Stephen Lendman

Photo: Twice now, unarmed Palestinians demonstrators and their supporters from the refugee camps around Israel, adopting the tactics of the Arab Spring, have challenged the Israeli occupation and their own historic dispossession by marching on Israel's occupation borders. And on both occasions, Israel has adopted the vicious tactics of the most ruthless Arab regimes by responding to these unarmed demonstrators with lethal force.

Palestinians have endured decades of ruthless occupation. World leaders decline support. They're left largely on their own despite growing millions globally supporting them.

Life in occupied Palestine is harsh and repressive. On December 26, Jerusalem's mayor, Nir Barakat, delivered another blow. The Municipality will classify 70,000 Israeli Arab citizens non-residents and involuntarily transfer them to West Bank locations.

At issue is entirely Judaizing Jerusalem through forced ethnic cleansing to facilitate escalated settlement construction. It's also part of creating a greater Jerusalem and preventing a two-state solution.

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Adnan Al-Daini

A local farmer from the Fedaliyah area of New Baghdad
herds his jammous into the Diyala River to cool off.

As a seventeen year old, in 1962, I was one of a group of about 10 Iraqi students doing A levels in a college in the UK.  The group included three Christians, one Kurd and the rest were Muslims.  Please do not ask me how many of the Muslims were Shia and how many were Sunni.  I had no idea and neither had anyone else.  I only knew of the religion and ethnicity of others through casual conversations. That is not how we defined ourselves. The only label that mattered was that we were all Iraqis.

Not long ago I was sent a list of Iraqi politicians and members of the Iraqi parliament, and against each name was written the label Shia, Sunni, Kurdish, Christian and other designations defining ethnicity or sect.  I wrote back decrying the fact that if  intellectuals and opinion-formers were engaging in defining people with these labels, how could we blame the rest of Iraqi society for doing the same?

The illegal Iraq war has melted the glue that bound Iraqi society together. Paul Bremer, the American viceroy in charge of Iraq after the war, headed the Coalition Provisional Authority whose members were based on quotas representing the mosaic of Iraqi society.  It thus deliberately employed the maxim of divide and rule.  But why should the Iraqis expect otherwise?  The American aim, supported by Britain, was to occupy Iraq and control its oil, and this is the tried and tested way of all occupiers and colonizers.

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Stephen Lendman

The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower in the Arabian Sea in
2010 (Photo: cusnc.navy.mil)

Whether or not anti-Iranian rhetoric, saber rattling, sanctions, other policy measures, and recent events signal war isn't known. Growing dangers though mount. America targets all independent regimes. At issue is replacing them with client ones.

In October, Washington falsely charged Iran with plotting to kill Saudi Arabia's US ambassador. In November, outdated, forged, long ago discredited, and perhaps nonexistent documents were used to claim Iran's developing nuclear weapons.

According to America's latest March 2011 intelligence estimate, no credible evidence proves it. Nor was Iran involved in 9/11.

Nonetheless, on December 15, Manhattan Federal Judge George Daniels said he'll sign an order accusing Iran, Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda of 9/11 responsibility.

In response to a lawsuit brought by family members of 9/11 victims, he claimed Iran provided material support to Al Qaeda. He based it on fake evidence and spurious testimonies from three Iranian defectors. Their affidavits remained sealed during court proceedings.

In late December, Daniels assessed Iran $100 billion in damages. According to attorney Dennis Pantazis:

"We have worked over eight years, consulted hundreds of intelligence experts, reviewed thousands of documents and reports and traveled to three continents and multiple countries to interview eyewitnesses. The ruling stands for the proposition that no matter how big or powerful evil is, it will always be revealed."

His rant omitted clear evidence of CIA and Mossad involvement, not Iran, Hezbollah or Al Qaeda.

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