Saturday, January 12, 2008

Georgie in Jesusland


If Jesus Were Alive Today He'd Be An Arab

By MICHAEL DICKINSON
CounterPunch

".....After landing by helicopter, the president was whisked quickly to the Church of the Nativity in a motorcade, past Israel's towering concrete and barbed wire barrier, military checkpoints and red-roofed Jewish settlements, too quick to notice a handful of demonstrators gathered on the outskirts of Bethlehem, waving Palestinian flags, pictures of family members in Israeli jails, and signs saying "Stop Israeli terror", "Set our prisoners free", "No apartheid walls", and "Zionism is racism"......

Despite the Lord's instructions to 'Love your enemies', Bethlehem's 72 year old Christian mayor Victor Batarseh was not invited to meet Mr Bush, because he is a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an organization which the US State Department considers 'terrorist'......

In the visitors' book at the Holocaust memorial Bush wrote "Long Live Israel",.....

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri called Bush's comments a "declaration of war". "Bush's visit and remarks have indicated that his visit came to support the occupation and has brought nothing to the Palestinian people but evil," he said.

At the beginning of his term in Office as president, when asked by a reporter to elaborate why he chose Jesus as his favourite philosopher, Bush replied: "When you turn your heart and life over to Christ, when you accept Christ as the Savior, it changes your heart. It changes your life. And that's what happened to me."

Perhaps it's time he had another look at the words of love and tolerance preached by his Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. 2000 years ago, Jewish Jesus lived in a country under foreign occupation and he called for peace and brotherhood. 2000 years later, modern Palestine is oppressed, divided and occupied by the Israeli state. If Jesus were alive today he would be an Arab. "

The Warfare State

Toward Militarism, War, Empire, Caskets, and Bankruptcy

By JACOB G. HORNBERGER
CounterPunch

"When U.S. intelligence agencies recently surprised the nation with their National Intelligence Estimate announcement that Iran had ceased its nuclear-weapons program several years ago, many people, including ardent supporters of the president, felt that the announcement put to rest any chance of a war against Iran.

Not so fast! After all, did the disintegration of the WMD rationale for invading Iraq dissuade the interventionists from continuing their invasion of Iraq and occupying the country and continuing to kill Iraqis for several years after that?

The incident in the Gulf of Tonkin - excuse me, Gulf of Hormuz - this past week confirms how easy it is for an American ruler to send the entire nation into war, especially given that he is now permitted to ignore the constitutional provision requiring a congressional declaration of war. If the captains of those U.S. battleships and destroyers had blown those Iranian speedboats out of the water, one can already hear Bush and Cheney proclaiming, "We've been attacked! We've been attacked! The Department of Defense is responding by defending our nation from this attack by bombing Iran. Support the troops. God bless America!"......"

How the New England Journal of Medicine Undercounted Iraqi Civilian Deaths

Gross Distortions, Sloppy Methodology and Tendentious Reporting

By ANDREW COCKBURN
CounterPunch

"Almost five years into the destruction of Iraq, the orthodox rule of thumb for assessing statistical tabulations of the civilian death toll is becoming clear: any figure will do so long as it is substantially lower than that computed by the Johns Hopkins researchers in their 2004 and 2006 studies. Their findings, based on the most orthodox sampling methodology and published in the Lancet after extensive peer review, estimated the post-invasion death toll by 2006 at about 655,000. Predictably, this shocking assessment drew howls of ignorant abuse from self-interested parties, including George Bush ("not credible") and Tony Blair.

Now we have a new result compiled by the Iraqi Ministry of Health under the sponsorship of the World Health Organization and published in the once reputable New England Journal of Medicine, (NEJM) estimating the number of Iraqis murdered, directly or indirectly, by George Bush and his willing executioners at 151,000--far less than the most recent Johns Hopkins estimate. Due to its adherence to the rule cited above, this figure has been greeted with respectful attention in press reports, along with swipes at the Hopkins effort as having, as the New York Times had to remind readers, "come under criticism for its methodology."......

.....In particular, while Johns Hopkins reported that the majority of post invasion deaths were due to violence, the NEJM serves up the comforting assessment that only one sixth of deaths in this period have been due to violence......."

No Nasrallah Here....
Just Another Windbag Instead
.

Like Shooting Fish in a Barrel


IAF strike kills two Hamas militants in southern Gaza

"Two Hamas militants were killed and one was injured when the Israel Air Force struck a Hamas post in the southern Gaza Strip Saturday, the Islamic group said.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesman confirmed a strike on a post near Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, which he said comes in response to mortar fire from the coastal territory......"

***

The same training base, the same Hamas post, the same "naval forces" position.....
And they will never learn; they just want to die.

‘Leb. Resolution 1701 Not Worth Paper It's Written on’


Al-Manar

"12/01/2008 The Second Lebanon War would have ended differently if "the defense establishment would have called up reserve forces and used them as it should have, just like in operation Defensive Shield," Israeli occupation Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said Saturday. "Hezbollah today is stronger than what it was before the war and it has a larger rocket arsenal…it does not fulfill any clause in Resolution 1701. Resolution 1701 is not worth the paper it's written on, "Mofaz said.

The main problem encountered by Israel in the Lebanon War was the political leadership's failed management of the campaign, Mofaz added. "This is the same army and same commanders who fought in operation Defensive Shield four years earlier, and there we won."

In a session organized by the Geneva Initiative organization, Mofaz argued that there is no connection between the results of the war and the security activity undertaken in the past six years, during which he served as chief of staff and as defense minister. "The management of the Second Lebanon War was confused and unsuccessful... In the six years before the war, I wouldn't have done anything differently. Until the war, we fought on the Palestinian front to prevent attacks, and I wouldn't have launched an additional front in Lebanon," he said.

Mofaz made the comments ahead of the publication of the second part of the Winograd report, against a backdrop of growing calls to topple Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert should the report harshly criticize the PM's conduct during the war.

Interim PA State before Final Accord

Regarding the Palestinian issue, Mofaz said Israel should reach an agreement with the Palestinian Authority on an interim state before signing a final settlement deal. He said that the interim deal should grant provisional Palestinian state temporary borders, and should not include a settlement on two of the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the fate of Jerusalem and the Palestinian refugees."

The Führer in Bahrain
Appropriately, His Sword is Red....
With the Blood of More Than a Million Arabs

Pax Americana-Israelica
By Abdullah Darqawi

According to Bush...
Kiss The Right of Return Goodbye

By Baha Boukhari

Bush due in Bahrain today amid protests


"MANAMA • Visiting US President George W Bush can expect a royal welcome from the ruling dynasty and a loyal one from American sailors in Bahrain today but the Shia majority there are less impressed. "The nation does not share in welcoming this visit, which will do nothing but perpetuate the accomplished fact of (US) tyranny and arrogant hegemony" in the region, said the Islamic Ulema Council, the highest Shia cleric body.

"The official interest in this visit does not show respect for the feelings of the people of this country, who see in the United States nothing but the chief of evil and tyranny," it added in a statement.

Bush will be in Bahrain as part of a Gulf tour partly aimed at mobilising Sunni Arab monarchies against Shia Iran, the arch-foe of Washington main Middle East ally, Israel.

H M King Hamad bin Issa Al Khalifa, whose house belongs to the Sunni minority, has hailed as historic the first visit by a US president to the tiny archipelago - a "major non-NATO ally" of Washington and home to the US Fifth Fleet, whose warships were involved in a dangerous standoff with the Iranian navy last Sunday.

Although the Shia council avoided referring to US pressure on Iran, with whom Bahraini Shia have been historically accused of taking sides, it charged that US attempts to revive the stalled Middle East peace process will only serve Israel. "There is nothing in this visit that would serve the Muslim and Arab nations. Moreover, all indications are that this visit will aggravate the situation and contribute to squandering Islamic and Arab rights in venerated Palestine and Jerusalem," it said.


One Shia man, in a view echoed by others, said the Bush trip would not help bring peace to the Middle East. "He will not do anything useful during his tour. How can there be any peace with Israel while it kills Palestinian people on a daily basis," he commented, adding the almost universal Arab perception that "America supports Israel." "Not only the Shias are not interested in this visit. Even Sunnis in Bahrain find it useless," he said, as a leftist association grouping Sunnis and Shias planned an anti-visit sit-in on Friday.

A Shia taxi driver cruising the streets of Manama listening to the Arabic service of Radio Iran said Washington wants to scare the Arabs from Iran. "Arabs are powerless. America controls them. It tells them that Iran is a threat," he said......

Bahrain continues to ban political parties but allows political associations to act as de facto parties. The main Shia opposition formation, the Islamic National Accord Association (INAA), won 42 percent of the seats of the elected chamber in 2006 after having boycotted a 2002 landmark vote.

Meanwhile, the mainly-Shia opposition group, HAQ (Right), which boycotted the 2006 elections, tries to take a pragmatic position. "It is said that the US president is coming to the region to bless the American project for democracy... We want to tell him that there is no democracy in Bahrain," HAQ spokesman Abduljalil Alsingace said......"

IRAQ: Less Violent But Not Less Hellish


By Ali al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail

"......Many people in Fallujah say they simply want the U.S. forces to leave. "If the U.S. generals mean they will hand over security to Iraqis and leave the province, then I will salute them all," retired Iraqi army colonel Salman Ahmed told IPS in Fallujah. "But I know it is just another comedy like that played elsewhere in Iraq, where Iraqis (officials) are just ropes for American dirty laundry. We want our country back for real, not just on paper."

People in Fallujah, the second biggest city of al-Anbar province after capital Ramadi, say they are still in the grip of draconian security measures implemented and backed by the U.S. military.

"If security is so good then let them end the tragedy of our city," a member of the Fallujah City Council, speaking on condition of anonymity told IPS. "We want our freedom back and we want to leave and enter our city without this humiliation by soldiers and policemen. Fallujah is dying, and our masters (Americans) are bragging about security and prosperity."

Fifty-five-year-old mother Um Bashar came to the house where IPS was meeting with residents. "Let them (Americans) take everything and bring me my son back," she said. "He stayed to guard the house in the November 2004 siege and the Americans captured him. Now he is missing. Some people who were released told us he was with them in the airport prison."

Iraqi people do not speak of improvement. They do not see it; they see only that these claims have become important for the U.S. elections. "

CIA, Iran & the Gulf of Tonkin


When the Tonkin Gulf incident took place in early August 1964, I was a journeyman CIA analyst in what Condoleezza Rice refers to as “the bowels of the agency.”

A Good Piece

By Ray McGovern
January 12, 2008

"As a current intelligence analyst responsible for Russian policy toward Southeast Asia and China, I worked very closely with those responsible for analysis of Vietnam and China.

Out of that experience I must say that, as much as one might be tempted to laugh at the bizarre theatrical accounts of Sunday’s incident involving small Iranian boats and U.S. naval ships in the Strait of Hormuz, this is—as my old Russian professor used to insist—nothing to laugh.

The situation is so reminiscent of what happened—and didn’t happen—from Aug. 2-4, 1964, in the Gulf of Tonkin and in Washington, it is in no way funny.

At the time, the U.S. had about 16,000 troops in South Vietnam. The war that was “justified” by the Tonkin Gulf resolution of Aug. 7, 1964, led to a buildup of 535,000 U.S. troops in the late Sixties, 58,000 of whom were killed—not to mention the estimated two million Vietnamese who lost their lives by then and in the ensuing 10 years.

Ten years. How can our president speak so glibly about 10 more years of a U.S. armed presence in Iraq? He must not remember Vietnam.......

Those of us in intelligence, not to mention President Lyndon Johnson, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and National Security Adviser McGeorge Bundy all knew full well that the evidence of any armed attack on the evening of Aug. 4, 1964, the so-called “second” Tonkin Gulf incident, was highly dubious. But it fit the president’s purposes, so they lent a hand to facilitate escalation of the war.......

Good News: It’s Different Now

It is my view that the only thing that has prevented Bush and Cheney from attacking Iran so far has been the strong opposition of the uniformed military, including the Joint Chiefs.

As the misadventure last Sunday in the Strait of Hormuz shows, our senior military officers need all the help they can get from intelligence officers more concerned with the truth than with “keeping lines open to the White House” and doing its bidding......

If you’re working in the bowels of the CIA and you find that your leaders are cooking the intelligence once again into a recipe for casus belli, think long and hard about your oath to protect the Constitution. Should that oath not transcend any secrecy promise you had to accept as a condition of employment? By sticking your neck out, you might be able to prevent 10 years of unnecessary war."

Friday, January 11, 2008

Israeli Military up in Arms over Bush-Olmert Plan for Major Operation in Gaza on Behalf of… Palestinian Authority


Worth Reading

"President George W. Bush gave Israel the nod for its long-delayed military operation against Hamas in the Gaza before he ended his 50-hour visit to Jerusalem and Ramallah on Friday, Jan. 11 – except that his provisos stop the Israeli military short of its objectives, namely stamping out the Palestinian missile campaign, halting smuggling and eradicating Hamas military stockpiles, as reported here by DEBKAfile’s military sources:

1. Israeli forces must limit their invasion to two or three strips abutting the Gaza-Israeli border......

Operationally, this means the Israeli army may push back the Qassam missile launching sites from the border and distance this harassment from the Israeli population, but may not destroy terrorist arms and missile caches and their means of production.....

2. The IDF must operate only in sparsely-populated areas and desist from actions that may cause extensive Palestinian civilian casualties.

3. The IDF will not capture the main cities, e.g. Gaza City, Rafah and Khan Younes.

4. After clearing captured areas of Hamas, Jihad Islami and other Palestinian terrorists, the Israeli army must pull out and hand the cleansed territory to the forces of the Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Israel must enable the passage of those forces from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip and allow them to establish military bases for launching their offensives to recapture the entire Gaza Strip, thereby reversing Hamas’ success in forcing their retreat six months ago.

Point 4 was tagged onto the list during the US president’s talks with Abbas in Ramallah Thursday, Jan. 10.

The Palestinian leader proposed that Bush’s assent to an Israel counter-terror operation in the Gaza Strip be exploited for the IDF to prepare the ground for his Fatah-ruled Palestinian Authority to regain its control of the lost territory. It was agreed between Bush, Abbas and Olmert, that the details of this plan be worked out after the US president returns home at the end of his Middle East tour.......

The notion that members of Israel’s people’s army, which is duty bound to defend the state, may be ordered to fight and lay down their lives in the service of the Palestinian Authority, presents every serviceman with an irreconcilable dilemma......

....Today, Israeli policy-makers, the United States and the Palestinian Authority are contemplating saddling the soldiers with another political undertaking: to turn around the Fatah’s defeat in its internecine war with Hamas......

Another of the plan’s fundamental flaws is that the Palestinian Authority is in effect leaderless, rudderless and is bereft of the professional security strength for following up on the deal.

The Bush-Olmert-Abbas plan would have the Israeli military pull their irons out of the fire when it is common knowledge that once inside Gaza, PA security forces will quickly disintegrate and be swallowed up by the far more resolute Hamas. It was therefore proposed in Bush’s talks in Ramallah and Jerusalem that the Israeli Air Force and artillery provide support for the Palestinian takeover of the Gaza Strip, a tactic the US army employs for local forces in Iraq......

Furthermore, Abbas and his elite officials are not considered representative by the bulk of the Palestinian people (who in Jan. 2006 voted Hamas into office). Neither are they trusted to execute complicated strategies.

Finally, the Bush-Olmert policy of placing all their bets for a Middle East breakthrough on the inept Mahmoud Abbas condemns their plan to failure.

At the dinner Olmert hosted in honor of the US president Thursday night, several ministers pointed out these hard facts to Bush and told him bluntly that he is gambling all his hopes for peace on a non-existent entity called the Palestinian Authority. The US president answered: “I agree. That really is a problem.”"

"What is the lesson to be learned from the Holocaust?"


A Great Interview With Hedy Epstein

By Silvia Cattori

"11/01/08 "ICH " -- - Hedy Epstein, is a German Jewish Holocaust survivor, born in 1924, whose parents were sent to Auschwitz in 1942, where they perished. In 1948, Hedy Epstein went to live in United States. In 2003, she decided to make a trip to Palestine. Shocked by the oppression that the Israeli government is imposing on the Palestinians, she is, since then, devoting herself to make it known to the world. In the interview she gave to the Swiss journalist Silvia Cattori, Hedy Epstein speaks, with her gentle and mild voice, about her last travel to Palestine after a moving visit to one of several concentration camps to which her parents were deported. And she said: "I would like to dedicate this interview to the children of Gaza, whose parents cannot protect them or send them away to safety as my parents did when they sent me to England in May 1939 on a Kindertransport”.....

Silvia Cattori: What was your interpretation of the fact that the Israeli officers treated you in such a brutal way?

Hedy Epstein: They tried to intimidate me, to silence me, hoping I would never come back. Though momentarily they may have succeeded, ultimately they did not. To quote General McArthur, an American army general, who said "I shall return", I have returned four times since the January 2004, event at the Tel Aviv airport, on my way back from Israeli occupied territory, and will continue to return. They will not be able to stop me. And, so, I plan to aboard ship to Gaza in a few months.

Silvia Cattori: Was it not too traumatic for a sensitive person like you to go back to the West Bank and see the Isreali soldiers humiliating, threatening, killing, and destroying Palestinians lives and properties?

Hedy Epstein: As an American I am a privileged person. I am very much aware of this and feel uncomfortable wearing this cloak, especially when I am in Palestine, conscious of the fact that I can come and go any time I want to, a privilege denied the Palestinians, who have great difficulty in moving from one place to another, restricted by road blocks, check points, the imprisoning 25 foot high wall, by young Israeli soldiers who can decide who can pass and who cannot, who can go to school, to the hospital, to work, to visit family and friends.......

Silvia Cattori: For the Palestinians in Hebron or Nablus, to see a Holocaust survivor travelling in such precarious conditions to express to them her love and solidarity, is it not something very unusual and touching?

Hedy Epstein: I feel it is important for the Palestinians who are not allowed to leave Palestine, who are living under the Israelis military occupation, in such horrendous conditions, to know that there are people in other parts of the world who condemn the Israeli oppression, who care enough to come there, and to share their difficulties and sufferings, even if it is for a very short time.

I am impressed again and again to discover that Palestinians know so much more about what is going on in the world. They are better informed than the American people......

And so, the situation, especially in Gaza, is so awful, I feel I must continue to be a moral voice, must continue to have the courage to take a public stand against Israel's crimes against humanity and the misinterpretations provided by the media. Israel would not be able to carry out its crimes against humanity without the United States, the world, permitting it to do so and the mass media, which, with few exceptions, dehumanizes Palestinians and instills fear, ignorance and loathing of them and their culture.......

Silvia Cattori: You said that you plan to be aboard ship to Gaza in a few months (3)?

Hedy Epstein: Oh yes, definitely. There is nothing which can stop me. I am determined to go and I am going to take swimming lessons, just in case. The "Free Gaza" boat could not go last summer for different reasons. I think it is important for all of the people who are invited on the boat, to take that chance to show to the world what Israel is really doing in Gaza and to express their intention to break the illegal siege.

The Media is so controlled - probably by Israel as well – that, whatever the power that be in United State or in Europe, they never convey what is really happening every day on the ground; how much suffering is caused by the extreme oppression, what is happening to the people, not only in Gaza, but to a lesser extent maybe to the people in the West Bank. The world needs to know, and if we can be that medium, to let the world finally know what is happening, then it is important for us to play that role......."

دولة بوش ووطن المقاومة


A Must Read (If you read Arabic)

عادل سمارة
فلسطين المحتلة

"لو قال قائل قبل اربعين عاماً، أن حركة تحرر وطني سوف تقف على ابواب البيت الأبيض تستجدي دولة، وتطمئن شعبها على ذلك، بعد إسالة دماء أبنائها لمئة عام، وبعد اغتصاب وطنها، هذا دون أن نتحدث عن كل مآسي وضحايا الأمة العربية كلها، لقيل فيه ما قال مالك في الخمر. لكن هذا يحصل اليوم وعلى الملأ وبافتخار.

اسوق هذا وأنا وكل الناس نستمع لسيل من المدائح والآمال والتحليلات والتعليقات وافتتاحيات الصحف والمقالات من مثقفي وساسة طبقة الكمبرادور ونخبته المستفيدة من المرحلة طردياً مع ترديها، يقولون بأن جورج بوش، الذي ، بغباء أو ذكاء مفرط، لا يخفي احتقاره للعرب وكرهه للإسلام، سيخلق للفلسطينيين دولة! وهي إن حصلت، ليست وطناً.

لا أدري في حقيقة الأمر ماذا يقول العالم عن هؤلاء المتأملين، ولا أدري كيف يمكن أن نُقنع البشرية بمساواتنا معها ونحن نهوي إلى هذا الحد! كأن هؤلاء الفلسطينيين كانوا ينتظرون انحسار الثورة العالمية ليتنازلوا عن ما هو لهم وما ليس لهم. ولا أدري ماذا يقول القادة الصهاينة في سريرتهم حينما يستمعوا إلى هذه الآمال والترجيات الفلسطينية والعربية الرسمية؟

لم يخطر بالبال، ولا بالتحليل العلمي ذات يوم أن يصل "استدخال الهزيمة" إلى هذا العمق. وأن يتم التسابق على التطبيع مع الإمبريالية والصهيونية وراس المال. وأن يصبح "السلام" خيار استراتيجي، وهو سلام يعني مسالمة كل من يطمع في الوطن والأمة.

صحيح أن للإعلام دوره في أخذ العقول على حين غرة، ولكن أن يعتقد أناس أن وطنهم المنهوب سُيعاد، أو حتى بعضه، على يد من قام باغتصابه ودعم اغتصابه، فهذا أمر يحتاج لفحص العقول، أو فحص الجيوب!

لو قال أحد ذات يوم بأن حركة التحرر الوطني الفلسطينية ترمي إلى إخلاء الكيان الصهيوني لبضعة كيلو مترات مما احتله عام 1967 لتقيم فيها دولة، لكان والله قُتل.

ولأن حركة المقاومة الفلسطينية نبتت في حقبة سوداء بالكامل، اي بعد هزيمة 1967 النكراء، بانت هذه الحركة كما لو كانت شيئاً، أو حركة بمستوى المهمة المدعاة. وساعدها على ذلك النفخ الإعلامي لها ولأنظمة عربية كانت تغطي نفسها بورقة تين أو توت لا فرق.

ولكن، كان هناك فريقان يعرفان حدود ومحدودية هذه الحركة. الفريق الأول قياداتها، التي كانت على يقين بأن باعها أقصر ألف مرة من تحرير فلسطين طالما هي حركة إقليمية من جهة، ومفتقرة إلى عقيدة متماسكة من جهة ثانية. ولذا، تعاطت التسوية والمناورة منذ الأيام الأولى للمقاومة.

والفريق الثاني، بعض المثقفين ذوي الرؤيا، الذين أدركوا طبيعة قيادة هذه الحركة، فنقدوها وهجروها. قد يكون لحسن الحظ انني أحدهم. فبعد أن غادرت الجبهة الشعبية مع انشقاق الديمقراطية عنها، دون أن أعرف عن اليمقراطية سوى أنها تتبنى الماركسية، حيث كنت في المعتقل، وبعد مغادرة المعتقل ببضع سنوات توصلت إلى أن هذه المقاومة لا يمكن أن تنجز حتى دولة فلسطينية في الضفة والقطاع. وإذا كان للجبهة الديمقراطية أرشيفاً في دمشق فقد كتبت لهم ذلك في عشرين صفحة، ومما ذكرته أن الإتحاد السوفييتي ليس دولة اشتراكية وليس حليفاً، وأن التنظيم مجرد حركة برجوازية صغيرة..الخ. كان ذلك عام 1976. وغادرت هذا التنظيم لأغادر تنظيمات المقاومة. ولأتهم بشتى التهم، وهو ما لم يهزني، وها انذا أقرأ اليوم صحة ما كتبته قبل اكثر من ثلاثين عاماً.

التدمير النفسي

إذا كان لا بد من وضع زيارة هذا السفاح في سياقها الفعلي، فهي زيارة تستهدف النيل من كرامة الجزء المقاوم من الأمة العربية. هي إشارة لكل عربي، بأن بوسع القاتل أن يدخل فلسطين محمياً بفلسطينيين ومرحبا به منهم، فهل أذل من هذا؟

ماذا ستقول اسر الشهداء في فلسطين واسر الأسرى، والمغتصبات في العراق؟ أليس هذا مشهداً سوريالياً!

ماذا كان ل بوش أن يتمنى أكثر من ان يرحب به في العواصم العربية علناً بعد كل الدماء العربية التي سفحها ولا زال.

هنا الخطر النفسي لهذه الزيارة، والتدمير المعنوي، هنا النيل من الكرامة. وكل هذا تحت غطاء، انه قادم وفي جيبه دولة. نعم، لا تحتاج هذه الدولة لأوسع من جيب بوش! فهي ليست وطناً.

وصل بوش وقدم ما انتظره الكيان، وهو تاييد حصر دولة الكيان في اليهود "دولة يهودية"، وأضاف في رام الله على مرأى ومسمع كل الفلسطينيين والعرب المناضلين من أجل حق العودة، أن الأمم المتحدة قد انتهت، ولا قيمة لقراراتها. ربما لهذا انتظر أهل التسوية دولة من بوش وليس وطناً. وغير هذا التصريح، لا يوجد في كل ما قاله هذا الرجل شيئاً يُذكر بالنسبة للفلسطينيين. هذا إذا نأينا بأنفسنا عن زيارته لبيت لحم ليمارس أصوليته الدينية المتعصبة، وليشعر أنه يقوم حقاً بغزوة "إفرنجية" تماماً كما قال هو بنفسه قبل بضع سنوات، وزعم المفسرون والمترجمون العرب لأفكاره، بأنها زلَّة لسان. لماذا لا يكون لديه هذا الشعور، وهو بهذه العقلية والثقافة؟ ولماذا لا تكون طائرته قد حلقت فوق سهل مجدو "ارماجدون" الذي يجهز هو وامثاله لمعركتها، ولكن هذه المرة، "معركة مجدو الراسمالية والنفطية"، نعم لتصبح حقيقة لا خرافة.
......
......
"

US War Plans and the "Strait of Hormuz Incident": Just Who Threatens Whom?


by Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, January 11, 2008

"Instigated by the Pentagon, a bungled media disinformation campaign directed against Iran has unfolded.

Five Iranian patrol boats, visibly with no military capabilities, have been accused of threatening three US war ships in the Strait of Hormuz.....

Coinciding with Bush's Middle East trip, the intent of the Pentagon's propaganda ploy is to present Iran as the aggressor......

But in fact with the exception of alleged verbal abuse on the part of the Iranian coastguard, which Tehran denies in a carefully worded statement, nothing happened other than a routine patrol operation.

Just Who is Threatening Whom?

The incident must be put in a historical perspective.

Realities are turned upside down. Known and documented since 2003, the Pentagon has drawn up detailed and precise plans for U.S. sponsored attacks on both Iran and Syria. Israel and NATO are partners in this military adventure.

Moreover, barely mentioned by the Western media, there has since Summer 2006, been a massive concentration of US Naval power in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, which are part of those war preparations. Since 2006, US war ships with advanced weapons systems have been stationed almost continuously within proximity of Iranian territorial waters.

Large scale US war games have been conducted.

Numerous acts of provocation directed against Iran have been undertaken.

These war vessels are deployed in the context of US-NATO-Israeli war plans in relation to Iran. The first phase of these war plans was formulated in the immediate wake of the US led Iraq invasion in July 2003, under a scenario entitled "Theater Iran Near Term". (TIRANNT). (See Michel Chossudovsky, "Theater Iran Near Term", Global Research, February 2007)....."

Why don't you Bomb Yourself and Save Us All


By Gilad Atzmon / Aron Heller

""US Should Have Bombed Auschwitz" "President Bush had tears in his eyes during an hour-long tour of Israel's Holocaust Memorial on Friday and told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the U.S. should have bombed Auschwitz to halt the killing"

This is what the president Bush said today at the end of his formal visit to Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial. You see Mr. President, it couldn't work out, because at that time Hitler was working for America, killing 'red communists'. At the time, America and Britain had an armistice with Nazi Germany in mind.

You simply couldn't just admit that Hitler was a butcher. No one makes peace with industrial mass murderers. As if this is not enough, at the time your military intelligence didn't really buy the story of Nazi Germany involvement in mass liquidation. Consequently, your country didn't open its gates to Jewish refugees. However, if you are truly shocked by Nazi inhumanity and regret your country's impotence at the time of the war, now is the time to act. You can always save the Palestinians. You can, for instance, just threaten to bomb Tel Aviv, Haifa or Jerusalem...This will be enough to liberate the Palestinians in Gaza concentration Camp.

In case you are still motivated by a genuine humanist call, you may consider bombing yourself, and saving the rest of the Iraqi people from the genocide you apparently inflicted on them. Mr President, it is never too late to save humanity from yourself and your ilk......."

Report: Wall construction, settlement expansion and nonviolent resistance in 2007


"According to a new report released by the Popular Campaign Against the Wall, during the past year, the Israeli government has continued its construction of the illegal annexation Wall in the occupied West Bank, and confiscated thousands of Dunams in addition to uprooting hundreds of trees and demolishing dozens of houses, especially in the Jerusalem area..."

Gareth Porter: Official Version of U.S.-Iranian Naval Incident Starts to Unravel


Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman


"The United States has lodged a formal diplomatic protest against Iran for its “provocation” in the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday morning. But new information reveals that the alleged Iranian threat to American naval vessels may have been blown out of proportion. We speak to investigative historian Gareth Porter....."

What Is He Capable Of? The Presidential Psychology at the End of Days


A Very Interesting Article
By John P Briggs, M.D. and JP Briggs II, Ph.D.

"......many of the religious figures associated with Bush believe the final battles of the apocalypse are near, with fires that will spread from the Middle East. Where James Dobson, Pat Robertson, Tim LaHaye and John Hagee once pressed Bush hard for war with Iraq, they now clamor for one with Iran. The president cloaks himself in the innocuous terms "Christian," "evangelical" and "born again," and carefully avoids stating his beliefs specifically. But the type of Christianity most influential on his thinking is clearly radical or extremist rather than evangelical; it has an authoritarian, punishing, us-versus-them flavor; it views Christ less as a figure of tolerance and forgiveness than as a five-star general coming to wreck vengeance on anyone who has failed to join His army.......

We believe the great foreseeable peril of Bush's remaining year in office is the intersection of his Christian defense with Iran. In recent months, when Bush warned that Iran sought to launch World War III, he seems to have unconsciously told us it is he who wants war. The neo-conservative agenda to capture the Middle East for its oil, only reinforces Bush's own psychological reasons for attacking Iran: 1) to certify his biblical mission, and 2) to avoid facing the colossal incompetence of the Iraq war by bequeathing a widened and inextricable conflict to his successor. We believe Bush is aware that the long-term chaos that might result from an attack on Iran could confound the historical image of his administration enough to make his own failures harder to see. In 50 or 100 years - after he is dead, anyway - historians might even see his worldview in a favorable light. After all, they're still debating George Washington. That's what he thinks. The presidency has become for Bush like the popular "global domination" board game he played with fellow undergrads at Yale. There, he was known as the player willing to take the most risks......."

Bush in the Middle East: Iran Over Palestine, Israel Over All

By Phyllis Bennis
Znet

"Bush's current visit to the Middle East, despite the official central message of supporting an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, has far more to do with Iran.

That is not a secret; the lead article in Israel's leading daily, Ha'aretz, describing the Bush meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert, begins "Iran's nuclear program was at the center of the closed door meeting between Bush and Olmert." Israel rejects the findings of the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate released last month that found that Iran does not have a nuclear weapons program and does not necessarily even want one. In spite of that, Olmert told Bush, "our unequivocal conclusion is that they [the Iranians] are busy developing nuclear weapons." According to Ha'aretz, Bush agreed, saying the Iranians could resume their weapons program as easily as they froze it in 2003. It was understood before Bush even arrived in the region that a major part of his goal was to reassure Israel that the NIE would have no consequence - that it did not actually signal any change in U.S. posture towards Iran. His trip intended to "clear up any confusion in the region regarding Iran," Bush said. "The NIE report may have sent a signal to some that the U.S. doesn't think that Iran is a threat," he continued as he went on to disabuse that notion. "Iran continues to be a threat to world peace." And that means the U.S. would continue to provide support for Israel vis-à-vis Iran even if Tel Aviv's overtly aggressive threats towards Iran contradict the findings of Bush's own intelligence agencies.

Bush told Israel "you better take the Iranian threat seriously," and Israeli President Shimon Peres responded that Israel had taken Bush's advice "not to underestimate the Iranian threat." He used the opportunity to warn Tehran that "Iran should not underestimate Israel's resolve for self-defense."

Bush visits to Arab countries will also be about mobilizing against Iran......"

Inside the White House media bubble


Al-Jazeera.net

"Travelling with the White House press corps on an overseas presidential trip is a cross between going on a luxury cruise and working on a chain gang.

On the one hand, it involves business-class travel aboard a chartered Boeing 747 where the Scotch and smoked salmon flow freely. On the other, journalists and reporters are herded on to buses, driven back and forth, constantly scanned and inspected, and ordered around with a "hurry-up, let's go, keep-it-moving" brusqueness that would make a Marine drill instructor proud.

Snorre Wik, an Al Jazeera cameraman, and I are two of about 150 media professionals that are accompanying George Bush, the US president, on his travels through the Middle East.......

Orchestrated events

It's a strange existence inside the White House press bubble. Everything is scripted and scheduled down to the minute. Experienced media professionals say the trips tend to take on a predictable pattern. Brian Haefli, a sound engineer for the CNN network who has been travelling with presidents since the first Bush administration in 1989, said: "It's very repetitive."

"All you see are hotel ballrooms and buffet food. And the picture is always the same - smiling, hand-shaking, and two questions from each side during the press conference."

A small number of reporters and photographers are assigned to "pools", which are allowed to take pictures of Bush at official events, such as shaking hands with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, and smiling, or shaking hands with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, and smiling.

The other reporters sit around in a hotel ballroom watching widescreen TVs, gossiping and waiting for the pool people to come back and give their report - which is usually along the lines of: "The president smiled and shook hands."......"

Pakistan takes a step backwards

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times

"From Pakistan's point of view, the best way to avoid an extremist backlash and quell all talk of its nuclear arsenal falling into militant hands, is to back off from the tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan, where its military is battling the Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda. Instead, there is now talk of renewed peace dialogue, even though this is exactly what the United States does not want...."

US beats a Middle East policy retreat

By Adam Morrow and Khaled Moussa al-Omrani
Asia Times

"CAIRO - Recent months have witnessed several notable political reorientations in the Middle East, involving Iran, the Gulf states, Egypt and Lebanon. Several experts say the changes reflect a shift in Washington's regional strategy following recent policy setbacks.

"US policies in the region are either in retreat or undergoing re-examination," Ayman Abelaziz Salaama, international law professor at Cairo University, told Inter Press Service. "Washington's project for a new Middle East - launched in 2001

with the aim of redrawing the region to suit US interests - has failed."....."

Official Version of Naval Incident Starts to Unravel

By Gareth Porter

"Despite the official and media portrayal of the incident in the Strait of Hormuz early Monday morning as a serious threat to US ships from Iranian speedboats that nearly resulted in a "battle at sea," new information over the past three days suggests that the incident did not involve such a threat and that no US commander was on the verge of firing at the Iranian boats....."

Iran, Again

The War Party is pushing us into attacking

By Justin Raimondo

"......As much as I hate to say it, the video released by the state-controlled media of the tyrannical Iranian regime is more coherent, and far more credible than Washington's cock-and-bull story. And that's truly a very sad state of affairs. But remember who put out all that ersatz "intelligence" about Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction." To those who reflexively take Washington's word over Tehran, I have three words to say: Niger uranium forgeries......

In short, it just doesn't make any sense for the Iranians to have done what they're accused of doing, and yet it does make perfect sense that an administration such as this one – which has been gunning for Tehran, lo these many months – would create an "incident" in the run-up to launching an attack.

As I warned weeks ago, when the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran came out, and people were shouting hosannas because they were convinced war had been averted: not so fast. The nuclear issue was never going to spark a war with the Iranians, because they had already abandoned their program: there was no smoking gun. The most likely path to an open armed conflict was always a border incident, either on land or in the Gulf......."

Lame Ducks

A lasting settlement?


While George Bush talks up the prospects for peace, in reality he backs Israel's assault on Palestinians' legitimate national aspirations

By Karma Nabulsi
(Karma Nabulsi is the fellow in politics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, and university lecturer at the department of politics and international relations, Oxford University. She was a PLO representative from 1977-90)
The Guardian

".....In Israeli hallways yesterday, Bush was celebrated as the unwavering supporter of Israel's expansionist policies that he truly is, as he pressed ahead with a public relations campaign that began at Annapolis - talking future statehood for the Palestinians in theory, but backing occupation policies in practice - standing by as Olmert spoke of increasing settlements in illegally annexed Arab East Jerusalem. For the massive construction of Israeli settlements on expropriated Palestinian land over the last few years - illegal under international law and condemned by almost every country in the world - is only made possible by uncritical American financial, military and diplomatic support for Israel.

The accelerated illegal settlements activity that kills all hope for progress is not taking place in spite of President Bush's role in the Middle East, but is, obviously, directly connected to it: he will do nothing to stop it......

So when Palestinians today express despair about the present administration's commitment to their freedom, it does not mean they are despairing about the desire for a better future, or that they are not committed to peace, or that they do not possess the capacity of hope. It simply means they have a more realistic and pragmatic appreciation of their current predicament than those who insist that Palestinians should draw their hope from Bush's deadly rhetoric. "

Not such a little earner

Tony Blair's new role as a JP Morgan adviser is just the latest evidence of his brazen avarice

Geoffrey Wheatcroft
Friday January 11, 2008
The Guardian

".....Other prime ministers have looked for nice little earners after retirement, by way of unreadable memoirs or dubious directorships, but there has always been an almost admirably brazen quality to Tony Blair's avarice. Within months of leaving No 10 he has picked up several million for his memoirs, £250,000 a time for speaking engagements, and now an annual £500,000 for providing "strategic advice and insight" to Morgan, the US investment bank, which will take him a few days a month. As the 19th-century Earl of Glasgow might have said, a fellow can jog along on that.......

Referring to the ghastly speech ("this is the greatest nation on earth") with which the prime minister announced his departure last May, Alan Bennett observes in the London Review of Books that, to Blair, "the real importance of his premiership is as a stage in his spiritual journey". Or is it his financial journey? "

Welcome, Mr President, to the misery you've created

In eight years Palestinians have seen the bald eagle of enlightened US power degenerate into a phoney, biased, cynical lame duck

Jonathan Steele
Friday January 11, 2008
The Guardian

".....Bush's engagement in the world's most intractable dispute is late, piecemeal and phoney. Above all, it is one-sided. As Ghassan Khatib, a former Palestinian minister, remarked this week: "Palestinians agree that in the history of the United States, Bush is more biased toward Israel than any other American president." In any conflict, responsibility for making the largest concessions always rests on the stronger party, especially when most of the wrong is on its side. But, despite his rhetoric yesterday, Bush has not used Washington's enormous leverage over Israel to end the occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem......"

Current Al-Jazeera (Arabic) Online Poll


The question is:

Do you believe that a Palestinian state can be established before the end of 2008?

With about 900 responding so far, 94% said no.

Thursday, January 10, 2008


This is how the Palestinians dealt in the past with collaborators and traitors among them....
I would worry if I were Abbas or Fayyad

A 'helping' hand


Israel's way of supporting its negotiating partner leaves something to be desired

By Khaled Amayreh
Al-Ahram Weekly

"......The incursion embarrassed the PA, portraying it in the eyes of Palestinians, especially Nablus's inhabitants, as helpless and even irrelevant. "What kind of government is it whose soldiers and policemen hasten to enter their holes when the occupation army comes to rape the city," asked Maher Kanan, a Nablus businessman. "And they claim that they have authority and sovereignty here."......

A prominent Palestinian intellectual described the current state of affair between Israel and the PA in the following words: "They meet, they exchange kisses and nice words, while Israeli bulldozers are busy pulverising what is left of Jerusalem," said Abdul-Sattar Qassem, professor of political science at An-Najah National University in Nablus.

The Weekly asked Qassem why he thought the PA was not protesting against Israel's settlement expansion more strongly. His answer was that, "the PA has already received the price for its silence [an allusion to the $7 billion pledged during last month's Paris Donor Conference]. So there is a kind of a tacit agreement between the two sides (Israel and the PA) according to which Israel would have carte blanche in terms of killing Palestinians and expanding settlements and the PA would protest against Israeli acts and behaviour for public consumption."......"

Olmert tells Bush construction in Jerusalem to continue

"Israel will not accept the American demand to stop building in east Jerusalem's Jewish neighborhoods and in the settlement blocs, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told US President George W. Bush on Wednesday.

"We made it clear that Jerusalem's status was different than that of other settlements," the prime minister stressed during a joint press conference with the US president, on the backdrop of the disagreement between Israel and the US regarding the demand to freeze the construction in the settlement and beyond the Green Line in the capital......"

The charade goes on

News analysis by Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem

"......Many observers point out that Bush’s understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is very superficial. For example, he said Israel should remain a “Jewish state,” but wouldn’t say what that meant in real terms and what he thought the fate of nearly 1.5 million Israeli Muslim and Christian citizens, who constitute nearly a quarter of Israel’s population, would be, especially in the long run.

Non-conformist reporters are always excluded from Bush’s press conferences. But If pressed on this issue, Bush would very likely exhaust his intellectual capacity by parroting the mendacious Israeli mantra that Israel is a Jewish and democratic state and that non-Jews who are Israeli citizens have nothing to fear.

However, if Bush were to be pressed further on whether he thought which should come first, the “Jewish” or “democratic” element of the state, the President would very much look really confused and be at loss as to how to relate to this matter.......

In occupied Jerusalem, Bush’s chummy chats with Israeli leaders underscored his weak intellectual ability. For example, he told Israeli Prime Minister that if he and Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas didn’t reach a peace settlement during the remaining period of Bush’s term of office, he would disengage himself from resolving the conflict.

Well, that was music for Israeli leaders, especially Mr. Olmert, who wouldn’t shed any tears in the likely case of a breakdown of talks with the PA leadership. Isn’t that Olmert’s undeclared dream? Because then the Israeli premier, reputed for his duplicitous mindset and dishonesty, would blame the helpless and effectively vanquished PA for the collapse of the talks and at the same time obtain a valuable excuse for continuing settlement expansion in the occupied territories.

Indeed, Bush’s conspicuous flaccidity with Israel on the settlement issue will only contribute to undermining his own declared vision of seeing two states, Palestine and Israel, living in peace side by side. The reason for that is simple. Israel will not remove any substantial number of settlements in the West Bank unless and until it comes under a severe and unprecedented pressure from Washington. However, the fact that the US is having an election year will make any American administration reluctant and wary of pressuring Israel on such a sensitive issue. More to the point, the American election season will embolden Israel and her powerful Jewish lobby, e.g. AIPAC, to resist with determination and confidence any such pressure in case it materialized......

Olmert is a pathological liar as he had promised numerous times to remove these outposts, but to no avail. The same thing can be said about Israeli procrastination with regard to the removal of hundreds of Nazi-like roadblocks and checkpoints throughout the West Bank, which render normal life and normal economic activities nearly impossible.

Olmert may well deploy some troops to some isolated outposts in order to stage the appearance of a showdown with the die-hard messianic settlers. However, the Israeli premier would eventually resort to stalling tactics until Bush leaves office or a new government is installed in Israel.

In short, the behavior of the Israeli government and the Bush administration suggest there is absolutely nothing new in their respective positions on the Palestinian issue.

On Thursday, Bush traveled to Ramallah to meet with Abbas and his aides, probably to thank them for persecuting Hamas in the West Bank and for coming to terms with Israeli settlement expansion as well as showing understanding toward Israeli military incursions in Palestinian population centers.

Bush might also speak tough words to Abbas, like telling him that he will have to choose “statehood” or “chaos.” Well, statehood according to whom and to whose standards? Israel’s standards?

There is no doubt that this is exactly what Bush has in mind. There is also no doubt that a statehood in accordance with Israeli standards would put Abbas and the Palestinian people on a bloody collision course, which would create chaos, turbulence, and a lot of bloodshed.

Palestinians, even if bribed with seven billion dollars, will not trade their inalienable rights for a state that has a form but lacks substance."

2008 presidential charade promises deepening of government criminality and expansion of war

By Larry Chin

Global Research, January 10, 2008

"Every election in modern US history has been a criminal manipulation, choreographed and rigged by political elites and performed by hand-picked elite puppets, each backed by their teams of corrupt war criminals, intelligence/security “advisors” and think tank assets. The 2008 affair will be no different.

It is time once again to dispel the mass insanity and unfounded hopes as another fresh election hell ensues. There will be no savior, no end to the continuing world crisis, and absolutely no “change."

The monsters behind each candidate

As the American public once again gets swept up into another beyond, ridiculous carnival over which “presidential personality” is most “likeable," which preselected puppet makes a better speech, etc., there is little or no attention paid to the individuals behind each candidate; the forces that are pulling the strings, and actually setting the geopolitical agenda.

The Washington Post has provided a complete list of each puppet’s respective “masters," which must be studied line by line.....

This list holds the key to the central issue: war.

As the names reveal, every major candidate (the favored puppets with any real chance of being selected) fronts for agendas set by current and former neoconservative and neoliberal “security” officers and politicos, members of the Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, and apparatuses such as the Heritage Foundation, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Brookings Institution, AIPAC, the Hoover Institution, the American Enterprise Institute, and others.

Some of the most nightmarish individuals who walk the earth today can be found behind the candidates, as follows......

Here comes the “even more aggressive ‘war on terrorism’

It's clear from the chosen “candidates," there will be no end to the war, or the continuing decline of the American empire.

The “war on terrorism” will not only continue but likely intensify and expand under “new management." The only question is whether the bias will be towards a neoliberal brand, , , the “more nuanced” multinational New World Order, a “bipartisan consensus” in Washington, more orderly economic and political declines, etc. . . . .or a continuation of the open brutality and criminality of Bush-Cheney.

Violent events, including the assassination of Bhutto in Pakistan, and other such “9/11s," stack the deck towards the latter . . . McCain and Giuliani.....

Clinton went even further into details about her particular war fantasy: “At some point, probably when the missiles have launched, the Pakistani government has to know they are on the way.”

In the end, McCain’s War is Hell. Now Let's Get On With It is the voice of the consensus . . . the 9/11 lie exemplified......"

PA forces attack anti-Bush demonstrators in Ramallah

"Bethlehem – Ma'an – Palestinian security forces seized up to 25 protesters at a demonstration against the policies of US President George W. Bush in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where Bush was visiting on Thursday.

Witnesses said that Fatah-allied Palestinian Authority forces attacked demonstrators with clubs and pepper spray, tearing their signs and banners.

Bush was meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Muqata, the presidential compound, not far from the site of the demonstration.

Palestinian Legislative Council member Khalida Jarrar said that several protesters were injured after security forces attacked them. He said Bashir Kahyri, a leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) sustained a fractured shoulder. Another demonstrator's nose was broken while others suffocated on tear gas. They were treated at the government hospital in Ramallah. Khayri is one the PFLP's senior leaders who was imprisoned by Israel for 16 years and also exiled for a period.

Approximately 1000 protesters had gathered in defiance of a ban on public protests for an anti-Bush sit-in at Ramallah's Orthodox Club before attempting to push towards Clock Square. The security forces immediately, violently dispersed the crowd, witnesses said.

The National and Islamic Forces, the Palestinian Grassroots Anti Apartheid Wall Campaign, the Prisoners Association and the National Committee to Commemorate the Nakba called for demonstrations to express opposition to Bush's presence in the region.

"This man has stood against Palestinians' rights," said Jamal Juma, the coordinator of the Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign. Juma pointed out Bush's opposition to the right of Palestinian refugees to return home. "This man is not going to bring anything to the Palestinian people," he said."

Bahar: Bush's visit might herald large-scale IOF invasion of Gaza


"GAZA, (PIC)-- Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the acting speaker of the PLC, on Thursday expressed fears that the current visit of American president George Bush to the region would be followed by a large-scale IOF invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Bahar said in a press release that following the Annapolis conference IOF murders and incursions increased in all Palestinian lands.

He said that the visit by the "criminal" Bush to the region was only meant to display absolute backing to the "oppressive entity (Israel)" and to blackmail PA leadership. "We should not welcome the man who spread murder, destruction and occupation in Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan and still promises more destruction in what is left of his term in office," Bahar elaborated.

He hoped that Bush would face an international trial as a "war criminal" along with Israeli premier Ehud Olmert, war minister Ehud Barak and foreign minister Tzipi Livni and other "killers and criminals".

The PLC acting speaker welcomed any American delegation supporting the Palestinian cause and people's rights. He expressed respect and appreciation to all Americans and American organizations that reject war and destruction pursued by the current American administration against peoples of the world especially the Arab and Islamic peoples."

Defining Israeli Zionist Racism: Part 12/12

by Kim Petersen and B.J. Sabri / January 10th, 2008

"Section 2: [Continuation: Deconstructed Contents]
....
Conclusion

In a Marxian sense, being a manifestation of ideology, racism is a superstructure to a material base that determines its magnitude and direction. Many factors exert influence, including an inculcated sense of racial superiority, transmitted or acquired religious or non-religious forms of prejudice against nations or groups with different belief systems, and historically stratified anti-group indoctrinations.

Categorically though, racism emerges for three main purposes: 1) to achieve territorial conquest (in this case, racism justifies violence to achieve that conquest), 2) to maintain the post-conquest status quo, and 3) to keep a group of people or nations under protracted or permanent subaltern role to justify economic exploitation.

While racism implies intense or even virulent dislike of specific others and could eventually extend to include the physical application of institutionalized ideological hatred as in anti-group and anti-nation violence, as well as multifaceted discrimination against targeted victims, the term itself, as evolved now, no longer targets the victim of racism based on race, color, somatic, or anthropological traits. Rather, it is now a policy that targets the victims based on other attributes such as beliefs, place of origin, city of origin, region of origin, and national origin as in belonging to a specific political state.

A powerful expression of this type of encompassing geographical racism is the violence unleashed by Zionism and American imperialism against all nations extending from western Asia between the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean, excluding Israel, and to the western borders of India, and against all nations living in the southern Mediterranean shores extending to the Horn of Africa and Sudan. And that is regardless of all other attributes that distinguish the groups living in these regions.

Does this observation raise any specific question? Of course, Zionism, Israel, and the United States elevated anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiments to an irrational level for the sole purpose to impose imperialism and a neo-colonialism. Likewise, all recent colonialist policies that allowed Europeans settlers to destroy the Original Peoples living in the places they invaded by eradicating their familial, societal, cultural, religious, and politico-economic structures. While the violent duopoly of expropriation-appropriation at the expense of weaker nations or groups is the fundamental factor promoting violence, racism assumes the role of an ideological motivator and facilitator to implement the conquest of others’ territory and wealth.

Having extracted a fundamental relation that ties racism to conquest, understanding Israeli Zionist racism should be that of a logical inference, since Israel could have never existed without ingrained racism to keeps its basic ideology of conquest alive. After the colonization of Palestine in the early 20th century, racism among the newly arrived Jewish colonists against the invaded people began to rise with each act of resistance by the indigenous population against the colonization as a process and finality.

Zionism is irrefutably racist. The proof is the dispossession of and slow-motion genocide that Israel is waging against the Palestinians in the Middle East. This is why a state based on Zionism is not only a severe moral issue, but also a focal point of rejection, tension, and war. A state cannot expect reward or claim the right to exist through the monstrous crime of murdering and dispossessing an Indigenous people (or people of long-established, continuous, peaceful residence).

The tentacles of Zionism have pervaded much of the western world, in large part aided by infiltration of foreign governments and control of the corporate media. The crimes of Zionism and any such crimes against an identifiable group must be abhorred. Zionism, the Zionist state, and the Zionist Power Configuration must be steadfastly opposed based on a rock solid moral foundation.

In the end, Israeli racism is a double-edge sword: while it is destroying the Palestinians and promoting endless wars against the Arabs via the United States and Western Europe, ultimately it is going to destroy the humanity of people of Jewish faith, as such racism cannot generate but counter-racism.

On a wider note, Israeli racism coupled with the global imperialist ambition of the United States is not going to disappear because of fear of counter-racism by others. On the contrary, in absence of an equitable world order where the United and Israel can no longer rule unopposed, and in absence of effective Arab and Palestinian resistance, the logic of brutal force and pervasive fascism seem to feed and perpetuate Israeli racism, which is now the dynamic core of Israel’s colonialist and imperialist expansionism."

Al-Jazeera Cartoon

How The Führer Was Received in Ramallah




Palestinian police officers hit out at protesters who were demonstrating with a sign that says in Arabic 'Children of Palestine are killed by U.S. and Israeli weapons' against U.S. President George W. Bush's visit in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008 .(AP Photo)


Palestinian police officers clash with protesters who were demonstrating against U.S. President George W. Bush's visit in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008



Palestinian police officers hit a protester with a wooden baton during a demonstration against U.S. President George W. Bush's visit in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008 .(AP Photo)


(AP)


Members of the Palestinian security forces detain a protester during the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush in the West Bank city of Ramallah January 10, 2008. Bush travelled to the West Bank on Thursday, passing powerful symbols of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -- Jewish settlements and Israel's barrier in the occupied territory.REUTERS



Palestinian police officers scuffle with demonstrators during a protest against U.S. President George W. Bush during his visit in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday Jan. 10, 2008.



Palestinian police officers hit a protester during a demonstration against U.S. President George W. Bush's visit in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008.


Palestinian police officers scuffle with a protester during a demonstration against U.S. President George W. Bush's visit in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2008


(AP)

A member of the Palestinian security forces stands guard in front of a mural by graffiti artist Banksy during U.S. President George W. Bush's visit to the West Bank town of Bethlehem January 10, 2008.



Palestinians hold up signs as they protest during the visit of President Bush in the West Bank city of Ramallah January 10, 2008. REUTERS

How The Führer Was Received in Ramallah

Dozens injured and arrested in anti-Bush demo in Ramallah

"Dozens of Palestinians were wounded and at least ten arrested in Ramallah when Palestinian police attempted to disperse a demonstration opposing the visit of the US President George Bush on Thursday morning.

Eyewitnesses reported that around 1000 protesters, mainly Palestinians, took to the streets in Ramallah to protest Bush’s visit to the area. The demonstration was organized by Palestinian political factions

Mohammad Al-Khatib, a member of the popular committee against the wall and settlements, was among those who were detained, in addition to a cameraman who works for the Ma’an News Agency.

Meanwhile, Palestinian security forces are on high alert in Bethlehem which will be the second Palestinian city that Bush will visit. Bush is scheduled to stay in Bethlehem for less than one hour. His visit will include a stop at the Church of the Nativity.

People are not allowed to drive on the road which Bush is supposed to use on his way to the Nativity Church. The high security alert has resulted in preventing most shop owners from going to their businesses, and schools have been closed as well.

On Wednesday President Bush started his visit to Israel where he met with the Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Bush has emphasized his support for Israel as a Jewish State.......

“Do you want a democratic Palestinian State or the status quo?” Bush asked in the news conference. He, however, failed to mention anything regarding the border and the nature of this state.

He also failed to mention any of the core issues that Palestinians strive to solve, such as borders, refugees, Jerusalem, prisoners and the wall, but instead focused on fighting “terrorism.” "

Chief rabbi thanks Bush for 'war against Iraq'

"During a short verbal exchange Wednesday at the Ben-Gurion Airport Terminal, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yona Metzger thanked President George W. Bush for the US's military intervention in Iraq.

"I want to thank you for your support of Israel and in particular for waging a war against Iraq," Metzger told Bush, according to the chief rabbi's spokesman.

Bush reportedly answered that the chief rabbi's words "warmed his heart." ......"



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Sayyed Nasrallah: Bush's Visit to Region Disgraceful


Al-Manar

"10/01/2008 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah made a televised speech Wednesday on the occasion of the Hijri New year and the beginning of the Arab month of Muharram. The occasion coincided with US president George W. Bush's visit to occupied Palestine. "Today is a black day in the history of our Arab region and the history of our Arab and Islamic nation…It is a disgraceful and shameful day for all Arabs and Muslims when the Pharaoh (Bush) of this age sets foot on our occupied holy land," Sayyed Nasrallah added. He added that "Bush arrived here as if he is the defender of freedom and democracy. Who started the killings 60 years ago? The Palestinians didn't do it, and the Jews who lived in Arab states lived peacefully. The ones doing the killing were Zionist gangs.

His eminence also slammed US media outlets and US allies for presenting Israel as a symbol of democracy in the region. "Bush views Israel as a Jewish state, that is, racist...its existence is premised on race. Israel aspires for a racially pure existence." The Hezbollah chief stressed hope is in the hands of the free Arabs. He warned Muslims and Arabs as well about "Bush the faker, who fails to protect the Arabs from the real murderer and instead argues that he wishes to defend them from a fictitious enemy. He is attempting to convince our Arab and Muslim people of a bogus danger. It's a deception."

Sayyed Nasrallah attributed the reason for all wars to the "Zionist occupation of Palestine." Pointing to the Israeli war against Lebanon in 2006, his eminence slammed the international community that gives Israel the "right to embark on war for two soldiers who were taken captive...yet the Palestinians are not allowed to fire a rocket on Sderot or Ashkelon. This is the justice of the strong and of the imperialists."

In a statement, Hezbollah condemned Bush's visit and urged Arab governments to be aware of the "dangers" of U.S. policy on the future of Arab and Islamic worlds. "The U.S. sponsorship of the negotiations between the Palestinians and Zionists represents a direct cover for liquidating the Palestinian cause and displacing the remaining Palestinians under the so-called Jewish state," said the statement."