Silence, they say, is the voice of complicity.But silence is impossible.Silence screams.Silence is a message,just as doing nothing is an act.Let who you are ring out & resonatein every word & every deed.Yes, become who you are.There's no sidestepping your own beingor your own responsibility.What you do is who you are.You are your own comeuppance.You become your own message.You are the message.In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
See how many places Israel and your Uncle Sam have raped.
Click, to download this book...
http://web.mit.edu/thistle/thugs/thugs.pdf"Thugs: A History of the U.S. Empire"
"Appeal by Black Americans Against United States Support of the Zionist Government"
In the "New York Times", November 1, 1970.
It reports that the Israeli Air Force Commander was already lecturing at the South African Air Force College in September 1967.
See below:
"Appeal by Black Americans Against United States Support of the Zionist Government"--
http://tinyurl.com/624ufv
For the coming 15 days , I beg of you all to carefully watch which Media shall mention that Michael Jackson has converted to Islam , and which Media shall never do it.
Make your own statistics and then make your own conclusions.
As if , it were "wrong" to convert to Islam as Michael obviously did , therefore it is rather irrelevant..... but otherwise it is perfectly alright to do as Madonna recently did, ....converting to Judaism !!
Bearing in mind that you cannot convert into a "race " .....although Jews pretend to be a race-people-nation-culture. When it is normal to convert to Islam , which is a brotherhood of beleivers , a Religion.....the Religion !!
Madona can now " inherit " the Land of Canaan while probably Michael Jackson , would in theory enter the Heavens....without ever stealing Mecca..... nor stealing Jerusalem.
Bearing in mind that Madona , "legaly" , may steal Jerusalem now that she became a Jew....
Back to our story !
Watch the news , please , and tell us who or what shall ever reveal to us and indeed to the large public, that Michael Jackson died as , a converted-Muslim-person ? and who shall not mention it ?? and how often ?? Raja Chemayel
Being a ‘page one’ entry on the S H I T List gives me special privileges. One of them is being the recipient of almost every piece of zionist hate mail that is written.
Yesterday I was sent a zionist position on the speech President Obama made during his recent trip to the Middle East….. ************************************************
In his talk, Obama spoke of the Holocaust, and the suffering Jews endured. In practically his next breath, however, he said:
“On the other hand, it is also undeniable that the Palestinian people…have suffered in pursuit of a homeland….”
And, following this observation, he went on to say:
“For decades, there has been a stalemate: two peoples with legitimate aspirations, each with a painful history…”
This is deeply troubling — offensive! — and must be challenged at several levels.
There is, first, the unacceptable moral equivalency of his statement: The Jews suffered in the Holocaust…the Palestinians suffered the “nakba” — as if the historical experience of pain of the Palestinians in being “dislocated” is as great as what we endured in the Shoa (Holocaust) when six million died.
Within this formulation is a libelous implication: That just as we endured the Holocaust, we then brought commensurate suffering on another people. But I won’t go in that direction now. For there is more that is unacceptable:
What is also implied in Obama’s statement is that we are entitled to a Jewish state BECAUSE there was a Holocaust. And this too, fits with Palestinian mythology. See, they say, it is because of the Holocaust that they suffered dislocation — the Jews who had nowhere to go came here and pushed them out. Obama doesn’t say, as the Palestinians do — when they lament that they shouldn’t have to suffer because of our problems — that we are not entitled to a state, but his approach leans in this direction.
What Obama misses, when he focuses on the Holocaust as the reason we have a claim to a state, is the entire religious and historical basis for our claim here.
He says not a word about this land as divine Jewish inheritance, and this is critical. From the time of the Patriarchs, we Jews have been tied to this land. But the Muslims say today that we have no religious connection here. They have written us out in their falsified version of things, they have attempted to destroy ancient archeological evidence, and they call this land a Muslim wakf (trust) for eternity. It has gotten so bad that they call the Kotel (Western Wall ) an exclusively Muslim site: the place where Mohammad tied his horse. (Arafat denied there was a Temple on the Mount, ever, and Abbas has made similar statements.)
Make no mistake about it. The battle for the Land of Israel is at heart a religious battle, not a political one. By not acknowledging the Jewish connection to the land, Obama has left room for the Arabs to continue to make their claims.
OFFENSIVE????? TO WHOM?????
I am not in the camp of ‘Holocaust Deniers’ after having lost the entire paternal side of my family in the camps. I do, however, resent those that are cashing in on the Jewish suffering that took place during the last World War. I resent that those who are involved in the ‘Holocaust Industry’ ignore the fact the millions of others suffered as well…. it wasn’t only Jews.
Those that suffered were not given a ‘green light’ to inflict suffering on others…. BUT, that is exactly what the case is in Israel today. Jewish survivors of the Holocaust receive a cheque every month from the German government. Palestinian survivors of the Nakba receive NOTHING from the government of Israel. THAT I find offensive.
Any Jew, living anywhere in the world, has the RIGHT to ‘return’ to Israel…. even if he was never here before. Palestinians living anywhere in the world do NOT have the RIGHT OF RETURN to the homes they were driven away from during the Nakba. THAT I find offensive.
The zionists get offended if anyone denies the Holocaust ever took place. Yet, these very same people deny the Holocaust of the Palestinian people. They also use similar methods to continue their policies of genocide and ethnic cleansing in the Occupied Territories and Gaza, the largest concentration camp in the world today. THAT I find offensive.
The United States GIVES Israel 30 BILLION dollars a year in aid…. there is no indication yet that this will stop under Obama’s leadership. Yet, the following video represents the ‘thinking’ of many ex-Americans living in Israel today. The language used in the video is the rudest, most disgusting I have heard in years…. be warned!
The US has intelligence agents in Iran but it is not clear if they are providing help to the protest movement there, a former US national security adviser has told Al Jazeera.
Brent Scowcroft said on Wednesday that "of course" the US had agents in Iran amid the ongoing pressure against the Iranian government by protesters opposed to the official result of its presidential election.
But he added that he had no idea whether US agents had provided help to the opposition movement in Iran, which claims that the authorities rigged the June 12 election in favour of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent president.
"They might do. Who knows?" Scowcroft told Josh Rushing for Al Jazeera's Fault Lines programme.
"But that's a far cry from helping protesters against the combined might of the Revolutionary Guard, the militias and so on - and the [Iranian] police, who are so far completely unified."
Scowcroft's admission that Washington has agents stationed in Iran comes a day after the US president issued tougher rhetoric against the government in Iran.
Barack Obama's sterner tone came after days of deadly clashes between the opposition and Iranian security forces and militias.
Obama has been criticised by US conservative politicians for not taking a stronger line against Tehran amid the government crackdown, but Scowcroft, a former adviser to presidents Gerald Ford and the senior George Bush, said the US could only do so much.
"We don't control Iran. We don't control the government, obviously," he said.
"There is little we can do to change the situation domestically in Iran right now and I think an attempt to change it is more likely to be turned against us and against the people who are demonstrating for more freedom.
"Therefore, I think we need to look at what we can do best, which is to try to influence Iranian behaviour in the region."
At least 19 people have been killed in post-election violence in Iran, which broke out at the scene of protests questioning the veracity of the poll results.[NOTE: Iran claims 8 Basijis were among them http://www.presstv. ir/detail. aspx?id=98984& sectionid= 351020101 ]
Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main challenger to Ahmadinejad, has rejected the official results of the vote and has called for a fresh election to be held, while Mehdi Karoubi, another defeated candidate in the election, has called the new government "illegitimate" .
But the Guardian Council, Iran's highest legislative body, has said that there were no incidences of major fraud in the vote and has declared that the official results will stand.
FBI Replaces Brotherhood Tainted Liaison with Brotherhood Tainted Liaison
By The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT)
A top FBI official met Wednesday with the vice president of the Islamic Society of North America, a move which followed the Bureau's decision "to use ISNA as their official point of contact with the American Muslim community," an email from an intelligence community veteran that was widely distributed Wednesday said.
The FBI has not yet commented on the claim. But the IPT has confirmed that the meeting did take place at FBI headquarters. The decision to make ISNA the FBI's contact point came over the objections of case agents and supervisors investigating Muslim Brotherhood activity in the U.S.
Last year, the FBI cut off outreach communication with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), after evidence in the Hamas-support trial against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) raised questions "whether there continues to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and HAMAS." The FBI's case agent testified that CAIR was a Hamas front.
Like CAIR, ISNA was an unindicted co-conspirator in the HLF trial. It is listed among "who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood." Jamal Badawi, an ISNA board member, also was named as an unindicted co-conspirator, listed among people who raised money for HLF.
The evidence involving ISNA, however, was not as deep as it was with CAIR. In CAIR's case, its founders are included on a telephone list for members of a secret Hamas support network in the U.S. created by the Muslim Brotherhood. And they participated in a 1993 meeting of Hamas members and supporters called to discuss ways to thwart U.S.-led peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians.
In that weekend-long meeting, CAIR co-founder Omar Ahmad discussed ways to mislead Americans about their goals and ideology. Executive Director Nihad Awad discussed media strategies to help the cause.
In the evidence admitted by the court, ISNA officials were not named among members of the Hamas support network, called the Palestine Committee. But FBI investigative records show it held a significant role in the Brotherhood's U.S. activities. According to an FBI memorandum from the 1980s obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, past "ISNA conferences provided opportunities for the extreme fundamentalist Muslims to meet with their supporters ... The annual conferences are used for both religious and political purposes. The political purpose is to further the Islamic Revolution, which includes providing anti-U.S. and Israel publications and publications that support the war effort of Iran in the Iran-Iraq war."
The Brotherhood is an 80-year-old Egyptian movement which seeks to spread the rule of Shariah, or Islamic law, throughout the world. But some top FBI officials are not convinced the Brotherhood is a problem, a law enforcement source said Thursday. This, despite the fact that FBI investigation has uncovered documents showing the U.S. Brotherhood's goal is "a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and "sabotaging" its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions."
The problem, the source said, is too many FBI officials have developed friendly individual relationships with the leadership of groups like ISNA. "As an FBI agent, we use facts and evidence and truth to base our decisions and not because we went to dinner with someone."
ISNA's roots in the Brotherhood are clearly established. Internal Muslim Brotherhood records in evidence the HLF trial show ISNA was created by Muslim Brotherhood members in the U.S. who had been leaders of the Muslim Students Association. In addition, the Chicago Tribune and federal prosecutors in Dallas have documented the link.
Read our full post on the ISNA-FBI developments here.
Judeo-Christianity is less than 200 years old. The World Jewish Zionism movement has played the key part in assuring its growth. We see the result of this mind bending in the creation of a new 'Christianity' which in its extreme form is known as Christian Zionism, fed by Oxford University Press's Scofield Reference Bible published in New York in 1908. Bible editors, most of which are owned by secular publishing house like Oxford have also failed to correct obvious changes in common usage of words, such as "Jew" and "Israel" that provide misleading, Zionist friendly inferences.Oxford sold a new 20th Century theology to evangelical seminaries. The Scofield usage has become a standard in most study or reference bibles used by a wide range of evangelicals, and even penetrating mainline church bible studies and broadcast media. These books are the subject of many articles by this author and others (Endnote 1.Roots of Christian Zionism.)
Apostle Paul's Book of Romans provides an inspiring account of the struggle to convert spiritually empty Israelites and agnostic Greeks to Jesus' Way in the First Century. Christian Zionism teaches that Paul was talking about, not his own generation, but the State of Israel created 1900 years after his death. They argue that Political Israel is uniquely blessed by God, and that Christians must also revere, honor, and love it else they will suffer God's punishment.
Several words are still found in our Bibles that did not exist at the time of Jesus and his followers, and could not have been words they used, but words that were placed there in the Sixteenth Century versions. Examples are:
Jesus: there was no "J" in the Aramaic, Greek, or Hebrew languages. I know Arabs named Issa, after Jesus. However Jesus' name is not an issue because it has only one me aning.
Jew: there was no such word in the First Century. Not only was there no 'J' but it is used in improper historical contexts in the New Testament; The continued misuse of "Jew" in the bibles since 1947 implies that Jews today might be expected to have some of the same gene pool and beliefs as an Israelite of 3000 years ago. Most do not.
Judean: a place that began with an Iota (I) in the Greek and is used in scripture as both a place and a people. This may be the actual word from which the mistranslation of the word Jew is derived. In many instances the popular translations still use 'Jew' where the original Greek text clearly read Ioudaia, or in our vernacular, one who lived in Judea.
Israel: does appear in the original Greek New Testament texts, but only as a people, never as a place. Paul used Israel in several contexts: first as an ancient tribe named after the man, Israel; as the specific belief system o r religion of that tribe, as an example, Paul used 'Israelite' to describe himself and a few faithful followers of the Abrahamic code; finally, 'Israel' means all those of all races who follow the Messiah, Jesus in the New Covenant under God. Paul does not use Israel as a place or country. (Endnote2. Greek New Testament)
A typical doctored Judeo-Christian presentation is found on a little Bible bookmark distributed by a local Judeo-Christian church. In every case it uses Jew, Judean, and Israel for the end purpose of connecting the New Testament to the modern political place or state of Israel. This is printed: 'Christians should pray especially for ISRAEL because of..."
'The close relationship between Israel, God's purpose for Israel, and the true church.'
'God's command with special promise of blessings (for Israel).'
'The church can not be complete without the select remnant of Israel.'
'It is God's will that all Israel will be saved'
'The scriptural directive, 'to the Jews first'
'The great multitude to be saved in the future through their (Jews') ministry.'
This bookmark tract works to synthesize Christianity with Judaism. My response is to parody a familiar marriage ceremony verse, what God separated let no man try to put back together.
The Christians must pray for Israel tract contains a list of 39 bible references, 14 from the book of Romans. Its unnamed author claims that all these passages support the assumption that the new political state of Israel is a fulfillment of God's plan. They do not. Unfortunately the reader must read each passage in its own context to find the error. The Judeo-Christian amalgamation depends upon the reader not reading. In the interest of brevity I will answer those from Romans.&nbs p; (Endnote 4. Romans)
I ask a simple question. Who or what did Judeo-Christians think 'Israel' was pre-1947, before there was a political state of Israel? If 'Israel' of the bible today means the present day State of Israel, what did it mean a hundred years before there was such a State? It should be obvious that Israel meant then, and still means, one of the three contexts in which Paul used it, none of which was a place or a state.
The Christian New Testament answers this vital question many times, stating again and again that those who follow Christ are the New Covenant sons of Abraham. It is uncontested by Christians, Muslims, and Torah Jews that the man 'Israel' was the grandson of Abraham. All but Jews believe from his linage the Messiah was to come. In Galatians 3:28-29, Apostle Paul stated: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. ( Note 3. Galatians).
Whoops, the Christian Zionist track lists this passage, but it conveniently leaves off the last sentence about those who belong to Jesus being the sons of Abraham and heirs to the promise, the new Israel of God. Why is this part left off by Judeo-Christians? Because it refutes the notion that warring, aborting, lying political Israel is God's chosen people.
Paul amplified on this answer in the book of Romans when he referred to himself as an 'Israelite' among the living remnant of the ancient faith. He taught that the remnant who had not abandoned the faith of Abraham were also the new Israel if they followed Jesus.
The word 'Jew' did not e xist when Jesus, Paul, and the Disciples lived and when later their words were scribed in Greek. We cannot be sure what they called their faith, if not The Way or followers of Jesus. "The lost sheep of the House of Israel,' were their first converts and the first Disciples.
Many centuries later, translators, such as the committee who did the King James Edition, replaced the words recorded in the Greek texts with the convenient little modern word 'Jew.' In most cases, Paul seems to have used Judeans (or Ioudeans ) for those secularized descendants of once faithful Israelites. The translators simplified the multiple language problem and renamed those whom Paul was trying to convert as either 'Jews' or 'Gentiles?' Some translators might have enjoyed pinning the Jew name on those who killed Jesus.
Israeli 'Jews' could not have killed Jesus. Israeli Jews are almost all Ashkenazi, or 'Eastern European Jewish persons of a different stock,' to quote Wikipedia. They lack the Arab gene pool, only a very few have ancestors who were ever in the holy land. The history of Ashkenazi Jews is recorded in many volumes, some found in synagogue libraries. A good source is Andrew Hurley%u2018s, Holocaust II Saving Israel from Suicide. (Note 4. Hurley)
Jews first claimed to have Arab lineage by inference after Israel was declared a State in 1947. The Jews came there from Europe claiming the Right of aliyah, or Law of Return (1950). Suddenly the word 'Jew' was reinterpreted in the New Testament to mean 'the chosen people' who were 'returning' from Europe! Christians started to send them money. It was beneficial to find their religion named all over the Christian bible...how could Christians oppose their 'return' even though most had no roots in the Middle East? This paved the way for political Christian Zionism to flourish.
The Apostle Paul said in the book of Romans that God had blinded the eyes of the corrupted Israelites on account of their long unrepentant sins. Jesus, John the Baptist, and Apostle Paul all addressed the Pharisees variously as Generation of vipers and sons of Satan. The borrowed biblical name 'Israel' is a convenient one for Zionists, it is the basis of their claim to the Palestinians' land.
It is not unusual that people to not name their own faith because they see it as the only faith. Christian was not part of Jesus' or Paul's vocabulary. As best we know, they called their new faith something very simple, perhaps 'The Way.' And as we stated they might have referred to themselves as followers of Christ or Jesus. Paul called himself an 'Israelite' not a Jew. Jesus was called a Galilean, not a Jew. The Roman governor Pilate, placed a sign on his cross, Iesous Rex Ioudaia, wrongly translated Je sus King of Jews.
Traditional Christians, from Catholics to Baptists, have always believed that the 'Israel' of Paul's letters are those who followed Jesus. Only Judeo-Christians of the present millennium deny it.
In contrast to the ancient Way, modern Judeo-Christianity began no earlier than 1850 in the U.S. with persons converted by Scotsman John Nelson Darby. Evangelical Dispensationalism had a limited following until after 1948, when Israel became a State and Oxford University Press wrote political Israel into the bible as a fulfillment of prophesy. This helped to explode it into the world's newest major religion.
Paul taught that only followers of Christ (no matter what race, religion, sex, or age they live in) are the New Covenant sons of Abraham and spiritual heirs to Jesus' kingdom...a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly one. Judeo Christians, in contrast, believe 'All Israel will be saved,' meaning literally a ll Jews, and that Jesus' Kingdom is yet to come, will be on earth first, then for some, including themselves, in heaven. Paul was certainly not a Christian Zionist.
To understand the level of Zionist deceit and the propensity of Judeo Christians to self-deceit we only look at the acts and statements of the venerated Jewish state. In a story in Jewish World titled Why Not Intermarry, by Rabbi Shraga Simmons, we read these amazing words from a self-professed Zionist:
"Jewish survival is not merely an ethnic issue, but also a moral issue, because the Jews are not only an ethnic group, they are a moral force. The values that the civilized world takes for granted -- monotheism, love your neighbor, peace on earth, justice for all, universal education, all men are created equal, dignity of the individual, the preciousness of life -- were al l revolutionary ideas taught by the Jewish people. The Jews as a moral force continues to this day... this is not to say that only Jews are capable of conscience or of goodness. It is to say that of all the nations throughout world history, only the Jews have defined their national mission as bringing moral clarity to the world.'
Has this Rabbi ever heard of Gaza or Lebanon? He has indeed, for he lives in Israel, and he holds up the aborting, warring, atheistic state of Israel to be 'the moral force for the world.'
Rabbi Simmons: 'The experience of visiting Israel is the quintessential act of Jewish self-discovery. Being in an "all-Jewish" environment steeped in millennia of history, Israel provides a new perspective on the role of the Jewish people in the world, and of each Jew's personal connection.'
Zionists are, and must be, propagandists. They must b e willing to call black white even if you are looking them in the eye. I wish there was no reader left on the planet who did not know what Israeli Jews have done to the Palestinians and the Lebanese.
Judeo Christians say they believe in confessing the sins in their own lives, but they refuse to see the sins and brutality of Zionists. They have allowed themselves to make Israel an evil object of worship. Only when Christian Zionists' support for Israel collapses in shame will political Israel be compelled to start practicing morality and justice toward its neighbors.
ENDNOTES *1. Concordant Greek Text, Concordant Literal New Testament and Keyword Concordance, Concordant Publishing Concern, Canyon Country CA *2. Roots of Christian Zionism, Scofield's Bible Distortions. Power point show: http://www.whtt.org/show Galatians, Chapter 3: http://etext.vir ginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=KjvGala.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public?=3&division=div1 *3. (Note 4.) Hurley, Andrew J, Holocaust II: Saving Israel From Suicide http://eshop.cp.whtt.org/eshop.php?id=28 *4 Book of Romans, Chapter 11, examining the book of Romans from the prospective of those who say we must pray for the State of Israel. (NIV) Answers by author 1:16. I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Answer by CEC: Whoops, remember there was no 'Jew' in the time of Paul. First to the Israelites of Paul%u2018s time, not the Zionists Jews of today. Romans 2:9-10 9There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile;10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who d oes good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Answer by CEC: Whoops again, remember, no 'Jew' in the time of Paul, Just Ioudeans, and where does Paul say he is talking about someone two thousand years in the future? He does not. Romans 9: 1-5 1 I speak the truth in Christ-I am not lying, my conscience confirms it in the Holy Spirit- 2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, 4 the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. 5 Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen. Answer by CEC: Paul is a missionary, lamenting for 'the sake of my brothers, those of my own race.' Paul sees the fallen Israelites (probable including his own family) as going to hell if they do not follow Jesus' Way. How natural that is, but this has nothing to do with Zionists from Europe who chanced along two thousand years later...if it does, show me! 28 As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs, 29 for God's gifts and his call are irrevocable. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now [h] receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. 32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. Answer by CEC. Is this not Paul lecturing to his contemporaries about God's mercy and justice for all mankind. It has nothing to do with any state in the future. God deals with men one on one, according to Paul, not with politics. Paul says all those who believe in Jesus are the New Israel of God. Romans 11:5 So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. Answer by CEC: Does this not speak of a 'remnant' in Paul's time, an even the patriarchs like Abraham before his time? Where does Paul or Jesus mention future state of political Israel? Romans 11: 23-32 23 And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree! All Israel Will Be Saved. 25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27 And this is[f] my covenant with them when I take away their sins.'[g] Answer by CEC: Paul has good news for his relatives, stop disbelieving, its not too late1 Yes its fine to pray for the people of political Israel, that each one may find Christ; but don't waste your effort praying for an evil, criminal murderous state...there a record of Jesus care about politics. Romans 11: 11, 12, 30, 32 - Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. Answer by CEC: No, no, again...Paul repeats so you will get it, Get it? 12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! Answer by CEC: Paul is an optimist where his relative are concerned. But he never claimed to be a prophet into the 21st Century. 30 Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, 31 so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now [h] receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you. A. It first person "you" to the fallen Israelites of Paul's day? Stop repeating yourself dummy! 32 For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. Answer by CEC Was this not 'Israel,' the one Paul knew about? Paul did not mention a future secular state that assumes a three thousand year-old name. Romans 1: 16 - 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Answer by CEC Yes indeed, Jesus is good for mankind, even including the hate-filled warring Israelis, but nowhere do they get a free ride! Romans 2: 9-10 - 9 There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; 10 but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. Answer by CEC And where is Zionist Israel in this? 2000 years late. Romans 11: 25 - 25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, br others, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. Romans 11: 11-15 - 11 Again I ask: Did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Not at all! Rather, because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!
Answer by CEC: Is this getting tedious for you ? it is for me...the Christian Zionist technique is always based on deception because the truth will not work. All literature, including the New Testament, is written to be read in context, not in fragments, as they would have us read it. Any story must be viewed as the author wrote it, one continuous story, not a scrabble game of scripture scraps and pieces, not a jigsaw puzzle to be solved, as Christian Zionists always present it. If one reads the entire book of Romans it is clear that God is using the Messiah Jesus to reach all men one by one, and not all will respond. In God's eyes there is no Greek, Israelite, atheist or Jew 2000 years later. Each person may choose to come to God or die without God. There is no doubt why Paul, the converted Israelite, aimed this 11th chapter of Romans at his living breathing relatives. (End of Bible verses cited on the tract, all those from the book of Romans.)
We Hold These Truths Project Strait Gate PO Box 14491 Scottsdale, AZ, 85267 http://www.whtt.org
Israel’s second largest bank will be forced to defend itself in court in the coming weeks over claims it is withholding tens of millions of dollars in “lost” accounts belonging to Jews who died in the Nazi death camps.
Bank Leumi has denied it holds any such funds despite a parliamentary committee revealing in 2004 that the bank owes at least $75 million to the families of several thousand Holocaust victims.
Analysts said the bank’s role is only the tip of an iceberg in which Israeli companies and state bodies could be found to have withheld billions of dollars invested by Holocaust victims in the country -- dwarfing the high-profile reparations payouts from such European countries as Switzerland.
“All I want is justice,” said David Hillinger, 73, whose grandfather, Aaron, died in Auschwitz, a Nazi camp in Poland. Lawyers are demanding reparations of $100,000 for Bank Leumi accounts held by his father and grandfather.
The allegations against Bank Leumi surfaced more than a decade ago following research by Yossi Katz, an Israeli historian.
He uncovered bank correspondence in the immediate wake of the Second World War in which it cited “commercial secrecy” as grounds for refusing to divulge the names of account holders who had been killed in the Holocaust.
“I was shocked,” said Dr Katz, from Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv. “My first reaction was: ‘My God, this isn’t Switzerland!’ ”
In 1998, following widespread censure, Swiss banks agreed to pay $1.25 billion in reparations after they there were accused of having profited from the dormant accounts of Holocaust victims.
Dr Katz’s revelations led to the establishment of a parliamentary committee in 2000 to investigate the behaviour of Israel’s banks. Its report came to light belatedly in 2004 after Bank Leumi put pressure on the government to prevent publication.
Investigators found thousands of dormant accounts belonging to Holocaust victims in several banks, though the lion’s share were located at Bank Leumi. Obstructions from Leumi meant many other account holders had probably not been identified, the investigators warned.
The parliamentary committee originally estimated the accounts it had located to be worth more than $160m, using the valuation formula applied to the Swiss banks. But under pressure from Leumi and the government, it later reduced the figure by more than half.
A restitution company was created in 2006 to search for account holders and return the assets to their families.
Meital Noy, a spokeswoman for the company, said it had been forced to begin legal proceedings this week after Bank Leumi had continued to claim that its findings were “baseless”.
The bank paid $5m two years ago in what it says was a “goodwill gesture”. Ms Noy called the payment “a joke”. She said 3,500 families, most of them in Israel, were seeking reparations from Bank Leumi.
The bank was further embarrassed by revelations in 2007 that one per cent of its shares -- worth about $80 million -- belonged to tens of thousands of Jews killed during the Holocaust.
Mr Hillinger, who was born in Belgium in 1936 and spent the Second Wold War hiding in southern France, today lives in Petah Tikva in central Israel.
He said before the outbreak of war his father and grandfather had invested money in the Anglo-Palestine Bank, the forerunner of Leumi, in the hope it would gain them a visa to what was then British-ruled Palestine.
Although his parents escaped the death camps, his grandparents were sent to Auschwitz and died in the gas chambers shortly after arrival.
Mr Hillinger said he had only learnt of the outstanding debt from Bank Leumi after his father, Moses, died in 1996. Papers showed the bank had paid his father “a pittance” in 1952 when he closed his account and that it had never returned his grandfather’s money.
When he wrote to Bank Leumi in 1998, it denied his grandfather had ever opened an account.
“My grandfather died because he was a Jew, and it is shameful that other Jews are exploiting his death,” he said. “We need to wake people up about this.”
A quarter of a million Holocaust survivors are reported to be in Israel, with one-third of them living in poverty, according to welfare organisations.
Shraga Elam, an Israeli investigative financial journalist based in Zurich, said after the war many Israelis showed little sympathy for the European Jewish refugees who arrived in Israel.
“David Ben Gurion [Israel’s first prime minister] notoriously called them ‘human dust’, and I remember as children we referred to them as sabonim, the Hebrew word for soap,” he said, in reference to the rumoured Nazi practice of making soap from Jewish corpses.
“In fact, I can’t think of any place in the world where [Holocaust] survivors are as badly treated as they are in Israel,” Mr Elam said.
He said Bank Leumi’s “lost” accounts were only a small fraction of Holocaust assets held by Israeli companies and the Israeli state that should have been returned. The total could be as much as $20bn.
He said European Jews had invested heavily in Palestine in the pre-war years, buying land, shares and insurance policies and opening bank accounts. During the Second World War Britain seized most of these assets as enemy property because the owners were living in Nazi-occupied lands.
In 1950 Britain repaid some $1.4 million to the new state of Israel, which was supposed to make reparations to the original owners.
However, little effort was made to trace them or, in the case of those who died in the Holocaust, their heirs. Instead the Israeli government is believed to have used the funds to settle new immigrants in Israel.
“These are huge assets, including real estate in some of the most desirable parts of Israel,” Mr Elam said.
Last year the Israeli media reported an investigation showing that the finance ministry destroyed its real estate files in the 1950s, apparently to conceal the extent of the state’s holding of Holocaust assets.
The case against Bank Leumi may end the generally muted criticism inside Israel of the banks’ role. Officials and even the families themselves have been concerned about the damage the case might do to Israel’s image as the guardian of Jewish interests.
In 2003 Ram Caspi, Bank Leumi’s lawyer, used such an argument before the parliamentary committee, warning its members that the US media “will say the Israeli banks also hide money, not just the Swiss”.
Organisations that led the campaign for reparations from European banks, such as the Jewish Claims Conference and the World Jewish Restitution Organisation, have also downplayed the role of the Israeli banks.
'Hello, Pot? This is Kettle. You're Green.' --US Hypocrisy Toward Iran By Lori Price, www.legitgov.org
The world's biggest hypocrite and meddlesome nosy parker, the United States, has outdone itself with its reaction to the post-election events in Iran. At least five glaring 'grand hypocrisy' categories have emerged, with more likely on the way. What other country -- having just endured eight years of dictatorship as the result of two stolen elections -- could actually spew outrage over... another nation's 'stolen election?' Gag me with a green chainsaw.
Grand hypocrisy #1:Obama Presses Iran to Halt 'Violence Against Own People,' Forgetting US 'Violence Against Own People'
Police Unleash Force On Rally in Tehran --Obama, in Boldest Terms Yet, Presses Iran to Halt Violence Against Own People (The Washington Post) 21 Jun 2009 Fiery chaos broke out in downtown Tehran on Saturday as security forces blocked streets and used tear gas, water cannons and batons to break up a demonstration against the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Security forces were seen firing warning shots into the air, but there were also unconfirmed reports that several people were hit by gunfire. President Obama, in his strongest comments to date on a political standoff that has paralyzed Iran for a week, urged the Iranian government "to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people."
'Violence and unjust actions against its own people.' How undemocratic of the government of Iran!
But, looky here! Use of Force Against RNC Protesters "Disproportionate," Charges Amnesty International(Amnesty International, London) 05 Sep 2008Amnesty International is concerned by allegations of excessive use of force and mass arrests by police at demonstrations in St. Paul, Minnesota during the Republican National Convention (RNC) from September 1-4, 2008. The human rights organization is calling on the city and county authorities to ensure that all allegations of ill-treatment and other abuses are impartially investigated, with a review of police tactics and weapons in the policing of demonstrations.
And here! Democracy Now! Host and Producers Arrested at Republican Convention(The Washington Post) 01 Sep 2008 Democracy Now! radio host Amy Goodman and two producers were arrested while covering demonstrations at the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. Goodman was released after being held for over three hours, but is still waiting to hear when Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar would be released... "They seriously manhandled me and handcuffed my hands behind my back. The top ID [at the convention] is to get on the floor and the Secret Service ripped that off me. I had my Democracy Now! ID too. I was clearly a reporter." Goodman, who was released after being charged with a misdemeanor, said that Salazar had been hurt in the face, while Kouddous had been thrown up against a wall and hurt his elbow. "Nicole told me that as they moved in on three sides, she asked them 'How do I get away from this?' and they jumped on her." Both Kouddous and Salazar could be held for up to 36 hours. "One of the police kept shouting at me 'Shut up, shut up," she said. "It was extremely threatening."
Raytheon ADS – A Pain ray gun to keep us in line (Newlaunches) 26 Jun 2008 Controlling an angry mob is not the task of any sane individual; sometimes it requires raw brute force. So far the use of tear gas and water canons has eased an awkward riot situation. There are some laser weapons, also called dazzlers, which are handheld devices that can temporarily blind criminals, while kinetic technologies include bean-bag rounds, water cannons and even sponge grenades filled with powdered irritant chemicals. According to a report by its Scientific Development Branch a new type of pain ray gun or Active denial system (ADS) has been developed which projects microwave-like radiation for distances of more than 500 yards, creating an excruciating and full-body burning sensation in anyone caught in its beam. The millimeter-wave rays penetrate skin to a depth of about 1/64in but cause no permanent damage, according to Raytheon, the system's US-based maker. Prototypes of the weapon, called Silent Guardian, weighed about three tons and were mounted on trucks. The Scientific Development Branch, based in Sandridge in Hertfordshire, has been looking at a portable version of the ADS being developed by Raytheon for the US National Institute of Justice.
I don't see the Raytheon pain ray gun tweets - where are they? Can you imagine what the Faux News trolls would say if Iran was testing a pain ray gun for use on 'angry mobs?'
Also, where was Barack Obama's condemnation of police violence in Minnesota, the wall-to-wall PentaPost coverage, CNN's insipid 'iReports' and the millions of green tweets regarding the US crackdown on protesters in the US?
Grand hypocrisy #2: US condemns Iran for disallowing protests
The US media is outraged -- I tell you -- outraged, that Iran is forbidding protests!
Bush: Clap Me Or No EU Speech (Mirror.co.uk) March 2003 George Bush pulled out of a speech to the European Parliament when MEPs wouldn't guarantee a standing ovation. A source close to negotiations said last night: "President [sic] Bush agreed to a speech but insisted he get a standing ovation like at the State of the Union address. His people also insisted there were no protests, or heckling." Mr Bush's every appearance in the US is stage-managed, with audiences full of supporters.
Grand hypocrisy #3: US loves riots and civil upheaval over stolen elections... as long as there's no civil upheavals and riots over *US* stolen elections!
Iran finds US-backed MKO fingermarks in riots (Press TV) 21 Jun 2009 The terrorist Mujahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) has reportedly played a major role in intensifying the recent wave of street violence in Iran. Iranian security officials reported Saturday that they have identified and arrested a large number of MKO members who were involved in recent riots in Iran's capital. According to the security officials, the arrested members had confessed that they were extensively trained in Iraq's camp Ashraf to create post-election mayhem in the country.
Qashqavi: VOA, BBC guiding unrest in Iran (Press TV) 21 Jun 2009 Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi pins the blame for the recent post-election turmoil across the country on US and British media outlets. "Voice of America (VOA) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) are state-funded channels and not privately-run. Their budgets are ratified in the US Congress, as well as the British Parliament. The two channels serve as mouthpieces of their respective governments," Qashqavi stated on Saturday. He noted that the two news outlets seek to stir up ethnic discord across Iran in the hope of fomenting the country's disintegration.
Suicide bombing leaves 3 injured in Tehran (Press TV) 20 Jun 2009 A terrorist bombing attack has targeted the mausoleum of Imam Khomeini in southern Tehran, wounding three pilgrims at the site. The suicide bomber himself was killed in the blast that rocked the northern entrance of the shrine of the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini, on Saturday, IRNA reported.
See: US funds terror groups to sow chaos in Iran--America is secretly funding militant ethnic separatist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the government. 25 Feb 2007 CIA officials are understood to be helping opposition militias among the numerous ethnic minority groups clustered in Iran's border regions. The operations are controversial because they involve dealing with movements that resort to terrorist methods terrorists in pursuit of their grievances against the Iranian regime. In the past year there has been a wave of unrest in ethnic minority border areas of Iran, with bombing and assassination campaigns against soldiers and government officials... Funding for their separatist causes comes directly from the CIA's classified budget but is now "no great secret", according to one former high-ranking CIA official in Washington who spoke anonymously to The Sunday Telegraph. His claims were backed by Fred Burton, a former US state department counter-terrorism agent, who said: "The latest attacks inside Iran fall in line with US efforts to supply and train Iran's ethnic minorities to destabilise the Iranian regime."
If Iran 'dealt with movements that resorted to terrorist methods' against the US, the US would have declared war on Iran in what, five pico-seconds? And, LieberBush/Boner (Boehner) would be yelping for Obama's impeachment because five pico-seconds would not be quick enough.
Grand hypocrisy #4: A paucity of US media coverage of protests in other countries
Iraqi Oil Minister accused of mother of all sell-outs --To public fury, the country is handing over control of its fields to foreign companies (Independent.co.uk) 18 Jun 2009 Furious protests threaten to undermine the Iraqi government's controversial plan to give international oil companies a stake in its giant oilfields in a desperate effort to raise declining oil production and revenues. In less than two weeks, on 29 and 30 June, the Iraqi Oil Minister, Hussain Shahristani, will award service contracts to the world's largest oil companies to develop six of Iraq's largest oil-producing fields over 20 to 25 years... Iraqis are wary of the involvement of foreign oil companies in raising production in super giant fields like Kirkuk and Bai Hassan in the north and Rumaila, Zubair and West Qurna in the south. They suspect the 2003 US invasion was ultimately aimed at securing Western control of their oil wealth. The nationalisation of the Iraqi oil industry by Saddam Hussein in 1972 remains popular and the rebellion against the service contracts has been gathering pace all this week.
Tribesmen protest US drone attacks (Press TV) 19 Jun 2009 Hundreds of local tribesmen in Pakistan's South Waziristan Agency are protesting US drone attacks on their areas. Soon after the Friday prayers, the tribesmen and elders of the Waziristan tribes staged a large protest rally in Wana city, the main town of South Waziristan Agency and marched in strong condemnation of the unmanned aircraft attacks, terming it an assault on Pakistan's sovereignty, a Press TV correspondent reported late on Friday.
Notice that the US media does not cover such protests -- only dissent in Iran.
Grand hypocrisy #5: The condemnation of Iran for its 'stolen election.' Oh, my God.
Election watchdog to recount 10% of votes (Press TV) 20 Jun 2009 Iran's Guardian Council says it is ready to recount a random 10 percent of the ballot boxes in the last Friday's presidential election. "Although the Guardian Council is not legally obliged ... we are ready to recount 10 percent of the (ballot) boxes randomly in the presence of representatives of the candidates," the electoral watchdog's spokesman, Abbas-Ali Kadkhodayi said on Saturday.
But yet: In the US, a recount was stopped by the Supreme Court so that they could give the presidency to George W. Bush. The US media was -- and has been -- silent in reporting the 2000 and 2004 GOP coup d'etats. At CLG, we have not been silent.
Sarkozy says Iran election a 'fraud' (Press TV) 17 Jun 2009 As the landslide victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran's disputed election provoked unrest, French President Nicolas Sarkozy denounces the result of Friday's vote as a "fraud." "The extent of the fraud is proportional to the violent reaction," Sarkozy said Tuesday. "It is a tragedy, but it is not negative to have a real-opinion movement that tries to break its chains."
And, where was Sarkozy when Bush bin Laden stole *two* presidential 'elections' in the US? Oh, that's right. Sarkozy -- and 99% of the US media -- were burrowing as deep as possible up Bush's butt.
The double standard by and for the US corporate-run media is unbearable and intolerable.
Incidentally, Iran is serving as a Weapon of Mass Distraction for this nugget:
Poll: 72 percent want government-administered insurance plan to compete with private sector --85 percent want major healthcare reforms (Reuters) 20 Jun 2009 Americans strongly support fundamental changes to the healthcare system and a move to create a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll published on Saturday. The Times/CBS poll found seventy-two percent of those questioned said they backed a government-administered insurance plan similar to Medicare for those under 65 that would compete for customers with the private sector.
And this:
Senate Approves War Funding Bill After Obama Presses Democrats --At Obama's behest, the bill includes $7.7 billion to prepare for pandemic flu. --Congress to give Mexico an additional $420 million this year to buy helicopters, surveillance aircraft and computers for police (The Washington Post) 19 Jun 2009 A war funding bill passed the Senate overwhelmingly yesterday, but the 91 to 5 vote came after a fractured process that included objections from Republicans and Democrats alike, and required President Obama to intervene repeatedly to lobby members of his own party for his foreign policy 'vision.' The final version of the $105.9 billion bill provides funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through Sept. 30.
Yes, due to the US media's obsession with the internal strife in Iran, we're not talking about health care any more. Health care, the still-tanked economy, the CIA-suppressed torture documents and detainee (prisoner) abuse (torture) photos, or the $106 billion we just forked over to fund Obusha's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan for another few months. Now *that's* mission accomplished.
The Ad Dameer Society for Human Rights demanded a clear stance from president Mahmoud Abbas regarding political arrests in the West Bank especially since the number of political prisoners from the Hamas movement is on the rise.
The Palestinian security forces in the West Bank continued their political arrests campaign against Hamas members and supporters although president Abbas said that he ordered a halt to such arrests, and ordered the release of all political prisoners who are not involved in criminal offenses.
The Al Dameer stated that the number of political prisoners stands at 780, including women, students and university lecturers.
The institution said that it is questioning weather the security forces are respecting and carrying out the orders of Abbas., and added that it is worried due to the fact the Abbas ordered the release of all political prisoners while his forces are ongoing with their arrest campaigns.
The Ad Dameer slammed all political arrests, and added that the Palestinians are awaiting a positive outcome of the internal dialogue to end the internal divisions and restore political, geographical and political unity.
It also said that political arrests violate the Palestinian law and harm the struggle of the Palestinian people.
Although bloody images continue to be replayed on American television, the protests that broke out in Tehran following Iran's presidential election on June 12 are, predictably, dwindling. They are fading because further demonstrations would no longer be about alleged election irregularities but, rather, would be a challenge to the Islamic Republic itself --something only a small minority of the initial protesters support.
While the protests are subsiding, days of round-the-clock, ill-informed commentary in the United States have helped to "sell" several dangerously misleading myths about Iranian politics. Left unchallenged, these myths will inexorably drive America's Iran policy toward "regime change" --just as unchallenged myths about Saddam Hussein's pursuit of nuclear weapons and ties to Al Qaeda paved the way for America's invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Myth 1: "Ahmadinejad stole the election."
The proposition that incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could not possibly have defeated his principal challenger, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has become a sacred cow for virtually all mainstream commentary about Iran in the United States. But to this day, there is no hard evidence of electoral fraud --which even some Mousavi campaign aides privately acknowledge.
In response to fraud allegations, the Ministry of the Interior has, for the first time ever, published the results of each of the 45,713 ballot boxes. With the personal information for all the nearly 40 million voters in the election registered on a computer database and each voter's fingerprints on his or her ballot stub, it is clear where people voted, and each vote can be accounted for.
The Guardian Council --tasked by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to review alleged electoral irregularities --has acknowledged that the number of votes cast in 50 towns exceeded the number of eligible voters residing in those communities; roughly 3 million votes fall into that category.
But this is not unusual: Iranian citizens may vote in presidential elections anywhere in the country. Since the election took place on the Iranian weekend, many people had left their homes for their hometowns and villages and cast their votes there. Thus, in some places, the number of votes exceeded the number of resident, eligible voters.
Recently, spot analyses by scholars from the University of Michigan and the Royal Institute of International Affairs suggested that this year's election results are out of line with previous presidential elections. These analyses compare this year's results with the first round of the 2005 presidential election, when Ahmadinejad and former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani outpolled other candidates to move into a runoff. Viewed through that prism, Ahmadinejad's 2009 tally seems inflated.
But the comparison is structurally flawed. It is tantamount to arguing that, because Barack Obama won 38 percent of the vote in a competitive, multicandidate caucus in Iowa in January 2008, it is implausible that he could have won 54 percent of that state's vote in the two-person general election in November. A more appropriate comparison for this year's results in Iran would be the second round of the 2005 presidential election, when Ahmadinejad trounced Rafsanjani.
From the outset, this year's presidential contest was effectively a two-man race, notwithstanding two other candidates' presence on the ballot. In that context, Ahmadinejad's second-round vote share in 2005 (61.7 percent) was essentially indistinguishable from the percentage of the vote he won this year (62.6 percent).
Myth 2: "The Islamic Republic is internally vulnerable and, indeed, ready to implode."
The proposition that the Islamic Republic's constituent institutions --including the position of supreme leader --are on the verge of collapse reflects nothing more than wishful thinking by some analysts in the United States. While many Americans and expatriate Iranians do not like the Iranian government, Supreme Leader Khamenei's referral of fraud allegations to the Guardian Council and the council's offer to conduct a random recount of 10 percent of the ballots were reasonable legal responses to those allegations within the Islamic Republic's constitutional order.
Similarly, the Iranian government responded to the post-June 12 protests in a manner consistent with its own constitutional procedures --and with far less bloodshed than when the Chinese government suppressed the Tiananmen Square protesters in 1989.
The supreme leader's authority has not been diminished; indeed, the opposite has occurred. All factions in the controversy turned to the leader for a resolution that would have legitimacy within the system's parameters.
Significantly, Khamenei's Friday prayer sermon one week after the election attracted a large gathering unprecedented in size. Mousavi's subsequent refusal to work with the Guardian Council and exhaust remedies within the system has actually cost him support from the general public as well as among "principalists" and moderate "reformists" who backed him in the election.
At this point, Mousavi may be dependent on public support from former President Rafsanjani to maintain his campaign to overturn the election results, but it is unlikely that Ayatollah Rafsanjani is really prepared to confront his close friend Ayatollah Khamenei and the Islamic Republic as a whole, notwithstanding his immense dislike for Ahmadinejad.
In the end, there is no evidence that those protesting the results represent a majority of Iranians. Read in conjunction with the election results, the pattern of protests since June 12 underscores the idea that the "opposition" that mobilized around Mousavi never represented a fundamental threat to the Iranian political system. The official results, posted on the Interior Ministry's website, show that Ahmadinejad won a majority of the vote in all of Iran's provinces except in the province of Tehran, where the vote is almost equally divided between Ahmadinejad and Mousavi, when the regions of Ray, Islamshahr and Shemiranat are included with the city of Tehran.
Since June 12, there have been isolated protests of the results in Isfahan, Tabriz and a small number of other cities, but the protests have been overwhelmingly concentrated in Tehran.
Certainly, comparisons between the Islamic Republic today and Eastern Europe in 1989, on the eve of communism's collapse, are misplaced. The majority of Iranians continue to believe in the Islamic Republic's legitimacy. Even those who want to see the Islamic Republic evolve in a more pluralist direction do not want to bring down the system. And most Iranians seem to believe that a wholesale implosion of the Islamic Republic's political structures would lead to sustained chaos and disorder --much like what happened in Iraq following the U.S. invasion and overthrow of Saddam's regime.
Myth 3: "The Islamic Republic has been delegitimized, and therefore, the United States cannot and should not negotiate with it."
It has long been fashionable in the United States to dismiss the prospects for serious negotiations with Tehran by arguing that the Iranian government is too divided to deliver or that the Islamic Republic is an immature, ideologically driven state that cannot think about its foreign policy in terms of national interest.
But these characterizations have no grounding in reality. Now, an argument is emerging in the United States that the Islamic Republic is simply too depraved to be a diplomatic partner --like Saddam's Iraq or perhaps even worse.
Left unchallenged, the consensus forming around the aforementioned myths about Iranian politics will lead inexorably to ever greater pressure on President Obama to drop his stated interest in engaging Tehran diplomatically. We can already see this unfolding.
Last week, Congress adopted a resolution condemning the Islamic Republic for its handling of the presidential election and subsequent protests. The Senate passed it unanimously; only one member of the House, Ron Paul (R-Texas), was prepared to vote no.
Congress is likely to become even more determined to legislate additional sanctions against Tehran and expand both covert and overt programs aimed at destabilizing the Iranian government. Already, the neoconservative right is clamoring that "regime change" must become the explicit goal of U.S. policy toward the Islamic Republic.
Even some foreign policy specialists who describe themselves as "realists" are jumping on this bandwagon. How long will it be before congressional Democrats join Republicans in arguing that the United States should actively encourage the Islamic Republic's downfall?
The call to embrace regime change as the defining objective of U.S. policy toward Iran is sadly reminiscent of the prelude to America's deeply flawed decision to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime --a long march that commenced in 1998, when President Bill Clinton enshrined regime change as the goal of America's Iraq policy by signing the Iraq Liberation Act, which had passed both houses of Congress with broad bipartisan support.
As a presidential candidate, Obama promised not only to end America's Iraq war but to end "the mind-set that got us into that war." The risk now is that, in the interest of political expediency, Obama will decide to appease those with this mind-set by going along with congressional efforts to isolate and "punish" the Islamic Republic.
If Obama does this, his Iran policy will, at a minimum, suffer from dysfunctional incoherence. More ominously, lack of strategic clarity could put the United States on the road toward confrontation --perhaps even military conflict --with a more powerful Iran.
As the Islamic Republic becomes "delegitimized" in American public opinion, it will be impossible for Obama to engage Tehran, and, in the eyes of many Americans, he will have no basis to continue telling Israel that it should not launch military strikes against Iranian nuclear targets.
As realism about Iran evaporates in Washington, American officials are losing sight of the fact that policies of isolation or punishment would be disastrous for strategic stability in the broader Middle East.
A UN fact-finding mission arrived in Gaza via Rafah on Friday, and is scheduled to collect testimonials from victims from the Israeli war on the coastal region carried out over December and January.
The mission will hold public sessions on Sunday and Monday in Gaza while two other sessions will be held in Geneva on 6 and 7 July. The mission will fly both Gazans and Israelis from the border towns near the Strip to Switzerland to give testimony, because Israel refused to host the UN-sponsored group on its territory.
Sessions are aimed at collecting information from victims of the war so specialists can study consequences and impact.
Due to security arrangements in Gaza, media outlets will be invited to cover the procedures of the hearing sessions from a hall outside the actual site where testimonials are being collected. The sessions will be broadcast live in the hall for the media, and will also be transmitted to satellite channels from the Palestinian Red Crescent in Tal Al-Hawa south west of Gaza city in front of the Al-Quds hospital.
The filming will be carried out by two TV crews contracted by the UN on Sunday 28 June and Monday 29 June from 8:30-1:30 and 2:30-5:00 local time.
New Jersey Jewish Standard Jewish institutions will receive the majority of the federal funds allocated to New Jersey’s nonprofit organizations by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Of the $15 million allotted to 227 nonprofit organizations across the country. New Jersey received the third highest allocation... Full storyJTA ...Since the this program started in 2005, more then $80 million have been distributed, nearly 69 percent of which has gone to Jewish organizations, according to the UJC.
...UJC is working with the grant program’s congressional champions to increase the FY 2010 appropriations to $25 million. “Congress has been an ardent supporter of this program since day one,” said Daroff. “We look forward to continuing to work with our congressional champions to bolster security for nonprofits for the long-term.” Full story
Stuart Littlewood considers US brutality against prisoners in Afghanistan and murder of innocent civilians in Pakistan. He argues that the Americans and their close buddies, the Israelis, are remarkably similar: “They are the pace-setters (though not the only practitioners) in savagery and the casual art of killing ‘Johnny Foreigner’.”
Reports of prisoner abuse at the US prison at Bagram air force base in Afghanistan come as no surprise. They are just the latest example of the world’s biggest bully behaving badly as usual.
As if that weren't enough, I'm reading how some 83 people, mostly civilians, were killed and over 50 injured in three drone attacks within 12 hours in Lataka, South Waziristan.
The first strike killed several suspected Taliban. Later, a second drone fired three missiles into a crowd of funeral mourners.
One of the wounded commented: "If the Taliban are bombing the mosques and America is bombing the funerals, what is the difference between them? We are stuck between Taliban and US attacks and when we are killed, not only no one cries for us, but also we are dubbed militants."
Since August 2008, over 40 US drone strikes have killed at least 410 people. US troops in neighbouring Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy unmanned drones in the region.
The use of armed drones is a particularly cowardly form of warfare. These lethal "assets" are computer-controlled from the comfort and safety of an armchair a hundred miles away and guided by dodgy “intelligence”. Or, if the truth be known, no intelligence at all. The Israelis use them extensively in Gaza to unleash death and destruction on civilian targets by remote control. Engines for Israeli drones are believed to be supplied by a British manufacturer, although the government here pretends not to know the truth of the matter.
This trend in “sofa slaughter” has many variations. For example, during the 40-day siege of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem in 2002 the Israeli occupation force set up huge cranes on which were mounted robotic machine guns under video control. Eight defenders, including the bell-ringer, were murdered, some by the robotic guns and some by snipers.
The US and its allies are just as callous in their treatment of civilian prisoners. The British authorities deal with their casual killings by offering 4,500 pounds sterling in compensation, showing how cheaply we value the life of “Johnny Foreigner”. And when it comes to prisoner abuse the Israelis, whose every cruel excess the West defends, don’t even spare children, according to various reports.
Something very chilling can take hold of uniformed thugs – I won’t call them soldiers because what many of them do is not proper soldiering – in a war zone; and in the days before high-tech weaponry like drones and robotic machine guns they happily indulged their blood-lust by murdering civilians at close quarters. If you haven’t heard of the My Lai massacre, brace yourself.
In 1968, 150 men of Charlie Company, a US infantry unit, were sent on a “search-and-destroy” mission into the South Vietnamese village of My Lai. Four hours later more than 500 civilians – unarmed women, children and old men – were dead. Charlie Company hadn’t encountered a single Viet Cong guerrilla. Nevertheless the unit, led by Lieutenant William Calley, rounded up villagers and machine-gunned them until the dead lay five-deep.
When Calley spotted a baby crawling away, he grabbed her, threw her back into the ditch and opened fire again.
Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson, flying over the area, was so sickened by what he saw that he landed his machine to shield villagers from the troops and began rescuing survivors. He ordered his gunner to open up on any American soldiers who continued to shoot civilians.
Some of the dead were mutilated by having “C Company” carved into their chests; some were disembowelled.
Official reports said the My Lai operation was a stunning combat victory, and General Westmoreland congratulated the men on their bravery.
The American people didn’t learn the truth until 18 months later – and then only because a Vietnam veteran, after hearing about the incident from friends who had served in Charlie Company, wrote a letter to his congressman and other prominent officials, including President Nixon.
An army photographer produced pictures of the carnage. Then freelance reporter Seymour Hersh managed to interview Calley and splashed the story over the front pages of American newspapers.
Twenty-six members of C Company were charged with criminal behaviour but not convicted. Calley himself was eventually court-martialed and sentenced to life imprisonment. After serving just three days he was moved to a comfortable apartment under house arrest, on Nixon’s orders. He was paroled three years later.
Hersh said that many in Charlie Company “had given in to an easy pattern of violence” and were totally blind to the humanity of the Vietnamese people. He was awarded a Pulitzer prize.
My Lai was one of many atrocities committed in Korea and Vietnam. Military training in those days set out to de-humanize not only the enemy but the local civilian population as well. Army culture encouraged its so-called soldiers to think they could treat them like garbage.
Has anything changed? The conduct of the Americans and their close buddies the Israelis is remarkably similar. They are the pace-setters (though not the only practitioners) in savagery and the casual art of killing Johnny Foreigner. It is now done at arm’s length – by remote video control or at the end of a sniper’s scope-sight or by DU tank shell, or from 35,000 feet. No need to personally check the situation on the ground, or look your unarmed victim in the eye, or get your hands dirty. No need to count the bodies afterwards or clear up the shredded and vaporized remains.
Apparently these high-tech killers, their commanders and their political masters have convinced themselves that everyone they don’t like is subhuman.
I'm reminded of a blistering attack by a church minister in Oklahoma after the shock-and-awe onslaught on Iraq, the point at which he discovered that his faith had been hijacked by fundamentalists who claimed to speak for Jesus but whose actions were anything but Christian.
“When you live in a country that has established international rules for waging a just war, build the United Nations on your own soil to enforce them, and then arrogantly break the very rules you set down for the rest of the world, you are doing something immoral,” he said.
”When you claim that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and yet fail to acknowledge that your policies ignore his essential teaching, or turn them on their head, you are doing something immoral.
”When you act as if the lives of Iraqi civilians are not as important as the lives of American soldiers, and refuse to even count them, you are doing something immoral.
”When you claim that our God is bigger than their God, and that our killing is righteous, while theirs is evil, we have begun to resemble the enemy we claim to be fighting, and that is immoral.
"We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us."
Stuart Littlewood is author of the book Radio Free Palestine, which tells the plight of the Palestinians under occupation. For further information please visit
I am grateful to Charles Carlson (owner of http://whtt.org/) for providing a link to a slide show of black and white pictures of Palestine before Al-Nakba and posters of wanted terrorists. Click on the following link:
Israel is said to have stepped up sales of property belonging to Palestinians driven out in 1948.
This was revealed in Jerusalem on Monday by "Adalah" - a legal centre for Arab Rights in Israel.
The centre says the move is against both Israeli and international law and will have major repercussions on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
We ask what are the real motives behind it? And will it affect the Palestinians' right of return?
Rachel's Words
Being a ‘page one’ entry on the 
