US government agency bows down to me (and numerous others) and issues Mohammed Omer a visa.

I am thrilled to see that sending email to a US government agency can get our government to bow down to popular pressure to stop their evil ways… at least temporarily.

Mohammed Omer is a young and gifted reporter from Gaza who is known as one who gives a “voice to the voiceless,” documenting life in Gaza in work critical of anyone who does wrong, including Israel and Hamas.  He won the prestigious Martha Gelhorn award for reporting a while back and was beaten severely as he returned to Gaza, by Israeli security forces, who tried to steal his award money! He is now scheduled to come to the USA on a speaking tour and was denied a visa from the US Consulate in Amsterdam, seemingly changing the speaking tour into a skype tour.

I and a host of others wrote the Consulate, imploring them to issue a visa to this good man. I received this reply on 3/26:

The U.S. Consulate General in Amsterdam informed Mr. Al Moghayer on Thursday, March 25, 2010, that his visa was ready for issuance.

I wrote back asking who the heck they were talking about and was just informed today that he apparently has a writing name and that his real name is Al Moghayer. 

Doubtless AIPAC and other Israeli lobbyists were behind the denial in the first place. I am glad to have been part of a different kind of lobby in the pressure laid on our government to actually serve it’s people and not the secret combinations that currently exist… at least for a moment in time.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march282010/mohammed-omer.php

Clinton bumbles and Israel spits in our faces while we show them how much we love them.

Just a little smatterring of pet news stories here.  The first is one that shows US arrogance and makes me glad that those nations south of the US don’t bow down to the US anymore.  First of all Brazil refused to go along with Iran sanctions, which was one of Clinton’s main goals going south.  Second, she arrogantly and very unsensitively stated that the Honduras election was completed successfully without violence.  No one in this hemisphere besides the US recognized the validity of that election at first.  It is outrageous that she should ignore the violence that was perpetrated upon those who opposed the very undemocratic coup and that violence continues to this day.  Check out a letter some members of congress sent to Clinton recently:

Since President Lobo’s inauguration, several prominent opponents of the coup have been attacked. On February 3rd, Vanessa Zepeda, a nurse and union organizer who had previously received death threats linked to her activism in the resistance movement, was strangled and her body dumped from a vehicle in Tegucigalpa. On February 15th, Julio Funes Benitez, a member of the SITRASANAA trade union and an active member of the national resistance movement, was shot and killed by unknown gunmen on a motorcycle outside his home. Most recently, Claudia Brizuela, an opposition activist, was murdered in her home on February 24th. Unfortunately these are only three of the numerous attacks against activists and their families…

On an unrelated note, (but I guess you could say that the bizarro US foreign policy, orchestrated by our secret combinations is all related), VP Biden visited Israel and stated that the US and Israel’s bonds are unshakeable.  He also stated that, “There is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel in terms of Israel’s security. None.” Why does an elected member of our nation have to drool so disgustingly at the feet of another nation?  Why should Israel’s security be so important to us?  Why can’t the security of Palestinians be important to us too?  At the same time Biden is going there to get some peace talks started (doomed to fail from the outset) Israel is announcing more settlements in occupied Palestinian land!  As you see in my  last post Israel is still shooting Palestinian kids! They continue to hold political prisoners who peacefully object to the wall and call for Israeli divestment.  They continue to steal Palestinian water.  The continue to allow settlers to wreak all sorts of violence and cruelty on Palestinians while soldiers watch.  They continue to harrass and damage Palestinian fishing vessels and yet we think their security is as important as anything and our bonds with them are unshakeable.  I suppose that is why we just shrugged when they bombed the USS Liberty in 1967 and killed and wounded our personell mercilessly, knowing full well what they were doing in a flagrant act of war.  I just don’t get it.

AIPAC’s power and our plutocracy.

Just a couple of points here.  The first regards Dennis Kucinich who was apparently invited to be the keynote speaker at the Palm Beach County Democratic Party’s fundraiser.  Wealthy fundraisers revolted at the news of Kucinich’s invitation to speak because of his perceived anti-Israeli political views.  Kucinich voluntarily withdrew from the invitation after he heard of the ruckus.  The clincher comes with Mark Alan Siegel, the County’s Democratic party chairman. 

“People feel he’s anti-Israel. I don’t read it that way, but the leadership of AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) and other elements of the Jewish community do and I don’t want to get into an argument with them,” said Siegel, who is Jewish.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23932.htm

Do you get this folks?  AIPAC is too powerful to argue against.  Their position will always be maintained because of the power they weild over our political process.  Rare, honest men like Kucinich will be found, but will not be big enough to fight AIPAC.  We are a nation occupied by a foreign force, to whom we have sold our souls.

In other news, this study shows that 44% of congress members are millionaires, in contrast to 1% of the public they represent.  Now, it is expected that there will be a higher proportion of millionaires amongst a group of well-educated men and women that are smart enough to get to where they are in Congress.  However, the point that we should raise our eyebrows at is the fact that many of these members of congress owe part of their wealth to the fact that they own stock in Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, all companies that Congress decided to give billions of dollars of our tax dollars to.  Think about that for a little while.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29235.html

The Goldstone report is sustained by at least one wise politician in the US.

Great words from Dennis Kucinich on the verge of the resolution condemning the Goldstone report.  Why can’t we have more politicians like this?

“Today we journey from Operation Cast Lead to Operation Cast Doubt. Almost as serious as committing war crimes is covering up war crimes, pretending that war crimes were never committed and did not exist.

“Because behind every such deception is the nullification of humanity, the destruction of human dignity, the annihilation of the human spirit, the triumph of Orwellian thinking, the eternal prison of the dark heart of the totalitarian.

“The resolution before us today, which would reject all attempts of the Goldstone Report to fix responsibility of all parties to war crimes, including both Hamas and Israel, may as well be called the “Down is Up, Night is Day, Wrong is Right” resolution.

“Because if this Congress votes to condemn a report it has not read, concerning events it has totally ignored, about violations of law of which it is unaware, it will have brought shame to this great institution.

“How can we ever expect there to be peace in the Middle East if we tacitly approve of violations of international law and international human rights, if we look the other way, or if we close our eyes to the heartbreak of people on both sides by white-washing a legitimate investigation?

“How can we protect the people of Israel from existential threats if we hold no concern for the protection of the Palestinians, for their physical security, their right to land, their right to their own homes, their right to water, their right to sustenance, their right to freedom of movement, their right to the human security of jobs, education and health care?

“We will have peace only when the plight of both Palestinians and Israelis is brought before this House and given equal consideration in recognition of that principle that all people on this planet have a right to survive and thrive, and it is our responsibility, our duty to see that no individual, no group, no people are barred from this humble human claim.”

Unalloyed evil? Another reason why Romney does not speak for me. Please don’t run for Pres. in 2012!

Mitt Romney is sucking up to AIPAC and inspiring violence against Iran.  He makes mormonism look so unappealing.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) condemned the Obama Administration’s approach toward Iran, a republic he described as “unalloyed evil” and controlled by “ruthless and fanatical” leaders in a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee today in San Diego.

“Stop thinking that a charm offensive will talk the Iranians out of their pursuit of nuclear weapons,” said Romney. “It will not.” Later in the address, he punctuated that sentiment by noting: “Once an outstretched hand is met with a clenched fist, it becomes a symbol of weakness and impotence.”

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/eye-on-2012/romney-on-iran-unalloyed-evil.html?wprss=thefix

A short note on Obama’s speech.

Nice to see Obama admit in public that the US overthrew Iran’s democratically elected government in 1953, which fact, along with the support of the Shah, has sort of culminated in our recent standoff with Iran over the last 30 years. 

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=97071&sectionid=351020502

Now, it would be nice if he would start confessing to every other coup we’ve ever been involved in.

Some of the elements of his speech today were pretty laughable such as his castigating Hamas for not renouncing violence.  Is there any reason to ask Hamas to renounce violence when Israel just pounded Gaza killing 1300 Gazans?  The fact of the matter is that we’ve always wanted for the US and our client states to have a monopoly on violence.  Anyone else is just a terrorist. 

Additionally, demanding Hamas recognize Israel is a silly thing to ask since Israel doesn’t recognize Palestine and East Timor doesn’t recognize Indonesia and Taiwan doesn’t recognize China etc.  If we are going to start asking countries to recognize other countries, especially the ones that are taking your land and call part of your land their country… we’d better get started soon, because the list is pretty long. 

Despite his recent insistence that Israel freeze settlement expansion (only a small part of Israel’s daily crimes against Palestinian Arabs) Obama is still a staunch ally of Israel and his refusal to talk to Hamas is good evidence of that.  He will talk to everyone else, even recently saying he will talk to Hezbollah.  Why not talk to Hamas?  Remember, 64% of Israelis polled last year think that Hamas should be engaged diplomatically.  Barack won’t do it because of AIPAC.

Charles Freeman reflects on the Israeli lobby which has forced him from political appointment with the Obama administration

This is a very telling story and a very astute observation from Charles Freeman who removed himself from consideration for a post with the National Intelligence Committee due to the extreme opposition from the Israeli lobby and its hacks:

The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East. The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth. The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors.

There is a special irony in having been accused of improper regard for the opinions of foreign governments and societies by a group so clearly intent on enforcing adherence to the policies of a foreign government – in this case, the government of Israel. I believe that the inability of the American public to discuss, or the government to consider, any option for US policies in the Middle East opposed by the ruling faction in Israeli politics has allowed that faction to adopt and sustain policies that ultimately threaten the existence of the state of Israel. It is not permitted for anyone in the United States to say so. This is not just a tragedy for Israelis and their neighbors in the Middle East; it is doing widening damage to the national security of the United States.

The outrageous agitation that followed the leak of my pending appointment will be seen by many to raise serious questions about whether the Obama administration will be able to make its own decisions about the Middle East and related issues. I regret that my willingness to serve the new administration has ended by casting doubt on its ability to consider, let alone decide what policies might best serve the interests of the United States rather than those of a Lobby intent on enforcing the will and interests of a foreign government.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123672847973688515.html?mod=googlenews_wsj#articleTabs%3Darticle

http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22192.htm

The man who should have been President on the murders that should have never happened.

I give you Ralph Nader on the Gaza massacre:

In the long sixty-year tortured history of the Palestinian expulsion from their lands, Congress has maintained that it is always the Palestinians, the Palestinian Authority, and now Hamas who are to blame for all hostilities and their consequences with the Israeli government.

The latest illustration of this Washington puppet show, backed by the most modern weapons and billions of taxpayer dollars annually sent to Israel, was the grotesquely one-sided Resolutions whisked through the Senate and the House of Representatives.

While a massive bombing and invasion of Gaza was underway, the resolution blaming Hamas for all the civilian casualties and devastation-99% of it inflicted on Palestinians-zoomed through the Senate by voice vote and through the House by a vote of 390 to 5 with 22 legislators voting present.

There is more dissent against this destruction of Gaza among the Israeli people, the Knesset, the Israeli media, and Jewish-Americans than among the dittoheads on Capitol Hill.

The reasons for such near-unanimous support for Israeli actions-no matter how often they are condemned by peace advocates such as Bishop Desmond Tutu, United Nations resolutions, the World Court and leading human rights groups inside and outside of Israel, are numerous. The pro-Israeli government lobby, and the right-wing Christian evangelicals, lubricated by campaign money of many Political Action Committees (PACs) certainly are key.

There is also more than a little bigotry in Congress against Arabs and Muslims, reinforced by the mass media yahoos who set new records for biased reporting each time this conflict erupts.

The bias is clear. It is always the Palestinians’ fault. Right-wingers who would never view the U.S. government as perfect see the Israeli government as never doing anything wrong. Liberals who do not hesitate to criticize the U.S. military view all Israeli military attacks, invasions and civilian devastation as heroic manifestations of Israeli defense.

The inversion of history and the scope of amnesia know no limits. What about the fact that the Israeli government drove Palestinians from their lands in 1947-48 with tens of thousands pushed into the Gaza strip. No problem to Congress.

Then the fact that the Israeli government cruelly occupied, in violation of UN resolutions, the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 and only removed its soldiers and colonists from Gaza (1.5 million people in a tiny area twice the size of the District of Columbia) in 2005. To Congress, the Palestinians deserved it.

Then when Hamas was freely elected to run Gaza, the Israeli authorities cut off the tax revenues on imports that belonged to the Gaza government. This threw the Gazans into a fiscal crisis-they were unable to pay their civil servants and police.

In 2006, the Israelis added to their unrelieved control of air, water and land around the open-air prison by establishing a blockade. The natives became restless. Under international law, a blockade is an act of war. Primitive rockets, called by reporters “wildly inaccurate” were fired into Israel. During this same period, Israeli soldiers and artillery and missiles would go into Gaza at will and take far more lives and cause far more injuries than those incurred by those rockets. Civilians-especially children, the infirm and elderly-died or suffered week after week for lack of medicines, medical equipment, food, electricity, fuel and water which were embargoed by the Israelis.

Then the Israeli bombing followed by the invasion during the past three weeks with what prominent Israeli writer Gideon Levy called “a brutal and violent operation…far beyond what was needed for protecting the people in its south.” Mr. Levy observed what the president of the United Nations General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann called a war against “a helpless and defenseless imprisoned population.”

The horror of being trapped from fleeing the torrent of the most modern weapons of war from the land, air and seas is reflected in this passage from Amira Hass, writing in the leading Israeli newspaper Haaretz:

“The earth shaking under your feet, clouds of choking smoke, explosions like a fireworks display, bombs bursting into all-consuming flames that cannot be extinguished with water, mushroom clouds of pinkish-red smoke, suffocating gas, harsh burns on the skin, extraordinary maimed live and dead bodies.”

Ms. Hass is pointing to the use of new anti-civilian weapons used on the Gazan people. So far there have been over 1100 fatalities, many thousands of injuries and the destruction of homes, schools, mosques, hospitals, pharmacies, granaries, farmer’s fields and many critical public facilities. The clearly marked UN headquarters and UN school were smashed, along with stored medicines and food supplies.

Why? The Congressional response: “Hamas terrorists” everywhere. Sure, defending their Palestinian families is called terrorism. The truth is there is no Hamas army, airforce and navy up against the fourth most powerful military in the world. As one Israeli gunner on an armored personnel carrier frankly said to The New York Times: “They are villagers with guns. They don’t even aim when they shoot.”

Injured Gazans are dying in damaged hospital corridors, bleeding to death because rescuers are not permitted to reach them or are endangered themselves. Thousands of units of blood donated by Jordanians are stopped by the Israeli blockade. Israel has kept the international press out of the Gazan killing fields.
What is going on in Gaza is what Bill Moyers called it earlier this month – “state terrorism.” Already about 400 children are known to have died. More will be added who are under the rubble.

Since 2002, more than 50 Arab and Muslim nations have had a standing offer, repeated often, that if Israel obeys several UN resolutions and withdraws to the 1967 borders leaving 22 percent of the original Palestine for an independent Palestinian state, they will open full diplomatic relations and there will be peace. Israel has declined to accept this offer.

None of these and many other aspects of this conflict matter to the Congress. Its members do not want to hear even from the Israeli peace movement, composed of retired generals, security chiefs, mayors, former government ministers, and members of the Knesset. In 60 years these savvy peace advocates have not been able to give one hour of testimony before a Congressional Committee.

Maybe members of Congress may wish to weigh the words of the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, years ago when he said:

“There has been anti-Semitism the Nazis Hitler Auschwitz but was that their [the Palestinian’s] fault? They only see one thing: We have come here and stolen their country.”

Doesn’t that observation invite some compassion for the Palestinian people and their right to be free of Israeli occupation, land and water grabs and blockades in the 22 percent left of Palestine?

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/17-1

Write your senator… see what good it did me?

I recently wrote my Senator regarding my distress at the Israeli massacre of Gazans and asked her to do something to get Israel to stop, wielding her power as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.  She wrote me back today with this”

Dear Dr. Strong:

 

Thank you for contacting me regarding recent events in the Middle East.  I appreciate hearing from you.

As you may know, on December 27, 2008, Israel responded to ongoing rocket attacks against its citizens by launching an offensive in the Gaza Strip against Hamas, the militant Islamist group that controls the Gaza government.  The death and destruction is tragic on all sides.

It is time for a real and sustainable cease-fire and a post-conflict diplomatic solution that will allow the promise of peace in the Middle East to be realized, not just for hours or days but permanently. 

I believe that it is important for the United States and the international community to be actively engaged in promoting a lasting resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. 

Again, thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts with me on this important issue.  Please be assured that as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, I will continue to monitor this situation closely and work to encourage a peaceful solution to the crisis in the Middle East.

Barbara Boxer
United States Senator

 

I don’t know why it is that the entire group of USA politicians have completely bought into this theory that Israel is responding to Hamas’s rockets and that it is Hamas’s rockets that are the entire problem here.  Nothing is said of the occupation, the cruel blockade, the frequent firing at defenseless Gazan fishermen, the Israeli theft of Palestinians water supplies, the kidnapped Palestinians who rot in Israel’s prisons as “administrative detainees” with no recourse by law etc. etc.  Surely all USA politicians who want to hang onto their jobs get their talking points from AIPAC.  It must be.  If not, why can’t Senator Boxer read the very same things I’m reading every day in plain sight?

Next, she says the death and destruction is tragic on all sides.  This really flabberghasts me.  She must here be taking cues from the New York Times which shows a lady cowering in her Sderot home while rocket alarms are going off, next to a picture of a frightened Gazan, framing the conflict as one where the sufferring is roughly equal on both sides.  The tragedy of Gaza infinitely larger than that of the Israeli people here.  There shouldn’t be much arguement among reasonable people right?

Also, Hamas is a militant islamist group that controls the Gazan government according to Boxer.  No mention here that they were elected to power in an election that would have put an Israeli election to shame.  No name calling on the other side, such as referring to Israel as “that militant terrorist Zionist group that controls Israel.”

The real and sustainable ceasefire that Boxer seeks will never come from this sort of murderous attack on Gaza.  The sustainable ceasefire will come when justice comes to the middle-east and no sooner.  Israel must give back the land it took in 1967 and cease it’s cruel oppression of the Palestinians and must give up its vision of eretz Israel and then we will see if tempers will cool.  Oh, and don’t forget the right of return for refugees as the UN decided was a necessary condition in allowing Israel to maintain its membership in the UN so many years ago.

I have no faith in my government in coming to any sort of helpful resolution of the middle-eastern conflict.  They are all AIPAC hacks and will never apply pressure to Israel to do what is right.   

Sorry I am so testy lately, but there is so much death and misery in one of the most miserable places on the earth right now and noone is able to stop it and the only power that can do something, the USA, is doing nothing.

 

Bloomberg supports a war protested at home, which is seeing increasing civilian casualties.

AIPAC hack, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is in Israel right now, fully backing Israel’s murders of Gazans:

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Bloomberg said he fully understood Israel’s actions. “You should rest assured, if anyone in New York was being threatened, my instruction to the NYPD (New York police) would be to use all the resources at their disposal to protect civilians,” Bloomberg said.

“I think as a New Yorker, we’ve been attacked twice by al-Qaida itself,” said the mayor, who is Jewish. “We’ve seen enormous devastation and courage and after that you sort of feel you have a bond, if you will, for those who live in a dangerous world and subject to someone trying to kill them.”

Israel is in the ninth day of its strikes against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which have killed more than 500 Palestinians. Ground forces pushed into Gaza Saturday night amid widespread world condemnation.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iMOnL_SrK8Nt3x2qwDWDu5qaXbNgD95GC8D00

Of course, it is beyond me why the mayor of an US city should be in a foreign country supporting their war.  I suppose we’ll never see that in any other country besides Israel.  In the meantime, Bloomberg seems to be completely out of sinc with a large portion of his own city’s population:

Chanting “Free Palestine,” thousands of Palestinian supporters demonstrated in Times Square Saturday to protest Israel‘s punishing military offensive in Gaza.

The wave of protesters stretched across three blocks, dwarfing the dozens of boisterous supporters of Israel assembled across Seventh Ave.

“What’s happening in Gaza is something that shouldn’t be tolerated anywhere in the world,” said Bassal Omar, 29, an American-born Palestinian from the Bronx.

“It’s a humanitarian crisis, and it’s just going to get worse.”

Cathie Bell held a sign reading “Palestinians are freedom fighters” as she rallied on 42nd St.

“I’m here in solidarity with the people who are being murdered in Palestine,” Bell, 59, of Chelsea, said. “I think it’s a horrendous, horrific assault over there, and something should be done.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/01/04/2009-01-04_stop_the_massacre_in_gaza_strip_plead_th-2.html

Of course, these would be the actions of a man who is seeking to become the President of the USA in the future since the litmus test for such a position is AIPAC/Zionist approval.  Additionally, Bloomberg is entirely in sinc with the Bush Administration’s position on Israel’s crimes as is evident by our recent success at blocking a security council statement that would urge a cessation of hostilities in the occupied territories:

The United States has blocked approval of a U.N. Security Council statement calling for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers, diplomats said.

Libyan Ambassador Giadalla Ettalhi said the United States during the discussions late Saturday objected to ”any outcome” on the proposed statement. He said efforts were made to compromise on a weaker press statement but there was no consensus.

Several other council members, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were closed, also said the U.S. was responsible for the council’s failure to issue a statement.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/01/04/world/AP-UN-UN-Israel-Palestinians.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

In the meantime, the ground invasion is apparently taking its toll among Palestinian civilians, women, children and men who are hit with their families.

The casualties at Shifa on Sunday — 18 dead, hospital officials said, among a reported 30 around Gaza — were women, children and men who had been with children. One surgeon said that he had performed five amputations.

“I don’t know what kind of weapons Israel is using,” said a nurse, Ziad Abd al Jawwad, 41, who had been working 24 hours without a break. “There is so much amputation.”

“It’s so hard when you do it to women,” he said, adding grimly that even the devastating 1967 war here was over in six days.

For nine days now, doctors have been battling to keep Shifa running under the most adverse circumstances. Sanitation workers constantly mop up blood while Hamas security officers stand guard. But scant resources are being stretched to a breaking point, and a terrible stench is in the air.

Dr. Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian who was allowed into Gaza last week to give emergency medical aid, and who has worked in many conflict zones, said the situation was the worst he had seen.

The hospital lacked everything, he said: monitors, anesthesia, surgical equipment, heaters and spare parts. Israeli bombing nearby blew out windows, and like the rest of Gaza, here the severely limited fuel supplies were running low.

Oved Yehezkel, the Israeli cabinet secretary, said Sunday that from the information at Israel’s disposal, “there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”

Many here would dispute that. With power lines down, much of Gaza has no electricity. There is a dire shortage of cooking gas.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/05/world/middleeast/05gaza.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

When I say “civilian” casualty, I don’t think that it should be valued any more than a so-called “militant” casualty.  Remember, these men are defending their homes and families and country against a monstrous aggressor.  All casualties here are to be lamented in a defensive war.