Articles

Thoughtful Committed Citizens Drugged
May 25, 2011
USA
NOVANEWS   DEA Allowed Citizens to Turn in Extra Prescription Drugs   By David Swanson Movements for justice have historically been driven ...Read more
Ron Paul Says He Wouldn’t Serve in Middle East Wars
May 25, 2011
USA
NOVANEWS   Congressman Ron Paul Would Defy Government Military Service If It Conflicted with Conscience By Sherwood Ross Oft-mentioned Republican Presidential ...Read more
Obama Unconditional Surrender at AIPAC
May 25, 2011
Campaigns
NOVANEWS   by Sami Jadallah As was expected President Barack Obama’s speech this weekend at AIPAC was an unconditional surrender to ...Read more
Palestinian Right to Education: The Case of Awarta
May 25, 2011
Education
NOVANEWS Itamar, the settlement where a family of five was brutally murdered in early March, borders the village of Awarta near ...Read more
Dorothy Online Newsletter
May 25, 2011
Middle East
NOVANEWS   Dear Friends, Several of you responded to my question of why Obama does not want the Palestinians to ...Read more
A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter
May 25, 2011
Middle East
NOVANEWS Obama admin pleased that Netanyahu refuses to acknowledge Zionist racism Netanyahu could advocate ethnic cleansing and US Congress would ...Read more
Children Of A Lesser God
May 25, 2011
Politics
NOVANEWS What did I ever do to you? Did I ever bring danger to your home, What injustices old or ...Read more
Salam Fayyad on Qatar: from Wikileaks
May 25, 2011
Palestine Affairs
NOVANEWS   It is hilarious when small US puppets, like this Salam Fayyad, thinks that they can sway US policies. ...Read more
ZIONIST FAMILY OF BAHRAIN
May 25, 2011
Bahrain
NOVANEWS Bahrain updates: or what does not bother Obama "Today was the appeal for the 4 protestors who got death ...Read more
Pickering Won’t Apologize for U.S. Policy Toward Egypt; Or Admit IsraHell Has Nukes
May 24, 2011
Egypt
NOVANEWS by Sam Husseini   Thomas Pickering is a former U.S. ambassador to the UN. He’s also been ambassador to Russia, ...Read more
Questioning Shoukry, McCain and Gingrich on Egypt
May 24, 2011
Egypt
NOVANEWS by Sam Husseini   Asking Egyptian Regime Ambassador: “Mubarakism without Mubarak?” Shortly before questioning Egyptian regime’s ambassador to the ...Read more
McCain’s “Interesting Time” w/Gadafi, Ignores Manning || Kerry on No-Fly Zone, Justifies Manning Treatment, “Yes” on Israeli Nukes
May 24, 2011
USA
NOVANEWS by Sam Husseini   McCain Says Human Rights Concerns Were Behind his “Interesting Time” with Gadafi as he Refuses Questions ...Read more

Thoughtful Committed Citizens Drugged

NOVANEWS

 

DEA Allowed Citizens to Turn in Extra Prescription Drugs

 

By David Swanson

Movements for justice have historically been driven by a small percentage of any population. One percent of Americans nonviolently occupying Washington, D.C., could make Cairo and Madison and Madrid look like warm-up acts. It is certainly true that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens is the only thing that ever has changed the world for the better. So, what happens if a society picks out a significant slice of its population, one including many thoughtful and committed citizens, and drugs them?

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) held a first-time, one-day, little publicized event last September that allowed people to turn in their extra prescription drugs. The DEA reports collecting 242,000 pounds or 121 tons. A second such day was held in April with 376,593 pounds or 188 tons of pills collected. This is the stuff nobody wants and is willing to hand in to the government. This is not the amount that’s out in circulation. That amount is no doubt in proportion to the roaring flood of television ads for the stuff. “More Americans currently abuse prescription drugs,” says the DEA, “than the number of those using cocaine, hallucinogens, and heroin combined. . . . [I]ndividuals that abuse prescription drugs often obtained them from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet.” And that’s just the users said to be abusing.

Ted Rall suggested drugging to me as a possible explanation for the big mystery staring us in the face, namely why Americans sit back and take so much more than other people from their government. The Patriot Act is being put on steroids with hardly a peep of protest. The “Defense Authorization Act” now before Congress would give presidents virtually limitless power to single-handedly make wars or imprison people. This is the biggest formal transfer of power in the U.S. government since the drafting of its Constitution. This undoes the American War for Independence. But perhaps we’d still be 13 colonies if Prozac and Zoloft had come along sooner.

“Like many people,” says Rall, “I have often wondered why so many Americans seem so emotionally flat and politically apathetic in response to a political and economic landscape that cries out for protest, or at least complaint. Could it be that our society’s most angry — justifiably angry — are being medicated into quiescence?” It does seem possible. I don’t mean to discount the fact that the United States imprisons record numbers of people. I’m willing to share some blame with our education system, our so-called news media, our religiosity, the two-party trap, and several other likely factors. But drugs looks like the big one that is nonetheless hardest to see. People don’t usually tell you they’re drugged, but chances are at least one in 10 people you meet is.

Two years ago, a study found that “the number of Americans taking antidepressants doubled to 10.1 percent of the population in 2005 compared with 1996, increasing across income and age groups.” One year earlier, another study had found that close to 10 percent of men and women in America were taking drugs to combat depression, and that 11 percent of women were taking antidepressants.”

Author and clinical psychologist Bruce Levine tells me this may be even worse than it sounds. “If you are around certain populations,” Levine says, “that 10 percent stat seems very low, especially among healthcare professionals and college students.” College students? I can remember them getting pretty thoughtful and committed in times past. “And that 10 percent,” Levine adds, “only includes the ‘official antidepressants’ such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, Effexor, etc. This stat doesn’t include people using ADHD drugs such as Ritalin, Adderall, etc. to stimulate themselves.”

Adderall, Levine explained, is an amphetamine that affects the same neurotransmitters as cocaine (dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine), “and if one takes the antidepressant Effexor (affects serotonin and norepinephrine) at the same time one is taking the antidepressant Wellbutrin (affects dopamine), one can sense the hypocrisy in labeling certain psychotropics (drugs that affects neurotransmitters) as ‘antidepressants’ and other psychotropics as ‘ADHD psychostimulants.’ Lots of people — especially young people — are popping ‘Addies’ (street name for Adderall) to ‘motivate’ them to get them through their lives, especially during exam time.”

Levine said he’s counseling a young man who is supplementing his income by selling ADHD psychostimulant drugs to his fellow college students. He gets the best price around final exam time. “He told me, ‘Bruce, you’ve got to do better improving the self-esteem of these young kids who you are counseling.’ Why, I ask him, why do you care? ‘Well,’ he says, ‘these little brats who are getting their freebie prescription Addies feel so crappie about themselves that they are giving away their Addies to their older brothers for free just so they will hang out with them, and all those freebie Addies on the market are driving price down for me.”

Levine stresses that Adderall, like nicotine or caffeine or cocaine, provides a buzz that antidepressants do not. In fact, he points out, the so-called antidepressant drugs make people twice as likely to commit suicide. Levine concedes that some people swear antidepressants have saved their lives, but points out that people will say that about a placebo as well. The evidence, Levine says, shows antidepressants working no better than a placebo at lifting people out of depression.

Antidepressants may bear as Orwellian a name as the Patriot Act, but Levine finds the latter easier to talk about with people. “I get less grief,” Levine tells me, “when I talk about something like anarchism and Emma Goldman than when I talk about antidepressants’ effectiveness and [author] Irving Kirsch, as abstract political ideologies are far less threatening than people’s very own drugs.” Political movements may in fact be less threatening to those in power, because of people’s drugs.

Ron Paul Says He Wouldn’t Serve in Middle East Wars

NOVANEWS

 

Congressman Ron Paul Would Defy Government Military Service If It Conflicted with Conscience

By Sherwood Ross

Oft-mentioned Republican Presidential candidate Ron Paul of Texas says in a published interview that he would refuse to serve his country as a medical officer in the Middle East as he did during the Viet Nam war.  Rep. Paul, a doctor, who served as a flight surgeon during Viet Nam, is quoted in the May Esquire magazine as saying, “I often wonder how many of those people I participated in sending over, and so many helicopters went down. For what? For what? The war was totally lost. Totally fruitless. I wouldn’t do that today. I would refuse to do that today.”

Rep. Paul’s statement does not mean he regarded either war as illegal but that the conflicts were “lost” and “fruitless.” Even so, his statements suggest that he would not serve his country if he believed the struggle in question was contrary to his conscience.

The congressman goes on to blast the Patriot Act, the foreign wars of the Bush-Obama administrations, and even wars of the historic past.

“Whether it was the Spanish-American war or World War I or Vietnam, how many millions of people died, how much wealth was consumed?” he asked John Richardson of Esquire. Richardson says that when Paul said the Constitution called for avoiding foreign entanglements, he got a standing ovation from an audience. “It’s time to bring the troops home,” Paul told them to rousing cheers. (A recent USA Today/Gallup Poll reported 59% of Americans want U.S. troops out of Afghanistan now.)

“The President’s not supposed to go to war, or be in charge of taxing and spending,” Paul said. “The Founders thought the Congress would always remain the number one of the three branches—that’s why it’s high on a hill, above the Supreme Court, above the White House,” he continued.

Paul believes the U.S. has suffered attacks by foreign terrorists as retaliation for U.S. actions abroad. “They don’t come here to attack us because we’re rich and free. They come and they attack us because we’re over there,” he says, adding, “I mean, what would we think if other foreign countries were doing that to us.”

Some Republicans don’t choose to hear that kind of talk, and have worked to ban him from GOP appearances and debates. Paul retorts, “A substantial portion of the conservative movement has become a parody of its former self.”

“Once home to distinguished intellectuals and men of letters, it now tolerates and even encourages anti-intellectualism and jingoism that would have embarrassed earlier generations of conservative thinkers,” Paul continues.

An advocate of home rule who takes a libertarian position against Federal involvement, asked the following questions, Esquire noted:

  • Will there be no more wars without an actual congressional declaration?

  • Will the Federal Reserve Act be repealed?

  • Will only gold and silver be called legal tender?

  • Will the U.S. end “unconstitutional” departments including Energy, Education, Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Labor?

  • Will the Patriot Act be repealed and all the warrantless searches stopped? Paul argues that police officers “are supposed to be local people” but that at the national level today “we have nearly a hundred thousand federal agents now who carry guns—OSHA and EPA and the IRS. They carry guns and they shouldn’t.”

  • Will the TSA be restrained or abolished?

  • Will the IRS’s unconstitutional collection powers end? (He wants the income tax cut to zero.)

  • Will we end the Federal government’s involvement in medical care?

  • Will we end all the Federal government’s “illusionary” insurance programs?

  • Will we ban secret prisons, trials without due process, and assassinations?

  • Will we end our foreign policy of invasion and occupations?

Author Richardson says, “This is Ron Paul’s moment. He’s been warning for forty years that easy money would lead to economic collapse (and it did). He warned that the Iraq war would be an expensive and bloody mistake, (and it was).”

If it is Ron Paul’s moment, his candidacy will pose a problem for liberals, who tend to agree with his ideas about ending the current, illegal wars of the Bush-Obama regimes but oppose his views on scrapping Federal medical care, ending the income tax, and sundry other progressive measures.

Obama Unconditional Surrender at AIPAC

NOVANEWS

 

by Sami Jadallah

As was expected President Barack Obama’s speech this weekend at AIPAC was an unconditional surrender to AIPAC, to Bibi Netanyahu and Israel. He gave up the US presidency in favor of his candidacy for re-election.




 

Barak Obama did not come to AIPAC to convince the American Jewish leaders and community and argue the case of the US resolve and leadership in settling the Middle East conflict based on international laws and international conventions, a conflict that has cost the US and its tax payers so dearly.

Barack Obama came to convince his friends and sponsors within the American Jewish community he is their candidate and their man in the White House now and in the future, and the only way he can convince such a group is to submit his presidency and the US total and unconditional surrender. He surrendered the US world leadership and prestige coming close to declaring his allegiance to Israel and ahead of the US like so many in the US Congress.

Few days before Bibi Netanyahu came to the White House not to listen but to dictate, and came to the White House to tell the man of the White House, when it comes to Congress, he (Bibi) is the “Boss” and Bibi has what it takes to make the re-election of Obama an impossible task.  Bibi enjoys so much wide spread support among the American Knesset and the Jewish community and the Evangelical Christians Rights, support he does not enjoy in his home country of Israel.

Barack Obama had to be careful in what he says, let alone what he does since the coming months are so critical to his reelection and campaign financing. He could not alienate the most powerful community and group in the US, a group that makes or break the hopes and dreams of any political candidate.  They promise money in return for blood and total unconditional surrender of the US in support of Israel’s agenda, its wars, its settlements, its nuclear weapons and its constant violations of international laws.

He spoke of the borders of 67 yet in the next statement he spoke of “facts on the grounds” facts that were there in violation of international laws, in violation of US laws and in violations of the Geneva Convention. The “Demographic” changes he mentions were deliberate acts of aggression resulting in so much land and water theft and resulting in the “expulsion and ethnic cleansing” and denial of residency for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, an expulsion denial of rights that comes close to the 700,000 Palestinians who were forced to exile by the power of gun in 48.

Since 67 Israel took “Jewish legal” measure to expropriate land and ethnically cleanse people with the support of the very power gun and money supplied by the US and a legal and political cover the US only the US is always ready to provide.

Barack Obama did not speak of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who lost their homes and land to Jewish Settlements and ethnic cleansing, who lost their homes and lands to “Jewish Roads only” and who lost the rights to reside in their own home towns and cities and who sees their homes destroyed and demolish as a matter of routine.

Obama of 2011 was no different from Obama of 2008 when he spoke of unconditional support of Israel at AIPAC -08 where he promised ”Jerusalem” to remain the undivided capital of Israel now he is promising half of what remains of historic Palestine.

This time around, President Obama did not only deliver the US unconditional surrender, he also surrendered the rights of all Palestinians as well.  He surrendered their rights of return, their rights to East Jerusalem, their rights of self-determination and their rights to their water, land and property.  He made sure all of these rights are subject to negotiation with Israel and its veto.

Mr. Obama even went further, by making sure the US will do all it can to bock any efforts by the PLO to bring the issue of “recognition” before the United Nation, not that the UN vote will end the Jewish Occupation of 43 years, or enforce the Rights of Return or the rights to East Jerusalem, but the very idea that the US will block and discourage such efforts goes beyond the total surrender of the US and Palestinians to Israel.

Obama even threw the American Jewish community as part of the deal.  He surrendered this “community” accepting its loyalty and commitment to Israel as the state of the “Jewish People”.  By recognizing and accepting Israel’s demands that Israel as state for “the Jewish People” he ceded the rights of US citizens loyalty to a foreign country, accepting the troubling ideas and practice of double loyalty and dual citizenship, that Israelis is not only a state of Israeli citizens but a state for the American Jews as well. Perhaps a first step in the release of Jonathan Pollard.

Barack Obama broke the “envelop” by asking a “disarmed” Palestinian state broken down to small canton, surrounded by armed Jewish settlements from all sides to guarantees the safety and security of the most powerful military in the Middle East, with hundreds of F-15s and F-16s and F-36, and Kfir fighters, hundreds of AH-64 D Apatche, AH-1 attach Cobra, dozens of Sa’ar 4.5 Class Missile boats and Sa’ar 5 class Corvettes, thousands of Mirkava tanks and APCs, thousands of M109 self propelled Howitzers, Soltan M-71 Howitzers, Caterpillar D9 Armored bulldozer ( specifically for demolition of  Palestinian homes), submarines equipped with nuclear armed missiles,  and hundreds of unmanned aircrafts capable of hitting Iran, and an army that can muster some 700,000 well trained and well equipped in days, with a history of carrying attacks as far as Tunis, Baghdad, Syria ( near the Turkish borders) with over 150 nuclear weapons and Mr. Obama has the “Chutzpa” to demand from the poor defenseless Palestinians who could not even fend against attacks by armed Jewish thugs and settlers to guarantee the safety and security for this poor defenseless  “Jewish state”.

The Palestinian people should not expect more from Obama or any future US president, certainly not the UN or UNSC, and should take the matter in their hands making sure that the proposed two state solution is null and void and work toward a One State, One People as the only option ahead.

 

Palestinian Right to Education: The Case of Awarta

NOVANEWS

Itamar, the settlement where a family of five was brutally murdered in early March, borders the village of Awarta near Nablus, and is illegally built on village land. Immediately following the murder, and continuing for weeks thereafter, the Israeli military carried out pogrom-like incursions into the village—raiding homes, making mass arrests, destroying property, beating and torturing residents, and imposing extended curfews during which villagers could not leave even to procure food or seek medical attention.

A just-released report from the UNESCO Chair on Human Rights at An Najah National University in Nablus focuses on the impact of this policy of collective punishment on the right to education of over 100 University students from Awarta.

The Israeli military operations carried out in Awarta over the past month and a half have left the entire community traumatized, but in many ways has especially impacted the students from the village. Over 100 students attend An Najah National University, located 15 minutes away in the West Bank city of Nablus. Since March 12, An Najah students from Awarta have been forced to miss days and sometimes weeks of class, including crucial exam periods due to curfews, closures and abuse and arrest of the students and their families.

Class material and research has been destroyed and/or confiscated during the raids of their homes, resulting in lost graduation projects and notes for the entire semester. Additionally, students report an overall inability to concentrate on their studies because of sleep deprivation, anxiety and economic hardships caused by the raids and arrests of family members.

…Students also feel certain that the attacks on their village have not yet ended. Settler leaders from Itamar have openly called for the ethnic cleansing of “Arabs” from the West Bank, and residents have reported increased settler violence including stone throwing by settlers on the road to Awarta and an attempted kidnapping

…One student articulated the profound sense of vulnerability within the village, stating “There’s no such thing as protection for our rights.”

More Recent Articles

Dorothy Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

 

Dear Friends,

Several of you responded to my question of why Obama does not want the Palestinians to appeal to the General Assembly at the UN to recognize the West Bank and Gaza (the 1967 lines) as a Palestinian state. I appreciate your taking the time to give me your opinion. Interestingly, those of you who responded had one and the same answer: AIPAC.  Perhaps.  I’m not sure.  After all, Netanyahu gives the Palestinians no choice.  His ‘nos’ today cut short any hope of negotiations: no to 1967 lines, no to Palestinian refugees returning to Jaffa or Haifa or elsewhere in Israel, no to negotiations with Hamas, and, in addition, it isn’t sufficient for Netanyahu that Palestinians recognize Israel.  No. They must recognize it as a Jewish state (imagine recognizing the US as a Christian state!).  And of all the insolent supercilious remarks, the one that got me the most was that ‘Israel would be generous to the Palestinians.’  Ha!  When has Israel ever been generous to them?  Truth is, that Netanyahu is interested in stalling, not in making peace.

Item 1 of the 7 below reports the Palestinian reaction to Netanyahu’s speech.  I personally did not expect anything much different from it, but was shocked to see how the Congress of the great United States of America slobbered and licked up every word.

In item 2 Gershon Baskin relates his face-to-face experience with IOF aggression.

Item 3 is an update on demolitions and other events concerning the Bedouin villages in the Negev.  How could Netanyahu lie so openly that Arabs who have Israeli citizenship have equal rights with Jews?

Item 4 is a call for support for the right of Palestinian refugees to return.

Item 5 is also a call, one by Mazin Qumsiyeh, to support and join important challenges this summer, which he lists.

Item 6 is a link to yesterday’s ‘Today in Palestine.’  Please at least run through the summaries.

Item 7 is a video of Ilan Pappe’s speech in Stuttgart.  I have not heard it yet, but because I am familiar with his ideas and works, I am sure that it must be interesting.

All the best dear friends.  Unless something surprising and unexpected happens, it seems as if we will have lots of work on our hands for a long time before we see justice and peace here in this unholy land.

Dorothy

==================================

. Haaretz Tuesday, May 24, 2011

24.05.11

Palestinians: Netanyahu speech to U.S. Congress is obstacle to peace

Spokesman for Palestinian President Abbas said that the things stated in Prime minister Netanyahu’s speech ‘will not lead to peace.’

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/palestinians-netanyahu-speech-to-u-s-congress-is-obstacle-to-peace-1.363859

By Reuters

Tags: Israel news Mahmoud Abbas

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vision for ending conflict with Palestinians put “more obstacles” in front of the Middle East peace process, the spokesman for the Palestinian president said.

“What came in Netanyahu’s speech will not lead to peace,” Nabil Abu Rdainah, the spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told Reuters following Netanyahu’s address to the U.S. Congress on Wednesday.

The prime minister addressed the U.S. Congress on Tuesday, where he called on the Palestinians to destroy the recent reconciliation deal they made with Hamas.

“I say to Abbas, tear up your pact with Hamas, make peace with a Jewish State,” Netanyahu said.

The prime minister spent a significant part of his speech speaking about the conflict with the Palestinians, claiming that it was not about the creation of a Palestinian state but about “the existence of the Jewish state.”

“If the benefits of peace with the Palestinians are so clear why has peace eluded us?” Netanyahu asked. “Because so far the Palestinians have been unwilling to accept a Palestinian state if it meant accepting a Jewish state beside it.”

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat slammed the prime minister’s speech, saying it was “full of lies” and “distorted history and geography.”

MK Ahmed Tibi said that Netanyahu “misled” the Congress members by describing Israel as a place where Arabs are equal citizens.

“There is not one are where there is equality between Jews and Arabs,” Tibi said.

Palestinians have said that they will meet in Ramallah on Wednesday to determine what their next step will be, following Netanyahu’s visit to Washington.

=============================

2.–Forwarded by the JPLO List

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=221897

Meeting senseless aggression face-to-face

By GERSHON BASKIN

05/23/2011

A recent trip to the weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh shed a new light on the IDF and its operations.

Talkbacks (1)

For months I have been hearing about disproportionate use of force by the army against weekly demonstrations in Nabi Saleh – a small pastoral Palestinian village northwest of Ramallah. Last week, I watched several YouTube videos filmed by activists in the village, providing vivid visual images of the forceful arrests of protesters by the army. I was disturbed because all of the clips showed how the demonstrations ended; none showed how they began. I was convinced that there must have been stone-throwing by the shabab in the village which provoked the violent army responses. So I decided I had to see for myself.

When I contacted the Israeli activists who regularly participate in the Nabi Saleh demonstrations, I was warned that it was dangerous and that there was no way to know in advance when we would get home. They also warned that there was a high possibility we would be arrested. I am 55 years old, and have been demonstrating since the age of 12. I have been in dangerous situations before, and was prepared for another one.

ON FRIDAY morning I was picked up from French Hill at 10:30. We drove on 443 until the Shilat junction, and turned toward the West Bank. We drove off the beaten settlers’ track through the Palestinian villages in the area. We then turned off the road and parked in an olive grove. From there, we began a trek of about an hour through the hills, finally arriving, after a steep climb, at the edge of the village. Every Friday morning the army seals off the area and prevents entry and exit for all.

The 500 residents of Nabi Saleh, all from the Tamimi family, are demonstrating against the continuous encroachment of the Helamish settlement on their land. Since 2009, Nabi Saleh has been demonstrating every Friday.

In that time, some 200 villagers have been injured, more than 40 percent of them children.

More than 15% of the villagers have been jailed, and about 10 homes face demolition orders by the IDF; the village is located in Area “C,” which, according to Oslo, is under full Israeli control (62% of the West Bank is in Area C). Nabi Saleh has not received the same fame as Bil’in, whose six-year weekly struggle continues with a great deal of international attention

We arrived in the center of the village and were greeted warmly by the residents. In all, there were about 20 Israelis and 20 internationals, along with some 60 locals – boys and girls, men and women. When the noon prayers ended, everyone assembled in the village square. Carrying flags and chanting of freedom, we marched toward the main road, some 800 meters from the village entrance. After less than 100 meters, the army launched its first barrage of tear gas. Fired at the crowd from at least three points, dozens of canisters exploded all around us. I have experienced tear gas, but this was more potent than anything I had known. It lingers in the air, burns the skin, and stings your eyes so sharply that it’s impossible to open them; it penetrates your lungs and makes it hard to breathe. I ran as far away as I could, only to face another gas canister exploding next to me.

For eight hours, this went on. The army surrounded the village and gradually moved in toward the center. The crowd would reassemble in the central square next to the grocery store.

There they would hand out pieces of onion to breathe in and alcohol pads to combat the effects of the gas. Palestinian Red Crescent volunteers were there to help all who needed medical care.

At one stage the gas got into my eyes, and the pain was excruciating. I was brought into someone’s house, where I was fanned with a piece of cardboard. The owner of the house, Abed, a man of about 40 who used to work in construction in Tel Aviv, gently wiped my face and around my eyes with an alcohol pad. His wife then came and applied a slice of cold raw potato to my eye, which relieved the pain. They have certainly become experts in dealing with this.

Eventually the troops, which comprised about 50 soldiers, command cars, and jeeps from the Border Police and the paratroopers, took over the center of the village. Taking command of several houses around the main square, they set up command positions on the rooftops.

At this point, the demonstrators were sitting next to the grocery store occasionally chanting songs and slogans against the occupation.

Many of the chants were Palestinian versions of the chants from Cairo’s Tahrir Square. Not a stone was thrown at the soldiers, although some had been thrown from a distance earlier as the army entered the village; an act of anger more than any real aggression. The villagers are committed to and largely stick to a strategy of non-violence, even in the face of horrible aggression from the soldiers.

As someone who served in the army and was involved for years in the education of officers, I was amazed at the abuse of power, the lack of any real purpose, and the pure show of force for force’s sake demonstrated by our soldiers. There is absolutely no purpose to this aggression, and nothing to be gained by it.

At about 5 p.m. the brigade commander, with the rank of colonel in the paratroopers, and his counterpart from the Border Police decided they would declare the village a closed military area and announced that all had to disperse. I approached him at that point and appealed to his rationality – what is the point of arresting everyone, I argued? The answer I got was an order to move away.

Ten minutes later, they threw some 50 percussion grenades at the dispersing crowd, which stun your senses and your ears. I made a strategic decision to take out my Government Press Office-issued press card so that I could continue to document what I witnessed. I filmed throughout the day and posted segments of what I saw on myFacebook site. After the arrests of 11 Israelis and one foreigner, the army vehicles left the village once again, leaving about a dozen Border Police and paratroopers in charge. Standing under a mulberry tree, three paratroopers began picking the ripe berries and eating them. I approached them with the film running and asked who had given them permission to eat from that tree. Do you open refrigerators and eat the food when you enter the Palestinians’ homes uninvited, I wanted to know? Clearly embarrassed, they turned away in shame.

THE RESIDENTS of Nabi Saleh treated us to remarkable hospitality. Although exhausted from the Friday ritual of military attack every week for two years, they welcomed us into their homes.

A final show of force from the army came in the form of the “skunk.” After all had ended, the army came back into the center of the village and sprayed a ton of the most putrid-smelling liquid that any genius Israeli chemist could concoct.

They completely doused one of the houses that had offered us refuge, food and drink, and poured the remaining liquid on the village square. The odor was the worst I have ever smelled. In a sign of solidarity, villagers, Israelis and foreigners spent the next hour washing the entire house and the village square.

Filled with a spirit of solidarity, morality and justice, the 60 remaining demonstrators were invited to another villager’s home for a latenight dinner. The host family laid out salads, vegetables and rice. The villagers told us how much they appreciated our presence because, as they said, when Israeli activists are not there, the brutality of the army is far worse. What I had witnessed was more than enough to make me feel ashamed and angry, and committed more than ever to ending this occupation, which forces our children to run away to India and other countries in order to forget what they did during their army service.

The writer is the co-CEO of IPCRI, the Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information (www.ipcri.org) and founder of the Center for Israeli Progress (http://israeli-progress.org).

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3.  From: mail@dukium.org <mail@dukium.org>

May 22, 2011

Wave of demolitions last week

On Wednesday, May 11 there was a wave of demolitions across the Negev with the ILA visiting the villages of Al Arakib, Umm Ratam, Al Rara, Al Zarnog and Al Bcherah.

About half a dozen structures in Al Arakib, outside of the cemetery, were demolished by the ILA. The JNF continues its works to build terraces of earth suitable for planting the north west of the village.

In Umm Ratam, during the demolition of a family home, three people including a woman were wounded and one man was arrested. One home in each of the villages of Al Rara and Al Zarnog was also destroyed while in Al Bcherah a sheep pen was leveled to the ground.

Sana Ibn Bari attending the UNPFII

Advocate Sana Ibn Bari is now in New York to attend the annual UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues.  The UNPFII is an advisory body to the Economic and Social Council and this will be the seventh year that a Bedouin representative of the NCF will be attending.  Sana will work to draw international attention to the challenges facing the Bedouin the Negev and particularly the policy of home demolitions.

Al Arakib: Ownership claims before court

There are interesting legal developments underway regarding ownership claims in Al Arakib, particularly that of Dr Awad Abu-Freich. Advocates Michael Sfard and Carmel Pomerantz are representing Dr Awad in this matter and they kindly provided NCF with this update.

By way of background, it is the state’s responsibility to create a land registration system, however, it has failed to do so over all territories in Israel. In most areas in the Negev where there are land ownership claims by the Bedouin, the process has been delayed by the state for over three decades. After being un-frozen in the last ten years, almost all of the land has been registered in the name of the state. Following the establishment of the state in 1948, the Bedouin remained as residents on their lands until the 1950s when the state moved to evict them through legislating to confiscate the land (Land Acquisition Law 1953). In order to rely upon this particular law, it needed to be declared that the area was needed for security, settlement or development reasons (both before the confiscation and in the proceeding period) and that the owners were not present on the land at the time. Thus, in order to fulfil these legal conditions, the government evicted the residents of Al Arakib by ordering them to move temporarily so that military training could be carried out on their land and that once they were finished, they could return. The land was confiscated upon their departure with no warning or advice to the residents.

In the 1970s, Israel began the land registration process in the Negev and announced that whoever has property claims should so declare. The land registration Officer is obligated to register the land in the name of whoever claims it or in case of disputed ownership, transfer the matter to the District Court to decide. In the case of Al Arakib, as with other areas, this process was frozen after the Bedouin residents submitted their ownership claims.

In the 1990s, the JNF began afforestation work around Al Arakib which prompted the residents to return to their village and to later file motions in the District Court seeking an order that the land be registered in their name. Dr Awad is among the applicants. In response, the state claimed that this cannot be done on the grounds that the land was already confiscated (and registered in the state’s name in the Deeds registration). Additionally, after over 30 years of deferral the state renewed the land registration process and file counter claims to have the land registered in the state’s name. Thus the case was transferred by the Bedouin land registration officer to the District Court to determine the ownership of the land.

It is procedurally unclear how parties are to prove their claims, however, both sides filed their legal arguments in the matter. Disputably and according to the state,  the burden of proof lies with Dr Awad. On March 15, 2011 the court delivered an unclear, partial ruling (1162/07).  Judge Shpeser said that even if there is a “narrow gate” to present claims against those in the expropriation certificate, that opportunity has now passed in this particular case (and in fact, in all similar cases) on the grounds of unreasonable delay (laches). In other words, too much time has passed since the 1950s for the court to consider the Bedouins’ arguments as it cannot be checked if they were present or not on the land at the time of the expropriation, and whether the land was used before 1952 for the purposes of security, development or settlement.

Dr Awad filed an appeal in the Supreme Court on April 26, 2011 and the following day afforestation began work on the disputed land. This led Dr Awad to file a request on April 28 for a temporary injunction against the state and whoever is working in its name to cease all work. An immediate decision was received providing that until the state responds, the injunction is in force forbidding the state and whoever is working in its name to carry out any work.

The court is expected to reach a decision in the next few days. It is anticipated that the court will either set down a hearing, dismiss the injunction allowing the state (JNF) to return to work, or request Dr Awad to file a response.

More charges against activists

In further developments, NCF Executive Director, Haia Noach, received notification last week of additional charges being laid against her following the incident during the sixth demolition on October 13, 2010. The two new charges are disturbing a policeman in his duty (article 275) and beating a policeman  in his duty (article 273) . The materials indicate that she is being accused of trying to escape the scene – ignoring the fact that she had her hands tightly handcuffed behind her back.

Further, Dr Awad was taken in for further questioning at Rahat police station on May 9 and interrogated for more than 3 hours. He believes that the state is preparing their case to lay charges against him.

—
Karen Douglas
Resource Development Coordinator
Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality
www.dukium.org
054 747 1914

—
Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality – DuKium
mail@dukium.org www.dukium.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001879388377
Subscribe: Email to dukium+subscribe@googlegroups.com
================================

4-. On June 5, support the Palestinian refugees’ right to return

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxTJGV8HChI

22 May 2011 | International Solidarity Movement

The right to return is a core goal of the Palestinian liberation struggle. Since 1947-1948, when over 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly expelled from their homes – and more than 700,000 were ethnically
cleansed from their country altogether – they and their descendants have organized to demand the rectification of this historic injustice. The refugees of the Six-Day War in 1967 (after which Israeli forces drove 300,000 Palestinians out of the occupied Gaza Strip and West Bank ), the 1967-1994 Israeli administration of the occupied territories (during which Israel stripped 140,000 Palestinians of their residency rights), and the ongoing colonization of Palestine and displacement of its indigenous
inhabitants, have added their voices to the growing global movement for return.

In recent years, the right to return has also emerged as a key demand of international solidarity activists supporting Palestinian aspirations for freedom. On July 9, 2005, for example, the Palestinian Civil
Society Call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) – the founding document of a Palestinian-led global movement for justice in Palestine – stated that “non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by … [r]especting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties.”

Today over seven million Palestinian refugees are the world’s largest group of refugees, comprising one-third of its total refugee population. Their rights to return to their homes, and to receive compensation for the damages inflicted on them, are enshrined in international law. Resolution 194, which the United Nations General Assembly adopted on December 11, 1948 and Israel agreed to implement as a condition of its subsequent admission to the United Nations,

[r]esolves that the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible.

Additionally, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the General Assembly on December 10, 1948, states that “[e]veryone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to
his country.” And Resolution 3236, which the General Assembly adopted on November 22, 1974, “[r] eaffirms … the inalienable right of the Palestinians to return to the homes and property from which they
have been displaced and uprooted, and calls for their return.”

Despite its clear obligations under international law, Israel continues to resist demands by Palestinian refugees that it allow them to return to their homes. Most recently, on Sunday, May 15, the 63rd commemoration of the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” the 1947-1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine, Israeli troops responded to demonstrations by unarmed refugees marching towards their homes with lethal force.

Israeli forces killed at least 15 demonstrators on three borders (with occupied Gaza, Lebanon, and between Syria and the occupied Golan Heights), wounded hundreds more with live gunfire, artillery
shells, and tear gas, and unleashed a wave of arrests and repression in the occupied West Bank. This massive violence could only have been planned as a show of brute force, intended, along with Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated assertions that “it’s not going to happen,” to dissuade Palestinian refugees from asserting their historic rights and the global consensus for the right of return.

Yet the most enduring story from May 15 may be that of Hassan Hijazi. A 28-year old Palestinian refugee living in Syria, he braved the gunfire that killed four others along the border with the occupied Golan Heights, then hitchhiked, and finally took a bus, to his family’s home in Jaffa. Before turning himself in to Tel Aviv police, he told Israeli reporters, “I wasn’t afraid and I’m not afraid. On the bus to Jaffa, I sat next to Israeli soldiers. I realized that they were more afraid than I was.”

Millions more are resolved to follow Hijazi’s path. On Sunday, June 5, the 44th commemoration of the Naksa, or setback, Israel’s 1967 expulsion of 300,000 Palestinians following the Six-Day War, Palestinian refugees will return en masse to the borders. Announcing the mobilization on May 18, the Third Intifada Youth Coalition said, “The last few days proved that the liberation of Palestine is possible and very achievable even with an unarmed massive march if the nation decides it is ready to pay all at once for the liberation of Palestine.”

The Preparatory Commission for the Right to Return, a nonpartisan coordinating body, has requested that supporters of the Palestinian liberation struggle also take action on June 5, by staging rallies,
marches, and protests throughout the world demanding Palestinian refugees’ right to return.  Appropriate venues could include Israeli embassies, consulates, and missions, BDS campaign targets,
and foreign governments and international organizations that enable Israeli crimes.

”The May 15 marches were not an isolated incident, but were rather a declaration of the foundation of a new stage of struggle in the history of the Palestinian cause, entitled: ‘The refugees’ right to return to their homes,’” a statement by the Commission says.

For the first time ever, the Palestinians have switched from ommemorating their displacement with statements, festivals, and speeches, to actual attempts to return to their homes.

The scene of refugees marching from all directions towards their homeland of Palestine sent a powerful message to the entire world that the refugees are determined to return to their homes however long it may take; and that 63 years were not enough to kill their dream of return; and that the new generations born in forced exile who have never seen their homeland are no less attached than their grandparents and fathers who witnessed the Nakba.

What happened on May 15 was only a microcosm of the larger march soon to come, a march that will be made by Palestinian refugees and those who support them. They will pass the barbed wire and return to their occupied villages and cities.

The crowds will head out from everywhere there are Palestinian refugees toward the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and occupied Palestine’s borders with Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, in peaceful marches raising the Palestinian flag and the names of their villages and towns, the keys
to their homes, and certification papers.

The Arab Spring’s “winds of change” are blowing through the refugee camps, no less than the Arab capitals, toward Palestine. And they show no signs of stopping.

—
PLEASE FORWARD THIS UPDATE WIDELY

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===========================

5-. From Mazin Qumsiyeh,

May 24, 2011

Change we make
<http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2011/05/change-we-make.html>
http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2011/05/change-we-make.html

President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke to the Israel
lobby in Washington essentially promising to liquidate the central struggle
for freedom today.  Politicians whether Hosni Mubarak or Netanyahu or Obama do not change their behavior unless we the people change ourselves and decide to take matters into our own hands.  We the people in the Arab world and all people of conscience are doing so and we urge you to join us in this summer of change.

Palestinian civil society organizations applaud the Freedom Flotilla that
will again, in June, challenge the brutal and illegal siege of the people of
Gaza. Decent people around the world will be working in support of this
international initiative.  While we rightly focus on Gaza we must not forget
that Israeli colonial authorities are implementing their racist apartheid
policies throughout historic Palestine.  In the West Bank (including East
Jerusalem) and in the Negev and the Galilee, ethnic cleansing and
killing/injuring civilians are just some of the many violations of basic
human rights. The aim is always to keep us isolated as well as divided, the
better to achieve the goal of dispossessing us.

We call on civil society organizations and people of conscience around the
world to support and join the other important challenges this summer to the
Israeli apartheid system.  After the very successful events on May 15, there
are now two dates of significance: June 5 and July 8-16.  On June 5, again,
there is a call for everyone to converge on borders and on checkpoints
throughout Palestine and on embassies and consulates of the apartheid state
everywhere in the world.

We will also have a week of solidarity and action 8 – 16 July.  Hundreds of
men, women and children will fly into Tel Aviv airport to visit us in
Palestine. The international community must recognize our basic human right to receive visitors from abroad and support the right of their own citizens to travel to Palestine without harassment. Where Israel works to isolate us, we invite you to join with us openly and proudly as the decent human beings you are. We do not accept the attempts to keep us apart or to force you to speak less than with the honesty you are used to.

You will be accommodated locally. You will enjoy Palestinian hospitality and a program of networking, fellowship, and volunteer peace work in Palestinian towns and villages. Local activist groups in Europe and in the United States have organized delegations and hundreds have booked their flights. Once here much can be done.  See this tape about a previous visit organized by our group  <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rif2ZSSeRok>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rif2ZSSeRok
or  <http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article5786>
http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article5786

Dozens of local groups and popular resistance committees* have sponsored the events and many have been working hard on mobilizing locally. But this work will need to be intensified to make it a great success that it will be with your help.  We could use all kind of volunteer help (locally and
internationally).  Volunteers with different backgrounds and with varied
skills or those willing to be trained are welcome.   Email us at <mailto:info@palestinejn.org> info@palestinejn.org with your name, location, and background so that you can join us to be part of this practical response to the machinations of politics.

Sponsoring local groups in Palestine
[Local list in formation.  Many international groups joined us and organized delegations. Send us name and contact of your organization/group if you would like to join]

Al-Rowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Centre,
<http://www.alrowwad-acts.ps> www.alrowwad-acts.ps
Alternative Information Center – AIC –  <http://www.alternativenews.org>
www.alternativenews.org
Ansar Youth Center, Al-Walaja
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights:
<http://www.badil.org/> www.badil.org/
Bil’in Popular Resistance Committee  <http://www.bilin-village.org>
www.bilin-village.org
Friends of Freedom and Justice, Bil’in  <http://www.bilin-ffj.org>
www.bilin-ffj.org
Grassroots Palestinian Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign
<http://www.stopthewall.org> www.stopthewall.org
Handala Center –  <http://www.handalla-center.org> www.handalla-center.org
Holy Land Trust:  <http://www.holylandtrust.org> www.holylandtrust.org
Ibdaa Cultural Center  <http://www.dheisheh-ibdaa.net>
www.dheisheh-ibdaa.net
International Solidarity Movement:  <http://www.palsolidarity.org>
www.palsolidarity.org
Open Bethlehem:  <http://www.openbethlehem.org> www.openbethlehem.org
Palestinian Centre for Rapprochement between People  <http://www.PCR.PS>
www.PCR.PS
Palestinian Conflict Resolution Center (Wi’am)  <http://www.alaslah.org>
www.alaslah.org
Palestine Justice Network  <http://www.palestinejn.org> www.palestinejn.org
Palestine Medical Relief Society  <http://www.pmrs.ps> www.pmrs.ps
Palestine Solidarity Project  <http://www.palestinesolidarityproject.org>
www.palestinesolidarityproject.org
Phoenix Center, Dheisheh Camp  <http://www.phoenixbethlehem.org>
www.phoenixbethlehem.org
Popular Struggle Coordinating Committee  <http://www.popularstruggle.org>
www.popularstruggle.org
Siraj Center for Holy Land Studies,  <http://www.sirajcenter.org>
www.sirajcenter.org
Youth Against Settlements (Hebron)
Youth Activity Center – Aida Camp  <http://www.key1948.org> www.key1948.org
and popular resistance committees in 12 Palestinian villages and towns so
far
=============================

6-. Today in Palestine

http://www.theheadlines.org/11/23-05-11.shtml

==============

7.-Forwarded by Muriel—Ilan Pappe’s speech in Stuttgart (English)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8W34iW3K7M&feature=related (10 parts)

A. Loewenstein Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

Obama admin pleased that Netanyahu refuses to acknowledge Zionist racism

Posted: 24 May 2011

 
Really:

White House spokesman Jay Carney expressed satisfaction with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Congress addressand his commitment to peace. The White House is satisfied with the commitment Netanyahu expressed for the two-state vision, Carney said.
Ben Rhodes, a senior official in the US National Security Council who is currently touring Europe with President Barack Obama, also praised Netanyahu’s speech. He noted that he himself would not equate Hamas with al-Qaeda but could not help agree with the comparison.
Senator John McCain tweeted “Just left strong speech by Israeli PM Netanyahu. America stands with Israel and always will.”
Netanyahu declared “Israel will be generous about the size of the Palestinian state” but stressed he will not accept the right of return, will not divide Jerusalem and will insist on military presence along the Jordan River.

Netanyahu could advocate ethnic cleansing and US Congress would salute him

Posted: 24 May 2011

 

Australian Zionist organisation refuses to truly engage on BDS

Posted: 24 May 2011

 

Yet another story of the mainstream Jewish establishment attempting to shut down open debate on the most controversial issues. Certain, set boundaries are established around these discussions and the Zionist lobby polices them vigorously. Of course the effect is the general public seeing Jews once again trying to censor issues such as BDS and ongoing Zionist occupation of Palestine. This is in today’s Sydney Morning Herald:

A Sydney festival celebrating ”the broad diversity of opinions within the wider Jewish community” has banned two speakers because they supported Marrickville Council’s ill-fated boycott of Israel.
The University of NSW academic Peter Slezak, from Independent Australian Jewish Voices, and Vivienne Porzsolt, from Jews Against the Occupation – Sydney, were told by email they were no longer welcome to address the Limmud-Oz festival next month, due to their ”active and vocal involvement” in the proposed boycott at Marrickville.
However, organisers said the three-day festival of Jewish learning and creativity would not ”shy away from tough issues”.
The issue of the boycott will still be the topic of at least two sessions, while others would tackle ”challenging points of view”.
Dr Slezak, who had been invited to speak at the event for the second time, said the decision reflected the Jewish community’s ”hysterical” reaction to Marrickville planning to join the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) against Israel.
He addressed the topic at the council’s meeting when it abandoned the policy last month. ”I argued that even people who are opposed to BDS should stand up for Marrickville Council against the unprecedented campaign of denunciation and bullying.”
In a statement provided by the Shalom Institute program director, Michael Misrachi, organisers said they decided to rule out presenters who advocated the boycott because it undermined the event’s engagement with Israeli academic and artistic institutions and their representatives.
”This is not about censorship, nor are we seeking to stifle dissenting views. Limmud-Oz is proud of the principles of pluralism and inclusiveness which guide us and Limmuds around the world,” it read.
Mr Misrachi confirmed Dr Slezak and Ms Porzsolt’s names were removed from the list of speakers on the event’s website following complaints.
Two other speakers have since pulled out of the festival in protest at the ban, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported.
Ms Porzsolt, who said she would still attend the festival, told organisers in an email they had misrepresented the boycott, and asked them to reconsider.
”My proposed workshop was not even on BDS … The exclusion of me as a person for the ideas I hold generally, and not because of the topic of my workshop, smacks of excommunication,” it read.
The chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, Vic Alhadeff, said it endorsed the decision of the Shalom Institute.

Serco must face the music and accountability forced upon it

Posted: 23 May 2011

 
The role of British multinational Serco in Australia is a murky affair. How much money is the federal government giving them? Can the media and general public get reliable answers from them? Hardly.
Yesterday’s Australian editorial touched on this (but of course didn’t acknowledge that inserting the profit motive into detention centres distorts the system):

Some criticism has focused on Serco, the private operators of detention facilities, but whether they are run by the public or private sector, the government is responsible for ensuring the centres deliver the appropriate security, care and safety for detainees, workers and visitors.

The feature story in this week’s Green Left Weekly details these issues in a far deeper way:

Before visiting the Curtin detention centre in far-north Western Australia in early April as part of a solidarity convoy, Victoria Martin-Iverson told Green Left Weekly she knew the conditions would be grim.
“This is a humanitarian and psychiatric crisis,” she said. “We charge a private company with the responsibility of delivering services to people in detention, but they cut costs every way and anyway they can.
“It makes a profit off the misery of asylum seekers, off the illegal imprisonment of people who have not committed or been charged with a crime.”
…
When a private corporation is concentrating on profit, it will always cut costs and staffing, and will suppress vital information to avoid fines and maintain its contract. It is fundamentally wrong to outsource the detention of vulnerable people who seek and need protection.
If the government refuses to investigate, it is harder for the public to know what is taking place and how to fight it.
But refugees know, and they are trying very hard to tell the public.

Glimpses of Israeli occupation in leading Murdoch space

Posted: 23 May 2011

 
Now and then, the Australian Murdoch press features a story about Zionist occupation that reveals deep truths about what Palestinians are living through. Their main website (in the travel section) ran the following piece about Hebron yesterday:

Mohammed Saadeq has had rocks, bleach and even dead rats thrown at his home but so far it hasn’t put off visitors from coming to stay at his small B&B in Hebron’s Old City.
It’s an adventurous move in an area that is hardly a tourist haven, located in the middle of a tightly controlled Israeli enclave called H2, where 400 hardline Jewish settlers live in the middle of a local population of 6000.
But since the tiny bed-and-breakfast opened its doors just two months ago, its two rooms have been fully booked, bringing the Saadeq family a welcome source of income in an area where 76 per cent of the population live under the poverty line.
Like hundreds of Palestinians in H2, Saadeq’s closest neighbours are settlers who live in the Avraham Avinu settlement, which faces directly on to his one-storey home and overlooks the narrow alleys where the souk is located.
…
This area, once the thriving heart of Hebron, is now a ghost town. More than 1800 shops have closed down, mostly due to Israeli restrictions on movement, while others have been sealed shut by military order.
For Saadeq, the surreal reality that is Hebron’s H2 offers an unusual way to eke out a living – and it is a reality that does not look set to change any time soon.

US moderation towards Palestinians not tolerated

Posted: 23 May 2011

 
Indeed:

State Department diplomat Nelson Milstrand, who appeared on CNN last week and offered an informed, thoughtful analysis implying that Israel could perhaps exercise more restraint toward Palestinian moderates in disputed territories, was asked to resign Tuesday. “The United States deeply regrets any harm Mr. Milstrand’s careful, even-tempered, and factually accurate remarks may have caused our democratic partner in the Middle East,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an unequivocal condemnation of the veteran foreign-service officer’s perfectly reasonable statements. “U.S. policy toward Israel continues to be one of unconditional support and fawning sycophancy.” Milstrand, 63, will reportedly appear at an AIPAC conference to offer a full apology as soon as his trial concludes and his divorce is finalized

Children Of A Lesser God

NOVANEWS


What did I ever do to you?

Did I ever bring danger to your home,

What injustices old or new?

What did I ever do or say-

That could possibly justify the things

You are doing to me this day?

Right now they’re only whispers of wonder

But tomorrow they’ll rage like the thunder.

What did we ever do to you-

Are we children of a lesser god

Not as shiny and not as new?

What did we ever do or say

That could possibly justify the things

You are doing to us this day?

And yet through all this madness you wonder

Why our outrage is rising like thunder…

When all we want is just to live

In the peace we’ve always needed

And not stare in the face of death

As the conquered and defeated

As children of a lesser god

We are sacrificed and slaughtered

And not allowed to shed a tear

As we bury sons and daughters…

What is it we have to do-

To make a blind world understand

That we bleed and daydream too?

What is it we have to say-

To make these madmen pack their things

And abandon our homes today?

Our children cry loud as the thunder

As day by day their lives are torn asunder…

When all we want is just to live

In the peace we’ve always needed…

And not stare in the face of death

As the conquered and defeated…

As children of a lesser god

We are sacrificed and slaughtered

And not allowed to grieve and weep

As we bury sons and daughters

What is it that must be said-

To make these madmen understand

All the evil that’s in their heads?

What is it that must be done-

To make them heed his final words

As He entered Jerusalem?

And still through the desert we wander

We beg and we plead and we ponder

We hope and we cry and we wonder

Will we ever live days free of thunder?

All we want is just to live

In the peace we’ve always needed…

And not stare in the face of death

As the conquered and defeated

As children of a lesser god

We are sacrificed and slaughtered

And not allowed to raise a fist

To defend our sons and daughters.

All we want is just to live…

All we want is just to live…

We children of a lesser god…

© 2010 Mark Glenn

Salam Fayyad on Qatar: from Wikileaks

NOVANEWS

 

It is hilarious when small US puppets, like this Salam Fayyad, thinks that they can sway US policies.  “PA Prime Minister Fayyad, meeting with Under Secretary of the Treasury Stuart Levey on August 10 in Jerusalem, said that he was extremely worried about Qatar and its continued support for HAMAS and other Islamist organizations in the West Bank and Gaza. “”Qatar is a very lousy country, in every possible way,”” he said, claiming that they provide “”more support to fundamentalists than Kuwait or Saudi Arabia.”” Fayyad said that there was lots of money coming into the region from Qatar. Qatar’s support for these organizations “”on camera in the Security Council”” (a reference to Qatar’s recent sponsorship of a Council statement that Ramallah saw as one-sided) should, he suggested, be a strong indication of where their financial support is going. He added that Qatar is using charitable organizations to move funds to Gaza. “”Qatar is willfully bad on money,”” Fayyad said, and he encouraged the USG “”to make life difficult for Qatari banks in the U.S.”””

Viewing cable 07JERUSALEM1719, S) FAYYAD ASKS U/S LEVEY FOR HELP WITH QATAR AND

Reference ID

Created

Released

Classification

Origin

07JERUSALEM1719

2007-08-17 07:56

2011-05-19 23:30

SECRET

Consulate Jerusalem

 

VZCZCXRO2798
OO RUEHROV
DE RUEHJM #1719/01 2290756
ZNY SSSSS ZZH
O 170756Z AUG 07
FM AMCONSUL JERUSALEM
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 8723
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC PRIORITY

"S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 JERUSALEM 001719
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
NEA FOR FRONT OFFICE; NEA/IPA FOR SHAMPAINE/BELGRADE; NSC
FOR ABRAMS/SINGH; TREASURY FOR HECHT/GRANT/HIRSON;
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2017
TAGS: EFIN ECON KWBG PTER OVIP
SUBJECT: (S) FAYYAD ASKS U/S LEVEY FOR HELP WITH QATAR AND
TRADE-BASED MONEY LAUNDERING
Classified By: Acting Principal Officer Thomas Duffy, for reasons 1.4 b
,d.
1. (S) Summary.  Palestinian Authority (PA) Prime Minister
Salam Fayyad told Under Secretary of Treasury Stuart Levey
that Qatar was ""willfully bad"" on issue related to financing
of terrorist organizations, including HAMAS.  He said the PA
was ready to move on terror financing legislation, but would
begin to shift responsibility for these issues from the
Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) with which he is
increasingly unhappy, to Government Ministries and his own
office.  While committed to going after banks and charities
that provide illicit funding, Fayyad said that trade-based
money laundering was probably a much larger problem - and
much more difficult to counter.  Levey promised to respond
positively to requests for assistance from the PA, and asked
Fayyad to articulate them in a way that the USG might best
assist.  End Summary.
""Qatar is willfully bad""
------------------------
2. (S) PA Prime Minister Fayyad, meeting with Under Secretary
of the Treasury Stuart Levey on August 10 in Jerusalem, said
that he was extremely worried about Qatar and its continued
support for HAMAS and other Islamist organizations in the
West Bank and Gaza.  ""Qatar is a very lousy country, in every
possible way,"" he said, claiming that they provide ""more
support to fundamentalists than Kuwait or Saudi Arabia.""
Fayyad said that there was lots of money coming into the
region from Qatar.  Qatar's support for these organizations
""on camera in the Security Council"" (a reference to Qatar's
recent sponsorship of a Council statement that Ramallah saw
as one-sided) should, he suggested, be a strong indication of
where their financial support is going.  He added that Qatar
is using charitable organizations to move funds to Gaza.
""Qatar is willfully bad on money,"" Fayyad said, and he
encouraged the USG ""to make life difficult for Qatari banks
in the U.S.""
PA ready on terror financing legislation
----------------------------------------
3. (S) Fayyad told Levey that he was prepared to act quickly
to pass legislation that would empower the PA to take action
against accounts involved in illicit financing.  He noted
that the PMA had produced draft anti-money laundering (AML)
legislation that he would recommend that President Abbas (Abu
Mazen) sign into law in ""the next two weeks.""  Fayyad said
that the law, once on the books, would be hard to undo.
Fayyad welcomed USG feedback on the draft AML law, and said
that he would provide a copy to Post.
4. (S) Fayyad expressed concern about the performance of the
PMA on money laundering and illicit financing over the past
years, and said that he wanted to move the responsibility to
fight these issues to the Government.  Fayyad said that the
PA's Financial Intelligence Unit will not be under the
leadership of the PMA, but will be representative of all PA
agencies.  The PMA will be on it, he said, but he thought
that they were too close to the banks and didn't have enough
""presence in the system.""  As an example, the PMA closed the
banks on August 9 for a holiday with almost no notice to the
public or other businesses.  Though frustrated with the
current management, Fayyad said the problems with the PMA
were institutional, as there were problems with the previous
leadership too.  Fayyad encouraged the USG and others to
continue to interact and do business with the PMA, but said
he wanted to shift the discussion with the U.S. on illicit
financing to the Government.
Focus on trade-based money laundering
-------------------------------------
5. (S) ""We continue to look at bank accounts and donations to
charities,"" Fayyad said, which provide a source of regular
but small scale transfers of illicit funds.  He agreed that
while banks and charities remained an area of concern, but
suggested that the U.S. look more closely - and provide
assistance - in the area of trade-based money laundering.
While still studying the problem, Fayyad said he expected it
was a ""main channel"" for illicit financing into the West Bank
and Gaza.  He said he particular concerns about Hebron and
Gaza.
6. (S) One indication of the likely scope of the problem, he
said, was the ""suspiciously large"" deposit base in the West
JERUSALEM 00001719  002 OF 002
Bank and Gaza.  Even as the economy deteriorates, the deposit
base continues to grow, leading to a ""macro-picture that
doesn't make much sense"", and signaling the presence of a
significant informal economy.  ""I worry that most of this
goes to finance bad things,"" he said.  Fayyad promised the
USG the PA's diagnosis of the suspected money laundering
situation, but he warned that the trade-based operations were
highly efficient and very difficult to detect.  Fayyad said
that the PA would be more aggressive in this area.  ""We need
sufficiently trained people.""  Levey said that Treasury would
be ready to help once Fayyad determined how the USG could
best assist the PA.  .  Remarking that he is ""not happy with
European aid,"" he added that he would provide more guidance
""in the next couple weeks"" on how the USG could assist with
improving transparency in and safeguarding the PA's financial
system.
Don't collapse banks in Gaza
----------------------------
7. (S) Fayyad said that he did not want to see the banking
system in Gaza, despite its problems, entirely collapse.  He
worried that such a collapse would create long-term
difficulties in Gaza and would have serious repercussions on
the banking sector in the West Bank.  Therefore, he would not
recommend that the Israeli banks cut off their relationships
with the Gaza banks.  However, Fayyad said that he would
trust Israeli Central Bank Governor Stanley Fischer on this.
""I have a better relationship with the Central Bank of Israel
than with the PMA.""
8. (S) Fayyad expressed appreciation action taken by
Jordanian banks, and in particular by the Arab Bank.
""Notwithstanding U.S. litigation, Jordan's doing a good job.
I am worried more about the smaller banks,"" he said.
9. (U) U/S Levey has cleared this message.
DUFFY

ZIONIST FAMILY OF BAHRAIN

NOVANEWS

Bahrain updates: or what does not bother Obama

“Today was the appeal for the 4 protestors who got death sentences for supposedly killing the policemen. Two got their sentences changed to life, two others are getting the death penalty. I can’t believe they are actually going threw with this. The four men are so young.   In another trial today, Shaikh Al Muqtad, one of Bahrain’s most important religious figures that was imprisoned, told the judge that drilled a hole into his leg and showed the judge the hole.

He then said he has even more torture marks but he’s not allowed to show them.  Oh they also arrested a high school girl from the Al Khawaja family (they really can’t stand that family). She called her family and told them to bring her clothes. She says they tortured her.”

 

Pickering Won’t Apologize for U.S. Policy Toward Egypt; Or Admit IsraHell Has Nukes

NOVANEWS

by Sam Husseini

 

Thomas Pickering is a former U.S. ambassador to the UN. He’s also been ambassador to Russia, Israel and Jordan, among others. He was ambassador to El Salvador during the Iran-Contra affair. He has lately been focusing on the U.S. approach to Iran’s nuclear program.

Husseini: “What can the Obama administration do in a positive way? The Egyptian people have been oppressed and it’s been perceived as as U.S. back[ed]. The tear gas canisters are ‘Made In the USA,’ the jet fighters — could the U.S. apologize now?”

Pickering: “The U.S. should continue to do what I think it’s done very well till now, is to make sure the people of Egypt know that we’re on the side of change. … The U.S. I think doesn’t need to apologize, I think we need to support the positive shifts that are taking place.”

Husseini: “You’ve been focusing on the whole question around Iran’s nuclear program. … Egypt has been calling for a nuclear free and weapons [of mass destruction] free zone in the Mideast. … Don’t you think the U.S. needs to acknowledge that Israel has nuclear weapons as a starting point?”

Pickering: “It’s a decision for Israel to make about its nuclear policy. …”

Husseini: “But isn’t honesty the beginning point? … We’re not even saying that Israel has nuclear weapons, so how can this be a serious process?”

Pickering: “My own view is that that’s a much less important question than can we find a) a solution to the current conflict which I hope can lead to b) a nuclear free Middle East that you and I and everyone knows we all seek.”

Haven’t transcribed the whole thing, if you can do so, please email me, but Pickering used the term “change” about a half dozen times at the beginning of this short exchange. A regret here is that it adopt this language of things being a perception of U.S. backing Mubarak, it’s a reality.

– Sam Husseini

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Indyk Won’t Apologize for U.S. Policy Toward Egypt; Or Admit Israel Has Nukes

 
The new activist group RootsAction put out an alert this week calling on the U.S. government to apologize for its policy of backing a dictator in Egypt for 30 years.
Washington Stakeout today questioned Martin Indyk (currently director of foreign policy at Brookings, senior adviser to U.S. government envoy George Mitchell. He has worked in the past at Washington Institute for Near East Policy and American Israel Public Affairs Committee [AIPAC]):
Sam Husseini: “Does the U.S. foreign policy establishment owe the Egyptian people an apology for having backed a dictator for all these years? …”
Indyk: “What the Egyptian people want to see is that the U.S. is supporting their demand now for democracy and accountable government. That’s what the U.S. upholds as universal values. And I think President Obama has made clear that he is with them — with the protesters in Tahrir Square — when it comes to their demands for democracy.”
Husseini: “But if that’s to be really understood rather than rhetorical, how do we apply those ‘universal values’? Do they apply to people in Saudi Arabia? …”
Indyk: “…as a result of what’s happened in Cairo you can see American policy stepping up its focus. Things that have always been there, but now with much greater emphasis.”
Husseini: “There’s a question in the region as to the sincerity of U.S. policy. For example, do you know that Israel has nuclear weapons?”
Indyk: “What does that got to do with it, sir?”
Husseini: “It has to do with whether or not the U.S. just makes rhetorical pronouncements in favor of things that it [says] it’s in favor of — ‘universal principles’ — and doen’t acknowledge that, say, Israel has nuclear weapons — empirical facts.”
Indyk: “I think you underestimate the power of Obama’s bully pulpit. … I think that they [the Egyptian people] appreciate that he’s [Obama] come out very strong for their call for democratic change.”
Actually, if anything I’m overestimating the relevance of Obama’s “bully pulpit.” The protesters in Egypt don’t much seem to care what he’s saying. And what I’m asking about is why Obama doesn’t simply acknowledge that Israel has nuclear weapons, simply a use of the “bully pulpit.”
Says LobeLog: “Indyk is a smart analyst, evenhanded of late. But evasiveness about admitting Israel has nukes is silly.”
I think they give him too much credit, how could someone who is evenhanded not agree that the U.S. establishment owes the Egyptian people an apology?
As for Indyk’s claim that Obama clearly stand with the protesters in their call for democracy, I wish I’d asked about the nature of the “transition” that the U.S. actually pushing for given that it’s backing Omar Suleiman, Hosni Mubarak’s designated successor (and CIA-allied torturer).

Questioning Shoukry, McCain and Gingrich on Egypt

NOVANEWS

by Sam Husseini

 

Asking Egyptian Regime Ambassador: “Mubarakism without Mubarak?”

Shortly before questioning Egyptian regime’s ambassador to the U.S., Sameh Shoukry, we received the following email from Aida Seif El Dawla (with the Nadeem Center for Victims of Torture) in Cairo:

Mubarak has fallen. The regime didn’t. We still have the same cabinet appointed by [Mubarak]. The emergency state is still enforced. Old detainees are still in detentions and new ones since the 25th of January remain missing. There is no public apology for the killing. We hear several executives are being prosecuted, including minister of Interior Habib El Adly. Process not transparent. Parliament has not been dissolved. Nor has the Shura council. etc.

We read the quote to Shoukry and asked: “Mubarakism without Mubarak — is that what the Egyptian people are going to have now?”

Among his many claims, Shoukry said that the current cabinet is one of technocrats. This seems to the party line of Mubarak appointed officials. A technocratic government of cabinet ministers? Hardly. The Interior Minister and Minister of Defense are generals and the others were appointed by Mubarak before stepping down.

McCain: Claims Iran More Prone to Violence than Egyptian Regime; Won’t apologize for list of dictators U.S. government has backed

In response to a question from another reporter, Senator John McCain (R-AZ) claimed that Iranian government has a “more oppressive, repressive police state that knows no restrictions. We saw last time, they don’t hesitate to shoot and kill people in streets. Obviously, Egyptian military was not ready to do that.”

(Infact, in Iran, during the protests in 2009, Human Rights Watch documented about 10 people killed. In Egypt, there have been over 300.)

We also read Aida Seif El Dawla’s statement to McCain; noting that hundreds of protesters were infact killed by Egyptian regime forces.

He called for a “transition government” inclusive of “pro-democratic” forces.

I asked: “Do we owe the Egyptian people an apology for having backed a tyrant for 30 years?”

McCain: “Hindsight is 20/20. … There’s many ways this government has been helpful to us,” specifically citing Israeli politics toward the Palestinians, like the siege of Gaza that the Mubarak regime coordinated with Israel.

McCain added: “I can’t apologize for what happened in Indonesia, for what happened in the Philippines, for what happened Romania.”

This was a rather remarkable comment. In part because it highlights that McCain recognizes that this backing dictators is a pattern in U.S. policy, that he refuses to apologize for, virtually guaranteeing its continuation.

It also mirrors recent comments by Noam Chomsky: “The United States, so far, is essentially following the usual playbook. I mean, there have been many times when some favored dictator has lost control or is in danger of losing control. There’s a kind of a standard routine—Marcos [Philippines], Duvalier [Haiti], Ceausescu [Romania], strongly supported by the United States and Britain, Suharto [Indonesia]: keep supporting them as long as possible; then, when it becomes unsustainable—typically, say, if the army shifts sides—switch 180 degrees, claim to have been on the side of the people all along, erase the past, and then make whatever moves are possible to restore the old system under new names. That succeeds or fails depending on the circumstances. …”

We challenged McCain’s endorcement of embracing dictators until they are no longer useful, after an exchange, he declined to meaningfully respond, simply saying he “understood your view on it.”

He also stated that for years he’s been aware of the abuses in Egypt, backing a process with Russ Feingold, somewhat contradicting an earlier claim that “hindside is 20/20.”

Gingrich: Do we back dictators like Mubarak so we can attack Iraq and Israel can dominate the Palestinians?

Earlier in the morning, we questioned Newt Gingrich. He had just been interviewed on ABC by Christiane Amanpour, who played a 1995 clip of Gingrich with Mubarak:

Can I just say that we’re very, very glad to have President Mubarak here. He is a very, very important ally, friend, and adviser. And many things that we’ve done, including Desert Shield, would not have been possible without the help of Egypt.

Later in the interview, Gingrich stated: “Egypt has been a staging area for us for a long time now. And Egypt has been vital to Israeli security.”

So, I asked: “We back dictators like Mubarak, who oppress their own people, so that we can attack Iraq and the Israelis can dominate the Palestinians. Why isn’t that a fair summary of what’s happened over the last 30 years?”

Gingrich called this a “fairly grotesque summary.”

Gingrich, initially when asked if he knew Israel had nuclear weapons said “of course.” However, he later backtracked, saying it was a “guess” since the Israeli nuclear weapons program could be a “Potemkin village.” [Addition: a friend comments that perhaps Gingrich would care to join one of the “9/11 Truth” groups.]

Should the U.S. apologize the the Egyptian people for materially backing a tyrant for 30 years? Gingrich: “I don’t think the U.S. has much to apologize for, I think we’ve been a force, basically for good in most of the planet.”

McCain’s “Interesting Time” w/Gadafi, Ignores Manning || Kerry on No-Fly Zone, Justifies Manning Treatment, “Yes” on Israeli Nukes

NOVANEWS

by Sam Husseini

 

McCain Says Human Rights Concerns Were Behind his “Interesting Time” with Gadafi as he Refuses Questions on Torture and Manning

Q: “You tweeted in 2009: ‘Late evening with Col. Qadhafi at his “ranch” in Libya – interesting meeting with an interesting man.’ What did you find interesting about Qadhafi?”

McCain: “Well I found it interesting that he was one of the more erratic individuals I have ever seen. He reacted very unfavorably to our conversations concerning human rights. And it was at that time that there was the talk of the release of the fellow [an apparent reference to Abdelbaset al-Megrahi] who was apparently almost dead, he’s had a miraculous recovery apparently. We’ve made it clear, as we have in other countries, our advocacy and support of human rights.”

This claim of concern for human rights led directly to my second question, about the apparent torture of Bradley Manning (the alleged source for the WikiLeaks cables that have helped destabilize tyrannical regimes) who is being subjected to solitary confinement and forced nudity. But McCain refused to take the question — “I’d like to take the next question. I’d like to take the next question. I’d like to take the next question” — insisting on giving the floor to another reporter. I attempted repeatedly to ask about Manning, but McCain refused. He schmoozed with tourists and a Ben Franklin look-alike at the Newseum as I periodically asked “Is Private Manning being tortured?” I talked briefly to McCain’s assistant, noting the irony of McCain’s silence given that he has written regarding his experience in Vietnam: “It’s an awful thing, solitary. … It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.” The assistant confirmed that McCain has said nothing about Manning.

(As for the claim that the U.S. was pressuring Gaddafi on human rights, see Andy Worthington’s recent piece: “Revolution in Libya: Protestors Respond to Gaddafi’s Murderous Backlash with Remarkable Courage; US and UK Look Like the Hypocrites They Are,” where he writes about the al-Libi case and other cases pointing to collusion between the U.S. and Libya on torture. Stakeout had asked Colin Powell about the al-Libi case in May 2009 — a few months before McCain met with Gaddafi: “Powell Denies Knowledge of Torture-War Link.”)

Kerry: Authorization for No-Fly Zone “Would be Better”

Following up on another reporters question on Libya and no-fly zones, Stakeout asked Kerry: “Does the U.S. need authorization by the Security Council or by the Congress to do a no-fly zone?”

Kerry: “It would be better to have that authorization. It’s always better to have some sort of international approval. And frankly to have allies and others taking part in the effort, I hope that can be achieved.”

Kerry Backs Claims that Manning’s Treatment for His Own Good

Noting that Kerry promised constituency to look into the Manning’s treatment, Stakeout asked: “What are you doing on the Bradley Manning case?”

Kerry: “There are concerns about what is happening, but a strong argument is being made that they’re trying to preserve his safety, they don’t want him harming himself, and using his own clothing to hang himself, or do something like that. That’s happened in prison before.”

Q: “Why the solitary confinement, if they’re –?” (See: Glenn Greenwald’s “Bradley Manning’s forced nudity to occur daily.”)

Kerry: “To protect him, I think, and there are some legitimate reasons to believe that that may be true also. But I think that a lot of people are now reviewing this very, very closely, people have weighed in, myself included, I think that analyses are being made. There was a big article in the newspapers today examining it. And I’m convinced that there will be real scrutiny with respect to that issue.”

Question: “Are you planning to visit him, he’s like 30 miles from here.”

Kerry: “It’s not my job, no. I’m not planning to visit him.”

Kerry Acknowledges Israel’s Nuclear Weapons

Kerry claimed regarding the Iraq war: “I didn’t vote for the Iraq war. I voted to give the president authority that he misused and abused. And from the moment he used it, I opposed that.” [If true, this would mean that Kerry is claiming that he opposed Bush’s use of force in Iraq in March of 2003. Well worth confirming as it would have been politically devastating to do so at that time.]

Q: “Do you know that Israel has a nuclear weapons program?”

Kerry: “Sure. Everybody — it’s common knowledge and commonly understood.”

Q: “Why won’t the administration acknowledge that?”

Kerry: “I don’t know what the administration policy is on that.”

Stakeout has asked a number of officials about Israel’s nuclear weapons. Negroponte, Edwards, Pawlenty, Cornyn, Indyk, Pence, Pickering all refused to answer meaningfully. Finegold and Gingrich gave affirmative responses, but wavered. Kerry is the first to outright acknowledge that Israel has nuclear weapons, but it’s rather remarkable that he states he doesn’t know what the administration policy is given that he is chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee.