Nora Lester Murad, Dalia Association

Nora Lester Murad is an independent researcher & con-
sultant living in East Jerusalem. She's originally from
the US. She works with Palestinian Non-Governmental
Organizations, International Non-Governmental Organi-
zations, and multilateral organizations.

Palestinian civil society initiates campaign to reform international aid in run up to Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness.

Ramallah, Palestine — Dalia Association and other Palestinian NGOs join the global movement for aid reform by launching a campaign to enable Palestinians to claim their rights to self-determination in development. Palestinians' rights to self-determination are already denied by occupation, colonization and dispossession. Campaign organizers argue that international aid, which is supposed to help, should not be delivered in ways that further undermine local priorities, capacities, ownership and rights.

Dalia Association considers advocacy to reform the international aid system among its core objectives because aid-dependence undermines self-reliance, philanthropy and local decision-making, which are core objectives of community foundations. However, this campaign is Dalia Association’s first effort to seek support around the world.

“The campaign aims to raise awareness among Palestinians and internationals that we do have rights in the aid process and that respect for these rights is tied to development effectiveness,” says Saeeda Mousa, Dalia Association’s acting executive director. “We also want to cultivate tangible support for aid reform among southern civil society organizations and northern allies. This is the first step in a longer process of engaging constructively with donors and international NGOs to change the policies and practices that perpetuate aid dependence and disempower local civil society.”

The advocacy campaign began with the launch of Dalia Association’s research with community-based organizations entitled, Appeal by Palestinian Civil Society to the International Community to Respect Our Right to Self-Determination in the Aid System. The report expresses the complaints and recommendations of grassroots civil society in Palestine and gives rare and valuable insight into how recipients experience the aid system.

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Stephen Lendman

Libya's liberating struggle didn't end. It just began.

Washington ran NATO's imperial war against Libya to colonize, occupy and plunder another vassal state. Democracy and humanitarian considerations are non-starters. Only wealth and power matters.

Libyans will be ruthlessly exploited. Decades of vital social gains are lost. NATO turned Libya into a charnel house. Tens of thousands of corpses bear testimony.

Major media scoundrels lied about war objectives from inception. Now they cheerlead ravaged Libya's success. Correspondents there see one thing and report another. They make pimps, prostitutes and dope peddlers look respectable in comparison.

Peaceful nonbelligerent Libya was ravaged, raped, and devastated. Many thousands became homeless refugees.

Impoverishment and misery afflicts them. Kosovars, Iraqis, Afghans, and others know it's coming wherever NATO shows up. Only sustained liberating struggles can change things. Libyans are committed for the long haul to achieve it.

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Stephen Lendman

Having friends in high places in Washington lets Israel get away with murder.

On October 31, Ma'an News said continued Israeli air strikes so far killed 12 Gazans. Others were wounded, some severely.

Overnight Sunday, the IDF confirmed additional air strikes. Another ceasefire took effect at 10:00PM. Nonetheless, early Monday attacks continued, targeting Khan Yunis in southern Gaza. Israel overflights continue.

Given its propensity for violence, expect more attacks any time for any reason or none at all. On Sunday, Netanyahu relished having them, saying:

"There is no ceasefire." Israeli forces will "protect the residents of the south and wipe out the rocket launchers. I promise that the other side will pay an even heavier price than it has up to now until it stops firing."

No matter that Gazans respond defensively to premeditated Israeli attacks. Netanyahu inverted truth, blaming victims of IDF crimes. Since Cast Lead ended in January 2009, Hamas rigorously observed ceasefire terms. So do other resistance forces except when attacked.

Israel violated Egypt's brokered truce. Islamic Jihad (IJ) and other resistance groups said ending violence depends on stopping Israeli attacks. IJ's Sunday statement said:

"Islamic Jihad is committed to the truce as long as the occupation commits to it."

However, if Israeli attacks continue, further comments said resistance will respond defensively.

Premeditated Israeli attacks initiated conflict. Militants were falsely blamed. Gazan resistance responds defensively. Israel calls it terrorism. International law clearly legitimizes defensive responses to external attacks.

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Bob Alexander

I don’t understand how they think. The same way I have no idea what is going on in the mind of a boa constrictor as it squeezes life out of its prey. But I don’t need to know how a psychopath thinks. All we need to understand is that they have become our masters.

A newsreel reporter, hot on the trail of the meaning of “Rosebud,” is interviewing Mr. Bernstein, Charles Foster Kane’s personal business manager. One of the things Bernstein tells the reporter, “… it's no trick to make a lot of money … if all you want … is to make a lot of money.”

When I saw Citizen Kane over 40 years ago I thought it was a well written line, but not a realistic one. It seemed like a bit of dialogue a relatively inexperienced 25 year old Orson Welles might write for effect instead of realism. But I was a relatively inexperienced 20 year old. Now I know it’s as true as gravity, “… it's no trick to make a lot of money … if all you want … is to make a lot of money.”

Most people aren’t capable of doing whatever it takes to make money. The problem is … some people are.

It takes a unique kind of individual who can dismiss the massive air, water, and land pollution caused by pumping millions of gallons of water and thousands of tons of poisonous chemicals deep underground to get at the trillions of dollars worth of natural gas entombed in the Marcellus Shale.

It takes a keen business mind to knowingly sell mortgage-backed securities filled with loans that were going to fail while simultaneously making side bets that paid off when the toxic time bombs blew up. As soon as the entire house of cards collapsed, taking our economy with it, these geniuses of Wall Street reaped trillions in bailouts from U.S. taxpayers and awarded themselves billions for bonuses on top of that.

Socrates said over two thousand years ago, “All wars are fought for money.” Over the last 60 years the United States has spent well over 27 trillion dollars on the military. With that kind of incentive it still takes a special breed of businessman to line up to get a share from that bloody trough.

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Wayne Madsen

By word and action, the U.S. military and its NATO underlings have discarded thousands of years of chivalric military tradition, common practices, and law against a backdrop of ghoulish and pornographic behavior.

The United States government and military revels in death and pornographic intimidation. The videos and photographs of howling Iraqis celebrating the hanging of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein after his U.S.-administered kangaroo court trial in Iraq and the physical abuse, alleged sodomizing, and execution of Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi by NATO-armed and directed rebels after his convoy in Sirte was reportedly struck by a U.S. drone-launched missile, exemplify America’s fixation with pornographic death scenes…

The George Walker Bush and Barack Hussein Obama administrations share a fascination for displaying the dead bodies of their vanquished enemies. For Bush, it was the gruesome stone-slabbed corpses of Qusay and Uday Hussein, Saddam’s sons, after they were killed in a firefight with U.S. troops in. That was followed by the body of Sadaam after his hanging in.

Of course, it did not suit President Obama to broadcast a photograph of Osama Bin Laden, allegedly killed while resisting arrest in Abbotabad, Pakistan. In the case of Bin Laden, there is a strong reason to believe that Osama’s body could not be shown because there was no body of Osama. Whether an Osama Bin Laden look-a-like was killed or not may never be known, but what is certain is that the Obama administration’s explanation for ”Osama’s” burial at sea from a U.S. aircraft carrier appears dubious.

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Nahida Izzat, Exiled Palestinian

Book Burning Jewish Settlers Style

Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: The following is a must read exposé by Nahida Izzat. Nahida is one of the strongest, most eloquent and profound writers in our movement. And yet, in spite of being an exiled Palestinian, she is terrorised, intimidated and harassed by no others than the Jewish ‘anti’ Zionists. In the following piece Nahida brings the shocking details of the campaign against her and freedom of speech that was led by Liverpool Jewish ‘anti’ Zionist Greg Dropkin and his clan. I better say it clearly and loudly; we are not going to tolerate AZZ’s (anti Zionist Zionists) repellent behaviour forever. We are tired of Talmudic commissars. We believe in freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

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