Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt to headline event for Israeli soldiers injured in Gaza
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Before leading the Cleveland Cavaliers against his former team, Maccabi Tel Aviv, this Sunday, coach David Blatt will headline a tribute to Israel Defense Forces troops injured in the war in Gaza.
Non-profit group Friends of IDF will host the reception Sunday morning at The Q. The group has teamed with Blatt and his former Israeli basketball club for the event, which will include honoring a dozen IDF soldiers wounded in action, according to a news release from FIDF.
The move comes amid controversy over the Cavs taking on Maccabi Tel Aviv and previous comments Blatt made in support of Israel. Pro-Palestine group Al-Awda isset to protest the game.
"Cleveland refuses the presence of the Israeli terror entity's team playing at Quicken Loans Arena. ... We will not be silent as we freshly remember Gaza," the group said on Facebook.
Protest organizer Abbas Falasteen Hamideh called Blatt's participation in Sunday morning's reception shameful.
"The Israeli army is responsible for massacring almost 2,200 Palestinians in the latest round of genocide against the Palestinian people," Hamideh said. "For Blatt to honor a brutal occupation army as coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers is irresponsible to say the least and mind blowing to Palestinians who are die-hard fans of the team."
The Cavaliers did not return a request for comment.
CORRECTION: Stewart did this segment on July 14, 2014:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqKu5rSTyP8. Obviously, nothing of significance has happened since then, which means that no muzzling is taking place.
This reporter has learned that by an extraordinary coincidence, neither Jon Stewart of The Daily Show nor Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report has anything to say about the biggest news event in the world during the last two weeks. I decided to investigate.
I first met with Jon Stewart:
Barb Weir: Jon, you always poke fun at hypocrisy and lies in the big news stories. Why have you been silent on Gaza?
Jon Stewart: On what, Barb?
BW: Gaza, Jon. The Israeli incursion into Gaza. More than 600 Palestinians have been killed so far, mostly civilians, almost 30 Israeli soldiers, and two Israeli civilians killed by Hamas rockets.
JS: Oh, that. Thanks for reminding me. Great idea.
BW: So you’re going to do a segment on Gaza?
JS: I dunno, Barb. Maybe it’s better not to use it.
Bewildered, I spoke to Stephen Colbert:
BW: Stephen, folks are perplexed that you have said nothing on your show until now about Gaza, which is by far the biggest news story.
SC: About what, Barb?
BW: About the killing and bloodshed all over Gaza, Stephen. Have you nothing to say?
SC: You think it’s a good idea, Barb? Maybe it’s better not to use it.
None of this made sense until I spoke to Bassem Youssef, whose smash hit Egyptian satirical comedy show Elbernameg (“The Show”), modeled after Jon Stewart’s, was abruptly taken off the air in June, 2014.
“Was it because you criticized President Abdelfattah el-Sisi?” I asked.
“Oh, no.” replied Youssef. “It was because I criticized his boss.”
“You mean Obama?”
“Please, Barb. I can criticize el-Sisi and Obama any time I like, and everyone will have a good laugh. If you want to know who’s really in charge, find out whom you can not – must not – criticize.”
“So you’re saying that if there’s a discussion of what’s happening in Gaza, it might be critical of…”
“Or the 100 to 0 US Senate vote to support Israel’s invasion of Gaza. Don’t say it, Barb. Maybe it’s better not to use it.”
Earlier today NBA player Dwight Howard tweeted #FreePalestine to over five million of his twitter followers. It seems that after receiving some pressure for his honest tweet he unfortunately deleted it and apologized for posting it.
We hear a lot about freedom of speech in the United States but there are limits to it when you speak out against Israel and in support of Palestine.
You can face repercussions in your career for speaking out against the occupation and the injustices facing the Palestinian people. It takes a strong willed person to stand by his or her words especially when the Israeli lobby tries to silence any hint of opposition and looks to make examples out of people.
It would have been great to see Dwight Howard stand his ground but the fact that he deleted his tweet also helps expose the fact that there is a lack of free speech when it comes to speaking about Palestine whether from our politicians, journalist or athletes.
There seems to be no Free Speech when you say Free Palestine.
The hottest names in entertainment are coming out and speaking out!
Rap artist French Montana and Waka Flocka Flame used social media to speak out in support of Palestine.
Both posted pictures of Palestine and the Palestinian flag. Waka Flocka even asked why his government the United States is supporting the suffering of Palestine.
The new Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip has already taken the lives of innocent men, women and children and is still continuing. Israel has bombed civilian homes, schools, medical centers, houses of worship, and anything else they choose to destroy.
It has led to some unexpected voices speaking out. Yesterday NBA player Dwight Howard tweeted #FreePalestine to over 5 million of his twitter followers before deleting it after facing pressure from racist supporters of Israel. People should be able to say they support the plight of Palestine without having to fear a Zionist witch hunt and silencing campaign.
On Music, the Political Role of Artists and His Activism for Justice Around the World, Including in Palestine.
Frank Barat: When did you make the decision to make the Wall tour (that ended in Paris in September 2013) so political? And why did you dedicate the final concert to Jean-Charles De Menezes?
Roger Waters: The first show was October 14th 2010. We started working on content of show with Sean Evans in 2009. I had already decided to make it much broader politically than it had been in 1979/80. It could not be just about this whinny little guy who didn't like his teachers. It had to be more universal. That's why 'fallen loved ones' came into it (the shows are showing pictures of people that died during wars) trying to universalise the sense of grief and loss that we all feel towards family members killed in conflict. Whatever the wars or the circumstances, they (in the non western world), feel as much lost as we do. Wars become an important symbol because of that separation between 'us and them,' which is fundamental to all conflicts. Regarding Jean-Charles, we used to do Brick II with three solos at the end and I decided that three solos was too much, it was boring me. So sitting in a hotel room, one night, I was thinking about what I could do instead of that. Somebody had recently sent me a photograph of Jean-Charles De Menezes to go on the wall. So he was in my mind and I thought that I should sing his story. I wrote that song, taught it to the band, and that's what we did.
Comment: Jean-Charles De Menezes was a young Brazilian contract electrician working in London, England at the time of the London Bombings in 2005. He was pursued and murdered by covert British military-intelligence operatives in the aftermath of the attacks and shot numerous times in the head in front of shocked onlookers. It's very likely the reason they were so desperate to terminate him was because he was working on the trains that were rigged for the false-flag terror attacks, knew the official story was bogus, and was threatening to go public with what he knew.
For more on this and the other evidence that 7/7 was carried out by the British government with assistance from the Mossad, check these out:
7/7 Ripple Effect: London Bombings documentary the British and Israeli governments want no one to see
London Bombings - The Facts Speak For Themselves
FB: A lot of artists would say that mixing arts and politics is wrong. That their goal is only to entertain. What would you say to those people?
RW: Well it's funny you should say that because I just finished yesterday the text of a new piece which will be a new album of mine. It's about a grandfather in Northern Ireland going on a quest with his grandchild to find the answer to the question: "Why are they killing the children?", because the child is really worried about it. Right at the very end of it, I decided to add something more. In the song, the child tells his grandpa: "Is that it?" and the grandpa replies "No, we cannot leave on that note, give me another note". A new song starts and the grandpa makes a speech. He says: "We live on a tiny dot in a middle of a lot of fucking nothing. Now, if you're not interested in any of this, if you're one of those "Roger I love Pink Floyd but I hate your fucking politics", if you believe artists should be mute, emasculated, nodding dogs dangling aimlessly over the dashboard of life, you might be well advised to fuck off to the bar now, because, time keeps slipping away." That's my answer to your question.
FB: When will album be out?
RW: I've got no idea. I'm working away furiously on lots of old projects. I'm going to give a first listen to this to Sean Evans. He's coming to my house tomorrow to listen to it. I've made a demo which is one hour and six minutes long. It's pretty heavy I confess, but there is also some humor in it, I hope, but it's extremely radical and it poses very important questions. Look, if I'm the only one doing it, I am entirely content. I mean, I'm not, I wish there were more people writing about politics and our real situation. Even from what could be considered extreme points of view. It's very important that Goya did what he did, same for Picasso and Guernica and all those anti-war novels that came out during and after the Vietnam war.
FB: You're talking about yourself being one of the only one, in your position, taking radical political positions. When it comes to Palestine, you are very open about your support for a cultural boycott of Israel. People opposing this tactic say that culture should not be boycotted. What would you answer to that?
RW: I would say that I understand their opinion. Everybody should have one. But I can't agree with them, I think that they are entirely wrong. The situation in Israel/Palestine, with the occupation, the ethnic cleansing and the systematic racist apartheid Israeli regime is unacceptable. So for an artist to go and play in a country that occupies other people's land and oppresses them the way Israel does, is plain wrong. They should say no. I would not have played for the Vichy government in occupied France in the Second World War, I would not have played in Berlin either during this time. Many people did, back in the day. There were many people that pretended that the oppression of the Jews was not going on. From 1933 until 1946. So this is not a new scenario. Except that this time it's the Palestinian People being murdered. It's the duty of every thinking human being to ask: "What can I do?". Anybody who looks at the situation will see that if you choose not to take up arms to fight your oppressor, the non-violent route, and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (B.D.S) movement, which started in Palestine with 100% support from Palestinian civil society in 2004-2005, a movement that has now been joined by many people around the world, the global civil society, is a legitimate form of resistance to this brutal and oppressive regime.
I have nearly finished Max Blumenthal's book "Goliath: Life and Loathing in greater Israel". It's a chilling read. It's extremely well written in my view. He is a very good journalist and takes great pains to make sure that what he writes is correct. He also gives a voice to the other side. The voice, for instance, of the right wing rabbinate, which is so bizarre and hard to hear that you can hardly believe that it's real. They believe some very weird stuff you know, they believe that everybody that is not a Jew is only on earth to serve them and they believe that the Indigenous people of the region that they kicked off the land in 1948 and have continued to kick off the land ever since are sub-human. The parallels with what went on in the 30's in Germany are so crushingly obvious that it doesn't surprise me that the movement that both you and I are involved in is growing every day. The Russell Tribunal on Palestine was trying to shed light on this when we met, I only took part in two sessions, you took part in many more. It is an extremely obvious and fundamental problem of human rights which every thinking human being should apply himself to.
FB: The scary thing is that the extreme Rabbinate you were talking about with the extreme right wing views about the Palestinians and the non-Jews are having a more and more prominent place in terms of the Israeli society, regime and power structure and that is very scary.
I wanted to follow up on the Cultural Boycott and about the fact that you are one of the only ones who take such a stand. You could, as many others do, I guess enjoy the benefits of your success and lead a quiet, at least politically, non-controversial life. Why do you do it but more importantly why do you think not more people are doing it? Why a lot of artists who often take position against wars, why don't they touch Palestine?
RW: Well, where I live, in the USA, I think, A: they are frightened and B: I think the propaganda machine that starts in Israeli schools and that continues through all the Netanyahu's bluster is poured all over the United States, not just Fox but also CNN and in fact in all the mainstream media. It's like a huge bucket of crap that they are pouring into the mouth of a gullible public in my view, when they say "we are afraid of Iran, it is going to get nuclear weapons...". It's a diversionary tactic. The lie that they have told for the last 20 years is "Oh, we want to make peace", you know and they talk about Clinton and Arafat and Barak being in Camp David and that they came very close to agreeing, and the story that they sold was "Oh Arafat fucked it all up". Well, no, he did not. This is not the story. The fact of the matter is no Israeli government has been serious about creating a Palestinian state since 1948. They've always had the Ben Gurion agenda of kicking all the Arabs out of the country and becoming greater Israel. They tell a lie as part of their propaganda machinery whilst doing the other thing but they have been doing it so obviously in the last 10 years . For instance, even after when Obama went to Cairo and made that speech about Arabs and the Israelis, everybody was like "Oh, this is a step in a new direction at least". But as soon as he visited Israel, they said. "Oh by the way, we are building another 1200 settlements". Exactly the same when Kerry went last year saying, "Oh I am going to try to get the sides together and talk peace". Netanhayu said "Fuck you. We are going to build another 1500 settlements and we a going to build them in E1, this is our plan." This is so transparent that you'd have to have an IQ above room temperature not to understand what is going on. It is just dopey.
You know I read some piece the other day where it said "apparently only the Secretary of State of the United States, believes that these current peace talks are real, no one else in the world does".
It is a very complicated situation which is why you and I and all the other people in the world who care about their brothers and sisters and not just about the people of our own faith, our own colour, our own race or our own whatever, have to stand in solidarity shoulder to shoulder. This has been a very hard sell particularly where I live in the United States of America. The Jewish lobby is extraordinary powerful here and particularly in the industry that I work in, the music industry and in rock'n roll as they say. I promise you, naming no names, I've spoken to people who are terrified that if they stand shoulder to shoulder with me they are going to get fucked. They have said to me "aren't you worried for your life?" and I go "No, I'm not". A few years ago, I was touring and 9/11 happened in the middle of the tour and 2 or 3 people in my band who happened to be United States citizens wouldn't come on the next leg of the tour. I said " why not? Don't you like the music anymore?" and they replied "no, we love the music but we are Americans and it's too dangerous for us to travel abroad, they are trying to kill us" and I thought "Wow!".
Roger Waters adding some graffiti to the Israeli Wall
FB: Yes, the brainwashing works!
RW: Obviously it does, that is why I am happy to be doing this interview with you because it is super important that we make as much noise as possible. I'm so glad that this right wing newspaper in Israel, Yedioth Ahronoth, printed my interview with Alon Hadar. At least they printed it. Although they changed the context and made it sound different than what is actually was but at least they printed something. You know, I would expect to be completely suppressed and ignored.
You know that Shuki Weiss (preeminent Israeli promotor) was offering me a hundred thousand people at a hundred dollars a ticket a few months ago to come and play in Tel Aviv! "Hang on, that's 10 million dollars", how could they offer it to me?! And I thought, 'Shuki, are you fucking deaf or just dumb?!' I am part of the BDS movement, I'm not going anywhere in Israel, for any money, all I would be doing would be legitimizing the policies of the government.
I have a confession to make to you. I did actually write to Cindy Lauper a couple of weeks ago. I did not make the letter public but I wrote her a letter because I know her a bit, she worked with me on the Wall in Berlin which is why I found it super difficult to understand that she is doing a gig in Tel Aviv, on January the 4th apparently, quite extraordinary, reprehensible in my view, but I don't know her personal story and people have to make up their own mind about these things. One can't get too personal about it.
FB: For sure but you can help them, I guess by what you are doing, by writing to them. You can open their eyes because that's what they need I think.
RW: Yes but if their eyes were going to be opened they would need to either visit the Holy land, visit the West Bank or Gaza or even visit Israel or any single checkpoint anywhere and see what it's like. All they would need to do is visit, or read, read a book! Check out the history. Read Max Blumenthal's book. Then say "Oh I know what I am going to do, I am going to play a gig in Tel Aviv". That would be a good plan! (sarcastic tone).
The threats made against David Letterman I know nothing about other than the email I got from Eddieleaks telling me they came from Rita Katz. Did poor David Letterman do something to Israel? Threats passed on like this one, are really “backhanded reminders” that something asked of them by the all powerful Israeli lobby or ADL wasn’t jumped on quickly enough, reminders done in the style of “Al Capone.”
Why Letterman? I don’t have a clue. Some say it may be his endorsement of Ron Paul for president, a move that angers Muslims because of Paul’s calls for a new 9/11 investigation. Wait a minute, wouldn’t that anger Israelis instead?
But as to the source, please refer to this 2009 VT expose with research done by Brian Jobert.
Start by watching the video below, a Fox News broadcast. Fox says it is Palestinians celebrating the 9/11 attacks. In fact, the video is older (1991), a simple holiday celebration unrelated to anything, supplied by Israeli intelligence just as the stories about Saddam and the poor babies in Kuwait, you remember, the ones taken from their incubators?
This one, perhaps one of the most vicious propaganda attacks on the US ever made, pure racism, pure Islamophobia, came from Rupert Murdoch and the same folks who invented the threat against David Letterman. This video makes up one small piece of evidence leading investigators to Tel Aviv when looking for the real perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. You see, this video was prepared and passed on to Fox News prior to 9/11.
In another similar “mistake,” the BBC reported the collapse of Building 7 20 minutes before it actually fell. While Fox was running video’s from 1991 of a Palestinian celebration, the BBC reported an event 20 minutes into the future.
Who says Al Qaeda takes credit for a bombing? Rita Katz. Who gets us bin Laden tapes? Rita Katz. Who gets us prettymuch all information telling us Muslims are bad? Rita Katz? Rita Katz is the Director of Site Intelligence, primary source for intelligence used by news services, Homeland Security, the FBI and CIA. What is her qualification? She served in the Israeli Defense Force. She has a college degree and most investigative journalists believe the Mossad “helps” her with her information. We find no evidence of any qualification whatsoever of any kind. A bartender has more intelligence gathering experience.
(Another big SITE Intelligence/Mossad project, their “Al Qaeda”spokesman discovered to be an Israeli)
Nobody verifies her claims. SITE says Al Qaeda did it, it hits the papers. SITE says Israel didn’t do it, that hits the papers too. What does SITE really do? They check the internet for “information,” almost invariably information that Israel wants reported and it is sold as news, seen on American TV, reported in our papers and passed around the internet almost as though it were actually true. Amazing.
Do we know if the information reported comes from a teenager in Seattle or a terror cell in Jakarta? No, of course not, we don’t have a clue. Can you imagine buying information on Islamic terrorism from an Israeli whose father was executed as a spy by Arabs?
It is quite likely that everything you think you know about terror attacks such as the one in Detroit or whether Osama bin Laden is alive or dead comes from Rita Katz. Does she make it all up? We don’t know, nobody knows, nobody checks, they simply buy it, print it, say it comes from Site Intelligence and simply forget to tell us that this is, not only a highly biased organization but also an extremely amateur one also.
Is any of this her fault, Ritas? No. She is herself, selling her work. The blame is not Site Intelligence, it is the people who pass on the information under misleading circumstances.
Imagine if a paper carried a story like this:
Reports that Al Qaeda was responsible for bombing the mosque and train station were given to us by an Israeli woman who says she found it on the internet.
This is fair. Everyone should be able to earn a living and information that comes from Israel could be without bias but the chances aren’t very good. In fact, any news organization, and most use this service, that fails to indicate that the sources they use are “rumored” to be a foreign intelligence service with a long history of lying beyond human measure, is not to be taken seriously.
Can we prove that SITE Intelligence is the Mossad? No. Would a reasonable person assume it is? Yes.
Would a reasonable person believe anything from this source involving Islam or the Middle East? No, they would not.
SITE’s primary claim to fame other than bin Laden videos with odd technical faults is their close relationship with Blackwater. Blackwater has found site useful. Blackwater no longer exists as they had to change their name because of utter lack of credibility.
What can be learned by examining where our news comes from? Perhaps we could start being realistic and begin seeing much of our own news and the childish propaganda it really is.
Propaganda does two things:
1. It makes up phony reasons to justify acts of barbaric cruelty or insane greed.
2. It blames people for things they didn’t do because the people doing the blaming really did it themselves. We call these things “false flag/USS Liberty” incidents.
Next time you see dancing Palestinians and someone tells you they are celebrating a terror attack, it is more likely they are attending a birthday party. This is what we have learned, perhaps this is what we had best remember.
Rita Katz and S.I.T.E. are set to release yet another “aL-Qaeda” tape
Despite a massive manhunt by the world’s intelligence agencies, BL seems to evade their combined efforts, staying on the run. But he still has time to drop into his recording studio and cook up a fresh tape for the likes of Rita Katz and her outfit called S.I.T.E. SITE is staffed by TWO people, Katz and a Josh Devon.
WASHINGTON (AFP) The head of the Al-Qaeda network Osama bin Laden is expected to release a taped message on Iraq, a group monitoring extremist online forums said Thursday. The 56-minute tape by the hunted militant is addressed to Iraq and an extremist organization based there, the Islamic State of Iraq, said the US-based SITE monitoring institute, citing announcements on “jihadist forums.”
It said the release was “impending” but did not say whether the message was an audio or video tape. Despite a massive manhunt and a 25-million-dollar bounty on his head, he has evaded capture and has regularly taunted the United States and its allies through warnings issued on video and audio cassettes.
Source: ME Times
Yes, despite a massive manhunt by the world’s intelligence agencies, BL seems to evade their combined efforts, staying on the run. But he still has time to drop into his recording studio and cook up a fresh tape for the likes of Rita Katz and her outfit called S.I.T.E. SITE is staffed by TWO people, Katz and a Josh Devon.
Yet these two individuals manage to do what the ENTIRE combined assets of the world’s Western intelligence can’t:
Be the first to obtain fresh video and audio tapes from aL-Qaeda with Bin Laden making threats and issuing various other comments. If BL appears a bit “stiff” in the latest release, that’s because he is real stiff, as in dead.
How is it that a Jewish owned group like S.I.T.E. can outperform the world’s best and brightest in the intelligence field and be the first to know that a group like al-Qaeda is getting ready to release another tape?
How is it possible that Rita Katz and S.I.T.E. can work this magic? Maybe looking at Katz’s background will help:
Rita Katz is Director and co-founder of the SITE Institue. Born in Iraq, her father was tried and executed as an Israeli spy, whereupon her family moved to Israel [the move has been described as both an escape and an emmigration in different sources]. She received a degree from the Middle Eastern Studies program at TelAvivUniversity, and is fluent in Hebrew and Arabic. She emigrated to the US in 1997.
Katz was called as a witness in the trial, but the government didn’t claim she was a terrorism expert. During the trial it was discovered that Katz herself had worked in violation of her visa agreement when she first arrived in America in 1997.
She also admitted to receiving more than $130,000 for her work as an FBI consultant on the case.
Source Watch
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this Blog!
Two non-profit groups linked to pop star Madonna are also under investigation, the Los Angeles Times reported. Madonna helped put the center on the map when she became an adherent of Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism.
LOS ANGELES, -- The Kabbalah Centre of Los Angeles acknowledged Friday it is being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service. Two non-profit groups linked to pop star Madonna are also under investigation, the Los Angeles Times reported. Madonna helped put the center on the map when she became an adherent of Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism. The center was founded several decades ago by Philip Berg and his wife, Karen, and they still run it with their sons. Sources told the Times the IRS is investigating whether the Berg family is profiting from tax-exempt donations. Kabbalah has also attracted Ashton Kutcher and Gwyneth Paltrow, and the center's assets may now be more than $260 million, the Times said. The center said it and a related group, Spirituality for Kids, have received subpoenas. "The Centre and SFK intend to work closely with the IRS and the government, and are in the process of providing responsive information to the subpoenas," a statement said. Source
The Academy Awards ceremony bears little resemblance to the relatively modest affair that began it all on May 16, 1929, in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel . Then, a mere nine categories were honoured. Now, scores of awards are given out in categories unthinkable at a time before “talkies” and colour film.Most of these new categories are in what might be called “movie science,” areas like special effects, animation and computer graphics. The other side of movie-making, the artistic side, has understandably suffered as a result; the more money that gets blown on artificial acting, the less money there is to invest in real acting, and that includes intelligent, meaningful scripts.
Small wonder, then, that the vast majority of new movies falling off the Hollywood assembly line are bastardizations of great movies, simple-minded sex farces, torture/revenge spectacles, and pointless comic book fantasies, but let’s leave that trenchant observation for another day.
I am using this column to ask the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to create a new Oscar category to honour an overlooked genre, one that actually thrives in our intellectually stunted culture. I am, of course, referring to the holocaust. Thus far, the academy has lumped holocaust and holocaust-themed movies in with others of a given genre—drama, comedy, romantic comedy, thriller, documentary, war epic, etc.—but this practice does a disservice to all films.
For example, a “normal movie” can be enjoyed for its own sake and evaluated solely on its artistic merits. They can be pure escapist entertainment; others also convey important political or moral truths. Besides being a superb action movie, The Matrix is a masterful parable of the fundamental question of Cartesian philosophy—“does reality exist, or is it merely an illusion in the mind of a superior being?” Enemy of the State (1998) is a timely warning that nobody is safe from harassment and terrorism from the U.S. police state.
Like these and other movies, a holocaust movie is larger than the sum of its cinematic parts, but instead of conveying a political or moral truth, it conveys a political or moral illusion. As such, it is manipulative, not instructive, and therefore a work of propaganda, not honest movie-making.
First of all. the holocaust genre is artistically and morally exhausted. Everything that could be said about the Nazi persecution of Jews from a zionist perspective has been said ad nauseam. More than 180 films on the subject have been made in the U.S., almost all since the end of the 1967 war, yet studios still pump them out as if World War II ended yesterday.
Nazi Germany collapsed in 1945, but you’d swear Hitler was still alive given the never-ending supply of holocaust movies.
Rather than allow this didactic dishonesty to debase the Oscars further, all Nazi holocaust and holocaust-related movies must be designated as propaganda and disqualified from movie award categories. Instead, a new category, the Leni Riefenstahl Awards, should be created to give these films the respect they deserve.
Riefenstahl, for those who may not know, was a great 20th-century German filmmaker. Her 1935 film Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will), a sympathetic treatment of the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, was recognized at the time as a great work of cinematic art. It won the gold medal in Venice in 1935 and the gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937.
Riefenstahl’s subsequent film, on the 1936 Berlin Olympics, was also highly praised: 1937, Gold Medal (Paris); 1938, World’s Best Film (Venice); 1939, The Olympic Award (International Olympic Committee); 1956, classified as one of the world’s 10 best films.
After the war, Triumph des Willenswas (rightly) denounced as a work of propagandaand Riefenstahl’s reputation never recovered. My point is that even propaganda can be good art. In that spirit, I nominate The Reader for the inaugural Leni Riefenstahl Award for Excellence in Propaganda.
The Reader
Summary, from imdb.com The Reader opens in post-WWII Germany when teenager Michael Berg becomes ill and is helped home by Hanna, a stranger twice his age. Michael recovers from scarlet fever and seeks out Hanna to thank her. The two are quickly drawn into a passionate but secretive affair. Michael discovers that Hanna loves being read to and their physical relationship deepens.
Hanna is enthralled as Michael reads to her from The Odyssey, Huck Finn and The Lady with the Little Dog. Despite their intense bond, Hanna mysteriously disappears one day and Michael is left confused and heartbroken. Eight years later, while Michael is a law student observing the Nazi war crime trials, he is stunned to find Hanna back in his life—this time as a defendant in the courtroom. As Hanna's past is revealed, Michael uncovers a deep secret that will impact both of their lives. The Reader is a story about truth and reconciliation, about how one generation comes to terms with the crimes of another.
Director: Stephen Daldry
Writers (WGA): David Hare (screenplay) Bernhard Schlink (book)
Lead Actors: Ralph Fiennes (Michael Berg) Kate Winslet (Hanna Schmitz)
To begin, author Bernhard Schlink wanted to examine what it means to love someone who committed an atrocity. He could have set his tragic love affair against any moral crisis he wanted, but his choice of the war crimes trial of five female Nazi prison guards places both his novel and the movie in the category of zionist propaganda. The great propaganda moment comes near the end when the crime in question is revealed at the trial. Two points are of particular note.
Law vs. Morality Based on their written account of the event, the women are charged with failing to open the locked door of a building during a fire, thereby causing the death of 300 women and children prisoners trapped inside—all save one woman and her daughter.
A law professor, who brought five students to see the trial, explains that what the women did was legal according to the law at the time. Student Michael Berg rejects this sanguine attitude: “You keep telling us to think like lawyers but they are guilty... What is there to understand?”
Berg is meant to represent the voice of humanity and righteous indignation. For him, what the women did was a crime because they were morally responsible for the lives of the prisoners and they failed in their responsibility. Legalistic tap-dancing around what was or was not acceptable cannot make the crime any less punishable. For this scene—and the film itself— to have integrity, the position of moral righteousness must remain constant. It doesn’t.
Because The Reader came out during Israel’s bombardment of Gaza one month ago the entire trial is rendered banal. The professor is absolutely correct: there is nothing surprising or condemnatory about what the women did because the same corrupt morality that made it legally acceptable then is again acceptable now.
In fact, the Jews who committed the Zeitun atrocity were greater criminals. The guards did not actually attack the house. Theirs was a crime of omission; Israel’s is a crime of commission.
The only reason to make this movie, much less write the book, is to breathe life into Hitler's ghost so we don't notice the living Hitlers in Israel. The guards in The Reader were not put on trial for allowing innocent people to die; they were tried for allowing Jews to die. The effect is to propagandize the Jew-as-victim myth and make the audience believe that it’s a political reality.
Collective Guilt The second propaganda point is the common theme of all Germans sharing responsibility for the holocaust. One of the law students says of Hanna Schmitz, one of the guards: “I’d shoot her myself; I’d shoot them all.”
In contrast, fellow student Michael Berg is downcast throughout the trial because Hanna is his former lover, and he knows she is innocent because she is illiterate. She could not have written the incriminating report as the other defendants claimed.
Against the lies of the other guards, though, Hanna would not defend herself for fear of admitting her handicap. Berg, who could have saved Hanna, did not speak up because he feared his classmates' contempt, and he wanted to distance himself from the crime.
The audience is shown both bloodlust and cowardice, yet they are supposed to identify with the professor’s detached, rational respect for the law: “If people like you don’t learn from people like me, then what the hell is the point of anything?” Indeed, what is the point”
The idea that justice for these Nazi guards should be fair and rational is hard to take seriously given that Jews in Israel are visiting a collective punishment, a holocaust, on Palestinians, and many Jews are sabotaging attempts to bring the criminals to justice. Moreover, if one accepts that Israel is a law unto itself and commits collective punishment as a matter of national policy, could the professor’s rational detachment be invoked in the defence of any Israeli war criminals that might face trial?
Regardless of how much attention one pays to the relationship between Michael and Hanna, the holocaust is the focus. Without it, there would be no book or movie. The holocaust defines for all time our moral frame of reference: the past is real; the present is an illusion; Jews are eternal victims.
The legalistic culture and the oppressor/victim relationship described in The Reader are antiquated, so the decision to use them, in preference to meaningful, real-life examples, renders the book and movie preposterous, manipulative, and dishonest.
For the abovementioned reasons and the high quality of the movie’s production, The Reader would be a worthy recipient of the inaugural Leni Riefenstahl Award for Excellence in Propaganda.
The Host and The Parasite— How Israel's Fifth Column Consumed America is a detailed study of how Israel exploited the U.S. economy, government and military to destroy the American republic.
In North America, send C$35 + $10 S&H to
Greg Felton Suite 406 104–1015 Columbia St. New Westminster B.C., Canada V3M 6V3
The IDF has found the plans to the Gazza-Tunnels in which heroism was smuggled out of Gaza , into Egypt .
and here is a photo of a major suspect believed to be Mr. Ismael Hanniyah who has, obviously, lost weight ,here due to the blockade on Gazza and has now grown a beard.
here are some of the Hamas Terrorists plotting their next bombing of innocent- Israeli-civilians
the new UN-reconstruction's plans for the Rafah-Border-Crossing
The Chief Prison's guard the moustache , here, is a fake but the uniform is real
The Prison's nurse ( still a virgin!! ) she falls in love with Steve Mac.Hanniyah's rat at the end of the film, but that rat doesn't want her so it marries Abbas !!
The End
Tickets on Sales at nearest US-Embassy !!
Nominated for 5 Oscars !! Best Massacre Best co-production Best reporters-absence Best real-time-genocide andBest original-scenario
Singer Annie Lennox has joined high-profile campaigners to call for an end to Israel's bombing of the Gaza Strip.
At a news conference in London, she said TV footage of the attacks, which have killed more than 400 people, had left her "shaken to the core".
Comedian Alexei Sayle said Jewish people in the public eye should stress this was "not being done in our name". Meanwhile, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) is demanding a meeting with Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
The MCB, the country's largest Muslim group, has refused to attend a Foreign Office briefing on the situation in Gaza and instead want to speak to Mr Miliband directly.
Deputy secretary-general Dr Daud Abdullah said he found it "incomprehensible" that the British government, and the US, did not approve a Security Council vote calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Human values
The news conference was called ahead of Saturday's demonstration when thousands of people are expected to join a rally in central London to demand an immediate end to the Israeli attacks.
The violence in the Middle East has continued for a week, with both sides ignoring international calls for a ceasefire.
At least 13,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Gaza since the attacks started, according to Save the Children.
On Friday, Israel continued to bomb targets in Gaza, including a mosque.
But, says Israel, Palestinian military group Hamas has also fired more rockets into Israel.
In an emotional speech, Annie Lennox said there had to be a different way forward.
"A few days after Christmas I came downstairs, put the television on and saw smoke pyres emanating from buildings and it shook me to the core," she said.
"I was thinking, as a mother and as a human being, how was this going to be a solution to peace?
"It's a question of human rights, human values that goes beyond Jewish, Muslim, nothing to do with any of that. There has to be a place ultimately where people come to the table."
In a strongly-worded condemnation of Israeli bombing, Jewish comedian Alexei Sayle said Israel has an idea it was being noble but was using the "psychology of the murderer" to explain the attacks.
Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone called for the European Union and the UK to withdraw their ambassadors from Israel to signal disapproval with the "slaughter and systematic murder of innocent Arabs".
Appeal to Obama
Respect MP George Galloway suggested Israel's attacks would create a new generation of radicals around the world.
"We will be very, very lucky if the explosions taking place in Gaza today don't blow up in our own face at some time in the future," he said.
Meanwhile, activist Bianca Jagger condemned the attack by Hamas against innocent Israeli citizens, but called for the international community to guarantee the immediate halt of the "disproportionate, unlawful use of force by Israel".
She added: "I would like to make an appeal to President-elect Obama to speak up.
"People throughout the world were hopeful when he was elected and we must appeal to him to ask for the immediate cessation of the bombardment of the civilian population in the Gaza Strip."
Earlier, more than 100 protesters gathered outside Egypt's London embassy demanding the country fully open its border with Gaza to allow humanitarian aid in and let the sick and injured out so they could go to hospital.
General Secretary of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign Betty Hunter said: "Egypt has to stop colluding with Israel and do this now."
Non-profit group Friends of IDF will host the reception Sunday morning at The Q. The group has teamed with Blatt and his former Israeli basketball club for the event, which will include honoring a dozen IDF soldiers wounded in action, according to a news release from FIDF.
