Stephen Lendman

Nahida Izzat: The Expression of Hatred for Gentiles

Decades of Israeli high crimes against peace are reason enough for all Jews [who are] for justice to renounce Judaism.

Shlomo Sand for one. On October 10, he headlined his London Guardian commentary " 'I wish to resign and cease considering myself a Jew.' "

Zionism harms Jews and non-Jews alike. Its roots date from the late 19th century.

In his book titled "Overcoming Zionism: Creating a Single Democratic State in Israel/Palestine," Joel Kovel said:

Zionism seeks "the restoration of tribalism in the guise of a modern, highly militarized and aggressive state." It "cut Jews off from (their) history…It "led to a fateful identity of interests with antisemitism the only thing that united them." It "fell into the ways of imperialist expansion and militarism…(It) show(s) signs of the fascist malignancy." If you accept "the idea of a Jewish state," you mix its twin notions of "particularism (and) exceptionalism…" They're "the bane of Judaism…" They give "racism an objective, enduring, institutionalized and obdurate character." Doing so turns Israel "into a machine for the manufacture of human rights abuses…"

Three former prime ministers were terrorists. Menachem Begin (1977 - 83), Yitzhak Shamir (1983 - 84 and 1986 - 92), and Ariel Sharon (2001 - 06) dispelled the illusion of Israeli democracy, morality and respect for rule of law principles. Today's "world would be a far better place without Zionism('s) corrosive effects," Kovel stresses.

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Stephen Lendman

It was just a matter of time before China surpassed America as the world's leading economy based on purchasing power parity (PPP). It's an exchange rate between currencies measured by the cost of a representative basket of goods in one country v. another.

Surprisingly, China's growth happened faster than experts expected. In 2011, IMF economists estimated it would overtake America in 2016. At the time, they projected its PPP GDP at $18,975.7 trillion v. $18,807.5 trillion for America. They now estimate America's 2014 PPP GDP at $17.4 trillion v. $17.6 trillion for China.

The speed of China's growth is remarkable. As recently as 2005, its economy was less than half the size of America's. By 2019, IMF economists expect it to be 20% larger based on PPP. Its phenomenon reflects overall emerging market growth v. developed ones. In 2007, they accounted for around half of global output. It's now about 57% and rising. By the 2020s, it may approach, reach or surpass two-thirds. Overall emerging market growth is extraordinary by any standard. Since 2007, it's ninefold what developed nations achieved. Analysts call China's growth over the past three and a half decades one of the greatest success stories in modern times.

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Stephen Lendman

US-controlled NATO operates lawlessly. It's a killing machine. A monster threatening world peace and stability. Anders Fogh Rassmussen is gone. Jens Stoltenberg replaced him. He did so seamlessly. He's an imperial tool. A puppet serving US interests. His marching orders are clear. Instituting Washington's policy. Serving Western monied interests. Benefitting war-profiteers. Like his predecessor and others before him, he's a convenient US stooge.

He wasted no time proving it. On Sunday, he said NATO will deploy forces wherever it wants. For any reason. Anywhere. "These capabilities already exist. We have them, and we can deploy them in individual regions. And this is only an add-on to what the alliance already has," he said. It intends using its might how it wishes. Regardless of potential harm. No matter the consequences. He was in Poland at the time. Visiting Lask Air Base.

Heading for Kiev on Wednesday. Meeting with illegitimate putschist foreign affairs minister Pavlo Klimkin. Doing so to plot resumed war strategy once Ukraine's battered military finishes regrouping. He expressed gratitude to Alliance members for prioritizing regional security. He praised their commitment to NATO.

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Stephen Lendman

Conflict continues. Peace is a convenient illusion. Fascists don't wage wars to quit. Washington manipulates events destructively. It uses its installed stooge government to solidify unchallenged control over Ukraine.

Straightaway after assuming power, oligarch president Petro Poroshenko said:

"The first steps that we will take at the beginning of our presidential term should be focused on stopping the war, to put an end to this chaos and bring peace to a united Ukraine."

Days later he promised to crush

"pro-Russian separatist war being waged against our country." "We will end this terror," he said. "The anti-terrorist operation has finally just truly begun."

Washington offers support, encouragement and military aid. Poroshenko promised no civilian attacks. He willfully unleashed Kiev forces against them. He wrongfully blames Russia for Kiev crimes. He shamelessly accused Southeastern Ukrainian freedom fighters for earlier regime ceasefire violations.

Previous articles called chances for durable peace virtually zero. One month after both sides accepted ceasefire terms, intermittent conflict persists daily. Shelling of Donetsk continues. Residents say it never stopped.

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Stephen Lendman

Syrians inspect the rubble of a home reportedly hit by a U.S.-led
coalition airstrike in Kafar Daryan. As many as two dozen civilian
deaths in airstrikes were reported by Syrians. (Photo: Sami Ali)

Obama murders civilian men, women and children he calls militants. Terrorists. Eyewitnesses explain otherwise. He lied claiming he'll degrade and destroy IS's fighting capability. He supports it instead.

They're US proxies. Shock troops. Foot soldiers. Boots on the ground. US special forces and CIA operatives train them in Jordan and Turkey. They're taught effective ways to kill. Dirty ways. Using chemical weapons. Committing atrocities. Including beheadings and other barbarian acts.

Syrian targets struck aren't Islamic State ones. They include vital infrastructure, oil facilities, grain silos with food, empty buildings, residential homes and noncombatant men, women and children. Exact numbers killed and injured aren't clear. Various estimates differ. The toll rises daily.

On September 23, the Los Angeles Times headlined "Syrians say civilians killed in US airstrikes," explaining video evidence from Northwestern Syria...

"...shows Idlib province residents going through motions that have become all too familiar in three years of civil war between anti-government rebels and the forces of President Bashar Assad…" They're "surveying the remnants of flattened homes and picking through the debris."

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Stephen Lendman

He didn't surprise. His address lasted a mind-numbing 45 minutes. He made painful listening. All his speeches feature demagogic mumbo jumbo Big Lies. They drown out truth.

Two years ago, he lied about Libya. He claimed US-led NATO intervened to "cope with violent conflict, care for the wounded, and craft a vision for the future in which the rights of all Libyans would be respected." He "supported the birth of a new democracy…Libyans held elections…(They) built new institutions…(They) move(d) forward after decades of dictatorship."

Truth is polar opposite Obama's Big Lies. Libya was Africa's most developed country. Most Libyans supported Gaddafi. They did so for good reasons. Libya was a model social justice society. Gaddafi used its oil wealth responsibly. He provided free healthcare, education and other vital benefits.

His Libya no longer exists. Obama transformed it. He made it a charnel house catastrophe. A dystopian wasteland. Tens of thousands were ruthlessly slaughtered. Many more were injured and/or displaced. Libyans had benefits Americans can't imagine. Obama replaced them with dystopian harshness. Mostly civilians were harmed. US-led NATO willfully targeted them. Obama destroyed Libyan sovereignty. He replaced it with instability, insecurity, and daily violence. Last year, he ludicrously said...

"...we come together to reaffirm the founding vision of this institution. For most of recorded history, (the) idea that nations and peoples could come together in peace to solve their disputes and advance a common prosperity seemed unimaginable."

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Lawrence Davidson

A portion of the separation wall built by the Israeli government
jutting into the town of Bethlehem to enclose the tomb of Rachel
within the Israeli zone. Many portions of the wall contain graffiti
and artwork by the Palestinians and their visitors. (T. Lieverman)

Israel’s never-ending persecution of Palestinians is opening a chasm between the world’s public, which is growing disgusted by Israeli behavior, and Western elites who shy from criticism because of career fears and financial dependence.

Due to Israel’s brutal racism and repeated attacks on Palestinian civilians, it is losing popular support internationally. As this happens, the Zionists appear to be intensifying pressure on societal and political elites, particularly in the U.S. and other Western states, to maintain policies that support and protect Israel’s criminal behavior.

Their vehicle for achieving this goal has always been financial gifts and donations to elite individuals and institutions. These gifts and donations help grease the wheels, so to speak, of the systems of power through which the elites operate, and create a monetary dependency on, among others, Zionist donors. It also creates an obligation to respond to these donor’s needs. The result is a growing disconnect between evolving popular attitudes toward Israel and the static positions held and actions taken by the elites.

American Zionist leaders are aware of this gap and they take it seriously. But they have a problem in that open debate and presentation of evidence can no longer win the argument for their side because the Zionists no longer have a monopoly on the story of how Israel came to be and Palestine came not to be. And without that monopoly the imperialist origins and ongoing racist nature of Israel are can no longer be concealed.

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Stephen Lendman

No declaration of war exists. No legal authority. No national emergency. No existential or other threats. No enemies targeting America. No Security Council authorization. No congressional OK. No justifiable reason to wage war. No reason ever to do so except in self-defense if attacked. None occurred.

Obama's Iraq war III constitutes cold, calculated, premeditated naked aggression. It's lawless. It has no legal authority. The same holds for his three-and-a-half year proxy war on Syria. It was planned long before March 2011 hostilities began. It's now elevated to direct US intervention.

On Tuesday, US warplanes bombed multiple Syrian targets. Precise ones aren't clear. Multiple civilian deaths followed. At least three children died. Civilians suffer most in all wars. US and Israeli ones target them willfully. They're considered legitimate targets. They're murdered in cold blood. A local Raqqa resident said...

"...(t)here is an exodus out of (the city) as we speak. It started in the early hours of the day after the strikes. People are fleeing toward the countryside."

Around one-third of Syria's population already is internally or externally displaced. US bombing threatens thousands more. They're in the line of fire. They're in harm's way. As long as US bombing continues, not a square inch of Syria is safe. The entire country is vulnerable to attacks. Expect Washington to take full advantage. Expect Big Lies to conceal its objectives. They have nothing to do with degrading and destroying ISIS/ISIL/the Islamic state (IS). They have everything to do with advancing America's Imperium.

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Stephen Lendman

It's no surprise. Obama's intentions were clear for weeks. Naked aggression is longstanding US policy. In his September 10 address, he said Washington was prepared to "conduct a systematic campaign of airstrikes (against Islamic State terrorists) wherever they are." "That means I will not hesitate to take action against ISIL in Syria as well as Iraq." Last week, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said US Central Command has a plan to take "targeted actions against ISIS safe havens in Syria." Obama added another high crime against peace to his rap sheet. It overflows.

Attacking a country posing no threat to America constitutes a grave breach of international, constitutional and US statute laws. US-led airstrikes began at around 8:30 PM local time. Pentagon press secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby confirmed them, saying:

"US military and partner nation forces…undert(ook) military action against (Islamic State) terrorists in Syria using a mix of fighter, bomber and Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles. Given that these operations are ongoing, we are not in a position to provide additional details at this time," he added. "The decision to conduct theses strikes was made (Monday) by the US Central Command commander under authorization granted him by the commander in chief." "We will provide more details later as operationally appropriate," he said.

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Stephen Lendman

Critics claim fraud at the polls. Suspicions are rife.

Rigged elections aren't new. In America, they go back to the beginning of the republic. Seventeenth century US politicians believed vote rigging was a necessary evil. They assumed opposition parties played dirty. Their strategy was fight fire with fire.

New York's Tammany Hall machine was notorious. It controlled Democrat party nominations for over a century. It bought off politicians, judges and ward captains. Vote suppression was standard practice.

Chicago machine politics works the same way. Under Richard J. Daley, it was notorious. He was an American pharaoh. He ran city government like a monarch. He wielded near-imperial power. When he died on December 26, 1976, Chicago columnist Mike Royko wrote: "If ever a man reflected a city, it was Richard J. Daley." He was "strong (and) hard-driving." He had "Texas-sized ambitions." He was "arrogant, crude, conniving, ruthless, suspicious, intolerant, raucous, hot-tempered, devious, big and powerful." He was Chicago.

Former Chicago alderman Paddy Bauler perhaps said it best: "Chicago ain't ready for reform," he explained. Chicago's tongue-in-cheek "Vote early and often" political motto goes back to Daley's early days and Al Capone. Ballots for registered dead voters at times are cast. Political analyst Dick Simpson calls Chicago the capital of public corruption. It's "a one-party system were Democrats control" city politics but govern like Republicans, said Simpson.

Voters are apathetic. They know the "fix is in." A tradition of corruption prevails. According to Simpson, it's long past time for Chicago "to become the land of Lincoln rather than the land of 'Where's Mine.' "

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