All 2010 Archives

December

12/29/2010 - Palestinian medic: Israel kills Gaza shepherd Adham Abu Salmia said the man was leading his goats in an open area near Gaza's Erez border crossing with Israel Thursday when he was shot. He died later in hospital. Another man with him was wounded.

12/29/2010 - Stealth Resolutions by Congress by Philip Giraldi Then comes the really interesting part. The mainstream media did not report on the passage of House Resolution 1765, as if it did not happen. Nothing appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, NBC, ABC, CBS, or PBS. Nada. Did some gatekeeper news editors decide that the story did not reflect well on Israel and its friends in Congress so it had to vanish down the memory hole? Congress again lining up and bending its knee before AIPAC was not news? Apparently not. ....You have created that evil, Frank, you and all your buddies in Congress who line up to do AIPAC’s bidding and pass shameful pieces of paper like House Resolution 1765, which do terrible damage to the United States and its interests on behalf of Israel. Dante’s Ninth Circle of Hell, the lowest level, was reserved for those who betray their own country. If God truly exists and will someday mete out justice, I expect to learn that you and many of your colleagues from the 111th Congress someday will be doing hard time there. Former CIA Philip Giraldi, hat's off to you, Sir.

12/29/2010 - Israeli forces kill two Gaza militants near border The Islamic Jihad militant group said two of its gunmen were killed by Israeli fire after they detonated an explosive device against a passing Israeli patrol.

12/29/2010 - New Gaza War 'Only a Question of Time' A senior Israeli army officer has told the BBC that as long as Hamas remains in control of the Gaza Strip, another war is "only a question of time".

12/29/2010 - Israeli Mayor Bans Christmas Trees Nazareth Illit is a suburb of Nazareth, which as the childhood home of Jesus Christ is an important center of Christian history and is about one-third Christian today. Journalist Nir Rosen wonders how Fox News, which has a tendency to defend Israel but also a love of fighting what it calls "the war on Christmas," would handle this story. Who are the intolerant ones here?

12/29/2010 - An Open Letter from Gaza: Two Years After the Massacre, a Demand for Justice

12/29/2010 - West has 3 years to rein in Iran: Israeli minister The United States and its allies have up to three years to curb Iran's nuclear programme, which has been set back by technical difficulties and sanctions, a senior Israeli official said on Wednesday. Somehow Israel's problems become OUR problems.

12/29/2010 - 'WikiLeaks to publish Israel cables on Second Lebanon War, Dubai assassination' In an interview with Al Jazeera, Assange said that only very few files related to Israel were published so far and that WikiLeaks intends on releasing many more documents over the next six months. Hmm?

12/29/2010 - Rabbis' wives urge Israeli women Stay away from Arab men A letter urging Jewish women not to date non-Jewish men has been published by a group of rabbis' wives. The letter comes on the heels of a rabbis' letter published earlier this month urging Jews not to sell or rent properties to non-Jews. The new letter, signed by 30 rabbis' wives, says, "For your sake, for the sake of future generations, and so you don't undergo horrible suffering, we turn to you with a request, a plea, a prayer. Don't date non-Jews, don't work at places that non-Jews frequent, and don't do national service with non-Jews." Who are the intolerant ones here?

12/29/2010 - Pope appeals for Israeli-Palestinian co-existence

12/29/2010 - Democrats up in arms over hints of reduced aid for Israel David Harris, president of the National Jewish Democratic Council, charged that “for America to remain engaged as a world leader, and for the sake of Israel’s security, Congress must fully fund foreign aid and aid to Israel together. As the pro-Israel community has said for decades, the two cannot be separated for a host of reasons.” Harris referred to Israel aid as the “centerpiece” of the pro- Israel community’s agenda. “To do any less would threaten the bipartisan support that has been the hallmark of this issue – and risk the future of foreign aid,” he said. Israel's shills on Capitol Hill are trying to find ways to spare Israel any cuts to its share of US foreign aid in the midst of cuts to others'. AIPACers are naturally behind it. How many services will be cut to AMERICANS as a result?

12/29/2010 - Congress: Still Opposed to a Palestinian Statehood Declaration Jewish groups had been pushing the White House for several months to make clear it will veto a resolution declaring a Palestinian state if it reaches the UN Security Council. Why was this a matter for the US Congress?

12/29/2010 - Israel prepares ground for military operation in Gaza: PLO official

12/29/2010 - Abbas heads to Brazil to found Palestinian embassy Brazil's outgoing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on December 3 that his country would recognise a Palestinian state following a personal request from Abbas. "The demand presented by his excellency (Abbas) is just and consistent with the principles upheld by Brazil with regard to the Palestinian issue," Brazil's foreign ministry said.

12/29/2010 - Palestinian delegate to U.S.: Congress shouldn't interfere in Mideast peace process

12/29/2010 - U.S. declined to cooperate in Dubai probe of Mabhouh killing, WikiLeaks shows A cable sent from the embassy in Dubai less than a month after the assassination reveals that senior U.A.E. officials asked the American ambassador and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to probe urgently "cardholder details and related information for credit cards reportedly issued by a U.S. bank to several suspects" in the murder. The WikiLeaks cable not only proved that the request was indeed made but that it was recorded in a secret State Department cable. By not accepting the request, the Obama administration harmed the Dubai investigation efforts and assisted Israel instead. Now there's a real shocker.

12/29/2010 - Palestinians slam U.S. for not recognizing a state, say no talks with Israel yet Palestinian officials have on Saturday slammed the United States for refusing to recognize the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 and for saying that it is still premature to recognize the Palestinian state.

12/29/2010 - Jewish Activist Faces Jail for West Bank Resistance

12/29/2010 - Police mum on hiker death investigation The media blackout on this case and the arrests Israel made on December 22 continues.

12/29/2010 - IDF soldier charged with killing Gaza civilian: My commander told me I was 'cold-blooded murderer' The day after ground troops entered the Gaza Strip during Operation Cast Lead two years ago, S., a soldier in the Givati Brigade, allegedly shot a woman in her upper body while she was carrying a white flag. About half an hour later, S. subsequently told the Military Police, the company commander arrived and S. was stunned by his response. "He told me, in front of everyone, 'You're a cold-blooded murderer, you'll go to hell,'" S. said. "When I tried to tell him, 'But those were your orders,' he told me, 'Shut up. You won't remain in my company.'" "But that was it. From then on, until the end of the fighting, it was if nothing had happened," S. related.

12/29/2010 - Crowds pack Bethlehem to hear message of peace

12/29/2010 - Xmas joy mixed with threats for Mideast Christians

12/29/2010 - Wave of ethnic rage worries Israeli PM, activists A wave of protests and discriminatory acts by Jewish Israelis against Arabs and Africans is worrying rights activists and has prompted an unprecedented appeal for calm from Israel's prime minister. Who are the intolerant ones here?

12/29/2010 - Israeli foreign minister: peace is 'impossible' "It's not only that it is impossible" to reach an overall agreement, he said. "It is simply forbidden." Israel = Israel's own worst enemy.

12/29/2010 - Palestinians to take settlement battle to U.N. The Palestinians will ask the U.N. Security Council in the coming days to condemn Israeli settlement construction, a senior Palestinian official said Wednesday, part of a growing Palestinian campaign to rally international pressure against Israel with peace efforts deadlocked.

12/29/2010 - Bethlehem celebrates merriest Christmas in years "Because of the hard situation and the pressure we are living in, we take advantage of any joyful moment and bring our children to play," said Khitam Harazallah, a veiled Muslim housewife from the nearby Deheishe refugee camp who came with her two young children.

12/29/2010 - Hamas abiding by Israel truce but ready for war Overnight Saturday, Israeli warplanes hit four targets in the Gaza Strip, wounding at least two people and knocking out power in a large swathe of the strip. The strikes came after militants fired a mortar and rocket into Israel on Friday, according to the army, which called the target a "terror centre."

12/29/2010 - Britain forms plan for Gulf evacuation in event of war with Iran The British armed forces are drawing up contingency plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands of British residents and tourists from Dubai and other Gulf cities in the event of war with Iran.

12/29/2010 - Ecuador recognizes Palestine state Ecuador's decision, the ministry statement said, "vindicates the valid and legitimate desire of the Palestinian people for a free and independent state" and will be a key contribution to a negotiated peaceful coexistence in the Middle East.

12/29/2010 - Peace Talks Stall, But Palestinians' Fayyad Conjures a State "This is not about state declaration; this is about building a state," says Fayyad, in what has become a mantra since he announced a two–year plan to create the institutions of a state by August 2011. The timetable puts the effort in "the home stretch to freedom,"

12/29/2010 - Israeli authorities deny Palestinian prisoners access to lawyers Palestinian detainees are systematically denied the right to meet a lawyer during interrogations by Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service, according to a report published today by an Israeli and a Palestinian rights group.

12/29/2010 - Israeli FM vows no apology to Turkey on raid Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman vowed on Sunday that Israel would not apologise to Turkey for a commando raid on a Gaza–bound aid ship that killed nine Turkish activists.

12/29/2010 - Paraguay to recognize Palestinian state in 2011

12/29/2010 - seattle Anti-Israel ad campaign rejected by city officials On Wednesday, Seattle Jewish community leaders held a meeting with senior officials from the King County Executive's office and Metro Transit management about the "potential threat to the Seattle-area Jewish community" after over 2,000 emails, and numerous organizations announced that counter advertisements would be initiated to promote Israel. Who are the intolerant ones here?

12/29/2010 - It's not anti-Semitic to say that Hasidic Jews are intolerant of goyim Labelling Patterson as an anti-Semite is manifesting far more intolerance than anything she ever wrote. Yes, calling for Jews to be burned to death is anti-Semitic, but asking Hasidic Jews in Stamford Hill to be a little more polite is not. Victimhood status should never confer an automatic exemption from criticism. Helen Thomas' comments (also taken out of context) made this top ten list as well.

12/29/2010 - African migrants protest Israeli detention center many in Israel think the migrants are overwhelming the small state and threatening the country's Jewish character. Supremacism and the irony - Jews in the US are behind the immigration 'reform' here in the US.

12/29/2010 - Turkey's apology demand is "chutzpah": Israeli Finance Minister Israel's ultranationalist foreign minister on Sunday dismissed as "chutzpah" a Turkish offer to restore ties if Israel apologizes for a deadly raid on a Gaza–bound ship, saying it was up to Ankara to make amends.

12/29/2010 - Gallery Patrons Ejected Over T-Shirts

12/29/2010 - Haredim threaten to boycott Mamilla Mall The ultra-Orthodox community is threatening to boycott Jerusalem's luxurious Mamilla shopping complex due to electric ornaments resembling Christmas lights, which have been placed along the boulevard. ....The ads – titled "Is Jerusalem becoming Christian?" – were signed by the Rabbis' Committee for the Sanctity of Jerusalem. They stated that "if this idol worship is not removed immediately, we will declare a consumer boycott against the mall and the Mamilla Hotel, owned by businessman Alfred Akirov." Who are the intolerant ones here?

12/29/2010 - New Mossad chief to apologise for use of UK passports in Dubai killing Mr Pardo's apology and pledge during a visit to London that is expected early in January would be the first official acknowledgement by Israel that it was behind the assassination of the Hamas leader in Dubai.

12/29/2010 - Israel won't attend racism conference fete Israel says it won't participate in the 10th anniversary commemoration of a U.N. conference on racism that singled out Israel for criticism and likened Zionism to racism. The truth hurts.

12/29/2010 - Progress Seen in P.A. Crackdown On Incitement by West Bank Imams When will see a crackdown on incitement by fiercely anti-Arab rhetoric by Israeli rabbis, as one example? Google Ovadia Yosef for more. Who are the intolerant ones here?

12/29/2010 - YouTube Removes Pro-Palestinian-Anti-Motorola Video - St. Louis News Two weeks ago, we told you about the local activists who busted out an anti-Motorola song-and-dance routine at the Best Buy and AT&T stores in suburban Brentwood -- and we posted a video of the performance. That video quickly drew more than 35,000 hits. Last week, however, YouTube unceremoniously removed the video in question, saying it was subject to a copyright challenge by WMG (apparently, the Warner Music Group). See this link for the brief message from YouTube.

12/29/2010 - WikiLeaks to Release Israel Documents in Six Months WikiLeaks will release top secret American files concerning Israel in the next six months, its founder Julian Assange disclosed yesterday. In an excusive interview with Al Jazeera, Assange said only a meagre number of files related to Israel had been published so far, because the newspapers in the West that were given exclusive rights to publish the secret documents were reluctant to publish many sensitive information about Israel. ....“The Guardian, El-Pais and Le Monde have published only two percent of the files related to Israel due to the sensitive relations between Germany, France and Israel. Even New York Times could not publish more due to the sensitivities related to the Jewish community in the US,” he added. Really now?

12/29/2010 - Mideast Peace: What If the Palestinians Turn to the U.N.? Israel is worried, according to press reports in the country, that the United States will not "rush to veto" a planned U.N. Security Council resolution condemning ongoing Israeli settlement construction. Oh dear. How could the US not ask 'how high?' when Israel says 'Jump!'?

12/29/2010 - 2010: What Came, What Went, What’s Next You wouldn’t know it from listening to Jewish liberals, but November 2 was a great day for our people. Finally, there will be a Jew in the top leadership ranks of the House of Representatives. After Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn, we can take pride in the ascension of Eric Cantor! More seriously, the election is great for Jews on almost every issue we care about: Israel (more support), Iran (more pressure), education (more choice), national security (more serious), immigration (more reform) and the peace process (more realistic). In addition, like all Americans, we can hope the fiscal mess made by previous Congresses will now be addressed. Read more: http://www.forward.com/articles/134149/#ixzz1A74d2n79

12/29/2010 - Commies Are At It Again by Philip Giraldi What this is really all about is the hidden message, conveyed by Clinton’s reference to selective. Khodorovsky is Jewish, as are most of the oligarchs who stripped Russia of its wealth in the 1990s, and he has his own claque of supporters who regard his conviction as anti-Semitism. The fact is that anyone who has looked into the looting of Russia knows very well that Khodorovsky is guilty as hell on all charges. This case is demonstrative of the ever-increasing philosemitism of the American government. The spread of philosemitism, not democracy, has become their mission. Conversely, the demonization of those that do not subscribe to this supremacism is also taking place by this same institution.

12/29/2010 - Counter-terror ‘Expert’ Tells Cops: Kill Militant Muslims, ‘Including Children’ A counter-terrorism consultant told a meeting of law enforcement officials that the way to combat militant Muslims is to "kill them ... including the children," says a news report. Walid Shoebat, a self-described "former PLO terrorist" who "now speaks out for USA and Israel," reportedly made the comment at a speech during a conference of the International Counter-Terrorism Officers Association in Las Vegas this past October, according to the Huffington Post's Chip Berlet.

12/29/2010 - Report: Accused Egyptian spy says Israel paid Syrian agent for nuclear plan details An Egyptian charged with spying for Israel told authorities that his Syrian counterpart was paid 1.5 million dollars to provide Israel with information on Syrian nuclear activities, Egyptian media reported Wednesday.

12/29/2010 - UAE 'held back full story of hotel assassination'

12/29/2010 - IF Obama could put America’s own real interests first…

12/29/2010 - Mossad agent 'brought down Egypt's internet' Severe disruptions to Egypt's internet service in December 2008 were blamed at the time on damage to underwater data cables caused by a ship's anchor. But Hassan told police that the incident was, in fact, the work of Israel's foreign intelligence agency, according to interrogation records leaked to an independent Egyptian newspaper.

12/29/2010 - Egyptian has 'revealed three Israeli spy cells' The aim of the missions was to deliver sums of money to a Syrian holding a "sensitive" post with the security services. Al–Shuruk daily said Abdul Razzak has provided investigators with copies of reports he had passed on to Israeli intelligence from a Syrian chemist working for the security services in connection with a Syrian nuclear programme. The Syrian expert had been spying for Israel for 13 years, according to the confessions. He was executed in Syria last month, said Al–Shuruk, which did not give sources for its report.

12/29/2010 - Israel Represses Israelis and Congress Approves A resolution -- sponsored by House Foreign Relations Committee Chair Howard Berman (D-CA), Middle East Subcommittee Chair Gary Ackerman (D-NY), and soon-to-be House Foreign Relations Committee Chair Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) -- condemned the findings of the UN Human Rights Council report for documenting such infringements on civil liberties and other human rights violations by the Israeli government.

12/29/2010 - Why Anti-Semitism Is Growing in Germany Taken at face value, opposition to Israel need not be assumed to be anti-Semitic. But the majority who tell pollsters they view Israel’s actions toward the Palestinians as a “war of annihilation” and “principally not different than what the Nazis did with the Jews during the Third Reich” reflect a country in which there are blurred lines between opposition to Israeli actions and policies and anti-Semitism. to be highly critical of Israel is the new definition of anti-Semitism. Even some Holocaust survivors themselves (or their children) liken what Israel is doing in Gaza to the Holocaust. I suppose they are anti-Semites too?

12/29/2010 - Israeli activist imprisoned for protest against Gaza blockade The Association for Civil Rights in Israel criticised the sentence. "Placing Pollak behind bars because of his participation in the critical mass bike ride is an extreme punishment and an unusually harsh measurement," Dan Yakir, the organisation's chief legal adviser, said in a statement. "The entire affair raises suspicion that Pollak was personally targeted because of his views in an attempt to silence him and prevent him from partaking in various acts of protest."

12/29/2010 - Israel uses arcane law to try to expel Palestinian Gheith is also a leading opponent of Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat's plan to raze 22 Palestinian homes in another neighborhood to make way for an Israeli tourist center. That plan is on hold. "They are trying to make look it like I am the one threatening the security, as if saying no to oppression and to house demolitions is an assault," he said. "Whatever they do to stop me, I will keep talking." The similar article of the Israeli protester sitting in an Israeli jail for his activism against Israel coupled with this one are the answer to the oft-asked question: where is the Palestinian Ghandi? Palestinians DO protest using non-violent means. They're lucky they aren't killed by the IDF (Rachel Corrie, numerous Palestinians, etc).

12/29/2010 - French activists arrested at West Bank protest

12/29/2010 - After Israel flap, Constantine bans certain bus ads King County Executive Dow Constantine on Thursday temporarily suspended all non-commercial advertising on Metro Buses following complaints about a planned bus ad that criticized Israel Who are the intolerant ones here?

12/29/2010 - Israel-Palestine News Spanish artists paint on Israeli apartheid wall (PHOTOS)

12/29/2010 - Abe Foxman Takes on a New Threat: Jewish Paranoia

12/29/2010 - Iran hangs man convicted of spying for Israel According to IRNA, Siadat confessed to spying for Israel starting in 2004 in return for $60,000, as well as an additional $7,000 each time he met with Israeli handlers. IRNA said he met up with Israeli intelligence agents during "foreign trade" trips to Turkey, Thailand and the Netherlands and that he transferred data through a digital camera, transmitters and laptop.

12/29/2010 - Seattle anti-Israel demonstration in wake of Metro ad controversy "We'd like Israel to be held accountable for its actions and our government to stop spending our tax dollars to support Israel's war crimes," said Ed Mast, Mideast Awareness Campaign.

12/29/2010 - Israel destroyed Syria nuclear reactor: WikiLeaks Former US president George W Bush recounted in his memoirs that he resisted Israeli pressure to bomb the site. In 2008, current US President Barack Obama said when he was a Democratic hopeful for the White House that Israel was right to bomb the suspected nuclear facility in Syria.

12/29/2010 - Seattle transit agency rejects bus ads alleging 'Israeli war crimes' That proposed ad, expected to appear next week, sparked a furor, with thousands of comments flooding into the transit agency as two groups said they planned to run their own ads to counter the "Israeli war crimes" message.

12/29/2010 - Press TV News Analysis, James Morris, Richard Millet and Dahr Jamail on Israeli Nukes # 3

12/29/2010 - Press TV News Analysis, James Morris, Richard Millet and Dahr Jamail on Israeli Nukes # 2

12/29/2010 - Press TV News Analysis, James Morris, Richard Millet and Dahr Jamail on Israeli Nukes # 1

12/29/2010 - Nurse Wins $40,000 in Sabbath Discrimination Case Everything seemed great in 2007, when registered nurse Alisa Dolinsky got offered a job by the Color-Goldwater Specialty Hospital & Nursing Facility on Roosevelt Island, part of New York City’s Health and Hospitals Corporation. But when the observant Jew informed her prospective employer she couldn’t work on the Sabbath, they withdrew the offer. Now, that decision has earned Dolinsky a $40,000 payout from the city’s Commission on Human Rights to settle a discrimination claim, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday. The case “could be an embarrassment to the Bloomberg administration, which has worked to build bridges with the Orthodox Jewish community,” according to the Journal. “Mayor Michael Bloomberg is Jewish. His press secretary, Stu Loeser, observes the Sabbath. And there are more than 1.4 million Jews in the area, many of them Orthodox.” Philosemitism.

12/29/2010 - Press TV's Waqar Rizvi talks to James Morris on "Mossad in Iraq"

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12/22/2010 - Teenager drowns after Israeli navy firing: witnesses A Palestinian teenager fishing off the coast of the Gaza Strip on Friday drowned following firing by the Israel navy, a health official and witnesses said.

12/22/2010 - Who Wants Peace? Americans Do here is where it becomes interesting. Telhami asked participants in the survey what position the U.S. should take in its efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. Two thirds responded that America should be evenhanded and not lean to either side. A quarter believe the U.S. should lean toward Israel, and only 2% think it should lean in favor of the Palestinians. The majority of Americans want our government to take NO SIDE. Yet, Congress is overwhelmingly pro-Israel, as evidenced by the anti-Palestinian legislation passed as reported in this news batch. Our representatives do not represent us. This is a testament to the power of the Israeli lobby. This poll, along with a similar one only a few months ago, dispels the notion put forth by pro-Israelis that Americans support Israel. 2/3 of Americans want to take no side.

12/22/2010 - Israeli air strike kills five Gaza militants

12/22/2010 - Update: American Tourist Killed in Israel

12/22/2010 - American tourist found stabbed to death in Israel Wilson's face was obscured in TV footage of the interview, though Yair Ettinger of Israel's Haaretz daily said she had a black eye

12/22/2010 - American Woman Killed Near Jerusalem Early Sunday morning police have issued a gag order on the various suspicious details of this deadly incident.

12/22/2010 - British woman stabbed and US tourist killed in Israel Wilson, a 46-year-old tour guide who moved to Israel in the early 1990s, and who holds dual citizenship, was taken to Haddasah hospital in Jerusalem. She was said to be in a stable condition, after being moved from intensive care to a normal ward. "She was stabbed in the abdomen and in the back. The wounds are not very deep but she has a lot of pain. She did not suffer any internal bleeding and she has been communicative and conscious since she arrived at the hospital last night," ...."One of them took the Star of David necklace off my neck like a gentleman – and they stabbed me 12 times. They came to kill. Nobody walks around with a knife like that for no reason. He stabbed me, but I sensed the knife did not penetrate my heart. I pretended to be dead."

12/22/2010 - Body found of missing American woman with marks of violence Jerusalem Police spokesmen have said they were checking several lines of investigation, including Palestinian terrorist action. This vagueness may be attributed to lack of evidence of any crime to support Wilson's account or the disinclination to admit that a violent terrorist crime was possible deep inside the Green Line in an area popular with hikers, picnickers and tourists.

12/22/2010 - EU signs off 100 mln euros of Palestinian aid European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton announced Wednesday a first, 100–million–euro (131.5 million dollars) tranche of aid to the Palestinian people for 2011.

12/22/2010 - Group: Palestinian communities stifled by Israel No security rationale or other legitimate reason can explain the "vast scale of differential treatment," said the 166–page report, which compared several Palestinian communities with neighboring settlements. In one case, Israel refused to connect a West Bank village to the electricity grid and denied approval for a foreign–funded solar energy project there, while a nearby settlement enjoyed all standard services, the report said.

12/22/2010 - Rosen Fires Back in His Law Suit Against AIPAC The American Public Affairs Committee has frequently condoned its employees’ receipt of classified information, according to documents filed in federal court by lawyers for Steve Rosen, a former senior official of the pro-Israel lobby.

12/22/2010 - Breaking: American Tourist Killed in Israel

12/22/2010 - American Christian killed by terrorists, Messianic friend wounded “One of them turned me around and saw that I was wearing a Star of David necklace,” said Wilson. “He took it off of me like a gentleman and then stabbed me 12 times.”

12/22/2010 - Body of U.S. tourist found near Jerusalem; police suspect terror attack

12/22/2010 - Israel-West Bank Separate and Unequal - Human Rights Watch

12/22/2010 - Stabbing victim 'found God' in Israel no one in the CMJ had been notified of Luken's visit to Israel apart from Wilson. "I suppose she didn't tell anyone she was coming because she knew that if she did, work would be found for her to do at the offices in Jerusalem," the reverend surmised. Pileggi's main concern is that Kay's testimony be believed by the authorities investigating the mystery. "The impression I got from the police was that they weren't certain about Kay's story and did not believe her account," he said.

12/22/2010 - Disillusioned Palestinians: US-Guided 'Peace Process' is 'Ridiculous' "We're not looking for a Mickey Mouse state, we're not looking for some form of self-rule, we're looking for a sovereign state of Palestine, where we Palestinians can live as free people."

12/22/2010 - Mubarak blames Israel for Mideast peace crisis "Israel must take responsibility for the stalemate in the negotiations and realize that the security of its people depends on peace not occupation or arms," Mubarak told lawmakers, warning of the impact from Israel's "intransigence, positions and policies" on world and Middle East stability.

12/22/2010 - Israel condemns Norway's upgrade of Palestinian standing in Oslo to 'diplomatic delegation' Over the past four months several countries have upgraded the standing of Palestinian representatives. The first country to have done so was none other than the United States. After the U.S., France, Spain, and Portugal also took similar steps. Despite this, the Foreign Ministry has yet to condemn these moves until now.

12/22/2010 - S. African politicians 'beaten up by IDF' South African parliament members, who visited the West Bank city of Ramallah last week, say they were attacked by Israeli security forces during a protest in a Palestinian village near Bethlehem.

12/22/2010 - Israeli Military Demolishes Water Wells and Cisterns in the hilly and The demolished cisterns and wells supplied drinking water to the villagers as well as their sheep and goats. The wells were up to 300 meters deep and over 70 years old, pre-dating the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The Israeli military claims that it does not destroy structures created before 1967.

12/22/2010 - Israel fears UK moving towards recognising Palestinian state Although the change of status is largely symbolic, Israel has started a major lobbying campaign to stop the move. Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/israel-fears-uk-moving-towards-recognising-palestinian-state-15036433.html#ixzz19SLBRKqe

12/22/2010 - Israeli Fighter Jets Attack Gaza Up to seven different Gazan targets were hit overnight on Monday and on Tuesday, according to the Israeli military.

12/22/2010 - Israel deprives Palestinians in West Bank: report Human Rights Watch said Israel had cited security concerns as a reason for any differential treatment. But Carroll Bogert, a spokeswoman for the group, said Israel was carrying out "systematic discrimination merely because of (Palestinians') race, ethnicity and national origin, depriving them of electricity, water, schools and access to roads."

12/22/2010 - Palestinians, Israelis trade rockets, airstrikes The violence followed the deaths of five Gaza militants Saturday in the deadliest Israeli assault on the coastal strip in months, indicating a trend of escalation.

12/22/2010 - Palestinian PM: Plan to declare statehood by 2011 remains on track

12/22/2010 - PLO 'Disappointed' Over U.S. Resolution opposing unilateral declaration of Palestinian state The Palestinian delegation in the United States expressed its "deep disappointment" on Thursday over the resolution passed by the U.S. House, which opposes unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state

12/22/2010 - EU to boost status of Palestinian diplomats The Foreign Office confirmed it was studying a proposal that would see Palestinian "general delegations" upgraded to "diplomatic missions" in a number of European capitals.

12/22/2010 - Bolivia to recognize sovereign Palestine Bolivia on Wednesday formally recognized Palestine as an independent state, following the lead of its neighbors Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay earlier this month.

12/22/2010 - Abbas holds rare meeting with Israeli lawmakers Abbas said the Palestinians have undergone a transformation since their uprising and Israel's harsh reprisals left thousands dead. "We changed the culture of terror and violence into a culture of peace and stability here in the West Bank in the last four years," he said. "We do not want to miss this opportunity," he told the Israelis. "We don't want to miss it. Please help us not to miss it. I have eight grandchildren. I want a peaceful life for them."

12/22/2010 - Palestinians ask Europe to recognize a state Brazil and Argentina, minor players in the Middle East, recently recognized Palestine as other countries in the Arab world and Africa have done. Several European countries have upgraded diplomatic relations with the Palestinians, but it is unclear how far the international community will go.

12/22/2010 - Israeli settlements 'displace' Palestinians: HRW "Palestinians face systematic discrimination merely because of their race, ethnicity, and national origin, depriving them of electricity, water, schools, and access to roads," HRW representative Carroll Bogert said. "While Israeli settlements flourish, Palestinians under Israeli control live in a time warp –– not just separate, not just unequal, but sometimes even pushed off their lands and out of their homes."

12/22/2010 - palestinians Draft condemning West Bank settlements ready for UN Erekat said he hoped the United States would not use its veto to defeat the resolution and added that if it did not succeed at the Security Council, "we will go to the International Court of Justice."

12/22/2010 - Gaza Christians look forward to celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem Local media reported that Israel will only offer pass permits to around 300 Christians this year, out of a total of 3,000 Christians in Gaza among the 1.8 million population, to go to Bethlehem during the Christmas.

12/22/2010 - Palestinians want control of more West Bank parts Children's chairs pulled out of a pile of rubble are all that's left of a schoolhouse that served 17 children of Palestinian herders in this encampment on a wind–swept West Bank plateau. The school was razed by Israeli troops last week for the third time in six years as Israel asserted control over the area – part of the 62 percent of the West Bank that remains exclusively in Israeli hands, much of it set aside for Jewish settlements and military zones. The rest – where most Palestinians live – are disconnected territorial islands administered by the Palestinian Authority.

12/22/2010 - Israel on offensive over Palestinian diplomacy: report The newspaper's website said the document, penned by foreign ministry director–general Rafael Barak, calls on Israeli envoys to begin a "comprehensive defence along the home–front," seeking to undermine Palestinian diplomatic efforts. It calls on Israeli diplomats to thwart three Palestinian initiatives: a United Nations Security Council resolution condemning settlement activity, international recognition of a Palestinian state, and the upgrading of Palestinian diplomatic representations in Europe and Latin America.

12/22/2010 - US woman's body found in Jerusalem-Beit Shemesh area The security level had not been raised in the Jerusalem area as of Sunday afternoon. Rosenfeld said the police were waiting for “concrete answers” before updating security procedures or implementing road blocks going in or out of the territories.

12/22/2010 - 'It was clear they came to kill us', says survivor of Jerusalem stabbing "I had a Star of David hanging on a chain around my neck," Wilson told Haaretz. "He took it off like a gentleman and then turned me around and stabbed in the place where the Star of David had been."

12/22/2010 - US House against Palestinian state The House unanimously approved a resolution opposing unilateral declaration of Palestinian state on Thursday, Ha'aretz reported. \\.....The remarks came after Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay recognized the Palestinian state to support the rights of Palestinian people, whose land has been occupied by Israel. You had to know that was coming. After all, Capitol Hill is controlled by Israel, as demonstrated here.

12/22/2010 - Slain Christian had religious ties to Israel (OneNewsNow.com) The ministry issued a statement citing Luken's "vibrant faith" and offering prayers for her friends and family. The ministry adds that it "will continue to share the gospel with the Jewish people and to work for forgiveness and reconciliation in Israel." According to the statement, Luken had worked with the ministry for one year and had previously worked for the U.S. government.

12/22/2010 - Stab victim 'could not wait to make aliyah' Police have placed a gag-order on the investigation. "We are keeping all avenues open on whether this was a terror or criminal attack," said Jerusalem police commander Aharon Franko.

12/22/2010 - U.S. Gov't "Responds" to Questions About Imprisoned Palestinian Protest Organizer Abu Rahmah Kudos to that reporter for his perserverance, very rare these days.

12/22/2010 - 'Israeli War Crimes' signs to go on Metro buses "I wouldn't say it's an anti-Israel message any more than any complaint about a country is anti-that country. We would like Israel to stop violating human rights. We would like Israel to give equal rights to its Palestinian citizens and its Palestinian subjects who live under occupation," said Mast.

12/22/2010 - How Kissinger Saved the Jews The “context of the time” included a nasty political battle between the White House and the organized Jewish community over a piece of legislation known as the Jackson-Vanik Amendment. The measure proposed pushing Moscow to ease Jewish emigration by making it a precondition for normal U.S.-Soviet trade relations. It won nearly unanimous approval in Congress in late 1974 despite fierce administration opposition, arguably the strongest display ever seen of American Jewish political muscle.

12/22/2010 - WikiLeaks hints at Israeli-Palestinian cooperation The Israeli Security Agency, also known as the Shin Bet, is reviled by Palestinians for its sometimes deadly raids on militant targets and its often harsh treatment of Palestinian suspects. Although Israeli and Palestinian security forces are known to cooperate, the tight coordination described by Diskin could further weaken Abbas.

12/22/2010 - U.S.-based rabbi: Edict against renting to Arabs endangers Jews abroad Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto, the New York-based rabbi whose followers include many high society names, has condemned the letter prohibiting Jews to rent or sell property to Arabs, signed by 50 municipal rabbis.

12/22/2010 - Missionary Slain in Israel was South Lakes Grad Luken, who moved to England in recent years, was in Israel working for Church's Ministry Among Jewish People, a group that tries to get Jews to accept Christ as their savior.

12/22/2010 - Israel moves to counter Gaza militants' new weapon The Israeli defense officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss such matters publicly, provided no proof to support their claim that the laser–guided missile came from Iran. Also, it was not clear how it was delivered. Hamas controls a network of smuggling tunnels along Gaza's southern border with Egypt, though Egypt has pledged to crack down on smuggling.

12/22/2010 - Middle East peace The U.S. needs to get tough with Israel America's political response? Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village) rushed a resolution to the House floor expressing opposition to such declarations of Palestinian statehood. The resolution, which passed, is a timely reminder of the increasing gap between Washington and the international community on this issue.

12/22/2010 - House vote against Palestinian statehood actually showed that Israel lobby is losing its grip As are most “pro-Israel” resolutions, H.Res.1765 was brought to a vote under a procedure known as “suspension of the rules.” This procedure, which is supposed to be reserved for non-controversial resolutions such as the naming of a post office, prohibits the resolution from being amended and limits debate on it. In exchange for these restrictions, the resolution must get at least a 2/3 vote to pass rather than a simple majority. Again, why is this a matter for the US Congress?

12/22/2010 - Metro buses to carry advertising critical of Israeli war crimes Americans are losing their jobs and their homes, yet we give Israel nearly $3 billion annually, which enables Israel to continue its militaristic control of the Palestinian people and the subsidizing of illegal settlements! We need to keep those tax dollars here at home. Here here, guys. Thank you for your tireless efforts towards justice.

12/22/2010 - Israeli companies outsourcing to Palestinians While Indians or Chinese engineers cost even less, he said Palestinians are more loyal to his company than workers from distant countries – and have a dogged work ethic. Many gained experience working abroad, and stiff competition for coveted engineering jobs in the West Bank pushes those who have work to prove themselves, Tahboub said.

12/22/2010 - Christmas trees 'provocative:' Nazareth suburb's mayor The mayor of a Jewish suburb of Nazareth sparked outrage on Wednesday after refusing to allow Christmas trees to be placed in town squares, calling them provocative. ...."The request of the Arabs to put Christmas trees in the squares in the Arab quarter of Nazareth Illit is provocative," Mayor Shimon Gapso told AFP. "Nazareth Illit is a Jewish city and it will not happen –– not this year and not next year, so long as I am a mayor," he said of the northern Israeli town.

12/22/2010 - Gaza victimized by double standard The reality is that when Israel burns, the world rushes to help -- and when Gaza burns, the world shuffles its feet and stands by for weeks at a time watching the smoke rise in ghastly plumes on the horizon. Where was the aid from the "developed" and "democratic" world during "Operation Cast Lead" when white phosphorous rained on civilian areas and 14,000 homes were damaged or destroyed? Gaza was burning then and is burning today, albeit invisibly to the Western gaze.

12/22/2010 - Say it ain’t so Zakaria, Huffington and Tom Friedman go to bat for center that is desecrating Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem

12/22/2010 - In Israel, a rabbi who argues that anti-Arab measures are un-Jewish he American-born rabbi is embroiled in two of Israel’s main conflicts today: the struggle with Palestinians over the West Bank and, within Israel, a rising tide of anti-Arab and anti-foreigner sentiment. The latter is starkly illustrated by an unprecedented rabbinical edict calling on Jews not to rent or sell property to non-Jews.

12/22/2010 - US embassy cables: New Zealand PM suspected passport fraud pair were 'Israeli intelligence agents'

12/22/2010 - Egypt: Stop Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza The Egyptian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday condemned Israel's air strikes on the Gaza Strip this week, calling them an attempt to deflect attention from the failed peace process.

12/22/2010 - Perle: Israel Will Act on Iran Israel ultimately will have to attack Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, says Richard Perle, a key architect of President Ronald Reagan’s strategy to end the Cold War.

12/22/2010 - Dropping Goal of Direct Talks, U.S. Will Now Test Both Sides on Core Issues Such vigor would require not only determination on the part of the administration, but also the backing of Congress, which in the past has shown it does not welcome American pressure on Israel.

12/22/2010 - How Arab governments tried to silence WikiLeaks Some wondered why there are so few damaging revelations about Israel – giving rise to at least one conspiracy theory about collusion between Julian Assange and Binyamin Netanyahu. Others were disgusted if not really surprised at evidence of double-talk by the leaders who are quoted in the cables. In many cases, it is striking to see the contrast between well-informed, warts-and-all American assessments of the Arab autocracies and the limited efforts made by the US to promote democracy and human rights.

12/22/2010 - Syria eyed Israel for 2008 killing: US cable The leaked US cable on the killing said "the most obvious suspects are the Israelis."

12/22/2010 - AIPAC viewed U.S. gov’t as targeting pro-Israel groups during espionage probe Before firing the two senior staffers, AIPAC prepared a robust defense of them that alleged a conspiracy inside U.S. government agencies to target pro-Israel groups. ...The court case is significant because it shows the inner workings of AIPAC, a lobbying group that both enemies and supporters call one of Washington’s most powerful and feared lobbies. The new court filings also show the extent to which some of AIPAC’s highest officials believed the U.S. government was targeting the group because of its pro-Israel stance and activities, not because of suspected criminality. ...Kohr suggests that AIPAC is caught in the internecine wars between Bush administration neoconservatives and their enemies in and out of government. It warms the cockles of my heart to think that there are those in our government who are as angry as I am about the overwhelming influence the Israeli lobby has over our government. Kudos to you, the good guys! I cannot thank you enough. Never give up!

12/22/2010 - France gives Lebanon anti-tank missiles France will give Lebanon 100 anti–tank missiles, a government official said on Friday, confirming a deal that raised concerns in Israel and the United States earlier this year.

12/22/2010 - Israel can't defeat Hezbollah: Israeli expert Israelis have been watching for signs that Hezbollah, should it be named in an impending U.N. indictment over the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, will push back by consolidating power in Beirut.

12/22/2010 - Lebanon denounces Israel 'spy' devices to UN Lebanon has complained to the United Nations Security Council about two "espionage devices" it claims Israel placed atop two of the country's mountains, the foreign ministry said on Saturday.

12/22/2010 - US embassy cables Israel suspected in Syrian sniper killing As in other recent assassinations in Syria, speculation about who could have done it will likely be rampant. The most obvious suspects are the Israelis. SARG security services are well aware that the coastal city of Tartous would offer easier access to Israeli operatives than would more inland locations such as Damascus. Sulayman was not a highly visible government official, and the use of a sniper suggests the assassin could visually identify Sulayman from a distance.

12/22/2010 - Zionist Lobby’s New Orders For Obama As M.J. Rosenberg predicted, the Berman bill passed overwhelmingly, actually unanimously, “because that is how things work in a city where policy is driven by campaign contributions – and not just on this issue”. He added:

12/22/2010 - UN Hariri court to 'disappear with wind': Nasrallah Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday predicted a UN court on the murder of Rafiq Hariri would "disappear with the wind" as vast crowds gathered to mark the Shiite holy day of Ashura in Lebanon.

12/22/2010 - Terrorist by Association: The Justice Department targets nonviolent solidarity activists. Ten hours after their arrival, as television news crews filmed and activist supporters stood on the sidewalk, the agents drove away with nearly 30 boxes of material, including t-shirts and a photograph of Malcolm X. By that time, Iosbaker and Weiner had been served subpoenas to appear before a grand jury investigating "material support" for "foreign terrorist organizations." And they knew theirs wasn't the only home invaded that day. More than 70 FBI agents had raided seven residences in Chicago and Minneapolis and questioned activists in Michigan, California and North Carolina, serving subpoenas to 11 people. Can't say I didn't see that one coming either.

12/22/2010 - The Great Islamophobic Crusade Besides providing the initial energy for the Islamophobic crusade, conservative elements from within the pro-Israel lobby bankrolled the network’s apparatus, enabling it to influence the national debate. One philanthropist in particular has provided the beneficence to propel the campaign ahead. He is a little-known Los Angeles-area software security entrepreneur named Aubrey Chernick, who operates out of a security consulting firm blandly named the National Center for Crisis and Continuity Coordination. A former trustee of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which has served as a think tank for the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a frontline lobbying group for Israel, Chernick is said to be worth $750 million. The pro-Israelis have brought this fight to America, and are continuing to provoke these people. It is they who are the extremists. They should be rounded up and deported to Israel. America would be all the better for it.

12/22/2010 - WikiLeaks cables: Syria believed Israel was behind sniper killing It was late in the evening of 1 August 2008 in the Syrian coastal city of Tartous when the sniper fired the fatal shot. The target was General Muhammad Suleiman, President Bashar al-Assad's top security aide. Israelis, the US embassy in Damascus reported, were "the most obvious suspects" in the assassination.

12/22/2010 - FBI Expands 'Witch Hunt' Against Antiwar Activists Meredith Aby, another prominent antiwar activist who had her home raided by the FBI, likewise believes she is being targeted for exercising her right to free speech, not because the government actually believes she and other committed pacifists would actually support terrorist violence. She says that the questions U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald wants activists to answer - like which activists they met with abroad and what ideas did they express - proves as much. And like other activists, she said she wasn't interested in answering.

12/22/2010 - Beltway Bunkum by Philip Giraldi Flipping over to the Post‘s opinion page, one also found "right turn" commentator Jennifer Rubin singing the praises of incoming Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. Rubin believes that Ros-Lehtinen will "scrutinize the gap between rhetoric and results." She asks "Why are we giving $1.5 billion to Hosni Mubarak…why aren’t we more robustly supporting Iran’s green movement?" Why indeed. But she fails to ask why are we giving Israel $3 billion when Tel Aviv continues to pursue policies that are more directly damaging to the United States than anything being done by Egypt or Iran? It is a question that Ros-Lehtinen and Rubin will no doubt avoid raising and symptomatic of the blinders that are on regarding the issue of Israel.

12/22/2010 - Why Kissinger Said U.S. Jews Acted ‘Traitorously’ The Soviets wanted a grain deal with the West, and they were hoping to get a new arms limitation treaty ratified. Jackson-Vanik had taught them an important lesson. If they wanted something from the United States government, they should release their Jews. And that’s what they did.

12/22/2010 - Obstructing a Middle East Rescue Effort Just in the time that elapsed since the collapse of efforts to restart direct negotiations, respected New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman effectively recommended conditioning American aid to Israel on its cooperation with peace efforts, while Andrew Sullivan — arguably America’s leading political blogger — called for an end to such aid entirely. Israel’s own actions, far more than those of its detractors, are hastening this moment. (Think about the recent decree by dozens of municipal rabbis prohibiting renting property to non-Jews, the proposed loyalty oath or the measures taken against Palestinian leaders engaged in nonviolent struggle.)

12/22/2010 - Holy Land Patriarch voices hope for peace Twal noted that a record 3.4 million tourists are visiting the Holy Land this year, many of them Christian pilgrims. He said he is grateful for "the fantastic solidarity" of Christians around the world with the Palestinian community.

12/22/2010 - Bloggers claim WikiLeaks struck deal with Israel over diplomatic cables leaks Speaking to Haaretz, Duff added that "it sticks out like a sore thumb that WikiLeaks is obviously concocted by an intelligence agency. It's a ham-handed action by Israel to do its public relations."

12/22/2010 - Israel to press Obama to free Israeli spy Pollard In his first tenure as prime minister a decade ago, Netanyahu granted Pollard Israeli citizenship, then later visited him in prison in North Carolina. Netanyahu said he has raised the issue with both Obama and Secretary of State Clinton "at least half a dozen times" in closed meetings over the last two months.

12/22/2010 - Turkey PM: Israel to blame for deadlock in Mideast peace talks

12/22/2010 - Israel to compensate Palestinian for disability caused by interrogation

12/22/2010 - Israel Doesn’t Need the West Bank To Be Secure in recent years Israel has shown it can deal with that kind of threat if it really wants to. Since 2006, when the Second Lebanon War killed perhaps 2,000 Lebanese, many of them civilians, and led to the destruction of an entire section of Beirut, the northern border has been absolutely quiet. Since Operation Cast Lead, which killed perhaps 1,200 Gazans, many of them civilians, and led to the destruction of much of the city of Gaza, not one Israeli has been killed by a mortar round or rocket coming from the Gaza Stri Killing civilians really works, is that the lesson here?

12/22/2010 - Roger Cohen’s Recklessness Roger Cohen, a New York Times Op-Ed columnist, is not obsessed with Israel; it only seems that way. During the last 10 weeks, only(!) five of his Times columns have dealt directly with Israel. I admit that I share the obsession, but not the places it takes him.

12/22/2010 - From August: A Wounded People vs. Oliver Stone As far as his comments about the pro-Israel lobby — well, AIPAC brags about its influence. Whether that has “f—ed up” American policy depends upon what you think of the policy....Few seemed to notice the irony: Two of the most powerful men in Hollywood, both Jewish, urging a third power player, also Jewish, to punish Stone for suggesting that Jews dominate the media. I saw the irony. Check back in these archives for it.

12/22/2010 - U.S. Rabbis Offer Rare Rebuke of Israeli Edict An edict signed by dozens of Israeli rabbis barring the sale or rental of homes to non-Jews in Israel has led to a rare consensus among American rabbis, who have issued a nearly unanimous condemnation of the ba

12/22/2010 - US urged to strike Iran opposition from terror list Several Bush–era officials on Friday urged the Obama administration to strike an Iranian opposition group from a terrorism blacklist and support regime change in Iran. Former officials Tom Ridge, John Bolton, Frances Townsend and Michael Mukasey who worked under president George W. Bush backed delisting the People's Mujahedeen Organization of Iran (PMOI), which is also known as the Mujahedeen–e–Khalq (MEK).

12/22/2010 - Netanyahu to make public plea to US for spy's release Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will make a public plea to US President Barack Obama for the release of Jonathan Pollard, an Israeli spy jailed 25 years ago, his office said on Tuesday.

12/22/2010 - U.S. criticized New Zealand for reaction to 2004 Israel spy affair, WikiLeaks cables reveal Ties between Israel and New Zealand grew strained after two Israelis, thought to be Mossad agents, were caught trying to illegally forge local passports. New Zealand's then-Prime Minister Helen Clark suspended high-level diplomatic relations until Israel formally apologized over the incident in 2005.

12/22/2010 - Holiday Hijinks by Philip Giraldi Another story http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101222005875/en/Obama-Asked-Delay-NUMEC-Founder-Award-Nuclear getting almost no traction in the MSM is the account of how one Zalman Shapiro is in line for a top US government award for his work as a scientist and inventor. Only problem is Shapiro was president of a Pennsylvania company called NUMEC that is generally believed to be the source of 741 pounds of weapons grade uranium that made its way to Israel in the 1960s

12/22/2010 - Mullen: US 'very ready' to counter Iran on nukes "We're very ready," Mullen said, an unusually direct acknowledgment that the United States has contingency plans to counter Iran should it make a move. "There are real threats to peace and stability here, and we've made no secrets of our concerns about Iran."

12/22/2010 - NY Rep. King: I'll hold hearings on radical Islam The incoming head of the House Committee on Homeland Security says he will hold hearings on what he calls the "radicalization" of some American Muslims. Rep. Peter King, a Republican from Long Island, said Sunday that law–enforcement officials around the country have told him they receive little cooperation from Muslims. Like so many of our 'representatives', King is nothing more than a shill for Israel, though he is one of the most egregious ones. Recall King's traitorous statement of a few months back.

12/22/2010 - Obama Asked to Delay NUMEC Founder Award over Nuclear Weapons Material Diversions to Israel The Obama administration has been asked to delay a 2010 National Medal of Technology and Innovation award to Zalman Shapiro over lingering questions about the theft and diversion of US weapons grade uranium to Israel. Shapiro, a talented inventor, was the former president of the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation

12/22/2010 - Obama says US-Turkish ties 'more important than ever' US ties with Turkey are "more important than ever" despite differences over Iran, President Barack Obama said, also urging Ankara to repair ties with Israel, in an interview published Sunday.

12/22/2010 - Senator Spector Seeks Exoneration of NUMEC Diversion of Uranium to Israel The office of Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania attempted to obtain a statement from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. On August 27, 2009, Arlen Specter wrote to Rebecca Schmidt asking that the NRC "issue a formal public statement confirming that he [constituent Zalman Shapiro] was not involved in any activities related to the diversion of uranium to Israel." Zalman Shapiro was formerly president of the Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation at Apollo, PA. According to a secret GAO report "Nuclear Diversion in the US?" partially declassified on May 6, 2010 NUMEC received over 22 tons of uranium-235, the key material used to fabricate nuclear weapons.

12/22/2010 - U.S. congressman urges France to rethink missile sale to Lebanon The United States House of Representatives expressed in August its disapproval of the deal, claiming the missiles might be used against Israel, due to the rising influence of Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Why is this a matter for the US Congress?

12/22/2010 - Ramzy Baroud Insisting on Humanity The Plight of the Palestinians is not just another chronicle of the history of a defenseless nation. While it is an unhesitant acknowledgment of that reality, it is far from being a celebration of victimhood. Rather, it documents the logical evolution from suffering to resistance.

12/22/2010 - The smoking cable: Israel said it had ’secret accord’ with U.S. over expanding settlements even as Obama said in Cairo they must stop! One odd thing though, the story notes that indeed it seems that stuff critical of or embarrassing to Israel or even related to Israel was not in that tranche at all while stuff about damn near every other country sure was represented. One former U.S diplomat says it might be because cables from the U.S. embassy in Israel are so unremarkable really, but this seems weak to me at least: Lots of stuff Assange released was unremarkable, wasn’t it? He just seemed to dump a truckload, didn’t he? Moreover, what about cables from other ME embassies mentioning Israel?

12/22/2010 - Jewish-American group releases list of top 10 slurs The list is topped by Helen Thomas, who said in May that "Jews should get the hell out of Palestine" and "go home to Poland, Germany, America and everywhere else."

12/22/2010 - Israel Advocacy Is a Hot Place for New Hires, battling the so-called de-legitimization of Israel — specifically, combating boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns — has become the cause célèbre of mainstream Jewish organizations. In fact, in November, the Jewish Federations of North America made it a major theme in its three-day General Assembly in New Orleans.

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12/15/2010 - Israeli troops kill two Gaza militants: army The incident was the second in three days in which an Israeli was wounded. On Wednesday, a civilian was lightly hurt by a mortar shell launched by militants from the Gaza Strip that landed in an agricultural community near the border. The last incident in which soldiers were hurt occurred in August when two were lightly wounded from shell fragments, the army said

12/15/2010 - Palestinian firefighters barred from Israeli fete About 20 Palestinian firefighters joined the international effort against the blaze that killed 43 people as it swept through the Carmel forest in Israel's north, the biggest forest fire Israel has ever seen. In the end, firefighting aircraft and crews from abroad helped put it out. Tuesday's ceremony was set to take place in Usfiya, an Israeli Arab town near to where the blaze erupted, and the Palestinian firefighters were to be awarded certificates at the event. I'm so proud of the Palestinians - who, despite all that Israel has done to them - volunteered to help put out that fire. It reminds me of the donations the Palestinian refugees made to Hurricane Katrina victims. They didn't have a lot to give, but they gave what they could because of all people, they could instantly sympathize with our refugees. Brings a tear to me eye.

12/15/2010 - Envoy says US committed to Palestinian state The U.S. will not be deterred by setbacks and will persevere until a Palestinian state is established alongside Israel, President Obama's Mideast envoy said Tuesday after meeting the Palestinian president.

12/15/2010 - 'Europe will recognize Palestinian state when appropriate' The resolution is also expected to address Israel's refusal to extend the construction moratorium in the West Bank and stress the need to resume negotiations for a period of 12 months, as determined by the Mideast Quartet. Israel has been working diligently to try and soften the wording in the resolution. Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has spoken with a number of his counterparts in the Union to try and convince them not to recognize a Palestinian state, and he has also instructed Israeli ambassadors in EU countries to clarify Israel's position.

12/15/2010 - Arab FMs oppose Mideast talks without U.S. stance on borders The ministers said the failure of Washington to force Israel to stop settlement building on territories occupied in 1967 demands that the American administration declares clearly the two states' borders be based on the 1967 borders.

12/15/2010 - Palestinians to Mitchell: U.S. must demand talks based on 1967 borders In a meeting with U.S. envoy George Mitchell in Ramallah on Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed his disappointment with the United States for failing to declare that talks on borders with Israel will be based on 1967 lines.

12/15/2010 - US House Approves Large Increase in Military Aid to Israel Most significantly, the House added $205 million in first-time funding for the Iron Dome project, a short-range rocket defense system. The money was pledged by President Barack Obama last May, but had been stalled until now. In addition, military aid allocations from Israel should increase from 2010 levels of $2.775 billion to $3b. for fiscal year 2011, while those for Egypt and Jordan will hold constant from 2010. Look at the House vote -212-206? Are our representatives finally starting to represent US, the AMERICAN people?

12/15/2010 - A Grim Record: One In Seven Americans Is On Food Stamps Hey I know, let's shovel a few more billion to Israel, a prosperous country even despite the economic downturn.

12/15/2010 - The Returning Issue of Palestine's Refugees Before his murder in 1948, Lord Folke Bernadotte, the first UN mediator to the Arab-Israeli conflict, stated: "It would be an offence against the principles of elemental justice if these innocent [Palestinian] victims of the conflict were denied the right to return to their homes, while Jewish immigrants flow into Palestine." Lord Bernadotte paid for his candour with his life as Jewish militants assassinated him under the direction of Yitzhak Shamir, the man who would later become prime minister of Israel.

12/15/2010 - After setback, US resumes Mideast peace push

12/15/2010 - Public invited to inform on those renting to Arabs The Lehava organization issued a notice Sunday evening, inviting the public to call a voicemail service and record the names of Jewish Israelis renting apartments to Arabs. Lehava, identified with supporters of Meir Kahane, thus adds its weight to the recent call by 50 prominent rabbis to avoid renting to Arabs which, the organization says, amounts to no less than assimilation. Racism at its finest.

12/15/2010 - Israel Seeks 20 Additional F-35s After Failure of U.S. Swap for Peace Plan Defense officials from both countries are discussing ways to pay for the “expensive” jets because Israel lacks the funds, Oren said.

12/15/2010 - Hamas reaches out, tries to shore up popularity

12/15/2010 - U.S. says recognition of Palestinian state premature Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, who was due to meet with Burns on Saturday, criticized his remarks. "I think it's unpropitious that once again the United States has publicly expressed an opinion about sovereign actions taken by the Argentine Republic," Timerman told Reuters.

12/15/2010 - Palestinians express doubts over 2-state future Conventional wisdom on Israeli–Palestinian peacemaking has long held that Israel should relinquish most of the lands it occupied in 1967 in favor of a Palestinian state – the "two–state solution" that much of the world has supported for years. But the utter lack of progress in peace talks and continued Jewish settlement in the West Bank has many people warning that Israel might instead be headed toward a one–state reality, with a permanent occupation of the West Bank and a Jewish minority ruling over an Arab majority – unless, perhaps, the world forces it to give the Palestinians the right to vote.

12/15/2010 - Hamas celebrates 23rd anniversary with mass rally While sticking to its militant rhetoric, the Hamas has largely observed an informal truce since a bruising Israeli offensive two years ago, forgoing attacks that could spur Israel to strike back or tighten its blockade. Any Israel response could make life harder for Gazans. Some 30 percent of residents are unemployed and many more rely on food aid.

12/15/2010 - Netanyahu hails U.S. retreat on settlement freeze demands Mitchell is also scheduled to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. But the brunt of the work will be in Israel because the Palestinians have already submitted their opening positions on all the core issues - borders, security, Jerusalem, refugees, water and the settlements

12/15/2010 - Palestinians sceptical after US freeze failure

12/15/2010 - Hamas leader says group will never recognize Israel

12/15/2010 - Israel group blasts arrests of Palestinian minors In a report released Monday, the Israeli rights group B'Tselem says the youths' arrest is part of an Israeli campaign targeting Palestinian minors – one just 5 years old – for stone throwing in east Jerusalem. It says police often arrest minors from their homes in the middle of the night and interrogate them, sometimes with no parent present, in ways that violate Israeli law.

12/15/2010 - Israel's leader does not want to share Jerusalem Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's reaffirmation of his intention to hold on to east Jerusalem drew criticism from the Palestinians and was likely to increase friction with the Americans. The White House Mideast envoy is scheduled to arrive this week in another attempt to push peace efforts forward.

12/15/2010 - Israel draws international rebuke over settlements The European Union, the United Nations and the Arab League have rebuked Israel after its refusal to halt settlement construction forced Washington to drop efforts to relaunch Mideast peace talks.

12/15/2010 - Jordanian, Palestinian soccer fans clash

12/15/2010 - Yad Vashem struggles to teach Holocaust to Arabs The irony. At what point will Israel teach its people the truth about its inception, and what it has done to a largely agrarian people who for 60 years have been made to pay for the Holocaust, when they had nothing to do with it.

12/15/2010 - Heavy rains, strong winds batter Middle East In the Gaza Strip, strong winds and lashing rains caused cracks in the pier and the breakfront at the harbor local fishermen use. No one was hurt, but civil defense workers and the Gaza maritime police were hauling boats out of the water and moving them and other fishing equipment to safer ground.

12/15/2010 - Palestinians, Contained

12/15/2010 - Who by Fire? By the end, when Prime Minister Netanyahu informed others already preparing to send personnel and supplies that they would not be needed, Israel had welcomed seven aircraft from Greece, two from Cyprus, two from Turkey(!), three from Russia, five from France, two more from Britain, seven from Germany, five from Spain, two from Azerbaijan, and five from America — as well as 92 firefighters from Bulgaria, 21 firefighters and three fire engines from the Palestinian Authority, along with three truckloads of equipment from Jordan, materials from Egypt — and all this is only a partial list.

12/15/2010 - What really drives suicide terrorists by Robert Pape After examining 2,200 suicide attacks around the world since 1980 – the most comprehensive analysis ever conducted – I've concluded that the answer is both simple and disturbing. What drives them is deep anger at the presence of Western combat forces in the Persian Gulf region and other predominately Muslim lands. Popular accounts of these suicide terrorists give the impression that most of them are globe-trotting extremists radicalized by militant networks to strike outside their homeland for religious or other transnational causes. These accounts are false.

12/15/2010 - Top Israeli rabbi slams anti-Arab edict A top Israeli rabbi has condemned a controversial ruling forbidding renting or selling property to non–Jews. That ruling, which won the support of three dozen rabbis this week, has drawn vocal criticism in Israel. Israel's attorney general is weighing possible charges against the rabbis.

12/15/2010 - Market alarm as US fails to control biggest debt in history The reality is, though, that the market is increasingly alarmed at the rate of increase of the US government’s already massive liabilities. America’s government debt is set to expand by a jaw-dropping 42pc over the next few years, reaching $19.6 trillion by 2015 according to Treasury Department estimates presented (amid very little fanfare) to Congress back in June Hey I know, let's send a few more billion to Israel.

12/15/2010 - Funding Illegal Israeli Settlements? Priceless. Visa, Mastercard and PayPal all enable donations to be made to US-registered groups funding illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank in defiance of international law. It appears at least one of the major credit cards also enables donations to an extremist Jewish group that has placed a bounty on the lives of Palestinians.

12/15/2010 - The Biggest Pro-Israel Group in America? That’s Us, Says Christians United Last year the group distributed, through its sister organization, John Hagee Ministries, more than $8 million to Israeli and Jewish organizations, according to CUFI. CUFI has stated that less than 5% of that sum went to settler organizations operating in the West Bank.

12/15/2010 - No Link Between Stopping Iran and Pushing Peace? Rabin Knew Better “No, he had the diplomatic cables to prove that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was no obstacle to wide Arab backing,” Horovitz wrote. “Obama, that is, was not the prisoner of a misconception, convinced in absolute good faith” that Israeli concessions would bring the Arabs “on board for the battle with the mullahs.” The pro-Israelis crave a US attack on Iran, as they did with Iraq but then later denied it.

12/15/2010 - Berman, Congressional Foreign Affairs Boss, Cites Israel as a Prime Motivator in His Politics, Then Calls Israel Lobby a ‘Total Canard’ Berman then assumed he was talking to a friendly crowd. He said Israel "is why I went on the Foreign Affairs Committee–" he corrected himself– "it’s part of why I went on the Foreign Affairs committee in the first place. I’m a great supporter of Israel." He hastened to add he was also a supporter of a "sensible" peace process that takes into account "Israel’s longtime security needs."

12/15/2010 - UPDATE: State Department Quakes In Terror As AP Asks About Imprisoned Palestinian Demonstrator -- Plus The True Story of the AIPAC-Drafted Berman Bill Congressman Howard Berman (D-CA), chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is today rushing to the House floor with an AIPAC-drafted resolution condemning the Palestinians for publicly suggesting that, in the wake of Netanyahu's refusal to freeze settlements and negotiate, they will consider a unilateral declaration of statehood. (As is usual with Berman, his resolution exclusively blames Palestinians for the collapse of peace talks; not a word of criticism of Israel appears.)

12/15/2010 - Leaks and Leakers by Philip Giraldi Unauthorized release of classified information and what becomes of it was also the focus in the trial that was terminated in May 2009 of Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, AIPAC employees who passed sensitive intelligence to Israeli government officials and to Glenn Kessler at the Washington Post. The very same people at the Wall Street Journal and the Weekly Standard who are now calling on the federal government to declare war on WikiLeaks and to summarily execute Julian Assange were at that time complaining about the fact that Rosen and Weissman had been charged with a crime because "everyone" passes around classified information in Washington.

12/15/2010 - More Money for Nothing by Philip Giraldi Yesterday the US Congress approved $205 million for Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system. That was on top of $200 million previously allocated for Israel’s Arrow and David’s Sling development programs. Now, one might question approving nearly half a billion dollars for a foreign country at a time when budgets for programs in the United States are being axed, so it is definitely convenient that the US public will not know about the vote as it has not been reported anywhere in the US mainstream media. The article I saw was in today’s Haaretz.

12/15/2010 - Muslim hotel staff allege discrimination on Israeli visit Muslim employees of a Washington hotel alleged that they were discriminated against when Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak visited at the weekend, a group representing them said Wednesday. The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR) sent a protest letter to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel's management on behalf of the employees who alleged they were barred from floors where the Israeli delegation was staying.

12/15/2010 - Deputy FM: Iran-Venezuela Ties Threaten U.S., Entire World Last month, sources in Latin America told Haaretz that a border incident between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, and military pressure placed on Costa Rica, a country without an army, are the first step in a plan formulated by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega, with funding and assistance from Iran, to create a substitute for the strategically and economically important Panama Canal. The plan has aroused concern in Washington, and the U.S. has begun behind the scenes efforts to foil such a move. Sources in Latin America consider these events, and the power demonstrated by Nicaragua, as a trial balloon by the creators of the "New Canal Plan" – Venezuela, Iran and Nicaragua. Western intelligence agencies are closely following the path of heavy machinery equipment to Nicaragua as well as the activities of Iranians in the Nicaraguan capital Managua.

12/15/2010 - Israel was happy with Rudd's stance: WikiLeaks The cables also indicate Mr Rotem was impressed with Prime Minister Julia Gillard's handling of Australia's response to fighting in Gaza while in the role of acting prime minister. The Israelis told US officials she was far more supportive than expected.

12/15/2010 - Italy PM said 'not even Obama can stop Israeli attack on Iran', WikiLeaks cable reveals "No one, including [U.S. President Barack] Obama, can stop Israel if it feels an existential threat," Berlusconi is reported to have said.

12/15/2010 - Barak tells Gates: Hezbollah and Syria must not gain weapons supremacy over Israel The two discussed continuing cooperation to build up Israel's active defense against missiles and rockets. They also resumed talks regarding the development of the Namer armored vehicle, and Barak advised his American counterpart to see the U.S. ground army equipped with one as well.

12/15/2010 - Obama withdraws offer to donate 20 F-35s to Israel

12/15/2010 - Lebanon Holds its Breath Over Leaked Revelations By Robert Fisk in Beirut Now the US cables reveal that the UN has indeed been cooperating with the United States, asking for aerial reconnaissance pictures of the Bekaa Valley and sending DNA samples from Mr Hariri's suspected killer, Ahmad Abu Adass, to FBI headquarters for examination.......Yet more dangerous still is a 2008 cable stating that former Lebanese telecommunications minister Marwan Hamadeh provided the US with maps detailing locations of Hezbollah's communications network. ...There are some details in the cables on Lebanon which are provably wrong. A claim by Samir Geagea, a right-wing Christian politician , that Iran had provided Syria with 15 submarines, was palpably untrue. Mr Geagea has refused to comment on this cable. Another allegation – that missiles were smuggled into Lebanon on board planes carrying first aid during the 2006 Hezbollah-Israeli war – is provably untrue: Beirut airport was bombed on the first day of the battles and never reopened until the conflict had ended.

12/15/2010 - Rudd calls for inspections of Israel's nuclear facility FOREIGN Minister Kevin Rudd has arrived in Israel with a blunt message: allow international inspectors into your nuclear facility. He has also called on Israel to stop building in Jewish settlements in both the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

12/15/2010 - Iran Nuclear Talks: Senators Urge Obama to Stand Firm On Monday, as Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili met in Geneva with E.U. foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, a group of prominent U.S. Senators – including John Kyl, Joe Lieberman, Kirsten Gillebrand and John McCain – wrote to President Obama urging him to reject any proposal under which Iran would maintain a uranium–enrichment capability AIPAC shills.

12/15/2010 - 1 small NY town's battle for tolerance Locals watched in horror as Sidney was branded as Islamophobic, backward and ignorant. "It was sickening," says attorney Tom Schimmerling, 58, the son of Holocaust survivors, who immediately offered to represent the Sufis free of charge. "McCarthy was acting like this was Selma, Ala., in the '60s and he was Bull Connor."

12/15/2010 - Rudd failed to consult Israel over call for nuclear inspection, Opposition claims KEVIN Rudd's call for an inspection of Israel's nuclear facilities was made without any consultation with Jerusalem, the Opposition has claimed. "If the reports are correct and Israeli officials were taken by surprise, it reveals Kevin Rudd has not learnt any lessons from his past mistakes," said the opposition's foreign affairs spokeswoman, Julie Bishop.

12/15/2010 - Jewish Ingratitude to Evangelicals Every year Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews raises about $100 million dollars from mostly evangelical Christians in the United States for distribution to social welfare projects in Israel and the former Soviet Union. This is a staggering sum, making the fellowship arguably the largest foundation for Jews in need in the world.

12/15/2010 - Former Congressman Paul Findley on Push for Iran War

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12/8/2010 - Thirty-Nine Congressmen Can’t Be Wrong by Philip Giraldi For those who think it inconceivable that a large number of congressmen might petition seeking clemency for a convicted foreign spy who did enormous damage to the United States, think again. Pollard has recently obtained the services of Barney Frank and thirty-eight other Democratic congressmen who have signed on to a letter coordinated with a number of Jewish groups. They apparently believe that the poor guy has suffered enough in service to his country, which is of course Israel, making one wonder why American politicians should feel the pain. But no matter, as we all know where the faux compassion comes from. Treason, folks. If you care about this country, you just have to read the whole thing. Then do something about it.

12/8/2010 - Covert war against Iran's nuclear aims takes chilling turn The assassination had the hallmark of well-practised professionals. The explosives were shaped to focus the blast and fire a hail of projectiles into the car at an individual target, with minimal "collateral damage". The targets were obviously carefully chosen and the attack would have required weeks of surveillance. So even if local assassins were involved, the questions of who trained and funded them and assigned the targets would remain.......Stuxnet does not bear fingerprints, but a western military source recently told the Observer that it was an Israeli creation.

12/8/2010 - Cables Belie Gulf States' Backing for Strikes on Iran

12/8/2010 - Israel upset by Argentina Palestinian recognition Argentina's foreign minister, Hector Timerman, said Monday that in view of stalemated peace efforts, "the time has come to recognize Palestine as a free and independent state."

12/8/2010 - Israel: US too consumed by WikiLeaks to talk peace Israel's defense minister said Tuesday the U.S. has halted talks with Israel about curbing West Bank settlement construction and resuming peace talks with the Palestinians because Washington is distracted by the WikiLeaks release of secret documents. Cui bono - who benefits -- from Wikileaks? Who is sitting pretty and smug, with Julian Assange singing Netanyahu's praises?

12/8/2010 - Abbas: Last resort — I'll ask Israel to take over Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has warned he may dissolve his self–rule government and ask Israel to resume full control of the West Bank if troubled peace talks fail.

12/8/2010 - Netanyahu Forces an Obama Mideast Retreat "I know what America is," Benjamin Netanyahu, then an opposition politician, told Israeli settlers in 2002. "America is something that can easily be moved. Moved to the right direction." And in the last few months, Prime Minister Netanyahu has proved his point by walking back President Obama's call for a freeze in Israeli settlement construction so much so that the Administration on Tuesday essentially gave up and took it off the table. America is not the land of the free, not when it is ruled by Israel.

12/8/2010 - Palestinian protest leader's case sparks scrutiny The target of such unprecedented interest was Abdullah Abu Rahmeh, a leader of Palestinian protests against Israel's West Bank separation barrier who has been feted by some in the international community, from European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, as a courageous defender of human rights. Israel views the West Bank school teacher as an instigator of violence and wants to keep him in prison, even though he has completed his yearlong sentence. Israel says the demonstrations are violent riots since some of the marchers routinely throw stones at Israeli troops. .......Carter and fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu, part of a group of former leaders known as The Elders, on Monday condemned the attempt to keep Abu Rahmeh in prison. Carter said his "example of nonviolent resistance against the occupation is a model that others should follow."

12/8/2010 - Iran makes arrests over nuclear scientist killing "The three spy agencies of Mossad, CIA and MI6 had a role in the (attacks) and, with the arrest of these people, we will find new clues to arrest other elements," Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi was quoted as saying on state television's website.

12/8/2010 - 'Promised land for organized crime' "It is fair to assume that many known OC figures hold valid tourist visas to the United States and travel freely," Cunningham wrote, adding that the embassy "has developed an extensive database and placed lookouts for OC figures and their foot soldiers." He did not elaborate.

12/8/2010 - Defense for Children International: Urgent Appeal - Shooting of children collecting building gravel

12/8/2010 - Without land, Gaza farmers grow crops on roofs The Israeli imposition of a "buffer zone" along Gaza's borders swallows at least a third of Gaza's farmland and renders lethal any border regions farmers try to access. This land formerly produced wheat, barley and a variety of fruits and nuts; it was Gaza's food basket.

12/8/2010 - WikiLeaks Exposes Israeli Mafia’s Growing Influence by Justin Raimondo Take, for example, this excerpt from a cable dated May 15, 2009 — entitled "Israel, A Promised Land for Organized Crime?" – sent by our embassy in Tel Aviv, which deals with the rising influence of Israeli organized crime The bottom line here: Israel's organized crime syndicate is free to roam the US on visas. And if they commit crimes against Americans, they can hightail it back to Israel to avoid extradition, as so many of them evidently do. And anyway, even if they out and out KILLED Americans, what would our government do about it? Well, what did our government do about the murder of Rachel Corrie, or the men aboard the USS Liberty? ZERO.

12/8/2010 - Israel to blame for "collapse" of talks: Abbas aide "It's time for the American administration to tell the world that Israel holds the responsibility for the collapse of this peace process," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. "Israel has chosen settlements and not peace," he told Reuters.

12/8/2010 - Palestinians seek unilateral statehood recognition Winning a majority in the U.N. General Assembly would presumably be an easier task, but obtaining recognition by the U.N. Security Council would be the bigger prize, yet much harder to obtain because of a likely U.S. veto. Washington has traditionally blocked measures that Israel considers hostile.

12/8/2010 - Argentina: Palestine is free and independent state Argentina announced Monday that it recognizes the Palestinian territories as a free and independent state within their 1967 borders, a step it said reflects frustration at the slow progress of peace talks with Israel.

12/8/2010 - Palestinians: Israel has chosen West Bank settlements over peace The United States should openly blame Israel for the "collapse" of the peace process, a senior Palestinian official said on Thursday, in one of the bleakest assessments yet on Middle East peace efforts. New Israeli plans to build near East Jerusalem show Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu does not want to resume peace talks, Palestinian officials said.

12/8/2010 - Israel decides to ease Gaza export ban Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for Hamas in Gaza, described the decision as a "propaganda manoeuvre" and urged public opinion not to be "deceived ... and to keep up the international pressure on the occupation."

12/8/2010 - U.S. drops push for Israel settlement freeze there were some concerns about the size of the incentives the United States offered Israel –– which Israeli sources said included 20 F–35 stealth fighters worth $3 billion –– for only a temporary extension.......Three Latin American nations –– Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay –– declared recognition of a Palestinian state at the weekend, drawing Israeli condemnation.

12/8/2010 - After new setback, Obama Mideast plan in doubt A top aide to the Palestinian president, Yasser Abed Rabbo, went so far as to question Washington's ability to broker a deal, asking how the Americans could possibly "make Israel accept a fair solution" when they couldn't even make it limit its settlement activities.

12/8/2010 - Israel east Jerusalem policy threatens peace: EU The EU report said that since the start of November, east Jerusalem settlement planning had resumed "very intensively" and warned that such a policy, combined with curbs on Palestinian building and increased demolitions and evictions in the sector, were having "serious humanitarian consequences." .....Israel's attempts to exclusively emphasise the Jewish identity of the city were threatening to "radicalise the conflict, with potential regional and global repercussions." And the report warned of the EU's increasing concern about Israel's "use of archaeology as a political–ideological tool" in a bid to cement the Jewish state's hold over the entire city.

12/8/2010 - US lawmakers blast Brazil's Palestinian move Ros–Lehtinen, set to chair the panel come January, said "responsible nations" would wait to take such a step until Palestinians return to direct talks with Israel and recognize its "right to exist as a Jewish state." Why is this a matter for Capitol Hill? Do not our 'representatives' have anything better to do than to shill for a foreign nation? They seem to do an awful lot of that for the nation of Israel.

12/8/2010 - Rep. Ackerman Cheers Obama's Shift in Peace Process Instead, Ackerman now suggests focusing on Iran, which he sees as the biggest Middle East problem. Here, he is once again on the same page as Netanyahu.

12/8/2010 - Israeli rabbis tell Jews not to sell homes to Arabs Obtained by Reuters ahead of its planned publication in synagogues and religious journals, the letter quotes warnings by ancient sages that living with non–Jews can lead to "sacrilege." Other concerns for property values are also raised. Racist much?

12/8/2010 - Parsing a Palestinian Poll on Peace, With Prejudice if you’re the Zionist Organization of America, what’s in your headline is whatever distortion of the data you’re discussing that you think you can get away with.

12/8/2010 - Human Rights and Humanitarian Relief Groups Urge Rebuilding Plan for Gaza In a report entitled "Gaza Repair Strategies," the nongovernmental organizations propose a concerted effort of small-scale home repairs that offers viable, safe, and dignified repair options. The strategy is designed to enable Gaza residents to move toward regaining their lives and livelihoods until a permanent political solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be reached.

12/8/2010 - Why we walked out Students across the US are protesting a public relations campaign that brings soldiers from the Israeli army to speak on campuses. These tours are an attempt to justify recent war crimes committed by the army and are coordinated by various organizations, the most well-known being the Zionist organization StandWithUs.

12/8/2010 - YouTube - Let Us Call On Israel To STOP SHOOTING CHILDREN! Congressman Brian Baird Congratulations for Rep. Baird for having the courage to stand up for justice, and stand up to Israel and its goons who preside over Capitol Hill.

12/8/2010 - Uprooting the Bedouins of Israel The Jewish National Fund’s objective, however, is not altruistic, but rather to plant a pine or eucalyptus forest on the desert land so that the Bedouins cannot return to their ancestral homes. The practice of planting forests in an attempt to Judaize more territory is by no means new. Right after Israel’s establishment in 1948, the JNF planted millions of trees to cover up the remains of Palestinian villages that had been destroyed during or after the war. The objective was to help ensure that the 750,000 Palestinian residents who either fled or were expelled during the war would never return to their villages and to suppress the fact that they had been the rightful owners of the land before the State of Israel was created.

12/8/2010 - Ireland 'blocked' weapons to Israel After the Israel-Lebanon war, the Israeli military said it needed to restore its depleted ammunition stocks, but the cable from James Kenny, the US ambassador to Ireland at the time, indicates that the Irish government was making it increasingly difficult for Israel-bound US weapons shipments to pass through its airport.

12/8/2010 - Turkey, Israel in bid to overcome crisis "Some say we should turn a new page... An apology must be offered first, compensation must be paid first," Erdogan said Sunday in a speech in Sivas, central Turkey, Anatolia news agency reported.

12/8/2010 - NY rabbi, sons accused of sexually abusing girls The 58–year–old father and his 21–year–old son fled to Israel two days ago and are wanted for questioning in the case, police said. They were apparently driven to the airport by the mother. Israel = haven for criminals.

12/8/2010 - State Dep’t reporters continue to be rambunctious about Israel announcing 625 new houses for Jews

12/8/2010 - Video: Reporters challenge State Department on Israel

12/8/2010 - Imams, rabbis in Brussels to improve Muslim-Jewish ties He also suggested that the EU impose on its members and officials a code of behavior that would sanction those who made anti-Semitic and racist remarks. Will Israel too be sanctioned for its anti-Semitic (Arabs are Semites too) and racist remarks of its leaders, rabbis, and legislation ? Doubtful.

12/8/2010 - New WikiLeaks revelations show Ireland limiting complicity in US arms transfer to Israel

12/8/2010 - Helen Thomas says Zionists control U.S. foreign policy - KansasCity.com “I can call a president of the United States anything in the book, but I can’t touch Israel, which has Jewish-only roads in the West Bank,” Thomas said. “No American would tolerate that — white-only roads.”

12/8/2010 - ei The Carmel wildfire is burning all illusions in Israel The pine trees themselves were instruments of concealment, strategically planted by the Jewish National Fund (JNF) on the sites of the hundreds of Palestinian villages the Zionist militias evacuated and destroyed in 1948. With forests sprouting up where towns once stood, those who had been expelled would have nothing to come back to. Meanwhile, to outsiders beholding the strangely Alpine landscape of northern Israel for the first time, it seemed as though the Palestinians had never existed. And that was exactly the impression the JNF intended to create.

12/8/2010 - Carmel inferno proves Israel can't afford war with Iran

12/8/2010 - Yahoo Video: Bittersweet Remembrance Sunday for Palestinian veterans Short clip of Palestinian Arab veterans who served for the British in WWII.

12/8/2010 - AP Exclusive: Jailed Palestinian atheist sorry A Palestinian atheist jailed for more than a month for sharing his anti–Islam views on the Internet has apologized for offending Muslims, and a Palestinian military spokesman said he expected "positive" developments in the case.

12/8/2010 - Israel recruits citizen advocates in Europe Israel has instructed its embassies in 10 European countries, including the UK, each to recruit 1,000 members of the public to act as advocates for its policies in a new public relations offensive. Europeans beware.

12/8/2010 - Gulf leaders want Iran to respond to peace efforts A communique issued by the six leaders at the end of a two–day summit in Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, said they wanted the dispute over Iran's nuclear program to be resolved through "peaceful means" and make the Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction. Kind of goes against the Wikileaks cables.

12/8/2010 - Yvette Cooper calls for Israeli settler labelling on food imports Labour is opposed to boycotting Israeli goods but Cooper believes consumers should be informed whether products are produced by illegal settlers.

12/8/2010 - FOLLOW-UP ALERT ON ISRAEL’S POLICY OF NEAR-STARVATION FOR GAZA It is of major significance that explicit Israeli calculations for the amount of food, animal feed and poultry to be allowed into Gaza can be seen, starkly laid out in black and white. One of the calculated quantities is “breathing space”: the number of days that supplies will last in Gaza. The concept of “breathing space” for Gaza, dictated by the Israelis, is chilling; yet, the media appear happy to look the other way.

12/8/2010 - The Limits of a Coalition Without AIPAC So here is where the administration’s efforts to engage the Jewish community on START stand: On the one hand, the White House and congressional Democrats were successful in creating a remarkable Jewish coalition in support of the treaty, which spans from J Street to ADL. On the other hand, without the lobbying power of AIPAC, this coalition isn’t even close to showing lawmakers what Jewish power really means.

12/8/2010 - Leaks Hint at Chance, Risk of Coalition Against Iran “These leaders now have to hide following these comments,” Parsi said. “They are really going to have to pull back from the brink, and the primary reason is that this is a policy that is at odds with what their populations want.” Parsi said the main reason that these strong sentiments were only revealed now is that these Arab leaders, though heads of authoritarian regimes, were keeping their Iranian saber rattling to themselves because it puts them at odds with public opinion in their own countries.

12/8/2010 - Another Mosque Project Seeks Support, This Time With Jewish Help Asked why his group decided to spend the first night of Hanukkah with a Syrian-born imam and his flock to support their bid to build a mosque in the rolling hills of the Temecula Valley in California’s Southwestern Riverside County, Eric Greene replied, “We remember when there were protests in this country against synagogues being built.”

12/8/2010 - WikiLeaks cables: Don't trust Israel on Iran

12/8/2010 - Senior Turkey official says Israel behind WikiLeaks release “One has to look at which countries are pleased with these," Celik was quoted as saying. "Israel is very pleased. Israel has been making statements for days, even before the release of these documents.”

12/8/2010 - Wikileaks: Saudis 'chief funders of al-Qaeda' Why wasn't Saudi attacked after 9/11? Do you believe for one moment that without Saudi funding, those attacks would have been able to proceed? Not likely. One would've thought it was Iraq that funded 9/11, or even Iran. Who is driving our policy here? Who benefitted from our invasion of Iraq? The United States? Whose number 1 enemy did we depose? Israel's. So while we're bogged down fighting Israel's enemies (next comes Iran), our real foes get away with murder, incitement, and the funding of terror against US citizens and soldiers.

12/8/2010 - Wikileaks: Israel in the list of countries not clamping down on terror funding ABC Nightly News just ran a Wikileaks story exposing terror funding during which they showed documents exposing bank transactions from countries not clamping down on this funding. I spied some transactions from Tel Aviv in the list (a few times) of the document but yet no mention of this in the report or any other that I can find in the Google News index.

12/8/2010 - UN investigating reported device blast in Lebanon The U.N. peacekeeping force in south Lebanon says it is investigating a blast reportedly caused by the detonation of an Israeli device spying on Hezbollah's private telecommunications network.

12/8/2010 - Denounced as a traitor the Holocaust survivor who rents rooms to Israeli-Arabs Israel's extreme rightwing foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has advocated the compulsory "transfer" from the country of Israeli-Arabs, who make up about 20% of the population. The government wants non-Jewish citizens to pledge loyalty to the Jewish state. Tzvieli insists he will not bow to pressure over his tenants. "Most residents of Safed are a mixture of religious and secular and are tolerant and open," he said. "It's just here in the old city, where the extremists live, that I am in a minority."

12/8/2010 - mossad was this the chief's last hit - Telegraph Last Monday, a thousand miles further east in the Iranian capital, Tehran, it appears that the kidon put both of those skills into practice, killing a top nuclear scientist and critically injuring a second as they drove through the rush-hour traffic. .....To assist in the attack, Persian-speaking Mossad deep cover agents have been steadily infiltrating Iran for years. How exactly they helped the hitmen flit in and out of the country remains a secret.

12/8/2010 - Mossad and Iran's nuclear scientists Part II Saeed Kamali Dehghan, The Guardian's Iran correspondent in exile, has pointed me towards this Wikileaks cable from the US embassy in Tel Aviv. It is dated May 2009 and says: In November 2008, Israeli crime boss Yaakov Alperon was assassinated in broad daylight in a gruesome attack on the streets of Tel Aviv, only about a mile away from the Embassy. According to several media accounts, a motor scooter pulled up alongside Alperon's car and the rider attached a sophisticated explosive device with a remote detonator to the car door. The bomb killed Alperon and his driver, and injured two innocent pedestrians. The hit was the latest in a series of violent attacks and reprisals, and indicated a widening crime war in Israel. The interesting point here is that this is exactly how the two Iranian nuclear scientists, Majid Shahriari, and Fereidoun Abbasi, were attacked last Monday morning.

12/8/2010 - Israel on Iran So wrong for so long According to various Israeli government predictions over the years, Iran was going to have a bomb by the mid-90s -- or 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004, 2005, and finally 2010. More recent Israeli predictions have put that date at 2011 or 2014.

12/8/2010 - Israel fears 'flood' of migrants threatens state In a speech to parliament last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of a "flood" of illegal migrants. "It is threatening the jobs of Israelis, and it is threatening the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel," he said. The supreme irony here is that it is the Jewish groups here in America that are squarely behind the effort to grant amnesty to illegals in America, by their own admission. Yet, it's another standard for Israel. Ironically, many of these immigants are from Sudan, another celebrated cause of American Jews.

12/8/2010 - Hezbollah says it found Israeli spy device Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group said Friday that it discovered an Israeli device spying on its private telecommunications network. The device exploded, apparently detonated remotely by the Israelis, when it was found near the village of Majdel Silim, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) from the border with Israel, Hezbollah said in a statement.

12/8/2010 - Covert war against Iran's nuclear aims takes chilling turn Time magazine last week claimed to have been given details of the attack from "a western intelligence expert with knowledge of the operation" and asserted that it "carried the signature of Israel's Mossad".

12/8/2010 - Hezbollah has 50,000 rockets: report The Times quoted a Pentagon official expressing concern over the Hezbollah arsenal, in response to a series of leaked diplomatic cables on the issue. which neocon in the Pentagon was it? Name names.

12/8/2010 - IWW supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in support of Palestinian Rights This vote makes the IWW the first union in the US and the third union in Canada to officially support the Palestinian United Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.

12/8/2010 - ei Boycott roundup French companies to drop out of Jerusalem rail project In a significant victory for the global Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, French companies Veolia and Alstom have dropped out of the Jerusalem light rail project due to sustained pressure from Palestine solidarity groups. The companies were contracted by the Israeli government to construct and manage the tramway linking Jerusalem to several illegal Israeli settlement colonies in the occupied West Bank.

12/8/2010 - WikiLeaks founder: Netanyahu believes exposé will aid Mideast peace WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Wednesday defended his disclosure of classified U.S. documents by singling out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as an example of a world leader who believes the publications will aid global diplomacy. A little strange his praise of Israel. IT kind of goes against the premise of the whole Wikileaks operation, or at least the premise that the public is led to believe.

12/8/2010 - WikiLeaks: Saudi proposed force to crush Hezbollah

12/8/2010 - BUSTED – WIKILEAKS WORKING FOR ISRAEL Veterans Today

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12/1/2010 - URGENT APPEAL. More children collecting building gravel have been shot and wounded in Gaza. Please lodge a protest.

12/1/2010 - The Special Relationship with Israel: Is It Worth the Costs? When Benjamin Netanyahu was chosen as Israel’s prime minister in 1996, a handful of prominent American neoconservatives prepared for him a policy document entitled, “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.” The authors, several of whom would obtain influential posts in the George W. Bush administration, recommended an aggressive stance towards Syria, confrontation with Arafat, an effort to “wean” the Lebanese Shia away from Hezbollah, and the removal of Saddam Hussein from power. In his recent book Israel and the Clash of Civilizations, Jonathan Cook traces these recommendations to themes worked up by several right-wing Israeli strategists in the 1980s. The Israelis were proposing that Jerusalem cement its status as the Mideast’s dominant power by fomenting sectarian and ethnic strife in the surrounding states.

.... American backing of Israel has been a major, if not the sole, factor in making the United States a target of Muslim terrorists. This is invariably what such terrorists say, whether in custody or at liberty, and no one has explained plausibly why they would misrepresent their motivations.

.... While America’s freely elected leaders bear the ultimate responsibility for the decision to invade Iraq, it should not be forgotten that Israeli officials were pressing for the invasion every step of the way, giving speeches before Congress, writing op-eds, appearing on television.

.....One important consequence of a “special relationship” with Israel is that Israel will work to ensure that its enemies become enemies of the United States. To the extent it succeeds, the United States will have fewer friends and more enemies.

...The affection implicit in the special relationship flows in one direction only. The Washington Post reported recently on a poll of CIA officers. They ranked Israel dead last among allies for intelligence cooperation with the United States. The same story noted that American counterintelligence officials, pointing to aggressive Israeli spy operations on U.S soil, ranked only Russia and China as more serious intelligence threats. Our 'special relationship' with Israel has cost us Americans dearly - in many ways. This piece is long, but a must read.

12/1/2010 - Israeli gunfire wounds four Gazans: medics Israeli soldiers on Sunday shot and wounded four Palestinians as they searched for building materials near Gaza's border with Israel, medical sources said

12/1/2010 - 60 Israeli professionals speak out at violence against children The issues raised in the letter reflect concerns held by DCI-Palestine, which has documented 22 cases of children who report being mistreated by the arresting authorities since 8 October 2010. The age of the youngest child reporting mistreatment is seven years.

12/1/2010 - Israeli fire wounds Gaza child: officials The boy was shot in the leg as he foraged for building materials near the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya, the officials said. Figures provided by Geneva–based rights group Defence for Children International show that in the six months between March and October this year, 14 teenage gravel–pickers were wounded by Israeli fire –– with those injured being shot in an area ranging from 50 to 800 metres from the border.

12/1/2010 - Israel police under fire for abusing east Jerusalem children Israeli police were accused of "flagrant violations" of the law Thursday over their harsh and at times violent treatment of Palestinian children suspected of stone–throwing in east Jerusalem.

12/1/2010 - Israel condemned over Bedouin village demolition Amnesty International Amnesty International has condemned the Israeli authorities following the demolition of a Bedouin village in southern Israel for the seventh time since July. ...“The fact that the village has been demolished seven times in four months shows that this is not some administrative mistake but a conscious Israeli government policy of dispossession.” ....As in previous demolitions, no eviction or demolition order was presented to the inhabitants. Israeli authorities have previously detained residents and their supporters when they demanded to see a demolition order.

12/1/2010 - CPT Palestine: Help! Because of your support, we were able to continue to work with non-violent Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation. Today, Palestinian shop-keepers sell their wares in the old city of Hebron, and refuse to be driven out of their homes by harrassment from Israeli settlers and soldiers. This year, people living in the village of At-Tuwani succeeded in gaining access to electricity and running water. These successes are made possible by organized Palestinian activism, and CPT is honored to work with and support our Palestinian partners.

12/1/2010 - WikiLeaks shows Netanyahu supports land swaps I'll believe it when I see it.

12/1/2010 - Israel razes east Jerusalem home Shortly afterwards, some 15 Jewish settlers, accompanied by dozens of police, took over a house in another part of the district, an Israeli peace activist told AFP. ...Meanwhile, Israeli troops in the Jordan Valley on Wednesday destroyed at least two Palestinian buildings used to house livestock and a tent in Massua near the border with Jordan.

12/1/2010 - Aid Groups Decry Blockade on Gaza Nasma died four months later, on October 16, after Israeli authorities failed to issue her with a permit to leave the strip in time for treatment in an Israeli hospital. Her case is being held up by human rights groups as evidence that Israel's "relaxation" of the blockade has in fact offered little improvement to the lives of Palestinians trapped in Gaza. In a report issued on Tuesday, a coalition of 22 international NGOs and human rights groups have accused Israel of failing to make good on its June promises.

12/1/2010 - Israel primed to attack a nuclear Iran US officials repeatedly expressed concern about conflicting assessments by their Israeli counterparts, some of whom admitted their own estimates should be treated with caution: one diplomat noted that Israeli assessments from 1993 onwards had predicted Iran would possess an atomic bomb by 1998 at the latest. Israel=Chicken Little. Our government finally wising up?

12/1/2010 - Iran blames Israel after nuclear scientist killed Iran's president accused Israel and the West of being behind a pair of daring bomb attacks that killed one nuclear scientist and wounded another in their cars on the streets of Tehran on Monday. He also admitted for the first time that a computer worm had affected centrifuges in Iran's uranium enrichment program.

12/1/2010 - Israel unveils new residential plan near East Jerusalem Israel on Wednesday revealed plans to build new homes on West Bank land it has annexed as part of its Jerusalem boundaries, a move likely to further hamper any resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians. The plan to build 625 homes in the urban area of Pisgat Zeev adjacent to Arab East Jerusalem was approved by an Israeli Interior Ministry committee last week, some two years after it was originally proposed, Israel Radio said.

12/1/2010 - Memories and maps keep alive Palestinian hopes of return Aerial photographs taken by first world war German pilots are combined with mandate-era and Israeli maps supplemented by digitally enhanced satellite images that record old tribal boundaries, neighbourhoods and even individual buildings. Most striking are the hundreds of Arab villages that were destroyed or ploughed under fields, as well as postwar Jewish settlements and suburbs. The Abu Sitta family lands, for example, are now owned by Kibbutz Nirim, near the border with Gaza.

12/1/2010 - Hamas vows to honor Palestinian referendum on peace with Israel The Islamist Hamas movement, whose charter advocates the elimination of Israel, would accept the outcome of a Palestinian referendum on a future peace treaty with Israel, its Gaza leader said on Wednesday Another myth put forth by pro-Israeli propagandists flushed down the toilet: Hamas wants or intends to 'drive the Jews into the sea', ie that Hamas seeks to annihilate or conquer all of Israel.

12/1/2010 - Who Voted for More War? by Philip Giraldi as it is Thanksgiving, it is perhaps appropriate to ditch the gloom for just one day and look on the bright side. There has been no war against Iran in spite of the best efforts of Graham, McCain, Lieberman, Palin, the Israel Lobby, and the mainstream media. That is largely due to the intelligence community’s having developed a backbone in its 2007 Iran NIE, but it is also the product of alternative media sites like Antiwar.com that make sure that the downside of yet another military adventure is made clear to an increasingly well informed and vocal public. Antiwar has a stable of staff and contributors who put in long hours to produce unique content for the site, reflecting a wide range of viewpoints even if neocons are not generally welcome, thank you very much. On Thanksgiving I personally want to thank the many contributors whom I read and listen to every week: Justin Raimondo, Kelley Vlahos, Scott Horton, Ivan Eland, Chuck Pena, Jeff Huber, Jim Lobe, Gareth Porter, Paul Craig Roberts, and so many others. And I particularly will drink a toast later today to my fellow former spooks who have done so much to rip the veil of secrecy that surrounds the National Security State and its bankrupt policies: Ray McGovern, Michael Scheuer, and the Christisons. Floreat in aeternum! Thank you too, Mr. Giraldi, for your tireless efforts to protect America!! God love ya.

12/1/2010 - Exclusive: Leaked Cable Reveals US-Israeli Strategy for Regime Change in Iran Philip Giraldi, a former counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer and the Central Intelligence Agency, who served for eighteen years in Turkey, believes Dagan's comment that Israel will have to "invest time and effort ourselves” in dealing with Iran was, in essence, a veiled threat. "It is essentially setting up a situation in which the threat of Israel acting alone becomes a wedge issue to force the US to do something so that it will be able to manage the situation rather than respond to Israeli initiatives," Giraldi told Raw Story on Sunday. "It pushes Washington into planning a military strike to force the Israelis to stand down on their own plans."

12/1/2010 - Amnesty report: Dashed Hopes five months later, there are few signs of real improvement on the ground as the ‘ease’ has left foundations of the illegal blockade policy intact. In order to have a positive impact on the daily lives of the 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza, half of whom are children, Israel must fully lift its blockade of the Gaza Strip. ...the International Committee of the Red Cross has recently confirmed that the blockade constitutes a collective punishment of the entire civilian population of Gaza and is in clear violation of international humanitarian law........Palestinians’ freedom of movement including to travel, work, study and visit family members abroad continues to be denied. This PDF doesn't seem to open in Firefox but will open in Internet Explorer.

12/1/2010 - Hamas PM: We're ready for referendum on peace deal Hamas would respect any peace deal reached between Israel and Western–backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, provided it is approved in a global Palestinian referendum, the top Hamas official in Gaza said Wednesday. In a rare news conference for foreign media, Ismail Haniyeh, the prime minister of Gaza's Hamas government, staked out seemingly pragmatic positions. He said Hamas seeks dialogue with the West and wants to be "part of the solution, not the problem." Haniyeh said such claims are part of a disinformation campaign meant to prepare the ground for future attacks on Gaza. "There is no such thing as al–Qaida in Gaza," Haniyeh said, adding that "the Palestinian resistance does not work outside the borders of Palestine." Haniyeh said his government is also monitoring and attempting to rein in Gaza's homegrown zealots, but trying to avoid confrontation.

12/1/2010 - Germany asked U.S. to force settlement freeze on Israel, WikiLeaks cables show According to a telegram published by the whistleblowing website, two weeks before Israel's inner cabinet decided on a settlement construction freeze in November 2009, a senior German government official urged the United States to threaten Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that if he did not agree to a moratorium, Washington would withdraw its support for blocking a vote on the Goldstone Report at the United Nations Security Council.

12/1/2010 - China calls on Israel to immediately end all settlement activity in occupied territory China on Tuesday called on Israel to immediately stop all settlement activity in the occupied Palestinian territory in order to revive the peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

12/1/2010 - Israel train line plan draws Palestinian ire "This shows not only Israel's short–term illegal activities in terms of settlement expansion, but its long term planning and execution of colonial projects that aim at nothing less than ending the two–state solution,"

12/1/2010 - Iran 'smuggled arms' to Hezbollah on ambulances I wonder if this is one of those planted cables discussed in other articles of this news batch? Cui bono - who benefits?

12/1/2010 - Noodging and Good Timing Are Behind New Push for Release of Pollard Nyer, working under the auspices of the National Council of Young Israel and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, repeatedly called dozens of congressional offices and pressed Jewish groups asking for a leader to take on the case of Pollard, the former U.S. Navy analyst who has spent 25 years in prison, part of a life sentence, the longest ever for spying for an ally. Congressional staffers described Nyer as “relentless,” and he eventually struck gold: Massachusetts Democratic congressman Barney Frank, who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Banking Committee, agreed to sign on. That prompted a total of 39 signatures, all by Democrats, on the letter sent to Obama. I wonder if Mr. Frank realizes just how severe the damage was that Jonathan Pollard's treason caused.

12/1/2010 - Bring on the transparency These examples are just the tip of an iceberg. Hundreds of millions of dollars in Israeli taxpayer money and U.S.tax exemptions, mostly hidden from public view, are the driving force of the settlement enterprise

12/1/2010 - Poll: Most Israeli Jews believe Arab citizens should have no say in foreign policy The study also revealed that almost half of the Jewish Israelis polled would be bothered to have an Arab neighbor No, they're not racists or anything....

12/1/2010 - Shouting To Be Heard And while our struggle within the Jewish world is personal and painful for us, we know that it is actually Palestinians whose voices need and deserve to be heard. A lasting peace will only be possible when Palestinians are seen as truly equal and their claims no longer ignored — whether in Jewish community forums across North America, or at the diplomatic negotiating table with Israel.

12/1/2010 - U.S. Students Group Calls to Boycott an Israeli Hummus Brand

12/1/2010 - Activism 101 with Colonel Ann Wright At Rice, Colonel Wright discussed her opposition to the violence used by the Israeli Navy to seize the six ships of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla on May 31. She gave an explicit, first-hand account of her experience on board 'The Challenger,' a ship which was filled with journalists who attempted to document Israeli soldiers' raids on the flotilla.

12/1/2010 - Tuk-tuks, cheap fuel edge out donkey carts in Gaza Tuk–tuks started appearing on Gaza's streets in significant numbers several months ago, with demand driven by cheap smuggled fuel. Once the first tuk–tuks were imported, their advantages quickly became apparent, generating more demand.

12/1/2010 - Carnations from Gaza allowed over the border Israel has granted permission for the export of strawberries and carnations from Gaza. The move is partly because the Dutch government is supporting the Palestinian farmers and growers. The produce will only be allowed onto the European market.

12/1/2010 - Vermont group offers anti-apartheid pledge, and more I stand with Nelson Mandela, Palestinian civil society and people of conscience around the world in support of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign (BDS) against corporations, business interests, and academic and cultural institutions that are complicit in or profit from Israeli apartheid and occupation of the Palestinian territories.

12/1/2010 - WikiLeaks exposé: Israel tried to coordinate Gaza war with Abbas In a June 2009 meeting between Defense Minister Ehud Barak and a U.S. congressional delegation, Barak claimed that the Israeli government "had consulted with Egypt and Fatah prior to Operation Cast Lead, asking if they were willing to assume control of Gaza once Israel defeated Hamas." "Not surprisingly," Barak said in the meeting, Israel "received negative answers from both."

12/1/2010 - Did The US Supply Israel With Information Enabling Murder Of Hamas Officials?

12/1/2010 - Wikileaks: Israel Assessed Abbas as Weak, Unpopular In 2007, then-opposition leader and current Prime Minister Netanyahu told US lawmaker Gary Ackerman that Abbas was a "nice man who means well," but that Israeli and US efforts would be better focused on undermining Hamas.

12/1/2010 - Wikileaks: Israel Says Turkeys Prime Minister "Simply Hates Israel"

12/1/2010 - Israel says WikiLeaks shows 'consistency' on Iran Israel expressed satisfaction on Monday after the mass release of US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks, saying it proved the Jewish state's position on Iran was consistent –– in public and in private. Cui bono - who benefits?

12/1/2010 - Galloway Stirs Up Montreal News Canadians, Galloway said, should stop treating Israel like a “legitimate member of the international community and start treating it like the international rogue terrorist state that it has become.” Nearly two million Palestinians have been pushed from their home and currently live in the “open-air concentration camp” in the Gaza strip, said Galloway.

12/1/2010 - Shouting ‘Fire’ The incident began when the leadership of Temple Beth Avodah in Newton Centre, Mass., acceded to the demands of what the congregation’s rabbi characterized as a “small, influential group” within the Reform congregation, by canceling a planned event at the synagogue with J Street’s president. This assuredly was not American Judaism’s finest hour.

12/1/2010 - Is Wikileaks being manipulated by an intelligence service? There are a number of bloggers – some of them informed writers with credibility, some of them uninformed, anti-Semitic conspiracy theory nutters – who think the answer is “Yes”. More to the point is that no less a figure than Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter’s National Security Advisor, thinks the answer could be “Yes”. He said so in an interview with PBS’s Judy Woodruff and also in a subsequent BBC World Service (Radio) interview. To Judy Woodruff he said: “The real issue is, who is feeding Wikileaks? They’re getting a lot of information which seems trivial, inconsequential, but some of it seems surprisingly pointed… The very pointed references to Arab leaders could have as their objective undermining their political credibility at home, because this kind of public identification of their hostility towards Iran could actually play against them at home…It’s a question of whether Wikileaks are being manipulated by interested parties that want to either complicate our relationship with other governments or want to undermine some governments… I have no doubt that Wikileaks is getting a lot of the stuff from sort of relatively unimportant sources, like the one that perhaps is identified on the air. But it may be getting stuff at the same time from interested intelligence parties who want to manipulate the process and achieve certain very specific objectives.” Interesting.

12/1/2010 - GORDON DUFF “WIKI-MURDERS” IN IRAN, SIGNAL “FALSE FLAG” TERROR Veterans Today Iran is being “set up” through terrorist attacks timed to make any military action in the region immediately look like Iran “out of control.” More attacks on scientists and their families are planned until international tensions are high enough for a “false flag” terror attack on the United States to seem plausible.........There is now little doubt that Wikileaks is an intelligence operation managed from Tel Aviv, carrying out Israeli foreign policy. The most recent “leaks” have successfully reset the diplomatic stage in the Middle East, exposing undercurrents of animosity against Iran while destroying American diplomatic credibility. Very interesting, if true.

12/1/2010 - WikiLeaks: Netanyahu Warned U.S. Iran 'Months Away' From Nuclear Bomb the U.S. diplomat quoted in the classified cable said in response to the premier's warning that Netanyahu's estimate was likely unfounded and meant to pressure Washington into action against the Islamic Republic.

12/1/2010 - Oceans of Blood and Profits for the Mongers of War Total losses for Lebanon in 2006 came to an estimated $3.6bn, for Israel $1.6bn - so Israel won hands down in terms of money, even if its rabble of an army screwed everything up on the ground. But among those who paid for this were American taxpayers (funding the Israelis) and European taxpayers, Arab potentates and the crackpot of Iran (funding Lebanon). So the American taxpayer destroys what the European taxpayer rebuilds. It's the same in Gaza; Washington funds the weapons to blow up EU-funded projects and the EU rebuilds them in time for them to be destroyed again. But boy oh boy, in the Lebanese war, US arms manufacturers make a packet - and so, to a lesser extent do the Iranian and Chinese missile dealers. The cost of Israel to the American taxpayers, and that includes all peripheral costs including continued aid to Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan for keeping peace treaties with Israel or because of the damage Israel has wrought upon them, and the costs of the Iraq war - all of this money has been drained out of the US economy, could have fed and housed millions of Americans many times over, could have provided free health care many times over. Instead, thanks to the overwhelming influence of the Israeli lobby on our government, we are going broke. America is becoming a third world nation in order to prop up a nation based on religious supremacism, one that routinely violates international and humanitarian law, and one that practices a form of apartheid. And given that, the Israelis are starting to seed a new host: China. This doesn't begin to address the political ramifications our support for Israel has cost us. It was the main reason given by the 911 mastermind, Khaled Shaikh Mohammed.

12/1/2010 - Der Spiegel: US officials called Ahmadinejad 'Hitler'

12/1/2010 - If WikiLeaks Is a PsyOp, Whose PsyOp Is It? Selective disclosure and cherry-picking intelligence can be even more useful than simply fabricating evidence. The authenticity of the diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks hasn’t been challenged. But one might wonder whether there’s a particular spin that the disclosures are meant to convey. Could be why Israel is so pleased at the latest Wikileaks release.

12/1/2010 - If we aren’t going to bomb, we have to deter The only way to prevent this scenario is through a sweeping military operation. Only one country has the power to take on an operation of this scale; it is the country with the most at stake and the greatest interest in preventing this new world disorder. That country is the United States. Israel wants us to attack Iran for them, like we did with Iraq.

12/1/2010 - WikiLeaks cables: Qatar okays use of airbase for U.S. attack on Iran Qatar agreed to allow the United States to use a base on Qatari soil to bomb Iran, according to a report in the newspaper Al-Arabiya based on secret diplomatic cables published by the website WikiLeaks.

12/1/2010 - Israel, U.S. tense as WikiLeaks set to release classified bilateral communiques According to the senior Israeli official, the U.S. Embassy said that the documents were not highly classified, but the administration did not know the precise content of the cables.

12/1/2010 - Unexpectedly, Israel Welcomes WikiLeaks Revelations

12/1/2010 - Why Are We Still in Korea? by Patrick J. Buchanan To broker peace in Palestine, Obama began his presidency with a demand that Israel halt all new construction of settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Today, as his price for a one-time-only 90-day freeze on new construction on the West Bank, but not East Jerusalem, “Bibi” Netanyahu is demanding 20 F-35 strike fighters, a U.S. commitment to a Security Council veto of any Palestinian declaration of independence, and assurances the U.S. will support a permanent Israeli presence on the Jordan river. And the Israelis want it all in writing. This, from a client state upon which we have lavished a hundred billion dollars in military aid and defended diplomatically for decades.

12/1/2010 - Israeli Airport Security Steve Clemons has a useful post about GOP demands for Israeli-style airport security in place of the TSA’s strip-’n'-grope regime. Not only would it be more expensive than TARP, and quite probably impractical, but as Stephen Walt writes to Clemons, there’s a bigger question going unaddressed here: Am I the only person who sees the irony in the recommendation that the US adopt the Israeli approach to airline security? The proper question to ask is: why do we suddenly need greater airport security? Could it be because we’ve gradually adopted Israel’s approach to the Middle East too? Our support for Israel is the reason we were attacked on 911 in the first place.

12/1/2010 - The Democracy Agenda is Over One other notable aspect of these stories has been the reaction of neoconservatives. I mentioned Jennifer Rubin and David Frum in the piece. But The Washington Times‘ Eli Lake and The Atlantic‘s Jeffrey Goldberg have also rushed to point out that Wikileaks proves “that it is not just Israel that seeks to pull America into a fight with Teheran.” This is a red herring. No one with any familiarity with the region would doubt that other Arab nations are uncomfortable with Iran’s ascendency. The problem with an American strike on Iran isn’t that it would be in Israel’s interest, it is that it is not in the American interest. Adding King Abdullah doesn’t make a hill of difference. Why should Uncle Sam muscle up on his behalf?

12/1/2010 - A Dangerous Link There are safer ways for the Obama administration to prove its unquestioned support for Israel’s security. Really? And why should he have to do that at all? He was elected to serve the AMERICAN PEOPLE.

12/1/2010 - A Look at the Franken Files On the Senate floor, however, Franken has been less active on issues relating to the Jewish community and Israel. He did not co-sponsor any of six recent bills in support of Israel, including one “calling for the immediate and unconditional release” of Gilad Shalit (Resolution 571) and another opposing the Arab League trade boycott of Israel (Bill 1671). He also did not cosponsor Bill 3821, protecting Jewish students from discrimination on the ground of religion under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act — which has not yet come to a vote. Franken’s official website also does not mention Israel or anti-Jewish discrimination, and does not include a section on Israel or anti-Semitism. This may be because most of his focus in his first two years has been directed toward issues relating directly to Minnesotans. Franken, for example, lists “Agriculture and Rural Issues” at the top of his agenda on his official website. Oh dear, how dare Franken put the interests of his constituents over the interests of a foreign nation! The nerve.

12/1/2010 - Now We Know. America Really Doesn't Care About Injustice in the Middle East It's not that US diplomats don't understand the Middle East; it's just that they've lost all sight of injustice. Vast amounts of diplomatic literature prove that the mainstay of Washington's Middle East policy is alignment with Israel, that its principal aim is to encourage the Arabs to join the American-Israeli alliance against Iran, that the compass point of US policy over years and years is the need to tame/bully/crush/oppress/ ultimately destroy the power of Iran. There is virtually no talk (so far, at least) of illegal Jewish colonial settlements on the West Bank, of Israeli "outposts", of extremist Israeli "settlers" whose homes now smallpox the occupied Palestinian West Bank – of the vast illegal system of land theft which lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian war. And incredibly, all kinds of worthy US diplomats grovel and kneel before Israel's demands – many of them apparently fervent supporters of Israel – as Mossad bosses and Israel military intelligence agents read their wish-list to their benefactors. A good read.

12/1/2010 - WikiLeaks Israel warned U.S. not to arm Arab states against Iran Netanyahu is quoted as warning that should Iran get the bomb despite U.S.-led efforts to curb its uranium enrichment, Arab powers could shift loyalties from Washington to Tehran.

12/1/2010 - Turkish foreign minister to hold talks in US Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu starts a four–day visit to the United States Saturday for talks on bilateral ties and regional issues, the foreign ministry said Friday.

12/1/2010 - Armed members of Jewish Defense League forced way into Paris museum The BDS France Campaign- On Sunday November 21, 2010, more than 30 members of the Jewish Defense League forced their way into the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris, which was showing an exhibition of photographs from Gaza taken by Kai Wiedenhöfer. Armed, wearing helmets and hoods in some cases, group members tried to reach the basement exhibition room in order to vandalize the photographer's work, but were prevented from doing so by the museum security staff.

12/1/2010 - Hariri visits Iran to lobby for stability Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad al–Hariri visits Iran on Saturday, seeking its help to prevent political tensions turning violent if a U.N.–backed tribunal indicts Hezbollah members for killing his father.

12/1/2010 - Iran condemns leaks on Arab calls for attack "We don't give any value to these documents," Ahmadinejad told a news conference "It's without legal value. Iran and regional states are friends. Such acts of mischief have no impact on relations between nations." Wikileaks = psyops?

12/1/2010 - Is Israel's Mossad Targeting Iran's Nuclear Scientists? This is why it's likely it was the Israelis behind the Hariri assasination. The Israelis were the first terrorists in the Middle East (Irgun and Stern gangs) and the Arabs simply have learned from them.

12/1/2010 - Iran Scientist Killed by Bomb Worked on Atomic Project Shahriari was a member of a regional scientific program known as Sesame, which includes Israel as a member, according to the project’s website. He succeeded Massoud Ali-Mohammadi, an Iranian scientist who also died in an attack, the Tehran-based Asre-Iran website, which is close to the government, said today. Ali-Mohammadi, a professor of elementary particle physics, was killed in January by a bomb planted outside his home in Tehran.

12/1/2010 - Israeli firms see a global market for their anti-terrorism know-how "We might be a small country, but we're not small in this business," said Hefetz, director of the Israel Export & International Cooperation Institute, a quasi-government business promotion group that this month organized the Homeland Security Conference, Israel's first expo for domestic security providers. .....More than 400 Israeli companies export about $1.5 billion annually in domestic security goods and technology, including biometric devices, tear gas canisters, anti-intrusion systems, airport screening machines, explosives detectors and remote-controlled vehicles. How much terror is manufactured by Israel to further its massive anti-terrorism business?

12/1/2010 - Turkey 'won't be silent' if Israel strikes Lebanon "Does (Israel) think it can enter Lebanon with the most modern aircraft and tanks to kill women and children, and destroy schools and hospitals, and then expect us to remain silent?" Erdogan said at a conference organised by the Union of Arab Banks. "Does it think it can use the most modern weapons, phosphorus munitions and cluster bombs to kill children in Gaza and then expect us to remain silent? "We will not be silent and we will support justice by all means available to us."

12/1/2010 - WikiLeaks Israel's Security Concerns Often Clash With U.S. Interests Gilad's "typically frank" remarks lend credence to the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus, then CENTCOM Commander, before the Senate Armed Service Committee in March. Petraeus articulated several reasons why U.S. and Israeli interests did not necessarily coincide. The Arab-Israeli conflict, according to Petraeus, "present[s] distinct challenges to our ability to advance our interests," and "foments anti-American sentiment, due to a perception of U.S. favoritism for Israel." Petraeus went on to describe how Israel's ongoing conflicts spurred recruitment efforts for al-Qaeda and increased Iranian influence in the region.

12/1/2010 - Russians Refuted US Claim of Iranian Missile Threat to Europe by Gareth Porter The Russians maintained that even assuming favorable conditions, Iran would be able to begin a program to develop ballistic missiles that could reach Central Europe or Moscow only after 2015 at the earliest. The Russians denied, however, that Iran has such an intention, arguing that its ballistic missile program continues to be directed toward “regional concerns” – meaning deterring an attack on Iran by Israel.

12/1/2010 - Iran's military looks to the sky as new priority Still, Iran clearly is trying to close security gaps around nuclear sites – including Iran's main uranium enrichment lab – and blunt the edge that the Pentagon and Israel gain from drone technology. Iranian commanders now view drones as a critical tool, including to monitor the U.S. 5th Fleet based across the Gulf in Bahrain.

12/1/2010 - WikiLeaks Files Threaten Egypt's Role as Mideast Mediator

12/1/2010 - WikiLeaks Lesson: Deception Part of Middle East Diplomacy then there's the revelation, from Israeli officials, that a number of U.S. allies in the Gulf feel that their views are so routinely ignored by Washington that they have taken to relaying messages via Israel, which they know has the ear of those in power in the U.S. But any sense of strategic intimacy between Israel and even these most conservative Arab regimes is undercut by the cables' revelation that Israeli officials have constantly questioned some of the goodies included in U.S. arms sales to those regimes, making clear their suspicion that such weapons could one day be turned against Israel.

12/1/2010 - “There is no anti-Semitic sentiment in Iran” If you don’t believe in Moses and Jesus, you are not Muslim Islamic theologian Mohsen Rabbani, director of “Fundacion Cultural Oriente”, describes religious similarities between Jews and Muslims. “We believe that Moses and Jesus are great prophets. If you don’t believe that, you are not Muslim. We believe in Abrahamic religions. We view them as brothers. We as Muslims believe in Prophet Moses. The Islamic Republic of Iran is the only country where religious minorities have the same freedoms, occupy high positions, are free to operate on the market, in the economy, and have their representatives in the parliament. We consider ourselves first Jews, then Christians, and only after that, Muslims.” Great article.

12/1/2010 - Israel torn on U.S. arming Arabs against Iran: WikiLeaks Shapiro declines an Israeli request to review the U.S. report on planned Middle East arms sales before its submission to Congress, as it contained secret intelligence assessments. The Obama administration announced last month it would go ahead with the $60 billion deal with Saudi Arabia. A Pentagon official, Alexander Vershbow, told reporters at the time: "Israel does not object to this sale."

12/1/2010 - Israel approves detention center for migrants other officials said authorities cannot let thousands of economic migrants enter illegally each year, take jobs from Israelis and dilute the country's Jewish character. The supreme irony here is that it is the Jewish groups here in America that are squarely behind the effort to grant amnesty to illegals in America, by their own admission. Yet, it's another standard for Israel. Ironically, many of these immigants are from Sudan, another celebrated cause of American Jews.

12/1/2010 - Is Glenn Beck After the Wrong Billionaire? It’s kindly old Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. He has six channels on my cable system alone. He actually pays Republican presidential contenders to pontificate on air. He owns The Wall Street Journal, The Times of London and a major Hollywood movie studio. But he doesn’t pull anyone’s strings, does he? Nah.

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November

11/24/2010 - Israel planes hit Gaza targets after rocket fire At least four people, three women and a boy, were hurt in one attack in the central Gaza Strip when an uninhabited building close to where they were standing collapsed after being hit, local residents said.

11/24/2010 - Liar, Liar by Philip Giraldi His administration’s retreat from any confrontation with Israel in an attempt to make a recalcitrant Netanyahu conform even to minimal standards of behavior confirms what all the world already knows: Israel will act and the United States will follow, even if those actions will inflict grave damage on the American people and on the US national interest. And what will that mean for the United States? It means that the decision about going to war for the US is essentially controlled by Israel because Tel Aviv can start a conflict with Iran at any time that will quickly draw Washington in. Those who think that the White House still is managing the situation are completely naïve. There is no indication that the Obama administration has warned Israel against bombing Iran because the US has no cards to play, having ruled out exerting any sort of economic or military pressure on Netanyahu. And there should be no doubt that an attack by Israel on an Iranian nuclear facility would trigger Iranian retaliation and immediate calls in Congress and the media to support Tel Aviv, leaving the president no option but to enter the conflict. ...So if you doubt that the United States is tied hand and foot to Israel in terms of its ability to take independent action in the Middle East, just listen to what Dennis Ross, Joe Biden, and Eric Cantor are saying. Does it sound like they are articulating policies beneficial to the US? Read on for more treason in our government. Philip Giraldi is a former CIA counterterrorism official.

11/24/2010 - Israeli soldiers who used Palestinian boy, 9, as a human shield avoid jail Majed was among dozens of men, women and children who were sheltering in a basement when the soldiers forced him to open a bag at gunpoint, according to the boy's affidavit, given to Defence for Children International (DCI), which filed a complaint against the Israeli army.

11/24/2010 - 'I saw Ariel Sharon murder 2 Palestinian toddlers in Lebanon' Dutch media this month published articles accusing Ariel Sharon of murdering Palestinian children in Lebanon. Former officials who worked with Sharon said the publications were false. The Israeli foreign ministry called the claim "a modern blood libel."

11/24/2010 - U.S. ready to offer Israel written guarantees if it restarts peace talks

11/24/2010 - Qaeda-linked group threatens Israelis, in Hebrew

11/24/2010 - AIPAC Gets Down and Dirty in Pushback vs. Defamation Suit former AIPAC staffer and now liberal columnist M.J. Rosenberg sees more to it. According to Rosenberg, if Rosen proves that his operations, including going to a foreign official to warn him about the investigation, were all part of AIPAC’s standard operating procedures, “that would mean that AIPAC is not a domestic lobbying organization at all, but something very, very different.”

11/24/2010 - US Taxpayers Footing the Bill for Israeli 'Refugee Resettlement' Just remember this when you see all of the continued poverty in the US as more and more people are forced to use food stamps in order to survive; this is just another one of the costs of Israel to the American taxpayers.

11/24/2010 - 'US no longer sees Israel as an asset' Rivlin’s remarks provide a good reference point for how average Israelis view the growing tension between Jerusalem and Washington, which is being fed by a burgeoning movement within the US to paint Israel as a liability, both ethically and politically. It's about time! Too bad Congress hasn't followed suit. YET.

11/24/2010 - Israeli bill could threaten future peace deals

11/24/2010 - U.S. and Israel: Still No Consensus on Pressuring Iran An open disagreement between Israel and the Pentagon in recent weeks has highlighted the dilemma President Barack Obama faces in making progress on Iran. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday poured cold water on last week's suggestion by Israeli Prime Minister that the only way Iran can be stopped from acquiring nuclear weapons is for the U.S. to threaten military action. Military action, Gates warned, would solve nothing; in fact it would be more likely to drive Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. Somebody needs to tell Israel to fight its own battles. Let us get our troops out of there first, as, they most certainly would pay the price for any such action. And thank you, Mr. Robert Gates, for putting the interests of our country, America, FIRST.

11/24/2010 - ISRAELI SOLDIERS DETAIN FIVE PALESTINIAN SCHOOLBOYS IN SOUTH HEBRON HILLS These kinds of incidents are the evidence of the Israeli military escort’s failure to protect the children from settler’s violence. In the last school year, the children were attacked 19 times, they waited for the escort 53 hours and they missed almost 27 hours of classes.

11/24/2010 - IDF officer suspected of blocking probe into Gaza civilian death Sergeant S. was part of a combined force of Givati and armored brigades which had entered a built up area when it identified a group of around 30 Palestinians walking toward them, apparently after being ordered by the IDF to evacuate their homes in a neighboring area. A deputy battalion commander ordered troops to fire warning shots toward the group - but not at them. Soon after the order was given, two Givati Brigade soldiers joined the troops. One of them, S., opened fire, killing the two women.

11/24/2010 - Jewish groups push for pardon of worst spy against US Insiders associated with the push, which resulted last week in a congressional letter to President Obama asking for clemency for the American Jew convicted in 1987 of spying for Israel, say the main factor was one man: David Nyer, an Orthodox activist from Monsey, N.Y. Nyer, working under the auspices of the National Council of Young Israel and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, repeatedly called dozens of congressional offices and pressed Jewish groups asking for a leader to take on the case of Pollard... Yet another example of the treason on Capitol Hill. Read on.

11/24/2010 - Abbas insists on Jerusalem in settlement freeze

11/24/2010 - U.S. bars Palestinian statehood moves in U.N. agencies At a meeting of the International Telecommunications Union last month in Mexico, the Palestinian delegations tabled a motion designed to secure them the rights of a member state, said Sulaiman Zuhairi, a senior Palestinian official. "We could have gone to voting and got what we wanted," he said, saying it was endorsed by around 50 countries and was on track to pass with the backing of an additional 40 states.

11/24/2010 - U.S. official: Israel must refrain from East Jerusalem construction during freeze The official added that President Barack Obama had committed in an oral message to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas last April that the U.S. expects both sides to refrain from "actions that would seriously undermine trust," including in East Jerusalem, and would respond with "steps, actions, or adjustments in policy" to any such provocative actions as long as negotiations are underway. The U.S. administration has defined "actions that would seriously undermine trust" as including major housing announcements, demolitions, or evictions in East Jerusalem

11/24/2010 - Israel says no building freeze in Jerusalem Israel insisted Thursday it would keep building homes in disputed east Jerusalem, threatening to hold up a U.S.–proposed settlement construction moratorium designed to renew deadlocked Mideast peacemaking.

11/24/2010 - Israel condemns Web list of Gaza soldiers Israel's military on Friday condemned the publication of names and photographs of 200 Israeli soldiers on a website that called them "war criminals." If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

11/24/2010 - Israel and U.S. struggle to conclude settlement pact The latest snag concerned a pledge that Israel says U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made to provide the country free of charge 20 F–35 stealth warplanes worth $3 billion. Politicians said Washington was backtracking and now wanted some sort of payment for the coveted fighter aircraft. "It looks like the free stealth fighters have slipped," said Benny Begin, a minister from Netanyahu's Likud party who is opposed to the proposed U.S. deal, warning that Washington was setting a trap to extract major concessions later down the line. We have to bribe them to stop breaking the law. Other nations (Iraq, namely) would've been invaded for such behavior.

11/24/2010 - Evidence of Iran Nuclear Weapons Program May Be Fraudulent An IAEA official told Seymour Hersh that the Israelis were behind the revelation of the sites and two journalists from Der Spiegel reported the same thing. So did an adviser to an Iranian monarchist group, speaking to a writer for The New Yorker. That episode was not isolated, but was part of a broader pattern of Israeli cooperation with the MEK in providing intelligence intended to influence the CIA and the IAEA. Israeli authors Melman and Javadanfar, who claimed to have good sources in Mossad, wrote in their 2007 book that Israeli intelligence had "laundered" intelligence to the IAEA by providing it to Iranian opposition groups, especially the NCRI. Read it.

11/24/2010 - Israeli soldiers walk free in Gaza human shield case "It's purely for international consumption," Horton told AFP. "It's to look like you're doing something busy after the Goldstone report, in order to get the UN off your back. It's not a genuine attempt to enforce the law or to send a message that this is not appropriate conduct for the army to engage in."

11/24/2010 - With settlement deal, U.S. will be rewarding Israel's bad behavior It was only a little over a year and a half ago that the Obama administration demanded a freeze on Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, including even the "natural growth" of existing settlements. At the time, the administration called settlement activity "illegitimate" and appeared ready to go to the mat with Israel to show just how strongly the United States believed that settlements impede peace. But now, the administration says it is prepared to pay off Israel to freeze only some of its settlement activity, and only temporarily. For the first time in memory, the United States is poised to reward Israel for its bad behavior.

11/24/2010 - An American Bribe that Stinks of Appeasement By Robert Fisk Three billion dollars for three months is one billion dollars a month to stop Israel's colonisation. That's half a billion dollars a fortnight. That's $500m a week. That's $71,428,571 a day, or $2,976,190 an hour, or $49,603 a minute. And as well as this pot of gold, Washington will continue to veto any resolutions critical of Israel in the UN and prevent "Palestine" from declaring itself a state. It's worth invading anyone to get that much cash to stage a military withdrawal, let alone the gracious gesture of not building more illegal colonies for only 90 days while furiously continuing illegal construction in Jerusalem at the same time.

11/24/2010 - Israel’s ashkenazi elite, not Russian immigrants, are responsible for the country’s ever increasing racism

11/24/2010 - Palestinians, Syria condemn Israel referendum law In Damascus, the foreign ministry said "Syria totally rejects this Israeli measure which changes nothing to the fact that the Golan is Syrian territory and cannot be part of any negotiations." The legislation, which was backed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, passed with 65 Knesset members in favour and 33 against, and no abstentions. It requires any government signing a peace agreement that cedes territory in east Jerusalem or the Golan, or any other sovereign territory within Israel itself, to secure either approval of parliament or hold a national referendum.

11/24/2010 - Gazans shocked at how many neighbors, coworkers, officials are 'spying' for Israel Rumors and panic reached a fever pitch over the summer when the government began arresting people while shrouding the campaign in secrecy. Because officials wouldn’t say why anyone was arrested, people arrested for other crimes were sometimes falsely branded collaborators, a charge that carries a high price in Gazan society.

11/24/2010 - A Special Place in Hell-Israel News Before coming to America recently, I'd heard warnings from friends in the U.S. Jewish community that the very mention of J Street would spark nasty arguments, attempts to silence dissenting opinions regarding Israeli policies, behind-the-scenes sabotage by powerful pro-settlement donors and organizational professionals, perhaps cancellations of events. I had been warned, as well, that it was already too late.

11/24/2010 - George Galloway. Blasts Ottawa for its policies on Israel and Afghanistan "The Palestinians decided long away they will not go into the museum of ex-nations," he said to broad applause.

11/24/2010 - Israel must hold poll on any peace plan withdrawal after Knesset vote Any peace deal involving withdrawal by Israel from annexed territory in East Jerusalem or the Golan Heights will need to be ratified by a national referendum under legislation approved by the Israeli parliament late last night.

11/24/2010 - Palestinian official: Western Wall not Jewish "This wall has never been a part of what is called the Jewish Temple," the report claimed. "However, it was Islamic tolerance which allowed the Jews to stand before it and cry over its loss."

11/24/2010 - Ex-AIPAC Official Threatens to Uncover Mass Spying at Israel lobby Rosen says his actions were common practice at the organization. He said his next move is to show that AIPAC, Washington’s major pro-Israeli lobbying group by far, regularly traffics in sensitive U.S. government information, especially material related to the Middle East. “I will introduce documentary evidence that AIPAC approved of the receipt of classified information,” he said by e-mail. “Most instances of actual receipt are hard to document, because orally received information rarely comes with classified stamps on it nor records alerts that the information is classified.”

11/24/2010 - Israel stakes out lonely position on Jerusalem no other government recognizes Israel's 43–year–old annexation of east Jerusalem, and the Palestinians are increasingly vocal about insisting that what Israelis universally call "neighborhoods" are in fact illegal "settlements.".....On Tuesday, bulldozers started clearing land for 1,000 new housing units to expand Har Homa's population by a quarter. What might not have drawn much attention several years ago, however, drew reprimands this month from the U.S., the Palestinians and other countries.

11/24/2010 - The Rise, Then The Fall of GOP’s ‘National Rabbi’ In surreptitiously recorded conversations between Balkany and SAC Capital representatives that were played during the trial, Balkany boasted of his political connections. “Every six weeks, a different senator from Washington comes to my house for lunch or dinner,” he said on the tapes, citing such present and past senators as Orrin Hatch, Joseph Lieberman, Arlen Specter, Ted Kennedy and Max Baucus. There’s little cause to assume that Balkany is exaggerating. The catalog of boldface political players gives a hint as to the level of Balkany’s access, carefully cultivated through years of donations. His power, Sheinkopf said, came from “his ability to raise money, which gave him access, which gave him the ability to deliver things for his community that some thought were not possible to do. He was a great bundler. Money matters in politics; he was able to raise it.” ....A January 2000 Daily News report found that Balkany was charging Jewish families for his help in accessing child day care vouchers for low-income families. The report raised suspicions that applications submitted via Balkany received special consideration from the city as families elsewhere got put on long waiting lists. More than half the vouchers went to four heavily Orthodox Brooklyn neighborhoods, and the number going to the Brooklyn ZIP code in Boro Park where Balkany’s school and several others he helped were located was about five times the number of vouchers distributed in Manhattan and the Bronx combined. Balkany was never charged in this case. This is why ALL campaign financing must be ABOLISHED. This is NOT what the Founding Fathers had in mind for this country. Our representatives are supposed to be working for EVERYONE, not just the highest bidders. This is bullshit of the highest order.

11/24/2010 - Terror Expert Emerson Feels His Own Heat Over Finances “Emerson is a leading member of a multi-million-dollar industry of self-proclaimed experts who spread hate toward Muslims in books and movies, on websites and through speaking appearances,” the report claimed. In its wide-ranging article, The Tennessean reported that while the IPTF is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt charity, it in fact distributes almost all of its contributions to SAE Productions, a for-profit company that Emerson founded in 1994 and continues to control, as he does the IPTF. Citing publicly available tax filings, the paper reported that Emerson’s foundation paid $3,390,000 to SAE in 2008 — the foundation’s only significant expenditure. It was the Emerson-controlled for-profit firm that then made all expenditures on the foundation’s behalf. ....“Of all those of us who labored in the vineyard in trying to help the Jewish people, there is no one who stands higher in the pantheon of honor than Steve Emerson,” said Bialkin, a former chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, “for all of us — those of us who are hard-liners — feel this guy is worth his weight in gold.” And now you know why Emerson is allowed to get away with this.

11/24/2010 - Bush Lies - Not Just To Us, But To Himself The good news is that Cheney is gone and that Adm. Mullen is still around. The bad news is that Adm. Fallon was sacked for making it explicitly clear that, "We're not going to do Iran on my watch," and there are few flag officers with Fallon's guts and honesty. Moreover, President Barack Obama continues to show himself to be an invertebrate vis-à-vis Israel and its neocon disciples.

11/24/2010 - Al-Qaeda’s Christian Massacre — Aiding and Abetting the Occupation of Palestine The massacre of Iraqi Christians at Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad also makes one wonder about claims that the group has “a great sense of timing.” The slaughter of Catholic Mass-goers occurred just one week after church leaders from across the Middle East had forcefully condemned Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories.

11/24/2010 - Mystery of Who Funded Right-wing "Radical Islam" Campaign Deepens The DVDs, 28 million in all, were a boost to Republican candidates who were trying to paint Democrats as weak on terrorism -- and they arguably helped fuel the anti-Muslim sentiment that boiled over in the "ground zero mosque" fight last summer. The film, "Obsession: Radical Islam's War With the West," was widely criticized for its cartoonish portrayal of Muslims as modern-day Nazis. But who put up the money to send out all those millions of DVDs? Clarion, which has strong links to the right-wing Israeli group Aish HaTorah and is listed in government records as a foreign nonprofit, would never say

11/24/2010 - Eric Cantor and the Provoking of American Anti-semitism Essentially what Cantor did was tell the leader of a foreign country that he will protect that country from the official policies of the President of the United States–the person charged by the Constitution to carry out the nation’s foreign policy. Actually, the Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, have been supplying just this sort of protection for a very long time. But they have always done so surreptitiously. What is different with Cantor is that he has done this quite publically, letting us all know about it in a notice on his official stationary.

11/24/2010 - PM asks for Pollard’s Release as Part of Freeze Deal Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has asked the US to release Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard as part of a series of gestures made to Israel in an effort to restart peace talks with the Palestinians, sources with knowledge of the talks told The Jerusalem Post over the weekend.

11/24/2010 - Israeli wanted by Colombia released in Russia He was sentenced in absentia to nearly 11 years in prison for his role in the 1980s training of far–right paramilitary groups responsible for mass murder and widespread land theft during a more than decade–long reign of terror across Colombia's countryside. And who better to do that than an Israeli?

11/24/2010 - New Museum on Independence Mall Is a Sign That Jews Have Arrived It is, therefore, a measure of how far American Jews have come, how much anti-Semitism has declined and how secure the Jewish community now feels that if any such fears were expressed, no notice whatsoever was taken of them. The new museum, in its prime location and through its eye-catching building, makes a bold statement. Nobody who walks the mall can miss it.

11/24/2010 - Shapiro: Administration Opposes Palestinian State Declaration Via U.N. What was on the minds of the Jewish leaders? A bevy of issues ranging from Iran sanctions, to delegitimization of Israel, to unilateral Palestinian steps (where Shapiro told Morton Klein of the ZOA that the administration opposes a move to ask the UN Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state, although he did not explicitly say the U.S. would veto it).

11/24/2010 - Ex-AIPAC official got at least $670,000 from donors The latest episode of the AIPAC spy scandal turned sordid last week, with the pro-Israeli lobby releasing its deposition of fired official Steven J. Rosen in which he confesses he engaged in extra-marital sex and watched pornography on his office computer. But largely buried beneath such tawdry details was an admission arguably far more damaging to Rosen’s drive to prove the organization ruined his professional life: that major Jewish donors supported him with hundreds of thousands of dollars during the four years after his dismissal in May 2005.

11/24/2010 - Occupation Is the Issue; BDS Is a Distraction a mobilization to oppose the Global BDS movement is now the highest priority of the pro-Israel community. .....“The BDS campaign is working hard to brand Israel. We must now work to brand the BDS movement as deceptive and destructive.” And we have a new and coordinated effort that includes the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, with initial funding in the millions of dollars, with roughly the same goal: Denounce BDS. Once again (yawn), Israel as embattled victim.

11/24/2010 - Jewish settlements targeted in divestment campaign Pension funds in Norway and Sweden have divested themselves of holdings in some firms involved in building in settlements or helping to erect Israel's contentious West Bank separation barrier. European activists are cranking up pressure on companies by exposing the West Bank ties and picketing stores that sell settlement goods. And some major U.S. churches are questioning companies as a precursor to possible divestment.

11/24/2010 - Columbia Student Group Drops Sponsorship of Gaza Talk Under Pressure J Street U’s national director, Daniel May, who introduced Ging at the Columbia event, took exception to the notion that Ging’s views are beyond the pale. If an event with Ging is considered illegitimate, May said, “then we are effectively saying that any criticism, any questioning of the effectiveness of Israel’s policies, is illegitimate.” Fascists strike again.

11/24/2010 - Sarah Palin, Neocon A great article out this week by former CIA Philip Giraldi deals with a recent letter Sarah Palin penned to Congress, evidently on behalf of her Neocon puppetmasters

11/24/2010 - Pope's praise of Pius dismays Holocaust survivors "The decisive thing is what he did and what he tried to do, and on that score, we really must acknowledge, I believe, that he was one of the great righteous men and that he saved more Jews than anyone else," Benedict said, offering perhaps his most sweeping praise of Pius' papacy to date.

11/24/2010 - Purposes to All in Tents: Four Films About Bedouins in One The film opens with the four directors reading facts about the Bedouin community of Israel over sepia-tinted footage of Bedouins shuffling through the desert. As one says, in 1948, the year of the Jewish state’s founding, his community was told, “Keep living on your land as you did during the British Mandate.” Whether due to migration or other reasons left somewhat ambiguous, Israel’s 2008 Goldberg Commission found that 70,000 Bedouins living in the Negev in 1948 had, by 1951, dwindled to 12,750.

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11/17/2010 - Two brothers killed in Israeli strike against Gaza militant

11/17/2010 - Two-year-old girl dies from leukemia while waiting to leave Gaza for treatment A two-year-old girl suffering from leukemia died while waiting for an urgent referral to an Israeli hospital. Since January 2009 a total of 33 patients have died while waiting to access hospitals outside Gaza.

11/17/2010 - Palestinians say settlers torched their olive trees A senior Israeli intelligence officer acknowledged that there had been acts of violence and vandalism by Jews in the West Bank, noting in particular recent attacks against mosques there. "We are not happy about the situation connected with Jewish extremists in the West Bank," he told a group of foreign journalists on Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Settlers are Israeli terrorists, but are rarely prosecuted for their crimes.

11/17/2010 - Clinton offers Netanyahu security pledge on peace talks "The chances of reaching a peace agreement will be improved significantly by achieving comprehensive security understandings between Israel and the United States," Netanyahu said before Thursday's talks began. Extortion.

11/17/2010 - US deal would allow Israel some West Bank building

11/17/2010 - Iran starts "biggest" air defense war games Iran began what it said was its biggest ever air defense drill on Tuesday to test its ability to deter air strikes, which the United States and Israel have not ruled out to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.

11/17/2010 - Israeli high tech adjusts to Asian challenge It's well known that the emergence of India and China is casting a shadow on the developed economies of Europe and North America. Less famous is the challenge facing Israel: With the Jewish state having quietly prospered as a global haven of innovation, key players here are asking whether the Asian giants might steal their high–tech thunder. If they are prosperous, then they can GIVE US OUR TAXPAYER MONEY BACK.

11/17/2010 - Lengthy US-Israel talks fail to make Mideast headway Cut all aid to Israel. Watch how fast they make peace with their neighbors.

11/17/2010 - Cantor Draws Fire Over Pledge to Israel

11/17/2010 - Israeli official: Hamas rockets can reach Tel Aviv

11/17/2010 - Eric Cantor's Pledge of Allegiance Leave aside the absurdity of believing that Israel needs to be protected from the extremely deferential and devoted Obama administration. So extraordinary is Cantor's pledge that even the Jewish Telegraph Agency's Ron Kampeas -- himself a reflexive American defender of most things Israel -- was astonished, and wrote: I can't remember an opposition leader telling a foreign leader, in a personal meeting, that he would side, as a policy, with that leader against the president. Certainly, in statements on one specific issue or another -- building in Jerusalem, or somesuch -- lawmakers have taken the sides of other nations. But to have-a-face to face and say, in general, we will take your side against the White House -- that sounds to me extraordinary. Treason.

11/17/2010 - U.S. offers Israel warplanes in return for new settlement freeze According to "The Cable" blog, White House Middle East adviser Dan Shapiro told a group of American Jewish leaders on Friday that U.S. was committed to fighting delegitimization of Israel, and listed recent efforts to advocate on behalf of Israel. Such efforts included: curbing actions by the United Nations on the Goldstone Report; blocking anti-Israel UN resolutions concerning the Gaza flotilla raid; defeating international resolutions aimed at exposing Israel's nuclear program at the International Atomic Energy Agency; and strengthening pressure on Iran and Syria in regards to their nuclear and proliferation activities.

11/17/2010 - Palestinian held for Facebook criticism of Islam The case of the unlikely apostate, a shy barber from this backwater West Bank town, is highlighting the limits of tolerance in the Western–backed Palestinian Authority – and illustrating a new trend by authorities in the Arab world to mine social media for evidence.

11/17/2010 - Plan for Mideast talks bets on quick border dealClinton outlined the "borders first" approach in September, saying that an agreement on territory would eliminate the debate about settlements "because some areas would be inside Israel and some areas would not be inside Israel." Netanyahu has not revealed his detailed position on borders. His predecessor, Ehud Olmert, proposed to Abbas in 2008 that Israel annex 6.5 percent of the West Bank, where large Jewish settlements are located, and compensate the Palestinians with a roughly equal amount of Israeli land. The Palestinians proposed a land swap of 1.9 percent, negotiators said at the time. Those talks ended abruptly in December 2008. It appears unlikely Netanyahu would match Olmert's proposal, since he has steadfastly refused to resume negotiations where they left off.

11/17/2010 - How the Neocons Are Co-opting the Tea Party by Scott McConnell Palin has become neoconservatism’s reliable vector into the Tea Party world. She reliably echoes neoconservative talking points about war with Iran. When addressing the Tea Party Convention in Nashville last February, she hit neocon talking points by citing Ronald Reagan, "peace through strength," and "tough action" against Iran. She declared that the United States needed a foreign policy that "reflected our values" and denounced the alleged policy of treating terrorism as "a mere law enforcement matter." Wearing an Israeli flag pin, she charged that President Obama was causing "Israel, our critical ally" to question our support by reaching out to hostile regimes.

11/17/2010 - Clinton offers Netanyahu security pledge on peace talks

11/17/2010 - Straight Talk from Sarah by Philip Giraldi Sarah Palin has written an “Open Letter to Republican Freshmen Members of Congress” telling them what they should support in the upcoming legislative session. The letter is clearly directed towards those congressmen who are believed to be associated with the tea parties. Her advice on foreign policy is pretty much a straight neoconservative interpretation – not at all surprising since that is who is advising her and providing her with her talking point

11/17/2010 - Cantor Recants no American official — by any stretch of the imagination — has the right to tell the government of Israel, or any foreign government, that he stands with the foreign leader against his own president. It is one thing to oppose particular US policies; it is quite another to tell a foreign leader, "I'm with you, not my president." Of course, Cantor was just being honest. Although he does oppose virtually all of President Obama's policies (he's a Republican and that is what Republicans do), he supports 100% of Israeli policies. And although an extreme partisan domestically, when it comes to Israel, he supports whichever government is in power. He believes in the right to criticize this government, just not that one. Cantor serves Israel, not the United States. Understand that. That way, we can finally DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. He is NOT THE ONLY ONE.

11/17/2010 - Settler convicted of kidnapping, abusing Palestinian teen Struk had attacked the boy two months earlier, the indictment stated, while the latter was herding sheep with a friend near the village. Struk told them to leave the land, claiming it was his, and then beat the two boys. The settler also killed a young goat belonging to the Palestinian.

11/17/2010 - Obama calls latest Israeli plan promising On the Mideast, Washington's new proposal for reviving peace talks includes a 90–day ban on housing starts in West Bank settlements – but not in east Jerusalem

11/17/2010 - Israeli government seen accepting new settlement freeze In private, Palestinian officials have expressed anger over U.S. incentives to get Israel to prolong the partial moratorium on Jewish settlement building, saying it effectively constituted bribing Israel to fulfil basic international obligations.

11/17/2010 - Israel demands written US guarantees before freeze They're using extortion to bilk the US taxpayers of MORE money that would be obviously better spent HERE AT HOME.

11/17/2010 - Cabinet stalls on settlement freeze as Israel and U.S. clash over terms

11/17/2010 - Israeli military invades Palestinian village after settlers attack family

11/17/2010 - U.S. to store more weapons in Israel The United States will store an additional $400 million in emergency military equipment in Israel. The new equipment, which will arrive in Israel over the next two years, will be available to Israel in the event of an emergency. It will bring to $1.2 billion the amount of American military equipment being stockpiled in Israel by 2012.

11/17/2010 - Clinton, Netanyahu hold marathon Mideast talks Netanyahu has insisted Israel will maintain a military presence along the eastern border of any future Palestinian state. Aaron David Miller, a Middle East expert at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, said Netanyahu was likely to remain defiant. The premier is determined "to make it unmistakably clear to the Americans that Jerusalem was never a part of this understanding and will not be a part of it in the future. There's no question that he's prepared to stand his ground," Miller told AFP.

11/17/2010 - J Street and Republican Jewish Coalition Clash Over Their Own Influence on the Elections he RJC expanded the breadth of its campaign ads on Israel during this election, making its biggest ever investment. It is hoping to show a political return. Most of the group’s ad money went to eight races, but RJC polls do not provide information about the influence it had on the outcome of those races.

11/17/2010 - Major Dutch pension fund divests from occupation The major Dutch pension fund Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW), which has investments totaling 97 billion euros, has informed The Electronic Intifada that it has divested from almost all the Israeli companies in its portfolio.

11/17/2010 - Analysis: Obama's bid for Mideast peace is risky After watching fellow Democrats suffer bruising defeats in congressional elections, Obama is looking toward his own campaign for re-election in 2012. He needs a big win on foreign policy, and brokering an Israeli-Palestinian peace that has eluded U.S. leaders for six decades would certainly be that. To this end, the Obama administration has moved a significant distance from its original demands on Israel and its settlements.

11/17/2010 - ‘Social Suitability’ Nears OK As Israeli Housing Criterion Adalah claims that absorption committees are a means to exclude Arabs without saying so. Bishara said that these committees hide behind “vagueness,” as “no one can explain what social suitability is.”

11/17/2010 - Fate of Mideast talks in hands of polarizing rabbi The future of the Mideast peace process could rest in the hands of one very undiplomatic man: an outspoken 90–year–old rabbi who recently sparked an uproar by saying the Palestinian president should "perish from the world." Why have not the Israelis been told by US officials that they must end all of THEIR incitement against the Palestinians? Israel has for years, by way of our government, demanded the same of the Palestinians.

11/17/2010 - Israel OKs pullout from Lebanon border village Ghajar is a village of 2,200 people that lies in a strategic corner where the boundaries of Syria, Israel and Lebanon are in dispute. More than 1,500 residents live in the northern half. Its residents are members of Islam's Alawite sect, whose followers include many members of Syria's ruling elite. Most of the villagers say they want the village to remain united, regardless of who controls it. Virtually all residents have taken Israeli citizenship, further complicating the village's future.

11/17/2010 - Harper on Israel: Is the Prime Minister Mentally Sound? His dedication to that country supersedes his commitment to his own. That would be disturbing enough if Harper were merely a private citizen. But as prime minister it is beyond the pale and it isn't much of a stretch to suggest it borders on the betrayal of Canada and certainly Canadian interests. For what does it mean that Harper will defend Israel no matter the consequences for Canada? Harper appears to be a traitor to the Canadian people. The US has no shortage of such individuals - and for the same reason.

11/17/2010 - Israel rates low in terms of religious freedom While Israel’s Basic Law describes the country as a Jewish and democratic state, “Government policy continued to support the generally free practice of religion, although governmental and legal discrimination against non-Jews and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism continued,” according to the report. And if you read some of the news from the latest news batches, you'd see that these people have made sure OUR government TOO favors the Orthodox (in NYS, as one example). These are the first groups by their own admission to see to it that there's a separation of church and state here in the US (except evidently when it applies to their own).

11/17/2010 - Boston-area towns vote on Israeli anti-discrimination resolutions

11/17/2010 - Jewish Voters, Obama and the Great Elephant Hunt The two most dramatic swings in Jewish voting in the last 30 years had a lot to do with Israel: with 45% of the Jewish vote, Jimmy Carter garnered a record low for a Democrat in 1980, and with 12% of the Jewish vote, George H.W. Bush earned a near-record low for a Republican in 1992. The surveys don’t show it, but when a candidate sets off alarm bells, Israel matters big time.

11/17/2010 - CPT At-Tuwani October 2010 Update A visitor from England spent a day with the team and a delegation of 30 Mennonites from the US and Canada visited to see for themselves and hear the stories of nonviolent resistance of the people of At-Tuwani to the occupation and confiscation of their land by Israeli settlers and soldiers. The team helped a Palestinian couple from At-Tuwani prepare for a speaking tour in Italy next month.

11/17/2010 - Nigeria summons Iran diplomats over seized arms Immediately after the arms seizure, Israeli officials accused Iran of trying to sneak the shipment into the Gaza Strip, but Nigeria's security service now believes the arms were imported by some local politicians to destabilize Nigeria if they lose in the coming general elections.

11/17/2010 - "Put The Palestinians On A Diet" "The idea is to put the Palestinians on a diet, but not to make them die of hunger." ('Hamas readies for government, Israel prepares sanctions', Agence France Presse, February 16, 2006) The released documents contain actual equations used by the Israeli government to calculate the exact amounts of food, fuel and other necessities needed to do exactly that. ('Submitted to Gisha in the framework of a Freedom of Information Act Petition, AP 2744/09 Gisha v. Defense Ministry', Appendices B, C and D; http://gisha.org/UserFiles/File/HiddenMessages/DefenseMinistryDocumentsRevealedFOIAPetition.pdf)

11/17/2010 - Jewish Congressman Loses Florida Seat to Hard-Line, Pro-Israel Republican

11/17/2010 - Federations Find Youth Outreach Tricky Terrain at Yearly Meeting though conference leaders claimed to distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from delegitimization, the panels promoted as addressing the issue contained no public critics of Israeli policy. The audience heard instead from Republican messaging guru Frank Luntz and from representatives of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the right-leaning Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.

11/17/2010 - Wingnuts on Parade by Philip Giraldi Pollak, one of whose supporters is Alan Dershowitz, asked Schakowsky to join him in "condemning the Obama administration’s ongoing attack on Israel." In a debate with Schakowsky, Pollak unrolled a map of Israel and announced "My focus tonight will be Israel." Schakowsky’s campaign countered that she had a 100% pro-Israel voting record, which was the truth, including even a vote in favor of Israel’s right to defend itself after it killed 300 Palestinian children in operation Cast Lead against Gaza. She also cited self defense when signing a congressional letter endorsing the killing of US citizen Furkan Dogan on the Gaza flotilla. In addition, she has enthusiastically endorsed every actual and proposed piece of legislation sanctioning Iran.

11/17/2010 - Standard Operating Procedures: How the Neocons Are Co-opting the Tea Party Before there were Tea Partiers, there was Sarah Palin. The summer before John McCain put the Alaska governor on the ticket, she had been “discovered” on a Weekly Standard sponsored summer cruise to Alaska. She hosted Standard editor Bill Kristol and others at a luncheon in the state capitol, where she impressed them as a raw political talent. Kristol’s subsequent touting elevated her onto McCain’s vice presidential short list. One AEI staffer described Palin as a “project,” adding “[s]he’s bright and she’s a blank page. She’s going places and it’s worth going there with her.” ...For the neoconservatives, this alliance has paid off. Palin has become the neoconservatism’s reliable vector into the Tea Party world. She reliably echoes neoconservative talking points about war with Iran. When addressing the Tea Party Convention in Nashville last February, she hit neocon talking points by citing Ronald Reagan, “peace through strength,” and “tough action” against Iran

11/17/2010 - Not one cent for tribute: Obama's embarrassing gift to Israel On October 25, Dennis Ross, the White House point person on the Middle East, told a meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that not only is America committed "to Israel's security", but that the U.S. commitment "has also been demonstrated in our work to defeat efforts in international organizations to single out or delegitimize Israel." This is new, but undoubtedly welcome to Israel's supporters: the U.S. will not only defend Israel, it will silence its critics. The Ross pledge was ostensibly made to bar a U.N. move for Palestinian statehood which, under the agreement, would be vetoed by the U.S. But the administration's new promise has far reaching consequences.

11/17/2010 - Senior Republican Against US Aid to Palestinians Ros-Lehtinen is another one of the most egregious Israel-firsters on Capitol Hill. She should be deported to Israel, for, she too does not serve the American people.

11/17/2010 - U.S. Taxpayers are Paying for Israel's West Bank Occupation As more Americans go hungry, our government funds the state in the Middle East that is based on religious supremacy, which goes against the ideals upon which this nation was founded.

11/17/2010 - This Congress Won't Give Obama a Free Pass on Israel he new Congress can be expected to be openly supportive of Israel. That means that if the president were to resume his tactic of pressuring Israel he will find himself in opposition to many in the Congress. With many other urgent items on his agenda he may not want to get into a collision with Congress on this issue. If he were to consider taking punitive measures against Israel, if he finds the Israeli government recalcitrant, he will find it difficult to get the cooperation of Congress in the areas where this is required.

11/17/2010 - Land of the Food Insecure: Record Rates of Hunger in US Hey I know, let's give a couple more billion to Israel (whose economy is flourishing).

11/17/2010 - AIPAC Bares All to Quash Lawsuit Shapiro and Rosen are clearly building a very interesting box of incrimination around Kohr. While it is now established fact that a copy of the 300-page “Probable Economic Effect of Providing Duty-Free Treatment for U.S. Imports from Israel, Investigation No. 332-180” was probably still in AIPAC’s possession in 1987 and circulating among its employees, the report was only classified as “confidential” by the U.S. government. If Rosen intends to reveal Kohr received that particular classified information through such depositions, he will have to coach his legal team on the details of how AIPAC (in conjunction with the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs) obtained such classified U.S. industrial secrets.

11/17/2010 - Eyeing Iran, Israel slates missile shield for 2015

11/17/2010 - Justice Department Prepares for Expansion of Law Prohibiting ‘Material Support’ for Terrorism Of course, the first targets of this draconian expansion of the material support law will not be a former president or the establishment media, but members of a Marxist organization and vocal opponents of the governments of Israel and Colombia and the U.S. policies supporting these repressive governments. Come and get me, bitches :)

11/17/2010 - Still More Than a Minyan in the Senate: The Post-Election Count : Cantor apparently is no longer the only elected Jewish Republican on Capitol Hill. Nan Hayworth, newly elected from New York’s 19th congressional district, got a shout-out in an AIPAC email blast that congratulated winners and especially saluted the three newly elected Jews, one of whom is Hayworth.

11/17/2010 - Was Glenn Beck's George Soros Takedown Anti-Semitic Jewish groups like the Anti-Defamation League have condemned Beck's description of Soros's behavior in occupied Hungary, while others have said that Beck's entire broadside against Soros veers uncomfortably close to anti-Semitism.

11/17/2010 - Release of the ‘Dancing Israelis’, Coincidence or Blackmail? Following what ABC News reported were “high-level negotiations between Israeli and U.S. government officials”, a settlement was reached in the case of the five Urban Moving Systems suspects. Intense political pressure apparently had been brought to bear. The reputable Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported that by the last week of October 2001, some six weeks after the men had been detained, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and two unidentified “prominent New York congressmen” were lobbying heavily for their release. According to a source at ABC News close to the 20/20 report, high-profile criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz also stepped in as a negotiator on behalf of the men to smooth out differences with the U.S. government.

11/17/2010 - Bribing Israel Enhancing the Swag What it all means is that the Obama administration is promising to interfere with and prevent any effort to hold Israel accountable in the international arena. The U.S. is staking out a position that allowing the UN to function unhindered, or implementing UN resolutions such as the Goldstone Report, are simply gifts to be bestowed or withheld according to politically-driven, not international law-driven, considerations.

11/17/2010 - Congress lifts hold on $100 million for Lebanese army

11/17/2010 - Israel welcomes last Ethiopians of Jewish descent The original link for a related story by the JTA is here but it no longer works. It`s from June 15, 2007. I found it on this website. Essentially, WE THE US TAXPAYERS are paying for the `resettlement` of these `refugees`.

Just remember that when you see all of the continued poverty in the US as more and more people are forced to use food stamps in order to survive.

Here is a similar story on one of my blogs from November of 2005. It states:

"The package, which the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbied for, includes an additional $40 million in refugee-resettlement assistance for Israel, money that helps absorb Ethiopian Jews, and provides up to $75 million annually in additional funds by cutting administrative costs."

11/17/2010 - Australian Zionist group withdraws offensive ad JTA - Jewish & Israel News A major Zionist organization has withdrawn an advertisement because it featured images mocking the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

11/17/2010 - British politician: ‘Israel is the root cause of terrorism' In the second attack on Israel by Liberal Democrat politicians in the same week that the party’s leader said the party got it wrong on Israel, Jenny Tonge claimed on Friday that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians is the root cause of terrorism worldwide. Possibly “Holocaust guilt” allows this treatment to go unchecked, Tonge said, adding that it might also be the “power of the pro-Israel lobby” in the UK and US.

11/17/2010 - Rowing Home to Haven In Sunny Palestine It must be a sign that I’m getting old that I encounter fewer and fewer people who remember that, prior to the creation of the State of Israel, in 1948, “Palestine” was a perfectly respectable word among Jews and was used by them all the time

11/17/2010 - We Believe We Can Make A Difference I have devoted most of my adult life to working as a diplomat on behalf of Palestinian rights, foremost their right to live as a free and dignified people in their homeland in peace and security, side by side with all their neighbors, including Israelis.

11/17/2010 - Moving Beyond Stereotypes As a result of our intense, often volatile, discussions, I came to see that each side perceives itself as the victim and sees the other as the aggressor. I also realized that Israelis feel as vulnerable and scared as Palestinians, even though Israel is so strong and Palestine so weak. And I see that Palestinians are imagined powerful enough to influence the entire outcome of the conflict by ending our resistance to occupation, which, whether violent or non-violent, Israel calls “terrorism.”

11/17/2010 - Challenging Each Other, In Good Faith Because I lived in Ramallah for a few years, I’m able to bring to the group some critical insights about life in a “five-star prison” with limited to no freedom of movement. To reach my father’s village, normally a 15-minute drive from Ramallah, we had to circumvent all the special roads that Israel built — mostly on confiscated Palestinian land — for settlers’ use only. Now the trip takes an hour and a half.

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11/10/2010 - Israel claims assassination of top Islamist militant in Gaza

11/10/2010 - German FM calls on Israel to lift Gaza siege German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle called on Israel on Monday to lift its siege of the Gaza Strip, saying the blockade of 1.5 million people was "not acceptable."

11/10/2010 - Echoes of Iraq as Hawks Push for Attack on Iran Starting in January, advocates of a tougher line on Iran will have powerful allies in Congress who could help advance that plan. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.), a veteran Iran hawk who has downplayed the effectiveness of sanctions, will take over as chairwoman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

11/10/2010 - Netanyahu Pounds War Drums Less than a week after Republicans made major gains in the U.S. midterm elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on President Barack Obama to "create a credible threat of military action" against Iran. .....According to diplomatic sources quoted in the Israeli and U.S. press, Netanyahu's appeal came during a meeting with Vice President Joseph Biden in New Orleans Sunday. It suggests that his right-wing government and its allies here, including hawkish Republicans who will take control of the House of Representatives in January, are preparing to escalate pressure on Obama to adopt a more confrontational stance with Tehran. Can Israel ever fight its own battles?

11/10/2010 - Bush: Olmert asked me to bomb suspected Syria nuclear plant Bush writes that he told Olmert, "I cannot justify an attack on a sovereign nation unless my intelligence agencies stand up and say it's a weapons program." Can Israel ever fight any of its own battles?

11/10/2010 - Palestinians say it's time to recognize their state "Israeli unilateralism is a call for immediate international recognition of the Palestinian state," he said in a statement. The United States swiftly repeated its opposition to any unilateral moves to recognize Palestinian statehood.

11/10/2010 - U.S. midterms: AIPAC lauds re-election of pro-Israel stalwarts Israel's Washington embassy also expressed satisfaction with the results. "Support for Israel at the Congress is strong and bipartisan,” an embassy spokesman told Haaretz.

11/10/2010 - VP Biden pledges unwavering support for Israel The vice president said the Mideast's genuine threats come from Iran and he pledged to defend Israel from that country.

11/10/2010 - Netanyahu says Iran must fear military strike Netanyahu's call for a "credible military threat" drew a swift response from the U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said international sanctions were "biting more deeply" than the Iranians anticipated. "I disagree that only a credible military threat can get Iran to take the actions that it needs to," Gates said in Australia on Monday. "At this point we continue to believe that the political and economic approach that we are taking is in fact having an impact on Iran."

11/10/2010 - 'US Support for Israel Must Continue Forever,' says Biden Iran featured prominently in Biden’s address in New Orleans.

11/10/2010 - Help the Palestinians. Go See This Movie The film, which a Washington Post reviewer called "riveting" and "a sure-fire crowd-pleaser," and former AIPAC staffer M.J. Rosenberg called a "totally engaging" story of "regular people" who "take their fate into their own hands," is starting to be shown throughout the United States. In the next two months, scheduled screenings include: Washington DC, through November 11; Chicago, starting November 19; Minneapolis, November 26; Palm Beach, December 1; Boston, December 3; Seattle, December 17.

11/10/2010 - How will the Republican-controlled House affect U.S.-Israel ties? "If we regain the majority, we will use our larger platform to make the case that a strong Israel is firmly in the strategic and moral interests of the United States. We will press the administration not to pressure Israel into making concessions that will compromise Israel’s already tenuous security.”

11/10/2010 - 'Palestinians will give U.S. more time to relaunch peace talks' The Palestinians will give the United States several more weeks to try to relaunch direct peace talks with Israel, but will not buckle on their key demand for a halt to Israeli settlement activity, a top Palestinian official said on Thursday.

11/10/2010 - Israel sparks legal row during William Hague visit British officials were dismayed after being ambushed ahead of a meeting between Hague and his Israeli counterpart, Avigdor Lieberman, at which the issue of universal jurisdiction – under which such arrest warrants can be made – was due to be discussed. Drama queens.

11/10/2010 - Arrest fears prompt Israel to relocate strategic forum with U.K. Israel said an annual strategic forum of Israeli and British officials set to be held in London has been relocated to Israel due to continued fears that Israeli leaders could be arrested on war crimes charges.

11/10/2010 - Israel halts 'special strategic dialogue' with Britain to protest arrest warrants Israel has canceled its special strategic dialogue with London to protest a law that enables Britain to arrest visiting Israeli officials for alleged war crimes, officials in Jerusalem said Wednesday.

11/10/2010 - Israeli fast train to run through West Bank Israel is taking Palestinian lands, some of them privately owned, for tunnel portals and access roads, Baum said. Most of the land belongs to the Palestinian villages of Beit Iksa and neighboring Beit Surik, whose residents have already been cut off from some of their lands by the construction of Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

11/10/2010 - Israel-Palestine News US denies support for UN Palestinian statehood bid

11/10/2010 - Israel demolishes illegal mosque in Arab town

11/10/2010 - Palestinians demand immediate statehood to counter Israeli 'unilateralism' The prospect of the United States recognising an independent Palestine without the agreement of Israel seems very remote. But Israeli analysts speculate that President Barack Obama could threaten to abstain rather than veto a UN resolution if he believes Israel is obstructing the path to a peace treaty.

11/10/2010 - Obama: Israel construction plans unhelpful Then do something about it.

11/10/2010 - Abbas seeks urgent Security Council meeting over East Jerusalem construction Israel announced earlier this week it plans for 1,300 new apartments on land in and around Jerusalem which was annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War. A further 800 housing units were planned for the settlement of Ariel in the northern West Bank.

11/10/2010 - Special Satmar School District Gets a Windfall Some basic math shows that the public school district for Kiryas Joel — a town founded in 1977 by the late grand rebbe of the Satmar Hasidic sect, Joel Teitelbaum, as a rural refuge for his followers — will receive more in RTTT funds per public school student than any other district in the state What remains unclear is whether the district can also use those funds to benefit its private school students, an outcome that would be welcome news to the religious schools that serve almost all the non-special education students in the politically influential town .......The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1994 that the district violated the Constitution’s requirement of separation between religion and state. But allies of the influential Satmar sect in the state government rewrote the law allowing for creation of the district, finally finding statutory language able to overcome the constitutional barriers. Unlike some New York villages and neighborhoods with majority Orthodox populations, Kiryas Joel is almost exclusively populated by members of the Satmar Hasidic sect. The village ranks among the poorest in the United States, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Read that again. And realize who cries the loudest to keep the separation of church and state, only when it applies to others.

11/10/2010 - Struggling Over Subsidies That Undo Modernity The reason for the protest was the students’ perception of rank unfairness in Israel’s upcoming state budget, which will provide monthly living allowances to Orthodox men engaged in full-time yeshiva study. The stipends actually date back to 1980, but they were ruled illegal by the Supreme Court last June because they discriminate against secular university students. Then, late in October, the Cabinet began discussing a bill to circumvent the high court and restore the yeshiva stipends, and protests erupted nationwide, some of them violent. Notice how similar this is to the story in this news batch dealing with the upstate New York school in a largely orthodox neighborhood. Welcome to the United States of Israel, where American taxpayers get to fund religious supremacy as long as it is JUDAISM. And we also get to fund the pirate kingdom of Israel, which pillages and plunders its neighbors property at will.

11/10/2010 - Federal Civil Rights Policy Expanded To Protect Jewish College Students The University of California, Irvine, has become emblematic of the trend, as its Muslim Student Union gained attention — and was eventually suspended — for, among other actions, disrupting a speech by Michael Oren, Israeli ambassador to the United States, with calls that he was a “killer.” The Muslim group’s anti-Israel protests fueled a 2004 complaint that ZOA filed with the Education Department claiming Irvine’s administration had stood by as its environment became hostile for Jews. (After an investigation, the OCR found that most alleged acts of harassment were not based on shared ethnic origins, and that the university had dealt with other instances appropriately. The ZOA’s appeal is pending.) Klein said his group regularly fields calls from students who say they are cursed and spat at for wearing shirts promoting Israel. The ZOA and 12 other Jewish organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Orthodox Union, wrote a letter in April arguing that OCR’s policy failed to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment. More special treatement for guess who? This time, as 'victims' due to the growing anti-Israel sentiment on campus, that's now deemed 'anti-Semitism'.

11/10/2010 - A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall by Philip Giraldi hen there are the changes that will take place in committees and the pecking order in Congress, changes that will bring the long war advocates to the fore. It is where the real damage can take place. Not coincidentally, the hawks are also calling for military action against Iran and are notable in their affection for the state of Israel. The Israel connection is significant because Israel has long been at the heart of America’s foreign policy woes. America’s misguided war on terror is in fact a complete adoption of Israeli security paradigms without any regard for the actual threats that confront the US, making Israel’s many enemies also the foes of Washington. The Israeli Lobby might not have single handedly brought about the disastrous Iraq war but it certainly was a major factor in the push to invade, taking its cues from the Israeli Foreign Ministry. And today Israel and its friends in Congress and the media are the most powerful advocates of a military conflict with Iran, which will only take place, if it does, because of them. At the same time the Lobby is doing its best to sour relations with Lebanon and preempt any possible rapprochement with Syria ..Neither Cantor nor Ros-Lehtinen is troubled by giving more than $3 billion of taxpayer money annually to a relatively wealthy country whose policies damage US interests and place US citizens at risk worldwide. With friends like Cantor and Ros-Lehtinen in key positions in Congress it is the American people who should be in despair.

11/10/2010 - Israel moves ahead with new east Jerusalem housing The Israeli government is moving ahead with plans to build nearly 1,300 apartments in disputed east Jerusalem, an official said Monday, drawing a harsh U.S. response just as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is there for meetings with American leaders.

11/10/2010 - Republicans Backtrack After Proposal on Aid to Israel Draws Heavy Criticism The roughly $3 billion a year provided by the United States for Israeli military purchases is a product of years of formal negotiations and backroom tweaking, and tinkering with it raises concern among pro-Israel lobbyists. Moreover, raising the issue as Cantor did, days before the election, is viewed as breaching the bipartisan support for aid to Israel, which traditionally translates to an easy passage of the bill in Congress every year. ......Throughout the years, AIPAC’s lobbying efforts added other perks to the aid package: Israel is the only recipient allowed to spend a portion of its military aid on purchases within the country; usually this kind of aid is designed for procurement of American-made weapon systems. Israel also receives its aid in the first month of the fiscal year as a deposit in an interest-bearing account. Aid to all other recipients is spread out throughout the year. Are you getting the picture yet?

11/10/2010 - Hecklers disrupt Netanyahu's speech at U.S. Jewish conference The first heckler, who interrupted Netanyahu barely moments after he began his 30 minute speech, was ejected while shouting "the loyalty oath delegitimizes Israel". .....Subsequent interruptions of regular intervals protested Israel's occupation, claiming that it too delegitimizes Israel.

11/10/2010 - Harper says Canada will stand by Israel The prime minister delivered a strongly worded warning about the resurgence of anti-Semitism in Canada and abroad. He said the persecution of Jews is becoming a global phenomenon in which anti-Semitic ideologies target the Jewish people in their “homeland” of Israel and uses the “language of human rights to do so.” Canada = another Israeli-occupied territory.

11/10/2010 - Israel denies entry to Sweden MP and ex-Israeli who sailed on Gaza flotilla Kaplan and Feiler had planned to use their trip in Israel to lodge an official complaint with the Israel Police against the Israel Defense Forces. Their complaint accused the IDF of kidnapping, armed robbery, violence and obstruction of freedom. Feiler claims that Israeli security forces confiscated his saxophone during the raid, and refused to return it to him. Kaplan says the IDF stole his satellite telephone and camera.

11/10/2010 - El Al apologizes for strip-searching U.S. professor Following the incident, Hebrew University officials wrote to El Al to warn that "the world's top scientists will now refrain from visiting Israel due to interrogations and insensitive searches at Israel's airports".

11/10/2010 - Schakowsky’s Israel Question Her own seat seems safe for the time being. But Schakowsky was visibly worried by the prospect of the Obama administration’s Israel policy becoming a wider issue. She was particularly stunned to hear of the loss of Miami Congressman Ron Klein, whose non-Jewish opponent criticized Klein’s support for Obama’s Israel policy.

11/10/2010 - Boxer Scores Knockout, Defying GOP Wave Raphael Sonenshein, chairman of the political science department at California State University, Fullerton, believes that Israel and foreign policy generally will have less importance in the coming congressional power struggles than domestic issues, mainly the economy; that is, unless matters should change on the ground and the Middle East erupts into the headlines. “Obama will have less room to push for negotiations,” Sonenshein speculated.

11/10/2010 - Israel needs a Leftist revolution to stop the fascism

11/10/2010 - Despite ban, Palestinians build the settlements ... I'm married and have kids. I don't want to be a millionaire. I just want to pay my bills."

11/10/2010 - Court okays Jews-only building in Jaffa

11/10/2010 - Jewish Settler Leaders Praise Republican Gains

11/10/2010 - First sign of the new U.S. political reality—Bibi’s swagger JTA - Jewish & Israel News It was a clear sign that Netanyahu feels empowered by the Republican sweep last week of the House of Representatives to trump the Obama administration’s emphasis on peacemaking with the Palestinians with his own priority: confronting Iran. .....Pro-Israel insiders in Washington noted that in different ways, Mandel and Grossman both have been leaders in the effort to sanction Iran and now are positioned to mak sure that their states enforce such sanctions. As a lawmaker, Mandel led the effort to divest Ohio from Iran. Grossman, as AIPAC president in the mid-1990s, lobbied for the Iran sanctions passed by Congress at that time.

11/10/2010 - Kerry: Israel may extend settlement freeze "I completely understand the frustration of the Palestinian people," said Kerry, who warned against pulling from the negotiations with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton working "in very good faith" to break the impasse.ਠ