Panic from the Houses of Congress and Aipac?

April 30, 2011 posted by Franklin Lamb - Exclusive

Netanyahu, the conferees were told, wants Congress to flex its muscle with the White House and deliver a strong message to President Obama that his political future is tied to Israel’s.

BY FRANKLIN LAMB

On April 13, 2011, more than a dozen Israel “First, last and always” US congressional leaders from both houses of Congress held an urgent conference call organized by the pro-Israel Lobby, American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac).  Their purpose was to discuss how best to promote Israel during next month’s US visit by Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and more importantly how to confront the rapidly changing Middle East political landscape. One consensus was that no one saw it coming and that is was dangerous for Israel.

Among those participating were former Jewish Chairman of powerful committees including Reps. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who headed the Banking Committee; Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), ex-chairman of the Commerce and Energy committee; Howard Berman (D-Calif.) ex-chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee; and Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), ex-chairwoman of the foreign operations subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee as well as Eric Cantor, House Majority leader, the highest rankling Jewish member of Congress in history.

What AIPAC operatives reportedly told the conferees was that Netanyahu is once again furious with President Obama and outraged by what he sees as a vacillating US Government attitude towards Israeli needs. They were told that the Israeli PM sees real political danger for Israel in the shifting US public opinion in favor of the young sophisticated attractive Arab and Muslims increasingly seen on satellite channels from the region who remind the American public of their own ideals.

Abe Foxman Caricature

Netanyahu, the conferees were told, wants Congress to flex its muscle with the White House and deliver a strong message to President Obama that his political future is tied to Israel’s. Hence the current “America needs Israel more than ever stupid!” campaign wafting from the Israel Lobby across the talk radio airwaves.

In addition, as more Israeli officials are indicted for various domestic crimes, and some harbor fears of arrest for international ones, 68% of the American Jewish community, according to one by poll commissioned last month by Forward, believe the US Israel Lobby is increasingly fossilized with the likes of ADL (Anti-Defamation League) director Abe Foxman’s vindictive infighting among several of the largest Jewish lobby organizations which continue to lose  memberships, especially among the young.

Congressman Eric Cantor lamented that “Israel is badly losing the US College campuses”, despite heavy financial investments the past few years to curb American students growing support for Gaza, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran, all dreaded symbols of the growing opposition to the 19^th Century Zionist colonial enterprise. Support for Palestine is skyrocketing he claimed. “Until Palestine is freed from Zionist occupation no Arab or Muslim is truly free of Western hegemony,” according to one assistant editor of Harvard University’s student newspaper, the Crimson.

Admitting that the Mossad did not foresee even the Tunisian or Egyptian uprisings some Aipac  staffers, of whom there are more than 100, admit to not knowing how to react to the topics they were presented with for discussion, some of which included:

• The Egyptian public emphatic insistence that the 1978 Camp David Accords be scrapped and that the Rafah crossing be opened.  The latter has just been announced and the former is expected to be achieved before the end of the year. 
• The change of regimes and the dramatic rise in publicly expressed anti-Israel sentiment and insistence that Israel close its embassy and Egypt withdraw its recognition of the Zionist state. 
• The apparent rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas which has been increasingly demanded by the Palestinians under occupation and in the Diaspora. 
• The fact that the new regime in Cairo is seeking to upgrade its ties with Gaza’s Hamas rulers as well as Iran. 
• With respect to possible PA-Hamas rapprochement, U.S. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor is trying to reassure Israel before Netanyahu’s visit by announcing this week that “The United States supports Palestinian reconciliation on terms which promote the cause of peace, but to play a constructive role in achieving peace, any Palestinian government must renounce violence, abide by past agreements, and recognize Israel’s right to exist.”

AIPAC, frequently knocks heads with the Israeli embassy in Washington for control of visiting Israeli PM’s and important governments schedules will control what Netanyahu says and does.  AIPAC Executive Director Howard Kohr recently told a group of visiting Jewish student activists from California that “sometimes there is confusion in this town over just where the Israeli Embassy is located but let me assure you it’s no more than 300 yards from the Capitol Dome on North Capitol Street, NW.”

AIPAC, not the Israeli Embassy will write the final draft of Netanyahu’s speeches including the themes he will emphasize.  According to a Congressional  source with AIPAC connections, Netanyahu’s visit will focus on the following:

• Bashing Iran to please the White House. However, this mantra will have to compete with   the democratic revolutions that are sweeping the Arab world and which are terrifying not just Netanyahu, but also AIPAC and their hirelings in congress.

• Warning against the dangers to “the peace process” of any PA-Hamas unity government.

• Warnings about the threats to Israel from Egypt and popular calls for scrapping of the  1978 Camp David Accords, ending the Egyptian subsidy and supply of 40% of Israel’s natural gas, calls for closing the Israeli Embassy, the dangers of permanently opening the Rafah border crossing “that will allow Hamas to in the words of, an Israeli official speaking on condition of anonymity to the Washington Post that Gaza’s Hamas rulers had already built up a “dangerous military machine” in northern Sinai which could be further strengthened by opening the border.

• The tried and tested bromide that “Israel has no peace partner to negotiate with will be used but this too has lost its bite given that the Palestine Papers has shown that the PA for five years habitually caved into Israel demands and are widely viewed as collaborators with Israel in preserving the status quo– so what more could be expected from them? The truth is that Mahmoud Abbas and Salem Fayyad are Netanyahu, Leiberman’s and Barak’s favorite “peace partners.”

• Netanyahu will hint at and AIPAC will drill in the idea that the Obama administration has been too hard on Israel.

While Netanyahu announced this week that “I will have the opportunity to air the main parts of Israel’s diplomatic and defense policies during my visit in the United States”,informed sources report that his main goal and timing of his visit is to undermind a rumored initiative that President Obama’s team has been working on.

Netanyahu, according to AIPAC, also plans to attack the UN’s plan to admit Palestine  and its offices are preparing a media blitz in an attempt to undermine the U.N. recognition of  Palestine  by arguing that such a General Assembly action would not in reality mean Palestinian sovereignty over the West Bank and East Jerusalem  because of the fact that Israel currently controls those territories. Aipac is arguing that such United Nations recognition of Palestine would only reiterate the principle, previously articulated by the U.N which denies the legitimacy of Israel’s claim to territories acquired by force in the war of June 1967.

In reality, and as AIPAC well knows, UN recognition of Palestine would have a devastating effect on Israel’s legitimacy and would fuel an international campaign to force every colonist out of the West Bank. Given the feelings of virtually all people in the Middle East and North Africa toward Israel this could dramatically undermine the apartheid state. Aipac and Israel’s agents in Congress also ignore the fact that the U.N. is the only the international body that admitted Israel as a member state in May 1949, although the resolution noted a connection between Israel’s recognition and the implementation of resolution 181 of November 1947, which called for partition of what had been British Mandate Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states.

The reason that intense angst and even fear stalks the Houses of Congress and Aipac is that Netanyahu will remind his hosts in the coming days that Israel has always called “home” is that some US officials are starting to express treasonous thoughts long kept to themselves.

One seemingly shocking statement was made to a visiting Oregon delegation during a recent visit to Congressional offices by a Member of Congress never known for being publicly critical of Israel.  As reported via email:  “He said recent events suggest that while ( the revolts spreading across the Middle East) are not the immediate  end of the State of Israel, he believes they are harbingers and signal the  ‘beginning of the end of the State of Israel as we have known it. And that will be good for America and humanity.”

“What seems to  have particularly upset him was his own  mentioning to the group was a recent report about a conference of Rabbis in Israel who are demanding the expulsion of non-Jews, especially Palestinians, from occupied Palestine in order to maintain the “ethnical and religious purity of the peoples of Israel.

He quoted Dov Lior, the rabbi of Kiryat Araba, an illegal settlement near Hebron, who according to media reports told a conference organized to discuss how to get non-Jews in mandatory Palestine to leave the country for the sake of Jewish immigrants who had no roots in Palestine: “Today there is a lot of land in Saudi Arabia and in Libya, too. There is a lot of land in other places. Send them there.” As scholar Khalid Amayreh reminds us, it was Lior, who in 1994 praised arch-terrorist Baruch Goldstein for massacring 29 Arab worshipers at the Ibrahimi Mosque in downtown Hebron, said peace in the Holy Land was out of question because the Arabs wouldn’t allow Jews to usurp the land.

Meanwhile, a large coalition  of pro peace and pro-Palestinian organizations, under the umbrella of http://www.moveoveraipac.org/ is preparing a new and different American reception for the Israeli Prime Minister.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Franklin Lamb , a former Assistant Counsel of the US House Judiciary Committee at the US Congress and Professor of International Law at Northwestern College of Law in Oregon, earned his Law Degree at Boston University and his LLM, M.Phil, and PhD degrees at the London School of Economics. Lamb is Director, Americans Concerned for Middle East Peace, Beirut-Washington DC, Board Member of The Sabra Shatila Foundation, and a volunteer with the Palestine Civil Rights Campaign, Lebanon. He is the author of The Price We Pay: A Quarter-Century of Israel’s Use of American Weapons Against Civilians in Lebanon

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US warns Turkey against trade with Iran

Posted on May 1, 2011 by rehmat1

David S. Cohen (a Zionist Jew), acting undersecretary for ‘terrorism and financial intelligence’, during his visit to Turkey, on April 24-28, had warned Turkey against conducting financial transactions with the Islamic Republic and asked Ankara to halt the operations of Bank Mellat, an Iranian state-run bank in the country. The Bank which is banned to operate in the US and EU, has three branches in Turkey.
Turkey had reported US$10 billion annual trade with the Islamic Republic in 2010 and Ankara expects it to reach US$30 billion by 2020.
India is also planning to use Turkey for its oil transactions with Iran since Germany stopped its bank Bundesbank from accepting money from India for Iranian oil payments under pressure from Washington and Tel Aviv. India had imported 21.2 million tons of crude oil from Iran in the year ending March 31, 2010, about 13% of its total crude imports.
David Cohen is following in the foot-steps of his Jewish boss, Stuart Levey, who is considered as the ‘father of crippling sanctions’ against the Islamic Republic. Former Iranian Finance Minister, Davoud Danesh Jafari, had described Levey’s strategy, as reported by Ron Kampeas in JTA, July 1, 2010. “They had assigned one of their Zionist deputies to halt the Iranian economy. This person would personally travel to many countries around the world. He would use incentives and encouragement to request cooperation against Iran, and if he failed to get any results he would use threats to pursue his goal“.
Cohen also visited France which has practically lost its market share in Iran after the US placed French firms under extreme financial pressure. Iran used to be France’s primary trade partner till 2004. Germany, on the other hand, in spite of its stated firmness on sanctions – maintained its high level of trade with Iran. With the Iranian market virtually cleared of competitors, now American companies like to cash on easy access to this market.
Despite the noise the EU usually make against Tehran – its members’ trade with Tehran have shown increase each year, reaching 24 billion euro in 2010.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

TOM DELAVAN ~ DESIGN IN EAST VILLAGE

Previously a contemporary art specialist at Sothebys and the editor at large for Domino magazine, interior designer Tom Delevan decided to go out on his own and decorate homes. Art and architecture serve as inspiration for his work, mixing modern and classic.

This East Village apartment has tall windows and beautiful art pieces, which allowed Delavan to use a neutral palette. ENJOY!

IF YOU MISSED~

Jolene Ballard and Amanda Malson ~ Design on Huntington Beach

Sloppy Joes

Stan Topol ~ Interior Design in Atlanta

Benjamin Dhong ~ Interior Design in San Francisco

Jean-Louis Deniot ~ Design in Paris

Honeymoon in Harlem

Design in Sonoma

Design in Brussels

Delphine Krakoff and Mark Ferguson ~ Design in Manhattan

John Saladino ~ Interior Design in Florida

See you soon, friends,

Teresa

xoxo

TradHome Spring 2011

Framing

Framing Revisions

Framing

Framing Revisions

Israeli-American-Mubarak-Suleiman resistance to dealing with Hamas in power & according Israel greater importance than Palestine, prevented a reconciliation earlier

Via FLC

"... The Egyptian government’s constructive and impartial mediating role that brought about Palestinian reconciliation stands in stark contrast with the pro-Fatah and anti-Hamas tilt of the Mubarak regime and its prime purveyor of political and intellectual dishonesty, former intelligence chief General Omar Suleiman. The differences between Fatah and Hamas were all related to political and security matters that had logical solutions, because they emerged from short-term political actions rather than long-term structural differences. Israeli-American-Mubarak-Suleiman resistance to dealing with Hamas in power and the decision to accord Israeli concerns greater importance than Palestinian rights prevented a reconciliation earlier on. The agreement now, so soon after Mubarak-Suleiman have left the scene, is a telltale indicator of where the problems really were. So was the speedy, almost Pavlovian, comment by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu within hours of the reconciliation accord that Fatah could have peace with Hamas or with Israel, but not with both... ... ... 

The reactivation of Egypt’s regional role is also significant because it comes at a time when four other important foreign policy developments are under way in the Middle East. The first is the dynamism among some Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, three of which (Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar) have, unusually, sent troops beyond their borders to engage in martial diplomacy in Bahrain and Libya. The second is the global intervention in Libya through the U.N. Security Council, now aiming to overthrow the Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi. The third is the increasingly important counsel and role of Turkey in the region. And the fourth is the increasing regional and global pressure being brought to bear on the Syria-Iran-Hezbollah axis, combined with Damascus’ preoccupation with its domestic condition.

In this context of an ongoing structural reconfiguration of Middle Eastern foreign policy actors and influences, an Egyptian foreign policy refreshingly based on integrity, national self-interest and plain old common sense represents the first significant move toward redressing the most glaring imbalance in the region since Egypt slipped out of the Arab order in the late 1970s. The region’s security architecture since then has been defined by interactions among four non-Arab powers – Israel, Iran, Turkey and the United States – which has left this area as a playground for their scheming and rivalries. A robust Egypt that may coordinate more closely with the GCC states, while Syria is preoccupied at home and the Palestinians present a unified face to Israel and the world, means we should expect important changes ahead in the four overriding regional dynamics that continue to link the Arabs, Israelis, Iranians and major Western powers in mostly uneasy relationships..."

Posted by G, M, Z, or B at 12:15 PM

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Arab revolutions and uprisings: Beware of media disinformation

 

Posted by realistic bird on May 1, 2011

{Disinformation} by Juan Kalvellido

The case of Syria and Bahrain

by realistic bird

The role of the media is to inform and to present events as they are. However, this role has been hijacked to use media networks for other purposes. One of the reasons I blog is to present people with information many media might not focus on so in this light I wanted to share some points I was able to compile over a period of few weeks. The amount of disinformation and inconsistencies in the media has been systematic to the degree that it has become obvious there is an aim to shift our views to believe certain things. I was shocked with the amount of people who were led astray by this disinformation. People I used to see as “thinkers” and have knowledge of geopolitics were taken by a few media tricks. So, the main question to ponder is if these media were really telling us exactly what is happening then why all these distortions?

Syria

Let’s start with the “eye witnesses” and the “activists” who are being used in the media as a source of updates and information. One could argue that these networks can’t get information if the government doesn’t allow journalists on the ground then in these situations alternative sources have to be used but at least if the source says something nonsensical or off somehow this person will not be used again, right? For example a witness on a Arab station claimed he is in Dara’a and capable of seeing and hearing everything; first he claimed there is mutiny within the ranks of the army and second he can hear the army orders even when he is hundreds of meters away as he said himself. Does this man have bionic eyes and ears? The rumor that the army is breaking up is not new and there is a previous report about Western media stating the same thing which turned out to be false. If we assume for the sake of argument that the soldiers are being shot by other security men in this situation we are talking about tens of deaths and some with mutilated bodies but Syria has institutions and the government would have no apparatus to gain control if it did that, so the whole argument is absurd to begin with. This means that the army and police are being targeted then not all the protests are peaceful. A second “witness” called ‘Abdullah’ talks to Al Arabiya from Dara’a then on Al Jazeera from Duma, it seems the man can’t stay put in one place. A third example of a witnesses who keeps claiming there is no electricity, fuel or phones in Dara’a yet he tells the anchor that he saw things on the TV and he is able to call every day. These are just examples of many of the illogical ramblings of some “witnesses”. These channels take the word of these “witnesses” and immediately put it as a fact. Where are the fact checkers? Where is the professionalism? On the other hand there are reports (Western media lie about Syria – eyewitness reports) that contradict these “eye witnesses”:

RT: What’s happening in Syria? What have you seen? And that are the Syrians saying?
Anhar Kochneva: Not even once did I come across anyone who would in any way support these riots; and mind you, in the line of my job, I deal with all sorts of people. There are many vehicles with the president’s portraits driving the streets throughout the country – ranging from old, barely moving crankers to brand new Porsches and Hummers. You can’t force people into hanging up portraits. It means that people, irrespective of their status and income, support the president rather than the rebellion. I saw quite a number of young people walking or driving around with Syrian flags. How can you force a young person hanging out with friends to wave flags? I think it’s difficult too. If you understand the mentality of the Syrians you can tell there is a sincere impulse from a forced obligation.
On March 29, I saw a rally in Hama to support the president – indeed, many thousands of men and women, with their children, and entire families went out. The streets were flooded with people. It was quite a shock to see Al-Jazeera presenting rallies in support of the president as if they were protests against him. It was just as surprising to see the Israeli websites post photos and videos of supporters’ rallies with comments saying those were opponents of the regime. There you have people holding portraits of Bashar al-Assad and flags, and we’re told that these people are against him.
RT: The media reports mass anti-government rallies.
AK: There’s a powerful misinformation swell going on. On April 1, the media reported a large anti-governmental rally in Damascus. I was in Damascus on that day. This rally never happened – I didn’t see it, and neither did the locals.
On April 16, Reuters news agency wrote that 50,000 opponents of the regime took to the streets of Damascus, and that they had been dispersed with tear gas and batons. Damascus’ residents realize that such a rally could not take place in the city unnoticed. How many policemen would it take to disperse it? And how come nobody saw it except Reuters? Five hundred people in the streets of Damascus are a large crowd. Reuters broadcast their material around the world, including Russia. One source lies, and then this lie is like a snowball rolling downhill creating a fake reality, and picking up rumor and speculation…
/Presently, a lot of young unarmed policemen get killed. The media propaganda immediately labels them as victims of the regime. I repeat, policemen are unarmed. The Syrian police are not too good with guns, because nothing like this has happened here for a long time. But the killed rookies are reported as either victims among the protestors, or as policemen who refused to shoot at their fellow countrymen, depending on the editors’ preference. Goebbels’ words seem to be true: the bigger the lie, the more easily they believe it…
/ RT: What role are Syrian emigrants playing in the Syrian destabilization?
AK: It’s an open question. There was a leak claiming that Dan Feldman, Hillary Clinton’s special representative for the Middle East, met representatives of the Syrian opposition in Istanbul in mid-April and suggested the tactics for assassinations of civil and military officials. In less than three days, on April 19, several military officials had been brutally killed in Syria. Not only were they attacked and shot dead, some victims of the attacks, including three teenage children of a Syrian general, who were in a car with him, were cut to pieces with sabres.
Murders committed with a high degree of brutality are aimed at intimidating the population. The news that children had been cut to pieces served that purpose quite well. (Read all the report)

The videos also can’t be verified, I’m sure not all of them are false but at least don’t show a video if it doesn’t make sense. On Friday 29/4/2011 it was raining heavily in Syria, they even had hail yet in some videos the people are dry and no rain/water on the ground (the Syrian media is not up to standard but one channel made a point to compile the inconsistencies, documented here, there are many videos in Arabic).
Another odd occurance is the role of ones who say they are “islamists” and attack Bashar Al Assad by claiming he has an alliance with the Israelis. Even I saw odd posters held by some people in the streets putting a dollar sign on the head of the Syrian president. If anyone knows any history and politics the last thing one can accuse Al Assad with is that he is an American puppet or a Zionist collaborator. The countries that control the media in question are the ones who can be labeled in that manner. Another rumor said that the Israelis want Al Assad to remain but two things were revealed from the Israelis themselves to put this to rest. First, just watching the Israeli media they are ecstatic about the unrest happening in Syria and they specifically said it regains what it lost in Egypt. Second, there is a false idea that the Israelis would have a problem if those “islamists” take the upper hand for I saw a program on Israeli TV in which they were discussing a video from a man who claims to be from the Syrian opposition  labeled as a “Sheikh” asking Netanyahu to stop supporting Al Assad and saying no one can get rid of “Israel”. The two Israeli youths of the program then hope that nothing happens to this man and add “insha’Allah” to it too. Moreover, a recent revealed wiki leaks cable from the US embassy in Lebanon about the former PM Sa’ed Al Hariri in which he suggested that the Syrian regime needs to be removed and replaced by a combination of Abdel Al Karim Khadam and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (who support peace with “Israel”).

13. (S/NF) If the regime were to fall in Syria, who would
be there to fill in the vacuum? Perplexed that the Alawites,
who make up only 7-8 per cent of Syria, could rule so
exclusively as “a family business” over a vast Sunni
majority, Saad suggested that the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood,
in partnership with ex-regime figures like Abdel Halim
Khaddam and Hikmet Shehabi (“though he’s still close to the
regime”), could step into the void. Saad claimed that the
Syrian Brotherhood is similar in character to Turkey’s
moderate Islamists. “They would accept a Christian or a woman
as President. They accept civil government. It’s like
Turkey in Syria. They even support peace with Israel.”
Saying that he maintains close contact with Khaddam (in
Paris) and Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader-in-exile Ali
Bayanuni (in London), Saad urged us to “talk to Bayanuni.
See what he’s like. You will see wonders.”

One of the most shocking revelations was the way Al Jazeera Arabic dealt with the happenings in Syria and Bahrain. More of its credibility was lost when a video (in Arabic) of the “thinker” Azmi Bashara and an anchor discuss what uprisings to talk about and which ones to ignore. In the video Bashara tells the anchor not to ask him about Jordan and complains why he asked him about Bahrain, the anchor answers he had to clean up the network’s reputation regarding that (I assure the anchor it did not work) and they will take 40 min to focus on Syria. The second incident is the resigning of the well-known and truly professional head of Al Jazeera Bureau in Lebanon Ghassan Bin Jeddo. The reasons cited by him where about the lack of objectivity of the network (on Bahrain) and its incitement tactics (on Syria). In addition, a Syrian anchor on Al Arabiya resigned for the way the network is dealing with the events in Syria. Another issue to be raised is why are these networks not considering potential evidence about a role of Saudis royals in this presented by Lebanese politician Wi’amWahab? Wahab showed checks with hundreds of thousands of dollars given to key people (one being Lebanese MP Jamal Al Jarrah who belongs to Hariri bloc) accused by the Syrians of sending weapons to Syria. These networks will not focus on that because they belong to Saudi Arabia and Qatar who seem to have found common interests now. Here I must point out how ironic it is that these undemocratic countries support the wants of the people as long it is not on their lands or near them. Other reports (in Arabic) reveal messages from UAE, Qatar, Turkey, and some Europeans are being sent to Syria with a list of demands, the main one to detach from Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas. If that happens Syria will be given economic and social “help” from Gulf countries and any security related aid (yes we did see what they did in Bahrain, I will mention later on).

Everybody is in an uproar to save the Libyans and the Syrians but calling for help from the same ones who have killed/helped others to kill hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Palestinians, Lebanese, Pakistanis, Afghanis, and many others around the world is nothing but insanity. Who in his/her right mind thinks the US gov. and some European governments will save the Libyans and Syrians? When in their whole history have these gov. did anything outside of their interests? In addition they have also supported the dictators the people are fighting. Do we have to wait until the Zionists are sitting right there on the table besides the new despots to wonder what went wrong? Do we need to reach that point? The US and its allies are basing their actions against Syria in the UN partly on false information; does that remind you of something? How about Iraq and its WMDs. Yes Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator and yes he killed his people but are the Iraqis well and happy now? Have we learned nothing from the woes of our brothers and sisters in Iraq?

Whatever is happening in Syria certain media has made a point of using  information which is not verified or lacks common sense for other reasons than just to support the supposed uprising of the Syrians. The people who follow closely these media need to take this into consideration.

Bahrain

Has anyone noticed any proper focus on the protests and uprising in Bahrain? Or how about the regime crimes: killings (Video, pictures (very graphic)), arrests, verdicts of execution, torture (1, 2), destruction of religious sites and mosques , intimidation of people , etc. (other crimes documented)? Don’t the people of Bahrain deserve freedom too? If anyone has an excuse that they don’t then this person doesn’t believe in freedom and is rather lying to him/herself. The reasons given by some not to support the people in Bahrain are nothing short of disgusting (sect related and being instigated by Iran). Whatever the reasons given there is no excuse for the actions of the regime and the GCC forces that invaded the country and violated numerous human rights laws. How about the destruction the mosques (some historical) and the burring/desecration of the Qur’an? This should be enough to make people flare up but where is the media when you need it? Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya, BBC Arabic, France 24, and a huge list of other media such as newspapers and websites are all owned by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, other gulf countries and their allies. The gulf countries are part of the GCC forces who invaded Bahrain with no good reason because that is not their purpose to begin with to interfere in an internal matter and aid the regime to do horrible crimes. Then it is clear why Bahrain is out of the picture and the anchors in these networks pretend nothing is happening over there, just mention what the Bahraini regime says or sometimes do reports not including all the information.

I support every call for reform and freedom, we all have to because they are a necessity and a human right. Yet, we can’t react to unreliable news. If those media were supporting the uprisings for real and not for some agenda for the country of origin then why the need to distort things? There is definably unrest in Syria and Bahrain, one is hyped and the other is hidden. We are damned if we don’t revolt because we will be left with the dictators and we are damned if we do because others will use it to push their plans. From a fellow Arab I really hope for a better tomorrow but being high on “freedom” doesn’t mean we close our eyes to what others are doing.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Aid to Israel compared with aid to U.S. tornado victims: take a guess who gets more

Destruction in Alabama (L), and Gaza

By Richard Edmondson

Each time disaster strikes somewhere inside the U.S., the Zionists who run Washington make a big show of rushing to provide assistance to the poor, poverty-stricken Gentiles whose A-frame homes, house trailers, and small businesses have been wrecked by the latest “aberration” of nature.

“I’ve never seen devastation like this. It is heartbreaking,” said Obama Friday while touring the state of Alabama—decimated by what was the worst tornado outbreak in at least 37 years, and maybe even the worst in history.

On Tuesday and Wednesday approximately 258 tornadoes, some up to a mile wide, hit not only Alabama, but also Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Virginia, with some of the twisters traveling more than a hundred miles on the ground. The storms included a multiple-vortex tornado that hit Cullman County, Alabama, as well as one particularly massive funnel cloud, perhaps a mile wide, that rampaged through both the cities of Birmingham and Tuscaloosa and is estimated to have traveled some 180-225 miles altogether. At least 350 people were killed and thousands were left homeless.

Obama has authorized the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, to coordinate disaster relief efforts, and according to Reuters, “the president was eager to show that federal relief is on its way and that he is not taking the disaster lightly.” But how much help can these traumatized Americans realistically expect from their government?

FEMA is at best a band aid. In dispensing disaster assistance money, the agency authorizes up to $28,000 per household—not nearly enough for a family which has lost everything in a major storm or other catastrophe. Also, the words “up to” are particularly important, since the full $28,000 is not guaranteed to every household in every case. Sometimes it’s only a fraction of that. This money “is meant to help you with critical expenses that cannot be covered in other ways,” reads the official FEMA website. “This assistance is not intended to restore your damaged property to its condition before the disaster.”

Moreover, much of the help comes in the form of low interest loans—rather than outright grants. “While some housing assistance funds are available through our Individuals and Households Program, most disaster assistance from the federal government is in the form of loans administered by the Small Business Administration,” says the website.

FEMA comes under the Department of Homeland Security, which for the 2011 fiscal year submitted a budget of $56.3 billion. But the vast bulk of these funds were for security, terrorism prevention, and immigration enforcement. A relatively paltry $1.95 billion was earmarked to DHS’s Disaster Relief Fund. (see pdf document, FY 2011 Budget in Brief, Homeland Security, p. 10).

By contrast, the Obama administration requested $3 billion in foreign military financing for Israel for fiscal year 2011. This includes $2.75 billion for the purchase of 20 F-35 fighter planes as well as $205 million for up to ten “Iron Dome” batteries. (see pdf document, U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel, by Jeremy Sharp, p. 1 ) Under the terms of this agreement, Israel is allowed to use approximately 25 percent of this aid to purchase military equipment from Israeli manufacturers—a benefit allowed to no other recipient of foreign aid. All other recipients must purchase from U.S. manufacturers. In addition, there are also other “hidden costs” involved in our unremitting support for the Zionist state. As Alison Weir wrote in 2008:

On top of this, Egypt and Jordan receive large sums of money (per capital about 1/20^th of what Israel receives) to buy their cooperation with Israel; and Palestinians also receive our tax money (about 1/23^rd of that to Israel), to repair infrastructure that Israeli forces have destroyed, to fund humanitarian projects required due to the destruction wrought by Israel’s military, and to convince Palestinian officials to take actions beneficial to Israel. These sums should also be included in expenditures on behalf of Israel.

When all these other considerations are factored in, the total cost of our support for Israel far exceeds the $3 billion per year tagged as “direct aid” to the Zionist state, and quite literally dwarfs the $1.95 billion allocated for Americans hit by tornadoes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. Add to that the $3 trillion for wars fought on Israel’s behalf and the disparity becomes gigantic. It certainly shows where “our” government’s priorities lie.

Israeli settlement of Ariel, in the illegally-occupied West Bank

Worth keeping in mind, of course, is that the natural disasters we are witnessing seem to be hitting the country with ever increasing frequency these days. According to the Weather Channel, the month of April this year set a record, with a preliminary count of 453 tornadoes. This far exceeds the number recorded in previous years for the same month. Prior to 2011 the record was 267 tornadoes in April of 1974.

So high is this month’s twister count in fact that it is within range of the all-time record number of tornadoes ever recorded in a single month. That record—of 543 tornadoes—was set in May of 2003.

“There have been over 5,200 severe weather reports (tornadoes, hail, and high winds/wind damage) so far in April,” said the Weather Channel in a report updated on April 30. “On average, only about 3300 severe weather reports are tallied in an entire April nationwide.”

Just two weeks ago, on April 16, at least 60 tornadoes erupted in seven states, with 28 of those centered in North Carolina, which was by far the hardest hit state. It was the largest tornado outbreak in that state’s history, and approximately 4,700 people registered for disaster assistance. So how much money will they get? Roughly $2.8 million, according to the Fayetteville Observer—which would average out to a bit over $595.70 each.

Of course, the people of Alabama and North Carolina should count their blessings. At least the Zionists aren’t blockading their states and preventing building supplies from entering as they are in Gaza. Thank goodness for small favors.

Map of North Carolina showing where tornadoes hit on April 16

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

First Communion Cookies

Continuing on with the sacrament cookie motif ;)... (Remember the confirmation cookies earlier this week?  These are for the same sweet family.)


I was really looking forward to making these cookies again.  The last time I made them was for kiddo's First Communion....FOUR years ago.

{That picture on the left is one of my favorites ever.  Rockin' the powder blue suit, yo. Maybe we can find a blue tux for prom in a few years.}

OK...thanks for letting me reminisce.

These cookies start out with the perfect cutter.  I love this cutter...it's pricey because it's copper, but so worth it.


For the cookies, you'll need:

• chalice and host cookies
• royal icing tinted with AmeriColor Gold, Bright White, Regal Purple and Leaf Green
• disposable icing bags
• squeeze bottles
• decorating tips (#1 & #2) and couplers
• gold luster dust
• vodka (yep.)
• small paintbrush

With a #2 tip, outline the chalice.


With another #2 tip, outline the host.

Thin the white & gold icings (reserve a bit for later) with water, a little at a time, until it is the consistency of thick syrup.  Cover with a damp dishtowel and let sit several minutes.

Stir gently with a rubber spatula to pop any large air bubbles that have formed. Transfer to squeeze bottles.


Fill in the chalice with the thinned gold icing.  Use a toothpick to guide into corners.


Fill in the host with the thinned  white icing.  Use a toothpick to guide into corners.

Let dry at least one hour.


Add the detail with the reserved white and gold piping icing.

Let dry overnight, or at least 6 hours.


Get out your luster dust supplies:  Luster dust, small ramekin, small paintbrush and vodka (a good excuse to always have vodka in the house).

This is "Golden Charm" luster dust.  I LOVE it and bought it at a little shop in Houston.  Can't seem to find it online, but any gold luster dust will do.


Mix up your luster dust with a few drops of the vodka and brush it on. (The alcohol will evaporate, leaving just the gold sheen.)  Add a few drops of vodka to the ramekin as you're working if it starts to get clumpy on you.  A little goes a long way, so don't worry about using all of the container in one shot.  (Here's a video about applying luster dust...)


Then, with #1 tips, add the grapes and leaf/stem detail.

All ready for First Communion!

A message to Congress: Take your money and shove it

By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

[ 30/04/2011 - 04:45 PM ]

After four grim years of mutual recriminations, cold war and deep mistrust, the two main Palestinian political camps, the nationalist Fatah and Islamic Hamas, reached an auspicious agreement to end their differences.

The four-year rift exhausted the Palestinian people, seriously weakened the traditionally-strong fabric of the Palestinian society, and nearly caused an irreversible implosion within the Palestinian community at home and in the Diaspora.

And, above all, it made the prospects of peace in the region as remote as ever if only because a divided nation can't get its acts together, especially when an increasingly fascist Israel, which always searches for pretexts and red herrings in order to evade and circumvent peace, sought to utilize the inter-Palestinian front to evade real peace and keep up building peace-killing settlements for fanatical Jews.

Needless to say, many if not most of these so-called settlers, are taught a morbid, venomous ideology which inculcates in them a certain belief that the whole universe was created solely for them and that non-Jews were created by the Almighty solely to serve Jews.

Interestingly, both Israel and its allies, including Israel's obedient dog, which is US Congress, have rather vehemently and opportunistically, even obscenely manipulated the Palestinian rift to throw the proverbial propaganda ball into the Palestinian and Arab courts. Hence, one would be affronted when hearing ostensibly respectable US senators and congressmen remark gloatingly, saying "Let the Palestinians first have peace amongst themselves; peace with Israel will only come when the Palestinians learn to live in peace with themselves."

Similarly, opportunistic Israel raved and ranted on every conceivable occasion, claiming that the Palestinian division, not Israel's "lebensraum" policy in the West Bank, especially in East Jerusalem, was impeding peace since the Palestinians didn't have a unified leadership.

Now, after painstakingly achieving the long-awaited reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, Israel is fretting, like a woman who has just received a bad divorce deal in court, threatening the Palestinians with doom and reprisals, as if the Palestinians were supposed to perpetuate their internal difference for ever and ever for the sake of despicable Zionist thugs, many of whom originated in Eastern Europe and Russia and who brought with them a genocidal ideology along with every form of racism, fascism and jingoism to the Holy land.

And, unsurprisingly, Congress didn’t lag behind. Indeed, no sooner than Hamas and Fatah representatives had announced their rapprochement in Cairo on Thursday, 28 April, than several Congressional figures warned that the US would stop financial aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Well, if American aid to the Palestinians is meant to help them help themselves (the US, the Palestinian's ultimate tormentor and Israel's guardian-ally, enabler, guarantor, and sustainer of Israeli insolence and territorial aggrandizement), then this aid is welcomed and appreciated and all of us Palestinians will have a standing ovation in America's honor and solemnly say "thanks America for your most altruistic help."

However, if this aid is meant as bribe money to encourage or entice Palestinians or certain Palestinian elements to sell off their people inalienable national rights, then, we are sorry; we can't accept your money.

More to the point, if Congress insists that aid to the PA or to a prospective Palestinian national unity entity hedges on the resumption of inter-Palestinian strife, which I am sure would instill in Israel and her allies a lot of mirth, glee and gloat, then we have no alternatives but to look our American interlocutors in the eye and say, "Sorry friends! Take your money and shove it."

There is no doubt that Israel has been taken by surprise by the reconciliation pact in Cairo, an auspicious feat that complements the great historic changes now taking place in the Arab region.

Avigdor Lieberman, who combines Stalin's ruthlessness and Hitler's nefariousness, along with characteristic Zionist depravity, was quoted as saying that Israel was preparing "an arsenal of reprisals against the Palestinians."

The more public relations savvy Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu reiterated old stands that Israel wouldn't resume peace talks with a Hamas-Fatah government due to the participation of Hamas, as if the good tidings of peace were hovering over the Middle East prior to the reconciliation agreement.

Netanyahu, a real thug, with a neck tie and an amazing ability to fornicate with language to change and distort the truth, once again invoked the terror issue, ignoring the clarion and cardinal fact that Nazi-like Israel is the ultimate expression, embodiment of terror in our time.

Netanyahu invoked the fact that Hamas didn't recognize Israel. Well, does Israel recognize Palestine? Does amorphous Israel have fixed borders? Hamas will never ever recognize such a state, which was born in terror and genocide and mendacity.

Likewise, Congress along with happy-go-lucky Hillary Clinton is re-invoking the so-called Quartet conditions for talking to Hamas. These anachronistic "Nay-set" includes, abandoning armed resistance, recognizing Israel, and accepting previous agreements between the PA and Israel.

Well, these impossible blackmailing conditions are illogical and preposterous to say the least.

First, Hamas has been serious and sincere about observing the tahdia or calm in the Gaza Strip, often in the face of Israel's murderous provocations. However, rather than meeting appreciation and praise from Washington as well as hard opposition from some other Palestinian factions, Hamas only received malice and vilification from the U.S., which only underscores America's pornographic subservience to Israel and her wantonly hegemonistic Jewish lobby.

As to negotiations with Israel, it is well known that Hamas, which is not part of the PLO, never took part in these futile negotiations. Hence, the resumption of whatever negotiations wouldn’t hedge on Hamas' approval.

Finally, asking Hamas to accept previous agreements between Israel and the PLO is really ridiculous since nearly all these agreements, including the scandalous Oslo Accords, are essentially vague so much so that even Israel and the PLO themselves don't agree on a common understanding of these agreements.

An advice to the PA

Finally, an advice to the PLO and its leadership: Don't be obsequious or complacent vis-à-vis Israel or any of its obedient dogs. These people have no iota of morality or honesty, let alone justice in their moral set of ideals. They are willing to blackmail us to the last drop of our blood. They would embark on the unthinkable to keep us in a state of enslavement to Zionism.

Hence, you should be able to seriously threaten the Zionist regime to dismantle the whole autonomous regime once and for all; in addition, of course, to terminating irreversibly any vestige of "security coordination" a revolting and repulsive factor in inter-Palestinian discordance.

Don't display weakness or cowardice or indecisiveness. Our destiny as a people is not to be perennially enslaved by those racist thugs from Eastern Europe who want to build their glory at our expense.

K. Amayreh is an American-educated journalist living in occupied Palestine. His email address is: amayreh@p-ol.com

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River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian