Stephen Lendman

The Middle East Monitor (MEMO) covers significant regional issues and events through its weekly newspaper and reports like Samira Quraishy's September 2009 Briefing Paper titled, "The Judaization of Jerusalem," discussing Israel's "escalating campaign of land seizures, house demolitions and eviction(s) of Palestinians."

Israeli scholars agree, including Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Professor Oren Yiftachel, in a 1999 paper titled "Ethnocracy: the Politics of Judaizing Israel/Palestine," saying Israel is an ethnocratic regime "enhanc(ing) a rule by, and for, a specific ethnos, and a dominance of ethnicity over citizenship (by) facilitat(ing) the expansion of one ethnic group over contested territory or polity." It evolved around "the central Zionist (uni-ethnic) project of Judaizing and de-Arabising Israel/Palestine, (and as a consequence undermining) equal citizenship and popular sovereignty," reserving it solely for Jews, exposing the myth of a democratic nation.

Hebrew University Professor Moshe Ma'oz, Ankara's Bilkent University Professor Jeremy Salt, Professor Norman Finkelstein, Professor James Petras, and many other scholars agree that Israel pursued this policy since 1967, planning it decades earlier, based on the Zionist notion of dispossessing Arabs to make greater Israel an exclusive Jewish state.

Jerusalem is its epicenter, a religiously important city for Christians, Muslims and Jews, today the scene of epic injustice and discrimination of its Palestinian residents.

For Zionists, the city is politically important, as its historic capital, national and religious center, as well as the symbol of Judaism's revival and prominence. For Christians, it's where Jesus lived and died, and for Muslims it's their third holiest site (the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount and Al-Aqsa Mosque) after Mecca's Sacred Mosque and the Mosque of the Prophet in Madina.

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Sherwood Ross

American doctors in the Middle East routinely approved the torture of captured suspects and denied them critical medications such as insulin, sometimes with lethal consequences, according to a documented report published in the "Utne Reader."

In Dec., 2002, Defense Secy. Donald Rumsfeld issued a directive allowing interrogators to withhold medical care in nonemergency situations so that "men with injuries including gunshot wounds were denied treatment as a way to make them talk," writes author Justine Sharrock. Although the directive was soon revoked, "the practice continued," she said.

Interrogations conducted at the infamous Abu Ghraib correctional facility in Baghdad had to be preapproved by a physician and psychiatrist, and the CIA got like orders for the punishments it inflicted at its sites.

Sharrock quotes medic Andrew Duffy of the 134th medical company of the Iowa National Guard who told her the attitude of Abu Ghraib’s medical officers toward prisoners was "screw these guys" and who said he was ridiculed for trying to save one man’s life using CPR.

Long after the world-shaking Abu Ghraib photos were published in 2004 and the Pentagon vowed to stop abusing prisoners, "men were still being strapped into restraint chairs and left in the sun for hours or locked in cells too small to lie down in," Sharrock writes. "The medics regularly found prisoners dehydrated, wrists bloody from overtight handcuffs, ankles swollen from forced standing, joints dislocated from stress positions." (Abu Ghraib’s former commandant Gen. Janis Karpinski once estimated 90% of the prisoners were innocent.)

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Jeff Gates

With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the White House July 6th, it’s time to recall how Tel Aviv deceived Washington throughout the entirety of the U.S.-Israeli relationship.

U.S. military leaders will be watching this meeting very closely, as will the veterans community.

For me, confirmation of Israel’s strategic duplicity came in a meeting with Harry McPherson who served as counsel and speechwriter for Lyndon B. Johnson. LBJ entered the Senate in 1948 with Louisiana Senator Russell Long for whom I served as counsel and speechwriter.

At his law offices in Washington, Harry described his arrival in Tel Aviv the night that the 1967 War began. That war typifies the consistency of this ongoing deceit.

He flew in the night before from Vietnam through Hong Kong. He knew on arrival that something was amiss because the airport lights were off. He checked into his hotel and was awakened early on June 5th by Wally Barbour, the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

A pear-shaped diplomat with a penchant for yellowing Palm Beach suits, Barbour called to tell Harry that the war had just broken out—to which he replied, “But I just come from the war.”

Barbour picked him up at the hotel and they hurried to the foreign ministry for a brief meeting before conferring with the Israeli chief of military intelligence. In response to their repeated question, “Did the Egyptians attack?” McPherson and Barbour received only evasive answers. As air raid sirens wailed, McPherson recalls in A Political Education:

Barbour suggested that we might continue the discussion in the underground bunker. The general studied his watch. “No, that won’t be necessary. We can stay here.” Barbour and I looked at each other. If it wasn’t necessary, the Egyptian air force had been destroyed. That could only have happened so quickly if it had been surprised on the ground. We did not need to ask for confirmation, but left at once to cable the news to Washington.

Israel was neither under attack nor under threat of attack as its leadership has since conceded. Air raid sirens were just props in the stagecraft of waging war by way of deception.

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Bill Van Auken

Chinook helicopter upon completion of an air assault operation
in Monari village and nearby Omar Khel, Kushamond District,
Paktika Province, Afghanistan, June 25. (U.S. Army Photo)

In assuming formal command of the US-led war in Afghanistan over the weekend, Gen. David Petraeus reiterated his indications that the military will alter its rules of engagement, allowing a more unrestricted use of air strikes and artillery bombardments in support of American ground troops.

Such a shift will inevitably mean a major escalation in the slaughter of Afghan civilians. The killing of civilians by foreign occupation troops has fueled the insurgency in Afghanistan, which is now stronger than at any time since the US intervened in the country nearly nine years ago.

At a “change of command” ceremony July 4, Petraeus took over the post formerly occupied by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who had been removed by the Obama administration ten days earlier, ostensibly over insubordinate remarks he and his aides made that were reported in an article published in Rolling Stone magazine.

While reflective of the contempt for civilian authority that is endemic in the officer corps, the article was at best a subordinate factor in the decision to relieve McChrystal of his command. Far more significant was the failure to suppress the growing popular resistance to the US occupation, reflected both in the inconclusive offensive in Marjah last February and the recently announced decision to postpone a long-planned siege of Kandahar.

There had also been growing public criticism of McChrystal for implementing new rules of engagement in Afghanistan designed to reduce civilian casualties by limiting the use of American firepower.

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Rebel Kazimir / POPULISCOOP

Des régimes de plus en plus émancipés de l’impérialisme américain comme la majorité des Etats sud-américains, sont exposés à des manœuvres de déstabilisation par le biais des réseaux sociaux. Un acharnement inégalé prend forme chaque jour, mais sans créer des implications vraiment actives. Dans certains cas, c’est même l’effet contraire, des distances et des ripostes sont prises des essais américains.

Ces espaces numériques de mise en relation et de diffusion d’informations et de certains contenus culturels, sont aussi un véritable champ politique. Les USA qui gardent l’initiative en matière de la toile avec Microsoft, Google, - Facebook, - Twitter et bien d’autres plateformes, ont choisi de propager leur endoctrinement via ces systèmes électroniques, illimités et s’en passant des frontières.

Avec l’avènement des forums de discussion de la fin des années 90, qu’a précédée et stimulée la généralisation offensive de l’utilisation d’Internet, la chose a été prise au sérieux par les champs de confrontation idéologiques. Ceux qui s’en servent le plus, sont ceux qui ont facilité à les introduire publiquement et de la manière informelle. Grâce surtout à la teneur des débats qui se tenaient lors et dans ces échanges, c’est même une majeure préoccupation pour les autorités américaines d’être présentes et d’orienter les participants prédisposés à jouer le jeu.

Depuis 2008 l’effet politique du virtuel sur la vie réelle a été constaté très plausible. Du fait de l’éclatement des interconnexions entre personnes, par la magie des réseaux dits « sociaux », le champ d’action se déplace continuellement sur la toile. Puisque ces derniers entretiennent de sérieuses discussions, en mesure d’influencer le quotidien et même d’être à l’origine de mouvement sociaux comme en Iran... Qui ne songerait pas d’en faire, de ses rencontres virtuelles, sa boîte à outils pour influencer le monde ? Les individus s’y sont mis jusqu’à l’addiction pathologique et les Etats ne sont pas en reste.

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The American Dream

Is freedom of speech dead in America? Well, if not, it is rapidly dying. The most recent example to illustrate this comes out of Dearborn, Michigan. On June 18th, two Christians decided that they would peacefully pass out copies of the gospel of John on a public sidewalk outside a public Arab festival in Dearborn, and within 3 minutes 8 policemen surrounded them and placed them under arrest. Remember, these Christians were on a public sidewalk and were only very quietly handing out literature. Even their cameraman was arrested for simply filming what was taking place. The cameraman was not even involved in handing out the literature. Yet the police arrested him. At least two people claim that some bystanders cried out "Allahu Akbar!" as the Christians were being led away in handcuffs. Later, the group was told that they would have to go at least five blocks away to hand out their copies of the gospel of John. Freedom of speech has always been a big part of the American Dream, but as this incident and many others like it demonstrate, freedom of speech is rapidly being destroyed in the United States. And the American people are just standing around and letting it happen.

This video tells the story of what just happened a few days ago in Dearborn. Nabeel Qureshi, David Wood, Paul Rezkalla and Negeen Mayel attended the 15th annual Dearborn Arab International Festival on June 18th with the intent of peacefully passing out copies of the gospel of John outside the festival on a public sidewalk. The festival covers 14 blocks and was free and open to the public. Qureshi and Mayal are former Muslims who have now become Christians. Wood is a former atheist. All of them are from a group called Acts 17 Apologetics. What happened to them literally minutes after they started passing out copies of the gospel of John will have your jaw on the floor.

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