Has there ever been an enemy to dehumanize as ISIS?

[Docd187123]

Friday 25th July was the eighteenth day of Israel’s onslaught on Gaza. 1.7 million people, walled in, embargoed, with no place to hide, squeezed now in to just 66% of the forty mile long strip of land on orders from the Tel Aviv Reich. Six Palestinians were killed, the death toll in all on the day rose above eight hundred and fifty. The hospital in Beit Hanoun was bombed, part of an ongoing attack until minutes before midnight, injuring a number of people.

Fred Ekblad, a Swedish activist who was part of an international group staying in solidarity with the hospital staff and patients, bleeding from a head wound told journalist Amira Hass: “It is now chaos, the military is shelling directly at us.” There was no way to move bed bound patients trapped two floors above to safety. (1) The previous day an UNRWA school was hit, killing fifteen.

The Fourth Geneva Convention is specific in prohibiting attacks on civilian hospitals, medical transport and of course designates collective punishment a war crime.

Moreover regarding Israel:

“… the UN Human Rights Council in its Resolution of the 23th July 2014 (noted that) the two parties to the conflict cannot be considered equal, and their actions – once again – appear to be of incomparable magnitude.

“Once again it is the unarmed civilian population, the ‘protected persons’ under International humanitarian law (IHL), who is in the eye of the storm. Gaza’s civilian population has been victimized in the name of a falsely construed right to self-defence, in the midst of an escalation of violence provoked in the face of the entire international community.”

It must also never be forgotten in the latest violence by Israel: “The so-called Operation Protective Edge erupted during an ongoing armed conflict, in the context of a prolonged belligerent occupation that commenced in 1967.” (2) Actually of course, the “armed conflict” and “belligerent occupation” has been ongoing since Israel became Palestine’s unwanted guest in 1948. 1967 was simply its first major incursion into and attack on its neighbours, the onset of a compulsive repetitive disorder for which it has never had counseling or attempted to break.

However, near forgotten is that finally pressure has been mounting on Israel internationally and international tolerance and patience running out.

On 29th November 2012 the UN recognized Palestine as a State, a Resolution overwhelmingly approved by a vote of 138-9.

On 26th November 2013 the UN General Assembly: “… proclaimed 2014 the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People …”

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People pledged to organize with governments and relevant UN organizations the promotion of solidarity with the Palestinian people being a “central theme, contributing to international awareness.”

Priorities included “urgent action” regarding settlements (ie stealing Palestinian land) “Jerusalem, the blockade of Gaza and the humanitarian situation in the occupied Palestinian territory … mobilization of global action (for) a comprehensive … lasting solution (for) Palestine in accordance with International law and the relevant Resolutions of the United Nations.”(3)

The most comprehensive list of UN Resolutions condemning Israel over illegalities towards Palestinians and Palestinian Territory is only to January 2010, but is certainly gives of increasing international anger and frustration.

It is salutary to note that the very first Resolution of September 18th 1948 condemns a murder. Resolution 57 “Expresses deep shock at the assassination of the U.N. Mediator in Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, by Zionist terrorists.”

The second Resolution (89) on Nov. 17, 1950 “Requests that attention be given to the expulsion of ‘thousands of Palestine Arabs’ and calls upon concerned governments to take no further action ‘involving the transfer of persons across international frontiers or armistice lines’, and notes that Israel announced that it would withdraw to the armistice lines.”

They started as they meant to go on, from attacks on the UN to murder and ethnic cleansing of their Palestinian hosts. The list (4) is salutary, including attacks on Syria and other national neighbours, a mirror image, past to present.

However, has the recognition of Palestine by the UN and the international year in solidarity driven Israel to doing the unthinkable, making as much of it as possible uninhabitable, and killing or forcing to flee (though to where) and making another and land grab, this time Gaza? The fact that much of it is now demolished would hardly be deterrence to a take-over, demolition to make way for squatters settlements is par for the course. Israel would also then have direct access to the huge gas deposits discovered off Gaza in Gaza’s territorial waters.

Back though to the carnage of 25th July. Where, in the horror of it all was the largely Jerusalem based “Middle East Peace Envoy” Anthony Charles Lynton Blair? This time in the further destruction of another Middle East State, he didn’t even have to devise another dodgy dossier, it was all taken out of his hands by Israel, who, in 2009 awarded him the $1 million Dan David Prize for leadership, an honour given those who have contributed to “outstanding achievements” including those of “cultural or social impact on our world.” (5) No, Dear Reader, I can’t work it out either.

So on Friday 25th, Blair threw a lavish “birthday” party for his wife in a country mansion, one of his seven multi-million pound UK homes, for “one hundred and fifty” of their “closest friends.” Heaven forbid the man who had a major hand in the destruction of Iraq should be stuck in a war zone, so he partied several thousand miles away. Described as being at the “heart of negotiations” between Israel and Palestine, he simply fled, ate and drank cocktails as Gaza bled and burned, the traumatized dug their relatives out of the rubble and patients in the Beit Hanoun hospital “spent a terrifying night huddled in the X-ray department as the building was shelled.” (6)

A few days before, pursued by Channel 4’s Michael Crick and asked several times if he should not be in Gaza, he “grimaced” and refused to answer. According to Crick he “cites security reasons” for near never visiting Gaza in his seven years as “Peace Envoy.” Clearly he only starts wars (Iraq) or cheers them on (Libya, Syria, Ukraine) but would never set foot in an area of risk. He has been to Gaza just twice (in 2009) but has visited Jerusalem 119 times. (7) The risk averse Blair has a constant police guard of twenty and at his tastelessly timed and tasteless party where an entertainer sang “If I ruled the world” in his honour, guests were searched by armed police who also patrolled the grounds.

In Northern Ireland he memorably said: “This is no time for sound bites, but I feel the hand of history on my shoulder.” Perhaps one of the reasons for such neurotically massive security – apart from a courage deficit – is that given the amount of people determined to make a citizens arrest which might land him at the International Criminal Court in the Hague, he fears another kind of hand on his shoulder.

The death toll in Gaza now exceeds that of “Cast Lead” the massacre over Christmas and New Year 2008-2009.

The death and destruction to midnight on 31st July are:

Palestinians killed: 1372 (315 children, 166 women and 60 elderly).

Palestinians wounded: 7680 (2307 children, 1529 women and 287 elderly).

Buildings destroyed: 5238

Buildings damaged: 4374

Damaged Hospitals and Health Centres:

13 hospitals and 10 clinics

34 health facilities closed

12 ambulances damaged

38 health personnel injured including:

Two pharmacists, four paramedics, one assistant pharmacist, one laboratory and blood bank manager.

One nurse and an Administration Manager died as a result of Israeli airstrikes.

The Roman Catholic Church in Gaza, hosting over 800 refugees and 29 handicapped children

was threatened with bombardment although it was impossible to move the handicapped children outside the church.

Once again, Israel has targeted offices providing services to Palestinian and international media.

Over 245,000 people have been forcibly displaced.

1,700,000 people (the entire population of the Gaza Strip) have been affected by the destruction of electricity, water and waste-water infrastructure. (8)

(With thanks to the meticulous collation of Leslie Bravery of the Palestinian Human Rights Campaign, Auckland, NZ.)

Both the eloquent and courageous Chris Gunness of UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) and Al Jazeera’s correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh in Gaza have broken down in despair, on air, as a result of the horror and carnage they have witnessed.

The last UN school to be targeted as those seeking sanctuary tried to sleep had given their co-ordinates to the Israeli authorities seventeen times. Blair has been silent.

As one correspondent commented: “Time to evict Tony Blair from the Middle East – and the world stage as a whole” adding: “they might as well have given the job to Genghis Khan. (9)

Incidentally Cherie Blair’s birthday is on 23rd September, not the 25th July but any excuse for Blair to escape any minimal risk to life and limb.

Notes

 

[Docd187123]

JERUSALEM (AP) — Amnesty International on Wednesday accused Israel of committing war crimes during the war in the Gaza Strip this summer, saying it displayed "callous indifference" in attacks on family homes in the densely populated coastal area.

The Gaza war left more than 2,100 Palestinians dead, including many civilians according to Palestinian and U.N. officials. Israel says the number of militants killed was much higher and accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields. On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed.

Amnesty said in a report released Wednesday that "Israeli forces killed scores of Palestinian civilians in attacks targeting houses full of families, which in some cases have amounted to war crimes."

Israel's foreign ministry rejected the report's findings, saying the London-based rights group "ignores documented war crimes perpetrated by Hamas."

"The report does not mention the word terror in relation to Hamas or other armed Palestinian groups, nor mentions tunnels built by Hamas to infiltrate Israel and perpetrate terror attacks," the ministry said.

Israel launched the Gaza operation in early July in response to stepped-up rocket attacks on Israeli cities by the coastal area's militant Palestinian Hamas rulers.

The operation followed a crackdown by Israeli forces in the West Bank, where troops arrested scores of Hamas members, in response to the kidnapping and killings of three teenage Israelis in June by Hamas operatives.

Several weeks later, Jewish extremists kidnapped and burned to death a Palestinian teenager in east Jerusalem in an apparent revenge attack.

But the summer war was the fiercest conflict between the two sides in years.

"Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused," said Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty's Middle East and North Africa program.

During the 50 days of fighting, Hamas fired thousands of rockets and mortars at Israeli towns and cities, including Tel Aviv, and used a sophisticated tunnel network to carry out attacks on Israeli military encampments in southern Israel, close to the Gaza border. Some of the tunnels also had exits abutting Israeli civilian communities, giving Hamas the ability to attack them as well.

For its part, Israeli forces carried out sustained aerial, artillery and infantry attacks in Gaza, many of which the Amnesty report found to be indiscriminate.

Israel says the military was as careful as possible to avoid civilian casualties citing its system of providing warning to civilians that strikes on their buildings were coming when possible.

It argues that the heavy civilian death toll is Hamas' fault, accusing the Islamic militant group of launching rockets — and drawing retaliation — from school yards, residential areas and mosques.

"The report exposes a pattern of attacks on civilian homes by Israeli forces which have shown a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, who were given no warning and had no chance to flee," Luther said.

 

[Docd187123]

JERUSALEM (IPS) - Based on testimony from Israeli soldiers who took part in the recent war in Gaza, Israel is being confronted directly with the serious charge that permissive rules of engagement allowed for the killing of Palestinian civilians and widespread destruction of Palestinian property.

The disclosures created a stir after first publication Thursday in a major front-page spread in the Israeli daily, Haaretz. The charges are all the more telling in that they are based on first-hand accounts from dozens of combat soldiers who served in the war. Their testimonies were compiled by an academic college the soldiers had attended in a prep course before being drafted.

This represents the first uncensored recording in Israel of what occurred within combat units which took part in what Israel codenamed Operation Cast Lead. The picture drawn by the soldiers differs radically from the refined version of the war provided by military commanders to the public and Israeli media.

The report includes the testimony of one NCO (non-commissioned officer): “A company commander with 100 soldiers under his command saw a woman walking down a road some distance away, but close enough that you could’ve gunned down whoever you identified … She was an elderly woman — whether she raised any suspicion, I don’t know. But what the officer did in the end was to put men on the roof and with the snipers bring her down. I felt it was simply murder in cold blood.”

As presented in the report, Danny Zamir, head of the army prep-course, who compiled the transcript of the testimonies, intervened: “I don’t get it — why did he have her shot?” The soldier who witnessed the incident replied: “That what’s great in Gaza, you could say — you see someone walking down a track, not necessarily armed, and you can simply shoot them. In our case, it was an elderly woman. I didn’t see her with any weapon. The order was to bring the person down, that woman, ‘as soon as you sight her.’ There are always warnings, and there’s always the saying — ‘it could be a suicide bomber.’ What I felt was a lot of bloodthirstiness. Because, we weren’t in many engagements, our battalion was only involved in a very limited number of incidents with terrorists.”

According to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, 1,434 Palestinians were killed during the Israeli offensive, 960 of them civilians, among them 288 children. Palestinians have spoken insistently of atrocities by Israeli troops and of random destruction of thousands of homes. Israel has brushed off the accusations and calls for investigations into “war crimes” committed during the war, dismissing it as “anti-Israel propaganda.”

In the report, another infantry squad leader gave this account of an incident where an Israeli army sniper shot and killed a Palestinian woman and her two children: “There was a house with a family inside … We put them in a room. Later we left the house and another platoon entered it. A few days later there was an order to release the family. They had set up positions upstairs. There was a sniper position on the roof,” the soldier said.

“The platoon commander let the family go and told them to go to the right. One of the women and her two children didn’t understand the instructions. They went to the left. No one told the sniper on the roof that they had been permitted to go, that it was okay, and he should hold his fire and he … he did what he was supposed to, like he was following orders.”

According to the squad leader’s account, “The sniper saw a woman and children approaching him, they crossed the line he was told no one should cross. He shot them straightaway. In the end, what happened is that he killed them. I don’t think he felt too bad about it, because, as far as he was concerned, he was doing his job according to the orders he’d been given. The atmosphere in general, from what I understood from most of my men who I talked to … I don’t know how to describe it … The lives of Palestinians, let’s say, are very, very much less important than the lives of our soldiers. As far as they’re concerned, that’s the way they can justify it.”

“I was in shock at what I heard,” said Zamir in an interview on Israel Radio. “The incidents involving the killing of civilians are the most disturbing and need to be investigated. What I also found very distressing was how the norms of the army’s code of conduct have been eroded and how widespread the aberrations are at junior commander level.”

Zamir said the soldiers reported that officers never intervened when troops deliberately damaged property, harassed civilians or wrote “Death to Arabs” graffiti. The report also quotes individual soldiers reporting that, when they tried to remonstrate with fellow soldiers who were causing wanton damage, they were met with the response, “Because they’re Arabs.” “This is not the Israeli Defense Forces that we used to know,” said Zamir.

Amos Harel, the Haaretz military affairs correspondent who broke the story, says the accounts have a ring of authenticity. “The soldiers are not lying, for the simple reason that they have no reason to do so. There’s a continuity of testimony from different parts of the Gaza war zone. Read the transcript and you won’t find any judgment or boasting. This is what the soldiers saw in Gaza.”

Israel’s army is a temple of social consensus and a national melting pot. It is one of the fundamental tenets of Israel’s social fabric that the army does not commit war crimes, and operates according to “the highest ethical standards,” even in war time. They call it “purity of arms.”

The accounts expose a dehumanizing view of “the enemy” that seems to be more extreme than ever among Israeli soldiers. But the deterioration has been going on for decades — since Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands has meant that the Israeli army has been principally engaged in fighting guerrillas in civilian populated areas; this has included fighting two Palestinian intifadas and two wars in Lebanon, one against the Palestine Liberation Organization and one against Hizballah.

The report of what happened in Gaza was submitted three weeks ago to Israel’s Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi. The army says it will investigate the allegations thoroughly.

But Harel says that “if the army never heard about these incidents, it’s a reasonable assumption that it didn’t want to know. The soldiers describe the reality in combat units, from the level of company commander down. In debriefings, the participants usually include company commanders up. It seems that, except for isolated incidents, the rule is ‘you don’t ask, we won’t tell.’”

Asked on Israel Radio to comment on the report, Defense Minister Ehud Barak stuck to the credo: “I only heard of the charges this morning. I’m convinced that the army will carry out a thorough investigation. There are always exceptions, but our army is the world’s most moral. Our soldiers talk openly when they return home.”

Moshe Negbi, a leading legal expert, told IPS that an independent inquiry was essential — “not only for justice to be seen, but also as a most effective way of heading off increasing world pressure for a war crimes inquiry against the Israeli military.”

Whether there will be a major public grappling within Israeli society that will press for such an inquiry is improbable. Ever since the beginning of the occupation more than 40 years back, and especially in the last decade since the second Palestinian intifada, attitudes and public and political discourse in regard to the Palestinians, and to Arabs in general, have been degraded.

 

[Docd187123]

I remember it like it happened yesterday.

It was early October, 2001. I was driving through the Shorewood neighborhood of Madison, Wisconsin, listening to BBC News on WORT listener-sponsored community radio.

The BBC announcer reported on an Israeli cabinet meeting: Shimon Peres had been pressuring Ariel Sharon to respect American calls for a ceasefire, lest the Americans turn against Israel.

According to the BBC, a furious Sharon turned toward Peres, saying:

“Every time we do something you tell me Americans will do this and will do that. 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.”

I was stunned. Such colossal arrogance!

After a moment’s thought, it wasn’t so much the arrogance that was so stunning – it was that the BBC had reported Sharon’s indiscretion. Now it was on the record – undeniable – an ineradicable part of the national dialogue and the historical record. Surely the American mainstream media would plaster this story all over its front pages! This could start a long-overdue national dialogue about the power of the Israel lobby. It could even be a turning point – the end of America’s slavish subservience to Israel.

At the very least, it would start a national debate: Was Sharon right? Or was he exaggerating?

During the next several days I scanned the media in vain for any reference to Sharon’s boast. There were none. The story had been buried. It was as if it had never happened.

Sharon’s “we Jews control America” quote was outrageous, scandalous, attention-getting. Translated into screaming front-page headlines, it could have sold newspapers. Surely the commercial media, always in it for a buck, would milk the outrage factor for every penny it could squeeze out of it. Right? Wrong.

For some strange reason, the BBC report vanished into the aether.

In 2005, when Sharon resigned as Prime Minister, I called in to a WORT talk show hosted by an Israeli woman who was showering Sharon with respect – a strange way for an avowedly leftist, peacenik station to treat one of history’s worst war criminals. I asked her why the media had buried Sharon’s “we Jews control America” rant. She flew into a rage, called me an anti-Semite, and hung up on me.

So why DID the US media bury Sharon’s quote? Former New York Times journalist Phillip Weiss has offered the most plausible explanation. He says the majority of decision-makers in American mainstream journalism are Jewish, and that they feel like they are Israel’s last line of defense.

It seems Sharon won his argument with Peres. Jewish Zionists control America so completely that when the Israeli Prime Minister screams it from the rooftops, Americans are not allowed to hear it.

As Gilad Atzmon says: “Jewish power is the ability to get us to stop talking about Jewish power.”

 

[Docd187123]

Stephen Lendman

Palestinians bear witness daily to Israeli state terror. Complicit Western and regional nations, in fact, condone it through silence or failure to condemn what never is tolerable and must end.

For nearly a week, Israeli aircraft struck Gaza preemptively. As a result, fear of a new war grows.

Israel claims strikes follow rocket attacks. In fact, when launched, they’re few in number and respond to Israeli aggression in self-defense.

On July 12, IDF jets struck alleged northern Gaza “weapons manufacturing sites,” injuring one woman.

On July 13, three tunnels were bombed. Israel falsely blamed them for “terrorist activity.”Two Palestinians were missing after one of the tunnels collapsed. Later one body was recovered. Five or more other Palestinians were wounded.

On July 14, other targets were struck, wounding four Palestinian civilians.

On July 15, overnight attacks wounded four Palestinians, including two children. Over the weekend, other preemptive raids followed. Blaming the victims, a July 14 IDF statement said:

“The IDF will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians, and will respond with determination to any attempt to use terror against the State of Israel. The IDF holds the Hamas terrorist organization solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip.”

In fact, Hamas is Palestine’s legitimate government. Israel lawlessly terrorizes West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza residents preemptively, falsely claiming self-defense.

On July 17, four new raids struck Khoza village in Khan Yunis, critically injuring two Palestinians and traumatizing dozens of children.

Other same day attacks targeted Beit Hanoun, injuring seven Al Za’aneen family members, including four children – innocent civilians Israel calls “terrorists.” In addition, Israeli armored vehicles and bulldozers raided Gaza’s Al Bureij refugee camp, firing randomly and uprooting lands.

The previous day, Israeli planes dropped thousands of leaflets, asking Gazans to spy on neighbors for Israel. They also warned of continued strikes, especially in northern areas.

Gaza Emergency and Medical Services spokesperson Adham Abu Salmiyya said since early July, Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinian civilians, injuring at least 20 others, including six children.

On July 14, Israeli naval forces attacked the Oliva, an international human rights monitoring Civil Peace Service Gaza (CPSGaza) boat offshore, nearly sinking it.

On July 15, a second attack occurred, crew members saying an Israeli gunboat indiscriminately used water cannons and live fire, including on 11 fishing boats in the area. As a result, nine vessels were badly damaged. In addition, the Oliva was too badly flooded to continue. Fishermen rescued its crew, then towed the boat to shore, pursued by Israel’s navy to within one nautical mile of port.

On July 11, after passing an anti-free speech bill, Israel’s Knesset targeted Balad MK Hanin Zuabi, lawlessly stripping her of parliamentary privileges.

On July 18, the Ethics Committee prevented her from addressing the Knesset or vote in committees through the end of the parliamentary season because she participated in Freedom Flotilla I.

Last July, other rights were lawlessly stripped, including her diplomatic passport, financial help, legal assistance, and right (Knesset members have) to travel freely to countries with no official ties to Israel.

At issue, is Zuabi’s vocal criticism of Israeli policies. Last week, security officers forcefully removed her from the Knesset after interrupting Netanyahu’s speech, defending the new anti-boycott bill. In fact, Knesset practice lets members interrupt, raising issues or voicing criticism. An Israeli Arab, Zuabi was denied her right to do so.

A Final Comment (on Freedom Flotilla 2; Growing numbers of Israeli citizens marching with Palestinians; and Settler violence against Palestinians) –

Israel’s Freedom Flotilla 2 blockade

Complicit with Washington and Greece, Israel blocked “Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human (FF II)” boats from sailing to Gaza, or so it thought. On July 17, an FF II press release headlined, “French boat Dignite (al Karama) of Freedom Flotilla II leaves Greece,” saying:

Departing on July 16, its 10 passengers “view themselves as (representing) the whole (FF II mission). The rest of the Flotilla’s ships have been detained in different Greek ports, through bureaucratic obstruction, sabotage, sudden restrictions and withdrawals of flags.”

Dignite, in fact, represents past and future missions. Saying “Gaza, we are coming,” its message to Israel, Washington, and the international community is that initiatives won’t stop until Gaza’s illegal siege ends.

The Swedish/Norwegian/Greek MV Juliano also hopes to sail. So far, however, it’s still blocked in the Greek island of Crete, per orders from Israel and Washington, determined to keep collectively punishing Gazan civilians illegally.

Israelis march with Palestinians

No wonder growing numbers of Israelis are voting with their feet and leaving. On July 15, hundreds of others joined with Palestinians (about 2,000 in total), marching in occupied East Jerusalem, calling for an independent Palestinian state. Among them were Hadash Party MK Dov Hanin and Meretz MK Zehava Galon.

Starting from East Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate, they followed the Green Line dividing East and West Jerusalem, ending at Sheikh Jarrah, a Palestinian neighborhood often attacked by Israeli settlers. In response, extremist Israelis tried to disrupt the march with an ineffective counter demonstration.

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians

On July 15, Reuters writer Tom Perry headlined, “Settler violence against Palestinians up 57 percent in the West Bank,” according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) saying:

Palestinian officials call it “a worrying sign of deepening hostility which they fear could trigger wider violence as hard-line settlers increasingly appear to be a law unto themselves….”

Coming from hilltop enclaves, they vandalize Palestinian property and commit assaults with impunity. PA minister Maher Ghoneim, monitoring settlement activities, says Netanyahu’s government represents settlements. Extremist Foreign Minister/Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman lives in one. “This naturally encourages” violent attacks.

So far this year, settlers have stoned, run down, or shot at 178 Palestinians (killing three civilians), compared to 176 all last year. In response to Reuters’ request, Israeli police and army officials provided no information regarding the scale of violence.

As a result, “(t)he role of Israeli security forces in dealing with settler violence is the focus of controversy.” B’Tselem says they do little or nothing to protect Palestinians and their property. Even when arrested, settlers get lenient slaps on the wrist, freeing them to commit more violence with impunity.

At the same time, when Palestinians respond in self-defense, including by throwing stones, Israeli soldiers (if nearby) attack them with tear gas, rubber bullets, and at times live fire.

 

[flenser]

Why Iran Believes ISIS is a U.S. Creation
Kay Armin Serjoie/Tehran

Iran has taken a lead role in defending the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and strengthening the Baghdad government in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). But that doesn’t mean Iran views the United States as an ally in that war, even if they share a common enemy in ISIS.

Abdullah Ganji, the managing-director of Javan newspaper, which is believed to closely reflect the views of the government and the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards, says that U.S. support for ISIS is in fact a way of ensuring Israel’s security and disrupting the Muslim world in the cause of advancing Western interests.

“We believe that the West has been influential in the creation of ISIS for a number of reasons. First to engage Muslims against each other, to waste their energy and in this way Israel’s security would be guaranteed or at least enhanced,” says Ganji. “Secondly, an ugly, violent and homicidal face of Islam is presented to the world. And third, to create an inconvenience for Iran.”

Iran’s relations with the U.S. have been strained since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ousted the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran and negotiations are currently underway between Iran and Western nations, including the U.S., to ensure the Islamic Republic does not produce nuclear weapons.

Ganji went on to say that much of ISIS — its propaganda, structure and weapons — were all the work of the West. “A group that claims to be an Islamic one and has no sensitivity towards occupied Muslim lands in Palestine but is bent on killing Muslims as its first priority, it’s not a movement with roots in Islamic history. Not only many of its weapons but its methods of operation, its propaganda methods and many of its internal structures are Western, that’s why we are distrustful of the roots of ISIS,” he says.

“As the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Khamenei] also said, [the coalition forces] have on a number of times even made weapon drops for ISIS. How is it that they have laser-guided precision munitions and bombs but drop weapons for the wrong people? And not only once but at least a number of times,” he says, referring to incidents when weapons dropped from U.S. aircraft landed in ISIS-controlled areas rather than the intended Kurdish-controlled areas.

“Iran cannot cooperate with the United States against ISIS because it doesn’t trust America, it doesn’t believe in their honesty in combatting ISIS. Iran can’t trust the U.S. to begin something and to continue to the end. It acts patronizingly and will change its path whenever it feels it is justified. We are also worried that the U.S. is using ISIS as a pretext to return its troops into Iraq,” Ganji says. “I believe that the U.S. prefers a weak ISIS that cannot be a major threat but will still cause inconvenience for Iran, Iraq and Syria and generally what they themselves called the Shiite crescent.”

 

[Wings_of_pain]

Hmm I wonder what @CensoredBoardsSuck thinks about this? I won't comment because he will simply say how I'm a nazi. Interesting

 

[CensoredBoardsSuck]

Hmm I wonder what @CensoredBoardsSuck thinks about this? I won't comment because he will simply say how I'm a nazi. Interesting

What CBS will say is that every one of those "articles" lacks attribution, and, therefore, they are to be taken as nothing more than propaganda. The fact that Docd knows better than to omit attribution leaves one wondering if he is able to remain objective on this matter. That fact that he is using a known Hamas fabrication to attribute a quote to Sharon suggests he is not.

 

[MindlessWork]

Why Iran Believes ISIS is a U.S. Creation
Kay Armin Serjoie/Tehran

Iran has taken a lead role in defending the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and strengthening the Baghdad government in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). But that doesn’t mean Iran views the United States as an ally in that war, even if they share a common enemy in ISIS.

Abdullah Ganji, the managing-director of Javan newspaper, which is believed to closely reflect the views of the government and the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards, says that U.S. support for ISIS is in fact a way of ensuring Israel’s security and disrupting the Muslim world in the cause of advancing Western interests.

“We believe that the West has been influential in the creation of ISIS for a number of reasons. First to engage Muslims against each other, to waste their energy and in this way Israel’s security would be guaranteed or at least enhanced,” says Ganji. “Secondly, an ugly, violent and homicidal face of Islam is presented to the world. And third, to create an inconvenience for Iran.”

Iran’s relations with the U.S. have been strained since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ousted the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran and negotiations are currently underway between Iran and Western nations, including the U.S., to ensure the Islamic Republic does not produce nuclear weapons.

Ganji went on to say that much of ISIS — its propaganda, structure and weapons — were all the work of the West. “A group that claims to be an Islamic one and has no sensitivity towards occupied Muslim lands in Palestine but is bent on killing Muslims as its first priority, it’s not a movement with roots in Islamic history. Not only many of its weapons but its methods of operation, its propaganda methods and many of its internal structures are Western, that’s why we are distrustful of the roots of ISIS,” he says.

“As the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Khamenei] also said, [the coalition forces] have on a number of times even made weapon drops for ISIS. How is it that they have laser-guided precision munitions and bombs but drop weapons for the wrong people? And not only once but at least a number of times,” he says, referring to incidents when weapons dropped from U.S. aircraft landed in ISIS-controlled areas rather than the intended Kurdish-controlled areas.

“Iran cannot cooperate with the United States against ISIS because it doesn’t trust America, it doesn’t believe in their honesty in combatting ISIS. Iran can’t trust the U.S. to begin something and to continue to the end. It acts patronizingly and will change its path whenever it feels it is justified. We are also worried that the U.S. is using ISIS as a pretext to return its troops into Iraq,” Ganji says. “I believe that the U.S. prefers a weak ISIS that cannot be a major threat but will still cause inconvenience for Iran, Iraq and Syria and generally what they themselves called the Shiite crescent.”

What bullshit full f'n stop...just more propaganda to come out of that shithole country.

 

[Wings_of_pain]

What CBS will say is that every one of those "articles" lacks attribution, and, therefore, they are to be taken as nothing more than propaganda. The fact that Docd knows better than to omit attribution leaves one wondering if he is able to remain objective on this matter. That fact that he is using a known Hamas fabrication to attribute a quote to Sharon suggests he is not.

You're right probably a nazi like me CBS....

 

[Wings_of_pain]

What bullshit full f'n stop...just more propaganda to come out of that shithole country.

You're right we should go bomb Iran into oblivion. It's only a matter of time until they develop nuclear weapons and become a real threat to Israel as well as us in the united states. Fyi they are also a country of admitted holocaust deniers, and there's no doubt their religious hatred for Israel will overpower their better judgment not to attack an ally of the most powerful nation the world has ever seen!

 

[CensoredBoardsSuck]

At least some of @Docd187123 's articles are from Global research, a crank website dedicated to conspiracy theories and outright fabrications; Kevin Barrett, a 9-11 truth nutter, writer for Global Research, and all around fruit loop; and Stephen Lendman, another 9-11 truther wackjob and writer for Global Research. I guess that explains his failure to include the source. Disappointing.

I can post unattributed articles from anti-Muslim websites that lack credibility too. I choose not to because I'm more interested in the truth than BS.

 

[CensoredBoardsSuck]

Why Iran Believes ISIS is a U.S. Creation
Kay Armin Serjoie/Tehran

Iran has taken a lead role in defending the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and strengthening the Baghdad government in the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS). But that doesn’t mean Iran views the United States as an ally in that war, even if they share a common enemy in ISIS.

Abdullah Ganji, the managing-director of Javan newspaper, which is believed to closely reflect the views of the government and the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guards, says that U.S. support for ISIS is in fact a way of ensuring Israel’s security and disrupting the Muslim world in the cause of advancing Western interests.

“We believe that the West has been influential in the creation of ISIS for a number of reasons. First to engage Muslims against each other, to waste their energy and in this way Israel’s security would be guaranteed or at least enhanced,” says Ganji. “Secondly, an ugly, violent and homicidal face of Islam is presented to the world. And third, to create an inconvenience for Iran.”

Iran’s relations with the U.S. have been strained since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ousted the U.S.-backed Shah of Iran and negotiations are currently underway between Iran and Western nations, including the U.S., to ensure the Islamic Republic does not produce nuclear weapons.

Ganji went on to say that much of ISIS — its propaganda, structure and weapons — were all the work of the West. “A group that claims to be an Islamic one and has no sensitivity towards occupied Muslim lands in Palestine but is bent on killing Muslims as its first priority, it’s not a movement with roots in Islamic history. Not only many of its weapons but its methods of operation, its propaganda methods and many of its internal structures are Western, that’s why we are distrustful of the roots of ISIS,” he says.

“As the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Khamenei] also said, [the coalition forces] have on a number of times even made weapon drops for ISIS. How is it that they have laser-guided precision munitions and bombs but drop weapons for the wrong people? And not only once but at least a number of times,” he says, referring to incidents when weapons dropped from U.S. aircraft landed in ISIS-controlled areas rather than the intended Kurdish-controlled areas.

“Iran cannot cooperate with the United States against ISIS because it doesn’t trust America, it doesn’t believe in their honesty in combatting ISIS. Iran can’t trust the U.S. to begin something and to continue to the end. It acts patronizingly and will change its path whenever it feels it is justified. We are also worried that the U.S. is using ISIS as a pretext to return its troops into Iraq,” Ganji says. “I believe that the U.S. prefers a weak ISIS that cannot be a major threat but will still cause inconvenience for Iran, Iraq and Syria and generally what they themselves called the Shiite crescent.”

Come on, Flenser! Everybody knows the US is only following orders from Tel Aviv. The real fault lies with those pesky Jews.

 

[Wings_of_pain]

Come on, Flenser! Everybody knows the US is only following orders from Tel Aviv. The real fault lies with those pesky Jews.

Wait you're a nazi too CBS?!? Bwah I thought you were one of the chosen one?

 

[Wings_of_pain]

HEIL to @CensoredBoardsSuck and a fellow member of the inbred cousin loving white trash, disgusting goyim stormfront!!

 

[CensoredBoardsSuck]

HEIL to @CensoredBoardsSuck and a fellow member of the inbred cousin loving white trash, disgusting goyim stormfront!!
View attachment 20954

While your obsession with me is flattering, I don't swing that way. Sorry dude.

I have to ask though, are you going to just continue to spam the thread with nonsense or do you have anything to contribute to the conversation?

 

[Wings_of_pain]

While your obsession with me is flattering, I don't swing that way. Sorry dude.

I have to ask though, are you going to just continue to spam the thread with nonsense or do you have anything to contribute to the conversation?

No well last I recall I didn't go digging into your post (quite flattering checking me out) history to silence your opinions. Because last I checked it isn't illegal (at least in the states) to have an opinion whether it be aligned with yours or not. Last I also checked when I posted in the thread I didn't say Jew, Jewish, or kike, or oven or any of the other trigger words for people like you. I'd like to continue as normal but if you like I can continue saying what you are going to say anyway. Shalom

 

[flenser]

Come on, Flenser! Everybody knows the US is only following orders from Tel Aviv. The real fault lies with those pesky Jews.

Jews? No, not quite.. and maybe not for much longer.

Netanyahu and the Crumbling Israeli Lobby

Support for the Israeli prime minister's hardline policies is fading among American Jews and Christians alike.
By Jon Basil Utley • March 2, 2015


Jewish resistance to Netanyahu’s invitation by Republicans to address Congress is showing cracks in the Israeli Lobby’s influence over Congress. The leading Jewish newspaper Forward reports, “the biggest casualties may be the normally omnipotent pro-Israel lobby and its allies in the Jewish community, who have seen their credibility and political power severely shaken.” CNN reports that 63 percent of American oppose the invitation.

The Israeli Lobby represents less than half of American Jews. The real lobby today is an amalgam of mainly older Jews, evangelical Armageddon believers, and the military-industrial complex, which prospers from unending wars and chaos in the Middle East. A recent Pew poll shows 31 percent of Jews do not feel attached to the state of Israel while another 39 percent feel only “somewhat” attached. A massive 83 percent think that construction of settlements on Palestinian lands on the West Bank do not help Israeli security. Sixty-two percent believe that the Israeli government is not negotiating in good faith with the Palestinians.

Media reporting about the growing American Jewish opposition to Israel’s Likud Party hawks is especially scarce. Republican media such as the Wall Street Journal op-ed pages and Fox News disregard such news. I have attended three meetings of the pro-peace and fast-growing Jewish organization J Street. The last meeting’s dinner banquet in 2013 was attended by 60 members of Congress and sponsored by 41 major Jewish organizations. (I wrote about their counter-influence in “J Street and the Israeli Lobby,” reporting on how so many Jews oppose the Israeli government’s hawkish Likud regime of Netanyahu.) Rarely in America does one see such exhibits as one finds at their meetings that show the suffering of the Palestinians under Israel’s brutal occupation and the many Jewish groups trying to alleviate their suffering. There are many other Jewish and Israeli organizations promoting compromise and peace with the Palestinians, as well.

The hawkish Israeli Lobby’s massive strength in Congress depends for its power upon a myth—that it represents nearly all American Jews. Instead, today it depends upon others, especially Bible Belt Republican evangelicals—think Mike Huckabee. About them I once wrote “The Strangest Alliance in History,” explaining how each side thought it was using and fooling the other. Above all it is their longing for Armageddon that motivates many so-called Christian Zionists. They fervently believe and want Israel to help bring about the end times. Indeed I called them the Armageddon Lobby. Journalist Max Blumenthal recently did video interviews of some of these evangelical supporters of hardline Israeli policies, including former Republican congressional leader Tom Delay, at the massive convention of Christians United for Israel. Delay said how he longed for the end times, which “our connection” to Israel would help bring about. Others voiced similar aspirations.



Yet there is now extraordinary ferment, especially among younger evangelicals, questioning and weakening Christian Right support. Fifty-eight years after Israel’s founding, the idea of imminent Armageddon, promised in the Scofield Bible, is wearing thin. The Middle East Quarterly reports, “How quickly things change. The days of taking evangelical support for Israel for granted are over … anti-Israel Christians are penetrating the evangelical world at its soft underbelly, the millennial generation. Young believers are rebelling against … the excessive biblical literalism of their parents … as they strive to imitate Jesus’s stand with the oppressed and downtrodden.” The article’s author, CUFI executive director David Brog, warns that polling shows only 30 percent of evangelicals sympathize with Israel, while 49 percent sympathize with Israelis and Palestinians equally. Brog warns, “The day that Israel is seen as the moral equivalent of Hamas is the day that the evangelical community will cease providing the Jewish state any meaningful support.” An article in Counterpunch, “Christian Evangelicals Increasingly Support Palestinian Human Rights,” has very detailed information on all sorts of changes and challenges to the formerly monolithic Israeli Lobby.

Allied with the Christian Zionists is much of the military-industrial complex. It is a key industry in many congressional districts benefiting from unending wars, that create more and more enemies for America. See “The Unholy Alliance Between the Military-Security-Industrial Complex and the Israel Lobby,” which explains how “irrational and conflicting U.S. policies in the Middle East are quite logical from the viewpoint of economic and geopolitical beneficiaries of war.” Noam Chomsky argues that the military-industrial complex’s “lobbying influence and campaign contributions far surpass that of the much-vaunted Zionist lobby and its allied donors to congressional races.”

Republican pandering to the hardline Israeli Lobby through Netanyahu and his push for America to start a third war against another Muslim nation, this time with Iran, may not be so politically beneficial as the GOP’s leaders imagine.

Jon Basil Utley is publisher of The American Conservative.

 

[Docd187123]

What CBS will say is that every one of those "articles" lacks attribution, and, therefore, they are to be taken as nothing more than propaganda. The fact that Docd knows better than to omit attribution leaves one wondering if he is able to remain objective on this matter. That fact that he is using a known Hamas fabrication to attribute a quote to Sharon suggests he is not.

I'm about as objective in this matter as they come. Just because I am Lebanese does not mean I lost my objectivity. I have been to Israel, Lebanon and several other countries in the Middle East. I have been shot at by Israeli soldiers and harassed by them at Beirut airport for doing absolutely nothing. I have also dug through the rubble to search for survivors from Israeli attacks and seen bodies in states that no person should ever have to see. I have also been spit on by a group of Jewish people in Williamsburg, NY for being who I am. After all that I still hold no ill will to the Israeli people and I think they're suffering is just as painful as that of the Arab people. Instead of attacking the source you could attack the substance of what was copied and pasted. Is a Hamas publication wrong just bc it's from Hamas? I'm not sure where you are coming from but I can tell you MOST publications on the shit in the Middle East you see here in the west is either slanted or a straight up lie. Unfortunately not many know any better and believe what they see and hear on the news but that's the beauty of knowing people who live there....if you're more interested in the truth you will not find it on the news or publications of this country.

 

[Wings_of_pain]

I'm about as objective in this matter as they come. Just because I am Lebanese does not mean I lost my objectivity. I have been to Israel, Lebanon and several other countries in the Middle East. I have been shot at by Israeli soldiers and harassed by them at Beirut airport for doing absolutely nothing. I have also dug through the rubble to search for survivors from Israeli attacks and seen bodies in states that no person should ever have to see. I have also been spit on by a group of Jewish people in Williamsburg, NY for being who I am. After all that I still hold no ill will to the Israeli people and I think they're suffering is just as painful as that of the Arab people. Instead of attacking the source you could attack the substance of what was copied and pasted. Is a Hamas publication wrong just bc it's from Hamas? I'm not sure where you are coming from but I can tell you MOST publications on the shit in the Middle East you see here in the west is either slanted or a straight up lie. Unfortunately not many know any better and believe what they see and hear on the news but that's the beauty of knowing people who live there....if you're more interested in the truth you will not find it on the news or publications of this country.

Very good point. I think when discussing seriously we ought to strive for objectivity and not attack the member posting as well. Attack the logic or question the evidence but I think cheap shots that are irrelevant I think should stay out of this discussion. Good post.