Saturday 11 December 2010

Roy Ratcliffe: The Zionist Left and the Loyalty Oath

"The influence and numbers of the religious right will undoubtedly continue to grow...The numbers and influence of the secularised left in Israel will continue to decrease "

A must read, specially by the international left, One and two state solution preachers, and of course by Alan Hart busy with educating the westerns, the diferance between Judaism and zionist, to prevent what he call "anti-israelism into anti-semitism


Roy Ratcliffe: The Zionist Left and the Loyalty Oath


Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 6:33PM



The promotion of a loyalty oath by the extreme right in Israel has presented yet another window through which the thoroughly racist nature of the Jewish state can be glimpsed by those outside its national boundaries.

This should not cause any surprise. It is common knowledge, or perhaps ought to be, that Israel was founded in 1948, as a colonialist enterprise promoted exclusively for the benefit of Jews. Therefore a loyalty oath which requires citizens to swear to uphold the ‘Jewish’ character of the state of Israel, is completely in line with its founding principles. 

However, what has also been revealed by this promotion of a loyalty oath, is the Zionist nature of the response to it by the so-called ‘left’ in Israel. They have been motivated to claim that this latest requirement would transform Israel into a Fascist state. 

For example;  "A state which forcibly invades the hallowed realm of the individual citizen's conscience, and which imposes punishment on those whose opinions and beliefs do not fit the authorities' opinions and the prescribed "character" of the state, stops being a democracy and embarks on becoming a fascist state.” (Declaration of Independence from Fascism)

Of course in the real world, it is not exclusively a loyalty oath which distinguishes fascism from other forms of governance. The list of characteristics which distinguish fascism in 1930’s Germany, for example contain, amongst others; racial discrimination/exclusion, militarism, savage exploitation, ghettoisation, civilian movement restrictions along with brutal treatment and control of those designated as ’undesirables’. All of which were ’normal’ in Israel before the recent idea to include a loyalty oath. Yet it is this previous fascistic normality which the above left protestors against a loyalty oath seek to defend. Their declaration continues: 
 “Behind these stairs where we stand, the state of Israel was proclaimed. The state which increasingly takes Israel's place – a state which fills the country with a variety of racist legislation, promoted by the Knesset and the cabinet – is excluding itself from the family of democratic nations.” (ibid)

These left Zionists honoured the foundation of the state of Israel, whose authors orchestrated the Nakba and the continued genocidal treatment of Palestinians, by making their declaration as close as possible to the original site of the founding declaration of Israel.

This Israel (1948 - 2010) which routinely conducts heavily armed intrusions into defenceless Palestinian homes and murders defenceless civilians is only now, by means of a loyalty oath, considered fascist by the ‘left’ and to have taken a step which serves to exclude it “from the family of democratic nations“.  Even the 2009 Blitskrieg of Gaza did not encourage the atrophied humanity of these ‘lefts’ to attempt to raise any grievances to a similar conspicuous position.  As one critic of this left opposition to the loyalty oath grievance, noted; “Proclaiming that “grievance” serves precisely to appropriate another attack on the people whose country really was stolen. By proclaiming the founders victims of an expropriation of “their” country, the document naturalizes them in Palestine, and by the same token it naturalizes the spoils of 1948.” (Gabriel. Jews sans frontiers. Nov 1 2010)

Indeed! A left group which is stirred, into thinking its so-called ‘democratic‘ Jewish Israel is only moving toward fascism, because of an individual loyalty oath are clearly not understanding the world as many humanists and others view it. Such Israeli’s are living in a virtual world entirely of their own and other Zionists making. It is a world in which the results of a particular form of  colonial aggression are now taken for granted by them as indisputable and privileged ’facts on the ground‘. The Zionist left is revealed not as a humanist left, but a Jewish left, totally at one with ‘their’ colonialist acquired gains. 

This position arises, as with other racist ideologies, due to the acceptance of Jewishness as a primary form of identity rather than a secondary one. There is nothing particularly wrong with secondary identities, based upon religion, ethnicity, nationality or even gender, but there is everything wrong with making these the primary form of identity in the modern world. This is because they are the means by which divisions are instigated, elevated and perpetuated, leading to discrimination, intolerance and prejudice. These often ancient, and sooner or later, always retrograde views in turn have led humanity to systematically exploit, oppress and destroy other human beings. The medium of this destruction being variously; religious conflict, nationalist conflict, ethnic conflict and gender-based conflict.

Humanity, really needs to move on from such partisan tribalised posturing. The state of Israel was erected precisely upon the basis that within it, Jewish identity and the needs of Jews were to be elevated above the needs of all other human beings. The Genocide of the 20th century Nakba and 21st century Blitskrieg of Gaza against Palestinians (and all in between) are the logical results of the passionate and sustained elevation of one group of humanity over another.     

In this particular case, in order to identify oneself primarily as Jewish and therefore to subscribe to a collective Jewish identity, it is necessary to accept a claim to a specific shared history and culture.  Yet it is a history and culture founded upon a religion, and for this reason it is a history from which it is all but impossible to escape. This is so, whether a Jewish person is directly influenced by religion or not.

For example; “The message of the Chosen People makes sense in secular, nationalist and historical terms…The Jews can be considered a self-chosen people…Though I reject theology, the single most important book in my life is the Bible.” (Ben-Gurion. Quoted in ‘The Bible and Zionism’ Nur Masalha. Pub. Zed Books. Page17.)

Rejecting God in this case, as with other such cases, is not necessarily accompanied by a critical re-examination of the whole culture based upon it.  As the example of Ben-Gurion and others illustrates, secular forms of Jewish identity saw ‘sense’ in the biblical message of ‘Chosen People’ and ‘Promised Land‘. Even those who didn’t lean so heavily on the bible or embrace God so enthusiastically, nevertheless identified themselves with a common Jewish history and culture, which was comprehensively and inescapably founded upon both these factors.

So despite varying historical interpretations and secular preferences, the egotistical acceptance of this specific common history and culture, is the connective tissue which unites left secular Zionists and rightwing fundamentalist settler Zionists. To be more specific, the identity confirmed by this shared history is one of cultural exclusivity, self-governance and a self-identification as a special part of humanity - all of which were and are religiously promoted. It is the common acceptance and vigorous defence of this ‘identity’ which makes it inevitable that both Jewish, left peace activists, and right settler activists defend the right for Israel to exist as an exclusive Jewish state. The two sides differ only on how this exclusivity is to be achieved.

The defence of Jewishness as a primary identity also extends its logical necessity to savagely attacking anyone who suggests it should only be a secondary feature.

  • Jews who put humanitarian values first and Jewish values second and thus totally criticise Israel and Zionist colonialism, for its racism and inhumanity, are considered by Zionists as self-hating Jews.
  • Non-Jews who think and declare likewise are labelled as anti-Semites by right Zionists and left Zionists alike. Suggesting Jewish identity should become a secondary form of human identity is viewed by Zionists as being totally anti-Jewish, only because they desire it to remain primary.
Both sides of the spectrum of Jewish Zionism, therefore, do their best to silence, marginalise, neutralise or eliminate any criticism which dares to suggest that a common identity with Palestinians and the rest of humanity, should in modern times be allowed to finally relegate this ancient, preserved tradition to second place.  

Furthermore, as we have seen, since that specific Jewish history and culture, has for two millennia been based upon Tanach/Old Testament, the common core which permeates all forms of Jewish identity is to a greater or lesser extent, related to the bible.  Biblical history is the underlying basis upon which all forms of Jewish identity have to be erected, for there is no other form of specific Jewish history or culture.

The attempt to initiate a secular form of history by the Zionist colonial project in Palestine, was compromised from the start, by linking this aspiration to a biblical narrative alleging a promised land.  Because Israels Zionist political and military power could not be justified or rationalised as emanating from a common humanitarian ethos or from its equivalent, an ethos of citizen equality, it had from the outset in 1948, to assume a religious form. What is more, it will have to increasingly rely upon religious criteria, precisely because it still lacks a common humanitarian ethos in relationship to its history, to the indigenous population it has usurped and to the common humanitarian values aspired to by all enlightened populations. 

For this reason the influence and numbers of the religious right will undoubtedly continue to grow because the bible increasingly represents the only available basis for justifying the existence and continuation of the Jewish State of Israel. The numbers and influence of the secularised left in Israel will continue to decrease precisely because there is actually no secular, enlightened justification, past, present or future for the existence of the Jewish state they so passionately and patriotically wish to defend. 

R. Ratcliffe (December 2010)
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In Support of WikiLeaks-Please Spread the Message

Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 10:14AM Gilad Atzmon

 Dear friends,

The massive campaign of intimidation against WikiLeaks is sending a chill through free press advocates everywhere.

Legal experts say WikiLeaks has likely broken no laws. Yet top US politicians have called it a terrorist group and commentators have urged assassination of its staff.

The organization has come under massive government and corporate attack, but WikiLeaks is only publishing information provided by a whistleblower. And it has partnered with the world's leading newspapers (NYT, Guardian, Spiegel etc) to carefully vet the information it publishes.

The massive extra-judicial intimidation of WikiLeaks is an attack on democracy. We urgently need a public outcry for freedom of the press and expression. Sign the petition to stop the crackdown and forward this email to everyone -- let's get to 1 million voices and take out full page ads in US newspapers this week!

WikiLeaks isn't acting alone -- it's partnered with the top newspapers in the world (New York Times, The Guardian, Der Spiegel, etc) to carefully review 250,000 US diplomatic cables and remove any information that it is irresponsible to publish. Only 800 cables have been published so far.

Past WikiLeaks publications have exposed government-backed torture, the murder of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, and corporate corruption.
The US government is currently pursuing all legal avenues it has to stop WikiLeaks from publishing more cables, but the laws of democracies protect freedom of the press. The US and other governments may not like the laws that protect our freedom of expression, but that's exactly why it's so important that we have them, and why only a democratic process can change them.

Reasonable people can disagree on whether WikiLeaks and the leading newspapers it's partnered with are releasing more information than the public should see. Whether the releases undermine diplomatic confidentiality and whether that's a good thing. Whether WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has the personal character of a hero or a villain. But none of this justifies a vicious campaign of intimidation to silence a legal media outlet by governments and corporations.

Click below to join the call to stop the crackdown:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/wikileaks_petition/97.php?cl_tta_sign=1a3633bbcd116326904c634917fc9e59

Ever wonder why the media so rarely gives the full story of what happens behind the scenes? This is why - because when they do, governments can be vicious in their response. And when that happens, it's up to the public to stand up for our democratic rights to a free press and freedom of expression. Never has there been a more vital time for us to do so.

With hope,
Ricken, Emma, Alex, Alice, Maria Paz and the rest of the Avaaz team.

SOURCES:

Law experts say WikiLeaks in the clear (ABC)
WikiLeaks are a bunch of terrorists, says leading U.S. congressman (Mail Online)
Cyber guerrillas can help US (Financial Times)
Amazon drops WikiLeaks under political pressure (Yahoo)
"WikiLeaks avenged by hacktivists" (PC World):
US Gov shows true control over Internet with WikiLeaks containment (Tippett.org)
US embassy cables culprit should be executed, says Mike Huckabee (The Guardian)
WikiLeaks ditched by MasterCard, Visa. Who's next? (The Christian Science Monitor)
Assange's Interpol Warrant Is for Having Sex Without a Condom (The Slatest)

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Sayyed Nasrallah on WikiLeaks: We Will See Greater Conspiracies

11/12/2010 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said on Friday during an Ashoura council that the party would be targeted by greater conspiracies than the plots unveiled by the cables released by whistleblower WikiLeaks.

Addressing those at the council held in Sayyed As-Shouhadaa’ complex in Beirut’s southern suburb, Sayyed Nasrallah said western organizations had carried out studies after the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah when homes were being destroyed and 1 million Lebanese were displaced as a result of the Israeli aggression.

Although the Lebanese emerged victorious, many people lost their lives and "faced big threats and conspiracies," Sayyed Nasrallah said, referring to the principle of overcoming all obstacles. "We are seeing this in WikiLeaks day after day and we will see greater" plots.

Those who carried out the studies, were amazed by the fact that the Lebanese returned to their destroyed homes and villages and built their lives again, Sayyed Nasrallah said.

His eminence lauded his supporters for overcoming the past and pain and "building the future."

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LPS: The Aqsa Mosque is about to collapse - Jerusalem merchants forced to have signboards of their stores written in Hebrew

LPS: The Aqsa Mosque is about to collapse

[ 11/12/2010 - 04:58 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The League of Palestine Scholars (LPS) has warned the Arab and Islamic countries of the escalating Israeli demolitions, settlement activity, and judaization in occupied Jerusalem especially in the vicinity of the holy Aqsa Mosque.

It said in a statement on Saturday that the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) had started implementing its scheme of demolishing the Aqsa Mosque and its surroundings.

The Arab and Islamic Nation should wake up before it is too late, the LPS underlined.

The League warned that the Aqsa Mosque is about to collapse, wandering when the Muslims would rise up in anger if the demolition of the Aqsa was not enough incentive. 

No to Judaization,
Jerusalem merchants forced to have signboards of their stores written in Hebrew

[ 11/12/2010 - 02:12 PM ]

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- The Israeli municipal council in the occupied Palestinian city of Jerusalem decided to force owners of stores to change all kinds of outdoor signboards into the Hebrew language instead of Arabic or English.

Maariv newspaper said on Friday that the council decided last week to demand the merchants in the holy city to remove the signboards written in Arabic and English from their stores and replace them with ones written in Hebrew.

According to the decision, the owners of stores will not be allowed to use another language in their signboards if the Hebrew language does not occupy half of the banner, or else they will not get licenses for their stores.

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Shopping in Israel

Saturday, December 11, 2010 at 9:45AM Gilad Atzmon
 
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Assad warns ...

Assad warns ...

"If the decision of the tribunal is based on evidence, everybody will accept its conclusions, not only Syria but also Lebanon, ... If there is a decision based on a simple suspicion or political interference, then at that moment nobody will take the tribunal's conclusions seriously," Assad said .."
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Desecration

kenny's sideshow

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, along with Hillary Clinton, spoke at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy's seventh annual forum in Washington, December 10, 2010. - Photo by Reuters.

You might think that if the organizers had a need for a backdrop to the speakers at a think tank forum for the Israeli/Palestinian peace process it would also include the Palestinian flag. Of course that might send the wrong signal implying that the talks would be fair and equitable and we know that will never be the case.

Since the Vietnam war the burning of the 'sacred' symbol of America, the flag, has been viewed by many as traitorous and a desecration. In my opinion the above image is a much worse desecration but there will not be a debate in the main stream media on this inappropriate use of our flag.

We may as well go ahead and incorporate the USraeli flag as our new national symbol. At least we could say that it was the most honest thing our government has done in a long long time.

Hilary Clinton at the Brookings Institution ... Part 1, 2, 3
Posted by kenny's sideshow at 10:18 AM  
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Israel's Racist Rabbis: 'Hate the Gentile'

Ovadia Yosef (R): 'Goyim [non-Jews] were born only to serve us.'
By Jonathan Cook - Nazareth

Jews must not rent homes to 'gentiles'. That was the religious decree issued this week by at least 50 of Israel’s leading rabbis, many of them employed by the state as municipal religious leaders. Jews should first warn, then “ostracise” fellow Jews who fail to heed the directive, the rabbis declared.

The decree is the latest in a wave of racist pronouncements from some of Israel’s most influential rabbis.

In October, Shmuel Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of Safed, delivered a ruling, signed by 17 other rabbis in the city, telling Jewish residents not to sell or rent property to members of the country’s Palestinian Arab minority, who make up a fifth of the population.

His followers turned words into deeds by attacking Arab students in the city and threatening to burn down the homes of Jewish landlords renting to the students.

Similar edicts have recently been backed by dozens of rabbis in Tel Aviv and nearby Bnei Brak, a suburb of 150,000 mostly ultra-Orthodox Jews. They have threatened to “expose” any Jews who rent to “foreigners” -- in this case, a reference to migrant workers and African refugees who are crowded into neglected neighbourhoods in the centre of the country.

After many weeks of silence on these declarations, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was finally forced to issue a condemnation yesterday, describing the rabbis’ call as undemocratic and contradicting the bible, which, he said, called for Jews to “love the stranger”.

Nonetheless, racism in Israel is increasingly enjoying high-level sanction among the most influential sectors of the religious establishment.

The latest ruling was signed by Shlomo Aviner, a spiritual leader of Israel’s national-religious camp; Yosef Elyashiv, a senior ultra-Orthodox rabbi; and Avigdor Neventzal, rabbi of Jerusalem’s Old City.
Its sentiments have also been echoed by Ovadia Yosef, a former chief rabbi of Israel and the spiritual leader of Shas, an important political and religious party in Mr Netanyahu’s government. “Selling to [non-Jews], even for a lot of money, is not allowed. We won’t let them take control of us here,” Mr Yosef said recently.
Two months ago, Mr Yosef explained the logic behind his views and those of like-minded rabbis.
“Goyim [non-Jews] were born only to serve us.” Explaining why God allowed non-Jews long lives, he added: “Imagine that your donkey would die, you’d lose your income. [The donkey] is your servant. ... That’s why he [the gentile] gets a long life, to work well for the Jew.”

Mr Yosef’s remarks against “gentiles” were greeted with respectful silence by Israeli officials and most of the media. It was left to the United States government and the New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to issue rebukes. Abraham Foxman, the ADL’s head, accused the rabbi of advancing “hateful and divisive ideas”.

The rabbis’ use of theology to support racial discrimination is being applied to more than just housing.
This summer, Yosef Elitzur and Yitzhak Shapira, who head an influential seminary in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar, published The King’s Torah, a 230-page guide to how Jews should treat non-Jews.
The two rabbis concluded that Jews were obligated to kill anyone who posed a danger, immediate or potential, to the Jewish people, and implied that all Palestinians were to be considered a threat. On these grounds, the pair justified killing Palestinian civilians and even their babies.

Last month Mr Shapira also backed the use of Palestinians as human shields, a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention, and a practice that Israel’s supreme court has outlawed.

The King’s Torah, far from being condemned by moderate rabbis, has been greeted with a general silence and enthusiastic support from a number of notable religious leaders.

Arik Ascherman, head of Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel, said the growing extremism of the the Orthodox religious establishment in Israel reflected the increasingly right-wing atmosphere in Israel that made the expression of ultra-nationalist views permissible.

In the current climate, he said, moderate rabbis were reluctant to speak out against their colleagues. Many of these rabbis belong to the Conservative or Reform streams of Judaism, which are not officially recognised in Israel.

“The religious sanction being given to the political right by these rabbis is dangerous. It makes their opinions seem more acceptable,” he said.

That is being reflected in public surveys, in which many Israeli Jews express support for anti-Arab views. A poll by the Israeli Democracy Institute published last week showed that 46 per cent of the country’s Jews did not want to live near Arab citizens, and 39 per cent felt the same about foreign workers.
Even more, 53 per cent, wanted Arab citizens to be encouraged to leave Israel and half believed Arabs should not have equal rights with Jews. Among the religious public, racist sentiments were more popular.
Israeli prosecutors, meanwhile, have turned a blind eye to the refusal of several prominent endorsers of The King’s Torah to obey a summons calling them for investigation. “Our holy Torah is not a subject for investigation or trial by flesh and blood,” the rabbis said.

In all, the rabbinical establishment is growing increasingly bold in promoting its vision of a Jewish state run according to holy law, according to Zvi Barel, a commentator with the daily newspaper Haaretz.
“They and their supporters are transforming zealous fundamentalism and the shameful The King’s Torah into the mainstream,” Mr Barel wrote recently.

The general trend towards extremism has not happened by chance, said Sefi Rachelevsky, a prominent Israeli writer critical of the Orthodox rabbinate. Israel’s public coffers pay the salaries of some of the most extremist rabbis, and the education system regularly falls under the political control of religious parties like Shas.

Mr Shapira, who advocates killing non-Jewish babies, receives large sums from the education ministry for his yeshiva -- a seminary where he spreads his message of hate. Religious students also receive extra subsidies unavailable to normal students to encourage their attendance at such yeshivas.

The rabbis exert their influence on the youngest and most impressionable too. When the new school year started in September, 52 per cent of Jewish children in first grade attended a strictly religious school.
Pupils in some of the most religious schools, Mr Rachlevsky pointed out, are taught that Jews sit above nature, which comprises four categories: “inanimate”, “vegetable”, “animal” and “speakers” -- or non-Jews, who are considered no more than talking animals.

- Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel's Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Visit: www.jkcook.net. (A version of this article originally appeared in The National - www.thenational.ae - published in Abu Dhabi.)




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Latest Israeli bombing plunges Gaza into darkness

Rami Almeghari, The Electronic Intifada, 10 December 2010

Air strikes by Israeli warplanes at dawn on Thursday caused serious damage to the Gaza Strip's only power plant, plunging the territory -- which already suffers from frequent outages -- into darkness.

Media reports said the air strikes hit two sites belonging to Hamas near the Gaza power plant in Moghraqa village, central Gaza.

Engineer Darar Abu Sisi, director of operations for the Gaza plant, told The Electronic Intifada that at 2:47am an Israeli air attack on a Hamas site near the power plant scattered rocks and debris into the air. A rock crashed into the a current transformer and voltage transformer in a substation, causing the unit to shut down.

The damage forced the plant to reduce production from its usual 65 megawatts daily to about 35 megawatts, Abu Sisi said, far short of current needs. Unless the damage is repaired it may lead to even longer outages than the power cuts people in Gaza already live with.

"I believe that the Gaza power company has been able to coordinate with the Israeli side and we hope that this time they will be able to bring the needed spare part through Israeli land crossings, which are closed of course because of the Israeli siege," Abu Sisi told The Electronic Intifada.

Even before Thursday's bombing, Gaza residents face prolonged power outages of six to eight hours per day, adding to the severe hardships caused by the prolonged Israeli siege that prevents people and goods from moving freely in and out of Gaza. Abu Sisi estimated that the outages would increase to eight to ten hours per day.

The power shortages cripple daily life and the already devastated economy, and effect everything from students having no light to study, to households having no power for daily needs, and badly affect hospitals, sanitation and water supply systems.

Another effect is severe noise and air pollution from ubiquitous gasoline-powered generators that people use to cope with the shortages. In 2009 alone, 75 persons died in Gaza from hazardous handling of generators.

In 2006, Israel bombed and severely damaged the power plant's three turbines which supplies about a third of the electricity used by Gaza's 1.5 million residents. Since the 2006 bombing, Israel has further crippled electricity supplies by severely limiting the transfer of spare parts and fuel into Gaza.

According to the UN-commissioned Goldstone report into Israel's winter 2008-09 attack on Gaza, approximately half of Gaza's electricity supply came from Israel, seven percent from Egypt and a third from the Gaza power plant, leaving a deficit of about eight percent. The electricity deficit reached up to 41 percent at times due to Israeli fuel restrictions, according to other UN sources cited by the Goldstone report.

With no end in sight to the Israeli siege, Thursday's bombing has just made the lives of Gaza's population, half of them children, even darker as the longest nights of winter approach.

Rami Almeghari is a journalist and university lecturer based in the Gaza Strip.

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Hezbollah: STL Pure Hypocrisy, Similar to Middle Age Tribunals


10/12/2010 Hezbollah politicians and leaders renewed on Friday belief that the indictment to be released by the so-called Special Tribunal for Lebanon in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri’s case was politicized, stressing its main purpose was to tarnish the Resistance’s image.

The head of Hezbollah Executive Council Sayyed Hashem Safieddine stressed that no one can besiege the Resistance through an international tribunal or a politicized verdict. “The United States and those who follow it must know that they’re conspiring on Lebanon’s Resistance,” Sayyed Safieddine said during a religious ceremony. “You, idiots, this is Lebanon, the resistant and victorious Lebanon, Lebanon, which defeated the Israeli in Bint Jbeil and Maroun Al-Rass and Aita Ac-Chaab, Lebanon which stood alone in the face of all international forces,” his eminence went on to say, addressing those who’re seeking to target the Resistance.

“Even in Lebanon, some people believe they can pressure the Resistance through a verdict or a tribunal. This is impossible. Those who bet on pressuring the Resistance will turn to be losers,” Sayyed Safieddine said. “There’s no doubt this tribunal, the so-called international tribunal, resembles everything except the tribunal. It’s maybe similar to the tribunals of the Middle Age. But this is not a tribunal. This is pure hypocrisy.”

For his part, member of the Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc MP Nawwaf Moussawi criticized the other party’s insistence on adopting a tense rhetoric despite the fact that the opposition has support the Saudi-Syrian initiative to reach a consensus in Lebanon. “This camp is committed to a tribunal which proved to be politicized and nothing but a tool exploited by regional forces with the aim of getting rid of the Resistance, a mission that the enemy failed in achieving during the July war,” Moussawi pointed out.

Moussawi, who called on the other party to stop betting on the possibility of deleting the Resistance through international judicial plots, stressed that the Resistance has overcome all challenges and will continue to do so.

Moussawi’s colleague in the Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc MP Hasan Fadlallah in turn said that the indictment's real purpose is to tarnish the Resistance's image. "They want to damage its image after they realized that the Islamic resistance in Lebanon has become all the hope for all the Arabs and Muslims in the world," he said.

"The main problem in the country is that one camp believes that it has an indictment in its pocket and that it may use it to blackmail the resistance, which is the current American demand that wants to obstruct any Arab solution to the crisis," Fadlallah stressed, adding that the country is bound to be ruled by consensus and understanding.

The Hezbollah MP called for tackling the situation in Lebanon before the indictment is released, saying that no one knows where matters may lead after it is announced.

On Thursday, and during the fourth Ashura night at the Sayyed As-Shouhadaa complex in Beirut’s southern suburb, the head of Hezbollah Juristic Board Sheikh Mohamad Yazbek assured that the "Resistance will always be ready to defend Lebanon, its dignity, independence and sovereignty."

Sheikh Yazbek stressed that the resistance will remain determined on demanding the prosecution of false witnesses because their prosecution will lead to the truth, adding that "the fabricators and makers of the indictment against the Resistance will reap nothing but regret."


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"The Turkish role has not met any Iraqi objection, as happened with the Saudis..."

Via friday-lunch-club

"In Iraq, both Turks and Iranians have no desire for greater Kurdish autonomy. Both seek greater influence in Baghdad, although Iran clearly holds the upper hand in that respect."
But Iraqi political analyst Ibrahim al-Sumaidaie said Turkey may win growing influence in Iraq, at least in the short term, as a more neutral party that can win acceptance from all sides."With the rising pressure of the international community and increase of sanctions and hints of military actions against Iran, the near future will witness a rise for the Turkish role," he said.
"The Turkish role has the blessing of the international community and is backed by Arab countries. It has not met any Iraqi objection, as happened with the Saudis, who faced objections from the Shi'ites, or with the Iranians, who faced objections from the Sunnis," he said."
Posted by G, Z, or B at 7:02 PM
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Israel denies Vanunu travel permission

Update: video added at the bottom contributed by eileenfleming
Don't miss her comment (thanks eileen)

Press Tv- via South lebanon

Israel has prevented a former nuclear whistleblower from receiving an international prize in Germany for work towards promoting disarmament.

Mordechai Vanunu, who revealed details of Israel's secret weapons program 24 years ago, was to be awarded the Carl von Ossietsky Prize in Berlin on Sunday.

According to a spokesman for the International League for Human Rights, the group has now decided to cancel the ceremony and hold a protest rally on behalf of the former nuclear technician instead, AFP reported.The Sfard had assured Israeli officials that the 56-year old atomic technician was willing to commit himself to returning to Israel following the ceremony in Berlin.

Vanunu was convicted of treason and spent 18 years in jail after disclosing the inner workings of Israel's Dimona nuclear plant to the Sunday Times newspaper in 1986 backed up by two rolls of film he had taken of the plant.

He was released in 2004 but was banned from travel and giving interviews to foreign media without prior permission.
Estimated to have more than 200 nuclear warheads, Israel still refuses to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and does not allow the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit its nuclear sites.
Source

Updating Mohamed Harkat's Persecution


 by Stephen Lendman

An earlier article explained. Like in America, Canada is waging war on Islam, Mohamed Harkat one of many victims used for political advantage to incite fear and mask Ottawa's support for US imperialism and war on terror, a bogus one affecting innocent victims like Harkat.

Based on spurious allegations of ties to Al Qaeda and the Armed Sayyaf Group (GIA), he was arrested on December 10, 2002 and imprisoned for the next four and a half years under Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act provision pertaining to the "security certificate" process.

Until Canada's Supreme Court (in October 2007) ruled it unconstitutional in Charkaoui v. Canada, it let authorities detain and/or deport foreign nationals and other non-citizens suspected of human rights violations, alleged threats to national security, or claimed affiliation with organized crime, using secret evidence (like in America) withheld from counsel.

The same month, however, Canada's House of Commons passed Bill C-3 (a so-called anti-terror measure), amending the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act by introducing a special advocate into the certificate process on the pretext of protecting subjects during secret proceedings.

This and other policies are troubling, including indefinite detentions, whether or not charged, draconian house arrest, and deportations to despotic states, ensuring torture, imprisonment or death, the reason people flee to Canada, believing they'll be safe.

The special advocate provision, is fact, is reprehensible, providing legal cover for an unjust process designed to stigmatize, vilify, convict or deport targets to oblivion - on the pretext of protecting national security.

False! The provision mocks the rule of law, dispensing police state justice against human, civil rights, and anti-war advocates as well as Muslims like Harkat. It denies the presumption of innocence unless proved guilty beyond a shadow of doubt in fair, open hearings with full disclosure of evidence, nothing kept secret for any reason. Claiming national security is bogus. In real democracies, doing so is unconstitutional.

Mohamed Harkat - Targeted for His Faith and Ethnicity

He's one of Canada's Secret Trial Five - five Muslim men, bogusly arrested and persecuted. He wasn't charged, but was imprisoned on secret evidence, denied bail, held mostly in solitary confinement, prevented from contacting family or friends, and under Canadian law can't appeal a judge's ruling by order of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Yet he never before was accused, convicted, or even suspected of a crime. He's an innocent man now. Authorities know it, but persecute him anyway ruthlessly.

On May 23, 2006, he was granted bail, transferred to house arrest under electronic monitoring and round-the-clock supervision, but faces deportation he's struggling to prevent.

Last April 1, the Ottawa Citizen's Mohammed Adam headlined, "Harkat terror case takes a serious hit," saying:

"US report says his reputed al-Qaeda associate (Abu Zubaydah) actually had no ties to the terrorist group." One of Harkat's lawyers, Norm Boxall, called the new information significant, saying it destroyed a key part of the government's case. Nonetheless, his struggle for justice continued, the latest news announced December 10 by CTV Ottawa headlining, "Mohamed Harket badly shaken after judge's ruling," saying:

Federal Court Justice Simon Noel upheld Harkat's security certificate under the new law, "declar(ing) him a security threat to Canada, a ruling his lawyers" vow to appeal.

"I can't sleep. I'm not thinking straight. I have pain in my stomach," Harkat told a news conference.

Since his 2002 arrest, he consistently denied any connection to Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, saying he's been unfairly scapegoated by government security officials. "Somebody has to pay the price. I pay the price" unfairly.

Noel said Harkat's testimony wasn't credible or honest, just a carefully memorized story. "He has surrounded himself in layers of clouds in which he does not let any light come through. At times, his testimony was simply incoherent, implausible if not contradictory."

He lied, knows Harkat is innocent, yet ruled against him anyway because no evidence whatever proves otherwise. If any existed, he'd have been charged, tried, convicted, imprisoned, or deported.

His wife Sophie called the ruling "a punch in the guts" to Mohamed, herself, their family and friends, knowing he's innocent and has been unjustly treated for eight years. "Never in a million years did we ever expect a judgment like this," she said. "This document in my opinion is a load of bull....We will never, ever accept this judgment. We asked for the truth and this is not" it.

It's a judicial lynching, Noel disgracing himself and the federal bench by so ruling.

Matt Webber, one of Harkat's lawyers, said it was based almost entirely on bogus evidence heard in secret, adding that he was never allowed to respond to the accusations.

"Numerous findings of fact were made against my client based on evidence I didn't know about. It's frustrating to say the least and we have every intention of appealing."

It may include a constitutional challenge of the security certificate under which Harkat was arrested and held. Despite Canada's Supreme Court striking down its original version, Harkat was lawlessly arrested, then released on bail under draconian house arrest conditions.

Webber added:

"We've still come through this case not knowing what many of the allegations are based on. How can we possibly respond. You need to be able to answer your accusers. You need to be able to defend yourself and at the end of the day it's unfair....because we" cannot.

In a separate ruling, Noel upheld the constitutionality of the national security certificate system, no matter its illegitimacy, because the government wants it used to deport targets like Harkat.

Noel did let his lawyers submit questions that might be the basis of a Federal Court of Appeals challenge. Harkat maintains his innocence, insists he was bogusly charged, and explained if he's extradited to Algeria he faces torture. "I'm really devastated," he said. So are truth and justice supporters, appalled by a rogue judge's ruling, targeting Muslims for their faith and ethnicity, not alleged crimes.

Like America, Canada dispenses police state justice, meaning none at all to targets the state wants convicted, imprisoned or deported.

Support from Canada's National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE)

On December 10, James Clancy, NUPGE President wrote Mohamed and his wife Sophie, saying:

"I am writing this to you on International Human Rights Day....It deeply saddens me that we (again observe it) with Canada's justice system still conducting secret trials."

"It also saddens me that Mohamed must continue to fight for a fair and open hearing in a Canadian court....I want to assure you that despite the (court ruling, NUPGE) remains in opposition to secret trials in Canada."

"The inability of an accused to challenge and question the evidence held against them is an affront to the fundamental principles of justice that my union holds dear....As in the past, (NUPGE) remains committed to seeing justice done for Mohamed Harkat.

In solidarity,

James Clancy
National President

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

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
posted by Steve Lendman @ 4:35 AM 
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Gaby Ashekenazi, the warcriminal: We may need to be prepared for a larger and wider action on Gaza !

Gaby Ashekenazi, the warcriminal: We may need to be prepared for a larger and wider action on Gaza !  
After the Israelis missile attack


GAZA - An Israeli man working in an agricultural community was slightly wounded after mortar shell rounds was fired from Gaza in to the Negev area near Beersheba, some miles from the border. During this year the Israelis targeted, killed and wounded more than 21 Palestinian farm workers tending their lands, children and Palestinian construction workers, collecting scrap material near the border.

On Thursday hours after the incident,the Israeli commander Gaby Ashekenazi told his troops based near the Gaza border that; " We may need to prepare our self for larger and wider action. The next round will be big and it needs to end in a way that leaves no doubt who won. We are significantly stronger than the other side." The war criminal, Gabi Ashekenazi was also directly involved in the planning of  the genocidal war on Gaza 2 years ago. 

The Israeli air strikes on Gaza were launched overnight,targeting a training camp used by the Palestinian homeland defense, the missiles caused damage to civilian homes and a primary public school of 700 students, but no casualties or injuries are reported.

The Popular Resistance Committees and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed involvement in the attack.Their freedom fighters confronted the heavy armed Israeli army and penetrated the border fence.

Mahmoud Abbas refuse negotiations without freeze of settlement building

Meanwhile,the European Union, United Nations and the Arab League have rebuked Israel after it's refusal to halt settlement construction, forcing Washington to drop its efforts to relaunch peace talks in the Middle East. The The chairperson of  the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday after meeting in Cairo with the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Omar Suleiman,the Egyptian intelligence chief, refused to negotiate further, without a freeze of settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Before the weekend Palestinian and Israeli envoys were summoned to Washington for meetings with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Clinton will propose a possible new US approach in a speech late on Friday.The Palestinian and Israeli negotiations broke down after that the Israelis refused to extend a 10-month-old freeze on settlement building, that partly ended in late September.

The Quartet sharply criticize the Israelis settlement policy

The US offered the Israelis incentives,political and military to extend for 90 days a limited West Bank settlement freeze.The negotiations over an extension was breached, and as US officials earlier this week announced,they have abandoned that approach, most likely after pressure from the Quartet, The Arab League, the EU, Russia and United Nations, who sharply have criticized the Israelis for it's no to an extension of the moratorium, the restrain on * criminal colonization activities of Palestinian lands on the West bank.* illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace.

On Wednesday, Amr Musa,chairman of the Arab League said in a final statement that; "resuming direct talks under current conditions is out of question"....also he was questioning the intentions of the United States and the Israelis. - “ Direct talks"... means what is being sold to us is the imposition of the occupation’s condition, which is absolutely unacceptable to all of us. It is clear that the American administration could not halt the Israelis colonization activities, so therefore it is no doubt that negotiations are useless.The negotiations may be a cover to enable the occupant Israel to continue with it's policy".

Much needed field hospital arrived to Gaza

On Monday the Jordanian military  much anticipated field hospital arrived to Gaza, receiving injured Gazans with the beginning this past Wednesday.The hospital comprises specialists in the fields needed in Gaza and equipped with the latest equipment, and it's medical staff can conduct 25 major and minor operations each day. 

The director of the hospital, Brigadier General Zahran Bdeir at the Royal Medical Services told reporters on Monday that the hospital comprises specialists in fields that are much in need in Gaza.The 180-medical cadre hospital directed by His Majesty King Abdullah, includes highly-qualified specialists and surgeons and is fully equipped. In addition the hospital accompanied with two ambulances donated by the King Abdullah.
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Gilad Atzmon: Once again I salute Dr Hajo Meyer

Wednesday, December 8, 2010 at 11:14PM Gilad Atzmon

Last week I posted a very well-made video featuring Dr Hajo Meyer. I allowed myself to offer a light criticism of Meyer who suggested that “Jews were pioneers of inter-human ethics”
I wrote:
“Though I agree and support Meyer’s stand against Israel I also think that Meyer may be slightly wrong.

The Old Testament certainly contains some isolated patches of ethical insights. However, the vast majority of Jewish teaching, the Jewish Bible and the Talmud are anti humanist, non ethical, racially supremacist and tribally orientated.”
It didn’t take long before some people out there found my criticism offensive and inappropriate. As we all know truth is 'offensive'. But then, pretty much out of the blue Dr Meyer appeared on my mail box.

In the most respected and amicable manner he wrote:
Your criticism of my text is correct.
I now know that Rabbi Hillel’s golden rule was actually formulated
500 years earlier by Confucius.
Besides, modern ethnology has shown that empathy is evolutionary determined.
This makes the Israeli crimes look worse.
Best regards
Hajo
(Dr Meyer gave his permission to publish this email)

It is indeed refreshing to come across a person like Meyer, a man who is driven by ethics and intellectual integrity. I salute the man and admire his courage.

Fisk is holding his breath - As usual he never been honest in his Lebanon's reports

I found this BS in Palestinian Idiot Hasbara site, assigned to smear Hamas, syria, Iran, and indirectly Hezbollah

Lebanon holds its breath over leaked revelations
By Robert Fisk in Beirut

Condoleezza Rice Makes Surprise Visit To Lebanon


Rice-Feltman and Marwan Hmadi on July 24, 2006 in Beirut,2006 While Lebanon under attack



Friday, 10 December

Julian Assange may claim that WikiLeaks' disclosure of US documents is for the good of the world, but in Lebanon they have had an incendiary effect. The Hezbollah party is using the cables as proof of UN involvement with Washington – and thus, by extension, with Israel – and politicians are desperately denying that they gave intelligence information to the Americans about Hezbollah's secret communications system.

For weeks, the Hezbollah's secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah, has been denouncing the UN's tribunal into the murder of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri as an American-Israeli plot. He says that anyone giving security information to the Americans is an Israeli spy.

Beirut newspapers have devoted pages to the unexpurgated US cables, in which Lebanese officials revealed the names of suspected assassins to American diplomats, an act which – in this country – can end in a flowered coffin and crocodile tears from the murderers. Mercifully, opposing sides in Lebanon have chosen to accept the weird and unbelievable denials of those involved.
An outbreak of violence would be blamed on the Americans, not on WikiLeaks. (So it's WikiLeaks, not Usrael???)

The UN tribunal's forthcoming accusations – which may be mercifully delayed – have already caused the Beirut government to divide into opposing camps. Now the US cables reveal that the UN has indeed been cooperating with the United States, asking for aerial reconnaissance pictures of the Bekaa Valley and sending DNA samples from Mr Hariri's suspected killer, Ahmad Abu Adass, to FBI headquarters for examination.

One of the most damaging reports is a conversation between the Lebanese defence minister Elias Murr and then US ambassador Jeffrey Feltman that his government had "intercepted conversations that link Fatah al-Islam [Islamic extremists who fought a war against the Lebanese army in 2007] and the Syrian regime". Mr Feltman "urged Murr to share that information via intelligence channels". ( And he did consequently....)

At a separate meeting, the Lebanese interior minister Hassan Sabah told Mr Feltman that "Fatah al-Islam is under the direct tactical control of Syria".

Mr Murr has been the target of a failed assassination attempt. (A hint that syria did it)

Yet more dangerous still is a 2008 cable stating that former Lebanese telecommunications minister Marwan Hamadeh provided the US with maps detailing locations of Hezbollah's communications network. The network, according to former US ambassador Michele Sison, "covers the Palestinian camps, and the Hezbollah training ca
mps in the Bekaa, and is penetrating deep into the Christian Metn and Kesrwan areas".
Mr Hamadeh, who denies these details, had also earlier been the target of an attempted assassination in which his bodyguard was killed. (Another reminder)

Only weeks after this conversation, Hezbollah (On May 7th)took over West Beirut, after gun battles with pro-government forces in which more than 100 civilians died, because of the government's demand (On may 5th) to break the Hezbollah's networks. (THE ONLY NETWORK NOT CONTROLLED BY ISRAEL)

There are some details in the cables on Lebanon which are provably wrong. A claim by Samir Geagea, a right-wing Christian politician, that Iran had provided Syria with 15 submarines, was palpably untrue. Mr Geagea has refused to comment on this cable. (WHY?)

Another allegation – that missiles were smuggled into Lebanon on board planes carrying first aid during the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli war – is provably untrue: Beirut airport was bombed on the first day of the battles and never reopened until the conflict had ended.

Added to this is a cable showing that although the UN no longer believed that four Lebanese security officers imprisoned after the murder of ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri were in any way responsible, Mr Feltman wrote that he feared their release might prompt one of them to take "revenge" against the US embassy in Beirut. The generals, released much later, remained in prison.

All of this is causing the Lebanese to hold their breath for more revelations. And for those named in the cables to hold their breath even more fearfully.

"Sister" Syria is known to have taken its own revenge for much less. (Fisk is holding sister Syria, not Wikleaks, not Israel is responsible for the lifes of his friends in March 14)

As for the Hezbollah, their MP for Tyre, Hassan Fadlallah, says the cables prove "that the US is using the court and the investigation committee as a tool to target the [Hezbollah] resistance". (He said as for Hezbollah. only Hezbullah, not the majority of Lebanese)

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