Mondoweiss Online Newsletter

NOVANEWS

Even ‘SNL’ is talking about Israel firsters….

Jan 08, 2012

Philip Weiss

Saturday Night Live’s Rick Santorum ad with Andy Samberg is flat, but at minute 2, there’s this gem:

“What is this campaign about? Two things. One, making the family once again the center of our nation’s public policy, and two, starting a war with Iran as a favor to Israel, whether Israel asks us to or not.”

U.S. continues to fund Israeli military but not Palestinian ‘Sesame Street’

Jan 08, 2012

Today in Palestine

Kareem and Haneen from Palestinian Sesame Street
Kareem and Haneen from Palestinian Sesame Street

and other news from Today in Palestine:

US to sell Israel 2,500 Hummers, trucks
IDF officials reach preliminary deal on equipment used by US forces in Iraq, Afghanistan.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Palestinian Sesame Street ails without US funds
RAMALLAH, West Bank – It’s quiet time on Palestinian Sesame Street. The iconic children’s program, known as “Sharaa Simsim” in Arabic, has been put on hold for the 2012 season because of a funding freeze by the U.S. Congress. Sharaa Simsim is one of many U.S.-funded Palestinian programs suffering after Congress froze the transfer of nearly $200 million to the U.S. Agency for International Development in October. The suspension aimed to punish the Palestinians for appealing to the United Nations for statehood.
link to old.news.yahoo.com

 Land, Property Theft & Destruction / Ethnic Cleansing / Attacks on Palestinians protecting their land

Israel destroys vast tracts of Palestinian land in Salfit and Bethlehem
The IOA has appropriated more Palestinian lands in the West Bank and bulldozed dozens of dunums owned by Palestinian natives in Salfit and Bethlehem cities.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

New Israeli excavations south of Aqsa Mosque
Wadi Hilwa information center revealed that the IOA started to carry out new excavations south of the Aqsa Mosque at the pretext of looking for a historic wall under the ground.

link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

National park to be built on Mount Scopus
For the past 44 years, since its annexation, the Jerusalem Municipality has remained silent on the future development of occupied East Jerusalem. No comprehensive master plan has been produced, allowing for deliberative planning and the accommodation of natural population…

Kufr ad-Dik resists by the hundreds
The residents of Kufr ad-Dik sent a clear and strong message of resistance to the Israeli authorities, in this, just the second of planned weekly demonstrations in the village. There were approximately 250 residents who attended the demonstration, with a number of Israeli and international activists also present, offering solidarity and support to the village of Kufr Ad-Dik in their struggle to resist the planned further expansion of the several illegal settlements besieging the village, which should it go ahead will reportedly take 80% of the land belonging to Kufr Ad-Dik. To add further insult to the injustice and illegality of this situation, the Israeli authorities have denied Kufr Ad-Dik permission to build any new homes on their own land as the village in Area C.

IOF intensify attacks on peaceful marches against settlement and wall
The IOF used excessive force to disperse peaceful demonstrations organized in protest at Israeli settlement activities and the construction of the apartheid wall in the occupied West Bank.
Four Injured In Bil’in Weekly Nonviolent Protest
Israeli troops attacked on Friday the weekly nonviolent protest against the illegal Annexation Wall and illegal settlements, in the West Bank village of Bil’in, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, wounding at least four residents.
At noon on the 6th of January, 2012, a demonstration was held in the village Kufr Qaddoum, located just outside Nablus. The people gathered after the Friday-prayer and started marching along the main road that runs through the village. This road was, until the year of 2003, also the main road to Nablus, which by then only was a 10 minute drive away. This came to a short end during the second Intifada when the Israeli army decided to close the road as they considered it a safety risk to the nearby illegal settlements. The Israeli government has, since the end of the Intifada, agreed that the road is not a “safety risk” anymore and therefore gave the green-light to reopen it. The army however has so far disobeyed this decision and refuses to open the road which means that the villagers still have to take a detour of about 30 minutes, making the drive to Nablus three times longer and more expensive than before.
Violence and Aggression

Palestinian Youth Injured After Being Rammed By Army Jeep
Palestinian medical sources in occupied East Jerusalem reported Friday that a Palestinian youth from Silwan town, was seriously wounded after being struck by an Israeli army jeep injured in Bab Al Amoud area in occupied East Jerusalem.

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — Fighting broke out between youth in an East Jerusalem neighborhood and Israeli forces on Saturday evening, after the troops entered the area to conduct arrests, residents said. Young men blocked the streets in Silwan and pelted Israeli patrols with stones and empty bottles, with Israeli forces firing tear gas, stun grenades, rubber-coated bullets and live ammunition into the air, locals told Ma’an.

Jewish settlers attack Nablus villages
Tens of Jewish settlers attacked villages of Burin and Iraq Burin, south of Nablus, on Saturday night and were confronted by villagers, local sources said.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

JENIN (Ma’an) — Israeli forces set up a temporary checkpoint sealing a Jenin-district village for several hours on Sunday morning, witnesses said.  Soldiers set up the military checkpoint after clashes Saturday evening when forces deployed to Yabad village, residents told Ma’an.  Youth clashed with soldiers in the south of the village, who fired tear gas which entered a number of homes, they said.

link to www.maannews.net

Israeli Army Concludes Preparations For Potential Offensive
The Israeli army announced that its Home Front concluded a two-month preparation for a potential military offensive against the Gaza Strip, the Arabs48 news website reported.
link to www.imemc.org

When even the most hawkish of Israel military correspondents concede (implicitly) the IDF’s version of the Eilat terror attacks is rubbish, you know you’ve been vindicated.  You’ll recall that back in August, after the incident, Alex Fishman, Idan Landau and I all demolished the claims by the IDF that the attackers were Gazan.  We argued that the attack originated in Sinai and that Sinai Islamists organized it and carried it out.  Eli Lake, Avi Issacharoff and any number of obedient water carriers dutifully reported IDF and U.S. intelligence nonsense.  The lies spouted by the IDF were also used to justify killing the top leadership of the Popular Resistance Committees and 25 other Gaza civilians having nothing to do with the raid.
Israeli Occupation Forces aiding Jewish terrorists

‘Soldiers supplied intel to rightist rioters’
Five settlers charged with rioting in IDF base, tracking IDF activity in West Bank. Prosecution: Soldiers helped plot riots by providing confidential docs.

5 indicted in Israeli military base rampage (AP)
AP – Israel’s Justice Ministry has indicted five alleged Jewish extremists in connection with a rampage at an Israeli army base in the West Bank last month.

link to us.rd.yahoo.com

Detainees
IOF soldiers detain university student, 10-year-old child
Israeli occupation forces detained two Palestinian university students after one of them managed to make a kite with an engine as part of an experiment in his engineering faculty in Tulkarem.

IOF soldiers round up 3 citizens in Al-Khalil after campaign on the province
Israeli occupation forces (IOF) detained three Palestinian citizens in Al-Khalil province at dawn Sunday amidst a rabid campaign that targeted various villages in the region.

link to www.palestine-info.co.uk

JENIN (Ma’an) — Israeli forces detained a Hamas leader and his son in the northern West Bank on Wednesday evening, party officials said. Ali Abdulllah Khalil Abu Al-Rab, 50, and his 20-year-old son were returning from Ramallah to their home in Qabatiya, near Nablus, when they were apprehended by forces at the Zaatara crossing, the officials said.
HEBRON (Ma’an) — Israeli forces detained two men in Hebron-district Beit Ummar early Sunday, after raiding a bakery in the town. Raed Mahmoud Salem, 35, and Yousef Mahmoud Salem al-Alami, 25, were seized in night raids on their homes, spokesperson of the Beit Ummar national committee Muhammad Ayad Awad told Ma’an.  The soldiers also raided a bakery, injuring worker Zuhair Mukbel, Awad added.
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Israeli forces detained four Palestinians crossing through a Jenin checkpoint on Sunday morning, officials said. The men were seized at the Salem military checkpoint north of Jenin, where they attempted to enter Israel, an Israeli army spokesman said. In their possession were 11 pipe bombs, ammunition, a knife and a pistol, he added.
Israel radio: PA arrested 8 Palestinians at Israel’s request
Palestinian Authority’s security apparatuses rounded up eight Palestinian citizens in Al-Khalil on Friday at the request of their Israeli counterpart, the Hebrew radio said on Saturday.
Friday night, Israeli soldiers at Checkpoints 56 and Gilbert in the town of Al Khalil (Hebron) detained Palestinian and International Solidarity Movement activists for a total of five hours for unexplained reasons. The detainees, a mix of activists and community members, were held for hours out on a cold night while groups of settlers and military squads arrived to heckle, shout, curse and point their guns. The soldiers of the recently arrived Golani Brigade, one of whom, a checkpoint commander, said their reasons where because “because [he] said so.”

IOA refuses to allow treatment of cancer-plagued detainee
The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) is refusing to allow treatment of Naim Natshe, who is plagued with cancer, ever since his detention more than seven months ago, his wife said.

160 Palestinian prisoners suffering chronic diseases
The number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails suffering from chronic diseases has reached 160 out of 500 sick prisoners and the number is on the rise.
Gaza

There was no war in Gaza, it was a massacre
Norman Finkelstein explains, what is obvious to those paying close attention, that there was no war in Gaza, what took place there was a massacre.

7 January 2009 – The Mattar family
At around 09:30 on 7 January 2009, Israeli forces targeted the al-Taqwa Mosque in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City. The mosque was 150 metres from the home of Mahmoud Mattar, who was 14 at the time. Having run to the scene of the attack, Mahmoud was present when two further strikes hit the area, killing two 15 year old boys, including one of Mahmoud’s school friends. Mahmoud was thrown unconscious and suffered severe burns and shrapnel wounds. He has been left totally blind as a result.
link to palsolidarity.org

On Tuesday there was another demonstration in Beit Hanoun against the “buffer zone” imposed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip. The demonstrators also commemorated the over 1400 Palestinians killed during operation “Cast Lead”. The demonstration started at about 11.00 am. A drone was flying over Beit Hanoun. The volunteers of the ISM and other youth marched until they were only a few meters from the separation barrier, singing songs, among them the Italian “Bella Ciao”, and waving Palestinian flags.  During the march, they heard gunshots from Israeli soldiers.  Saber Zaaneen and other young men placed a Palestinian flag in the land.
BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — Three years on from an Israeli attack that left him blind, 17-year-old Mahmoud Mattar says he spends most of his days inside and has little hope for the future. Mahmoud was injured in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza City on Jan. 7, 2009 during Israel’s brutal three-week war on the Gaza Strip. Israeli warplanes targeted a mosque in Sheikh Radwan, and Mahmoud, who was 14 at the time, ran to site of the attack. Two further strikes hit the area, killing two teenagers and injuring Mahmoud, who was thrown unconscious.
Racism / Discrimination / Sexism & others things you would read in the New York Times
Palestinians are viewed as “demographic threats” Palestinian population boom worries Israel 

Some Israeli officials are worried that a growing Palestinian population could undermine the country’s identity as a Jewish state. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, demographic figures project that Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza, will outnumber Israelis within a decade. Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands reports from the West Bank.

Star of David scrawled on Canada mosque
Anti-Arab slur spray-painted on Muslim house of prayer in Gatineau, Quebec. Jewish organizations condemn incident.
Benny Katzover tells journal Chabad: Israeli democracy has finished its role, and it must disassemble and give way to Judaism.

Another haredi charged with harassment
Jerusalem resident Ze’ev Frank, 29, accused of spitting on woman in Mea Shearim, calling her ‘slut’. According to indictment, in previous incident he called policeman ‘Nazi’.

Rabbi accused of sexually assaulting teens
Northern District Prosecutor’s Office files indictment against 61-year-old Yaakov Deutsch for allegedly assaulting four minors who turned to him for spiritual guidance.

Solidarity / Activism / BDS 
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Palestine on Saturday marked the 47th Martyrs’ Day, a national day declared by late President Yasser Arafat in 1965. Muhammad Nahhal, an official in a Gaza-based association to help martyrs’ families, says the day is an occasion to remember late leaders including Arafat, Hamas founder Ahmad Yassin, PFLP Secretary-General Abu Ali Mustafa and Fathi Shiqaqi, the founder of Islamic Jihad in Palestine.
Nonprofit organizations in the US like the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and individuals who care about human rights like Daphne Guinness have an obligation to support people’s right to live in dignity, and to support Jayyous’ families’ efforts to remain on their lands, instead of cooperating with Lev Leviev who steals our lands, and food in order to build illegal settlements. For the sake of our community, families and children, please do not help Lev Leviev to whitewash his illegal settlements on Jayyous’ farmland.

Israel’s “pretty face”: How National Union of Israeli Students does government’s propaganda dirty work, Ali Abunimah
Yesterday I wrote about a program run by the National Union of Israeli Students (NUIS) to pay Israeli college students $2,000 to spread hasbara – propaganda favorable to Israel – on social networking sites. This raised a further question: who pays for this and what role do Israel’s government and other organizations play in this use of students to deliver propaganda?
link to electronicintifada.net

Join Phyllis Bennis for a Discussion About the Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS!
Join Phyllis Bennis, US Campaign Steering Committee Member, and Omar Barghouti, Tuesday, January 10th in San Diego, CA! Phyllis Bennis and Omar Barghouti will be discussing the Palestinian Civil Society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and universal principles of human rights.
Anti-BDS campaigner out of step with pro-BDS consensus of her Catholic order
As Mondoweiss’ Alex Kane reports, in upcoming assemblies of the national United Methodist and Presbyterian church bodies, leading the fight against resolutions of divestment from companies profiting from Israel’s occupation and settlements will be Sister Ruth Lautt, the national director of Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East (CFWME), and a member of the Dominican sisters order of nuns (Roman Catholic). Kane’s investigation of donation tax records to CFWME show that the organization’s funders are also linked to illegal West Bank settlements. The settlement-funders who contribute to CFWME stand in stark contrast to the Dominican order’s position on Israel/Palestine. The order’s “call to justice” which Lautt’s New York-based branch signed onto, calls for prayer and support for the Palestinian United Nations bid for statehood. It also expresses firm support for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
link to blog.endtheoccupation.org
A lawsuit over anti-Semitism at the University of California Berkley has been dismissed after a judge determined that students alleging a hostile climate on campus failed to support their claims.
link to electronicintifada.net
Developments / Diplomacy & other news
Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya delivered the Friday Khutba in Kairouan Mosque of Tunisia and talked about the importance of resistance as a means to liberate the holy city of Jerusalem.
Haneyya: Time has changed, Israel no longer has allies in Tunisia, Egypt
Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya has said that time has changed and Israel no longer has allies in Tunisia and Egypt after the popular revolutions that swept those two Arab countries.
Israel facing unprecedented security situation, Egypt won’t allow another Gaza war, Islamist group’s leader tells Britain’s The Independent.
Arab League urges UN to stop Israel’s violations in O. Jerusalem
The Arab League warned of dire consequences if the UN did not stop Israel from provoking the feelings of Muslims and Arabs by violating the sanctity of the Islamic and Christian holy places.

Envoy: Palestine continues pursuing UN membership (AP)
AP – The Palestinians will employ new creative ideas to gain membership at the world body despite a U.S. threat to veto such an action, Palestinian U.N. observer Riyad Mansour disclosed Friday.

US to sell Israel 2,500 Hummers, trucks
IDF officials reach preliminary deal on equipment used by US forces in Iraq, Afghanistan.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – It’s quiet time on Palestinian Sesame Street. The iconic children’s program, known as “Sharaa Simsim” in Arabic, has been put on hold for the 2012 season because of a funding freeze by the U.S. Congress. Sharaa Simsim is one of many U.S.-funded Palestinian programs suffering after Congress froze the transfer of nearly $200 million to the U.S. Agency for International Development in October. The suspension aimed to punish the Palestinians for appealing to the United Nations for statehood.

Israel says credit card hack is ‘terrorism’
Deputy FM vows revenge over theft of thousands of credit card details by a hacker who says he is based in Saudi Arabia.

link to www.aljazeera.com

‘0xOmar’: You won’t find me
Saudi hacker tells Ynet report revealing his identity is wrong, says: If a stupid student thinks he can find me in eight hours, what will Mossad do?

Israeli suspected of using info exposed in Saudi hack for credit card fraud
An 18-year-old from northern Israel used details of a number of credit cards to purchase smartphone, tablet computer and home cinema system.

Hamas urges Arab hackers to expand cyberwar on Israeli occupation
Sami Abu Zuhri hailed the anonymous Arab hackers who managed to penetrate credit cards of Israelis and expose their details as a creative work and a new means of resistance against the occupation.

Fayyad government plans to lay off thousands of West Bank employees
Palestinian sources revealed that the Fayyad government in the West Bank plans to lay off thousands of West Bank government employees under the pretext of financial difficulties facing the PA in 2012.
link to www.palestine-info.co.uk
Other Mideast News
Iraq: Shi’ite Pilgrims Targets For More Violence
At least 10 Iraqis were killed and 30 more were wounded. Some of the violence targeted Shi’ite pilgrims in and around Baghdad, but attacks farther north were heavy on security personnel. Meanwhile, the Iraqiya list could be seeing a breakthrough soon as talks with the National Coalition over the latest political impasses seem to be working.

Iraq asks Kurds to hand over Sunni vice president (Reuters)
Reuters – Iraq has formally asked authorities in the semi-autonomous northern Kurdish region to hand over Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and 12 of his entourage to face charges of running death squads, an Iraqi official said on Sunday.

Bahrain student alleges torture in detention
Fresh reports of the torture of an 18-year old student in detention are yet another blow to Bahrain’s promises of reform, Amnesty International said today. Police allegedly subjected Hassan ‘Oun to torture, including beatings and threats of rape after his arrest in Manama on 3 January. “As such horrendous cases of human rights abuse keep piling up, the Bahraini authorities’ promises of change ring ever more hollow,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.  Hassan’s family has told Amnesty International that he was interrogated about his contact with the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights.
link to www.amnesty.org

Opposition supporters rally in Bahrain despite ban (AP)
AP – Anti-government protesters converged on the headquarters of Bahrain’s main opposition party Saturday, defying a government ban on the gathering and pressing ahead with their campaign for greater political and civil rights for the nation’s Shiite Muslims.
link to us.rd.yahoo.comBahraini activist beaten by ‘riot police’
Nabeel Rajab, a rights activist, is beaten in Bahrain, although authorities deny any responsibility for the attack.
link to www.aljazeera.com

U.S. concerned about Bahrain activist, urges probe (Reuters)
Reuters – The United States called on its ally Bahrain on Saturday to investigate the case of a prominent Bahraini human rights activist who the opposition says was beaten by security forces.

Syrian foreign ministry: Attack employed “Salafi method” 
The Syrian government has been blaming Thursday’s bomb attack in Damascus – which killed 25 and injured nearly 50 – on “terrorists.” When pressed for a more specific answer, Jihad Makdissi, the spokesman for the Syrian foreign ministry, said that while there were no details yet on who was responsible for the explosion, authorities felt “the type of attack was from the Salafi method.” “You know suicide bombing is not done by people who rob banks,” said Makdissi. “This is very clear that that the trace is for the Salafi mentality.” He offered no further clarification on the subject but said the Syrian interior ministry will release more information later.
link to www.youtube.com

Pro-Assad crowds pack funeral for bomb victims in Syria
Thousands line the streets of Damascus for the procession, state TV shows. Meanwhile, an Arab League committee is to meet Sunday to review the preliminary findings of an observer mission. Thousands of government supporters turned out Saturday for the funeral service for victims of a bombing in Damascus, the Syrian capital, waving flags and holding up pictures of President Bashar Assad, state media reported.
link to feeds.latimes.com

Syria opposition calls Damascus bombing a government plot 
Dozens of people are reported to be dead after a blast in the Syrian capital, Damascus. Syrian state TV said at least 25 people died and 46 more were wounded in Friday’s attack which it blamed on a suicide bomber. The explosion, which targeted the central district of al-Maidan, a hub for anti-government protests, was described by the opposition as a government plot. Hashem Ahelbarra reports.
GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas chief Khalid Mashaal’s role as mediator in the Syrian uprising is in the interests of Palestinian refugees in the country, senior party official Salah al-Bardawil said Saturday. The Arab League on Friday asked Mashaal to pass a message to Bashar Assad urging the Syrian President to end violence in the country after a bloody 10-month crackdown on anti-government protesters.
Russian visit comes as Arab League scheduled to meet in Cairo to assess the performance of the a widely criticized observer mission.
Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood Deny Reassuring US on Israel Peace Treaty
MB Guidance Bureau member denies US spokesperson’s claims that the MB had assured the US concerning Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel, says treaty’s fate will be decided upon by national referendum. Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Bureau member Ibrahim Mounir denied on Friday his organisation had reassured Washington concerning Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel. Mounir told Iranian satellite channel El-Alam that the MB had previously explained that this issue would be proposed to the Egyptian nation in a referendum to decide upon its fate. Mounir’s explanation came as a response to the statements made by US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland on Thursday claiming that the MB has reassured the US it would maintain the peace treaty with Israel.
link to www.jadaliyya.com
The Freedom and Justice Party of the Muslim Brotherhood says it has gained a third of the vote in Egypt’s election, after preliminary results were released. Banned under deposed president Hosni Mubarak, the Brotherhood appears to be finding success in the first free vote in decades. Al Jazeera’s Jamal Elshayyal reports from Cairo.
‘Iran does not pose an existential threat ‘
Contrary to statements made when he was in office, former IDF chief Dan Halutz now negates ‘doomsday scenarios’ vis-?-vis Iran.
link to www.ynetnews.com

Iranian leader seeks support in South America
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad begins regional tour in Venezuela amid rising tensions with West over Iran’s nuclear programme.

link to www.aljazeera.com

Inmates at facility in Bagram tell investigating commission they were tortured and held without evidence by authorities.
Analysis / Op-ed

Israel Human Rights Lawyer: IDF Commander Soils Memory of Jawaher Rahme, Richard Silverstein

On the one year anniversary of the death of non-violent Bilin protester Jawaher Abu Rahme, her family’s Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard, reminds us of the nasty conspiracy by senior IDF commander, Maj. Gen. Avi Mizrahi, with the Israeli media to rob Abu Rahme in death of her dignity through outright lies. These lies were dutifully disseminated by reporters and right-wing hasbara blogs like MuqataIsraellycool (yes, our old friend David Lange again), and Jonathan Hoffman at the Jewish Chronicle, who claimed in blaring headlines that the Palestinian non-violent movement had created a “blood libel” against the IDF. Virtually every claim of the IDF and their media whores was disproven. Yet no newspaper except Haaretz published anything close to the truth, nor did anyone publish a correction or retraction.

Ynet: Support for Israel on American campuses is kerplunking, Annie Robbins
Student hasbarists are exhausted whitewashing Israel’s apartheid on campuses all across America. That’s not the overall conclusion of a blunt Ynet Op-ed by Israeli journalist Steve Rubin, it’s what’s reflected in the exasperation expressed towards the end.

Sarah Wildman, columnist for the International Herald Tribune and PBS and contributing editor to the Forward takes issue with the increasingly promiscuous accusation of “anti-Semitism” against critics of Israel.
link to electronicintifada.net

Spouse of ‘NYT’ correspondent calls on Israeli gov’t to wage ‘war’ on int’l threat to its image, Philip Weiss
Isabel Kershner, a British-Israeli correspondent for the New York Times in Israel, is married to Hirsh Goodman, a writer who moved from South Africa (where he opposed apartheid), to Israel. His most recent books is The Anatomy of Israel’s Survival, and he writes today in the Jerusalem Post about a “war” Israel must conduct for its image.
link to mondoweiss.net

Shortly after reading Phil Weiss’ “Trivializing the anti-Semitism charge” post on Mondoweiss, I came across thisnew Daily Beast article about the Israeli habit of trivializing the Holocaust. The article stems from the recent ultra-Orthodox rallies in Jerusalem which mimicked and exploited iconic Holocaust imagery to protest “an effort by secular Israelis to roll back gender segregation on some bus lines and in certain neighborhoods—a dispute that has surged in recent weeks.”
Instead of encouraging our young to volunteer and help society, we send them to the Border Police; it be better were they to stay at home.
Who Are the Palestinians, Hasan Afif El-Hasan
In 1917, Jews constituted 7 percent of the indigenous Palestinian population and owned 1 percent of the land. Britain, as a colonialist power and the victor of World War I forced the Palestine Mandate and gave itself the right to grant a homeland to the Jewish people in Palestine in “Balfour Declaration” that facilitated the colonization of the land by foreign Jews.
link to palestinechronicle.com

Russell Tribunal on Palestine: Universal Justice, Ludwig Watzal
The Russell Tribunal on Palestine (RToP) was launched in Brussels on 4 March 2009. It’s a people’s tribunal in the spirit of the Tribunal on the Vietnam war that was set up by Lord Bertrand Russell in 1966 to protest the inconceivable war crimes and the crimes against humanity that were inflicted on the Vietnamese people by the United States. The first tribunal comprised people such as Jean-Paul Sartre, James Baldwin, Simone de Beauvoir, Isaac Deutscher to name a few. So far, there has been a second Russell Tribunal on Latin America from 1974 to 1976 dealing with crimes committed by Latin American military juntas.
link to palestinechronicle.com

Israel/Palestine as a 21st Century “Lawfare” Laboratory
Below, hear Lisa Hajjar, Professor of Sociology at UCSB, speak in Washington, DC, about her new paper that brings together the two concepts of “lawfare” — Israel’s litigation of warmaking practices — and targeted killing, which Israel interprets as supported within its international legal rights and duties as occupier of Palestinian territory. Hajjar’s presentation is followed by two other panelists named below.
www.TheHeadlines.Org

Gingrich got $5 million for saying Palestinians are invented people (lord, why am I so cynical?)

Jan 08, 2012

Philip Weiss

Adelson
Adelson

Why do so many people have a conspiratorial view of the Israel lobby? One reason is that our media are largely silent on what we all know to be a real  force in our politics, and so feverish minds are left to speculate.

The latest evidence. A week or so after Newt Gingrich said that the Palestinians are an invented people, his Super PAC has received $5 million from Sheldon Adelson, whose central cause is Israel.

And lo, the Associated Press fails to mention Adelson’s cause in its coverage. The Washington Post broke the story but included just one sentence about Israel, buried in paragraph 8, and ungrammatically:

Adelson is a strong supporter of Israel and his views dovetail with Gingrich on Israel and the Palestinian conflicts.

Blackout artists at The New York Times write up the gift without a word about Adelson’s cause:

As candidates spent the weekend trying to catch up to Mitt Romney in New Hampshire, with the primary just two days away, a longtime supporter of Newt Gingrich donated $5 million to a “super PAC” backing his presidential bid, providing a major boost to Mr. Gingrich’s ailing campaign. The donation by Sheldon Adelson was reported Saturday night by The Washington Post. He has long been a generous patron of Mr. Gingrich’s political career….

The cash infusion from Mr. Adelson instantly catapults Winning Our Future into the top ranks of candidate super PACs, groups that can raise unlimited amounts of money from donors and spend it all on advertisements and other efforts to back a specific candidate, so long as they do not coordinate with the campaign.

You may remember that investigative reporter Michael Isikoff also forgot to mention Adelson’s cause on NBC— even as he talked about Romney’s Mormonism. Different strokes for different folks!

Speaking of money and influence, this is a quote I missed in Josh Nathan-Kazis’s report in the Forward about neoconservative money going after Obama:

“We raise a lot of money,” said Matt Brooks, executive director of the RJC. “Literally tens of millions every cycle, our members and leaders raise for candidates.”

Literally tens of millions every cycle. That’ll get some folks’ attention. Has this money played any role in Obama, Romney and Gingrich’s policy stances? Well that would be cynical, wouldn’t it…

Dersh says anti-Zionists believe Jews bombed the Oklahoma City federal building

Jan 08, 2012

Philip Weiss

Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz

I’m not sure when Alan Dershowitz jumped the shark, as the expression goes, from being someone people took seriously to being a ridiculous figure. A long time ago for some discerning folks. More recently for the rest of us.

This is so foolish it’s funny. Attacking Ron Paul in the Jerusalem Post, Dersh says that he is backed by white supremacists and anti-Zionists, and then defines anti-Zionism as congruent with anti-Semitism:

These “anti-Zionists” believe that “Zionists” – Jews – control the world, were responsible for the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building, and caused the economic downturn, because “most of the leaders involved in the federal and international banking system are Jews.”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *