Israeli Commandos Penetrate Syria, Lebanon; Plant Spy Devices And Murder Civilians

8 july 2016, Tikun Olam-תיקון עולם http://www.richardsilverstein.com (USA)

By Richard Silverstein*

.נוהל “מקרה מוזר”: רצח במסווה של “תאונה”, של אזרחים בלבנון ובסוריה שבמקרה נתקלו בצוותי סיירת מטכ”ל או מגלן בדרכם לשתול מתקני ריגול

This article was originally published by Mint Press News.

For years, Lebanese media and the country’s army have reported lurid details about Israeli spy rings inside the country which assist in reconnaissance and espionage targeting Israel’s arch-enemy, Hezbollah.

Former IDF special forces officer 

and novelist, Natan Odenheimer

The Israeli Defense Forces intelligence apparatus uses sophisticated listening devices planted in southern Lebanon — just one of the many surveillance tools at Israel’s disposal — to eavesdrop on the Lebanese militant group’s communications and track troop movements, among other things.

Rumors have trickled back from the front to Israeli reporters that the forays into Lebanon by the IDF’s elite commando units, Sayeret Matkal and Maglan, weren’t always clean operations. In fact, Israeli forces have encountered Lebanese civilians while planting their equipment more than

Iranian Jews Offer to Help Victims of Israeli Assault on Gaza

19 November 2012, Fars News Agency http://english.farsnews.com (Iran)

Tehran (FNA)- A senior Iranian Jewish legislator who is also a skilled surgeon underlined his readiness to go to Gaza to help the Palestinians injured during the recent Israeli regime's aggression on the Gaza Strip.

"I am ready to provide service for the injured people in Gaza as a surgeon and use all my expertise and special capabilities to provide service for the Resistance," Representative of the Jewish minority at the Iranian Parliament Siamak Marreh Sedq told FNA on Monday.

"The Iranian Jews like all free and monotheist people of the world condemn the genocide in Gaza and voice hatred for it," he added.

Assaults on Gaza started on Wednesday when the Israeli military launched a series of new air and sea attacks against the Palestinians in the coastal territory. Ahmed al-Ja'abari, the popular and influential head of the Hamas military wing, the Ezzedeen al-Qassam Brigades, was assassinated in an Israeli attack on his car on Wednesday.

Over 90 Palestinians have been killed and more than 700 others injured in the new wave of Israeli aggressions against the Gaza Strip since Wednesday.

Israel triggered the current fighting by assassinating the military chief of the ruling Hamas group on Wednesday followed by dozens of airstrikes on Gaza.

DIÁLOGOS DE CANCILLERES DE IRÁN Y ARGENTINA SOBRE CASO AMIA

10 Noviembre 2012 04:30 Iran Spanish radio IRIB- Redacción Española http://spanish.irib.ir (Iran)

Entrevista a Juan Pedro Rivas, periodista y analista uruguayo.

E: Bueno señor, Juan Pedro Rivas, periodista y analista uruguayo, como usted sabe, el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de la República Islámica de Irán, Ali Akbar Salehi, y el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores de Argentina han dado inicio a negociar acerca de resolver el caso, la cuestión de Amia, en Buenos Aires, Argentina, que ocurrió en años pasados. Por esta misma razón quisiéramos saber su opinión sobre el proceso de los diálogos entre ambas partes, por favor.

R: Yo no sé en qué estado están las conversaciones, lo que te puedo decir es que para mí espiritualmente es muy reconfortante porque yo escribí un artículo en el diario que dirijo, el diario www.lospueblos, sobre ese tema, porque tengo la absoluta convicción humana, moral y espiritual que debe resolverse, porque Irán no tiene absolutamente nada que ver con ese suceso tan triste y tan trágico y, me parece además que es un gran, pero un gran paso; además va a repercutir en el ánimo de todos nosotros los latinoamericanos en forma positiva el que se establezcan conversaciones para solucionar el problema; porque la preocupación de Irán por encabezar las conversaciones, encausar las conversaciones con Argentina, con el ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Argentina, (Héctor) Timerman, demuestra la tranquilidad de conciencia del gobierno y de la gente de Irán de que no ha tenido participación alguna en un acto tan sufrido, un acto contra la humanidad, porque, en general, eran niños y civiles.

La República Islámica de Irán, considero yo, pretende dar ejemplos, inmensos ejemplos de hermandad y de corrección y, de ninguna manera directa o indirectamente, podría estar mezclada con este tema. Creo que hay un ambiente en Argentina, un ambiente político y social a nivel de los pueblos, que siente una simpatía por esa república tan esforzada, la República de Irán, para que se aclaren esos extremos, para que salga a la luz los hechos y los verdaderos culpables, pero fundamentalmente para que surja la unidad porque ningún acto de este tipo es en favor de la humanidad, ningún acto , digo yo, como el grave atentado y es una infamia, una injusticia, como en tantas oportunidades, se apunta y se canaliza sin la documentación correspondiente y no atendiendo a ningún tipo de lógica, se canalice en culpar a la República Islámica de Irán. Tanto no tiene lógica, tanto no tiene lógica que Irán que era un gran exportador e importador de Argentina, cómo alguien puede hacer algo que disminuyó las exportaciones e importaciones que atentó contra la amistad de los dos países y que puso al resto de América también ascuas porque si bien no creemos en América de ninguna forma las acusaciones que se mencionan contra Irán, hay gente, bueno, que tiene derecho a la duda, ¿no es así? Entonces, yo creo que este es un paso importantísimo no solo para la Argentina y para Irán, para el mundo y además me reconforta y me enorgullece que sea Irán el que esté insistiendo, insistiendo para que se aclare este hecho.

E: Muy bien, lo que es preocupante es que una delegación del régimen falso de Israel ha viajado a Argentina para obstaculizar el camino de los diálogos. Qué nos puede explicar al respecto?

R: Bueno, de eso no conozco nada, lo que sí sé como ser humano, como latinoamericano, que acá tiene que triunfar el diálogo, la concordia y el bien, la aclaración de los hechos, la justicia. El gobierno de Irán al solicitar a Argentina que estudie a fondo el tema y que se aclare está pidiendo justica inversa, que no se le culpe de algo que no tendría porque culparse de, ¿me explico? Entonces, yo… las partes negativas, sé que hay fuerzas negativas en todos los hechos que se suceden en el mundo , cosas tan grandes como las que van a pasar, no las tomo en consideración, no me parece además que no querer que se investigue, que se dialogue, que se busque la verdad, bueno, eso es un acto contra la humanidad. No veo que pueda perjudicar a alguien que se estudie más, que se investigue y que salga a la luz la verdad. Yo no puedo creer que hayan intereses en que no sé investigue, porque eso si daría lugar a dudar y desconfiar, pero yo en el vuelo alto me parece hay actitudes que conllevan pequeñez, odio, enceguecimiento y fanatismo e intentar y coartar una investigación una profundización de los hechos no son validas.

E: Sí muchísimas gracias señor Juan Pedro Rivas por sus valiosos puntos de vista.

R: Muchas gracias a Ud. y saludos al gran pueblo de Irán.

Likud/Israel Beiteinu bloc prepares ground for war and savage austerity measures

1 November 2012, World Socialist Web Sitehttp://www.wsws.org (Australia)

By Jean Shaoul

Days after the announcement of an early general election for January 22, the Likud party has overwhelmingly backed Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s plan for an electoral bloc with the ultra-nationalist Israel Beiteinu (Israel is our home), led by Foreign Secretary Avigdor Lieberman.

According to the polls, the bloc with Israel Beiteinu will give Netanyahu between 35 and 42 seats in the 120-member Knesset, more than twice the number Labour is expected to win, and an unprecedented third term as prime minister. It paves the way for an extremist government based on authoritarianism, militarism and xenophobia. It will be one committed to an attack on Iran and any country deemed a threat to Israel’s interests, a further assault on the position of the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and, above all, a social and economic offensive against the Israeli working class.

Netanyahu’s objective in calling an early election and forming this electoral bloc—put on hold after an abortive attempt to bring the opposition Kadima on board last May—was to sideline his religious coalition partners and limit their ability to push him into making budgetary concessions on behalf of their social constituencies. Since Israel’s electoral system requires the electorate to vote for political parties not candidates, Likud will determine the position of its members on its list while maintaining the Knesset seat ratio between the parties: Likud 27, Israel Beiteinu 15.

In his speech unveiling the electoral bloc, to be called Likud–Beiteinu, Netanyahu declared, “One ticket will strengthen the government, it will strengthen the prime minister, and it will strengthen the country.”

He added, “We are asking the public for a mandate to deal with the security threats, at the top of which is stopping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, and fighting terrorism. We are asking for a mandate from the public to continue the changes in the economy, in education and in the need to lower the cost of living.”

Lieberman said, “The merger is a combination of experience, force and unity. This is what Israel’s citizens expect. Given the challenges, we need national responsibility.”

Born in Moldova, Lieberman was in his youth a member of the right-wing Kach party outlawed in the 1980s. Since 1988, he has worked closely with Netanyahu and Likud, becoming Netanyahu’s chief of staff during his first term as prime minister in 1996. He left Likud in 1997 after Netanyahu signed up to the Wye River agreement that made some concessions—on paper—to the Palestinians, later forming his own ultra-nationalist party based upon Israel’s one million immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Israel Beiteinu became the third largest party in the 2009 election.

Lieberman supports the “transfer” of Israel’s Arab population to any putative Palestinian state, demands a “loyalty oath” to Israel as a Jewish state as the basis for citizenship, and labels Israeli Arab legislators as “traitors” and “terrorists” who should be executed for meeting leaders of Hamas, the group that rules Gaza. He has sought to introduce a raft of anti-democratic legislation aimed at outlawing dissent.

He is under investigation for corruption and may yet be charged with fraud, money laundering, breach of trust, witness harassment and obstructing the course of justice.

His opinions, once considered marginal, have now become part of the mainstream and respectable political discourse in Israel. His role has been to shift the entire spectrum of Israeli politics to the right.

A recent public opinion poll, not the first or only one, showed that 33 percent of respondents said they did not want Arabs to vote in parliamentary elections, 42 percent did not want an Arab neighbour, with a similar proportion saying it would bother them if there were an Arab student in their child’s class. It found that most Israelis would support apartheid-type conditions if the government were to annex the Occupied Territories, although most people oppose such annexation.

The response of Labour party leader Shelley Yacimovich was to say, “This step turns the Likud into Lieberman’s party. Tonight, Likud disappeared and instead there’s an extreme Lieberman party.”

She called on Israel’s “centrist” parties to unite to provide “an alternative to this extremist leadership.”

But most commentators agreed that such a coalition was unlikely, despite the fact that the opposition parties are expected to take around 60 seats. As Ma’ariv’s Shalom Yerushalmi pointed out, “There is no agreed-upon [opposition] leader and no consensus, and almost no union seems possible there”.

More importantly, that Yacimovich called for a pact with Kadima—the personal political vehicle of former prime minister and war criminal Ariel Sharon who split with Likud in 2005—demonstrates just how right-wing Labour has become. Labour no longer has any independent political existence or raison d’etre and is incapable of articulating any opposition to Likud’s domestic or foreign policy.

The same goes for all Israel’s small nominally left parties, including Meretz, the so-called Party of Peace, and the Stalinist-led coalition Hadash, which have endorsed the call for a centre-left bloc against Likud-Beiteinu.

Just last week, Yacimovich articulated positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that are indistinguishable from Netanyahu’s.

She said, “We support the form of territorial compromise, the two-state solution, keeping settlement blocs, and oppose the right of return”.

However, settling Israel’s economic problems—by which she meant the demands of Israel’s financial elite’s—came first. She also supported Netanyahu’s attacks on Gaza which have killed at least seven people in the last week, saying, “These are complex operations that require a great restraint. I will not call the prime minister to initiate a military escalation, and I won’t criticize him. I stand behind his actions.”

Unable to articulate any policies to address the profound social and economic problems faced by Israeli workers, it is not surprising that Labour has made little headway in public opinion polls, despite the largest ever protests last year over housing costs and social inequality. There is enormous anger over the increasing poverty as wages have fallen in real terms for more than a decade, resulting in 1.7 million of Israel’s 7.8 million population living in poverty and 837,000 children going hungry every night.

While the opposition parties may feign outrage over some of Israel Beiteinu’s more blatantly racist and anti-democratic policies, they share the same standpoint, their commitment to Zionism. The Zionist project of establishing the state of Israel as a “homeland” for the Jews was based firstly upon the ethnic cleansing of close to a million Palestinians and systematic discrimination against those who stayed, and secondly, on capitalism where Israeli Jewish capitalists exploit, divide and police the working class of the region in its own interests and those of its patron, the United States. Such a state was and is fundamentally incompatible with democracy.

This perspective has left the former left parties incapable of challenging the more aggressive Zionist perspective that came to dominate under successive Likud-led governments. As both Zionist tendencies, right and left, recognised that the prospect of the Palestinians becoming a majority in a state whose citizenship is based upon religious identity constituted an “existential threat”, the nominally left Labour party joined Ariel Sharon’s Likud government, the most right-wing government Israel had known—and later Ehud Olmert’s Kadima-led government. Labour’s former leader Ehud Barak still sits alongside Netanyahu as defence secretary.

ACUERDO BIBI-LIEBERMAN: UNA LLAMADA DE ATENCIÓN AL MUNDO SOBRE ISRAEL

31 octubre 2012, Rebelión (México)

Larry Derfner*

972mag

Traducido para Rebelión por J. M. y revisado por Caty R.

Al unirse personalmente y llevar al partido gobernante del país a alinearse a nivel internacional con un despreciable neofascista, Netanyahu ha dado un paso importante para que Israel se acerque más a los límites de la tolerancia occidental. En última instancia, esa es una buena noticia.

La única manera de que Israel renuncie alguna vez a la ocupación y a su hábito de agresión militar es que vaya demasiado lejos y se convierta en un Goliat, de tal manera que el mundo occidental finalmente le pida que limpie sus actos o busque otro tipo de aliados. La unión anunciada esta noche entre el Likud de Bibi Netanyahu y Avigdor Lieberman de Yisrael Beiteinu para formar un gran Likud, "Likud es nuestro hogar", marca un paso importante en esa dirección.

Netanyahu tira piedras a su tejado. No sé si el nuevo partido va a ganar más escaños en la Knneset en las elecciones del 22 de enero de los que el Likud e Yisrael Beiteinu podrían haber ganado por separado, pero Netanyahu se ha ensuciado a los ojos del mundo, incluyendo a muchos de sus principales partidarios judíos en los Estados Unidos. Avigdor Lieberman tiene bien merecida una reputación internacional de que odia a los árabes e incluso de amante neofascista de la guerra (esta última etiqueta se la puso Martin Peretz, el estridente exeditor pro israelí de The New Republic).

El canciller Lieberman pide la expulsión, por medio de un intercambio de tierras, de cientos de miles de ciudadanos israelíes simplemente porque son árabes. Hizo una campaña electoral destacando el lema: "Sólo Lieberman entiende árabe”. Fue miembro del partido Kach a finales de 1970, algo que comprensiblemente niega, pero que los veteranos de Kach de aquella época lo juran. Lieberman fantaseaba en voz alta en la Knesset con la ejecución de los diputados árabes y amenazó con bombardear la presa de Asuán en Egipto. Además, por supuesto, ha estado bajo investigación de la policía de Israel por corrupción durante casi 15 años y podría enfrentarse a la acusación muy pronto.

Y ahora Netanyahu, que hizo de Lieberman su brazo derecho durante su primer mandato como primer ministro, se ha identificado totalmente con este tipo. Hubo un informe de esta noche en Canal 2 del buen comunicador Amnón Abramovitch anunciando que el acuerdo de unidad incluye que Lieberman ocupe el cargo de primer ministro al cuarto año de la próxima legislatura, ya que se supone que Likud Beiteinu ganará las próximas elecciones.

Mucha gente en Israel, Estados Unidos, Canadá y tal vez en otros países, y ciertamente muchos judíos en todo el mundo, creen que Netanyahu es un centrista, aunque sea por la mínima razón de que representa el consenso israelí. Pero incluso estas personas se dan cuenta de que Lieberman no es un centrista, sino que es la réplica israelí de Jean Marie Le Pen, del fallecido Jörg Haider, de Geert Wilders y otros entusiastas detractores de los musulmanes, sólo que es más militarista.

Y ahora hay una diferencia más, al contrario que Le Pen, Haider y Wilders, Lieberman y su partido se han unificado con el primer ministro de su país y con el partido gobernante.

¿Qué dice esto sobre el indiscutido líder político de Israel y sobre el propio Israel? Muchas personas de ideología moderada, aquí y en el extranjero, que estaban dispuestos a votar a Bibi, al que incluso llegaron a admirar, creo que ahora se sienten un poco enfermos. Es una noche terrible para este país, pero por desgracia no hay otra manera de que cambie la situación que se está dando en los últimos años si no es dándose la cabeza contra la pared, llegando al límite de la tolerancia occidental. Hay peores y más dolorosas maneras de que esto suceda que por el ascenso de Lieberman por lo menos en el Israel actual. Lenin tenía razón cuando afirmó que las cosas tienen que empeorar antes de que puedan mejorar, y seguro que esta noche se agravaron.

*Larry Derfner, escritor y columnista, trabajó para The Jerusalem Post, ha sido corresponsal en Israel del U.S. News and World Report durante muchos años y escribió artículos para el Sunday Times de Londres durante la Segunda Intifada.

Fuente original: http://972mag.com/the-lieberman-deal-a-wake-up-call-to-the-world-about-israel/58501/

NETANYAHU/LIEBERMAN UNITE FOR WAR

October 27, 2012, Global Research http://www.globalresearch.ca (Canada)

By Stephen Lendman*

American crimes of war and against humanity perhaps exceed all other rogue states in history combined.

Pound-for-pound, however, Israeli lawlessness matches the world’s worst. Long ago, it graduated from a regional menace to a global one.

It enforces barbaric occupation harshness. Its war machine threatens and attacks neighbors. It gets away with murder because world powers don’t intervene to stop it.

It wages intermittent war on Gaza. It murders innocent civilians. It uses illegal depleted uranium, chemical and other weapons. Nuclear missiles and bombs are stockpiled. It plans more war now.

Gazans know they’re vulnerable to Cast Lead 2.0. Iran long ago prepared to defend itself if attacked. Rogue Israeli coalition partner unity makes it more likely. Netanyahu and Lieberman represent Israel’s worst. They’re out-of-control warmongers.

Netanyahu heads Israel’s most extremist ever government. He exceeds the worst of Ariel Sharon and previous hardline leaders. He’s unfit to serve. He spurns democratic values. He deplores peace. He menacingly threatens war.

Lieberman is an ultranationalist extremist. He represents the worst of Israel’s lunatic fringe. Critics call him an embarrassment to legitimate government.

He’s a modern-day Kananist. Kahane headed Israel’s racist Kach Party. In 1988, Israel banned it. It was too extreme to tolerate. In his youth, Lieberman was a Kach Party member. He remains true to its ideological roots.

Israel under Netanyahu/Lieberman assures institutionalized racism in its worst form. Arab hatred is promoted. Rule of law principles and other democratic values are spurned. War for regional dominance is prioritized.

As long as these rogues govern Israel, Palestinians face horrific persecution short of total expulsion or outright extermination. But those possibilities can’t be ruled out.

Other regional states must brace for war. Even if not attacked directly, it may spill across their borders destructively.

On October 25, Haaretz headlined “Netanyahu, Lieberman to unify parties ahead of upcoming Israeli elections,” saying:

“The planned unification could have a far-reaching influence on the makeup of Israel’s next government….” Perhaps other like-minded parties will join them.

Netanyahu may have a “super-party” in mind too strong to unseat. He’ll have more latitude to further his destructive, hardline agenda. Lieberman will be his second in command. Together they menace Arabs, Jews, and others alike.

Netanyahu heads Likud. It’s hardline, anti-democratic, racist and militant. Founded in 1973, it united the right wing revisionist Herut party with Gahal and centrist Zionist parties. Its former prime ministers included Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Shamir, Netanyahu during his 1996 – 1999 tenure), and Ariel Sharon.

In 1999, Lieberman founded Yisrael Beiteinu (Israel is Our Home). It’s ultranationalist and revisionist Zionist. It represents the worst of Israel’s hardline right wing.

Uniting these two parties burnishes Israel’s credentials as an out-of-control menacing rogue state. Not all Likudniks are pleased. Haaretz quoted an unnamed senior party official saying:

“What does Netanyahu think? That he can dictate to us who we run with? We’re repulsed by this partnership with Lieberman. I don’t want to run with a person like (him), with the kind of values he stands for.”

Partnered with Lieberman, Likud will be “committed to advancing such controversial issues as the loyalty-citizenship bills….Why is Netanyahu going for this….It’s a very problematic move.”

Most Likudniks are hardline. They welcome the move or at least don’t object. Perhaps they see it as a way for super-party rule. Their own electoral chances may improve. At least they hope so.

On October 26, Haaretz headlined “With Lieberman at his side, Netanyahu’s war cabinet is on a one-way track to Iran,” saying:

Uniting these rogues “obligates the left-wing and centrist parties to offer an ideological and practical alternative….”

Both men don’t hide their intentions. They prioritize preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons even though they know Tehran has no program to obtain them.

Admitting it would undermine their plan to remove their main regional rival. Bogusly calling Iran an existential threat is red herring cover to enlist support for war.

Likud/Yisrael Beiteinu unity may “dissolve any domestic opposition to war, since after the election, Netanyahu will be able to argue that he received a mandate from the people to act as he sees fit.”

Once US elections decide who’ll be president, and which side of America’s duopoly will be strongest, getting America on board will be prioritized.

“In announcing the merger Thursday, Netanyahu has finally renounced his attempt to portray himself as a centrist….” With Lieberman as number two and potential heir, Likud will be more radicalized and aggressive than ever.

Expect like-minded extremists to fill top cabinet posts. Anti-war officials will be spurned. Domestic policy will also be hardened. Tougher neoliberal measures may follow.

Remaining checks and balances may disappear. Crackdowns will target resisters. Expect the worst. It’s likely coming. October US/Israeli war games may or may not signal war.

They’re allegedly intended to counter potential Iranian, Syrian, Hezbollah, and/or Hamas attacks even though none would occur except defensively in response to Israeli and/or US aggression.

Washington often holds joint exercises. Doing so doesn’t automatically signal war. Nonetheless, the possibility against Iran is real. Plans are longstanding. Updates are made strategically. Israel readies its own. It also prepared for homeland emergencies.

Perhaps it won’t be long before it’s known whether something imminent is planned. Regime change plans are longstanding. Israel wants a regional rival removed. Washington wants unchallenged dominance.

Virtually everything short of war was thrown at Iran unsuccessfully. War is the final option.

Stepped up Israeli attacks on Gaza, bombing a Khartoum weapons plant allegedly producing Shehab missiles for Iran, and very likely killing intelligence head of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces, General Wissam al-Hasan, aren’t good signs.

Regional war games combined with domestic emergency preparations increase tensions. They weren’t eased by Netanyahu’s comments about attacking Gaza, saying:

“Today we engaged in exchanges against terrorist aggression that comes from our southern border in Gaza, but it actually comes from Iran and a whole terror network that is supporting these attacks.”

He’s itching for war. He wants Washington and Israel acting jointly. Let America lead, and he’ll ride shotgun. Perhaps post-November 6, he’ll get what he wants.

It depends on whether Obama or Romney feel the same way. Nothing’s known for sure, but signs look ominous. Brace for the worst.

A Final Comment

On October 25, Reuters headlined “Iran filling nuclear bunker with centrifuges – diplomats,” saying:

“Enrichment takes Iran closer to potential bomb material.” Western officials claim it’s “potentially boosting its capacity to make weapons-grade uranium if it chooses to do so.”

Activities are concentrated at its fortified Fordo plant. One unnamed diplomat said “I understand that they have installed all the centrifuges there.” Another said piping and other preparations must be completed to operate them.

Reuters cited nuclear experts Olli Heinonen and Simon Henderson saying “Iran may be able to accumulate up to four ‘significant quantities’ of weapons-grade uranium – each sufficient for one bomb – in as little as nine months from now.”

Even though it’s well-known that Iran has no ongoing nuclear weapons program, these, similar comments, and inflammatory headlines irresponsibly heighten tensions for war.

Separately, Ship to Gaza Sweden (Estelle) activists arrived home safely. Israeli commandos lawlessly interdicted their humanitarian mission in international waters.

Participants and crew were tasered multiple times. Some suffered burns and bruises. Others reported being handcuffed and dragged. Everyone was treated harshly.

They were imprisoned for several days. Their vessel, humanitarian cargo, and personal possessions were confiscated. Three Israeli citizens on board potentially may be charged with attempting to breach Gaza’s siege or violating Israel’s 1954 infiltration law.

Home in Canada, former parliamentarian and retired United Church Minister Jim Manly spoke publicly for the first time.

He’s glad to be back home, he said. He thanked everyone who expressed support. He called it “a privilege to be on the Finnish sailing ship, Estelle, as the representative of the Canadian Boat to Gaza and Gaza’s Ark movement and it was good to know that the members of that movement were working night and day to make our voyage a success.”

He explained Israel’s attack and violent treatment of activists on board. He called what happened an “act of piracy.” Israeli commandos “celebrated (it) by taking down the flag of Finland and running up the Israeli flag.”

He said it “replaced the skull and cross bones” for these type Israeli missions. “This pirate action dishonours the Israeli flag.”

It “must make many humanitarian Israelis deeply ashamed of their country. We were taken prisoner, brought into Ashdod, interrogated and taken to prison for three days before being deported for ‘having entered Israel illegally.’ ”

In prison, we “were subjected to indignities,” he added. “We need to put things in perspective. The real story is not our arrest, not even the hijacking of the Estelle in international waters. The real story concerns the death dealing chokehold that Israel holds over the people of Gaza.”

“The voyage of the Estelle and my participation in it was our attempt to rouse the peoples of the world to take action against this evil and to send a message of hope and solidarity to the Palestinian peoples of Gaza letting them know that they are not forgotten.”

“The blockade of Gaza has not yet been lifted, but be assured that we will continue our efforts until it has been and the Palestinian peoples can once again live with freedom and dignity.”

*Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled “How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War”

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

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Hadash: the coming elections are about fighting for equality, social justice and a just peace

26 october 2012, The Israeli Communist Party http://www.maki.org.il (Israel) (Israel) info@maki.org.il   Neo-liberal and right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and fascist Foreign Minister Ivette (Avigdor) Liberman have agreed to join forces for a general election in the new year. Netanyahu and Liberman said Thursday they will present a joint list for the January 22 election without merging their respective parties, Likud and Yisrael Beitenu. Foreign Minister Liberman calls for expelling, by means of a land swap, hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens simply for being Arab. He ran an election campaign highlighted by the slogan, "Only Lieberman understands Arabic." He was a member of Kach in the late 1970s, which he understandably denies but which Kach veterans from that era swear to. He’s fantasized aloud in the Knesset about executing Arab MKs and threatened to bomb Egypt’s Aswan Dam. He has been under Israel Police investigation for corruption for nearly 15 years, and could face indictment pretty soon.

(Hadash and Communist Party of Israel demonstrators in Tel-Aviv, June 2012: "For Peace and Social Justice."/Photo: Hadash)

Thursday’s union between the Likud and Yisrael Beytenu parties has resulted in a tie between the rightist and the centrist-leftist blocs, a preliminary poll released after the announcement found. The centrist-left, however, includes Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality – Communist Party of Israel) and two Arab parties. Hadash leader Dov Khenin said that a Netanyahu-Liberman government, would open three war fronts: "One on Iran, a second against the Arab-Palestinians in Israel and another on democracy." Therefore, Khenin continued, "the coming elections are about fighting for equality, social justice and against the occupation and for a just peace with the Palestinian people."

Iraqi MP: Baghdad Not to Allow Israel to Use Iraq's Soil against Iran

30 september 2012, Fars News Agency http://english.farsnews.com (Iran)

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iraq will not allow Israel or the US to use its soil or airspace for an attack on Iran, a senior Iraqi legislator stressed on Sunday.

"Iraq opposes any aggression against Iran which is a neighboring country and will not allow Israel to use Iraq's airspace for waging an attack on Iran or any other country," Member of the Iraqi parliament's Security and Defense Committee Alexander Witwit told FNA.

"Iraq has on many occasions stated that its airspace is open to no country for an attack on Iran," Witwit reiterated, and warned that violating Iraq's airspace "will be a blatant violation of Iraq's national sovereignty and dignity" and will be followed by dire consequences.

The remarks by the Iraqi official came against a backdrop of Israel's intensified threats against Iran.

Israel and its close ally the United States accuse Iran of seeking a nuclear weapon, while they have never presented any corroborative document to substantiate their allegations. Both Washington and Tel Aviv possess advanced weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear warheads.

Iran vehemently denies the charges, insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry.

Iran has warned that it would target Israel and its worldwide interests in case it comes under attack by the Tel Aviv.

The United States has also always stressed that military action is a main option for the White House to deter Iran's progress in the field of nuclear technology.

In response, Iran has warned it would hit the US, Israel and their worldwide interests and close the strategic Strait of Hormuz if it became the target of a military attack over its nuclear program.

Strait of Hormuz, the entrance to the strategic Persian Gulf waterway, is a major oil shipping route.

THE GRAND DEFAULT

29 september 2012, Gush Shalom http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english (Israel)

Uri Avnery's Column

I AM sitting here writing this article 39 years to the minute from that moment when the sirens started screaming, announcing the beginning of the war.

A minute before, total quiet reigned, as it does now. No traffic, no activity in the street, except a few children riding bicycles. Yom Kippur, the holiest day for Jews, reigned supreme. And then…

Inevitably, the memory starts to work.

THIS YEAR, many new documents were released for publication. Critical books and articles are abundant.

The universal culprits are Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan.

They have been blamed before, right from the day after the war, but only for superficial military offences, known as The Default. The default was failing to mobilize the reserves, and not moving the tanks to the front in time, in spite of the many signs that Egypt and Syria were about to attack.

Now, for the first time, the real Grand Default is being explored: the political background of the war. The findings have a direct bearing on what is happening now.

IT TRANSPIRES that in February 1973, eight months before the war, Anwar Sadat sent his trusted aide, Hafez Ismail, to the almighty US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger. He offered the immediate start of peace negotiations with Israel. There was one condition and one date: all of Sinai, up to the international border, had to be returned to Egypt without any Israeli settlements, and the agreement had to be achieved by September, at the latest.

Kissinger liked the proposal and transmitted it at once to the Israeli ambassador, Yitzhak Rabin, who was just about to finish his term in office. Rabin, of course, immediately informed the Prime Minister, Golda Meir. She rejected the offer out of hand. There ensued a heated conversation between the ambassador and the Prime Minister. Rabin, who was very close to Kissinger, was in favor of accepting the offer.

Golda treated the whole initiative as just another Arab trick to induce her to give up the Sinai Peninsula and remove the settlements built on Egyptian territory.

After all, the real purpose of these settlements – including the shining white new town, Yamit – was precisely to prevent the return of the entire peninsula to Egypt. Neither she nor Dayan dreamed of giving up Sinai. Dayan had already made the (in)famous statement that he preferred “Sharm al-Sheik without peace to peace without Sharm al-Sheik”. (Sharm al-Sheik, which had already been re-baptised with the Hebrew name Ophira, is located near the southern tip of the peninsula, not far from the oil wells, which Dayan was also loath to give up.)

Even before the new disclosures, the fact that Sadat had made several peace overtures was no secret. Sadat had indicated his willingness to reach an agreement in his dealings with the UN mediator Dr. Gunnar Jarring, whose endeavors had already become a joke in Israel.

Before that, the previous Egyptian President, Gamal Abd-al-Nasser, had invited Nahum Goldman, the President of the World Jewish Congress (and for a time President of the World Zionist Organization) to meet him in Cairo. Golda had prevented that meeting, and when the fact became known there was a storm of protest in Israel, including a famous letter from a group of eighth-graders saying that it would be hard for them to serve in the army.

All these Egyptian initiatives could be waved aside as political maneuvers. But an official message by Sadat to the Secretary of State could not. So, remembering the lesson of the Goldman incident, Golda decided to keep the whole thing secret.

THUS AN incredible situation was created. This fateful initiative, which could have effected an historic turning point, was brought to the knowledge of two people only: Moshe Dayan and Israel Galili.

The role of the latter needs explanation. Galili was the eminence grise of Golda, as well as of her predecessor, Levy Eshkol. I knew Galili quite well, and never understood where his renown as a brilliant strategist came from. Already before the founding of the state, he was the leading light of the illegal Haganah military organization. As a member of a kibbutz, he was officially a socialist but in reality a hardline nationalist. It was he who had the brilliant idea of putting the settlements on Egyptian soil, in order to make the return of northern Sinai impossible.

So the Sadat initiative was known only to Golda, Dayan, Galili and Rabin and Rabin’s successor in Washington, Simcha Dinitz, a nobody who was Golda’s lackey.

Incredible as it may sound, the Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, Rabin’s direct boss, was not informed. Nor were all the other ministers, the Chief of Staff and the other leaders of the armed forces, including the Chiefs of Army Intelligence, as well as the chiefs of the Shin Bet and the Mossad. It was a state secret.

There was no debate about it – neither public nor secret. September came and passed, and on October 6th Sadat’s troops struck across the canal and achieved a world-shaking surprise success (as did the Syrians on the Golan Heights.)

As a direct result of Golda’s Grand Default 2693 Israeli soldiers died, 7251 were wounded and 314 were taken prisoner (along with the tens of thousands of Egyptian and Syrian casualties).

THIS WEEK, several Israeli commentators bemoaned the total silence of the media and the politicians at the time.

Well, not quite total. Several months before the war, in a speech in the Knesset, I warned Golda Meir that if the Sinai was not returned very soon, Sadat would start a war to break the impasse.

I knew what I was talking about. I had, of course, no idea about the Ismail mission, but in May 1973 I took part in a peace conference in Bologna. The Egyptian delegation was led by Khalid Muhyi al-Din, a member of the original group of Free Officers who made the 1952 revolution. During the conference, he took me aside and told me in confidence that if the Sinai was not returned by September, Sadat would start a war. Sadat had no illusions of victory, he said, but hoped that a war would compel the US and Israel to start negotiations for the return of Sinai.

My warning was completely ignored by the media. They, like Golda, held the Egyptian army in abysmal contempt and considered Sadat a nincompoop. The idea that the Egyptians would dare to attack the invincible Israeli army seemed ridiculous.

The media adored Golda. So did the whole world, especially feminists. (A famous poster showed her face with the inscription: “But can she type?”) In reality, Golda was a very primitive person, ignorant and obstinate. My magazine, Haolam Hazeh, attacked her practically every week, and so did I in the Knesset. (She paid me the unique compliment of publicly declaring that she was ready to “mount the barricades” to get me out of the Knesset.)

Ours was a voice crying in the wilderness, but at least we fulfilled one function: In her ‘March of Folly”, Barbara Tuchman stipulated that a policy could be branded as folly only if there had been at least one voice warning against it in real time.

Perhaps even Golda would have reconsidered if she had not been surrounded by journalists and politicians singing her praises, celebrating her wisdom and courage and applauding every one of her stupid pronouncements.

THE SAME type of people, even some of the very same people, are now doing the same with Binyamin Netanyahu.

Again, we are staring the same Grand Default in the face.

Again, a group of two or three are deciding the fate of the nation. Netanyahu and Ehud Barak alone make all the decisions, “keeping their cards close to their chest”. Attack Iran or not? Politicians and generals are kept in the dark. Bibi and Ehud know best. No need for any other input.

But more revealing than the blood-curdling threats on Iran is the total silence about Palestine. Palestinian peace offers are ignored, as were those of Sadat in those days. The ten-year old Arab Peace Initiative, supported by all the Arab and all the Muslim states, does not exist.

Again, settlements are put up and expanded, in order to make the return of the occupied territories impossible. (Let’s remember all those who claimed, in those days, that the occupation of Sinai was “irreversible”. Who would dare to remove Yamit?)

Again, multitudes of flatterers, media stars and politicians compete with each other in adulation of “Bibi, King of Israel”. How smoothly he can talk in American English! How convincing his speeches in the UN and the US Senate!

Well, Golda, with her 200 words of bad Hebrew and primitive American, was much more convincing, and she enjoyed the adulation of the whole Western world. And at least she had the sense not to challenge the incumbent American president (Richard Nixon) during an election campaign.

IN THOSE days, I called our government “the ship of fools”. Our current government is worse, much worse.

Golda and Dayan led us to disaster. After the war, their war, they were kicked out – not by elections, not by any committee of inquiry, but by the grassroots mass protests that racked the country.
Bibi and Ehud are leading us to another, far worse, disaster. Some day, they will be kicked out by the same people who adore them now - if they survive.