Friday, December 25, 2009 at 11:24AM Gilad Atzmon



Press TV Report on Viva Palestine – George Galloway makes a plea to Mubarak of Egypt to open the Rafah Crossing and let the convoy through. Minor blockage en route to Amman, Jordan alleviated. Aired 24th December 2009

EGYPTIAN U-TURN ON ENTRY INTO RAFAH 8.30pm 24Dec09
Message sent by Lynn Free Gaza Wilson to the members of the Global Help Initiative for Palestine

The Egyptian Foreign Minister said on Egyptian TV Channel 2, that neither the Gaza Freedom March nor persons accompanying the Viva Palestina convoy would be allowed to enter Gaza. The Foreign Minister’s comments confirmed statements made to Ann Wright and Tighe Barry of the Gaza Freedom March steering committee during their meeting this afternoon with the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director of the Office of Palestinian Affairs Hisham Seif-Eldin and officer Ahmed Azzam. Barry and Wright went to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to discuss the December 20 disapproval of the entry into Gaza by the Gaza Freedom March.

Mr. Sief-Eldin said that Egyptian embassies in Europe and North America had received a large number emails and phone calls since the announcement of the disapproval. He was visibly upset by what he described as the “tone” of some of the emails received and forwarded to him by Egyptian embassies in Europe and North America and said that emails contained threats to Egyptian interests by tourist boycotts and personal attacks and derogatory language toward staff members. He said the position of the security and intelligence services of Egypt in disapproving transiting the Rafah border crossing had “hardened.”

Sief-Eldin said that the permit we had requested to hold an orientation meeting on December 27 at 7pm at the Holy Family complex was cancelled and that the permit for a press conference at the Pyramisa Hotel on December 27 would not be approved. At the meeting we presented a written request to hold a conference on Gaza for delegates only on December 28 and 29 either at the American University Cairo or at hotel. Mr. Azzad said the Foreign Ministry would forward the request to the security agency but did not believe it would be acted on in a timely manner. The conference would be considered a “political” conference and would have to be approved by the Office of the Prime Minister.

Sief-Eldin in the strongest terms said security services would not permit gatherings with signs or banners. He said that no group would be permitted to travel to al Arish or Rafah. He said we should tell the 1360 delegates to “not come to Egypt” unless they were going to do only tourist things. He said that in a change from yesterday, the Viva Palestina convoy has not heeded the Government of Egypt’s decision on where the convoy should enter Egypt and none of their delegates will be allow to enter Gaza, but the vehicles will enter eventually through a checkpoint in Israel.

We asked again why the Government of Egypt did not make its refusal decision early in the five months process that the Gaza Freedom March has been coordinating with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a decision that would have notified delegates not to spend thousands of dollars on airfare to get to Egypt. Seif-Eldin responded that the government makes its decision on its own time schedule, not on the time schedule of others. He ended by saying that in Egypt, things are not done in the same manner as in the United States or Europe. The security services will not permit demonstrations or protests and will deal with them quickly.

URGENT -  URGENT -  URGENT -  PLEASE WRITE TO EGYPTIAN MISSIONS URGING THE OPENING OF THE RAFAH CROSSING FOR BOTH VIVA PALESTINA CONVOY & GAZA FREEDOM MARCH DELEGATES.  Details after clicking on  “Read more”.

LATEST ALERT FROM AUSTRALIAN KAMAHL MASHNI IN VIVA PALESTINE CONVOY 8.15am 24Dec09
Egypt has officially denied entry on the ground that convoy needs Israel’s permission to cross at Rafah.  The ferry also refused the convoy of trucks to board for the crossing.  Viva Palestina now stuck in Jordan.

Reception for Viva Palestina in Jordan

Reception for Viva Palestina in Jordan

VIVA PALESTINA UPDATE 23Dec09
Egypt allows Viva Palestina to enter Gaza on 27 December 2009.  The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson told Gaza Freedom March organizers on 23 December that the decision had been made to alter its policy because of the “humanitarian assistance” nature of Viva Palestina.

GAZA FREEDOM MARCH UPDATE 23Dec09
Since the Gaza Freedom March is also bringing in humanitarian assistance items valued at tens of thousands of dollars and the border is now considered safe, Gaza Freedom March will make a formal request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs  that the Government of Egypt reconsider the request of the Gaza Freedom March for entry of its 1360 delegates from 42 countries into Gaza through the Rafah crossing on December 27.

Marchers and their friends have been flooding Egyptian embassies throughout the world with calls and emails. Embassies throughout Europe, the United States and Canada have told callers that they have been flooded with telephone calls from persons asking that the Gaza Freedom March be allowed into Gaza. Members of the Canadian, German, Swiss, French, Greek and Filipino Parliaments have written letters, as well as the Irish Minister of Defense, asking the Egyptian government to allow the march to proceed.

The Gaza Freedom March has families of three generations, doctors, lawyers, diplomats, 100 students, an interfaith group that includes rabbis, priests and imams, a women’s delegation, a Jewish contingent, a veterans group and Palestinians born overseas who have never seen their families in Gaza.

We have large delegations from the U.S., France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Greece, Australia, South Africa, the Netherlands and Japan. We also have delegations from Sweden, Turkey, India, Ireland, Switzerland, Jordan, Morocco, Denmark, Lebanon, Austria, Luxembourg, Norway, Portugal, Tunisia, Algeria, Philippines, South Korea, Bahrain, Bosnia, Israel, New Zealand, Slovenia, Saudi Arabia, Bulgaria, Cameroon, Indonesia, Libya, Mexico, Mauritius, Romania and Serbia.  PLEASE SIGN URGENT PETITION supporting Australian contingent.

GAZA FREEDOM MARCH UPDATE 22Dec09
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has informed the Gaza Freedom march Steering Committee that the Rafah border will be closed over the coming weeks, into January.  While no delegation entering Gaza in the past 12 months has ever received a final OK before arriving at the Rafah border, public and political pressure changed the Egyptian Government’s position and they were each allowed through.  Egyptian embassies and missions all over the world must hear from you over the next crucial days with a clear message: Let the international delegation enter Gaza and let the Gaza Freedom March proceed.

Contact your local consulate here:
http://www.mfa.gov.eg/MFA_Portal/en-GB/mfa_websits/

Contact the Palestine Division in Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Cairo
Ahmed Azzam, tel +202-25749682 Email: ahmed.azzam@mfa.gov.eg

Egyptian Embassy in Canberra, Australia
His Excellency Omar Metwally
Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt to Australia
1 Darwin Ave, Yarralumla ACT 2600
Tel: (00612) 6273 4437 – 6273 4438  Fax: (00612) 6273 4279
E-mail: egyembassy@bigpond.com

Source: Australians for palestine

The Media Czar Haim Saban an “Israeli-American ” who wields influence to advance Zionist goals.

I found the answer to the question from a Hasbara site, Zionism On The Web, with the usual ‘anti-Semitism’ tag: “Jews control the media (but often adjusted to “Zionists control the media”) is a myth was originally started with the far right, Fascism needed a group to scape goat. The more recent rise of the Zionist control of media myth in the far left is a combination of coding Jews as Zionists or Israel, and a scape goating of Israel for the faults of imperialism (typical British imperialism). This is pushed by Arab groups in an attempt to get favourable press coverage and discredit Israel in the Palestinian-Israel conflict.”

Ironically, the above “myth” was debunked by an Israeli spokeswoman Tzipora Menache, who was reported saying:  ”You know very well, and stupid Americans know equally well, that we control their government, irrespective of who sits in the White House. You see, I know it and you know it that no American president can be in a position to challenge us even if we do the unthinkable. What they (Americans) can do to us? We control the Congress, we control the media, we control showbiz, and we control everything in America. In America you can criticize God, but you cannot criticize Israel….”

Former US Vice-president Spiro Agnew was quoted as saying: “The people who own and manage national impact media are Jewish, and with other influencial Jews, helped create a disastrous Mideast policy….. Our policy in the Middle East to my judgement is disastrous, because it’s not even handed. I see no reason why nearly half of the foreign aid this country has to give goes to Israel, except for the influence of this Zionist Lobby. I think the power of the news media is in the hands of a few people. It’s not a subject to control of the voters, it’s subject only to the whim of the board of directors….”

There is no denying to the fact that the mainstream media in the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Australia, Austria, etc. is all owned or controlled by the Zionist Jews and their pro-Israeli friends. According to a research article published by PakAlert on March 16, 2009 – six Jewish companies own 96% of the world\’s media. In Canada, 60% of media is owned by the CanWest, a pro-Israel Zionist Jew family.

According to Thomas Sparks British media is totally controlled by the Zionist Jews. French Jewish population is less than 600,000 out of total population of 58 million (French Muslim population is over six millions), but with help of its control over politicians and press – the Jewish Lobby was able to drag French comedian Dieudonne to court on May 5, 2009 on the charges of anti-Semitism against him for his awarding a prize to Dr. Robert Faurisson (he doesn’t believe in the Gas Chambers theory of the holocaust) on December 29, 2008, at the Paris Zenith concert hall.

Bernard Madoff who swindled US$50 billion of public money (most of the money was transfered into Israeli banks) was defended by several mainstream media outlets while Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called Madoff’s critics as “anti-Semites”.

The Canadian Charger in its December 2, 2009 issue published an article titled Who controls the media? wrote:

Clearly, the idea that a free press is a unique, fundamental feature of Western democratic society is a myth.

Rupert Murdoch, owner of a media empire that controls newspapers, magazines, publishing houses, cable companies and movie studios on three continents, was once asked to what extent his political conservatism influenced the editorial posture of his newspapers,. He responded: “Considerably. The buck stops on my desk. My editors have input, but I make final decisions.”

After they left office U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and CIA director William Casey sat on the board of major media like New York Times, Los Angeles Times, NBC and CBS. In such a climate, intimidation and co-optation are inevitable.

Media super star Walter Cronkite, who ended his evening newscast with the famous phrase “and that’s the way it is,” admitted upon retirement that it wasn’t so. “My lips have been kind of buttoned for almost twenty years … CBS News doesn’t really believe in commentary.”

Finally, the best description of our corrupt media culture comes from an address that American journalist John Swinton gave to his fellow journalists:

“There is no such thing in America as an independent press… You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dares write his honest opinions, and if you did you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper… any of you who would be so foolish as to write his honest opinions would be out on the street looking for another job… We are the tools and vassals of rich men behind the scenes… Our talents, our possibilities, and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”

Source: Pakistan Daily

Gilad Atzmon

Old-man-in-gaza-ruins

“You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you.”Leviticus, Chapter 26, verses 7-9

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations…then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy.”Deuteronomy 7:1-2,

“…do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them…as the Lord your God has commanded you…” Deuteronomy 20:16

There is not much doubt amongst Biblical scholars that the Hebrew Bible contains some highly charged non-ethical suggestions, some of which are no less than a call for a genocide. Biblical scholar Raymund Schwager has found in the Old Testament  600 passages of explicit violence,  1000 descriptive verses of God’s own violent actions of punishment, 100 passages where God expressly commands others to kill people. Apparently, violence is the most often mentioned activity in the Hebrew Bible.

As devastating as it may be, the Hebrew Bible saturation with violence and extermination of others may throw some light over the horrifying genocide conducted  in Gaza by the Jewish state. In broad daylight, the IDF was using the most lethal methods against civilians as if their main objective is to ‘destroy’ the Gazans while showing ‘no mercy’ whatsoever.

Interestingly enough, Israel regards itself as a secular state.  Ehud Barak is not exactly a qualified Rabbi and Tzipi Livni is not a Rabbi’s wife. Accordingly, we are entitled to assume that it isn’t actually Judaism per se that directly transforms Israeli politicians and military leaders into war criminals. Moreover,  early Zionists believed that within a national home  Jews would become ‘people like all other people’, i.e., civilised and ethical.

In that very respect, Israeli reality is pretty peculiar. The Hebraic secular Jews may have managed to drop their God, most of them do not follow Judaic law, they are largely secular, and yet 94% of them interpret their Jewish identity as a genocidal mission. They have successfully managed to transform the Bible from being a spiritual text into a bloodsoaked land registry.  They are there, in Zion i.e., Palestine, to invade the land and to lock up, starve and destroy its indigenous habitants.

Accordingly, it seems as if the artillery commanders and IAF pilots that erased northern Gaza were following Deuteronomy 20:16 they indeed did “.. not leave alive anything that breathes.” And yet, one question is left open. Why should a secular commander follow Deuteronomy verses or any other Biblical text?

Some very few sporadic Jewish voices within the left are insisting upon telling us that Jewishness is not necessarily inherently murderous.   I tend to believe them that they themselves consider their words as genuine and truthful.  But then one may wonder, what is it that makes the Jewish state brutal with no comparison?

The truth of the matter is actually pretty sad. As far as we can see, Zionism is the only secular ideological and political Jewish collective around and as it happens, it has proved once again  that it is genocidal to the bone.   As far as genocide is concerned the difference between Judaism and Zionism can be illustrated as follows: while the Judaic Biblical context is soaked with genocidal references, usually in the name of God, within the Zionist context, Jews are killing Palestinians in the name of themselves i.e., the  ‘Jewish people’. This is indeed the ultimate success of the Zionist revolution. It taught the Jews to believe in themselves. To believe in the Jewish state.  ‘The Israeli’ is Israel’s God.

Accordingly, the Israeli kills in the name of  ‘his or her security’, in the name of ‘his or her democracy’. The Israelis destroy in the name of ‘their war against terror’ and in the name the ‘their America’.    Seemingly, in the Jewish state, the Hebraic subject reverts to mass killing as soon as he finds a ‘name’ to associate with.This doesn’t really leave us too much room for speculation. The Jewish state is the ultimate threat to humanity and our notion of humanism.

Christianity, Islam and humanism came along with an attempt to amend Jewish tribal fundamentalism and to replace it with universal ethics. Enlightenment, liberalism and emancipation allowed Jews to redeem themselves from their ancient tribal supremacist traits. Since the mid 19^th century, many Jews had been breaking out of their cultural and tribal chain.  Tragically enough, Zionism managed to pull many Jews back in.

Currently, Israel and Zionism are the only collective voice available for Jews.   The merciless offensive against the Palestinian civilian population does not leave any room for doubt. Israel is the gravest danger to world peace. Clearly the nations made a tragic mistake in 1947 giving an emerging  volatile racially orientated identity an opportunity to set itself into a national state.  However, the nations’ duty now is to peacefully dismantle that state before it is too late. We must do it before the Jewish state and its forceful lobbies around the world manage to pull us all into a global war in the ‘name’ of one banal populist ideology or another (democracy, war against terror, cultural clash and so on).  We have to wake up now before our one and only planet is transformed into a bursting boil of hatred.

Source: Gilad.co.uk

Gilad Atzmon

Gilad Atzmon was born a secular Israeli Jew in Tel Aviv and trained at the Rubin Academy of Music in jerusalem.  His service as a paramedic in the Israeli Defense Forces during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon caused him reach the conclusion that  “I was part of a colonial state, the result of plundering and ethnic cleansing.”

In 1994 Atzmon emigrated from Israel to London, where he attended the University of Essex and earned a Masters degree in Philosophy.  He has lived there since, becoming a British citizen in 2002.  Atzmon’s novels have been published in 22 languages.  His first novel A Guide to the Perplexed, published in 2001, is set in a future where by 2052 Israel has been replaced by a Palestinian state for 40 years.

It largely reviews memoirs of the alienated Israeli Gunther Wunker’s rise to fame as a “peepologist,” or voyeur. The perplexed are defined as “the unthinking Chosen” who “cling to clods of earth that don’t belong to them.” The novel excoriates the commercialization of the Holocaust and “argues that the Holocaust is invoked as a kind of reflexive propaganda designed to shield the Zionist state from responsibility for any transgression against Palestinians.”Atzmon says the military experience of “my people destroying other people left a big scar” and led to his condemnation of “Jewishness” as “very much a supremacist, racist tendency”.

Part I:  Targeting Lebanon’s Al Manar

Franklin Lamb

Beirut

“Regarding Al Manar it’s personal for Israel.  The reason is that Al Manar did to the Israeli government propaganda machine during and following the July 2006 war what Hezbollah fighters did to Israeli troops. Al Manar kicked butt.  That station must be made to disappear. The  plan  is to stop the 15-20 million daily viewers of Al Manar from receiving its transmission and well as  to intimidate  all the  other Middle East TV channels that are suspected of moving toward the growing  “Culture of Resistance’  spreading in the Middle East from Lebanon.” A Washington DC observer of how Israel controls the US Congress 12/9/09

Lebanon is a small country, approximately 0.7% the size of Connecticut with a population a bit more than 1% of America’s. But according to the four public US ‘Terrorist’ and Watch lists and at least seven supposedly secret US ‘T lists’ there are more Lebanese ‘terrorists’ and ‘inciters’ on the loose per square meter of planet Earth than any other nationality.    Way more than say Iraq, Iran, Syria, Afghanistan or Pakistan could reasonably hope to muster. Increasingly these ‘terrorists and inciters’ work is claimed by some in the US Congress to be done via satellite TV channels.

Such is the thesis of Congressman Gus Bilirakis, the ‘author’ of the 122^nd US Congressional anti-Arab, anti-Muslim initiative in the past decade now known as the “Terrorist TV” Bill which passed the House on 12/08/09 and is now before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Congressman Gus Bilirakis

Taking out the ‘TV Terrorists’ Enter Gus Bilirakis: A fresh Lobby Frontman

Veteran Congressional staffers sometimes identify the following four general groupings of supporters of Israel in Congress:

• Jewish members who care a lot about Israel and some of whom may or may not be ardent Zionists but  who  generally, but not always, put Israel’s concerns first;
• Evangelical Christians, who are eager to advance end-times, believe in Biblical prophecy and that Armageddon is rapidly approaching and strongly supports Israel over Arabs and Muslims in the Holy land conflict.
• Ultra Zionists with elements of racist feelings towards Arabs and Muslims
• Members who normally don’t favor Israelis much over Arabs or Muslims in their normal lives but who are regularly collared by the Israel lobby and who get the message and want to keep their congressional seats and add to their  generous $100,000 –plus yearly pensions and are willing to ‘go along to get along’ and generally will do AIPAC’s bidding

Gus Bilirakis, Reagan Republican from Florida’s 9th District is from this latter category. Filling the seat his late father Michael held since 1983, “Congressman Gus” as he prefers to be known back home, has the reputation of being a nice, affable fellow who does not claim to know much about the Middle East or foreign affairs. Hard to stereotype as being a fanatic supporter of Israel, gross Islamophobe or Arab basher, Bilirakis basically wants to get along by going along. AIPAC likes him because he appears ‘regular American’ and not too ‘neurotically pro Israel.’ as one of his District office interns explained, adding that “our boss is ordinary, folksy, and just wants to help the simple people.”  Certainly he appears to fit the recent AIPAC mode shift of lining up more conservative members of Congress to do Israel’s bidding and to pull back a bit from the type casted “Liberal Jewish establishment” stereotype.   By selecting Gus to introduce H.R. 2278, AIPAC and friends scored a public relations bonus.

Gus told his District’s Bay 9 News TV station on 12/9/09 that:

“My legislation will provide the United States with critical baseline information to combat media outlets that serve as vehicles for violent anti-American incitement,” said Bilirakis, who is a member of the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security. “Given the danger such incitement and radicalization poses to Americans both at home and aboard, it is crucial that these tools of terror be distinguished from reputable news outlets.”
We already spend too much on foreign aid to countries that take our money with one hand and slap us with the other. This legislation will help us ratchet down foreign aid to countries who take this approach.”

Bilirakis’ reputed suspicion towards ‘foreigners’ may be part of his general conservatism. The American Conservative Union Chairman, David Keene, noted during an award ceremony in May of 2009 that Gus scored “way higher than the 80% necessary to win ACU’s top award during the second session of the 110^th Congress. In a short space of time, Congressman Bilirakis has already shown he is someone grass roots conservatives in Florida and elsewhere who love Israel will be turning to for future leadership.”

The Washington DC based “U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation” a pro Middle East Peace advocacy group saw things differently and gave Gus a -4 rating on its just released Congressional Report Card for the 111^th Congress, which was barely above the worst rating assigned to any member of Congress,   earned by Illeana Ros-Lehtinen  (who represents  Florida’s 18^th District including the Florida everglades opposite Havana , Cuba, about which she likes to joke, “on a clear day I can see Havana and keep an eye on the Castro boys”, reminding some  of Sarah Palin learning about foreign affairs by watching Russia from her bob sled),  who kept her position from the 110^th on the groups  ‘Hall of Shame’ with a -5 score.  Gus calls Ileana ‘my main Middle East tutor’.

How HR 2286 can save America from ‘terrorists and inciters’

The ‘TV Terrorist” bill passed on a  House  roll call vote, while, as is the norm,  an  eager AIPAC staffer in the front row of the  House Visitor’s Gallery with clip board and pen in hand,  peered down on the Floor keeping tabs on how the Members voted. As is the Congressional practice  with  ‘Israel Bills’ or  Psych-War Resolutions Israel wants passed, the vote on H.R. 2278  was held under a suspension of the rules to cut debate short  and pass it quickly with the needed two-thirds majority. This fast track is normally used for relatively minor items like honoring “butterfly watchers day”, “national be kind to fat stray cats day” etc. The totals were 395 Ayes, 3 Nays, 36 Present/Not Voting- a slightly above average tally when AIPAC sends a legislative request ‘up the Hill.’

H.R. 2278 is what some employees in Congress call   “a sleeper bill”.  Legislation that is quickly and quietly passed, without much public notice, but which is very powerful in its effect.   The language of the Bill, while  far overbroad and many first Semester law students would  no doubt hammer it on Constitutional  Law grounds, and some lawyers think a case brought under this law would be nearly impossible to prosecute,  this legislation, if it passes the Senate, will  de jure establish  that  “ It shall be the policy of the United States of America to  designate as  a Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT)  any  satellite provider in the Middle East (including Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen)  that knowingly and willingly contracts with entities designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists under Executive Order No. 13224, to broadcast their channels, or to consider implementing other punitive measures against satellite providers that transmit anti-American declarations  (read criticize US support for Israeli crimes) or  incite violence against Americans.

Bilirakis’ bill also requires  that state-sponsorship of anti-American incitement to violence  be taken into account when determining the level of assistance to, and frequency and nature of relations with, all states (Ed: such as Lebanon whose hoped for millions in US aid could be stopped) and urges “ all governments and private investors who own shares in satellite companies or otherwise influence decisions about satellite transmissions to oppose transmissions of telecasts by… al-Manar … or any other Specially Designated Global Terrorist owned and operated stations that openly incite their audiences to commit acts of terrorism or violence against the United States and its citizens.”

The Bill also provides that beginning 6 months after the date of the enactment of the new law and annually thereafter, the President must prepare  a report on anti-American incitement to violence in the Middle East including a description of all media outlets in the Middle East for program and news broadcast scrutiny.

Congressional sources report  that the political goal is to stop the 10-15 million daily viewers of Al Manar from receiving its transmission as well as  to intimidate other Middle East TV channels that are suspected of moving toward the growing  “Culture of Resistance’ in the Middle East.

More than 600 Middle East TV channels risk being closed down among the 19 target Countries listed in H.R. 2278.  Some of the most strident criticism of America comes from Israeli colonists and extremist Rabbi’s in occupied Palestine.
‘MEMRI as Congressional staff

Part of the job description of all Congressional staff employees who works on legislation includes doing research in support of proposed legislation or to demonstrate to the Member who employs them the need for a new law.  This system by and large works in the US Congress except for the Middle East. This area of inquiry is hands off for all but ardent supporters of Israel.

One Congressional staffer who recently retired after 28 years working on the hill, noted on 12/13/09:

“It used to be that Congressional staffers actually did research and wrote recommendations for their bosses around here.  Those days are long gone when it comes to Middle East issues. The Israel lobby handles all that now.  If staffers want to be heard on Middle East issues from Iran to Palestine, they are discouraged.  If they persist they run the risk of being targeted for unemployment by AIPAC and their bosses may cut them loose rather than confront the Lobby. In essence Israel is saying to Congressional staffers, “Listen up!  We know best and will handle Congressional Middle East legislation. Just get out of the kitchen, leave this to us and busy yourselves elsewhere.”

Those who demonstrated to Congress the urgent need for a “TV Terrorism” law included the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI)

This was confirmed by the office of Congressman Gus Bilirakis and indeed the Congressman himself noted that ‘research’ provided by MEMRI helped to establish the need for the new legislation.

MEMRI supplied the video excepted from Al Manar and cited by the sponsors as ‘evidence’ of incitement against Americans by the station and its satellite provider because it broadcasts the speeches of Hezbollah leaders on special occasions, as does virtually every other TV news channel in the Middle East that transmit at least portions of the speeches which are popular across the region. In fact all the video shows in spliced together excerpts from two speeches Hassan Nasrallah gave and two by his deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Naim Qassim.  They contain no incitement against Americans but rather criticism of Israel and of US support for Israel that can be heard any day of the week in all 50 States in the US.

The Middle East Media Research Institute

(MEMRI) describes itself as a “free media monitoring service.”  Based in Washington DC with half a dozen offices set up in countries including China, Tokyo, Germany, England, Italy and Israel, MEMRI was founded in 1998 by Yigal Carmon, a former colonel in Israeli military intelligence and its first three employees were also veterans of Israeli intelligence. Following 9/11 and George W. Bush’s executive order 13222 and the unleashing of the War on Terrorism, MEMRI shed much of its earlier pretense of being objective and became stridently anti-Arab and anti-Muslim.

Increasingly, MEMRI’s work has been criticized on three grounds: that their work is biased; that they choose articles to translate selectively so as to give an unrepresentative view of the media they are reporting on; and that their translations are frequently inaccurate.

The Middle East editor for the UK Guardian newspaper, Brian Whitaker has been one of the most outspoken critics of MEMRI, writing: “My problem with MEMRI is that it poses as a research institute when it’s basically a propaganda operation, “to further the political agenda of Israel.”

Several critics have accused MEMRI of selectivity. They state that MEMRI consistently picks for translation and dissemination the most extreme views, which portray the Arab and Muslim world in a negative light, while ignoring moderate views that are often found in the same media outlets.

Juan Cole, Professor of Modern Middle East History at the University of Michigan reported that MEMRI “cleverly cherry-pick the vast Arabic press, which serves 300 million people, for the most extreme and objectionable articles and editorials.” Laila Lalami, writing in The Nation stated that MEMRI “consistently picks the most violent, hateful rubbish it can find, translates it and distributes it in e-mail newsletters to media and members of Congress in Washington”.

Professor Norman Finkelstein,in a June 2007 interview with In Focus newspaper explained that MEMRI “uses the same sort of propaganda techniques as the Nazis… it’s  a reliable assumption that anything MEMRI translates from the Middle East is going to be unreliable.”

In 2007, CNN correspondent Atika Shubert and Arabic translators accused MEMRI of mistranslating portions of a Palestinian children’s television program.  MEMRI translates one caller as saying ‘We will annihilate the Jews,”‘ said Shubert. “But, according to several Arabic speakers used by CNN, the caller actually says ‘The Jews are killing us.”  According to one CNN source, “Put bluntly, MEMRI is a hate group”.

Working with MEMRI,  as its Al Manar specialist,  Avi Jorisch senior fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies published   ‘research’  in 2004  entitled  “Beacon of Hatred-Inside Al Manar” , funded by the  Israel advocacy ‘think tank’,  Washington Institute for Near East Policy (WINEP), with  the  assistance of Dennis Ross.  Jorisch  proudly admits he  had the political goal of getting the Bush administration declare  Al-Manar  a “ Terrorist organization.”   One of Jorisch consistent worries is “ that al-Manar broadcasts may contain coded communications — a way for Hezbollah’s terrorist “generals” to command terrorist  ”troops” in the field, for example sleeper cells in the United States and elsewhere.”

During its 2008 annual Conference, Jorisch was honored in a private reception arranged by MEMRI and AIPAC, and given a champagne toast while being introduced “as the man who put Al Manar on the Terrorism list.” As recently as 11/4/09, writing in the Wall Street Journal, Jorisch accused Iran of using the UN to skirt sanctions and various other ‘terrorist’ acts relating to importing “foodstuffs, textiles and medicine” which could help it create a nuclear weapon.

Jorisch’s campaign against Al Manar is designed  to show that it is anti-Semite, but  he repeatedly misunderstood the  context of  some of his  ‘proof’ including the phrase, “Jerusalem we are coming” , which he claimed to have heard on Al Manar.

Jorisch and MEMRI claim this language shows a threat against the Jewish state and therefore is anti-Semitic.  In fact, the phrase “Jerusalem, we are coming” comes from the classic song of the Lebanese Christian singer Fairouz, whose, “Jerusalem, we are coming”, extols religious unity, worshiping in Jerusalem by all religions, and Jerusalem as a city of peace. Viewers in Lebanon and the Middle East and fans of Fairouz everywhere know this song  which is in no way anti-Semitic and its been played on hundreds of  TV and radios stations including many in Israel.

(Comment:  Lebanon’s Prima Diva Fairouz, Israeli troops, and ‘Beirut Jane’.  According to an AP report of July 7, 1982, Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden visited Israeli troops in East Beirut and watched the shelling of West Beirut from Israeli positions next to St. Anthony’s School. Israeli soldiers crowded around Miss Fonda to be photographed with her.”  Not mentioned in the report was that singer Fairouz was to meet with actress Jane and then hub Tom.

AP: “Mr. Swersky, the Israeli command spokesman, gave Miss Fonda and her husband a private briefing on the military situation. Mr. Hayden, who was a leader of the opposition to the Vietnam War, told the assembled troops that ‘the Israeli invasion is justified because the PLO refused to recognize Israel’.  Hayden said he spoke with Lebanese Christians in Sidon, Tyre and east Beirut, but did not meet any Palestinians during the trip, which began Friday.  In November, he faces Republican businessman Bill Hawkins in California’s heavily Jewish 44th Assembly District.”

AP: “Miss Fonda stated that the visit to Israel and Lebanon was “a very good and important opportunity for me personally to try to understand the situation better. I learned a lot. It helped me to be there and to see this interesting – and maybe unique to Israel – situation where you have a tremendous Israeli defense force, and  unanimity when it comes to the necessity to defend, to not pull back right now and to do everything that’s possible,” she said. “I think that’s why they were happy that we came here.”

One employee of the Beirut weekly, Monday Morning, who was present, still remembers: “Jane applauding with Israeli troops while cluster bombs ripped through apartments and hospitals, and Israeli helicopter gunships strafed those trying to escape. Some still refer to her as ‘Beirut Jane’ and last time I checked, her films were still banned in Lebanon.”

Fairouz was reportedly enraged by the spectacle and declined to have any part of it and walked out. Elements of the Israeli lobby began a campaign against  the distribution of her songs, but nearly 28 years later Fairouz  has out lasted most of the Israeli soldiers  on Lebanese soil, still sings beautifully,  and earlier this month sold some of her song rights, including, “Jerusalem we are coming’, for $ 2million to a Syrian company.  In fairness to ‘Beirut Jane’, twenty years later, on 12/10/02, (Universal Declaration of Human Rights day), she did finally meet some Palestinians during a visit to Deheshih Palestinian Refugee Camp near Bethlehem in the West Bank)

With the  22 State member Arab League and the 57 member International Organization of   the  Islamic Conference condemning the House bill, and the Lebanese Foreign Ministry  planning  to summon US Ambassador Michele Sisson to discuss the matter, late word is that John Kerrey, Senate Foreign Relations Chairman may actually hold hearings on the Bill.  If so it will be a major setback for Aipac and friends.  Will Al Manar actually be invited to present testimony?  Debate Aipac?

Part II:  Inside Al Manar TV and its record as ‘inciter against Americans’.

Franklin Lamb

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Lebanon and is  a member of the Lebanese Steering Committee seeking to pass the 2010 Civil Rights Law for Palestinian Refugees in the current ‘Unity’ Parliament.  He can be reached at fplamb@gmail.com

A major security issue in Israel at the moment is the fate of Gilad Shalit. As I write in my recent essay on last year’s war in Gaza, Shalit is a corporal in the IDF who was captured by Palestinian militants in a border raid on the Gaza Strip in 2006. He has been in captivity ever since. A few weeks ago, it looked as though negotiators had reached a breakthrough, and Shalit would be released in exchange for 450 Palestinians in Israeli jails, though that number may be as low as 100 now. (The uneven numbers give you one idea of how important this issue is to Israelis; more below.) That deal fell through, but there is more hopeful talk of releasing Shalit all the time (here, for instance). Some say a prisoner swap could be the key to peace. I disagree.

Call me a realist, but as readers of the Menso Guide to War know, I have never been hopeful about the prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace. I study, among other things, the cultural roots of conflict. Culture can legitimise war or peace, and needs to be taken into account when prospecting for either. Neither Israeli nor Palestinian culture is conducive to a real, lasting end to the war. The bitterness would not simply end because one condition for ceasefire has been met. Militant Israelis will continue to push for anything that will protect every last Jewish life. Militant Palestinians will continue to do anything they can to end the occupation. Where does that leave Shalit?

Gilad Shalit has become a kind of national hero in Israel. One TV news anchor ends every broadcast by tearfully counting how many days Shalit has been under lock and key. Haaretz, considered one of the more dovish of Israeli newspapers, runs a counter at Haaretz.com displaying the same time to the second. On his birthday in August 2009, Twitter’s second highest trend was Gilad Shalit. Over a Jewish holiday in 2009, newspapers displayed pictures of Gilad as a toddler, dressed in a sad clown costume. Poor Gilad: an innocent boy kidnapped by terrorists. (The 7700 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, apparently, are all guilty.)

So surely, when Hamas releases Gilad Shalit, Israelis will be so grateful they will demand an end to the blockade of Gaza, right? Why would they? The thing they care most about Gaza will have been returned to them. Hamas’ one bargaining chip will be gone. Where is the incentive to continue negotiations? Though a majority of Israelis favour the current deal, the hardliners are not willing to give up Palestinians with “blood on their hands” to get Shalit back. Many Israelis would see the release of 100 Palestinians as a huge concession to a group everyone hates (Hamas). But attacks on Israeli targets would not end, because they will never end while the occupation continues and in the West Bank, expands. The Israeli right wing would probably push even harder to punish Hamas and refuse to talk. Impoverished Palestinians would be caught in the middle again. Under these conditions, extremism will not go away.

The best we can hope for is that the prisoner swap succeeds and leads to more negotiations. There have been very few moves toward peace of late, but if earnest negotiators can persuade their constituents to give up more for peace, there will be progress. Meanwhile, long term solutions such as intercultural education are necessary to end the cycle of racism that portrays the other as only understanding force. Finally, what Shalit says when he is released will influence public opinion. He could be Nelson Mandela and say that he feels no bitterness, only greater understanding; or he could say nothing constructive and perpetuate the culture of anger. We must hope for the former. Release Gilad Shalit, release the Palestinian prisoners and see it as a chance to end the war.

Feed your tomorrow Palestine

Breath David’s courage from their funerals

Grow reclaiming a day from their days

Ride your flood, bombarding Zio-Nazism

Feed your tomorrow Palestine

Teach ignorance to worship your name

Dress Saladin’s tornadoes

Hunt metamorphosis from museums of wisdom

Feed your tomorrow Palestine

Throw Victory perfume on their faces

Revive Jerusalem from martyrs’ wombs

Abort the blue star of occupation and I will kiss you my Star

By: Ayman Quader

Gaza, December 22, 2009 (Pal Telegraph)One year has passed since Israel’s cruel 23-day war on the 1.5 million people of the Gaza. 1,400 people were brutally killed and tens of thousands were seriously wounded. It was 23 days that violated Palestinian human rights and put justice further out of reach. It was a war that utilized ‘state of the art’ phosphorous missiles to achieve levels of suffering and destruction that had not been seen in a generation. Tens of thousands of Gazans were made homeless and schools and hospitals were directly targeted.

The horrific 23-day bombardment of Gaza finished last January. However, the siege of Gaza and the suffering of its people continue. While UN and NGO reports describe the bombardment of Gaza and its aftermath in the abstract, talking to Gaza’s children provides an important reminder of the human side of the pain inflicted by Israel.

Anas’ Experience

Anas, a 9 year-old boy living in Bureij Refugees camp, narrated his own experience during the war.

“It was such an unbearable 23 nights of hell. Sometimes I had to hide forcibly staying under my mattress for almost 4 hours or more. I was terrified each time my father went to fetch bread for my family. My mother had to shout at my older brothers not to go outside our house so they wouldn’t be harmed by the continuing attacks. We were without electricity for up to five days at a time which made things even harder.”

“One day I woke up in complete shock, with my father’s voice shouting at us to close all the windows because an Israeli warplane fired a phosphorus missile that landed just by our home. My mother brought us pieces of cloth to cover our mouths so we didn’t breathe in the toxic chemicals.”

Research by the Gaza Community Mental Health Program shows that more than 70% of the Strip’s children remain traumatized and display symptoms of serious psychological difficulties. Understandably, Anas has found it difficult to adapt to life after the war.

He explained, “Recently I have had dreadful nightmares about the war. When I got back to my school in Bureij Refugees camp, I noticed the bad smell of gunpowder and missiles. I was really upset when I found out that five of my mates were killed and lots were gravely wounded”.

Like all of Gaza’s children, Anas is also fearful of the future, “It would be catastrophic if the Israeli government launches another war on us. I keep dreaming of a calm future for me and for children of the Gaza Strip. I hope this bad experience will never happen again”.

Diana’s Memory

Diana, a 13 year-old girl, has also spoken about her experience of the war.

“The war was very hard for our family because our house is made of asbestos. An Israeli missile hit our neighbor’s house and completely destroyed it. The shrapnel from the explosion was falling down around our house like rain and was flying around inside as well”.

One year on, Diana has little hope for the future, and she does not look at her house as a place of safety and security. There are many children who have lost their houses and their source of comfort and security.

A war against humanity

During the military offensive, at least 280 schools and kindergartens were severely damaged, and 18 schools were destroyed. Six of the destroyed schools are in North Gaza alone, affecting almost 9,000 students who had to relocate to other schools according to UNICEF, UNRWA. Furthermore, six university buildings were destroyed, and 16 were damaged. Because of the ongoing drastic siege on the strip, it has been hard to rebuild the damaged schools.

According to Dr Hasan Zeyada, a psychologist with GCMHP http://www.gcmhp.net/ ‘children are victims of aggression with all its forms; killings, injuries, imprisonments, loss, and economic & physical siege. The generations of Palestinian children have accumulated, through years of exposure to long term traumatic experiences, negative psychological and behavioral reactions that pose a significant threat to their psychological well-being. http://www.gcmhp.net/

The harrowing experience of the siege prevents the children of the Gaza Strip from having any kind of normal childhood. Children become more acquainted with the names of the dead rather than the names of games.

Anas and Diana are two examples of children whose only crime was being born Palestinian in the Gaza Strip. They hope and dream of a time when they can live in peace and stability with a right to their childhood.

Source: The Palestine Telegraph

Ayman Quader

About the Author: Ayman Quader is a 23 years old Palestinian born and raised in Gaza, and has a bachelor degree in English Language and Education. Ayman has worked in several different fields’ pre and post of my university studies for almost 4 years. and also worked as volunteer in civil societies where he practiced tasks to help people and educate children, and always trying to highlight the suffering of Palestinians to the whole world.

By Bianca Zammit – Gaza

The March is the first mass mobilization of this size since 1967. (Photo: Ahmad Shirazi)

As the days of December 2009 draw in, two events which each have a role to play in world peace draw closer. The first is on the 27th and is commemorating the start of the 22 day attacks on Gaza, an operation which targeted unarmed civilians, schools, hospitals, journalists and emergency staff. The second, The Gaza Freedom March will take place on the 31st. The Gaza Freedom March is a historic moment, the magnitude of which has not been seen in Palestine since 1967. Chiseled on the lessons learnt from South Africa’ struggle for liberation against apartheid and from Gandhi’ Satyagraha approach during the campaign for India’ independence, the Gaza Freedom March is walking in the same shoes.

In order to find out more about the Gaza Freedom March I met up with Dr. Haidar Eid, a member of the Steering Committee for the March in Gaza.

What is the aim of the Gaza Freedom March?

The goal of the Gaza Freedom March is to commemorate Gaza 2009. In January 2009 right after the end of operation Cast Lead we were all faced again by the deadly hermitic siege. The March is calling for an end to this siege.

How did the Gaza Freedom March come about?

In June CodePink led a delegation into Gaza and they started talking about a march. I was contacted by Palestinian solidarity groups from around the world and asked for my opinion. I liked the idea but it required a political context and it needed to be led by the people of Gaza. That is when Palestinian grassroots organizations came together to discuss the march and we suggested to the International Coalition to End the Siege that they include a statement of context which called for an end to the siege and which acknowledged the long history of Palestinian non-violent direct action inspired by South Africa and Gandhi. This includes the weekly demonstrations which take place at Bilin, Nilin and Al’ Masara, the entry of international boats in Gaza’ port which had not happened since 1967 and the work of international solidarity movements. More importantly, it has to acknowledge the growing BDS campaign.

The siege is an effect of occupation and a continuation of the apartheid system initiated in 1948. Since then two thirds of the Palestinian people have lost their land. The occupation is illegal and found to be so by the United Nations under resolution 194 which calls for the return of all refugees.

Who is represented on the steering committee?

We have all sectors of society. There are representatives of unions, labour, political, religious, youth, women, students and also Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC).

Who will participate?

As soon as we issued the statement of context all Palestinian civil organisations endorsed the Gaza Freedom March and there was global consensus.

The registration has now closed and 1400 people from 42 countries have registered and been processed. Palestinians living in 1948 land will also be participating in the March from the other side of the Erez Border Crossing.

What are the activities planned?

The 1400 internationals will join us hand in hand for a march that will start at 10am in Izbit Abed Rabbu towards the Erez Border Crossing with Israel. Izbit Abed Rabbu is the area which suffered the most damage and most horrendous war crimes during operation Cast Lead, something Judge Goldstone alluded to in his report. When we get to Erez there shall be speeches.

The attacks on Gaza will be commemorated New Years Eve at the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. A member of the Steering Committee for the March will address the people gathered in Bethlehem for this event.

Palestinian refugees living in refugee camps in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan shall partake in the March by organizing their own rallies.

How can those people who cannot come to Gaza show their solidarity with the people of Gaza?

We are calling on 1.5 million conscientious people of the world to simultaneously rally with the 1.5 million inhabitants of Gaza in front of Israeli embassies in their country. Richard Falk, the 2008 appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territories  has called Gaza the “world’s largest concentration camp”. Ilan Pappe has described the siege as “slow motion genocide”. After the 22 day massacre last winter we returned to the ongoing siege.

We ask freedom loving people to put pressure on their governments to sever all ties with Israel and to support the boycott of Israel.

Why do you believe this will be a historic moment for Palestine?

The March shall be the first mass mobilization of this size since 1967. Internationals will walk hand in hand with Palestinians modeled on the South African anti-apartheid movement of the 1980’s. This siege has been imposed upon Palestinian people due to them exercising their democratic choice. The significance of this March, however, also goes beyond the siege. As Palestinians 750,000 of us have been displaced and forced to become refugees. Palestinians living in 1948 land experience racial discrimination on daily basis and there is systematic policy of ethnic cleansing in place.

What is your message to the international community?

If I could put into a slogan the current climate in Gaza I would say “we are fed up”. The international community has only given us empty rhetoric and lip service and in the meantime we have been suffering. For this reason we rely on the people of the world and their power to change the course of the future. We believe in people to people solidarity in order to bring down the Israeli apartheid regime. We want peace with justice. This March shall be the first crack, the first concrete step to end the siege and the illegal occupation. This shall be a wake up call to the international community that as Palestinians we shall no longer tolerate hypocrisy.

What is your message to Israel?

You cannot go on committing war crimes and crimes against humanity as witnessed by judge Goldstone with impunity forever. Recent events in the UK against Livni have shown that also the world will not tolerate Nazi like acts committed by a Nazi like government against civilians.

To the people of Israel I say you voted for the most fascist government since 1948 expecting your government to completely get rid of Palestinians. History has shown us that this will only backfire and bring more wars affecting not only Palestinians but the entire Middle East and inevitably Israel. Exactly like apartheid South Africa campaigned when their state became a pariah state; this is your time to put pressure on your government to implement the UN resolution which calls for an end to the occupation and allows the return of refugees. Peace without justice is not peace.

What will happen after the March?

The March is not symbolic but rather we expect it to be part of a series of events which will lead to the end of the siege. We want to intensify and continue building a global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign which is human rights based and calling for the implementation of international law and an end to the occupation.

We will continue to host international delegations visiting us and together we will be calling for Israeli war criminals to be tried in international courts.

- Bianca Zammit is a member of the International Solidarity Movement in Gaza and of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement. She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.

Source: The Palestine Chronicle

By Alan Hart

The short answer is a failure of leadership – by presidents and prime ministers and their governments, those of the major powers most of all.

In The Independent on 21 December, Johann Hari offered this observation:

“Buried deep in our subconscious, there still lays the belief that our political leaders are collective Daddies and Mummies who will – in the last instance – guarantee our safety. Sure, they might screw us over when it comes to hospital waiting lists, or public transport, or taxing the rich, but when it comes to resisting a raw existential threat, they will keep us from harm. Last week in Copenhagen, the conviction was disproved. Every leader there had been told by their scientists – plainly, bluntly, and for years – that there is a bare minimum we must all do now if we are going to prevent a catastrophe. And they all refused to do it.”

I take issue with Johann only in the margins. In my view what happened in Copenhagen didn’t disprove the conviction (it was already disproved), it confirmed that our leaders won’t address seriously any of the problems which threaten the wellbeing and perhaps even the survival of humankind unless and until they are pushed to do so by informed public opinion, by expressions of real democracy in action. (There’s also a case for saying that our leaders, some of them, put us in harm’s way. Mention of President George “Dubya” Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair is enough to make the point. But that’s another story).

The real question is why won’t leaders lead?

Part of the answer is, of course, that they are prisoners of very powerful lobbies. But there’s much more to it. Even the well intentioned among them (President Obama for example?) are frightened to tell us, their voters, the truth about real choices and options for the future.

The truth they ought to tell us about what must be done to contain global warming can be simply stated. Those of us who live in the nations of the rich North have got to change the way we think and live. More explicitly, we’ve got to lower our expectations for more and ever more in the way of material gratification. Even more explicitly, we’ve got to be prepared to take less of the global pie. Politicians who promise that a vote for them will return us to the path of more and more prosperity are either idiots or liars

Why won’t they tell us the truth? Because, they believe, there are no votes for them in it. And they believe this because they take the pessimistic view of human nature.

According to this view – it’s which more or less an article of faith for most media people and many corporate executives, bankers especially, as well as politicians – we human beings are inherently and unchangeably short-sighted, selfish and greedy, preferring to live for today at the expense of tomorrow and are, on balance, more “bad” than “good”. In other words, we are really quite stupid.

If the pessimistic view is the correct one, it seems to me that nothing matters because the end, catastrophe for all, was inevitable from the beginning; in which case we would all be well advised, as individuals, as communities and as nations, to go on screwing each other for all we can get. Praising the lord and passing the ammunition.

The optimistic view of human nature is that we could be much more “good” than “bad”, meaning that we have at least the potential to act in our own longer term, best interests and those of our children especially, even if doing so would require those of us who live in the rich nations (and the pockets of plenty in the poor nations) to lower our expectations and actually be prepared to take less in the way of material gratification.

I believe the optimistic view of human nature is the correct one and that we have been conditioned to be short-sighted, selfish and greedy, and to assume that the purpose of life is the acquisition of material things, buying now and paying later. It follows, or so it seems to me, that we could be re-conditioned by information, education in the widest sense of the term. As the American John Dewey (my favourite philosopher) put it, we must “unlearn” what we have been taught about the “unchangeability of human nature.”

If I was a prime minister or a president, I would say the following in a broadcast to my nation: “Our world is in the mess it is today because of the short-sighted and stupid way it has been managed since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution – by the few, for the few, at the expense of the many. We can’t go on like this. If we want our children and their children to have even the prospect of a future worth having, we must change, starting now, the way we think and live.”

The truth our leaders ought to tell us about the conflict in and over Palestine that became Israel can also be simply stated.

It has remained beyond the reach of diplomacy because Zionism’s political and military leaders are not interested in peace on terms virtually all Palestinians and most Arabs and other Muslims everywhere could accept. From the Zionist perspective, and as Israel’s one-eyed warlord Moshe Dayan once said, “It’s them or us”.

It follows that peace based on an acceptable amount of justice for the Palestinians and security for all needs one thing above all others – an unambiguous statement from the major powers, led by America, that Israel must withdraw to its borders as they were on 4 June 1967 in exchange for a full and final peace.

The assumption here is that prior to such a statement being made, those making it would have sought and obtained an irrevocable commitment from the Arab and wider Muslim world to recognise Israel and normalize relations with it as soon as the withdrawal was completed.

What if Israel still said, “We’re not interested”?

That would call for a second unambiguous statement from the major powers led by America. The message would be to the effect that the governments of the world were then prepared to use all the leverage at their disposal – boycott, sanctions, the lot – to oblige Israel to end its occupation and live in accordance with international law.

On both fronts, global warming and Israel/Palestine, our leaders could say and do what I have suggested, but they won’t unless and until enough of us citizens demand that they do.