U.S. Senator Wants To Stop Iran From Taking Tehran!

Anthony Freda Art

Brandon Turbeville

On Sunday, March 15 the author of the ridiculous and possibly treasonous letter regarding the potential agreement on a nuclear program between the P5 + 1 countries and Iran recently took to the airwaves to brazenly defend his position and his actions. 

In a nation so terrified of being obliterated by a nuclear bomb from countries like Iraq, North Korea, and Iran that they are willing to allow Washington to push them into a position where they very well may be blown up by a nuclear bomb from Russia, infantile propaganda clearly reigns supreme. 

While the fact that there has been absolutely no evidence that Iran is attempting to do anything other than produce a peaceful nuclear program for energy and civilian purposes as well as the fact that Iran is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and that Israel and the United States have repeatedly committed acts of aggression towards Iran are glossed over, deception and outright lies continue to be spread about the Middle Eastern nation. Americans no longer even question whether or not Iran is capable of producing a nuclear weapon or if they have the right to do so. The question is now how long it will be before Iran acquires this weapon and how long after that it will take for Iran to nuke Israel and the United States.

Israeli Women Wage Peace

Anthony Freda Art

Stephen Lendman

Anti-war women of the world unite. They're doing it in Israel. Thousands represent a refreshing antidote to Netanyahu's hate-mongering rage for war. 

Women Wage Peace (WWP) activists support a "viable" Israeli- Palestinian peace. They want working for it "place(d) at the top of the public agenda." 

They call peace the only solution "offer(ing) life and hope." With Israeli general elections days away, they urge a "new and different reality in the Middle East." 

They call it "feasible." Saying "we must strive for it." Inspired by the horrors of last summer's Gaza war, they "decided to initiate, mobilize and propose an alternative." 

"The last round of violence has made it clear to all that we must break out of the spiral," they stress. 

Obama-Netanyahu ''Fallout'' is Theater - Planned in 2009

Tony Cartalucci

In a 2009 US policy paper published by the corporate-financier funded Brookings Institution, it was made clear that the US was determined to provoke Iran into a conflict and effect regime change at any cost - up to and including an outright military invasion and occupation of Iran with US troops.

However, before it came to that, the Brookings Institution's policymakers explored other options including fomenting US-backed political unrest coupled with covert, violent force, the use of US State Department listed foreign terrorist organizations to carry out assassinations and attacks within Iran, and limited airstrikes carried out by either the US or Israel, or both.

In retrospect, 6 years on, all of these tricks have not only been attempted to one degree or another in Iran, but have been demonstrably employed in neighboring Syria to diminish its strength - which according to Brookings - is a necessary prerequisite before waging war on Iran.

And of particular interest - considering what appears to be a growing diplomatic row between the United States and Israel - is just how precisely the US planned to covertly back what would be made to appear as a "unilateral" Israeli first strike on Iran - an attack that appears to be in the process of being justified through a carefully orchestrated propaganda campaign now unfolding.

Firestorm Over Professor Steven Salaita's Sacking for Criticizing Israel

Image by: Carlos Latuff

Stephen Lendman

Criticizing Israel publicly entails huge risks. Becoming persona non grata in politics, the media, business and academia may follow. It's a career ender for most who try.

At most, short-term protests follow. They're usually or entirely local. Salaita's University of Illinois at Urban-Champaign (ULUC) sacking elevated public anger to a new level.

Thousands of scholars, students, colleagues, friends, Israeli critics and others rallied to his defense. They're steadfast. They continue. 

They want Salaita reinstated. They want him given full pay and benefits. They want damages paid for all he endured. He deserves it and much more.

Salaita broke weeks of silence. On September 9, he went public for the first time. 

He defended his noteworthy academic/scholarly bona fides. He did so eloquently and effectively. He criticized UIUC's academic lynching.

How to End the War Crimes in Gaza

Bernie Suarez

Some people may read this and say, no way, this is not a solution but I challenge your belief and I offer that this is indeed an effective and powerful way to move forward as a humanity with regard to the ongoing atrocities in Gaza.

Is there actually a way to end the war crimes in Gaza? There is, but the answer lies in our humanity not in politics, politicians, or a rigid ideology. Ideologies that result in human deaths are ideologies of hatred no matter how anyone spins it. We, as a humanity, must find a way of ending ideologies of hatred that serve political purposes. With acknowledgement of this first step we can then move forward to real solutions.

Investigating Gaza War Crimes

Dees Illustration

Stephen Lendman

On August 11, Human Rights Council (HRC) President Baudelaire Ndong Ella announced the formation of an "independent, international commission of inquiry" into war crimes committed during Israel's Operation Protective Edge. 

International human rights law expert Professor William Schabas was appointed to chair a three-person panel. His special focus is genocide. 

Other members include international law, criminal law, human rights and extradition law expert, Amal Alamuddin, and former UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, Doudou Diene. 

Israel Murders Gazan Health Workers

Dees Illustration

Stephen Lendman

Israel wages genocidal wars without mercy. Even doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and other health workers are targeted. 

Civilians are as vulnerable as combatants. It's longstanding Israeli policy. 

On August 7, Amnesty International (AI) headlined "Mounting Evidence of deliberate attacks on Gaza health workers by Israeli army." 

Former prime minister Ehud Barak once outrageously called it "the most moral army in the world." It's a lawless, ruthless killing machine. 

"A Hideous Atrocity": Noam Chomsky on Israel’s Assault on Gaza & U.S. Support for the Occupation

Noam Chomsky

Democracy Now

Hideous. Sadistic. Vicious. Murderous. That is how Noam Chomsky describes Israel’s 29-day offensive in Gaza that killed nearly 1,900 people and left almost 10,000 people injured. Chomsky has written extensively about the Israel/Palestine conflict for decades. After Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009, Chomsky co-authored the book "Gaza in Crisis: Reflections on Israel’s War Against the Palestinians" with Israeli scholar Ilan Pappé. His other books on the Israel/Palestine conflict include "Peace in the Middle East?: Reflections on Justice and Nationhood" and "The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians." Chomsky is a world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author, Institute Professor Emeritus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he has taught for more than 50 years.  Read more

Part 1:  "A Hideous Atrocity": Noam Chomsky on Israel’s Assault on Gaza & U.S. Support for the Occupation



Part 2:  Noam Chomsky: Israel’s Actions in Palestine are "Much Worse Than Apartheid" in South Africa



You can visit our Gaza article archive here.

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SPECIAL FEATURE: David Rovics' Palestine

SPECIAL FEATURE: David Rovics' Palestine Set on Soundcloud All David's songs about Palestine in one place for free download or streaming, starting with "Gaza," just written in July, 2014.


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Why Aren't ISIS and Al-Qaeda Attacking Israel?

Dees Illustration

Brandon Turbeville

With the recent slaughter of Palestinians taking place on television screens across the world, only the grossly misinformed would believe that Israel’s Palestinian extermination program is actually “self-defense.” 

Yet for all of Israel’s whining about how it is being targeted by “Islamic extremists” and “terrorists,”(which should be translated to mean Palestinians, Iran, or any other secular or nationalist Arab government in the region) there is a curious and deafening silence when it is confronted with actual terrorists and Muslim fanatics such as ISIS, al-Nusra, and the myriad of other fundamentalist groups waging jihad in Syria and Iraq. 

This bizarre silence has yet to raise the eyebrows of the somnambulant general public. 

Of course, Israel’s lack of concern regarding legitimate terrorist groups is not bizarre at all when one understands the perspective and goals held by the settler state toward its neighbors in the region or its connections to the very groups who espouse Israel as their number one enemy. 

What Led Israel to Stop the Assault — and What Comes Next?

Democracy Now

After a nearly month-long assault that left at least 1,865 Palestinians dead, Israel has pulled its ground forces from the Gaza Strip under the 72-hour ceasefire that went into effect earlier today. Israeli and Palestinian factions have agreed to attend talks in Cairo on a longer-term agreement. Gaza officials say the vast majority of Palestinian victims were civilians in the Israeli offensive that began on July 8. Israel says 64 of its soldiers and three civilians have been killed. Palestinians are returning to homes and neighborhoods that have seen a massive amount of destruction. Nearly a quarter of Gaza’s 1.8 million residents were displaced during the fighting which destroyed more than 3,000 homes. The ceasefire was reached after international outrage over Palestinian civilian deaths peaked, with even Israel’s chief backer, the United States, criticizing recent Israeli shelling of United Nations shelters that killed scores of displaced Palestinians. 

To discuss the lead-up to the ceasefire and what to expect from the talks in Cairo, Democracy Now is joined by author and scholar Norman Finkelstein.

His most recent books, Old Wine, Broken Bottle: Ari Shavit’s Promised Land and Knowing Too Much: Why the American Jewish Romance with Israel Is Coming to an End.

Australian journalist forced to resign following criticism of Israel

Mike Carlton, Journalist

Former Sydney Morning Herald columnist Mike Carlton says he resigned from the paper because he was “sick of being stuffed around” over his angry response to critics of one of his articles.

Carlton’s column, which was published more than a week ago, was critical of Israel‘s actions in the conflict with Gaza.

He resigned last night after being told by Fairfax’s director of news and business media, Sean Aylmer, that he would be suspended because of inappropriate comments he made to critics of the column.

Carlton told 702 ABC Sydney the comments were “probably foolish” and said he was prepared to apologise after discussing the issue with editor-in-chief Darren Goodsir.

Top 5 Ways the U.S. Is Israel’s Accomplice in War Crimes in Gaza

By Juan Cole

Shutterstock

This post originally ran on Juan Cole’s Web page.

The U.S. State Department became a little testy with Israel on Sunday over the 6th school shelling by the Israeli military, which killed 10, saying

“The United States is appalled by today’s disgraceful shelling outside an UNRWA school in Rafah sheltering some 3,000 displaced persons, in which ten more Palestinian civilians were tragically killed,” reads the statement from State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki. “We once again stress that Israel do more to meet its own standards and avoid civilian casualties.”

As for the standard Israeli military pretext for such war crimes, that Hamas was hiding out in the school or firing from the school, no reporter on the ground has seen any evidence of any such activity by Hamas in schools where there are people.  Then the Israeli military obfuscates things by saying that Hamas was “in the area.”  Since Gaza is so small, I suppose they are in the area of almost everything.  But the State Department didn’t let Tel Aviv off the hook this time:  “The suspicion that militants are operating nearby does not justify strikes that put at risk the lives of so many innocent civilians.”

The Holy Land Is Crying Out

Free the Holy Land Five!

This is a track from David Rovics album, Meanwhile In Afghanistan, which can be downloaded for free or by donation here: davidrovics.com/meanwhile-in-afga…tan/new-album.php

The Holy Land Five are still in U.S. prison for feeding helpless Palestinians. David Rovics sings about them: I love this song, David Rovics! "The Holy Land is crying out, leaving little room for doubt; from ruined homes, the kids ask you--what in the world will you do?" ~Cynthia McKinney

You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  

Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

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Gaza attack: 'We were striking a legitimate target' - video

Israel spokesman Mark Regev says an airstrike on a school in Gaza, which killed ten people, was targeted by Hamas terrorists and his government is investigating why civilians died.



You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  

Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

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Boycott of Israel Spreads in European Civil Society Over Gaza War, Could Cost $5 Bn/Yr

By Juan Cole

Shutterstock

This post originally ran on Juan Cole’s Web page.

The ill-considered and remarkably brutal Gaza war likely will give further impetus to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement by Western civil society to pressure Israel on its illegal actions toward the Palestinians.  A thoroughgoing such European set of sanctions could cost Israel as much as $5 bn a year and more.  Roughly a third of Israeli trade is with Europe, and the EU is Israel’s largest single trading partner.

Unite, the largest British trade union, has now resolved to campaign for adoption of BDS against Israel.

The Sinn Fein mayor of Newry in Northern Ireland is also calling on retailers in the town to boycott Israel.

ISIS The Start of World War III? David Icke with Luke Rudkowski

In this video Luke Rudkowski talks to David Icke about his predictions with ISIS and the possible start of WWIII. David breaks down many esoteric historical writings and the current political situation that can lead to bringing in other countries to war.

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Nicaragua: ‘Netanyahu Appears To Be Possessed By The Devil’, Bolivia: ‘Israel A Terrorist State’

The Pontiac Tribune

Last night more than 100 Palestinians were killed during an Israeli military offensive on Gaza. This brings the death toll on the Palestinian side to a shocking 1,600+ since July 8th, the majority of which have been innocent civilians caught in the middle of war zone.

A Leading Voice of U.S. Jewry: End the Occupation

Henry Siegman, former executive director of the American Jewish Congress, tells Democracy Now!, "I think that sending rockets that are going to kill civilians is a crime. But for Palestinians to try, in any way they can, to end this state of affair—and to expect of them to end their struggle and just focus on less than 2 percent to build a country is absurd. That is part of—that’s propaganda, but it’s not a discussion of either politics or morality."

Amy Goodman/Nermeen Shaikh

Democracy Now!

July 30, 2014

Henry Siegman, former director of the American Jewish Congress

Democracy Now!, Creative Commons License 3.0

Given his background, what American Jewish leader Henry Siegman has to say about Israel’s founding in 1948 through the current assault on Gaza may surprise you. From 1978 to 1994, Siegman served as executive director of the American Jewish Congress, long described as one of the nation’s "big three" Jewish organizations along with the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League. Born in Germany three years before the Nazis came to power in 1933, Siegman’s family eventually moved to the United States. His father was a leader of the European Zionist movement that pushed for the creation of a Jewish state. In New York, Siegman studied the religion and was ordained as an Orthodox rabbi by Yeshiva Torah Vodaas, later becoming head of the Synagogue Council of America. After his time at the American Jewish Congress, Siegman became a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He now serves as president of the U.S./Middle East Project. In the first of our two-part interview, Siegman discusses the assault on Gaza, the myths surrounding Israel’s founding in 1948, and his own background as a German-Jewish refugee who fled Nazi occupation to later become a leading American Jewish voice and now vocal critic of Israel’s policies in the Occupied Territories.

IDF's Gaza assault is to control Palestinian gas, avert Israeli energy crisis

Israel's defence minister has confirmed that military plans to 'uproot Hamas' are about dominating Gaza's gas reserves

A Palestinian boy plays in the rubble of a house destroyed in an Israeli air strike on Beit Hanoun, Gaza. Photograph: Khalil Hamra/AP

From theguardian:  

Yesterday, (July 8, 2014) Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon announced that Operation Protective Edge marks the beginning of a protracted assault on Hamas. The operation "won't end in just a few days," he said, adding that "we are preparing to expand the operation by all means standing at our disposal so as to continue striking Hamas."

This morning, he said:

"We continue with strikes that draw a very heavy price from Hamas. We are destroying weapons, terror infrastructures, command and control systems, Hamas institutions, regime buildings, the houses of terrorists, and killing terrorists of various ranks of command… The campaign against Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the price the organization will pay will be very heavy."

But in 2007, a year before Operation Cast Lead, Ya'alon's concerns focused on the 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas discovered in 2000 off the Gaza coast, valued at $4 billion. Ya'alon dismissed the notion that "Gaza gas can be a key driver of an economically more viable Palestinian state" as "misguided." The problem, he said, is that:

"Proceeds of a Palestinian gas sale to Israel would likely not trickle down to help an impoverished Palestinian public. Rather, based on Israel's past experience, the proceeds will likely serve to fund further terror attacks against Israel…

A gas transaction with the Palestinian Authority [PA] will, by definition, involve Hamas. Hamas will either benefit from the royalties or it will sabotage the project and launch attacks against Fatah, the gas installations, Israel – or all three… It is clear that without an overall military operation to uproot Hamas control of Gaza, no drilling work can take place without the consent of the radical Islamic movement."

Operation Cast Lead did not succeed in uprooting Hamas, but the conflict did take the lives of 1,387 Palestinians (773 of whom were civilians) and 9 Israelis (3 of whom were civilians).

Since the discovery of oil and gas in the Occupied Territories, resource competition has increasingly been at the heart of the conflict, motivated largely by Israel's increasing domestic energy woes.

Mark Turner, founder of the Research Journalism Initiative, reported that the siege of Gaza and ensuing military pressure was designed to "eliminate" Hamas as "a viable political entity in Gaza" to generate a "political climate" conducive to a gas deal. This involved rehabilitating the defeated Fatah as the dominant political player in the West Bank, and "leveraging political tensions between the two parties, arming forces loyal to Abbas and the selective resumption of financial aid."

Ya'alon's comments in 2007 illustrate that the Israeli cabinet is not just concerned about Hamas – but concerned that if Palestinians develop their own gas resources, the resulting economic transformation could in turn fundamentally increase Palestinian clout.  

Read more

You can visit our Gaza article archive here.  

Poll:  Does the United States' support of Israel make Americans less safe?

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