Don't want to upset AIPAC now, do we!

What's Israel/AIPAC worried about? If the general has given a draft copy to U.S. administration officials, its criticisms have about as much chance of seeing the light of day as those critical sections of reports by government scientists on climate change.

It's noteworthy that Israel's own media and commentators are much more open in their opposition to repressive policies and violence against Palestinians than anything that would ever be allowed in the U.S. USans are the worst informed people in the world. At least the Russians were aware that their "news media" was pure propaganda.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43268

I feel differently: if we expect elected officials to never learn, they never will. It's important to use this as an educational tool, so we can end this tyranny of ignorance as far as Israel is concerned.

A Just Peace Is Readily Available

"How?"

"The first step towards said outcome is for the Jewish settlers to own up to the fact that they were wrong for having barged in, uninvited, and taking over the Palestinians' land."

"And then?"

"The settlers ask the Palestinians if it would be possible for Palestinian and Jew to sit down together for the purpose of figuring things out?"

"Based on?"

"One equals one."

"And the Palestinian response?"

"Yes, of course, but if only you'd asked us that a century ago."

This report will die on the vine just like the Mitchell Report and countless other reports over the decades. Something tells me the Israeli response won't be very different from it's response to the Mitchell Report either:

Israel has officially welcomed the Mitchell report, but rejected two of its main recommendations: a call for a halt to settlement building and criticisms that the Israeli army was too harsh in dealing with unarmed Palestinian demonstrators.

"Some senior U.S. officials are demanding that the full report not be published...."

What's the point? The existence and nature of the report are a given. Plausible denial is no longer an option.

Good comments.

And if the report is published? Will it matter?

We have seen harsh criticisms of Israel come before, and, as usual, they are often rationalized away and soon forgotten. Easy enough to do if both the government and mainstream media glosses over them.

I was in Europe when Jenin occurred. And CNN ran non-stop coverage there. (Here in the US CNN probably brushed over what was happening.) Who can forget the smashed out rubble. The man in a wheelchair who was run over by a tank?

Israeli crimes are so blatant and blatantly ignored here in the US why should this report change anything? Another report shelved and put away. Those who remain restless are merely accused of being anti-Semites. End of discussion.

But let's hope. Someday the truth will finally will-out. And perhaps the report will open more eyes?

Excellent comment Quinty. On the Jenin massacre, it is represented by all "friends of Israel" as a hoax, while there is copious documentary evidence of what amounts to war crimes. A perfect case study in the moral contortions American Israeli firsters will go to in their efforts to deny reality. At least in Israel the facts are generally not denied, rather openly justified with religio-racist dogma.

The Palestinians now occupy 10% of the land they occupied in 1947.

This graphical timeline is also helpful in understanding the root cause of the conflict.

This report means exactly nothing. Jews have been waiting for 2000 years for a homeland. What's another few? Soon the death rate in the territories will begin to exceed the birth rate--a slow but deliberate holocaust. Then it's only a matter of time until Greater Israel can be declared.

These people have been noted for their cruelty and avrice down through the ages (T. Aquinas) and they have learned that grnocidal torture is sweetest when it proceeds with glacial swiftness. It's no wonder that America's governments avow these Satanic atrocities.

Will Guy Montag do his duty to Empire and substitute Murdock's version for the ashes of his report?

If Sabra and Shatilla did not change anything.......

The MSM won't report the report.

The majority of Americans have NEVER heard of WTC7.
They will NEVER hear about this report either.

Shatilla. Sabra.

I am so glad that many are totally opposed to Isreali policies and Israeli corruption that is now a major US policy. I have always believed that the US invaded Iraq for one single reason. To protect and support Israel's imperialist agenda in the ME, particularly for water, oil and energy. Recent news now supports that agenda:

http://www.nogw.com/warforisrael.html

I heard that after Cheney's team helped the authors revise the report, it was less than one page... :-)

It'll be released on August 17th - right after the Israelis and/or the US atttacks Iran during the Ides of August.

"An Israeli in Palestine

by Stephen Lendman

Global Research, July 21, 2008"

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=9637

That is a very important review of a very important book by "Jeff Halper is an American-born Israeli Professor of Anthropology as well as a peace and human rights activist", co-founder of "the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD), and as its Coordinating Director". The book is, "An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel".

I've only started to read the article, but Stephen Lendman leaves it clear to me that this is another important review and overview by him; evidently revealing [much].

WordPress is F*CKED UP [AGAIN]! Just posted the above post less than two minutes ago and WordPress refuses my editing it, saying it's either not a post by me, or else the 30-minute time limit has expired, both of which are wholly FALSE. What a piece of JUNK WP [is].

Oddly, it's allowing me to edit this post, for that's how I'm adding this statement. Maybe it wasn't WP's fault, but it'd take technically specialised people to be able to know. Just prior to trying to edit my above post, I did a re-download of a BIOS, ver. A05, install file from Dell, and that file again ends up being corrupt. If that corruption occurred during the transfer, only, then maybe there's something wrong with my connection; but I've downloaded MANY other packages without any problems.

Not to worry.......Addington will rewrite the whole report.

More on Jeff Halper and ICAHD:

My fifth trip to Israel Palestine was exactly a year ago. Among many things; I attended ICAHD's summer kick off:

"We all need a psychiatrist, but we cannot afford one, so we do activism."-Ashraf Abu Moch, Israeli Palestinian, ICAHD Volunteer.

[Jerusalem, July 16, 2007] ICAHD, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions is a non-violent do something group opposed to the occupation of Palestine which resists the Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in the Occupied Territories. This summer ICAHD has committed to rebuild 300 of the -so far 18,000 homes the Israeli government has destroyed which has resulted in creating 18,000 homeless families who legally own their land.

According to international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention forbids home demolitions in occupied territories and demands that the occupiers maintain the status quo and not pilfer the resources of the indigenous population.

Indigenous Palestinians are denied building permits in the Orwellian democracy of Israel while USA fundamentalist Christian churches financially support and pray for the illegal settlements/colonies which have been erected on legally owned Palestinian land.

The Rest:

http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=969&Itemid=202

"Israel is faced with a moment of truth regarding its identity and future existence as a Jewish, democratic state. The facts of demography and geography are clear; there are 10.6 million people living between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, split almost evenly between Jews and Arabs.

"A searing video of Jewish settlers, Israeli soldiers and Palestinians as they struggle over the holy city of Hebron. This clip is the first of a series taken from Land of the Settlers, the acclaimed documentary developed by Chaim Yavin, Israel's premier news anchor.

Ameinu | Liberal Values, Progressive Israel:

http://www.ameinu.net/video-landing.php

On July 31, 2007 I published:

"There is a very clear and powerful connection between how much time you serve in the territories and how F#%@&D in the head you get." -Former Israeli Soldier

The Rest:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=975&Itemid=202

Since the general felt the necessity to "run it by" the zionists who are engaging in the genocide of the darker-skinned Palestinians, it would follow that they assume the right to edit the report.

The bushadmin position on all this; a total disgrace!

Expecting the Zionist American media to make any of this public, or to pursue the story with anything resembling "journalism" is like expecting China to offer self-critical reports on Tibet.

This report will die unread and unheard by 99% of the country.

The comparisons to South Africa are fair ones. I don't remember South Africa delivering collective punishment, bulldozing homes and creating ghettos where people can starve to death.

This report should have been published in it's entirety online, in multiple forums, including CBC, BBC, and Al Jazeera.

At present, in this form, being vetted by the Bush Junta, it will mean less than nothing.

And consider that it is being released at the same time that Israel is under fire (so to speak) for a video of an IDF goon shooting a restrained prisoner in the leg with a baton round.

Gaza And The Warsaw Ghetto

same place

different time

while the world stood by

genocide

live

I wonder if the good people of Israel, founded in 1948, have ever read the 1948 UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
http://www.un.org/Overview/rights.html

Has George Bush or any American read it?

To Cedar and all those who point to existing laws and high ideals: this world, especially as regards the conflict over Palestine, regards pronouncements of rights and UN "Resolutions" as debris to be brushed aside or ignored while those with REAL power (aka nuclear weapons) enforce their will.In the Battle for Palestine, this means cluster bombs, home demolitions, uprooting of orchards, and prisons filled with teenagers. And of course there is the predictable survival reflex of indiscriminate terror. Rights are never given or granted; they are claimed and then taken. Palestine will never be settled peacefully...as long as the US guarantees Israeli hegemony and picks up the tab, to boot. My recommendations are twofold 1) US out of the Middle East and 2)Separate the US into 6 regions a)the Northeast states b)the South c)The Midwest d)The mountain and Plains states including AZ and NM e) the Far western states and f)Texas. As a result we will each have our own budgets , priorities, social contracts and alliances. The South will be Republican in character and religious in its values with a conservative foreign policy. The Northeast will make allies of Canada, European countries and the Far Western states. The Midwestern states will share some religious values with the South. Hawaii, mostly Democratic will be a far western state and Alaska will be Republican like a mountain state. And Texas will get what it once had and has always wanted since: to be its own country and will probably find a lot in common with Isreal! I am serious in this proposal for I do not see any chance of political unity or vision within these 6 regions anytime soon.

eileenfleming ,

I take it by your post that you're supportive of ICAHD.

As for needing a psychiatrist, I understand why they would say this, but they definitely shouldn't look to the USA, where the VAST MAJORITY of psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health care professionals have been LIKE NON-EXISTENT over the past nearly 8 years of GW [OF] Terror(ism) by the U.S. govt and its fiend ruling elites with their invisible hands manipulating our govt. Awfully few have spoken out against these supreme international crimes and criminals of the U.S., so I wouldn't expect them to be recommendable as psychiatrists for Israelis.

ANYWAY, the Haaretz article strikes me as nearly worthless; revealing awfully little of the report the article's about. We have had strong testimonies from former IDF soldiers though; very, very strong testimonies. Those often include testimonies against IDF officers; and although perhaps not mentioned by name, nonetheless strongly incriminating for them if ever the long overdue trials are held.

And of course we've had what, around 25, or so, UNSC resolutions drafted for the purpose of trying to get Israel to CEASE it's relentless and extreme crimes against Palestinians?! All vetoed by the U.S. govt, "of course"; but that's no excuse. After all, absolutely every one of those vetoes was inarguably criminal and therefore not supportable in any just court of law. So the UNSC criminally allowed these criminal vetoes to hold sway. But we still have had these resolutions; it's factual history and documented.

I sure hope the report the article by the Haaretz is about is worthy of FAR MORE than the meager information the Haaretz provided.

And is James Jones really sincere, or is this yet another political game because of the presidential elections in November? I wonder. We've had LONG to learn of the real situation in Palestine and the extreme crimes of Israel, and its superpower backer, protecter (and profiteer) U.S. govt, so this report by Jones seems as if it's possibly another political dark joke being played on us and in deceptive terms; maybe, that is. Is that what's really going on with this though?

Israel is bad and Bush USA is bad, for the Paleastinians this is good, now they can ask the UN to tell off Isreal and Bush. Knock it off.

"Has George Bush or any American read it?"

I cannot speak for "any American" but these days George Wanker Bush only reads about the Rapture - when will it happen?; what will it be like? He privately refers to himself as the "Right Hand of God". He consults secretly with lunatic "preachers", like the Reverend Harry Powell (a known Cheney confederate), about how close to God he will be seated after the world ends. There are large cages full of rattlesnakes in the White House basement. Bush sneaks down there when he can and communes with them. He has a well played 45 RPM record of George Jones singing "Bringing in the Sheaves" on one side and "We Shall Gather at the River" on the other, which he plays backwards, looking for clues for the date of the Apocalypse. Many, many prominent evangelicals have assured him that the clues are indeed there. Once Bush figures this out, the order for the attack on Iran will be given. This is what Bush does these days as he pisses away the time until his regime comes to an end and he becomes, once again, jus' plain folks.

Doesn't Common Dreams have an "Israel-can-do-whatever-it-wants-and-fuck-you" chorus?
If they do I don't see any postings yet.