MONDOWEISS ONLINE NEWSLETTER

NOVANEWS

10/25/2010

• Israeli forces attack Silwan with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets while distributing demolition orders
• Vatican synod comes out strong for Palestinian rights
• When will US publications follow ‘Haaretz’ in describing the ‘terrorism’ of the occupation?
• My pacifist lament
• Michael Moore and Catholic church are new front in effort to mainline opposition to Israeli occupation
• The Israel lobby is just icing on the imperial cake
• Int’l visitors to Gaza lecture Hamas about Gilad Shalit, but fail to protest Israel’s 8000 Palestinian prisoners
• Rosen: ‘rogue apartheid Jewish state is not viable in current form’

Israeli forces attack Silwan with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets while distributing demolition orders

Oct 24, 2010

Kate 

And more news from Today in Palestine:

Settlers / Land, property and resource theft and destruction / Ethnic cleansing

Child hit by rubber bullet in Silwan clashes
Clashes broke out Sunday in the flashpoint East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan as Israeli authorities stormed the Al-Bustan area to hand down demolition notices, locals said. Head of the committee defending Silwan homes Fakhri Abu Diab said a large force of Israeli border guards ransacked the area, using homes as vantage points to fire tear-gas canisters, stun-grenades and rubber bullets “in all directions.” An eight-year-old boy was hit three times by the rubber bullets, he added.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=327002
Police clash with Arab youth while distributing demolition orders in East Jerusalem
Mayor Nir Barkat has approved a development program in Silwan to raze 22 Palestinian homes that were built without permits, and to construct a tourism center in their place.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/police-clash-with-arab-youth-while-distributing-demolition-orders-in-east-jerusalem-1.320915
Settlers chop almond trees in Beit Ummar
Dozens of Israeli settlers chopped down almond trees in the Wad Al-Wahadin area of the Beit Ummar village in Hebron, marking the second act of vandalism on Saturday. Palestine Solidarity Project spokesman Mohammad Awad said settlers uprooted dozens of trees belonging to the Baher family near the Karmi Zur settlement and brought in bulldozers in what the spokesman said was an attempt to enlarge the settlement. Five dunums of land were overturned in the process, Awad said, adding that several new settlement housing units were approved in the area. 
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326835
Mosque vandalized near Nazareth
Unknown vandals removed stones from an ancient mosque in the Ma`alul village in Nazareth on Sunday, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said …
The village is located six kilometers west of Nazareth city … Hajj Sami Rizqallah Abu Mukh, heading the delegation, described the assault on the mosque as “a serious crime and it is obvious that sinful hands demolished the southern wall of the mosque and stole a large number of its stones.” … Most of Ma`alul’s land is now owned by the Jewish National Fund and the only remaining structures are two churches, a mosque and a Roman mausoleum.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326913
’48 Palestinians gather to protest Ma`lul mosque attack
NAZARETH, (PIC)– The village of Ma`lul near Nazareth saw an influx of Palestinians from 1948-occupied territories who gathered Sunday to protest the Jewish settler theft of stones of an ancient mosque in the village. The protest was attended by Arab MK Mohammed Barakat, Muslim and Christian clerics, political party delegates, and public masses. Protesters said they will rebuild the mosque in response to the settler attack … Settlers reportedly stole three years back a church bell in the village prompting ’48 Palestinians to restore the village and re-congregate for prayers there on Sundays.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7WrdcBpx2%2bjts%2fB4t5QGnuTcGhhDssq3S%2fbGJ2H%2fcI7UQz3KJYI6GuDtQhGLPHLEHah0rVBwkBtOot4vi7VJFmozB5Hp9SQRqzv%2bwcu4969k%3d
Jerusalem gets first grade national priority status
New legislation gives capital benefits in housing, employment and education sectors. Minister: Clear message that Jerusalem won’t be divided
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3974215,00.html
State: Amona eviction a low priority
The illegal West Bank outpost of Amona has been given a temporary reprieve: The State Prosecutor’s Office informed the High Court Sunday that despite the illegal construction on the premises, it will not be evicted at this time.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3974074,00.html
Violence
Israeli security forces wound 8 Palestinians in Tel Sheva
BEERSHEBA, (PIC)– Eight Palestinians in Tel Sheva village in the Negev, occupied since 1948, were wounded at the hands of Israeli security forces that stormed the village on Sunday. Mohammed Al-Asam, one of the village inhabitants, told reporters that a big number of those forces attacked the village unexpectedly to quell the citizens who were objecting to the bulldozing of a village land lot to establish an Israeli educational center on it. He added that the police forces broke into houses and fired inside them sonic and gas bombs other than beating women, children, and old people wounding 8 of the villagers. He added that the policemen arrested ten villagers in the process.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7INIevvRiBJEGn7HchxI6fquLLicBVfJp4JKF4RWHdiSEyR%2f%2bK34WFM0g%2fKFC6UWwCfwR3js4NEufyyaDt9i6Es0vX6RNCpVdnurU%2b9CQGF4%3d
Worker attacked by settlers in East Jerusalem
A young Palestinian man from the Old City of Jerusalem sustained wounds and bruises Sunday morning after a group of extremist settlers attacked him near the Ramot settlement in the occupied city, his employer told Ma’an. Anan Hijazi said his employee Muhammad Al-Beituni was assaulted by 10 extremist Israelis, “beating him brutally with empty bottles and stones.” The injured was taken to the Hadassah Hospital in Al-Isawiya in East Jerusalem.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326857
Activism / Solidarity / Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
A day in the olive groves of Sinjil / Alessandra Bajec
…Departing at 7am from Jerusalem, my friend and I join another two volunteers along with Rabbi Yehiel Grenimann, OT Director of Rabbis for Human Rights, in charge of coordinating two groups of olive pickers between this week and the following one.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8990&Itemid=56
Protesters march against wall in Beit Awla
Hebron – PNN – A protest march against the Israeli wall was launched on Friday morning from the village of Beit Awla, north of Hebron. Issa al-Umla, a coordinator for the Popular Committee Against the Wall and Settlements, who supported the march, said Israeli occupation forces stopped activists and journalists from entering the area known as Wadi al-Jalmoun, which has been long been blocked to farmers.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8984&Itemid=60
Ramallah presents: Rachel Corrie restaurant
Restaurant’s owner says wanted to honor American woman killed by IDF bulldozer in Rafah in 2003, all international peace activists
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973994,00.html
South Africa, Jerusalem, and unity / Nabil Sha`ath
I am on my way to South Africa, a country I love … South Africa boycotted the OECD Tourism fiasco in Jerusalem, and stands beside us in every way. The last two weeks witnessed a battle against that OECD tourism meeting held in Jerusalem … During that infamous meeting, Israel introduced a law prohibiting Palestinian tour guides from operating in the tourism sector of Jerusalem. Israel considers our religious, archaeological, and tourism spots as Israeli! And operates OECD related Websites from settlements in the West Bank … The Israeli minister was forced to recant, and in his opening speech to the meeting did not even mention Jerusalem once the way he wanted, after the OECD embarrassingly threatened to cancel the whole convention in Jerusalem if he continues to talk about the status of Jerusalem.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=327048
Siege / Restriction of movement / Rights violations
Israel opens 1 Gaza crossing
Israeli authorities said they would partially open one crossing into Gaza for the limited delivery of food and fuel on Sunday, a Palestinian liaison official said … The Karni crossing in northern Gaza, Fattouh added, will remain closed Sunday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326867
Detention
IOF soldiers detain Omar Barghouthi days after his release from PA jail
RAMALLAH, (PIC)– Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Sunday arrested liberated prisoner Omar Al-Barghouthi, the brother of the longest serving Palestinian prisoner in occupation jails, only few days after his release from PA detention. Local sources told the PIC that IOF troops had stormed the house of Barghouthi in Kuwair town, Ramallah district, after midnight a few days ago but did not find him and left him a summons to Beit El on Sunday. He went there and was arrested.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7SMRsx40rjG6ukxNm8EPn9xKD5gQxlKnmcUL3UO7ZS%2bDByB%2fuf6hl9neHuZocSdxfHiWVd6UPnBtTPlvn9c8lXjgovLbf5vYiBJiON43zUcY%3d
PA security arrests preacher two weeks after arrest by Israel
RAMALLAH, (PIC)– PA intelligence arrested Islamic preacher Majid Hassan “Abu Obeida” after interviewing him for the third time since his release two weeks back after serving three years in administrative detention in Israeli prisons … Majid Hassan is a prestigious religious figure in Ramallah noted for his high patriotism and interest in national unity. He played a key role in bridging the gap between Palestinian factions in 2004-2005.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7479lAzcbBBozdJPQWfJGOv%2biXdfeIzGcZtKuu%2fRPANIK1T%2frV4OH9kkKb12ttMdoVyhXORVel1vN2oyCYqsYaQlUJzyD11M7uE3YKaYXivA%3d
Racism / Extremism
Baruch Marzel to march in Umm al-Fahm
Our Land of Israel group to hold protest rally in northern city against police ‘servility’ towards Islamic Movement. Clashes expected as last year … Some 70 members of the organization are expected to participate, led by Kach activists Itamar Ben Gvir and Baruch Marzel [US-born convicted criminal who lives in Hebron]. Thousands of police officers will provide security, and serious clashes are expected – as took place last year during a similar demonstration.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973806,00.html
‘Kahane was right’ sprayed in Nazerat Illit
The Amakim Subdistrict Police is investigating yet another case of “Kahane was right” graffiti, sprayed in the Nazerat Illit and Migdal Ha’Emek area [in the north of Israel]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973766,00.html
Inside Lod’s ghettos
Lod is the first town most visitors to Israel see, when they walk out of Ben Gurion International airport. What they don’t see is the discreet ethnic cleansing which takes place here, the state-sanctioned policies of discrimination which are destroying living conditions for the town’s Arab population. With the new loyalty oath poised to deepen the divide, Sophie Crowe visited communities that are already given daily reminders of their second-class status.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1580
Palestinian flag posted on Safed mosque
Tensions mounting in city following Saturday clashes between haredim, Arab students. Earlier this week rabbis urged residents not to rent out apartments to Arabs
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973770,00.html
Refugees
Life in Palestinian refugee camps / Stephen Lendman
Besides mass slaughter and destruction, wars create refugees, millions at times, uprooted, displaced and homeless, on their own somehow to survive. Israel’s “War of Independence” was no different, dispossessing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians, a story Western media reports don’t explain or even mention.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m71112&hd=&size=1&l=e

War crimes

What led to IDF bombing house full of civilians during Gaza war? / Amira Hass
The order to bomb the house has been explained as the brigade commander’s legitimate interpretation of drone photos shown in the war room … The many incidents described in the human rights organizations’ reports indicate that the drone photographs are not as precise or clear as they are said to be, or that the technology considered “objective” also depends on commanders’ interpretation: Children playing on the roof are liable to be regarded as “scouts,” people trying to speak to their relatives over the phone are liable to be “signal operators for a terrorist brigade,” and families that went to the garden to feed the goats, squads of Qassam launchers.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/what-led-to-idf-bombing-house-full-of-civilians-during-gaza-war-1.320816
Smart Israeli missiles in Gaza / Flora Nicoletta
…It was a hot day. Emad was 37-year old and handsome. A white sheet covered part of his body. When Emad moved I saw for a second that he was completely naked and his two short stumps were enormous due to big bandages. The bandages were so big that no underpants could be worn by Emad. One night [in 2006] Emad was walking in the neighborhood of Shejayia in Gaza City. While he was speaking on his cell phone a missile was fired at him. His brothers explained me that inside such kind of missile there are some sort of turning knives which cut everything. The young man from Caritas took me to other rooms. That day I saw no less than twenty amputees, a living catalogue of horror.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m71094&hd=&size=1&l=e
Israelis fired 308 bullets aboard Gaza ship: general (Reuters)
Israeli commandos fired 308 live bullets aboard a Gaza-bound aid ship in May to repel passengers who attacked them with lethal weapons including a snatched Uzi machine pistol, Israel’s top general said on Sunday. In a sometimes testy second round of testimony before a state-appointed inquest, Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi insisted the navy’s killing of nine pro-Palestinian Turks on the converted cruise ship Mavi Marmara had been unavoidable.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69N0Q320101024
Israeli army chief back at inquiry
Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, the chief of staff, was called on by the Turkel Committee to testify again on Sunday after he refused to allow other senior Israeli officers to appear before the panel. He said he did not want to expose them to the risks their testimony could create for them. Al Jazeera’s correspondent Sherine Tadros, reporting from Jerusalem, said Ashkenazi “spent most of the morning defending and justifying the actions of his soldiers on board the Mavi [Marmara]”, the lead vessel … “They [soldiers] didn’t hurt those who didn’t need to be hurt,” she quoted Ashkenazi as saying.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/201010247514810856.html
Chief of staff: Soldiers who stole from Marmara ‘wild weeds’
Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said soldiers who stole from the Marmara during the IDF raid on the Gaza flotilla were “wild weeds.” Speaking before the Turkel Committee investigating the event, he said it harmed the IDF’s image and promised the army would deal with the issue
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973869,00.html
Arab-Israeli flotilla activists to testify (AFP)
Two Arab citizens of Israel who were on board a Gaza-bound aid ship seized in a deadly May 31 raid will testify before an Israeli commission investigating the botched operation, they said on Sunday. They will be the first and perhaps only activists who were aboard the ship to testify before the Tirkel Commission, established to probe the legality of the raid in which nine Turkish activists were shot dead. Mohammed Zedan and Sheikh Hamad Abu Daabis, who were on the deck of the lead ferry Mavi Marmara when it was seized in international waters with five other ships, had initially refused to testify.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101024/wl_mideast_afp/israelconflictgazaarab

in case you missed it (or even if you’ve seen it before)
Al Nakba (English) Part 1 – Al Jazeera
…first broadcast in Arabic on the 60th anniversary of the Palestinian catastrophe. It was translated into English in 2009 and then into four different languages: French, German, Spanish and Italian. Al Nakba won the prize for the best long documentary about Palestine in Al Jazeera Fifth International Film Festival (Doha/Qatar) and the audience award in Amal Ninth Euro-Arab Film Festival (Santiago/Spain). It participated in other film festivals in Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Jordan, Egypt and Palestine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm7dMhE80dw&p=30A8F80C4E383847
Political developments
Fatah official denies unity talks collapsing
Senior Fatah official Azzam Al-Ahmad on Saturday denied that a recent decision to cancel a visit by a Fatah delegation to Gaza was a sign that unity talks with Hamas were collapsing, Egyptian media reported. Al-Ahmad’s comments follow the postponement on Wednesday of what both parties have described as a final meeting to discuss the outstanding security issue before ratifying the Egyptian-backed unity deal in Cairo.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326812
Abbas welcomes Vatican call to end occupation
President Mahmoud Abbas and chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat welcomed Sunday the Vatican Synod’s call for an end to Israel’s occupation a day earlier, and urged further support for Palestinian Christians.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326959
Netanyahu to Palestinians: Unilateral actions will not advance peace process (Reuters)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the Palestinians on Sunday not to take unilateral steps towards statehood, saying Israel was working closely with Washington on ways to restart peace talks.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/netanyahu-to-palestinians-unilateral-actions-will-not-advance-peace-process-1.320878
Halt to Palestinian peace talks could be permanent (WaPo)
In perhaps the shortest round of peace negotiations in the history of their conflict, talks between the Israelis and Palestinians have ground to a halt and show little sign of resuming … The proximate cause of the breakdown is Israel’s decision not to extend a 10-month partial freeze of settlement building on Palestinian lands, but in the view of many analysts, the problems go much deeper. 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/23/AR2010102302576.html?wprss=rss_world/mideast
Palestinian Authority to gain security control over Ramallah
Ramallah – PNN – The Defense Ministry in Israel has written a preliminary plan to transfer the security control of Ramallah and some West Bank villages to the P.A. The plan to transfer the security control has been written up on a contingency basis, but would include the city of Ramallah and possible Beityuya, el-Bireh, and even Bir Zeit.  Some parts of the areas that are part of this plan are located in what is considered Area B, which is under Israeli security control according to the Oslo Accords.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8989&Itemid=61
Other news
Israel airs footage of nuclear reactor
TEL AVIV — Rare footage of an Israeli nuclear reactor in the Galilee was aired by Israeli TV on Saturday evening, marking the first time Israel’s nuclear facilities have been openly broadcast to the public … “This reactor’s role is to monitor nuclear experiments and activities taking place underground in the world,” said a female expert working at the reactor.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326860
Saudi payout eases Palestinian funding crisis: Fayyad
(Reuters) A pledge of $100 million from Saudi Arabia and other international aid is easing the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) financial crisis, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said on Sunday. The PA is relying on help from foreign backers to plug a budget deficit projected at $1.2 billion for 2010. The slow arrival of funds, especially from Arab states, has forced Fayyad to take austerity measures.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69N0NK20101024?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r4:c0.055556:b38641554:z0
Abu Libdeh: Rawabi can absorb settlement workers
PA National Economy Minister Hassan Abu Libdeh said Saturday that the first planned Palestinian city in Ramallah could be “a real opportunity to absorb Palestinian workers employed in settlements,” a statement read … In October, Israel’s environment minister said he would attempt to block Rawabi’s construction over concerns for the environment.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326843
Nablus: 3 hurt in explosion in building previously damaged by IDF
Three Palestinian residents of Nablus were moderately wounded when n explosion shook a building in the city. The explosion took place when the three workers, as part of renovation work, were taking down a ceiling that had been damaged during an IDF strike some eight years ago. Palestinian police closed off the area and began investigations.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3974119,00.html
Gaza liaison office broken into for third time
Unidentified assailants vandalized the Gaza crossings and coordination office near the northern Erez crossing in Gaza on Sunday morning, sources told Ma’an.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326978
Record-breaking tourism could spell problems for Israel
This month is shaping up to be the country’s best month for tourism in a decade, approaching the record set in October 1999 on the eve of the second intifada, with more than 1 million hotel nights.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/business/record-breaking-tourism-could-spell-problems-for-israel-1.320812

Analysis / Opinion / Human interest

Call it terror, not price tag / Zvi Bar’el
This is local terror with an instructive purpose – its goal is to terrorize the Palestinians and teach them to behave as the settlers believe they should. — Hebrew is a beautiful language. But it is also like a model whose golden days are behind her and must use pancake makeup to cover what age and strife have wrought. By way of example two terms that have become inseparable parts of the language, to the point that their real meanings has been forgotten: “price tag” and “neighbor procedure,” which gave birth to “child procedure.”
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/call-it-terror-not-price-tag-1.320819
What does online media do for Palestinians?
Comedian Mark Steel said that if the Israeli army blew up a cat’s home, the following day headlines would scream that the unfortunate animals were smuggling semtex for Hamas. Steel was referring to the Gaza flotilla and subsequent cover-up, but ironically that tragedy marked a tipping point away from Israeli PR hegemony. Today, there is more coverage from a Palestinian perspective than ever before.
http://palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1576
If the word ‘torture’ makes you feel bad…
…here’s a solution from boingboing: The New York Times Torture Euphemism Generator! by Rob Beschizza — Reading the NYT’s stories about the Iraq War logs, I was struck by how it could get through such gruesome descriptions — fingers chopped off, chemicals splashed on prisoners — without using the word ‘torture.’ For some reason the word is unavailable when it is literally meaningful, yet is readily tossed around for laughs in contexts where it means nothing at all. It turns out the NYT has a reputation for studiously avoiding the word, to the point of using bizarre bureaucratic alternatives.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m71101&hd=&size=1&l=e
US and Israel: Blinded by the right / Mark LeVine
Like the angry, self-loathing drunk unable to recognise himself in the The Who’s seminal anthem “Who Are You,” Americans and Israelis are reaching such depths of distrust and despair that the coarsest appeals to right wing identity politics – represented by the rise of the Tea Party and the current Netanyahu government – will ensure the perpetuation of policies that will doom both countries to an even darker future. In so doing they are moving so far from their founding ideals that it’s becoming impossible to recognise them anymore.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2010/10/20101021112057692436.html

Giant communal wedding comes to Nablus
Sidqi Musa — The cheers of a thousand Nablus families echoed around the Roman amphitheater in Gamal Abd al-Nasser Park. The podium was splayed with lights, chairs had been painted white, and there was a troupe of musicians in traditional dress to the left and a row of ancient arches in the background. All eyes were on the couples—all 25 of them.
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8981&Itemid=60

Iraq
from Al Jazeera’s The Secret Iraq Files: The War
Iraq files reveal checkpoint deaths
[with video] Almost 700 civilians, including pregnant women and the mentally ill, killed for coming too close to checkpoints … with more than 2,000 wounded.
http://english.aljazeera.net/secretiraqfiles/2010/10/2010102216241633174.html
‘Crazy Horse’ and collateral damage
Helicopter squadron that killed two Reuters journalists in 2007 was involved in other attacks that hurt civilians.
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/spotlight/2010/10/20101022165819333616.html
US turned blind eye to torture
An alleged militant identified only as “DAT 326” was detained by the Iraqi army on July 7, 2006 at a checkpoint in the town of Tarmiya, north of Baghdad. When US forces interrogated him later that night, he described hours of brutal abuse at the hands of the Iraqi soldiers, an allegation apparently backed by the findings of a medical exam … Since the alleged torture was committed by Iraqi forces, the US quickly dropped the case: “Due to no allegation or evidence of US involvement, a US investigation is not being initiated,” the report said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/secretiraqfiles/2010/10/20101022161828428516.html
Video: Al Jazeera interviews Julian Assange
Wikileaks founder speaks to Al Jazeera about new leaked documents on Iraq war.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m71096&hd=&size=1&l=e
Before WikiLeaks, Iraq war vets revealed war crimes / Laila Al-Arian
…The leaked reports back up what Iraq war veterans have been telling journalists for years, only to be ignored by the mainstream media. In the summer of 2006, journalist Chris Hedges and I began interviewing combat veterans who served in Iraq about their experiences there, focusing on civilian deaths – and they recounted stories, many in graphic detail, that are now corroborated by the military documents.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m71111&hd=&size=1&l=e
The shaming of America / Robert Fisk
As usual, the Arabs knew. They knew all about the mass torture, the promiscuous shooting of civilians, the outrageous use of air power against family homes, the vicious American and British mercenaries, the cemeteries of the innocent dead. All of Iraq knew. Because they were the victims. Only we could pretend we did not know. Only we in the West could counter every claim, every allegation against the Americans or British with some worthy general – the ghastly US military spokesman Mark Kimmitt and the awful chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Peter Pace, come to mind – to ring-fence us with lies.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m71107&hd=&size=1&l=e
Assange defends leaks, and says more will come / Jonathan Owen
Whistleblower fights back against attacks from the US government  …
Speaking in Washington, the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, said she condemned the disclosure of any classified information that threatened national security, or put at risk the lives of coalition forces or civilians. Stung by the criticisms, Mr Assange fought back yesterday, accusing the Pentagon of trying to issue “deceptive statements to fool the press into reporting something that is just not true”. And despite fears that the release of tens of thousands of Afghan war files earlier this year, complete with names of informants, would result in revenge attacks, there has yet to be a single death as a result of the revelations, WikiLeaks pointed out.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m71106&hd=&size=1&l=e
Al Jazeera video: Blackwater in Iraq
The Iraq war documents from WikiLeaks contain details of the shocking activities of Blackwater mercenaries in Iraq.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m71102&hd=&size=1&l=e
Xe (Blackwater) operations in Pakistan
It was not surprisingly that the National Assembly Standing Committee on Interior expressed disbelief at the Interior Ministry’s false confirmation that there was no Blackwater operating in the country. Members of the Standing Committee rightly said that it was impossible to ignore its presence in Pakistan.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m71103&hd=&size=1&l=e
Iraq parliament ordered to convene
Iraq’s supreme court has ordered parliament to convene, nearly eight months after inconclusive elections left the country without a new government. The court on Sunday said legislators’ self-declared absence “violated the constitution”.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010102413248997227.html

Leaked Iraq documents cause neither shock nor awe in Arab world / Zvi Bar’el
It seems that the real task of the U.S. administration will be in the realm of American public opinion, rather than the Arab governments and people.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/leaked-iraq-documents-cause-neither-shock-nor-awe-in-arab-world-1.320794
WikiLeaks reports of abuse by Iraqi forces deepens political divide in Iraq / Lara Jakes
BAGHDAD — Reports of brutality and torture of fellow Iraqis at the hands of government forces threw the country’s political scene into turmoil Saturday with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki attacking the leak as an attempt to malign him, and his rivals citing the documents as proof he is unfit to lead.
http://uruknet.info/?p=m71099&hd=&size=1&l=e
Maliki supporters say WikiLeaks revelations a plot (AFP)
Supporters of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki are convinced the WikiLeaks release of secret US military documents is a plot to undermine his bid to stay in power following March elections. “Maliki’s office destabilised by WikiLeaks revelations,” ran a headline in Sunday’s independent Al-Mada daily.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20101024/wl_mideast_afp/usiraqmilitaryinternetwikileakspolitics
Nouri al-Maliki’s ‘detention squad’
Reports show US worried that Iraqi prime minister uses his political power to crack down on rivals.
http://english.aljazeera.net/secretiraqfiles/2010/10/201010237530782302.html
Other Mideast
Poll success for Bahrain Shia bloc
Bahrain’s main Shi`a Muslim opposition group has won nearly half of the seats in parliament in an election it says was marred by irregularities … Bahrain is one of the few Arab states with a Shi`a majority, though it is dominated by Sunni Muslims.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/2010102475648379231.html
Far-right parties oppose EU membership for Turkey (AP)
Members said Turkey has no place in Europe and that citizens should be allowed to weigh in on the matter.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/far-right-parties-oppose-eu-membership-for-turkey-1.320838
Iran parliament rejects talks on uranium enrichment suspension (dpa)
Iran likely to meet with major Western powers in Vienna next month, but sides differ on what meeting’s agenda should include.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/iran-parliament-rejects-talks-on-uranium-enrichment-suspension-1.320865
Iran restricts social sciences seen as ‘Western’ (AP)
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran has imposed new restrictions on 12 university social sciences deemed to be based on Western schools of thought and therefore incompatible with Islamic teachings, state radio reported Sunday. The list includes law, philosophy, management, psychology, political science and the two subjects that appear to cause the most concern among Iran’s conservative leadership — women’s studies and human rights.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3974198,00.html
Thief’s hand ‘cut off in front of prisoners’ (AP)
Authorities in Iran have amputated the hand of a convicted thief in front of other prisoners, state radio is reporting. The report did not identify the 32-year-old convict, whose hand was reportedly cut off in the central city of Yazad, or provide details of his crime.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/thiefs-hand-cut-off-in-front-of-prisoners-2115267.html
Iran, trying to skirt sanctions, attempts to set up banks worldwide (WaPo)
Iran is secretly trying to set up banks in Muslim countries around the world, including Iraq and Malaysia, using dummy names and opaque ownership structures to skirt sanctions that have increasingly curtailed the Islamic republic’s global banking activities, U.S. officials say.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/20/AR2010102006139.html?wprss=rss_world/mideast
IMF urges Middle East job creation
The International Monetary Fund has said that the Middle East economies are likely to grow roughly twice as fast over the next two years as they did in 2009. However, the organisation said on Sunday that more needs to be done by the region to diversify its economies and create jobs.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/20101024104139929285.html
Yemen ‘terror’ suspect in new video
A new video featuring Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American religious scholar who is on a US government kill or capture list, has been posted on the internet … In April, a US official said the administration of Barack Obama, the US president, had authorised the targeted killing of Al-Awlaki, after American intelligence agencies concluded the Muslim religious scholar was directly involved in anti-US plots.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/20101023195023236641.html
Modern threat to Syria’s ancient Aleppo soap industry
(Reuters) The deep perfume of olive and laurel oil hangs in the air of old Aleppo, home to an ancient soap industry that has enjoyed a renaissance since the government lifted crippling trade bans in the last five years.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE69L1ID20101022
U.S., other world news
FBI tracking device found on another Arab-American
19 Oct – …Veena Dubal, a staff attorney with the Asian Law Caucus in San Francisco, has said that one of her clients had found a similar tracking device on his car in 2009. “I have an elderly Arab American client who was attending a free workshop on how to be a mechanic, and they were using his car as the demonstration car for an oil change,” she says. “In the middle of the class, the instructor stopped and said, ‘Oh my God, there’s a bomb in the car.’ So everyone evacuated. But it wasn’t a bomb. It was a tracking device. You can imagine how humiliating this was for my client. Everyone was looking at him like he was a terrorist and like he was going to blow them up.”
http://www.illumemag.com/zine/articleDetail.php?FBI-Tracking-Device-Found-on-Another-Arab-American-13351
Blair’s sister-in-law converts to Islam
The sister-in-law of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has converted to Islam after having a “holy experience” in Iran, British media reported on Sunday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326917
 
www.TheHeadlines.org

Vatican synod comes out strong for Palestinian rights

Oct 24, 2010

Joseph Glatzer 

I grew up Catholic and although I haven’t been to church in a long time; I would be lying if I said this doesn’t speak very powerfully to me.

The Quotes Speak for Themselves:

“The Holy Scriptures cannot be used to justify the return of Jews to Israel and the displacement of the Palestinians, to justify the occupation by Israel of Palestinian lands,” Monsignor Cyril Salim Bustros, Greek Melkite archbishop of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Boston, Massachusetts, and president of the “Commission for the Message,” said at Saturday’s Vatican press conference.

“We Christians cannot speak of the ‘promised land’ as an exclusive right for a privileged Jewish people. This promise was nullified by Christ. There is no longer a chosen people – all men and women of all countries have become the chosen people.

The good Bishop went further; into what was in effect an endorsement of a one state solution.

“Even if the head of the Israeli state is Jewish, the future is based on democracy.

The Palestinian refugees will eventually come back and this problem will have to be solved,” the Lebanese-born Bustros said.

Israel’s ambassador to the Holy See, Mordechay Lewy’s thought provoking and nuanced response:

“by inviting all Palestinian refugees to return and denying Israel’s right to define itself a Jewish state – the only such in the world – he is regressing to hard-line positions that deny Israel’s right to exist.”

One of the most powerful organizations in the world, the Catholic Church, has called Israel’s founding myth “nullified”.  So, what is the response of Israel?  That the Bishops are Jew-baiting hard-liners.  Awesome. 

Unfortunately, the document released to the public did contain a plea for the “two state solution”:

In their “Appeal to the International Community” the bishops expressed “hopes that the two-state solution becomes a reality and not only a dream.”

The Catholics continued:

The document calls for “taking the necessary legal steps to put an end to the occupation of the different Arab territories” as well as “an end to the consequences of the deadly war in Iraq” and promotion of “basic public freedoms” and “sovereignty” in Lebanon.

What impact will this have?  Will people like my war loving devout Catholic sister change her views on the occupations of the Middle East? I don’t know.  I think it’s one of many drops in the bucket which will eventually give way to the flood we’ve all been waiting for.

When will US publications follow ‘Haaretz’ in describing the ‘terrorism’ of the occupation?

Oct 24, 2010

Philip Weiss

Zvi Bar’el in Haaretz, on the euphemisms of occupation– “price tag” violence– and the habit of committing crimes with impunity:

“The terrorism of the settlers and the crimes of the army–even if soldiers are occasionally prosecuted–have become so banal that few are upset by them.”

My pacifist lament

Oct 24, 2010

Peter Voskamp 

One morning not long ago our tiny apartment began to shudder as if an earthquake were descending from above. My 14-month-old daughter scurried about, frightened and confused. Mom and dad looked on helplessly as the noise rattled our innards.

It turns out we were being buzzed by a trio of military helicopters flying extraordinarily low — White House Marine-1’s returning from Martha’s Vineyard, we were told.

Cool, right? 

Actually, those few disorienting minutes bordered on the terrifying. A physical intrusion; a kind of violation; our own little taste of “shock and awe.” It invited an angry, if reflexive, response. Imagine if every day your family lived with something similar, but with the added potential for death and destruction?

Soon after that flyover the president announced the end of combat in Iraq, and I thought back to opening day in 2003. A masochistic friend had insisted we watch the highlights via Fox. Though I try to avoid de rigueur condemnation of Murdoch’s network, I have to say the coverage that night smacked of a bloodthirsty circle jerk — the commentators barely containing their excitement as the tanks rolled toward Baghdad, like kickoff at the Super Bowl.

After seven years covering that conflict, a veteran New York Times reporter offered up a kind of mea culpa — confessing that neither he nor his many colleagues guessed at the carnage that would follow the U.S. invasion. Astounding. An invader came and filled the night with missiles and deafening explosions; munitions kill, they eviscerate. They were not invited.

How could anyone be surprised there was an insurgency? As Steven Walt said at the Naval War College four years ago: no one likes to be told what to do by a foreign soldier with a gun. There is an instinct to push back. In letters to various English newspapers during the Vietnam War, novelist and former intelligence agent Graham Greene repeatedly decried the needless carnage, all the while poking tongue-in-cheek fun at his “naiveté.” Fully aware of the geo-political chess game at play, Greene would not stop pointing out the emperor’s pants were bloody.

And, of course, the history books ended up vindicating him and countless others who protested the war.

This is a process that seems to repeat itself like an awful joke: thousands — out of innate common sense and decency — cry out against impending military folly, and only after the bloodbath do the official histories quietly agree they were in the main right.

Most agree the Gulf of Tonkin incident did not quite occur as sold, President Johnson; no WMDs, Secretary Powell and Ms. Miller (though, I suspect they probably knew that).

And Wikileaks reported the thousands of civilian deaths in Afghanistan, with little progress to show for the billions spent and coalition lives lost. And yesterday Wikileaks again confirmed our worst fears about the horrors that took place in Iraq. 

And the IDF essentially validated Goldstone’s Gaza findings, after all the dturm und drang purporting he was an anti-semite.

History shows us what happens to human nature once dogs of war are unleashed. A German friend expressed shock at the Abu Ghraib torture. I was shocked he was shocked. Don’t we know by now that this is what happens in war — regardless of your flag or uniform?

In a 2004 Guardian interview Paul Fussell called the Abu Ghraib torture “absolutely predictable — it’s usually practiced by soldiers upon other soldiers.” He told how his own battalion murdered surrendering Germans in World War Two. Fussell, in a remarkable 1989 Atlantic piece, is the antithesis of Tom Brokaw as he cold bloodedly recounts his combat experience and dismisses wholesale any attempt to glorify war. He points to its essential insanity and states that nations that work to convince their young to kill en masse are rationalizing the irrational.

My father once said he was disappointed he’d never experienced combat. A great-uncle, who served as a medic at Anzio Beach and was as conservative a Texan as you could ever meet, could only shake his head.

When I told a Vietnam vet the story he said, “That’s like wishing you could be in a car accident.”

Legal constructs also become less fixed once bullets start to fly. The public becomes desensitized to outrages by degrees. 

I remember when the media first began matter-of-factly reporting extra-judicial assassination by drone of alleged terrorists and insurgents in Iraq. I looked around dumbstruck, like I’d just seen an alien walk by and no one else noticed: since when does America fight that way?

Now it’s the tactic of choice in Afghanistan and Pakistan — and not even under the control of the military, but the ever-so-transparent and accountable CIA.

The press has only recently started wondering aloud if such a practice is cricket.

Marx said the revolution would come once the workers secured the means of production. But perhaps the revolution happens when the public secures the means of communication, as witnessed by the Wikileaks events.

Alex Jones, the excitable conspiracy theorist whose views I shall not attempt to defend, was at least correct in naming his website “Infowars.” Indeed, whom should we trust for our news?

The Wikileaks releases are a hybrid of the new and the old journalism — each acknowledges the utility of the other; Wikileaks has the goods and the New York Times, Guardian and Der Spiegel, the imprimatur.

One of the more curious responses to the first Wikileaks brouhaha was the claim that it was nothing we didn’t know already — a simultaneously odd accusation and defense.

A guest op-ed in the Times said we already knew war is awful, and it’s not news that civilians get killed… it always happens. And, furthermore, reporting such is dangerous: “Your reporting on our killing people could get people killed.”

We know these things, yet we still carry forth and commit them. Martin Luther King famously said that the arc of history bends toward justice. That line was reportedly embroidered in the new carpet for the Oval Office.

Obama, in his maddening acceptance speech in Oslo — both uncommonly inspirational while also ultimately disappointing, much like his presidency to date — pointed to the irrational human condition. For the time being, he seemed to say, we are hardwired for war. He touched upon a statistic that was repeated in yesterday’s Wikileaks coverage in the New York Times: in recent wars citizen casualties outnumber those of military personnel 10 to one.

I recognize mine is the pacifist lament of someone who, per Orwell, needs rough men to defend him when things get ugly. But as a new father, and with the sabers rattling again over Iran, I must lodge my protest. 

Swetlana Geier, 87, is a leading translator of Dostoyevsky from Russian to German.

Her father died of torture, a victim of Stalin’s political purging. Asked by Der Spiegel to compare the Soviet and Nazi regimes, she said: “I’ve found that murder is murder, regardless of the ideology behind it. And that is a notion that is lost in this day and age. There is no purpose or ideology that can justify horrific, unjust acts. Read Dostoyevsky. These are age-old, ancient questions. And mankind seems increasingly less capable of solving them.”

Perhaps you read the pieces on anosognosia in the Times, a condition where someone is somehow too dim to understand when he or she is doing something wrong. Too stupid to see they’re stupid.

Certainly this can be observed on a larger scale. Populations can be swayed to do horrific things, quite often against their own best interest; the advertising industry grew out of propaganda lessons learned in the First World War, that war to end all wars. 

There are obvious examples of collective insanity, like the Hollywood echo chamber that convinces seemingly intelligent people to undergo pricy self-mutilation to restore the tight-fleshed glory of their youth — and they look in the mirror afterward and actually believe it worked.

Ah, the St. Vitus dances of old, where everyone went inexplicably nuts all at once; and the Tanganyika Laughing Epidemic. These are considered examples of mass psychogenic illness. But nations devoting trillions toward being prepared to kill millions is the acme of sanity – of civilization.

I was pleasantly surprised by the New Yorker response to the first Wikileaks release. Rather than smugly dismiss it from on high, the publication said, essentially, “Whatever: perhaps the lesson should be to end the war in Afghanistan.” And yesterday’s revelations only make heartbreakingly clear that the Iraq adventure was horrifically misguided.

Which is what many of us thought before it began.

So many fought the wars

What was that all for?

They said “between good and evil”

Well, I think they lied a little…

Karl Wallinger, “Rolling Off a Log”

Michael Moore and Catholic church are new front in effort to mainline opposition to Israeli occupation

Oct 24, 2010

Geoffrey Gray 

Michael Moore has a post in the Huffington Post that now has over 4000 replies. It is about occupation of Muslim countries, mainly Iraq and Afghanistan by the US. But one of the quotes in his piece (from Faisal Shahzad of Times Square case) mentions Palestine along with Iraq and Afghanistan. I see this as pretty big. He is putting down some breadcrumbs that leads the average guy to see the evil consequences of a foreign policy based on occupation and it puts I/P in a broader context. What Moore is doing is bringing an understanding of I/P via the back door.

Also see Catholic bishops condemning occupation in strong terms and condemning the use of the bible to justify the occupation. “…the bishops and patriarchs of the region’s Catholic churches called on the international community to take ‘the necessary legal steps to put an end to the occupation of the different Arab territories’”. I think the Catholic church’s getting public on this is pretty big. Pelosi, Boehner and all the other so called Catholic congress people will have to look at this in the face.

The Israel lobby is just icing on the imperial cake

Oct 24, 2010

David Green 

Readers of this site know that co-editor Weiss is religious about the Israel lobby as the driver of American policy in the Middle East. David Green is an Illinois activist who disagrees. His response to Weiss’s latest claim re the lobby:

As a leftist critic of U.S. foreign policy, I subscribe to the long-term historical analyses of people like William Appleman Williams, Gabriel Kolko, Walter LaFeber, Howard Zinn, and Noam Chomsky. These policies, since at least 1898 and especially since WWII, have been driven by the imperative to incorporate as much of the world and its resources as possible into a system that is to the benefit of broad corporate interests. Clearly, the rise of a military-industrial complex, with its own interests, has accompanied this process.

In this context, there are several general things to say about the Israel Lobby. 

First, the Lobby clearly hasn’t challenged or undermined these central economic interests, whatever the internal conflicts among those interests; that is, the control of oil proceeds apace, with Israel’s support as a “cop on the best” in the Middle East.

Second, the Lobby (a lot of privileged people) itself represents aspects of various economic interests–in both the U.S. and Israel, especially in relation to the military-industrial complex in both countries. 

Third, the Lobby’s propaganda and influence in the media does the same thing that all mainstream propaganda does–obscures the nature of those economic interests, substituting instead moralistic rhetoric and evoking fear of the “other.” The fundamental nature of our resources wars cannot be acknowledged. While the Lobby has taught the mainstream media a thing or two about obfuscation and mendacity (I guess), they haven’t exactly invented any new techniques. All of the cultural superiority and moralizing that now goes along with Jews, the Holocaust, Israel, and the Islamic world is in no way of a different order than propaganda from Walter Lippmann’s “manufacture of consent” against the Hun (WWI) to the present. 

More specifically, I am responding to Nir Rosen’s assertions at a public appearance, assertions that are based on his journalistic experience. I have the greatest respect for Rosen’s work, but I have no way to evaluate his conclusion that he is “under less condemnation” for criticizing the American occupation (Iraq, Afghanistan) than Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and that Rosen’s editors are more accepting of the former. These are vague generalizations based on personal experience, and even if they were copiously documented, I don’t see how they would lead to any conclusion regarding the relationship between the Israel Lobby and those editors or media outlets, especially in relation to the mainstream media.

Regarding the mainstream media, it would never for a minute have occurred to me to even try to detect anything more than trivial or anecdotal differences among the dehumanization of Arabs in Afghanistan, Iraq, or Palestine, given the varied circumstances of occupation, war, and colonization. Further, I would have no idea how to relate any such alleged media differences to the influence of the Lobby, other than to state the obvious point that the Lobby focuses more intensely on Israel/Palestine.

Let’s not forget that the millions of Iraqis that have been killed or died “un-natural” deaths as a result of U.S. policies over the past 20-30 years dwarfs the number of Palestinians killed (even since 1947), however brutal and intensified Israel’s control of the Palestinian people. That’s because Iraq is where the oil is, and a lot more people also happen to be there. Lies are lies, whether they involve genocides, expulsions, occupations, or wars. I don’t see any aspect of the mainstream media, regardless of the influence of the Lobby, telling the substantive, non-trivial truth about any of this. It simply can’t, by its very nature, even think of attempting this, and the Lobby–for all its creativity–is just icing on the cake; not to dismiss the icing, especially for Jews themselves, especially liberal Jews, who in their own ironic way, from Martin Peretz to Eric Alterman, need to hear more clever and sanctimonious lies in order to keep the faith (forget about Peretz for a while, and see Alterman’s depredations in this week’s The Nation). 

It is further claimed that we are willing to deal with Iraqi insurgents and the Taliban, and not with the Palestinians. But on the one hand, we have to deal with the Iraqi insurgents/Taliban, because dealing with the puppets wasn’t/isn’t working in our “interests.” But the point is to recruit better puppets. We have “only permanent interests, not permanent allies.” On the other hand, we do in fact also deal with the Palestinian puppets, until they get uppity. It’s not at all clear that it is in our “interests” to have a just settlement in Israel and Palestine (as opposed to ramming a Bantustan down their throats). Until then, the American/Israeli divide-and-conquer strategy is not an accident, and indeed is not exactly a new tactic in the annals of colonialism.

In any event, I don’t see how these differences in geopolitical conflicts, history, strategy, and tactics among these various countries can possibly be attributed to the determining influence of the Israel Lobby. As Chomsky repeatedly says, it’s not that we hate the Palestinians; they’re just not politically important enough to care about; they have “negative rights.” But certainly, the Lobby will keep demonizing Hamas until the pragmatics change, just as they changed with Arafat.

It’s also claimed that Obama ran in opposition to the Iraq war, but couldn’t criticize Israel’s assault in Gaza in 2008-09. I don’t however see Obama as a principled opponent to the Iraq war; it was a political ploy to disarm the antiwar left. All of this should now be obvious, and for Obama it “worked.” Obama is down with the whole USFP program, including Israel. In political and strategic terms, both in relation to capitalism, election, and re-election, he actually truly (that is, calculatedly, greedily, cynically) supports Israel as an occupying, hyper-militarized but subservient ally, which again is vital to U.S. interests in the region. The Lobby hasn’t made him do it.

That’s because Obama is a skilled politician in a capitalist country and leader of the world’s only superpower. The influence of the Lobby could only possibly explain relatively marginal decisions and behavior. The air of American geopolitical control of the region is the air he breathes (read the Audacity of Hope), and that air doesn’t go uncirculated around Israel and Palestine. Nor is it clear where American interests stop and Israeli interests start, especially in relation to our inter-locking military-industrial complexes. 

It is asked “how come liberals in the mainstream can criticize U.S. policy but not Israel?” But they indeed criticize both, but in ways that don’t challenge the assumptions regarding the interests of either, and the relationships of those (elite, corporate) interests to those of “average” (no less impoverished) citizens of those countries. In fact, some op-ed columns critical of Israel (Rashid Khalidi, for example) are more profoundly critical than anything one will see regarding our wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, no less our policies in Latin America (what Lobby prevents support for Chavez?). Such criticism of Israel is of course carefully contextualized to “let off steam” (and support claims to a superficial “balance”) while not challenging the fundamental, implicit context created by the NYT, etc., both in its reporting and on its opinion pages.

As I’ve repeatedly said, to over-estimate and misconstrue the power of the Israel Lobby is a profound analytical mistake that leads to damaging strategic and tactical mistakes by failing to confront the reality that U.S. foreign policy fundamentally supports Israel as part of elite, corporate, and military-industrial economic interests; and thus failing to respond realistically and effectively.

Capitalism is complicated, but it all revolves around profits and violence in support of those profits. The future of the Palestinian people depends greatly on Americans dealing with their own politicians and their own government. This is not to say that the Palestinians should have to wait until we overthrow capitalism (although that would be nice); but it’s important to recognize from which enemies will have to be gained strategic and tactical victories; and only with the help of popular, public support, which has grown dramatically in recent years, and is now being frittered away by emphasis on the power of the Lobby.

However, none of this diminishes the need for aggressively countering the Lobby’s tactics and lies, especially in relation to Jewish institutions, which I’ve been doing on a regular and incessant basis in Urbana-Champaign for the past 12 years. Nor is any of this a general brief against BDS tactics that focus on our own responsibilities, such as those in the land of Caterpillar.

Zionism is indeed an “anachronistic ideology,” and Jewish institutions should be directly challenged in their assumed and subservient support of it. As a formerly affiliated Reform Jew, the inbred arrogance and racism is of course appalling. Nevertheless, I would re-iterate that American support for Israel goes well beyond Jewish institutional support, and that Palestinians and their American supporters, Jewish or otherwise, shouldn’t have to wait for these “anachronistic” (I guess), but at another level crassly self-interested and corrupt institutions, to get their acts together in order to have an effective movement.

The truth is, they never will, except in a radically changed political environment, and those who support the Palestinians have to seriously consider de-emphasizing what are essentially reactive and ineffective tactics based on the fallacy that Jews dictate American policies toward Israel.

David Green (davegreen84@yahoo.com) is a 60-year-old Jewish-American who lives in Champaign, IL.

Int’l visitors to Gaza lecture Hamas about Gilad Shalit, but fail to protest Israel’s 8000 Palestinian prisoners

Oct 24, 2010

Kate 

and other news from Today in Palestine:

Settlers / Land, property and resource theft & destruction / Ethnic cleansing
W. Bank Palestinian cemetery desecrated
The Muslim cemetery at Kafr Qaddum, a West Bank village located some eight miles west of Nablus, was vandalized Friday. Security forces called to the scene found several headstones desecrated with “Kahane was right” slogans, hailing Rabbi Meir Kahane, the late leader of the radical Kach movement, and Stars of David. IDF forces launched an investigation and together with Civil Administration officers, erased the slogans.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973450,00.html
IDF boosts presence near Kafr Qaddum
Vandalism of West Bank village’s cemetery prompts military to deploy forces in the area to prevent further provocation by settlers [after all, it looks bad in the world press]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973505,00.html
Settlers attack Palestinian farmers in Deir Ibzi
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers while they were picking olives on Friday, onlookers said. Settlers from the Dolab outpost made the farmers leave as they threw stones before stealing their olives, according to Deir Ibzi locals. One of the farmers said the settlers came by car to the area and as soon as they arrived they threw stones. The farmers were not able to take any of their belongings or olives with them, they said. He said that his family believed residents of the nearby illegal settlements of Eli and Ma’ale Levona were responsible for the attack. Settlers have destroyed thousands of olive trees across the West Bank since the olive harvest began in early October.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326563
Report: Settlers chop down 40 olive trees
Israeli settlers cut down and damaged 40 olive trees on Saturday in the northern West Bank village of Al-Lubban Ash-Sharqiya, southwest of Nablus city, locals said. Akram Jamil Uweis, whose family owns the trees, said his family headed to the field early Saturday morning to harvest olives, and found 40 trees had been chopped down, but their olives had not been harvested.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326622
Settlers gather on hilltop overlooking village
Locals said Friday that a number settlers amassed on a hilltop overlooking a village north of Qalqiliya. Kafr Qaddum villagers, in a bid to protect property, also amassed in the area. The settlers’ intentions were not immediately clear, and there were no immediate reports of injury or damage.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326575
Settlers rebuild outpost south of Bethlehem
Israeli settlers rebuilt an outpost Friday near the Beit Ha’een settlement southwest of Bethlehem. It was demolished last week on the grounds that it did not have backing from the state. Israeli officials said the settlers were determined to rebuild any demolished structure.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326502
World Vision condemns attack on West Bank girls’ school
A girls’ school in northern West Bank was found damaged by fire and vandalized Wednesday with Hebrew graffiti reading “regards from the hills.” … While Israeli police are investigating, World Vision, which has ties to the school, released a statement condemning the attack on the Essawieh Girls Secondary School in Nablus … The Christian humanitarian group is particularly concerned about the inflammatory overtones of the attack, which included intimidating slogans spray-painted in Hebrew over the door, and the fact that the attack targeted a children’s institution.
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20101022/world-vision-condemns-attack-on-west-bank-girls-school/
Carter: Sheikh Jarrah evictions are against international law
Carter spoke at a weekly demonstration held in the East Jerusalem neighborhood by Israeli and Palestinian left-wing activists, protesting a Jewish takeover of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/carter-sheikh-jarrah-evictions-are-against-international-law-1.320676
PA says Israel hogging water resources (AFP)
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad says Palestinian water consumption well below World Health Organization’s recommendations; says Israel allowing PA access to only 10% of water resources
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973487,00.html
Photoessay: Treasure house under threat / Eva Bartlett
(IPS) Few outside of Gaza would consider its history much beyond the decades of Israeli occupation. But Gaza is a historical treasure house. Many of those treasures are now in Israeli museums, and those that remain are becoming difficult to preserve due to the Israeli siege … “Israel’s goal is a blackout on Palestine’s history and culture,” says Ashoor. “Israel wants outsiders to think only that Gaza is a depressing, dangerous place devoid of culture, history and beauty, and that the main theme here is humanitarian aid.”
http://ingaza.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/treasure-house-under-threat/
Violence
Israeli settlers attack a Palestinian boy and two internationals in South Hebron Hills
At-Tuwani – On Thursday, 21st October, at around 9.20 am, two Operation Dove volunteers, coming back to the village of At-Tuwani after having visited some Palestinian families in the village of Tuba, were attacked by Israeli settlers from the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on (Hill 833) .Later on, a few minutes after 1 pm in the same area, there was a similar attack on a Palestinian boy walking back home through the path on Meshaha hill.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/10/15161/
Activism / Solidarity
Report from beyond the Green Line: Al Ma`sara celebrates four years of joint struggle and houses set on fire in Nabi Saleh
The unarmed and largely non-violent protests against the occupation returned to the West Bank on Friday. From Al Ma’asara to Sheikh Jarrah to Ni’ilin, Palestinians joined by Israeli and international supporters demonstrated against the occupation and for joint struggle against Israeli repression of non-violence in Palestine. The following is a collection of reports from certain villages complete with photos and video.
http://josephdana.com/2010/10/report-from-beyond-the-green-line-al-ma%E2%80%99asara-celebrates-four-years-of-joint-struggle-and-houses-set-on-fire-from-tear-gas-in-nabi-saleh/
Israeli artist: IDF an army of evil
Israeli artists join MachsomWatch tour of West Bank villages; slam IDF policies in crossings, say soldiers ‘have no idea how bestial their behavior is’ …Among the artists taking part in Friday’s tour were actors Oded Kotler and Amnon Meskin and directors Ati Zitron and Ram Levy … “I knew of these things, buy I had no idea how horrible they really were,” said Meskin.  The little things, like the handicapped path at a crossing that remains closed because they can’t find the key to it, or the soldiers’ contradicting orders – one telling a Palestinian to stand, the other telling him to sit.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973465,00.html
8 countries absent from OECD tourism conference
Norway, Canada, Ireland, the UK, Sweden, Iceland, Turkey and South Africa will not be present at the OECD tourism conference to be held in Jerusalem this month despite objections from the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian civil society groups said Thursday … Some of the eight countries have explained their withdrawals were political in nature … In a blow to the credibility of the conference at which officials were to discuss tourism policy, a majority of invited countries did not send tourism ministers but sent low-ranking officials instead.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326263
Photo diary: the big day – entry into Gaza! / New Zealand activists
… 7.03pm:  Chris — Thousands of people cram the streets of Gaza City. They are ecstatic. “Welcome! Welcome!” they shout. Kids are pushing forward onto the road. I have to drive carefully to avoid hitting anyone in the crush. People on motorbikes are yelling, “Thank you! Thank you for coming to Gaza!” Everyone wants to touch me.
http://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/the-big-day-%E2%80%93-entry-into-gaza/
Detention
PSP: Israel detains 2 from Beit Ummar homes
The Palestine Solidarity project said Saturday that Israel detained two Palestinians after breaking into their homes in the southern West Bank district of Hebron. PSP spokesman Mohammad Ayyad Awad said forces entered the village in the morning and detained 16-year-old Allam Yousef Baser Az-Za’qiq and Muhanad Yousef Mohsen Awad, 18, both of whom are members of the popular committee against settlements and the wall.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326750
Haniyeh: World must act to free prisoners
…At a conference in Gaza City, the Hamas leader noted that every visitor to the Gaza Strip talked about captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit but ignored more than 8,000 Palestinian prisoners detained by Israel.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326745
Gaza ministry releases 20 prisoners
The Gaza government’s ministry of interior released 20 prisoners at the request of visiting aid convoy Viva Palestinian on Saturday, the minister announced … Those released, the minister said, had completed two-thirds of their terms and had been sentenced on criminal indictments. “They are not political prisoners … there are no political prisoners in Gaza’s jails,” he said, reiterating an earlier statement made by Haniyeh.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326789
Siege / Restriction of movement / Rights violations
Ramallah court gives Gazans the right to stay
The Palestinian Supreme Court in Ramallah decided Friday that Palestinians from Gaza who are living in the West Bank can transfer their residency status, allowing thousand of previously restricted Palestinians to move freely within the West Bank. Palestinians whose ID card shows an address in Gaza risk being deported to Gaza if they pass an Israeli checkpoint in the West Bank, even if they have been living in the West Bank for many years, and have family and a job here. [and will the Israelis agree to this?]
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326599
Gaza crossings closed for 48 hours
Israeli authorities decided to close all crossings into and out of the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official said Friday. Raed Fattouh said the southern Kerem Shalom and the northern Karni crossings would be closed Friday and Saturday and reopen Sunday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326421
306 Palestinians denied travel at Rafah crossing
Gaza government officials said 306 Gaza residents were denied entry to Egypt through the Rafah crossing last week. Border officials said 1822 Palestinians returned to Gaza through the terminal, while 1611 traveled to Egypt … Crossings officials said the Erez pedestrian crossing between northern Gaza and Israel was partially open during the week, recording the exit of 552 Gaza residents, 219 foreign nationals, and 35 Palestinians with Israeli citizenship.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326679
War crimes
It was the Gaza assault’s worst atrocity. Now the truth may finally be told / Donald Macintyre
Israeli military police are investigating whether an air strike which killed 21 members of the same family sheltering in a building during the Army’s Gaza offensive in 2008-9 was authorised by a senior brigade commander who had been warned of the danger to civilians … The missile attack, which also injured 19 people, came early in the ground offensive. According to many Palestinian witnesses, it came after troops in the Givati brigade ordered dozens of family members, including women and children, to move to the building the previous day.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/it-was-the-gaza-assaults-worst-atrocity-now-the-truth-may-finally-be-told-2114250.html
IDF commander questioned over Gaza killing
Colonel Ilan Malka, who headed Givati Brigade during Operation Cast Lead, tells Military Police investigators he was unaware of civilians’ presence in building while approving Air Force bombing, which left 21 family members dead. ‘Don’t turn him into a scapegoat,’ senior officer says in his defense
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973310,00.html
Justice, Israeli style / Sherine Tadros
“Does anyone know the Hebrew word for ‘occupation’?” A question from the state assigned Hebrew translator to the packed out courtroom. And that kicked off the trial into the killing of US activist Rachel Corrie, which took her family seven years to secure. Today, several months later, we were back at Haifa District Court to hear from the Israeli soldier who was driving the bulldozer that killed Rachel whilst she was peacefully protesting against Palestinian home demolitions in Gaza in 2003 … I can’t tell you the driver’s name (there is a gag order) but I can say that he is a Russian immigrant to Israel that, ironically, shares the same birthday as Rachel.
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/10/21/justice-israeli-style
Hamas scatters ashes of Gaza-bound flotilla dead on graves
Gaza – Members of the Islamic Hamas movement Saturday scattered ashes from the nine Turkish activists killed by Israeli naval forces during the interception of their Gaza-bound flotilla on the graves of Hamas militants killed in Gaza. The dust of the Turkish activists was brought to Gaza by campaigners from the aid convoy Lifeline 5 – which arrived in the coastal enclave on Thursday, Hamas officials said.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/middleeast/news/article_1593605.php/Hamas-scatters-ashes-of-Gaza-bound-flotilla-dead-on-graves
Racism / Attacks on democracy
Association for civil rights in Israel on democracy’s heart attack / Jesse Bacon
Ed’s note: This is long, but close enough to our mission to warrant reprinting in full. Here you have the definite guide to anti-democracy bills in the Israeli Knesset, some that will be familiar to readers of this blog, some that even close followers of Israeli democracy will be unaware of.
http://theonlydemocracy.org/2010/10/association-of-civil-rights-in-israel-on-democracys-heart-attack-long/
Police patrol Safed in response to Jewish-Arab clashes
Police forces have been patrolling the neighborhoods of the north Israeli city of Safed on Saturday in order to prevent clashes between its Jewish and Arab residents. On Friday night a group of orthodox Jews threw stones at Arab students who rent apartments in Safed. The event took place after the city’s chief rabbi, Shmuel Eliyahu, called earlier this week for owners to avoid renting apartments to Arabs.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973619,00.html
Public outcry ensues after rabbis tell Jews not to rent to Arabs
Several [‘Israeli Arab’] MKs and [two] nonprofit organizations demand a criminal investigation of Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu and 17 other rabbis … Eliyahu had been indicted for incitement to racism five years ago, but the prosecution withdrew the charges after he promised to apologize. This decision was clearly a mistake, the MKs wrote, as it encouraged Eliyahu to continue inciting against Arabs.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/public-outcry-ensues-after-rabbis-tell-jews-not-to-rent-to-arabs-1.320336
‘Politics overshadowing racism’
Jewish leaders in US speak against Israeli politicians’ silence over increasing racism in Israel; ADL chief warns it may have detrimental impact on relations with American Jewry … Said leaders were especially irked by a recent statement made by Shas’ spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, who said that “the Goyim’s (non-Jews) sole reason for existing is to serve Jews.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973478,00.html
Political developments
Israeli settlements block Palestinian state: UN envoy (AFP)
UNITED NATIONS — Israel’s settlement construction in the occupied territories has become an almost insurmountable obstacle to creating an independent Palestinian state, a UN envoy said Friday. A Palestinian state “seems increasingly problematic as a solution because it would require a substantial reversal of the settlement process,” said Richard Falk, a UN representative on human rights in the Palestinian territories.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gUBRBSkSMdYxQzf8Ef1dC8brsEpw?docId=CNG.22b03666006bbdecaffca0e62e5b15f1.641
Mideast sides eye US midterms and impact on talks (AP)
JERUSALEM – Israelis and Palestinians are closely watching next month’s U.S. midterm race amid a sense — rarely discussed openly but very much on people’s minds — that the result could affect the U.S.-led peace effort, and President Obama’s ability to coax concessions from Israel … The Palestinians are now hoping that Obama has reacted mildly to Israel’s rejection because of political considerations ahead of the Nov. 2 vote — and might be freer to apply pressure after the elections.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101022/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_mideast_us
PLO: We will reconsider agreements if Israeli violations continue (dpa)
PLO official Yasser Abed Rabbo accuses Israeli PM of ‘making an alliance with the right wing in the US to weaken the Obama administration.’
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/plo-we-will-reconsider-agreements-if-israeli-violations-continue-1.320751
Abbas discusses UN-approved Palestinian statehood with Saudi king (dpa)
In wake of settlement stalemate, Palestinian Authority president considers requesting UN recognition of statehood status — President Mahmoud Abbas and Saudi King Abdullah discussed plans to persuade the United States to accept a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital, a regional daily said Saturday.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/abbas-discusses-un-approved-palestinian-statehood-with-saudi-king-1.320723
PLO official slams Clinton remarks
A member of the PLO negotiating team on Friday slammed remarks by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a day earlier, when she said the Americans had no “magic formula” to restart peace talks. Fatah leader Nabil Sha’ath said in response, “Do we need ‘magical formulas’ or a simple decision? We know there’s no ‘magic formula’ to stop settlements.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326491
Vatican body asks UN to ‘end Israeli occupation’ (Reuters)
In final statement of two-week conference, bishops’ synod urges international community to take ‘necessary legal steps to put an end to the occupation of the different Arab territories’
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973590,00.html
UNRWA official: Hamas in contact with most foreign nations
Andrew Whitley says Norway, Switzerland and Germany, among others, “quietly” having contacts with Gaza leadership; calls on Palestinians to prepare refugees for near certainty that they will never return to Israel.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=192485
Other news
Poll: Palestinians say they need results from talks
…If the peace talks fail, the option endorsed by most Palestinians is to ask the UN Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state. The second most popular option is to declare unilaterally the establishment of a Palestinian state. The options to resort to resistance are less popular. However, Israelis misperceive these preferences and fear that Palestinians will resume an intifada, or uprising.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326238
Israeli Arabs, Jews trade places in new school civics initiative
At a typical burger joint in Tel Aviv, the two main protagonists sit down after a hard day’s work and ask themselves whether a different reality is at all possible. Suddenly the two teenagers, maybe 18 years old, are put into each other’s bodies. Maor, the Jewish shift manager, becomes Jamal, the Arab kitchen worker, and vice versa. This is the initial premise of a new TV drama, “Exchanges,” aimed at civics students and teachers.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/israeli-arabs-jews-trade-places-in-new-school-civics-initiative-1.320516
Gaza 100 kicks off
Around 2,000 runners are expected to join Gaza 100 on Saturday, a 12-hour relay in Gaza City, organizers said. The event kicked off from Al-Yarmouk playground at 8 a.m. and coincided with a similar event in London, said Mahmoud Labad, the Gaza representative for UK charity IF … Labad said the event was timed to highlight the arrival of the Lifeline aid convoy in Gaza on Thursday.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=326689
Analysis / Opinion / Human interest
Ending violent resistance / Kim Petersen
[answering Ramzy Baroud] Target the Oppressor, Not the Resistance — First a given: there can be no resistance unless there is something to resist against. There can be no anti-occupation resistance if there is no occupation, and there can be no resistance against oppression if there is no oppression. It is a simple logic that eludes many people. That it eludes many people (and almost all of the corporate media) is demonstrable by noting the outcry whenever a resistance uses violence: Those evil, soulless terrorists harming other people — and they do it without reason.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/10/ending-violent-resistance/
Lieberman is Kahane. And even the right senses it / Bradley Burston
Is anyone on the mainstream Jewish right – anyone at all – willing to speak in defense of Avigdor Lieberman, the bully in the china shop of Israel’s relationship with its Arab minority? In particular, is anyone on the mainstream right prepared to step up and support his fascism bandwagon’s snorting, noxious draft horse – the loyalty oath initiative? Not the Zionist Organization of America … Not the Israel Project.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/lieberman-is-kahane-and-even-the-right-senses-it-1.320219
Mr. Netanyahu, you are not Rabin’s partner in peace / Carlo Strenger
Dear Mr. Netanyahu, In your speech commemorating the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, you said that that you are Rabin’s partner in his vision for peace. Will all due respect, Mr. Prime Minister, this is a falsehood … You, Mr. Netanyahu, say one thing and do another. Nobody really knows what you want, and there are many commentators who think that even you don’t know. Of course we all know your excuse: even though Israel has the best opportunity ever to arrive at a final status agreement with the Palestinians, you say you can’t move ahead, because your coalition will fall apart. In doing so, you imply that this coalition is a fact of nature; you conveniently forget that you chose to create this coalition.
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/strenger-than-fiction/mr-netanyahu-you-are-not-rabin-s-partner-in-peace-1.320426
Twilight Zone: Baron of manipulation / Gideon Levy
Gideon Levy’s recent interview to The Independent drew a scathing attack from right-wing columnist Ben Dror Yemini. Here is Levy’s rebuttal
http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/twilight-zone-baron-of-manipulation-1.320636
The Democratic-Likud Party / Alex Kane
…What’s important about the list of donors that Netanyahu identified is what it says about the Israel lobby and the Democratic Party in the United States.  It goes a long way in explaining why hard-right Zionist views can be found among Democratic politicians. There is little to no difference between how Democrats and Republicans in the United States act towards Israel; criticizing Israel is a “third rail” in American politics, and some of the donors included on this list show why.
http://alexbkane.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/the-democratic-likud-party/
Weimar in Jerusalem / Uri Avnery
IN BERLIN, an exhibition entitled “Hitler and the Germans” has just opened. It examines the factors that caused the German people to bring Adolf Hitler to power and follow him to the very end. I am too busy with the problems of Israeli democracy to fly to Berlin. Pity. Because since childhood, precisely this question has been troubling me. How did it happen that a civilized nation, which saw itself as the “people of poets and thinkers”, followed this man, much as the children of Hamelin followed the pied piper to their doom. This troubles me not only as a historical phenomenon, but as a warning for the future. If this happened to the Germans, can it happen to any people? Can it happen here?
http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1287833121/
The death of a child / Lillian Rosengarten
“Nasma Abu Lasheen died on Saturday, October 16, 2010 in Gaza. Israel failed to issue her an urgent entry permit for life-saving medical treatment at Ha-Emek Medical Center in Afula, Israel. She was two years old.” …So it has come to this as generations of hate and paranoia leech the humanity of Israel, to create a heartless society composed of “them and “us.” … I am not a proud Jew when I must disassociate myself from such acts, for they defy what it is to be a Jew.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/10/the-death-of-a-child.html
Interview with Jamal Krayem Kanj, author of Children of Catastrophe
This book tells the remarkable story of one such refugee, following his journey from childhood in the Nahr El Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, becoming a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), through to eventual emigration, a new life as an engineer in the United States, and a ‘return’ trip to historic Palestine.
http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2010/10/interview-with-jamal-krayem-kanj-author-children-of-castastrophe/
Iraq
Friday: 5 Iraqis killed, 15 wounded
…Violence continued today with at least five Iraqis dying in new violence. Another 15 were wounded. A sticky bomb in Garma killed a Sahwa fighter and injured a female companion. A man was killed as he was planting a separate bomb. In Mosul, a bomb killed one civilian and wounded six others….
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/10/22/friday-5-iraqis-killed-15-wounded/
Saturday: 4 Iraqis killed, 32 wounded
At least four Iraqis were killed and 32 more were wounded in new violence. The worst attack occurred outside of Baghdad in the suburb of Abu Ghraib. Meanwhile, the Wikileaks Iraq logs could undermine the prime minister’s attempt to retain his seat.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/10/23/saturday-4-iraqis-killed-32-wounded/
Iraq war logs: Pictures from one hellish day of the conflict
Images from 17 October 2006, a typical 24 hours in one of the bloodiest years since the invasion
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2010/oct/23/iraq-war-logs-pictures
UN calls on Obama to investigate human rights abuses
The UN has called on Barack Obama to order a full investigation of US forces’ involvement in human rights abuses in Iraq after a massive leak of military documents that detail torture, summary executions and war crimes. The call, by the UN’s chief investigator on torture, Manfred Nowak, came as Phil Shiner, human rights specialist at Public Interest Lawyers in the UK, warned that some of the deaths documented in the Iraq war logs could have involved British forces and would be pursued through the UK courts.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/23/united-nations-call-obama-investigation-abuses-iraq
Five bombshells from WikiLeaks Iraq war documents
As with the second-largest leak in US history – the 92,000 Afghan war documents released in July – much of the substance of the leaks has been reported already, but details are new. WikiLeaks will hold a press conference Saturday morning in Europe. Click through the following slides to learn what the documents reveal. [click on ‘Next’ to the right of the title on the page to go to the next slide]
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2010/1022/Five-bombshells-from-WikiLeaks-Iraq-war-documents/Details-of-torture-and-abuse
WikiLeaks Iraq: data journalism maps every death
Data journalism allows us to really interrogate the Wikileaks Iraq war logs release. Here is the statistical breakdown – and data for you to download • Get the data • Get the fullscreen map
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/oct/23/wikileaks-iraq-data-journalism
Huge dossier of secret files shows the US ignored torture of Iraqis
Killings at checkpoints were ‘covered up’ / Estimate of civilian deaths rises to 122,000 / Leak of 400,000 documents is biggest ever — Whistle-blowing website Wikileaks unveiled its cache of secret Iraq war documents last night in what is the largest leak in US military history.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/huge-dossier-of-secret-files-shows-the-us-ignored-torture-of-iraqis-2114409.html
WikiLeaks Iraq war logs: Why Iraq has the right to know the full death toll
The Iraq war logs show the US withheld details of thousands of civilian deaths. This was wrong, and counterproductive
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/oct/23/iraq-war-logs-right-to-know
British troops accused of abusing prisoners in first days of invasion
The Ministry of Defence is investigating allegations that British soldiers brutally ill-treated prisoners of war captured in the first days of the invasion of Iraq. One of the prisoners alleges that during his interrogation he was tortured because British officers thought he could lead them to Saddam Hussein. Claims of abuse committed so early on in the conflict will add to concerns that there was a deep-rooted culture of ill-treatment of Iraqis held by units of the British Army.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/british-troops-accused-of-abusing-prisoners-in-first-days-of-invasion-2114224.html
Iraqi officials vow to probe any abuse cases (Reuters)
Iraq vowed on Saturday to probe allegations that police or soldiers committed crimes in the country’s sectarian war, after WikiLeaks released classified U.S. files that revealed prisoner abuse by Iraqi forces. The flood of files mainly containing in-the-field action reports from lower level U.S. military officers detailed gruesome cases of prisoner abuse that were known to U.S. authorities but not investigated by them.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20101023/wl_nm/us_wikileaks_iraq_probe
Secret US docs: Iran, Hezbollah trained Iraqi militants
Documents made public by WikiLeaks recount Tehran’s role in providing Iraqi militia fighters with rockets, magnetic bombs, rifles, surface-to-air missiles used against American helicopters; according to documents, militants
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973570,00.html
Other Mideast
EU, Russia prod Iran to hold nuclear talks in November (Reuters)
Deputy FM Ryabkov urges ‘Iranian friends and colleagues’ to officially respond in positive manner to Ashton’s invitation to hold talks on nuclear program next month
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3973556,00.html
Justice, even for princes / Ali al-Ahmed
Britain’s conviction of a Saudi prince for the murder of his servant has inspired Saudi Arabians longing for impartial justice
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/20/saudi-prince-murder-justice
Bahraini women fight traditions in parliament polls (AFP)
The only woman in Bahrain’s outgoing parliament has already secured her seat, unopposed ahead of Saturday’s elections, but the other seven women vying for seats look set to fall victim to sexist traditions
http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/10/22/123230.html
Egypt court bars police from campus
Verdict ending police presence in universities is hailed, but government may use emergency powers to circumvent it.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/10/20101023133934791518.html
Egyptian government fears a Facebook revolution / Osama Diab
Talk of banning Facebook is only the surface of a greater crackdown on independent media by an insecure government
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/21/egypt-facebook-revolution
U.S. and other world news
Not all terrorists are stupid, Juan / Roja Heydarpour
The worst part about Juan Williams’ statement wasn’t his appalling bigotry. It was his complete ignorance of how terrorists operate. No matter what Juan Williams says, even the dumbest terrorist in the world wouldn’t wear a robe and turban on a plane. Williams’ crime wasn’t just his comic bigotry but his ignorance.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailybeast/20101023/ts_dailybeast/10575_juanwilliamsrealcrimeignorance
Stop the media purge! / Justin Raimondo
…We’ve been in a state of constant war since September 11, 2001 – and this is the world in which we are now living. A world where no one can say what they really believe, or feel, for fear of losing their job, or even of facing government prosecution – as the recent raids on antiwar activists in Minneapolis, and elsewhere, have shown. The atmosphere of intellectual and physical intimidation is thick to the point of suffocation – and it has to stop, or else we’re in some real trouble. 
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/10/21/stop-the-media-purge/
US lawmakers concerned by professor’s anti-Israel remarks
Video of a September 3 rally in Washington, D.C., shows tenured literature professor Kaukab Siddique saying Israel must be destroyed, if possible by peaceful means.
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/u-s-lawmakers-concerned-by-professor-s-anti-israel-remarks-1.320700
Dutch court urges new Wilders trial
A Dutch court has approved a request from right-wing politician Geert Wilders to have new judges for his trial on charges of inciting hatred against Muslims, forcing the court to start the case over again. The ruling, made on Friday, is seen as another victory for Wilders
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2010/10/20101022155839812808.html
Hamburg moves toward official recognition of Islam
Hamburg may soon become the first German state to officially recognize Islam as a religious community and give Muslims the same legal rights as Christians and Jews in dealing with the local administration.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/international/hamburg-moves-toward-official-recognition-of-islam-1.320069
Security ban ‘hits Afghan projects’
A government ban on private security forces set to begin by the end of the year, has begun to drive foreign aid projects out of Afghanistan, according to reports in US newspapers. Contractors are used widely throughout the country, not only to protect military bases and embassies but also hundreds of reconstruction projects.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2010/10/2010102214737208565.html
How permanent are America’s Afghan bases?
If you want a measure of how far the U.S. has “fallen” in Iraq, it now has only 21 “burn pits” there — places at U.S. bases where waste of all sorts is incinerated, regularly spewing smoke filled with toxic emissions into the air to the detriment of American soldiers (and undoubtedly local Iraqis as well).  On the other hand, according to a Government Accountability Office report, there are now 221 such pits in Afghanistan and “more coming.”  Put another way, even as America’s baseworld in Iraq dwindles, there seems to be no learning curve in Washington.
http://original.antiwar.com/engelhardt/2010/10/21/how-permanent-are-americas-afghan-bases/
UN office in Herat ‘under attack’
Suicide bomber and armed men launch attack on building in Afghanistan’s second-biggest city, officials say … “The incident is ongoing. We are working closely with local authorities,” Dan McNorton, a media officer for the UN in the Afghan capital Kabul, told the AFP news agency on Saturday.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/asia/2010/10/201010238441852503.html
Police repress convergence on UK weapons factory / Bridget Chappell
As Israeli warplanes flew over Gaza on 13 October, activists converged on Brighton, United Kingdom for the annual mass action against the local EDO/ITT factory that produces components used in weapons by the Israeli Air Force, amongst others, to devastating effect.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11587.shtml
US to give $2b to Pakistan army
The US lays out $2bn military aid package for Pakistan as it pressures Islamabad to crack down on Taliban and al-Qaeda.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/10/201010221371977279.html
 
www.TheHeadlines.org

Rosen: ‘rogue apartheid Jewish state is not viable in current form’

Oct 24, 2010

Philip Weiss 

Nir Rosen, to Scott Horton, on the costs of the Iraq war:

As for America’s security posture, I don’t think the Middle East should be viewed through the prism of alleged American “interests.” And I don’t think imposing its will on weaker countries increases American security. Even the weak find ways to resist. America is more insecure when it creates more enemies it didn’t need to have and meddles with the internal affairs of other countries. Certainly the Middle East was more stable before the war. America’s security posture in the Middle East involves colonial and post-colonial relations. American influence there is embattled and changing. The war in Iraq may come to be seen as a turning point, part of a decline in American influence in the region. But there are other things happening at the same time. The Saudi regime is unsustainable and the Egyptian regime is disintegrating. These two countries are pillars of the American regional architecture. And the third pillar, Israel, is not viable in its current form as an increasingly rogue apartheid Jewish state. Finally, the American military is exhausted and losing its conventional skills after nearly ten years of occupation while the power of asymmetrical tactics against a conventional behemoth has been demonstrated.

The irrational American response after September 11 reduced the gap in power and influence between the United States and other regional or global actors. The neoconservative notion that we were at the end of history and the United States could maintain its triumph by any means necessary was proven to be folly.