Kevin Barrett

Yesterday we learned that three Israeli suspects have confessed to burning to death Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdair. The killers even re-enacted their grisly deed for police.

The Western media is treating this incident as an isolated outrage. It is not. During the past 14 years, Israelis have murdered one Palestinian child every four days, on average.

During the second half of June, while the Zionist-dominated global media relentlessly hyped the “three kidnapped Israeli teens” story, several Palestinians were shot to death by the IDF, including 15-year-old Mohammed Dudin, who was murdered in Dura on June 20th. Corporate media coverage of the killing of Mohammed Dudin was negligible. To the mainstream media, the lives of Israeli Jews are priceless, while those of Palestinians are worth little or nothing.

Statistics bear out this conclusion. A study by If Americans Knew found that the New York Times, America’s newspaper of record, reported Israeli children’s deaths at 6.8 times the rate of Palestinian children’s deaths.

In an exclusive interview with Truth Jihad Radio, Palestinian professor Mazin Qumsiyeh said: “We have a huge problem in the way American media portrays the situation. Between the year 2000, when an uprising started against the occupation, until today, there have been over 1,540 Palestinian children killed by Israeli soldiers and illegal settlers. These children are barely mentioned anywhere in Western media; whereas every time an Israeli is killed, rare as that may be compared to the number of Palestinian children and civilians killed, we hear everything in detail about these people.”

What explains the disparity? The New York Times, like much of the Western mainstream media, is owned and operated by Zionists. In an article entitled “Do Jews Dominate in American Media? And So What If We Do?” Jewish ex-New York Times journalist Philip Weiss notes that pro-Israel Jews do indeed dominate US corporate media. He adds: “The result is that Americans are not getting the full story re Israel/Palestine.”

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Eva Bartlett & Ali Mallah

You may rob me of the last span of my land
You may ditch my youth in prison holes
Steal what my grandfather left me behind:
Some furniture or clothes and jars,
You may burn my poems and books
You may feed your dog on my flesh
You may impose a nightmare of your terror
On my village
Enemy of light
I shall not compromise
And to the end
I shall fight...
~ Samih al-Qasim

With the passing of the 64th anniversary of the Nakba, (the establishment of the illegal Zionist state on the land and homes of Palestinians), should we mourn or celebrate? Professor Nurit Peled–Elhanan wrote of her mourning:

“I will mourn on Nakba Day. I will mourn for vanished Palestine most of which I never knew. I will mourn for the holy land that is losing its humanity, its landscape, its beauty and its children on the altar of racism and evil. I will mourn for the Jewish youngsters who invade and desecrate the homes of families in Sheikh Jarrah, throw the inhabitants into the street, and then sing and dance in memory of Baruch Goldstein, the infamous murderer of Palestinian children, while the owners of the desecrated houses with their children and old people are sleeping in the rain, on the street, opposite their own homes. …All these things I will mourn on Nakba Day. I will join the millions of dispossessed, downtrodden and humiliated who have not given up on the future and who still believe there is a chance, who stand as witnesses and as firebrands of the true human spirit.…”

For the last 64 years, Palestinian women, men, elderly, and youth have steadfastly and spiritedly resisted the occupation and the Zionist state. It is a resistance that continues flourishing among Palestinians from all walks of life both inside and outside Palestine, be they farmers, workers, students, poets, or intellectuals.

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Mazin Qumsiyeh

Gilad Atzmon, The Wandering Who? A Study of Jewish Identity Politics (Ropley, Hampshire, UK: Zero Books, 2011). Pp.177. Paperback. ISBN-13: 9781846948756. Review by Mazin Qumsiyeh. Copy Right: Holy Land Studies, May 2012, Vol. 11, No. 1 : pp. 99-101

About nine years ago, I entertained the notion of writing a book on “group identities” so that I can understand these concepts that cause a lot of the ills of society. Both WWI and WWII emanated from interpretations of nationalism (a group identity) and the conflict in Palestine mostly emanates from another group identity called Zionism. The horrors of the Crusaders came from the group identity of Christendom. There is an issue now with the notions of (Political) “Islamism" ala Osama Bin Laden. I am still exploring and reading on this issue from different authors and thus was intrigued to read the book by Gilad Atzmon that addresses this concept within Jewish communities.

Atzmon concluded from personal experience that he does not like Jewish group identity politics and any other form of what he calls “marginal group identity”. Atzmon starts by explaining his own upbringing as a third generation Israeli whose grandfather was a member of the underground terror organization the Irgun Gang and how via Jazz (and a questioning mind) he “left Chosen-ness behind to become an ordinary human being”.

Atzmon is accused by many to be a “self-hating Jew” and an “anti-Semite”. To the former label he admits but he strongly objects to the second label. His book represents in many ways a clarification of why he believes the way he does. He says (p. 15) that he distinguishes Jews (the people), Judaism (the religion), and Jewish-ness (the ideology). He has no problem with the first two but strongly argues against that third. He puts quotes that show that those who believe in this ideology put Jewish-ness above all other attributes. Thus he understands Chaim Weizmann’s statement that “there are no English, French, German, or American Jews, but only Jews living in England, France, Germany or America.” This third category that Weizmann belongs to even when overlapping with the first or second category, tends to according to Atzmon, overwhelm all other and represent a strong marginal politics.

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Stephen Lendman

Israel systematically wages war on rule of law principles, truth, equity, justice, and other democratic values. Even Jews aren't safe. Anyone challenging Netanyahu's regime and earlier ones becomes vulnerable. Travelers beware. Israel criminalized entry earlier. Rogue officials are at it again.

At issue are so-called "flytilla" activists. Reports suggest about 1,500 planned West Bank trips. Their purpose is peacefully challenging Israel's illegal occupation and bonding with Palestinians they support.

Airflotilla2/Welcome to Palestine 2012 participants plan week-long solidarity actions. About two dozen civil society organizations invited them. So did Bethlehem's mayor.

Planned activities include planting trees, laying a kindergarten cornerstone, repairing damaged wells, peacefully contesting illegal settlement construction, and engaging Palestinians other ways. Their mission is peace and solidarity, not confrontation and violence.

At issue is how many actually will arrive. Israel's going all out to block them. Airlines agreed to go along, Air France, Lufthansa, and Easyjet among them.

Israel sent them lists of likely travelers. It directed reservations and issued tickets be cancelled. Airlines dutifully complied. Reasons affected travelers got are spurious. Some plan legal action in response.

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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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Mazin Qumsiyeh
Ramallah Online

Transformation in the Arab World

“Mubarak has been an ally of ours in a number of things and he’s been very responsible on, relative to geopolitical interest in the region, the Middle East peace efforts; the actions Egypt has taken relative to normalizing relationship with Israel.… I would not refer to him as a dictator” ~ US Vice President Joe Biden ( a lackey of AIPAC)

I first visited Egypt 30 years ago in 1981 to do research for my master’s thesis which was later published in my first book “The Bats of Egypt”. I visited Egypt twice since then and I recall vividly police abuse of their own people and yet the Egyptians I encountered mocked and joked about dictatorship. We tried at least from a distance to support our Egyptian brothers and sisters as they struggle for freedom. Arabs everywhere (yes even here in occupied Palestine) are talking about a transformation and about revolution. But all such transformations carry pain. Over 200 Egyptians were killed, thousands injured, and there is much destruction. Yet in a nation of 85 million people this is still a relatively peaceful transformation. While dealing with the present is critical we must also at this juncture start to look post dictatorship in the Arab world and plan the future.

I recall vividly a talk by [an elderly], self-described “Liberal Zionist” (an oxymoron) at Duke University on 1 March 1981. At 77, he had no inhibitions in saying “Zionists do not want democracy in the Arab world.” He explained that if Egypt was a democracy, it would not have signed a peace deal with Israel since the sentiments of the Arab people does not accept such arrangements that could be done with someone like President Sadat or King Hussein. On this point he was absolutely correct but in the long run such short-sighted perspective is self-destructive (1).

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Stephen Lendman

This photo is from LA VOZ DE AZTLAN. More photos HERE.

Professor Jeremy Salt teaches political science at Ankara, Turkey's Bilkent University. He's also the author of "The Unmaking of the Middle East: A History of Western Disorder in Arab Lands." On January 9, 2009, during Israel's war on Gaza, he wrote "A Message to the brave Israeli Airmen," asking:

● "What's it like, firing missiles at people you can't see?
● Does that help, that you cannot see who you are killing?
● Does it ease your conscience that you are not deliberately targeting civilians," when, in fact, you are under Israel's Dahiya Doctrine to use enough "disproportionate force (to inflict) damage and met(e) out punishment" against civilian infrastructure, "economic interests and the centers of civilian power," willfully slaughtering noncombatant men, women and children;
● "How does this sit on your conscience?
● Do you sleep well at night or do you have nightmares of the women and children you killed in their homes, in their beds, in their kitchens and living rooms, in their schools and mosques?"
●Do you really believe they threaten your security - farmers in their fields, mothers with their children, teachers in classrooms, imams in mosques, children at play, the elderly, frail or disabled?
● Do you ever question what you've done and why? Have you no shame, no sense of decency, no idea of the difference between right and wrong? Will you follow orders blindly and do it again and again, mindless about crimes of war and against humanity you, your superiors, and government officials are accountable for under fundamental international law?

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