Settler visit closes Salit village overnight
SALFIT — Residents of the northern West Bank town of Kilf Haris were ordered to close their shops early Wednesday as Israeli soldiers evacuated the area ahead of a visit by religious Israelis to a nearby tomb.
Locals said they believed the military escort of at least 10 armored vehicles was for a group of settler rabbis heading to a shrine in the village.
During the visit, witnesses said, a series of checkpoints and guard posts were erected and remained in place until the group withdrew.
An Israeli military spokesman said a group of 30 Israeli civilians were escorted on an “arranged, pre-authorized secured visit to the grave of Yehoshua Ben-Nun … for a Hanuka candle-lighting ceremony.” He said the visit proceeded without incident.
Security sources confirm that similar visits are carried out at night every few months, with one source saying Israeli forces do not close the area, but “advise local residents to stay indoors to avoid friction.”
While the US stumbles with Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, others are taking the lead
By Audrey Farber | Mondoweiss | December 8, 2010
Yesterday brought us the news that the Obama administration is giving up on pressuring Netanyahu on settlements.
Are they giving up, or are they just losing their edge? Apparently, “U.S. officials said they were not abandoning the peace effort altogether, just changing tactics.” Unfortunately, “it was not immediately clear what other proposals the Obama administration might put forward.” So is there something better up their sleeve? Such a change – after all, the American focus in Israel has been dedicated to settlement freezes for almost the entirety of Obama’s reign – could indicate its abdication of the role of mediator, the recognition of the futility of the “peace process”, and the first steps towards recognizing Palestine. Or more likely, it indicates that the Israeli government has a worse stranglehold on the US than we previously thought and ever dared dream. Obviously the Obama administration realizes the futility of the process, though it’s a shame they’re handing Netanyahu this victory on a silver platter.
This settlement freeze failure is making the US administration the laughing stock of Israel and Palestine alike. Ehud Barak claimed “talks with U.S. officials over a settlement freeze had stopped because Washington was distracted by the WikiLeaks controversy and its need to focus on the confrontation with North Korea.” You’d think they’d be able to multi-task, but I guess asking one small thing from Netanyahu on top of all these other concerns was just too much. From another side, aide to Abbas, Yasser Abed Rabbo, criticized this newfound weakness of the American role in negotiations. If the US is “the one who couldn’t make Israel limit its settlement activities in order to conduct serious negotiations, how can he be able to make Israel accept a fair solution?…This is the big question now.” The illusion of America’s role as team leader in this “peace process” has been shattered, and we see now that when it comes to Israel and Palestine, as far as the US is concerned, the Israelis will get what they want.
As this is just further proof that the Netanyahu-Lieberman military-industrial complex has us exactly where they want us and we’re a fairly useless ally for peace and justice, it’s time for someone else to step up to the plate and have a go at this perennial intractability. Indeed, both Israel and Palestine are prepared for this eventuality. Barak sees Barack’s withdrawal as putting Israel in “danger of becoming increasingly isolated internationally. Israel is concerned with the success of one Palestinian tactic: persuading countries to recognize an independent Palestinian state within borders that existed before the 1967 Middle East War.” … Full article
Peace Group not Allowed to Operate Stand at Ben-Gurion Airport
By Alessandra Bajec – IMEMC & Agencies – December 08, 2010
The group Artists Without Walls was denied authorization to set up a stand run by Jews and Arabs ‘who would be open to dialogue with passengers about coexistence.’ in Ben-Gurion airport on Tuesday, Ha’aretz reported.
Artists Without Walls, a joint Palestinian-Israeli peace group, had its request to run a stand at the passenger terminal at Ben-Gurion International Airport like the one operated by the Chabad movement rejected.
The Israeli representative of Artists Without Walls, Eitan Heller, addressed a letter to Israel Airports Authority saying the stand planned by the peace group would “serve free coffee and be managed by Jews and Arabs, who would be open to dialogue with passengers about coexistence and tolerance.”
Heller said having noticed, on his regular journeys abroad, the presence of the Chabad stand, where passersby are asked to put on phylacteries. While claiming to have nothing against Chabad, he stated: “But I cannot understand why a specific religious group has its own stand in an open area in an international air terminal,” he said. “This is a phenomenon I have not experienced anywhere else in the world.”
One of the world’s largest and best-known Hasidic movements in Orthodox Judaism, Chabad maintains thousands of institutions around the world providing outreach and educational activities for Jews.
Ben-Gurion airport manager, Shmuel Kandel, explained in his rejection of the peace group’s request that Chabad provides a service to “religious consumers and travelers who want to avail themselves of this service.” Kandel concluded his response by saying that Chabad “is aware of its obligation not to approach passengers, and airport inspectors make sure this is the case.”
“Artists Without Walls” is a permanent forum for dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians engaged in all fields of arts and culture, who strive to develop a better and more ‘human’ understanding between the two people through nonviolent and creative actions.
Through the joint peace group, several Israeli artists have been able to visit Ramallah for the first time, initiating a process of dialogue with Palestinian artists whom they did not know. Likewise, Palestinian artists have had the opportunity to visit their Israeli counterparts in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
France ‘will recognize’ Palestinian state
Press TV – December 8, 2010
After Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, France has now declared that it will recognize a free and independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
France has declared that it will recognize a free and independent Palestinian state based on borders before the 1967 war, becoming the first European nation to do so.
Bernard Valero, a spokesman for the French Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that Paris agrees with the formation of a Palestinian state based on the exchange of land between Israel and the Palestinians.
Valero also expressed hope that peace talks between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel will resume.
During the past week, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay have all sent letters to acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas, declaring that they recognize a free and independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.
Human rights activists and international bodies are meanwhile vying for the United Nations membership for the Palestinian state.
The activists believe that Palestine already meets the required criteria for joining the world body.
Israel has protested the recent recognitions, claiming that the move is against the spirit of the Mideast talks.
Tel Aviv accuses the Latin American nations of ignoring the 2003 Middle East roadmap for peace, which said that a Palestinian state could be established through dialogue, but not through unilateral measures.
This is while the international community widely backs Palestinian demands for a state in most of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem), all territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War.
The recent developments come only weeks after Tel Aviv announced that it would not halt its plan for constructing over 1,300 new settler units in East al-Quds and a further 800 units in the northern occupied West Bank.
Israel’s decision has been condemned by the PA, the European Union, the United States and Russia.
In clear defiance to international criticism, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also stated that it considers al-Quds its capital.
The resumption of the illegal construction work has put a halt to direct talks between Israel and the PA, which began in early September after a 20-month break.
The Palestinians say that the settlement activities are being carried out to prevent the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East al-Quds as its future capital.
Israel, NATO Launch Spying Operation against Iran at Afghan Borders
FARS NEWS AGENCY | December 7, 2010
TEHRAN – A prominent Afghan military analyst unveiled that Israel has deployed its troops at a NATO base in Afghanistan near Iran’s border to launch joint operations against the Islamic Republic.
Speaking to FNA about NATO’s $184 million plan to upgrade Shindand Air Base in Western Afghanistan and 20 miles from the Iranian border, Javid Kohestani said, “The NATO member states are reconstructing the base in a bid to harm the Islamic Republic of Iran and to spy against Iran.”
He recalled previous reports about the deployment of Israeli forces in Shindand base, and noted, “Accordingly, the reconstruction of the base by the NATO is considered as one of the NATO’s clandestine programs to harm the Islamic Republic of Iran and promote Israel’s spying activities in the region.”
Kohestani believes that the base has been handed to Israel for conducting sabotage operations in Iran’s eastern regions.
The United States and NATO have 150,000 troops in Afghanistan, following a military surge ordered by President Barack Obama.
Senior Iranian security officials have always underlined that the terrorists who carried out terrorist attacks in Iran’s Southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan had certainly been funded by certain foreign countries.
Daniel Ellsberg Exposed Along with the Real Purpose of the Wikileaks Psyop
By Scott Creighton | 5 December 2010
Daniel Ellsberg has been running around singing the praises of Julian Assange ever since his first big-time leak, the Collateral Damage video, which showed a U.S. gunship killing various unarmed civilians in Iraq two of whom happened to be reporters. With the recent pile of “leaked” state department memos, Ellsberg can’t hardly take a breath between interviews and round table discussions, where he is the primary focus and a staunch supporter of everything Wikileaks.
But there is something rotten in Denmark, folks.
It’s not a stretch to say that most Americans don’t believe a thing that comes out of the state department or the government in general for that matter. Confidence in the word of our elected (and unelected) leaders must be at or near an all-time low. If you think this fact is lost on the PR (propaganda) experts working on contracts for the various branches of government, guess again. Mark Penn of Burson-Marsteller gained all of his access to power (and considerable wealth) by being a gifted and relentless pollster. He was able to put his finger directly on the pulse of the public at large and this made him invaluable to corrupt politicians and corporations everywhere. Penn is still deeply connected with the Clinton regime having run her campaign in 2008.
So what do you do when you want to feed the generally left-leaning public a pack of lies given that you know most of them are extremely skeptical about everything you tell them? Well, if “you” are the problem, then you take the “you” out of the equation.
Get someone else to tell them the lies. Someone they are conditioned to trust.
It’s a pretty simple plan: give the leaker something dramatic (but already well-known) to get attention and build his credibility, prime the pot with promises of massive amounts of ”secret” documents that will reveal “the truth”, see to it that they are published in the biggest newspapers on the planet, put on a big show about how much you don’t want him to reveal “the truth”, and make damn sure you have enough “progressive” figures to run around doing interviews praising the leaker for his courage and commitment to getting “the truth” out there no matter how grave the threat to his personal safety.
If you really examine the meat of the “leaked” documents, it doesn’t take long to notice that generally speaking they strongly support every single state department agenda, from invading Pakistan, regime change in North Korea, regime change in Iran, and supporting the role that Israel is playing in destabilizing the Middle East [a long known Israeli objective in the effort to weaken its foes and establish ‘greater Israel’]. And what have we learned that harms the state department? That Obama gave the orders to fire missiles into Yemen that killed 21 kids? We knew that the day it happened and we certainly knew that after the recent UN report came out which clearly identified the parts of those rockets as ours. We learned that the state department works closely with the CIA, but we knew that already as well. We learned that Hillary Clinton gave the order to spy on people, as if that is news of any kind. In short, we didn’t learn anything new that harms the state department, with the possible exception that Hillary wanted someone to steal the head of the U.N.’s credit card numbers.
In the near future, these “leaked’ documents will help build the pretext for the narrative that we have to force regime change on various targeted nations. They will be referenced in articles written by war mongers in the same MSM news papers who were fed the “leaks” in the first place. When that happens, and it will [it HAS already happenned], we won’t be able to question their validity, because frankly, we don’t question them now. Imagine Dick Cheney’s forged “Yellow Cake from Niger” document being ”leaked” by Wikileaks and praised by the likes of Daniel Ellsberg, Amy Goodman, and Glenn Greenwald… imagine that and you start to get the picture.
You see, it doesn’t work without the amen chorus. Just like 9/11 would never have worked without all the media talking heads reading from the exact same script and endlessly repeating “bin Laden” and “al Qaeda” as the buildings were demolished, the same principle holds true here. It’s so obvious that these “leaks” do nothing more than support the Obama regime’s imperial [and Zionist] agenda, if given half a minute to step back and consider their merit on mere fact alone, the truth is pretty obvious. It’s as obvious as Building 7.
But the amen chorus is out there singing the praises of Wikileaks just as fast and as hard as they can, hoping to create an emotional connection between Assange and the anti-war left. And Daniel Ellsberg is key to that. Whether he actually knows it or not.
In a recent interview with Brad Friedman or Bradblog, Ellsberg tipped his hand and from this moment, the truth of Ellsberg’s role in the Wikileaks psyop can easily be exposed for all to see. All who want to that is.
Friedman was talking with Ellsberg about the Wikileaks disclosures and specifically he came to start talking about what Assange had said about firing Hillary Clinton for ordering her staff in the state department to spy on the United Nations. Ellsberg’s comments are quite remarkable and I will let them speak for themselves…
But, as Ellsberg revealed during my interview with him on Wednesday, he disagrees with Assange on at least one point in regard to the latest round of documents released by the controversial organization. Unlike Assange, Ellsberg does not believe Hillary Clinton needs to resign.
… During my on-air interview with him Wednesday, when I asked about that point and whether he agrees with Assange’s assessment, he was direct in his response: “In a word, no,” he told me.
… “In a way, I would have to say as a former insider here, he has far too idealistic and romantic a notion of what it means to be Secretary of State or a high official in the U.S. Government — and really any government. Among the various illegalities, the various recklessness and so forth, shown by our policies, this one is indeed illegal, but it’s not high on the list. Probably all countries do it to a large extent.”
… While Ellsberg strongly condemns the Obama Administration for its failure to hold members of the Bush Administration accountable for “war crimes” and “torture” and for escalating a number of “aggressive wars” the U.S. continues to pursue, he reiterated that he doesn’t believe the disclosures to date rise to serious enough crimes to merit Clinton’s resignation.
… “Everybody involved in aggressive war in Iraq should be prosecuted as a war criminal,” he said. “Obama didn’t get us into Iraq or Aghanistan, though he certainly escalated it. But I’m not sure if it’s criminal.” Brad Friedman
So not only does our respected ”progressive” hero, Daniel Ellsberg, breathlessly support the “truthiness” of the Wikileaks psyops, he is also promoting the idea that Hillary Clinton’s crimes don’t rise to the level of something that she should be held accountable for. After all, all politicians commit crimes and certain ones just have to be accepted as par for the course. Personally, I don’t buy Ellsberg’s argument that since former Secretaries of State committed crimes and got away with it, so too should we afford the same luxury to Hillary Clinton.
Remarkably, Ellsberg also asserts that Obama is probably not guilty of war crimes in the continuation and escalation of the obviously criminal occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Currently anti-war sites are taking up a collection for Assange (just like last time when he came out with the Collateral Damage video) in order to get his site back up and running. The way I see it, that would be like seeing a donations button for Scooter Libby on World Can’t Wait’s website.
You have to give it to the Clinton regime at the state department. It’s a pretty slick PR campaign and it appears, at least for the time being, to be working. Ironically, the man who helped bring an end to the Vietnam war is inadvertently helping set the stage for the next one while the antiwar activist websites are steadily promoting the propaganda. Gotta hand it to Clinton and her PR team; that’s slick.
Of course, it could never work without the amen chorus and their featured soloist, Daniel Ellsberg.
I just want you all too remember that in 6 months when they are using Wikileaks disclosures to help justify the invasion of Iran and the deaths of thousands more of our service men and women and perhaps a million more civilians in the Middle East.
UPDATE
If you want a clear cut example of what I am talking about, go here to a CNN video of Fareed Zakaria explaining how the Wikileaks documents actually makes him feel better about the state department.
1. The leaks don’t show the state department doing anything nafarious.
“In these cables there are no stories of coups or attempted assasinations or secret deals.”
2. A transparent U.S. diplomacy
3. Astue American Envoys
“I have to confess that the level and quality of analysis in these cables is a lot better than I would have guessed.
4. Arab Leaders Fear Iran
“They have been urging Washington to do something about Iran including using military force.”
“The cables make clear that far from being loved in the region as he claims, he is feared and despised.”
“But reading through the sum total of this data dump, I came away more impressed and reasured by the way Washington works, or at least the state department, then I was before.” Fareed Zakaria, CNN