Saturday 19 September 2009

Afghanistan: Where Empires Go to Die



Genghis Khan could not hold onto Afghanistan. Neither will the United States

by Dahr Jamail
.
Global Research, September 18, 2009

truthout - 2009-09-17



On September 7 the Swedish aid agency Swedish Committee for Afghanistan reported that the previous week US soldiers raided one of its hospitals. According to the director of the aid agency, Anders Fange, troops stormed through both the men's and women's wards, where they frantically searched for wounded Taliban fighters.

Soldiers demanded that hospital administrators inform the military of any incoming patients who might be insurgents, after which the military would then decide if said patients would be admitted or not. Fange called the incident "not only a clear violation of globally recognized humanitarian principles about the sanctity of health facilities and staff in areas of conflict, but also a clear breach of the civil-military agreement" between nongovernmental organizations and international forces.

Fange said that US troops broke down doors and tied up visitors and hospital staff.

Impeding operations at medical facilities in Afghanistan directly violate the Fourth Geneva Convention, which strictly forbids attacks on emergency vehicles and the obstruction of medical operations during wartime.

Lt. Cmdr. Christine Sidenstricker, a public affairs officer for the US Navy, confirmed the raid, and told The Associated Press, "Complaints like this are rare."

Despite Sidenstricker's claim that "complaints like this" are rare in Afghanistan, they are, in fact, common. Just as they are in Iraq, the other occupation. A desperate conventional military, when losing a guerilla war, tends to toss international law out the window. Yet even more so when the entire occupation itself is a violation of international law.

Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild and also a Truthout contributor, is very clear about the overall illegality of the invasion and ongoing occupation of Afghanistan by the United States.

"The UN Charter is a treaty ratified by the United States and thus part of US law," Cohn, who is also a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and recently co-authored the book "Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent" said, "Under the charter, a country can use armed force against another country only in self-defense or when the Security Council approves. Neither of those conditions was met before the United States invaded Afghanistan. The Taliban did not attack us on 9/11. Nineteen men - 15 from Saudi Arabia - did, and there was no imminent threat that Afghanistan would attack the US or another UN member country. The council did not authorize the United States or any other country to use military force against Afghanistan. The US war in Afghanistan is illegal."

Thus, the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan, along with the ongoing slaughter of Afghan civilians and raiding hospitals, are in violation of international law as well as the US Constitution.

And of course the same applies for Iraq.

Let us recall November 8, 2004, when the US military launched its siege of Fallujah. The first thing done by the US military was to invade and occupy Fallujah General Hospital. Then, too, like this recent incident in Afghanistan, doctors, patients and visitors alike had their hands tied and they were laid on the ground, oftentimes face down, and held at gunpoint.

During my first four trips to Iraq, I commonly encountered hospital staff who reported US military raids on their facilities. US soldiers regularly entered hospitals to search for wounded resistance fighters.

Doctors from Fallujah General Hospital, as well as others who worked in clinics throughout the city during both US sieges of Fallujah in 2004, reported that US Marines obstructed their services and that US snipers intentionally targeted their clinics and ambulances.

"The Marines have said they didn't close the hospital, but essentially they did," Dr. Abdulla, an orthopedic surgeon at Fallujah General Hospital who spoke on condition of using a different name, told Truthout in May 2004 of his experiences in the hospital. "They closed the bridge which connects us to the city [and] closed our road ... the area in front of our hospital was full of their soldiers and vehicles."

He added that this prevented countless patients who desperately needed medical care from receiving medical care. "Who knows how many of them died that we could have saved," said Dr. Abdulla. He also blamed the military for shooting at civilian ambulances, as well as shooting near the clinic at which he worked. "Some days we couldn't leave, or even go near the door because of the snipers," he said, "They were shooting at the front door of the clinic!"

Dr. Abdulla also said that US snipers shot and killed one of the ambulance drivers of the clinic where he worked during the fighting.

Dr. Ahmed, who also asked that only his first name be used because he feared US military reprisals, said, "The Americans shot out the lights in the front of our hospital. They prevented doctors from reaching the emergency unit at the hospital, and we quickly began to run out of supplies and much-needed medications." He also stated that several times Marines kept the physicians in the residence building, thereby intentionally prohibiting them from entering the hospital to treat patients.

"All the time they came in, searched rooms and wandered around," said Dr. Ahmed, while explaining how US troops often entered the hospital in order to search for resistance fighters. Both he and Dr. Abdulla said the US troops never offered any medicine or supplies to assist the hospital when they carried out their incursions. Describing a situation that has occurred in other hospitals, he added, "Most of our patients left the hospital because they were afraid."

Dr. Abdulla said that one of their ambulance drivers was shot and killed by US snipers while he was attempting to collect the wounded near another clinic inside the city.

"The major problem we found were the American snipers," said Dr. Rashid, who worked at another clinic in the Jumaria Quarter of Falluja. "We saw them on top of the buildings near the mayor's office."

Dr. Rashid told of another incident in which a US sniper shot an ambulance driver in the leg. The ambulance driver survived, but a man who came to his rescue was shot by a US sniper and died on the operating table after Dr. Rashid and others had worked to save him. "He was a volunteer working on the ambulance to help collect the wounded," Dr. Rashid said sadly.

During Truthout's visit to the hospital in May 2004, two ambulances in the parking lot sat with bullet holes in their windshields, while others had bullet holes in their back doors and sides.

"I remember once we sent an ambulance to evacuate a family that was bombed by an aircraft," said Dr. Abdulla while continuing to speak about the US snipers, "The ambulance was sniped - one of the family died, and three were injured by the firing."

Neither Dr. Abdulla nor Dr. Rashid said they knew of any medical aid being provided to their hospital or clinics by the US military. On this topic, Dr. Rashid said flatly, "They send only bombs, not medicine."

Chuwader General Hospital in Sadr City also reported similar findings to Truthout, as did other hospitals throughout Baghdad.

Dr. Abdul Ali, the ex-chief surgeon at Al-Noman Hospital, admitted that US soldiers had come to the hospital asking for information about resistance fighters. To this he said, "My policy is not to give my patients to the Americans. I deny information for the sake of the patient."

During an interview in April 2004, he admitted this intrusion occurred fairly regularly and interfered with patients receiving medical treatment. He noted, "Ten days ago this happened - this occurred after people began to come in from Fallujah, even though most of them were children, women and elderly."

A doctor at Al-Kerkh Hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, shared a similar experience of the problem that appears to be rampant throughout much of the country: "We hear of Americans removing wounded Iraqis from hospitals. They are always coming here and asking us if we have injured fighters."

Speaking about the US military raid of the hospital in Afghanistan, UN spokesman Aleem Siddique said he was not aware of the details of the particular incident, but that international law requires the military to avoid operations in medical facilities.

"The rules are that medical facilities are not combat areas. It's unacceptable for a medical facility to become an area of active combat operations," he said. "The only exception to that under the Geneva Conventions is if a risk is being posed to people."

"There is the Hippocratic oath," Fange added, "If anyone is wounded, sick or in need of treatment ... if they are a human being, then they are received and treated as they should be by international law."

These are all indications of a US Empire in decline. Another recent sign of US desperation in Afghanistan was the bombing of two fuel tanker trucks that the Taliban had captured from NATO. US warplanes bombed the vehicles, from which impoverished local villagers were taking free gas, incinerating as many as 150 civilians, according to reports from villagers.

The United States Empire is following a long line of empires and conquerors that have met their end in Afghanistan. The Median and Persian Empires, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Indo-Greeks, Turks, Mongols, British and Soviets all met the end of their ambitions in Afghanistan.

And today, the US Empire is on the fast track of its demise. A recent article by Tom Englehardt provides us more key indicators of this:

  • In 2002 there were 5,200 US soldiers in Afghanistan. By December of this year, there will be 68,000.
  • Compared to the same period in 2008, Taliban attacks on coalition forces using Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) has risen 114 percent.
  • Compared to the same period in 2008, coalition deaths from IED attacks have increased sixfold.
  • Overall Taliban attacks on coalition forces in the first five months of 2009, compared to the same period last year, have increased 59 percent.
Genghis Khan could not hold onto Afghanistan.

Neither will the United States, particularly when in its desperation to continue its illegal occupation, it tosses aside international law, along with its own Constitution.

Dahr Jamail is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Dahr Jamail

The Execution of a Palestinian Journalist

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By Kawther Salam • Sep 19th, 2009 at 16:41 • Category: Kawther's Choice

PALESTINIANS-ISRAEL/

Last Wednsday, August 26 2009, the criminal Israeli occupation forces shot the Palestinian journalist Ubayda Maher Al-Qudsi, aged 25, while he was walking on Al-Shuhada Street in the heart of the occupied city of Hebron.

To justify the murder, the IDF murderers claimed that Al-Dweik had attempted to attack an IDF soldier with a knife. No knife and no injured soldier were found where Al-Dweik was shot, and the things happened very differently from the usual lies of the IDF.

The Palestinians who witnessed the crime stated that the soldiers stopped Al-Qudsi and were searching him, all the while mistreating and humiliating him. One of the jewish soldiers not involved in the search shot Al-Dweik in cold blood five times.

The Red Cross ambulance medical team was not allowed to reach the victim.

After that, one group of soldiers dragged Al-Dweik like a sack for what was described as several hundred meters, then threw him violently into the back of their jeep and proceeded to beat him with extreme violence. Another group of soldiers present during the crime attacked the Palestinians present in the area, and arrested many children and youth who had witnessed the crime. The soldiers finally declared the crime scene a “military zone”. A Red Cross ambulance was not allowed to reach the victim, and the medical team of the ambulance was attacked by the soldiers. Instead, Al-Dweik was later delivered to the Shaare Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem, where he was held detained by military.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, neither the family nor the lawyer of Al-Dweik were allowed to visit him. Instead, he was severely tortured by the jews in the hospital, until they finally executed him deliberately on Sunday 13 September 2009.
Ubayda Maher Abed Al-Muti Al-Dweik Al-Qudsi was buried in Hebron yesterday, 14 September 2009, in Hebron. His brother Moataz al-Qudsi demanded that human rights organizations investigate the death of his brother, who was shot in Al-Shuhada Street at the western entrance to the center of Hebron. He also denied the IDF allegations that his brother was trying to stab the soldiers.



The Red Cross ambulance medical team was not allowed to reach the victim.

Ubayda Al-Qudsi was a student of journalism in Malaysia, having completed the first two years. Before his murder, Ubayda had finished the necessary preparations to travel to Malaysia and to complete his study of journalism, where he wanted to receive a master's degree in journalism, but the IDF shot him five bullets before he could achieve his dream.

The Palestinian Ministry of information stated that Ubayda had been a victim of journalism. They stated that Ubaya’s murder was one more addition to the long list of Israeli crimes which target Palestinian journalists since 1967. The Ministry of informations demanded that journalists expose the real reasons behind murdering the incipient journalist Al-Dweik, and to stop repeating the false allegations and outright lies of the IDF after they murder Palestinians.






Al-Shuhada Street in Hebron.

The IDF soldiers continuously cause horrible troubles for the Palestinians who walk on Al-Shuhada Street, which has been converted into a military base. Al-Shuhada Street once was the main street in the commercial center of trade, economy, transportation and tourism which was the city of Hebron. This is the street which links between the center, north and south of the city of Hebron. Gradually, the street was closed down by the Israeli occupation since 1994, after the terrorist massacre committed in Hebron by the crazed Zionist and IDF officer Baruch Goldstein, a US citizen and a member of the Kach terrorist cell.

Baruch Goldstein.

In this massacre, Goldstein murdered 29 Palestinians and wounded hundreds, among them dozens who were left permanently paralyzed. As usual, when jews commit atrocities, Palestinians are punished. In the year 2000 the street was closed completely by the “civil administration” in the Israeli army headquarters, after all the shops on the street had successively been closed by military orders, and the Palestinians who lived in the street were forced to leave their houses. The street is now used only by the jewish squatter colonists. The legal adviser of the army stated that the street had been closed “by mistake” and there was no legal justification for doing that, and that the movement of Palestinians should not be prevented in the street. Even the attorney general of Israel decided that the closure of the street was illegal, but until now the Israeli army continues preventing Palestinians from walking in Al Shuhada Street.




From right Udi Ben Muha, Britt T. B. Brestrup, Colonel Aviv Feigel, Barak Morag.
This disgusting crime against a Palestinian journalist took place in Hebron under Udin ben Muha the war criminal Lt. Col. Udi ben Moha, a.k.a. Udi ben Mocha, a.k.a Udi ben Muha, and his fellows the head of DCL Lt. Colonel Aviv Feigel and liaison officer Lt. Barak Morag. Ben Moha is the current Israeli brigade commander for Hebron, the other two are the heads of the occupation office. These crimes must be submitted to the International criminal court (ICC); perhaps one day, sooner or later we will be able to not only sue the criminal commanders of the Israeli IDF for all their crimes against humanity, but to also see them rotting in jail.

It is interesting to note that the head of mission of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron “TIPH”, Britt Tove Berg Brestrup, who is apparently a jewish woman from Norway, fraternizes with Ben Moha and the other abject war criminals from the occupying forces.

Brigader general Britt Tove Berg Brestrup, head of the TIPH in Hebron.

Tove Berg is demanded to stop fraternizing in any way with the israeli criminals in the headquarters of the TIPH in Hebron, people who are personally culpable of many horrible crimes against Palestinians, like murders, detentions and executions of children, vandalism against Palestinian property and wanton violence against civilians.

Is fraternizing with war criminals, holding lunches together, inviting them to parties in the west of occupied Jerusalem, part of the duties of their presence in Palestine under the original agreement? Or is it rather so that TIPH officers would do better in avoiding criminals like Lt. Col. Udi Ben Muha, Lt. Colonel Aviv Feigel, Lt. Barak Morag, and all other israeli personnel present in the West Bank, or at least to meet these thugs in a discrete way so as to not offend us Palestinians?

Three war criminals Udi ben Muha, Yoav Galant and Imad Faras.

Lt. Col. Ben Muha is a war criminal with a long history of committing crimes against humanity. He contributed to the ethnic cleansing of the north of Gaza and along the Palestinian-Egyptian border, and he implemented other measures which correspond to the definition of genocide and crimes against humanity in the Geneva conventions and the Rome Statute of the ICC. Since he was appointed as a commander of the IDF in Hebron, he aids and abets to a continuous string of crimes against the Palestinians of the city and surroundings, which are all war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.



Lt. Col. Ben Moha and Another Premeditated Murder in Cold Blood



Yasser Saqer Al-Tmeizy, who was executed in cold blood on January 13 2009. Pic. Credit: Osama Alayasa.

On Tuesday, January 13 2009, IDF soldiers executed in cold blood Yasser Saqer Al-Tmeizy, age of 35, a member of the Palestinian People's Party, one of the main wings of the Palestinian National Authority. He was a peace activist who had no history of violence against Israel, he hold a permit issued by the military command of the IDF to work in Israel for six-months. Al-Tmeizy was kidnapped from his farm near Tarqumiya west of Hebron. He was caught by four Israeli soldiers while he was working in his field together with his oldest child Firas, aged seven.

The IDF soldiers found the victim alone in his farm and beat him seriously, blindfolded his eyes, cuffed his hands and took him into their military vehicle. His child was also forced to leave the field. The soldiers threatened to shoot him if he insisted in looking at his father, who was blindfolded and handcuffed while being pushed violently to the military vehicle.

The IDF soldiers later executed Al-Tmeizy. They shot him several times in cold blood while he was still blindfolded and cuffed. This is a gratuitous murder is a crass crime against humanity which colonel Lt. Col. Udi ben Moha has tried to cover up and which he possibly ordered personally.

The relatives of Al-Tmeizy wailing at his house.The criminal “State of Israel” and the IDF have never respected human rights, the laws and international treaties and the Geneva Convention of 1949. The IDF always finds Palestinian civilians guilty, and shoots them for whatever reasons. The army has never filed charges against the soldier, and has never investigated the soldiers involved in the whole incident. Always the IDF commanders cover the crimes. The IDF spokesperson always accuses the victim of “stabbing” or “attacking” the IDF soldiers, and all what he does after each crime is to change the date of statement and the name of the victim. This is a disgusting farce which occurs every day in Palestine. It is time to deal with these crimes in accordance with international laws, and all governments should open the doors of their courts to the victims. It is long past time that everybody learns how to respect the legal treaties and conventions which they signed, and by this I mean the jews of Israel.

Al-Tmeizy funeral.

Everyone must denounce the crimes of Israel, and deal with them like criminals are treated everywhere. It is no longer acceptable to remain silent about these crimes, and it will no longer be useful, because from now on anybody standing with Israel will be unmasked as somebody of sick mind who stands with criminals of the worst kind. The world has entered the era of technological revolution in communications, in which no states or censorship laws can silence the voice of truth and hinder the dissemination of first-hand information about the crimes of Israel. Israel is a state of occupation since 42 years, and it is enough of covering up the Israeli crimes.

Here is a Murder Committed Under the Previous Military Commander of Hebron Lt. Col. Yehuda Fox, a.k.a. Yehuda Fuchs


On February 14 2005, the child Sabri Al-Rajoub, age 14 years from Hebron, was executed in cold blood by an IDF officer near the Abraham mosque. It was the first visit of the child to Abraham mosque. He went to see the holy place which he heard about it in the school. All the students in Europe visit the holy places, the churches, the mosques and the museums freely; no soldiers or police shoot and murder them. Why is it forbidden to go freely to the holy places in Palestine?

The child Sabri Al-Rajoub, age 14 years from Hebron, was executed in cold blood by an IDF officer near the Abraham mosque.

Why is the IDF murdering, executing and sniping the children of Palestine with impunity? The child Sabri Al-Rajoub was murdered while he was is about six meters from the IDF officer who shot him. The officer also went to child after he died and shot him with another three bullets from the distance of one meter. This was what human rights organizations reported about murder in cold blood of the child Sabri, and that is the truth which the world must hear.




The IV Geneva Convention of 12 August 1949, which is pertinent, and which was signed by Israel on 6 July 1951, reads (excerpt)

Art. 2. In addition to the provisions which shall be implemented in peace-time, the present Convention shall apply to all cases of declared war or of any other armed conflict which may arise between two or more of the High Contracting Parties, even if the state of war is not recognized by one of them.

The Convention shall also apply to all cases of partial or total occupation of the territory of a High Contracting Party, even if the said occupation meets with no armed resistance.

Although one of the Powers in conflict may not be a party to the present Convention, the Powers who are parties thereto shall remain bound by it in their mutual relations. They shall furthermore be bound by the Convention in relation to the said Power, if the latter accepts and applies the provisions thereof.

Art. 3. In the case of armed conflict not of an international character occurring in the territory of one of the High Contracting Parties, each Party to the conflict shall be bound to apply, as a minimum, the following
provisions:

(1) Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in all circumstances be treated humanely, without any adverse distinction founded on race, color, religion or faith, sex, birth or wealth, or any other similar criteria.

To this end the following acts are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever with respect to the above-mentioned persons:
(a) Violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture;
(b) Taking of hostages;
(c) Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment;
(d) The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgement pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples.

(2) The wounded and sick shall be collected and cared for.

Full text of the convention is here.

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Kawther Salam is a Palestinian journalist. She had a career of over 20 years working for various newspapers and TV stations in Palestine. She forced to live in the Exile in Vienna since 2002.
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Goldstone commission sees evidence of ‘persecution’

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by Philip Weiss on September 17, 2009 ·



When I visited Gaza last May-June, the destruction was so overwhelming and the sense of arbitrary punishment so high that I found myself using the word "persecution." It was clear to me that these people had been targeted as a people; the assault was an effort to diminish their life spirit in every way possible, including destruction of the family unit. What I saw reminded me of what I had heard about the Jews in Warsaw and in Germany and Austria in the runup to the Second World War. Those Jews were persecuted; and these Palestinians were too.

One of the surprises of the Goldstone report for the UN Human Rights Council is that it too talks of "persecution" as a recognized crime against humanity and says that Israel is likely guilty of this charge.

"Finally, the Mission considered whether the series of acts that deprive Palestinians in the Gaza Strip of their means of sustenance, employment, housing, and water, that deny their freedom of movement and right to enter and leave their country, that limit their access [to] a court of law and an effective remedy, could be considered persecution, a crime against humanity."

If you read the report– and I’m halfway thru–you see why they reached for this word. I will avoid mention of the killing of human beings. Other events plainly shocked the investigators. There is the case of the chicken farms that were "systematically flattened" by armored bulldozers, killing 31,000 chickens, 10 percent of the egg production for Gaza. Then there is the destruction of the Hamada Brothers flour mill, the only flour mill in the Strip–after the other two were forced to close for lack of supplies. The mill was warned on two occasions that it would be struck, and on each occasion the Hamadas called associates in Israel, where they are licensed to do business, and determined that no attack would be forthcoming. Though they evacuated their 50 employees. Then on the night of January 9 the mill was struck by several missiles and then by helicopters. The most important machinery was destroyed. The mill is still not able to operate, 9 months later.

The Goldstone mission found the Hamada brothers entirely credible. It asked Israel what was the purpose of the destroying the one mill that could produce the most basic staple of the Palestinian diet. The Israelis refused to respond. The commission concluded that the "wanton" destruction of the mill had only one purpose, to "put an end to production of flour in the Gaza Strip."

These are simple facts. They constitute a "grave" breach of international human rights law. These scenes were so shocking to the Goldstone mission that it extended its consideration of the Israeli persecution of Palestinians to the Israelis-only roads in the West Bank, and to the law that allows Jews from around the world to go there and take land from the Palestinians, with impunity.

How long can that impunity last? Our own country now seems to be standing with Israel in its disgraceful dismissal of this compelling report. Yet I am sure this cold account will be read for decades to come, as Jewish history.

When I was in Gaza, the persecution struck me as biblical, something that you read about in one of the horrifying stories of the Old Testament. The Goldstone mission saw the same Gaza I did.

Related Posts

  1. Goldstone went to Gaza’s Ground Zero: the police massacre
  2. Leaked UN report echoes Goldstone and says Israeli blockade is leading to the ‘de-development’ of Gaza
  3. Ask and you shall receive: the US appears willing to help Israel stonewall the Goldstone report
  4. UN fact finding mission finds that Israeli actions in Gaza amounted to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity
  5. After UN commission charges Gaza war crimes, PBS affords Michael Oren a platform

"Next war on Lebanon, unlikely to spare Tel Aviv"

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YNETnews, here

".... Chief Artillery Officer Brig.-Gen. David Savisa agrees: "The enemy's capabilities have improved on every level – quality, quantity and range. The premise is that the entire country will come under threat. The military rear as well as the home front will become vulnerable and we are gearing up for such a scenario. We will know how to keep (the threat) to a minimum."

As for the possibility that Tel Aviv might come under fire, Yehezkel said that in such an event, "The military will need to be given the leeway to ensure that the majority of Israel is out of missile range."

Engineering Corps Commander Brig.-Gen. Moshe Shelly was more specific: "Firing at central Israel will carry devastating consequences for the perpetrator. I believe – I know – who ever will be responsible for it will be made to pay a hefty price, and I believe the enemy, Hezbollah, is aware of that as well.....

When asked – in view of near constant threats exchanged between Jerusalem and Hezbollah – what might spark a new conflict, Savisa said the IDF is unlikely to be the first to pull the trigger: "Anyone who thinks that there is an instant solution that can destroy tens of thousands of rockets at once is daydreaming...."

Posted by G, Z, & or B at 12:11 PM

ISRAEL REJECTS UN REPORT ~ OF COURSE

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Netanyahu to world: Back Israeli self-defense

Israeli prime minister rejects U.N. report.,
warning world leaders that they
and their anti-terror forces
could be targets for similar charges.


Definitely they will be, if they handle their war in the same way the Americans are handling the war in Afghanistan, killing civilians everyday and lying about it.
Some two weeks ago American airplanes fired on two oil tankers in northern Afghanistan. It was a German officer who'd asked the U.S. air force to attack the tankers in the middle of the night, in a populated area.

The attack was successful ~ the two tankers were hit, went up in flames and were destroyed. But the overwhelming American-German air attack killed some 70 people. Some of those brought to hospitals were severely injured ~ with mutilated faces, burned hands and charred bodies.


It is not clear to this day if most of those who burned to death were Taliban warriors, as NATO first claimed, or innocent civilians who wanted to bring home a bit of oil. One way or another, it's clear that the United States and Germany are responsible for an extremely brutal attack. Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway also bear responsibility for the massacre as NATO members.

Everyone should be held responsible for his own action. There's a name on every bullet, and there's someone responsible for every crime.

The Teflon cloak Israel has wrapped around itself since Operation Cast Lead has been ripped off, once and for all, and now the difficult questions must be faced. It has become superfluous to ask whether war crimes were committed in Gaza, because authoritative and clear-cut answers have already been given.

So the follow-up question has to be addressed: Who's to blame? If war crimes were committed in Gaza, it follows that there are war criminals at large among us. They must be held accountable and punished. This is the harsh conclusion to be drawn from the detailed United Nations report.

For almost a year, Israel has been trying to argue that the blood spilled in Gaza was merely water. One report followed the other, with horrifyingly identical results: siege, white phosphorous, harm of innocent civilians, infrastructure destroyed ~ war crimes in each and every report.

Now, after the publication of the most important and damning report of all, compiled by the commission led by Judge Richard Goldstone, Israel's attempts to discredit them look ludicrous, and the empty bluster of its spokespersons sound pathetic.


So far they have focused on the messengers, not their messages: the researcher for Human Rights Watch collects Nazi memorabilia, Breaking the Silence is a business and Amnesty International is anti-Semitic. All cheap propaganda. This time, though, the messenger is propaganda-proof.

No one can seriously claim that Goldstone, an active and ardent Zionist, with deep links to Israel, is an anti-Semite. It would be ridiculous. Although there were some propagandists who actually tried to use the anti-Semitism weapon against him, even they knew this was farcical.

One had to hear the moving interview that Goldstone's daughter Nicole gave to Razi Barkai on Army Radio Wednesday, to understand that he is in fact a lover of Israel and its true friend. She spoke, in Hebrew, of the mental anguish her father experienced and of his conviction that, had he not been there, the report would have been much worse. All he wants is an Israel that is more just, she explained.


Neither can anyone doubt his legal credentials, as a top-level international jurist with an impeccable reputation. The man who found out the truth about Rwanda and Yugoslavia has now done the same regarding Gaza.

The former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague is not only a legal authority, he is also a moral authority; therefore complaints about the judge won't hold water. Instead, it is time to look closer at the accused. Those responsible are first and foremost Ehud Olmert, Ehud Barak and Gabi Ashkenazi. So far, incredibly, none of them has paid any price for their misdeeds.


Cast Lead was an unrestrained assault on a besieged, totally unprotected civilian population which showed almost no signs of resistance during this operation. It should have raised an immediate furor in Israel. It was a Sabra and Chatila, this time.

Netanyahu is mixing apples with oranges again to justify all the atrocities his army committed towards the innocent civilians in Gaza. This one Zionist should be ashamed of himself. Netanyahu also said Israeli forces were exercising their right to self-defense after rocket attacks by Palestinian Hamas militants against southern Israeli towns before and since Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

"They tell us to pull out, and after we do, and we exercise our right to self defense, they call us war criminals? I don't accept that," Netanyahu told Israel TV, speaking on the occasion of the Jewish New Year holiday, which begins Friday.


Any body, including the Palestinians, is entitled to self-defense, but not genocide his innocent people; women,children and elderly which is the case in Gaza operation.

What about the military Rabbis officers' orders "shoot to kill to kill indiscriminately".

How about using innocent Palestinians as "Human shields".

How about the total destruction of houses and facilities like schools and the Zoo.

Oh, my apology, these are not facts.

For some unknown reasons, but to Israel, the Palestinians are blatant liars,
as well as the Human Right Groups' witnesses
.

Did his children shoot rocks at Israel?!


Even assuming that the father of those kids was a militant, and not fighting for a just cause, should children reap the consequences of their fathers deed?!

What did this young girl do to deserve what happened to her?!

The report of the U.N. commission, headed by South African justice Richard Goldstone, faulted Israel for civilian deaths in Gaza, saying it used disproportionate force in the offensive.

About 1,400 Palestinians were killed during the three-week conflict
. Israel charged that Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers were to blame, saying they placed rocket launchers and forces in crowded neighborhoods.


Oh, Israel, blame it on Homer; rehearsed answers for whenever the issue arises. Answers you imposed on the nations of the world and forced them to swallow. Well, I guess those nations decided to narrow their palates and let go only what is digestible.

The U.N. report also called Hamas' firing of rockets at Israeli civilians a war crime.

Netanyahu urged world leaders to support Israel's right to self-defense and reject the report's findings ~ including its conclusion that formal charges could be brought against Israeli soldiers, officers and leaders.

Worried, Is he?, about the Israeli image, especially after the latest scandal about Organs theft in Palestine and organ trading and money laundering in the US by Jewish Rabbis.

Well, world leaders have supported Israel's right to self-defense long enough, but when they turn around and say enough is enough, Israel gets upset and starts threatening and shoving its anti-Semitic card into the faces of other nations. What an audacity!

"I'm going to tell world leaders, who also suffer from terrorism: It's not only our problem," Netanyahu said. "If they charge Israeli soldiers, officers, pilots and even leaders ~ they will charge you, too." Netanyahu said he would accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza if it were demilitarized, as a way of "avoiding the next Goldstone report" on an Israeli operation against Palestinian militants.

Fighting terrorism should be everybody responsibility. But the problem is that Israel is the main reason behind most of these acts of terror. Israel wants the nations of the world to either forget its crimes, or there will be no peace negotiations?

Israel does not compromise or believe in other alternative except their own alternative. And why sneak by linking the UN report to the current negotiations? Netanyahu's attempt is flowed. Is he saying either you forget the Israelis' crimes, or there will be no peace talks? WOW reiterated by what a steaming heap of Israeli BS!

He wants the Palestinian state to be demilitarized, so Israel will always have the upper hand and always be able to pacify, intimidate and humiliate the Palestinians any time it wants by turning them into a helpless, meek herd of sheep, always scared of the big bad wolf.

This is a rotten deal. Why doesn't Israel demilitarize itself, too, and stop spending these billions of dollars on warring? The Jews hates "Amalek", but they want to be him instead.

Focused on the future

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said he hoped the Goldstone report would not become an obstacle to renewing peace talks. He said the U.S. has "concerns about the content of the report" but would not elaborate.

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, reiterated U.S. concern about what it calls the U.N. team's "unbalanced, one-sided and unacceptable" mandate. "Our view is that we need to be focused on the future. This is a time to work to cement progress towards the resumption of negotiations and their early and successful conclusion,” she said.

How is THAT for saying NOTHING AT ALL!

And here comes the American masked threat. For heavens sake, tell me since when have ever cared for the Palestinians? America, you and Israel are one pea in the same pod, no doubt in the heart of history. Bush's dynasty has not died yet.

If the international community is committed to international law and universal ethics ~ which do not discriminate between one sort of killing and another ~ then it should investigate this villainous assault in Gaza and Afghanistan.

As for Afghanistan, if the United States, Germany and NATO refuse to cooperate with investigators, the UN should consider transferring the case to the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

It is possible that at the end of the process it would be necessary to put U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and the leaders of Britain, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and Norway on trial for their role in committing a severe war crime that did not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

Obama would probably be the principal defendant in this case. He was the one who believed in the war in Afghanistan and intensified it. As U.S. commander-in-chief, he bears direct responsibility not only for the deaths of those who were burned with the tankers, but the death of many hundreds of innocent Afghan civilians.

If there are is such a thing as an international community, international law and universal ethics, they must seriously consider putting Obama on trial for his responsibility for severe war crimes.
Posted by Noor al Haqiqa at 1:04 AM


A Thief Resigned From the Jewish Community in Hungary


Link

Sep 18th, 2009 by kawther.salam
Friday, September 18th 2009
Budapest – According to German news Agency “dpa”, the deputy leader of the largest Jewish organization in Hungary has announced his resignation after being arrested because of the theft of wallet at a gas station. The incident was confirmed on Thursday.
krausz_istvanBudapest (dpa) – The deputy leader of the largest Jewish organization in Hungary, Istvan Krausz, resigned from his post after he was caught red-handed stealing a wallet, the was confirmed on Thursday.
The court of the town of Pecs issued a sentence against Istvan Krausz, suspended for one year, after he was found guilty of stealing a wallet containing about US$ 2500 at a gas station.
The security cameras was filmed Krausz while stealing the wallet left by another customer on the table while he was bringing other things from the store in the same station.
The Police identified Krausz on the basis of his licence plate number, and he eventually turned himself in. He was sentenced to one year’s probation.
The head of the Jewish Communities Federation of Hungary, Peter Feldmajer, told the German Press Agency (dpa) that Krausz actions “can not be understood and were “absolutely incomprehensible, a moment of madness.


My Comment
Looting soldier in court
The issue called my attention because this is usual behavior of the israeli jews, as experienced by all Palestinians. It is worth mentioning that many incidents of theft were registered against the Jews working in the Israeli army at the so-called military checkpoints which are spread in and around the Palestinian cities and towns in the occupied territories in the West Bank. The IDF soldiers all the time steal the money from the Palestinian wallets during the “inspections” which they conduct.
Many incidents of theft of money, gold and other property of the Palestinians have been recorded in the occupied territories and in the Gaza strip, most them happened during so called IDF “operations”, during which the soldiers break into Palestinian houses under the pretext of security inspections, detentions and looking for wanted people. In general, all the houses which are searched by the IDF soldiers and were nothing was stolen, are left vandalized and in ruins, with the furniture so broken that it can only be thrown by the Palestinians into the garbage.
thief
Many Palestinian from the Gaza Strip reported that their homes had been looted and stolen of everything valuable during the so called “Operation Cast Lead”. The IDF soldiers were stealing private credit cards which belong to the Palestinians families and they have used for example to buy chocolate and sweets during the war crimes horror against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. One case has become known, in which the thief was forced to return the stolen money to its owner.
On May, 13 2009, Hanan Greenberg wrote in YnetNews: “The IDF Southern Command’s military court remanded the arrest of a Givati Brigade soldier Wednesday for looting during Israel’s recent military operation in Gaza.
The soldier is suspected of stealing a credit card from a Palestinian home together with another soldier. He later proceeded to use it in order to purchase merchandise worth NIS 1,600 ($388). Their arrest was first reported by Ynet.
The accused soldier pled guilty to the charges against him during questioning, and the military prosecution intends to indict him in the coming days. His arrest is currently remanded until Monday.

Hotels and chicken Thieves
The incidents of theft by Israeli soldiers in hotels have also increased abroad: IDF soldiers are known worldwide to be fond of stealing bathrobes, pictures, and anything else that is not bolted down from the hotels where they live.
    1. One of the stories which I witnessed was in 2004 in chickenPatagonia. A group of IDF soldiers (”backpackers”) arrived in the village where I was during an afternoon, among them some officers. At the entrance of the village they spread out to all the streets of this small place of about 500 inhabitants. The officers placed their tent outside the hostel where I was, the soldiers tented out of the village. During the night, the Israelis had party and grilled chicken for the whole group.
On the next day, the owner of the hostel complained that 18 chicken had disappeared, “stolen by a two-legged fox” as he put it. The owner of the chickens was very sad, the Israelis not really.

Jumblatt: Neoconservatives Reject Cabinet Formation


Jumblatt: Neoconservatives Reject Cabinet Formation

19/09/2009 Progressive Socialist Party and Democratic Gathering leader MP Walid Jumblatt has said some Maronite leaders in Lebanon have suicidal plans and accused neoconservatives in the United States of preventing cabinet formation in Lebanon. "When some Maronite leaders in Lebanon adopt a political project," they make sure that it is fully implemented "even if that leads them to suicide," al-Akhbar daily quoted Jumblatt as telling his visitors, including a Palestinian delegation.

Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea and Phalange party Chief Amin Gemayel "represent such a case," Jumblatt reportedly said, adding "I don't want to commit suicide like them."

He also expressed worries about attempts by Geagea and Gemayel to push PM-designate Saad Hariri "to adopt their political project," a move that would lead to a Sunni "isolationism" that would have bad repercussions on Lebanon. "My presence near Hariri is necessary so that they don't push him in that direction," PSP leader told his guests.

Turning to the United States, Jumblatt said neoconservatives, who are holding onto major decision-making in the Obama administration, are planning to draw a new Middle East map and create new countries based on ethnic and religious affiliations.

Al-Akhbar quoted Jumblatt as saying that such plans aim at facilitating the establishment of a Jewish state and keeping Palestinians who became refugees in 1948 away from their land.

He said he was worried about what was "being prepared for the country and the region" because Lebanon is the neoconservatives' "laboratory."

On formation of the Lebanese cabinet, Jumblatt said that he contacted Cairo and inquired Egyptian officials about reports that they wanted caretaker PM Fouad Saniora as PM-designate. "They told me on the contrary that they back Hariri. And in Saudi Arabia, they said they want a national unity cabinet and support Hariri" in forming a government, Jumblatt told his guests.

He also accused the neoconservatives of rejecting formation of the unity cabinet in Lebanon. "The American team is cooperating with Arab and Lebanese sides to prevent cabinet formation by rejecting Syrian-Saudi agreement that Lebanon needs at this stage," Jumblatt stressed.

Popular resistance lives on in Gaza

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On 15 September, we join farmers and residents, including a contingent of women, youths and men, in a non-violent walk to the border region east of Beit Hanoun in the north of Gaza, singing and chanting as they march past Israeli army razed fields and destroyed water tanks and cisterns. The march is in the tradition of popular resistance in Palestine, more widely known worldwide in the villages of Bil’in and Ni’lin, but equally practised all over occupied Palestine, including Gaza, in the simplest of acts: farming and accessing land which the Israeli authorities’ policies continue to attempt to render barren and void of Palestinian life.

[In the two well-known occupied West Bank regions, Bil'in and Ni'lin, the Israeli occupation army has ramped things up to such a violent suppression of non-violent voices that the April 17th killing of Bil'in villager, Basem Abu Rahme (29, strong, gentle, slain by an Israeli-soldier-shot, high-velocity tear gas canister to the chest from a close distance) , was the 18th murder of non-violent protesters against the separation Wall (11 of these murdered were under 18 years; 7 were 15 years old or under).]

The Beit Hanoun protesters’ message: for Israeli soldiers to stop targeting farmers, for Israeli authorities to end the (intentional) practice of driving Palestinian farmers off of their land. They call also for access to water, highlighting that in that region all but a single water source have been destroyed. This tank serves 40 dunams (1 dunam is 1,000 square metres) of farmland.

What has led these citizens to take up flags and placards? An on-going series of Israeli army targeted-shootings, tank and bulldozer invasions, destruction of farmland, and kidnapping of Palestinian civilians, rendering even the simple act of tending trees on farmland impossible or highly dangerous, risking injury or death from Israeli gunfire.

An exaggeration?

Since the end of Israel’s 23 day winter massacre of Gaza, another eight Palestinian civilians have been killed in the Strip’s border regions, including four minors (3 boys and 1 girl) and one mentally disabled adult. Another 28 Palestinians, including eight minors (7 boys, 1 girl) and 2 women, have been injured by Israeli shooting and shelling, including by the use of ‘flechette’ dart-bombs on civilian areas.

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El Mozaraeen fi Moahjaheyht narr l’Eyhtilal: Farmers Against Occupation Firing

It’s an apt name and a struggle that goes back months, years, but gets almost no recognition in the international corporate media. Neither civilian deaths while farming, nor the steady non-violent resistance to Israeli land annexation seem to be sensational enough.

But while these Beit Hanoun civilians are unarmed, they are not naïve, not passive.

Buhrrrah, wa dam, nafdiq ya Falasteen: Our soul and blood, we sacrifice for you Palestine,” they chant.

They tell us their first choice is to live and farm peacefully in their region near the border to Israel. But if it comes to it, they will die on their land, for their land, for their families, while farming.

They have little-to-no choice.

With Gaza’s borders firmly sealed shut under the internationally-complicit, Israeli-led and Egyptian-backed siege on Gaza, there is no option for emigration, no option for work in Israel or Egypt, no option to start up new businesses importing goods…

When considering these civilians and farmers, it is imperative to recognize that 95% of Gaza’s industry has been shut down by Israeli attacks and the siege. That roughly one third of Gaza’s farmland has been swallowed by a no-go, Israeli-imposed ‘buffer zone’ in which Israeli soldiers reserve the right to shoot-to-kill.

Roughly a decade ago, Israeli authorities unilaterally established an off-limits ‘buffer zone’ on the 150 metres of land extending along the Green Line border between Gaza and Israel. Since inception, the ‘buffer zone’ has swollen to over 1 km in the east and 2 km in the north (during and immediately after Israel’s 23 day massacre of Gaza in winter 2008/2009), to the present 300 metre off-limits area (heralded in May 2009 by the dropping of leaflets which stated:

The Israeli Defence Forces repeat their alert forbidding the coming close to the border fence at a distance less than 300 metres. Who gets close will subject himself to danger whererby the IDF will take necessary procedures to drive him away which will include shooting when necessary.”

The ‘buffer zone’ swallows prime, fertile agricultural land, cutting off another means of self-sustenance in a Strip that has been under siege since after Hamas’ election in 2006.

International bodies, including the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), the World Food Program (WFP), and the World Health Organization (WHO) note that between 35% to 60% of Gaza’s agricultural industry has been destroyed and rendered useless [from the winter Israeli massacre of Gaza and from various Israeli invasions, attacks, burning of crops, and the impact of the siege].

Whereas formerly Gaza production met half the Strip’s agricultural needs, the effects of attacks and siege on Gaza has devolved the agricultural sector to what the Gaza-based Agricultural Development Association of Gaza aptly cited as a “destruction of all means of life.”

We pass farmers on a donkey cart loaded with plastic jugs filled with water. They ask how they are supposed to water, let alone reach, the paltry few trees on their land near the ‘buffer zone’.

We continue walking, getting a close look at the heaps of rubble which were water tanks and wells. The march reaches a larger well, it’s covering now at a wounded 45 degree slant, the sweet water within off-limits to farmers and their trees.
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While speeches are made, pledging to continue to farm, continue to non-violently resist this flagrant Israeli bullying and land-grab policy, some of the weathered farmers in the area approach, keen to share their miseries to those who would listen.

Salem As Saed is 59, has 4.5 dunams of land which once held orange and olive trees until occupational bulldozers ground them to the earth. He has 17 children who he is unable to support; they are all dependent on food-aid handouts.

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Awad, (55) has 17 in family and no means of income. His land has been razed, water sources destroyed. Of the 93 dunams of trees he once had, the vast majority have been destroyed. Awad has planted new trees, but these are scant in number and failing from want of water.

He has a further 30 dunams closer to the border, which he cannot access, has not accessed in years. Two years ago, Awad was shot by Israeli soldiers in the area of the Israeli watch tower at the border. He says that he was working with his son some 500 metres from the fence when the Israeli soldiers began shooting without warning. He was hit by a bullet to his inner thigh; his son was abducted and imprisoned for 28 days.

The speeches end and demonstrators kneel, beginning to pray on their land.

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The demonstration ends without incident, though the daily dangers remain once the cameras are gone.

As we walk back towards Beit Hanoun, we discuss some those recently assassinated and injured in the buffer zones at the hands of Israeli soldiers.

On the morning of 9 September, and also in the Beit Hanoun border region, Maysara al Kafarna, a 24 year old from Beit Hanoun, was shot in the foot by Israeli soldiers at the Green Line border between Gaza and Israel. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) notes that the youth was 350 metres from the border fence when targeted.

PCHR reports that a few hours later, at 10 am, Israeli soldiers invaded as deeply as 700 metres into areas north of Beit Hanoun, firing at homes and farmland.

Five days prior, Israeli soldiers shot dead a 14 year old boy, targeting him with a bullet to the head. PCHR reports that in the afternoon of 4 September Ghazi Al Zaneen and family were walking in the northeastern Beit Hanoun region to agricultural land they owned 500 metres from the border when –with no warning messages or warning shots –Israeli soldiers opened sustained fire at the family, the last bullets hitting the boy and the family car as the father evacuated his son. Critically injured, Ghazi died the following day.

On 2 September, according to PCHR, when Israeli occupation forces invaded 150 metres into northern Beit Hanoun, Palestinian resistance confronted the invasion, defending themselves against the occupiers’ invasion. In the firing that ensued, a 17 year old, ‘Abdul ‘Aziz al-Masri, living in the region was shot in the foot. Not farming, the youth was subject to danger due to the Israeli invasion.

A week prior to that, on 23 August, PCHR reports Israeli soldiers opened fire on areas to the east of Beit Hanoun, shooting 63 year old Fawzi Ali Wassem in the thigh. The farmer was on agricultural land 1,800 metres from the border.

The morbid list of ‘buffer zone’ fatalities and injuries continues in Beit Hanoun regions (and throughout the Gaza Strip):

-Saleh Mohammed al-Zummara, 66, injured by a gunshot to the left hand and ‘Ali Mohammed al-Zummara, 65, injured by shrapnel in the back from Israeli soldiers’ firing on 3 June, according to PCHR.

- Ziad Salem abu Hadayid, 23, is shot in the legs when Israeli soldiers shoot on Palestinian farmers on 20 May, according to the Al Mezan centre for Human Rights.

-We find Ahmed Abu Hashish’s decomposed body, missing since 21 April, is found shot dead, presumably by Israeli soldiers, in the eastern Beit Hanoun border region on 14 June. As we and Local Initiative volunteers search for then remove the body, we come under close and intense fire from the Israeli soldiers at the border. We are clearly, visibly unarmed; the shooting intesifies when the soldiers see that we have located the body. It is pure spite.

And this is without mentioning the equally brutal assaults on other regions along the ‘buffer zone’. Nor Israeli soldiers’ intentional arson of Palestinian crops. Nor mentioning the abductions of civilians –the latest, 5 minors from Beit Lahiya’s bedouin village region. Abducted on 6 September as they herded their sheep and goats, they are:

1. Mohammed ‘Arafat Abu Khousa, 17;

2. Sameh ‘Abdul Qader Abu Hashish, 15;

3. Fraih Qassem Abu Hashish, 12;

4. ‘Aa’ed Hazzaa’ Abu Hashish, 16; and

5. Ibrahim Shihda Abu Jarad, 17.

Look carefully at the faces in the above photos: these are the civilians facing the world’s fourth most powerful military. These are the people eeking a living or living in a region which has been arbitrarily cut off and assaulted by the state which purports to ‘defend itself’. Look carefully, and hope that they are not among the next to be martyred by Israeli assaults.


Syria will never give up one grain of Syrian soil or a drop of its water.


Al-Manar


NOTE: I will post a link to Sayyed Nasrallah's speech, as soon as it is available.

Tony used to say: "When Sayyed Nasrallah Speaks I Listen Carefully -- Palestinian Pundit."

My NOTE: Tony (The asshole) omitted this part of Nasralla speech. Expected from a little Zionist propagadist working day and night in spreading (BOMBSHELLS) lies on Syria, iran and Hamas.

It's not true that we have two choices of either fighting or surrendering. There is a third option of remaining steadfast and resisting, We may not wage war to liberate Kfar Shouba hills and Shebaa Farms, but we will not stop demanding the return of the territories to Lebanon. Syrian authorities vow that they will never give up one grain of Syrian soil or a drop of its water". Nasrallah remined the audiance of Geneva summit where Hafez Assad refused to sellout few meters of Gollan Heights.

Iran is a big support for Palestine and the Arab nations and it is being distorted by some Arab governments

In the Arabic Version Nasrallah said

"Today Iran told the whole world, we are with Jerusalem and Palestine, with Lebanon and Gaza, and Israel should sieze to exist. I know Iran, and its wise brave leader, I know its people, and so I would confirm to you that Iran shall never stop supporting resisting nations, Palestine is the religion of Iran. "

Addressing Arab leaders Nasrallah said "Palestinian people, if left to resist, if the siege is lifted, and support is provided, has the will, bravery to liberate Alquds without needing your armies, you frons and our front. Yes the current situation is difficult, but the situation in Israel is more dificult. Israel before July war, is not the same Israel after the war, and Israel before Gaza, is not the same Israel after Gaza. Israel is working day and night because its frightened"

Flashback

When asked, before the War on Gaza, What Hamas (Immune to Learn) can do to stop Israeli daily killings:Tony preyed: At least hide.

And when Hamas "Massed" it's forces" to defend Gaza before bait hannoun massacre he preyed shocking his long ears; "So when I hear Hamas declaring that it would stop an Israeli invasion of Gaza, I just shake my Head."

After the surprise, his surprise, of the failure of the WAR on Gaza, he storemed "shaked" his FAT ASS, to find another excuse for attacking Hamas. So when asked again what Hamas can do to end the siege he prayed: Let it be guerrilla, on the wall, not on Israel.

All that time I was shouting :

BLOOD SHALL DEFEAT THE SWORD

MAJIC SHALL TURN AGAINST THE MAJICIAN And it did

Tony is always certain, at least almost certain, He has well-reasoned an

d informed, especialy with Sryian and Zionist Affairs.

His Syrian KHARA confirmed to him that Hamas feels the heat from Syria

Déjà Vu All Over Again: Mashaal Hopes Obama Cancels Conditions for Talks with Hamas Thus preyed the "Pandit"

"Iran is a regional power, so Obama has to deal with it. so Obama is trying to put the ayatollahs to good use. by moving Syria away from Iran. By removing Iran and Syria from the equation, Hamas will be cut off and the plan is to destroy it or at least domesticate it, just as Arafat was domesticated and finally destroyed."


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

Tony is doing it (Anal-ysing)

(Addressing an international conference in support of the Palestinians in Tehran, the Leader was referring to "those who entertained hopes of a peaceful coexistence with the Zionist". )



[COMMENT: Does this apply to your "ally", the Rabbit of Syria, Seyyed Khamenei? How about your own "pragmatic" co-existence with the Great Satan, the protector and enabler of the Zionist state, next door in Iraq? You don't seem to mind the Great Satan next door, as part of a "pragmatic" calculation, to get rid of Saddam and to bring to power sectarian Shiites in Iraq.]

# posted by Tony : 2:44 AM

Remi Kanazi – Israel/America: A Rambling Poem (video)

Link

By Remi Kanazi • Sep 18th, 2009 at 8:37 • Category: Arabian Coffee House, Culture and Heritage, Israel, Music, Poetry, Events, Newswire, Palestine, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, Zionism

remi kanazi by ernesto arroyoEvery time I think of 9/11
I see burning flesh dripping off the bones of Iraqi children in Fallujah
Now Gaza
I tend to memorialize the forgotten
The collateral damage eclipsing our unpunished crimes


Maybe it’s because I’m a numbers guy
Because if I had a dollar for every time an Iraqi died since 2003
I’d be a millionaire


And don’t get me wrong
Sometimes I don’t know who I hate more
The governments in the West
Or the politicians in the East
Who sell their souls quicker than the oil they export
Straw men who use Palestine as a tool to line their pockets
And don’t give a nickel to their people
Quisling governments
Who stitch mouths shut for a check from Washington and AIPAC
How can you be their prototypical anti-Semite
If you are signing peace accords to oppress your own people?


And then Orientalists and idiots talk about how
We can’t have democracy in the Middle East
Because of what happened in Gaza
A Hamas boogyman wrapped in democratic elections
Rahm Emanuel wants to educate me and my people about democracy gone wrong
Why doesn’t he try implementing one in Israel first?
Instead of bowing down to terrorists like his father and the IDF
Lauding a third rate, racist, European society that’s imploding quicker
Than its moral standing in the world
Enlightened like 1950s Afrikaners and slave traders
Just because the house is beautiful
Doesn’t mean the bones you built it on have fully decomposed


The Israeli left is about as alive as Ariel Sharon
I’m sick and tired of asking for permission to resist
From antiquated leftists and progressives
Who care more about keeping it Kosher than moving things forward
I put down my pen and waving fist to resist with college kids and Palestinians
Boycott and divest!
Because who cares about preserving a living when governments are killing civilians
Complicity by silence and reserve units bombing Gaza
Your academics and scholars, theater groups and practitioners, are part of the problem


And if logic doesn’t fit into your long term plan of rejecting
My right to return, I’m sorry
Maybe one day you’ll return to reality
Where my people have babies quicker
Than Zionists can concoct Jordanian options


I don’t want your sympathy or introspective confessions
Won’t sit on my hands till they loose oxygen
Like the people of Balata and Rafah
Vote for Barack Obama
And pretend that his 22 day silence was golden
While emaciated children starved to death
Surrounded by their parent’s corpses


This can’t be America the Beautiful
A criminal with a few positive attributes
Doesn’t alleviate genocide
Bombing Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq
Into oblivion doesn’t make you historic
It makes you as blind and bloodthirsty
As the white men that came before you
Apathetic hipsters now excited about a president
Who broke history, but not poverty, occupation, or corporate interests


I’d rather proudly walk through the graveyard of peace accords
And failed dialogue sessions
Than see my people just as occupied or third class citizens
We are the gavel that will slam down like a verdict
We are not waiting for Israel or America or the Supreme Court to approve it
We’ll boycott Lev Leviev, Caterpillar and your apartheid companies
We’re taking back the right of return and the keys to a country
Because we never asked you to go back to Europe or sit in open air prisons
I’m not asking for your advice, I’m explaining the decision
You can stay here, with us, but only as equals
It’s not that you’re Israeli, it’s that you’re wrong
That’s why I fight for my people!



*Remi Kanazi is the editor of Poets For Palestine. He will be touring the US and Canada this fall on the Poets For Palestine tour. He can be contacted at Remroum@gmail.com. For more information on Poets For Palestine, visit http://www.poetsforpalestine.com/.

Photo by Ernesto Arroyo

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Remi Kanazi is is a Palestinian-American writer, poet, and editor living in New York City. He is editor of the recently released collection of poetry, spoken word, hip hop and art, Poets For Palestine. For more information, please visit http://www.PoetsForPalestine.com .
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