Swimming in blood in Gaza

From the Latuff gallery on Finkelstein's site:

The holocaust and Israel's criminality

Here's a letter from today's Guardian condemning holocaust denial but going to say that to condemn holocaust denial does not mean accepting Israel's crimes:

The news that Iran is to go ahead with a conference that will supposedly investigate whether the Holocaust actually happened (Britons to attend Iran's Holocaust conference, December 6) is deeply shocking. Thirty years ago when I was working on the Holocaust episode of the ITV series The World At War, my colleagues and I deliberately decided not to stop when we had gathered the first-hand witness evidence we needed for making the programme, but to gather more and put it together to be kept for posterity for use against the day when people or states claiming intellectual respectability might try to claim that the Holocaust did not happen. Sadly, it seems that day may now have arrived. We did not only collect the evidence of those who were victims in Hitler's Final Solution, but from people who held senior positions in its planning, administration and execution. All this material is stored in the Imperial War Museum, is available and will, I hope, now be used to show that those who would now deny the Holocaust happened are wrong.

No one denies that the Jews were not the only victims of the Holocaust or that hundreds of thousands of Gypsies, slavs, homosexuals and others who the Nazis deemed unworthy also perished. To quibble about the precise number of Jews who died is idle and often, as we have seen in the past, the opening gambit of those who would seek to go on to deny that the Holocaust happened at all. No one knows the precise number who died. Whether it was exactly six million, somewhat more, or rather less is irrelevant to the moral enormity of what happened. One of our witnesses recalls that at the end of the war, when Himmler was told that six million Jews had been killed, his only comment was "Is that all?".

To accept the truth of the Holocaust is not to deny the appalling injustice of what has been done to the Palestinians, nor to support the policies of modern Israel, right or wrong. But to deny or minimise the truth of the Holocaust as a means of attacking or undermining Israel is both immoral and dishonest.

Michael Darlow
Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts

And irrelevant too.

There's more to Israel than killing children

Israel incarcerates children too! This is on Reuters though Reuters disclaims it as unchecked by them:

Palestinian Layth Ghalib Bedwan, 14, was arrested and detained by the Israeli authorities on 28 August 2006. Since then, his family has waited anxiously for him to return home.

"His mother is crying all the time. I contacted all the children's rights organisations in the hope that they can do something to accelerate the release of my son, but all my efforts were in vain," said Ghalib Bedwan, 36, Layth's father.

Anthony Julius isn't quite up to speed on that one but then "incarceration libel" doesn't have the same ring to it as "blood libel."

Palestine's women at war and Brits for and against Israel

Here's an article by Rory McCarthy in today's Guardian about how Palestinian women have just recently come to the fore in the struggle against Israel:

On the television screen a woman is reading slowly from a sheet of paper held close to her face. The moment is awkward. Her hands shake, she avoids the camera and a large, black M-16 assault rifle hangs from her shoulders. Her head and neck are wrapped tightly in a white scarf.

This is the final message in the life of Fatma al-Najar, widow, great-grandmother, matriarch of her large family and, a few hours after this brief video was shot, the oldest Palestinian to become a suicide bomber. "I am the living martyr Fatma al-Najar," she says, and praises the armed wing of her beloved Hamas movement, its political rulers and its violent struggle.

There have been a handful of women among the 120 Palestinian suicide bombers of recent years, and their names are recited on the streets of Gaza in the folklore of Palestinian martyrdom. But the past few weeks have seen a remarkable injection of women's activism into the fight. In this conservative and patriarchal society the militancy has previously been almost entirely dominated by men. Now that is changing.

Three weeks before the al-Najar bombing, hundreds of women, mostly Hamas supporters and all clad in long cloaks and headscarves, marched into the town of Beit Hanoun in the middle of an Israeli incursion to free a group of armed male fighters who were holed up inside a mosque. Two of the women were killed, but the crowd succeeded in freeing the fighters and now boast proudly of their bravery.

In another Guardian article, Ismail Patel argues that Muslims who go to fight for Palestine should be considered in the same way that Jews who go to fight for Israel. What he actually says is that if Jews can simply up and go and fight for an army of war criminals then those who fight for Palestine shouldn't be considered terrorists. Check it in case I missed something.

Necessary friction?

This is from today's Lebanese Daily Star:

Israel reported Monday that it had moved to bolster a fragile cease-fire with Palestinians by ordering its troops in the occupied West Bank to avoid "unnecessary friction" as the truce entered its ninth day. Despite the announcement, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian civilian on Monday during a raid in the West Bank city of Tulkarem to arrest a militant, who was wounded along with a teenage bystander in the incident, Palestinian security sources said.

Killing civilians seems to be a necessary friction then.

Fighting antisemitism?

Stephen Marks posted a link in the comments section to this send-up about how antisemitism might be fought when there is a certain state creating the impression that Jews are a bunch of bloodthirsty psychopaths or, at least apologists for the same. It's by Gabriel Ash and it originally appeared on the yellowtimes.org site but I can't find it there for the life of me. There then followed the challenge of trying to find it on a non-nazi site. I think I've managed to here:

“‘Blueberry’ soldiers to fight anti-Semitism creatively”

By Gabriel Ash

YellowTimes.org Columnist (United States)

Among the resolutions of the 34th Zionist Congress in Jerusalem in 2002, one resolution called for criminalizing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. Indeed, since then, there have been a growing number of attempts to stifle criticism of Israel by defining it as a new form of anti-Semitism. French journalists were put on trial for reporting the shooting of Palestinians; the BBC was excommunicated by the Israeli government; and campaigns to silence academic criticism of Israel have been mounted in the U.S., including one spearheaded by the hatemonger formerly known as Daniel Pipes.

So far, none of this has worked, but it appears that the setbacks suffered by Israel's willing apologists have made at least some of them rethink their strategy. They now understand that Israel must consider the impact of its own military actions on world public opinion.

The proof is the following memo that found its way to my mailbox.

From: The CLOATSP-ME coalition (Concerned Liberals Of America for a True Secure Peace in the Middle East)
To: Shaul Mofaz, Minister of Defense, Israel
RE: Educating against Hate and Anti-Semitism

With the imminent collapse of the "Road Map," we foresee Israel resuming its large scale operations against Palestinian cities and camps.

While we strongly believe Israel's future depends on separation from the territories, we share with you a commitment to Israel's security. In the spirit of that commitment, and out of deep worry for the future of Jewish identity, we call your attention to a problem that concerns us all.

We believe that the last cycle of military operations produced among many Palestinians, especially among the residents of targeted cities such as Jenin and Gaza, a visceral hatred towards Israel and Israelis. Even more troubling is the fact that these negative feelings are often directed toward Israeli soldiers as "Jews" -- a usage that, in our opinion, is more than a whiff anti-Semitic in its effect, if not in its intention. Without trying to excuse the perpetrators, we note that the spreading of such feelings contribute to the pool of volunteers for suicide missions.

Worse, in the last three years, animosity toward Israel has grown exponentially all over the world, mostly as a result of media attention to the plight of Palestinians who suffered the results of Israel's legitimate attempts to defend its citizens. Some of this animosity has spilled into attacks against Jews and Jewish symbols, including the burning of synagogues.

We note that certain actions by Israeli soldiers, for example, painting graffiti of the Star of David on the walls of Palestinian houses, contribute to these unhealthy and troubling attitudes.

You were the chief of staff during the recent massive Israeli offensives, including the destruction of the Jenin refugee camp, and are now in charge of Israel's security policies.

We, therefore, implore you to spare no effort in combating the spread of anti-Semitism. And we respectfully suggest that Israeli soldiers take the following measures in any future attack on Palestinian targets:

All ammunition, vehicles and weapons should be clearly marked as belonging to the state of Israel. If the mark includes a Star of David, an attached disclaimer should clarify that the Star of David isn't used as a religious symbol but merely as a secular state symbol. Soldiers should be instructed not to use the Star of David when defacing Palestinian property. Soldiers should use the Menorah instead, because it is not as strongly associated with Jewish religion. Alternatively, the IDF could provide soldiers with defacement kits which include a sticker with the following disclaimer (in colloquial Arabic): "This humiliating act is performed by the State of Israel and has nothing to do with Jewish religion."

Regularly, but especially before air raids, Apache helicopters should drop leaflets explaining the difference in meaning between the adjectives "Jewish" and "Israeli." The leaflets should be written in simple, colloquial Arabic. Recorded audiotapes should be used to reach the illiterate.

Before every attack on civilians, jeeps equipped with loud speakers should drive around the target area explaining the reason for the attack in plain colloquial Arabic. After the attack, but before ambulances are allowed to reach the wounded, local residents should be rounded up and briefed by the commanding officer so that they understand how their misery contributed to Israel's security. The briefing should include a clear statement that the attack was not carried out by Jews, but by Israeli soldiers.

Available South Lebanese Army and Druze officers should be displayed prominently before the natives. Families whose houses have been demolished should receive a special folder of information about Israel with photos of lush Kibbutzim and colorful Tel-Aviv nightlife scenes. The folder should include material explaining that the loss of their homes clears the ground for another Jewish housing unit that will make the desert bloom.

It is important to humanize Israelis and emphasize to the family that the soldiers who destroyed their houses are people just like themselves, and have families, too. Circumstances permitting, the commander in charge should arrange for informal meetings between the drivers of the bulldozers and the family, in which both sides will show each other pictures of their relatives. Military social workers should visit Palestinian children to teach workshops in anger management and dealing with the panoply of negative emotions, humiliation, despair, anger, hatred, suicidal rage, etc., that typically result from encounters with Israeli soldiers. An important part of the workshop will focus on explaining to the children why anti-Semitism is
always wrong. For maximum results, we strongly recommend asking the experienced Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League to write the material for this workshop.

Army Education Officers should be dispatched to all Palestinian villages and neighborhoods. The officers should take advantage of the long curfews which keep the population indoors in order to pass from house to house educating people about the deep historical commitment of the Jewish religion to justice and human rights, the beauty of Jewish holidays, the celebrated self-mocking Jewish humor, and the significant contributions of Jews to world culture. Officers will distribute to Palestinian families free copies of Freud's "The Interpretation of Dreams," biographies of Einstein and Henrietta Szold, and free DVD recordings of "Annie Hall" and "Mad History of the World" (all translated into simple colloquial Arabic).

As condition for their release, all Palestinians detained by the Israeli army, even for short periods, should attend seminars that explain international law in plain colloquial Arabic, particularly the prohibitions on indiscriminate attacks against civilians, terrorism, suicide bombs and other related crimes. The seminars should also thoroughly explain the reasons exempting Israel from the obligations of international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, and allowing it to use collective punishment, torture, assassinations, and massive firepower against civilians. The last 10 minutes should be devoted to a rebuttal of the spurious comparison between what the Israeli army does and the actions of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

Everybody can say that the night is dark, but only the finest rhetoric can make the day seem darker. We therefore recommend entrusting the curriculum to our best ethical and legal contortionists -- Alan Dershowitz, Martha Nussbaum, Michael Walzer, etc. A special elite military unit, suggested code name Blueberry, should be created. The unit will specialize in quickly rounding up dozens of Palestinians and taking them to a guided tour through Yad Vashem (Holocaust) Museum. Specially trained Blueberry tour guides, versed in colloquial Arabic, will then explain to the abductees why it is
never admissible to compare the suffering of the Jewish people to any other
suffering in history, and why the suffering of the Jewish people gives Israel a special right to brutalize Palestinians. It is important that "Blueberry" soldiers refrain from the widespread practice of blindfolding abductees: Palestinians must be able to see the pictures from Auschwitz with their own eyes. Plastic handcuffs are fine.

We recommend hiring a top talent in using the verbal equivalent of tear gas, perhaps Elie Wiesel, as "Blueberry's" special pedagogical adviser. Injured Palestinians interested in communicating with the media should receive special sensitivity training from the army. Training should be also available to prospective local leaders. Military trainers should impress upon Palestinians (in simple colloquial Arabic) that they will continue to be killed and oppressed until they learn to speak in an inclusive, sensitive, responsible manner that expresses equal respect for members of all religions, nationalities and races, and recognizes in the diversity of
existence the beauty of a shared humanity.

We sincerely hope that these measures will be a step towards countering the deplorable swell of hatred and anti-Semitism in the Middle East.

With appreciation, CLOATSP-ME co-existence committee.

[Gabriel Ash was born in Romania and grew up in Israel. He is an unabashed opssimist." He writes his columns because the pen is sometimes mightier than the sword - and sometimes not. He lives in the United States.]

Gabriel Ash encourages your comments: gash at YellowTimes.org

Gabriel Ash encourages your comments: gash at YellowTimes.org

It appeared back in 2003 and so much had changed since then (not), publishing it now is pure provocation on my part.

Gabriel Ash UPDATE - Gabriel's work can now be found at dissidentvoice.org.

The challenge of the present absentees

A present absentee is a uniquely Israeli thing. The present absentees are Palestinian refugees who fled their villages but didn't get beyond the boundaries of what became Israel in 1948. They are still denied the right to return to the homes they were forced to flee. Well now they are campaigning for the right of return

:"Our goal is to achieve a historic compromise with the Jewish community in Israel," Mossawa Center director Jafar Farah told the conference. "The move by refugees of 1948 to their villages will not change the demographic balance or endanger the Jews. Unlike the refugees in Arab states, we are [already] here," Farah said. "The internal refugees [residents forced to leave their villages in 1948 who moved to other Arab communities within Israel] represent about one-fourth of the Arab population in Israel today."

Check the whole thing in Ha'aretz. They are seeking more reforms than just the right of return.

Ceasefire not worth the paper it's not written on

Here's Gideon Levy in Ha'aretz on how Israel is going to break the ceasefire.

Here is the forecast: In a few days, there will be a targeted killing operation. The military correspondents will recite: "He was one of the senior operatives of Hamas (or Islamic Jihad), and was responsible for producing and smuggling large amounts of armaments." In response, a barrage of Qassams will fall on Sderot. One of the residents might be injured. In the process of the targeted killing operation, some passersby might also be killed; the correspondents will then recite: "They were armed."

Several days later, there might be a terror attack. The leaders of the right-wing parties and the Labor Party will be interviewed on television and will recite: "Abu Mazen has once again demonstrated that he is incapable and unwilling to fight terror. There is no one to talk to." Public Security Minister Avi Dichter will propose turning Beit Hanun into a ghost town. Eli Yishai will suggest bombing from the air. The next day, Qassams will fall again, and the IDF will enter the northern Gaza Strip. The cease-fire will go up in flames.

This is not a bold wager. This is almost the exact series of events that occurred in previous cease-fires. What was is what will be. There are plenty of examples. In January 2002, after several months of quiet, the Tanzim activist Raed Karmi was assassinated in Tul Karm. Dichter, who was then the head of the Shin Bet, pushed for this action, of course. Immediately afterwards, Fatah began its suicide bombing attacks.

I suppose it would be bad taste to take bets on this scenario turning out to be the case. And given the odds it wouldn't be worth anyone's while to bet anyway.

Bir Zeit thanks Irish academics for boycott call

This is nice, look:

Open letter in support of Irish academics,

We, the undersigned, members of the Birzeit University' community of students, teachers, faculty staff and employees, congratulate and thank the group of Irish academics who called for a moratorium on the European Union's financing of Israeli academic institutions until Israel withdraws from the occupied Palestinian territories and abides by international humanitarian and human rights laws, including the right of return.

The recent attacks and re-invasion of Gaza and Lebanon expose the contempt with which Israel treats the UN, its resolution and its own bilateral agreements. We strongly condemn the death, chaos and destruction inflicted upon Gazans and Lebanese, and call upon the students, academics and staff of universities worldwide to collectively condemn these acts and take action to support us in our struggle to end Israeli military aggression and occupation.

The objective of such military force is to control and subjugate Palestinian society in order to sustain Israel's Jewish demographic supremacy and enforce its unilaterally declared boundaries. As a result, Israel has built an apartheid system of controlling the Palestinian population both inside Israel and under the occupied territories. Economically, the occupied territories served as cheap-labour reserves until the building of the Wall, now it serves to make daily life unbearable so that Palestinians decide to leave, continuing the 'silent transfer' of the indigenous population. The Israeli civil and military bureaucracy also obstructs the development of an independent Palestinian economy through its control of borders, immigration, collection of taxes and restriction on movement inside the territories. Racially, Palestinians in Israel are consistently denied equal access to social services, housing and education, and since 2005, denied equal rights to family. In Jerusalem and the occupied territories, Palestinians are segregated by different permits based on their residency at the time of issue, and each 'category' is granted different freedoms of movement - at the bottom of this structure are Gaza permit-holders, who cannot move from Gaza to the West Bank, nor inside the West Bank itself. This system of control is parallel to the racial hierarchy and control during Apartheid South Africa.

Israeli academic institutions have close links with the state, and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics either contribute directly to the Israeli occupation through research that justifies or improves the mechanisms of Israeli apartheid, or are complicit through their silence about it. As Shahid Alam, Professor of Economics at North-eastern University in Boston, has pointed out, "through their links with the military, the political parties, the media, and the economy, they (Israel's universities) have helped to construct, sustain, and justify the Apartheid (policies of the occupation)."

We therefore urge international civil society and the academic community to join our call to comprehensively boycott Israeli academics who contribute or refuse to stand up against the occupation, until: Israel withdraws its military from the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem; removes all its colonies in those lands and agrees to United Nations resolutions relevant to the restitution of Palestinian refugees rights.


Yours faithfully,

1,015 students of Birzeit University, and:

1. Zeyad Munawer, Accounting
2. Dr Abdul Karim Abu-Khashan, Arabic
3. Ahmad Daoud, Arabic
4. Dr. Ibrahim Musa, Arabic
5. Khitam Salman, Arabic
6. Dr Ghadir Kharoubi, Arabic
7. Dr Mahmoud Alatchan, Arabic
8. Salahaldin Alshakhshir, Architectural Engineering
9. Dr Salem Thawaba, Architectural Engineering
10. Dr Ademar Ezzughayar, Biology
11. Jamil Abu Sada, Biology
12. Dr Munir Qazzaz, Biology
13. Dr. Tamer Essawi, Biology
14. Dr. Ahed Abdul Khaliq, Biology and Biochemistry
15. Omar Yaseen, Business Administration
16. Dr. Grace Khoury, Business Administration
17. Rania Jaber, Business Administration
18. Prof. Abdul Hamid Laila, Chemistry
19. Dr. Jack F Mustaklem, Chemistry
20. Dr. Sami Asayrafi, Chemistry
21. Dr Yacoub Ziadeh, Chemistry
22. Dr. Zaki Hassan, Chemistry
23. Belal Ameens, Centre for Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
24. Dr Jamal Zalatimo, Civil Engineering
25. Suheym Murchad, Civil Engineering
26. Mahmoud Srour, Clinical Laboratory Science
27. Dr Hanna Bullata, Computer Science
28. Dr. Iyad Jaber, Computer Science
29. Muna Khayyat, Computer Science
30. Dr. Wasel Ghanem, Computer Science
31. Dr. Yousef Hassouneh, Computer Science
32. Dr. Abdelrahman Abdelghani, Cultural Studies and Philosophy
33. Dr. Abdul-Rahim Al-Shaikh, Cultural Studies and Philosophy
34. Dr. Islah Jadd, Cultural Studies and Philosophy
35. Dr. George Giacaman, Cultural Studies and Philosophy
36. Lubna Abdul Hadi, Cultural Studies and Philosophy
37. Dr. Mudar Kassis, Cultural Studies and Philosophy
38. Dr Adel Zagha, Economics
39. Dr. Nidal Sabri, Economics
40. Dr Mohamed Nasr, Economics
41. Yasser Abu Hejleh, Economics
42. Adballah Bsharat, Education
43. Ahmad Aljanazrah, Education
44. Dr. Ibrahim Makkawi, Education
45. Haifa Sabassi, Education and Psychology
46. Maurice Bakleh, Education and Psychology
47. RefaÂ’ Al Ramahi, Education and Psyhcology
48. Wafa Aramahi, Education and Psychology
49. Dr. Yusef Abu Samrah, Education and Psychology
50. Dr. Wasfi Kafri, Electrical Engineering
51. Wael Abdin, English
52. Dr. Fahmi Al-Aboudi, English
53. Muna Giacaman, English
54. Murad Hanasheh, Finance
55. Sari Ghanam, Finance
56. Abdul Khalim A. Tomazi, Geography
57. Ahmad Hammad, Geography
58. Dr Kamal Abdulfattah, Geography
59. Musa S. Jamhour, Geography
60. Dr. Othman Sharkas, Geography
61. Dr. Abed Aziz Ayad, History
62. Dr Muhsin Yusuf, History
63. Dr Awad Mataria, Institute of Community and Public Health
64. Prof. Rita Giacaman, Institute of Community and Public Health
65. Dr. Samia Halileh, Institute of Community and Public Health
66. Dr. Asem Khalil, Institute of Law
67. Dr. Firas Melhem, Institute of Law
68. Liana Amin, Institute of Law
69. Reem Al-Botmeh, Institute of Law
70. Dr. Samer Fares, Institute of Law
71. Chivvis Moore, Institute of Women's Studies
72. Eileen Kuttab, Institute of Women's Studies
73. Basma Al Omari, Languages and Translation
74. Mahmoud Abed Al-Fateh, Languages and Translation
75. Majdi Abu Zahra, Languages and Translation
76. Muhammad Abuzeid, Languages and Translation
77. Munira Zoroub, Languages and Translation
78. Rabah Ali Ahmed, Languages and Translation
79. Samir Ramaal, Languages and Translation
80. Moussa Abou Ramadan, Law
81. Yusef Shandi, Law
82. Ahlam Awajneh, Mathematics
83. Dr Khaled Tukhman, Mathematics
84. Dr Marwan Aloqeili, Mathematics
85. Prof. Mohammad Saleh, Mathematics
86. Rasem Kabi, Mathematics
87. Allan Tubaileh, Mechanical Engineering
88. Ibrahim Hamad, Mechanical Engineering
89. Dr. Simon Alaraj, Mechanical Engineering
90. InÂ’am El-Obeidi, Media
91. Dr. Nashat A. Aqtash, Media
92. Dr Subhi Hamdan, Media
93. Dr. Wedad Al-Barghouthi, Media
94. Dr Walid Shurefa, Media
95. Rula Halawani, Photography Department
96. Sami Said, Photography Department
97. Kamal Shamshom, Physical Education
98. SanaÂ’ Liftawi, Physical Education
99. Dr Ghassan Andoni, Physics
100.Dr Jamal Suleiman, Physics
101.Tayseer Arouri, Physics
102.Emad Ghayathah, Political Science
103.Dr. Samer Awad, Political Science
104.Dr. Othman Abu Libdeh, Quality Assurance
105.Mayada Albadawi, Public Administration
106. Prof. Simon Kuttab, Dean, Faculty of Science
107. Hasan Ladaduah, Sociology and Anthropology
108. Dr. Ismael Nashef, Sociology and Anthropology
109. Dr. Lisa Taraki, Sociology and Anthropology
110. Mohammad Abu-Hilal, Sociology and Anthropology
111. Dr. Suha Hindiyeh, Sociology and Anthropology
112. Dr. Zuhair Sabbagh, Sociology and Anthropology
113. Vera Tamari, Virtual Gallery Arts Programme

So it's not all doom and gloom.

Israel not nazi shock!

According to ynet, a French presidential candidate, Segolene Royal, has surprised a few people by saying that the Israeli occupation of south Lebanon was not like the nazis.

"The Nazism that spilled our blood and usurped our independence and sovereignty was no less wrong than the Nazism that occupied France," Ammar said, in comments translated from Arabic into French for reporters covering Royal's trip.

Royal had no immediate reaction to the comments on Friday, surprising some observers. She condemned them a day later, explaining that neither she nor the French ambassador to Lebanon had heard them at the time.

I don't know why such comments had to be condemned anyway but it gets worse:

She called the comments "unacceptable, abominable and hateful," and said she "Would have left the room" if she had heard them. Royal and her entourage had a different translator than the one provided for journalists.

Hateful? Leave the room? Does she leave rooms when Arabs are likened to nazis?

It's Israel's character stupid!

There's an interesting article on the front page of this week's Jewish Chronicle (subscription only). Not the main article, that's on Israel bid to conquer the holocaust industry. This is about all the millions being put into zionist propaganda. Apparently it's all a waste because it's the product rather than its branding that's the problem:

Israel's image is the most negative ever, according to an international survey of “nation brands” conducted by a leading global authority on branding.

A “nation brand” is the sum of the perceptions of a country and its people across six areas — tourism, exports, governance, investment and immigration, culture and heritage, and people.

The report’s author, Simon Anholt, of the Anholt Nation Brands Index, told the JC that a public-relations campaign to improve Israel’s image, as planned by Jerusalem, “is likely to be a complete waste of money. I’m terribly afraid that the Foreign Ministry people are kidding themselves.”

Mr Anholt noted that it was the wrong time to try and change a country’s image when it was caught up in conflict. Any campaign at the moment would strengthen the feelings of its supporters but intensify anti-Israel emotions among opponents, he said.

The only countries that had managed to change their image, Mr Anholt said, were South Africa and Japan, but this had taken decades and been the result “of things they’ve done, not said.”

See that? South Africa tucked in with Japan. What did Japan do? They went constitutionally pacifist after an age militaristic expansionism. Could Israel stop its expansionism? Many still believe it can. It can withdraw, it is said, from the West Bank, Jerusalem and Gaza. Others are not so sure. The integration of Israel and the occupied territories runs to deeply. Look at Gaza now. The people are more desperate than when Israel was in direct occupation. Perhaps Japan's not much of a role model here.

So what did South Africa do? After decades of armed and unarmed resistance together with a worldwide boycott it abolished its segregationist system known as apartheid. So what should Israel do to improve its image? It's just a suggestion but perhaps it should abolish its apartheid system known as.... Oh dear. Its apartheid system is known as the State of Israel.

Israel demands biggest slice of holocaust industry proceeds

According to the Jewish Chronicle (subscription only), Israel is demanding a larger proportion of holocaust restitution money than that allocated to holocaust survivors in the diaspora:

Israel launched an extraordinary campaign this week to demand a greater share of Holocaust restitution funds than the diaspora.

In an unprecedented move, Israeli pensioners minister Rafi Eitan and the heads of leading institutions signed a joint declaration calling for 60 per cent of the grants made by the New York-based Claims Conference, the international body mainly responsible for distributing compensation payments.

“All the decisions come from America,” they stated. “It can’t be that they dictate to Israel what Israel needs.”

That's a curious notion, the idea that who lost what in the holocaust should be determined by "what Israel needs."

Keep in mind the fact that Norman Finkelstein has been accused of antisemitism for shining a light on the pocket-lining and zionism supporting activities of various holocaust industrialists. Now, and for some time, the voice of the Jewish establishment in the UK is shining a light on the same issues.

Watch Human Rights Watch

Whose human rights does Human Rights Watch watch out for? I ask because Norman Finkelstein has an article in Counterpunch that demolishes the credibility of HRW by comparing the way they treat Israeli and Palestinian actions. Here's the start:

Even by the grim standards of Gaza, the past five months have been cruel ones.

Some four hundred Palestinians, mostly unarmed civilians, have been killed during Israeli attacks. (Four Israeli soldiers and two civilians have been killed.) Israel has sealed off Gaza from the outside world while the international community has imposed brutal sanctions, ravaging Gaza's already impoverished economy.

Here's the finish:

HRW executive director Kenneth Roth "commended" Israel during its last invasion for warning people in south Lebanon to flee--before turning it into a moonscape, slaughtering the old, infirm and poor left behind. It would seem that Palestinian leaders and people, too, merit some recognition for embracing the tactics of Gandhi and King in a last desperate bid to save themselves from annihilation

Email HRW Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson--whitsos@hrw.org - and HRW executive director Kenneth Roth--RothK@hrw.org.

The bits in the middle are worth a look at too.

Netanyahu, the next PM?

It looks like Binyamin Netanyahu could be the next Prime Minister of Israel according to AngusReid. And this in spite of being questioned by police over the funding of opinion polls on his own behalf by way of the public purse:

The Likud party maintains a large advantage in Israel, according to a poll by Teleseker published in Maariv. The results suggest Likud, led by former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, would secure 29 seats in the next election to the Knesset.

The governing Kadima party of prime minister Ehud Olmert would finish second with 18 mandates, followed by Israel Our Home under Avigdor Lieberman with 14 seats, the Labour party of Amir Peretz with 12 mandates, and the International Organization of Torah-observant Sephardic Jews (Shas) with 10 seats.

In March, Israeli voters renewed the Knesset. Kadima, founded by former prime minister Ariel Sharon and led by Olmert, secured 29 seats. Labour, the Retired People’s Party (Gil) and Shas joined Kadima in a coalition. Last month, the Israeli cabinet approved the addition of Israel Our Home to the government. Olmert’s coalition now has the support of 78 of the Knesset’s 120 members.

Yesterday, Netanyahu was questioned by the International Fraud Investigation Unit over alleged wrongdoing in connection with public opinion polls. The Likud leader issued a statement, claiming he paid for the surveys—conducted on his behalf by former Education Ministry employee Yaakov Katz—out of his own pocket.

Could this be described as lurching to the right? The only difference between Israeli governments seems to be what they say rather than what they do.

Save the Children....from Israel

I just googled "Israel" and down the right margin there's an ad for Save the Children. Following the link, the page carries the neutral headline, Crisis in middle east. The page first appeared back in September 2006 but if they are still paying google to carry it as a margin ad then I guess the issue is still current so cop this:

The end of the war has not meant the end of suffering for children. Unexploded bombs are a real and present danger for children. Towards the end of the war some 4,000 explosive items were dropped daily on southern Lebanon; with a failure rate estimated by the mine action group to be at least 10%. These included cluster bombs, which have a much higher failure rate.

Often brightly coloured and the size of drinks cans, children can mistake these deadly weapons for toys or pick them up for souvenirs. Unexploded bombs are expected to be found under destroyed buildings. As families clear the rubble – often with the help of children – further casualties are expected.

The risk of accidents for children is now very high. Villages that have been flattened by intense bombings have become a highly dangerous environment for children to live and play in. This increased risk of physical injury is at a time when health centres are struggling with shortages of medicines, fuel and water, which increases the threat to children’s safety even more.

There's also a link to a page that shows what Save the Children is doing to protect children from these racist war criminals of the State of Israel.

Palestine fragments

Here's an article from Ben White in the Palestine Chronicle titled Fragmenting Palestine and Palestinians:

Before leaving for Palestine earlier in the summer, a friend of mine gave me a postcard by a Palestinian artist that expressed, he said, the fact that “the situation in the Middle East always seems to get worse, never better”. Sadly, three months in Palestine seemed to confirm this grim reality, as with each passing day, the occupation’s grip becomes tighter and ‘Palestine’ gets smaller. As 2006 begins to draw to a close it is useful to take a step back from the daily horrors in Gaza or the arrest raids in the West Bank, to assess three broad Israeli strategies vis à vis the Palestinians, and how they might be resisted.

About the Palestine Chronicle is here.

It seems like only yesterday that Israel owned up to arming Iran

Hell it was only yesterday! Well 20 years ago yesterday. It was on 26th November 1986 that the then Israeli Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister, Shimon Peres, owned up to Israel's arms dealing to Iran in what became known as the Iran-Contra Affair. This is from the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs:

In September, when the Israeli government radio accused Iranian troops of training Lebanese Shiite guerrillas for attacks on the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army, and said that Iranians themselves might also have been among those who attacked Israeli positions in Lebanon, the US media reported those charges in great detail. None found the time or space, however, to note how ironic it was for Israel to complain about Iranian military activities.

Iran might have been hard put to continue its costly six-year-old war with Iraq—not to mention simultaneously stirring up followers of the Ayatollah Khomeini in Lebanon—if Israel had not been willing to sell the Khomeini government great quantities of the weapons Iran desperately needed to keep its army in the field. That is only one of the anomalies of Israel's booming arms trade. US law and US policy also come in for some stretching and twisting.

Over the course of the Gulf war, Iran's quest for weapons has become legendary, with many countries and hordes of private arms dealers eager to conclude arms deals and reap the premium commissions Iran offers. Israel, with standing access to the same models of US-made arms upon which the Shah based Iran's arsenal, and with its desire to build up an indigenous arms industry, has led the pack. The London Observer estimated that Israel's arms sales to Iran total $500 million annually.

The WRMEA is well worth a regular look at. I should try it some time.

The Dershowitz letters

I haven't looked at Norman Finkelstein's site for a while but a friend of mine told me that the Dershowitz letters saga has hotted up again. This is where Alan Dershowitz has denied that he tried to get Finkelstein's book, Beyond Chutzpah, banned from publication:

In a Jerusalem Post column attacking Ben-Gurion University professor Neve Gordon, Alan Dershowitz wrote this:

A case in point is Dr. Neve Gordon of Ben-Gurion University , who has defamed so many people, as well as the nation of Israel . He also recently defamed me by saying that I had tried to prevent the publication of Norman Finkelstein's latest anti-Zionist screed, Beyond Chutzpah. In fact, as I specifically wrote in my letters to Finkelstein's publishers - as Gordon knew, because I released the letters - "I have no interest in censoring or suppressing Finkelstein’s freedom of expression." ( 8 November 2006)

It is simple to resolve definitively whether Dershowitz attempted to suppress publication of my book. Dershowitz alleges that he has "released the letters" he wrote my publisher. Not quite. He has never released the letters his lawyers at Cravath, Swaine & Moore wrote my publisher. He has never released the letter he wrote Governor Schwarzenegger. Readers interested in learning the truth should request these letters from Dershowitz: dersh@law.harvard.edu. If what he's saying is true, Dershowitz has nothing to hide.

Please cc my web site a copy of your letter and his reply (if any).

That's cc Finkelstein's site, not mine.

Israel laid land mines in Lebanon

Not content with cluster bombs it now appears that Israel laid land mines in Lebanon in the summer war it lost:

A U.N. agency said Saturday that Israel laid mines in Lebanon during this summer's war between the Jewish state and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah group - the first time Israel has been accused of planting mines during the latest fighting.

The report by the U.N. Mine Action Coordination Center follows its investigation of a land mine explosion Friday that wounded two European disposal experts and a Lebanese medic.

Later Saturday, the agency reported that a British demining expert was injured in a separate blast while trying to clear mines from the same area where Friday's explosion occurred. The deminer, who worked for the British-based land mine clearing company BACTEC, had to have his foot amputated.

I'm sure the UK government will protest strenuously about this.

Asghar Bukhari didn't bankroll Irving

Here we go again. Muslims are yet again being told to be all seeing and all knowing when it comes to what offends Jews. This in spite of a concerted confusion campaign by zionist groups and publicists to blur the distinction between antisemitism and anti-zionism. Here's an article from last weeks Observer where it is said, correctly, that Asghar Bukhari of the Muslim Public Affairs Committee, "sent funds" to the holocaust denier, David Irving. The lurid headline made it look as if Asghar had some influence there and it's only deep into the article that we discover that the events described took place 6 years ago and the "funds" were sixty quid. They were kind enough to give space to Asghar's rueful explanation:

'I had a lot of sympathy for anyone who opposed Israel,' Bukhari told The Observer said. 'I wrote letters to anyone who was tough against the Israelis - David Irving, Paul Findley, the PLO."I don't feel I have done anything wrong, to be honest. At the time I was of the belief he [Irving] was anti-Zionist, being smeared for nothing more then being anti-Zionist.

'The pro-Israeli lobby often accused people of anti-Semitism and smear tactics against groups and individuals is well known. I condemn anti-Semitism as strongly as I condemn Zionism (in my opinion they are both racist ideologies). I also believe that anyone who denies the Holocaust is wrong (I don't think they should be put behind bars for it though).'

Now MPACUK has run an explanatory piece by Asghar Bukhari:

From a Muslim perspective, without any real understanding of the complexities of anti – Semitism (which is the majority of Muslims in the world including the UK, including myself at that time and to even some extent now), we saw the whole issue as a pretty simple equation: Jewish people had robbed Palestinian people of their land, not content with that, they massacred them, oppressed them brutally, and even went so far as murdering their children. Then anyone who spoke out against these Jews and what they were doing was silenced by being smeared as anti Semitic.

That’s the understanding I myself had when I was growing up. It’s pretty much correct and true, the problem was my total ignorance of the situation. I know it sounds hard to believe, but I didn’t think any Jews supported the Palestinians, just like I would have choked to hear any Muslim standing up for Israel. Why would they support us?

I wasn’t an activist I was just a kid growing up in the streets, with other Muslim kids.

Read the whole thing here.