There is a Jewish Temple around the corner from me that has a giant "We Stand With Israel" banner affixed to its sign. It has made several appearances over the years but it is not a permanent fixture. Rather, it appears when hostilities in Gaza or the West Bank flare up and then goes away when things calm down, put into storage for the next time...which is never too far away. It isn't supporting Israel's existence. It is supporting Israel's many military operations.
I've never given much thought to it, honestly, but it struck me yesterday how a "We Stand With Gaza" banner affixed to a mosque would be received and portrayed in the press. How quickly that mosque would be associated with supporting terrorism. Yet a sign showing such support for Israel, amidst the slaughter of two thousand Palestinians, sits there unnoticed. I don't think I have been alone in not thinking too deeply on it.
You should spray paint an 'i' after Israel, followed by the word 'terrorism'.
Fox news already has enough fuel for that fire. Changing a sign that says "We stand with Israel" to "We stand with Israeli terrorism" would likely embolden Israel's most ardent supporters. I'm not a betting man, but if I were I would definitely expect that some local news affiliate would probably be reporting it as an anti-semitic attack meant to dehumanize the Jewish people. Honestly, something like this might even grab national attention (for the wrong reasons of course).
There is a Jewish Temple around the corner from me that has a giant "We Stand With Israel" banner affixed to its sign. It has made several appearances over the years but it is not a permanent fixture. Rather, it appears when hostilities in Gaza or the West Bank flare up and then goes away when things calm down, put into storage for the next time...which is never too far away. It isn't supporting Israel's existence. It is supporting Israel's many military operations.
I've never given much thought to it, honestly, but it struck me yesterday how a "We Stand With Gaza" banner affixed to a mosque would be received and portrayed in the press. How quickly that mosque would be associated with supporting terrorism. Yet a sign showing such support for Israel, amidst the slaughter of two thousand Palestinians, sits there unnoticed. I don't think I have been alone in not thinking too deeply on it.
I find that really fucked up. Seems like such an indiscreet, controversial, and insensitive thing to hang up on a Temple, even if the Rabbi or whoever feels that way. I don't know why I'm surprised though. I've seen all kinds of offensive shit on Church signs over the years too. Well thank goodness SOME Jews don't feel this way. I've seen plenty of coverage showing that many Jews are against the actions of Israel.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be careful. Strive to be happy. ~ Desiderata
And she is the one many liberals want to draft over Hillary.
I really like her. But I am, to say the least, very disappointed in her stance on this issue.
Does Hillary have a different view?
Edit: Guess I should have read to the bottom of the article.
"Echoing Benjamin Nentayahu (and Hillary Clinton), Elizabeth Warren’s clear position is that Israel bears none of the blame for any of this. Or, to use her words, “when Hamas puts its rocket launchers next to hospitals, next to schools, they’re using their civilian population to protect their military assets. And I believe Israel has a right, at that point, to defend itself.” Such carnage is the ”last thing Israel wants.” The last thing. That, ladies and gentlemen, is your inspiring left-wing icon of the Democratic Party."
And she is the one many liberals want to draft over Hillary.
I really like her. But I am, to say the least, very disappointed in her stance on this issue.
Does Hillary have a different view?
No, she doesn't. But Hillary perceives the nomination to be locked up and is already running a general election strategy, running to the right to try and lock up the middle. The left feels left out, and Warren has gotten buzz as a possible alternative. You and I might think my senior Senator would have a different opinion...but we would be wrong.
Honestly, I am unsold on Warren when it comes to foreign policy. During the debate over Syrian involvement I wrote to my Congressman, Joe Kennedy, as well as to both Senators Markey and Warren. Within a few days I heard back from Kennedy and from Markey. Each response was no doubt written by a staffer, but it did address my concerns even though both held views that were not in line with my own. As for Warren, it was almost a month before i heard back from her office and when I did Syria was not addressed at all. In fact, the email did read more like a fundraising pitch than anything else.
And she is the one many liberals want to draft over Hillary.
I really like her. But I am, to say the least, very disappointed in her stance on this issue.
Does Hillary have a different view?
No, she doesn't. But Hillary perceives the nomination to be locked up and is already running a general election strategy, running to the right to try and lock up the middle. The left feels left out, and Warren has gotten buzz as a possible alternative. You and I might think my senior Senator would have a different opinion...but we would be wrong.
Honestly, I am unsold on Warren when it comes to foreign policy. During the debate over Syrian involvement I wrote to my Congressman, Joe Kennedy, as well as to both Senators Markey and Warren. Within a few days I heard back from Kennedy and from Markey. Each response was no doubt written by a staffer, but it did address my concerns even though both held views that were not in line with my own. As for Warren, it was almost a month before i heard back from her office and when I did Syria was not addressed at all. In fact, the email did read more like a fundraising pitch than anything else.
Protestors block and delay Israeli ships up and down US West Coast 08/28/2014
Over the past two weeks, activists in port cities along the West Coast of the United States staged picket lines to prevent or delay vessels operated by Israel’s Zim shipping line from offloading cargo.
The actions had been planned at the height of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip that began on 7 July and ended with a ceasefire yesterday.
Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. is Israel’s biggest cargo shipping company and the tenth largest in the world. It’s 2013 revenue was $3.7 billion.
The action originated in Oakland, California, which set a high bar for others to follow. Protestors there successfully prevented the unloading of the Zim Piraeus container ship for nearly four full days.
But other cities’ more modest demonstrations were nevertheless successful in temporarily delaying the Zim ships from unloading, costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, building momentum and signalling widespread support for such actions.
After Zim Piraeus departed Oakland on 20 August, two different Zim container ships were scheduled to dock in Tacoma and Seattle, Washington and in Long Beach, California. Weeks earlier, organizers in Oakland had reached out to Palestine solidarity groups in those cities to plan a coordinated shut-out of Zim cargo ships along the West Coast.
In Tacoma, the Zim Chicago was supposed to arrive at port on 18 August but was delayed from offloading until 23 August — which local organizer, Nada Elia describes as a victory for the Northwest Block the Boat Coalition.
Elia, who recently retired from Antioch University’s faculty and is a member of the steering committee of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), told The Electronic Intifada that the delay was partially due to a crane malfunction in Vancouver, British Columbia, but mostly due to protesters.
“The delay showed that they were trying to avoid the blockade,” Elia said. Throughout the week, activists around the state were poised — monitoring the Facebook page and then their phones for text alerts — to be called down at moment’s notice to Tacoma port for the picket. Elia said her group’s Facebook page was taken down with no explanation.
When the Zim Chicago docked on Saturday, activists rallied at the port and successfully blocked the two known entrances. But the port opened up a third, little-known entrance that allowed workers to cross the picket line and unload the containers from the Zim vessel.
The coalition that had formed around this action included Filipino group BAYAN, Queers Against Israeli apartheid and Occupy Seattle. Elia said people travelled from all around the state to attend the demonstration at the ports.
According to the Seattle Globalist, the delay cost the shipping company half a million dollars.
This shits about to blow again. Netanyahu isn't sending a delegation to Cairo now. Israel destroyed a diary factory and bulldozed some houses in Hebron. The biggest land grab ever by Israel, sorry to say it but Israel DOESNT want peace.
Israel’s ‘land for lives’ is theft. Pure and simple
Israel takes land, Palestine loses land; that’s the way it works Robert Fisk Tuesday 2 September 2014
So a bit more of Palestine has slidden down the plughole. A thousand more acres of Palestinian land stolen by the Israeli government – for “appropriation” is theft, is it not? – and the world has made the usual excuses. The Americans found it “counter-productive” to peace, which is probably a bit less forceful than its reaction would be if Mexico were to bite off a 1,000-acre chunk of Texas and decided to build homes there for its illegal immigrants in the US. But this is “Palestine” (inverted commas more necessary than ever) and Israel has been getting away with theft, albeit not on quite this scale – it is the biggest land heist in 30 years – ever since it signed up to the Oslo agreement in 1993.
The Rabin-Arafat handshake, the promises and handovers of territory and military withdrawals, and the determination to leave everything important (Jerusalem, refugees, the right of return) to the end, until everyone trusted each other so much that the whole thing would be a doddle – no wonder the world bestowed its financial generosity upon the pair. But this latest land-grab not only reduces “Palestine” but continues the circle of concrete around Jerusalem to cut Palestinians off from both the capital they are supposed to share with Israelis and from Bethlehem.
It was instructive to learn the Israeli-Jewish Etzion council regarded this larceny as punishment for the murder of three Israeli teenagers in June. “The goal of the murders of those three youths was to sow fear among us, to disrupt our daily lives and to call into doubt our right [sic] to the land,” the Etzion council announced. “Our response is to strengthen settlement.” This must be the first time that land in “Palestine” has been acquired not through excuses about security or land deeds – or on God’s personal authority – but out of revenge.
And it raises an interesting precedent. If an innocent Israeli life – cruelly taken – is worth around 330 acres of land, then an innocent Palestinian life – equally cruelly taken – must surely equal the same. And if even half the 2,200 Palestinian dead of Gaza last month – and this is a conservative figure – were innocent, then the Palestinians presumably now have the right to take over 330,000 acres of Israeli land, in reality much more. But however “counter-productive” this might be, I’m sure America would not stand for it. Israel takes land, Palestinians lose land; that’s the way it works. And thus it has been since 1948, and that is how it will continue.
There will never be a “Palestine” and the latest territorial robbery is merely another small punctuation mark in the book of sorrow which the Palestinians must read as their dreams of statehood wither. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for the Palestinian “President”, Mahmoud Abbas, said his boss and the “moderate forces” in Palestine had been “stabbed in the back” by the Israeli decision, which is putting it mildly. Abbas has a back covered in knife wounds. What else did he expect when he wrote a book about Palestinian-Israeli relations without once using the word “occupation”?
So we’re back to the same old game. Abbas cannot negotiate with anyone unless he speaks for Hamas as well as the Palestinian Authority. As Israel knows. As America knows. As the EU knows. But each time Abbas tries to put together a unity government, we all screech that Hamas is a “terrorist” organisation. And Israel says it cannot talk to a “terrorist” organisation which demands the destruction of Israel – even though Israel used to say the same of Arafat and, in those days, helped Hamas to build more mosques in Gaza and the West Bank as a counterweight to Fatah and all the other “terrorists” up in Beirut.
Of course, if Abbas speaks only for himself, Israel will tell him what it has told him before: that without his control of Gaza, Israel has no one to negotiate with. But does it matter any more? There should be a special strap headline above all reports of this kind: “Goodbye, Palestine”.
Yup, it's not occupation or genocide or land grab or anything like that at all. This article is embarrassing for Israel and shameful. This is how low that government has become. Real shame.
mickeyrat
up my ass, like Chadwick was up his Posts: 35,802
Emailed The GOP Senator from my state. Asking he stand for justice and LOUDLY CONDEMN Israeli Government actions. Also stated it was disingenuous to have a debt clock on the front page of his senate site while voting to send aid to Israel.
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
Israel loses eight billion dollars and Arab parties join the boycott Saturday, 29 March 2014
Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative movement, has estimated that Israel has incurred losses of around eight billion dollars due to the boycott campaign against illegal settlements, equivalent to 20 per cent of their GDP.
Regarding the latest Palestinian efforts to escalate the settlement boycott, Barghouti revealed that an agreement has been made with 13 democratic Arab parties to form boycott committees in the Arab world.
In a statement to Quds Net News Agency on Thursday he said: "the European Union did not issue a decision to boycott Israel, but what is taking place is the boycott of any relationship or agreements with settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem."
Furthermore: "This experience is being circulated worldwide and not only in European countries; many areas worldwide are also ready to boycott the settlements."
The agreement with the Arab parties to participate in the boycott campaign came after the participation of a delegation from the Palestinian National Initiative movement headed by Barghouti, along with a delegation from Fatah, headed by Nabil Shaath in the Arab Social Democratic Forum. It was held in Amman, Jordan, over two days and ended Wednesday.
The draft resolution put forward by the Palestinian National Initiative regarding Jerusalem was agreed upon unanimously, along with a mass movement of boycott and sanctions against Israel and the decision to support the Palestinian popular resistance and the struggle for justice for Palestinians against the occupation and the settlements.
The delegates called upon the people of the Arab world and its friends to adopt a strategy for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it ends its discriminatory, unjust occupation.
It is expected that the Human Rights Council of the UN in Geneva will vote on Thursday and Friday on five resolutions condemning Israel. These include a resolution calling to encourage boycotting Israeli settlements and cutting all investments with them. Meanwhile, Israeli diplomacy has not taken any direct action to curb these decisions and is busy dealing with strikes in their international embassies and consulates.
A senior Israeli official said that the proposal for the resolution calling for a boycott of the settlements is creating tension and anxiety in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. Having realised that Israeli diplomacy is completely paralysed due to the strikes, they quickly decided to assign a special envoy to Geneva. Meanwhile the Israeli vice-president of the National Security Council, Aaron Larmon, was expected to arrive on Wednesday but a last minute decision was taken to cancel the visit after officials in the Prime Minister's office realised that they would not be able to influence the formulation of decisions looming in Geneva.
The draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva was based on the proposition made by a group of Arab states in the Human Rights Council, including the Palestinian Authority, and is entitled Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The proposed draft resolution, which will be voted upon, is the first of its kind to condemn Israel in UN Human Rights Council resolutions.
Israel considers the wording very dangerous as it is based on what is stated in the BDS campaign against settlements, and although the decision of the Human Rights Council does not bind any obligation upon any state, the vote in favour of such a decision will bring about more Israeli settlement boycotts and the boycott of Israeli companies that cooperate with settlements, operate there, or even open branches there.
Greenwald has a great quote about BDS: violent resistance to Israeli occupation is terrorism, non violent resistance to Israeli occupation is terrorism
What happened to Byrnzie? I use to really enjoy reading his post. Hope he's still floating around here.
I believe he and Nart (badbrains) were banned. I miss the input both of them had to contribute.
No, it's dangerous to be disrespectful to members of an online forum, on a moderated online forum, when the moderators expect a base level of decorum and respect. Similarly, if you're a stranger who's welcomed into my house for an open discussion on topic X, and resort to ad hominem attacks on those around you instead of reasonable debate on the topic, I will probably ask you to leave my house. I wish those two stayed focused on the topics more often, as their input was invaluable and I learnt a ton from them.
'05 - TO, '06 - TO 1, '08 - NYC 1 & 2, '09 - TO, Chi 1 & 2, '10 - Buffalo, NYC 1 & 2, '11 - TO 1 & 2, Hamilton, '13 - Buffalo, Brooklyn 1 & 2, '15 - Global Citizen, '16 - TO 1 & 2, Chi 2
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Yup, it's not occupation or genocide or land grab or anything like that at all. This article is embarrassing for Israel and shameful. This is how low that government has become. Real shame.
I wonder why this brave young women cant speak in the US
15-year-old Palestinian girl denied visa for US speaking tour Fig Tree blog 18 Dec by Richard Edmondson — Ahed Tamimi was slated to be part of the No Child Behind Bars/Living Resistance speaking tour that is to tour the US beginning on January 15, 2017, but according to an email sent out yesterday by the Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), she has been denied a visa to enter the country. I guess the thinking at the State Department is that anyone who bunches their fist and shakes it in the face of an Israeli soldier must be a terrorist. Of course it isn’t difficult in the least to figure out why the Israeli government would prefer not to have someone like Ahed–described by FOSNA as “charismatic and articulate”–going from city to city in America discussing the brutal injustices she and others her age are subjected to on continuing daily basis. It would take a fair bit of mainstream media bellowing about “Hamas rockets” to offset the public relations disaster. But the tour, it seems, will proceed anyway, and even though Ahed will not be here physically, plans nonetheless are being made to link her to US audiences via live-stream video … The email from FOSNA:…. https://richardedmondson.net/2016/12/18/15-year-old-palestinian-girl-denied-visa-for-us-speaking-tour/
I wonder why this brave young women cant speak in the US
15-year-old Palestinian girl denied visa for US speaking tour Fig Tree blog 18 Dec by Richard Edmondson — Ahed Tamimi was slated to be part of the No Child Behind Bars/Living Resistance speaking tour that is to tour the US beginning on January 15, 2017, but according to an email sent out yesterday by the Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), she has been denied a visa to enter the country. I guess the thinking at the State Department is that anyone who bunches their fist and shakes it in the face of an Israeli soldier must be a terrorist. Of course it isn’t difficult in the least to figure out why the Israeli government would prefer not to have someone like Ahed–described by FOSNA as “charismatic and articulate”–going from city to city in America discussing the brutal injustices she and others her age are subjected to on continuing daily basis. It would take a fair bit of mainstream media bellowing about “Hamas rockets” to offset the public relations disaster. But the tour, it seems, will proceed anyway, and even though Ahed will not be here physically, plans nonetheless are being made to link her to US audiences via live-stream video … The email from FOSNA:…. https://richardedmondson.net/2016/12/18/15-year-old-palestinian-girl-denied-visa-for-us-speaking-tour/
Well I'm not sure why the Obama Administration denied her a visa but I'm pretty sure they don't just hand them out based on political theater requests. Either way the President-Elect is setting the ground rules for future negotiations on the peace process
Comments
I don't know why I'm surprised though. I've seen all kinds of offensive shit on Church signs over the years too.
Well thank goodness SOME Jews don't feel this way. I've seen plenty of coverage showing that many Jews are against the actions of Israel.
https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/08/28/elizabeth-warren-speaks-israelgaza-sounds-like-netanyahu/
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
Does Hillary have a different view?
Edit: Guess I should have read to the bottom of the article.
"Echoing Benjamin Nentayahu (and Hillary Clinton), Elizabeth Warren’s clear position is that Israel bears none of the blame for any of this. Or, to use her words, “when Hamas puts its rocket launchers next to hospitals, next to schools, they’re using their civilian population to protect their military assets. And I believe Israel has a right, at that point, to defend itself.” Such carnage is the ”last thing Israel wants.” The last thing. That, ladies and gentlemen, is your inspiring left-wing icon of the Democratic Party."
Honestly, I am unsold on Warren when it comes to foreign policy. During the debate over Syrian involvement I wrote to my Congressman, Joe Kennedy, as well as to both Senators Markey and Warren. Within a few days I heard back from Kennedy and from Markey. Each response was no doubt written by a staffer, but it did address my concerns even though both held views that were not in line with my own. As for Warren, it was almost a month before i heard back from her office and when I did Syria was not addressed at all. In fact, the email did read more like a fundraising pitch than anything else.
Disappointing, to say the least.
"...I changed by not changing at all..."
Protestors block and delay Israeli ships up and down US West Coast
08/28/2014
Over the past two weeks, activists in port cities along the West Coast of the United States staged picket lines to prevent or delay vessels operated by Israel’s Zim shipping line from offloading cargo.
The actions had been planned at the height of Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip that began on 7 July and ended with a ceasefire yesterday.
Zim Integrated Shipping Services Ltd. is Israel’s biggest cargo shipping company and the tenth largest in the world. It’s 2013 revenue was $3.7 billion.
The action originated in Oakland, California, which set a high bar for others to follow. Protestors there successfully prevented the unloading of the Zim Piraeus container ship for nearly four full days.
But other cities’ more modest demonstrations were nevertheless successful in temporarily delaying the Zim ships from unloading, costing the company hundreds of thousands of dollars, building momentum and signalling widespread support for such actions.
After Zim Piraeus departed Oakland on 20 August, two different Zim container ships were scheduled to dock in Tacoma and Seattle, Washington and in Long Beach, California. Weeks earlier, organizers in Oakland had reached out to Palestine solidarity groups in those cities to plan a coordinated shut-out of Zim cargo ships along the West Coast.
In Tacoma, the Zim Chicago was supposed to arrive at port on 18 August but was delayed from offloading until 23 August — which local organizer, Nada Elia describes as a victory for the Northwest Block the Boat Coalition.
Elia, who recently retired from Antioch University’s faculty and is a member of the steering committee of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI), told The Electronic Intifada that the delay was partially due to a crane malfunction in Vancouver, British Columbia, but mostly due to protesters.
“The delay showed that they were trying to avoid the blockade,” Elia said. Throughout the week, activists around the state were poised — monitoring the Facebook page and then their phones for text alerts — to be called down at moment’s notice to Tacoma port for the picket. Elia said her group’s Facebook page was taken down with no explanation.
When the Zim Chicago docked on Saturday, activists rallied at the port and successfully blocked the two known entrances. But the port opened up a third, little-known entrance that allowed workers to cross the picket line and unload the containers from the Zim vessel.
The coalition that had formed around this action included Filipino group BAYAN, Queers Against Israeli apartheid and Occupy Seattle. Elia said people travelled from all around the state to attend the demonstration at the ports.
According to the Seattle Globalist, the delay cost the shipping company half a million dollars.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/israels-land-for-lives-is-theft-pure-and-simple-9705378.html
Israel’s ‘land for lives’ is theft. Pure and simple
Israel takes land, Palestine loses land; that’s the way it works
Robert Fisk
Tuesday 2 September 2014
So a bit more of Palestine has slidden down the plughole. A thousand more acres of Palestinian land stolen by the Israeli government – for “appropriation” is theft, is it not? – and the world has made the usual excuses. The Americans found it “counter-productive” to peace, which is probably a bit less forceful than its reaction would be if Mexico were to bite off a 1,000-acre chunk of Texas and decided to build homes there for its illegal immigrants in the US. But this is “Palestine” (inverted commas more necessary than ever) and Israel has been getting away with theft, albeit not on quite this scale – it is the biggest land heist in 30 years – ever since it signed up to the Oslo agreement in 1993.
The Rabin-Arafat handshake, the promises and handovers of territory and military withdrawals, and the determination to leave everything important (Jerusalem, refugees, the right of return) to the end, until everyone trusted each other so much that the whole thing would be a doddle – no wonder the world bestowed its financial generosity upon the pair. But this latest land-grab not only reduces “Palestine” but continues the circle of concrete around Jerusalem to cut Palestinians off from both the capital they are supposed to share with Israelis and from Bethlehem.
It was instructive to learn the Israeli-Jewish Etzion council regarded this larceny as punishment for the murder of three Israeli teenagers in June. “The goal of the murders of those three youths was to sow fear among us, to disrupt our daily lives and to call into doubt our right [sic] to the land,” the Etzion council announced. “Our response is to strengthen settlement.” This must be the first time that land in “Palestine” has been acquired not through excuses about security or land deeds – or on God’s personal authority – but out of revenge.
And it raises an interesting precedent. If an innocent Israeli life – cruelly taken – is worth around 330 acres of land, then an innocent Palestinian life – equally cruelly taken – must surely equal the same. And if even half the 2,200 Palestinian dead of Gaza last month – and this is a conservative figure – were innocent, then the Palestinians presumably now have the right to take over 330,000 acres of Israeli land, in reality much more. But however “counter-productive” this might be, I’m sure America would not stand for it. Israel takes land, Palestinians lose land; that’s the way it works. And thus it has been since 1948, and that is how it will continue.
There will never be a “Palestine” and the latest territorial robbery is merely another small punctuation mark in the book of sorrow which the Palestinians must read as their dreams of statehood wither. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for the Palestinian “President”, Mahmoud Abbas, said his boss and the “moderate forces” in Palestine had been “stabbed in the back” by the Israeli decision, which is putting it mildly. Abbas has a back covered in knife wounds. What else did he expect when he wrote a book about Palestinian-Israeli relations without once using the word “occupation”?
So we’re back to the same old game. Abbas cannot negotiate with anyone unless he speaks for Hamas as well as the Palestinian Authority. As Israel knows. As America knows. As the EU knows. But each time Abbas tries to put together a unity government, we all screech that Hamas is a “terrorist” organisation. And Israel says it cannot talk to a “terrorist” organisation which demands the destruction of Israel – even though Israel used to say the same of Arafat and, in those days, helped Hamas to build more mosques in Gaza and the West Bank as a counterweight to Fatah and all the other “terrorists” up in Beirut.
Of course, if Abbas speaks only for himself, Israel will tell him what it has told him before: that without his control of Gaza, Israel has no one to negotiate with. But does it matter any more? There should be a special strap headline above all reports of this kind: “Goodbye, Palestine”.
http://www.palestine-info.co.uk/en/default.aspx?xyz=U6Qq7k+cOd87MDI46m9rUxJEpMO+i1s7Y79SyI3ZdE0yjKboXzbn87u36U2FEgOgUTGgtlsfBuyDTqOgHsf56o9xHEtftRh/fID1arobHe8GIoesI2C0dA9y26xcD5isXEIvohgIBos=
Not today Sir, Probably not tomorrow.............................................. bayfront arena st. pete '94
you're finally here and I'm a mess................................................... nationwide arena columbus '10
memories like fingerprints are slowly raising.................................... first niagara center buffalo '13
another man ..... moved by sleight of hand...................................... joe louis arena detroit '14
http://www.middleeastmonitor.com/news/middle-east/10590-israel-loses-eight-billion-dollars-and-arab-parties-join-the-boycott
Israel loses eight billion dollars and Arab parties join the boycott
Saturday, 29 March 2014
Mustafa Barghouti, the secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative movement, has estimated that Israel has incurred losses of around eight billion dollars due to the boycott campaign against illegal settlements, equivalent to 20 per cent of their GDP.
Regarding the latest Palestinian efforts to escalate the settlement boycott, Barghouti revealed that an agreement has been made with 13 democratic Arab parties to form boycott committees in the Arab world.
In a statement to Quds Net News Agency on Thursday he said: "the European Union did not issue a decision to boycott Israel, but what is taking place is the boycott of any relationship or agreements with settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem."
Furthermore: "This experience is being circulated worldwide and not only in European countries; many areas worldwide are also ready to boycott the settlements."
The agreement with the Arab parties to participate in the boycott campaign came after the participation of a delegation from the Palestinian National Initiative movement headed by Barghouti, along with a delegation from Fatah, headed by Nabil Shaath in the Arab Social Democratic Forum. It was held in Amman, Jordan, over two days and ended Wednesday.
The draft resolution put forward by the Palestinian National Initiative regarding Jerusalem was agreed upon unanimously, along with a mass movement of boycott and sanctions against Israel and the decision to support the Palestinian popular resistance and the struggle for justice for Palestinians against the occupation and the settlements.
The delegates called upon the people of the Arab world and its friends to adopt a strategy for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it ends its discriminatory, unjust occupation.
It is expected that the Human Rights Council of the UN in Geneva will vote on Thursday and Friday on five resolutions condemning Israel. These include a resolution calling to encourage boycotting Israeli settlements and cutting all investments with them. Meanwhile, Israeli diplomacy has not taken any direct action to curb these decisions and is busy dealing with strikes in their international embassies and consulates.
A senior Israeli official said that the proposal for the resolution calling for a boycott of the settlements is creating tension and anxiety in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office. Having realised that Israeli diplomacy is completely paralysed due to the strikes, they quickly decided to assign a special envoy to Geneva. Meanwhile the Israeli vice-president of the National Security Council, Aaron Larmon, was expected to arrive on Wednesday but a last minute decision was taken to cancel the visit after officials in the Prime Minister's office realised that they would not be able to influence the formulation of decisions looming in Geneva.
The draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva was based on the proposition made by a group of Arab states in the Human Rights Council, including the Palestinian Authority, and is entitled Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories and East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. The proposed draft resolution, which will be voted upon, is the first of its kind to condemn Israel in UN Human Rights Council resolutions.
Israel considers the wording very dangerous as it is based on what is stated in the BDS campaign against settlements, and although the decision of the Human Rights Council does not bind any obligation upon any state, the vote in favour of such a decision will bring about more Israeli settlement boycotts and the boycott of Israeli companies that cooperate with settlements, operate there, or even open branches there.
http://m.hrw.org/news/2014/09/09/israel-thousands-coerced-leaving-country
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
Ayotte, Graham, and McCain calling for $1.5 billion more military assistance for Israel.
All 3 pushed to cut SNAP for the poor!
EV
Toronto Film Festival 9/11/2007, '08 - Toronto 1 & 2, '09 - Albany 1, '11 - Chicago 1
-Ron Paul
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2016/september/19/why-are-we-sending-38-billion-to-rich-and-powerful-israel/
never a truer statement. I really miss the McLaughlin Report.
#THUGLIFE
15-year-old Palestinian girl denied visa for US speaking tour
Fig Tree blog 18 Dec by Richard Edmondson — Ahed Tamimi was slated to be part of the No Child Behind Bars/Living Resistance speaking tour that is to tour the US beginning on January 15, 2017, but according to an email sent out yesterday by the Friends of Sabeel North America (FOSNA), she has been denied a visa to enter the country. I guess the thinking at the State Department is that anyone who bunches their fist and shakes it in the face of an Israeli soldier must be a terrorist. Of course it isn’t difficult in the least to figure out why the Israeli government would prefer not to have someone like Ahed–described by FOSNA as “charismatic and articulate”–going from city to city in America discussing the brutal injustices she and others her age are subjected to on continuing daily basis. It would take a fair bit of mainstream media bellowing about “Hamas rockets” to offset the public relations disaster. But the tour, it seems, will proceed anyway, and even though Ahed will not be here physically, plans nonetheless are being made to link her to US audiences via live-stream video … The email from FOSNA:….
https://richardedmondson.net/2016/12/18/15-year-old-palestinian-girl-denied-visa-for-us-speaking-tour/
- See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2016/12/tamimi-denied-speaking/#sthash.mvj7Edl0.dpuf
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/article/2610236
Time to put theater aside