Series of videos portraying continued Israeli expropriation of Palestinian land in the West Bank. Incredibly well done films.

• Russia strikes first Bahrain arms deal after riots - Industries - ArabianBusiness.com

  Russia for the first time is selling weapons to Bahrain after the UK and France banned deliveries of security equipment to the Gulf monarchy because of its crackdown on protesters.

• Western spy tools aid in crackdown on Arab dissent - Technology - ArabianBusiness.com

  The use of the system for interrogation in Bahrain illustrates how Western-produced surveillance technology sold to one authoritarian government became an investigative tool of choice to gather information about political dissidents - and silence them. Companies are free to sell such equipment almost anywhere. For the most part, the US and European countries lack export controls to deter the use of such systems for repression.

• Bahrain plans new industrial city in east of kingdom - Construction - ArabianBusiness.com

  A new industrial city could be built in the east of Bahrain, a senior minister has announced.

• Middle East Policy: A zero-sum game? - Opinion - Al Jazeera English

  Perhaps the primary cause of America's declining influence is its stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict. If the US was really serious about getting on "the right side of history" in the Middle East, it would have long since adopted a balanced and proactive stance. Let us say it frankly: this would mean putting tangible pressure on Israel to adhere to the international consensus - land for peace, based on the 1967 lines, in the framework of the 1967 UN Security Council Resolution 242. "Pathetic" does not adequately describe Obama's position on this matter. In fairness, several of his predecessors were almost equally supine.

• Saudi Arabia Buys 660,000 Tons of U.S., European Hard Wheat - Bloomberg

  Saudi Arabia bought 660,000 metric tons of hard wheat from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Canada for delivery from November to February, the Grain Silos and Flour Mills Organization said. The average price is $346 per ton, including cost and freight, the government-run wheat importer said in an e-mailed statement. The kingdom will receive six shipments in the port of Jeddah and six in Dammam, according to the statement.

• The symbolism of sweatpants - FT.com

  There is a bit of vanity in possessing a couple of pairs of sweatpants with swooshes, stripes and leaping wildcats on them, but beyond that they’re inexpensive, easy to care for and practical. They can go from bed to street and back to bed again in an endless cycle that mirrors the downward cycle of the communities where these garments flap on clotheslines and hang on balcony railings. In short, sweatpants are a sign of surrender, of giving up, of hopelessness, of no longer needing to make an effort in society.

"President Obama got 25 standing ovations during his 2011 State of the Union address. Netanyahu got 29 today."

By AMY TEIBEL
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 2, 2011; 5:54 AM

JERUSALEM -- Jerusalem officials approved new housing for Jews in the heart of an Arab neighborhood, officials said Wednesday, infuriating Palestinians who see the growing Jewish presence in the city's war-won eastern sector as undermining their aspirations to statehood.

The approval further complicates efforts to restart deadlocked negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The municipality said the plan to build 14 apartments in the Ras al-Amud neighborhood met all the necessary conditions for approval.

Palestinians deplore any expansion of the Jewish presence in east Jerusalem because they hope to establish their future capital there.

The construction in Ras al-Amud will be another link in the chain of Jewish settlements around east Jerusalem's Old City, said Ziad Hamouri, head of the Palestinian Jerusalem Center for Socio-Economic Rights. He predicted it would create a new point of friction between settlers and longtime Arab residents of east Jerusalem.

"For the residents of Ras al-Amud, this will be very bad," Hamouri said. "They (the Jewish settlers) will expand. They attack residents, trying to create anger and anexiety and to push people to leave."

The fate of east Jerusalem, whose Old City is home to shrines sacred to Islam, Judaism and Christianity, is the most emotionally charged issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinians, like the rest of the international community, do not recognize Israel's annexation of east Jerusalem after capturing it from Jordan in 1967.

Israel maintains the annexation gives it the right to build in east Jerusalem without restriction.

The new housing is to be erected at the site of a former Israeli police station just outside the Old City. The station was vacated several years ago after the headquarters relocated to another disputed site, just outside Jerusalem in the West Bank.

The hypocrisy of western liberals is breathtaking: they publicly supported democracy, and now, when the people revolt against the tyrants on behalf of secular freedom and justice, not on behalf of religion, they are all deeply concerned. Why concern, why not joy that freedom is given a chance? Today, more than ever, Mao Zedong's old motto is pertinent: "There is great chaos under heaven – the situation is excellent."

Where, then, should Mubarak go? Here, the answer is also clear: to the Hague. If there is a leader who deserves to sit there, it is him.

From "Why fear the Arab revolutionary spirit?"

We need a lot more Gideon Levy's in the United States and a lot fewer AIPAC wackos and their cohorts.

Israel is proud to present: The aggressor-victim
Israelis have always loved victimization, not only when we were real victims, as often was the case in our history, but also when we were the aggressors, occupiers and abusers.

By Gideon Levy

Once upon a time the staple piece of clothing was the blue shirt of the Labor Movement, and songwriter Mordechai Zeira sang about it: "And it's much better than all jewels." A new generation has arrived, and its shirt is darker. Today it's black and bears the legend: We are all the victims of Goldstone.

Dozens of friends of the two Givati Brigade soldiers arrived wearing these infuriating shirts at a military court a few days ago. Their friends had been convicted of overextending their authority while risking the life of an 11-year-old, and to be precise, of conduct unbecoming of soldiers. The soldiers received the scandalous support of senior officers, and the two convicted men have become heroes.

Israel is proud to present: The aggressor-vicitim. History has known crueler and even longer occupations than the Israeli one, and there have been much worse attacks on civilian populations than Operation Cast Lead. But there has never been an occupier who presented himself like that, as a victim.

From the days of Golda Meir, who said we will never forgive the Arabs for forcing us to hurt their children, to the combatants who shot and wept, we have set, courtesy of the Givati troops, a new record of Israeli chutzpah: We are all the victims of Goldstone.

The victimhood, it turns out, belongs not to an 11-year-old child whose life was put at risk and who has been suffering from insomnia ever since, but the soldiers who ordered him to check for explosives, in clear contradiction of a ruling by the Supreme Court.

Not the Samouni family, 21 of whose members were butchered when the same Givati Brigade, under the same commander, bombed the house into which the soldiers ordered the family, but the brigade commander, Ilan Malka, whose conduct is now being investigated, shamefully late. And certainly not the residents of Gaza, who experienced Cast Lead with its hardships, horrors, destruction and war crimes, but the soldiers, who share responsibility with the commanders and politicians.

We've always loved victimization, not only when we were real victims, as often was the case in our history, but also when we were the aggressors, occupiers and abusers. And we don't only cast ourselves as victims, but as the only victims. But observe our perception of our wrongdoing. It started with denial, then changed to suppression, then to shamelessness, then to dehumanization and demonization, until we arrived at the current stage: A pride parade.

The soldiers taking pictures of themselves dancing with prisoners and posing with corpses are proud of what they do. They upload the footage onto the Web, for all to see, and friends of the two Givati troops are equally proud of what their mates have done. They're proud of the conduct of people who broke the law. Their solidarity may be understandable, but it's much more difficult to understand the support of their brigade commander, Col. Moni Katz, and Maj. Gen. (res. ) Uzi Dayan.

What are they saying - that the soldiers acted correctly? That they should not be punished? That they are victims? In that case, we have little to claim from the soldiers, who were only acting according to the spirit emanating from their superiors. But most difficult to understand is the widespread public support for the two. Just like the Nahariya policeman convicted of placing bombs to injure suspected mobsters, they are local heroes and national victims to many.

Do we really want to be proud of the soldiers ordering children to risk their lives, in violation of the law? Is this how we want the army to behave? Will Israeli public opinion never accept that war has rules and that if Israeli soldiers break them, they must be punished? True, they may have been carrying out orders, they may have been jaded and exhausted after three weeks of the assault on Gaza, as the court has heard. But casting them as victims testifies to the chaos overtaking Israel.

So we should go back to basics. The victims of Cast Lead are the 1.5 million residents of Gaza. The "victims" of the Goldstone report are not the two convicts, but their own victims. The shirts worn by their friends in court are proof that these basic truths have been blurred and distorted beyond recognition.

From Patrol:

Surely you've all heard by now that Sufjan Stevens has released a new EP online. This is exciting news for Sufjan fans everywhere, but I would urge you to think twice before paying the 5 dollars to download the music. It was not even 10 years ago when Islamic radical extremists destroyed the World Trade Center on September 11th, and already we're going to support a man named "Sufjan" as if nothing happened on that tragic day?

It may sound like a good idea at first. Many believe that supporting this man's music will help heal the wounds left by the terrorists, but come on people, we do not live in a vacuum. The fact of the matter is that this album should be released under another name, something with less Islamic connotation than "Sufjan." Or, the album should be released in a different format. EP also brings to mind other Islamic names. Ep Shiraa. Ep Sadaar. It just hits a little too close to home.

Think of the families who suffered and lost their loved ones in that tragedy. Out of sensitivity towards them, refrain from supporting this so-called Stevens. And be warned, some sources have indicated that Sufjan's middle name is Usama. Sufjan Usama Stevens? Doesn't sound like the kind of artist I want singing our national anthem before a baseball game.

Many of you may be asking, "but is Sufjan a terrorist?" The facts here are foggier than we should be comfortable with. First of all, he has never outright condemned Hamas. Should we support someone who isn't clear in his separation from terrorism?

And many of us have heard that Sufjan is actually a Christian. Well to that point, where is his birth certificate?

Look at the last two tracks on All Delighted People, Arnika and Djohariah. Does anybody know what those words mean? I don't, but I'm not sure if I want to find out.

It's too soon, Sufjan. Even if you and your album have no connection at all to terrorism, your name reminds of Muslims, which in turn reminds of 9/11. So please, for the sake of the families still having nightmares about towelheads riding camels into their homes and stabbing their children with those big curved swords from the movie Aladdin (by the way, Sufjan's name actually means "comes with a sword." Coincidence?), please, change your plans and release your album somewhere else.

As a New Yorker, you'd think Sufjan wouldn't be acting in such poor taste on this issue. He lives in Brooklyn, practically two blocks away from Ground Zero! Is he even an American? Was this 50 States project all a huge cover-up for his Islamic plan to take over the music industry and lull us all into submission with his indie-folk-pop harmonies and "beautiful" melodies.

And if I can speak to Sufjan directly for just a moment. Mr. Stevens, have some tact! If you really love your fellow New Yorkers, you'll change your name. Sure you have a constitutional right to whatever name you want, but this issue goes deeper than political freedoms. This is an issue of the heart, and with the release of this album your heart seems to say "This is an issue of freedom, not misguidedly ignorant and possibly racist emotions." And to that I say, boo. Boo to you, Sufjan.

We had to kick a different folk-singer "Stevens" out of the country, and if Sufjan doesn't change his tune, he'll be joining Cat Stevens with Uncle Sam's boot print on his ass. Take your Islamic propaganda somewhere else, YuSuf.

• Henry Siegman: Is Israel's Legitimacy Under Challenge?

  "There is therefore something bizarre in Israel's insistence that condemnations of its violations of international law are not intended to challenge the illegality of its settlements and continuing occupation but the legitimacy of its very existence. If Israel keeps it up, that insistence may well turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Perhaps Israel's right wing government believes that by accusing the international community of seeking to undermine its existence it will distract attention from an increasingly untenable claim that Israel is a model democracy that also enshrines Jewish values. Both claims have been undermined by its settlements policy and its determination to maintain the status quo, bringing into question the very foundation of America's "special relationship" with Israel."

• Work on 3rd Metro line causes sinkhole in Attaba | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt

  "A new digging machine--dubbed the "Nefertari"--has caused a 5-centimeter deep, 2.25-meter long sinkhole on al-Geish Street in the downtown Cairo district of Attaba. The machine had been in the process of digging a tunnel for Cairo's third subway line."

• Chris Christie warns GOP on mosque - Maggie Haberman - POLITICO.com

  **Finally, one (relatively) sane Republican** "New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a new national icon for the Republican Party thanks in part to his push for pension reforms, on Monday became the most prominent GOP figure to warn against "overreacting" to the threat of terror and painting "all of Islam" with the brush of terrorism amid the swirling controversy about the ground zero-area mosque. "

• Palin: Obama 'doesn't get' mosque - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com

  **No, Palin doesn't get it. She's a bigot** "“It sounds cliched to say that the president is disconnected from the American people on this issue, but how else do you describe it,” the former Alaska GOP governor said on Fox News. “He just doesn't get it, that this is an insensitive move on the part of those Muslims who want to build that mosque in this location. It feels like a stab in the heart to, collectively, Americans who still have that lingering pain from 9/11.” "

The mass Islamaphobic, racist and irrational hysteria against the building of an alleged "big mosque" at the site of the World Trade Center is ridiculous. The media's role in stoking the fires of prejudice is even more disgraceful. Even worse is the ADL's opposition to its building under the pretext that it may offend someone (Well, ADL, you offend me. Can we shut you down?). Anyone against the building of the Islamic complex, is, in my opinion, prejudiced against Islam, irrational and xenophobic.
The fact that Jewish groups in Manhattan, a Jewish mayor in New York, a majority of people living in Manhattan, the Manhattan zoning board and numerous other Christian, Jewish and Islamic organizations support the Cordoba Center, or at the least, don't oppose it, suggests to me that "real America" (read bigots in Alaska and elsewhere) is simply racist and dumb.

Here is a map showing the planned location, the center is in red.

• 'UN court to implicate Hezbollah' - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

  "The Hezbollah leader has said that members of his group are expected to be charged by a UN court probing the murder of Rafiq al-Hariri, a former prime minister of Lebanon."

• Lebanon plans 'spying' complaint - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

  "Lebanon plans to file a complaint about Israeli "espionage" at the United Nations, according to the country's information minister. More than 50 people have been arrested since an investigation was launched into allegations of spying by Israeli agents inside Lebanon in April 2009."

• Argentina prison's dummy sentinel allows two inmates to escape | World news | The Guardian

  "The only flaw in the innovation was that Wilson did not demur when two convicted armed robbers escaped, an oversight owing more to Mr Bean than Prison Break. Walter Pozo, 33, and Cesar Andres, 26, merged into a crowd of departing visitors last Saturday and vanished to freedom in Neuquén, a small city in Argentina's vast Patagonian wilderness."

• RNC fails to report $7M in debt to FEC - Washington Times

  "The Republican National Committee failed to report more than $7 million in debt to the Federal Election Commission in recent months - a move that made its bottom line appear healthier than it is heading into the midterm elections and that also raises the prospect of a hefty fine."

• Israeli Forces Kill Unarmed Palestinian - NYTimes.com

  "Israeli forces shot to death an unarmed Palestinian man early on Thursday at the edge of a Jewish settlement in the northern West Bank, Israeli military and Palestinian officials said. The Palestinian Authority government condemned the killing, calling it a "breach of the rule of law." "

• He impersonated a human - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

  "Now the respected judges have to be asked: If the man was really Dudu posing as Sabbar, a Jew pretending to be an Arab so he could sleep with an Arab woman, would he then be convicted of rape? And do the eminent judges understand the social and racist meaning of their florid verdict? Don't they realize that their verdict has the uncomfortable smell of racial purity, of "don't touch our daughters"? That it expresses the yearning of the extensive segments of society that would like to ban sexual relations between Arabs and Jews? It was no coincidence that this verdict attracted the attention of foreign correspondents in Israel, temporary visitors who see every blemish. Yes, in German or Afrikaans this disgraceful verdict would have sounded much worse. "

• 'Arab man attacked for talking to Jewish girl' - Israel News, Ynetnews

  "A 23-year-old Arab man sustained serious injuries after being attacked in Tiberias, allegedly for talking to a young Jewish woman. Police are still searching for the suspected assailant, a 19-year-old who fled the scene. "

• Why the Clash of Civilizations Won't Go Away | Marc Lynch

  "The resilence of the clash of civilizations frame is enabled by the inability of advocates of a new approach, including the Obama administration and many progressive foreign policy thinkers, to develop and defend a powerful alternative frame. The best argument, and certainly one which I've made often, is that the U.S. has a vital national security interest in preventing a spiral towards a "clash of civilizations" which would strengthen al-Qaeda's appeal and narrative. That's right --- but it's also a negative message, about what should not happen, rather than a positive one about Islam or about America's relationship with Muslims around the world."

• Israel prevents delivery of oxygen to hospitals

  "Seven oxygen machines donated to the Palestinain Authority by a Norwegian development agency were seized by Israeli officials en route to hospitals in the West Bank and Gaza, the Ramallah-based health ministry said. The machines, the ministry said in a Thursday statement, were confiscated by Israeli officials who claimed that the generators attached "came under the category of possible use for non-medical purposes" if they were delivered to the southern Gaza governorates. "

• Jesus did not die on cross, says scholar - Telegraph

  "The legend of his execution is based on the traditions of the Christian church and artistic illustrations rather than antique texts, according to theologian Gunnar Samuelsson. He claims the Bible has been misinterpreted as there are no explicit references the use of nails or to crucifixion - only that Jesus bore a "staurus" towards Calvary which is not necessarily a cross but can also mean a "pole". "

• Israeli FM: No Palestinian state by 2012 - Yahoo! News

  **surprise surprise** "Israel's hard-line foreign minister said Tuesday that there was "no chance" a Palestinian state would be established by 2012 — a message that threatened to cloud the latest visit by President Barack Obama's Mideast envoy. The comments by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman drew swift Palestinian condemnations and could put Israel at odds with the international community, which has set a 2012 target for brokering a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians."

• Lebanon arrests 'Israeli spy' from mobile phone company - BBC
  

  "Lebanon has arrested a man accused of spying for Israel for more than 15 years, the country's Telecommunications Minister Charbel Nahhas has said. Mr Nahhas said the man was a technician with one of the country's two main mobile networks, and could have had access to sensitive information. Lebanon, which fought a war with Israel in 2006, has made a series of similar arrests in the last year, as part of an operation to dismantle spy networks."

• Inspectors find safety flaws where airline food is prepared - USATODAY.com

  ** I don't think I'll be eating airline food anymore** "Six months ago, Food and Drug Administration inspectors say, they found live roaches and dead roach carcasses "too numerous to count" inside the Denver facility of the world's largest airline caterer, LSG Sky Chefs. They also reported finding ants, flies and debris, and employees handling food with bare hands. Samples from a kitchen floor tested positive for Listeria, a bacteria that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems. It's also dangerous to pregnant women."

• Fareed Zakaria - The fantasy of an Iranian revolution

  "I have been deeply supportive of Iran's Green Movement. I wrote about it, highlighted it on television and showcased its advocates. But I do not think it was likely to overthrow the Iranian regime. To believe that, one has to believe the government in Tehran is deeply unpopular with a majority of Iranians, holds onto power through military force alone and is thus vulnerable to a movement that could mobilize the vast majority in Iran who despise it. None of this is entirely true. "

• Op-Ed Contributor - Let Jordan Enrich Its Own Uranium - NYTimes

  "QUIETLY and with barely any public confrontation, Israel is creating a new enemy for itself: the Kingdom of Jordan. In the situation that we justifiably or unjustifiably find ourselves now — boycotted and isolated — we do not need to lose the only Arab state with which we have peace-like relations. "

• Questions for Tzipi Livni - Israel's Opposition Leader - Interview - NYTimes

  "Your parents were among the country’s founders. They were the first couple to marry in Israel, the very first. Both of them were in the Irgun. They were freedom fighters, and they met while boarding a British train. When the British Mandate was here, they robbed a train to get the money in order to buy weapons. It was a more romantic era."

A NYT interview with Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni labels Israeli terrorism against the British and the Palestinians as "romantic" and "freedom fighters." It's rather amazing that the exact same issues are labeled 'terrorism' when it comes to the Palestinians.

Excerpt below: (Thanks to Mondoweiss for pointing this out)

Your parents were among the country’s founders.
They were the first couple to marry in Israel, the very first. Both of them were in the Irgun. They were freedom fighters, and they met while boarding a British train. When the British Mandate was here, they robbed a train to get the money in order to buy weapons.

It was a more romantic era.

Whether you agree of disagree with Helen Thomas' recent statements, the way she has been treated by the White House Press Corps, the Obama Administration (Gibbs) and the mainstream media is disgraceful. The only reason she has had to apologize and step down is because her comments upset those who must not be named. Several other public figures including Mike Huckabee and Dick Armey have made comments fully endorsing the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza and even Sinai. Yet they remain untouched and uncriticized, because it is fine, in fact it is encouraged, to talk about exiling 6 million Arabs.

This is the sick double standard we live with in the United States. Let's hope the recent flotilla massacre will start the redress of this grave injustice and racist policy.

Huckabee
Armey

** As a follow-up, a recent article I read pointed out that we have yet to see the full context of the video. In the original released clip. Helen does not specify whether she is referring to all of Palestine-Israel, or simply the West Bank/Gaza. If indeed she is referring to the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza, her statements, in my opinion, are valid, as many of the settlers are direct immigrants from the United States, Russia and Europe who are being implanted on land stolen from Palestinians who have lived there for over a thousand years. Therefore, the recent extremist Brooklyn Jew encouraged by tax breaks and cheap real estate who moved to a settlement in the West Bank, should go home, back to New York, or at least into pre-1967 Israel. **

The time has come to take off our hats to the prime minister. Benjamin Netanyahu's predictions have proved accurate, and his prophecies are coming true right before our eyes. Now we can proudly declare that our government is led by a man of vision, a statesman who has foretold the future. Even his greatest critics can't deny it; the facts speak for themselves.

Netanyahu said the whole world is against us. Wasn't he right? He also said we live under an existential threat. Isn't it beginning to look like that? Give it another minute and Turkey will be at war with us too. Netanyahu said there's no chance of reaching an agreement with the Arabs. Wasn't that spot on? Our prime minister, who saw danger lurking in every alleyway and enemies waiting around every corner, who has always taught that there is no hope, who has drummed into us that we shall forever live by the sword (just as his father the historian taught him ), knew what he was talking about.

We haven't had anyone like him since David Ben-Gurion. He's a genuine prophet whose every prediction comes true, one after the other - someone who can really be proud of his accomplishments. Enough mockery, enough ridicule. For Netanyahu is not only a prophet; his leadership has swept up the entire country. There is no longer anyone who can stop him from realizing his vision, and soon the pundits will be writing that Netanyahu was right.

This country now has a blind captain in the cockpit, flying his blindfolded passengers with exemplary precision toward the destination he envisioned. If there had still been any object of his scaremongering that had not yet been attained before this week, along came the outrageous seizure of the flotilla, and that goal too was in the bag.

If anyone was still entertaining a glimmer of hope that our pilot wasn't totally blind, that he had some special sight-enhancing gadget, along came his declaration that the blockade of Gaza would continue. Let the world and wisdom and Gaza all go to hell, and incidentally Israel too - and dash that glimmer of hope as well. After the saws and knives seized on the Marmara have been publicly exhibited, we will be able to convince ourselves once and for all that there is indeed a danger lurking in every alley, an Al-Qaida operative on every ship, weapons on every deck - and even that the Marmara was an existential threat, no less, just as our leader had foreseen.

Of course, no one will demand to see the guns that the activists are alleged to have fired, or the video footage in which Israeli soldiers are seen firing, or the confiscated photographs taken by journalists. For us, the pictures of the severe beatings that the IDF Spokesman's Office has released are enough.

Some 7 billion human beings (less about 5 million Israeli Jews ) are wrong. They haven't got a leader like Netanyahu, and that's why they go on thinking that seizing passenger ships in international waters is an act of piracy, no different from the deeds committed by the pirates of Somalia. They think (wrongly of course ) that Israel has no right to stop a fleet of boats; that the victims are the people of Gaza and the bleeding passengers, not the naval commandos who raided the ship and were beaten; and that the aggressors were the troops who were dropped onto the ship from a helicopter, killing nine civilians with live fire and wounding dozens.

The world is wrong and Netanyahu, with us in tow, is right. We will not lift the blockade. For four years it has yielded not an ounce of benefit, just damage, but what does that matter? Giddyup! Let's fulfill Netanyahu's vision. We'll become an even more despised country and won't have a single friend left in the world, not even the United States. True, it was Netanyahu's predecessor, Ehud Olmert, who began this terrible landslide with Operation Cast Lead, after which the world became intolerant of all violent behavior by Israel, but Netanyahu is following in his path.

Despite it all, his vision has not yet been realized in full. He gave rise to one hope: an "economic peace" that would bring prosperity to Palestinians and Israelis. But as yet there has been no greater saboteur of Israeli exports than Netanyahu, and soon everything produced here will have to be sold no further afield than Petah Tikva. Even prophets are entitled to err on occasion, but he had better not give rise to any more hopes.

About half of Israelis want a commission of inquiry, according to a poll published yesterday. It can be assumed that this is only because our soldiers were beaten and humiliated. Why, what else is there to investigate? After all, we have a prophet-statesman whose predictions are coming true, one after the other, and the redeemer is (not ) coming to Zion.

Press TV clip dispels Israeli propaganda that the peaceful Israeli soldiers were attacked by the violent civilians (including a Jewish Holocaust survivor and a Nobel Peace Prize winning laureate) before they fired upon them with live ammunition. The video shows that at least two civilians had already been shot, and 1 killed before the soldiers even boarded. The first clip is in Arabic, then English, then Arabic, and then I think Turkish.

Israeli Jewish settlers shoot and kill a Palestinian, 16, in the back near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

When are the United States and Israel going to wake up and realize that these settlers are the equivalent of the KKK in the United States? They are violent, aggressive racist criminals who disregard all authorities of justice as they spread their "God-ordained" tentacles throughout the West Bank killing children, burning mosques, and stealing houses. It is absolutely unacceptable that a US citizen can donate money to organizations that finance these illegal settlements and receive a tax break, yet not give money to certain Palestinian organizations that actually provide health care and legal aid to the real citizens of the West Bank. Outside the rabid Zionist frenzy of Jerusalem, a majority of Israelis view these settlers with disdain. They are Jews and Jews for Jesus from New York City and Russia who are trying to be "more Israeli than the Israelis" so to speak, and thus think they are proving themselves by shooting children in the back in the name of God while whining that the world is against them and that THEY are the victims.

Anyways, here's the story that started this angry rant:

Palestinians: Settlers killed stone-throwing teen near Ramallah
There was no confirmation from Israel of the shooting, nor was it clear if attack linked to 'price-tag' policy against Palestinians.

Settlers opened fire and killed a Palestinian teenager who threw rocks at them near the West Bank city of Ramallah late Thursday, according to Palestinian sources.

The body of Iser A-aban, 16, was found with gunshot wounds to the back outside the village of Mazra'a al Sharqiya, according to the sources.

There was no confirmation from Israel regarding the report.

Violent rightists have adopted a "price tag" policy against Palestinians since Israel declared a temporary freeze in West Bank construction last December. Over the course of the last five months, groups of extremists have vandalized mosques destroy Palestinian property as a response to the IDF's having dismantled illegal outposts.

It was not yet clear whether this incident was related to the "price tag" operation.

A great post over at Mondoweiss:

My Holocaust education

by Joseph Glatzer

I'm writing my Senior Research Paper (at Cal State Northridge) on the Palestinian Right of Return, and my professor suggested I examine the precedents of compensation and repatriation set by the Jewish survivors of the Holocaust.

I started investigating the Claims Conference stuff, and I decided to delve deeper into the actual stories. The more I read the more I was horrified.

Horrified that humanity could watch this and do nothing. Horrified by the parallels between Nazi treatment of Jews and Israeli treatment of Palestinians.

And furious at the exploitation of these innocent victims to justify dehumanizing and oppressing other people.

Before this, about all the Holocaust education I’d ever gotten was watching Schindler's List in my 8th grade History class. I put together a list of statements about the Jewish condition then that resonated to the Palestinian condition today:

"The Jewish quarter is separated from the rest of the city by walled-in streets, windows, doors and empty lots, fire and partition walls having been incorporated. The walls are 3 meters high (The West Bank wall is 6-8 meters high" B'tselem); another meter is added by a parapet of barbed wire. Furthermore, surveillance is provided by police patrols on horseback and in motor vehicles."

"An internal Jewish police force was created which maintained 'law and order' and squelched Jewish resistance in the interest of, and at no expense to, the occupation forces."

"Following the occupation of Warsaw the German authorities had created a blatantly inequitable exchange system between the ghetto and the outside world. In return for the ruthless expropriation of Jewish finances, services and goods, this cunning mechanism provided only for grotesquely inadequate food supplies; its aim was the slow starvation of the ghetto"

"Jewish survival increasingly hinged on one dangerous recourse: smuggling...Smuggling was a dangerous business, pursued by courageous men constantly risking their lives."

"The Gestapo, SS and regular German troops made frequent forays into the ghetto, indiscriminately harassing, plundering, interrogating, arresting, beating and shooting the population. Even when they refrained from such incursions, they still were busy sealing off and starving the ghetto."

"The semblance of such a (autonomous communal) structure did exist, except that it was far from autonomous, primarily serving to camouflage the true intentions of the Nazis."

"...a tendency to blame the Jews for moral shortcomings which -- if they existed at all -- were ultimately the product of German repression."

To say that Israelis are "doing the same thing to Palestinians which was done to them" by the Nazis isn't true. You can't compare 2/3 of European Jews to the number of Palestinian deaths.

But it’s not about body count comparisons. It’s about dehumanization. The dehumanization is what is truly disturbing, the utter dehumanization both Nazi Germany and Israel have taken part in. Their victims are simply less than human, and they deserve to die in the street.

The Warsaw Ghetto in Photographs

When I was confronted with utter Jewish vulnerability, it made me wonder what happened to these people between their liberation and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948.

The tables turned.

Jews are now the ones segregating "the other" into ghettoes, imprisoning them inside huge concrete walls.

Jews are now the ones who capture land through aggressive war.

Jews are now the ones who lavish praise on the ghetto elite (Palestinian Authority and their Security Forces).

Jews are now the ones racially classifying “the other” by law.

Jews are now the ones banning intermarriage to maintain the “purity” of their “race”.

Jews are now the ones forcing "the other" to carry identifying symbols.

Jews are now the ones inciting pogroms on "the other".

Jews are now the ones enacting specific laws governing social activities with "the other".

Jews are now the ones expropriating "the other's" land and property.

Jews are now the ones banning books from "the other's" schools.

Jews are now the ones trying to destroy another peoples' way of life.

This is the tragedy of Zionism.

After reading about the history of the Warsaw Ghetto, I found myself feeling sorry for Jewish people. What a concept.

Due to Israel’s actions, I’ve never known a world where Jews were David not Goliath.

For the obvious reasons, I constantly felt guilty during my visit to Israel last December. At times, I felt a sort of Jewish pride and identification.

I’m not gonna lie; sometimes it felt good. But guilt would snap me back to reality.

I think I like learning about the Holocaust so much because I get to connect to my Jewish identity, whatever that may be, without feeling guilty.

The last time I felt this guilt free Jewish connection, was during a long conversation I had with Stefanie Fox of Jewish Voice for Peace.

What was done in the Holocaust is much worse in scale than what's being done to the Palestinians. It's not the same.

But, comparing the Holocaust to Israeli treatment of Palestinians doesn't take anything away from the Jewish suffering of the Holocaust. In fact, it does something better.

It de-Zionizes the Holocaust, and lets it stand on its own. Why can't Holocaust curiculum be introduced into Palestinian schools? Why can't Holocaust curiculum be introduced into American schools for God's sake?

Why can't the "Museum of Tolerance" on Mamilla cemetery be scrapped, and instead launch a Holocaust museum in the Old City of Jerusalem next to a Nakba Memorial with the ribbon cutting being done by Hedy Epstein and Ghada Karmi?

A shared monument of tragedy-- I can't think of a better way to launch a bi-national state for all its citizens.