Friday, August 01, 2014

True US security interests are in the Americas - Not in Israel

Since the beginning of Israel's offensive on the Gaza Strip against Hamas, five Latin American countries - Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Chile and El Salvador - have withdrawn their ambassadors to Israel in protest. Meanwhile, Bolivia has dubbed Israel a “ terrorist state" and rescinded its visa-free policy for Israeli travellers, and Chile has suspended free-trade negotiations.




When you see the video above, you may ask yourself how and why these Palestinian communities ended up in Latin America. The video below provides some historic insight :




Ben Fogel says that Israel, as an ‘apartheid’ state, systemically oppresses Israeli and Palestinian Arabs. This, and Israel’s “economic warfare” against Palestinians, is a crime against humanity
Imagine a state prone to attacking its neighbours in clear violation of international law. A state which systemically discriminates against a substantial proportion of the population on the basis of ethnicity. A state which has been illegally occupying supposedly sovereign land for decades, a state which has forcefully relocated millions of people to tiny crops of land in which they are denied access to the outside world and the ability to meaningfully exercise self-determination. A state in which people suffer daily harassment and are forced to produce a pass at regular military checkpoints in order to travel in the land of their birth. A state in which people are excluded from access to work and economic resources purely on the basis of ethnicity, all the while this same state is championed by its defenders as a bastion of Western Civilization and democracy in a hostile region. Does this scenario sound familiar at all?

It is undeniable that these practices within the state in question, Israel, closely parallels that of another state. This latter state has now been condemned to the dustbin of history: the state of apartheid South Africa. Apartheid South Africa had a penchant for attacking its neighbours on a regular basis, occupying other country’s land, and relocating the majority of the population to economically destitute Bantustans. All the while denying people basic rights purely on the basis of an accident of birth: their perceived race. It is for these reasons that a growing proportion of the international community have condemned Israel as an apartheid state which systemically discriminates against Palestinians purely on the basis of their ethnicity, which is no more than an accident of birth.

According to international law, apartheid can be defined as a crime against humanity committed “in the context of an institutionalised regime of systematic oppression and domination by one racial group over any other racial group or groups and committed with the intention of maintaining that regime”.

Israel is guilty of gross human rights violations, including: indefinite detention and forcible transfer of peoples, assassination, economic warfare and numerous other actions of systemic domination taken against Palestinians and increasingly against Israeli Arabs in the name of ensuring the supremacy of a state based on Jewish ethnicity.

The state of Israel practices daily economic warfare aimed at preventing one of the already poorest areas in the region from having access to vital humanitarian goods, electricity and even rebuilding infrastructure which was destroyed in a “war”. The same war which the United Nations has described as a deliberate attempt to “humiliate and terrorise a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability”.

In the occupied territories themselves, as Israel continues to support and extend illegal settlements, the system of control implemented there includes “Jewish only settlements”, separate roads and military checkpoints. This, according to the defenders of Israel that supposedly belong to the Sovereign entity of the “Palestinian Authority”.

Thousands of Palestinians, some as young as 12 years old, are indefinitely detained every year under a brutal and authoritarian policy known as “Administrative Detention” in the name of Israel’s National Security. They have no access to legal rights. Since 1967 over 650 000 Palestinians have been “honoured guests” of the Israeli prison system, an average as high as 1 in 4 in the occupied territories. Recently Khadir Adnan, a Palestinian baker and activist, embarked on a 66 day hunger strike after being detained (not for the first time) under the Orwellian policy of Administrative Detention. The policy dates back to British colonial rule.

Khadir managed to force a deal for his release in April, but hundreds more languish behind bars facing torture and humiliation while having their stint in prison indefinitely extended. The courage of people like Khadir shows that even a state possessing (illegally) nuclear weapons and vast military capabilities, backed almost uniformly by the most powerful country on the planet can be defeated by individual acts of bravery.

Taking the bravery of people like Khadir and the example of the international campaign of solidarity that eventually helped bring the South African apartheid state to its knees, as inspiration a group of concerned students at Rhodes have come together to set up Israeli apartheid week on campus in the week of March 5-11. We are hosting this week in conjunction with over 90 cities worldwide and 11 other South African campuses. We aim to both create awareness around the issue, through a program of political education and ensure students get involved in a global campaign to fight for justice and human rights in Palestine.

Benjamin Fogel is a member of the Rhodes University organisation the Students for Social Justice (SSJ). He is also a freelance writer, and regular contributor to Amandla! 

ALABAMA ON THE MEDITERRANEAN:




MORE BACKGROUND ON THE HONEST MAN AND HUMANIST- MAX BLUMENTHAL

116 comments:

  1. In the previous post, a video of the loathsome Caroline Glick was promoted. It was the inspiration for this post.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Great news!!! Hamas kidnapped a LIVE Israeli!

      Expect that if he alive he will be tortured, starved and abused.

      IF he is dead? He will be dismembered and body parts passed around as war trophies.

      Delete
    2. oh, Hamas used the humanitarian cease fire to launch the surprise attack..

      no surprise there.

      Delete
  2. The last video gives some real insight into the present culture in Israel and not the myth portrayed in the US media. On this blog, we often get vile and racists slurs from the pro-Israelis. I often remove them but do allow others to stand to allow the bigots to demonstrate current thinking and culture of venality and racial vulgarism in Israel. If you want the truth aboout the US ally, Israel, I urge you to watch the video.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes you have made it clear. Your terms, and Hamas is the destruction of the State of Israel.

      That is what is needed for peace.

      And you are offended that we don't bend over and "take it"....

      Delete
  3. You mean vile racist slurs like this? --


    Jack HawkinsFri Jul 18, 12:36:00 AM EDT

    I mean, you are an Israeli, and there is nothing worse than that.

    In all the world, the Arabs of Israel are the scum.

    Now if you were a European, well thatd be different, but Israelis are all Arabs, Semites.
    Scum of the Earth

    ;-)

    Have a nightmare tonight and a shitty tomorrow,
    QuirkFri Jul 18, 01:13:00 AM EDT

    .

    And the voice of the rat is heard in the land.

    And the world once again cringes.
    .............................

    The arabs of Palestine/Gaza regularly call Jews the sons of monkeys and pigs. I think this comes from the Koran, but am not certain.

    Anyway it is a long standing description of Jews by Arabs. As a slur I don't see how it can be bettered. Talk about de-humanization.....

    I don't think I've used racists slurs against the people of Hamas. It is their homicidal culture to which I object. Which of course comes directly from the Koran and is the root cause of all the violence in the mid-east. It is not exactly a live and let live book.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. you forget to post that Israelis are called "nazis" on an hourly basis on this blog..

      Delete
    2. .

      The charges of 'Nazi' is prevalent here, two on one side of the argument use it and two on the other use it along with one who is too stupid to know that his lumping 'all' Arabs together because of their 'culture' is the basest form of racism.

      The use of the word shows the paucity of thought used by these groups. Instead of arguing the specifics of the argument based on history and current examples the conversation has devolved to slurs. Half the examples/charges cited here have nothing to do with the questions at hand. Most of the articles posted are written by people with partisan agendas or come come from conspiracy websites or pulp fiction tabloids.

      In short, it has become a microcosm of the war of words between the Israelis and Palestinians, racist, illogical, and simplistic.

      .

      Delete
    3. Palestinian arabs SIDED with Nazi Germany, Yasser Arafat's Uncle, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, spent much of the war in Berlin planning a "final solution" for the Jews of the middle east.

      After the war, the arabs, from Sadat of Egypt to the Baathists of Iraq and Syria, who strongly supported the nazis, came into power.

      Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah movements shaped by Nazi Germany when it comes to their fanatical devotion to genocide the Jews.

      Delete
    4. As Deuce has stated there can be peace with Israel only when Israel ceases to be and the area is renamed "palestine" and the Jews know their place in a majority arab nation, after of course the arab have had their revenge.

      Delete
    5. That is a scurrilous lie. I will leave it up for the record of your attempt to promote it. It will be the last time I leave it up. You will not put it up again.

      Delete
    6. Quart says speaking of culture is racism.

      Told you folks Quart is losing it.

      I've offered Quart a few free psychological sessions with my niece when she gets back to USA. She would be happy to do it, as I've spoken highly of Quart to her, and I know she would feel badly if I told her what has been occurring lately.

      Delete
    7. What is "Occupation"Fri Aug 01, 09:00:00 AM EDT
      As Deuce has stated there can be peace with Israel only when Israel ceases to be and the area is renamed "palestine" and the Jews know their place in a majority arab nation, after of course the arab have had their revenge.

      Delete

      Deuce ☂Fri Aug 01, 09:39:00 AM EDT
      That is a scurrilous lie. I will leave it up for the record of your attempt to promote it. It will be the last time I leave it up. You will not put it up again.


      Is a LIE?

      You said it.

      Tell me where I am wrong...

      Go ahead.

      Tell us AGAIN your great plan for peace... Oh blogmaster....

      Delete
    8. clarify your position, I unlike you or Rat, will not hold you to your previous slurs, slanders, threats and promises...

      For the record.

      Does Israel have a RIGHT to it's own nation/state for the Jewish people in the middle east?

      Delete
    9. You and Rufus have both stated that ALL the lands of the middle east belong to the arabs...

      AM I WRONG?

      Delete
    10. go ahead.

      clarify OUR misunderstandings.

      again, unlike you and rat and rufus, we will accept your newly stated words to supersede any and all older writings.

      Delete
    11. "O"rdure's entire tenure here at the Elephant Bar is lie.
      He deals in lies because he himself, his character is a lie.

      Not a fiction, but a deception.
      A Fraud and an Israeli - but I repeat myself.

      Delete
    12. A NASI is a Prince of Judea, allen confirmed that fact.
      Words have meaning, each and every one of them.

      The Zionists would like to define the meanings of the word.
      But it is beyond their paygrade to do that.

      The True Meaning of the words is found in the mind of the reader, not in the symbols used.
      NASI is read a NAZI, becaue the READER make the connection, not because the two words are 'really' conflated.

      Like Zionist and Jew.
      Like Ashkenazi and Semite.
      Like NASI and NAZI.

      Enjoy.

      Delete
    13. WiO,

      why don't you provide the quotes with links to support your assertion of Deuce's position. I've never read anything he written that supports what you state as fact. Until you can show otherwise one must conclude it is you that is lying.

      Delete
    14. why not ask deuce straight out.

      what is position is…..

      Delete
    15. He has stated his position on many things many times. I don't believe he fully backs all that serves as headline posts on this blog as I think he wants to provoke discussion but even then I haven't read any posts of his that conform to your interpretation. He certainly hasn't stated his position in the words you have ascribed to him. I therefore suggest that you explain how what he has actually written conforms with your interpretation of it. I think you are either lying in your portrayal of his position or mistaken. In any case I don't think you have portrayed his position accurately and the onus lies upon you to support your assertions.

      Delete
  4. I think the students at Rhodes would better spend their time by studying the 1400 years of ethnic cleansing done by the Moslems.

    Where did all those Jews and Christians go?

    Christians are being cleansed out of Iraq as I type. So far only FRANCE has stepped forward to offer some of them refuge.

    In Iraq, ISIS/IS has offered them not the standard three choices, convert/die/pay the tax, but two - convert or die.

    It can be argued that this is not a racist matter, but a cultural one. Still, when one is on the receiving end it makes little difference.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. ...unlike the ethnic cleansing by Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson of American Indians, both of whose images adorn US currency. Isreal and the US supported and promoted the dissolution of Iraq, Syria and Libya.

      Delete
    2. Forgetting for a moment that you too live on Indian Lands and bypassing your weird hatred for Lincoln, Bush tried to keep Iraq together, gave them a shot, and O took the troops out too soon. Israel had zero to do with it. Or with Syria and Libya for that matter.

      You have preached for months on end how we should not again get involved in Iraq, and ought to stay out of Syria and Libya.

      On that most here agree with you, including myself.


      Delete
    3. Israel had zero to do with it. Or with Syria and Libya for that matter.

      :) would you like to review the video of General Leslie Clark and his unmasking the Neocon plan to remove the threats to Israel?

      Delete
    4. Lincoln, the president who ordered the largest mass execution in US history of Dakota Indians or Andrew Jackson and The Indian Removal Act. Why you get all weepy at the sight of good ol Honest Abe.

      Mt weird hatred is that I don’t like killers.

      Delete
    5. But you do like the Palesitnians.

      how odd.

      Delete
  5. In the end, no matter how many videos Deuce puts up, no matter how many slurs he throws it doesn't change the one fact that everyone in the world understands.

    Hamas is a terrorist group, funded by Iran, Turkey and Qatar that murders it's own and is committed to the GENOCIDE of all the Jews in the world.

    Placing their ammo dumps, rockets, launchers and command and control bunkers under and in mosques,schools, clinics and UN buildings and then, using force, keeps palestinian children as human shields, (hoping for their deaths so they can "win the social media war"). Hamas and their supporters ignore all redlines in order to vilify Israel and Jews.

    The mask has dropped.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There has been no promotion of Hamas or other terrorist group on this group. Your continuous deception and lies all have the same theme of protecting and deflecting Israeli wrongdoing.

      Israel has created a state organized system of repression without equal in the civilized world that has become a breeding culture of terrorism that has spread through the Middle East. The US has become sullied by its unquestion support and subservience to Israeli right-wing politicians.

      No one supports the vilification of Israel and the Jews more effectively than the political leadership of Israel, the amen wing in the Conga Line and the disinformation Israeli apologists in the media.

      Delete


    2. Deuce ☂Fri Aug 01, 09:53:00 AM EDT
      There has been no promotion of Hamas or other terrorist group on this group. Your continuous deception and lies all have the same theme of protecting and deflecting Israeli wrongdoing.


      I call BULLSHIT.

      Delete
    3. Just look at the title of the last 20 something threads....

      Yep the mask has dropped, the Jew hatred, the israel bashing, the libelous slander is here.

      Deuce has stated the ONLY way to have peace is the dismantlement of the "criminal settler enterprise" and that Jews will have revenge coming to them by the arabs, and that after that? When israel is "dismantled" and Palestine sits in it's place? Jews can have a minority position in a majority arab state.

      If that aint promotion of terror I don't KNOW what is..

      Delete
    4. No one cares that you are incessantly calling your mother, "O"rdure.

      Supporting the NASI of Israel, that is supporting terror.

      Israel - Founded by Terrorists and Sustained by Terrorism

      Delete
    5. Thanks Rat, I see the county lock up let you out for the day...

      Delete
    6. Rat is a figment of your imaginationFri Aug 01, 10:39:00 AM EDT

      "O"rdure, your mother is calling.

      Delete
  6. I was pretty "agnostic," tilting toward support, in regards to Israel - Until I met wio, and allen.

    Now, I just have to wonder.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rufus, from the very 1st time I heard you I knew your pov about Israel and Jews.

      All that has changed is that you are now openly hostile.

      Delete
    2. If anyone could give me that pov, it's you, you racist, phony little prick. Go crawl back into your hole.

      Delete
    3. rufus, it is you that is the phony.. you know it, I know it...

      and you are the racist... out and OUT.... bigot.

      Delete
  7. I wake up to see yet another cease fire has been exploded. The reports are still murky but Hamas seems most likely to have been the culprit.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Placing their ammo dumps, rockets, launchers and command and control bunkers under and in mosques,schools, clinics and UN buildings and then, using force, keeps palestinian children as human shields, (hoping for their deaths so they can "win the social media war"). Hamas and their supporters ignore all redlines in order to vilify Israel and Jews.

    A simplistic absurdity that cannot stand a serious examination. An armed insurgency in a prison state dominated and ruled by a superior military occupation is hardly going to build an armory. It is called guerrilla warfare. When the European Jews in Palestine were bombing hotels did they store their weapons and explosives in an armory or military post?

    The history of the Jews in Europe is a preventaive lesson in the wisdom of gathering and hiding weapons and munitions to be used against sworn enemies.

    Your racists based rants have often callled for the mass slaughter of entire ethnic groups, Sunni and Shiite, the nuclear annialation of Islamic holy places, all of Iran, Syria and others. Your pet fool, collared, heeled at your foot, has picked up the mime.

    According to the videos on this post, your views are widely shared across Israel and the fools on the hill.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A simplistic absurdity that cannot stand a serious examination.

      Actually it can.

      But you are now a full fledged propagandist for jihad.

      Congrats.

      Delete
  9. If I'm the pet fool, I've questioned the wisdom of nuking the rock, on the grounds it would piss everybody off. I've advocated not allowing the criminal enterprise of Iran, which is lead by a suicide cult, from obtaining nuclear weapons, and I don't much care what sunnis and shia do to one another. Presumably they will continue to do to one another what they have done for centuries.

    I think on balance the entire world is blessed by the sunni/shia divide as it tends to keep their attention focused not on the world but on themselves.........

    ReplyDelete
  10. And the more I read about the Kurds, the more I like them.

    They are giving refuge to those Christians that can make it there, fleeing from the new holocaust being perpetuated by ISIS/IS.

    It seems to me that if they are Moslems, they are just kinda Moslems, and basically sane. It's the one good thing that is coming out of the fiasco that is Iraq.

    ReplyDelete
  11. "If I'm the pet fool, I've questioned the wisdom of nuking the rock, on the grounds it would piss everybody off."

    Not on the grounds that it would kill thousands of innocent men, women, and children. What a piece of work.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You see, Rufus, it would piss everybody off because it would kill thousands of innocent men, women, and children.

      Get it?



      jeez

      Delete
    2. One must always remember to go very slowly from A to B to C when talking with Rufus as he is totally prone to misunderstanding the obvious.

      Delete
    3. You're so fucking racist you don't even know you're racist.

      And, while you're at it, you ignorant ass, please 'splain to us how someone can be "1/2 Jewish, and 1/2 Lutheran."

      I can't wait to hear this.

      Delete
    4. .

      When questioned about his ward's bizarre ravings, Obumble's court appointed guardian has frequently used the non compos mentis defense to explain them.

      .

      .

      Delete
  12. 72-Hour ceasefire in Gaza lasted just 90 minutes
    posted at 8:41 am on August 1, 2014 by Noah Rothman


    >>>>
    72-Hour ceasefire in Gaza lasted just 90 minutes
    posted at 8:41 am on August 1, 2014 by Noah Rothman

    Share on Facebook 62
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    On Thursday afternoon, Secretary of State John Kerry and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced that both Israel and Hamas had agreed to a 72-hour “unconditional humanitarian ceasefire.” Three days of peace would allow aid workers to provide food and medical assistance to those in need. The quiet would also create desperately needed political space to make the temporary truce stick.

    But the truce did not last for more than 90 minutes after it went into effect on Friday morning before Israel alleged that Hamas militants used a tunnel near Rafah to kill two IDF soldiers and capture a third. Both sides immediately began exchanging mortar and rockets, indicating that the tense ceasefire, which lasted just one and a half hours, was over.

    While Israel suffered two casualties this morning, The New York Times reports that Gaza health officials believe 35 Palestinians were killed on Friday and over 100 injured in Israel’s retaliation. Israel was allowed in the terms of this ceasefire to continue to clear and deconstruct the Hamas tunnels in Gaza. One such operation likely resulted in the conflict with a Hamas cell which shattered the fragile peace.

    The United Nations released a statement cautioning that they are not in a position to confirm either side’s claims. The statement was clear though that, if Israel’s allegations were confirmed, “this would constitute a serious violation of the ceasefire in place since 8 a.m. this morning by Gazan militant factions which should be condemned in the strongest terms.” White House Press Sec. Josh Earnest, issuing similar caveats about the need to independently confirm Israel’s allegation, called Hama’s violation of the terms of this ceasefire “barbaric.”

    Don’t expect that condemnation from the press. While the rest of the world woke this morning to yet another ceasefire allegedly violated by Hamas militants, the media awoke to a weepy appeal in The Guardian for reporters to shed their objectivity while covering the conflict in Gaza and emote instead.

    “I want the paper to write, in big bold capital letters: we hate this fucking stupid pointless war,” Giles Fraser wrote. “I know, I know: this sort of emotion is not going to solve anything. But in the midst of unimaginable suffering, the idea of calm objectivity feels like a desperate attempt to maintain some thin veneer of civilisation protecting us from the total futility of it all.”

    Being calmly rational about dead children feels like a very particular form of madness. Whatever else journalistic objectivity is, it surely cannot be the elimination of human emotion. If we don’t recognise that, we are not describing the full picture.

    Perhaps an ounce of that emotional outburst should be devoted to condemning those parties that keep this “pointless war” going. Hamas has lost legitimacy with nearly every Arab state. It is the thorn in the side of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. The terror group is a pariah in the world. Its last remaining legitimacy is derived from a Western media culture and the moral equivalencies it constructs in order to maintain the fiction that Israel is as culpable for the present hostilities as are the terrorists in Gaza.<<<<

    http://hotair.com/archives/2014/08/01/72-hour-ceasefire-in-gaza-lasted-just-90-minutes/

    I believe, I think reasonably enough, that it was Hamas again who broke the cease fire.

    Israel should give up on all this cease fire non sense and just finish the job. IMHO

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
    2. How is it you can remember my name, but not your own, psychosickorat?

      I've asked Deuce to make you stop from that petty harassment, but he doesn't seem to care.

      Delete

  13. UN Condemns Israel for Not Sharing Iron Dome Technology with Hamas........drudge


    :)

    hardeharhar

    UN out of US and US out of UN

    We need to create a new league of true democracies.

    The UN is a third world farce.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. USA
      Canada
      EU
      Australia
      Israel
      Select South America countries
      India
      Select African countries
      New Zealand
      Japan
      Some others.......

      Delete
  14. There seems to be talk in Israel of a "Final Solution."

    Where have I heard that phrase?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When I say Israel ought to 'finish the job', the 'job' referred to is totally disarming Hamas and keeping it disarmed.

      I do advocate that the children of Gaza ought to be put under the supervision and care of Child Protective Services in western countries and perhaps Israel so they might have something approaching a normal childhood and a chance to grow up normal.

      I also realize this is not going to happen.

      It is just a benevolent dream........

      Delete
    2. Not a "benevolent dream" - just stupidity.

      Delete
    3. :)

      Have it your way, then.......

      Delete
    4. It is actually the sick demented dream of a deluded old man. The taking of children from their families, permanently, on a wholesale basis is.ludicrous... No, criminal on a grand scale. I believe it would considered ethnic cleansing or genocide. You truly are one suck fuck boobie!

      Delete
    5. Rat is a figment of your imaginationFri Aug 01, 11:35:00 AM EDT

      This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

      Delete
  15. >>>The White House blamed Hamas for the ceasefire's breakdown, describing the militant group's attack on the Israeli soldiers as "barbaric".

    "This is an outrageous action and we look to the rest of the world to join us in condemning it," Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken told MSNBC.<<<

    Gaza militants 'seize Israeli soldier' as ceasefire ends

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-28606099

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If the Israeli lose the support of the "O"bama White House, they are lost

      Delete
  16. Fox is reporting that 89 have tested positive for TB in the immigrant child detention centers and it is spreading.

    The government has been flying these kids around in planes and dumping them all over the USA.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. House Republicans failed to pass a legislative solution to the challenges on the border.

      The responsibility is now theirs.

      Delete
    2. Anything the House passed would be tabled by Dirty Harry Reid anyway.

      After November elections, it will be fun watching the House and the new Republican Senate passing dozens of bills that The Big Zero will be forced to veto.

      And Harry Reid will finally be a silent back bencher.

      Delete
  17. Fox is also reporting that in the last go around some time ago, the Gazan Health Ministry reported that 82% of the casualties in Gaza were innocent civilians.

    Behold, the figures today are - 82% of the casualties in Gaza are innocent civilians.

    They are still working off their old memo, their at the 'Gazan Health Ministry'.

    :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You mean there at FOX New, do you not?

      Delete
    2. No, I mean there at the 'Gazan Health Ministry'.

      Still working off the old '82% memo'.

      I find this grimly humorous.

      Delete
  18. The House is likely to pass an immigration bill today.

    Harry Reid has not passed anything in the Senate, last I read.

    And Obama will play the dictator..

    ReplyDelete

  19. The Most Dangerous Moment in Gaza
    What happens if this conflict comes off the rails?
    Jeffrey Goldberg Aug 1 2014, 8:31 AM ET
    20
    inShare
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    Mourners at the funeral of an Israeli soldier (Reuters)

    It is too early to say anything definitive about the Hamas decision to apparently break the ceasefire and attack an Israeli position, except that if it is true, as reports indicate, that Hamas militants came through a tunnel and carried underground and back into Gaza a live Israeli captive, then this moment could represent not another terrible, dispiriting incident in a terrible, dispiriting mini-war, but a fairly decisive turning point in which all swords are unsheathed.

    This is assuming—as seems probable, but not 100 percent certain—that this raid is even what the Hamas leadership wanted (for what it's worth, its leaders, at the moment, seem to be owning this raid, suggesting that they are indeed doubling down in their war on Israel). If the events of earlier today happened as initial reports depict, then Israel will consider this incident an engraved invitation from Hamas to launch something close to a full-scale invasion of Gaza. Here are the factors that could lead Israel to decide to go all-in:

    a) The compact between the Israeli army and Israeli parents is simple: You give us your sons, and we will do whatever we can to keep them alive. This includes conducting operations that get other soldiers killed. There will be near-unanimity in Israel that this soldier should be rescued, regardless of price to Israel, or certainly to the Palestinians in Gaza.

    b) There is near-unanimity in Israel already that Hamas represents an unbearable threat. Add in the perfidy of a raid conducted after a ceasefire went into effect and near-unanimity becomes total unanimity. The most interesting article I've read in the past 24 hours is an interview with the Israeli novelist Amos Oz, the father of his country's peace-and-compromise movement, who opened the interview with Deutsche Welle in this manner:

    Amoz Oz: I would like to begin the interview in a very unusual way: by presenting one or two questions to your readers and listeners. May I do that?

    Deutsche Welle: Go ahead!

    Question 1: What would you do if your neighbor across the street sits down on the balcony, puts his little boy on his lap and starts shooting machine gun fire into your nursery?

    Question 2: What would you do if your neighbor across the street digs a tunnel from his nursery to your nursery in order to blow up your home or in order to kidnap your family?

    With these two questions I pass the interview to you.

    The point is, if Amos Oz, a severe critic of his country's policies toward the Palestinians, sounds no different on the subject of the Hamas threat than the right-most ministers in Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing cabinet, then there will be a national consensus that it is not enough to manage the Hamas rocket-and-tunnel threat, but that it must be eliminated if at all possible. This doesn't mean that the Israeli government wants to see the Hamas government in Gaza replaced. What it could mean is that the Israeli public demands that its leaders ensure them that the tunnel threat, in particular, is neutralized in a decisive way.

    c) For Israelis who are immune, unlike Amos Oz, to the criticism of outsiders, the world's inability, or unwillingness, to understand the Hamas threat in the way that Oz (and most everyone else in Israel) understands it suggests that there is nothing Israel can do, short of national suicide, to stop the condemnation of their country. Which, of course, frees Israel, in their minds, to take whatever action it deems necessary to take. In other words, don't be overly surprised by news later today of a massive Israeli army reserve call-up.

    More later, alas.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/the-most-dangerous-moment-in-gaza/375434/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hamas has now broken five cease fires.

      Israel has broken none.

      Delete
  20. I'm still waiting to hear how someone can be "1/2 Jewish, and 1/2 Lutheran."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Does he go to Synagogue on Saturday, and Church on Sunday?

      Delete
    2. He's half Jewish and half German Lutheran.

      He drinks a lot and doesn't go to church or synagogue, like you.

      :)

      Delete
    3. He was also in the Marines in Vietnam.

      Delete
    4. First name is Gregg.

      I suppose it's possible you've actually met the guy.

      Delete
    5. How in the fuck can anyone be "half Jewish, and half German Lutheran?"

      Does he worship both religions?

      Delete
  21. Have I been picking on poor little Israel?

    I predicted this catastrophe before it happened and did a post on it. Here is the beginning of the thread:

    Deuce ☂Tue Jul 01, 02:10:00 AM EDT
    Those young men were doomed when their so-called leaders and protectors flooded the occupied territories with thousands of angry young men looking for the three unfortunate boys. Now that they are dead, Netanyahu is all but guaranteeing that more young men and children will die on both sides. Is Netanjahu so foolish that he does not realize that there are killers and sociopaths that will do their best to keep up the murder-cycle and raise the ante? Netanyahu knows exactly what will happen and nothing will ever change until reasonable people get rid of such political leaders.


    BobTue Jul 01, 02:24:00 AM EDT
    Yup, it's all Netanyahu's fault, and not that of the kidnappers and kidkillers.


    Bob’s Awakening?Tue Jul 01, 02:42:00 AM EDT
    Draft Dodger Bob has got it correct, for once


    What is “Occupation”Tue Jul 01, 07:21:00 AM EDT
    It is reasonable to confront the palestinians with war.

    They want it? They should get it.

    As deuce says, there are no historic claims.

    And yet deuce still says "occupied territories". They are "disputed territories" as per the UN resolutions.

    The easy fix? Make all arab occupants of the west bank (to use the new name for it) to be moved to the Gaza Strip.

    That' reasonable.


    What is “Occupation”Tue Jul 01, 08:35:00 AM EDT
    Funny thing? this article speaks as if Hamas IS not a government.

    LOL



    allenTue Jul 01, 08:41:00 AM EDT
    Bob's Awakening?Tue Jul 01, 02:42:00 AM EDT
    Draft Dodger Bob has got it correct, for once


    Morning killer! "Oh, I wanna be an airborne ranger..."



    What is “Occupation”Tue Jul 01, 08:52:00 AM EDT
    Notice that now the IDF's mission is the capture of the specific kidnappers...

    The airstrikes were not revenge. Killed none, and were in direct retaliation for the missiles being fired from gaza.

    Yep the IDF is everything the arab world is not...

    No barrel bombs for gaza...

    Now in syria, iraq, lebanon, egypt, yemen, algeria, libya and more?

    throat slitting, beheading, murder, rape, ied's and more fun.

    ReplyDelete


  22. ARTESIA >> A total of 89 undocumented immigrants detained at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center have tested positive on the tuberculosis, or TB, skin test, but no individual has actually contracted the disease according to J.R. Doporto, a Carlsbad city councilor.

    A positive TB skin or blood test only signifies that the person has been infected with the bacteria that causes tuberculosis, according to a fact sheet published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The test does not show whether the person has actually contracted the disease.

    If a person tests positive on the TB skin test, he or she is then given a chest X-ray, which proves whether the subject has contracted the disease.

    Doporto, Artesia Mayor Phil Burch and other various city and county officials from Southeastern New Mexico met with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials Tuesday for an update on the status of the undocumented immigrants being detained at FLETC while they await either deportation or an asylum hearing in front of an immigration judge.

    The Current-Argus spoke with an ICE spokeswoman, but the federal agency was unable to provide an official comment before press time.

    Currently, 603 individuals are held at FLETC and, according to Burch, all who have tested positive in the skin test either have undergone chest X-rays with no signs of having contracted the disease, or will have the chest X-ray conducted within the next day. Some undocumented immigrants tested positive in the TB skin test Tuesday, so they might not be able to receive a chest X-ray until today, according to Burch.

    "Prior to today's meeting, all people who tested positive have gone through chest X-ray testing or are scheduled to go through chest X-ray testing," Burch said. "We've had enough physicians involved and enough people who understand the process and procedure (that) at this point (ICE has) had no indications that there has been anyone that has come through the center with active tuberculosis."

    All women and children are immediately tested for viruses and diseases upon arrival at FLETC. If an undocumented immigrant has any contagious diseases, the detainee is immediately quarantined on the premises.

    Doporto said he was at first hesitant to share the health tests with the news media because of the potential for widespread fear, but after consideration, he felt the community required the information.

    "We just need to be aware that this is going on," he said. "The concern is definitely there, especially with so many positive tests. Skin tests (only) show us that (TB) is present in their country, but with that being said, eventually if they're exposed on their skin, we will run into one (undocumented immigrant) that has been exposed."

    No detainee to date has been found to have any contagious disease or virus since Central Americans who were caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border were first brought to Artesia on June 27.

    Reporter Zack Ponce can be reached at 575-689-7402.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Considering as how these children are immediately seeking out law enforcement, and turning themselves in, whereupon they are screened, and quarantined if necessary, I don't see the problem.

      Delete
  23. You will notice the local Israeli Lobby went to automatic Israeli defense mode:

    What is “Occupation”Tue Jul 01, 08:52:00 AM EDT

    Notice that now the IDF's mission is the capture of the specific kidnappers...

    The airstrikes were not revenge. Killed none, and were in direct retaliation for the missiles being fired from gaza.


    For the entire month of July I did not get bored with the story. I was not diverted by the increasing shrill attacks of my being an anti-Semite.

    1500 now dead, thousands injured, tens of thousands homes and lives destroyed and the three Israeliteweights are still denying all.

    ReplyDelete
  24. The shrillest of all, has made some recent claims that someone on this blog was looking for a final solution. Who can that be? Read on:

    What is “Occupation”Tue Jul 01, 07:21:00 AM EDT
    It is reasonable to confront the palestinians with war.

    They want it? They should get it.

    As deuce says, there are no historic claims.

    And yet deuce still says "occupied territories". They are "disputed territories" as per the UN resolutions.

    The easy fix? Make all arab occupants of the west bank (to use the new name for it) to be moved to the Gaza Strip.

    That’ reasonable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The "final solution" as per hitler was the genocide of the Jews

      The relocation of a hostile population 20 miles away to join others of the same group is hardly racist or genocide. And hardly a "Final Solution".

      The use the buzzword is specious

      Delete
    2. The relocation of a population, even a hostile one, is referred to as Ethnic Cleansing, which is also a serious crime.

      Delete
    3. Have you been reading about what is happening to the Christians in ISISLAND, Ash?

      Since I am rapidly becoming a supporter of the Kurds, you can no longer call me 100% anti-muslim.

      My niece tells me "the ones in India aren't so bad. The ones in the middle east are the really bad ones".

      On that, I certainly defer to her judgement.

      She says there are as many sects of Moslems in India as there are sects of Christians in the US.

      Delete
    4. Bo is now, once again, making the case that the NASI in Israel are just as evil as the Muslim terrorists in Syria and Iraq.

      That the Israeli can claim the same rationalizations for their actions as do the most extreme Islamic Jihadis, and the Israeli's should

      Delete
    5. You fucking moron, what does "Christians is ISIS-land have to do with genocide in Gaza?

      Delete
    6. Our resident moron, along with WiO, use that as an excuse for Israeli bad acts - well, so and so does it therefore (in their puny little brains) it is OK.

      Delete
    7. Rufus IIFri Aug 01, 01:52:00 PM EDT
      You fucking moron, what does "Christians is ISIS-land have to do with genocide in Gaza?

      Rufus, please define "genocide".

      How can the tragic deaths of 500 civilians out of a population of 1.8 MILLION gazans be called a genocide?

      Delete
    8. AshFri Aug 01, 01:26:00 PM EDT
      The relocation of a population, even a hostile one, is referred to as Ethnic Cleansing, which is also a serious crime.

      But you were calling it the "final solution"

      Now you are calling it "ethnic cleansing"

      which is it?

      Delete
    9. It seems your final solution is to cleanse the land of Palestinians - a crime called ethnic cleansing.

      Delete
  25. Now, I’ll take aanother moment to ask you to look at what Max Blumenthal has to say about the prevasive attitude and actions of current Israeli society.

    If America only knew. The US civil rights groups are a logical place to breakdown this most unholy clique that practices deception in hiding the truth.

    ReplyDelete
  26. I'll be clear. I want an end to the US alliance with Israel . There is no benefit to the US.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The problem, Deuce, is that there are a hell of a lot more "Bobs" out there than there are Deuces, Rats, Quirks, Ashes, and Rufii.

      Delete
  27. Remember how last month it was all about the number of "part-time workers?"

    No one seems to have noticed that, this month, the number of part-timers Dropped by 251,000, and the number of Full-Time Workers Increased by 381,000.

    Also, 329,000 Entered the Workforce, which goosed the "Participation Rate" up a notch to 62.9%

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The bad news in today's report was that "hourly wages" were absolutely flat at 0.0%

      Delete
  28. I'm still trying to figure this out. How does someone Become half Jewish, and half Lutheran?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you start off Jewish, and decide the Lutherans are "half right?"

      or, vice versa?

      Delete
  29. BREAKING NEWS FLASH -

    Police In The Denver Area Are Looking For A Bank Robber Know As "The Good Grammar Bandit"

    Is it possible Quart has headed to Colorado for the rocky mountain highs and finds himself homeless, penniless, drunk, and stoned?

    Quart is, after all, invariably polite when he fleeces folks.

    ReplyDelete
  30. What is "Occupation"Fri Aug 01, 10:28:00 AM EDT
    clarify your position, I unlike you or Rat, will not hold you to your previous slurs, slanders, threats and promises...

    For the record.

    Does Israel have a RIGHT to it's own nation/state for the Jewish people in the middle east?


    Delete

    What is "Occupation"Fri Aug 01, 10:28:00 AM EDT
    You and Rufus have both stated that ALL the lands of the middle east belong to the arabs...

    AM I WRONG?

    Delete

    What is "Occupation"Fri Aug 01, 10:29:00 AM EDT
    go ahead.

    clarify OUR misunderstandings.

    again, unlike you and rat and rufus, we will accept your newly stated words to supersede any and all older writings.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Deuce ☂Sun Jul 20, 10:13:00 PM EDT
    Israel is a colonial power, set up by a previous colonial power. There was no Israel before the end of WWII.

    Had the European Jews resisted the early Brown Shirts and Nazis, there would have been no holocaust. You and Allen stated as much when you said that you were armed up, you recommended the same to other Jews and you further stated you are not your father’s or grandfather’s Jews.

    The Palestinians have not been cowered by Israel. They resist. They have tolerated the indignities and deprivation of their human rights but they have not been defeated. They resist and will keep on resisting. You are on the wrong side of history. Colonialism is an historic relic. The disruption going on throughout the Islamic world is very much a by-product of European Colonialism by the French and the English. Israel is the last of the colonies established by the English.

    Israel is receiving a lesson in asymmetric warfare. It used to be called guerrilla warfare, the same tactics as used by the East European and Russians that fought against the English and the Arabs in establishing Israel.

    There is only one endgame. The endgame is a secular state that gives equal rights to all the inhabitants of a single state that is majority Palestinian. It would follow the same pattern as South Africa, Rhodesia, Hong Kong, British Honduras and India. Europeans cannot move to North Dakota, put on a feathered headdress and call themselves Lakota. Should they do so their claim would be no less bizarre than 600,000 Russians moving into Palestine and claim they are a native tribe.

    You also have said that the arabs will seek revenge and that paybacks are a bitch.

    Your words? advocate the destruction of the Jewish state of Israel

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, that is your conclusion. I am not in favor of keeping any coountry or state as a religious state.That is against US law. Who do you think you are, that you think that others have an obligation to support and preserve your religion, myths and exclusionary proclivities?

      If you want to run a country as a parish, have clear title to the land, pay all your own bills, protect it yourself and obey international law or face the consequences.

      You built your parish on a religious fault line, that is your problem.

      Why can’t you pay your own bills and quit dragging the US into all your crap?

      Delete
  32. .

    Riddle me this. It was my understanding that the 72 hour truce was supposed to allow Israel to continue to destroy tunnels that ended up in Israel and were assumed to threaten Israelis.

    Speaking from New Delhi, Kerry said neither side will advance militarily from their current positions, but that Israel will continue to destroy tunnels Hamas has used to smuggle weapons and fighters into Israel.

    ===========

    Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said that Israel was determined, regardless of cease-fire efforts, to finish the destruction of tunnels that Palestinian militants have built under the Gaza-Israel border.

    http://www.voanews.com/content/israel-calls-up-16000-more-reservists/1968608.html

    I saw the Israeli Lt. Col. that is Israel's IDF spokesman on CNN say much the same thing.

    Yet, according to reports I have seen the attack where two soldiers were killed and the other was allegedly kidnapped was in Rafah which is on the Gazan-Egyptian border. It took place at one of the smuggling tunnels to Egypt. It was not on the Gaza-Israel border and a map of the tunnel system would indicate that it couldn't be used to to smuggle weapons and fighters into Israel.

    Given the location of the tunnel it doesn't sound like something that would have been allowed under terms of the agreement.

    Why the confusion? Could it be that all the talk by Israeli officials about destroying tunnels used for smuggling weapons and fighters into Israel was just another talking point, a PR claim that is routinely included in any public statement similar to the 'save the children' appeals we see in every public statement by both sides? Were the words merely PR for public consumption? Did the agreement that was actually reached allow Israel to attack 'all' tunnels? Could it be that the agreement terms were made vague enough to allow flexibility as is the idiotic propensity of 'diplomats' in today's world?

    It would be nice to see the actual signed agreement. I haven't been able to find it on the web.

    Surely, at this point neither side would be stupid enough to take the word of the other side without getting it in writing.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These tunnels seemed to have the Israelis pretty freaked out. Imagine that - the Palestinians can counter attack (sort of). To the benefit of the Palestinians it does seem that the tunnels have been used, so far anyway, to attack military targets only. That's fair isn't it? - errrr All's fair in love and war....

      Delete
  33. The US. Was once thought of as a Christian State. . So were most European State. You think Israel has a right to protect that it's future remain Jewish by breaking international law? That is illegal in the US . The US has no business making special deals with Israel that sanction the breaking of onternational law. Do what you want but not with US MONEY AND PROTECTION. do it within international law or go your own way. That is a special relationship the US could happily do without.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would suggest that, like with South Africa, the international community should not simply turn a blind eye to institutional discrimination.

      Delete
    2. And, YES, that should apply to Arab states as well.

      Delete
    3. Great. Who's going to tell Saudi Arabia?

      Delete
  34. How does the Catholic State of Louisiana sound?

    How about the Jewish State of New York?

    The Lutheran State of Idaho?

    We don’t do that in this country. Why should we want to preserve the religion of another country?

    What has the State of Israel ever done for the US?

    Are they building hospitals in US ghettos? Housing projects for Mexican immigrants? We owe Israel nothing. We certainly should not be giving them political cover for their blatant disregard for accepted international law.

    In the case of Yugoslavia, we intervened against the Catholic Serbs because they were trying drive out the Muslims from Kosovo. The Serbs were in Kosovo for centuries befor the Muslims arrived. By precedent, we should be forcing the IDF and the Jewish settlements out of the West Bank.

    Why should the US support Israel in their attcks against the Palestinian indigenous people? What is in it for us?

    ReplyDelete
  35. HERE IS WHAT I POSTED ON:

    Tuesday, July 01, 2014

    It Is Guaranteed: Retaliation, Retribution, Revenge And Vengeance Always Results In Retaliation, Retribution, Revenge And Vengeance
    IS THIS INTELLIGENT POLICE WORK OR MASS PUNISHMENT?

    In the Deaths of 3 Israeli Teens, Likud Policies are also Implicated
    By Juan Cole | Jul. 1, 2014 |

    By Juan Cole

    The kidnapping and killing of three Israeli squatter youth whose parents usurped Palestinian land has produced a paroxysm of hatred and calls for reprisals in Israel. Whoever is responsible for it, the killing of the youth was a horrid and inexcusable crime, and the heart of any parent goes out to the bereaved families.

    It should be noted that during the Israeli dragnet in the West Bank, some 9 Palestinians, some youth or children, have also been killed, and hundreds arbitrarily arrested. The heart of any parent also goes out to those bereaved families.

    ReplyDelete
  36. ...provided to you courtesy of Bibi Netanyahu. Defended by the Israeli can never do wrong crowd.

    ReplyDelete