A.LOEWENSTEIN ONLINE NEWSLETTER

NOVANEWS

       *    McGeough shows how few MSM reporters tell the truth

• Ubud, B ali calling
• Bombing will continue as long as we continue bombing
• Another day of Jews abusing Arabs under their control
• Israel is slowly but surely building an army of extremist Jews
• No pressure to act on climate change

McGeough shows how few MSM reporters tell the truth 05 Oct 2010 A masterful speech by Sydney Morning Herald journalist Paul McGeough at last weekend’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney. He covers the non-existent Middle East “peace process”, Zionist paranoid and bullying, media coverage and the colonial project known as Israel. Such honesty is rare in the MSM. Savour it: Since 1948, a constant in Israeli-Palestinian relations has been Israel’s coveting of Palestinian land – remember David Ben Gurion’s admonition to comrades that they not draw boundaries to their new state lest they deny themselves an opportunity to push eastward towards the Jordan River. Take a helicopter-view of history and the bludgeon of reality emerges. It is this – it does not matter which party or coalition of parties is in power in Israel; whether the Israeli military, settlers or peace movement is ascendant; whether Democrats or Republicans are in the White House; whether Fatah rules in the Occupied Territories or has been routed by Hamas; it makes no difference whether there is a cold peace or a hot war; an intifada or a Oslo-induced new spring; it does not matter whether Areas A is the square root of Areas B and C; or whether the Arab world is spoiling for war or suing for peace. The outcome always is the same – while it goes through the motions of talking about returning the Occupied Territories, Israel takes more and more Palestinian land and the rest of the world pretty well looks the other way. How can any Palestinian believe in a two-state solution when one of those potential states is shrunk, square metre by square metre? As Josh Ruebner, a Jew who heads the US Campaign to End the Occupation wrote in USA Today of the renewed talks: “Palestinians paradoxically will be expected to negotiate statehood with Israel while Israel – with the full support of the United States in the form of $US3 billion per year in military aid – continues to gobble up the territory designated for a Palestinian state.” If Hamas is such a fundamentalist threat to Israel, the region and the world, then an imperative at any point in the last decade would have been an honorable deal with Fatah, a settlement that would allow Palestinians to see the successors of Yasser Arafat as leaders worthy of their respect and loyalty. As it is, these latest talks are set to fail, further diminishing Abbas and Fatah in the eyes or Palestinians and thereby creating new political and emotional space in which Hamas will say, “We told you so.” Outsiders can see it all – Israelis have difficulty.

Ubud, Bali calling 05 Oct 2010

Bombing will continue as long as we continue bombing 05 Oct 2010 Glenn Greenwald: Bombing Muslims more and more causes more and more Muslims to want to bomb the countries responsible.  That, of course, has long been the perverse “logic” driving the War on Terror.  The very idea that we’re going to reduce Terrorism by more intensively bombing more Muslim countries is one of the most patently absurd, self-contradicting premises that exists.

Another day of Jews abusing Arabs under their control 05 Oct 2010 At what point will Zionist humiliation of Palestinians actually register as integral to the state of Israel? A grainy video of a male Israeli soldier bellydancing around a bound and blindfolded female prisoner which went viral overnight, yesterday provoked a furious response from the Palestinians.

Israel is slowly but surely building an army of extremist Jews 04 Oct 2010 There is growing evidence of the disastrous effects of Christian fundamentalism on the US army; “We are doing God’s work by bombing all Muslims”. In Israel the problem is more severe, with an ever-increasing collection of settlers and Jewish extremists entering the ranks of the IDF: Profound changes have been occurring in the officer ranks of the Israel Defense Force, and not everybody is happy about them; some, in fact, are downright alarmed. The figures tell the story: back in 1990, kippah-wearing soldiers from the country’s “national-religious” community—that is, religious Jews distinguished by their deep attachment to Zionism, Israeli nationalism, and, in many cases, the settlement enterprise—comprised a mere 2.5 percent of graduates from the army’s course for infantry officers. In 2007, the figure peaked at more than 31 percent, a number totally out of proportion with the number of religious-national soldiers serving in IDF infantry units. Similar changes are said to be happening in elite units and among senior staff. Don’t believe anybody who says this isn’t a massive issue because far too many Jews in the army ideologically identify with the racist mentality of the settler movement.

No pressure to act on climate change 04 Oct 2010 This is quite a way to promote action on climate change (and probably not the best, most inclusive method):