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US Strategy in Doubt as Abbas Loses Popular Support
But a series of events in recent weeks has sent Abbas's level of support from his people into a nosedive. The most serious has been the reaction among Palestinians to a decision Abbas or someone close to him made to postpone any further U.N. action on the recommendations of the Goldstone Report into the atrocities committed during last winter's Israel-Gaza war.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (R) shakes hands with U.S. President Barack Obama's envoy George Mitchell during their meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah October 9, 2009, in this picture released by the Palestinian Press Office (PPO). Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had "constructive" talks Friday with Mitchell on advancing the Middle East peace process, his office said. REUTERS/Thaer Richard Goldstone, a very distinguished South African jurist and war-crimes prosecutor, presented his report to the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva on Sep. 29. It contained a recommendation that the HRC forward the report's lengthy and detailed findings regarding wrongdoing by both sides to the Security Council for possible further action.
But when the HRC discussed Goldstone's report on Oct. 1, the PLO's representative requested that the HRC sit on the report until next March before doing anything further.
Most Palestinians, both within and outside their historic homeland, were outraged. They demanded to know who took that decision, and why. Suspicion rapidly settled on Abbas himself- and it was not allayed by his speedy declaration that the Fatah movement, which he heads, would set up its own internal investigation into how the decision had been made.
Palestinian media came out with two, perhaps overlapping, explanations of what had persuaded Abbas - or someone very close to him - to block any speedy action on the Goldstone Report.
One focused on economic incentives that Israel held out to a well-connected Palestinian company eager to acquire the bandwidth that it needs to set up a new cell-phone service.
The other report, from Shahab news agency, concerned a different, even more insidious form of Israeli blackmail.
Shahab reported that PA/PLO representatives here in Washington were persuaded to drop their support for speedy action on Goldstone after they were played a videotape and an audiotape, reportedly recorded during last winter's war, in which Abbas and a key security aide, Tayyib Abdul-Rahim, both urged Israel's leaders to continue and even escalate their attack on Gaza.
Those allegations struck a chord with many Palestinians who, during the war, had noted the refusal of most members of the PLO's far-flung diplomatic corps to say or do anything to oppose Israel's lengthy and very harmful pounding of Gaza's overwhelmingly civilian population.
Inside the West Bank, meanwhile, the PA's security forces (commanded in part by Abdul-Rahim) suppressed many of the demonstrations that erupted against the war, and arrested scores of Gaza solidarity activists.
It is not clear whether the Israeli government sees the political pummeling Abbas has taken as a result of his Goldstone decision as welcome, because it reduces his ability to negotiate peace in the name of the whole Palestinian people, or as regrettable, given the strength of his opposition to Hamas; but nonetheless necessary, as a way for Israel to ensure the blocking of the process Goldstone recommended.
One thing that is clear is that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been very serious about blocking any Security Council consideration of the Goldstone Report. Government spokesmen have launched nasty personal smears against Goldstone, who himself is Jewish, and whose daughter describes him as a committed Zionist.
Netanyahu's ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren, said Thursday that the Goldstone Report is more insidious than the Holocaust denial of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. If Goldstone's recommendations are accepted by the international community, Oren said, this would paralyse western democracies from defending themselves against terrorism.
He also noted the "intense cooperation" his government had received from the Barack Obama administration in fending off the "danger" it judged the Goldstone Report posed to Israel and the west.
Oren and Netanyahu might be feeling good about fending off this "danger". But the hardball way they - and apparently also U.S. officials - treated Abbas over this affair have considerably complicated the diplomatic game-plan that the Obama administration previously seemed to be following, which relied strongly on building up Abbas's and Fatah's political weight relative to that of Hamas.
It is that political balance that has now been tipped - perhaps decisively.
This is a big change since early August, when Abbas won many plaudits from western leaders for having organised a successful "General Conference" for Fatah - the movement's first such gathering in 20 years.
The combination of that successful Fatah conference and the continued infusion of western funding into the PA, where it is controlled by both Abbas and the technocratic, pro-western Ramallah Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, encouraged some western governments to think that these two men could now marginalise Hamas from having any real impact on peace negotiations.
Now, that plan looks far less feasible. Abbas's standing has been reduced not only by the decisions he most recently made regarding Goldstone, but also by the compete stasis in Washington's peace diplomacy, Washington's failure to win a settlement freeze from Netanyahu, as it had promised to do - and by the humiliating way Abbas was forced to engage in a "three-way" meeting with Netanyahu and Obama at the U.N. General Assembly in late September.
Obama's special envoy George Mitchell is back in Jerusalem Friday on the seventh or eighth of his quick shuttle tours around the Israeli-Arab region. On Saturday he will be in Ramallah.
Al-Jazeera's Sherine Tadros reported from occupied East Jerusalem that the city's Palestinians "are very upset and angry and becoming increasingly disappointed with this new U.S. approach, which is bringing nothing new to the table".
Meantime, there is increasing talk amongst both Palestinians and many Israelis of the possibility of a new intifada. If this does occur, it is most likely to be sparked by the massive wave of colonisation and linked activities the Israeli authorities have been undertaking in East Jerusalem.
Senior diplomats from neighbouring Arab states have warned that, given Jerusalem's intense significance for Arabs and Muslims everywhere, the effects of a new, Jerusalem-focused intifada could be felt far beyond Palestine.
*Helena Cobban is a veteran Middle East analyst and author. She blogs at www.JustWorldNews.org
- Posted in
42 Comments so far
Show AllI believe Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's term has expired. A two state solution is hopeless. Only a one state solution with the right of return for all people has a chance but that is if and only if the Israelis want peace on earth. As it is with the one quarter of the world's population being denied access to their third holiest place (al-Aqsa) there is no power on earth than keep the Jews 'safe' now.
If memory serves me right, I remmember Jews were less safe before the creation of Israel.
Muslims (even young males) can enter Temple Mount, A.K.A al-Aqsa, on normal days, when there are no violant riots. By the way, Temple Mount is not only the 3rd holiest place for Muslims, it's also the holiest place for Jews, and one of the holiest places for Christians.
One state solution was proposed by the Zionists as early as 1919. It was rejected by the Arab side.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faisal%E2%80%93Weizmann_Agreement
You're such a propagandist.
Every respectable Israeli historian puts the figure of Jewish land ownership in Palestine around 1947 at about 7%.
SEVEN PERCENT. Is that getting through to that bunker of yours? That's in 1947 too. It must have been lower back in 1920.
The "Arabs" rejected it, eh?
Well, I've got news for you, dim bulb, why would "Da Aye-rabs" even agree to divide anything, when Zionists stood to GAIN, unlawfully and through deceit, more land than they actually owned?
What kind of propaganda bullshit are you peddling?
Besides, Faisal didn't survey "The ARABS" or ask for their approval. Just because some puppet like today's Nuri al-Maliki of Iraq was more than happy to bend over backward for the colonial powers, doesn't mean that the people approved.
And, memory doesn't serve you well. How old are you anyway, 200 years old? You can't be older than John McCain.
Tell it like it is mohawk. (I always appreciate your comments.)
How can any one in their right minds thing that the actions of Abbas over the past while would have garnered more support from the Palestinians?
No one can be that stupid can they? That stupid AND run a country?
g w bush.
Barack Obama is a FAILURE in facilitating the peace effort between Israel and the Palestinians.
Barack Obama = Total Failure at Peace, Justice and Diplomacy!!!!!
Barack "Fraud" Obama is another do-nothing president. Netanyahu laughs at Obama as he continues to build more and more settlements. Obama's peace proposals in the Middle East are not only superficial and continuing the do-nothing, but let's threaten Iran policies, but his so-called "advocacy of peace" between Israel and the Palestinians has no teeth.
Obama is a FAILURE!!!!!
What policy has Obama succeeded at yet? Oh, I know one. Allowoing his corporate buddies from the nuclear plant known as Exelon to pollute more and more......
Obama is an environmentalist my ass....Obama is also a FAILURE at curbing emissions worldwide as well. Obama is a man of war and a man of the corporate entity.
MORE A COWARD, SUBSERVIANT TO THE ZIONIST GOONS WHO HOLD HIM HOSTAGE. RAHM/Moussad man and the rest of the dangerous clique in his face, have OBOMBA shaking in his boots!
Abbas and the PA are echoing a sad but true phenomena, the details might differ but the concepts are identical. In Africa for example Tvangarai of Zimbabwe, Moise Tsombe of the Congo, etc became enablers of colonial power when they encouraged the west to impose debilitation economic sanctions on their home countries. Opposition parties in Ghana under Nkrumah, in Guinea under Sekou Toure, Buthulezi in South Africa, in Haita under papa doc Duvalier in Iran under Mosadegh etc used the same playbook. Same story in the Carribean, Latin and Central America
Even during the European conquest in Africa and the Americas, naturally waring African and Native American kingdoms made tactical self serving collaborative decisions with settler Europeans with catastrophic strategic consequences. By the way same in Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Honduras etc etc etc etc.
The things about these game models is that the outside power creates a force functions that renders eccentric the natural order. A typical model goes like this: Local oppositions are funded by outsiders towards destabilization. The government clamp down thereby reducing the democratic project. The “international community” meaning the G5 colonial countries then finds permutations of excuses to marginalize the prey and resource rich or strategically valuable country by using weapons such as WTO, IMF, World Bank, NGOs, corporate media etc to ratchet up. The national government develops a siege mentality and further clamps down and on and on it goes. A good example is Cuba
This " game theory" model is not confined to outside the G5 countires only. In the US for example, the law enforcement and prison industrial complex is a prime and popular employer of black and brown prison guards, prison administrators, prison functionaries and prison suppliers with the same or similar class background as those it hold under bondage aka prisons. Reminds me of the African or native American blacksmiths etc who chose or were forced into making a living manufacturing chains and other instruments of confinements and bondage
Lessons of history: You invite outsiders to fight your battles at your own strategic peril. Period.
An excellent point. I would suggest that this tendency extends even TO those Colonial powers.
It simply selfishness in one is more concerned with personal well being, wealth and power then that of the people said person is supposed to represent. Policy decisions are driven more by the chances of getting re-elected, then by what is good for the country.
The Corporations can be seen as a Colonial Power in the USA, milking her of the wealth to benefit the small few and ensuring "Corporate Friendly" persons in power via the same tactics used by the old Europeans to Colonize Africa.
Indeed, if one looks behing what motivated that "Colonization" of The Americas, Africa , India and Southeast Asia, it was more often then not a Corporation.
"Indeed, if one looks behind what motivated that "Colonization" of The Americas, Africa, India and Southeast Asia, it was more often then not a Corporation."
In the Americas, it was precisely the East India Company, the first Limited Liability Corporation. As an example, the ship the Mayflower did not make its first journey transporting Pilgrims; its first journeys to the Americas were the transportation of "governors" or CEOs and indentured servants to colonies that were owned, not by the King of England, but by the East India Company, of which he was a shareholder.
In Canada the Hudsons Bay Company was granted 2/3rds the countries landmass as their exclusive Dominion.
It Interesting to note that While China had ships exploring Africa and the coasts of the Americas they did not colonize them or claim them as Chinese Territory.
China did not have a History of Corporations.
China did colonized Malaysia (And Singapore) in the 15th century, as part of the Zheng He expeditions.
These days China is colonizing Tibet.
[If Goldstone's recommendations are accepted by the international community, Oren said, this would paralyse western democracies from defending themselves against terrorism.]
Defending against terrorism, eh? A kill ratio of 100:1 and he has the chutzpa to call what happened in Gaza as a defence?
Of course Abbas is going to lose his popular support, he sided with the occupier. How many Frenchmen still revere Pétain? Do the Norwegians think Quisling was a great leader?
I would have to ask, what on earth is the freaking strategy? The bomb everything and let god sort it out type of strategy is it?
Mais oui! Well stated.
· Yr Obd't Servant
If you, Saturnalia, would have been the Israeli Prime Minister - How would you stop the rockets attacks against your civilians?
First off,
לך תזדיין
Second, it's as if what I posted a couple of days ago didn't sink in. Perhaps you're a paid shill and a hack whose role is to play dumb over and over again.
If Israel wanted to stop the rockets, it could have easily ended the whole charade by agreeing to extend the ceasefire that started back in the summer of 2008. It further would have agreed to comply with the terms of THAT ceasefire instead of continuing to paint Hamas as the aggressor.
Go peddle your nonsense somewhere else. Perhaps Cheney or some KKK idiot would be more than willing to entertain listen to your drivel.
I see the information I gave you a couple of days ago didn't sink.
During the 2008 ceasefire - militants from Gaza fired and average of 1-2 rockets a day. What's your response to that fact?
Also, the Hamas doesn't need to be painted as the aggressor.
They publically declare that their goal is to destroy Israel through Jihad and create a Taliban style Islamic republic on its ruins.
This is what the Hamas say about themselves.
You can check the Hamas charter.
How many Israelis did these glorified fireworks kill in the past ten years?
Compare those 18 to the thousands of Palestinians murdered in the same period.
Notwithstanding this ludicrous disparity, the Qassam hasbara campaign continues relentlessly.
Islamic militants had fired more than 10,000 rockets and mortar bomb on Israeli civilian targets since 2000. The numbers of Israelis killed from these rockets attacks since 2004 was 21. (19 civilians and 2 soldiers)
So what's your point? That Jew should sit quietly and accept daily bombing, without chet380’s permission to do anything to stop it, just because the risks of getting killed are not very high?
How would you feel if someone would fire 10000 rocket and mortar bomb on your house? Would you, chet380, try to stop it?
[If you, Saturnalia, would have been the Israeli Prime Minister - How would you stop the rockets attacks against your civilians?]
By ordering the Mossad to stop firing those rockets against those civvies. We've had this discussion before...
The Mossad didn't fire rockets on Israeli civilian targets. Palestinian militants did, and they don't listen to the Israeli Prime Minister orders.
Are you seriously thinking that the Mossad is firing all these rockets? Or is it just a bad joke on your part.
Yes, I do think the Mossad is firing most of those rockets. Were I a Palestinian fighting for independence I'd use something that actually did kill the Israeli soldiers and their politicians, and the fireworks don't do that.
its too bad the us has got such a stark choice of non-players when it comes to choosing puppet stooges to run their client states
abbas, karzai and al maliki have been a disappointment
its awkward when your find the few souless jerks who are around and willing to sell their people out for 30 shekels are somewhat below the standard of "useful"
you don't want them to uppity either so there's the rub
you just can't get good help these days...
oh the woes of empire
Obama is not a "failure" because he cannot make Netanyahu end all illegal West Bank settlements. Reason will not reach fanatical, fundamentalist violent religious beliefs like those held by the current Israeli government. It, its military and its spokespeople will continue to portray Israel as the "victim" and those of its victims who resist as "terrorists."
I am beginning to wonder if a new Palestinian state might be carved out of some area of the Middle East that Israel does not claim God wants it to have. A new state NOT bordered by Israel and whose access to the sea is not controlled by Israel. Perhaps an area that several countries might each donate contiguous land for.
0 could stop funding the occupation. It would likely cease rather quickly.
Gee, when Abbas sells out his people to Israeli & American interests, he becomes unpopular with his people.
What can explain this?
Literacy?
Sentience?
Perhaps the lack of a vibrant corporate media industry?
The only way to go on now seems to be giving Hamas the lead, starting by accepting them as a democratically elected government and taking them off the terrorists list.
Don't you think that in order to take someone off the terrorists list, they must first stop being terrorists?
You're talking about Israel, right?
Don't you think before someone can be considered an authority on the Israeli Palestinian conflict, they must first quit their shilling job? How much are you paid anyway, dim bulb?
I was talking about the Hamas. Israel is not in the terrorist list. The Hamas is.
I'm not getting payed to post in CD.
How much are you, mohawk, getting payed to post here?
It's clear where Letto gets his funding from. Let me repeat what I've already said several times in these columns. Hamas did a really good job of maintaining the ceasefire with the Israelis last year. No Hamas rockets were fired and the very few that were fired from Gaza were from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade which is an ally of Fatah - Abbass's organization. No-one was killed by these very crude weapons. Meanwhile Israel was continuing to blockade Gaza - against the terms that were agreed with Hamas. The Israeli government then decided it needed to appear tough and launched an attack killing several senior members of Hamas on US election day to ensure it did not make any headlines the next day. It was reported though in the UK Guardian. Hamas - not surprisingly - responded and then the Gaza genocide happened.
We know who the terrorists are, Letto!
What about the Islamic Jihad? Did they too kept the ceasefire? Did the Hamas tried to stop them? Did the Hamas dig a cross border tannel into Israel? Is it not a violation of the ceasefire?
Are you saying that firing 1 or 2 rockets a day is a perfectly good ceasefire? And if so, will you agree that someone will fire on your house one or two rockets a day?
I suppose Letto,(if you could get down from your bulldozer for a moment to contemplate some reality)that the Gaza Zoo animals slaughtered in CAST LEAD ATROCITIES (when a pregnant camel took two hours to die)were in on it too! The Jihad I mean!
What phoney baloney, big grins, 'hearty' handshakes, and rhetoric out the wazzoo, there will be another izraeli attack on palestine maybe before the year is out 'cause izraeli don't need no stinking badges.
Helena Cobban wrote, "Netanyahu's ambassador in Washington, Michael Oren, said Thursday that the Goldstone Report is more insidious than the Holocaust denial of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad". Well, President Ahmadinejad has not denied that the Holocaust happened, just like he never said Israel should be wiped off the map. It's "news" media reporters who either mistranslated or else mis-portrayed what he did say. Plenty of people have provided the actual translations, including since shortly after the statements were first made and they were being very misreported; but very few people repeat the corrections or clarifications!
And Michael Oren is just another jerk, to say the least of what he is, anyway. Who the hell cares what bs Israeli government representatives say when they refuse to recognize Israel's crimes and the existence of Palestine. The latter refusal is [the] reason why Hamas correctly refuses to accept the existence of the state of Israel; due to Israel's supreme international crimes against Palestinians and its, thereby, refusal to recognise the existence and continuation of Palestine.
The Goldstone Report is FINE, it's people against it who are NOT fine, sane, honest, etcetera.
A search of Youtube for "Goldstone Report" will turn up links to plenty of videos, and one is about the massive protest, nationally, of Palestinians against [deposed] President Mahmoud Abbas who's still refusing to accept that he's [deposed]. He's an instrument of the U.S., west, and Israel. Even plenty of Fatah members disagree with or oppose his ways, and apparently plenty of them also believed that he's personally involved in the demand that the Goldstone Report vote be, minimally, postponed.
The article's author then wrote that Oren said, "If Goldstone's recommendations are accepted by the international community, Oren said, this would paralyse western democracies from defending themselves against terrorism".
That's crap! The U.S., f.e., has not been defending itself against terrorism, it's been conducting major, superpower terrorism and it's nothing new of the U.S. It's also not new of the state of Israel to be terorrist and really worse. It's not political terrorism, for the U.S., Israel, etcetera, have no bases upon which to possibly commit such terrorism, but it is terrorism of another kind; terrorism, gangsterism, imperialism, corporatism, militarism, ... hell-ism, by states, for their real ruling "elites".
Hamas has had some members who committed some of what can be considered terrorist attacks in and on Israel, but this is political and out of defence, as well as retaliation; NEVER of aggression. And Hamas's members who have done this weren't the first Palestinians to do so.
And like Jewish UK MP Gerald Kaufman excellently and correctly stated in the British Parliament last January, Hamas has as much right to resistance as the Jews who fought to resist against the Nazis during the WWII years. He correctly compared the present government of Israel to that of Hitler and the Nazis. Etcetera. Right on every count, in every word that he stated!
As he clearly said, if Hamas is terrorist, then also were the Jews who fought against the Nazis or Nazi regime and their campaign of murder, etcetera.
There's at least one video clip of his excellent speech at Youtube and I think the page is also of last January, but maybe it's February.
Oren, however, is likely right regarding the Goldstone Report representing a danger for the west. After all, it is due to the west that Israel has gotten away with all of its supreme international crimes against Palestinians, and the population of Lebanon; and more. Western MIC corporations surely would not be pleased and they have a lot of sway with the western "governments", the political "leaders" thereof. And this would surely make it displeasing to the financial industry, Wall Street, etc.
It's not a real threat in any legitimate terms to be concerned about, but it's a strategic threat to the pigs of the west, nevertheless.
The Goldstone Report is good, but it needn't worry about Hamas, for it's really only about defence; NOT aggression. It's on the aggressors that the report should be wholly focused. Stop the aggression, and retaliatory acts by Palestinians will stop without needing to be directly intervened against. None of the acts are of aggression; always being retaliation. They're un- and counter-productive, we can say, but they're never of aggression and are definitely understandable. Most of us would do the same thing!
Notice that the only positive things reporters write about Mahmoud Abbas, the [deposed] Palestinian President, is with regards to when he pleases the west, especially the U.S., and also Israeli "leadership". As for Palestinians, he is [deposed].
"Funny" how a People is not allowed to make their democratic deicisions democratically, when we're supposedly democratic and prevent others from having their democracies. Of course we're not truly democratic, but we are on paper. I use paper ever time there's a need for bowel movements, elimination, too. There are many uses for paper, but when it comes to our justice systems, respect of law, it's only on paper and is readily shelved to collect dust, thick layers of dust.
From what I recall having read regarding President Ahmadinejad's on the Holocaust, he doesn't deny it happened; only saying that if it did, then proof should be provided, which is a statement that I can't disagree with. After all, if our governments know with certainty that the event happened, then our governments have proof for this and can simply present it to us. Our governments do NOT do this though. So, if people question whether the Holocaust happened, then it's understandable that they do; and that they suspect that our governments are AGAIN lying, for it's awfully usual of our governments to LIE to us ... about many things.
His statement therefore is not an outright denial that the Holocaust happened, and I'm not sure if the above is what he said; only thinking that it's what I recall having read. If it's a mis-recollection on my part, then he definitely did not deny the Holocaust in any way intelligible.
Actually, maybe what he said was not the above, but that if Israel and the west care as much as they pretend to do about the Nazi, not Palestinian, but Nazi Holocaust of the Jews, then why NOT stop the Israeli and western Holocaust of the Palestinians that's been going on for over 60 years now.
He definitely said the latter, but perhaps he said both. The following article is my most recent source on this topic.
"Key facts to keep in mind while opposing war against Iran",
by Phil Wilayto, AfterDowningStreet.org, Sep. 29, 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15456
EXCERPT:
Does President Ahmadinejad deny the Holocaust?
Every time I read somewhere that President Ahmadinejad has denied the Holocaust, I try and go back and find his original quote. That's not easy, because most of the time the alleged denial is paraphrased or partially quoted.
This month, I finally got a break.
On Sept. 24, Steve Inskeep, host of National Public Radio's Morning Edition program, interviewed President Ahmadinejad at his hotel in New York. The transcript (see
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113175352&ps=rs) says Ahmadinejad's remarks were delivered via a translator.
Here's the relevant section of that interview:
END OF EXCERPT
The first thing I stated, of what I thought to perhaps recall of his actual words, is not something President Ahmadinejad said, at all; while the second thing I said to recall is something he said and repeats. He clearly states that the Holocaust, 1942-45, is a historical event, that 6mn Jews were killed, but while clearly adding in wholly pertinent wording the second thing I said to believe recalling.
That's a definitely valuable part of the article, while the rest of it, which is not about President Ahmadinejad, also is certainly important.
I thought he had also said words similar to the first thing that I stated to believe to recall, but would need to do some serious Web searching to try to find out and am not going to do this at his hour. ... (snipped)
Oh well, I had give a little searching a try and found a few links, so far; and won't search for more at this hour.
"Media Disinformation and the "Iranian Threat"
The great, international, demonic, truly frightening Iranian threat",
by William Blum, The Anti-Empire Report, KillingHope.org, Jun 5, 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13864
EXCERPT(S):
After taking office, on Holocaust Memorial Day, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: "We will not allow Holocaust-deniers [Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] to carry out another holocaust." — Haaretz (Israel), May 14, 2009
Like clinical paranoia, "the threat from Iran" is impervious to correction by rational argument.
...
... These myths include the following, all of which I've dealt with before in this report but inasmuch as they are repeated on a regular basis in the media and by administration representatives, I think that readers need to be reminded of the counter arguments.
* ...
* Ahmadinejad is a Holocaust denier: I have yet to read of Ahmadinejad saying simply, clearly, unambiguously, and unequivocally that he thinks that what we know as the Holocaust never happened. He has instead commented about the peculiarity and injustice of a Holocaust which took place in Europe resulting in a state for the Jews in the Middle East instead of in Europe. Why are the Palestinians paying a price for a German crime? he asks. And he has questioned the figure of six million Jews killed by Nazi Germany, as have many other people of all political stripes.
END OF EXCERPT
The next article is perhaps not specifically related to President Ahmadinejad saying anything regarding the Holocaust or that "Israel should be wiped off the map", which doesn't seem like a bad thing to imagine happening, imo, for the Israeli leadership, and the so-called settlers, that is; but it's a transcript of an an address by President Ahmadinejad "at the United Nations Durban Review Conference on racism in Geneva, Switzerland, on April 20, 2009", and maybe some readers seeing this post will be interested.
"Full Text of President Ahmadinejad’s Remarks at U.N. Conference on Racism",
by Foreign Policy Journal.com, Apr 22 2009
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=13299
The next article is like the title indicates; specifically about the false accusation regarding the efacement of Israel, which doesn't seem lack a bad idea to me ... to imagine happening anyway.
""Wiped Off The Map" - The Rumor of the Century",
by Arash Norouzi, The Mossadegh Project, Jan 20 2007
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=4527
alwaysamazed
I hope all of you will run out and get a copy of Jeff Gates, "Guilt by Association." In the introduction he states:
The Zionism chronicled in this account
describes a transnational organized crime
agenda featuring financial and political
domination by elites and extremists.
He lays it all out, detail by bloody detail. And it's only the first in a series.
p.s. He served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance.
Have a look at this!
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/moubayed091009.html
LETTO go take a big dump you'll feel better.