Explosive find at arms fair

You'd expect explosive finds at arms fairs but this one is more figurative than literal. An Israeli stand was closed down at the Docklands "Defence Systems Equipment International Show" because the company sold torture instruments. The company admitted that it does indeed sell leg irons, clubs and electric shock equipment but their spokesman said that, whilst the gear appears in their brochure, none was on display at the show. Priceless! But wait, it gets better. According to the JC, the company, Tar Ideal, is considering legal action against the organisers. A quick google search on Tar Ideal shows that they already have quite a reputation.

Lib Dems' Alan Beith wins the presidency

The presidency of the Lib Dems Friends of Israel that is. He praised Israel to the JC claiming that its achievements were "remarkable. Israel has made deserts bloom." Which ones? He didn't say, but then the JC didn't ask. He also said that Israel had founded "genuine democracy." I hope the Lib Dems don't try to establish such a democracy here in the UK.

Sorry I keep linking to the JC. I should point out that it's subscription only.

Anglicans keep their Caterpillar shares

Still from the JC, the Church of England has ruled out divesting itself of its shares in Caterpillar, the company that makes customised bulldozers for Israel's war criminal policy of house demolitions. The same article discusses the issue of sanctions across the board against Israel by Anglicans worldwide, though this too is ruled out. These two issues are very different and whilst I can understand the Church finding a way around a general boycott of Israel I don't see how it can justify investing in the armaments of ethnic cleasing. That Rowan Williams guy is a worry.

For anyone wishing to contact the C of E over this, here is their contact us page.

More on Straw's apology to Israel

Totally Jewish reports on Jack Straw's apology to Israel but includes in its report the fact that Straw said that he could not rule out the arrest of Ariel Sharon if he was to visit the UK. I didn't know that Tony Blair had actually invited Sharon to the UK but

In response to the incident, Sharon snubbed an invitation by Tony Blair to visit Britain, reportedly telling the Prime Minister, "I would really like to visit Britain. The trouble is that I, like General Almog, also served in the IDF for many years."

Now, according to the JC, the foreign office has pledged a review of its procedures. In an earlier poost I suggested that people write to Jack Straw. In sufficient numbers that might demonstrate the strength of feeling over this but letters by ordinary folk to ministers are often left unread, or, at least, unanswered. However a chap I know tells me that:

Convention says that letters to MPs with requests for responses from Ministers have to be replied to by the Minister! Most email addresses can be obtained by:

Name: Damien Green

Email address: greend@parliament.uk

So give it a whirl.

Update - 26/9/2005 - Or try this. Thanks to Dahud.

Thanks

Inquiry urges Students' Union to support zionism

Well that's the impression you might gain from this week's Jewish Chronicle frontpage report on an "independent inquiry into alleged failures by the National Union of Students to tackle anti-Semitism [that] has recommended a raft of measures to improve relations with Jewish students." From the article you wouldn't know that the inquiry concludes:

Having looked at the background to the incidents there were clearly occasions when matters could have been dealt with more quickly, or more efficiently, but do not demonstrate apathy to anti-semitism.

That was reported in the Guardian, not the JC. Both the Guardian and the JC agree that the inquiry was commissioned by the NUS after the resignations of some Union of Jewish Students activists but only the Guardian reported the inquiry's criticism of one of the activists, Luciana Berger,

the report is also critical of Ms Berger, who attended a meeting with the head of the School of Oriental and African Studies following complaints from Jewish students that the union was tolerating anti-semitism. Ms Berger should not have attended the meeting, which was implicitly critical of the union, when she was a national executive member, it says. Protocol dictates she should have sought to support the union in tackling the problem first.

In fact the JC report seems to portray SOAS as the villain of the piece.

The JC includes in the "raft of measures" recommended by the inquiry, the adoption of the "EU Monitoring Committee definition of anti-semitism, which includes demonisation of Israel," whatever that means. I suppose we can look forward to endless wrangles about what constitutes "demonisation".

Curiously the Totally Jewish website reports the inquiry under the heading "Report clears students union." Again, you wouldn't think so from reading just the JC report.

Jack Straw apologises for "discomfiture" of Israel's war crimes suspects

The BBC reports that, in an act of breathtaking sycophancy, Jack Straw has apologised to Israel for any embarrassment caused over the issue of a warrant for the arrest of General Doron Almog.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has apologised to his Israeli counterpart over the attempted arrest of a general accused of war crimes.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign in the UK has written to the Foreign Secretary:

Dear Mr Straw,

I am writing to express our total shock that, according to Israeli commentators, you have apologized to Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom for 'the discomfort caused to General (res.) Doron Almog,' against whom an arrest warrant was issued in the UK over alleged war crimes committed in Gaza. It is also reported that Prime Minister Tony Blair discussed an investigation of the circumstances of the issuing of the warrant with Ariel Sharon in New York and Israelis are expecting changes to the British system to prevent such warrants being issued.

It is already a matter of grave concern that Major General Almog was able to evade prosecution and return to Israel because of leaked information. These reports suggest collusion at the highest levels.

Amnesty International have "deplored the failure of the United Kingdom (UK) authorities to arrest Israeli army General Doron Almog when he arrived at London's Heathrow airport, describing this as a clear violation of the UK's obligations under both national and international law."

Interference by government with the judicial and legal process is to be abhorred in all cases. But since the UK presents itself as an upholder of international law, any attempt to thwart those bringing cases in support of Palestinian rights would suggest selectivity and encourage the perception of the government as hypocritical.

Yours sincerely,

Betty Hunter
General Secretary

Of course there's nothing to stop others writing to him:

The Rt. Hon. Jack Straw
Sec.of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs,
King Charles Street,
London SW1A 2AH

Rt.Hon = Right Honourable. Honestly, the things they say.

Hari wobbles on the war

Johann Hari, a British journalist, who likes to refer to himself as "pro-war left", is having a wobble over his support for the war on Iraq. I don't think it's his first but it's the first one I've noticed. I don't read his stuff as a rule because he's silly and self-indulgent. This article shows both traits in more or less equal measure. Anyway he starts roughly here

For anybody who supported the war, the images of British forces fighting against the Iraqi police in Basra - two and a half years after the war was supposed to be over - forces difficult questions like needles: is Iraq today 100,000 deaths better off than under Saddam Hussein? Is the choice now between cut-and-run, or stay and cut-cut-cut into Iraqi flesh with a monthly Fallujah or Tal Afar?

Good question. Now for some self-indulgence

When the invasion ended, [when was that?] and opinion polls - using the same techniques that successfully predict elections across the world - found that most Iraqis had preferred the invasion, I felt, pretty smugly, that I had been right.

Followed quickly by some, actually much, silliness.

Much of the left had lined up with Robin Cook, a man who said continuing with the sanctions that killed half a million Iraqi children was "the best option". Or, worse, they were cheering George Galloway, who is now busy saluting another Baathist dictator in Syria and telling the people how "lucky" they are to live under his tyranny. But I had lined up with the majority of Iraqi people.

Ok he uses the expression "much of the left" but there's a clear insinuation here that the left consists of Cookists and Gallowayists (for the latter read Baathists). No room for a principled anti-war or leftist position here. The anti-war left, and really there is no other left, for Hari, subdivides into people who supported the sanctions that killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis or they supported Baathism which killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. Most of the people who opposed the war did not want the sanctions and didn't want Saddam. They (I should say we) reasoned that since the WMD stories were complete tosh there was no defensive reason for the invasion. The getting rid of a leader because his compatriots didn't like him argument would tie us into wars against most states; literally most of the states in the world. No one who supported the war could possibly have believed that America was in it for anything other than an economic or strategic reward. In a word, the reason (whatever the reason) was imperialism. So even if most Iraqis, in their abject misery, believed somehow that Iraq would benefit from an invasion there was no way that anyone could have believed that America (and the UK) was going in for altruistic reasons. If America was there for, say, oil, then its interests were bound to clash with even those Iraqis who did want an invasion.

I have to say here that I think Hari's poll findings are suspect. I can't believe that with all that the people of the Middle East know of America and Britain's involvement in Middle Eastern affairs they actually thought that an Anglo-American invasion would benefit them but I honestly don't know. But it's still no excuse for "our" ignorance. We know the history of western meddling in the Middle East. We should have known, we did know, better. Hari knew and others on the pro-war so-called left knew. Still I'd like to see a few more like Hari come out and just toy with the idea that they were wrong. Better still would be when one of them has the gumption to admit that they knew they were being wrong while they were being wrong.

Blair's self-fulfilling prophecy

Here's a strange thing from the Guardian. I read this rather worrying report about a guy who was arrested, DNA tested, held and searched for "suspicious behaviour." Well, down the left hand side of the article, under the heading "In this section" was a link to a report titled "Blair's vision is critically tainted." I hate reports like that. You know, the ones that question his judgment or his "belief" or his, er, vision. But I still read them and I read this one. Here's a chunk:

The alliance between Arab nationalism and Islamist terrorism Washington and London posited as a reason for invading is in danger of becoming a reality after the fact. Instead of the democratic exemplar we were promised, Iraq looks set to be a source of regional instability for years to come. There is no meaningful sense in which this can be claimed as a victory in the war on terror. The prime minister urges us to see it as an issue of judgment rather than trust. Either way, he has been found wanting.

The curious thing is that the article appeared on 8th March 2004. So why is it in today's section. Is the Guardian really running out of current stuff to condemn the PM over? Or are his lies and errors all so similar that the Guardianistas can't tell them apart?

Israel: never a loan?

Thanks to Gorilla in the Room for this reminder of how America breaks its own laws to give aid to Israel.

friends of Israel never tire of saying that Israel has never defaulted on repayment of a U.S. government loan. It would be equally accurate to say Israel has never been required to repay a U.S. government loan. The truth of the matter is complex, and designed to be so by those who seek to conceal it from the U.S. taxpayer.

Most U.S. loans to Israel are forgiven, and many were made with the explicit understanding that they would be forgiven before Israel was required to repay them. By disguising as loans what in fact were grants, cooperating members of Congress exempted Israel from the U.S. oversight that would have accompanied grants. On other loans, Israel was expected to pay the interest and eventually to begin repaying the principal. But the so-called Cranston Amendment, which has been attached by Congress to every foreign aid appropriation since 1983, provides that economic aid to Israel will never dip below the amount Israel is required to pay on its outstanding loans. In short, whether U.S. aid is extended as grants or loans to Israel, it never returns to the Treasury.

The article is from 1997 and America has given more year on year support to Israel since then. No wonder Israel could be so generous over Katrina.

The gay Paris of Iran?

This is terrible. I just picked this up from Lenin's Tomb who in turn picked it up from Direland. It's an extremely harrowing tale of the crackdown on gays - and one in particular - in Iran.

Amir is from Shiraz, a city of more than a million people in southwestern Iran that the Shah tried to make “the Paris of Iran” in the 1960s and 1970s, attracting a not insignificant gay population and making Shiraz a favorite vacation spot for Iranian gays -- but after the 1979 revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini, Shiraz was targeted as a symbol of taaghoot (decadence). Amir’s father was killed by a gas attack in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1987, becoming -- in the Islamic Republic’s official parlance -- a “martyr,” whose surviving family thus had the right to special benefits and treatment from the state.

Amir, who grew up with his mother, an older brother and two sisters, says “I’ve known I was gay since I was about 5 or 6 -- I always preferred to play with girls. I had my first sexual experience with a man when I was 13. But nobody in my family knew I was gay.” Amir’s first arrest for being gay occurred two years ago. “I was at a private gay party, about 25 young people there, all of us close friends. One of the kids, Ahmed Reza -- whose father was a colonel in the intelligence services, and who was known to the police to be gay -- snitched on us, and alerted the authorities this private party was going to happen. Ahmed waited until everyone was there, then called the Office for Promotion of Virtue and Prohibition of Vice, headed in Shiraz by Colonel Safaniya, who a few minutes later raided the party. The door opened, and the cops swarmed in, insulting us -- screaming ‘who’s the bottom? Who’s the top?’ and beating us, led by Colonel Javanmardi. When someone tried to stop them beating up the host of the party, they were hit with pepper spray. One of our party was a trans-sexual -- the cops slapped her face so hard they busted her eardrum and she wound up in hospital. Ahmed Reza, the gay snitch, was identifying everyone as the cops beat us up.

The pictures at Direland depicitng the wounds of physical torture are extremely unpleasant so be warned.

Nazi hunter lost in translation

Here's another example of the Hebrew version of Ha'aretz containing more than the English translation:

English

The Jerusalem office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center is headed by Dr. Efraim Zuroff. In his "hunting trips" against the few Nazi war criminals who are still alive, he can be seen as Wiesenthal's true successor.

The center itself, however, has long since become an international brand, and [its founder Rabbi Marvin] Hier has become a celebrity who likes rubbing shoulders with royalty and international leaders. As a result, Hier has also become a serious fund-raiser leading to five more branches of the center, and a forthcoming Museum of Tolerance in Jerusalem. [Yuk]

The Hebrew, however, continues:

to the displeasure of Yad Vashem Museum.

Only years after the establishment of the center in Los Angeles Wiesenthal understood that Rabbi Hier and his assistants had turned his name into a money producing plant. Hier gave in [to an obvious pressure from S. Wiesenthal who demanded his part of the spoils – se] and since then till his death the glorified Nazi hunter got a pension from the institute bearing his name.

Regulars here and Hebrew readers will know that this is not a first for Ha'aretz.

Links for, well actually against, Zionism

Here are some links about zionism, often produced by Jews or Israelis but not necessarily:

Jews not zionists

Antony Loewenstein

Jewdas - radical voices for the alternative diaspora

Independent Middle East Media Center

Rafah Pundits

Kibush - anti-occupation resources

Cactus 48

Anti-Zionist notes

Semitism

Jews against zionism

By the grace of god

Neturei Karta - USA

If you have problems with the links let me know.

Thanks

Selective MEMRI # 94

Here's the zionist website MEMRI.org promoting the idea that all Palestinians hate Jews simply for being Jewish. The film shows a religious guy railing against the Jews for having brought down many a world power. In the film, you see the guy speaking. Then you see a thoroughly (though not surprisingly) bored looking congregation as he speaks of France and Russia having once ruled the world! You never see the preacher and the crowd at the same time. The preacher (if he exists) needs to get out more. But look at the congregation; they're so bored they need to get out now.

A quick look at the MEMRI site shows that it holds conspiracy theories to be a singularly Arab/Muslim propensity.

Following practically all international events of importance, conspiracy theories are raised in the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Thanks to Shraga Elam

Wiesenthal obituaries

It's all so complex. Here are a couple of obituaries on the passing of Simon Wiesenthal. Neither are straight forward praise but then obituaries rarely are these says. The Guardian has Wiesenthal falling out with former Austrian Chancellor, the late Bruno Kreisky and his support for Kurt Waldheim.

there were also prominent Jews who labelled him a charlatan, claiming he was intellectually dishonest and insisting he was primarily motivated by self-aggrandisement. In 1975, he clashed famously with Austria's Chancellor Bruno Kreisky over the inclusion of former Nazis in the Austrian cabinet. Kreisky claimed that Wiesenthal was trying to destroy him politically, and went so far as to allege that he had been a Gestapo collaborator. Wiesenthal only stopped his legal action after Kreisky withdrew at least part of his allegations.

And his famous spat with Elie Wiesel over the pecking order of holocaust suffering.

They first crossed swords over Wiesenthal's contention that Jews must be as much concerned for the non-Jewish victims of the Holocaust as for their own race.

While the Independent has legendary Mossad boss, Isser Harel writing

an unpublished manuscript which claimed that Wiesenthal not only "had no role whatsoever" in Eichmann's apprehension, but in fact "had endangered the entire Eichmann operation and aborted the planned capture of the evil Auschwitz doctor Josef Mengele". Harel claimed that he wrote the manuscript out of frustration at the amount of credit Wiesenthal was claiming for the capture of Eichmann and declined to publish it only because that might give succour to anti-semites.

Go here for the Simon Wiesenthal Centre's own biogrpahy of the man.

Links

I just told someone on Islam Channel TV that there were lots of links to anti-zionists sites on this blog. Well there are but they're not very prominent and some are out of date so if you're name's Hussein and you came here via google after being advised to do so on Islam Channel TV I'll sort out the links tomorrow. Meanwhile scroll down the right of the page and check out the links there.

Cheers!

Simon Wiesenthal dies aged 96

Famed nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal has died in Vienna aged 96. The BBC credits him with bringing over 1,000 nazi war criminals to justice. Both the Beeb and the Guardian quote him as having said that

When history looks back, I want people to know the Nazis weren't able to kill millions of people and get away with it.

What I heard on Radio 4 this morning was significantly different. Wiesenthal made a clear reference to war criminals of the future not getting away with it.

Sad then that his organisation in Los Angeles has become one of Israel's main defenders in America with campaigns against a British ambassador to Israel for likening Gaza to a detention centre (they called it holocaust denial) and against Ken Livingstone for likening a reporter to a concentration camp guard (they called it holocaust denial). Oh, lest we forget, they supported the candidacy of Hitler apologist Arnold Schwarzenegger after he donated $2,000,000 to their coffers. I'm guessing that the man himself was well away from the organisation by the time of all that stuff.

War crimes suspects update

Yesterday I posted that Israel had stumped up $1 million to defend its generals from war crimes charges in Europe following the flight (ouch) from London Heathrow Airport of General Doron Almog. A zionist who uses multiple identities posted that no decision had been made and that my post was therefore misleading. Not wanting to mislead, I went and changed the post. I have now received a report from the Jerusalem Post saying what I had said in the first place.

Israel's Justice Ministry has set aside about US$1 million ( 817,260) for legal aid to army officers who could face war crimes charges in European courts, an official said Monday.

I wonder would the same troll harrass and harangue the Jerusalem Post.

The price of crime?

The Israeli Justice Minister is seeking $1,000,000 in state funds to defend its war crimes suspects from charges in Europe, in particular the UK. From the report I've received (thanks Montag) I can't tell if the money is for legal fees in the event of the suspects being brought to court or if it's money to get European governments to simply change their laws. This is so ridiculous: Israel was supposed to be a colony of Europe, not the other way around. Anyway, you decide:

The Israeli Minister of Justice Tzipi Livni proposed a bill to the cabinet asking for $1 million to be allocated to defend senior army officers charged in Britain with war crimes, Israeli sources reported on Monday.

It is expected that cabinet will approve the draft law in its weekly meeting next Sunday, the source said.

Livni, said the source, has appointed a special legal team with a mission to persuade Britain and other European countries to change their laws which allows their courts to persecute foreign nationals.

What can it all mean?

Galloway stood up by Jane Fonda

Apparently George Galloway's been stood up by Jane Fonda according to the University of Wisconsin-Madison Community Newspaper, the Daily Cardinal. Still, he drew a crowd of 1,000 and a protest crowd of 25. So much for Hitchens following him wherever he went.

Recounting imperial atrocities in the Middle East and the rise of the neoconservative movement, vocal critic of the Iraq war and British member of Parliament George Galloway spoke to a crowd of 1,000 Sunday at the Memorial Union Theater. Despite the absence of a key speaker, actress Jane Fonda, Galloway invigorated the largely anti-war crowd.

But

Roughly 25 protesters chanted and waved signs bearing the mantras, "U.S.A.!" and "We Support the Troops." Erica Christenson, First Vice-Chair of the College Republicans, declined to comment, complaining of unfair media portrayal.

"We love [the troops], too. We love them so much we don't want them either killing or being killed anymore," Galloway said. "It's because we love our armed forces that we say it's time to bring them home."

A smear campaign seemed to be gathering pace at the weekend but it seems to be petering out now.

13 dead, nothing said

The BBC has just reported that 5 years after the event, an Israeli "judicial inquiry" has decided not to prosecute anyone over the Israeli police killing of 13 unarmed Israeli Arabs during riots in 2000. The report, which Palestinian sources call a police report, said

There is no alternative but to close all of the cases, some because of lack of sufficient evidence, and some because, to our regret, we have not managed to locate the responsible police officers.

I read recently that no Jews have ever been killed by Israeli police in riot situations.