Egypt lacks the milk of human kindness

By Stuart Littlewood

Stuart Littlewood views the obstacles being placed by Egypt on the path of the Viva Palestina international humanitarian aid convoy for Gaza, which are not only bloody minded and treacherous, but also betray a lack of any sense of brotherhood or compassion.

”Freedom activist are complaining that all this bickering with Egypt has diverted attention from the main culprits, Israel and America. But other culprits lurk in the evil swamp and Egypt is one of them. It is no bad thing that the spotlight falls on their treacherous behaviour.”

It is desperately sad to see the noble efforts of the Viva Palestina expedition turning sour in front of our eyes as the forces of darkness plot once again to derail humanitarian aid for Gaza.

Admittedly, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (joint organizers) are avoiding questions about whether or not they obtained clearance from Egypt for the route. This encourages speculation that convoy members were led up the garden path when they headed for Aqaba. The cost in time and expense (and lost pay, as many took time off work to make the trip) of having to retrace their steps to Syria, and divert to the port of Latakia, is an added burden they could have done without.

Funny that George Galloway apparently said nothing at the time about Egyptian embassy correspondences on 10 November and again on 10 December, which stipulated that the convoy must reach Gaza through the Egyptian port of El Arish, and simply pressed ahead in the knowledge that they would probably be blocked if an attempt was made to enter Egypt from Aqaba and through the port of Nuweiba.

Surely, he should have made Egypt's “impossible” conditions public and brought the issue to a head before setting out.

Galloway, for all his heroic initiatives and brilliant style, has a liking for brinkmanship and it has got him into trouble this time.

But Egypt's latest demand that the convoy must reach Gaza by 3 January – that's after insisting in their letter of 10 December that the aid should not arrive before the second week in January – is another piece of bloody-minded nonsense. What is the point of this confusion if not to thwart the whole enterprise?

Forcing the convoy to take ship and reroute down the East Mediterranean coast through the playground of Israel’s marauding gunboats is the sort of lunacy that could have dangerous consequences. Many here are predicting a Dignity-type attack on the ferries that Viva Palestina has been obliged to hire.

I suppose it is a fitting end to a rotten year, a year that began with promise and high hopes but turned out to be one of double-cross and despair. Freedom activist are complaining that all this bickering with Egypt has diverted attention from the main culprits, Israel and America. But other culprits lurk in the evil swamp and Egypt is one of them. It is no bad thing that the spotlight falls on their treacherous behaviour.

Egypt has responsibilities for keeping the Gaza border open under the Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA) but hides behind a wobbly get-out clause, namely that Gaza is "Palestinian territory that is still under Israeli occupation... Under international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention in particular, as the occupying power, Israel must ensure the basic needs of the inhabitants of the territory it occupies are met, such as electricity, water, fuel, food and medicine."

So, Egypt seeks to legitimize Israel’s illegal occupation by colluding with it, and recently has gone further. It is building an iron wall to create a hermetically-sealed border against the besieged and starving Palestinians, a despicable act that reveals, apart from a cruel streak, an apparent lack of any sense of brotherhood or compassion.

No-one can accuse President Mubarak of being like Macbeth – “too full of the milk of human kindness”.

Tactics of desperation: using false accusations of Anti-Semitism as a weapon to silence criticism of Israel's behaviour

By Ulli Diemer

Ulli Diemer argues that as world public opinion turns against Israel, its racist apartheid regime and its occupation, the Zionist state and its lobbies have turned to attempts to outlaw criticism of Israel by labelling it as “anti-Semitism” – attempts that need to be exposed and challenged as a serious threat to basic freedoms.

”At the same time as it attempts to crush internal resistance, the Israeli state, aided by its supporters in the United States and Canada, has launched extremely aggressive and well-financed propaganda campaigns abroad whose goal is to counteract the decline in support for Israel.

“A telling characteristic of these campaigns is that they by and large do not focus on attempting to justify Israel’s behaviour...

“Instead, the focus has shifted to attempting to shut down criticism of Israel by targeting the most outspoken critics with crude smear tactics and outright censorship.”

For more than 60 years, Israel has engaged in an unceasing campaign to dispossess Palestinians of their land and their rights. Its ability to do this has depended on three factors in particular:

• overwhelming military superiority;

• keeping public opinion, especially in North America and Europe, on its side; and

• making ordinary working-class Israeli Jews believe that it is in their interest to support Israel’s Zionist elite rather than making common cause with ordinary Palestinians.

Israel’s military dominance is unchallenged, thanks to unconditional support and limitless supplies of advanced military technology and equipment provided by the United States and its allies (including Canada). However, military dominance has not been able to achieve Israel’s ultimate goal: forcing Palestinians to stop resisting and to acquiesce in their dispossession and oppression. Israel’s relentless onslaught has been met by equally determined Palestinian resistance which, despite the odds, steadfastly refuses to accept the injustice of occupation.

This Palestinian resistance has called into being an ever-growing international network of support and solidarity. In dozens of countries and hundreds of communities around the world, organizations and movements have emerged to demand that Israel be made to adhere to international law and to basic principles of justice.

Israel and its supporters see these international campaigns as a huge threat. Israel has escaped the sanctions that have been applied to other states which commit human rights abuses and violate international law only because the United States automatically vetoes all attempts to hold Israel accountable. Israel is also crucially dependent on huge annual inflows of foreign aid, to the point where it is conceivable that the state would collapse if the flows of outside cash which prop it up were to be withdrawn.

Anything that undermines public support in the US, Canada and Europe, therefore, threatens the external backing on which the Israeli state depends for its very existence. It is true that the governments which turn a blind eye to Israel’s violations of international law mostly ignore popular opinion in their own countries as well, but this could change if support for Israel were to become a serious political liability. In this regard, what is particularly worrisome from Israel’s point of view is the fact that support for Israel among Jews in the United States and Canada, especially among younger Jews, has declined dramatically. If Jews stop supporting Israel, then all foreign support is in jeopardy.

Threats to Israel’s international legitimacy bring with them an even greater internal danger: the danger that Israeli Jews will themselves start seeing the Zionist formula – in essence, a militarized apartheid state holding down the Palestinian population by force – as a dead end.

If working-class Israeli Jews were to see their interests as being different from those of the ruling elite – if they come round to the view that their long-term interests will be better served if they join Palestinians in working for a democratic secular state with equal rights for Palestinians and Jews – Israel’s ruling class would find itself in the same untenable position that the white elite in apartheid South Africa faced in the early 1990s. Already, Israel’s rulers are debating what to do about the “demographic threat” they are facing: Israeli Jews are leaving the country in increasing numbers to move to other countries, while the Palestinian population continues to increase.

The Palestinian resistance, and the growing international support which it has attracted, have had a substantial effect in changing the way Israel is perceived. Increasingly, international public opinion is no longer willing to turn a blind eye to ethnic cleansing, house demolitions, systematic humiliations, imprisonment, torture, and the indiscriminate killing of civilians, children as well as adults.

Faced with the erosion of its credibility and support, the Israeli state has lashed out by using ever-increasing repression against the non-violent Palestinian resistance. One of the centres of this resistance is the village of Bil’in, which has been fighting the expansion of an illegal Israeli settlement on its land with weekly non-violent protests for more than five years now, protests which have turned Bil’in into an international symbol of non-violent resistance. The Israeli state has been using ever more extreme tactics of harassment and brutality to attempt to crush the village and put an end to the protests, which it correctly believes are causing substantial harm to Israel’s international image. Similar tactics of harassment and imprisonment are being used against other Palestinians who resist, as well as against Jewish Israelis and international solidarity activists who support the Palestinian cause.

At the same time as it attempts to crush internal resistance, the Israeli state, aided by its supporters in the United States and Canada, has launched extremely aggressive and well-financed propaganda campaigns abroad whose goal is to counteract the decline in support for Israel.

A telling characteristic of these campaigns is that they by and large do not focus on attempting to justify Israel’s behaviour. One has to assume that the architects of the propaganda efforts realize that it is no longer possible to explain war crimes and human rights abuses in a way that the international public will accept.

Instead, the focus has shifted to attempting to shut down criticism of Israel by targeting the most outspoken critics with crude smear tactics and outright censorship.

On a growing number of campuses, for example, this has involved harassment and firing of outspoken professors (e.g. Norman Finkelstein, Joel Kovel), as well as attempts to ban events such as “Israeli apartheid week”.

In Canada, we are now seeing an attempt to silence criticism of Israel by labelling all such criticism as “anti-Semitism” and therefore as hate speech. This tactic has a triple purpose: to suppress public awareness of what Israel is doing; to discredit critics by smearing them as “anti-Semitic”, and to keep Jews onside by frightening them with the spectre of anti-Semitism.

In Canada, the Harper government, fanatically pro-Israel, is fully involved in this effort. It has cut funding to groups which have supported Palestinians in their quest for justice, and it has set up a Parliamentary body charged with coming up with the legal rationale for making it illegal to criticize Israel.

If the Harper government is successful in getting its way, statements such as the following, all of them expressions of generally accepted principles of human rights and international law, will henceforth be classified as anti-Semitic hate speech in Canada:

• A state must be the state of all its citizens”.

Saying this will be classified as “anti-Semitic” because it implies that the Israeli state has a duty to serve and represent all of its citizens equally, Palestinians as well as Jews.

• ”Everyone born in a state, and everyone who has been a permanent resident for a specified and reasonable period of time, is entitled to citizenship”.

Saying this will be classified as “anti-Semitic” because it would mean that Palestinians under the rule of the Israeli state have the right to be citizens of Israel.

• ”All citizens of a state must be equal under the law, equally entitled to the rights, privileges and responsibilities of citizenship. A state may not favour, or discriminate against, citizens, on the grounds of religion, ethnicity, or race”.

Saying this will be classified as “anti-Semitic” because it implies that Israel has to dismantle its discriminatory, apartheid-style system of laws.

• ”Every state must accept its internationally recognized borders and must renounce all claims on territory outside of its borders”.

Saying this will be classified as “anti-Semitic” because it would mean that Israel would have to stop seizing land beyond its borders.

• ”All states must abide by international law, including the Geneva conventions, laws against collective punishment, laws against torture, etc.”

Saying this will be classified as “anti-Semitic” because it implies that Israel has to stop engaging in ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, and other violations of international law.

• “Refugees have a right to return to the lands from which they were expelled by an invading army or occupying power.”

Saying this will be classified as “anti-Semitic” because it means that the Palestinian refugees expelled from their homeland by Israel must be allowed to exercise their right of return as guaranteed by international law.

• ”Sanctions should be applied to those who violate international law.”

Saying this will be classified as “anti-Semitic” because it implies that Israel should face sanctions for engaging in collective punishment and ethnic cleansing, for practising torture, for committing war crimes, for defying UN resolutions and World Court rulings, and for other illegal acts.

The attempt to outlaw criticism of Israel by labelling it as “anti-Semitism” is a serious threat which needs to be exposed and challenged. At the same time, it should also be recognized as a tactic of desperation, a tactic that has become necessary because of the ever-growing opposition to the crimes of the Israeli state.

The resort to increasingly blatant open repression is a symptom of loss of control. In the past such tactics would not have been necessary because any criticism of Israel was confined to the outer fringes of public debate. Now it has become mainstream, and those who support an ethnically defined, apartheid-style Israeli state are feeling increasingly threatened. Those of us who support a democratic secular state should feel encouraged, even though the struggle is far from won.

Walid Shoebat is a fraud: - "The Palestinian 'terrorist' turned Zionist,"

For your archives when Walid Shoebat shows up in your neighbourhood to
speak.

Shoebat Walid is a fraud and a paid political prostitute for the
Zionists. If he was a terrorist and committed even one terrorist act he
would be inadmissible to both Canada and the US as a person who had
committed acts of terrorism. The Canadian Arab Federation launched a
formal complaint against him with the Minister of Citizenship and
Immigration in Canada and they reported back that he had not committed
any acts of terrorism like he alleges. He was lying about his
background. He was not inadmissible to Canada as a terrorist or
suspected terrorist. There are several like him on the payroll. He
simply lies and makes thing up. I saw him speak once and challenged him
at a public forum. However, very few people confront him and the US and
Canadian governments leave him alone, no doubt for political reasons and
he is a useful stooge for the Zionists.

Edward C. Corrigan

*The Palestinian 'terrorist' turned Zionist
Mar. 30, 2008

When he was 16, says Walid Shoebat, he was recruited by a PLO operative
by the name of Mahmoud al-Mughrabi to carry out an attack on a branch of
Bank Leumi in Bethlehem.

At six in the evening he was supposed to detonate a bomb in the doorway
of the bank. But when he saw a group of Arab children playing nearby, he
says, his conscience was pricked and he threw the bomb onto the roof of
the bank instead, where it exploded causing no fatalities.

This is the story that Shoebat, who converted from Islam to Christianity
in 1993 and has lived in the United States since the late 1970s, has
told on tours around the US and Europe since 9/11 opened the West's
public consciousness to the dangers of Islamic extremism.

Shoebat's Web site says his is an assumed name, used to protect him from
reprisal attacks by his former terror chiefs, whom he says have put a
$10 million price on his head.

Shoebat is sometimes paid for his appearances, and he also solicits
donations to a Walid Shoebat Foundation to help fund this work and to
"fight for the Jewish people."

The BBC, Fox News and CNN have all presented Shoebat as a terrorist
turned peacemaker, interviewing him as someone uniquely capable of
providing insight into the terrorist mindset.

Now he and two other former extremists are set to appear along with US
Senator Joe Lieberman, Ambassador to the US Sallai Meridor and other
notables at an annual "Christians United For Israel" conference in
Washington in July.

The three "ex-terrorists" have appeared previously at Harvard and
Columbia universities and, most recently, at the US Air Force Academy in
Colorado, in February, at a conference whose findings, the organizers
said, would be circulated at the Pentagon and among members of Congress
and other influential figures.

Last year, Shoebat spoke to the BattleCry Christian gathering in San
Francisco, which drew a reported 22,000 evangelical teenagers to what
the San Francisco Chronicle described as "a mix of pep rally, rock
concert and church service."

The paper described Shoebat as a self-proclaimed "former Islamic
terrorist" who said that Islam was a "satanic cult" and who told the
crowd how he eventually accepted Jesus into his heart.

However, Shoebat's claim to have bombed Bank Leumi in Bethlehem is
rejected by members of his family who still live in the area, and Bank
Leumi says it has no record of such an attack ever taking place.

His relatives, members of the Shoebat family, are mystified by the
notion of "Walid Shoebat" being an assumed name. And the Walid Shoebat
Foundation's working process is less than transparent, with Shoebat's
claim that it is registered as a charity in the state of Pennsylvania
being denied by the Pennsylvania State Attorney's Office.

Shoebat's claim to have been a terrorist rests on his account of the
purported bombing of Bank Leumi. But after checking its files, the bank
said it had no record of an attack on its Bethlehem branch anywhere in
the relevant 1977-79 period.

Shoebat told The Jerusalem Post that this could be because the bank
building was robustly protected with steel and that the attack may have
caused little damage.

Asked whether word of the bombing made the news at the time, he said, "I
don't know. I didn't read the papers because I was in hiding for the
next three days." (In 2004, he had told Britain's Sunday Telegraph: "I
was terribly relieved when I heard on the news later that evening that
no one had been hurt or killed by my bomb.")

Shoebat could not immediately recall the year, or even the time of year,
of the purported bombing when talking to the Post by phone from the US.
After wavering, he finally settled for the summer of 1977.

The Sunday Telegraph described Shoebat as a man who "for much of his
life... was eager to commit acts of terrorism for the sake of his soul
and the Palestinian cause."

In that interview he described how he and his peers were indoctrinated
as children "to believe that the fires of hell were an ever-present
reality. We were all terrified of burning in hell when we died... The
teachers told us that the only way we could certainly avoid that fate
was to die in a martyrdom operation - to die for Islam."

But an uncle and a cousin of Shoebat, who still live in Beit Sahur in
the Bethlehem area, where Shoebat grew up, said that Shoebat's education
was rather mild ideologically, and that religion did not play a dominant
role.

The uncle, interviewed at his home, said he remembered little about his
nephew, because Walid left for America at the age of 16, and because his
American mother always kept a distance from the rest of the family. The
uncle and his wife both said firmly that there was no attack on Bank Leumi.

When questioned on this discrepancy, Shoebat was adamant that he did
carry out such a bombing, and that his relatives deny it to cover up for
another cousin who was with him during the attack and still lives in
Bethlehem.

Shoebat evinced no particular surprise that his family could be tracked
down simply by asking Beit Sahur locals where they lived, even though
his Internet site claims that his is an assumed name.

Shoebat describes his conversion to Christianity as a transformation
"from hate to love." He told the Post that he believes "in a Greater
Israel that includes Judea and Samaria, and by this I mean a Jewish state."

He argued that Israel should retake the Gaza Strip and rehouse Jews
there, regarding Gaza as Jewish by right. "If a Jew has no right to
Gaza, then he has no right to Jaffa or Haifa either," he said.

He advocates that the government of Greater Israel introduce a law
providing for the exiling of anybody who denies its right to exist,
"even if they were born there."

He has little sympathy for the PLO or Hamas. "The Palestinians have not
met a single demand from Israel," he said, and added, "Both the PLO and
Hamas have not given up the goal of destroying Israel."

"The Jews are not aware of the true threat," Shoebat said. "They are
still fighting dead Nazis. It is easy to fight dead people. But they
don't have the will to fight the living Nazis, the Islamic radicals."

He told the Post he had set up his Walid Shoebat Foundation to educate
Americans as to why the US should support Israel. Shoebat said the
foundation had reached out to over 450 million people. He said it held
events where he and others like him - whom he called "ex-terrorists" who
have become Zionists - spoke about their views to Jewish, Christian and
secular audiences.

A New York Times report last month on the Air Force Academy event,
headlined "Speakers at Academy Said to Make False Claims," noted that
"Academic professors and others who have heard the three men speak in
the United States and Canada said some of their stories border on the
fantastic, like Mr. Saleem's account of how, as a child, he infiltrated
Israel to plant bombs via a network of tunnels underneath the Golan
Heights. No such incidents have been reported, the academic experts
said. They also question how three middle-aged men who claim they were
recruited as teenagers or younger could have been steeped in the violent
religious ideology that only became prevalent in the late 1980s."

The Times quoted Prof. Douglas Howard, who teaches the history of the
modern Middle East at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, as
saying after he heard Saleem speak last November at the college that he
thought the three were connected to several major Christian evangelical
organizations.

"It was just an old time gospel hour: 'Jesus can change your life, he
changed mine,'" Howard said.

The professor told the Times that his doubts about the authenticity of
the three grew after he heard stories like that of the Golan Heights
tunnels, "as well as something on Mr. Saleem's Web site along the lines
that he was descended from the grand wazir of Islam. The grand wazir of
Islam is a nonsensical term."

The newspaper said Arab-American civil rights organizations have
questioned "why, at a time when the United States government has
vigorously moved to jail or at least deport anyone with a known
terrorist connection, the three men, if they are telling the truth, are
allowed to circulate freely."

A spokesman for the FBI, the paper reported, said there were no warrants
for their arrest.

The Times said the three men were to be paid $13,000 for the Air Force
Academy event.

Visitors to Shoebat's Internet site are encouraged to make a donation to
his foundation to enable him to disseminate his message. However, a
notice on the page states that for "security reasons," the money will
not be debited to his foundation, but rather to a company called Top
Executive Media. The name Top Executive Media is used by a greetings
card firm from Pennsylvania called Top Executive Greetings, a company
with an annual turnover of $500,000. When one makes a donation through
the Shoebat Internet site, the Web address changes to
topexecutivegreetings.com/shoebat.

This seems to be the only active page for the company; its homepage is
blank.

Asked by the Post whether the Walid Shoebat Foundation is a registered
charity, Shoebat replied that it is registered in Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania State Attorney's office said it had no record of a
charity registered under this name.

Questioned further, Shoebat said it was registered under a different
name, but that he was not aware of the details, which are handled by his
manager.

"I remain separate to the running of the charity so that I am not
constrained by church rules," he explained, adding that the
organization's connection to certain churches meant it would be
difficult for him to speak to secular audiences if he became too
involved in running it.

Dr. Joel Fishman, of the Allegany County Law Library in Pennsylvania,
expressed doubts about this donation process. If the money were being
given to a registered charity, the charity would have to make annual
reports to the state and federal government on how it was being spent,
he noted.

Shoebat insisted donations were not being misused, however. "I survive
by being an author," he said. "I only get paid for being an author. All
the money that is donated gets put back into events."

If the Bank Leumi bombing claim is unfounded, it is unclear why Shoebat
would have wanted to manufacture a terrorist past. True or not, however,
it has plainly brought him some prominence and provided him with a means
to speak in favor of Israel and be paid for doing so.

This article can also be read at
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1206632362598&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull

Egyptian police beat police activists

Please note that just days ago, Obama condemned the Iranian government for its brutalities committed against protesters, but he has had nothing to say regarding the effforts of the Gaza Freedom March trying to bring much needed supplies to the besieged people of Gaza, nor do I think he will have anything to say about these protests in Egypt because the USA obviously supports it. The hypocrisy is disgusting. .

SEVEN protestors were injured as Egyptian plain clothes police turned violent at a Cairo street demonstration organised by peace activists. Nearly a thousand Gaza Freedom Marchers, representing 42 different nationalities, brought the Egyptian capital to a standstill at one point when they sat down on a main road in Tahrir Square. The surprise demonstration took Cairo police by surprise after they blockaded a hotel nearby where nearly 30 of the GFM were staying. Around 700 maintained their sit-in for 20 minutes until police reinforcements arrived to remove the defiant peace activists who were chanting: "We want to march to Gaza." Mick Napier, the chair of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign said: "The police used excessive force and at one stage several female protestors were punched and kicked. A couple had their hijabs ripped away from their head. "Many of us were taken aback by the naked aggression of the police as this was a non-violent protest. Around 1400 of us arrived in Cairo a few days ago to go to Gaza but a travel ban was imposed and we've been stuck in the capital."

Corruption by harlots in elected office - Prostitution in the US government

By Paul J. Balles


Paul J. Balles argued that it is time to clean up the US government, in the light of President Obama’s prostituting himself to pharmaceutical industry pimps and recent revelations that every US government appointee must endure a background check by the American Jewish community and that, if they fail to support Israel strongly enough, they lose the job.

MSNBC anchor Keith Olbermann, in a special commentary, referred to Senator Joe Lieberman as a "senatorial prostitute" for selling himself to the US insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

Prostitution is the oldest business in the world. In some places today, it's legal. In others, it's illegal. In some of the latter, the authorities look the other way.

This is not an article about prostitutes in the usual sense. It's not about famous prostitutes like Nell Gwynne, courtesan to Charles II of England; nor Madame de Pompadour, courtesan to Louis XV of France; nor Mata Hari, executed for spying for Germany in World War I.

It doesn't matter what they're selling themselves for. People who act like "ladies of the night" are as engaged in prostitution as streetwalkers. And the "Johns" who pay for services are just as much cheaters as the Profumos or the Tiger Woods.

This is about people who sell themselves for money or jobs or elections or favours. It's about people bought, not for sex, though sometimes that's included, but for their services that become as illicit as sex for hire.

One modern definition of prostitution is: "The act or an instance of offering or devoting one's talent to an unworthy use or cause." That's the sense in which Olbermann referred to Senator Lieberman.

What should anyone consider buying the services of US Congress people by the Johns and pimps of American lobbies but prostitution? President Obama campaigned on promises to clean house in Washington. He’s failed.

The American public elects representatives and senators to serve the people, not special interest groups. Every day, some lobby is paying or promising favours to provide satisfaction.

When he was campaigning, President Obama made promises like "We will break the stranglehold that a few big drug and insurance companies have on the health care market..." Instead Obama sold himself to the the pharmaceutical industry pimps.

In one of his 2008 campaign speeches, Obama said, "First, we'll take on the drug and insurance companies and hold them accountable for the prices they charge and the harm they cause... And then we'll tell the pharmaceutical companies, 'Thanks but no thanks for overpriced drugs'."

In addition to making deals with both lobbies under the table, despite his promise to keep everything above board, Obama has chosen to prostitute himself to both the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

If the gun lobby (The National Rifle Association) isn't shouting "guns don't kill people, people kill people", they're pimping for the Congress not to pass legislation controlling gun ownership. When the Congress gives in, they're giving in to whoredom.

On 4 December, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz carried the amazing story of how every appointee to the American government must endure a thorough background check by the American Jewish community. If they fail to support Israel strongly enough, they lose the job.

Chas Freeman, the best choice for an intelligence position, had his appointment derailed by the Israel lobby because he voiced a few mild criticisms of Israel's behaviour.

Haaretz reported, "In the case of Obama's government in particular, every criticism against Israel made by a potential government appointee has become a catalyst for debate about whether appointing 'another leftist' offers proof that Obama does not truly support Israel."

If Americans want to work in government positions, they must prostitute themselves for Israeli pimps or the Israeli lobby will derail the appointments of those who fail.

The insurance and pharmaceutical industries along with the gun and Israeli lobbies are only partial areas where special interest pimps are forcing the US president and congress into prostitution. It’s time to bring about real change and clean up the US government.

---

Paul J. Balles is a retired American university professor and freelance writer who has lived in the Middle East for many years. For more information, see http://www.pballes.com.

Jordan asks Canada to seize Dead Sea scrolls

From: Jake Javanshir

2,000-year-old Hebrew artifacts, which Jordan claims were illegally taken by Israel in 1967, are on display in Toronto

Patrick Martin

Jordan has asked Canada to seize the 2,000-year-old Dead Sea scrolls, on display until Sunday at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto , invoking international law in a bid to keep the artifacts out of the hands of Israel until their disputed ownership is settled.

Even if Canada ignores the request, it will make other countries think twice before accepting the controversial exhibit.

Summoning the Canadian chargé d'affaires in Amman two weeks ago, Jordan cited the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories, in asking Canada to take custody of the scrolls.

Jordan claims Israel acted illegally in 1967 when it took the scrolls from a museum in east Jerusalem , which Israel seized from Jordan during the Six-Day War and subsequently occupied. The Hague Convention, which is concerned with safeguarding cultural property during wartime, requires each signatory “to take into its custody cultural property imported into its territory either directly or indirectly from any occupied territory. This shall either be effected automatically upon the importation of the property or, failing this, at the request of the authorities of that territory.”

This means Canada must act, says Jordan . “The Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan would be grateful if the Government of Canada would confirm … whether it is prepared to assume its international legal responsibility, and the means by which it intends to do so,” it wrote.

While confirming that Canada has received a message from Jordan , a spokesperson for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said yesterday that “differences regarding ownership of the Dead Sea scrolls should be addressed by Israel , Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. It would not be appropriate for Canada to intervene as a third party.”

The ROM's exhibition of the scrolls, mounted “in partnership with the Israel Antiquities Authority,” opened on June 27.

While Jordan has acted only recently in asking Canada to take custody of the scrolls, the Palestinian Authority has made its position known since April, when Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, wrote to Prime Minister Stephen Harper concerning what it argues is the illegal use of the scrolls.

Jordanian and Palestinian officials insist they do not want Canada to determine who owns the scrolls, but simply to place them under Canada 's safekeeping until their ownership is determined.

The ancient Hebrew scrolls were part of one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the 20th century. Discovered in 1947 by Bedouin Arabs living in the area northwest of the Dead Sea , the first seven scrolls found their way into Israeli hands and became a prize exhibit of the new Israeli state's national museum.

The majority of the Dead Sea scrolls, however, were uncovered in the seven years following the initial discovery in an operation supervised by Jordan on land it occupied west of the Jordan River . The scrolls, many consisting of thousands of fragments, were taken to the Palestinian museum in east Jerusalem for study.

While neither the Jordanian nor the Israeli museum talked to the other, scholars in both camps believed the scrolls were the library of an ascetic Jewish sect called the Essenes, described by first-century historian Josephus as living in the Qumran area. The scrolls had been hidden in caves, it was believed, to hide them from the Romans.

Having received a formal request to take custody of the scrolls, Canada appears to be under some obligation to take action.

The Cultural Property Export and Import Act, Canada's own legislation to enact the Hague Convention, states: “If the government of a State Party submits a request in writing to the Minister for the recovery and return of any cultural property that has been exported from an occupied territory of that State Party and that is in Canada in the possession of or under the control of any person, institution or public authority, the Attorney-General of Canada may institute an action in the Federal Court or in a superior court of a province for the recovery of the property by the State Party.”

It adds that in the event that the Attorney-General institutes legal action to recover such property, “The court may … order that the property in respect of which the action has been taken be turned over to the Minister for safe-keeping and conservation pending final disposition of the action.”

From the start, Israel has argued it is not asserting its ownership of the scrolls. “We are the custodians of the Dead Sea scrolls,” says Pnina Shor, head of the conservation department at the Israel Antiquities Authority. “As such, we have a right to exhibit them and to conserve them.”

Israel argues that the short-term, temporary exhibition of scrolls in another country does not constitute “exportation” under the Hague Convention, and that all the scrolls in its possession are part of Jewish heritage.

Palestinian experts acknowledge the scrolls are Jewish, but argue that they are also part of Palestinian heritage just as ancient Roman and Byzantine ruins comprise part of their history.

http://www.theglobe andmail.com/ news/world/ jordan-asks- canada-to- seize-dead- sea-scrolls/ article1416369/

Today in Palestine! ~January 1, 2010 ~

Shadi Fadda brings us today's headlines relating to Palestine and other news from around the internet.

Land Theft and Destruction
Despite freeze, hundreds of housing units under construction in isolated settlements
Despite the construction freeze, dozens of settlements in the West Bank are experiencing a building boom, even on the eve of another visit to the region by U.S. envoy George Mitchell to try to restart talks for a final settlement between the Israelis and Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1139226.html

Report: Settlement construction booming
Jerusalem - Ma'an/Agencies - Despite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's professed 10-month settlement freeze, construction in dozens of supposedly frozen areas is booming, an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday. The Israeli daily Haaretz said reporters toured West Bank settlements on Wednesday and witnessed work being carried out in the Bakran and Ariel industrial zones, as well as the construction of housing at Ariel, Elkana North, Peduel and Kfar Tapuah.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=251240

Israeli forces shut down Hebron tree planting
Hebron – Ma’an – Israeli authorities banned a group of Palestinians from planting trees near the West Bank city of Hebron on Friday after settlers disrupted their work, organizers said. Dozens of Palestinian residents were planting trees in the Al-Buwiryah area, near the settlement of Kiryat Arba, responding to a call from senior Fatah leaders.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=251255

Israeli settlers uproot trees and destroy natural water spring in northern West Bank
Israeli settlers uprooted trees and destroy natural water spring on Thursday that belongs to the villagers of Qarawit Bani Hassan in northern West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=57513

Activism/Solidarity/Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment
Three Palestinians wounded during anti-barrier protests
RAMALLAH, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- At least three Palestinian demonstrators were injured on Friday during the weekly protests against the barrier that Israel builds in the West Bank, medics and witnesses said. The witnesses said that dozens of Palestinians demonstrated on Friday afternoon in the villages of Ne'lin and Bel'in near Ramallah in the West Bank against the Israeli barrier and clashed with Israeli army soldiers.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/02/content_12741780.htm

Simultaneous Solidarity Marches Held On Northern And Southern Borders Of Gaza Strip
As a group of Israeli peace activists gathered near the Erez crossing on the northern border of the Gaza Strip, 1200 international activists with the 'Gaza Freedom March' held a rally in Cairo to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the Israeli invasion of Gaza. The Cairo march was attacked by Egyptian police, injuring several demonstrators.
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=57519

Bil’in demonstrators call for the end of the Siege of Gaza
Residents of Bil’in gathered today after the noon prayers to demonstrate against the Israeli occupation and the Apartheid Wall on to commemorate the first anniversary of the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza. In addition, they celebrated the 45th anniversary of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, Fatah.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/01/10217?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29

Palestinian Citizens of Israel Protest Outside of Erez Crossing: End Israeli Blockade of Gaza
Over 1,000 Palestinian citizens of Israel and several dozen Jewish Israelis demonstrated this morning outside of the Erez Crossing, demanding an end to the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip. Organised by the Arab High Monitoring Committee, the demonstration coincided with the one year anniversary of Israel’s military attacks on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in 1,400 deaths and thousands wounded.
http://www.alternativenews.org/nassar-ibrahim/2354-palestinian-citizens-of-israel-protest-outside-of-erez-crossing-end-israeli-blockade-of-gaza.html

Candle Lit Vigil Held in Manger Square Bethlehem to Commemorate Gaza
At 4:30 this afternoon residents of Bethlehem and the surrounding towns gathered to commemorate the 1,500 Palestinians that lost their lives this time last year, and stand in solidarity with the residents of Gaza, who continue to live under siege from the Israeli military; a situation that has continued since June 2006. The vigil was held in Manger Square, bordered with The Church of the Nativity to the [south?] and [???] mosque to the [north?]
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=57515

Hundreds of activists protest against Gaza blockade
Several hundred people have joined demonstrations on the Israel-Gaza border to protest against the Israeli blockade of the territory.
The demonstrators, who marched to the Erez crossing point from both sides of the border, included dozens of international activists.
The Egyptian authorities have allowed about 80 protesters to cross into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Dozens more, however, scuffled with police in the capital Cairo.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8436374.stm

Gaza Freedom March, "Internationals in Cairo Set Off on March to Gaza in Protest of Siege"
Some individuals managed to overcome the police barricades and began the march at the meeting point in Tahreer Square in downtown Cairo. They were joined by Egyptians who also wished to denounce the role of their government in sustaining the Gaza siege. The authorities have sought to separate international from the locals. The police is brutally attacking the nonviolent marchers. Many plainclothes police officers have infiltrated the crowds and are violently assaulting them. "I was lifted by the Egyptian police forces and literally tossed over the fence," said Desiree Fairooz, one of the protesters. Marchers are chanting and resisting the attempt to disperse them vowing to remain in the square until they are allowed to go to Gaza. The GFM banner is hanging up high in a tree in the square. Some marchers are bleeding and riot police destroyed their cameras.
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/gfm311209.html

Gaza Freedom March activists target Egypt's complicity
It was another eventful day here in Cairo at the inaugural Gaza Freedom March (GFM). On Tuesday night, organizers informed the 1,362-strong delegation that only 100 of them had been selected to travel to Gaza yesterday morning, Wednesday 30 December. After several hours of heated debate with organizers over whether this was an appropriate strategy, the meeting concluded without a consensus.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10983.shtml

Leaving Cairo, but taking the struggle with me
Today I leave Cairo after four intense days with the Gaza Freedom March. We did not fulfill our goal of reaching Gaza and being with the Palestinian people there. That was surely painful and disappointing. But that is not the measure of what happened. To talk about the siege of Gaza in the abstract is one thing, but to actually come to Egypt and find that Gaza is harder to visit than a prison is like a bucket of cold water. The Egyptian government may be efficient at few things, but it is highly efficient at maintaining the siege. Buses hired to take all the marchers to Gaza were prevented from showing up. Those who tried to get to Gaza under their own steam were turned back or detained at their hotel in Al Arish. It was very very frustrating. But whatever frustration we felt is one millionth of the frustration of the besieged Palestinian people in Gaza. So perhaps in some way it is better then that we did not get in, because Egypt gave us a small taste of what it serves every day to people in Gaza -- and a small taste of what Egyptians face when they challenge their government's policies.
http://ow.ly/QupW

"Before the Wall I could see the sun" -- Free Israel's Anti-Apartheid Prisoners
A report from the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem, entitled "Israel's Anti-Apartheid Prisoners"
http://endtheoccupationblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/before-wall-i-could-see-sun-free.html

Gaza Free dom March activists refuse tobe silent!
The Italian delegation of Action for Peace at the Gaza Freedom March walked today in the streets of Cairo with all other delegations in solidarity with the Palestinian people, to call for an end of the siege on Gaza, the end of the Israeli occupation, the respect of international law and human rights. Even though the march was immediately stopped and some activists were injured by the Egyptian police, we succeeded in organizing a sit-in for about 8 hours in the square of the Egyptian Museum, that became today the Gaza Freedom Square. At midnight we gathered again in Tahrir Square to write our solidarity to Gaza with candels on the ground.
http://palsolidarity.org/2010/01/10243?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+palsolidarity+%28International+Solidarity+Movement%29

Gaza Freedom March: A Day of Preparation
We’ve moved from the Old to the New Testament—from “Let my people go” to “Left Behind!” Woke up this morning sure my choice to stay was the right one, but deeply regretting it anyway. Lisa, who was also offered a seat, and I were talking ourselves into good political reasons to justify why we could have gone, when she got a call. Code Pink and the Steering Committee of the Gaza Freedom March had just issued a statement saying that they’d made a mistake, and that they were no longer supporting the busses going. The busses were loading a few blocks away, we were told the scene was chaotic and Lisa rushed down there to do damage control while I stayed to do the morning briefing.
http://starhawksblog.org/?p=301

Not in our name: Americans speak out for Palestine
Yesterday in the US, protests took place to commemorate the devastating conflict in Gaza and demand the siege be lifted. This report is on Russian satellite television (would it appear on mainstream American TV?).
http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/01/01/not-in-our-name-americans-speak-out-for-palestine/

Sheikh Jarrah: It's Happening
For a protest to turn into a serious happening, you need two things. First, an injustice so obvious, and so emblematic, that to redress it is to play a kind of historical jujitsu: the force of the grievance pushes more and more people to turn out; and the growing crowd starts to feel that, if they win (and why shouldn't they, when the weight of a silent majority is behind them?), they will have defeated inertia. Second, you need the protest to be so simple, repetitive and doable--so focused on the critical issue of the time--that more and more people join in just for the fun of being right and good, sort of the way they might be going to weekly prayer meeting. Little by little, the protest becomes an enormous political fact. (Think of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott.)
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/01/sheikh_jarrah_its_happening/

Egypt
Perversion of Islam: Leading Egypt clerics back Gaza tunnel barrier: report (AFP)
AFP - A council of leading Muslim clerics has supported the Egyptian government's construction of an underground barrier along the border with Gaza to impede tunnelling by smugglers, a report said on Friday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100101/wl_mideast_afp/mideastconflictgazaegyptsmugglingislam

The Egyptian Plans to Thwart the Gaza Freedom March
It is safe to assume that at about the time the Gaza Freedom March and Viva Palestina announced its plans to enter Gaza, Egypt also made plans, in consultation with their Israeli, American and occasionally Jordanian counterparts.
http://mondoweiss.net/2009/12/the-egyptian-plans-to-thwart-the-gaza-freedom-march.html

Gaza Freedom March activists target Egypt's complicity
It was another eventful day here in Cairo at the inaugural Gaza Freedom March (GFM). On Tuesday night, organizers informed the 1,362-strong delegation that only 100 of them had been selected to travel to Gaza yesterday morning, Wednesday 30 December. After several hours of heated debate with organizers over whether this was an appropriate strategy, the meeting concluded without a consensus.
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10983.shtml

Violence and Aggression/Detainees
AT-TUWANI: Israeli settler violence against children
An Israeli settler from the outpost of Havat Ma'on (Hill 833) chased and threw stones at Palestinian schoolchildren from the villages of Tuba and Maghayir Al-Abeed. ImageThe Israeli army exposed the children to this attack by arriving more than 90 minutes late to escort the children to their school in the village of At-Tuwani. The schoolchildren had been waiting for the army escort to arrive for nearly 30 minutes when an Israeli settler came out from a house within Havat Ma'on. The fourteen Palestinian children, ages 6-15, immediately began to move away from the settler, towards their village. Witnesses reported that when the settler saw the children moving away, he charged towards them, hurling stones at the children with a slingshot. He chased them several hundred meters, all the way back to their village. Tareq Ibrahim Abu Jundiyye, a 15-year-old boy from Tuba, spoke about the experience: “The younger kids started crying as we were running away because they were afraid the settler would catch them. I mean, we had to run away. If I had stayed I would have been struck on the head by a rock.”
http://english.pnn.ps/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7744

Report: 2 Palestinians injured by settlers' stones
Osama and Ziad Suan's car attacked with stones near settlement of Yakir while making its way to Ramallah. Their cousin says relatives hospitalized in serious condition. IDF forces dispatched to area following complaints of stone throwing.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3828315,00.html

The Israeli military levels two animal huts near Hebron
The Israeli military leveled on Thursday two animal huts that belong to a Palestinian farmer from Al Baqabra village near Hebron, southern West Bank.
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=57514

Life sentence for PFLP military leader
Jerusalem – Ma’an – An Israeli court in Jerusalem sentenced A’hed Abu Ghulmah, a leader of the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, to a life term and an additional five years of imprisonment.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=251237

Abbas's militia kidnaps the widow of a martyr
Abbas's militia kidnapped, on Thursday, the widow of Qassam martyr Ali Allan from the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem. She was released after interrogation.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7qCyQrmCfDgjnn%2fLxadj46QiPTUZb3FM%2bzP3Qcm9vB77dqopyMXR%2fn4RrfTX3HYFWa54RtZGGML10QC1C6vtQynLKaZBgAbyBlAEi5xZEmr0%3d

The Israeli military kidnaps 11 civilians from the West Bank
11 Palestinian civilians were kidnapped by Israeli troops on Thursday during pre dawn military invasions targeting a number of west Bank communities.
http://www.imemc.org/index.php?obj_id=53&story_id=57512

Humanitarian
Gaza crossings sealed
Gaza - Ma'an - Despite a scheduled opening on Friday, Israeli officials told Palestinian liaison officers in Gaza that all three goods crossings into the Strip would be closed, Raed Fattouh said.
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=251256

War Crimes
Researchers: US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza
The seventy-one-page report, "Rain of Fire: Israel's Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza," provides witness accounts of the devastating effects that white phosphorus munitions had on civilians and civilian property in Gaza. Human Rights Watch researchers found spent shells, canister liners, and dozens of burnt felt wedges containing white phosphorus on city streets, apartment roofs, residential courtyards, and at a United Nations school in Gaza immediately after hostilities ended in January.
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/01/01/researchers-us-arms-used-for-war-crimes-in-gaza/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SabbahsBlog+%28Sabbah+Report%29

Political Developments
Officials: Netanyahu proposes Egypt peace summit
Israeli officials say plan raised by PM during talks with Mubarak this week. Abbas aide: Region will see important political activity in next two weeks.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3828203,00.html

Abbas: Israel sabotages Palestinian achievements by killing us
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel Thursday of trying to sabotage Palestinian achievements - mainly the enforcement of law and order, stability and security in the West Bank - through its military incursions and killing of Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1139144.html

Israeli Arab MK: Barak enjoys classical music and killing Gaza children
Some 1,000 people, among them all of Israel's Arab MKs and community leaders, gathered Thursday at the Israeli side of the Gaza border to express solidarity with the residents of Gaza, one year after Israel's offensive there. MK Taleb A-Sana relayed Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh's message to the Israeli side via a mobile phone.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1139054.html

Bardawil: Abbas tried to sow discord between Egypt and Hamas in his speech
Dr. Salah al-Bardawil said that the speech made by Abbas was used to sow discord between Egypt and Hamas, reflecting the extent of political bankruptcy reached by Abbas.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/En/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k%2bcOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO%2bi1s7UXArqHbIfOTlepFhpN4jLqegwMWpTjSc3Xx4xGVfZL45gjL04TgwzNYSlxhcnNCA26LIrAZEtrWk3tyWdXLArw55DovvLXe1reFdZxN3rJE%3d

Hamas blasts Abbas' speech as "comic"
GAZA, Jan. 1 (Xinhua) -- Hamas movement on Friday slammed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and described his speech on Thursday to mark the 45 year anniversary for establishing his Fatah party as "comic". Salah al-Bardaweel, a Gaza-based Hamas leader told Xinhua on telephone that what Abbas said in his speech on Thursday night "isa clear evidence of this man's bankruptcy."
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2010-01/01/content_12741324.htm

Other News
A Remarkable Speech to the United Nations on Occupied Jerusalem by Prof. Walid Khalidi
Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x8BM0ry1nM&feature=player_embedded
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD7SvFARhGI&feature=player_embedded
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SkUyFsnoX4&feature=player_embedded
Part 4: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt4bTXu1nFE&feature=player_embedded
Part 5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-dTvd0DYC0&feature=player_embedded
http://sabbah.biz/mt/archives/2010/01/01/walid-khalidi-speech-at-the-unted-nations-video/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+SabbahsBlog+%28Sabbah+Report%29

Vanunu's courage
Once again the Israeli authorities have shown their disregard for human rights and unremittingly vindictive behaviour towards Mordechai Vanunu (House arrest for Israeli nuclear whistleblower, 30 December). Despite having known of Mordechai's two-year relationship with his Norwegian girlfriend, the authorities chose now, over Christmas (a repeat of what happened two years ago), to once again arrest and detain him and his girlfriend for 24 hours, on the basis that he was mixing with foreigners. Mordechai has been discouraging his many supporters from contacting him. But the authorities have shown little sympathy to his response to their requests that he should keep a much lower profile.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/01/mordechai-vanunu-israel-nuclear-weapons

Ultra-Orthodox Jews make rare visit to Gaza
Four American, Canadian members of Neturei Karta prepare to celebrate Sabbath in Palestinian Territory. 'It's crucial that people of Gaza understand the terrible tragedy here is not in the name of Judaism,' one of them says.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3828351,00.html

Kahane relative released on bail
A teenage relative of the late Kach founder Rabbi Meir Kahane was released on bail Thursday evening, having been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the arson attack on a mosque in the Palestinian village of Yasuf last month. A Judea and Samaria Police spokesman said the youth remains a suspect and that police would continue to investigate his alleged role in the attack. His name was not released because he is a minor.nnThe suspect was released because police did not see a reason to hold him in custody, the spokesman said.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364564740&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

J'lem: Father suspected of beating toddler daughter to death
Two-year-old pays ultimate price for parents' marital troubles; wife leaves house after heated argument, husband believed to strangle their daughter.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3828224,00.html

Analysis/Op-ed/Human Interest
Was Israel's Gaza offensive worth it?, Gideon Levy
Today offers us an ironic conjuncture of commemorations: the fast of the 10th of the Hebrew month of Tevet and the first anniversary of Operation Cast Lead. On the day of the fast, which commemorates the Babylonian siege on Jerusalem, few Israelis are thinking about Gaza, under Israeli blockade for twice the time ancient Jerusalem was besieged. On the anniversary of the attack on Gaza, few people are doing any real soul-searching.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137840.html

Report from Gaza: One student’s question to the world – ‘Why the Palestinians? Why are we the only ones suffering?’
The question was like an electric shock to the six or so Palestine solidarity activists, including myself, as we were standing inside a classroom at a school in Gaza City. “Why the Palestinians? Why are we the only ones suffering?” asked a Palestinian girl who was probably about nine or ten-years-old. And then the enormity of what the people of Gaza go through every day hit me. Most of us were Americans and one was Canadian, and we were delivering some of the $17,000 in school supplies that Jessica Campbell and Julia Hurley, two members of the Gaza Freedom March student delegation, had brought and raised on their own.
http://mondoweiss.net/2010/01/report-from-gaza-one-students-question-to-the-world-why-the-palestinians-why-are-we-the-only-ones-suffering.html

An Interview with Ilan Pappe; The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, FATMA ELSHHATI, MIHO SEKI and ANTHONY LÖWSTEDT
Israeli historian Ilan Pappe’s groundbreaking book, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine (Engl. orig. 2006), on the events in 1947-49 that led to the formation of the state of Israel, had just been published in German translation, and he was in Austria to promote it. A few weeks prior to the outbreak of the Gaza war (2008-2009), Pappe answered our questions in such a way that all his points are still as relevant today as they were a year ago. Gaza is still suffocating under a heavy Israeli blockade, East Jerusalem and the West Bank still being invaded by illegal Jewish settlers. It is clearer than ever before that Israel is not defending itself; it is extending itself. The remaining Palestinian pockets of land look like 20th-century South African Bantustans, and worse, like the shrinking and disappearing American Indian reservations of the 19th century.
http://www.counterpunch.org/lowstedt01012010.html

With Only 0.4% of AIPAC's Budget...
In 2008, the totl revenues for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)-the leading organization in the United States supporting Israeli occupation and apartheid-amounted to $70,676,421. In that same year, the total revenues for the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation-the leading coalition in the United States working to change U.S. policy toward Palestine/Israel to support human rights, international law, and equality-amounted to $276,747, or just 0.39% of AIPAC's revenues.
http://endtheoccupationblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/with-only-04-of-aipacs-budget.html

Awaiting a miracle from Washington
Khaled Amayreh - Al Ahram Weekly in English "The Palestinian Authority may be seeking renewed talks with Israel even in the absence of an Israeli freeze on settlements."
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/978/re81.htm

Iraq
Friday: 1 Iraqi Killed, 4 Wounded
Although the New Year’s holiday has tamped down casualty reports from Iraq, other news made the international media. Among them was an independent analysis of civilian deaths and the Iraqi government’s displeasure with the dismissal of a case against Backwater contractors.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/01/01/friday-1-iraqi-killed-4-wounded/

Thursday in Iraq: No Reported Casualties
Thanks to the New Year’s holiday, Iraq seemed exceptionally quiet today. No violent attacks were reported; however, other Iraq-related items were in the headlines. Foremost, a U.S. judge dismissed charges against five Blackwater contractors accused of firing upon Iraqi civilians.
http://original.antiwar.com/updates/2010/01/01/thursday-no-reported-casualties/

Iraq bomb plotters recruited in US-run prison: police (AFP/File)
AFP/File - Two men on death row for masterminding an Al-Qaeda truck bombing that killed 88 people on June 20 were recruited in a US-run prison camp, a senior Iraqi police commander said on Thursday.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091231/wl_mideast_afp/iraqunrestusprison

Judge tosses Blackwater case, cites gov't missteps (AP)
AP - A federal judge dismissed all charges Thursday against five Blackwater Worldwide security guards accused of killing unarmed Iraqi civilians in a crowded Baghdad intersection in 2007.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091231/ap_on_go_ot/us_blackwater_prosecution

Iraq expresses astonishment over Blackwater (AFP)
AFP - Iraq expressed astonishment over the dropping of charges against Blackwater guards accused of killing 14 civilians in 2007, one of the bloodiest incidents involving a private security firm here.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100101/ts_afp/iraqusjusticesecurityblackwaterreaction

A decade after Israeli withdrawal, border villages remain in limbo
CHEBAA // In the far south-east corner of Lebanon, a mishmash of borders, military checkpoints and United Nations peacekeeper observation posts work together to keep unwanted visitors away from this beautiful line of rocky hills where three countries’ borders come together amid the region’s tallest mountains.
http://www.thenational.ae/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100101/FOREIGN/701019701/1002/rss

U.S. and other world news
Hope, War and Resistance: 2009 in Review
Democracy Now! looks back at 2009, including the Israeli assault on Gaza, Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration, the economic crisis, Goldman Sachs and the AIG bonus scandal, the escalation of the war in Afghanistan, drone attacks on Pakistan, the coup in Honduras, healthcare reform, the release of the Bush administration torture memos, the murder of abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, the protests in Iran, the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, Blackwater and other private military contractors, the firing of White House environmental adviser Van Jones, the gay rights movement, the global food crisis, the ongoing occupation of Iraq, the Copenhagen climate summit and the growth of the climate justice movement, plus our exclusive interviews with former jailed activist Jeff “Free” Luers, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Barstow, Bolivian President Evo Morales, death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and many more. [includes rush transcript]
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/1/hope_war_and_resistance_2009_in

www.TheHeadlines.org