Israel Threatens War with Lebanon - by Stephen Lendman

 

Palestine is belligerently occupied. Threats continue against Iran and Syria as well as Lebanon, specifically Hezbollah, elected partner in the nation's unity government, bogusly designated a US State Department Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), what Israel also calls it, repeating veiled and overt warnings, suggesting violence or an impending attack.

 

Why not, after so many earlier in 1978, 1982, 1993, 1996, and 2006. Also numerous incidents besides:

 

-- refusing to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 425 by occupying South Lebanon belligerently and illegally for 18 years until mostly, but not entirely, withdrawing in May 2000 - still holding Sheba Farms, the 14-square mile water-rich land near Syria's Golan, also illegally occupied since 1967; in addition, Ghajar, the Lebanese village bordering Golan;

 

-- during its occupation, using a proxy Christian South Lebanon Army as enforcer, UNIFIL Blue Helmets giving them and the IDF free reign instead of maintaining peace, how UN forces always operate, as paramilitaries against people they're supposed to protect; and

 

-- for over 40 years, repeatedly violating Lebanon's territory, often daily, including 12 Israeli jet overflights on August 19.

 

Hezbollah - Israel's Pretext for Incursions, Violence and War

 

Hezbollah was born out of Israel's 1982 Lebanon invasion, its horrific war slaughtering around 18,000 people, mostly civilians, including in the Sabra and Shatila camps, what journalist Robert Fisk called "one of the most shocking war crimes of the 20th century." 

 

In 1999, it was put on the FTO list, removed after condemning the 9/11 attack, then added back by Dick Cheney after bogusly linking it with Al Qaeda.

 

Throughout his tenure, George Bush (and other administration officials) called Hezbollah, Iran and Syria "the root cause" of Middle East terrorism, despite Israel being the only threat, a notorious regional menace.

 

In mid-July 2010, Rep. Sue Myrick (R. NC) was over the top accusing the organization of being a threat on the US-Mexican border, saying:

 

"Our intelligence sources have really clarified that they are in Mexico, that there is an operation that is quite large in place there, and it's very frightening to me because this is national security. We know some of them have gotten across the border in the past....They are starting to target the United States and that's my concern."

 

She also linked Hezbollah with Mexican drug cartels, DEA assistant intelligence administrator Anthony Placido saying "There are numerous reports of cocaine proceeds entering the coffers of Islamic radical groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas" - reports as credible as Saddam's WMDs. 

 

Hezbollah, in fact, is politically legitimate, former Lebanon President Emile Lahood calling it "an integral part of the Lebanese government....(also) part of our military (and) social order," what former Prime Minister Rafik Harriri confirmed. It's also a social, charitable, educational, and medical organization, involved in establishing over 50 hospitals, over 100 schools, many libraries, and providing other essential social services, why it has broad support, especially among Shiites, comprising over 35% of Lebanon's population. 

 

In addition, its military wing is for defense, not belligerency, but it's prepared to respond effectively when attacked, what Israel learned painfully in the 2006 war, outfoxed and humiliated despite a vastly superior force. It's a lesson the IDF never forgot and wants to avenge, as well as conceal its own terrorist history, by far the region's most extensive with tentacles reaching globally. 

 

An early 2007 American University of Beirut study documented 6,672 Israeli terrorist acts against Lebanon and Palestine alone from 1967 - 2007 (plus thousands more since then), unrewarded by inclusion on America's FTO list, Israeli influence getting others on it, including Hezbollah and Hamas, Palestine's legitimate government.

 

Without evidence, Hezbollah's rap sheet includes the 1983 US Lebanon Embassy and Marine barracks bombings, highjackings, hostage taking, rocket attacks against Israel, suicide bombings, and more, charges the organization vehemently denies, saying it responds only in self-defense against militants, not civilians, its leader Hassan Nasrallah stating: 

 

"Hezbollah remains on the US and Israel 'terrorism' list for purely political reasons and to punish the organization for its resistance to Israeli aggressions against Lebanon and (America's) plans for the region."

 

Expecting its members to be charged with assassinating former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005, he accused Israel of the crime, presenting visual and audio material as evidence. They included Israeli surveillance footage (intercepted in real time) of routes he used to be able to target his motorcade, Nasrallah saying:

 

"We have definite information on the aerial movements of the Israeli enemy the day Hariri was murdered. Hours before....an Israeli drone was surveying the Sidon-Beirut-Junieh coastline as warplanes were flying over Beirut. This video can be acquired by any investigative commission to ensure it is correct. We are sure of this evidence, or else we would not risk showing it."

 

He also said an Israeli spy "confess(ed) in front of a camera that he had repeatedly tried to falsely convince Hariri that (Hezbollah) intended to assassinate him." Though not a smoking gun, this information warrants serious investigation, especially given Israel's history of similar acts, inside and outside the region.

 

According to Lebanese University Professor Hasan Jouni, an international criminal law expert, Nasrallah's evidence was exceptional, saying:

 

"Logically and legally, in this stage, any new finding should be investigated by the general prosecutor. Sayyed Nasrallah submitted tangible evidence of the Israeli potential role in Hariri's assassination." It appears incriminating. "Furthermore, the previous investigations which were circulated here and there should be revised."

 

Antoine Airout, North Lebanon Bar Association head, agreed, saying: "Sayyed Hasrallah's revelations are very serious and objective," especially given Israel's long-term interest in destroying Lebanon to seize portions for itself. Hariri's assassination furthered that goal.

 

In late July, Nasrallah further disclosed the arrest of nearly 100 Israeli spies who'd infiltrated Lebanon's military and security sectors, including Ret. Army Brig. General Fayez Karam, once head of its antiterrorism/counterespionage units.

 

In his recent article titled, "Israel Takes Control of Lebanon," investigative journalist Wayne Madsen covered the same issue, saying:

 

He's "learned from (his) Lebanese intelligence sources that the Lebanese government is coming to realize that Israeli intelligence penetration of all political groups in the country is worse than originally believed."

 

"The Israeli espionage network also extends to Syria. Lebanese sources report that former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, who accused Syrian President Bashar al Assad of ordering (Hariri's) assassination, is tactically backed by Israel and the United States." He heads the National Salvation Front (NSF) effort to oust Assad, getting Israeli, American, French and German help to do it. 

 

For decades, the US/Israeli partnership ruthlessly pursued its joint regional imperial project, including assassinations, state terrorism and wars. Murdering Hariri indeed furthered their goal, and if an August 28 Press TV report is right, more is planned, the Iranian English language network saying:

 

"Israel is reportedly preparing to strike arms depots and weapons manufacturing plants in Syria, claiming they belong to....Hezbollah....Tel Aviv (having) escalated its military presence in" Golan and Lebanon's Shebba Farms, according Haaretz, "citing a report in the (August 28) edition of the Kuwaiti daily Al Rai. (It) quoted European sources as saying that recent Israeli reconnaissance flights (over) Lebanese and Syrian airspace, are indications that Israel is ready to start a war in the area (against) targets....far inside Syrian territory...."

 

Targeting Lebanon - Stoking Tensions, Threatening More War

 

In early 2010, Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak warned Hezbollah to "avoid entering conflict with us, (adding that) We need to constantly prepare for a change in the status quo, though we don't know when it will occur. We don't want for it to happen, and it might not, but we will not be afraid to react if we have to fight back." 

 

Thinly veiled fighting words with July 23 elaboration, provocatively telling the Washington Post that Israel will hold the Lebanese government responsible for Hezbollah's actions, saying "we will see it as legitimate to hit any target that belongs to the Lebanese state, not just to the Hezbollah" - the same 2006 blitzkrieg strategy causing vast destruction, billions in damage, killing over 1,000, injuring thousands more, and displacing one-fourth of Lebanon's four million population, the vast majority being civilians, including 300,000 children, Israel's "Dahiya Doctrine" strategy.

 

Named after the Beirut suburb destroyed in 2006, it's how past and future wars will be fought, including Cast Lead, applying disproportionate force against civilians and non-military infrastructure, carried out with overwhelming intimidating force in violation of fundamental international law, prohibiting collective punishment and attacks against non-combatants, Israel's preferred targets.

 

On a mid-April US visit, Jordan's King Abdullah II expressed concern, telling a "Congressional Friends of Jordan Caucus" that he fears "imminent" conflict again with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

 

At the same time, AFP reported that Washington "voiced alarm" about Syria's "possible sale of Scud missiles to Hezbollah militants, warning it would put Lebanon at 'significant risk.' " On April 13, Israeli President Shimon Peres accused Syria of doing it, saying it "claims it wants peace while at the same time it delivers Scuds to Hezbollah whose only goal is to threaten the state of Israel" - false and Peres knows it.

 

In response, an unnamed US official said a sale was suspected but not verified. Syria flatly denies it, and unmentioned was American aid to Israel, more than to all other nations combined, including annual billions of dollars in military aid, additional amounts when requested, plus the latest weapons and technology, enough to destabilize the entire region and beyond, given Israel's capacity and inclination to wage war aggressively and illegally. 

 

It's bloodstained history confirms what US major media reports suppress - that no outside threat or attack on its territory occurred since the October 1973 Yom Kippur war, nearly 37 years ago after which Israel repeatedly attacked Lebanon and Occupied Palestine. It also menaces the entire Middle East, its goal being to divide, conquer and control it, a future article dealing solely with that topic.

 

At the end of the 2006 Lebanon war, UN Security Council Resolution 1701 called for a full cessation of hostilities on both sides, specifically that Hezbollah  cease "all attacks" and disarm, Israel given freedom to respond to perceived threats. In other words, it can claim bogus ones justify war, Hezbollah denied comparable discretion.

 

Since passage, Hezbollah refused to disarm, but committed no aggressive acts. For its part, Israel breaches the resolution daily, including regular airspace, territorial, and sea encroachments. In early 2010, Michael Williams, UN special envoy to Lebanon said:

 

"To the best of my knowledge, there is probably no other country in the world which is subject to such an intrusive regime of aerial surveillance," other intrusions and spying. In fact, none besides America, Israel's paymaster/partner and early mentor, both countries the world's most bellicose and aggressive, what Hezbollah understands and will respond. 

 

Lebanon's government also, saying it supports its right to defend sovereign state territory, Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami calling Israel a "permanent menace" with good reason.

 

Further, Syria said it will act if Lebanon is attacked, adding it considers a threat to Beirut's security one to its own. Hamas' Ali Baraka also avowed to back Hezbollah if attacked, stoking more tension, what Israel's expert at exploiting, manufacturing threats when none exist.

 

On August 2, the George Soros-funded International Crisis Group published a report titled "Drums of War: Israel and the 'Axis of Resistance,' " saying:

 

More war, if it comes, will be "far more devastating and broader in scope," the regional dynamics dangerously explosive, so any "miscalculations" may launch it, including against Syria.

 

Despite a deceptive quiet, "Beneath the surface, tensions are mounting with no obvious safety valve." Hezbollah's readiness and "escalating Israeli threats (could) trigger the very outcome" so far avoided.

 

With "no effective forum for communication, (there's) ample room for misunderstanding and misperception. Meanwhile, (Israel has waged) an underground war of espionage and assassinations....now a substitute for more open confrontation."

 

"There is scant reason for optimism on the peace front," not helped by America talking only with one side (Israel), "keeping another at arm's length (Syria), ignoring a third (Hezbollah) and confronting the fourth (Iran)."

 

As a result, "the world should cross its fingers that fear of a catastrophic conflict will continue to be reason enough for the parties not to provoke one."

 

Not explained is that Israel and America alone pose  threats, the same ones for over 40 years, what all regional states know and fear, hoping they won't end up like Iraq - destroyed by imperial lawlessness, the fake August 19 "combat" troop pullout just PR cover for permanent occupation, or as one Iraqi official said: "This is about America's midterm elections," Washington's presence is here to stay, even Newsweek calling it a "nonevent," saying:

 

"The departure of the last 'combat troops' from Iraq (more a strategic retreat than victory lap) is hardly the end of American combat there. (What about the other) 50,000....staying behind? They didn't exactly send their (formidable weapons arsenal) out with that Stryker brigade. And they're not going to transform themselves into the Peace Corp overnight," or, in fact, ever. 

 

The region's strategic importance assures permanent war, America's presence, and continued danger for everyone there - cursed, not benefitting from oil.

 

A Final Comment

 

Besides bordering on Israel, Lebanon's resources make it vulnerable, namely its water and natural gas reserves, one reason for the 2006 war, South Lebanon to the Litani River especially important. Also the Wazzini springs feeding into the Hasbani River tributary of the Jordan River. It flows into Israel two miles downstream from the Wazzini, then into the Sea of Galilee that's Israel's largest fresh water source.

 

Israel covets the 20-mile stretch from its border to the Litani to use Lebanese water for its own needs, a considerable supply if controlled, besides what's gotten from Golan, seized from Syria in 1967 and still held.

 

The Tamar and Leviathan offshore natural gas fields are also key, located off Israel's north coast and Southern Lebanon. Tamar contains an estimated 8.5 trillion cubic feet supply, Leviathan another 16 trillion, and on August 29, Israel National News.com said it may hold four billion or more barrels of oil, making it a richer than ever prize. 

 

The London-based Lebanese newspaper As-Safir said if Israel attempts to siphon gas from Lebanese waters, conflict could result. The paper's Israel affairs analyst, Hilmi Mousa, said Leviathan "lies mostly off Lebanese shores and in international waters between the sea border of Palestine  (and Cyprus waters). However, Israel received a guarantee from Britain, which has no rights in Palestine, to search for oil in the area near the Lebanese shores. The map of deposits, as published in the Israeli economic papers, shows the scope of the deviation into Lebanon's international waters," ones Lebanon surely will protect.

 

Yet Mousa headlined, "Israel preparing to steal gas fields in Lebanon's waters," saying doing so "will quickly turn into a new conflict (in which) Lebanon....will defend its rights in the water." Other sites include Rut and Alon, also off Lebanese shores or in areas far from Israel. The situation bears watching given the possibility that Israel may attack Lebanon and Hezbollah, needing or inventing a pretext to do it, an old trick it may use again, Lebanon perhaps the next target.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

more evidence of a pariah Israeli state

 Yale University's Pro-Israeli, Anti-Islamic Conference - by Stephen Lendman

 

On August 25, Yale University ended a three day global anti-Semitism "crisis" conference promoting the notion that Israeli criticism is "anti-Semitic," no matter how justified. 

 

Boola boola, for shame, mighty Yale displaying the same type anti-Islamic hatred virulent throughout America, raging daily in headlines over the proposed New York City Islamic cultural center, falsely called a mosque, but does it matter? 

 

What matters is racism, hate-mongering, and persecuting Muslims for political advantage - on display at Yale for a three day propaganda hate fest. Imagine what's taught in its classrooms.

 

The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA)

 

Calling itself "dedicated to the scholarly research of the origins and manifestations associated with antisemitism globally, as well as other forms of prejudice, including racisms, as it relates to policy," YIISA presented its "Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity conference,  at a time the supposed "crisis" is more rhetoric than reality.

 

Yet its mission statement states:

 

"Anti-Judaism (or) Antisemitism is one of the most complex and, at times, perplexing forms of hatred, (emerging) in numerous ideological(ly) based narratives and the constructed identities of belonging and otherness such as race and ethnicity, nationalisms, and anti-nationalisms." In modern globalized times, "it appears that Antisemitism has taken on new complex and changing forms that need to be decoded, mapped and critiqued."

 

What's needed is debunking the relationship between legitimate Israeli criticism and anti-Semitism and notion of a serious anti-Jewish crisis when none, in fact, exists.

 

Last October 29, Reuters reported that:

 

"Anti-Semitic attitudes in the United States are at a historic low, with 12 percent of Americans prejudiced toward Jews, an Anti-Defamation League (ADL) survey found," based on September 26 - October 4 polling with a plus or minus 2.8% margin of error.

 

ADL said its level matched 1998's as the lowest in the poll's 45-year history. Yet in his 2003 book, "Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism," national director, Abraham Foxman, said he's:

 

"convinced we currently face as great a threat to the safety of the Jewish people as the one we faced in the 1930s - if not a greater one," contradicted by Cato Institute research fellow Leon Hadar (in the January 2004 Chronicles), saying that public opinion polls "indicate (racial and religious forms of) anti-Semitism (have) been in steep decline in most of Western Europe." The same holds for America, putting a lie to Yale's "crisis" and need for a conference to hawk it. 

 

Badly needed are efforts to expose and denounce anti-Islamic rhetoric, actions and persecutions of people for their religion and/or ethnicity, but don't expect Yale to hold it or discuss it in classrooms.

 

YIISA stacked its conference with pro-Israeli zealots, omitting voices for sanity and the right of Palestinians to live free of occupation in their own land or in one state affording everyone equal rights, an apparent blasphemous notion at Yale and many other US and Canadian campuses, firing even distinguished tenured professors for supporting the wrong religion or people too vigorously.

 

Opening conference remarks were made by YIISA Director, Dr. Charles Small, Yale's Deputy Provost, Frances Rosenbluth, Rabbi James Ponet, director of Yale's Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life, and Aviva Raz Schechter, Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director for Combatting Antisemitism. 

 

They all, of course, presented one-sided, pro-Israeli views, underscoring the notion that Israeli criticism is anti-Semetic, when, in fact, it's principled, honest and more needed now than ever to expose and halt an Israeli/Washington partnership to conquer, divide and control the Middle East by force, stealth, deceit, intimidation, occupation, and political chicanery, common tools used by rogues and imperial marauders.

 

Hebrew University Professor Menahem Milson was the first of several keynote speakers. He's also Chairman of the extremist Middle East Research Institute (MEMRI), whose board and advisors include a rogue's gallery of pro-Israeli right-wing zealots, including:

 

-- Oliver "Buck" Revell, former FBI Executive Assistant Director in charge of criminal investigative, counterterrorism and counterintelligence;

 

-- Elliot Abrams, former Reagan and Bush administration official and convicted Iran-Contra felon, later pardoned by GHW Bush; and

 

-- Steve Emerson, a notorious anti-Islamic bigot, well-known for using unscrupulous tactics to accuse innocent Muslims of terrorism and instill "Islamofascist" fear over the public airwaves.

 

Its board of advisors includes:

 

-- Ehud Barak, former Israeli Prime Minister and current Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister;

 

-- Bernard Lewis, Princeton Professor Emeritus of near eastern studies, known for his anti-Islamic views;

 

-- James Woolsey, neocon former CIA director;

 

-- John Bolton, former neocon war hawk Bush administration UN ambassador, recess-appointed because Congress was too embarrassed to do it;

 

-- Rabid Zionist Elie Wiesel, a man Professor Norman Finkelstein calls "vain, arrogant, gullible, naive about international affairs, (and defender of) the worst excesses of previous Israeli governments;"

 

-- John Ashcroft, former Bush administration Attorney General, the man who indicted Lynne Stewart, famed human rights lawyer now imprisoned on bogus charges for doing her job honorably, what Ashcroft never did;

 

-- Michael Mukasey, another Bush administration Attorney General, as bad as Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales; and

 

-- many other disreputable members, known for their pro-Israeli bias, including Richard Holbrooke, a proponent of imperial wars, who stepped down temporarily to become Obama administration Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

Other YIISA presenters included (among others):

 

-- Itamar Marcus, a West Bank settler movement leader, connected to the New York-based Central Fund of Israel, raising money for it in America out of a Sixth Avenue/36th Street fabric store near Times Square;

 

-- Canadian politician Irwin Cotler, who attacked the Goldstone Commission report viciously and unfairly;

 

-- Harvard Professor of Yiddish Literature and Comparative Literature Rush Wisse, a pro-Israeli zealot this writer once had the displeasure of debating briefly by email;

 

-- Barak Seener, Greater Middle East Section Director for the UK-based Henry Jackson Society, who believes Israeli Arabs are a fifth column threat to the state;

 

-- Anne Bayesfsky, right-wing pro-Israeli supporter, senior fellow at the neocon Hudson Institute, associated with UN Watch devoted to attacking anti-Israeli criticism, and member of the Israel-based Ariel Center for Policy Research, a Likud Party-affiliated group supporting hardline writers in the Middle East, North America and Europe;

 

-- Mark Dubowitz, Executive Director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, whose leaders and advisors include Newt Gingrich, former FBI Director Louis Freeh, James Woolsey, the senator from AIPAC, Joe Lieberman, neocon writer Charles Krauthammer, former Reagan assistant Defense Secretary Richard Perle, and Jeane Kirkpatrick, Reagan's UN ambassador, among others;

 

-- Anne Herzberg, NGO Monitor's legal advisor, a notorious pro-Israeli group; and

 

-- Samuel Edelman, board of director member of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, another Israeli advocacy organization.

 

Noticeably absent were notable figures from the Palestinian community as well as US truth and justice scholars and analysts who base their views on facts YIISA wants suppressed. There was no James Petras, Ilan Pappe, Jeff Halper, Joel Kovel, Norman Finkelstein, Rashid Khalidi, Phyllis Bennis, Uri Avnery, Neve Gordon, Nurit Peled-Elhannan, Ramzy Baroud, or any of the thousands of equal justice advocates listed on a so-called "Shit List," including this writer given three unsympathetic paragraphs.

 

Instead, numerous speakers discussed provocative topics, including:

 

-- Radical Islam and Genocidal anti-Semitism; 

 

-- Christianity and anti-Semitism; 

 

-- The Islamization of Anti-Semitism;

 

-- The Internet and the Proliferation of Anti-Semitism; 

 

-- Law, Modernity, and Anti-Semitism;

 

-- the Central Role of Palestinian Anti-Semitism in Creating the Palestinian Identity;

 

-- Islamism and the Construction of Jewish Identity;

 

-- Global Anti-Semitism and the Crisis of Modernity;

 

--Genocidal Anti-Semitism: Ahmadinejad's Regime as a Case Study;

 

-- Contemporary Anti-Semitism and the Delegitimization  of Israel;

 

-- Discourse of Contemporary Anti-Semitism;

 

-- Confronting and Combating Contemporary Anti-Semitism in the Academy;

 

-- Anti-Semitism in the Aftermath of the Holocaust;

 

-- Lawfare, Human Rights Organizations and the Demonization of Israel;

 

-- The Islamist Islamization of Anti-Semitism;

 

-- the Iranian Threat;

 

-- Social Theory and Contemporary Anti-Semitism

 

-- Discourses of Anti-Semitism in Relation to the Middle East;

 

-- the Media and the Dissemination of Hatred;

 

-- Global Anti-Semitism;

 

-- An Uncertain Sisterhood: Women and Anti-Semitism;

 

-- Hannah Arendt and Anti-Semitism: A Critical Appraisal;

 

-- Approaches to Anti-Semitism;

 

-- Models for Combating Anti-Semitism: The Case of the United Kingdom;

 

-- Understanding the Impact of German Anti-Semitism and Nazism;

 

-- 400 Years of Anti-Semitism: From the Holy Office to the Nuremberg Laws;

 

-- Embracing the Nation: Anti-Semitism and Modernity

 

-- Anti-Semitism and the United States;

 

-- Variations of European Anti-Semitism;

 

-- Anti-Semitic Propaganda in Europe;

 

-- Self-Hatred and Contemporary Anti-Semitism;

 

-- Discussions in the Study of Anti-Semitism; and

 

-- YIISA Director Small's concluding remarks.

 

Final Comments

 

On August 25, Mondoweiss co-founder Philip Weiss discussed the conference, quoting Charlotte Kates (writer, organizer, and National Lawyers Guild Middle East Subcommittee Co-Chair) saying:

 

the people invited "who attack Palestinian scholars' academic freedom find conferences such as this to be perfectly acceptable and legitimate."

 

Weiss added that it's not "possible to understand this conference without understanding the prominence of Zionist donors in prestige institutional life." He also quoted journalist/author Ben White, specializing in Israeli/Palestine issues, saying:

 

"What is the role of Yale/academia in this kind of exercise?" It's particularly galling and hypocritical that "fighting anti-Semitism - an anti-racist struggle - is being openly appropriated by far-right Zionist groupings, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, lobbyists like the NGO Monitor, and Orientalist 'Arab/anti-terror experts."

 

It's especially disturbing that Yale lent its name to a three day hate fest, supporting:

 

-- wrong over right; 

 

-- state terrorism over human rights and equal justice; 

 

-- colonizers over the colonized;

 

-- what Edward Said called "the familiar (America, the West, us over) the strange (the Orient, East, them);" and

 

-- Jewish "exceptionalism" over a "lesser malevolent" Islam. 

 

Shamefully, presentations excluded discussions about: 

 

Islam's common roots with Judaism and Christianity, its tenets based on:

 

-- love, not hate;

 

-- peace, not violence; 

 

-- good over evil;

 

-- charity, not exploitation; and 

 

-- a just and fair society for people of all faiths. 

 

Also not addressed was the right of Palestinians to live freely like Jews. Yale apparently disagrees, why students against hate and bigotry should enroll elsewhere to be taught truths excluded from Yale's curriculum.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

hate and bigotry on display at Yale

 מזה שנים מנסים צה"ל והמתנחלים לגרש את תושבי דרום הר חברון מאדמותיהם. אחת הדרכים לכך היא למנוע מהם להגיע לבורות המים שלהם ואת שאיבת המים.

   בשבת, ה-7.8.2010, באו פלסטינים מסוסיה וביר אל-עיד לעטרייה כדי לשאוב מים מבורות המים במקום. הם לוו בידי פעילי זכויות אדם ישראליים.

   מתנחלים שהגיעו מהמאחז מצפה יאיר ומההתנחלות סוסיה החלו לאיים עליהם, וניסו לשפוך את המים ממיכל שמולא. חיילים שהיו במקום לא מנעו את ההתקפה. במקום זאת הוציאו צוו שטח צבאי סגור וסילקו את הפלסטינים ומלוויהם הישראליים.   

 

  

 

רבות כבר נכתב ונאמר על זיוף מסמך גלנט והניסיון הפאתטי מצד תומכיו בכל הנוגע ליצירת המסמך אשר כל ייעודו היה ונשאר קידום יואב גלנט לעבר התפקיד הנחשק – רמטכ"ל מדינת האפרטהייד, הכיבוש, האפליה והגזענות. רמטכ"ל מדינת ישראל.

 

נהוג לחשוב שמא באמת נפלה כאן טעות וכאילו מישהו מסוים שכרגע "במקרה" גם לא נוכח בשטחי מדינת ישראל, הוא שזייף את המסמך. זורקים שמות לאוויר, ההוא זייף ואז מסתבר שזה מישהו אחר. אבל הכלל העיקרי ממשיך להנחות את כולם: העיסוק האובססיבי במסמך גלנט.

 

וכולם ככולם שותפים להתעסקות ההיפותטית במסמך גלנט, כאילו שבאמת יש מישהו במדינה שבאמת קורא כל שטות הנכתבת בנושא העגום והמתיש. כזה הוא האמנם?

 

אי אפשר לפספס את הרצון האדיר מצד הישראלים הציונים, בדבר תמיכה בהמשך כהונתו של גבי אשכנזי בתפקיד הרמטכ"ל. הנה להם, גבר מחוספס וקשוח, כזה הממעיט בראיונות טיפשיים הכוללים ירידה אל העם, שיחות סרק עם הציבור כבמדינות דמוקרטיות. הנה להם, מנהיג אשר מרים את האף מעל סגניו, נוזף בחיילים, ואפילו העניש כמה באופן אישי. ממש הדמות הקלאסית בה חושקים הישראלים. ממש עגל הזהב.

 

בחירת יואב גלנט לתפקיד, גם היא חלילה לא מעוררת בי התפלאות כלשהי, הרי גם הוא כקודמו, היה אחראי ישיר למהלכי צה"ל ברצועת עזה במהלך מבצע עופרת יצוקה 2009. גלנט נתן את ההוראה, וגלנט גם נתן את הפקודות. קדימה גלנט, אתה הרמטכ"ל.

 

ואם לא הבנת את זה גלנט, החברים הקרובים בערוץ 2 כבר הבינו את זה לפניך. פרסום מסמך גלנט ע"י ערוץ 2, היה לא אחר מאשר תמיכת בעקיפין מצד הערוץ, במתמודד הבטחוניסט. הרי ממתי גוף כלשהו, ועוד אחת על כמה וכמה, ערוץ חדשות מוביל במדינת ישראל, מפרסם מסמך אשר מקורו בלתי ידוע או בלתי רשמי?

 

הזלזול באינטליגנציה הציבורית, מצד עורכי חדשות ערוץ 2 ואמנון אברמוביץ בפרט, יכולה להיכנס לספר השיאים של גינס, אם נמדוד אותה בעוצמת הפתאטיות בה היא מצטיירת. הרי ההיסטוריה כבר רשמה את "הצלחתם" של גופים הגדולים מהם, שידעו גם הם להשתמש במתק שפתיים איכותי בהרבה מהם, לצד היותם תקשורת מגויסת לרעיון הלאומני מצד הדיוויזיות השולטות בעם.

 

ההתעסקות התקשורתית הממושכת אינה אלא ספין מכוון שכל תפקידו היה ונישאר טיפוח גלנט בעיני ההמון הנבער, אשר זכה בסיקור ממוקד ומושקע בגלנט, סיקור עליו גופים מהמיזם העסקי היו מוכנים לשלם כסף רב, בהתאם לעסקיהם.

 

כמובן שלחשוב שמא מדובר רק במסמך גלנט יהיה זה נאיבי. מדובר כאן כאמור על עבודה סיזיפית מצד התקשורת הישראלית, התומכת ומקדמת אג'נדות אישיות, במסגרת מה שאמור להיות ניטרלי ואובייקטיבי.

 

בסופו של יום, הנפגעים הם לא אחר מאשר קורבנות שטיפת המוח הממושכת, אשר ביניהם טמונים גם אותם מפרסמים זדוניים. הם אלו אשר יאלצו להתמודד עם מכות כואבות כמו דו"ח גולדסטון, הם אלו אשר יאלצו להתמודד עם חקירות בדבר עצירת משטים הומניטרים, והם אלו גם אשר יעמדו לדין במרוצת הזמן, בגין פשעי מלחמה, לא רק נגד הפלסטינים והאנושות כולה, אלא גם נגד בני עמם במזרח התיכון.

 

 

* הכותב הינו יו"ר ארגון סלון דבורה

 

 The Israeli Lobby: Declassified Documents Expose Its Influence - by Stephen Lendman

 

James Petras' powerful 2006 book titled, "The Power of Israel in the United States" explained the enormous Jewish Lobby influence on US Middle East policies. Often harming American interests, they're pursued anyway because of its grassroots and high-level control over government, the business community, academia, the clergy and mass media since at least the 1960s. 

 

Intolerant of opposing views, they're suppressed for its own agenda, funded by PR propaganda domestically and overseas, America's top publications paid off to go along, now revealed by a secret document subpoenaed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (FRC) investigation into the American Zionist Council (AZC), AIPAC's parent lobbying arm.

 

"Between 1962 - 1963, the FRC subpoenaed" AZC's internal documents, examining their activities as "registered agents of foreign principals," learning that over $5 million in tax exempt (and perhaps overseas funds) "had been laundered through the Jewish Agency's American Section into the (AZC)."

 

The Agency is a quasi-Israeli government branch, funded to review legislation ahead of its submission to the Knesset under its Covenant Agreement - in violation of IRS regulations regarding tax exempt charitable funds and the 1938 Foreign Agents Registration Act.

 

No matter. Israel got a pass to act illegally for nearly 50 years, doing it today more aggregiously than ever. In 1962, after being ordered to register as a foreign agent, AZC transferred its responsibilities to AIPAC, "which refuses to register as (an Israeli) foreign agent" and gets away with it.

 

In November/December 1960, news and editorial content covered Israel's new nuclear reactor (for peace, not bombs they said), Arab refugees when the General Assembly was discussing them, the Eichmann case, Israel's aid to African states, and seating the UAR in the Security Council, reports presenting one-sided, pro-Israeli propaganda.

 

"It can be said that the press of the nation, during 1960, has by and large shown sympathy and understanding of Israel's position." Arab views have been largely "counteracted."

 

"The US contingent of 60 Mayors returned from Israel where they attended (an earlier) Conference....While (there), a number of them were interviewed by (US reporters) who sent (pro-Israeli) stories back to their hometown papers; they were also recorded in interviews for local radio stations."

 

Other plans were made to have those attending meet with Jewish and Christian audiences to disseminate friendly Israeli commentaries. In addition, opinion makers are invited to Israel at government expense, paid off to report friendly stories. An Israeli student got a scholarship "to transfer to the Monterey Peninsula College where propaganda carried on by three Arab professors has been most hurtful."

 

Other schools were infiltrated the same way. Further, "We continue to cultivate (pay off) faculty people in many areas and are making progress here....our friends in San Francisco (are trying) to persuade Stanford to drop Fayez Sayeh from the faculty on the grounds that he is a paid propagandist rather than an objective academician." Efforts at other US schools were similar - pressure to fire Arab professors, replacing them with pro-Israeli ones.

 

"Prof. Arnold Toynbee was invited to spend about five months in this country....When (his) accusations first broke in the press, we (enlisted) major non-Zionist groups and evolved a common policy (to): 

 

(1) Discourage all Jewish (organizations) from issuing invitations to Toynbee;

 

(2) Monitor all (his) public appearances and refrain from bringing up the subject of Israel or the Jews unless Toynbee raises the subject in his presentation."

 

Overall, measures were taken to counteract his unfriendly Israeli positions, the same policy used against all critical public figures, strike back to discredit them.

 

Calling the American Council for Judaism (ACJ) "the most effective anti-Zionist and anti-Israeli force on the American scene," efforts were made to give them "much more attention....than in the past."

 

Bribing major US publications and their writers helped do it, including at the Reader's Digest, Atlantic Monthly, Look, Holiday, Parade, Saturday Review, the New York Times Magazine, and various women's and business ones. Today, the entire US major media serve as Israel's PR arm, its mouthpiece, the fruition of efforts begun 50 years ago.

 

Earlier, and of course now, TV shows were also arranged, and "We continue to counteract Arab speakers wherever they appear, by placing our own speakers on the same platforms...." In addition, "Mailings have gone out to public opinion molders dealing with current issues...."

 

In November 1961, the Atlantic Monthly was paid off to run a pro-Israeli "64-page Supplement, (featuring) some of Israel's top names." Earlier in September, the Atlantic ran a "20-page article on "The Arabs of Palestine" which is "one of the best (we've seen done) on the subject." Jack Anderson also did a friendly piece for Parade Publications after returning from Israel.

 

In addition, AZC officials arranged speaking engagements for pro-Israeli figures throughout the country. Their mission - counteract "anti-Israeli propaganda....a careful check of newspapers, bulletins and confidential sources of our own (can) give us reliable information on the movements and itineraries of these propagandists." Community contacts were then alerted to furnish speakers to discredit them.

 

AZC's Research Bureau also analyzed books and articles on Israel. "When a book is favorable, it is recommended. When (it's not), it is analyzed and distortions are pointed up by providing the factual data required, so that our local Councils will be prepared to react....Further, we (arrange) book presentations (in) community and university libraries...."

 

Written for the AZC, Marc Siegel's play, "A Message from Dimona" was described by The New York Times as a "story of a new city in the Israeli desert," suppressing the reactor's bomb-making purpose, Israel's open secret, well known, but not discussed.

 

"The nuclear reactor story inspired (other) editorial writers, columnists, science writers and cartoonists. Most of (them) accept(ed) the thesis that the reactor was being built for peaceful purposes and not for bombs....Drew Pearson's syndicated column justified Israel's secrecy; (science writer) William Laurence in the New York Times stressed Israel's peaceful intent."

 

In 1945, the same William Laurence led a double life as both Times science writer and shill on the War Department's payroll. Writing press releases for the Manhattan Project, he mislead the public, sold the program, lied about Alamorgordo, NM tests and the Hiroshima/Nagasaki horrors. He also denied what historian/attorney Jonathan M. Weisgall later called the "silent nuclear terror of radioactivity and radiation" - that it condemns exposed people to a slow, painful death, but it benefitted Laurence.

 

He won a Pulitzer Prize for his lying, and got to fly on the plane that bombed Nagasaki, later describing the experience in The Times with religious awe. Today, the entire US major media cheerlead for Israel, even its most unjustifiable, unconscionable, criminal acts. Entirely suppressed is its history of international law violations, including:

 

-- a violence doctrine over peace;

 

-- crimes of war and against humanity;

 

-- excessive force and abuse;

 

-- collective punishment and economic strangulation;

 

-- expanding illegal settlements;

 

-- dispossessions and home demolitions;

 

-- mass arrests and political imprisonments;

 

-- targeted assassinations and torture;

 

-- land theft and crop destruction;

 

-- policies of closure, separation, isolation, checkpoints, ghettoization and curfews;

 

-- denial of the most fundamental human rights and civil liberties; and

 

-- an overall Kafkaesque "matrix of control" designed to crush Palestinians' will to resist.

 

In the old days, journalists were bought off to ignore them. They now do it willingly and reflexively, knowing the consequences otherwise, the Israeli Lobby's power to remove unfriendly voices - from Congress, academia and the media. 

 

Demanded is that Israel be portrayed as peaceful, never aggressive, surrounded, beleaguered, and victimized, acting solely in self-defense. In contrast, Palestinians are called militant terrorist threats to Israeli security, its propaganda machine relentless in pounding that message, the Senate's investigation failing to expose and halt it. 

 

As a result, it's more virulent and pervasive than ever, what no congressional committee will touch, what no major media report will reveal. Israel's power in America suppresses everything unfavorable, willing fourth estate stooges going along, or else. 

 

It's why Project Censored warns about a "truth emergency," the urgency for media reform, and need for a cadre to do what all responsible journalists should - their job, what's sorely absent in America, especially in reports about Israel.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Israeli Lobby exposed

 

 The Charade Announced: Latest Israeli No-Peace/Peace Talks for September - by Stephen Lendman

 

On August 21, Haaretz writer Natasha Mozgovaya headlined, "Israel, Palestinians accept US invitation to direct peace talks," saying:

 

They'll "restart direct talks on Sept. 2 in a modest step toward forging a peace deal within 12 months to create a Palestinian state and peacefully end one of the world's most intractable conflicts."

 

Another grand illusion is assured, fudged to look real. Henry Kissinger coined the phrase "constructive ambiguity," meaning to give negotiations an appearance of progress. For others, it's putting lipstick on a pig or how Edward Said described the Oslo Accords and Declaration of Principles, saying:

 

"the fashion-show vulgarities of the White House ceremony, the degrading spectacle of Yasser Arafat thanking everyone for the suspension of most of his people's rights, and the fatuous solemnity of Bill Clinton's performance, like a 20th century Roman emperor shepherding two vassal kings through rituals of reconciliation and obeisance, (and) the truly astonishing proportions of the Palestinian capitulation."

 

It was unilateral surrender, a Palestinian Versailles, affirming Israel's colonial agenda, giving the Palestinians nothing but the right to be Israel's enforcer. All major issues were deferred, including an independent Palestinian state, the right of return, the future of settlements, borders, water rights, and status of Jerusalem as sovereign Palestinian territory and future home of its capital. 

 

Seventeen years later, they're still unresolved and won't be this time, another grand illusion planned, the same outcome assured - betrayal by unilateral surrender, or as much of it as Abbas dare give.

 

An earlier article titled, "Peace Process Hypocrisy: Stillborn from Inception," reviewed earlier efforts since the mid-1970s, quoting Netanyahu once calling the peace process "a waste of time," negotiating solely for Israeli dominance, the article accessed through the following link:

 

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2010/03/peace-process-hypocrisy-stillborn-from.html

 

Here we go again, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announcing on August 20 that on September 2, new talks will: 

 

"re-launch direct negotiations to resolve all final-status issues which we believe we can complete in one year. There have been difficulties in the past; there will be difficulties ahead. Without a doubt, we will hit more obstacles. The enemies of peace will keep trying to defeat us and to derail these talks. But I ask the parties to persevere."

 

In November 2007, the last round in Annapolis got Electronic Intifada co-counder, Ali Abunimah, to compare it to a "big budget Broadway extravaganza; they go on for years, but with each revival the cast changes. What may seem like a tired production to some nevertheless manages to remain fresh to the gullible throngs willing to hand over the price of admission."

 

Again now, major issues won't be resolved. The conflict's root causes will be unaddressed, and failure will be papered over as success called the most able to be accomplished this time. 

 

Stay tuned. Another round's coming, as futile as this one, the process bogus because Israel and Washington want conflict, not conciliation; photo-ops, not fulfillment; and promises, not a real equitable peace affording Palestinians the same rights as Jews, what millions of them demand, what no Israeli or US leader will give.

 

September 2010 - The Cast

 

Included are:

 

-- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's most extremist leader ever, a man who scorns peace and despises everything not Jewish - a despot, not a democratic peacemaker, determined to avoid it; a man who also publicly called attacking Iran his top priority; in other words, a man who feigns peace but plans war, saying in a statement that reaching a deal will be tough but possible, and that he's approaching the talks "with a genuine desire to reach a peace agreement between the two peoples that will protect Israel's national security interests, foremost of which is security." He said nothing about equity because he won't tolerate it nor will Washington.

 

-- Mahmoud Abbas, a usurper, not head of state, who (with Israel and Washington) deposed Palestine's democratic government and took over; a delegitimized coup d'etat leader whose presidential term expired on January 9, 2009, but hasn't called new elections; a man  serving Israel's interests, not his people's.

 

-- Barack Obama, holding one-on-one talks with each leader separately on September 1, a man James Petras called "the Greatest Con-Man in Recent History," and "America's first Jewish President, (reflecting his) one-sided and longstanding commitment to the State of Israel and loyalty to" US Zionist power. Under him, like George Bush, Israel generally gets what it wants, Palestinians given quickly broken promises.

 

-- Hillary Clinton will host the first September 2 session, a woman derisive of peace; a war goddess who told ABC's Good Morning America on April 20, 2008 that:

 

"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm president, we will attack Iran. In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them," promising the equivalent of 12 holocausts against Iran's 70 million people.

 

Hamas leader and Palestine's elected Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah is absent, as he was in November 2007, the first time in memory that a legitimate peace partner was excluded from talks. Again now, and that's the problem. How can one side negotiate in good faith without a willing partner, Haniyah criticizing the new talks, saying "nothing has been achieved" to warrant them. His top priority is national reconciliation for all Palestinians before negotiations with Israel, knowing their history of futility.

 

Other day one attendees include: 

 

-- Tony Blair, a reinvented war criminal, now the Quartet's special Middle East peacemaker representative, faking it like he did as prime minister; and

 

-- Egyptian despot/President/ Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's dictator/King Abdullah II, both reliably pro-Western, disdainful of Palestinians.

 

George Mitchell, US Special Middle East Peace Envoy said America's goal is "an agreement that will end the conflict for all time and will result in the establishment of a viable, democratic and independent state of Palestine living side by side in peace and security with Israel. We believe it can be done within a year and that is our objective," adding that subsequent sessions between the two sides will be held in the Middle East, the Washington opener a photo-op, kicking off the process. Asked what Hamas' role would be in the talks, he replied, "None."

 

Peace or Just Talk?

 

On August 20, New York Times writer Ethan Bronner suggested the latter, headlining,"In Mideast Talks, Scant Hopes From the Beginning," saying:

 

Though accepted by both sides, "just below the surface there was an almost audible shrug. There is little confidence - close to none - on either side that the Obama administration's goal of reaching a comprehensive deal in one year can be met," given the futility of trying for the past 35 years, an impossible task for one side with no credible partner.

 

As a result, "a resigned fatalism (pervades) the air," pitting an intransigent Netanyahu against a feckless Abbas, Al Quds University vice president Zakaria al-Qaq saying, "These direct negotiations are the option of the crippled and the helpless."

 

Israeli political writer, Nahum Barnea, is also skeptical, stating, "Most Israelis have decided that nothing is going to come out of it, that it will have no bearing on their lives. So why should they care?"

 

Former Israeli Labor Party and Meretz-Yachad politician, Yossi Beilin, believes "There is not a chance in the world that in a year - or two or three - peace can be achieved. The gap between the sides is too big. Netanyahu did not come to power to divide Jerusalem or find a solution (for) the Palestinian refugees."

 

Mahdi Abdul Hadi, Palestinians Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs scorned the new talks saying, "Abbas is naked before his whole community. Everyone knows that this Israeli government is not going to deliver anything," so why bother going through the charade, Palestinians expressing that view, head of the Palestinian stock exchange, Ahmad Aweidah saying:

 

"Peace process? What peace process? That's so nineties. After 18 years, don't they feel silly. There are only two scenarios. The optimistic one is more of the same. The pessimistic one is it's going to get worse."

 

According to Samir Hulileh, Palestine Development and Investment LTD (PADICO) CEO:

 

"We are the audience in a theatre. We have memorized the play so many times. It is repeated in different forms, and sometimes with different faces, but it's the same. We know the final outcome. We don't feel hope coming out of it."

 

Street comments included:

 

"There has been a lot of talk of peace, but we have seen no results. We no longer have hope."

 

"It's a failure from the outset. Negotiations in this way cannot lead to a state. We have no hope." 

 

"Netanyahu will not give a thing, not in a year, not in years....the talks will never succeed."

 

They're both travesty and tragedy, the exclusion of one side and intransigency of the other assures failure. Like before, nothing new will be introduced, the deal always one-sided - capitulation, not resolution, assuring continued conflict because Netanyahu wants it, his way to blame the victims, absolving himself of high crimes, including promises he has no intention of keeping. Nor does Obama, "America's First Jewish President," his subterfuge too shallow to hide.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Israel wants conflict, not peace

 

It has always seemed strange to most Israelis that the "peace now" organization have gotten permanent exposure and communicative reference. Nobody understood how a seemingly definite leftist organization could be heard frequently in the mainstream of Israeli media. Nobody understood how the Zionist media wasn't afraid of covering peace now, as a definite leftist organization and some would even say it was an extreme leftist organization.

 

Last week, in an interview in the parliamentary channel and channel <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 />10, a guy named Yariv Oppenheimer was interviewed. By accident, this guy was the secretary general of peace now. Well dressed in a prestigious suit, "talking to the point", a real serious politician. But don't let the suit deceive you, because it didn't end there.

 

I'd like to note that at the beginning of the interview I thought for a moment that the parliament member of the Likkud, Ofir Akunis, was interviewed, there was an non-ignorable external similarity between them and their voices are also very alike/ A quick blink got me back to track and I recognized that it was Yariv Oppenheimer, the secretary general of peace now.

 

I sat comfortably on the couch, turned up the volume by the remote control, and listened to our "partner on our way", or it seemed to be that way. Rhetorical questions by Nekhama Duek, the experienced interviewer, that were easy to answer from Mr. Oppenheimer's worldview were asked. But with Nekhama Duek, "the big fish" were not late to arrive.

 

The first fish answered to the name "the Golan heights". So Mr. Oppenheimer detailed his opinion about the Israeli occupation on the Golan heights: "There are very nice people there, so we'll have to get to an arrangement with the Syrians". There was not even one clear word about the Israeli necessity to abandon the Golan heights, not one clear word about the necessity of normalization with Syria, one of the key countries in the middle east, and not one clear word about ending the Israeli occupation on the Golan heights.

 

We're getting to the second fish, named Ehud Barack. So Mr. Oppenheimer detailed his opinion about the quality of the Israeli defense minister's way of action: "A responsible and understanding man". In these exact words, while bluntly ignoring the fact that Ehud Barack was the major executor of the Cust Lead operation in which over 1300 Palestinians including women and children where butchered. Ehud Barack, who was sitting in a coalition with extreme right winged political parties that include nationalist, fascist and extremely religious characters.

 

So we're continuing to the third fish: Hamas. So Mr. Oppenheimer detailed his impertinent opinion about that Palestinian organization: "enemies of peace". We thought that there was an internal consensus in the real leftist camp about the need to immediately begin with direct talks with the military and political leaders of Hamas, as Gideon Levi wrote in his article "When talking to the Hamas" in details because just like Israel negotiated with the Hamas regarding the tape of Gilad Shalit, there is no doubt that talks about the destiny of two peoples must take place. But according to Oppenheimer's words, the elected representatives of the Palestinian people, or in another words, the Palestinian people, are nothing but enemies.

 

The fourth and deep fish, is the Goldstone report, and Mr. Oppenheimer's response about it was not different in it's nationalism from his other responses in this interview in it's terrifying contempt in the proper and vindicated report by the judge Richard Goldstone. Apparently, according to Mr. Oppenheimer's point of view, the blood of the murdered Palestinians and its expensive price to the Jewish people in Israel and abroad should not be counted or published.

At the end of the interview, after watching Mr. Oppenheimer's horror show, I understood that maybe my fears at the beginning of the interview about the identity of the talking interviewee, and a momentary confusion that maybe it was the parliament member Ofir Akunis were true? I wish. But the person that "starred" in front of my eyes on the screen was Yariv Oppenheimer, "our Yariv" in person. So maybe Ehud Barack was right when he said "a healthy system should refresh its components" regarding the replacement of Gabby Ashkenazi, the Israeli military general. This was undoubtedly a serious issue to think about regarding Mr. Oppenheimer's continuance of service as the secretary general of peace now.

 

 

 

* The writer is the chairman Deborah Congress

http://www.deborah.bon.co.il/

 

 Israeli Academic Freedom at Risk - by Stephen Lendman

 

Born in Haifa, the son of German-Jewish immigrants who fled during the Nazi period, noted historian Ilan Pappe left Israel in summer 2007, telling London Guardian writer Chris Arnot he began "feeling for a while like public enemy No. 1" for his anti-Zionist views and supporting a boycott against Israeli universities, saying:

 

"I supported (it) because I believe that without pressure, Israel will not end the occupation....I believe that things would change only if Israel receives a strong message that as long as the occupation continues it would not be a legitimate member of the international community, and that until then its academics, doctors and authors would not be welcome. A similar boycott was imposed on South Africa. It took 21 one years, but it eventually led to the end of Apartheid." 

 

Now chairing Britain's Exeter University's history department, he explained by the time he left, the Knesset publicly condemned him and Israel's education minister, Yuli Tamir, wanted him sacked.

 

In addition, death threats came by mail, email and phone, and his picture once appeared in Israel's "biggest-selling newspaper at the centre of a target," the caption reading: "I'm not telling you to kill this person, but I shouldn't be surprised if someone did."

 

An environment this hostile got him to leave, the same one today afflicting other Israeli academics, opposing policies they don't accept, nor should anyone respecting the rule of law, democratic freedoms, and equal justice, endangered species in Israel for Jews - non-existent for Occupied Palestinians and Israeli Arab citizens.

 

On August 17, a Haaretz editorial headlined "Politruks (Russian for political commissars) in academia," citing a report submitted by the extremist hard right Im Tirtzu movement to the Knesset and Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar wanting research prohibited unless it: 

 

"complies with the winds blowing in the Knesset and the street....Evidently the report (wants to spread) fear in the universities, further deligitimizing Israeli intellectuals, and undermining" free expression, research and thought, Haifa University Rector Professor Yossi Ben-Artzi calling it McCarthyist material academia must reject to stay credible.

 

On August 10, Haaretz writer or Kashti headlined, "Im Tirtzu threatens boycott of Israeli university over 'anti-Zionist' bias," saying:

 

It threatened Gen-Gurion University of the Negev President Professor Rivka Carmi in July "to put an end to (its politics and government department) anti-Zionist tilt" or face a donor boycott and campaign to "advise political science students to stay away from the university." Im Tirtzu (IT) gave Carni one month to comply.

 

Heads of all Israeli universities responded saying:

 

"No Israeli university has to prove its staff's love of their homeland to any organization, and certainly not to a political one that is trying to present a tendentious, manipulative document as 'research' to advance its own public relations."

 

Ben-Gurion's Professor David Newman, a tireless Israeli academic boycott campaigner, said IT's threat is "a clear attempt to threaten the university in an era of diminishing financial resources," calling its accusations "very far from the truth."

 

IT charged 11 permanent faculty members for their "radical left-wing" political activities, six for signing a letter supporting refusal to serve in the military, and two research fellows for their "anti-Zionist worldview." Professor Neve Gordon was included for advocating a "social, economic and political boycott of Israel."

 

In addition, IT called the department's course syllabi heavily (tilted) toward "anti-national and anti-Zionist content," adding:

 

The department's large number of "anti-Zionist" faculty "arouses grave suspicions that the main basis for acceptance into and promotion within the department is not professional, but political."

 

Further, Carni was accused of "apathy that has enabled an academic dictatorship to overpower academic freedom."

 

Ben-Gurion University didn't respond directly, but called the accusations "scandalous," saying they violate "everything that is sacred to academia. The very act of responding to (Im Tirtzu) would give this right-wing organization legitimacy." It deserves condemnation instead.

 

On August 19, Haaretz writer Or Kashti headlined, "Right-wing groups join forces to fight 'anti-Zionist bias' in Israeli academia," saying:

 

Besides Im Tirtzu (IT), Institute for Zionist Strategies (IZS) founding chairman, Israel Harel, "recently drafted a report that accused academic institutions of propagating 'post-Zionist bias' in their sociology departments....The campaign....by the two groups has evoked a firestorm of criticism from educators and university administrators," the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities stating:

 

"In a democratic state, we must vigorously defend with all available means the independence of academic institutions. As such, we cannot accept attempts by external and foreign bodies to intervene in appointing faculty members, determining curricula, and the manner in which material is taught."

 

Democratic freedoms have greatly eroded under Netanyahu's extremist government, including by the Knesset's proposed Loyalty Oath bill, requiring all Israeli citizens, including Israeli Arabs, swear allegiance to a "Jewish, Zionist, and democratic State," its emblems and values, and perform military or civic service as a condition for a national identity card signifying citizenship.

 

On July 20, Israel's cabinet approved it, Netanyahu praising a way to maintain Israel's "Jewish and democratic character." The Israeli Association for Civil Rights condemned it, calling it "racist (and) dangerous." The Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said it would impede family reunifications and pressure non-Jews to support Zionism, effectively renouncing their heritage by doing so.

 

Other human rights groups and independent observers call Netanyahu's government Israel's most extremist ever, governing far to the right of center, partnered with Yisrael Beitenu, Israel's ultra-right party under Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, an untranationalist/revisionist Zionist, a man Haaretz called "unrestrained and irresponsible."

 

A July 18 Haaretz editorial called the loyalty oath "an attempt to light a societal fuse," saying forced allegiance amounts to "tarring several large communities with disloyalty (unjustly) and opening a dangerous channel for revoking citizenship," repressively and arbitrarily, "though that may be precisely what a number of coalition lawmakers would like most." 

 

It may also target dissident academics, Jewish ones, unwilling to pledge loyalty to lawless Israeli practices or relinquish their right to condemn them - to freely express opinions, bedrock democratic values, without fear of recrimination, including loss of citizenship.

 

Expressing concern, Tel Aviv University's Professor David S. Katz said "we are entering a McCarthyite phase - and I do not exaggerate....There is legislation being discussed that would limit freedom of expression in universities. The education minister has expressed satisfaction with a report that looks at the course content of professors, sniffing out 'anti-Zionist' ideology. The Knesset Education Committee (backs it). It is very bad indeed, and the universities have done little to reject this, apart from" Haifa University Rector Yossi Ben-Artzi, "who was very forthcoming."

 

Many academics are at risk, like Tel Aviv University's Rachel Giora for strongly supporting the Global BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions) movement, backing Palestinian liberation, and being vocally critical of Israeli lawlessness. Others like her include Hebrew University Professor Nurit Peled-Elhannan, peace activist recipient of the Sakharov Prize for Human Rights and Freedom of Speech, and one of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine's founders.

 

Also Professor Jeff Halper, co-founder and Coordinating Director of the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD) who's organized and led nonviolent direct protests and civil disobedience against Israel's repressive occupation.

 

Ben-Gurion University Professor Neve Gordon got death threats for supporting BDS, more still for criticizing the Gaza Flotilla massacre, saying "When I walk on campus people ask in jest if I am wearing a bullet proof vest." Regarding loyalty, he says "the appropriate chant is not 'No citizenship without loyalty!' but rather 'Loyalty to every citizen!' "

 

He and many others defend speech and academic freedoms, hundreds of professors petitioning against Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar intention to punish university lecturers and institutions for freely using them, stating:

 

"If the higher education system in Israel wants to maintain a high quality, it must also include opinions that are not acceptable to everyone, social and political criticism, and critical and even controversial research and instruction....We have different and varied opinions about solving the difficult problems facing Israel, but there is one thing we are agree on - freedom of expression and academic freedom are the very lifeblood of the academic system." 

 

State measures subverting them violate core democratic principles, inviolable ones essential to defend, preserve, and challenge anyone acting against them.

 

Among those signing were Haifa University Rector Professor Ben Artzi, Israel Prize laureates Professors Benjamin Isaac and Yehoshua Kolodny, and former education minister, Professor Yuli Tamir. Netanyahu's extremist government opposes them, intolerant of internal opposition, even scholars, intellectuals, and universities demanding speech and academic freedoms.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

Israeli academic freedom at risk

 Israel's Bogus Construction Moratorium - by Stephen Lendman

 

Promises made, then broken. Promise peace. Wage war and daily violence throughout the Territories. Announce a settlement construction halt. Keep building, the promised pause (not a freeze) never observed despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's December 8 announced moratorium saying:

 

"I hope that this decision will help launch meaningful negotiations to reach a historic peace agreement that would finally end the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians," what he relentlessly pursues, spurning resolution for an equitable, just peace, wanting surrender, not conciliation on equal terms, what he'll never agree to or accept.

 

Despite announcing "a suspension of new permits and new construction in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) for a period of ten months," construction never stopped. Israel's land grab continues. Thousands of new units have been approved, New York Times writer Ethan Bronner, on July 14, headlining, "Despite Settlement Freeze, Buildings Rise," saying:

 

"....an examination of the freeze after more than seven months suggests that it amounts to something less significant, at least on the ground. In many West Bank settlements, building is proceeding apace. Dozens of construction sites with scores of Palestinian workers are active."

 

Why? Because "cheating has occurred (and other units were) grandfathered in" to proceed. In addition, huge approval increases preceded Netanyahu's announcement, enough to continue construction unabated, though at a slower pace. 

 

Another promise, another lie like the bogus peace process and claims about regional threats, Israel posing the only one, what everyone knows but won't say.

 

Peace Now.org (PN) on Israel's Bogus Moratorium

 

PN "is the leading voice of Israeli public pressure for peace....with over 10,000 members from the Middle East and around the world." On August 8, it launched a anti-settlement campaign, saying:

 

It's Israel's moment of truth, its "choice between hope and despair; between settlements and the peace process....between international isolation and global support....choosing settlements over peace will have a destructive impact on public support...."

 

Eight months into the announced moratorium, PN assessed its non-enforcement, explaining:

 

-- construction began on 600 or more housing units in 60 separate settlements, including 223 permanent structures and 167 caravans or semi-permanent projects;

 

-- at least 492, announced on the eve of the pause, are in "direct violation," plus another 112 granted since December 8;

 

-- during an average previous eight-month period, construction on about 1,130 housing units began; and

 

-- currently, about 2,000 units are being built, most begun before the December 2009 announced pause.

 

"This means that on the ground, there is almost no freeze or even a visible slowdown, despite the fact that legal construction starts have been prohibited for eight months. It also means that....Israel is not enforcing the moratorium."

 

Included are small scale and much larger projects, involving dozens of units. For example, 180 have been built in Modiin Ilit, midway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and another 40 in Givat Ze'ev, northwest of Jerusalem, one of the largest settlements with an estimated 10,800 population, a virtual small town.

 

In addition, other projects broke ground for their infrastructure, including 62 Barkan units in the northern West Bank, about 100 in Neriya, and 60 in Shaarei Tikvah. In total, 16 settlements have large-scale violations, many others smaller ones.

 

In the past decade, an average 1,700 new housing units were built annually, plus others built illegally. The settlement pause (never a freeze, a word Netanyahu never used)) excluded construction begun before it began. It will expire in October. Unless maintained and enforced, it will perpetuate the peace and conciliation lie, one persisting for decades. The names and faces change. The fraud and deceit remain.

 

Ending the moratorium in October will amount to another  "meaningless, several month delay," nothing more. Continuing construction "cast doubt from the start" on Israel's true intentions. Say one thing, do another, standard practice in its quest for regional hegemony, a Greater Israel, and Jewish only exclusively, one settlement expansion and bulldozed home at a time.

 

Also Palestine's historic Mamilla cemetery in Jerusalem, its previously untouched graves with roots from the 7th century, Israel's Religious Affairs Ministry (in 1948) recognizing it as "one of the most prominent Muslim cemeteries, where Muslim scholars and seventy thousand Muslim warriors" led by Saladin, the first Egyptian Ayyubid Sultan/ opposition leader against the Franks and other Levant European Crusaders, recaptured Jerusalem in the Battle of Hattin. "Israel will always protect and respect this site." Another promise, another broken.

 

The plan now calls for Jewish developments to destroy it along with thousands of Palestinian homes and property, Judaization to replace them. The process continues relentlessly, including the Separation Wall, closed military zones, Jewish only infrastructure, and seized Palestinian farmland - to establish "irreversible facts on the ground," putting a lie to serious peace and reconciliation efforts, ideas not in Israel's vocabulary and practically obscene for Netanyahu, a man who abhors everything not Jewish.

 

Peace Now stands opposed, saying a settlement moratorium is "for Israel's own best interests, regardless of what is happening, or not happening, with regards to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. (It wants it) extended with no more game-playing....without adding any new exceptions or loopholes, (including) enforcement to stop settlers who" keep building illegally. "Otherwise, the entire debate....is little more than empty words," another Israeli specialty.

 

Some Final Comments

 

In a July 23 address in Canada, Palestinian National Initiative founder Dr. Mustafa Barghouti assessed reality today in Palestine, saying:

 

For over six decades, Israeli apartheid, worse than South Africa's, has persecuted and dispossessed Palestinians for decades. How else can you describe a system under which "Israel controls more than 85 per cent of" Palestine's water, letting settlers use "48 times more than us," where Israeli incomes are 26 times greater than Palestinians, and they're obliged to pay inflated Israeli prices "because of (policy and) an imposed tax."

 

"We even....pay double" for electricity and water, but don't get enough. After 43 years of occupation, "most of our (West Bank) roads....have been confiscated (and) segregated," used exclusively for Jews, Arabs on them arrested, imprisoned for seven years or shot by trigger-happy soldier or settlers with immunity to commit murder.

 

The Separation Wall is stealing 12% of the West Bank, depriving Palestinians of their land and freedom, destroying their economy, health system and education.

 

A woman "stand(s) on the roof of her two-floor building in Bethlehem," her house "surrounded by the wall from all directions." The Israeli military prohibits her going there anymore, saying "she needs a permit" henceforth for her own property.

 

"I am a medical doctor....I practiced medicine for 15 years in Jerusalem. I was born in Jerusalem. But (for the past) five years, I'm forbidden, like most Palestinians, from entering Jerusalem even with a permit. (It's) horrifying." West Bank husbands and Jerusalem wives can't live in the city together, and if she stays in her husband's residence, she'll lose her Jerusalem citizenship.

 

"What is apartheid?" It's "when you have two different sets of laws for two different people living in the same area." Jews from Brooklyn or Siberia get immediate Israeli citizenship on arrival to live anywhere in Israel or West Bank or Jerusalem settlements. "If this is not apartheid, then what is....?

 

Today's horrors negate Jewish suffering by the Nazis, Russian pogroms, the Inquisition or at other times. Before 1948 for decades, Palestine was, in fact, a safe haven for Jews who lived peacefully with Muslims and Christians in harmony, before Zionists wanted it all for themselves. 

 

Trouble then began and never ended. Gaza is repressively besieged. West Bank Palestinians and Jerusalemites are virtually imprisoned by the Wall, checkpoints, permit restrictions, and total military control - a free and open system for Jews, an apartheid one for Palestinians denying them all rights oppressively, by wars, daily violence, home demolitions, land seizures,  dispossessions, mass arrests, torture, and death.

 

The struggle isn't between "two equal sides, and one cannot continue to equate between the Israelis and Palestinians as if this is just a struggle between (them) that cannot find a way to talk" and deal with each other peacefully. It's "a struggle between" an oppressor and the oppressed, "between the culture of power and the power of culture, (our) vision....values, (and) humanity."

 

Nonviolence doesn't mean "non-struggle. (It) means struggling for your rights. (It's) about not giving in or giving up, not giving up our dignity, even in the most difficult times....They can imprison us...torture us...shoot us, but they can't....take away....our dignity" and determination. "We've learned how not to give up. (We know) resilience." That spirit defies oppression, occupation, injustice and always will, what Israeli might can't ever destroy. "Please don't be silent." Stand with us proudly.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

construction continues unabated

 Palestine: Occupied, Divided, Isolated, Oppressed and Unaided - by Stephen Lendman

 

Imagine the following:

 

You're ruthlessly oppressed in an occupied country under a system of institutionalized racism, affording rights solely to Jews. You have no recognized nation, no right of citizenship, no democratic freedoms or civil liberties, including no power over your daily life. 

 

You live in constant fear, collectively punished, politically denied, and economically strangled in a continuing cycle of violence. Military orders deny free expression and movement, enclose population centers, close borders, and impose curfews, checkpoints, roadblocks, separation walls, electric fences, dispossessions, land seizures, and domination over all aspects of life under draconian military orders like the following:

 

-- No. 92 giving Israel control of all West Bank and Gaza water;

 

-- No. 158 stipulating that Palestinians can't construct water installations without (nearly impossible to get) permit permission and those built will be confiscated or demolished;

 

-- No. 1015 requiring Palestinians get permission to plant trees on their own land;

 

-- No 128 authorizing the IDF to take over any Palestinian business not open during regular business hours;

 

-- No. 107 prohibiting Arabic grammar, Crusades history and Arab nationalist publications;

 

-- No. 101 banning gatherings of more than 10 people without advance notice with names of participants;

 

-- Nos. 811 and 847 letting Jews buy land from  Palestinian owners with or without their consent;

 

-- No. 998 requiring Palestinians get permission to withdraw funds from their bank accounts; 

 

-- No. 818 authorizing how Palestinians can plant decorative flowers;

 

-- No. 329 preventing the right of return; and

 

-- Nos. 1649 and 1650 turning all West Bank residents (including native born ones) potentially into "infiltrators," making them vulnerable to deportation, fines or imprisonment without IDF-issued permits.

 

Overall, your land is occupied, communities isolated, homes invaded, friends and relatives arrested, neighborhoods attacked, homes bulldozed, land stolen, fields uprooted and burned, businesses closed, and livelihoods denied. You're impoverished, unemployed, starved, tortured, murdered, punitively taxed and fined, and demonized for being Muslims in a Jewish state. You endure it daily on your own unaided, yet you go on, hoping others later will do better.

 

Separation - A Dominant Aspect of Daily Life

 

The Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement promotes, defends and protects the right of free movement, "guaranteed by international and Israeli law," yet denied Palestinians under a draconian "system of rules and sanctions," restricting the lives of millions in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

 

As a result, their basic rights are violated, including the right to life, to access medical care, to education, to livelihood, to family unity, and to freedom of religion.

 

Gisha's new Safe Passage (SP) spg.org web site shows what's "not new and not 'internal' or 'geographical,' but rather intentional, about the separation of Gaza and the West Bank," Israel's draconian control over daily life.

 

In May, SP examined the affect on families and trade, including legal obligations under international and Israeli laws, spurned with impunity.

 

Family Separation

 

Since September 2000 (the start of the second Intifada), travel throughout the Territories (especially between Gaza and the West Bank) has been restricted or denied, notably after Israel's imposed siege. As a result, visiting relatives, pursuing education, accessing medical care, or living normally is virtually impossible, particularly for Gazans wanting to reach the West Bank. "The policy is taking a heavy personal toll on women, men and children, (since) many families have close relatives living in both areas."

 

ID card addresses affect normal life, including for West Bank natives identified as Gazans, making them subject to dispossession and deportation, separating them from families, husbands from wives, children from a parent, and friends from neighbors - because Israel controls the process, the Palestinian registry, and remains hardline.

 

Since 1990, Gaza-born Samir Abu Yusef has lived in Qalqilya in the northwestern West Bank. He's a carpenter, married with four children, yet in early 2008 was arrested entering Israel and deported because of his ID card address.

 

For over two years, he was separated from his family causing immense anguish and hardships, including financial ones. His application to return home was denied because he didn't observe Israel's permit criteria. His wife and children also couldn't visit him for the same reason.

 

Gisha petitioned Israel's High Court of Justice (HCJ) on his behalf and succeeded, reuniting him with his family in March, Samir saying months earlier:

 

"Two years have passed since I saw my children. I yearn to touch them, to watch them grow up, to hug them....It's very hard (being) away from them....The holiday season is the hardest time....On the holiday, I stay alone in my room and cry....What have my children done to deserve such a terrible punishment - to live without a father?"

 

Thousands of others in the West Bank fear the same fate - arbitrary removal, so they restrict their movements, fearing arrest at a checkpoint or by military patrols and deportated.

 

Gaza-born Ahmed Alul, a Tulkarm resident since 1996, visited his parents and family in Gaza in April 2001. He was then prevented from returning, his wife Samar saying how hard it is "to raise two boys by myself. I am both father and mother to them....no one can (replace their) father."

 

Unlike most countries and all civilized ones, Palestinians are denied free movement. As a result, Gazan men and women with West Bank spouses can't reunite to be together, yet Israel lets West Bank and East Jerusalem residents move to Gaza, but not return - an option risking livelihoods, land, homes, and family support networks, one few wish to choose.

 

West Bank-born Gazans face an impossible choice. They can stay with their spouse, detached from West Bank families, or return and be separated from wives or husbands who can't leave. The toll for many is unbearable, living half lives not whole ones.

 

If allowed, leaving Gaza involves hardships even in extreme cases, such as battered or divorced wives or widows seeking West Bank shelter with parents or other family members. Travel restrictions between the Territories are so strict, that it's easier for Gazans to meet family members abroad than internally, despite the difficulties reaching Egypt through Rafah.

 

Even Gazans managing to do it can't enter the West Bank via the Allenby Bridge (on the Jordanian side) to reunite with families. Mohammed Abu Aishah's case is tragic. Born in Jordan, his family moved to the West Bank when he was eight, yet his ID card address is Gaza even though he never lived there, because it was his mother's original address.

 

In February 2007, he visited his brother in Gaza, couldn't leave for over two years, got to Egypt through Rafah, and from there to Jordan. Yet he was denied entry to the West Bank and now lives under impoverished conditions, age 22, "with no future, no profession, no livelihood, no roof over my head. For three years I've (tried) to survive another day."

 

According to international accords Israel signed, West Bank and Gaza residents live in a single territorial entity. Yet Israel's separation policy creates "an almost impenetrable barrier," disrupting families, including husbands from wives, parents from children, siblings from each other, and friends from neighbors and community ties - in violation of international law and common decency.

 

Legal Implications of Family Separation

 

As an occupying power, Israel is required to ensure proper functioning of public life and institutions, including protection and welfare of families. The High Court of Justice (HCJ), in fact, affirmed these obligations because Israel control's Gaza's borders and occupies the West Bank, the populations dependent after decades of military control.

 

In addition, the Oslo Accords committed Israel to recognize Gaza and the West Bank as a single territorial  entity in which free movement (notably safe passage) was allowed between the two by private vehicles or buses through Israel. Crossing permits were required but didn't require residency in either area exclusively.

 

Yet military orders or regulations separate families, creating inducements to move to Gaza and stay. Family visits, including between spouses, are prohibited, except under specially allowed humanitarian circumstances rarely granted. In addition, Israel now arrests West Bank residents with Gaza addresses, removing them by force. Also, strict criteria restrict Gazans from reuniting with family members in the West Bank, those returning removed by force.

 

"Understanding this policy requires understanding control over the Palestinian population registry," ostensibly given the Palestinian Authority (PA) under Oslo on these terms:

 

The PA must "inform Israel of every change in its population registry, including, inter alia, any change in the place of resident of any resident."

 

Nonetheless, Israel usurped control, treating PA address change notifications as a request it can approve or deny. As a result, since 2000, Israel refused to register them for Gazans who moved to the West Bank. Palestinians relocating thus had no way to record the change. At the same time, West Bank residents with Gaza IDs must get "staying permits" (rarely granted) to remain.

 

To quality, they must have entered the West Bank before 2000, be married to a resident there, have children, and demonstrate exceptional humanitarian circumstances.

 

Israel then prohibited Palestinians with Gaza addresses from traveling to the West Bank to reunite with families, except under "extraordinary restrictive circumstances."

 

Its policy states that family separation alone isn't a qualifying factor, effectively banning reunifications, even for parents and children, spouses, and siblings, with these exceptions:

 

-- children under 16 seeking reunification with a surviving parent;

 

-- elderly invalids needing help from a first degree West Bank relative; and

 

-- chronically ill people needing assistance from a first degree West Bank relative.

 

Even then, Gazans must prove they have no local relatives to provide care. Only then may they get temporary permits for up to seven years before being able to request an address change. However, if the humanitarian need expires before the permit, it's rescinded. If all conditions are met, Israel conducts a security check before deciding whether or not to grant permission. As a result, "family reunification is nearly impossible." For example:

 

-- a very young Gazan girl would be prohibited from reuniting with her West Bank mother if any Gaza relative can care for her; if not, hard to get special permission would be required;

 

-- a elderly invalid would be refused permission to be cared for by a West Bank niece because she's not a first degree relative; if one is there, the applicant must prove no one can provide assistance in Gaza; and

 

-- if all qualifications are met and permission granted, permits would be rescinded if the humanitarian need expires.

 

Other obstacles also exist, including the requirement for the Palestinian Civil Affairs Office Director-General to personally transmit requests to the military. In addition, if families are divided between the Territories, West Bank  members are prohibited from visiting others in Gaza unless they waive their right to return.

 

Separation Policy's Damaging Affect on Trade between Gaza and the West Bank

 

Before closure, Gaza and the West Bank comprised single territorial entity, letting goods produced in one area be sold in the other, some (now destroyed) Gaza factories earning most of their revenue from West Bank sales.

 

However, during the 1990s, Israel imposed restrictions, to advantage its own companies over Palestine's. By late 2006, trade had markedly declined, and with Gaza under siege, virtually all its exports are prohibited, only limited amounts entering, including minimal amounts of essential to life items. 

 

Excluded are medical equipment, all kinds of spare parts, construction materials, and basic items like books, wheelchairs, pens and pencils, shoes, cleaning and hygiene products to bring the Strip to its knees, induce malnutrition, illness, and systemic hardship for 1.5 million people - in gross violation of international law.

 

In mid-June, modest easing was announced, though hardly enough to matter, and it won't help the West Bank. Prior to closure, dealers earned a living selling goods in Gaza at affordable prices. Afterwards things changed, restricting items to a limited few, and imposing an expensive, lengthy, uncertain process to operate.

 

West Bank goods must be bought remotely, without checking for quality, then await permit permission to import them, provide storage, and coordinate with Palestinians and Israeli truck drivers for transportation through Israel to the Kerem Shalom crossing into Gaza. 

 

About 12 days are needed, costing over $2,000 per truck, plus storage costs and the possibility that distribution will be impeded or denied, forcing longer storage, lost sales and spoilage.

 

Previously, Gaza merchants could travel between the areas freely, selecting goods prior to buying them. No longer, and crippled Gazan industries can't compensate. As a result, unemployment and impoverishment skyrocketed to some of the highest levels globally, making Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid to survive, never enough because Israel restricts amounts and excludes most items, including essential ones.

 

Unsurprisingly, Gaza - West Bank business relationships have deteriorated, each cut off from the other, one Gaza farmer/fruit and vegetable dealer saying:

 

"In 2000, I used to export 10 - 12 tons of vegetables to the West Bank every day....Now I....can't export a thing. I had 1.2 acres of land where I grew guavas, among the best (in the Strip). They used to say that someone with a guava orchard is like a king, because they could be exported to the West Bank. Now, guavas mean a loss - the market has completely disappeared....I'm broken inside."

 

The few remaining Gaza businesses suffer huge losses, and most factories were either destroyed or shut down because West Bank raw material imports are prohibited. As long as the siege continues, a productive economy is impossible. So is earning a living, even one modest enough to survive and support a family.

 

The announced "economic peace" skipped Gaza, the World Bank saying:

 

"The West Bank and Gaza are now almost completely delinked, with Gaza starkly transformed from a potential trade route to a walled hub of humanitarian donations."

 

Besides their damaged societies and economies, the Gaza - West Bank disconnect destroys the possibility of unifying Palestine, the World Bank adding:

 

"(T)he strategic goal of an economically viable Palestinian state is achievable only if Gaza and the West Bank are maintained as an integral economic entity," what Israel prevents, keeping Gazans under siege and West Bank communities confined to Bantustans, isolated in the Territory's least valued areas, hoping they'll wither, perish or leave, transforming all Palestine into a greater Israel, exclusively for Jews, pressuring Israeli Arabs to comply, move, or be forced out.

 

A Final Comment

 

Phillip Weiss and Adam Horowitz blog on Mondoweiss on Israel/Palestine and Middle East issues daily. A July 18 entry related the distaste some Jews have for Arabs, one man saying they're guests as long as they behave. Another called them stinking Arabs ("aravim masrichim"). A third hoped the next war would drive them out because they're the modern incarnation of Amalek, the enemy of God and the Jews, and still another said "We like to be with people who think like we do." 

 

Settlers are especially hostile, notably religious extremists believing they're chosen, Israel given them by God, the Messiah's reemergence imminent once it's entirely gotten, the "infidels" driven out.

 

With that mindset, American support, and a complicit world community, prevailing is a formidable task, yet achievable with enough tenacity to persist. If Palestinians are committed, can global activists do less and be true to their ethics, principles, honor, and resolve to demand equal justice, self-determination and peace.

 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

 

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.

what should outrage everyone