COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Hamas is resistance to Israeli occupation and bears no resemblance to ISIS






Hamas is just as bad as ISIS and worse than Boko Haram — Israeli government propaganda


Israel/Palestine
 on 





In late July while Israel’s 50-day offensive Operation Protective Edge was in its final weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-hand man met with a group of journalists in Jerusalem. Tensions were at a peak; the ground invasion had just ended and the air campaign was at an unstable pause. The Israeli Minister of Intelligence Yuval Steinitz was about to give the first political strategy briefing on what the Jewish state would want for the future of Gaza, what it would go on to lobby for in truce talks once reconvened in Cairo.
Meanwhile in another part of the Middle East, ISIS carried out its first public decapitations that grabbed Western headlines– they killed over 50 Syrian soldiers and mounted their heads in a town square. Gaza and Israel were overshadowed by the Islamic group that had declared a new caliphate.
Back in Jerusalem on that July afternoon the Steinitz made the case for the de-militarization of Gaza and to strategically turn the besieged coastal strip “into Ramallah.” It would have been a blockbuster announcement, if not for ISIS. For years the Israeli-Palestinian conflict had centered around the status of the West Bank, but over the summer it became clear that Gaza was going to dictate the future of Israeli-Palestinian relations, and either shore up or break Palestinian national unity.
Steinitz continued that weapons were still in the hands of Hamas, the root of the current strife, and removing those weapons was a “precondition for any serious relief” to the Gaza Strip. “You cancel the terror threat, the rocket threat from Gaza on Israeli citizens and you can cancel the restrictions so the so-called siege on Gaza,” he said.
Steinitz debuted the Israeli government’s most powerful argument for de-legitimization of Hamas: the ISIS comparison.

“The final goals are similar, to make an Islamic hegemony, not just in Israel, Iraq or Syria. But all over the world,” said Steinitz as the lights lowered and the slides were cued up. Yet as Jonathan Cook reviewed earlier this month, Hamas does not, never has, and likely never will call for Islamic hegemony. Christian Palestinians who live in Gaza endure the same life quality as their Muslim counterparts under the authoritarian and elected government of Hamas. There was no great purge of Christians—as ISIS is carrying out—when Hamas came to power in 2006, and no Christians have ever been asked to pay jiziya, a special tax dating to the Ottoman era where non-Muslims would be taxed in order to be exempt from military duty– a tax ISIS briefly implemented. If Christian Palestinians chose to do so, they can even fight in Hamas’s armed wing. In short, they have the same status as Muslim Palestinians. And it has to be stated that whatever torment Hamas has inflicted by policing the Palestinians in Gaza with an iron fist, it pales in comparison to the broad scale poverty inflicted by eight years of siege and erasure of entire towns during Protective Edge.Breaking News“It’s the same organization and it’s the same aim,” said Steinitz. He then turned the platform over to another Israeli government official to present a PowerPoint presentation of “a short comparison between Hamas and other Sunni Islamic terrorist organization,” noting, “It is one family of different organizations.” Then, fumbles over technical difficulties and swallowed laughter from the foreign press corps as the purpose for this meeting became clear: the West v. ISIS.
An opening image in the PowerPoint displayed Hamas’s political bureau leader Khaled Meshal with a child of no more than five years wearing a green Hamas headband, with green flags. The adjacent image was of a child decorated in the black flag used by all Salafi Islamic groups, including ISIS. But in the Palestinian context, there is no love for ISIS. Though   local Salafi group called Hizb-ut-Tahrir has sported the black flag for the past decade when calling for the return of the caliphate, Hizb-ut Tharir’s dissidence is aimed at the Palestinian Authority. One protest was held outside of an equal opportunity job office, another called for unity between Hamas and Fatah. And last spring they raised their flags against America, chanting “No, no Obama!”—and as I photographed the event the Palestinian protesters kindly greeted me explaining they like the American people, just not the government. It was clear then, as now, that Palestinian groups, even Salafis, are more concerned with the policies that dictate their lives under Israeli occupation than the esoteric call for a global caliphate. Moreover, Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have both cracked down on Salafi groups as they represent a row over domestic power.
And herein lies a major failing of the Hamas-ISIS comparison. If Salafis have been around in the West Bank calling to re-make the caliphate for nearly a decade, why is it that Hamas is suddenly being compared to ISIS? During the PowerPoint, the Israeli official said, “We chose them [ISIS] because they are also in the news these days.”
“Hamas, ISIS, al-Qadea,” were all listed in a spreadsheet projected onto a white screen, as groups having a “global outlook” calling for the “establishment of a global caliphate.”
Boko Haram, though also cited, had no “global outlook.”
Next the Hamas Charter appeared on screen quoted as, “The enemies have been scheming for a long time…they also used the money to establish clandestine organizations which are spreading around the world…such organizations are the Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, Lions Clubs, B’naith B’rith and the Like…they stood behind WWI so as to wipe out the Islamic Caliphate…”
But Hamas was not advocating for a return of the caliphate. When Hamas referenced the caliphate, that had more to due with seeing Israel as the next in a series of foreign rulers than wanting to turn the clock back in time. Western intervention into the Middle East during World War I ended in formal European colonization of the region. As the treaty of Versailles was inked, the borders of every country in the region were drawn by Europe, except for Iran and Turkey (Iran’s independence was compromised by deep economic imperialism from the U.S. and the USSR and Turkey went fascist, hardly leaving the region free and independent.)
Even in its contradictory statements on establishing a state, Hamas has never advocated for boundaries beyond the June 1967 lines, or in all of historic Palestine (occupied Palestinian territory and Israel minus the Golan). They do retain leverage in negotiations with Israel by not recognizing Israel, but that’s a far cry from wanting to take over the world. Hamas also has an “open door” policy of meeting with Western diplomats, as noted by Cata Charrett in her researched backgrounder on the group.
Within days of Minister Steinitz’s resounding pound against Hamas as comparable to the most violent Sunni Islamist group to date, Netanyahu parroted his remarks, calling Hamas and ISIS both “branches of the same poison tree.” From then on, ISIS and Hamas were echoed as evil equals. When US congressmen Elliot Engel and Ed Royce visited Netanyahu at the beginning of September, Netanyahu told them, “We’re fighting not just Israel’s war, but I think a common battle against enemies of mankind – Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, ISIS.” In turn the Engel said, “we in the United States in a bipartisan way certainly agree with that assessment,” promising to lobby the U.S. foreign affairs committee on behalf of Israel.
In August days after journalist James Foley was gruesomely beheaded on camera by ISIS, the Israeli government again reached out to journalists emailing a “background document,” because, “over the past few days, the issue of the similarities between the Hamas and ISIS terrorist organizations has been in the headlines.”
I’m including the full factsheet entitled “Operation Protective Edge – Similarities between Hamas and ISIS – Background Doc.” There’s the usual brainwashed children, women’s rights material, but the poetry is in the framing of international law:

25 August 2014
MFA: Similarities between Hamas and ISIS:
Background Document
Over the past few days, the issue of the similarities between the Hamas and ISIS terrorist organizations has been in the headlines.
The following points demonstrate the similarities between the two organizations:
Worldview and Aspirations
1.    Both terrorist organizations share a global expansionist worldview which aspires to establish a caliphate: a Muslim regime ruled by Sharia (religious Muslim laws).
2.    Both organizations are extensions of global movements of radical Islam: Hamas is an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood while ISIS is an offshoot of al-Qaeda.
The Centrality of the Use of Violence
1.    Both terrorist organizations view jihad (holy war) and suicide attacks as primary tools for obtaining their goals. The meaning of the name Hamas is “the Islamic Resistance Movement” (the term “resistance” is a codeword for terrorism and armed struggle).
2.    Both organizations have seized territory by force: Hamas took Gaza in a coup against the Palestinian Authority in 2007 and ISIS has taken control of large parts of Iraq and Syria.
3.    Both organizations imposed radical Islamic rule on the territories they captured, through the use of armed force and violence devoid of any red lines.
4.    Both organizations have executed defeated opponents: Hamas murdered members of the Fatah Movement’s Force 17 following its takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, while ISIS indiscriminately murdered Iraqi and Syrian soldiers after they surrendered.
5.    Both organizations terrorize the territories they control through intimidation, threats, executions and efforts to apply the most extreme Sharia laws, including the stoning of women suspected of adultery and the execution of homosexuals. ISIS is already applying these edicts, while Hamas parliament members have prepared legislation in this spirit.
6.    Both organizations educate (read: brainwash) children to sanctify death and to die as a martyr (shahid) in jihad.
Intentions to Commit Genocide and Mass War Crimes
1.    Both terrorist organizations strive to commit genocide against their opponents: Hamas has stated its intention to wipe Israel off the map and inscribed the killing of Jews in its charter, while ISIS commits systematic mass murder of populations in Iraq, including Christians, Yazidis and even fellow Muslims, especially Shiites.
2.    Both organizations execute people who are suspected of being close to or supporting their opponents. ISIS executes all those who are suspected of sympathizing with Assad’s regime in Syria or the Iraqi government, while Hamas executes Palestinian opponents as well as anyone suspected of having ties with Israel.
Even the executions themselves are similar – a “drum-head court martial” in which masked people violently murder the victim in a public area with the intention of terrorizing the public.
From the time of Israel’s first declaration that “Hamas is ISIS” it has concurrently conducted indirect negotiations with Hamas to come to an agreement on Gaza—hardly the treatment due to a radical jihadist group. Meanwhile, on the northern border the United Nations have decamped hundreds of peacekeepers this week as the Syrian strife neared the Golan Heights. Israel may have a scrimmage ahead with ISIS, but ISIS is not Hamas.

66 comments:

  1. While the World is occupied trying to resist and destroy ISIS, the Netanyahu regime in Israel is in overdrive trying not to waste an opportunity to deflect attention from ongoing Israeli repression in Palestine and Gaza. The shameless propagandizing to swing public opinion (read US) is SOP for the Israeli Lobby in the US. I don’t even have to bother looking for the usual hyperbolic drivel from Aipac, but I just might.

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  2. U.S. Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), the Committee’s Ranking Member, traveled to Israel this week “to show bipartisan support at a critical time,” Royce said in a statement.

    Royce and Engel met with Prime Minister Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman, and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon, Palestinian Authority officials, and other key government officials.

    During their meeting, Netanyahu thanked the Congressmen for their strong support. "I'm delighted to see two old friends, Congressman Engel and Congressman Royce. You have been wonderful supporters of Israel. It's a reflection of the bipartisan support that Israel enjoys in the United States from both sides of the aisle, from every administration, from every president. It's something that we deeply appreciate: The help for Iron Dome and the support for Israel throughout, our right to defend ourselves against terrorists who break every norm and every rule and who endanger all of us. We’re fighting not just Israel’s war, but I think a common battle against enemies of mankind – Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, ISIS, supported many of them by regimes that propel terrorism to the front, like Iran,” he said.

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  3. The Queen of the Zionists on cue

    A provocative ad campaign featuring anti-Islamic messages is to run on one hundred New York City buses and two subway stations beginning next week. Costing $100,000, it equates Hamas with Islamic State militants for ‘education purposes.’

    The campaign is based on a provocative premise: “Hamas is ISIS”, “Hamas is CAIR in America,” “Islamic Jew Hatred: It’s in the Quran.”

    One ad has the title “Yesterday’s Moderate is Today’s Headline” and features two photos. On the left is a photo of Abdel-Majed aka Abdel Bary, a London-based Muslim shown in a recording studio with the caption: “Executioner who beheaded a reporter before he became a jihadist.”

    Alongside the photo is the image of journalist James Foley in an orange jumpsuit standing next to a hooded man just before his execution, captioned: “Executioner who beheaded a reporter after being devout.” British intelligence has identified the executioner as Abdel Bary, according to The Guardian.

    Across the bottom of the ad runs a line in red ink: “It’s not Islamphobia, It’s Islamorealism.”
    Blogger and activist Pamela Geller, the person behind the campaign said it is intended as an “education campaign” to warn of the problems of jihad and Islamic Sharia law, according to the New York Daily News.

    The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) said it has no choice but to allow the ads to run because of Geller’s freedom of speech rights protected by the First Amendment.

    The MTA has tried to fight Geller before on her ad campaigns when her posters labeled the enemies of Israel as “savages”, but the court ruled on the side of Geller.

    READ MORE: YouTube given 24 hours to remove ‘Innocence of Muslims’ film

    The MTA has introduced a policy that there has to be a disclaimer, which states the ads are not the opinions of the MTA.

    New York City’s Mayor, Bill de Blasio, said, in a statement to the Daily News, “These ads are outrageous, inflammatory and wrong, and have no place in New York City, or anywhere. These hateful messages serve only to divide and stigmatize when we should be coming together as one city.”

    Geller is running an indiegogo campaign to help pay for the ads to appear in other cities.

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  4. The Zionists continue to lie and disemble.

    It was just a year ago that the Israeli Ambassador to the US told the world, through the facilities of the Jerusalem Post that ...
    "Israel preferred al-Qeada"

    ISIS is al-Qeada.
    Obviously, then, the Israeli prefer Hamas over the Palestinian Authority, or no?

    Where is a senior official of the Israeli government to let US know?
    An authority that could tell the US public of the change in Israeli policy.

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    2. Rat is a figment of your imaginationSun Sep 21, 08:58:00 PM EDT

      .

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    5. What is "Occupation"Mon Jul 21, 09:33:00 PM EDT
      If there is one Hamas member still alive and spitting? Israel lost…

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    6. Since you are still alive the job of the Mossad aint done...

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  5. Despite the US State Department’s insistence on not drawing comparisons between Hamas and Islamic State, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman pressed the point during a meeting Wednesday night in Washington with Secretary of State John Kerry.

    Liberman, according to his office, told Kerry that the fight against terrorism is the most important struggle in the world today, and that there is no difference between types of terrorism.

    He again said Israel supports the United States’ effort to put together a wide coalition against Islamic State, and will help the US if asked, though he said Jerusalem is well aware of the sensitivity of Israel’s involvement to others the US is trying to get involved in the coalition.

    “Hamas’s terrorist activities against Israel, as well as against residents of Gaza, are no different than the terrorism of Islamic State,” he said. “The difference is only in terminology and the way they use the media.”

    Liberman – echoing an argument Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is using extensively – said that at the end of the day, the goals of Islamist terrorism is the same: the destruction of Western civilization.

    Therefore, he said, just as it is impossible to conduct a dialogue with Islamic State, so too is it impossible to talk to Hamas.

    “As long as Hamas controls Gaza, there will be neither peace nor security, and anyone interested in promoting an agreement between Israel and the Palestinians must first bring about an end to the terrorist rule in the Palestinian Authority territories,” he said.

    While Netanyahu has made the argument consistently that Hamas and Islamic State are simply different branches of the same “poisonous tree,” the world – including Washington – does not necessarily accept the argument.

    When asked in late August about Netanyahu’s asserting that Hamas and Islamic State are the same, State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf rejected the premise.

    “I think by definition they are two different groups,” she said.

    “They have different leadership, and I’m not going to compare them in that way… I’ll let him [Netanyahu] speak for himself, but I’m not going to use that comparison.”

    The two groups are “quite different in some ways,” she said.

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  6. No, the free-thinking World (which automatically excludes the Conga Line) does not buy the Netanyahu crap being shoveled by the Israeli firsters.

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  7. There is not a Jew in Gaza.

    We have more Jews in Idaho.

    In 'occupied Idaho'.

    Really nice folks.

    I can't recall when they launched a rocket attack on ol' Bob.

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    1. General Sisi of Egypt has offered the Gazans more land.

      Though they must disarm.

      Last I heard they said 'no'.

      I don't want to offer them the National Forests out this way.

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  8. I am almost certain now that my Niece is forming wedding plans.

    Some of these Hindu wedding celebrations go on for a week.

    I am to walk her down the aisle.

    I may need an escort to Mumbai.

    I am thinking J or Q.

    Most likely J, my old girlfriend.

    It is after all a serious affair.

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    1. .

      J can't be all that serious if she dated you.

      :o)

      .

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  9. Israel was a bad idea that probably won't last -

    at least, not under this type of leadership.

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    1. Mississippi was a hell of a bad idea that should not last.

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    3. Poor little "O"rdure, no real content to contribute.
      The wit he displays, it's dim

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  10. >>Hamas is resistance to Israeli occupation and bears no resemblance to IISIS<<


    For goodness sakes there are no Jews in Gaza.

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    1. That is because they left Gaza, of their own free will.

      But they did not disown Gaza. The Israeli still control it.
      Now, when the Israeli leave the balance of Palestine, then Hamas will be done.

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    2. You seem to be surprised to hear that there are still problems of 1948 to be solved, the most important component of which is the right to return of Palestinian refugees.

      The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not just an issue of military occupation and Israel is not a country that was established “normally” and happened to occupy another country in 1967.

      Palestinians are not struggling for a “state” but for freedom, liberation and equality, just like we were struggling for freedom in South Africa.


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  11. Before his three-hour neck surgery for herniated disks in December, Peter Drier, 37, signed a pile of consent forms. A bank technology manager who had researched his insurance coverage, Mr. Drier was prepared when the bills started arriving: $56,000 from Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, $4,300 from the anesthesiologist and even $133,000 from his orthopedist, who he knew would accept a fraction of that fee.

    He was blindsided, though, by a bill of about $117,000 from an “assistant surgeon,” a Queens-based neurosurgeon whom Mr. Drier did not recall meeting.

    “I thought I understood the risks,” Mr. Drier, who lives in New York City, said later. “But this was just so wrong — I had no choice and no negotiating power.”

    In operating rooms and on hospital wards across the country, physicians and other health providers typically help one another in patient care. But in an increasingly common practice that some medical experts call drive-by doctoring, assistants, consultants and other hospital employees are charging patients or their insurers hefty fees. They may be called in when the need for them is questionable. And patients usually do not realize they have been involved or are charging until the bill arrives.

    The practice increases revenue for physicians and other health care workers at a time when insurers are cutting down reimbursement for many services. The surprise charges can be especially significant because, as in Mr. Drier’s case, they may involve out-of-network providers who bill 20 to 40 times the usual local rates and often collect the . . . . .

    The Scam to end All Scams

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    1. As a luminary, you don't light up the night, "O"rdure.

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  13. Military Plant In East Ukraine Devastated By Massive Explosion; Kiev Accuses Russia Of Using Tactial Nuke
    Ukraine is claiming that Russia has broken the truce... with the use of a tactical nuclear weapon at Luhansk airport

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  14. Rand Paul: 600 Tons of Weapons Given to Syrian Rebels Last Year Made ISIS Stronger
    “We gave 600 tons of weapons to the Syrian rebels in 2013 alone, Paul said

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  15. He finally arrived at a methodology for growing wasabi on a commercial scale—a trade secret that he's since sold to a handful of farmers who operate in a franchisee-like manner.
    They pay $70,000 to Oates, then invest as much as $700,000 an acre to bring their crop to life—eventually.

    As the Telegraph reported in a look at wasabi farming, the plant takes two years to grow. But with success comes profit: A pound of wasabi fetches about $70; restaurants pay suppliers as much as twice that.

    But as for your experience with wasabi in a restaurant, well, you probably haven't had one. An estimated 95% of Japanese restaurants serve a paste of mustard, European horseradish, and food coloring in its stead, notes the BBC

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  16. Why WIO getting nuked? What did I miss?

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    1. He's going for the "Record."

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    3. Deeper than a record, Rufus.
      Looks like he'd been 86'd

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  17. Activists in Syria said several months ago that over 100 people had been killed in a chlorine gas attack in the town of Talmenes in Idlib province, and the United Nations Security Council has called for an investigation into the alleged attack. Since then there were reports of other such attacks.

    Kerry himself said a few months ago that he has seen “raw data” indicating that the Syrian government has used chlorine gas as a chemical weapon in a “number of instances” in recent months.

    Syria has emphatically denied that it carried out chlorine gas attacks against civilians.

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  18. John Kerry, the American secretary of state, on Sunday raised the threat of Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria directly with his Iranian counterpart in rare high-level talks in New York, a US official said.

    Mr Kerry met Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, for more than an hour at a hotel, during which they discussed progress in nuclear negotiations and "also discussed the threat posed by Isil," a senior State Department official said, referring to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.

    The most senior US diplomat has said Iran - normally seen as Washington's arch-foe - has a role to play as the United States seeks to build a coalition to combat the jihadists, who have seized control of a swath of Iraq and Syria.

    Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said last week that his government had rejected a request from the United States to join the coalition.

    Iran and the United States do not have official diplomatic relations, and US officials have not confirmed or denied making such an offer in private.

    Washington has however publicly ruled out any military co-operation with Tehran, which it accuses of propping up the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, and of being a state sponsor of global terrorism.

    The pair met alone first, before being joined by their deputies, the State Department official said.

    "They spent time reviewing the status of the EU-led P5+1 negotiations on Iran's nuclear program," the official added, referring to the nuclear talks being led by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

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    1. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/11112651/John-Kerry-discusses-Isil-threat-with-Iranian-foreign-minister.html

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  19. In casting a popular resistance movement like Hamas as ISIS, Netanyahu has tarred all Palestinians as bloodthirsty Islamic extremists. And here we reach Israel’s real goal in equating the two groups.

    Netanyahu’s comparison has a recent parallel. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks on the US, Ariel Sharon made a similar equivalence between al-Qaeda and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

    Israel’s intelligence officials even called the destruction of the Twin Towers a “Hanukkah miracle”, a view echoed by Netanyahu years later when he described the attack as beneficial, adding that it had “swung American public opinion in our favour”.

    All of them understood that 9/11 had reframed the debate about the Oslo-inspired debate about the Palestinians needing statehood to one about an evil axis of Middle East terror.

    Sharon revelled in calling Arafat the head of an “infrastructure of terror”, justifying Israel’s crushing the uprising of the second intifada.donate now

    Similarly, Netanyahu’s efforts are designed to discredit all – not just the Islamic variety of – Palestinian resistance to Israel’s occupation. He hopes to be the silent partner to Barack Obama’s new coalition against ISIS.

    Aaron David Miller, an adviser to several US administrations on Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, warned in Foreign Policy last week that the rise of ISIS would pose a serious setback to Palestinian hopes of statehood – a point underscored by the far greater concerns about ISIS than the Palestinians’ plight expressed by Arab League delegates at this week’s meeting in Cairo.

    How Netanyahu hopes to follow Sharon in exploiting this opportunity was on show last week, when Israeli intelligence revealed a supposed Hamas plot to launch a coup against the PA.

    The interrogation of Hamas officials, however, showed only that they had prepared for the possibility of the PA’s rule ending in the West Bank, either through its collapse under Israeli pressure or through a disillusioned Abbas handing over the keys to Israel.

    But talk of Hamas coups has melded with other, even wilder stories, such as the claims last week from foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman that ISIS cells had formed in the West Bank and inside Israel. Defence minister Moshe Yaalon underscored this narrative by hurriedly classifying ISIS as a “proscribed” organisation.

    All this fear-mongering is designed both to further undermine the Palestinian unity government between Hamas and Fatah, and to sanction Israel’s behaviour by painting a picture, as after 9/11, of an Israel on the front line of a war against global terror.

    “Israel’s demands for a continued Israeli presence [in the West Bank] and a lengthy withdrawal period will only harden further,” wrote Miller.

    In reality, Israel should share common cause with Palestinian leaders, from Fatah and Hamas, against ISIS. But, as ever, Netanyahu will forgo his country’s long-term interests for a short-term gain in his relentless war to keep the Palestinians stateless.

    Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His latest books are “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www.jonathan-cook.net.

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  20. The 'Israeli' do not control Gaza.

    They left some green houses behind which were immediately destroyed by the savages.

    This really pissed off both myself and my major poet, now deceased, Ted Roethke

    Fuck the 'Gazans'.

    They are worthless.

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    1. Of course the Israeli control Gaza.
      They supply Gaza with electricity, and fuel for the power plant in Gaza. They control all of the access by sea and air.
      The Israeli control Gaza, it is part of Israel, has been since 1967.
      To state otherwise, is a lie.

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    2. "The so-called “Palestinian autonomous areas” are Bantustans.
      These are restricted entities within the power structure of the Israeli Apartheid system."


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    3. Some control.

      They - the Gazans - launch rockets at Israel.

      Some real control.

      desert rat has no brain

      Just like my Niece said upon reading his writings -

      "It's an odd loop, Dear Uncle Bob, is all I can figure out. There is no information flow There is a blockage. He may be criminally inclined."

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    4. The "Niece" is a figment of Bob's imaginationSun Sep 21, 11:51:00 PM EDT

      .

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    1. Quit that Deuce.

      Please, it is not fair.

      I am going to beddy bye now.

      Night all.

      Delete
    2. "O"rdure has his two blogs, he has all the access to the world wide web that he needs ...
      You can go blog with him, you da ho Bob...

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    3. I will speak for Bob.

      Fuck you and go back to your insane asylum.

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    4. If that is the depth of your intellect, you are smarter than da ho Bob.
      Which is no saying much, in fact it is not saying anything at all.

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  22. The "Popular Resistance Movement" has in its Charter a Clause About Genocide.

    If one supports Hamas, one supports GENOCIDE, like desert rat.

    The US of A, Canada and all of the European Union have declared Hamas a Terrorist Organization.

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  23. Wake up, Deuce.

    grrr, nite

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  24. Suspicions Run Deep in Iraq That CIA and the Islamic State Are United

    Baghdad: The United States has conducted an escalating campaign of deadly airstrikes against the extremists of the Islamic State for more than a month. But that appears to have done little to tamp down the conspiracy theories still circulating from the streets of Baghdad to the highest levels of Iraqi government that the CIA is secretly behind the same extremists that it is now attacking.

    "We know about who made Daesh," said Bahaa al-Araji, a deputy prime minister, using an Arabic shorthand for the Islamic State, on Saturday at a demonstration called by the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to warn against the possible deployment of U.S. ground troops.

    Sadr publicly blamed the CIA for creating the Islamic State in a speech last week, and interviews suggested that most of the few thousand people at the demonstration, including dozens of members of parliament, subscribed to the same theory.

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    1. Obama has pledged not to send combat troops, but he seems to have convinced few Iraqis.

      "We don't trust him," said Raad Hatem, 40.

      Haidar al-Assadi, 40, agreed.

      "The Islamic State is a clear creation of the United States, and the United States is trying to intervene again using the excuse of the Islamic State," he said.

      Shiite militias and volunteers, he said, were already answering the call from religious leaders to defend Iraq from the Islamic State without American help.

      "This is how we do it," he said, adding that the same forces would keep U.S. troops out. "The main reason Obama is saying he will not invade again is because he knows the Islamic resistance" of the Shiite militias "and he does not want to lose a single soldier."

      The leader of the Islamic State, for his part, declared Saturday that he defied the world to stop him.

      "The conspiracies of Jews, Christians, Shiites and all the tyrannical regimes in the Muslim countries have been powerless to make the Islamic State deviate from its path," the leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared in an audio recording released over the Internet, using derogatory terms from early Islamic history to refer to Christians and Shiites.

      "The entire world saw the powerlessness of America and its allies before a group of believers," he said. "People now realize that victory is from God, and it shall not be aborted by armies and their arsenals."

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