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Mar 17, 2010

Israel: THE “SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP” IS DEAD

 

From: <jimwdean@aol.com>

Date: Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 7:42 PM

Michael, 

An important piece here. Gordon is a prolific writer and God knows how he still does his work. He's a long time military and security consultant...spent some years teaching Russian and Chinese history, has an army of Intel contacts, much more than me, and is well known by all the retired and current brass of Pakistan. He had lunch with the head of ISI a couple of weeks ago...and his Paki TV appearances set ratings records. He did a ten day dual trip with Jeff Gates...a kind of Butch and Sundance thing.
 
 
 

GORDON DUFF: U.S. TELLS ISRAEL: "YOU ARE UNDERMINING AMERICA, ENDANGERING TROOPS"

March 16, 2010 by Gordon Duff · 51 Comments 

THE "SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP" IS DEAD

LEARN SOME OF THE "WHY" BEING KEPT FROM YOU

By Gordon Duff STAFF WRITER/Senior Editor

Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Clinton and Joint Chief's Chairman Mike Mullen have all recently visited Israel on two issues, reliable information that Israel was planning an attack on Iran, a plan designed to push America into a war our leaders believe is both wrong and likely to risk a global nuclear confrontation with Russia and the building of a massive housing project on the Arab side of Jerusalem in violation of numerous agreements, a project that is likely to cause a spike in world terrorism and send thousands of new fighters to Afghanistan to face American forces there.

This is the worst point in the history of the relationship between the U.S. and Israel since the founding of that nation in 1948 but these are not the only reasons, not these and the arrogant and intractable attitude of Israel's leaders nor being caught in lie after lie, lies told to their financial backer and closest ally, the United States.  Here is some background on CENTOM Commander, General Petraeus' shocking briefing:

On Jan. 16, two days after a killer earthquake hit Haiti, a team of senior military officers from the U.S. Central Command (responsible for overseeing American security interests in the Middle East), arrived at the Pentagon to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The team had been dispatched by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus to underline his growing worries at the lack of progress in resolving the issue. The 33-slide, 45-minute PowerPoint briefing stunned Mullen. The briefers reported that there was a growing perception among Arab leaders that the U.S. was incapable of standing up to Israel, that CENTCOM's mostly Arab constituency was losing faith in American promises, that Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region…

 "Everywhere they went, the message was pretty humbling," a Pentagon officer familiar with the briefing says. "America was not only viewed as weak, but its military posture in the region was eroding." But Petraeus wasn't finished: two days after the Mullen briefing, Petraeus sent a paper to the White House requesting that the West Bank and Gaza (which, with Israel, is a part of the European Command — or EUCOM), be made a part of his area of operations.  The Mullen briefing and Petraeus's request hit the White House like a bombshell… pressing Israel once again on the settlements issue, sending Mitchell on a visit to a number of Arab capitals and dispatching Mullen for a carefully arranged meeting with the chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi. … Certainly, it was thought, Israel would get the message.

Israel didn't. When Vice President Joe Biden was embarrassed by an Israeli announcement that the Netanyahu government was building 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, the administration reacted. But no one was more outraged than Biden who, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, engaged in a private, and angry, exchange with the Israeli Prime Minister:

 "This is starting to get dangerous for us," Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. "What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace." Yedioth Ahronoth went on to report: "The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel's actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism." The message couldn't be plainer: Israel's intransigence could cost American  lives.

The deterioration started long before this and can be tracked by changing perceptions in the Obama administration whose leaders are heavily "pro-Israel" but lack the extremist convictions of the Zionist/extremist group that surrounded President Bush.  When Obama took office, even Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, one of the most prominent Israeli proponents in the country, had become aware of the extent of Israeli involvement in areas that had taken the "special relationship" into an area of disaster for the United States.  This is what was discovered:

  • The military and intelligence organizations in the United States had been penetrated by Israel, not only through our normal broad partnership but the planting of "moles," many from the Christian Zionist community who were taking direction from Israel and not the United States.  The result wasn't just limited to falsification of intelligence, both leading to endless phony terror alerts and non-existent enemies but to skewing operations in a manner to guarantee their failure with significant American cost in both lives and money.
  • The massive spy network uncovered by Sibel Edmonds had been tracked, almost entirely to Israel.  Edmonds had been silenced by National Security Letters issued by John Ashcroft, leading Christian Zionist in the Bush Administration and constant "private" visitor to Israel.  After 6 years of spying at the highest levels of the White House, Department of State, Congress and the Pentagon, the network grew even more, accessing nearly all top US intelligence and selling it on the open market. 
  • Most disastrous of the stolen intelligence was the data on the new JSF, the F35 Joint Strike Fighter.  All data on this new $300 billion dollar project fell into Israeli hands in 2008, information that may have turned the air superiority fighter meant to rule the skies for the next 30 years into a "target sled."  This is the biggest intelligence attack on the US since the Pollard/Israeli scandal.  Pollard, an American Jew reputedly associated with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, stole America's battle plans for the defense of NATO, our entire spy/surveillance network plans and full ultra-top secret detailed plans that could have negated America's nuclear deterrent during the most dangerous times of the Cold War.  Pollard's information was sold to the Soviets by Israel, information that could have let Russia win World War III.
  • The Israeli attack on Gaza was timed to an American change of administration and done without consultation.  Broad intelligence sources indicate that the attacks were not in relatiation to any terrorist activity but are spoken of "behind closed doors" by top US officials as ethnic cleansing not unlike the issues that brought NATO into conflict with Serbia.  The systematic nature of the attack, destroying water-treatment, schools, hospitals, food storage, power generation and the massive loss of life, especially among children, has soured many in the Obama camp on Israel
  • Israel's use of the Jewish lobby in the US to hold up President Obama's domestic agenda and their use of Jewish controlled media to embarrass the President has caused more bitterness.  With Jewish controlled/owned Fox, CNN (Wolf Blitzer, formerly of the Jerusalem Post), ABC, CBS, NBC networks and other major news sources all working in concert against, particularly President Obama's health care initiative, Israel is seen as "flexing its muscle" even more.  The believed rationale is the removal of all non-Jews from Israel, dead or alive, with a powerless US government paying the bills and fighting the massive terrorist backlash for generations.
  • The Israeli agenda of working with India to destabilize Pakistan, organize terror attacks there and, less publicly known, in Afghanistan and Iraq, some against American targets, can no longer be ignored by the current administration, Secretary Gates, General's Mullen and Petraeus.  Israeli's "dynamic duo," Senators McCain and Lieberman, though still holding important committee assignments on the hill, are being held increasingly in disrepute in the United States.  When Israel sends these two on errands, it no longer carries the weight and power of the United States as it had during the Bush administation.
  • Re-examination of a number of terrorist attacks during the Bush administation, particularly in Europe, show a clear "Mossad footprint," something adding credence to the hypothesis that the "war on terror" and intelligence failures in Iraq had been heavily influenced by Israeli sources, many of the same individuals tied to the Edmonds spy affair, many close to, not only Israel but President Bush and Vice President Cheney.  Recently a secret El Al/Israel flight from JFK in New York has been discovered, a flight authorized by top Bush officials, one previously kept secret and now being tied covering up 9/11 intelligence failures.  The El Al Boeing 747 left only hours after the 9/11 attack, at a time all air traffic in the United States was grounded.

With nearly all Arab/Muslim governments aligned behind the US, including a softening of tensions with Iran, Israel feels it must act quickly.  However, the US no longer has any strategic requirement for a relationship with Israel.  What had been seen as a potential ally, perhaps now wrongly so, in the region is now generally perceived as a "runaway train" that the United States can no longer go to the United Nations time after time to protect from sanctions, 32 times thus far.  Israel clearly feels it has the United States "over a barrel" with control of media, a massive AIPAC lobby working against American policy and huge new financial influence over the upcoming Congressional elections handed over to them by the highly controversial 5/4 Supreme Court "free speech" election funding decision  clearly meant to aid Israel further in her ability to intimidate Congress.

Unofficially, Israel has moved to the top of America's "terrorist watch list" and is now drifting toward "evildoer" status, not only by the White House but, more broadly, through top defense officials who now perceive Israel as a threat to the United States.






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US policies on Israel endanger American troops

 



The Petraeus briefing: Biden's embarrassment is not the whole story

Posted By Mark Perry 091022_meta_block.gif Saturday, March 13, 2010 - 11:05 PM 091022_meta_block.gif 091022_more_icon.gif Share

rsz_94172476.jpg

On Jan. 16, two days after a killer earthquake hit Haiti, a team of senior military officers from the U.S. Central Command (responsible for overseeing American security interests in the Middle East), arrived at the Pentagon to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The team had been dispatched by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus to underline his growing worries at the lack of progress in resolving the issue. The 33-slide, 45-minute PowerPoint briefing stunned Mullen. The briefers reported that there was a growing perception among Arab leaders that the U.S. was incapable of standing up to Israel, that CENTCOM's mostly Arab constituency was losing faith in American promises, that Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region, and that Mitchell himself was (as a senior Pentagon officer later bluntly described it) "too old, too slow ... and too late."


The January Mullen briefing was unprecedented. No previous CENTCOM commander had ever expressed himself on what is essentially a political issue; which is why the briefers were careful to tell Mullen that their conclusions followed from a December 2009 tour of the region where, on Petraeus's instructions, they spoke to senior Arab leaders. "Everywhere they went, the message was pretty humbling," a Pentagon officer familiar with the briefing says. "America was not only viewed as weak, but its military posture in the region was eroding." But Petraeus wasn't finished: two days after the Mullen briefing, Petraeus sent a paper to the White House requesting that the West Bank and Gaza (which, with Israel, is a part of the European Command -- or EUCOM), be made a part of his area of operations. Petraeus's reason was straightforward: with U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military had to be perceived by Arab leaders as engaged  in the region's most troublesome conflict.

[UPDATE: A senior military officer denied Sunday that Petraeus sent a paper to the White House.

"CENTCOM did have a team brief the CJCS on concerns revolving around the Palestinian issue, and CENTCOM did propose a UCP change, but to CJCS, not to the WH," the officer said via email. "GEN Petraeus was not certain what might have been conveyed to the WH (if anything) from that brief to CJCS."

(UCP means "unified combatant command," like CENTCOM; CJCS refers to Mullen; and WH is the White House.)]

The Mullen briefing and Petraeus's request hit the White House like a bombshell. While Petraeus's request that CENTCOM be expanded to include the Palestinians was denied ("it was dead on arrival," a Pentagon officer confirms), the Obama administration decided it would redouble its efforts -- pressing Israel once again on the settlements issue, sending Mitchell on a visit to a number of Arab capitals and dispatching Mullen for a carefully arranged meeting with the chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi. While the American press speculated that Mullen's trip focused on Iran, the JCS Chairman actually carried a blunt, and tough, message on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that Israel had  to see its conflict with the Palestinians "in a larger, regional, context" -- as having a direct impact on America's status in the region. Certainly, it was thought, Israel would get the message.

Israel didn't. When Vice President Joe Biden was embarrassed by an Israeli announcement that the Netanyahu government was building 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem, the administration reacted. But no one was more outraged than Biden who, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, engaged in a private, and angry, exchange with the Israeli Prime Minister. Not surprisingly, what Biden told Netanyahu reflected the importance the administration attached to Petraeus's Mullen briefing:  "This is starting to get dangerous for us," Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. "What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace." Yedioth Ahronoth went on to report: "The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel's actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism." The message couldn't be plainer: Israel's intransigence could cost American  lives.

There are important and powerful lobbies in America: the NRA, the American Medical Association, the lawyers -- and the Israeli lobby. But no lobby is as important, or as powerful, as the U.S. military. While commentators and pundits might reflect that Joe Biden's trip to Israel has forever shifted America's relationship with its erstwhile ally in the region, the real break came in January, when David Petraeus sent a briefing team to the Pentagon with a stark warning: America's relationship with Israel is important, but not as important as the lives of America's soldiers. Maybe Israel gets the message now.

Mark Perry's newest book is Talking To Terrorists

[UPDATE 2--from Mark Perry: A senior military officer told Foreign Policy by email that one minor detail in my report, "The Petraeus Briefing" was incorrect: a request from General Petraeus for the Palestinian occupied territories (but, as I made clear, not Israel itself), be brought within CENTCOM's region of operation was sent to JCS Chairman Mullen - and not directly to the White House. My information was based on conversations with CENTCOM officials, who believed they were giving me correct information. It is significant that the correction was made, not because it is an important detail, but because it is was inconsequential to the overall narrative. In effect, the U.S. military has clearly said there was nothing in this report that could be denied.]

AFP/Getty

 




Petraeus: I never formally asked for command of the Palestinian territories

Posted By Josh Rogin 091022_meta_block.gif Tuesday, March 16, 2010 - 2:54 PM 091022_meta_block.gif 091022_more_icon.gif Share

petraeus2_0.jpg

Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in the Middle East, did not formally request that the West Bank and Gaza be placed under his command's domain, he told a Senate panel Tuesday.

Petraeus was reacting to an article on Foreign Policy's Middle East Channel last week reporting that he briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff about his concerns over how a lack of progress in the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians could jeopardize U.S. national security interests. The article originally stated that Petraeus followed up with a white paper sent to the White House that recommended the Palestinian territories be taken out of European Command's area of responsibility and placed with his own Central Command.

But in testimony today before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Petraeus denied that he made such a request and downplayed the discussions that he and other senior military leaders have had over the issue.

"Although some staff members have, various times, and I have discussed and you know, asking for the Palestinian territories or something like that to be added ... I have never made that a formal recommendation for the Unified Command Plan, and that was not in what I submitted this year," Petraeus said. "Nor have I sent a memo to the White House on any of this."

The article was updated to say that CENTCOM did in fact recommend that the Palestinian territories be added to its portfolio, but made that recommendation to the Joint Chiefs, not the White House.

On Tuesday, a senior military official close to Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen emailed Foreign Policy to say that "while the Chairman certainly did receive a briefing by Gen. Petraeus' team, he was not 'stunned' by it. Indeed, he found it somewhat out of date."

Retired Admiral William "Fox" Fallon, who was CENTCOM commander from 2007 to 2008, said that when he was in charge of the region, discussion about adding parts of Israel and the Palestinian territories to his portfolio was commonplace.

"It's been discussed in the past and I'm open to that kind of discussion when the time is right," Fallon told The Cable. "Frankly, during my time it wasn't right because we had two burning hot wars going on and didn't really need another major diplomatic challenge."

"From my perspective, in many respects it might be easier because the whole rest of the Middle East is part of CENTCOM, but in the end that's going to be a political decision," Fallon explained. "There are certain advantages to having it all in one pot but there's a lot friction there. Certainly it's worth exploring..."

Overall, Petraeus testified that the tensions caused by the dispute between Israel and its neighbors does have an "enormous effect" on other regional issues.

"My thrust has generally been, literally, just to encourage that process that can indeed get that recognition that you talked about, and indeed get a sense of progress moving forward in the overall peace process, because of the effect that it has on particularly what I think you would term the moderate governments in our area," he told Sen. John McCain, R-AZ.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was reported to have told Israeli President Bibi Netanyahu that Israel's actions to stall the peace process are endangering American troops in Afghanistan, although the White House is now denying he used such stark language.

But a State Department official, speaking on background, did acknowledge the administration's feeling that the peace process and U.S. activities throughout the Middle East are closely interconnected.

"If there's hope associated with a peace process, that can have a constructive impact both in Israel and Palestine and beyond. Where a process stagnates, that can also have implications," the official said. "We understand how important this issue is not only to the immediate parties but to the region as a whole. That's why we see this process as closely identified with broader U.S. interests in the region."

Getty Images

 





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More comments

 


 
http://michaelsantomauro.blogspot.com/2010/03/is-norman-finkelstein-zionist-stooge-by_13.html  
 
 


2 COMMENTS:

Anchorage Activist said...

I do not believe Norman Finkelstein is a Zionist stooge, for two reasons:

(1). He disputes only the singularity of the Holocaust, not the demographics or the methodology. His only problem with the Official Authorized Version of the Holocaust is that it is presented as the penultimate genocide and that people are jailed in Europe for publicly disputing it.

(2). He is the son of two Holocaust survivors. Jewish supremacists would find it awkward to try to explain why they were persecuting the son of Holocaust survivors.

As a result, Organized Jewry growls and snaps at him, but won't actually bite him.

The "singularity" of the Holocaust is defined as the notion, promoted by Abe Foxman, that the Jewish Holocaust is a unique form of genocide. The problem is that this implies that Jewish suffering is worse than anyone else's suffering, which also implies that Jewish life is inherently more valuable than Gentile life. And that notion constitutes the very foundation of Jewish supremacism itself.

Balder said...

I think it is unfair to criticize Norman Finkelstein for refusing to take a clear stance on some aspects of the holocaust.

Everybody must decide on his own strategy. Going around the question about the numbers and gas chambers etc. makes a lot of things a lot easier.

The same goes for the question of Israel's existence as a Jewish state.

By staying relatively politically correct, he still has a platform.

Thomas Dalton wrote a book which potentially could clear up many things about the holocaust controversy for many people. But how many from the main stream can we get to read it?

I think it would be good to be less critical of people who are going in the right direction, even if it might not be entirely your or mine direction.

The allegation that because Finkelstein still manages to make the mainstream media, the Zionists must have allowed him to do it..

I know they are powerful, but they don't control everything..



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Mar 16, 2010

Sensational New Video: Adolf Hitler discovers Revisionism and Holocaust Denialism

 




Adolf Hitler discovers Revisionism and Holocaust Denialism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeyWbMB-gIw

 




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Activus Interruptus: All Pro-White and Nowhere to Go

 

Activus Interruptus: All Pro-White and Nowhere to Go

Christopher Donovan 

March 16, 2010 

It's well-known that a major frustration for white advocates is the lack of opportunities for activism.  A person first makes the slow and sometimes painful transition from "conservative" or "libertarian" to racially conscious white person (as in "No, I'm not a hater of random black or Jewish people, but would you look at the raw deal whites in America are getting, for God's sake?").  The more they delve into the writings, and match them up with current events, the more clearly they understand the issues facing whites.  But aside from posting on the Internet, there's not much they can do.

Many would put themselves at grave risk of being fired from their employment, as the examples of Sam Francis, Kevin LambMichael Regan and countless others show. 

Some organizations, as the erudite Wilmot Robertson observed, consist of nothing more than a weird collection of undercover government agents, informers and oddballs.  I recall attending some National Alliance meetings several years ago and thinking that some of the attendees mirrored his observation.   

I think this is a very harmful state of affairs.  Some deal with "activus interruptus" by simply drifting away.  Others may deal with it through foolhardy outbursts that accomplish nothing. 

One acute problem is this:  there are countless implicitly white efforts that never go anywhere (conservatism in general being the chief example) because they don't state the issues clearly.  And then there are the kamikazee pro-white efforts that never go anywhere precisely because they do state the issues clearly (the National Alliance might be an example).  Damned if you do, damned if you don't.  We're too hot to handle, but we can't stay silent. 

I don't have a handy solution to this problem, but I wanted to name it.  I thought "activus interruptus" was a fitting phrase.  And I wanted to throw some thoughts out. 

1.  I don't think it's true that implicitly white activism, like being active in the GOP, is totally useless.  I recommend erring on the side of doing somethinginstead of nothing.  If all you can safely do is participate in the GOP or donate to the NRA (because your husband is a federal judge, for instance), that's all you can safely do.  Don't quit doing that just because it's not explicitly white.  Of course, you shouldn't lull yourself into thinking that's it:  look for any and all opportunities to push and persuade. 

2.  Inside all areas of life, there are opportunities to advance the white cause.  If you're elected to the local school board, you can vote for the less-PC history textbook, for instance.  Small beer, sure — but it's something. 

3.  Don't assume that joining a group is the same thing as advancing the cause.  Or starting a group.  Whites feel compelled to create groups with names and then run a flag up the pole.  Are the groups having an influence?  Sometimes, individual action — like running for office — might do more good.  Let me emphasize:  groups are always going to disappoint you.  The Democrats, as an organization, are very disappointing to many individual Democrats.  This doesn't stop them, however. 

4.  On the other hand, you might ask yourself whether certain types of activity really are that risky.  We sometimes buy too much of the notion that we're so marginal that we really do need to "crawl under a rock", as our opponents like to tell us.  Run through the possible consequences and ask what's likely to happen, or not.  If you're called to step out there more, step out.  If you need to rearrange your life in certain ways to make yourself more protected as an activist, do it.  Think long-range.  Self-employment is an obvious answer to the risk of being fired.  

5.  Use the system.  Yes, the system is against us.  Our goal is to change it.  But that doesn't mean we can't use it to our benefit in the meantime.  I think the legal process is a good example of this.  Don't equate use of the system with validation of the system. 

6.  Don't worry that you're being watched.  Of course you are being watched — by "civil rights" ninnies, radical leftists, the media, the government.  But don't get too excited about this.  The government doesn't like anyone who rattles the status quo, and they infiltrate all kinds of radical groups.  The government probably had the "civil rights" movement totally infiltrated, but it was ultimately successful. 

7.  Keep moving.  Don't become static.  Things like cancellation of AmRenare a blow, but that should be your cue to get flexible and think, write, speak, meet, connive, conspire, strategize and maybe do a little (legal) sabotage of your own. 

8.  De-emotionalize the white cause.  In the end, it's about inevitable group conflict and how we as whites will deal with it.  If you're convinced that whites as a group have a right to self-determination, you're there.   

We need changed minds and changed policies.  No bigger changes are going to happen without that groundwork.    

Christopher Donovan is the pen name of an attorney and former journalistEmail him.

Permanent link: http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/authors/Donovan-WhiteActivism.html


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A message From "Rachel Corrie's" Mother

 



A message From "Rachel Corrie's" Mother

Rachel died 7 years ago today March 16 2003

March 16 2010

From Rachel's Mother

This month, a civil lawsuit in Israel in the case of our daughter Rachel Corrie will converge with the seven-year anniversary of her killing in Gaza. A human rights observer and activist, Rachel, 23, was crushed to death by an Israel Defense Force (IDF) Caterpillar D9R bulldozer as she tried nonviolently to offer protection for a Palestinian family whose home was threatened with demolition. This lawsuit is one piece of our family's seven-year effort to pursue accountability for Rachel while, also, challenging the Occupation that claimed her life.

On this day, when Rachel's presence is powerful for many of us, we're asking all of our friends to support Rachel's vision of freedom for Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip by participating in what we are calling the International Day of Conscience. Please join her struggle by calling the White House today - this link has all the information you need:

http://tinyurl.com/Corrie4Gaza

Seven years later, Rachel's memory is still vibrant. I'm writing to you from Israel where we are plaintiffs in a civil case against the state of Israel for its responsibility in her death. In addition to seeking accountability through the Israeli court system, we're asking all of our friends to support Rachel's vision of freedom for Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip by participating in a national call-in day to the White House.

I hope I can count on you to:

  • Call the White House at 202-456-1111
  • Urge Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchell to visit Gaza and demand that the United States break the blockade of Gaza by providing immediate humanitarian aid and building materials.
  • Tell us about your call. Tracking your calls makes a difference.

You can also make the call tomorrow. Please forward this  to help spread the word.

Thank you,
Cindy Corrie

P.S. Click here to view the trial updates page on the Rachel Corrie Foundation website.

A few Documents from above link.

March 15: Eye Witness Testifies: Israeli Military Investigator Tried to Influence My Statement

English (pdf, 166.24 KB)

Eye Witness Testifies: Israeli Military Investigator Tried to Influence My Statement

    Today, March 15 2010, the Haifa District Court saw the third day of testimony in the civil lawsuit filed by Rachel Corrie's family against the State of Israel for her unlawful killing in Rafah, Gaza. Rachel was crushed to death on March 16, 2003 by a Caterpillar D9R bulldozer. She had been nonviolently demonstrating against Palestinian home demolitions with fellow members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), a Palestinian-led movement committed to resisting the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land using nonviolent, direct action methods and principles. Today's only testimony came from British citizen Alice Coy, a nurse, who was an eyewitness to the killing. The state spent most of the day trying to establish that contrary to all eyewitness accounts and human rights reports, the Israeli Military had no intention of demolishing homes in the area on the day Rachel was killed.

Ms. Coy testified that:

  • She first visited Israel in order visit Israeli family members.
  • When the Israeli Military interviewed her on April 1st about Rachel's killing, the soldier who documented her testimony refused to record her statement that she believed the bulldozers were going to destroy civilian homes.
  • She believed the Israeli Military was planning to demolish homes on the day Rachel was killed because the Israeli Military had been demolishing homes on the Philadelphi Corridor in the days and weeks prior, and because they had already begun to demolish a house earlier that day by damaging its porch.
  • She had spoken with many Palestinian families in the area where Rachel was killed whose homes had been demolished by the Israeli Military.
  • She believed the bulldozer driver who killed Rachel could see her.
  • She described her view of her work with ISM as promoting peace for the whole region.

The home Rachel Corrie was protecting, that of Dr. Samir Nasrallah, was in fact demolished by the Israeli Military later that year.

According to an October, 2004 Human Rights Watch report,Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip, between 2000 and 2004, the Israeli Military demolished over 2,500 Palestinian houses in Gaza, nearly two thirds of which were located in Rafah, resulting in more than 16,000 people – over 10% of Rafah's population – losing their homes. The Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, in its 2004 report Through No Fault of their Own, found that contrary to Israel's claim that prior warning is given before a home is demolished, occupants were given prior notification in a mere 3% of the cases.

The Human Rights' Watch report further documented that most of the destruction in Rafah occurred along the Israeli-controlled border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt known as the Philadelphi Corridor, the area where Rachel was killed. During regular nighttime raids and with little or no warning, Israeli forces used armored Caterpillar D9 bulldozers to raze blocks of homes, incrementally expanding a "buffer zone" that is currently up to three hundred meters wide.The pattern of destruction strongly suggests that Israeli forces demolished homes wholesale, regardless of whether they posed a specific threat, in stark violation of international law.

The trial will resume on Wednesday, March 17, 2010, at 9 a.m. at the district court in Haifa.

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Entire Villages Declared “Closed Military Zones” for Protesting

 


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desertpeace | March 16, 2010 at 2:16 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/pahWK-2Ru

Entire Villages Declared "Closed Military Zones" for Protesting

Israeli Army: Bil'in and Ni'ilin a Closed Military Zone for a Six Months Period
Dozens of masked soldiers raided the West Bank villages of Bil'in and Ni'lin this morning to post decrees designating the village's lands as a closed military zone on Fridays for a period of six months.

A masked Israeli soldier posting a closed military zone decree in Bil'in tonight. Picture Credit: Hamde Abu Rahmah

One week after the head of the Israeli Shin Bet threatened to aggravate the repression of the Palestinian popular struggle, a large military force raided the villages of Bil'in and Ni'ilin at 3:30AM tonight. The sole purpose of the raids was to post decrees designating the lands between the Wall and the built up area of the villages as closed military zones between 8AM to 8PM every Friday for a period of half a year. The decrees, which came into effect already on February 17th, are signed by the recently appointed commander of the Israeli Centarl Command, Avi Mizrahi, himself. Closed military zone orders are usually signed by a brigade commander, a much lower rank.

For a video of the raid in Bil'in watch here.

Gaby Lasky, the lawyer who represents residents of the villages, said that "This is yet another illegal measure taken by the Army, which makes ill use of its authority in order to suppress dissent and infringe on the already volatile freedom of speech in the Territories. Closed military zone orders are not meant to deal with demonstrations, which are clearly in the civic rather than the military realm"

The issuing of the decrees happens in the midst of an ongoing persecution campaign against Palestinian activists in an attempt to suppress the rising tide of West Bank popular resistance to the Occupation. In recent months Israel has carried dozens on dozens of protest related arrests, while protests have grown increasingly strong, like the fifth anniversary of Bil'in. The order goes into effect shortly before 5th Annual International Conference on Popular Struggle is scheduled to take place on April 21-23. Recently, the Army had also issue a blanket decree forbidding certain cars belonging to Israeli activists from entering the West Bank on Fridays, regardless of who is in them, where they are heading or the purpose of their trip. Seventeen Israeli protesters were also arrested last Friday in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem after the police declared the demonstration illegal for no apparent reason and despite a clear ruling by the Israeli Supreme Court the previous week stating the importance of allowing protest in the neighborhood.

Adittionaly, Iyad Burnat, the head of the Bil'in popular committee was summoned to a Shin Bet questioning yesterday, only an hour after he sent out an email titled "The third Intifada is knocking on the door", which contained reports on various demonstrations and protest activities that took place in the West Bank during the previous week.

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Michael Santomauro
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Call anytime: 917-974-6367
ReporterNotebook@Gmail.com
Amazon's: DEBATING THE HOLOCAUST: A New Look At Both Sides by Thomas Dalton

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