November 30, 2004
Julie Burchill for Israel
A petition is doing the rounds seeking Ariel Sharon's support to suspend Israel's Law of Return whereby only Jews and their descendants and dependants may settle in Israel so that the non-Jewish Julie Burchill can go and live there. I don't get a chance to read Burchill's stuff these days. The last time I saw anything by her she was repeating the infamous lie about Martin Luther King denouncing anti-Zionism. It led to a correction in The Guardian.
Portrait of the peacenik as war criminal
This guy, calling for divestment from Israel's occupation, appears to support the so-called two state solution but apart from that he seems ok. He is Shamai Leibovitz, the grandson of Yeshayahu Leibovitz, winner of the Israel prize and the man, I think, who first coined the term Judeo-Nazi to describe the dominant ideology in the State of Israel following the 1967 war.
November 29, 2004
Fiddling jeopardises Israel's existence
No, not the kind of fiddling that had Rabin resigning over an illegal dollar bank account back in the 1970s and nearly saw Sharon taking an early bath (yuk) just recently. No this is the kind of fiddling that many a Jewish virtuoso has made a delight to many pairs of ears. Only this time the fiddler was Palestinian and he was forced to play his violin while soldiers at an Israeli checkpoint mocked him. Now certain Israelis are saying that the soldiers responsible should be put on trial "not for abusing Arabs but for disgracing the Holocaust". Eh? That's what Yoram Kaniuk wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth. before going on to say that since Israel uses the holocaust as an excuse to take Arab land, undermining the holocaust undermines Israel's claim to the land. So Israel can do what it likes; it can ethnically cleanse Palestine, it can enforce apartheid laws, it can engage in relentless aggression towards its neighbours, but heaven forbid Israeli soldiers from forcing Palestinians to play the fiddle. This calls into question Israel's right to exist, as if further questions were necessary.
International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People - 29 November
In the UK this means, among other things, the opening of the Palestinian Trade Fair by London Mayor, Ken Livingstone and Afif Safieh, Palestine's man in London.
Letter to the NYT by Lenni Brenner
Lenni Brenner sets out some of the New York Times's. past misdemeanors (or are they felonies) before taking them to task over their support for Zionism.
November 28, 2004
New blog
This guy was an involuntary colonial settler in the West Bank and Jerusalem until he converted to the cause of justice. Good luck with the new blog.
Aaronovitch smarts
Letter in today's Observer.
Valid questioners
What is wrong with John Pilger, Robert Fisk and Naomi Klein questioning the official explanation for something (David Aaronovitch, Comment, last week)? After the despicable manipulation of the public and media in to supporting the war in Iraq, there continue to be urgent questions left unanswered by both the US and UK governments. Is Mr Aaronovitch still smarting from asking the wrong questions before the war?
Matthew Herbert
London SW2
Valid questioners
What is wrong with John Pilger, Robert Fisk and Naomi Klein questioning the official explanation for something (David Aaronovitch, Comment, last week)? After the despicable manipulation of the public and media in to supporting the war in Iraq, there continue to be urgent questions left unanswered by both the US and UK governments. Is Mr Aaronovitch still smarting from asking the wrong questions before the war?
Matthew Herbert
London SW2
Chase me ladies, I'm in the family
It's not just the hacks at the Daily Mail who worry about New Labour undermining the family. Chase me ladies, etc is another blog googlebombing the Proud of Britain site. The blog also very helpfully lists those family members doing likewise.
Rafael Eitan: a real obituary
If you were sickened by the various whitewashes (like this one) of the career of racist war criminal, Raphael (Raful) Eitan then Ha'aretz's. Gideon Levy has the answer.
November 27, 2004
Barghouti out of the race
Marwan Barghouti will not be running for the leadership of the so-called Palestinian Authority. This leaves the way clear for the colourless Mahmoud Abbas who is considered more accommodating towards the State of Israel. Sharon has promised to be helpful in the forthcoming Palestinian elections. He'll be more helpful than ever now. The article I've linked to is by The Guardian's. Conal Urquhart, but Eric Silver has run a very similar article except, where Urquhart has Barghouti (aged 43) as being "consistently ..... the second most popular leader in opinion polls, after Mr Arafat and far ahead of Mr Abbas", Silver has "27 per cent of West Bank and Gaza Palestinians choosing Mr Abbas (popularly known as Abu Mazen) as the person most capable of leading the Palestinian Authority, followed by Mr Barghouti [aged 45] with 15.2 per cent." Clearly Marwan Barghouti isn't ageing very well in his Israeli jail.
Googlebomb New Labour
A very small website - proudofbritain.net is being threatened with legal action by the New Labour establishment for spoofing a New Labour site with a similar name. The plan here is to link it in as many blogs and sites as possible so that when people google "proud of Britain" the spoof site comes in first or at least higher than New Labour's effort. Try it now.
It came in ninth when I tried it and New Labour's came in fourth. We need more links, so link.
It came in ninth when I tried it and New Labour's came in fourth. We need more links, so link.
November 24, 2004
Selective MEMRI
Hat tip (for the headline) Brian Whitaker
It appears that a Zionist organisation in America (MEMRI) is trying a new tack in silencing criticism (by Juan Cole): the so-called SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) suit. These are similar to the UK's gagging writs and/or libel actions. They can be extremely costly for those on the receiving end and they often don't have to get to court in order to have the desired result of keeping certain information out of the public domain. The link in the headline here is to Juan Cole's blog where he details his accusations against MEMRI and MEMRI's response. Some blogs are urging people to contact MEMRI to try to dissuade them from this SLAPP action. I think the best thing is to visit Juan Cole and arm yourselves with counter-argument to MEMRI's diet of distortion.
It appears that a Zionist organisation in America (MEMRI) is trying a new tack in silencing criticism (by Juan Cole): the so-called SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) suit. These are similar to the UK's gagging writs and/or libel actions. They can be extremely costly for those on the receiving end and they often don't have to get to court in order to have the desired result of keeping certain information out of the public domain. The link in the headline here is to Juan Cole's blog where he details his accusations against MEMRI and MEMRI's response. Some blogs are urging people to contact MEMRI to try to dissuade them from this SLAPP action. I think the best thing is to visit Juan Cole and arm yourselves with counter-argument to MEMRI's diet of distortion.
MSNBC Apologises
Apparently MSNBC has apologised for racist outbursts against Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims by one Don Imus. This was after a campaign organised by the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The apology has been described as "lame" and "tepid" in some quarters but it's a start.
Stop jerking around
Thanks to Resolute Cynic for this spoof policy promotion at whitehouse.org. The page is funny enough on its own but it gets better when you look at the many letters from people who clearly thought that the "eradication of masturbation from American soil by the year 2005" was a serious proposal.
Not murder
Apparently shooting a confirmed innocent 13 year old school student, once to kill her, then several times to "confirm the killing", isn't murder as long as the killer is Israeli and the victim Palestinian. I would say cue the cross-fire stories but they've already tried that one and it appears there's video evidence. Here was a youngster coming home from school. The watchtower suggested her age was 10 and that she was terrified. Within minutes she was dead.
November 23, 2004
Occupation's human face
This is an interesting blog by an American soldier serving in Iraq. The guy's name is Michael Lane and he's from Tacoma, Washington. The blog is called At Ease. He links to the Progressive Blog Alliance and Naomi Klein's No Logo. He has a post complaining about Kuwait, and certain leading American politicians, exploiting Iraq, and he has a comment from his mum telling him to come home and one from his Dad telling him that Thanksgiving is on hold until he does.
Quotes on the 1967 War
With so many Zionist sites on the internet it's useful to keep reminding ourselves of the gulf between what the Zionists say about Israel's wars and what actually happened. I'll post quotes of self-exposure by Zionists every now and then about this or that war. Here are some about the war of June 1967:
Regarding any threat from Egypt, the former Commander of the Air Force, General Ezer Weitzman, regarded as a hawk, stated that there was "no threat of destruction" but that the attack on Egypt, Jordan and Syria was nevertheless justified so that Israel could "exist according the scale, spirit, and quality she now embodies."
Menahem Begin had the following remarks to make: "In June 1967, we again. had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him." It's not clear why Menahem Begin was so keen on honesty in this case.*
Moshe Dayan, the celebrated commander who, as Defense Minister in 1967, gave the order to conquer the Golan said that many of the firefights with the Syrians were deliberately provoked by Israel, and the kibbutz residents who pressed the Government to take the Golan Heights did so less for security than for the farmland. "They didn't even try to hide their greed for the land...We would send a tractor to plough some area where it wasn't possible to do anything, in the demilitarized area, and knew in advance that the Syrians would start to shoot. If they didn't shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance further, until in the end the Syrians would get nervous and shoot. And then we would use artillery and later the air force also, and that's how it was...The Syrians, on the fourth day of the war, were not a threat to us."
That's the amazing thing about Zionist propaganda. The leaders of the Zionist movement have been perfectly candid about the motives and causes of the 1967 war and yet the popular perception is still one of a plucky little Israel beseiged by aggressors.
*Comment from AJP: Do you have the date of Begin's statement? I think that it was made after the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 [It was 8/8/1982 and reported in the New York Times on 21/8/2004]. and the reason why he was being so honest was that, at the time, he was being attacked by Labour over the conduct of the war. There was a powerful feeling in Israel that, by acting as the aggressor, the IDF had lost it's "purity of arms", something Labour blamed on Begin, Sharon and Likud.
Begin was trying to point out that the attack on Lebanon was actually no different from the attack on Egypt in 1967 when that "purity" was supposedly still intact.
Regarding any threat from Egypt, the former Commander of the Air Force, General Ezer Weitzman, regarded as a hawk, stated that there was "no threat of destruction" but that the attack on Egypt, Jordan and Syria was nevertheless justified so that Israel could "exist according the scale, spirit, and quality she now embodies."
Menahem Begin had the following remarks to make: "In June 1967, we again. had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him." It's not clear why Menahem Begin was so keen on honesty in this case.*
Moshe Dayan, the celebrated commander who, as Defense Minister in 1967, gave the order to conquer the Golan said that many of the firefights with the Syrians were deliberately provoked by Israel, and the kibbutz residents who pressed the Government to take the Golan Heights did so less for security than for the farmland. "They didn't even try to hide their greed for the land...We would send a tractor to plough some area where it wasn't possible to do anything, in the demilitarized area, and knew in advance that the Syrians would start to shoot. If they didn't shoot, we would tell the tractor to advance further, until in the end the Syrians would get nervous and shoot. And then we would use artillery and later the air force also, and that's how it was...The Syrians, on the fourth day of the war, were not a threat to us."
That's the amazing thing about Zionist propaganda. The leaders of the Zionist movement have been perfectly candid about the motives and causes of the 1967 war and yet the popular perception is still one of a plucky little Israel beseiged by aggressors.
*Comment from AJP: Do you have the date of Begin's statement? I think that it was made after the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 [It was 8/8/1982 and reported in the New York Times on 21/8/2004]. and the reason why he was being so honest was that, at the time, he was being attacked by Labour over the conduct of the war. There was a powerful feeling in Israel that, by acting as the aggressor, the IDF had lost it's "purity of arms", something Labour blamed on Begin, Sharon and Likud.
Begin was trying to point out that the attack on Lebanon was actually no different from the attack on Egypt in 1967 when that "purity" was supposedly still intact.
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