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New Yorkers celebrate Israel as Gaza bombing continues

Al Akhbar | June 4, 2012

Thousands of Israel supporters waved blue and white flags as they marched up Fifth Avenue on Sunday for the annual Celebrate Israel parade, as the country’s military carried out a series of devastating bombings in Gaza.

At least one person was injured as Israeli airplanes bombarded the besieged region, but in the US supporters backed the country. [...]

Elected officials including New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and New York Governo Andrew Cuomo waved to constituents. Senator Charles Schumer used a bullhorn to shout “Let’s hear it for Israel! … Full article


The lies about the 1967 war are still more powerful than the truth

By Alan Hart | June 4, 2012

In retrospect it can be seen that the 1967 war, the Six Days War, was the turning point in the relationship between the Zionist state of Israel and the Jews of the world (the majority of Jews who prefer to live not in Israel but as citizens of many other nations). Until the 1967 war, and with the exception of a minority of who were politically active, most non-Israeli Jews did not have – how can I put it? – a great empathy with Zionism’s child. Israel was there and, in the sub-consciousness, a refuge of last resort; but the Jewish nationalism it represented had not generated the overtly enthusiastic support of the Jews of the world. The Jews of Israel were in their chosen place and the Jews of the world were in their chosen places. There was not, so to speak, a great feeling of togetherness. At a point David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, was so disillusioned by the indifference of world Jewry that he went public with his criticism – not enough Jews were coming to live in Israel.

So how and why did the 1967 war transform the relationship between the Jews of the world and Israel? … continue


Celebrating Palestinian Resistance and Resilience

By Ali Mallah and Eva Bartlett |  Global Research | June 4, 2012

… For the last 64 years, Palestinian women, men, elderly, and youth have steadfastly and spiritedly resisted the occupation and the Zionist state. It is a resistance that continues flourishing among Palestinians from all walks of life both inside and outside Palestine, be they farmers, workers, students, poets, or intellectuals.

The criminal Zionist campaign to erase Palestinian history and to whitewash Zionist massacres and the expulsion, imprisonment, and abuse of Palestinians continues 64 years after the Zionist state was founded on the ethnically-cleansed land of Palestine. In spite of the decades that have passed since May 15, 1948, Palestinians have not forgotten the Nakba, nor the 531 Palestinian villages razed and destroyed by Zionists before and after 1948, nor the over 750,000 Palestinians violently expelled from their homes in Palestine. The refugees are future returnees, and as they await justice—the right to return to the homes and land from which they were forcibly expelled—they don’t do so complaisantly. … Read full article


US official visits Israel to discuss future ‘pressure’ on Iran

Press TV – June 4, 2012

The US Treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence has traveled to Israel ahead of the upcoming talks between Iran and the P5+1 to discuss future “pressures” on Tehran.

“If we don’t get a breakthrough in Moscow, there is no question we will continue to ratchet up the pressure,” Reuters quoted David Cohen as saying during his visit to Israel.

Iran and the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States plus Germany) wrapped up their latest round of talks in Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on May 24. The two sides agreed to hold another round of talks in Moscow on June 18-19.

“We have today and over the past years had very close cooperation with the Israeli government across a range of our sanctions programs,” Cohen said.

“We will continue to consult with the Israelis,” he added.

Over the past months, Israel has constantly called for tougher sanctions against Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.

On May 25, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran must be forced to halt its nuclear energy program through tougher sanctions and stiffer demands.

The Israeli news service Ynet reported on March 1 that an Israeli official has urged the West to impose “suffocating sanctions” against Tehran, which “could lead to a grave economic situation in Iran and to a shortage of food.” … Full article


US insists on Assad’s overthrow

Press TV – June 3, 2012

The United States says any political solution in Syria should result in the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said during a press conference in the Swedish capital Stockholm on Sunday, “Assad’s departure does not have to be a precondition, but it should be an outcome” of any such political solution, AFP reported.

Her comments came hours after Assad addressed Syria’s parliament, saying that Damascus would keep fighting the armed gangs sabotaging security in the country, while it is still ready for dialog with its opponents.

Clinton has also asked Russia to join international efforts to increase pressure on Assad. She spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by telephone at the weakened. … Full article


Nuclear Savages

By BARBARA ROSE JOHNSTON | CounterPunch | June 1, 2012

Are you wondering about the disconcerting contradictions in the nuclear news in recent weeks?

Following the release of a May 2012 report, newspapers around the world posted headlines announcing that the World Health Organization concludes that Fukushima radiation emissions pose minimal health risk. Based on an assessment of reported emissions of radioiodine and cesium up through September 2011, Japan’s nuclear meltdown poses no serious cancer risk, except for localized exposures around Fukushima prefecture, which may result in increased risk of thyroid cancer.

In the same week, Japanese press reported the alarming news that TEPCO’s assessments of total radioiodine releases were some 1.6 times greater than the Japanese Government’s assessment while, on the same day, the Japanese government issued a reassuring statement that “while gross releases of iodine-131 and cesium-137 are actually far greater than originally estimated, the public can rest assured, as  releases to the sea have not resulted in contamination beyond the plant’s immediate area because the mixing power of ocean currents has dispersed the substances beyond the limits of detection in seawater samples”

Meanwhile, the US press reported findings from a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences demonstrating that by August 2011, cesium-134 and cesium-137 from Fukushima was present in the tissue of Pacific blue fin tuna, as evidenced samples taken off the coast of San Diego, in Southern California. In the media storm that followed this report, government experts with the US Food and Drug Administration proclaimed no need for public panic, as radiation levels were detectable but simply too low to be hazardous and independent scientists explained why the presence, even at small levels, was so alarming and noted the need for additional monitoring.

As has been the norm in this most recent nuclear disaster, contradictory information abounds, with alarming news countered or contradicted by reassurances that muddy the water, yet achieve the goal of containing and controlling an impotent public.

We have been here before, in a world blanketed with nuclear fallout, where massive amounts of iodine, cesium, strontium and other radioactive isotopes moved through the marine and terrestrial food chain and the human body, in well-documented ways, with degenerative and at times deadly outcomes.  Yet, for many reasons, while the environmental and biomedical trajectory of such exposures are well documented, the human experience and associated public health risks are largely suppressed, classified, or simply and persistently denied. … continue


Nuclear Tuna and NPR’s Trivialization

NPR shouldn’t trivialize the risk of radioactive tuna from the Fukushima nuclear disaster

By Robert Alvarez · IPS · May 31, 2012

Yesterday, National Public Radio (NPR) ran a story asserting that cesium-137 from the Fukushima nuclear accident found in Bluefish tuna on the west coast of the U.S. is harmless.

It’s not harmless. The Fukushima nuclear accident released about as much cesium-137 as a thermonuclear weapon with the explosive force of 11 million tons of TNT. In the spring of 1954, after the United States exploded nuclear weapons in the Marshall Islands, the Japanese government had to confiscate about 4 million pounds of contaminated fish.

Radiation from Fukushima spread far and wide. Like American hydrogen bomb testing, the Fukushima nuclear accident deposited cesium-137 over 600,000 square-miles of the Pacific, as well as the Northern Hemisphere and Europe. With a half-life of 30 years, cesium-137 is taken up in the meat of the tuna as if it were potassium, indicating that the metabolism holds on to it. … continue


Germany sells Israel nuke-ready submarines – report

RT | June 3, 2012

Germany is supplying the Israeli Navy with submarines that are fully capable of being fitted to carry cruise missiles with nuclear-warheads, Spiegel reports. Thus, if Israel does indeed have any such missiles, it could deploy them immediately.

­The extensive military deal suggests that German shipyards are to supply Israel with six Dolphin-class diesel-electric submarines, four of which have already been delivered.

“The Germans can be proud to have secured the existence of Israel for many years,” Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, told Spiegel.

According to Barak, the latest craft, which was delivered on May 3, has become yet another “force multiplier in terms of the capabilities and strength of Israel’s defense forces.” [...]

Meanwhile, Spiegel reports that Germany might actually be strengthening Israel’s nuclear capabilities, as the submarines are being equipped with hydraulic ejection systems that enable the underwater launch of Popeye Turbo SLCM long-range cruise missiles.

­The first three Dolphin class submarines were supplied to Israel by Germany in 1998, 1999 and 2000. The first two were donated by the German government and the third came with a 50-per-cent discount. Over the past few years one of the submarines has undergone a comprehensive structural overhaul at the Haifa shipyard, according to a Jerusalem Post report in December 2011. Israel has reportedly invested about $27 million in the upgrade project.

­Officially Germany has always maintained that it knows nothing about Israel’s nuclear program and the deployment of nuclear missiles on German built submarines in particular. However, according to Spiegel’s research, several former high-ranking German officials have never doubted Israel was putting nuclear missiles on its subs.

Former state secretary, Lothar Ruhl, told Spiegel he had not only “always assumed that Israel would deploy nuclear weapons on the submarines,” but also discussed the issue with the Israeli military. … Full article


Israeli forces detain Hebron journalist

Ma’an - 03/06/2012

HEBRON – Israeli forces detained a local journalist in Hebron early Sunday, relatives said.

Soldiers raided the home of Sharif Rajoub in the village of Dura and took him to an unknown destination, his brother Mahmoud told Ma’an.

Rajoub works as a reporter for Al-Aqsa radio station. He was preparing for his wedding, which was set to take place next week, his brother added.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said that a man had been arrested in Dura overnight Saturday, but could not provide further details about his identity. Another man was arrested in Ramallah overnight, she added.

Israeli forces have raided several Palestinian news outlets in recent months. … Full article


The Palestinians Must Just Be

The Palestinians must not ‘negotiate’

By Issa Khalaf | Palestine Chronicle | June 2, 2012

… Israel’s behavior, like that of Washington’s, is neither accidental nor reluctant. Palestinian oppression and disappearance is Zionism’s precondition for its existence. Their displacement, dispossession, and the theft of their land—even their culture—continue remorselessly unabated. This, colonization, is a century’s long process, the remainder of historic Palestine, the occupied territories, cut and swallowed in whole swaths, given impetus since the early 1990s under cover of Oslo, Camp David, and the Quartet’s fictitious two-state “roadmap.” True sovereignty in the 1967 frontiers, coexistence, governance sharing of Jerusalem, refugee return will not be. Neither one state nor two, neither bi-national nor unitary secular democratic; instead, deliberate strangulation. The Zionists by ideological design have made living together in any form impossible.

The Palestinians’ current situation is in shambles. Their spatial fragmentation by Israel hardly leaves room (literally) for rebellions or Intifadas, not to mention the nationally exhausted West Bank Palestinians seem to want only to live their mundane lives, while those in refugee camps in surrounding states seem lost, leaderless, forgotten, isolated and unwanted, without national compass. Yet their self-appointed leaders, at least those in the occupied territories, continue to pretend they’re engaged in something worthwhile, even while Israel takes and takes and atomizes and walls, eventually annexing between 60 and 70 percent of the West Bank, leaving the Palestinians their few cities and towns in which to live and govern. … Read full article


Syria targeted by foreign conspiracy: Assad

Press TV – June 3, 2012

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned that Syria has become the target of a foreign conspiracy.

In an address to the new parliament in Damascus on Sunday, Assad said Syria was facing a real war from outside.

“We are not facing a political problem but a project to destroy the country,” Assad said.

He added that the government has made every attempt to end the months-long unrest and implemented the promised reforms. [...]

He called for a national dialog to end the violence and invited all parties to put aside their differences for the interest of the country. [...]

The Syrian president also described last week’s Houla massacre as an “ugly crime.” … Full article


Clinton & Feltman urging ‘robust Syria action’ while Pentagon prefers restraint

The Swoop | June 3, 2012

Top US diplomatic and defense leaders were hoping to use the coming week to focus on Asia where both Deputy Secretary of State Burns and Defense Secretary Panetta are due to attend the June 1st-3rdround of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. In advance of this, officials had outlined the new focus of defense strategy on the Asia-Pacific region, contrasting this with the drawdown of dispositions and operations in the Euro-Atlantic and Middle East theaters. These plans have, in the words of a senior State Department official speaking privately to us, been “hijacked” by the immediate crisis in Syria, the deepening uncertainty in Egypt and increasing pessimism over Iran. Among US officials there are now clear differences of opinion about the best next steps on Syria. To some extent these mirror the divisions over Libya, with State Department officials and some powerful advisors in the White House urging more robust action than the Pentagon which continues to reject unilateral US military intervention. Overall, there remains an overarching sense of the risks involved in any military option which does not command wide international support… Full article


Italy may also launch drone attacks on Pak-Afghan border area

By Akhtar Jamal | Pakistan Observer | June 3, 2012

Islamabad—According to Airforce-technology.com the United States is now planning to arm Italy’s fleet of MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) with missiles and bombs, in a bid to “protect Italian armed forces from enemy threats” in Afghanistan.

Until now the United States and Britain had been using drones against “enemy elements” but almost all drone attacks carried out along Pak-Afghan borders areas had been carried out by American CIA.

The website claimed that the Obama administration was likely to announce the deal within two weeks, following which the US-built drones, operated by Italian air forces, will be equipped with weapons such as laser-guided bombs and Hellfire missiles. … continue


MSNBC: No Time for Obama’s Kill List?

By Peter Hart | FAIR | June 1, 2012

The New York Times‘ lengthy report (5/29/12) on Barack Obama’s drone “kill list” should provoke serious questions: Is such a program legal? How does it square with Obama’s criticism of the Bush administration’s “war on terror” policies? What does it tell us about how the administration identifies “militants” who are targeted for assassination?

But those questions have been raised only in fits and starts–and are basically absent from the liberal cable news channel MSNBC. In fact, a far more interesting discussion of these questions can be heard on Fox News Channel.

It’s not all good on Fox, naturally. Host Bill O’Reilly and guest Dennis Miller (5/29/12) joked about  whether they were on the kill lists . Geraldo Rivera defended the program on Fox & Friends (6/1/12). Fox “liberal” Bob Beckel did the same on Fox‘s The Five (5/29/12):

To even suggest that somehow there is something wrong with a kill list, for you to suggest that shows you how rabidly anti-Obama you are.

Part of that discussion focused on what the reaction would be if we were reading about George W. Bush’s drone kill list–a contrast that was raised on other Fox shows, and a legitimate one.

It wasn’t just that angle that Fox covered, though. On Special Report (5/30/12), James Rosen looked at the White House’s “fuzzy math” at counting civilian deaths from drone strikes. A Special Report panel (5/29/12) used a soundbite from the ACLU to illustrate criticism from the left.

But what about the channel that would seem the natural place for some of that left-leaning analysis? MSNBC has been mostly quiet. … continue


US assassination drone strikes kill 14 Pakistanis in 24 hours

Press TV – June 3, 2012

Two separate US assassination drone strikes have killed at least 14 people in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region over the past 24 hours.

Despite the Pakistani government’s repeated calls on Washington to end the drone attacks on civilians, at least 10 people were killed in a US drone attack on village of Mana Raghzai in South Waziristan.

The causalities come after two drones fired four missiles at a house in the troubled region on Sunday morning.

It’s the second attack in the area in the past 24 hours and the sixth over the past two weeks.

Earlier on Saturday, the US drones pounded a building in Pakistan’s tribal region of South Waziristan, leaving at least four people killed and several others injured. … Full article


Jewish teens ‘tied up and beat’ man shot by settlers

Ma’an - 03/06/2012

TEL AVIV, Israel – Initial findings from an Israeli army inquiry into a Nablus settler attack in May have found that teenagers tied up and assaulted a man shot during clashes, Israeli media reported Sunday.

Najeh al-Safadi, 22, was shot in the stomach by a guard from the illegal settlement of Yitzhar, relatives said, after wheat fields and an olive grove belonging to the village of Orif were set on fire by settlers on May 26.

The Israeli army said at the time of the attack that it would investigate the incident.

On Saturday, a senior army official told Haaretz that a group of teenage settlers rushed towards al-Safadi after seeing he had been shot, tied his hands together, and began beating him, the officer added.

Members of the Yitzhar settlement security team “operated against orders and regulations,” the officer added.

No arrests have been made.

The Israeli military said it is also investigating a similar incident from early May in which a video distributed by a peace group showed a settler shooting and wounding a Palestinian during a confrontation with rock-throwing Palestinians, as soldiers stood by.


Jewish settlers persist in their attacks on eastern Yatta

Palestine Information Center – 03/06/2012

AL-KHALIL — Jewish settlers attacked Kharuba area to the east of Yatta town near Al-Khalil city on Saturday afternoon and broke many olive and almonds trees, locals said.

The locals expressed dismay and outrage at the repeated settlers’ attacks on their land under the very eyes of the Israeli occupation soldiers, who do not budge to stop the attacks.

Mohammed Rubee, one of the inhabitants, told the PIC reporter that the settlers damaged the newly installed trees in front of the Israeli troops who arrived to the scene but did nothing.

The soldiers even prevented inhabitants from approaching their land and fired tear gas and stun grenades on them, Rubee said.

He added that the soldiers threatened to take any citizen defending his land to the detention center in the notorious Kiryat Arba settlement.


Medics: 7 injured in Gaza airstrikes

Ma’an – 03/06/2012

GAZA CITY – Israel launched a series of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip overnight Saturday, injuring seven people, medics said.

A missile struck a home in the Nuseirat refugee camp, central Gaza, wounding seven people. The victims, who included four children, were taken to hospital for treatment, medical spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said.

The Israeli army said it had targeted three weapon manufacturing facilities in the central Gaza Strip and two “terror tunnels” in the northern and southern coastal enclave.

The attacks were in response to the death of an Israeli soldier on Friday, the army added in a press statement.

A Palestinian gunman had breached the southern Gaza border and opened fire on Israeli soldiers, who returned fire. A soldier, identified by the army as 21-year-old Netanel Moshiashvili, and the Palestinian were killed. A Gaza radio station named the man killed as 22-year-old Ahmad Abu Naser.

Israeli aircraft bombed an auto rickshaw east of Khan Younis in immediate response to the border incident. Four people were wounded and Naji Qudeih, 34, later died from his injuries.


Sergei’s Law — Revenge of the Oligarchs

By Maidhc Ó Cathail | The Passionate Attachment | June 3, 2012

In the Brave New World of digital activism, government legislation often comes with its own promotional video. In response to a seemingly ingenuous question by ABC’s Jake Tapper about whether a “remarkable viral video” had anything to do with the decision to send U.S. special forces to Central Africa, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney intimated that “Kony 2012” was most likely on President Obama’s mind as he signed the Lord’s Resistance Army Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act. And if the president one day signs the Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, don’t be surprised if some “pushy” reporter like Tapper asks if anyone in the White House has seen “Sergei’s Law.”

According to film’s website, the seven-minute video is the work of “a group of Russian and American students pushing for justice” in the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer “tortured to death in 2009 for exposing a $230 million heist … [whose] killers got away clean.” Visitors to the site are invited to watch the video and “make a difference” by signing its petition — Pass the Magnitsky Act! A click on the “About Us” section, however, reveals that this is no ordinary group of students:

The College-100 (C-100) is a network of student presidents from elite schools (including the Ivies, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Oxford, Cambridge, McGill, top liberal arts schools, and flagship state schools); Rhodes, Truman, and Gates scholars; Olympians; and other distinguished young people.

Moreover, this elite student network has benefited from the counsel of some rather extraordinary mentors:

The C-100′s advisors include Ambassadors Ed Perkins, Stape Roy and Tom Pickering; US senators; Governor Bill Richardson; and other distinguished national figures.

Edward J. Perkins has served as Director of the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Corps, a position that would have required a close working relationship with America’s intelligence services. J. Stapleton Roy was Assistant Secretary of State for intelligence and research from 1999 to 2000 and is currently Vice Chairman of Kissinger Associates, Inc. Thomas R. Pickering served as U.S. Ambassador to the UN, Russia, India, Israel, Jordan, Nigeria, and El Salvador — a posting that led to the dubious distinction of being called “a Reagan point man in Central America’s dirty wars.” Pickering currently chairs the Board of Trustees of the International Crisis Group, an NGO financed by George Soros, who could hardly be described as a disinterested party in the “push for justice” in Russia.


Quotable Quotes From The Chosen Ones


Sudanese man beaten unconscious in Tel Aviv

Ma’an – 02/06/2012

TEL AVIV, Israel – A Sudanese man was seriously wounded overnight Friday after being assaulted in Tel Aviv, Israeli media reported.

The man was found unconscious at 4 a.m. in south Tel Aviv with multiple injuries across his body, Israeli news site Ynet said.

Police said they arrested a 48-year-old Tel Aviv resident on suspicion of assault.

The assault appears to be the latest in a string of racially motivated attacks following mass anti-migrant rallies in Tel Aviv last week.

Earlier this week, a Sudanese hotel worker was severely beaten by seven hotel guests in Eilat after he refused to give them towels which were reserved for other guests, Ynet reported. Two of the attackers were detained for questioning before being released.

Last week, over 1,000 people protested in Tel Aviv calling for African migrants to be deported in a rampage that an Israeli broadcaster dubbed a “pogrom.”

In early May, two firebombs were thrown at the south Tel Aviv home of African residents.

In late April, firebombs were thrown at a kindergarten and apartments used by the African community. A 20-year-old Israeli resident of the neighborhood was questioned by police about the attacks.


Crushing Iran economically: Good enough for Israel?

RT | May 31, 2012

The main advocate of a military strike on Iran seems to have shifted ground to try and annihilate the country with crippling sanctions instead. Israeli Ynet reports that the majority of Israel’s defense chiefs are against a military solution.

­Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz is among those seven members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s special nine-minister security forum who oppose the idea of an immediate attack on Iran.

“Without Gantz’s support the chances of mounting a strike are slim,” a political source told Ynet.

Gantz, together with Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon, Kadima Chairman Shaul Mofaz and Ministers Dan Meridor, Benny Begin, Eli Yishai and Yuval Steinitz, is advocating the idea of “reducing the Iranian economy to rubble,” the report says.

“Israel has to push the international community to impose further sanctions on the Iranian economy,” the same source said. “That’s what’s important right now.” … Full article


Putin: Russia doesn’t supply arms to Syria that can be used in civil war

RT | June 1, 2012

Russia is not shipping weapons that can be used in the Syrian civil conflict, President Vladimir Putin told reporters in Berlin, stressing that Russia is committed to helping UN envoy Kofi Annan achieve “positive results” in the turmoil.

President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed that the best way of resolving the Syrian crisis is through political means, not unilateral action.

“We are not going to apply any instruments unilaterally,” Putin said at a joint press conference alongside Merkel following talks with her in Berlin on Friday. “We will maintain dialogue with our partners who are interested in resolving this conflict.”

Putin added that resolving the standoff, which has entered its second year, will require a “degree of patience and professionalism.”

Meanwhile, the Russian leader emphasized that “Russia is not exporting weapons that could be used in civil conflicts to Syria.” … Full article


France to ban a Syngenta pesticide to protect bees

By Gus Trompiz | Reuters | June 1, 2012

PARIS – France said it plans to ban a pesticide made by Swiss agro-chemical group Syngenta that is widely used to treat rapeseed crops after scientists suggested it could pose danger to bees. [...]

The decision was based on a report from French health and safety agency ANSES, which went along with recent scientific findings suggesting that a sub-lethal dose of thiamethoxam, a molecule contained in Cruiser, made bees more likely to lose their way and die.

“To protect rapeseed plants there exist alternatives to coating seeds that are already widely used. If the withdrawal of the authorization (for Cruiser OSR) is confirmed, farmers will therefore have solutions to call on,” Le Foll said in a statement. … Read full article


Australia: Kakadu victory as uranium mining battle ends

By Emma Masters | ABC | June 01, 2012

Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory is set to be expanded, with the inclusion of land previously earmarked for uranium mining.

The Northern Land Council (NLC) has agreed for a 1,200 hectare parcel of land containing rich reserves of uranium to be incorporated in to the park.

It is considered the final step in a long battle that Aboriginal traditional owner Jeffrey Lee has waged to protect his land from mining. … continue


Settlers set fire to ancient tree in Hebron

Ma’an - 02/06/2012

HEBRON – Israeli settlers set fire to an 1,000-year-old olive tree in central Hebron overnight Friday, witnesses said.

Local activist Issa Amro said the group then hurled stones at a community center in the Tel Rumeida neighborhood on Saturday morning.

Settlers tried to remove the Palestinian flag from the ‘steadfastness and challenge’ center, while Israeli soldiers looked on, he said.

Several days ago a group of Israeli settlers stole the building’s flag, which activists had since replaced with a new one, Amro added.

Tel Rumeida lies in the Israeli-military controlled H2 zone of the southern West Bank city, after a 1997 agreement split Hebron into areas of Palestinian and Israeli control. The zone includes the ancient Old City, home of the revered Ibrahimi Mosque — also split into a synagogue referred to as the Tomb of the Patriarchs.

Around 800 Jewish settlers live in Hebron’s Old City, among 30,000 Palestinians in the parts of the city that are under Israeli control.


Man dies from Gaza airstrike injuries

Ma’an – 02/06/2012

GAZA CITY – A man died on Friday evening after being injured earlier in the day by an Israeli airstrike on the Gaza Strip, medics said.

Naji Qudeih, 34, was one of four people injured when Israeli aircraft bombed an auto rickshaw east of Khan Younis, hours after an Israeli soldier and Palestinian militant were killed in an exchange of fire along the border.

Qudeih, from Khan Younis, was critically wounded and later died from his injuries, medical services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman told Ma’an that aircraft targeted what she described as a terrorist squad that had fired a rocket at Israeli soldiers. She said a hit was confirmed.

Earlier, a Palestinian gunman breached the southern Gaza border and opened fire on Israeli soldiers, who returned fire, the Israeli army said. A soldier, identified by the army as 21-year-old Netanel Moshiashvili, and a Palestinian were killed.

A Gaza radio station close to Islamic Jihad named the man killed as 22-year-old Ahmad Abu Naser.

Palestinian sources in the Gaza Strip told Ma’an that the attack appeared to have been aimed at luring Israeli forces into the area in an attempt to capture a soldier.


Obama’s Secret War Against Iran Dooms Diplomacy and Imperils American Interests

By  Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett | Race for Iran | June 1st, 2012

In May 2009, we published an op-ed in The New York Times, see here, in which we argued that “President Obama’s Iran policy has, in all likelihood already failed”—largely because “Obama is backing away from the bold steps required to achieve strategic, Nixon-to-China type rapprochement with Tehran.”  Indeed,

“The Obama Administration has done nothing to cancel or repudiate an ostensibly covert but well-publicized program begun in George W. Bush’s second term, to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to destabilize the Islamic Republic.  Under these circumstances, the Iranian government—regardless of who wins the presidential elections on June12—will continue to suspect that American intentions toward the Islamic Republic remain, ultimately, hostile.”

Now, in an article by David Sanger, “Obama Order Sped Up Wave of Cyberattacks Against Iran,” see here, The New York Times informs that

“From his first months in office, President Obama secretly ordered increasingly sophisticated attacks on the computer systems that run Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facilities, significantly expanding America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons, according to participants in the program.

Mr. Obama decided to accelerate the attacks—begun in the Bush administration and code-named Olympic Games—even after an element of the program accidentally became public in the summer of 2010 because of a programming error that allowed it to escape Iran’s Natanz plant and sent it around the world on the Internet.  Computer security experts who began studying the worm, which had been developed by the United States and Israel, gave it a name:  Stuxnet.”

The article goes on to describe multiple details about Stuxnet and the President’s decision-making as to its use.  We, however, are most interested in the report for what it confirms about Obama’s approach to Iran—in particular, that Obama’s aggressiveness toward the Islamic Republic extended to a significant expansion of “America’s first sustained use of cyberweapons.” … continue


Rawabi: Israeli Model for “Neo-Palestinian” City

By Abbad Yehya | Al Akhbar | June 1, 2012

Ramallah – Halfway between occupied Jerusalem and Nablus, in middle of the West Bank and 9km north of Ramallah, private Palestinian funds, generously supported by Qatar, and protected by the occupation army, are building a city for the “new Palestinians,” as US General Keith Dayton, US Security Coordinator for Israel-Palestinian Authority in Tel Aviv, calls them.

Rawabi is a “Palestinian settlement” currently under construction at a cost nearing US$1 billion. It is located on a 6,300-dunum (6.3 square kilometers) piece of land seized by the Palestinian Authority (PA) through a decree signed by president Mahmoud Abbas in November 2009.

After a failed attempt by landowners to reverse the decision or reduce its impact, the land was bought by businessman Bashar al-Masri. On several occasions, al-Masri called on Israelis to buy apartments and houses in his city and become neighbors with the “new Palestinians.”

In the nearby village of Attara, residents whisper about Israeli officers who visit the city to eat breakfast with its developers. The visits are frequent and include officers from the Israeli Civil Administration accompanied by army units and border guards.

Villagers speak about soldiers who man the Attara roadblock, allowing everyone related to the Rawabi project to pass through while barring the flow of regular Palestinians. … continue


“There’s enough surplus power in this region to turn off Indian Point tomorrow”

By JOHN RAYMOND | CounterPunch | June 1, 2012

… Manna Jo Green, a member of the town council of Rosendale and Environmental Director of Clearwater, who recently toured the plant with the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board: “We are calling for expansion of the evacuation plan from 10 miles to 50 miles and hardening of the fuel pools. There is no protection for those fuel pools… You couldn’t see the fuel rods in fuel pool 2 because the water was so murky… it is so densely crowded with fuel rods, you can’t even get equipment in to fully inspect it …” … Read full article


SO WHO IS KILLING WHO IN SYRIA?

By Damian Lataan | June 1, 2012

Recent atrocities in Syria which have included the murder of more than a hundred civilians, many of who were children, and, in a later incident, some thirteen civilian workers executed, has led to calls from the West for ‘intervention’ – which is shorthand for supporting the Syrian opposition in ousting President Bashar al-Assad who has been accused of committing these crimes.

Assad, of course, has denied responsibility and has blamed the killings on al Qaeda elements operating with the opposition forces while the West has blamed Assad’s thuggish militias, the Shabiha, for the crimes.

In just a few days the rhetoric has become hysterical but still no one really knows who did these terrible deeds. The West would really like to see Assad get the blame for obvious reasons – they want him gone.

But, if one steps back for a moment away from the hysteria and the calls for intervention, and asks ‘who would have most to gain from these killings’, one can see an entirely different picture. … continue


May – 2012


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