs Prime Minister, perhaps you are right. Perhaps there really is no Palestinian people. But if millions of people mistakenly believe that they are a people, and behave like a people, then they are a people.")

A huge propaganda machine - both in Israel and abroad - was employed to "prove" that there was no Palestinian people. A lady called Joan Peters wrote a book (From Time Immemorial) proving that the riffraff calling themselves "Palestinians" had nothing to do with Palestine. They are nothing but interlopers and impostors. The book was immensely successful - until some experts took it apart and proved that the whole edifice of conclusive proofs was utter rubbish.

I myself have spent many hundreds of hours trying to convince Israeli and foreign audiences that there is a Palestinian people and that we have to make peace with them. Until one day the state of Israel recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole representative of the "Palestinian people", and the argument was laid to rest.

Until Newt came along and, like a latter-day Jesus, raised it from the dead.

Obviously, he is much too busy to read books. True, he was once a teacher of history, but for many years now he has been very busy speakering the Congress, making a fortune as an "adviser" of big corporations and now trying to become president.

Otherwise, he would probably have come across a brilliant historical book by Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, which asserts that all modern nations are invented.

Nationalism is a relatively recent historical phenomenon. When a community decides to become a nation, it has to reinvent itself. That means inventing a national past, reshuffling historical facts (and non-facts) in order to create a coherent picture of a nation existing since antiquity. Hermann the Cherusker, member of a Germanic tribe who betrayed his Roman employers, became a "national" hero. Religious refugees who landed in America and destroyed the native population became a "nation". Members of an ethnic-religious diaspora formed themselves into a "Jewish nation". Many others did more or less the same.

Indeed, Newt would profit from reading a book by a Tel Aviv University professor, Shlomo Sand, a kosher Jew, whose Hebrew title speaks for itself: When and How the Jewish People was Invented?

Newt Gingrich shaking hands with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, 1998

Parroting the straight Zionist propaganda line - by now discarded by most Zionists - Gingrich argues that there can be no Palestinian people because there never was a Palestinian state. The people in this country were just "Arabs" under Ottoman rule.

So what? I used to hear from French colonial masters that there is no Algerian people, because there never was an Algerian state, there was never even a united country called Algeria. Any takers for this theory now?

The name "Palestine" was mentioned by a Greek historian some 2,500 years ago. A "Duke of Palestine" is mentioned in the Talmud. When the Arabs conquered the country, they called it "Filastin", as they still do. The Arab national movement came into being all over the Arab world, including Palestine - at the same time as the Zionist movement - and strove for independence from the Ottoman Sultan.

For centuries, Palestine was considered a part of Greater Syria (the region known in Arabic as "al-Sham"). There was no formal distinction between Syrians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Jordanians. But when, after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the European powers divided the Arab world between them, a state called Palestine became a fact under the British Mandate, and the Arab Palestinian people established themselves as a separate nation with a national flag of their own. Many peoples in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America did the same, even without asking Gingrich for confirmation.

It would certainly be ironic if the members of the "invented" Palestinian nation were expected to ask for recognition from the members of the "invented" Jewish/Israeli nation, at the demand of a member of the "invented" American nation, a person who, by the way, is of mixed German, English, Scottish and Irish stock.

Years ago, there was short-lived controversy about Palestinian textbooks. It was argued that they were anti-Semitic and incited to murder. That was laid to rest when it became clear that all Palestinian schoolbooks were cleared by the Israeli occupation authorities, and most were inherited from the previous Jordanian regime. But Gingrich does not shrink from resurrecting this corpse, too.

All Palestinians - men, women and children - are terrorists, he asserts, and Palestinian pupils learn at school how to kill us poor and helpless Israelis. Ah, what would we do without such stout defenders as Newt? What a pity that this week a photo of him, shaking the hand of Yasser Arafat, was published.

And please don't show him the textbooks used in some of our schools, especially the religious ones!

Is it really a waste of time to write about such nonsense?

It may seem so, but one cannot ignore the fact that the dispenser of these inanities may be tomorrow's president of the United States of America. Given the economic situation, that is not as unlikely as it sounds.

As for now, Gingrich is doing immense damage to the national interests of the US. At this historic juncture, the masses at all the Tahrir Squares across the Arab world are wondering about America's attitude. Newt's answer contributes to a new and more profound anti-Americanism.

Alas, he is not the only extreme rightist seeking to embrace Israel. Israel has lately become the Mecca of all the world's racists. This week we were honoured by the visit of the husband of Marine Le Pen, leader of the French National Front. A pilgrimage to the Jewish state is now a must for any aspiring fascist.

One of our ancient sages coined the phrase: "Not for nothing does the starling go to the raven. It's because they are of the same kind".

Thanks. But sorry. They are not of my kind.

To quote another proverb: With friends like these, who needs enemies?

* Uri Avnery is an Israeli journalist, writer and peace activist. Author of 1948: A Soldier's Tale - The Bloody Road to Jerusalem.

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Video link: http://youtu.be/pWKPRC-_oSg

Alternate Focus interviews Nurit Peled-Elhanan, author of the forthcoming book Palestine in Israeli School Books: Ideology and Propaganda in Education. Nurit Peled-Elhanan argues that the textbooks used in the school system are laced with a pro-Israel ideology, and that they play a part in priming Israeli children for military service. She analyzes the presentation of images, maps, layouts and use of language in History, Geography and Civic Studies textbooks, and reveals how the books might be seen to marginalize Palestinians, legitimize Israeli military action and reinforce Jewish-Israeli territorial identity.

NOTE: Nurit Peled-Elhanan is a Professor of language and education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, an Israeli peace activist, and one of the founders of the Bereaved Families for Peace. After the death of Elhanan's 13 year-old daughter in a 1997 suicide bombing, she became an outspoken critic of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

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HisStory and TheirStory.

I hope that the reader will bear over with me for inventing the word theirstory, but if history is written by those who are victorious and powerful enough to position them selves and their narratives about historical events into acceptance by mainstream historians and media, then, what else should one call the narratives of those who have suffered defeat. Palestinians have for decades suffered from being in the position of the defeated. Their history is theirstory, the one that does not make it into the textbooks of history. When dealing with human beings and their emotional as well as intellectual frailties however, the fact that those who write history are the one that are victorious, and those who write theirstory are those who have suffered defeat does neither validate history nor theirstory. Both usually are "a" story, a narrative about a discourse, as seen form a particular perspective.

The language of political discourse is generally speaking, and by virtue of the nature of politics, dominated by attempts to position one self and others. From perceived positions derive perceived rights and privileges as well as perceived duties and obligations for one self and others. Scapegoating is but one of the many tactics that are applied in the political game of positioning one self and ones interests in the most favorable manner, while positioning ones adversary much less favorably. Spin Doctors or Propaganda Experts are playing a crucial role; so do lobbies, economy, geopolitical considerations and a cohort of other factors one can easily identify. Sadly, the abuse of the language of the political discourse has contributed considerably to prolonging the dispute between Palestine and Israel. Decades of conflict, and unimaginable human suffering of both Palestinian and Israeli individuals, families, communities would not have been possible without eliciting a world wide demand to bring an end to the suffering; That is, if only the conflict would have been presented in a factual manner; That is, if media and entertainment industry would not have been playing a crucial role in dehumanizing one side of the conflict, while eliciting the suffering of the other. A very well researched and documented movie produced by The Media Education Foundation, REAL BAD ARABS, demonstrates how badly Hollywood has contributed to positioning the Arab people as uncivilized, brutal villains, terrorists, and right out inhumane, or sub human (1).

In the movie, featuring Dr. Jack Shaheen, Dr. Shaheen documents that Arabs are being positioned as the most malign group in the history of Hollywood. Rightfully Dr. Shaheen is drawing the comparison between the way Hollywood has been and is positioning Arabs as sub-human, with that of the German National Socialists positioning of Jews as Untermenschen.(ibid.) In both cases, in that of the positioning of Jews and the inhuman suffering that has been inflicted on European Jews during the National Socialist Era in Germany, and the ongoing positioning of Arabs as sub-human, and the suffering of Palestinians, the effect of the positioning is a significant increase in general populations accept of politically motivated violence as legitimate means to solve political conflicts. This includes politicians who grew up with the stereotyping media and entertainment.

In his book "REAL BAD ARABS, How Hollywood Vilifies a People " (2), Dr. Jack G. Shaheen looked at more than one thousand movies, from the oldest archives of Hollywood movies to the greatest "Blockbuster" movies up to 2001. Shaheen elicits the stereotypes that rob a whole people of their humanity. One could say that Dr. Shaheen is demonstrating on Hollywood productions, that what the renown Palestinian scholar Edward W. Said has described as "Orientalism" (3). While Said analyzed the stereotyping of all people of Asia Minor to East and South East Asia, Shaheen particularly analyzes the position Hollywood determines for Arabs. In the movie "REAL BAD ARABS", Dr. Jack Shaheen elicits that the Disney Classic "Aladdin" that has been and is being seen by millions of people world wide, is recycling all the old stereotypes. The song at the beginning of the movie is setting the scene. "Where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face, it's barbaric, but hey..., it's home." People world wide, and particularly children, are coached into believing that Arabland is a place where innocent women have their hands amputated for forgetting to pay at the bazaar. In other movies Arab men are described as imbecilic super-rich, as sex addicted tyrants who mistreat their woman, and most importantly, American women. Women are kidnapped and sold of to sleazy Arabs in auctions. Dr. Shaheen elicits that over three hundred movies, nearly 25 % of all Hollywood movies in one way or the other demean Arabs. (ibid.)

With respect to demeaning an entire people, the same could be said about the countless movies produced during and subsequent to World War Two, who depict the German people as beasts, inhumane monsters, and genocidal maniacs. Countless Hollywood productions elicit the legitimate suffering of the Jewish people during world war two. As far as I am aware there has not ever been a Hollywood production that elicits the suffering of the at least 25.000 Germans that were burned to death during the bombing and total destruction of Dresden (4), or the at least 17.600 Germans that were burned to death after a 20 minutes bombing raid over Pforzheim (5). The author of this article has lost almost all of his family during the bombing of Dresden and grew up without ever having a grandfather or grandmother, a great grandfather or great grandmother, uncles, or aunts from his fathers side of the family. Is that suffering not legitimate? Is the suffering of those who perished in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and that of those left behind not legitimate human suffering. The fact is, that human beings are kind hearted by nature, and we do not wish to inflict pain and suffering on fellow human beings, as long as those fellow human beings are granted their dignity as human beings, and not being systematically dehumanized and stripped for all human value.

Dr. Jack G. Shaheen elicits in both the movie and the book "REAL BAD ARABS", that Hollywood and politics go hand in hand in dehumanizing Arabs. Further, he documents that the dehumanization of Arabs began subsequent to World War Two. The Palestinian Israeli conflict, in which the USA unequivocally supported Israel, the Arab Oil Embargo in the seventies, and the revolution in Iran have been the main driving and motivating factors behind the dehumanization in Hollywood productions. (ibid) Ever since the founding of the state of Israel, every single US-Administration has unequivocally declared that it is committed to what is often called "The American Israeli Friendship", or by other euphemisms for the unwavering support of Israel, no matter what, and no matter what violations of international law it commits. On the other hand, the USSR was known for it's unequivocal support of the Palestinian course, more or less regardless what violations of international law there were committed by the militant member organizations of the PLO. In today's Russia, this support is more critical, but it is mainly driven by geopolitical rather than human rights considerations. The people of Israel and Palestine, Arabs, Christians and Jews alike have been, and are still the pawns in superpowers geopolitical stratagems.

Policies impact consensus reality by means of media and the entertainment industry. Consensus reality determines if a people is perceived as human beings, with all the legal, ethical, and moral consequences it implies, or if a people is perceived as sub-human, whose suffering can be tolerated or condoned; if a people can be murdered with impunity. In REAL BAD ARABS (ibid.) Dr. Shaheen is drawing attention to the many Hollywood movies that are produced with the help of the US-Department of Defense, referring to numerous movies where the murder of Arabs is glorified. But it does not stop there. The Pentagon, as well as other defense departments world wide, invest in Media Corporations, infiltrate media with so called "experts and analysts" with ties to civilian and military intelligence services and armed forces. Even the book market is to a large degree controlled by government and military censorship, as demonstrated by the case of Lt. Col. Anthony Schaeffer, whose book "Operation Dark Heart"(6) the Pentagon tried to prevent from entering the market. (7)

After growing up and being indoctrinated to the degree that Arabs utterly have lost their humanity, after growing up and daily being influenced by media reports that are designed to deprive Arabs of their value and dignity as human beings, and after growing up with a constant stream of so called entertainment that vilifies Arabs while it glorifies the murdering of them without the slightest concern about their humanity, is it surprising, that the populations of the West silently and complicity accept the daily violence that is committed against the people of Palestine, or the recent massacres of tens of thousands of Libyans. After all, Libya has supported the PLO and Palestinians for decades, so Libyans must be heartless terrorists, whom Western military forces and hired mercenaries can massacre with impunity in the tens of thousands. After all, what those people in the West have learned from early childhood via Disney cartoons such as Aladdin, and countless other dehumanizing productions is, that the Arabs, and for most Westerners Libyans are perceived as an Arab country, can be murdered and massacred with impunity. They are, after all barbaric and sub-human, we have learned it from the get go.

The reason why the suffering of the People of Palestine is not perceived as legitimate suffering, on an equal scale with the suffering of the Jewish people in Europe during World War Two, and the suffering of Israelis who are murdered by Palestinians is, that the governments of Western countries systematically have deprived the people of Palestine from their humanity.

It is a fact that human being has an innate resistance against taking another human beings life. As long as we are not speaking in terms of psycho-pathology, it takes months of rigorous military training, before a person can overcome this innate human trait. It does not matter if one analyzes this aversion against taking another human beings life from a purely moral or ethical perspective, or if one analyzes it from an evolutionary perspective. Our innate unwillingness against taking another human beings life is meaningful, and has the function to preserve ourselves as a species and human civilization.

We can establish as fact, that there is history and theirstory. Both are equally invalid. While history is a function of political control for those who are in positions of relative power, which can be instrumental for dehumanizing others, and for providing apparent legitimacy for the oppression of others, theirstory is often instrumental in recruiting resistance against the dominant powers while dehumanizing the oppressor. Neither the decades long conflict in Palestine or Israel nor any other conflict can be truly understood, let alone be solved, by a rhetoric approach to the language of the discourse. Language is a powerful instrument that contributes to a great degree in determining our thinking and our actions. Problems in conflicts are only truly comprehended and solved by a language that is free from positioning, scapegoating, and dehumanizing one, while providing legitimacy to the other. Without the foundation of a pure and factual language to the discourse, even if one is aiming for peace, it is almost impossible to discern which arguments in the Palestinian - Israeli discourse are legitimate and valid, and which are not.

To be continued. Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

Reference:

1. Real Bad Arabs; Movie, Media Education Foundation.

2. Jack G. Shaheen (2001); REAL BAD ARABS, How Hollywood Vilifies A People” Olive Branch Press, New York, New Hampton.

3. Said Edward G. (1978); Orientalism, Random House, USA.

4. The Bombing of Dresden in WW II. Wikipedia. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II

5. The Bombing of Pforzheim in WW II. Wikipedia. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Bombing_of_Pforzheim_in_World_War_II

6. Schaeffer Anthony Lt. Col. (2010); Operation Dark Heart, St. Martins Press, New York.

7. Chris McGreal (2010); Pentagon Tries to stop book, publishing details of US Black-Ops in Pakistan. http://www.pakistankakhudahafiz.com/2010/09/16/pentagon-tries-to-buy-entire-print-run-of-us-spy-expose-operation-dark-heart/

* Dr. Christof Lehmann, a life time peace activist, psychologist, and advisor in behavior, finance, economics and politics.

Related posts:

• Palestine/Israel History since 1878
• Break Embargo Against Palestine: First Time in History, Arab League VETO U.S.? Not Really!
• Oct. 29th massacres in Palestine history and Ben Gurion wonders: “How can an order be given to shoot children?”

Say this tongue twister quickly:

How much wood
could a wood chuck chuck
if a woodchuck
could chuck
wood?
As much wood
as a woodchuck could chuck
if a woodchuck
could chuck
wood!

That tongue twister doesn't do any damage, not even to the tongue.

"Another type of twister, a tornado," says Wikipedia "is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud."

If you follow news from America, you'll see frequent reports of swirling cones of air turned violent across the country, especially in the mid-west.

Sometimes twisters or tornados are called cyclones, but none of the people who have witnessed their houses picked up into the cones much care what they're called.

In the first stanza of THE SECOND COMING, Irish poet W. B. Yeats described another type of twister:

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity."

The "widening gyre" offers another vision of the twister. Thus, not only is nature at times violent and destructive, but people falling into the conical pattern through anarchy.

Finally, those who twist the truth or distort facts--politicians, propagandists, snake-oil salesmen and major media outlets—are expert twisters.

Distorters have a cause to serve. Media has their owners and readers or viewers to satisfy. Rupert Murdoch outlets, like Fox News and News Corp pander to Murdoch's interests.

MSNBC yields to its liberal supporters, often critical of Fox and almost always opposed to Fox's political positions. If Fox News twists news and commentary to right wing politics, liberal media twist reporting to the left.

Politicians who gridlock parliamentary or congressional bodies serve special interests that support them financially. In short, they're bought by twisters who pay politicians to be twisters for a cause.

Outright propagandists like Abe Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League; David Harris, Executive Director of the American Jewish Committee; and Norman Podhoretz, Editor-at-Large , Commentary magazine consistently use the print media to attack anyone critical of Israel.

The technique used involves twisted argument aimed at anyone who fails to tow the line of their organization, including writers who attack those who fail to accept any political medicine they prescribe.

This ploy works mainly because readers don't take the time to dig into both sides of arguments and can't distinguish fact from twisted fiction.

In a rant against the New York Times for an editorial slightly critical of Benjamin Netanyahu, David Harris complained that Netanyahu had been the newspaper's "favourite whipping boy for the editorial writers..."

Master twister Harris tried to defend Netanyahu while demeaning the Times editor for his criticism of the prime minister.

The editorial actually expressed concern for Israel, but Harris completely ignored that while refusing to accept any criticism for anything Israeli. To Harris's (and other's) twisted thinking, Israel can do nothing wrong.

Then there are the underhanded tactics used by AIPAC, whose current president is Lee Rosenberg. AIPAC functions as an organization dedicated to influencing media, students and elected officials in America.

Nureddin Sabir, Editor of Redress, Information and Analysis, upon his return from Libya, commented on the challenge now facing Libyans as they embark on a path of freedom from a single Gaddafi prescribed opinion:

Libyans "will have to get used to the art of persuasion. They will have to learn that theirs is not the only opinion worth listening to and that nobody, whether Islamist or liberal, holds a monopoly over the truth."

That's something people everywhere should learn. The only way out of the morass of opinionated special interests is to become exposed to opposing interests. Learn to see how twisters work to deceive.

* 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.

Related posts:

• The Israeli Lobby: Declassified Documents Expose Its Influence
• Declassified: Massive Israeli Manipulation of US Media Exposed
• Alison Weir – US Media and Israeli Military All in the Family

By Alan Hart * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Anders Behring Breivik

In his summary of what the monster had stated behind closed doors in court, Judge Heger said he had argued that he wanted to create "the greatest loss possible to Norway's governing Labour Party", which he accused of failing the country on immigration and opening the door to the "Muslim colonization" of Norway and all of Europe.

There could not have been a more effective way of inflicting at a single stroke a great loss than gunning down many members of the Norwegian Labour Party's youth wing, the Workers Youth League (AUF), which was assembled on Utoya Island.

Two days before the massacre there, and as Gilad Atzmon has researched and noted, the AUF's leader, Eskil Pedersen, gave an interview to Dagbladet, Norway's second largest tabloid newspaper. In it he said:

"The AUF has long been a supporter of an international boycott of Israel but the decision of the last Congress demands that Norway impose a unilateral economic embargo on the country… I acknowledge this is a drastic measure but I think it gives a clear indication that, quite simply, we are tired of Israel's behaviour."

(My own view is that behind closed doors all Western governments, including the one in Washington D.C. in the person of President Obama, are tired of Israel's behaviour).

There are two things we know for sure.

One is that Breivik is fanatically anti Islam and pro Zionism.

The other is that Zionism's propaganda machine has been set to work at full speed, day and night, eight days and nights a week, to demonize, discredit and destroy all who are calling and campaigning for Israel to be boycotted.

From the obscenity of the Nazi holocaust to the present, Zionism's success in selling its propaganda lies as truth is the reason why the search for peace based on an acceptable amount of justice for the Palestinians has been, and remains, a mission impossible.

I describe the Israel-Palestine conflict as the cancer at the heart of international affairs which threatens to consume us all. It's bad enough that Zionist propaganda has prevented a cure for it, but if now that same propaganda is inspiring Europeans in Europe to slaughter their own, the future is very, very frightening.

I don't know the answer to my headline question but I think investigators in Norway, prosecutors and psychiatrists, must dig deep enough to find it.

* Alan Hart is a former ITN and BBC Panorama foreign correspondent who covered wars and conflicts wherever they were taking place in the world and specialized in the Middle East. Author of Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews. He blogs on www.alanhart.net and tweets on www.twitter.com/alanauthor

Related posts:

• A monster beyond control?
• Zionist propaganda and “Nakbah Denial”
• Israel’s US propaganda machine at work

By Stephen Lendman* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

On June 27, its press release headlined, "GAZA, WE ARE COMING. Despite pressure and threats of violence, flotilla will sail."

On June 27, A US Boat to Gaza Audacity of Hope press conference reiterated a determination to sail despite threats, pressure and other measures used to stop it.

Participants on board all 10 ships haven't come this far to turn back or let imperial viciousness deter them, especially when their mission is vital and just.

In response to spurious claims that passengers may have chemicals to attack Israeli commandos, perhaps the same ones responsible for the May 2010 Mavi Marmara massacre, Flotilla participants signed a declaration of nonviolence. Spokesman Dror Feiler told Army Radio that if Israel has other information, it should inform Flotilla organizers.

He responded to IDF spokesperson Major Avital Leibovich, citing intelligence reports that dangerous chemicals may be used as weapons, and that extremist passengers were heard threatening "to spill the blood" of Israeli soldiers.

According to an unnamed defense official, "The picture emerging here is that some of the flotilla participants clearly intend a violent clash," when, in fact, he knows this is a bald faced lie, an Israeli specialty, regurgitated by major media flacks, while suppressing Israel's intention either to block or confiscate vessels it interdicts and all passenger possessions as it did against Flotilla I.

According to Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman, Israel may establish a special naval court to do it, Barak saying:

"There's no doubt that impounding vessels is a deterrent measure that could prevent the need to use force against future (flotilla) violations."

Destroying them works better, what Dror Feiler disclosed, saying a scuba diver examining one of the boats discovered its propeller shaft cut off. It was deliberate sabotage that can be fixed but may take time.

Anti-Flotilla Agitprop and Misinformation

The Washington Post lists a Gaza Flotilla 101 section, vilifying humanitarian activism with vicious disinformation. For example, it says:

• Flotilla I "participants came aboard armed, with some declaring they were prepared for martyrdom; the same is expected this year."
• It describes organizers as a broad coalition and umbrella organization of pro-Palestinian, pro-Hamas participants, as well as an officially designated "terrorist organization," the Turkish IHH charity Ankara pressured not to come; it also cited Israeli intelligence saying the Free Gaza Movement includes "dangerous organizations with terrorist links."
• It listed a litany of lies about Gaza, including life there now eased, saying: "Israel now permits almost all goods (in) except items it fears could be used to stage attacks."
• It said many 2010 Mavi Marmara participants came armed with "guns, knives, metal pipes and chains - not humanitarian goods...There was no humanitarian aid on the (ship), and organizers stated their violent intent on the record."
• It claims "international legal authorities consider (Israel's) blockade legal" during an armed struggle Israel instigated and sustains, blaming Gazan victims for its own crimes, including the lawless siege.

All the above claims are maliciously false. The section, in fact, supports Israeli crimes of war and against humanity by substituting brazen lies for vital truths.

On June 28, Israeli Foreign Minister/Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman included his own, saying participants plan "confrontation and blood," adding:

"They are clearly there to create a provocation, looking for confrontation and blood and for many pictures on television screens...hard core...terror activists" are among them.

At the same time, his Foreign Ministry and Israeli security and defense officials told a June 26 cabinet meeting that no information indicates terrorists or anyone affiliated with terror groups participating.

Those coming, they said, include EU, US, and Canadian human rights activists, not bomb-throwing, gun toting, knife wielding, chemical carrying extremists planning violence. Moreover, they added that peaceful participants present a "more difficult public diplomacy challenge" if clashes with Israel soldiers occur.

Lieberman, however, implied that Israel exerted enormous pressure on foreign officials to deter the mission. Responding, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero called the flotilla:

"a bad idea that can only exacerbate tensions and we don't need more reasons for conflict at the moment," omitting that French aircraft slaughter Libyan civilians daily, while adding:

"We don't have the legal recourse to stop boats leaving, but with others, including the UN Secretary-General, we have made clear we are against this."

On June 28, Israel National News writer Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu headlined, "Flotilla for War or Peace? Charges of Plot to Kill," saying:

"Israel is in the midst of a massive diplomatic and (dis)information campaign to scuttle the planned attempt to break the maritime embargo...."

In fact, it's using whatever it takes to do it, including agitprop, sabotage, political pressure, the Israel Law Center Shurat HaDin filing irresponsible lawsuits, and military interdiction in international waters, perhaps a repeat of 2010 if things get out of hand.

According to Jerusalem Post writer Yaakov Katz in his June 28 article headlined, "Analysis: A season of flotillas and marches:"

Better prepared this time, "Navy commandos have developed new techniques on how to fast-rope onto the ships' upper decks quickly. They also have new equipment such as water cannons, attack dogs, (and) riot control specialists from the Prison Service's elite Masada Unit."

At the same time, Israel hasn't "formulate(d) a clear strategy or policy" to "handle" the media other than steady disinformation to discredit the mission and its participants. The message long ago wore thin.

The pro-Israeli Stand With Us organization launched a new Flotillafacts.com site, accessed through the following link:

http://www.flotillafacts.com/

Maliciously misstating truths, it says:

• "Flotilla Violates International Law, Intends to Provoke Violent Confrontation;
• ...these flotillas are anti-peace;
• ...international pressure should be placed on the terrorist group Hamas which rules Gaza;"
• In 2010, "anti-Israeli extremists and Turkish jihadists organized a flotilla to violate Israel's naval blockade...;"
• Mavi Marmara "jihadists brutally attacked (Israeli commandos) with knives, metal bars, and guns. Nine jihadists were killed.
• This year, the same anti-Israel extremists are planning another international flotilla battalion....purportedly to bring humanitarian goods to Gaza."

The site also includes a section called "Facts - 2011 Flotilla II: 9 Basic Facts," regurgitating brazen Israeli lies, suppressing truths it's too cowardly to state.

Notoriously, America's Anti-Defamation League also dispenses pro-Israeli propaganda and smear campaigns against Israeli critics, under the guise of fighting anti-semitism and supporting human rights equitably.

On June 24, its web site (adl.org) headlined, "Background on the 2011 Gaza Flotilla," saying:

• Anti-Israeli, anti-Zionist, pro-Hamas participants are coming, including the Free Gaza Movement, allied with others responsible for violent 2010 clashes. Omitted was explaining that Israel instigated violence against unarmed, peaceful activists.
• Israel's "blockade is primarily a defensive measure (against) the ongoing barrage of rockets targeting Israeli civilians and the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit." In fact, Shalit is a war prisoner, victimized by IDF aggression against Gaza civilians. Moreover, Hamas homemade "rockets" respond to Israeli attacks using sophisticated terror weapons.
• "Israel enables the flow of goods into Gaza each day, and particularly ensures the transfer of food, medicines, fuel and electricity." In fact, siege restrictions eased modestly. Shortages of everything exist. Poverty, unemployment and depravation are extreme. Most construction materials are banned, deterring rebuilding Cast Lead destruction, and a recent report indicated critical shortfalls of medicines and other medical supplies because Israel blocks them.
• "There is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza." In fact, it's been ongoing for years, exacerbated by Israel's longstanding slow-motion genocide policy ADL chooses to ignore.
• In May 2010, "Israel and the IDF made several attempts to avoid confrontation with" Freedom Flotilla I vessels. In fact, IDF commandos rehearsed a well-planned terror attack, using photos of targeted Turkish activists on board the Mavi Marmara mother ship to murder them in cold blood, forensic evidence showing them shot multiple times at close range, including in the head.
• Nonetheless, Israel's "independent panel of inquiry, the Turkel Commission....investigate(d) and assess(ed) Israel's action. (It) found that the Gaza blockade and the use of force during the (interdiction) were legal under international law." It lied, whitewashing Israeli crimes against humanity against nonviolent participants in international waters.

Like 50 other US Zionist organizations, ADL is an Israeli front group, demagogically supporting its worst crimes and spreading malicious Islamaphobic hate-mongering, including smear campaigns against pro-Palestinian groups, supporting liberation and justice.

In a June 4 letter The New York Times disgracefully published, ADL called it "an abomination for American (Flotilla) participants....to liken themselves to the Freedom Riders who challenged segregation in the American South....(They) were pacifists who were on the right side of history; the flotilla organizers (challenge Israel and) align themselves with Hamas," a Palestinian "terror(ist)" organization.

In fact, Flotilla activists indeed are modern-day Freedom Riders, coming by sea and/or land, courageously challenging Israeli terror against besieged Gazan civilians, under the government they fairly elected, maliciously called a terrorist organization.

They're coming like others earlier and many more until Gaza's siege ends, and all Palestinians are liberated on their own land, in their own country, free from occupation. Neither ADL hate or Israeli terror will stop them.

A Final Comment

On June 29, Haaretz writer Amira Hass said the French ship "Dignity" and Irish one "Freedom" set sail to rendezvous at sea with others delayed from departing Greece, one needing its sabotaged propeller repaired.

On June 28, New York Times writer Scott Sayare headlined, "Israeli Advocacy Group Helps Delay Departure of Gaza-Bound Flotilla," saying:

The pro-Israeli Shurat HaDin "suggest(ed) that seven of the ships might be lacking insurance or were improperly registered." Laughably calling itself a "civil rights organization," it also threatened 30 maritime insurers, warning that covering the vessels leaves them vulnerable to suits for "aiding a terrorist organization."

On June 27, Max Blumenthal explained that pro-Israeli, Islamophobic hate-monger Pastor John Hagee is one of Shurat HaDin's major funders. His ideology, in fact, includes a totalitarian Christian ethic, white Christian supremacy, racial hatred, gay-bashing, male gender dominance, and waging preemptive war against Islam.

Nonetheless, Shurat HaDin gratefully takes his money, suggesting perhaps they're soul mates, for sure behind efforts to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gazans.

* 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.

Related posts:

• Gordon Duff: Freedom Flotilla’s Real Victory, America’s Propaganda Machine Exposed
• Lawfare: Israeli-AIPAC attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
• Gaza Freedom Flotilla 2 [Video]

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

While we were not watching, conspiracy theory has undergone Orwellian redefinition.

A "conspiracy theory" no longer means an event explained by a conspiracy. Instead, it now means any explanation, or even a fact, that is out of step with the government’s explanation and that of its media pimps.

For example, online news broadcasts of RT have been equated with conspiracy theories by the New York Times simply because RT reports news and opinions that the New York Times does not report and the US government does not endorse.

In other words, as truth becomes uncomfortable for government and its Ministry of Propaganda, truth is redefined as conspiracy theory, by which is meant an absurd and laughable explanation that we should ignore.

When piles of carefully researched books, released government documents, and testimony of eye witnesses made it clear that Oswald was not President John F. Kennedy’s assassin, the voluminous research, government documents, and verified testimony was dismissed as "conspiracy theory."

In other words, the truth of the event was unacceptable to the authorities and to the Ministry of Propaganda that represents the interests of authorities.

The purest example of how Americans are shielded from truth is the media’s (including many Internet sites’) response to the large number of professionals who find the official explanation of September 11, 2001, inconsistent with everything they, as experts, know about physics, chemistry, structural engineering, architecture, fires, structural damage, the piloting of airplanes, the security procedures of the United States, NORAD’s capabilities, air traffic control, airport security, and other matters. These experts, numbering in the thousands, have been shouted down by know-nothings in the media who brand the experts as "conspiracy theorists."

This despite the fact that the official explanation endorsed by the official media is the most extravagant conspiracy theory in human history.

Let’s take a minute to re-acquaint ourselves with the official explanation, which is not regarded as a conspiracy theory despite the fact that it comprises an amazing conspiracy. The official truth is that a handful of young Muslim Arabs who could not fly airplanes, mainly Saudi Arabians who came neither from Iraq nor from Afghanistan, outwitted not only the CIA and the FBI, but also all 16 US intelligence agencies and all intelligence agencies of US allies including Israel’s Mossad, which is believed to have penetrated every terrorist organization and which carries out assassinations of those whom Mossad marks as terrorists.

In addition to outwitting every intelligence agency of the United States and its allies, the handful of young Saudi Arabians outwitted the National Security Council, the State Department, NORAD, airport security four times in the same hour on the same morning, air traffic control, caused the US Air Force to be unable to launch interceptor aircraft, and caused three well-built steel-structured buildings, including one not hit by an airplane, to fail suddenly in a few seconds as a result of limited structural damage and small, short-lived, low-temperature fires that burned on a few floors.

The Saudi terrorists were even able to confound the laws of physics and cause WTC building seven to collapse at free fall speed for several seconds, a physical impossibility in the absence of explosives used in controlled demolition.

The story that the government and the media have told us amounts to a gigantic conspiracy, really a script for a James Bond film. Yet, anyone who doubts this improbable conspiracy theory is defined into irrelevance by the obedient media.

Prof. Niels Harrit

In America today, and increasingly throughout the Western world, actual facts and true explanations have been relegated to the realm of kookiness. Only people who believe lies are socially approved and accepted as patriotic citizens.

Indeed, a writer or newscaster is not even permitted to report the findings of 9/11 skeptics. In other words, simply to report Professor Harrit’s findings now means that you endorse them or agree with them. Everyone in the US print and TV media knows that he/she will be instantly fired if they report Harrit’s findings, even with a laugh. Thus, although Harrit has reported his findings on European television and has lectured widely on his findings in Canadian universities, the fact that he and the international scientific research team that he led found unreacted nano-thermite in the WTC dust and have offered samples to other scientists to examine has to my knowledge never been reported in the American media.

Even Internet sites on which I am among the readers’ favorites will not allow me to report on Harrit’s findings.

Beam cut in straight line in exact same fashion as a controlled demolition

The unwillingness or inability to entertain any view of 9/11 different from the official view dooms to impotence many Internet sites that are opposed to the wars and to the rise of the domestic US police state. These sites, for whatever the reasons, accept the government’s explanation of 9/11; yet, they try to oppose the "war on terror" and the police state which are the consequences of accepting the government’s explanation. Trying to oppose the consequences of an event whose explanation you accept is an impossible task.

If you believe that America was attacked by Muslim terrorists and is susceptible to future attacks, then a "war on terror" and a domestic police state to root out terrorists become necessary to make Americans safe. The idea that a domestic police state and open-ended war might be more dangerous threats to Americans than terrorists is an impermissible thought.

A country whose population has been trained to accept the government’s word and to shun those who question it is a country without liberty in its future.

* Paul Craig Roberts was an editor of the Wall Street Journal and an Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury. His latest book, How the Economy Was Lost: The War of the Worlds . He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

Niels Harrit interview:

Video link: http://youtu.be/0lU-vu2JvZY

Related posts:

• The Official Conspiracy Theory
• Who’s Afraid of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories?
• Game Theory

The US military is developing software that would allow military personnel to use fake profiles in online chat rooms.

The idea is to use social media to spread "positive" messages about the United States and its allies such as Israel. While the Pentagon says it is a bid to counter violent extremist and enemy ideologies, we all know it's a propaganda war tool.

Israel recruited an army of cyber terrorists to do the similar job during their massacres in Gaza and Lebanon. In fact Israeli propaganda machine reached U.S. Department of State officials and evidences were presented at Sabbah Report few years ago.

Video link: http://youtu.be/qdU4c9ndgZA

Anti-Arab and Anti-Islam propaganda is all over the U.S media. It is not surprising to see the same spread all over the cyberspace.

Related posts:

• James Zogby – How Israel’s Propaganda Machine Works
• Propaganda and war
• Israel’s US propaganda machine at work

By Paul J. Balles * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

"If I were an Israeli, I'd be worried. If I were an Arab, I'd be insulted. If I were a critic only of Israel, I'd be ashamed."

Thus concluded Richard Cohen in the Washington Post (28 February 2011)

What Cohen would be worried about is what he perceives as anti-Semitism in the Arab world, fuelled in World War II by the Muslim cleric Haj Amin al-Husseini, the grand mufti of Jerusalem.

According to Cohen, Al-Husseini "the titular leader of Muslim Palestinians, broadcast Nazi propaganda to the Middle East, recruited European Muslims for the SS, exulted in the Holocaust and after the war went on to represent his people in the Arab League."

Cohen not only faults Arabs for their support of Al-Husseini, but for Cohen's conclusion that "the Arab world is saturated by Jew-hatred".

This is a propaganda line that serves no other purpose but to instil fear in Jews everywhere.

Voices like Cohen's - and there are many - have a much greater impact on Israelis and their worldwide supporters than any biased statements made by a single Muslim cleric.

But then Zionists in America feed their own paranoia by deceiving themselves and distorting reality in their image twisting house of mirrors.

Cohen says "If I were an Arab I'd be insulted."

To Cohen, an Arab should be insulted by Al-Husseini seeking support from the Axis of Germany and Italy prior to World War II.

In 1941, Al-Husseini sought a public declaration of support from the Axis nations for: 1) Arab independence from British and French rule; 2) the freedom for the independent Arab nations to unite in some form; 3) and for the elimination of the proposed Jewish homeland in Palestine.

Why should those goals give cause for anyone except an Israeli to suggest that Arabs should be insulted?

Instead of putting Al-Husseini's mission to save Palestine for the Palestinians into proper perspective, Cohen attempts to distort history.

Al-Husseini also sought military and financial assistance for an Arab uprising that he promised he could unleash, though only in conjunction with the Axis declaration.

Finally, Cohen crows "If I were a critic only of Israel I'd be ashamed."

If American supporters of Israel were more critical of Israel when Israel deserves it, there would be little call to complain of the crimes committed by Israelis.

Israel stands in constant denial of any wrong-doing, whether the wrong happens to be killing by the Stern Gang, apartheid treatment of Palestinians, murders in Gaza or illegal Jewish settlements.

If the rest of the world attempts to pass a resolution finding Israel guilty of wrong-doing, the US, under Zionist control, vetoes it. This has happened 36 times in the past four decades.

Jews who criticize anything that Israel does, no matter how horrendous, have been dubbed "self-hating Jews".

Major US Jewish organizations, from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, are committed to defending Israel whether right or wrong.

"Any time you engage in an activity critical of Israel you are trying to destroy the state of Israel," Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, said.

Israel isn't even able to accept criticism by Zionist Jews. Judge Goldstone is a case in point. He was severely faulted for identifying wrongdoing by Israel in Gaza even though his investigation was thorough and fair.

While Israel continues with apartheid practices, illegal settlements and attempts to get the US to bomb Iran, its blind supporters promote anti-Semitism.

It's time for reflection and self-criticism. Thinking like Richard Cohen's only increases fear by Jews and disdain by others.

* 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.

Related posts:

• Mohamed Khodr – America’s Media? A Colonial Force for Israel’s Infallibility
• John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt: pro-Israel Lobby influence over U.S. foreign policy on the recent Israel-Lebanon war
• The Problem with Israel

Nima Shirazi * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

"The gradual abolition of the slave trade: or leaving of sugar by degrees in 1792" by Isaac Cruikshank

Last week, Indypendent journalist and frequent Mondoweiss contributor Alex Kane noted:

"As the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement continues full-steam ahead in its efforts to force Israel to comply with international law, pro-Israel hawks are increasingly attempting to link the movement to anti-Semitism and Nazi Germany-era policies."

The latest example of this disingenuous and intellectually dishonest smear campaign comes (unsurprisingly) from Jeffrey Goldberg, the former IDF prison guard, unabashed warmonger, and Zionist apologist and propagandist, who recently cheered the New Israel Fund for, in his words, leaving the "BDS swamp."

Despite Goldberg's claim to be "running a campaign on this blog against the cheap deployment of Nazi imagery in argument-making," he does just that, stating that "it's a fair analogy" to liken the boycott of Israeli goods to the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses in 1933, explaining that "the BDS movement, like no other anti-Israel propaganda campaign, has sent chills down the collective Jewish spine precisely because economic boycotts have been, throughout history, used to hurt Jews."

Kane, in his cogent response, accurately points out many of Goldberg's errors. For example, Kane notes that the BDS campaign is not a "European-centered campaign," as Goldberg writes, but rather is "a Palestinian-led civil society movement that has spread to the Western world." He also points out that Goldberg is "guilty of conflating Israel with Judaism, and Jews with Israelis," continuing:

"The BDS movement is not an economic boycott directed against Jews; it is a boycott movement directed against the State of Israel, which labels itself the Jewish State, because of its flagrant violations of international law and its continued occupation of Palestinian land."

As per the Nazi analogy, Kane writes that while "Nazi Germany instituted a blanket boycott...directed at a persecuted minority just because of their religious faith...[t]he BDS movement is targeting a state, asking Israel to comply with their obligations under international law, because of their unjust and oppressive policies towards the Palestinian people."

But this is not the limit of Goldberg's spurious claims and specious equivalency. What could - and should - also be addressed is Goldberg's blanket contention that "economic boycotts have been, throughout history, used to hurt Jews."

This statement follows Goldberg's pattern of labeling any and all human rights efforts as "anti-Semitic" whenever they happen to address war crimes, contempt for international law, rampant and aggressive discrimination, land and water theft, ethnic cleansing, and collective punishment routinely committed by the Israeli government and military and widely supported (or ignored, or justified) by the Israeli public.

Goldberg not only traffics in knee-jerk emotional blackmail, as usual - yelling "Nazi!" in a crowded blogosphere - but also relies on a very selective historical memory regarding the history of boycotts and campaigns to educate the public about ongoing injustice and mobilize it against such atrocities.

Even leaving the most obvious, and historically recent, connection of the boycott of Apartheid South Africa to the BDS call aside, Goldberg's contention still falls flat.

In what the BBC describes as "one of the earliest examples of consumers using their purchasing power to reject the trade in goods which have not been ethically produced," British civil society widely boycotted sugar produced by slaves in the Caribbean in 1791. Spurred by the distribution of thousands of pro-boycott pamphlets by the London Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade, eventually some 300,000 Britons boycotted sugar, resulting in sugar sales dropping by anywhere from a third to a half during that time. Many shops even advertised goods produced by 'freemen,' while sales of sugar from India, where slavery was not used, increased tenfold over two years.

BBC reports that "Hundreds of thousands of people also signed petitions calling for the abolition of the slave trade. Many supported the campaign against their own interests. For example, in Manchester (which sold some £200,000 worth of goods each year to slave ships) roughly 20% of the city's population signed petitions in support of abolition. The size and strength of feeling demonstrated by these popular protests made even pro-slavery politicians consider the consequences of ignoring public opinion. One pro-slavery lobbyist of the time noted that the 'Press teems with pamphlets upon the subject...The stream of popularity runs against us.'"

Also, during this time, even artists joined the fight to expose injustice. Poet Robert Southey spoke of tea as "the blood-sweetened beverage," and Sir William Fox urged the tea drinker "As he sweetens his tea, let him...say as he truly may, this lump cost the poor slave a groan, and this a bloody stroke with a cartwhip."

One wonders what could be written today about every dollop of Sabra hummus or each squirt of Ahava moisture-enhancing face "cleanser."

As Goldberg invokes the Nazi boycott of Jewish businesses to disingenuously link BDS to anti-Semitism, he doesn't address the fact that the boycott lasted (at most) three days, was widely ignored by the German public and abandoned due to its damaging effect on the economy. He then deliberately ignores the historical record, which shows that the ineffective (though unquestionably appalling and racist) Nazi boycott was actually preceded by an anti-Nazi boycott of German business, organized by the American Jewish community.

On March 23, 1933, less than two months after Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor, less than one month after the infamous Reichstag Fire of February 27 (the false-flag operation which paved the way for massive Nazi gains in the parliamentary elections six days later) and the exact same day that the parliament voted overwhelmingly to gave Hitler dictatorial powers, New York City's Jewish War Veterans, after considering the consequences for the already persecuted German Jewry, became the first American organization to announce a trade boycott of the Third Reich and organize a massive protest parade, in which over 4,000 veterans marched on City Hall and were welcomed by Mayor John P. O'Brien.

Soon thereafter, a coalition of the American Jewish Congress, the Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League, and the Jewish Labor Committee sponsored simultaneous protest rallies in New York, Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland and numerous other locations, encouraging the boycott of German goods. The New York rally, held at Madison Square Garden, was broadcast worldwide and featured speeches delivered by American Jewish, Christian, and labor leaders, along with Senator Robert F. Wagner and former New York governor Al Smith, calling "for an immediate cessation of the brutal treatment being inflicted on German Jewry." Four years later, another rally sponsored by the AJC and the Jewish Labor Committee was held at Madison Square Garden, at which union leader John L. Lewis, New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, and Rabbi Stephen Wise all spoke in support of boycott.

Nevertheless, the boycott movement - both in the US and worldwide - was largely unsuccessful, in part due to governments' unwillingness to cut economic ties with the heavily industrialized Germany, but also because the Jewish community itself was divided on the issue. Historian Lenni Brenner writes that "there were those in the Jewish community in America and Britain who specifically opposed the very notion of a boycott. The American Jewish Committee, the B’nai B’rith (Sons of the Covenant) fraternal order and the Board of Deputies of British Jews refused to back the boycott. However, of all of the active Jewish opponents of the boycott idea, the most important was the World Zionist Organisation (WZO). It not only bought German wares; it sold them, and even sought out new customers for Hitler and his industrialist backers."

The WZO, intent on pursuing policies which would promote the establishment of a Zionist state in what was then Mandatory Palestine, "saw Hitler's victory in much the same way as its German affiliate, the ZVfD [Zionistische Vereinigung fuer Deutschland, or the Zionist Federation of Germany]: not primarily as a defeat for all Jewry, but as positive proof of the bankruptcy of assimilationism and liberalism," Brenner tells us. These sentiments were enthusiastically expressed by the renowned German biographer Emil Ludwig during a visit to the United States at the time. "Hitler will be forgotten in a few years, but he will have a beautiful monument in Palestine," he said. "Thousands who seemed to be completely lost to Judaism were brought back to the fold by Hitler, and for that I am personally very grateful to him.” (Meyer Steinglass, "Emil Ludwig before the Judge," American Jewish Times, April 1936)

Clearly, Zionist opposition to morally-justifiable boycott - in service of its ethnocentric ideology - is nothing new. But as history has shown, boycotts can succeed despite libelous opposition and propaganda - it just takes time.

*****

A portion of this article was previously published in my September 10, 2010 piece, "The Thin Green Line," here on Wide Asleep in America.

* Nima Shirazi is a writer and musician from New York City. His political commentary is published on his website, Wide Asleep in America.com. His analysis of United States policy and Middle East issues, particularly with reference to current events in Iran, Israel, and Palestine, can also be found in numerous other online and print publications.

Related posts:

• …more boycott
• Olympia Food Co-op removes Israeli goods from shelves; first US store to institute boycott
• The boycott of Israel is “gaining speed”

By Paul J. Balles * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

A few days ago, Robert Elman, President of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), published a letter praising David Harris, Executive Director of the AJC.

The AJC boasts that it has worked since 1906 to safeguard Jewish life and to protect the dignity of all people.

In that motto alone, the thinking reader must see a dichotomy, a contradiction that casts doubt on what the organization represents.

If the AJC has worked to "safeguard Jewish life", it cannot honestly claim to protect the dignity of all people in the same breath, under which lays its treatment of Palestinians.

David Harris, as executive director of the AJC, has been the organization's leading spokesman. In short, he has been their chief propagandist in America for Israel.

A closer look at Elman's letter reveals how Harris and the AJC have used their propaganda machine to brainwash America.

In praising Harris for his 20 years of service as AJC executive director, Elman says:

No single professional has epitomized AJC's values, vision, activism, humanitarianism and achievement more than David Harris. David has been hailed as one of the Jewish people's foremost advocates and most distinguished and eloquent spokesmen.

Elman adds: "Looking to the future, David will continue to advocate for the issues most important to the Jewish people..."

Cheap propaganda

Here are the mythical issues Elman attributes to Harris. Each has an element of propaganda in it:

• Supporting a democratic Israel in its quest for peace and security.

  Israel's claims to be democratic are belied by its treatment of the Israeli Arabs as lesser members of an apartheid state.

Its so-called "quest for peace and security" has been proven to be nothing more than sound-bites for peace and military hardware for security.

• Speaking out against Iran's mission to build nuclear weapons.

  This is an outright lie similar to the lie about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction aimed at Israel. There's not a shred of proof that Iran's nuclear development involves weapons.

• Building mutual respect between different religious and ethnic groups, leading to a more tolerant world.

  Instead of working toward mutual respect, Israel has done everything possible to breed animosity.

• Moving America towards energy independence - critical for both our national security and our environment.

  In other words, cut American dependence on foreign oil, thereby diminishing positive relationships with Arab oil-producing countries.

• Seeking a world in which all people are afforded human rights, human dignity and human freedom.

  Before anyone can believe this Goebbels-type rubbish, Israel will have to vastly upgrade its relationships with the Palestinians.

Three themes run through most Zionist propaganda:

1. Brainwash the public into believing that Arabs are devils and all Muslims are extremist bombers.

   Professor Jack Shaheen's in-depth studies of American films thoroughly establish how Arabs have been consistently vilified in that medium for a century.

2. Convince the public to believe it's a hate crime to criticize Israel, while propagating guilt for the holocaust.

   Criticism of Israel in America is a guaranteed route to castigation as anti-Semitic at best and unemployment, like Helen Thomas's, at worst.

3. Instil fear in Jews and their supporters that others are out to destroy Israel and Jews. "Israel is surrounded by enemies," writes Steven Rosen. If true, why?

This theme ignores Israel's peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. More importantly, it overlooks the fact that Israel thrives on keeping Syria and Lebanon as antagonists and Iran as a threat. The propaganda device maintains unrestrained American support.

AJC propaganda does more harm than good. Israel needs healthy criticism from Jews in America and around the world.

* Paul J. Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for many years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com.

Related posts:

• James Zogby – How Israel’s Propaganda Machine Works
• Gordon Duff: Freedom Flotilla’s Real Victory, America’s Propaganda Machine Exposed
• You’re talking bollox, Mr Regev – A short primer on Israeli propaganda for media dummies

By Paul J. Balles* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

When Time Magazine carried an article on "Why Israel Doesn't Care about Peace", a whole coterie of American Zionist supporters reacted as if Time had become anti-Semitic.

For any writer to cast the slightest aspersion on Israel's claim to wish for peace is tantamount to alleging that there never was a Sermon on the Mount.

Author of the Time article, Karl Vick, writes, "Asked in a March poll to name the 'most urgent problem' facing Israel, just 8% of Israeli Jews cited the conflict with Palestinians, putting it fifth behind education, crime, national security and poverty."

Referring to the same poll, Vick adds, "Israeli Arabs placed peace first, but among Jews here, the issue that President Obama calls "critical for the world" just doesn't seem - critical."

Time's cover and story on life in Israel prompted more than 1,000 letters, mostly in protest. Several of those letters allege the usual canard that the article is anti-Semitic.

They berated Vick for lacking reliable support for his claim. However, they ignored a journalist with impeccable credentials who writes for the influential daily journal Ha'aretz.

"The good life in Israel is real, while all the rest is somehow blurred, says Ari Shavit who writes a regular column for Ha'aretz."

Here are some of the ludicrous, though typical, comments made by readers:

"So Time Magazine is really sucking up to their Arab bosses. Without those petro dollars, Time would have folded years ago. We Jews have a long memory & will get even in the future."

A typical anti-Arab writer says, "'Never Again' only applies to the Jews. Not the Goy vermin. How much are you getting paid to post here, Arab?"

The type of comment by those who believe that Israel can do no wrong goes like this:

"This story and the cover graphic are worthy of a supermarket tabloid. Time has lowered its standards by using provocative and misleading graphics on its cover, and stooped even further by publishing an article better suited to a blog than a news magazine."

If they find nothing else wrong, they complain about the timing, "This is disgusting! On one of the holiest days of the Jewish calendar Rosh Hashanah, I am greeted by an inexcusable cover story by Time magazine."

One commentator simply said, without support, "What an unfounded article !!!!"

If a publication doesn't say what you want it to say, cancel your subscription. You may have to explain how you happened to read the offending article. This one doesn't:

"Hurrah for all of those who were nauseated by this latest piece of crass and untrue journalism by Time Magazine. I cancelled my subscription long ago and can only recommend that, if you are interested in what is going on in the Middle East, Time is not the place to find out."

Here's the gold-medal winner. "Wow! What's next? An update to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion?"

Calling "the article and its arguments wrong, inappropriate and offensive," Anti-Defamation League Director Abe Foxman repeated the age-old propaganda line about Israel's desire for peace:

"Ignored is the decades-long yearning of Israelis for peace and the tremendous efforts successive Israeli governments have made in pursuit of reconciliation."

Both the Israelis and the American Zionists have been lying and brainwashing others for so long they believe the propaganda themselves.

If there's any sincerity in the minds of those who say that Israel wants peace, they need to stop believing that Israel can do no wrong.

Israel needs to stop being a propaganda machine refusing to accept criticism and failing to indulge in self-criticism.

* Paul J. Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for many years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com.

Related posts:

• Mideast Peace Talk Kabuki
• Obama Backs Netanyahu’s Position on ‘Peace Negotiations’
• Obama speaks at the UN… Goodbye to peace

By Gordon Duff* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Judaic Republic Of Iran?

It is one thing if a spokesman for Bibi Netanyahu's Likudist government had tried this, but it was all the networks and newspapers in America, all carrying the same story, a story, not only inaccurate but an outrageous lie. The story, the translation, was so false, that it should have been a joke were it not being used to try to convince America to attack Iran to "defend" Israel. This is what Ahmadinejad actually said:

"History will erase the Zionism from the sands of time"

Even though misquoted, "Cardboard Lethario" Ahmadinejad isn't hard to pick out, an actor, waiting for cues from his handlers, waiting in the wings, his "Tel Aviv connection." Weak as all these Iranian theatrics may be, they are all Israel has to work with nowadays, that and bottle rockets from Stalag Gaza. Building a holocaust threat out of Israeli mole, Ahmadinejad, isn't even a "cardboard" threat.

Using the same logic, every time someone in Israel washes their clothes, they must call it a "soil and stain holocaust." No, none of it is funny, but not because Jews have been persecuted for centuries but rather because we are learning they have built an industry out of selling their own "victimhood."

Whenever you hear an outrageous attack on Israel or Jews, you can be certain of one thing, it is a "false flag" attack, Jews attacking themselves. With the one of the largest intelligence/terror organizations on earth, 500 times the estimated size of Al Qaeda, and openly operating in over 190 countries worldwide, along with direct control of over 40% of the world's economic resources and hundreds of nuclear weapons, seeming like a victim takes a considerable effort. Think of the kind of "imagineering" required to fool a nation of Jews, half of them Nobel Prize winners, to hide under their beds?

One "self induced" Israeli threat is "holocaust denial."

Managing the holocaust denial movements the same way they dominate the 9/11 Truth movements and the Tea Party, all "field based warfare" tactics, controlling the information age "battlefield," is how Israel plays both sides against the middle. Thus, a candidate now accused of being a "witch" can win a Senate primary for the Tea Party. Her campaign is financed by Zionists but after winning a primary, the same Zionists in their newspapers are the first to turn on her. Why is this? Offer Americans hope for freedom from the two owned and controlled useless political parties. Then smash that hope. Why would anyone hate America that much?

Imagine a 9/11 Truth group that will avoid talking about arrested Israeli agents or the mysterious destruction of building 7 "ordered" by Larry Silverstein but rather chooses to focus on UFOs and useless infighting.

There are more Mossad operatives in "9/11 Truth" than FBI Agents in the 1960s KKK.

Obama "Propaganda Czar" Cass Sunstein, an Israeli -American (if such things can exist) has continually stressed that all "9/11 Truth" groups be seen as "enemies of America." Why do the terms "Israeli-American" and "truth is un-American" used in this context not surprise me?

We wonder why the 140 Israeli's arrested in the US after 9/11 were released almost immediately, many with no questioning at all, and 75% of all Muslims arrested, some detained for many years, have proven to be "mistaken identity." All but a handful of the rest are awaiting release with the government continually filing motions to prevent the public from discovering the abuses tied to their detention and arrest, all without any cause, any evidence or even any reasonable suspicion. Were they Jews, they would have had "extralegal" protections, above and beyond American law.

Does "Holocaustsploitation" help create this environment of lawlessness which may have endangered America?

Israel pushes the focus of holocaust denial into worship of Hitler, not accurate documentation of factual history so that innocent researchers like Ernst Zundel are imprisoned. Historians in Europe, in Canada, face years in prison, not for denying anything but failing to read, word for word, from prepared "talking points" on the holocaust. It is safer putting up a billboard in Saudi Arabia insulting the Prophet (peace be on him) than saying only 5 million Jews died in the holocaust.

In Europe, a teacher can go to jail for misstating a number. Any lawyer that agrees to represent them is automatically imprisoned also. No, I am not kidding, this is law in Europe, law in Canada and it is ruthlessly enforced. Historians studying World War II who stumble upon "banned" or "disapproved" documents face years in prison.

Laws passed to protect Jews from crazed extremists, who like Adam Perlman are Jews themselves, are never enforced against Jews. How many hundreds of times did Americans watch Adam Perlman pretend to be the Al Qaeda spokeman, taking credit for 9/11 and ranting threats, always timed for a news cycle, an Israeli funding bill or the election of a political candidate willing to send American troops to fight Israel's wars of choice.

Perlman got as much publicity as Madonna until the fact he was a phony began to leak out. From that second on, it was as though he had vanished from the face of the earth. We are told that Blackwater teams are looking for him in Karachi, Paksitan. We might suggest some place else where they are more likely to find him.

The last thing Israel wants is people really looking at Gaza, 9/11, financial crimes in the US, the Israel lobby and the lies and massive corruption tied to these and other issues. Running a "circus" through exploiting the weak Sarkozy and Merkel governments of France and Germany, little but client states of Israel, requires almost no effort at all.

In fact, at the same time, Israel orchestrates hate campaigns against, not only the Roma, but Muslims across Europe. In fact, millions are spent every month in what can only be an attempt to organize a holocaust in Europe against Muslims. One has already begun in France against the Roma, once carefully orchestrated in Tel Aviv and put into motion by Nicholas Sarkozy, president of France and an ethnic Jew.

That president Sarkozy's plan to expel the ethnic Roma population of France, all legally residing in that country, in accordance with European Union laws, an illegal act deeply parallel to Israel's expulsion of Palestinians, may only be coincidental. Could Sarkozy's acts be inspired by Tel Aviv?

DID ISRAEL CREATE "HOLOCAUST DENIAL?"

We don't hear much about "historical revisionism" or "holocaust denial" in the United States. Any university, any journalist who would attempt to discuss such things would be crushed immediately and many have. In Europe it was different. The Germans hate the idea of, generation after generation, being blamed for being Nazi butchers. So, when certain aspects of the holocaust began to seem, let us say, "fictional" or "insubstantial," Germans and others jumped on it. Testimony, documentation and scientific evidence supplied by "revisionist" historians began to make a case, one some found compelling, that much of what was reported, seen in films, even testified to at Nuremberg, was simply invented. Thus began a controversy between two warring sides or are they two sides at all. What if one side was on both sides, fighting with itself just to seem like the offended party? It wouldn't be the first time.

No real historian denies the holocaust. 60 million died in World War II, most Russians. Doubting anything happened is insane and doubting that Jews were persecuted by the Nazis is without realistic basis. Additionally, any moralist will has to consider a single death a holocaust, the future of a single child, a disaster.

These are the real issues but "holocaust denial" was never about what was real or what was reasonable. There seemed only one reason for the "movement," to prove that there were enough dangerous and insane Nazi maniacs in Europe, even today, to require suspension of freedom of speech to silence them. Only one candidate for that honor can be found, Nicolas Sarkozy, President of France and, oddly enough, for those who are unaware, Sarkozy is a Jew.

Laws forbidding Holocaust Denialism, as it is called, throughout Europe and even in Canada are an admission that a substantial threat exists in those countries of the people rising up and murdering Jews. If the case for suspension of rights of speech and due process were, however, based on, not a dangerous mass movement but rather a few "false flag" actors working in conjunction with powerful Israeli owned press organizations throughout these nations, then who is the real victim?

However, rather than simply asking questions, it quickly went much further with cartoon character "neo-Nazi" types bragging about death camps or trying to make a hero out of Hitler and his gang of cut throats. There was a sudden explosion of crazy "holocaust denial" types, violent, dirty and evil. In order to protect the minds of impressionable European children, any discussion of the holocaust had to be immediately outlawed.

Problem is, the "crazy" holocaust denialists were Jews, same as with Adam Perlman, the famous American Al Qaeda spokesman whose grandfather ran the Anti-Defamation League.

Would Israel stage attacks on Jews simply to gain support from the United States or special laws protecting Jews in Europe and Canada? We know that Israel organized synagogue burnings in regions of Europe and North Africa in order to convince Jews to emigrate to Israel. This is now admitted and the reasons are explained as "necessary based on need at the time." The motives are there, the evidence is available. If Israel has been involved in organizing Holocaust Denial, much as with the current wave of accusations tying Israel to 9/11 and other terrorist acts, how can this be investigated without breaking laws?

Why the "Catch 22?"

December 2001 Funeral Announcement For Osama Bin Laden (Egyptian News Sources)

We have seen where, by attacking the holocaust, laws giving special privileges to Jews that no other group in the world enjoys were passed, laws that are unconstitutional in each nation that passed them.

The real question is not whether everything said by some happened or if more were killed, perhaps under even more brutal circumstances than films and television depict. The threat against Jews was exclusively European, there were no Arabs, no Muslims involved in any way. Thus, the continual use of the phrase "never again" has to be aimed exclusively at Western Europe where all participants in the holocaust against the Jews originated, all Christians, all white.

No Spielberg movie ever showed a Jew being gassed by a Berber or Persian.

Then the danger Israel is said to be protecting its citizens and the Jews of the world it claims to speak for is a European danger, Britain, France, Netherlands, Norway, Italy, Luxembourg, Austria, Belgium. Poland was under German or German/Russian control. Czech no longer existed nor did Slovakia.

Thus, we are being told that the real threat is a general uprising in Western Europe or perhaps a political movement meant to imprison and murder the Jews of those countries. There could be no other rationale as there is absolutely no evidence of attacks on Jews in any other area of the world.

What facts provide the basis of these beliefs?

THE THEORY OF "TRANSFERENCE"

In psychology, a common symptom of a personality disorder is "transference." This is a "stimulus/response" cycle gone awry, with the subject responding to a stimulus from one party by responding to an unrelated third party.

"Jack hits John so John must hit Jim back. (and bulldoze Mary's house)"

We have just defined the State of Israel.

"Jack kills John's grandmother so John must murder Khalid's granddaughter."

We have just defined the conflict between Jews and Palestinians.

"Jack kills John's grandmother so John must have Uncle Sam go on a rampage of global slaughter. The best part is that Jack's grandson agrees to help, proving how "decent" he is."

Welcome to the War on Terror. Please send in your address so we know where to mail your PhD in "Zionist Studies."

* Gordon Duff is senior editor of Veterans Today.

Related posts:

• Israel: Please, No More Bin Laden Tapes, Nobody Is Buying It!
• Jeff Gates- When Will Israel Attack the U.S. – Again?
• The Hate Mongers Among Us