By Clive Hambidge *

A military conquest

"... We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours ... When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do will be to scurry round like drugged roaches in a bottle." (Rafeal Eitan)

A 'moral articulation' by successive American administrations as to the primary reason for their unilateral support of 0.001% of the world's population, namely Israel, is not standing up to international law or American scrutiny. The perpetuated myth of an Israel surrounded by mortal enemies, battling heroically for its democratic rights against all odds fades as the world of right mindedness recognises in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip the daily abuse and horror for Palestinians under illegal occupation in Israel's 'battlefield' to test new weaponry. That abuse, brought into sharp focus by the U.S Department of State in early 2004, is systematic; perpetrated by Israel in 2011 and paid for by U.S tax payers' dollars in the form of indiscriminate, unwise and illegal aid according to America's own laws. The reason? Unquestioning support for Israel's militarised political continuum, where de jure occupation became de facto annexation, and where, according to Special Rapporteur Falk "the unbridled assault upon Palestinian rights" continues.

If one consciously moves in time backward and forward, that is in American/Israeli time, one finds the same pattern no matter the date. There is no change no progress. It is like watching a film, a play no matter where you cut, what montage you see, what curtain is lifted and what scene you view, it is the same film, the same play, the same day, from the same violent script. It is a continuum of brutal actions designed to oppress Palestinians enough to make them leave their own land. Pick a date at random and one finds the paradox of continuum. Israel is waiting for Godot

"Estragon: All the dead voices.
Vladimir: They make a noise like wings."

Matt Bowles, writing for the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, makes plain the facts: America for decades allowing Israel to place "US aid into its general fund, effectively eliminating any distinction between types of aid. [means] Therefore, U.S. tax-payers are helping to fund an illegal occupation, the expansion of colonial-settlements projects, and gross human rights violations against the Palestinian civilian population." Facts continually denied by Israel, as it ruthlessly pursue 'the doctrine of politics free from law'.

Israel's persistent but illusory claim that its 'international human rights treaty obligations do not apply in the OPT' has been, according to Amnesty International, 'rejected' by the U.N Human Rights Committee, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination Against Women, the Committee Against Torture, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the International Court of Justice', and every conscionable citizen on the planet.

So to February 2004, the U.S Department of State in its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices makes clear the egregious human rights violations and status of Israel in the OPT 2003, "The international community does not recognize Israel's Sovereignty over any part of the occupied territories." All accredited missions are to be found rightfully, and legally, in Tel Aviv. "Israel's overall human rights record in the occupied territories remained poor and worsened in the treatment of foreign human rights activists." These abuses came in a fiscal year 2003 where Israel received from the U.S "a foreign military financing grant of $3.1 billion and a $600 million grant for economic security." (Jewish Voice for Peace - JVP); U.S dollars used in the advancing of Israel's policy of 'continuum' namely the illegal colonisation of Palestinian lands, the tormenting of its people and those that would assist them. Lest we forget, it was in March 2003 that Rachel Corrie, an American citizen performing a fundamental rule of law principle by campaigning for human rights in the OPT, lost her life under the tracks of a caterpillar bulldozer: 'Made in the U.S.A'.

The U.S Department of State found in the bloody year of 2003 that amongst other violations of international law:

• "Israeli soldiers placed civilians in danger by ordering them [Palestinians] to facilitate military operations."
• "Israeli forces sometimes arbitrarily destroyed, damaged, or looted Palestinian property".
• "Israeli security forces often impeded the provision of medical assistance to Palestinian civilians."
• "Israeli security forces harassed and abused Palestinian pedestrians."
• "Israel conducted mass, arbitrary arrests in the West Bank during military operations, summoning and detaining males between the ages of 15 and 45"
• "Israel carried out policies of demolitions, strict curfews, and closures that directly punished innocent civilians ... Israel often demolished homes after suspects had already been killed or arrested."
• Israel "maintained" according to the Department of State "that such punishment of innocents would serve as a deterrent against future terrorist attacks."

These insidious patterns have been sustained by all Israeli administrations and represent a 'continuum': a calculated militaristic policy of intimidation and worse toward the innocent civilians of Palestine. This being so, I must add my concerns to the concerns of the Rachel Corrie Foundation that "the State Departments Country Reports on Human Rights systematically exclude the State Departments own analysis of Israel's failure to perform a credible investigation into the killing of Rachel Corrie," and further concerns that "reports generated by international NGOs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which noted a pattern of negligence in Israeli investigations into civilians killed by the IDF, were ignored in the creation of the Country Reports."

In recognition of the illegality of American Aid to Israel, the Rachel Corrie Foundation in its submission to the U.N Universal Periodic Review called upon the U.S to "enforce 22 U.S.C. 2304 (1994), protocol on Human Rights and Security Assistance, and the "Leahy Amendments" to the Foreign Operations Appropriations and Defence Appropriations Acts (e.g. P.L. 105-118 570), which prohibit the provision of security assistance to countries and military units that engage in a pattern of gross violations of human rights." Where, according to JVP, "Massive military aid promotes militarism, which has led to a reliance on military, rather than diplomatic means to work for a solution to this ongoing conflict.". The planned aim of 'continuum'.

The Continuum

"Zionism is a colonising adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. There is no other ethic" (Jabotinsky)

The U.N Mission Report (UNMR) on the Israeli operation in Gaza between December 27^th 2008 and 18^th January 2009 highlights that all Israel's operations must be viewed not as isolated moments in history where Israel feels threatened and then responds but, operation[s] that decidedly fit "into a continuum of policies aimed at pursuing Israel's political objectives with regard to Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territory as a whole." Reel back, fast forward, press hold, you find 'continuum': "After we become a strong force, as the result of the creation of a State, we shall abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine." (Ben Gurion)

"The continuum is evident most immediately with the policy of blockade that preceded the operations [i.e Cast Lead] and that in the Mission's view amounts to collective punishment intentionally inflicted by the Government of Israel on the people of the Gaza Strip." (UNMR). Further, the Mission found "An analysis of the modalities and impact of the December-January military operations [also] sets them, in the Mission's view, in a continuum with a number of other pre-existing Israel Policies with regard to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The progressive isolation and separation of the Gaza Strip from the West Bank, a policy that began much earlier and which was consolidated in particular with the imposition of tight closures, restrictions on movement and eventually blockade, are among the most apparent." 'The plan that never changed' is the continuum that ever is, until God forbid "There is no more Palestine. Finished . . ." (Moshe Dayan)

Nothing has changed since 2004, nothing has changed since 1948. And nothing has changed in 2011. Pick a date between 1948 and 2011 and one finds systematic abuse, atrocities, and deaths of Palestinian civilians. One might pick Operation 'Defensive Shield' 2002, Operation 'Summer Rains' 2006 or 'Autumn Clouds' November 2006, I have picked December 2008/January 2009 and 'Cast Lead' from Israel's seasonal slaughter. Here's a U.N Report of 2009.

The 2009 Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict concluded, "The Mission found numerous instances of deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian objects (individuals, whole families, houses, mosques) in violation of the fundamental international humanitarian law principle of distinction, resulting in deaths and serious injuries. In these cases the Mission found that the protected status of civilians was not respected and the attacks intentional, in clear violation of customary law reflected in article 51 (2) and 75 of Additional Protocol 1, article 27 of the Four Geneva Convention and articles 6 and 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In some cases the Mission additionally concluded that the attack was also launched with the intention of spreading terror among the civilian population."

In addition, the Mission found all of this was planned meticulously by Israel, "legal opinions and advice were given throughout the planning stages and at certain operational levels during the campaign. There were almost no mistakes according to the Government of Israel. It is in these circumstances that the Mission [concluded] that what occurred in just over three weeks at the end of 2008 and the beginning of 2009 was a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability."

One would remind Israel's planners of Article 7 of the Draft Code of Crimes Against the Peace and Security of Mankind (1996), "The official position of an individual who commits a crime against the peace and security of mankind, even if he acted as head of State or Government, does not relieve him of criminal responsibility or mitigate punishment." And of these compassionate words thundering through the centuries from Caliph Abu Bakr to "the first Moslem Arab Army invading Christian Syria:

Do not commit treachery, nor depart from the right path. You must not mutilate, neither kill a child or aged man or woman. Do not destroy a palm tree, nor burn it with fire and do not cut any fruitful tree." (634 A.D)

After Cast Lead, Adalah, The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, reported that "During and after "Operation Cast lead", human rights organizations asked the Attorney General (AG) to open an investigation based on prima-facie evidence of gross-violations of international law; the AG rejected our request. Previous requests to the Military Advocate General (MAG) to open investigations into numerous other cases were also denied." Adalah further found "petitions filed to the Supreme Court against the MAG and AG's policy of not opening criminal investigations into the killing of Palestinians remain pending years later. It also appears that the Supreme Court's inaction has resulted in a brake on the submission of petitions by human rights organizations."

"Israel cannot build a society based on the principles of democracy, human rights, and compliance with international law while brutally occupying another people and their land. The United States is currently paying for that occupation with its annual aid," (JVP, Statement on Peace, U.S Military Aid and Israel, 2004.) and further, "When Palestinian doctors remove bullets from the bodies of Palestinian children, the bullets are typically stamped. Made in the U.S.A." Nevertheless, and, in remorseless fashion the United States defies international opinion, its own law and international law in providing massive military aid to its client state Israel. America supplies the boots that fit the feet that press on the necks of Palestinians.

Massive military aid for continuum

"The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as war" (Ben Gurion)

The Congressional Research Service Report (CRSR) of 16^th September 2010 U.S Foreign Aid to Israel reported, "Almost all U.S. bilateral aid to Israel is in the form of military assistance." The Bush Administration unsurprisingly sanctioned an increase of 6 billion dollars in U.S military assistance to Israel in August 2007. And the Obama Administration, also unsurprisingly, responded to the Bush Neo Con reverberation by requesting $3 billion U.S in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to Israel for fiscal year of 2011. So, add those figures in your moral mind space to this cumulative 'conservative estimate' given by the U.S organisation 'If Americans Knew' of "total direct aid to Israel [1949 to 2008] of $113. 8554 Billion. Massive by any standards.

Decades of murder and mayhem began with a trade loan in 1949 of $100.000. God only knows when and how it will end. Today the billions of US taxpayers dollars that pour through the 'aid funnel' are used to buy arms and equipment such as caterpillar bulldozers made in the U.S; indeed a stipulation by the U.S is that Israel uses "75% of its military aid from the U.S. It funnels this money to more than 1,000 U.S arms suppliers, which in turn lobby for policies that benefit them at the expense of peace in the Middle East." (JVP).

According to the CRSR, by giving unconditional aid to Israel, America seeks to and "maintains ...[Israel's] qualitative military edge over potential threats, and prevent[s] a shift in the security balance of the region." in fact that aggressive 'military edge' keeps Palestinians locked down in interminable suffering and the region a tinderbox. And make no mistake the 'qualitative military edge' is not for Israel but for The United States of America and its continued hegemonic ambitions through its proxy, Israel.

U.S blood money was/is for "a militarized Israel that will serve the U.S. interest of controlling the Petroleum reserves of the Middle East ... policy debate in elite circles takes for granted, on all sides, the goal of maintaining U.S. control over Middle East petroleum resources and the flow of petrodollars." (Chomsky, Fateful Triangle). If we take a sordid trip down Israel's blood soaked memory lane we find U.S Aid increasing in direct proportion to Israel's military aggression, perceived success therefore usefulness to American interests. Israel's continuum is vital for American control over the oil reserves of the region.

Stephen Zunes, The Strategic Functions of U.S. AID to Israel, shows how U.S Aid shoots up after Israeli military successes and its long term strategic cooperation with America. From the "spectacular victory" in the 1967 war, through the Civil War in Jordan 1970-71 and the countering of 'attacking Arab armies' in 1973, to the "fall of the Shah, election of the right wing Likud, and the ratification of the Camp David Treaty in 1979", through the years 1983-84 "when the United States and Israel signed memoranda of understanding on strategic cooperation and military planning." U.S Aid kept rising 450%, 800%, increasing, sevenfold, quadrupling, as did Israel's aggression. America force feeding Israel with military aid through the 'aid funnel,' whilst Palestinian children can scarcely keep mind, spirit, and body together.

Then came Clinton, Bush, Obama, all maintaining Israel's 'qualitative edge', all maintaining Israel's brutal military occupation. All, letting down the Palestinians' lawful drive for legitimate Statehood. All U.S Aid equated with destruction, acquainted with death. The long suffering Palestinians sold out with 'no objections' from the 'liberal left of America.'

Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Senior, Clinton, Bush "I'm doing it for my daddy" junior, and Obama, all preserving 'Continuity Of Government' (C.O.G.) indeed, all cogs in the all consuming gas guzzling American machine. It will all end in tears and it won't be Palestinian tears, for they have wept too much and for too long for their lost freedom and their lost children.

O Captain My Captain

"Our American friends offer us money, arms, and advice. We take the money, we take the arms, and we decline the advice." (Moshe Dayan)

Questions are being asked of Captain America from unlikely and likely quarters. Walter Pincus of the Washington Post, "The question for the Obama administration, Congress and, in the end perhaps the American public, is given present economic problems, should the United States supply the money to make up for the reductions the Israelis are making in their own defence budget." A financial question of course. A superior question, because a moral one, is if, the American public, who should be asked first, were informed of the extent, nature and illegality of U.S Aid to Israel, would the American public then sanction any military aid to Israel at all?

As Hassan Fouda of Northern California Friends of Sabeel reminds, "Congress is planning deep cuts in social security, unemployment compensation, educational grants and other programs that help vulnerable Americans. Transferring billions of taxpayer's money to Israel now is immoral. Americans need to speak up and be heard.

Valuing Human Rights

Special Rapporteur John Duggard stated, "It is pointless for the Special Rapporteur to recommend to the Government of Israel that it show respect for human rights and international humanitarian law ... in these circumstances, the Special Rapporteur can only appeal to the wider international community to concern itself with the plight of the Palestinian people." (2006). After the end of the Israeli military operation Cast Lead 2008-2009 in Gaza, John Ging the UNRWA Director of Operations recalled a discussion that he had with a teacher in Gaza about 'strengthening human rights education in schools'. One would assume that the teacher had for obvious reasons a sceptical view of such an undertaking. In fact, recounts Ging "the teacher unhesitantly supported the resumption of human rights education." She said, "This is a war of values, and we are not going to lose it."

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

WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE

By Mantiq al-Tayr * | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

1. Unless you live in the United States you are probably aware of a new Gaza Flotilla initiative named "The Audacity of Hope" that is preparing to go from Greece to Gaza to break Israel's illegal and immoral blockade. (Note to Shas Party Members, the name of the ship is a reference to a book supposed to have been written the Israeli Vice-President for American Affairs Barack Obama.)

Well, as it turns out, the US State Department was aware of this initiative and it authored a whole brand spanking new travel advisory warning US citizens not to get on boats going to Gaza. That advisory has gotten considerable attention, but we here at Mantiq al-Tayr want you to know that the advisory that is on the State Department's website is a redaction of the original version. The original version was drafted by a special group of US loyalists in the State Department, remnants of the Zionist-led purge of Arabists dating back to the early 1990′s. They call themselves "Americans" and managed to have one of their members write the draft version of the advisory. We have the original version of that document and reprint below the portion of that original document that deals with the Gaza Strip. The sections subsequently deleted by Zionist agents in the State Department are highlighted in red.

Israel, the West Bank and Gaza

June 22, 2011

The Department of State warns U.S. citizens of the risks of traveling to that shitty little country known as Israel, the West Bank, and the Israeli-encircled and brutalized Gaza Strip, and about threats to themselves and to U.S. interests in those locations. The Israelis murdered Rachel Corrie and you could be next and there is not a fucking thing we in the State Department can do about it. The Department of State urges U.S. citizens to remain mindful of security factors when planning travel to Israel and the Israeli occupied West Bank and to avoid all travel to the Gaza Strip because the insane Israelis may launch another murderous assault on the defenseless people of Gaza at any moment. This replaces the Travel Warning issued August 10, 2010, to update information on the general security environment and to warn against participation in any attempt to reach Gaza by sea because the Israelis, having gotten away with the cold-blooded murder of at least nine people, one of whom was an American citizen named Furkan Dogan, now feel that they can kill anybody they want any time they want. By the way, did we mention that there is not a fucking thing we can do about it? Really, some of us want to, but we'd all lose our jobs and get called anti-semites and most of the people who who used to give a flying fuck about the Arabs here at State have been purged anyway.

The Gaza Strip and Southern Israel

The Department of State strongly urges that U.S. citizens refrain from all travel to the Gaza Strip, an area living under such breathtakingly awful conditions thanks to Israel that even Hitler would have objected. But we digress. We also recommend that all US citizens refrain from traveling to Israel ever again and that they actively participate in the boycott campaign against Israel known as the BDS. This recommendation applies to all U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens should be aware that as a consequence of a longstanding prohibition on travel by U.S. citizen employees of the U.S. Government into the Gaza Strip, the ability of consular staff to offer timely assistance to U.S. citizens there is extremely limited, including the provision of routine consular services. Let us reiterate this last point. Due to an official US policy that prevents US government employees from going to the Gaza strip and witnessing first hand the results of Israel's crimes against humanity there, if you go there and get run over by a bulldozer like Rachel Corrie we might not even be able to do so much as go there to put your remains in a body bag and have you shipped back to the US. Furthermore, we wish to point out to you fuckwads who blindly support Israel, if the Israelis kill you they will blame you and guess what, that fucking government that you pay so much to in taxes and which is getting ready to roll back Medicare and Social Security will SUPPORT the FUCKING Israelis. But again, we digress.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strictly controls the crossing points between Israel and the Gaza Strip as part of a policy to impoverish the population, foster resistance and hence further excuses for the Israelis to bomb the shit out of Gaza. The security environment within Gaza, including its border with Egypt and its seacoast, is dangerous and volatile. U.S. citizens are advised against traveling to Gaza by any means, including via sea. This is not because we don't want tens of thousands of you to come running into Gaza by land or by sea in order break Israel's illegal blockade, but the fact is we know that you all are a bunch of pussies and only a few of you will try and the Israelis will probably kill you. So, to paraphrase the Qur'an, "Our duty is only to inform you." Previous attempts to enter Gaza by sea have been stopped by Israeli naval vessels and resulted in the injury, death (murder), arrest, and deportation of U.S. citizens. U.S. citizens participating in any effort to reach Gaza by sea should understand that they may face arrest, prosecution, and deportation by the Government of Israel. Oh, and death, did we mention death? We meant to. These fuckers will kill you in a New York minute. Then they'll all sit around and sing Havah Nagilah and yell "fuck Obama." Hmm, we kind of want to yell "fuck Obama too, but for different reasons. But we digress. The Government of Israel has announced its intention to seek ten-year travel bans to Israel for anyone participating in an attempt to enter Gaza by sea. On May 31, 2010, nine people supporting human rights for Palestinians were killed by Israeli commandos, including one U.S. citizen, in such an attempt. The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem are not able to provide consular assistance in Gaza or on the high seas or coastal waters because our foreign policy is run by a bunch of wacko murderous soul-less Zionist Jews. Don't believe us? Then go read any post by Mantiq al-Tayr.

From December 27, 2008, through January 17, 2009, Israel conducted a homicidal illegal and internationally condemned military operation in Gaza. Israel and Hamas, a State Department- ("State Department" means "Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs") designated Foreign Terrorist Organization that violently seized power in Gaza in June 2007 after winning easily in elections which the Jews did not like, declared separate truces to end the fighting. Small clashes continue to occur along the boundary of the Gaza Strip. Rockets and mortars are still fired into Israel from Gaza, and Israel continues to conduct military operations inside Gaza, including air strikes and regularly just kills people for the fun of it. Israel has also declared an exclusion zone inside Gaza along its boundary with Israel and has taken lethal measures against individuals who enter it, killing quite a few of them. Nice work it you can get it. The Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza is open, but it does not operate full time, and U.S. citizens are not always able to leave Gaza at a time of their choosing. Oh, neither can Gazans. They pretty much are stuck there being bombed, shot at and blockaded by the Israelis. If you do go to Gaza, you'll get to see just what it's like to be a Palestinian living under Israeli-US oppression. Your tax dollars at work for the Jews. Hahahahaha. But we digress.

In the past, some rockets have traveled more than 40 km (24 miles) from Gaza and landed as far north as Yavne and Gadera and as far east as Beersheva. As a result of possible military operations by the Government of Israel in Gaza which you are paying for and the ever-present risk of rocket and mortar attacks into Israel from Gaza, which rarely do any significant damage, U.S. government personnel travelling in the vicinity of the Gaza Strip boundary, to include the city of Sderot, require approval from the Embassy's Regional Security Office. U.S. citizens in the area should be aware of the risks and should take note of announcements by the Government of Israel's office of Homefront Command. We also recommend that US citizens regularly visit "If Americans Knew" so they can keep abreast of Israel's crimes against the Palestinians.

2. Okay, I know I haven't posted in a while. I'm on the road a lot these days and it's tough to find the time to do the research and then to map out the blog. I'll try to get stuff up at least once every two weeks or so over the summer, but sometimes that just might not be possible. Hold on a second.

A little birdie just told me that I haven't yet posted about Weiner. You know, the guy who is the US congresspussy who is a secret Muslim. Sure, you've heard about that right? Yes, this guy is a secret Muslim and secret Muslims always take photos of their private parts and email them to other people. At least that's what Zionist stooge and provocateur Robert Spencer has to say. Here's a nice piece about Spencer's bullshit on Weiner from the Loonwatch folks.

Now I often work on what I call the Holy Moses principle. That is, if the Zionists are bitching and moaning about something they don't like about Muslims, Christians or anybody else, no matter how ludicrous the charges the Zionists may make, then I conclude "Holy Moses, the Zionists are actually doing this themselves." So I figured that not only was Weiner not a secret Muslim (d'uh) but that his allegedly Muslim wife was either not a Muslim or was herself a Zionist agent, or both. But I didn't have time to do the research.

Well, guess what, according to Texe Marrs, Huma Abedin is a Zionist agent and she never actually married Weiner in the first place. Not only that, but Texe says that the fake "marriage" was staged to cover up Weiner's homosexuality.

I have not had a chance to do the research on this in order to verify. But man I sure do hope it's true. The world is so screwed up that you have to give Texe Marrs the benefit of the doubt and take the position seriously and try to research it. If any readers of this site have supporting evidence either send it to me or post it in the comments.

3. But getting back to the latest Gaza flotilla. Back in early June, Mark Toner at State issued warnings to the human rights activists working on the flotilla.

Toner said, in part:

"We have made clear through the past year that groups and individuals who seek to break Israel's maritime blockade of Gaza are taking irresponsible and provocative actions that entail a risk to their safety. I think I've talked about this specifically."

Toner added, "There are established and efficient mechanisms for getting humanitarian assistance through to Gaza."

Toner was not asked if dropping phosphorus bombs from aircraft flying over Gaza was one of the means for getting humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

Of course it didn't matter as he was just standing in as Israeli government spokesman.

Oh, shit, I can hear you all now. "Mantiq, you said he worked for the State Department, not Israel." Well, there really is no difference.

Oh, and BTW, he is no longer the acting spokesman for (the Jewish) State. He is now the deputy as he was just a stand in for his predecessor who said something naughty and got fired.

And guess who replaced him. And no goys and girls, I am not making this up. Really, I'm not. Really. Toner boy is has been replaced by the wife of the founder of the Project for New American Century and the joke is on you, you poor Zionist-bullshit fed dumb asses.

Yep. The latest person to make implied threats to the "Audacity of Hope" human rights advocates is Victoria Nuland who did so last Friday. And she said, and again, I am not making this up:

Groups that seek to break Israel's maritime blockade of Gaza are taking irresponsible and provocative actions that risk the safety of their passengers. Established and efficient mechanisms exist to transfer humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

Sound fucking familiar? There's a good reason why Toner and Nuland say the same things. Their remarks are written by the Zionists who run State (and the White House and Congress and on and on on.) And Nuland is there because she won't say something out of school the way Crowly did.

And this public servant, and I use that term very loosely, DC's famous 14th street whores are better public servants, is married to Robert Kagan who helped you get into the Iraq war for Israel.

Nuland, herself the daughter of an "agnostic" orthodox Jew, is a former adviser to Dick Darth-Vader Cheney.

Your sons and daughters, dying is all these stupid wars, are just like the Gazans: Zionist-Jewed, blued and tattooed.

Israelis kill Americans and their agents in Washington blame the victims. And you pay for all of it. Sometimes you even pay with your lives or those of your sons and daughters.

4. This is the website for the Gaza flotilla folks. Here is their message to "their" President.

Dear Mr. Obama:

We are writing to inform you that 50 unarmed Americans will soon be sailing in a U.S. flagged ship called The Audacity of Hope as part of an international flotilla to Gaza.

Our peaceful demonstration will challenge Israel's blockade of Gaza, which has effectively imprisoned 1.6 million civilians, almost half of whom are under the age of 16. The blockade has impoverished the people of Gaza, deprived them of needed materials and supplies to rebuild their lives after the Israeli attack of late 2008 – early 2009, impeded those who are ill or infirm from seeking outside medical aid, and prevented students from seeking education outside of Gaza. 45% of the working age population is unemployed.

In addition to 36 passengers, 4 crew, and 10 members of the press, our boat will carry thousands of letters of support and friendship from people throughout the U.S. to the women, children and men of Gaza. There will be no weapons of any sort on board. We will carry no goods of any kind for delivery in Gaza. Our mission is from American civil society to the civil society of Gaza. We do not serve the agenda of any political leadership, government or group. We are engaged solely in non-violent action in support of the Palestinian people and their human rights.

In our country's great tradition of citizen activists taking nonviolent action to stand up to injustice, we sail in the hope that our voyage will show the people in Gaza that they are not alone, and that it will call attention to the morally and legally indefensible collective punishment of a population of civilians.

Mr. President, you have noted the unsustainability of the Gaza blockade. And your administration has spoken boldly in support of peaceful demonstrations throughout this "Arab Spring."

As U.S. citizens we expect our country and its leaders to help ensure the Flotilla's safe passage to Gaza – as our country should support our humanitarian demand that the Gaza blockade be lifted. This should begin by notifying the Israeli government in clear and certain terms that it may not physically interfere with the upcoming Flotilla of which the U.S. boat-The Audacity of Hope - is part. We-authors, builders, firefighters, lawyers, social workers, retirees, Holocaust survivors, former government employees and more-expect no less from our President and your administration.

Our boat will sail from the eastern Mediterranean in the last week of June. We shall be grateful to you for acting promptly and decisively to uphold the rights of civilians to safe passage on the seas.

Sincerely,

The passengers of The Audacity of Hope

Nic Abramson, Hagit Borer, Johnny Barber, Medea Benjamin, Greta Berlin, Regina Carey, Gale Courey Toensing, Debra Ellis, Linda Durham, Hedy Epstein, Steve Fake, Erin DeRamus, Kathy Kelly, Megan Horan, Libor Koznar, Ridgely Fuller, G. Kaleo Larson, Melissa Lane, Kit Kittredge, Richard Levy, Richard Lopez, Ken Mayers, Carol Murry, Ray McGovern, Ann Petter, Gail Miller, Brad Taylor, Henry Norr, Max Suchan, Robert Naiman, Gabe Schivone, Kathy Sheetz, Len Tsou, Alice Walker, Paki Wieland, Ann Wright

cc:

• The Honorable Ban Ki-moon, U.N. Secretary General
• The Honorable Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State
• The Honorable Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary of State
• The Honorable Susan E. Rice, Permanent U.S. Representative to the United Nations
• The Honorable James B. Cunningham, U.S. Ambassador to Israel
• The Honorable John F. Kerry, Chairman U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
• The Honorable Richard G. Lugar, Ranking Member U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee
• The Honorable Robert P. Casey, Chairman Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs
• The Honorable James E. Rish, Ranking Member Subcommittee on Near Eastern and South and Central Asian Affairs
• The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs
• The Honorable Howard L. Berman, Ranking Member U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs
• The Honorable Steve Chabot, Chairman Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia
• The Honorable Gary L. Ackerman, Ranking Member Subcommittee on Middle East and South Asia

5. Somos los que han jurado fidelidad a esta tierra amada

To all of you involved in the "Audacity of Hope" and who support it, I leave here for you "Somos" by the wonderful Palestinian-Barcelonian musician, Nabil Mansour. I've linked to this one before, but it just so fits this situation and it so well done. The song has English subtitles and it's all about what those audacious folks on the Good Ship Audacity (if I may use the term) already know all about. A beautiful song. Take just a few minutes to listen, it'll do you good.

Make sure you have a handkerchief handy.

Video link: http://youtu.be/OwqN7ozFJ2M

* Mantiq al-Tayr is a blogger who is attempting to wake up other American citizens to the true dangers and challenges which face their country and is devoted to justice for the Palestinian people. Truth is his objective, satire is his tool. He also enjoys reading the Qur'an from time to time. See his website.

By Richard Lightbown* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

After he returned from his ordeal on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, Fiachra O'Luain, the second mate on the Challenger I, was asked if he would go again to break the siege of Gaza. He replied "yes ... and again, and again".

Many of the survivors of the flotilla will be on the next one, due to sail for Gaza towards the end of June. Called Stay Human, it will commemorate Vittorio Arrigoni who gave his life (as did 10 activists on the Mavi Marmara: nine dead and one in a coma) for justice and human rights for the Palestinian people.

In the face of Israeli propaganda, parroted by the BBC and other mainstream media, we should hold fast to the truth that these people are prepared to face. All of the survivors of the previous flotilla were maltreated and humiliated. Many of them were beaten, tasered by electric stun guns, attacked with stun grenades and tear gas, deprived of food and water and subjected, by terrorists in the employ of the state of Israel, to treatment described by a United Nations Fact-Finding Mission [.PDF] as tantamount to torture. Many suffered injury from deliberately over-tightened handcuffs. Several had their passports stolen (for use in who-knows-what future outrage by Mossad criminals), all cameras, mobile phones and computers were illegally seized and many lost large sums of money: plundered in individual acts of piracy by members of one of the world's most criminal and immoral armies. All of the victims experienced first-hand the ruthless contempt for human dignity that the Zionist state considers its right.

On the Mavi Marmara, passengers and crew saw friends and comrades killed, wounded or maltreated by thugs with no more respect for human life than Al Capone's gangsters. Some of these same criminals later appeared on the BBc programme "Panorama". Wary of the daylight they lurked in the night shadows of Haifa docks like wharf rats, referred to their victims as "terrorists", and falsely accused them of shooting at commandos who were indulging a blood bath totally outside of any remit granted by international law. (A terrorist, we should remember, is someone who uses violence against civilians for political ends. The commandos defined the term as someone who comes prepared to commit violence, dressed in military clothing with covered faces. Either definition accurately fitted the commandos themselves, who in any event would never be accorded the protection that internationallaw demands for civilians.)

The blood of men who believed in universal human rights dripped down the stairs of the Mavi Marmara that night as war crimes were committed on the orders of Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak under the guise of defending the state of Israel. Knowing all this, in a few days time an even larger flotilla with even more human rights workers on board will sail for Gaza. Binyamin Netanyahu has tried every trick in the diplomatic book to prevent it. We can be sure that Mossad has been hard at work too, trying to sabotage ships bound for the high seas.

Despite well-publicized claims to the contrary, and despite the recent opening of the Rafah Crossing to many civilians, the sadistic Israeli closure remains firmly locked on Gaza. There has been no confirmation that the 4,500 tons of building materials on the last flotilla ever reached Gaza. Desperately needed sewage pipes from the Malaysian ship the Spirit of Rachel Corrie are in an Egyptian warehouse instead of being delivered to Gaza. (Ironically, this would have helped to reduce pollution in the eastern Mediterranean where the tides presumably wash untreated Gazan sewage onto beaches in Israel and Egypt.) Permitted exports from Gaza amount to around two lorry loads a day in place of the 400 per day that Israel agreed to allow in a deal brokered by Condoleezza Rice in 2005. Meanwhile, the scarcely-reported ceasefire of missiles from Gaza, applied after the successful Palestinian unity talks, attracts no concessions from Israel's continuing occupation of the Gaza Strip.

The heroism and sacrifice of this next flotilla will not be in vain. Despite more brazen lies from Mark Regev and biased portrayals of events by the likes of Jane Corbin, Mr Netanyahu's stubborn, blinkered stupidity will further damage Israel's international image while further advancing the Palestinian cause. No Nobel Peace Laureate will be able to disguise the guilt if more Israeli hoods batter more human rights workers. No selectively edited whitewash report, with of without endorsement from professors of international law, will be able to conceal the truth this time from the people of the world. The flotilla is coming, and just as Mickey Mouse's sorcerer's apprentice merely increased the activities of his animated broom when he attacked it with an axe, Mr Netanyahu only risks further opprobrium in the eyes of the world, further censure for his pariah state and further flotillas if he insists in perpetuating the use of violent crime against lawful protest on the high seas.

* Richard Lightbown - studied the impacts of the Rwandan civil war on four Ugandan forests for his Masters dissertation. He has been a volunteer in Gaza and the West Bank, and assisted with a forestry proposal for the Arab areas of the occupied Golan.

Once the ships sail it will be possible to track them here. Any assault is likely to be before dawn on the night before the anticipated arrival in Gaza.

By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

Bad boy Julian Assange, the pretty, blondish founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks was hugely admired when he uncovered oppressors and political chicanery in places like China and Kenya, but now he takes on Western duplicity and crimes. Can't have that. This spawn of Beelzebub, say our masters, a traitor whose insolence is a crime against the secretive states of the US and UK. Disregard the pique and dyspepsia of officialdom. It is a distraction, smoke from fires deliberately started to stop us seeing what lies before us.

The audacious website first released confidential and candid material on the hellish war in Afghanistan and now opens up a new front, more than 400,000 classified US files documenting the previously untold horrors of the Iraq war. Revealed are countless atrocities and the deaths of 66,000 Iraqi civilians at the hands of US and British soldiers and Iraqi personnel who had joined the allies. Men were burnt, some had parts removed, others were killed slowly; women were shot, children too, killed before they grew. Anything goes, it seems, during a military conflict and no questions are asked. As an Israeli army trainer said, when asked about the death of Rachel Corrie, the young, pro-Palestinian activist mown down by an Israeli tank: "During war there are no civilians".

The authorities in Iraq did not investigate reports of abuse and killings. An Iraqi friend tells me the rape of girls, women, boys and men was widespread, a tool used both to intimidate and punish. Apparently, there are images from Abu Ghraib prison of these sadistic "punishments"; they were never released because of the feelings they could arouse in Muslim countries. So morally deformed are these men of war that they care more about inconvenient outrage than they do about crimes against the people they supposedly went to save. They should have heeded the words of Martin Van Creveld, an erudite Israeli war historian who compared the disastrous American Vietnam War with the Iraq adventure:

"He who fights the weak – and the rag-tag Iraqi militias are very weak indeed – and loses, loses. He who fights against the weak and wins, also loses. To kill an opponent who is much weaker than yourself is unnecessary and therefore cruel."

By this reasoning, to fight the weak who are not in any sense your enemy is extreme brutishness and totally self-defeating.

Key figures in the British Army and Government must have been privy to this information. They held their tongues and presumably sidestepped any ethical niggles. The Americans were in command and you don't get to lick the arse of the world's only superpower and then turn round and kick it. That, you understand, is the pact, the unbreakable deal behind our special relationship.

Manfred Novak, the UN special rapporteur on torture, says Obama's administration must investigate and come clean – after all, this President vowed to change the image and behaviour of the US which, for too long, has co-operated with tyrants and violated human rights across the world, including in Guantanamo Bay, which is still open and where captured, lost boys became broken men.

Fewer and fewer global citizens now believe the rapturous anthems and sombre panegyrics of God's own America. After this week, the number will have tumbled further, which, in some ways, is a pity. There is much to praise about the US, its history of perpetual resistance to unacceptable state power, its energy, creativity, business, intellectual and cultural buzz. When such a great nation does great wrong, its mirror is shattered and even if the shards are stuck back together again, the cracks will always remain. And when the custodian of the free world behaves so appallingly, how do we liberal Muslims promote democratic values across the Muslim world?

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (sounding like a clone of Condi Rice) slammed the Wikileaks exposé and warned that lives of US civilians and forces and their allies were now in serious danger. At one level, I fear she is right. The internet traffic over the past two days has been so fast, furious and volatile, it could indeed fuel terrorism, recruitment into jihadi cells, even more violence in unstable Iraq, suicide bombers in Afghanistan and ugly attitudes towards the West, home to millions of Muslims. But keeping the stories hidden was always wrong. Innocent Iraqi people should never have been made to suffer by the allies and even the guilty should have faced due process to prove commitment to justice and decent values. When there was evidence of liberators behaving monstrously, action should have been taken and in the public eye. Clinton must know this, as a lawyer. It is a primary principle of her profession.

I wonder if some staunch supporters of the Iraq war will now think again about the purpose and execution of that illegal and vainglorious expedition. The sanctions and war killed, maimed and destroyed more civilians than Saddam did, even during the most diabolical periods of his rule. Blair, Bush and their armies have never had to face proper, international judicial interrogations. Now imagine good Muslims worldwide, who know all about universal rights, but can see that there is no universal accountability, that Third World despots are made to pay while others earn millions writing autobiographies and lecturing the world on good leadership and governance. Hundreds of savvy, smart, keenly aware young people email me from various Muslim states asking: "What's the point? They say one thing and do the opposite. They say they want to help us and kill our people. Why should we trust the British and Americans?"

What do our army commanders and American leaders advise me to tell these disenchanted Muslims? And Mr Blair, I wonder if he has some wise thoughts? He is, they tell me, still one of the greatest prime ministers this country has had. And his wife, the hot human rights lawyer, does she think these abuses her husband just might have known about should be investigated? No answers will be forthcoming. Those who took us into this war are not obliged to explain themselves, not liable. In that they are worse than the dictator they toppled. Not comfortable that thought, but true.

(The Independent)

By Dr. Elias Akleh* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

One more time, within less than one week, and despite all the international condemnations and mass protests all over the entire globe, Israelis had, with their snobby noses and raised middle fingers towards the world, broke the international laws in a flagrant provoking challenge to the international humanitarian collective consciousness by attacking the humanitarian aid ship "Rachel Corrie", stole the ship's humanitarian contents, and dragged the ship and its humanitarian activist to Israel in an act of kidnapping piracy.

The ship "Rachel Corrie" was named in honor of an American young humanitarian activist woman, who was deliberately crushed and murdered by an Israeli army operated Caterpillar bulldozer, while attempting, with other activists like her, to nonviolently protect a Palestinian home in Gaza Strip from demolition. Such illegal and inhumane home demolition is a routine activity of the Israeli Terrorist Army in Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The whole world has condemned Israel's piracy and the blockade against Gaza that puts 1.5 million Palestinians in the biggest concentration camp ever in the history of mankind. Even in Israel itself, an estimated 15,000 Israeli citizens held, on June 6^th, a demonstration in Tel Aviv to protest the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories since 1967 and the attack on the Freedom Flotilla. The protest was organized by coalition that includes Meretz, Peace Now, Gush Shalom, Hadash, Physicians for Human Rights, and other organizations.

Navi Pillay, the UN Human Rights Chief described the blockade as "illegal and must be lifted", and accused Israel of violating international humanitarian law that prohibits starvation of civilians as a method of warfare, and prohibits the imposing of collective punishment on civilian population.

The head of UNRWA operation in Gaza, John King, had called upon the UN itself to begin defying the blockade and deliver humanitarian assistance since the blockade is a flagrant direct violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention that prohibits collective punishment.

Article 33 came as a response to WWII Nazi's execution of Belgian villagers in mass retribution for resistance activity, and for carrying out a form of collective punishment to suppress resistance, where entire villages, towns, and districts were held responsible for any resistance activity taking place in the area. Israelis are following Nazi's example in their blockade of Gaza to suppress Palestinian's resistance of Israeli occupation of Palestine. The Article equates collective punishment with terrorism and war crimes. It states that:

• No protected person may be punished for an offense he or she has not personally committed.
• Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited.
• Reprisals against protected persons and their property are prohibited.
• Under the 1949 Geneva Conventions collective punishments are a war crime.

Israel had also violated Article 3 of the Rome Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Maritime Navigation of 1988 stating that it is an international crime for any person to seize or exercise control over a ship by force, and also a crime to injure or kill any person in the process. This is the Article that legalizes sending international law-enforcing ships to fight Somali piracy in the Indian Ocean. Israeli piracy should be fought the same way.

Israel is the mad dog Zionism had released in the Middle East to terrorize its nations. For the last 62 years this dog had savagely bitten all its neighbors, and its mad barking is threatening the rest of the countries in the region. Enforcing its expanding cancerous existence into the heart of the Arab World Israel is using lethal force against every Middle Eastern country under the false justification of self defense. Israeli society thrives on violence. The Israeli commando (terrorist), who murdered six of the unarmed humanitarian activists, is being considered for a medal of valor. Elated by their piracy many Israelis rallied outside the Turkish embassy in Tel Aviv condemning Turkish stand concerning the flotilla attack. They hurled stones and smoke grenades at the building, burnt Turkish flags, and slammed Turkish Prime Minister, Erdogan, as Fascist and Nazi. Other extremist Israelis attacked Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabia TV news teams while broadcasting from Ashdod. These are the values that Israeli government is trying to instill in the hearts of their children since elementary schools.

War after war Israel has been escalating its savagery through the use of the latest more lethal American weapons although Israel had violated all the American arms export laws. Through Zionist control over American Congress the US had provided Israel with blind unconditional continuous financial, political, and military support that encouraged Israeli leaders to disregard international laws, violate UN resolutions, and commit crimes against humanity as well as war crimes against almost every country including even the US itself.

During Israel's 1967 aggression war against all its neighbors the Israeli air and navy forces had also deliberately attacked the American USS Liberty ship off the Egyptian coast killing 34 American servicemen and injuring 170 others in an attempt to frame Egypt and to get the US to bomb Cairo. Luckily the ship was able to communicate with other American navy ships and the American fighters sent to nuke Cairo were called back. Despite this attack the Zionized American administration swept the Israeli attack under the carpet. (watch BBC documentary "Dead In The Water" about this attack).

Arrogance had led the Israeli leaders to commit the crime of piracy against the international humanitarian activists in the Freedom Flotilla. Although condemned internationally in the emergency session of the UN Security Council the US had refrained from condemning this Israeli piracy, and requested a full investigation by independent and impartial investigators including Israeli authority. Clinton stated: "We support, in the strongest terms, the Security Council's call for a prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation. We support an Israeli investigation that meets those criteria"

Such an investigation is a diversion away from the Israeli crime since it is obvious that Israeli commandos had attacked the flotilla in the international waters. Besides it is ludicrous to ask the criminal to investigate his crime impartially. No criminal would incriminate himself, and Israelis had always exonerated their criminal soldiers in all previous investigations they conducted.

Fearing of being incriminated by an international investigation, similar to Goldstone's, phobic Israeli leaders, accusing the whole world to be hypocritical, had rejected any international investigation. Knowing that the US would be a biased-toward-Israel investigator, Israelis claimed that they will conduct their own internal investigation with the cooperation of the US.

Tzipi Livni, leader of largest Israeli party Kadima, stated: "We must carry out an internal investigation which will leave the rest of the world outside the gates ... the world is certainly hypocritical ... today the government has a mission: to leave the world outside the gates, and the IDF outside international investigation ... the aim is to set up -with the US- an internal investigation committee that will leave the international investigation outside."

Reflecting the Congress defense of Israeli piracy, Vice President, Joe Biden, in an interview with Charlie Rose, justified Israel's blockade against Gaza and its piracy against the flotilla with the claim that since Israel is at war with Hamas it has the right to know whether the flotilla is smuggling weapons into Gaza. It is a known fact that the contents of the flotilla had been inspected several times by independent humanitarian organizations and customs officials several times. Using Biden's same twisted logic does Hamas, if having the naval power, have the right to intercept and kidnap American ships delivering weapons to Israel since it is at war with Israel?

Obama's bias towards Israel was clear when he claimed that Israelis have legitimate concern about their security but had totally ignored Palestinians' legitimate concern about their own security. He claimed that while visiting the Israeli town of Sderot (built on Palestinian usurped land) he saw the holes caused by Hamas' rockets in Israeli homes. Yet he had never gone to Gaza to see the hundreds of homes completely destroyed by Israeli air raids, or the destruction of all Gaza's infrastructure caused by Israeli bombardment, or the hundreds of graves for Palestinian children murdered by Israeli snipers.

Obama is trying to help Israel transform their international defeat and piracy into some kind of victory by manipulating the mechanism of the blockade against Gaza. He claimed that the "current situation" (Israeli illegal blockade of Gaza) is unsustainable, and that his administration is working with the Palestinian Authority, with Israel and with other international partners to develop new procedures for delivering more goods and assistance to Gaza. His intentions are not ending the criminal blockade, but to concoct a "more acceptable method" of delivering more goods to Gaza to alleviate what he alludes to as a humanitarian crises rather than a military occupation. Israel has hinted to such an acceptable method that includes the delivery of all humanitarian aid to the Israeli port of Ashdod to be inspected by international observers before delivery to Gaza.

Palestinians and the international community don't want just to deliver more goods to Gaza, or just to break the blockade, but also to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Arab peace initiative of 2003 gives Israelis 80% of historic Palestine and guarantees their security and a complete normalization providing Israel withdraws back to 1967 border and recognize a Palestinian state. Yet Israelis reject this peace initiative since it contains Israel within defined borders, thus defeating the Zionist expansionist scheme in the region.

Israel has demonstrated, since its founding, its willingness to violate international laws, disregard humanitarian dignity, use depleted uranium and phosphorous bombs and other weapons in acts of colonizing wars, genocide, terrorism, assassinations, and piracy, to murder civilians and oppress all kinds of internationally accepted resistance of its colonization. Israeli leaders routinely threaten to nuke countries in the region such as Lebanon, Iran and Syria. Confirmed nuclear power, without any monitoring of IAEA or signing the NPT, Israel had sent three of its German-built submarines equipped with 15,00km range nuclear missiles to station off the coast of no-nuclear Iran.

How could the world trust this mad Israeli dog with nuclear weapons threatening nuclear war in the Middle East that would, certainly, touch every country in the world in one way or another?

* Dr. Elias Akleh is an Arab writer from a Palestinian descent born in the town of Beit Jala. His family was first evicted from Haifa after the "Nakba" of 1948, then from Beit Jala after the "Nakseh" of 1967. He lives now in the US, and publishes his articles on the web in both English and Arabic.

(Off the Gaza coast, 5 JUNE) - Just before 9am this morning, the Israeli military forcibly siezed the Irish-owned humanitarian relief ship, the MV Rachel Corrie, from delivering over 1000 tons of medical and construction supplies to besieged Gaza. For the second time in less then a week, Israeli naval commandos stormed an unarmed aid ship, brutally taking its passengers hostage and towing the ship toward Ashdod port in Southern Israel. It is not yet known whether any of the Rachel Corrie's passengers were killed or injured during the attack, but they are believed to be unharmed.

The Corrie carried 11 passengers and 9 crew from 5 different countires, mostly Ireland and Malaysia. The passengers included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, Parit Member of the Malaysian Parliament Mohd Nizar Zakaria, and former UN Assistant Secretary General, Denis Halliday. Nine international human rights workers were killed on Monday when Israeli commandos violently stormed the Turkish aid ship, Mavi Marmara and five other unarmed boats taking supplies to Gaza. Prior to being taken hostage by Israeli forces, Derek Graham, an Irish coordinator with the Free Gaza Movement, stated that: "Despite what happened on the Mavi Marmara earlier this week, we are not afraid.

The 1200-ton cargo ship was purchased through a special fund set up by former Malaysian Prime Minister and Perdana Global Peace Organisation (PGPO) chairman Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. The ship was named after an American human rights worker, killed in 2003 when she was crushed by an Israeli military bulldozer in the Gaza Strip. Its cargo included hundreds of tons of medical equipment and cement, as well as paper from the people of Norway, donated to UN-run schools in Gaza.

According to Denis Halliday: "We are the only Gaza-bound aid ship left out here. We're determined to deliver our cargo." The Rachel Corrie had been part of the Freedom Flotilla, a 40-nation effort to break through Israel's illegal blockade, before being forced to drop off late last week due to suspicious mechanical problems.

The attack on the Rachel Corrie may spell trouble for Israel's relationship with Ireland. The Irish government had formally requested Israel allow the ship to reach Gaza. On 1 June, the Irish parliament also passed an all-party motion condemning Israel's use of military force against civilian aid ships, and demanding "an end to the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza."

Nobel Laureate Mairead Maguire summed up the hopes of this joint Irish-Malaysian effort to overcome Israel's cruel blockade by saying: "We are inspired by the people of Gaza whose courage, love and joy in welcoming us, even in the midst of such suffering gives us all hope. They represent the very best of humanity, and we are all privileged to be given the opportunity to support them in their nonviolent struggle for human dignity, and freedom. This trip will again highlight Israel's criminal blockade and illegal occupation. In a demonstration of the power of global citizen action, we hope to awaken the conscience of all."

Passengers aboard the Rachel Corrie include:
Ahmed Faizal bin Azumu, human rights worker, Malaysia
Matthias Chang, attorney, author & human rights worker, Malaysia
Derek Graham, Free Gaza Ireland
Jenny Graham, Free Gaza Ireland
Denis Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary General, Ireland
Mohd Jufri Bin Mohd Judin, journalist, Malaysia
Shamsul Akmar Musa Kamal, PGPO representative, Malaysia
Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ireland
Abdul Halim Bin Mohamed, journalist, Malaysia
Fiona Thompson, film-maker, Ireland
The Hon. Mohd Nizar Zakaria, Parit Member of Parliament, Malaysia

For More Information, please contact:
Free Gaza Cyprus: Greta Berlin or Mary Hughes
tel: +357 99 187275 or +357 96 383 809,

Free Gaza Ireland: Niamh Moloughney
tel: +353 (0)85 7747257 or +353 (0)91 472279,

Perdana Global Peace Organisation, Malaysia: Ram Karthigasu
tel: +60 1222 70159,

By Dr. Alan Sabrosky* | Sabbah Report | www.sabbah.biz

So the predictable dynamics are unfolding. Anywhere the US does not have a veto, Israel is being condemned for its latest atrocities and for its illegal blockade on Gaza. Israel as usual has its puppets in the US Congress and the US mainstream media coming to its defense. And Israel has rejected demands from the UN, plus all of the major powers (except, of course, the US) to lift the blockade and stand aside.

But this crisis does not seem to be going away. An awful lot of people are still mad, and more are becoming enraged as the days pass. Fraudulent videos from Israel may be treated as fact in the US media, but as far as I can tell, nowhere else. Israel stilll depends on the US to stop anything tangible from happening to it. The US government still depends on its weight to make that happen.

And Turkey, quite obviously, does not give a damn. I tell you, I wish I were younger and could immigrate to Turkey, it would be SO good to have a leader who did not check his every bowel movement with the domestic lobby of a foreign country. Perhaps Erdogan could ship Obama some left-handed suppositories? They might help him get through the day.

The practical matter is what to do in the next few days. The MV Rachel Corrie is coming into Israel's target zone soon, and at least one of the other sidelined vessels -- perhaps with an American flag? -- may be accompanying it. In fact, the organizers of the flotilla should do all in their power to ensure that the Irish-flagged ship is in tandem with a US-flagged ship as they head into the Israeli blockade.

The Israelis will undoubtedly intercept them, as they have said they would. They have no choice. Like thugs defending their ill-gotten gains, they have to do that, because once their illegal blockade is penetrated, it is gone for good. They are truly caught on a dilemma of their own making: if they let any ships through, the blockade ends, and if they attack another, the ability of the US to protect them from sanctions or worse becomes increasingly problematical.

A sensible state with sensible leaders would recognize the absurdity of persisting in a course of action that is tactically dubious and strategically self-destructive. But Israel is not a sensible country, and its leaders today are not at all rational -- indeed, not only Netanyahu and Lieberman, but their predecessors and cohorts such as Barak would be prime candidates for an institution for the criminally insane. Not, perhaps, in a clinical sense, as being deranged -- "just" monomaniacs and fanatics, and therefore doubly dangerous.

So my suggestion. Let the organizers of the flotilla wait until a Turkish-flagged ship can join the Rachel Corrie, and a US-flagged ship as well. If Erdogan is true to his word -- and unlike American politicians, I believe he will be -- there'll be at least one Turkish warship with them. Give the Israelis the choice of attacking a US-flagged ship among others, or letting all of them through.

Try hard to get another warship from anywhere, and at the very least, have the people on the US-flagged ship be in telephonic contact with the US 6th Fleet as they approach the point of Israeli interception. Forty-odd years ago, a US fleet stood aside at the orders of then-President Johnson as Israelis attacked a US Navy ship and killed or wounded over 200 US sailors and Marines.

Not even Obama can be sure the US Navy will stand aside again and let that happen to another US-flagged ship, especially an unarmed vessel carrying civilians and humanitarian aid. Unlike politicians -- and many admirals and generals -- most of the US Navy and Marine Corps have never been for sale. It would give the Israelis a much-needed and long-overdue lesson.

* Alan Sabrosky (Ph.D, University of Michigan) is a ten-year US Marine Corps veteran and a graduate of the US Army War College. He can be contacted at docbrosk@comcast.net

Ben Heine © Cartoons

Can you think of a better way to honour the memory of Rachel Corrie? I'm not talking about writing a check.... I'm talkng about going to Gaza as a part of a team that will rebuild the hundreds of homes destroyed during the Israeli blitzkrieg. I'm talking about honouring the blessed memory of Rachel Corrie who was murdered on March 16, 2003 by the same monsters that destroyed those homes. I am proposing an ‘army' of volunteers to contact the International Solidarity Committee to see what you can do....

Let's call it the Rachel Corrie Solidarity Brigade. What better way is there to spend your winter breaks?

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Via: DesertPeace

The selfless teacher of Moral-Activism

Re-Remembering Rachel Corrie (1979 - 2003) as the selfless teacher of Moral-Activism.

On this 5th anniversary of Rachel's supreme self-sacrifice to stand up to tyranny on behalf of the beleaguered Palestinian people, it is à propos remembering this forgottened American victim of Jews-on-Jews violence with these pitiless 1943 words of Yitzhak Shamir the import of which, among other atrocities upon its indigenous peoples, deliberately harvested the cataclysm of the holocaust and European anti-semitism to lead to the construction of 'Eretz Yisrael' in Palestine:

"Neither Jewish morality nor Jewish tradition can be used to disallow terror as a means of war, ... We are very far from any moral hesitations when concerned with the national struggle".

Lest those living in the void of modernity and 'united we stand' with the inexplicable 'war on terror' which has been deliberately divorced from its historical and imperial contexts think such terror doctrines were an aberration due to the tumultuous founding of 'Der Judenstaadt' in the aftermath of the holocaust in the otherwise vastly moral and lofty traditions of Zionism, it is also pertinent to remember Rachel Corrie in the context of these remorseless 1939 confessional words of Israel's first Statesman uttered before the word 'holocaust' even existed:

"[In Internal discussions post 1936-1939 revolt of the Palestinian Arabs, David Ben-Gurion noted] let us not ignore the truth among ourselves ... politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves ... The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country, while we are still outside. [Their revolt] is an active resistance by the Palestinians to what they regard as a usurpation of their homeland by the Jews. Behind the terrorism [i.e. the Palestinian Arab revolt] is a movement, which though primitive is not devoid of idealism and self-sacrifice."

And lest one may think that this self-righteous 'ubermensch' attitude of 'god's chosen peoples' feeling entitled to forcibly occupy another's lands only existed pre-founding of 'Der Judenstaadt', and that the modern democratic Zionist state of Israel represents the moral inheritance of Moses, the Ten Commandments, and Judaism, rather than the terrorist apartheid pariah state that it still is today no different from its original conception, it is further instructive to remember Rachel Corrie by contextualizing her killing at the hands of the IDF as she defended a Palestinian family's home in the chauvinist 1983 words of the distinguished cockroach peddler and Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, Raphael Eitan:

"We declare openly that the Arabs have no right to settle on even one centimetre of Eretz Israel... Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours."

and

"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to do about it will be to scurry around like drugged cockroaches in a bottle."

Not to stop there, Israel, in its pursuit of the systematic terror doctrine for incremental conquest of 'Eretz Yisrael' that is openly admitted to by generations of its Zionist leaders to be "very far from any moral hesitations when concerned with the national struggle", today threatens the largely futile "active resistance ... which though primitive is not devoid of idealism and self-sacrifice" by its indigenous peoples sixty years down with an even "bigger holocaust", as unabashedly expressed by Israel's present Defense Minister Matan Vilnai:

"The more Qassam (rocket) fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they (the Palestinians) will bring upon themselves a bigger holocaust because we will use all our might to defend ourselves".

This is the atrocious backdrop of the daily living hell created by the 'chosen people of god' for the Palestinians still alive in the unholy land of oppression that Rachel Corrie had gone to stop - as she wrote in her last desperate emails to her mother in America from Rafah, Palestine:

"Just want to write to my Mom and tell her that I'm witnessing this chronic, insidious genocide and I'm really scared, and questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of human nature. This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop. I don't think it's an extremist thing to do anymore. I still really want to dance around to Pat Benatar and have boyfriends and make comics for my coworkers. But I also want this to stop. Disbelief and horror is what I feel. Disappointed. I am disappointed that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it."

What a 'wonderfully' engineered modernity of the 'hectoring hegemons' - "the base reality of our world" - as the most powerful and sole-superpower sugar-daddy of the Zionist pariah state itself now descends into a fascist police state to carry-on its own devilishly crafted "imperial mobilization" in order to "birth-pang [the] New Middle East" for its convoluted clients-masters.

What is common in the modus operandi between Israel incrementally and systematically expanding its conquest of 'Eretz Yisrael' "waging wars by way of deception" in the name of fighting the terrorism of the recalcitrant Palestinians who refuse to obey the 1948 goyem's law propounded by Ben-Gurion of "the old will die and the young will forget", and the "imperial mobilization" for "full spectrum dominance" by the world's sole superpower in the name of fighting a synthetic 'World War IV' against a "Bin-Laden" clan sitting barefoot and cross-legged in the caves of the Hindu-Kush armed to the teeth with laptops, airplane flying manuals, and Pakistani 'loose nukes'?

They both need what the first Statesman-founder of 'Eretz Yisrael' had so diabolically summed up as the quintessential Machiavellian method of inducing "birth-pangs" in order to raise new phoenix from deliberate ashes:

"what is inconceivable in normal times is possible in revolutionary times".

Thus "birth pang[ing] the new middle East" as noted by the erstwhile American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the "Global Zone of Percolating Violence" as chalked out in a map by former American National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski in 'the Grand Chessboard', and the conquest of 'Eretz Yisrael' as contemplated by its generations of Zionist leaders and thinkers, not only happen to all coincide and share common exponents and tactics today, but also share the common underlying diabolical strategy observed by David Ben-Gurion above. "Imperial mobilizations" today require "revolutionary times" as much as fish require water - for without the pretexts of endless wars against suitably demonized and threatening enemies, none of these conquests at the expense of 'dispensable' peoples living in its paths would ever be possible.

And the indomitable courage of one 23 year old American girl, lovingly named Rachel Corrie by her parents, bearing witness to the continual construction of such "revolutionary times" in the land of Canaan with her own precious life, surely brings back some semblance of humanity into the otherwise misleading classification of 'human beings' as hominids, which today, has unfortunately become indistinguishable from 'ubermensch' baboons in suits and ties (with profound apologies to the real ordinary baboons) and from the mindless zombies among the rest of the multitudes apathetically oblivious of the genocide as they shop till they drop.

In the Western homelands among its "populist democracy", it remains true that "Deception is the state of the mind; and the mind of the state" and a prerequisite for "imperial mobilization" when its ordinary peoples - the plebeians - are no longer imbued with the uber spirit of 'la mission civilisatrice'. But for the 'unworthy' victims of imperial mobilization, the bullets to the head of their children and their bulldozed homes leave little need for deception and 'the endless trail of red herrings' that is continually spun to the populist democracies to get them to accept the atrocities of conquest in the name of "defend[ing] ourselves" against terrorism.

So when the enemy can naturally exist, as the Palestinians do, and whose indigenous lands and possessions are being systematically usurped and destroyed in the name of 'self-defense' by the transplanted Zionists, that actually helps automatically create the requisite "revolutionary times" needed to construct 'Eretz Yisrael' due to the natural act of real but still "primitive" and altogether futile self-defense put up by the indigenous peoples against an overwhelmingly superior foe that is fully backed, militarily, economically, and politically, by the world's sole superpower. Wonderful stuff from the point of view of the Zionist leaders, despite some empty chairs on Shabbath in Tel Aviv - no differently from how some civilians were surely lost by the Anglo-Saxon 'White Man' to the scalp-hunting 'terrorist' Red Indians while settling their indigenous continent at the expense of remorselessly exterminating up to 10 million of them.

But what happens when the enemy does not naturally exist? It is fabricated into existence as a bootstrap, and greatly facilitated into becoming an 'enemy' to fight against in order to create the requisite "revolutionary times". That is the entire underlying empirical underpinnings behind America's 'war on terror' since its 'new Pearl Harbor'. For without '911' and the "sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of well being", as Zbigniew Brzezinski had astutely observed:

"It is also a fact that America is too democratic at home to be autocratic abroad. This limits the use of America's power, especially its capacity for military intimidation. Never before has a populist democracy attained international supremacy. But the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is defense spending), and the human sacrifice (casualties even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization."

In either situation, whether the enemy is real or fabricated, since "revolutionary times" are what is being deliberately synthesized, the populist democracies must be diligently kept misinformed, uninformed, and continually disinformed by playing up the threat of the real or fabricated enemy (as the case may be), and suitably demonizing the "evil doers" while eulogizing their handful of 'worthy' victims, so that the populist democracies might acquiesce to the enemies' extermination with extreme prejudice. This extreme projection of barbaric power with overwhelming "shock and awe" upon civilian populations and anemically armed foes unable to realistically challenge the world's armed to the teeth colossus, constructs the controlled chaos, the random terror bombings, the F-16 retaliations and counter suicide strikes, the check-points and starvation, sanctions and deprivation, and eventual shattering of tabula rasa of the innocent with concomitant lust for revenge and hence more self-sustaining natural enemies - the "revolutionary times" - and thusly, new settlements and new military bases go up along with a healthy rise in defense spending and acquisition of new death-toys. New countries are primed for attack with chauvinist doctrines of 'preemptive self-defense' against fictitious threats and contrived pretexts to construct more "revolutionary times".

Thus empire-building is effectively enabled contrary to the "democratic instincts" under "normal times", and proceeds at full pace in the exercise of its unfettered "capacity for military intimidation", easily dragging the otherwise vociferous recalcitrants into the wake of its turbulent vortex due to the raw shock-effect of the "revolutionary times". Does this sound at all familiar to the thoughtful reader?

Consequently, as those given to a modicum of reflection can trivially predict for the fate of the 'enemy', we empirically witness a systematic effort to both malign Islam as the fabricated enemy to wage a lifetime of "World War IV" against using the inevitable mantra of 'Clash of Civilizations', and an alive Palestinian as the quintessential stone throwing, suicide bombing terrorist to defend Israel against.

Indeed, Daniel Pipes does great work on both counts when he delectably asserts almost a century later "[It is] Not a Clash of Civilizations, It's a Clash between the Civilized World and Barbarians", in remarkable sympathy with similar projections by the founder of 'Der Judenstaadt' himself as he sold the concept of creating Zionistan in Palestine to the imperialists of his time "We can be the vanguard of culture against barbarianism".

And since Rachel Corrie's courageous stand against the American made D9 Caterpillar armored bulldozer under whose tread she lost her life was to defend the 'unworthy' "barbarians" - attempting to prevent a Palestinian home from being demolished by the IDF under the Israeli pretext that these homes in Gaza were being used to take pot-shots at the occupying Israeli army and thus had to be eliminated as a security risk - she must be willfully ignored by the mainstream newsmedia as any other 'unworthy' victim in the path of any "vanguard of culture". Thus we can now immediately begin to grasp the similarities in news coverage of the decimation of indigenous and 'unworthy' victims in both Israel's war on terror in Palestine and Lebanon, and America's war on terror in the entire world, but especially in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the Pentagon openly admitting that they do not keep track of its victims.

And if it's not possible to entirely ignore the grotesque death of Rachel Corrie because of alternate newsmedia and the rapidly spreading Internet access in American homes, not to mention the popular readings of her letters in theatrical productions that are forcibly canceled in America and her eulogies written to music and spread through word of mouth on the Internet, then at least, due to its potential of making Rachel Corrie a popular name and a headache for Israel and for its sponsors, systematically belittle and discredit her as a misadventurous kook.

Heaven forbid that the zombie "populist democracy" ever wakes up to "the base reality of our world" and begins to ask rational and forensic questions as to why a sweet innocent college girl of 23 from small-town USA was in Palestine in the first place.

And worse, if the people begin to ask their politicians at election time why military and economic aid is being freely doled out to an armed to the teeth occupying power that is destroying indigenous civilian infrastructures, homes, orchards, farms, water wells, shooting children in the eyes and head, confiscating the indigenous lands and water supplies, building their own European settlements in place of destroyed indigenous properties, constructing giant 14 feet tall concrete walls to close-in the indigenous peoples into what in any other place and under any other jack-boots would aptly be described as giant open-air prison camps, concentration camps, and bantustans, in contravention to the occupier's responsibility under the Geneva Conventions!

Indeed, the most fair minded with an eye for perspective might even begin to ponder what crimes had the Palestinians committed upon the Jews that their indigenous continuously inhabited lands were gratuitously granted to the European Zionist aspirants by the imperialist powers in compensation, or why was there an occupier in what little was left to the Palestinians in the first place.

And perhaps even begin asking the first commonsensical question that even arises in the mind of an average Kindergartner when he or she innocently learns of the troubles in Palestine, that why the anachronistic and racist apartheid state in the modernity of today could not be dismantled like South Africa and transformed into one fair democratic state for all its indigenous peoples, Jews, Christians, and Muslims alike? And that if a Jews-only homeland had to be forcibly allocated for 'god's chosen ubermenschen', why could it not be done in Europe (or America) from where the majority of the Zionist transplants into Palestine hailed?

After all, it was Germany that did the Holocaust! And it was the American bankers and corporations that financed Hitler! And it was the Christian Europe that persecuted the Jews throughout their 2000 year history of Diaspora. Shouldn't these folks duly bear the burden of restitution to the Jews? And if the Jews demand their compensation, and an innocent third party is apportioned to pay it, who will pay the restitution to the Palestinians when their day finally comes too? Or perhaps these "barbarians" can be eliminated entirely, like the native Americans, to avoid such a day! Asking any child in sixth grade, when he or she first learns of the genocide of the native Americans, whether she might do anything to prevent it if that was happening today, what do you think might her answer be? What if these kids were told about this ongoing genocide in Palestine, and instead of tours of the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C., they were taken on tours through the unholy land of oppression? Or instead of reading the Diary of Anne Frank in eight grade, they were assigned to read Rachel Corrie's letters from Palestine? Or asked to compare the two?

Asking such uncomfortable questions by the mainstream upon being exposed to the "base reality of our world" could certainly put a dent in the imperial scheme of things, especially if it created popular mass protests and shut-down strikes as in the case of the Vietnam War!

Thus Rachel Corrie today remains an unknown in America - only mourned by her friends and family, and of course, by the multitude of "barbarians" in the unholy land of oppression for whose defense she courageously chose to take direct action. Also perhaps occasionally remembered by a handful of ordinary people like this lowly scribe who only met her through her poignant letters to her mother, and was dumbstruck enough by her sheer courage to voluntarily stand up to the immeasurable tyranny being inflicted upon an innocent peoples right before the silent eyes of the world's leaders, to want to tell the rest of the world about her in the full context of her supreme sacrifice, so that it may yet yield some fruits before it is too late!

The detailed analysis of American newsmedia coverage of Rachel's killing presented in Chapter-4 of this scribe's maiden 2003 book 'Prisoners of the Cave' not only deconstructs the utter silence in the American mainstream newsmedia today even five years after her killing, but also the systematic and still ongoing attempts by the sponsors, architects, and circus-clowns of "revolutionary times" and "imperial mobilization" to denigrate her courageous stand. A search of "Rachel Corrie" on the Internet brings up countless websites and articles that attempt to discredit her, the most outrageous of which, in this scribe's view, is this 2004 comment from neocon Frontpage magazine on the occasion of Rachel's first death anniversary: "a useful idiot for, and one more victim of, Palestinian terror".

To learn more of the stark brutish everyday reality of a peoples under occupation in the modernity of the twenty-first century being boldly threatened with a "bigger holocaust", from the eyes and words of a genuine heiress to humanity who, by showing her unflinching courage before the world's mightiest military might, today keeps hope alive for all victims of the "Iron Wall", see http://rachelcorrie.org, http://rachelswords.org, http://rachelcorriefoundation.org, http://youtube.com/watch?v=O3JI-axaRF4, http://palsolidarity.org/main/category/rachel-corrie.

Unless one happens to be perversely indoctrinated, or incredibly self-serving and sharing in the aspirations of conquest with the baboons du jour who call themselves the 'hectoring hegemons', one can easily decide for oneself with some of one's own commonsense and a modicum of reasoning skills, if Rachel Corrie was a "useful idiot" or the flag bearer of an awakened conscience!

If you become outraged by learning a bit about Rachel Corrie, do drop a letter to the editor, to your favorite television anchor, and to your local councilman, remembering Rachel Corrie - your ordinary American girl next door who just had to stand up for what is decent, what is moral, and what is unacceptable as a human being first!

And to see how you, as an ordinary person sharing in the same gene pool as the genuine hominids, can contribute to the legacy of Rachel Corrie - of Moral-Activism - without leaving the comfort of your own home and sacrificing your own precious life to stand up to tyranny, do read this essay by Project Humanbeingsfirst: 'Dialog among Civilizations: Whytalksfail?' It was partly inspired by the Moral-Activism of this American princess, and was dedicated to her memory on the occasion of her fourth anniversary last year.

May you rest in peace dear Rachel Corrie, for surely, those continually suffering under the jack-boots of your brethren and cursing all those who know and remain silent bystanders, must make you restless even in 'Walhalla'! You did attempt to salvage, with the sacrifice of your own youthful and precious life, 'humanity' that has today become lost to human beings from the clutches of the Zionocons. You indeed showed once again that Zionism is the antithesis of the moral law of Moses, and everything that is decent. You demonstrated by your sacrifice that the Zionists have hijacked even the good name of Judaism for their nefarious agenda of 'Eretz Yisrael' - for none of their conduct as an oppressor reflects the high ideals of Jews as an ancient peoples who have carried the weight of thousands of years of history and know suffering more than any other peoples on the face of the Earth today. You showed by your supreme sacrifice, the hollowness of your murderers claims to being Jews. And you have certainly laid threadbare the inhumanity of us silent bystanders as well. All this is at least several lifetimes worth of achievement condensed into a mere 23 years. Now it is for us, those still living, and pathetically "looking from the side", to wakeup to the grotesque reality of perpetual war on 'the Grand Chessboard' - that aims to create a "Zion that will light up all the world" through 'Noble Lies' - all of which is constructed precisely with devilishly orchestrated "revolutionary times", and do our small bit. You now rest in peace, dear Rachel Corrie!

The author, an ordinary researcher and writer on contemporary geopolitics, a minor justice activist, grew up in Pakistan, studied EECS at MIT, engineered for a while in high-tech Silicon Valley (patents here), and retired early to pursue other responsible interests. His maiden 2003 book was rejected by six publishers and can be read on the web at http://PrisonersoftheCave.org. He may be reached at http://Humanbeingsfirst.org.

Copyright Notice:

All material copyright (c) Project HumanbeingsfirstTM, with full permission to copy, repost, and reprint, in its entirety, unmodified and unedited, for any purpose, granted, provided the URL sentence and this copyright notice are also reproduced verbatim as part of this license, and not doing so may be subject to copyright license violation infringement claims pursuant to remedies noted at http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html. All quotations and excerpts are based on non-profit "fair use" in the greater public interest consistent with the understanding of laws noted at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html. The rights of the author to express these views are based on inalienable rights noted at http://www.hrweb.org/legal/undocs.html, and to do so freely without suffering intimidation and duress is based on the new anti-terrorism laws discussed at http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=10786 which presumably supercedes excellent theory noted at http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html. Full copyright notice and Exclusions at http://www.humanbeingsfirst.org.

Why are people afraid of Rachel Corrie's words?

Rachel Corrie was 23 years old when she was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer on March 16, 2003. She was working with others trying to protect the home of a Palestinian pharmacist from demolition in Rafah, Gaza Strip, Palestine. “My Name is Rachel Corrie” is a powerful one-woman show based entirely on the writings that Rachel left behind, telling her story from the time she was a small child, leading up to the days before her death. The play, edited by Alan Rickman and Katharine Viner from Rachel’s diaries and emails, was produced by the Royal Court Theatre in London. Starring Megan Dodds, it played to sold out audiences and wide acclaim.

“My Name is Rachel Corrie” was scheduled to open at the New York Theatre Workshop on March 22nd. It has been postponed indefinitely, sparking much debate. Director Alan Rickman said, “Rachel Corrie lived in nobody’s pocket but her own. Whether one is sympathetic with her or not, her voice is like a clarion in the fog and should be heard.” Rachel’s mother Cindy wonders, “Why are people so afraid of Rachel’s words?” We ask the same question and are determined to give people the opportunity to hear those words.

The “Rachel’s Words” initiative is made up of a broad spectrum of groups and individuals who believe that Rachel’s words and her message of human rights and justice should be heard.

We hope that Rachel’s Words will open the door for other equally important and silenced voices. We resist the pervasive climate of fear and challenge to free speech that is increasingly prevalent in our society. Rachel wrote about issues that concern us all. People must have the opportunity to hear her message and decide for themselves what they think. Nobody’s agenda should stand in the way of that.

Join in celebrating her life and her extraordinary words. Check out the events and actions from around the world.

Also, click here for the growing list of endorsements and add your name or your groups name to this list of support for Rachel’s Words!

The Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza has been nominated for a GlobalGiving.com competition. Through January 27th, at www.globalgiving.com, people throughout the world can vote online and rate the entries they deem best.

The Gaza project is one of only two in the Human Rights category. 15 semifinalists chosen through open ratings will present their work at the Global Philanthropy Forum on Borderless Giving in March, where three winners will share $100,000 in project grants.

The Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign, a project of The Rebuilding Alliance, starts by building for the Nasrallahs, the family that Rachel Corrie stood to safeguard when she was killed by the Caterpillar D9R bulldozer sent to demolish their home.

The Rebuilding Alliance hopes this Campaign will touch the hearts of readers and move them to take their own small step -- one that may raise awareness in their own circles of influence. Help us prevent the demolition of hundreds more homes in Rafah and reaffirm the right of all children to live safely and peacefully in their own homes.

To join the effort and to rate the Rachel Corrie Rebuilding Campaign in Gaza, go to www.globalgiving.com/cb/gpf/pr/1000/proj929a.html.

Read more about the project and when ready, click on the "Rate It" button. "10" is the highest score and means "fantastic, great, high impact." But rating the project or even winning the contest won't be enough to achieve that "high impact goal." Your action, in concert with all who would build and not destroy -- that's what really counts. When you are ready, begin.

Support homeless families. "Rate It 10" here! [source: PalestineBlogs.com]