Israel and Beyond

American Values and the Art of the Possible

2009-12-22T13:10:00.000-08:00

$636 billion for annual military spending was approved by the U.S. Senate over the weekend, with little more than a hiccup of debate from Republican "conservatives," not a peep from the Democrats, and even less coverage from the corporate mainstream media.

But $850 billion for 10 years of what is ostensibly meant to be health care reform for the health and welfare of American citizens --- all while reducing the budget deficit by $132 billion over that period, according to the CBO? "A budget buster!," shout the phony "conservatives" in the same Senate.

Anyway, there's your "American Values," in a two-part nutshell, from today's Republicans and the Democrats and corporate media who enable their madness as if it weren't so. Brad Freidman, Brad Blog

UDHR Has Been at the Center of My Life Since 1992

2009-12-13T01:57:00.000-08:00

1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
The UDHR serves as a moral compass for me. Whenever I receive news, my first reaction is to evaluate it in terms of human rights. How does it effect me, my friends and my community? My method cuts through a lot of garbage thinking, believe me.
Who cares what official Washington thinks, or any other place for that matter? How do ordinary people react? That's the real story.
Every nation member had to embed the UDHR into her body of law. Dictators such as Bush and Obama dismiss the UDHR, but it remains some day to put them on trial. It's a shame the law schools ignore that. If we can't charge a scoundrel with crimes against humanity and murder, we should ignore him.

Massive Abduction Impossible w/o Collusion

2009-12-12T23:52:00.000-08:00

I made 35 court appearances [including 3 shots at the Supreme Court] to rescue my son. All to no avail, babies are more valuable than heroin. With each judge I sensed an aura of corruption and filth. Even now with my son after army and legally free to leave the country, the officials continue to obstruct us.
The fools believe they are undetected. When anyone can walk up to a Rabbi to buy a baby, whom do they think they are fooling?
Slavery is a business bigger now than ever. Nobody can claim to be civilized until it is abolished.

Fighting for Human Rights in European Courts

2009-12-12T23:37:00.000-08:00

With all due respect to the ACLU, the evidence shows the futility of trying human rights cases in the USA. The Bush Administration has set the judicial and law enforcement processes to function as they would in a dictatorship. The aggrieved party has no chance in court.
Particularly in Spain, the European Courts have been sympathetic to victims of human rights abuse. In this regard, Rwanda has proven superior to the USA as well.
Eventually, these US violations of human rights will flood the local prisons with innocents, Now is the time to complain. Later, you will go to jail for it.

Mali: Our Cats Have Lost Their Home

2009-12-12T23:07:00.000-08:00

All of us felt the increased pressure from the city of B_S. The workers had taken to breaking into private homes and carting off family pets to the pound. Held there pending payment of exorbitant fees, the scheme amounted to kidnapping for ransom. It became extortion when the city killed the captives after three days if the pet owner did not pay the fee. Highly illegal, the thugs had the full backing of the city administration.

A year ago, we were three care givers.
Fanny housed 21 dogs in an abandoned building and searched the dustbins to give them good food. They were as children for her and they returned the affection.

Nava doted on cats keeping 30 in her home and caring for 100's more in her neighborhood. She and her husband owned a restaurant, which meant plenty of leftovers for them.

Trouble in Eden
Unfortunately, the business soured and the couple had to move to a neighborhood where the people hated cats.

All of us felt the increased pressure from the city of B_S. The workers had taken to breaking into private homes and carting off family pets to the pound. Held there pending payment of exorbitant fees, the scheme amounted to kidnapping for ransom.

It became extortion when the city killed the captives after three days if the pet owner did not pay the fee. Highly illegal, the thugs had the full backing of the city administration the courts and the police.

The corruption was solid. No citizen had been able to free his animal without paying a big penalty.

Fanny Nava and I came to earn the wrath of the public employees.We maintained large numbers of the strays against all comers the killers of helpless animals. Along with the house pets, we sheltered a number of mean beasts unimpressed by uniforms dogcatchers and police.

Nobody on either side took prisoners. When they captured one of our animals, they exterminated it immediately.

Day of Infamy - 27 September 2004

At ten in the morning the dogs I shelter in two units gave off tremendous howling and barking. My single volunteer in residence observed the invaders breaking the iron gate next door. As three of them wore police uniforms, my worker decided an emergency call was fruitless. Also, the three city workers wearing masks indicated it was not a social call.

By the time they had entered my garden they had broken through seven locked doors and gates. A dogcatcher was already bleeding from the leg as he lassoed my guard dog and dragged her to a waiting van.

Realizing they were conquering borders in front of a witness the police asked my volunteer for keys to the two units. After he professed to have none, they invited him outside and then began to probe the windows with wooden sticks. They prompted a neighbor to break the door to the second unit standing beside him to avoid observation.

Soon, they shot the six dogs with knock out darts only one avoiding them running through my garden with a dart dangling from his side. The assailants with a long history of cruelty hunted him down two blocks distant.

When I arrived the criminals had left the dirty work almost complete. A.L., the neighbor who broke into the second unit, expressed his regret that the nine dogs in the first unit had escaped sure execution. As my cats had escaped over the roofs, he hoped the invaders would close that avenue of escape the next time they attacked.

The seven dogs captured and in harm's way, I quickly confronted Dr. Z. head of the City Pound. Knowing my appeal had to go through the totally corrupt District Court, he set the ransom at $1,000 and gave me three days before he killed the animals. Even if I paid it,he would continue holding them for 60 days certain death.

Already, my friends lacked food and water. Hungrily, they devoured the provisions I had brought. Even so, they seemed to sense my worry and consternation. How could I save them?

Seeking Justice in a Police State
It stands to reason. Any Jewish lawyer with a sense of justice will suffer discomfort [at least] working here. If he couples that with a yen to practice law, his only choice is to leave Israel. Similarly, any American who comes here has legal problems in his country.

An Israeli judge rises only to the highest level of his personal corruption. The filthiest judges rise to the top refuse in the sewer.

Largely, this arises from the ancient Jewish habit of incest. It has left them with a bloated sense of their importance and intelligence.

Exploit the weaknesses
The first good advice came from a very poor woman who had lost three dogs to the city. She had gone to a new court set up for indigents lawyers not required. When they saw she had no money to steal, they gave her back her dogs.

The big break came from a young Arab lawyer wise to the Jews. He ignored the lies and the threats to focus on their criminality.

A longer story is at http://catzmali.faithweb.com/

Why Do Liberals Refuse to Deal with Human Beings?

2009-12-11T23:35:00.000-08:00

How many politicians have spoken with ordinary Afghans about the decades of strife and killing? Who visits the free health care clinics that treat patients who haven't seen a doctor in years? Most of what we read involves the process within the Beltway. Personal attacks on prominent officials are made to herd the voters into line for the next election. We get power plays instead of positive action. They promise guns and butter, but they deliver losing wars and welfare peanut butter.
Instead of lectures on the immorality of war, liberals should emphasize the three wars lost. We have opened a fourth in Pakistan a nuclear power. Sooner or later, someone will figure out peace will come after they have nuked America.
They will assert it was a "just war" in self defense. Who would argue against that assertion?

Kindly Expel Twenty States from the Union

2009-12-11T01:56:00.000-08:00

It is fashionable to condemn the Dems and the GOP for their abysmal performance on the war and health care issues. Progressives quickly forget we either voted for these wretched parties or we wasted our votes on third parties with no chance to win. During the primaries the general public mocked and rebuked worthwhile candidates such as Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul.
Twenty states elected thirty GOP Senators willing to condemn to death 450,000 citizens who lack health insurance over the next ten years. During the same period they will part with $1 trillion to take over the heroin trade from the Afghans. Recently, the thirty Senators voted for KBR to quash Jamie Leigh Jones' suit against them in connection with her suffering a vicious gang rape by KBR employees.
The voters in twenty states cast their ballots for Senators who would murder US citizens, who would capture the heroin trade from the Afghans and who would allow 'defense' contractors to countenance gang rape.
The twenty states should be expelled from the United States of America.

Is America Going Right Wing?

2009-12-11T01:42:00.000-08:00

Before the left can respond, FOX is off on another tangent. If one of their fairy stories gains traction, it stands repetition pounded into viewers' heads as an advertising commercial.
The Republicans elevate this trash into political rhetoric good enough to bash Democrats for weeks and maybe months. Then, the best lies [such as birther and deather] go on the shelf for use at a later time.
To counter this I subscribe to Brad Friedman's Blog and his consistent and long-lasting campaign against the right's weaknesses. For example, they support perpetual war, misogyny, US exceptionalism, selling US nuclear secrets to the enemy, ethnic cleansing, hanging gays [in Uganda], abusing children, infecting the general population with chemical agents, wire tapping, subversion, falsification of the public record, assassinating whistle blowers, torture, slavery, genocide, killing Muslims for Jesus, boiling dissidents in oil [in Central Asia], euthanasia, kidnapping, sex slavery, heroin trafficking, adultery and numerous other departures from common human decency.
Instead of taking the right to task for these infractions, the left criticizes Obama's escalation of the war. By ignoring these atrocities, the lefties become complicit in them.

If Israel Controlled America, Afghan War Would End

2009-12-10T01:30:00.000-08:00

What Do You Think of This Possible Finesse from Obama? House Progressives continue to claim they oppose war. If they are serious, they could refuse funding the next supplemental. Likewise, the Republicans could act on their complaints about big deficits and spending. They can join Progressives to scuttle the Afghan War.

It is written in the Gamara that having rats in the house is a good sign for the owner. In service to the little animals, the owner finds approval in the eyes of God. The Almighty favors the strong people who defend the weak ones. This is an apt dictum for individuals, but it doesn't necessarily extend to the national level.

Intellectuals waste much cyber space on the geopolitical machinations in West Asia. The general consensus is Israel and America have formed an unholy axis to dominate the region. This dates back more than thirty years to when Brzezinski tricked the foolish Soviets into invading Afghanistan. Since the fall of the USSR, the debate has centered on who controls the Axis of Evil: Israel or the USA?

If Israel controlled America, the first thing she would institute is single payer health insurance. The USA is the laughing stock of the industrialized world for public health neglect. Jews would never allow 40% of premiums to be wasted.

Israelis limit wars to five weeks fighting. If the USA needs eight to ten years to lose a war, she should find a new occupation.

You Made Me Think, GLloyd Rowsley

He challenged me to divert Israel from her war mongering course. In my opinion, liberals confuse winning wars with starting them. I credit Lyndon Johnson. In 1967 he warned Israel. If they attacked first, they could expect no help from him. They were doubly conscious seeing that the odds were 3 to 1 against them. After the war, they were astounded the victory hadn't produced a peace. Indirectly, it did. The 1973 war established Anwar Sadat's position to make peace in 1978. Most courageous, it cost him his life.
King Hussein was a remarkable man, but I still wonder how he escaped assassination when he made peace 10 years later. Yitzhak Rabin made peace progress that caused his assassination the first in Jewish history. Ehud Barak jettisoned his political career when he offered Arafat the administration of East Jerusalem. Ari Sharon withdrew unilaterally from Gaza and that should have been the end of the hostilities. Since Lyndon Johnson no outsider has assumed importance in the peace process. Iran plans 30 more uranium enrichment plants, so we see where they are headed. If Israeli opinions dominated US strategy, the Iranian nuclear facilities would have disappeared in 2008.

“The real terrorists are not the men in turbans we see on Al Jazeera,” said the psychiatrist, Dr. Malik H. Mubbashar, vice chancellor of the University of Health Sciences in Lahore. “They are wearing Gucci suits and Brit hats. It's your great country, Madam.”

I asked him to spell it out. “It's coming from Americans, Jews and Indians,” he said. “It's an axis of evil that's being supervised by you people.”

SABRINA TAVERNISE, New York Times

Jerusalem is a Cinder

War mongers have made Jerusalem a flash point. This is one of the tactics to keep the peasants deluded. If they are enthralled by various tempests in a teapot, they tend to forget the real problems facing them. Their leaders start wars they always lose. They divert foreign aid funds into procuring more weapons of self-destruction. They care nothing about roads, schools and hospitals.
If the citizen really cares about the quality of his life, democracy and human rights, he will go into exile.
The Palestinians of East Jerusalem are not the first to experience urban blight, or the rapaciousness of government. Forty-five years ago I heard all the stories. They were in Boston and the program was Urban Renewal. The lead villain was Ed Logue. He wanted to displace the local peasant residents from their poor neighborhoods to allow the city to build low cost housing for them. Initially, the poor residents believed him and gave up their homes. By the time the peasants realized no new low-cost housing was being built, it was too late to mount an effective protest. This happened in Boston. I lost my home and eventually went into exile. This occurs everywhere a universal theme with a few local variations.
If the peasants want to return to their original location, they can rent a hotel room for $400 per day.
Injustice is the way of the world. The Palestinians have reversed this. Unique among nations, only Palestinians suffer from urban renewal, human rights abuses and war. Escalating whining to a new art form, they plead before the UN to whip up a posse and throw Israelis under the bus.

The UN Human Rights Commission has become an Arab propaganda tool. The human rights conferences Durban I and II became a platform for tyrants infamous for the repression of their citizens. They denounced the USA and Israel for causing their woes. They have redefined war as genocide against Palestinians.

The Escalation in Afghanistan May be a Clever Ruse

What Do You Think of This Possible Finesse from Obama?

House Progressives continue to claim they oppose war. If they are serious, they could refuse funding the next supplemental. Likewise, the Republicans could act on their complaints about big deficits and spending. They can join Progressives to scuttle the Afghan War. The US Navy has a 50-year inventory of spare parts. I'm sure the USAF and the US Army are similarly well fixed.
This saves the bacon for Obama, who would have been assassinated if he had commanded a withdrawal.

Leftists Have the Attention Span of a Grape

In days passed at OEN, I would respond to late-breaking news. Since many editors waited five to seven days to publish my article, it was no longer fashionable. After I wrote on more lasting issues, I was lucky to make the Top 50 list for a few hours rarely with a headline.
Much of this reflects old-time newspaper writing. Today's headline wraps dead fish bones tomorrow. This practice has killed leftist politics for the past 40 years.
Almost every day FOX promotes a revelation that dominates every show for at least 24 hours. Before the left can respond, FOX is off on another tangent. If one of their fairy stories gains traction, it stands repetition pounded into viewers' heads as an advertising commercial.
The Republicans elevate this trash into political rhetoric good enough to bash Democrats for weeks and maybe months. Then, the best lies [such as birther and deather] go on the shelf for use at a later time.
To counter this I subscribe to Brad Friedman's Blog and his consistent and long-lasting campaign against the right's weaknesses. For example, they support perpetual war, misogyny, US exceptionalism, selling US nuclear secrets to the enemy, ethnic cleansing, hanging gays [in Uganda], abusing children, infecting the general population with chemical agents, wire tapping, subversion, falsification of the public record, assassinating whistle blowers, torture, slavery, genocide, killing Muslims for Jesus, boiling dissidents in oil [in Central Asia], euthanasia, kidnapping, sex slavery, heroin trafficking, adultery and numerous other departures from common human decency.
Instead of taking the right to task for these infractions, the left criticizes Obama's escalation of the war. By ignoring these atrocities, the lefties become complicit in them.

Before the enemies of America start bashing the country, I hasten to add that most nations including Israel indulge in these nefarious activities. The first step to reform is to recognize all of us are guilty to some extent. This reveals the hypocrisy of war. The ends do not justify the means.

Brits Put Whopping Tax on Bank Bonuses

2009-12-09T23:38:00.000-08:00

British bankers are going bonkers today after the UK government announced that it wouldn't stand idly by as they showered themselves with obscene bonuses made possible by last year's massive infusion of government money.

Alistair Darling, the U.K.'s Chancellor of the Exchequer -- sort of like a Treasury Secretary, but with more pluck -- announced today that he will impose an immediate, one-time 50-percent tax on bonuses of more than 25,000 pounds (about $40,800). That's on top of regular income taxes.

The New York Times calls it "the most direct attack on bonuses anywhere in the world."

Across the pond, however -- where the Wall Street titans whose companies were saved from dissolution by an infusion of hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars are about to reward themselves with a good chunk of that money in the form of year-end bonuses -- no such action is in the offing.

Our bankers apparently have nothing to fear from their government -- despite the fact that an unlikely collection of commentators and industry insiders from the left and right has made a compelling case that American taxpayers could and should reclaim some of the industry's profits, by effectively treating them like lottery winnings and subjecting them to a windfall profits tax. - Huffington Post

Leftists Have the Attention Span of a Grape

2009-12-08T02:37:00.000-08:00

In days passed at OEN, I would respond to late-breaking news. Since many editors waited five to seven days to publish my article, it was no longer fashionable. After I wrote on more lasting issues, I was lucky to make the Top 50 list for a few hours rarely with a headline.
Much of this reflects old-time newspaper writing. Today's headline wraps dead fish bones tomorrow. This practice has killed leftist politics for the past 40 years.
Almost every day FOX promotes a revelation that dominates every show for at least 24 hours. Before the left can respond, FOX is off on another tangent. If one of their fairy stories gains traction, it stands repetition pounded into viewers heads as an advertising commercial.
The Republicans elevate this trash into political rhetoric good enough to bash Democrats for weeks and maybe months. Then, the best lies [such as birther and deather] go on the shelf for use at a later time.
To counter this I subscribe to Brad Freidman's Blog and his consistent and long-lasting campaign against the right's weaknesses. For example, they support perpetual war, misogyny, US exceptionalism, selling US nuclear secrets to the enemy, ethnic cleansing, hanging gays, abusing children, infecting the general population with chemical agents, wire tapping, subversion, falsification of the public record, assassinating whistle blowers, torture, slavery, genocide, killing Muslims for Jesus, boiling dissidents in oil, euthanasia, kidnapping, sex slavery, heroin trafficking, adultery and numerous other departures from common human decency.
Instead of taking the right to task for these infractions, the left criticizes Obama's escalation of the war.

Will Tea Baggers and Progressives Unite?

2009-12-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

Will Tea Baggers and Progressives Find Common Cause?

Many Progressives feel betrayed by the announced escalation. Many have the gut feel it is morally wrong. Others see the needs at home that won't be met.
Many Tea Baggers reflect a strong isolationist theme expressed most articulately by Ron Paul. "Stop meddling in other nations affairs." Forty-nine percent of Americans now agree we have vital issues at home.
"Yankee go home. Your mama is calling you!"

Every Democracy Makes Choices

2009-12-04T02:34:00.000-08:00

The people voted for officials who reflect their values and interests. It looks like the USA will be in Afghanistan a few more years. Our military and CIA fight the Taliban for control of the lucrative heroin trade.
Our leaders have decided to forgo green jobs, proper health care, clean energy, decent schools and rebuilding the infrastructure.
If the population is upset by this state of affairs, they can buy guns and march on Washington. The Tea Baggers do this regularly. They get what they want because they care about their issues.
At West Point a few lonely souls protested the President's obscene policy. Where were the other 320 millions?
In the 1960's much smaller crowds threw the godless Democratic Party out of town tarred and feathered in disgrace.
Dr. Martin Luther King taught us the white power structure was unwilling to give up anything to us. We had to take it.

Hero Joseph Henry Burgess May Be Better Off Dead

2009-07-27T21:53:00.000-07:00

Hero Joseph Henry Burgess May Be Better Off Dead

United by greed and despising the undeserving 99%'ers, the 1%'ers drive home their agenda with well-oiled efficiency. Within a broad range their interests coincide. The 99%'ers bought into a myth that has left them powerless. When Professor Gates became an issue, the left forgot about single payer. The 1% never forgets anything.

Hero Joseph Henry Burgess Better off Dead

The authorities had been searching for John Henry Burgess for nearly 40 years. There were no warrants on him or pending charges. I imagine he fit the profile of loner with no visible means of support. A woman who loved me had described me thusly as she threw me out.

Joseph Henry Burgess managed to elude the detectives searching for him throughout British Columbia and the American West. The reclusive gentleman knew how to live in the wilderness. Apparently, he broke into summer homes to salvage food and clothing. Homeless and jobless, he was living at subsistence levels one step ahead of the Sheriff.

But he was like a ghost. "We never could get fingerprints from any crime entries, because he was pretty careful about leaving any trace of anything behind," Sandoval County, N.M., Sheriff John Paul Trujillo said Wednesday. "We just could never catch up with this guy."

That all changed last Thursday, when Burgess and one of Trujillo's deputies were killed in a violent confrontation inside a darkened mountain cabin during a stakeout set up to catch a serial burglar. McClatchy

It may be significant that Joseph Henry Burgess chose 1969 as the year to drop out. He abandoned the everyday economy credit cards, mortgages, autos and debt. This would have been sufficient to incur the interest of the authorities. They resent anyone who refuses to play the game and makes it hard to find him.

There Are At Least two "fringe" Issues Needed to Save Mr Burgess and the rest of us. Offhand, I can think of two "socialist" measures that might save us. Unemployment is rising and consumer spending is falling. The EFCA can go a long way in solving these pressing problems. Single payer is the only way out of the health care mess.
Without these enactments, the USA will sink into the Third World a Congo with nuclear weapons.

Adultery by Divine Right

I center about Chip Pickering, John Ensign and Mark Sanders. They believe they have been chosen by God to rule by Divine Right. Thus, they operate above the rule of law. The Constitution and the Ten Commandments are for the suckers known as the common people. The arts, entertainment and media exist to hail corporate hegemony. They promote a false view of capitalism where debt replaces capital. Business rules the roost through public relations, economic clout and advertising.

Joseph Henry Burgess had spent most of his life running from the likes of Pickering, Ensign and Sanders.

The 1%'ers have the true community

Posted by: jbpazz on Jul 26, 2009 2:14 AM
United by greed and despising the undeserving 99%'ers, the 1%'ers drive home their agenda with well-oiled efficiency. Within a broad range their interests coincide. The 99%'ers bought into a myth that has left them powerless. When Professor Gates became an issue, the left forgot about single payer. The 1% never forgets anything.
Surely, Joseph Henry Burgess was over 50 the age of insurability. This limited him to self-employed work as a writer, realtor and other marginal pursuits. The minimum wage jobs on offer do not include health insurance. The 40-hour minimum salary annualized is a little over $15,000. The annual health insurance premium is approximately $13,000.
If he can't be free, John Henry Burgess is better off dead.

The Presidential Trip

2009-07-25T00:52:00.000-07:00

Bibi and Barack
Barack Obama in the Levant

Wisely, the US leader has been upbeat about his journey to the east, but has not fuelled expectations. The best politician America has produced in the Television Age is not one to tip his hand.

Having publicly demanded that Israel stop building settlements in the predominantly Palestinian West Bank, the President will also ask Arab nations collectively to recognize Israel's existence.
Tying together all the elements of such a speech is no easy proposition, for his worldwide audience — Muslim and non-Muslim — has multiple competing priorities and concerns.
Consider: Lebanese go to the polls just three days after he speaks, Iranians will be preparing for pivotal elections June 12 and both contests pit moderate parties against radical forces. Afghans and Pakistanis are girding for increased U.S. military and political engagement. [Mc Klatchey]
Palestinians and Israelis have conflicting stakes. In the U.S., Republicans will be looking for any window to paint the Democratic president as anti-American, anti-Israel or soft on terrorism.
"It's a very high bar to clear. The expectations are immense," said Tamara Cofman Wittes, the director of the Middle East Democracy and Development Project at the Washington-based Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy. "No matter how broadly he speaks, what he says will be parsed through the lens of those disagreements."
Obama won't lay out a detailed vision for resolving the Arab-Israeli crisis. "I want to use the occasion to deliver a broader message about how the United States can change for the better its relationship with the Muslim world," the president said Thursday. "That will require, I think, recognition on both the part of the United States as well as many majority Muslim countries about each other, a better sense of understanding, and I think possibilities to achieve common ground."
Obama would like to rally Muslim countries to join in efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program. While many Arab governments also see Iran as a threat, however, the issue divides Muslims, in part because Israel is pressing for military action.

Obama Begins to Be Realistic

Why should Arabs undergo a negotiation process if the President alone can rip concessions from Israel? 74% of Israelis believe that Barack Obama won't gain anything for us. Iran's proxies have attacked us twice in three years. This is why 84% of us believe Iran's nuclear development is unlikely to be peaceful. Turkey and Saudi Arabia agree. Both nations have asked permission to begin nuclear programs. They held still when only Israel had WMD. As Iran approaches nuclear status, they want it too.
When Mr Obama was campaigning, he denounced Bush administration policies. After the Inauguration, we saw Obama carrying on with cosmetic changes to the old policies. Now, we see him shift to a wide range of the Bush agenda. With many of my countrymen, I welcome the awakening of realism in Obama.

Obama has already decided how to deal with Israelis

The President has decided to delay talks about Iran's nukes for two years. This should be enough time for her to develop her own WMD or to buy them. Obama has placed Israeli and Iranian lives in Ahmadinejad's hands. People who enjoy TV accounts of nuclear events will be thrilled.
The President should follow advice to ignore the AIPAC letter. It might offend him. Also, he should ignore the millions of ordinary Israeli and Iranian nationals who don't want to be vaporized. Their deaths might cast a pall on the NBA play-offs.

"Enlightened individuals live in bliss and harmony with all. There is nothing to fear in their minds. There are stories of Yogis who could pet tigers in the jungles of India.
Fear-drenched dualists, at war with the Eternal Enemy, suffer endless daily deaths and agonies, compounded by barbarities perpetrated to try to defeat this enemy, never realizing that this is simply the absurd act of the right hand trying to destroy the left hand, or vice-versa, and wondering why one feels so badly all the time, that is if they recognize their feelings at all. Denial is a big factor in the psychotic mindset.
Where does the Israeli State fall on the scale between enlightened vision and psychotic vision?"
Mac McKinney

The Ways of the Torah are Sweet

After two serious years in Vietnam, the USA went nuts. They were to remain so for forty years. They collapsed on 9/11 into fear and are still mired. Americans sometimes ask me. After 61 years of hostility, seven wars and three Intifadas, how does any Israeli manage a semblance of normal life? The answer is to walk in the ways of the Torah keeping the diversions minimal. I have a picture of my son on the battlefield deeply into his morning prayers.
That's how.

How Old Is Barack Obama? How Old is His Country?

Whatever answers you give, Israel and I are about 5700 years older. Over the years we have walked the walk and thought the thought a full range of human experience. What's more, we could write our history [the Bible] and read it to our children. There is nothing new under the sun. If an upstart poses a problem, there is a scholar who will get the answer to it from an ancient sage on line.
We dealt with Alexander the Great and we will deal with Barack Obama.

Prosecuting Those Who Torture

2009-07-25T00:45:00.000-07:00

Prosecuting Those Who Torture

What is so Difficult about Catching Torturers?

'Serbia: Torture or Therapy? '
by Sinisa Boljanovic, Global Voices

Last week, on May 21, a short film about torture in the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center "Crna Reka", located in south-western Serbia, was shown on the web site of the Time (Vreme), a Serbian weekly magazine. The patients of this center are drug addicts and its head is Branislav Peranovic, a Serbian Orthodox priest.

Nearly all Serbian media have shown the horrible scenes from the short film, in which Peranovic is shown beating one of the patients brutally with a spade and with his fists.

Ombudsman of citizens, Sasa Jankovic, is one of the officials who reacted very quickly. According to the Vreme web site, Jankovic said that he had brought criminal charges against nine identified persons from the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center "Crna Reka" near Novi Pazar because of quackery and committing assault and battery. Jankovic also said that, according to the video, it was obvious that the patients of the center had been injured very seriously and that could not be a treatment or therapy.

Serbian bloggers reacted to the report very quickly, too, and so did representatives of the Spiritual Rehabilitation Center "Crna Reka" and the Serbian Orthodox Church.

What is the Serbian magic for cleaning up a den of torture? It's called community action. The magazine showed the torture film on its web site. The Serbian national media showed it nationally. The Ombudsman quickly brought to nine perpetrators to book. The Rehabilitation Center officials and the Serbian Orthodox Church hastened to help the abused patients. In one week they have ended the horrible story.

Why has it taken six years since the torture at Gitmo first became known? The Americans still haven't got it right. Here's a distinguished panel to discuss the delay.
[[TORTURE1]]

The panel in this first video interacted freely. Unlike American talk shows the panelists disagreed, but with polite respect. Oh, I forgot to mention the show is on the Aljazeera/English network.

In the second installment below we will see the results of the discussion.

[[TORTURE2]]

Well, I hope you weren't too disappointed. It seems that many government Agencies were involved in torture. Apparently, no whistle blowers emerged. The guilty parties have covered this sordid affair with a large national security blanket. Did you expect differently?
You see; our so-called national security conducts CYA activities to keep their nefarious acts from our view. They used torture for their amusement and our entertainment. This is only to delude us to distract us from the real business.
Sadly for them, they assumed I wouldn't find the Serbian story. With it, you know how to imprison your local corrupt officials through grassroots efforts.

To reward you for your kind attention, I present a wonderful interlude from Burma.

Burma VJ

Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to Burma’s video journalists who insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country despite risking torture and life in jail. Armed with small handycams they make their undercover reportages, smuggle the material out of the country, have it broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered as free usage for international media.
[[BURMAVJ]]
”Joshua”, age 27 and one of the undercover VJs, is suddenly thrown into the role as tactical leader of his group of reporters, when Buddhist monks in September 2007 lead a massive uprising. Foreign TV crews are banned from entering the country, so it is left to Joshua and his crew to document the events and establish a lifeline to the surrounding world. It is their footage that keeps the revolution alive on TV screens all over. As government intelligence agents understand the power of the camera, the VJs soon become their prime target. During the turbulent days of September, Joshua finds himself on an emotional rollercoaster between hope and despair, as he frantically tries to keep track of his reporters in the streets while the great uprising unfolds.

With Joshua as the psychological lens, high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state is made tangible to a global audience.
[[BURMA]]

Murder in the Name of Honor

2009-07-25T00:41:00.000-07:00

Rana Husseini discusses her campaigning journalism and her new book, Murder in the Name of Honor.
Each year 5,000 girls and women around the world are killed by male relatives as a means of purging a family of shame brought upon it by the behavior of his sister, daughter, wife or mother.
In journalist Rana Husseini’s homeland of Jordan, 25 women are murdered each year and many more spend their life in prison as the authorities have no other way of guaranteeing that their family would not kill them if they are set free.
Common in many traditional societies and in migrant communities in Europe and the United States, honor killings and other punishments are carried out to restore the honor of a family
The so-called crimes that require ‘cleansing’ can range from a suspected affair to refusing to marry a man chosen for her.
Despite the taboo surrounding the issue, the award winning journalist Rana Husseini has been writing about ‘honor killings’ since joining the Jordan Times in 1994. In 1998 she was awarded a Reebok Award for Human Rights and her persistence in covering this issue has brought an otherwise ignored subject into the public arena in Jordan.

The Best of The Black Iris on Honor Killing
By kinziblogs
Nas at The Black Iris has been one of the most persistent male voices calling for change at every level in regard to dishonor killings. He supplied the archived post links, and going back over them, and the comments, was like a little history lesson for me.
If you missed any of these, they are worth going back to:
http://www.black-iris.com/2006/07/29/the-most-dishonorable-crime-in-jordan/
“Other than how detestable I find the very idea of these crimes to be as well as the criminally negligent behavior of our own parliament that refuses to pass or accept legislation to remove the honor crime status in our judicial system, I am constantly surprised at the brutality that some of these people inflict on their own kin. Some honor crimes are basic shootings, which granted does not make them any more or less humane however others, such as this one, use weapons likes axes and literally hack away at their relative, or their own daughter and sister in this case. Some have gone so far as to chop up their bodies into pieces as if this was an episode of the Sopranos and it was just another ‘hit’.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2007/03/18/verbatim/
“…one would face a longer jail sentence for bouncing a cheque than for killing a woman.”
Jordanian journalist/activist Rana Husseini speaking at a seminar in Doha
http://www.black-iris.com/2007/10/02/more-bad-math/
“Almost two years before the incident, one of the victims filed a lawsuit against the defendant accusing him of sexually assaulting her, court transcripts said.
The defendant was tried at the Criminal Court on molestation charges, but was acquitted one month before the murder.
More recently, the court added, the same victim filed a lawsuit accusing her father of sexual assault and he was subsequently arrested and detained.
The four victims all testified against their father, which angered the defendant so he invited them to dinner to discuss the matter the court said.
During dinner, the defendant tried to convince his sisters to drop charges or change their testimony as their father would otherwise end up in jail for at least 15 years, but they refused.
Instead, one of the victims threatened the defendant that she would file a case against him, which angered him and he drew a gun he was carrying and shot them all, the court said.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/01/08/more-honorable-arithmetic/
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/02/21/honoring-thy-sister/
“The suspect, who was not identified by officials, reportedly stabbed his 26-year-old sister seven times in the stomach on Tuesday, shortly after signing a guarantee that he would not harm his sibling who was in protective custody, the source said. Immediately after the incident, he went to a nearby police station, handed on-duty officers the knife he reportedly used in the incident and informed them that he killed his sister for reasons related to family honor, the source added.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/05/14/a-little-tough-on-honor/
“A court in Jordan has sentenced a 23-year-old man to 10 years in jail for killing his sister. The man was initially sentenced to death, but this was commuted to give him the chance to repent.
The court heard that he stabbed his sister 14 times and shot her repeatedly after her former husband accused her of having affairs. Jordanians convicted of so called “honor killings” have previously been jailed for as little as six months.
Correspondents say the 10-year sentence underlines the authorities’ determination to stamp out the crime. Amnesty International says that last year 17 women were officially recorded as having been killed in “honor crimes” in Jordan. [source]
They should’ve given him the death sentence. That would’ve gone a long way to underlining the authorities’ determination to stamp out the crime; a long way.”

http://www.black-iris.com/2008/07/17/how-jordanian-women-can-overcome-honor-crimes/
“I’m not advocating anything here, and let me be clear right off the bat about the degree of cynicism and sarcasm laced within the following lines in case it should be missed by anyone, however, it needs to be addressed in whatever way possible. And frankly, I’m sick of talking about honor crimes in this country and how the law should be changed. So I thought offering practical solutions might help.
Since the legal system isn’t going to be changed any time soon with regards to honor crimes in Jordan, and since honor crimes – and murder for that matter – is going to happen anyways, then I think Jordanian women should kill their husbands, fathers, brothers, fiances, and/or cousins who they believe are a threat to them and on their lives.”
http://www.black-iris.com/2008/09/23/a-man-is-valued-by-his-sisters-behavior-ruling-on-an-honor-crime/
“With recent debates on the blogosphere about the rule-of-law in Jordan, and how it can be abused by authority figures for the sake of pushing personal values and beliefs on everyone – which is obviously no way to run an objective judicial system – I can’t help but wonder if the same can said here.
Here we have a group of judges who essentially condone the actions of this young man based on their interpretation of local customs and values; justifying his taking of a life for a lesser crime his sister committed. The judges become the perpetrator’s defense team.

Tiananmen Square: Free Speech Crushed

2009-07-25T00:35:00.000-07:00

Tiananmen Square Government Crushes Hope for Free Speech

Twenty years on, it's easy to find the exact spot where a young man in a white shirt, clutching a plastic carrier bag, stood in front of a growling tank on Chang An Avenue in the centre of Beijing.
Pictures went around the world of him talking - arguing? - with the driver. But today it's impossible to find out what happened to him.
In 1989, hundreds of protesters were eager to talk on camera about their desire for a more just society and their hope for change.
Eager to advance economically in the twentieth century, the Chinese leadership had recognized they had to educate the people. The danger was the workers would at once have the tools to think for themselves. Most of them were able to see through the silliness that was Communism.
The leaders called the dissidents the "dregs of society," but they could not defeat their ideas. They had to outmuscle them.
Here's how they did it on June 4, 1989.
[[TIANANMEN]]

Our Right to be Free from Fear
Bob Chen, Global Voices

Blogger Lan Xiaohuan （兰小欢）, in his post ‘Bitter Smile', reflects on how a nation permeated with fear has muzzled people's voice. Lamenting that the cost to claim the rights of a citizen is getting higher today, he also lampooned the infusing fear that crushes people's courage and love, concluding that Chinese have never really stood up without fear.
The western journalists ask. "When will you stand up?"
I was angry with their question, ‘Damn it, we have never really stood up before. We have always been crawling on the ground so why can't we just stand up occasionally to take a break? We submit to humiliation to our countrymen at home so that we have to hold our heads high to you foreigners. Or we will be suffocated by our simmering fury!'
So, if we adults have to bend over on the ground with humiliation, how would we educate our children about ‘courage' and ‘love'? What we can do is but to tell them fairy tales about courage and love when they are children, and at the time they are going to make it real, we will shout, ‘ No! Stay low!'
Maybe next time when I am back to China, I should visit the Tiananmen Square to talk with the dead bodies lying there, ‘Look, how much have they scared you!'.

The blocked sites include Twitter, Flickr and Microsoft’s Hotmail, according to the Telegraph. FoxNews added The Huffington Post, Life Journal and the MSN Spaces blogging tool to the list. BBC viewers in China also saw their screens black out when the news service broadcast stories about the anniversary, and foreign news crews have been barred from filming in the square. Readers of the Financial Times and Economist magazine found stories about Tiananmen ripped from their pages. Authorities also plan to begin cracking down on unapproved internet cafes, according to reports from state media.
The blocked sites are just a few among thousands that China’s censors have targeted since the beginning of last year.

The martyrs of Tiananmen Square were neither the "dregs of society" or revolutionaries. They didn't want to overthrow the government. They stood and died for First Amendment rights. They still wait.

Abbass' Waiting Game

2009-07-25T00:30:00.000-07:00

Abbass' Waiting Game
Jackson Diehl

Mahmoud Abbas says there is nothing for him to do.
True, the Palestinian president walked into his meeting with Barack Obama yesterday as the pivotal player in any Middle East peace process. If there is to be a deal, Abbas must (1) agree on all the details of a two-state settlement with the new Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu, which hasn't yet accepted Palestinian statehood, and (2) somehow overcome the huge split in Palestinian governance between his Fatah movement, which controls the West Bank, and Hamas, which rules Gaza and hasn't yet accepted Israel's right to exist.
Yet on Wednesday afternoon, as he prepared for the White House meeting in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City, Abbas insisted that his only role was to wait. He will wait for Hamas to capitulate to his demand that any Palestinian unity government recognize Israel and swear off violence. And he will wait for the Obama administration to force a recalcitrant Netanyahu to freeze Israeli settlement construction and publicly accept the two-state formula.
Until Israel meets his demands, the Palestinian president says, he will refuse to begin negotiations. He won't even agree to help Obama's envoy, George J. Mitchell, persuade Arab states to take small confidence-building measures. "We can't talk to the Arabs until Israel agrees to freeze settlements and recognize the two-state solution," he insisted in an interview. "Until then we can't talk to anyone."
For veterans of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Abbas's bargaining position will be bone-wearyingly familiar: Both sides invariably begin by arguing that they cannot act until the other side offers far-reaching concessions. Netanyahu suggested during his own visit to Washington last week that the Palestinians should start by recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, though he didn't make it a precondition for meeting with Abbas.
What's interesting about Abbas's hardline position, however, is what it says about the message that Obama's first Middle East steps have sent to Palestinians and Arab governments. From its first days the Bush administration made it clear that the onus for change in the Middle East was on the Palestinians: Until they put an end to terrorism, established a democratic government and accepted the basic parameters for a settlement, the United States was not going to expect major concessions from Israel.
Obama, in contrast, has repeatedly and publicly stressed the need for a West Bank settlement freeze, with no exceptions. In so doing he has shifted the focus to Israel. He has revived a long-dormant Palestinian fantasy: that the United States will simply force Israel to make critical concessions, whether or not its democratic government agrees, while Arabs passively watch and applaud. "The Americans are the leaders of the world," Abbas told me and Post Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt. "They can use their weight with anyone around the world. Two years ago they used their weight on us. Now they should tell the Israelis, 'You have to comply with the conditions.' "
It's true, of course, that if Obama is to broker a Middle East settlement he will have to overcome the recalcitrance of Netanyahu and his Likud party, which has not yet reconciled itself to the idea that Israel will have to give up most of the West Bank and evacuate tens of thousands of settlers. But Palestinians remain a long way from swallowing reality as well. Setting aside Hamas and its insistence that Israel must be liquidated, Abbas -- usually described as the most moderate of Palestinian leaders -- last year helped doom Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, by rejecting a generous outline for Palestinian statehood.
In our meeting Wednesday, Abbas acknowledged that Olmert had shown him a map proposing a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank -- though he complained that the Israeli leader refused to give him a copy of the plan. He confirmed that Olmert "accepted the principle" of the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees -- something no previous Israeli prime minister had done -- and offered to resettle thousands in Israel. In all, Olmert's peace offer was more generous to the Palestinians than either that of Bush or Bill Clinton; it's almost impossible to imagine Obama, or any Israeli government, going further.
Abbas turned it down. "The gaps were wide," he said.
Abbas and his team fully expect that Netanyahu will never agree to the full settlement freeze -- if he did, his center-right coalition would almost certainly collapse. So they plan to sit back and watch while U.S. pressure slowly squeezes the Israeli prime minister from office. "It will take a couple of years," one official breezily predicted. Abbas rejects the notion that he should make any comparable concession -- such as recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, which would imply renunciation of any large-scale resettlement of refugees.
Instead, he says, he will remain passive. "I will wait for Hamas to accept international commitments. I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements," he said. "Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life." In the Obama administration, so far, it's easy being Palestinian.

When the KGB Fights the CIA

2009-07-25T00:25:00.000-07:00

After 47 years, the Organization of American States has lifted its ban on Cuba's admission from the group, with most member states restoring ties with the island nation. The United States, which still maintains a trade embargo against Cuba, was the notable exception, as Secretary of State Hillary Rodham-Clinton advocated for democratic and human rights reforms in Cuba as pre-requisites to the island's readmission. But the opinions of other hemispheric leaders, some of which were previewed at the recent 5th Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago, won out. Cuba is free to be part of the OAS - despite its leadership's statements suggesting that it has no interest in returning.

When the KGB fights the CIA, the police always win in the end.
Joaquin Sabina
This is not the first time I’ve heard that MSN Messenger is blocked for Cuban users. Almost three years ago a friend furtively sneaked me into a state office where she worked so I could connect to the Internet. I wanted to write an article and I was missing some data, so I asked for a few minutes in front of an obsolete computer at her company. Those were the days when I pretended to be a tourist to connect to the network at hotels, and that week I didn’t have the convertible pesos to pay for an hour of access.
My friend read me the list of what was prohibited on that institutional connection and added that MSN wasn’t working because it had been blocked for months. “You can’t use any email or chat services that aren’t local,” and “don’t even think about going to El Nuevo Herald,” she said, eyes open wide. When I asked about the limitations on chatting with Microsoft software she explained that I should not use any interface that the network administrators couldn’t control. Hotmail was banned because it was almost impenetrable to the recording software that kept a record of all the employees’ correspondence. A little bit later Yahoo and GMail would also be banned at work and educational connections for the same reason.
Now the prohibition comes from the other side, precisely on the part of those who built a program that helps us escape government control. “Windows Live Messenger IM has been disabled for users in countries embargoed by the United States,” reads the note that Microsoft published announcing the cut off. I feel with that once again we citizens lose out, because our government has its own channels for communicating with the rest of the world. This, clearly, is a blow to internet users, we outlaws of the web, which includes nearly everyone who accesses the Internet from Cuba. Surely at the company where my friend works the censor who monitors the connections must be delighted: Microsoft has just done his work for him.

Barack Obama Plays Alexander the Great

2009-07-25T00:18:00.000-07:00

Wisely, the US leader has been upbeat about his journey to the east, but has not fueled expectations. The best politician America has produced in the Television Age is not one to tip his hand.
Barack Obama in the Levant
Wisely, the US leader has been upbeat about his journey to the east, but has not fueled expectations. The best politician America has produced in the Television Age is not one to tip his hand.
Having publicly demanded that Israel stop building settlements in the predominantly Palestinian West Bank, the President will also ask Arab nations collectively to recognize Israel's existence.
According to Jackson Diehl of the Washington Post, Abbas feels he is in a strong position to play a waiting game. Abbas acknowledged that Olmert had shown him a map proposing a Palestinian state on 97 percent of the West Bank -- though he complained that the Israeli leader refused to give him a copy of the plan. He confirmed that Olmert "accepted the principle" of the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees -- something no previous Israeli prime minister had done -- and offered to resettle thousands in Israel. In all, Olmert's peace offer was more generous to the Palestinians than either that of Bush or Bill Clinton; it's almost impossible to imagine Obama, or any Israeli government, going further. Abbas turned it down. "The gaps were wide," he said.

Abbas says he will remain passive. "I will wait for Hamas to accept international commitments. I will wait for Israel to freeze settlements," he said. "Until then, in the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life." In the Obama administration, so far, it's easy being Palestinian.

Tying together all the elements of such a speech is no easy proposition, for his worldwide audience — Muslim and non-Muslim — has multiple competing priorities and concerns.
Consider: Lebanese go to the polls just three days after he speaks, Iranians will be preparing for pivotal elections June 12 and both contests pit moderate parties against radical forces. Afghans and Pakistanis are girding for increased U.S. military and political engagement. [McClatchy]
Palestinians and Israelis have irreconcilable differences. In the U.S., Republicans will be looking for any window of opportunity to paint the Democratic President as anti-American, anti-Israel and soft on terrorism.
"It's a very high bar to clear. The expectations are immense," said Tamara Cofman Wittes, the director of the Middle East Democracy and Development Project at the Washington-based Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy. "No matter how broadly he speaks, what he says will be parsed through the lens of those disagreements."
Obama won't lay out a detailed vision for resolving the Arab-Israeli crisis. "I want to use the occasion to deliver a broader message about how the United States can change for the better its relationship with the Muslim world," the president said Thursday. "That will require, I think, recognition on both the part of the United States as well as many majority Muslim countries about each other, a better sense of understanding, and I think possibilities to achieve common ground."
Obama would like to rally Muslim countries to join in efforts to contain Iran's nuclear program. While many Arab governments also see Iran as a threat, however, the issue divides Muslims, in part because Israel is pressing for military action.
Obama Begins to Be Realistic
Why should Arabs undergo a negotiation process if the President alone can rip concessions from Israel? 74% of Israelis believe that Barack Obama won't gain anything for us. Iran's proxies have attacked us twice in three years. This is why 84% of us believe Iran's nuclear development is unlikely to be peaceful. Turkey and Saudi Arabia agree. Both nations have asked permission to begin nuclear programs. They held still when only Israel had WMD. As Iran approaches nuclear status, they want it too.
When Mr Obama was campaigning, he denounced Bush administration policies. After the Inauguration, we saw Obama carrying on with cosmetic changes to the old policies. Now, we see him shift to a wide range of the Bush agenda. With many of my countrymen, I welcome the awakening of realism in Obama.

Nakba Day

2009-07-25T00:11:00.000-07:00

'Israel/Palestine: Commemorating the Nakba and Debating Loyalty'
by Ayesha Saldanha

May 15 is Nakba Day, when Palestinians commemorate the creation of Israel and subsequent Palestinian displacement and dispossession. Shortly after the day this year, a controversial piece of legislation was proposed in the Knesset banning commemoration of the Nakba. Two other bills were recently proposed, one introducing a pledge of allegiance to Israel as a Jewish state, and another criminalizing public denial of Israel as a Jewish state. While the "loyalty law" has been rejected, and the Nakba bill has been amended, the fact that the bills were introduced at all has prompted debate and protest.

It’s me has been contemplating the annual Nakba commemorations:

I didn’t want to write about this commemoration…I don’t know why.
However, as long as I don’t put the words down they kill me from inside. So let them come out…and one of them will kill me.
The Nakba.
A tent… a blue card [given to refugees]…and a key…and deluded hopes.
And expressions such as “holding on”, “we will return”, “refugees”…and so on.
A substantial subject for pedants such as I…This time I didn’t want to [write], but a discussion this morning with my mother – or with any mother – was as follows:
Me: Mother, today is the commemoration of the Nakba.
Mother: [sighing] Every day there is a nakba, every day there is an commemoration, every day there is a celebration.

Total silence.

Reacting to the "loyalty law", The Other Door has written a sarcastic post in the personae of various Palestinian citizens of Israel:

I am Mohammed Al Safoori. I swear by the Torah of the Jews that I will be a loyal citizen to the State of Israel, and will respect traffic regulations, pay my taxes and put up a picture of Mira Awad in my living room.
I am Salima Al Jebaili. On the soul of my dead father, I swear I will be loyal to Israel and bake only kosher bread.
I am Sulaiman Ladwai. I swear by Almighty God that I knew and named my eldest daughter Walaa' [loyalty] as a premonition of allegiance to the state of Lieberman. My whole family and I will be loyal to the state. We will see you at Yarkon Park on Independence Day. Arabs are allowed to enter, right?
I am Mahmoud Abu Daqa. I was called Mahmoud after my grandfather who was martyred with the resistance fighters in ’71. My grandfather was martyred for the sake of the nation, and I will continue on his path, and swear an oath of allegiance to the State of Israel.

I am Jameel Khouri from Efrat. On the life of Virgin Mary I swear to be loyal to Israel.
[…]
I am Nora Majdalawi and my friends call me Nurit [a Jewish name].You too all seem to betray… I am committed to be loyal to the state and also recognise it as a democratic Jewish state. I hope peace will manifest itself every country of the world, just has as it has for us. I would like to send greetings to my friends in the civil defence at Nahariya Hospital.
I am Murad Al Abed. I swear by God, by the mosque and by the prophets, by my love and your love, by my eyes (which I hope will be eaten by worms if I lie), by heaven, by my mother, by my father’s testicles, by prostitutes, and by the life of Najla Fathi, that I love Israel, and that we are against terrorism.

You may view the latest post at
http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/06/05/israelpalestine-commemorating-the-nakba-and-

On the speech, Gorenberg writes:

His message to us was very, very basic Obama: First, I acknowledge your history. Second, it’s time each of you recognize the other’s side history, that you stop thinking that somehow by admitting the other’s side suffering you’ll erase your own. And now that you’ve acknowledged history, stop holding on to it as if electricity were running through it, as if your hand can’t let go. Move forward. Turn history into history - the text explaining how we got here - and stop treating it as an ever-repeating present.

How Did the Tiger Get into the Bath Tub?

2009-07-24T00:34:00.000-07:00

How Did the Tiger Get Into the Bath Tub?
Over the years I have come to realize that many tough-talking politicians are little scared cats. To adjust for this, they exaggerate the threats coming from their target group. In my day Harry Truman was a leading proponent of scare tactics. In 1950 the fledgling military/industrial needed a ruthless opponent to justify huge military expenditures especially in times of relative calm. Harry Truman detailed the USSR [International Communism] as villain number one. Suddenly, every actor on radio became an American Spy. Ronnie Reagan became involved with foreign-born women with throaty accents. [Apparently, American girls stayed home to bake cookies.] The listener never knew where her loyalties lay till the end of the episode.
Shortly after this, US employers developed the Loyalty Oath. It placed everyone on the front line so to speak. Of course it was nonsense. Any Communist Agent worth his salt would lie. The oath became a trap for artists and intellectuals who had independent thoughts about the meaning of good citizenship. This loyalty business became a curse when many Americans lost their livelihood by resisting the bullying tactics to such as the House Un-American Activities Committee.
A number of witch hunt victims were Jewish.
This is partly why I went into partial shock when a number of right wing fanatics suggested a Loyalty Oath for Palestinian Israelis. Although it was voted down by the Knesset, it left a bitter taste in my mouth. Other citizens [Palestinian] wiser than I, mocked the proposed oath into nothingness.
Reacting to the "loyalty law", The Other Door has written a sarcastic post in the personae of various Palestinian citizens of Israel:

I am Mohammed Al Safoori. I swear by the Torah of the Jews that I will be a loyal citizen to the State of Israel, and will respect traffic regulations, pay my taxes and put up a picture of Mira Awad [represented Israel at Eurovision] in my living room.

I am Salima Al Jebaili. On the soul of my dead father, I swear I will be loyal to Israel and bake only kosher bread.
I am Sulaiman Ladwai. I swear by Almighty God that I knew and named my eldest daughter Walaa' [loyalty] as a premonition of allegiance to the state of Lieberman. My whole family and I will be loyal to the state. We will see you at Yarkon Park on Independence Day. Arabs are allowed to enter, right?
I am Mahmoud Abu Daqa. I was called Mahmoud after my grandfather who was martyred with the resistance fighters in ’71. My grandfather was martyred for the sake of the nation, and I will continue on his path, and swear an oath of allegiance to the State of Israel.

I am Jameel Khouri from Efrat. On the life of Virgin Mary I swear to be loyal to Israel.
[…]
I am Nora Majdalawi and my friends call me Nurit [a Jewish name].You too all seem to betray… I am committed to be loyal to the state and also recognize it as a democratic Jewish state. I hope peace will manifest itself every country of the world, just has as it has for us. I would like to send greetings to my friends in the civil defense at Nahariya Hospital.
I am Murad Al Abed. I swear by God, by the mosque and by the prophets, by my love and your love, by my eyes (which I hope will be eaten by worms if I lie), by heaven, by my mother, by my father’s testicles, by prostitutes, and by the life of Najla Fathi, that I love Israel, and that we are against terrorism.

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2009/06/05/israelpalestine-commemorating-the-nakba-and-

Happy Birthday Ayung San Soo Kyi

2009-07-24T00:26:00.001-07:00

Will you show support for Myanmar opposition leader and global democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi? A new website came into being last week where anyone from around the world can leave a 64-word message of solidarity for imprisoned leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The website 64forSuu.org is named as such to mark Suu Kyi’s 64th birthday on June 19.
Supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi can leave and view video, text, twitter and picture messages on the website. A sample of 64-word message of support:

“Nineteen years ago, the Burmese people chose Aung San Suu Kyi as their next leader. For most of those 19 years she has been kept under house arrest by the military junta that runs the country. We must not stand by as she is silenced again. Now is the time for the international community to speak with one voice: Free Aung San Suu Kyi.”

This brief statement was signed by many personalities and other famous names which included George Clooney, Sec. Madeleine Albright, Drew Barrymore, David Beckham, Bono, Matthew Broderick, Sandra Bullock, John Cusack, Matt Damon, Robert De Niro, Václav Havel, Helen Hunt, Anjelica Huston, Scarlett Johansson, Nicole Kidman, Ashton Kutcher, Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Naomi Watts.
Twitter is an integral part of the campaign:
It is the first political campaign to use twitter with an integrated website to harness the reach and influence of some of the world’s most influential celebrities. Through replies and re-tweets, the campaign message reached an estimated 5 million people through Twitter alone in its first five days.
[[AUNG]]
Human beings the world over need freedom and security that they may be able to realize their full potential.
Aung San Suu Kyi

I think I should be active politically. Because I look upon myself as a politician. That's not a dirty work you know. Some people think that there are something wrong with politicians. Of course, something wrong with some politicians.
Aung San Suu Kyi

It is often in the name of cultural integrity as well as social stability and national security that democratic reforms based on human rights are resisted by authoritarian governments.
Aung San Suu Kyi

Peace as a goal is an ideal which will not be contested by any government or nation, not even the most belligerent.
Aung San Suu Kyi

The democracy process provides for political and social change without violence.
Aung San Suu Kyi

The history of the world shows that peoples and societies do not have to pass through a fixed series of stages in the course of development.
Aung San Suu Kyi

The struggle for democracy and human rights in Burma is a struggle for life and dignity. It is a struggle that encompasses our political, social and economic aspirations.
Aung San Suu Kyi

The value systems of those with access to power and of those far removed from such access cannot be the same. The viewpoint of the privileged is unlike that of the underprivileged.
Aung San Suu Kyi

All quotes from Brainy Quote

Turn History into History

2009-07-24T00:20:00.000-07:00

His message to us was very, very basic Obama: First, I acknowledge your history. Second, it’s time each of you recognize the other’s side history, that you stop thinking that somehow by admitting the other’s side suffering you’ll erase your own. And now that you’ve acknowledged history, stop holding on to it as if electricity were running through it, as if your hand can’t let go. Move forward. Turn history into history - the text explaining how we got here - and stop treating it as an ever-repeating present.
Gresghom Gorenberg, South Jerusalem

After listening to the speech, Stiletos in the Sand, an American based in Saudi Arabia, writes:

54 minutes and 22 seconds .. of my life I can never get back. Speech in Cairo by the jeja is here in four separate parts. Really no reason for any other leaders of the world to continue ruling their own little domains. The jeja seems to have it all under control and will be the first, self-appointed, world leader from hereon out. Oh, sure. He says everything he has aspirations for, that he thinks can be achieved in the world, will need to be done "together." Don't believe him for one single skinny second. If his lips are moving, he is lying. Hoo Boy.

Syrian Khaldoun Jarbou too wasn't impressed but writes:

I don’t see any thing new in Obama’s speech, more than that, anyone who kept up with his campaign he/she will notes that this speech is a collection of what he had said before in his way to the White House, but how ever I have liked his choosing of some words. I mean in that Violence and Extremist instead of Terrorism and Terrorist.

Bahraini Mahmood Al Yousif wonders out aloud on the speech venue:

I keep asking myself why did Obama choose the most repressive regimes in the Middle East to honour not only with his presence, but also to use as a launch pad for his Utopian vision of a peaceful and democratic Middle East? A vision that will continue to remain as illusive as a desert mirage for us Middle Easteners.

Then I try to select an alternate of the 22 Arab countries where he could have used instead, but I fail to find a single one which could be worthy of such an occasion.

On the speech itself, Al Yousif adds:

Regardless, he touched the perennial issues; Palestine through to women’s rights, freedom of expression to democratic governments and of course the rejection of terrorism and freedom of belief. Points which generally have been raised by every single American president - and world leader for that matter - albeit without such eloquence and empathy - but so far without any concrete steps to see through their resolutions. Somehow a “shared interest” creeps in and all those promises get shelved or forgotten to be revived upon a new ascension to a throne.

Writing at Mideast Youth, fellow Bahraini Esra'a explains why she did not tune into the speech:

As an Arab and a Muslim, there was nothing much I can benefit from what Obama has to say. I’m so tired of these tedious speeches and words and praises and promises that no one, including the target audience, ever lives up to. Despite not watching this speech due to lack of interest, I sat down on Twitter and was frankly disgusted at the hype, the way people were mindlessly cheering his words on, as if they don’t understand the sources of our issues to begin with. Suddenly Obama was here to “fix things,” while reducing our problems to the size of a footnote.

I support Obama, at least in comparison to his war-mongering colleagues. But we don’t need his leadership, or anyone else’s for that matter.

The Jewish Confusion

South Jerusalem Gresghom Gorenberg notes how the speech has changed history:

Barack Obama likes to change what history means, and that’s a very good thing.

Today, for instance, marks 42 years since the Six-Day War began. Ever since then, the term “June 4 lines” has referred to the on-the-ground border between Israel and its Arab neighbors on the eve of the war - not the lines marked on maps, but the lines marked by forward military positions. On the Syrian front, for instance, the actual positions lined up with neither the pre-1948 international border between Palestine and Syria, nor with the 1949 armistice agreements. The small distances on the ground make for big problems in peace negotiations.

As of yesterday, however, June 4 means something entirely different. It now refers to the day on which Barack Obama chose to speak in Cairo. “June 4 lines” henceforth mean the line of thinking that the president laid out for reconciliation between the U.S. and the Muslim world, and along the way, between Israel and the Palestinians.

The Obama Confusion

Barack Obama "likes to change what history means." He believes that a few conciliatory words and a couple of good deeds can alter the sins of the past. Barack has spent too much time attending American schools and CIA controlled news and information. He calls the 1973 conflict the Yom Kippur War won by Israel. Obama errs. It was the Six Hour War won by Egypt.
[[SIXHOURWAR]]

The Egyptian victory at October war 1973 is one of the most important events in the Egyptian modern history.

Despite the Israeli claims that they won that war , their Zionist false media propaganda will never change the fact that they were defeated in that war (Yom Kippur DEFEAT) , the brave Egyptian soldiers destroyed Bar-Lev line which was the most powerful fortification in the world in only 6 hours , the Egyptian army destroyed what was named as "invincible army" , Egypt fought , won , got back Sinai without leaving an inch for Israel and forced the Israelis to accept peace which they refused before that war.

Greetings to the brave Egyptian and Syrian soldiers who lost their lives to achieve the great victory at October war and to purify Sinai peninsula and Golan heights from the dirty Israeli occupation with their blood.

The American Delusion

The Yom Kippur War [1973] occurred long before most people on the planet were even born. They must rely on the media. What do they see in the schools and on television? The Yom Kippur War or the Six Hour War, which do you think?
The Egyptians change history not Obama.