Puppet MastersS


Star of David

Hamas chief Jabari held 'peace deal' draft in his hands when IDF assassinated him

An Israeli peace activist says the Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari, assassinated at the start of Israel's offensive, was murdered amid talks on a long-term truce with Israel. For details, RT talks to peace activist Gershon Baskin.

Bad Guys

Israeli officials talk long war in Gaza, prepare invasion

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Tanks and armored vehicles poured into southern Israel today while busloads of soldiers were brought to the front, as a ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, the first since early 2009, seems to be coming closer.

Air strikes have been a virtual constant against the tiny strip over the past day, with large numbers of civilian casualties and Israeli officials talking up the idea that the attacks are just the beginning.

Israeli officials have condemned Hamas for retaliating against their attacks, with Benjamin Netanyahu terming the retaliation a "double war crime." Officials say if Hamas continues to retaliate they will consider a ground invasion, but others have suggested they will keep launching air strikes whether Hamas reacts or not, and it seems increasingly that the timing of the ground invasion is just a question of getting reservists and other troops into the area, with a decision likely already made.

Dollars

The Pentagon spends billions on bizarre "non-security" projects

Pentagon
From a workshop on whether Jesus' salvation would apply to aliens to determining the color of the feathers on a 150-million-year-old creature deemed the Earth's first bird, the Pentagon has spent money on some questionable projects, according to Sen. Tom Coburn.

At a time when many Republicans argue the Defense Department cannot afford new spending cuts, Mr. Coburn, Congress's top waste-watcher, released a report Thursday arguing that in fact the Pentagon is awash in billions of dollars of non-security spending that should be cut.

"The American people expect the Pentagon's $600 billion annual budget to go toward our nation's defense," the Oklahoma Republican said. "That isn't happening. Billions of defense dollars are being spent on programs and missions that have little or nothing to do with national security, or are already being performed by other government agencies."

Bizarro Earth

Egyptian Prime Minister on rare Gaza visit amid continued fire

Hisham Qandil
© The Associated PressHisham Qandil
Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil arrived in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip Friday morning for a solidarity visit to the territory, which Israel has been bombing for a third day.

Sources said Qandil crossed into Gaza through Rafah crossing on Gaza's southern border with Egypt.

Ziad al-Zaza, deputy of the de facto Hamas government's Prime Minister Ismail Haneya, received the Egyptian delegation. Haneya and other senior Hamas leaders have gone underground since the beginning of the Israeli military operation.

Israeli media reported earlier Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to halt airstrikes on the Gaza Strip for three hours during Qandil's visit, on condition that no rockets are fired from Gaza into Israel.

However, Israeli media reported at least 10 rockets fired at Israel's Eshkol region soon after Qandil's entry, with no injuries reported. Meanwhile, Israeli jets are also heard hovering over Gaza.

Penis Pump

How sexy is Benghazi?

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The Love Pentagon - as in the Petraeus-Broadwell-Kelley-Allen-FBI shirtless torso guy - is the farce that keeps on giving. But this should really not be about sex, lies and emails. This should be about Benghazi.

Scandal or not, General David Petraeus finally accepted to testify, at a still unspecified date, to the Senate Intelligence Committee, about the 9/11, 2012 attack on the US consulate in Libya in which ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed; he may eventually be asked about what the CIA had been up to before, during and after the attack.

As for President Obama, in his first press conference after re-election he has warned Republicans - who have been trying to twist Benghazi to their own purposes for weeks now - to "go after me"; for them to go after UN ambassador Susan Rice, "who had nothing to do with Benghazi, and was simply making a presentation based on intelligence that she had received", and to "besmirch her reputation", that's "outrageous."

Pirates

Palace Revolution

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First Petraeus, then Allen - who's next?

The political class is aghast at the spectacle of one after another of their holy icons falling: first it was David Petraeus, outed by a lone FBI agent in Tampa who took the discovery of his affair with Paula Broadwell to the House Republican leadership and effectively dynamited the CIA chieftain's career. Now it's Gen. John Allen, commander of US forces in Afghanistan: the discovery of his "thousands of pages of emails" to Jill Kelley - a 37-year-old looker whose complaints of email "harassment" garnered the full attention of the FBI and led to the downfall of Petraeus - has him in the dock.

Who's next?

One could easily succumb to the temptation to simply cackle, like Madame Defarge, and attend to one's knitting as heads roll. Rather than give in to such pure indulgence, however, this writer would much prefer to pursue the answer to a puzzling question: what is going on here? Is this just about the rutting habits of the lords and ladies of Washington, the national security realm's version of Days of Our Lives - or is what we're witnessing the equivalent of a palace revolution?

Star of David

Israel would have us believe that these children are terrorists

Pictures of children killed and injured during the Israeli air strikes on Gazan civilians on November 14, 2012

"A time comes when silence is betrayal." - Rev. Martin Luther King

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Comment: Israel Encourages Palestinian Rocket Attacks


Star of David

Excuse Me While I Vomit

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© Mohammed Salem/ReutersJihad al-Masharawi, a Palestinian employee of BBC Arabic in Gaza, carries the body of his 11-month-old son Omar, who according to hospital officials was killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City 15 November, 2012.
I imagine I am not the only one who feels the need to vomit (dictionary definition - "to throw up the contents of the stomach through the mouth") when Israel's Goebbels justifies the Zionist state's ferocious and monstrously disproportionate attacks by air and sea on the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, the prison camp which is home to 1.5 million besieged and mainly impoverished Palestinians. The Israeli to whom I am referring is, of course, Australian-born Mark Regev, the prime minister's spokesman, for which read spin doctor. The more I see and hear him in action, the more it seems to me that he makes Nazi Germany's propaganda chief look like an amateur.

In a piece for The Observer on 6 June 2010, Ruth Sutherland wrote the following. "If the men from Mars ever wanted to manufacture a PR man, they would model their robot on Regev. No matter how formidable the interviewer, or how aggressive the questioning, he never buckles under pressure. His disarming Aussie accent and unfailing politeness - he calls interviewers 'Sir' and uses phrases like 'I beg to disagree' - almost lulls listeners into overlooking his aggression. He is always regretful about death and horror - he regrets that the non-Israeli victims brought their fate on themselves. Viewers are reduced to a trance of slack-jawed amazement at what he is prepared to say with a straight face. He is unlikely to win sceptics to Israel's cause, but as a PR performer he is horribly compelling."

Star of David

Finkelstein: Israel bombing civilians in Gaza to restore its 'deterrent capacity'

The Israeli military is converging on Gaza, as it continues to pummel the Palestinians from air, sea and land.

The Operation, dubbed "Pillars of Defence" - is on the verge of turning into a new invasion, as Tel Aviv says it's prepared to go all the way - under the pretext of self-defence.

3 Israelis and at least 15 Palestinians - including children and a pregnant woman - have already been killed.

Political scientist, activist and author Norman Finkelstein doubts that the current crisis in Gaza will further escalate.


Heart - Black

Israel kills teacher working with UN agency

gaza
© Latuff
A UN agency working for Palestinian refugees said that one of its teachers was killed in northern Gaza on Thursday by an Israeli airstrike, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters here.

"The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) says that one of its teachers was killed on Thursday by an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza," Nesirky said at a daily news briefing here.

"Marwan Abu El Qumsan, an Arabic teacher at the Agency's Preparatory Boys School in Jabalia, was killed, while his brother was severely injured," Nesirky said.

The Relief and Works Agency expressed its condolences to Marwan 's family on their tragic loss and reiterated its concern about the escalation of violence, which puts civilians on both sides of the conflict at risk, he said.