Sham Peace Talks Resume

by Stephen Lendman

Why bother. Talks are doomed to fail. So did multiple previous rounds. Israel wants things its way. Demands masquerade as give and take.

According to one PLO official, "Israel will dodge, evade and propose unachievable demands to promote a conclusion that negotiations are futile, and so Israel will continue to steal lands as they are doing now."

It's hard imagining Palestinian officials agreeing to talks rigged to fail. Longtime Israeli collaborators do it willingly. It's for generous benefits they derive. Crime pays well. So does betrayal.

On August 14, US/Israeli orchestrators met with PA's Saeb Erekat and Fatah official Mohammed Shtayyeh. 

He's a technocrat. He's managing director of the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDAR). 

He's founding member of the Palestinian Development Fund. He's a former Palestinian public works and housing minister.

He's a founding Palestinian Institute for Regional Studies member. He's collaborating with Israel for personal self-interest.

Talks discussed guidelines and agenda issues. They did so despite Israel bombing Gaza. Warplanes fired missiles at multiple targets. Similar attacks happen often. Israel invents pretexts to do so. Innocent civilians die.

Talks continued despite Palestinian fishermen attacked at sea. They're at the same time as outrage over accelerated settlement construction.

Stealing Palestinian land's no olive branch. Nor is releasing 26 long held political prisoners. Their freedom's subject to restrictions. 

Some weren't allowed to go home. They're vulnerable to rearrest. In 2004, Yasser Arafat said "(t)here will be no peace until all Palestinian prisoners are released." Palestinian supporters today feel the same way.

Thousands of Bedouins await dispossession. Israeli courts spurned them. Israel wants land they own. It wants it for exclusive Jewish development.

In July, a Beersheba court rejected Bedouins' appeal. They urged delaying another court-ordered property demolition and dispossession ruling. 

It's their land. It doesn't matter. On August 15, efforts to displace them began. They're losing everything. Rogue states operate that way. Israel's one of the worst. 

One Sawah village resident spoke for others, saying:

"We requested that Israeli authorities give us a delay until we arrange to move into a neighborhood in the nearby village of Hurah which is being expanded, but they refused."

Jewish rights alone matter. Palestinians ones don't. Sham peace talks won't change things. Decades of occupation harshness continue.

Expecting this time's different reflects Einstein's definition of insanity. Expecting success after decades of failure explains it. Israel's worst government in history assures it.

Hardliners are all take and no give. US orchestrator John Kerry's two-faced. He's Israel's man at State. 

Publicly he's concerned about settlement expansions. At the same time, he doesn't think proceeding hampers talks.

Privately he's comfortable with build, build, built. He's been that way all along. In the Senate, he supported them for years. 

He said we knew "there was going to be a continuation of some building in certain places, and I think the Palestinians understand that."

Israel announced accelerated construction. Doing so reflects land grabbing writ large. It spurns equitable conflict resolution. 

It reveals longstanding Israeli business as usual. It shows contempt for rule of law principles. It makes justice a four-letter word.

It exposes Washington's true face. It's in lockstep with whatever Israel does. Palestinian rights don't matter. Talks won't change things.

It bears repeating. Kerry is Israel's man at State. He's in lockstep with its worst policies. His pro-Israel voting record is second to none. He's committed to maintaining a longstanding special relationship. Whatever Israel wants he's for.

He's always been that way. For sure he is now. He favors moving America's embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Doing so is illegal. In 1947, the UN declared it an international city. It remains so today.

Kerry calls Jerusalem "Israel's indisputable capital." In 1999, he signed a letter criticizing Clinton for not moving America's embassy there. 

He ignored international law doing so. He's throwing Palestinians under the bus. He pretends otherwise. He supports continued occupation harshness.

On August 13, Robert Fisk headlined "Any other 'statesman' who negotiated peace like John Kerry would be treated as a thief."

"Has (he) no shame," he asked? "First he cuddles up to both Palestinians and Israelis and announces the renewal of a 'peace process which the Palestinians don't trust and the Israelis don't want."

"Then Israel announces that it will build 1,200 new homes for Jews - and Jews only - on occupied Palestinian land." 

"And now Kerry tells the Palestinians - the weak and occupied Palestinians - that they are running out of time if they want a state of their own."

"Then came the ultimate lie: that the 'question of settlements' is 'best resolved by solving the problem of security and borders.' "

Doing so justifies lawless land grabbing. Millions worldwide condemn it. So do many Israelis.

Kerry "go(es) all out for 'peace.' " He does so on Israeli terms. "Cabined, cribbed (and) confined" Palestinians have to "shut up'' and accept them.

Kerry insists "hurry, hurry, hurry. Book your seats now, or it will be a full house," said Fisk. 'What price 'Palestine?' "

Over decades, Washington vetoed 39 Security Council resolutions criticizing Israel. In 2011, it blocked one condemning continued settlement construction. All other SC members supported it. So do over 90% of world community members.

At the time, US officials claimed resolution backing harmed peace prospects. How wasn't explained. Arab street reaction expressed outrage. It did so justifiably. America's position is untenable.

Palestinian political prisoner Marwan Barghouti calls Washington's one-sided Israeli support a crime against humanity. Bouthaina Shaaban condemned America's veto, saying:

"The importance of what is happening today in the Arab world is the fall of the colonial dimension of the official regime, which has ignored the crimes against humanity in Palestine…"

America's veto reflects "eternal shame for western 'democracies…' (L)ike tens of other(s), (it) contributed to the perpetuation of Israeli suppression of the Palestinian people, colonizing their land, expelling and condemning them to life in refugee camps."

MJ Rosenberg said:

"It is not hard to explain the Obama administration's decision to veto a resolution embodying positions that we support." 

"It is the power of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which (lobbied) furiously for a US veto."

One-sided Israeli support is "why US standing in the Middle East will continue to deteriorate."

Akiva Eldar thanked Obama. He did so for showing "his true colors." He's "two-faced."

"The lame excuse that denunciation of construction in the settlements would harm 'the peace process' constitutes a victory of opportunism over morality," he said.

Yaron London said Israel's "relying on a sinking superpower that is abandoning its pretenses to lead the world…"

Haaretz editors said "Palestinians lost the vote, (but) achieved their goal: They exposed for all to see the international isolation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's administration and embarrassed the US."

"The world's patience over continued construction in the settlements is wearing thin." Other observers agree. In time, it'll be entirely gone.

Peace prospects remain distant. One day Palestinians will be free. Occupation harshness can't last forever. What can't go on forever, won't. 

Hopefully time will resolve injustice. Some things are worth waiting for. Peace, equity and justice matter most. Patience brings its own reward. 

Edmond Burke said it "achieve(s) more than force." Rousseau called it "bitter, but its fruit is sweet." 

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. 

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. 

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour 

http://www.dailycensored.com/sham-peace-talks-resume/

 

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Futile Peace Talks – Again. The Jewish State’s Bottom Line

 Jonathan Cook

There are many flies waiting to spoil the ointment of the Middle East peace talks, not least Israel’s recent announcement of a rash of settlement-building. That triggered an angry letter to Washington last week from the Palestinian leadership, though it seems Israel’s serial humiliation of Mahmoud Abbas before the two sides meet was not enough to persuade him to pull out.

However, as the parties meet today for their first round of proper negotiations, it is worth highlighting one major stumbling block that has barely registered with observers: the fifth of Israel’s population who are not Jews but Palestinians.

The difficulty posed to the peace process by this Palestinian minority was illustrated in the defining moment of the last notable effort to reach an agreement, initiated in Oslo two decades ago.

In 1993 Yitzhak Rabin, then prime minister, assembled a 15-person delegation for the signing ceremony with the Palestinians at the White House. The delegation was selected to suggest that all sectors of Israeli society favoured peace.

When Rabin was asked why he had not included a single Palestinian, he waved aside the question: “We are going to sign a peace treaty between Jewish Israel and the PLO.”

Rabin believed his own Palestinian citizens should be represented not by their government but by the adversary across the table. The mood 20 years on is unchanged. The Palestinian minority is still viewed as a fifth column, one a Jewish state would be better off without.

Significantly, it was a matter relating to Israel’s Palestinian citizens that nearly scuppered the start of these talks. Israeli cabinet ministers revolted at a precondition from Abbas that the release of long-term political prisoners should include a handful of inmates from Israel’s Palestinian minority.

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, won a majority in the cabinet only after agreeing to postpone freeing this group until an unspecified time.

Similarly, previous experience suggests there will be an eruption of outrage should Netanyahu’s promised referendum on an agreement depend for its outcome — given the likely split between Israeli Jews — on the votes of Palestinian citizens. A senior minister, Silvan Shalom, has already indicated that only Israeli Jews should decide.

But Israel’s Palestinian minority will be thrust into the heart of the negotiations much before that.

Last weekend Netanyahu picked at one of the Israeli right’s favourite sores, denouncing reported comments from Abbas that no Israeli should be allowed to remain inside a future Palestinian state. Why, asks the right, should Israelis — meaning the settlers — be expelled from a Palestinian state while Israel is left with a large and growing Palestinian population inside its borders?

A possible solution promulgated by Netanyahu’s ally Avigdor Lieberman would redraw the borders to expel as many Palestinian citizens as possible in exchange for the settlements. There is a practical flaw, however: a land swap would rid Israel only of those Palestinians living near the West Bank.

Netanyahu prefers another option. He has required of the Palestinian Authority that it recognise Israel as a Jewish state. This condition will take centre stage at the talks.

Leaders of the Palestinian minority in Israel are intensively lobbying the PA to reject the demand. According to a recent report by the International Crisis Group, Palestinian officials are still undecided. Some fear the PA may agree to recognition if it clears the way to an agreement.

Why does this matter to Israel? In the event there is a deal on Palestinian statehood, Israel will wake up the next morning to an intensified campaign for equal rights from the Palestinian minority. In such circumstances, Israel will not be able to plead “security” to justify continuing systematic discrimination.

The Palestinian minority’s first demand for equality is not in doubt: a right of return allowing their relatives in exile to join them inside Israel similar to the current Law of Return, which allows any Jew in the world instantly to become a citizen.

The stakes are high: without the Law of Return, Israel’s Jewishness is finished; with it, Israel’s trumpeted democracy is exposed as hollow.

Netanyahu is acutely sensitive to these dangers. Recognition of Israel’s Jewishness would pull the rug from under the minority’s equality campaign. If you don’t want to live in a Jewish state, Netanyahu will tell Palestinian citizens, go live in Palestine. That is what Mahmoud Abbas, your leader, agreed.

Netanyahu’s visceral contempt for the rights of the Palestinian minority was alluded to in a recent parliamentary debate. When an Arab MP commented, “We were here before you and will remain [here] after you”, an indignant Netanyahu broke protocol to interrupt: “The first part isn’t true, and the second won’t be.”

Recent government moves suggest that his latter observation may not be simply an idle boast but a carefully crafted threat. Israel is preparing to expel tens of thousands of Bedouin citizens from their homes in the Negev into urban reservations as part of a forced relocation plan. This ethnic cleansing campaign sets a dangerous precedent, hinting at what may lie ahead for Israel’s other Palestinian communities.

The minority has taken to the streets in the most widespread internal Palestinian protests seen since the eruption of the second intifada. Israeli police have responded with extreme brutality, using levels of violence that would never be contemplated against Jewish demonstrators.

At the same time, Netanyahu’s government has introduced legislation to raise the threshold for parties seeking entry to the Knesset. The main victims will be the three small Arab parties represented there. The law’s aim, analysts note, is to engineer an Arab-free Knesset, guaranteeing the right’s continuing and unchallengeable domination.

Netanyahu, it seems, doubts he can rely on the PA either to supply him with the political surrender he needs from the peace process or to recognise his state’s Jewishness. Instead he is bypassing Abbas to protect against the threat posed by his Palestinian citizens’ demand for equality.

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 new website is www.jonathan-cook.net.

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UK MP and Israel Critic David Ward is Suspended From Party

Israel lobby draws the ‘red lines’ and dictates ‘precise terms’ for future Liberal Democrat debate, apparently.

by Stuart Littlewood

Back in January the Liberal Democrat leadership threw a mighty wobbly when MP David Ward made this remark on his website: “I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.”

Goaded by the Holocaust Educational Trust and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, who complained that Ward’s remarks “deliberately abused the memory of the Holocaust” and were “sickening” and “offensive”, the party’s Chief Whip, Alistair Carmichael, agreed they were “wholly inappropriate” and that singling out ‘the Jews’ in that way crossed a red line.

Ward was treated like a delinquent. According to the Jewish Chronicle http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/102865/clegg-response-david-ward-%EF%AC%81g-leaf party leader Nick Clegg ordered him to work alongside Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel “to identify and agree language that will be proportionate and precise” in future debate. Disciplinary steps would then be reviewed.

The story went quiet for a few months. Then this week, just as Parliament broke up for the long summer holiday, Ward received a letter from Carmichael ‘withdrawing the whip’ (suspending him from the parliamentary party), until 13 September. This is hardly a severe punishment considering MPs are away until 2 September.

As reported by Sky News http://news.sky.com/story/1117439/david-ward-in-row-after-zionist-tweet Carmichael wrote: “As we have sought to impress upon you repeatedly, we are having to decide on whether language you chose to use in January and February, and now this month, is language which brings the party into disrepute or harms the interests of the Party.

“We put it to you that your most recent statement – which specifically questions the continuing existence of the State of Israel – is neither proportionate nor precise. Unfortunately, we considered your explanation to be unconvincing and it did not satisfy us that you understood the importance of conducting the debate on this issue at all times and in all places in terms that are proportionate and precise.

“You will know that Nick [Clegg], Simon [Hughes] and I have a consistent track record of being outspoken about illegal settlement activities of Israeli governments and the threat this poses to the two-state solution for which the party has long argued.

“It is also immensely frustrating for us to find ourselves constantly responding to questions about disproportionate and imprecise language from you. These interventions cause considerable offence rather than addressing questions of political substance about the plight of the Palestinian people and the right of Israel’s citizens to live a life free of violence. It is extraordinarily difficult to gain traction in that debate at an effective political level if the expression of our concerns is undermined by the way your language misrepresents the view of our party.

“Whilst we understand you have your own views about this process, which has been long and complicated, we also hope you recognise that we have given you every opportunity to reconcile the expression of your views with the party’s policy on a two-state solution. Unfortunately, you have not been able to do that.

He won’t apologise for calling Israel an apartheid state

Only a couple of days earlier David Ward had tweeted: “Am I wrong or are am I right? At long last the Zionists are losing the battle – how long can the apartheid State of Israel last?”

As the punishment, Ward condemned it as “disproportionate” saying his views were widely shared http://uk.news.yahoo.com/israel-tweet-lib-dem-mp-suspended-135700994.html#IXktdLc. “I will not apologise for describing the state of Israel as an apartheid state. I don’t know how you can describe it as anything else,” he said. “I am genuinely quite shocked at the reaction to the kind of thing many people say.”

The Israel lobby, no doubt hoping to see much more blood on the carpet, was disappointed with the ruling. Holocaust Educational Trust chief executive Karen Pollock said: “David Ward has never fully apologised for his comments… It is about time the whip was withdrawn but the timing allows Mr Ward to repeat his unacceptable views when Parliament returns in the autumn.”

Board of Deputies vice-president Jonathan Arkush said the suspension was too little, too late and an empty gesture.

In one sense the LibDem action blows a raspberry at the outside meddlers. But this show of defiance is overshadowed by the general gutlessness that’s evident in the way the party caves in to Pro-Israel pressure.

Some of the remarks in the Carmichael letter are really quite silly…

• “We have given you every opportunity to reconcile the expression of your views with the party’s policy on a two-state solution… the two-state solution for which the party has long argued.”

The party is sadly out of date. I strongly advise Clegg and Co to watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOaxAckFCuQ . Miko Peled is an Israeli Jew, the son of an Israeli general and a former soldier in the Israeli army. You couldn’t find a more authentic insider source. He confirms in the bluntest words what many have known and been saying for years. Here is a flavour.

“The name of the game: erasing Palestine, getting rid of the people and de-Arabizing the country…

“When people talk about the possibility of Israel soArticle – mehow giving up the West Bank for a Palestinian state, if it wasn’t so sad it would be funny. It shows a complete misunderstanding of the objective of Zionism and the Zionist state.

“By 1993 the Israelis had achieved their mission to make the conquest of the West Bank irreversible. By 1993 the Israeli government knew for certain that a Palestinian state could not be established in the West Bank – the settlements were there, $billions were invested, the entire Jordan River valley was settled… there was no place any more for a Palestinian state to be established. That is when Israel said, OK, we’ll begin negotiations…”

Peled also describes the Israeli army, in which he served, as “one of the best trained and best equipped and best fed terrorist organisations in the world.”

• “It is immensely frustrating for us to constantly respond to questions about disproportionate and imprecise language from you. These interventions cause considerable offence rather than addressing questions of political substance about the plight of the Palestinian people.”

I can’t recall the LibDem leadership ever confronting the plight of the Palestinians in a robust way. Anyone who tries to – Baroness Jenny Tonge for example – gets slapped down and sacked. The political substance is Israel’s lawless and hideous conduct and the international community’s lack of backbone to deal with it.

• “We are not satisfied that you understand the importance of conducting the debate on this issue at all times and in all places in terms that are proportionate and precise.”

Anyone who attempts to debate any matter relating to Israel’s criminality is howled down by the Israel lobby while party bosses put the boot in. Nothing, it now seems, can be said unless it is “proportionate and precise” in Tel Aviv’s terms.

• “Nick, Simon and I have a consistent track record of being outspoken about illegal settlement activities of Israeli governments.”

Israel’s settlements are so illegal – a war crime, in fact – that our tremulous trio can hardly escape speaking up. The settlement building programme began with the Allon Plan in 1967 and still goes on. What effect has their so-called outspokenness had all these years? Words are plainly not enough. What real hard-edged action have the LibDems taken?

Clegg did himself and his party no favours when he came out with this lopsided statement http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/41015/nick-clegg-we-got-it-wrong-israel : “Israel’s right to thrive in peace and security is non-negotiable for Liberal Democrats. No other country so continually has its right to exist called into question as does Israel, and that is intolerable. There can be no solution to the problems of the Middle East that does not include a full and proper recognition of Israel by all parties to the conflict.”

You’d be forgiven for thinking it was written by Mark Regev’s hasbara office. Why on earth would anyone recognise a state founded on terror, grand theft and ethnic cleansing at gunpoint?

Why would anyone recognise a state that is contemptuous of international and humanitarian law?

Why would anyone recognise a state that’s bristling with nukes and other WMDs but refuses to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty or place them under international inspection and safeguards, then foams at the mouth at the thought of a neighbouring country having a nuclear weapons programme?

Why would anyone recognise a state that itself does not recognise the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and still prevents refugees from returning home in defiance of UN Resolution 194 (re-affirmed every year since 1949)… a state that applies a brutal, illegal yet seemingly permanent military occupation and severely restricts movement of people, essential supplies and normal trade goods in the Palestinian homeland?

And why would anyone recognise a state that refuses to declare its borders so that it can continue to pursue its expansionist plans? In any case, which Israel does Clegg suggest we recognise – Israel within the 1947 UN Partition borders? Israel within the 1949 Armistice borders? Or Israel as now, in full occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Old City, and part of Syria, and not forgetting its vicious blockade on Gaza and repeated violation of Lebanese borders?

Why aren’t Clegg, Carmichael and Hughes saying, loudly and clearly, “No recognition until the occupation ends, international law is fully respected and implemented, and the Palestinians’ self-determination, security and freedoms are guaranteed.”?

Quite simply, there can be no peace until all that happens.

“You cannot criticize Israel in this country and survive”
Helen Thomas

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Israel Hit with EU War Crimes Sanctions

 

EU sanctions keep Israel guessing

 

By Gordon Duff and Press TV

—
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—

In a surprise last minute move, the European Union set forth a strong set of economic sanctions against Israel, leaving that nation both surprised and reeling.

The sanctions, stimulated by what the EU refers to as “Israeli intransigence” regarding peace talks with the Palestinians, cover all financial dealings, loans, awards, transfer of “instruments” and severely limiting economic cooperation between Israel and all EU member nations starting in 2014.

The sanctions are against any Israeli “economic activity,” not just within what has been referred to as the “occupied territories” but broad areas of Israel that had been designated for the establishment of an “Arab State” in 1949.

Those territories extend in an almost contiguous line from the Lebanon border to the Red Sea.
Israel has referred to these territories as “Golan Heights, Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.”  The term “Judea” alone could refer to the entire Roman province including large regions of Lebanon and Jordan.

Thus, one might question why the European Union would include such broad territories, clearly intended to offset Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s demands for “defensible borders.”

The EU has gone much further than imagined, an act Israel sees as an “ambush.”

ISRAELI RESPONSE

Israel has responded with a number of objections citing, initially that they feel the “EU attacks us because we are small,” as cited by Gil Ronen with Arutz Sheva, Israel National News.

The sanctions, to be published Friday, July 19, 2013, will prohibit all 28 European Union member states from any economic contacts with Israeli “entities” that operate outside the 1949 Armistice lines.

These territories differ greatly from the ceasefire lines of the 1967 war and include up to 25% of the territory of Israel, according to an article in Arutz Sheva.

According to that publication, the EU has made further differentiations based on the 1967 truce lines, clearly delineating territories seized as “occupied” and requiring Israel to identify any economic activity originating from those regions for exclusion.

EU officials have commented that there has been significant pressure to modify and limit the approve sanctions prior to their upcoming publication.

SYRIA

The decision to move against Israel falls on the eve of announcements from France and then Britain to hold back materiel support for pro-Israeli factions fighting against the Syrian government.

Germany had previously announced that no aid would be forthcoming.

The United States, although announcing, in June, that arms would be supplied, has withheld promised military aid though the Syrian government has made significant advances against rebel held enclaves.

ISRAEL’S POSITION

Quoting a high ranking Israeli official:

“The attack by the EU disproportionate and is likely to have no positive effect on restarting meaningful dialog over the Palestinian question.  When it comes to disputed territories, the Europeans prefer to attack a small country like Israel instead of taking on more powerful states, because they are afraid of retaliation.

We were only informed at the last moment.”

Israel’s position was confirmed by Deputy Foreign Minister, Ze’ev Elkin.  In a statement to the press, Elkin referred to the EU directive as a “mistake” likely to undermine any progress already made.

“We are not ready to sign on this clause in our agreements with the European Union.” 

Elkin also cited Israel’s failure to get in front of the issues that led to this confrontation which will, as he also stated, “halt all cooperation in economics” and be extremely harmful to Israel’s economy.

CONTRADICTORY EU POSITIONS

Speaking for the European Union, David Kriss is quoted:

“These are guidelines on the eligibility of Israeli entities and their activity in the territories occupied by Israel since June 1967 for grants, prizes and financial instruments funded by the EU from 2014 onwards.

(Sanctions)It makes (sic) a distinction between Israel and the entities in the West Bank, east Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights.”

It’s a very worrying initiative launched at a bad time, because it only reinforces the Palestinians’ refusal to restart negotiations.”

Kriss then called for Israel to cooperate fully with the sanctions, threatening Israel with defunding of joint projects already scheduled, projects that would otherwise not be impacted by sanctions.

PALESTINIAN RESPONSE

Arutz Sheva reports that Palestinian leaders will only negotiate based on pre-1967 lines and “if Israel freezes all settlement activity in Judea and Samaria.”

Thus far, the world press has been unaware of these expanded Palestinian demands that would require Israel to not only stop all settlement activities in areas referred to as “occupied” but over wider areas now settled by up to 1.8 million Israelis.

There are already over 550,000 Israelis living in the “occupied zones,” primarily eastern Jerusalem, known as Al Quds, and the West Bank.

The EU position impacts nearly one third of Israel’s population, one third of its economic base.

ALL ABOUT MONEY

The real impetus for increased pressure on Israel has been the failure of western economies and their disastrous currencies.

The real subtext for scaling back support for Israel has been seen in the strangely unreported change in America’s deficits.

During the last fiscal quarter, the United States has shown a net budget surplus for the first time in decades.  Two of the last three months have yielded surpluses in excess of $100 billion.

The message has been clear to EU leaders, as America has drawn down its role as “policeman of the world,” the real security issue, potential economic collapse, has become less of a threat.

What is unlikely to be admitted is the simple fact that the projection of military power to secure resources, when those resources are exploited by multi-national entities, offers a very poor return.

Thus, Israel’s current dilemma is much more rooted in its role as an economic liability than in any concerns regarding human rights.

 Source

Monsoon Wedding director Mira Nair boycotts Israel film festival

Mira Nair (Wikimedia Commons)

by Ali Abunimah

Mira Nair, the internationally-acclaimed director of Salaam Bombay! and Monsoon Wedding, has refused an invitation to take her latest film to Israel, citing the Palestinian call for cultural boycott.

In a series of tweets today, Nair made the following statement:

 I was just invited to Israel as a guest of honor at the Haifa International Film Festival with “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.” I will not be going to Israel at this time. I will go to Israel when the walls come down. I will go to Israel when occupation is gone. I will go to Israel when the state does not privilege one religion over another. I will go to Israel when Apartheid is over. I will go to Israel, soon. I stand with the [Palestinian Campaign] for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and the larger Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Movement.

 Official trailer of The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Mira Nair’s tweets

on Twitter

I was just invited to Israel as a guest of honor at the Haifa International Film Festival with “The Reluctant Fundamentalist.” (1/5)
— Mira Nair (@MiraPagliNair) July 19, 2013

on Twitter

I will not be going to Israel at this time. I will go to Israel when the walls come down. I will go to Israel when occupation is gone. (2/5)
— Mira Nair (@MiraPagliNair) July 19, 2013

on Twitter

I will go to Israel when the state does not privilege one religion over another. I will go to Israel when Apartheid is over. (3/5)
— Mira Nair (@MiraPagliNair) July 19, 2013

on Twitter

I will go to Israel, soon. (4/5)
— Mira Nair (@MiraPagliNair) July 19, 2013

on Twitter

I stand w/ Palestine for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) & the larger Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) Mov't. (5/5)
— Mira Nair (@MiraPagliNair) July 19, 2013

Source

Netanyahu Upset That the Goyim Aren’t Getting It!

Netanyahu can’t understand why the goys from Europe

are resisting his Hebrew Bible/Old Testament authority

over them.

by Bob Johnson

The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, issued a directive two weeks ago requiring all member states of the EU to ban“all funding, collaboration, scholarships, research grants and awards to Israeli entities in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, while requiring that any future agreements signed with Israel must include a clause stating that the settlements are not part of the sovereign State of Israel and therefore are not part of said agreement.” The ban against expansionist Israel will begin this Friday, July 19, 2013.

Benjamin Netanyahu is angry with the Europeans. It must be very frustrating for him when the goys are resisting and dare to confront the superior Jewish state in its illegal occupation of Palestine. Netanyahu is used to compliant political whores like they have in the US. Both the Democrats and the Republicans all bow down to the King of Israel. They not only bow down themselves, they also betray their own people and take BILLIONS of dollars from American tax payers EVERY YEAR and hand it over to the Jewish state. And even worse than that, they commit young American lives to die, to kill, and to be horrifically maimed in wars which only benefit Israel. Of course, the political whores have a key motivation – to help their political careers by pleasing the powerful Israel lobby. No American military person’s life is of greater value than their political careers in their minds! (The last US President to seriously stand-up to Israel regarding both the Jewish state acquiring nuclear weapons and to its excessive influence over US politicians was John F. Kennedy. There are no politicians from either party on the horizon who even seem like they will take up the fight for America and Americans over Israel.)

Netanyahu’s temper tantrum must have been caused by the Europeans not rolling over for him like the American politicians regularly do. He released a statement in which he said Israel “”will not accept any external edicts” in regards to the Jewish state’s borders.

The reason Netanyahu is so touchy about Israel’s borders is because Israel is based on the Israel of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Based on those boarders the US will have to fight and pay for  many more wars for Israel as those borders include not only Palestine but also parts of Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq. The Zionist Christian Pat Robertson even wrote an article about Israel’s “true” Bible based borders, The Land of Israel: A Gift From God. Netanyahu is also living this delusional dream of a Greater Israel of Biblical proportions as he made clear when he said, ““[Jerusalem] is not a settlement. It is the sovereign capital of the State of Israel. We have been building in Jerusalem for 3,000 years.”

Individual European nations are standing up to Judaism and Israel in other ways as well. For example the brutal and unnecessarily cruel way animals are butchered when done based on kosher regulations was recently outlawed in Poland (they also outlawed the same superstitious slaughter method practiced by Muslims called halal). In order to satisfy their “revealed”/hearsay religious superstition animals cannot be stunned prior to being slaughtered, they must be fully conscious while their throats are cut and then bleed to death. Think of this the next time you see a Hebrew National hot-dog commercial! Kosher is not only cruel, it is a giant religious scam which takes money from almost everyone and uses it to advance Jewish causes at the expense of Gentiles.

The Hebrew Bible/Old Testament tells Netanyahu not only what Israel’s borders should be, but it also tells him (and us) what will happen to Gentile nations who refuse to submit to the self-appointed “chosen ones.” According to Isaiah 60:12 the Bible god threatened the Gentile nations by saying “the the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee (Israel) shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.” When the official rabbi of Israel called for Jews to pray for Iran’s destruction he was in line with these teachings from the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament. Jewish superiority and Israel over all is key to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament.

If we would take the advice of the American founder and Deist, Thomas Paine, who in his important and thought provoking book on God, Deism, the Bible and religion, The Age of Reason, The Complete Edition, called for a revolution in religion based in our innate God-given reason and Deism, we could go a long way in putting the brakes on Israel’s religious violence. It’s a grass-roots effort which can change the world for the better.

Source

12% of Israelis admit paying bribes

Gilad Atzmon


Israeli press reported today that 12% of Israelis paid a bribe in the past year, and political parties and religious organizations are perceived as Israel's most corrupt public institutions, according to the Global Corruption Barometer 2013 published today by Transparency International.

12% of the respondents said that they paid a bribe in the past year. Almost one in ten Israelis (9%) who came in contact with government real estate services said that they paid a bribe.

In ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’, 89% of the population believe that personal connections or the use of power are essential for promoting their interests vis-à-vis the authorities. This is the highest percentage of all the countries covered by the Global Corruption Barometer; the global average is 63%.

Considering Israel being The Jewish State, we are entitled to assume that the above statistics tells us something about Jewish culture and politics. It certainly helps us to grasp the Jewish Lobby’s operational mode. Money makes the world go round and AIPAC, CFI and CRIF know it too well.

To read more: www.globes-online.com