Zionism

December 27, 2010December 11, 2020

Two Years Later, Israeli Cast Lead War Criminals Elude Justice

Accompanying an alarming metastasis of racism within Israel, baleful, triumphalist zionist rhetoric directed at the defenceless people of the Gaza gulag is building ominously once more.

The scenario for the next round is unfolding in front of our eyes and it resembles depressingly the same deterioration that preceded the massacre of Gaza two years ago: daily bombardment on the Strip and a policy that tries to provoke Hamas so that more expanded assaults would be justified. As one general explained, there is now a need to take into account the damaging effect of the Goldstone report: namely the next major attack should look more plausible than the 2009 one (but this concern may not be that crucial to this particular government; nor would it serve as an obstacle).

Today, on the anniversary of the commencement of Israel’s attack of the people of Gaza, many of us reflect on the events of two years ago in mourning and regret that its criminal progenitors have eluded justice, courtesy of the largesse and impunity lent by Israel’s blinkered, biased imperial benefactor, the US and its bevy of colonialist toadies, including Australia.

Then acting Australian PM Julia Gillard disgracefully cheerled the Israeli massacre:

Israel’s attack upon Gaza was met with a curious indifference by most of the so-called leaders of Western nations. As acting Prime Minister of Australia at the time, the ill-informed Julia Gillard refused to criticise, let alone condemn the actions of Israel. Supposedly speaking on behalf of the Australian people, she said: “Australia recognises the right of Israel to defend itself.” That comment was made on the third of January 2009, by which time it was widely known that 430 Gazans had already been killed and 2,300 wounded in 750 individual strikes carried out by air and by sea over the previous five days.

The Cast Lead massacre was committed with malice aforethought on an imprisoned Gaza population of 1.5 million people, 55% of whom were under the age of 18 years. Israel broke its truce with Hamas on November 5th, 2008 although there had been no actual Hamas rockets during the ceasefire. Nor had Israel cooperated with the spirit if not actual terms of the truce by easing its illegal blockade. Israel automagically, conveniently blames Hamas for any rockets fired from the oppressed Gazan sliver of land. In revenge, Israel inflicts ongoing indiscriminate collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza, whom it has now incarcerated for 1,293 days.

Yet the truce was working, as during the final couple of months, there were practically no rockets fired from Gaza at all. After breaking the truce ,.Israel refused to renew it, even though Hamas expressed its willingness to renegotiate provided the siege was eased. Israel attacked on the 27th December, 2008. During the 22 infamous days of Operation Cast Lead, Israel killed 1417 Palestinian people, 352 of whom were children.

Flaunting the Geneva Conventions, Israel fiendishly, illegally targeted and destroyed ambulances, hospitals, schools, universities, the sole electric power and sewerage plants, chicken farms, dairy farms, crops, trees, police stations, homes and whole villages. Israel made around 50,000 Gazans homeless during winter, then for 18 months after the end of its 22 day attack, malevolently disallowed materials for rebuilding to enter Gaza. Two years later:

Israel has so far only approved the import of materials for 25 UNRWA[2] construction projects for schools and clinics, a mere seven per cent of UNRWA’s entire reconstruction plan for Gaza. Even for these approved projects, only a small fraction of the required construction materials have actually been permitted to enter Gaza so far.

More generally, says the report, the UN has estimated that Gaza needs 670,000 truckloads of construction materials for housing alone in Gaza. An average of only 715 truckloads of construction materials have entered the Gaza Strip per month since the ‘easing’ announcement, says the report. At this rate, it would take many decades to build the needed homes. And because UNRWA has been unable to get construction materials to build new schools, 40,000 eligible children could not be enrolled at UN schools at the start of the new academic year.

“Only a fraction of the aid needed has made it to the civilians trapped in Gaza by the blockade”, said Jeremy Hobbs, Director of Oxfam International. “Israel’s failure to live up to its commitments and the lack of international action to lift the blockade are depriving Palestinians in Gaza of access to clean water, electricity, jobs and a peaceful future.”

Altogether in the Occupied Territories, between 29th September, 2000 and 30th November, 2010, around 1313 Palestinian children have been slaughtered by Israeli security forces, according to B’TSelem.

According to an Al Mezan report from December 2010, over 21,000 people remain displaced two years after the end of Operation Cast Lead. Israel has committed more grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention (Article 147) as

careful documentation indicates that the IOF destroyed at least 1,723 shelters after the end of hostilities when they had come under Israel’s effective control. These shelters could not be deemed military objectives. Nor were they near any other legitimate military targets. Their destruction was therefore illegal, violating fundamental international humanitarian law principles, and amounting to war crimes.

Thanks to rejection by the credulous zionist sycophants in the US congress of the painstaking research within the UN-commissioned Goldstone Report into Cast Lead war crimes, Israeli war criminals responsible for the planning and execution of the heinous Cast Lead massacre still walk free, with no justice attained for, nor compensation paid to Israel’s civilian victims.

‘Despite its listing count after count of international law contraventions, Israeli “war crimes” and “possible crimes against humanity,” the European Union, the United Nations, the Red Cross, and all major Human Rights Organizations have called for an end to the illegal, medieval siege, it carries on unabated. On 11th November 2010 UNRWA head John Ging said, “There’s been no material change for the people on the ground here in terms of their status, the aid dependency, the absence of any recovery or reconstruction, no economy…The easing, as it was described, has been nothing more than a political easing of the pressure on Israel and Egypt.’

Though the resistance of Palestinians who endure it is unflinching, and international boycotts, divestments and sanctions against Israeli apartheid and occupation are flourishing, Israel’s pitiless, illegal siege remains.

Israel’s harvest from its vindictive, cruel folly is bitter – as Nelson Mandela said, “A man who takes away another man’s freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he’s locked behind bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness.” Israel has deprived millions of Palestinians of their freedom. How much hatred, prejudice and narrow-mindedness imprisons Israel?

Palestinians deserve long overdue justice to be brought to their oppressors, for the hideous illegal siege to be lifted completely and for Israel’s aggression and expansionism to end. Join the #Gaza2 Campaign on twitter and post on your blog to remind the people of Palestine that neither they nor the calamities and evils inflicted on them during Operation Cast Lead by Israel and its collaborators are forgotten.

Palestine / Israel Links

The toxic downfall of the Jewish dream of a safe homeland
An Open Letter from Gaza: Two Years after the Massacre, a Demand for Justice
Israel’s image campaign a facade
Israeli foreign minister: Peace deal ‘impossible,’ ‘forbidden’
Dennis Ross Bats For Netanyahu
Hillary’s Envoy : Not Everyone is Cheering
New Mossad Chief Makes Nice to Brits
In Pictures: the slaughter of Gazan children – Victims of the Israeli occupation forces in the tenth day of their attacks on Gaza Strip – January 5, 2009
The drums of war are heard again in Israel
Davuto?lu blames Israel for failure to mend ties
And What Rough Beast Slouches Towards Gaza? Operation Cast Lead and the Dismembering of a People
Sorry, ‘Mother Jones’ but you’re piping the Israeli narrative of Gaza ‘war’
How long will American Jews deny this crushing reality?
Rabbi threatens civil war if settlements are evacuated
IDF warns troops: Facebook can bring terrorists to you
Jewish activist faces jail for West Bank resistance
Nomads No More: Israel evicts Indigenous Bedouins for more sterile racist settlements
Groundbreaking report details Israel’s inhumane conditions for isolated prisoners
UK considers recognizing PA diplomats
Palestinian group launches ‘Gaza Holocaust’ website
Another Gaza war?
Vigil outside the Israeli embassy in London to mark the second anniversary of the start of Operation Cast Lead
“To shoot an elephant” is an eye witness account from The Gaza Strip. December 27th, 2008, Operation Cast Lead. 21 days shooting elephants. Urgent, insomniac, dirty, shuddering images from the only foreigners who decided and managed to stay embedded inside Gaza strip ambulances, with Palestinian civilians.
The Gaza massacre and the struggle for justice
Suheir Hammad: 2. Rafah
Stuttgart Declaration
An Open Letter from Gaza: Two Years after the Massacre, a Demand for Justice
Operation Cast Lead 2 Years On
Leftist Yonatan Pollak sentenced to 3 months in jail
Shin Bet puts Israeli ‘anarchists’ in crosshairs
Israeli activist sentenced to 3 months in prison for protesting Gaza war

Wikileaks Links

WikiLeaks founder baffled by sex assault claims
THE WIKILEAKS NEWS & VIEWS BLOG, Special Holiday Weekend Edition!
Saving Private Manning
Beyond WikiLeaks: The Privatization of War
Austria and the WikiLeaks Diplomatic Cables
WikiLeaks tells why drug king is still free
Wikileaks: State Department Lied, Denying Dubai Asked for Assistance in Tracking Mossad Assassins
Wikileaks cables have revealed a disturbing development in the African uranium mining industry: abysmal safety and security standards in the mines, nuclear research centres, and border customs are enabling international companies to exploit the mines and smuggle dangerous radioactive material across continents.
EX-CIA SPOOK CALLS FOR “COVERT ACTION” VS. ASSANGE
WikiLeaks may spawn new sedition act

Other Links

Afghanistan denounces deadly NATO-led raid
America in Decline: Why Germans Think We’re Insane
Can Gillard Last?

December 26, 2010December 11, 2020

Zionist Exceptionalism For Extrajudicial Executions

The new Mossad chief will apologise to the UK for the use of its passports in its Dubai extrajudicial assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in January 2010.

David Milliband, then foreign secretary, told MPs that Israel had shown a “profound disregard” for British sovereignty, adding: “The fact that this was done by a country which is a friend, with significant diplomatic, cultural, business and personal ties to the UK, only adds insult to injury.”

Will Pardo’s magnanimity extend to Australia, Ireland, France and Germany, whose passports were also abused by Mossad?

The duplicitous use of foreign passports is not the primary crime committed by Israel. Extrajudicial executions are outlawed by the Second Additional Protocol of the Geneva Conventions (1977) that states:

“No sentence shall be passed and no penalty shall be executed on a person found guilty of an offence except pursuant to a conviction pronounced by a court offering the essential guarantees of independence and impartiality.” (Second Protocol of the Geneva Conventions (1977) Art 6.2)

Zionist exceptionalism is enabled and paralleled by that of its indulgent sponsor, the US, with its disgraceful preemptive strike policy and legal permissiveness for extrajudicial assassinations even of its own citizens.

In December 2006, Israel’s High Court of Justice outrageously declared the legality of the extrajudicial executions of Palestinian activists suspected of being “unlawful combatants.”

The taking of life based on suspicions against a person, represents a gross violation of fundamental principles of law and morality. It is a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions, and further, is defined as a war crime by the International Criminal Court. These legal-moral principles are applicable to every country, organization and person, whether or not they are an official party to these instruments.

In this ruling, the Israeli High Court indiscriminately adopts the Israeli government’s practice that strips “unlawful combatants” of their legal and human rights. International law does not recognize a category of “unlawful combatants” who do not enjoy either the rights of combatants in the battlefield or those of protected civilians. The Court did not question the prevailing modus operandi of Israel’s security forces, which declares that all Palestinian civilians are “unlawful combatants” a posteriori, after an execution has been made, again without any legal review or oversight.
…

The Fourth Geneva Convention relates to the protection of civilian population in time of war. Article 146 of the Convention obligates the High Contracting Parties to enact effective penal sanctions for persons who have committed, or ordered to be committed, “grave breaches” of the Convention. Article 147 defines “grave breaches” to include “willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment.”

As Israeli scholar Tanya Reinhart says: “Under military rule, Israel has become a leading force in the destruction of the very protections that humankind has established, out of World War Two, for its own preservation, protections that we too may need one day, as history has already shown us”.

For how long will the world turn a blind eye to Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity which overshadow mere passport abuse, and that include ongoing brazen slaughter of civilians, ethnic cleansing in the Occupied Territories and within Israel itself?

Palestine / Israel Links

SEATTLE, USA: King County executive prevents “Israeli War Crimes” bus ads from appearing
King Co. rejects Israeli-Gaza bus ad
GISHA REPORT: “Reconstructing the Closure” Dec10 [.pdf]
Israeli demolitions traumatic for Palestinian children, says UN official
Inflaming racist rhetoric
Israelis kill Gazan shepherd, wound three – medics
UN envoys criticise Israel home demolitions
1932 is already here
Fuel for racism
US should recognize Palestine – John Quigley
Israeli racial purity
Turkey set on improving Israel ties, but insists on apology for Gaza flotilla raid
Anger after Nazareth suburb bans Christmas tree
The Palestinian ‘legitimacy war’
Jeffrey Goldberg’s Anti-Boycott Bluster & Blunder
Israeli Foreign Ministry Plans New Hasbara Effort Against Palestinians

STL-PSC Flash Mob: Boycott Israeli Apartheid in Palestine! (YouTube Censors the Video)
The Holy Land is on a tourism high
Jerusalem & Babylon / Demons on the streets of Israel
No legitimate Palestinian leader can negotiate with Israel while it continues to colonize Palestinian land.
Lieberman’s Great Big Palestinian Land Heist Plan
Christmas and New Year’s Eve: More Homeless Palestinian children
Senior Labor minister: Without peace talks, even U.S. may soon recognize Palestinian state
World may recognise Palestine soon: Israel minister
Delegitimizing Israel: the dictionary
Israel mobilizing forces in Silwan for possible eviction of non-violent leader
French activists arrested at West Bank protest
Gaza doctor takes Israel to court
The Gaza Strip is a castle that will defend Palestinian rights and resist occupation
Deputy FM: ‘The state of Facebook’ is more real than Palestine
Israeli diplomat ambushed by NY Times staff
Max Ajl returns to Gaza and locates Palestinian freedom – ‘it’s under an Israeli-American jackboot’
‘Asylum seekers trying to reach Israel are being trapped and tortured in Sinai’
Steve Rosen’s Plaint against AIPAC
Texas Tea Party : anti-Semitic and pro-Zionist
Lieberman: Israel’s governing coalition unable to agree on peace deal with Palestinians
In Israel, parenthood is perceived of as a national mission
Kuala Lumpur-Malaysia: 26th of December 2010 : Flashmob/freeze scene
Gaza aid ship returns to Turkey
Gaza: Two years after the horror of Operation Cast Lead

Wikileaks Links

Banks and Wikileaks
Bank of America wonders about WikiLeaks’ planned ‘megaleak’
WikiLeaks given $1.3m in 2010, and Julian Assange pays himself two thirds of the salary budget
DEA reach goes global, beyond drugs: report
20 things we learned in 2010
We’re no pawns: Assange accusers
WikiLeaks: Kiwi mosque spied on by US

Other Links

Murphy: ‘The FBI raids and subpoenas . . . [are] best understood as backlash aimed at silencing our successful movement’

December 24, 2010December 11, 2020

Israel as Multiphobic Grinch

Merry Christmas from Israeli-occupied Bethlehem via London.

Meanwhile, at the supposed place of Jesus’s birth, the racist Upper Nazareth mayor grinch has banned Christmas trees.

The mayor of a Jewish suburb of Nazareth sparked outrage on Wednesday after refusing to allow Christmas trees to be placed in town squares, calling them provocative.

Predominantly Jewish Nazareth Illit, or Upper Nazareth, is adjacent to Nazareth, where Jesus is said to have spent much of his life. It has a sizable Arab Christian minority, as does mostly Muslim Nazareth itself.

‘The request of the Arabs to put Christmas trees in the squares in the Arab quarter of Nazareth Illit is provocative,’ Mayor Shimon Gapso told AFP.

‘Nazareth Illit is a Jewish city and it will not happen – not this year and not next year, so long as I am a mayor,’ he said of the northern Israeli town.

Here, a new, nasty form of Israeli dendrophobia (phobia of trees) is displayed. Usually, zionists are renowned for burning or chopping rampages of Palestinian olive trees, actions designed to make life less bearable for Palestinians in their own land, to encourage them to vacate so more zionist land thieves can usurp their place.

Elsewhere in the Occupied Territories, brazen atrocities and theft committed by racist dysfunctional Israel have continued unabated. The phobias revealed by Israel’s lunatic fascist acts below include pediaphobia (phobia of children), ovinaphobia (phobia of sheep), oikophobia (phobia of houses), lactaphobia (phobia of milk), alektorophobia (phobia of chickens) and an over-arching xenophobia (fear of outsiders). I am not aware of formal names for the fear of equality nor the fear of human rights, but these phobias can also be added to the list of Israel’s pathologies.

From the Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (16 – 22 December. 2010):

– 5 activists of the Palestinian resistance were killed by IOF in the Gaza Strip.

– Another 4 activists were wounded by Israeli air strikes.

– IOF continued to fire at Palestinian workers, farmers and fishermen in border areas in the Gaza Strip.

– Two Palestinian workers, including a child, and one shepherd were wounded.

– Israeli warplanes attacked a number of targets in the Gaza Strip.

– A factory of dairy products was destroyed in the southern Gaza Strip.

– A house and a grocery were destroyed and another two houses were damaged in Rafah.

– A bird farm was damaged and 1,800 chickens were killed.

– Two sites of the ‘Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) were destroyed.

– IOF continued to use force against peaceful protests in the West Bank.

– 5 Palestinian civilians were wounded.

– IOF arrested 5 human rights defenders.

– IOF conducted 34 incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank.

– IOF arrested 22 Palestinian civilians, including two children.

– Israel has continued to impose a total siege on the OPT and has isolated the Gaza Strip from the outside world.

– Israel has continued to take measures aimed at creating a Jewish demographic majority in Jerusalem.

– IOF demolished a houses and forced two Palestinian civilians to demolish their houses in Jerusalem.

– IOF have continued settlement activities in the West Bank and Israeli settlers have continued to attack Palestinian civilians and property.

– Israeli settlers attacked two children in Jenin and burnt sheep in Nablus.

– IOF demolished a house in Bethlehem and 4 stores in Hebron.

– IOF confiscated 50 donums[1] of land in Beit Eksa village near Jerusalem.

Palestine / Israel Links

‘Israel approves 13,000 settlement units’
‘The Palestine Cables’: Gaza is a burning issue from Egypt to Latin America to Pakistan, to John Kerry being ’shocked by what I saw’
Israeli officer claims Goldstone report will not restrict IDF in future war
Weekly Report On Israeli Human Rights Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (16 – 22 December. 2010)
Soldier assaults B’Tselem worker on latter’s land
Postscript on the new McCarthyism
U.S. criticizes PA bid to take settlement construction to UN
Blast from the Past Evergreen – A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm
Austrian Jews chide Likud MK for meeting far-right leader
Right-wing Israelis rally to kick Arabs out of Bat Yam
The tyranny of the Israeli majority
Australian BDS Movement Begins to Emerge
Major success for the anti-settlements campaign: Multilock to close West Bank factory
Settlement expansion in Palestine rises by 65 per cent
Netanyahu Accuses the Palestinians Of Obstructing Peace
UN envoys criticize Israel home demolitions
Wikileaks Cable Shows US Involvement in Swedish Anti-Piracy Efforts
Israeli airstrikes target Rafah
Abulhawa: Delegitimization? We are merely drawing back the curtain on child arrests and confiscation of water
Only a strong political center will halt Israel’s racist frenzy (not enough, zionism is doomed and in its final horrific flailing incarnation
Left-wing students fight university ban of ‘libelous’ flyer featuring Lieberman
The Bluster of a Zionist Thug
Hamas threatens Israel with retaliation
Christians in Palestine
Invisible Bethlehem

Wikilinks

Assange says ‘high chance’ he would be killed in US jail
US Army launches WikiLeaks probe
Julian Assange: my fate will rest in Cameron’s hands if US charges me
Supposed wikileak yet to be published: US memo: Israel bombed Syrian reactor
Cuba puts ‘imperialist’ US Wikileaks online
Norway’s top diplomat finds WikiLeaks “fascinating”
Norwegian Paper Obtains WikiLeaks Cable Haul
The Case of Julian Assange
WikiLeaks to ‘prove’ Mossad behind Dubai murder
What WikiLeaks revealed to the world in 2010
Anthropology, Secrecy, and Wikileaks
WikiLeaks Reveals the Crimes of the Congressional-Big Agra Complex
We’re no pawns: Assange accusers
Bickering warriors in coalition of unwilling : Mistrust, indecision and hostility undermined Australia’s alliance with the Dutch and Americans in what was supposed to be a united front

Other Links

FBI: Don’t Spy on Us Say Minneapolis Activists
Obama administration preparing executive order to authorize indefinite detentions
Pentagon’s Christmas Present: Largest Military Budget Since World War II
Supporters Demand Justice for Aafia Siddiqui
The United States and Africa Security Cooperation and the Africa Command (AFRICOM)
Australia rejects Israeli ordered Media censorship on Al-Manar

December 23, 2010December 11, 2020

Israeli and US Machinations to be Revealed Sooner or Later?

In an Al Jazeera interview conducted in Arabic, Julian Assange has revealed that it will take Wikileaks six months to release documents on Israel. This is confirmed by a post on the WL Central blog. Here’s a translation of the Al Jazeera story accompanying the interview provided to me by a fluent friend:

“The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange denied what was recently circulated about a secret deal that he might have made with israel in return for not publishing anything about it in the series of the leaked American diplomatic documents that his website publishes.

Assange said Wednesday evening in “Without Limits” on Al-Jazeera that he didn’t make any deal with israel and revealed that his site would publish hundreds of documents relating to israel in the coming months. He stated that he has 3700 documents and 2700 of these documents originated from israel alone.

He added, “we did not have direct or indirect contact with the israelis, but the israeli intelligence (mossad) and other intelligence agencies are following us and attempt to predict what we will do. And I’m sure that the israeli intelligence is interested in us, but it did not contact us. It might have contacted individuals that used to work for our organization, but at the moment, there are no communications between them [israeli intelligence] and us.

He added that what was published about israel represents 1% or 2% of the documents concerning israel. But he stated that international newspapers that he made a deal with to publish the documents chose what they wanted to publish based on their interest in them. He said that that reflects the “bias” of some of these newspaper and that his site would publish all the documents it has and are related to israel.

Assange revealed that there are sensitive and classified documents that deal with israel’s war on Lebanon in 2006. Others deal with the assassination of Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in Dubai and the diplomatic telegrams regarding the passports used by the mossad in the operation.

He said that there is an important telegram about Hizb Allah’s telecommunications’ network that mentions fiber lines and that one of these lines passed by the French embassy in Beirut. He added that this matter “worries Washington because control of telecommunications is important.”

He stated that the secret classified documents include mention of the mossad, and high ranking communications regarding the assassination of a Syrian official by a sniper. He said that the publication of the documents relating to israel and some Arab states will continue for six months.”

The Al Jazeera interview transcript and video in Arabic with Julian Assange is here.

The Peninsula’s transcript of the interview includes:

“There are 3,700 files related to Israel and the source of 2,700 files is Israel. In the next six months we intend to publish more files depending on our sources,” said Assange in the nearly one-hour interview telecast live from the UK.

Q: An Arabic newspaper called Al Haqeeqa [“the Truth”] conducted an interview with one of your former colleagues who said you have a deal with Israel not to publish these secret files.

A: This is not true. We have been accused as agents of Iran and CIA by this former colleague who was working for Germany in the past and was dismissed from his job after we published American military documents related to Germany.

We were the biggest institution receiving official funding from the US but after we released a video tape about killing people in cold blood in Iraq in 2007, the funding stopped and we had to depend on individuals for finance.

Q: When will you publish the files related to Israel on your website?

A: We will publish 3700 files and the source is the American embassy in Tel Aviv. Prime Minister Netanyahu was traveling to Paris to talk to the US ambassador there. You will see more information about that in six months.

Q: Do these Israeli files speak about the July 2006 Israeli war against Lebanon?

A: Yes there is some information about that and these files were classified as top secret.

Q: Is there any relation with these files and the assassination of Hamas military leader Al Mabhoh in Dubai?

A: Yes there are some indication to this and may be some special reports published by newspapers. Mossad agents used Australian, British and European passports to travel to Dubai and there are diplomatic files about that.

Q: Are there any security service companies providing information to international airports and monitoring passengers even in the Arab countries?

A: There are some files about American and Israeli security companies that tried to intervene in certain areas. For example, in Brazil, the American embassy put some Israeli security companies during the Olympic Games.

Q: Are there any files about agencies providing intelligence information about famous personalities in the Arab world?

A: I am not sure about that but there are files about Hezbollah in Lebanon. In one of these files Lebanon government complained against cables passing near the French embassy. American are always very much worried about the telecommunications network.

Q: Are there any files about Israeli agents in the Arab world including some Arab royal palaces.

A: Most of the files related to Mossad are classified as top secret but there may be some files related to the role of Mossad in killing Lebanese military leader in Damascus by sniper bullets.

There 2,500 files related to Mossad and I have read only 1000. So I don’t know about everythiong, I need more journalists including Arabs to read and analyse and put everything in the context for the benefit of the readers.

We have 17,000 files where the word Qatar has been mentioned, the source of 3,000 of these files is the American embassy in Doha.

Q: What is the most interesting file about Qatar that was not published?

A: There is a lot to be read. The name of Waddah Khanfar has been mentioned in 504 files. Some of these files have been published by The Guardian.

Q: How do the Americans view Al Jazeera in these files?

A: There were some meetings between people from Al Jazeera and the US embassy where the latter suggested coverage of certain things in a certain way.

There are files about a TV channel in Dubai which the Americans said can be used against Al Jazeera and when this channel tried to move in the American direction, people stopped watching it.

The Americans despite having a base here were angry about the presence of an Iranian bank in Qatar but Qatar said it would not close it but would not open new banks. Despite that this bank established many more branches in Doha. Qatar is trying to create a balance between the Arab world and the America.

The Americans appreciate having their largest base in Doha but Qatar does not agree with all American requirements and Al Jazeera is a good example for that.

Ex-Wikileaks associate, Daniel Domscheit-Berg also has denied the rumours of Assange dealing with Israel.

I have been notified about the general rumour a few weeks ago, and shortly after about the appearance of me as involved in those allegations. I have never spoken to anyone at syriatruth or that reporter that is making these claims, nor do I know anything about any deals JA has allegedly made with Israelis.

Given what is appearing in the Scandinavian area with the involvement of Shamir and Wahlstrom I wouldn’t actually expect that to happen either. In any case, this latter statement is just my personal judgement.

I once received a test mail from a , and then a followup regarding OpenLeaks questions. A contact request to him after hearing of the allegations was not replied to.

In the last week or so I have been contacted by Israeli TV about this, as well as French Le Point today. Those are the only media outfits so far that seem to have taken interest. Other than that it seems to be mainly spreading via weird Russian and religious forums, at least from as much as I am aware of.

As I read somewhere that this alleged reporter I allegedly talked to works for Hareetz, I have asked the folks from Israeli TV if they could help find out who that is, and how to contact her. They replied that there doesn’t seem to be anyone by that name. So obviously, which was my gut feeling also, that person does not exist. Why that rumour is circulated, I dont know. I have my feelings about that and think we should give it some more time to uncover itself.

Some more comment on the situation here.

As the entire Wikileaks cables are now in the mitts of Norway’s largest newspaper, Aftenposten, ‘without the consent of Julian Assange’, will the Tel Aviv cables come to light much sooner than expected?

The US Ambassador to Australia, Jeff Bleich, noted by Australian Jewish News as active in the American Jewish Committee and B’nai B’rith ADL and who has previously assured the Capital Jewish Forum (CJF) in Canberra that President Barack Obama was committed to protecting Israel from Iran’s nuclear ambitions, is published in The Age today, patronisingly and vapidly arguing against government transparency and Wikileaks. A pleasant counter-balance to the US ambassador’s mendacity is provided by former Australian intelligence analyst Paul Barratt on Inside Story:

More disturbingly, the cables reveal that behind closed doors our political leaders deal incautiously with representatives of the United States and Israel. They seem to forget that they are dealing with the representatives of a foreign country, in a game that is definitely reserved for grown-ups, the world of navigating our country through the shoals of major international events. They make such forthright and absolute declarations of support that they leave hostages to fortune, giving themselves little room to negotiate on issues arising in the future on the basis of a hard-nosed assessment of where Australia’s national interest lies. Indeed, at times they give the impression they would struggle to see the difference between Australia’s national interests and those of the United States or Israel.

Despite vehement protestations by Netanyahu to the contrary, Wikileaks cables (and Netanyahu’s public admonitions), have shown Israel consistently conflates peace with Palestinians with its existential fear of Iran as number one threat, emphasising an interminable, nebulous and largely self-created security problem which inflates a deliberately marketed victimhood which the US is expected to ease and pander to at all times. In turn, this mechanism provides US military industrial plutocrats, Middle Eastern dictators and other ruling class mavens with plausible deniability for exploitation of the world’s richest sources of energy, at the expense of ordinary people of the region, negating an equitable outcome for rightsless Palestinians that would truly be in the interests of everyone’s security except those who profit from their oppression.

UPDATE

News of an unreleased cable appears in Ynet on Israel’s bombing of a supposed Syrian nuclear reactor from Yedioth Ahronoth’s Ronen Bergman. This release follows a Guardian interview with Julian Assange:

WikiLeaks now plans to begin sharing the cables with a wider group of regional news organisations. Julian Assange says all future cables released by WikiLeaks will either be redacted by other partner news organisations, or by WikiLeaks itself. The Guardian and its partners in the project, the New York Times, Der Spiegel, El Pais and Le Monde, will continue to share redactions with WikiLeaks for any cables they publish in future.

Assange also refers to Israel Shamir, notorious anti-semite afficionado “Belarus is a shining lamp of socialism” of the brutal Lukashenko regime in Belarus.

Assange defended one of WikiLeaks’ collaborators, Israel Shamir, following claims Shamir passed sensitive cables to Belarus’s dictator, Alexander Lukashenko. Lukashenko has arrested 600 opposition supporters and journalists since Sunday’s presidential election. The whereabouts and fate of several of the president’s high-profile opponents are unknown.

Of Shamir, Assange said: “WikiLeaks works with hundreds of journalists from different regions of the world. All are required to sign non-disclosure agreements and are generally only given limited review access to material relating to their region. We have no reason to believe these rumours in relation to Belarus are true.”

Over the past month the Guardian has published more than 200 articles based on the trove of US diplomatic dispatches obtained by WikiLeaks, and 739 of the cables themselves. All cables published by the Guardian and the four other international news organisations who had exclusive early access to the material have been carefully redacted to protect sources who could be placed in danger, and the redacted versions have been passed to WikiLeaks.

It’s annoying that the Guardian didn’t ask Assange how the Norwegian paper Aftenposten received the entire trove of documents, because I would like to know whether my suspicions are correct.

Swedish Radio, Medierna, discovered last week that Shamir’s son, Johannes Wahlström ‘is the gatekeeper of the cables in Scandinavia, and “has the power to decide” which newspapers are provided access and what leaks they are allowed to see’.

Palestine / Israel Links

How Scottish Zionist Ephraim Borowski tried to browbeat Positive Action in Housing, a Glasgow Charity dedicated to Supporting Asylum Seekers
Cast Lead two year anniversary [update]
The Palestinians have rights too
The Delusions Of The Peace Process
Why Do Jewish Organizations Ignore Glenn Beck?
UN urges Israeli ‘restraint’, condemns projectiles
2010-12-23 Al Jazeera Interview: Wikileaks to release Israel documents in six months
Ameer Makhoul’s perpetual trial
New Gaza war ‘a question of when, not if’
IDF general uses 1945 law to bar East J’lem resident from capital
The Israeli mainstream and European far-right fascists. A natural fit?
Racism has reared its head, and the public is apathetic
‘WikiLeaks to publish Israel files on Second Lebanon War, Dubai assassination’
Daniel Domscheit-Berg Denies Rumor of Assange-Israeli Deals
Arab tenants forced to leave Tel Aviv home due to threats
Another Christmas under siege
Christmas trees ‘provocative:’ Nazareth suburb’s mayor
Western media reluctant to publish WikiLeaks cables about Israel
Haaretz journalist doubles as anti-“delegitimization” operative
Netanyahu: World starting to understand that Israel is not obstacle to Mideast peace – blames Iran and attempts to throw the scent from Israel’s oppression of Palestinians
PSC West London: Report from Inside Zionist Conference on the ‘De-Legitimisation’ of Israel
Useful Timeline of Laws of Palestinian Residency in Jerusalem – 1967 until today
The smoking cable: Israel said it had ’secret accord’ with U.S. over expanding settlements even as Obama said in Cairo they must stop!

Wikilinks

Assange interview in arabic on Al Jazeera
Assange promises info on Mabhouh, Lebanon War – Ynet says “the assassination of a Syrian official by a sniper
‘Cables to be released on Israel, Lebanon, Mabhouh’ – Jpost quotes the Peninsula and says a Lebanese military leader was assassinated in Damascus”
‘WikiLeaks to publish Israel cables on Second Lebanon War, Dubai assassination’
Newspaper gets WikiLeaks cables – A NORWEGIAN newspaper has gotten hold of the entire file of US cables first leaked to WikiLeaks. (No prizes for guessing/knowing how this happened.)
Julian Assange On Al Jazeera For the Second time
Wikileaks: Mossad Sells U.S. on Iran Regime Change Plan
NYT worked ‘several weeks’ on leaked cables; WikiLeaks wasn’t direct source for docs which contradicts what the NY Times says, to wit:
The New York Times, the British newspaper The Guardian, the German magazine Der Spiegel and the French newspaper Le Monde were given access to the material in June, on the condition that the contents not be made public until now.
NZ accused of Israel ‘flap’ to boost Arab trade
The PATRIOT Act, Bradley Manning and Julian Assange – Predicting Torture
Norwegian newspaper should WikiLeaks documents received {German tr]
WikiLeaks Joins Forces With Lebedev’s Moscow-Based Newspaper Novaya Gazeta
– Novaya Gazeta received unlimited access to the WikiLeaks database, which has a “wide range” of materials, including documents about Politkovskaya’s murder as well as information about Russian politicians’ ties to organized crime, Nadezhda Prusenkova, a Novaya Gazeta spokeswoman, said by phone from Moscow. The newspaper will start releasing materials next month.
Russian Newspaper Joins Forces With WikiLeaks
The lies of the smear campaign against #wikileaks & Assange exposed.
Wikileaks’ Leaks Leaked: Norwegian Paper Has All the Cables and None of the Restrictions
Wikileaks’ Big Leak Is Leaked – Aftenposten says the leak occurred “without the consent of Wikileaks director Julian Assange.”
Aftenposten has gained access to 250,000 new Wikileaks documents. News Editor Erik Ole Almlid said the newspaper could use the documents without conditions.
Fidelis Snags Anti-WikiLeaks Contracts
Apple removes iPhone Wikileaks app from iTunes
NZ accused of Israel ‘flap’ to boost Arab trade
2010-12-23 Al Jazeera Interview: Wikileaks to release Israel documents in six months
The Assange case – what it means for socialists
David Frost interviews Julian Assange
UN to investigate treatment of jailed leaks suspect Bradley Manning
WikiLeaks cables reveal commercial motivations behind New Zealand troop deployment to Iraq
Exclusive Julian Assange Interview With Cenk Uygur (12/22/10)
The Blast Shack – Bruce Sterling on Wikileaks.
Developer of banned WikiLeaks App to donate $1 from each download to WikiLeaks

UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression and Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression Joint Statement On Wikileaks
Bank Of America Outdoes Itself When It Comes To Wrongfully Breaking Into People’s Homes, Stealing Items Of Sentimental Value
Three-Strikes “Typhoid Mary” Identified Via Wikileaks
WikiLeaks cables: US intervened in Michael Moore NZ screening
US complicit in India’s systematic use of torture in Kashmir
Wikileaks Mirror Network
Jakarta accused over Papua
Bradley Manning Speaks About His Conditions
CENK UYGUR : My Exclusive Interview with WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange

Australian Wikilinks

Media union waives Assange’s fees
Aussies against pro-Wikileaks DDoS
What the WikiLeaks cables reveal about Australia’s leaders

Other Links

How 2010 revealed Labor’s hollow core
FBI Expands Probe into Antiwar Activists

December 22, 2010August 24, 2022

Witchhunts of Human Rights Activists : a Symptom of Serious US Malaise

Managing Editor of the excellent Electronic Intifada, Maureen Murphy, has been served by the FBI with a summons to appear before a US Grand Jury.

The FBI came unannounced to knock on doors at two apartments in Chicago this morning. FBI agent Robert Parker, under orders from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s office, delivered a subpoena to Maureen Murphy. Murphy, like several other individuals served subpoenas, is an organizer with the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago.

This continues the repression unleashed by Fitzgerald on the anti-war movement since September 24th, when fourteen subpoenas were delivered to anti-war, labor, and solidarity activists in coordinated raids involving more than 70 federal agents. Armed FBI agents raided homes, taking computers, phones, passports, documents, notebooks, and even children’s artwork. A total of 23 subpoenas have been served to activists around the country.

Maureen Murphy said, “Along with several others, I am being summoned to appear before the Grand Jury on Tuesday, January 25th, in the Dirksen Federal Building in Chicago. We are being targeted for the work we do to end U.S. funding of the Israeli occupation, ending the war in Afghanistan and ending the occupation of Iraq. What is at stake for all of us is our right to dissent and organize to change harmful US foreign policy.” Ms. Murphy is also the Managing Editor of the widely-read website, The Electronic Intifada.

In addition, three women in Minneapolis – Tracy Molm, Anh Pham, and Sara Martin – are threatened with reactivated subpoenas by Fitzgerald’s office and new Grand Jury dates. Tom Burke of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression explained, “It is likely the three individuals, like all the others so far, will continue to refuse to take part in Fitzgerald’s witch hunt. Fitzgerald can then call for putting them in jail as long as he wants.”

For more information: www.stopfbi.net

Contact: Tom Burke, Committee to Stop FBI Repression, 773-844-3612

On the 20th December, Electronic Intifada reprinted a United States Palestinian Community Network press release in support of US Palestinian activists and other community activists harassed by the FBI.

Since 24 September, the FBI has raided seven Chicago and Minneapolis homes of activists and has served a total of 19 federal subpoenas across the Midwest. The targeted citizens are outspoken community organizers and students critical of US policy in Colombia, Palestine and the Middle East.

The grand jury and FBI are seeking evidence that connects the 19 activists and their “potential co-conspirators” to US-designated “terrorist organizations.” Five of the nineteen activists being targeted are Palestinian-Americans whose only crime is working tirelessly to inform fellow citizens of the realities of Israeli occupation. None of the 19 has been charged with a crime, and all deny providing material support, including money, to any foreign organization. These activists are shining examples of courage and fortitude, ordinary citizens doing the extraordinary work of building knowledge and support for justice and a common humanity

Federal harassment of our communities and associational life has grown precipitously during the last decade, as Arabs, Muslims and their allies continue to be persecuted for their lawful and necessary civic engagement. This suppression of civil rights and free speech seeks to criminalize and quell civic activism undertaken in support of Palestinian and other oppressed peoples’ struggles against US-funded occupation and war. This harassment must stop.

The United States Palestinian Community Network stands in full support of our brothers and sisters unjustly targeted by the federal government.

We assert our determination and commitment to challenge our government’s policies, both here and abroad, and will continue to defend the rights of Palestinians, our allies, and all those struggling against oppression. The USPCN upholds the constitutional right of Americans to dissent without fear of persecution, and the rights of peace and justice organizations to organize, educate, and assemble, free and unbridled.

We call upon all USPCN local chapters, members and fellow citizens, to join existing local and national efforts organized by the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (http://www.stopfbi.net).

Do not be intimidated, we struggle together. Continue to speak your conscience, continue to educate, and continue to organize. Justice will prevail.

It is beyond reprehensible that the US is witchhunting honourable people who stand up for truth and justice for oppressed people. What next? Star chambers and kangaroo courts for Electronic Intifada subscribers? How can YOU help? Firstly:

@Maureen_70 : if you think the FBI shouldn’t be messing with activists be sure to call US Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald (312-353-5300) and say so #stopfbi #

Secondly, donate to Electronic Intifada so the truth can continue to ring out clearly above a cacophony of base, repressive dross.

Next, subscribe and donate to the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

These loathsome US measures are signs of the empire’s moral bankruptcy and desperation. When the state is challenged, when truth is spoken to power, the state devolves to authoritarianism, with FBI actions being “reminiscent of the agency’s COINTELPRO program of the 1950s and 1960s that targeted Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Black Panther leaders, among many others”.

“To resume, in a few words, the system of the Imperial government, as it was instituted by Augustus, and maintained by those princes who understood their own interest and that of the people, it may be defined an absolute monarchy disguised by the forms of a commonwealth. The masters of the Roman world surrounded their throne with darkness, concealed their irresistible strength, and humbly professed themselves the accountable ministers of the senate, whose supreme decrees they dictated and obeyed.” – Edward Gibbon, “Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire”, Chapter 3