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Middle East Madness

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Israeli High Court turns blind eye to illegal settlement construction

Chaim Levinson
Haaretz.com
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:04 EST

Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch accused the government on Wednesday of ignoring illegal settlement construction in one of several barbed remarks that could presage a first High Court of Justice decision ordering the demolition of illegal housing in the West Bank.

Beinisch made the comments while hearing a petition from Palestinian-rights advocacy group Yesh Din, which is asking the court to compel the government to implement an existing demolition order for nine homes in the West Bank settlement of Ofra.

Yesh Din argues that the homes were built on private Palestinian land, and while the government conceded on Wednesday that it is not claiming the construction is legal, it said the demolition orders would be carried out in order of priority.

Press TV
Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:42 EST

The Secretary General of Hezbollah movement, Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, has been re-elected chief of the Lebanese resistance movement for a sixth term.

The resistance movement announced its decision following a congress that also adopted a new manifesto on Thursday.

Hezbollah issued a statement declaring that it has endorsed "a number of organizational amendments that fit the new developing nature of its movement and path in the recent years on various aspects."

The statement further added that Sheikh Naim Qassem has been re-elected as the movement's Deputy Secretary General.

The Thursday statement however did not mention when senior Hezbollah officials voted to re-elect Nasrallah as the resistance movement's Secretary General.

Tehran Times
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:24 EST

Iran's Oil Minister Masoud Mir-Kazemi has unveiled a plan to counter possible fuel sanctions against the oil-rich country.

According to the plan, the Iranian petrochemical plants, such as Imam Khomeini, Bou Ali Sina and Borzouyeh, are equipped to produce about 14 million liters of gasoline per day if they have to.

Iran, OPEC's second largest oil exporter, only produces 60 percent of its domestic gasoline demand and imports the remaining 40 percent.

Rod Nordland
The New York Times
Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:30 EST

© Joao Silva for The New York Times
At a recent trade fair in Baghdad, companies from several nations were on hand to promote goods and services, but companies from the United States were notably absent. Above, a corporate booth at the fair’s Iranian pavilion.

Iraq's Baghdad Trade Fair ended Tuesday, six years and a trillion dollars after the American invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and one country was conspicuously absent.

That would be the country that spent a trillion dollars - on the invasion and occupation, but also on training and equipping Iraqi security forces, and on ambitious reconstruction projects in every province aimed at rebuilding the country and restarting the economy.

Yet when the post-Saddam Iraqi government swept out its old commercial fairgrounds and invited companies from around the world, the United States was not much in evidence among the 32 nations represented. Of the 396 companies that exhibited their wares, "there are two or three American participants, but I can't remember their names," said Hashem Mohammed Haten, director general of Iraq's state fair company. A pair of missiles atop a ceremonial gateway to the fairgrounds recalled an era when Saddam Hussein had pretensions, if not weapons, of mass destruction.

Comment:

The trade fair is a telling indication of an uncomfortable truth: America's war in Iraq has been good for business in Iraq - but not necessarily for American business.

This statement is so far from the truth, yet it highlights the overall scheming message of this article: that the Iraqis are unappreciative people, provided the US came all the way to their country to help liberate them and assist them in rebuilding their country, for now shunning American businesses. The uncomfortable truth for some Americans to digest is that the US illegally invaded Iraq under manufactured pretexts and to date remains the occupying force; killed over a million of Iraqis and maimed for life millions more; destroyed the country's infrastructure, culture and socioeconomic systems. All the rest is propaganda.

If it was a war for oil, the US lost

Jeffrey Blankfort
Mondoweiss
Sun, 15 Nov 2009 03:16 EST

Although the Bush administration denied it, the conventional wisdom on the part of the anti-war movement was that the war on Iraq was launched in order for the US to take over Saddam's oil supplies which would give Washington an even more dominant position in the region. That there was no concrete evidence that the war was supported by the oil companies was discounted and, as it had been in 1991 during the first Gulf War, "No blood for oil!"became the battle cry.

If the war was indeed about oil, then, as the NY Times reported on Friday, the US lost.

Haaretz
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:16 EST

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Wednesday said an Israeli decision to build hundreds of homes in East Jerusalem was not an obstacle to peace talks, despite international condemnation of the plan.

In Jaffa, speaking to reporters at the home of the French ambassador to Israel, Kouchner said he had understood from Prime Minister Netanyahu that the move was only in the stages of planning, which he accepted.

The French foreign minister met with opposition leader Tzipi Livni earlier in the day. He told her that, "The coming days are a test for the Israeli government."

Iraq VP vetoes new election law

Al Jazeera
Wed, 18 Nov 2009 03:21 EST

© Agence France-Presse
Al-Hashemi said he did not object to the whole law but to parts that he called unfair to displaced Iraqis

Iraq's vice-president has vetoed part of the country's new election law, placing plans for holding general elections in January in jeopardy.

Tariq al-Hashemi said on Wednesday he objected to Article I of the law because it did not give a voice to Iraqis abroad, many of whom are Sunni Muslims who fled the country during sectarian fighting after the US-led invasion in 2003.

"On November 15, I sent a letter to parliament asking for the law to be amended. Parliament said I could veto the contested first article [of the law], which is what I have done today," al-Hashemi said.

Video: No Way Through

Alexandra Bouillon / Sheila Menon
Youtube
Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:12 EST

Imagine if your country was controlled by the military and you had to go through specific checkpoints to go to school, go to work, visit your friends or go to the hospital.

Warning - Contains Strong Language

Youtube
Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:23 EST

Norman Finkelstein interviewed on Danish public service TV by Jewish, and pro-Zionist host Adam Holm.

Adam Holm was corrected by his superiors from Danmarks Radio recently for having published a news paper article expressing his strong support for Israel.

On this occation a stoic Finkelstein manages to get Adam Holm off balance as Holm more and more desperately tries to counter Finkelsteins simple message: Uphold international law in connection with Israel as with any other state. Adam Holms clearly emotional approach says more than a thousand words.

Rob Brown
Jerusalem Post
Sun, 15 Nov 2009 14:51 EST

Parliamentary by-elections in Britain are usually the last thing on the mind of citizens of this country, but Israelis should be cheered by the news that the Labor Party, led by Gordon Brown, has beaten back the Scottish National Party (SNP) in a crucial contest in the commercial city of Glasgow.

The SNP is mounting the most serious challenge to the Union of Scotland and England in three centuries. The next British general election will be a battle for Britain, and the outcome could matter immensely to Israel.

Gordon Brown is probably the most pro-Israeli British premier ever. As he recounted in an emotional address to the Knesset shortly after taking office, he has had a deep affection and respect for Israel dating back to his boyhood. His father was a minister of the Church of Scotland who learned Hebrew and travelled back and forth to the Holy Land at least twice every year, as chairman of the Israel committee. After each trip, he would roll out an old film projector and regale young Gordon with favorable images of Israel.

Comment: Sickbags at the ready: A typical example of sycophantic praise to 'the most dangerous regime in the Middle-East' (if not the world..), Israel.

The author thinks the movie Braveheart demonized the English, it didn't... it just showed Occupation for what it is, for what it always is...

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"The free press is the mother of all our liberties and of our progress under liberty" Adlai E. Stevenson

"There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle." Bill Moyers

"This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go undebated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths." Simon Heffer in The Daily Mail, 7 June 2000

"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure." Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823

"A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press, must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the right of the people to know.": Murray I. Gurfein

One of the shrewdest ways for human predators to conquer their stronger victims is to steadily convince them with propaganda that they're still free. N.A. Scott