THINGS WHICH MUST BE DISSEMINATED

Pulse Media

25.2.09

'Waltz with Bashir', an admission of guilt, or the removal of guilt?



Gideon Levy


The waltz rests on two ideological foundations. One is the "we shot and we cried" syndrome: Oh, how we wept, yet our hands did not spill this blood. Add to this a pinch of Holocaust memories, without which there is no proper Israeli self-preoccupation. And a dash of victimization - another absolutely essential ingredient in public discourse here - and voila! You have the deceptive portrait of Israel 2008, in words and pictures.

(...)

We have not yet made a movie about the other blood, which we have spilled and continue to allow to flow, from Jenin to Rafah - certainly not a movie that will get to the Oscars. And not by chance.

(...)


What's left is hallucination, a sea of fears, the hero confesses on the way to his therapist, who is quick to calm him and explains that the hero's interest in the massacre at the camps derives from a different massacre: from the camps from which his parents came. Bingo! How could we have missed it? It's not us at all, it's the Nazis, may their name and memory be obliterated. It's because of them that we are the way we are. "You have been cast in the role of the Nazi against your will," a different therapist says reassuringly, as though evoking Golda Meir's remark that we will never forgive the Arabs for making us what we are. What we are? The therapist says that we shone the lights, but "did not perpetrate the massacre." What a relief. Our clean hands are not part of the dirty work, no way.

23.2.09

Avraham Burg, 'the good Israeli' or how to justify Israel's persecution complexe.


Raymond Deane (EI)

As a small but growing number of good Israelis (without quotation marks) know, only when the Palestinians find justice will Hitler truly be defeated.

21.2.09

What Israel wanted?




Maan

According to Fawzi Barhum, a spokesperson for Hamas, “We do not differentiate between criminals,” urging the international community to stand by the Palestinians and to curb Israeli assaults. “They all committed crimes against the Palestinians,” he added, insisting that “changing faces does not mean changing policies.”

Exchange of fire between Israel and Lebanon


Xinhua

BEIRUT, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese Shiite armed group, Hezbollah has denied Saturday its knowledge of Katyoush rockets launched from southern Lebanon into northern Israel, al-Arabia TV reported.

16.2.09

Convoy to Gaza

Unconventional pilgrimage to Bethlehem




Maan

On Sunday the group saw all of the standard Bethlehem attractions, including the milk grotto church, Nativity church, old city and markets. Then in the afternoon the group began a jog through some of the lesser-toured areas of the city. Residents were surprised to see a group of Europeans running in shorts in cool spring weather, and many paused to watch the group proceed.

12.2.09

Hamas reiterates offer of long-term truce through Egypt

CAIRO (AFP) — Hamas has accepted an Egyptian-brokered 18-month truce with Israel in the Gaza Strip which Egypt will announce in 48 hours, state news agency MENA quoted a senior Hamas official as saying on Thursday.

Mussa Abu Marzuk, the Islamist movement's deputy leader, said after meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman that Hamas had accepted the truce in return for the lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

(...)

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP in Jerusalem that he did not wish to comment.



11.2.09

Clinic shelled in northern Sri Lanka: 16 dead





ICRC

At least 16 people have been killed at a makeshift hospital in Sri Lanka's northern conflict zone after the facility was shelled, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said.

The 16 victims - all believed to be patients - died in the clinic in Putumattalan on Monday, Red Cross officials said on Tuesday.

al-Quds 2009


Maan

Jerusalem – Ma’an – Events for the celebrations of “Al-Quds Capital of Arab Culture,” (QCAC) will be broadcast live on Palestinian and Egyptian Satellite television so they can reach all state-members of the Arab League.

10.2.09

The Israeli Dilemma

"People here think of this every day. It threatens them more than Hamas or Iran," said Uri Dromi, a former prime ministerial spokesman. "If it's one man, one vote, then Israel loses its Jewish character. If not, we become an apartheid state."

Israel's only escape from this dilemma would be to divest itself of four million Arabs by allowing a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza.


That would be assuming Palestinian-Israelis would willingly or forcibly be transfered to the new palestinian state.

BBC ignores palestinian-israeli press

BBC


The Arabic press contains widespread scepticism that the general election in Israel will offer any impetus for change in regional relations, irrespective of the result.

Opinion polls suggest that there is little to choose between the incumbent Kadima party, headed by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and the right-wing Likud, led by Binyamin Netanyahu. One commentator in the UAE expressed concern that this would provide the far-right Avigdor Lieberman, whose popularity has soared recently, with a decisive role in the formation of a government.

Commentaries in Jordan, Syria and the UAE feared that the election would see the appointment to power of Israeli "extremists". One Palestinian writer said that the victory of the Israeli right would "push Palestinians to stand by Hamas", while another questioned how the new US administration would handle the situation.

Basim Abu-Samiyyah in Palestinian daily Al-Hayat al-Jadidah

The Israeli right that is crawling to power will reveal the weakness and double standards of the international community. It will also push us Palestinians to stand by Hamas.

Rajab Abu-Surayyah in Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam

The Israeli elections might demonstrate the reality... that Israel is a right-wing state par excellence. This will form a challenge to the new US administration, made up of Democrats who dream of a global policy that starts by solving the thorny Middle East conflicts.

Id Abu-Sikkah in Syria's Al-Ba'th

It is expected that Israel's policy will go from bad to worse, because those who will control it are fiercer than [the previous administration] who snapped at the bodies of children, women and old men in Gaza.

Ali Qasim in Syria's Al-Thawrah

Extremism will be the winner and peace, which Israelis have not yet been able to accept, will remain the loser for quite some time.

Mazin Hammad in Qatar's Al-Watan

Regardless of who will win, the differences between the right, left and centre [of Israel's politics] are not clear for those who closely watch the election from outside. They all pounce on Palestinian blood.

Rashid Hasan in Jordan's Al-Dustur

The victory of extremists, with [Likud Party leader Binyamin] Netanyahu in the lead, would mean that the situation - i.e. the settlement and the so-called peace process - will return to square one... The Israeli state was built on massacres and genocides committed by Zionist gangs... Therefore, it is not strange if extremists win.

Abd-al-Wahab Badrakhan in the UAE's Al-Ittihad

The horrible Avigdor [Lieberman] will have a decisive role as he will be the one who decides and controls whoever will lead the government after elections. The emergence of the Lieberman phenomenon... represents an inclination to extremism in [Israeli] society.

BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaux abroad.


They did it before.

For the benefit of the BBC and any one else who may be interested, here is a site which includes israeli newspapers (including arabic ones). There is also Al Ittihad and no doubt others not mentioned.

AP practises anti-semitism

AP

Rowan Laxton, the 47-year-old head of the Foreign Office's South Asia desk, was held on suspicion of inciting religious hatred — an offense that carries a maximum jail term of seven years.

He allegedly used foul language as he criticized Israel's conduct during the conflict in Gaza at a fitness center at the London Business School last month.

Laxton is also alleged to have made an offensive comment about the Jewish religion.


If it wasn't enough, the article then goes on to involve the ambassador of Israel, thus presumebly equating judaism and jews with the state of Israel. If that isn't anti-semitism, what is?

6.2.09

Israeli elections, the right, the 'left' and the colonisation of the land


Haaretz

Netanyahu's election is likely to bring the curtain down on the great fraud - the best show in town - the lie of "negotiations" and the injustice of the "peace process." Israel consistently claimed these acts proved the nation was focused on peace and the end of the occupation. All the while, it did everything it could to further entrench the occupation and distance any chance of a potential agreement.

For 16 years, we have been enamored with the peace process. We talk and talk, babble and prattle, and generally feel great about ourselves; meanwhile the settlements expand endlessly and Israel turns to the use of force at every possible opportunity, aside from a unilateral disengagement which did nothing to advance the cause of peace.

(...)

Netanyahu would offer something else. First, he is a faithful representative of an authentic "Israeli" view - an almost complete distrust of Arabs and the chance of reaching peace with them, mixed with condescension and dehumanization. Second, he will finally arouse the world's rage towards us, including that of the new U.S. administration. Sadly, this may be the only chance for the kind of dramatic change that is needed.

The Daily Star
As far as government support by active aid is concerned, Barak has only recently approved the construction of a new settlement in the Binyamin region in return for settlers' agreement to evacuate the unsanctioned outpost of Migron. Binyamin is located to the northeast and northwest of Occupied Jerusalem.

Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War

(Signed by Israel 08.12.1949. Ratified by Israel 06.07.1951)

The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

ie: there are NO legal settlements.

5.2.09

For Your Information


If you are wondering what (not*) to buy, click here:

Made In China


*better still : recycle, re-use, freecycle

Take your pick





Musically, I choose the second!

What's in a flag? Qu'y a-t-il derrière un drapeau?

THIS IS NOT A JEWISH FLAG/CECI N'EST PAS UN DRAPEAU JUIF



THIS IS NOT A MUSLIM FLAG/CECI N'EST PAS UN DRAPEAU MUSULMAN



THIS IS NOT A REVOLUTIONARY FLAG/CECI N'EST PAS UN DRAPEAU RÉVOLUTIONNAIRE

3.2.09

UNRWA: 'From Grief to anger in Gaza'

Barney Frank on 'stimulus' and 'incentive'



13'47: "for some of my conservative friends, building a road, building a school,helping somebody get health care, that's wasteful spending, but that war in Iraq, which is gonna cost us over a trillion dollars before we're through..."

Who still believes Conservatism is 'common sense'?






5'10 "what's (the) incentive (of) a gas station to pump gas? ... "

Spanish government bends over and licks some arse

Democracy Now

Spain to Amend War Crimes Law

The Spanish government has announced plans to amend its laws to make it harder for Spanish judges to investigate torture and war crimes committed outside of Spain. In recent years, Spanish courts have investigated several prominent cases under the principle of universal jurisdiction. In 1998, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London under an international arrest warrant issued by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who sought to extradite him to Spain for trial. The Spanish government’s decision comes days after a Spanish judge launched an investigation into seven current or former Israeli officials over a 2002 bombing in Gaza that killed a top Hamas leader, Salah Shehadeh, and fourteen other people, including nine children. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni praised Spain’s decision.

"What planet are these people on?"


"Is eight times the median household income in the United States of America : 400,000 Dollars a year (so unreasonable)"

Lucky idiots.