Saturday 30 October 2010

Gilad Atzmon: Zionist Tolerance For a Change

Friday, October 29, 2010 at 8:24PM Gilad Atzmon

‘Jewish left’ is basically an oxymoron. It is a contradiction in terms, because ‘Jewishness’ is a tribal ideology, whilst ‘the left’ are traditionally understood as aspiring to universalism.

On the face of it, the ‘Jewish left’ is, at least categorically, no different from Israel or Zionism: after all, it is an attempt to form yet another ‘Jews only political club’. And as far as the Palestinian solidarity movement is concerned, its role is subject to a growing debate -- For on the one hand, one can see the political benefit of pointing at a very few ‘good Jews’, and emphasizing that there are Jews who ‘oppose Zionism as Jews’. Yet on the other hand, however, accepting the legitimacy of such a racially orientated political affair, is in itself, an acceptance of yet another form, or manifestation of Zionism, for Zionism claims that Jews are primarily Jewish, and had better operate politically as Jews(1).

To a certain extent then, it is clear that Jewish anti Zionism, is, in itself, still just another form of Zionism.
‘Jewish dissidence’ has two main roles: First, it attempts to depict and bolster a positive image of Jews in general (2). Second, it is there to silence and obscure any attempts on the part of the outsider to grasp the meaning of Jewish identity and Jewish politics within the machinations of the Jewish state. It is also there to stop elements in this movement from elaborating on the crucial role of Jewish lobbying.

The Jewish Left is there then, to mute any possible criticism of Jewish politics within the wider Left movements. It is there to stop the Goyim from looking into Jewish affairs.

A decade ago I met the Kosher dissident brigade for the first time -- As soon as I started to express criticism of Israel and Zionism -- they started to bounce around me.

For a short while, I fitted nicely into their discourse : I was young and energetic. I was an award winning musician, as well as a promising writer. In their eyes I was a celebrity, or at least a good reason to celebrate. Their chief commissars reserved the best, and most expensive dining tables ahead of my Orient House’s Ensemble concerts. The five grass-root penniless activists, followed the trend and came to my free stage Jazz Combo afternoon concerts in the Barbican Centre’s Foyer. They all wanted to believe that I would follow their agenda, and become a commissar myself.

They were also very quick to preach to me who were the ‘bad guys’, those who should be burnt in hell: Israel Shahak, Paul Eisen, Israel Shamir and Otto Weininger were just a few amongst the many baddies. As one may guess by now, it didn’t take me too long to admit to myself that there was more wisdom in a single sentence by Eisen, Weininger, Shahak or Shamir than in the entire work of the Jewish Left put together.

I was quick to make it clear to my new ‘Red’ fans that it was not going to work : I was an ex-Israeli, and I no longer regarded myself as a Jew any more. I shared nothing with them and I did not believe in their agenda. Indeed, I had left Israel because I wanted to drift as far away as I could from any form of tribal politics.

Paddling in chicken soup has never been my thing.

Naturally, I bought myself at least a half a dozen enemies, and they were quick to run a campaign against me. They tried to silence me; they desperately ( and hopelessly ) tried to wreck my music career; they mounted pressure on political institutions, media outlets, and music venues. One of them even tried to drag me to court.

But they failed all the way through and they failed on every possible level. The more pressure they mounted, the more people read my writing. At a certain point, people around me were convinced that my detractors were actually running my PR campaign. Moreover, the relentless attempts to silence me could only prove my point. They were there to divert attention away from the crucial role of Jewish politics and Jewish identity politics.

I have asked myself often enough -- how is it that they failed with me? But I guess that the same internet that successfully defeated Israeli Hasbara, has also defeated the Jewish left and its hegemony within the movement. In the wider scheme of things, it is totally obvious how marginal the Jewish Marxist discourse is. Its voice within the dissident movement is, in actuality, insignificant.

I guess also, that the fact that I am a popular Jazz artist didn’t make life easy for them -- At the time those Jewish commissars labeled me as a racist and an anti Semite, I was touring around the world with two ex Israeli Jews, an Argentinean Jew, a Romanian Gipsy and a Palestinian Oud player. It just couldn’t work for them, and it didn’t.

But here is an interesting twist : In comparison with the contemporaneous Jewish Red terror, Zionism comes across as a relatively tolerant endeavour. In recent months I have been approached by every possible Israeli media outlet. In the summer, Ouvda, the leading Israeli investigative TV show asked repeatedly to join with me and my band on the road. They were interested to launch a debate, and to discuss my ideas in prime time. This week, The Israeli Second Channel approached me for a news item. Again, they were interested in my views. Yesterday, I discussed my views for an hour with Guy Elhanan on Israel’s 'Kol ha-shalom' (Voice of Peace).

For the most obvious of reasons, I am very cautious when dealing with the Israeli media. I choose my outlets very carefully. I usually tend to refuse. But, I also accept that as a person who cares about the prospect of peace I must keep an open channel with the Israeli public, and two weeks ago I agreed to be interviewed by Haaretz writer,Yaron Frid. This was my first published interview in Israel for more than a decade.

I must admit that I was shocked to find out that not a single word of mine had been removed or censored. Haaretz let me say everything that the Kosher ‘Socialists’ had consistently tried to stop me from saying.

On my ‘self-hatred’ and Jewishness the Israeli paper Haaretz let me say :

“I am not a nice Jew, because I don't want to be a Jew, because Jewish values don't really turn me on and all this 'Pour out Thy wrath on the nations' stuff doesn't impress me."

It also let me question the entire Zionist ethos; the reality of plunder and deluded historicism : “Why do I live on lands that are not mine, the plundered lands of another people whose owners want to return to them but cannot? Why do I send my children to kill and be killed, after I myself was a soldier, too? Why do I believe all this bullshit about 'because it's the land of our forefathers' and 'our patrimony' if I am not even religious?

And about Palestinians' right of return, I said : "The Israelis can put an end to the conflict in two fucking minutes. Netanyahu gets up tomorrow morning, returns to the Palestinians the lands that belong to them.”

They let me express how I would differentiate between, and define Israel and Palestine: “Palestine is the land and Israel is the state. It took me time to realize that Israel was never my home, but only a fantasy saturated in blood and sweat."

About chosen-ness, de-Judification and Jewish identity I said, “for Netanyahu and the Israelis to do that (accept the Palestinian right of return), they have to undergo de-Judaization and accept the fact that they are like all peoples and are not the chosen people. So, in my analysis this is not a political, sociopolitical or socioeconomic issue but something basic that has to do with Jewish identity.”

And in the interview I compared Jewish left with National Socialism -- And Haaretz’s editorial let it through: “The idea of left-wing Jews is fundamentally sickening. It contains an absolute internal contradiction. If you are leftists it doesn't matter whether you're Jewish or not, so on principle when you present yourselves as leftist Jews you are accepting the idea of national socialism. Nazism.”
Haaretz, as could be expected, challenged my opposition to Jewish politics : “Atzmon has been accused from every possible platform of disseminating vitriol against Jews. He, though, maintains that he ‘hates everyone in equal measure.’ He's also been accused of self-hatred, but he is the first to admit this, and in comparison with Otto Weininger - the Austrian Jewish philosopher who converted to Christianity and of whom Hitler said, ‘There was one good Jew in Germany, and he killed himself’ - he is even proud. ‘Otto and I are good friends.’”

But clearly, at least Israelis can cope with Otto Weininger and his ideology. However -- when I gave a talk about Otto Weininger in a London Marxist book shop five years ago (Bookmarks), a ‘synagogue’ of fourteen Jewish Marxists unsuccessfully tried to picket the event and to pressure the SWP into submission.
Guess what; they failed.

Haaretz challenged my take on the Holocaust; yet it printed my answer without changing a single word. “I am fighting against all the disgusting laws and persecutions of those so-called Holocaust deniers - a categorization I don't accept. I think the Holocaust, like any historical episode, must be open to research, to examination, to discussion and debate.”

And Haaretz, evidently an Israeli Zionist paper, let me express my thoughts about Israeli mass murderers and their destiny. “It might be a good thing if the Nazi hunters hunt down [Shaul] Mofaz and [Ehud] Barak, for example, and not all kinds of 96-year-olds who are barely alive. It's pathetic."
It also let me tell Israelis that they are all to be blamed : “In Israel 94 percent of the nation supported Operation Cast Lead. On the one hand, you want to behave like a post-enlightenment state and talk to me about individualism, but on the other hand you surround yourselves with a wall and remain attached to a tribal identity.”

Yaron Frid ended his piece saying, “Israel lost Gilad,” and, “The score, for now: 1-0, Palestine leading.”

I was happy with the article. But I was also jealous. For here in Britain, we are still far from being free to explore these issues.

The message here is plain and simple -- Haaretz, a Zionist paper, has let me discuss all those intellectual avenues that ‘the Kosher Socialists’ insist on blocking. A week before my Haaretz special, the Israeli paper featured Mavi Marmara hero Ken O’keefe. Again, Haaretz coverage was fairly balanced; certainly more balanced than BBC Panorama.

The moral is clear : As much as Zionism is repugnant and murderous -- it is still way ahead of the Jewish Left , simply because it is still, in some regards at least, part of an ongoing and open discourse.

There is no doubt that amongst the most prolific enemies of Israel and Jewish identity, you will find Israelis and ex Israelis, such as Ilan Pappe, Gideon Levi, Amira Hass, Tali Fahima, Israel Shamir, Israel Shahak, Nurit Peled , Rami Elhanan Guy Elhanan, Jonathan Shapira, Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Mordechai Vanunu, Uri Avneri, Shimon Tzabar, myself, and others.

We may not always agree with each other -- but we let each other be.

Zionism was an attempt to bring about a new Jew: an ethical, productive and authentic being. But Zionism failed all the way through. Israel is a criminal state, and the Israelis are collectively complicit in relentless crimes against humanity. And yet, Zionism has also succeeded in erecting a solid school of eloquent and proud ‘self haters’. Israelis are taught to be outspoken and critical. Unlike the Diaspora Jewish left, that for some reason, operates as a thought-police, Israeli dissidence speaks out. Israelis are trained to celebrate their ‘symptoms’ -- and this also applies in the case of dissidence.

Unlike Jewish Marxism that operates largely as a tribal PR campaign, Israeli dissidence is an ethical approach : You wouldn’t hear Israeli activists shouting ‘not in my name’. The Israelis mentioned above do accept that each Israeli crime is committed in their names. They also accept that activism is the crucial shift from guilt into responsibility. Hence, it is also far from surprising that on the ‘Jewish Boat to Gaza’ mission, the Israeli veteran AIF pilot Shapira and also Elahanan, both spoke about ethics and humanitarian issues, while the British Jew, Kuper, was apparently, judging from his words, perhaps more concerned with the amendment of the image of world Jewry.

Being an ex Israeli, I believe that the only thing I can do for Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, myself, my family, my neighbours and humanity -- is to stand firm and speak my heart against all odds.

I also believe that we all know the truth.

We just need to be courageous enough to spit it out.

(1) As bizarre as it may sound to some, ‘Jews Against Zionists’ (JAZ) and ‘Jews for BDS’ (Boycott of Divestment of Israeli Goods) do affirm the Zionist mantra : They operate, primarily, as Jews. As much as it is impossible for uprooted Palestinians to settle in Israel and become a citizen with equal civil rights -- it is also impossible for them to join any of the primarily Jewish groups for Palestine.

(2) Richard Kuper, the person behind ‘Irene-the Jewish Boat to Gaza’, was bold enough to admit it -- “Our goal is to show that not all Jews support Israeli policies toward Palestinians,” he said. It is now an established fact that the Jewish boat carried hardly any humanitarian aid for the Gazans : its main mission, as far as Kuper was concerned, seems to have been to amend Jewish reputation.I have spent the last ten years elaborating on Jewish national ideology and tribal politics. During my journey of grasping what Zionism and Israel stand for, I came to realize that it is actually the Jewish left -- and Jewish Marxists in particular -- that provide us with an adequate glimpse into contemporary Jewish identity, tribal supremacy, marginal politics and tribalism.

The STL tide has changed: "Enough is enough" "Do you think we’re that stupid?”

By Uprooted Palestinian

"Let’s blame (Imad) Mughniyah for killing Hariri. He’s dead so the investigative trail ends. Just say, ‘We had no idea what he was doing’. No more tribunal. Everyone is happy. And as a sweetener we’ll take Hezbollah off our Terrorism list.” US undersecretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman to Hezbollah via the Saudi-Syrian, back channel on 10/22/10

“Do you think we’re that stupid?” Hezbollah (smelling a set-up) to Obama via the same channel 10/23/10

Angry Arab ended his report on the encounter in the clinic in the southern suburbs of Beirut saying: "Shame on the Lebanese government and the Lebanese Order of Physicians for providing cover for such a travesty to take place."

Hizbullah Coordination and Liaison Unit Denies Future Movement lie that it was Informed of STL Investigators Visit to Southern Suburb. I believe, such Formal Inforemation was not done because the STL wanted to test Hezbullah reaction, therefore Hezbullah women were waiting. 
Hasbara At Work

On the other side, Zarathustra (they call him Zara, I used to call him Khara, an editor at a "Palestinian site" speaclised in spreading Zionist Hasbara, crisized Nasrallah's over reaction.

"I fully don't understand the reaction of the Party to the tribunal." he preyed from a dark room in Yankivile. "Nasrallah's over reaction points to implict quilt." he added "he calls on "All Lebanese" but everyone who knows anything about Lebanon is that "All Lebanese" are divided up in this matter on sectarian lines. He can preach all he wants to the Sunnis and Christians but that will not change their attitude or view of either the tribunal or the Resistance. "

On the same wave, STL, March 14 Condemned the call for Boycotting Tribunal “Is Nasrallah threatening the Lebanese citizens?” the war criminal Lebanese Forces (LF) leader Geagea asked, adding that Nasrallah’s statements are strange and incomprehensible. “It is not acceptable for any party to make a decision on behalf of all Lebanese. Cooperating with the [STL’s] investigators is an issue that only the Lebanese government decides,” Geagea also said.
The ASSHOLE, said that Nasrallah can't speak on behalf of all Lebanese, "for him (Nasrallah) to try to convince the non Shia Lebanese that he is speaking on behalf of All Lebanon is both inaccurate and insincere." Zara claimed. 

Today Jumblat considered the encounter in the clinic in the southern suburbs of Beirut an attempt to foil any Saudi /Syrian understanding on Lenanon.Moreover, Nasrallah never said or claimed that all Lebanese are united on Resistance.

There, zionist message is Lebanese devided on sectarian lines, there fore Nasrallah can't speak on behalf of all Lebanese. They ignored the fact that Nasrallah's "preaching" changed the opinion and the attitude of at least half the Christians (loyal to Michel Aoun, one third of Sunnis, and almost united all the Droze, on both the tribunal and the Resistance. Let us ont forget that the Free Patriotic Movement was the core of "March 14 Movement", and Jumblat was its leader.

YES, as Zara admitted "the Tribunal is politicized and is acting as a tool of the US/Israel/KSA" But the STL tide has changed and is changing every day. Thanks to Nasrallah's "Preaching".

In harmony with Jeffrey Feltman, Hilary Clinton and March 14 Ramanents Khara claimed that Nasrallah is adding fuel to the fire, he "should stop acting like he is guilty , stop being defensive. Because all he is doing now is adding fuel to the fire"

Who is adding fuel to the fire?

I shall start, with a voice representing at least Half lebanon's Christians, Change and Reform parliamentary bloc member MP Nabil Nkoula.

He said "Hizbullah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has every right to ask the Lebanese not to deal with the international investigators and tribunal. He stressed that the action taken by the international tribunal is a violation of the Lebanese and international even humanitarian laws." He added that the behavior of the international investigators in the women clinic in Southern Suburbs was unacceptable. "All over the world and including Lebanon there are special laws pertaining to the patients and this law is called secret medical records and they are considered sacred just like a confession in a church. The doctor has no right to reveal any information on any patient even in court without prior approval from the patient," added Nkoula. "This kind of behavior will push a person not to cooperate with such types of tribunal that are not aimed at reaching the truth but rather silence the Lebanese."

Responding to the statement of head of the Lebanese Forces Samir Geagea who he considered Sayyed Nasrallah's speech as a threat to the government, Nicolas responded: "If Geagea accepts any one to read his medical file then I will approve his statement."

*****
"Not before the dust settled down after Iranian President Dr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Lebanon where he was received as a national hero, Jeffrey David Feltman, landed in Beirut to to deliver a message from Obama."
 

 "The message in fact concerned the finding of the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) on the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri (father of the current prime minister Sa’ad Hariri). Both US and Israel worries that STL may find the truth about Israeli Mossad being behind the assassination."

According to the well informed Dr. Franklin Lamb, Board Member of The Sabra Shatila Foundation and the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, reporting from Shatila in the southern suburbs of Beirut.
  • " People are edgy in Dahiyeh and elsewhere in Lebanon about foreigners seeming to snoop around." thus reported Franklin Lamb from lebanon. 
  •  Jeffrey Feltman told his friend, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. His mission was to denounce Ahmadinejad’s visit as “provocative, creating instability, and not helpful to the “peace process.”
  • On the same wave Hilary Clinton declared "We reject any efforts to destabilize or inflame tensions within Lebanon. We are very committed to supporting the Lebanese Government as it deals with a number of challenges in its region"
  • "Various diplomatic sources, as well as some political party officials and security contacts think they know what caused yesterday’s incident. Jeffrey Feltman....is the prime suspect among some."
  • Frightened with Ahmadinejad's visit to Lebanon, Feltman, rushed to KSA, "to solve the growing STL problem which he admitted Washington and Tel Aviv had underestimated. The Saudi’s told Feltman they would discuss the matter with the Syrians who would contact Hezbollah"
According to Franklin Lamb desperate Feltman, instead of going to Damuscus, arrived suddenly to Beirut
  • "......... His meeting with Lebanon’s President Suleiman and Prime Minister Saad Hariri were perfunctory. Parliamentary Speaker Berri, ally of Hezbollah even declined to meet with Feltman"
  • "........what apparently really caused Feltman to urge to STL to squeeze Hezbollah by sending its investigators to Dahiyeh to signal that the Tribunal was impossible to stop, was the rejection by all factions but the Lebanese Forces, of the Feltman Plan. Its reported essence, now apparently scrapped,"
  • "......Given that Washington realized that there is no way that the Tribunal is going to work out, it is best to find a way to trash it. Feltman has a “Dead men don’t talk” plan. Imad, Mughniyah who many thought was dead these past 26 years was really killed this time on February 12, 2008 in Damascus. Beirut sources reveal that Israel, who killed Mughniyah, aimed for February 14, not the 12th in order to deliver the message that it can carry out an assassination at will and on any date. Israel wanted to kill Mughniyah on the same day they killed Hariri, i.e. February 14. But they missed their target date by less than 48 hours due to “mission correction contingencies"
  • ..........Earlier this month, Feltman sent a message to Hezbollah.......if Hezbollah will go along with blaming Mughniyah for killing Hariri that works for the Americans because it will be circumstantial evidence that he also did acts of terrorism in the 1980’s so all files could be closed once and for all. He told more than one person he met with in Beirut this month that he thought his was “a really great plan.
Lamb concluded:
  • Apparently Secretary Clinton and President Obama did too.
  • Hezbollah did not." 
According the editorial in Al Akhbar "Feltman is anxious to have the 'Hezbollah indictment' issued sooner than 'scheduled' because he senses that Abdallah of Saudi Arabia and Saad Hariri are buckling under pressure, and could end up making a deal with the Iranians and Syrians. Feltman has been adamant in his refusal to link the impasses in Iraq and in Lebanon ..."

No surprise, because the tide is changing, causing serious problems to the STL, Feltman, is so desperate to squeeze Hezbullah to reach a deal with Nasrallah, and Zioinist Hasbara outlets are doing their paid job.

They got Nasrallah's reply yesterday.

The same Hasbara Site, imediatlly after Imad Mughniyah assasination, dropped it's Bombshell: Syria did it.


Khara's Comment

His over reaction could also points to an implicit guilt !!

[One thing Nasrallah is not is naive , but I fully don't understand the reaction of the Party to the tribunal. He calls on "All Lebanese" but everyone who knows anything about Lebanon is that "All Lebanese" are divided up in this matter on sectarian lines. He can preach all he wants to the Sunnis and Christians but that will not change their attitude or view of either the tribunal or the Resistance.

His over reaction could also points to an implicit guilt !! If the party did not do it (and there is not enough evidence to indict anyone and the witnesses have been proven to be lying) they should not be so reactionary towards the tribunal. The Tribunal is politicized and is acting as a tool of the US/Israel/KSA to be used against the resistance, most rational people believe so. But most people in Lebanon are not thinking rationally and think along sectarian lines, and he FAILED to gain the support of Lebanon the moment he took over Beirut 2 years ago , and for him to try to convince the non Shia Lebanese that he is speaking on behalf of All Lebanon is both inaccurate and insincere. He should stop acting like he is guilty , stop being defensive. Because all he is doing now is adding fuel to the fire]

****************************************

The encounter in the clinic in the southern suburbs of Beirut

Talal, a comrade and friend who heads a division at a major medical center at well-known US university, sent me this regarding the "visit" by a Hariri tribunal team to the clinic of a Lebanese physician: "Is it not interesting that the International Tribunal sanctions practices in Lebanon that would be banned in the native countries of its investigators and jurists?
For example, they went into a clinic in the Southern district of Beirut asking to check on the names and files of a large number of women who attend the clinic. That would not fly in the USA. One cannot just come in, even with legal sanction, and check wholesale on the FILES (containing sensitive personal information) of ALL those that come through (they claimed to start with 17 names but it was made obvious that it was to be an open ended investigation with a free hand to investigate any file in the clinic).
Such an act would constitute a serious violation of Medical Privacy laws, unnecessarily exposing not only their names of a large number of individuals but also the details of their medical conditions as well as other private information.
This is ILLEGAL under any of a number of medical privacy laws. One is usually presented with a court order to obtain information on a SPECIFIC person, and no other subjects so as to safe guard people's privacy.
I am amazed the Physician in question even let them in.
She should have been the first to kick them out of the clinic, court order notwithstanding.
Shame on the Lebanese government and the Lebanese Order of Physicians for providing cover for such a travesty to take place."
Posted by As'ad at 10:59 PM

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian 

HIDING TRUTH BEHIND EUPHEMISMS, OMISSIONS, SLANDERS AND LIES: A REPLY TO RUPERT MURDOCH

29. Oct, 2010
by William A. Cook
“I keep reading between the lies” (Goodman Ace)



Rupert Murdoch’s recent speech before the ADL gathering at their dinner gala opened with this flattering observation, “You have championed equal treatment for all races and creeds.” What he omitted from that statement is the ADL’s treatment of the Palestinian people under Abraham Foxman, its national director, who “…uses high-mindedness and unfounded anti-Semitism hysteria as cover for backing Jewish supremacy and the right of Israelis over Arabs, including by occupation and belligerently enforced apartheid” (Steven Lendman, Socio-Economic History Blog).
Murdoch omits a needed clause at the end of that statement: “except for the Palestinian people and their beliefs and their rights under international law.” Indeed, Lendman’s article refutes virtually every one of Murdoch’s claims, laying bare the truth behind Murdoch’s talk: see nothing, hear nothing, speak nothing against Israel or suffer the condemnation that comes with the label “Anti-Semite.”
“We live in a world where there is an ongoing war against the Jews,” intones Murdoch as he castigates all peoples as inherently discriminating against Jews everywhere.


“Ongoing war against Jews” not “a rising tide of valid criticism against the Zionist controlled state of Israel with its current government’s defiance of the United Nations’ reports on crimes against humanity as published by the Goldstone Report, Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, the HRC report on the attack on the Marmara in May, and most recently the UNHRC by Dr. Richard Falk, the UN Representative for the Palestinian people.” No, Murdoch euphemistically conjures up a “war” against Jews, a suffering, weak, victimized people at the mercy of the world’s hate.

But there is no war; there is criticism, valid, righteous criticism that decries the wanton havoc inflicted on the Lebanese with Israel’s invasion of that nation in the fall of 2006; valid, righteous criticism that watched in horror the devastation of the defenseless people of Gaza at Christmastime in 2008/9 as their homes, schools, mosques, food, water, and gas supplies lay devastated under the bombs and missiles dropped upon them from the skies; valid, righteous, humane criticism that lamented the deaths of children and mothers and the old and infirm who had no place to run or hide encircled as they were by the Israeli war machine; valid, righteous, and incredulous criticism of the brutal attack against the humanitarian aid workers on board the Marmara as it made its way to help these very people yet found themselves guilty of interfering somehow with Israeli security as they brought a modicum of relief to a blasted people.


None of these people hated the Jews; indeed, Jews joined those criticizing the government’s overbearing slaughter of the innocent including those who joined with me in the aborted ‘Boat Brigade” that was to follow the Marmara to Gaza in June. How convenient to stamp “hate” on all, that by that condemnation they must be silenced.

Not content with such slander against innocent people indignant at the unconscionable brutality of the Israeli war machine, Murdoch chooses to slide silently by the horrific massacres inflicted on the people of Palestine during the Nakba, insisting that Israel suffered decades of “straightforward” military force by those attempting to “overrun Israel.”

He should read the reality of those days as described by Dr. Ilan Pappe in his work, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine. This was the beginning of the genocide against the Palestinians as recorded in The Plight of the Palestinians recently published by Palgrave Macmillan that continues to this day.

“Then came phase two: terrorism.

Terrorists targeted Israelis both home and abroad—from the massacre of Israeli athletes at Munich to the second intifada,” continues Murdoch, forgetting to mention Israel’s terrorism against its neighbor Jordan that elicited this response by the UN:

“The United Nations Security Council adopted Resolution 228 unanimously deploring “the loss of life and heavy damage to property resulting from the action of the Government of Israel on 13 November 1966″, censuring “Israel for this large-scale military action in violation of the United Nations Charter and of the General Armistice Agreement between Israel and Jordan” and emphasizing “to Israel that actions of military reprisal cannot be tolerated and that, if they are repeated, the Security Council will have to consider further and more effective steps as envisaged in the Charter to ensure against the repetition of such acts”(Six Day War, Wikipedia);

Click the Picture

Nor did he mention the terrorism Israel perpetrated against the Palestinians in Beirut in 1982 where they watched the unfolding massacre of 3000 as their personally equipped allies, the Phalanges, mauled and raped and killed the abandoned Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, enjoying the slaughter so much they kept the skies alight throughout the night so their savage friends might not interrupt their savage servility.

Instead of providing actions taken by Israel against its neighbors that gave rise to retaliatory actions, Murdoch decries how the world has risen to attack innocent Israel as though none suffer at the hands of Israel’s ruthless war machine.

Listen to Murdoch’s rant against the world: “the war has entered a new phase…a soft war to delegitimize Israel…the battleground is everywhere…to make Israel a pariah.” All media, all multinational organizations, all NGOs have joined forces as armies of terrorists to inflict WW III on Israel that stands alone against the forces of evil.

Why?

To rid the middle east of Israel.

How?

By spreading anti-Semitism throughout the world.

Who?

Polite society in the form of “progressive intellectual communities.” Indeed, Murdoch bemoans “…anti-Semitism today enjoys support at both the highest and lowest reaches of European society—from its most elite politicians to its largely Muslim ghettoes.”

Where is this obvious?

In Norway where the government forbids a German shipbuilder from using its waters to test a submarine being built for Israel; In Britain and Spain who boycott an OECD tourism meeting in Jerusalem; In the Netherlands where there is a reported increase in anti-Semitic incidents; and in the European poll that listed Israel ahead of Iran and North Korea as the greatest threats to world peace.

Given the veto power of the United States in the UN, a veto that has prevented any action on any resolution that has condemned Israel’s illegal and/or inhumane policies and military actions against Palestinians and its neighbors over a period of 63 years, the actions listed by Murdoch by European nations are but modest reflections of the frustration that exists throughout the world about the impunity this rogue state enjoys precisely because America “stands united in full support of Israel” regardless of its merciless behavior toward its neighbors in the mid-east. Yet Murdoch is afraid that the United States might be weakening in that support, one of the prime reasons for giving this talk before the ADL.

“Some believe that if America wants to gain credibility in the Muslim world and advance the cause of peace, Washington needs to put some distance between itself and Israel. My view is the opposite.”

For some totally unexplainable reason, Murdoch seems to think that a continuation of 63 years of force—of land confiscation, of theft of Palestinian aquifers, of home demolitions, of imprisonment of thousands without due rights, of abolition of civil rights, of humiliation and disrespect that comes with hundreds of checkpoints, soldiers who mock and deride civilians, who are indifferent to the suffering of a mother about to give birth as she is prevented from getting to a hospital, of the psychological pain a child endures, a pain that lasts a lifetime, when the soldiers break down the door and force the father to the wall incapable of protecting his family from such ruthlessness, of life lived behind a wall, a wall that testifies to the fear that Murdoch expresses in his talk to the ADL, a pathological fear imbedded in his very soul, and a wall that imprisons the youth of Palestine who grow to manhood locked behind concrete and steel and watch towers and guns—such is the view that Murdoch brings to Americans if peace is to be achieved in Israel.

One cannot but think that something is amiss here.

Murdoch sees only through his own eyes, and he sees fear, a fear that has infected his entire being, a toxic residue of hate against the world brought on by ingesting every day another dose of Abraham Foxman’s diatribes against the world.


Click
 Perhaps it would be worthwhile to look through the eyes of the world that Murdoch condemns.

Norman Finklestein makes the point in his book, This Time We’ve Gone too Far: he cites the yearly resolutions of the UNGA that have condemned Israel for not returning to a legal position regarding its neighbor, Palestine.

Yearly, the US and Israel stand alone against the world as the people of the world view the catastrophe that is the occupied territories; recently, the world condemned Israel for its wanton destruction of Lebanon, and again only the US and Israel saw this action as justified yet Israel suffered no consequences for this illegal invasion of its neighbor; following the Christmas invasion of Gaza, the world rose against Israel’s inhumane behavior and only Israel and the US stood in support of that merciless destruction condemning the Goldstone Report and preventing justice form being exercised; then came the flotilla of mercy to Gaza and Israel and the United States alone in all the world refused to comply with the UNHRC recommendations or permit international investigations from determining truth. And so it goes.

There must not and will not be criticism of Israel because that is by virtue of the name of the state, a Jewish state, damnation of the Jews.

How convenient. Thus does Murdoch erect his own wall of fear around the people of the world should they dare to find fault with the government of Israel. He hides truth thereby behind slanders and lies, seeing all behavior through his own eyes instead of viewing truth as it is seen by his neighbors who suffer the wrath of Israel. Should he take that black veil off his eyes might he not see neighbors capable of love and joy, desiring to live in peace in a homeland large enough to accommodate them, and willing to share the resources of Palestine equitably that all might live a fruitful life.

William A. Cook is Professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California.
His most recent book, The Plight of the Palestinians: a Long History of Destruction is now available at Macmillan publishing or through Amazon and other book sellers.
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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Shallah: PA's insistence on its talks option may liquidate the Palestinian cause

[ 30/10/2010 - 10:28 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- Secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad Movement Ramadan Shallah warned that the Palestinian Authority's insistence on adopting the option of peace talks with Israeli occupation would eventually lead to the liquidation of the Palestinian cause and the recognition of Israel's right to exist as a natural part of the region.

Shallah made his remarks in a ceremony held Friday afternoon on the 23rd inception anniversary of his Movement and the 15th death anniversary of late Fathi Al-Shakaki, the founder of Islamic Jihad.

The Islamic Jihad official pointed in his speech to the suspicious remarks made by PA leaders regarding their intention to recognize the Jewish state and warned of another calamity that could befall the Palestinian people as a result of the antinational positions of the PA.

"Today, we are sounding the alarm and warning of a third Nakba (catastrophe) that might result from the insistence on the approach of negotiations with the enemy and the belief that there is no other option but the negotiations," he said.

"Palestine is not the issue of the Palestinian people alone, and Israel is not a threat to Palestine and its people, but the Zionist project threatens the entire [Arab] nation," the official added.

Promise to accept our terms and I promise to accept our terms
"If anyone thinks he will turn his back to Palestine in order to save himself, he will be delusional because if Palestine is gone and Israel remains in the heart of the nation, no one will survive the flood of the Zio-American project aimed at dominating the region and the world."

For his part, member of Islamic Jihad's political bureau Mohamed Al-Hindi called in his speech on the PA to reorient the compass and declare the failure of its peace talks with the Israeli occupation.

"We are acutely aware that this useless process called peace constitutes a cover for all evils and a cover for waiving Jerusalem and losing the entire land of Palestine," Hindi emphasized.

He also criticized the PA for saying that recognizing Israel as a Jewish state is a matter of indifference to the Palestinian people, affirming that this recognition would affect more than six million Palestinian refugees in the diaspora and one and half million others inside the 1948 occupied lands.

The Islamic Jihad official also slammed the US hegemony over the world and its persistence in killing thousands of civilians all over the globe in the name of democracy.

"The world which is ruled by the US is merciless and heartless and we say to this world, 'you have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and threaten to kill millions in Sudan, while you are afraid that some of your crimes get leaked to the media so as not to pose a threat to your soldiers," the official said.

"We understand that your mission in Palestine is to ensure Israel's security and this means killing and displacing us. You are accomplices in the blockade, [Israel's] crimes and the Judaization of our holy places, and Israel commits its war crimes on your behalf. You are a gang without values and your democracy is stained with the blood of martyrs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Palestine, but we will extract our rights in our own way," he added.

Senior Hamas official Khalil Hayya, who attended the ceremony, also highlighted the importance of resisting the Israeli occupation as the only option to liberate Palestine and urged Fatah to have the genuine will to achieve reconciliation in order to strengthen the internal front in the face of the occupation.


500 Palestinian workers detained in October

[ 30/10/2010 - 10:15 AM ]

RAMALLAH, (PIC)-- Israeli occupation police and border guards detained 500 Palestinian workers in the current month of October including 20 women for working in 1948 occupied Palestine without permits.

A statement for the Palestinian trade union in the West Bank said that 20 of those workers were held in custody for interrogation while 50 were sentenced to 3 to 6 months in jail.

It added that heavy fines were leveled against the rest before deporting them back to the West Bank.

West Bank laborers seeking sustenance for their families venture into the 1948 occupied lands seeking jobs and are always harassed and persecuted by the Israeli security forces.

 Prisoners at Nafha prison go on hunger strike
Palestinian female captive on hunger strike for the third day running

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Ankara Policy Paper: "Israel threatens to Turkey and regional stability...since 1949"

Via Friday Lunch Club

"...The Channel 10 report on Saturday, citing Turkish media outlets, said Turkey's National Security Council rectified an amendment to Ankara's central policy paper, nicknamed the "secret constitution," defining Israel as "a central threat to Turkey.... The region's instability stems from Israeli actions and policy, which could lead to an arms race in the Middle East," the paper outlining Turkey's foreign and home policy for the next five years said, adding that those actions posed "a major threat on Turkey." Channel 10 also said Turkish media dubbed the amendment "historic," as it represented the first time Israel had been seen as a threat to Turkey since 1949. The document fails to mention Iran or Syria as outside threats, apparently as a result of Ankara's recently improved relations with both states. ..."
Posted by G, Z, or B at 10:26 AM

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Mishaal: Resistance will rise again in the West Bank

[ 30/10/2010 - 08:29 AM ]

DAMASCUS, (PIC)-- Head of Hamas's political bureau Khaled Mishaal stated Friday that the resistance is the only way for the liberation of occupied Jerusalem, the return of refugees, and the establishment of the Palestinian state, and it will rise up against the Israeli occupation soon in the West Bank.

In a ceremony organized by Al-Quds international institution in Damascus, Mishaal stressed that hunting and disarming resistance fighters, renouncing armed activities against the occupation, and relying on the peace talks with Israel will never lead to freedom and a Palestinian state.

The Hamas official also addressed "illusion seekers" as he described the Palestinian Authority's negotiators by saying that the resistance is the only solution and without it the Palestinian rights will be all gone.

"There would be no liberation, Jerusalem, the right of return or a Palestinian state without resistance," he emphasized.

"I am saying to the makers of the international conspiracy, who sent us Dayton, you have built up a heap of illusions, but they are like a passing summer cloud and Al-Qassam [Brigades] of the West Bank will rise again to repeat the resistance epic that will restore Jerusalem and the Aqsa Mosque," the Hamas leader added.

"We will be tolerating the sons of our nation [from Fatah] even those who are besieging, turning their backs on, and conspiring against us; we will be patient with them because they will find out they are chasing a mirage and that Obama has let them down," he underscored.

"Let us respond to the international impotence and the Zionist arrogance with the resistance program. Jerusalem will remain our political destination for victory and liberation. As Makkah is the direction of worship, Jerusalem is the direction of resistance," Mishaal concluded his speech addressing the Arab leaders.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian