Peace and Justice Post

Khaleej Times, May 24, 2008
(DPA)

TEL AVIV/GAZA – Despite international pressure Israel has erected more than 40 additional roadblocks in the West Bank, according to a United Nations statement Saturday.

In total there are now 607 roadblocks in the Palestinian area, compared with 566 eight months ago, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in Jerusalem.

According to OCHA, Israel has dismantled 103 roadblocks since September but in the same period has erected 144 new ones.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev refused to confirm the claim. He said Israel is striving to improve the freedom of movement of Palestinians, but the government can’t ignore the real security threats that exist.

There was no comment from the Israeli army.

The roadblocks and checkpoints set up by Israel since the beginning of the second Palestinian Intifada (uprising) in September 2000 significantly restrict the movement of people and goods.

Under pressure from the US Israel announced at the end of March that it would dismantle around 50 roadblocks and checkpoints. Israel has promised to gradually remove roadblocks as part of the revived peace process with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, attending the closing day of an investment conference in Bethlehem Friday, said Israel should do more to lift restrictions on Palestinian access and mobility.

The Hamas government ruling the Gaza Strip on Saturday called on Kouchner to visit the territory to learn about the suffering of its people.

Israel has imposed an almost full blockade on the impoverished territory since the Islamic movement seized control of it from Abbas’ Fatah forces in June 2007.

Time To Terminate This Unholy Alliance?

By Alan Hart

23/08/08 “ICH ” — – In the light of the revelation (devine or not) about Pastor John Hagee’s assertion that Hitler was God’s agent, is it too much to hope that Jews everywhere, and Jewish Americans especially, will insist that Zionism terminate its unholy alliance with Christian fundamentalism?

This alliance has always seemed to me to be the greatest madness and also the biggest obscenity in the continuing story of conflict in and over Palestine.

Historically speaking, Christian fundamentalists were classic Jew haters on the grounds, they said, that the Jews were the “Christ killers”. So what explains Christian fundamentalism’s support for Israel right or wrong – support which today includes much of the money to fund Zionism’s on-going colonisation of the occupied West Bank?

The evangelical preacher Jerry Falwell gave this answer.

The creation of the State of Israel in 1948 was the most crucial event in history since the ascension of Jesus to heaven and

“proof that the second coming of Jesus Christ is nigh… Without a State of Israel in the Holy Land, there cannot be the second coming of Jesus Christ, nor can there be a Last Judgement, nor the End of the World”.

Another answer is that provided by Yakov M. Rabkin, the Jewish Canadian Professor of History at the University of Montreal. In his book A Threat From Within, A CENTURY OF JEWISH OPPOSITION TO ZIONISM, he writes:

“The massive support extended to the State of Israel by millions of Christian supporters of Zionism is overtly motivated by a single consideration: that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land will be a prelude to their acceptance of Christ (when he returns) or, for those who fail to do so, to their physical destruction.” (My emphasis added).

Simply stated, Christian fundamentalism’s only interest in the Zionist state of Israel is in assisting it to become the instrument for bringing about, as foretold by the Christian Bible, the end of the world in a final battle at Armageddon between the forces of good and evil. In this scenario the Jews will have a choice – either to junk their Judaism and become Christians, in which case they will be beamed up to heaven, or to be annihlated… It seems to me that there’s a case for saying that Christian fundamentalism is, potentially, a far bigger threat to Jews and Judaism than all the Arabs and other Muslims of the world put together, including a nuclear-armed Iran!

So why is Zionism in alliance with Christian fundamentalism?

The short answer needs only two words – political expendiency.

Continued . . .

Twenty-five former U.S. military officers have severely criticized the official account of 9/11 and called for a new investigation. They include former commander of U.S. Army Intelligence, Major General Albert Stubblebine, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, Col. Ronald D. Ray, two former staff members of the Director of the National Security Agency; Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, PhD, and Major John M. Newman, PhD, and many others. They are among the rapidly growing number of military and intelligence service veterans, scientists, engineers, and architects challenging the government’s story. The officers’ statements appear below, listed alphabetically.

Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, PhD: “A lot of these pieces of information, taken together, prove that the official story, the official conspiracy theory of 9/11 is a bunch of hogwash. It’s impossible,” said Lt. Col. Robert Bowman, PhD, U.S. Air Force (ret). With doctoral degrees in Aeronautics and Nuclear Engineering, Col. Bowman served as Director of Advanced Space Programs Development under Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.

“There’s a second group of facts having to do with the cover up,” continued Col. Bowman. “Taken together these things prove that high levels of our government don’t want us to know what happened and who’s responsible. Who gained from 9/11? Who covered up crucial information about 9/11? And who put out the patently false stories about 9/11 in the first place? When you take those three things together, I think the case is pretty clear that it’s highly placed individuals in the administration with all roads passing through Dick Cheney.”

Regarding the failure of NORAD to intercept the four hijacked planes on 9/11, Col. Bowman said, “I’m an old interceptor pilot. I know the drill. I’ve done it. I know how long it takes. I know the rules. … Critics of the government story on 9/11 have said: ‘Well, they knew about this, and they did nothing’. That’s not true. If our government had done nothing that day and let normal procedure be followed, those planes, wherever they were, would have been intercepted, the Twin Towers would still be standing and thousands of dead Americans would still be alive.”

Continued . . .

China View, May 23, 2008
ISLAMABAD, May 23 (Xinhua) — Pakistan on Friday withdrew the cases against 200 suspects allegedly involved in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto citing lack of evidence.

“The chief minister of North West Frontier Province (NWFP) ordered the withdrawal of cases against 200 accused in Benazir Bhutto murder case,” Pakistan’s private Dawn TV channel reported.

“The withdrawal of the cases is due to lack of evidence,” the TV quoted official sources as saying.

Bhutto, also former leader of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), was killed in a gun and bomb attack last December while attending a political rally.

The Pakistani government said on Thursday it was ready to submit a letter of request to secretary-general of the United Nations, asking for the U.N. investigation into the assassination of Bhutto.

President Pervez Musharraf invited a Scotland Yard team to join in the investigation after Bhutto was killed.

But the PPP has been insisting on the U.N. probe into the murder.

Law Minister Farooq Naek said on Thursday the Scotland Yard team was given “limited mandate” during their probe.

“They were given the mandate to investigate whether it’s a murder, but not to investigate who are the persons behind the hideous crime.” Naek said.

Counterpunch, May 21, 2008

David Model

Despite the precipitous plunge in his popularity and growing criticism of his competency, character, and style, George W. Bush is not really that much different from other presidents with respect to his hegemonic ambitions or his proclivity to use force to achieve foreign policy objectives.  Continuing historical patterns, President Bush and all presidents since World War II have committed horrendous crimes against humanity in order to protect and advance American interests under the guise of liberating people from under the jackboot of brutal dictators or communist subversives, bringing democracy to totalitarian states, improving the lives of those who are suffering and eradicating terrorism.

These are laudable goals reflecting prevailing shibboleths domestically.  These goals are an alluring mantle for the real paradigm governing foreign policy which is the pursuit of American interests with total indifference to the consequences to people victimized by American “ideals”.

The gaping discrepancy between the stated goals of American foreign policy and its praxis is best exemplified by the apogee of war crimes: genocide.  In its pursuit of these lofty goals, the United States has committed genocide in Iraq.  Intervention resulting in genocide at the very minimum proves that American government’s professed motives for foreign policy decisions are altogether specious.

Rationalizations for the application of military force have been based on euphemistic doctrines which have no basis in American or international law.  George W. Bush’s doctrine of preemptive war was not new to foreign and defence policy strategists but can be traced back to Dean Acheson’s doctrine dismissing the applicability of international law to the United States as outlined in a speech to the American Society of International Law in 1963 in which he argued that:

The power, position and prestige of the US had been challenged [Cuban Missile Crisis] by another state and the law does not deal with such questions of ultimate      power – power that comes close to the source of sovereignty. [1]

In other words, national interests including meretricious threats to the sovereignty of the American State supersede international law despite the fact the United Nations Charter makes provisions for these exigencies.

Continued . . .

In less than 10 days, Egypt’s 27-year-old state of emergency, which gives the police absolute authority to arrest and detain, is expected to expire.

The state of emergency dates to the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat. Human rights advocates complain that the emergency law has become a convenient tool for crushing political opponents. However, President Hosni Mubarak’s regime insists that it is only there to fight terrorists and drug dealers.

A hot debate is going on: If the government allows the law to expire, will Egypt’s record on human rights improve? Human rights activists are skeptical.

The skepticism stems from the fact that the ruling party is believed to be drafting an anti-terrorism act that is expected to become effective the minute the state of emergency is lifted. It is widely believed that the legislation would entail the same measures. However, the details of the legislation have not been announced.

Human rights groups have been warning against further attempts to encroach on civil liberties. “Egyptian [human rights] organizations affirm [their] full rejection of using terrorism as a scarecrow to bestow legitimacy on the renewal of the state of emergency one more time or on the promulgation of [an] anti-terror act that would turn the theoretically temporary state of emergency into a perpetual status quo,” read a statement released by a number of human rights advocacy groups last week.

Continued . . .

by: Matt Renner, t r u t h o u t | Report, May 22, 2008

Slavery never ended in the United States; it continues here and across the globe, facilitated by globalization, corruption and greed. There are more people enslaved today – controlled by violence and forced to work without pay – than at any time in human history.

Experts put the number of slaves at 27 million worldwide. These men and women work across many sectors of the global economy, raking in profits for the criminals who hold them against their will. The US State Department estimates that 17,500 slaves are brought into the United States every year. An estimated 50,000 slaves are forced to work as prostitutes, farm workers and domestic servants in the US.

Republican presidential nominee John McCain recently mentioned domestic slavery during a stump speech. He pledged to establish a task force to coordinate various federal law enforcement agencies to target human trafficking – the process of smuggling slaves between countries. However, the Think Progress blog pointed out that such an agency already exists. Shortly after the speech, Democratic National Committee spokesperson Damien LaVera pointed out in an email that McCain had complained about and voted against a $200,000 earmark intended to fund a conference on human trafficking in 2001. “Once again McCain’s earmark obsession conflicts with his campaign rhetoric,” Lavera wrote.

Continued . . .

Reuters, May 22, 2008

By Sabah al-Bazee

BAIJI, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraqi police said on Thursday a U.S. helicopter airstrike killed eight civilians, including two children, but U.S. forces said the six adults killed were militants suspected of links to a bombing network.

News of Wednesday’s incident north of Baghdad broke on a day when the top U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, said he expected to make further troop cuts by September.

The U.S. Senate approved a further $165 billion to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan for another year after rejecting proposed timetables for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

The speed of drawing down the 155,000 U.S. troops in Iraq is a central issue in the November U.S. presidential election.

An Iraqi television station accused U.S. troops of shooting dead one of its cameramen as he walked to his Baghdad home. The U.S. military denied it had killed any civilians in the area.

The body of a second journalist, a reporter for al-Sharq newspaper, was found dumped in a field with nine other corpses in Diyala province, police and colleagues said.

Colonel Mudhher al-Qaisi, police chief in the town of Baiji, north of the capital, said a U.S. helicopter fired at a group of shepherds in a vehicle in a farming area on Wednesday night.

“This is a criminal act. It will make the relations between Iraqi citizens and the U.S. forces tense. This will negatively affect security improvements,” Qaisi told Reuters.

The U.S. military said the incident happened when American soldiers, hunting members of a bombing network, tried to detain the occupants of a vehicle.

Continued . . .