Friday April 27, 2012, 2:42 am
Happy BIrthday to Israel--thanks Beatrice for this great post highlighting the great accomplishments of the Jewish State.

Friday April 27, 2012, 4:14 am
Israel had indeed become a "light to the nations" with its pioneering entrepreneurial spirit and its humanism, with freedom for individual self-expression and choice. This is in spite of being surrounded by dictatorial, corrupt regimes and populations brainwashed in hating Jews and Israel and a desire to annihilate it!

Go Israel, go a show the world what intelligence and freedom can achieve!

Friday April 27, 2012, 4:23 am
יום הולדת שמח ישראל

יום העצמאות‎

Friday April 27, 2012, 4:25 am
Green stars to you Cal and Vlasta!

Friday April 27, 2012, 4:34 am
'Israel: In 1922, this swamp and desert land was inhabited by a impoverished Arab majority population of 752,000. Today there are 7,746,000 residents, with an Ashkenazi (Jew) majority that have elevated it into a high-tech entrepreneurial nation with the highest per capita income in the region.' (http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/4828)

Jewish/Israeli contributions to the world's knowledge in science, math, and arts is unsurpassed by any other group of people:

'The Global Jewish population is approximately 14,000,000; that is FOURTEEN MILLION or about 0.02% of the world’s population. At least 185 Jews and people of half- or three-quarters-Jewish ancestry have been awarded the Nobel Prize...'(http://www.jinfo.org/Nobel_Prizes.html)

By comparison, and a fair one as it is the group that wants to reconquer and rule Israel and Jerusalem, the land and city founded by Jews 3000 years ago, here are the statistics on Muslim winners of the Nobel Prizes, and a forecast of what Israel would become again under their rule:

With 1.5 billion estimated world population, Muslims have only won 10 Nobel Prizes, all but 2 are for the Peace Prize, and the winner of the prize for Physics, Abdus Salam (shared with 2 Jews), was never honoured in his own country, Pakistan, because, as an Ahmadi (a sect of Muslims considered apostates and heretics by Sunni Muslims), he became a non-Muslim under the Second Amendment of the 1973 Pakistani Constitution. He died on Nov 21, 1996, in Oxford and, in accordance with his last wish, was buried in Pakistan. There was no official mourning, no recognition of the laurels he had won for his country and no representative of the government attended his funeral. The inscription on his tombstone initially read: “The first Muslim Nobel Laureate” but the word “Muslim” was effaced by the authorities, turning the inscription into the nonsensical “First Nobel Laureate.”

Two of the Muslim Peace prize winners, Shirin Ebadi of Iran was driven into exile for her defense of Baha'is and gay people, not wearing a headscarf in her travels and questioning Islam's harsh punishments; and Muhammed Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank to aid the poor with small loans to start their own businesses, was persecuted by the government of Bangladesh and dismissed out of political jealousy.(http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=39657&Cat=9 and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_Nobel_Laureates)

Friday April 27, 2012, 4:35 am
thank you Beatrice and Cal for the forward

Friday April 27, 2012, 4:41 am
Happy Birthday Israel! The world would be a much darker place without you, your people and their gifts to mankind. Israel is a light in a sea of darkness, hate, intolerance and superstition that surrounds it. May that light never go out!

If you didn't see the wonderful news recently, two Israeli (Jewish) scientists have discovered a vaccine for 90% of all cancers!!!!! It should be available to save millions of lives a year in about 6 years. One more great achievement coming out of Israel to make the world a better place.(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9191848/Universal-cancer-vaccine-developed.html)

Friday April 27, 2012, 4:44 am
Thank you Beatrice.

Friday April 27, 2012, 4:55 am
Here's a better video of Israeli/Jewish contributions to the world:

So You Want to Boycott Israel?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbIQto3KPUM

but it still doesn't cover all of the great advances coming out of this little dynamo of freedom and democracy.

Don't worry, the Israel/Jew haters will be flooding in here any minute and ruin the celebration so enjoy it now.

Friday April 27, 2012, 6:07 am
such a little country, so many gifts to us all. makes the whole BDS movement look pretty hypocritical.

Friday April 27, 2012, 6:29 am
Thank you.

Friday April 27, 2012, 7:03 am
They made that desert BLOOM!

Friday April 27, 2012, 7:23 am
Noted
Shalom!!!

Friday April 27, 2012, 7:57 am
noted and thank you---I do need top say that we need a two state solution over there---end the occupation and there will be more peace.

Friday April 27, 2012, 8:24 am
Well I must say it was a very happy 64th birthday for the state of Israel. The usual MK's mourned the event. I guess they also mourn the rights they have here that NO Arab country would give them. It's a hard life with so many blessings to count.
For most Israeli's it is BBQ day but for us we traveled the settlements just south of Jerusalem and had our BBQ there. It was fabulous

Friday April 27, 2012, 8:38 am
yom huledet sameach,as is close to typing in hebrew as I can get,lol
lovely country been there twice

Friday April 27, 2012, 9:08 am
Shalom! Thank you Beatrice, and thank you Cal for sharing.

Friday April 27, 2012, 9:28 am
Thank God for Israel!!!

Friday April 27, 2012, 9:35 am
Thank you Beatrice. Happy Birthday Israel. Mazeltove and l'chaim.

Friday April 27, 2012, 9:46 am
From The American - This essay is based on George Gilder’s new book, The Israel Test.

Israel has become one of the most important economies in the world, and is second only to the United States in its pioneering of technologies benefitting human life, prosperity, and peace.

Like the Jews throughout history, Israel poses a test to the world. In particular, it is a test for any people that lusts for the fruits of capitalism without submitting to capitalism’s imperious moral code. Because capitalism, like the biblical faith from which it largely arises, remorselessly condemns to darkness and death those who resent the achievements of others.

At the heart of anti-Semitism is resentment of Jewish achievement. Today that achievement is concentrated in Israel. Obscured by the usual media coverage of the “war-torn” Middle East, Israel has become one of the most important economies in the world, second only to the United States in its pioneering of technologies benefitting human life, prosperity, and peace.

But so it has always been. Israel, like the Jews throughout history, is hated not for her vices but her virtues. Israel is hated, as the United States is hated, because Israel is successful, because Israel is free, and because Israel is good.

As Maxim Gorky put it: “Whatever nonsense the anti-Semites may talk, they dislike the Jew only because he is obviously better, more adroit, and more capable of work than they are.” Whether driven by culture or genes—or like most behavior, an inextricable mix—the fact of Jewish genius is demonstrable. It can be gainsaid only by people who do not expect to be believed.

Charles Murray distilled the evidence in Commentary magazine in April 2007. The Jewish mean intelligence quotient is 110, ten points above the norm. This strikingly higher average intelligence, however, is not the decisive factor in overall Jewish achievement.

What matters in human accomplishment is not the average performance but the treatment of exceptional performance and the cultivation of genius. The commanding lesson of Jewish accomplishment is that genius trumps everything else. Whatever the cause of high IQ, as Murray explains, “the key indicator for predicting exceptional accomplishment (like winning a Nobel Prize) is the incidence of exceptional intelligence... The proportion of Jews with IQs of 140 or higher is somewhere around six times the proportion of everyone else” and rises at still higher IQs.

The great error of contemporary social thought is that poverty must result from “discrimination” or “exploitation.” Because Jews tend to be overrepresented at the pinnacles of excellence, a dogmatic belief that nature favors equal outcomes fosters hostility to capitalism and leads inexorably to anti-Semitism.

The socialists and anti-Semites have it backwards. Poverty needs little explanation. It has been the usual condition of nearly all human beings throughout all history. What is precious and in need of explanation and nurture is the special configuration of cultural and intellectual aptitudes and practices—the differences, the inequalities—that under some rare and miraculous conditions have produced wealth for the world. Inequality is the answer, not the problem.

In his book Human Accomplishment Murray focused on the fact that the three-tenths of 1 percent of the world population that is Jewish has contributed some 25 percent of notable human intellectual accomplishment in the modern period. Murray cites the historical record:

In the first half of the twentieth century, despite pervasive and continuing social discrimination against Jews throughout the Western world, despite the retraction of legal rights, and despite the Holocaust, Jews won 14 percent of Nobel Prizes in literature, chemistry, physics, and medicine/physiology.

He then proceeds to more recent data:

In the second half of the twentieth century, when Nobel Prizes began to be awarded to people from all over the world, that figure [of Jews awarded Nobel Prizes] rose to 29 percent. So far in the twenty-first century, it has been 32 percent.

The achievements of modern science are heavily the expression of Jewish genius and ingenuity. If 26 percent of Nobel Prizes do not suffice to make the case, it is confirmed by 51 percent of Wolf Prizes in Physics, 28 percent of the Max Planck Medailles, 38 percent of the Dirac Medals, 37 percent of the Heineman Prizes for Mathematical Physics, and 53 percent of the Enrico Fermi Awards.

Jews are not only superior in abstruse intellectual pursuits, such as quantum physics and nuclear science, however. They are also heavily overrepresented among entrepreneurs of the technology businesses that lead and leaven the global economy. Social psychologist David McClelland, author of The Achieving Society, found that entrepreneurs are identified by a greater “need for achievement” than are other groups. “There is little doubt,” he concluded, explaining the disproportionate representation of Jews among entrepreneurs, that in the United States, “the average need for achievement among Jews is higher than for the general population.”

“Need for achievement” alone, however, will not enable a person to start and run a successful technological company. That takes a combination of technological mastery, business prowess, and leadership skills that is not evenly distributed even among elite scientists and engineers. Edward B. Roberts of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School compared MIT graduates who launched new technological companies with a control group of graduates who pursued other careers. The largest factor in predicting an entrepreneurial career in technology was an entrepreneurial father. Controlling for this factor, he discovered that Jews were five times more likely to start technological enterprises than other MIT graduates.

For all its special features and extreme manifestations, anti-Semitism is a reflection of the hatred toward successful middlemen, entrepreneurs, shopkeepers, lenders, bankers, financiers, and other capitalists that is visible everywhere whenever an identifiable set of outsiders outperforms the rest of the population in the economy. This is true whether the offending excellence comes from the Kikuyu in Kenya; the Ibo and the Yoruba in Nigeria; the overseas Indians and whites in Uganda and Zimbabwe; the Lebanese in West Africa, South America, and around the world; the Parsis in India; the Indian Gujaratis in South and East Africa; the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire; and above all the more than 30 million overseas Chinese in Indonesia, Malaysia, and elsewhere in Southeast Asia.

Thomas Sowell of the Hoover Institution reports that in Indonesia the Chinese were 5 percent of the population, but they controlled 70 percent of private domestic capital and ran three-quarters of the nation’s top 200 businesses. Their economic dominance—and their repeated victimization in ghastly massacres—prompts Sowell to comment: “Although the overseas Chinese have long been known as the ‘Jews of Southeast Asia,’ perhaps Jews might more aptly be called the overseas Chinese of Europe.”

As Sowell writes, these “middlemen minorities,” their “wealth inexplicable, their superiority intolerable,” typically arouse hatred from competing intellectuals. “It is not usually the masses of the people who most resent the more productive people in their midst. More commonly, it is the intelligentsia, who may with sufficiently sustained effort spread their own resentments to others.”

Capitalism overthrows theories of zero-sum economics and dog-eat-cat survival of the fittest. Thus, as in the United States (outside the academic arena), anti-Semitism withers in wealthy capitalist countries. It waxes in socialist regimes where Jews may arouse resentment by their agility in finding economic niches among the interstices of bureaucracies, tax collections, political pork fests, and crony capitalism.

Socialist or feudal systems, particularly when oil-rich and politically controlled, favor a conspiratorial view of history and economics. Anti-Semitism is chiefly a zero-sum disease.

As Walter Lippmann eloquently explained in The Good Society, capitalism opened a vista of mutually enriching enterprise with the good fortune of others creating opportunities for all. The Golden Rule was transformed from an idealistic vision of heaven into a practical agenda. From Poor Richard’s Almanack to rich Andrew Carnegie’s autobiographical parables, all were rediscovering the edifying insights of the author of Proverbs.

Judaism, perhaps more than any other religion, favors capitalist activity and provides a rigorous moral framework for it. It is based on a monotheistic affirmation that God is good and will prevail through transcending envy and hatred and zero-sum fantasies. Judaism can be plausibly interpreted as affirming the possibilities of creativity and collaboration on the frontiers of a capitalist economy.

The incontestable facts of Jewish excellence constitute a universal test not only for anti-Semitism but also for liberty and the justice of the civil order. The success or failure of Jews in a given country is the best index of its freedoms. In any free society, Jews will tend to be represented disproportionately in the highest ranks of both its culture and its commerce. Americans should celebrate the triumphs of Jews on our shores as evidence of the superior freedoms of the U.S. economy and culture.

The real case for Israel is as the leader of human civilization, technological progress, and scientific advance.

In a dangerous world, faced with an array of perils, the Israel test asks whether the world can suppress envy and recognize its dependence on the outstanding performance of relatively few men and women. The world does not subsist on zero-sum legal niceties. It subsists on hard and possibly reversible accomplishments in technology, pharmacology, science, engineering, and enterprise. It thrives not on reallocating land and resources but on releasing human creativity in a way that exploits land and resources most productively. The survival of humanity depends on recognizing excellence wherever it appears and nurturing it until it prevails. It relies on a vanguard of visionary creators on the frontiers of knowledge and truth. It depends on passing the Israel test.

Israel is the pivot, the axis, the litmus, the trial. Are you for civilization or barbarism, life or death, wealth or envy? Are you an exponent of excellence and accomplishment or of a leveling creed of frenzy and hatred?

Friday April 27, 2012, 10:16 am
wow, thanks so much for the forward Cal and Beatrice for the post!

Friday April 27, 2012, 11:42 am
Excellent information! STAND WITH ISRAEL!!!

Friday April 27, 2012, 11:49 am
Happy Birthday, Israel!

Friday April 27, 2012, 12:16 pm
Happy birthday, Israel and many, many more. Thanks for posting, Beatrice.

Friday April 27, 2012, 1:08 pm
happy birthday sure but also, I feel like saying that in my opinion Palestine should be free from Israel occupation once for all.

Friday April 27, 2012, 1:42 pm
No happy birthday to the Zionist Entity which has usurped a whole country, practised (and practises) ethnic cleansing, slow genocide, carpet bombing, aggressive war against its neighbours, apartheid, oppression and the rest.

I look forward to the day this theocracy "disappears from the pages of time".

Friday April 27, 2012, 2:14 pm
i'm now a fan. i didn't know all that stuff but i watched the videos, so i'll say happy b-day and MANY happy returns of the day.

Friday April 27, 2012, 2:30 pm
I'd wish you happy birthday, Israel, but I doubt it would mean anything coming from an inferior woman. As soon as you join us in the 21st century and let the women pray with the men, I'll wish you a happy birthday. http://ipsnews.net/text/news.asp?idnews=52349

Friday April 27, 2012, 2:40 pm
In addition to being an apartheid state, there are areas in the Zionist Entity where women are physically assaulted if they travel in the "wrong" section of the bus or wear the wrong clothes. It's a backward intolerant society.

Friday April 27, 2012, 2:44 pm
John, I'd be disappointed if you didn't try to throw a wet rag on the celebration of the Jewish State! I can't imagine how much this type of thing sticks in your craw, but don't worry, the anniversaries of the forming of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hamas, and Hezbollah will be doubtless coming soon for you to have your own festivities.

Friday April 27, 2012, 2:51 pm
I'm glad I've been able to stifle some of the smug, racist hatefest of "celebration" of the Entity, Cal. And I do celebrate Hamas and Hezbollah, true patriots of their respective countries. And the Zionists must be so proud of having been the cause of their creation and continuance.

Friday April 27, 2012, 2:53 pm
and they are slated to become the first fur-free country, if ireland doesn't beat them to it.

Friday April 27, 2012, 2:58 pm
John, you write:
In addition to being an apartheid state, there are areas in the Zionist Entity where women are physically assaulted if they travel in the "wrong" section of the bus or wear the wrong clothes. It's a backward intolerant society."

The treatment of ARab women or even outsiders visiting Arab countries is deplorable, John. Extremists of all religions are known for their abuse of women, but you're really not having too much to stand on when you state that Israel women are especially abused. Islamic dominated countries many times really have their number, as if that might be something to be proud of.

That's the truth of the matter. They are treated like chattel in many places in the Arab world.

Here;s some stories citing this:

In Saudi Arabia:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0512/p09s01-coop.html

In Egypt:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/vaw/ngocontribute/Egyptian%20Center%20for%20Women_s%20Rights.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/world/middleeast/violence-enters-5th-day-as-egyptian-general-blames-protesters.html?pagewanted=all

In Iran:

http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/mhviran.htm


Human rights for women in Arab countries, especially the conservative ones, are non-existent from a Western context. Be careful in the comparisons, John. You have embarassed yourself with this one!

Friday April 27, 2012, 3:16 pm
Next, we will celebrate the achievements of Botha's South Africa, Pinochet's Chile, Stroessner's Paraguay, Franco's Spain and Mussolini's Italy. After that, we will celebrate the achievements of Alabama under George Wallace.

. .

Here are a few of the things the Zionists are not likely to achieve anytime soon:

* equal rights
* justice
* dignity
* freedom
* ethnic peace
* decency
* empathy
* humanity
* respect

Friday April 27, 2012, 3:22 pm
Cal M. writes:

> Human rights for women in Arab countries, especially the conservative ones, are non-existent from a Western context.

But women DID have rights in Iraq and continue to have rights in Syria. Israel-firsters destroyed the first and are trying to destroy the second. In Iran, another country that the Zionists want to destroy, women are gaining ground.

> 27.1% of the ministers in government are women

-- "Iranian women", wikipedia

The reality in Iran differs greatly from our stereotype.

See FAQ: What is Iran like?, for example. Or this:

"Iranian woman talks politics with Ahmadinejad -- on car rooftop!".

Here's more from the wikipedia article:

> According to UNESCO world survey, at primary level of enrollment Iran has the highest female to male ratio in the world among sovereign nations, with a girl to boy ratio of 1.22 : 1.00.[49] By 1999, Iran had 140 female publishers, enough to hold an exhibition of books and magazines published by women.[50] As of 2005, 65% of Iran's university students and 43% of its salaried workers were women.[51] and as of early 2007 nearly 70% of Iran's science and engineering students are women.[52] This has led to many female school and university graduates being under-utilised. This is beginning to have an effect on Iranian society and was a contributing factor to the anti-regime protests by Iranian youth.

> Women make up almost 30% of the Iranian labor force, and the percentage of all Iranian women who are economically active has more than doubled from 6.1% in 1986 to 13.7% in 2000.[53][54] As well 27.1% of the ministers in government are women (ranks 23rd out of 125 countries) and 3.4% are parliamentarians (140th out of 157 countries).[55] In 2009 Fatemeh Bodaghi became Vice President for Legal Affairs and a top advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad.[56] Maryam Mojtahidzadeh who runs the women's ministry was also selected as an advisor to the president.[57]

> At least one observer (Robert D. Kaplan) has commented on the less traditional attitude of many women in Iran compared to other Muslim countries. "In Iran, you could point a camera at a woman ... and she would smile. If you did that in Pakistan, the woman would run away and a man might throw a rock at you."[58]

-- "Iranian women", wikipedia

Friday April 27, 2012, 3:40 pm
Women outnumber men in college in both Iran and Saudi Arabia (as they do in the U.S., too), but education doesn’t necessarily translate into employment. In Iran, women have outnumbered men in entering college by as much as two to one in the last several years. However, after graduation, women are one-third less likely to work as men. Thirty two percent of Iranian women participate in the workforce, about half the average of advanced economies. In Saudi Arabia the rate is even lower, at 21%.


Also consider from the same article:

- The World Economic Forum measures disparities between men and women across a range of criteria - economic participation, health, political empowerment and access to education. Iran ranked 123rd out of 131 countries. Saudi Arabia was six places lower, at 129th. For political rights, Iran ranked 129th out of 131 countries. Saudi Arabia came in last."

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/27/zakaria-comparing-the-status-of-women-in-iran-and-saudi-arabia%E2%80%A8/

Friday April 27, 2012, 3:41 pm
Welcome to the party ,Charles, we're serving sour grapes to the uninvited!

Friday April 27, 2012, 3:42 pm
Given the above statistics, Charles, are you really anxious to defend the progress of women in Iran and elsewhere in most of the Arab World?

Friday April 27, 2012, 5:28 pm
Thanks for this

Friday April 27, 2012, 5:35 pm
Happy 64th birthday Israel. In this short time you have achieved more that all your neighbours combined in hundreds of years. You are a beacon of light in a sea of darkness.
Thanks B.

Friday April 27, 2012, 6:02 pm
Cal M

I have embarressed my self? I don't think so.

"Extremists of all religions are known for their abuse of women, but you're really not having too much to stand on when you state that Israel women are especially abused."

Your whole argument is "we are bad, but they are worse".

Friday April 27, 2012, 6:30 pm
Here's another of the Zionist Entity's achievements:--

http://www.imemc.org/article/63353

Hebron Home Caged Due To Settlements
by Hamza Al-Hattab - WAFA News

April 23, 2012

Steel bars surround the home, not only sliding down the windows, but all over the place, covering it from every side and corner, covering its doors, covering its external yard and topping its walls, making it look like a box, at first you might think it is a big cage for birds, and maybe some animals, but if you look closer, you will find 15 members of Abu Aisha family living there, in their home, that was transformed into a prisoner due to illegal settlement activities, and extremist, fundamentalist Israeli settlers.

The home is Mohammad Hamed Abu Asiha, is there, and has always been there, but now, it is surrounded by illegal Israeli settlements in the heart of the Old City of Hebron, surrounded by Beit Hadassah settlement, Beit Romano and above that by an Israeli military base, wall-to-wall with their home.

Heading home or leaving it requires a permit, a permit from an army that occupies the city, an army that is not there to protect, but to oppress you.

The owner, Hajj Abu Aisha, said that he owns the land, since fifty years now, but now, he is imprisoned in his own home.

"I own this land, I built my home on my own land, I live there, and I also rent part of the building out, but in 1984, Israel constructed the illegal Ramat Yishai settlement, and that was when the first on ongoing attacks, against us, started, "Abu Aisha said, "They want us to leave, not only our property, they want us out of the whole area, this is exactly what happened with the family of Zackariah Al-Bakry, when the settlers took his two-story home, and expanded their illegal colony".

The seventyish old man is there, and will remain there, Israel’s violations, attacks and arbitrary searches is still part of his life, but he turned his home into a "heaven on earth", simply because it is his home, because, unlike those invaders, he is the owner of his property, while they are the occupiers.

Hajj Abu Aisha has many stories to tell, one of them happened when he was watering and tending to his small garden, a few olive trees, and a number of different plants; the settlers asked him to sell them his home, and his land, and he rejected their "offer".

He told them he is willing to pay them so that they leave the illegal outpost. When the settlers realized how determined and steadfast he is, they stepped-up the series of endless attacks.

"Every member of my family has been harassed, verbally abused, and physically attacked by them", the Hajj said, "Children, adults, women… you name it, all of them have been attacked and beaten by the settlers, they even have been hospitalized due to these attacks".

The attacks have different types, ranging from beating, hurling stones, eggs and trash, to spraying them with waste-water, and ongoing death threats. The family cannot even open its windows, cannot communicate with Palestinian neighbors; their home became their prison.

Reema Abu Asiha said that nobody is able to visit them, her parents, brothers, sisters, relatives, nobody is allowed to visit them; nobody can.

"When my sons and daughters got married, nobody was allowed to come, we had to move the wedding reception to the houses of their uncles", Reema added, "Even when we need to fix out home, we have to apply for a special permit from the military, yet, we are not allowed to bring construction materials in".

She continues, with tears flowing down her cheeks; her eyes glossing and her lips moving in pain, "I lost two fetuses in the past, one in 1988, when the ambulance could not enter the area, and I had to walk to hospital while in labor.

A year later I became pregnant again, twins this time, we filed all needed documents, coordinated with the Red Cross one month before my due date, yet, when I was in labor, my husband called the ambulance, but due to Israeli restrictions it took them more than two and a half hours to arrive, by then, my twins were dead".

The father complained that officials and journalists do not pay attention to their hardships, their misery and suffering.

"Last time we saw any official was in 2007, when the governor of Hebron, Areef Al-Ja’bary visited us", he said, "The Press does not pay attention to us, even local Palestinian press agencies do not visit is, nobody cares about what is happening to us, nobody helps us".

The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the occupied territory, B’Tselem, and the youth coalition against settlement, equipped the property with surveillance equipment to document the Israeli violations.

The family filed dozens of complaints, provided the Israeli police with videos and pictures of these attacks, but to no avail.

Hajj Abu Aisha said that every time he and his family were attacked, they filed complaints to the Israeli Police, adding that he keeps count for these attacks, and complaints, but nothing happened; the violations, or at least some of them were exposed, but the Police did nothing. B’Tselem even published the pictures and videos on their webpage expose these violations, but the Police would not do a thing about it.

But the videos managed to expose these violations, and even led to the release of Abu Aisha and some members of his family when they were arrested by the army and the police; the settlers have their own claims and their own share of fabrications, but the camera reflected the truth, what really happened, and exposed the lies of the settlers.

In one instance the Israeli Authorities even apologized for the family after a settler woman, the wife of extremist settler, Shalom AL Cobi, attacked the children of the family, cursed at them and terrified them, the video reached international media, and Abu Asiha said that "what was shown on TV stations, is only a small part of the real nature of the attacks".

"What we’ve seen on TV is just a very small part, a small report on the bigger picture", Abu Aisha said, "The violations we face are constant, we live through these attacks, day by day".

In 2002, settler Shalom AL Cobi invaded the home of the family after breaking its main door, family members resisted his attack, and caught it on tape.

The family then filed a complaint, and the police admitted the video as evidence, the family was "victorious" this time, but it is still surrounded, imprisoned in its home, and repeatedly attacked.

The family is still there, living under constant harassment and attacks, physical and verbal abuse, but determined to stay.

"This is our home", they would to you, "We will not leave it, and we will not abandon it, this is out home, and this is where we will stay".

Friday April 27, 2012, 6:39 pm
anything about israel certainly brings the bigots out of the woodwork.

Friday April 27, 2012, 8:16 pm
Interesting dialogue. If Matthew 7:20, then monotheism is a pretty good argument for secular humanism.... Just look at what the big three (Judaism, Christianity & Islam) have done to this world.

Friday April 27, 2012, 8:55 pm
As a ...A Fiddler On The Roof.

Friday April 27, 2012, 9:26 pm
Everyone who wants to understand Israel needs to read the article posted above by John D.:

http://www.imemc.org/article/63353

"Hebron Home Caged Due To Settlements", Hamza Al-Hattab, *WAFA News*, 23 Apr 2012

The regime that does this and the people who defend this are stark raving mad.

Most of the heated discussion that occurs here on Care2 involves a contest between Zionism and its critics. What is it about Zionism that attracts so much passion?

Speaking for myself, I am passionate because I believe that there is no inherent difference between Jews and non-Jews.

Let's begin with the response of the typical non-Jew. I am certain that the vast majority of non-Jews who read the article about the caged resident of Hebron will by astonished by the indecency and pure insanity of a policy that requires families to live in steel cages. The vast majority will sympathize with the caged family. And what about the twisted ideology that created this abomination? Most will see it as monstrous -- like something dreamed up by Kafka. Their response will spring from conscience, decency, empathy and common sense.

Then we come to these forums and expect Jews to respond the same way. And some do -- some are brave enough to resist the fascists and speak their mind freely. But they are quickly drowned out by the soulless fascists -- by the idiots who defend everything Israel ever did, however stupid, however ignoble. And we in the Resistance keep hoping that there is some way to get through to these idiots, some way to help them to see what is so obvious to the rest of us. We refuse to believe that they are a species apart. We keep searching for a trace of conscience, a trace of humanity, a trace of empathy for the victims -- not just the non-Jewish victims but also the Jewish victims of this insanity. And we search in vain. Message after message, page after page -- and not a trace of comprehension. Can people really be this clueless?!

I continue to believe that humanity is one species, one race -- and I continue to invite Zionists to tear down the walls and rejoin the human race. But I am in awe of the power of fascist ideology. Fascism has a track-record of abject failure. Seventy years ago, it led to the loss of 35 million lives and the destruction of an entire continent. And yet, people continue to embrace it.

Fascism inverts the moral order, so that war is praised and peace derided. The neo-cons go so far as to promote something they call the "Noble Lie". Theft is justified, naked aggression is hailed as "Defense", torture is approved, sadism becomes fashionable.

If there is a devil, fascism is it. But how can people idolize this devil? How can they devote their lives to defending it? How has this devil managed to possess them and blind them to all that is human and decent and rational?

In these forums, we confront this collectivist devil. It's the primordial conflict between good and evil. That explains the intensity. We know the idol will shatter, eventually, but that's not good enough: We want to free people now, BEFORE the next carnival of war begins, BEFORE the next big killing spree starts. Wake up, people! Smell the coffee!

. .

> God seeks comrades and claims love; the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.

-- Rabindranath Tagore, "Fireflies", 1928

Saturday April 28, 2012, 12:39 am
Congratulations Israel.
Happy Birthday and many more!

Saturday April 28, 2012, 1:46 am

Muslim, Zionist and proud
Op-ed: His father praised Hitler, but Kasim Hafeez writes about love for Israel, Jewish people
Kasim Hafeez
I am a Zionist, a proud Muslim Zionist, and I love Israel, but this was not always the case. In fact, for many years I was quite the extreme opposite. I experienced the high levels of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel activity taking place on British university campuses, because I was the anti-Semitic, anti-Israel activist.
Growing up in the Muslim community in the UK I was exposed to materials and opinions at best condemning Israel, painting Jews as usurpers and murderers, and at worse calling for the wholesale destruction of the "Zionist Entity" and all Jews. In short, there was no accommodating a Jewish State in the Middle East. To grow up around this constant barrage of hatred directed at Israel has a massive effect on an individual’s own opinions. More disturbingly, many of these people weren’t radical or extreme, but when it was about Israel the most vicious of rhetoric poured out, coupled with the casual anti-Semitism that seemed too prevalent, when the phrase "stop being a Jew" used as an insult.

My father, however, was much more brazen in his hatred, boasting of how Adolf Hitler was a hero, his only failing being that he didn't kill enough Jews.

By the time I had reached 18 I was completely indoctrinated to the fold of radical Islamism. My hate for Israel and for the Jews was fuelled by images of death and destruction, set to the backdrop of Arabic melodies about Jihad and speeches of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah or Osama Bin Laden.

These views were reinforced when I attended Nakba Day rallies, where speakers predicted Israel's demise as Hezbollah flags were waved proudly in the centre of London.

The Case for Israel

Was there a case for Israel? In my mind, of course not, there was no shadow of doubt. Even the most moderate clerics I came across refused to condemn terrorism against Israel as unjustified; the Jews must obviously deserve it, I believed.

So what changed? How could I go from all this hatred to the great love for and affinity with Israel and the Jewish people? I found myself in the Israel and Palestine section of a local bookstore and picked up a copy of Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel. Given my worldview, the Jews and Americans controlled the media, so after brief look at the back, I scoffed thinking "vile Zionist propaganda."

I did, however, decide to buy it, content that I would shortly be deconstructing this propaganda piece, showing that Israel had no case and claiming my findings as a personal victory for the Palestinian cause.

Hafeez in Israel in a visit that changed his life

As I read Dershowitz’s arguments and deconstruction of many lies I saw as unquestionable truths, I searched despairingly for counter arguments, but found more hollow rhetoric that I’d believed for many years. I felt a real crisis of conscience, and thus began a period of unbiased research. Up until that point I had not been exposed to anything remotely positive about Israel.

Now, I didn't know what to believe. I'd blindly followed others for so long, yet here I was questioning whether I had been wrong. I reached a point where I felt I had no other choice but to see Israel for myself; only that way I’d really know the truth. At the risk of sounding cliché, it was a life-changing visit.

No apartheid state

I did not encounter an apartheid racist state, but rather, quite the opposite. I was confronted by synagogues, mosques and churches, by Jews and Arabs living together, by minorities playing huge parts in all areas of Israeli life, from the military to the judiciary. It was shocking and eye-opening. This wasn't the evil Zionist Israel that I had been told about.

After much soul searching, I knew what I had once believed was wrong. I had been confronted with the truth and had to accept it. But I had a bigger question to confront, what now? I’d for years campaigned against Israel, but now I knew the truth.

The choice was obvious: I had to stand with Israel, with this tiny nation, free, democratic, making huge strides in medicine, research and development, yet the victim of the same lies and hatred that nearly consumed me.

Doing this is not easy and that’s something that has become very obvious. I have faced hostility from my own community and even some within the Jewish community in the UK, but that’s the reality of standing up for Israel in Europe today. It is not easy, and that’s what makes it so necessary.

This isn’t about religion and politics; it’s about the truth.

When it comes to Israel, the truth is not being heard, the ranks of those filed with blind hatred continue to swell, yet many have not been exposed to the reality, away from the empty rhetoric and politically charged slogans they are so fond of.

We can change this situation but we need to be strong and united. Israel is not just a Jewish issue - it’s about freedom, human rights and democracy, all the values that Western nations cherish. It’s also about trying to be a light among nations.

Israel’s international humanitarian aid work speaks for itself, but if we don’t get the message out there, no one will. We don’t have to be head-bowed apologists leading with :Israel’s not perfect…" - we should never be afraid to say: I am a Zionist and I’m proud. I stand with Israel. Now I ask, will you do that?
Kasim Hafeez is a British Muslim and former Islamist who is now a proud Zionist and stands with Israel. He runs www.theisraelcampaign.organd has a blog on this site. He is also on the advisory board of StandWithUs in the UK and recently completed a university speaking tour

Saturday April 28, 2012, 3:35 am
I wonder how much they paid the traitor.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 3:40 am
These deformities are thought by many to be caused by white phosphorous. We shall be congratulating the Zionist Entity in 10 years time for a rash of such miscarriages in Gaza. And, in any case, the Entity is responsible in part for these described by Robert Fisk, because of its encouragement of the destruction of Iraq.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/fisk/robert-fisk-the-children-of-fallujah--sayefs-story-7675977.html

April 26, 2012

Special Report day two: Stillbirths, disabilities, deformities too distressing to describe - what lies behind the torments in Fallujah General Hospital?


The pictures flash up on a screen on an upper floor of the Fallujah General Hospital. And all at once, Nadhem Shokr al-Hadidi's administration office becomes a little chamber of horrors. A baby with a hugely deformed mouth. A child with a defect of the spinal cord, material from the spine outside the body. A baby with a terrible, vast Cyclopean eye. Another baby with only half a head, stillborn like the rest, date of birth 17 June, 2009. Yet another picture flicks onto the screen: date of birth 6 July 2009, it shows a tiny child with half a right arm, no left leg, no genitalia.

"We see this all the time now," Al-Hadidi says, and a female doctor walks into the room and glances at the screen. She has delivered some of these still-born children. "I've never seen anything as bad as this in all my service," she says quietly. Al-Hadidi takes phone calls, greets visitors to his office, offers tea and biscuits to us while this ghastly picture show unfolds on the screen. I asked to see these photographs, to ensure that the stillborn children, the deformities, were real. There's always a reader or a viewer who will mutter the word "propaganda" under their breath.

But the photographs are a damning, ghastly reward for such doubts. January 7, 2010: a baby with faded, yellow skin and misshapen arms. April 26, 2010: a grey mass on the side of the baby's head. A doctor beside me speaks of "Tetralogy of Fallot", a transposition of the great blood vessels. May 3, 2010: a frog-like creature in which – the Fallujah doctor who came into the room says this – "all the abdominal organs are trying to get outside the body."

This is too much. These photographs are too awful, the pain and emotion of them – for the poor parents, at least – impossible to contemplate. They simply cannot be published.

There is a no-nonsense attitude from the doctors in Fallujah. They know that we know about this tragedy. Indeed, there is nothing undiscovered about the child deformities of Fallujah. Other correspondents – including my colleague Patrick Cockburn – have visited Fallujah to report on them. What is so shameful is that these deformities continue unmonitored. One Fallujah doctor, an obstetrician trained in Britain – she left only five months ago – who has purchased from her own sources for her private clinic a £79,000 scanning machine for prenatal detection of congenital abnormalities, gives me her name and asks why the Ministry of Health in Baghdad will not hold a full official investigation into the deformed babies of Fallujah.

"I have been to see the ministry," she says. "They said they would have a committee. I went to the committee. And they have done nothing. I just can't get them to respond." Then, 24 hours later, the same woman sends a message to a friend of mine, another Iraqi doctor, asking me not to use her name.

If the number of stillborn children of Fallujah is a disgrace, the medical staff at the Fallujah General Hospital prove their honesty by repeatedly warning of the danger of reaching conclusions too soon.

"I delivered that baby," the obstetrician says as one more picture flashes on the screen. "I don't think this has anything to do with American weapons. The parents were close relatives. Tribal marriages here involve a lot of families who are close by blood. But you have to remember, too, that if women have stillborn children with abnormalities at home, they will not report this to us, and the baby will be buried without any record reaching us."

The photographs continue on the screen. January 19, 2010: a baby with tiny limbs, stillborn. A baby born on 30 October, 2010, with a cleft lip and cleft palette, still alive, a hole in the heart, a defect in its face, in need of echocardiography treatment. "A cleft lip and palate are common congenital anomalies," Dr Samira Allani says quietly. "But it's the increased frequency that is alarming." Dr Allani has documented a research paper into "the increased prevalence of birth defects" in Fallujah, a study of four fathers "with two lineages of progeny". Congenital heart defects, the paper says, reached "unprecedented numbers" in 2010.

The numbers continue to rise. Even while we are speaking, a nurse brings a message to Dr Allani. We go at once to an incubator next to the hospital delivery room. In the incubator is a little baby just 24 days old. Zeid Mohamed is almost too young to smile but he lies sleeping, his mother watching through the glass. She has given her permission for me to see her baby. His father is a security guard, the couple married three years ago. There is no family record of birth defects. But Zeid has only four fingers on each of his little hands.

Dr Allani's computer files contain a hundred Zeids. She asks another doctor to call some parents. Will they talk to a journalist? "They want to know what happened to their children," she says. "They deserve an answer." She is right. But neither the Iraqi authorities, nor the Americans, nor the British – who were peripherally involved in the second battle of Fallujah and lost four men – nor any major NGO, appears willing or able to help.

When doctors can obtain funding for an investigation, they sometimes turn to organisations which clearly have their own political predetermination. Dr Allani's paper, for example, acknowledges funding from the "Kuala Lumpur Foundation to Criminalise War" – hardly a group seeking to exonerate the use of US weaponry in Fallujah. This, too, I fear, is part of the tragedy of Fallujah.

The obstetrician who asked to be anonymous talks bleakly of the lack of equipment and training. "Chromosome defects – like Down's Syndrome – cannot be corrected prenatally. But a foetal infection we can deal with, and we can sort out this problem by drawing a sample of blood from the baby and mother. But no laboratory here has this equipment. One blood transfer is all it needs to prevent such a condition. Of course, it will not answer our questions: why the increased miscarriages here, why the increased stillbirths, why the increased premature births?"

Dr Chris Busby, a visiting professor at the University of Ulster who has surveyed almost 5,000 people in Fallujah, agrees it is impossible to be specific about the cause of birth defects as well as cancers. "Some very major mutagenic exposure must have occurred in 2004 when the attacks happened," he wrote two years ago. Dr Busby's report, compiled with Malak Hamdan and Entesar Ariabi, says that infant mortality in Fallujah was found in 80 out of every 1,000 births, compared to 19 in Egypt, 17 in Jordan and only 9.7 in Kuwait.

Another of the Fallujah doctors tells me that the only UK assistance they have received comes from Dr Kypros Nicolaides, the head of Foetal Medicine at King's College Hospital. He runs a charity, the Foetal Medicine Foundation, which has already trained one doctor from Fallujah. I call him up. He is bursting with anger.

"To me, the criminal aspect of all this – during the war – was that the British and the American governments could not go to Woolworths and buy some computers to even document the deaths in Iraq. So we have a Lancet publication that estimates 600,000 deaths in the war. Yet the occupying power did not have the decency to have a computer worth only £500 that would enable them to say "this body was brought in today and this was its name".

Now you have an Arab country which has a higher number of deformities or cancers than Europe and you need a proper epidemiological study. I'm sure the Americans used weapons that caused these deformities. But now you have a goodness-knows-what government in Iraq and no study. It's very easy to avoid to doing anything – except for some sympathetic crazy professor like me in London to try and achieve something."

In al-Hadidi's office, there are now photographs which defy words. How can you even begin to describe a dead baby with just one leg and a head four times the size of its body?

Saturday April 28, 2012, 3:43 am
Another Zionist Entity achievement.

New DCI report on recruitment of Palestinian children in armed conflict
Defence for Children International-Palestine Section

http://www.dci-palestine.org/documents/new-dci-report-recruitment-children-armed-conflict

April 26, 2012

[23 April 2012] - Today, DCI-Palestine released a new report: Recruitment and Use of Palestinian Children in Armed Conflict. The recruitment and use of children in armed conflict is prohibited under international law, and can take many forms, ranging from direct involvement in fighting, to subsidiary roles, such as acting as informants. The prohibition also includes using children as human shields. The report finds that in the context of the military occupation of the Palestinian Territory, both Israel and Palestinian armed groups have violated the prohibition.

The report covers an eight year period between 2004 and 2011 (the reporting period), and identifies three circumstances where children are particularly vulnerable to recruitment by both parties to the conflict:

The use of children as human shields by the Israeli army;
The recruitment of children as informants by Israeli interrogators; and
The use of children in hostilities by Palestinian armed groups.

The key findings of the report include:

1. In 16 out of the 17 cases documented involving the use of Palestinian children as human shields, the event occurred after a ruling by the Israeli High Court of Justice declared the practice illegal. This suggests that the Israeli army is either ignoring the court’s judgment, or not properly ensuring compliance with its ruling. It is also significant to note that in only one case, was anybody held accountable for using a child as a human shield.

2. The report identifies 16 cases in which attempts were made by Israeli interrogators to recruit children as informants. Most attempts at recruitment occur during interrogation following arrest and the report identifies a number of methods, including the offer of money and early release. Due to the sensitive nature of the subject and the reluctance to talk, it is difficult to ascertain the scale of the problem, although there is anecdotal evidence to suggest that the practice is widespread.

3. Finally, the report identifies 26 cases involving the recruitment and use of children by Palestinian armed groups during the reporting period. It is significant to note that in 23 out of 26 cases (88 percent), the children were from the Gaza Strip. It is also significant that in all 26 cases (100 percent) the evidence indicates that the children were not forcefully conscripted, but volunteered to join a group or to participate in hostilities. When asked why they volunteered, the children gave reasons ranging from patriotism to the "oppression" of the occupation and the killing and imprisonment of family members. The report finds that the recruitment and use of children by Palestinian armed groups increases during large scale incursions by the Israeli army, but such involvement does not appear to be either widespread or systematic.

The full report is available on line and hard copies are available on request.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 4:39 am

Happy Birthday Israel...all the best for the future...BUT.....please try to teach your people at airport to be nicer to visitors who comes on holiday...they really give you the impression that they do not want you there...so sad!

Saturday April 28, 2012, 6:24 am
If this is some kind of sick joke it's in very bad taste.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 6:40 am
Gee, where are the pictures of the 3 new illegal settelments, and I saw no mention of the fact that Israel, of 'never to forgive, never to forget' fame, has turned Palestine in to a giant exact copy of the 'Jewish ghettos' created by the Germans in WW II.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 6:43 am
I'm afraid they're completely serious. All we can do is to deplore their crowing and post examples that might shame them.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 6:44 am
Oh, silly me, I forgot to mention the 200+ warhead nuclear arsenal, that they got illegally, just like Iran may be trying to do, keep illegally and by the by Israel has never signed onto any of the Nuclear Arms Proliferation treaties.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 8:38 am
John D. writes:

> I'm afraid they're completely serious. All we can do is to deplore their crowing and post examples that might shame them.

I'm afraid they have no shame, John. And because Zionists have no shame, they have no pride either. All of this boasting is very hollow -- like whistling a happy tune in a cemetery.

Sixty-four years ago, Palestinians were dispossessed. We know this, and Zionists know it too.

Forty-four years ago, Zionists stole more territory and put the residents of that territory under military occupation. This barbarous occupation continues to this day, with the Zionists making a mockery of the Geneva Conventions. We know this, and Zionists know it too.

Zionists deal with this by dehumanizing and denying the very existence of the people they murder and torture. But in dehumanizing others, Zionists also dehumanize themselves. They turn life into a joyless charade. And when they deny the very existence of millions of people who obviously exist, Zionists destroy their own sanity.

Unfortunately, these lunatics have managed to capture most of the politicians of the biggest military power in history. The madmen run the asylum and they are armed with nukes. They suffer from delusions of paranoia, and they are eager to avenge "3,500 Years of Anti-Semitism".

So we have to talk nice to Zionists and pretend to obey their orders -- even as we pity them and wait for them to get a conscience and find out what they are missing.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 8:43 am
John a curious comment from you "I wonder how much they paid the traitor". So let me see if I understand. All the Arabs that love Israel and have seen Israel 1st hand are traitors?....OK!!!!... yet all the Arabs that want to annihilate the Jews and Israel are what?.........ahhhhhhhhhhhhh yes they are of course, they are the peaceful loving and lets not forget non traitors.

John you have proven yourself incapable of seeing the truth and being a racist Nazi bigot. You are so filled with hate of the Jew you are unable to do anything in this world other than spread your filthy hate propaganda.
You are so utterly bias that an Arab who loves Israel you call a traitor to your own cause.
Thanks John and LLoyd for letting you bias show it's colours

Saturday April 28, 2012, 9:07 am
Thre problem for you is that "the Arabs" don't want to anihilate "the Jews". They wish, most of them, to see the end of Zionism and the end of the illegitimate colonial entity sitting on Palestine. That some treacherously take the Zionist shekel for whatever reason is a matter of extreme regret. Don't forget that Jews living in the Entity are thought of as traitors if they visit certain Arab countries or even meet certain people and can be prosecuted for it.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 9:22 am
Hello Eli T. --

Your article confirms something I've been saying for years: Anti-Semites are drawn to Zionism.

So you want us to believe that Kasim Hafeez:

* reads a book by Alan Dershowitz
* believes every word in the book
* visits Israel
* and becomes a convert to Israeli fascism

Either Kasim Hafeez is incredibly naive, or, as John D. said, he is on Israel's payroll -- like most of our politicians.

A human being who cares about truth and justice:

* would not be an anti-Semite to begin with
* would read more than just one book!
* would instantly see through Alan Dershowitz
* would visit -- or at least read about -- the Occupied Territories
* would listen to independent observers, activists and humanitarians

It sounds like Kasim Hafeez is following in the footsteps of his father.

* The father supports the genocidal war-making of the Third Reich.
* The son supports the genocidal war-making of the Israeli Reich.

What your article does show is that Israel has Arab collaborators -- Arab thugs, criminals and anti-Semites who are willing to do Israel's dirty work for a fee. Israel uses these collaborators not just for propaganda purposes, but also for false-flag terror. For example, there are indications that Abu Abbas, the perpetrator of the Achille Lauro hijacking, was an Arab thug paid to deflect attention from Israel's bombing of Tunisia. And evidence indicates that the master terrorist, Abu Nidal, was also on Israel's payroll.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 9:39 am
Eli T. writes:

> So let me see if I understand. All the Arabs that love Israel and have seen Israel 1st hand are traitors?....OK!!!!... yet all the Arabs that want to annihilate the Jews and Israel are what?.

Let me ask you a question, Eli T..

Was World War II motivated by:
(a) a desire to annihilate Germans?
(b) a need to free Europe from fascism?

It's exactly as John D. writes. Arabs initially welcomed Jews to Palestine. They hailed Jews as "blood-brothers". Jews were once spread throughout the Middle East. During the Inquisition, Palestine served as a refuge for Jews. In the Middle East, Jews WERE Arabs. Article 6 of the PLO Charter welcomes native Jews as fellow Palestinians.

It is DELUSIONAL to believe that people who have welcomed Jews and harbored Jews for several thousand years suddenly want to "annihilate the Jews". Zionists hide behind this wall of delusion. They put their ideology of ethnic hatred above reality and impose this ideology where it does not apply.

The opposition to Israel, like the opposition to Germany in WW II, is motivated by the need to resist FASCISM and free Germans and other Europeans from this poisonous and ultimately suicidal ideology. Germany left other countries with no choice but to resist, and Israel, with its fatal addiction to war-making, does the same.

. .

> To hide this primordial immorality, Israel fosters an image of victimhood

> Provoking violence, consciously or unconsciously, against which one must defend oneself is a key feature of the victim-mentality

-- Oren Ben-Dor, The Independent, 26 Aug 2006

Saturday April 28, 2012, 10:13 am
How about mentioning that Israel's birthday is the Palestinian Nakba or nightmare. Better still, view this segment of 60 minutes of how Israeli Zionist racist and religious bigot policies are also eliminating the Christians from the birthplace of Jesus Christ. How many Christians are aware of this?http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504803_162-57418048-10391709/the-last-christian-village-in-the-holy-land/?tag=contentMain;contentBody

Saturday April 28, 2012, 10:44 am
Charles O writes:--

"Arabs... hailed Jews as "blood-brothers""

And they still do. A couple of years ago I was talking to a couple of guys here in Morocco who'd been to Mecca and had thus acquired the title of "Hajj". During the discussion we touched upon Zionism and one Hajj said, "Mais les Juifs sont nos cousins, Monsieur. Je ne comprendrai jamais pourquoi ils nous ont quitté" - But the Jews are our cousins, Monsieur. I shall never understand why they left us.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 10:48 am
Once again, Rob and Jay B., fantastic commentary. Imagine what the Middle East would be like if Israel didn't exist?

Saturday April 28, 2012, 11:05 am
Allan Y. writes:

> Imagine what the Middle East would be like if Israel didn't exist?

Without Israel making war, pouring gasoline on the flames, and holding other countries back?

Cheryl Rubenberg offers us a clue:

> Prior to [the 1947] period, the United States had been viewed very favorably in the Arab world. As a result of extensive private American educational, philanthropic, and missionary activities and the absence of American imperial involvement, most Arabs perceived the United States to be a champion of self-determination, human rights, and democratic freedoms.

-- Cheryl A. Rubenberg, Israel And The American National Interest, p. 27

With its oil wealth no longer being funneled into London banks, the Middle East might be comparable to Turkey or to certain European countries -- Spain, Greece. Or to Libya before NATO leveled the place -- free health care, free education.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 11:15 am
John D. writes:

> A couple of years ago I was talking to a couple of guys here in Morocco who'd been to Mecca and had thus acquired the title of "Hajj". During the discussion we touched upon Zionism and one Hajj said, "Mais les Juifs sont nos cousins, Monsieur. Je ne comprendrai jamais pourquoi ils nous ont quitté" - But the Jews are our cousins, Monsieur. I shall never understand why they left us.

. .

That's part of the tragedy of Zionism: People who befriend Jews get stabbed in the back.

. .

The classic example of this is the Zionist assassination of Folke Bernadotte, the Swedish diplomat who rescued thousands of Jews from the Third Reich. His reward was a bullet from the guns of Yitzhak Shamir's terrorist "Stern Gang". Shamir went on to become an Israeli prime minister.

. .

Another example is the Zionist assassination of Lord Moyne. Churchill, himself a Zionist, found this murder so hard to stomach that he drew a comparison between Zionists and Nazis:

> If our dreams for Zionism are to end in the smoke of assassins' pistols, and our labors for its future are to produce a new set of gangsters worthy of Nazi Germany, many like myself will have to reconsider the position we have maintained so consistently and so long in the past. If there is to be any hope of a peaceful and successful future for Zionism, these wicked activities must cease; and those responsible for them must be destroyed, root and branch.

-- Winston Churchill, responding to the 06 Nov 1944 assassination of Lord Moyne by Yitzhak Shamir's terrorist STERN gang.

. .

A third example is the Zionist calumny against Pope Pius XII. He saves more than 700,000 Jews from Hitler, but the Zionists trash him because he refused to sing their party line.

Here in the U.S., our politicians must be 100% subservient to Israel. If they are only 99% subservient, AIPAC dumps them. Israel doesn't want friends: It wants mindless slaves.

. .

> God seeks comrades and claims love; the Devil seeks slaves and claims obedience.

-- Rabindranath Tagore, "Fireflies", 1928

Saturday April 28, 2012, 12:09 pm
Israel shines by destroying and threatening everyone else around it. The racist regime in south africa attmpted to do the same by constant incursions into Namibia, Angola, Zimbabe, and other surrounding states. Israel is not a shining light on the hill. Israel is more like a cancer in the heart of the middle east. You can count on your hand the number of states who vote with Israel's racist policies of illegal settlements, aparthied, and war crimes. Happy bithday Israel, you have sure turned out to be a very ugly beast indeed!

Saturday April 28, 2012, 1:20 pm
That's the rub, Terrance. They are regarded as a pariah law-breaking state by the rest of the world (and they are) yet they try to do stuff like this silly birthday party instead of addressing the issues.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 3:54 pm
The anti-semitic idiots who try to troll on here need to go live in a Taliban or hamas controlled district somewhere in some Arab nation, and can put a sock in it if they don't like it. Antisemitism is a fatal disease! Ask Himmeler, Goering, Schickelgruber, or any of the other idiot Jew-haters in the Third Reich. Ask any Pharaoh of Egypt. Ask those old Babylonians and Persians who thought themselves so much better than those Jews. Ask the leaders of the Roman Empire, 'holy' or not. Can't find them 'cause their civilisations have died and been replaced by much smaller nations? There's my proof!

Saturday April 28, 2012, 4:34 pm
All of those good things still don't change all the bad things. Israel has earned its bad world-wide reputation, and all the good things in the world can't change that.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 5:48 pm
I live in an Arab country partly run by a descendant of the Prophet, al-Amir al-Mouminin, Mohammed VI of Morocco. I have just come back from the pub where I met friends, Muslim friends, some gay some straight, who were drinking there who are free to express themselves however they wish. Don't tell me where I should live.

And are you really trying to tell us that today's Jews have anything to do with Jews living in Palestine 1000s of years ago? Or Pharaoh? The Exodus never happened. The Patriarchs didn't exist. Get over it.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 5:52 pm
Noted.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 7:33 pm
G'mar chatima Israel! Happy 64th Birthday.........try to ignore the Robert'O, Baby John Pillow and Charlie O....they would even p... on our dog's parade. Thanks Beatrice - great post as usual.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 8:55 pm
John, in which Arab country do you live in?

In Egypt, by any chance? If yes - what are your comments on that new law allowing husbands to sleep with bodies of their dead wives? Egyptian women find it revolting, what about you?

Don't tell your Arab friends that Patriarchs did not exist: they may get upset and while defending the honor of their Ibrahim cut off a head or two. According to Muslim scholars, a Muslim Moses lead Muslims from Egypt. Refuting this fact may result in another demonstration with acts of vandalism.

Saturday April 28, 2012, 11:34 pm
Well, Some Happy Birthday, on Stolen Palestinian Land and Water.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 12:22 am
Allan Yorkowitz - Saturday April 28, 2012, 10:48 am

"Imagine what the Middle East would be like if Israel didn't exist? "

Give that man a cigar!

Sunday April 29, 2012, 2:36 am
Bob A

Morocco.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 3:19 am
Hey John D, the one who praises the illegal invasion and occupation of Western Sahara by his progressive, peaceloving Morocco which has driven 100,000 refugees into Algeria - here's one for you to deny and pretend didn't happen:

The Moroccan peaceloving, tolerant, progressive, woman loving PM, Abdelilah Benkiran, a member of the Justice and Development Party, the Islamist party that won the last elections, refused to speak to the female Minister of Justice from Belgium. Couldn't be bothered to speak to a lowly female. How Islamic of him! And from such a 'liberal' Islamist country you always are telling us of and how tolerant and progressive it is! (So why are they flooding out of there for Spain and the rest of Europe?)(http://globalmbreport.org/?p=6161&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheGlobalMuslimBrotherhoodDailyReport+%28The+Global+Muslim+Brotherhood+Daily+Report%29)

Let's see the contortions you go thru to deny this one, but we're sure you will, just like you deny the atrocities and oppression of the Islamic Dictatorship in Iran against its own people.

Cal and others, it's best to just ignore this guy. He has never seen an Islamist atrocity he hasn't praised or denied or blamed on the 'Zionist Entity'. He praises the oppressive, hateful Islamist dictators in Gaza whose people live under corrupt oppression, then condemns Israel, the only light in the darkness surrounding it from the Islamist countries. Some people just love to be contrary.

He probably praised Stalin, despite all the evidence of brutality, too. Go figure.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 4:45 am
John, Sadly your last comment is true, though I had no idea of this till you posted on the subject. I checked some of the Hebrew sites to confirm it's validity. I agree that it is a disgrace to Israel. If Israel has opened it's boarders to receive these refugee's, then we MUST care for them. If Israel doesn't want to care for them, then the boarders should not have opened to them. Those who are extreme and show such foul aggression, know nothing of Torah law. I am glad to say the area in which I live is not racist and does not attack immigrants, refugee's or non Jews. I do know that they are treated as slaves by the Arab community as well. This was being delt with by police. I am sure this will also be delt with by police. I do recommend you contact http://www.ardc-israel.org/ and find out how you can help. Another interesting site is http://www.amitshaal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=frontpage&Itemid=2 who is a local photographer. Find out how you can help these refugees. Create a petition, get Israeli's as well as non Israeli's to support it. Don't just use them for an excuse to attack Jews. Do something useful.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 6:37 am
Mia. I am glad you are ashamed. But do you not see that this sort of abuse and racism is engendered by the emphasis on having a "Jewish" state. I repeat part of the article:--

"In the summer of 2010–months before rabbis across the country issued a letter calling on Jews not to rent or sell to Arabs–25 Tel Aviv rabbis signed a proclamation forbidding Jews from renting to "infiltrators," a term the government and the right wing uses for African refugees"

These rabbis were actuallly state funded. Yet they have not lost either their stipends or their jobs. What does this say about the Zionist Entity?

Sunday April 29, 2012, 8:10 am
See how the poor oppressed civilians in Gaza are suffering!!!

GAZA AFFAMEE!

http://pdfcast.org/pdf/gaza

Sunday April 29, 2012, 8:31 am
Noted. Very interesting. Thank you to Beatrice for posting & to Rob & Jay for sharing.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 8:42 am
John, Arab states have DEATH penalty given to those who sold houses to Jews! This law is active in PA-Hamas areas, though now Gaza is "Juden Free".

And nobody will rent you an apartment in US or Canada without proper documents either- you have to prove your eligibility to stay in the country legally.

African and Arab immigration to Israel proves that Israel is better to its people than those African and Arab countries the migrants are moving from. See, John, Egypt took a law to strip Egyptian citizenship from those moving to Israel - abosolutely racist law, because it singles out only Jewish state - and yet Arab immigration from Egypt to Israel is all times high.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 8:49 am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0NGaMobQf0

Sunday April 29, 2012, 10:10 am
Hello Zionist Entity supporters. I send you a nice birthday present.

http://www.palestinecampaign.org/index7b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=4&l2_id=24&Content_ID=2551

Coop stops stocking goods from companies trading with Israeli settlements



The Coop announces it is ending trade with companies who source from illegal Israeli settlements.

With over 3000 food stores across the UK, The Cooperative Group pride themselves on being ranked the country's top ethical supermarket. They have lived up to their reputation by announcing on 28 April that they will no longer engage with suppliers that source from Israeli settlements, amounting to around £350,000 worth of trade. As the Cooperative point out, these settlements are all illegal under international law. Mehadrin, Agrexco, Arava Export Growers and Adafresh are the four companies identified by the Cooperative for their exporting of settlement goods.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 11:40 am
Fred K. writes:

> The anti-semitic idiots who try to troll on here need to go live in a Taliban or hamas controlled district somewhere in some Arab nation, and can put a sock in it if they don't like it. Antisemitism is a fatal disease!

Hello Fred. You are deliberately confusing anti-Semitism confused with anti-fascism. I understand. Zionists cannot defend Israel on its own terms, so they try to hide behind Jews -- in much the same way that terrorists hide behind non-combatants. This is something no self-respecting person would do, but Zionists do it all the time.

Maybe Zionists think we're too stupid to see through their ruse. If so, the joke's on them: The more they invoke "Jews", the more they reveal their political and moral bankruptcy.

I agree: Anti-Semitism is a fatal disease. And if one regards hatred for Semitic people as "anti-Semitism", then Zionists are the worst anti-Semities on the planet. They treat the Semitic Palestinians in the same way that the Hitlerites treated Jews.

Anti-fascism is NOT a fatal disease. Just the opposite: The victory of anti-fascist forces in WW II suggests that history is on our side.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 11:58 am
John D. writes:

> Hello Zionist Entity supporters. I send you a nice birthday present.

> http://www.palestinecampaign.org/index7b.asp?m_id=1&l1_id=4&l2_id=24&Content_ID=2551

> Coop stops stocking goods from companies trading with Israeli settlements

. .

This is quite significant. Stores that criticize the fascist regime in Israel are placed under enormous pressure by the Zionist propaganda machine. But now somebody is standing up to that pressure! This reminds me of Hezbollah standing up to Israeli bombardment in 2006.

It also brings to mind the Spanish Civil War -- the prelude to WW II. While the British Conservatives under Chamberlain were busy appeasing Hitler, the British people were going to Spain to help in the struggle against fascism there.

Today, our rulers appease Israel, and even make war in Israel's behalf, putting our treasure, our freedom, and the lives of our sons and daughters at the disposal of the fascists. The Coop decision is one more sign that we the people are not going to tolerate the treason of the elite.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 12:40 pm
My father, a Communist at the time, went to Spain, Charles O. He also fought in the Battle of Cable Street to protect his Jewish friends from the Mosley Fascists. I am so proud of him. When he returned from WWII (he had been wounded, but sent back till the end) he was so upset to learn that many of his Jewish friends' families had perished in the camps. My mother loathed prejudice in any form and I was stirred by their stories of the War and the fight against hatred and evil. I should hope that they think well of me to carry on their tradition. And they always shopped at the good old CoOp!

Sunday April 29, 2012, 1:00 pm
Charles:

Nazi boycott of Jews failed.
Arab oil boycott of Israel failed
This camouflaged Arab boycott of Israel will fail as well.

Personally, after listenning to your boycott calls, I decided to boycott Islamic countries - we send them aid and they send us terrorists or kill our soldiers fighting very same terrorists. I can't replace gas, but I did with Tunisian figs and Iranian preserves. Was not hard to do, American figs are MUCH better though cost a bit more. But our soldiers and our pride are certainly worth the difference.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 2:00 pm
I'm now 53 - I hope to see peace in the Middle East in my lifetime.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 5:47 pm
Dana W. writes:

> I'm now 53 - I hope to see peace in the Middle East in my lifetime.

Peace is the normal state of affairs between countries: The vast majority of people in this world have no desire to kill and be killed. War is an aberration, a disease that breaks out when one or more countries becomes infected with a sociopathic ideology. Disease does not last forever.

Take World War II. Prior to the war, French and Germans were trained to hate and fear one another. But they were fearing the wrong thing. The world war was not caused by ethnic rivalry and competition: It was caused by ideology. Italy and Germany fell victim to fascist ideology.

Ideology is a denial of reality, and thus it is a form of dementia. One may think of it as the secular version of religion, but it is worse than religion because it is not bound by reverence for life or moral teaching. With ideology, anything goes, anything is permissible, because "the end justifies the means".

The aftermath of WW II proves that there WAS NO "Eternal Conflict" between the French and the Germans. What we had instead was a conflict between ideology and sanity. Ideology lost, as it always does, sanity returned, and the war ended.

Similarly, today, under Zionism, we are trained to see conflict in purely tribal terms, the Jewish tribe on one side and the non-Jewish tribes on the other. But much of the world left this tribal mentality behind long ago. The real conflict is not tribal or ethnic: It is ideological.

That's the secret that Zionists do not want us to know. Because a conflict over ideology is NOT an "Eternal Conflict". It's a TEMPORARY conflict that ends as soon as people wake up and stop being entranced by the ideology.

That WILL happen in the Middle East, just as it happened in Europe. Unfortunately, in Europe, 35 million lives were lost before the ideologues were finally removed from power and brought to justice. Do we really need to do it all over again? Wouldn't it be easier to expose and refute the supremacist war-making ideology NOW, BEFORE millions have been killed?

Sunday April 29, 2012, 6:07 pm
Wow, The latest boycott sets a new low for "significant". Total purchases from Coop, from all the boycotted companies, were under 1% of Arava's exports alone (), and Arava is apparently not the biggest one. Now they'll have to find different markets, or just sell more to other already-established customers. The not-caring: It is extreme.

Back on topic, Israel has accomplished a lot more than is commonly believed. Here's a fairly interesting statistic:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ind_pat_app_res_percap-patent-applications-residents-per-capita
I could go into more detail and discuss the a systematic cause for Israel patents to be, statistically at least, more useful than most, but that is a pretty long discussion.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 6:50 pm
Stephen, when talking about achievements of israel, it is important to see the comparative analysis, of what Israel's neighbors managed to achieve since their birthdays: Egypt, Syria, Lebanon.

Hesbola shows a camel and a machine gun on its banner - this is a true depiction of what they deliver to the world, and THAT contribution is a source of their pride.

Egypt considers a law permitting sex with dead wives and children. PA got a law to kill a person for selling a house to a Jew.

Considering such neighbors, Israel looks even brighter on a dark sky.

Sunday April 29, 2012, 8:23 pm
Bob A. writes:

> Considering such neighbors, Israel looks even brighter on a dark sky.

And Israel makes sure that the sky always stays dark.

Monday April 30, 2012, 2:29 am
Not A Happy 64th B'day Israel!
By Samah Sabwai

http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=19259

April 28, 2012

Peeling off the artificial sugar layers and the dazzling celebratory ornaments, Israel on its 64th birthday stands fragile, isolated and exposed in a way it has never been since its foundation.

This has not been a good year for the Jewish state. Anti-normalization movements have picked up steam in the Arab world while the global campaign for Boycott Divestments and Sanctions continues to present a serious challenge, with a long list of artists refusing to entertain apartheid. Israeli Apartheid Week continues to grow on university campuses around the world despite Israel’s failed effort to counter it and non-violent resistance in Palestine which is often met with Israeli brutality is no longer the hidden secret it once was with more international activists witnessing and at times experiencing the brutality first hand. The year ended with the a major announcement from the Methodist Church that they will divest from Israel.

On the diplomatic front, the PA took its bid for statehood to the UN. Mahmoud Abbas’s moving speech at the UNGA on November 23, 2011 was met with rapturous applause. More than one month later, Palestine was admitted into the first UN body UNESCO with an overwhelming international show of support further exposing the isolation of the Zionist state in the international arena.

Israel is also losing the media war as mainstream television networks and newspapers are becoming more daring in their criticism. For example 60 Minutes recently aired a program about Israel’s discrimination of Christian Palestinians, a show that Israeli officials objected to and tried to stop before it was even aired. But the real highlight for the year on the drama front was the broadcasting of the British TV series The Promise on networks around the world. Israeli supporters were furious and have tried in various countries to stop the show from screening. In its final episode, The Promise brings to life scenes of the ethnic cleansing of 1948 Palestine.

Another sign of Israel losing its grip on the media front was evident when The Economist published this editorial (March 6, 2012), holding Netanyahu responsible for the demise of the peace process "No one bears greater responsibility for the trap Israel finds itself in today than Mr Netanyahu. As prime minister in the late 1990s, he did more than any other Israeli leader to destroy the peace process."

And if all of this is not enough, even Israel’s powerful allies, including Australia and the US have grown impatient with its behavior especially its derailment of the peace process, its continued settlements expansion and its appetite for attacking Iran. Indeed Israel is losing friends fast. Two other traditional allies have also been lost this past year as we saw the expulsion of Israel's ambassador to Ankara following a row with Netanyahu’s government over Israel’s deadly raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla and the evacuation of Israeli diplomats from Egypt after Egyptian protestors stormed the Israeli embassy in Cairo. Worth mentioning is that until now, the Israeli embassy stands vacant as anti-normalization movements in the Arab world continue to gain strength and yield various victories from Morocco where activists are calling to criminalize normalization to Egypt where they have succeeded in cancelling the gas deal with Israel and are now calling for an end to the peace treaty with the Zionist state.

This year, more than ever, people have began to question Isreal's democracy especially as the Israeli government moved to reinstate its infiltrator law, a 50 year old law that targets not only Palestinians but also all asylum seekers regardless of age. Israel was also criticized for a barrage of other draconian laws reflecting its insecurity and discriminatory nature, like the law that was passed allowing communities in the Negev and Galilee regions smaller than 400 households to refuse potential residents on the basis of their ethnicity or religion. And for those who find such acts reprehensible and would like to do something about it…say like boycotting Israeli settlement goods, Israel is ready for that too. They have also passed a law that gives settlers the right to claim economic injury from a call to boycott and to actually sue the organizers of the boycott without needing to have any proof of such damages.

Perhaps most telling of all is Israel’s passing of legislation that calls for withdrawal of government funding to any organization or institution that marks commemorating Nakba, that is remembering how Israel was founded on the ruins of more than 400 Palestinian villages and cities which were ethnically cleansed by the Jewish army, forcing more than 750,000 Palestinians into exile in order to pave the way for a Jewish majority. In fact this year some people were arrested because they dared remember this part of Israel’s history!

So all in all, a very bad 64th birthday!

Monday April 30, 2012, 3:00 am
Israel’s economic growth during the last five years (21%) is higher than all OECD countries, besides Turkey. Israel’s economy grew 270% over the last 20 years, while Israel’s population grew 145%. Israel’s unemployment is its lowest ever – 5.4%. The strength of Israel’s exports is derived from its multitude of companies, diversified technologies and products, reaching diversified markets, cutting edge technologies, focusing on essential products (medical, telecommunications, Internet, water technologies, energy alternatives, homeland security, defense), preferring high tech over raw material, expanding joint ventures with global giants, bolstering research & development (world leader in percentage of GDP).
So it IS a very Happy Birthday Israel. Sorry to disappoint you Samah Sabwai.

Monday April 30, 2012, 4:13 am
How about this birthday present?

http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/Palestinian-Aid-Sesame-Street/2012/04/28/id/437394?s=al&promo_code=EC5A-1




American aid officials said Saturday they will restore development programs for Palestinians after President Barack Obama ended a six-month funding freeze that shut down the local Sesame Street and other projects.

An official with the U.S. Agency for International Development confirmed that $147 million, which pays for infrastructure, education, humanitarian aid and health projects, had been restored.

Monday April 30, 2012, 4:19 am
Stan B

"Israel’s economic growth"

Would've been impossible without $3 billions in direct aid and an equivalent sum in soft loans and grants from the USI. Nor would the donations from World Jewry have done it much harm. These donations total $1.5 billion a year

Monday April 30, 2012, 4:41 am
Stephen Brian.

You miss the point entirely. The CoOp is - still - a cooperative concern. Its policies are determined by its societies and members have input. Shoppers all have a stake in the society and receive a Divi every 4 months and a larger one yearly. It was member input that drove this in part and ALL members will be notified democratically of this decision. That means that even the politically uninvolved, the silent members, will now be informed of what has happened and why. Some of those will press other companies to divest. Sainsbury also has already dropped its contract with an Entity chocolate supplier for its own-brand chocolate. I am pleased to say that I played a small part in that campaign, successfully persuading the company I worked for at the time (several thousand strong) not to buy Sainsbury chocolate.

Do you think that the campaign against S Africa started fully-fledged? It was precisely small gains like this one that finally led to the apartheid regime's isolation and shunning. More and more people learned of the iniquities of S Africa in the teeth of government support for its regime and propaganda in the media. And the campaign against the apartheid Zionist regime does not only involve Entity companies. It is directed t companies which are European and aid the Zionists. 2 instances recently of separate consortia of local councils in the UK have excluded Veolia from tendering for very large contracts, one of £300 millions and the other for over a billion, in an effort to stop its dealings with the Zionist Entity. The UK arm of an Entity soft drinks company was forced into bankruptcy when a consotium of Scottish councils broke their contract with it to provide refreshments. This has been repeated in Scandinavia too. Eventually, Veolia, and others, will come to the commercial decision that working in the Entity will lose it more than it gains. And so it goes. It is incremental. People power and commercial self-interest combining to isolate an obnoxious regime which will lead to its fall.

Monday April 30, 2012, 11:39 am
Half of the Jewish population of Israel, which is 80% Jewish and 20% Arab, are Jews who escaped from Arab countries and their descendants. Those are Arabian Jews who were thrown out of the Arab countries because of the Zionist project in Palestine. There were more than 1,000,000 of Arabian Jews that had to flee Arab countries between 19020ies and 1967 when Israel proved that it can defend itself from Arab onslaught for exterminating Jews (6-day war). Those Arabian Jews, who lived in Arab countries sometimes much longer than Muslims (in Iran, and Iraq, where they lived after destruction of First and Second Temples, 586 BC and 70Ad respectively,, while Islam came in 7the century AD), left land properties in area of about 5 areas of Israel and untold other properties. If those properties are given to West Bank and Gaza Arabs, they could have a nice life there and stop dreaming about annihilating and looting what Jews had built in Israel.

Arab countries had created this problem with the help of UN which maintains 5 generations on the dole rather then letting them settle in Arab countries and lead productive lifes, as Arabian Jews are doing in Israel which absorbed them into their population. It is Islam with its Jew hatred and oppression of individuals to think freely, that is responsible for dysfunctional Muslim countries that are sending their people to live in th West where they try to impose their dysfunctional behaviors and hatrede on our societies. It is Islam that MUST REFORM to have a peace in the world and not Islamic terrorism. Israel would be suicidal if it allowed another terrorist state on its border from which those Islamists could shoot rockets on the ENTIRE Israel and not just 1/3 as they do from Gaza.

Two state is NOT a solution but a DELUSION which would endanger Israel and the Western civilization even more from this onslaught of Islam, which is the ROOT CAUSE of terrorism around the world, as anybody who had read Koran and Hadith and learned about the bloody history of Islam and Mohamed KNOWS. Wichful delusional thinking will not solve this problems but understanding reality of Islam and its supremacist ideology, similar to Nazi supremacist ideology of delusional Jew hate, may help us devise ways to defeat this ideology which is incompatible with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Monday April 30, 2012, 11:58 am
Here is an interesting link that shows how much a state like Israel is in such peril. Without the US weapons, Aid, and backing Israel is nothing but a warmongering, racist, pariah statethat it's neighbors are salivating to see destroyed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hVf4SStB-M

Monday April 30, 2012, 2:12 pm
I wonder how long it would take for Vlasta to arrive with her lies sbout Jews bing expelled from Arab countries.

Monday April 30, 2012, 7:33 pm
Hi John,

I've seen this sort of "democratic" argument before: Tell me, what is the usual turnout-rate of Coop-members in these votes? I saw the same at a student union back home about a decade ago. When they started putting anti-Israel propaganda in the student-agenda and brought their activism to everybody's attention, voter-turnout suddenly tripled. That faction in student-politics there, which had been dominant for years, has been marginalized ever since.

You and Samah Sabwai also missed something else. Israel Peace Week, started on 31 campuses in 2010 in response to IAW, reached 75 only two years later. I wonder whether it will be larger or smaller than IAW two years from now. This is what happens when you live in an echo-chamber. Also, did you say it was driven to bankruptcy by breach of contract? How big was the lawsuit? On top of that, the BDS campaign is mostly hypocritical and toothless: Do you have any idea how many medical and electronic patents Israel holds? Let me know when BDS-endorsing groups stop buying computers from manufacturers which pay royalties to Israeli inventors, and when their executives stop seeking medical treatment using equipment from manufacturers which dothe same.

I should probably point out two other things: The U.S. aid is not direct aid, nor is it $3 billion. It is $3 billion - however much the Israeli government spends on settlements, for everything from road-repair to police, and it goes only to U.S. arms-companies, paying them on Israel's behalf. In case you thought that was a huge amount, it comes out to ~ 1.4% of Israel's GDP and even counting this aid, Israel still maintains a positive balance of trade with the U.S.

Wednesday May 2, 2012, 7:53 am
I realize there was a point in my previous post which was not clear:
"It is $3 billion - however much the": The hyphen is intended as a subtraction-sign.

Friday May 18, 2012, 3:43 pm
Happy 64th Israel!