This is the reality in East Jerusalem. By Antony Loewenstein

Via: Antony Loewenstein.

“Green Zone” is a 20 minute long documentary, exploring Israel’s discriminatory policies in occupied East Jerusalem:

Israeli border guards shoot US student’s laptop. By Maev Kennedy

Via: The Guardian.

The cliched advice with so many computer problems is to turn the machine off and then on again; the laptop that offended the Israeli border police has certainly been turned off but is very unlikely ever to fire up again.

The laptop belonged to an American student, Lily Sussman, who had been travelling widely in the Middle East and, a fortnight ago, was crossing into Israel at Taba after a stay in Cairo.

According to her blog the security guards spent two hours questioning her, hand-checking every single item in her luggage, and questioning her about whether she had an Arab, Palestinian or Egyptian boyfriend. They checked images on her camera – which included anti-Israeli graffiti – and asked about the map of Jerusalem drawn for her by a friend.

She then heard an announcement “along the lines of ‘do not to be alarmed by gunshots because the Israeli security needs to blow up suspicious passenger luggage.’”

She rushed to check her unattended luggage, left where she had been instructed, and was relieved to find it untouched. “Moments later a man came outside and introduced himself as the manager on duty. And then, ‘I’m sorry but we had to blow up your laptop.’”

The laptop had not so much been blown up as executed by firing squad, its screen shattered by three bullets.

According to the Haaretz newspaper, the Israeli airport authorities responded: “A check performed on the lady’s luggage signalled the need for security personnel to follow procedure.”

The hard disk survived, and Sussman hopes to win compensation. However, many comments on her blog post were startlingly hostile. Mike Hunt wrote: “To hell with this pathetic wretch and her ventilated Macbook, she is a whiny little wannabe who should go back to Egypt get a netbook and have a nice day sympathising for the poooooor Palestinians.” Others suggested it was her own fault for using a Mac instead of a PC.

The Rights of Palestinian Refugees: What Role for the UNRWA? by Dina Jadallah

Via: Global Research.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees’ (UNRWA) sixtieth anniversary has now come and gone.  Is this a sign of success or of profound failure?  And for whom?  The answer will vary depending on perspective:  UNRWA’s, the refugees, and the states in which it operates.  Nevertheless, the continued existence of an agency that was originally intended as a temporary relief and works organization until the legal and political rights of displaced refugees are restored is testimony to the failure of the whole world to address and solve the tragedy of the so-far ongoing Palestinian refugee crisis.

Palestinian refugees, who number 7.2 million worldwide, remain the largest and longest suffering in the world.  More than four million of them are registered with the United Nations for assistance.  Overwhelmingly, they refuse to give up their inalienable right of return (as per UN Resolution 3236).  Their numbers continue to expand due to natural demographic  growth.  That is compounded by Israeli policies, such as house demolitions, illegal settlements, forced exile, land expropriation, and the construction of the apartheid wall.  All of these have added to the numbers.  For instance, in 2008 alone, Israel stripped the residency of 4577 Jerusalemites – twenty times the average of the last forty years. (1)

The Lobby Within. By Ramzy Baroud

Via: Ramzy Baroud’s Website.

A just and peaceful solution to the protracted Palestinian-Israeli conflict is only possible when the US ceases to block every attempt made towards it.

This assertion might raise many questions, for example, just how is one to define a just and peaceful resolution? And for what reasons would the US obstruct such a possibility, considering that stability in the Middle East is, or at least should be a top American priority?

A just and peaceful resolution is difficult to define, considering that the conception of justice varies both in definition and interpretation. In the case of this conflict, the long-held assumption is that a just resolution is one that would be consistent with international and humanitarian laws, and which would enjoy the largest possible consensus worldwide.

A consensus is indeed at hand and has been for decades; it is one that recognises the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territories as illegal and immoral, that unconditionally acknowledges the illegality of all Jewish settlements in occupied Palestine and the illegal transfer of Israeli settlers to inhabit unlawfully acquired Palestinian land. Strangely enough, despite its very cautious phraseology, the US, especially under the current administration of President Barack Obama recognises these very facts. But then why is the man who leads the world’s only superpower proving not only incapable of achieving what should be a practicable feat, but also going so far as to hinder the efforts of other parties to simply recognise Palestinian rights or pinpoint Israeli injustices?

This is precisely what has just taken place, a repeat of the same infuriating episode for the thousandth time.

Saudi Arabia must not flog 75-year-old woman

Via: Amnesty International.

The Saudi Arabian authorities must not carry out the imminent flogging and imprisonment of an elderly woman and two younger men, Amnesty International said on Monday.

The Minister of Interior is reported to have ordered the immediate detention and flogging of a 75-year-old woman, Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi, along with two Saudi Arabian men known only as Fahad and Hadyan.

All three were found guilty in March of being in the company of members of the opposite sex who are not close relatives, known as khilwa. The verdict was subsequently upheld by a court of appeal. Attempts to lodge an appeal at the Supreme Court were recently rejected.

If imprisoned, Amnesty International would consider all three to be prisoners of conscience as the organization considers the criminalization of khilwa to be a violation of the right to freedom of expression and to privacy as set out in international human rights standards.

“Saving Israel” or assisting it to commit suicide? By Alan Hart

Via: Alan Hart.

I had to struggle with myself to decide which of two headlines was most appropriate for this article – the one above or “The hard core of lunatics are pulling up the drawbridge”.

A Jewish friend in Canada drew my attention to an article in the Jewish Ledger, an independent weekly newspaper in Westport, Connecticut. The headline over it is “Saving Israel” Expert says American Jews key to Israel’s survival. I have rarely read such dangerous nonsense. It’s the voice of Zionism, deluded as ever, but with more than a hint of panic.

The “expert” quoted is Dr. Daniel Gordis, senior vice president of the Jerusalem-based Shalem Center, which describes itself as a research and education institute. He had addressed a standing-room only crowd of close to 300 in the small sanctuary of Westport’s Conservative Synagogue.

His main point was that Israel has survived all conventional military attacks and frustrated their aims (never mind that Israel’s survival was never in question), and has reduced terrorism to a minor threat, but there is now a threat “that is capable of succeeding and against which Israel has no defense.”

What, according to Gordis, is this new threat?

“The direct assault that Israel is now under by the Arabs via appeals to the world community. This co-ordinated effort aims to delegitimize the Jewish state and cause it to be treated as an international pariah, whose products and scholars will be boycotted and ostracized from the international community.”

Gordis went on to say that in order to survive this new attack, “American Jews must fight in the halls of Congress and on the American campuses. This means getting involved with organizations willing to present Jewish arguments, e.g. The American Israel Political Action Committee, AIPAC.” (Its real title is The American Israel Public Affairs Committee; and “Jewish arguments” is a misrepresentation. Some Jewish arguments are opposed to Zionist arguments. Gordis wants more American Jews to present Zionist arguments).

Mercenaries and assassins: The real face of Obama’s “good war”. By Bill Van Auken

Via: World Socialist Web Site.

Reports that mercenaries employed by the notorious Blackwater-Xe military contracting firm participated in CIA assassinations in Iraq and Afghanistan have further exposed the real character of so-called “good war” that is being escalated by the Obama administration.

Citing former employees of the firm and US intelligence agents, the New York Times reported Friday that Blackwater gunmen, ostensibly contracted as security guards, “participated in some of the CIA’s most sensitive activities—clandestine raids with agency officers against people suspected of being insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan and the transporting of detainees.”

These “snatch and grab” operations—many of them involving killings of individuals suspected of participating in the resistance to US occupation—“occurred on an almost nightly basis during the height of the Iraqi insurgency from 2004 to 2006, with Blackwater employees playing central roles,” the Times reports.

Both the Times and the Washington Post quoted unnamed intelligence officials and ex-Blackwater operatives as asserting that the involvement of the company’s mercenaries in assassinations and abductions was not planned. Rather, they claimed, it was a matter of the division of labor between CIA operatives and private guards supposedly hired for the purpose of protecting them becoming “blurred.”

According to the Times, the Blackwater guards “were supposed to only provide perimeter security during raids, leaving it up to CIA officers and Special Operations military personnel to capture or kill suspected insurgents.” The newspaper added, “But in the chaos of operations, the roles of Blackwater, CIA and military personnel sometimes merged.”

Why did the U.S. give global warming denier Exxon a $3 billion subsidy on the eve of climate talks? By Sue Sturgis

Via: Facing South.

Exxon Mobil has spent millions of dollars to sow confusion over the reality and urgency of global warming — but that didn’t stop the U.S. government from giving the Texas-based oil giant a $3 billion taxpayer-financed subsidy on the cusp of international climate talks.

On Dec. 3, just four days before the U.N. Climate Conference kicked off in Copenhagen, board members of the U.S. Export-Import Bank — a federal agency that provides loans and guarantees to help U.S. companies secure foreign deals — gave final approval to a plan to help Exxon finance a natural gas project in Papua New Guinea, Bloomberg reports. The company will use the funding to build a $15 billion pipeline and liquefaction plant, with the project design being handled by Houston-based KBR.

Exxon made more than $45 billion last year, making it the world’s most profitable corporation. Between 1998 and 2005, the company funneled nearly $16 million to a network of advocacy organizations working to confuse the public about global warming science, according to a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Water Is the Missing Link in Copenhagen. By Thalif Deen

Via: IPS/TerraViva.
When the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) announced the grim news that 2009 is likely to rank in the top 10 warmest on record, the U.N. agency also stressed last week the widespread water-related calamities caused by global warming.

China has suffered its worst drought in five decades. In East Africa, a drought has led to massive food shortages. In North America, Mexico experienced severe-to-exceptional drought conditions in September. And in central Argentina, a drought caused severe damage to agriculture, livestock and water resources.

The devastation caused by climate change is not only triggering droughts worldwide but also, ironically, a surfeit of water, mostly sparked by floods in Australia, Bangladesh and Burkina Faso, hurricanes in Central America, heavy rainfall and landslides in Colombia and winter storms in Spain and France.

Yet water has been marginalised during the two-week climate change negotiations in Copenhagen, scheduled to conclude Friday.

“Water is the primary medium through which climate change impacts will be felt by human populations and the environment,” said Karin Lexen of the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), based in the Swedish capital.

She pointed out that changes in water availability and predictability of weather systems has put water at the heart of future development decision-making.

“Yet, water is barely mentioned in the draft negotiating text [at the talks in Copenhagen],” Lexen told TerraViva.

The Israeli Stranglehold. By Paul Craig Roberts

Via: Counter Punch.

Settlers attack West Bank mosque and burn holy Muslim books” was a London Times headline on December 11, 2009.

These attacks, together with the demolition of Palestinian homes, the uprooting of Palestinians’ olive groves, the innumerable checkpoints that prevent Palestinians from accessing schools, work, and medical care, the Israeli Wall that denies Palestinians access to the land stolen from them, and the isolation and blockade of the Gaza Ghetto, are part of the Israeli government’s policy of genocide for the Palestinians.

The Israel Lobby has such power over America that even former President Jimmy Carter, a good friend of Israel, is demonized for using the polite term–apartheid–for the genocide that has occurred over the decades during which American “Christian” preachers, together with bought-and-paid-for politicians, justified Israel’s policy of slow genocide for Palestine.

Israelis who still have a moral conscience–a small part of the population–endeavor to use moral protests against the inhumanity of the Israeli government. Israelis Jeff Halper and Angela Godfrey-Goldstein lead the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition (ICAHD), a non-violent, direct-action group established to oppose and resist Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories.

Under international law an occupier by military force is forbidden to steal the occupied land. The US, however, has protected Israel’s violation of international law for decades by vetoing UN resolutions. Israel has been able to steal Palestine from the Palestinians, because the US government used its power to prevent Israel from being held accountable under international law.

In March 2003 American citizen Rachel Corrie stood in front of an Israeli bulldozer, made by Caterpillar and sent to destroy a Palestinian home. Her courageous act of defiance was regarded as an annoyance, and she was run over and murdered by the Israeli bulldozer operator. Israel suffered no consequences for its murder of an American citizen who had a moral conscience.

Goldman Sachs: Friend of Planet Earth. By Dean Baker

Via: Truthout.

O.K., I have now said something nice about Goldman Sachs. And, there is actually some truth in this title.

Some people have pointed out that Goldman Sachs is one of the main forces lobbying for the cap-and-trade system of carbon permits that lies at the heart of the House-approved bill to combat climate change. Under this proposal, a certain amount of carbon permits would be issued each year. These permits would allow oil companies, utilities, and other manufacturers to emit a set amount of carbon dioxide each year.

The total amount of carbon dioxide emitted in the country would be restricted by the amount of permits issued. Some amount of permits would be grandfathered – handed out to coal burning utilities and other major emitters. The rest would be auctioned off to the highest bidder, raising revenue for the government. Both the auctioned and the grandfathered permits could be resold in the secondary market. This gives an incentive for large emitters to reduce their emissions, since they can then profit from selling their permits to others.

Many environmentalists have objected to the permit system, arguing that a direct tax on carbon emissions would be easier and cheaper to administer. This is probably true. They have also pointed out that Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street firms have been major proponents of the cap-and-trade system. They argue that these firms stand to make billions off the permits.

What Americans Need to know about Mordechai Vanunu. By Eileen Fleming

Via: Arabisto.

Mordechai Vanunu was released from Ashkelon prison to open air captivity in east Jerusalem on April 21, 2004 after 18 years-most all in solitary-on April 21, 2004.

In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu was clubbed, drugged, bound and kidnapped from Rome by the Mossad because he told the truth and provided the photographic proof of their clandestine 7 story underground WMD facility in the Negev.

In the case of Mordechai Vanunu, Americans need to know that the restrictions that have held him captive in Jerusalem come from the Emergency Defense Regulations which were implemented by Britain against Palestinians and Jews after World War II.

After WW II, Attorney Yaccov Shapiro, who later became Israel’s Minister Of Justice, described the Emergency Defense Regulations as “unparalleled in any civilized country: there were no such laws in Nazi Germany.”

During one of my seven trips to Jerusalem since 2005, I asked Vanunu, “If the British Mandate has expired why not the British Mandate’s Emergency Defense Regulations?”

Vaunu replied, “The reason given is security but it is because Israel is not a democracy unless you are a Jew. This administration tells me I am not allowed to speak to foreigners, the Media, and the world. But I do because that is how I prove my true humanity to the world. My freedom of speech trial began January 25, 2006 for speaking to the media, the same day as the Palestinian elections…When I decided to expose Israel’s nuclear weapons I acted out of conscience and to warn the world to prevent a nuclear holocaust.”

In 1963, Peres was Israel’s Deputy Minister of Defense when he met with President Kennedy at the White House. Kennedy told Peres, “You know that we follow very closely the discovery of any nuclear development in the region. This could create a very dangerous situation. For this reason we monitor your nuclear effort. What could you tell me about this?”

Peres replied, “I can tell you most clearly that we will not introduce nuclear weapons to the region, and certainly we will not be the first.”