US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has taken a new and surprising tack by abandoning America's demands for Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Palestinian leaders have repeatedly said the peace process cannot resume until all construction stops - even the natural expansion of existing settlements.

But during a visit to the region Ms Clinton has sided with Israel and is pressuring the Palestinians to make concessions.

The mission to revive peace talks appeared to be dead in the water, even before she touched down in Israel.

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see toon above...

Israeli police have arrested a Jewish settler whom they say has confessed to a string of high-profile hate attacks.

These allegedly include the killing of two Palestinians 12 years ago, and the bombing last year of the home of the Israeli academic, Zeev Sternhell.

Yaakov Teitel, a 37-year-old American immigrant who lives in the West Bank, was detained last month after handing out leaflets condemning homosexuals.

Police said they believed Mr Teitel had acted alone during the hate campaign.

"He is like a serial killer. This guy was a Jewish terrorist who targeted different types of people," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld added.

"He was deeply involved in terrorism in all different levels."

-----------------------

See the serial 100-to-one "reprisal-ist" making an offer at top...

MARRAKESH, Morocco — Struggling to stem a chorus of protests from the Arab world, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton reiterated Monday that the Obama administration still wanted Israel to freeze construction of Jewish settlements, even if it regarded Israel’s compromise offer as “unprecedented.”

Arab leaders have expressed alarm that the United States seems to be decreasing pressure on Israel, after Mrs. Clinton said in Jerusalem on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal of restrained settlement construction was better than what any previous Israeli government had offered.

Mrs. Clinton said the administration would not stop pushing Mr. Netanyahu to do more. But she added that in trying to revive a stalled peace process, she wanted to offer Israel encouragement for moving in the right direction, even if that movement fell short of what the United States wanted.

While the most remote person on earth must realize that 60 plus years of Zionist terrorism; crimes against humanity (including racism/genocide) during the act of invading and massively displacing the rightful owners of Palestine - without being held responsible for their crimes - must rally the most peaceful of people to return the torture with interest?  Turkey may yet be taking more notice.

The constant hypocrisy of the US/Jewish alliance of war without justifiable reason or honor can no longer cause a hesitation to the removal of all Zionist power in the Middle East even as it has been required to do so many times in history.

Whilst the warmonger Netanyahu makes a fool of Mrs. Clinton, as the Zionists have done to the US for nearly a century, he does the world an unintentional favor by clearly demonstrating who is the real enemy of peace in the Middle East.

As the civil war by the rogue Semites against their fellow Semites continues to heat up, the Zionists act more arrogantly now than ever before. After their financial “geniuses” have almost caused another depression by their greed and the Bush administration has destroyed any credibility that the “home of the scared and hoodwinked Goyim” may still have after its many episodes of useless wars, the US must be realizing that the deception for which the Hebrew Semites are most adept, is putting them all in harms way.

The typical fascist method of blaming your victim for what you are doing and concentrating the world’s attention on some poor fool of a nation which is not powerful enough to defend itself, like Iran, is wearing thin and I detect a distinct element of doubt in the Australian public at the orchestrated “demonstrations” in that hapless target of US/Jewish extremism.

We had the clear violation of sovereignty when the US invaded Afghanistan even though the so-called murderers of 9/11 were almost all Saudi Arabians and the Taliban had offered to hand over the accused Osama bin Laden IF he was tried by international law. That war is now some 8 years and counting.  Why?

We heard the unconscionable lies about the US ally Saddam and his WMD’s which was only highlighted by his hangman’s rope as a reward for trying to comply with the US/Zionist demands. That illegal war is now some 6 years and counting.  Why?

The American economy seems to be greatly dependant on the profits of the Military/Corporate at war with a chosen enemy, even as the retiring President Eisenhower had warned.

And the irony is that the American taxpayer is paying for it all – and with their lives as well.

God bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

The words chosen by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, that he had "no desire" to stand for office again, seemed to suggest that he might allow his mind to be changed.

But what kind of shift in the political landscape would it take to rekindle his desire to be president?

Concessions from Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are not likely. He has refused months of American requests to freeze building for Jews throughout the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. He won't change his mind - and destroy his own political position in Israel - just to keep Mr Abbas in his job.

President Abbas has become a vital part of America's strategy. His attempts to accommodate President Obama - especially by trying to shelve the UN's Goldstone report into Israeli and Palestinian war crimes in Gaza - caused him serious political damage at home that must have contributed to his decision.

------------------

see toon at top...

JERUSALEM: Yaakov Teitel is the new face of Israel's extreme right-wing religious movement. A fanatical Jewish settler from the tiny outpost of Shvut Rahel in the northern West Bank, Teitel flashed the peace sign as he was led from an Israeli courtroom this week.

But after confessing to a string of murders and hate crimes over the past 12 years, Teitel has emerged as anything but a peacemaker.

Branded a ''Jewish terrorist'', the 37-year-old father of four has already admitted to the murders of two Palestinians in 1997 and the pipe-bombing of the left-wing Israeli academic Zeev Sternhell this year.

Police also suspect Teitel of the shooting murder of two Israeli police officers on a West Bank highway nine months ago, a crime initially blamed on Palestinian terrorists. ''If the wheel were to turn back I would do it all again,'' Teitel told investigators after his arrest.

He told his lawyer: ''I am God's emissary in Israel.''

----------------------

god in any creed is delusional. see toon at top...

Civilized society must realize and realize now, that the claims of a “new Israel” in Palestinian territory cannot be accepted on any basis of International Law or with any measure of Justice.

The manipulating of Abbas by the Zionists will not bring peace to that stolen land since he does not and cannot speak for the majority of Palestinian citizens.  Many have suffered their own Diaspora by being forced to leave their country and to live in squalor while relying on charity.  The West Bank was forcefully occupied more rapidly when Abbas agreed to negotiate with the Zionist terrorists.  What a fool to accept that any negotiation with the Zionists is possible?  They have come too far and there is no turning back so watch out the rest of the Arab nations.

In any case -how does a mixed group of foreign international citizens albeit of one race, who has invaded a country due to faulty British immigration policies, and has practiced all the necessary bastardry to be classified internationally as Terrorists, suddenly become non-terrorists simply by declaring that they have taken over the country they invaded and are now the new State of Israel?

Follow that with the knowledge (as recorded by Alan Hart in Israel’s Right to Exist) that there are no legitimate reasons for that to be accepted by any member of the civilized international community.  The disgraceful and murderous takeover has become the example of Apartheid and Nazism re-visited.

While the Zionist disease continues to spread in Palestine like a Swine Flu – does anyone capable of reason, logic and justice, accept the argument that they would be too hard to remove? With that sort of mis-informed judgement, the Nazis should still be running most of Europe – because they invaded and brutalized those nations who could not properly defend themselves?

Under the G.W. Bush regime, the U.S. has reached a new low in the opinions of the world nations and the capitulation to the principles of the Zionists will only increase the wars in the Middle East.  The U.S. is the biggest arms dealer in the world. This is simply a case of an invaded country asking to be given back their lands – as other victims of Nazism were able to achieve.

Why the difference?  Why is Netanyahu threatening the U.S. about Iran – and, more importantly – how do they get away with it? 

The Melanoma is the Zionist take-over of Palestine – stop it before it spreades too far.

The leaders of Iran and Libya said it all when they pointed out that the United Nations cannot be classified as democratic as long as the “chosen” few have the right of veto. 

God Bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

Israeli President Shimon Peres has used a speech honouring slain premier Yitzhak Rabin to urge Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to stay in power despite frustrations over the peace process.

Thousands of Palestinians have also turned out in Hebron in support of Mr Abbas who plans to quit in frustration at the stalled peace process with Israel.

"We both signed the Oslo accords and I address myself to you [Abbas] as a colleague: Don't give up," Peres said at a rally in Tel Aviv where Rabin was shot in 1995.

America's leading human rights organisation has accused Israel and its supporters of an "organised campaign" of false allegations and misinformation, including "extremely personal attacks" on its staff, in an attempt to discredit the group over its reports of war crimes in Gaza.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) ties the campaign – which has included accusations that the group's reports on the Jewish state are written by "anti-Israel ideologues" and that it has sought funds from Saudi Arabia – to a statement by a senior official in the Israeli prime minister's office in June pledging to "dedicate time and manpower to combating" human rights organisations.

The criticism began with Israeli pressure groups and rightwing blogs, but in recent weeks it has drawn the support of influential individuals such as Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace prize winner, and HRW's own founder, Robert Bernstein, who said the organisation's reports were "helping those who wish to turn Israel into a pariah state". He called on HRW to focus more on abuses by Arab governments.

Iain Levine, HRW's programme director, said that while the organisation had long attracted criticism, in recent months there had been significant attempts to intimidate and discredit it.

---------------

see toon at top.

Israel has rejected a move by the Palestinians to gain international recognition for an independent state, saying negotiations are the solution.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said such unilateral moves would unravel past agreements to reach Middle East peace.

The Palestinians said they will ask the UN Security Council to recognise an independent state, because of a lack of progress in restarting peace talks.

They are also upset over Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

They have also expressed disappointment with US failure to put enough pressure on Israel to halt the construction.

--------------------

How can we take Israel's views seriously... ? see toon at top...

The United States has voiced its "dismay" over Israel's approval of 900 additional housing units at a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the move makes it "more difficult" to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

He was speaking shortly after planning applications for the new units had been approved by Israel's interior ministry.

The planning and construction committee authorised the expansion of Gilo, which is built on land captured in 1967

US President Barack Obama has said Israel's approval of 900 extra housing units at a settlement in East Jerusalem could lead to a "dangerous" situation.

Mr Obama told Fox News that additional settlement construction made it harder for Israel to make peace in the region and "embitters the Palestinians".

The settlement of Gilo has been built on land Israel captured in 1967.

The Palestinians have refused to attend peace talks until Israel stops building settlements on occupied territory.

----------------------

things might get uglier...

From Unleashed

The fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago this week, marked a rare moment in human history. Never before had a wall of that nature been built and then torn down by the very people that it had meant to keep in.

It reminds us that no barrier, least of all an artificial barrier, can stand in the way of a people's quest for freedom in the long run.

The same should go for Israel's security wall - that has been built to encamp the Palestinian people and tighten the Israeli hold on the occupied territories.

Fundamentally, there is no difference between the two walls. The Israeli wall is as illegal as the Berlin Wall under international law. This much has been confirmed by the International Court of Justice. The Israeli wall has been built to serve the same purpose as the Berlin Wall.

Israel's ostensible claim is that the wall is there to enhance Israel's security against Palestinian terrorism. The US and many of its allies have bought this line of argument. They have never gone as far as to pressure Israel to pull it down, as President Ronald Reagan urged the Soviet Leader, Michael Gorbachev, in 1986, to "tear down" the Berlin Wall.

However, all the wall has done is to reduce the number of Palestinian suicide bombings in Israel, without enabling the Israeli people to live more securely than before the wall was completed in 2007.

The Israeli public is as uncertain about their future and as fearful of the Palestinians now as they were before. The wall has done little to reduce Israel's reliance on perpetual use of its military might to suppress the Palestinian people as often as desirable.

Its onslaught on Gaza in late 2008 and early 2009 clearly demonstrated the defeat of the very purpose for which the wall was built. Nor has the wall done much to prevent the Palestinian radical Islamist group Hamas (which has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 in opposition to the Palestinian nationalist group, Fatah, that runs the West Bank in a peace partnership with Israel) from rocketing Israel whenever it deemed appropriate.

The UN Goldstone Gaza Report has castigated both sides for committing war crimes in the process, although it has directed most of its venom at Israel. The adoption of the Report by the UN General Assembly in November has once again left Israel high and dry as a defiant member of the international community, but this has changed nothing on the ground.

Since the terrorism of the Zionists became well known in the western world and people finally woke up to the Mossad motto of "By deception you will make war".  How clearly has that principle been foisted on the world community by the US/Jewish alliance in occupied Palestine.

As usual Gus, I agree with almost everything you write because to me you have a keen sense of right and wrong with the exception of the Zionists and their demands on someone else’s land.

IMHO you cannot correct a massive crime by pulling down a wall – at best Gorbachev knew that it was only a symbolic gesture which delighted the extreme right media led by the US and lessened the financial burden on a Soviet Union emasculated by sanctions and subversive activities.  But it cost them 20 million citizens to win that war. And then?

However, your mention of the Hamas and Gaza raises some hair on the back of my neck.  Independent reporting has reluctantly informed us about the sacrifices the Hamas and their supporters have made to keep alight the flame of freedom and justice in their concentration camp.

Conversely, the Zionist perceived weakness of the West Bank “leader” Abbas clearly demonstrated what happens when you give in to fascists.  Neville Chamberlain must be rolling over in his grave.

Let’s just think, reason and use logic.

A multinational band of a certain race builds its numbers in a strange sleepy and innocent country because of their insecurity in many other nations - to a point where one of the major members of the victorious allies is so badly battered, physically and financially that they could barely maintain resistance to the terrorism of the Zionists.  The UN declared them as terrorists but – the US sponsors exercised the power that Iran and Lybia have courageously pointed out and vetoed any action against those crimes and their continuation.

It truly irks me to read the double standards of the so-called western democracies when the people who own the land are being forced to bring food and medicine through tunnels which are consistently being bombed by the “previously hard done by” Zionist Jews.

In the trials of Nuremburg I believe the excuse/reason for the starving of the inmates of the concentration camps was that the Nazis were battling to feed themselves after Normandy and Stalingrad.  I consider that as a matter of pure logic.  We may never know.

However, the terrorism of the Zionists against the British and the citizens of Palestine only brought about - on the day after the Mandate finished – the cheeky; illegal; inexcusable declaration of a Jewish state of Israel in the small number of “suburbs” where they had a majority. 

Look at the maps then Gus and look at them now.

So far, this has been victory after victory for the US supplied military arms and technology while the oppressed receive nothing, not even UN activities if it doesn’t suit the fascist Zionists of illegal occupation.  If that is not an example of picking the winner before the race I know nothing of corruption.

Good Lord, where are we heading?

It has been said that, when the human race becomes as insolated against the supposed right and wrong of civilization – then we become as voracious as the animals who abide by the Nazi claim of “survival of the fittest”.

Even against that I have been truly impressed by the recent TV shows of how animals can live comfortably alongside one another. That is IF that archaic Nazi principle is removed by a society married to the speech of the Belgian EU President when he said that he would respect the diverse civilisations which he now represents.  The Zionists and the yanks won’t like that.

God bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

What wonderful passion & conviction Ernest ..... your words resonate with the strength of their truth .... well said.

We should always remember that 'A half Truth is a whole lie.' ~ Yiddish Proverb

Dear Ernest ...

The words in "mr netanyahu, tear down that wall" being in Italics were not mine but that of a quoted opinionated "journalist" — journalists doing their job of presenting "a balanced view" under the "circumstances" — balance view here I believed were designed to bring the uncertain people a bit closer to reality without smashing their heads with a hammer... I have said my piece many times that "balance" and compromise in many circumstances are atrocious to the truth and this is the subject of my larger writings "The age of Deceit" (unpublished- unfinished). A few sample do appear on this site, where general social constructs are succinctly introduced, with "freedom" (Sartre), structuralism with Levi Srauss (who just died at the young age of 101), neo-conservatism [feudalism] (Leo Strauss) and the "Jewry".

I quote myself from the end of the introduction:...

"corruption happens in nature at the core of life blocks — even in the smallest of energy blocks that are elusive.

So-called genetic engineering is gene corruption. Cloning on the other hand goes against the natural survival necessity of incremental uncertain variety [in adaptation to changing environmental factors or change for "accidental change's sake"].

Well entrenched in nature, corruption and deception are thus also part of human relationship. We have devised inter-systems to control, [we have] managed and encoded corruption and deception, since too much is harmful to our comforts. Nowadays, corruption and deception have become very sophisticated — hidden in their role of axle grease that helps the modern human world spin faster and faster. Spruik, man… spruik… But do not bring in morality and religion into it... please.

Yes, we are fodder as we get dazzled by the sparkling illusion of a magic trick and admire the skill, rather than try to understand the reality, hidden in front of our nose... actually inside of our selves.

The following chapters in this book, "The Age Of Deceit", [see also Virgil's legacy reinstated] explores the processes, the reasons, the excuses and the accepted forms of deception and corruption, at all levels — including governments that use spin, decrees, secrets and straight lies to win our trust and beliefs in more cases, detailed as much as possible... and may be with porkies included..."

Meanwhile the earth is feeling the heat.. Global warming is coming fast. Most relevant scientists have passed the stick to politicians to sort it out — like when the ozone layer was being depleted with certain fluorocarbons... But this time the process of stopping global warming is a far harder proposition than stopping the manufacture of noxious fluorocarbons — because our ENTIRE industry of manufactured comforts is based on the main culprit of global warming: carbon — in the forms of CO2, methane gas and other unheralded formats including, guess what, fluorocarbons...

We have been changing the nature of the biosphere in tragic ways for which we've got not many controls left in our hands... And some silly people — mostly politicians, godzealous and, unfortunately, deluded scientists — are stopping us from acting as we should. This is our biggest self-inflicted challenge ever. Wars, futbol, Zionists and corruption are becoming chicken feed...

My view...

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat has played down hopes of a resumption of peace talks with Israel.

He said negotiations could not continue while Israeli settlement building continued in occupied territories.

He was speaking after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged both sides to resume peace talks as soon as possible and without preconditions.

She said other questions should be dealt with before the settlement issue. Israel has yet to respond to her move.

The Israeli government has refused Palestinian demands for a complete halt to settlement building in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which it occupied during the 1967 Israeli-Arab war.

---------------------

As usual the press places the cart before the horse and instead of headlining the fact that Israel DOES NOT comply with mot of the UN resolutions since 1947 in regard to Palestine, the palestinians take the "blame" for things — such as peace — not working out.

The headline should have said: "Israel kills US peace push"...

From the NYT

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said Sunday that several Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank would always remain part of Israel, a comment that riled the Palestinians even as the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy was trying to coax them back into peace talks.

Although Israel has long insisted on maintaining a permanent hold over certain groups of settlements, including those Mr. Netanyahu referred to Sunday, his remarks struck a jarring note on a day when the American envoy, George J. Mitchell, shuttled between Israeli and Palestinian leaders on a so-far unsuccessful mission to restart negotiations that have been stalled for over a year.

Mr. Netanyahu took the opportunity of the approaching holiday of Tu Bishvat, a Jewish arbor day, to reaffirm Israel’s claim to the Etzion bloc of settlements just south of Jerusalem.

----------------------

see toon at top

The lawyer for an Australian woman arrested in the West Bank says her detention is part of a campaign by the Israeli government to silence pro-Palestinian foreigners.

Israeli soldiers arrested Bridgette Chappell, 22, in a pre-dawn raid and she is being held in an immigration jail in Israel.

The Israeli government says Ms Chappell, who was studying Arabic and politics at Birzeit University in the West Bank, was arrested for overstaying her visa.

But she was also active in the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) - a pro-Palestinian organisation committed to resisting Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

Ms Chappell was sharing an ISM apartment with two other activists - a Spanish woman and an American man, Ryan Olander.

Mr Olander says about 12 soldiers broke down the door during the night and burst in with M16 rifles.

"At about three o'clock this morning we were woken by sounds of someone fumbling with the door," he said.

"It sounded pretty violent and about five minutes after that they had used a crowbar to break the lock.

"There was about 12 Israeli military soldiers armed with M16s, flashlights and a camera."

Ms Chappell's Israeli lawyer, Omer Shatz, says he has been denied access to speak to her and fears she may be deported before he can bring her case to court.

"Usually what they try to do is try to deport her within 24 hours, using techniques of intimidation and threatening - saying 'if you won't sign a paper that's saying she is willing to leave now, or within a few hours, you will be staying there for months'," he said.

"And they know that they don't want to be in jail for a long period of time."

------------------

See toon at top...

By ETHAN BRONNER

JERUSALEM — The mayor of Jerusalem is offering 120 Palestinian families in a jumble of houses scheduled for demolition a deal he believes they can’t refuse: new apartments atop shops and restaurants, a day care center, boutique hotels and a huge park. Tourists and income will flow. It is — as the mayor likes to say — win-win.

But as Ziad Kawar, a lawyer representing the families, likes to say, this is Jerusalem, not Zurich. Here there seems only to be win-lose. “The whole situation is impossible,” Mr. Kawar said. “It is a political problem, and I am being asked to treat it like a legal one. I am walking between the raindrops.”

The negotiations offer a window into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — the mistrust, the missed signals, the clash of cultures, the unequal power balance. The mayor, Nir Barkat, says he has the interests of the Palestinians in mind. They say he is lying. The residents say they have been living there for decades. Mr. Barkat says they are lying. If the two sides reach agreement soon, it will be a miracle. If they do not, tensions will accelerate.

Mr. Barkat, a secular rightist who made a fortune in the high-tech industry, says the proposal for the neighborhood, known as Al Bustan near the walled Old City, is a pilot for what he hopes to do throughout East Jerusalem. “It can be a mini-Tuscany,” he said in an interview.

He added that with or without the cooperation of the residents, the plan would be put into effect. “They think what I say is not what I mean,” Mr. Barkat said. “They are not used to a professional rather than a political approach.”

In fact, no utterance escapes politics. All labels and names here are contested. The mayor calls the neighborhood not by its Arabic name of Al Bustan but by a Hebrew one — Gan Hamelech, or the King’s Garden, a reference to the spot some believe King David wrote psalms. He speaks of “illegal” housing. The Palestinians — indeed the rest of the world — do not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over East Jerusalem. He wants them to yield their houses. They say they own the land.

“For us, the occupiers cannot tell us what is legal and illegal,” protested Jawad Siyam, a community activist.

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see toon at top

The European Court of Justice has ruled that Israeli goods made in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank cannot be considered Israeli.

This means goods made by Israelis or Jews in the West Bank cannot benefit from a trade deal giving Israel preferential access to EU markets.

EU import duties on Israeli goods from the settlements may now be imposed, making them less competitive.

Jewish settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.

The EU has agreements with both Israel and the Palestinians that end customs duties.

Israeli companies based around settlements manufacture a host of products including confectionery, wine, cosmetics and computer equipment.

Some of the companies employ Palestinian workers, who are restricted from working in Israel.

Palestinians have long argued that Israeli goods made in settlements should not receive trade privileges, as settlements are not part of Israel.

Pro-Palestinian campaigners have also regularly protested that European supermarkets stock goods with Israeli labels on farm products from the West Bank.

-------------------

see toon at top

from Al Jazeera

In a move that appears to be a celebration of the 16th anniversary of the massacre of 29 worshippers by the terrorist Baruch Goldstein, the Israeli government has proclaimed that the Ibrahimi Mosque in Khalil (Hebron) and Masjid Bilal ibn Rabah (mosque) in Bethlehem are "Jewish Heritage sites".

Goldstein, an American-born Israeli settler who served as a medic in the military, opened fire on worshippers at a mosque in Hebron on February 25, 1994, killing 29 and wounding more than 150, before being subdued and beaten to death.

The announcement by the government of Binyamin Netanyahu, though not surprising, is the latest in a series of Israeli attacks on Islamic historical and religious sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

It is consistent with the Israelis' long-standing ambition to dispose of all non-Jewish religious symbols and presence in Palestine.
 
While the Israeli government was announcing the annexation of the Islamic sites, dozens of settlers attempted to storm into Jericho on the pretext that they were visiting an ancient synagogue.

Under the Gaza-Jericho Agreement of May 1994, Israel agreed to dissolve its civil administration and "transferred its powers and responsibilities to the Palestinian Authority".

Israel disinterested in peace

In his first reaction to the annexation of the Ibrahimi Mosque, Amr Moussa, the Secretary General of the Arab League, said: "This proves that Israel is not interested in peace and negotiations."

------------------

see toon at top.

The mayor of Jerusalem has announced a plan to demolish an area of Arab East Jerusalem to make way for an upmarket district of luxury hotels and gardens.

But hours before Mayor Nir Barkat was due to announce his scheme - called the King's Garden - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said work should be delayed.

The Israelis say the Palestinian houses to be demolished have been built without permits and have become a slum.

Palestinians say it is their land and want it to be part of their capital.

Critics say the plan will inflame an already volatile situation in the area, the BBC's Heather Sharp in Jerusalem says.

Rights groups have warned that pushing ahead with the plan could trigger a fresh wave of violence, our correspondent adds.

-------------------

ten paces forward, one pace delayed to soften the blow...

The US has said Israel's authorisation of new building in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank does not violate a recently announced moratorium.

But a state department spokesman said it was "the kind of thing that both sides need to be cautious of".

Israel has promised a 10-month pause in settlement building in the West Bank, though not in East Jerusalem.

It says the 112 new apartments in Beitar Illit settlement were approved ahead of the moratorium being declared.

The move comes as the US announced that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to hold indirect talks.

Palestinian negotiators say the Beitar Illit announcement will place strain on an already fragile agreement to talk.

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see toon at top

Perhaps I should sit back and try to understand that when unrestrained fascism is allowed to flourish, the innocent victims begin to be painted as the only obstruction to "peace" - that is, their refusal to give total capitulation to control by the fascist forces.  Like an out-or-control freight train it continues, and no pleas by displaying “cardboard placards to stop” - will make any difference.  Is that democracy?

Do we really believe is truth, justice and the American way.  Fair dinkum.

What a crazy world we live in.  We are told by the capitalist media that their controls of everything we may swallow from their many obscene wealthy outlets are really in the (controlled) Nation's interests.  Of course the opposite is true.

What a stupid suggestion that the Zionists occupying Palestine will “Hail Caesar” and sit down and consider a "compromise" share of the land they have invaded and honor its people who they have treated with the same cruelty for which they still dare to claim sympathy for their ancestors.

I think that we all have to take a long breath and consider "IS THE ZIONIST REVOLUTION AND INVASION OF PALESTINE - LEGAL" under any international law or United Nations Charters?  Or even 2Oth Century civilization?

I have been deeply involved in this massive injustice since the Gaza Holocaust and I cannot believe that the military personnel of so many countries, irrespective of which side their politicians were on, can really be convinced that the medals they may now wear with pride are merely back-handed payments for service rendered.

IF I am wrong, why do the countries who suffer abject defeat, still revere their veterans and “celebrate” those who will never return? Even though they lost?

Back to my point.  We know that history is written by the Historians and that there is no such thing as History – only Historians – therefore I believe that we should have been above the shackles of education but – the powers that be are too organized for us to judge.  "Give me ten men...."

IMHO since WW I, which was a horrible example of human stupidity, the ability for well-organized influential and financially obscene groups have realized the profit available in exploiting the most common human frailty – fear.

Fear of the unknown – fear of death – fear of losing a standard of living – fear of a religious fanatic doing something that really should NOT have happened.

Does America interfere in the politics of every influential nation on Earth for the sake of their “democratic doctrine” being a universal, subjective and conversely free of the “might is right” archaic attitude that we thought we had left behind? Pigs.

I wonder will we ever know the hidden truths of the most manipulated people on Earth – the Americans. The orchestrated wars against anyone who dared to challenge their decision to take over their politics and therefore the government?

What worries me is that the American way of “might is right” has created a monster that even their citizens can’t control. They are their own worst enemy.

I am saying that we, at least the Australians of the post Howard era, should be cautious as to how much of our so-called liberty is consumed by politicians who owe their loyalty and their very existence to those who funded their success.

God Bless Australia.  NE OUBLIE.

Takers keepers...

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any concession on the building of settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, despite international pressure.

Mr Netanyahu said he had written to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to remove any doubt about the issue.

He made the remarks hours before he left for Washington to address the influential pro-Israeli group, Aipac.

He has been invited to meet President Barack Obama on Tuesday, indicating a possible thaw in relations.

Tensions between the two allies has been running high over Israel's announcement to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel since 1967, despite US efforts to re-launch stalled peace talks.

-------------------------

blah blah blah see toon at top...

"Charitable" Jews...

The Israeli cabinet has backed a $214m investment plan for Israeli Arabs, who have long suffered inequality and a history of discrimination.

Israeli-Arab groups gave the news a cautious welcome but said some of the money just made up for cuts last year.

About 20% of Israel's population are people of Arab descent who remained in Israel after its creation in 1948.

Israel is under pressure to tackle wealth gaps between communities as it seeks to join the OECD later this year.

"Underlying this plan is a dramatic change of direction in the government's policy," said Israeli Minister for Minorities, Avishai Braverman.

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This plan over 5 years represents about $51 million per year... redressing cuts made last year of about $67 million for the same item... result?: minus $16 millions...

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has again rejected US calls to halt construction in occupied East Jerusalem.

He was speaking as US Middle East envoy George Mitchell arrived in the region to try to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

It is his first visit since a row broke out between Israel and the US over home construction plans in East Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, the UN said it could not educate thousands of Palestinian pupils because of Israel's blockade of Gaza.

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, John Ging, said the blockade made it impossible to build new schools to accommodate the growing numbers of students.

Israel imposed a tightened siege on Gaza after the militant Hamas movement seized control over the Gaza Strip in 2007.

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see toon at top..

Jerusalem's firebrand mayor has vowed to speed up Jewish construction in Arab-dominated East Jerusalem in comments that could undermine hopes of a long-awaited breakthrough in the peace process.

Speaking at an event in Washington, Mayor Nir Barkat took aim at the US administration, which has engaged in an intense round of diplomacy to persuade the Israelis to agree to a construction freeze to try to coax the Palestinians into peace talks, stalled now for more than a year.

Mr Barkat vigorously denied reports that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has quietly instructed officials to halt construction in East Jerusalem while publicly announcing the opposite.

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Gus: pass another brick of zionist deceit...

The best alternative is a US-brokered settlement that would establish a State of Palestine, with contiguous borders, alongside Israel. East Jerusalem would be the Palestinian capital. In exchange, Israel would get the two things it has always insisted are the only demands it makes of the Arabs: secure, recognised borders and security guarantees from the US. (The security of the Palestinian state would also be guaranteed.)

This is not some pie-in-the-sky idea. As early as 2002, the entire Arab world signed on to the Saudi plan (later renamed the Arab League Initiative), which offered Israel not only recognition and peace but full normalisation in exchange for establishment of the State of Palestine. The Palestinians immediately accepted the offer. Israel ignored it, followed by the US.

The few changes since then have been for the worse. The current Israeli government has no interest in any plan that requires withdrawal. As for the US, it can be expected to be even more timid than usual in the two years prior to election day 2012. Additionally, US policy toward Israel and Palestine is in the hands of White House aide Dennis Ross, who unambiguously supports Israeli positions on pretty much everything.

This all means that the Palestinians may have to take matters into their own hands by unilaterally declaring the establishment of a state in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, with the blessing of the UN.

Some say that a unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood would lead to war (much as Israel's unilateral declaration of statehood led to war in 1948). That could be true.

A furious Israel could abolish the Palestinian Authority, assume direct control over all the territories and attempt to govern millions of Palestinians without the assistance of the exceedingly compliant Palestinian Authority.

But that would surely lead to the Palestinians going back to the UN and demanding the right not to statehood but to full citizenship in Israel - including the right to vote. That is the last thing Israel wants - a Palestinian majority in the Jewish state.

More likely, Israel would have to negotiate with the new Palestinian state as one government negotiates with another. No longer would the Palestinians be beggars asking for a few crumbs at the table. No, suddenly the playing field would be levelled, at least somewhat.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/01/201111971544820372.html

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has sternly rebuked the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, in an unusually fractious telephone call, according to media reports.

Netanyahu had done nothing to advance the peace process, Merkel said in a conversation this week, reported in the Israeli daily Haaretz.

The Israeli prime minister telephoned Merkel on Monday to say he was disappointed that Germany had voted for a UN security council resolution condemning settlements that was vetoed by the US.

According to a German official quoted by Haaretz, Merkel was furious. "How dare you?" she said. "You are the one who has disappointed us. You haven't made a single step to advance peace."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/feb/25/merkel-rebukes-netanyahu-peace-israel

see toon at top...

Did the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s leadership have foreknowledge of the Gaza war? That question is raised - though never satisfactorily answered - by several exchanges revealed in The Palestine Papers.

In defending their handling of the Gaza war, Mahmoud Abbas, the PA president, has long held that the PA warned Hamas - both in Gaza and through its Syrian-based leadership - that Israel was planning an attack on Gaza.

The PA always maintained that their information was only based on Israeli press reports; however, minutes of meetings between the PA and Israeli leaders tell a different story.

The Palestine Papers show that Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian Authority negotiator, told George Mitchell, the US Middle East envoy, in a meeting on October 21, 2009 that Amos Gilad, the director of Israeli military intelligence, alerted Abbas prior to the Gaza attack.

Erekat: […] Our trust with the [Israeli] government is zero. Amos [Gilad] spoke to Lieberman [the Israeli foreign minister] - told them about the claim that Abu Mazen [Abbas] was colluding with them in the Gaza war. He went to Abu Mazen before the attack and asked him. Abu Mazen replied that he will not go to Gaza on an Israeli tank. Amos Gilad testified about that. He was honest. So we can maintain the channel.

The Palestine Papers confirm here what was previously revealed by second hand sources that were quoted in some of the thousands of US State Department cables published by WikiLeaks in December last year.

http://english.aljazeera.net/palestinepapers/2011/01/201112618289133202.html

When in 1947, the UN grappled with the idea of partitioning Palestine, it was rejected, outright and rightfully, by the Palestinians. Nor were the entire inhabitants under the British mandate granted a referendum, as were the Crimeans, on the matter because the indigenous population far exceeded the  Zionist immigrants whom the international community favoured.

So when Israel - unilaterally -  declared the state of Israel, after massacring unarmed Palestinian children, women, elderly and men, destroying over 500 villages and forcefully deporting 700,000 terrified Palestinians, the West did not impose economic sanctions nor lift a military finger to redress the grave violations of international law then.

Furthermore, the West ignored Israel's unilateral annexation, on June 28,1967, of East Jerusalem, including the Old City, that placed its Palestinian residents under Israeli jurisdiction, administration and illegal military occupation as well as ignoring Israel's annexation of Syria's Golan Heights.

Both annexations have been deemed invalid by many UNSC Resolutions such as 478, 269 and 497 - all rejected by Israel that, 47 years later, relentlessly fuels its annexation drive by the expansion of its settlement colonies.

On March 20, while the Ukrainian crisis unfolded, the Israeli Civil Administration, with Putinesque arrogance, defied the Israeli-Palestinian peace process demand for a settlement freeze, by announcing the approval of more than 2,000 housing units in the illegal West Bank settlements.

Today, there are 121 colonies plus 101 offshoot outposts subsidised by the government of Israel and supported by monies from Jews worldwide through rich Zionist organisations like the apartheid JNF "charity" whose provision of illegal settlement housing and leases on stolen Palestinian lands are "chartered to benefit Jews exclusively". Moreover, JNF's racist policies and illegal operations are tax-exempt in the US, UK, Australia and Canada.  

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2014/03/western-hypocrisy-crimea-israel-201432342946568123.html