Showing posts with label Activism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Activism. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

WHEN I RETURN–A collective celebration of hope and promise

By uspcn Published: May 3, 2011

WHEN I RETURN–A collective celebration of hope and promise

 
We are pleased to invite you to participate in When I Return, a US Palestinian Community Network initiative aiming to highlight community and collective aspirations for the freedom and liberation of Palestine.

When I Return is an online viral participatory campaign featuring simple notes by Palestinians, Arabs and allies describing what they hope to do when they return to Palestine.

When I Return intends to unleash the Nakba’s daily resonance, as not only a vanishing point in a past to be commemorated, but a persistent moment binding us to our past, our present and to each other. In this project, we hope to take part in reviving the celebratory and revolutionary spirit that has always been a part of the Palestinian national struggle, working against all odds, bolstered by our collective will to always resist, always dream. In this year of revolutionary hope and change, now more than ever, we know, as we have always known, Palestine will be free.

This project asks you, for just a moment, to take liberation for granted, and to think of your first day after liberation. What will you do? Where will you go? What will you be dreaming of next?

The project cannot work without your participation. We are inviting a select group of Palestinian, Arab and ally scholars, community organizers, artists and activists, of all ages, to submit their own contributions for the launch.

In order to contribute to this project, please send us a statement in whatever medium you choose, video, audio, text, musical piece or artwork, in Arabic, English or Spanish, that completes or addresses either of two statements:

“When I return to Palestine, I will…”

or

“When Palestine is liberated, I will…”

It can, but need not be, somber; the joys of liberty and freedom can be as mundane, funny or as profound as you wish.

Please submit to: whenireturn@palestineconference.org.

In your submission, please indicate:
1) Your first and/or last name (however you would like to be featured)
2) Your current location
3) If you are Palestinian, your town/village of origin.

In order to be ready for the launch, please submit your contribution by May 10, 2011.
Campaign launch will be on May 14, 2011.
Your contribution will be featured on a website that will launch on May 14, 2011. A viral campaign will also begin on Twitter (#whenireturn), as well as Facebook. Submissions to both will be fed into the website.
Statements are currently being collected from Palestinians all over the world. A member of the initiative is currently working on video footage in refugee camps, and another is interviewing Nakba survivors in the United States.

We look forward to your participation!
Kindest regards,

Ryah Aqel and Andrew Dalack
‘When I Return’
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Osama Bin Laden Corpse Photo is Fake

- 04. May, 2011


A fake image purporting to show Osama bin Laden's bloody
corpse, right, is a composite of two seperate images,
left and center. Photograh; twitpic

ED NOTE: Fake photoshoped Image of bloodied man picked up by British newspapers has been circulating online for two years.
We are still awaiting US Government offerings as proof of the fact that should have accompanied the President’s announcement, if it is true as reported in the Daily Mail UK, “A Special Forces Team goes into action after bin Laden wearing TV cameras?”
Was this the same camera team who covered the “rescue of the little blond girl-soldier” pfc Jessica Lynch, who was wounded on the first day of the invasion of Iraq?
Lynch, along with major media outlets, fault the U.S. government for creating the story as part of the Pentagon’s Propaganda effort.

***

 

 Amelia Hill / Guardian UK


(LONDON) – An image apparently showing a dead Osama bin Laden broadcast on Pakistani television and picked up by British newspaper websites is a fake.
The bloodied image of a man with matted hair and a blank, half-opened eye has been circulating on the internet for the past two years.

It was used on the front pages of the Mail, Times, Telegraph, Sun and Mirror websites, though swiftly removed after the fake was exposed on Twitter.

It appears the fake picture was initially published by the Middle East online newspaper themedialine.org on 29 April 2009, with a warning from the editor that it was “unable to ascertain whether the photo is genuine or not”.

Since then, however, the image has been claimed as genuine on a number of conspiracy forums and used to substantiate claims that the terrorist responsible for the 9/11 bombings had been killed.

The Guardian was one of the few sites to hold back from using the manipulated image on its front page, reporting the picture’s existence in its live blog but questioning its legitimacy.



The Daily Mail was one of the newspaper websites to publish the fake picture of Osama bin Laden’s body.

The image is based on a genuine photograph of Bin Laden taken in 1998 and used by the Reuters news agency.

A composite including the other photograph used to make the image was quickly posted on Twitter, and a number of users showed how easy it was to find the image already online with a simple search.

• This article was amended on 3 May 2011. The username of a Tweeter was deleted from the final sentence of the piece and a link to the composite removed as the image was no longer available on Twitter.

Originally published by: Guardian.co.uk

Related video:

lol at the Bin Laden narrative



River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

MAZIN : WESTERN MEDIA FRENZY ABOUT OSAMA BIN LADEN

- 03. May, 2011

Bin Laden’s assassination and the continued state terrorism practiced by the US government and its allies, especially Israel, attempt to entrench the idea of violence as an answer.

By Mazin Qumsiyeh / My Catbird Seat

There is a western media frenzy about the reported “taking-out” of Osama Bin Laden (the previous ally turned enemy). Israeli papers reported a high level US security official as saying his instruction was not to capture Bin Laden alive but to liquidate him.  But everyone already knew this would be the case,  since it would be a messy business if the US soldiers captured such a person alive (he may even spill the beans on his US and Pakistani  intelligence links).  Most people went about their daily lives of apathy.  Even the stock market did not go up as pundits predicted.  Soon the dollar will resume its downward spiral.

The US military may feel vindicated and Pakistanis will feel their country’s sovereignty challenged. Some may choose to retaliate with violence giving the Neocons and Neoliberals their excuse to pursue their policies.  After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the military-industrial complex needed a new enemy to sustain its massive structure and conveniently the “Islamic terrorism” materialized. Of course there are fanatical Muslims (and Jews and Christians and Hindus) who are willing to kill. Yet, the US did not have to invade Iraq and Afghanistan and create more such fanatics.  But a more sober analysis shows that things will change. Bin Laden was killed a while ago not physically perhaps but as an idea! The idea suffered significant blows by the Arab Spring revolutions which showed that it does not take violence to change our societies and remove US/Israeli backed dictators.

Bin Laden’s assassination and the continued state terrorism practiced by the US government and its allies, especially Israel, attempt to entrench the idea of violence as an answer.


The brutal assault on Syrian, Yemeni, Saudi and Bahraini demonstrators and the US continued military attacks in countries around the world are part of this human foolishness.  They represent that wing of our global society that believes violence is the answer: the win-lose scenario. The hopeful ideas of popular resistance, freedom, democracy and end to exploitation successfully challenged the notions of “clash of civilization” and “might makes right”.
We thus remain hopeful despite all the false news planted around us and all the false-flag operations, and despite the 1 million Iraqis and 50,000 Afghans killed by these wars.

Here in Palestine, most people went about their lives focusing on how to find the next loaf of bread under Israeli colonial occupation.  Hardly a mention was made of Bin Laden.  If we take just one village called Izbet Al-Tabib, a tiny village of 247 residents (60% of them children), we see one example of what was on people’s minds.  The Israeli decision to take their land was met with building a protest tent on the threatened land and trying to make their story known.

Sandra Quintano, A 60 year-old American Activist
The Israeli military came and attacked the villagers and the international volunteers severely, injuring an elderly American woman and arresting three other internationals (see here).

At night more than 200 soldiers invaded the village terrorizing its population to try and stem the growing popular resistance. Please join the villagers this Thursday for solidarity starting at 1 PM.

Last night, the Israeli army arrested several Palestinians in major cities including Bethlehem (this happens regularly in defiance of the Oslo accords and with knowledge of “Palestinian security” forces).
In a few days, there will be events and commemorations surrounding the Nakba day.  The Nakba is the Palestinian catastrophe etched into every living Palestinian mind.  It is the fact that from January 1948 to the end of 1949, more than 2/3rd of our people who lived in the land that became the (Jewish) state of Israel were ethnically cleansed.  63 years later, nearly 7 million Palestinians are refugees or internally displaced people. This is the largest and most tragic and persistent post world war II atrocity.

For information, visit http://PalestineRemembered.com

Israeli Apartheid and The Nakba

By Anthony Lawson



It is important that we all join in activities to challenge colonialism on this anniversary of the Nakba.

In the US, you can also get some printed material (a Nakba Pak) from here

Below are some events but do look for events in your area or organize your own events:
From Lebanon and Jordan, see details here http://returntopalestine.blogspot.com/
Hellerup, Kobenhavn, Denmark http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=221525124531256
Israëlische ambassade, Sterrewachtlaan 40 1180 Ukkel – Avenue del’Observatoire 40 1180 Brussel

(UCCLE) http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=200013603371184
Madrid. C/ Velázquez 150, 7º http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=180589978657757
Ambassade d’Israel – Paris http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=179953362056178
Bern (Bern, Switzerland) http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=168998889823873
Houston, TX http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123540217721453
Consulate General of Israel, 6380 Wilshire blvd. Suite 1700, Los Angeles CA, 90048 & Consulate General of Israel, 456 Montgomery Street, San Francisco, 94104 http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=140344946036616
Israeli Embassy 122 Pembroke Road, Ballsbridge Dublin, Ireland
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=205349512829240

Ambasciata d’Israele, via Michele Mercati 12, Roma
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=178215672227437

Israelische Botschaft Auguste-Viktoria-Str. 74-76 14193 Berlin
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=118993821513426

Boston Israeli Consulate
20 Park Plaza
Boston, MA
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=210024405683124

Israeli Embassy, 2 Palace Green, London W8 4QB
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=197040297000383


Mazin Qumsiyeh teaches and does research at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities in occupied Palestine. He previously served on the faculties of the University of Tennessee, Duke and Yale Universities. He served on the board/steering/executive committees of a number of groups including Peace Action Education Fund, the US Campaign to End the Occupation, the Palestinian American Congress, Association for One Democratic State in Israel/Palestine, and BoycottIsraeliGoods.org. He is now president of the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement Between People. He advised many other groups including Sommerville Divestment Project, Olympia-Rafah Sister City Project, Palestine Freedom Project, Sabeel North America, and National Council of Churches of Christ USA. He is an active member of a number of human rights groups (Amnesty, Peace action, Human Rights Watch, ACLU etc.). He published several books of which the most acclaimed “Sharing the Land of Canaan: human rights and the Israeli/Palestinian Struggle” which was also translated to spanish. For more about his work go to: http://qumsiyeh.org
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Sunday, May 1, 2011

Slander vs. Sanity

The weblog of Ken O'Keefe

The last week and a half has been increasingly entertaining, albeit in a seriously dangerous way.  First I had the head of an Irish charity send me a message threatening to expose me as a fraudster and extortionist.  My plan, apparently, involved producing a video of a poor and suffering child in Gaza (Areej) and soliciting funds to be given not to me, but to the Irish charity.  Then I would extort the money from the family by use of a Palestinian collaborator (a Facebook “friend”), but of course, only after the charity gave them the money I had raised with the video.  They never really explained why I had the money sent to their charity in the first place.

I responded to the threat by posting her accusations on Facebook and soliciting facts about how much money was sent to the charity.  I then visited the family to hear their side of the story.
Revisiting Areej & family in order to get to the bottom of what I am being accused of.
A few days later I received the following email through a close friend and Chief Legal Advisor to Aloha Palestine CIC, the non-profit social enterprise I set up in 2008 to conduct trade with Palestine.

Greetings, 
I am wondering of you are still acting for Ken O’Keefe – you are still on his Aloha (Palestine) Website. I wish to sue him from here to eternity and want to be sure where to send the letters.
Kind regards, 
Felicity Arbuthnot.


I responded on April 26th with the following.
Aloha Felicity,
First off let me thank you and all the others who are a continuous source of motivation, I simply could not have done all that I am doing without you. 
FYI; Daniel Machover is a dear friend and has been invaluable for Aloha Palestine’s mission, but he will be of no use to you with regard to any legal matters directed at me.  He is not my personal legal counsel.   
I have been living in Gaza for 5 months now and I can receive mail at our Samouni Project address;
Samouni Project 
Al-xxxxxx Street
Gaza City
Gaza Strip
Palestinian Authorities
DHL is just about the only way for delivery, I should have the papers in less than a week if you can get them in the mail right away.  Wish that there were a quicker way, but I will just have to wait unless you would be so kind as to send me an email copy as well.  That would be lovely, can’t wait to hear from you, please do keep up the good work. 
TJP, 
Ken O’Keefe   

I am awaiting Felicitiy’s response.

Now Felicity is one of the many figures in and around the Human Shield Action to Iraq that I created in late 2002.  She is also one of the “seasoned activist” nut cases whose mission in life is to convince the world that the devil incarnate is alive, and his name is Ken O’Keefe.
Joining the circus yesterday was another Facebook “friend”, one who had supposedly put me in her will as the beneficiary of her land in Texas.  In a shocking turnaround, over the course of less than 24 hours, she realised that my upcoming trade mission to Gaza was merely a ploy to exploit the suffering of the Palestinians in order for me to make “millions”.  She provided no evidence of this, but also decided to name my wife several times and stated that I was committing adultery here in Gaza; all this just 4 days after my wife gave birth in London… without me.

In the case of accusing me of having sex with women in Gaza, this accusation puts me, and the woman I know here at serious risk.  The accusation of a married, non-Muslim man, committing adultery with Palestinian women is reckless endangerment at best, a willful intent to do harm at worst.
Should I be compelled to dignify these charges with a response?  I think not.  But for the sake of everyone’s safety, I categorically condemn such charges as criminal and 100% false.

UPDATE – I have just been given messages sent to two other Facebook friends in which the following was said;
OMG!!!!! I had that go through my mind to!! Because, ken has taken money from everyone! In the thousands! Wonder how much he got from Vik (Vittorio Arrigoni)!!! There is this other guy that is going with ken and I know he is going to die while he is there. He put $45,000 dollars into ken just a few days ago. And he will be along side Ken. I think it will be easier for Ken to kill him than be obligated to him for the money or even pay him back some of the money. Ken is suppose to make millions on the gig and the guy who put in $45,000 is promised that he will get a little something back. But, I don’t this this (sic) guy will make it back alive. – Jo Ann Wescott
Jo Ann Wescott’s profile picture complete with my TJP logo.

Two of these cases involve Facebook hero worshippers becoming highly injurious to my interests, with the latter case becoming as hateful as a jilted lover… despite me never having never met her personally.
So what does all this mean?  Well I guess from the point of view of those who are not me, and thus do not know the truth as only God and myself can know it, questions will arise, doubts will form.  And that’s really the point now isn’t it?

The other point of slander is to divert attention from more useful matters, such as setting up the Samouni family classroom and community centre, or from challenging the Israeli blockade of Gaza on every level.
It goes without saying that the real winners in a slander campaign like this is the enemies of Palestine.  When you say and do the things I do, there is simply no way to secure the favour of everyone, to the contrary, the Zionist and American imperialists and their minions will come after you.

I accept this, I really do, I have never been one for popularity contests and I have always chosen quality over quantity.  Idiot allies are liabilities more than friends; I count myself lucky to shed them.  I also realize that my path is inherently dangerous, with the ever-present possibility of torture, kidnapping, imprisonment and death by murder.  So slander is, quite frankly, a rather mild and amusing tactic of my enemies.  But there can be no ignoring the fact that the frequency of these attacks, and I am sure moving forward, the intensity of the attacks, will run parallel to my increasing ability to get good and meaningful things done for the cause of justice.

In my chosen path success is inherently proportionate to risk, so over the coming weeks I volunteer myself as a sort of human bait, my mission, to lure the nut cases, to expose the nature of subversion through slander.  Together we shall take a course in how it works and who is behind it.

Lesson number one, the actual agents who direct slander campaigns, those working for MI6, CIA, Mossad and other so-called “intelligence” agencies, they and their tactics are rendered useless without the presence of the most important element for successful subversion, and that would be… the idiots.

Make no mistake, the idiot is the key to subversion, and we as a movement have a ready supply.  Indeed they are pervasive throughout our so-called “movement”. Without the idiots, or as I choose to refer to them, the clowns who comprise the circus, the agents of tyranny would easily be exposed and their tactics rendered utterly useless.  This being one massive step in the right direction.

Thankfully, more and more of us are capable of using our brain and thus we aware of the tried and true tactics of divide and rule; in other words, more and more of us are not idiots.  This is promising, gives me increased confidence that we as a people are about to behold a great irony, that we are indeed our own gatekeepers, holding the keys to the prison to which we have constructed for ourselves, haplessly awaiting liberation at the behest of some illusory saviour.

It has been said, “Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.”  Ain’t that the truth.  You gotta laugh really, if you fail to maintain a sense of humour, end up taking all this madness to seriously, you will indeed become a participant in the collective state of insanity that defines human kind for many millennia.  We are indeed nuts; clowns in our own mad circus.

As amusing as it all is, and it is amusing, I am wanting for something more, something sane, something just, something human.  And then I look to the younger ones and I smile.  I look to them and I see those who are leading the Arab revolutions.  I look to them and see the coming Global revolution.  Whereas I was part of Generation X, I see them as Generation TJP.  The next generation is bringing Truth Justice & Peace and I can see it all too clearly.  They are the younger ones, and they just aren’t buying the bullshit.

I do not intend to be one of the old farts feeling nostalgic about yesterday’s world; yesterday’s world is bullshit.  The “War on Terror”, “austerity measures”, presidential and prime ministerial puppets, economic slavery and the prostitution of journalism, all of it, bullshit.

Instead I intend to collaborate with the younger ones, the ones of wisdom and integrity, people who are breaking free of the chains of indoctrination and ignorance, who can see the forest through the trees and who know a brother when they see one.

As long as I am on Facebook I accept that the nutters and the false allies will stalk me, but as long as I continue to enjoy the benefits of working with people of conscience in the creation of a better world, it is worth it.

Through me, let us look at the clowns as entertainment, and try not to get to distracted.
Stay tuned for the executive summary of my “millionaire” making trade convoy, to be announced in the next 24 hours.
TJP
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

Thursday, April 28, 2011

VIDEO : No-Fly Zone over Gaza — Petition

I don't think U .N. Security Council, who established a Yes Siege Zone on Gaza may Establish a “No Fly Zone” over Gaza. Why not establish a FREE SAIL ZONE.

I can't forget the No Fly Zon on Iraq , the stupidity of calling Nato to impose a No Fly zone on Libya.

In case it happened, I am afraid it will be nothing more an umbrailla for target killings, legalizing the siege, and at the end turing Gaza into a NO RESISTANCE ZONE.

Uprooted Palestinian

April 28, 2011 posted by Anthony Lawson

No-Fly Zone over Gaza — Petition

Video Produced by : Anthony Lawson
Petition Written by :  Dr. Mohamed Khodr
Song and Music by : Michael Heart


http://www.petitiononline.com/p181p194/petition-sign.html

To:  U.N. General Secretary and U.N. Security Council

Petition to the United Nations Secretary General and Members of the U.N. Security Council to Establish a “No Fly Zone” over Gaza under the Principle and Norm of the “Responsibility to Protect”
To Be Presented to the Honorable U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the Honorable Ambassadors of the U.N. Security Council.
“The United Nations, whose membership comprises almost all the states in the world, is founded on the principle of the equal worth of every human being.”
–Kofi Annan, Former Secretary General of the United Nations

No issue in modern history has endured more words, more speeches, more conferences, more peace initiatives, more promises, and more photo-ops, than Israel’s 44 year illegal occupation of over 3 million Palestinians.

World Governments and International Bodies have failed to bring an end to this occupation and establish a free, independent Palestinian State for refugees in their own land.
Thus it is up to us, you and me, people from around the world to stand up and demand an end to this illegal occupation that has thus far paralyzed and humiliated the world, our humanity, and what we all believe in, justice for all.
Signing is the simplest activism for justice for the Palestinians. Let your name and signature be the weapon for peace and justice for the Palestinians and peace and security for the Israeli people. A free Palestine means a secure Israel.
Thank you.
Please sign this Petition now, tomorrow may be too late for someone:
http://www.petitiononline.com/p181p194/petition-sign.html

Anthony Lawson (known professionally as Tony Lawson) is a retired international-prize-winning commercials director, cameraman, ad agency creative director and voice over. He used to be known for shooting humorous commercials, but doesn’t find much to laugh about, with the way the world is going, these days.Read Full Bio

Remembering Palestinian prisoners, renewing our struggle

Posted by realistic bird on April 28, 2011

by Ameer Makhoul, The Electronic Intifada

Palestinian Prisoners Day was marked on 17 April, an annual day to contemplate the individual and collective suffering and impossible pain of political prisoners and their families. It is also a day to recommit to our struggle for liberation and human dignity.

I feel like I am engaged in “collaboration” of sorts with an unfair narrative when I use the terminology of numbers or statistics to relate to more than 7,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons.

In so much international discussion and media, each of these thousands of Palestinian prisoners is considered just a number while an Israeli occupation soldier held as a prisoner by Palestinians is portrayed as a story representing the whole of humanity.

Even “equal” or “neutral” language and descriptions end up favoring the occupier when there is no equality in the real situation. Palestinian prisoners are not prisoners of war, but prisoners of a liberation struggle. Palestinian prisoners are victims of reality of occupation, colonialism, racism, ethic cleansing and political persecution.

We should look always to the root causes of conflict, not just at the superficial aspects. Colonialists all over the world throughout history damaged their own human values, and imposed real damage to their victims whenever these victims became passive toward their human duty to struggle for liberation.

So I look at all the solidarity groups, movements and people all over the world — you are doing great work. You are all people who will never accept injustice to be the norm. I call on all of you as partners in the struggle for rights to continue to view the Palestine liberation struggle as one struggle. Don’t play within the oppressors’ game of allowing the Palestinian cause to be fragmented.

Fragmentation means allowing fundamental rights to be subordinated to the balance of power. We must always place our commitment to rights and justice at the center of our ethics and our struggle.

The new wave of international solidarity movements is doing this by placing Palestinian rights at the center, and recognizing that it is the denial of these rights that is the root cause of conflict in Palestine.

This movement is motivated by universal values and human rights, but it also links the main demands of the Palestinian people: the right of return, an end to the occupation, the end of siege and blockade, and the end of the colonial and racist system that is the essence of Israel and stands in the way of liberation and self-determination.

Freedom for the 7,000 Palestinian prisoners of the liberation struggle will never be granted by Israeli courts. The legal system of the colonial racist oppressor is a mechanism and guarantor of oppression, not justice and liberation.

Only Palestinian struggle, supported by international solidarity, can free these prisoners and free all Palestinians. We will continue our role of steadfastness and struggle. But we are counting on our friends’ solidarity too. Together we shall overcome.

Ameer Makhoul is a civil society leader and political prisoner at Gilboa prison.
River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian

What’s In It for Us, Mr. Obama?

Via MCS

- 29. Apr, 2011

It is difficult to see what the American interest is in offering a congressional bully pulpit to a man like Netanyahu who has clearly condoned war crimes and it would seem pointless to listen to yet another Israeli attempt to prevaricate and, let’s face it, lie.

By Philip Giraldi / Antiwar.com

Apologists for Israel sometimes argue that critics of that nation hold the government in Tel Aviv up to an impossibly high standard, that many condemn Israelis for doing things that other countries in the world also do routinely.  That argument has a certain persuasiveness in that Bahrain’s Sunni rulers treat the country’s Shi’a majority just as badly as Israeli Jews treat Palestinian Arabs, but it misses the point.  How Israel treats its own minority citizens, Gazans, and residents of the West Bank, and its neighbors might be significant from a humanitarian point of view, but it is not a vital interest of the United States.  That Washington has become a victim of the internal politics of the Middle East is largely due to manipulation by Israel and its lobby, which has turned all Americans into enablers of Israeli policies, no matter how short-sighted or ill-conceived.  It is the US national interest that has been sacrificed in the process.  That is the point.


Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky
For those who would argue that such a view of the US interest versus that of Israel is simplistic, I would point out three developments over the past several weeks that together make the case that Israel has extraordinary ability to manipulate Washington.  First would be the budget debate, in which Republicans united to call for deep cuts in the proposed federal budget before settling for less than one tenth of one percent.  Senator Rand Paul had courageously raised the possibility of ending all foreign aid, including to Israel, but generally speaking any reduction in assistance at the current $3 billion plus level was off the table.  Several congressmen, including Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs committee, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor explicitly stated their opposition to any reduction in aid to Israel.  But the real surprise came in the final spending bill.  Israel not only was not cut in its assistance level, it received $205 million in additional funding for its Iron Dome defensive missile development, which competes with US defense firm Raytheon’s Patriot system.

That billions of US taxpayer dollars are going to Israel at a time when programs like Medicare and Social Security are facing cuts is absolutely indefensible.  That Congress would be so tone deaf as to vote more money for Israel when domestic programs are being slashed is symptomatic of the hold that the Lobby has over the US government.  Israel does not need money from the United States.  It has a strong economy and in per capita income it ranks at the same level as Great Britain.  Its citizens receive free medical care and education through university level.  It has received generous trade and co-production concessions from Congress that some claim amount to $10 billion a year in aggregate national income while its own markets are difficult for US companies to penetrate.  The only explanation for Israel’s being showered with American taxpayer largesse is that the Lobby wants it to be so, to provide a tangible sign of America’s unflinching support.

A second indication of Israel’s control over Congress even when it is not in the US national interest is the issuance of frequent resolutions by both the House and Senate in support of every move taken by Israel.  Ever since the United Nations’ Goldstone Report was released, detailing Israeli war crimes in its Cast Lead invasion of Gaza in January 2009, there have been efforts to delegitimize the report’s findings.  Normally, the US is able to block any investigation into Israeli missteps, as it successfully did when Lebanon was bombed and invaded in 2006, an event that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described as “birth pangs of a new Middle East,” but the devastation of UN sponsored relief facilities and schools resulting from Cast Lead was such that an international investigation could not be avoided.

The Obama Administration has persistently questioned the Goldstone Report’s conclusions, the media has largely ignored the crimes against civilians that it describes, and Congress has been working hard to put pressure on the United Nations to rescind the report in its entirety.  The objective of Israel’s friends is to protect its government and defense forces from any accountability for the deaths of 1,400 Palestinians, most of whom were civilians and many of whom were children.  Israel’s independent investigation into possible war crimes committed by its soldiers has been essentially bogus, with only one soldier receiving seven months in jail for fraudulently using a stolen credit card.


US SENATE TO UN RECIND GOLDSTONE REPORT
The strenuous efforts by the United States government to shield Israel make all Americans complicit in a cover-up of war crimes, which is precisely how the rest of the world sees it.  Senate Resolution 138, which passed by a unanimous consent vote on April 14th, called on the United Nations to rescind the Goldstone Report, demanded that the UN Human Rights Council be reformed so that it will stop criticizing Israel, and urged the White House to take the lead to “limit the damage that this libelous report has caused to our close ally Israel…”  But it did not have any teeth in terms of compelling a UN response.

That failure has been addressed by the House of Representatives.  The Foreign Affairs Committee of the House is currently considering a bill, HR 1501, “To withhold United States contributions to the United Nations until the United Nations formally retracts” the Goldstone Report.  As the committee is headed by Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a passionate supporter of Israel, it is certain that the bill will go to the full House for approval, where it will likely pass overwhelmingly.  However one feels about the United Nations in general, it is difficult to understate what this bill will do to America’s standing vis-à-vis a number of international bodies.  There is no possible explanation for this bill but to protect Israel from any and all legitimate criticism.  As is frequently the case, the United States and its citizens will pay the price in terms of America’s approval rating sinking even lower worldwide.  Defending Israel from criticism does not appear either in the US Constitution or the Bill of Rights and sacrificing American interests for those of a foreign power is just not acceptable, but Congress has long since abandoned any attempt to mandate minimal standards of accountability, either for itself or for the state of Israel.


Binyamin Netanyahu invited
to address a joint meeting of Congress in May
Finally, there is the invitation by Congress to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session.  Netanyahu will do so during the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual convention at the end of May.  The speech is at the invitation of the new Republican leadership of the House of Representatives, but it is sure to have bipartisan support.  In a widely reported meeting with Netanyahu in November 2010, Eric Cantor, House majority leader, met privately with Bibi Netanyahu and said the Republican Party would serve “as a check on” the Obama Administration over its policies in the Middle East. Then “He made clear that the Republican majority understands the special relationship between Israel and the United States, and that the security of each nation is reliant upon the other.” In other words, Cantor was meeting with the leader of a foreign country and promising to do whatever he could to influence and even subvert the foreign policy of his own country.  Cantor apparently is delivering on his pledge because the timing of the Netanyahu visit and speech is clearly designed to preempt any peace plan offered by the White House that Israel might object to, meaning that Congress is again undercutting on behalf of Israel the prerogative of the president to conduct foreign policy.

It has already leaked that Netanyahu will likely reveal what he calls a new peace plan asserting forcefully that Israel’s security must be guaranteed.  Which means a Palestinian state with no authority to do anything that states normally do, disarmed and not even controlling its own borders or airspace.  It would essentially be the status quo wrapped up as a totally bogus peace agreement and there is no sign that Netanyahu might be willing to abandon his most ardent supporters, 500,000 strong in the settlements built on Palestinian land.

It is difficult to see what the American interest is in offering a congressional bully pulpit to a man like Netanyahu who has clearly condoned war crimes and it would seem pointless to listen to yet another Israeli attempt to prevaricate and, let’s face it, lie.  Conservative columnist Joe Sobran once commented on an earlier Netanyahu speech before Congress back in 1996.  He likened the response to that given to Josef Stalin when addressing the Supreme Soviet, with everyone standing up and applauding wildly because no one dared to be seen as the first to stop clapping.  Hopefully both Ron and Rand Paul and Dennis Kucinich will not bother to applaud at all.

And looking ahead there will be congressional and White House moves to stop the Palestinians from attempting to declare statehood when the UN General Assembly reopens in September, a move that Israel and AIPAC condemn.  Stay tuned.  If there is a genuine American national interest in any of these shenanigans, it completely escapes me as to what it might be, but one has to conclude that there is nothing good for the United States and its citizens in any of this.

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA Officer, is the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest. His “Deep Background” column appears every month exclusively in The American Conservative.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian