Next Event:
Standing in front of the 92nd Street Y (92nd/Lex), 7:00 – 8:00pm, Nov 21 when Alan Dershowitz comes to the Y.
Please sign the open letter in support of the Goldstone report
November 2009
Quoting from the Book of Jeremiah: “Cursed be he that doeth the work of the Lord with a slack hand, and cursed be he that keepeth back his sword from blood.”
On Gaza attack : “We all remember the beginning of the war, with a major attack of 80 planes bombing various places, and then artillery, mortar and tank fire and so forth, as in war… Everyone fought with all their heart and soul, and that includes bravery of course, but also fighting with all the resources one has – to fight as if to truly determine the mission.”
Arjan El Fassed: “Twitter is a great place to connect people with issues. But it’s also good at bridging cultural gaps. For most people, it’s difficult to identify with life in a refugee camp, but by linking it to a global network that resonates with millions, I was aiming to promote a sense of connectedness.”
Immortalize your name on a street: www.jouwstraatnaam.nl
Arjan El Fassed’s Twitter page: http://twitter.com/arjanelfassed
IOA Twitter page: http://twitter.com/IsOccupation
In a NY Times op-ed… condemning the Obama administration… argu[ing] that the lofty talk of “openness” and the promise of “dialogue” with the Iranians are just empty rhetoric… [C]ritical of the U.S. support of Israel’s nuclear ambiguity and… horrified by the possibility of Israel attacking Iran’s nuclear installations.
The PLO, ever since the armed Palestinian organizations got the upper hand within it after 1967, very quickly came to understand that anti-Semitic discourse is bad in itself and altogether contrary to the interests of the struggle of the Palestinian people. Hence the insistence on the distinction to be made between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, which was the issue in a political battle within the Palestinian movement.
The United States does not accept continued Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, a senior U.S. state department official has said, adding that Jerusalem’s commitment to restrain settlement activity is not enough.
IOA Editor: Flip-flop, flip-flop, flip-flop… Words we’ve heard before, followed by no action.
“I would suggest that time has come for Israel to look at the allegations not only of the killing and injuring of so many civilians but also the collective punishment meted out to the people of Gaza by the substantial destruction of the infrastructure, and particularly the food infrastructure of Gaza. The debate should continue, not attempt to be silenced.”
“We have been under enormous pressure and tremendous attacks, some of them very personal, as have been the attacks against Richard Goldstone with really vituperative language used to describe him: obsequious Jew, self-loathing Jew and all the rest of it.”
[T]he majority of the public – 57% – supports the view of MK Shaul Mofaz of Kadima, who published a plan earlier this week, in which he called for dialogue with Hamas under certain conditions. Inside Kadima the idea has tremendous support by some 72 percent of the party’s voters.
[B]efore Abu Mazen quits… He must declare, unilaterally, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Palestine now… Netanyahu finds this possibility very scary, and he expects the Americans to nip it in the bud. But his nightmare is our only chance for an end to the occupation in our time.
The flurry of US officials’ visits to Ramallah is likely to stop unless a major and important change takes place in Washington. In the meantime, Abbas will pay more attention to the home front, trying to stitch together some type of agreement with Hamas.
A young student deported from the West Bank to Gaza is just the latest victim of Israeli efforts to sever ties between the territories.
UPDATE: New York Times (12 Nov 2009): Expelled West Bank Student Petitions Israel Court. The court… remanded the case to a military hearing to be held at the Gaza border next week, where Azzam can attend. ”My priority, what’s most important, is to get back to my studies,” Azzam said, speaking by phone from Gaza. ”I was so close to finishing, I just want to get back to Bethlehem and finish.”
Left-wing groups enraged by Germany municipality’s decision not to allow anti-Zionist Israeli historian to speak at governmental institution. Pappe writes to Munich mayor his policy reminiscent of Nazi Germany.
Burin resident discovers 97 of his olive trees destroyed overnight. ‘When I saw the massacre which took place on my land, I cried.’
IOA Editor: Twenty first century Jewish cossacks continue to carry out pogroms against Palestinian farmers. (For the urban version, see Ellen Cantarow’s “Heroism in a Vanishing Landscape.”) This is nothing short of a state-sponsored ethnic-cleansing campaign designed to rid “Judea and Samaria” of its Palestinian inhabitants so as to make room for the ever-expanding Jewish State.
Dr Mustafa Barghouthi, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, described the plan as essentially “national duty” in its aims to realize Palestinian freedoms, the right of return and the right to Jerusalem. “All of these ideas are acceptable to Palestinians,” he said, and said he thought the plan should see popular support.
The deal was signed during President Peres’ official visit to Brazil, but negotiations began months ago… The drones… are the latest model developed by IAI, which has been sold to other countries as well. This will be the model’s first use by a police force.
IOA Editor: Deal closed by the Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Merchant of Death. Soon enough, Earth will be covered by hovering, missile-equipped Israeli drones – silently monitoring the populace and “surgically” eliminating misbehaving elements, sponsored by the Federal/State/Local government on duty. Our very own taxes at work. Operating for profit. Lots of it.
The White House expressed disappointment in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to Washington, with officials saying that they had hoped that the prime minister would present a concrete plan to scale back Israeli construction in West Bank settlements, the Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.
The judge accepted the defense attorney’s claim that the youth must be “protected against justice” and said that sentencing the Nazareth citizen to prison would be contradictory to the principles of justice of the country.
“Disputed” is a word often used about East Jerusalem and homes in Sheikh Jarrah. Would the international community have considered the homes of American blacks attacked by the Ku Klux Kla as “disputed”?
The protest by gate48 is directed against CIDI’s hospitality and the “uncritical” manner in which [Lieberman] will be received by the Dutch government, board member Erella Grassiani says.
Obama – Netanyahu meet: “The president reaffirmed our strong commitment to Israel’s security, and discussed security cooperation on a range of issues,” said a statement issued by the White House after the closed-door session that lasted an hour and a half concluded.
Assuming Lockheed maintains its original production timetable the first fighters will be delivered in 2014. Two years later, Israel will have its first operational squadron of F-35s, consisting of 25 fighter aircraft representing the cutting edge of U.S. technology, capable of any mission. Iran too?
The air force has already ruled in favor of the aircraft, even though it is uncertain that the Americans will include specialized electronic warfare suites: “the deterrent effect that comes with Israel having the most advanced aircraft is very important. This is the effect that was created when we received the Mirage [in the 1960s] and the F-15 [in the 1970s].” In the air force they insist that at a time when the Turkish air force and other Muslim countries intend to procure the F-35, “it is inconceivable that Israel will stay behind.”
Jordanian King Abdullah II on Monday advised Israel to stop “playing with fire” regarding the future of Jerusalem. “Jerusalem is a red line and Israel must internalize the importance the city holds for Arabs and Christian Muslims, and stop playing with fire,” said Abdullah.
It has been five years since the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel should cease construction, dismantle the wall, and pay reparations to affected Palestinians. But the “Separation Barrier” is now 400 km, double its length at the time of the court ruling.
The Portugese company EPAL collaborates with Israeli water companies violating international law in the occupied West Bank.
“People feel he’s anti-Israel. I don’t read it that way, but the leadership of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and other elements of the Jewish community do and I don’t want to get into an argument with them,” said Siegel, who is Jewish.
The option has been and remains one of the following: two states for two peoples along the 1967 borders; or one state, in which two peoples continue to make each other miserable. Israel is galloping toward this latter disaster with eyes wide shut.
[The US] has no intention of being a “balanced mediator”… Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, allies of the final takeover of the West Bank, know very well that U.S. policy has not changed… The prevailing attitude of all U.S. administrations [is] essentially that any possible settlement must match the positions of the stronger party. This is how the Americans abandoned the refugee issue, and this is why they abandoned the opposition to settlements.
The reports indicated that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has reached a secret understanding with the Obama administration over U.S. recognition of an independent Palestinian state. Such recognition would likely transform any Israeli presence across the Green Line, even in Jerusalem, into an illegal incursion to which the Palestinians would be entitled to engage in measures of self-defense.
IOA Editor: Highly unlikely, given US moves to crush the Goldstone Report, its actions on recent ME ‘peace efforts’ and in the past 42 years, but important to watch. The mere concept of a Palestinian State presents an existential risk to Israel – strictly in a philosophical sense: An independent, viable Palestinian state, however theoretical, could mean the end of Israel as we know it – a state with no official borders, equipped with an insatiable appetite for land, resources and regional domination – by creating the first meaningful boundary to its colonial program and greatly weakening a US ally, potentially crucial for global control. All the more why US support is unlikely, no mater how business-like Prime Minister Salam Fayyad’s plan appears. Undoubtedly, Israel will do all it can to defend itself from the threat of peace.
Israel will coordinate with the U.S., U.K. and France to ensure the Security Council vetos Arab countries’ resolutions on the Goldstone report, Israeli officials told Haaretz.
IOA Editor: International business as usual, Occupation as usual.
Chomsky on the US’s unwavering support for Israel and “rejectionism” of the two-state solution, effectively on offer for 30 years: That’s not because of the overweening power of the Israel lobby in the US, but because Israel is a strategic and commercial asset which underpins rather than undermines US domination of the Middle East… America’s one-sided role in the Middle East isn’t harming their interests, whatever risks it might bring for anyone else.
IOA Editor: Noam Chomsky has just concluded a speaking tour in the UK and Ireland. For coverage of his tour, see:
Israel’s worst enemies are those who support its policies
Hundreds flock to hear Noam Chomsky in Dublin
Discussion with Workers Solidarity Movement
[E]very time ["Turn, Turn, Turn"] is played, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions receives a few dollars, which accumulate to a “several thousand dollars every year,” according to the committee’s co-founder and coordinator. ICAHD is a non-profit organization that uses non-violent means to oppose Israeli demolition of homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Seeger has been donating some of the song’s royalties to ICAHD for ten years.
Since 1967, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been tried in Israeli military courts. As of the end of September 2009, 7,155 Palestinians were incarcerated in the various detention facilities by the Israeli security forces… The majority of the Palestinian detainees and prisoners are incarcerated within Israel, in contravention of international law, which prohibits transferring residents of an occupied territory outside its boundaries. Because of the closure imposed on the territories, many of the prisoners are deprived of visits by family members. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been placed in administrative detention since 1967. At the end of September 2009, 355 of the Palestinians in the custody of the security forces were being held in administrative detention.
Tom Wills, USSU President, said “Israel has broken more UN resolutions than any other state. No other Western-backed democracy has committed such egregious violations of international law, but the international community has failed to hold Israel to account.
This seventh-grader… is half Israeli and half Egyptian, Jewish and Muslim, speaks Hebrew with her mother and Arabic with her father, lives in Ramat Hasharon and spends vacations in Sinai and Cairo, with her father and grandmother.
IOA Editor: Perhaps the most encouraging story, if it weren’t so singular, romantic, completely out of the norm and, for those who know the Sinai coast, completely out of this world.
