as Glenn Greenwald asks which nations have gone Rogue and notes only 3 countries are left supporting Israel including the USA, Canada and sometimes the Czech Republic:
...So essentially, it's the entire planet on one side, versus the US, its new right-wing poodle to the north, Israel, and three tiny, bribed islands on the other side.quote from: The US and Israel: a Short Quiz on 'Rogue Nation' Status: A series of events just from this week makes clear who is actually violating the consensus of the international community By Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian via Information Clearing House, Dec. 05, 2012
If you're a member in good standing of the Washington-based US foreign policy community, then the way you describe these matters is as follows: "the international community stands by Israel and supports its position" - because, in that warped, self-affirming world, "international community" is a synonym for "US dictates".
" This latest round of attacks is just a continuation of the daily attacks we live with here in Gaza every day,” said youth leader Majed Abusalama. “Israeli soldiers shoot at our fishermen and confiscate their boats just for fishing in waters that belong to us. Israeli soldiers shoot at our farmers when they try to farm their lands that are close to the border, lands that belong to our farmers—our land!” In fact, a week after the ceasefire, our delegation visited a group of farmers in Rafah who were still unable to farm a good portion of their land. One of them, hobbling around in a cast, had just been shot in the leg, without warning, for venturing too close to the fence that separates Israel and Gaza.Quote from: Israel’s Lesson to Palestinians: Build More Rockets? by Medea Benjamin at CommonDreams.org,Dec. 5, 2012
Raji Sourani, a lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, a group that meticulously documented the crimes committed during the 8-day war, lost his normally calm demeanor when speaking to our delegation about Obama and the US Congressional support for what they called Israel’s right to defend itself. “How can Obama say Israel is defending itself when we are the real victims? We are the target of this dirty war, just like we were the last time in 2008, just like we are every day,” Sourani shouted. “The Israelis practice the law of the jungle with full legal immunity and no accountability.”
--
The silence at the UN General Assembly when Canadian representative takes to the podium is deafening and should disturb all Canadaians but Canadians like Americans have been erroneously taught that all Arabs are bad and all Muslims are bad but that Israel and the USA never commit immoral acts or defy international law -both Israel and the USA have been involved in Wars Of Aggression and have broken international law by using Indefinte Detention, committed assassiations of people in other nations and have abused and tortured prsioners from common thieves to illegal immigrants to alleged terrorists. And now Canada wants we assume to play by the same rule book with no restrictions upon them by the UN or International Law.
Canada's Ruined Reputation
Published on 29 Nov 2012
A comparison of the reception received by five consecutive speakers at the UN General Assembly, 44th Plenary Meeting, Question of Palestine on November 29, 2012. Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Conservative MP John Baird is received in silence - the only speaker to receive this snub from the Assembly. Stephen Harper is destroying Canada's reputation around the world. Speak out against his radical agenda - defend Canada. Made by Kevin Bourassa (Twitter @KevinBourassa) from live streaming of the event by UN Web TV.
CANADA'S NEOCON GOVERNMENT OBEYS ISRAEL AND CUTS ALL TIES WITH IRA
Journalist Pepe Escobar takes Obama to task over his disdain for the leadership in Iran who have been trying to broker a deal with the USA and still holding to the Propaganda and Talking points launched by formwer Presidents Bush II and Bush I and Ronald Reagan . But Iran said they gave up such a program 9 years ago and that the Supreme Religious leader issued a Fatwah against Nuclear Weapons and other WMDs including chemicals . Even though the US itself and its cjhief ally Israel as has been pointed out many time are quite willing to use various banned weapons such as Napalm, Cluster bombs, land mines or other WMDs and the US and Israel have never taken their possible future use of nuclear weapons out of the equation.
"The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate by all U.S. intelligence agencies stating that Iran had ended any nuclear weapons program in 2003 was bluntly dismissed ."
If Obama Wants Anything Productive with Iran, He's Going to Have to Show a Little R.e.s.p.e.c.t
With an Obama 2.0 administration soon to be in place, the time to solve the immensely complex Iranian nuclear drama is now.by Pepe Escobar TomDispatch.com via Alternet.org, December 6, 2012
Now, with the campaign Sturm und Drang behind us but the threats still around, the question is: Can Obama 2.0 bridge the gap between current U.S. policy (we don't want war, but there will be war if you try to build a bomb) and Persian optics (we don't want a bomb -- the Supreme Leader said so -- and we want a deal, but only if you grant us some measure of respect)? Don’t forget that a soon-to-be-reelected President Obama signaled in October the tiniest of possible openings toward reconciliation while talking about the “pressure” he was applying to that country, when he spoke of “our policy of... potentially having bilateral discussions with the Iranians to end their nuclear program.”--
Tehran won’t, of course, “end” its (legal) nuclear program. As for that “potentially,” it should be a graphic reminder of how the establishment in Washington loathes even the possibility of bilateral negotiations.
Let’s start with the obvious but important: on entering the Oval Office in January 2009, President Obama inherited a seemingly impregnable three-decade-long “Wall of Mistrust” in Iran-U.S. relations. To his credit, that March he directly addressed all Iranians in a message for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, calling for an “engagement that is honed and grounded in mutual respect.” He even quoted the thirteenth century Persian poet Sa’adi: “The children of Adam are limbs of one body, which God created from one essence.”
And yet, from the start he was crippled by a set of Washington misconceptions as old as that wall, and by a bipartisan consensus for an aggressive strategy toward Iran that emerged in the George W. Bush years when Congress ponied up $400 million for a set of “covert operations” meant to destabilize that country, including cross-border operations by special forces teams. All of this was already based on the dangers of “the Iranian bomb.”
A September 2008 report by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank, was typical in assuming a nuclear-weapons-capable Iran as a fact. It was drafted by Michael Rubin from the neoconservative American Enterprise Institute, the same AEI that had unashamedly promoted the disastrous 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq. Several future Obama advisers “unanimously approved” the report, including Dennis Ross, former senator Charles Robb, future Deputy Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter, Anthony Lake, future U.N. ambassador Susan Rice, and Richard Clarke. The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate by all U.S. intelligence agencies stating that Iran had ended any nuclear weapons program in 2003 was bluntly dismissed .
Mirroring the Bush administration’s “all options are on the table” approach (including cyberwar), the report proposed -- what else? -- a military surge in the Persian Gulf, targeting “not only Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, but also its conventional military infrastructure in order to suppress an Iranian response.” In fact, such a surge would indeed begin before George W. Bush left office and only increase in scope in the Obama years.
As Glenn Greenwald points out that Israel and the United States both fit the definition of "a Rogue State".
The US and Israel: a Short Quiz on 'Rogue Nation' Status: A series of events just from this week makes clear who is actually violating the consensus of the international community By Glenn Greenwald at The Guardian via Information Clearing House, Dec. 05, 2012
The phrase "rogue nation" is one of the terms that get tossed around often in political discourse without much effort devoted to its actual meaning. Let's try to apply this term to a series of events just from the last week, beginning with this one:Israel’s Lesson to Palestinians: Build More Rockets? by Medea Benjamin at CommonDreams.org,Dec. 5, 2012
"The 193-nation UN General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved the de facto recognition of a sovereign Palestinian state . . . . There were 138 votes in favor, nine against and 41 abstentions. . . . .The assembly approved the upgrade despite threats by the United States and Israel to punish the Palestinians by withholding funds for the West Bank government.. . . .The Czech Republic was unique in Europe, joining the United States, Israel, Canada, Panama and tiny Pacific Island states likes Nauru, Palau and Micronesia in voting against the move."
In response, Israel announced it would "punish" the Palestinians for the UN vote by approving more settlements (which virtually the entire world deems illegal) and withholding tax revenue that was to pay employees of the Palestinian Authority; that behavior by Israel resulted in this:
"Australia and Brazil summoned their Israeli ambassadors on Tuesday to protest against Israel's decision to expand Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the West Bank and withhold tax revenue from the Palestinian Authority.
"The moves followed similar actions in Europe including Spain, France, Britain, Sweden and Denmark in the wake of the Palestinians winning de facto UN recognition of statehood."
Meanwhile, it was reported today that "Britain and other European countries will consider 'further steps' if Israel refuses to reverse its plans for settlement expansion after a wave of diplomatic protests." And then finally, we have this, from Monday [emphasis added]:
"The UN general assembly has overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on Israel to open its nuclear programme for inspection.
"The resolution, approved by a vote of 174 to six with six abstentions, calls on Israel to join the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) 'without further delay' and open its nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Those voting against were Israel, the US, Canada, Marshall Islands, Micronesia and Palau. . . .
"The vote came as a sequel to the cancellation of a high-level conference aimed at banning nuclear weapons from the Middle East. All the Arab nations and Iran had planned to attend the summit in mid-December in Helsinki, Finland, but the US announced on 23 November that it would not take place, citing political turmoil in the region and Iran's defiant stance on non-proliferation. Iran and some Arab nations countered that the real reason for the cancellation was Israel's refusal to attend."
So essentially, it's the entire planet on one side, versus the US, its new right-wing poodle to the north, Israel, and three tiny, bribed islands on the other side.
If you're a member in good standing of the Washington-based US foreign policy community, then the way you describe these matters is as follows: "the international community stands by Israel and supports its position" - because, in that warped, self-affirming world, "international community" is a synonym for "US dictates".
But for those fortunate enough to reside outside of that realm of intense imperial propaganda: who is actually opposed to the consensus of the international community here? In other words, who are the real "rogue nations"?
Eman El-Hawi, a smart and perky 24-year-old business student from Gaza got teary when she told our delegation about what she witnessed during the eight days that Israel pounded Gaza. “I saw the babies being brought into the hospital, some dead, some wounded. I couldn’t believe Israel was doing this again, just like four years ago. But at least this time,” she said with pride, “we struck back.”
The fight was totally disproportionate. Israeli F-16s, drones and Apache helicopters unleashed their fury over this tiny strip of land, leaving 174 dead, over one thousand wounded, as well as homes, schools, hospitals, mosques and government buildings damaged and destroyed. On the Palestinian side, crude Qassam rockets left six Israelis dead and caused little damage. But for many Palestinians, it was a perverse kind of victory.
If the Israeli government was trying to teach the Palestinians a lesson with this latest pummeling, the unfortunate lesson many learned was that the only way to deal with Israel is through firepower. We asked people why this round of violence lasted only eight days, unlike the 22-day attack in 2008. Some credited the Arab Spring that has created a new wave of pro-Palestinian public sentiment that governments have to respond to—especially in Egypt where the ceasefire was brokered. But others believed the Israelis backed down because Palestinian rockets had reached into the heart of Israel.
“It’s not that we want to kill Israelis but we want them to know we are not helpless,” said Ahmed Al Sahbany, an engineering student. “We want them to know that when they attack us mercilessly, when they treat us like animals, we will fight back.” A rap song by a West Bank group called “Strike, Strike Tel Aviv” that came out during the fighting was a hit among many of the Palestinian youth.
Many young people we talked to were dismissive of peace talks with Israel. They say the Palestinian Authority leadership in the West Bank has been talking to the Israelis for 18 years and all they have achieved is a new brand of apartheid, with bypass roads, separation walls, expanding settlements, Jerusalem ethnically cleansed, 500-600 checkpoints, and the continued siege of Gaza.
Israel and the USA are acting like petulant children who are not getting their way and who are regarded by other nations as being belligerent ,uncooperative , pigheaded bullies who get upset when called out for their lies and propaganda. The Israelis lie about being endangered by the desperate half starved Palestinians and the now suffering masses in Iran and it is Israel and the USA under Obama who have caused this suffering as they ginny up for total war in the Mideast to expand their hegemony over the entire region as they waged war directly or by proxy against Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria and on and on .Both nations believing they are on the side of the angels and God refuse to compromise and give up their agenda whatever in the end that might be ie creation of a Greater Israel and ease of access to cheap and abundant oil and other resources.
Israel's Overreaction by Judy Bachrach at World Affairs, Dec. 4, 2012
Is Israel planning suicide? I ask this because in the wake of the United Nations’ decision on the status of Palestine...Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s prime minister, decided to retaliate.
Netanyahu’s plans for retaliation were likely formed before the vote occurred, and announced only after. Specifically, the prime minister plans to build 3,000 new homes between Jerusalem and a West Bank settlement in order to prevent the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.
" This latest round of attacks is just a continuation of the daily attacks we live with here in Gaza every day,” said youth leader Majed Abusalama. “Israeli soldiers shoot at our fishermen and confiscate their boats just for fishing in waters that belong to us. Israeli soldiers shoot at our farmers when they try to farm their lands that are close to the border, lands that belong to our farmers—our land!” In fact, a week after the ceasefire, our delegation visited a group of farmers in Rafah who were still unable to farm a good portion of their land. One of them, hobbling around in a cast, had just been shot in the leg, without warning, for venturing too close to the fence that separates Israel and Gaza.
Raji Sourani, a lawyer and director of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights, a group that meticulously documented the crimes committed during the 8-day war, lost his normally calm demeanor when speaking to our delegation about Obama and the US Congressional support for what they called Israel’s right to defend itself. “How can Obama say Israel is defending itself when we are the real victims? We are the target of this dirty war, just like we were the last time in 2008, just like we are every day,” Sourani shouted. “The Israelis practice the law of the jungle with full legal immunity and no accountability.”
These are settlements that are considered illegal under international law, and if you are wondering why it is that Ehud Barak, Israel’s defense minister, decided to resign more than a week ago, I think it isn’t simply, as Time magazine suggested, he felt humiliated by Hamas. Part of the reason may be because he knew exactly what his boss had in mind once the UN vote count was tallied.
About 500,000 Jews live in around 100 illegal settlements built since the occupation of the West Bank, and any future attempt to evict settlers by a more enlightened Israeli administration will likely result in civil war: Jew against Jew, an unthinkable scenario, as Netanyahu well knows. But not an improbable one. Netanyahu, in other words, is making certain that those settlements, new as well as old, are permanent, and that peace will prove every bit as impossible as their dismantling.
Noam Chomsky: What the American Media Won't Tell You About Israel
The savage punishment of Gaza traces back to decades ago.by Noam Chomsky Alternet.org,Dec. 3, 2012
An old man in Gaza held a placard that read: “You take my water, burn my olive trees, destroy my house, take my job, steal my land, imprison my father, kill my mother, bombard my country, starve us all, humiliate us all, but I am to blame: I shot a rocket back.”
The old man’s message provides the proper context for the latest episode in the savage punishment of Gaza. The crimes trace back to 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled from their homes in terror or were expelled to Gaza by conquering Israeli forces, who continued to truck Palestinians over the border for years after the official cease-fire.
The punishment took new forms when Israel conquered Gaza in 1967. From recent Israeli scholarship (primarily Avi Raz’s “The Bride and the Dowry: Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinians in the Aftermath of the June 1967 War”), we learn that the government’s goal was to drive the refugees into the Sinai Peninsula – and, if feasible, the rest of the population too.
Expulsions from Gaza were carried out under the direct orders of Gen. Yeshayahu Gavish, commander of the Israel Defense Forces Southern Command. Expulsions from the West Bank were far more extreme, and Israel resorted to devious means to prevent the return of those expelled, in direct violation of U.N. Security Council orders.
The reasons were made clear in internal discussions immediately after the war. Golda Meir, later prime minister, informed her Labor Party colleagues that Israel should keep the Gaza Strip while “getting rid of its Arabs.” Defense Minister Moshe Dayan and others agreed.
The current upsurge of U.S.-Israeli violence dates to January 2006, when Palestinians voted “the wrong way” in the first free election in the Arab world.
Israel and the U.S. reacted at once with harsh punishment of the miscreants, and preparation of a military coup to overthrow the elected government – the routine procedure. The punishment was radically intensified in 2007, when the coup attempt was beaten back and the elected Hamas government established full control over Gaza.
Ignoring immediate offers from Hamas for a truce after the 2006 election, Israel launched attacks that killed 660 Palestinians in 2006, most of whom were civilians (a third were minors). According to U.N. reports, 2,879 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire from April 2006 through July 2012, along with several dozen Israelis killed by fire from Gaza.
A short-lived truce in 2008 was honored by Hamas until Israel broke it in November. Ignoring further truce offers, Israel launched the murderous Cast Lead operation in December.
So matters have continued, while the U.S. and Israel also continue to reject Hamas calls for a long-term truce and a political settlement for a two-state solution in accord with the international consensus that the U.S. has blocked since 1976 when the U.S. vetoed a Security Council resolution to this effect, brought by the major Arab states.
For First Time, Britain and France May Recall Ambassadors to Israel in Protest of Settlement Expansion by david Harris-Gershon Tikkun Daily, Dec. 2, 2012
In retaliation for Palestine attaining non-member state observer status at the U.N. on Thursday, Israel announced that it would retaliate by building 3,000 new units in a West Bank area, E-1, long considered a red line by Europe and the U.S.
...Israeli officials on Thursday admitted they had "lost Europe" after the Czech Republic was the only E.U. country to vote no on Palestine becoming a non-member state at the U.N. Now, Israel is testing Washington's resolve by building in a sensitive West Bank area it had explicitly promised the U.S. it would not touch.
...While the Obama administration has sharply condemned Israel's announcement, no further diplomatic steps have been taken.
However, as diplomatic pressure from Europe mounts in unprecedented ways, making the U.S. increasingly isolated in its approach, the Obama administration may be compelled to consider a shift, particularly given that Israel is responding to such pressure from the West with increased stubbornness:
" Despite the protests from Europe, a source in the Prime Minister's Office said that Israel is planning to take more steps against the Palestinian Authority. "The Palestinians will soon come to understand that they made a mistake when they took unilateral action and breached their treaties with Israel."
As Israel continues to back itself into a corner, losing the " quality minority " of Western nations it once had, many wonder how far Europe will go in a last-ditch attempt to diplomatically save the chance for two, self-determining states.
and so it goes,
GORD.
No comments:
Post a Comment