Beast of the land

Dianne Feinstein Still Milking Harvey

2013-05-22T13:46:00.001-07:00

The assassination of Harvey Milk and George Moscone personally benefited Jewess Diane Feinstein. The sudden power vacuum at the top of the Board of Supervisors was filled by the supervisor to Mayor of San Francisco, which gave her a larger platform to do things and to run for higher office. Previously she ran twice for the office and lost. Feinstein was actually the first into Milk’s office and reportedly made an effort to revive Milk but I have never seen from the aftermath photos evidence of her bloodstained clothes and hands.

'Well-behaved' African leaders rewarded by (Master House Negro) President Obama

2013-05-21T13:31:00.006-07:00

Jehron Muhammad
Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana’s first president after independence and the person most identified with the creation of the Organization of African Unity, came to disapprove of the way that certain African leaders had abandoned the African revolution. His concern was that they were failing their people by initially “checking with Washington, London and Paris before making decisions,” reported the Daily Mail.

In March “well-behaved African heads of state ... (were) rewarded by Barack Obama with a chance to meet with him in groups of four and have their picture taken with him,” reported Africasacountry.com. “It’s like meeting Beyonce, but you get to call it a state visit.”

And what made matters worse is that they just sat there with folded hands like American subjects, beaming as the president read their accomplishments. “The wider symbolism was unmistakable,” wrote Elliot Ross, “These guys, Obama is saying, work for me. African visitors (unlike other heads of state) can be received in groups, as, they’re all Africans, don’t need to be spoken to individually. Politics? Negotiations? They’re just happy to be here.”

“The essence of neo-colonialism is that the state which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality, its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.”
—Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah,

The Brookings Institute says these selective meetings with African leaders “not only served to advance American interests in Africa, but also to tacitly communicate the administration’s expectations.”

The president said during the photo-op that the presidents of Senegal, Malawi, Sierra Leone and the prime minister from Cape Verde “exemplify the progress that we’re seeing in Africa.”

Secretary of State John Kerry revealed in April that President Obama is going to Africa. The Obama administration’s position on Africa might be a reaction to this year’s OAU/AU 50th Anniversary celebration, or better yet China’s increasingly large African footprint. No clear Africa policy has emerged during Obama’s second term.

Kerry recently let it be known that in May he plans on attending this year’s AU Summit in Addis Ababa. He also said, without giving details, that Obama also plans to go to Africa.

What is revealing is four months into Kerry’s tenure the State Department, especially its Africa Bureau, appears to still be trying to find its legs.

A large number of senior State Department positions remain vacant, including the Obama administration’s top envoy to Africa post. Ambassador Johnny Carson, assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, retired in March. The post is currently being run by Acting Assistant Secretary Don Yamamoto, a Foreign Service officer. National Security Counsel Senior Director Gayle Smith is rumored to be in the running for the top Africa post. In addition other Africa posts, including the special envoy for Sudan, remain vacant.

ForeignPolicy.com believes Obama and his team “are determined to control it all.” He’s obviously not going to give Kerry the same controls over the State Department that he succumbed to giving Hillary Clinton. “The Cable” blog, which appears on ForeignPolicy.com, included a piece titled “Nobody home at the State Department,” which suggests the “process to fill (senior State Dept. positions) seems indefinitely stalled.”

Whatever this means it doesn’t bode well for developing a cohesive African policy. In March Obama excluded Nigeria, one of Africa’s most influential nation states—also the continent’s most populous—from attending the White House summit. The slight was Obama’s way of registering his displeasure over the recent pardon granted embattled former Bayelsa State Governor D.S.P. Alamieyeseigha.

This was done in face of the fact that, not only does Section 175 of Nigeria’s constitution allow a presidential pardon, but the Council of State advised the president “to grant him (a pardon).” Alamieyeseigha was convicted of stealing and laundering public funds. Not only did he return the stolen funds, according to the Nigerian Vanguard, he also “pleaded guilty and served out his eight year (prison) term.”

Obama’s slight to Nigeria and African leaders falling over themselves for a White House invitation speaks to a divided Africa and to an Africa unwilling or unable to police its own affairs.

Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan addressing 19 African heads of state at the 1993 African African-American Summit in Gabon stated, “We don’t think like free men.” “We go to the capitals of America and Europe, like paupers, (too) weak to demand or ask for what unjust regimes will never give,” he said.

Nkrumah, in his seminal work “Neo-colonialism the last stage of imperialism,” explained how so-called independent states are controlled by outside powers. “The essence of neo-colonialism is that the state which is subject to it is, in theory, independent and has all the outward trappings of international sovereignty. In reality, its economic system and thus its political policy is directed from outside.”

Unless Africa develops its potential power through a unified continent, as advocated by Nkrumah, and gains control of its natural resources, Min. Farrakhan warned, “We will never achieve what we desire for our people … We have the pomp and circumstances of real power, but beneath it there is no real substance.”

Jehron Muhammad, who writes from Philadelphia, can be reached at Jehronn@msn.com.

Oliver Stone's Untold History of the US- Where are the Jews?

2013-05-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

I've watched about a hundred interviews now on Oliver Stone's Untold History of the United States. I also was present for a film screening in my area and Q&A session with Stone, Peter Kuznick and Daniel Ellsberg.

The mere mentioned of Israel is conspicuously absent. Nothing good is said about Israel and nothing bad about Israel escapes anyone's lips when they discuss the history. It's as if Israel is some tiny, quite little religious nook in the Middle East minding it's own business, not worth even a mention.

Stone discussed JFK in a few interviews but what about the Jewish assassination of General George Patton? When they were running down the list of countries with nuclear weapons they could have included Israel. Nary a peep. It came to my attention with the movie Avatar that the US military/imperialism can be portrayed evil, but we all know that those soldiers could not have been Israeli. It just wouldn't happen. Oh, in real life they would have been there, somewhere. But only Jews can talk about themselves or each other, portray themselves as they see fit, make movies about the "holocaust" and invent Israeli heroes in occupied Palestine. No non Jew can even say "Jew."
So this is how Stone got his movie out. Exposing the US and our criminals is allowed. Keep the Jews out of it, they are busy worshiping God and trying to defend themselves against the anti-Semites.

"We told the authorities in London; we shall be in Palestine whether you want us there or not. You may speed up or slow down our coming, but it would be better for you to help us, otherwise our constructive force will turn into a destructive one that will bring about ferment in the entire world."

(Judishe Rundschau, #4, 1920, Germany, by Chaim Weismann, Zionist leader)

That was in 1920: where did this power to threaten the world come from? How is it possible that the Jew has no role in US and world history the last hundred years?

Cashless society in Africa: Mastercard Biometric RFID national identity card

2013-05-16T12:50:00.000-07:00

It was recently announced at the World Economic Forum in Cape Town, South Africa that MasterCard and the Nigerian National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) under the government of Nigeria would form a partnership to distribute a new identity card to every Nigerian citizen. The purpose of the card is to have all Nigerian citizens participate in the financial services sector under the control of MasterCard, a multinational financial services corporation headquartered in New York. MasterCard's press release 'MasterCard to Power Nigerian Identity Card Program' stated:

As part of the program, in its first phase, Nigerians 16 years and older, and all residents in the country for more than two years, will get the new multipurpose identity card which has 13 applications including MasterCard's prepaid payment technology that will provide cardholders with the safety, convenience and reliability of electronic payments. This will have a significant and positive impact on the lives of these Nigerians who have not previously had access to financial services.

The program is also designed to move Nigeria into a cashless society, one that is dependent on financial institutions, Wall Street and the Nigerian government. It will be managed by the financial elites of Wall Street, technocrats and of course Washington. All forms of financial transactions would be exchanged through plastic credit and debit cards that would have implanted RFID chips. Michael Miebach, President of the Middle East and Africa division at MasterCard supports the Nigerian government's decision for a new cashless society, "Today's announcement is the first phase of an unprecedented project in terms of scale and scope for Nigeria," said Michael Miebach

"MasterCard has been a firm supporter of the Central Bank of Nigeria's (CBN) Cashless Policy as we share a vision of a world beyond cash. From the program's inception, we have provided the Federal Government of Nigeria with global insights and best practices on how electronic payments can enable economic growth and create a more financially inclusive economy."

The problem with a cashless society is that the state can terminate your electronic financial lifeline if anything were to happen within the country, for example any form of protests, economic downturns, a war or if a financial institution such as MasterCard were to go bankrupt. There are many other reasons that the state or its' corporate backers can decide to turn off the RFID chip. When you a have a powerful financial institution issuing payments electronically with a government that is supported and controlled by Washington, unlimited control of the populace becomes inevitable. 70% of Nigeria's population is living below the poverty line as of 2010. How can MasterCard and the Nigerian government benefit millions of Nigerians who are living in abject poverty? Is MasterCard going to offer low interest rates on its credit cards in a country that has a more than 70% of the population in poverty with many living with less than a dollar a day?

Another aspect about the National Identity Smart card is that it can be used for surveillance of individuals under the state. With Nigeria facing a civil war between Islamists insurgents and minority ethnic groups from the oil rich Niger Delta, the National Identity Smart cards can be used to identify its enemies. The MasterCard press release stated how it identifies the individual cardholder:

The new National Identity Smart Card will incorporate the unique National Identification Numbers (NIN) of duly registered persons in the country. The enrollment process involves the recording of an individual's demographic data and biometric data (capture of 10 fingerprints, facial picture and digital signature) that are used to authenticate the cardholder and eliminate fraud and embezzlement. The resultant National Identity Database will provide the platform for several other value propositions of the NIMC including identity authentication and verification.

According to MasterCard, the purpose of the Nigerian Identity Card Program is for the economic prosperity of Nigerian people. Is it a facade? Is the Nigerian government on the verge of controlling its population financially with Washington's support? With MasterCard and Wall Street involved, Washington will support the Nigerian government in order for it to succeed with the plan:

The announcement was witnessed by Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy in Nigeria, who stressed the importance of the National Identity Smart Card Scheme in moving Nigeria to an electronic platform. This program is good practice for us to bring all the citizens on a common platform for interacting with the various government agencies and for transacting electronically. We will implement this initiative in a collaborative manner between the public and private sectors, to achieve its full potential of inclusive citizenship and more effective governance,"

The Nigerian based independent newspaper The Guardian with reporter Marcel Mbamalu along with the Africa Press Organisation (APO) interviewed the Division President of Sub Sahara Africa for MasterCard, Daniel Monehin in an article called 'Identity Card: Biometric Data of Nigerians Remain with FG, Not MasterCard, Says Monehin':

Marcel Mbamalu: You talk of something close to general application of the card; yet, the finance Minister was quoted as saying that it will begin with government pensions before...

Daniel Monehin:That was in response to the question that was asked the honorable Minister as to what would be the criteria for selecting the pilot citizens. She responded that she's really excited at the auspicious time that this is going on because there's a lot of work that is being done centrally for central treasury and for payment within the federal government, and she would like to see pensioners being part of this first group of the pilot, so that the federal government can begin to load their payment automatically, take out the physical nature of it so that the old tale of people dying on the line while trying to wait on the line to collect their pension would be a thing of the past.

The whole thing that is happening is that this is a platform not just for receiving government tension but for receiving government pensions, benefits, bursary payments, NGO's that are funding private segments of the society can be funded directly; salaries can be paid directly. Anybody with that card has a whole new world opened to him or her. So, from government-to-people payments, from people-to-people payments, ATM all of those platforms or avenues are open. This is not a card that is restricted, its not even restricted to Nigeria; it is loaded.

You can go out of Nigeria to Ghana, Gambia, USA, China and use it. It is accepted in 210 countries and territories, and over 35 million acceptance locations around the world.

So, in terms of potential, this is a massive platform and what the minister just alluded to is just one segment of its use, not all.

The issuance is starting within the next three months. The National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) is going to do an event locally to flag it off.

Nigeria's decision to have a cashless society under corporate control in the near future is a disturbing trend for humanity. Let's hope that the Nigerian people resist MasterCard and the government and find an alternative economic solution that will allow them to live in free society they deserve.
sott.net

Egyptian Jihadist Wants Pyramids And Sphinx Destroyed

2013-05-15T13:13:00.000-07:00

Murgan Salem al-Gohary should be destroyed. Why these relics have survived during the 1400 years under all type of Islamic Governments? Do these fanatics know something different than everyone else? Muslim communities condemned the destruction of historical Buddha statues by the Taliban militia and termed their act as "un-Islamic and barbaric". These fakes do not represent the Muslims and they don't know what they're talking about. They are imposters like the Zionists.

Murgan Salem al-Gohary, an Egyptian jihadist who claims he has links to the Taliban, has called for the “destruction of the Sphinx and the Giza Pyramids in Egypt."
Al-Gohary, an Islamist leader and jihadist sentenced twice under President Hosni Mubarak for advocating violence, urged Muslims to "destroy the idols" in Egypt -- specifically the Giza Pyramids and the Great Sphinx -- during a television interview on Saturday on Egypt's Dream TV, according to Al Arabiya News.
“God ordered Prophet Mohammed to destroy idols,” he said, according to Al Arabiya News. “When I was with the Taliban we destroyed the statue of Buddha, something the government failed to do.”
Adding, “All Muslims are charged with applying the teachings of Islam to remove such idols, as we did in Afghanistan when we destroyed the Buddha statues,” according to the Egypt Independent. The jihadist refers to when the Taliban blew up a pair of Buddha statues and smashed other art forms in Afghanistan in 2001, according to The Jerusalem Post. These were symbols of the country's long Buddhist history.
The vice president of Tunisia’s Ennahda Party, Sheikh Abdel Fattah Moro, called in to the station to challenge al-Gohary's interpretation of Islam. Moro said the famous military commander Amr ibn al-Aas did not destroy statues when he conquered Egypt. “So who are you to do it?” he asked. “The Prophet destroyed the idols because people worshiped them, but the Sphinx and the Pyramids are not worshiped.”
Al-Gohary's call for the destruction of the pyramids and Sphinx came one day after the ultraconservative Salafist party rallied in Tahrir Square to call for Sharia law, according to the U.K.'s Independent. The Salafist party is the second most influential in the country, after the Muslim Brotherhood.
Salafis agree with al-Gohary's view and have demanded Pharaonic statues be covered, according to the Independent.
An Egyptian Interior Ministry source said officials are taking al-Gohary's call for destruction in Egypt seriously. They have “taken the necessary precautions to prevent violations of the law or any abuses of anything in the public domain or archaeological treasures including the pyramids,” according to a report by al-Masry al-Youm, an Egyptian paper, via The Jerusalem Post. Officials have “taken the necessary precautions to deal with any aggression” against the pyramids and Sphinx, as “[t]hey are a source of national income and they bring tourists to Egypt."

America the Gift Shop

2013-05-10T13:10:00.002-07:00

At the end of a trip, we buy a souvenir to remind ourselves of the experience. What do we have to remind us of the events of the Bush/Cheney regime?

Abu Ghraib Coffee Table

www.americathegiftshop.com

Walt Disney, Monsanto discovered among Blackwater’s hidden clients

2013-05-09T13:33:00.001-07:00

rawstory.com 2010/09/16
Almost three years ago exactly — Sept. 17, 2007 — a cadre of guards from the security firm then known as Blackwater shot and killed 17 Iraqis at a public plaza in Baghdad.
The company, long in the public eye, has been known for brutal tactics and as a mercenary for the US State Department in countries where the US has boots on the ground. What hasn’t been known, however, is that the same company was handling intelligence ops for publicly-traded US companies.

Atop the list is Monsanto, the biotech giant, who The Nation’s Jeremy Scahill revealed Wednesday accepted a proposal through a Blackwater subsidiary which “offer[ed] to provide operatives to infiltrate activist groups organizing against the multinational biotech firm.”

Monsanto doesn’t stand alone. Through a network of 30 subsidiaries and shell corporations, Blackwater-linked entities provided “intelligence, training and security services” to a cache of major multinational firms, including: Monsanto, Chevron, the Walt Disney Company, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Deutsche Bank and Barclays, according to documents Scahill obtained.
Blackwater’s owner and founder, Erik Prince — who has himself been linked to the CIA — helped train companies through two other firms he controlled: Total Intelligence Solutions and the Terrorism Research Center.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, no one responded to requests for comment.
Monsanto topped the list of firms using Prince’s services, Scahill writes.
“According to internal Total Intelligence communications, biotech giant Monsanto—the world’s largest supplier of genetically modified seeds—hired the firm in 2008–09,” the reporter writes. “The relationship between the two companies appears to have been solidified in January 2008 when Total Intelligence chair Cofer Black traveled to Zurich to meet with… Monsanto’s security manager for global issues.”

“After the meeting in Zurich, Black sent an e-mail to other Blackwater executives…. saying that Wilson “understands that we can span collection from internet, to reach out, to boots on the ground on legit basis protecting the Monsanto [brand] name…. Ahead of the curve info and insight/heads up is what he is looking for.” Black added that Total Intelligence “would develop into acting as intel arm of Monsanto.” Black also noted that Monsanto was concerned about animal rights activists and that they discussed how Blackwater “could have our person(s) actually join [activist] group(s) legally.” Black wrote that initial payments to Total Intelligence would be paid out of Monsanto’s “generous protection budget” but would eventually become a line item in the company’s annual budget. He estimated the potential payments to Total Intelligence at between $100,000 and $500,000. According to documents, Monsanto paid Total Intelligence $127,000 in 2008 and $105,000 in 2009.
….In an… e-mail to The Nation, Wilson confirmed he met Black in Zurich and that Monsanto hired Total Intelligence in 2008 and worked with the company until early 2010. He denied that he and Black discussed infiltrating animal rights groups, stating “there was no such discussion.” He claimed that Total Intelligence only provided Monsanto “with reports about the activities of groups or individuals that could pose a risk to company personnel or operations around the world which were developed by monitoring local media reports and other publicly available information. The subject matter ranged from information regarding terrorist incidents in Asia or kidnappings in Central America to scanning the content of activist blogs and websites.” Wilson asserted that Black told him Total Intelligence was “a completely separate entity from Blackwater.”

Walt Disney?

The Walt Disney Company hired Total Intelligence and TRC to do a “threat assessment” for potential film shoot locations in Morocco, with former CIA officials Black and Richer reaching out to their former Moroccan intel counterparts for information. The job provided a “good chance to impress Disney,” one company executive wrote. How impressed Disney was is not clear; in 2009 the company paid Total Intelligence just $24,000.

And Deutsche Bank?

Total Intelligence and TRC also provided intelligence assessments on China to Deutsche Bank. “The Chinese technical counterintelligence threat is one of the highest in the world,” a TRC analyst wrote, adding, “Many four and five star hotel rooms and restaurants are live-monitored with both audio and video” by Chinese intelligence. He also said that computers, PDAs and other electronic devices left unattended in hotel rooms could be cloned. Cellphones using the Chinese networks, the analyst wrote, could have their microphones remotely activated, meaning they could operate as permanent listening devices. He concluded that Deutsche Bank reps should “bring no electronic equipment into China.” Warning of the use of female Chinese agents, the analyst wrote, “If you don’t have women coming onto you all the time at home, then you should be suspicious if they start coming onto you when you arrive in China.” For these and other services, the bank paid Total Intelligence $70,000 in 2009.

Prince, now the owner of Blackwater successor Xe Services, has his eyes on another target: the Democrats.
He’s now writing a book alleging that officials in the Clinton and Obama administrations “approved of his most sensitive and controversial operations,” according to a report by veteran intel reporter Jeff Stein published in The Washington Post earlier this month.
The Post‘s Jeff Stein cited two unnamed sources who say Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater, is hurrying to sell his company before he can go public with a book that takes aim at the Democratic Party. One of the sources told Stein that Prince and his friends “think this will destroy the Democratic Party in the elections.”
The source, who is described as having a “business relationship with Xe,” said Prince had “given his people three weeks to complete the sale of the company and the book will be released then,” in time for the November elections.

The Monsanto home of the future in Disneyland

In 1967 the decision was made to remove the hopeful example of life in 1986. The plan was to bring in a wrecking ball and swing until the house was gone. The ball came back swung down hard and bounced off the house with no appreciable damage! The house was finally demolished using choker chains to crush it into smaller pieces for removal. The reinforced concrete foundation of the House of the Future was never removed. It currently exists in its original location, now found in the Pixie Hollow attraction. The foundation has been painted green and is currently in use as a planter.

Club 33 in Disneyland originally had a total of 33 corporate sponsors at Disneyland in 1966-1967 at the time of conception one being Monsanto CO. The following are the original sponsors according to Wikipedia:

This Ad Has a Secret Anti-Abuse Message That Only Kids Can See

2013-05-06T12:58:00.000-07:00

This is amazing. Nonprofits should take note of how powerful marketing campaigns can be with a little bit of fundraising dedicated to it:

In an effort to provide abused children with a safe way to reach out for help, a Spanish organization called the Aid to Children and Adolescents at Risk Foundation, or ANAR for short, created an ad that displays a different message for adults and children at the same time.

The secret behind the ad's wizardry is a lenticular top layer, which shows different images at varying angles. So when an adult—or anyone taller than four feet, five inches—looks at it they only see the image of a sad child and the message: "sometimes, child abuse is only visible to the child suffering it." But when a child looks at the ad, they see bruises on the boy's face and a different message: "if somebody hurts you, phone us and we’ll help you" alongside the foundation's phone number.

The ad is designed to empower kids, particularly if their abuser happens to be standing right next to them. And while this is a great and worthwhile use of lenticular images, how long will it be before toy companies start doing to the same thing to hawk their products directly at kids?

gizmodo.com

Former Black Panther Assata Shakur Added to FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List

2013-05-02T13:14:00.001-07:00

"Prisons are big business in the United States, and the building, running, and supplying of prisons has become the fastest growing industry in the country. Factories are being moved into the prisons and prisoners are being forced to work for slave wages. This super-exploitation of human beings has meant the institutionalization of a new form of slavery. Those who cannot find work are forced to work in prison.
Not only are prisons being used as instruments of economic exploitation, they also serve as lnstruments of political repression. There are more than 100 political prisoners in the U.S. They are African Americans, Puerto Ricans, Chicanos, Natlve Americans, Asians, and progressive white people who oppose the policies of the United States government. Many of those targeted by the COINTELPRO program have been in prison since the early 1970s."

The FBI added Assata Shakur to its Most Wanted Terrorist List today. In addition, the state of New Jersey announced it was adding $1 million to the FBI’s $1 million reward for her capture. Shakur becomes the first woman ever to make the list and only the second domestic terrorist to be added to the list.
Assata Shakur, who was born Joanne Chesimard, was a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. She was convicted in the May 2, 1973 killing of a New Jersey police officer during a shoot-out that left one of her fellow activists dead. She was shot twice by police during the incident. In 1979, she managed to escape from jail. Shakur fled to Cuba where she received political asylum. She once wrote, "I am a 20th century escaped slave. Because of government persecution, I was left with no other choice than to flee from the political repression, racism and violence that dominate the U.S. government’s policy towards people of color."
In 1998, Democracy Now! aired Shakur reading an open letter to Pope John Paul II during his trip to Cuba. She wrote the message after New Jersey state troopers sent the Pope a letter asking him to call for her extradition.

READ HERE

His Eminence Nasrallah: 'Arabs arming terrorists in Syria haven't sent a bullet to Gaza'.

2013-04-30T14:41:00.002-07:00

Obama Orders Re-invasion Of Iraq After Illuminating Trip Through Bush Presidential Library

2013-04-26T14:45:00.002-07:00

News from the Onion

All Of Nation's Living Presidents Gather To Lie About Bush Presidency
A study finds that wolf attacks are still the leading cause of death in America, a man says 'fuck it' and eats lunch and 10:58 a.m., and Dzhokar Tsarnaev posts bail.

Afghanis Remember Laura Bush

2013-04-25T14:23:00.003-07:00

This is a story I will never forget. I seem to recall at the time reading that a nurse tore down the Laura Bush sign and threw it away in disgust.
*****
When the US invaded Afghanistan in October of 2001, Afghan hopes were high that democracy would bring enormous progress for Afghan women in the arena of health and education. In 2003, nearly two years after the Taliban’s fall, Dr. Mojadidi was invited by the United States Government to help rehabilitate the largest women’s hospital in the country, Rabia Balkhi, now newly re-named as the Laura Bush Maternity Ward. What he finds is appalling – the conditions at the hospital are unworkable, and none of the equipment and supplies that were promised has arrived. After several months, Dr. Mojadidi leaves in frustration. Two years later, he returns to Afghanistan to work with Shuhada, an Afghan-led non-governmental organization that runs hospitals, where Dr. Mojadidi attempts to pass on his knowledge to the over-worked and under-trained doctors and to help the hundreds of women who have traveled days to see him.
http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/motherlandafghanistan/

“I think Afghanistan needs a very strong commitment from the international community to help in the ways that we can help them build infrastructure," the first lady said. "...They need roads. They need schools. They need hospitals. They need medical centers. They need all the things that can help them build the infrastructure that will allow them to have an economy that can help grow their people out of -- out of --out of poverty. I'm addicted....I mean committed..."

In Israel, both coalition and opposition urge remembrance of Armenian genocide

2013-04-23T13:25:00.000-07:00

Good idea, let's remember the Armenian genocide.

Table of Contents for THE JEWISH GENOCIDE OF ARMENIAN CHRISTIANS:

1 Prehistory of the 1915 Genocide

1.1 Introduction
1.2 Jews, Crypto-Jews and Freemasons—The Means
1.3 The Armenian Holocaust and the Battle of Armageddon—The Opportunity
1.4 From Herzl to Malcolm, Zionists Betray the Armenians
1.5 Blotting Out the Armenian Amalekites—The Motive

2 The Genocidal "Young Turks" Were Zionist Crypto-Jews

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Jews Foment Wars of Extermination and Genocidal Revolutions
2.3 Jewish Bankers Destroyed the Turkish Empire
2.4 Talaat Pasha, Djavid Bey, Ataturk, Etc., Were Jews

3 Rothschild, King of the Jews

3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Rothschild Plan to Take Palestine
3.3 Cabalistic Jews Calling Themselves Christian Condition the British to Assist in Their Own Demise-Rothschild Makes an Open Bid to Become the Messiah
3.4 The "British-Israel" Deceit
3.5 For Centuries, England is Flooded with Warmongering Zionist Propaganda
3.6 As a Good Cabalist Jew, David Hartley Conditions Christians to Welcome Martyrdom for the Sake of the Jews
3.7 Jewish Revolutionaries and Napoleon the Messiah Emancipate the Jews
3.8 Hitler Accomplishes for the Zionists What Napoleon Could Not
3.9 Zionists Develop a Strategy Which Culminates in the Nazis and the Holocaust as Means to Attain the "Jewish State"

4 Mordecai Manuel Noah

4.1 Introduction
4.2 Noah in 1818
4.3 Noah in 1837
4.4 Noah in 1844

http://wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/4147

2013-04-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

Who are the people of Gaza? In 1948 Israeli forces killed an estimated 13,000 Palestinians and forcibly evicted 737,166 Palestinians from their homes and land. Five hundred and thirty one Palestinian villages were entirely depopulated and destroyed. The people of Gaza (and elsewhere) are impoverished refugees while the Zionist entity (immigrants) thrive on their land and eat their food, and systematically destroys historic Palestine, birthplace of Jesus.

Remember when US invaded Iraq & another arrogant thug, Donald Rumsfeld, said "we have secured the oil-wells."

Like the Mossad? [are you a sociopath]

2013-04-18T12:20:00.002-07:00


"If you can excite, fascinate and motivate people, you might be made of the high-quality stuff that we're looking for. If you have all of that in you, the Mossad is open to you,"

Israeli intelligence makes social media recruitment drive

Prisoner X may not have been the ideal advertising tool. But the debacle of the Mossad agent who was found hanged in an isolation cell in an Israeli top-security prison has not deterred the state's secret service agency from seeking new recruits to the ranks of its legendary spies.
The Mossad has launched an online recruitment campaign appealing for "creative men/women who love challenges [to apply] for an interesting, out of the ordinary and dynamic job", according to Israel's biggest-selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth.

The advertisement, which has appeared on social network sites, says: "If you possess daring, wits and finesse, you can make an impact and perform a personal and national service," according to Yedioth.
"If you can excite, fascinate and motivate people, you might be made of the high-quality stuff that we're looking for. If you have all of that in you, the Mossad is open to you," it said.
The advert warns of an "irregular lifestyle" but promises a year's training followed by "brief and numerous trips overseas".

The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, known universally as the Mossad, acquired a reputation for ruthlessness and ingenuity after its creation in 1948. High-risk clandestine operations have involved the use of cloned identities, sophisticated disguises and cutting-edge technology
But the Mossad has also attracted attention for bungled operations, including the attempted assassination of Khaled Meshaal, when agents squirted poison into the Hamas leader's ear in Amman, Jordan, in 1997. Israel was forced by King Hussein to hand over an antidote.

The case of Ben Zygier, an Australian-born Mossad operative known as Prisoner X, drew worldwide scrutiny earlier this year when it emerged that the agent had hanged himself while imprisoned in Israel under conditions of extreme secrecy.

According to the Mossad's website, the agency has positions available in special assignments, intelligence, resources and logistics and security. It advises that applicants will undergo security, medical and psychological screening and that "security related positions will be filled by appropriate persons only".

Echoes in the Aftermath: Remembering the Victims of Violence

2013-04-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

Written by Chris Floyd
Monday, 15 April 2013 22:41
All condolences are due to the victims of the Boston bombing and their families -- and to all those victimized by violence around the world today. This includes the 75 people killed in bomb attacks across Iraq, a commonplace occurrence since American invaders destroyed the country and deliberately sowed bloody sectarian strife there. And the families of the 20 people killed by a bombing Sunday in Somalia, a country whose fragile peace was shattered by an American-backed foreign invasion, which included American bombings, American renditions and American death squads sowing -- what else? -- bloody sectarian strife. And the captives in Guantanamo Bay being beaten and brutalized by a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, who is keeping dozens of men cleared for release even by the twisted, draconian "rules" of the gulag itself -- while he continues to kill people around the world -- without charges, trial, evidence, defense or warning -- by his own unchallengeable, merciless diktat. And the families of the four unnamed, unknown people killed Sunday in Pakistan -- a sovereign nation allied with the United States -- in a drone attack by U.S. missiles: more corpses to join the thousands killed by coward-controlled robots in the Nobellist's savage campaign that is "radicalizing an entirely new generation" and inflicting psychological terror on hundreds of thousands of innocent people, day after day, night after night, without end. And the dozens of people killed across Syria today, in a vicious civil war fueled by American-backed al-Qaeda affiliates armed and funded by brutal tyrants and global purveyors of sectarian violence -- America's beloved Saudi royals -- attacking a brutal Syrian regime once happily used as a proxy torturer in the American Terror War. Yes, let us remember the victims of violence today, those who died and those who live on in the scarred, tormented aftermath. Let us remember them in Boston, in Baghdad, in Mogadishu, in Guantanamo, in Waziristan --and in every corner of the world where the crippled souls who live by violence seek to impose their evil dreams on us all.

The Cult of Killing and the Symbolic Order of Western Barbarism

2013-04-16T19:35:00.002-07:00

The Lynching of Mouamar Gaddafi

by Jean-Claude Paye, Tülay Umay
The display of the lynching of Mouamar Gaddafi exposes our societies for what they are. It mesmerizes and dsmantles our capacity to think and critically assess a historical process.
By focusing public attention on what constitutes a “ritualized atrocity” these gruesome images confirm that the US Empire actually represents an unprecedented regression, a step backwards in the history of humanity.
They show that the objective of the war on Libya was not only conquest, leading to the plundering of oil or of Libyan assets, but also, just as was the case in the Crusades, the destruction of a symbolic order, leaving room for the sheer enjoyment of an act of killing, as displayed by the media, in a capitalist World Order run amok.

Banging the drums of war: Christians United for Israel

2013-04-16T13:50:00.000-07:00

It's like a Chuck Barris game show that grows in popularity. I never have understood what pod they come out of. Are they aliens?

Emily Lawrence

The Electronic Intifada

16 April 2013

Like everyone else, my email inbox is constantly plagued by waves of junk mail. Lately I seem to have a new addition — I’ve somehow ended up on the mailing list of Christians United for Israel, the most militant of Christian Zionist groups. CUFI’s regular newsletters are the latest debris to be washed up in my inbox. The few I’ve read are full of deliberate doublethink and startling mistruths, all the more worrying for their posing as Biblical facts.

I tend not to read these newsletters before I delete them because they make my blood boil, but last week I decided to give one a cursory glance. That day’s cutesy Zionist project: “Show that your house stands with Israel! Place a beautiful CUFI mezuzah on your doorpost!”
For the bargain price of $36, you could not only further the work of CUFI, but stamp Israel’s sovereignty on your home as well.

While this would be easy to dismiss as the usual eye-roll-inducing nonsense, I can’t help but feel that this is more damaging than it first appears.
Firstly, the mezuzah is a Jewish tradition, not a Christian one. Christian Zionists in general, and CUFI in particular, often misappropriate Jewish culture to further their political aims.
In Judaism, the mezuzah is a symbol of the sovereignty of God, a declaration of his scripture being “inscribed on the doorposts.” For CUFI, however, the mezuzah has morphed into a political symbol of affiliation with the Zionist state, a way to “show that your house stands with Israel,” rather than under the authority of God.

“Every symbol on this unique mezuzah has special meaning,” the newsletter declares. “Since CUFI members are watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem, the top of the mezuzah displays the Eastern Gate of the old city of Jerusalem. The American and Israeli flags symbolize the importance of the US-Israel alliance.”

Political, not spiritual

Again, while mezuzahs would traditionally be decorated with religious or artistic symbolism, CUFI has draped its one in nationalist imagery, mutating the meaning to send a distinctly political, rather than spiritual message.

Mezuzah aside, there are further problems with the thinking behind this message. Like most Christian Zionist literature, this particular letter is full of the usual Orientalist rhetoric of Israel as a bastion of goodness in a sea of hostility, painting the Arab people as a homogenous, dangerous and inherently evil entity, and Israel as a helpless victim. “From Cairo to Beirut, from Gaza to Damascus, and from Ramallah to Tehran, the Jewish people are surrounded by enemies who seek to destroy them,” CUFI declares. “These are truly dark and dangerous days for our ally Israel.”

This sort of language is not unusual amongst Christian Zionists. They would paint the occupying, US-backed Zionist state as endangered and helpless, and the occupied, stateless, disenfranchised Palestinians as an aggressive and terminal threat.

Threatened by boycott

The final blow, however, came in the form a cheery postscript denouncing the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement and offering an alternative to Israel’s staunch supporters:
“P.S.: Israel’s enemies are mounting an aggressive campaign to harm Israel’s economy by organizing boycotts of Israeli-made goods. We are proud that our CUFI mezuzahs are made in Israel! So when you give your gift and receive your mezuzah, you not only help us defend Israel here at home you are directly contributing to Israel’s economy. What a wonderful way to stand with Israel against those seeking to boycott her!”

While it is potentially encouraging that the vastly powerful Christian Zionist base feels at least a little threatened by the BDS movement, I find this sort of rhetoric incredibly disturbing. Here, anyone who struggles for justice for Palestinians is an “aggressive” enemy of Israel and, by proxy, God himself. The very people aiming to demonstrate godly justice and bring an end to the suffering of Palestinians are demonized as aggressors.

The influence of CUFI is not to be sniffed at — it is the self-declared “largest pro-Israel organization in the United States,” serving 1.3 million members and conducting hundreds of pro-Israel events each year. CUFI has a vast empire of support and a significant platform with which to infiltrate public opinion with hatred towards the peoples of the Middle East. Its web of influence contributes hugely to the entrenched pro-Israel discourse in the US; newsletters like these are dropping into hundreds of thousands of mailboxes, both real and virtual, on a regular basis.

Whether slighting those seeking justice or transforming a religious symbol like a mezuzah into little more than a politically-charged bumper sticker, CUFI has a worrying knack for morphing meanings and turning truths on their head. Once again it proves a deftness at turning the oppressed into oppressors and victimizers into victims, invoking the name of a God of peace while banging the drums of war.
Emily Lawrence is a freelance writer currently based in the UK. She can be contacted via Twitter @EmilyWarda.

Israel's Memorial Day: A day of mourning and militarism

2013-04-15T11:37:00.005-07:00

Weapons constantly upgraded to kill an unarmed civilian population.

972mag.com
Today is not only a day of sadness for fallen Israeli soldiers, it’s also one of public declarations that all those bloody conflicts were righteous and necessary – just like the current ones and those that lie ahead.
Maybe in another country, a country that goes to war once in a generation or longer, Memorial Day can be a day strictly of sadness for the soldiers who were killed, and can even be a day to look back and ask: Was that war, or the one before it, really necessary? Did some of these soldiers we’re mourning, did this family’s son, really have to die like that, before his time?

But in Israel, where Memorial Day began last evening and ends this evening, the opposite happens: It is the one day of the year where it’s absolutely forbidden to question the justice of any war or clash in which any Israeli soldier ever died. On Israel’s Memorial Day, every war, every operation, every hostile encounter in this country’s history is implicitly declared to have been unavoidable, an unquestionable act of national self-defense.

On Memorial Day, even Israel’s most controversial wars, those that are by now often described publicly as wars of choice, of missed opportunities, of aggression – the 1956 Sinai Campaign, the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the 1982-85 Lebanon War, the late-1980s first Intifada, and the hundreds of attacks and counter-attacks of this occupation and that war of attrition – are implicitly declared to have been morally pure, and all the soldiers who were killed in them died for the most glorious possible cause. On Memorial Day, each and every one of this country’s thousands of bloody fights was a fight for its existence, freedom and security, as the nation’s leaders, followed by the media, solemnly intone.

But what else are they going to say? That some of these fallen soldiers, or a lot of these fallen soldiers, died in vain? That the government, backed by the public, sent them into wars that shouldn’t have been fought, or exposed them to guerrilla attack by acts of aggression? Obviously, no government or army leader wants to say that – on Memorial Day or any other day – and the great majority of the public doesn’t want to hear that, and I imagine that very few families of fallen soldiers want to hear it, either. (Although some do.)

So Memorial Day is a day when every military move the Israeli government and Israeli army ever made was as righteous and necessary as World War II. And what is the inevitable conclusion from this? That whatever war or occupation Israeli soldiers are involved in now is righteous and necessary, and the next one will be, too. From President Shimon Peres’ Memorial Day address:

The fighting spirit of the IDF’s soldiers and commanders, their bravery and faith in their mission, together with their devotion to moral values, guarantee that the IDF will always prevail. We know this. Our enemies have tested it. They should not err again.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu:

[The Jewish people] have always had to fight for our liberty and our existence. The haters of Israel deported us, persecuted us and wished to erase the memory of Israel. Today, too, there are those who threaten to destroy us. They have not succeeded; they will never succeed. We do not wish to fight, but if forced, we will wield our sword and step out into the battlefield.

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz:

The land is rife with turmoil, and a storm is brewing beneath the surface, full of dangers and developing threats. … Tonight, while we soberly gaze at our enemies, and the steel of the IDF and its soldiers, forged in the flames of unity, I say to you: Our people’s defensive wall is always ready. Our sword is sharper than ever. Our deadly flame can reach any distance. Those who need to, know that there is no place, and no target too far away for the long arms of the IDF to reach. I know that when we will once again be needed, we will be prepared, as always, and readier than ever. We will continue our struggle to guarantee the safety of the people of Israel.

So Memorial Day in Israel is not just about sadness over the soldiers who were killed, it’s also a day of militarism, a somber day when Israel’s past, present and future battles are sanctified with heroes’ blood.
Every country should have a Memorial Day to remember its soldiers who died, and to comfort their families. But in a country like this one, which is very simply addicted to fighting enemies, Memorial Day, while rightly remembering the fallen soldiers and comforting their families, also inevitably becomes a banner day for aggression and a black day for peace.
There is another way. Last night at the Tel Aviv Fairgrounds, thousands of Israelis and 44 Palestinians – 65 others who wanted to come were denied entry – gathered for an alternative Memorial Day ceremony organized by Combatants for Peace. From the address by former Knesset speaker Avraham Burg:

Memorial Day is the result of wars. Wars don’t happen by themselves. Anyone who wants to escape the cycle of war and reach a different place must respect the other side’s victims. The margins have begun moving toward the center. What this means is that Israelis and Palestinians together want to remember their dead and stop the killing. There are thousands more like these throughout the country, if not tens of thousands, who want to look into the heart of things rather than at their demagogic wrapping.

Gaza’s Siege Intensifies

2013-04-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

by RAMZY BAROUD

On Sep. 17, 2012, Ismail Haniyeh, Prime Minister of the Hamas government in Gaza, made another appeal to his Egyptian counterpart Hisham Kandil to consider setting up a free trade area between Gaza and Egypt.

The reasonable idea would allow Egypt to support Gaza’s ragged economy while sparing Cairo the political fallout from destroying hundreds of tunnels that provide 1.6 million Palestinians a lifeline under a continued Israeli siege. Palestinians in Gaza rely on goods smuggled through tunnels and to a lesser extent United Nations handouts to survive.

“We explained the concept in detail (..) the idea is to alleviate the economic hardship in Gaza,” Hamas official, Taher al-Nono was then quoted in Reuters. Kandil promised to look into the matter, indicating that it was too early for a response.

However this proposal was introduced before and repeatedly after the September meeting. It should have at least served as the basis for a serious platform of discussion regarding future cooperation between Gaza and Egypt on this urgent matter. But Cairo neither responded nor offered an alternative to end Gaza’s seemingly perpetual misery.

Even worse, for several months now and notably since the deadly August 5 attack in Sinai by unknown assailants – which killed 16 Egyptian border guards – the Egyptian army has actively been destroying Gaza’s tunnels.
According to a Gaza-based economist Maher Al-Tabbaa, “30 percent of Gaza’s goods come from the tunnels.” But other estimates, cited by Reuters, place the food reliance on smuggling at 80 percent.

Without tunnels, and no real, long term alterative, Gaza will delve deeper into poverty and the crisis will likely reach unprecedented levels.
But why is post-revolution Egypt maintaining the very policy of isolating Gaza which was first espoused by former Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak?

Despite grave humanitarian repercussions of the siege, the subject is essentially political. Following the demise of the Mubarak regime, a sense of euphoria was felt in Gaza and across the region that a revolutionary government – especially one headed by the Muslim Brotherhood – is likely to reverse an enriched legacy historically financed and guarded by American money and political leverage.

The price of the Camp David treaty signed between Egypt and Israel in 1978-79 was meant to turn Egypt into a permanent political asset for Washington and Tel Aviv in exchange for a fixed amount of money which arrives mostly in the form of military aid. Mubarak had indeed delivered and the late Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman was the personification of that American success.

When Israel imposed a siege on Gaza following Hamas’ election victory in 2006, it mattered little that Egypt and Gaza had a shared border. Israel seemed entirely comfortable that the Mubarak regime was on board, while Palestinians in the Strip subsisted between occasional war and economic hardship.

To suggest that Hamas orchestrated the murder of Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai – which served as the army’s cue to further cut off Gaza – is to have no understanding whatsoever of the collective psychology of Palestinians in the Strip who continue to see Egypt as an oasis of political hope and economic salvation. Moreover, the cultural and religious rapports between Gaza and Egypt – which administrated the Strip for decades between 1948 and 1967 – is easily discounted.

Overwhelmed by the persisting attempts at its removal from power, the Muslim Brotherhood and President Mohammed Morsi continue to approach matters concerning Palestinians with utmost caution. Their detractors have dedicated much energy and time to smear Palestinians, Hamas and Gaza in much of Egypt’s privately owned media. Bizarre propaganda of completely besieged Palestinians in Gaza smuggling weapons and drugs to the Sinai is creating a state of confusion among many Egyptians regarding Gaza and its role in Egyptian security chaos.

Too timid to challenge the many forces at play in Egypt, Morsi’s government is offering little by way of helping Gaza overcome its isolation. This hesitance has proven costly. Using the pretense of protecting Egypt’s national security, the army is actively destroying the tunnels under the leadership of defense minister Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Reporting in Israeli newspaper Haaretz on April 6, Zvi Bar’el estimated that 250 tunnels were destroyed in March, while 76 were flooded with sewage, “after locating them by means of satellite information, probably in cooperation with the United States.”

‘Probably’ is an understatement, as the US government – and other western powers – invested much funds and expertise in ensuring that Gaza is fully quarantine. Throughout most of 2011, it was simply unthinkable in Gaza that Egypt would continue actively cooperating with western intelligence to keep Hamas isolated. In 2012 and especially after the August attack in the Sinai, it became clear that whatever forces that were yielded by the January 2011 revolution, were simply too weak to impact reality on the ground.

According to Haaretz, “Egypt’s political (and) military leadership (is) divided over support for Hamas.” The longer that division persists, the deeper Gaza sinks into despair. Naturally, some regional and international forces are actively investing in the Egyptian division, wishing to tame Hamas’ political independence.

And indeed there are signs that Hamas is now catering to outside powers in an attempt to preserve itself and withstand the pressures that preceded and followed its exit from Damascus as a result of the uprising-turned-civil war in Syria. Some media report that Khaled Meshaal’s reinstatement as the Hamas political chief would not have been possible without heavy pressure from the head of Egyptian intelligence Gen. Raafat Shehata. With Meshaal at the helm, the normalization between Hamas and Jordan and Qatar (a major Hamas funder), among other regional powers, is likely to continue.

Moreover, according to Adel Zaanoun, reporting for Agence France Presse on April 3, based on regional experts’ opinions, Meshaal’s re-elections “may better Hamas ties with (the) West.”
The fact that the Hamas elections, took place in Cairo, one analyst suggested “is proof that Egypt will support the movement in opening it up to the West.”

It is possible that the price to be exacted from the Brotherhood to end regional and western interference in Egyptian affairs will also include bringing Hamas inline. While Hamas’ Gaza leadership are being denied access to any possible economic independence, some Hamas leaders outside are being propped up as suitable ‘moderate’ candidates in any possible Hamas-western normalization in the future.

That dependency is being slowly but cleverly crafted, as it’s aimed at exacting political ‘compromises’ from Hamas in the long run. And as if the Israeli siege and the destruction of tunnels are not enough, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) recently announced a distribution cutoff of basic aid to 25,000 Gaza refugees, a decision that “could exacerbate hardship caused by Israeli and Egyptian controls on the isolated enclave’s borders,” reported Al Jazeera on April 5.

Without alternative economic venues in the face of Israel’s land and sea blockade, Egypt’s crackdown on the tunnels and UNRWA’s budget cuts, the Hamas Gaza leadership is likely to seek alternatives in the form of handouts which will come at a political price. In the long run, Hamas will face difficult options, including splitting up or following the same detrimental path on which Fatah and the PLO found themselves, leading up to the Oslo ‘peace’ fiasco starting in 1993. Only a constructive end to the Egyptian political deadlock could offer Hamas in Gaza a third, more dignified alternative and that is to be seen.
Ramzy Baroud is editor of PalestineChronicle.com. He is the author of The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People’s Struggle and “My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story” (Pluto Press, London).

Suburban N.Y. synagogue nixes Pamela Geller appearance

2013-04-11T11:36:00.001-07:00

“They (Muslims)know that they are perpetrating a Goebbels-like Big Lie, and so even though they have immense influence in the media and in government, they are avid to silence anyone who speaks the truth because they fear how the truth, even when spoken in a small venue, exposes them," she wrote in an email.

Surely Geller hoodoo voodoo entertainment is wearing thin even in the dumbest Zionist circles.

NEW YORK (JTA) -- Great Neck Synagogue in suburban New York canceled a planned appearance by Islam critic Pamela Geller, citing security concerns.

The Long Island synagogue on Thursday posted on its website a letter from its executive board explaining why Sunday's talk featuring Geller had been called off.

“As the notoriety and media exposure of the planned program this Sunday have increased, so has the legal liability and potential security exposure of our institution and its member families,” the statement said. “In an era of heightened security concerns, it is irresponsible to jeopardize the safety of those who call Great Neck Synagogue home, especially our children, even at the risk of diverting attention from a potentially important voice in the ongoing debate.”

Geller has been criticized by groups such as the Anti-Defamation League and others for her harsh comments about Islam.

Jewish Voice for Peace had protested the synagogue's decision to have Geller speak, saying she fomented hatred against Muslims.

“Our hope is that the synagogue will cancel her appearance,” Rebecca Vilkomerson, the executive director of Jewish Voice for Peace, told the Forward earlier in the week. “The kind of venom that she spews against Islam is completely inappropriate for a synagogue.”

The ADL has called Jewish Voice for Peace, a San Francisco Bay Area-based group, "the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States."

According to The New York Jewish Week, counter protests in support of Geller had been planned for outside the Orthodox synagogue.

Geller said that opposition to her talk stemmed from the desperation of “leftist and Islamic supremacist groups," according to The Jewish Week.

We must never forget the massacre in Deir Yassin

2013-04-09T11:54:00.002-07:00

The author’s grandmother, Fatima Radwan (right) and her younger sister Sakeena at the Dar al-Tifl school four years after the Deir Yassin massacre.

electronicintifada.net
Transcribing the vivid details of the account engraved into the fabric of her memory, I am transfixed by all that she’s held onto for 65 years. From paper to pulse, I write the story buried deep in her consciousness to affirm her truth. Without her, it never would be written at all.
I study the lines on my grandmother’s face knowing behind every one there is a timeless story of unmitigated pain, survival and hope. This story, where the continued dispossession, suffering and oppression of the Palestinian people began, is one that refuses to be silenced or forgotten. It is the story of Deir Yassin.
Remember the date: Friday, 9 April 1948, a day of infamy in Palestinian history. My grandmother was nine years old at the time of the Deir Yassin massacre and every day since she has lived with a steadfast commitment to never forget.

Premonition

Thursday, 8 April, ended like any other in the small, quiet village. My grandmother and her younger sister returned home from school to complete their composition assignment entitled Asri’ (meaning “to hurry” in Arabic). She recounts that detail animatedly. Like other children their age, she wanted to complete the assignment in order to enjoy the next day off.
The excitement, however, was short-lived. I can’t help but think of the irony in the assignment’s title. Asri’ — it’s almost as though it were a premonition of sorts.
The following day, entire families ran hurriedly in sheer terror, fleeing the only homes they had ever known to escape a bloodbath. By dawn on that Friday morning, life as they had known it would never be the same again. Deir Yassin would never be the same again.
Fathers, grandfathers, brothers and sons were lined up against a wall and sprayed with bullets, execution style. Beloved teachers were savagely mutilated with knives. Mothers and sisters were taken hostage and those who survived returned to find pools of blood filling the streets of the village and children stripped of their childhoods overnight.
The walls of homes, which once stood witness to warmth, laughter and joy, were splattered with the blood and imprints of traumatic memories. My grandmother lost 37 members of her family that day. These are not stories you will read about in most history books.

Bitter symbol

The Deir Yassin massacre was not the largest-scale massacre, nor was it the most gruesome. The atrocities committed, the scale of violence and the complexity of the methods and insidious weaponry used by Israel against civilians in the recent decade have been far more sadistic and pernicious. But Deir Yassin marks one of the most critical turning points in Palestinian history.
A bitter symbol carved in the fiber of the Palestinian being and narrative, it resonates sharply as the event that catalyzed our ongoing Nakba (catastrophe), marked by the forced exile of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes, creating the largest refugee population worldwide with more than half living in the diaspora.
Deir Yassin is a caustic reminder of the ongoing suffering, struggle and systematic genocide of the Palestinian people, 65 years and counting. When the village was terrorized into fleeing, tumultuous shockwaves of terror ran through Palestine, laying the blueprint for the architecture of today’s apartheid Israel.

Sacred ground

130404-deir-yassin-1.jpg

The authors great-uncle, Muhammad Radwan, outside of the family home in Deir Yassin.

I have been fortunate enough to see Deir Yassin and step foot on its sacred ground. Deir Yassin remains a permanently cemented and rigorous reminder of the spirit that has never permitted defeat. Despite the illegal settlements, pillaging, plundering and human suffering that took place, my grandmother’s home stands with resolve just as she does today.
The silence of her home and the original stones laid by my great-grandfather’s hands remain haunting reminders of life that once existed behind the cold facade. Standing outside her home I studied the horizon intently and found solace, irrespective of the large wooden Star of David hanging on the window. This scathing and unholy reminder of the ethnic cleansing that took place there could never conceal the insult, injury and history it attempts to erase.
In fact, it is a reminder of the inflicted wounds that remain open and the memory that remains very much alive. All the flags, banners and stars in the world, all the inconvenient truths, dehumanizing myths of exceptionalism and litany of crimes, will never succeed in drowning out the truth or erasing the memories.
My grandmother is an intrepid survivor and living proof that neither the old nor the young will forget. She and survivors like her endure with a steadfastness that will live long after they’re gone. Their narratives may not be recorded in our history books but they have left indelible impressions that will remain inscribed in our hearts and minds.
The narratives of these survivors will continue to run through the veins of every Palestinian child who carries them in their blood. And so long as our hearts beat, the eloquent symbols of Palestinian life — resistance, resilience and hope — will continue to run strong. No amount of fear-mongering, lip service or pontificating will ever keep these narratives of resistance from circulating, because becoming comfortable with our own silence and anesthetizing our minds to all that has passed will never be options.
After all, we are the children of generations of strength. Our grandparents and parents are refugees and survivors, and the blood of Deir Yassin courses through our veins. We are like the olive tree with its tenacious roots in the ground, remaining unshakable and determined to stand its ground with patience and a deeply-rooted desire to remain.
We will see a free and just Palestine because we will have a hand in making it so. Deir Yassin may have catalyzed our catastrophe but 65 years later it also continues to catalyze our devotion and enduring love for a people, a cause and a home that will never be relinquished or forgotten.

Beyonce And Jay-Z Criticized For Anniversary Trip To Communist Cuba

2013-04-08T15:23:00.001-07:00

Ros Lehtinen is a strong supporter of Israel and also a supporter of anti-Iran terrorists: according to Iran Focus: she is "one of the strongest supporters in Congress of the MKO," the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, a terrorist group according to both the US and Iranian services. MKO, also known as MEK, is on the State Department list of terrorists. They have spread their mysteriously abundant cash around liberally to US politicians from FBI director Louis Freeh to Ed Rendell, the former Democratic governor of Pennsylvania and current MSNBC talking head, from former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Hugh Shelton. This may well be technically illegal in the US, as would be any contribution from them to Ileana, without her registering as a foreign agent.
*****

Two Republican members of congress in Zionized Florida are asking the U.S. Treasury Department to look into Jay-Z and Beyonce’s recent trip to Cuba, citing concerns that they were not licensed to visit the communist island. Photographs of the couple were taken last week as they vacationed there for there fifth wedding anniversary.

“Despite the clear prohibition against tourism in Cuba, numerous press reports described the couple’s trip as tourism, and the Castro regime touted it as such in its propaganda,” Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart wrote to the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Beyonce and Jay-Z are being criticized for spending their fifth anniversary in Cuba.
Mauricio Claver-Carone, the Executive Director of Cuba Democracy Advocates in Washington, D.C., a group dedicated to promoting democracy in the Caribbean country, blasted the hip-hop power couple for vacationing in the communist nation.

"There are women getting beaten on a daily basis, women who are being jailed for no reason ... people are fighting for their freedom," he told TMZ, claiming Beyonce and Jay-Z's failed to educate themselves on Cuba's human rights violations before making the trip. "It’s extremely insensitive," he added.

News of the visit spread when Beyonce and Jay-Z were photographed in Havana earlier this week, dining at local restaurants and touring historical locations. But it remains unclear why they chose to visit the region to celebrate their April 4 wedding anniversary.
The Associated Press notes America's 51-year embargo makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to travel to Cuba solely for tourism. Travelers can visit the country legally by obtaining a "cultural exchange" license, however.

The U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which approves travel to the country, would not comment on Beyonce and Jay-Z's individual case.

Fidel Castro: A War With Korea Must Be Avoided

2013-04-08T14:03:00.002-07:00

A few days ago I referred to the great challenges humankind is facing today. Intelligent life has been on our planet for around 200,000 years, unless some new discoveries show otherwise.
Not to confuse the existence of intelligent life with the existence of life itself which, from its elementary forms in our solar system, came into being millions of years ago.

A practically infinite number of life forms exists. In the sophisticated work being done by the most emminent scientists in the world, the idea of reproducing the sounds following the Big Bang, the great explosion that took place more than 13,700 millions of years ago, has been conceived.
This introduction would be far too lengthy if it were not to explain the gravity of such an incredible and absurd event as the one created on the Korean Peninsula, in a geographical area inhabited by almost five thousand of the seven billion people living today on the planet.

We are dealing with one of the most serious risks of nuclear war since the Cuban Crisis in October of 1962, fifty years ago.
In 1950, a war broke out there which took millions of lives. Just 5 years earlier, two atomic bombs had been dropped over the defenceless cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing and irradiating hundreds of thousands of persons in a matter of minutes.

General Douglas MacArthur wanted to use atomic weapons on the Korean Peninsula against the Peoples´ Democratic Republic of Korea. Not even Harry Truman permitted that.
According to statements, the Peoples´ Republic of China lost a million brave soldiers to prevent an enemy army from taking up positions on that country´s border with its homeland. And the USSR provided the weapons, air power, technological and economic aid.

I had the honor of meeting Kim Il Sung, a remarkably brave and revolutionary historic figure,.
Should a war break out there, the peoples on both sides of the peninsula will be terribly sacrificed, at no benefit for either. The Peoples´ Democratic Republic of Korea has always been a friend to Cuba, just as Cuba has always been, and will continue to be, its friend.

Now that their technical and scientific advances have been demonstrated, we remember their duties with the countries that have been its great friends, and it would be unfair to forget that such a war would especially affect more than 70 per cent of the planet´s population.

Should that kind of conflict erupt over there, the second term of Barack Obama´s government would be buried under a flood of images that would represent him as the most sinister character in U.S. history. Avoiding war is also his duty and that of the people of the United States.
Fidel Castro Ruz
April 4, 2013

The Lady Who Made Greed Look Good

2013-04-08T13:17:00.001-07:00

Oliver Stone’s 1987 film Wall Street was as much an answer to as a parody of a mind change that had pervaded the world since Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher came to power in their respective nations.
But in the upper echelons Gordon Gekko’s “Greed is Good” was never truly seen as a parody, just as the message of the film was completely lost on the people it was about. And still is. It’s too convenient when justifying your behavior to yourself and others, like Ayn Rand is again today. The world is full of people who still today will sing the praises of the Iron Lady and The Great Communicator, of the Falklands and Grenada.
Reagan and Thatcher made it acceptable, nay, hip, to borrow one’s way (back) to wealth, or the illusion thereof, and a little cheating and lying was sort of alright on your way to the top provided you lied and cheated while you were already a mover and a shaker. That mindset has never left us anymore.

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