Ethnic cleansing disguised as plans to give a city more ‘open (Green) space’? Yes, that’s the Jewish State’s plan for Jerusalem. Voice of America reports that Palestinian Residents Brace for Demolition of Homes in East Jerusalem but forgets to add that the American government is enabling this ethnic cleansing by Israeli authorities.
If “We” are morally and legally required, as many have suggested, to judge “They” as in any other nation, by the most radical remarks of “Their” citizens, would “They” not also be justified in judging “We” by the most radical remarks of “our” citizens?
Let’s take as a specific case “reverend” Patrick Robertson. who said that a certain leader of a Nation in South America should be assassinated.
Further, let’s take into account that his Masters in the Bush/Cheney administration were and their minions still ARE fighting a Terroristic Covert War in that same Nation.
Let’s further go with comments by Mr Robertson and many of his fellow “ministers of the gospel” that Israel should have Killed every Palestinian, even the Babies, when they took the land.
They claim this by references to the book of Joshua. They claim that Israel, and by association the United States, is being punished now because they didn’t “Cleanse the Land”.
Never minding the fact that the Palestinians are ethnically just as much Israel as the Jews.
The “ten lost tribes”? Never went anywhere, they’ve been there ever since BEFORE Judah was carried off to Babylon.
Also the Jews who weren’t Wealthy were left behind in Judah, mostly the Babylonians carried off the priesthood, royalty and the Richest of the Judeans, NOT Israelites, Israel was a separate Kingdom.
When Jesus and laer Paul, nee Saul of Tarsus, (a tentmaker by trade and a Lawyer by profession) said “Judge not, lest ye also be judged, for with what measure ye mete judgment shall Judgment be meted unto ye”
They were re-stating what Moses and later Joshua said.
It’s one of the first principles of the Talmud.
What reason would a Palestinian, an Iraqi or an Iranian have to trust Netanyahu or any of the other Puppets of the Bush/Cheney Corporate Empire? Bush and Netanyahu shake hands, smile, joke, are very cordial to the same freaks who claim that the Iranians and the Palestinians
should be Utterly Destroyed, from the Greatest unto the least, and every beast, and every servant, man, woman and CHILD, none shall ye leave alive…
Well, Why should they?
From their point of view, punctuated by Assassins bullets, air strikes and invasions like the ones into Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza, The Empire has declared through its Spokes Freaks that Iran and Palestine should be destroyed.
Especially punctuated by more than a million deaths of the Citizens of Iraq.
The vast majority of them, like the vast majority of the Palestinians killed, Were CIVILIANS and a really disproportionate number of them Children.
Not My Tribe is not the only site to have been targeted by GIYUS and its ‘Internet Megaphone’. In fact, Israel’s spam propaganda machine has targeted many others before us, so much so that wikipedia even has an entry about it. Megaphone desktop tool From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Of the info given by wikipedia about this military propaganda machine, I found the following link to be the most useful in how to counter the verbal barrage of trash that is sent out by GIYUS. Check it out because it’s good information to have if you are a progressive blog that has an open comment section! From Ten Tips For Dealing With GIYUS:
If, like many people, you are disgusted by the behaviour of Israel and happen to blog about, say, the latest massacre in Gaza; the desperate situation the Palestinians are in; the carnage in Lebanon or the provocation of UNIFIL peacekeepers; the threat of attacking Iran or any of the other nefarious deeds that Israel is allowed to get away with, then there is a reasonable chance that you may attract the attention of GIYUS.
You’ll know when that has happened when you find your post bombarded by comments (usually anonymous and looking remarkably similar) attempting to justify those actions and attacking you for daring to mention them.
A quick look at your stats will confirm that you’ve been GIYUSed. If this bothers you, here are some tips which may put a stop to the attack, or at least lessen the flow of moronic comments. Of course I can’t guarantee that they will work, all I can say is that they seemed to work for me when I became their target. First of all don’t be intimidated, that’s what this little army of cyber soldiers want you to be. Instead you could try the following:
1.
Update your post straight away explaining what has happened and adding a little bit about GIYUS for those unfamiliar with this annoying pressure group. This also lets the GIYUS bots know that you’re on to them.2.
If possible, add some links to previous posts you might have written on the issues to show that you are not going to be intimidated by their antics.3.
Refute their ‘arguments’ in the comments. This is easy as they really don’t have any. Their comments go along the lines of “it is about time that Israel completely ignore any condemnation of our effort to stay alive and have a simple life in a and keep pounding at the Palestinians…”. Also they don’t stick around to argue, debate is the last thing they want and its what they are trying to stifle. They just do as they are directed by GIYUS.4.
On no account say anything which they could construe as being anti-Semitic. That is exactly what they want. Not only is anti-Semitism so obviously wrong but you’ll be lowering yourself to their level. Their main objective is to ‘prove’ that anyone who disagrees with Israeli policies is a) anti-Semitic, b) a Holocaust denier, and c) an ‘Islamo-fascist’. To do this they try to blur the distinctions between ‘Zionist’, ‘Israeli’ and ‘Jewish’.5.
Use reliable news sources to back up your points. If you can find items from Israeli sources, so much the better. Haaretz and B’TSalem are useful.6.
Invite others to join in the fun, it makes the thread more balanced and much more interesting. It also saves you from having to repeat yourself or respond to every comment.7.
Don’t delete their comments unless they really are particularly offensive. That just makes it look like you haven’t got an answer to them. Leave their comments up so we can all have a good laugh at them.8.
Use humour. Believe me, these commenters have as much sense of humour as Ian Paisley on a bad day, and they don’t like having the piss taken out of them (who does?). The issues are deadly serious for both sides of the argument but the point here is to stop GIYUS bullying you into remaining silent about them.9.
If other bloggers link to your post then even more people will see it thus rendering their efforts to silence you completely counter-productive. I’ll take this opportunity to thank the Curious Hamster, Obsolete and D-Notice for linking to my post which helped GIYUS’s attack on me backfire.10.
GIYUS has been particularly effective in distorting or wrecking on-line polls. If you are conducting a poll about Israel and you find that GIYUS members turn up in great numbers to distort the result, my advice would be to shut it down immediately and post a message explaining why. I haven’t conducted a poll about Israel but it’s what I’d do if I found my poll being distorted by GIYUS.
Here’s a segment of a 1947 map of Palestine, adjacent Gaza, drawn before the UN installment of Israel, before the previous inhabitants were driven off and their towns wiped from the map or renamed in Hebrew. Fortunately maps exist of the Middle East before the Zionist colonization, to repudiate the fantasy that before Israel’s miracle in the desert was no man’s land.
When Voices For Creative Nonviolence activist Kathy Kelly visited Colorado Springs, she spoke of survivors of a family in Gaza who returned to their home to find a message left etched on their wall by an IDF soldier, it read “Sorry.” Kelly saw in it the glimmer of hope that Israeli soldiers were beginning to show some humanity. Hasbara efforts have taken this gesture a reservist’s letter step further. You can read it below uncut. Does it look to you like these propagandists need some counseling advice? Probably the rapist is the last person who should be asking his victim to be calm, especially by recounting the details of the violation, and especially if the rapist is unrepentant and laying out the justification for his act. Parental Advisory: Graphic Insensitivity.
Holy Fucking Shit you will not believe it! It’s one thing for us to tolerate pedantic lectures online, quite another if the bastard had quartered in our home in the meantime.
From AISH, via Israel Activism and the Hasbara fellowships. Seriously, this is a letter the Israeli press is touting to try to reach Gazans with the message that they must blame Hamas.
DEAR CITIZEN OF GAZA: I am the soldier who slept in your home.
Hello,
While the world watches the ruins in Gaza, you return to your home which remains standing. However, I am sure that it is clear to you that someone was in your home while you were away.
I am that someone.
I spent long hours imagining how you would react when you walked into your home. How you would feel when you understood that IDF soldiers had slept on your mattresses and used your blankets to keep warm.
I knew that it would make you angry and sad and that you would feel this violation of the most intimate areas of your life by those defined as your enemies, with stinging humiliation. I am convinced that you hate me with unbridled hatred, and you do not have even the tiniest desire to hear what I have to say. At the same time, it is important for me to say the following in the hope that there is even the minutest chance that you will hear me.
I spent many days in your home. You and your family’s presence was felt in every corner. I saw your family portraits on the wall, and I thought of my family. I saw your wife’s perfume bottles on the bureau, and I thought of my wife. I saw your children’s toys and their English language schoolbooks. I saw your personal computer and how you set up the modem and wireless phone next to the screen, just as I do.
I wanted you to know that despite the immense disorder you found in your house that was created during a search for explosives and tunnels (which were indeed found in other homes), we did our best to treat your possessions with respect. When I moved the computer table, I disconnected the cables and lay them down neatly on the floor, as I would do with my own computer. I even covered the computer from dust with a piece of cloth. I tried to put back the clothes that fell when we moved the closet although not the same as you would have done, but at least in such a way that nothing would get lost.
I know that the devastation, the bullet holes in your walls and the destruction of those homes near you place my descriptions in a ridiculous light. Still, I need you to understand me, us, and hope that you will channel your anger and criticism to the right places.
I decided to write you this letter specifically because I stayed in your home.
I can surmise that you are intelligent and educated and there are those in your household that are university students. Your children learn English, and you are connected to the Internet. You are not ignorant; you know what is going on around you.
Therefore, I am sure you know that Qassam rockets were launched from your neighborhood into Israeli towns and cities.
How could you see these weekly launches and not think that one day we would say “enough”?! Did you ever consider that it is perhaps wrong to launch rockets at innocent civilians trying to lead a normal life, much like you? How long did you think we would sit back without reacting?
I can hear you saying “it’s not me, it’s Hamas”. My intuition tells me you are not their most avid supporter. If you look closely at the sad reality in which your people live, and you do not try to deceive yourself or make excuses about “occupation”, you must certainly reach the conclusion that the Hamas is your real enemy.
The reality is so simple, even a seven year old can understand: Israel withdrew from the Gaza strip, removing military bases and its citizens from Gush Katif. Nonetheless, we continued to provide you with electricity, water, and goods (and this I know very well as during my reserve duty I guarded the border crossings more than once, and witnessed hundreds of trucks full of goods entering a blockade-free Gaza every day).
Despite all this, for reasons that cannot be understood and with a lack of any rational logic, Hamas launched missiles on Israeli towns. For three years we clenched our teeth and restrained ourselves. In the end, we could not take it anymore and entered the Gaza strip, into your neighborhood, in order to remove those who want to kill us. A reality that is painful but very easy to explain.
You must lead a civil uprising against Hamas.
As soon as you agree with me that Hamas is your enemy and because of them, your people are miserable, you will also understand that the change must come from within. I am acutely aware of the fact that what I say is easier to write than to do, but I do not see any other way. You, who are connected to the world and concerned about your children’s education, must lead, together with your friends, a civil uprising against Hamas.
I swear to you, that if the citizens of Gaza were busy paving roads, building schools, opening factories and cultural institutions instead of dwelling in self pity, arms smuggling and nurturing a hatred to your Israeli neighbors, your homes would not be in ruins right now. If your leaders were not corrupt and motivated by hatred, your home would not have been harmed. If someone would have stood up and shouted that there is no point in launching missiles on innocent civilians, I would not have to stand in your kitchen as a soldier.
You don’t have money, you tell me? You have more than you can imagine.
Even before Hamas took control of Gaza, during the time of Yasser Arafat, millions if not billions of dollars donated by the world community to the Palestinians was used for purchasing arms or taken directly to your leaders bank accounts. Gulf States, the emirates – your brothers, your flesh and blood, are some of the richest nations in the world. If there was even a small feeling of solidarity between Arab nations, if these nations had but the smallest interest in reconstructing the Palestinian people – your situation would be very different.
You must be familiar with Singapore. The land mass there is not much larger than the Gaza strip and it is considered to be the second most populated country in the world. Yet, Singapore is a successful, prospering, and well managed country. Why not the same for you?
My friend, I would like to call you by name, but I will not do so publicly. I want you to know that I am 100% at peace with what my country did, what my army did, and what I did. However, I feel your pain. I am sorry for the destruction you are finding in your neighborhood at this moment. On a personal level, I did what I could to minimize the damage to your home as much as possible.
In my opinion, we have a lot more in common than you might imagine. I am a civilian, not a soldier, and in my private life I have nothing to do with the military. However, I have an obligation to leave my home, put on a uniform, and protect my family every time we are attacked. I have no desire to be in your home wearing a uniform again and I would be more than happy to sit with you as a guest on your beautiful balcony, drinking sweet tea seasoned with the sage growing in your garden.
The only person who could make that dream a reality is you. Take responsibility for yourself, your family, your people, and start to take control of your destiny. How? I do not know. Maybe there is something to be learned from the Jewish people who rose up from the most destructive human tragedy of the 20th century, and instead of sinking into self-pity, built a flourishing and prospering country. It is possible, and it is in your hands.
I am ready to be there to provide a shoulder of support and help to you.
But only you can move the wheels of history.
Regards,
Yishai, (Reserve Soldier)
I’m actually unconvinced this was a real soldier. Too many of the GIYUS Megaphone talking points are woven into the letter. Singapore even!
It would surely be anti-Semitic to conclude easily that the Israeli propagandists are this dumb. The true motive of this letter cannot be to win Palestinian hearts, but to spread the effect of the state terror. The IDF couldn’t defile every Gaza home before being forced to cut their incursion short. With such letters the Israeli soldiers can make felt that violation by all Gazans.
Was the IDF incursion/invasion about stopping the rockets or about terrorizing the Gazans until they are driven from the land?
Israel is using hitmen to carry out political assassinations against Iranians according to US intelligence sources. Israeli terrorism is nothing new and has been used against Syrians and Lebanese, not to mention the Palestinians themselves. Why does it not receive any notice in the US media? The answer is simply that Israeli government terrorism is supported by the US government, too, and so these types of matters are just kept as quiet as possible. Israel launches covert war against Iran. Barack Obama, what do you have to say about this?
Israeli terrorism has many more targets than the newspaper The Telegraph of the UK mentions in its report of the new campaign to target the Iranian nuclear scientists. Just like with targets of US State terrorism that Pentagon hitmen attack, all civilian collateral damage is considered just part of the act. The only real desire to limit the numbers of innocents hit is simply due to the embarrassment that it sometimes causes. Somehow a desire to keep those numbers down is supposed to excuse the nature of the hit?
Both the US and Israeli governments want to carry out their terrorism against Iran on a much more massive scale, and the only thing that holds them back is that the Iranian government and Iranian people are not in as defenseless a situation as the Palestinians of Gaza are. It is much more a project on the scale of occupying Iraq and Afghanistan currently is. Otherwise….
Barack Obama in office is no guarantee that the Pentagon and the neocons will not actively go at Iran with full Obama support. We will probably begin to see more mentions of mysterious deaths in Iran, Israeli aggressions by air and missiles, and other similar buildups in the next months towards an eventual all out assault against the people of Iran. Once again it is the passive acceptance of these imperialist assaults by the American people that will enable people like Obama and Clinton to go ahead with launching yet more terrorist wars using ‘our troops’ and the troops of the Jewish State.
It just so happens that while wasting so much of my time replying to the Zionist spam robot machine now flooding Not My Tribe, that I have also been reading an autobiography by Issac Asimov. He was a great Jewish writer on many matters and here is what he says about Zionists.
‘I am not a Zionist, then, because I don’t believe in nations, and because Zionism merely sets up one more nation to trouble the world. It sets up one more nation to have “rights” and “demands” and “national security” and to feel it must guard itself against its neighbors.’
One can read many more quotes by Isaac Assimov And here is a quote from the autobiography I am reading…
From a chapter titled “Anti-Semitism” in I. Asimov, his third autobiographical volume, he discussed how he was distressed by the capability of the historically oppressed (such as the Jews) to in turn become oppressors if given the chance, and writes:
“Right now, there is an influx of Soviet Jews into Israel. They are fleeing because they expect religious persecution. Yet at the instant their feet touched Israeli soil, they became extreme Israeli nationalists with no pity for the Palestinians. From persecuted to persecutors in the blinking of an eye.”
And now we have Russian immigrant and present day Israeli Right Wing politician Avigdor Lieberman to illustrate just what he was writing about. Issac Asimov, just one other of the world’s great Jewish writers! (They sure botched up the Bible though.)
One of them suggested that the only mistake was another one=ten of them logged in with many usernames, thus undermining the message.
The Message undermines itself. It starts with the Racist precept that the “Palestinians are not a People”, meaning more simply “They ain’t Humans with human rights or human emotions or human dignity”.
And, gentlemen, that IS the premise on which the entire Gaza Ghetto creation, the entire War Against Civilians in Gaza, is founded.
That’s the position you’ve spent much time defending.
The simple fact is, YOU, being American ChickenHawks, not even Israelis, and I strongly suspect not even JEWISH Americans, Hate.
You hate, therefore you kill.
Even though your only participation in the Racially Motivated Hate Crime going on against the PEOPLE of Gaza right now, is to stand on the sidelines and cheer for the Other Murderers.
That’s called “Aiding and Abetting” in Legal Terms.
It makes you every bit as guilty of Murder as if you actually had the STONES to put the weapon into your own cowardly hands and strike PEOPLE dead.
You wish to repeat the Lies issued to you by Likud and IDF and the Pentagon, and get indignant when you’re called Liars? Too Bad.
I’ll Remind YOU, again and again, that the Lying sources of your “evidence” are the same sources for Mr Bush’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction” lies.
IDF murders civilians, and are “cleared” by an investigation conducted by who, exactly?
Oh, that’s right, the so called “investigation” is done by THEIR FELLOW MURDERING PIGS in the IDF and the U.S. Military
Golly gee, that makes perfect sense… Military Pig asks his fellow murderer “Did you commit any murders?”
His fellow Murderer says “Why, no, I didn’t”
Military Pig “investigating” says “Oh, OK, case closed”.
Then the Trolls act like they’re Offended and that it’s somehow “Hate Speech” that WE don’t just believe the Pigs the same way they do.
But the anti-Semitism expressed BY (not against) Likud and their allies in AIPAC and the Republican (mostly) Party will rebound.
Jewish people should know better, maybe the “history” taught this newest generation leaves out every part of the Holocaust preceding the attacks on Jews.
Because the Jewish victims weren’t the first victims. They might have been Uncle Alfie’s (Adolf) major priority, but he had to build up to get to the point where he could have a Major Ethnic Group imprisoned.
His first major victims were members of his own Party, The SturmAbteilung Brownshirt Stormtroopers.
Yeah, they deserved condemnation.
But the way it was handled, including building them up and setting them up for the Coup, departs from all standards of decency.
Never mind “Laws”.
Other groups who preceded Jews into the Camps, And I bet the Racist, Fascist Bastardists in AIPAC and the Republican Party strongly support these actions and Hate them just as much as they do Arabs and Jews…
By demonizing Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular, AIPAC and the Republicans are setting the stage.
The Play has been performed for sold out audiences across history, but we’re witnessing Act One, Scene 2… again.
Indigenous Palestinians are not really even second class citizens within the ‘Jewish Apartheid State since certain elements of the Jewish community are given second class status themselves. Even calling Israel’s Palestinians Third Class citizens is kind of a stretch since they correctly believe and feel that the Jewish community will try to expel them at the first opportune moment. Discrimination against their culture, heritage, religion, and language is everywhere. Israel’s forgotten Palestinians Israel is a classic colonialist Apartheid State. Even the rather conservative ex-Prez Jimmy Carter can see and admit that.
Just felt that should be tossed onto the bonfire of Faux-Rage.
Seems the election is going to be a lot closer than expected, earlier it was thought that the Pro-War Parties would fall right into Power riding on a wave of “Israel is Always Right” misplaced Jingoistic sympathies.
It appears that the War War War More War me-and-that-psychiatrist-
feller-was-jumpin’-up-and-down-yellin’-kill-kill-kill,-and-the-Sergeant-came-in-pinned-a-medal-on-my-chest-and-said-“kid, you’re our boy” partisans aren’t doing nearly as well as they thought they would.
Why that matters is a member of Knesset used the Fascist epithet against one of the most rabidly Anti-Arab politicos.
Seems the “Palestinians are just re-Branded Arabs” theme is just a little too uncomfortably close to the old “Jews are UnterMenschen” racist crap (which it truly is) for a LOT of Israelis to just throw out the stiff armed salute and accept and support it.
American non-religious “Jews” like Wolfowicz and Jonah Goldberg apparently pushed the Wrong buttons.
(I put Jews in quotes because of the same reason I would put “men” in quotes to describe them, they were born male and they were born hebrew with a lower-case “H,” but judging from their subsequent actions, I think the mohel must have had to use a microscope and a tiny little knife)
Likud was hoping earlier for a 70% majority.
Without the Invasion of the Ghetto, they might well have gotten it.
“Pointing out that the suffering endured by Gazans is not comparable in scope to the Holocaust or other well-known genocides, does not diminish it. However, it is crucial to provide accurate historical context to the current conflict, for two reasons. If Gaza is today’s Warsaw, then Palestinians have no hope.
“Firstly, the use of highly charged historical comparisons that do not hold up to scrutiny unnecessarily weakens the Palestinian case against the occupation. In a propaganda war in which Palestinians have always struggled to compete, handing Israel’s supporters the gift of inaccurate or exaggerated comparisons does not help this struggle, particularly not in Israel and the US, the two most important battlegrounds in this conflict.”
–excerpted from a commentary of Mark LeVine published by Al Jazeera titled Gaza is no Warsaw Ghetto
Are quotes being fraudulently attributed to Israeli ministers (as NMT’s indignant Israeli PR visitors are insisting)? We decided to look into the Ariel Sharon “fabrication” about who controls of America. Let’s just say our hasbara critics are going to wish they’d tempered their indignation. In the process, we found more indecorous pronouncements, which we’ve included with direct attributions from the Israeli press. Tokhis oyfn tish.
Did Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon say “I control America,” or words to such effect? It turns out this has been made a bone of contention since the alleged rebuke to Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in October 2001.
The Israeli PR website CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America) has been accusing Arab-sympathetic Washington Report, (Washington Report on Middle East Affairs -WRMEA) of orchestrating this story. The quote was picked up by the international press from Chicago Tribune syndicated columnist Georgie Anne Geyer, who had attributed it to having been reported on Israeli radio station Kol Yisrael.
CAMERA claimed that Kol Yisrael denied having aired the quote. But Geyer could not discount the veracity of her multiple Israeli sources, whether or not they heard it on the radio or at the meeting, but the veteran journalist stood by her longstanding contacts. Under a coordinated barrage of LTE complaints by CAMERA, the Chicago Tribune issued this clarification on June 14, 2002:
“[the quote was] widely reported in the Palestinian press but cannot be confirmed in independent sources. Geyer and Universal Press Syndicate regret not having attributed the quote more specifically.”
Hardly an admission of “fabrication,” as CAMERA and this site’s hasbara propagandists are lauding.
And whether Sharon said it or not, Senator Fullbright, or Secretary of State John Foster Dulles had already spelled that notion out for posterity.
Perhaps Prime Minister Olmert’s recent claim to have interrupted George Bush mid-speech, to command Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to stand down on a United Nations vote condemning the recent Gaza attack, proves Israel’s influence, more loudly than pronouncing it.
But a statement about who claims to control whom, pales in comparison to what some Israeli ministers have voiced about their military objectives in Gaza. They remind me of American commanders, utterly oblivious to the Geneva Conventions.
Matan Vilnai
Here’s what Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai famously told Army Radio last year:
“The more Qassam fire intensifies and the rockets reach a longer range, they will bring upon themselves a bigger ‘Shoah’ because we will use all our might to defend ourselves.”
SHOAH is the Hebrew word for Holocaust; itself a word zealously trademarked by Zionists internationally to mean only the genocide perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews.
Israeli PR damage-control immediately jumped in to assert that by ‘Shoah,’ Vilnai had meant ‘disaster,’ the word’s original definition. (Would that be like asking Americans to believe that when Rudy Giuliani brings up 911, he’s talking about dialing emergency?)
Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter
at weekly cabinet meeting Sunday, Jan 20, 2008:
“the government must instruct the IDF to eliminate the rocket fire from Gaza entirely. These attacks need not be minimized or managed, but stopped completely irrespective of the cost to the Palestinians.”
Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit:
“any other country would have already gone in and leveled the area, which is exactly what I think the IDF should do – decide on a neighborhood in Gaza and level it.”
“We should let them know ‘you have to leave, this area will be taken down tomorrow’ and just take it down – that will show them we mean business. Sporadic actions are good, but they’re not good enough.”
(At the same meeting, according to Haaretz: legal experts were requested to prepare an opinion on a “gradual evacuation of the population” in Gaza from areas of fighting.)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
at the annual Herzliya Conference Jan 23, 2008
“But there is no justification for demanding we allow residents of Gaza to live normal lives while shells and rockets are fired from their streets and courtyards at Sderot and other communities in the south.”
“Does anyone seriously think that our children will wet their beds at night in fear and be afraid to go out of the house and they [Gazans] will live in quiet normality?”
The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) has so much documentation of Israeli torture of Palestinians that I will just give readers the link and let them browse all the documentation all on their own. I am doing this because this web site, Not My Tribe, is now a target for the Israeli government’s propaganda spam machine, the Internet Megaphone, and that device, the IM, has just denied on this blog that Israel tortures prisoners incredible as that might seem to any informed citizen of the US or Israel itself!
US government use of torture on its own POWs held is at one with Israel’s use of torture. The one feeds the other and it must all be exposed and stopped if either society should ever be able to become humane. The US government has many client states, that it allies itself with, that use torture as a routine on their prisoners, and Israel is one of those. Torture Denial by those who use it is merely a sister form of Holocaust Denial. It is sad that the Israeli government engages in such.
Sad, too, is the fact that many American citizens, by and large copy the very same Torture Denial in regards to their own government’s use of torture on people. They simply will not admit that the government does exactly what everybody already knows it does, which is routinely use torture on prisoners. It’s time for all citizens in these 2 countries to stop playing this game of Torture Denial, and to simply get on with banning the practice entirely.
“He (Netanyahu) also called for removing Hamas from power, calling it an “extremist fanatic regime backed by the extremist fanatic government of Iran.” He stopped short of saying he would attack Gaza again to uproot the regime if he is elected. Israel’s three-week offensive on Gaza killed 1,300 people, about half of them civilians, according to Palestinian figures.” These details of Yahooo’s talk reported by the Associated Press: Netanyahu: Gaza offensive stopped too soon, and also by al-Jazeera: Netanyahu vows to topple Hamas.
First off, this Yahooo is not going to attack anybody unless it is because the United States government OKs it. Americans have already elected their Yahooo and he will make that decision, or not?
Democrats, are you ready to be led into war with Iran because your Yahooo wants just that? Think about it some, will yuh? Are you going to help the Israeli Jewish people run the Arab Palestinians into the sea, because you hate Arabs, too, American?
The BBC’s Ghosts of 1948 haunt Gaza crisis shows the absolute vindictiveness of many Jewish Israelis who live on the land of the ancestors of those now bombed in Gaza by their army. Is this ‘Holocaust denial’, or what? (The picture is of victims of the Jewish pogrom against Palestinians done at the Sabra and Shatila massacres in 1982)
Why Republicans HATE Public Education.
In the Words of THEIR prophet Hitler “Universal Public Education is the most virulent toxin that Liberalism can inflict upon itself. It only makes the Lower Classes think more highly of themselves than they ought, and leads to discontent with their position in life. Truly, they only need enough education to be Efficient Coolies for our industries”
(Liberties taken with the exact English phrases, the Original was in German)
We often are accused of “ignorance” when the Anti-Semitic Supporters of Killing Palestinians, for example, or the one who calls him/herself “Friend” posts… publish their reactionary Angry Hate Speech on Not My Tribe.
In a slightly backward twist we are often accused of being “intellectual Elitists”, but Still ignorant.
Or “idiots”.
Without Public Education we would be left with home-schooling, or Parochial Education.
Those of us who weren’t born with silver spoons in our mouths would be left out in either case.
“Keep ’em Ignorant”
And for not just nearly but EXACTLY the same reason American Slaves were forbidden to learn to read and write.
I’m sure the Republican’t respondents will argue that it’s not like that, I’m just spouting Marxist Propaganda again, the Repukelickin’ Party doesn’t actually engage in class warfare or racism blah blah blah blah…
My grandfather was a cowboy.
Not like George Bush with his “ranch” and 5 cows bought and maintained by his Trust Fund, a trust fund which I’m once again going to point out came from an enterprise his family engaged in called Slave Trading.
They’ll say that, Yankee Puritans they claim to be, their family didn’t actually own slaves. Nor did their favorite “charity” the Yale Foundation.
No, they wouldn’t soil their own hands with the whips and chains necessary to “earn” their money for them…
They just owned a fleet of Slave Ships.
That and Grand-poppy Prescott Bush laundered money for the Nazis, which they don’t
a) apologize for
and
b) they’re still spending the money they got from BOTH enterprises.
No, Grandpa Brown was a REAL cowboy. So was his brother Loy and their brother-in-law Tom.
In Texas in those days that meant Impoverished.
Cowboys were just then being romanticized in the public IMAGINATION through those new-fangled movin’ picture thingies.
Uncle Tom wound up being the foreman of the Rolling Hills Ranch in Keene, Texas, until the ranch was sold to Halliburton in the late 70s to make a Game Ranch.
Like the one where Former Vice President and Current Active War Criminal Richard Cheney shot his friend in the face while they were “hunting” captive, hand raised “Wild” ducks.
They also have or had a website wherein you could with a click of your mouse or joystick “hunt” and actually kill actual formerly live animals (until you put the mouse pointer over them and clicked)
Uncle Tom described it as a place where they bought old, diseased “wild” zoo and circus animals dependent upon your actual skill level they would drug the animals or even chain them up for you so you wouldn’t miss.
That way you could go on an African Safari without ever leaving Texas.
Really swell, wonderful Republican People, they are.
But with a family background like that, working class all the way, impoverished…
Without Public Education how would I have ever risen to the position where I could contend with so many Noble Rich American (and Israeli, if you believe their story) Aristocracy like “Friend” and the Megaphone Users?
The short answer is that I wouldn’t.
Nor would most of us who oppose their monstrous schemes, we would simply have to take their word on any subject or issue, they would pat us on the head and bid us go back out into the cotton fields like good little childishly ignorant Peasants.
While they can’t do it literally, they do, in fact, precisely that by sneeringly dismissing anything we write, anything we Learn and then Share as being “ignorance”.
And sneeringly claim that we must be “idiots”.
But it’s not Racism or Class Warfare or Big Brotherism. No, it’s “all for your own good”
But in their underestimation we’re just too stupid and “ignorant” to recognize it.
And why it all counts.
Since the whole Israel Right-Of-Return is a huge part of any Any ANY issue involving the modern state of Israel.
It’s not just Religious Talk, so if you’re offended by Biblical references then toughie-poo.
The Bible just happens to be one of the premier sources for Israeli history.
AND.. Arab History
AND Palestinian history.
This is really oversimplifying things, but to most Americans Judah and Israel are equivalent and Palestinian and Arab are interchangeable terms.
To those no-doubt Highly Paid Lobbyists For the Israeli “DEFENSE” Force who insist on calling us liars or ignorant or hate-mongers or whatever, this will be Kindergarten stuff, …
ASSUMING OF COURSE THAT THEY ACTUALLY ARE JEWISH and/or BIBLICAL SCHOLARS or SERIOUSLY AS EXPERT ON THE POLITICAL AND SOCIAL ASPECTS OF THE REGION THEY CLAIM THEMSELVES TO BE (and of course, as they claim we cannot possibly be…)
After the reign of Solomon, just to start, in the middle where a beginning properly belongs, Just Ask Steven Spielberg…
After the Reign of Solomon Israel and Judah were two separate Kingdoms.
Israel, and Judah.
Remember that because it is important and there will be a quiz later, which will count for 57.3% of your total grade.
After the kingdom of Israel got their collective head knuckled by Assyria (Remember Jonah?) but not Judah, and then a short while (historically speaking) later Nebuchadnezzar conquered BOTH and carried away into captivity… NOT EVEN MOST of Israel or Judah, Because They Left The Poor People Behind… (Remember Jeremiah? Of course you do…)
At this point the remnants of the Philistines aka Phoenicia aka Lebanon… a Greek culture…
And the remnants of Moab, descendants of one of the sons/slash/Grandsons of Lot (by his two daughters,)
( you know, Moses wasn’t very Kind or Gentle when he described the doings of his relatives, but he cut Lot a “lot” of slack, claiming he was too drunk to recognize his own daughters)
And the remnants of Edom, descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob aka Israel…
and various tribes of actual Arabs, descendants of Abraham’s first son Ishmael
And even the descendants of the recently (relatively) Dismantled Hittite and Assyrian Empires…
And throw in Ethiopians, Egyptians and Nubians who were stranded in the back and forth conquests over several centuries.
THESE were the people who lived in Israel and Judah at the time.
When people babble much about the Lost Tribes of Israel they’re refering to the Kingdom of Israel which consisted of the vast majority of the tribes of Israel save for Judah and Levi.
And They’re Not “lost” in the sense that they up and disappeared either, it’s “lost” like in the RELIGIOUS context.
More on that…
Remember how I said that Moses was NOT overly kind to the memory of his ancestors and relatives?
Of course you do.
Some of the highest ranking members of the Knesset and Mossad were quoted/slash/interviewed by a Religious Scholar from Colorado Springs and it gets routinely broadcast on TBS.
Who popped off with the Really Racist viewpoint, seconded and aided by the Israelis, that since many (but not all) of the Palestinians are descended from Esau, aka Edom, and their country called Idumea by the Romans, and they considered Esau to be a vagabond and lazy, shiftless and ignorant….
They consider ALL Palestinians to be Lazy Shiftless and Ignorant Vagabonds.
The term “morally dissolute” was thrown in as well, and the notion that ALL the descendants were morally dissolute Because Of Their Ancestry.
Not Racist? I can easily see that it IS… Extremely Racist.
Moses said that Jacob, ISRAEL, cheated Esau out of his birthright, his possessions and even the blessings of their father Isaac.
Stole, and Lied to do it.
That’s two of G_d’s Top Ten on His personal Hit Parade.
When Joseph, 11th son of Israel and first son of his favorite wife Rachel, was sold into slavery by his 10 elder brothers, according to Moses and generally recognized by both Muslim and Jew (the religious groupings) as being accurate, JUDAH wanted to have Joseph killed.
Here Moses plea bargains for his own ancestor Levi, (he wasn’t Ethnically a Jew, although he was Israelite, and Hebrew, but… the Edomites are ALSO Hebrew…
According to Moses, Levi prevented his brothers and especially JUDAH from Killing Their Brother, and was allegedly somehow not aware that a Passing Band of Arabs (Ishmaelites) was so close to their camp, as in “right in the middle of their encampment” that they managed to buy Joseph without Levi knowing about it until much later.
Moses was a Prophet but he was first a Man, and people don’t go out of their way to disrespect Grampa.
Judah also married his own daughter-in-law, OK so she was actually the widow of two of her sons, but here Moses tries not to be nasty about his kinfolk… Judah thought she was a prostitute, “went in unto her” and knocked her up, before marrying her… and without of course consulting his wife.
But, hey, it’s the EDOMITES who are “morally dissolute” right?
Racist? Hell yeah that’s racist.
Let’s flash forward again, this time to Right After The Babylonian Captivity.
The King of Persia (Iran) allowed the priesthood and as many of the Judean (Jews) Captives to return to Israel and Judah.
There they found that the poor who were left to tend the lands in Israel and Judah and Edom and Moab and Lebanon had intermarried.
Oh, NO!
Say it ain’t so, Jonah!
Jewish people intermingling with the Goyim? Gasp! Oh the Horrors!
Ezra and Nehemiah, the two Levite Priests who led the Return to the Land… Thanked the Israelite and Moabite and JEWISH peasants for keeping the land as well as could be expected, then condemned them for Not Maintaining Racial Purity.
And kicked them off the Rich Folks’ lands which they had been tending for more than 70 years.
“Thank you for all your time and labor, now Get Off My Property You Smelly Racially Impure Peasants YOU!”
These then are the “Lost Tribes” of Israel.
Where did they go? They didn’t. They’re still there.
In the New Testament they’re called “Samaritans”.
The parable of the “Good Samaritan” must have raised quite a few Elitist Pharisaic Eyebrows because the Pharisees and Sadducees considered anybody not Wealthy and Elite like themselves to be Ignorant Peasant Scum…
Plus they weren’t Racially Pure.
The Romans didn’t carry off ALL of the people in the region as slaves, not even all of the Jews.
Same way the Assyrians, Babylonians, Hittites and Alexander the Great didn’t.
Evidence, you say?
I mean, evidence aside from that already accepted by “Israel” and their FAMILY who are also Children of Israel the Palestinians?
Boy, you sure drive a hard bargain, but OK, here’s Evidence.
Olive Groves and Vineyards.
Sure Olive trees and grape vines grow wild in the region, but we’re talking Massive Cultivation of them.
Olive Groves and Vineyards that are older than the Roman Empire.
On land where if they were to survive at all they had to be Irrigated.
Anybody who has ever done Farming (And here I’ll excuse the Intellectual Elites like Don and Grace and Mary and David Haddad, who might all be the Same Person with different names)
I’ll excuse you because I don’t believe you’ve ever put hand to shovel or hoe or axe.
BUT I HAVE.
Maintaining an agricultural enterprise of any sort requires Hard Work.
In modern times there are machines which take up most of the Hard Work but they’ve only existed about a century and a half.
For 20 times as long these Groves and Vineyards have been tended by hand.
Irrigation ditches mean Water… and Dirt… Combined.
You have to clear the weeds out of the irrigation ditches at least 5 times a year just to keep the water running.
And if you’re using shovel, axe and hoe to do it it’s one hell of a lot of hard work.
If you’re doing it in Palestine Israel it’s one Hell of a lot of Hard Work under a Relentless Merciless Blazing Sun.
Olive Trees that were planted 60 years ago wouldn’t be producing yet.
They DO take that long.
You plant an Olive Grove not in the hopes that YOU, yourself, will ever eat the fruit thereof, because you most likely WON’T, but instead for your grandchildren.
A Vineyard will start producing within a decade, but it takes centuries to get one going full blast.
“Israeli” Wine and Olives? And in only 60 years?
Sir No Sir!
Those vineyards and groves were tended, by hand, for centuries and even millenia by those “Lazy Shiftless Morally Dissolute” Arabs, Edomites, Moabites and ISRAELITES who make up the Palestinian Nation.
Right to Return? What about the Right To Remain?
Those ARE Israel and have been for thousands of years.
Acknowledged as such by the scriptures that you as Jews and I as a Christian and the Muslims to be the Truth.
If you want to pop off with the “Right Of Return” and quote Scripture to justify your actions you have to Be Judged By Scripture as well.
That’s the Essence of the Law of Moses.
“Behold, I set a stumbling block in Zion”.
Oh, and speaking of Moses, that bit about “Thou Shalt Not Kill”?
#6 on G-d’s Top Ten List… yeah, THAT one…
You know, G_D meant what He said.
That’s why they’re called the Ten Commandments and not “a bunch of Meaningless Suggestions”.
In order to judge someone to Death you have to be Pure yourself.
That means, (and of course, as David Haddad said in his many personalities, I’m “ignorant” and don’t know a Damned thing)
That means You Must Have NEVER committed any of the sins punished by Death according to the Law of Moses.
Even if you were redeemed of the penalty of your sins, “Redeemed” simply means that the debt was paid, not that it never existed.
I went down to the City Council meeting today to speak out against all their coming proposed property tax increases, service cutbacks, and increases in utility bills and was met by the corporate interests pigs at the trough. I’m talking about the City Council members themselves. Actually the pigs at the trough in Colorado Springs run the trough… and mainly for themselves. For others they want to cutback everything but they hide that agenda in every way they can. Who runs the Colorado Springs City Council? Why is there no appealing to their possible good judgement?
The answer is that special interests run the city and I identified just who they were to the public when I addressed that public meeting for my 3 minutes worth today. It was rather obvious since they always herald and celebrate corporate interests for supposedly ‘helping’ out the city. Today they waxed on about how Walmart had ‘generously’ donated a whole $2,000 to the city’s Fire Department. Like , WOW! How impressive can you get? I asked them if Walmart had some left over change from their union busting campaigns and whether that is where their huge donation came from out of their hundreds of billions of dollars worth of profits? Their answer? I was then described as being ill informed about Walmart! Yeah? Go figure?
I told the public at this public charade of a meeting that they had no recourse to stop all these proposed cutbacks with Mayor Fort Carson Captain Lionel, Vice President Larry Lockheed Small, and Tom ‘Kill the Mouse’ Real Estate Industry Gallagher running the municipal show and trough. Response? Two other city councilmen spoke up saying that they were hurt that I had not correctly added them on as being solid military-industrial complex men in Pentagon pocket! They’re military, too! Case made as the Pentagon-military-industrial welfare guzzling machine self-identified themselves for the public here. Mayor Rivera then went on to claim that there wouldn’t be a Fire Department in the city if it weren’t for the military, so don’t blame any War Machine for cutbacks he implied. Huh? The US government military spending is bankrupting not only the US, but the whole planet as well!
I could go on, but you really have to attend these meetings in Wonderland… I mean Special Interests Land, Alice. They are always bizarre to the max. Until people start getting really angry and start drawing some connections, then we’re going to pay, pay, pay, and pay some more. The corporate interests pigs simply are running City Government in this city and all for themselves. Nobody holds them accountable and that’s a crying shame. Meanwhile Barack is out there occupying 2 whole countries, bombing them and more, and threatening the starving Palestinians with yet more violence. And all the while around the country there is no money to go around? Pretty stupid stuff, America, and you’re still playing along, aren’t you? The special interest pigs are going to bankrupt you but for good.
Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day, when Israeli Jews celebrate the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians they stole the “land of Israel” from.
Can the world survive the NAZI State of Israel?
Why Israel is bad for the Jews. Not that Israel gives a damn about Jews outside its borders.
How Israel created Hamas.
The hanged Mussolini, didn’t they? UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Manfred Nowak told CNN in an interview on Monday that they have enough evidence to try Donald Rumsfeld for war crimes.
40,000 Americans a day are now losing their jobs, and all the GOP can think about is more tax cuts for the filthy-rich.
Demon Democrats. Hope for justice and peace in the Middle East died this morning, as AIPAC puppet and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that Israel has a right to commit genocide if Hamas sends a bottle rocket over the border.
Never forget: Terrorism did not exist in the Middle East until the Zionists introduced it to steal the “land of Israel” from the Palestinians.
I’d like to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day, January 27, with this photograph of modern day Israelis, who came to a hilltop overlooking Gaza to watch the IDF soldiers do their work.
I’ve yet to encounter a WWII photograph of German citizens cheerleading as their soldiers rampaged through their neighbors’ homes.
Of course, this situation is different. These Israelis are hoping to settle, or resume their illegal settlements, the occupied territories, as soon as enough of the Palestinians are driven out or exterminated.
Jewish survivors of the Holocaust vow “never again,” but it only applies to them.
After what Israel has done to the Palestinians for the last 60 years, they have every right to want the destruction of Israel. And so should everyone else. Didn’t the world learn anything from the rise of Nazi Germany?
“I want to tell you something very clear: Don’t worry about American pressure on Israel. We, the Jewish people, control America, and the Americans know it.”
–Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, October 3, 2001
Obama’s Inauspicious Beginning by Khalid Amayreh
We in the Middle East realize quite well that Obama is not going to be the paragon of freedom and justice many naïve people had thought he would be.
Unfortunately, the American political environment is too morally barren to produce truly moral politicians who would be willing, let alone able, to call the spade a spade, especially when the Zio-Nazi state is concerned.
Israel Must Stop Fanning the Flames That Will Consume Us
by David Grossman
A month after the war began, in the midst of the wave of nationalist invective now sweeping Israel, it would not hurt to keep in mind that this latest military operation in Gaza was, when all is said and done, just one more way-station on a road paved with fire, violence and hatred. On this road, you sometimes win and you sometimes lose, but in the end it leads to ruin.
But as the magnitude of the killing and the devastation has become apparent to all, perhaps Israeli society will, for a brief moment, put its sophisticated mechanisms of repression and self-righteousness on hold. And then perhaps a lesson of some sort will be etched into the Israeli consciousness. Maybe then we will finally understand something deep and fundamental — that our conduct here in this region has, for a long time, been flawed, immoral and unwise. Time and again, it fans the flames that are consuming us.
Jewish leaders object to Nazi imagery at rallies. Avner Shalev, chairman of the Yad Vashem museum and memorial, called for the Holocaust to be left out of contemporary political discourse.
Is that rich?! There’s not a day goes by that Holocaust Remembrance isn’t in the news, propagated by Israel’s constant PR campaign. Google “Holocaust” for news items. There are remembrance press releases every news day.
“It is legitimate to constructively criticize the policies of any nation, including Israel. However, the baseless use of Holocaust imagery and terminology as a weapon against Israel has incited a tangible surge of anti-Semitism,” he said. “That is the danger inherent when people cynically use the Holocaust to distort a present political conflict.”
Is it really anti-Semitic to condemn the inhumanity of the Zionists? Does Judaism condone ethnic cleansing? If Israel doesn’t want to be compared to the Nazis, it should stop exterminating the Palestinians. What fucking gall.
The Nazis had a word for their anti-Fascist critics. They called them Communists. That’s why they had the support of industrialists, even Jewish industrialists, and the ruling classes. But sympathy for the barbaric Third Reich quickly wore thin.
Recent events only suggest to me that the Nazis lagged behind today’s Zionists. They lacked the technology. Do you think they would have dicked around with train schedules and relocation ruses if they’d had white phosphorous, free access to the entire US arsenal, and an international community indifferent to the fate of their victims?
ZioNazis still blockading food and medicine from Gaza,
a war crime.
Israel blocking cash from entering Gaza.
Nuremburg tribunals are too good for the Zionist Nazis who did this.
Israeli Nazis are a threat to the whole world.
The black cloud over America begins to lift. Obama drafting executive order to close Guantanamo, and stop all trials of prisoners.
Obama calls Palestinian president and vows to work towards a peaceful settlement. We shall soon see whether he is for real, or just another AIPAC puppet.
LA Times editorial: On the heels of Pastor Rick Warren’s invocation, Obama should drop the semantics and acknowledge that denying same-sex marriage is discriminatory.
Excerpts from Thomas McCullock’s Jan 21 notes, thomasmc.com.
Despite barring entry to journalists, confiscating cameras, and shooting reporters outright, photographs emerge from Gaza of the IDF’s horrific misdeeds. There are pictures of the dead, of the wounded, of the bodies charred by white phosphorous, of schools and hospitals destroyed. And of course the stories emerge of UN workers fired upon, of families forced inside houses which were then shelled.
I think a most effective photograph depicts Israeli soldiers leaving Gaza, all smiles. They are emerging from, what a cooperative media called, fierce fighting, which left 1,100 Palestinians dead at the cost of 13 IDF soldiers, four of them by friendly fire. The “fierce fighting” sounds more likely to have been Israeli soldiers getting in each other’s way in the fierce frenzy to massacre.
I’d like to think the IDF friendly fire casualties resulted when fellow soldiers cut them down, when they refused to rein in their rabid blood lust. Also likely is that fellow soldiers killed those less gung-ho about the mahem, lest they testify about the war crimes they witnessed.
In another favorite photo, Israeli youth picnic on a hill overlooking Gaza, hoping for a glimpse of the IDF ground assault, the incursion to exterminate the Palestinian vermin.