Stephen Lendman

Israel is a lawless rogue state, reigning terror against millions of Palestinian civilians, denying them freedom on their own land in their own country.

On July 7, Israel National News writer Elad Benari headlined, "Failed Flotilla: Only 2 Ships Leave for Gaza," saying:

Only "two ships have so far been able to leave (Greece) on their way to Gaza." On July 5, the French boat MV Dignite/Al Karma broke out and sailed. On July 7, Press TV, Gaza TV and other news sources said Greek commandos on Crete blocked it from proceeding.

Organizer Claude Leostic told AFP that their vessel "was taken to Sitia in Crete by the Greek Coast Guard after being stopped in a nearby port (for) refueling. The authorities (gave) various administrative reasons" for doing so, none of which are justified.

On July 6, Ynet News.com writer Aviel Magnezi headlined, "Juliano ship (with Greek, Norwegian and Swedish activists on board) heads for Gaza," saying:

On board activist Dror Feiler said, "(a)ll roads lead to Gaza. It will be a small but high-quality flotilla. At this point, I can only say that after a lengthy battle, we finally succeeded in departing."

The Voice of Israel said it was allowed to sail on condition it doesn't head for Gaza. Activists on board explained that Greece's Coast Guard is monitoring their movements remotely. Israel is pulling out all stops to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza and defeat Flotilla efforts to arrive.

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Ibrahim Hewitt

Thousands of words have been written about the scandalous arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah by the British government in what is being seen as an attempt to silence him at the insistence of the pro-Israel Lobby. Supporters of the Sheikh from all sides of the political and religious divide in Palestine and beyond have stepped forward to condemn Britain's action; Home Secretary Theresa May should hang her head in shame that she has been prepared to sacrifice goodwill for Britain across the Middle East to please the right-wing media and lobbyists for Israel.

As the phrase "pro-Israel Lobby" implies, this group of individuals and organisations carry out their nefarious work to promote Israel and its interests by influencing Western politicians and anyone else who will listen; the media is a favoured tool in this work and all too many journalists are happy to take the Zionist shilling and abandon their integrity in order to oblige. The Israel Lobby in the United States is, of course, well-documented and more or less controls Congress; witness the absurd spectacle of numerous standing ovations for Benjamin Netanyahu while addressing a joint session in Congress recently, and America's slavish devotion to and support for Israel, right or wrong. Theresa May's transparent-obsequiousness in pandering to the Lobby's whims a week ago by arresting Sheikh Salah suggests that Israel has decided that it is time to come out and flex its political muscles openly on this side of the Atlantic.

At the heart of the imbroglio is a man in his mid-fifties who is known as the "Gandhi of Palestine", much to the Lobbyists' amusement. They seek to portray Sheikh Raed Salah as a "hate preacher", an "anti-Semite" (even though he is more Semitic than many of his European Jewish detractors) hell-bent on destroying the Zionist state and all in it. Charges of blood libel have been levelled at him in Israel as well as in Britain; the strange thing is that in Israel he has been found not guilty of such ridiculous charges whereas in Britain there is an assumption that he is guilty - hence the mysterious, never-even-reached-him banning order - and deserving of being arrested, locked-up and, if the government gets its way, deported. As one commentator said, Britain is being more Israeli than the Israelis.

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Adnan Al-Daini

Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, put the pursuit of happiness as one of the unalienable rights for human beings, on a par with life and liberty.  Research on happiness presented in a paper by Luigino Bruni and Luca Stanca, University of Milan, gives some interesting insights. 

Research based on this question: “Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, quite happy, not very happy, or not at all happy?”  has shown some interesting results: “In thirty surveys over 25 years (from 1946 to 1970 in the US) per capita real income rose by more than 60 per cent, but the proportion of people who rated themselves as “very happy”, “fairly happy” or “not too happy” remained almost unchanged. This finding is applicable to all the OECD countries where the aggregate happiness level has not risen in line with improvement in per capita real income”.

So why are we (US and the West) so obsessed with economic growth?  Across poorer countries however, “there is a positive and strong correlation between GDP per capita and subjective well being”.

It is clear that once basic needs are met, the law of diminishing returns comes into play, and the happiness level becomes static. 

The paper identifies that our happiness is not based on the acquisition of wealth but on “the gap between income and material aspirations. To the extent that aspirations rise together with income, subjective satisfaction may remain unchanged as income rises”.

The narrower the gap the more satisfied we are and the happier we become. This could be summed up by an old Arabic proverb: “Contentment is an inexhaustible treasure”.

We have become consumer junkies seduced by advertising into believing that if only we could have their latest product we would be happy, only to discover that the euphoria is transitory, lasting for only a short period of time. The effect is similar to that of a drug addict, needing another fix when the effects of the first dose have worn off.

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