greenwoman's dream

gaza

2009-02-05T20:23:00.001-08:00

dear folks, sorry. i've been sitting on this a while. and i think this
will also be the last one unless i am blasted into action again. g

1. My acceptance speech (Samia)
2. In Israel, detachment from reality is now the norm"
3. CBS Under Attack for Exposing Israeli Apartheid
4. 3rd national demonstration for Gaza (Britain)
5. weapons from US to Israel via Greece canceled after protests
6. student sit-ins England to protest Gaza massacre
7. TELL THEM HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THEIR OCCUPATION OF GAZA
8. radical anti-arms trade action in England
9. MORE GOOD NEWS
10. UN Rapporteur: Initiate Criminal Proceedings Against Bush, Rumsfeld
11. [GNAA] Boycott
12. Letter from Gaza
13. Boycotting Israel
14. Dont confuse anti-semitism wth anti-zionism]
15. Hope?
16. Disappeared News - 3 new articles
17. BBC outrage
18. Jan/Feb IndyKids is Out!
19. Israel Up-date Jan. 26, 2009
20. Regarding The Verdict is in: guilty (Holy Land Foundation
[Re]Trial, Texas)
21. A selection of Comments by journalists & academics: Israel has
lost its Soul

Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2009 16:48:09 -0800 (PST)
From: patricia blair <cris6369@yahoo.com>
1. My acceptance speech (Samia)

I think that you find my friend, Samia's speech very
enlightening. She is now back in Jerusalem. Peace, Pat
Dear Friends: I am not sure if many of you knew that I was
travelling to Texas for my citation of merit award from the
alumni association of Southwestern University. It was great
to have my daughter Dina with me otherwise I do not think I
could have coped with this long trip alone, especially on the
way back with the snow storm hitting London. But then that
will need a whole reflection on its own. What is important
that we arrived home yesterday safe and sound. I am
attaching my acceptance speech for your interest. Samia

[ Part 2, Application/MSWORD 39KB. ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 29 Jan 2009 16:58:05 -0800 (PST)
From: patricia blair <cris6369@yahoo.com>
2. In Israel, detachment from reality is now the norm"

Seems that the majority of Israelis and Americans are in
denial - Judy
------

The Independent

PATRICK COCKBURN: IN ISRAEL, DETACHMENT FROM REALITY IS NOW THE NORM

All these years on from Sabra and Chatila, has anything changed?
Thursday, 22 January 2009
http://www.independent.co.uk:80/opinion/commentators/patrick-cockburn-in-israel-
detachment-from-reality-is-now-the-norm-1488583.html
I was watching the superb animated documentary Waltz with Bashir
about the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It culminates in the
massacre of some 1,700 Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatila
refugee camps in south Beirut by Christian militiamen introduced
there by the Israeli army which observed the butchery from close
range.

In the last few minutes the film switches from animation to graphic
news footage showing Palestinian women screaming with grief and
horror as they discover the bullet-riddled bodies of their
families. Then, just behind the women, I saw myself walking with a
small group of journalists who had arrived in the camp soon after
the killings had stopped.
The film is about how the director, Ari Folman, who knew he was at
Sabra and Chatila as an Israeli soldier, tried to discover both why
he had repressed all memory of what happened to him and the degree
of Israeli complicity in the massacre.
Walking out of the cinema, I realised that I had largely repressed
my own memories of that ghastly day. I could not even find a
clipping in old scrapbooks of the article I had written about what
I had seen for the Financial Times for whom I then worked. Even now
my memory is hazy and episodic, though I can clearly recall the
sickly sweet smell of bodies beginning to decompose, the flies
clustering around the eyes of the dead women and children, and the
blood-smeared limbs and heads sticking out of banks of brown earth
heaped up by bulldozers in a half-hearted attempt to bury the
corpses.
Soon after seeing Waltz with Bashir I saw TV pictures of the broken
bodies of the Palestinians killed by Israeli bombs and shells in
Gaza during the 22-day bombardment. At first I thought that little
had changed since Sabra and Chatila. Once again there were the same
tired and offensive excuses that Israel was somehow not to blame.
Hamas was using civilians as human shields, and in any case ^Ö this
argument produced more furtively ^Ö two-thirds of people in Gaza
had voted for Hamas so they deserved whatever happened to them.
But on returning to Jerusalem 10 years after I was stationed here
as The Independent's correspondent between 1995 and 1999 I find
that Israel has changed significantly for the worse. There is far
less dissent than there used to be and such dissent is more often
treated as disloyalty.
Israeli society was always introverted but these days it reminds me
more than ever of the Unionists in Northern Ireland in the late
1960s or the Lebanese Christians in the 1970s. Like Israel, both
were communities with a highly developed siege mentality which led
them always to see themselves as victims even when they were
killing other people. There were no regrets or even knowledge of
what they inflicted on others and therefore any retaliation by the
other side appeared as unprovoked aggression inspired by
unreasoning hate.
At Sabra and Chatila the first journalist to find out about the
massacre was an Israeli and he desperately tried to get it stopped.
This would not happen today because Israeli journalists, along with
all foreign journalists, were banned from entering Gaza before the
Israeli bombardment started. This has made it far easier for the
government to sell the official line about what a great success the
operation has been.
Nobody believes propaganda so much as the propagandist so Israel's
view of the outside world is increasingly detached from reality.
One academic was quoted as saying that Arabs took all their views
about was happening in Israel from what Israelis said about
themselves. So if Israelis said they had won in Gaza, unlike
Lebanon in 2006, Arabs would believe this and Israeli deterrence
would thereby be magically restored.
Intolerance of dissent has grown and may soon get a great deal
worse. Benjamin Netanyahu, who helped bury the Oslo accords with
the Palestinians when he was last prime minister from 1996 to 1999,
is likely to win the Israeli election on 10 February. The only
issue still in doubt is the extent of the gains of the extreme
right.
The views of these were on display this week as Avigdor Lieberman,
the chairman of the Ysrael Beitenu party, which, according to the
polls will do particularly well in the election, was supporting the
disqualification of two Israeli Arab parties from standing in the
election. "For the first time we are examining the boundary between
loyalty and disloyalty," he threatened their representatives.
"We'll deal with you like we dealt with Hamas."

©independent.co.uk
________________________________________________________________________________

From: Naila
Sent: Friday, January 30, 2009 1:20 AM
3. CBS Under Attack for Exposing Israeli Apartheid

Hi, Can someone please find the phone number at CBS where we can make our
calls?

This is the easiest way for people to respond to our call for action. Many
cannot figure out how to send feedback online, but all can call. Thanks,
Naila
----

In a message dated 1/30/2009 1:01:57 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
info@gazajustice.org writes:

Naila-

Earlier this week we asked you to Thank CBS and Bob Simon for their
excellent TV report exposing Israeli Apartheid tactics. Thousands like
you responded by signing a letter of support. But we just learned from
the folks at J-Street, a pro-peace Jewish group, that CBS IS UNDER ATTACK
by the anti-Peace pro-Israel network for showing America the truth. If
you haven't seen the report you can watch it here.

FIGHT BACK, GET AT LEAST FIVE OF YOUR FRIENDS TO SEND A LETTER OF SUPPORT
TO CBS. ACT NOW, USING THE BELOW LINK. WE HAVE DESIGNED AN EASY TOOL TO
HELP YOU INVITE everyone you know. Simply click on the below link, upload
your email address book OR copy-paste the addresses you want to contact
and click send. Our software will do the rest.[090125-60min-2state.gif]

GO to www.gazajustice.org TO INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO SEND THEIR SUPPORT
LETTERS

Here is what J-Street said about the groups behind the attack o CBS:

[CAMERA (the Orwellian-named Committee for Accuracy in Middle East
Reporting in America) alerted their activist network - flooding the 60
Minutes' offices and their advertisers with angry phone calls charging
media bias. [1] Jewish community leader Abe Foxman fired off a letter
calling the piece "a hatchet job on Israel." [2]

Journalists - as well as rabbis, professors and elected officials - know
that if they raise questions about what Israel does - they'll often get
attacked as anti-Israel. It's one way the forces of the status quo
constrain debate and discussion on what's really best for Israel and the
United States. We can't let fringe groups like CAMERA define what it
means to be pro-Israel through intimidation and fear tactics.]

SEND A THANK YOU NOTE TO BOB SIMON AND CBS. IF YOU ALREADY SENT A NOTE,
GET 5 OF YOUR FRIENDS TO SEND A NOTE TOO.

Thank you for continuing to advocate for peace and justice.

Farhana
GazaJustice.org

From: "Jenny James" <atlantiscol@hotmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 3:14 AM
4. 3rd national demonstration for Gaza (Britain)
>
>> STOP THE WAR COALITION NEWSLETTER
>> No. 1073 16 January 2009
>> Email office@stopwar.org.uk
>> Tel: 020 7278 6694
>> Web: http://www.stopwar.org.uk
>>
>> 3RD NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION FOR GAZA
>> SATURDAY 24 JANUARY
>> ISRAEL OUT OF GAZA NOW: LIFT THE BLOCKADE
>> ASSEMBLE BBC BROADCASTING HOUSE
>> PORTLAND PLACE, LONDON, W1A 1AA
>> (Nearest tube Oxford Circus)
>> MARCH TO TRAFALGAR SQUARE
>>
>> With over 1100 killed, 350 of them children, and over 5500
>> injured, the suffering in Gaza is beyond catastrophic. Israel
>> is ignoring the worldwide clamour for it to stop now and is
>> escalating its attacks.
>>
>> A third national demonstration against Israel's barbarity and
>> war crimes has been called for Saturday 24 January in London
>> by Stop the War Coalition, Palestine Solidarity Campaign,
>> British Muslim Association and many other organisations.
>>
>> The demonstration will assemble at BBC Broadcasting House,
>> Portland Place, London, as a response to the BBC's largely
>> one-sided coverage of the Gaza massacre, allowing Israeli
>> spokespeople endless opportunities to propagate lies and
>> deception without challenge.
>>
>> We will march from the BBC to Trafalgar Square. Further
>> details, including timings and route, will be available
>> shortly.
>>
>> Stop the War calls on all its local groups and supporters to
>> start building now for what we need to make an even bigger
>> demonstration than the 100,000 who protested on 10 January.
>> Israel must be made to stop its carnage and we must show our
>> solidarity with the people of Gaza suffering unimaginable
>> atrocities.
>>
>> Stop the War will publicise further details and updates by
>> email and on our website, as we get them.

This list is primarily set up to distribute the 'Green Letters' edited by
Jenny James which give a running account of the activities and experiences
of the Atlantis Community in Colombia since 1995

Archived messages may be seen at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Green-Letters/messages See also http://afan.org.uk/

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Green-Letters/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jenny James
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 7:45 PM
5. weapons from US to Israel via Greece canceled after protests

Greece: Protests planned over US arms to Israel
Associated Press

Left-wing opposition parties said Tuesday they will go ahead with a
protest at a Greek port despite the U.S. decision not to use the facility
for an arms shipment to Israel.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said plans for shipping U.S. arms to
Israel had been changed to avoid Greece.

"I think the Greek government had some issue with the off-loading of some
of that shipment in their country, and so we are finding alternative means
of getting that entire shipment to its proper destination in Israel,"
Morrell said.

He declined to say what kind of arms were included in the shipment.

Greek opposition parties maintained the government objected to the
shipment only after the issue was revealed in the local media, because it
feared public opinion in Greece, which is broadly opposed to ongoing
Israeli military action in Gaza.

Protests at the western Greek port of Astakos are planned for Wednesday
and Thursday.
--------

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Yossi B <yoskale@yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, Jan 13, 2009 at 5:56 PM

US arm shipment from Greece to Israel:
canceled!
<http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/2009/01/13/40-1439-us-arm-shipment-from-greece-to-israel-canceled/>

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

International mainstream media
report<http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N12348891.htm>this morning
that the planned US shipment of ammunition from Greece to Israel has been
canceled. The reason for this is still a bit unclear: While the
international media claim the decision was made by the Pentagon in light
of the proximity of the Israeli port of Ashdod (the shipment's
destination) to Gaza, Greek mainstream media paint a very different story:
According to this, the shipment has been called off by the Greek
government - here's a translation of an abstract from the news as carried
by news portal
in.gr:<http://www.in.gr/news/article.asp?lngEntityID=975008&lngDtrID=244>

As reported in the newspaper Ta Nea (The News), for hours the phone lines
between Washington and Athens were on fire until it was decided, on
Monday, that at this point the operation publically announced by the
American Navy should not go ahead.

The decision came despite the fact that outside the greek port of Astakos
was a ship of the American Navy that would be used to transport the
shipment in 235 containers.

The greek government and the ministry of foreign affairs have been uneasy
about the publicity received by the issue and so, despite the (political
and legal) commitments in place, the huge political cost of the operation
outweigh them, since the country would have been directly implicated in
the forwarding of ammunition to Israel whilst its attack on the Gaza strip
is ongoing.

On Saturday (10.01), the Popular front for the Liberation of Palestine had
called upon "the Greek movement, the Greek people and all international
progressive forces to halt the planned shipment of U.S. arms to Israel
from the Greek port of Astakos" (read the full callout
here<http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=967338>).
During the following two days, tens of groups across the country responded
to the callout, by calling in turn for a demonstration and blockade of the
port of Astakos for Thursday, 15.01.

Only one day later, the shipment has been canceled! A small, but so
significant victory^Å Comradely greetings to our brothers and sisters in
Gaza.
http://www.occupiedlondon.org/blog/
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Jenny James
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 1:52 AM
6. student sit-ins England to protest Gaza massacre

SCHOOL OF LIFE

Students from Kings College London, LSE, SOAS, Birmingham, Oxford, Essex,
Leeds, Nottingham, Manchester Metropolitan, Sussex and Newcastle have all
occupied University buildings in response to Israel's assault on Gaza this
week, showing their solidarity with Palestine, and demanding that their
universities boycott and divest from Israel.

Since Tuesday a group of around 80 students have occupied the main lecture
theatre at Sussex Uni. With mobile phones presumably on silent they have
insisted that lectures proceed as normal but refuse to leave until their
demands have been met - insisting that the ceasefire is by no means the
end of University complicity in Israeli actions.

Highlighting both the financial links of the University and the moral
implications of its continued silence over the issue, the students have
made six demands: That the university issue a statement condemning Israeli
military aggression and the occupation; withdraw funding from any company
producing arms, supporting the state of Israel or violating human rights;
institute a campus wide boycott of Israeli goods; pay for six full
scholarships of students from Gaza universities - and - that they send
surplus educational material to Gaza with shipping paid by the University.
Oh and that the students themselves face no repercussions for the action.

So far 'The Management' have refused to make a statement on the grounds
that it's 'too political'. They have agreed to pay for some shipping costs
of resources and to er 'market' their foreign scholarships more strongly
in the Middle East (that's what the Gazans need - a fresh and dynamic
marketing campaign). The University also denies that it's aware that it
invests in arms companies in spite of the wealth of student research and
even FOI requests that prove otherwise, and have flat out rejected the
idea of a boycott. As for repercussions - there will be none... as long
as the occupation doesn't go on too long.

The Sussex students have stated that this 'complete failure to even
dignify our demands, combined with an implicit threat is not good enough'
and have signalled their intention to stay firmly put.

* See www.sussexoccupation.blogspot.com or email
sussexoccupation@gmail.com to show support.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Jenny James" <atlantiscol@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 1:04 AM
7. TELL THEM HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THEIR OCCUPATION OF GAZA
>
> TELL THEM HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT THEIR OCCUPATION OF GAZA AND THE
> SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENT PALESTINIANS!!
>
> Email addresses and mobile phone numbers of senior Israeli
> politicians, and apologists for murder of innocents.
>
> ACTION ALERT: FAX ISRAELBy Haitham Sabbah ^Õ Jan 12th, 2009 at 19:29 ^Õ
> Category: Action Alert, Haitham's Choice, Israel, Newswire, Palestine,
> War, Zionism
>
> *** PLEASE SPREAD WIDELY ***
> After the successful email campaign, it's time to move to the next
> level: calling some of the war criminals.
> Objectives of this campaign are as follows:
> 1. Bombard their phone/mobile/fax lines with anti-war, anti-Zionist
> messages. This can be in the form of calls, faxes or even sms's;
> 2. Waste the time of these war criminals as much as possible. Some of
> them are doing nothing else but jumping on the TV screens to spread
> lies and hatred. They justify killing Palestinian children and
> civilians;
> 3. Directly delivering to them the message that we are disgusted by
> what they are doing and they should stop now;
> 4. Show them the magnitude of support that Palestinians have after the
> world witnessed their war crimes in Gaza.
> Let's start with war criminal, Mark Regev, International Media Adviser
> to the Prime Minister.
> His MOBILE number is: +972-5-0620-3264 and his office number is
> +972-2670-5354
> If you like to follow your call/sms with an email, use this one:
> mark.regev@it.pmo.gov.il
> Second war criminal, Shlomo Dror in the Ministry of Defence.
> His MOBILE number is +972-5-0629-8148, office number is
> +972-3697-5339, fax number is +972-2670-5602
> As before, if you like to follow it up with an email, use this:
> mediasar@mod.gov.il
> Third war criminal is Major Liebovitz from the Israeli Navy
> His MOBILE number is +972-5-781-86248
> (Sorry, I could not find his email. If you have it, please share it to
> update this post.)
> If you know or come across any mobile number* of any Israeli war
> criminal, please send it to (haitham.sabbah@gmail.com) so that I can
> update the list here. Meanwhile, you can bombard the top war criminal,
> Olmert and his office assistance, managers, spokesperson, etc^Å Please
> visit the following page to select the name that you like to play with
> and pick his/her office number and/or fax number.
> http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/PM+Office/Contacts/
> Note: To call or fax any in the above list, remove the "zero" and add
> +972 (Israel Int'l code) before the number. (Example: Ehud Olmert's
> phone number is 02-670-5555 will become +972-2-670-555, fax number is
> 02-670-5475 will become +972-2-670-5475)
> I suggest that you put your feelings on paper either by drawing or as
> a letter (in any language, in fact using other than English language
> will keep them busier and waste more of their time, which we want) and
> fax it to the maximum fax numbers you find there, but phone calls are
> still very important if you can.
> More? Yes, you can do more. Call or fax the current Knesset members.
> Go to the following link, select any name and you will find their
> phone and fax numbers. Again, to call or fax any, remove the "zero"
> and add +972 before the number. (Example: Benjamin Netanyahu (a.k.a.
> Bibi the butcher!) phone: 02-6408456 will become +972-2-6408456 and
> his fax number is 02-6496659 which becomes +972-2-6496659)
> Knesset members:
> http://www.knesset.gov.il/mk/eng/mkindex_current_eng.asp?view=0
> Also Knesset Directory (add +9722 before the numbers you find here):
> http://www.knesset.gov.il/description/eng/eng_directory.htm
> To: The Israeli Ministry of Defense, Fax: +972-3-697-6717
> To: The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fax +972-2-5303367
> Last but not least, share a copy of your fax with others. Please post
> your fax on this flickr group:
> http://www.flickr.com/groups/fax-israel/
> PS. Feel free to do the same with any and all pro-Israel war on Gaza.
> You can start with:
> White House (although they are busy backing up there files, but we can
> only hope that Obama will get something to read and learn about on his
> first day in office):
> http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
> The Congress (which justed gave Israel new green light to kill kids
> and women of Gaza):
> http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
> https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
> Be creative! Search for the contacts of your government official's
> website and contact them. Save Gaza!
> Remember, Silence is Complicity!
> * Israeli mobile numbers start with the following codes:
> 9725 Israel-Mobile
> 9726 Israel-Mobile
> 97251 Israel-Mobile
> 97253 Israel-Mobile
> 97255 Israel-Mobile
> 97256 Israel-Mobile
> 97258 Israel-Mobile
> 97252 Israel-Mobile-Cellcom
> 97257 Israel-Mobile-Mirs
> 97254 Israel-Mobile-Partner
> 97250 Israel-Mobile-Pelephone
> Source: http://www.nstelcom.com/support/codes_il.htm
> ====
> Update: Here is a list of most terrorist Israeli officials. Feel free
> to bombard them with your words of condemnation and pictures of their
> war crimes. [Hat tip: Shadia]
> Shimon Peres (president@president.gov.il); Ehud Olmert - Prime
> Minister (eulmert@knesset.gov.il); Ehud Barak - Deputy Prime Minister
> , Minister of Defense (minister@mod.gov.il); Tzipi Livni - Acting
> Prime Minister , Minister of Foreign Affairs (zlivni@knesset.gov.il);
> Abraham Dicter - Minister of Internal Security
> (adichter@knesset.gov.il); Ariel Atias - Minister of Communications
> (aatias@knesset.gov.il); Binyamin (Fouad) Ben-Eliezer Minister of
> National Infrastructure(binyaminb@knesset.gov.il); Eli Aflalo -
> Minister of Immigrant Absorption (eaflalo@knesset.gov.il); Eliyahu
> Yishai - Deputy Prime Minister , Minister of Industry, Trade, and
> Labor (eyishay@knesset.gov.il); Gideon Ezra - Minister of
> Environmental Protection (gezra@knesset.gov.il); Isaac Herzog -
> Minister of Welfare and Social Services, Minister of the Diaspora,
> Society, and Fight Against Antisemitism (iherzog@knesset.gov.il);
> Jacob Edery - Minister of the Development of the Negev and Gal);
> (yedri@knesset.gov.il); Meir Sheetrit - Minister of Internal Affairs
> (mshitrit@knesset.gov.il); Raleb Majadele - Minister of Science,
> Culture, and Sport (gmagadla@knesset.gov.il); Ruhama Avraham Bal);a -
> Minister of Tourism (ravraham@knesset.gov.il); Shalom Simhon -
> Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development
> (ssimhon@knesset.gov.il); Shaul Mofaz - Deputy Prime Minister ,
> Minister of Transportation and Road Safety(shaulm@knesset.gov.il);
> Ze'ev Boim - Minister of Housing and Construction
> (zaevb@knesset.gov.il); Haim Ramon - Vice Prime Minister
> (ChaimR@knesset.gov.il); Rafi Eitan - Minister of Pensioner Affairs -
> (reitanhantman@knesset.gov.il); Ronnie Bar-On - Minister of Finance
> (rbaron@knesset.gov.il); Yacov Ben Yizri - Minister of Health
> (ybenyizri@knesset.gov.il); Yitzhak Cohen - Minister of Religious
> Services (izchakec@knesset.gov.il); Yuli Tamir - Minister of Education
> (ytamir@knesset.gov.il); Majalli Whbee - Deputy Minister of Foreign
> Affairs (mwahaba@knesset.gov.il); Matan nai - Deputy Minister of
> Defense - (matanv@knesset.gov.il); Meshulam Nahari - Minister Without
> Portfolio (mnahari@knesset.gov.il); Benjamin Netanyahu
> (bnetanyahu@knesset.gov.il); Ehud Olmert - Prime Minister
> (pm_eng@pmo.gov.il); Raanan Dinur - Director General Of the Prime
> Minister's Office (pm_eng@pmo.gov.il); Ovad Yehezkel - Government
> Secretary (pm_eng@pmo.gov.il); Ya'akov Galanti - Head of
> Communications Division and Media Adviser to the Prime Minister
> (pm_eng@pmo.gov.il); Shalom Tourgeman - Foreign Policy Adviser for
> Prime Minister (MEDINI@IT.PMO.gov.il); Amnon Ben-Ami - Deputy Director
> General (amnon.benami@it.pmo.gov.il); Tzahi Gavrieli - Personal
> Assistant to the Prime Minister (TzahiG@it.pmo.gov.il); Shlomit Barnea
> Farago - Legal Adviser (legal@pmo.gov.il); Joseph Strauss - Accountant
> (J.strauss@it.pmo.gov.il);Marit Danon - Director of the Authority for
> the Advancement of the Status of Women (women@it.pmo.gov.il); Uzi
> Keren - Adviser to the Prime Minister (Settlement Affairs)
> (Uzi.Keren@it.pmo.gov.il); Hagar Biran - Advisor to the Prime Minister
> for Liaison with the Knesset (hagar.biran@it.pmo.gov.il); Ruti
> Avramovitz - Pub);c affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister
> (pm_eng@pmo.gov.il); Ofer Levy - Adviser to the prime minister for
> official visits and special events (PMO.HEB@it.pmo.gov.il); Yael
> Nachmias - Head of the Division for policy Implementation
> (Yael.Nachmias@it.pmo.gov.il); Gavriel Golan - Adviser to the Prime
> Minister for Planning and Development (pm_eng@pmo.gov.il); Mark Regev
> - International Media Adviser to the Prime Minister
> (Gali.Cohen@it.pmo.gov.il); Rachael Risby-Raz - Diaspora Affairs
> Adviser (risbyraz@it.pmo.gov.il); Gal Alon - Adviser for Strategic
> Development (gal.alon@it.pmo.gov.il); Julia Braya - Adviser to the
> Prime Minister for the Russian Languge Media (pm_eng@pmo.gov.il); Edna
> Halbani - Director of International Visits - (edna@it.pmo.gov.il);
> Vered Swid - Adviser to the Prime Minister (Social Affairs)
> (Vered.Swid@it.pmo.gov.il); Avi Widerman - Adviser to the Prime
> Minister (aviw@it.pmo.gov.il); David Baker - Senior Foreign Press
> Coordinator (david.baker@it.pmo.gov.il); Yehiel Nizri - Director of
> the Prime Minister's Bureau (Central Region) (yehiel_nizri@walla.co.);
> Avigdor Liberman (aliberman@knesset.gov.il); Ami Ayalon
> (aaylon@knesset.gov.il); Amir Peretz (aperetz@knesset.gov.il); Abraham
> Hirchson(ahirshson@knesset.gov.il); Alex M);ler
> (am);ler@knesset.gov.il); Amira Dotan (adotan@knesset.gov.il); Amnon
> Cohen (amncohen@knesset.gov.il); Arieh Eldad (aeldad@knesset.gov.il);
> Avishay Braverman(abraverman@knesset.gov.il); Avraham
> Michaeli(amichaeli@knesset.gov.il); Avraham
> Ravitz(aravitz@knesset.gov.il); Avshalom V);an(av);an@knesset.gov.il);
> Benyamin Elon(belon@knesset.gov.il); Chaim
> Amsellem(eamsalem@knesset.gov.il); Chaim Oron(horon@knesset.gov.il);
> Colette Avital(avitalk@knesset.gov.il); Dalia
> Itzik(yor@knesset.gov.il); David Azoulay(dazulay@knesset.gov.il);
> David Rotem(drotem@knesset.gov.il); David Tal(davidt@knesset.gov.il);
> Dov Khenin(dhanin@knesset.gov.il); Effie Eitam(efye@knesset.gov.il);
> Eitan Cabel(ecabel@knesset.gov.il); Elhanan
> Glazer(eglazer@knesset.gov.il); Eliahu Gabbay(egabai@knesset.gov.il);
> Esterina Tartman(etertman@knesset.gov.il); Gideon
> Sa'ar(gsaar@knesset.gov.il); ad Erdan(gerdan@knesset.gov.il); Haim
> Katz(hkatz@knesset.gov.il); Isaac Ben-Israel(itzik@knesset.gov.il);
> srael Hasson(ahason@knesset.gov.il); Itshac
> Galantee(ygalanti@knesset.gov.il); Izhak Ziv(yziv@knesset.gov.il); Lia
> Shemtov(lshemtov@knesset.gov.il); Limor
> Livnat(llivnat@knesset.gov.il); Marina
> Solodkin(msolodkin@knesset.gov.il); Mazor
> Bahyna(mazorb@knesset.gov.il); Meir Porush(mporush@knesset.gov.il);
> Menahem Ben-Sasson(mbensason@knesset.gov.il); Michael
> Eitan(meitan@knesset.gov.il); Michael
> Melchior(melchiorm@knesset.gov.il); Moshe
> Kahlon(mcachlon@knesset.gov.il); Moshe Gafni(mgafni@knesset.gov.il);
> Moshe Sharoni(msharoni@knesset.gov.il); Nissan
> Slomiansky(nslomianski@knesset.gov.il); Nissim
> Zeev(nzeev@knesset.gov.il); Ophir Pines-Paz(pinespaz@knesset.gov.il);
> Otniel Schneller(oschneller@knesset.gov.il); Ran
> Cohen(rancohen@knesset.gov.il); Reuven Rivlin(rrivlin@knesset.gov.il);
> Robert );atov(r);atov@knesset.gov.il); Ronit
> Tirosh(rtirosh@knesset.gov.il); Sara Marom
> Shalev(smarom@knesset.gov.il); Shachiv Shnaan(shanans@knesset.gov.il);
> Shai Hermesh (shermesh@knesset.gov.il); Shelly Yacimovich
> (syechimovich@knesset.gov.il); Shlomo (Neguse) Molla
> (smolla@knesset.gov.il); Shmuel Halpert (shmuelh@knesset.gov.il); van
> Shalom (sshalom@knesset.gov.il);Sofa Landver
> (slandver@knesset.gov.il); Stas Misezhnikov
> (smiseznikov@knesset.gov.il); Tzachi Hanegbi
> (zhanegbi@knesset.gov.il); Tzvia Greenfield (tzviag@knesset.gov.il);
> Uri Maklev (umaklev@knesset.gov.il); Uri Yehuda Ariel
> (uria@knesset.gov.il); Yakov Litzman (ylitzman@knesset.gov.il); Yakov
> Margi (ymargi@knesset.gov.il); Yisrael Katz (yiskatz@knesset.gov.il);
> Yitzhak Aharonovitch (iaharon@knesset.gov.il); Yitzhak Levy
> (ithakl@knesset.gov.il); Yitzhak Vaknin (yvaknin@knesset.gov.il); Yoel
> Hasson (yhasson@knesset.gov.il); Yohanan Plesner
> (yohananplesner@knesset.gov.il); Yoram Marciano
> (ymarziano@knesset.gov.il); Yosef Shagal (yshagal@knesset.gov.il);
> Yuli Yoel Edelstein (yedelstein@knesset.gov.il); Yuval Steinitz
> (ysteinitz@knesset.gov.il); Zahava Gal-On (zgalon@knesset.gov.il);
> Zeev Elkin
> (Zelkin@knesset.gov.il); Zevulun Orlev (zorlev@knesset.gov.il);Zvi
> Hendel (zhendel@knesset.gov.il)
>
> --
> Beirigí bua!
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: "Jenny James" <atlantiscol@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 1:45 AM
8. radical anti-arms trade action in England

> From Schnews News service
> FOR CORRESPONDENCE USE schnews@brighton.co.uk THANK YOU.
> For this week's SchNEWS in full technicolour:
> www.schnews.org.uk/archive/news663.htm

> IF I HAD A HAMMER...
> SchNEWS, Issue 663, Friday 23rd January 2009
>
> DECOMMISSION ACCOMPLISHED
>
> AS EDO GETS SMASHED.
> REALLY, REALLY SMASHED...
>
> "Great Britain... will do everything we can to prevent arms
> trafficking which is at the root of some of the problems... I believe
> that will help get a solution to this crisis." - Gordon Brown
>
> "I don't feel I'm going to do anything illegal tonight, but I'm going
> to go into an arms factory and smash it up to the best of my ability
> so that it cannot actually work or produce munitions... [which] have
> been provided to the Israeli army so that they can kill children." -
> Elijah Smith, one of the EDO 9.
>
> After five years of campaigning, die-ins, lock-ons, rooftop
> occupations, noise demos and the odd riot, it turns out that the
> Smash EDO campaign had been taking a fairly indirect route. In the
> early hours of last Saturday morning six activists turned up at the
> factory with a ladder and some hammers, and spent a night thoroughly
> 'decommissioning' the arms factory from top to bottom.
>
> Outraged by the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the UK and US's
> involvement in high-tech killing around the world, they explained in
> a pre-recorded video that the time for talking was over. In the
> pre-recorded words of Bob; "The Israeli Defence Forces are guilty of
> war crimes in Gaza. EDO and many other arms manufacturers around the
> UK are aiding and abetting these humanitarian crimes and war crimes.
> The action we've taken is intended to hamper or delay the commission
> of war crimes and prevent this greater crime. The glorification of
> war and the mass production of arms and weapons is a sickness in the
> heart of those involved."
>
> DCI Graham Pratt of Sussex Plod paid them the best compliment they
> could have got: "Windows had been smashed and offices turned over in
> what I would describe as wanton vandalism, but with machinery and
> equipment so targeted that it could have been done with a view to
> bringing business to a standstill. The damage is significant and the
> value substantial."
>
> Coherence and logic aren't taught at cop school, so we'll leave out
> the fact that targeting machinery and equipment in an arms factory by
> anti-arms protesters cannot be 'wanton vandalism', but we'll let that
> one go. More to the point, 'significant and substantial damage' has
> been caused to an arms company that's been busy selling arms to
> Israel and ignoring public disgust at the genocide that's been
> carried out in Gaza.
>
> This isn't your run of the mill symbolic act of solidarity. The six
> decommissioners threw themselves in the path of the US-UK-Israeli
> juggernaut, and in doing so slowed it down by a measurable amount.
> The protesters are being charged with criminal damage to the tune of
> £250,000, but this is almost definitely an understatement. After all
> the Raytheon 9 (See SchNEWS 635) were charged with £350,000 for
> chucking some computers out of an office window.
>
> But if you want to reduce their actions to numbers, consider these: a
> Hellfire missile costs around £25,000, and if you take EDO/police at
> face value that would mean 10 less Hellfires. But in reality the
> figure's likely to be much higher, as the six were in there for over
> an hour. Of course, if EDO can't get their kit back in working order
> quick enough to complete their contracts on time, their losses could
> be hefty indeed. According to local eyewitnesses, the protesters did
> it in some style. They stuck the factory's sound system on and blasted
> out tunes whilst they worked.
>
> Apparently a missile or bomb shaped object was seen flying out of one
> factory window. The jury's out on whether that counts as collateral
> damage.
>
> Eventually 30 police accompanied by a specialist forced entry unit
> broke through the barricades and were able to corner and arrest the
> decommissioners.
>
> Alongside the six that broke in to the factory, another three
> protesters are being held in connection with the action. Initially
> eight of the nine were held on remand, but as of Thursday all but two
> are now out on strict bail conditions.
>
> The six had recorded 'martyr-videos' of themselves explaining why
> they were prepared to decommission the factory. View it at
> www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2009/01//418836.mpg
>
> * See also www.smashedo.org.uk
>
> * The Raytheon 9 - During the Lebanon War in August 2006 nine
> protesters occupied Raytheon offices in Derry, Northern Ireland and
> smashed their way through an alleged £350,000 worth of computer gear.
> Their defence was that they were attempting to prevent war crimes, and
> in June 2008 were found unanimously not guilty on three counts of
> criminal damage by a jury in a Belfast court. www.raytheon9.org
>
> * PRISONER SUPPORT: Sent letters of support to Robert Altford (aka
> Tintin). Prisoner no. VP7552 and Elijah James Smith. Prisoner no.
> VP7551 - HMP Lewes, Brighton Rd, Lewes, BN7 1EA.
>
> * Mayday Reclaim the Streets Against EDO MBM/ITT, May 4th - Reclaim
> The Streets style demo/carnival on Mayday - against Brightons bomb
> factory. www.smashedo.org.uk
>
> ALSO UP IN ARMS
>
> BAE is another company playing its part in Israel's Gaza massacre, as
> well as many other war crimes. This Thursday (22nd) six protesters
> blocked the entrance to BAE's Newcastle premises for more than an
> hour by staging a 'die-in'.
>
> Meanwhile in Warwick, last week a group of university students
> disrupted a BAE recruitment event by shouting down the speakers and
> distributing an alternative BAE careers guide.
>
> Despite being subsidised by the British government, BAE makes more
> than £1 million per day from it's weapons peddling - so much in fact
> that it can even afford to slip the odd billion to Saudi princes.
>
> * www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/419750.html
>
> * http://weaponsoutofwarwick.wordpress.com
> ======================================================================

From: peace@peaceinspace.org
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 8:54 PM
Gaza war crimes probe mulled at the Hague - International Herald Tribune

http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2009/02/03/europe/OUKWD-UK-ISRAEL-GAZA.php
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2009 13:32:28 -0800 (PST)
From: patricia blair <cris6369@yahoo.com>
9. MORE GOOD NEWS

Palestine - Center Of A Gathering Storm
Terrell E. Arnold
1-27-09

In the past few years, both friends and critics have predicted that
Palestine eventually would be Israel's undoing. The first thing that had
to happen, however, was for the world to open its eyes to Israel's
systematic murder, imprisonment, selective assassination, and repression
of the Palestinians as they took the lands they wanted build the Jewish
national home. That process began long before communications with the
world outside the Middle East were adequate to exposing the tactics of
Israeli state building.

The world's blindness persisted through decades as Zionist propaganda
painted Jewish migrants as the victims of an Arab plot to drive the
Israelis into the sea. As the Zionists told it, the displaced survivors of
Holocaust were going to turn the "empty lands" of the Levant (then the
ancestral homes of a million Christian, Muslim and Jewish Palestinians)
into a prosperous Jewish national home, but the Arab neighbors were
opposing Jewish rights to return to the Promised Land. Those were the
earliest of the Zionist falsehoods that have distorted the world's picture
of what goes on in the Middle East.

It took a catastrophe to finish the world's awakening. While the
Palestinians in Gaza had small arms and crude homemade rockets to protest
their persecution, the Israelis had the best and most modern killing
machines the United States could supply. And as they mercilessly had
pounded Lebanon in 2006 with US cluster bombs, they used new and
experimental US weapons without restraint to destroy at least a hundred
thousand homes and business, indiscriminately kill an estimated 1,300
Palestinian men, women and children, and wound over 5,000 others.

Evidence on the ground, especially in hospitals, shows that Israel Defense
Forces experimented with white phosphorus weapons that are internationally
outlawed against civilians-and should be prohibited against anyone. They
also used a Dense Inert Metal Explosive (DIME) weapon that doctors working
with victims in Gaza believe is the likely cause of many very severe
wounds to women and children. Apparently Israel is the first and so far
only user of this weapon, but it is of US design and development. The
number and severity of the wounds caused by DIME weapons are part of the
world's awakening to Israeli attacks on the Palestinians.

It is worthy that compassion finally has found its way into the hearts of
the world, but that is only the beginning of Israel's troubles. The
crudest awakening is occurring in the United States where for decades the
Zionists have run a successful effort to keep Americans in the dark about
Israeli crimes in Palestine. Perversely, the first book of any consequence
on this subject was _What Price Israel_ published in 1953 by an American
Jew named Alfred Lilienthal. That book, republished in 2003, told it like
it was at the time. Also at that time, in the early 1950s a group of
American Jewish scientists and intellectuals led by Albert Einstein
published an objection to Zionist activities to create the new state in a
letter to the New York Times. However, until the recent appearance of
works by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt (The_ Israel Lobby_), former
President Jimmy Carter (_Peace not Apartheid_) and Israeli historian Ilan
Pappe (_The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine_), Israeli behavior had gained
little American attention.

Now, largely because of the Internet and televised graphic horrors, the
lid is off. Israeli excesses in Gaza in the past few weeks finally ripped
away any remaining scales. An ultimate kind of proof was contained in
January 25 Central Wisconsin Gannett newspapers in which one lead
editorial proposed divesting of Israeli companies as a way to force the
Israelis to reform, while the other laid out in gory detail the range of
Israeli crimes in Gaza. Both articles were written by American Jews.

All eyes turn now toward President Barack Obama. Throughout his election
campaign, Obama did what American presidential candidates uniformly do; he
declared unconditional support for Israel. After his election, which
coincided with the beginning of Israel's effort to destroy Gaza, Obama
insisted on remaining mum respecting comment on the situation in Gaza or
on his future intentions. Even as the situation in Gaza became even more
brutal and bloody, and the illegal uses of American weapons became more
destructive, the President-elect remained silent. In his inaugural
address, he did not mention Palestine, but on his first day on the job, it
appears that the first foreign leader he spoke to was Mahmoud Abbas, an
action not lost on the leadership of Hamas.

In a statement at the State Department following installation of new
envoys (George Mitchell to the Middle East and Richard Holbrooke for
Afghanistan and Pakistan) the Washington Post reported that Obama stuck to
the Bush position. He said that Hamas had to meet three conditions to be
accepted: Recognize Israel's right to exist, stop the rockets and other
resistance activities, and accept all previously worked out agreements
with Israel. The latter is an interesting condition, since the Israelis
have yet to either recognize the Palestinians or to miss an opportunity to
break or ignore existing agreements. Obama did add, however, that Gaza
needed to be reopened.

In short, in no public action so far has the real Obama stood up. However,
pressure is mounting in the rest of the world for him to do so. In a
January 22 editorial in the Financial Times, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal
(brother to the Foreign Minister and former Ambassador to the United
States) executed a sharp new turn. Pointing to conditions in the Middle
East, the Prince said: "America is not innocent in this calamity."
Specifically on Gaza, the Prince said that "through an arrogant attitude
about the butchery in Gaza" America "contributed to the slaughter of
innocents." Then he delivered a rare ultimatum: "If the United States
wants to continue playing a leadership role in the Middle East and keep
its strategic alliances intact-especially its "special relationship" with
Saudi Arabia-it will have to drastically revise its policies vis a vis
Israel and Palestine."

So there could be no question about where he was headed and, incidentally,
for whom he was speaking, the Prince said that "Obama should strongly
support Saudi King Abdullah's peace initiative." That would require the
Israelis to (a) withdraw from all territories occupied in 1967, (b)
withdraw from East Jerusalem, (c) pull back to the June 4 1967 line (the
UN Green Line), and (d) negotiate a "just solution to the refugee problem
according to General Assembly Resolution 194." In exchange, the Prince
summed it up: "There would be an end to hostilities between Israel and all
the Arab countries, and Israel would get full diplomatic and normal
relations." That is the basic proposal originally put forward by then
Crown Prince Abdullah in Beirut in 2002. This proposal has been accepted
in principle by Hamas, but Hamas leadership, while conceding the existence
of Israel per se, refuses to extend formal recognition to Israel except as
part of an overall Palestinian settlement.

In the fragmented political/religious context of the Middle East, Prince
Turki's article produced a powerful reaction. Iran's Prime Minister
Ahmadi-Nijad is reported to immediately have called Prince Turki and said
that Iran would follow Saudi Arabia's lead in this matter. That concession
produces the previously unlikely appearing situation of placing the
leading Sunni (Saudi Arabia) and Shia (Iran) communities on the same side
of the region's most important political issue, the future of Palestine.

The critical anomaly of the situation is the position of Hamas. As pushed
by Israel and the US, one of the charges against Hamas is that it is a
terrorist group. That is true because Hamas members violently have opposed
Israeli repression, and the notion that anyone who resists Israeli
treatment of the Palestinians is a terrorist is a powerful and highly
successful Zionist propaganda tool. The second charge, which has some
resonance among the Arab country oligarchs, is that as an offshoot of
Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas is an Islamist, that is, religious
political movement; it is therefore a potential threat to oligarchic
regimes. Its basis of support in Palestine, however, rests on two rather
more sturdy pillars: First, it stands for the basic goals of the
Palestinian people and represents them more forcefully than its
Palestinian competitor Fatah. Second, as a political movement it takes
greater interest in and does a great deal more substantial work for the
welfare of its constituents. Hamas is a genuine political success without
being corrupt.

Those qualities make Hamas a serious political threat to the Fatah
following of Mahmoud Abbas. They also make it anathema to the Zionists who
would much prefer to deal with Palestinians who do not insist on a fair
and just Palestinian future.

The upshot of the Palestine situation at the moment is that twice in the
past three years Israel has attempted militarily to destroy movements
favorable to the basic cause of the Palestinians, and the attempts have
failed. As a result of the 2006 Israeli military fiasco in Lebanon,
Hezbollah was transformed into a strong and highly regarded political
player, not only among Shia, but among Muslims in general. A repeat of the
Israeli strategy in Gaza appears to have had similar effect. Hamas was
damaged in the attack, but it is still alive and largely well in Gaza as
well as the West Bank. Its prestige in the region has been enhanced, and
it is reasonably predictable that in any future (free) election- without
substantial US and Israeli financial and operational support -Fatah would
lose its shirt.

It is unlikely that Prince Turki would have taken his frank and decisive
public position without seeing Hamas in the equation. It is also very
doubtful that Iran's leadership would have handed the mantle to the Saudis
on any premise that Hamas would be ignored or suppressed. On any other
premise than a significant political role for Hamas, the region is in for
even more trouble than Prince Turki may have imagined. It would be a
tragic error for Israel and its allies to push the Palestinians back
toward global resistance to repression by refusing to deal with their
leadership. The gathering storm around Palestine could easily double in
intensity. That outcome would be most unfortunate, because as Hamas has
shown, it has more real capacity to grow and respond to the needs of the
times than virtually all other Palestine players.
------

The writer is the author of the recently published work, A World Less
Safe, now available on Amazon, and he is a regular columnist on rense.com.
He is a retired Senior Foreign Service Officer of the US Department of
State whose overseas service included tours in Egypt, India, Sri Lanka,
the Philippines, and Brazil. His immediate pre-retirement positions were
as Chairman of the Department of International Studies of the National War
College and as Deputy Director of the State Office of Counter Terrorism
and Emergency Planning. He will welcome comment at wecanstopit@charter.net
----

FROM: WWW.RENSE.COM

Best regards,

Fred Shepherd

"The world is too dangerous to live in - not because of the people who do
evil, but because of the people who sit and let it happen." Albert
Einstein

Global Information Services
336 Bon Air Center #441, Greenbrae, CA 94904
415-459-8738 email: altencon@aol.com
website: http://www.gisfilms.org/

"Patriotism begins with knowing who the enemy is."
________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:29:04 -0800
From: Kathy Roberts <weerkhr@pacbell.net>
10. UN Rapporteur: Initiate Criminal Proceedings Against Bush, Rumsfeld

UN Rapporteur: Initiate criminal proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld
now By Scott Horton 21 Jan 2009 In an interview on Tuesday evening with
the German television program "Frontal 21," on channel ZDF Professor
Manfred Nowak, the United Nations Rapporteur responsible for torture,
stated that with George W. Bush^Òs head of state immunity now terminated,
the new government of Barack Obama was obligated by international law to
commence a criminal investigation into Bush^Òs torture practices. "The
evidence is sitting on the table," he stated. "There is no avoiding the
fact that this was torture." He pointed to the U.S. undertakings under
the Convention Against Torture in which the country committed that it
would criminally prosecute anyone who tortured, or extradite the person
to a state that would prosecute him. "The government of the United States
is required to take all necessary steps to bring George W. Bush and
Donald Rumsfeld before a court," Nowak said.

http://harpers.org/archive/2009/01/hbc-90004250

January 21, 8:21 AM, 2009 ·
UN Rapporteur: Initiate criminal proceedings against Bush and Rumsfeld
now

By Scott Horton

In an interview on Tuesday evening with the German television program
^ÓFrontal 21,^Ô on channel ZDF Professor Manfred Nowak, the United
Nations Rapporteur responsible for torture, stated that with George W.
Bush^Òs head of state immunity now terminated, the new government of
Barack Obama was obligated by international law to commence a criminal
investigation into Bush^Òs torture practices.

^ÓThe evidence is sitting on the table,^Ô he stated. ^ÓThere is no
avoiding the fact that this was torture.^Ô He pointed to the U.S.
undertakings under the Convention Against Torture in which the country
committed that it would criminally prosecute anyone who tortured, or
extradite the person to a state that would prosecute him. ^ÓThe
government of the United States is required to take all necessary steps
to bring George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld before a court,^Ô Nowak said.

Manfred Nowak, an internationally renowned law professor at the
University of Vienna, currently serves as an independent expert for the
United Nations looking at allegations of torture affecting member states.
In 2006, he undertook a special investigation of conditions at the U.S.
detention facilities at Guantánamo in which he concluded that practices
approved by the Bush Administration violated human rights norms,
including the prohibition against torture.

The ZDF piece also includes an interview with attorney Wolfgang Kaleck,
who brought charges against Rumsfeld before German prosecutors. He states
that the Obama administration is ^Óoff to a good beginning^Ô with its
explicit renunciation of torture, but it still has not shown how it will
hold Bush, Rumsfeld, and others to account for their crimes, nor has it
demonstrated its legally obligated duty to provide compensation to
torture victims.

Law professor Dietmar Herz clarifies that under U.S. and international
law, George W. Bush bears personal responsibility for the introduction of
torture. From the point of his departure from office, head of state
immunity terminates, and under clear principles of international law, the
United States is obligated to commence a criminal investigation and then
a prosecution.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:37:57 -0800
From: Eileen Joyce <ejoyce7@hotmail.com>
11. [GNAA] Boycott

Maybe this is a better approach to a boycott for those who slaughtered the
civilians in Gaza.

Eileen
------

From: migalli@comcast.net
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:02:40 -0500

http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/19390/Group_calls_for_Barcode_Boycott_of_Isr
________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 17:46:32 -0500 (EST)
From: Barbara Lubin <meca@mecaforpeace.org>
12. Letter from Gaza

MECA January 23, 2009

Dear Gabrielle,

I entered the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night with my friend and fellow
activist Sharon Wallace after waiting ten hours at the Egypt/Gaza. The
destruction and trauma is even greater than I expected.

In just two short days I met with families who were given minutes to
evacuate their homes and are now living in overcrowded UN schools; I saw
the ruins of bombed greenhouses; I looked out the window at fields and
roads torn up by the tread of Israeli tanks; and I visited two
universities where MECA supports students with scholarships-severely
damaged by Israeli bombs.

Out of all the devastation I have seen so far, there is one story in
particular that I think the world needs to hear. I met a mother who was
at home with her ten children when Israeli soldiers entered the house.
The soldiers told her she had to choose five of her children to "give as
a gift to Israel." As she screamed in horror they repeated the demand and
told her she could choose or they would choose for her. Then these
soldiers murdered five of her children in front of her. The concept of
"Jewish morality" is truly dead. We can be fascists, terrorists, and
Nazis just like everybody else.

I spent the first morning visiting Rafah then drove north to Nuseirat
Refugee Camp where our partner organization Afaq Jadeeda Association is
buying food a delivering cooked meal to displaced families with funds
MECA provided. Then to Gaza City.

Today I visited Jabaliya Refugee Camp and the Zaytoun neighborhood of
Gaza City, two of the areas hardest hit by Israel's brutal attacks.
Pharmacies, schools, and homes were indiscriminately hit in Jabaliya.
Mohammed, one of our volunteers in Gaza, and his family were forced to
evacuate their home because of intense bombing in their area.

In Zaytoun, I saw families gathering wood from charred trees. The almost
two-year blockade of Gaza has deprived people cooking gas, so these
terrified families build fires to keep warm and cook the little food they
can get.

I talked to people on the street who told stories of wild dogs coming to
eat their dead neighbors, relatives bleeding to death because Israel
would not allow emergency workers into the area, and Israeli soldiers
entering homes to beat and kill.

But despite the immense mourning and devastation, people are starting to
put their lives back together. Sabreen, a young woman from Rafah, told
me, "We are a strong people. No matter how many times Israel bombs us we
are not leaving. We will keep trying to live as normal a life as
possible."

Sincerely,

Barbara Lubin Gaza City, Gaza, Palestine

email: meca@mecaforpeace.org
web: http://www.mecaforpeace.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------

13. Boycotting Israel
Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:47:04 -1000
From: richardnsalvador@gmail.com

Naomi Klein explains in the following piece why it is now sensible to
force the government of Israel into civilized behavior by applying
economic sanctions. This may not be possible because of the behavior of
our own government, which historically has aided and abetted human rights
violations, but it is worth considering.
--Jack
-----

Israel: Boycott, Divest, Sanction
by Naomi Klein
<http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090126/klein?rel=hp_currently>

It's time. Long past time. The best strategy to end the increasingly
bloody occupation is for Israel to become the target of the kind of
global movement that put an end to apartheid in South Africa.

In July 2005 a huge coalition of Palestinian groups
<http://www.bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52> laid out plans to do just that.
They called on "people of conscience all over the world to impose broad
boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to
those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era." The campaign
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions <http://www.bdsmovement.net/> --BDS for
short--was born.

Every day that Israel pounds Gaza brings more converts to the BDS cause,
and talk of cease-fires is doing little to slow the momentum. Support is
even emerging among Israeli Jews. In the midst of the assault roughly 500
Israelis, dozens of them well-known artists and scholars, sent a letter<http://www.freegaza.org/en/home/658-a-call-from-within-signed-by-israeli-citize
ns> to foreign ambassadors stationed in Israel. It calls for "the
adoption of immediate restrictive measures and sanctions" and draws a
clear parallel with the antiapartheid struggle. "The boycott on South
Africa was effective, but Israel is handled with kid gloves.... This
international backing must stop."

Yet many still can't go there. The reasons are complex, emotional and
understandable. And they simply aren't good enough. Economic sanctions
are the most effective tools in the nonviolent arsenal. Surrendering them
verges on active complicity. Here are the top four objections to the BDS
strategy, followed by counterarguments.

1. Punitive measures will alienate rather than persuade Israelis. The
world has tried what used to be called "constructive engagement." It has
failed utterly. Since 2006 Israel has been steadily escalating its
criminality: expanding settlements, launching an outrageous war against
Lebanon and imposing collective punishment on Gaza through the brutal
blockade. Despite this escalation, Israel has not faced punitive
measures--quite the opposite. The weapons and $3 billion in annual aid
that the US sends to Israel is only the beginning. Throughout this key
period, Israel has enjoyed a dramatic improvement in its diplomatic,
cultural and trade relations with a variety of other allies. For
instance, in 2007 Israel became the first non-Latin American country to
sign a free-trade deal with Mercosur. In the first nine months of 2008,
Israeli exports to Canada went up 45 percent. A new trade deal with the
European Union is set to double Israel's exports of processed food. And
on December 8, European ministers "upgraded" the EU-Israel Association
Agreement, a reward long sought by Jerusalem.

It is in this context that Israeli leaders started their latest war:
confident they would face no meaningful costs. It is remarkable that over
seven days of wartime trading, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange's flagship
index actually went up 10.7 percent. When carrots don't work, sticks are
needed.

2. Israel is not South Africa. Of course it isn't. The relevance of the
South African model is that it proves that BDS tactics can be effective
when weaker measures (protests, petitions, back-room lobbying) have
failed. And there are indeed deeply distressing echoes: the color-coded
IDs and travel permits, the bulldozed homes and forced displacement, the
settler-only roads. Ronnie Kasrils, a prominent South African politician,
said that the architecture of segregation that he saw in the West Bank
and Gaza in 2007 was "infinitely worse than apartheid."

3. Why single out Israel when the United States, Britain and other
Western countries do the same things in Iraq and Afghanistan? Boycott is
not a dogma; it is a tactic. The reason the BDS strategy should be tried
against Israel is practical: in a country so small and trade-dependent,
it could actually work.

4. Boycotts sever communication; we need more dialogue, not less. This
one I'll answer with a personal story. For eight years, my books have
been published in Israel by a commercial house called Babel. But when I
published The Shock Doctrine, I wanted to respect the boycott. On the
advice of BDS activists, I contacted a small publisher called Andalus
<http://www.andalus.co.il/> . Andalus is an activist press, deeply
involved in the anti-occupation movement and the only Israeli publisher
devoted exclusively to translating Arabic writing into Hebrew. We drafted
a contract that guarantees that all proceeds go to Andalus's work, and
none to me. In other words, I am boycotting the Israeli economy but not
Israelis.

Coming up with this plan required dozens of phone calls, e-mails and
instant messages, stretching from Tel Aviv to Ramallah to Paris to
Toronto to Gaza City. My point is this: as soon as you start implementing
a boycott strategy, dialogue increases dramatically. And why wouldn't it?
Building a movement requires endless communicating, as many in the
antiapartheid struggle well recall. The argument that supporting boycotts
will cut us off from one another is particularly specious given the array
of cheap information technologies at our fingertips. We are drowning in
ways to rant at one another across national boundaries. No boycott can
stop us.

Just about now, many a proud Zionist is gearing up for major
point-scoring: don't I know that many of those very high-tech toys come
from Israeli research parks, world leaders in infotech? True enough, but
not all of them. Several days into Israel's Gaza assault, Richard Ramsey,
the managing director of a British telecom company, sent an e-mail to the
Israeli tech firm MobileMax. "As a result of the Israeli government
action in the last few days we will no longer be in a position to
consider doing business with yourself or any other Israeli company."

When contacted by The Nation, Ramsey said his decision wasn't political.
"We can't afford to lose any of our clients, so it was purely
commercially defensive."

It was this kind of cold business calculation that led many companies to
pull out of South Africa two decades ago. And it's precisely the kind of
calculation that is our most realistic hope of bringing justice, so long
denied, to Palestine.

Further Reading: Disengagement and the Frontiers of Zionism
<http://www.merip.org/mero/mero021608.html>

Naomi Klein is an award-winning journalist and syndicated columnist and
the author of the international and New York Times bestseller The Shock
Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, now out in paperback. Her
earlier books include the international best-seller, No Logo: Taking Aim
at the Brand Bullies; and the collection Fences and Windows: Dispatches
from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate (2002). To read all her
latest writing visit <http://www.naomiklein.org/>
________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 08:16:06 -0800 (PST)
From: patricia blair <cris6369@yahoo.com>
14. Dont confuse anti-semitism wth anti-zionism]

Dont confuse anti-semitism with anti-zionism.

Zionism is judeo imperialism. Unfotunately zionist
exclusivness and the superior Israeli god mindset still exists in
within christian ideology. Unforturnately the U.S. constitution is
based on racist archaic judeo-christian ideology. Unfortunately the U.S.
western academic system is based upon racist christian dogma.
Unfortunately Hawaii is a colony of racist judeo christian
euro-american capitalism.

Unfortunately the Makena subdivsion is a zionist investment instigated
by Lingle and the begining of the Israeli colonization of Hawaii and
with them comes their depleted unranium cluster bombs. Maui and all of
Hawaii will eventually become another Gaza.

Will the so called chosen people of Israel crucify Jesus once again
when he supposedly returns to mother earth?

Fortunately under Hawaiian Kingdom constitutional law, U.S.
constitutional law and United Nations international law Hawaii is still an
independent nation and Hawaiians still have a connection with their
genealogy their unique documented land tenure system, The Great Mahele,and
their bio-genetic cultural belief system, the Kumulipo.
Free Hawaii Free Palestine!

Brandish the banner of Hawaiian independence!

Eric Po'ohina
po box 744
kailua hi 96734
email goofyfootnumber1@hotmail.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:46:28 -0500 (EST)
From: Cecilie Surasky <info@jewishvoiceforpeace.org>
15. Hope?

Hope?
Click here to sign the Open Letter to Obama and download the posters now.

Dear Gabrielle,

Every time I saw one of those Obama posters with "HOPE" on it, I felt it.
Hope, that is. Hope against hope that perhaps this new President would
pursue a just peace with the same fervor that he pursued hope before he
was elected.

And in the short time since the inauguration, we're seeing reasons to
believe our hope was justified. But, here's the big challenge: Israel,
Palestine, Gaza. Turning hope into reality comes down to how President
Obama deals with this ongoing tragedy. This week's announcement of George
Mitchell as Middle East envoy -- the man who helped broker peace in
Northern Ireland-- signals that Obama is serious about even-handed
diplomacy. For so many, our hope is that Mitchell and Obama will now take
serious and meaningful steps towards a just and true peace.

It's a tall order, we know. But the momentum that began on inauguration
day won't last long, and the cease fire in Gaza has only ceased the worst
of the bombs and violence. We have a window and we must take advantage of
it. We must hope - and HOPE BIG. Please join Jewish Voice for Peace and
Just Foreign Policy in asking President Obama to make good on his promise
of hope.

Please read our letter and add your name, and then ask your like-minded
friends to do the same. We're aiming to deliver our letter on February
23. Then download our Hope posters and put them in your windows or on
your wall. Obama has said that he needs people like us to demand action
loudly and visibly. Now is our moment. We must keep the pressure on.

Thank you for doing your part.

Sincerely,
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 02:31:58 -0500
From: FeedBlitz <feedblitz@mail.feedblitz.com>
16. Disappeared News - 3 new articles

"DISAPPEARED NEWS" - 3 NEW ARTICLES

1. Mark your calendar for July 22 eclipse
2. Public Utilities Commission throws out HECO biofuels application with
secret palm oil supplier
3. How to get through to Obama on Israel
4. More Recent Articles
5. Search Disappeared News

Mark your calendar for July 22 eclipse

by Larry Geller Itâ^À^Ùs considered inauspicious to have a solar eclipse
during the Chinese New Year. Weâ^À^Ùre ok in Hawaii, but those who live
in Australia, Bangladesh, Burma, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia,
Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Taiwan or Thailand had
better watch out for the negative energy. Hawaii will experience a
partial solar eclipse on July 22. Don't miss it, that....

Public Utilities Commission throws out HECO biofuels application with
secret palm oil supplier

This just in from Henry Curtis atÂ Life of the Land: On December 31,
2008, HECO opened two fast-tracked biofuel dockets at the Hawaii Public
Utilities Commission (PUC). HECO proposed testing a Low Sulfur Fuel Oil
(LSFO)/Palm Oil combination at a Kahe steam generator. HECO proposed that
MECO test palm oil biofuel at a Maalaea diesel generator. HECO stated
that at some point in the future they....

How to get through to Obama on Israel

by Larry Geller While in Hawaii, Barack Obama studiously avoided making
eye contact with pro-Palestinian demonstrators lined up along his
limousine's escape route in Kailua. It was a message he clearly
didnâ^À^Ùt want to be seen considering, yet it was an important one, and
one that increasing numbers of Americans support. Back in Washington, he
involved himself in several key issues, but as to the....

More Recent Articles

* Indonesia starts up a tsunami early warning system-made with German,
not Hawaii assistance
* No response from Governor Lingle on Superferry quarterly reports
* Flash â^À^Ó unverified â^À^Ó Superferry hits whale?
* Advice for America from our postal service
* Beware Circuit City liquidation
________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:43:05 -0800 (PST)
From: patricia blair <cris6369@yahoo.com>
17. BBC outrage

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/01/25/bbc.gaza.advert/index.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2009 19:21:08 -0800 (PST)
From: Indy Kids <indykidsinfo@yahoo.com>
18. Jan/Feb IndyKids is Out!

IndyKids takes a look at who Obama is appointing to his cabinet, and
provides a look back on news and issues from 2008 in a Year in Review. The
issue also spotlights the Israeli attack on Gaza, the protests happening
in response around the world, and features a creative approach to saving
public wilderness, a program where Indigenous kids make movies, and an
interview with radical historian and author Howard Zinn. Plus, news,
features and letters from kids!

Go to www.indykids.net to download the paper and TEACHER^ÒS GUIDE, find
out how to get copies and to subscribe.

IndyKids is a free newspaper and teaching tool for kids in grades 4-8 and
high school English language learners. IndyKids aims to inform children on
current news and world events from a progressive perspective and to
inspire a passion for social justice and learning.

IndyKids
P.O. Box 1417
New York , NY 10276
Phone: 212-592-0116
Email: indykids@indymedia.org
Web: www.indykids.net
_______________________________________________-----------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:00:08 -0500 (EST)
From: Tikkun Magazine and NSP <magazine@tikkun.org>
19. Israel Up-date Jan. 26, 2009

Here are a set of articles from the peace perspective by Israelis, plus
one article from right-wing analysts in Israel (you should know what both
sides are saying).

It seems clear that some of you prefer to read our material on the web.
It's easy to do. You can EITHER click here OR you go to www.tikkun.org to
our home page and then under current thinking you'll find these articles
pasted in. If that doesn't work, try pasting this following into your URL:
http://files.tikkun.org/current/admin/story.php?mode=edit&sid=20090125223923306

On the other hand, some of our readers won't click through and have
indicated a strong preference to have the articles available right here in
the email where they don't have to enter another sector of cyberspace to
read the articles. For them, the articles are pasted in below!

24.1.09
On The Wrong Side by Uri Avneri

OF ALL the beautiful phrases in Barack Obama's inauguration speech, these
are the words that stuck in my mind: "You are on the wrong side of
history."

He was talking about the tyrannical regimes of the world. But we, too,
should ponder these words

In the last few days I have heard a lot of declarations from Ehud Barak,
Tzipi Livni, Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Olmert. And every time, these
eight words came back to haunt me: "You are on the wrong side of
history!"

Obama was speaking as a man of the 21st century. Our leaders speak the
language of the 19th century. They resemble the dinosaurs which once
terrorized their neighborhood and were quite unaware of the fact that
their time had already passed.

DURING THE rousing celebrations, again and again the multicolored
patchwork of the new president's family was mentioned.

All the preceding 43 presidents were white Protestants, except John
Kennedy, who was a white Catholic. 38 of them were the descendants of
immigrants from the British isles. Of the other five, three were of Dutch
ancestry (Theodor and Franklin D. Roosevelt , as well as Martin van
Buren) and two of German descent (Herbert Hoover and Dwight Eisenhower.)

The face of Obama's family is quite different. The extended family
includes whites and the descendents of black slaves, Africans from Kenya,
Indonesians, Chinese from Canada, Christians, Muslims and even one Jew (a
converted African-American). The two first names of the president
himself, Barack Hussein, are Arabic.

This is the face of the new American nation - a mixture of races,
religions, countries of origin and skin-colors, an open and diverse
society, all of whose members are supposed to be equal and to identify
themselves with the "founding fathers". The American Barack Hussein
Obama, whose father was born in a Kenyan village, can speak with pride of
"George Washington, the father of our nation", of the "American
Revolution" (the war of independence against the British), and hold up
the example of "our ancestors", who include both the white pioneers and
the black slaves who "endured the lash of the whip". That is the
perception of a modern nation, multi-cultural and multi-racial: a person
joins it by acquiring citizenship, and from this moment on is the heir to
all its history.

Israel is the product of the narrow nationalism of the 19th century, a
nationalism that was closed and exclusive, based on race and ethnic
origin, blood and earth. Israel is a "Jewish State", and a Jew is a
person born Jewish or converted according to Jewish religious law
(Halakha). Like Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, it is a state whose mental
world is to a large extent conditioned by religion, race and ethnic
origin.

When Ehud Barak speaks about the future, he speaks the language of past
centuries, in terms of brute force and brutal threats, with armies
providing the solution to all problems. That was also the language of
George W. Bush who last week slinked out of Washington, a language that
already sounds to the Western ear like an echo from the distant past.

The words of the new president are ringing in the air: "Our power alone
cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please." The key
words were "humility and restraint".

Our leaders are now boasting about their part in the Gaza War, in which
unbridled military force was unleashed intentionally against a civilian
population, men, women and children, with the declared aim of "creating
deterrence". In the era that began last Tuesday, such expressions can
only arouse shudders.

BETWEEN Israel and the United States a gap has opened this week, a narrow
gap, almost invisible - but it may widen into an abyss.

The first signs are small. In his inaugural speech, Obama proclaimed that
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and
nonbelievers." Since when? Since when do the Muslims precede the Jews?
What has happened to the "Judeo-Christian Heritage"? (A completely false
term to start with, since Judaism is much closer to Islam than to
Christianity. For example: neither Judaism nor Islam supports the
separation of religion and state.)

The very next morning, Obama phoned a number of Middle East leaders. He
decided to make a quite unique gesture: placing the first call to Mahmoud
Abbas, and only the next to Olmert. The Israeli media could not stomach
that. Haaretz, for example, consciously falsified the record by writing -
not once but twice in the same issue - that Obama had called "Olmert,
Abbas, Mubarak and King Abdallah" (in that order).

Instead of the group of American Jews who had been in charge of the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict during both the Clinton and Bush
administrations, Obama, on his very first day in office, appointed an
Arab-American, George Mitchell, whose mother had come to America from
Lebanon at age 18, and who himself, orphaned from his Irish father, was
brought up in a Maronite Christian Lebanese family.

These are not good tidings for the Israeli leaders. For the last 42
years, they have pursued a policy of expansion, occupation and
settlements in close cooperation with Washington. They have relied on
unlimited American support, from the massive supply of money and arms to
the use of the veto in the Security Council. This support was essential
to their policy. This support may now be reaching its limits.

It will happen, of course, gradually. The pro-Israel lobby in Washington
will continue to put the fear of God into Congress. A huge ship like the
United States can change course only very slowly, in a gentle curve. But
the turn-around started already on the first day of the Obama
administration.

This could not have happened, if America itself had not changed. That is
not a political change alone. It is a change in the world-view, in mental
outlook, in values. A certain American myth, which is very similar to the
Zionist myth, has been replaced by another American myth. Not by accident
did Obama devote to this so large a part of his speech (in which, by the
way, there was not a single word about the extermination of the Native
Americans).

The Gaza War, during which tens of millions of Americans saw the horrible
carnage in the Strip (even if rigorous self-censorship cut out all but a
tiny part), has hastened the process of drifting apart. Israel, the brave
little sister, the loyal ally in Bush's "War on Terror", has turned into
the violent Israel, the mad monster, which has no compassion for women
and children, the wounded and the sick. And when winds like these are
blowing, the Lobby loses height.

The leaders of official Israel do not notice it. They do not feel, as
Obama put it in another context, that "the ground has shifted beneath
them". They think that this is no more than a temporary political problem
that can be set right with the help of the Lobby and the servile members
of Congress.

Our leaders are still intoxicated with war and drunk with violence. They
have re-phrased the famous saying of the Prussian general, Carl von
Clausewitz into: "War is but a continuation of an election campaign by
other means." They compete with each other with vainglorious swagger for
their share of the "credit". Tzipi Livni, who cannot compete with the men
for the crown of warlord, tries to outdo them in toughness, in
bellicosity, in hard-heartedness.

The most brutal is Ehud Barak. Once I called him a "peace criminal",
because he brought about the failure of the 2000 Camp David conference
and shattered the Israeli peace camp. Now I must call him a "war
criminal", as the person who planned the Gaza War knowing that it would
murder masses of civilians.

In his own eyes, and in the eyes of a large section of the public, this
is a military operation which deserves all praise. His advisors also
thought that it would bring him success in the elections. The Labor
party, which had been the largest party in the Knesset for decades, had
shrunk in the polls to 12, even 9 seats out of 120. With the help of the
Gaza atrocity it has now gone up to 16 or so. That's not a landslide, and
there's no guarantee that it will not sink again.

What was Barak's mistake? Very simply: every war helps the Right. War, by
its very nature, arouses in the population the most primitive emotions -
hate and fear, fear and hate. These are the emotions on which the Right
has been riding for centuries. Even when it's the "Left" that starts a
war, it's still the Right that profits from it. In a state of war, the
population prefers an honest-to-goodness Rightist to a phony Leftist.

This is happening to Barak for the second time. When, in 2000, he spread
the mantra "I have turned every stone on the way to peace, / I have made
the Palestinians unprecedented offers, / They have rejected everything, /
There is no one to talk with" - he succeeded not only in blowing the Left
to smithereens, but also in paving the way for the ascent of Ariel Sharon
in the 2001 elections. Now he is paving the way for Binyamin Netanyahu
(hoping, quite openly, to become his minister of defense).

And not only for him. The real victor of the war is a man who had no part
in it at all: Avigdor Liberman. His party, which in any normal country
would be called fascist, is steadily rising in the polls. Why? Liberman
looks and sounds like an Israeli Mussolini, he is an unbridled
Arab-hater, a man of the most brutal force. Compared to him, even
Netanyahu looks like a softie. A large part of the young generation,
nurtured on years of occupation, killing and destruction, after two
atrocious wars, considers him a worthy leader.

WHILE THE US has made a giant jump to the left, Israel is about to jump
even further to the right.

Anyone who saw the millions milling around Washington on inauguration day
knows that Obama was not speaking only for himself. He was expressing the
aspirations of his people, the Zeitgeist.

Between the mental world of Obama and the mental world of Liberman and
Netanyahu there is no bridge. Between Obama and Barak and Livni, too,
there yawns an abyss. Post-election Israel may find itself on a collision
course with post-election America.

Where are the American Jews? The overwhelming majority of them voted for
Obama. They will be between the hammer and the anvil - between their
government and their natural adherence to Israel. It is reasonable to
assume that this will exert pressure from below on the "leaders" of
American Jewry, who have incidentally never been elected by anyone, and
on organizations like AIPAC. The sturdy stick, on which Israeli leaders
are used to lean in times of trouble, may prove to be a broken reed.

Europe, too, is not untouched by the new winds. True, at the end of the
war we saw the leaders of Europe - Sarkozy, Merkel, Browne and Zapatero -
sitting like schoolchildren behind a desk in class, respectfully
listening to the most loathsome arrogant posturing from Ehud Olmert,
reciting his text after him. They seemed to approve the atrocities of the
war, speaking of the Qassams and forgetting about the occupation, the
blockade and the settlements. Probably they will not hang this picture on
their office walls.

But during this war masses of Europeans poured into the streets to
demonstrate against the horrible events. The same masses saluted Obama on
the day of his inauguration.

This is the new world. Perhaps our leaders are now dreaming of the
slogan: "Stop the world, I want to get off!" But there is no other world.

YES, WE ARE NOW on the wrong side of history.

Fortunately, there is also another Israel. It is not in the limelight,
and its voice is heard only by those who listen out for it. This is a
sane, rational Israel, with its face to the future, to progress and
peace. In these coming elections, its voice will barely be heard, because
all the old parties are standing with their two feet squarely in the
world of yesterday.

But what has happened in the United States will have a profound influence
on what happens in Israel. The huge majority of Israelis know that we
cannot exist without close ties with the US. Obama is now the leader of
the world, and we live in this world. When he promises to work
"aggressively" for peace between us and the Palestinians, that is a
marching order for us.

We want to be on the right side of history. That will take months or
years, but I am sure that we shall get there. The time to start is now.
********************************************************************

Gideon Levy / Gaza war ended in utter failure for Israel
By Gideon Levy
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1057670.html

On the morrow of the return of the last Israeli soldier from Gaza, we can
determine with certainty that they had all gone out there in vain. This
war ended in utter failure for Israel.

This goes beyond the profound moral failure, which is a grave matter in
itself, but pertains to its inability to reach its stated goals. In other
words, the grief is not complemented by failure. We have gained nothing
in this war save hundreds of graves, some of them very small, thousands
of maimed people, much destruction and the besmirching of Israel's image.

What seemed like a predestined loss to only a handful of people at the
onset of the war will gradually emerge as such to many others, once the
victorious trumpeting subsides.

The initial objective of the war was to put an end to the firing of
Qassam rockets. This did not cease until the war's last day. It was only
achieved after a cease-fire had already been arranged. Defense officials
estimate that Hamas still has 1,000 rockets.

The war's second objective, the prevention of smuggling, was not met
either. The head of the Shin Bet security service has estimated that
smuggling will be renewed within two months.

Most of the smuggling that is going on is meant to provide food for a
population under siege, and not to obtain weapons. But even if we accept
the scare campaign concerning the smuggling with its exaggerations, this
war has served to prove that only poor quality, rudimentary weapons
passed through the smuggling tunnels connecting the Gaza Strip to Egypt.

Israel's ability to achieve its third objective is also dubious.
Deterrence, my foot. The deterrence we supposedly achieved in the Second
Lebanon War has not had the slightest effect on Hamas, and the one
supposedly achieved now isn't working any better: The sporadic firing of
rockets from the Gaza Strip has continued over the past few days.

The fourth objective, which remained undeclared, was not met either. The
IDF has not restored its capability. It couldn't have, not in a quasi-war
against a miserable and poorly-equipped organization relying on makeshift
weapons, whose combatants barely put up a fight.
-------

The spread of Liebermanism
By Haaretz Editorial Friday, January 23 2009
Tags: Israel, arabs, Lieberman, Israel

This week, the Supreme Court accepted a petition by two Arab Knesset
factions - Balad and United Arab List-Ta'al - and overturned the Central
Elections Commission's decision to bar them from running in the upcoming
elections. This ruling, which did not ignore the problematic elements of
both parties' platforms, rescued the political system from the disgrace
it inflicted on itself and the voting public by disqualifying these
slates.

As always, the bid to disqualify the parties came from members of the
extreme right, and they are also the ones who heaped unbridled criticism
on the court's decision. Most prominent among them was Yisrael Beiteinu
chairman Avigdor Lieberman, who shouted at MK Ahmed Tibi, "Some of the
Arab MKs should be dealt with like Hamas."

Lieberman, though he works tirelessly to disenfranchise Arab politicians
- and, in effect, the entire Arab public - is not the most extreme.
Baruch Marzel, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Effi Eitam are even less restrained
when it comes to the rights of Israeli Arabs. But it is Lieberman, whose
vision and platform seem to be rational and well thought out, who is
actually the greater danger to democracy. The Central Elections
Commission's sweeping consensus in favor of disqualifying the Arab
parties - which even included Kadima and the Labor Party - is bitter
proof of this.
Advertisement
Granted, Labor's response team argued vehemently that MK Eitan Cabel's
vote on the commission in favor of disqualification violated the party's
principles and did not reflect the majority's views. But to this day,
party chairman Ehud Barak has yet to make his views on the subject known.
And while Kadima likes to describe itself as a centrist party, its
leaders, including Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, did not hesitate to vote
in favor of disqualification.

Lieberman's dangerous and anti-democratic worldview has thus succeeded in
infecting the centrist stream of Israeli politics, and that is reflected
in the statements of politicians who are considered relatively moderate.

The ridiculous idea of demanding loyalty tests for Arab citizens as a
condition for obtaining basic civil rights is being treated as a
legitimate option in the corridors of the Knesset. So is the desire to
transfer towns in the Triangle region, along with their residents, to the
future state of Palestine as part of a "repartition" of the country.

Ideas that no one would have dared let cross their lips 10 or 20 years
ago, lest they be thought utter fascists, have been bolstered in recent
months by the war in the south. It seems that Israeli Arabs are once
again paying the price of the bloody struggle between Israel and its
neighbors. And populist politicians seeking to ingratiate themselves with
an inflamed public are once again using the Arabs as a punching bag,
along the lines of "stick it to the Arabs and salvage the party in the
polls."

Now that the court has overturned the disqualification decision, the
leading candidates must publicly disavow this spreading Liebermanism and
its racist characteristics. Any other response would constitute an
undemocratic and immoral disqualification of Israel's Arab citizens.
The heroic descriptions and victory poems written abut the "military
triumph" will not serve to change reality. The pilots were flying on
training missions and the ground forces were engaged in exercises that
involved joining up and firing weapons.

The describing of the operation as a "military achievement" by the
various generals and analysts who offered their take on the operation is
plain ridiculous.

We have not weakened Hamas. The vast majority of its combatants were not
harmed and popular support for the organization has in fact increased.
Their war has intensified the ethos of resistance and determined
endurance. A country which has nursed an entire generation on the ethos
of a few versus should know to appreciate that by now. There was no doubt
as to who was David and who was Goliath in this war.

The population in Gaza, which has sustained such a severe blow, will not
become more moderate now. On the contrary, the national sentiment will
now turn more than before against the party which inflicted that blow -
the State of Israel. Just as public opinion leans to the right in Israel
after each attack against us, so it will in Gaza following the
mega-attack that we carried out against them.

If anyone was weakened because of this war, it was Fatah, whose fleeing
from Gaza and its abandonment have now been given special significance.
The succession of failures in this war needs to include, of course, the
failure of the siege policy. For a while, we have already come to realize
that is ineffective. The world boycotted, Israel besieged and Hamas ruled
(and is still ruling).

But this war's balance, as far as Israel is concerned, does not end with
the absence of any achievement. It has placed a heavy toll on us, which
will continue to burden us for some time. When it comes to assessing
Israel's international situation, we must not allow ourselves to be
fooled by the support parade by Europe's leaders, who came in for a
photo-op with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Israel's actions have dealt a serious blow to public support for the
state. While this does not always translate itself into an immediate
diplomatic situation, the shockwaves will arrive one day. The whole world
saw the images. They shocked every human being who saw them, even if they
left most Israelis cold.

The conclusion is that Israel is a violent and dangerous country, devoid
of all restraints and blatantly ignoring the resolutions of the United
Nations Security Council, while not giving a hoot about international
law. The investigations are on their way.

Graver still is the damage this will visit upon our moral spine. It will
come from difficult questions about what the IDF did in Gaza, which will
occur despite the blurring effect of recruited media.

So what was achieved, after all? As a war waged to satisfy considerations
of internal politics, the operation has succeeded beyond all
expectations. Likud Chair Benjamin Netanyahu is getting stronger in the
polls. And why? Because we could not get enough of the war.

Biographical Note:

Prof. Oren Yiftachel teaches political geography and urban planning at
Ben-Gurion University, Beersheba. Yiftachel has written extensively on
the political geography of ethnic conflict. Among his books: "Ethnocracy:
Land and Identity Politics in Israel/Palestine" (2006, PennPress), and
"Israelis in Conflict" (ed, 2004, Sussex Academic Press)... He is an
occasional contributor to Israel's leading newspapers "Haaretz" and
"Ynet". Yiftachel is an active member in several peace and civil society
organizations, including B'tselem, the Bedouin Council of unrecognized
villages, Adva and a founding member of Faculty for Israel-Palestine
Peace (FFIPP).
------

RETURNING TIME TO GAZANS
Oren Yiftachel[i]

The sights of death and destruction from Gaza are devastating, and the
residents of southern Israel are under on-going bombardment. The
situation is suffocating, saddening and infuriating. In such a time it
may be difficult to look beyond the violence, but this may be necessary
to understand what is transpiring in front of our eyes.

An aboriginal author once said, during the struggle for native rights in
Australia: "wherever national territory advances, our time is killed, but
it also has a strange habit of returning after death."

It may seem far removed, but this insight can help us fathom the war on
Gaza. Beyond the carnage, brutality, and screaming children, we can also
see it as the continuation of the Israeli territorial project which has
adopted a consistent and cruel goal - the erasure of Palestinian time,
that is, the full recent history of this land. This erasure, needless to
say, is aimed at destroying Palestinian space, in what Palestinian
professor Sari Hanafi calls 'spaciocide'. With this destruction comes the
annihilation of political powers, those existing by right, and not as a
result of some Israeli 'generosity'.

Accordingly, one may look at the current invasion to Gaza not only as an
'operation' to stop Hamas' rockets; a pre-election effort to boost
popularity by cynical Israeli leaders; nor an attempt to re-establish
Israel's deterrence following the failure of the second Lebanon War of
2006. This invasion and destruction of Gaza is neither only a colonial
attempt to 'create a new political order' among neighboring nations, or an
imperial (American-Israeli) push to control insurgent Arab societies. The
current attack on Gaza is of course all these, but also - and most
importantly, another step in the long-standing project of silencing,
fragmenting, breaking and annihilating Palestinian history and collective
existence. The erasure project is conducted by nearly everybody in Israel
- politicians, artists, the media, university researchers and
intellectuals.

Against the efforts of collective amnesia, let us remember: the Gaza Strip
is a small region covering only 1.7% of historic Palestine. It was created
as an entity following the 1948 war, known as the Nakbah (Palestinian
disaster), during which some two thirds of Palestinians refugees were
driven out from what is now Israel, with 150,000 of them joining the
60,000 Arabs already residing in the area. The armistice lines were drawn
between Israeli and Egypt, with the refugees trapped on the 'wrong side',
and prevented from returning to their villages. In the meantime, Israel
destroyed nearly all Arab villages from Jaffa to Beersheba, appropriated
all Palestinian land and allocated it to the dozens of Jewish towns and
settlements built around Gaza.

The refugee population in Gaza today amounts to more than a million (over
two thirds of the Strip's population). Its spatial conditions have
worsened dramatically, with overcrowding, poverty, lack of services and a
growing regime of geographic constraints. Israel's conquest in 1967 eased
for a while the sense of siege, but following the first Intifada, and
further since the Oslo Agreement, Gaza was cordoned once more, cut off
from the rest of the Palestinian Territories and the world, and surrounded
in 1994 by a massive 'security fence', ironically as part of the 'peace
process'. Gaza became a large Palestinian Ghetto, or as notable Gaza Eyad
el-Sarraj quipped: "the largest jail in the world.".

This is the background for the rise of Hamas, which offered an alternative
to the failed Oslo accords under which the promise to peace turned into a
Palestinian 'Via Dolorosa'. Hamas refused to believe the promise of 'two
states for two nations', which has become an empty slogan, enabling the
endless continuation of Jewish settlement and Israeli colonial occupation.
Hamas also gave voice and political weight for the refugees by appointing
Ismail Haniya - - resident of the Shati Camp, as its first Prime Minister.
This move was conducted against a corrupt Palestinian political elite,
trapped within the Oslo framework, which prevented it from dealing with
the refugee issue, thereby silencing again the recent history of this
land.

True, the shelling of Israeli towns by Hamas should be condemned as an act
of terror, and as a disastrous political strategy with grave consequences
to the Palestinian people. But beyond this, we should understand it as a
desperate attempt to remind the world, Israel, and even the Arab world,
that the refugee problem is still alive - an open wound awaiting to be
healed by the forces that created it -- first and foremost Israel.

Against this on-going cry, Israel typically decided to escape engaging
with the issue, and is now conducting a campaign of state-sanctioned
terror, against Gazan society. Hence the brutal violence that aims to
divide, cut, kill and injure. But even tons of bombs and piles of 'cast
lead' cannot silence the echo of history. Israel's mighty military power
is weak politically and morally and will not prevent the return of native
time, even after its pronounced death, as predicted by the Aboriginal
author.

The moral is clear: the genuine cessation of violence must pass through
the return of time to our public and political life, that is, the opening
of a genuine debate over the history that created and maintained Gaza and
other Palestinian ghettoes controlled violently by Israel. Without that,
we may realize time and again that our enormous military power buys no
genuine security. During such a debate, the refugee issue will be foremost
on the agenda, but it will also have to engage with the Jews' own history
of dislocation and disaster, and the making of a safe Jewish place in an
Arab Middle East.

The return of Palestinian time, therefore, is necessary for the
recognition of Jewish time, and for the two nations to find a way to
coexist in their common homeland. Hence, we must replace territory with
history as the core of Palestinian-Jewish engagement, and thereby enter,
perhaps, a time of reconciliation.
**************************************************************

The war that wasn't
By Reuven Pedatzur
Tags: israel news, hamas, IDF, gaza

It is very dangerous for the Israel Defense Forces to believe it won the
war when there was no war. The expressions of satisfaction and praise for
the war's outcome voiced by the army's top brass may lead the IDF to draw
the wrong conclusions. Contrary to the image portrayed by reports in the
Israeli media - asserting that the IDF's performance in the war was
near-perfect and that the army adopted the lessons from the Second Lebanon
War - in reality, not a single battle was fought during the 22 days of
fighting.

The Hamas fighters did not even try to stop the IDF soldiers who entered
the Strip, opting to withdraw without a fight. The challenge the soldiers
were faced with in their advance on Gaza City was not - as senior command
had said prior to the operation - hand-to-hand combat with determined
fighters, armed to the teeth and willing to die, but the need to find
booby traps and explosives, and occasionally to neutralize individual
snipers as well. This is not war. It is not even a real battle.

There is nothing in common between the sort of combat adopted by the IDF
during Operation Cast Lead and what happened in the battles of the Second
Lebanon War. Therefore, the argument that the Gaza fighting proves that
the IDF has adopted the lessons of that war lacks foundation. True, the
soldiers were better equipped, the commanders were in the field and not
stuck behind plasma screens, and the intelligence was a lot better than in
2006. But all this does not alter the fact that what happened in the Strip
was essentially a military operation characterized by advancing forces in
hostile territory, densely populated by civilians, without facing a
military force.

At the start of the ground offensive, senior command decided to avoid
endangering the lives of soldiers, even at the price of seriously harming
the civilian population. This is why the IDF made use of massive force
during its advance in the Strip. As a Golani brigade commander explained,
if there is any concern that a house is booby-trapped, even if it is
filled with civilians, it should be targeted and hit, to ensure that it is
not mined - only then should it be approached. Without going into the
moral aspects, such fighting tactics explain why there were no instances
in which there was a need to assault homes where Hamas fighters were holed
up.

Other outcomes of this fighting method were the extensive damage and the
deaths of many civilians. According to IDF statistics, almost two thirds
of Palestinians killed were civilians. Moreover, even though it was one of
the war's aims, hardly any Hamas fighters were taken prisoner, and the
holding center set up to imprison them remained almost empty.

The Israel Air Force, too, received a great deal of praise. The media
asserted that during Cast Lead it proved that it is the world's best air
force. While the IAF's quality is beyond dispute, it would be a serious
mistake to bolster such a claim on the basis of its activity in the Gaza
Strip. The planes operated in an environment free of air defenses,
enjoying complete aerial superiority. A flight over the Strip and a mostly
"accurate" bombing run, which can be dropped from a relatively short
range, is not a complicated mission. The flights over Gaza are like test
flights, which every pilot does dozens of times a year.

The IDF should relate to its performance in Operation Cast Lead with the
necessary humility and proportionality. There was no war there.

Israel to grant legal aid to IDF troops accused of Gaza war crimes By
Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service Tags: Israel, Gaza,
War crimes The government on Sunday ratified a bill granting aid and
support to Israel Defense Forces officers in cases where they face suits
for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.

"Israel will give full support to everyone who operated for it and on
behalf of it. The commanders and soldiers who were sent to Gaza need to
know that they are safe from various tribunals," Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert announced at the opening of the weekly cabinet meeting.

The bill, titled "strengthening the IDF's hand after Operation Cast Lead",
was put forward by Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and coordinated by the
Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Justice and State Prosecutor.

There is growing concern at the Defense Ministry and the Ministry of
Justice that Israeli officers will be singled out in a wave of suits for
alleged human rights violations during the recent 3-week offensive against
Hamas.

"The terrorist organizations and Hamas were mistaken in thinking that
Israel would reconcile itself to [rocket] fire and not respond," Olmert
added.

"Now after the operation, the organizations are trying to settle accounts
with the State of Israel, and one of the central arenas in which they are
doing so is the arena of international law, by means of the moralistic
diplomatic tact that characterizes these groups."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak joined Olmert in pledging support for the
soldiers. Calling the IDF "the most moral army in the world," Barak said
troops would receive governmental backing against accusations from abroad
and "self-flagellation" from within Israel.

Olmert added that terror organizations are trying to turn attacker into
attacked and vice-versa by pinning responsibility on IDF soldiers instead
of blaming terrorism. He said also said Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann
would consult with Israel's top legal experts and find "answers to
possible questions relating to the Israeli military's activities" during
the campaign.

More than 1,250 Palestinians were reportedly killed during Israel's
offensive against Hamas in the coastal territory. Israel has been harshly
criticized for the large number of civilians among the Palestinian dead,
of whom they numbered more than half according to Gaza officials.
****************************************************

No moderates left
By Gideon Levy

The three leading candidates for prime minister are extremists. Tzipi
Livni and Ehud Barak went to war in Gaza and are therefore as radical as
can be. Benjamin Netanyahu is more radical in rhetoric only.
We must not be led astray in this election campaign and consider both
Livni and Barak as moderates, in contrast to the "extremist" Netanyahu.
This is a deception. Kadima and Labor, the center and left-wing parties,
have led Israel to two awful wars within two years. Netanyahu has yet to
go to war once. True, he speaks more radically than the other two, but so
far it has only been words, while the "moderates" have taken radical,
aggressive action.
"Bibi is unreliable and terribly right-wing," Kadima's electoral
broadcast asserts. Is he? Livni and Barak are just the same.
Advertisement
None of the people involved in the Gaza war can speak of peace now. Those
who delivered such a brutal blow to the Palestinians, only to sow more
hatred and fear among them, have no intention of making peace with them.
Those responsible for firing white phosphorous shells into a civilian
population and destroying thousands of homes cannot talk the following
day about two states living peacefully side by side.
In one fell swoop, Ehud Olmert, who issued some of the bravest statements
ever made in these parts about ending the occupation, singlehandedly
turned them into a cynical babble of hollow cliches. Who will now believe
that he wanted peace? And who will believe Barak or Livni?
This war unmasked Livni, the woman who had promised us "different
politics." She, who as foreign minister was supposed to show Israel's
sunny side to the world, chose to present an arrogant, violent and brutal
face. During the war she boasted that Israel was acting "savagely,"
threatened to let Hamas "have it" and announced that the cease-fire would
come into effect "whenever Israel decides."
As far as she was concerned, there was no world, no United States and
Europe, no UN Security Council, and no bleeding and defeated other side -
only Israel will decide. No foreign minister has ever spoken like this
before.
In her pathetic attempts to assume a masculine, militaristic, even macho,
posture of someone who would know what to say if the telephone rang at 3
A.M., Livni was exposed as a failed foreign minister, whose words and
deeds are no different from those espoused by the radical militaristic
men around her. No self-respecting voter who considers himself an
upstanding centrist could vote for her. Whoever votes for Kadima will be
voting for the right, which is eager to embark on any war and risk the
accompanying crimes.
Voting for Labor also means voting for the war and its horrors. This
war's marshal, Ehud Barak, has forever deprived himself of the moral
right to talk of coexistence, political arrangements and diplomacy. If he
really believed in them, he would have given them a chance before going
to war, not afterward. Barak took the army to war and Barak must pay for
it, together with his "left-wing" party, which joined the most radical,
far-right parties in supporting the move to outlaw Israel's Arab parties.
Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu, Livni and Barak are one - they all voted in
support of an undemocratic decision. And don't be alarmed by Lieberman -
he, too, only talks. But at least he does so honestly, while Barak fires
off salvos and deceives.

Granted, these impostors still enjoy the support of world leaders, but
for many people around the globe, they have become war-mongers and
suspected war criminals. Their diplomatic immunity will protect them -
but who wants those leaders, with their bloodied hands, to represent us?

No less severe is the fact that there are no ideological differences
between the candidates. Let Barak and Livni step up and explain what the
hell sets them apart. What ideological argument are they conducting,
apart from bickering on who should be credited for the war?

Facing them is Netanyahu - what does he have to offer? "Economic peace."
After this war, which wasn't enough as far as he is concerned, his
doctrine sounds even more ludicrous than ever.
This is how we're going into elections - with three leading parties that
are hardly different from each other.

We always used to say, "There aren't any moderates in the Arab world."
Now we are the ones who don't have any. Vote as you will, but don't fool
yourself. Every ballot cast for Kadima, Labor and Likud is an endorsement
of the last war and a vote for the next one.

Editor's Note: Here's a perspective from the theorists of the Israeli
Right-wing, because it is important to know what the people who shape
Israeli strategic and policy discussions are thinking. After reading this
one, read Rabbi Lerner's analysis, which is the article following this
one.
------

Jerusalem Issue Brief
Institute for Contemporary Affairs
founded jointly with the Wechsler Family Foundation
Vol. 8, No. 19 25 January 2009

The George Mitchell Appointment: The Tactics of
"Symmetrical Negotiations" May Not Work in "Asymmetrical Conflicts"
Lenny Ben-David

The appointment of former Senator George J. Mitchell as Middle East envoy
was warmly received in Washington, Jerusalem, and Ramallah. Yet, the
Middle East that Mitchell will confront today is much changed from the
one he wrestled with eight years ago as chairman of the 2001 Sharm
el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee, which was created to investigate the
outbreak of the Second Intifada.
The 2001 Mitchell Report was seen as an "even-handed" document,
reflecting President Clinton's directive to "strive to steer clear
of...finger-pointing. As a result, the committee attempted - even at the
risk of straining credibility - to split the blame for the crisis. The
Mitchell Committee could not ignore Palestinian terrorism and the
Palestinian use of civilians as human shields. Israel's transgression -
and there had to be one to balance Palestinian sins --was its settlement
activity. The committee recommended a "freeze[of] all settlement
activity, including the 'natural growth' of existing settlements."
Israelis objected that the freeze - never mandated in the interim stages
of the Oslo Accords - would serve to reward the Palestinians' terrorism.
The committee was appointed before the 9/11 al-Qaeda attack. Its report
came prior to the capture of two weapons-laden ships bound for Gaza - the
Santorini in May 2001 and the Karine A in January 2002 - and prior to
President Bush's 2004 recognition of "new realities on the ground [in the
territories], including already existing major Israeli populations
centers." Bush continued: "[I]t is unrealistic to expect that the outcome
of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the
armistice lines of 1949."
The 2001 Mitchell Report was issued years before Hamas' coup in Gaza.
Hamas remains dedicated to Israel's destruction. Its alliance with Iran
and its affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood mark Hamas as an enemy of
moderate Arab regimes. Hamas may yet prove to be a fatal flaw to
Mitchell's axiom that "there is no such thing as a conflict that can't be
ended."

President Barak Obama's appointment of former Senator George J. Mitchell
as Middle East envoy was warmly received in Washington, Jerusalem, and
Ramallah. Over the years, Mitchell, a respected judge, legislator and
negotiator, has been tasked by presidents to broker a peace agreement in
Northern Ireland, explore paths to peace in the Middle East, and even
chair a commission to investigate steroid use in Major League Baseball.
"The Conciliator" was the apt moniker given to Mitchell by one British
newspaper.
The Middle East that Mitchell will confront today is much changed from
the one he wrestled with eight years ago. And the parties to the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict bear little resemblance to the antagonists
he dealt with in Northern Ireland.
Mitchell chaired the "Sharm el-Sheikh Fact-Finding Committee," mandated
by a Sharm el-Sheikh summit in October 2000 to investigate the outbreak
of the "al-Aqsa Intifada" one month earlier and to recommend ways to stop
the violence. His committee, which also included Senator Warren Rudman
and three European statesmen, presented its findings to the new Bush
administration on April 30, 2001. Its recommendations were then
incorporated into the April 2003 "Performance-Based Roadmap to a
Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,"
drafted by the Quartet of the UN, European Union, United States, and
Russia.
In 2003, Mitchell distilled his vision of the Middle East conflict:
"Palestinians will never achieve a state if Israel does not have
security. Israel will never get sustainable security if the Palestinians
don't have a state." Based on his experience in reaching the Northern
Ireland "Good Friday" peace agreement, Mitchell expressed his belief in
2003 and again in December 2008 that "there is no such thing as a
conflict that can't be ended."1
The Mitchell Report was seen as an "even-handed" document, reflecting the
fact that the committee was directed by President Clinton to "strive to
steer clear of any step that will intensify mutual blame and
finger-pointing between the parties..The Committee should not become a
divisive force or a focal point for blame and recrimination but rather
should serve to forestall violence and confrontation and provide lessons
for the future. This should not be a tribunal whose purpose is to
determine the guilt or innocence of individuals or of the parties."2
As a result, the committee attempted - even at the risk of straining
credibility - to split the blame for the crisis. "Some Israelis appear
not to comprehend the humiliation and frustration that Palestinians must
endure every day as a result of living with the continuing effects of
occupation," the report wrote. "Some Palestinians appear not to
comprehend the extent to which terrorism creates fear among the Israeli
people and undermines their belief in the possibility of co-existence."
Humiliation is rarely fatal; terrorism usually is.
While the Mitchell Report did not blame Israeli Prime Minister Sharon for
the outbreak of the Second Intifada,3 nonetheless, it sought to
evenhandedly spread the responsibility for the violence, ignoring the
evidence of Palestinian incitement.In response to Israeli claims that the
violence was planned by Arafat and the Palestinian Authority, the
committee declared, "[We were not] provided with persuasive evidence that
the PA planned the uprising. Accordingly, we have no basis on which to
conclude that there was a deliberate plan by the PA to initiate a
campaign of violence at the first opportunity."
Subsequently, the real causes for the violence were exposed by a
Palestinian minister in Yassir Arafat's government. Palestinian
Communications Minister 'Imad al-Falujiadmitted in the Lebanese daily
al-Safir on March 3, 2001: "Whoever thinks the Intifada broke out because
of the despised Sharon's visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque is wrong....This
Intifada was planned in advance, ever since President Arafat's return
from the Camp David negotiations." Even earlier, al-Faluji had explained
that the Intifada was initiated as the result of a strategic decision
made by the Palestinians.4
The Intifada's premeditation is seen in the training and indoctrination
of 25,000 Palestinian youth in summer camps even while Arafat was engaged
in negotiations at Camp David.5

The Mitchell Report's Recommendations
In its recommendations to the two sides, the Mitchell Committee could not
ignore Palestinian terrorism and the Palestinian use of civilians as
human shields. It issued these recommendations:
The PA should make clear through concrete action to Palestinians and
Israelis alike that terrorism is reprehensible and unacceptable, and that
the PA will make a 100 percent effort to prevent terrorist operations and
to punish perpetrators. This effort should include immediate steps to
apprehend and incarcerate terrorists operating within the PA's
jurisdiction. The PA should prevent gunmen from using Palestinian
populated areas to fire upon Israeli populated areas and IDF positions.
This tactic places civilians on both sides at unnecessary risk.
According to the committee, Israel's transgression - and there had to be
one to balance Palestinian sins - was its settlement activity. "The
Government of Israel," the committee recommended, "should freeze all
settlement activity, including the 'natural growth' of existing
settlements."
Two years later, the Roadmap would cite the Mitchell Report in its call
for a settlement freeze in Phase I of the Roadmap. "Israel also freezes
all settlement activity," the drafters instructed, "consistent with the
Mitchell Report" (emphasis added).
Israelis objected to the draconian call for a freeze. Sharon asked
Secretary of State Colin Powell, "What do you want, for a pregnant woman
to have an abortion just because she is a settler?"6 Moreover, Israelis
objected, the freeze - never mandated in the interim stages of the Oslo
Accords - would serve to reward the Palestinians' terrorism.

A Changed World Since the Mitchell Report
The Mitchell Report was drafted relatively early in the Palestinian
Intifada, when it was believed by some that the Palestinians' violent
outbreak was actually a spontaneous reaction to Prime Minister Sharon's
visit to the Temple Mount in September 2000. As mentioned above, the
world today knows otherwise.
The committee was appointed before the al-Qaeda attack on September 11,
2001, and the revelation of hostile international Islamic terrorism. The
report was issued prior to the capture of two weapons-laden ships bound
for Gaza - the Santorini in May 2001 and the Karine A in January 2002 -
and the surfacing of proof of the grand battle Arafat was planning
against Israel. (The Grad rockets, explosives, mortars and anti-tank
weapons on the ships would find their way into Hamas arsenals in Gaza
five years later through tunnels from the Sinai Peninsula.)
By 2003, George Mitchell was refocusing his attention on the threat of
terrorism. In a commencement address at MIT in June 2003, he stated, "Our
committee's report was very tough on terrorism. We branded it morally
reprehensible and unacceptable. It is also politically counterproductive.
It will not achieve its objective. To the contrary, with each suicide
bomb attack, the prospect of a Palestinian state is delayed. Such tactics
also are destructive of Palestinian civil society and the reputation of
the Palestinian people throughout the world."
Nevertheless, Mitchell repeated at MIT his opposition to Israel's
settlement policies, in keeping with the "long-standing opposition to the
government of Israel's policies and practices regarding settlements. That
U.S. opposition," he continued, "has been consistent through the Carter,
Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush administrations; just as consistent has
been the continued settlement activity by the Israeli government."
The U.S. position toward settlements, of course, underwent a major change
under President Bush in April 2004 when he assured Prime Minister Sharon:
"In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing
major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the
outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return
to the armistice lines of 1949."7 The universal interpretation of Bush's
letter was that settlement blocs would remain under Israeli sovereignty.
Lastly, the 2001 Mitchell Report was issued years before Hamas' coup in
Gaza and its open fealty to Iran. Hamas remains dedicated to Israel's
destruction. Its alliance with Iran and its affiliation with the Muslim
Brotherhood mark Hamas as an enemy of moderate Arab regimes such as Egypt
and Jordan. As such, Hamas cannot be compared to the Irish Republican
Army (IRA), which wanted to throw the British out of Northern Ireland but
had no aspirations to capture London. Moreover, while the IRA had limited
international contacts, it was not a part of a European-wide network and
was not backed by a petrodollar-rich, oil-producing country like Iran,
which was also on the verge of obtaining nuclear weapons, and thereby
emboldening its regional surrogates. In short, Mitchell will be
conducting diplomacy under completely different strategic circumstances
than he did in the 1990s. Indeed, Hamas may prove to be a fatal flaw to
Mitchell's axiom that "there is no such thing as a conflict that can't be
ended."
* * *
Notes

1. Commencement address at MIT, Cambridge, Mass., June 9, 2003.
2. Mitchell Report, April 30, 2002.
3. Ibid. "The Sharon visit did not cause the 'Al-Aqsa Intifada.' But it
was poorly timed and the provocative effect should have been foreseen;
indeed, it was foreseen by those who urged that the visit be prohibited.
More significant were the events that followed: The decision of the
Israeli police on September 29 to use lethal means against the
Palestinian demonstrators; and the subsequent failure, as noted above, of
either party to exercise restraint."
4. Al-Ayyam, December 6, 2000.
5. New York Times, August 3, 2000.
6. BBC News, May 12, 2003.
7. Letter from President Bush to Prime Minister Sharon, April 14, 2004.
* * *
Lenny Ben-David served as deputy chief of mission in Israel's embassy in
Washington. He blogs at http://www.lennybendavid.com/.
------

This Jerusalem Issue Brief is available online at:
http://www.jcpa.org
Dore Gold, Publisher
*****************

Arab initiative, Israeli choice
By Akiva Eldar
Tags: Palestinians

For the third time since the Arab League unanimously voted in favor of
the peace plan with Israel, the people here are being called upon to vote
for a new Knesset. In a normal country, the various parties' positions on
this important initiative would be on full display. In Israel, for the
third time, the Saudi initiative is being pushed to the margins. It is
far easier to sell fear of the Iranians to the voters and to promise "a
strong Israel." What does a peace plan made in Saudi Arabia have in
common with an Iranian-produced bomb? Plenty, it would appear.

At the height of the Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, a rare missive
from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was delivered to the royal
palace in Riyadh. The Shi'ite leader displayed reverence toward Saudi
Arabia, his sworn enemy, by bestowing on it the title "the leader of the
Arab and Muslim world." And he called on King Abdullah to take a more
strident stance against "the horror and the killing of your children in
Gaza." Prince Turki al-Faisal, who revealed the existence of the letter
in an article for The Financial Times, cautions that answering the "call
for Saudi Arabia to lead a jihad against Israel would, if pursued, create
unprecedented chaos and bloodshed in the region."

These harsh words were penned by an Arab who in the last year helped to
lead the public relations campaign for a reconciliation between the
Muslim world and Israel and ending the Arab conflict with the Jewish
state. Al-Faisal, who was once chief of Saudi intelligence and served as
the country's ambassador in Washington and London, lectures and writes
unceasingly about the benefits of the Saudi peace initiative. In touting
the plan, the prince is not deterred from publicly meeting with Israelis
(including this author). Common sense tells us he is not doing this on
his own volition.
Advertisement
Saudi Arabia is also pressing U.S. President Barack Obama to adopt the
initiative, rendering the plan a litmus test for the Arab world's
relations with the new administration. In his visit to the State
Department the day after his inauguration, Obama made do with a few
noncommittal words in praise of the Saudi initiative. Why should he get
into trouble with the Jewish lobby in his first week in office? In any
case, the return of the right wing to power in Israel would likely seal
the initiative's fate when the topic is brought up for discussion next
month at the Arab League summit in Qatar.

It is hard to blame Obama when every party jousting for power in Israel
is hiding its position on the Saudi initiative behind vaguely worded
statements. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week boasted that he favors
using the Saudi initiative as a framework for negotiations. In the same
breath, he noted that UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which
are open to various interpretations, were bases for talks, while the Arab
League declaration explicitly states that the June 4, 1967 lines are the
basis for a settlement.

Olmert claimed that Ehud Barak, on the other hand, is shrouding his
position on the initiative in a cloud of fog. Has Olmert been informed of
a more lucid stance expressed by Tzipi Livni on the initiative beyond a
throwaway comment from the summer of 2007, when she was quoted as saying
that the Saudi plan is "a historic opportunity that must not be missed"?
Like Olmert and Barak, the foreign minister also failed to lift a finger
to advance the "historic opportunity." Israel's acceptance of the plan as
a framework for negotiations would have compelled Hamas to decide whether
it is part of the Arab consensus in favor of the initiative, or whether
it is an Iranian satellite state that opposes it.

You may support the initiative and you are allowed to oppose it. Yet the
Zionist parties who seek the trust of the voters cannot evade the most
positive diplomatic outline ever offered to Israel by the Arabs. Each of
the candidates must clearly state whether the government will accept or
reject the initiative. In other words, what do the candidates prefer -
forming a united front with 22 Arab states against Iran and its agents,
or forming a united front with the settlers against the entire world?_
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:19:35 -0800 (PST)
From: patricia blair <cris6369@yahoo.com>
20. Regarding The Verdict is in: guilty (Holy Land Foundation
[Re]Trial, Texas)

(Here's a site any uninitiated may visit:
http://theenemyshallnot.blogspot.com/ , which is the below author Harold
Knight's blog. Links are provided for further delving.)
------

I had contemplated a bitterly sarcastic response to the guilty on all
counts verdict for Shukri, Mufid, Abdul, Mohammad, and Ghassan about an
hour ago. But I will refrain. We Americans have now stooped so low as to
condemn American citizens for seeking to give food to the hungry, to
provide something to drink for the thirsty, to welcome the stranger, to
give clothing to the naked, to provide care for the sick, and to minister
to those in prison. Purely at the behest of the State of Israel, we have
condemned these good men and the tens of thousands of Muslim Americans who
gave their resources to provide for their sisters and brothers in
Palestine. The State of Israel was founded in violence, established in
ethnic cleansing, and in terror and occupation completed its obliteration
of any hope for a homeland for the Palestinian people, and the United
States "justice" system operates as an arm of that regime of terror. Yes,
I might as well go completely over the top and say what I think: mene,
mene, tekel, parsin. America will be "weighed on the scales and found
wanting." And especially the silent, silent, silent Christian church.

Ah, you destroyer,
who yourself have not been destroyed;
you treacherous one,
with whom no one has dealt treacherously!
When you have ceased to destroy,
you will be destroyed;
and when you have stopped dealing treacherously,
you will be dealt with treacherously. . . .

Listen! the valiant cry in the streets;
the envoys of peace weep bitterly. (Isaiah 33)
_______

Dr. Harold Knight
First-Year Writing Faculty
Southern Methodist University, Dallas
Music Director
St. Paul Lutheran Church, Farmers Branch

"We will oppose those who would deny us or denigrate our love for and
pride in our national traditions, who bear our name but do not belong to
our nation, who do not understand our customs, our morality and our
faith.... We go to battle against parasites and mongrels as to a holy war
that God¢s holy will demands. The objective power of race breaks through,
we understand it, and we place ourselves in its light and at its
service..." German LUTHERAN PASTOR Joachim Hossenfelder, 1933

"One of the most important functions of the discourse of ¡Islamic
terrorism¢ is to construct and maintain national identity, primarily
through the articulation of a contrasting, negative ¡other¢ who defines
the Western ¡self ¢ through negation." Richard Jackson, University of
Manchester, 2002.
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:49:37 -0800 (PST)
From: patricia blair <cris6369@yahoo.com>
21. A selection of Comments by journalists & academics: Israel has
lost its Soul

This is worth reading. It proves that many jews have been realizing that
Israel has "lost its soul". The problem with their awakening is that
Zionist Israel never had a soul. The Zionist project on which Israel was
born is based on usurping the land of the legitimate owners of Palestine,
dehumanizing and demonizing them. Israel deliberately and consistently
engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinians since
its birth in 1948. How can such an entity be claimed to have a soul?
Those morally motivated jews are, in all probability, romantic human
beings who were drawn to the Zionist project by the socialist principles
and Kibbutz "ideals", deliberately dangled in front of their naive eyes by
the real managers of the Zionist project. The general view among
Palestinians now seems to be that the 2 state solution is dead. The only
feasible solution is seen to be a "ONE STATE" for all its equal citizens,
Muslims, Christians and Jews. Ramsis
------

Yitzhak Laor

We^Òve been here before. It^Òs a ritual. Every two or three years, our
military mounts another bloody expedition. The enemy is always smaller,
weaker; our military is always larger, technologically more sophisticated,
prepared for full-scale war against a full-scale army. But Iran is too
scary, and even the relatively small Hizbullah gave us a hard time. That
leaves the Palestinians.

Israel is engaged in a long war of annihilation against Palestinian
society. The objective is to destroy the Palestinian nation and drive it
back into pre-modern groupings based on the tribe, the clan and the
enclave. This is the last phase of the Zionist colonial mission,
culminating in inaccessible townships, camps, villages, districts, all of
them to be walled or fenced off, and patrolled by a powerful army which,
in the absence of a proper military objective, is really an over-equipped
police force, with F16s, Apaches, tanks, artillery, commando units and
hi-tech surveillance at its disposal.

The extent of the cruelty, the lack of shame and the refusal of
self-restraint are striking, both in anthropological terms and
historically. The worldwide Jewish support for this vandal offensive makes
one wonder if this isn^Òt the moment Zionism is taking over the Jewish
people.

But the real issue is that since 1991, and even more since the Oslo
agreements in 1993, Israel has played on the idea that it really is
trading land for peace, while the truth is very different. Israel has not
given up the territories, but cantonised and blockaded them. The new
strategy is to confine the Palestinians: they do not belong in our space,
they are to remain out of sight, packed into their townships and camps, or
swelling our prisons. This project now has the support of most of the
Israeli press and academics.

We are the masters. We work and travel. They can make their living by
policing their own people. We drive on the highways. They must live across
the hills. The hills are ours. So are the fences. We control the roads,
and the checkpoints and the borders. We control their electricity, their
water, their milk, their oil, their wheat and their gasoline. If they
protest peacefully we fire tear gas at them. If they throw stones, we fire
bullets. If they launch a rocket, we destroy a house and its inhabitants.
If they launch a missile, we destroy families, neighbourhoods, streets,
towns.

Israel doesn^Òt want a Palestinian state alongside it. It is willing to
prove this with hundreds of dead and thousands of disabled, in a single
^Ñoperation^Ò. The message is always the same: leave or remain in
subjugation, under our military dictatorship. We are a democracy. We have
decided democratically that you will live like dogs.

On 27 December just before the bombs started falling on Gaza, the Zionist
parties, from Meretz to Yisrael Betenu, were unanimously in favour of the
attack. As usual ^Ö it^Òs the ritual again ^Ö differences emerged only
over the dispatch of blankets and medication to Gaza. Our most fervent
pro-war columnist, Ari Shavit, has suggested that Israel should go on with
the assault and build a hospital for the victims. The enemy is wounded,
bleeding, dying, desperate for help. Nobody is coming unless Obama moves
^Ö yes, we are all waiting for Godot. Maybe this time he shows up.

Yitzhak Laor lives in Tel Aviv. He is the editor of Mita^Òam.
------

John Mearsheimer

The Gaza war is not going to change relations between Israel and the
Palestinians in any meaningful way. Instead, the conflict is likely to get
worse in the years ahead. Israel will build more settlements and roads in
the West Bank and the Palestinians will remain locked up in a handful of
impoverished enclaves in Gaza and the West Bank. The two-state solution is
probably dead.

^ÑGreater Israel^Ò will be an apartheid state. Ehud Olmert has sounded a
warning note on this score, but he has done nothing to stop the
settlements and by starting the Gaza war he doomed what little hope there
was for creating a viable Palestinian state.

The Palestinians will continue to resist the occupation, and Hamas will
still be able to strike Israel with rockets and mortars, whose range and
effectiveness are likely to improve. Palestinians will increasingly make
the case that Greater Israel should become a democratic binational state
in which Palestinians and Jews enjoy equal political rights. They know
that they will eventually outnumber the Jews, which would mean the end of
Israel as a Jewish state. This proposal is already gaining ground among
Israel^Òs Palestinian citizens, striking fear into the hearts of many
Israelis, who see them as a dangerous fifth column. This fear accounts in
part for the recent Israeli decision to ban the major Arab political
parties from participating in next month^Òs parliamentary elections.

There is no reason to think that Israel^Òs Jewish citizens would accept a
binational state, and it^Òs safe to assume that Israel^Òs supporters in
the Diaspora would have no interest in it. Apartheid is not a solution
either, because it is repugnant and because the Palestinians will continue
to resist, forcing Israel to escalate the repressive policies that have
already cost it significant blood and treasure, encouraged political
corruption, and badly tarnished its global image.

Israel may try to avoid the apartheid problem by expelling or
^Ñtransferring^Ò the Palestinians. A substantial number of Israeli Jews ^Ö
40 per cent or more ^Ö think that the government should ^Ñencourage^Ò
their fellow Palestinian citizens to leave. Indeed, Tzipi Livni recently
said that if there is a two-state solution, she expects the Palestinians
inside Israel to move to the new Palestinian state.

Why would American and European leaders intervene? The Bush
administration, after all, backed Israel^Òs creation of a major
humanitarian crisis in Gaza, first with a devastating blockade and then
with a brutal war. European leaders reacted to this collective punishment,
which violates international law, not to mention basic decency, by
upgrading Israel^Òs relationship with the European Union.

Many in the West expect Barack Obama to ride into town and fix the
situation. Don^Òt bet on it. As his campaign showed, Obama is no match for
the Israel lobby. His silence during the Gaza war speaks volumes about how
tough he is likely to be with the Israelis. His chief Middle East adviser
is likely to be Dennis Ross, whose deep attachment to Israel helped
squander opportunities for peace during the Clinton administration.

In a recent op-ed about the Gaza war, Benny Morris said that ^Ñit would
not be surprising if more powerful explosions were to follow.^Ò I rarely
agree with Morris these days, but I think he has it right in this case.
Even bigger trouble is in the offing for Israel ^Ö and above all for the
Palestinians.

John Mearsheimer is a professor of political science at the University of
Chicago and co-author of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy.
------

Yonatan Mendel

It^Òs very frustrating to see Israeli society recruited so calmly and
easily to war. Hardly anyone has dared to mention the connection between
the decision to go to war and the fact that we are only a few weeks away
from an election. Kadima (Tzipi Livni^Òs party) and Labour (Ehud Barak^Òs)
were doing very badly in the polls. Now that they have killed more than
1000 Palestinians (250 on the first day ^Ö the highest number in 41 years
of occupation) they are both doing very well. Barak was expected to win
eight seats in the Knesset; now it is around 15. Netanyahu is the one
sweating.

I am terribly sad about all this, and frustrated. On the first day of the
operation I wrote an article for the Walla News website and within four
hours I had received 1600 comments, most calling for my deportation (at
best) or immediate execution (at worst). It showed me again how sensitive
Israeli society is to any opposition to war. It is shocking how easily
this society unites behind yet another military solution, after it has
failed so many times. Hizbullah was created in response to Israel^Òs
occupation of Lebanon in 1982. Hamas was created in 1987 in response to
two decades of military occupation. What do we think we^Òll achieve this
time?

The state called up more than 10,000 reservists, and even people who had
not been called also travelled to military bases and asked to be sent to
Gaza. This shows once again how efficient the Israeli propaganda and
justification machine is, and how naturally people here believe in myths
that have been disproved again and again. If people were saying, ^ÑWe
killed 1000 people, but the army is not perfect, and this is war,^Ò I
would say it was a stupid statement. But Israelis are saying: ^ÑWe killed
1000 people, and our army is the most moral army in the world.^Ò This says
a lot about the psychology of the conflict: people are not being told what
to think or say; they reach these insights ^Ñnaturally^Ò.

Since I was a soldier myself ten years ago, I worry I might be called up
as a reservist. If I were to refuse now, when Israel is at war, I would be
sent to prison. But still, I tell myself, that would be so much easier
than being part of what my country is doing. Apparently, every single
Jewish member of the Knesset, except one from the Jewish-Arab list,
believes that killing more Palestinians, keeping the Gazan population
under siege, destroying their police stations, ministerial offices and
headquarters will weaken Hamas, strengthen Israel, demonstrate to the
Palestinians that next time they should vote for Fatah, and bring
stability to the region. I have no words. Only one Jewish member of the
Knesset, out of 107, went to the demonstration that followed the
deliberate bombing by the Israelis of an UNRWA school being used to house
refugees, resulting in the deaths of 45 civilians. Once again, the Israeli
slogan is ^ÑLet the IDF win^Ò and once again everybody agrees. People have
short memories. By 2008, two years after the Second Lebanon War ended,
Hizbullah had more soldiers than before, three times more weapons, and had
dramatically improved its political position. It now even has a right of
veto in parliament. The same could happen to Hamas, but once again
military magic enchants Israeli society.

I have a friend whose brother is a pilot in the IDF. I asked to speak to
him. I told him what I thought about Israel^Òs behaviour and he seemed to
agree with my general conclusions. He said, however, that a soldier should
not ask himself such questions, which should be kept to the political
sphere. I can^Òt agree. But the second thing he told me was more
important. He told me that for pilots, a day like the first day of the
war, when so many attacks are being made simultaneously, is a day full of
excitement, a day you look forward to. If you take these words into
account, and bear in mind that in Israel every man is a soldier, either in
uniform or in reserve, there is no avoiding the conclusion that there are
great pressures for it to act as a military society. Not acting is
damaging to the IDF^Òs status, budget, masculinity, power and happiness,
and not only to the IDF^Òs. This could explain why in Israel the military
option is almost never considered second best. It is always the first
choice.

Ha^Òaretz too is a source of unhappiness for me, since in wartime the
paper is part of this militaristic discourse, shares its values and lack
of vision. Ha^Òaretz did not criticise Israel when its troops deployed to
Lebanon in 2006. Nor did it have anything to say when the same soldiers
bombed Gaza^Òs police, schools and people. Even when there was a
demonstration against the war, with more than 10,000 people taking part,
both Jews and Palestinian citizens of Israel, the Ha^Òaretz website chose
to publish a picture of a counter-demonstration, in which a few hundred
participated, waving Israeli flags and shouting: ^ÑLet the IDF win.^Ò

I have problems speaking to my closest friends and family these days,
because I can no longer bear to hear the security establishment^Òs
propaganda coming from their mouths. I cannot bear to hear people
justifying the deaths of more than 200 children killed by Israeli
soldiers. There is no justification for that, and it^Òs wrong to try to
find one. Usually I feel part of society in Israel. I feel that I am on
one side of the political map and other people are on the opposite side.
But over the last few days, I feel that I am not part of this society any
more. I do not call friends who support the war, and they do not call me.
The same with my family. It is a hard thing for me to write, but this is
how it is.

Yonatan Mendel was a correspondent for the Israeli news agency Walla. He
is currently at Queens^Ò College, Cambridge working on a PhD that studies
the connection between the Arabic language and security in Israel.
------

Gabriel Piterberg

Israel^Òs onslaught on Gaza may well do permanent damage to one of the
most effective tools in its propaganda kit: the image of the morally
handsome, ^Ñshooting and crying^Ò Israeli soldier.

Three weeks after the 1967 War, Avraham Shapira and Amos Oz, then a rising
young author, were summoned to Labour Party headquarters. They were asked
to make the demobilised soldiers from the kibbutzim break the wall of
silence and discuss their war experience. Soldiers^Ò Talk (Siah Lohamim),
the collection of interviews they edited, was a national and international
success. The book, which forged the image of the handsome, dilemma-ridden,
existentially soul-searching Israeli soldier, was a hymn to that
frightening oxymoron, ^Ñpurity of arms^Ò and the ideal of an exalted
Jewish morality.

It was also a kind of ^Ñcentral casting^Ò from which Oz drew many of his
fictional protagonists. Rabin (when he was ambassador to Washington) and
Elie Wiesel read extracts in the US ^Ñin order to present the Israeli
soldier^Òs profile^Ò; and Golda Meir called it ^Ña sacred book^Ò: ^Ñwe are
fortunate to have been blessed with such sons.^Ò The latest version of
Soldiers^Ò Talk, in terms of register and success, is Ari Folman^Òs Waltz
with Bashir.

Given the might of Israel^Òs warriors and the vulnerability of
their targets, now that the country no longer engages in wars
against other state armies, the image is hard to keep alive. At the
same time it no longer matters in the way it once did: for
political and military elites in Israel, and the War on Terror
constituency in the US, the killing of Arabs and Muslims no longer
requires any weeping or soul-searching. It^Òs just what
freedom-loving people do. The war adulation of the recent
pro-Israel demonstrations in Los Angeles is chastening but you
couldn^Òt call it hypocritical.

Perhaps with the benefit of hindsight, the attack on Gaza will be seen as
the action of a colonial power that is running out of ideas; not unlike
France in the final stage of the Algerian war.

Gabriel Piterberg teaches history at UCLA. The Returns of Zionism was
published last year.
------

Jacqueline Rose

The only abiding law for Israel in this onslaught seems to be the ethics
of self-defence, and yet Israel^Òs defence cannot be secured by such a
path and there are, it would seem, no ethics. How can such unrestrained
and indiscriminate violence ^Ö a hundred, and more, dead for every
Israeli, including hundreds of children ^Ö be justified? ^ÑWe are very
violent,^Ò the commander of the Yahalom unit observed, according to
Ha^Òaretz. ^ÑWe do not balk at any means to protect the lives of our
soldiers.^Ò Another senior IDF officer was reported as commenting on the
offensive so far, ^ÑIt^Òs not the movie, it^Òs only the coming
attractions,^Ò with a knowing smile.

If it sometimes seems as if a new limit has been breached, we need to
trace this language back to the creation of Israel and before, to the
founding belief that Israel would be the redemption for the historic
suffering, and passivity, of the Jews, a belief given new urgency by the
genocide in Europe and which would lay the grounds for the ruthless
dispossession of the Palestinians. At a rally in support of Israel^Òs war
in Gaza in Trafalgar Square, one banner read: ^ÑWe will not be victims
again.^Ò As the rally dispersed, those of us protesting as Jews against
Israel^Òs actions were spat at and met with cries of ^ÑKapos^Ò. The
Holocaust is still the felt justification, in the midst of this new war.
Israel is the fourth most powerful military nation in the world, yet it
lives in a permanent state of fear, always fighting the last war.

So while everyone is asking ^ÑWho is the aggressor?^Ò, another equally
important question is going unasked. Who claims the monopoly of suffering?
Whose suffering is felt to warrant a form of state power that is above the
law? Already we are being told that there will be no legal reckoning.
Faced with war crimes allegations in the past, Israel has blocked all
attempts by the UN to investigate its conduct and it is not a signatory to
the International Criminal Court.

To say this is in no way to diminish the traumatic impact of the Holocaust
but to register it all the more powerfully. The effect of trauma is
precisely to freeze people in time. There is a psychological dimension to
this conflict that seems almost impossibly difficult to shift. In its own
eyes, Israel is never the originator and agent of its own violence, and to
that extent its violence is always justified. The Palestinians do not
count. Even when the worst of what has been done to them is registered
inside Israel, it is still the Israeli who suffers more.

We are all waiting to see what Barack Obama will do. My hope is that he is
ring-fencing his new appointees (Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton and, it
seems, Dennis Ross) so he can intervene more forcefully to change the
US^Òs unconditional support for Israel. But even if he were to do so early
on, a single breach of any agreement by Hamas ^Ö even if, as most likely,
provoked by Israel ^Ö might be enough for him to adopt Israel^Òs language
of state security as the justification of all means. ^ÑAs soon as anyone
mentions security,^Ò Miri Weingarten of Physicians for Human Rights
commented on a visit last year to Britain, ^Ñeveryone stands up straight
and stops thinking.^Ò

Jacqueline Rose is a co-founder of Independent Jewish Voices.
------

Eliot Weinberger

1. Who remembers the original dream of Israel? A place where the observant
could practice their religion in peace and the secular would be invisible
as Jews ^Ö where being Jewish only mattered if you wanted it to matter.
That dream was realised, not in Israel, but in New York City.

2. The second dream of Israel was of a place where socialist collectives
could flourish in a secular nation with democratic freedoms. Who remembers
that now?

3. ^ÑNever again^Ò should international Jews invoke the Holocaust as
justification for Israeli acts of barbarism.

4. As in India-Pakistan, blaming the Brits is true enough, but useless.

5. A few days ago, to illustrate the Gaza invasion, the front page of the
New York Times had a large pastoral photograph of handsome Israeli
soldiers lounging on a hill above verdant fields. Unquestioning faith in
the ^Ñmilk and honey^Ò Utopia of Israel is the bedrock of American
Judaism, and reality does not intrude on faith.

6. Any hope for some sort of peace will not come from the US, even without
Bush. It must come from within an Israel where the same petrified leaders
are elected time and again, where masses of the rational have emigrated to
saner shores and have been replaced by Russians and the American cultists
who become settlers. It is hard to believe that this will be anytime soon.

7. It is hard to believe that two states will ever be possible. So why not
a new dream of Israel? A single nation, a single citizenry with equal
rights, three languages^Ö English as a neutral third^Ö and three
religions, separate from the state. Give it a new name^Ö say, Semitia,
land of the Semites.

Eliot Weinberger^Òs recent books include What Happened Here: Bush
Chronicles.
-------

Michael Wood

A New York Times reporter describes the ^Ñlethal tricks^Ò of Hamas in
Gaza. I don^Òt doubt the existence of the tricks, but the implication is
that the far more lethal directness of the Israeli attack is not only
justified but morally superior to the enemy^Òs underhand modes of action.
This is an adaptation of an old paradigm, in which Israel gets to play the
role of the rational modern state. The straightforward, civilised West
meets the endlessly devious, backward Orient, and takes care of things in
its up-to-date efficient way. What^Òs wrong with that? They are always
^Ñthey^Ò; their deaths don^Òt count as ours do.

When does an invasion become a massacre? How many Palestinians have to die
just because they are Palestinians before we recognise another old
paradigm? Herzl thought the native population of what was to become Israel
would have to be ^Ñspirited^Ò across the border; now the very deaths of
that population are being spirited off into arguments about the right to
self-defence. If self-defence includes the bombing of ambulances and
feeling no qualms at killing such an astonishing number of children, then
we have entered a moral territory from which there may be no return.
Unless of course we have merely returned to the imperial 19th century, a
world of brutal and unapologetic conquest, where force was the only
argument that mattered and our only choice was whether to be hypocritical
about it or not.

Michael Wood teaches at Princeton. His most recent book is Literature and
the Taste of Knowledge.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Gabrielle Welford, Ph.D. (support "Noho Hewa: The Wrongful Occupation of
Hawai'i" by going to www.nohohewa.com and clicking on "donate")
blog:
www.greenwom.blogspot.com
books:
_Too Many Deaths: Decolonizing Western Academic Research on Indigenous
Cultures_
http://www.theguildofwriters.com/books/shop.php?action=full&id=317
_Dora_
http://www.theguildofwriters.com/books/shop.php?action=full&id=378

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gaza

2009-01-19T23:18:00.001-08:00

1. Gaza: Stop the Violence
2. Dennis Kucinich: Gaza,
reforming the mon[ISO-8859-1] etary system and a plea for your support
3. From the Gaza border
4. Call for a Ceasefire in Gaza
5. Tues 6 Jan at 5pm Protest at Israeli and Egyptian Embassies
6. Irish anti war
7. Israel, The Sociopathic State
8. Our Gaza Cease-Fire ad appeared in today's New York Times
9. photos that someone sent to me... "Jews say: Not In Our Name" 2009 01
12
10. What Congress should do on Gaza
11. Bolivia cuts ties with Israel
12. The Free Gaza Movement
13. Raza Educators Stand in Solidarity with Gaza
14. "Jesuit priest corresponds with Hamas"
15. Israeli refuseniks
16. genocide
18. HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
19. Bringing Bush and Cheney to justice and Obama and Gaza
20. The Sand Creek logic
21. Zionist state of "Israel"
22. War of Deceit, Lies and Propaganda
23. Political Correctness in the Middle East
24. Courage to Refuse Update - First Gaza Refusenik Goes to Prison
25. Urgent plea for help- regarding the family of a friend of
mine
26. compare and contrast:It can't be more specific
27. bloodied still breathing
28. why gasoline prices have doubled
29. Israeli intentions In quotes
30. over 700 detained
31. Please Sign Our Call Jews Say: Not in Our Name
32. Gaza: Israel's Great Humanitarian Debacle
33. How can we talk about Genocide, Oppression,
Violence...?
34. On zionism
35. an article from CommonDreams.org: A 'Police State' Celebrates
36. Voices for Creative NonviolenceWhy I Am in Gaza
37. Eyeless in Gaza
38. Democracy Now! --Palestinian and American Indian perspectives on
their dehumanization
39. Dialogue - moyers and foxman
40. Stop the War website and email attacked
41. Voices for Creative NonviolenceStrongest Weapon of All
42. Hugo Chavez Speaks the Truth
About Gaza

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:02:25 -0800 (PST)
From: "Samer, Care2 Action Alerts" <actionalerts@care2.com>
1. Gaza: Stop the Violence

care2 petitionsite actionAlert

On Monday, Masouda al-Samouni lost her 10-month-old son to an Israeli
missile attack. She had been preparing food for the baby when the missile
struck. "He died hungry," she said.

Israel launched its "all-out war" on Hamas in the Gaza Strip in response
to Hamas' repeated rocket fire on Israeli towns. But with 1.5 million
people, the Gaza Strip is one of the most densely crowded areas in the
world, and Israeli artillery, tank and missile fire can easily cause
civilian casualties and deaths.

Ask President Bush to use the United States' special relationship with
Israel to urge for a ceasefire. >>

At least a quarter to one-third of deaths in the recent attacks have been
civilians. Unlike other conflicts where there's a chance to flee the war
zone, Gaza itself has become the war zone, and there's nowhere else for
the population to go.

Israel has the right to defend itself against Hamas rocket attacks, but
this war is a disproportionate response, placing thousands of civilians
at risk of injury and death.

So far, Israel has resisted international calls for a ceasefire. Urge
President Bush to push the Israeli government for a ceasefire. Please act
today! >>

Take action link: http://www.care2.com/go/z/e/Aex.T/YaiK/JVYC

[samer.jpg] Thanks for taking action!

Samer
ThePetitionSite
P.S. For a quick update on ceasefire efforts, check out Care2's Human
Rights Cause Channel.

Stop the Violence in Gaza
Approximately 550 Palestinians have been killed so far, at least a
quarter of them civilians.
Take Action!

Care2.com, Inc.
275 Shoreline Drive, Suite 300
Redwood City, CA 94065
http://www.care2.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:45:52 -0500 (EST)
From: Dennis Kucinich <reply@kucinichforcongress.com>
2. Dennis Kucinich: Gaza,
reforming the mon[ISO-8859-1] etary system and a plea for your support

Dennis Kucinich - www.Kucinich.us
Gaza, reforming the monetary system and a plea for your support

As Congress begins, I have been leading the way towards addressing the
humanitarian plight of the people of Gaza whose desperate conditions must
be addressed if there is to be any chance for peace in the Middle East.

I have also begun a campaign to work on the reform of our monetary system
in order to bring about equity, prosperity and environmental
sustainability.

I had to spend the resources you provided in order to retain my seat in
Congress. I need your generous help again to fund our ongoing political
operations including media outreach, web communications, office
administration and issues campaigning.

I know these are hard times but your contribution is essential to
strengthening our efforts. Please contribute as generously as you can.
Your support assures a true independent voice in Congress.

With hope and in peace,
Dennis J Kucinich
Dennis

Paid for by the Re-Elect Congressman Kucinich Committee
PO Box 110475 | Cleveland | OH | 44111 | 216-252-9000

reply@kucinichforcongress.com.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 12:42:12 -0500 (EST)
From: Barbara Lubin <meca@mecaforpeace.org>
3. From the Gaza border

* * * * * * * * * * * LATEST NEWS * * * * * * * * * * *
As we were preparing this update, Barbara called
to tell us that she and Dr. El-Farra purchased
a mobile intensive care unit to take into Gaza.

I arrived Cairo late Thursday night and, together with MECA's Director of
Gaza Projects, Dr. Mona El-Farra, and a good friend and MECA supporter,
Sharon Wallace, I have been working hard on our emergency shipment to
Gaza.

Thanks to your generous support, we were able to purchase
state-of-the-art wheelchairs, powdered milk, and baby cereal, as well as
soccer balls, crayons, pens and paper for the hundreds of thousands of
traumatized children. Dr. El-Farra has been calling her colleagues at the
Red Crescent Society and the Union of Health Work Committees to make sure
we are only sending items that children and families in Gaza need during
this ongoing massacre.

Once the ambulance is ready, we will load up the trucks and head to the
Rafah Crossing point into Gaza. The Arab Doctor's Union has volunteered
to cover our transportation fees so that we can use every cent of your
donations to buy emergency supplies.

Meanwhile the World Health Organization (WHO) is sending MECA's four tons
of medications for children and infants by air to Tel Aviv and then into
Gaza. We purchased this shipment at a reduced cost, thanks to the help
of Medical Teams International.

I am so thankful to all of MECA's supporters and partners who are making
this shipment possible. In the face of so much death and destruction,
your support for children in Gaza means so much.

But what the children need more than anything is an end to the Israeli
airstrikes, tank shellings, and ground invasion. Please continue to send
letters, write op-eds, attend demonstrations, and build campaigns for
boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. It is up to all of us
to make Gaza a safe place for children.

Sincerely,
Barbara Lubin
Cairo, Egypt

Click here to make a contribution for more aid.

What You Can Do!
Protest Israel's Attacks on Gaza in your area
See protests around the world

Contact Congress, State Dept. White House to demand immediate
implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1860:
Send a letter

Contact Obama Transition Team
Website
Call 202-540-3000, press 2

Demand Fair Media Coverage

Make a contribution

More Gaza News & Action
MECA blog
MECA website

Thank the 5 representatives who voted against the House Resolution
supporting Israel's attacks: Maxine Waters, Gwen Moore, Dennis Kucinich,
Nick Rahall, Ron Paul
202-224-3121

UPCOMING EVENTS
Jan. 24, Oakland, 7pm
Poetry for Gaza
Islamic Cultural Center
1433 Madison Street, Oakland

Feb. 11, Berkeley, 7pm
Nadje Al-Ali: What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq
More info
During this crisis MECA is sending out information to the media almost
daily. If you would like to get these updates, click on this link:
JOIN OR UPDATE EMAIL LIST
Gaza is Sinking in a River of Blood
gaz funeral May 08 A Message from a Gazan to the World
By Mohammed Fares Al Majdalawi
Jabalya Refugee Camp, Gaza, January 11,2009

There is a horror in every minute and it is clear especially in the lives
of children. For example, there were five sisters in one family killed
from the Israeli occupation while they stayed in their home. But there
are 800,000 other children in Gaza, all afraid, all waiting for someone
or something to help them. They are caught in a prisonthat is becoming a
concentration camp. Everyday we sleep and open our eyes to the Israeli
crimes of killing children and women and destroying civilians' homes. My
words are unable to convey my feelings about this life in Gaza.

Go to article on Electronic Intifada
MECA IN THE NEWS
MECA Director Barbara Lubin on Bay Area ABC TV News

"My cousin is still under the rubble," by Dr. Mona El-Farra

Founder of US Aid Organization Brings Four Tons of Medicine to Gaza

As Israel Breaks Ceasefire, US Nonprofit Sends $1.6 Million of Medicine
and Medical Supplies for Children in Gaza

Louisville-area woman seeks to bring aid to Gaza

MAKE A SECURE ONLINE DONATION NOW!
gaza children bleeding Please make a contribution of whatever amount you
can afford to MECA.

If you haven't given recently, please give now. Even if you have given
already, please consider an additional gift.

Any amount you can afford will help MECA send more aid to Gaza!

DONATE NOW!

Date: Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:10:57 -0500 (EST)
From: "Kevin Martin, Peace Action" <Peaceact@mail.democracyinaction.org>
4. Call for a Ceasefire in Gaza

While the violence in Gaza continues unabated, and may well be escalated
soon, the U.S. Congress voted late last week on resolutions giving
unqualified support to Israel's actions. The Senate's vote last Thursday
was not even recorded; it was passed by a voice vote. In the House, the
roll call (on a resolution that was even more one-sided than the one in
the Senate) last Friday was 390 yes, 5 no and 22 "present" (usually taken
to mean the Representative wanted to register opposition to the measure
without voting "no"). Look at the vote.

How is it possible? Almost every representative in our government
refused to publicly acknowledge the humanitarian crisis boiling over in
Gaza. Our elected officials are out of step with our country.

Another piece of legislation has been proposed; one which acknowledges
the plight of the women, children, and men in Gaza. Please take action
today and encourage your representatives to support Dennis J. Kucinich's
resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives
concerning the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. READ IT HERE.

Tell Your Representative to support this measure by co-sponsoring it.

In short, he asks the House of Representatives to call "on the Government
of Israel and representatives of Hamas to implement an immediate and
unconditional ceasefire and to allow unrestricted humanitarian access in
Gaza." This is in line with calls from our allies in Europe and the
principles set out by the Geneva conventions.

[freegazaboats.jpg] There is no excuse for remaining silent while so many
of the innocent are dying. Please write your Representatives and ask
them to support the Kucinich resolution for the Gazan cease-fire. You
can take other actions as well; you'll find a list of them, here. Peace
Action is also promoting our coalition partner the U.S. Campaign to End
the Israeli Occupation. They have a list of ongoing protests, here.

Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Peace Action Education Fund board member, is currently
in Palestine. Here is a link to his words from the ground.

Sincerely,
Kevin M. Martin
Executive Director
Peace Action
www.Peace-Action.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: <info@irishantiwar.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 04, 2009 8:54 PM
5. Tues 6 Jan at 5pm Protest at Israeli and Egyptian Embassies
>
> Israel troops have now entered the Gaza strip. The terror unleashed by
> bombings is now being continued in the streets in people's houses.
>
> This is a repeat of Lebannon 2006. Israel's claim that it is a
"necessary operation" in retaliation to the launching of rockets is absurd
Israel has killed one hundred times more people. Equally unbelievable is
the Israeli claim, even while they massacre innocent civilians, that they
are "facilitating" humanitarian aid.
>
> This is about the approach of the Israeli elections, the interlude of
the US presidency and an age-old political aim to destroy Palestine. The
invasion of Gaza makes mobilizing opposition in Ireland all the more
urgent.
>
> Israel's actions are allowed continue because those leaders in the
> Arab world are terrified of the radicalizing effect of the war on Gaza.
> Egypt's Mubarak, despite two million of his people demonstrating
against the attacks on Gaza, refuses to allow the people from Gaza to flee
to safety across the Rafah crossing into Egypt.
>
> This cynical move further endangers Palestinians. It is an attempt to
> stem a growing radicalization within Egypt.
>
> Demonstrations against Israeli terror have taken place across the world.
> Once again we see the determination of the international
anti-war movement to stop needless deaths at the hands of those determined
to keep Palestinians stateless and vulnerable. Gaza is the latest phase in
the "war on terror" and we cannot let Israel and its western backers away
with it.
>
> Opposition to this slaughter needs to move beyond verbal condemnation.
> We call for an immediate cessation of all military attacks on Gaza, the
> severing of diplomatic relations with Israel, and with demonstrations,
local protests, boycotting of Israeli goods, keeping up the pressure on
our government to isolate Israel and its terrorization of the people of
Gaza.
>
> PROTEST at Israeli Embassy to Egyptian Embassy Assemble at the
> Israeli Embassy, opposite the former Jurys in Ballsbridge at 5 pm on
Tuesday 6th Jan afterwards to march the Egyptian Embassy.
>
> STOP The slaughter in GAZA Free Palestine - Boycott Israel

This list is primarily set up to distribute the 'Green Letters' edited by
Jenny James which give a running account of the activities and experiences
of the Atlantis Community in Colombia since 1995

Archived messages may be seen at
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Green-Letters/messages See also
http://afan.org.uk/
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 06:53:17 -0500
From: Jenny James <atlantiscol@hotmail.com>
6. Irish anti war

Please support these protests

In protest at the bloody slaughter by Israel of over 420 people in Gaza
and the injuring of over 2,000, the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign
(ISPC) calls on people in Ireland to turn out for the National
Demonstration in Dublin, or the countrywide demonstrations to show their
solidarity with the people of Gaza.

The IPSC demands that the Irish government use all means it its power to
bring the slaughter to an end and to ensure the delivery immediately of
humanitarian supplies which Israel has been preventing. It also calls on
the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Micheál Martin TD, to demand that the
EU suspend its Association Agreement with Israel - which grants it special
trading privileges - as long as its slaughter of Palestinians and its
blockading of Gaza continue. In addition we are calling on civil society
to get active in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign
against Israel

Free Gaza: Stop the Slaughter! End the Siege!

Saturday 3rd January, Dublin

The demonstration will begin at the Central Bank Plaza at 1.00pm. A
march will proceed to the Dail and the EU offices and finish up with a
rally at the Spire in O'Connell St. where there will be a live link-up
with Gaza.

Speakers include:
Patricia McKeown, President ICTU
Robert Ballagh, Award Winning Artist
Patrick Comerford, Anglican Minister, Chair of CND Ireland
Mary Lou McDonald MEP, Sinn Fein
Philip O'Connor, IPSC
Speakers from the Palestinian Rights Institute in Ireland and the General
Delegation of Palestine in Ireland
Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Nobel Peace Laureate
Joe Higgins, Socialist Party
Read statements from Cardinal Brady, Archbishop Harper and Rev. Aian
Ferguson, heads of the three major Churches, and from Michael D Higgins,
TD (Labour) will be read.

Demonstrations are also being held around the country at the following
locations:

Galway - 12.30pm Shop Street
Limerick - 1pm, Assemble outside Penny's
Cork - 1pm, Daunt Square
Derry - 3pm, Guildhall Square
Sligo - 3pm, O'Connell St

For full details of all protests, please see http://www.ipsc.ie
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:23:43 -0800 (PST)
From: patricia blair <cris6369@yahoo.com>
7. Israel, The Sociopathic State

If you have any doubts of the rampant horror & terrorism that
is war taking place in Gaza, please let this video footage
speak for itself- however, be forewarned that war, like
truths, can be extremely ugly. Otherwise, please scroll
below for several electronic appeals to engage your
conscience. Regardless of the complexity or historical
perspectives of this matter, war and violence has failed to
resolve anything in this conflict- this is beyond
side-taking. Certainly, taking out a 1,200 eyes for 24 is
hardly justice and will surely lead to more blindness. Pete

VIDEO: THE CARNAGE IN GAZA (you won't see on US/Israeli media)
http://muslimtv.magnify.net/video/ISRAEL-CARNAGE-CIVILIANS-CHILDR

[excerpt]

http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/?p=1508
Israel ^Ö The Sociopathic State
By Mary Sojourner
1/4/09

>>Israel^Òs current assault on Gaza, its most heinous in years,
shows no mercy to the Palestinians. The blockade has already brought Gaza
to its knees, and now they are bombing the pitiful land almost to
oblivion. Children and women are being killed, along with so-called
^Ólegitimate targets.^Ô I would maintain that every ^Ótarget^Ô is a human
being, particularly when the battle is so unequal, so unfair.

The sociopath is unable to feel remorse. Emotionally shallow, he abuses
others without hesitation. He cannot make friends, much less keep them. He
is secretive, paranoid, and authoritarian. Is Israel paranoid? Does it
suffer from the delusion that all its Arab neighbors are waiting to
destroy it? Of course it does. It threatens attack for no reason ^Ö e.g.
Iran ^Ö and has attacked without provocation in the past ^Ö e.g. Iraq and
Lebanon. And even now, with the intolerable treatment it is giving Gaza,
have there been any threats from other countries? Of course not. It sits
in its sea of nuclear weapons and dares anyone to attack, while it
destroys Gaza with impunity.

The sociopath lies pathologically and will make promises that he never
keeps, yet he continually expects to be believed and will react with
outrage if someone refuses to accept his promises as real. At the same
time he demands that those around him make and keep promises even knowing
that his will not be kept. How many times has Israel broken promises not
to increase settlements in the West Bank? Building is going on there even
as Gaza is being destroyed.<<
@@@

Reports - Israel Using Illegal Chemical Weapon in Gaza
ADC Calls for Investigations Into Reported Israeli use of White
Phosphorus on Gaza

Washington, DC | January 5, 2009 | www.adc.org | The American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) today called on the United States
Government; including members of Congress, and the international
community; including the United Nations and the International Committee of
the Red Cross (ICRC), to investigate Israel's reported use of White
Phosphorus in its ongoing attack on Gaza. According to the United Nations
Israel's overwhelming attacks on Gaza, now in their tenth day, have thus
far killed 540 people, 30% of whom are civilians, and injured over 2,750
people; including over 1,000 children. Among those killed today was a
family of seven from Shati refugee camp, who were killed by Israeli navy
shelling. Three siblings from one family, as well as a girl and her
grandfather, also died in the Zeitoun neighborhood of Gaza during Israeli
artillery shelling. Emergency medical services have also come under
Israeli attack with the al-Awda hospital in Jabaliya being hit by two
Israeli shells today. The attacks have also destroyed 12 Mosques. Since
the Israeli attacks began, rocket fire from militants in Gaza has thus far
killed 5 Israelis including one soldier.

Credible media reports have indicated that the Israeli military is using
White Phosphorus artillery shells in its bombing of Gaza. ADC National
Executive Director Kareem Shora said, "White Phosphorus is categorized as
a chemical weapon by most governments and its use in civilian areas is
banned by the 1980 Geneva Convention. It is a violation of international
humanitarian law and the laws of war to use White Phosphorus ammunition,
an incendiary weapon, in civilian areas."

The UN has listed Gaza, with a population of 1.5-Million people, as the
most densely populated area in the world with a population density that is
higher than that of Manhattan in New York City. White Phosphorus causes
painful burn injuries to exposed human flesh.

The Israeli military used White Phosphorus ammunition during the 2006 war
on Lebanon as documented by ADC in its extensive 233-page report
Eyewitness Lebanon: an International Law Inquiry. White phosphorus is an
indiscriminate killer that ignites once it is exposed to oxygen, producing
such heat that it bursts into a yellow flame and produces a dense white
smoke.
@@@

How is it possible? Almost every representative in our government refused
to publicly acknowledge the humanitarian crisis boiling over in Gaza.
Our elected officials are out of step with our country.

Another piece of legislation has been proposed; one which acknowledges the
plight of the women, children, and men in Gaza. Please take action today
and encourage your representatives to support Dennis J. Kucinich's
resolution expressing the sense of the House of Representatives concerning
the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. READ IT HERE.

Tell Your Representative to support this measure by co-sponsoring it.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/161/images/gaza/freegazaboats.jpg
There is no excuse for remaining silent while so many of the innocent are
dying. Please write your Representatives and ask them to support the
Kucinich resolution for the Gazan cease-fire. You can take other actions
as well; you'll find a list of them, here. Peace Action is also promoting
our coalition partner the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
They have a list of ongoing protests, here.

Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Peace Action Education Fund board member, is currently
in Palestine. Here is a link to his words from the ground.

Sincerely,
http://hq.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/Peaceact/images/k%27s-sig.gif
Kevin M. Martin
Executive Director
Peace Action
@@@

Subject: petition on Gaza ceasefire

Dear friends,

Thanks for signing the Gaza ceasefire petition -- over 150,000 of us have
joined to raise our voices in just 72 hours. Our petition is being heard
by the UN, the EU, the USA and the Arab League. Now, importantly as news
emerges that a temporary ceasefire has been rejected, we are asking you to
send this urgent email on to your friends and family. Around the world,
people are wondering what they can do to help ^Ö signing the Avaaz
ceasefire petition is a powerful way to contribute to a peaceful outcome
in Gaza.

The conflict continues to dangerously escalate -- endangering hopes of a
swift end to the humanitarian crisis that's already seen over 370 killed
and thousands injured.. The answer lies with the whole international
community actively intervening to mediate peace between Israel and all
Palestinian parties. Now we must raise our voices even louder to get the
needed action. Over the coming days, we will increasingly use the numbers
signing the petition to advocate for a ceasefire, and you can help
increase those numbers: POR FAVOR FIRMEN EN ESTE ENLACE
http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/?cl=164047753&v=2623
<http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/?cl=164047753&v=2623>

Thanks for all you do and have a peaceful 2009!

The Avaaz Team
---------------

Dear friends,

The Gaza crisis has exploded -- put your name to our emergency petition
demanding a ceasefire. We'll deliver it immediately to the UN Security
Council, the Arab League, the US and other world leaders!

Take Action Now
<http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/?cl=164047753&v=2623> As
we watch the Gaza bloodshed with horror, appalled at how the crisis is
spiraling further out of control, one thing is clear -- this violence will
only lead to further civilian suffering and an escalation of the conflict.

There must be another way. Over 280 are dead so far in the Gaza Strip and
hundreds more injured -- rockets are striking Ashdod deep inside Israel
for the very first time, and the sides are mobilising for invasion. A
global outcry has begun, but it'll take more than words -- the immediate
violence won't end, nor will wider peace be secured, without firm action
from the international community.

Today, we're launching an emergency campaign which will be delivered to
the UN Security Council and key world powers, urging them to act to ensure
an immediate ceasefire and address the growing humanitarian crisis -- only
with robust international oversight and action can civilians on all sides
be protected and real steps be taken toward a wider peace. Follow this
link now to sign the emergency petition and send it to everyone you know:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/?cl=164047753&v=2623
<http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace/?cl=164047753&v=2623>

After Gaza's bloodiest day in recent memory and eight or more years of
ineffective US and global diplomacy, we need to get world leaders to do
more than issue statements if they're to ensure a lasting ceasefire.1
Through the UN Security Council and other international bodies, the world
can provide the help and pressure needed to stop the violence and change
the situation on the ground in Gaza -- preventing the rockets and
incursions, re-opening crossing-points under international oversight so
that instead of weapon-smuggling, the 1.5 million ordinary people of Gaza
can get the fuel, food and medicines they so desperately need.

All sides to the conflict will continue to act as they have in the past if
they believe that the world will stand by and allow them to do so. We
mobilised for a ceasefire in 2006's Israel-Lebanon war and succeeded, but
this time the international community must not delay -- let's raise a
truly worldwide outcry. 2009 is a year that things can be different. As we
face this crisis, and the possibilities of a new year, it's time for us
everywhere to work together to stop this violence.

With hope and determination,

Brett, Ricken, Alice, Ben, Pascal, Paul, Graziela, Paula, Luis,
Iain and the whole Avaaz team
-----

1 Further actions could include: a formal resolution from the Security
Council rather than issuing a press statement as was done on 28 December
2008; explicit private and public international pressure on the parties to
end the hostilities including developing clear terms for the resumption of
negotiations; proper international oversight of the Rafah border; and in
time, a detailed Security Council resolution setting out the terms in
international law for a permanent peace between Israel and Palestine. For
background, see this Jerusalem Post article, "No international pressure to
end op":
http://www..jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230456497503&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230456497503&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull> )

Here are four simple things you can do today, each of which takes five
minutes or less:

1. Vote at Change.org

Thanks to your tremendous effort, the ideas to "Appoint Secretary of Peace
in Department of Peace and Nonviolence" and "Bridging the Empathy Gap -
Yes We Can," BOTH made it to the final round of voting at Change.org!

Voting began anew yesterday so we must ALL vote again, and enroll our
friends and family in doing the same.

1. Go to change.org/ideas

2. Type "Department of Peace" into the search bar on the right side of
the page and hit return.

3. Click on the blue "Vote" button to the left of the idea.

4. You'll be prompted to sign in.

1. If you voted in round one, put in your login information.

2. If you didn't vote in round one, create an account. An email
confirmation will be sent to you. Click on the link in the email to verify
the account, then click on "Ideas" in the upper right menu items. Repeat
steps 2 and 3 to make your vote count.

5. Make sure the "Vote" button turns from blue to red/brown and says
"voted" at the bottom of the button.

6. If you also support the Nonviolent Communications (NVC) initiative,
repeat steps 2 and 3, searching for "empathy" to bring up the idea.

You can find more information on our action page.

Voting ends at 5:00 pm ET on January 15 and only the top 10 out of the 90
remaining ideas will be sent to the President. So please vote today and
forward this email to your entire network.

Read the powerful and insightful article about the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict by Co-founder of The Peace Alliance Marianne Williamson:

"Towards a Miracle in the Middle East"
-----

Join us for

Peace Within Reach: People and Politics Partnering for our Common Security

The Department of Peace Campaign National Conference Washington, D.C.
March 20-23, 2009

Learn, share, empower and serve the cause of peace as we make our voices
heard on Capitol Hill.

Please Donate

2. Vote at Change.gov

No, that's not a typo. Change.gov is the official site of the incoming
Administration's transition team. They are "Open for Questions" from
citizens about what matters most to us.

By voting up questions related to the Department of Peace we will ensure
the incoming Administration sees the people's commitment to reducing and
preventing violence.

As the site explains, as of yesterday, "93,638 people have submitted
67,302 questions and cast 4,170,091 votes...but we want to know what you
think."

You can vote up as many questions as you like. Simply:

1. Go to change.gov/openforquestions.

2. Sign in or follow the instructions to register.

3. Type "Department of Peace" into the search bar and hit return. This
will display many similar questions

4. Click the checkbox to the right of the question(s) you'd like to "vote
up" to cast your vote.
-----

3. Send Presidential Postcards for Peace

There's still time to write and collect postcards to send to the new
President on Inauguration Day. Simply pick up a postcard from your state
or community, write a personal note to (soon-to-be) President Obama asking
him to support a Department of Peace and Nonviolence and make violence
reduction and prevention a national priority.

Collect postcards from everyone you know and mail them en masse on January
20, 2009 to:

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenuew NW
Washington, DC 20500

For more information and tips on writing your postcard, visit our action
page.

4. Vote at Ondayone.org

Again, the idea "Create a Cabinet-level Department of Peace" made it
through the first round of voting on ondayone.org, an initiative sponsored
by Ted Turner's Better World Campaign. Help the idea continue to garner
public awareness, validity, and the attention of influential organizations
by voting it up.

Simply visit the site and click on the "vote" box under the idea name--you
should see it in the top row, far right column of the "Final 9 for 09."
Voting ends January 12!

This New Year offers us fresh opportunities to bring forth ancient
understandings of the true meaning of "peace." As our Founders stated in
the Declaration of Independence, government is created for the purpose of
securing our "unalienable Rights" and "among these are Life, Liberty and
the pursuit of Happiness."

None of these can be fulfilled in a world of violence, making peace the
most fundamental right of all.

Let us work together to ensure our right to peace, and thus, as our
Constitution reminds us, "establish Justice, insure domestic
Tranquility...and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our
Posterity."

Thank you for your commitment, your citizenship and your action.

In gratitude,

Wendy Greene
Managing Director
The Peace Alliance
1730 Rhode Island Avenue NW, Suite 712 | Washington, DC 20036 | Tel
202-296-1187
www.ThePeaceAlliance.org
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:08:52 -0500 (EST)
From: Dave Belden <davebelden.tikkun@gmail.com>
8. Our Gaza Cease-Fire ad appeared in today's New York Times

Tikkun to heal, repair and transform the world [michael_lerner_75.jpg] A
note from Rabbi Michael Lerner Join or Donate Now!

More Articles...

* The Ceasefire
* Day 16 of the Israeli War On Gaza
* I won't leave my country
* FREE GAZA TO ISRAEL: "WE ARE COMING IN ON TUESDAY"
* Day 15 of the Israeli War On Gaza
* FREE GAZA IN THE MEDIA
* Day 14 of the Israeli War On Gaza
* Free Gaza Fundraiser in LA on Sunday
* Al Nakba 2009
* Day 13 of the Israeli War On Gaza
* How Israel brought Gaza to the brink of humanitarian catastrophe
* A Call from Within - signed by Israeli citizens
* Motion today in the Scottish Parliament
* Riding on fire and a third intifada
* Rafah Exodus
* A TRIBUNAL FOR ISRAELI WAR CRIMES
* Day 12 of the Israeli War On Gaza
* Press Advisory - GAZA EYEWITNESSES AVAILABLE for interviews
* Nous y retournons et prévenons Israel
* Inside Gaza

Date: Thu, 15 Jan 2009 23:51:02 -0800 (PST)
From: Jose Lara <josexlara@yahoo.com>
13. Raza Educators Stand in Solidarity with Gaza

Association of Raza Educators - Los Angeles
January 14th, 2009

As educators, we are horrified at Israel's war on Gaza in which, as of
today, the UN reports 1,000 Gazans have been killed, including at least
300 children, as well as 4,800 wounded of whom one-third are children.

As Raza Educators that stand for critical consciousness, we are bound by
our profession to expose the misconceptions/lies that the corporate media
and the Euro-centric/pro-Israeli educational system give.

We will continue to raise the consciousness of our communities to
understand the connections between the Israeli attacks on the Palestinians
in 1948 and the U.S. attack on Mexico people in 1848 which are almost
synonymous in nature. Zionism is the modern day Manifest Destiny; both are
clear expressions of racism. We express our total and complete solidarity
with the Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation.

We call on all educators, and to all Raza, to stand is solidarity with
Gaza!

* We CONDEMN the ongoing genocidal massacres by Israel across Gaza;

* We CONDEMN Israel's bombing of the UN School in Jabaliya resulting in
at least 45 deaths.

* We CONDEMN Israel's refusal to allow medical workers access to the
wounded and dying;

* We CONDEMN Israel's targeting of medical workers and clinics;

* We CONDEMN Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa for his shameful
support of Israel and we insist that he does not speak or represent
the interests of the majority of our community.

* We RECOGNIZE that 56% of the 1.5 million Gazans are children;

* We RECOGNIZE that 80% of Gazans were living below the poverty line;
living on $2 per day.

* We RECOGNIZE that Gazans have been living under a crippling blockade by
Israel for 18 months.

* We RECOGNIZE the similarities between the genocidal campaigns of
settler colonies against Indigenous populations and Israel's treatment of
the Palestinian people.

* We RECOGNIZE the similarities between the conditions in Gaza and the
Warsaw Ghetto of WWII.

* We RECOGNIZE the similarities between the fascist bombing of Guernica
and Israel's current offensive on Gaza.

* We RECOGNIZE that Israel is a settler colony with the world's 5th most
powerful military;

* We RECOGNIZE the Palestinians' right to exist, to self-determination
and to self-defense.

* We CALL ON the international community to demand an immediate halt to
Israel's genocidal campaign on Gaza,

* We JOIN WITH APPO teachers from Oaxaca, Mexico who are declaring: Alto
al genocidio en contra del pueblo palestino! Palestina no esta sola!

* We JOIN WITH Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos who stated, ^ÓThe
Palestinian people will also resist and survive and continue struggling
and will continue to have sympathy from below for their cause.^Ô

* WE JOIN WITH Union del Barrio who stated, ^ÓWe know the impact that
walls of apartheid have on people; we also know the deaths that these
walls create. And while they may be two different walls that divide our
peoples, our struggle is one.^Ô

AQUI , ALLA, LA LUCHA SEGUIRA!

[ Part 2, Application/PDF 203KB. ]

Network mailing list
Network@lists.edliberation.org
http://lists.edliberation.org/listinfo.cgi/network-edliberation.org
------

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:45:05 -0500
From: Sonia Rosen <soniar@dolphin.upenn.edu>

Thank you, Jose, for sending us this. I am half Muslim Arab and half
Ashkanazi Jew, and my heart is warmed that you and the Association of Raza
Educators are willing to fight for real justice in this world by standing
against this genocide. There are so many educators out there who purport
to be for "liberation", yet when it comes to the genocide of Palestinians
by the Israeli government they run into a terrible blind spot and cannot
see their own racism against Arabs (just look at the discourse that
justifies the occupation of Palestine - it is purely and simply racist).
As liberatory educators, it is important that we remain consistent with
our students - that is, when we say that we stand for justice and
equality, this must mean justice and equality for all people.

I have to admit that I am very sad to see a posting on this list from
someone who actually supports this ongoing oppression and violence against
Palestinians (are Palestinians less human than the Jews who suffered in
the Holocaust?), and it makes me think that maybe this list is not quite
as "liberatory" as it claims... I hope others on the list will prove me
wrong. I encourage everyone to sign the Teachers Against the Occupation
petition that is being sent to President (-Elect) Obama:
http://www.teachersagainstoccupation.org/home/

I also want to remind everyone on the list of the currently accepted
international definition of genocide (from the 1948 Convention on the
Prevention of Genocide). I have used this in my classes in the past in
discussing the genocide of Native Americans and Africans by European
colonists in the Americas, the genocide of Jews by the Nazis in Europe,
the genocide of Tutsis by Hutus in Rwanda, and the genocide of
Palestinians by the Israelis in the Middle East, among others:

Excerpt from the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide
(From http://www.preventgenocide.org/genocide/officialtext.htm)

"Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the
following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life
calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(d) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide. "

For more justice-oriented news and information on the horrific bombing of
Gaza by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), I would recommend the following
articles/videos, most of which can also be used in the average middle
school, high school, or college classroom (there are many more where that
came from, so let me know if you're interested in more detailed news and
analysis and I'd be happy to send it to you):

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21588.htm
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123154826952369919.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/09/gaza-palestinians-israel-evacuees-zeitoun
http://www.alternet.org/audits/118080/what_you%27d_know_about_israel_if_you_watched_al_jazeera_tv_/?page=1
http://www.nytimes.com/glogin?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html&OQ=_rQ3D2&OP=628694f4Q2F!Q5C39!LgZiQ22ggxC!CppB!pS!p(!gh6u6gu!p(wa_s6L6Maxfs
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090112/gordon?rel=hp_currently
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc9DN2Oi0-w&feature=channel_page
http://annies-letters.blogspot.com/2009/01/palestinians-will-never-forget-by-susan.html

And here are some excellent English language news sources that you can go
to in general if you are looking for better info on this situation:

http://www.alternet.org/
http://english.aljazeera.net/
http://www.zmag.org/znet
http://www.cbc.ca/news/
http://www.thenation.com/

And, finally, here's a way to support Gazans both financially and with a
public show of solidarity. The proceeds from these t-shirts, which read
"Gaza on my mind" and "Our hearts are with you Gaza", are being used to
fund the supply of food and/or medicine for Gazans (who have been starving
and without adequate medical care, electricity, and fuel at the hands of
the Israeli blockade for the past 2 1/2 years and are now in even more
dire straights with the bombing):

http://247463.spreadshirt.com/-/-/Shop/

In peace and solidarity with you who stand for justice for all, Sonia
Rosen
-------

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:25:34 -0500
From: Brian Van Slyke <brian@freeschooling.org>

Hi, I also wanted to say thank you for sending this out.

As a Jew, a teacher, and a student I am deeply concerned and involved with
this issue. At the college I'm currently attending, we are working on
divestment from the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands - and
BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) was called for by many members of
Palestinian civil society and academic institutions. If folks don't know,
this year is the 30 year anniversary of the first college/university in
the United States to divest from apartheid South Africa. Divestment was
one of the major tools used by activists in the United States to help
bring down apartheid in South Africa, and it can also be used to help end
the occupation and killings of Palestinians. I want to encourage folks who
are a part of a college/university to look into starting
divestment/helping divestment efforts at their institution. Here is the
BDS website: http://bdsmovement.net/ . If you want any more information on
divestment efforts, feel free to send me a message. Additionally, the
group I am a part of are close to finishing a media package/strategy guide
on starting and running a divestment effort at colleges/universities - so
I can also supply you with that if you're interested.

Free Palestine,

Brian

P.S. Here is a (rough-cut) podcast that we've just finished putting
together describing BDS, the importance of BDS for Palestinians, and the
current state of divestment at our institution:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6fTtZ1IphE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Max Obuszewski <mobuszewski@verizon.net>
Date: Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 7:24 AM
14. "Jesuit priest corresponds with Hamas"

National Catholic Reporter
January 14, 2008
"Jesuit priest corresponds with Hamas"
By Claire Schaeffer-Duffy, Worcester CW ThereseCW@aol.com
http://ncronline3.org/drupal/?q=node/3082

Fr. Raymond Helmick is a copious correspondent. For the past three years,
the Jesuit priest has written nearly 20 letters to Khalid Mishal, founder
and political leader of the Palestinian movement Hamas, urging him to
abandon militancy, unify with Fatah, Hamas' political rival, and organize
the Palestinians in a disciplined campaign of nonviolent resistance to the
Israeli occupation.

"Your military weapons are too puny to stand against Israeli weapons, but
that mobilized power of a people denying, without violence, any
cooperation with its occupiers is something Israel could not withstand,"
wrote Helmick in a Feb 2006 letter sent weeks after Hamas won the
Palestinian parliamentary elections.

The missives to Mishal are the latest chapter in Helmick's extraordinary
engagement with the major power brokers in the Israeli/Palestinian
conflict, an engagement conducted primarily through letters and, on rare
occasions, meetings. Over the past two and a half decades, the priest has
written to Palestinian political leaders and state officials from a series
of U.S. and Israeli administrations, including the late president Yasir
Arafat, U.S. presidents Clinton and both Bushes, secretaries of state
Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, and Israeli prime ministers Yitzhak
Rabin and Ariel Sharon.

The letters and reports, which fill three volumes, provide one of the
texts for a course on the Middle East that Helmick, a theology professor,
teaches at Boston College.

"Conflict resolution is a process of interpretation," Helmick said. "I'm
always very anxious to analyze, interpret, and see what options people
have and to talk to them about it. ^Å Once there is an alternative to
violence, violence is no longer a legitimate course. Arafat understood
that. The Israelis understand that. Hamas understands that. Of course,
they have to believe that other options are real, and that can take a lot
of exploration."

The 77-year-old priest has a long history of unofficially monitoring and
mediating conflicts. He worked with warring factions in Northern Ireland,
Lebanon and Yugoslavia. In Washington, he helped establish the U.S.
Institute of Peace and later served as senior associate for the Program in
Preventive Diplomacy at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies. Both assignments gained him access to American foreign policy
makers. With the Rev. Jesse Jackson, he helped facilitate the release of
three American prisoners held in Belgrade during the 1999 conflict in
Kosovo.

But it is the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that has consumed much of
Helmick's attention. He became involved with the conflict through his
Jewish friend Richard Hauser, a sociologist, and Hauser's wife, Hephzibah
Menuhin, concert pianist and sister of famed violinist Yehudi Menuhin. The
priest and couple founded London's Center for Human Rights and
Responsibilities, which in 1973 hosted a Palestinian delegation sent by
Arafat to make contact with European Jews.

Helmick later met with the Palestinian leader several times in 1986, two
years before the U.S. government officially recognized the PLO, and for
the next two decades continued corresponding with him, weighing in on the
options for peace amid negotiations over the Oslo and Camp David Accords.

In his book Negotiating Outside the Law: Why Camp David Failed, Helmick
argues that the 2000 peace talks suffered from a structural flaw -- the
neglect of international law. "Disparity of power most basically defines
this conflict. Unless the conflict is approached according to law the only
alternative is a procedure based on power relationships and therefore
determined by political and military superiority. That makes any agreement
formed, nothing other than a Diktat," he said. "The law would not protect
the occupation, but it would protect Israeli rights as well as
Palestinians," he added.

Within a week of Hamas' electoral win in 2006, Helmick sent Rev. Jackson
his assessment of the election and proposed meeting with Mishal, who lives
in exile in Damascus, Syria. Jackson and Helmick had previously attempted
to engage with Hamas while on a 2002 interfaith delegation to Israel and
the Palestinian territories. The delegates were scheduled to go to Gaza
for a session with Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, but aborted
their trip after Hamas detonated a bomb at Hebrew University, Jerusalem,
in retaliation for an Israeli F-16 attack launched days earlier. In an
impassioned letter to the Muslim cleric, Helmick lamented that the bomb,
an "act of vengeance for vengeance," had made it impossible for them to
meet.

"What do you want of the Israelis?" the Catholic priest asked. "Do you
want them to remain in this hateful quest for vengeance or do you want to
elicit from them compassion and justice? We are all responsible for our
enemies, for their souls, and must seek to bring them to righteousness and
repentance. That will only happen if you act with a higher morality than
theirs in emulation of the compassion and righteousness of God."

Despite the F-16 attack and subsequent bombing, Palestinians were
contemplating a unilateral cease-fire with Israel during the summer of
2002. Hamas' reluctance to sign a cease-fire document stemmed from their
disagreement with the document's reference to the Israeli/Palestinian
border, Helmick said.

"I advocated to them that they just leave the border out of the document
and declare their cease-fire on the basis of compassion of Islam. That is
eventually what they did, and, in fact, over the next four years, Hamas
showed itself responsible in its restraint," the priest said. In 2004, the
Israelis assassinated Yassin.

Jackson and Helmick finally did meet Mishal in 2006. Israel's war on
Hezbollah had just concluded and the Lebanon crisis overshadowed much of
the trip. Helmick reported that the Americans were warmly received in
Damascus. The session with the Hamas leader and four members of his
political bureau went until 3 a.m. "[Mishal] assured us that his party's
intentions in no way intended the destruction of Israel. They set as their
goal the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders,"
wrote the priest in his summary of the session.

But according to Helmick, when urged to explicitly recognize the
legitimacy of Israel, one of several Israeli preconditions for negotiating
with Hamas, Mishal said the time for that had not come.

Helmick attributes Hamas' refusal to several factors including concern for
a disparity in the Oslo Accords and uncertainty over Israel's borders. At
Oslo, the PLO recognized the legitimacy of the Israeli state while Israel
recognized the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.
"The recognition was not symmetrical," Helmick said. "The Israelis did not
recognize the entitlement of the Palestinian people to a viable state."

Amid the numerous proposals explored in Helmick's correspondence, common
themes emerge. To the Palestinians, he consistently argues for disciplined
nonviolent resistance to the occupation as the only viable option. To the
Americans and Israelis, he pleads for adhering to the rule of law.

Responses to the letters have varied. There have been perfunctory
acknowledgements and a few specific replies. A 2002 epistle to Ariel
Sharon, in which the priest pointedly asked if the prime minister was
pursuing a policy of "transfer" toward the Palestinians, elicited a
pleasant note from Sharon's secretary, Marit Danon, who thanked the
American cleric for his "in-depth analysis."

More often than not, the dialogue has been one-way. The silence does not
bother Helmick, who said he knows political leaders cannot articulate
policy in letters to private individuals. For Mishal, who has survived one
assassination attempt by the Israelis, merely acknowledging correspondence
could be hazardous.

Helmick believes the need to engage with Hamas is more necessary than
ever. "Israel's recent incursion into Gaza is just one more effort to
knock Hamas out of the picture and get it done before Bush leaves office.
But Hamas is gaining in political strength. Their popularity is growing in
Gaza and the West Bank."

So the priest continues to write. In the past two months, he has sent a
dozen communiqués to all the major players, including letters to
president-elect Barack Obama and Mishal.

Claire Schaeffer-Duffy lives in Worcester, Mass. and writes frequently for
NCR.

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th
St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at]
verizon.net

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has
always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and
nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and
everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 12:05:09 -0600
From: Donna L. Vukelich-Selva <dlvukelich@wisc.edu>
15. Israeli refuseniks

thanks very much, Sonia, for your comments

another reason, of course, that it is so important for people in the US to
hold the Israeli government accountable is that US military aid to Israel
has been, and continues to be, absolutely crucial to their continued
policies

here's a link to a very moving video on youtube that underscores the fact
that there is a great deal of debate in Israel around the entire issue of
occupation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cMs0nai4JQ [or type in Israeli soldiers
refuse to serve in Gaza], it is interviews of refuseniks at a recent
demonstration against the attacks on Gaza

Donna
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:21:25 -0800 (PST)
From: lucha <unchainthemind@yahoo.com>
16. genocide

http://revcom.us/a/153/parallels-en.html
Undeniable Parallels: Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto
by Alan Goodman

Before I stood outside the Holocaust Museum in New York City with a
banner reading ^ÓAfter the Holocaust, the worst thing that has happened to
Jewish people is the state of Israel,^Ô I toured the museum. After viewing
the exhibit on the Warsaw ghetto, the comparison between what is going on
in Gaza now and Warsaw ghetto under the Nazis became more striking to me.

The German ruling class promoted vicious anti-Semitism, and carried out
the mass murder of Jews as part of a whole agenda for reviving and carving
out a greater sphere of domination for German imperialism through World
War 2. In Warsaw, Poland, by 1940, over 400,000 Jews^×nearly 40% of the
population^×were literally walled into a space that took up less than 5%
of Warsaw. The Jews in the Warsaw ghetto were systematically starved^×they
received only about a quarter of the amount of food of the Polish
population in Warsaw, and less than a tenth of food rations provided for
Germans. They had to smuggle in food and fuel, and smuggle out products
from their illegal workshops to survive. Under siege, they organized
cultural activities, schools, and social services, most of which were
linked to organizations banned by the Nazis. By late 1942, hundreds of
thousands of Jews had died of starvation in the Warsaw ghetto, or been
sent off to Nazi death camps. When Jews rebelled in the famous Warsaw
Ghetto Uprising, they were brutally slaughtered, and accused of starting
the violence. And, as a matter of fact, they did ^Óstart it^Ô in terms of
the uprising itself, but who would deny that their uprising was just?

The parallels to Palestine, and Gaza in particular, are simply undeniable.
The establishment and massive economic, political, and military backing of
Israel is in service of the strategic interests of U.S. empire in the
Middle East, and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine is a product of that.
One result: two thirds of the 1.5 million people packed into the tiny,
impoverished territory of Gaza were driven from their homes in other parts
of Israeli-occupied Palestine through Zionist terror (for documentation of
Zionist ethnic cleansing and terror, see ^ÓThe Nakba: Ethnic Cleansing and
the Birth of Israel,^Ô Revolution #130, May 25, 2008, and other resources
at revcom.us).

Within Gaza, conditions were horrific even before Israel^Òs current
invasion. When Israel ended occupation and direct military rule over Gaza
in 2005, it kept complete control of the land, sea and air borders. Israel
sent armored bulldozers to destroy Gaza^Òs fruit orchards, blockaded the
fishing port, cut off supplies to factories and other businesses, and
forbade most Gaza residents the right to work elsewhere or even leave. As
a result, approximately a million of Gaza^Òs people are dependent on UN
food distribution, and food and supplies smuggled in through tunnels from
Egypt. And the situation has gotten much worse since Hamas seized control
of Gaza in June 2007. Even before the current massacre, Israel was
strangling the people of Gaza. Israeli blockades have cut off food,
medicine, and fuel. A partially leaked but still-secret report by the
International Red Cross reported that a ^Ódramatic fall in living
standards has triggered a shift in diet that will damage the long-term
health of those living in Gaza and has led to alarming deficiencies in
iron, vitamin A and vitamin D.^Ô (^ÓChronic malnutrition in Gaza blamed on
Israel,^Ô Independent, November 15, 2008)

And, like the Nazis, Israel (and its U.S. sponsor) claim that any
resistance to what they are doing to the people of Gaza then justifies
even more brutality and death.

Never again can it be the case that the Holocaust (or ludicrous claims of
^Óself-defense^Ô on the part of Israel) is invoked to justify the truly
Nazi-like policies and actions which the rulers of Israel, and its
founders, have carried out over the past sixty years and more, and which
they are now carrying to new depths of brutality and depravity with the
slaughter in Gaza.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: msukkar@
Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 09:58:02 -0600
18. HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS

THE GRANDCHILDREN OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS FROM WORLD WAR II ARE DOING TO
THE PALESTINIANS EXACTLY WHAT WAS DONE TO THEIR FAMILIES BY NAZI
GERMANY

BUILDING WALLS & FENCES TO KEEP PEOPLE IN PRISONS

CHECK POINTS NOT TO ALLOW PEOPLE BASIC FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT

ARRESTS & HARASSMENTS

DESTROYING HOMES & LIVELIHOODS

GIFTS (WITH LOVE) FROM THE CHILDREN OF PEACE-LOVING & CIVILIZED COUNTRIES

THE CLASSIC PROPAGANDA MACHINE - YOU WILL FIND THE PICTURE IN BLACK &
WHITE IN ALL AMERICAN AND SOME OTHER WESTERN COUNTRIES HISTORY BOOKS,
ENCYCLOPAEDIAS, LIBRARIES, MUSEUMS THAT DEPICTS A YOUNG JEWISH BOY
WITH HIS HANDS UP WHILE NAZI TROOPS POINT THEIR GUNS AT HIM AND HIS FAMILY
IN ORDER TO EXPEL THEM FROM THEIR HOMES (ITS SUPPOSED TO MAKE
YOU SYMPATHIZE WITH THE VICTIMS & TO SUPPORT THEIR CAUSE FOR JUSTICE & A
HOMELAND)

THE ISRAELIS PRACTICE THE SAME TACTICS

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--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 08:08:20 +0900
From: Trevor Osborne <Trevor@world-harmony.com>
19. Bringing Bush and Cheney to justice and Obama and Gaza

It will be interesting to see if this ever takes place.

Trevor
----

January 16, 2009

[] Bringing Bush and Cheney to justice

Pepe Escobar: Where is the special prosecutor? view

[ Part 2, Image/JPEG 31KB. ]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:24:35 +0000 (GMT)
From: nisiocam@optonline.net
20. The Sand Creek logic

http://www.pslweb.org/
News and Analysis
The Sand Creek logic of the Gaza Massacre
Friday, January 9, 2009
By: Travis Wilkerson

Colonial oppressors stick to tried-and-true practices

What is presently happening in Gaza will enter history as one of the worst
atrocities committed by the state of Israel against the people of
Palestine. It will rank alongside nightmares such as the massacres in
Jenin and in Sabra and Shatila. The devastation has been unleashed with
the full material and political support of the US government.

Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle, 1864 Sand Creek massacre survivor
Cheyenne Chief Black Kettle, a survivor of the Sand Creek massacre

Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. aid in the world. It receives more
than $15 million every day from the United States. The F-16 fighter jets
and apache helicopters that have rained down thousands of tons of bombs
and missiles on Gaza are provided to the Israeli government by the
Pentagon. It is inconceivable that the Israeli aggression in Gaza could
have taken place without the explicit consent and military support of the
U.S. government.

Using numbers alone, the offensive against Gaza is an abject massacre. At
the time of this writing, 10 Israelis have died, including three
civilians. The Palestinian numbers are constantly rising, but at this
moment at least 660 Palestinians have been killed, hundreds of them
civilians. Many thousands more have been seriously injured and Gaza is on
the verge of a humanitarian crisis on a scale unfamiliar even to many
Palestinians.

It is interesting to put Gaza in the context of an earlier atrocity.

In November 1864, the worst single massacre of American Indians in western
settlement took place in the frozen plains of territorial Colorado
southeast of Denver. A regiment of Colorado volunteer cavalry led by
Colonel John Chivington attacked without warning a village of Cheyenne and
Arapaho Indians, who were peacefully camped along the Sand Creek.

The Indians were there both with government treaty and explicit
territorial permission. They flew not only a white flag of surrender, but
also an American flag over the village. In fact, most of the Indian men of
fighting age were off hunting, because they rightly assumed their
encampment was safe. Instead, Chivington and his men massacred the entire
village.

They killed indiscriminately, butchering equally men, women and children.
The soldiers raped several women and decapitated babies before their
mothers. They also mutilated the bodies of the victims. Several men
fashioned mutilated vaginas into necklaces they wore during their victory
parade through the muddy streets of Denver.

Chivington has gone down in infamy. But one thing should be clear: He was
doing exactly what the white settlers and their territorial government
wanted him to do.

Remember, this was Colorado territory before statehood. The whole of the
future state had been given by treaty to the Indians of the region: the
Cheyenne and Arapaho in the East and the Utes in the West. The land was
theirs, even by the white man's law, plain and simple.

And then white surveyors identified things of value in Colorado. First and
foremost, gold was discovered, triggering the initial burst of settlement.
Failed miners often turned to agriculture on the fertile plains of
Colorado. Later, other resources were discovered and coveted, especially
coal.

So how do you take land that isn't yours? You settle that land. You simply
take the land you want. And then your army defends the settlers. Of
course, that breeds anger and discontent from the population that lives
there, with absolute right.

Chivington gives the following defense of butchering the village: First,
the Indians were hostile to the settlers, especially in the preceding
months. Second, among Indians, it is impossible to distinguish enemy from
non-combatant, because the combatants hide among the non-combatants.
Third, Indians had killed some white settlers and taken their property.
Fourth, Indians didn't respect the "chastity" of women.

Here's how the Rocky Mountain News, the official paper of white
settlement, justifies the massacre: "The confessed murderers of the
Hungate family^×a man and wife and their two little babes, whose scalped
and mutilated remains were seen by all our citizens^×were ^Ñfriendly
Indians,^Ò we suppose, in the eyes of these ^Ñhigh officials.^Ò They fell
in the Sand Creek battle."

The accusation^×which, incidentally, was false^×was that the Indians
camped along Sand Creek had killed four settlers. And so Chivington and
his men had permission to murder somewhere on the order of 200 Native
Americans in retaliation. One settler^Òs life is worth 50 Indian lives,
goes the racist logic.

Meanwhile, half a world away and in another century, the Israeli military
employs far more sophisticated means as it rains horror upon the dense,
squalid reservation known as Gaza.

Israel^Òs defense for all this? Rocket fire from Gaza into southern
Israel. Rocket fire, which, in the years prior to the bombing campaign and
invasion, had killed exactly four settlers. Sound familiar?

Israel has undertaken a nearly incomprehensible atrocity against a people
already living under inhuman conditions in alleged "self-defense." Using
U.S. weapons, Israel has now murdered at least 660 Palestinians. One
Israeli life is now worth at least 165 Palestinian lives. How else but
through the prism of naked racism can Israeli life be calculated to be
hundreds of times more valuable than Palestinian life?

This is the Sand Creek logic of the Gaza Massacre. Except that the numbers
have gotten even worse.

Chivington was removed from command, but never punished. This should come
as no surprise. In fact, his best friend was the governor and he was doing
precisely what the settlers wanted. He was terrorizing the indigenous
population to make white settlement easier.

History has been a bit harsher to Chivington, who no longer has a single
prominent defender. He is regarded as something between a fool and a
monster. There is no longer a single monument in his name, save an
abandoned town near the site of the massacre.

Meanwhile, the attack on Gaza has eclipsed even Sand Creek with the scope
of its barbarity. On Jan. 6, word came that Israel had murdered dozens of
Palestinians cowering in a school in a U.N. refugee camp. Think about that
one more time: Israel is now openly bombing targets such as schools,
ambulances and health workers, and claiming even that amounts to
self-defense.

Palestinians have replaced Indians and the Israeli state has replaced
white settlements, but the underlying principles remain the same. The
perpetrators wish their violence to be horrific and public. They wish it
to be terrifying. If we can^Òt subjugate you, we will simply exterminate
you. And let this genocide be a warning to others.

What form of justice is adequate in the face of a crime such as this? What
form of recompense for the attempted destruction of an entire people?

Like those who once defended Sand Creek, defenders of the Gaza massacre
should be exposed to all for what they are: racist apologists of
whole-scale barbarism, aiding and abetting an indefensible, criminal
explosion of violence. These defenders include the entire political
leadership of the U.S. government. History will not judge them merely as
fools.

End the Gaza massacre! Long live Palestine!

Network mailing list
Network@lists.edliberation.org
http://lists.edliberation.org/listinfo.cgi/network-edliberation.org
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Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:27:36 +0000 (GMT)
From: nisiocam@optonline.net
21. Zionist state of "Israel"

DEMONSTRATION AGAINST THE VIOLENCE IN GAZA
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Time: 4pm
Park Across from United Nations
New York City, NY

Orthodox Rabbis representing Torah-True Jews and Rabbinical authorities
will be demonstrating their outrage at the Zionist state of "Israel" and
its atrocities against the inhabitants of Gaza. What has caused a people
to fall to such levels of depravity? Come and hear our message! Zionism
and the state of "Israel" is expressly forbidden according to the Torah.
We are forbidden to make any attempts to leave the Godly decreed exile; We
are forbidden to oppress any people and we are required to be loyal
citizens in every country in which we reside, we are required to emulate
God ^× we are to be kind and compassionate.

Judaism is a religion of thousands of years. Zionism is a relatively new
movement of over little over a hundred years, created by non-religious
Jews who aspired to transform the religion into nationalism and have
rebelled continually against the Almighty's commandments. This has
culminated in the terrible atrocities being perpetrated against the people
of Gaza today. Jews true to the Almighty and His Torah cry out. Hear our
voices at the protest that will take place Sunday January 4, 2009 at 4pm
at the park across from the United Nations in New York City, NY. There
will be made available at the demonstration FOR THE FIRST TIME the English
compilation of "Historic Documents" which shows the Jewish opposition to
Zionism and the Zionist leaders heretical statements and comments. Also,
for the first time, the English book, "The Rabbis Speak Out", which is a
compilation of the Rabbinical Authorities' most vociferous universal
opposition to Zionism. Read the statement delivered in London, Durban,
S.A., and Rockefeller Center, New York City.
http://www.nkusa.org/activities/Speeches/20081227.cfm May we be worthy of
the speedy and peaceful dismantlement of this rebellion against God and
the cessation of the Zionist attacks on Gaza.
______________________________________________________________________________

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 23:34:31 +0000 (GMT)
From: nisiocam@optonline.net
22. War of Deceit, Lies and Propaganda

Israel's War of Deceit, Lies and Propaganda
By Uri Avnery

January 12 "Gulf Times" -- - -Nearly 70 years ago, in the course of the
Second World War, a heinous crime was committed in the city of Leningrad.
For more than a thousand days, a gang of extremists called "the Red Army"
held the millions of the town's inhabitants hostage and provoked
retaliation from the German Wehrmacht from inside the population centres.

The Germans had no alternative but to bomb and shell the population and
to impose a total blockade, which caused the death of hundreds of
thousands.

Some time before that, a similar crime was committed in England. The
Churchill gang hid among the population of London, misusing the millions
of citizens as a human shield. The Germans were compelled to send their
Luftwaffe and reluctantly reduce the city to ruins. They called it the
Blitz.

This is the description that would now appear in the history books - if
the Germans had won the war.

Absurd? No more than the daily descriptions in Israeli media, which are
being repeated ad nauseam: the Hamas "terrorists" use the inhabitants of
Gaza as "hostages" and exploit the women and children as "human shields",
they leave Israel no alternative but to carry out massive bombardments,
in which, to Israel's deep sorrow, thousands of women, children and
unarmed men are killed and injured.

In this war, as in any modern war, propaganda plays a major role. Almost
all the Western media initially repeated the official Israeli propaganda
line. They almost entirely ignored the Palestinian side of the story, not
to mention the daily demonstrations of the Israeli peace camp. The
rationale of the Israeli government ("The state must defend its citizens
against the Qassam rockets") has been accepted as the whole truth. The
view from the other side, that the Qassams are a retaliation for the
siege that starves the one and a half million inhabitants of the Gaza
Strip, was not mentioned at all.

Only when the horrible scenes from Gaza started to appear on Western TV
screens, did world public opinion gradually begin to change.

War - every war - is the realm of lies. Whether called propaganda or
psychological warfare, everybody accepts that it is right to lie for
one's country. Anyone who speaks the truth runs the risk of being branded
a traitor. The trouble is that propaganda is most convincing for the
propagandist himself. And after you convince yourself that a lie is the
truth and falsification reality, you can no longer make rational
decisions.

Falsification

An example of this process surrounds the most shocking atrocity of this
war so far: the shelling of the UN Fakhura school in Jabaliya refugee
camp.

Immediately after the incident became known throughout the world, the
army "revealed" that Hamas fighters had been firing mortars from near the
school entrance. As proof they released an aerial photo which indeed
showed the school and the mortar. But within a short time the official
army liar had to admit that the photo was more than a year old. In brief:
a falsification.

Later the official liar claimed that "our soldiers were shot at from
inside the school". Barely a day passed before the army had to admit to
UN personnel that that was a lie, too. Nobody had shot from inside the
school, no Hamas fighters were inside the school, which was full of
terrified refugees.

But the admission made hardly any difference anymore. By that time, the
Israeli public was completely convinced that "they shot from inside the
school", and TV announcers stated this as a simple fact.

So it went with the other atrocities. Every baby metamorphosed, in the
act of dying, into a Hamas "terrorist". Every bombed mosque instantly
became a Hamas base, every apartment building an arms cache, every school
a terror command post, every civilian government building a "symbol of
Hamas rule". Thus the Israeli army retained its purity as the "most moral
army in the world".

The truth is that the atrocities are a direct result of the war plan.
This reflects the personality of Ehud Barak - a man whose way of thinking
and actions are clear evidence of what is called "moral insanity", a
sociopathic disorder.

The real aim (apart from gaining seats in the coming elections) is to
terminate the rule of Hamas in the Gaza Strip. In the imagination of the
planners, Hamas is an invader which has gained control of a foreign
country. The reality is, of course, entirely different.

A top priority for the planners was the need to minimise casualties among
the soldiers, knowing that the mood of a large part of the pro-war public
would change if reports of such casualties came in. That is what happened
in Lebanon Wars I and II.

This consideration played an especially important role because the entire
war is a part of the election campaign. The planners thought that they
could stop the world from seeing these images by forcibly preventing
press coverage. But in a modern war, such a sterile manufactured view
cannot completely exclude all others - the cameras are inside the strip,
in the middle of the hell, and cannot be controlled. Al Jazeera
broadcasts the pictures around the clock and reaches every home.

Hundreds of millions of Arabs from Mauritania to Iraq, more than a
billion Muslims from Nigeria to Indonesia see the pictures and are
horrified. This has a strong impact on the war. Many of the viewers see
the rulers of Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian National Authority as
collaborators with Israel in carrying out these atrocities against their
Palestinian brothers.

If the war ends with Hamas still standing, bloodied but unvanquished, in
face of the mighty Israeli military machine, it will look like a
fantastic victory, a victory of mind over matter.

What will be seared into the consciousness of the world will be the image
of Israel as a blood-stained monster, ready at any moment to commit war
crimes and not prepared to abide by any moral restraints. This will have
severe consequences for our long-term future, our standing in the world,
our chance of achieving peace and quiet.

In the end, this war is a crime against Israelis too, a crime against the
State of Israel.

Uri Avnery is an Israeli writer and peace activist with Gush Shalom. He is
a contributor to Counter Punch's book 'The Politics of Anti-Semitism'.
____________________________________________________________________________

Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:21:09 -0700
From: Rebecca Cummings <beckyspi@mac.com>
23. Political Correctness in the Middle East

Rule #1: In the Middle East, it is always the Palestinians that attack
first, and it's always Israel who defends itself. This is called
"retaliation."

Rule #2: The Palestinians are not allowed to kill Israelis. This is
called "terrorism."

Rule #3: Israel has the right to kill Palestinian civilians; this is
called "self-defense," or "collateral damage".

Rule #4: When Israel kills too many Palestinian civilians, the Western
world calls for restraint. This is called the "reaction of the
international community."

Rule #5: Palestinians do not have the right to capture Israeli military,
not even 1 or 2.

Rule #6: Israel has the right to capture as many Palestinians as they
want (around 10,000 to date being held without trial). There is no limit;
there is no need for proof of guilt or trial. All that is needed is the
magic word: "terrorism".

Rule #7: When you say "Hamas", always be sure to add "supported by
Hezbollah, Syria and Iran".

Rule #8: When you say "Israel", never say "supported by the US, the UK,
European countries and even some Arab regimes", for people (God forbid)
might believe this is not an equal conflict.

Rule #9: When it comes to Israel, don't mention the words "occupied
territories," "UN resolutions," or "Geneva conventions." This could
distress the audience of Fox, CNN, etc.

Rule #10: Israelis speak better English than Arabs. This is why we let
them speak out as much as possible, so that they can explain rules 1
through 9. This is called "neutral journalism."

Rule #11: If you don't agree with these rules or if you favor the
Palestinian side over the Israeli side, you must be a very dangerous
anti-Semite. You may even have to make a public apology if you
express your honest opinion.

I thought the above was astute.
Rebecca Cummings
beckyspi@mac.com

Martin Luther King Jr: "There comes a time when one must take a position
that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it
because it is right."
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From: Arik Diamant - Courage to Refuse <arik@seruv.org.il>
Date: Thu, Jan 15, 2009 at 3:23 PM
24. Courage to Refuse Update - First Gaza Refusenik Goes to Prison

Dear Supporters,

The first Gaza refusenik was sent to prison for a term of 14 days. Courage
to refuse members are in contact with his family and are helping in any
way we can. To date there are about ten refuseniks, but the IDF is making
special efforts to silence this story and prevent it from reaching other
soldiers. We assume this is the reason why most refuseniks have not yet
been trialed (some are waiting for over a week now). Our demonstration
last Thursday went very well, hundreds showed up and protested against the
war. A video of the demonstration can be viewed here (Hebrew, English
subtitles) This, along with other efforts of the Israeli Peace Camp,
contributed to the public discourse by introducing new voices- this time
critical, about the war. We plan on continuing our demonstrations and plan
to hold a public debate on the subject of refusal next Sunday. I wish to
thank all those of you who proposed to donate to Courage to Refuse. Your
help is much needed. An online donation System is now in place, allowing
donations via credit card. The donation is processed by The Refuser
Solidarity Network, an American NGO that agreed to receive donations on
our behalf. To donate, please go to:
https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=712 and select Courage to
Refuse Projects in the RSN project field (This detail is very important).
American citizens- your donation is IRS-recognized 501(c)3.

With some hope and a lot of hard work- the cease fire may not be that
far. Thank you all for your support.
Arik Diamant
Courage to Refuse
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Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:08:32 -0800
From: Annie Elfing <annie.rowan@gmail.com>
25. Urgent plea for help- regarding the family of a friend of
mine

hey, i don't know anyone but i thought you might. love,
annie

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bevis, Leah <leahb@middlebury.edu>
Date: Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 6:52 AM

read these emails from bottom to top. i know amro - was friendly with him,
and he lived in my friend's suite here before he graduated and moved to
DC. hes a really awesome guy. and now both of his brothers are dead,
maybe his father. and the second death could have been avoided if only the
idf had let in help.

we've all been crazy with worry for the last 24 hours, all the community
of people who knew amro, and who are from the region. everyone trying to
contact someone who could help get aid to the ambulance.

i have two other much closer friends here, whos family also live in gaza
strip. thankfully none of their close family have died yet.

love leah
____________________

From: Safi, Zohra
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 8:39 AM

I apologize for flooding your inboxes. I just received some updates from
my friend Adriana that Amer's second brother also died from severe
injuries and the father has been taken out of the area. No news on the
father's condition. Regards, Zohra
___________________

From: Safi, Zohra
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 8:20 AM

Please please forward this message to anyone who would be able to help in
any way. Amer was my colleague and also we took "Germany and Islam" class
together. He graduated last semester. Peace, Zohra

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Adriana Qubaia <aqubaia@gmail.com<mailto:aqubaia@gmail.com>>
Date: 2009/1/16

Friends and colleagues, please forward widely. Amer is a good friend of
mine, I've know him for 5 years. Thank you for your help.
-------------------

Hello,

I am writing to make a request for a good friend from Gaza (Amer Shurrab,
UWCAD '01--03, Middlebury College '08.5). He just found out his father and
two brothers were attacked while returning home from their farm during the
3-hr ceasefire. One brother (Kassab Shurrab) died, but the father
(Mohammed Shurrab -64) and the remaining brother (Ibrahim-17) are now
wounded and stranded in an Israeli Defense Force (IDF) controlled area.
It's been 16 hours and emergency services are unable to reach them. The
ambulances cannot travel there without permission from the IDF, and local
aid groups claim that soldiers are blocking their access.

We have spoken with the local Red Cross in Khan Yunis and they have been
trying to get the IDF's permission to get to the family, but have not been
allowed. What we are asking, is if you could help by using any of your
contacts (in the area and/or region, with NGOs, HR groups,media, etc), to
bring attention and pressure in order to get permission for the ambulances
to save two lives. We are very desperate and trying as many avenues as
possible to help aid reach them. If you know even a foot soldier who might
be able to push the ball by calling a local commander we would really
appreciate any help.

His father and brother are located at:
In front of Supermarket Abu Zidan El-Najar
El Fukhari (neighbourhood)
Khan Yunis (town)
Gaza

We truly appreciate any help at this time, thank you for your time.

Salam,
Adriana Qubaia +1.781.350.8080
(aqubaia@gmail.com<mailto:aqubaia@gmail.com>)
Amer Shurrab: +1.802.377.7962
(ashurrab@gmail.com<mailto:ashurrab@gmail.com>)
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Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:11:50 -0800 (PST)
From: patricia blair <cris6369@yahoo.com>
26. compare and contrast:It can't be more specific

PRAY, WEEP,Go TO THE STREET AND DEMONSTATE OR DO ANYTHING
THAT YOU BELIEVE MAY GET THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE OUT OF
THIS NAKBA.

Peace & Aloha,
Ramsis

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Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:30:57 -0800 (PST)
From: patricia blair <cris6369@yahoo.com>
27. bloodied still breathing

Archbishop Desmond Tutu states, " IF YOU ARE NEUTRAL IN
SITUATIONS OF INJUSTICE, YOU HAVE CHOSEN THE SIDE OF THE
OPPRESSOR". I am not neutral. I will be walking in the MLK
Parade Monday for Justice for the Palestinians. Please join
me for the sake of peace. Pat
More grueling realities from Gaza- 21 days. Yes, protests and
marches don't seem to be enough.

Aloha,

Hector
//////////// ///////// //

Counterpunch 1-16-09
Weekend Edition
January 16-18, 2009
A Report From Gaza
Terribly Bloodied, Still Breathing
By CAOIMHE BUTTERLY
Gaza

The morgues of Gaza's hospitals are over-flowing. The bodies in their
blood-soaked white shrouds cover the entire floor space of the Shifa
hospital morgue. Some are intact, most horribly deformed, limbs twisted
into unnatural positions, chest cavities exposed, heads blown off, skulls
crushed in. Family members wait outside to identify and claim a brother,
husband, father, mother, wife, child. Many of those who wait their turn
have lost numerous family members and loved ones. Blood is everywhere.
Hospital orderlies hose down the floors of operating rooms, bloodied
bandages lie discarded in corners, and the injured continue to pour in:
bodies lacerated by shrapnel, burns, bullet wounds. Medical workers,
exhausted and under siege, work day and night and each life saved is seen
as a victory over the predominance of death. The streets of Gaza are
eerily silent- the pulsing life and rhythm of markets, children, fishermen
walking down to the sea at dawn brutally stilled and replaced by an
atmosphere of uncertainty, isolation and fear. The ever-present sounds of
surveillance drones, F16s, tanks and Apaches are listened to acutely as
residents try to guess where the next deadly strike will be- which house,
school, clinic, mosque, governmental building or community centre will be
hit next and how to move before it does. That there are no safe places- no
refuge for vulnerable human bodies- is felt acutely. It is a devastating
awareness for parents- that there is no way to keep their children safe.
As we continue to accompany the ambulances, joining Palestinian paramedics
as they risk their lives, daily, to respond to calls from those with no
other life-line, our existence becomes temporarily narrowed down and
focused on the few precious minutes that make the difference between life
and death. With each new call received as we ride in ambulances that
careen down broken, silent roads, sirens and lights blaring, there exists
a battle of life over death. We have learned the language of the war that
the Israelis are waging on the collective captive population of Gaza- to
distinguish between the sounds of the weaponry used, the timing between
the first missile strikes and the inevitable second- targeting those that
rush to tend to and evacuate the wounded, to recognize the signs of the
different chemical weapons being used in this onslaught, to overcome the
initial vulnerability of recognizing our own mortality. Though many of the
calls received are to pick up bodies, not the wounded, the necessity of
affording the dead a dignified burial drives the paramedics to face the
deliberate targeting of their colleagues and comrades- thirteen killed
while evacuating the wounded, fourteen ambulances destroyed- and to
continue to search for the shattered bodies of the dead to bring home to
their families. Last night, while sitting with paramedics in Jabaliya
refugee camp, drinking tea and listening to their stories, we received a
call to respond to the aftermath of a missile strike. When we arrived at
the outskirts of the camp where the attack had taken place the area was
filled with clouds of dust, torn electricity lines, slabs of concrete and
open water pipes gushing water into the street. Amongst the carnage of
severed limbs and blood we pulled out the body of a young man, his chest
and face lacerated by shrapnel wounds, but alive- conscious and moaning.
As the ambulance sped him through the cold night we applied pressure to
his wounds, the warmth of his blood seeping through the bandages reminder
of the life still in him. He opened his eyes in answer to my questions and
closed them again as Muhammud, a volunteer paramedic, murmured "ayeesh,
nufuss"- live, breathe- over and over to him. He lost consciousness as we
arrived at the hospital, received into the arms of friends who carried him
into the emergency room. He, Majid, lived and is recovering. A few minutes
later there was another missile strike, this time on a residential house.
As we arrived a crowd had rushed to the ruins of the four story home in an
attempt to drag survivors out from under the rubble. The family the house
belonged to had evacuated the area the day before and the only person in
it at the time of the strike was 17 year old Muhammud who had gone back to
collect clothes for his family. He was dragged out from under the rubble
still breathing- his legs twisted in unnatural directions and with a head
wound, but alive. There was no choice but to move him, with the imminence
of a possible second strike, and he lay in the ambulance moaning with pain
and calling for his mother. We thought he would live, he was conscious
though in intense pain and with the rest of the night consumed with call
after call to pick up the wounded and the dead, I forgot to check on him.
This morning we were called to pick up a body from Shifa hospital to take
back to Jabaliya. We carried a body wrapped in a blood-soaked white shroud
into the ambulance, and it wasn't until we were on the road that we
realized that it was Muhammud's body. His brother rode with us, opening
the shroud to tenderly kiss Muhammud's forehead. This morning we received
news that Al-Quds hospital in Gaza City was under siege. We tried
unsuccessfully for hours to gain access to the hospital, trying to
organize co-ordination to get the ambulances past Israeli tanks and
snipers to evacuate the wounded and dead. Hours of unsuccessful attempts
later we received a call from the Shujahiya neighborhood, describing a
house where there were both dead and wounded patients to pick up. The area
was deserted, many families having fled as Israeli tanks and snipers took
up position amongst their homes, other silent in the dark, cold confines
of their homes, crawling from room to room to avoid sniper fire through
their windows. As we drove slowly around the area, we heard women's cries
for help. We approached their house on foot, followed by the ambulances
and as we came to the threshold of their home, they rushed towards us with
their children, shaking and crying with shock. At the door of the house
the ambulance lights exposed the bodies of four men, lacerated by shrapnel
wounds- the skull and brains of one exposed, others whose limbs had been
severed off. The four were the husbands and brothers of the women, who had
ventured out to search for bread and food for their families. Their bodies
were still warm as we struggled to carry them on stretchers over the
uneven ground, their blood staining the earth and our clothes. As we
prepared to leave the area our torches illuminated the slumped figure of
another man, his abdomen and chest shredded by shrapnel. With no space in
the other ambulances, and the imminent possibility of sniper fire, we were
forced to take his body in the back of the ambulance carrying the women
and children. One of the little girls stared at me before coming into my
arms and telling me her name- Fidaa', which means to sacrifice. She stared
at the body bag, asking when he would wake up. Once back at the hospital
we received word that the Israeli army had shelled Al Quds hospital, that
the ensuing fire risked spreading and that there had been a 20-minute
time-frame negotiated to evacuate patients, doctors and residents in the
surrounding houses. By the time we got up there in a convoy of ambulances,
hundreds of people had gathered. With the shelling of the UNRWA compound
and the hospital there was a deep awareness that nowhere in Gaza is safe,
or sacred. We helped evacuate those assembled to near-by hospitals and
schools that have been opened to receive the displaced. The scenes were
deeply saddening- families, desperate and carrying their children,
blankets and bags of their possessions venturing out in the cold night to
try to find a corner of a school or hospital to shelter in. The paramedic
we were with referred to the displacement of the over 46,000 Gazan
Palestinians now on the move as a continuation of the ongoing Nakba of
dispossession and exile seen through generation after generation enduring
massacre after massacre. Today's death toll was over 75, one of the
bloodiest days since the start of this carnage. Over 1,110 Palestinians
have been killed in the past 21 days. 367 of those have been children. The
humanitarian infrastructure of Gaza is on its knees- already devastated by
years of comprehensive siege. There has been a deliberate, systematic
destruction of all places of refuge. There are no safe places here, for
anyone. And yet, in the face of so much desecration, this community has
remained intact. The social solidarity and support between people is
inspiring, and the steadfastness of Gaza continues to humble and inspire
all those who witness it. Their level of sacrifice demands our collective
response- and recognition that demonstrations are not enough. Gaza,
Palestine and its people continue to live, breathe, resist and remain
intact and this refusal to be broken is a call and challenge to us all.

Caoimhe Butterly is an Irish human rights activist working in Jabaliya and
Gaza City as a volunteer with ambulance services and as co-coordinator for
the Free Gaza Movement, She can be contacted at sahara78@hotmail.co.uk
________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 08:19:31 -0800
From: Rebecca Cummings <beckyspi@mac.com>
28. why gasoline prices have doubled

At Least Nixon Resigned

If you wonder why your gasoline prices have doubled or tripled in the last
few years and have been told that it is because there is a shortage of US
refining capacity? Take a look at these facts from Salon.com ^ÓAccording
to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, between 2004
and 2007 the U.S. Defense Department gave $818 million worth of fuel to
the Israeli military. The total amount was 479 million gallons, the
equivalent of about 66 gallons per Israeli citizen. In 2008, an additional
$280 million in fuel was given to the Israeli military, again at U.S.
taxpayers' expense. The U.S. has even paid the cost of shipping the fuel
from U.S. refineries to ports in Israel.^Ô

Gaza invasion: Powered by the U.S.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/01/16/gaza_invasion/

Read the FAQ for this list at http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/organize-news
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 17:44:58 -0800 (PST)
From: patricia blair <cris6369@yahoo.com>
29. Israeli intentions In quotes

Early 1970's:
"We have no solution... You [Palestinians] shall continue to
live like dogs, and whoever wishes may leave, and we will see
where this process leads."
^Ö Moshe Dayan (1915-1981) served as Chief of Staff of the
IDF, defense minister, and leader of the Labor party in
Israel. He said these words in a talk with members of his
Labor cabinet. Noam Chomsky cites as source of this quote:
Yossi Beilin, Mehiro shel Ihud (Revivim, 1985), 42; an
important review of cabinet records under the Labor Party.
Books that cite these words (excluding Chomsky's)

May 3, 1983:
"When we have settled the land, all the Arabs will be able to
do about it will be to scurry around like drugged roaches in
a bottle."
^Ö Rafael Eitan (1929-2004) served as Chief of Staff of the
IDF, and later as Knesset member and government minister.
Sources

October 8, 2004: "The significance of the [Gaza Strip disengagement] plan
is the freezing of the peace process," Dov Weisglass told Haaretz
newspaper, adding the US had given its backing. ... "It supplies the
amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political
process with the Palestinians ... When you freeze [the peace] process, you
prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a
discussion on the [Palestinian] refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. ...
Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all
that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. ... And
all this with authority and permission. All with a [US] presidential
blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress." ^Ö Dov
Weisglass, then adviser to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. Source

February 2006: "The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet but not to
make them die of hunger." ^Ö Dov Weisglass, adviser to now-Prime-Minister
Ehud Olmert, talking about Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip. Source 1,
2

February 29, 2008: "The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach
a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger 'shoah'
[Holocaust] because we will use all our might to defend ourselves." ^Ö
Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defense minister. Source

Jan 12, 2009: "Gaza is a laboratory of catastrophization." ^Ö Adi Ophir,
professor of philosophy and critical theory at Tel Aviv University. Link

Finally a 'longish' quote by Yitzhak Laor, Israeli poet and novelist. From
an op/ed page in the London Review of Books, Jan 2009:

We've been here before. It's a ritual. Every two or three years, our
military mounts another bloody expedition. The enemy is always smaller,
weaker; our military is always larger, technologically more sophisticated,
prepared for full-scale war against a full-scale army. But Iran is too
scary, and even the relatively small Hizbullah gave us a hard time. That
leaves the Palestinians.

The extent of the cruelty, the lack of shame and the refusal of
self-restraint are striking, both in anthropological terms and
historically. The worldwide Jewish support for this vandal offensive makes
one wonder if this isn't the moment Zionism is taking over the Jewish
people.

Israel doesn't want a Palestinian state alongside it. It is willing to
prove this with hundreds of dead and thousands of disabled, in a single
'operation'. The message is always the same: leave or remain in
subjugation, under our military dictatorship. We are a democracy. We have
decided democratically that you will live like dogs.

On 27 December just before the bombs started falling on Gaza, the Zionist
parties, from Meretz to Yisrael Betenu, were unanimously in favour of the
attack. As usual ^Ö it's the ritual again ^Ö differences emerged only over
the dispatch of blankets and medication to Gaza. Our most fervent pro-war
columnist, Ari Shavit, has suggested that Israel should go on with the
assault and build a hospital for the victims. The enemy is wounded,
bleeding, dying, desperate for help. Nobody is coming unless Obama moves
^Ö yes, we are all waiting for Godot. Maybe this time he shows up.

^Ö Yitzhak Laor lives in Tel Aviv. He is the editor of Mita'am.

- - - anees
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2009 18:25:53 +0000 (GMT)
From: nisiocam@optonline.net
30. over 700 detained

How to Sell 'Ethical Warfare'
By Neve Gordon
Guardian (UK)
January 16, 2009
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jan/16/gaza-middleeast1

Claim moral superiority, intimidate enemies
and crush dissent - Israel's media management
is not just impressive, it's terrifying.

One of my students was arrested yesterday and spent the night in a prison
cell. R's offence was protesting the Israeli assault on Gaza. He joins
over 700 other Israelis who have been detained since the beginning of
Israel's ruthless war on Gaza: an estimated 230 of whom are still behind
bars. Within the Israeli context, this strategy of quelling protest and
stifling resistance is unprecedented, and it is quite disturbing that the
international media has failed to comment on it.

Simultaneously, the Israeli media has been towing the government line to
such a degree that no criticism of the war has been voiced on any of the
three local television stations. Indeed, the situation has become so
absurd that reporters and anchors are currently less critical of the war
than the military spokespeople. In the absence of any critical analysis,
it is not so surprising that 78% of Israelis, or about 98% of all Jewish
Israelis, support the war.

But eliding critical voices is not the only way that public support has
been secured. Support has also been manufactured through ostensibly
logical argumentation. One of the ways the media, military and government
have been convincing Israelis to rally behind the assault is by claiming
that Israel is carrying out a moral military campaign against Hamas. The
logic, as Eyal Weizman has cogently observed in his groundbreaking book
Hollow Land, is one of restraint.

The Israeli media continuously emphasises Israel's restraint by
underscoring the gap between what the military forces could do to the
Palestinians and what they actually do. Here are a few examples of the
refrains Israelis hear daily while listening to the news:

- Israel could bomb houses from the air without warning, but it has
military personnel contact - by phone no less - the residents 10 minutes
in advance of an attack to alert them that their house is about to be
destroyed. The military, so the subtext goes, could demolish houses
without such forewarnings, but it does not do so because it values human
life.

- Israel deploys teaser bombs - ones that do not actually ruin houses - a
few minutes before it fires lethal missiles; again, to show that it could
kill more Palestinians but chooses not to do so.

- Israel knows that Hamas leaders are hiding in al- Shifa hospital. The
intimation is that it does not raze the medical centre to the ground even
though it has the capacity to do so.

- Due to the humanitarian crisis the Israeli military stops its attacks
for a few hours each day and allows humanitarian convoys to enter the Gaza
Strip. Again, the unspoken claim is that it could have barred these
convoys from entering.

The message Israel conveys through these refrains has two different
meanings depending on the target audience.

To the Palestinians, the message is one that carries a clear threat:
Israel's restraint could end and there is always the possibility of
further escalation. Regardless of how lethal Israel's military attacks are
now, the idea is to intimidate the Palestinian population by underscoring
that the violence can always become more deadly and brutal. This
guarantees that violence, both when it is and when it is not deployed,
remains an ever-looming threat.

The message to the Israelis is a moral one. The subtext is that the
Israeli military could indiscriminately unleash its vast arsenal of
violence, but chooses not to, because its forces, unlike Hamas, respect
human life.

This latter claim appears to have considerable resonance among Israelis,
and, yet, it is based on a moral fallacy. The fact that one could be more
brutal but chooses to use restraint does not in any way entail that one is
moral. The fact that the Israeli military could have razed the entire Gaza
Strip, but instead destroyed only 15% of the buildings does not make its
actions moral. The fact that the Israeli military could have killed
thousands of Palestinian children during this campaign, and, due to
restraint, killed "only" 300, does not make Operation Cast Lead ethical.

Ultimately, the moral claims the Israeli government uses to support its
actions during this war are empty. They actually reveal Israel's
unwillingness to confront the original source of the current violence,
which is not Hamas, but rather the occupation of the Gaza Strip, West Bank
and East Jerusalem. My student, R, and the other Israeli protesters seem
to have understood this truism; in order to stop them from voicing it,
Israel has stomped on their civil liberties by arresting them.
____________

Neve Gordon teaches in the Department of Politics and Government,
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, and is the author of Israel's
Occupation, University of California Press, 2008. His website is
israeloccupation.com
________________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 08:15:37 -0500
From: Donna Nevel <denevel@gmail.com>
31. Please Sign Our Call Jews Say: Not in Our Name

JEWS SAY: NOT IN OUR NAME

On January 12th, 2009, hundreds of Jews stood together in NYC in front of
the Israeli Consulate to protest the Israeli massacre in Gaza. Please add
your name (and/or organization) if you would like to join our call by
sending an email to: jewssayno@gmail.com

Statement and signatories are attached.

[ Part 2, Application/PDF 48KB. ]
_______________________________________________________________________

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:29:35 -0500
From: John Wilmerding <wilmerding@earthlink.net>
32. Gaza: Israel's Great Humanitarian Debacle

I found this Guardian article helpful ... I hope you do too. -- JW

Gaza: Israel's Great Humanitarian Debacle
Posted in the discussion forum on MEPEACE.ORG by John Wilmerding on January 10, 2009

[PHOTO: A wounded Palestinian policeman gestures while lying on the ground
outside Hamas police headquarters following an Israeli air strike in Gaza
City. Photograph: Mohammed Abed/AFP/Getty Images]

The writer of this article, Avi Shlaim, is a professor of international
relations at the University of Oxford in England, and the author of 'The
Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World' and of 'Lion of Jordan: King
Hussein's Life in War and Peace'. He served in the Israeli army, and has
never questioned the Israeli state's legitimacy. But its merciless assault
on Gaza has led him to devastating conclusions.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/07/gaza-israel-palestine

How Israel Brought Gaza to the Brink of Humanitarian Catastrophe by Avi
Shlaim © 2009 Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

Wednesday, January 7, 2009 -- The only way to make sense of Israel's
senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context.

Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental
injustice to the Palestinians. British officials bitterly resented
American partisanship on behalf of the infant state. On 2 June 1948, Sir
John Troutbeck wrote to the foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, that the
Americans were responsible for the creation of a gangster state headed by
"an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". I used to think that this
judgment was too harsh, but Israel's vicious assault on the people of
Gaza, and the Bush administration's complicity in this assault, have
reopened the question.

I write as someone who served loyally in the Israeli army in the
mid-1960s, and who has never questioned the legitimacy of the state of
Israel within its pre-1967 borders. What I utterly reject is the Zionist
colonial project beyond the Green Line. The Israeli occupation of the West
Bank and the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the June 1967 war had very
little to do with security and everything to do with territorial
expansionism. The aim was to establish Greater Israel through permanent
political, economic and military control over the Palestinian territories.
And the result has been one of the most prolonged and brutal military
occupations of modern times.

Four decades of Israeli control did incalculable damage to the economy of
the Gaza Strip. With a large population of 1948 refugees crammed into a
tiny strip of land, with no infrastructure or natural resources, Gaza's
prospects were never bright.

Gaza, however, is not simply a case of economic under-development but a
uniquely cruel case of deliberate de-development. To use the Biblical
phrase, Israel turned the people of Gaza into the hewers of wood and the
drawers of water, into a source of cheap labor and a captive market for
Israeli goods. The development of local industry was actively impeded so
as to make it impossible for the Palestinians to end their subordination
to Israel, and to establish the economic underpinnings essential for real
political independence.

Gaza is a classic case of colonial exploitation in the post-colonial era.
Jewish settlements in occupied territories are immoral, illegal and an
insurmountable obstacle to peace. They are at once the instrument of
exploitation and the symbol of the hated occupation. In Gaza, the Jewish
settlers numbered only 8,000 in 2005 compared with 1.4 million local
residents. Yet the settlers controlled 25% of the territory, 40% of the
arable land, and the lion's share of the scarce water resources. Cheek by
jowl with these foreign intruders, the majority of the local population
lived in abject poverty and unimaginable misery. Eighty per cent of them
still subsist on less than $2 a day. The living conditions in the strip
remain an affront to civilized values, a powerful precipitant to
resistance, and a fertile breeding ground for political extremism.

In August 2005, a Likud government headed by Ariel Sharon staged a
unilateral Israeli pullout from Gaza, withdrawing all 8,000 settlers and
destroying the houses and farms they had left behind. Hamas, the Islamic
resistance movement, conducted an effective campaign to drive the Israelis
out of Gaza. The withdrawal was a humiliation for the Israeli Defense
Forces.

To the world, Sharon presented the withdrawal from Gaza as a contribution
to peace based on a two-state solution. But in the year after, another
12,000 Israelis settled on the West Bank, further reducing the scope for
an independent Palestinian state. Land-grabbing and peace-making are
simply incompatible. Israel had a choice and it chose land over peace.

The real purpose behind the move was to redraw unilaterally the borders of
Greater Israel by incorporating the main settlement blocs on the West Bank
to the state of Israel. Withdrawal from Gaza was thus not a prelude to a
peace deal with the Palestinian Authority, but a prelude to further
Zionist expansion on the West Bank. It was a unilateral Israeli move
undertaken in what was seen -- mistakenly, in my view -- as an Israeli
national interest. Anchored in a fundamental rejection of the Palestinian
national identity, the withdrawal from Gaza was part of a long-term effort
to deny the Palestinian people any independent political existence on
their land.

Israel's settlers were withdrawn, but Israeli soldiers continued to
control all access to the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air. Gaza was
converted overnight into an open-air prison. From this point on, the
Israeli air force enjoyed unrestricted freedom to drop bombs, to make
sonic booms by flying low and breaking the sound barrier, and to terrorize
the hapless inhabitants of this prison.

Israel likes to portray itself as an island of democracy in a sea of
authoritarianism. Yet Israel has never in its entire history done anything
to promote democracy on the Arab side, and has done a great deal to
undermine it. Israel has a long history of secret collaboration with
reactionary Arab regimes to suppress Palestinian nationalism. Despite all
the handicaps, the Palestinian people succeeded in building the only
genuine democracy in the Arab world, with the possible exception of
Lebanon. In January 2006, free and fair elections for the Legislative
Council of the Palestinian Authority brought to power a Hamas-led
government. Israel, however, refused to recognize the democratically
elected government, claiming that Hamas is purely and simply a terrorist
organization.

America and the EU shamelessly joined Israel in ostracizing and demonizing
the Hamas government, and in trying to bring it down by withholding tax
revenues and foreign aid. A surreal situation thus developed, with a
significant part of the international community imposing economic
sanctions not against the occupier but against the occupied, not against
the oppressor but against the oppressed.

As so often in the tragic history of Palestine, the victims were blamed
for their own misfortunes. Israel's propaganda machine persistently
purveyed the notion that the Palestinians are terrorists, that they reject
coexistence with the Jewish state, that their nationalism is little more
than antisemitism, that Hamas is just a bunch of religious fanatics, and
that Islam is incompatible with democracy. But the simple truth is that
the Palestinian people are a normal people with normal aspirations. They
are no better, but they are no worse, than any other national group. What
they aspire to, above all, is a piece of land to call their own on which
to live in freedom and dignity.

Like other radical movements, Hamas began to moderate its political
program following its rise to power. From the ideological rejectionism of
its charter, it began to move towards pragmatic accommodation of a
two-state solution. In March 2007, Hamas and Fatah formed a national unity
government that was ready to negotiate a long-term ceasefire with Israel.
Israel, however, refused to negotiate with a government that included
Hamas.

It continued to play the old game of divide and rule between rival
Palestinian factions. In the late 1980s, Israel had supported the nascent
Hamas in order to weaken Fatah, the secular nationalist movement led by
Yasser Arafat. Now Israel began to encourage the corrupt and pliant Fatah
leaders to overthrow their religious political rivals and recapture power.
Aggressive American neoconservatives participated in the sinister plot to
instigate a Palestinian civil war. Their meddling was a major factor in
the collapse of the national unity government, and in driving Hamas to
seize power in Gaza in June 2007 to pre-empt a Fatah coup.

The war unleashed by Israel on Gaza on 27 December was the culmination of
a series of clashes and confrontations with the Hamas government. In a
broader sense, however, it is a war between Israel and the Palestinian
people, because the people had elected the party to power. The declared
aim of the war is to weaken Hamas, and to intensify the pressure until its
leaders agree to a new ceasefire on Israel's terms. The undeclared aim is
to ensure that the Palestinians in Gaza are seen by the world simply as a
humanitarian problem, and thus to derail their struggle for independence
and statehood.

The timing of the war was determined by political expediency. A general
election is scheduled for 10 February and, in the lead-up to the election,
all the main contenders are looking for an opportunity to prove their
toughness. The army top brass had been champing at the bit to deliver a
crushing blow to Hamas in order to remove the stain left on their
reputation by the failure of the war against Hezbollah in Lebanon in July
2006. Israel's cynical leaders could also count on apathy and impotence of
the pro-western Arab regimes, and on blind support from President Bush in
the twilight of his term in the White House. Bush readily obliged by
putting all the blame for the crisis on Hamas, vetoing proposals at the UN
Security Council for an immediate ceasefire, and issuing Israel with a
free pass to mount a ground invasion of Gaza.

As always, mighty Israel claims to be the victim of Palestinian
aggression, but the sheer asymmetry of power between the two sides leaves
little room for doubt as to who is the real victim. This is indeed a
conflict between David and Goliath, but the Biblical image has been
inverted -- a small and defenseless Palestinian David faces a heavily
armed, merciless and overbearing Israeli Goliath. The resort to brute
military force is accompanied, as always, by the shrill rhetoric of
victimhood and a farrago of self-pity overlaid with self-righteousness. In
Hebrew, this is known as the syndrome of bokhim ve-yorim, "crying and
shooting".

To be sure, Hamas is not an entirely innocent party in this conflict.
Denied the fruit of its electoral victory and confronted with an
unscrupulous adversary, it has resorted to the weapon of the weak --
terror. Militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad kept launching Qassam
rocket attacks against Israeli settlements near the border with Gaza,
until Egypt brokered a six-month ceasefire last June. The damage caused by
these primitive rockets is minimal, but the psychological impact is
immense, prompting the public to demand protection from its government.
Under the circumstances, Israel had the right to act in self-defense but
its response to the pinpricks of rocket attacks was totally
disproportionate. The figures speak for themselves. In the three years
after the withdrawal from Gaza, 11 Israelis were killed by rocket fire. On
the other hand, in 2005-7 alone, the IDF killed 1,290 Palestinians in
Gaza, including 222 children.

Whatever the numbers, killing civilians is wrong. This rule applies to
Israel as much as it does to Hamas, but Israel's entire record is one of
unbridled and unremitting brutality towards the inhabitants of Gaza.
Israel also maintained the blockade of Gaza after the ceasefire came into
force which, in the view of the Hamas leaders, amounted to a violation of
the agreement. During the ceasefire, Israel prevented any exports from
leaving the strip in clear violation of a 2005 accord, leading to a sharp
drop in employment opportunities. Officially, 49.1% of the population is
unemployed. At the same time, Israel restricted drastically the number of
trucks carrying food, fuel, cooking-gas canisters, spare parts for water
and sanitation plants, and medical supplies to Gaza. It is difficult to
see how starving and freezing the civilians of Gaza could protect the
people on the Israeli side of the border. But even if it did, it would
still be immoral, a form of collective punishment t
hat i s strictly forbidden by international humanitarian law.

The brutality of Israel's soldiers is fully matched by the mendacity of
its spokesmen. Eight months before launching the current war on Gaza,
Israel established a National Information Directorate. The core messages
of this directorate to the media are that Hamas broke the ceasefire
agreements; that Israel's objective is the defense of its population; and
that Israel's forces are taking the utmost care not to hurt innocent
civilians. Israel's spin doctors have been remarkably successful in
getting this message across. But, in essence, their propaganda is a pack
of lies.

A wide gap separates the reality of Israel's actions from the rhetoric of
its spokesmen. It was not Hamas, but the IDF that broke the ceasefire. It
did so by a raid into Gaza on 4 November that killed six Hamas men.
Israel's objective is not just the defense of its population, but the
eventual overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza by turning the people
against their rulers. And far from taking care to spare civilians, Israel
is guilty of indiscriminate bombing, and of a three-year-old blockade that
has brought the inhabitants of Gaza, now 1.5 million, to the brink of a
humanitarian catastrophe.

The Biblical injunction of an eye for an eye is savage enough. But
Israel's insane offensive against Gaza seems to follow the logic of an eye
for an eyelash. After eight days of bombing, with a death toll of more
than 400 Palestinians and four Israelis, the gung-ho cabinet ordered a
land invasion of Gaza the consequences of which are incalculable.

No amount of military escalation can buy Israel immunity from rocket
attacks from the military wing of Hamas. Despite all the death and
destruction that Israel has inflicted on them, they kept up their
resistance and they kept firing their rockets. This is a movement that
glorifies victimhood and martyrdom. There is simply no military solution
to the conflict between the two communities.

The problem with Israel's concept of security is that it denies even the
most elementary security to the other community. The only way for Israel
to achieve security is not through shooting, but through talks with Hamas,
which has repeatedly declared its readiness to negotiate a long-term
ceasefire with the Jewish state within its pre-1967 borders for 20, 30, or
even 50 years. Israel has rejected this offer for the same reason it
spurned the Arab League peace plan of 2002, which is still on the table:
it involves concessions and compromises.

This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it
difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with
"an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually
violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction, and
practices terrorism -- the use of violence against civilians for political
purposes. Israel fulfills all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it
must wear it.

Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian
neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of
the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone
else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But
it is not mandatory to do so.
=========================================

COLLEGIUM IUSTITIÆ ÆQUITATEM RESTITUENTI
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://woolman.ning.com Email to: JWC@igc.org
John Woolman College (of Active Peace) [JWC]
c/o John Wilmerding <wilmerding@earthlink.net>
217 High Street, Brattleboro, VT, USA 05301-6073
_____________________________________________________________________________

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:03:37 -0500
From: Sharon Smith <starsmith13@gmail.com>
33. How can we talk about Genocide, Oppression,
Violence...?

The following interview with Chomsky, puts the Israel-Palestine
situation into succinct perspective for me. He points to striking
parallels between colonial genocide and theft in the Americas and what
is happening now in Palestine. For me, the issue is one of how to
dismantle the cultural construct which enables this cannibalistic
psychosis to continue masquerading as normalcy.

If this means anything to you, I recommend that you read, Columbus and
Other Cannibals: The Wetiko Disease of Exploitation, Imperialism and
Terrorism, by Jack D. Forbes. This book examines, "aggression, violence,
imperialism, rape , and so on," from a Native American perspective and ,
" from a perspective as free as possible from assumptions created by the
very disease being studied." It did a lot for me, in terms of helping me
to articulate what I have been feeling. I highly recommend it.

Sharon Smith

Chomsky: Undermining Gaza
Sameer Dossani | January 16, 2009
Editor: Emily Schwartz Greco
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org

Noam Chomsky is a noted linguist, author, and foreign policy expert.
Sameer Dossani interviewed him about the conflict between Israel and Gaza.

DOSSANI: The Israeli government and many Israeli and U.S. officials claim
that the current assault on Gaza is to put an end to the flow of Qassam
rockets from Gaza into Israel. But many observers claim that if that were
really the case, Israel would have made much more of an effort to renew
the ceasefire agreement that expired in December, which had all but
stopped the rocket fire. In your opinion, what are the real motivations
behind the current Israeli action?

CHOMSKY: There's a theme that goes way back to the origins of Zionism. And
it's a very rational theme: "Let's delay negotiations and diplomacy as
long as possible, and meanwhile we'll 'build facts on the ground.'" So
Israel will create the basis for what some eventual agreement will ratify,
but the more they create, the more they construct, the better the
agreement will be for their purposes. Those purposes are essentially to
take over everything of value in the former Palestine and to undermine
what's left of the indigenous population.

I think one of the reasons for popular support for this in the United
States is that it resonates very well with American history. How did the
United States get established? The themes are similar.

There are many examples of this theme being played out throughout
Israel's history, and the current situation is another case. They have a
very clear program. Rational hawks like Ariel Sharon realized that it's
crazy to keep 8,000 settlers using one-third of the land and much of the
scarce supplies in Gaza, protected by a large part of the Israeli army
while the rest of the society around them is just rotting. So it's best
to take them out and send them to the West Bank. That's the place that
they really care about and want.

What was called a "disengagement" in September 2005 was actually a
transfer. They were perfectly frank and open about it. In fact, they
extended settlement building programs in the West Bank at the very same
time that they were withdrawing a few thousand people from Gaza. So Gaza
should be turned into a cage, a prison basically, with Israel attacking
it at will, and meanwhile in the West Bank we'll take what we want. There
was nothing secret about it.

Ehud Olmert was in the United States in May 2006 a couple of months after
the withdrawal. He simplyannounced to a joint session of Congress and to
rousing applause, that the historic right of Jews to the entire land of
Israel is beyond question. He announced what he called his convergence
program, which is just a version of the traditional program; it goes back
to the Allon plan of 1967. Israel would essentially annex valuable land
and resources near the green line (the 1967 border). That land is now
behind the wall that Israel built in the West Bank, which is an
annexation wall. That means the arable land, the main water resources,
the pleasant suburbs around Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, and the hills and so
on. They'll take over the Jordan valley, which is about a third of the
West Bank, where they've been settling since the late 60s. Then they'll
drive a couple of super highways through the whole territory ^× there's
one to the east of Jerusalem to the town of Ma'aleh Adumim which was
built mostly in the 1990s, during the Oslo years. It was built
essentially to bisect the West Bank and are two others up north that
includes Ariel and Kedumim and other towns which pretty much bisect
what's left. They'll set up check points and all sorts of means of
harassment in the other areas and the population that's left will be
essentially cantonized and unable to live a decent life and if they want
to leave, great. Or else they will be picturesque figures for tourists ^×
you know somebody leading a goat up a hill in the distance ^× and
meanwhile Israelis, including settlers, will drive around on "Israeli
only" super highways. Palestinians can make do with some little road
somewhere where you're falling into a ditch if it's raining. That's the
goal. And it's explicit. You can't accuse them of deception because it's
explicit. And it's cheered here.

DOSSANI: In terms of U.S. support, last week the UN Security Council
adopted a resolution calling for a cease fire. Is this a change,
particularly in light of the fact that the U.S. did not veto the
resolution, but rather abstained, allowing it to be passed?

CHOMSKY: Right after the 1967 war, the Security Council had strong
resolutions condemning Israel's move to expand and take over Jerusalem.
Israel just ignored them. Because the U.S. pats them on the head and says
"go ahead and violate them." There's a whole series of resolutions from
then up until today, condemning the settlements, which as Israel knew and
as everyone agreed were in violation of the Geneva conventions. The
United States either vetoes the resolutions or sometimes votes for them,
but with a wink saying, "go ahead anyway, and we'll pay for it and give
you the military support for it." It's a consistent pattern. During the
Oslo years, for example, settlement construction increased steadily, in
violation of what the Oslo agreement was theoretically supposed to lead
to. In fact the peak year of settlement was Clinton's last year, 2000.
And it continued again afterward. It's open and explicit.

To get back to the question of motivation, they have sufficient military
control over the West Bank to terrorize the population into passivity.
Now that control is enhanced by the collaborationist forces that the
U.S., Jordan, and Egypt have trained in order to subdue the population.
In fact if you take a look at the press the last couple of weeks, if
there's a demonstration in the West Bank in support of Gaza, the Fatah
security forces crush it. That's what they're there for. Fatah by now is
more or less functioning as Israel's police force in the West Bank. But
the West Bank is only part of the occupied Palestinian territories. The
other part is Gaza, and no one doubts that they form a unit. And there
still is resistance in Gaza, those rockets. So yes, they want to stamp
that out too, then there will be no resistance at all and they can
continue to do what they want to do without interference, meanwhile
delaying diplomacy as much as possible and "building the facts" the way
they want to. Again this goes back to the origins of Zionism. It varies
of course depending on circumstances, but the fundamental policy is the
same and perfectly understandable. If you want to take over a country
where the population doesn't want you, I mean, how else can you do it?
How was this country conquered?

DOSSANI: What you describe is a tragedy.

CHOMSKY: It's a tragedy which is made right here. The press won't talk
about it and even scholarship, for the most part, won't talk about it but
the fact of the matter is that there has been a political settlement on
the table, on the agenda for 30 years. Namely a two-state settlement on
the international borders with maybe some mutual modification of the
border. That's been there officially since 1976 when there was a Security
Council resolution proposed by the major Arab states and supported by the
(Palestinan Liberation Organization) PLO, pretty much in those terms. The
United States vetoed it so it's therefore out of history and it's
continued almost without change since then.

There was in fact one significant modification. In the last month of
Clinton's term, January 2001 there were negotiations, which the U.S.
authorized, but didn't participate in, between Israel and the
Palestinians and they came very close to agreement.

DOSSANI: The Taba negotiations?

Yes, the Taba negotiations. The two sides came very close to agreement.
They were called off by Israel. But that was the one week in over 30
years when the United States and Israel abandoned their rejectionist
position. It's a real tribute to the media and other commentators that
they can keep this quiet. The U.S. and Israel are alone in this. The
international consensus includes virtually everyone. It includes the Arab
League which has gone beyond that position and called for the
normalization of relations, it includes Hamas. Every time you see Hamas
in the newspapers, it says "Iranian-backed Hamas which wants to destroy
Israel." Try to find a phrase that says "democratically elected Hamas
which is calling for a two-state settlement" and has been for years.
Well, yeah, that's a good propaganda system. Even in the U.S. press
they've occasionally allowed op-eds by Hamas leaders, Ismail Haniya and
others saying, yes we want a two-state settlement on the international
border like everyone else.

DOSSANI: When did Hamas adopt that position?

CHOMSKY That's their official position taken by Haniya, the elected
leader, and Khalid Mesh'al, their political leader who's in exile in
Syria, he's written the same thing. And it's over and over again. There's
no question about it but the West doesn't want to hear it. So therefore
it's Hamas which is committed to the destruction of Israel.

In a sense they are, but if you went to a Native American reservation in
the United States, I'm sure many would like to see the destruction of the
United States. If you went to Mexico and took a poll, I'm sure they don't
recognize the right of the United States to exist sitting on half of
Mexico, land conquered in war. And that's true all over the world. But
they're willing to accept a political settlement. Israel isn't willing to
accept it and the United States isn't willing to accept it. And they're
the lone hold-outs. Since it's the United States that pretty much runs
the world, it's blocked.

Here it's always presented as though the United States must become more
engaged; it's an honest broker; Bush's problem was that he neglected the
issue. That's not the problem. The problem is that the United States has
been very much engaged, and engaged in blocking a political settlement
and giving the material and ideological and diplomatic support for the
expansion programs, which are just criminal programs. The world court
unanimously, including the American justice, agreed that any transfer of
population into the Occupied Territories is a violation of a fundamental
international law, the Geneva Conventions. And Israel agrees. In fact
even their courts agree, they just sort of sneak around it in various
devious ways. So there's no question about this. It's just sort of
accepted in the United States that we're an outlaw state. Law doesn't
apply to us. That's why it's never discussed.

Sameer Dossani, a Foreign Policy In Focus contributor, is the director
of 50 Years is Enough and blogs at shirinandsameer.blogspot.com.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2009 01:00:11 +0000 (GMT)
From: nisiocam@optonline.net
34. On zionism

From colonial project to repression of Palestinians Zionism: a legacy of
racism
By Saul Kanowitz

The heroic uprising of the Palestinian people has focused world attention
on Israel^Òs occupation and repression of Palestine. That conflict is
often portrayed as a struggle between Jews and Arabs. This is in line with
the political ideology of Zionism, which is the basis for Israel^Òs
existence as a ^ÓJewish state.^Ô

In fact, Zionism is a racist ideology. Over the long term, it is harmful
to the interests of the vast majority of Jewish working people, although
it is Palestinians and other Arab people who suffer its most direct
consequences.

During the late 1800s, pogroms^×violent attacks on the Jewish
community^×were used by the Russian czarist regime to scapegoat Jews for
the suffering of the Russian peasants and workers during economic crises.
Against this backdrop, two main views emerged within the Jew- ish
communities of how to fight this racist repression. On the one hand,
Jewish workers and intellectuals played a major role in the socialist,
communist and other progressive movements of the day, fighting for
equality within the countries where they lived. These activists, who
represented the majority of workers at that time, viewed themselves as
part of the societies in which they and their ancestors had lived for
generations.

In contrast to the integrationist view of the majority of Jewish society,
the propertied class was pessimistic, promoting the view that
anti-Semitism could not be overcome. Zionism was the solution offered by
the Jewish bourgeoisie. Theodor Herzl, the father of modern Zionism, wrote
in his 1896 book, The Jewish State, that the solution for Jews was to
build a state of their own.

The colonial model

The early proponents of Zionism saw the creation of an all-Jewish state
based on a European model. The idea was to colonize a non-European country
as part of the great colonial plan to divide the planet. For example,
Herzl wrote to British imperialist colonizer of Africa, Cecil Rhodes,
promoting the interest of the Zionist idea:

^ÓYou are being invited to help make history. This cannot frighten you. It
is not your [Rhodes] accustomed line; it does not involve Africa but a
piece of Asia Minor, not Englishmen, but Jews C9 How then do I happen to
turn to you since this an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed?
Because it is something colonial.^Ô1

In the early 1900s, the Zionist perspective was still a tiny minority
within the Jewish working class. The majority of Jewish workers were
fighting in the countries where they lived alongside other oppressed
peoples and anti-imperialist forces against capitalist exploitation, the
war, and anti-Semitism.

But Zionism gained the backing of the British government. The 1917
Balfour Declaration declared, ^ÓHis Majes- ty^Òs government views with
favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish
peopleC9^Ô At that time, hundreds of thousands of Palestin- ians lived in
Palestine. While the Zionist slogan advocated ^Óa land without a people
for a people without a land,^Ô the Pal- estinians were viewed as
invisible and were given no say in this colonial process.

Vladimir Jabotinsky was a leader of what was called Revisionist Zionism,
ad- vo- - cating the development of a strong mil- itary force as the main
component for carrying out the colonization of Palestine. (This
contrasted with the majority view of Labor Zionism that immigration and
settlements were the main vehicle to statehood.2) Jabotinsky wrote openly
about his view of the Zionist project: ^ÓExcept for those that are blind,
[the Zionists] realized long ago that it is utterly impossible to obtain
the voluntary consent of the Palestinian Arabs for converting
^ÑPalestine^Ò from an Arab country into a country with a Jewish
majority.^Ô

Jabotinsky described what was necessary for the conversion. ^ÓZionist
colonization must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native
population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the
protection of a power that is independent of the native
population^×behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot
breach.^Ô3

Although Revisionist Zionism was not the dominant perspective in
Jabotinsky^Òs time, the ^Óiron wall^Ô became a de facto policy of Zionism
from the colonial settlers in the 1920s to Israel today.4

The Zionist settler population in Palestine increased from about 10
percent in the early 1920s to nearly 30 percent by the end of the 1930s.
Discussion of ^Ótransfer^Ô of the native Palestinians in- ten- sified.
Joseph Weitz, head of the Jewish Agency^Òs Colonization Department,
typified the racist attitude of the Zionists: ^ÓBetween ourselves, it
must be clear that there is no room for both peoples together in this
country. We shall not achieve our goal if the Arabs are in this small
country. There is no other way than to transfer the Arabs from here to
the neighboring countries^×all of them. Not one village, not one tribe
should be left.^Ô5 Weitz was responsible for the actual organization of
settlements in Palestine.

U.S. shuts out Holocaust victims

During the 1930s, Europe saw the rise of fascism and the outbreak of
World War II. Hitler unleashed a genocidal campaign against Jews. At the
same time, the U.S. government imposed a ^Óclosed door^Ô immigration
policy on Jewish people. During the 1930s at the time of the Great
Depression, there were too many unemployed workers. Jewish immigrants
were turned away unless they had money, or a good job prospect, or a
^Ócertificate of good conduct^Ô from the Nazi government.6 As
anti-Semitic as this policy was, it dovetailed with the Zionist
movement^Òs primary goal: migration to Palestine at all costs, even at
the expense of Jewish people.

During the war, the Zionist leaders were well aware of the Nazi genocide
campaign being carried out against Jews. However, they did little to aid
the fight. In fact, they saw support for the struggle against the Nazis
as a threat to the project in Palestine. In 1943^×the year of the Warsaw
ghetto uprising in Nazi-occupied Poland^×Itzhak Greenbaum, head of the
Zionist Jewish Rescue Committee declared, ^ÓIf I am asked could you give
from UJA (United Jewish Appeal) money to rescue Jews? I say, ^ÑNo and
again no.^Ò In my opinion, we have to resist that wave which puts Zionist
activities in the second line.^Ô7

At the end of World War II over 80 percent of displaced Jewish survivors
and refugees from the war wanted to migrate to the U.S.8 However, the
U.S. government and the Zionists organized so that Palestine was the only
viable op- tion for displaced Jews. In the U.S., a campaign was waged
that branded any opposition to immigration to Palestine as anti-Semitic.
Newspapers ran editorials, labor unions passed resolutions supporting
Jewish immigration to Palestine, and millions of dollars were raised for
the Zionist project. The Zionists offered money and resources to
displaced Jewish people on the condition they agreed to migrate to
Palestine.9

The U.S. and Zionist leaders channeled worldwide sympathy for the plight
of Jewish people into support for the creation of an Israeli state. Under
intense U.S. pressure, the United Nations passed a resolution on Nov. 29,
1947, allocating 56 percent of historic Palestine to Israel, with 44
percent to go to the creation of a Palestinian state. Palestinians
comprised 70 percent of the population at the time.

Israel: born in terror

In the war that followed, Israel^×with superior economic and military
resources and support from Europe and the U.S.^×ended up conquering 78
percent of Palestine. Nearly 90 percent of the Arab population was
forcibly ^Ótransferred.^Ô

A campaign of terrorism accompanied the military campaign against the
Palestinians. For example, on April 9, 1948 the Zionist terrorist group
Irgun (headed by future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin) killed 254
men, women and children in Deir Yassin.

On May 15, 1948, the Zionist state of Israel was born. Some 750,000
Palestinians be- came refugees. Thousands had been killed. For the
Palestinian people, this day is called Al-Nakba^×the catastrophe.

From the beginning, Israel was economically isolated from the surrounding
Arab countries, its most logical geographic trading partners. Combined
with the need for an enormous military budget to prevent the Palestinians
who had been displaced from returning to their land, Israel required vast
amounts of outside economic and military aid to sur- vive. In 1950, its
im- ports exceeded its ex- ports by a ratio of 10 to 1.

In order to get the aid it needed, Israel offered its services in the
interests of Western imperialism. The Sept. 30, 1951, issue of the
Hebrew-language daily Ha^Òaretz of- fered the following commentary:
^ÓStrengthening Israel helps the Western powers to maintain equilibrium
and stability in the Middle East. Israel is to become the watchdog. There
is no fear that Israel will undertake any aggressive policy to- wards the
Arab states when this would explicitly contradict the wishes of the U.S.
and Britain. But if for any reason the Western powers should sometimes
prefer to close their eyes, Israel could be relied upon to punish one or
several neighboring states whose discourtesy towards the West went beyond
the bounds of the permissible.^Ô

Enforcing U.S. interests

In the Middle East, the centerpiece of U.S. interests has been control of
the region^Òs vast oil reserves. During the more than 50 years since its
formation, Israel has played the role of a military outpost guarding
against the Arab people^Òs struggle for self-determination and control of
the region^Òs natural resources. Any Arab state that has tried to exert
its independence from imperialism, on whatever basis^×bourgeois
nationalist or Pan-Arab socialist^×has had to consider what Israel will
do in response to any actions they may take. Israel has staged military
campaigns against Lebanon in 1978 and 1982 (even partnering with the Leb-
anese Phalange Party, a fascist organization that traced its roots back
to the Nazi Party). In 1981 it bombed an Iraqi nu- cle- ar plant to end
Iraq^Òs nuclear energy program.

In addition to Israel^Òs direct role enforcing U.S. interests in the
Middle East, the Zionist state has repeatedly acted as a U.S. surrogate
around the world. In the 1980s, when it was politically untenable for the
U.S. to do business with the apartheid regime of South Africa, Israel
obediently scabbed for world imperialism and traded with the outlaw
regime. During the same period, the Israeli army helped train and arm the
Guatemalan army when it was carrying out gen- o- cide against the
indigenous people of that country at a time when the U.S. Congress had
cut off direct aid to Guatemala.

This is the reason that the U.S. gives over $3 billion a year in aid to
Israel. It has nothing to do with any ^ÓJewish lob- by^Ô in Washington.
It is payment for ser- vices rendered as part of the U.S. imperialist
system. In fact, some of Israel^Òs staunchest supporters, like Truman and
Nixon, were virulent anti-Semites.10,11

When Israel was first created, Zionist leaders demagogically made appeals
to Jewish workers by portraying Israel as a socialist utopia. Today, that
appeal is daily shown to be a lie. Labor and Likud Israeli governments
have continued Zionism^Òs original plan of creating a purely Jewish state
by trying to rid historic Palestine of Palestinians, whether by
overwhelming military force or through conditions of slow strangulation
intended to force the Palestinian people to leave.

Zionism vs. internationalism

Israel was founded on the basis of being a colonial project. By
implication it had to be a garrison military state that would be in
perpetual conflict with the native population. This was the objective
reality facing Jews who went to Palestine either by choice or by
circumstance.

As long as this is the foundation of Israel, then mandatory military
service for all Jewish adults, at least one-fifth of the GDP spent on
^Ódefense,^Ô and the perception of ^Óliving under siege^Ô will be the way
of life for the average Israeli. This is not the kind of existence for
which those fighting anti-Semitism from the pogroms to the Nazi
resistance died.

By speaking in the name of Jewish people, Israel does an injustice to the
progressive and radical history of Jewish people. Israel claims all
actions taken against the Zionist state, whether they are political,
economic or military, are anti-Semitic. For the Jewish people inside and
outside of Israel who want to live peacefully, free of anti-Semitism, the
actions of Israel will only lead to further hatred and acts of
resistance.

Before Zionism established itself in Palestine, the different cultures,
religions and peoples of the region lived together in harmony. It was
only the intervention of colonial powers, from the Ottoman Empire to the
European colonialists to U.S. imperialism, that brought about division
and rivalry.

The Zionist conception of a Jewish-only state created on the backs of
another oppressed people is a false solution to anti-Semitism. A real
solution to anti-Semitism must be based on international solidarity. For
all progressive people, Jew- ish and non-Jewish, who want to honestly
fight anti-Semitism and all forms of racism, it will take the struggle
against all colonial occupation and domination^×including Zionism. The
formation of a democratic and secular Palestine respecting the rights of
all people regardless of religion, ethnicity or race would be a first
step in that direction.

Notes

1. Source: translated from the German by Sylvie D^ÒAvigdor, this edition
published in 1946 by the American Zionist Emergency Council, Essential
Texts of Zionism.
2. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, Avi Shlaim, 2000, p. 12.
3. Ibid.
4. The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, Avi Shlaim, 2000, p. 16.
5. Weitz, Davar, Joseph, Sept. 29, 1967, cited in Uri Davis and Norton
Mevinsky, eds., Documents from Israel, 1967-1973, p. 21.
6. Our Roots Are Still Alive: The Story of the Palestinian People,
Peoples Press, 1977, p. 54.
7. Hecht, Ben, Perfidy, New York 1961, p. 50, cited in Our Roots, p.57.
8. New York Times, May 5, 1948.
9. Rose, John, Israel:The Hijack State, www.marxists.de.
10. Press Release: ADL Shocked by Discovery of Anti-Semitic Passages in
President Truman^Òs Diary, www.adl.org.
11. Nixon^Òs Anti-Semitic Views Revealed in Tapes, October 1999,
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org. Articles may be reprinted with credit to
Socialism and Liberation magazine.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:03:24 -0500
From: dlvukelich@wisc.edu
35. an article from CommonDreams.org: A 'Police State' Celebrates

CommonDreams.org
A 'Police State' Celebrates
by Nora Barrows-Friedman

JERUSALEM - The Israeli government is stepping up efforts to suppress
dissent and crush resistance in the streets. Police have been videotaping
the demonstrations and subsequently arresting protesters in large numbers.

According to Israeli police reports, at least 763 Israeli citizens, the
majority of them Palestinian and 244 under 18 years old, have been
arrested, imprisoned or detained for participating in such demonstrations.
Most have been held and then released, but at least 30 of those arrested
over the past three weeks are still being held in prison.

Click here to read more on our site

CommonDreams.org is an Internet-based progressive news and grassroots
activism organization, founded in 1997. We are a nonprofit, progressive,
independent and nonpartisan organization.
____________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:09:36 -0700
From: Rebecca Cummings <beckyspi@mac.com>
36. Voices for Creative NonviolenceWhy I Am in Gaza

Rebecca Cummings
beckyspi@mac.com

Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.
--Mignon McLaughlin

Begin forwarded message:

From: Voices for Creative Nonviolence <vcnvlist@vcnv.org>
Date: January 19, 2009 3:36:48 PM MST

Why I Am in Gaza
by Audrey Stewart.

Lots of people have asked me why I chose to leave my children and travel
to Gaza in the middle of a war. If you knew three year old Omar it might
be easier to understand.

Omar is the youngest child in the family of Abu Yusif, one of our host
families during our time in Gaza. Yesterday Omar's family was able to
return to their real home for the first time since the bombing started.
Omar proudly packed up a plastic bag of clothes to bring back to the
family's temporary housing. He repacked it three times to get it just
right. Then he brought it to me to tie the bag.

Omar's father, Abu Yusif, spent the day working on the house, repairing
shattered windows and a section of one wall.

Gaza is full of families with children like Omar. For example, we visited
Shifaa hospital in Gaza City today. A four year old child, Azad, lay in
one bed, worry in his eyes. His father explained that the family was in
the kitchen when a bomb from an F-16 landed near the house. Azad was hit
in seven places in his legs and back by shrapnel. Azad's mother is in
another wing of the hospital with a broken leg and shrapnel injuries.
The ambulance that came to bring the family to the hospital was delayed
four hours by the bombing.

Outside the hospital two Red Crescent ambulances are parked. One of the
ambulances is badly dented on the top and both have all their windows
blown out. A white sheet holds the front door of one closed.

In our visits with the community in Gaza, we ask each person that we meet
what message they would like to send back to the US. Over and over we
hear the same message, "Please tell the world that we are people with
dreams for ourselves and our children - we are just like you."

Watching Omar packing his bag of clothes, I thought of my own three year
old son, Dominic. He and Omar like to play many of the same games. When
I hand Omar a pen and paper, he draws big circles and looks at me for
encouragement and approval just as Dominic often does. I wonder what
dreams these three year old boys will have as they grow up - one in New
Orleans, one in Gaza.

Why did I choose to leave my children and travel to Gaza? I've asked
myself a hundred times if I should be here. Ultimately I am here because
I believe that three year old Omar has the same right to a life and dreams
as three year old Dominic. And as a mother, it is my responsibility to
love and speak up not just for my children, but for another mother's child
also. ----------

Audrey Stewart is a human rights worker in New Orleans and the mother of
two small sons. She has been in Gaza with Kathy Kelly for several days.
Kathy Kelly is with Voices for Creative Nonviolence ^Ö www.vcnv.org
---

Voices for Creative Nonviolence
1249 W Argyle Street #2, Chicago, IL 60640
Phone: (773) 878-3815
E-mail: info@vcnv.org
web: www.vcnv.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 10:07:33 -0800
From: Stephen Vincent <steph484@PACBELL.NET>
37. Eyeless in Gaza

Can you imagine a land devastated, one without any remaining
architecture? Can you imagine such a land composed and spoken entirely of
sentences in a language so orderly, so lyric and so radiant that its refugees
- though starving and otherwise defenseless - wander about (dancing, walking,
loitering) without grief or resentment? ^ÓThere are certain things
impossible to take away,^Ô these citizens will insist. ^ÓThe
construction of poetry, its edification is not only our bread and water. It
is our architecture.^Ô

To the contrary, many among us, no matter the poetry, no matter
the sentences, the songs - as though again ^ÑEyeless in Gaza^Ò
- come to nothing in wordless, appalled silence.

As Israel destroys itself in horrific anger.

from "Homeless Blankets - A Winter Series" on the blog,
photographs et al, at:
http://stephenvincent.net/blog/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=704
===============================================================================

Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2009 07:53:25 -0600
From: David-Baptiste Chirot <davidbchirot@HOTMAIL.COM>
38. Democracy Now! --Palestinian and American Indian perspectives on
their dehumanization

watch/listen go to:
http://www.democrac ynow.org/ 2009/1/16/ bloody_israeli_ assault_on_ gaza_enters
-----

Many books, articles, writings by myself , have noted similarities in the
actions, rhetoric and over all goals

which have been used against the American Indians and the Palestinians.
If one is familiar with even a bit of the dehumanizing

terms, names, lies, and justifications for things beyond unjust used
regarding one of these peoples, then one will readily recognize it when
turning to the other.
-----

Today/night on Democracy Now! Three guests address what it is like on the
silenced side of the Wall, the side of dehumanized existence.

President Clinton was known for his "friends of Bill," and perhaps
President Obama has already added a new wrinkle, with the "former friends
of Barack."

Khalid Rashidi is one of these "former friends" who was left out in the
old while undergoing massive attacks fro Gov Palin, Sen McClain and the
Fox Bellowers of Rightwing Righteousness. In the interview with Amy
Goodman he speaks eloquently of the current events in Gaza and the role of
the US there, via massive (many illegal under American Law) shipments of
weapons, gigantic infusions of cash (8,000,000$ a day) and the full
support of the US's politicians and media, despite a rising tide of
protest among the American Jewish Community along with a great many other
organizations.

Dr. Rashidi also points out the difficulty in the USA of presenting
information regarding Gaza and Palestinian questions historically in the
US media. As an example he points to the day's NY Times article on the
bombing of UN headquarters in Gaza, which was packed with al the recently
arrived deliveries of food and fuel for people who have been steadily
starving over the course of the last two years, until almost complete
starvation levels are being reached in the last months. Dr Rashidi points
out the Times article takes up ten paragraphs given the justifications for
this bombing, with the newspaper basically working as a conduit through
which the IDF funnels its versions of events, despite their complete
contradiction to the reports from International aid workers at the scene.

In a sense this media control creates another Wall behind which the
Palestinians are hidden and cut of from the world, while Americans receive
only a propagandistic and dehumanized view of Palestinians and their
slaughter. If one goes through the history of reporting on American
Indians, even to this day, the dehumanization is strongly present. The
consequences of the dehumanization of persons are only all too well known,
all over the world.

Dr Suleiman Baraka is interviewed also, a Palestinian Astrophysicist at
Virginia Tech who tells of learning over the phone his mother and son have
been critically injured when a one ton bomb was dropped on their house.
This is one of the most moving interviews I have ever seen on War, all
wars, and its effects on an entire extended family as it steadily loses
its members.

With the pardon of Marc Rich back in the news due to the questioning of
the nominee for Attorney general Mr. Eric Holder, Amy Goodwin interviews
the writer Louise Erdrich for a perspective from one American Indian^Òs
view (though is shared by all) of Clinton's pardoning a mega scumbag and
fugitive from justice like Rich, while denying any clemency to Leonard
Peltier, imprisoned now 35 years due to a rigged trial, for shooting FBI
agents during an encounter with the AIM (American Indian Movement--for a
number of years classified as a "terrorist" organization by the US Govt.)

Also two reports on a Palestinian Doctor who papers frequently on Israeli
TV, learning of the deaths of his children form an Israeli bombing

January 16, 2009

Bloody Israeli Assault on Gaza Enters Fourth Week, Palestinian Death Toll
Tops 1,100

Guest: Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia
University. His forthcoming book is Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and
American Hegemony in the Middle East. He joins us in the firehouse studio.
It's Day 21 of Israel's assault on Gaza. Israeli warplanes attacked forty
targets across Gaza overnight, as Israeli troops backed by tanks have
pushed deep into the heart of Gaza City. Since Israel started its
bombardment of Gaza, over 1,100 Palestinians have been killed and more
than 5,200 wounded. At least 700 civilians are among the dead, including
more than 350 children. We speak with Columbia University Professor Rashid
Khalidi. [includes rush transcript]

to listen/watch go to:
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/1/16/palestinian_father_in_ us_recounts_ how

January 16, 2009

Palestinian Astrophysicist in US Recounts How His 11-Year-Old Son Died
When Israeli Warplanes Bombed His Family's House

As the Palestinian death toll in Israel's assault on Gaza climbs above
1,100, we take a look behind the statistics. Suleiman Baraka is a
Palestinian astrophysicist working at Virgnia Tech with NASA. His
eleven-year- old son Ibrahim was killed in an Israeli air strike on his
house. His wife and three other children are now homeless in Gaza, along
with seventeen members of his family. In his first broadcast interview in
the US, Suleiman Baraka tells his story. We also speak with Suleiman's
brother, Sayed, who arrived at the house seconds after it was bombed.
[includes rush transcript]

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/features/article_1453957.php/Tragic_Palestinian_war_drama_unfolds_on_Israeli_tv__News_Feature__
Click link to read full story

Tragic Palestinian war drama unfolds on Israeli tv (News Feature) Middle
East Features
By Shabtai Gold
Jan 16, 2009, 18:55 GMT

Tel Aviv - A Palestinian doctor from Gaza who was a regular guest on
Israeli television Friday called a reporter who had interviewed him many
times, screaming frantically that his house had just been bombed by the
military.

'My girls, oh god, they've killed my girls,' cried Ezz al-Din Abu al-Aish,
the doctor, as the Israeli reporter held his mobile phone to the
microphone during a live broadcast.

Abu al-Aish's home in Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, had just
been hit by a shell, fired by Israeli soldiers.

The doctor works as a gynecologist at both hospitals in Gaza as well as
the Tel Hashomer medical center in Israel and speaks fluent Hebrew, making
him an ideal guest for the television.

'I hope anyone who can hear us, the military, the red cross, can get
there,' the emotional reporter, Shlomi Eldar said, announcing the exact
location of the doctor's home, hoping help would arrive quickly.

Eldar then went off-camera to call his numerous contacts in Israel and
try and get the family assistance.

Medical teams have reported extreme limitations on their movement during
the ongoing Israeli military campaign.

Three girls of the doctor's eight children died in the attack, two others
were injured as was he, and they were taken to hospitals in Israel.

The doctor had become a mainstay on Channel 10, giving daily updates to
Eldar and other reporters on the unfolding Israeli offensive in the Gaza
Strip, and adding his own moderate political message. Clock link to read
rest of the story

Palestinian doctor who gave war dispatches to Israeli TV reports 3
daughters' deaths:

The Palestinian doctor provided Israeli TV viewers with regular updates on
Gaza fighting's human toll. But Friday's report was different - with sobs he
told how his three daughters and a niece were killed by an Israeli shell.

http://tinyurl.com/9qrje9Sponsored Link:
________________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:52:52 -0500
From: Ty dePass <maceito@comcast.net>
39. Dialogue

gente - whether one considers oneself a Freirean, a Marxist, or a Budhist,
it's difficult to discuss ideas w/o some sense that there are groundrules,
binding on all parties, which must never be broken.

as a long time anti-racist activist, i've encountered the tactic employed
Mr. Foxman against Bill Moyers many times: if one can't rebut the
message, rebuke the messenger. feigned indignation, distortion,
name-calling, appeals to a bandwagon mentality, nit-picking, and
cardstacking are the common stock-in-trade of the
intellectually-challenged w/an agenda. before there can be dialog, there
must be respect, otherwise, debate devolves to a zero-sum game of scoring
points to humiliate rather than enlighten. - tdp

AlterNet
Bill Moyers Volleys Back at Foxman's `Reprehensible' Smear Tactics on Gaza
By Lefty Coaster, Daily Kos
Posted on January 18, 2009, Printed on January 19, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/http://www.dailykos.com//120779/

Following a kerfuffle over a "genetically coded" remark Moyers made on
last week's Journal while addressing Israel's Attack on Gaza, on this
week's Journal Bill Moyers explained his remark and gave his assesment of
the Israeli attack on Gaza:

Bill Moyers Journal

Some of you were offended by my comment that "god-soaked violence" has
become "genetically coded." Those words were obviously not sufficiently
precise, I was not talking about a specific people but of the violence in
the DNA of the human race, as the Bible itself so strongly attests.

So here's the lens through which I see things. >From my days in President
Johnson's White House onward, I have defended Israel's right to defend
itself, and still do. But killing innocent people is wrong, whether in
Vietnam, Israel, Iraq or Gaza. Sometimes a candid critic is a country's
best friend.

As the former Israeli soldier turned journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, wrote
in the New York Times this week, Hamas cannot be bombed, nor cajoled, into
moderation. "Tanks cannot defeat deeply held beliefs," he wrote. No.
Waging war on an entire population guarantees one thing: the radicals get
what they want, and the innocents, on both sides, suffer.

Moyers also mentioned his response to a letter from Abe Foxman Director of
the Anti-Defamation League that charged Moyers with being an anti-Semite.
Here is that exchange:

Exchange Between Bill Moyers and Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation
League

Following Bill Moyers' reflections on the events in Gaza on the JOURNAL
last week, Anti-Defamation League National Director Abraham Foxman sent
him this letter:

Mr. Moyers,

In less than a thousand words, you managed to fit into your January 9
commentary: (1) moral equivalency between Hamas, a radical Islamic
terrorist group whose anti-Semitic charter cites the Protocols of the
Elders of Zion, and Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and
perhaps America's greatest ally in the world; (2) historical revisionism,
asserting that Canaanites were Arabs; (3) anti-Semitism, declaring that
Jews are "genetically coded" for violence; (4) ignorance of the terrorist
threat against Israel, claiming that checkpoints, the security fence, and
the Gaza operation are tactics of humiliation rather than
counter-terrorism; and (5) promotion of an individual, the Norwegian
doctor in Gaza, who has publicly expressed support for the September 11
attacks.

I have seen and read serious critiques of Israel's military campaign in
Gaza, and I have disagreed with many of them. Your commentary, however, is
different, consisting mostly of intellectually and morally faulty claims
that do a great disservice to the PBS audience. It invites not
disagreement, but rebuke.

On one point you are correct - "America has officially chosen sides." And
rightly so. Fortunately for our nation, very few of our citizens engage in
the same moral equivalency, racism, historical revisionism, and
indifference to terrorism as you. If the reverse held, it would not be a
country that any decent person would want to live in.

Sincerely,

Abraham H. Foxman
National Director
Anti-Defamation League

In response, Bill Moyers sent Mr. Foxman the following message:

Dear Mr. Foxman:

You made several errors in your letter to me of January 13 and I am
writing to correct them.

First, to call someone a racist for lamenting the slaughter of civilians
by the Israeli military offensive in Gaza is a slur unworthy of the
tragedy unfolding there. Your resort to such a tactic is reprehensible.

Earlier this week it was widely reported that the International Red Cross
"was so outraged it broke its usual silence over an attack in which the
Israeli army herded a Palestinian family into a building and then shelled
it, killing 30 people and leaving the surviving children clinging to the
bodies of their dead mothers. The army prevented rescuers from reaching
the survivors for four days."

When American troops committed a similar atrocity in Vietnam, it was
called My Lai and Lt. Calley went to prison for it. As the publisher of a
large newspaper at the time, I instructed our editorial staff to cover the
atrocity fully because Americans should know what our military was doing
in our name and with our funding. To say "my country right or wrong" is
like saying "my mother drunk or sober." Patriots owe their country more
than that, whether their government and their taxes are supporting
atrocities in Vietnam, Iraq, or, in this case, Gaza.

Contrary to your claim, I made no reference whatsoever to "moral
equivalency" between Hamas and Israel. That is an old canard often
resorted to by propagandists trying to divert attention from facts on the
ground, and, it, too, is unworthy of the slaughter in Gaza. Contrary to
imputing "moral equivalency" between Hamas and Israel, I said that "Hamas
would like to see every Jew in Israel dead." I said that "a radical stream
of Islam now seeks to eliminate Israel from the face of the earth." And I
described the new spate of anti-Semitism across the continent of Europe. I
am curious as to why you ignored remarks which clearly counter the notion
of "moral equivalency."

And although I specifically referred to "the rockets from Hamas" falling
on Israel and said that "every nation has the right to defend itself, and
Israel is no exception," you nonetheless accuse me of "ignorance of the
terrorist threat against Israel." Once again, you are quite selective in
your reading of my essay.

Your claim that "the checkpoints, the security fence and the Gaza
operation" [I used the more accurate "onslaught"] are not humiliating of
the Palestinians is lamentable. I did not claim that these were, as you
write, "tactics of humiliation rather [emphasis mine] than
counter-terrorism," but perhaps it is overly simplistic to think they are
one and not the other, when they are both. Also lamentable is your
description of my "promotion" of the Norwegian doctor in Gaza when in fact
I was simply quoting what he told CBS News: "It's like Dante's Inferno.
They are bombing one and a half million people in a cage." The whole world
has been able to see for itself what he was talking about, and as one
major news organization after another has been reporting, is reeling from
the sight.

And, to your claim that I was "declaring Jews are `genetically coded' for
violence," you are mistaken. My comment - obviously not sufficiently
precise - was not directed at a specific people but to the fact that the
human race has violence in its DNA, as the biblical stories so strongly
affirm. I also had in mind the relationship between all the descendents of
Abraham who love the same biblical land and come to such grief over it.

From my days in President Johnson's White House forward, I have defended
Israel's right to defend itself, and still do. But sometimes an honest
critic is a government's best friend, and I am appalled by Israel's
devastation of innocent civilians in this battle, all the more so because,
as I said in my column, it is exactly what Hamas wanted to happen. To be
so indifferent to that suffering is, sadly, to be as blind in Gaza as
Samson.

Sincerely,

Bill Moyers

Foxman tried to mischaracterize Moyers' "genetically coded" remark
claiming it was directed at Jews. Foxman also falsely accused Moyers of
being ignorant of this conflict's Israeli victims. Foxman's attempt to
manufacture propaganda at Moyers expense and intimidate the media
backfired in Bill Moyers' case.

Attempts like this to intimidate opinion leaders like Bill Moyers are
toxic to our Democracy.

Ty dePass, Boston

it ain't what we don't know that hurts us...it's what we do know, that
ain't so...
____________________________________________________________________________________

> From: "Stop the War Coalition" <office@stopwar.org.uk>
> Sent: Sunday, January 11, 2009 5:16 AM
40. Stop the War website and email attacked
>
>> Stop the War Coalition
>> Temporary email address
>> stopwaruk@gmail.com
>>
>> STOP THE WAR WEBSITE AND EMAIL ATTACKED
>>
>> Stop the war has suffered a serious attack on its internet
>> site, which has been hacked, we assume by supporters of
>> Israel's attacks on Gaza. Our website is down and our usual
>> email address not functioning.
>>
>> We have set up a temporary email address for you to contact
>> Stop the War: stopwaruk@gmail.com
>>
>> We expect to restore normal service soon.
>>
>> Many thanks to everyone who attended yesterday's magnificent
>> demonstrations in London and Edinburgh. The London
>> demonstration was by far the largest ever in support of
>> Palestine. We will send more details in our next newsletter.
>>
>> Israel has announced a sharp escalation of its attacks on
>> Gaza. Stop the War, together with the other organisations
>> who helped organise Saturday's demonstration, will be
>> announcing soon the next stage of our campaign calling for
>> an immediate stop to the carnage.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 18:24:07 -0700
From: Rebecca Cummings <beckyspi@mac.com>
41. Voices for Creative NonviolenceStrongest Weapon of All

Rebecca Cummings
beckyspi@mac.com

Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated?

Begin forwarded message:

From: Voices for Creative Nonviolence <vcnvlist@vcnv.org>
Date: January 19, 2009 3:41:32 PM MST

The Strongest Weapon of All
By Kathy Kelly
Co-Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence
January 19, 2009

Dr. Atallah Tarazi, a General Surgeon at Gaza City's Shifaa Hospital,
invited us to meet him in his home, in Gaza City, just a few blocks away
from the Shifaa Hospital.

Early this morning, he and his family returned to their home after having
fled five days earlier when the bombing attacks on Gaza City had become so
fierce that they feared for their lives. "Believe me, when I would drive
from the hospital to the place where my family was staying, I prayed all
the way," said Dr. Tarazi, "because the Israelis would shoot anyone on the
roads at night."

Dr. Tarzi has been practicing medicine as a General Surgeon all of his
adult life. Now, at age 61, he says he has never seen such terrible and
ugly wounds as he saw during the past three weeks when he and a surgical
team tried to help numerous patients with broken limbs, shrapnel wounds,
and severe burns. Neurosurgeons, vascular surgeons, orthopedic and
general surgeons worked together on patients, as a team, trying to save
them, but there were many whose lives they couldn't save. He described
patients with shrapnel wounds in their eyes, faces, chests, and abdomens,
patients whose legs were amputated above the lower limbs. Most, he said,
were civilians.

"These are strange ways of destroying the human body," said Dr. Tarazi.
"Please, come tomorrow to the Burn Unit, and you will see patients
suffering from the use of white phosphorous."

Dr. Tarazi said that he began to understand the extent of the trauma and
danger by listening to the stories of wounded and injured patients.

"Some were sitting in their houses when a tank bomb hit them. They didn't
know what happened to them," said Dr. Attalah. "Survivors would reach the
hospital after many of their relatives had been killed."

Patients from Beit Lahia told him that in one home, an extended family of
25 people had been attacked while inside their home. When relatives came
to help them, Israeli snipers shot eight of them. Many of the wounded were
left to die. Ambulances and Red Cross relief workers weren't allowed to
enter the area.

At one point, Israel announced a lull in the fighting, but then bombed the
Palestine Square, near the municipal offices. Four people came to the
hospital, severely injured. "We couldn't save them," said Dr. Tarazi.
"Seven others were injured, and they survived."

"In Gaza City, all of the important buildings necessary for maintaining a
city have been bombed," said Dr. Tarazi. "From ministries to civilian
police stations, all have been destroyed.
Some were Hamas buildings, but not all."

We had just walked through the area where the buildings housing ministries
of justice, education, and culture were completely destroyed. Driving
into Gaza City we saw mosques, factories, houses and schools reduced to
rubble. We asked Dr. Tarazi to tell us why, in his opinion, the Israelis
had attacked Gaza so fiercely.

He believes that the attacks are essentially irrational but that a main
cause for the timing and the magnitude of these attacks is that certain
Israeli candidates for upcoming elections want to assure the Israeli
public that they are willing to use military force to insure security for
Israelis. "Palestinians all the time pay the taxes in blood," said Dr.
Tarazi.

"One of the worst aspects of this war," says Dr. Tarazi, "is the lack of
respect for the UN. Three United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)
schools were bombed. In Jabaliyah, more than 45 people were killed at a
UN school; F16s bombed UNRWA supplies and stores."

"In Shifaa Hospital, we saw plumes of smoke for day and night. All Gaza,
every day, was covered with smoke and chemicals. We don't know how it
affects the health."

"Yes, 'rocklets' did go out," says Dr. Tarazi, referring to Hamas rockets
fired into Israeli towns, "and we felt sympathy for any Israelis hurt by
the rocklets. But, if someone hurts you with a pin, you don't cut off his
head. You ask WHY the person tried to prick you with a pin. Consider that
people here are trapped in a prison and there is a shortage of everything.
No one can repair anything. People wanted borders opened so that goods
could come and go.

After six months of closed borders, people are frustrated. Now, one side
declares a cease fire, they say nothing about opening the borders, nothing
about withdrawal, and yet they want NATO to help tighten the siege."

"I hope President Obama will be much better than George Bush concerning
these things," said Dr. Tarazi. "Human beings that have such a strong
army should be civilized and not behave like a terrorist group. Fanatics
can be expected to use terror, but a democratic state shouldn't use
fallacious statements as an excuse for massive killing. A state which does
this should be brought before an International Court of Justice."

"And yet," he said, "we must experiment with ways of love. We are trying,
with Jewish people^Åby feelings and actions. We need to succeed. We need
to live together. We are trying to be in good relations with all the
partners, all the views."

"The strongest weapon all over the world is love," says Dr. Tarazi, adding
that he has always believed this and has said this to his colleagues,
whether Muslim, Christian or Jewish, throughout his career. He recalled
declaring this same belief at the Eretz border crossing, shortly after the
Israelis launched "Operation Cast Lead." He had been among the 200
Christians who were chosen (800 had applied) to cross the border and
celebrate the Orthodox Christmas holiday with family members in the West
Bank. When the attacks began, he ended his holiday and hurried to the
border, knowing he must return to his work and his family. At the border
crossing, he greeted soldiers, "Merry Christmas." Soldiers answered, "Do
you have weapons?" "Yes," Dr. Tarazi replied, "I have the strongest
weapon of all, the weapon of love." ----------

Kathy Kelly (kathy@vcnv.org) co-coordinates Voices for Creative
Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org) She and Audrey Stewart are writing from Gaza.
---

Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 22:06:43 -0500
From: Sharon Smith <starsmith13@gmail.com>
42. Hugo Chavez Speaks the Truth
About Gaza

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/hugo-chavez-talks-about-gaza-what-a-man/2305843012098882945/?icid=VIDURVNWS01

"If people insist on living as if there's no tomorrow, there really won't
be one.
- Kurt Vonnegut
________________________________________________________________________________

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