Unraveling the Emperor’s Speech to Write Our Own Story
By Susan Abulhawa | Palestine Chronicle | June 8, 2011
Anger was my first reaction after listening to Obama’s two speeches, one to the world and another to AIPAC – the powerful Israeli lobby in the US. I went around to my friends with phrases like ‘who does he think he is, presuming to tell Palestinians how they may or may not achieve freedom?’, or ‘what makes him think his vision for Palestinian dignity actually trumps the vision of Palestinians themselves?’ or ‘how dare he talk to us like a parent chastising a small child?’ or ‘when will we have a president who can and will tell the truth?’ or ‘I think AIPAC wrote his speech for him.’
My friends are used to hearing impassioned political commentary from me. The ones close to me always advise me to let the anger dissipate before I write anything so that what I put into words is coming from a clear head. That’s where I am now – no anger, calm, and clear headed. And here is my reaction:
Who does Obama think he is, presuming to tell Palestinians how they may or may not achieve freedom? What makes Obama think his vision for the future of Palestine, indeed vision for the Arab world on the whole, trumps the vision of Palestinians or Arabs for themselves? How dare he talk to Palestinians like we’re his bad little children in need of (his) parental direction? And will we in the US ever have a president capable of speaking frankly and truthfully? Because he just put Israeli propaganda in his own voice for the world.
After paying lip service to the Arab Spring, he outlined how he plans to help – read: manipulate – new governments, then he launched into the “cornerstone” of his vision, which pertains to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, although he referred to it as “the conflict between Israelis and Arabs.” That wording is important. It’s obfuscation verbiage that Israel has employed for years in order to lump Palestinians into miscellaneous Arabs, instead of a distinct people native to the Holy Land, being wiped away, swept into other Arab lands. The president dutifully spewed Israeli hasbara. And that was just the first sentence on the subject!
In the second sentence, he managed to present Israelis as poor victims living in constant fear for the lives of their children and in pain because, according to Obama, Palestinians teach their children to hate them. Again, here the President is regurgitating the racist Israeli hasbara that contradict the most basic facts of this conflict. In fact, over 100 Palestinian children have been killed for every Israeli child. Thousands of Palestinian children have been maimed for a single injured Israeli. Prisons in that land have been filled with Palestinian children, not Israelis. The thousands of school children cut off from their schools and teachers are Palestinian children, not Israeli. The bombed, destroyed homes and schools belonged to Palestinians, not Israelis. The ones who have to watch their mothers, fathers, grandparents and siblings humiliated, beaten, and systematically terrorized are Palestinian children, not Israeli. In more than sixty years, it has been Palestinians who have not known a single day of security or peace. And yet, Obama’s sympathy is with Israelis because a few Palestinians have committed acts to make Israelis pay a price for their colonial project that steals the Palestinian people’s heritage, inheritance, and history.
That wretched sentence was followed by a condescending attempt to describe what it has meant to us Palestinians to have our hearts wrenched from our bodies. Obama said it has been “humiliating” for us. Really? Tell that to my grandmother (and thousands like her) who died in a bug-infested shack so more Jews from Brooklyn could come and take her home and destroy the graves of her ancestors. And even in that reluctant reference to our humanity, Obama manages to insert another bit of Israeli hasbara by adding that our humiliation also stems from “never living in a nation of [our] own”. Despite my initial reaction, I have to smile at this statement, because no one can say or do anything to alter the fact that Palestinian families, including my own, are rooted in that land for centuries and millennia. That’s a claim that no Jewish man or woman from Eastern Europe, like Netanyahu, Tzipi Levni and other Israeli leaders can ever make. Those Israelis came to Palestine, changed their names and said they had returned home, then proceeded to destroy and expel the indigenous population. They have not only stolen our land, but they have also stolen our story, for it is Palestinians who are the natural inhabitants of that land who have descended from its various tribes throughout time, including the Hebrew tribes. But maybe Obama’s sympathies stem from America’s own history, since early settlers did the same to Native Americans. But that’s as shameful a history as slavery. Or maybe Obama is just a politician who doesn’t have what it takes to be a leader and cannot speak beyond the limits of his own narrow self-interest, even if it means upholding the shameful logic of inherent entitlement that underpins the State of Israel.
No matter. He managed to write himself out of history in that speech, of which I’ve only touched on three sentences so far. The next sentence was pure hypocrisy. He said, “We support a set of universal rights. Those rights include free speech; the freedom of peaceful assembly; freedom of religion; equality for men and women under the rule of law.” For the record, every one of those rights is denied to Palestinians by Israel. Palestinian Muslims and Christians in Ramallah, for example, cannot travel the 15 minutes it would take to get to Jerusalem to pray. I also note that Obama said nothing of equality between Jews and non-Jews, the opposite of which is the very foundation of the State of Israel.
That’s barely a paragraph from Obama’s abominable speech. It’s hasbara and pandering quotients only got worse in the version he delivered to AIPAC.
Telling Our Own Story
But we need not despair, and we need not fear. It might not be so obvious right now, but Israel is a sinking ship, because as history has taught us over and over, regimes that seek to create a “pure race” – with whatever the twisted ideas of purity mean for each – do not last. Oppression has a short shelf life, as brave Arab men and women are demonstrating to the world, one Arab nation at a time.
When David Grun and Gold Mabovitch came from Poland and the Russian Empire, they changed their names (David Ben Gurion and Gold Meir), committed massacres, and drove out the native people. Ben Gurion predicted that Palestinians, now refugees, would disappear as “the old will die and the young will forget”. They told a story of “a land without a people for a people without a land.” Meir tried to convince the world that we weren’t real when she declared to the world that “Palestinians do not exist”. And when we finally fought back, they spoke for us, and told a story of a depraved, violent, and irrational people. They controlled the dominant narrative, presumed to not only speak for us, but also for God. Golda Meir once said that Israel “exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by God Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy.” In this narrative, God became a real estate agent and the Bible a property deed. It was an alluring, albeit absurd, narrative and the world bought it. But amongst themselves, Israelis understood its miscalculation, which came in a candid admission from Judah Magnes years later when he said “we seem to have thought of everything… except the Arabs”.
Today, in the halls of power in both the US and Israel, many people are ironically echoing those words, decades after they were uttered by Magnes because the Orientalist assessment (if any at all) of the native populations does not encompass aspirations for freedom or their willingness to fight for elemental human dignities. The mistake of the United States, of Israel, and their client Arab rulers was to believe that we are backward, unrefined, uncivilized, fearful and easily controlled by brute force.
In truth, the greatest and most successful weapon used against Palestinians has not been Israeli tanks, airplanes, guns and soldier; it has not been their checkpoints, walls, fences, or settlements; it has not even been their powerful propaganda machine that suffuses nearly all mainstream western media outlets; Nor has it been their near complete control of US Congress or successive administrations.
The greatest weapon Israel has used against us has been our own minds. They succeeded, for a while at least, in making us believe ourselves small and powerless; that they are bigger than we are. Their greatest weapon has been their ability to make us believe that we need their permission to live with dignity; that we need their blessing and the blessing of the US to achieve freedom; that our lives depend on currying favor with them; that we must negotiate for the right to live in our own homes, inherit our own heritage, and live with the human rights that are accorded to the rest of humanity. Their great weapon has been to make us believe that we must give everything we have, everything dear to us, so they will stop oppressing us and leave us a pittance and crumbs of what is already rightfully ours to begin with.
Perhaps, in their despair and shock, our parents and grandparents bought into this; but no more. Ben Gurion could not have been more wrong. The young have not forgotten, and they are tearing away at this nonsense that has kept us chained.
First Tunisians, ordinary citizens, together took down their ruthless leader, followed by Egyptians, who managed to dismantle a regime that seemed unmovable and all-powerful. And in doing so, they destroyed the façade of power. They broke the greatest weapons against us and helped restore our belief in ourselves. Our brothers and sisters in Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Libya and beyond are now waging their lives en mass to confront and dismantle long standing injustices, as Palestinians have been doing for decades.
The politics and issues might differ from one country to the next, but a common narrative runs through them all. It is simply that we are ancient societies with splendid histories and cultures. We are also a people who have been so maligned, so dehumanized and oppressed by various mechanisms. A people whose voice has been muted and whose story has mostly been told by others. A people who are finally demanding to speak in their own voices, to tell their own story, to define themselves for the world, and to hold the reigns of their own destiny.
And in that context, it doesn’t matter what Obama says to AIPAC or to the world. His vision does not matter. Nor does Netanyahu’s. Egyptians did not need America’s permission to do that. They didn’t need Israel’s either. They needed only their own resolve and fortitude; and they also needed the eyes and solidarity of ordinary people of the world. That’s all we as Palestinians need to demand and claim our place among humanity, as a people deserving of human rights that are afforded to the rest of the world. We do not need the US or Israel to give us these rights. We were born with them. We don’t need to negotiate for them, because they’re non-negotiable.
We are a people who stand firmly on moral ground, demanding basic human rights and freedom. Let them say or do what they will. Ours is a demand for inclusion, while theirs is for exclusion. Ours is for the diverse, multi-religious society that Palestine had always been. Theirs is for a Jewish-only country. Ours involves equality under the law regardless of religion, while theirs is a demand for privilege and entitlement only for those belonging to the Jewish religion. Ours is a claim based on history, heritage, law, and personal lineage; theirs is a claim based on an omnipotent landlord. Ours is for justice. Theirs is for power.
But Israel’s power exists only at the narrow corrupted top where the Obamas and Mubaraks of the world dwell. It’s the power of weapons and brute force. Our power is on the wide expansive ground, where the call for justice swells all over the world. It’s the space of human solidarity and moral conscience that fight the good fight for freedom and dignity, regardless of religion or race. That’s where we are, and here, the Emperor’s speeches are irrelevant.
Palestinians have not forgotten, nor will we. We carry our homes, our stories and our wounds in our skin and give birth to them all over again with every new generation. Just as Jews cannot forget the Shoah, so Palestinians cannot forget the Naqba, the Naksa, and the ongoing ethnic cleansing taking place. More importantly, we know who we are and where we come from. That is where we’re headed and we will make it home, thanks to our resolve and thanks to the solidarity of individuals and organizations all over the world. And when we are finally home, we will, as Dr. Edward Said urged us, remember the solidarity shown to Palestine here and everywhere.
Israel should not see this as a threat and they should not fear true democracy. Israel has a chance to heed the calls of their brave young people who refuse to be the brutalizers it wants them to be. The ones who refuse to serve and the ones breaking the silence or the ones boycotting their own illegal settlements. They are the conscience of Israel. And the conscience of the Jewish people is reflected in the woman who courageously interrupted Netanyahu’s speech before Congress. These young people are Israel’s redemption. Because the day will come when their racist system that measures human worth by religion will crumble. The day will come when military force is not enough to stop people from pouring into the streets to march for justice; and a critical mass all over the world will say enough.
Israel exists amidst a great body of Arabs. Amidst very old civilizations where historically Jews thrived. Whether in the Middle East, North Africa, or Spain, Jews found strength, protection, home and opportunity under Muslim rule before Israel was established. Israel’s best hope is to work to restore that solidarity. To find their way to the understanding that we are not children of a lesser God whom they can destroy and oppress at will.
– Susan Abulhawa is the author of Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury 2010) and the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine (www.playgroundsforpalestine.org).
The Obama Surveillance State
By Margaret Kimberley | BAR | June 1, 2011
The state security apparatus which came into being during the Bush administration is now supported just as strongly, if not more so, under president Barack Obama. There has been no let up, no change in course for a system which becomes stronger with each passing day and which faces almost no political opposition.
The Obama justice department recently asserted that it can withhold classified information from a federal judge. Federal judges have security clearances and are permitted to see classified information in cases brought before them. The Obama justice department says that only the executive branch has the power to determine what information courts ought to have. The government attorney asserted, “There is no right for the plaintiff to give the court classified information at all.” The federal judge was so stunned that she described herself as “literally speechless” over the government claim that she ought to be kept in the dark.
The case in question is a remnant of the worst abuses brought about by the Bush administration, involving the kidnapping and rendition of Muslim cleric Abu Omar in Milan, Italy in 2003. A former CIA operative with State Department cover is now suing the federal government because it did not protect her right to diplomatic immunity. That operative was found guilty in absentia in an Italian court and faces arrest should she ever travel to Europe again. Now the Obama administration is once again protecting the Bush abuses which its supporters thought would now be long gone.
This is not the only instance of the current justice department moving forward with Bush administration prosecutions. Thomas Drake is a former employee of the National Security Administration now charged with violating the Espionage Act. He faces 35 years in prison, having been accused of giving documents to a reporter. Candidate Obama said he would protect the rights of whistle blowers, but now as president he tries to send them to jail. The Obama administration has brought five Espionage Act prosecutions to court, more than all other past administrations combined.
Not content to defend Bush era abuses, and send whistle blowers to jail, Obama and Congress have extended the Patriot Act, without changes, yet again. Two Democratic members of the intelligence committee, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall, were not only among those who voted no, but they also exposed how the act is being interpreted in a new and dangerous way by the administration. The Obama justice department has decided to interpret the act in a way which it will not reveal to the public. In other words, the government has a secret way of determining what is and isn’t legal but will not share that secret with congress or with the people. Orwell and Kafka would find new sources of inspiration with this president.
When George W. Bush was president, I and many others often used the word fascism to describe the growth of government powers and the diminution of our rights. Now that those very same assertions of executive power are being made by Barack Obama, should we not continue to raise the same concerns?
The sad fact is that the surveillance state has strong bi-partisan support and it is likely to only expand. … Full article
Obama Regime Issues Official Statement Against Gaza-bound Flotilla
By Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies – June 03, 2011
The US State Department issued an official statement reiterating its objection to the Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla, and stating that it raised the issue with the government of Turkey, as the United States believes that flotilla and any ship sailing to Gaza “would be regarded as an act of provocation”.
The State Department justified its stance by claiming that an “effective mechanism” is already in place to ensure humanitarian aid reaches the coastal region.
Deputy spokesperson of the State Department, Mark Toner, stated during a press briefing in Washington that the United States warned Turkey against organisations trying to break the Israeli siege on Gaza.
Toner said that the groups and individuals who aim at breaking the Israeli maritime siege on the Gaza Strip are conducting what he dubbed as “provocative and irresponsible actions that could lead to violence”.
He added that any supplies meant to be sent to Gaza must go through what he called the “efficient mechanisms that have been established”.
Toner refused to comment on the possibility that Israel will, once again, attack the flotilla and said that such questions should be directed to the Israeli government . He stated; “actions and attempts to break the blockade on Gaza are provocative”, adding that “the United States does not want to see anybody harmed”.
Last week, United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, sent letters to Mediterranean countries urging them to stop the ships and to discourage human rights activists from sending the new flotilla.
He also called on Israel to act in a responsible manner to avoid violence, similar to last year’s deadly Israeli attack against the Mavi Marmara Turkish ship, one of the Freedom Flotilla ships, that was violently attacked and boarded by Israeli commandos who killed nine Turkish activists and wounded several others.
Israel Names New Settlement After Obama
By Saleh Naami | Al-Ahram Online | May 31, 2011
In a move that comes as gesture of deep gratitude, the Israeli government permitted an extreme rightwing Israeli association to name a new settlement Obama. The building of settlements makes the establishment of a connected Palestinian state an impossible task.
Bulldozers started to pave the way for the settlement a day after Obama gave his speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference. The construction of the settlement comes in the larger context of a Zionization project that aims to link Jerusalem to the city of Ma’ale Adumim, north east of Jerusalem.
The location of the Obama settlement is along the main road that connects the West Bank’s northern and southern regions; a consequence of building the settlement would therefore be to separate those territories permanently.
In order to make concrete the reality of settlement in these territories, the Israeli government has decided to move its police headquarters next to the Obama settlement.
Israeli radio reported that this step came to honour Obama’s positions in solidarity with Israel which he disclosed to his audience at the AIPAC conference.
Israeli official sources mentioned that the Israeli step comes in the framework of the strategy “Greater Jerusalem,” which aims to change the demographic nature of Jerusalem, raising the number of Jews to one million, a project put forth by former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.
Obama On Iran: X Times Zero Is Greater Than Zero
Moon of Alabama | June 1, 2011
With regards to Iraq’s non-existing WMDs, which were used to launch a war on it, the Bush administration’s sell-points were not so much single pieces of (false) evidence, the Uranium from Nigeria, the bio-weapon trucks, the Antrax scare, but the sum of all of these pieces.
Even people who did not believe every single piece of the evidence could be convinced by pointing to the sum of them. A lot of dirt was thrown at Saddam’s Iraq and for a lot of onlookers the amount of dirt thrown, even as it didn’t stick, was enough to make Iraq look dirty.
In responses to the new Sy Hersh piece on the non-existence, which U.S. intelligence agencies confirm, of an Iranian military nuclear program, the Obama administration is now using exactly the same tactics. It asserts that the validity of each single piece of evidence is not relevant, it is simply the sum of them which makes Iran dangerous.
In a Politico piece the administration responds directly to the Hersh piece:
“There is a clear, ongoing pattern of deception, and Iran has repeatedly refused to respond to the IAEA’s questions about the military dimensions of [its] nuclear program, including those about the covert site at Qom,” the senior administration official added. “These examples and more make us deeply skeptical of Iran’s nuclear intentions.”
The communicated strategy here is: “It is the sum of the evidence (about some of which we will not tell you), not the single explainable pieces, which makes Iran guilty.”
It therefore does not matter to the “senior administration official” that the Qom site was not secret at all. Iran declared the then still empty site to the IAEA on September 21 2009 and the Obama administration revealed it as “secret” only on September 25 2009. But that false evidence is only part of a pattern of other (likely also false) evidence and that is the reason, says Obama, why we must eventually bomb Iran.
In the New York Times the propagandist William J. Broad lets the administration make the same point:
The seven categories of technology all bear on what can be interpreted as warhead design: how to turn uranium into bomb fuel, make conventional explosives that can trigger a nuclear blast, generate neutrons to spur a chain reaction and design nose cones for missiles.Two diplomats familiar with the evidence, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity under the usual protocol, emphasized that no single one of the technologies stood out as indicating bomb work. Some, they conceded, have peaceful uses.
But the totality of the evidence, they said, suggested that Iran has worked hard on multiple fronts to advance the design of nuclear arms.
“It’s the whole variety of information,” one of the diplomats said. “You have to look at the whole thing.”
(Notice how Broad hides his sources as “diplomats” not as “foreign diplomats” as the NYT usual does when they are not U.S. administration officials.)
But despite what those administration stooges say, the “totality of the evidence” is not greater than zero when each and every evidence point is zero. Any of the “seven categories of technology” has peaceful or non nuclear military purposes. Some of them are even very unlikely to be used in a military nuclear program.
A few weeks ago a scare was made of evidence of uranium deuterite as a neutron generator in an Iranian bomb. As the Arms Control Wonk Jeffery Lewis pointed out:
This method is incredibly unique. Not only are there no civilian uses for imploding uranium deuteride to generate a burst of neutrons, NOT EVEN THE OTHER NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROGRAMS CONSIDERED THIS APPROACH.
Why, if Iran were to build a bomb, would it use an unproven technology no one else has ever used for this purpose? Would you introduce some obscure new physics into your very first bomb if all the other experienced bomb builders used other better and by now well known, readily available and reliable methods? That is again not credible as evidence. But to the Obama administration that does not matter.
Their new selling point is not the credibility of their alleged evidence, they even confirm that there is none, their selling point is the pattern THEY create by introducing all kinds of dubious technical evidence to make their case.
WHO caves: Allows smallpox stockpiling for three more years
By Rady Ananda | The People’s Voice | May 28th, 2011
Once again, the World Health Assembly failed to set a deadline for the destruction of smallpox samples, delaying discussion for another three years. Though it still affirms the need for live sample destruction, the two-day “contentious debate” (repeated for the last 25 years) ended on May 24 in a victory for bioweapons development in the U.S. and Russia.
“The retention of the existing stocks of smallpox virus are not required” to maintain and bolster current vaccine supplies, argues Dr. D. A. Henderson in Biosecurity and Bioterrorism: Biodefense Strategy, Practice, and Science. Through current technology, smallpox vaccines can be developed from the known genome. Live viruses are simply no longer needed.
The claimed need to protect against smallpox appears to be a ruse for the development of its use as a bioweapon. Given the history of its use in Native American genocide, the United States should be specifically banned from possessing the live virus. But, this is the same country that’s radiating with impunity the Middle East with depleted uranium.
In A pox on the keepers of a killer virus, Ben Macintyre urges, “By destroying the last stocks, the world would be drawing a clear legal distinction: anyone in possession of the virus after that date would be guilty of a crime against humanity.”
Biological disarmament is not on the table, however, though the debate has been raging since smallpox eradication over 30 years ago.
Even Forbes Magazine condemns retention. In It’s time to destroy the U.S. smallpox reserves, Steven Salzberg argues, “The only thing they need to do is to destroy their stocks of smallpox, and wipe out this virus once and for all. This seems like an obvious thing to do, but it’s obvious now that the scientists whose jobs depend on keeping the smallpox around will never agree to destroy it. Nor will their bosses at the CDC. Yet keeping the smallpox around dramatically increases the risk that a deranged person will get his hands on it and release it in the population.”
He urges President Obama to “order the CDC to destroy their stocks of smallpox, and eliminate this unnecessary risk from the planet. The United States can and should take the moral lead on this public health threat, rather than stonewalling once again at the next World Health Assembly. Destroy the smallpox, and wipe out this scourge once and for all.”
Hear, hear. But we know he won’t. Obama has infected his administration with former biotech employees bent on genetically contaminating the biosphere from crops to animals to oil-eating microbes to drugs. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority just awarded nearly $3 billion in smallpox research grants to two US firms. Something other than morality guides public policy.
Obama’s AIPAC speech — Déjà entendu?
By Maidhc Ó Cathail | The Passionate Attachment | May 28, 2011
Some of those listening to President Obama’s AIPAC speech could be forgiven for thinking they had heard it all before — especially if they had been in attendance at the Anti-Defamation League’s 2010 National Leadership Conference to hear the remarks of Daniel B. Shapiro, senior director for the Middle East and North Africa at the National Security Council. Shapiro, whom Obama referred to at AIPAC as “one of my top advisors on Israel and the Middle East for the past four years” and “a close and trusted advisor and friend,” would appear to have had a significant input into the president’s address to the pro-Israel lobby (see below). According to Ha’aretz, the fluent Hebrew speaker and regular synagogue attendee maintains “close relations with the Israeli prime minister and his close advisers and senior defense ministry officials” — presumably close enough to ensure that Obama’s Israel policy doesn’t stray too far from what is acceptable to Tel Aviv.
Shapiro: President Obama’s approach towards Israel is grounded above all in the unbreakable bond between our two countries, our common values, the deep and interwoven connections between our peoples, and our shared interests…. But we do believe that ensuring Israel’s future as a secure, Jewish, democratic state is very much in our national interests.
Obama: On Friday, I was joined at the White House by Prime Minister Netanyahu, and we reaffirmed — (applause) — we reaffirmed that fundamental truth that has guided our presidents and prime ministers for more than 60 years — that even while we may at times disagree, as friends sometimes will, the bonds between the United States and Israel are unbreakable — (applause) — and the commitment of the United States to the security of Israel is ironclad. (Applause.)
A strong and secure Israel is in the national security interest of the United States not simply because we share strategic interests, although we do both seek a region where families and children can live free from the threat of violence. It’s not simply because we face common dangers, although there can be no denying that terrorism and the spread of nuclear weapons are grave threats to both our nations.
America’s commitment to Israel’s security flows from a deeper place — and that’s the values we share.
Shapiro: We take inspiration from the remarkable story of Israel: the Zionist dream first voiced by Theodor Herzl, whose 150th birthday we celebrate this week; the painstaking struggle to build a Jewish state in the historic homeland of the Jewish people, despite threats from all directions… President Obama has made ensuring Israel’s security a key pillar of our Middle East policy. We do it because it is the right thing to do, standing by a key partner, whom the President has called “more than a strategic ally”, in the face of numerous threats to its citizens and even to its existence.
Obama: We also know how difficult that search for security can be, especially for a small nation like Israel living in a very tough neighborhood. I’ve seen it firsthand. When I touched my hand against the Western Wall and placed my prayer between its ancient stones, I thought of all the centuries that the children of Israel had longed to return to their ancient homeland. When I went to Sderot and saw the daily struggle to survive in the eyes of an eight-year-old boy who lost his leg to a Hamas rocket, and when I walked among the Hall of Names at Yad Vashem, I was reminded of the existential fear of Israelis when a modern dictator seeks nuclear weapons and threatens to wipe Israel off the face of the map — face of the Earth.
Shapiro: This commitment to Israel’s security is not a slogan for us. We live it every day in the policies we carry out. Since taking office, President Obama has taken what was already a strong U.S.-Israel defense relationship, and broadened and deepened it across the board. Our annual military assistance to Israel has increased to nearly $3 billion. We have reinvigorated defense cooperation, including on missile defense, highlighted by the 1,000 U.S. servicemembers who traveled to Israel to participate in the Juniper Cobra military exercises last fall. We have intensive dialogues and exchanges with Israel — in political, military, and intelligence channels — on regional security issues and counter-terrorism, from which we both benefit, and which enable us to coordinate our strategies whenever possible. We have redoubled our efforts to ensure Israel’s Qualitative Military Edge in the region, which has been publicly recognized and appreciated by numerous senior Israeli security officials. And we continue to support the development of Israeli missile defense systems, such as Arrow and David’s Sling, to upgrade Patriot missile defense systems first deployed during the Gulf War, and to work cooperatively with Israel on an advanced radar system to provide early warning of incoming missiles.
Obama: Because we understand the challenges Israel faces, I and my administration have made the security of Israel a priority. It’s why we’ve increased cooperation between our militaries to unprecedented levels. It’s why we’re making our most advanced technologies available to our Israeli allies. (Applause.) It’s why, despite tough fiscal times, we’ve increased foreign military financing to record levels. (Applause.) And that includes additional support – beyond regular military aid – for the Iron Dome anti-rocket system. (Applause.) A powerful example of American-Israeli cooperation — a powerful example of American-Israeli cooperation which has already intercepted rockets from Gaza and helped saved Israeli lives. So make no mistake, we will maintain Israel’s qualitative military edge. (Applause.)
Shapiro: We take these steps because the threats Israel faces are real, and because many of the same forces threaten us and our interests. Whether it is an Iran bent on acquiring nuclear weapons…
Obama: You also see our commitment to our shared security in our determination to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. (Applause.)
Shapiro: President Obama has also steadfastly defended Israel against attempts to de-legitimize it, whether at the UN or other international bodies….These are commitments that will not change.
Obama: You also see our commitment to Israel’s security in our steadfast opposition to any attempt to de-legitimize the State of Israel. (Applause.) As I said at the United Nations last year, “Israel’s existence must not be a subject for debate,” and “efforts to chip away at Israel’s legitimacy will only be met by the unshakeable opposition of the United States.” (Applause.)
Shapiro: When it became clear that the Durban II Conference would unfairly and unreasonably single out Israel for criticism, we did not hesitate to pull out of the conference and lead many of our allies to do the same. We have repeatedly and vigorously voted against and spoken out against the Goldstone Report.
Obama: So when the Durban Review Conference advanced anti-Israel sentiment, we withdrew. In the wake of the Goldstone Report, we stood up strongly for Israel’s right to defend itself. (Applause.)
Shapiro: Our pursuit of a comprehensive peace in the Middle East is inextricably linked to the U.S.-Israeli partnership, as there has never been an Israeli government that did not pursue this goal fervently. The President made this a top priority from Day One because he knew that achieving peace would take time, and that neglecting this issue for several years only increased the danger Israel faces from Hizballah, Hamas, and Iran.
Obama: And so, in both word and deed, we have been unwavering in our support of Israel’s security. (Applause.) And it is precisely because of our commitment to Israel’s long-term security that we have worked to advance peace between Israelis and Palestinians. (Applause.)
Shapiro: Today, Hamas continues to rule harshly in Gaza, rejecting any compromise with Israel, smuggling weapons, and cruelly holding Gilad Shalit in captivity. He should be released to his family without delay. Our policy on Hamas has not changed: to gain the legitimacy it seeks, Hamas must comply with the conditions set down by the Quartet — recognizing the State of Israel, renouncing violence, and abiding by past agreements.
Obama: No country can be expected to negotiate with a terrorist organization sworn to its destruction. (Applause.) And we will continue to demand that Hamas accept the basic responsibilities of peace, including recognizing Israel’s right to exist and rejecting violence and adhering to all existing agreements. (Applause.) And we once again call on Hamas to release Gilad Shalit, who has been kept from his family for five long years. (Applause.)
Shapiro: But we also know that the status quo is not sustainable.
Obama: The status quo is unsustainable.
Shapiro: Demography makes it unsustainable: Israel cannot remain a secure, Jewish, democratic state without the emergence of a Palestinian state.
Obama: … the number of Palestinians living west of the Jordan River is growing rapidly and fundamentally reshaping the demographic realities of both Israel and the Palestinian Territories. This will make it harder and harder — without a peace deal — to maintain Israel as both a Jewish state and a democratic state.
Shapiro: He also knew that achieving a two-state solution is the only way to guarantee Israel’s future as a secure, Jewish, democratic state, which is in Israeli and American interests.
Obama: I said that the United States believes that negotiations should result in two states, with permanent Palestinian borders with Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, and permanent Israeli borders with Palestine.
Shapiro: This goal, this requirement to fulfill the needs of all parties, can only be achieved through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
Obama: Now, I have said repeatedly that core issues can only be negotiated in direct talks between the parties. (Applause.)
Shapiro: We believe that through good-faith negotiations, the parties can agree to an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps, and Israel’s goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israel’s security requirements.
Obama: The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps — (applause) — so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states…. By definition, it means that the parties themselves – Israelis and Palestinians – will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on June 4, 1967. (Applause.) That’s what mutually agreed-upon swaps means. It is a well-known formula to all who have worked on this issue for a generation. It allows the parties themselves to account for the changes that have taken place over the last 44 years. (Applause.) It allows the parties themselves to take account of those changes, including the new demographic realities on the ground, and the needs of both sides.
Shapiro: Palestinian and other Arab leaders must also prepare their populations for peace, by ending all acts and statements of incitement, educating for coexistence, reaching out to the Israeli public, and beginning the process of normalization with Israel.
Obama: Arab governments, too, have responsibilities we will expect them to fulfill. Their support for proximity talks is welcome, but our expectations do not end there. We need them to … reach out to the Israeli public and resume exchanges of various kinds with Israel to demonstrate that Israel’s isolation in the region is ending.
Obama Gives Himself the Power to Economically Assassinate Syrian Leaders
By Eric Blair | Activist Post | May 27, 2011
In April of this year President Barack Obama, claiming powers vested in him during an “International Economic Emergency” and “National Emergency” signed Executive Order 13572; Blocking Property of Certain Persons With Respect to Human Rights Abuses in Syria. Essentially, it gives him the power to seize assets of Syrians suspected of being complicit in human rights abuses.
This incredibly vague standard gives the president the power to determine who ends up with the control of wealth in Syria. The EO describes the broad accusations that can be deemed sufficient enough by the State Department or Treasury Department to render asset seizures:
(i) to be responsible for or complicit in, or responsible for ordering, controlling, or otherwise directing, or to have participated in, the commission of human rights abuses in Syria, including those related to repression;
(ii) to be a senior official of an entity whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order;
(iii) to have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services in support of, the activities described in subsection (b)(i) of this section or any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to Executive Order 13338, Executive Order 13460, or this order; or
(iv) to be owned or controlled by, or to have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to Executive Order 13460 or this order.
If events leading up to Libya’s “liberation” are any indicator, this Executive Order is the first step in engaging in an interventionist “humanitarian war”. In February of this year Obama signed an eerily similar Executive Order 13566, Blocking Property and Prohibiting Certain Transactions Related to Libya. Again, Obama declared the situation in Libya a “national emergency” in order to obtain the power to economically assassinate Qadhafi and anyone loyal to him:
I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, find that Colonel Muammar Qadhafi, his government, and close associates have taken extreme measures against the people of Libya, including by using weapons of war, mercenaries, and wanton violence against unarmed civilians. I further find that there is a serious risk that Libyan state assets will be misappropriated by Qadhafi, members of his government, members of his family, or his close associates if those assets are not protected. The foregoing circumstances, the prolonged attacks, and the increased numbers of Libyans seeking refuge in other countries from the attacks, have caused a deterioration in the security of Libya and pose a serious risk to its stability, thereby constituting an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States, and I hereby declare a national emergency to deal with that threat.
This Executive Order was executed less than a month before the U.N. Security Council resolution for the so-called “No-Fly Zone” that has now festered into nightly bombings of Libya’s capital city and the actual targeted assassination of their sovereign leader.
This appears to be the modern imperial playbook for starting preemptive humanitarian wars for the purpose of regime change. Step one; seize the assets of the group currently running a country to weaken them. Step two; build strategic popular support for humanitarian intervention. Step three; bomb the humanity back into the country and kill the rightful leader. Step four; install globalist puppets to control the flow of the country’s currency and assets. Step five; move on to the next “oppressive” regime, bypassing the mirror of conscience.
One thing is for certain, Syria is next on the globalist chopping block despite the West’s clear involvement in spearheading the opposition movement there. The U.S. president can now conveniently claim the powers of international economic emergency and national emergency to circumvent any checks and balances to justify nearly any act of imperial tyranny. And 2011 is shaping up to be a Blitzkrieg by Western powers to take out the remaining global chess pieces that oppose their domination.
US To Fund Four More Iron Dome Defense Systems For Israel
By Kevin Murphy – IMEMC and Agencies – May 26, 2011
US President Barrack Obama’s administration is to fund the purchase of four more anti rocket systems for the Israeli military. The US will help fund the short range anti rocket “Iron Dome” missile defence system as part of the $200 million Obama military aid initiative to Israel.
US Army Lieutenant Patrick O Reilly announced that the US is to fund the purchase of four more Iron Dome batteries in a statement to the U.S. Senate Appropriations Defence Subcommittee.
The mobile devices are used to intercept and destroy rockets before they hit their target. So far two such devices have been set up in Ashelkon and Beersheba, towns close to the Gaza strip.
Israel claims that the mobile system first successfully intercepted rockets on the 7th of April, fired from Gaza, and has since intercepted seven more.
The batteries cost $50 million per unit and are developed and produced by Israeli state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.
Barrack Obama in his speech to AIPAC promised that the US would go “beyond” its regular military aid to Israel in the future.
Israel Reigns Supreme
By Margaret Kimberley | Black Agenda Report | May 25, 2011
It used to be said that Social Security and Medicare were the “third rails” of American politics. That is to say, their popularity with the public rendered them beyond the bounds of any change politicians might contemplate. Now that the Republicans have publicly tried to eviscerate Medicare and our Democratic president has appointed a deficit reduction commission which immediately saw entitlements as the only deficit problem, we know there is now nothing sacred when it comes to the safety net.
However, there is a still a political third rail, and it is the nation of Israel. Israel’s untouchability has nothing to do with popularity amongst the masses, but everything to do with a well funded lobbying and propaganda machine. This decades long, sustained effort to render critics of Israel powerless and mute has been quite effective. Politicians who dare to break the rules of silence suddenly face well funded opponents. Professors are denied tenure and authors are boycotted. Even former president Jimmy Carter was hounded and vilified for being truthful about Israel’s resemblance to apartheid era South Africa in a book published three years ago.
We have seen the continuation of this propaganda campaign for the past two weeks. First, Israeli troops shot and killed peaceful protesters on their borders. The constant excuse that Palestinians would be supported if they protested peacefully went unacknowledged when Palestinians who did just that were shot dead.
Just this week, the annual ritual of the American president prostrating himself at the AIPAC convention took place. Barack Obama, a man who definitely knows his audience, made himself look like a peacemaker a few days earlier when he uttered words about 1967 borders being important in upcoming peace talks. The perennial peace talks never bring peace because they are never conducted honestly. America is a dishonest broker if there ever was one, asking nothing of Israel, actively assisting its wars on Lebanon or Gaza or wherever it chooses to kill people, and allowing itself to be the vassal state of a country that exists only through its largesse.
His “reset” speech was no different, but the corporate media would have us believe otherwise. There is nothing new about calling for a “two state solution.” Even some Israelis do that. Most importantly, Obama made it clear that Israel’s borders will be determined by Israel.
Obama has already publicly stated his opposition to the Palestinian plan to seek recognition at the United Nations. Even if the General Assembly wants to support such a measure, the United States will use its Security Council veto to squelch it. Once again, an American president makes certain that the Palestinians get nothing but the shaft.
The peace prize winner dispensed with any pretense or niceties at the AIPAC convention. He stated that he made Israel’s security “a top priority” and went even further: “It’s why we’re making our most advanced technologies available to our Israeli allies. It’s why, despite tough fiscal times, we’ve increased foreign military financing to record levels.”
So much for change agents and resets.
Pro-Israeli propaganda is as deeply embedded in the minds of most Americans as the mythology of their home country. Most know nothing about the “Nakba,” the catastrophe of Palestinians being kicked out of their communities and their homes in 1948 when Israel was founded. The continued theft of Palestinian land is never discussed, nor are Israel’s imprisonment and killing of Palestinians. American peace protesters are crushed to death by tractors or executed at sea on missions of mercy to Gaza. Even American sailors were killed on the U.S. Liberty by Israeli war planes. These undisputed facts are kept from public view in this country. Self-selected individuals who want to know the truth for themselves are alone in their knowledge of history and are forced to watch politicians outdo one another in caving to Israeli demands.
The dependence of American media and politicians on Zionist support makes it all but impossible to foresee any changes in this failed dynamic. That fact does not mean that everyone should be silent. Instead, opposition is called for and a commitment to change outside of the two party system. Democrats and Republicans alike are afraid to make any real changes in this dysfunctional relationship. Although it can be said that in fact it functions quite well, but for one side only.
~
Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in the Black Agenda Report
We Reject United States Sanctions Against Venezuela
Postcards From The Revolution | May 25, 20111
On Tuesday, May 24, 2011, the United States Department of State unilaterally imposed sanctions against Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, S.A. (PDVSA), for its alleged relations with the government of Iran. The sanctions are a desperate and weak attempt to link Venezuela to Iran’s nuclear energy program as part of an ongoing campaign to justify further aggressive action against the South American oil producing nation.
As citizens of the United States, we unequivocally reject this latest attempt of our administration to demonize the Venezuelan government and undermine the vibrant democracy of the Venezuelan people. The Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez has already been victim of a coup d’etat in 2002, backed by Washington, which briefly ousted the President from power. Fortunately for the health of Venezuela’s democracy, the people fought back, rescued their President, and reinstated constitutional order. Then, as now, the United States stood alone in its support for hostilities against Venezuela’s democratically-elected government.
The government of Hugo Chavez has used its oil wealth to invest heavily in improving the wellbeing of its people. Currently, more than 60% of oil industry profits are directed towards social programs in Venezuela, including free healthcare, education, job training, community media, grassroots organizations and subsidized food and housing. The results are notable. Poverty in Venezuela has been reduced by over 50% during the Chavez administration, illiteracy has been eradicated and free, universal healthcare and education are available and accessible to all. These policies of social justice have extended well beyond the borders of Venezuela to the United States though programs that supply free, discounted or subsidized heating oil and fuel to low income neighborhoods, indigenous peoples’ communities and homeless shelters throughout the nation.
More than 250,000 US citizens in 25 states and the District of Columbia have benefited to date from the Venezuelan government’s subsidized heating oil program, which is run through PDVSA’s subsidiary in the United States, CITGO. No other oil company in the world – including US companies – has offered to help low income families suffering from the inflated cost of heating oil during the past six years, except for CITGO. Venezuela’s solidarity with the people of the United States has enabled thousands of families to survive through these difficult economic times.
We find it outrageous that the United States government would attempt to demonize the one company, and country, that has been there for our neighbors, putting people before profits. And we call on our representatives in Washington to suspend these sanctions against Venezuela immediately.
-Friends of Venezuela
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From the Archives
A low-fat, high-carb diet has been the largest public health experiment in history. It’s past time for a rethink.
By Malcolm Kendrick | RT | November 25, 2020
New research suggests that four billion people globally will be overweight in 2050. This trend can be traced back to the ‘low-fat, high-carb’ guidelines first issued in the 70s, and should prompt a major U-turn on dietary advice.
A recent report from the Potsdam Institute predicts that by 2050 there will be four billion overweight people in the world, with one-and-a-half billion of them obese. This is not entirely surprising. The world has been getting fatter for years, and things do not seem to be slowing down.
Why is this happening? … continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- Iran Blockade Complications /Lt Col Daniel Davis & Nima Alkhorshid
- Pirates of Mediterranean: Israel does as it pleases in the Sea of Three Continents
- Minab children massacre not ‘unfortunate situation’ but ‘heinous war crime’: Tehran
- OPCW Forced To Pay Damages To Whistleblower Who Found Evidence Of False Flag In Syria
- Iran can thrive under blockade, the US and its allies cannot
- Iran slams US leadership, debunking fabrications, false war costs
- Here’s why Iran is sovereign and Germany is not
- Israel pours $730m into global propaganda machine as reputation collapses
- Leaked audios reveal pro-Israel groups ‘paid’ for US pardon of convicted drug trafficker Juan Orlando Hernandez
- Congress Extends Section 702 Spy Program 45 Days
- If Americans Knew
- Israeli Strikes Kill at Least 32 Across S Lebanon, Including Children – Amid “Ceasefire”
- Israel to pour $730m into propaganda arm amid reputational crisis
- Real Cost of Iran War Likely Double the $25 Billion Figure the Pentagon Gave to Congress
- Israel conducts farthest-ever strike in long history of attacks on Gaza humanitarian aid flotillas
- In Gaza, Israel commits 10+ ceasefire violations a day – Daily Update
- US ships 6,500 tons of munitions, equipment to Israel in 24 hours
- A New Library in Gaza Rises From the Ashes of Destruction
- Israel’s top Jewish religious body ‘refuses to condemn’ smashing of Jesus statue
- Nun assaulted in Jerusalem amid ‘pattern’ of anti-Christian attacks by Israelis
- Former Tik Tok official describes massive pressure from Israel lobby
- No Tricks Zone
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- New Study: Extreme Heat Records, Heatwaves, Extreme Cold Records Declining Across US Since 1899
- It’s The Cold, Stupid! Cold 20 Times More Lethal Than Heat, Multiple Studies Show
- European Institute For Climate And Energy: “Climate Debate is Seldom About Science”
- New Study: The Climate May Be 5 Times More Sensitive To Solar Forcing Than Commonly Assumed
- EV Industry Reached $70 Billion In Losses In 2024 Due To Delusional Green Ideologies
- Reality Check: Maldives Have Actually Grown In Size Or Remained Stable Over Recent Decades
- Abrupt Climate Change Also Occurred NATURALLY In The Past …25 Times During Last Ice Age
- Cave Discovery Reveals Today’s Desert Climates Were Recently Far Warmer, Wetter, Teeming With Life
- German Expert: Heat Dome Led To Record Temps In Western USA…Warmer In 1934, 1936
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