NOVANEWS
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Freedom Waves prisoners abused and imprisoned; ‘Anonymous’ hackers strike back
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‘Peace Now”s Jerusalem offices targeted in ‘pricetag’ threat
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Voice in wilderness, Ron Paul calls for friendship with Iran
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Israeli forces and Nature Authority raid playground, arrest one
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Israel’s UN ambassador breaks bread with Le Pen, French nationalist
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Israeli navy nearly sank 2 boats headed to Gaza, then beat and taser’d Canadian passengers
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Obama administration approves navy warships seizing two boats carrying peace activists and letters to Gaza as necessary for Israeli ‘security’
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Tutu: East Jerusalem echoes Cape Town
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The positive power of me (that the siege cannot kill)
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Tom Friedman pushed Iraq war as ‘radical liberal revolution’ to ‘install democracy in heart of Arab world’
Freedom Waves prisoners abused and imprisoned; ‘Anonymous’ hackers strike back
Nov 06, 2011
Ben Lorber
In the immediate aftermath of the illegal capture of the Freedom Waves flotillas, Israel’s public image has been tarnished, as reports of violence at sea surface to counteract its claims of a peaceful takeover, and as human rights cyber-resistance group Anonymous retaliates by shutting down Israeli government web sites.
As Israeli naval soldiers boarded the Tahrir and Saoirse Friday afternoon, the IDF released a statement saying that the ships were intercepted peacefully, and that no activists were harmed in the takeover. In addition, in an attempt to portray its own reasonable benevolence, the IDF released a video of soldiers contacting the ship and offering to reroute its humanitarian aid by land or through Ashdod, shortly before releasing another video which seemed to show Israeli soldiers peacefully and non-threateningly boarding one of the flotillas.
When Egyptian journalist Lina Attalah, an activist aboard the Tahrir, wrote an account of Israel’s seizure of the boats after her release on Saturday, however, the world began to see a different picture. “Towards the early afternoon,” she said, “we saw three Israeli warships in the horizon… Soon after, the Israeli presence in the waters around us intensified. We counted at least 15 ships, four of which were warships, and the rest a mix of smaller boats and water cannons. From inside the smaller boats, dozens of Israeli soldiers pointed their machines guns at us. This is when our communications system was jammed and we lost contact with the world…the Israelis sent radio messages to our boat, asking us to stop sailing because they would board the boat and take us to the Israeli port of Ashdod. When our boat refused to surrender, they aimed their canons at us, showering us with salty water. The boat had become highly unstable and panic was in the air… Israeli ships hit our boat and soldiers started boarding. Dozens of masked soldiers screamed “on your knees,” and “hands up.””
The violent nature of Israel’s takeover of the Tahrir and Saoirse became more apparent with a statement released mid-Sunday by Fintan Lane, the National Coordinator of the Irish Ship Saoirse, in a hurried phone call made from an Israeli prison. “The whole takeover [of the Saoirse by Israeli naval authorities] took about three hours”, claims Lane. “It began with Israeli forces hosing down the boats with high pressure hoses and pointing guns at the passengers through the windows. I was hosed down the stairs of the boat. Windows were smashed and the bridge of the boat nearly caught fire. The boats were corralled to such an extent that the two boats, the Saoirse and the Tahrir, collided with each other and were damaged, with most of the damage happening to the MV Saoirse. The boats nearly sank. The method used in the takeover was dangerous to human life.”
The same day, Saoirse activist Paul Murphy, Socialist Party and United Left Alliance MEP for Dublin, related in a 3-minute phone call, monitored by Israeli prison authorities, that “our boat was almost sunk by the manner in which it was approached and boarded by the Israeli navy. People were shackled and deprived of all personal belongings. In Givon prison the authorities tried to disorientate us through sleep deprivation and the removal of our watches and the prison clock recording the wrong time. We have been given no time frame as to how long we will be kept here before the deportation trial. We were denied our right by Israeli law to contact our families within 24 hours of our arrest.”
Also on Sunday, Greek captain of the Tahrir Giorgos Klontzas, after his release from jail, told Greek Omnia TV that during interrogation, Israeli forces handcuffed him tightly and stuck fingers in his eyes.
The clearest testament to the abuse suffered by the activists at the hands of the Israeli military has come from British activist David Heap, in a letter smuggled out of his prison cell. “I write to you from cell 9, block 59 Givon Prison near Ramla in Occupied Palestine”, the letter stated. “Although I was tasered during the assault on the Tahrir, and bruised during forcible removal dockside (I am limping slightly as a result) I am basically ok… [we] were transported in handcuffs and leg shackles…[we have created] a political prisoners’ committee in order to press our collective demands- association in the block, i.e. open cells; adequate writing and reading material; free communication with outside world- i.e. regular phone calls; [and] information about shipmate women held at same prison”. In response to the shortage of information regarding the female activists currently behind bars, the Women’s Organisation for Political Prisoners (WOFPP) offered Sunday night to send a lawyer free of charge to visit the female prisoners.
As reports of Israeli military violence leaked throughout the weekend, an international group of hackers named Anonymous released a video threatening retaliation against “a clear sign of piracy on the high seas.” The ‘Open Letter from Anonymous to the Government of Israel’ was pointed in its critique- “your actions”, it claimed, “are illegal, against democracy, human rights, international and maritime laws”, and an example of “justifying war, murder, illegal interception and pirate-like activities under an illegal cover of defense” which “will not go unnoticed by us or the people of the world”. Anonymous, which has temporarily disabled many web sites in past publicized acts of moral retribution, further threatened that “if you continue blocking humanitarian vessels to Gaza or repeat the dreadful actions of May 31st 2010 against any Gaza Freedom Flotillas, you will leave us no choice but to strike back, again and again, until you stop….we do not forget, we do not forgive. Expect us.”
A day later, Haaretz reported that “the websites of the IDF, Mossad and the Shin Bet security services were down”, likely due to an Anonymous cyber-attack. Hours later, however, the Israeli government released a statement on Facebook claiming that the websites were down “due to a systematic malfunction of the servers”, denying that Anonymous was behind the crash1. It is highly unlikely, however, for this shutdown to follow so soon after Anonymous’s threat as a matter of pure coincidence.
As the international community rises in condemnation of Israel’s illegal takeover of a ship in international waters, 21 of the 27 activists captured by Israel remain in prison awaiting deportation, and the whereabouts of one, PressTV journalist Hassan Ghani, remains unknown. The Irish activists have refused representation by a lawyer in the Israeli court system, on the grounds that they do not acknowledge the legitimacy of Israel’s legal system. In addition, they refuse to sign a waiver which would forfeit their claim to legal representation before a judge and allow for their immediate deportation, because the offered waiver claims that they came to Israel voluntarily and entered illegally, statements which are patently untrue in light of the fact that Israeli naval boats seized the activists from the Tahrir and Saoirse, and forcibly transported them to Ashdod. They will therefore, according to Israeli law, be detained for 72 hours and then brought to court, where they will almost certainly be deported- though, because they refused to sign the waiver, the deportation will occur without their consent.
As Israel unsuccessfully attempts to save face in the aftermath of its illegal and violent seizure of innocent civilians on a humanitarian aid mission in international waters, the international community once again bears witness to the fact that, in the words of a Saturday press release by the Canada Boat to Gaza team, “there is no legal justification for stopping or in any way impeding the passage of the totally peaceful Freedom Waves boats from the international solidarity movement with Palestinian people”. What is clear to all, in spite of Israeli repression, is that the recent aid mission is only the first of many Freedom Waves bound for Gaza’s shore. “Whatever the Israeli Occupation Forces do to us,” said David Heap and Ehab Lotayef, steering committee members of the Tahrir, from behind Israeli prison bars, “this flotilla marks the launching of the Freedom Waves. It is the continuation of many efforts over the years to bring the plight of Gaza and Palestine to the world’s attention. We will keep coming again and again, until the closure of Gaza is ended and Palestinians have been able to achieve liberation and justice… Expect us. Again and again. The Freedom Waves are just beginning.”
Ben Lorber is an activist with the International Solidarity Movement in Nablus. He is also a journalist with the Alternative Information Center in Bethlehem. He blogs atfreepaly.wordpress.com.
‘Peace Now”s Jerusalem offices targeted in ‘pricetag’ threat
Nov 06, 2011
Philip Weiss
Haaretz reports on an attack on Peace Now’s headquarters, the latest in a series of threatening vandalisms. (Thanks to Paul Mutter)
Anonymous attackers spray-painted “price tag” and threatened to plant a bomb in the Jerusalem offices of “Peace Now” on Sunday.
Hagit Ofran, director of Peace Now’s Settlement Watch project, said that at around 8 P.M., the office intercom buzzed and a man’s voice said, “The building will explode in five minutes.”
Voice in wilderness, Ron Paul calls for friendship with Iran
Nov 06, 2011
Philip Weiss
On television today Ron Paul said that friendship with Iran is the answer.
The Texas congressman says fears about Iran’s nuclear program have been “blown out of proportion.” He says tough penalties are a mistake because, as he says was the case in Iraq, they only hurt the local population and still paved a path to war.
When asked on “Fox News Sunday” what he would do to deter Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions, Paul said “maybe offering friendship to them.”
Israeli forces and Nature Authority raid playground, arrest one
Nov 06, 2011
Seham
Israeli forces and Nature Authority raid playground, arrest one
The Israeli Nature Authority, accompanied by military forces, stormed a children’s playground in Wadi Hilweh district of Silwan on Monday afternoon, 31 October. One youth, Khalid al-Zeer, was arrested. The playground was constructed this month by residents, seeking an outlet for their children in the heavily militarized neighborhood. The raid took place with no prior warning, and no warrant to enter the private land. The playground has become a target of the Jerusalem Municipality since its construction, who seeks to confiscate the land for conversion to parking lots to service the settlement tourist City of David site. Israeli forces remained present in the area for several hours thereafter, behaving in a provocative manner towards local residents.
link to silwanic.net
…More news from Today in Palestine
Land, Property, Resources Theft & Destruction / Ethnic Cleansing / Apartheid / Restriction of Movement
Demolition orders issued, military raids
Jerusalem Municipality officers, accompanied by armed forces, canvassed Silwan on Sunday, 30 October morning to deliver vast numbers of demolition orders to Palestinian families and store-owners in the village. A military raid of the village was staged immediately thereafter.
link to silwanic.net
Aqsa foundation warns of the plans to demolish the Bab al-Maghareba bridge
AFEH intends to launch an information campaign warning of the dangers of the occupation plans to demolish the rest of the bridge leading to the Bab al-Magahreba of the Aqsa Mosque.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Israeli forces and settlers try to drive away Um Alfagara residents
On Thursday November 3rd at dawn, 8 military jeeps with around 25 soldiers and one bulldozer arrived at Um Alfagara. The bulldozer immediately began to demolish six pylons built for bringing electrical wires from the nearby village of Attwani to Um Alfagara. The bulldozer worked a couple of hours, guarded by the Israeli Occupation Forces until the six pylons were torn down and destroyed.
On Thursday November 3rd at dawn, 8 military jeeps with around 25 soldiers and one bulldozer arrived at Um Alfagara. The bulldozer immediately began to demolish six pylons built for bringing electrical wires from the nearby village of Attwani to Um Alfagara. The bulldozer worked a couple of hours, guarded by the Israeli Occupation Forces until the six pylons were torn down and destroyed.
It is no longer possible to ignore what’s happening in the Palestinian neighborhoods of East Jerusalem- in recent months the situation has been deteriorating fast, and the tension is constantly rising. The settlers’ efforts to take over sites in densely populated Palestinian neighborhoods have increased significantly, while the Palestinian residents’ protests grow more heated and violent. The killing of Milad Said Ayyash, aged 17, during the Nakba day clashes last week, was a foreseeable tragedy under the violent and discriminatory regime forming in East Jerusalem, where the settlers and their private guards are fully backed up by the police and the political echelons. And as the government plans new provocations, approving plans for new construction and Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem, in the Palestinian neighborhoods themselves a new kind of Intifada is taking shape, and a violence threatening to flood the rest of the city.
The residents of East Jerusalem have never fully trusted the police and justice system in Israel. Their status as permanent residents who are not citizens with equal rights is a starting point for discriminatory treatment by the enforcement agencies. Compounded with the context of the conflict, the violence inherent in it and the occupation of their Palestinian compatriots in the West Bank (who do not even have the status of residents), it is understandably hard for the residents of East Jerusalem to feel safe and to believe that at least formally and legally their rights are being protected. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has recently issued an important and comprehensive report on the subject. Holding an event for a change of commanders precisely in one of the most controversial places in Jerusalem, in the courtyard of a settlement in the heart of a Palestinian village, is a very grave message for the residents. Just one month ago the attorney general, the state prosecutor and the commander of the Jerusalem police were strongly criticized for going on a tour of the site with the settler leaders. I wonder what the organizers were thinking when they chose Silwan. Were they trying to send a message to the residents, so that they know who the police serve? Were they trying to send a message to the senior commanders? Maybe they just didn’t think about it. And that is the worst possibility. The fact that the commanders of the Border Police could conceive of having their party there of all places indicates they are not even aware that their job as police is not to serve the interests of the settlers at that site but to protect the rights of all of the residents of Silwan, including the rights of the Palestinians to a normal life with a fair legal system.
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — “We are here to pray and shout for justice,” the priest told congregants, leading a communion service on a windy hillside of Beit Jala, overlooking lands locals fear will soon be cut off behind Israel’s separation wall. Around 30 people on Friday huddled around the altar in the orchard by the Cremisan monastery, which locals say will be annexed to Israel by the wall being built south of Jerusalem. Organizers unfurled a banner on the Beit Jala hill facing the Israeli settlement of Gilo reading “We live here, we exist here.”
Palestinians say Israeli soldiers are failing to protect them from vandalism – assaults they see as attempts to drive them out
Nil’in: The solitary confinement of olive trees
The selective Israeli permission system prevents many families from Nil’in from reaching their land behind the wall to pick their own olives as the olive harvest season nears its end. The families who received permissions have until the 10th November to pick their trees Most of the Palestinians from Nil’in who received permission are women and young children studying, forcing them to choose between school obligations and the important harvest of olive trees.
South Hebron Hills Update
About one month ago we reported to you on the state of the local schoolhouse in Palestinian Susiya [Susya]… A little while before arriving at the Susiya school, we learned of yet another act of destruction inflicted by the Israeli Military Occupation’s “Civil Administration” arm.
About one month ago we reported to you on the state of the local schoolhouse in Palestinian Susiya [Susya]… A little while before arriving at the Susiya school, we learned of yet another act of destruction inflicted by the Israeli Military Occupation’s “Civil Administration” arm.
Israeli Regime Violence Against Gaza and Palestinian Protests
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Israeli forces fired on the southern Gaza Strip late Saturday, killing one Palestinian man and injuring three others, medical and security officials said. The shelling attack near Khan Younis in southern Gaza killed a 26-year-old Palestinian man and injured three others, one seriously, medical official Adham Abu Salmiya said.
Palestinian Killed, Three Wounded, As Army Air Strikes Khan Younis
Palestinian medical sources reported that the Israeli Air Force fired, on Saturday evening, missiles into Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and injuring at least three others.
link to www.imemc.org
Youth Injured By Israeli Fire In Gaza
Israeli soldiers opened fire on Saturday morning at Palestinian civilians near the “Nahal Oz” zone, east of the Gaza Strip leading to the injury of a Palestinian youth, the Maan News Agency reported on Saturday morning
Army Attacks Weekly Protests Against The Wall, Injuries Reported
Israeli soldiers attacked on Friday the weekly nonviolent protest against the Annexation Wall and settlements, in Bil’in village near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, dozens suffered the effects of teargas inhalation. Soldiers also attacked nonviolent protests in Nil’in village, Nabi Saleh, Kafr Qaddoum, and Al Ma’sara.
The Israeli army assaulted peaceful protesters in Kufr Qaddoum with tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets, and sound bombs, injuring two and causing severe tear gas suffocation for three families, including five children, and two protesters, including an International Solidarity Movement activist. Approximately 250 protesters were present, including children, and international and Israeli activists. One Palestinian broke his foot when a high-velocity tear gas canister hit him, and is currently being transferred to Jordan for special treatment. Another protester was injured when a tear gas canister hit him in the hand. Three families were forced to evacuate their homes when soldiers fired tear gas in between their homes. Five children were witnessed crying and running out of their homes and away from the approaching soldiers. Two protesters were treated with oxygen after severe tear gas inhalation, including a female ISM activist who fell unconscious.
Palestinian Reprisals
2 rockets hit Hof Ashkelon; 1 hurt
Fired within space of three hours, rockets explode in open areas south of Ashkelon. One foreign worker sustains light wounds caused by shrapnel.
link to www.ynetnews.com
Siege on Gaza
Hamas calls on Arab League to end the siege
Hamas called on the Arab League to break the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip in response to Israeli piracy against international solidarity activists who were trying to break the siege.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Act Now: Rafah border crossing closed for 6 days
Only hours after activists from popular committees and youth movements throughout the West Bank formally presented the Egyptian ambassador, His Excellency Yasser Othman, with an appeal and a petition to open the Rafah crossing unconditionally and permanently, the Palestinians of Gaza learned that the crossing will in fact be closed for six consecutive days during the Eid holiday. A petition was originally issued by Gaza-based civil society sectors including academics, students, workers, and youth. It was immediately supported publically by Egyptian revolutionaries and grass-roots organizations as well as renowned International human rights defenders such as Desmond Tutu and Richard Falk.
link to palsolidarity.org
Political Detainees
The Israeli Nature Authority, accompanied by military forces, stormed a children’s playground in Wadi Hilweh district of Silwan on Monday afternoon, 31 October. One youth, Khalid al-Zeer, was arrested. The playground was constructed this month by residents, seeking an outlet for their children in the heavily militarized neighborhood. The raid took place with no prior warning, and no warrant to enter the private land. The playground has become a target of the Jerusalem Municipality since its construction, who seeks to confiscate the land for conversion to parking lots to service the settlement tourist City of David site. Israeli forces remained present in the area for several hours thereafter, behaving in a provocative manner towards local residents.
At 2 o’clock this morning PSP committee – and Beit Ommar Popular Committee member, Yousef Abu Maria was arrested from his home. Today the Popular Commiittee of Beit Ommar and PSP arranged their weekly demonstration against the Israeli occupation and dedicated the demonstration to Yousef Abu Maria and the attack on the flotilla.
Army kidnaps A resident In Hebron
Israeli soldiers kidnapped on Saturday a Palestinian resident, active in nonviolent resistance against the Annexation Wall and settlements, in Beit Ummar Town, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
Israeli soldiers kidnapped on Saturday a Palestinian resident, active in nonviolent resistance against the Annexation Wall and settlements, in Beit Ummar Town, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron.
TULKAREM (Ma’an) — Prominent Fatah leader Shaker Zidan has been wanted by Israeli authorities for ten years. On Friday evening, he learned that he had received a pardon and would be freed from protective custody in the West Bank, days before Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha begins. “This amnesty comes after ten years of fear and hiding, being detained in my home and banned from movement and from taking part in life,” Zidan told Ma’an.
Freedom Waves
Gaza flotilla activists planning series of aid ships over coming months
In light of the previous flotilla’s failure earlier this year, organizers have been operating quietly in an effort to avoid bureaucratic delays and Israeli efforts to stop the operation, says Huwaida Arraf.
Israel Interrogates Four Activists Of Solidarity Ships
Israel sources reported that the Israeli Authorities interrogated four activists who were onboard the Irish and the Canadian ships (Freedom Waves) that were intercepted by the army, on Friday, while on their way to deliver humanitarian supplies to the Gaza Strip.
Israel to deport Gaza flotilla activists (AP)
AP – Israel has begun deportation procedures for a group of pro-Palestinian activists who tried to breach its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
AP – Israel has begun deportation procedures for a group of pro-Palestinian activists who tried to breach its naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.
Canadian and Irish ships sailing with Freedom Waves to Gaza were illegally boarded by the Israeli military in international waters yesterday afternoon. The Israeli military stated that “Upon arrival of the vessels at the Ashdod port, the activists will be transferred to the custody of the Israel Police and immigration authorities in the Ministry of Interior”. At present, it has been confirmed that two of the passengers have been released by the Israeli authorities without charge. The fate of the remaining passengers is unknown.
Solidarity / Activism / Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions
A group of American activists staged, on Saturday evening, a sit-in at the Israeli embassy in Boston, Massachusetts in the USA, chanting slogans in solidarity with the Palestinian people and against the Israeli army for intercepting the solidarity ships that were heading to Gaza.
CAIRO, November 5, 2011 (WAFA) – A senior Swedish clergyman Friday slammed his government’s negative vote against Palestine’s UNESCO membership, according to press reports. Anders Wejryd, archbishop of the Church of Sweden, said Sweden should not have voted against Palestine’s membership of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Saturday said the Egyptian Middle East News Agency. Wejryd , in a letter to Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt said “to our great surprise, Sweden belonged to the small group of 14 countries that chose to vote against Palestine’s membership in UNESCO.”
Political Developments / Diplomacy
The State Department is trying to convince Congress not to cut U.S. funding for the Palestinian Authority (PA), despite the fact that the Palestinians are defying the United States by seeking statehood at the United Nations and specialized U.N. agencies. “Congress should be aware of the potential second and third order effects of cutting off assistance to Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority,” Andrew Shapiro, assistant secretary of State for political-military affairs, told an audience at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Friday. “We must ask ourselves, if we are no longer their partner, who will fill the void? We must think about the other potential partners that could fill the space left behind, and that should give us pause.”
France, Britain, Columbia, Bosnia to Abstain on Palestinian Statehood Vote, Richard Silverstein
Most people concerned with the UN Secuity Council’s upcoming vote on Palestinian statehood have been focussing on the number 9. Nine votes are required to pass a resolution and if it receives that many, a member may then veto the resolution. Apparently, if Palestine fails to secure the nine votes (which would be followed by a U.S. veto), it is unlikely the General Assembly would then take up the matter. This is what the U.S. hopes as it wishes to avoid the embarrassing phenomenon of vetoing a resolution supporting a policy it purports to support (Palestinian statehood). With the statehood bid supposedly dead, the Obama administration would breathe a sigh of relief that it, and its ally Israel, had dodged a bullet.
Chief Palestinian Negotiator, member of the executive Committee of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), Dr. Saeb Erekat, urged the French government to reconsider its decision to abstain from UN vote on full Palestinian membership.
The French news agency AFP yesterday quoted French far-right leader as saying her meeting with Ron Prosor was not the result of a mix-up, despite claims to the contrary by the Israeli mission to the UN.
Israel, U.S. to embark on largest joint exercise in allies’ history
U.S. Assistant Secretary for Political-Military Affairs Andrew Shapiro says security relationship with Israel is broader, deeper, more intense than ever before.
What Israeli, U.S. leaders of 1977 hoped would be Jerusalem’s fate
A previously unpublished transcript of a meeting between Israeli and U.S. leaders in Washington on December 17, 1977, offers a surprising revelation: Prime Minister Begin’s suggestion that autonomous international religious councils would oversee Jerusalem’s holy places.
Beating the Drums of War Against Iran
Iran demands UN censure of Israel, US ‘threats’
Islamic Republic urges UN to officially denounce Washington, Jerusalem over their reported threats to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities; say such statements ‘violate international law’.
US ‘not seeking’ confrontation with Iran
State Department tries to downplay bubbling speculation over possible strike against Islamic Republic, says US would rather exercise, exhaust ‘tough diplomacy’ first.
White House says upcoming nuclear watchdog report will be a critical opportunity for the world to see if Iran is meeting international obligations in its nuclear program.
Texas governor tells CNN he would support covert and overt military attacks in order to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear weapons capability.
Officials in the U.S. administration note that there had been a substantial reduction in Israeli pronouncements on the Iranian issue, both in public but also privately through diplomatic channels.
U.S. military official: We are concerned Israel will not warn us before Iran attack
Senior U.S. military official tells CNN U.S. ‘increasingly vigilant’ over military developments in Iran and Israel, says ‘absolutely’ concerned Israel may attack Iran nuclear facilities.
Peres: I believe Israel, world approaching military option on Iran nuclear threat
President says nations of the world made commitments to Israel and they must now make good on those commitments to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons capability.
Everybody in Israel is talking about a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities
Suddenly, this week, everyone was talking about an attack on Iran. But charges by politicians that it’s the media that are blowing this story out of proportion invite incredulity.
Suddenly, this week, everyone was talking about an attack on Iran. But charges by politicians that it’s the media that are blowing this story out of proportion invite incredulity.
So apparently, Obama and Holder are either too clever by half, or are just dhimmi dunces. They’re too busy playing cloak and dagger to really do something about Tehran: sanctions, MEK, Super Stuxnet andassassinations? Oh please! Where’s our Operation Opera? The Irano-Mexican terror cell run by the FBI proves we must do something, and fast! (And if the U.S. won’t, it seems increasingly possible that Israel’s top leadership, having created “Atomic Pressure” to spur action, may strike within the next two weeks).
Great piece by MJ Rosenberg at Huffpo on who is pushing for war against Iran– the lobby. Rosenberg says Israel’s sabre-rattling is just that. But it’s intended to jack up U.S. foreign policy yet again and send us to war. Imagine if we had had this kind of incisive commentary fingering the neocons before the Iraq debacle?
More drumbeats of an Iran attack. AP is reporting that Israeli president Shimon Peres says the “international community is closer to pursuing a military solution to the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program than a diplomatic one.”
Territory of Lies: Israeli-Occupied Hearing on ‘Iranian Plot’, Maidhc Ó Cathail
In the wake of the much-heralded FBI sting that supposedly foiled a dastardly plot by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard elite Qods Force – involving a bumbling, failed used-car salesman’s botched attempt to hire a reportedly Mossad-trained Mexican drug cartel – to blow up the Saudi ambassador in a crowded but fictitious Washington D.C. restaurant, a duly alarmed U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security convened an urgent hearing on “Iranian Terror Operations on American Soil.” As evidence of Tehran’s supposed threat to the Homeland, the Committee heard testimony from “expert witnesses” who could best be described as propagandists for Israel. Commenting on the partisan line-up, an expert on U.S.-Israeli relations remarked, “If it wasn’t so serious, it would be satire.”
The Israeli government has been openly threatening Iran with attack for years, and we have learned not to take their outbreaks of war hysteria too seriously. During the last year of George W. Bush’s final term in office, there was heightened speculationthat Tel Aviv was pressuring Washington to launch such an attack, and indeed itappears Vice President Dick Cheney argued for precisely that, albeit to no avail. Now the war talk has been revived by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who, along with his defense minister, Ehud Barak, has not only been arguing within the Cabinet for such a strike, but has now supposedly moved into the implementation stage.
Debunking the Iran “Terror Plot”, Gareth Porter
At a press conference on October 11, the Obama administration unveiled a spectacular charge against the government of Iran: The Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, right in Washington, DC, in a place where large numbers of innocent bystanders could have been killed. High-level officials of the Qods Force were said to be involved, the only question being how far up in the Iranian government the complicity went.
Israel Will Not Attack Iran. Period, Uri Avnery
Everybody knows the scene from school: a small boy quarrels with a bigger boy. ‘Hold me back!’ he shouts to his comrades, ‘Before I break his bones!’ Our government seems to be behaving in this way. Every day, via all channels, it shouts that it is going, any minute now, to break the bones of Iran. Iran is about to produce a nuclear bomb. We cannot allow this. So we shall bomb them to smithereens.
Other Mideast News
35 dead and injured in two consecutive explosions southwest Iraq’s Baquba
35 people, mostly Al Sahwa militants, were killed and injured in two consecutive explosions south-western Baquba, a Diyala police source reported on Thursday.
The Lede Blog: Protesters Blocked From Returning to Bahrain’s Pearl Square
Hundreds of protesters were prevented from returning to a symbolic square in Manama after the funeral of a man the main opposition party said was beaten to death by security forces this week.
Bahrainis clash with police at funeral (Reuters)
Reuters – Thousands of Bahraini Shi’ites clashed with security forces on Friday during the funeral of a man opposition group Wefaq said died after a police assault, witnesses said.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com
Bahrain releases teenage Iraqi football player
AP – Bahrain has released a teenage Iraqi football player detained for seven months in Bahrain on suspicion of participating in anti-government protests.
King Abdullah Names Brother as Saudi Arabia Defense Minister
Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, 76, is seen as a possible candidate to someday rule the nation.
State Department training Islamic political parties in Egypt
U.S. assistance to Egypt is helping political parties of all ideologies prepare for the upcoming elections — even Islamic parties that may have anti-Western agendas. “We don’t do party support. What we do is party training…. And we do it to whoever comes,” William Taylor, the State Department’s director of its new office for Middle East Transitions, said in a briefing with reporters today. “Sometimes, Islamist parties show up, sometimes they don’t. But it has been provided on a nonpartisan basis, not to individual parties.”
Egyptian military court rejects Maspero activist’s appeal
Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces must immediately release a prominent blogger and activist detained in connection with the bloody crackdown on the Maspero protests, Amnesty International said today, after a military court rejected on Thursday his appeal against his continuing detention.
link to www.amnesty.org
Another letter from Alaa from, and on, prison, Issandr El Amrani
Alaa Abdel Fattah, the Egyptian blogger and activist who has been jailed for refusing to answer the questions of a military prosecutor about the Maspero Affair, has been shifted to another cell. In another heart-breaking dispatch from prison, he explains why: I am writing this note with a deep sense of shame. I have just been moved from Ist’naf (appeal) prison, at my request and insistence, because I simply couldn’t withstand the difficult conditions there: because of the darkness, the filth , the roaming cockroaches, crawling over my body night and day; because there was no courtyard, no sunshine and, again, the darkness.
link to www.arabist.net
Analysis / Op-ed
The former judge who wrote the Gaza War report recently – and wrongly – wrote that Israel does not practice apartheid.
link to www.aljazeera.com
Leila Khaled, Martin Jansen, Mercia Andrews and Raji Sourani from the Palestine solidarity campaign discussing issues and events in Palestine. Picture Cindy Waxa.
PROMINENT Gaza human rights lawyer Raji Sourani has called South African judge Richard Goldstone a liar, following recent comments he made in the New York Times regarding apartheid in Israel. Speaking at a Palestine Solidarity Campaign event in the city yesterday, ahead of the weekend Russell Tribunal, the founder of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza lashed out at Goldstone for saying apartheid did not exist in Israel. Last month, Goldstone criticised the Russell Tribunal in an opinion piece in the New York Times, entitled “Israel and the apartheid slander”. He wrote that there was no apartheid in Israel, and called the suggestion a “particularly pernicious and enduring canard”.
As disingenuous and pernicious as was Richard Goldstone’s previous Washington Post oped, in which he essentially retracted the Goldstone Report’s fully-substantiated finding that Israel committed war crimes in its attack on Gaza at the end of 2008, Tuesday’s NY Times oped is perhaps even worse. Goldstone writes that to characterize Israel’s policies as “apartheid” is an “unfair and inaccurate slander against Israel,” one among other “assaults that aim to isolate, demonize, and delegitimize” Israel.
The New York Times has published four letters in response to Richard Goldstone’s “Israel and the Apartheid Slander” Op-ed. The letters are split, with two opposing the judge.
The recent Palestinian UN bid and this weeks Palestinian acceptance to UNESCO has once again put the “Peace Process” front and center. Listening to Netanyahu and the U.S. Administration, getting the Israelis and Palestinians “back to the negotiating table” is the utmost priority for a lasting peace deal. (Adam Horowitz mocked the Netanyahu policy in this post yesterday: “The Netanyahu Guide to Middle East Peace.”)
In the Palestinian and Arab struggle against Israeli colonization, occupation and apartheid, the “normalization” of Israel is a concept that has generated controversy because it is often misunderstood or because there are disagreements on its parameters. This is despite the near consensus among Palestinians and people in the Arab region on rejecting the treatment of Israel as a “normal” state with which business as usual can be conducted. Here, we discuss the definition of normalization that the great majority of Palestinian civil society, as represented in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has adopted since November 2007, and elaborate on the nuances that it takes on in different contexts.