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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: average joe who wrote (275908)6/29/2010 6:53:10 AM
From: SARMAN1 Recommendation  Respond to of 281500
 
ROTFLMAO, geez the only winner here is China. Do you think Israel will give us $6 billion for its paranoia? At that rate we will drop Israel as friend sooner than later. Israel is finished, done, on life support. It is a matter of time before the shithole Israel collapses on itself.

Iran, China Agree on $6.5B Oil Refinery Project
It is predicted that the two sides will close the deal in the next two months, the Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday without stating further details on where and when the agreement was signed.

The report noted that technical experts from the two companies were studying the MOU and figuring out ways to implement it.

Feasibility, profitability and land acquisition studies regarding the construction of the new refineries have been conducted and tenders will be held on EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) basis in the near future, the report said.

Seven crude oil refineries with a total capacity of 1.56 million barrels per day at an estimated cost of $23 billion are planned to be built in Iran to boost the domestic refining capacity to 3.2 million bpd.

Sinopec had earlier agreed to import 150,000-160,000 bpd of Iranian crude this year, unchanged from 2008.

China, which is among six world powers seeking to resolve Iran''s long-running nuclear row diplomatically, is the second-largest buyer of Iranian oil.



To: average joe who wrote (275908)6/29/2010 7:19:47 AM
From: SARMAN1 Recommendation  Respond to of 281500
 
Flotilla organizers: We’ll take Israel to The Hague

alethonews.wordpress.com

Bethlehem – The Free Gaza Movement says it will take the State of Israel to the International Criminal Court over last month’s raid on an aid ship that left nine civilians dead.

Twelve lawyers from countries whose citizens took part in the voyage are collecting evidence and testimonies from passengers, human rights lawyer Audrey Bomse told Ma’an.

The lawyers have asked governments of citizens on board, including the US and UK, to pressure Israel to return passengers’ property taken by Israeli soldiers during the raid on 31 May.

In a statement, the organizers said the seized cameras, camcorders, and mobile phones contain vital evidence of “willful killing, inhuman treatment, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health and unlawful deportation or transfer.”

As Israel is the occupying power in Gaza, these alleged crimes would constitute a contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Bomse told Ma’an, “We intend to hold Israel responsible for its criminal behavior. As this was done by a state, it amounts to piracy and state terrorism.”

The organizers also claimed that Israeli military personnel used credit cards stolen from passengers.

Two soldiers were indicted last year for using a credit card in Israel which they had stolen from a Palestinian during Israel’s assault on Gaza that began in December 2008.



To: average joe who wrote (275908)6/29/2010 7:24:31 AM
From: SARMAN1 Recommendation  Respond to of 281500
 
The peace that Israel needs is to steal land and kill in peace.
War crimes suit filed against Barak, Livni in Belgium

alethonews.wordpress.com

Bethlehem - Two Belgian lawyers working on behalf of Palestinian filed suit against 14 Israeli leaders on allegations of war crimes committed during Operation Cast Lead, news agencies reported.

The respondents include Israeli opposition chairwoman Tzipi Livni for her role as foreign minister during the Gaza offensive between December 2008 and January 2009, former Israeli premier Ehud Olmert, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, and other Israeli army officials and Israel’s intelligence services, Israeli news site Yedioth Ahronoth wrote.

Much of the 70-page complaint is based on the Goldstone report, Agence France-Presse reported. Claimants include a Palestinian-Belgian national and 13 Gaza Strip residents.

The claim includes an attack on a mosque near the Jabaliya refugee camp during which 16 civilians, including children, were killed. The plaintiffs were either wounded or lost a relative in the attack, the news site wrote.

Lawyers estimate that Belgium’s attorney general will evaluate the case to determine whether it provides just cause to open a case against the senior Israeli officials “already by the end of August.”

Georges-Henri Beauthier and Alexis Deswaef, the two lawyers representing the claimants, said the current charges would be brought against the Israeli leaders using the principle of universal jurisdiction, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

The claims follow the filing suit by French activists against Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak over the Israeli army’s conduct during its raid of the Freedom Flotilla which saw nine passengers killed by Israeli commandos in international waters on 31 May. The move forced Barak to cancel a Paris visit.

An arrest warrant was issued against Livni in the UK in December 2009 after British lawyers filed suit against the official on behalf of Palestinian respondents for her role in Operation Cast Lead.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu criticized the UN and other international institutions for condemning Israel’s acts on Wednesday, as he addressed the Knesset.

“They want to strip us of the natural right to defend ourselves. When we defend ourselves against rocket attack, we are accused of war crimes. We cannot board sea vessels when our soldiers are being attacked and fired upon, because that is a war crime,” Haaretz quoted him as saying.



To: average joe who wrote (275908)6/29/2010 7:27:43 AM
From: SARMAN1 Recommendation  Respond to of 281500
 
Without water Israel is fucked.

Turkey cancels water sales to Israel

ikhwanweb.com

Following the attacks on the Freedom Flotilla in which 9 Turkish citizens were killed, Turkey has decided to continue severing ties with Israel by canceling the agreement it signed in 2000 to supply Israel with water for a 20 year period.

The Israel National Newspaper asserted that the annulment of the agreement comes as a punishment to the Israeli entity for refusing to apologise, conduct an international investigation or compensate the martyrs ofthe Freedom Flotilla's families.

According to the agreement Turkey would sell approximately 1.75 billion cubic feet of water per year.

The newspaper also maintained that “The cancelled water project is not the first sign of Turkey's anger over the Gaza boats incident" adding Turkey has also recalled its ambassador, and has frozen a plan to supply Israel with natural gas from Russia using an underwater pipeline”.



To: average joe who wrote (275908)6/29/2010 7:31:29 AM
From: SARMAN1 Recommendation  Respond to of 281500
 
We shall see if the Nazis board this ship.


The Arab Flotilla To Gaza, Now Scheduled For Wednesday, June 30

politicaltheatrics.net

Yasser Kashlak, a Syrian of Palestinian decent, businessman, and chairman of Lebanese Institute of International Studies heads the international group Free Palestine Movement that is organizing the trip. American delegation to join international humanitarian effort to break the siege of Gaza

Twenty-two American citizens will be among the more than two hundred persons who will be sailing aboard the Arab flotilla to Gaza, now scheduled for Wednesday, June 30. The flotilla of Arab ships are hoping to break the blockade on Gaza, despite the harsh Israeli reaction to an earlier flotilla from Turkey and other Mediterranean states killing nine peace activists, causing an international incident.

The government of Lebanon has agreed to inspect every item going aboard the three ships sailing on June 30 to make sure that no weapons of any kind are aboard. Sponsors of the flotilla have agreed to all of the terms laid down by the government of Lebanon and are hoping to avoid violent incidents at sea.

One of the boats is to be devoted to women activists from America, Europe and the Middle East.

Two reporters from The Times of London will be accompanying the delegation to document their passage to Gaza. Other journalists will also be on the boats.

The twenty-two Americans include ten members of the Council for the National Interest who have volunteered to take part in the exercise. The closure of Gaza is a violation of international law, in their opinion, and they will be returning to the United States to report back to their various communities.

The American citizens have agreed to interviews or meetings with members of the press upon their return and they will be available on-line to the extent that is possible.

The Arab Boat Brigade aims to not only raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip, but also pressure the international community to end its support for the continued Israeli occupation of Palestine.

The leader of The Mariam, Ms. Samar al Haij explaining the plan, the preparations and the objectives of the Boat Brigade.

“Mariam” organizer Samar al-Hajj for her part thanked Israel “for its threats which only strengthened these women’s willpower to make the trip.” “The ship is now ready,” she said. “We are not afraid.”

The energy and commitment of the courageous women of the Mariam is inspiring to all who seek peace and justice for Palestine. The interest and enthusiasm they have already achieved is a major victory. Join them! Support them! Break the siege of Gaza and liberate Palestine with them!

The group fully expects the vessels to be boarded by the Israelis in international waters, which would be a violation of the Geneva Convention.



To: average joe who wrote (275908)6/29/2010 7:35:08 AM
From: SARMAN1 Recommendation  Respond to of 281500
 
Connecting the Zionist Dots by Gilad Atzmon

Thursday, June 24, 2010 at 6:41AM Gilad Atzmon
A few weeks ago the Jewish Chronicle published a list of Jewish MPs in the UK parliament. It named 24 in total, encompassing 12 Conservatives, 10 Labour, and two Liberal Democrats. Author and peace activist Stuart Littlewood elaborated on these figures and presented the following analysis:

“The Jewish population in the UK is 280,000 or 0.46 per cent. There are 650 seats in the House of Commons so, as a proportion, Jewish entitlement is only three seats. The conclusion is pretty obvious. With 24 seats, Jews are eight times over-represented. Which means, of course, that other groups must be under-represented, including Muslims…If Muslims, for instance, were over-represented to the same extent as the Jews (i.e. eight times) they’d have 200 seats. All hell would break loose.”

A question must be raised here. Why are Jews overwhelmingly over-represented in the British parliament, in British and American political pressure groups, in political fundraising and in the media?

Haim Saban, the Israeli-American, multibillionaire media mogul offers the answer. The New Yorker reported this week that at a conference last fall, Saban described his pro-Israeli formula, outlining “three ways to be influential in American politics…make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets.”

As I have mentioned many times before, there is no such a thing as Jewish conspiracy. It is all done in the open. In front of TV cameras from all over the world, listed Israeli Propaganda Author as well as British Foreign Secretary David Miliband gave the Israelis a green light to operation Cast Lead, suggesting in Sderot that “Israel should, above all, seek to protect its own citizens.” Miliband, in practice, made us all complicit in a colossal war crime committed by Israel. Staunch Zionist Lord Levy funded the Labour party when this party launched a criminal war that intended to erase the last pocket of Arabic resistance to Zionism. He also wasn’t at all shy about it. In the media, shameless Jewish Chronicle writers David Aaronovitch and Nick Cohen enthusiastically advocated the same criminal war in the name of ‘moral interventionism’. Nick Cohen also founded the Euston Manifesto ‘think tank’ to support dubious Neocon ideologies on this side of the pond.

Levy, Cohen, Aaronovitch, Miliband are all in line with Saban’s formula: influence, donations, think tanks, media. Yet they don’t necessarily know Saban, and may never even have heard about the Zionist media mogul. It isn’t necessary. The fact is, Saban didn’t invent anything himself. His formula is deeply brewed in the Judaic religious tradition, Jewish culture and ideology.

United Against Purim

The Book of Esther is a biblical story that is the basis for the celebration of Purim, the most joyous Jewish festival. The book tells the story of an attempted Judeocide, but it also tells a story in which Jews manage to change their fate by means of political influence. In the story, the Jews do manage to rescue themselves and even to mete revenge, all through an infiltration into the corridors of power.

It is set in the third year of Ahasuerus, and the ruler is a king of Persia usually identified with Xerxes I. It is the story of a palace, a conspiracy, an attempted Judeocide and a brave and beautiful Jewish queen (Esther) who manages to save the Jewish people at the very last minute.

In the story, King Ahasuerus is married to Vashti, whom he repudiates after she rejects his offer to 'visit' him during a feast. Esther was selected from the candidates to be Ahasuerus's new wife. As the story progresses, Ahasuerus's Prime Minister Haman plots to have the king kill all the Jews without knowing that Esther is actually Jewish. Esther, together with her cousin Mordechai saves the day for their people. Esther warns Ahasuerus of Haman's murderous anti-Jewish plot. Haman and his sons are hanged on the fifty cubit gallows he had originally built for cousin Mordechai. As it happens, Mordechai takes Haman's place, becoming the Prime Minister. Ahasuerus's edict decreeing the murder of the Jews cannot be rescinded, so he issues another edict allowing the Jews to take up arms and kill their enemies, which they obviously do.

The moral of the Biblical story is rather clear. If Jews want to survive, they had better make their way into the corridors of power. They had better bond to the rulers of the world. With Esther, Mordechai and Purim in mind, AIPAC, Levy, ADL, David Milliband, Saban and the notion of 'Jewish power' all appear to be an embodiment of a deep Biblical, tribal and cultural ideology.

However, here is the interesting twist. Although the story is presented as an historic tale, the historical accuracy of the Book of Esther is largely disputed by most modern Bible acholars and historians. The lack of any clear corroboration of between any of the details of the story with what is known of Persian History from classical sources is what has led scholars to come to the conclusion that the story is mostly, or even totally fictional.

In other words, though the Jewish moral is clear, the attempted genocide is fictional. Seemingly, the Book of Esther sets its (Jewish) followers into a collective Pre-Traumatic Stress Disorder. It transforms a fictional fantasy of ‘destruction’ into a vivid ‘ideology of survival’. And indeed, some read the story as an allegory of quintessentially assimilated Jews who discover that they are targets of anti-Semitism, but are also in a position to save themselves and their fellow Jews.

The Book of Esther exists to form a coherent exilic tribal identity. It is there to plant an existential stress. It introduces the Holocaust mentality. Furthermore, it fixes the conditions which turn the Holocaust into reality. In hermeneutic terms, the text shapes the reality. In practice, it is the fearful mind the sets itself into a tragic trap of self-fulfilling prophecy. The Shoa ideology matures into a real event.

Interestingly enough, the Book of Esther (in the Hebrew version) is one of only two books of the Bible that do not directly mention God (the other is Song of Songs). As in the case of Zionist secular ideology and the Holocaust religion, in the Book of Esther it is the Jews who believe in themselves, in their own power, in their uniqueness, in their sophistication, in their ability to influence, in their ability to take over kingdoms, and in their ability to save themselves. The Book of Esther is all about empowerment. It conveys the essence and metaphysics of Jewish power, as described by Haim Saban and performed by AIPAC.

Zionism and Democracy

Zionists seem to love democracy. The Jewish state outrageously claims to be ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’. Israel’s supporters around the world also advocate conflicts in the name of ‘democracy’. Why do they love democracy so much? I guess that the answer is devastatingly simple. Democracy is the ideal political platform for the Zionist influence merchant.

Democracy in its current state, especially within the English-Speaking world, is a political system that specializes in positioning inadequate, unqualified and dubious characters in leading positions. Two democratically elected leaders launched the illegal war in Iraq. Two democratically elected leaders marched the west into a financial disaster.

Running a state is not an easy task. It surely takes some talent and training. In the past, our elected political leaders were experienced politicians who had achieved something in their lives, whether in academia, industry, military or the financial world. In the past, our candidates for premiership had a curriculum vitae to share with us. Apparently this is not the case anymore. Time after time we are left with a ‘democratic choice’ to give our vote to one or another laughable young failure. Time after time we see rising political ‘stars’, people have really achieved nothing in their lives, and who are unqualified to run even a corner shop, let alone a state.

You may want to ask yourself what qualification Blair or Bush possessed before they took the wheel in their hands. What experience does David Cameron have at his disposal in order to rescue Britain from total disaster on every possible front (financial, Iraq, Afghanistan, education, NHS and so on)? What kind of experience does David Miliband bring with him in the bid for the Labour premiership? The answer is none. Our lives, our future and the future of our children are in the hands of ludicrous, clueless characters. This may explain why Britain ended up with a hung Parliament. Not a single leader in this country could convince the public that he had the talent, the integrity or even just a seed of true leadership.

But here is the news. As much as our elected leaders are totally clueless, the Sabans, the Lord Levys and the Wolfowitzes know exactly what to do. The Jewish religion, culture and ideology provides its followers with a narrative that saves us of the democratic limbo. The Sabans of this world are far from being amateurs or clueless; they know exactly what to do. They have been doing it for three thousand years. They are the followers of Mordechai and Esther. The Sabans of the world know how to translate the moral of Purim into British and American practice.

Stuart Littlewood seems to wonder why Jews are over-represented. With Purim in mind, we may be able to suggest an answer. We are dealing here with an exilic cultural setting that preaches for lobbing, influence and control. Shaping politics, media and thoughts is the true meaning of the Book of Esther. Saban was either just genuine or foolish enough to admit it in public. However, the absence of a Book of Esther within the heart of Muslim or Hindu culture may explain why other marginal migrant groups in Britain are adequately and proportionally represented in British politics and media. Moreover, it is unlikely that this will change soon. As opposed to most minorities and marginal identities in the West, Judaism is an exilic national religion and the Jewish identity is a product of tribal indoctrination. This may explain why emancipated Jews who live in Britain for generations as seculars still operate within Jewish political and social settings, and under Jewish political banners.

It is not a secret that a few Jews out there are very gifted. It is also rather obvious that some Jews are amongst the leading contributors to the humanist and universal discourse. However, this is not something we can say about Haim Saban, who openly desires to influence American foreign policy by means of donations, think tanks and media control. Similarly, David Milliband, who struggled to amend British universal Jurisdiction to make it easy for Israeli war criminal visit his kingdom, should not be regarded as a great humanist either. Nick Cohen, who founded the Euston Manifesto, a think tank that promotes Zionist interests within British intellectual culture, cannot be regarded as an ethical icon. Amazingly enough, they all did it in the open.

If we care about peace and about our future generations, we must be brave enough to connect the dots. The Mordechais and Esthers within our media, intellectual and political life must be confronted. We must unite against Purim. If the Labour party still carries any ethical responsibility, it should put David Milliband in his place. If our parties want us to believe in their agendas, they had better learn to say “NO” to Zionist money and Jewish proxy donators. If our media outlets want us to believe in their ‘impartiality’, they had better identify the enemy within. How many Iraqis will need to die before the penny drops? How many peace activist should die in high seas before we all say ‘NO more’? How many British workers will need to lose their jobs, homes and hopes before we can allow ourselves to say “NO” to Zionist wars and their advocates in our midst?