tagged w/ Israel-Palestinian
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Live video footage of what is happening on the bus is available at the link
A small number of brave Palestinians will risk attack and arrest to commit a forbidden act -- they have boarded a public bus.
"Lacking their own state, Palestinians are forbidden to use buses and roads reserved for non-Arabs -- part of a host of race-based rules that US President Jimmy Carter has called "apartheid". 50 years ago, African-Americans in the US challenged these rules by simply and non-violently refusing to follow them. In a few hours, Palestinians will take the same approach, and their actions will be live webcasted by Avaaz teams at the link below.
As diplomats stall in the fight for a Palestinian state, the Palestinian people are taking the fight into their own hands, one public service at a time. And they're doing it with the simple, elegant and unstoppable moral force of non-violence in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The Palestinian spring begins right now - click below to watch it LIVE, register support, and give these brave activists the global solidarity and attention they urgently need to win:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_freedom_riders/?vl
Non-violence is the game-changing force in this long-standing conflict. Boarding buses is a symbolic act, but so was Gandhi's salt march, and Rosa Park's own courageous ride on a segregated bus in the US. Just as non-violent protest was able to topple dictators in Egypt and Tunisia, so can it finally free the Palestinian people from 40 years of crippling military oppression by a foreign power.
There are many dangers. Israel has been arming the extremist settler population, a tactic which is likely, if not intended, to provoke awful violence that will draw the news cameras away from the brave acts of non-violence. Even the Palestinian authorities are pushing back on the action which they fear will start a democratic protest movement that they cannot control. But these few brave Palestinians have had enough, and if we stand with them now, we can help them ignite a flame that will burn its way all the way to a free and peaceful Palestinian state:
http://www.avaaz.org/en/palestine_freedom_riders/?vl
We have no idea what will happen in the next 24 hours. Maybe the authorities will crush this brave action. Maybe it will spark into a massive conflagration. Maybe it will sow the first seed of an unstoppable movement with tremendous integrity. But we can watch it live, and lend our voices to the effort. And maybe one day, we can tell our grandchildren that we were there when Palestinians boarded the buses that would ultimately take them to freedom."Live video footage of what is happening on the bus is available at the link
A small... more
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Tensions remain high on the Israeli border with the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip after a week of attacks from both sides.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a tough warning to the Islamic militant group Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip.
He said Israel is “prepared to act with great force” to stop a wave of Palestinian attacks from Gaza. Dozens of rockets and mortar shells have been fired across the border over the past week, terrorizing residents of southern Israel. Israel has responded with air strikes. It is the most serious escalation of violence since the Gaza War two years ago.
Netanyahu spoke at a meeting with the United States Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, who says Israel has the right to defend itself.
“No sovereign state can tolerate having rockets fired at its people,” Gates said.
Hamas has signaled that it wants to preserve an informal cease-fire with Israel.
Hamas Foreign Minister Mohammed Awad said his government has urged all of the armed Palestinian factions not to give Israel an excuse to escalate attacks on Gaza.
Hamas refuses to renounce violence or recognize Israel, so the U.S. is trying to promote peace between Israel and the more moderate Palestinian Authority that rules the West Bank. Peace talks have been suspended for most of the past two years because of a dispute over Jewish settlements, but Gates urged both sides to return to the negotiating table.
“There is a need and an opportunity for bold action to move toward a two-state solution,” he added. “And as the parties move forward, the United States stands ready to support them in any way we can.”
Gates became the first U.S. defense secretary to visit the West Bank, meeting there with Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Israel-Threatens-to-Use-Great-Force-in-Gaza-118663979.htmlTensions remain high on the Israeli border with the Palestinian-ruled Gaza Strip after... more
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Israeli troops killed a 65-year-old Palestinian while he slept on Friday during a raid to arrest his neighbour who was affiliated with Hamas, the dead man's wife and local residents said.
The man, Amr Qawasme, was asleep when soldiers broke into his home before dawn. His wife, Sobheye, said they brushed past her into the bedroom, where she heard several shots fired. When she went in, she found her husband in a pool of blood.
"I was praying when they entered. I do not know how they opened the door. They put their hand to my mouth and a rifle to my head," she told Reuters after Qawasme's body was removed.
"I was shocked. They did not allow me to talk. I asked them, 'What did you do?' They asked me to shut up."
Reuters Television footage showed Qawasme's sodden bed and bullet casings on the floor.
An Israeli military spokeswoman had no immediate comment on the raid.
LINK: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8245440/Israeli-troops-kill-Hamas-mans-neighbour-by-mistake.htmlIsraeli troops killed a 65-year-old Palestinian while he slept on Friday during a raid... more
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George Mitchell: Face to face Mid-East talks critical
Advertisement15 September 2010 Last updated at 19:42 GMT Help Israeli and Palestinian leaders have held a second day of Middle East peace negotiations.
US Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, said they tackled the issues at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, up front.
In a news briefing following talks, he spoke of the importance of face-to-face discussions.
He said negotiators would meet next week to prepare the next round of talks.George Mitchell: Face to face Mid-East talks critical
Advertisement15 September 2010... more
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"The Israeli military has disciplined four officers involved in two clashes with West Bank protesters in which four Palestinians civilians were killed."
Justice?"The Israeli military has disciplined four officers involved in two clashes with... more
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The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story
Posted By Mark Perry Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 11:05 PM
On Jan. 16, two days after a killer earthquake hit Haiti, a team of senior military officers from the U.S. Central Command (responsible for overseeing American security interests in the Middle East), arrived at the Pentagon to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The team had been dispatched by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus to underline his growing worries at the lack of progress in resolving the issue. The 33-slide, 45-minute PowerPoint briefing stunned Mullen. The briefers reported that there was a growing perception among Arab leaders that the U.S. was incapable of standing up to Israel, that CENTCOM's mostly Arab constituency was losing faith in American promises, that Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region, and that Mitchell himself was (as a senior Pentagon officer later bluntly described it) "too old, too slow ... and too late."
The January Mullen briefing was unprecedented. No previous CENTCOM commander had ever expressed himself on what is essentially a political issue; which is why the briefers were careful to tell Mullen that their conclusions followed from a December 2009 tour of the region where, on Petraeus's instructions, they spoke to senior Arab leaders. "Everywhere they went, the message was pretty humbling," a Pentagon officer familiar with the briefing says. "America was not only viewed as weak, but its military posture in the region was eroding." But Petraeus wasn't finished: two days after the Mullen briefing, Petraeus sent a paper to the White House requesting that the West Bank and Gaza (which, with Israel, is a part of the European Command -- or EUCOM), be made a part of his area of operations. Petraeus's reason was straightforward: with U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military had to be perceived by Arab leaders as engaged in the region's most troublesome conflict.
[UPDATE: A senior military officer denied Sunday that Petraeus sent a paper to the White House.
"CENTCOM did have a team brief the CJCS on concerns revolving around the Palestinian issue, and CENTCOM did propose a UCP change, but to CJCS, not to the WH," the officer said via email. "GEN Petraeus was not certain what might have been conveyed to the WH (if anything) from that brief to CJCS."
(UCP means "unified combatant command," like CENTCOM; CJCS refers to Mullen; and WH is the White House.)]
The Mullen briefing and Petraeus's request hit the White House like a bombshell. While Petraeus's request that CENTCOM be expanded to include the Palestinians was denied ("it was dead on arrival," a Pentagon officer confirms), the Obama administration decided it would redouble its efforts -- pressing Israel once again on the settlements issue, sending Mitchell on a visit to a number of Arab capitals and dispatching Mullen for a carefully arranged meeting with the chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi. While the American press speculated that Mullen's trip focused on Iran, the JCS Chairman actually carried a blunt, and tough, message on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that Israel had to see its conflict with the Palestinians "in a larger, regional, context" -- as having a direct impact on America's status in the region. Certainly, it was thought, Israel would get the message.
Israel didn't. When Vice President Joe Biden was embarrassed by an Israeli announcement that the Netanyahu government was building 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, the administration reacted. But no one was more outraged than Biden who, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, engaged in a private, and angry, exchange with the Israeli Prime Minister. Not surprisingly, what Biden told Netanyahu reflected the importance the administration attached to Petraeus's Mullen briefing: "This is starting to get dangerous for us," Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. "What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace." Yedioth Ahronoth went on to report: "The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel's actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism." The message couldn't be plainer: Israel's intransigence could cost American lives.
There are important and powerful lobbies in America: the NRA, the American Medical Association, the lawyers -- and the Israeli lobby. But no lobby is as important, or as powerful, as the U.S. military. While commentators and pundits might reflect that Joe Biden's trip to Israel has forever shifted America's relationship with its erstwhile ally in the region, the real break came in January, when David Petraeus sent a briefing team to the Pentagon with a stark warning: America's relationship with Israel is important, but not as important as the lives of America's soldiers. Maybe Israel gets the message now.
Mark Perry's newest book is Talking To Terrorists
[UPDATE 2--from Mark Perry: A senior military officer told Foreign Policy by email that one minor detail in my report, "The Petraeus Briefing" was incorrect: a request from General Petraeus for the Palestinian occupied territories (but, as I made clear, not Israel itself), be brought within CENTCOM's region of operation was sent to JCS Chairman Mullen - and not directly to the White House. My information was based on conversations with CENTCOM officials, who believed they were giving me correct information. It is significant that the correction was made, not because it is an important detail, but because it is was inconsequential to the overall narrative. In effect, the U.S. military has clearly said there was nothing in this report that could be denied.]The Petraeus briefing: Biden’s embarrassment is not the whole story
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Just because 'Avatar' is a successful sci-fi movie, probably explains the idea for a protest against Israeli west bank barrier.
On Friday, six days after they watched the bootleg version of the film, five protesters dressed up as Na'vis, then they marched to the army blockade to re-enact. Not wise choice as you can see in the video.
Source: http://scifiwire.com/2010/02/palestinians-stage-avatar.php
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KStnbXWfnukJust because 'Avatar' is a successful sci-fi movie, probably explains the... more
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The Real News Network speaks to settlers, Palestinians, and experts to understand the process of land confiscation in OPT.
Over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed the Israeli government's support of the settlement movement by planting a tree in each one of the three biggest settlement blocks in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Despite the Israeli government's support, funding, and approval of settlers, they are often presented in the media as in conflict with the state and the army. In this report, The Real News' Lia Tarachansky looks at this claim through a recent lecture by Shir Hever, an economist with the Alternative Information Center. A perfect example of the methodology Hever describes can be seen in the settlement of Kedumim which lies adjacent to the Palestinian village of Kaft Qadum. The Real News spoke to the village council of the Palestinian village and the associate mayor of the settlement about how they've expanded and the impact this has had on their lives.
Bio
Shir Hever is an economic researcher in the Alternative Information Center, a Palestinian-Israeli organization active in Jerusalem and Beit-Sahour. Researching the economic aspect of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, some of his research topics include international aid to the Palestinians and Israel, the effects of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories on the Israeli economy, and the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns against Israel. He is a frequent speaker on the topic of the economy of the Israeli occupation.The Real News Network speaks to settlers, Palestinians, and experts to understand the... more
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In recent weeks Israel has escalated its practice of assassinations in the West Bank and Gaza. At the end of December, Israeli special forces broke into the Nablus homes of Anan Subih, Raed Surkaji, and Ghassan Abu Sharekh and killed them. Official Israeli sources linked the three to the killing of Israeli settler Meir Avshalom Hai who was killed while driving to the illegal outpost in which he lived. The killings are the latest in Israel's long-time practice of assassinations, illegal under international law. Many contradictory reports have surfaced over the December 26 assassinations. The Real News' Lia Tarachansky spoke to the families of two of the killed.In recent weeks Israel has escalated its practice of assassinations in the West Bank... more
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Subsequent to recent demands that Jewish construction in Jerusalem be limited, Prime Minister Netanyahu made it clear that Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem "cannot be challenged." He emphasized that "residents of Jerusalem may purchase apartments in all parts of the city" and that "in recent years hundreds of apartments in Jewish neighborhoods and in the western part of the city have been purchased by - or rented to - Arab residents without interference … there is no ban on Arabs buying apartments in the western part of the city and there is no ban on Jews buying or building apartments in the eastern part of the city. This is the policy of an open city, an undivided city that is not separated according to religious affiliation."
Netanyahu pointedly concluded: "We cannot accept the idea that Jews will not have the right to live and purchase (land or housing) in Jerusalem. I can only imagine what would happen if someone would propose that Jews could not live in certain neighborhoods in New York, London, Paris or Rome. There would certainly be a major international outcry. Accordingly, we cannot agree to such a decree in Jerusalem."Subsequent to recent demands that Jewish construction in Jerusalem be limited, Prime... more
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Douglas Bloomfield and Newsweek have pretty exposed the propaganda battle plan the Israel lobby. Specifically, they’ve exposed a secret hasbara handbook written for The Israel Project by star Republican marketer, Frank Luntz. The oddly-named Global Language Dictionary (pdf) is a veritable goldmine of arguments, strategy, tactics. At 116 pages, it’s not for the faint of heart. But anyone who wants to get inside the head of the Israel lobby must read this document.
Read the document here:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/206021Douglas Bloomfield and Newsweek have pretty exposed the propaganda battle plan the... more
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Straight out of Avigdor Lieberman’s Foreign Ministry: a new Internet Fighting Team! (http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=34520) Israeli students and demobilized soldiers get paid to pretend they are just regular folks and leave pro-Israel comments on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other sites. The effort is meant to fight the “well-oiled machine” of “pro-Palestinian websites, with huge budgets… with content from the Hamas news agency.” The approach was test-marketed during Israel’s assault on Gaza, and by groups like Give Israel Your United Support, a controversial effort to use instant-access technology to crowd-source Israel advocates to fill in flash polls or vote up key articles on social networking sites.
Will the responders who are hired for this also present themselves as “ordinary net-surfers”?
“Of course,” says Shturman. “Our people will not say: ‘Hello, I am from the policy-explanation department of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and I want to tell you the following.’ Nor will they necessarily identify themselves as Israelis. They will speak as net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal but will be based on a prepared list of messages that the Foreign Ministry developed.”
The full article, translated by Occupation Magazine into English here:
The Foreign Ministry presents: talkbackers in the service of the State
By: Dora Kishinevski
Calcalist 5 July 2009
Translated for Occupation Magazine by George Malent
After they became an inseparable part of the service provided by public-relations companies and advertising agencies, paid Internet talkbackers are being mobilized in the service in the service of the State. The Foreign Ministry is in the process of setting up a team of students and demobilized soldiers who will work around the clock writing pro-Israeli responses on Internet websites all over the world, and on services like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. The Foreign Ministry’s department for the explanation of Israeli policy* is running the project, and it will be an integral part of it. The project is described in the government budget for 2009 as the “Internet fighting team” – a name that was given to it in order to distinguish it from the existing policy-explanation team, among other reasons, so that it can receive a separate budget. Even though the budget’s size has not yet been disclosed to the public, sources in the Foreign Ministry have told Calcalist that in will be about NIS 600.000 in its first year, and it will be increased in the future. From the primary budget, about NIS 200.000 will be invested in round-the-clock activity at the micro-blogging website Twitter, which was recently featured in the headlines for the services it provided to demonstrators during the recent disturbances in Iran.
“To all intents and purposes the Internet is a theatre in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and we must be active in that theatre, otherwise we will lose,” Elan Shturman, deputy director of the policy-explanation department in the Foreign Ministry, and who is directly responsible for setting up the project, says in an interview with Calcalist. “Our policy-explanation achievements on the Internet today are impressive in comparison to the resources that have been invested so far, but the other side is also investing resources on the Internet. There is an endless array of pro-Palestinian websites, with huge budgets, rich with information and video clips that everyone can download and post on their websites. They are flooding the Internet with content from the Hamas news agency. It is a well-oiled machine. Our objective is to penetrate into the world in which these discussions are taking place, where reports and videos are published – the blogs, the social networks, the news websites of all sizes. We will introduce a pro-Israeli voice into those places.
more at the link--------------
Yes, yes..we know. Thats just the tip of the iceberg!Straight out of Avigdor Lieberman’s Foreign Ministry: a new Internet Fighting... more
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Col. Richard Kemp, Former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, spoke at a recent conference on Hamas, the Gaza War, and Accountability under International Law. Col. Kemp reviewed the difficulties of any kind of warfare, but emphasized the challenges faced by Israel when fighting a terrorist organization that purposefully rejects and defies international law.Col. Richard Kemp, Former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan, spoke at a... more
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Why isn't the mainstream press (ie MSNBC, CNN, CNBC) reporting on this?????!
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Nice....Really nice!
From oppressed to OPPRESSOR.
Apparently, they learned nothing from their own history, except to inflict fear, hatred and oppression on others.Nice....Really nice!
From oppressed to OPPRESSOR.
Apparently, they learned... more
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THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
yOU CAN ALL READ THIS BOOK ON HERE AND YOU CAN ALL USE IT TO DEBATE AGAINST THE ENORMOUS PROPAGANDA IN OUR MEDIA, AND ON CURRENT.COM
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THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
John J. Mearsheimer
Department of Political Science
University of Chicago
Stephen M. Walt
John F. Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
March 2006 RWP06‐011
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The two authors of this Working Paper are solely responsible for the views expressed in it. As academic institutions, Harvard University and the University of Chicago do not take positions on the scholarship of individual faculty, and this article should not be interpreted or portrayed as reflecting the official position of either institution.
An edited and reworked version of this paper was published in the
London Review of Books Vol. 28, No. 6 (March 23, 2006), and is available online at www.lrb.co.uk
THE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
U.S. foreign policy shapes events in every corner of the globe. Nowhere is this truer than in the Middle East, a region of recurring instability and enormous strategic importance. Most recently, the Bush Administration's attempt to transform the region into a community of democracies has helped produce a resilient insurgency in Iraq, a sharp rise in world oil prices, and terrorist bombings in Madrid, London, and Amman. With so much at stake for so many, all countries need to understand the forces that drive U.S. Middle East policy.
The U.S. national interest should be the primary object of American foreign policy. For the past several decades, however, and especially since the Six Day War in 1967, the centerpiece of U.S. Middle East policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering U.S. support for Israel and the related effort to spread democracy throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized U.S. security.
This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the United States been willing to set aside its own security in order to advance the interests of another state? One might assume that the bond between the two countries is based on shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives. As we show below, however, neither of those explanations can account for the remarkable level of material and diplomatic support that the United States provides to Israel.
Instead, the overall thrust of U.S. policy in the region is due almost entirely to U
continuedTHE ISRAEL LOBBY AND U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
yOU CAN ALL READ THIS BOOK ON HERE... more
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Watch the video to find out what turned ordinary American soldiers into the monsters revealed in the photographs.
Tales of Murder and Torture
The latest chapter in reporter Olivia Rousset's Abu Ghraib revelations. Three weeks ago on Dateline, Olivia revealed new evidence of horrific abuse at Abu Ghraib.
On the link above you can read the full transcript of the interview.....I suggest you read it, copy it, and mail it to everyone on your mailing list.
On a recent trip to the US, Olivia managed to track down two former Abu Ghraib guards - one who served time for committing abuses against Iraqi detainees and another who witnessed those shocking events. It's no small irony that both of these former US military policemen now see themselves as being among the victims of Abu Ghraib. Here's Olivia's story. And, as you would expect with this sort of report, be warned - some of what you're about to see is not exactly pretty and could even offend.
Broadcast - -Dateline - SBS Australia 03/08/06Watch the video to find out what turned ordinary American soldiers into the monsters... more
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Two Israeli women, what could be simpler than that? One is Jewish, the other Muslim; they will sing of tolerance facing the 100 million viewers of Eurovision in Moscow on May 16, 2009. Back in February, the Figaro had already picked up on polemics flying around the announcement that the duo would be performing. It was extraordinary that the choice had been made only a day after the Israeli incursion against Gaza had ended. Even more brutal, was the fact that it was inconceivable after so much brutality that a woman from each side of the divide would consider performing together, in light of Avigdor Lieberman who made no bones about the fact that he deemed the Palestinians to be a fifth column.Two Israeli women, what could be simpler than that? One is Jewish, the other Muslim;... more
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breakroomlive.com
The final installment of Sam Seder interviewing Daniel Levy, a political scientist Senior Fellow at both the New America Foundation and The Century Foundation and expert on U.S./ Israeli policies.
BreakRoomLive with Maron and Seder is LIVE weekdays, 3-4pm from the Air America Break Room.
a production of airamerica.combreakroomlive.com
The final installment of Sam Seder interviewing Daniel Levy, a... more
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