EDITOR: To celebrate the anniversary, Israel prepares the new massacre…
What it did three years ago is not enough, the murder, the destruction, the horror – it needs to happen again, says Chief of Staff of the IOF )Israel Occupation Forces) on the anniversary of the war crime in December 2008/January 2009. If we do not act, he will indeed do what he threatens. Israel does not make idle threats – you can always be sure it will attack again, and you can always be sure its apologists around the globe will support any iniquity it will commit. In the meantime, they are preparing the attack on Iran.
Israel ‘will launch significant Gaza offensive sooner or later’: Haaretz
Israel Defence Forces chief of staff speaks on third anniversary of start of a major three-week Gaza assault
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
A new Israeli military offensive against Gaza will be launched “sooner or later” and will be “swift and painful”, Israel’s most senior military officer has warned.
Benny Gantz, the chief of staff of the Israel Defence Forces, was speaking on the third anniversary of the start of a major three-week assault on Gaza during which around 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed.
That offensive was “an excellent operation that achieved deterrence for Israel vis-a-vis Hamas”, Gantz told Army Radio on Tuesday. He added there were signs that the deterrent effect was wearing thin.
“Sooner or later, there will be no escape from conducting a significant operation,” he said. “The IDF knows how to operate in a determined, decisive and offensive manner against terrorists in the Gaza Strip.”
Within hours of Gantz’s comments, the Israeli military launched two airstrikes on targets in Gaza, killing one person and injuring around 10, according to local reports.
A spokesman for the IDF said direct hits on two “terrorist squads with global jihad associations” had been confirmed. According to security officials quoted by Israel Radio, one of the targets was a cell en route to Sinai with the intention of launching an attack on Israel from Egypt.
Since the end of the Gaza war in January 2009, Hamas has attempted to enforce a ceasefire among militant groups, although sporadic rocket fire has continued. Israel holds Hamas, as the de facto government, responsible for all rocket fire emanating from Gaza.
There have been suggestions in recent weeks that Hamas is ready to distance itself further from attacks on Israel as part of its reconciliation process with its rival faction Fatah.
“They have accepted popular [non-violent] resistance,” senior Fatah official Mohammed Shtayyer said, adding that Hamas would stop “these fireworks” being launched.
However, Hamas officials have also said they reserve the right to self-defence and the prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, pledged to continue “resistance” at a public rally this month.
Gantz’s comments were meant “to keep [Hamas] on their toes”, according to the Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher, who said: “He’s letting us know that another operation is possible and it would be successful.”
Alpher identified two constraining factors – moves towards Fatah-Hamas reconciliation “which may change the political nature of the Gaza regime”, and Egypt. “In the past, we could assume that if we launched an operation in Gaza, [former president Hosni] Mubarak would be largely sympathetic. That’s not necessarily the case now,” he said.
Hamas’s message was not unequivocal or comprehensive, he said, adding: “The question is, are we witnessing an evolutionary process in which Hamas follows the lead of Islamists in Egypt and Tunisia away from violence and into politics? My sense is we are, but it’s a slow process.”
Shlomo Brom, of the Institute for National Strategic Studies, said a new offensive on Gaza could be pre-empted by political developments, including the opening of a covert dialogue between Israel and Hamas.
“The developments of Hamas’s position taking into account the effects of the Arab spring could open different possibilities,” he said.
A KHANOUKA SPECIAL: They Have cancelled Christmas in Bethlehem!
Listen to the song here, with added pictures!
EDITOR: The partners in crime prepare the next crime…
The Land of the Brave, and the Judaic Republic are gearing up for the new war in the Middle East – after all, it is years since the last one… need to keep the troops moving. Don’t say you have not been told.
Israel, U.S. discuss triggers for military strike on Iran: Haaretz
The Daily Beast reports that the countries are discussing “red lines” in Iran’s nuclear program, that if crossed would justify a preemptive strike on its nuclear facilities.
Israel and the U.S. are discussing “red lines” in Iran’s nuclear program, that if crossed would justify a preemptive strike on its nuclear facilities, the Daily Beast website reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, filed an official complaint with the administration following a speech by U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta a few weeks ago, warning against a military strike on Iran.
The Daily Beast reported that Panetta’s statements infuriated the Israeli government, which ordered ambassador Oren to file the complaint. The White House then relayed a message to Israel saying the administration has its own “red lines” concerning a strike on Iran, and that Israel does not need to act unilaterally. Israel’s protest also resulted in Panetta reversing his stand in an interview with CBS, saying the U.S. will use any means necessary to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Patrick Clawson from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said in the report that “If Iran were found to be sneaking out or breaking out then the president’s advisers are firmly persuaded he would authorize the use of military force to stop it.” However, he added that “we just don’t know how the president will react.”
The Daily Beast also reported that as part of the strategic dialogue between Israel and the U.S. that took place earlier this month, Israel presented new information about Iran’s efforts to build secret reactors for nuclear fuel production, and showed that these efforts were further along than the U.S. thought. Some of the intelligence was based on soil samples collected near the suspected sites.
Israel and the U.S. disagree about how far along Iran’s uranium enrichment program has developed, making it difficult for the two sides to formulate “red lines” concerning the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program.
EDITOR: More news from Haredistan, the Judaic Republic!
At last, the madness in Haredistan is getting into the foreign media. We should make sure it never gets overlooked or neglected by those slavishly allied to the Zionist state apparatus, and there are many in the western media, of course. Here are the seeds which will break the Judaic Republic.
Shimon Peres condemns ultra-orthodox extremists as tensions escalate: haaretz
Israel’s president says minority threaten national values as TV news shows sobbing 8-year-old recounting ordeal
Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem
Israel’s president urged “the entire nation” to support the battle “to save the majority from the hands of a small minority” on Tuesday, amid rising tensions between the country’s secular and religious Jews on one side and extremist ultra-orthodox groups on the other.
“We are fighting for the soul of the nation and the essence of the state,” Shimon Peres said as thousands of Israelis gathered for a protest following an attack on an eight-year-old girl for dressing “immodestly”.
Tuesday’s demonstration in the town of Beit Shemesh took place close to a school at which girls as young as six have been targeted by zealous ultra-orthodox, or Haredi, men for dressing in regulation knee-length skirts and tops with sleeves to at least the elbow.
Haredi protesters have spat and shouted “whore” and “Nazi” at the pupils and their mothers. Earlier this week, Israeli television news broadcast footage of Naama Margolese, eight, sobbing as she described being abused and spat at on the street by Haredi men. The girl comes from an orthodox Jewish family and attends Orot girls school, which serves religious Jewish families in the area.
Two days of rioting and attacks on television crews by zealous Haredi men in Beit Shemesh followed the broadcast.
Beit Shemesh has become a focal point of tensions between extremist Haredi groups, whose numbers in the city are increasing, and its majority religious-nationalist population. The Haredim are opposed to the location of the girls’ school next to an ultra-orthodox enclave.
But there has been mounting concern in recent months over broader demands by extremist Haredim to remove images of women from advertising billboards in Jerusalem, enforce gender segregation on public transport, in shops and medical centres, and ban women soldiers from taking part in singing and dancing events organised by the army.
Last week a woman bus passenger made headlines when she refused to comply with a demand from a Haredi man on the bus that she move to the rear. A policeman called by the driver also asked the woman to move. When she continued to refuse, the Haredi man disembarked.
Despite an Israeli court ruling outlawing enforced segregation on buses earlier this year, “voluntary segregation” is permitted. Women mainly sit at the back and men mainly at the front on some routes in Jerusalem.
Peres told reporters at his official residence that Tuesday’s protest against ultra-orthodox extremism was “a test in which the entire nation will have to mobilise to rescue the majority from the claws of a small minority that is chipping away at our most hallowed values”.
He added: “No person has the right to threaten a girl, a woman or any person in any way. They are not the lords of this land.”
His comments followed similar criticism of extremist ultra-orthodox groups by the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, earlier this week. He told cabinet colleagues there was no place for harassment or sex discrimination in Israel’s “democratic, Western, liberal state”.
The police, he said, would arrest people who “spit, harass or raise a hand”. But, Netanyahu added, this was a social issue, not just a legal one, and required action by public figures and religious leaders. The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, also criticised gender segregation and the exclusion of women from the public sphere earlier this month, saying it was reminiscent of extremist regimes.
The Haredim in Israel are about 10% of the population, but form a far higher proportion in cities such as Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh.
Extremist protesters are a small minority within the ultra-orthodox community and many Haredi leaders have spoken out against their views and actions. Peres acknowledged that most Haredim did not support the extremists. “The ultra-orthodox public in Israel as a whole opposes these phenomena and condemns them,” he said. “It is important that they continue to do so and to speak in a loud and clear voice.”
Israeli female soldier accosted for rebuffing Haredi bus segregation: Haaretz
Jerusalem resident Doron Matalon says ultra-Orthodox man, 45, chided her for not moving to back of bus, calling her ‘gentile’ and ‘prostitute.’
A day after a massive rally in central Israel protested gender segregation and discrimination in Israel, a female Israel Defense Forces soldier reported being accosted by a Haredi man on Wednesday over her refusal to move to the back of a segregated bus in Jerusalem.
Want to learn more of religious tensions in Israel? Join the discussion on Haaretz.com’s official Facebook page
According to the soldier, Doron Matalon, a 45-year-old man asked her to move to the back of the bus, threatening her, and calling her “prostitute.”
“I didn’t want to move back, both on principle and because there wasn’t any room. It’s always stuffy and disgusting in the back,” Matalon said, adding that “everything was fine, I was almost at my stop, and then the conductors came on.”
At that point, the IDF soldier said, the ultra-Orthodox man chastised a woman who had come over to the front of the bus to have her ticket checked, saying: “You don’t have to come up front to check your ticket, a woman shouldn’t move to this side of the bus.”
“And then he turned to me,” Matalon said, and said ‘you too soldier, move back, and then he called me a prostitute.” According to the IDF soldier, the man was soon joined by other religious men in the bus, who proceeded to yell out “prostitute,” and “Shikse “(gentile woman).
Matalon said that at that point she “felt threatened and a huge commotion began. I yelled out for the conductor to come quick, and two male conductors rushed in. They pushed him away from me and said: ‘Why are you shouting, she’s a soldier,’ but he continued to be abusive.”
The bus was ordered to stop in the city’s Levi Eshkol Blvd, where the conductors called the police. Eyewitnesses reported that the Haredi men continued his disruptive behavior even after a police officer arrived at the scene.
All those involved were taken to questioning, with the ultra-Orthodox man the only one to be arrested following the incident.
“This isn’t the first time this has happened, I just asked for help this time,” Matalon said, adding that she had experienced “worse incidents on this line,” including one in which she was shoved off the bus when her stop arrived.”
“I’m slowly calming down, but I’m not over it yet,” the IDF soldier said.
Police sources indicated that the suspected was to be held until Thursday, at which point he will face a court remand hearing.
Top Israeli rabbi: Gender segregated buses go against Jewish Law: Haaretz
Rabbi Eliezer Melamed says gender segregation on public buses hurts the ‘proper family order’, notes gender segregation is appropriate only during when performing ‘public acts’.
A leading Israeli rabbi condemned gender segregation on public buses Tuesday, saying that such policies “destroy the foundations of the Torah.”
In his weekly column for the religious newspaper B’Sheva, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed said that Jewish law makes a clear distinction between “what is required and what is optional”, and that gender segregation on public buses hurts the “proper family order.”
Melamed also stated that gender segregation is appropriate only during when performing “public acts”, and said that riding the bus is considered a “private act.”
Moreover, the rabbi added that there is no need to add new laws regarding modesty, stating that former rabbis were able to create a modest society with “respectable distances between men and women” and that any attempt to prevent interactions between the sexes may “only give rise to unwanted urges.”
Melamed’s comments come a day after thousands of Israelis amassed near the Orot girl’s school in Beit Shemesh on to protest gender segregation in a city that has become a symbol for the struggle against religious extremism.
Introducing Freedom Funnies – ‘My Name is Samia Halaby’: Mondoweiss
by Ethan Heitner on December 26, 2011 7
This is the first in a monthly series of comics Ethan Heitner will be producing for Mondoweiss. Heitner is freelance illustrator and cartoonist who also volunteers with Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel. More of his work can be seen on his website, www.freedomfunnies.com and in the magazine World War 3 Illustrated. He can be contacted at freedomfunnies@gmail.com and he’s available for hire!
Click on link above to view the amazing interview!
Confronting intimidation, working for justice in Palestine: The Electronic Intifada
Ilan Pappe 27 December 2011
If we had a wish list for 2012 as Palestinians and friends of Palestine, one of the top items ought to be our hope that we can translate the dramatic shift in recent years in world public opinion into political action against Israeli policies on the ground.
We know why this has not yet materialized: the political, intellectual and cultural elites of the West cower whenever they even contemplate acting according to their own consciences as well as the wishes of their societies.
This last year was particularly illuminating for me in that respect. I encountered that timidity at every station in the many trips I took for the cause I believe in. And these personal experiences were accentuated by the more general examples of how governments and institutions caved in under intimidation from Israel and pro-Zionist Jewish organizations.
A catalogue of complicity
Of course there were US President Barack Obama’s pandering appearances in front of AIPAC, the Israeli lobby, and his administration’s continued silence and inaction in face of Israel’s colonization of the West Bank, siege and killings in Gaza, ethnic cleansing of the Bedouins in the Naqab and new legislation discriminating against Palestinians in Israel.
The complicity continued with the shameful retreat of Judge Richard Goldstone from his rather tame report on the Gaza massacre — which began three years ago today. And then there was the decision of European governments, especially Greece, to disallow campaigns of human aid and solidarity from reaching Gaza by sea.
On the margins of all of this were prosecutions in France against activists calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and a few u-turns by some groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in Europe caving in under pressure and retracting an earlier decision to cede connections with Israel.
Learning firsthand how pro-Israel intimidation works
In recent years, I have learned firsthand how intimidation of this kind works. In November 2009 the mayor of Munich was scared to death by a Zionist lobby group and cancelled my lecture there. More recently, the Austrian foreign ministry withdrew its funding for an event in which I participated, and finally it was my own university, the University of Exeter, once a haven of security in my eyes, becoming frigid when a bunch of Zionist hooligans claimed I was a fabricator and a self-hating Jew.
Every year since I moved there, Zionist organizations in the UK and the US have asked the university to investigate my work and were brushed aside. This year a similar appeal was taken, momentarily one should say, seriously. One hopes this was just a temporary lapse; but you never know with an academic institution (bravery is not one of their hallmarks).
Standing up to pressure
But there were examples of courage — local and global — as well: the student union of the University of Surrey under heavy pressure to cancel my talk did not give in and allowed the event to take place.
The Episcopal Bishops Committee on Israel/Palestine in Seattle faced the wrath of many of the city’s synagogues and the Israeli Consul General in San Francisco, Akiva Tor, for arranging an event with me in September 2011 in Seattle’s Town Hall, but bravely brushed aside this campaign of intimidation. The usual charges of “anti-Semitism” did not work there — they never do where people refuse to be intimidated.
The outgoing year was also the one in which Turkey imposed military and diplomatic sanctions on Israel in response to the latter’s refusal to take responsibility for the attack on the Mavi Marmara. Turkey’s action was in marked contrast to the European and international habit of sufficing with toothless statements at best, and never imposing a real price on Israel for its actions.
Do not cave in to intimidation
I do not wish to underestimate the task ahead of us. Only recently did we learn how much money is channeled to this machinery of intimidation whose sole purpose is to silence criticism on Israel. Last year, the Jewish Federations of North America and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs — leading pro-Israel lobby groups — allocated $6 million to be spent over three years to fight BDS campaigns and smear the Palestine solidarity movement. This is not the only such initiative under way.
But are these forces as powerful as they seem to be in the eyes of very respectable institutions such as universities, community centers, churches, media outlets and, of course, politicians?
What you learn is that once you cower, you become prey to continued and relentless bashing until you sing the Israeli national anthem. If once you do not cave in, you discover that as time goes by, the ability of Zionist lobbies of intimidation around the world to affect you gradually diminishes.
Reducing the influence of the United States
Undoubtedly the centers of power that fuel this culture of intimidation lie to a great extent in the United States, which brings me to the second item on my 2012 wish list: an end to the American dominance in the affairs of Israelis and Palestinians. I know this influence cannot be easily curbed.
But the issue of timidity and intimidation belong to an American sphere of activity where things can, and should be, different. There will be no peace process or even Pax Americana in Palestine if the Palestinians, under whatever leadership, would agree to allow Washington to play such a central role. It is not as if US policy-makers can threaten the Palestinians that without their involvement there will be no peace process.
In fact history has proved that there was no peace process — in the sense of a genuine movement toward the restoration of Palestinian rights — precisely because of American involvement. Outside mediation may be necessary for the cause of reconciliation in Palestine. But does it have to be American?
If elite politics are needed — along with other forces and movements — to facilitate a change on the ground, such a role should come from other places in the world and not just from the United States.
One would hope that the recent rapprochement between Hamas and Fatah — and the new attempt to base the issue of Palestinian representation on a wider and more just basis — will lead to a clear Palestinian position that would expose the fallacy that peace can only be achieved with the Americans as its brokers.
Dwarfing the US role will disarm American Zionist bodies and those who emulate them in Europe and Israel of their power of intimidation.
Letting the other America play a role
This will also enable the other America, that of the civil society, the Occupy Wall Street movement, the progressive campuses, the courageous churches, African-Americans marginalized by mainstream politics, Native Americans and millions of other decent Americans who never fell captive to elite propaganda about Israel and Palestine, to take a far more central role in “American involvement” in Palestine.
That would benefit America as much as it will benefit justice and peace in Palestine. But this long road to redeeming all of us who want to see justice begins by asking academics, journalists and politicians in the West to show a modicum of steadfastness and courage in the face of those who want to intimidate us. Their bark is far fiercer than their bite.
The author of numerous books, Ilan Pappe is Professor of History and Director of the European Centre for Palestine Studies at the University of Exeter.
Palestinians hoping to leave Gaza Strip asked to collaborate with Israel: Haaretz
Patients in need of treatment across border among those targeted by Israeli intelligence agency, says human rights group
Phoebe Greenwood in Gaza City
Palestinian patients and business people hoping to leave the Gaza Strip are being asked to collaborate with Israel in exchange for an exit permit, a leading Israeli human rights organisation claims.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) say that 172 people, mostly men aged 18 to 40, were called for interrogation by the Shabak, Israel’s internal intelligence agency, last month. Some who attended interviews were granted exit permits.
Three years on from Operation Cast Lead, Israeli informers play a critical role in monitoring militant cells in the Gaza Strip. Senior sources within the Israeli Defence Forces say a ground operation is more likely now than at any point since the December 2008 offensive. As tensions simmer, collaborators are an invaluable resource.
“The more intelligence you have and the greater the local perception is that you know what is going on, the more Hamas will delay and avoid acts of provocation that may lead to a ground operation by Israel,” said Gabi Siboni, director of the military and strategic affairs programme at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies.
The problem for Ahmad Hamada, 20, is that he has no intelligence to give. Hamada fell from a four-metre high wall earlier this year and suffered serious head injuries, including memory loss. Damage caused by a catheter used during his recuperation means his urethra no longer functions properly.
As doctors in Gaza could not solve the problem, Hamada’s father, Emad, arranged for him to receive treatment in Israel. He had worked there as a labourer for years and was stunned when a week before the appointment, the 20-year-old was summoned for an interview with the Shabak on 19 September. He was led to an interrogation room deep beneath the Erez crossing terminal where an Israeli officer introduced himself in Arabic. Littering his conversation with Gaza slang, he asked briefly about Hamada’s medical condition.
“I know everything,” he warned him. “You didn’t fall off a wall did you? Why are all those tubes inside you? Tell me the truth. Is your father Hamas? Who is Hamas in the port? Who in your neighbourhood?”
“He became very angry when I kept answering that I didn’t know,” Hamada recalled. “I explained I couldn’t remember much since my fall. I was in pain and I just wanted to go home.”
After an hour of questioning, Hamada was left alone in a locked interview room. The entire process had lasted four hours and he needed the toilet. As his knocks and calls went unanswered, he was forced to pee on the carpet.
Hamada was eventually sent home and told he would be called for a second interview. He has not heard from them again but says he will refuse to go if they call. He now has a referral for treatment in Egypt but hasn’t gone due to the turmoil there.
Israel insists rigorous security checks have been proved essential. The Shabak website provides eight examples of medical patients from the Gaza Strip who attempted suicide attacks once inside Israel. All of these attempts were made before 2007, when Israel sealed its borders with the Gaza Strip.
Kfah Abd El Halim, who runs PHR in the West Bank and Gaza, counters that the manipulation of medical patients violates a basic right to healthcare: “It puts the lives of patients in danger while forcing them to choose one of two impossible options – risk their chances for getting medical care or risk their lives for getting suspected of collaborating with the Israeli security forces.”
It is Hamas policy to execute collaborators but businessmen have their economic survival to consider. To date, 60% of Gaza’s businesses have gone under.
Ramez Kaloub imports dairy products to Gaza and his revenue has halved since the blockade was imposed in 2007. In January this year, he was asked by Israeli corporate giant Strauss to meet in Israel for a deal that could make up his losses.
Kaloub had accompanied his nephew for medical treatment in Israel nine months before so didn’t think getting a permit would be a problem. But this time, he was called for an interview.
“After trying to speak with me about Hamas the officer said he would like to help me but I have a black spot on my security record. We could sort this out at a meeting in Jerusalem, he said.
“I said no, I would prefer to sort out any problems now.”
Kaloub was sent back to Gaza and his request to enter Israel declined. A competitor won the Strauss contract. His case has now been taken up by Gisha, an Israeli organisation campaigning for freedom of movement for Palestinians.
“It’s possible other businessmen would give intelligence to Israel,” he says. “While the majority will say no, there be those who will have no choice.”