A well-informed source of the Palestinian Islamic Hamas movement on Thursday revealed some of the contents of a video tape showing Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit at his captivity in the Gaza Strip.
The one-minute tape of Shalit, who has been held in Gaza since 2006, "was sent to Egypt on Monday with a Hamas delegation" which left Gaza for a meeting with Egyptian officials, the source told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.
The video was shot two months ago "at a disclosed area in the Gaza Strip," the source said, adding that Shalit wearing civilian cloths stood in front of a big piece of cloth with Hamas' military wing's logo.
"The tape clearly shows that the captive soldier enjoys a good health and doesn't show any signs of wounds," the Hamas source said.
"Only a small group of people is in charge of Shalit's holding and no one from Hamas leadership knows the place where the soldier is staying," the source continued.
He also revealed that communications between Hamas leaders and Shalit's captors are "very restricted and difficult."
The Hamas source expected that the tape would be delivered to Israel and to Shalit's family Thursday.
Earlier, German mediators have "shown the tape to Israeli negotiators," according to the source.
Israel is set to free 20 female prisoners after it verifies the tape. The mutual gestures could pave the way for a wider prisoner exchange as Israeli sources said the swap might complete in two months.
Hamas demands Israel free more than 1,000 Arab and Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit.
Palestinians cry 'blackmail' over Israel phone service threat
By Ben Lynfield in Jerusalem
Israel is threatening to kill off a crucial West Bank economic project unless the Palestinian Authority withdraws a request to the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged Israeli crimes during last winter’s Gaza war.
Shalom Kital, an aide to defence minister Ehud Barak
, said today that Israel will not release a share of the radio spectrum that has long been sought by the Palestinian Authority to enable the launch of a second mobile telecommunications company unless the PA drops its efforts to put Israeli soldiers and officers in the dock over the Israeli operation.
“It’s a condition. We are saying to the Palestinians that ‘if you want a normal life and are trying to embark on a new way, you must stop your incitement,” Mr. Kital said. “We are helping the Palestinian economy but one thing we ask them is to stop with these embarrassing charges.”
As long as the Wataniya Mobile company is unable to begin its operations, communications costs are likely to remain inordinately high for Palestinian businesses and individuals. But thwarting the company benefits four unauthorized Israeli operators who make sizeable profits in the Palestinian market using infrastructure they have set up in the illegal Israeli settlements across the West Bank.
The Qatari-owned Wataniya had begun making what was planned as the second largest private investment in West Bank history - to total seven hundred million dollars. But amid frustration at more than two years of Israeli foot-dragging over the frequencies it is now warning that if forced to miss its launch date of 15 October it may close down West Bank operations and seek the return from the Palestinian Authority of its $140m licensing fee and other damages. Mr Kital said the possibility of Wataniya closing “is something the PA will have to take into consideration.”
“This is sheer blackmail by the Israelis,” said Nabil Shaath, the former PA foreign minister. “Israel has no business stealing the frequencies, keeping them and using them as blackmail to escape an international inquiry into its violations.”
Nearly 1400 Palestinians, most of whom were not taking part in the hostilities, were killed during the Gaza war, according to the Israeli human rights group B’tselem. Fourteen Israelis died, some from Hamas rocket fire that Israel says forced it to mount its operation. A UN probe released last month found that both Israel and Hamas had committed “war crimes”.
Mr Shaath said the PA would not back down over the matter.“The Palestinians in Gaza suffered greatly and we are responsible for them. We are the aggrieved party. Israeli soldiers and those who gave orders should be questioned and be liable to prosecution.”
The Palestinian request to the ICC dates back eight months. But Israeli concern over international legal steps has intensified since the UN commission, headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone, concluded that the Israeli military
judicial system did not meet international legal standards of independence and impartiality. It called for the ICC to activate an indictment process within six months unless the country mounts its own credible investigations of its troops actions.
The Israeli stance on the frequencies marks a flouting of the efforts of the international community’s Middle East envoy, Tony Blair, who last month urged that they be released and warned of harm to the local economy if Israel persisted in its refusal. Mr Kital said today that Mr Blair “is very aware” there will be no release unless the Palestinians drop their request to the ICC.
Israel is threatening to kill off a crucial West Bank economic project unless the Palestinian Authority withdraws a request to the International Criminal Court to investigate alleged Israeli crimes during last winter’s Gaza war.
Shalom Kital, an aide to defence minister Ehud Barak
, said today that Israel will not release a share of the radio spectrum that has long been sought by the Palestinian Authority to enable the launch of a second mobile telecommunications company unless the PA drops its efforts to put Israeli soldiers and officers in the dock over the Israeli operation.
“It’s a condition. We are saying to the Palestinians that ‘if you want a normal life and are trying to embark on a new way, you must stop your incitement,” Mr. Kital said. “We are helping the Palestinian economy but one thing we ask them is to stop with these embarrassing charges.”
As long as the Wataniya Mobile company is unable to begin its operations, communications costs are likely to remain inordinately high for Palestinian businesses and individuals. But thwarting the company benefits four unauthorized Israeli operators who make sizeable profits in the Palestinian market using infrastructure they have set up in the illegal Israeli settlements across the West Bank.
The Qatari-owned Wataniya had begun making what was planned as the second largest private investment in West Bank history - to total seven hundred million dollars. But amid frustration at more than two years of Israeli foot-dragging over the frequencies it is now warning that if forced to miss its launch date of 15 October it may close down West Bank operations and seek the return from the Palestinian Authority of its $140m licensing fee and other damages. Mr Kital said the possibility of Wataniya closing “is something the PA will have to take into consideration.”
“This is sheer blackmail by the Israelis,” said Nabil Shaath, the former PA foreign minister. “Israel has no business stealing the frequencies, keeping them and using them as blackmail to escape an international inquiry into its violations.”
Nearly 1400 Palestinians, most of whom were not taking part in the hostilities, were killed during the Gaza war, according to the Israeli human rights group B’tselem. Fourteen Israelis died, some from Hamas rocket fire that Israel says forced it to mount its operation. A UN probe released last month found that both Israel and Hamas had committed “war crimes”.
Mr Shaath said the PA would not back down over the matter.“The Palestinians in Gaza suffered greatly and we are responsible for them. We are the aggrieved party. Israeli soldiers and those who gave orders should be questioned and be liable to prosecution.”
The Palestinian request to the ICC dates back eight months. But Israeli concern over international legal steps has intensified since the UN commission, headed by South African judge Richard Goldstone, concluded that the Israeli military
judicial system did not meet international legal standards of independence and impartiality. It called for the ICC to activate an indictment process within six months unless the country mounts its own credible investigations of its troops actions.
The Israeli stance on the frequencies marks a flouting of the efforts of the international community’s Middle East envoy, Tony Blair, who last month urged that they be released and warned of harm to the local economy if Israel persisted in its refusal. Mr Kital said today that Mr Blair “is very aware” there will be no release unless the Palestinians drop their request to the ICC.
Arab Israelis protest for right to live in dignity in "homeland"
Peace talks off if UN adopts Gaza report: Israel
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 People in Paris demonstrate in support of Gaza after South African judge Goldstone issued his critical report of Israel |
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM/ Araba (Agencies)
Israel has been stepping up public attacks on the report into its air, land and sea attack on the Gaza Strip -- calling it unbalanced and one-sided -- before a meeting on Friday by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council.
" Advancing the so-called Goldstone report will deal a fatal blow to the peace process. Israel will not be able to take further steps and take risks for peace if it is denied the right of self-defense " Israeli PM
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" The government is run by gangsters, not statesmen " Palestinian woman
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 Arab Israelis protest against racist Israeli treatment 
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" In recent months, there has been a parallel situation of racist policies in parliament and greater condoning of violence towards Arab citizens by the police and courts " Jafar Farah
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UN: Poverty tripled in Gaza
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Poverty in the Gaza Strip has tripled this year under the Israeli blockade, according to the UN agency helping refugees living there. John Ging, the head of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza, told reporters on Thursday that the number of Gazans considerered "abject poor" had tripled to 300,000 this year, equal to one in five Gazans. Ging described the situation in the narrow and overcrowded Palestinian territory as "unbearable" and as a "man-made crisis", calling on Israel to ease its siege immediately. "The humanitarian situation here in Gaza continues to deteriorate at an alarming rate for the ordinary poor citizens," Ging said. He reported that 80,000 families, representing 400,000 Palestinian refugees, had applied to UNRWA for extra assistance. "We now have three times more hardship cases. People cannot feed their families even with our assistance. "At the start of this year, there were 100,000 people that were in our special hardship category, now we have another 200,000 added to that, "Of course, sadly, this is the predictable consequence of the blockade and of the siege on Gaza. We want, once again, to call for the lifting of the siege on Gaza." Gaza's economy has foundered under the blockade Israel imposed after the Hamas movement took control of the territory in 2007. The UN provides food aid to nearly one million Gazans. It defines "abject poor" as those who cannot feed their families, even with UN assistance. Ging said his agency urgently requires greater funding to fill the growing need. |
Top Things you Think You Know about Iran that are not True
By Juan Cole
Thursday is a fateful day for the world, as the US, other members of the United Nations Security Council, and Germany meet in Geneva with Iran in a bid to resolve outstanding issues. Although Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had earlier attempted to put the nuclear issue off the bargaining table, this rhetorical flourish was a mere opening gambit and nuclear issues will certainly dominate the talks. As Henry Kissinger pointed out, these talks are just beginning and there are highly unlikely to be any breakthroughs for a very long time. Diplomacy is a marathon, not a sprint.
But on this occasion, I thought I'd take the opportunity to list some things that people tend to think they know about Iran, but for which the evidence is shaky.
Belief: Iran is aggressive and has threatened to attack Israel, its neighbors or the US
Reality: Iran has not launched an aggressive war modern history (unlike the US or Israel), and its leaders have a doctrine of "no first strike." This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as of Revolutionary Guards commanders.
Belief: Iran is a militarized society bristling with dangerous weapons and a growing threat to world peace.
Reality: Iran's military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets. Moreover, Iran is a country of 70 million, so that its per capita spending on defense is tiny compared to these others, since they are much smaller countries with regard to population. Iran spends less per capita on its military than any other country in the Persian Gulf region with the exception of the United Arab Emirates.
Belief: Iran has threatened to attack Israel militarily and to "wipe it off the map."
Reality: No Iranian leader in the executive has threatened an aggressive act of war on Israel, since this would contradict the doctrine of 'no first strike' to which the country has adhered. The Iranian president has explicitly said that Iran is not a threat to any country, including Israel.
Belief: But didn't President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threaten to 'wipe Israel off the map?'
Reality: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did quote Ayatollah Khomeini to the effect that "this Occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time" (in rezhim-e eshghalgar-i Qods bayad as safheh-e ruzgar mahv shavad). This was not a pledge to roll tanks and invade or to launch missiles, however. It is the expression of a hope that the regime will collapse, just as the Soviet Union did. It is not a threat to kill anyone at all.
Belief: But aren't Iranians Holocaust deniers?
Actuality: Some are, some aren't. Former president Mohammad Khatami has castigated Ahmadinejad for questioning the full extent of the Holocaust, which he called "the crime of Nazism." Many educated Iranians in the regime are perfectly aware of the horrors of the Holocaust. In any case, despite what propagandists imply, neither Holocaust denial (as wicked as that is) nor calling Israel names is the same thing as pledging to attack it militarily.
Belief: Iran is like North Korea in having an active nuclear weapons program, and is the same sort of threat to the world.
Actuality: Iran has a nuclear enrichment site at Natanz near Isfahan where it says it is trying to produce fuel for future civilian nuclear reactors to generate electricity. All Iranian leaders deny that this site is for weapons production, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly inspected it and found no weapons program. Iran is not being completely transparent, generating some doubts, but all the evidence the IAEA and the CIA can gather points to there not being a weapons program. The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate by 16 US intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, assessed with fair confidence that Iran has no nuclear weapons research program. This assessment was based on debriefings of defecting nuclear scientists, as well as on the documents they brought out, in addition to US signals intelligence from Iran. While Germany, Israel and recently the UK intelligence is more suspicious of Iranian intentions, all of them were badly wrong about Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction and Germany in particular was taken in by Curveball, a drunk Iraqi braggart.
Belief: The West recently discovered a secret Iranian nuclear weapons plant in a mountain near Qom.
Actuality: Iran announced Monday a week ago to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had begun work on a second, civilian nuclear enrichment facility near Qom. There are no nuclear materials at the site and it has not gone hot, so technically Iran is not in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, though it did break its word to the IAEA that it would immediately inform the UN of any work on a new facility. Iran has pledged to allow the site to be inspected regularly by the IAEA, and if it honors the pledge, as it largely has at the Natanz plant, then Iran cannot produce nuclear weapons at the site, since that would be detected by the inspectors. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted on Sunday that Iran could not produce nuclear weapons at Natanz precisely because it is being inspected. Yet American hawks have repeatedly demanded a strike on Natanz.
Belief: The world should sanction Iran not only because of its nuclear enrichment research program but also because the current regime stole June's presidential election and brutally repressed the subsequent demonstrations.
Actuality: Iran's reform movement is dead set against increased sanctions on Iran, which likely would not affect the regime, and would harm ordinary Iranians.
Belief: Isn't the Iranian regime irrational and crazed, so that a doctrine of mutally assured destruction just would not work with them?
Actuality: Iranian politicians are rational actors. If they were madmen, why haven't they invaded any of their neighbors? Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded both Iran and Kuwait. Israel invaded its neighbors more than once. In contrast, Iran has not started any wars. Demonizing people by calling them unbalanced is an old propaganda trick. The US elite was once unalterably opposed to China having nuclear science because they believed the Chinese are intrinsically irrational. This kind of talk is a form of racism.
Belief: The international community would not have put sanctions on Iran, and would not be so worried, if it were not a gathering nuclear threat.
Actuality: The centrifuge technology that Iran is using to enrich uranium is open-ended. In the old days, you could tell which countries might want a nuclear bomb by whether they were building light water reactors (unsuitable for bomb-making) or heavy-water reactors (could be used to make a bomb). But with centrifuges, once you can enrich to 5% to fuel a civilian reactor, you could theoretically feed the material back through many times and enrich to 90% for a bomb. However, as long as centrifuge plants are being actively inspected, they cannot be used to make a bomb. The two danger signals would be if Iran threw out the inspectors or if it found a way to create a secret facility. The latter task would be extremely difficult, however, as demonstrated by the CIA's discovery of the Qom facility construction in 2006 from satellite photos. Nuclear installations, especially centrifuge ones, consume a great deal of water, construction materiel, and so forth, so that constructing one in secret is a tall order. In any case, you can't attack and destroy a country because you have an intuition that they might be doing something illegal. You need some kind of proof. Moreover, Israel, Pakistan and India are all much worse citizens of the globe than Iran, since they refused to sign the NPT and then went for broke to get a bomb; and nothing at all has been done to any of them by the UNSC.
Thursday is a fateful day for the world, as the US, other members of the United Nations Security Council, and Germany meet in Geneva with Iran in a bid to resolve outstanding issues. Although Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had earlier attempted to put the nuclear issue off the bargaining table, this rhetorical flourish was a mere opening gambit and nuclear issues will certainly dominate the talks. As Henry Kissinger pointed out, these talks are just beginning and there are highly unlikely to be any breakthroughs for a very long time. Diplomacy is a marathon, not a sprint.
But on this occasion, I thought I'd take the opportunity to list some things that people tend to think they know about Iran, but for which the evidence is shaky.
Belief: Iran is aggressive and has threatened to attack Israel, its neighbors or the US
Reality: Iran has not launched an aggressive war modern history (unlike the US or Israel), and its leaders have a doctrine of "no first strike." This is true of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as well as of Revolutionary Guards commanders.
Belief: Iran is a militarized society bristling with dangerous weapons and a growing threat to world peace.
Reality: Iran's military budget is a little over $6 billion annually. Sweden, Singapore and Greece all have larger military budgets. Moreover, Iran is a country of 70 million, so that its per capita spending on defense is tiny compared to these others, since they are much smaller countries with regard to population. Iran spends less per capita on its military than any other country in the Persian Gulf region with the exception of the United Arab Emirates.
Belief: Iran has threatened to attack Israel militarily and to "wipe it off the map."
Reality: No Iranian leader in the executive has threatened an aggressive act of war on Israel, since this would contradict the doctrine of 'no first strike' to which the country has adhered. The Iranian president has explicitly said that Iran is not a threat to any country, including Israel.
Belief: But didn't President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threaten to 'wipe Israel off the map?'
Reality: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did quote Ayatollah Khomeini to the effect that "this Occupation regime over Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time" (in rezhim-e eshghalgar-i Qods bayad as safheh-e ruzgar mahv shavad). This was not a pledge to roll tanks and invade or to launch missiles, however. It is the expression of a hope that the regime will collapse, just as the Soviet Union did. It is not a threat to kill anyone at all.
Belief: But aren't Iranians Holocaust deniers?
Actuality: Some are, some aren't. Former president Mohammad Khatami has castigated Ahmadinejad for questioning the full extent of the Holocaust, which he called "the crime of Nazism." Many educated Iranians in the regime are perfectly aware of the horrors of the Holocaust. In any case, despite what propagandists imply, neither Holocaust denial (as wicked as that is) nor calling Israel names is the same thing as pledging to attack it militarily.
Belief: Iran is like North Korea in having an active nuclear weapons program, and is the same sort of threat to the world.
Actuality: Iran has a nuclear enrichment site at Natanz near Isfahan where it says it is trying to produce fuel for future civilian nuclear reactors to generate electricity. All Iranian leaders deny that this site is for weapons production, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly inspected it and found no weapons program. Iran is not being completely transparent, generating some doubts, but all the evidence the IAEA and the CIA can gather points to there not being a weapons program. The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate by 16 US intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency, assessed with fair confidence that Iran has no nuclear weapons research program. This assessment was based on debriefings of defecting nuclear scientists, as well as on the documents they brought out, in addition to US signals intelligence from Iran. While Germany, Israel and recently the UK intelligence is more suspicious of Iranian intentions, all of them were badly wrong about Iraq's alleged Weapons of Mass Destruction and Germany in particular was taken in by Curveball, a drunk Iraqi braggart.
Belief: The West recently discovered a secret Iranian nuclear weapons plant in a mountain near Qom.
Actuality: Iran announced Monday a week ago to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it had begun work on a second, civilian nuclear enrichment facility near Qom. There are no nuclear materials at the site and it has not gone hot, so technically Iran is not in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, though it did break its word to the IAEA that it would immediately inform the UN of any work on a new facility. Iran has pledged to allow the site to be inspected regularly by the IAEA, and if it honors the pledge, as it largely has at the Natanz plant, then Iran cannot produce nuclear weapons at the site, since that would be detected by the inspectors. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted on Sunday that Iran could not produce nuclear weapons at Natanz precisely because it is being inspected. Yet American hawks have repeatedly demanded a strike on Natanz.
Belief: The world should sanction Iran not only because of its nuclear enrichment research program but also because the current regime stole June's presidential election and brutally repressed the subsequent demonstrations.
Actuality: Iran's reform movement is dead set against increased sanctions on Iran, which likely would not affect the regime, and would harm ordinary Iranians.
Belief: Isn't the Iranian regime irrational and crazed, so that a doctrine of mutally assured destruction just would not work with them?
Actuality: Iranian politicians are rational actors. If they were madmen, why haven't they invaded any of their neighbors? Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded both Iran and Kuwait. Israel invaded its neighbors more than once. In contrast, Iran has not started any wars. Demonizing people by calling them unbalanced is an old propaganda trick. The US elite was once unalterably opposed to China having nuclear science because they believed the Chinese are intrinsically irrational. This kind of talk is a form of racism.
Belief: The international community would not have put sanctions on Iran, and would not be so worried, if it were not a gathering nuclear threat.
Actuality: The centrifuge technology that Iran is using to enrich uranium is open-ended. In the old days, you could tell which countries might want a nuclear bomb by whether they were building light water reactors (unsuitable for bomb-making) or heavy-water reactors (could be used to make a bomb). But with centrifuges, once you can enrich to 5% to fuel a civilian reactor, you could theoretically feed the material back through many times and enrich to 90% for a bomb. However, as long as centrifuge plants are being actively inspected, they cannot be used to make a bomb. The two danger signals would be if Iran threw out the inspectors or if it found a way to create a secret facility. The latter task would be extremely difficult, however, as demonstrated by the CIA's discovery of the Qom facility construction in 2006 from satellite photos. Nuclear installations, especially centrifuge ones, consume a great deal of water, construction materiel, and so forth, so that constructing one in secret is a tall order. In any case, you can't attack and destroy a country because you have an intuition that they might be doing something illegal. You need some kind of proof. Moreover, Israel, Pakistan and India are all much worse citizens of the globe than Iran, since they refused to sign the NPT and then went for broke to get a bomb; and nothing at all has been done to any of them by the UNSC.
No Credible Evidence' of Iranian Nuclear Weapons, says UN Inspector
Mohamed ElBaradei says Iran was 'on the wrong side of the law' but rejects British intelligence claims
By Julian Borger and Richard Norton-TaylorThe UN's chief weapons inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, said today he had seen "no credible evidence" that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, rejecting British intelligence allegations that a weapons programme has been going on for at least four years.
The claims and counter-claims came on the eve of a potentially decisive meeting in Geneva between diplomats from six world powers and an Iranian delegation about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Iran insists its programme is for peaceful purposes, and that there is nothing illegal about a uranium enrichment plant under construction near the city of Qom, the existence of which was revealed last week. Iranian leaders say they did not have to inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) until six months before the first uranium was processed.
But ElBaradei, the outgoing IAEA director general, publicly disagreed today, saying Iran had been under an obligation to tell the agency "on the day it was decided to construct the facility". He said the Iranian government was "on the wrong side of the law".
However, ElBaradei rejected British intelligence claims that Iran had reactivated its weapons programme at least four years ago. By making the claims the UK broke with the official US intelligence position that Iranian work on developing a warhead probably stopped in 2003. They said that even if there was a halt, as reported in a US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) two years ago, the programme restarted in late 2004 or early 2005.
British officials had been privately sceptical about the NIE finding since its publication in 2007, but this was the first time they had made detailed allegations about Iran's weapons programme.
BND, the German intelligence organisation, this year provided evidence in a court case saying it believed weapons work in Iran had continued after 2003. A leaked internal memo written by the IAEA also found that Iran probably had "sufficient information" to build a bomb, and that it had "probably tested" a high-explosive component of a nuclear warhead.
ElBaradei has angrily rejected claims from Israel, France and the US that he had suppressed the internal IAEA report, saying all relevant and confirmed information had been presented to member states.
Tomorrow's talks will take place in a secluded villa on the edge of Geneva. The Iranian delegation will be led by its chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, who at a similar meeting in Switzerland last year delivered a lecture more than two hours long about recent Iranian history and the global balance of power. But he refused to discuss Iran's nuclear programme.
Iranian officials say its programme remains non-negotiable, despite five UN security council resolutions calling for Iran to suspend enrichment. Western negotiators say they will push for a date for an IAEA inspection of the Qom uranium plant, and further concrete steps from the Iranian government to restore international confidence in the peaceful purpose of its programme. Failing that, multilateral talks will start on the imposition of more sanctions.
The Kremlin said today that the Russian position on sanctions would depend on the degree of Iranian cooperation with the IAEA. However, Russia and China are expected to resist the far-reaching measures aimed at Iran's energy sector being promoted by the US, Britain and France.
By Julian Borger and Richard Norton-TaylorThe UN's chief weapons inspector, Mohamed ElBaradei, said today he had seen "no credible evidence" that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, rejecting British intelligence allegations that a weapons programme has been going on for at least four years.
The claims and counter-claims came on the eve of a potentially decisive meeting in Geneva between diplomats from six world powers and an Iranian delegation about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
Iran insists its programme is for peaceful purposes, and that there is nothing illegal about a uranium enrichment plant under construction near the city of Qom, the existence of which was revealed last week. Iranian leaders say they did not have to inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) until six months before the first uranium was processed.
But ElBaradei, the outgoing IAEA director general, publicly disagreed today, saying Iran had been under an obligation to tell the agency "on the day it was decided to construct the facility". He said the Iranian government was "on the wrong side of the law".
However, ElBaradei rejected British intelligence claims that Iran had reactivated its weapons programme at least four years ago. By making the claims the UK broke with the official US intelligence position that Iranian work on developing a warhead probably stopped in 2003. They said that even if there was a halt, as reported in a US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) two years ago, the programme restarted in late 2004 or early 2005.
British officials had been privately sceptical about the NIE finding since its publication in 2007, but this was the first time they had made detailed allegations about Iran's weapons programme.
BND, the German intelligence organisation, this year provided evidence in a court case saying it believed weapons work in Iran had continued after 2003. A leaked internal memo written by the IAEA also found that Iran probably had "sufficient information" to build a bomb, and that it had "probably tested" a high-explosive component of a nuclear warhead.
ElBaradei has angrily rejected claims from Israel, France and the US that he had suppressed the internal IAEA report, saying all relevant and confirmed information had been presented to member states.
Tomorrow's talks will take place in a secluded villa on the edge of Geneva. The Iranian delegation will be led by its chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, who at a similar meeting in Switzerland last year delivered a lecture more than two hours long about recent Iranian history and the global balance of power. But he refused to discuss Iran's nuclear programme.
Iranian officials say its programme remains non-negotiable, despite five UN security council resolutions calling for Iran to suspend enrichment. Western negotiators say they will push for a date for an IAEA inspection of the Qom uranium plant, and further concrete steps from the Iranian government to restore international confidence in the peaceful purpose of its programme. Failing that, multilateral talks will start on the imposition of more sanctions.
The Kremlin said today that the Russian position on sanctions would depend on the degree of Iranian cooperation with the IAEA. However, Russia and China are expected to resist the far-reaching measures aimed at Iran's energy sector being promoted by the US, Britain and France.
The Grey Wall of Shame
Mike Hall
We rode near the 'security barrier' when we first entered the holy land
The rabbi said it is being built to keep their cousins from the milk and honey
Yet when i went to see it up close and personal
It was no more than an oppressive prison wall straight out of Dachau
This sentinel of segregation is high and mighty
It's imposing face grim and ugly
Guarded by tinted-glass grey watchtowers
Manned by green-clad child-soldiers with black guns, high-tech cameras and occasional pompous glee with random shootings
They said it was for security
They spun their spurious rationalizations till the truth became faint and sick with nausea
The reality being, it is camouflaged annexation built to steal and rob, squeeze and intimidate
The fact is, this wall imprisons a people for the prime purpose of ethnic cleansing
Like isolated islands of coerced and hectored reservations in the rolling hot desert
Choked and constricted from swimming pool settlements from above
As these outposts dump raw sewage down pipes on the dry villages and dusty towns
Secured by roadblocks, checkpoints, and deadly firepower with head-shots a specialty
This apartheid wall is an icon of iniquity and shame
for it keeps families from families
Neighbors from neighbors
Children from their schools
Hospitals from the ill and lame
This monstrosity separates Shepard's from their herds
Blocks farmers form their ancestral fields and hallowed grounds
For this insatiable concrete constrictor grows and squeezes
Devouring groves and slaughtering livelihoods without care nor remorse
This barricade of segregation, nepotism and elitism
This fixture of compliant discomfiture for the entire world as the vast majority turn a blind eye afraid of being called anti-semtic
Tell me where are the voices who are so deafening silent during this continuing crime against justice,G_D and humanity
Being anti-semtic is allowing this to happen to the Semites who never left the holy land; the Palestinians yolked by Hebrew Chauvinism
Yet if i could, i should strive with all my might to clean up this grey feces
i would, with my friends, with the children and all those affected
Walk up to this unholy nightmare and strip it bare brick by brick
We should disassemble and dismantle this iniquity gently without hate, without rage and gather the bits and pieces into piles
From the bricks of concrete and steel we would build homes,hospitals and schools
from the hate that built this militarily-ruled punitive complex we would replace it with forgiveness,tolerance and compassion
Ah yes,we could heal the wounded land and replant the seeds of olives ,grapes, mint and oranges
Those we feed tomorrow by what we sow here today
This is my dream, the dream of so many, this is the faith in the hope of Adalaha for Hanthala that will one day bridge over this immorality, this epitome of cruel unethical captivity
Yet in good sooth, freedom won't come by my hands nor by yours
No, the hands, hearts, and minds that will heal this harm will come from the hands that built this and from those who suffer from it
And that day will come someday soon one day to this tortured land and people
When:
One person
One vote
Becomes One nation
Secular
When all the walls fall in the holy land
With Egalitarianism for one and all
From the south of Lebanon
To the Negev
From the Mediterranean Sea
To the Jordon River
We rode near the 'security barrier' when we first entered the holy land
The rabbi said it is being built to keep their cousins from the milk and honey
Yet when i went to see it up close and personal
It was no more than an oppressive prison wall straight out of Dachau
This sentinel of segregation is high and mighty
It's imposing face grim and ugly
Guarded by tinted-glass grey watchtowers
Manned by green-clad child-soldiers with black guns, high-tech cameras and occasional pompous glee with random shootings
They said it was for security
They spun their spurious rationalizations till the truth became faint and sick with nausea
The reality being, it is camouflaged annexation built to steal and rob, squeeze and intimidate
The fact is, this wall imprisons a people for the prime purpose of ethnic cleansing
Like isolated islands of coerced and hectored reservations in the rolling hot desert
Choked and constricted from swimming pool settlements from above
As these outposts dump raw sewage down pipes on the dry villages and dusty towns
Secured by roadblocks, checkpoints, and deadly firepower with head-shots a specialty
This apartheid wall is an icon of iniquity and shame
for it keeps families from families
Neighbors from neighbors
Children from their schools
Hospitals from the ill and lame
This monstrosity separates Shepard's from their herds
Blocks farmers form their ancestral fields and hallowed grounds
For this insatiable concrete constrictor grows and squeezes
Devouring groves and slaughtering livelihoods without care nor remorse
This barricade of segregation, nepotism and elitism
This fixture of compliant discomfiture for the entire world as the vast majority turn a blind eye afraid of being called anti-semtic
Tell me where are the voices who are so deafening silent during this continuing crime against justice,G_D and humanity
Being anti-semtic is allowing this to happen to the Semites who never left the holy land; the Palestinians yolked by Hebrew Chauvinism
Yet if i could, i should strive with all my might to clean up this grey feces
i would, with my friends, with the children and all those affected
Walk up to this unholy nightmare and strip it bare brick by brick
We should disassemble and dismantle this iniquity gently without hate, without rage and gather the bits and pieces into piles
From the bricks of concrete and steel we would build homes,hospitals and schools
from the hate that built this militarily-ruled punitive complex we would replace it with forgiveness,tolerance and compassion
Ah yes,we could heal the wounded land and replant the seeds of olives ,grapes, mint and oranges
Those we feed tomorrow by what we sow here today
This is my dream, the dream of so many, this is the faith in the hope of Adalaha for Hanthala that will one day bridge over this immorality, this epitome of cruel unethical captivity
Yet in good sooth, freedom won't come by my hands nor by yours
No, the hands, hearts, and minds that will heal this harm will come from the hands that built this and from those who suffer from it
And that day will come someday soon one day to this tortured land and people
When:
One person
One vote
Becomes One nation
Secular
When all the walls fall in the holy land
With Egalitarianism for one and all
From the south of Lebanon
To the Negev
From the Mediterranean Sea
To the Jordon River
how come we called them " the Jews "
1948
Jews, disembarking
to become Israelis
to become Israelis
On your TV screen you will see, repeatedly ,
Arabs calling the Israelis : the Jews
I am certain that most of the Arabs , of all generations,
do know the difference between Jews and Israelis , by now,
but nevertheless they still use the term "Jews"
as a matter of habit , especially by the elder Palestinians.
What has happened ??
At the beginning of the 20Th Century , Arabs in general
and the Palestinians peculiarly , have seen the influx
of European-Jews into their Palestine.............
Until May 1948 the term Israel and or Israelis
what not yet used ..............and those immigrants
whether legal or illegal were Jews
and thus they were logically called : " the Jews"
instead of the Polish,Ukrainian,Hungarian or the French.
Practically and until 1948 there was no reason to call them
Israelis or Israeli-citizens simply because there was no
State of Israel , as we later have noticed it quite well
and quite remorsefully, too.
Therefore ,
many Arabs still use the old term of the Jews
like most of the older Westerners still use the word "Icebox"
to say Refrigerator.
Incidentaly , I grew up in Beirut ,
where "Refugee" means Palestinian......
Have no fear !!
Arabs are rarely racists ,
and Arabs historically never ever harmed the Jews
until , our self defence struggles, which started in 1948.
So next time when you hear an Arab on TV ,cursing the Jews ,
you will trust me and understand that he simply means "Israelis".
Now , why do Arabs hate the Israelis ??
is another story
which is not at all difficult to explain !!!
Sherlock Hommos
Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide A Lecture By Ben White
McMaster Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Presents:
Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide
A Lecture By Ben White
Tuesday, October 13th
6:00pm to 8:00pm
McMaster University,
Health Science Rm 1A4
Free Event - Donations Welcome
McMaster Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR) is pleased to anounce its upcoming event "Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide" where author Ben White will be presenting an important lecture as part of his Canada-wide tour. The lecture will focus on providing basic information on Israeli Apartheid and how it impacts the daily lives of the Palestinian people and their struggle for self-determination. It is drawn from Ben White new book, titled "Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide" which will be on sale at the event for $18. The lecture will be followed by a moderated Q&A session.
About Ben White:
Ben White is a freelance journalist and writer specialising in Palestine/Israel. He also writes on the broader Middle East, Islam and Christianity, and the ‘war on terror’. Ben has been visiting Palestine/Israel since 2003 for periods of between two weeks and three months, typically basing himself in the Bethlehem district of the West Bank.
His articles have appeared in a variety of international publications, including the Guardian online’s ‘Comment is free’, the New Statesman, Electronic Intifada, Christian Science Monitor, Palestine Chronicle, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Middle East International, Church Times, Church of England Newspaper, Third Way, and Palestine-Israel Journal.
In 2008, along with blogger and film-maker Philip Rizk, Ben organised the ‘JustPeace60’ declaration of Christian leaders around the world. On Israel’s 60th anniversary, this statement was published in the UK national newspaper ‘The Independent’ and reproduced all over the internet. He has given numerous talks on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in universities, churches, and community centres.
He graduated from Cambridge University with a BA in English Literature in 2005. His final year dissertation was a comparative study of the representation of dispossession in the contemporary literature of Palestinians and Native Americans. He now lives in the UK.
McMaster SPHR calls on all students, faculty, staff and members of the Hamilton community to join us for this important event. We welcome your suggestions or inquiries at sphr.mcmaster@gmail.com.
RSVP TO THE FACEBOOK EVENT: facebook.com/event.php?
DIRECTIONS: mcmaster.ca/
or maps.google.ca/maps?hl=en&
More information on the book: israeliapartheidguide.
Ben White's personal website: benwhite.org.uk
Free preview of Ben White's book (the FAQ section):
mediafire.com/file/
Ben White's book review by Raymond Deane:
electronicintifada.net/
For other events across Canada with Ben White: sphr.org
The Pathology of Evil
The Pathology of Evil
Israeli PM Netanyahu’s speech at the UN is a major insight into the Israeli’s mentality, psyche and logic. In his speech Netanyahu, a prolific and charismatic speaker, gives air to his genocidal inclinations, he brings to light the Israeli supremacy but he also allows us to detect some shaky and vulnerable spots at the heart of the Jewish national narrative. Reading Netanyahu’s speech makes it very clear that both the Zionist Shoa and the ‘promised land’ narratives are on the verge of collapse. It seems as if the ‘discredited’ Iranian president Ahmadinejad has managed to succeed after all.
Don’t You Mess With Our Shoa
Israelis love their Shoa, for the Shoa is no doubt their best selling Hasbara (propaganda) product. It somehow allows them to kill en masse and to do it indistinguishably while insisting that it is they who happen to be the victims.
“I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee.” Said Netanyahu. “There, on January 20,1942, after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided how to exterminate the Jewish people.”
PM Netanyahu, if you are genuinely interested in ‘extermination plans’ you do not have to travel to Wannsee, Berlin. All you have to do is visit your IDF’s headquarters in Tel Aviv. Your chief commanders will guide you through their IDF ‘solutions’ for the Palestinians. At the end of the day, it is your army that surrounds Palestinians with barbed-wire, it is you who keep civilian populations in a siege with inadequate food supplies and medicine. It is your army that poured WMD over the most densely populated neighbourhoods on this planet. While the real meaning of the ‘Nazi Final Solution’ (Die Endlösung) is still discussed by historians who fail to agree between themselves what it really meant, the true reality of the Israeli murderous solution has been seen by us all.
However, it is almost amusing to see PM Netanyahu rushing to defend the Zionist holocaust narrative. Looking at Netanyahu presenting the protocol of the Wannsee conference to the UN assembly gives a clear impression that the Israeli PM believes that the Shoa needs an urgent pump of credibility. For the first time, the Shoa is on the defence.
“Here is a copy of the plans for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million Jews were murdered. Is this too a lie?” asks the Israeli PM.
PM Netanyahu, may I suggest to you that not a single humanist cares about the exact numbers: whether it was one or four millions Jews who died in Auschwitz, no one doubts that the camp was a horrible place. Yet, two questions must be answered once and for all: how is it that the Jews, who suffered so much during that war, managed to get themselves involved in a colossal racist crime against the Palestinians (1948 Nakba) just three years after the liberation of Auschwitz? How is it that the Israeli leadership, that happens to be so sensitive to Jewish suffering, manages to neglect the pain they inflict on millions of Palestinians?
Supremacy and Beyond
As a National movement, Zionism fails to respect other national and popular movements. Seemingly Netanyahu fails to respect the Iranian people and their regime. “Wherever they can, they impose a backward regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone not deemed to be a true believer is brutally subjugated.” Netanyahu, must know that the Judaic law is not very different from Islam on these matters. He must also remember that it is in his country that gays were murdered in the street just a month ago. It is almost amusing that Netanyahu chooses to equate Iran with Barbarism and the Middle Ages for its treatment of minorities. As far as minorities are concerned, the Jewish state is actually the darkest place on this planet. In Netanyahu’s promised land half of the population cannot participate in the democratic game just for failing to be Jewish.
Israel according to Netanyahu is the embodiment of Western modernity.
“We (the Westerners) will crack the genetic code. We will cure the incurable. We will lengthen our lives. We will find a cheap alternative to fossil fuels and
clean up the planet. I am proud that my country Israel is at the forefront of these advances.” I must admit that I am not at all overwhelmed by Israeli scientific or technological achievements. Nor have I ever seen any evidence of Israeli attempts to save humanity or even the planet. In fact all I see is quite the opposite. However, if Netanyahu welcomes scientific progress, he should be the first to rally for the Iranian nuclear project. As we all know, this doesn’t seem to be the case. He, for some reason, thinks that, at least regionally, nuclear energy and weapons must remain Jew only property.
Netanyahu argues that “if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed for a time.” Netanyahu may well be correct but one should point out to him that the above applies to Israel more than any other country, state or society. For the time being it is the Jewish State that has been caught pouring WMD on its imprisoned civilian population. It is the Jewish State that is dragging us all into an ‘eye for an eye’ primitive Biblical fanaticism. As if this is not enough, it is also America and Britain that launched illegal wars orchestrated by Zionist led Neocons and fundraisers. This war has cost more than one million lives so far.
However, for once I agree with Netanyhau:
“The greatest threat facing the world today”, he says, “is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction.”
In fact, no one could describe the danger posed by the Jewish state and Zionism any better. Israel is indeed a deadly marriage between Old Testament gross genocidal barbarism, Zionist fanaticism and a huge arsenal of WMD, chemical, biological and nuclear that has already been partially put into action.
Sabbath Goyim
Like other Zionist operations around the world, Netanyahu is convinced that the Goyim should fight the Jewish wars. “Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world?” I actually would like to stress that PM Netanyahu is all wrong here. If the United Nation is interested in bringing peace to this region and the world, it is of the essence to help Iran to develop its nuclear project and even its military nuclear capacity. This seems to be the only thing that may curb the English Speaking Empire’s lethal expansionist enthusiasm as performed recently in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It will surely stop the Zionists from celebrating their symptoms at the expense of their neighbours.
Following the successful transformation of the American and British armies into an Israeli subservient mission force, Netanyahu seems to expect the UN to follow and to fulfil the very same role. “Hamas”, he says, “fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately hurled at our civilians, not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks.” I guess that someone should remind the Israeli PM that the dispute between Hamas and Israel is not exactly an international quarrel, for Palestine is not a sovereign state and Gaza is nothing less than an Israeli-run concentration camp. In other words, the practicality of the matter is simple. The UN should only deal with war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel, its leadership and its army. It is not down to the UN to pass any kind of judgment on the oppressed.
Mass Murder Fantasies
It doesn’t take long before Netanyahu lists his ideological mentors and the core of his lethal inspiration “When the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II…” Actually the allies levelled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of victims… By these twisted standards, the UN Human Rights Council would have dragged Roosevelt and Churchill to the dock as war criminals. What a perversion of truth. What a perversion of justice. Delegates of the United Nations, will you accept this farce?”
Netanyahu is almost correct. In his recounting of the 2nd WW he surely admits here that Israel follows Roosevelt’s and Churchill’s mass murder tactics. But he surely fails to realise that if it was indeed down to ethics and Justice (rather than the usual dirty politics) Roosevelt and Churchill would have been charged with war crimes on a most severe scale. Shockingly enough, Netanyahu falls into the most obvious legal trap equating Israeli activity with acts of carpet bombardment on a huge scale. For those who fail to see it all, this is a rapidly blinking red light hazard. In Netanyahu’s perception of reality nuking countries and flattening towns is a justifiable act. Roosevelt and Churchill seem to be his moral entitlement. In fact these statements are enough to make it clear to every reasonable human being that Israel is a genocidal entity that is capable of bringing our civilisation to a devastating end.
This is a wake up call: it is not just the Palestinians or the Iranians. It is actually all of us.
Bibi* the Peace Maker
By now, the Israeli PM is ready to state his Judeo centric peace mantra. “Ladies and Gentlemen, all of Israel wants peace”. Yet as far as statistics are concerned, we have recently learned that 94% of the Israeli Jews also approved the carpet bombardment of their next door neighbours. It is impossible not to see a clear discrepancy between the ‘peace loving’ verbalism and the murderous reality.
“We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: Say yes
to a Jewish state.” Once again, I happen to agree with PM Netanyahu. The Palestinian may as well say YES to a Jewish state, but not in Palestine or in the Middle East. If Obama, Brown, Merkel or any other deluded world leader who is still insisting to approve the validity or necessity of a racially orientated ‘Jewish national homeland’, he or she is more than welcome to allocate land to such a project within his or her own territory. Palestinians should say NO to a Jewish state in the Holy Land or in the region. Palestinians should never agree to the existence of a Jewish state on their land. In fact the UN must follow this line and do whatever it can to dismantle this evil apartheid regime.
Khazarian United
To a certain extent, Netanyahu’s UN speech expresses some deep concerns Jews tend to keep to themselves. At the end of the day, the Israelis and Ashkenazi Israelis in particular know pretty well that Palestine is not exactly the land of their ancestors. If the Israeli Ashkenazi Jews, including Netanyahu, do want to find their roots, Khazaria is the place to start. However, Netanyahu tries to defuse these historical facts. “The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel. This is the land of our forefathers… We are not strangers to this land. It is our homeland” says Netanyahu with total conviction.
PM Netanyahu, I will make it plain and clear. Not only are you foreign to the land, you are also foreign to almost every possible understanding of the notion of humanity. In fact, the Separation Wall that is going to be left after the inevitable disappearance of your ‘Jew only democracy’ will serve generations to come with an astonishing historical monument of Jewish national identity estranged from ethics, universalism and human brotherhood. The crime against humanity committed by the Jewish state in the name of the Jewish people is not something that will be wiped out from the history text books in a short time. Quite the opposite; it will stand as another mythological chapter in this never-ending saga of supremacist compulsive pathological self-loving.
“We must have security” says Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu as he ends his speech. And I am here to disappoint him. Israel will never be secured. It was born in a sin, and its existence surpasses any notion of ethics or human existence. The Jewish state has passed the ‘no return zone’. It is doomed to vanish. We can only hope that once this happens the process of Jewish assimilation and integration into humanity will re-embark. At the end of the day Jewish Nationalism both left, right and centre was there to keep Jews apart. The history of the 20th century teaches us that this tendency to segregate oneself is bad for humanity and it is also devastating for the Jews.
* Netanyahu’s nickname is Bibi
I am Israel: (Documentary Film)
I am Israel. Written by Hashem Said on Feb.25.2002 . Video made by Jihane on Sept.4.2009. Hashem Said is an officer in the UW Palestinian student group Hayaat.
International Criminal Court to Investigate IDF Officer
Richard Silverstein 
This is how it starts. Palestinians and anti-Occupation activists scream bloody murder for years about Israeli war crimes. The world mumbles under its breath: “Yeah sure.” Israel finally crosses a red line with two brutal wars massacring civilians in Gaza and Lebanon. An eminent international jurist writes a voluminous report for a United Nations committee documenting said war crimes. Israel begins to take notice and mounts its own counter-attack. A chief prosecutor for the International Criminal Court announces he is considering filing charges against a specific IDF officer.
IDF Lt. Col. David Benjamin to be investigated for war crimes
Perhaps the prosecutor will file such charges. Perhaps the officer will be served with a summons. Perhaps he will refuse to submit to the ICC’s jurisdiction. Or perhaps nothing will come of this particular case. But make no mistake. Lt. Col. David Benjamin , citizen of Israel and South Africa may be the first investigated or even charged. But he will not be the last. In fact, he will be the first of many.
The first case may go far or nowhere. Israel will scream bloody murder. It will refuse jurisdiction. It will claim a double standard. It will claim moral hypocrisy. Many Israeli supporters will bridle with indignation. But as time goes on more and more such cases will be brought. The ice will be broken and moral dam will burst. Israeli officers will face justice. They will go to jail. Their faces will be plastered across the world (and Israeli) press. Finally, the opprobrium of the rest of the world may sink into to the typical Israel’s obdurate consciousness. It may not happen this year or even next. But it will happen.
And when it does, Israel’s standing will fall ever so slightly. Along with increasing successes of the BDS movement and other anti-Occupation activism, Israel’s impunity will end. It will be made to pay a price. And at some point the pain will become so intense it will register for the average Israeli. And along may come Israel’s DeKlerk who realizes the entire regime is liable to collapse unless Israel reaches an accord. Bibi is certainly not that DeKlerk and nothing good can come from him. I’m afraid Israel will have to suffer much more before it understands that its Bibis do not have the answers. But eventually I’m convinced that Israelis will be able to be pragmatic and see a new political paradigm is needed. And there may be one wise enough to become the Israeli DeKlerk.
Many observers are likening this wider world awakening to Israel’s impunity regarding war crimes to the development of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. This is certainly an apt historical analogy.
But in terms of a legal analogy, I’m also reminded about the history of tobacco industry liability lawsuits. A decade or two ago you’d hear every so often of a plaintiff filing suit against one of the tobacco companies. Invariably the suits would be thrown out of court. But some time later, you’d hear that a plaintiff actually succeeded in bringing the case to trial even though a jury refused to find the tobacco company negligent. Then came the state attorneys general lawsuit against Big Tobacco and the hundreds of millions of dollar settlement. Then the CEOs of Big Tobacco lied before Congress claiming their product was not addictive. Recently, the federal government proposed regulating tobacco the same as other products. Finally, tobacco will banned or so tightly regulated that it will be much harder for people to become addicted.
Ideas like tobacco liability and Israeli war crimes are tough to swallow at first. But due to the blunders of an industry and a nation and egregious violations of law and common decency by both, taboos and barriers begin slowly to break down. What once was unthinkable becomes thinkable and even commonly accepted. It will happen, im yirtzeh ha-Shem.
Here’s some more background on the Benjamin case:
The ICC began looking into Benjamin’s case after receiving material from pro-Palestinian organizations in South Africa. The material included a transcript of an interview Benjamin gave to the web site Bloomberg.com, in which the officer recounted his involvement in legal consultations with the IDF ahead of army operations.
“We were intimately involved in planning,” Benjamin said, including “authorizing the targets that could be struck, war materiel – everything passed by us.”
Benjamin served for many years as legal adviser to the GOC Southern Command, and later headed the Military Advocate General’s department on international law.
In August, he visited South Africa to attend a conference organized by the local Jewish community on international law during wartime, with special reference to the Gaza war. Benjamin later described the trip as a “personal hasbara [public diplomacy] trip.”
The pro-Palestinian organizations promptly asked South African state prosecutors to open an investigation into suspicions that Benjamin had committed war crimes in Gaza. To avoid a potential confrontation with local authorities, Benjamin left South Africa several days earlier than he had planned.
At the conference, Benjamin rejected claims that the IDF committed war crimes in Gaza, as well as demands that Israel’s wartime conduct be subject to an external investigation.
Dennis Davis – a South African district court judge and international law lecturer at the University of Cape Town, who directed the conference – said he firmly opposed the remarks delivered by Benjamin, who was once his law student. Davis added that were Benjamin still his student, he would “fail him.”
I find it a delicious irony that Benjamin is the chief Israeli military legal “scholar” used by Alan Dershowitz in his pro-Israel screed film, The Case for Israel: Democracy’s Outpost (I kid you not–that’s the subtitle). This is hoisting Benjamin, the IDF and Dershowitz on their own petard. I only wish Der Dersh would volunteer to serve as an IDF lawyer in the next shande-war Israel prosecutes against one of its neighbors. If he takes responsibility for approving the IDF’s choice of targets like Benjamin did, then maybe he could be prosecuted too. Though unfortunately, the U.S. has not yet ratified the UN treaty and isn’t subject to the ICC. Alas.
Nuclear ??....but not-clear......
Israel ??........... is not a member......!!
Iran has already admitted that it has a second Nuclear plant
while Israel has not even admitted yet about its first nuclear plant.
I hope , pray and wish that Mr. Obama and the rest of the World
do know the difference between Nuclear-Power,
and Nuclear-Bomb (Arms).......
Because while Iran is blamed for having a Nuclear-Power-Program
Israel has already and obviously Nuclear-Bombs !!!
Besides all that ,
Iran is a member of the IAEA.....in Vienna,
and Israel is not, at all !!!
Let us not look very far for the guilty ,
because, Tel Aviv is nearer to Vienna...........than Tehran is !!
Eng. Moustafa 
Roosenbloom
Roosenbloomnight-watch-supervisor at
the Dimona-Nuke-Bombs Co.Ltd.
Jerusalem archbishop: Israel targets mosque today, church tomorrow
Jerusalem – Ma'an – Archbishop Atallah Hanna, one of the highest-ranking Christian clergymen in Jerusalem, declared Sunday's violence near the Al-Aqsa Mosque a dark premonition of Israel's plans for the city.
"What is being planned for Jerusalem is very dangerous," the archbishop said in a statement. "What happened today at the Al-Aqsa yard is a dangerous indicator of what Israeli authorities intend to work toward on Al-Aqsa, in particular, and in Jerusalem, in general."Dozens were injured in clashes that took place after right-wing religious Jews reportedly entered the Al-Aqsa compound ahead of the holy day of Yom Kippur. Israeli police used stun grenades and batons to disperse stone-throwing protesters inside and near the mosque.
"We, as Christian Palestinians and Jerusalemites, cannot keep watching with our hands folded in the face of what happened today," Hanna continued. "Today it is Al-Aqsa; tomorrow it will be the Church of the Holy Sepulcher." "The [Israeli] occupation and its racism does not exclude anyone."
Hanna was ordained Archbishop of Sebastia in 2005 for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which Orthodox Christians consider the mother church of all of Christendom.
The archbishop reaffirmed "the solidarity of Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem and all of the Holy Land with their comrades, the Muslims… Targeting them is the same as us; attacking them is attacking us."
"We are not strangers in our city. We are not guests. The stranger is the one who came and colonized this country," Hanna added. "We are the owners of this land and we will stay on it because this is our homeland, this is our Jerusalem, and these are our holy sites."
"What is being planned for Jerusalem is very dangerous," the archbishop said in a statement. "What happened today at the Al-Aqsa yard is a dangerous indicator of what Israeli authorities intend to work toward on Al-Aqsa, in particular, and in Jerusalem, in general."Dozens were injured in clashes that took place after right-wing religious Jews reportedly entered the Al-Aqsa compound ahead of the holy day of Yom Kippur. Israeli police used stun grenades and batons to disperse stone-throwing protesters inside and near the mosque.
"We, as Christian Palestinians and Jerusalemites, cannot keep watching with our hands folded in the face of what happened today," Hanna continued. "Today it is Al-Aqsa; tomorrow it will be the Church of the Holy Sepulcher." "The [Israeli] occupation and its racism does not exclude anyone."
Hanna was ordained Archbishop of Sebastia in 2005 for the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which Orthodox Christians consider the mother church of all of Christendom.
The archbishop reaffirmed "the solidarity of Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem and all of the Holy Land with their comrades, the Muslims… Targeting them is the same as us; attacking them is attacking us."
"We are not strangers in our city. We are not guests. The stranger is the one who came and colonized this country," Hanna added. "We are the owners of this land and we will stay on it because this is our homeland, this is our Jerusalem, and these are our holy sites."
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