Trump Settles Debt With Zionists - Confirms That Iran's Struggle Is Righteous

Trump Settles Debt With Zionists - Confirms That Iran's Struggle Is Righteous

U.S. President Trump announced today a change in the official U.S. view of the city of Jerusalem in Palestine:

President Trump on Wednesday formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, reversing nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and setting in motion a plan to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to the fiercely contested Holy City.“It is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,” said Mr. Trump.

This is not Trump's lone doing. The position has long had support of both parties in Congress:

The Senate’s top Democrat, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, told THE WEEKLY STANDARD Tuesday that he had advised Trump to declare Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided” capital.
...
A 1995 law declares that Jerusalem should “remain an undivided city” and “be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel,” but allows the president to issue waivers every six months delaying the move of the embassy for national security reasons. The Senate reaffirmed that law in June.
...
Maryland senator Ben Cardin, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, reiterated his support for recognizing Jerusalem when asked Monday about the president’s potential announcement.

“I believe that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, so to me, that’s not news,” he told TWS.

In 2008 then presidential candidate Obama pandered to the Zionist Lobby in the U.S.:

Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel and it must remain undivided.

Obama though left it at that speech and never made it official policy. Officially declaring Jerusalem an "undivided city" and capital of the Zionist entity means that there is no room for a Palestinian capital in east-Jerusalem. It buries the (fairy-)tale of a sovereign Palestinian state.

But that idea had been dead all along. The only reasons for U.S. presidents to circumvent the 22 year old law by issuing waivers was to pretend that the U.S. would be a neutral broker towards some peace between the (east-)European colonists and Palestinians. That was from start to end a deception. Congress and U.S. presidents are under control of the Zionist Lobby which can marshal enormous amounts of money to make or defeat candidates for legislative or executive offices. The Zionist billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who also sponsors the fascist Israel Prime Minister Netanyahoo, donated more then $100 million to the Trump campaign and tens of millions to Congress races. Today was time for Trump to settle some of that debt.

With the increasing buildup of Zionist settlements in the Palestinian West Bank areas under Netanyahoo, the two state solution had long been killed. The Palestinian dictator Mahmoud Abbas, who let this happen without resistance, is just a kapo used by the Israelis to keep the Palestinians down. The Palestinians in Gaza which defied the Zionist occupation were bombed whenever an Israeli Premier needed some diversion from domestic political trouble.

The U.S. is alone in its move. The global consensus and international legal status is that the issue of Jerusalem must be decided through negotiations. A city divided into of two capitals is the most expected outcome. The EU nations and other countries rejected the move. The Pope and other dignitaries spoke out against it.

The Trump declaration only reveals the true long-standing U.S. position but it still matters. It provides without doubt that the U.S. is the enemy of the people on the Middle East. It exposes those Arab rulers that seek to ally with the U.S. It elevates all those who have been fighting the U.S. all along.

The tyrant of Saudi Arabia and his clown prince son have agreed to Trumps move. Instead of declaring retaliatory measures they only issued pro-forma condemnations. Other Arab rulers which depend on Saudi money, like the Jordan King "Playstation" Abdullah, will likewise stay mostly quiet.

There will likely be only little violence in the immediate aftermath of the Trump declaration. The long term effects though will be significant. The Arab public, which gets little coverage in the "western" press, is seething. Professor Assad AbuKhalil reports:

Fury on Arab social media over Jerusalem
There is such a fury on Arab social media over Jerusalem but I am confident that none of the Western correspondents in Beirut or Cairo will notice in their dispatches.

and:

This in Saudi Arabia
Hashtag "Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine" #1 trending right now in #KSA #Saudi #القدس_عاصمه_فلسطين_الابديه
PS It also is in Iraq and Algeria.
PS and in Syria.

This is today's front page of the Beirut Daily Star, a newspaper which is on most issues solidly in the "western" camp.

bigger

The Professor Amal Saad of the Lebanon University predicts:

Amal Saad @amalsaad_lb - 6:29 PM - 6 Dec 2017Trump has no idea how his declaration will backfire. In violating Int'l law & legitimizing Israel's apartheid rule in Jerusalem, Int'l law will no longer serve as a framework for securing Palestinian rights- "from river to sea Palestine will be free" will be normalized discourse

Those parties that have resisted and continue to resist U.S. hegemony and the Zionists, will win in the public opinion of the Middle East. Those who cooperate with and enable the U.S. and its Zionist pendant will lose.

On the winning side are Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas (one can now also include the Houthi?) They have all long resisted imperialism despite enormous pressure and furious wars waged against them. Trump's move fits neatly into their narrative that the U.S. always was and continues to be an enemy of people of the Middle East. The public support for them will grow.

The other "winners" are the terrorists group which pretend to be against the U.S. and the Zionists but which have done little to fight them. These are al-Qaeda, ISIS and other Wahhabi/Takfiri groups. They use the issue as a recruiting tool but their paymasters keep them away from fighting the declared enemies.

Trump's move will increase the internal instability of those countries U.S. imperialism in the Middle East depends on. The Gulf States are the most endangered. Their pliant leaders will come under increased pressure from their own people. At some point that pressure will violently relief itself. I find it likely that the U.S. will be the first to be hurt by it.

Posted by b on December 6, 2017 at 02:17 PM | Permalink

#JSIL - "Friends of Israel" dominate UK politics across the spectrum by Wayne Madsen

#JSIL

"Friends of Israel" dominate UK politics across the spectrumThe recent non-binding vote by the British House of Commons recognizing Palestinian statehood in a 274 to 12 vote was only a Pyrrhic victory for those opposed to Israel's attempt to annex the West Bank and obliterate Gaza. Half the members of the Commons, most of them Conservatives, were absent for the vote. The 270 members who voted for the bill, which Prime Minister David Cameron has said he would not implement by officially recognizing Palestinian statehood and establishing an embassy in Ramallah, largely represented the Labor and Liberal Democratic parties.

However, as WMR recently learned at the New Horizon conference in Tehran, all four major British parties -- the Conservatives, Labor, Liberal Democrats, and the UK Independence Party (UKIP) -- all have "Friends of Israel" caucuses. Although the UKIP is currently only represented in the Commons by one member -- Douglas Carswell -- before he switched from the Tories to the UKIP, he was a leading member of the Conservative's "Friends of Israel" caucus. With more UKIP members seen being elected to the Commons, it is certain that Carswell will be the catalyst to bring as many UKIP members as possible under the UKIP Friends of Israel umbrella. Ironically, the UKIP's bloc of Euro-skeptics in the European Parliament was saved as an entity by Robert Iwaszkiewicz, from Poland’s far-right KNP party. Iwaszkiewicz has publicly defended Adolf Hitler and doubts much of what has been reported about the Holocaust.

Some 80 percent of all MPs are members of either the Conservative, Labor, or Liberal Democratic Friends of Israel caucuses with the Conservative Party's Friends of Israel being the largest political group in Western Europe advocating for Israel. 
UKIP's new ally, Polish MEP Iwaszkiewicz, causing heartburn for the UKIP's "Friends of Israel" caucus.

Labor Party and Opposition leader Ed Miliband, who is Jewish, has what is known as the "J Team" advising him on foreign policy. There is only one requirement to serve on the "J Team" and it is that members must be pro-Israeli Jews. But it is not because Miliband is Jewish that he has a "J Team." In fact, Prime Minister Cameron and then-Prime Ministers Tony Blair and John Major all had their own "J Teams" and none of these prime ministers were Jewish.

As far as senior Cabinet positions, the "Friends of Israel" in each major political party insist that major government posts go to their members. For the current Conservative-Liberal Democratic coalition government, current and former Tory Friends of Israel Cabinet members include Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, Leader of the House of Commons and former Foreign Secretary William Hague, Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt, former Defense Secretary Liam Fox, former Foreign Secretary and current Chairman of Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee Malcolm Rifkind, Secretary for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith, and Home Secretary Theresa May.

As in the United States with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Anti-Defamation League, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the UK has its own Jewish-Zionist pressure organization that ensure fealty by Britain's elected leaders to the Israeli and Zionist causes. These groups are the Zionist Federation, which has been lobbying for increased British sanctions against Iran; the Jewish Leadership Council, which has been working to water down British human rights legislation that could subject Israeli leaders to arrest on British soil; the Community Security Trust, which works closely with British law enforcement and intelligence and liaises with Mossad to monitor "threats" against Britain's Jewish community; and the British-Israeli Communications and Research Center (BICOM), which lobbies and pressures journalists and editors to ensure that a constant flow of pro-Israeli propaganda is featured in and promoted by the British news media.  
Left-to-right: Lib Dem leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, Labor Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Ed Balls [who doesn't seem to have any when it comes to standing up to Israel], and William Hague.
There are no "Friends of Israel" caucuses within the regional nationalist parties. One of the reasons Britain's Jewish community rallied against the Scottish independence referendum sponsored by Scotland's Scottish National Party (SNP) government and First Minister Alex Salmond is that there has not and will never likely be an SNP "Friends of Israel" caucus. The SNP, which understands the yearning of Scots to be free, also appreciates the same desire among Palestinians. The following is what SNP MP Stewart Hosie said about his yes vote in Parliament for the recognition of Palestine:"Over twenty years ago the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and Palestine paving the way for recognition of Palestine and laying out agreements between the two countries.

“20 years later however, we have: a Separation wall – which cuts deep into the West Bank; blockades of the Gaza Strip by land, sea and air and mass unemployment, extreme poverty and food price rises caused by shortages which have left four in five Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid.

“And most recently, this year, we have seen Operation Protective Edge - seven weeks of Israeli bombardment, Palestinian rocket attacks, and ground fighting killing more than 2,200 people, the vast majority of them Gazans."Hosie was joined in voting for Palestine recognition by all the SNP Members of Parliament: Angus MacNeil, Angus Robertson, Eilidh Whiteford, Michael Weir, and Peter Wishart. The unanimity was the result of the lack of a pro-Israel pressure group within the SNP's ranks. The SNP's unanimity on Palestine was shared by their colleagues from the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru in Parliament. All three Plaid Cymru MPs -- Jonathan Edwards, Elfyn Llwyd, and Hywel Williams -- voted to recognize Palestine.

All of the MPs from the Northern Ireland largely Protestant Democratic Union Party -- Nigel Dodds, William McCrea, Ian Paisley, Jim Shannon and David Simpson -- voted against recognizing Palestine. Earlier this year, a DUP "Friends of Israel" caucus was formed in the Northern Ireland Legislative Assembly of Stormont in Belfast with the help of DUP First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy Israeli ambassador in London Eitan Na'eh. However, the sole Northern Ireland MP representing the more liberal Alliance Party of Northern Ireland, Naomi Long, who ousted Robinson from his seat in Westminster, voted for Palestine recognition. The Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party, which has members in Westminster, Stormont, and the Irish Republic's Dail, has no "Friends of Israel" caucus. However, it does sponsor "Friends of Palestine" chapters in Northern Ireland and the republic.

Mebyon Kernow, which is campaigning for a Cornish Assembly, devolution from London, and autonomy for the English-imposed "Duchy of Cornwall" contrivance, has not adopted a foreign policy plank because its emphasis is currently on regional policies. However, some of its members have expressed solidarity with the Palestinian cause. If the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Alliance Party, and Sinn Fein are any indication, there will likely not be a Cornish "Friends of Israel" caucus.

The Celtic nationalist parties' opposition to Israel has earned them the wrath of Jewish pressure groups in Britain and Israel, which haul out the usual worn-out canard that they are "anti-Semitic."

Blood for gas: Why Bibi is punishing Gaza by Pepe Escobar

Blood for gas: Why Bibi is punishing Gaza

Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times/Hong Kong, an analyst for RT and TomDispatch, and a frequent contributor to websites and radio shows ranging from the US to East Asia.

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Published time: July 14, 2014 08:50

Smoke billowing from buildings following an Israeli air strike as a projectile falls in the background in Gaza City.(AFP Photo / Jack Guez)

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Conflict, Israel, War

So Bibi’s got his brand new war. Operation Protective Edge, the current slow motion ethnic cleansing super production conducted in Gaza by the Israeli Attack, sorry, Defense Forces (IDF), is Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu’s wet dream.

A quick recap is essential. US Secretary of State John “Bullhorn” Kerry was conducting a sham exercise known as “peace talks” between Israel and Palestine. As expected, it failed miserably. Hamas and the PLO in Palestine then formed a technocratic unity government. Bibi was, predictably, furious.

Then two Palestinians – not Hamas – kidnapped three Israeli teenager settlers hitchhiking at night near Hebron. One of the hitchhikers somehow managed to call an Israeli police emergency number on his mobile. The kidnappers freaked out and shot the hitchhikers on the spot, dumping their bodies.

Then all of Israel freaked out. For three weeks, tens of thousands of soldiers were involved in search parties. The media went berserk – immolating Palestinians in a racist funeral pyre.

There’s wild speculation all across the Arab street this has been an Israeli false flag. Evidence, though, seems to point to the 10,000-strong Qawasmeh tribe in the Hebron region – which is known historically to openly antagonize Hamas and attack Israeli settlers. There’s also the possibility the kidnappers wanted to use the hitchhikers for an exchange with Palestinian prisoners.

Bibi and Shin Bet military intelligence knew from the start the three settlers were dead – and who was responsible. But Bibi simply could not pass up the opportunity to use the incident – during the frenzied three-week search – as a build-up to go after Hamas in both West Bank and Gaza, an operation planned way in advance.

This past Tuesday, the Israeli military spelled it all out: “We have been instructed by the political echelon to hit Hamas hard.” And in perfect Newspeak, the operation was branded a “just war.” (A detailed background to the conflict can be seen here.)

Palestinians gather around the remains of a house which police said was destroyed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City July 14, 2014.(Reuters / Mohammed Salem )

Israel wants it all

The numbers don’t do justice to the appalling carnage. By Monday, over northern Gaza, after Israel warned residents to leave the area to avoid airstrikes, at least 167 people were killed – the majority of them women, children and elderly civilians, 30 by Israeli rockets – and over 1,000 injured. Two hundred houses, not military installations, were totally destroyed and over 1,500 houses partially damaged.

Compare it to zero deaths in Israel. An IDF spokesperson gruesomely boasted that Gaza – a de facto slum/concentration camp – was being bombed every 4 1/2 minutes.

Each homemade rocket fired by the Palestinians cost less than $1,000. Meanwhile, a single Israeli Iron Dome missile supposed to intercept them costs up to $100,000 (without including the launching and control systems). On top of this, since Thursday a ground invasion has been dubbed “imminent.”

That Bibi is able to get away with this is all the Arab street – and most of the Global South – needs to know about America’s battleship/aircraft carrier in the Middle East. What most people don’t know about is those 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, worth at least $4 billion, discovered 14 years ago off the Gaza coast.

It’s easy to forget that at the time of Israel’s previous invasion of Gaza – Operation Cast Lead – gas fields in Palestine were outright confiscated by Israel. This “operation” was already an energy war, as Nafeez Ahmed analyzed here.

Then there is the Bigger Picture - the 122 trillion cubic feet of gas plus the potential 1.6 billion barrels of oil in the Levant Basin spread over the territorial waters of Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and – of course – Gaza. These waters are as incandescently disputed as rocks and shoals in the South China Sea. Needless to say, Tel Aviv wants it all.

And to complement the picture, Israel faces an upcoming energy security nightmare, detailed here.

Even Tony Blair, the Phantom of the Opera, is involved. As the (failed) Quartet Middle East envoy, Blair came up with the brilliant plan of “developing” the Gaza gas fields via an agreement between British Gas and the Palestinian Authority, totally excluding Hamas and the people of Gaza.

The way Gaza is kept as a concentration camp, subjected to non-stop collective punishment, may be revolting enough. But then it must be added the key economic component: by all available means Gazans must be prevented from accessing the Marine-1 and Marine-2 gas fields. These will be gobbled up by Israel. From every angle, and for all practical purposes, Israel lords over all Palestinian natural resources – land, water and energy.

So here’s the “secret” of Operation Protect the Zionists, sorry, Protective Edge: without smashing Hamas, which controls Gaza, Israel cannot drill off the Gaza coast. For Bibi as well as the Knesset, the possibility that the Palestinians could have access to their own gas-generated wealth is an absolute red line.

And the EU may be on it as well. No one in Brussels will admit it, but it’s easy to conceive “strategists”regarding this takeover of Palestinian gas fields opening the door in the future for the EU being less dependent on Gazprom, and a substantial importer of (stolen) Israeli gas.

Israel’s Newspeak is old news; after all they are masters of fooling no one but themselves. Expanding on what Michael Klare has brilliantly detailed, the new, open-ended, collective punishment inflicted on Gaza is most of all a blood-for-gas energy war.

Israel's global propaganda blitzkrieg against Palestine statehood knows no bounds

Israel's global propaganda blitzkrieg against Palestine statehood knows no bounds

Part I of a two-part report.
Israel has pulled out all the stops in its worldwide campaign to prevent further diplomatic recognition of Palestinian statehood and independence, as well as ensure that the UN General Assembly vote on Palestine's independence, scheduled for September, is not a landslide for Palestine. Israeli officials have expressed an interest in keeping the pro-Palestine vote below the two-thirds majority needed for passage of a "Uniting for Peace" resolution in the General Assembly that could overshadow an expected U.S. veto of support for Palestine independence in the Security Council.

At the very least, Israel is trying to ensure that at least 30 nations vote "no" on the Palestine independence resolution in the General Assembly. Israeli diplomats are traveling the world to pressure governments of large and small nations to vote "no" or abstain on Palestine independence. Similarly, foreign ambassadors in Tel Aviv and visiting leaders in Jerusalem are having their arms twisted to veto Palestine's bid for statehood.

Also being enlisted by Israel are its sizable assets in the news media and entertainment industry. This past weekend saw multiple airings of the movie "Exodus" on WETA-TV, the Public Broadcasting System station in Washington, DC. The showing of "Exodus" was intended to generate sympathy for Israel, just as its premier in 1960 was designed by its Zionist backers to increase support for Israel from a largely neutral American public. In 1956, President Eisenhower actually pressured Israel and its British and French allies to withdraw from the Suez Canal and Sinai, a move that split NATO and infuriated Zionists in the United States. Eleanor Roosevelt was enlisted as a supporter for the Israeli cause from the inception of the State of Israel in 1947 but it was a steady stream of propaganda, such as "Exodus," that began to see Americans slant to the Israeli cause. "Exodus," based on the novel by Leon Uris, was directed by Otto Preminger, with the screenplay being written by Dalton Trumbo. The film was pushed by United Artist's production chief, Arnold  Picker, later the chair of the National Center for Jewish Film, and public relations guru Edward Gottlieb.

The "Exodus, formerly a Chesapeake Bay ferry called the "President Wakefield," was sold by American Zionist supporters of Israel in violation of a U.S. military embargo against the belligerents fighting in Palestine. The ferry had been bought through the suspices of the New York-based Sonneborn Institute, run by Zionist millionaire Rudolf G. Sonneborn. The ship set sail from France bound for Palestine on July 11, 1947, with 4515 passengers. After being rammed and boarded by British naval personnel, the vessel was towed to Haifa. Most of the passengers were deported to Germany.

In the Hollywood version, Paul Newman, who plays Haganah underground soldier Ari Ben Canaan, whose father is involved in the terrorist bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, is discussing with Eva Marie Saint, playing American Kitty Fremont, what the Israelis would do if the "Exodus" were boarded and what he describes is a full-blown false flag attack, with the intent of killing Jews, that would be the basis for generating worldwide sympathy for people who were up against the British Empire and "brutal" Arab thugs who had been allied with the German Nazis.

The following in the salient part of the script from "Exodus":

              Saint: Either you compromise, or you lose.
              Newman: We won't lose.
              If the British give in and let us go, we've won.
              And if we starve to death aboard this ship, we've still won.
              Saint: They'll wait.
              They'll wait until you're too weak and then come aboard and take you off.
              Newman: It doesn't take much strength to set off 200 pounds of dynamite.
              Saint: You'd still set it off, knowing you've lost?
              Newman: Of course.
              Saint: Without any regard for the lives you'd be destroying?
              Newman: With every regard in the world for them.
              Saint: I don't understand.
              Newman: Each person on board this ship is a soldier.
              The only weapon we have to fight with is our willingness to die.
              Saint: But for what purpose?
              Newman: Call it publicity.
                 Saint:-Publicity?
              Newman: -Yes, publicity.
              A stunt to attract attention.
              A letter to the newspapers.
              A help-wanted ad to the official journal of the United Nations.
              "Wanted by 600 men, women and children, a country...
              "...a native land, a home."
              That's all they're dying for.
              Just to call attention to Israel...
              ...without ever having seen it themselves.
              Saint: Does the vulgarity of it shock you?
              You can't fight the whole British Empire with 600 people.
              It isn't possible.
              Newman: How many Minutemen did you have at Concord when they fired...
              ...the "shot heard round the world"?
              Saint: -I don't know. -  .
              Newman: 77
              Saint: Look, please understand me.
              I wish you could win.
              I wish it were possible for you to have a country of your own.
              But it isn't.
              You're offering the lives of all these people
              for something that can never happen.
              I know. I've been in Palestine.
              Newman: -When were you there?
              Saint: -A year ago.
              Mr. Ben Canaan, even if you get a partition and a free Jewish state...
              ...the Arabs won't let you keep it.
              500,000 Jews against 50 million Arabs?
              You can't win.

The other major reason for the full-court press of "Exodus" is the scene of the UN General Assembly vote on the 1947 resolution that partitioned Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. This is the basis for the Palestinian declaration of statehood. However, there is no mention of the word "Palestinian" in the film, only "Arab." Those Zionists who argue that it was the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan that was the Arab state created by the UN partition do so to falsely convey the notion that Arab Palestinians have no right to the part of Palestine UN-mandated territory: east Jerusalem and Gaza and, eventually, the West Bank after 1967, that was reserved for the nascent Arab state by the UN.

The following is the script from Exodus where Jews in Palestine are following the partition votge on the radio:

                Norway votes...
                ...for partition.
                 Pakistan...
                ...against.
                Cast member:
                -Who cares?
                Cast member: -How is it now?
                20 for Partition, 8 against, and  8 abstaining.
                If we get over the next 4 I think we're in.
                Republic of Panama...
                ...for.
                The Republic of  Paraguay...
                ...votes...
                ...for  partition.
                The Republic of Peru...
                ...for.
                The  Philippines Republic votes...
                ...for.
                We've got two-thirds. I'm going to announce it!
                Cast member: -But we haven't got the final vote yet.
                Cast member:  -What's the difference?   We won!
                The Polish People's Republic votes...
                ...for . . .
                "The final vote of the United Nations on
                the question of the partition of Palestine...
                "...into an independent Jewish state and an independent Arab state...
                "...is as follows:
                "   for...33"
                ...  13 against,  2  abstentions."

The re-airing of the Zionist propaganda film "Exodus" is, once again, a clear attempt to confuse and propagandize the American public. It is a scheme being played out by Israel and its agents of influence around the world.

The Israelis are concentrating on nations that voted for the 1947 partition to now vote against the establishment of the Palestinian state. The United States and Canada are in Israel's pocket and the Obama administration is fully backing Israel against Palestinian statehood, with the two Zionist State Department spokespersons, Victoria Nuland, who is married to arch-neoconservative war-hawk Robert Kagan, and Mark Toner, echoing the Israeli line one hundred percent. Joining The Hillary Clinton State Department in pressuring the UN and its member states into supporting Israel is Representative Steve Chabot (R-OH), who has called for the U.S. to withhold funding for the UN if it votes to approve Palestinian statehood.

Other UN members that voted for the 1947 partition being pressed hard by Israel to vote no on Palestine are Australia; Belgium; Brazil; Costa Rica; the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the successor states of Czechoslovakia, which voted for partition; Denmark; Dominican Republic;  France; Guatemala; Haiti, Iceland; Liberia; Luxembourg; Netherlands; New Zealand; Norway; Panama; Paraguay; Peru; Philippines; Poland; Sweden; Ukraine, the successor to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic; South Africa; Uruguay; Russia, the successor to the USSR.

It is unlikely that Belarus, the sucessor to the Byelorussian SSR; Venezuela; Bolivia; or Ecuador, all of which voted for the 1947 partition, will vote with Israel against Palestine.

Those nations that voted against the 1947 partition: Afghanistan, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and Yemen can be expected to vote for Palestine.

The nations that abstained in 1947 are Argentina, Chile, China, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Mexico, and the United Kingdom, along with now-defunct Yugoslavia, are of special interest for Israeli diplomats. China has indicated it will vote for Palestine but Colombia will support Israel.  Israel's ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, stated that Mexico will vote with Israel. In an interview Israel's "Globes," Prosor said: "We are not giving up on any country. We are currently mapping out the various countries. We are deciding which to approach, and how to approach them. There are 192 member nations in the UN. We are not giving up on Latin American countries, the Caribbean, or countries along the Pacific Ocean coastline and Asia." The one nation that was absent in 1947, Siam, now Thailand, is also subject to intense Israeli pressure to vote no on Palestine.

In Part 2, Israel's diplomatic and intelligence machinations, particularly in what Prosor referred to as "the Pacific coastline," will be revealed.
 
Israel using "super-power" clout to scare up UN votes against Palestine independence

Second part of a two-part series
Israel is using the kind of diplomatic clout usually exercised by a super-power in pressuring the nations of the world to vote "no" or abstain on an expected UN General Assembly resolution recognizing the independence of Palestine within 1967 borders. However, Israel does have the full backing of the United States and Germany, which are using their own diplomatic muscle to reward and threaten those nations based on their votes in the UN. Israel, through its lobbying arms, particularly the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the American Jewish Committee, has managed to get key Republicans in the House of Representatives to threaten to limit U.S. funding for the UN and its specialized agencies if the General Assembly votes to recognize Palestine.

The German government of Chancellor Angela Merkel is reportedly threatening a cut-off in economic aid to developing nations that vote for Palestine. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and International Aid Minister Dirk Niebel have been at the forefront of the pressure operations.
Israel's new ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, has been twisting the arms of delegates from large and small countries to vote with Israel and against Palestine. Prosor's replacement as the ambassador in London, Daniel Taub, was chosen for the job because he and his wife Zehava were both born in London and educated in the UK before emigrating to Israel. The Taubs are well-connected to Britain's Jewish community, including Labor Opposition Leader Ed Miliband, and can use their influence to try and dissuade the Tory-Liberal Democratic coalition government from voting for Palestine at the UN.

Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon has been making his rounds to suppress the pro-Palestine vote in the UN. Even the Vatican City micro-state has not been ignored by Israel. Although only a UN observer, the Vatican has diplomatic clout with majority Catholic countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as nations in Africa with sizable Catholic populations. Ayalon met with Vatican Under-Secretary for Relations with States Monsignor Ettore Balestrero at the Vatican a few weeks ago to discuss various "political issues."

A few days after returning to Jerusalem from Europe, Ayalon requested Vietnam to vote no on Palestine. Ayalon had been meeting with Vietnamese Minister of Information and Communications Le Doan Ho. Earlier in June, Ayalon traveled to El Salvador to address the summit of the Organization of American States where he held bilateral discussions with several delegates to lobby for a no vote on Palestine. Ayalon's trip was designed to convince those Western Hemisphere nations that had previously recognized Palestine to abstain or vote against Palestine in the General Assembly. Mexico was a key target of the Israeli arm-twisting and Prosor later stated in New York that Israel had bagged Mexico's vote.

The former Soviet states of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have been lobbied by Israeli President Shimon Peres who paid visits to both nations in 2009.

Ayalon later claimed success in stemming the tide of Palestinian support in Latin America and Europe.

Israel's rabidly anti-Arab racist Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, has sent classified cables to Israel's ambassadors around the world instructing them to seek promises from nations to vote against Palestine by stressing that a yes vote for Palestine would somehow "de-legitimize" Israel. Lieberman has visited Albania, Croatia, and Austria soliciting no votes on Palestine. Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will visit Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Poland to persuade them to also vote no on Palestine.

Israel's strategy is to see 60 members of the UN vote no or abstain on the Palestine vote. At they very least, Israel wants some members to be absent on the day of the vote.

Prosor has stated that one of Israel's main targets in its campaign are "countries along the Pacific Ocean coastline." That strategy was part of the reason Israeli Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin visited the south Pacific island nation of Tonga in April.
Three former U.S. Trust Territories that vote with the United States and Israel in a manner reminiscent of the lockstep support that the former Byelorussian and Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republics gave to the USSR in the United Nations are expected to vote against Palestine. In May, Stuart Beck, the UN ambassador of Palau, one of these " freely Associated States," which are bound to the U.S. by treaty, said, "Palau is the number one friend of the US, ahead of everyone, including Israel. We overtook Israel this year." Palau's voting record with the United States in the UN is 96.5 percent. Palau is followed by the Federated States of Micronesia at 94 percent, Israel at 91.8 percent and the Republic of the Marshall Islands at 81 percent. The United States, Israel, and the three "associated states" often vote as a unified small minority block against a vast majority of the UN member states.
Vanuatu: A case of just how far Israel and its allies are willing to go
The South Pacific island nation of Vanuatu is best known to Americans as the scene of one of the "Survivor" television shows. However, its history of diplomatic poker playing between China and Taiwan has made it well-known as a nation that can be swayed easily on the global stage.

In May, when Vanuatu decided to recognize the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia as independent, joining Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Vanuatu's South Pacific partner Nauru, alarm bells went off not only in Georgia but in Israel, a close ally of Georgia. A number of dual Georgian-Israeli citizens have served or are serving as members of the Georgian government of President Mikheil Saakashvili and Israel counts Georgia as a major diplomatic ally at the UN.

Almost immediately after the Vanuatu government of Prime Minister Sato Kilman recognized Abkhazia, Vanuatu's ambassador to the UN, Donald Kalpokas, stated that Vanuatu recognized only Georgia and not Abkhazia. It is quite clear that Kalpokas was taking his orders not from his own government but from the US and Israeli ambassadors, Susan Rice and Prosor, both ardent supporters of Georgia. However, Vanuatu Foreign Minister Alfred Carlot, who had been on a visit to China, confirmed that Vanuatu had, in fact, recognized Abkhazia and appeared on a YouTube video confirming the recognition.

Meanwhile, New Zealand's conservative and pro-Israeli Prime Minister John Key, made some comments about Russian influence in the South Pacific at the same time his Foreign Minister Murray McCully was touring the island states on a mission tied to continued New Zealand economic assistance, a mission that may have been in concert with Germany's threat to withhold aid to nations that voted with Palestine at the UN. McCully's mission took him to Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, with Papua New Guinea being dropped at the last minute after its foreign minister was fired.

After Abkhazian authorities produced the document signed by the prime ministers of Abkhazia and Vanuatu establishing diplomatic relations, a funny thing happened to Vanuatu Prime Minister Kilman. The nation's Supreme Court fired Kilman and appointed his predecessor Edward Natapei, dismissed in December 2010 after he lost a no-confidence vote. The court ruled that Kilman's election as prime minister was null and void because the parliamentary vote was by a show of hands rather than a secret ballot.

One of Natapei's first actions was to nullify Vanuatu's recognition of Abkhazia. But there is yet another wrinkle to the ouster of Kilman. Natapei's acting foreign minister Joe Natuman, in "de-recognizing" Abkhazia, also announced that Australian attorney Ari Jenshel, an official with the Australian Agency for International Development (AUSAID), as rife with Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) agents as the US Agency for International Development (USAID) is with CIA agents, would be welcomed back to Vanuatu after his expulsion by the Kilman government for espionage. Natapei charged that Kilman's government was receiving "bribes" from businessmen from unnamed foreign countries. Jenshel, who is close to Australian Jewish circles, worked for five years in the Vanuatu Attorney General's office under an AUSAID program.

From the Kilman government's vantage point, Jenshel was in a position to rifle through documents and other sensitive material, copy them, and send them to Canberra. The Vanuatu government, in fact, charged Jenshel with copying sensitive documents and sending them to Australia. Jenshel was also accused of copying classified communications between the Kilman government and that of Fiji's military ruler, Commodore Frank Bainimarama. Fiji's vote on Palestine at the UN and its possible following Vanuatu in recognizing Abkhazia may have been the subject of the classified communications, which would have been of interest to ASIO, Mossad, and the CIA.

After his dismissal by the Supreme Court, Kilman was re-elected by the Vanuatu parliament with 29 out of 52 votes, defeatinf rival Serge Vohor by six votes. Kilman's entire government, including Foreign Minister Carlot, who arranged for the recognition of Abkhazia, was re-instated. There is no indication that the Kilman government will abide by the "de-recognition" decision of interim Prime Minister Natapei and with more evidence surfacing about Australian, Israeli, and U.S. intrigue behind Vanuatu's "constitutional coup," something that Australians are painfully aware of as a result of the CIA's 1975 constitutional coup against Australian Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, Vanuatu may be an example of an intelligence operation "blow back," with Kilman and his South Pacific partners voting for Palestine at the UN General Assembly as a warning to Canberra, Wellington, Tel Aviv, Tbilisi, and Washington to stay out of South Pacific affairs.

But, as is normal, the Obama administration has not gotten the message from the South Pacific. In a throwback to "gunboat diplomacy," it is dispatching the USS Cleveland (LPD-7), a Navy amphibious ship with a Marine contingent, on a "goodwill" tour of Vanuatu, Tonga, Micronesia, Timor-Leste, and Papua New Guinea as part of "Pacific Partnership 2011." The CIA's official diplomatic cover "political officers" will undoubtedly be on hand to ensure that the five nations visited by the ship are "on side" for the General Assembly vote.

Israeli and PA Forces Suppress Solidarity with Egyptians - by Stephen Lendman

Despite Palestinian Authority (PA) officials banning anti-Mubarak demonstrations, hundreds rallied in support. On February 5, Jerusalem Post writer Khaled Abu Toameh headlined, "100s demonstrate in Ramallah in support of Egyptians," saying:

Marching in Ramallah with Egyptian flags, they publicly supported them "(f)or the first time since the beginning of the(ir( uprising...." Another Ramallah demonstration followed as well as a Bethlehem one.

Toameh's February 2 article was in stark contrast headlined, "PA launches pro-Mubarak demonstration in Ramallah," denouncing Mohamed ElBaradei as a "CIA agent."

On February 4, the Popular Committees Against the Israeli Occupation issued a press release saying:

"The Egyptian Arab nation....We salute this great Arab nation, our brothers. This is the salute of freedom from the people of Palestine who have been fighting for decades for freedom and independence, and to retain the honor of Arabs."

"The Palestinians are watching what is happening across the Arab world in general and Egypt in particular with great pride....We hope that the rebelling Arab people make it their priority to demand from any government or leadership to come to sever their ties with the Israeli occupation and abandon the Egyptian - Israeli peace treaty....We call on all free nations in the world, especially Europe and the US, to get out in massive demonstrations on 2/11/11 to confirm the right of peoples to live in freedom and dignity - a day of anger" for justice, the "beginning of the Global Intifada."

On February 3, Haaretz writer Amira Hass headlined, "Why isn't the PA supporting the Egypt uprising? saying:

Instead, it "banned demonstrations in solidarity with the rebelling peoples. Palestinian television has virtually ignored the events in Egypt." Demonstrators at Cairo's Ramallah consulate were monitored by plainclothes security forces.

"What is the (PA) afraid of....?" It has close ties with Mubarak like Israel, and "when a regime is insufficiently democratic, it fears that popular demonstrations might spin out of control."

On February 7, Hass headlined, "Palestinian security suppressing West Bank fervor over Egypt protests," saying:

PA security forces suppressed a Ramallah demonstration. Adnan Dmeiri, PA security forces spokesman, said "demonstrations could lead to chaos. The priority for Palestinians was to empower popular resistance against the occupation and to work for independence."

In fact, Abbas/Fayyad security forces work cooperatively with Israel against it, enforcing occupation harshness. They've been well trained and financed to do it. A previous article explained, accessed through the following link:

http://sjlendman.blogspot.com/2011/01/salam-fayyad-israels-man-in-palestine.html

America's Lt. General Keith Dayton, US security coordinator (USSC) for Israel and the PA, has been heavily involved in creating, building and training a 25,000-strong force. In recent years, Washington spent around $400 million institutionalizing hard-line control, supplementing Israel's efforts.

Dayton's in charge of building and renovating garrisons, training colleges, Interior Ministry facilities, and security headquarters. President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad head an illegitimate regime as Israeli/Washington enforcers, solidifying occupation and Israel's settlement project, including entirely Judaizing Jerusalem.

Governing as political opportunist traitors, their Mubarak moment awaits them, perhaps sooner than they imagine for exploiting and betraying their own people, including attacking peaceful protesters.

Commenting on Ramallah events, an anonymous demonstrator said:

"We had not yet done a thing. A number of policemen in uniforms began arguing with one of the demonstrators, apparently on purpose, so as to create a pretext for arresting him. They took his identity card and then began dragging him in the direction of the police station."

Human Right Watch (HRW) said PA policemen were joined by detectives, preventive security force personnel and others from general intelligence, "all of them plainclothesmen." They beat, kicked and dragged demonstrators away violently. Numerous arrests were made. Photograph-taking was prohibited. Cell phones and cameras were confiscated, and PA forces videotaped events, wanting activists identified for later arrests and detentions.

Their numbers, however, grew to about 2,000, marching and chanting the slogan heard in Tunisia and Egypt:

"The people want the fall of the regime....The people want the fall of Abbas," and an end to the internal Palestinian "inqisam (rift)!....Raise your voice, Arab masses! Dignity or death, we need a true unity!" Two (unnamed) "well-known" Fatah members joined them in solidarity.

On February 5, hundreds of Bil'in residents, joined by international and Israeli supporters, protested in solidarity with Egyptians and Tunisians. Calling for national unity, Israeli troops attacked them with tear gas and concussion grenades.

Gathering in Bil'in center for their weekly Friday demonstration, they marched toward Israel's Separation Wall, what they call the Annexation Wall on village land. Their public statement said:

(1) "We salute the Egyptian and Tunisian people" in solidarity with their struggle for freedom;

(2) "We call for national unity and the preservation of civil peace (to) pass this historic stage successfully;"

(3) "We hope that rebelling Arab people make it their priority to demand from any government or leadership to come to sever their ties with the Israeli occupation and abandon the Egyptian - Israeli peace treaty" that ignored Palestinian people, leaving them occupied and repressed under militarized harshness.

(4) "We call on all free nations in the world" to rally in solidarity with Arab people struggling to be free.

From his perspective, Omar Barghouti, a founder and director of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, expressed no surprise how PA forces reacted, saying:

"Unelected, authoritarian regimes tend to stand together. They are very scared of popular mobilization especially in light of the Palestine Papers. (They) agree on repression and have no interest in empowerment of people or mobilization."

On February 10, Haaretz writer Gideon Levy headlined, "The Middle East does not need stability," saying:

When children throw stones at tanks entering neighborhoods it's called "Disturbing the peace." When they're detained for resisting occupation, it's called "Restoring order."

"The occupier oppresses, the occupied people overcome their instincts and their struggle, and good order is maintained - for now. Stability."

Egyptians dared "disturb the peace," undermining Middle East stability. "Indeed, that stability should be undermined" throughout the region, including in Occupied Palestine. How else can oppressed people be free. Stability suffocates them. Resistance is liberating if sustained long enough.

Egyptians and Tunisians made a good start, but their struggle has just begun. When will Palestinians begin theirs? When tanks invade neighborhoods, "stones must be thrown at (them); the infuriating stability of the Middle East must be wiped out," replaced by liberating freedom, perhaps contagious enough to spread regionally, but never easily, quickly or without great risks and costs.

Egyptian Events Resonating Regionally

Egypt's outcome has regional implications, including in Occupied Palestine, especially given Mubarak's cooperative role with Israel and Washington. As a result, PA officials noticeably distanced themselves from uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Yemen and Algeria, fearing soon one may target them. They've also aggressively cracked down to prevent it through violence, intimidation and arrests.

So far, it's worked, but for how long. Egyptians endured three decades under Mubarak. In 1948, Palestinians lost their homeland, and for nearly 44 years suffered brutally under militarized occupation, exacerbated by collaborating PA enforcers.

Perhaps Egyptian courage will inspire them to summon theirs for liberating freedom under leaders they choose.

A Final Comment

On February, BBC's Jon Donnison headlined, "Gaza youth vent anger on Facebook," saying:

"Khaled (a pseudonym) had become something of an online sensation in Gaza, but is now effectively living in hiding" for his safety after cooperatively creating the Gaza Youth Manifesto for Change, "a 450-word tirade against the frustrations" of occupied life under siege. Posted in December, it has over 19,000 followers under the name Gaza Youth Breaks Out.

Everyone is pilloried, including Hamas, Fatah, Israel, Washington, and the UN, saying:

"We, the youth of Gaza, are so fed up (with) occupation, the violations of human rights and the indifference of the international community!"

"ENOUGH! Enough pain, enough tears, enough suffering, enough control, limitations, unjust justifications, terror, torture, excuses, bombings, sleepless nights, dead civilians, black memories, bleak future(s), heart-aching present, disturbed politics, fanatic politicians."

"WE SAY STOP! This is not the future we want! We want to be free. We want to be able to live a normal life. We want peace. Is that too much to ask?"

Is Manifesto passion a prelude to mass street protests throughout Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem, matching breathtaking Egyptian courage. It's how freedom at times is won, but never easily, quickly or longstanding without sustained vigilance to retain long-fought, hard-won gains, easily lost otherwise.

Numerous previous times, longtime insider Bob Chapman made impressive calls, often before others noticed. On air February 10 on the Progressive Radio News Hour, he said Washington overplayed its hand in Egypt. Now it has a tiger by the tail perhaps too hard to control and will end up losing its regional grip when events finally play out.

Others agree, including Immanuel Wallerstein in his February 3 article headlined, "The Second Arab Revolt: Winners and Losers," saying:

Months will pass before they're known. At this point, events are fluid, outcomes uncertain. Yet he calls Washington the "great loser," Iran the biggest winner, then Turkey for supporting the Arab revolt and confronting Israel.

Indeed, it's too soon to know, but it may be the right side of history. If so, it'll defy long odds favoring power over populist uprisings, an exception perhaps proving the rule if gains hold and aren't lost because of lack of eternal vigilance.

Note: Fast-breaking events in Egypt will be discussed in a forthcoming article. Things aren't always as they seem. Below the surface maneuvers, manipulation and machinations are far more important than what's visible on the surface. Major media reports, of course, won't explain. Real journalism and analysis are essential. Focus on them and Al Jazeera's online stream for up-to-date news.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
posted by Steve Lendman @ 1:08 AM 

CHRISTMAS STORY- MARY AND JOSEPH IN PALESTINE 2010

The settlements were still being built, financed mostly by Jewish money from America, contributions from Wall Street speculators and owners of gambling dens.

By James Petras

Times were tough for Joseph and Mary.  The real estate bubble crashed.  Unemployment soared among construction workers.  There was no work, not even for a skilled carpenter.

The settlements were still being built, financed mostly by Jewish money from America, contributions from Wall Street speculators and owners of gambling dens.

“Good thing”, Joseph thought, “we have a few sheep and olive trees and Mary keeps some chickens.   But Joseph worried, “cheese and olives are not enough to feed a growing boy.  Mary is due to deliver our son any day”. His dreams foretold of a sturdy son working alongside of him…multiplying loaves and fish.

The settlers looked down on Joseph.  He rarely attended shul, and on the high holidays, he would show up late to avoid the tithe.  Their simple cottage was located in a nearby ravine with water from a stream, which flowed year round.  It was choice real estate for any settlement expansion.  So when Joseph fell behind on his property tax, the settlers took over their home, forcibly evicted Joseph and Mary and offered them a one-way bus ticket to Jerusalem.

Joseph, born and raised in the arid hills, fought back and bloodied not a few settlers with his labor-hardened fists.  But in the end he sat, battered on their bridal bed under the olive tree, in black despair.
Mary, much the younger, felt the baby’s movements.  Her time was near.

“We have to find shelter, Joseph, we have to move on …this is no time for revenge”, she pleaded.
Joseph, who believed with the Old Testament prophets in an “eye for an eye”, reluctantly agreed.
So it was that Joseph sold their sheep, chickens and other belongings to an Arab neighbor and bought a donkey and cart.  He loaded up the mattress, some clothes, cheese, olives and eggs and they set out for the Holy City.

The donkey path was rocky and full of potholes. Mary winced at every bump; she worried that it would harm the baby.  Worse, this was the road for the Palestinians with military checkpoints everywhere.  No one ever told Joseph that, as a Jew, he could have taken a smooth paved road – forbidden to the Arabs.
At the first roadblock Joseph saw a long line of Arabs waiting.  Pointing to his very pregnant wife, Joseph asked the Palestinians, half in Arabic, half in Hebrew, if they could go ahead.  A path was opened and the couple went forward.

A young soldier raised his rifle and told Mary and Joseph to get down from the cart.  Joseph descended and nodded to his wife’s stomach.  The soldier smirked and turned to his comrades, “The old Arab knocks up the girl he bought for a dozen sheep and now he wants a free pass”.

Joseph, red with anger, shouted in rough Hebrew, “I am a Jew.  But unlike you … I respect pregnant women”.

The soldier poked Joseph with his rifle and ordered him to step back:  “You are worse than an Arab – you’re an old Jew who screws Arab girls”.

Mary frightened by the exchange turned to her husband and cried, “Stop Joseph or he will shoot you and our baby will be born an orphan”.

With great difficulty Mary got down from the wagon.  An officer came out of the guard station, summoning a female soldier, “Hey Judi, go feel under her dress, she might be carrying bombs”.
“What’s the matter?  Don’t you like to feel them yourself anymore? ” Judith barked back in Brooklyn-accented Hebrew.  While the soldiers argued, Mary leaned on Joseph for support.  Finally, the soldiers came to an agreement.

“Pull-up your dress and slip”, Judith ordered.  Mary blanched in shame.  Joseph faced the gun in disgrace.  The soldiers laughed and pointed at Mary’s swollen breasts, joking about an unborn terrorist with Arab hands and a Jewish brain.

Joseph and Mary continued on the way to the Holy City.  They were frequently detained at the checkpoints along the way.  Each time they suffered another delay, another indignity and more gratuitous insults spouted by Sephardim and Ashkenazi, male and female, secular and religious – all soldiers of the Chosen people.

It was dusk when Mary and Joseph finally reached the Wall.  The gates had closed for the night.  Mary cried out in pain, “Joseph, I can feel the baby coming soon.  Please do something quickly”.

Joseph panicked.  He saw the lights of a small village nearby and, leaving Mary on the cart, Joseph ran to the nearest house and pounded on the door.  A Palestinian woman opened the door slightly and peered into the dark, agitated face of Joseph.  “Who are you?  What do you want?”

“I am Joseph, a carpenter from the hills of Hebron.  My wife is about to give birth and I need shelter to protect Mary and the baby”. Pointing to Mary on the donkey cart, Joseph pleaded in his strange mixture of Hebrew and Arabic.

“Well, you speak like a Jew but you look like an Arab,” the Palestinian woman said laughing as she walked back with him to the cart.

Mary’s face was contorted with pain and fear: her contractions were more frequent and intense.
The woman ordered Joseph to bring the cart around to a stable where the sheep and chickens were kept.  As soon as they entered, Mary cried out in pain and the Palestinian woman, who had now been joined by a neighbor midwife, swiftly helped the young mother down onto a bed of straw.



And thus the child was born, as Joseph watched in awe.

It came to pass that shepherds, returning from their fields, heard the mingled cries of birth and joy and hurried to the stable carrying both their rifles and fresh goat milk, not knowing whether it was friend or foe, Jew or Arab.  When they entered the stable and beheld the mother and infant, they put aside their weapons and offered the milk to Mary who thanked them in both Hebrew and Arabic.

And the shepherds were amazed and wondered: Who were these strange people, a poor Jewish couple, who came in peace on a donkey cart inscribed with Arabic letters?    The news quickly spread about the strange birth of a Jewish child just outside the Wall in a Palestinian’s stable.  Many neighbors entered and beheld Mary, the infant and Joseph.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers, equipped with night vision goggles, reported from their watchtowers overlooking the Palestinian neighborhood, “The Arabs are meeting just outside the Wall, in a stable, by candle light”.

The gates under the watchtowers flew open and armored carriers with bright lights followed by heavily armed soldiers drove out and surrounded the stable, the assembled villagers and the Palestinian woman’s house.  A loud speaker blared, “Come out with your hands up or we’ll shoot.”  They all came out from the stable together with Joseph, who stepped forward with his hands stretched out to the sky and spoke, “My wife, Mary cannot comply with your order.  She is nursing the baby Jesus”.



James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 64 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and Journal of Peasant Studies. He has published over 2000 articles. His latest book is War Crimes  in Gaza and the Zionist Fifth Column in America (Atlanta:Clarity Pres 2010)

Trailer: Seven Deadly Myths

"We didn't come to them [the Palestinian villagers in the Negev] to collect their taxes. We came to inherit the land from the hands of strangers. That was the basis of our thinking. To inherit the land. And he who inherits, dispossess others. That's why we wouldn't let them return" - Amnon Noiman

http://sevendeadlymyths.webs.com/

Israeli Shas Party leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef says all Palestinians should be killed.

Rabbi slammed for promoting 'genocide'

Will this hate merchant be put on the U.S. "no fly list?" Don't bet on it.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef (C) surrounded by members of his staff during a rally of his Shas party.

The chief Palestinian negotiator has urged worldwide condemnation of Israel's genocidal figures after a top Israeli clergyman wished all Palestinians dead.

Referring to the Palestinians, the founder and spiritual leader of Israel's ultra-orthodox Shas party, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said on Saturday, "All these evil people should perish from this world," Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported.

He especially desired the demise of acting Palestinian Authority (PA) Chief Mahmoud Abbas, referring to him by name.

The remarks raised eyebrows partially as it came from a party partnering with Premier Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud in the ruling coalition. They also preceded upcoming direct peace talks between Israel and the PA.

The Palestinian official, Saeb Erekat, called on the international community "to condemn incitement to genocide by public figures in Israel," AFP reported.

Yosef "is literally calling for a genocide against Palestinians, and there seems to be no response from the Israeli government," he said in a statement.

"He is particularly calling for the assassination of…Abbas who within a few days will be sitting face to face with Prime Minister Netanyahu. Is this how the Israeli government prepares its public for a peace agreement?" Erekat pointed out.

He said Tel Aviv had "to do more about peace and stop spreading hatred."

The Shas spiritual leader made similar comments in April 2001, calling for the annihilation of Arabs.