Here is just one little story of the everyday humiliation, the destruction of Palestinian livelihood and culture, carried out by the ruthless, racist Israeli military machine.
I could post such stories every day, including many much worse, and could describe more of the political context which beggars belief – the Israeli Knesset, for example, has just passed through its committee stage a bill providing for Palestinians and other Arabs to pay the costs of the demolition of their own homes by Israel bulldozers. There is a horror to that which should not lead you to overlook a yet more horrible underlying fact contained in that sentence – exactly as in apartheid South Africa, thousands of Israeli laws are ethnically explicit.
I haven’t checked out this little olive tree story, I don’t have to. it is prototypical of thousands of such stories throughout my adult life. I have met victims and know such stories are true.
This is why I support all those working to give some justice and hope for Palestinains. And this is why I cannot understand how such controlling sections of the media and political establishments of the west have signed up so completely to defend the indefensible, to deny to themselves what kind of state Israel has in truth become.
What sort of person believes that “Palestinians” DON’T have rights by virtue of being “Palestinian”?
Craig: ‘The Israeli Knesset… just passed…a bill providing for Palestinians and other Arabs to pay the costs of the demolition of their own homes by Israel bulldozers.’
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Didn’t the Gestapo use to invoice the next of kin for the cost of the rope when they hanged someone?
In Terry Gilliam’s film Brazil, Mr Buttle was overcharged for “information retrieval”.
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Kurtzmann: ‘The population census has got him down as “dormanted.” Uh, the Central Collective Storehouse computer has got him down as “deleted.” Information Retrieval has got him down as “inoperative.” And there’s another one – security has got him down as “excised.” Administration has got him down as “completed.”‘
Sam Lowry: ‘He’s dead.’
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Overcharged for being tortured to death.
What happened to my reply to Courtenay?
Repost:
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Thanks Courtenay I appreciate your thoughts. You can deduce I have a high degree of faith in British and American public pressure against such a scenario. In my mind during the review were the words of Francis Perrin, former head of the French nuclear weapons program, who wrote, ‘We thought the Israeli Bomb was aimed at the Americans, not to launch it at the Americans, but to say, `If you don’t want to help us in a critical situation [when we] require you to help us – we will use our nuclear bombs,’ – I still think that statement holds true today.
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Israel used this blackmail during the 1973 war with Egypt, forcing US President Richard Nixon to re-supply its badly shaken military.
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John Steinbach, a nuclear specialist once quoted Israel’s former president Ezer Weizman: ‘The nuclear issue is gaining momentum [and the] next war will not be conventional.’
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Steinbach says that, whatever ‘deterrent effect’ the founders of the Israeli nuclear program may have intended, ‘today, the nuclear arsenal is inextricably linked to and integrated with overall Israeli military and political strategy.’
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Israel Shahak, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto and the Bergen-Belsen death camp said, ‘The wish for peace, so often assumed as the Israeli aim, is not in my view a principle of Israeli policy, while the wish to extend Israeli domination and influence is.’
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Disarming Israel I believe is crucial to PEACE.
Thanks Courtenay I appreciate your thoughts. You can deduce I have a high degree of faith in British and American public pressure against such a scenario. In my mind during the review were the words of Francis Perrin, former head of the French nuclear weapons program, who wrote, ‘We thought the Israeli Bomb was aimed at the Americans, not to launch it at the Americans, but to say, ‘If you don’t want to help us in a critical situation [when we] require you to help us – we will use our nuclear bombs,’ – I still think that statement holds true today.
–
Israel used this blackmail during the 1973 war with Egypt, forcing US President Richard Nixon to re-supply its badly shaken military.
–
John Steinbach, a nuclear specialist once quoted Israel’s former president Ezer Weizman: ‘The nuclear issue is gaining momentum [and the] next war will not be conventional.’
–
Steinbach says that, whatever ‘deterrent effect’ the founders of the Israeli nuclear program may have intended, ‘today, the nuclear arsenal is inextricably linked to and integrated with overall Israeli military and political strategy’.
–
Israel Shahak, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto and the Bergen-Belsen death camp said, ‘The wish for peace, so often assumed as the Israeli aim, is not in my view a principle of Israeli policy, while the wish to extend Israeli domination and influence is.’
–
Disarming Israel I believe is now crucial to PEACE.
Thanks Courtenay I appreciate your thoughts. You can deduce I have a high degree of faith in British and American public pressure against such a scenario. In my mind during the review were the words of Francis Perrin, former head of the French nuclear weapons program, who wrote, ‘We thought the Israeli Bomb was aimed at the Americans, not to launch it at the Americans, but to say, ‘If you don’t want to help us in a critical situation [when we] require you to help us… – we will use our nuclear bombs,’ – I still think that statement holds true today.
–
Israel used this blackmail during the 1973 war with Egypt, forcing US President Richard Nixon to re-supply its badly shaken military.
–
John Steinbach, a nuclear specialist once quoted Israel’s former president Ezer Weizman: ‘The nuclear issue is gaining momentum [and the] next war will not be conventional.’
–
Steinbach says that, whatever “deterrent effect’ the founders of the Israeli nuclear program may have intended, ‘today, the nuclear arsenal is inextricably linked to and integrated with overall Israeli military and political strategy’.
–
Israel Shahak, a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto and the Bergen-Belsen death camp said, ‘The wish for peace, so often assumed as the Israeli aim, is not in my view a principle of Israeli policy, while the wish to extend Israeli domination and influence is.’
–
Disarming Israel I believe is crucial to PEACE.
I remember as a young child, my brother once showed me something which shook me to the core, he had managed to find a scorpion, he put that scorpion in the middle of ring of fire, where the creature could not scape. The scorpion brought its tail up and started stinging itself until it died.
Is there any wonder that there are suicide bombers in that land?
Craig, nothing new in all this, the british establishment has supported and shared many of the ideological aims of evil through the years, they will only move against it when it no longer serves or opposes their own evil interests… http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWhalifaxL.htm
Mary
Thank you for the introduction to the poem by Mike Odetalla. Googling his name brought up more good writing.
Craig’s olive trees tale led a friend to email me (with permission for wider distribution) the following information from the World Archaeological Congress (WAC). My friend commented: “I wonder if they will ask the Palestinians to pay for the removal of the graves.”
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: [Wac] Burial Desecration in Jerusalem to make way for the “Museum of Tolerance”?
Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:50:10 -0400
From: [email protected]
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
PLEASE FORWARD! (I’ve asked permission to send this far & wide)
—————————–
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]; [email protected]
CC: [email protected]; [email protected]
Subject: Destruction of Ancient Muslim Cemetery in Jerusalem
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 22:34:52 +0000
Dear Kehaulani,
I’m writing to share an alarming development regarding the Mamilla
Cemetery in Jerusalem. This past weekend, only weeks after a Jerusalem
Municipal planning committee granted final permission for construction of
the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s so-called “Museum of Tolerance” atop the
oldest Muslim cemetery in Jerusalem, Israeli bulldozers entered the part
of the ancient Mamilla Cemetery that remained intact to destroy and
dispose of nearly 100 grave markers, both ancient and renovated. The
bulldozers worked under the cover of night (from 11pm to 1am on June
25-26, 2011), and retreated hastily when their operators realized that
they were being filmed by local media and activists, as can be seen in the
coverage broadcast by Al-Arabiya and Al-Jazeera,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxDqH3rrMPo&feature=player_embedded;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNdw2tQK0Cg&feature=player_embedded.
Even before this weekend’s developments, preparatory construction for this
Museum had already resulted in the destruction and disinterment of
thousands of Muslim graves and human remains. Gideon Suleimani, the chief
archaeologist appointed by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) to
excavate the site, concluded after a review of the site that construction
should not continue and that the IAA’s conduct on the site, which contains
“tens of thousands of skeletons,” constituted an “archeological crime.”
Can you help get the word out to archeologists and anthropologists and see
if any network or group would be willing to organize against this- either
through a statement, an open letter, or any other ideas that might emerge?
I think it would be very powerful to have that sector of academics and
professionals speak out on this. If you know of any groups that are
concerned about cemetery desecrations please send this email to them.
CCR has been involved in an effort by 60 individual descendants from 15 of
Jerusalem’s oldest Muslim families; we worked with a group of advocates to
submit a Petition in February 2010 to United Nations bodies urging them to
help stop the building of the Museum atop the cemetery. You can find more
information about this effort, as well as a 2-page factsheet for
distribution, here:
http://www.ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/mamilla. The U.N. Human
Rights Council in 2010 and 2011 passed two resolutions expressing “its
grave concern at the excavation of ancient tombs and removal of hundreds
of human remains from part of the historic Ma’man Allah (Mamilla) Cemetery
in the holy city of Jerusalem in order to construct a museum of
tolerance.” The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
has asked Israel what measures it was implementing to respect and protect
cultural heritage and cultural property as well as freedom of religion or
belief with regards to Mamilla Cemetery, and UNESCO has also raised the
issue of Mamilla Cemetery with Israel. Unfortunately, most recently,
UNESCO has responded to Petitioners that the Mamilla Cemetery is outside
of their mandate, despite the fact that in the past they have urged the
protection of Palestinian cultural heritage throughout the Holy City of
Jerusalem, including the Mamilla Cemetery.
Close to 10,000 individuals have signed a public petition supporting the
demands of the UN Petition, which include the reburial of disinterred
remains, the relocation of the Museum outside of the Cemetery, and the
preservation of the Cemetery as a religious and cultural heritage site
(see:
http://www.ccrjustice.org/get-involved/action/take-action%3A-protect-cultural-rights-and-religious-freedom).
Please let me know if you have any thoughts, and feel free to forward this
email on to anyone who might be able to help.
All my best, Laura
Laura Raymond | Education and Outreach | Center for Constitutional Rights
| 666 Broadway, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10012 | p (212) 614-6459 |
[email protected] | Follow @laurajraymond and @theCCR on Twitter
_______________________________________________
WAC mailing list
[email protected]
https://listserver.flinders.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/wac
(off topic) Go strikers! Stop the War are supporting this too.
Facebook quote of the day:
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“Remember when firefighters, teachers, nurses, doctors and lollipop ladies crashed the stock market, wiped out banks, took billions in bonuses and paid no tax? No, me neither. Please copy and paste to your status for 24 hours to show your support for the strikes against the government.”
Technicolour, consider it done! I was on strike today, what the government doing is not going to have any effect on my pension as I have recently joined civil service and I have chosen not to join the scheme, but it makes me mad that public sector worker are such an easy target and have to pay for the mistakes of government and the greedy bankers. Although all said and done, I think the present government would have done it all the same. It is sneaky way of cutting the cost and privatising whatever is left of our services and public sector.
Right on. I saw this item and winced at Robinson’s revolting propaganda.
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Nick Robinson on the strikers and bankers
Posted by John Hilley on June 30, 2011, 6:28 pm
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On the Six News, a small, seemingly insignificant, word, but one so typical of the BBC’s distortion of context.
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“They [the strikers] say they shouldn’t pay more for bankers’ mistakes.”
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Not bankers’ “greed” or “criminality”, just their “mistakes” – as with Britain’s “mistakes” over Iraq.
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John
PS John Hilley is a Scot, activist in many causes including the one for justice for the Palestinians and runs a SPSC stall every week in Glasgow. His interesting blog – http://johnhilley.blogspot.com/
Azra: thanks and you’re absolutely right – Corporate Watch published a piece in *2003* (based on a talk by Professor Alyson Pollock) exposing the creeping privatisation of the NHS in favour of US insurance companies, among others. It was happening anyway. As were the shifts in the education system.
Chris Hedges, one of the best polemicists, on the model the UK seems to be following:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_the_united_states_is_destroying_her_education_system_20110410/
(extract)
“We spurn real teachers — those with the capacity to inspire children to think, those who help the young discover their gifts and potential — and replace them with instructors who teach to narrow, standardized tests. These instructors obey. They teach children to obey. And that is the point.”
How the mighty have fallen eh. From flying jets into skyscrapers to be being reduced to chipping away at propellers with chisels. Oh dear… 🙁
The piece about the cemetery is enraging. That’s all I can say, no qualifiers, no subjunctives. Rage. And so, not only do these … uproot and murder the living, the houses of the living, the trees of the living, the fruit of the living, they do the same to the dead. They will excavate down to 10 metres to obliterate all trace of whatever it is they want to erase from the face of the world and from history. This is an abomination. A literal enactment of Israel’s prime directive: Blood and soil. Iain, thanks for posting it and all the links and the excellent and powerful poem. UNESCO, btw, as you’ll know, is an utterly corrupt organisation which makes FIFA look like Sally’s Army. UNESCO: Bought, sold, whored. The pimp: Israel. The pimp’s capo di capo re: God good y’all, it’s the USA!
Mary, I didn’t know about John Hilley; I’ve probably seen him around the city, though, without knowing who he was – thanks for the link to his blog. Anyone know a friendly shark or two around the Greek coastline, btw? That is what the flotilla needs – a school of great white sharks! That ought to just about do it! Yeah.
Good point, Mary: bankers’ “mistakes”, Britain’s “mistakes”, bulldozers “mistakes”… s’all one struggle. Yeah, what a bunch of fuckin’ liars. Oh, whoops! That must’ve been another “mistake” – of course, madam, slip o’ the tongue, ‘twixt cup and lip! Naturally, I meant “frigging”. Yes. Ah well then. Frig the bankers, frig the media accessories to mass murder, frig Israel! All one struggle, all one frig.
good old Oscar Wilde:
“Despotism is unjust to everybody, including the despot, who was probably made for better things.”
from The Soul of Man Under Socialism.
Sarah Colborne – bless her, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, invited the head of the largest Islamic Movement in Israel and a vocal critic of Israeli policies, Sheikh Salah to Britain.
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He was arrested at his London hotel on Tuesday after home secretary, Theresa May said he entered illegally, being the subject of an exclusion order. Sheikh Salah had spoken about the Arab Spring to large audiences in London and Leicester before his arrest.
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However, an invitation for him to speak in the parliament building at a meeting entitled “Building peace and justice in Jerusalem”, had provoked fierce criticism from Zionist groups and some British politicians.
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This pressure by pro-Israel groups in Britain including the Board of Deputies and backed by the Daily Mail who branded Sheikh Salah a “preacher of hate” and “a militant extremist, forced the Home Office to agree his presence was “not conducive to the public good.”
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Sheikh Salah, who has denied anti-semetic remarks, was reported to be planning to sue the Daily Mail over their reports. His lawyer, Farooq Bajwa, said Mr Salah hoped to fight his deportation, pointing out that he had made “no attempt” to conceal his identity or lie about the purpose of his visit.
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Salah travelled on last year’s aid flotilla to Gaza that was stormed by Israeli commandos, leading to the deaths of nine activists on-board.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/mobile/uk-13957476
Mark, I hope Sheikh Salah will sue Daily Mail, maybe one of these days they will go out of business… I know of two people who have sued the paper and had out of court settlement as well as an apology (of course printed on the page 32 at the bottom…!)
Finally there is a report on ZBC.
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13977371
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Headlined as ‘Gaza aid flotilla sabotage claim’. Note it is aa ‘claim’. As per usual, we have the ‘Israel says’ stuff and of course the word ‘militant’ is used to describe the inhabitants of Gaza. Only one use though this time. They usually manage at least 10 uses of the word in a short report.
I see BBC4 is rerunning ‘The Conspiracy Files: 9/11 – The Truth Behind The Third Tower’ again tonight at 10.45. Try as they might, the genie is out the bottle. Even serious sheeple refuse to believe that 47 storey skyscrapers, supported by separate steel columns, collpase in 10 or so seconds in the manner that WTC7 did. Repeating the lie just won’t work any more. It makes me chuckle to see them feeling worried enough to keep airing this nonsense.
This vote of the US Senate serves well to bolster the points ( mentioned above) about what Professor Edward Said had observed many years ago about a one state solution to the Palestinian/Isreali issue.
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m79093&hd=&size=1&l=e
“US Senate passes resolution of unequivocal NO to Palestinian state
Mairav Zonszein
June 29, 2011
In an expected but nonetheless unbelievable move, the US Senate passed resolution 185 late Tuesday, which states that if the Palestinian Authority goes ahead with its plan to seek unilateral recognition as a state, the US would suspend its financial aid.
The resolution, backed by 87 senators, reasons that US policy is committed to a two-state solution through negotiations and thus any unilateral action by the Palestinians is counterproductive. As the resolution states:
Reaffirming the commitment of the United States to a negotiated settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, reaffirming opposition to the inclusion of Hamas in a unity government unless it is willing to accept peace with Israel and renounce violence, and declaring that Palestinian efforts to gain recognition of a state outside direct negotiations demonstrates absence of a good faith commitment to peace negotiations, and will have implications for continued United States aid.
This is a ridiculously insulting double standard. Israel has been taking unilateral actions for decades with impunity, actions which have drastically changed facts on the ground and continue to undermine the very notion of negotiations.”
Truth be told – the US is not an honest broker and is undeniably a part of the problem without any just solution.
“Truth be told – the US is not an honest broker and is undeniably a part of the problem without any just solution.”
Yeah, man. Yeah. Same then, same now. There is no change – and that, we can believe in. Re-name it, the DSA (‘The Despotic States of America’). Oscar Wilde said it 100+ years ago, (ta, technicolour!), CCR sang it, swamp-style, 40+ years ago, Buffy sang it again, 20 years ago, and we’re saying it now. Treachery: Back to Wounded Knee…
youtube.com/watch?v=Ft749fC-1p4
guntheranderson.com/v/data/burymyhe.htm
Hope the format coding works… From Murder in Samarkand BBC radio play by David Hare, broadcast last year:
the Palestinians must be getting somewhere if such drastic threats are being issued, twisting arms in a display of their most forthright and explicit UN policy, insistence on acting against the currents of world opinion…by the brute force of a Leviathan who is mortally wounded, whose whole economic basis was build on unsustainable wastefull practises, spite and violence, the project for the 21st century is doomed.
Sounds a bit like the 1930’s to me, just that little bit bigger, its the bell that tolls for Orwells ideas of thought police. weeding kids out for having the wrong kind of father or mother, looking for the criminal, the questioning and for the obstinacy genes will be next.
There is a whole bunch of idiots and control freaks out there, all gunning for the Palestinians and those who have some honest bones left in their body.
Thanks for the exc. links everyone, lets hope those at sea do not try and seek Greek harbours.
So, surprise, surprise, the Greek authorities are likely to be complicit with Israel/USA. So, since the Greek authorities are complicit in the destruction of property and the potential death at sea of human beings, as well as in the economic colonisation by Wall Street et al of their own country, one might argue that the Greek demonstrators would fully-justified in destroying whatever property and symbols of the international financial system/the Greek state they see fit. When the state becomes an international terrorist, there is no law. Israel has brought its jungle ‘Blitzkrieg’ mentality back to Europe. In essence, Israel’s ‘Id’ derives from WW2 and is an emanation of the horror of that conflagration. It has taken a distilled version of the mentality of WW2 to the Middle East. The comparisons with apartheid South Africa – another wondrous emanation – are increasingly accurate and comprise more than simply legislative, institutionalised racism and bigotry. The ‘Blood and Soil’ of the ‘Settler Movement’, for example, is very similar to that of the Voortrekkers and to the idea of Lebensraum. In essence, the ‘settlers’ are used by the state as a phalanx for Lebensraum. But really, it is not necessary to attempt to draw parallels with (other) heinous regimes, nor to judge the state of Israel on the precision, or otherwise, of such parallels. By virtue of its own actions Israel has proved, time-and-again, that it deserves a major place on the walk of oppressors and that it deserves to be treated accordingly. Where the state is a terrorist, there is no law.
Saw that Nick Robinson piece, Mary. Not a corrupt system stuffing yet more cash into its own pockets — but ‘mistakes’. The following link shows how little that basic truth has changed. Recent spikes in commodity prices are all down to where American banks invested their bail-out cash:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/29/how-world-paid-hidden-cost-america-quantitative-easing
Newsnight, two nights ago: Paxman giving Paul Mason a dressing down for daring to take the side of the Greek resistance, as he called them. There’s nothing like a shared experience to shape one’s point of view…
The worse things get, the more the BBC seems to act like an arm of the state.
Good on Paul Mason for basing his recent reports and analysis on what ordinary people are telling him.
I’ll be shot for posting off-topic comments here, but since I had a bit of a dust up with ‘Herbie’ about this, and of course Craig posted about it:
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“The case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn is in doubt following reports of major holes in the credibility of the woman who alleges the former head of the IMF attacked her in May …”
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“The sexual nature of the encounter between the French politician and the maid has never been questioned by either side. But the New York Times report now suggests that police and prosecuting lawyers have concluded that the 32-year-old Guinean immigrant has lied repeatedly …”
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jul/01/dominique-strauss-kahn-case-close-collapse-new-york-times?CMP=EMCGT_010711&
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I still don’t see how ‘Herbie’ could contend so emphatically that DSK was set up by bankers since the man was due to resign from the IMF anyway, to stand for the French presidency. If he was set up, it would seem more likely to me that Sarko’s crowd were involved.
“… Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke about the flotilla at Thursday evening at a graduation ceremony for new pilots in central Israel, praising the action of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou.
“Sometimes we are required not only to repel physical attacks by our enemies but also repel the attacks against our right to defend ourselves. In that regard, I want to thank the many world leaders who spoke out and acted lately against the flotilla provocation,” he said.
“Israel has the full right to act against attempts to legitimize the smuggling of missiles, rockets and other weapons to the terror enclave of Hamas,” he added.”
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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iChRXUq9DQz7e2yWRD1addgjspqw?docId=395fe81ad8a24207850e40114d5d4d39
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What a despicable liar that ‘man’ is. Defending yourselves my ass.
Good posts everyone. Dreoilin = Bibi referred to Papandreou as ‘his friend’ in a Jerusalem Post article I read earlier.
This about Caroline Lucas. Who is pulling her strings here?
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Green MP objects to PSC logo
Green MP Caroline Lucas challenges PSC on pre-Israel map
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By Martin Bright
Jewish Chronicle
23.06.11
The leader of the Green Party has written to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign questioning why the organisation uses as its logo a provocative map of Palestine prior to the creation of Israel.
Caroline Lucas, Parliament’s first Green MP, is a prominent supporter of the Palestinian cause and has visited the Palestinian territories on several occasions.
/….. http://jfjfp.com/?p=23785
Has anyone considered that the Greek powers have been subjected to ‘gifts they couldn’t refuse’?
Good point Jaded. Are you linking the sabotage to the bailout? Stranger things etc…
But there’s a shift happening. You can feel it. Old deceits are being exposed, just as the old paradigm breaks down. Or am I just making that up?
I wasn’t linking it to anything specific Mike. It just wouldn’t surprise me at all if some unknown threats were being made behind the scenes. I would argue the same thing for the bailout and privatisation agenda too. I think that many of the Greek elites probably aren’t keen on it. It’s essentially more about power and control than money in my view.