http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/bad-for-the-jews/?scp=1&sq=adl&st=cse
Peace.
Michael Santomauro @ 917-974-6367
What sort of Truth is it that crushes the freedom to seek the truth?
Let's End Thought Crimes in the Twenty-first Century. -- to separate historical fact from propaganda…peace is patriotic!
Cordoba House, NYC Muslim cultural center
Abe Foxman, one of American Jewry's leading Islamophobes, announced the ADL opposed Park51, the new Muslim cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero. The project, also known as Cordoba House, has the strong support of Mayor Bloomberg and all the appropriate community planning boards and agencies.
…
From: shamireaders@
Sent: Sunday, August 01, 2010 8:23 PM
To: readers
Cc: Jeffrey Blankfort
Subject: [shamireaders] chomsky update
Chomsky Pro and Contra follow-up
From Jeff Blankfort
[replying to Sara Kershnar, of International Jewish anti-Zionist Network],
While being Jewish and being Zionist are not necessarily the same thing, most Jews are philosophically Zionists, although the majority is not part of the Israel Lobby. On the other hand, anyone reading the Old Testament, our friends in Neturei Karta not withstanding, can see that there is a direct connection between Orthodox or Fundamentalist Judaism and Zionism; that the mentality that created the Jewish god who then, we are told, ordered the early Jews to commit the most violent of genocides against people who never harmed them, is the same mentality that lies at the root of Zionism as practiced in modern day Israel. To repeat, it is also true that despite its well publicized crimes the vast majority of Jews and virtually the entire organized Jewish community in the US, Western Europe, South Africa, and Australia, support the Zionist Jewish state. To pretend that those of us who seriously oppose Zionism and the existence of a Jewish state are anything other than a relatively small handful is to deceive ourselves and others.
To pretend that Judaism can be separated from Zionism is also a deception. Just take a look, for example, at three Jewish holidays, all of which celebrate death, not of Jews but of others. Passover memorializes the story of the angel of death passing over the Jewish homes while marking those of innocent Egyptians for death. Who was that angel working for, if not Yahweh, the Jewish god?
Then we have Purim in which Jewish children dress up as clowns and everyone has fun. What are they celebrating? The massacre of 75,000 Persians by the Jews (an early pre-emptive strike since we are told, as we have been told lies about Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon) that they were ready to do the same to the Jews). Finally, there is Hanukah which celebrates the bloody victory of the Jewish fundamentalists over the Jewish secularists, called Hellenists at the time. Frankly, there is something wrong with a religion that celebrates such holidays, the authenticity of the stories being irrelevant.
There was a time, when I was much younger and thought much as you did, because I was raised in an atmosphere where Jews were in the leadership and predominant in the ranks of virtually every progressive political struggle. That was my parents' generation. But then I discovered to my horror, when I returned from my first visit to the ME in 1970, that when it came to the Palestinians, almost all of them were transformed into racist, screaming Afrikaners, my parents being a rare exception. I know since I experienced their venom.
I also take serious issue with you and [Scottish anti-racist] Mick discounting the number of Jews in the Obama administration as a distraction and that it "takes us toward the extreme right." Rather, it points us towards the truth. If it was only the number of Jews we are considering I would agree but in the case of the Obama administration we have what the Israelis consider to be "warm Jews," those strongly pro-Zionist, in a number of key State Dept. positions as well as in the Treasury including Stuart Levey and David Cohen, the top two men deciding what Muslim groups will be put on department's "terrorist list," Daniel Benjamin, in charge of "counter-terrorism" for the National Security Council, and Kenneth Katzman, in charge of analyzing the Persian Gulf region for the Congressional Research Service. The head of that department in Treasury, Levey frequently speaks before Zionist organizations where he brags, as he does to the mainstream media, that he is "the decider."
Not a word of criticism let alone mention of his name and what he does have I heard from any Jewish anti-zionist other than Phil Weiss on his Mondoweiss blog. It was, in fact, Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the Conf of Presidents of Major Jewish American Organizations, who bragged to the Jewish weekly Forward in 1995 how he helped to formulate the first Effective Death Penalty and Counter Terrorism Act under Bill Clinton which initiated the economic war against Palestinian institutions. Is speaking about that and Levey's role in enforcing the law a dangerous distraction or an important fact everyone should know in waging a serious struggle for Palestinian rights? Passionate rhetoric, on the other hand, such as what we hear and read from Chomsky and Finkelstein, who also never mention the role of Levey and the history of Hoenlein, leaves me cold. Particularly when they oppose BDS targeting Israel.
Should we be concerned about oil company insiders and pharmaceutical drug lobbyists getting jobs with the government but keep silent when it comes to pro-Israel Jews in Washington and try to silence others who raise the issue? Is it not of historical importance that the election to presidency of Bill Clinton led to what an Israeli journalist described as a Judaization of the State Dept., a situation that has not only not changed but grown more serious with each successive administration? Does IJAN not take any interest in that? Is it "anti-semitic" to bring it up? I am not only bringing this up because I unconditionally support the rights of the Palestinian people to regain and return their ancient homeland but I am also concerned with what the American Jewish Establishment, through its ham handed support for Israel and its stranglehold on Congress and on the White House have done to undermine what is left of our democracy. Does IJAN taken a position on that?
Yours,
Jeff Blankfort
[Not surprisingly, Sarah's response ends with "I really think this discussion is not useful and not going to produce anything useful for actually confronting Zionism or capitalism.]
From: Bekir L. Yildirim, Turkey
Without getting bogged down in deciphering, parsing the nuances here is my two cents worth on the big picture:
Chomsky does perform a useful function in getting us to the "good".
We should not fall in the "perfect enemy of the good" trap.
Average informed Western mind cannot get to Shamir, Shahak, Finkelstein or the like without the likes of Chomsky.
Alas, I agree with the Israel's characterization of "a discussion within our camp".
We live in a world of relative morality. Not compromising from pure idealism might be the right thing to do for the moralist who is not concerned with expediency. But some of us cannot wait a thousand years for the utopia.
Hence:
Chomsky better than no Chomsky.
From John Wheat Gibson
The US government is, indeed, like a gigantic truck, barreling through the streets, killing innocent people and smashing property. Israel is not such a large truck. Israel, however, is driving the truck.
From Alla Nikonov, Tel Aviv
Honest, I am not THAT worried about who is worse - USA or Israel, or even who wags whom. But when Chomsky openly disregards Palestinians' call to BDS, on the ground that BDS would harm Jews in Israel, I rest my case :(
From Roger Tucker
As I see it, the bottom line is that Chomsky is a Zionist, if one accepts the definition of a Zionist as someone who asserts that "the Jews" had the right to colonize Palestine. The fact that, otherwise, he's a very influential spokesperson of the Left means that the damage he does is just that much more destructive. Obviously he's basically a good guy and smart as a whip, and his critique of the Empire is very effective, but that's why Jeff, Ken and others who take him on are performing an essential task. People like Chomsky, not to mention Uri Avnery, Jimmy Carter, Michael Lerner, Walt and Mearsheimer and so on (all fine folks), confuse the issue, leaving the ZPG more or less free to maintain their stranglehold over public opinion in the West, and leaving Israel free to give the middle finger to them and the rest of the world. We won't make any headway until we make the case stick that the Jewish State does not have "a right to exist."
Re: They Trampled him into the ground
From Ian Buckley
Hello Israel Adam,
This man's deplorable fate acts as a sort of public warning to independent
In the final analysis, the system rests on fear and all the bland corporate media men, smoothy politicians and conformist academics know it well enough. As a movie buff (like me) you'll be familiar with Jacques Tourneur's 'Night of the Demon'.
Karswell's words in that film:' And I do what I do out of fear also. It's part of the price' would seem to sum the prevalent attitude among such types.
best wishes,
Ian
From Steve Campbell
Here is a most revealing interview with the late Dr. Dariusz Ratajczak from 2002.
http://www.polskawa
From Jim Dean
I had not heard of Professor Ratajczak getting the Judeo-Aztec treatment...
This focus on a single victim can often grab the public's sympathy more than a shipload or corpses. When a school of tuna decimates a shoal of mackerel the public goes about their business. And they generally do the same when the Jewish Lobby destroys lives, families and businesses.
But this man's cruel death could be the beginning of something, maybe a catalyst for those Poles who no longer want to live on their knees. But of course there are always those, the ones with knee pads...who don't find it too bad. And sadly much of the professional historian community falls into this group.
My thanks to Mr. Bellinger for the tribute to this brave historian to whom we are all indebted for his 320 booklets. What happened to him was an act of terror if there ever was one...the slow version...to make him a better intimidation example. Maybe we can be inspired to lower the future body count.
And to all those Poles, Jews and non Jews, who participated in the lynching of this man...may you all burn in hell, and slowly please so I can enjoy the odor longer while I read over the names of your victims.
Thanks for this. When we get the time we will build a virtual memorial wall on line for the victims of the Hebrew Klansmen.
We can ask for national holidays and government subsidies to build museums in their honor, etc...and drive a lot of people crazy. When they say no, we can then demand that funding be eliminated for their chosen victims so the rest are not sent to the back fo the bus.
If someone can find a photo of this man, I should like to see his face to remember him by.
Jim Dean
Heritage TV...Atlanta
Next victim?
From Frank Scott
Remarks: Judge Bathurst-Norman is being investigated after summing up in a trial which led to protesters being acquitted
A senior judge was under investigation yesterday after being accused of making anti-Semitic remarks in court that may have swayed his jury into acquitting a group of protesters.
Judge George Bathurst-Norman was said by critics to have persuaded a jury to clear a group of campaigners who smashed up a factory making parts for Israeli warplanes.
Summing up in the criminal damage trial, he compared Israel to the Nazi regime and accused the country of ignoring international law.
The judge added that 'there may be much to be admired' about the chief protester, and that 'in the last war he would probably have received a George Medal'.
The Office for Judicial Complaints, which deals with objections over the conduct of judges and magistrates, confirmed that an inquiry into how Judge Bathurst-Norman handled the trial of five political activists at Hove Crown Court in June is under way.
Its findings will be considered by Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge and Lord Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, who have the final say on any disciplinary action.
A number of complaints are said to have accused the judge not just of anti-Israel rhetoric but specifically of anti-Semitism.
The case involved a group of activists who broke into and vandalised a Brighton factory run by engineering firm EDO MBM.
The company was making parts for use in the bomb-aiming equipment on Israeli F16 warplanes.
The invasion shut the factory for a week and caused £187,000 worth of damage. But five men and women who appeared in court claimed they had done nothing wrong under criminal damage law.
The law says someone is not guilty of causing damage if they believed it was necessary for the immediate protection of someone else's property.
It is framed to protect, for example, someone who smashes a neighbour's door down if they believe their house is on fire.
However, in the Brighton case, the activists claimed they believed their invasion was necessary for the protection of property in Gaza.
Several similar defences by protesters have been successful in recent years.
In 2008, six Greenpeace protesters were acquitted after causing £30,000 worth of damage at a coal-fired power station.
The jury in that case accepted they had acted to prevent climate change causing greater damage.
Describing evidence shown in court, Judge Bathurst-Norman told the jury that he could only describe the 'horrific' events shown as 'scenes which one would rather have hoped to have disappeared with the Nazi regimes of the last war'.
In his summing up, he gave his backing to the evidence of one defendant, Ornella Saibene, a former Greenham Common activist.
The judge said: 'She took us through the horrors, and there really is no other word for it than horrors, that emerged in the press and on the news and the footage as to what the Israelis were doing in Gaza.
'You may think that perhaps "Hell on Earth" would be an understatement of what the Gazans endured.'
Among groups complaining was the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
Its president, Vivian Wineman, said: 'The judge's comments give rise to profound concerns about the appropriateness of his directions to the jury.'
Jonathan Hoffman, of the Zionist Federation, said: 'This opens the door to any group which thinks the British presence in Afghanistan is wrong to go and smash up plants supplying British forces.'
Read a new piece by Nadia Kevorkova:
UK government appoints first-ever envoy for Holocaust-related issues
14 June 2010
The British government has appointed its first-ever envoy to deal with post-Holocaust issues. Foreign Secretary William Hague announced that Sir Andrew Burns, a former ambassador to Israel, would take the job. Hague said his country was committed to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and would support efforts to make sure that the lessons of this period in history are not forgotten.
Burns will oversee efforts to resolve outstanding issues and claims related to property and art restitution. He will also take part in education efforts and promote remembrance and research about the Holocaust. "Sir Andrew's appointment will ensure that we continue to support those working to right past wrongs," Hague said.
Burns' appointment was applauded in Israel. "We think it's a very positive and important step ... and we wish him a lot of success in his work in promoting Holocaust education and fighting for the rights of the survivors," said Estee Yaari, a spokeswoman for Yad Vashem, was quoted by AP as saying. "The Holocaust is an issue that is part of all of our history."
Recent international efforts have focused on providing restitution to aging victims of Nazi persecution. Last week, more than 40 countries agreed on a set of international rules for returning real estate stolen by the Nazis to their rightful owners or heirs.
The Latest from Mondoweiss |  |
| The back-of-the- Posted: 31 Jul 2010 07:48 PM PDT The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was formed by B'nai B'rith in 1913 to be the leading Jewish defense agency in the wake of the conviction of Leo Frank, an officer of the National Pencil Co. of Atlanta,Georgia, By 1937, the Anti-Defamation League had embarked on another occupation, keeping files and spying on what it considered to be communist or pro-communist organizations and individuals. In that year, a 1947 Congressional hearing revealed, it had begun providing information on the recently formed National Lawyers Guild and on individuals applying for government jobs to the original House Committee on Un-American Activities chaired by the notorious racist and anti-semite, Rep. Martin Dies, which came to be referred to simply as the Dies Committee. In the anti-communist witch hunts conducted at the beginning of the Cold War, the ADL assisted and acted as a go-between for both the Congressional committees and members or former members of the CPUSA who chose to inform on their former comrades and friends, including, in at least one instance, family members. While the ADL's public face was that of an organization determined to rid the country of neo-Nazis and skinheads, its raison d'etre in the absence of any serious threats of anti-semitism, was not defense of Jews, per se, but defense of Israel and the intimidation and public humiliation of its critics. While that invariably gained the ADL headlines, what was hidden from the public was of equal importance. The ADL, by the late 1980s had begun one of the largest private spying operations in the United States, a fact that was discovered by the San Francisco police in 1992 when it raided the ADL office after discovering that it had been working with a rogue SF cop, Tom Gerard, who had been providing the organization with personal non-public information about a host of American citizens, but, in particular, those supporting the Palestinian cause and opposing South African apartheid. It turned out that this cop was partnering with a San Francisco weight lifter, Roy Bullock, who had infiltrated the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and a number of other organizations and had in his files the names of over 10,000 individuals and over 600 organizations, most of which were kept in what Bullock labeled as Pinko files. Bullock and Gerard were also being paid by South African intelligence officials to provide them with the same information on anti-apartheid activism that they had been collecting for the ADL. Bullock had been identified as the ADL's "main fact finder" by the late Irwin Suall, who headed the group's intelligence apparatus, but depositions taken at the time revealed there were similar spying operations being conducted by the ADL across the United States. Despite the ADL having promised to cease trying to illegally obtain information on its enemies at the time in exchange for not being prosecuted, there is no evidence that it has. Rather it has strengthened its ties with police across the country through its LEARN program (Law Enforcement Agency Resource Network) in which it trains police in dealing with "extremist groups" and "hate crimes." The ADL has become identified with the antics and pronouncements of its long-time national director, Abe Foxman, who has made a name for himself by taking on anyone he considers guilty of anti-Semitism, which means criticizing Israel or the abuse of Jewish power. In the past this has included Marlon Brando, Mel Gibson, and most recently Oliver Stone. Jews are not immune, as Tony Judt found out in 2006 when Foxman interceded with the Polish Consulate in New York to prevent the British Jewish writer from giving a talk in the building's meeting room on "The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy." Now, Foxman is in the headlines once again, trying to prevent an Islamic center, one that would be open to everyone, from being constructed adjacent to the site of the World Trade Center bombing. This would appear to be a clear violation of the mission statement of the organization, part of which states that its "purpose is to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike and to put an end forever to unjust and unfair discrimination against and ridicule of any sect or body of citizens." For Foxman, apparently, that mission no longer includes Muslims.    |
| Posted: 31 Jul 2010 12:54 PM PDT Robert O. Paxton, the distinguished emeritus professor at Columbia University, is perhaps the world's leading authority on fascism. His book Vichy France (1972) has become a classic, not least in France itself, for telling truths about the collaborationist regime that the French themselves had been too ashamed and timid to say. More recently, The Anatomy of Fascism (2004) is a masterful survey that looks thoroughly and intelligently at "fascism" instead of just using it as an epithet. Toward the end of the book, Paxton looks at the possibility of fascism in "Other Times, Other Places" outside its peak in Europe between the two World Wars. Among several examples, he says that ". . . one must address the potential – supreme irony – for fascism in Israel."
But, he writes, more recently there is cause for worry.
The Western mainstream devotes a great deal of time and energy to every Islamic extremist statement, and the word "Islamofascism" has even been used by an American president. But their Israeli extremist equivalents, who have only gotten louder and more powerful since Paxton's book appeared, hardly ever appear in U.S. news reports. The unstated assumption is that the "Israelo-fascists" like Avigdor Lieberman are only crazy uncles hidden up in the attic, not worth paying attention to.   |
| 'And along come the Israelis and knock their house down' Posted: 31 Jul 2010 12:42 PM PDT I honestly don't know how you can be a Zionist and see this kind of report without screaming-- from Al Jazeera, about the destruction of 20,000 Palestinian houses in "Occupied East Jerusalem," some of them repeat demolitions of individual families' houses. From reporter Jacky Rowland, with the great Jeff Halper of ICAHD saying the intention is "to drive Palestinians out of the country." When is this stuff going to be on American television? When will American reporters say the words, "Occupied East Jerusalem." When is American Jewish leadership going to come to terms with these horrifying facts on the ground? Thanks to Reem Mokhtar.   |
| Posted: 31 Jul 2010 11:44 AM PDT Joe Klein says Abe Foxman should be fired now, and points to Foxman's long disgraceful record, including calling Klein anti-Semitic for saying that Jewish neocons had pushed the Iraq war (and now Iran war) without disclosing their true concern.
Klein's memory is a little short. Let's don't forget that the ADL spied on Americans who were critical of Israel more than a decade ago, and sought to blacklist Tony Judt, causing the Polish Consulate to cancel a speech of his about the Israel lobby 4 years back. Now Foxman ups the ante. I can't follow his logic, but I know it aint cricket. From AP:
  |
| The children whose spirit a siege couldn't break Posted: 31 Jul 2010 09:23 AM PDT Haaretz has the story on the latest record set by the children of Gaza. They've broken their own record from last year's UNRWA Summer Games for the number of kites being flown at one time. The UN website has the video:
When you hear someone defending the siege remind them that they are denying the children in this video's rights to access: clean drinking water, adequate medical care; and until recently crayons and coloring books.   |
| I felt alone till I heard about the Jewish boat to Gaza Posted: 31 Jul 2010 09:21 AM PDT Editor's note: I'm going to be writing a lot about boats these days. Americans are organizing a U.S. boat to Gaza, with a cruise around New York this Thursday to raise money for the effort, and in the meantime a Jewish boat to Gaza will be sailing from Europe. No departure set yet, but it could be in the next couple of weeks. Yesterday I met Lillian Rosengarten, who arrived in this country as an infant refugee from Nazi Germany, and she related her excitement about joining the Jewish boat. She writes: It all began when a friend sent an article on June 17 written by Adam Horowitz entitled, "Due to demand Jewish boat to Gaza is becoming a flotilla." Without a moment's thought, I knew I had to find the organizers and contact them. I felt inexplicably driven to find them. I found Edith Lutz and Kate Leiterer, organizers of "Judische Stimme" or Jewish Voice for a Just Peace located in Germany. In my search, I stumbled across other sites, Jewish ship to Gaza, American Jews For Just Peace and Jewish Voice for Peace in Oakland, Calif. I became aware that day I was not alone, a German Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who vehemently opposes the Israeli government's use of collective punishment for the purpose of crushing the freedom and spirit of the Palestinians. Here is what I wrote with some additions: "I am a 75 year old refugee from Nazi Germany (Frankfurt) human rights activist, poet, writer and psychoanalyst. I have traveled around the world including Germany and Israel (have relatives there.) Other German Jews mostly elderly relatives as well as American Jews many of whom are progressives in all areas but Israel, are in complete disagreement. As a Jew and particularly as a German Jew, I feel isolated in my commitment to equal human rights for everyone. 'Never Again' has a deep personal significance and requires that I not only speak out but take action against humanitarian injustice and human rights abuses. I am painfully aware of a growing split in Israel between Likud and Labor, a split that divides the country and becomes increasingly violent within the two factions of the Jewish community. My uncle Hans Lebrecht (now over 90) formerly from Ulm, predicted this two decades ago. I have been with him many times in Israel and it was he who first introduced me to Palestinian families, his friends in the Wes t Bank. They were academics at Beir Zeit University as well as journalists. I met families I grew to love in the years we continued our friendship. They are lost to me now and I miss them. Perhaps you know Hans? He is a wonderful man, former journalist, human rights activist who fought against injustice for all of his life, first in Germany and then in Israel where he settled. I would like to join the flotilla in an effort to break the blockade and to end Israel's horrible siege. I speak fluent German although my ability to read is better in English. How can I make this happen? Awaiting your reply, Lillian Rosengarten (formerly Gisela Lebrecht) On June 19, I was invited to join the ship. I feel I have been given a gift. The organizers are in communication with the American and Israeli governments in an attempt to guarantee safe passage for the Jewish boat and to permit entry into Gaza to accomplish it's peaceful and humanitarian efforts.   |
| Why did a Democratic congressman's aide speak of 'Jewish money'? Posted: 31 Jul 2010 09:05 AM PDT This is interesting. Mike McMahon, a first-term Democratic congressman from New York, fired a staffer after she said that McMahon's Republican challenger was getting a lot of out-of-state donors and "Jewish money." NY Observer:
Haaretz details the wrath that came down on Nelson:
But if Jewish money is a stereotype, god knows it's one that many political people employ. It is often noted that more than half of Democratic campaign-giving comes from Jews; and just the other day, Martin Indyk raised the "Jewish factor" in campaign spending with that same Haaretz reporter, to explain Obama's collapse on confronting Israel: "American Jews...provide a good deal of funding for political campaigns. So the Jewish factor is always a critical factor for Democratic candidates. I don't think it's telling any secrets that there are a lot of people who have been upset with President Obama. And I think that the White House came to the understanding that they have a real problem there and they are going out of their way trying to show they are friendly to Israel and committed to peace. Republicans will try to exploit the anger." Exactly: Republicans like Mike Grimm. So I don't think Jennifer Nelson is an anti-semite, a lot of people in American politics think hard about this question. Despite their claims, the NJDC and RJC both count Jews; and they do so because the Jewish community is still monolithic on the Israel question, big Jewish givers tend to be extremely conservative on the question; and these organizations can use the idea of Jewish money just as Indyk does, to try and impose a pro-Israel line on all candidates. It gives me no pleasure to do a post like this. I seek diversity in Jewish life, so that a term like "Jewish money" has no significance. But right now it means something, and something important. Seymour Hersh used the term "Jewish money" a year or so back on Amy Goodman, when explaining the political pressure building for war against Iran. He wasn't using an old anti-Semitic stereotype, he was trying to explain how the policymaking works. I wonder how much of a real factor Jewish money is in the Grimm-McMahon race. I've met Arab-Americans in McMahon's district. They told me he won in 2008 in a traditionally- Why do you think he's making such statements? And do you really think Jennifer Nelson came up with that category of political gifts on her own?  |
| Machinations of the Anti-Defamation League Paul N. (Pete) McCloskey, Jr. -- Institute for Historical Review  ... I was in politics for fifteen years, and I think you should start with the assumption: never trust a politician ... When people finally learn the truth, they turn against those who have been lying to them. And I think that if the movement of which you people are the cutting edge can retain dispassion in the face of outrages, setbacks and humiliations, the truth can ultimately prevail. You are doing something worse than criticizing the government of the United States; you're threatening the security of the state of Israel. And the Jewish community is dedicated to preserve that state, and to destroy those who speak against it. Good luck! Too Many Laws, Too Many Prisoners The Economist (Britain)  ... Justice is harsher in America than in any other rich country. Between 2.3 million and 2.4 million Americans are behind bars, roughly one in every 100 adults. If those on parole or probation are included, one adult in 31 is under "correctional" supervision. As a proportion of its total population, America incarcerates five times more people than Britain, nine times more than Germany and 12 times more than Japan. Overcrowding is the norm. Federal prisons house 60% more inmates than they were designed for. State lock-ups are only slightly less stuffed. The system has three big flaws, say criminologists. Obama's Afghan War in Perspective Gary Leupp  ... The neocons had demonstrated to their satisfaction what current Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had told a West Bank settler woman in 2001 after she asked if he was afraid of world opinion: "I know what America is. America is something that can easily be moved. Moved to the right direction." ... And the fact that the Afghan War is now the longest in our history, with no end in sight as Obama, Joe Biden and the generals all suggest the drawdown next year might not be feasible, should make us both depressed and angry. The Arrogance Of American Power Paul J. Balles  ... Where are all those military bases outside the military zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, and what purpose do they serve? "More than half a century after World War II and the Korean War," wrote Vines, "we still have 268 bases in Germany, 124 in Japan, and 87 in South Korea." Are the bases in Germany and Japan there to deter any present or future leaders in those countries from a repeat performance of the events that led to World War II or to the Korean War? .. What is America doing in Iraq and Afghanistan? It's called "nation building". What business is it of America to be building other's nations? It's really none of their business. It's nothing more than the arrogance of power. The Year America Dissolved Paul Craig Roberts  It was 2017. Clans were governing America. The first clans organized around local police forces. The conservatives' war on crime during the late 20th century and the Bush/Obama war on terror during the first decade of the 21st century had resulted in the police becoming militarized and unaccountable. As society broke down, the police became warlords. The state police broke apart, and the officers were subsumed into the local forces of their communities. In Riga, Latvians Welcome German Troops, 1941 Video (Latvia)  In Riga, the capital of Latvia, people welcome German troops as liberators from Soviet oppression, July 1, 1941. Video clip with Latvian narration. Runtime: 38 secs. Who Voted for War With Iran, Mr. Obama? Philip Giraldi -- The American Conservative  House of Representatives resolution 1553, introduced by Congressional Republicans, and currently working its way through the system will endorse an Israeli attack on Iran, which would be going to war by proxy as the US would almost immediately be drawn into the conflict when Tehran retaliates. The resolution provides explicit US backing for Israel to bomb Iran, stating that Congress supports Israel's use of "all means necessary...Media Tycoon Saban Seeks to Blacklist Stone The Wrap  A furious Haim Saban has mounted a campaign to get Showtime to cancel its planned airing of Oliver Stone's ten-part series, "A Secret History of America," in the wake of anti-Jewish remarks by the outspoken director ... The billionaire and outspoken media mogul told TheWrap he had contacted CBS chief Leslie Moonves to urge him to pull the series. He said that WME chairman Ari Emanuel had also called CBS privately to urge the series be pulled ... Saban, a major stakeholder in Univision and chairman of Saban Capital Group, said he is spreading the word among his Hollywood friends to avoid working with Stone. Steve Wynn's Gloomy Look At America Today CNBC  Steve Wynn, the well-known casino resort owner and real-estate developer, gives a scathing critique of America's political leadership. He speaks of a "confused and foolish government" in Washington, and a "frightening" US business climate. Recent US policies, he says, are "cuckoo," "phony," and "shocking." Across America, he says, there's a "sense of fear" that "the politicians are ruining us." Runtime: 4:40 mins. Hope And Change Fade, But War Endures: Seven Reasons Why We Can't Stop Making War William J. Astore - TomDispatch  ... We wage war because we think we're good at it -- and because, at a gut level, we've come to believe that American wars can bring good to others (hence our feel-good names for them, like Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom). Most Americans are not only convinced we have the best troops, the best training, and the most advanced weapons, but also the purest motives. Unlike the bad guys and the barbarians out there in the global marketplace of death, our warriors and warfighters are seen as gift-givers and freedom-bringers, not as death-dealers and resource-exploitersZionist Group Protests March in Estonia to Honor SS Fighters JTA  The Anti-Defamation League is urging Estonia officials to condemn a march there honoring a division of the Nazi SS. The march in Vaivara, the home of the largest of the 22 concentration and labor camps established in Estonia by the Nazis during World War II, is scheduled for July 31 to honor an Estonian division of the Nazi SS that fought in a 1944 battle against Soviet troops. US Treasury Running on Fumes Paul Craig Roberts  ... Americans can get no help out of Washington, but the US ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, declared that Washington's commitment to Israel's security is "not negotiable." Washington's commitment to California and to the security of the rest of us is negotiable. War spending has run up the budget deficit, and the deficit precludes any help for Americans. ... On July 12, Niall Ferguson, an historian of empire, warned that the American empire could collapse suddenly from weakness brought on by its massive debts and that such a collapse could be closer than we think. Deaf, dumb, and blind, Washington policymakers prattle on about "thirty more years of war." Bill Kristol's 'Emergency Committee?' Give Me a Break Stephen M. Walt  ... Contrary to his early rhetoric, Obama is proving to be just like most of his predecessors, and for essentially the same reason. Last week was a tactical win for Bibi [Israeli prime minister Netanyahu] but yet another strategic misstep, because, as his predecessor Ehud Olmert and current Defense Minister Ehud Barak have both acknowledged, only a viable two-state solution can prevent Israel from becoming a full-fledged apartheid state. ... The reason Obama couldn't do the right thing was the power of the lobby, and that includes the endless machinations of folks like Kristol and Bauer. They are right to think that Israel is in deep trouble and that it's likely to get worse. What they don't get is that it is to a large extent their fault. In Britain, Ethnic Minority Numbers To Rise To 20 Percent By 2051 BBC News  Ethnic minorities are set to make up a fifth of the UK's population in 40 years, researchers at the University of Leeds have predicted. They say the proportion of black, Asian and other ethnic minorities will rise from 8% of the population, as recorded in the 2001 census, to 20% by 2051 ... In 2051, 79% of British people will be classed as white, compared with 92% now, the research suggests. Yankee Utopians in a Chinese Century Patrick J. Buchanan  ... In 2011, said the Financial Times, China will surpass the United States as first manufacturing power, a title America has held since surpassing Great Britain around 1890. Each year, China passes a new milestone ... For decades, America's leaders have followed the Wall Street Journal ideology. We put a mythical world economy before our own economy. We put "global prosperity" before national interest. We forced our workers to compete, in their own country, against the products of foreign laborers earning a tenth of their pay. And we let in tens of millions of semi-skilled and unskilled immigrants, legal and illegal, to take the jobs of our countrymen. The Death of Paper Money Ambrose Evans-Pritchard -- The Telegraph (Britain)  ... Each big inflation -- whether the early 1920s in Germany, or the Korean and Vietnam wars in the US -- starts with a passive expansion of the quantity money. This sits inert for a surprisingly long time. Asset prices may go up, but latent price inflation is disguised. The effect is much like lighter fuel on a camp fire before the match is struck. People's willingness to hold money can change suddenly for a "psychological and spontaneous reason." causing a spike in the velocity of money. It can occur at lightning speed, over a few weeks. The shift invariably catches economists by surprise. They wait too long to drain the excess money. Jewish Media Control Prevents Free Holocaust Debate, Says Oliver Stone Haaretz (Israel)  Jewish control of the media is preventing an open discussion of the Holocaust, prominent Hollywood director Oliver Stone told the Sunday Times, adding that the U.S. Jewish lobby was controlling Washington's foreign policy for years. In the Sunday interview, Stone reportedly said U.S. public opinion was focused on the Holocaust as a result of the "Jewish domination of the media," adding that an upcoming film of him aims to put Adolf Hitler and Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin "in context." "There's a major lobby in the United States," Stone said, adding that "they are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington." Stone Apologizes for Remarks on Holocaust, Jewish Media Influence Daily Mail (Britain) Director Oliver Stone has been forced to apologise over a 'Mel Gibson-style' rant against Jews. The double Academy Award winner claimed that the Russians suffered more during the Second World War and that there was a Jewish 'domination of the media'.Stone also claimed that Jews monitor every comment made against them and that they had 'f***** up' US foreign policy for years. In an interview in January he sparked fury when he claimed that Hitler was an 'easy scapegoat'. His latest comments brought swift condemnation Jews in the US and Israel and forced the 63-year-old to make a contrite apology. Countries Sign Pact in Israel to Fight Anti-Semitism, Holocaust Denial JTA More than 80 countries signed an agreement to cooperate in the fight against anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. The Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research and the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights signed the agreement at Israel's Foreign Affairs Ministry "This agreement is a step that doubles the power of 87 states' cooperation in the fight against the de-legitimization of Israel and anti-Semitism towards Jews around the world," said Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon, who signed the agreement on behalf of Israel. Resolution Green-Lighting Israeli Strikes On Iran Gains Support Huffington Post Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced a measure that would green-light an Israeli bombing campaign against Iran. The resolution, H. Res. 1553, provides explicit support for military strikes against Iran, stating that Congress supports Israel's use of "all means necessary" against Iran "including the use of military force". US military leaders have warned that strikes could be catastrophic to US national security interests and could engulf the Middle East in a "calamitous" regional war ... Hawkish former Bush Administration official John Bolton recently laid out a plan to prod Israel into attacking Iran, arguing that outsiders can "create broad support" for a strike by framing it as an issue of Israel's right to self defense. Give History a Chance Gilad Atzmon  ... It is hardly surprising that the same people who flattened Hamburg, Pforzheim, Dresden, Hiroshima and Nagasaki continued to do the same in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Similarly, the same lobbies that pushed Britain and America to a deadly confrontation with the Muslim world are now pushing us to flatten Iran. To save the world and to bring peace about, we must learn our past and we must be free to so. Revisionism is the means towards a better future. Israel Set To Require All Citizens to Swear Oath to Jewish State The Independent (Britain)  New Israeli citizens may soon be required to swear an oath of loyalty to a "Jewish and democratic" state, a step that has drawn harsh criticism from human rights groups. Israel's Cabinet, which meets Monday, is expected to approve this and extend a raft of existing measures that make it harder for Palestinians to achieve citizenship. The wording of the oath, which would apply to new applicants for citizenship, was slammed by Arab advocacy groups, who accused Israel of "racist" policies that attempt to link citizenship to ideology. "It's another step in the direction of getting the Arabs out of Israel," said Uri Avnery, a former MP and founder of the Israeli Gush Shalom peace movement. "Parliament has become a lynching mob." Top Secret America: A Hidden World, Growing Beyond Control The Washington Post  The top-secret world the government created in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many people it employs, how many programs exist within it or exactly how many agencies do the same work ... Some 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies work on programs related to counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in about 10,000 locations across the United States. An estimated 854,000 people, nearly 1.5 times as many people as live in Washington, D.C., hold top-secret security clearances. US 'Fails to Account' For Iraq Reconstruction Billions BBC News  A US federal watchdog has criticised the US military for failing to account properly for billions of dollars it received to help rebuild Iraq. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says the US Department of Defence is unable to account properly for 96 percent o the money. Out of just over $9 billion, $8.7 billion is unaccounted for, the inspector says. The US military said the funds were not necessarily missing, but that spending records might have been archived. In a response attached to the report, it said attempting to account for the money might require "significant archival retrieval efforts" Britain Seeks Change in War Crimes Law To Protect Israel Ynet News (Israel) The British government on Thursday submitted a proposal calling to amend its universal jurisdiction law, which will effectively prevent private individuals from filing lawsuits against foreign leaders. If approved, the law will spare Israeli politicians and high-ranking IDF officers war crimes arrest warrants upon their arrival in the UK. Afghanistan War Logs: Revelations From Massive Leak of Secret Files The Guardian (Britain)  A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency. The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. In Britain, Judge Faces Anti-Semitism Probe After Speech About Israel Daily Mail (Brtain)  A senior judge was under investigation yesterday after being accused of making anti-Semitic remarks in court that may have swayed his jury into acquitting a group of protesters. Judge George Bathurst-Norman was said by critics to have persuaded a jury to clear a group of campaigners who smashed up a factory making parts for Israeli warplanes. Summing up in the criminal damage trial, he compared Israel to the Nazi regime and accused the country of ignoring international law. The judge added that 'there may be much to be admired' about the chief protester, and that 'in the last war he would probably have received a George Medal'. Is Democracy Overrated? Patrick J. Buchanan  ... Considering the high cost in blood, money and lost leadership and prestige since our victory in the Cold War, the democracy crusade scarcely seems worth it. For while we have been bogged down in two wars, China has become the world's leading manufacturer, steelmaker, auto producer and exporter, and the second largest economy on earth. Nevertheless, we are ever admonished, we must not flag or fail in our pursuit of global democracy, for only when the world is democratic will our providential mission be accomplished. And only then can we be truly secure. In Austria, `Holocaust Denier' Honsik Stands Firm AFP  Convicted Holocaust denier Gerd Honsik reiterated his claim in an Austrian court on Tuesday that there were no gas chambers in Germany during World War II. "There was not a single gas chamber anywhere in the area of Greater Germany, I stand by that," Honsik told a court in Vienna ... Honsik, 68, was in court because prosecutors have appealed a ruling earlier this year that his jail sentence be cut from five to four years. After the hearing Tuesday deteriorated into a shouting match between prosecutors, the judge and the defence, the appeal was adjourned until September 9. Honsik was found guilty in April 2009 of denying the Holocaust and the existence of gas chambers ... American Jewish Congress Suspends Operations Forward (New York)  The American Jewish Congress has suspended its activities after running out of funds. The suspension of the venerable Jewish-American advocacy organization'Stalin Bust in Virginia Town Sparks Controversy Fox News  The installation of a memorial bust of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin in Bedford, Virginia, next to Western Allied leaders in World War II has ignited a firestorm of controversy and threatened to tear apart the small town 200 miles south of the nation's capital. Opponents of the bronze sculpture say it has no right to be placed in the National D-Day Memorial next to the busts of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill because Stalin's murderous rule led to the deaths of at least 20 million people ... Home Foreclosures Set to Top 2009 Levels The Associated Press  More than one million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year, as lenders work their way through a huge backlog of borrowers who have fallen behind on their loans. Nearly 528,000 homes were taken over by lenders in the first six months of the year, a rate that is on track to eclipse the more than 900,000 homes repossessed in 2009, according to data released Thursday by RealtyTrac Inc., a foreclosure listing service. "That would be unprecedented,Americans' Credit Scores Sink To New Lows The Associated Press  The credit scores of millions more Americans are sinking to new lows. Figures provided by FICO Inc. show that 25.5 percent of consumers -- nearly 43.4 million people -- now have a credit score of 599 or below, marking them as poor risks for lenders. It's unlikely they will be able to get credit cards, auto loans or mortgages under the tighter lending standards banks now use. More are likely to join their ranks. Netanyahu Admits on Video He Deceived US to Destroy Oslo Accord Jonathan Cook  The contents of a secretly recorded video threaten to gravely embarrass not only Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister but also the US administration of Barack Obama. The film was shot, apparently without Mr Netanyahu's knowledge, nine years ago ... He tells the family that he deceived the US president of the time, Bill Clinton, into believing he was helping implement the Oslo accords, the US-sponsored peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, by making minor withdrawals from the West Bank while actually entrenching the occupation. He boasts that he thereby destroyed the Oslo process. He dismisses the US as "easily moved to the right direction" and calls high levels of popular American support for Israel "absurd." Tricky Bibi: The `Real' Netanyahu on Video Gideon Levy -- Haaretz (Israel) ... Everyone will know who leads the government of Israel. Channel 10 [Israel] presented: The real (and deceitful ) face of Binyamin Netanyahu. Broadcast on Friday night on "This Week with Miki Rosenthal," it was filmed secretly in 2001, during a visit by Citizen Netanyahu to the home of a bereaved family in the settlement of Ofra, and astoundingly, it has not created a stir. The scene was both pathetic and outrageous. ... The man in the video betrays himself in his own words as a con artist, and now he is again prime minister of Israel. Don't try to claim that he has changed since then. Such a crooked way of thinking does not change over the years. The Unchallenged Power of the Israel Lobby James Abourezk  ... To my knowledge, no one, either in politics or the media, pressed the case too hard, lest they discover that those who wanted to invade Iraq had, not America's interest, but Israel's interest in mind ... A great many people believe, myself included, that Israel wanted Saddam out of the way because, while he was not really a military threat to Israel, he was a political threat. He was someone, like Hizbollah, who stood in the way of Israeli hegemony over the entire Middle East ... Does anyone beside a few people in the United States see the danger to our country in being led around by the nose by the Israeli government? Swiss Court Punishes Anne Frank Diary Skeptic Swissinfo / SBC (Switzerland)  A former regional president of the far-right Party of Nationally Oriented Swiss has been fined just over 10,000 Swiss francs ($9,500) for claiming Anne Frank's diary was a fake. In June 2009 the 22-year-old ex-leader of the Basel branch of the extremist party had written an article called "The lies around Anne Frank", in which he branded the diary of the young Jewish girl a "historical lie." The young man has been fined for racial discrimination. German Hotel Owner Taken to Court for Hitler Portrait Der Spiegel (Germany) A German hotel owner was taken to court after a guest spotted a portrait of Adolf Hitler on his wall. The case was dismissed because the man proved it had been hanging in a private area of the building, and that he had not broken a law which bans displaying images of Hitler in public. The portrait has been confiscated. Censorship as `Tolerance' Jacob Mchangama (Denmark) -- National Review  ... There is a pan-European consensus, fertilized by multiculturalism, that tolerance and peaceful coexistence require the restriction rather than the protection of freedom of speech. This has led to the mushrooming of hate-speech and so-called anti-discrimination laws that criminalize expressions characterized as "hateful" or merely "derogatory" toward members of religious, ethnic, national, or racial groups ... The ubiquitous European hate-speech laws represent a clear and present danger to freedom of expression in the Western world. Not only do they interfere with the basic right of the individual to speak his or her mind even if it causes offense, they are inherently arbitrary and prone to abuse. The Jewish Role in the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia's Early Soviet Regime Mark Weber  Jews played a highly disproportionate and probably decisive role in the infant Bolshevik regime, effectively dominating the Soviet government during its early years ... With the notable exception of Lenin, most of the leading Communists who took control of Russia in 1917-20 were Jews ... The US ambassador in Russia warned in a dispatch to Washington: "The Bolshevik leaders here, most of whom are Jews and 90 percent of whom are returned exiles, care little for Russia or any other country but are internationalists and they are trying to start a worldwide social revolution." US Trade Deficit At 18 Month High BBC News  The US trade deficit widened to its highest level in 18 months in May, driven by demand for imported cars, computers and clothing. The deficit increased by 4.8% to $42.3 billion -- the largest since November 2008, Commerce Department data showed. The 2.9% rise in imports outpaced the 2.4% climb in exports. Dollar Tumbles After Gloomy Fed Forecast The Telegarph (Britain)  The euro rocketed to a two-month high of $1.29 and sterling jumped two cents to almost $1.54 after The Fed confessed that the US economy may not recover for five or six years ... The Fed minutes amount to a policy thunderbolt, evidence of how quickly the recovery has lost steam. Just weeks ago the Fed was mapping out withdrawal of stimulus ... The signs of a deep and sudden slowdown in the US are becoming ever clearer as the "sugar rush" from the Obama fiscal stimulus wears off and the inventory boost fades. California, Illinois and other states are cutting spending, tightening US fiscal policy by 0.8 percent of GDP ... The US workforce has shrunk by one million over the past two months as discouraged jobless give up the hunt. In Israel, Arab Found Guilty of Rape After Consensual Sex with Jew The Guardian (Britain) An Israeli man of Arab origin has been convicted of rape after having consensual sex with a woman who had believed him to be a fellow Jew. Sabbar Kashur, 30, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday after the court ruled that he was guilty of rape by deception. According to the complaint filed by the woman with the Jerusalem district court, the two met in downtown Jerusalem in September 2008 where Kashur, an Arab from East Jerusalem, introduced himself as a Jewish bachelor seeking a serious relationship. The two then had consensual sex in a nearby building before Kashur left. When she later found out that he was not Jewish but an Arab, she filed a criminal complaint for rape and indecent assault. Greek Hotels Kick Out Unruly Israeli Teens Ynet News (Israel)  Three groups of Israeli teens facing IDF [military] enlistment get expelled from various hotels in island of Ios after getting drunk, causing damage to property. Israel's consul in Athens says such cases cause great damage to country's image / Israel continues to lose popularity in overseas vacation resorts. Israeli Consul in Athens Eli Sneh informed the Foreign Ministry that several groups of young Israelis have been expelled from hotels in the Greek island of Ios over the past few weeks for getting drunk and behaving in an unruly manner. ... Sneh said that the hotels which expelled the teens on Sunday have informed they would not be hosting anymore Israeli youths. "These hooligans are causing serious damage to our image." How Franklin Roosevelt Lied America Into War William Henry Chamberlin  ... American involvement in war with Germany was preceded by a long series of steps [by FDR, including] ... the orders to American warships to shoot at sight at German submarines, formally announced on September 11 [1941]. The beginning of actual hostilities may be dated from this time rather than from the German declaration of war, which followed Pearl Harbor ... The promises to "keep America out of foreign wars" were a deliberate hoax on the American people, perpetrated for the purpose of insuring Roosevelt's re-election and thereby enabling him to proceed with his plan of gradually edging the United States into war. The Southern Poverty Law Center: Profiting From Defamation The Social Contract (Michigan)  This special issue of The Social Contract journal provides detailed, devastating analysis of the influential and misnamed "Southern Poverty Law Center." Contributors to this issue review the hidden record and agenda of this highly profitable engine of defamation. Jews and Russians in 1920s USSR: From Solzhenitsyn' Kevin MacDonald -- Occidental Observer  ...This chapter relies on a wide range of academic historical writing to paint his picture of the USSR during the critical decade of the 1920s. His account is therefore based on mainstream scholarship and overall is similar to other accounts .... Solzhenitsyn is emphasizing the ethnic angle to mass murder in the USSR: Russians were disproportionately victims, and non-Russians, and particularly Jews, were disproportionately perpetrators. He also emphasizes that a prime motive for Jews was revenge against the old order .. "Jewish communists participated efficiently and diligently" in collectivization. It was a war against the Russian people -- a war that was carried out with "a certain enthusiasm among Jews." Israel's Nukes Harm US National Interests John Mearsheimer  ... I actually believe the situation is going to get much worse over time. I believe that we're not going to have an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. I believe that talk of a two-state solution and all this talk about moving from "proximity talks" to "direct talks " is a charade ... America's interests and Israel's interests are going to continue to diverge. And the end result of that, back here in the United States, is that the [pro-Israel] lobby is going to have to work overtime to cover that up and make it look like everything is hunky-dory when in fact it's not. And that has all sorts of negative consequences for domestic politics. So I think things are very bad now but I'm sad to say they're only going to get worse. The Truth About Israel's Land Grab In The West Bank The Independent (Britain)  Jewish settlers, who claim a divine right to the whole of Israel, now control more than 42 per cent of the occupied West Bank, representing a powerful obstacle to the creation of a Palestinian state, a new report has revealed. The jurisdiction of some 202 settlements, illegal under international law, cover much more of the occupied Palestinian territory than previously thought. And a large section of the land has been seized from private Palestinian landowners in defiance even of an Israeli supreme court ruling, the report said, a finding which sits uncomfortably with Israeli claims that it builds only on state land The Two Sides of a Barbed-Wire Fence Nicholas D. Kristof  The Israeli occupation of the West Bank is widely acknowledged to be unsustainable and costly to the country's image. But one more blunt truth must be acknowledged: the occupation is morally repugnant ...None of that changes the ugly truth that our ally, Israel, is using American military support to maintain an occupation that is both oppressive and unjust. Israel has eased checkpoints this year -- a real improvement in quality of life -- but the system is intrinsically malignant ... Meanwhile, the settlements continue to grow, seemingly inexorably -- and that may be the most odious aspect of the occupation. Israeli Soldiers Shoot Palestinian Children BBC News - Video  After Israeli soldiers order a Palestinian family out of their home, they open fire with an M16 machine gun. Two children are instantly killed, and one is paralysed. BBC journalist Christian Fraser reports. Runtime: 3:19 mins. Diversity in Ads Not Reflected in Real Life The Associated Press  Somewhere there's an America that's full of neighborhoods where black and white kids play softball together, where biracial families e-mail photos online and where Asians and blacks dance in the same nightclub. And that America is on your television ... Critics say such ads gloss over persistent and complicated racial realities. Though the proportion of ethnic minorities in America is growing, experts say, more than superficial interaction between groups is relatively unusual. Most Americans live and mingle with people from their own racial background. Advertising, meanwhile, is creating a "carefully manufactured racial utopia, a narrative of colorblindness" says Charles Gallagher, a sociologist at Georgia State University ... Veterans of Israel's Attack on USS Liberty Want Investigation Russia Today (Russia)  On the anniversary of Israel's 1967 murderous assault on the USS Liberty, survivors call for a impartial US government inquiry into the attack, and the shameful white-washing afterwards by US officials. Runtime: 5:13 mins. Lieberman: A Zionist Foe of Freedom Maidhc Ó Cathail -- Dissident Voice  It would be hard to think of anyone who has done more to undermine American freedoms than Joseph Lieberman. Since 9/11, the Independent senator from Connecticut has introduced a raft of legislation in the name of the "global war on terror" which has steadily eroded constitutional rights. If the United States looks increasingly like a police state, Senator Lieberman has to take much of the credit for it ... How much faith would American voters have in the likes of Lieberman, who claims that the Jewish state is their greatest ally, if they knew that Israeli agents planted firebombs in American installations in Egypt in 1954 in an attempt to undermine relations between Nasser and the United States ... Memoir By Veteran ADL Official Provides Revelations John Cobden - Institute for Historical Review  ... Contrary to what the author intended, this revealing book by a high-ranking ADL official serves as valuable exposé of the moral character of a man who sanctions violence against political opponents, who spits on the First Amendment, uses illegal methods to obtain information about adversaries, and who served as an agent for a foreign spy agency. Over the years, I have read several tracts and articles designed to discredit the Anti-Defamation League. None was able to persuade me of the illicit nature of this organization; it took the memoir of Arnold Forster to do that. Presbyterians Approve Call to End US Aid to Israel The Associated Press  Presbyterian leaders strongly backed a proposal Friday that included a call to end U.S. aid to Israel unless the country stops settlement expansions in disputed Palestinian territories. But they said the 172-page report, which details their church's approach to issues in the Middle East, was a sincere effort to mend long-standing fractures between the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and Jewish groups. It earned qualified praise but also criticism from pro-Israel organizations, which have long taken issue with various Presbyterian statements on Middle East peace. Church delegates approved the report by an 82 percent vote during the church's general assembly in Minneapolis. Why West Lost Afghan War Michael Scheuer  Recent events surrounding Afghanistan shouldn't confuse anyone, as the reality of the situation still lies in one simple statement: The US-NATO coalition has lost a war its political leaders never meant, or knew how, to win. 'Winning' in Afghanistan was never anything more than killing Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Mullah Omar, as many of their fighters and civilian supporters as possible and then getting out immediately with the full knowledge that -- as Mao said long ago -- insurgencies always rebuild and the process might need to be repeated. Another Failed President? Patrick J. Buchanan  ... Obama's "reset" in foreign policy seems to have yielded no more fruit than George W. Bush's crusade to "end tyranny in our world." Three months after Iraqi elections, there is no government in Baghdad. The August deadline for withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops will likely be missed ... America is facing a crisis of confidence in government, with the nation unable to win its wars, balance its budgets, control its borders, stop the bleeding of its manufacturing base or plug a hole in the ocean floor. Demjanjuk Trial in Germany Postponed Again The Associated Press  A court session in John Demjanjuk's trial in Germany has been put off after the court's doctor said the 90-year-old was recovering from dehydration. Dr. Albrecht Stein told the court Thursday that Demjanjuk had not been drinking enough during recent hot weather and needed intravenous fluids. The former Ohio autoworker is being tried on 28,060 counts of accessory to murder over allegations he was a guard at the Nazis' Sobibor death camp. He says he is a victim of mistaken identity and never served as a guard at any camp. Demjanjuk suffers from a variety of medical problems, and it was at least the 10th session to be canceled for health reasons since the trial began Nov. 30. The Demjanjuk Trial: An Interim Assessment Prof. Johannes Houwink ten Cate -- The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (Israel) ... This trial is a novelty. It marks the first time in German legal history that a non-German national has had to stand trial for the murder of non-German nationals that took place outside of Germany proper - namely, in Poland. ... This trial is also novel in the sense that the mass murder in Sobibor is described as a single process, implicating all those present in Sobibor in the extermination. For the first time, a person who was low in the chain of command has been indicted even though there is no proof of him having committed a specific offense. ... The goal is not to win the trial; it may be unwinnable. Perhaps the goal of informing the world about Sobibor is rhetorical as well, for the Jewish slaves who tried to escape the extermination sites had the same goal. An Evil Campaign to Frame an Innocent Man Lesya Jones (1995) ... Sheftel [in his book] amasses incontrovertible evidence which proves that the Demjanjuk affair was not simply a case of mistaken identity but, rather, a deliberate and cold-blooded conspiracy by superpowers United States and former Soviet Union, as well as Germany, Israel and Poland to withhold exculpatory evidence in their possession and send to the gallows an innocent no man's man. These countries did this in pursuit of their respective agendas. In the United States, the Office of Special Investigation (OSI) at the Department of Justice, which was established to investigate alleged Nazi war criminals residing in the US, was particularly zealous in its efforts to destroy Demjanjuk. Iran 's President Rebukes Western Double Standard on Holocaust DPA (Germany)  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad questioned the historic dimensions of the Holocaust but rejected the label of an anti-Semite, the Fars news agency reported Friday. "The West made a claim - about the Holocaust - and urges all the people in the world to accept it or otherwise go to prison," Ahmadinejad told a group of Islamic scholars Thursday in Nigeria, where he attended a summit of the Developing Eight, a group of countries with large Muslim populations. "The West allows everybody to question prophets and even God but not to pose a simple question and open the black box of a historic event," he charged. Martin A. Larson Revisionists.  Martin A. Larson (1897-1994) was an American scholar and author who specialized in religious history, comparative religion, the origins and evolution of Christianity, the life and work of Thomas Jefferson, and taxation and money issues. He was a free-thinker and a populist, and an ardent defender of individual freedom, both political and religious ... He served as a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee of the IHR's Journal of Historical Review from its first issues in 1980 until his death. Over the years four articles by Dr. Larson appeared in the Journal . In India, A New Film Underscores Enduring Interest in Hitler The Associated Press  ... In India, Hitler is not viewed as the personification of evil, but with an attitude of morally ambiguous fascination. He is seen as a management guru - akin to Machiavelli or Sun Tzu - by business students, and an object of wonder by people craving order amid the chaos of India ... Mein Kampf, Hitler's semi-autobiographicSubhas Chandra Bose and India's Struggle for Independence Andrew Montgomery - Institute for Historical Review ... Bose was favorably impressed with the discipline and organizational strength of fascism as early as 1930, when he first expressed support for a synthesis of fascism and socialism. During his stays in Europe during the 1930s, he was deeply moved by the dynamism of the two major "fascist" powers, Italy and Germany. After observing these regimes first-hand, he developed a political ideology of his own that, he was convinced, could bring about the liberation of India and the total reconstruction of Indian society along vaguely authoritarian- California on 'Verge of System Failure' The Globe and Mail (Canada)  ... It's a story that's being repeated all across California - and throughout the United States - as cash-strapped state and local governments grapple with collapsed tax revenues and swelling budget gaps. Mass layoffs, slashed health and welfare services, closed parks, crumbling superhighways and ever-larger public school class sizes are all part of the new normal. California's fiscal hole is now so large that the state would have to liberate 168,000 prison inmates and permanently shutter 240 university and community college campuses to balance its budget in the fiscal year that begins July 1. Think of California as Greece on the Pacific: bankrupt and desperately needing a bailout. New York: Demise of a State Herbert London -- Newsmax The sound you hear on Wall Street at noon isn't bells chiming, but rather the death knell for New York State. The once proud Empire State that was the engine for capital investment across the country is gasping for breath. Wall Street, that paid the state's bills, is a shell of its former self. ... There is no doubt New York State has extraordinary assets: an educated workforce, potable water, cheap hydro-electric power, magnificent scenery. But these assets have been surpassed by manipulative leadership, profligate spending, and the appeasement of municipal union demands. As I see it the once magnificent Empire State is now the vampire state with the Albany government sucking the blood of working men and women who are trying to eke out a living. Illinois Stops Paying Its Bills, But Can't Stop Digging Hole The New York Times  ... For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession. Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state's bills and refuses to take the painful steps -- cuts and tax increases -- to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state's budget. ... More broadly, Illinois is caught between blue state convictions about social safety nets and a red state aversion to taxes. For years, the Democratic-controllRemembering the Fallen of the Somme BBC News  The Battle of the Somme, which began in early July 1916, has come to symbolise the horror and futility of war, as Fergal Keane reflects on a visit to the battlefield. On the other side of the wood, the fighters soared and looped in a bright blue sky. I was standing in a cornfield and thought of how, in another time, that sound would have sent me running in terror for any cover I could find ... Between July and November 1916, more than a million men became casualties of war in these fields. Gertrude Stein's Complex Worldview: Nobel Peace Prize for Hitler? Mark Weber -- Institute for Historical Review  Scholars of the life of Gertrude Stein were recently startled to learn that in 1938 the prominent Jewish-American writer had spearheaded a campaign urging the Nobel committee to award its Peace Prize to Adolf Hitler ... Stein's seemingly paradoxical views about Hitler and fascism have never been a secret. As early as 1934, she told a reporter that Hitler should be awarded the Nobel peace prize. "I say that Hitler ought to have the peace prize, because he is removing all the elements of contest and of struggle from Germany. By driving out the Jews and the democratic and Left element, he is driving out everything that conduces to activity. That means peace ... By suppressing Jews ... he was ending struggle in Germany" US Will Attack Iran `If It Must,' Say Prominent Senators The Jerusalem Post (Israel)  There is wide support in Congress for using all means to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power, "through diplomatic and economic sanctions if we possibly can, through military actions if we must," visiting US Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said Wednesday in Jerusalem. Lieberman, flanked at a Jerusalem press conference by his senate colleagues John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), used very tough language, saying the words "military action" in regards to stopping Iran's nuclear program. Most US officials opt to tiptoe around the subject, saying "no options are off the table." Get Ready for a Binational State Gideon Levy -- Haaretz (Israel) ... The reality is that Israel has again managed to fool not only America, but even its most promising president in years ... More than anything, the meeting proved that the criminal waste of time will go on. A year and a half has passed since the two took office, and almost nothing has changed except lip service to the freeze. A few lifted roadblocks here, a little less blockade of Gaza there - all relatively marginal matters, a bogus substitute for a bold jump over the abyss, without which nothing will move. Israeli Duplicity Comes Ever More Clearly into Focus Jeff Gates With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting the White House July 6, it's time to recall how Tel Aviv deceived Washington throughout the entirety of the U.S.-Israeli relationship. U.S. military leaders will be watching this meeting very closely, as will the veterans community. For me, confirmation of Israel's strategic duplicity came in a meeting with Harry McPherson who served as counsel and speechwriter for Lyndon B. Johnson. LBJ entered the Senate in 1948 with Louisiana Senator Russell Long for whom I served as counsel and speechwriter. At his law offices in Washington, Harry described his arrival in Tel Aviv the night that the 1967 War began. That war typifies the consistency of this ongoing deceit. Tax-Exempt Funds Aiding West Bank Settlements The New York Times  ... HaYovel is one of many groups in the United States using tax-exempt donations to help Jews establish permanence in the Israeli-occupied territories -- effectively obstructing the creation of a Palestinian state, widely seen as a necessary condition for Middle East peace. The result is a surprising juxtaposition: As the American government seeks to end the four-decade Jewish settlement enterprise and foster a Palestinian state in the West Bank, the American Treasury helps sustain the settlements through tax breaks on donations to support them. A New York Times examination of public records in the United States and Israel identified at least 40 American groups that have collected more than $200 million in tax-deductible gifts for Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem over the last decade. Netanyahu Hears No Discouraging Words From Obama Dana Milbank -- The Washington Post  A blue-and-white Israeli flag hung from Blair House. Across Pennsylvania Avenue, the Stars and Stripes was in its usual place atop the White House. But to capture the real significance of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's visit with President Obama, White House officials might have instead flown the white flag of surrender. Four months ago, the Obama administration made a politically perilous decision to condemn Israel over a controversial new settlement. The Israel lobby reared up, Netanyahu denounced the administration'Israel Has Right to Nuclear Capability for Deterrence Purposes, Obama Pledges Haaretz (Israel) The Obama administration has revealed to the public, during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington, a series of understandings between the two countries on Israel's policy of "nuclear ambiguity" - which to date had been kept under wraps. At the center of these understandings lies an Israeli veto on the holding of an international conference for a nuclear-free Middle East ... According to the announcement, "The president told the prime minister he recognizes that Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat or possible combination of threats, and that only Israel can determine its security needs. The president pledged to continue U.S. efforts to combat all international attempts to challenge the legitimacy of the State of Israel." Secret Document Affirms U.S.-Israel Nuclear Partnership Haaretz (Israel) Israel's Army Radio reported on Wednesday that the United States has sent Israel a secret document committing to nuclear cooperation between the two countries. According to Army Radio, the U.S. has reportedly pledged to sell Israel materials used to produce electricity, as well as nuclear technology and other supplies, despite the fact that Israel is not a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Other countries have refused to cooperate with Israel on nuclear matters because it has not signed the NPT, and there has been increasing international pressure for Israel to be more transparent about its nuclear arsenal. Winston Churchill's Cigar Air-Brushed From Photo The Telegraph (Britain)  A photograph of Winston Churchill giving his victory salute has been airbrushed to remove his signature cigar. In the well-known original image, Churchill makes a "V" shaped symbol with his fingers - while gripping a cigar in the corner of his mouth. But in a reproduction of the picture, hanging over the main entrance to a London museum celebrating the wartime leader, he has been made into a non-smoker through the use of image-altering techniques. William Chamberlin: A Man Ahead of His Time Mark Weber -- Institute for Historical Review  ... Chamberlin opens America's Second Crusade with the words: "Americans, more than any other people, have been inclined to interpret their involvement in the two great wars of the twentieth century in terms of crusades for righteousness.Winston Churchill: An Unsettled Legacy Mark Weber The well-entrenched idealization of Churchill is part and parcel of a drastically misleading view of the Second World War that Americans have been fed for decades. One common deceit is to give the impression that Hitler sought war against Britain and France, and that Germany aggressively attacked those two countries ... Churchill's enduringly stellar image is all the more remarkable considering that his views on a range of issues were, by today's standards, hopelessly backward and politically incorrect ... Along with most Britons (and Americans) of his era, he was also an unabashed racist. FBI Expands Probe of Fraud at Holocaust Claims Conference Jewish Week (New York)  The Federal Bureau of Investigation has widened its probe into allegedly fraudulent Holocaust-era claims that could have bilked the German government out of millions of dollars, The Jewish Week has learned. The fraud was discovered in December by the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany in New York, which processes Holocaust-era claims for survivors in behalf of the German government. It immediately contacted federal authorities, including the FBI. The fraud initially involved claims submitted to the Hardship Fund but has now been broadened to include the Article 2 Fund, a pension program that may have been defrauded out of about $7 million over the last decade. Both investigations are continuing and the Article 2 Fund pensions of more than 200 people were suspended last Thursday.Dariusz Ratajczak: A Courageous Historian Revisionists.  Dariusz Ratajczak (1962-2010) was a Polish historian who was dismissed from his university teaching post, publicly vilified, and convicted of "Holocaust denial" for having published arguments and evidence that cast doubt on aspects of the familiar Holocaust story. He held a doctoral degree in history, and was the author of several books ... Publication of "Dangerous Themes" set off a storm of fierce criticism, including protests by some prominent scholars. Rethinking Iran-Contra: A Much Darker Story? Robert Parry  ... An accumulating body of evidence suggests that the traditional view of Iran-Contra was mistaken, that this conventional understanding of the scandal was like starting a novel in the middle and assuming you're reading the opening chapter ... In view of the latest evidence - and the crumbling of the long-running October Surprise cover-up -- there appears to have been a single Iran-Contra narrative spanning the entire twelve years of the Reagan and Bush I administration, and representing a much darker story. And it was not simply a tale of Republican electoral skullduggery and treachery, but possibly even more troubling, a story of rogue CIA officers and Israel's Likud hardliners sabotaging a sitting U.S. president, Jimmy Carter. Worse Than a Nightmare Bob Herbert - The New York Times  ... For us to even consider several more years of fighting and dying in Afghanistan -- at a cost of heaven knows how many more billions of American taxpayer dollars -- is demented ... We're like a compulsive gambler plunging ever more deeply into debt in order to wager on a rigged game. There is no victory to be had in Afghanistan, only grief. We're bulldozing Detroit while at the same time trying to establish model metropolises in Kabul and Kandahar. We're spending endless billions on this wretched war but can't extend the unemployment benefits of Americans suffering from the wretched economy here at home. The difference between this and a nightmare is that when you wake up from a nightmare it's over. This is all too tragically real. The Last Post: McChrystal's Bleak Outlook The Independent on Sunday (Britain)  Sacked US General Stanley McChrystal issued a devastatingly critical assessment of the war against a "resilient and growing insurgency" just days before being forced out. Using confidential military documents, copies of which have been seen by the IoS, the "runaway general" briefed defence ministers from Nato and the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) earlier this month, and warned them not to expect any progress in the next six months. During his presentation, he raised serious concerns over levels of security, violence, and corruption within the Afghan administration. Sinking Ship: Israel and Its Lobby in the US John J. Mearsheimer Israel's botched raid against the Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla on May 31 is the latest sign that Israel is on a disastrous course that it seems incapable of reversing. The attack also highlights the extent to which Israel has become a strategic liability for the United States. This situation is likely to get worse over time, which will cause major problems for Americans who have a deep attachment to the Jewish state ... The lobby will remain influential enough over the next decade to protect Israel from meaningful U.S. pressure. Obama Expands Global U.S. 'Secret War' The Washington Post  Beneath its commitment to soft-spoken diplomacy and beyond the combat zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Obama administration has significantly expanded a largely secret U.S. war against al-Qaeda and other radical groups, according to senior military and administration officials. Special Operations forces have grown both in number and budget, and are deployed in 75 countries, compared with about 60 at the beginning of last year. In addition to units that have spent years in the Philippines and Colombia, teams are operating in Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia ... Obama, one senior military official said, has allowed "things that the previous administration did not." German Big Business and the Rise of Hitler John Ries -- Institute for Historical Review ... The picture of the relationship between German big business and the Nazi party which Turner provides us is one that reveals how little big business had to do with the party's success ... Most of the NSDAP funds were derived from membership dues, interest-free loans, and the gate receipts from the many mass rallies the party held ... In sum, the NSDAP was a prototypical "grass-roots" political organization able to expand and prosper during a period when most of the bourgeois parties suffered a serious loss of support. Archimedes Set Roman Ships Afire With Cannons, Says Engineer Jeremy Hsu -- LiveScience  Greek inventor Archimedes is said to have used mirrors to burn ships of an attacking Roman fleet. But new research suggests he may have used steam cannons and fiery cannonballs instead. A legend begun in the Medieval Ages tells of how Archimedes used mirrors to concentrate sunlight as a defensive weapon during the siege of Syracuse, then a Greek colony on the island of Sicily, from 214 to 212 B.C. No contemporary Roman or Greek accounts tell of such a mirror device, however. Both engineering calculations and historical evidence support use of steam cannons as "much more reasonable than the use of burning mirrors," said Cesare Rossi, a mechanical engineer at the University of Naples ... German Man Facing Jail Over Hitler Ringtone ABC (Australia)  A German man is facing up to six months in jail for having a speech by Adolf Hitler as his mobile phone ringtone. Every time the 54-year-old man's phone rang, it played a speech by Hitler, in which the former dictator pledged the destruction of world Jewry if Germany was dragged into war. Fellow passengers on a train in Hamburg heard the ringtone several times during a journey and reported him to police, who seized the telephone and arrested him when the train stopped. Police found swastika stickers and a photo of Hitler on the telephone with the words "the greatest commander of all time" written over it. The man was charged with violating the German constitution, which expressly forbids public displays of the Nazis and all their works. Why the French Hate Chomsky Diana Johnstone ... It has contributed to the sacralization of the Holocaust, or "Shoah", which has increasingly been regarded less as an historic event than as a sacred dogma. In a secular state where traditional religions are excluded from public schools, only the Shoah demands both the mental and emotional adherence traditionally reserved for religion. Its place in the school curriculum grows as the teaching of history in general shrinks ... This amounts to a reversal of the much-decried Medieval stigmatization of Jews as "Christ-killers" U.S. Pledges $15 Million to Preserve Site of Auschwitz-Birkenau Camp CNN News  The United States will donate $15 million to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Foundation, pending congressional authorization and appropriations, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday. Speaking at the Schindler Factory Museum in Krakow, Poland, Clinton said the contribution will go to preserve the site of the concentration camp and "demonstrates America's commitment to Holocaust education, remembrance and research," the State Department said. Methodist Church of Britain Votes to Boycott Israeli Goods The Jerusalem Post (Israel) The Methodist Church of Britain voted on Wednesday to boycott Israeli-produced goods and services from the West Bank because of Israel's "illegal occupation of Palestinian lands." "A majority of governments recognize the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories as illegitimate under international law," the church body said at its annual conference in Portsmouth. The church body will now encourage Methodists across the UK to follow suit. Connecting the Zionist Dots Gilad Atzmon  ... Democracy in its current state, especially within the English-Speaking world, is a political system that specializes in positioning inadequate, unqualified and dubious characters in leading positions. Two democratically elected leaders launched the illegal war in Iraq. Two democratically elected leaders marched the west into a financial disaster ... .As much as our elected leaders are totally clueless, the Sabans, the Lord Levys and the Wolfowitzes know exactly what to do. The Jewish religion, culture and ideology provides its followers with a narrative that saves us of the democratic limbo. The Sabans of this world are far from being amateurs or clueless; they know exactly what to do. They have been doing it for three thousand years. More American Women Not Having Children Reuters  More American women are choosing not to have children than three decades ago, according to a new report. Nearly 20 percent of older women do not have children, compared to 10 percent in the 1970s, the Pew Research Center said. ... Education also is a factor in a woman's choice to be a mother. The more educated women are, the higher the childless rate is. Activist Explains the Gaza Flotilla, Rebuts Israeli Claims Hardtalk - BBC television (Video)  In this interview on the British BBC television program "Hardtalk," an activist describes how Israeli troops stormed the Gaza flotilla vessel. Given here in three parts. The BBC presenter repeatedly tries to justify or excuse Israel's attack on the humanitarian aid ship, as well as the Zionist state's overall policies. Ken O'Keefe, a former US Marine combat soldier, speaks calmly but forcefully about the Israeli attack, the humanitarian flotilla operation, the plight of the Palestinians, and Israel's propaganda lies. Assault on `German Village' Mike Davis -- Der Spiegel  During the Second World War the Americans tested in the desert of Utah the bombardment of Berlin. In accurate detail they had copies of tenement buildings constructed. The architect was the well-known German Jew Erich Mendelsohn / ... The Berlin tenements were erected in May 1943 on the Dugway Proving Grounds, shortly before Winston Churchill had gale-force firestorms ignited in the center of Hamburg. Their intended purpose was to try out the possibilities and to solve the problems that clearly lay beyond any moral limits of target bombardments. The buildings became a trade fair for the growing lobby of fire war. Nearly All Terrorist Attacks in US and Europe Have Been By Non-Muslims Danios - Loonwatch ... Only six percent of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil from 1980 to 2005 were carried out by Islamic extremists. The remaining 94 percent were from other groups -- 42% from Latinos, 24% from extreme left wing groups, 7% from extremist Jews, 5% from communists, and 16% from all other groups ... In fact, a whopping 99.6% of terrorist attacks in Europe were by non-Muslim groups; a good 84.8% of attacks were from separatist groups completely unrelated to Islam. Leftist groups accounted for over sixteen times as much terrorism as radical Islamic groups. Only a measly 0.4% of terrorist attacks from 2007 to 2009 could be attributed to extremist Muslims. The Zionist Terror Network Mark Weber -- Institute for Historical Review  This booklet documents the background and criminal activities of Jewish Zionist terrorist groups, and especially the Jewish Defense League. Particular emphasis is given here to terror -- including murder -- against "thought criminals" who question the Holocaust story that six million Jews were systematically killed during the Second World War ... This terror campaign culminated in a devastating arson attack on the Institute's offices and warehouse in Torrance on July 4, 1984 -- the 209th anniversary of American independence. Damage in the attack, carried out in the early morning hours of the 4th, was estimated at $400,000. The US is a `Puppet State' of Israel, Says Dr. Roberts Paul Craig Roberts -- Press TV -- Video  The United States is a "puppet state of Israel," says Dr. Roberts, and the US media presents the American public with "Israeli propaganda." "The United States government does not represent the American people," he continues. "It represents the military-security complex, the Israel lobby, Wall Street, the oil companies, the insurance industry, the pharmaceuticals.Jews Hurt Blacks, Says Farrakhan JTA  Minister Louis Farrakhan in a letter addressed to U.S. Jewish organizations accused Jews of hurting blacks and called for dialogue to "repair" the damage. The Nation of Islam leader sent the letter, as well as a two-volume copy of "The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews" by the Nation of Islam Historical Research Team, which he said proves "an undeniable record of Jewish Anti-Black behavior," the Associated Press reported Tuesday. "We could charge you with being the most deceitful so-called friend, while your history with us shows you have been our worst enemy," he reportedly wrote in the letter, dated June 24. Zionist Group Criticizes Latvia Over Commemoration of 1941 Liberation Reuters A well-known Nazi hunter criticized a Latvian court Tuesday for allowing a procession to commemorate the day in 1941 when Nazi troops entered the country's capital after ejecting the Soviet Union's Red Army. Efraim Zuroff, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Israel, criticized a Riga district court decision to allow an event to be held at the central Freedom Monument on July 1... The German invasion in 1941 followed a year of Red Army occupation, during which Latvia was forcibly incorporated into the Soviet Union and tens of thousands of Latvians were shipped to Siberia, leading people to cheer the arrival of German troops in the streets of Riga. California Legislator Demands French Rail Company Disclose Holocaust Role European Jewish Press  French rail operator SNCF is being targeted by a California state lawmaker who has introduced legislation that would force the company to disclose its role in the Holocaust as a condition of a multibillion-In Georgia, Authorities Pull Down Stalin Monuments The Associated Press  Authorities in Georgia on Sunday tore down another monument to Soviet dictator and native son Josef Stalin. The monument in the town of Tkibuli in western Georgia was taken down two days after authorities tore down a bigger and more famous monument to Stalin in his hometown of Gori. Both statues were brought down in the middle of the night in an apparent bid to avoid protests and media attention. 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' 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. |
