tagged w/ Israel Conflict
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Sorry about the commercial.
Listen as FOX allows this Gillerman idiot espouse the most outrageous fear-mongering statements without so much as a peep of questioning the accuracy of!
Amazing.
I hope you are all paying attention. FOX is paving the way for another invasion in it's usual fashion. SCARE TACTICS!Sorry about the commercial.
Listen as FOX allows this Gillerman idiot espouse the... more
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US Aid: The Facts
Israel and the US have a long-established special relationship. The US was the first country to recognise the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
Israel is considered America’s closest non-NATO ally in the Middle East, a region that is geopolitically crucial to the US.
The close relationship between the two states is reflected in the volume of aid Israel receives from the US. Since World War II Israel has been the largest overall recipient of US aid: from 1949-2006 Israel received more than $156 billion of direct US aid.
Until 2003, Israel received approximately one-third of the annual US foreign aid budget. In 2005, the US gave Israel more than $2.6 billion in aid, a budget exceeded only by US aid to Iraq. By comparison, Jordan received $683.6 million, Rwanda received $77 million, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories received $348.2 million.
In the past, a majority of the direct US aid to Israel was via US Economic Support Funds (ESF). The US publicly states that ESF are given in order to support stability in areas strategic to the US. However, the recipient government completely controls how it spends these funds.
The US also lends money to Israel, but these loans are frequently waived before any repayments are made. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs has estimated that from 1974-2003 Israel benefited from more than $45 billion in waived loans from the US.
Direct US aid to Israel has significantly diminished since 1996 in order to reduce Israeli financial dependence on the US. Speaking to the US Congress in July 1996, Former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declared, “We will begin the long-term process of gradually reducing the level of your generous economic assistance to Israel.”
Political support
The US has a history of giving Israel direct political support. In 1972, the US prevented the adoption of UN resolution S/10784 paragraph 74, which condemned Israeli attacks against southern Lebanon and Syria. In order to do this, the US used its veto power in the Security Council for only the second time.
Since 1972, the US has used its veto power to prevent the adoption of 42 UN resolutions that condemned or severely criticized actions by the State of Israel. In 2006, for example, the US prevented the adoption of UN resolution S/878, which demanded a mutual ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.
In 2002, former US Ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, stated that it was US policy to denounce all UN resolutions that criticized Israel without also condemning “terrorist groups.” This statement is now known as the Negroponte-doctrine.US Aid: The Facts
Israel and the US have a long-established special relationship.... more
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Gideon Levy, journalist with the IsraeliEnglish-language daily paper Ha'aretz writes things that virtually no paper in the US would dare print for the outcry among Zionists (Jews and Christians) it would elicit.
In this link he reports on the visit of 21 South African human rights activists to the Palestinian Occupied Territories:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1000976.html
Excert:
She was deputy defense minister from 1999 to 2004; in 1987 she served time in prison. Later, I asked her in what ways the situation here is worse than apartheid. "The absolute control of people's lives, the lack of freedom of movement, the army presence everywhere, the total separation and the extensive destruction we saw."
Madlala-Routledge thinks that the struggle against the occupation is not succeeding here because of U.S. support for Israel - not the case with apartheid, which international sanctions helped destroy. Here, the racist ideology is also reinforced by religion, which was not the case in South Africa. "Talk about the 'promised land' and the 'chosen people' adds a religious dimension to racism which we did not have."
Equally harsh are the remarks of the editor-in-chief of the Sunday Times of South Africa, Mondli Makhanya, 38. "When you observe from afar you know that things are bad, but you do not know how bad. Nothing can prepare you for the evil we have seen here. In a certain sense, it is worse, worse, worse than everything we endured. The level of the apartheid, the racism and the brutality are worse than the worst period of apartheid. Gideon Levy, journalist with the IsraeliEnglish-language daily paper Ha'aretz writes... more
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Ever since I went to Yad Vashim in Jerusalem I have understood the Israeli Occupation of the Palestinian territory as a direct product of fear on a pathological level that was created by not only the Jewish experience in the Holocaust but by the world's indifference. I toured the Holocaust museum with my then 8 year daughter and was moved to tears - not because of the crimes shown, but because many of the photographs I saw are available today - the Warsaw Ghetto, the children with Jewish stars facing Gestapo soldiers with guns pointed at them. All you have to do is replace Palestinians for the Jews.
Now don't go and get all Anti-Semitic on me. Of course it's not the same. The magnitud and extent quite simply arent there - and never will be I dare to say. However, the Occupation is a violation of international law, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (written in part by a French Jew working to prevent the Halocaus from repetlition) are violated by Israel over and over.
What the Israeli government does in the name of security should be renamed as what they do in the name of fear. I think this lawyer is on to something. I would like to see something similar taht would include pictures of the Occupation - not just the Nakbah. Ever since I went to Yad Vashim in Jerusalem I have understood the Israeli Occupation... more
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John Pilger, of the UK's Guardian newspaper wrote about Muhammed Omer, a young Palestinian (Gaza) journalist who writes for many different media organizations about the Israeli occupation. He was given an award in Britain, by Pilger and upon returning home by way of the Allenbe Bridge (across the Jordan) was detained and roughed up/tortured by Israeli border guards.
I've been across this bridge a few times with my family when we lived in Jordan and my husband's work took him to Hebron (he builds water wells. we used to live in Gaza). The guards there were universal pricks. Mean and abusive just cause they can get away with it. We (my husband mostly) were harassed and our crossing slowed. They peppered my husband (a Canadian citizen) with questions and he got pissed off and argued back. Over the years we've been slowed down with "additional quetions - just for security I hope you understand" going through border control at Ben Gurion and at Eilat, but NOTHING compared to Allenbe. It's like a free for all there.
Another friend of mine, born in the Wst Bank, made a refugee in 1948 at the age of 6 was trying to go to Bil'in for the nonviolent work being conducted by the villagers there fighting the wall - he was roughed up and held (slowed) but eventually released. They said his name was the same as a wanted suspected terrorist.
So I completely believe what happend to Omer.
Please read the story and the petition - sign it and pass it on.
John Pilger, of the UK's Guardian newspaper wrote about Muhammed Omer, a young... more
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When is this madness going to stop? This 2 minute clip shows the reality of the few Jews that support their lame government in terror in order to kill people and steel land from innocent, defenseless Palestinian civilians. All these people want to do is take, take and take and never give and never share. They will go to all lengths to get what they want.
In this next video, you will see the actual taking of houses and land from innocent Palestinian civilians as well as mourners of an American young girl who was killed by Israeli tanks as she peacefully protested the bulldozing of a home of a Palestinian family. The Israeli government concluded she wasn't seen by the soldiers despite the fact she was wearing bright orange and stood in front of the tank for quite awhile. Rachael is the reason this writer became familiar with the real story there.
The world needs to do something about this travesty. Keep it in the news, keep blogging and by all means, contact your governments and representatives in government. Most of all, do what you can whether it be physical protests, or by joining a group that supports the fair justice in what is happening to the innocent Palestinians. Tell the jewish lobby what you think! Remember, they are only 3% of the voting public in America and their power is smaller than its thought to be. They are nothing and if we all stand up against them, they may look at the reality of what is happening because maybe they too are blinded by the greed and selfishness that is the core of this whole problem there. The Palestinians deserve to live and to have the houses and land they have had for many years before the Jews came there.
I posted the other link below in a comment.When is this madness going to stop? This 2 minute clip shows the reality of the few... more
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"Hamas militants have fired a barrage of mortars from the Gaza Strip, killing one person in Israel and injuring two.
One shell struck a factory at the Nir Oz kibbutz, which abuts the Gaza Strip.
Militants in Gaza regularly fire rockets at southern Israel, a response they say to Israeli military operations in Palestinian territory.
Israel has sealed off the territory and blocks all but essential humanitarian supplies, while launching regular raids in an attempt to counter militant fire.""Hamas militants have fired a barrage of mortars from the Gaza Strip, killing one... more
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The Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana was killed in Gaza along with two other Palestinian civilians. Local residents had said the explosion appeared to have been caused by an Israeli military tank .
the last mints that he filmed before died , showing how the tank shoot him directly .
God bless you my dear friend " Fadel" , The Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana was killed in Gaza along with two other Palestinian... more
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Palestinian officials said that among the fatalities was 24-year-old Fadal Shanaa, a Palestinian cameraman working for Reuters who was filming Israeli tanks in central Gaza.
Palestinian officials said that among the fatalities was 24-year-old Fadal Shanaa, a... more
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Or, as another friend of mine said when talking about the proper role for the United States in resolving (with justice) the conflict: "Friends don't let friends drive drunk".
Excerpt: For years the same old dance has been going on in which the Americans scold and the Israelis promise, as though the Israelis have decided to make every effort to thwart the solution that everyone knows is the only solution. Time is running out and the self-deception is continuing. Not the Americans, but rather the Israelis will bear the results of this continued disorder.
Or, as another friend of mine said when talking about the proper role for the United... more
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When I was a teenager, I became a born-again Christian and an avid reader of the "Late Great Planet Earth" the endtimes book that preceded the "Left Behind" series popular today among those who think the end is near. One of the signs of the second coming of Christ, according to interpreters of the Revelations (like the authors of books above) is the creation of the State of Israel.
When the Yom Kippur War hit, I was on the phone with my born again girlfriends, all of us excited that this was it.... the Rapture was surely going to happen soon.
When it didn't, I wasn't worried, no problem, I'll just go live in Israel and volunteer on a kibbutz and help my Jewish brothers and sisters make the desert bloom.
As I grew up, reality kicked in and the fervor of adolescence faded. What remained was a fondness for Israel - and the belief that it was besieged on all sides. The Palestinians? Nothing but irrational terrorists who raised their children to hate and kill Jews.
Then, my husband was offered a short term assignment through his groundwater engineering job in Gaza, and we, my four-year old daughter and I went along too.
And thus began my permanent detour off my own Road Map.
The detour involved for awhile a profound internal struggle as I tried to reconcile my previous bias with the reality of occupation and oppression I was witnessing. Everyday I saw the result of the fear when the once fearful become the powerful. Someday, if Israel doesn't change its policies in time (and many Israelis I know are concerned that it is too late now) the backlash will be devastating.
Now we are back in the US and I work hard at my second job - to raise awareness among Americans in general, my Presbyterians co-congregants in particular that the key to Israel's survival is the United States, but not in the way most commonly thought. Rather, we must hold Israel accountable (as we do the Palestinians) to the international code of conduct accepted by all nation-states. That attacks on civilians is illegal, that an occupying state may not establish civilian settlements on occupied land, that separation barrier ("security fence") must be on the Green Line, not within the Palestinian Territories..... all these violations (and more), must stop.
But when the US restricts its admonitions to a mere slap on the wrist, the Israelis know they can keep on keeping on.
My church, the Presbyterians will be considering a resolution this summer calling the US government to enforce our nation's own Arms Export and Foreign Assistance laws that prohibit US aid be used in violations of international human rights law. It's a beginning. And our church is not the only one. Across the country, individuals and groups small and large are joining voices in opposition to continued, uninterrupted flow of our tax dollars to Israel. Even a temporary suspension can have an impact.
At the very least, we should consider that nothing our country has done to date has ended the conflict. Time for something new. When I was a teenager, I became a born-again Christian and an avid reader of the "Late... more
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Imagine life where your entire country is prevented from importing the food, fuel, medicine it needed. That all that you and your neighbors needed was in the town on the other side of the border, but that the border had a 7 mile long fence/wall/barrier built not by you, not by that country on the other side of the border, but by a third nation. That the third nation told your nation’s leaders and the leaders of the neighboring nation that the border must remain shut.
Now, watch the slide show.
Imagine life where your entire country is prevented from importing the food, fuel,... more
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Inspiring film.... saw it two weeks ago. Look for the full film and share it..... more Americans need to see this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WynTOY04Ac8
Inspiring film.... saw it two weeks ago. Look for the full film and share it........ more
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Time to call the bluff? Time for Palestinians around the world to return to their homeland. the Palestinian National Authority is calling for Palestinians to assert their universal human rights - not wait for a diluted version generated at the negotiation table. May 14th, the day Israel wants the world to see its 60th anniversery of "independence" it's time the world (USA) sees it as the Nakba. When one googles the headline for news, only the Jerusalem Post reported it. Time to call the bluff? Time for Palestinians around the world to return to their... more
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A one year old baby, born in Gaza with a heart defect was being treated in Israel (even doctors in Gaza know better care is available there). But the Shin Bet (Israeli security) refused to allow the baby`s parents to return with her - "SECURITY". They missed that appointment and made another and arranged other family family (not the parents) to take her. She died three days prior to the appointment.
A one year old baby, born in Gaza with a heart defect was being treated in Israel... more
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With the Palestinian death toll at 35 in three days, aides insisted the deputy defence minister used the Hebrew word not in its common meaning of holocaust but only as a term for disaster. A year-old Palestinian girl and a senior Hamas bombmaker were killed in the Gaza Strip yesterday as Israel stepped up air strikes in response to rocket fire.
In the last two days of air strikes more than 30 militants and civilians have been killed, and more than 60 injured in Palestine. Over the same period, Hamas has hit Israel with more than 80 rockets.With the Palestinian death toll at 35 in three days, aides insisted the deputy defence... more
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"Palestinian militants in Gaza fired four rockets into the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon on Thursday, hitting a house, the Israeli police said. Israeli airstrikes in Gaza killed at least 11 Palestinians, including four young boys, Palestinian medical officials said.
"No one was hurt in the attacks on Ashkelon, but the attack will probably be seen in Israel as an escalation of the conflict. Ashkelon, a city of 120,000 people, has been an occasional target of rockets in the past, but the scale of attacks on Thursday was unprecedented."
"Palestinian militants in Gaza fired four rockets into the Israeli coastal city of... more
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As images are rolling out of Lebanon of the funeral of the assassinated Hezbollah commander Imad Moughniyah, Hezbollah have declared that they are ready for 'open war' with Israel.
The people of Lebanon had already gathered in mass demonstrations to mark the third year since Lebanon's former Prime Minster was also killed in a car bomb. The anger and upset at this assassination is still something which the Lebanese grieve over, and something which many Lebanese think Syria was behind. Adding to the tension and upset was yesterdays news that a Hezbollah commander had been assassinated in a car bomb attack in Damascus in Syria. Iran, Syria and Hezbollah have accused Israel of the attack.
In front of the many people gathered to mark the death of their former PM and Hezbollah have made some very stark words towards Israel. The reports initially came through the BBC,
"Zionists, if you want this type of open war then let the whole world hear: let it be an open war,"
As images are rolling out of Lebanon of the funeral of the assassinated Hezbollah... more
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Gaza might not have fresh milk, but they have bullets, TNT and Viagra.
"While the Gaza Strip is being squeezed by Israeli sanctions, the border town of Rafah has become an unofficial free trade zone where goods are smuggled from Egypt through an ever increasing number of tunnels. While many commodities are unavailable in the rest of Gaza, a variety of imports can be found in Rafah.... Along the no man's land by the border, once patrolled by Israeli tanks and bulldozers, there are dozens of encampments housing tunnel shafts in clear view of the Israeli surveillance drones overhead, and Egyptian border posts."
Gaza might not have fresh milk, but they have bullets, TNT and Viagra.
"While the... more
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After a night of serious bombing in the southern part of Beirut, BlakkBox goes to "Hezbollah Central" the suburb known as Haret Hreik. Home to Almanar TV and Hezbollah radio, this location was specifically targeted and destroyed. Even though the area was protected by guards carrying AK-47s and considered off-limits to network journalists, BlakkBox was able to get in and get the story.After a night of serious bombing in the southern part of Beirut, BlakkBox goes to... more
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