A. LOEWENSTEIN ONLINE NEWSLETTER

NOVANEWS

 
Just one more way the US political elite backs Israel’s move towards one-state
Posted: 10 Jan 2011 02:45 PM PST

And not a peep from the Zionist Diaspora about ever-expanding expulsion of Palestinians from Jerusalem:

Irving Moskowitz, the retired Florida businessman who is developing a controversial Jewish apartment project at East Jerusalem’s Shepherd Hotel, is a top campaign contributor to Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), the new GOP chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, campaign finance records show.
 Israeli bulldozers began on Sunday to demolish the Shepherd Hotel, located in the predominantly Palestinian Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, to make way for the apartments for Jewish residents. 
 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Sunday criticized Israel moving ahead with the controversial project, which the United States, United Kingdom and European Union have long strongly opposed. 
 “We are very concerned about the initiation of demolition of the Shepherd’s Hotel in East Jerusalem,” Clinton said in a statement. “This disturbing development undermines peace efforts to achieve the two-state solution. In particular, this move contradicts the logic of a reasonable and necessary agreement between the parties on the status of Jerusalem.”
Moskowitz purchased the Shepherd Hotel, which was originally built for the mufti of Jerusalem, in 1985, and announced plans to develop 122 apartments for Jewish families there in 2007, plans which were later scaled back to 20 apartments.

 


Where’s the celebration that Israel doesn’t see Iran as a threat?
Posted: 10 Jan 2011 02:39 PM PST

What, you missed the news, that the outgoing Mossad chief essentially said Tehran wouldn’t get the bomb until at least 2015? Maybe.

 

No, not just Islam that can be vehemently anti-women
Posted: 10 Jan 2011 02:35 PM PST

Really:

Anyone who believes religious traditions only oppress women in faraway places should hear my story.
I’ve just won an eight-year legal battle in Brooklyn, N.Y., to keep the house my parents left me. My brother–the first-born son of an Orthodox rabbi–claimed the religious right to evict me.
Last month Brooklyn Surrogate’s Court Judge Diana A. Johnson not only ruled the house was legally mine, but awarded me over a half a million dollars in damages from my brother for having padlocked me, just days after my father’s death, out of the family home my parents had deeded to me. For over seven years, while I racked up crushing legal fees, my brother barricaded my childhood home.
My case is not exceptional. Many Orthodox Jewish women have called me since the news of my victory was reported in the New York Post and reprinted in the Brooklyn Eagle and on various blogs. Many said they wish they had fought back as I did. These calls made me livid at those handful of U.S. rabbis and others who share my faith who routinely turn their backs on women.
Ancient Jewish law says the first-born son–the b’khor, in Hebrew–inherits a double share of his parents’ inheritance; daughters get nothing.

 

ABCTV News24 on US violence and Israeli apartheid
Posted: 10 Jan 2011 05:24 AM PST

I appeared on ABC TV News 24′s The Drum last night (video here) with host Tim Palmer, and panelists NSW Liberal politician Pru Goward and ABC journalist Conor Duffy.
We discussed the horrific killings in the US and the heated political and media rhetoric that may have created an atmosphere of hate. Commentators may not be directly responsible but who can question the possibility when shock-jocks talk openly about forming militias to protect the country from “socialist” Barack Obama? The language of war and conflict – for example, “collateral damage” for the murder of civilians – has become common. America is one sick country.
Another major subject of debate was the latest Israeli crimes in East Jerusalem and the non-existent “peace process”. The world has been playing a cruel and deadly game for decades while Zionist colonisation continues. Ironically, Israeli actions have killed the two-state solution, leaving only one likely outcome; the end of the Jewish state.

 


Serco, we’re watching you
Posted: 10 Jan 2011 04:36 AM PST

Because Serco’s record remains deeply troubling, it’s no wonder the Australian government continues giving the company millions of dollars. Hello, media?

A second inquest into the death of the youngest person to die in custody begins today after a high court battle. Adam Rickwood was just 14 when he died in August 2004. He was found hanging in his cell in Hassockfield Secure Training Centre (STC), County Durham, hours after he was restrained by staff.
The first inquest heard evidence that Rickwood had been identified as a vulnerable child with a history of self-harm and suicide attempts. On the day of his death he had been forcibly restrained by four staff for refusing to go to his cell when ordered to do so. A painful restraint technique called “nose distraction” – which has been variously described as a squeezing, tweaking, flicking or karate-like chop to the nose – was used against him. Hours later he was found hanging. Hassockfield is a privately run institution, operated by Serco.
At the first hearing, in 2007, the coroner refused to allow the jury to consider whether the use of force was lawful. The jury returned a verdict saying that he intended to take his own life.
Backed by the pressure group Inquest, Adam’s mother, Carol Pounder, sought a judicial review of the proceedings and in January 2009, Mr Justice Baker found that the coroner acted unlawfully, and that the physical interference with Adam was a breach of STC rules and an assault on him. He quashed the verdict and ordered a new inquest.
Adam’s death attracted parliamentary and public concern and led to calls for a radical overhaul of the use of force on children in custody.

 

Our war hypocrisy
Posted: 10 Jan 2011 02:34 AM PST

 

 

Dictatorship offers US help on secrets post Wikileaks
Posted: 10 Jan 2011 01:27 AM PST

An authoritarian, one-party state offers advice to the US. Thanks, we’ll take your thoughts on-board:

Singaporean officials must be more cautious in discussions with U.S. diplomats, the country’s foreign affairs minister said Monday, calling the release of classified documents by WikiLeaks disastrous for American diplomacy.
Singapore officials will be less open when speaking with U.S. diplomats for fear their conversations will be made public, Foreign Affairs Minister George Yeo said in parliament.
“The WikiLeaks disclosures have been disastrous for U.S. diplomacy,” Yeo said. “We have to be more guarded in our communications with U.S. diplomats. If it happened once, it can happen again, so we’ve got to be more careful.”
Last month, WikiLeaks released a document showing Singapore statesman Lee Kuan Yew describing Myanmar’s junta leaders as “stupid,” and calling North Korea’s leaders “psychopathic types” in conversations with U.S. diplomats.
Another confidential cable quoted Singapore diplomats making unflattering remarks about Malaysia, India, Japan and Thailand during meetings with U.S. officials.
Yeo said he would not comment on specific leaks.
Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugam warned news media and private citizens they could be prosecuted under Singapore law for receiving or publishing confidential government information.
“Everyone involved with the leak of information, whether in government or outside, should be dealt with firmly,” he said Monday in parliament. “Public interest in the free flow of information cannot justify the abuse of confidential information.”

 

So sorry authoritarian state, America still loves you
Posted: 09 Jan 2011 08:26 PM PST

What’s a super-power to do when trying to keep good relationships with dictatorships and brutish men?

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in the Middle East for meetings with Persian Gulf leaders, acknowledged Sunday that it would take years to undo the damage caused by the WikiLeaks revelations, likening her recent travels to an extended “apology tour” to reassure allies who suffered embarrassment or worse because of the disclosures.
“I think I will be answering concerns about WikiLeaks for the rest of my life, not just the rest of my tenure as secretary of State,” Clinton told reporters as she embarked on a five-day visit of Arab countries, many of which were stung by revelations about private talks between American diplomats and regional leaders.
Clinton, who is on her second Middle East trip in less than a month, said she has sought to “affirmatively raise” the WikiLeaks issue in meetings with Arab officials to address the problems head-on. Some of Iran’s Arab neighbors were particularly aggrieved by leaked State Department cables that showed them privately urging the Obama administration to take a harder line against Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
Clinton said she had quipped to one of her aides that she needed a tour jacket, similar to the ones used by rock bands, that would have a “big picture of the world and would say ‘The Apology Tour’ ” on it. Although the intensity has abated somewhat, the fallout from the WikiLeaks affair “is still in the atmosphere,” she said.

 


May the EU grow some balls and treat Israel as it deserves
Posted: 09 Jan 2011 07:12 PM PST

The EU is usually supine when it comes to Israel/Palestine, following the blindly Zionist lead of Washington. Could something change?
Perhaps:

East Jerusalem should be treated as the capital of the Palestinian state, according to a report compiled by the heads of European diplomatic missions in Jerusalem and Ramallah. The report includes several other unprecedented recommendations to the European Union regarding its attitude toward East Jerusalem.
The European diplomats, mainly consuls, also recommend that EU officials and politicians refuse to visit Israeli government offices that are located beyond the Green Line and that they decline any Israeli security in the Old City and elsewhere in East Jerusalem.
The report, which was completed last month, was sent to the EU’s main foreign policy body, the Political and Security Committee in Brussels. It was apparently not released at the time due to the sensitivity of its content.
The diplomats’ report also discusses the possibility of preventing “violent settlers in East Jerusalem” from being granted entry into EU countries. In the area of commerce, it recommends encouraging a boycott of Israeli products from East Jerusalem.
The first part of the report details construction and expansion of settlements in East Jerusalem, the infringement of human rights of Palestinian residents of the eastern part of the city, as well as inequality in education and medical services available to Palestinians. The report concludes that beyond their humanitarian significance, these conditions weaken the Palestinian hold on the city.
European criticism of Israeli policy in the territories and particularly East Jerusalem is not new. But the dramatic turn in the report can be seen in the operative steps it recommends, which in fact constitute the foundations for sanctions against Israel.
For example, the document proposes that visiting senior EU officials not use Israeli businesses operating in East Jerusalem, such as hotels and transportation companies, and that archaeological sites operated by “pro-settler organizations” (a reference to the City of David National Park ) not be visited.
The report goes on to suggest that public awareness be raised about settlement products, “for instance by providing guidance on origin labeling for settlement products to major EU retailers,” and that EU citizens be informed “of the financial risks involved in purchasing property in occupied East Jerusalem.”

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