Archive for June 2009
Israel Attacks Justice Boat: Kidnaps human rights workers; Confiscates medicine, toys and olive trees
A peace activist paints "Spirit of Humanity" on a Greek-registered island-hopping craft before its departure to the Gaza Strip in the southern Cypriot port of Larnaca on January 12, 2009. A group of pro-Palestinian activists including European MPs and doctors set sail today for war-hit Gaza from Cyprus in a bid to deliver much-needed medical aid. As well as its 30 passengers, the 22-metre (70-foot) "Spirit of Humanity" was packed with tonnes of basic medical supplies such as bandages, IV bags, antibiotics and other medicines for Gaza hospitals.
[23 miles off the coast of Gaza, 15:30pm] – Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel. Read More…
Related:
- Activists Still Held as UN Expert Declares Israeli Ship Seizure ‘Unlawful’
- The “Spirit of Humanity”
- Pirates of the Mediterranean
- How Israel’s naval blockade denies Gazans food, aid
- US remains silent over McKinney arrest by Israel
- Israel’s navy seizes ‘Humanity’ ship off Gaza
- Israel Attacks Gaza-bound Aid Ship, Kidnaps Activists
- Free Gaza Boat ‘Spirit of Humanity’ Departs Cyprus
- Red Cross Report Slams Israel’s Blockade on Gaza
ID cards ‘will never be compulsory’ for Britons, but…
Alan Johnson signalled a significant reversal over the Government’s identity card policy yesterday when he ruled out making them compulsory for British citizens.
However, the Government is to press ahead with creating a national identity register that, from 2011-12, will include the details of everyone who applies for a passport.
Legislation to be debated next week will make it an offence punishable by a fine of up to £1,000 not to inform the Government of a name or change of address as it appears on the register.
The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict and Russia
During a recent meeting with the Arab League President Amr Moussa, President Medvedev confirmed the centrality of the Palestinian problem in the context of the Middle-Eastern conflict resolution.
President Medvedev said the negotiating process should not lose momentum and confirmed Russia’s readiness to host a broad international Middle East conference in Moscow. The conference can constitute a significant step towards the resolution of the Palestinian problem. Generally, all the parties involved, including Israel, consented to attend the forum.
The resolution must be fair and lead to the establishment of a democratic and viable Palestinian state with a capital in East Jerusalem peacefully co-existing with Israel.
In 2003 the international quartet (the US, the EU, the UN, and Russia) adopted a road map plan by which the Palestinian state would be created as a result of the Palestinian-Israeli bilateral talks under the quartet’s supervision based on the past UN Resolutions, the land for peace formula (Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories in return for a peace treaty with the Arab countries), and the Arab League’s peace initiative.
The Russian leader stressed the need to freeze the construction of Israeli settlements in the territory meant to be allocated to the Palestinian state and to stop the shelling of Israel by Palestinian militants. Read More…
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Obama faces a Persian rebuff
Persian stories have long endings. The Iranian regime shows every sign of closing ranks and pulling its act together in the face of what it assessed to be an existential threat to the Vilayat-e faqih (rule of the clergy) system. Even if the US and Britain want to walk away from their nasty spat with Tehran, which would be an eminently sensible and logical thing to do, the latter may not allow them to do that. Read More…
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Recent Brookings publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to trigger Iran invasion
In a recent policy paper published by the influential Brookings Institute, the authors propose almost anything to guarantee dominance of Persia by the new world order, including bribery, lying, cheating and mass murdering by an all-out military assault of Iran. The paper ‘Which path to Persia: Options for a New American Strategy toward Iran’ is just one of many recent and not so recent examples of the firm intent of the globalists to engage Iran militarily and acquire its natural resources in the same effort.
[MTW comment: And this after Obama's 'New Beginning' speech and his acknowledgement of CIA orchestrated coup that topped Iran's prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh, in August 1953.]
Iran’s Guardian Council confirms vote results
After the conclusion of the partial vote recount, Iran’s electoral watchdog the Guardian Council has confirmed the result of the June 12 poll. Iran’s top legislative body confirmed that the recount of 10 percent of the ballot boxes carried out on Monday had shown no irregularities in the vote. The recount came after defeated candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi rejected the result of the election as fraudulent and called for a re-run. Read More…
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Israeli ministers fear temporary settlement freeze will set precedent
Imagine this… Israel’s top ministers say ‘temporary freeze’ must be accompanied by promise of concessions from Palestinians. As if the settlements and the occupation were not illegal to begin with. Now, this is what I call chutzpah. A thief who committed an armed robbery telling the judge, “If I am to return the stolen goods, the victim has to give me something else in return. Or else, my punishemnt will create a dangerous precedent.” I think it should. It’s time for the law to be applied. It’s time to end this hypocrisy.
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Pro-Israel Lobby Alarmed by Growth of Boycott, Divestment Movement
The movement to call Israel to account for its crimes against the Palestinian people is growing, it is “invading the mainstream discourse, becoming part of the constant and unrelenting drumbeat against Israel.” It could eventually threaten the existence of the Jewish state by undermining the support it receives from its strongest backer, the U.S. government. Read More…
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Gaza war victims testify before UN panel
The “Myth” about Cockroach Settlers
The fallacious assumption created by Israel has now been rooted out and shown to the world. No longer can they use their age old lies for stealing land and filling it with Zionist Cockroach Jihadist Settlers. The jig is up, the game is over, the numbers don’t lie….but Israel does.
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A not-so-holy land grab
From: Body On The Line
Those of us active in the struggle for the right of return for Palestinian refugees and justice for Palestinians in general are well acquainted with article 49 of the 4th Geneva Convention, which reads:
Nevertheless, the Occupying Power may undertake total or partial evacuation of a given area if the security of the population or imperative military reasons do demand. Such evacuations may not involve the displacement of protected persons outside the bounds of the occupied territory except when for material reasons it is impossible to avoid such displacement. Persons thus evacuated shall be transferred back to their homes as soon as hostilities in the area in question have ceased.
The Occupying Power undertaking such transfers or evacuations shall ensure, to the greatest practicable extent, that proper accommodation is provided to receive the protected persons, that the removals are effected in satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition, and that members of the same family are not separated.
The Protecting Power shall be informed of any transfers and evacuations as soon as they have taken place.
The Occupying Power shall not detain protected persons in an area particularly exposed to the dangers of war unless the security of the population or imperative military reasons so demand.
The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.
Between Tel Aviv and Tehran
It is an open secret that our leaders hoped that Ahmadinejad would win, exacerbate the hatred of the Western world against himself and make reconciliation with America more difficult.
All through the crisis, Barack Obama has behaved with admirable restraint. American and Western public opinion, as well as the supporters of the Israeli government, called upon him to raise his voice, identify with the protesters, wear a green tie in their honor, condemn the Ayatollahs and Ahmadinejad in no uncertain terms. But except for minimal criticism, he did not do so, displaying both wisdom and political courage.
Iran is what it is. The US must negotiate with it, for its own sake and for our sake, too. Only this way – if at all – is it possible to prevent or hold up its development of nuclear weapons. And if we are condemned to live under the shadow of an Iranian nuclear bomb, in a classic situation of a balance of terror, it would be better if the bomb were in the hands of an Iranian leadership that keeps up a dialogue with the American president. And of course, it would be good for us if – before reaching that point – we could achieve, with the friendly support of Obama, full peace with the Palestinian people, thus removing the main justification for Iran’s hostility towards Israel.
Has the U.S. played a role in fomenting unrest during Iran’s election?
One might be tempted to argue that the strategy for regime change implemented under the Bush administration, including funding for propaganda, support for Iranian dissident groups, and backing for anti-regime militants and terrorists, has changed under the new administration of President Barack Obama. There is no evidence, many have pointed out, of U.S. meddling in the Iranian election.
But then, neither is there any clear indication that Obama ever revoked the policy strategy implemented under Bush. The most likely scenario is that Obama has put the military option, favored by some in the Bush administration, on the back burner in favor of other means to carry out a change of regime in Iran.
Whatever the case may be, given the record of U.S. interference in the state affairs of Iran and clear policy of regime change, it certainly seems possible, even likely, that the U.S. had a significant role to play in helping to bring about the recent turmoil in an effort to undermine the government of the Islamic Republic.
Related:
- Ahmadinejad Won: The Real Source of Interference in the Iran Elections was the US
- From Mossadegh to Ahmadinejad: The CIA and the Iranian experiment
- Britain demands release of embassy employees arrested in Iran
- Iran Arrests British Embassy Staff
- Eight local staff at British Embassy in Tehran arrested
- Iran detains British embassy staff
- Iran’s Many Wars
Hillary is Wrong about the Settlements
Despite fervent denials by Obama administration officials, there were indeed agreements between Israel and the United States regarding the growth of Israeli settlements on the West Bank. As the Obama administration has made the settlements issue a major bone of contention between Israel and the U.S., it is necessary that we review the recent history.
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