MONDOWEISS ONLINE NEWSLETTER

NOVANEWS

08/24/2010:

• Two ‘Anglo-Saxons’ in Jerusalem
• Snippets of my youthful Zionist indoctrination
• Actually, Arab leaders don’t want a strike on Iran
• Pro-Israel extremists have campaigned against an Islamic cultural center before
• What the U.S. sanctions on Iraq tell us about the siege of Gaza
• Israel tells schools not to teach about the Nakba
• Norwegian gov’t divests from 2 companies that build settlements
• Kovel: Zionism’s dreary burden on Jewishness
• Israeli officer sells computers seized from flotilla members

Two ‘Anglo-Saxons’ in Jerusalem
Aug 24, 2010 

Philip Weiss

Once a summer for the last few years I’ve gone to lectures at the Church of the Messiah in Cape Cod in a series sponsored by the Ad Hoc Committee for Peace and Justice in the Middle East. Most of the speeches have hada pro-Arab tilt. But Sunday night was different. An appealing Jewish couple in their 70s named the Coopers, Alice and Robert, who had lived in Jerusalem for 36 years till 2008, told their story, both slender teachers, he a sociologist of language, she a teacher of English. It was a bittersweet tale but was not in the end very satisfying intellectually.

The Coopers moved over in 1972. Robert was going to do a year at Hebrew University. “We had no Zionist background, no Zionist aspiration,” he said, but by the time of the Yom Kippur war in 1973 the Zionism had developed in them, and they stayed on. Robert had always felt “slightly alienated” from non-Jews in the U.S. He fell in love with the Jewish sense of belonging and the “rhythms of Jewish life.” Alice, a Brearley-Radcliffe graduate, felt a strong communitarian impulse after the Yom Kippur war. Both their kids served in the IDF.

The Coopers’ story had three emotional turns.

 

The first was Robert’s description of his service as a reservist in occupied Hebron, protecting the Cave of the Patriarchs, which of course is also a Moslem holy site, the Ibrahim mosque. The Jews were much more trouble than the Palestinians, Robert said, using all type of “shenanigans” to get into the site when they weren’t supposed to be there. He described the “hateful” presence of Jewish soldiers in the mosque during Muslim prayer; they were protecting the Israeli Arabic translators, who were there to monitor the imam’s comments. And he told about ordering a very respectable lady to open her purse. There was a handkerchief in there, that was all.

“She gave me a look of such withering hatred. And who can blame her?”

In time, the Coopers took part in protests of the occupation, which threatened the very idea of Jewish democracy, as Robert said. Alice was as disturbed. She joined the women in black and held up signs that said, End the occupation.

The second emotional turn was the Coopers’ description of the Second Intifada. At first they tried to deny that the violence was changing their lives in Jerusalem, but ultimately it got to them. They watched one another walk away from the door as if it might be the last time they were together. They took taxis and turned on the radio when they heard the bomb blasts, 10 in one month in June 2003 alone. They got cell phones. 

This time the sense of betrayal was aimed at the Arabs. There were thousands of rockets from Gaza and Hamas was committed to Israel’s “abolition,” Alice said, and she was not sure if she was for a Palestinian state any more.

The last emotional moment was when Alice thanked us for allowing her to tell her story. Her heart is still in Jerusalem, though she has been back for two years. You see, the Cooper children both live here. The children didn’t want to stay in Israel, and their daughter announced that she wouldn’t come over to Jerusalem to take care of them in their old age. The Coopers live in Brooklyn. Alice is still grieving her move.

I was frequently stirred by the talk, by its directness and simplicity, and the perfect structure, of responsive readings, but politically I felt it was too simple. Many thoughts went through my mind. I thought, this story is out of date, Zionism is out of date, do these people have any understanding of their privilege, to be able to go from one society to another and then back to their native society, while Palestinians have no such freedom? Is it really surprising that some Palestinians are firing rockets and blowing themselves up as you decide whether you feel they should have a state or not?

Robert obviously has a clue about Israel’s self-inflicted loss of legitimacy, but the dwelling on the Second Intifada reminded me of the dead end of the Israeli left. The terror seemed to justify everything that has followed, including Lieberman and Netanyahu, about whom the Coopers had little comment. 

There is a bubble in Israel and these people spoke from inside the bubble. They talked about all the Arab violence but did not talk about the Nakba. During the Q-and-A they acknowledged that they had little contact with Palestinians; the two societies are utterly separated. Is that any reflection on Jewish democracy?

I wondered whether their children had become anti-Zionists. The Coopers had not completely assimilated in Israeli society. Robert said they were called “Anglo-Saxon,” the Israeli word for English and Americans. Anglo-Saxon has a colonial ring to me, and there was a resonance in the Coopers’ story of another time, the era of colonial power. They are people whose lives in the end were back in their real homeland; their children were happier here. Over there was tough and a little fake too, surrounded by hostile Arab nations, as they repeated– and connected by an umbilical to the imperial power. 

The Coopers said the conflict is about competing claims to the land, but are theclaims comparable? Not really, when two citizens have grown up here and graduated from Radcliffe and Harvard. The Anglo-Saxon privileged come and go, while many of the natives have no real freedom to move, let alone to send their children to universities in the U.S.

I was with my parents, who are of the Coopers’ world; and I wanted to like the talk, to be supportive of a Jewish experience. But the Coopers’ dream seems faded. It is hard for me to understand how Israel can be reconstituted, can gain legitimacy, until it is accepted by the lady whose handbag Cooper inspected. The spiritual and political work all lie in that direction.

Snippets of my youthful Zionist indoctrination
Aug 24, 2010 

Matthew Taylor

Political and military Zionism indoctrination snippets from my childhood:

– I went to a Conservative Synagogue starting at age six, where we sang “The Blue and the White are Colors of Mine” while saluting an Israeli flag. Afterwards I asked my father, “Why are we singing to the Israeli flag? I thought I was supposed to pledge allegiance to the American flag.” He said, “Both flags are yours.”

– The shul, of course, had those little blue JNF boxes where I put money my parents gave me “to plant a tree in Israel.” No one mentioned land confiscation and ethnic cleansing.

– When I was seven (April 1982), Israel completed its final withdrawal from Egypt. We were all told we had to pray for the safety of the Israeli soldiers. I asked, “Why are we still in Egypt? I thought the Israelites fled from slavery thousands of years ago.” The teachers couldn’t explain, they just said, “It’s complicated.”

– I was an avid reader of Mad magazine. When I was twelve, Mad ran a feature called “Garbage Pail Adults,” mocking a variety of celebrities and political figures, including “Yucky Arafat.” Would it be verboten to point out that Mad publisher William Gaines was Jewish? Of course, there was no mocking of “Stern Shamir” (then-Israeli Prime Minister, former leader of the terrorist group).

So there you have it. I was taught dual loyalty, helped fund the dispossession of the indigenous Palestinian people, and learned from popular children’s media that Palestinians are smelly, fly-covered jerks… in the same category as apartheid prime minister P.W. Botha.

What did you learn about Israel in your childhood? What did you learn that you didn’t even know you were learning?

Actually, Arab leaders don’t want a strike on Iran
Aug 23, 2010 

Philip Weiss

Marc Lynch at the Atlantic, responding respectfully to Jeffrey Goldberg’s piece promoting a strike against Iran, makes me wonder who is out of control here, Ahmadinejad or Netanyahu? Which is the rogue state? 

The “Israeli clock” is a major disruptive factor in the administration’s strategy, as Goldberg’s article makes clear, with the U.S. needing to simultaneously reassure Israel of its intentions and gauge Tel Aviv’s calculations while dealing with Tehran. The most interesting part of the article is therefore Goldberg’s assessment of the state of mind of the current Israeli leadership. It sounds right to me as a description of Netanyahu and his team (including the offensive “J Street Jew” remark). It is worth asking whether this is an attitude shared widely across the Israeli political spectrum (i.e. Kadima) or rooted in Netanyahu’s psychology (as Goldberg suggests) and his coalition. For at least the short term, we must assume that it is this Israeli leadership that will make the call, so the distinction may not seem relevant…

But why assume that it should make the call? And remember Noam Sheizaf saying that Israeli society is not represented in this call. More Lynch:

 

The hostility to Iran in various Arab circles should not lead anyone to believe that Arabs would support an attack on Iran by the U.S. or Israel, however. While Arab leaders would certainly like Iranian influence checked, they generally strongly oppose military action which could expose them to retaliation. Iran hawks typically make far too much of the private remarks of selected Arab regime figures, without considering whether those remarks reflect an internal consensus within their regimes or whether they will be repeated in public in a moment of political crisis (as opposed to Aspen [Goldberg’s quoted source]). Arab leaders will likely continue to welcome any efforts to contain Iranian power, particularly when it takes the form of major arms deals and political support. And they will likely continue to mutter and complain about America’s failure to magically solve their problems for them. But those who expect these regimes to take a leading, public role in an attack on Iran are likely to be disappointed — especially if there is still no progress on the peace process.

Finally, the whole discussion of an Israeli or American strike against Iran seems to take place in an historical void, as if we have not just lived through the brutal, griding experience of a war chosen and sold on shaky grounds. I would hope that the lessons of Iraq will not be so easily forgotten. When we are presented with claims of a ticking clock approaching midnight, we should recall Colin Powell at the UN and be very suspicious about the alleged urgency and absence of options. When we are told that an attack will likely succeed at low cost, with the positive impact high and the negative impact minimal, we should recall the predictions that the war on Iraq would likely cost little and easily succeed.

Pro-Israel extremists have campaigned against an Islamic cultural center before
Aug 23, 2010

Jeff Klein

Haven’t we seen this movie before? Yes, in Boston, and with nearly the same cast of characters. The fight against the Roxbury Mosque and Cultural Center planned by the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) was framed as a battle against “Muslim extremists” and “terror supporters.” In reality (as court documents showed) the campaign was organized by activists with the far-right pro-Israel David Project and CAMERA, spearheaded by founder Charles Jacobs, who now heads a front group with the Orwellian name “Americans for Peace and Tolerance.” Later, the story was picked up and promoted by the Murdoch-owned Boston Herald and the local Fox TV affiliate. When the ISB eventually sued its attackers for defamation, the defendants were represented by an attorney who was also a leader of New England AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Committee).

Likewise, the New York Islamic Community Center project in lower Manhattan was uncontroversial until it began to be labeled falsely as “the Ground Zero Mosque” and was vilified by right-wing bloggers with a pro-Israel agenda. Although the media has reported on the way the Right has used anti-Muslim bigotry to stir up racist outrage against the Islamic Center, there has been little notice of the Israel connection. Jihad Watch founder Robert Spencer and Atlas Shrugged blogger Pamela Geller, who led the charge, are active in the same circles as the pro-Israel extremists in Boston. Geller is a regular commentator on the far-right Israeli radio network Arutz Sheva. Together they created a front-group to promote the anti-Muslim crusade called Stop Islamization of America. The campaign of slander against the “Ground Zero Mosque” was first mainstreamed in the Murdoch-owned New York Post and has been trumpeted relentlessly by Fox News, as well as by Neocon operatives like Bill Kristol and Liz Cheney.

Why? Because promoting a “culture-clash” between the “West” and Islam is seen as a way to bolster support for Israel and to sustain a permanent US “War on Terror.”

As early as September 12, 2001 the New York Times reported:

Israeli leaders, who have chafed at occasional American criticism of their measures against Palestinians, said the day’s attacks would awaken the United States to the threat of global terrorism.

Asked tonight what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, ”It’s very good.” Then he edited himself: ”Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.” He predicted that the attack would ”strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we’ve experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror.”

In an appearance late tonight, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon repeatedly placed Israel on the same ground as the United States, calling the assault an attack on ”our common values” and declaring, ”I believe together we can defeat these forces of evil.”

When the Roxbury Mosque was under attack in Boston my organization, Dorchester People for Peace, and other progressives took a stand in its defense. DPP sponsored a well-attended public forum on the topic in 2006. Since then, we have worked closely with our local Muslim friends – many of whom are US-born African-Americans with deep ties to our community. Although the current furor is over a proposed Mosque in New York, the issues are much the same. Islamophobia continues to be a racist tool of the war-promoting Right and the most extremist sectors of the Israel Lobby. Anti-war and anti-racist organizations cannot remain indifferent.

Jeff Klein is retired president of a local union at the Mass Water Resources Authority, where he worked for many years as a machinist in the Deer Island facility. He is active these days with Dorchester People for Peace, a local anti-war organization.

What the U.S. sanctions on Iraq tell us about the siege of Gaza
Aug 23, 2010 

 Matthew Phillips

On June 13th, two weeks after Israel’s attack on the Mavi Marmara, a profile of the respected liberal intellectual and Just War theorist Michael Walzer appeared in Haaretz. Amidst his professed concern about Israel’s diminished standing in world, Walzer offered this bit of wisdom regarding the siege of Gaza:

Think of the American effort to embargo the regime of Saddam Hussein in 1991 to 2003. It was entirely justified and even originally had United Nations authorization, but over time the consequences of the blockade did affect the living standard of ordinary Iraqis partly because of the way the Iraqi government behaved but also partially because of the nature of the blockade. So at a certain point Colin Powell came forward with the idea of smart sanctions, which are designed to have the necessary military restraints without having these effects on the population or without having the same affects on the population. Now what you need are smart sanctions.

Whether the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu will be compelled to emulate the American example of “smart sanctions” is an open question. That the Israeli government’s current siege on Gaza is causing a humanitarian crisis of unknown proportions is certain, despite the length Israeli leaders have gone to deny it. Walzer, in his classic book Just and Unjust Wars, calls siege “the oldest form of total war”; Walzer also justified the Six-Day War in 1967 by calling attention to Egypt’s closing of the Straits of Tiran, which Israel used as a casus belli in that conflict. Where on the spectrum does this leave the far graver economic strangulation affecting Palestinians today? Walzer has never said.

In any event, Walzer is certainly correct: a comparison between the sanctions placed on Iraq after the first Gulf War and the ongoing siege of Gaza is apt. And Walzer, as a preeminent liberal intellectual, undoubtedly sums up mainstream liberal opinion in the United States by calling the Iraqi sanctions “entirely justified”; how often, in run-up to the War on Iraq in 2003, was the effectiveness, to say nothing of the justification, of the sanctions used as an argument against the invasion? According to this line of argument, U.S. policy was working; Saddam was no longer a threat. Bush and the neocons were only upsetting a successful policy—a policy the Clinton administration presided over throughout its time in office.

Now we have a different take on Iraqi sanctions, and the halcyon period of “the Clinton years.” Invisible War: The United States and the Iraq Sanctions by Joy Gordon, professor of Philosophy at Fairfield University, is the most extensive study of the sanctions on Iraq to date. It is also a devastating critique of one aspect of the sanctions that was virtually never considered, or deemed important, by U.S policy makers—namely, the effect of the sanctions on the Iraqi people (as one State Department official told Gordon, humanitarian consideration “was not our job. It was not part of our skill set”).

Parts of this sordid history may known to some—for example, Denis Halliday, UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Baghdad, famously resigned from his post in 1998, calling the sanctions “genocidal”. Many might also recall the infamous statement made by Madeleine Albright, who, when asked by Lesley Stahl in a 1996 interview on 60 Minutes about the half- million children who had reportedly died as a result of the sanctions, responded “we think the price is worth it.” That statement, according to Gordon, galvanized the small grassroots movement opposing the sanctions, and would haunt Albright for the rest of her tenure as U.S. Ambassador to the UN.

 

Indeed, one important, if understated, theme in Gordon’s book is how U.S. leaders effectively divorced the policies they were clearly responsible for from the perception of those policies, viewing them as distinct problems. This, in particular, draws an interesting parallel with Israel’s recent “approach” vis-à-vis the world in the last few years. Madeline Albright, for example, claimed in her autobiography Madam Secretary to “take things personally” and become “indignant” when “people said I was responsible for murdering millions of people”; this is why she considered the sanctions “our public relations problem”.

Looking back on her 60 Minutes gaffe, Albright expressed sincere regret—not for the numbers of dead, but for not “refram[ing] it [Stahl’s question] and pointing out the inherent flaws in the premise behind it.” Ultimately, Albright explained reports of the humanitarian catastrophe by claiming “[a]nti-Americanism will always find a receptive audience in some circles.” That “anti-Americanism” may have been the result of a policy denying Iraq vaccines to treat infant hepatitis, tetanus, and diphtheria, or the denial of equipment used to maintain blood banks, or a host of vital humanitarian supplies denied on the flimsiest of security pretexts, was apparently lost on Albright and other elites.

Yet it will not be lost on the reader which state this currently reminds them of: the strange combination of arrogance and sensitivity (a State Department official tells Gordon, “we were acutely conscious of the accusations [of wrongdoing]”), the almost obsessive preoccupation with managing the way they are perceived by others, irrespective of change in policy (as Albright put it, “our public relations problem”).

Indeed, as Gordon writes, “in general hearings on ‘the situation in Iraq’, no witnesses gave testimony on the humanitarian situation, except to say that claims of a crisis were exaggerated or to bemoan the fact that, somehow, inexplicably, Saddam had won ‘the propaganda war’”. Of course, the most powerful states do not need hasbara. But a useful parallel might be made between America and Israel here: the reflexive reduction of criticism to some base ideology (whether anti-Americanism or anti-Semitism), and the basic inability, or unwillingness, to see their “image” in the world as the direct result of policies that others find reprehensible.

Also, the seemingly endless ability to rationalize, while desperately clinging to some moral high ground: today, apologists for the Israeli blockade occasionally maintain that they want to “free” Gaza from Hamas rule (though Hamas was democratically elected); Albright, at one point, even claimed that she “care[d] more about the children of Iraq than Saddam Hussein does”. One might wonder whether Roosevelt justified immigration quotas during World War II by reminding people that he cared more about Jews than Hitler did.

Readers of Invisible War will also note that, much like the siege in Gaza, the sanctions on Iraq were not simply cruel but gratuitous and arbitrary. Thus, we learn that even though “vehicles of all types were blocked”, including firefighting vehicles, the U.S did allow Iraq to have ambulances—but prevented Iraq from importing two-way radios, essentially handicapping the ambulances.

Robert von Tersch, an Army biochemist, argued that Iraq should not be allowed to import chicken eggs, because, as Gordon puts it, “egg yolks can be used as a growth medium in which to cultivate biological strains.” Even granting this, Iraq was already producing 600 million eggs per-year during the Oil-for-Food programme (which only amounted to two dozen eggs per Iraqi annually). As Gordon wryly observes, “one would think that 600 million provided enough egg yolks for the government to grow whatever viruses is wanted to.” Fast-forward to John Kerry confronting the Israelis over the ban of macaroni in Gaza, adding a mutual fear of cheap food to qualities that have made for the enduring American/ Israeli relationship.

Many other things could be said about Gordon’s superb book. In light of the devastation wrought by the sanctions, she reveals what many suspected at the time—that the outrage over the “Oil for Food” scandal to was essentially an engineered, hypocritical farce. Congressman Ralph Hall, for example, accused the UN program of causing the “deaths of thousands of Iraqis”. “We have a name for that in the United States”, Hall said; “it is called murder.”

Perhaps the most important section, in my opinion, is the chapter “International Law and the Sanctions”. Here, Gordon addresses Denis Halliday’s charge that the sanctions amounted to genocide. Gordon finds that the sanctions likely do not meet the standard of genocide, at least as defined by the UN Genocide Convention and Rome Statute. If this is so, it is only because of the absence of mens rea, or the mental component, necessary for genocide to be determined. In other words, it boils down to intent, and to Gordon, this is “good reason to be deeply disappointed in international law”.

For the importance attached to the legally nebulous concept of intent, where genocide is defined as the “attempt to destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such”, essentially absolves those campaigns against a particular group that are not motivated by racial, ethnic or religious hatred. As Gordon writes, “while international law gives us a framework to judge those acts driven by racial hatred, on the model of the Holocaust, it is not adequate to address atrocities that are deliberately implemented by indifferent officials for political or economic purposes.”

The apparent absence of some supremely evil motive to inflict massive suffering on Iraqis, even when that suffering was known to be the predicable consequence of U.S. policy, also likely accounts for the virtual absence of the humanitarian cost of the sanctions from mainstream liberal discourse. Gordon doesn’t address this issue, but one might consider, for example, Samantha Power’s blockbuster A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, which won the Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction in 2003. In the book, Power’s discussion of Iraq deals exclusively with Saddam’s crimes against the Kurdish minority. Thus Power does discuss at length the sanctions almost placed on Iraq—the ones before the first Gulf War. She describes the heroic effort of Peter Galbraith, son of the famous economist and later Ambassador to Croatia, who tirelessly advocated for the use of economic sanctions against the will of a supine Congress.

Throughout, Power heaps ridicule on opponents of the sanctions, especially those ostensibly protecting U.S. agricultural interests. As Gordon shows, later on these representatives from “farm states” were amongst the very few voices criticizing the comprehensive sanctions after the war, on the grounds that they were hurting American farmers, and were also unable to achieve policy ends. In Power’s moral universe, however, these imperfect criticisms reek of “self-interest”, and are thus deemed unacceptable.

In fact, Power never deals with the sanctions after the first Gulf War; her narrative ends with Clinton’s Secretary of State, Warren Christopher, signing a communiqué in 1995 accusing Iraq of committing genocide against the Kurds. Thus the U.S. finally mustered the will to face up to Iraq’s own crimes, and the lesson of Power’s book is clear: America must cease to “do nothing” when faced with the prospect of genocide.

That the United States has, in fact, occasionally taken a somewhat more involved stance with regard to genocide—In Iraq, as we have seen, U.S. led policy basically enabled one—is clearly a fact that Power cannot acknowledge, for she, like most liberal intellectuals, takes comfort that the worst we can do is abdicate our responsibilities, shirk from our benevolent mission, look away from the crimes others commit. As the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin said about A Problem from Hell, “it should change the way we see America and its role in the world.” Whether Joy Gordon’s Invisible War will have a similar, if less self-congratulatory, effect, remains to be seen.

Matthew Phillips is a twenty-five year old New Yorker pursuing an Masters degree in Middle East studies.

Israel tells schools not to teach about the Nakba
Aug 23, 2010 

 Seham

And other news from Today in Palestine:

Land and Property Theft and Destruction/Ethnic Cleansing

Erekat: Israel must extend settlement freeze

RAMALLAH (Ma’an) — Israel must extend its temporary moratorium on construction in the occupied territories before Palestinians will engage in serious peace talks, the PLO’s chief negotiator said Monday.  Saeb Erekat told reporters in Ramallah that Israel should renew the slowdown when it comes up for review on 26 September and include occupied East Jerusalem in its mandate in addition to the West Bank.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=310136
Abbas: End of settlement freeze would end direct peace talks

In letters to Obama, Medvedev and Ashton, PA president warns that newly-launched peace negotiations will fail if Israel does not extend settlement freeze, due to expire on September 26.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/abbas-end-of-settlement-freeze-would-end-direct-peace-talks-1.309608?localLinksEnabled=false
PA official: Settlers set fire to village land

NABLUS (Ma’an) — Israeli settlers set lit 20 dunums of farmland on fire south of Nablus on Sunday, a Palestinian Authority official said.  Ghassan Doughlas said dozens of residents of the illegal Ihya outpost torched the area of Sahel Khalet Abu Shreka, near Jalud village.  Doughlas accused settlers in the area of repeatedly provoking locals by expanding settlements, constructing outposts, and burning land.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=309935
Israeli Destroy 17 Palestinian-Owned House In Jerusalem In 2010

Al-Maqdese for Society Development released a report by the Data Bank concerning the statistics since the beginning of 2010 of “house demolitions, houses threatened of demolition and houses threatened to be seized by Jewish settlers in Jerusalem as follows
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=8687&Itemid=64
Hebron: Israeli Military and Policemen Shut Three Palestinian Shops

Every Saturday for the last several months, Youth Against the Settlements has led a nonviolent action – “Open Shuhada Street” – at the entrance to the Old City of Hebron. On Tuesday, 10 August 2010 the Israeli military and police forcibly welded shut three stores that stand directly behind the area of the weekly Saturday action and across from the gate of an Israeli military base.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59316
Amira Hass / What West Bank road renovations say about the occupation

A response to critics appears in hints in the section on roads. The report’s summary says: “In order to deal with Israeli control of Area C, the Palestinian Authority supported a number of enterprises to increase access to occupied Palestinian lands. Sixteen new roads were paved at a cost of $45 million, and 40 roads were upgraded at a cost of $12.9 million. These projects, in addition to their importance in increasing access, contribute to economic growth, the creation of jobs and job opportunities – and also continue to challenge the Israeli attempt to turn the West Bank into separate cantons.”  Is this really a challenge to Israeli intentions?

The improved roads in Areas A and B do shorten the time it takes to travel between various cities and towns, and create an illusion of geographic closeness. But people gradually forget that most of these improved roads are meant only to connect villages, and their asphalt cannot withstand the heavy load of traffic between Palestinian cities. Without wanting to, they forget that what’s on the other side of these roads is out of bounds for them. 

Not only the notorious Route 443, but all the other roads that Israel has paved as highways, in a massive expropriation of Palestinian lands, serve mainly or even solely the transportation-settlement needs of Israelis (Jews, by and large, by virtue of being identified with settlements ). In 2004, the (Israeli ) National Security Council revealed its plan to create two separate road infrastructures in the West Bank (a directly logical extension of the bypass roads of the 1980s and 1990s ). Representatives of donor countries and the World Bank were stunned by Israel’s chuzpah: It requested that donors fund part of the project. Slick talk about “the desire to insure the fabric of Palestinian life with transportation contiguity” did not confuse them. They understood that this was another way to create facts on the ground. In complete agreement with the PA, they refused.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/features/amira-hass-what-west-bank-road-renovations-say-about-the-occupation-1.309641?localLinksEnabled=false
Solidarity/Activism/Boycott, Sanctions & Divestment

Bethlehem district: anger against dispossession and humiliation

August 21st, 2010– Al-Masara weekly protest started today under the slogan “together to unmask the crimes of the occupation and its soldiers abusing the Palestinians prisoners”, while in al-Walajeh children had created a large paper mache Palestinian who could be seen climbing the Wall.
http://stopthewall.org/latestnews/2348.shtml
4 British activists acquitted in anti-Ahava action

A British court has found 4 activists not guity of ‘aggravated trespass’ for an action in which they shut down a store selling Israeli dead sea beauty products. The court ruled that the company in question, Ahava Beauty, was engaged in illegal activity by selling the products in violation of international law.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59312
Norwegian gov’t divests from 2 companies that build settlements, Philip Weiss

This is big. The Norwegian government has divested its pension fund of two Leviev companies that build settlements in the occupied West Bank on the grounds that the international community regards territory east of the ’67 line as occupied. (No singling out: the Norwegians also divested a third company, a Malaysian forestry company)
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/norwegian-govt-is-divesting-from-2-companies-that-build-settlements.html

Aid ship Mariam now looks to set sail from Greece

TRIPOLI: A Lebanese aid ship for Gaza was postponed on Sunday to await a green light from a third country as a transit point for the mission to the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian territory.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=118484

Algerian aid ship to set sail for Gaza next month

ALGIERS, (PIC)– An Algerian aid ship is currently being prepared to be sent to the Gaza Strip early next month, Ahmed Latifi, the deputy speaker of the Algerian parliament speaker, revealed on Sunday.
http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=200556
Support builds for boycotts against Israel, activists say

WASHINGTON — In May, rock legend Elvis Costello canceled his gig in Israel. Then, in June, a group of unionized dock workers in San Francisco refused to unload an Israeli ship. In August, a food co-op in Washington state removed Israeli products from its shelves.  The so-called “boycott, divestment, and sanctions’’ movement aimed at pressuring Israel to withdraw from land claimed by Palestinians has long been considered a fringe effort inside the United States, with no hope of garnering mainstream support enjoyed by the anti-apartheid campaign against South Africa of the 1980s.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2010/08/22/support_builds_for_boycotts_against_israel_activists_say/

The Siege (Gaza & West Bank)/Humanitarian/Restriction of Movement

Industrial Fuel – Needs Vs. Supply – July 25 – Aug 21
http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/08/industrial-fuel-needs-vs-supply-july-25-aug-21/
Goods – Needs Vs. Supply – July 25 – Aug 21
http://www.gazagateway.org/2010/08/goods-needs-vs-supply-july-25-aug-21/
23 August 2010: Water supplied in Gaza unfit for drinking; Israel prevents entry of materials needed to repair system

Almost 95 percent of the water pumped in the Gaza Strip is polluted and unfit for drinking. This warning was recently issued by the UN Environment Programme, the Palestinian Water Authority, the Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, and international aid organizations. They estimate it will take at least 20 years to rehabilitate Gaza’s underground water system, and any delay in dealing with the problem will lead to additional deterioration in the situation and thus might extend the rehabilitation process for hundreds of years. Since it began its siege on the Gaza Strip, in June 2007, Israel has forbidden the entry of equipment and materials needed to rehabilitate the water and wastewater-treatment systems there. The prohibition has remained despite the recent easing of the siege.
http://www.btselem.org/English/Gaza_Strip/20100823_Gaza_water_crisis.asp
Strangling Gaza

The United Nations and the World Food Programme released on Friday a study of Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip. A condemnation of Israel’s conduct, it describes a burgeoning catastrophe mutating dangerously and mercilessly.  “This regime has exacerbated the assault on human dignity triggered by the blockade imposed by Israel since June 2007,” stated the report titled Between the Fence and a Hard Place.  Under Israel’s thumb, the occupation is ruining Gaza’s land, sea, and mental and physical health.
http://www.palestinemonitor.org/spip/spip.php?article1524
Broken dreams, broken pledges in Gaza (AFP)

AFP – Dana Chetrit, her husband Alain and their two young children in August 2005 reluctantly left their home in the northern Gaza settlement of Elei Sinai, never to return.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100822/wl_afp/mideastconflictgazaanniversary

Donors Sending Expired Medicine to Gaza, Nicole Johnston

Men use their bare hands to push boxes of medicine off the back of a truck, into the dump. The stench is disgusting and flies are everywhere. Not only are donors sending expired medicine, the Health Ministry says most of the aid they receive is unsuitable, poor quality, and the wrong types of drugs.
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/08/07/what-waste
Palestinians face movement restrictions during Ramadan

AZZUN ATMA, occupied northern West Bank (IPS) – For seven years Majda Abdul Qader Sheikh, 38, has not been allowed to visit the home of her parents, just a few hundred meters from her house. “I tried to get a special visitor’s permit for a quick visit during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan but I was refused,” says Sheikh, mother of seven children. “I have had no problems with the Israeli authorities, nor am I considered a security threat,” she added.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11475.shtml?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+electronicIntifadaPalestine+%28Electronic+Intifada+%3A+Palestine+News%29
OPT: Children Coping with Trauma through Music Therapy in Nablus

While living under occupation in the West Bank, young children are often exposed to violence that can have severe adverse affects on their psychological well-being. With the limited availability of professional healthcare clinics that treat psychological disorders, many of these children go untreated and become more detached from their emotions following exposure to traumatic events. This has become a growing concern, particularly in the Northern West Bank area of Nablus Governorate.
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/MUMA-88J4EQ?OpenDocument&RSS20=02-P

Israel mulls deporting migrant kids

Hundreds of children of migrant workers in Israel are facing deportation, as part of a government effort to preserve the Jewish character of the state. Under a stringent set of criteria approved by Israel’s cabinet, children must have studied in an Israeli school in the past year, and their parents must have entered Israel with a legal visa or permit for them to be allowed to stay. But many Israelis have criticised the rules, arguing that any civilized democracy should give rights and protection to children born in its territory. Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland reports from Tel Aviv. [23 Aug 10]


FRAGMENTS OF GAZA LIFE

“I’m not afraid to go to hell because hell cannot be worse than Gaza.” George, a Gaza citizen.  Jamila is worth ten men, affirm her friends. She is 55. Her husband died 15 years ago. Afterwards she sent her only two sons to study abroad. They got married and remained there.  Jamila is generous and hospitable. She always smiles despite the difficulties. She lives alone like a number of women in Gaza. She suffers from some ailments and the table of her kitchen seems a mini pharmacy.  “Have you written about the daily power cuts? Why you don’t write about it? You should write that we are without electricity in Gaza!
http://uruknet.info/?p=m69049&hd=&size=1&l=e
Hamas aims to make former Gaza settlements ‘bloom’

AL-MUHARARA, Gaza Strip: Dozens of coffee shops and tiny eateries have popped up along this stretch of Gaza’s southern coastline which was once a popular swimming beach for the Jewish settlers of Gush Katif.  Once upon a time, this beach and the surrounding area was totally off-limits to the 1.5-million Palestinians now living in Gaza – and reserved exclusively for their Jewish neighbors.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/home.asp#axzz0xOAaWqZx
Human Rights/Racism

Officials slam ‘racist’ Jerusalem light rail survey

Transport Ministry, J’lem municipal officials say company building light rail system had no right to ask city residents whether it would bother them if Palestinians were to use the system under various conditions.
http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/officials-slam-racist-jerusalem-light-rail-survey-1.309620?localLinksEnabled=false

Israel tells schools not to teach nakba,  Jonathan Cook, Foreign Correspondent

NAZARETH // Government officials warned Israeli teachers last week not to cooperate with a civic group that seeks to educate Israelis about how the Palestinians view the loss of their homeland and the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.  Israel’s education ministry issued the advisory after Zochrot – a Jewish group that seeks to raise awareness among Israeli Jews of the events of 1948, referred to as the “nakba” by Palestinians – organised a workshop for primary school teachers.  The ministry said the course had not been approved and told teachers not to participate in Zochrot-sponsored activities during the coming school year.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100822/FOREIGN/708219932&SearchID=73400683661917

War Criminals

Israel’s new army chief led Gaza war

Israel named a new army chief yesterday, choosing a general who led troops in its Gaza war to face future challenges that could include a nuclear Iran and missile threats from Islamist militants.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israels-new-army-chief–led-gaza-war-2059469.html

Israel’s Arab Helpers

Migrant shot at border dies

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — An African migrant died Sunday from gunshot wounds sustained Friday when Egyptian forces shot him as he attempted to illegally cross into Israel.  Medical reports released by the Al-Arish Hospital identified the deceased as an Eritrean national, aged 25.  Meanwhile, an Egyptian security source said forces thwarted separate attempts by 19 migrants to enter Israel via Rafah in the south and the central Sinai Peninsula.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=310128
Egypt seizes 3 smuggling tunnels

EL-ARISH, Egypt (Ma’an) — Egyptian forces took control of three smuggling tunnels along the Gaza-Egypt border and confiscated goods prepared for transfer into the Strip on Sunday, a security source told Ma’an.  The source said Egyptian forces were carrying out a tunnel reconnaissance campaign in the Ad-Dehnia area south of the Rafah crossing, seizing a tunnel used to smuggle cars. The source added that this was the 13th tunnel used for car smuggling discovered by Egyptian forces in since July.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=310010

Violence/Provocations

Complaints filed against army and police for sexual assault

[23 August 2010] – On 15 August 2010, DCI-Palestine and the Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) submitted complaints against the Israeli army and police interrogators for the ill-treatment and sexual assault of a 15-year-old Palestinian boy.  At around 1:30am, on 25 May 2010, units of the Israeli army entered the Palestinian village of Beit Ummar, half-way between Bethlehem and Hebron, and arrested A., on suspicion of having thrown stones at some unspecified time (Voices from the Occupation and Ha’aretz Newspaper). A.’s hands were tied behind his back and he was blindfolded, before being placed on the floor of a military vehicle and transferred to the Etzion Interrogation and Detention Centre, inside the Israeli settlement of Gush Etzion, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. During his subsequent interrogation, A. reports that his interrogator attached a pair of car battery jump leads to his genitals and threatened to electrify the cable. Shortly after this occurred, A. confessed to throwing stones on two occasions. A. was later brought before an Israeli military court and released on bail on 1 June 2010. 
http://www.dci-pal.org/english/display.cfm?DocId=1589&CategoryId=1
Muezzin ‘attacked’ in Jerusalem village

JERUSALEM (Ma’an) — An Israeli citizen allegedly assaulted a muezzin, the mosque official responsible for calling Muslims to prayer, before announcing the end of fasting for the day on Saturday evening.  Witnesses said more than a dozen Israelis entered the mosque in the Jerusalem village of An-Nabi Samwil minutes before the evening prayer call signaling the end of the day’s fast and attacked muezzin Barakat Mithqal.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=309840
Detainees

UN Gets over 100 Complaints of Israeli Abuse of W. Bank Teenagers This Year

20/08/2010 The way the Israeli army and police treat Palestinian minors arrested in the occupied West Bank is the focus of complaints filed recently with both Israeli legal authorities and the United Nations.  The Palestinian branch of Defense for Children International (DCI ) has taken affidavits from dozens of minors who have been arrested. According to DCI-Palestine Section, the minors’ testimonies describe a policy of routine and painful abuse, involving various forms of physical and psychological pressure, in order to extract confessions from minors in custody.  The Association for Civil Rights in the Zionist entity and Yesh Din, two Israeli rights groups, say the provisions of the relevant military laws play a major role in the abuse perpetrated on imprisoned Palestinian minors. Both groups sent a letter to Military Advocate General Avichai Mendelblit in June with recommendations for changes in this law.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=151073&language=en
Documentary Film Maker Arrested in Bil’in for Filming the Demonstration

David Reeb, a long time documentary film maker who joins various weekly protests through the West Bank was arrested yesterday in Bil’in as he was filming the non violent protest.  Despite the intense heat and high temperature, on the second Friday in Ramadan, a sizable march organized by the Popular Committee commenced from the center of the village right after the Friday prayers.   The protesters, consisting of many Palestinians and dozens of International and Israeli activists, called for the prosecution of the Israeli soldiers behind the recent Facebook scandal. Not only did one of the soldiers pose with bound and gagged prisoners, Eden Abergil, stated that she would “gladly kill Arabs – even slaughter them.”
http://josephdana.com/2010/08/documentary-film-maker-arrested-in-bilin-for-filming-the-demonstration/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=documentary-film-maker-arrested-in-bilin-for-filming-the-demonstration
Soldiers Kidnap 12 Palestinians In the West Bank

Israeli soldiers kidnapped on Monday at dawn 12 Palestinians in different areas of the occupied West Bank, and transferred them to a number of interrogation centers. In Gaza, army bulldozers uprooted farmlands.
http://www.imemc.org/article/59320

Syrian prisoners leader in Israeli jail vows not to give up strife

DAMASCUS, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) — The leader of Syrian prisoners in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, Sidqi al-Maqt said on Sunday he will not give up strife against the occupation, the Syrian official SANA news agency reported.  Al Maqt was detained by the Israeli forces 25 years ago, for involvement in the fighting against the occupation, the report said.  Last week, the Israeli defense forces wrapped up a live- ammunition training in the occupied Golan Heights.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/22/c_13456744.htm
Political/Flotilla Developments

Fatah official: PA clinging to Quartet statement

BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) — The Palestinian Authority is basing its hopes on the Mideast Quartet statement, issued Friday, rather than anything said by American officials, Fatah official Azzam Al-Ahmad said Sunday.  Quartet members the US, UN, EU and Russia issued the statement after US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Mahmoud Abbas to restart direct talks on 2 September in Washington.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=309975
   
Leftist factions reject invite for direct talks

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Two leftist Palestinian factions rejected Saturday calls by the Quartet and US to relaunch direct talks with Israel, a day after the PLO endorsed the resumption of negotiations.  The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Palestinian Peoples’ Party released separate communiques slamming the Quartet’s statement, which called for Palestinian and Israeli leaders to resume talks.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=309553

Former Fatah splinter group says talks a ‘subjugation’

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — Hamas-leaning splinter group Al-Ahrar issued a statement Saturday calling the decision to return to talks a “subjugation to American decisions.”  The group said it would not be “committed to any of the outcomes” of the talks, and called for “Palestinian organizations to announce their rejection of these talks,” adding that they believed the process would “bring more settlements and the judization of Palestinain lands.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=309682
Dejected Palestinians see no hope in peace talks

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Aug 21 (Reuters) – A resumption of Middle East peace talks inspires little hope among Palestinians who say the prospect of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel seems no more than a dream. “There has been a lot of talk of peace, but we have seen no results. We no longer have hope,” said 30-year old Luay Kabbah, who was still at school when Palestinian and Israeli leaders first began talking peace nearly two decades ago.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE67I0SI.htm

Syria: Israel-Palestinian talks useless

Official press in Damascus warns that resumption of direct US-brokered negotiations would prove waste of time unless Washington puts pressure on Jerusalem. ‘What’s the point of resuming negotiations that will end either with failure or with an agreement worse than Oslo?’ government daily asks.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3941581,00.html

DFLP: Direct talks violate national consensus

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) — A member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine said Monday his party rejected the resumption of direct talks with Israel without a full halt in settlement activity, a clear reference and international resolutions.  Saleh Zidan told reporters at the Media Freedom Center in Gaza City that the PLO’s decision to accept a US invitation to relaunch negotiations without preconditions “violates the national consensus position determined by the PLO’s Executive Committee, the Central Council, and other Palestinian politicians.”
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=310096
Hamas: Palestinians will gain nothing from direct peace talks with Israel

Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh praises Gaza’s steadfastness in the face of Israel’s blockade, says Palestinians should place their trust in God.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/hamas-palestinians-will-gain-nothing-from-direct-peace-talks-with-israel-1.309748?localLinksEnabled=false

White House: Direct talks are the best way to combat Hamas

Of the many questions hanging over the new direct talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians announced by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday morning, one of the thorniest is what to do about the militant group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip and is not a party to the negotiations.  White House officials addressed that topic directly Friday afternoon on a private conference call with Jewish community groups, saying that the talks would build legitimacy for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his struggle against Hamas and that a peace agreement would convince the Palestinian people to abandon Hamas and its violent methods.
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/08/20/white_house_direct_talks_are_the_best_way_to_combat_hamas

Maariv: Emanuel told Dermer “don’t fuck with me” [expletive not deleted]

In this Friday’s Maariv, senior diplomatic columnist Ben Caspit speculates on where the diplomatic process, and US-Israeli relations, are headed [full translation of section at bottom of post].
http://coteret.com/2010/08/21/maariv-emanuel-told-dermer-dont-fuck-with-me-expletive-not-deleted/

Israeli Soldiers Sell Gaza Flotilla Passengers’ Computers and Steal Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars in Cash

Despite appeals from 750 passengers on the Gaza flotilla to their governments to pressure the Israeli government to protect and return their personal belongings that were taken by Israeli commandos on May 31, 2010, when they forcefully boarded the six ships of the flotilla, the Israeli government has left millions of dollars of computers, cameras and cell phones and hundreds of thousands of cash unsecured and un-inventoried.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/22-5

Other News

In photos: Haniyeh breaks fast with Gaza family

Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh joins a family in Gaza City for Iftar, the meal that breaks the Ramadan fast, on 20 August 2010.  The eight-member family lives in a home less than twenty square meters in size with no ventilation or windows. The parents sleep in the same room with their six children.  Following the meal, prepared by the family, aides said Haniyeh instructed them to provide emergency aid to the family, including a fan for the home, food for the family and supplies for the younger children.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=309715
New IAEA chief visits Israel in bid to improve relations

Director General Ukia Amano’s visit to Israel so soon after taking up his post at the nuclear energy agency is markedly different from his predecessor, who visited just twice in 12 years.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/new-iaea-chief-visits-israel-in-bid-to-improve-relations-1.309746?localLinksEnabled=false

Israel police: Former PM Olmert should stand trial (AP)

AP – Israeli police have recommended that former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stand trial on corruption charges for his role in a real estate deal during his time as Jerusalem mayor a decade ago.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100823/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_olmert

Jerusalem light rail may have segregated men-only / women-only cars

CEO of company developing light rail project supports providing ‘kosher’ cars for city’s ultra-Orthodox population.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/jerusalem-light-rail-may-have-segregated-men-only-women-only-cars-1.309740?localLinksEnabled=false
Analysis/Opinion/Human Interest

Israel, Big Money and Obama

One of Lester Crown’s children, James Crown, personally bundled $500,000 in campaign contributions for Obama  and served as chairman of the Illinois fund raising effort. Lester Crown and his wife Renee hosted a fundraiser for Obama in 2007 at their home. The event invitation made it clear; their support for Obama was due to his support of Israel, its “right to exist“ and his willingness to strike militarily against Iran.
http://alethonews.wordpress.com/2010/08/20/israel-big-money-and-obama/
The “Peace Process” is Still Going Nowhere, Stephen M. Walt

If you think today’s announcement that the Israelis and Palestinians are going to resume “direct talks” is a significant breakthrough, you haven’t been paying attention for the past two decades (at least). I wish I could be more optimistic about this latest development, but I see little evidence that a meaningful deal is in the offing.  Why do I say this? Three reasons. 
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/08/20/don_t_fall_for_the_hype_the_peace_process_is_still_going_nowhere

Firas Al-Atraqchi: The Farce of Middle East Peace Talks

For those with a keen interest in contemporary Middle East history, there’s a new spectacle coming to a conflict zone near you.  On September 2nd, the production company that brought you Oslo, Wye River, Camp David and Annapolis will release a brand new blockbuster sequel to the so-called Middle East Peace Talks.  Simply titled Resumption of Direct Negotiations, the production boasts a star-studded cast including Benjamin Netanyahu in the role of king, Mahmoud Abbas as the pauper, George Mitchell as the court jester, King Abdullah II as the novice, Tony Blair as the fool savant, Barak Obama as the compassionate Jedi negotiator, and Hosni Mubarak as the comic relief.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/firas-alatraqchi/the-farce-of-middle-east_b_689955.html
A hidden witness to the Brown Shirts now prepares to go to Gaza, Lillian Rosengarten

As I wait to join a boat to Gaza with a group of European Jews, I am asked why? Trust me I say, I have to go, there is no choice. But why so adamant, what drives me? I have long pondered this question.  I was 18 months old on November 13, 1936 when I emigrated from Nazi Germany in the arms of my mother to sail on the SS Bremen to New York.  Because of the ingenuity of my father, family money and contacts we were able to leave. You see, the United States had a strict quota system for refugees and before he was able to secure our visas, my father was required to have a sponsor who would provide him with a job. One was also required to have a place to live. When we came to America, my parents, near penniless, were severed from their beloved Germany, friends, family and affluence. Settling in New York with their little daughter, they found themselves at sea in a stranger’s land, unmoored from their station in life and terribly unhappy. They brought with them a darkness that became for me a personal symbol of the nightmare of Hitler’s Germany.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/a-hidden-witness-to-the-brown-shirts-now-prepares-to-go-to-gaza.html

IDF doesn’t want Eden Abergil to become a poster child, Philip Weiss

Eden Abergil’s puckish smile, as she humiliates Palestinian prisoners, is of course everywhere. Not in Haaretz. There her face has been blurred. Apparently this is the military censor’s work. Jerry Haber says the IDF censor has insisted on it.  It can’t be to protect Abergil. She put up the shocking photos herself, under the title “IDF-The Best Time of My Life.” Everyone has seen that oval face. Is the IDF proving that it has the power to censor Haaretz? Or more likely, to prevent her image from becoming iconic, at least in Israel. Whatever the reason, they’re airbrushing the first draft of history.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/idf-doesnt-want-eden-abergil-to-become-a-poster-child.html

Onward, Christian Zionists;  Deep-rooted Christian tradition has put its mark on British, US policies in Mideast, James Carroll

FUNDAMENTALISM IS the problem: that assertion defines the diagnostic mantra of Middle East conflict. The Jewish settlers’ “Bloc of the Faith’’ movement (Gush Emunim), with the agenda of restoring biblical Israel, is discussed as one instance of fundamentalism. Religious jihadists, aiming to re-establish the lost Caliphate of Islam, are discussed as another. Wacky Christians are sometimes spoken of, like the mentally unbalanced Australian who set fire to the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem in 1969.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/08/23/onward_christian_zionists/
New York Times vs. direct negotiations, David Bromwich

The New York Times published two articles yesterday about the resumption of direct talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. Both address a reader who already knows what happened, yet neither opens with a sentence carrying the basic information: “Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday announced that direct negotiations would resume,” and so on. Instead, a clause which contains that central fact has been embedded in the second paragraph of the second story, by Helene Cooper and Mark Landler, titled “Palestinians Resuming Talks Under Pressure.” It runs on page 6. This accident of omission and displacement betrays an editorial trouble of mind that is visible elsewhere. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/world/middleeast/21diplo.html
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/new-york-times-vs-direct-negotiations.html

George Will’s Irrepressible Conflict With Facts, Max Blumenthal 

Conservative columnist George Will was recently in Israel. His trip resulted in a series of laughably error-laden columns revealing not only a crude view of the Israel-Palestine conflict and obsequious admiration for Bibi Netanyahu, but a lack of knowledge about major historical events in his own country.
http://maxblumenthal.com/2010/08/george-wills-irrepressible-conflict-with-facts/
Current peace talks are threatened by Zionism, Samuel Lustgarten

The mere thought of theocratic extremists at the helm of nuclear warheads leaves me diffident and uncharacteristically speechless.  Iran is less than 30 days from having a working nuclear reactor that enriches Uranium to about 3.5 percent. That’s a far cry from the 90 percent needed to create a warhead, but it’s a start. And in this hyperbolic, 24-hour news cycle, my heart skips a beat.  It’s not Iran that actually worries me – it’s Israel.
http://www.collegian.com/index.php/article/2010/08/082310_lustgartencolumn
Direct Negotiations and the Challenge Ahead, John V. Whitbeck

The U.S. government has now announced that direct Israeli-Palestinian will resume after a September 2 launch ceremony at the White House. In making this announcement, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton stated that this new round of negotiations should be “without preconditions”, as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has insisted they should be. However, she also stated that both Mr. Netanyahu and PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have agreed that the negotiations should be subject to a one-year time limit, which was not Mr. Netanyahu’s preference.
http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=16216

God approves of ADC, by Ikhras

American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC) is excited that the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) has opened up a new channel of income for it: “sadaka” (sic). On July 19, 2010 FCNA issued a fatwa (religious opinion) that ADC is eligible to receive this form of Islamic charity.  This fatwa is problematic and offensive to Islamic sensibilities on many levels. First, the ADC does not deserve Muslims’ money. The ADC has consistently undermined the struggle for Muslim rights both in the US and abroad. It has invited war criminals who have Muslims’ blood on their hands, most notably Bill Clinton and Colin Powell.
http://ikhras.com/2010/08/god-approves-of-adc/
One on One – Yossi Beilin

Yossi Beilin discusses the milestones and challenges of his longtime career in Israeli politics, business and peace activism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EN5esbvAt-w&feature=youtube_gdata
Lebanon

Iran to supply Lebanon with anti-missile system: report

Iran is expected to make the offer to Lebanon during Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad’s upcoming visit to Beirut shortly after the holy month of Ramadan. Iran would also offer to supply some other weapons during his visit, said the report.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/22/c_13455880.htm
‘Riyadh plans to sabotage Hezbollah’

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is spending $500 million to implicate Hezbollah in the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, a report says.
http://www.presstv.com/detail/139713.html
60% of Lebanese Say STL Politicized, Unfair

23/08/2010 The “international for information” center at the Lebanese daily As-safir conducted a survey for the Lebanese public opinion over their stance of the International probe into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, their opinion concerning the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) and the documents submitted by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah. The poll also asked about the side behind the assassination.  The survey, published on Monday, showed that 60% of Lebanese believe the international probe politicized, unfair and non-neutral, while 43% supported an amendment in the method and the style of the investigation to be more impartial and neutral. 17% called for a complete abolition of the STL.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=151338&language=en

US Official: Evidence Implicating Hezbollah to Emerge within Days

21/08/2010 Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai quoted on Saturday an American official as claiming that “evidence of Hezbollah’s involvement in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri may appear in the upcoming days.”  The US official went on to claim that Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah’s latest press conference, during which he said that Israel may be behind the crime, “as an attempt to mislead the investigation and buy some time.”  The Kuwaiti daily said that only three individuals in the US administration are following up on the issue of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and matters related to it.
http://almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=151194&language=en
Aoun: STL is an ‘international plot’ that does not seek justice

BEIRUT: Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) leader MP Michel Aoun said on Sunday that the UN-backed tribunal was an international plot aimed against Lebanon rather than a court seeking justice in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=118500
Hizbullah ‘evidence’ to delay STL indictments

BEIRUT: Evidence provided by Hizbullah regarding the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri will delay an impending indictment by the UN-backed tribunal probing the murder, a well-informed judicial source told The Daily Star Sunday.  The source said documents provided by Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in a recent news conference would be thoroughly examined by Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) prosecutor Daniel Bellemare, who is probing the Hariri case. Such a process, according to the source,  would at least delay the issuance of the indictment by around two months, after earlier reports said the indictment would be released in September.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=118499#axzz0xNwHK6DO

Nahr al-Bared families urge hasty compensation

BEIRUT: A representative of Lebanese families living in the northern Nahr al-Bared refugee camp and its surrounding urged officials to accelerate the payment of financial compensation to enable families to renovate their homes.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=118490
LF presses for solution to Palestinian housing issue

BEIRUT: The Lebanese Forces (LF) urged the government on Saturday to find a solution to Palestinian refugees who occupied homes owned by Lebanese in villages east of the southern coastal city of Sidon.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=118486
Beware of radicalism in Lebanese prisons

Most of Lebanon’s prisons are old, under-staffed, and ill-equipped. That is why, for someone interested in blocking the spread of militant Islamic ideology, the Lebanese prison system has become a hazard due to over-population by violent Islamist inmates and lack of a reform program to rehabilitate and de-radicalize these individuals.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=118493
Iraq

Sunday: 1 US Soldier, 4 Iraqis Killed; 43 Iraqis Wounded

The first U.S. soldier to die since the withdrawal of combat troops this week was killed in during a rocket attack in Basra today. At least four Iraqis were killed and 43 more were wounded in other attacks.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/08/22/sunday-1-us-soldier-4-iraqis-killed-43-iraqis-wounded/
Sixteen wounded in Iraq electricity demo (AFP)

AFP – Dozens of Iraqis violently protested in the southern city of Nasiriyah to demand better power supplies, wounding 16 people including 10 policemen, witnesses and officials said on Sunday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100822/wl_mideast_afp/iraqelectricitypoliticsdemo

Two killed in Baghdad

Two civilans were killed and eight others injured when a bomb exploded in a public market in Al-Museeb area, placed in an electronic store.
http://www.kuna.net.kw/NewsAgenciesPublicSite/ArticleDetails.aspx?id=2107361&Language=en
Iraqi force says capable to defend country from terrorist threat after U.S. pullout

BAGHDAD, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) — “I guess we are 70 percent ready to defend our country, it will be better after the U.S. troops leave,” said a Iraqi army official, who, as usual, patrols at a checkpoint in central Baghdad in a summer, just days ahead of the full withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq.  In an interview with Xinhua, the official, who was called Captain Sabah by his colleagues, said he is optimistic about the future of Iraq after the U.S. soldiers leave and he is confident that the Iraqi forces could handle the terrorist threat independently.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/22/c_13456742.htm

‘US ready to resume Iraq combat’

Army commander in Iraq says failure of security may mean resumption of US operations.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/20108232314305548.html

Allawi, Iraqi Shiite cleric to visit Damascus

DAMASCUS, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) — The Head of the Iraqia List Ayad Allawi and the Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will pay a visit to Damascus soon, Iraqia List’s official Fattah al Sheikh told Xinhua over the phone on Sunday.  Al Sheikh noted that the two Iraqi leaders will discuss with the Syrian side the latest developments regarding the forming of the Iraqi government, stressing that Syria is a “key player” in the Iraqi issue.  On Thursday, Al-Sadr contacted Allawi to voice him support over appointing his party to form the new government. The Iraqia List bloc refused internationalization of the issue of the formation of a new Iraqi government last month, confirming that the solution to the issue must be an Iraqi one.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/22/c_13456690.htm
Iraqi bishop says U.S. betrayed country, Christians suffer most

The Americans leave behind “an Iraq worse off than the one they found seven years ago,” said Warduni, who’s widely regarded as the most charismatic voice among the Iraqi bishops.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/iraqi-bishop-says-us-betrayed-country-christians-suffer-most

Scared women are packing pistols in Iraq

As growing insecurity spreads through Baghdad, women are turning to firearms and armed guards to protect themselves.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100822/FOREIGN/708219934/1041/rss
Iraq admits Briton’s killer escaped

Iraqi officials confirm mastermind of Margaret Hassan’s murder was sprung from prison.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/2010822104318730277.html
Combat brigades in Iraq under different name

“As the final convoy of the Army’s 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team, based at Fort Lewis, Wash., entered Kuwait early Thursday, a different Stryker brigade remained in Iraq.  Soldiers from the 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division are deployed in Iraq as members of an Advise and Assist Brigade, the Army’s designation for brigades selected to conduct security force assistance.  So while the “last full U.S. combat brigade” have left Iraq, just under 50,000 soldiers from specially trained heavy, infantry and Stryker brigades will stay, as well as two combat aviation brigades.”
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/08/dn-brigades-stay-under-different-name-081910/
Inside Iraq – The future of Iraq

Iraqis have endured invasion, economic stagnation, wars, sanctions and internal conflict for decades. Today, in the aftermath of the 7-year war in Iraq, citizens lack even the most basic services, leaving many of them feeling helpless, desperate and in utter disbelief that their homeland is still in a state of chaos. The UN, however, is promising to create a better future for the people of Iraq. But will it be able to achieve this and, if so, how?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qql8m9d2pg&feature=youtube_gdata

Riz Khan – The last US combat forces in Iraq

US combat forces have left Iraq, but who should be held accountable for the invasion and occupation that has left hundreds of thousands dead? Veteran investigative journalist John Pilger joins the show to discuss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bceqsM8RCd4&feature=youtube_gdata
Inside Story – Filling Iraq’s security void

Thousands of US combat troops have started pulling out of Iraq, but hundreds of private security firms look set to fill the void. Since the US-led invasion in 2003, security contractors in Iraq have often been accused of operating above the law. Most controversially, In 2007, guards from what was then known as Blackwater Worldwide shot and killed 14 Iraqi civilians. These charges were dismissed in a US court. But as the US begins its year long withdrawal from Iraq, the message from the state department has been clear – more security contractors will be moved in to replace the US military. This, they say, is the most practical way to “fill the security gap” left by the departing American troops. There have been promises that contractors will not enjoy immunity from prosecution and will be governed by the laws of Iraq, but is this enough to quell concerns about the continuing presence of the security firms?


A shoe flies, a leader ducks … a trend is born? (AP)

AP – For a few days, he was famous the world over — an Iraqi TV journalist who became an instant hero for millions when he hurled his shoes at President George W. Bush’s head and called him a dog.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100823/ap_on_re_eu/throwing_shoes

In porn, a story of Iraq’s politics (AP)

AP – The nude women on the DVD cover in a Baghdad street stall say it all: Change, whether you like it or not, is afoot in Iraq.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100823/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq_porn_and_politics

A Syrian Taif for Iraq

Fears that the US troop withdrawal in Iraq will only intensify the destabilizing power vacuum have reportedly led to plans for a conference similar to the 1989 meeting that ended the Lebanese civil war, to be held in Syria. If a ”Syrian Taif” does materialize, it would be under pressure to produce an absolute mandate for the Iraqi government, disarm militias from all communities and find a new prime minister. – Sami Moubayed
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LH24Ak03.html
Iran

What You Will Not Hear About Iraq

Iraq has between 25 and 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, an epidemic of mental illness, and sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life. What a havoc the United States has wreaked in Iraq.
http://www.fpif.org/articles/what_you_will_not_hear_about_iraq
Iran hopes Russia’s next step be delivery of S-300 missiles system: MP

Iranian lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi hailed Russia’s move on Bushehr nuclear plant fuelling and expressed hope Russia’s next step would be the delivery of S-300 missile system to Iran, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported on Saturday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/world/2010-08/22/c_13455886.htm
The Reality Of Iran’s Nuclear Program, Scott Horton On Russia Today
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GRsHlY-J18&feature=player_embedded
Iran working against Iraqi democracy: US general (AFP)

AFP – Iran is funding extremist groups in Iraq out of fear of a strong democracy as a neighbor, the commander of US forces in Iraq said Sunday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100822/pl_afp/usiraqunrestiran

Countdown to Zero – or to War on Iran?

“If I was president Ahmadinejad’s national security adviser, and he asked me what to do, I would tell him to acquire a nuclear deterrent.” – Professor John J. Mearsheimer, July 7, 2010 John Mearsheimer’s imagined advice to Ahmadinejad leads to a simple and obvious conclusion.
http://original.antiwar.com/john-v-walsh/2010/08/22/countdown-to-zero/

U.S. and Other World News

Poll: Majority say history will deem Iraq war a failure
More than half the country thinks history will judge the Iraq War to have been a mistake, according to the results of a survey released Friday.  Fifty-three percent of respondents said the conflict will be deemed either a “total failure” or “mostly a failure” — roughly the same as the 51 percent of respondents who answered that way in 2006, pollsters at Gallup reported.  That compares to 42 percent of Americans who think the war will be judged a success — also consistent with the 2006 figure, which was 43 percent, Gallup found.
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/115289-poll-most-americans-say-history-will-deem-iraq-war-a-failure
Wikileaks Lawyer Says Pentagon Given Access To Unpublished Secret Documents

A U.S. lawyer representing the whistleblowing web site Wikileaks says U.S. government officials have been given codes and passwords granting them online access to official U.S. government documents that Wikileaks so far has not published.  Timothy Matusheski, a lawyer from Hattiesburg, Miss., who says he represents whistleblowers and has been in touch with both Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and at least one government official involved in investigations of Wikileaks, said Wikileaks had set up a “secure channel” through which authorized users could access the unpublished material. He said credentials for using this Web site had been forwarded to representatives of the U.S. government whom he did not identify. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/20/wikileaks-lawyer-says-pen_n_689886.html

Hamid Karzai: U.S. Taxpayer-Funded Private Contractors Engaging In Terrorist, Mafia-Like Activity

Afghanistan’s embattled president Hamid Karzai said on Sunday that U.S. taxpayers were indirectly funding “mafia-like groups” and terrorist activities with the American government’s support of private contractors inside his country.  In a rare U.S. media appearance, Karzai continued to press for the removal of the vast majority of U.S. private contractors by the end of this year. He argued that their continued presence inside Afghanistan was “an obstruction and impediment” to the country’s growth, a massive waste of money, and a catalyst for corruption among Afghan officials.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/22/karzai-us-taxpayerfunded-_n_690385.html

Crime (Sex) and Punishment (Stoning), ROBERT F. WORTH

Stoning is not practiced only among Muslims, nor did it begin with Islam. Human rights groups say a young girl was stoned to death in 2007 in Iraqi Kurdistan’s Yazidi community, which practices an ancient Kurdish religion. The Old Testament includes an episode in which Moses arranges for a man who violated the Sabbath to be stoned, and stoning probably took place among Jewish communities in the ancient Near East. Rabbinic law, which was composed starting in the first century A.D., specifies stoning as the penalty for a variety of crimes, with elaborate instructions for how it should be carried out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/weekinreview/22worth.html
Wikileaks’ Assange: Pentagon may be behind rape claims

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said in an interview published on Sunday that he believes the Pentagon could be behind a rape accusation against him that was later dropped by Swedish prosecutors.  The country’s prosecution service meanwhile justified the chaotic situation when authorities first issued an arrest warrant for the Australian whistleblower late on Friday night but then withdrew it the following day.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0822/wikileaks-pentagon-rape-claims/
S.Arabia not mulling paralysis penalty for attacker

* Court wants paralysis victim to take compensation
* Governor sending envoys to mediate with victim
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE67M1ES.htm
At Least 150 Women Raped in Weekend Raid in Congo

Officials said that the attack was unusual because of the large number of victims and the fact that they were raped by more than one attacker simultaneously.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/23/world/africa/23congo.html
Bahrain’s Shiite leader condemns continued arrests, reversing 10 years of sectarian progress

MANAMA, Bahrain (AP) — Bahrain’s top Shiite politician said a crackdown on Shiite protesters by Sunni rulers has destroyed a decade of stable sectarian relations as the tiny Gulf state heads into parliamentary elections scheduled for October.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/KZSOoUam8H8/sns-ap-ml-bahrain-shiite-tensions,0,6159709.story

Islam in America

Emanuel warned Obama: Keep mum on NYC mosque

POLITICO reports White House chief told president that in publicly backing construction of Muslim cultural center near ground zero he would be ‘handing Republicans a weapon to batter Democrats as weak-kneed on terrorism.’ Emanuel: We all stand behind and support the president’s decision.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3941827,00.html
New York mosque controversy worries Muslims overseas

Some can’t understand the fuss over a house of worship and how a democracy promoting religious freedom could even be having such a debate. Others are offended at the conflation of the 9/11 attacks with all Muslims.  The heated debate across America over construction of the so-called ground zero mosque is reverberating across the globe, with the potential of creating a worldwide black eye for the United States.
http://feeds.latimes.com/%7Er/latimes/middleeast/%7E3/TCt6bntLx_s/la-fg-0823-mosque-muslim-react-20100823,0,7775670.story

New Yorkers rally over mosque plan

Hundreds of supporters and opponents of the proposed Islamic cultural centre near the World Trade Centre site in New York have staged rallies, kept apart by police and barricades.  Opponents in downtown Manhattan shouted “Enough is enough” on Sunday as supporters yelled “say no to racist fear”.  No violence or arrests were reported.   Uniformed police and rows of barricades kept many in the crowds apart. Police officials said extra forces were deployed.  Opponents of the plan, to build a $100m Islamic center two blocks from the Ground Zero site where the September 11, 2001 attacks took place, appeared to outnumber supporters.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/americas/2010/08/2010822204940174279.html
New Yorkers rally over mosque plan

In New York, the proposal to build an Islamic cultural centre near the site of the September 11 attacks continues to dominate US headlines. There has been two seperate rallies in the city – by both supporters and opponents. The dispute has taken on political significance, with opposition Republicans using the issue to attack US president Barack Obama ahead of legislative elections. Al Jazeera’s John Terrett reports from the rallies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r43aSB46Qdw&feature=youtube_gdata
Imam’s wife: Mosque opposition like ‘metastasized anti-Semitism’

Lower Manhattan mosque part of ‘Americanization’ of Islam, Daisy Khan says  The wife of the imam behind the Cordoba House Muslim community center in Manhattan says the opposition to its construction goes “beyond Islamophobia,” likening it to a “metastasized anti-Semitism.”  “We are deeply concerned, because this is like a metastasized anti-Semitism,” Daisy Khan, executive director of the American Society for Muslim Advancement, told ABC’s Christiane Amanpour. “It’s not even Islamophobia. It’s beyond Islamophobia, it’s hate of Muslims.”  The interview took place as supporters and opponents of the mosque protested in lower Manhattan on Sunday, with police keeping the two groups blocks apart.  Khan was joined on ABC’s This Week by Rabbi Joy Levitt, head of the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan. Levitt said that “some part” of the opposition to the mosque “feels very familiar.”
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0822/mosque-opposition-antisemitism/
Fox host: Muslims should ‘give up their rights’ and not rely on the First Amendment

Fox News host and legal analyst Peter J. Johnson, Jr. says Muslims in New York should “give up their rights” and move the Park51 Islamic center in order to please opponents. In a Friday commentary on Fox & Friends, Johnson visited the site of the proposed Islamic center.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0820/fox-muslims-give-up-rights/
Pamela Geller, ‘Queen Of Muslim Bashers,’ At Center Of N.Y. ‘Mosque’ Debate

(RNS) By some accounts, the heated opposition to the so-called Ground Zero mosque has been drummed up by a telegenic blogger with a strong New York accent and even stronger opinions.  Pamela Geller, a Long Island native who writes the blog “AtlasvShrugs,” said she was the “quintessential New York City career girl” before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.  Since then, she has co-founded groups dedicated to fighting the “Islamization” of America, sponsored anti-Muslim ads in several cities, and, more recently, become a near daily presence on television news programs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/20/pamela-gellerqueen-of-mus_n_689709.html
Mosque Demagoguery Is Bipartisan, Rep. Ron Paul, August 23, 2010

Is the controversy over building a mosque near Ground Zero a grand distraction or a grand opportunity? Or is it, once again, grandiose demagoguery?  It has been said, “Nero fiddled while Rome burned.” Are we not overly preoccupied with this controversy, now being used in various ways by grandstanding politicians? It looks to me like the politicians are “fiddling while the economy burns.”  The debate should have provided the conservative defenders of property rights with a perfect example of how the right to own property also protects the 1st Amendment rights of assembly and religion by supporting the building of the mosque.
http://original.antiwar.com/paul/2010/08/22/mosque-demagoguery-is-bipartisan/
Report from ground zero, Zach Morris

At first, I thought it was just me. I’d witnessed dozens of far-right demonstrations over the years, but this was the first which literally sent chills down my spine.  I spoke to a few activists who’d effectively made attending, confronting, and exposing these sorts of things into their life’s work, and had witnessed hundreds of events staged by all manner of racist groups, from the National Alliance and the Minutemen to the Teabaggers and the National Socialist Party.  “I’ve never seen anything like this before”, one said, as another nodded his head in agreement. “The rhetoric, the music, everything… it was just… overwhelming. Did you see the effigies? I don’t even know what to say.”
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/report-from-ground-zero.html
The new anti-Semitism,  Adam Horowitz

Last week Daniel Luban had an important piece in the Tablet comparing the current wave of Islamophobia, spearheaded by the opposition to Park 51 in New York, with “many of the tropes of classic anti-Semitism.” Luban notes the shameful, and given the comparison, ironic, role of Jews in this surge of hate.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/08/the-new-anti-semitism.html
The Money Behind the “Mosque”

In recent days, critics of the proposal to build a mosque and Islamic center near ground zero have linked the plan to everyone from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Islamist organizations Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. But the plan’s real fundraising effort, thus far, is much more innocuous: a PayPal account with less than $9,000 in it, mostly from New Yorkers, raised by a group of Muslim moms in Manhattan whose original aim was to host a peace march.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-08-20/ground-zero-mosque-where-the-funding-is-coming-from/?om_rid=DKP5Im&om_mid=_BMb9PsB8TNGbe7&
NYC Mosque Draws Interfaith Support In California

LOS ANGELES — Dozens of Southern California religious leaders from many faiths are speaking out to support plans to build a mosque and community center two blocks from ground zero in New York City. The leaders held a press conference Friday at the Islamic Center of Southern California and issued a statement supporting the right to build the mosque.  The letter is signed by 71 Southern California religious leaders, including representatives from more than a dozen faiths.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/20/nyc-mosque-draws-interfai_n_689373.html

www.TheHeadlines.org

Norwegian gov’t divests from 2 companies that build settlements
Aug 23, 2010 

 Philip Weiss

This is big. The Norwegian government has divested its pension fund of two Leviev companies that build settlements in the occupied West Bank on the grounds that the international community regards territory east of the ’67 line as occupied. (No singling out: the Norwegians also divested a third company, a Malaysian forestry company)

The two Israeli firms were excluded from the portfolios of the Norwegian governments pension fund due to their construction work on West Bank, since they contribute in “grossly unethical activity”, according to a press release from the Minister of Finances, Sigbjørn Johnsen today.
 

The two companies are Africa Israel investments, the Lev Leviev outfit (he of the diamond shop on Madison Avenue in NY) and its subsidiary Danya Cebus. Writes my informant:

We did it! Biggest BDS victory yet in [West Bank villages] Jayyous & Bil’in’s campaign against the thief of thie lands Lev Leviev. Seven years of work. I’m so thrilled I missed my train stop.

Kovel: Zionism’s dreary burden on Jewishness
Aug 23, 2010

 Joel Kovel

Tony Judt had barely left this world when the Jerusalem Post lashed out at him with a nasty editorial on August 8. Clearly, Judt has never been forgiven for writing in 2003 in the New York Review of Books that Israel lacked legitimacy because of its structural Jewishness and deserved to be replaced with a “a single, integrated, bi-national state.” Heresy is unforgivable; and to call for the downfall of the Jewish state is heretical, because the ostensibly secular state of Israel has to see itself as the guarantor of Jewish survival, spiritual and physical alike. Anytime a Jew with an audience, i.e., an intellectual, critically examines this relationship, the alarm bells go off. Another existential threat! So Tony Judt was a dangerous man when he was alive and will be so as long as the memory of his deed remains.

I am happy to say that I am in his good company. According to the Post, Judt’s “categorical rejection of Zionism put him in a class with other contemporary Jewish intellectuals of the Diaspora such as Jacqueline Rose, Michael Neumann and Joel Kovel, who have chosen to single out Israel for opprobrium that is rarely, if ever, directed at other countries that choose to adopt unique religious or cultural-based nationalities.” Accordingly, our views constitute “a recipe for national suicide for the sovereign Jewish entity.” In other words, we, too, pose existential threats to the Jewish state.

I feel obliged to reply, not to speak in Judt’s place, nor in the expectation that he would have agreed with what I am about to write. We never met nor were we political comrades, Tony being a self-declared social democrat and I, well, several degrees to the left of that. Nor have I met Jacqueline Rose and Michael Neumann. But categorical rejection of Zionism is a common ground I am pleased to share. So here is a brief account of what I take to be the reason for giving a lot of attention to Israel vis a vis the other awful countries, and why I want to bring down the Jewish state itself rather than settling for eliminating one or more of its human rights abuses. 

The Jewish Question

The Post’s editorial person starts from the premise that people like Judt, Rose, Neumann and I are doing something that, as Jews, we should be ashamed of: singling out Israel and calling for the end of the Jewish state. (I’ll return below to the rather heated way this latter allegation is framed.) The assumption here is that Israel is for all the Jews and all the Jews should stand behind Israel, because it is self-evidently good to have an organic-national relation to Judaism. 

I see things oppositely. I was born into a Jewish family and through this, share in a colorful history that has produced a lot of contributors to civilization, played an ambivalent yet fascinating role in the development of Western society, and suffered a good deal over the centuries for its “otherness.” All of this I keep in mind and have no disposition to deny. So I am a Jew. That’s nice, and that’s all it is. But as for the extension of this identity fragment, whose only common ground across history is a religion, into an organic nationalism which needs a state to set itself on the ground, this is another thing entirely. If you will forgive me a little Biblicism, it is an abomination and a desecration. I share this view with many fellow Jews, including the Neturai karta, whom I have joined at many a demonstration, and whose resoluteness and integrity I admire. I don’t care for their religion, however, or any variant of the Jewish faith. I think that Judaism got trapped in the first century CE by rejection of its prophet Jesus’s call to make the religion universal rather than tribal. As a result—a result made far worse by Christian persecution—the Jewish faith has never really been able to transcend an inward focus on the community of Jews, that is, the Jewish “People.” The jokingly offered and endlessly repeated query as to whether something is “good for the Jews” is, to my view, the sign of a profound and spiritually damaging ethnocentricity. Thus when the possibility opened up to make this People into a nation, a power-grabbing nation in league with imperialism and given a militarized state by its imperial patrons, many Jews fell into line (including most of my family), and especially insofar as they had been handed the all-purpose justifier provided by the history of anti-Semitism and its culmination in the monstrosity of the Shoah.

For me, however, Jewish nation-building proved a time to part ways—an extended time, I might add, and no epiphany. As the Jewish state has continued to tear its brutal path through the history of our time, and chiefly, through the lives of its indigenous victims, I simply see no other place to stand than in utter opposition to the endless chain of its crimes and lies—and with this, to the very construction of “Jewishness” that has enabled this and become canonical for so many, and in the United States especially, essential for the sustenance of the Israeli abomination. So to follow along with the above-mentioned identity construction, I am still a Jew and neither can nor wish to erase the fact, but no longer consider myself Jewish. Thus, following the great Isaac Deutscher, a “non-Jewish Jew.” I think a lot of Jews are these days wrestling with the same dilemma. Needless to add, there are other ways of addressing it besides mine. In any event, I wish them good cheer: life is a lot better once that dreary burden is laid down.

So to the editorial person of the Jerusalem Post, I would say, paraphrasing a certain President: Ask not what Israel can do for the Jews, because all answers to this question have become corrupted by the militarized and racist state Israel has become. Ask rather what Jews can do to earn forgiveness for the wrong turn taken in their history and for all the suffering their precious state has imposed. And lay off criticizing Jews who are stepping forth to “single out Israel.” There are going to be lots more of them. Remember, each person only has one identity and has to live with it.

But there is much more . . .

Though every theocracy and/or ethnocracy is appalling and should be opposed by all folk of good will, the peculiar case of Israel has a far wider radiation and so deserves “singling out,” as the Post puts it, irrespective of the religious/ethnic issue. This has to do, of course, with the nightmarish relation between Israel and the United States, and the shadow it casts over the present world. By the time I first became aware, during the Vietnam era, of US imperialism as a malignant force, Zionists had been insinuating themselves into the American political process for twenty years, since Harry Truman’s political orphanhood gave them the opening. But there was nothing “special” about this, except that the Jewish state depended for its existence upon its great benefactor. It took a while for the creature spawned by this embrace to mature, chiefly through the growth of AIPAC and the entry of ultra-Zionist neoconservatives into state and civil society. With this, however, it must also be said that the beast had mutated; hence one can no longer talk about the United States and Israel as separate political entities. Now we have a second Zionist occupation, of our civil society and state alongside the occupation of Palestine, and necessary for the occupation of Palestine to continue. For reasons of space we need to set aside the intricate matter of who wags whom, or the astounding degree to which the normalization of Zionism has blunted outrage, even among leftists of great repute. Consider only some of the fruits of this creature:

• the degree to which US foreign policy is configured to give Israel its impunity, one small instance being Obama’s recent threat to Turkey that he would cut off military contracts unless it lays off Israel for the Mavi Marmara incident; meanwhile the US reinforces Israeli military superiority with the latest in free ultra technology for its F-16 fighter fleet;

• the shameless debasement of our Congress, with hundreds of elected officials doing the bidding of a foreign power, again to whitewash the Mavi Marmara murders, thereby granting impunity once again;

• the plague of Islamophobia now raging, inflamed by fury over the “Ground-zero Mosque,” and more generally, over the terrors stirred up by 9-11. But who pauses to reflect upon that awful day and the fact that it provided the one incontrovertible instance of highly suspicious involvement by a foreign state in the havoc, namely, the most odd finding of five “moving men,” who turned out to be Mossad agents filming from New Jersey the collapse of the towers while jubilantly giving each other high fives, who were released back to their home country after 71 quiet days in FBI custody, and whose “employer” moved very hastily back to Israel, after stripping his office of all evidence? How did they know to be there, cameras primed, at that time? Why were they so happy? No point in asking. The propaganda machine has constructed mass consciousness so as to obscure any thinking about the matter, which no longer exists so far as official political culture goes. Such questions are highly impertinent. After all, one does not want to “single” Israel out. That would be anti-Semitic, wouldn’t it? This Reichstag Fire leads in another direction, that of the Islamic Threat. 

• and then, mere war, as in Iraq, and Afghanistan, and now the latest looming danger, the Persian menace. That this mainly exists in the mind of the Zionist Power Structure, here and in Israel, is anything but reassuring, given the authority of that mind. Suppose, then, that the exquisitely positioned pundits and opinion-makers get their wish of precipitating us into a bombing war with Iran, Israel’s #1 existential threat, and Iran bombs back. This could be a new Board Game: there goes the global economy; and there looms, as ever, our friend and ally’s “Samson Option” using its nuclear arsenal that nobody is to know about, but that has, in the meantime, totally wrecked any efforts to bring nuclear proliferation under control thanks to universal knowledge of the bad faith of the United States for its complicity over the years under the influence of a certain “lobby” . . . 

In sum, if you care about the baleful influence of the United States in the world you cannot set Israel aside as an isolated issue. This is the precise opposite of “singling Israel out.” It is, rather, a demand to integrate Israel within the manifold of imperial/economic/military power, and taking the steps necessary to bring this power under rational control.

Signing off to the editor of the Post, who is unquestionably unimpressed with these arguments. 

What are trivialities like ethnocide, racism and war weighed against the sovereignty of the Jews? For Jews were once merely a “People,” but now, having achieved the greatness of nation-statehood, have become, hurrah!, a “sovereign Jewish entity,” doubtlessly pleasing Yahweh no end. And it is this triumph that Tony Judt and people like myself would spoil with our “recipe for national suicide.”

I’ve got to hand it to the Jerusalem Post for forcing me out of my self-imposed exile from psychoanalysis (well, it is the Jewish Profession) with this frankly hysterical statement, which is bundled, typically, with a manipulative, guilt-tripping threat: if you people don’t stop doing that, we’re going to kill ourselves! Freud pointed out that every delusion contains the germ of a historical fact. In this instance it is the legendary event of 73 CE, when the Sicarii, a Jewish sect active in the wake of the Roman destruction of the Second Temple, hurled themselves from the cliffs of Masada mountain to avoid capture by the Legion. An archeological museum now occupies the site, which has become deeply inscribed as a symbol of Zionist resolve and desperation.

I hope the Israelis don’t follow this example. Maybe they should keep in mind that the Sicarii were more extreme than even the Zealots, and by some accounts were common bandits, as much opposed to other Jews as they were to Rome. Nonetheless, the imminence of mass catastrophe, however induced, remains active in the Zionist imaginary, where it is stoked by propagandists of the Shoah, so that 1938 is made to eternally return. 

There is another, much more deeply rational approach to history, which is to understand it in depth, encounter it, learn its lesson, actively transform it, and, by so doing, let it go. For Israel—and Jews everywhere, and indeed, everyone affected by the conquest of Palestine—the lesson is not really that complicated. It is to face the truth that the Zionist epoch has been a dreadful mistake, for the Jews as well as Zionism’s victims, and that they will have to do what grown-up people do who realize they have been wrong, if they want to have a decent life and rejoin the human race.

Namely, undergo a change of mind and heart. Is that too much to ask?

Israeli officer sells computers seized from flotilla members
Aug 23, 2010 

Philip Weiss

Ann Wright at Common Dreams estimates that Israelis seized $750,000 cash from members of the intercepted flotilla of last spring, none of it returned, as well as all those computers, many containing evidence of the violent character of the flotilla raid by Israeli commandos.

An Israeli newspaper has revealed that four to six computers among the hundreds that were taken from passengers on the six ships have been sold by an Israeli First Lieutenant to three junior military personnel. On August 18, a second officer was arrested in connection with the theft. An Israeli military official described the case as “embarrassing and shameful.” Eitan Kabel, a member of parliament from the Labour party, told Israeli media: “This is an embarrassing, humiliating and infuriating act.”