Zionism

December 19, 2011December 11, 2020

“Anarchist” Arch Enemy Stands With Fascism

UPDATE 22 December 2011

Angela Gossow @AGossow, the growling specialist lead of Arch Enemy, says on twitter “@neon_black81 Thank you. We will release a joint statement with Amnesty International regarding this subject. AI will be present at our show” and “@neon_black81 I dont support Stand With US btw – that was just a personal tweet reply and they abused that straight away. Politics r dirty!”

In 2009 Amnesty International withdrew their support from a Leonard Cohen Israel concert fundraiser abstaining ‘from any involvement in the Leonard Cohen concert in Tel Aviv” and that they “would not be party to any fund that benefits from the concert’s proceeds.’ It is imperative that for the Arch Enemy concert too, Amnesty does the right thing and removes its support from a boycott-breaking event.

UPDATE December 23, 2011

Angela Gossow may be obtaining a more informed view of Israeli propaganda, confiding to @neon_black81 “It seems a lot of organizations there have hidden agendas and just put up a ‘nice’ front and pretend to support human rights…”

Her tweets which appeared to support Stand With Us have now been erased from her timeline.

StandWithUs President Esther Renzer is married to David Renzer who is co-founder of the Creative Community for Peace, a US 501(c)(3) organization, dba Israel Emergency Alliance. Artists Against Apartheid

… calls on allies to boycott the Creative Community for Peace (CCFP), which is in fact a complicit propaganda institution seeking to normalize Israeli apartheid and strongarm entertainers into its service. Fearing encroaching pressure from the Palestinian led global BDS movement, CCFP has mobilized to counteract the cultural boycott of Israel, making itself a target of the human rights campaign in the process.
…
CCFP wishes to make the claim that “art transcends politics” but is engaged heavily in political propaganda on behalf of an apartheid state. The only artist known to be included in CCFP’s advisory board is Idan Raichel, a self-proclaimed cultural ambassador who stated: “We certainly see ourselves as ambassadors of Israel in the world, cultural ambassadors, hasbara ambassadors, also in regards to the political conflict.”

StandWithUs also trades under the name Israel Emergency Alliance.

The IEA’s mandatory Form 990 financial filings to the Internal Revenue Service (available from the website Guidestar) show an organization with $4.2 million in annual revenue and impressive fundraising capacity.

StandWithUs has been operating a privatised espionage service for its allies for years.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Hypocrisy doesn’t come much thicker than this. Arch Enemy is currently performing in conjunction with Amnesty International to highlight issues of freedom of expression. The band has consistently deleted any posts on their Facebook wall which are critical of Israel’s crimes against humanity, suppression of freedom of expression and Arch Enemy breaking the principled boycott called by Palestinian people to resist Israel’s oppression and contravention of their rights. Angela Gossow, Arch Enemy’s growling lead singer also has recorded with settler band Amaseffer. It is no wonder that the band is popular with the Israeli far rightwing as their songs include such gems as “Nemesis” with the lyrics ‘eye for an eye’ and ‘slay the Philistines’.

Now we see from the Palestine Israel One Country: Say NO to apartheid blog:

In a shocking display of pro-Israel bias, Arch Enemy’s spokesperson, Angela Gossow, actually THANKS the Israeli group “Stand With Us.”

Stand With Us is infamous for creating the “Captain Israel” comics, especially the ones that portray “BDS” as a venomous snake donning the colors of the Palestinian flag. Stand With Us is well-known to “celebrate” militant Jewish nationalism, at the same time, using the well-funded “pinkwashing” technique to make Israel, Tel Aviv in specific, appear to be very tolerant of gays. Stand With Us is critical of the flotilla, against Palestinian human rights, and has actually launched “Shame On Turkey” to shame Turkey for its involvement in the flotilla. But Stand With Us also works very hard to attack BDS volunteers, which is what Arch Enemy worked hard to do in the past month or so. Arch Enemy’s Angela Gossow and colleagues made sure to eliminate all references to the letter to Arch Enemy from the PACBI. Please read the letter here http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1769 It simply asks the band to refrain form playing in Israel. By all indications, Arch Enemy appears to be a pro-Israeli band. Does this seem to fit in well with their anti-fascist persona and progressive reputation?

Propaganda organisation StandWithUs is also integrally involved with the Reut Institute which strategises and develops Israeli propaganda against BDS (the Palestinian-led Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions movement).

Arch Enemy will go down in metal history as the band which proudly touted fascism in the name of anarchism and a state propaganda machine as a human rights organisation, whilst on a tour for a bona fide human rights organisation promoting freedom of expression. Historically, anarchists are prime opponents of fascism, targeted by fascists first for destruction, yet the band’s approval of Israeli fascism and their support from Israel’s rightwing could be considered a contemporary example of the cosy ideological and historical relationship which political zionism has had with nazism.

Arch Enemy is booked to play Israel on 24th January, 2012.

Previously comments on the band’s Facebook walls in support of Palestinian human rights have been deleted. More comments have been left on Arch Enemy’s and their guitarist’s Michael Amott’s Facebook walls. We await their imminent deletion – all in the name of ‘free expression’ of course. [8 hours after posting, the comments below had all been deleted.]

More Ziofascist Hate

Related Links

Jo Metcalf (Head of Art For Amnesty):

“We’re thrilled that ARCH ENEMY are supporting our work on freedom of expression. We’re lucky to have the support of musicians and other artists who fully appreciate the value of being able to express their creativity without fear of arrest or worse. In some parts of the world, pursuing a creative goal – or just speaking freely – can lead to harassment, loss of freedom and even torture. I hope that everyone who comes to an ARCH ENEMY gig – not least to witness Arch Enemy’s amazing show – gets involved in supporting Amnesty’s work in this area.”

Swedish band Arch Enemy embraces Israeli propaganda, ignores Palestinian suffering
Apologists for Israeli war crimes support for Arch Enemy on BDS page
Arch Enemy, Freedom of Speech and BDS
Israel’s Reut Institute claims “price tag” attacks on EI, Irvine 11 and Palestine Return Centre
Statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression at the conclusion of his visit to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory

Palestine / Israel Links

how many new children will be incarcerated in Israel’s dungeons by the time the next lot are freed?

December 15, 2011December 11, 2020

Happy Summer Solstice 2011

Nutanyahoo expresses his wish that violent settler rioters will be prosecuted in military courts, as are occupied Palestinians. Does this presage the advent of similar juridicial trying of Israelis who are in solidarity with Palestinians, arrested for protesting Israel’s apartheid wall, land grabs and occupation?

Barak would rather treat the settler thugs as a terror group yet suggests ‘administrative arrests’. Lieberman worries about the impact of the rioters on the fortunes of Israel’s illegal settlements projects, seeing them as “weeds that must be uprooted.”

The ministers’ comments came after some 50 settlers and right-wing activists entered a key West Bank military base on Tuesday, throwing rocks, burning tires, and vandalizing military vehicles.

In an apparent price-tag attack earlier Wednesday, anonymous perpetrators set a historical Jerusalem mosque alight, spray painting phrases such as “Muhammad is dead” and “Muhammad is a pig” on its walls.

Also on Wednesday, Justice Minister Ne’eman is expected to form a list of proposals geared at toughening legal actions against right-wing activists and in the wake of recent price tag attacks.

Prosecution under military law would marginalise the settlers from Israel proper and could also move the goal posts contemporaneously for solidarity protesters.

The zionist ‘State’ has spoken – violent acts against its ‘defensive’ apparatus are not civil crimes, but acts of war regardless of whether the ‘crime’ is committed by the occupied, or those who steal from occupied Palestinians. (Crimes of theft from Palestinians and even crimes of violence against Palestinians by illegal settlers however are rarely prosecuted by Israel.) With its response to the settler assault on its IOF, the state is setting itself against its own nationals.

This is the sort of contradiction which exemplifies fascism. In fascist states, the state, the collective of ‘nationals’ (and only Jews are nationals in Israel) is deemed to be more important than the rights of the individual. Yet those who belong to the state – its nationals, are expected to have allegiance to the state, although it puts itself before their rights. To go against the state means pitting oneself against a collective of which one is a part by nationality and allegiance, to which one already has surrendered one’s individual rights.

Peres, the ‘soft’ face of Israel, pokes up his hypocritical head and wails about the Ten Commandments, as if zionists, other than the odd spiritual zionist, have ever cared about keeping them where Palestinians are concerned. Deceitfully, the Yesha (settler) Council chairman attempts to cover up for the settlers, setting the tone for the usual retreat back to the customary defensive posture of entitlement to land theft by claiming provocation, including an oblique slur toward Islam.

“most of the settlers are opposed to violence. There is no justification for (these) actions, no matter what the religion of the victims is.” However, Dayan added that “in recent days there is a trend of incitement… against the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria.

Who is inciting again?

since the start of 2011, more than 500 Palestinian homes, wells and water containers and other basic infrastructure in the West Bank and Jerusalem have been destroyed, which led to the displacement of more than 1, 000 Palestinians according to UN statistics.

“This is more than double the number of people displaced over the same period in 2010, and the highest figure since at least 2005. More than half of those displaced have been children for whom the loss of their home is particularly devastating,”

Lebanon’s president highlights West’s hypocrisy on ‘democracy’ & treatment of Palestinians
Before the zionist invasion began in the 19th century, “Palestinians made up 95 percent of the indigenous population of Palestine”.
Maybe Newt can occupy Palestine, but Israel can’t
Palestinian flag raised at UNESCO marking admission as new member
The ugly face of ziofascism
Resistance key to freeing Palestine: Haniyeh
From Palestine to Syria: Free Razan @RedRazan

December 13, 2011December 11, 2020

Letter From An Arch Enemy Israeli Metal Fan

After protesters in London called on the metal band Arch Enemy to cancel its concert in Tel Aviv, Israeli metalheads now send letters to the band. They ask for help writing in English.

“Arch Enemy should play Israel for us metalhead anarchist fans. We are anarchists because we are against our government which doesn’t help us enough with building our settlements. G-d gave us Judea and Samaria. Look at the maps. We have a right to settle all our historic land and drive out the Philistines and Amakelites, their sheep, goats and chickens. Arch Enemy has even written a song about an “eye for an eye” and “slaying the Philistines”.

We don’t like Anarchists Against the Wall – they are not real anarchists, they side with enemies of Israel who protest our right to defend ourselves as we settle our land.

We hope Arch Enemy show support for us repressed Israeli settlers and come to perform in Ariel.

This BDS boycott will collectively punish genuine Arch Enemy metalhead anarchist fans like myself. Politics has nothing to do with music. Arch Enemy is for anarchism and freedom of expression and should play for us, our dream of Greater Israel for Jews and our right to settle ALL the land!!!! The Palestinian state is Jordan! We are Nemeses!

“Rise – The tyrants rise! The enemy inside – The tyrants rise!”

ARCH ENEMY CHAI!
AMASEFFER CHAI!
AM ISRAEL, AM ISRAEL!
ARCH ENEMY CHAI!”

Ironically, Arch Enemy is currently performing in association with Amnesty International’s Freedom of Expression campaign throughout Europe and is slated to break the Palestinian-led boycott of Israeli apartheid on January 24.

December 12, 2011December 11, 2020

No Freedom of Expression in the Shadow of the Occupation

Israel’s theft from the people of Nabi Saleh of their water and land created the weekly protests against the Occupier. This is the moving speech of Nariman Tamimi, read at the Human Rights March rally in Tel Aviv, December 9, 2011 by Nisreen Alyan, an attorney at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI), which emphasises that

“In the shadow of the Occupation, there is no dignity and there is no freedom of expression.”

“Even the most basic right to demonstrate and protest against the action of the Occupation is grossly abused.”

Bassem Tamimi
A short time after the speech was read in Tel Aviv, at the weekly demonstration in Nabi Saleh, Mustafa Tamimi was critically injured from an IOF teargas projectile manufactured in the US and fired at him face from point blank range. He died in the hospital the following day, on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2011.

According to eye witness to the murder, Linah Alsaafin, the Israeli soldiers delayed Mustafa’s transportion to the hospital.

‘The soldiers laughed. They smiled. They took pictures of us, zooming in on each of our faces, and they smirked. ‘They laughed at us as we screamed at them to let us through to where he was, unconscious in a taxi near the watchtower. They threatened us if we didn’t go back. We waved the flag with his blood on it in front of them. One of them had the audacity to bat it away. We shouted, “His blood is on your hands!” They replied, “So?”’

Another eye witness, Ibrahim Bornat, artist and activist from Bil’in was standing next to Mustafa at the time of the murder and describes the inordinate, cruel delays created by the Occupation forces.

I ran back to get people, because we were far away, but there was no ambulance around, so the people around gathered him and put him in a servee [a communal taxi] and tried to leave. The soldiers stopped the servee and tried to arrest Mustafa, but when they saw that he was on the brink of death, they began to act as if they were humanitarian, to revive his heart. But what is ‘humanitarian’, to shoot someone to kill, and then to try to help him? These were the same soldiers from the jeep that shot him. They shot him, then say they want to help him. What they really did is prevent him from leaving.

The body lay on the ground for half an hour. They wanted Mustafa’s ID, and they also wanted the ID of his mother, of another family member, and of Bassem Tamimi’s wife, because these people wanted to go out with him too… They were doing some kind of medical treatment while he was lying on the ground, but this was no hospital, and what he needed was to be taken to a hospital. He should have been flown out in that moment. There is nothing you can do for him on the street there.

RT @ibnezra: The Israeli army has failed to confirm that its soldiers violated ‘open-fire regulations” resulting in the death of Mustafa Tamimi.
RT @shunradan: The jeep frm which #mustafatamimi was shot carries a “how am I driving?”sticker http://twitpic.com/7qupdd Call 02-5694211 & tell them!
RT @Abou_Charlie: #MustafaTamimi’s father was denied a permit to exit West Bank to be with his son as he fought for his life. How ethical!
RT @iRevolt: IOF spokesperson displays picture of slingshot as the reason 4 blowing off half of #MustafaTamimi’s head is.gd/JycvNU
RT @gazaheart: Hate has no limits. I was shocked to read comments re IDF murder of #mustafatamimi beneath article is.gd/EXLXZ0

Mustafa was the 20th person which Israel’s sadistic Occupation forces have killed with tear gas canisters, and the first martyr of Nabi Saleh. The criminal IOF have excused themselves by stating that the incident was ‘exceptional’. (exceptionally cruel?)

Figures in the army’s Central Command said the soldier claimed he “didn’t see” Tamimi. But even if that is true, the IDF’s rules of engagement prohibit the firing of tear gas grenades from a rifle pointed directly at demonstrators or from a distance of less than 40 meters away. They also stipulate that the shooter must use the rifle sight and verify that no one is in the line of fire. Central Command and the Military Police are conducting separate investigations into the incident.

Plan Dalet has never ended, Israel’s genocide of Palestinians has never ended, Israel’s expansionism, its deceitful posture of ‘defence’ and ‘security’ which it uses to obscure and justify its foul land grabs and murder has never ended.

At Mustafa’s funeral, the IOF again resorted to violence, with 3 people injured and 8 arrested. Once again, the IOF fired tear gas projectiles directly at the crowd, spraying the village with skunk water which will pollute it for days. This collective punishment on people who are being robbed of their birthright and denied civil rights is a crime against humanity.

RT @LinahAlsaafin: The pig soldiers wanted to arrest us all. They beat us. We formed a human pile on the ground, limbs bodies twisted. They continued to hit us

RT @LinahAlsaafin: I held up a picture of #MustafaTamimi in front of a soldier’s face. He grabbed it and balled it in his fist. It’s in my bag now, torn.

Meanwhile, Israel focussed its terror on the civilians of Gaza, breaking the ceasefire again, invoking the biblical symbology of Palestinians as Amakelites as a sheep and chicken farm was attacked, causing mass death of livestock.

On Saturday, Israeli soldiers fired artillery shells targeting a chicken and sheep farm in Beit Hanoun, in the northern part of the Gaza Strip — dozens of livestock died in the attack; excessive damage was reported.

The Maan News Agency reported that the shelling targeted the farm of local resident Ramadan Abu Ghazala, located east of Beit Hanoun. The shelling led to no human casualties.

In another Israeli state terrorist attack

A Palestinian child was severely wounded and her father was injured in an Israeli airstrike that targeted a house in Zaytoun neighborhood in Gaza city at dawn Sunday.

At present, Gaza may serve as a scapegoat for Israel’s impotence toward incidents in the Sinai. Israel is also threatening to punish the Gazan people in another despicable way – by cutting off their water supply.

Mustafa #fail’: Israeli military spokesman mocks on Twitter death of Palestinian demonstrator killed by army tear-gas canister
Israeli Defence Force spokesman sparks fury after ‘mocking’ dead Palestinian demonstrator on Twitter

‘It is not important what this bill teaches us about Danon as a person – that he did not study history, for example, or that he did but he knows very well that in fascist regimes the State is above all else; or that as an experienced demagogue he knows just how close a connection there is between the level of discrimination against a certain ethnic group and the claims about crime among its members. ‘

Israel’s religious right builds fascist machismo, while the govt builds fascist political repression
The Haaretz editorial is still being coy – ‘religious extremism’ and ‘nationalism’.
Count the fascistic lies and distortions in this drivel where Israel claims to support human rights.
Turkish President shuns event attended by Israel’s Defense Minister
Drones spotted above Gaza as Israel breaks truce; death toll at 5
Israeli Airstrike Injures Father, Daughter in Gaza
Israel must refrain from launching Gaza offensive
Israeli aircraft strike Gaza, as cross-border violence continues
“Israel cannot strike at the donkey, so it hits the saddle instead and Gaza cops it.”
My attempt to arrest Israeli weapons chief
Israeli ambassador to take up Cairo post
In pictures: When a nonviolent protest ends in death
Ministry of Hasbara: IDF Has Become Israel’s Chief Delegitimizer
Invitation: Third National BDS Conference
Gingrich, part of the invented ‘US people’ describes indigenous Palestinians as ‘invented’ : Gingrich won’t like where his logic leads.
Nabi Saleh Activist Critically Injured by Tear Gas Canister | Palestine Solidarity Project
VIDEO (Graphic): 27 year old Mustafa Tamimi after being shot in head by an IOF tear gas canister yesterday
Seeing the forest and the trees: The untold story of the Jewish National Fund – A sleazy tale : follow the JNF land thieving fund money :

Recalling that Bob Geldof praised the JNF land thieves. Bob Geldof breached the boycott [on May 31, 2011, ‘when he accepted a dis-honorary fake degree from Ben Gurion University] praised the JNF when he spoke to patrons at a Jewish National Fund event telling them that the JNF ‘got’ the idea of sustainability & the importance of water over 100 years ago.

Israel is gobbling Palestinian land again extending an illegal Jews-only apartheid settlement to the edge of Bethlehem. while meanwhile Regev slithers out and lies that it’s all Palestinians’ fault again, for refusing ‘direct’ peace talks.
Great news! ‘Ads calling for “peace with justice and equality” and an end to the U.S. aid to Israel went up last week in a prominent location in the Civic Center station in San Francisco as well as on 15 AC Transit buses servicing the East Bay area. ‘

Christian bigots get Lowes ads pulled : Lowe’s Pulls Advertising from Muslim Reality Show After Bigots Complain
Palestinian flag to be raised at UNESCO headquarters
New initiative in UN to ‘censure Israel’s attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem.’ : how about STOPPING Israel’s attacks for good with BDS ?
Shufat residents were protesting the construction of a new Israeli military checkpoint at the entrance of the camp, which they say will cut the 45,000-string community from the rest of the city and control their movements.
Bedouin protest Israel’s relocation plans; village receives notice of imminent eviction
There’s no need to be any less bigoted than Europe implies Nutanyahoo
Palestinian protester’s death an ‘exceptional’ incident, say IDF officials
Israel’s Russian doll apartheid : Legal researcher on Israel: “Segregation within segregation within segregation”

Egypt Links

Egypt’s military will have final say on country’s new constitution

Other Links

Wondering why the domestic police are bristling with weapons to use against those they are supposed to defend?
US missiles ‘hit Iranian village’
We are all ‘persons of interest’ in the #newfeudalism of full spectrum surveillance

December 2, 2011December 11, 2020

Netanyahu’s Transparent Dancing Demurral

The lying Nutanyahoo attempts to avoid the lobster quadrille with the Quartet, preferring to commence a secret hasbara tango with an illegitimate Abbas, who is making offers without consultation again. Anyone who’s read the Liekud Party platform, which remains unchanged, or Nutanyahoo’s Bar Ilan speech of June 09, knows how disingenuous Nutanyahoo really is. He can’t go against his own party platform which says, amongst other chauvinist, colonialist drivel that flies in the face of international law:

The Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist values. Settlement of the land is a clear expression of the unassailable right of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel and constitutes an important asset in the defense of the vital interests of the State of Israel. The Likud will continue to strengthen and develop these communities and will prevent their uprooting.
…
The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan river.

The Palestinians can run their lives freely in the framework of self-rule, but not as an independent and sovereign state. Thus, for example, in matters of foreign affairs, security, immigration and ecology, their activity shall be limited in accordance with imperatives of Israel’s existence, security and national needs.

Palestine / Gaza Links

Viva Palestina is finalising plans for the Kick Off for Palestine campaign to construct and maintain links with sporting venues in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Ali Abunimah makes a terrific post examining the differentiation between criticism of jewishness and zionism in matters of dual loyalty:

I agree fully with Jones’ reading of Flynn’s reported comments. If accurate it is indeed outrageous to suggest that a British person cannot be loyal to the UK just because he or she is also Jewish. And it’s even more outrageous to suggest that a Jewish person has no “roots” in the UK, just as it would be to suggest the same of a British Muslim or any other person.

But what Jones – and perhaps other critics of Flynn’s comments – have missed, is that the claims Flynn reportedly made have always been at the very heart of Zionism.

Joseph Massad has noted this in his crucial book The Persistence of the Palestinian Question as has international law expert Victor Kattan.

The basic idea is simple enough: Zionists, just like anti-Semites, believed that Jews were inherently alien and rootless in Europe and needed to be expelled physically. The “father” of Zionism, Theodor Herzl in his seminal tract, Der Judenstaat, wrote this nauseatingly anti-Semitic passage:

The Jewish question exists wherever Jews live in perceptible numbers. Where it does not exist, it is carried by Jews in the course of their migrations. We naturally move to those places where we are not persecuted, and there our presence produces persecution. This is the case in every country, and will remain so, even in those highly civilized—for instance, France—until the Jewish question finds a solution on a political basis. The unfortunate Jews are now carrying the seeds of Anti-Semitism into England; they have already introduced it into America.

Of course the “political solution” of which Herzl spoke was – Zionism – the removal of Jews from Europe and America so that they could not carry with them the “seeds” of their own persecution.Greatest British Zionist hero a vile anti-Semite

It is no coincidence then that the greatest British hero of Zionists to this day is Lord Arthur Balfour whose eponymous Balfour Declaration promised the Zionist movement that to which it had no right: the land of Palestine.

As Kattan points out in his book From Coexistence to Conquest: International Law and the Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1891-1949, Balfour’s anti-Semitism was well documented and expressed in his writings. From Kattan:

Zionism actually provided Balfour and those who thought like him with the perfect pretext to reduce Jewish immigration into Britain whilst portraying themselves, falsely, as ‘humanitarians’ concerned about their welfare. This is what Balfour wrote in the conclusion to his introduction to Nahum Sokolow’s epic book, the History of Zionism, 1600–1918 (1919):

If [Zionism] succeeds, it will do a great spiritual and material work for the Jews, but not for them alone. For as I read its meaning it is, among other things, a serious endeavour to mitigate the age-long miseries created for western civilisation by the presence in its midst of **a Body which it too long regarded as alien and even hostile, but which it was equally unable to expel or absorb. Surely, for this if for no other reason, it should receive our support.

That Balfour had the gall to write this in a book on Zionism was foreboding. One can only imagine what he wrote about the Jews in private or in correspondence that was destroyed or lost.

Indeed. And, as Kattan documents, such sentiments were shared by German anti-Semites who in the same period became enthusiastic supporters of Zionism.

U.S. military chief: Unclear if Israel would alert U.S. ahead of attack on Iran – protocols stuffed?

He said the United States was convinced that sanctions and diplomatic pressure was the right path to take on Iran, along with “the stated intent not to take any options off the table” – language that leaves open the possibility of future military action.

“I’m not sure the Israelis share our assessment of that.

And because they don’t and because to them this is an existential threat, I think probably that it’s fair to say that our expectations are different right now,” Dempsey said in an interview as he flew to Washington from London.

Asked whether he was talking about the differences between Israeli and U.S. expectations over sanctions, or differences in perspective about the future course of events, Dempsey said:

“All of the above.” He did not elaborate.

He also did not disclose whether he believed Israel was prepared to strike Iran.

Fayyad to Haaretz: I will not lead a Palestinian unity government
Survey released last week shows 57 percent Palestinians want Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to serve as head of the unity government.