Churchill and U.S. Entry Into World War II
David Irving
... If I'm known for anything as a historian, apart from being a pain in the neck, it's because I uncover things. And uncovering things does not necessarily mean you go into the archives and see something and say: "Look at this, this is something quite extraordinary." If you go into the archives long enough, ten or twenty years, you become what I would call a "gap-ologist" I can spot gaps in archives and they're much more difficult to spot, because they've been papered over, and the files have been closed. ... Now what a scandalous statement that is! Here's the one country, Germany, trying to prevent a war and the other country -- Roosevelt, neutral -- trying to fan the flames of anti-German feeling to fuel the war. Yet it is the Germans who are called the criminals, and the Americans who do the prosecuting.
Churchill `Agonized' Over His `Finest Hour' Speech, Papers Reveal
The Telegraph (Britain)
The address he made to the British nation as it stood alone against the Nazi war machine is one of the most celebrated speeches in history. Full of passion and Shakespearesque language, his appeal for fortitude and courage was credited with re-galvanising the country in its darkest hour. But a new examination of his papers shows how he agonised over every famous phrase - even adding one at the last minute - and how his private secretary was secretly unimpressed by his efforts.
The Real Churchill
Adam Young
... The truth about Winston Churchill is that he was a menace to liberty, and a disaster for Britain, for Europe, for the United States of America, and for Western Civilization itself ... With his lack of principles and scruples, Churchill was involved in one way or another in nearly every disaster that befell the 20th century. He helped destroy laissez-faire liberalism, he played a role in the Crash of 1929, he helped start World War I, and by bringing in America to help, prolonged the war and created the conditions for the rise of Nazism, prolonged World War II, laid the groundwork for Soviet domination, helped involve America in a cold war with Russia, and pioneered in the development of total war and undermining western civilized standards.
Photos Document WWII Allied `War Against Art'
Der Spiegel (Germany)
... The Nazis decided to send German art historians to Italy to fulfill an article of the conventions which called for invading powers to ensure that cultural treasures in occupied territory be protected. The "art preservation unit," as it was named, was funded out of the military budget ... Before long, says Peters, the unit once responsible for protecting Italy's cultural heritage began delivering emotional images depicting devastated palaces, churches reduced to heaps of rubble and shattered sculptures. ... He had hundreds of pictures taken and wrote contributions for brochures on "the war against art" in which he spoke of the "enemy terror attacks."
Secret Mussolini Diaries Closed Until 2025
Daily Mail (Britain)
Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini hid a set of secret diaries in an Italian hillside and ordered them not to be opened until 2025, the son of the man who buried them has revealed. Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 until he was executed by partisans in 1945, has long been rumoured to have kept diaries which could detail the extent of his relationship with wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill.
Mad Dog of the Planet: Another Disaster for Israel's Propaganda Machine
Patrick Cockburn
.. The problem is that nobody believes Israeli propaganda as much as Israelis. Pro-Palestinian activists often lament the fluency and mendacity of Israeli spokesmen on the airwaves and the pervasive influence of Israel's supporters abroad. But, in reality, these PR campaigns are Israel's greatest weakness, because they distort Israelis' sense of reality. Defeats and failures are portrayed as victories and successes. The slaughter of civilians is justified as a military necessity or somehow the fault of the other side. Opponents are demonized as bloodthirsty terrorists. Comforted by such benign accounts of their activities, Israeli leaders are consumed by arrogance because they come to believe they have never made a mistake.
International Law and Israel's War on Gaza
Francis A. Boyle
... Israel has violated its conditions for admission to U.N. membership and thus must be suspended on a de facto basis from any participation throughout the entire United Nations System ... Third, we must abandon the fiction and the fraud that the United States government is an "honest broker." The United States government has never been an honest broker from well before the very outset of these negotiations in 1991. Rather, the United States has invariably sided with Israel against the Palestinians.
Literary Reading in US in Sharp Decline
National Endowment for the Arts (2004)
Literary reading is in dramatic decline with fewer than half of American adults now reading literature, according to a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) survey ... Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America reports drops in all groups studied, with the steepest rate of decline - 28 percent - occurring in the youngest age groups. The study also documents an overall decline of 10 percentage points in literary readers from 1982 to 2002, representing a loss of 20 million potential readers. The rate of decline is increasing and, according to the survey, has nearly tripled in the last decade.
Chosen, But Not Special
Michael Chabon -- The New York Times
... As a Jewish child I was regularly instructed, both subtly and openly, that Jews, the people of Maimonides, Albert Einstein, Jonas Salk and Meyer Lansky, were on the whole smarter, cleverer, more brilliant, more astute than other people ... The man who praises you for your history of accomplishment may someday seek therein the grounds for your destruction. This is, of course, the foundational ambiguity of Judaism and Jewish identity: the idea of chosenness, of exceptionalism, of the treasure that is a curse, the blessing that is a burden, of the setting apart that may presage redemption or extermination. To be chosen has been, all too often in our history, to be culled.
Is Benjamin Netanyahu Rational?
Philip Giraldi
... The neoconservatives frequently complain that Islam is not a "religion of peace," but the Old Testament is also a bloody book, including as it does many accounts of the Israelites massacring their enemies with God's blessing. There are also elements of the Jewish religion that are dark and lend themselves to a mindset that accepts one standard for Jews and another for gentiles ... Based on recent evidence, lying to the gentiles certainly appears to be the hallmark of the Israeli government response to the Gaza flotilla massacre. The Israelis have fabricated information and even two videos, contrived a manifestly false narrative, and lied at every step along the way
More College Grads Are Returning Home to Live
Baltimore Sun
... A survey of last year's college graduation class showed that 80 percent moved back home after getting their diplomas, up significantly from the 63 percent in 2006. The CollegeGrad.com survey of 2,000 young people showed that seven in ten said they would live at home until they found a job ... The 14.7 percent unemployment rate for those ages 20 to 24 remains double what it was in 2007, recent Bureau of Labor Statistics figures show, and is 50 percent higher than that of the overall population.
Obama Pushes Diversity in the Federal Courts
McClatchy newspapers
President Barack Obama is appointing women and minorities to federal judgeships at an unprecedented rate, and nowhere is the evidence more clear than in the Golden State ... Obama has already done more to diversify the Supreme Court than any other president by choosing two women for the high court. His first choice, Sonia Sotomayor, is the first person of Latino heritage to serve on the Supreme Court. ... Of Obama's nominees, 43 percent are women and minorities, a much higher rate than any of his predecessors, according to an analysis by Alliance for Justice, a liberal advocacy group.
Multiracial US Becoming Even More Diverse
The Associated Press
The nation's minority population is steadily rising and now makes up 35 percent of the United States, advancing an unmistakable trend that could make minorities the new American majority by midcentury. As white baby boomers age past their childbearing years, younger Hispanic parents are having children -- and driving U.S. population growth ... Currently four states -- Hawaii, New Mexico, California and Texas -- as well as the District of Columbia have minority populations that exceed 50 percent.
The Lobby's Blend of Paranoia and Belligerence
Mike Carlton -- Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
It is a ferocious beast, the Jewish lobby. Write just one sentence even mildly critical of Israel and it lunges from its lair, fangs bared ... It's standard operating procedure for the lobby to hurl accusations of anti-Semitism with that peculiar Israeli blend of paranoia and belligerence ... None of this is accidental. The Israel lobby, worldwide, is orchestrated in Jerusalem by a department in the Prime Minister's office with the rather Orwellian name of the Ministry for Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs. Less than 24 hours after the attack on the Mavi Marmara, the ministry hit the internet with "important talking points" for Jews around the world, the first of which was - surprisingly - that "the Palestinian people are not under blockade".
The Failure of the American Jewish Establishment
Peter Beinart -- The New York Review of Books
... Morally, American Zionism is in a downward spiral. If the leaders of groups like AIPAC and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations do not change course, they will wake up one day to find a younger, Orthodox-dominated, Zionist leadership whose naked hostility to Arabs and Palestinians scares even them, and a mass of secular American Jews who range from apathetic to appalled. ... In the world of AIPAC, the Holocaust analogies never stop, and their message is always the same: Jews are licensed by their victimhood to worry only about themselves. ... This obsession with victimhood lies at the heart of why Zionism is dying among America's secular Jewish young.
Israel's Cult of Victimhood
Jonathan Cook
... The Holocaust's lesson for most Israelis is not a universal one that might inspire them to oppose racism, or fanatical dictators or the bullying herd mentality that can all too quickly grip nations, or even state-sponsored genocide. Instead, Israelis have been taught to see in the Holocaust a different message: that the world is plagued by a unique and ineradicable hatred of Jews, and that the only safety for the Jewish people is to be found in the creation of a super-power Jewish state that answers to no one. Put bluntly, Israel's motto is: only Jewish power can prevent Jewish victimhood ... The lesson the rest of us need to draw from the deadly commando raid is that the world can no longer afford to indulge these delusions.
What Price Afghanistan?
Patrick J. Buchanan
... Eight years ago, the Taliban seemed finished. Since then, we have poured in scores of thousands of troops, spent $300 billion, lost 1,000 soldiers and seen thousands more wounded. Yet, the Taliban have never been stronger or operated more broadly ... To succeed in creating in Afghanistan a country where the Taliban have been driven permanently from power and there is no chance of al-Qaida's returns, we need a government in Kabul and an Afghan army and police that can follow up U.S. military gains by taking control, protecting the population and providing social reforms. We don't have that government. We have, instead, a regime that has no confidence we will stay the course and is thus dealing behind our backs with the enemy who is killing our troops.
Helen Thomas: An Appreciation
Paul Craig Roberts
... Any other government that murdered thousands of civilians in other countries, as Israel does routinely in Lebanon, Gaza, and the West Bank, would have its entire government and military on trial before the War Crimes Tribunal at the Hague. Israelis have no worst enemy than their own government. Every time the rest of the world tries to hold the Israeli government accountable for its crimes, the US vetoes the UN resolution. America has become the enabler of the zionist-hijacked Israeli government. And the Israeli government knows it.
Grim Outlook for the Global Economy
Eric Margolis
... The United States, 25 percent of the global economy, can't rein in its spending or cut debt. President George Bush inherited a surplus and went on to create the biggest deficit in US history (excepting WWII). Now, President Barack Obama is making matters worse by piling on more unsustainable debt ... Most alarmingly for resource exporters like Canada and Australia, Roubini warns China has massively overspent on infrastructure, exporting its excess capacity. Beijing has "front-loaded 15 years of capital spending," says Roubini.
Who Are We Defending?: Cut Military Spending
B. Friedman and C. Preble - Los Angeles Times
... The truth is that the U.S. no longer has a "defense" budget. The adjective is wrong. Our military forces' size long ago ceased to have any meaningful attachment to the requirements of protecting Americans ... Our military spending is nearly equal to half the world's, and our allies spend most of the other half. Russia, China, North Korea, Syria and Iran collectively spend about a fourth of what we do on defense ... Our deficit problem is an opportunity to surrender the pretension that we are the world's indispensable nation, preventing instability, shaping the international system and guiding history. We should be content to settle for being the big kid on the block that looks out for itself and occasionally helps friends in a bad spot.
Stop 'Thriving Holocaust Industry,' Says German Legislator
Ynet News (Israel)
"Stop cooperation with the state of Jewish scoundrels", "Don't give in to the thriving Holocaust industry." These statements were not said in the Tehran parliament, but in the German city of Dresden, during a parliament meeting in the state of Saxony. Leader of the extreme right National Democratic Party (NPD) Holger Apfel stirred up a storm in the parliament on Thursday when he carried a speech titled "no to cooperation with scoundrel countries - and end cooperation between Saxony and Israel."
In Ireland, a Call For End of `Cynical Holocaust Exploitation' by Israel
The Irish Times (Ireland)
David Norris (Ind.) [member of the Seanad or Senate of the Irish Republic] called on the Israeli authorities to end their "cynical, heartless and contemptible exploitation of the Holocaust for their own political purposes. This lets us all down, including those tragic victims of Auschwitz and all the other terrible camps." Mr Norris said he utterly condemned the recent murderous assault on the Gaza-bound peace flotilla, "where, in what was the equivalent of Bloody Sunday for the Israelis, a group almost equal in numbers of innocent, peaceful protesters against an outrage against humanity in Gaza were slaughtered by Israeli commandos."
Arizona Lawmaker Takes Aim at Automatic US Citizenship
The Associated Press
Emboldened by passage of the nation's toughest law against illegal immigration, the Arizona politician who sponsored the measure now wants to deny U.S. citizenship to children born in this country to undocumented parents. Legal scholars laugh out loud at Republican state Sen. Russell Pearce's proposal and warn that it would be blatantly unconstitutional, since the 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. But Pearce brushes aside such concerns ... The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868 in the aftermath of the Civil War, reads: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside."
New York Hotel Pioneers Birth Tourism
Breaking Travel News (Britain)
A New York hotel is staking its claim to have invented a new hospitality niche ? birth tourism. The Marmara Manhattan offers "an exclusive package for new mothers that wish to give birth in the USA", with the additional bonus of the newborn child gaining US citizenship. The hotel, which is part of the Turkish hospitality chain, exploits the 14th amendment to the US constitution, which states that all children born on American soil "are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside".
Joe Biden: In Israel's Service
Jeffrey Blankfort
... Like scores of other US politicians who have traded their political souls for access to the seemingly bottomless checking accounts of Israel's American supporters, Biden has become a poster boy for "dual loyalty." Given that he has done this as a member of Congress and continues to do so while now a heartbeat from the White House should probably qualify him for a treason trial and a cell next to Jonathan Pollard ... Biden stated, "When I was a young senator, I used to say, 'If I were a Jew I'd be a Zionist.' I am a Zionist," he said. "You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist."
Genes Set Jews Apart, Study Finds
Los Angeles Times
Jews of European descent living on opposite sides of the globe are more closely related to one another than they are to their fellow countrymen, according to the largest study ever conducted of what it means genetically to be Jewish. Ashkenazis, the primary group descended from European Jews, are all as closely related as fourth or fifth cousins would be, the study found ... They [Jews] are not different enough to be considered a separate race, as some experts have argued, he added, but definitely are a "distinct population" -- the result, presumably, of cultural separation down through thousands of years.
Irving's File on the Strange Franke-Gricksch Documents
David Irving
An index to documents on the 1943 "Franke-Gricksch Report," including 1945 British Army documents on the genuine Franke-Gricksch report, a summary of the genuine report, entries from the postwar diary of SS officer Maximilian von Herff, a facsimile of the alleged extract of the Franke-Gricksch report made public by Lipman.
Pearl Harbor: Case Closed?
Theodore O'Keefe - Institute for Historical Review
... Two recent books argue that Admiral Husband Kimmel, in particular, was gravely wronged by his superiors, not merely after December 7, 1941, but in the weeks and months before. One, Robert Stinnett's Day of Deceit, is radically revisionist, claiming to abound in new evidence for a conspiracy involving the president, the war and navy departments, the army chief of staff, and the chief of naval operations, among many other participants. The other, Michael Gannon's Pearl Harbor Betrayed, makes no explicit accusations of conspiracy, nor does it seriously fault America's confrontational diplomacy vis-a-vis Japan in the years leading up to the attack. Odd as it might seem, this reviewer found the second the more satisfying book.
Franklin Roosevelt, the Myth of Pearl Harbor, and the U.N.
John V. Denson
A book entitled The Pearl Harbor Myth: Rethinking the Unthinkable, by George Victor and published by Potomac Books Inc. of Washington, D.C. is well researched and gives a very clear picture of how and why the Pearl Harbor myth was created. ... Based on a good summary of the up-to-date research the author, who is an approving admirer of Roosevelt, concludes that Roosevelt deliberately provoked the attack and that he and his key military and administrative advisers clearly knew, well in advance, that the Japanese were going to attack both Pearl Harbor and the Philippines.
Remains of First King of England's Sister Found in German Cathedral
The Guardian (Britain)
Bones offer insight into royal life of Eadgyth, whose brother Athelstan married off to German king in 929, say scientists. She ate lots of fish, rode frequently, may have suffered from a disease or an eating disorder at ten and regularly moved around the chalky uplands of southern England, presumably as she followed her regal father around his kingdom. Analysis of remains found in a German cathedral have not only confirm they belonged to the granddaughter of the English king Alfred the Great but also given an insight into the life and times of a Saxon princess.
Israelis Feel Growing Isolation
The Associated Press
... Israel seems to be losing the battle against the country's isolation worldwide. That isolation was exacerbated after Israel's May 31 naval raid on a flotilla trying to break the blockade of Gaza spiraled into violence that left nine Turkish activists dead in a clash with the troops. Ecuador, South Africa and Turkey recalled their ambassadors and Nicaragua broke off diplomatic relations following the raid. Vietnam put off a visit by Israel's president, Greece suspended military exercises and Swedish dockworkers launched a weeklong boycott of Israeli ships and goods.
The Deadly Closing of the Israeli Mind
Ilan Pappé -- The Independent (Britain)
... One would have thought that Israel's drastic decline in international reputation would prompt new thinking by its leaders. But the responses to the attack on the flotilla in the past few days indicate clearly that there is no hope for any significant shift in the official position ... As long as the international community is complacent, the Arab world impotent and Gaza contained, Israel can still have a thriving economy and an electorate that regards the dominance of the army in its life, the continued conflict and the oppression of the Palestinians as the exclusive past, the present and future reality of life in Israel.
In the Footsteps of the Oregon Trail Pioneers
The Associated Press
... Kids crossing the continent in the mid-19th century often had roles and responsibilities that were critical to the family's survival, said Larry Jones, a retired Idaho state historian who has written extensively about the Oregon Trail. "They were pretty tough little kids," said Jones. "Many walked the entire 2,000 miles barefoot." It's been about 160 years since the westward migration started up in force between Missouri and the Pacific states, but there are still plenty of signs left behind by the more than 400,000 people estimated to have made that journey. ... The details of the crossing are dramatic. An estimated one in ten pioneers perished en route from cholera or dysentery or from accidents like accidental gunshots or falling under a wagon wheel.
Why Some Jews Would Rather Live in Siberia Than Israel
The Christian Science Monitor
... This Siberian territory bordering Manchuria and seven time zones east of Moscow is a Jewish republic. The Jewish Autonomous Region [Birobidzhan] was created by Stalin 75 years ago as an alternative to the Zionist project in Israel ... Today, just 6,000 of the region's 200,000 residents identify as Jews. But the Jewish dream in Siberia is not quite dead yet, and the region is now experiencing a small revival, thanks to Jews arriving from Israel.
Orthodox Jews Rally to Maintain Segregated Schools
Haaretz (Israel)
One of the toughest clashes between the [Israeli] state and Israel's ultra-Orthodox community came to a head on Thursday ... The parents, of Ashkenazi descent, have refused to allow their daughters to study alongside peers from Sephardi descent at a religious school in the West Bank settlement of Immanuel. The parents had removed their daughters from the school, despite the court's decision barring them from doing so, and refused to comply with the ruling in the future ... 100,000 ultra-Orthodox demonstrators came out to the streets to support the right of Ashkenazi Hasidic parents to keep their children in classes segregated from their Sephardi peers and to greet the parents on their way to custody.
In India, Hitler Memorabilia Attracts Youthful Interest
BBC News
Slowly but steadily, a decade-old business around the dead and universally despised dictator Adolf Hitler is emerging as a small-scale industry in India. Books and memorabilia on the German leader's life have found a steady market in some sections of Indian society where he is idolised and admired, mostly by the young ... Jaico, the largest publisher and distributor of Mein Kampf in India, has sold more than a 100,000 copies in the last ten years. Crossword, an India-wide chain of book stores, has sold more than 25,000 copies since 2000 and marketing head Sivaram Balakrishnan says: "It's been a consistent bestseller for us." ... In the US, it sold 26,000 copies last year 2009. In 2005 it sold 100,000 copies in Turkey in just a few months.
US Policy in Afghanistan is Failing
Gareth Porter -- Inter Press Service
Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal confronts the specter of a collapse of U.S. political support for the war in Afghanistan in coming months comparable to the one that occurred in the Iraq War in late 2006. On Thursday, McChrystal's message that his strategy will weaken the Taliban in its heartland took its worst beating thus far, when he admitted that the planned offensive in Kandahar City and surrounding districts is being delayed until September at the earliest, because it does not have the support of the Kandahar population and leadership. Equally damaging to the credibility of McChrystal's strategy was the Washington Post report published Thursday documenting in depth the failure of February's offensive in Marja.
US Hegemony in the Middle East Is Ending
Chris Phillips -- The Guardian (Britain)
... US power is waning. Though Washington remains the world's only superpower, the quagmires of Iraq and Afghanistan have exposed the limits of US ambitions, while the economic crisis has forced the Obama administration to focus energy elsewhere. While the Bush era saw the US hegemonic in the region, squeezing the defiant few like Syria and Saddam Hussein's Iraq, today's Middle East sees a power vacuum led by partial US retreat being filled by assertive regional and middle powers. Turkey and Brazil's recent nuclear deal with Iran typify this emerging new climate.
British Government Names Special `Post Holocaust' Envoy
BBC News
A former UK ambassador to Israel has been named as the government's first envoy for post-Holocaust issues. Sir Andrew Burns has held a number of positions during his diplomatic career and is a former chairman of the Anglo-Israel Association. Foreign Secretary William Hague said part of the job would be to "make sure the lessons of this terrible period in our history are never forgotten".
A Day in November: Obama and Israel
Uri Avnery
... It seems that at some stage, months ago, Obama came to the conclusion that he had lost the first round of his contest with Binyamin Netanyahu, and that it would be better to live and fight another day. He himself spelled it out in a conversation with Jewish leaders: at the beginning of his path in the Middle East he stepped on some landmines. He has learned his lesson ... AIPAC has already shown that it can have a big impact on election results. When the lobby decides to topple a member of Congress, that is the end of his political life. When the lobby concentrates its financial and political might on a certain spot, it is almost invincible.
Obama Goes With Neocon Flow on Iran
Robert Parry
Whether wittingly or witlessly, President Barack Obama is pursuing a neocon-charted path on Iran that parallels the one that George W. Bush took to war with Iraq - ratcheting up sanctions against the "enemy," refusing to tolerate more peaceful options, and swaggering along with the propagandistic tough-guy-ism of the major U.S. news media ... That may be the opposite of what Obama seeks, but it is what the neocons and Likud would cite as justification for another Middle East war. Just as the neocons and Israel wanted "regime change" in Iraq, they have long hungered for "regime change" in Iran, too.
Hans Schmidt, RIP
Revisionists.com
Hans Schmidt was an energetic and prolific German-American activist who for years steadfastly defended Germany's heritage, forthrightly countering lies and distortions of twentieth-century European history. He was also the author of several books. During World War Two he served as a soldier in the Waffen SS. He died on May 30, 2010, in North Carolina, where he had been living with his wife.
Obama Secretly Deploys US Special Forces to 75 Countries Across World
The Times (Britain)
President Obama has secretly sanctioned a huge increase in the number of US special forces carrying out search-and-destroy missions against al-Qaeda around the world, with American troops now operating in 75 countries. The dramatic expansion in the use of special forces, which in their global span go far beyond the covert missions authorised by George W. Bush, reflects how aggressively the President is pursuing al-Qaeda behind his public rhetoric of global engagement and diplomacy.
Wartime Pope Begged President Roosevelt to Halt US Bombing of Rome
The Telegraph (Britain)
Pope Pius XII personally wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Second World War to beg him to spare Rome from bombing. A newly disclosed letter has unveiled the extent of the Vatican's anguish over Allied raids on the city and its cultural and architectural treasures. In his letter, dated August 30, 1943, the wartime pope said Italy was "shackled and quite without the necessary means of defending herself." ... The British and Americans began raids on Rome on May 16, 1943. One of the heaviest raids was on July 19, 1943, when more than 500 Allied aircraft bombed railway freight yards, steel factories and an airstrip, causing hundreds of civilian casualties.
Long-Term Jobless Rate Sets New Record
The Associated Press
... The proportion of people jobless for six months or more has accelerated in the past year and now makes up 46 percent of the unemployed. That's the highest percentage on records dating to 1948. By late summer or early fall, they are expected to make up half of all jobless Americans. Economists say those out of work for six months or more risk becoming less and less employable. Their skills can erode, their confidence falter, their contacts dry up. Their growing ranks also will keep pressure on Congress to keep extending jobless benefits, which now run for up to 99 weeks.
In India, A Major New Film About Hitler
IANS (India)
Indian history has been revised time and again on celluloid, but debutant director Rakesh Ranjan Kumar moves into a global canvas with 'Dear Friend Hitler' to capture the last few days of the Nazi dictator in his Berlin bunker and Germany after his downfall in 1945 ... Rakesh maintains that the film also shows how Hitler contributed to India's independence and what happened to soldiers in Subhas Chandra Bose's Azad Hind Legion in Germany. 'It shows Hitler's love for India and how he indirectly contributed to Indian independence. It also depicts the struggle for survival of the lesser known Indian Legion soldiers who were left in Germany by Subhas Bose to fight for India's independence and Germany's prestige,' said Rakesh.
Israel's Gaza Blockade Is For `Economic Warfare,' Not Security, Document Shows
McClatchy newspapers
As Israel ordered a slight easing of its blockade of the Gaza Strip Wednesday, McClatchy obtained an Israeli government document that describes the blockade not as a security measure but as "economic warfare" against the Islamist group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory ... Sari Bashi, the director of Gisha, said the documents prove that Israel isn't imposing its blockade for its stated reasons, but rather as collective punishment for the Palestinian population of Gaza. Gisha focuses on Palestinian rights.
How Rudolf Hess Was Persuaded To Reveal Nazi Secrets
The Times (Britain)
... Hess was eventually persuaded to admit that he had been part of the planning team for the invasion of the Soviet Union. This is what had convinced him to try at the last moment to seek an alliance with Britain against Bolshevism. "I knew that there was only one way out -- and that was certainly not to fight against England," Hess said into the tape recorder. "Even though I did not get permission from the Führer to fly I knew that what I had to say would have had his approval. Hitler had great respect for the English people ... little did I know that Churchill did not have the power to stop the rolling stone. I went too late." ... Hess's mysterious death in 1987 fed the myths. "It must have been murder," Mr Zwar says.
The Franke-Gricksch 'Resettlement Action Report': Anatomy of a Fabrication
Brian Renk -- Institute For Historical Review
... A key document cited by Fleming in his book is a two-page report entitled "Umsiedlungs-Aktion der Juden" ("Resettlement Action of the Jews," although Fleming calls it "Resettlement of the Jews"), which describes mass killings of Jews in gas chambers at Auschwitz and makes explicit reference to the "Führer Order." This document, said to be part of a longer report, is alleged by Fleming to have been composed by SS Sturmbannführer (Major) Alfred Franke-Gricksch, a highranking official in the SS personnel main office in Berlin, shortly after an inspection tour of Auschwitz-Birkenau in May 1943.
Attack on Flotilla Undermines Israel's Cause
Nicholas D. Kristof -- The New York Times
... Yet now, as a rabbi noted on my Facebook page, it is Israel that never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Israel under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems locked in a self-defeating dynamic in which it feels misunderstood and gives up on international opinion. It lashes out with force in ways that undermine its own interests. It is on a path that could eventually be catastrophic ... Israel and its hard-core supporters tend to dismiss outside criticism as inherently unfair and anti-Semitic, and embrace unilateral solutions based on force ... Above all, Israel needs to be nudged away from its tendency to shoot itself in the foot, and us along with it.
Israel's Insane Attack on the Freedom Flotilla.
Prof. Avi Shlaim
... The present government [of Israel], however, is the most irresponsible, right-wing and racist in Israel's history. It seems to think that Israel is above the law and its behaviour is increasingly paranoid and irrational ... Israel's official spokesmen claim that their soldiers acted in self-defence against terrorists wielding knives and clubs. Anyone who believes this will believe anything. The official version of this incident, as of most incidents involving the use of force, is a pile of garbage. The backdrop to this act of piracy on the high is an unbroken record of Israeli brutality towards the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza going back to 1967.
The Outrage at Helen Thomas
Alison Weir
... For years, long before her recent words, Thomas has been the target of Israel's vicious American volunteers, the Zionist blogosphere abounding with nasty slurs on her looks and her Lebanese ancestry, this latter also consistently emphasized by the media, despite her Kentucky birth and upbringing. One of the reasons for the ferocious animosity toward her is the fact that Thomas is one of the very few mainstream reporters to challenge the neocon engendered lies that led the U.S. into wars that have caused massive death, destruction and tragedy and to continue to expose ongoing policies of violence and cruelty.
Veteran US Reporter Helen Thomas Quits Over Israel Comments
BBC News
Veteran US White House reporter Helen Thomas has retired after making controversial remarks about Israel. In an interview on May 27, she said that Israelis should get "the hell out of Palestine" and suggested they went to Germany, Poland or the US. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said her comments were "offensive and reprehensible". She has since apologised. Thomas, 89, was the longest-serving reporter in the White House.
Helen Thomas Was Quoted Out of Context
Paul Findley
Fearless, decent seeker-of-truth Helen Thomas, 89, the pre-eminent challenger of political power for a half-century as dean of White House correspondents, has resigned her position with Hearst Newspapers ... Her intent was unmistakable: Jews are unlawfully residing in occupied Palestine and should leave. She made no reference to Jews in pre-1967 Israel, where all Jews can lawfully reside ... This dark, undeserved cloud over the reputation of an unrelenting grand champion of human rights will have a silver lining if it awakens the American people to their own quiet, complicit role in Israel's sustained violation of Palestinian rights.
Our Job in a Time of Crisis
Mark Weber - Institute for Historical Review - Audio
Mark Weber explains why the work of the IHR in countering the forces of historical deceit, bigotry and cultural distortion is vitally important. An awareness of factual history is essential to an understanding of ourselves and the great issues of our age, says the IHR director in this five-minute audio presentation. Unless and until the interests that have gripped our nation are clearly identified and discredited, he says, there will be no change in basic policies or direction.
The Soviet Story
Edvins Snore - Film (2008)
Moving, disturbing, information-packed film by a young Latvian about the bloody record of Soviet Communism, and its conflicted legacy in our age. Highlights the Great Famine of 1932-33, the Katyn massacre, genocidal mass deportations, and much more. Draws parallels, sometimes overwrought, between Soviet Russian Communism and German National Socialism, in ideology and policy. Includes interviews with western and Russian historians, and victims of Soviet oppression. Sternly rebukes western European and US indifference. Praised by The Economist as "the most powerful antidote yet to the sanitisation of the past. The film is gripping, audacious and uncompromising." Runtime: 85 mins.
Israel's Latest Violation
Stephen Zunes
Every time Israel's right-wing government engages in yet another outrageous violation of international legal norms, it is easy to think, "No way are they going to get away with it this time!" And yet, thanks to the White House, Congress and leading American pundits, somehow, they do ... Obama's response to this tragedy underscores the phoniness of 'his advocacy for human rights elsewhere in the Middle East ... They [Israelis] can't have it both ways. They can either acknowledge that the Gaza Strip remains occupied territory since Israel has it under a sea blockade, or they can acknowledge that the ships have a right to enter Gaza's port unimpeded.
The Shah of Iran Speaks Bluntly About the Jewish Lobby
CBS - 60 Minutes
In this 1970s interview, the Shah of Iran, Mohammed Reza Pahlevi, speaks to Mike Wallace about the power in the US of the "Jewish lobby." It is "strong," he says, and is "controlling many things," including "newspapers, medias, banks, finance." And the Shah agrees when asked if "the Jewish community" in the US "makes the media reflect their view of foreign policy." Runtime: 3:07 mins.
Israel Is Gradually Becoming Burden to US, Says Mossad Chief
Haaretz (Israel)
Mossad Chief Meir Dagan said on Tuesday that Israel is progressively becoming a burden on the United States. "Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden," said Dagan, speaking before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. Dagan said that the U.S. government has recently examined the possibility of coercing a settlement on Israel and the Palestinians, but retreated from the idea after realizing it would not lead to a peace agreement.
Buchenwald: Legend and Reality
Mark Weber
Buchenwald is widely regarded as one of wartime Germany's most notorious "death camps." In fact, though, this carefully cultivated image bears little resemblance to reality ... The camp deserves another, more objective look.
U.S. Military Spending Far Outpaces Rest of the World
Inter Press Service
The United States continues to lead the world in defence spending, according to a new report released Thursday by the Centre for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a U.S.-based non-partisan research organisation. In fact, the U.S outspends Russia, the next highest spender, by more than 800 percent ... Not only does U.S. spending dwarf that of other nations, but it has also grown in recent years. The budget for fiscal year 2011 is 720 billion dollars, up 67 percent from 2001's 432 billion, accounting for inflation ... The U.S. Navy can carry twice as many aircrafts at sea as the rest of the world put together, he said, and the navy's overall power is estimated to exceed that of the next 13 most powerful navies combined.
Dunkirk: Are We Finally Ready to Face the Truth?
Peter Hitchens - Daily Mail (Britain)
I think enough time has passed since Dunkirk for us to admit the truth about it. It was not a triumph, but a terrible national defeat - surpassed in the 20th Century only by the other Churchillian catastrophe of Singapore in 1942. Having entered a war for which we were wholly unready, for a cause which was already lost, at a time we did not choose and with allies on whom we could not rely, we were flung off the continent of Europe in weeks. Only thanks to a double devil's pact did we survive as a nation. We sold our economy and our empire to Franklin Roosevelt's USA, and we handed half of Europe to Joseph Stalin's homicidal tyranny. They won the war in the end, though we had to contribute many lives to their victory.
Time To Call Out Israel's Bad Behavior
James Zogby
... The on-going Israeli blockade of Gaza is illegal and immoral. Gaza is one of the poorest places on earth (I've been there and been overwhelmed by what I experienced). Israel blames the Palestinians for their own plight, but Israel is the occupying power that has de-developed and/or strangled Gaza for over four decades. ... So what should the US do with Israel? If they are a friend and an ally we value, we tell them the truth. Tell them that their behavior is unacceptable and is only making the world more dangerous for us all ... Or we can, as we have done too many times in the past, jump in the hole they've dug and wallow around with them, until we're both a mess and then spend the next year or so trying to clean up.
America Complicit in Israel's Crimes
Paul Craig Roberts
... Once again the US government has permitted the Israeli state to murder good people known for their moral conscience ... Conservative Americans want the US to be like Israel. They do not understand why the US doesn't stop pissing around after nine years and just go ahead and defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan. They don't understand why the US didn't defeat whoever was opposing American forces in Iraq. Conservatives are incensed that America had to "win" the war by buying off the Iraqis and putting them on the US payroll. Israel murders people and then blames its victims. This appeals to American conservatives, who want the US to do the same.
Germany's Birth Rate Hits Historic Low
Time
Germany is shrinking -- fast. New figures released on May 17 show the birth rate in Europe's biggest economy has plummeted to a historic low, dropping to a level not seen since 1946. As demographers warn of the consequences of not making enough babies to replace and support an aging population, the latest figures have triggered a bout of national soul-searching and cast a harsh light on Chancellor Angela Merkel's family policies. According to a preliminary analysis by the Federal Statistics Office, 651,000 children were born in Germany in 2009 -- 30,000 fewer than in 2008, a dip of 3.6%. In 1990, German mothers were having on average 1.5 children each; today that average is down to 1.38 children per mother.
The U.S.S. Liberty and the Culture of Impunity
Philip Weiss
The attack on the USS Liberty is one of the great enigmas of US-Israel relations. On June 8, 1967, in the middle of the Six-Day War, Israeli planes attacked an American spy ship, the Liberty, that was in international waters off the coast of Egypt, listening in on secret communications. The attacks appeared to be deliberate, involving numerous passes on a clearly-marked American boat, strafing and napalming. The attack killed 34 Americans and produced very little by way of investigation. It was deemed an accident from the start, although many American officials doubted this conclusion.
The USS Liberty: America's Most Shameful Secret
Eric Margolis (2001)
... Far more shocking was Washington's response. Writes Bamford: 'Despite the overwhelming evidence that Israel attacked the ship and killed American servicemen deliberately, the Johnson Administration and Congress covered up the entire incident.' Why? Domestic politics. Johnson, a man never noted for high moral values, preferred to cover up the attack rather than anger a key constituency and major financial backer of the Democratic Party. Congress was even less eager to touch this 'third rail' issue.
The Vexing 'Jewish Question'
Goldwin Smith (1894)
.... Those who maintain that there is nothing in the character, habits, or disposition of the Jew to provoke antipathy have to bring the charge of fanatical prejudice not only against the Russians or against Christendom, but against mankind ... Critics of Judaism are accused of bigotry of race, as well as of bigotry of religion. The accusation comes strangely from those who style themselves the Chosen People, make race a religion, and treat all races except their own as Gentiles and unclean ... We have given up the fancy that the Jew is accursed. We must cease to believe that he is sacred.
Socialism in North Dakota: Story of a State-Owned Bank
John Case
The Bank of North Dakota is the only state-owned bank in America. Despite that, or because of it, the bank earned a record profit last year even as its private-sector corollaries lost billions ... The North Dakota state bank was created 90 years ago, in 1919, as a populist movement swept the northern plains. Basically it was a very angry movement led by farmers against bank and land speculators in Minneapolis, or New York.
ADL Rewrites New Testament: Oberammergau's Passion Play
Harmony Grant Daws
... Over the past two decades, the town [Oberammergau, in Bavaria] has been the stage for a different kind of passion play. Few places in the world more perfectly present the drama of Jewish power and aggressive intent to deny public expressions of Christianity. For the past two decades, the Jewish Anti-Defamation League -- ever-ready to stifle any virile expression of Christianity -- has taken its editing scissors to the play's script. Jewish crimes have been expunged. Today, the Jews play a bleached and sanitized role in the death of Christ.
Turkey's Prime Minister Denounces Israel's Latest Attack and Its Lies
Video
In a major address, Turkish prime minister Erdogan denounces as an act of "state terrorism" Israel's recent attack against an international humanitarian aid ship. "Turkey will never give up on this issue," he says. Israel, he goes on, "uses lying as a state policy, and is not ashamed of its crimes." He warns: "Turkey's hostility is as strong as its friendship." "We are sick your lies," he concludes. Runtime: 2:02 mins.
Gaza Attack Shows How Far Israel Has Declined
David Grossman (Israel)
No explanation can justify or whitewash the crime that was committed off the coast here early Monday morning, and no excuse can explain away the stupid actions of the Israeli government and the army ... Above all, this insane operation shows how far Israel has declined. There is no need to overstate this claim. Anyone with eyes to see understands and feels it. Already there are those here who seek to spin the natural and justified sense of Israeli guilt into a strident assertion that the whole world is to blame. Our shame, however, will be harder to live with.
Palestinians' Loss of Land, 1946-2000
Occupation magazine
Four colored maps graphically show how Zionist policies have steadily brought ever more Palestinian land under Jewish control.
The `Good War' It Wasn't
James J. Martin - Institute for Historical Review
Of the approximately half-million titles issued by mainline American publishers in the 1980s,Wartime by Professor Paul Fussell is one of a small selection which a revisionist might profit from reading ... It used to be a conviction generations ago that the only certainty upon the outbreak of war was that one side would not win. Modern wars are mainly lost by both sides, though it takes awhile for this to be realized ... All times are disorderly. The notion that human affairs move in the direction of something called "normalcy" is a hallucination.
Vienna Has World's Best Quality Of Life
Agence France Presse
Vienna has the world's best quality of life and Baghdad the worst, with wildly popular but less organized cities like New York and London falling between, according to a survey Wednesday. Mercer consultants' city rankings for 2010 lists Vienna, Zurich, Geneva, Vancouver and Auckland the top five urban living destinations. Paris comes in only at 34, London at 39, Tokyo 40, Madrid 48 and New York at a lowly 49 ... Switzerland scores three times in the top ten with the addition of Bern at number nine. Germany also has three top ten: Dusseldorf, Frankfurt and Munich.
Netherlands, Canada Happiest With Their Local Area
Reuters
Residents of the Netherlands, Canada and Australia are the most satisfied with the areas where they live, according to a survey of 23 countries. Paris-based market research company Ipsos asked about 23,000 people if they were satisfied with their local area and found that job prospects, clean streets and the level of crime and public transport were major factors in people's happiness ... The people who were most satisfied with their local area were the Dutch, with 85 percent of people living in the Netherlands happy with their neighborhood. Canada came second with 83 percent satisfaction, followed by Australia with 82 percent. India, Germany and the US rounded out the top six.
The Art of War
BBC News - Audio
The Art of War is an ancient Chinese treatise on military and intelligence strategy. It was written by the military scholar Sun Tzu about 2,500 years ago and still has tremendous relevance to war now. Over the centuries it has been influential to both traditional armies and guerrilla fighters - the IRA, for instance, read it with interest and commanders in the first Gulf war and the recent war in Iraq have spoken of the influence of Sun Tzu on direct military operations and the intelligence cycle during extended wars. But ultimately the moral of Sun Tzu's book is that the greatest leaders avoid war: Runtime: 22:22 mins.
Tintin Ban is `Like Book Burning'
The Telegraph (Britain)
Legal attempts to ban [the book] Tintin in the Congo for racism are a form of "book burning", according to lawyers acting for the estate of Hergé, the Belgian cartoon hero's creator. Belgium's courts are investigating whether Tintin's 1931 Congolese adventures, when the country was a Belgian colony, portrays black Africans in a racist way ... Allegations of racism surrounding the Tintin book are deeply sensitive in Belgium, a small country where the intrepid boy reporter and his dog Snowy are a rare national symbol, and where postcolonial guilt over its record in the Congo is acute.
Welcome to Obama's Jewish America
JTA
... The first-ever Jewish America Heritage Month celebration at the White House on Thursday underscored the Obama administration's determination not to be locked into Washington's conventional notions of Jewish leadership. President Obama did not exactly snub the usual suspects who have peopled similar events for decades. There was Lee Rosenberg, the president of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and there was Alan Solow, the chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Both also happen to have been major fund-raisers for Obama's campaign, as were several others among the 250 or so in attendance.
Remembering Wars and Warriors
Patrick J. Buchanan
... In the grammar and high schools we attended in the 1940s and early 1950s, they were all good wars, all just wars, all necessary wars. Perhaps that is how it should be taught to America's children ... In 1917, we declared war on Germany "to make the world safe for democracy." And our major allies were four of the largest empires on earth: the British, French, Russian and Japanese. We deposed the Kaiser, and got Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler and World War II. As a result of these world wars, all the Western empires fell, and Western Civilization began its inexorable advance to the grave. Impending bankruptcy aside, not one Western nation has a birth rate that will enable its native-born to survive many more generations. We did it to ourselves.
Newly Discovered Film Shows Post-War Massacre of Germans
Der Spiegel (Germany)
It has long been known that German civilians fell victim to Czech excesses immediately following the Nazi surrender at the end of World War II. But a newly discovered video shows one such massacre in brutal detail. And it has come as a shock to the Czech Republic ... The shaky images show an event that has been described again and again by eyewitnesses and historians: the systematic killing of German civilians. Yet the film comes as a shock to Czechs. "Until now, there was no footage whatsoever of such executions," says Czech documentary filmmaker David Vondracek, who showed the historical images on television. "When I watched this for the first time, it was like seeing a live broadcast from the past."
National Debt Soars Past $13 Trillion
ABC News
The U.S. national debt has passed the $13 trillion mark, according to USDebtClock.org, an independent website that tracks the real-time growth of U.S. revenues and spending ... Everything from the government's regular operations to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the U.S. stimulus package to lackluster tax revenues have contributed to the recent rapid growth of the national debt. A decade ago, he said, the national debt was $5.7 trillion. By 2005, it rose to $7.7 trillion. As of six months ago, it stood at $12 trillion. The larger the debt grows, the faster the U.S. government's interest payments pile up, which helps explain why USDebtClock.org's national debt tracker jumps hundreds of thousands of dollars in less than a minute.
Worldwide Outrage Over Deadly Israeli Raid on Gaza Ship
Agence France Presse
Shock and outrage swept the globe Monday after Israeli commandos stormed a flotilla of aid ships bound for the Gaza Strip, as the Jewish state's foes and allies closed ranks in condemning the deadly raid. The UN's rights chief Navi Pillay said she was "shocked" at the violence of the raid, which left at least ten dead, many of them reportedly Turks, while the European Union demanded a full inquiry from Tel-Aviv ... In Europe, condemnation was equally swift. The European Union demanded Israel mount a "full inquiry," with foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton demanding "an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening" of crossings to Gaza.
World Condemns Israel After Aid Ship Attack
Sky News (Britain)
An emergency meeting of the UN Security Council has been held amid mass protests and international condemnation after Israel's deadly attack on an international aid convoy. Britain joined other countries in denouncing the dawn raid as "deplorable" with Palestinian leaders describing the bloodshed as a "massacre" ... The incident has sparked a diplomatic crisis, while tens of thousands of people rallied across the world in furious protest. Israeli flags were burned as 10,000 marched through the streets of Istanbul, as the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accused Israel of committing "inhuman state terror".
The War Over America's Past
Patrick J. Buchanan
... Liberals are enraged that a Republican-dominated [Texas state] Board of Education is rewriting the texts. But is the rewrite being done to falsify history, or to undo a liberal bias embedded for decades? Consider a few of the issues. The new texts will emphasize that the separation of church and state was never written into the Constitution. Is that not right? The First Amendment prohibits Congress from establishing a national religion. But, in 1776, nine of the 13 colonies had state religions established in their constitutions. Thomas Jefferson's words about a "separation of church and state" were not written until 1802 ... Teaching American history to America's children is done so that they will come to know and love their country.
Who Has a Right to Live in the U.S.?
Walter E. Williams
... There are close to seven billion people on our planet. I'd like to know how the libertarians answer this question: Does each individual on the planet have a natural or God-given right to live in the U.S.? ... Various estimates put the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. between 10 and 20 million. One argument says we can't round up and deport all those people. That argument differs little from one that says since we can't catch every burglar, we should grant burglars amnesty.
New Zealand Bans Jewish Ritual Slaughter
JTA
New Zealand has banned shechita, the kosher slaughter of animals. The country's new animal welfare code, which took effect Friday, mandates that all animals for commercial consumption be stunned prior to slaughter to ensure they are treated "humanely and in accordance with good practice and scientific knowledge." The regulation has shocked the Jewish community.
Palestine/ Israel History Since 1878
Sabbah TV (Video)
A short documentary that debunks familiar "Big Lie" myths about Zionist ambitions, policies and history. Shows how Israel was built on the land, homes and bodies of the native Palestinians. Also reviews Zionist massacres. Runtime: 9:40 mins.
Israel Is Ready For War On Iran, Says Netanyahu Deputy
Reuters
Israel is primed for a war on Iran, a deputy to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday, in a rare break with his government's reticence as world powers try to talk Tehran into curbing its nuclear plans. By spearheading assaults on guerrillas in neighboring Lebanon and Palestinian territories, the Israeli air force had gained the techniques necessary for any future strikes on Iranian sites, Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said. ... Israel, which is assumed to have the Middle East's only atomic arsenal, bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981 and launched a similar sortie in Syria in 2007.
US Orders Expanded Secret Actions in Mideast
The New York Times
The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according to defense officials and military documents. The secret directive, signed in September by Gen. David H. Petraeus, authorizes the sending of American Special Operations troops to both friendly and hostile nations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa to gather intelligence and build ties with local forces. Officials said the order also permits reconnaissance that could pave the way for possible military strikes in Iran if tensions over its nuclear ambitions escalate.
The Spanish Inquisition and the Jewish Question
Brian Chalmers - The Institute for Historical Review
It is nearly impossible to dig into any chapter of Jewish history without uncovering lessons for our own age. Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries is a particularly striking example. Even today, our view of this period, and particularly of the Spanish Inquisition, colors our attitudes regarding relations between Jews and non-Jews. The Inquisition is considered one of Jewish history's darkest chapters -- and one of Christian history's most shameful.
The Strategic Ally Myth: Israel and the US
Philip Giraldi
....Israel is not now and never has been an ally of the United States. As Zuckerman is a lawyer he should know that to be an ally requires an agreement in writing that spells out the conditions and reciprocity of the relationship. Israel has never been an ally of any country because it would force it to restrain its aggressive behavior, requiring consultation with its ally before attacking other nations. It is also unable to define its own borders, which have been expanding ever since it was founded in 1948. ... Make no mistake, Tel Aviv is always carefully calculating how it can use Washington to further its own objectives with little regard for possible American interests.
China: A New Sun Rises in the East
Martin Jacques - New Statesman (Britain)
... Even a more democratic China will be profoundly different from the western model. In short, China will act as an alternative model to the west, embodying a very different kind of political tradition - a post-colonial, developing country, a Communist regime, a highly sophisticated statecraft, and an authoritarian Confucian rather than democratic polity ... The United States is entering a protracted period of economic, political and military trauma. It finds itself on the eve of a psychological, emotional and existential crisis. Its medium-term reaction is unlikely to be pretty: the world must hope it is not too ugly.
Israel's Bomb Out of the Shadows
Jonathan Cook
Israel faces unprecedented pressure to abandon its official policy of "ambiguity" on its possession of nuclear weapons as the international community meets at the United Nations in New York this week to consider banning such arsenals from the Middle East. Israel's equivocal stance on its atomic status was shattered by reports on Monday that it offered to sell nuclear-armed Jericho missiles to South Africa's apartheid regime back in 1975. The revelations are deeply embarrassing to Israel given its long-standing opposition to signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, arguing instead that it is a "responsible power" that would never misuse nuclear weapons technologies if it acquired them.
Deficit Disorder: The Keynes Solution
Robert Skidelsky -- New Statesman (Britain)
... The one experiment that did prove Keynes's case was undertaken in Hitler's Germany, under the aegis of the Führer's economics minister Hjalmar Schacht, though not in conditions that encouraged democratic emulation. The Schachtian system consisted of three main elements: a) controls on capital exports, b) bilateral payments agreements, whereby Germany's trading partners were only allowed to sell as much to Germany as they brought from Germany, and c) huge state credits to German industry ("printing money"), which over four years reduced unemployment from six million to near zero, with inflationary pressure being repressed by wage and price controls.
The Genocide Britain Hushed Up
Daily Mail (Britain)
A new film tells the terrible story of Stalin's own Final Solution - and Churchill's shameful complicity / … This is the harrowing scene of a devastating new film, Katyn. It takes its name from the village in western Russia where the bodies of more than 4,000 Polish prisoners of war were dug up in 1943. But these bodies were by no means the only ones to be disinterred. Near the Soviet city of Kalinin, now known as Tver, another 6,000 bodies were unearthed. Near Kharkov in Ukraine there were 4,000. In all, more than 22,000 Poles -- roughly two-thirds of them officers and policemen, the rest political prisoners -- suffered the same appalling fate: to be executed, without trial or even warning, and thrown like carcasses into mass graves.
Germar Rudolf Released from Prison in Germany
Altermedia
Germar Rudolf, 44, a German chemist and intellectual dissident who had been serving a prison sentence for violating Germany's law against "Holocaust denial," was released from Mannheim prison on July 4 after three years and nine months behind bars. Upon his release, he was met by his American wife and four-year-old US-born daughter. In October 2005 he was arrested in Chicago, and deported to his homeland, where he was tried, sentenced, and imprisoned.
David Irving Speaks in 17 US Cities in July
In a tour of the western US, David Irving is addressing meetings in 17 cities, including Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Costa Mesa, and Kansas City. His topic is "Hitler, Himmler and `Enigma': Re-writing World War II history using Nazi messages decoded by the British Secret Service." The best-selling British historian also has available copies of his prison memoir, which tells of his headline-making arrest and harrowing prison ordeal in Austria, 2005-06.
Alarm in Baltic as Kremlin Seizes Control of Soviet Past
The Independent (Britain)
In Russia it is not only the future that is unpredictable; often the past is equally in doubt … When authorities in Estonia removed a monument to Soviet soldiers from the centre of Tallinn two years ago, riots between police and ethnic Russian citizens of Estonia ensued, and the Kremlin made furious noises. With its new commission and law, Moscow is upping the stakes. Russia accuses the governments of Estonia and Latvia of glorifying partisan regiments which fought on the side of the Nazis. In recent years, relations between Latvia and Russia have normalised in many spheres, but the Second World War is still a thorny issue.
Jewish Group Objects to Ukraine 'Great Famine' Case
JTA
A Jewish group in Ukraine is objecting to a criminal case brought over the "Great Famine" committed in the 1930s. The nation's security service is pressing the case against a list of former Soviet officials accused of committing the Holodomor, which caused the deaths of millions in Ukraine in 1932-33. Most of the names on the list were Jewish.
Holocaust Denial And Uncomfortable Truths
Robin Davis
It has always been those few who can see through the political correctness and hypocrisy of popular attitudes who are considered dangerous. "Holocaust denial laws" are now in place in about a dozen countries. Defenders of these laws claim that the expression of unconventional views about the Jewish genocide is "hate speech" and "incitement to violence" and therefore must be suppressed. But history shows the greatest purveyors of lies, hatred and incitement to violence are those with the power to spread their poison by manipulating popular opinion via the control or complicity of the mass media.
Jewish Leader: Obama May Be 'Most Hostile President to Israel'
Ronald Kessler
President Barack Obama's refusal to take a stand on protests in Iran stands in sharp contrast to demands he has made on Israel, Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, says in a Newsmax interview … Klein says leaders of Jewish organizations are rethinking their support of Obama in light of his attitude toward Israel. "There are many leaders in the organized Jewish world who have privately discussed this issue with me, and say they are deeply concerned about Obama's actions and policies toward Israel, and now they're rethinking their support for Obama during the campaign and the election," says Klein …
A `Virulent' New Anti-Semitism is Rife in Britain, Says Chief Rabbi
The Times (Britain)
Britain is in the grip of a "virulent" new strain of anti-Semitism, according to the Chief Rabbi. Sir Jonathan Sacks told The Times in an interview that in January the number of anti-Semitic incidents reached the highest level since records began. Jews have been physically attacked, schools targeted and cemeteries desecrated … Although the new "mutation" was different from the anti-Semitism promoted by Hitler, it was dangerous because it was international, he said. "The internet means that we no longer have national cultures; we have global cultures and the new anti-Semitism is very much a phenomenon of the global culture." Whereas in the past, hatred was focused against Judaism as a religion or Jews as a race, the focus this time was on Jews as a nation.
The Pentagon Spigot is Wide Open: How Obama Will Outspend Reagan on Defense
Winslow T. Wheeler
… Not counting money projected for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the presidentially approved budget plan would continue increasing the Pentagon's budget: by another $8.1 billion in 2011 (up 1.5 percent), another $9 billion in 2012 (up 1.6 percent), and $10.4 billion in 2013 (up1.8 percent), and so on all the way out to 2019. If we add in the costs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon budget for the current fiscal year - 2009 - exceeds any year since the end of World War II, including the spending peaks for the Korean and Vietnam wars. President Obama's plan is to increase that lead. Obama also will outspend Ronald Reagan on defense.
The Language That Absolves Israel
Saree Makdisi -- Los Angeles Times
… Reality can be so easily stood on its head when it comes to Israel because the misreading of Israeli declarations is a long-established practice among commentators and journalists in the United States. In fact, a special vocabulary has been developed for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the United States. It filters and structures the way in which developing stories are misread here, making it difficult for readers to fully grasp the nature of those stories -- and maybe even for journalists to think critically about what they write. The ultimate effect of this special vocabulary is to make it possible for Americans to accept and even endorse in Israel what they would reject out of hand in any other country.
The U.S. Regime-Change Recipe for Iran
Paul Craig Roberts
… In Iran's system, election fraud has no purpose, because a small select group of ruling mullahs select the candidates who are put on the ballot. If they don't like an aspiring candidate, they simply don't put him on the ballot. When the liberal reformer Khatami ran for president, he won with 70% of the vote and served from 1997-2005. If the mullahs didn't defraud Khatami of his win, it seems unlikely they would defraud an establishment figure like Mousavi, who was foreign minister in the most conservative government, and is backed by another establishment figure, Rafsanjani.
Holocaust Denial And Uncomfortable Truths
Robin Davis
It has always been those few who can see through the political correctness and hypocrisy of popular attitudes who are considered dangerous. "Holocaust denial laws" are now in place in about a dozen countries. Defenders of these laws claim that the expression of unconventional views about the Jewish genocide is "hate speech" and "incitement to violence" and therefore must be suppressed. But history shows the greatest purveyors of lies, hatred and incitement to violence are those with the power to spread their poison by manipulating popular opinion via the control or complicity of the mass media.
Historian Says He's Found `Real' Reason for Hitler's Hatred of Jews
Daily Mail (Britain)
Adolf Hitler's obsessive hatred for Jews was sparked by his experiences after World War One, according to a new book. Respected historian Ralf-George Reuth argues the dictator blamed them for both the Russian revolution and the collapse of the German economy. The claim is a stark contrast to previous theories … At the time almost half of all German private banks were Jewish owned, the stock exchange dominated by Jewish stockbrokers, almost half of the nation's newspapers were Jewish run as were 80 per cent of chain stores. It became fashionable to decry the loss of the war on Jewish financiers. But Hitler, according to Reuth, also blamed Jews for the Russian revolution …
The Underworked American
The Economist (Britain)
Americans like to think of themselves as martyrs to work. They delight in telling stories about their punishing hours, snatched holidays and ever-intrusive BlackBerrys … But when it comes to the young the situation is reversed. American children have it easier than most other children in the world, including the supposedly lazy Europeans. They have one of the shortest school years anywhere, a mere 180 days compared with an average of 195 for OECD countries and more than 200 for East Asian countries. German children spend 20 more days in school than American ones, and South Koreans over a month more.
Canadian Politician Sues Jewish Groups
JTA
An ex-candidate in Canada is suing the country's leading Jewish advocacy groups, alleging they ruined her political career. Lesley Hughes, who was dumped as a Liberal candidate in a Winnipeg-area electoral district, claims the Canadian Jewish Congress and B'nai Brith Canada made false and defamatory accusations that she is anti-Semitic. In a lawsuit filed June 16, Hughes alleges that as a result of the actions of the CJC and B'nai Brith, former federal Liberal leader Stephane Dion revoked her candidacy in last September's federal elections.
Sharp Drop In US Support for Israel, New Poll Shows
Mondoweiss
… The state-run radio station's Washington correspondent, Nathan Guttman, obtained data from a recent unpublished poll, conducted by the Israel Project, an organization that works to improve Israel's image in the United States. The Israel Project has been conducting a periodic running poll, asking American registered voters questions about Israel … There is a steep decline in the percentage of Americans who say that the U.S. should support Israel. That has dropped from 71% in March 2008 (at the time of the Annapolis process) to only 44% now.
Israeli 'Settlements': Fictions on the Ground
Tony Judt -- The New York Times
… Thus President Obama faces a choice. He can play along with the Israelis, pretending to believe their promises of good intentions and the significance of the distinctions they offer him. Such a pretense would buy him time and favor with Congress. But the Israelis would be playing him for a fool, and he would be seen as one in the Mideast and beyond. Alternatively, the president could break with two decades of American compliance, acknowledge publicly that the emperor is indeed naked, dismiss Mr. Netanyahu for the cynic he is and remind Israelis that all their settlements are hostage to American goodwill. He could also remind Israelis that the illegal communities have nothing to do with Israel's defense, much less its founding ideals of agrarian self-sufficiency and Jewish autonomy.
The Risky Provocations of Mr. Netanyahu
Leonard Fein -- Forward (New York)
… I sometimes fear there's a genetically inbred survival characteristic of the Jews that predisposes us to try to beat the system, to get away with things, a characteristic that came in very handy for all those many centuries during which the nerve and cleverness to beat the system enabled survival, but that has now become a dysfunctional anachronism. Be that as it may, Netanyahu's stance will likely turn out to be a serious miscalculation of Obama's intentions and abilities. Obama has no intention of endangering Israel, but when it comes to outsmarting a would-be outsmarter, he is not exactly a beginner.
Netanyahu's Speech: When He Says Yes, What Does He Mean?
Uri Avnery (Israel)
… The idea of the Palestinian state has now become a part of the national consensus, and only a handful of ultra-rightists reject it directly. But this is only the beginning. The main struggle will be about turning the idea into reality. The entire speech was addressed to one single person: Barack Obama. It was not designed to appeal to the Palestinians … Obama is not seeking a frontal collision with the Israeli government. It seems that he wants to exert "soft" pressure, vigorously but quietly. To my mind, that is a wise approach.
U.S. Jewish Leaders Deeply Troubled by Obama
Haaretz (Israel)
There is growing concern among the American Jewish community over Obama's Mideast initiatives, this according to the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Malcolm Hoenlein. "President Obama's strongest supporters among Jewish leaders are deeply troubled by his recent Middle East initiatives, and some are questioning what he really believes," Hoenlein, said in an interview published Monday.
Carter Says Palestinians Treated 'Like Animals'
AFP
Former US president Jimmy Carter on Tuesday met Hamas leader Ismail Haniya in the Gaza Strip, where he called for a lifting of Israel's blockade, saying Palestinians are being treated "like animals." Following the talks, Carter called for an end of "all violence" against both Israelis and Palestinians. "This is holy land for us all and my hope is that we can have peace ... all of us are children of Abraham," he said at a joint news conference with Haniya, prime minister of the Hamas government in the Palestinian enclave.
Holocaust Lawyer Edward Fagan is Disbarred For Misusing Victims' Funds
The Star-Ledger (New Jersey)
Only a few years ago, Edward Fagan was a world-renowned lawyer for the underdog, brash and audacious enough to take on Swiss banks and even whole countries to win judgments for Holocaust survivors and victims of South African apartheid. This week, the Supreme Court announced he was barred from practicing law in New Jersey, completing one of the steepest falls from grace in the state's law community. The court found Fagan, 56, misappropriated nearly $400,000 of the money he won for the victims he so effectively championed.
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Dalton's Holocaust Radio Debate on April 24, 2010:
http://www.americanfreedomradio.com/Barrett_10.html
Peace.
Michael Santomauro
Editorial Director
Call anytime: 917-974-6367
ReporterNotebook@Gmail.com
http://www.DebatingTheHolocaust.com
Amazon's: DEBATING THE HOLOCAUST: A New Look At Both Sides by Thomas Dalton
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