Despite the Pain:A Youthbank Initiative in Gaza

http://www.dalia.ps/despite-paina-youthbank-initiative-gaza

When we think of the Gaza Strip, where the buildings bombed over a year ago still lie in ruins and the ground – visibly or not – is still stained with blood, it’s easier to think of suffering than inspiration. It’s easier to think of wounds than life, easier to imagine dust than light. It’s painful to envision a place where children can draw images of carnage and loss more readily than flowers or cartoons. When Gaza has cried out, the world has so seldom answered. And Gaza has not only asked Where is our justice? but also Where are our paintings? Where is our cloth? Where are our handicrafts? What can we create?

A group of young people (click here to see a report about them) from Gaza has asked these questions, and they have also answered them. Youthbank, a youth-led group that helps young people decide how to use resources and strengthen their own communities, decided to work together and create a Bazaar where young people who make products by hand (jewelry, embroidery, graphics, woodwork, pottery, food) could market and display their creations at the University of Palestine. Their work is not only energetic and resourceful; it is also inspiring in the truest sense of the world, borne of a spirit and resilience that refuses to be limited by the blows dealt to their home.

We at Dalia Association were struck and moved by Youthbank, and we wanted to connect our work to theirs. Among our goals is to make grants that support inspirational and relevant civil society initiatives, especially grassroots efforts that are supplement local resources. Community-controlled grantmaking increases the transparency, accountability and professionalism of local initiatives. We were excited by Youthbank’s work in Gaza in large part because it shares these goals: it supports youth initiatives by calling young Palestinians to present proposals and then allotting small grants for projects that aim to create social change. Facilitating creativity and change in Gaza felt all the more urgent.

Inspired by their mission, we gave a grant of $1200 to Youthbank in order to fund their Bazaar. This isn’t a great deal of money, but it creates many opportunities: to secure resources, to organize, to support each other, to network and build contacts, to improve their projects, and to market them effectively. The Bazaar required extensive planning and coordination: administrative tasks, meetings and communication both with the participants and with the university that housed them, arrangements with community organizations, marketing, financing, and so on. And the young organizers rose to the occasion every step of the way, showing exactly the kind of commitment and creativity that Dalia Association so admires. (Since Dalia Association cannot physically enter the Gaza Strip, the American Friends Service Committee in Gaza offered its help to Youthbank in their planning and reporting.)

The Bazaar itself was held for two days in December 2009, and it was a spectacular success. Around 450 people attended, and at least 200 purchased something – that’s an impressive percentage! What this means, too, is that people felt moved and impressed by the young people’s initiative and skill, and that they were compelled to support them. It’s possible to buy mass-produced, cheaply-made handicrafts for much less money, but this Bazaar was about something very different: community, strategy, and solidarity.

While the success of the Bazaar is certainly reflected in the quantifiable outcome (the number of participants, the number of purchases, and so on), the less tangible results are even more inspiring to us. By this we mean the way in which the participants, the young people themselves, gained skills and confidence from their work. Maha Al-Qdwa, a young woman who contributed embroidered handicrafts to the Bazaar, told Youthbank that she wanted to start her own small business selling jewelry and crafts. Another participant, Ahmad Abu-Za’iter, sold all of his products in the Bazaar, and expressed reassurance and renewed energy about finding other venues and securing other initiatives to sell his artwork. Clearly, the community project had been inspiring – to their community, certainly, but also to the young people themselves.

We were excited to sponsor a project that supported youth initiatives – both creative and entrepreneurial – and showcased their abilities. And we were moved to see this project make our core philosophy come alive. The Bazaar helped its young organizers build their capacities, but also realize the capacities they already had. It gave them a practical opportunity to participate in a complicated social and professional process and to see that they were more than successful. The project not only fulfilled its stated goals, but also opened new horizons for its participants, new ways to think about what they could do – as individuals and as a community so often categorized as a place of crisis, not creativity.

We’re grateful for the chance to work with Youthbank in Gaza, and we’re eager to keep supporting such inspiring initiatives!

Nobody mentions the Jewish Brotherhood

Israelis bemoan the alleged rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, ignoring their own local variety

While Israelis pay plenty of attention to the fear of the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, they steadfastly ignore the rise of the Jewish brotherhood in their own country.

The motto of the MB is “Islam is the solution”: faced with the failure of modernity in the Arab world, they want to step back into an imagined past of a pure Islamic rule – Sunni Islamism, of course. This interpretation of Islamic history has little relation to Islamic rule as it was in fact.

The Jewish Brotherhood, which uses widespread slogans such as “Jehova is the King” and “Return the Crown to its old glory”, address a much more mythical world: No “pure” Jewish regime ever existed. The very short years of independence in Judea – under the Hasmoneans – were run under a purely Hellenistic fusion of the rule of a king (who was, in Hellenistic and Roman propriety but hardly a Jewish one, also the high priest) and a council of notables, the Sanhedrin. Many of the Hasmonean kings relied on the Sadducees rather than on the Pharisees, who would give birth to rabbinical Judaism as we know it.

The rabbis would, in later ages, almost completely remove the hated Hasmoneans from history – the references to them in the Talmud would fill a very short brochure – and imagine their own independent government. It still has a king, but he was playing a decidedly second fiddle to the rabbis. And since the marking sign of Jewish thought from Talmudic days onwards was fanatical hatred of non-Jews (to whom they referred as “goyim”, similar to the Hellenistic/Roman usage of “Barbarian”), the future Jewish kingdom was supposed to be free of non-Jews, unless those who would either be subservient to the Jews, or would accept a version of Jewish law (“The laws of the sons of Noah”).

The Jewish state coming into being in 1948 was, as far as many Jewish fanatics thought, a total failure. It was the result of distinctly foreign ideologies, running the gamut between socialism and eastern European nationalism. Neither was particularly interested in Jewish law. The nationalists would show respect to its symbols – wearing the yarmulka when appropriate, held a kiddush from time to time – but would recognize the full monstrosity of Jewish law as their guide to life.

As a result, terrorist groups of ultra-Orthodox and Orthodox-nationalists abounded in the earlier days of the state; the famous if such terrorists was Mordechai Eliyahu, later to become Chief Rabbi and the father of Shmuel Eliyahu, the main engine of current ultra-Orthodox nationalism. Their purpose was to bring down the pseudo-democracy of the 1950s – Israel still held its Arab citizens under military law – and create, in its stead, a theocratic state.

They failed to win support. And, like the extremists among the MB, the Jewish right adopted terrorism as a tool. Jewish terrorists killed mostly non-Jews, but they put Jews in their sights, as well: Emil Grunzweig in 1983; Yizhak Rabin in 1995; The attempt by Ohad Bart, a Bnei Akiva (right wing Jewish Scouts) guide and later a National Unity Knesset candidate, to run minister Yossi Sarid off the road and into an abyss in 1996 (two months after the assassination of Rabin); The attempt by Chabad member Harry Shapiro on Shimon Peres’ life in Jacksonville in 1997; and various less deadly attacks, from the defacement of offices of human rights organizations and leftist organizations to arson.

Terrorism failed, as did rebellion. During the disengagement of 2005 – the removal of Jewish settlements from Gaza – there was a widespread attempt to bring about a revolt. I once interviewed the spokesman of the Yesha Council – the mainstream settler organization – about the focal point, the clash in Kfar Maimon, where Sharon forced the army to stand its ground and bring the revolt down. “They had tanks. They had gunship helicopters,” he told me. “Gunships! What could we be expected to do against that?” The Council was under attack by more radical settlers for not doing enough. I guess it’s a good thing the IDF brought along something heavier than jeeps.

Following the failure of the revolt, the movement’s ideologues – particularly Elyakim Levanon – began talking of taking over the establishment: more officers in the IDF, more “Emuniim” (“people of faith”) in every nook and cranny of the regime. It’s rather easy to identify religious reactionaries: the litmus test is their attitude towards women’s rights. Levanon forbade women from running in the elections for his settlement’s leadership (Hebrew), reminding them that Jewish law forbids “granting office to women.” His rabbinical position was strong enough to enforce the ruling.

Like the Muslim Brotherhood, whose basic assumption is that the first process towards a return to the glory days is cleansing society of non-Islamic elements, the Jewish Brotherhood always claimed that non-Jews ought to be removed from Jewish society. In this, they enjoyed wide support from most of Israeli Jewish society, which was always racist to the bone (a vast majority of Orthodox Jews in Israel consider a family member marrying a non-Jew to be a blot on the family’s honor). This process reached new peaks during the last few years.

About a year ago, some hitherto unknown group in Safed started demanding (Hebrew) employers sign their non-Jewish workers to a pledge to keep the “laws of the Sons of Noah” – i.e. recognize their subservience to Jewish law. By no accident, Safed is the town of Shmuel Eliyahu. The initiative spread to other towns. Then came Eliyahu’s ruling, forbidding renting apartments to non-Jews, which led to the “Rabbis’ Letter,” signed by more than 300 Israeli rabbis. Immediately afterward we were hit with the “assimilation” hysteria: The Rabbis Wives’ letter (apparently they’re denied political office, but are allowed carefully-vetted political expression), a ruling by the rabbi of Rosh Ha’Ayin forbidding the employment at Jewish women and Arab men in the same workplace; and the blood libel that Arab witches brew seduction potions, made of rabbits, to be used against Jewish females, particularly Orthodox ones (I shit you not; Hebrew).

The last few weeks have seen an acceleration: the LHVH organization, which focuses on “the danger of assimilation”, produced a new sort of kosher certificate - one noting the business employs no non-Jews – and it seems to be doing brisk business (Hebrew). Soon, MK Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) will use the podium of the Women’s Promotion Committee of the Knesset to hold a debate on the “perils of women assimilating” – i.e. promote the standard racist libel that “they” are trying to ravish “our” women, and grant it the imprimatur of the Knesset. I mean, if the Knesset debates it, it must exist, no?

It should be noted that Israeli law already fights interfaith marriages: A Jew and a non-Jew (as well as any Muslim trying to marry a non-Muslim) cannot marry in Israel, which stubbornly refuses to permit civil marriages and leaves standing the formation of the old Turkish Millet, or religious sect. An Israeli Jew wishing to marry a non-Jew is forced to marry abroad.

And, soon enough, his or her partner won’t be able to work alongside Jews, and she (or he) will be severely rebuked by the Knesset for defiling all that is holy in Judaism. So, once again – which of the two is nearer power, the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt, or the Israeli Jewish Brotherhood?

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'Mubarak to announce he'll step down after next election'

NOT GOOD ENOUGH. MUBARAK NEEDS TO LEAVE NOW. TO HELL WITH WHAT ISRAEL AND THE US THINKS.

Al Arabiya TV reported that Egypt's embattled president will address protesters on Tuesday to tell them he intends to stay in office until next elections to enforce reforms.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will say in a televised speech that he will step down at the next election but would stay in office till then to meet demands of protesters in that period, Al Arabiya TV reported on Tuesday.

It sourced the news to unnamed reports.

It said the president would make the comments in a speech later on Tuesday.

Anti-government riots throughout Egypt have continued unabated for eight days with protesters saying that the demonstrations won't stop until Mubarak ends his 30-year reign over the country.

The embattled president has tried to appease protesters by demanding that his cabinet resign and electing new officials in their place.

The next presidential election is scheduled for September. Until now, officials had indicated Mubarak, 82, would likely run for a sixth six-year term of office or in another scenario, that he is grooming his son Gamal to take over the office in his place.

The government's opposition, embracing the banned Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood, Christians, intellectuals and others, began to coalesce around the figure of Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace laureate for his work as head of the UN nuclear agency.

ElBaradei said on Tuesday Mubarak must leave Egypt before the reformist opposition would start talks with the government on the future of the Arab world's most populous nation.

"There can be dialogue but it has to come after the demands of the people are met and the first of those is that President Mubarak leaves," he told Al Arabiya television.

Mubarak sacked his cabinet on Saturday after days of unprecedented demonstrations, appointing former air force chief Ahmed Shafiq as his new prime minister. But Shafiq has yet to name his cabinet.

While the embattled president has said that he would press reforms through with the new government, he has made it clear that he has no intention of leaving office.

Mubarak has not received the world-wide support that he may have expected in the wake of the riots which have left a reported 100 dead and over 1,000 injured.

Although the United States, a strong ally of Egypt, has been careful not to take sides, the White House has called for fair and free elections in response to the unrest.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs dismissed Mubarak's move to appoint a new government, saying the situation in Egypt calls for action, not appointments.

"This is not about appointments, it's about actions," Gibbs said. "Obviously there is more work to be done ... The way Egypt looks and operates must change," Gibbs said.

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ARABS KEEP OUT! ISRAEL LAYS CLAIM TO ALL THE RESOURCES

by Manlio Dinucci

For years, various companies have been exploring the hydrocarbon deposits in the Levantine Basin, but only a handful of political and economic leaders were privy to the size of the prize. On 29 December 2010, the Israeli authorities gave Noble Energy Inc. the green light to release the news. The communication, announcing that exploitation was taking off after a political freeze, has been coupled with a diplomatic campaign to allow Tel Aviv to siphon off all the reserves to the detriment of the other coastline states.

U.S.-based Noble Energy Inc. recently announced a massive natural gas field discovery, located 130 kilometers offshore of Haifa [1] and consisting of an estimated 450 billion cubic meters. Resources in the surrounding area should total some 700 billion cubic meters. Exploration and exploitation are overseen by an international consortium composed by U.S. company Noble Energy Inc., currently the largest shareholder with a 40% stake, plus Israeli enterprises Delek, Avner and Ratio Oil Exploration [2]

This accounts for only a small part of the energy reserves abounding in the Levantine basin, which comprises Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon and their territorial waters. According to U.S. Geological Survey, a U.S. Government agency which has been prospecting in the region for several years, the natural gas deposits in the basin consist of approximately 3 500 billion cubic meters, while the oil reserves have been assessed at 1,7 billion barrels.

The Israeli government, with Washington’s backing, considers it is entitled to all the energy reserves. Israeli national infrastructure minister Uzi Landau declared that the large natural gas fields would not only bring economic benefits to Israeli citizens but could also transform Israel into a gas supplier in the Mediterranean region. However, objected Speaker of the Lebanese Parliament Nabih Berri, Israel is disregarding the fact that according to the maps the fields stretch into Lebanese territorial waters. The United Nations Convention stipulates that a coastal state may exploit offshore gas and oil reserves within a zone extending 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the shore.

According to the sample principle, the reserves belong in great measure also to the Palestinian Authority. From the map drawn up by the U.S. Geological Survey itself, it emerges that the major portion of the gas deposits (around 60%) lie in the waters and territory belonging to Gaza. Exploitation rights were granted by the Palestinian Authority to a consortium formed by British Gas and its partner Consolidated Contractors (based in Athens and owned by two Lebanese families), of which 10% is held by the Palestinian Authority.

Two wells, Gaza Marine-1 and Gaza Marine-2 are ready but not operational. In fact, Tel Aviv has systematically rebuffed all the proposals from the Palestinian Authority and the consortium to export gas to Israel and Egypt. Therefore, the Palestinians possess vast riches which they are unable to exploit.

To seize the totality of the energy reserves – both Palestinian and Lebanese – bathing in the Levantine Basin, Israel has chosen the military option. The Lebanese Foreign Affairs Minister Ali al-Shami recently urged the UN Secretary General to prevent Israel from exploiting the offshore energy reserves located in Lebanese territorial waters. Minister Uzi Landau claimed instead that the reserves are in Israeli waters and warned that his country will not think twice about employing force to protect them. Israel has therefore threatened to attack Lebanon again, like it did in 2006, with the intention this time of impeding it from exploiting its offshore deposits [3].

It is for the same reason that Israel does not accept a Palestinian state. To do so would imply the recognition of Palestinian sovereignty over a large portion of the energy reserves, which Israel wants to grab. It was to this end that the 2008-2009 “Cast Lead Operation” was launched and Gaza caught in the clutches of the blockade. Meanwhile, Israeli war ships control the whole of the Levantine Basin – and hence the offshore oil and gas reserves – within the framework of the NATO-sponsored “Mediterranean Dialogue” to “contribute to the security and stability of the regi

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Turkey PM: Netanyahu has worst government in history of Israel

Erdogan tells Al-Jazeera that Lieberman is Israel's 'greatest problem' and urges the Israeli public to 'get rid' of him; he also denies Western definition of Hamas as a terrorist movement and declares peace impossible until they are brought into negotiations.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyep Recep Erdogan on Thursday decried Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government as the "worst" in the history of Israel.

The once close ties between Israel and Turkey began faltering following the war in Gaza two years ago and spiraled to an unprecedented low following Israel's deadly raid on a Turkish-flagged aid flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip last May.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera, Erdogan said that Turkey would uphold the chill in relations until Israel relented in its refusal to apologize for the raid and compensate the families of the nine pro-Palestinian activists killed aboard the Mavi Marmara.

"As long as Netanyahu's government does not change its policies, it cannot expect us to change ours," Erdogan told Al-Jazeera.

Erdogan added that Turkey had no interest in renewing any of the accords it had signed with Israel and would also consider refreshing relations once Israel acceded to its demands.

Erdogan also deemed Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman Israel's "greatest problem", reacting to the latter's remarks that Turkey's demands for apology were cheeky ("chutzpah"). The Turkish premier told interviewers that the Israel public should "get rid" of Lieberman, who he called a "despicable" man.

"It is up to them, not us" to unseat Lieberman, said Erdogan, adding: "If they don't, Israel's problems will only get worse."

Erdogan also voiced support for the Hamas rulers of Gaza and denied the Western definition of the group as terrorists.

"Hamas is not a terrorist movement. They are people defending their land. It is a movement that entered the elections and won," he declared, adding that the group has never been given the chance to rule as a democratic regime.

The Turkish premier added that Hamas must be brought into negotiations for a permanent settlement to the conflict, declaring that without their input Palestinian-Israel peace was impossible.

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Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews During World War ll

Posted January 7, 2011 by Patrick Mac Manus in International.

It has been said “the story of Albania’s Muslims, and what they did during World War II, is one of the great untold stories of the world.” In recent years, these private heroisms have been revitalized through the lens of Jewish-American photographer Norman H. Gershman and his collected images and oral histories that make up the travelling portrait exhibit called Besa: Muslims Who Saved Jews During World War II.

The story is quite an extraordinary one. When Hitler’s troops began invading the Balkan States in the early 1940s, Muslims across Albania took an estimated 2,000 Jewish refugees into their homes en masse and welcomed them not as refugees, but as guests.

They disguised these Jews as Muslims, took them to mosque, called them Muslim names, gave them Muslim passports, hid them when they needed to, and then ferried them to inaccessible mountain hamlets.

“In fact, Albania is the only Nazi-occupied country that sheltered Jews,” says Gershman. The Jewish population in Albania grew by ten-fold during World War II, and it became the only country in occupied Europe to have more Jews at the end of the war than at the beginning. Records from the International School for Holocaust Studies show that not one Albanian Jew or any of the other thousands of refugees were given up to the Nazis by Albanian Muslims. “They did this in the name of their religion,” Gershman says. “They absolutely had no prejudice what so ever.”

That is because these Muslims held themselves accountable to what Albanians call Besa, which is still upheld as the highest ethical code in the country. “Besa is a code of honour deeply rooted in Albanian culture and incorporated in the faith of Albanian Muslims,” the gallery explained in the show’s press release. “It dictates a moral behaviour so absolute that non-adherence brings shame and dishonour to oneself and one’s family. Besa demands that one take responsibility for the lives of others in their time of need. This Islamic behaviour of compassion and mercy celebrates the sanctity of life and a view of the other- the stranger- as one’s own close family member.”

“Most remarkably, this was all done with the consent and support of the entire country. Thousands of Jews, hidden in plain sight- everyone knew- and no one told.”

Over a five-year period that began in 2002, Gershman travelled to Albania to document these surviving Muslim families and collect their stories, both through pictures and words. A man who worked for the Albania-Israel Friendship Society carried a small notebook with the names and addresses of these Muslim families, and with that, an interpreter, a driver and an assistant, Gershman crisscrossed the country, finding these families in cities, villages, even at the end of gravel roads. Yad Vashem knew of 63 families on record, but Gershman’s trek led him to more than 150. “I travelled all through Albania and Kosovo where I met the rescuer’s children, who are in their sixties or even older, the rescuers’ widows, and in some cases the rescuer himself.” He took their portraits and began with the same question: What is your story?

“I asked them, ‘Why did you do this? What was in the Quar’an that you did this?’ They would only smile. Some of them said: ‘We have saved lives to go to paradise.”

“There was no government conspiracy, no underground railroad, no organized resistance of any kind-” Gershman said, “only individual Albanians, acting alone, to save the lives of people whose lives were in immediate danger. My portraits of these people, and their stories, are meant to reflect their humanity, their dignity, their religious and moral convictions, and their quiet courage.”

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Here’s What Israel Is Really Costing American Taxpayers

By John Tiffany

IT IS OFTEN REPORTED THAT ISRAEL receives about $9.2 billion every year in the form of economic aid from the U.S. government, but there are many billions of dollars more in hidden costs and economic losses lurking beneath the surface. A recently published economic analysis concluded that U.S. support for the state of Israel has cost U.S. taxpayers nearly $3 trillion. About 60 percent of those costs (about $1.7 trillion) arose from the U.S. defense of the ever-expanding Israeli empire.

Support for the empire comes to $1.8 trillion, including special trade advantages, preferential contracts, or aid buried in other accounts.

The 1973 oil crisis cost the U.S. economy no less than $900 billion, and probably as much as $1.2 trillion. As a result of the oil embargo the U.S. government created the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to “insulate Israel and the U.S. against the wielding of a future Arab “oil weapon.”

The billion-barrel SPR has cost taxpayers more than $134 billion so far. Making things worse, Israel gets “first call” on any oil available to the U.S. if Israel’s oil supply is stopped, according to an oil supply guarantee, which former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger provided Israel in 1975. The $3 trillion figure is actually too low, as it does not include the increased costs incurred during the year-long buildup to the ongoing wars against Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, in which Israel plays a significant covert role.

The higher oil prices incurred as a result of the Anglo-American campaign against Iraq were absorbed by taxpayers. Israel also has many hidden costs to the taxpayer. “Loans” made to Israel by the U.S. government invariably wind up being paid by the American taxpayer as does the interest on the money to Israel. Thus, it is reasonable to consider all government loans to Israel the same as grants. Israel has received over $42 billion in waived loans.

In addition to the financial outlay, U.S. aid to Israel costs some 275,000 American jobs each year. The trade-aid imbalance with Israel is between $6 billion and $10 billion. The largest single element in the costs has been the series of oil-supply crises that have accompanied the Israeli-Arab wars and the construction of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. These have cost the U.S. $1.5 trillion, excluding the additional costs incurred since 2001.

The cost of supporting Israel increased drastically after the 1973 Israeli-Arab war. U.S. support for Israel during that war resulted in additional costs for the American taxpayer of between $750 billion and $1 trillion. When Israel was losing the war, President Richard Nixon stepped in to supply the Jewish state with U.S. weapons. Nixon’s intervention triggered the Arab oil embargo, which cost the U.S. as much as $600 billion in lost GDP and another $450 billion in higher oil import costs.

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France to send Lebanon 100 anti-tank missiles

A French official tells AFP news agency that France will transfer the arms to Lebanon by the end of February, without preconditions.

By Haaretz Service

Lebanon will receive 100 anti-tank missiles from France, AFP news agency reported on Friday, quoting a French official.

The French official told the news agency that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was informed in a letter by French Premier Francois Fillon about the decision to supply Lebanon's army with 100 anti-tank missiles, to be used by Lebanon's Gazelle helicopters.

According to the official, the missiles are to be delivered to Lebanon by the end of February, and France will provide the missiles to Lebanon without any preconditions.

The United States House of Representatives expressed in August its disapproval of the deal, claiming the missiles might be used against Israel, due to the rising influence of Shiite militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon.

In August, an Israel Defense Forces reserve battalion commander was killed in fatal clashes between Israel and the Lebanese army along the border. Following the incident Israel launched a diplomatic campaign calling on the United States and France to stop their military assistance to Lebanon. The U.S. responded by withholding from Lebanon $100 million of military aid.

However, last month the U.S. renewed its military aid to Lebanon, after the Lebanese army had made a commitment to keep track of developments on the border and to prevent funds from reaching Hezbollah.

The United States has given Lebanon approximately $400 million over the past year to purchase arms, despite Israel's objections. France has also sent a great deal of weaponry to Lebanon, including advanced anti-tank missiles.

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U.S. tightens information security in wake of WikiLeaks report

White House orders restricts access to classified documents; U.S. Attorney General says probe into the source behind leak of thousands of secret cables ongoing.

By News Agencies

The White House made its first reported policy change in wake of Sunday's massive WikiLeaks report, directing government agencies on Monday to tighten procedures for handling classified information.

The new procedures would ensure "that users do not have broader access than is necessary to do their jobs effectively, as well as implementation of restrictions on usage of, and removal of media capabilities from, classified government directives," according to a directive from the Office of Management and Budget released on Monday.

Also on Monday, a top U.S. law enforcement officer said a U.S. investigation into the source behind the leaking of thousands of secret U.S. military and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks was ongoing.

"We have an active, ongoing criminal investigation with regard to this matter," Attorney General Eric Holder said, adding the probe was being carried out with the Department of Defense.

Holder added that WikiLeaks used the information it had obtained irresponsibly, as opposed to members of the press and news agencies.

“I think there's a real basis… to believe that crimes have been committed," he said.

U.S. military authorities detained Army Private Bradley Manning and in July transferred him from Iraq to the United States in connection with leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks. He was charged with unauthorized use and disclosure classified material relating to videos published by WikiLeaks.

He remained a person of interest in the WikiLeaks publication of tens of thousands of Afghan war-related documents.

Authorities have not said whether he is the suspect behind the publication of nearly 400,000 Iraq war military documents, or the release of more than 250,000 State Department cables WikiLeaks began publishing Sunday.

Manning was working as an intelligence analyst in Iraq at the time of his arrest and reportedly had access to classified material. Reports said the military had obtained evidence from his computer showing he had downloaded secret information.

Manning was reportedly able to access the documents following reforms after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, that made it easier for classified information to be shared across government agencies.

WikiLeaks has refused to identify any sources. A spokesman for WikiLeaks, Kristinn Hrafnsson, defended the release against charges that it could endanger lives around the world.

"We have gone to great lengths to scrutinize the information ... in order to redact the names of individuals who actually may be harmed by exposure," he told CNN.

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IRS Asked to Revoke AIPAC's Tax Exemption

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today the Internal Revenue Service received a 1,389 page filing demanding that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee's (AIPAC's) tax exempt status be retroactively revoked. The filing, submitted by the IRmep Center for Policy and Law Enforcement, spans nearly 60 years, from the moment AIPAC's founder left the employment of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the present.

Two core charges are:

False Charitable Purpose. AIPAC has been investigated several times by the FBI and is currently in a civil suit over the ongoing acquisition and movement of U.S. government classified information. The filing argues that such activities reveal AIPAC does not function as a bona fide "social welfare" organization.
Fraudulent Application for Tax Exempt Status. AIPAC's original application for tax exempt status contains fraudulent representations and omissions. It fails to mention that AIPAC's parent organization, the American Zionist Council (AZC) was shut down by a U.S. Department of Justice Foreign Agents Registration Act order in 1962. AIPAC incorporated six weeks later and applied for tax exempt status, but failed to reveal that the majority of its startup funding came from Israel, funneled through the AZC.


Members of the public, state charity watchdogs and the law enforcement community may download and review the complaint summary at: http://www.IRmep.org/IRSAIPAC.pdf. For a DVD of the full IRS complaint and appendix, send an email and official surface mail address to info@irmep.org .

IRmep director Grant F. Smith and callers grilled IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman on National Public Radio January 1, 2010 over lax IRS enforcement toward some Israel-related nonprofits committing illegal acts overseas and violating U.S. tax laws. Shulman assured America that, "If a charity is breaking the tax law, is engaged in activities that they are not supposed to be engaged in, we certainly will go after them. Every year we pull 501(c)(3) charity status from a number of charities. We've got thousands of audits going on regarding charities, and so we don't hesitate to administer the tax laws and make sure that people are following the rules."

According to Smith, "By publicly filing this 13909 complaint with the IRS, we encourage concerned Americans and misled donors to monitor whether the IRS takes appropriate action. The clock is ticking."

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Israeli War Criminals

The following information was received anonymously; presumably from a member of the Israeli Military. It was presented as follows:

Underlining the following people is an act of retribution and affront. They are the direct perpetrators, agents for the state of Israel that in Dec.- Jan. 2008- 2009 attacked scores of people in the besieged Gaza. The people listed here held positions of command at the time of the attack therefore not only did they perform on behalf of a murderous state mechanism but actively encouraged other people to do the same. They bear a distinctive personal responsibility. They range from low-level field commanders to the highest echelons of the Israeli army. All took an active and direct role in the offensive.

In underlining them we are purposefully directing attention to individuals rather than the static structures through which they operate. We are aligning people with actions. It is to these persons and others, Like them, to which we must object and bring our plaints to bear upon.

This information was pirated. We encourage people to seek out other such similar information, it is readily available in the public sphere and inside public officials' locked cabinets. This is a form of resistance that can be effectively sustained for a long while.

This project for one, has only just begun, do your bit so that this virtual list may come to bear upon the physical.

Disseminate widely.

The List

The Path to Peace in the Middle East

by Michael R. Burch

The ongoing conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinians seems to be irresolvable; therefore the current "wisdom" has become that "those people" are full of "hatred" for each other and have been "fighting for thousands of years," so there is "no hope for peace." But before we wring our hands or throw them up helplessly in the air we need to consider two very important things:

(1) People who don't like each other can live together in peace, if everyone is governed by fair laws and courts. During the Holocaust, Nazis enslaved, brutalized and murdered millions of Jews in the most despicable fashion imaginable. However, once Germany lost the war and came under a system of much fairer laws and courts, Jews were able to live there safely, even though there was no sudden outpouring of affection between Germans and Jews. The same is true for the descendents of black American slaves and white slaveowners. After the United States finally abolished Jim Crow laws and kangaroo courts, millions of white Americans soon came to the conclusion that the main problem had been racism and injustice on the part of whites, not "inferiority" or "intransigence" on the part of blacks. If Israel were to establish fair, nonracist laws and courts, something very similar could happen within a relatively short period of time.

(2) Jews and Palestinians have not been "constantly at war" with each other. The New Testament records what life was like in Israel/Palestine during the first century AD, when Roman laws and courts (the famous Pax Romana) governed everyone in the region. The Bible doesn't mention any major hostilities between the Jews and Palestinians back then. Furthermore, during the Jewish Diaspora (which lasted almost 2,000 years) there were always Jews who continued to live in Palestine. For the most part, they lived in peace with their neighbors. As the great Jewish scientist and humanitarian Albert Einstein pointed out, Arabs had historically treated the Jews much more tolerantly than European Christians had. It was only when Jews began to arrive in Palestine in ever-increasing numbers, in the early 1900s, that tensions began to mount, nerves began to fray and both sides (not just the Arabs) began to get violent. And let's be honest: if millions of Jews had emigrated to Texas en masse, informing Texans that eating bacon and driving to football games on Saturday would soon be illegal, all hell would have broken loose there too.

If we consider historical facts, it is justice that leads to racial peace, not love. And this makes sense, because fair laws and courts make it too expensive to practice racism, as lawbreakers face fines, civil damages and prison terms. Once fair courts have been established, the people willing to obey just laws can live together in peace, while everyone else ends up in jail, or broke. Wherever fair laws and courts do not exist, the result is invariably racial violence on both sides, with the greater violence being on the part of the people in power (because the law and courts are skewed to favor and protect them). This is clearly the case in Israel/Palestine today. As Nobel Peace Prize laureates Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu and more than 200 Jewish humanitarian organizations have repeatedly pointed out, Palestinians have been subjected to a system of large-scale, systematic, grinding racism, injustice and apartheid. But there is hope, if only we can persuade Israel to do what Americans, Germans and South Africans did: establish justice. If we want peace with the least amount of violence possible, the first step is to establish fair laws and courts.

But how?, you may asking. Sure, it makes sense to say that fair laws and courts are necessary for peace, but what can anyone do, to encourage the leaders of Israel to do what Americans, Germans and South Africans did? I'm glad you asked! I think the answer is surprisingly simple. In fact, it can be stated in a single sentence:

We need a new U.N. resolution requiring Israel to unconditionally establish equal rights, fair laws and fair courts for every human being under its jurisdiction, whether civil or military, without exception; the courts should be subject to peer review by judges appointed by the U.N., and they should be able to set legal precedents.

Any member nation of the U.N. can submit a new resolution, so we don't have to depend on Israeli or American politicians to "do the right thing." This is the beauty of this initiative. Unfortunately to date many Israeli and American politicians have only paid lip service to their stated ideals of equal rights, freedom, justice and self-determination for all human beings. Why? Because politicians are by nature political creatures whose greatest talent "lies" in getting elected (pun intended). They are much better at saying the right things, than at doing the right things. Doing the right things in this case would cost them votes and campaign contributions, so they do what is politically expedient, rather than what is right. But my idea takes this unfortunate political reality into account and operates through the U.N., bypassing American and Israeli politicians in the early going.

The U.S. Security Council veto has blocked past efforts by the U.N. to bring peace and justice to the region. But how can the U.S. veto the American Creed of equal rights, fair laws and fair courts? So the key is a new U.N. resolution based on the American Creed.

If Israel complies, then peace through justice becomes possible, and fair courts can settle disputes over land and water "organically" over time, even if politicians can't arrive at solutions diplomatically.

If Israel does not comply, the U.N. can impose economic sanctions and in due course Israeli voters will "vote their pocketbooks" (a worldwide democratic phenomenon) and peacefully elect new leaders more amenable to peace through justice. But hopefully economic sanctions will not be necessary, once Israeli voters and politicians understand their new reality.

Yes, the problems are complex, but the correct path, the right path, the just path is obvious. And while American politicians may never voluntarily do the right thing, we really don’t need them, and they won’t have to risk their jobs. The reform of Israel must come from within, just as it did in the U.S. With my plan, one way or another the needed reforms will come. Hopefully Israel will see the "writing on the wall" and voluntarily choose to establish equal rights, fair laws and fair courts. But even if Israel has be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, just as many Americans had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 20th century, the results will be the same. One way or another, every nation—in order to be considered civilized—has to establish equal human rights and justice. Israel is not a "special case." The Jews are not a "special case." The Palestinians are not a "special case." And no, Americans, are not a "special case." Americans need to practice what they preach abroad, as well as at home. When we do, peace through justice will become possible, and when every nation has established fair laws and fair courts, world peace will become possible.

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IS THE AMERICAN PUBLIC ABOUT TO TOSS ISRAEL?

Some opinion analysts, like the 2009 Zogby International poll of American attitudes toward Israelis and Palestinians, express surprise with what they are learning from the American public and detect significant changes in American public attitudes favoring US disengagement from Israel

Franklin Lamb
Beirut

Exclusive to Al Manar
Ever so slowly over the past two decades, and gaining momentum since the April 2002 Israeli destruction of the West Bank town of Jenin, American attitudes toward Israel appear to be changing according to some public opinion analysts.

The American Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy polling unit, that works on behalf of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations has argued that the American opinion shift accelerates with each perceived Israeli outrage such as the saturation bombing of much of south Lebanon and south Beirut during the July 2006 war, the massive civilian slaughter, more than one-third women and children in Gaza during the winter of 2008/9, the May 2010 murders and carnage committed against the Mavi Marmara, including the assassination of 19 year old American Furkan Dogan, and the cumulative effect of a half century of Geneva Convention and international law violations by Israel against occupied Palestine and Lebanon.

Some opinion analysts, like the 2009 Zogby International poll of American attitudes toward Israelis and Palestinians, express surprise with what they are learning from the American public and detect significant changes in American public attitudes favoring US disengagement from Israel.

Such changes in attitudes are not yet evident in Congress or in the Office of the Vice President. But then, as one of Biden’s Democratic Congressional colleagues from Cleveland Ohio, just recently reelected and now planning to force a Congressional vote on withdrawing from Afghanistan noted this week, “Joe’s a nice fella but a God awful slow learner! Cracks and fissures are shooting around and inside Joe’s great American pro Israel public opinion vase etched in gold with the words: ‘US Support for Israel Must Continue Forever!”

The NYT’s Tom Friedman seemed to concur during meetings in Israel recently: “US support for Israel could shatter like Humpty Dumpty– and it could get ugly…You are losing the American people who believe me, are fed up with the Mideast in general. But they’re also fed up with Israel. When they see their president working hard to try to tee up an opportunity. …” And you say ‘No, first pay me – let Jonathon Pollard out of jail, have Abu Mazen sing Hatikva in perfect Yiddish, and then we’ll think about testing.’ It rubs a lot of Americans the wrong way.”

Changes of US citizens attitudes toward Israel are evident in Lebanon also. Hundreds of Americans and other foreigners have visited Shatila and other Palestinian refugee Camps in Beirut in the past few years according to the Sabra Shatila Foundation that conducts tours of the camp. Many visiting Americans have been surveyed by various firms and the results mirror recent surveys from the States. Several explanations are being offered by pollsters for the developing American public opinion shift away from support for Israel.

One is the growing perception that Israel, despite its consistent claims of self defense and accidents, when it attacks and kills civilian populations, is in fact the aggressor and lacks respect for non Jewish lives.
Growing American revulsion at the increasing incidents of verbal assaults on Arabs and Muslims, and racist hate speech graffiti by the Israeli public , internet defamation by elements of the US Israel lobby, and seeming encouragement by Israeli officials and some Rabbi’s ensconced among the more than 100 illegal colonies in occupied Palestine.

Two often mentioned examples are:
1) The followers of the late Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu who regularly broadcast his calls that: “All of the Palestinians must be killed; men, women, infants, and even their beasts”.

2) And Rabbi Yizhak Shapiro, who lately published the book The King’s Torah, in which he detailed the “jurisprudence” sanctioning the killing of Palestinian infants and children. The White House has reportedly been surprised by the number of Americans objecting to, or even knowing about, these kinds of outrageous and immoral US funded extremists that has been going on for half a century.

Americans are becoming weary of Israel constantly moving the goal post in the “peace negotiations ” and Israeli officials undercutting the American President and flaunting their power in Congress and using the US-Israel lobby and media juggernaut to ridicule him. When Obama condemns Israeli settlement building and calls for suspension, within days, Israel often announces more settlement construction, often claiming mere coincidence.
A growing belief among the American public that Israel takes the US for granted and is only interested in its own economic and military benefits at American expense. Just this week, President Obama criticized Israel for announcing another stage in the approval process of 1,300 housing units in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Pisgat Ze’ev and Har Homa. He warned: “This kind of activity is never helpful when it comes to peace negotiations. I’m concerned that we’re not seeing each side making the extra effort involved to get a breakthrough.”
Israel’s reaction was immediate, condemnatory and harsh. Knesset Members as well as AIPAC staff attacked President Obama, saying that he is ignoring the reality of Israel’s needs in Jerusalem.

MK Avi Dichter, told the Jerusalem Post that the American people are smart enough to “understand that there is no chance that Jerusalem will return to the 1967 borders. But they are either not smart enough or still don’t understand that the most sensitive part of the negotiations is Jerusalem. For their President to deal with Jerusalem at the beginning of negotiations is a recipe for failure.”

Bar Ilan University professor Ehud Gilboa added that he does not think Obama will “lay off” Israel in the near future. “I believe he has an obsession with Israel. He will want to get the talks between Israel and the Palestinians going only because he wants to be remembered in history as the one who is signed on the peace agreement. We expect him to be a one term President and I don’t think he warrants being taken seriously.”

More Americans appear to be tiring of Israeli officials telling them they don’t understand how to view Israeli land confiscations, ethnic cleansing and use of American cash and weapons.

One poll conducted during October 2010 of Americans living in Beirut asked about Israeli PM Netanyahu calling the United Nations’ Goldstone Report “a modern day blood libel.”

Only 4% of the Americans believed this. But 85% believed that Israel manipulates this term and also the Nazi crimes against Jews during WW II to justify its occupation and treatment of Palestinians.

Opinion analysts at Rasmussen Polls Delaware believe changes in US public attitudes are also due to the collapsing American economy. The US public is getting angry, loud and distressed. Perhaps always a little paranoid, it is more despondent and pessimistic.

Americans have generally believed in the country’s capacity for regeneration, that a new awakening is possible at any time. Now, 63 percent of Americans don’t believe that they will be able to maintain their current standard of living. American companies like Apple and Coca-Cola, Google and Microsoft are putting their money, not in the US but in Asia, where labor is cheap and markets are growing. The US government’s debt now exceeds 90 percent of the gross domestic product and more than half of all Americans don’t believe that the America Dream is still realistic but rather that their country is dysfunctional and its Congress corrupt.

It is not sure how the Tea Party will ultimately view Israel being given annually a total of approximately $ 5 billion and then investing approximately 60% of it in interest bearing accounts while every penny of the US taxpayer money it gets must be borrowed by Washington with US taxpayers paying the interest on cash gift to Israel.

Isolationism and xenophobia are on the rise with growing numbers of Americans unhappy with what they see as Israeli “shenanigans at US taxpayer expense”, according to a Congressional staffer recently warned about speaking out against US aid to Israel to fellow staffers during a recent ‘brown bag’ lunch in the Cannon Congressional House Office building cafeteria.

The same source explained: “ We’ve got two criminal wars, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, that have cost this country, in real terms more than two trillion. The government debt continued to grow, from 57 percent of GNP in 2000 to 83 when Obama got elected and the national debt of $13.8 trillion and growing by the hour. That amounts to 94 percent of GNP, and in two years it will exceed 100 percent. We can’t afford Israel financially and never could afford them morally, politically or what they have done with American weapons!”.

Likely Republican Majority leader Eric Cantor, one of the three key leaders of the Israel lobby in Congress is reportedly terrified that the Tea Party will insist, as rumored, on enacting Legislation that terminates foreign aid of all kinds if the U.S. unemployment level rises above 4-percent. Consideration would be given to restarting foreign aid when the unemployment level drops below 4-percent and remains below 4-percent for 12 months. Cantor must figure out how to protect Israel’s cash with having the Tea Party come after him. It may be recalled that Cantor is floating an AIPAC scheme to take US funds of Israel out of Foreign Aid and call it “Homeland Security” expenditures, “ in order to save it from foreign aid cutting zealots.”

Public opinion analysts are increasingly seeing that the American public wants to distance itself from Israel. But it is unlikely that Congress will, in the short term, follow the public’s lead. This conclusion is supported by the just passed congressional amendments that authorized the increase of U.S. weaponry, ammunition and war supplies stored in Israel to a record $1.2 billion, Defense News reported this week.. The value of U.S. weapons to be prepositioned in Israel will reach $1 billion in 2011, with another $200 million added in 2012.

Once the weaponry arrives, the amount of U.S.-owned materiel available for Israel’s emergency use will have jumped threefold since 2007. Over the past two years, logisticians and war planners from U.S. European Command and the Israel Defense Forces elevated war stocks to the then Congressionally authorized threshold of $ 800 of equipment. Ready for Israel’s next war against Lebanon or Syria or Iran-or all three countries.

One pro-Israel group dismayed by the shift in American public opinion is the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) which sounded the alarm this week at the Canadian governments sponsored Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism (ICCA) held at Parliament in Ottawa “to inspire parliamentary action against anti-Semitism around the world.”

Fifty countries from six continents sent delegations to help combat what ADL’s Abe Foxman, claims is a dangerous softening of US public opinion for Israel. The conference adopted an Ottawa Protocol on Combating Anti-Semitism — building on the 2009 London Declaration on Combating Anti-Semitism of 2009, which has built on more than 50 similar initiatives over the past 98 years since ADL was launched in 1913. ADL’s current focus, according to Christopher Wolf, who chairs ADL’s Internet Task Force on “cyber hate”, is” to take the lead and show the American public why they must stick with Israel during these days of Islamist terror against Americans and their only reliable ally, Israel.”

One of Abe Foxman’s problems is that many Americans are distancing themselves from ADL’s nonstop “fear and smear” campaigns. Another is that history, along with the American public, is accelerating its rejection of the Zionist colonial enterprise in Palestine.

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In Motion: The Plot To Destroy The United States

“The 2010 election had one purpose, war with Iran, even if the risk is world conflict and the real loser, no matter what happens on the battlefield is the United States.”

Plans are in motion for a “false flag” attack on America. Iran will be blamed, everyone knows that and Iran will be totally innocent. This is the last thing Iran would ever want. The most likely scenario is a nuclear attack. Two bombs are missing, bombs built by Israel in South Africa and lost long ago. These were supposedly Saddam’s bombs. Now we are told Iran has them. Israel has had them all along and the fear, they may be inside the United States already.

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Israel re-arrests West Bank Deputy, Mahmoud Al-Ramahi

At dawn this morning (10.11.2010), Israeli forces arrested the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr Mahmoud Al-Ramahi, from his West Bank home in the City of Al Bira. According to sources, heavily armed forces surrounded Al-Ramahi's home in the pre-dawn hours before storming it and taking him into custody.

The arrest has been widely condemned by both the Reform and Change bloc of the Palestinian Legislative Council and the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas.

The Islamist Deputies of the Council released a statement in which they stressed that Israel's actions against the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people is a testament to their sincerity and that they would continue to represent a thorn in the Occupier's side. The arrest occurs in the context of Israel's continued efforts to combat democracy and reject the outcome of Palestinian parliamentary elections. The statement went on to assert that the Occupation would achieve nothing through its re-arrest of Al-Ramahi which signifies a foolish return to a failed policy, particularly in light of the increase in popular unity and solidarity with the Deputies.

On its part, Hamas has condemned the arrest as a crime and placed full responsibility for Al-Ramahi's life and safety on the Israeli authorities. They also called for an end to the security co-ordination, which provides cover to Israel in its continued perpetration of these crimes.

The Islamist Deputies asserted that the arrest aimed at creating an atmosphere of confusion given the growing momentum for national reconciliation which would mend the rift in the fabric of the nation and unite the Palestinian people in challenging the Occupation's schemes.

They called on the international community to take an official position to limit Israel's impunity in violating the rights of the legitimate representatives of the Palestinian people by criminalising the Occupation and thereby force the immediate release of the arrested Deputy as well as stop the deportation order which currently threatens four other Deputies in Jerusalem.

They also called on the Palestinian people to remain steadfast and to unite behind their legitimate representatives who remain undeterred by the Israeli practices which seek to rob them of their rights and continue to perform the office they were appointed to defend.

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Jewish Extremists Try to Kill Chilean Tourist, Mistaken for Palestinian

Jerusalem – PNN - Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth published a report on Monday about the attempted murder of a Chilean tourist in Jerusalem by eight Jewish extremists who mistook him for an Arab.

Jose Dominus Nolido, 43, came to Israel to celebrate the wedding of his son’s Jewish friend and visit holy sites. As he returned to his hotel, Nolido said he was accosted by youths.

“I decided to return to my room and I went through Independence Park,” Nolido explained. “Suddenly a youth attacked me. I thought he was a soldier, since he had on Israeli army pants. I tried to flee, but I ran into seven others. I fell on the ground and couldn’t get away from the blows. Then I lost consciousness. I was convinced they wanted to kill me because I looked like an Arab.”

Nolido was taken to a Jerusalem hospital, bleeding from the head and eyes. Doctors said they feared loss of vision in his right eye.

“They said I looked like an Arab,” he said. “I didn’t think that would cost me my life.”

Israeli police said that the assault had a “nationalist character” and that the Jewish attackers took him for an Arab or Palestinian. Five of the suspects were settlers from ultra-Orthodox areas of Jerusalem.

“I don’t think I’ll come back to Israel,” said Nolido. He explained that he knew the Israeli-Palestinian conflict well, but never thought he would be attacked because of his appearance.

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JEWISH SETTLERS BURN OLD CHURCH IN JERUSALEM

Group of extremist Jewish settlers set a one hundred year old Christian church on fire in Jerusalem on Friday causing substantial damage to its first floor.

Zakaria Al-Mashriqi, a leader in the church, denounced in a press release the “sinful crime” that targets destabilizing relations among heavenly religions and inciting strife in addition to expelling Palestinians from the holy city through such repeated attacks on citizens and their property.

He added that the church was built in Jerusalem in 1897, and housed the Palestinian Bible College until 1948, when parishioners were pushed out by Jewish armed gangs during the violence accompanying the creation of the state of Israel.

He said that right-wing Israeli settlers broke a number of windows of the two-storey church and hurled Molotov cocktails inside it completely burning the first floor.

Mashriqi appealed for urgent intervention to protect the holy places in Jerusalem and called on the Israeli government to act responsibly and condemn the attack, and work on investigating the attack to find out who was involved and file charges in the case.

The world community must shoulder its responsibility toward protecting the holy shrines and Palestinians in the city, he said, calling for shunning violence and for dialog among religions.

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Turkey policy paper: Israel's actions threaten Mideast

Ankara's National Security Council names Israel as central threat to Turkey's security for first time since 1949, fails to mention Iran, Syria.

By Haaretz Service

Turkey's already tense relations with Israel continued their apparent downward spiral on Saturday as Channel 10 reported that a central Ankara policy paper defined Israel as a central threat to Turkey's security, blaming Jerusalem's policies for destabilizing the entire region.

Tensions between Israel and Turkey peaked earlier this year, following a deadly Israeli raid aboard a Turkish aid ship sailing to Gaza in attempt to violate the Israeli naval blockade. On May 31, Israeli navy commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara and killed nine Turkish activists on board after facing violence from the passengers.

The Channel 10 report on Saturday, citing Turkish media outlets, said Turkey's National Security Council rectified an amendment to Ankara's central policy paper, nicknamed the "secret constitution," defining Israel as "a central threat to Turkey."

"The region's instability stems from Israeli actions and policy, which could lead to an arms race in the Middle East," the paper outlining Turkey's foreign and home policy for the next five years said, adding that those actions posed "a major threat on Turkey."

Channel 10 also said Turkish media dubbed the amendment "historic," as it represented the first time Israel had been seen as a threat on Turkey since 1949. The document fails to mention Iran or Syria as outside threats, apparently as a result of Ankara's recently improved relations with both states.

Earlier this month Haaretz quoted Turkish reports as expecting that, for the first time since the Cold War, Turkey to remove Iran, Iraq, Russia, and Greece from their list of "threatening countries."

The reports claimed that such a move would directly affect Turkey's foreign policy, as laid out by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ahmet Davutoğlu, whose goal is to rid Turkey of any problems with its neighbors.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated his demand that Israel apologize for its May attack on the Gaza flotilla, saying “Israel must apologize to Turkey and pay compensation for the state terrorism in the Mediterranean."
"If it does not, it will be doomed to remain isolated in the Middle East,” Erdogan added.

The Turkish premier also criticized the United States for continuing to support Israel after the "uncivilized" attack during a recent state visit to Pakistan.

“Nine Turkish martyrs on the ship received 21 bullets from Israeli soldiers in their bodies, we provided post mortem reports and even the pictures to the EU and U.S. but Washington is not ready to condemn the state terrorism of Israel against Turkey which means that the U.S. is supporting an international terrorist who killed our citizens in international waters," Erdogan said.

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US Government lies to the US-citizens all the time

Since the Vietnam war, government and media have slowly become merged together in lockstep of deception. From the movie "War made Easy"

"Conversations with Terrorists"

Reese Erlich: All violence against the U.S. is being defined as "terrorism"