Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

• Jenin Freedom Theatre Director Zakaria Zubeidi ordered by Israel to turn himself in to PA security services

• AIPAC-championed amendment pushes Obama into a corner on Iran

• You call me a terrorist?

• Israeli ambassadors say they are ‘increasingly hated and unwanted’. But not Oren!

• Romanian and Bulgarian opposition to Palestinian statehood earns payoff

• Ron Paul prose on Israel allegedly makes woman cry

• ‘Daily Beast’ provides platform for ‘warmongering’ on Iran

• More Jewish homes in East Jerusalem announced — and more demolitions of Palestinian homes

• VIDEO: An Israeli soldier recounts the Nakba

• The Pierre Hotel incident

Jenin Freedom Theatre Director Zakaria Zubeidi ordered by Israel to turn himself in to PA security services

Dec 29, 2011

Seham

Palestinian pardoned by Israel put back on wanted list
Zakaria Zbeidi, the former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin who now runs the Freedom Theater, says he did not know his pardon was canceled. Zakaria Zbeidi, the former commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Jenin who was pardoned by Israel two years ago, has been added to Israel’s wanted list again. In recent days, Palestinian security services informed Zbeidi that upon Israel’s request, he must remain in the Palestinian Authority’s detention facilities during all hours of the day and night, otherwise Israel will arrest him. Zbeidi confirmed the report to Haaretz, yet said he did not know why the pardon was rescinded. Last week, Palestinian security forces arrested one of Zbeidi’s brothers, along with one of the workers at Jenin’s Freedom Theater, which Zbeidi directs.
link to www.haaretz.com

Land, Property Theft & Destruction / Ethnic Cleansing / Apartheid / Refugees 

IOA to transfer thousands of W. Bank Bedouins to other areas
Head and lawyer of Abu Dis defense committee Bassam Bahr said the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) intends to transfer thousands of Abu Dis Bedouins near Ma’ale Adumim to another area.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

Israel issues demolition orders in south Hebron

HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli forces ordered the demolition of 13 structures in two hamlets in the southernmost border of the West Bank on Thursday. The soldiers blocked all entrances to Imneizil before delivering 10 demolition orders to residents, and three more to neighboring Haribat al-Nabi.  Forces also gave residents of Imneizil, south of Hebron, a map of the village showing the confiscation of 160 dunums of their land.

link to www.maannews.net

Violence and Aggression

PLO: Israel killed 180 Palestinians including 21 children in 2011
The Israeli occupation forces killed 180 Palestinians in 2011 including 21 children and arrested 3300, a report by the Palestine liberation organization (PLO) said on Wednesday.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

link to electronicintifada.net

link to www.maannews.net

Israel navy attempts to capsize international monitoring boat off Gaza, injures captain, Ali Abunimah
An Israeli gunboat attacked the Oliva today off the shores of Gaza, according to two crew members, injuring the Palestinian captain. The Oliva, a boat operated by the Civil Peace Service Gaza (CPSGAZA) accompanies Gaza fishermen to sea to monitor frequent Israeli attacks and harassment of Palestinian fishing boats.

link to electronicintifada.net

Detainees

IOF soldiers round up 17 Palestinians including journalist, minors
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) blasted their way into the home of Palestinian journalist Amin Abu Warda at the entrance to Balata refugee camp east of Nablus city on Wednesday before taking him away.

link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

IOF soldiers round up 5 Palestinians, storm home of disabled
Israeli occupation forces rounded up five Palestinian citizens in three West Bank provinces at dawn Thursday and stormed the home of a disabled father in Al-Khalil last night, local sources reported.

link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

link to mondoweiss.net

link to www.imemc.org

link to english.pnn.ps

Gaza

Rizka: Abbas received $35m for Gaza reconstruction
The Arab League secretary general Nabil Al-Arabi has handed PA chief Mahmoud Abbas 35 million dollars three months ago that were allocated for the Gaza reconstruction, Yousef Rizka disclosed.

Israel ‘will launch significant Gaza offensive sooner or later’
Israel Defence Forces chief of staff speaks on third anniversary of start of a major three-week Gaza assault. A new Israeli military offensive against Gaza will be launched “sooner or later” and will be “swift and painful”, Israel’s most senior military officer has warned. Benny Gantz, the chief of staff of the Israel Defence Forces, was speaking on the third anniversary of the start of a major three-week assault on Gaza during which around 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed. That offensive was “an excellent operation that achieved deterrence for Israel vis-a-vis Hamas”, Gantz told Army Radio on Tuesday. He added there were signs that the deterrent effect was wearing thin.

“I miss them all the time, sometimes I even go to look for one of them in the house in the split second before I remember they were killed”

Report: FM irked by secret EU report on Israeli Arabs
Confidential memo by European diplomats outlining growing gaps between Israel’s Jewish, Arab communities reportedly enrages Foreign Ministry.

link to www.ynetnews.com

link to www.richardsilverstein.com

link to electronicintifada.net

‘Unwritten rule’ bars women’s singing in Knesset
Senior House sources admit female singers no longer perform in official Knesset ceremonies so not to ‘upset’ religious MKs.

Preschool form asks for parents’ sexual orientation
Education Ministry updates preschool registration forms, creates special ‘sexual orientation’ checkbox. Parents outraged; ministry says will revise form.

link to www.ynetnews.com

Anti-Semitism claims against UC Berkeley dismissed (AP)
AP – A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by two Jewish students who claimed the University of California, Berkeley, fostered an atmosphere of anti-Semitism by not doing enough to curb alleged harassment during pro-Palestinian protests that included mock checkpoints.

Congress frees $40 million in aid to Palestinians 
AP – Lawmakers have freed up a little more than 20 percent of $187 million in U.S. assistance to the Palestinians that had been frozen over the Palestinian bid for U.N. membership.

Egypt court adjourns Mubarak trial

Court proceedings to resume on January 2 in murder case against the deposed Egyptian president.

link to www.aljazeera.com

Alaa Abd El Fattah, Egyptian Blogger and Critic of Military Regime, Speaks Out After Months in Jail
Alaa Abd El Fattah, a prominent Egyptian revolutionary activist and blogger, has been released from prison after nearly two months behind bars. Fattah was ordered jailed by a military court on October 30 and summoned to face charges that included inciting violence—a charge he firmly denies. He refused to cooperate, rejecting the legitimacy of the military court who wanted to try him as a civilian. We speak to Fattah about the Egyptian revolution’s ongoing struggle against the military regime and his ordeal in one of Egypt’s worst prisons, which prevented him from attending the birth of his first son. Fattah’s trial comes just as Egypt’s ousted leader, Hosni Mubarak, returns to a Cairo courtroom today to face charges over the deaths of 840 protesters during the uprising against his rule. “What comes next might be even tougher and even more difficult,” Fattah says, “but I don’t think that this revolution is going to end without really completely renegotiating the order of power in Egypt and across the Arab world.”

link to www.democracynow.org

Syria: Detainees Hidden From International Monitors
Syrian authorities have transferred perhaps hundreds of detainees to off-limits military sites to hide them from Arab League monitors now in the country, Human Rights Watch said today. The Arab League should insist on full access to all Syrian sites used for detention, consistent with its agreement with the Syrian government.

link to www.hrw.org

link to palestinechronicle.com

J Street Jeremy: Being Pro-Israel Never Talking about Palestinian Rights, Ira Glunts
On a dreary, rainy evening in late November my friend Pat Carmeli and I were driving to Syracuse to hear Jeremy Ben-Ami speak.  I smiled when Pat turned to me and said, ‘I’m going to ask him a question about human rights and the Palestinians.’ I responded enthusiastically: ‘All right! That should liven things up.’ I am not a big fan of Ben-Ami and went along mainly to see Pat and some Syracuse Israel/Palestine activists I knew would be there.  Yet from the moment Jeremy started to address us, I had the feeling this would be an interesting evening.  Jeremy Ben-Ami, the founder and president of J Street, the self-described “political home for pro-peace, pro-Israel Americans” came to town in order to convince about 100 mostly elderly Jewish suburbanites that Israel should pursue a negotiated two-state resolution with the Palestinians.  And also to help promote a new local chapter of his organization.  The event, which was held at the Jewish Community Center (JCC), was tightly secured by two burly armed uniformed city policemen who were working privately, as is the custom at most Jewish events in and around this medium-sized city in the center of New York State.  (I have previously written about my surprised reaction to the very visible police presence and a bit about Jeremy’s presentation here.)

link to palestinechronicle.com

Remember These Children Mr. President, Clive Hambidge
Happy Christmas Mr President or may I call you Barack this Yule Tide? As you know ‘Christmas is the day that holds all time together’ (Alexander Smith) certainly as you rustle through your Christmas stocking and wrestle with your conscience perhaps to find as you dig deep in both and  past ‘hegemonic imperatives’ an  olive twig or a so-called ‘peace process’? Perhaps not. But as you dig, can you hear the whispers?  No. They are not the whispers from the Presidents of Christmas past, we will come to them; no? You are not listening attentively Mr President; that’s because you’ve been genuflecting on the Christmas message of that other great statesman Prime Minister Netanyahu, “we are living in a time of great uncertainty and instability in the Middle East and Israel, throughout this instability, remains a beacon of religious freedom and pluralism.” Wow. On what rock is Israel built and how Netanyahu bestrides it as America holds it, for “As the builders say, the larger stones do not lie well without the lesser” (Plato). And which is which?

link to palestinechronicle.com

Mossad’s Pardo: Nuclear Iran Won’t Threaten Israel’s Existence, Richard Silverstein

Poor Bibi, he don’t get no respect.  Even his Mossad chief is bad-mouthing his cherished dogmas about Iran being an existential threat to Israel.  This week, the MFA hosts its annual confab for its ambassadors in which they hear off the record pep talks and briefings from the high and mighty in the political, military and intelligence hierarchy.  Among the speakers was Tamir Pardo, the Mossad director, who spoke candidly about Iran.

link to www.richardsilverstein.com

Saudi Arabia’s Press: The New McCarthyism

From cartoons depicting remotely controlled protesters to claims that traditional herb chewing “induces” homosexuality, coverage of dissent in the Saudi Kingdom is becoming increasingly untenable.

link to english.al-akhbar.com

www.TheHeadlines.Org

AIPAC-championed amendment pushes Obama into a corner on Iran

Dec 29, 2011

Alex Kane

The red arrow points to the Straits of Hormuz, a focal point in US-Iran tensions today.
(Map via Wikipedia)

President Obama is set to sign legislation attached to a military spending bill that would impose harsh sanctions on Iran over its nuclear energy program. The AIPAC-championed bill, known as the Kirk-Menendez amendment, has pushed the Obama administration into a corner, forcing the administration to maneuver between appeasing the Israel lobby while at the same time making sure that the new sanctions don’t batter the weak U.S. economy by spiking oil prices. And in the meantime, Iran has responded forcefully.

The New York Times ran this story yesterday on the escalating tensions between Iran and the U.S.:

A senior Iranian official on Tuesday delivered a sharp threat in response to economic sanctions being readied by the United States, saying his country would retaliate against any crackdown by blocking all oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital artery for transporting about one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.

The declaration by Iran’s first vice president, Mohammad-Reza Rahimi, came as President Obama prepares to sign legislation that, if fully implemented, could substantially reduce Iran’s oil revenue in a bid to deter it from pursuing a nuclear weapons program.

Prior to the latest move, the administration had been laying the groundwork to attempt to cut off Iran from global energy markets without raising the price of gasoline or alienating some of Washington’s closest allies.

Apparently fearful of the expanded sanctions’ possible impact on the already-stressed economy of Iran, the world’s third-largest energy exporter, Mr. Rahimi said, “If they impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, then even one drop of oil cannot flow from the Strait of Hormuz,” according to Iran’s official news agency. Iran just began a 10-day naval exercise in the area.

The escalation in tension came as The Daily Beast‘s Eli Lake reported that the U.S., worried about Israel striking Iran unilaterally, “is trying to assure Israel privately that it would strike Iran militarily if Tehran’s nuclear program crosses certain ‘red lines.'”

Josh Rogin, who blogs at Foreign Policy, explained on MSNBC the high-stakes surrounding the Kirk-Menendez amendment, and also said the Obama administration was “forced” into signing the bill (though he didn’t say by whom). Here’s Rogin:

The Obama administration has been trying to avoid ramping up the confrontational tone with Iran, especially in an election year. The last thing they want to do is provoke a crisis.

And unfortunately, they’ve been forced into signing this new sanctions bill. It’s the Kirk-Menendez bill which puts crippling sanctions on the central bank of Iran. And not only that, it forces the U.S. to sanction third countries who do business. We’re talking about any country around the world. That’s every country, including allies like Japan and South Korea.

The administration is in a tough spot here. They have to enforce the sanctions. They have some leeway. But now is the battle over these third countries. And that’s what Iran is doing here.

They’re sending a message to all these countries around the world, if you follow these U.S. sanctions, we’re going to punish you. If you don’t follow these U.S. sanctions, the U.S. is going to punish you.

It puts all these countries into a horrible situation, a lose/lose scenario. And that’s exactly what the administration was trying to avoid…

Back here in Washington, the American economy will suffer if we put crippling sanctions on Iran that poised of course, world oil markets into disarray, that raise gas prices, and the Obama administration doesn’t trust that the average voter is going to draw the distinction between the benefits of delaying Iran’s nuclear program and the higher prices at the gas tank. It’s really a tough one to explain and it’s really a discussion they don’t want to have heading into their presidential election. It’s just not a good idea for them.

The important challenge for the Obama administration will be finding a way to both enforce the sanctions and prevent the oil markets from going haywire while keeping the lobby quiet in an election year where Iran will be an issue. But it’s clear the U.S. and Iran are hurtling closer to war, and this amendment is a key reason why. Stephen Walt recently explained why a U.S. war posture like this is dangerous:

The danger here is that if you keep repeating that preventive war against Iran is necessary, people gradually become comfortable with the idea and assume that it is going to occur eventually. In fact, if we beat the war drums for months but don’t attack, you can be confident that people like [Matthew] Kroenig will then argue that U.S. credibility is on the line and we have to strike, lest those dangerous Iranians conclude we are paper tigers.

You call me a terrorist?

Dec 29, 2011

Fidaa Abu Assi

From Fidaa Abu Assi’s blog Gaza in Words.

Look me in the eye. Do I look like a terrorist to you? Scan my features: my teary eyes, my breathless smile, my weary mind, my bleeding heart. What the hell terrorizes you? Which part of me confuses you? Fear not my hijab. I don’t hide bombs behind my ears, and I don’t think that my hair has Samson-like power, either. Fear not my stone. I got no pistol, no machine-gun, no apache, no F-16, no phosphorus bombs. It’s a stone. Only a stone. I don’t think you think I am too naive to think of throwing a stone to kill you. My stone doesn’t kill. We throw it to stop you from killing. Yet, you stop only to kill. When you robbed my land, I remain landless. Now, you want me lifeless? And hopeless? Don’t you think you were wrong when you made me your choice? No matter what, I won’t give up my Palestine. Fear only my Palestinian-identity and Gazan-personality. Fear me. I’m, and will always be, the albatross around your neck. I’m the angry Palestinian. I am the truth. The truth you fear.

Read the rest here.

Israeli ambassadors say they are ‘increasingly hated and unwanted’. But not Oren!

Dec 29, 2011

Philip Weiss

Michael “What, me worry?” Oren

This is pretty stunning. Everything that Ali Abunimah said about international isolation 2 years ago is here; it makes you wonder what will happen to public opinion in another two years.Barak Ravid in Haaretz, writing about a conclave of 100 Israeli diplomats this week in Jerusalem. Read past the headline quote to the crashing democracy image, the importance of Beit Shemesh.

Ambassadors who arrived from European states and North America talked about how they are becoming increasingly hated and unwanted, while ambassadors from Asia and Africa spoke optimistically about new markets and opportunities for cooperation in areas such as agriculture and medicine. …

Yet, in contrast to past annual gatherings, one topic kept coming up during all the discussions, this being an understanding that developments in Israel’s domestic arena have a negative impact upon the country’s reputation overseas. Within hours, ultra-Orthodox men who spit at children in Beit Shemesh, or who threaten women bus passengers in Ashdod, cause huge diplomatic damage to Israel around the world. To garner the extent of such damage, it sufficed to read one of this week’s The New York Times editions, which carried three lengthy reports about discrimination of women in Israel, Egypt and Somalia.

Many ambassadors raised this issue during meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu, President Shimon Peres and in additional discussions. “Once, Israel’s democracy was our calling card around the world,” reflected one ambassador. “Today, there’s a feeling that this is no longer the case.”

The ambassadors noted that their workdays are filled up with efforts to explain legislative initiatives against left-wing organizations and mosques, and acts of religious and right-wing extremism. Overseas, these are not marginal subjects. Quite often, the ambassadors say, we don’t have answers to questions referred to us.

Nor did the ambassadors really come away from this annual meeting with answers….

[Netanyahu gov’t is divided on these issues]

The Foreign Ministry’s view is that developments in the region have foreclosed any prospect of renewed talks between Israel and the Palestinians during 2012. Despite this pessimistic forecast, a virtual consensus has congealed among the ambassadors and also Netanyahu aides Yaakov Amidror and Yitzhak Molcho, holding that the continued diplomatic impasse hurts Israel.

One slide pointed to an equally worrisome trend of “erosion in the special relationship with the U.S.” In a separate panel, Washington Ambassador Michael Oren spoke about how relations with the American government are strong and close, and even proudly divulged public opinion poll results which show that support for Israel is stable in the U.S. public.

Ido Aharoni, Israel’s Consul-General in New York, a wizard when it comes to polls, interrupted Oren and proposed that he look at the opinion surveys more closely. “Our image in America is worse than it was in the past, particularly among the young educated sectors,” stated Aharoni, and explained that once the data are broken down, it appears that entire sectors in the U.S. might not have transferred their allegiance to the Palestinians, yet have simply lost enthusiasm for Israel.

Romanian and Bulgarian opposition to Palestinian statehood earns payoff

Dec 29, 2011

Philip Weiss

Roy Arad on “Israel’s Builders” at at the LRB blog (thanks to SheldonRichman):

During Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to Eastern Europe in the summer, the governments of Romania and Bulgaria agreed not to vote in favour of the Palestinian state at the UN. Israel has since arranged several thousand work permits for Romanian and Bulgarian builders. This is supposedly a win-win deal that shows the creativity of the Netanyahu government (he also suggested replacing striking Israeli doctors with physicians from India). On the one hand, Israel wants to speed up cheap construction to solve its housing crisis. On the other, Romania and Bulgaria will earn foreign currency and reduce unemployment. The deal will also strengthen Israel’s ties with Turkey’s European neighbours.

When my grandfather Hezi Holdengerber arrived in Israel from Romania after the Holocaust, he and his brothers built roofs together. Now Jews work in construction only as bosses or engineers. Half of Israel’s construction workers are Arab citizens of Israel; the other half are Chinese or Palestinian, some of whom are likely to lose their jobs under the new agreements.

Ron Paul prose on Israel allegedly makes woman cry

Dec 29, 2011

Philip Weiss

Other folks are posting this video, and I try and run with the herd. I don’t get it; it could be pure sophisticated propaganda. It’s from the Abrahamicmovement, which seems nutteristic. But it’s funny, and it’s getting hits.

The alleged Christmas present (see Santa wrapping) is Liberty Defined, by Ron Paul. The woman in the video misquotes Paul by saying he called Israel an “apartheid state.”

Page 327:

Meanwhile, within Israeli politics, there is a great deal of debate and diversity of opinion. The Liberal party in Israel [sic] often raises questions about the apartheid conditions that Palestinians are subjected to. Even newspapers in Israel are willing to discuss this issue openly, but it is essentially never permitted in the United States. Former President Jimmy Carter is now persona non grata for raising the question in his most recent book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.

Thanks to Ami Kaufman at 972 and Ron Kampeas at JTA, who provided the transcript.

‘Daily Beast’ provides platform for ‘warmongering’ on Iran

Dec 29, 2011

Philip Weiss

Matthew Kroenig

Eli Lake at the Daily Beast makes the case for war against Iran, citing a supposedly pristine source:

Matthew Kroenig, who served as special adviser on Iran to the Office of the Secretary of Defense between July 2010 and July 2011, offered some of the possible “red lines” for a military strike in a recent Foreign Affairs article he wrote. He argued that the U.S should attack Iran’s facilities if Iran expels international nuclear weapons inspectors, begins enriching its stockpiles of uranium to weapons-grade levels of 90 percent, or installs advanced centrifuges at its main uranium-enrichment facility in Qom.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Kroenig also noted that Iran announced in 2009 that it was set to construct 10 new uranium enrichment sites. “I doubt they are building ten new sites, but I would be surprised if Iran was not racing to build some secret enrichment facilities,” Kroenig said. “Progress on new facilities would be a major factor in our assessment of Iran’s nuclear program and shape all aspects of our policy towards this including the decision to use force.”

Stephen Walt at Foreign Policy last week, a piece he then graciously allowed Kroenig to respond to):

If you’d like to read a textbook example of war-mongering disguised as “analysis,” I recommend Matthew Kroenig’s forthcoming article in Foreign Affairs, titled “Time to Attack Iran: Why a Strike Is the Least Bad Option.” It is a remarkably poor piece of advocacy, all the more surprising because Kroenig is a smart scholar who has done some good work in the past. It makes one wonder if there’s something peculiar in the D.C. water supply.

There is a simple and time-honored formula for making the case for war, especially preventive war. First, you portray the supposed threat as dire and growing, and then try to convince people that if we don’t act now, horrible things will happen down the road. (Remember Condi Rice’s infamous warnings about Saddam’s “mushroom cloud”?) All this step requires is a bit of imagination and a willingness to assume the worst. Second, you have to persuade readers that the costs and risks of going to war aren’t that great. If you want to sound sophisticated and balanced, you acknowledge that there are counterarguments and risks involved. But then you do your best to shoot down the objections and emphasize all the ways that those risks can be minimized. In short: In Step 1 you adopt a relentlessly gloomy view of the consequences of inaction; in Step 2 you switch to bulletproof optimism about how the war will play out.

Kroenig’s piece follows this blueprint perfectly. He assumes that Iran is hellbent on getting nuclear weapons (not just a latent capability to produce one quickly if needed)…

Read the rest of Walt’s piece at link.

Kroenig worked in both the Bush and the Obama administrations, another one of those golden-thread-in-the-tapestry cases that unites neocons and liberal interventionists. He is an ass’t professor of government at Georgetown. His website here: http://www.matthewkroenig.com/

This post was provided to me by Annie Robbins. Thank you!

More Jewish homes in East Jerusalem announced — and more demolitions of Palestinian homes

Dec 29, 2011

Kate