Gaza's Lone Power Plant Shuts Down
Palestinian authorities in Gaza have shut down the territory's only power plant after running out of fuel in the middle of a heatwave.
Engineers in Gaza warn the blackout could last days without emergency fuel shipments.
Fuel for the plant comes from the rival Palestinian government in the West Bank, which accused officials in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip of failing to make scheduled payments.
The Reuters news agency said Saturday that the power outage was affecting hospitals and water wells. It also said the blackout cut power to the territory's sewage treatment plant, which was allowing waste to spill into the Mediterranean. As a result, Gazans hoping to get relief from the heat were banned from swimming in the sea.
The Gaza power plant supplies the territory with about one-third of its electricity. The rest comes from Israel and Egypt.
Monday, 9 August 2010
Thursday, 5 August 2010
Human Shields
I don't know about you, but I think that using co-opted local civilians to shield you when you are walking about fully-armed, helmeted and body-armoured, then using a local teenager in a T-shirt to walk in front to protect you, is plain cowardice.This photo and the video below both show blatant examples of Israeli soldiers using human shields in occupied Hebron in 2007.
Israel Plans to Deport 400 Children of Migrant Workers
Further signs of overt Israeli racism. Israel went to great lengths to encourage the immigration of a million Russians (many of whom were not Jews, nor spoke Hebrew, but were all white), and last year, gave work permits to 120,000 foreign workers. - RP
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LA Times - Reporting from Jerusalem
Israel moved Sunday to deport the offspring of hundreds of migrant workers, mostly small children who were born in Israel, speak Hebrew and have never seen their parents' native countries.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the new policy was intended to stem a flood of illegal immigrants, whose children receive state-funded education and healthcare benefits, and to defend Israel's Jewish identity.
"On the one hand, this problem is a humanitarian problem," Netanyahu said during a meeting Sunday of the Cabinet, which had debated the move for nearly a year. "We all feel and understand the hearts of children. But on the other hand, there are Zionist considerations and ensuring the Jewish character of the state of Israel."
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LA Times - Reporting from JerusalemIsrael moved Sunday to deport the offspring of hundreds of migrant workers, mostly small children who were born in Israel, speak Hebrew and have never seen their parents' native countries.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the new policy was intended to stem a flood of illegal immigrants, whose children receive state-funded education and healthcare benefits, and to defend Israel's Jewish identity.
"On the one hand, this problem is a humanitarian problem," Netanyahu said during a meeting Sunday of the Cabinet, which had debated the move for nearly a year. "We all feel and understand the hearts of children. But on the other hand, there are Zionist considerations and ensuring the Jewish character of the state of Israel."
Tuesday, 3 August 2010
Defamation - The Movie
Except for a very brief moment at the start of Defamation, a smart, mordant, and incisive documentary which examines the tendency of forces within contemporary Judaism to exploit the Holocaust for political ends, we never see the man behind the camera, Israeli Jew Yoav Shamir. One imagines, however, that this fellow had his poker face honed to perfection, because he was able to pull off a terrifically effective undercover job.
Clearly no fan of the Anti-Defamation League and like organizations, Shamir during the making of this movie managed to sell himself as a sympathizer, and somehow won the confidence of Abraham Foxman and other high-level figures within the ADL, who in turn seemed totally unaware that they were ultimately going to receive a cinematic drubbing at his hands. Indeed, one even almost sympathizes with Foxman and Co. for opening themselves up to the soft-spoken filmmaker from Tel Aviv with such touching, open-hearted naiveté; they must have figured that Shamir’s Jewish background and professed interest in exploring “anti-Semitism” must have meant that he could be trusted not to break from the party line.
The back-of-the-envelope history of the Anti-Defamation League
Mondoweiss - Jeffrey Blankfort on July 31, 2010 ·
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was formed by B'nai B'rith in 1913 to be the leading Jewish defense agency in the wake of the conviction of Leo Frank, an officer of the National Pencil Co. of Atlanta,Georgia,, for the murder of 13 year old Mary Phagan, a shop floor worker at the pencil factory. It was a verdict that many believed to be a miscarriage of justice, which was compounded by Frank being kidnapped from prison two years later and lynched, the only American Jew known to have suffered that fate.
By 1937, the Anti-Defamation League had embarked on another occupation, keeping files and spying on what it considered to be communist or pro-communist organizations and individuals. In that year, a 1947 Congressional hearing revealed, it had begun providing information on the recently formed National Lawyers Guild and on individuals applying for government jobs to the original House Committee on Un-American Activities chaired by the notorious racist and anti-semite, Rep. Martin Dies, which came to be referred to simply as the Dies Committee.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was formed by B'nai B'rith in 1913 to be the leading Jewish defense agency in the wake of the conviction of Leo Frank, an officer of the National Pencil Co. of Atlanta,Georgia,, for the murder of 13 year old Mary Phagan, a shop floor worker at the pencil factory. It was a verdict that many believed to be a miscarriage of justice, which was compounded by Frank being kidnapped from prison two years later and lynched, the only American Jew known to have suffered that fate.By 1937, the Anti-Defamation League had embarked on another occupation, keeping files and spying on what it considered to be communist or pro-communist organizations and individuals. In that year, a 1947 Congressional hearing revealed, it had begun providing information on the recently formed National Lawyers Guild and on individuals applying for government jobs to the original House Committee on Un-American Activities chaired by the notorious racist and anti-semite, Rep. Martin Dies, which came to be referred to simply as the Dies Committee.
Monday, 2 August 2010
Resolution Green-Lighting Israeli Strikes on Iran Introduced by House Republicans
Republicans in the House of Representatives have introduced a measure that would green-light an Israeli bombing campaign against Iran. The resolution, H.Res. 1553 (in full below), provides explicit support for military strikes against Iran, stating that Congress supports Israel's use of "all means necessary" against Iran "including the use of military force". US military leaders have warned that strikes could be catastrophic to US national security interests and could engulf the Middle East in a "calamitous" regional war.
Israel Youth Brigade Helps in Village Destruction
There's one clear precedent to what is happening in Israel right now. It's becoming a carbon copy of Herr Hitler's emerging Nazi state, including the co-option of the country's youth into a super-patriotic, militaristic and mindless mob, particularly careless of it's own country's minority citizens, as illustrated by this incident.Meanwhile, we stand by, watch it happen, and pour billions of dollars into helping the 'shitty little Levantine state' achieve what the Allies spent World War trying to eliminate forever - RP
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Max Blumenthal
AL-ARAKIB, ISRAEL — On July 26, Israeli police demolished 45 buildings in the unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Arakib, razing the entire village to the ground to make way for a Jewish National Fund forest.
The Atomic Mirror House:Iran, Brazil, Turkey and other emerging powers vs. the nuclear power
25. Jul, 2010 By Tomás Rosa Bueno (Campaign Against Sanctions and Military Intervention in Iran)
In international politics, if an action seems reckless or callous and the ones taking it are not certified loonies, usually it’s because it was made to look that way, on purpose. To send a message.
Pollution fears at river Jordan pilgrimage spot
Israeli officials to test water after samples reveal high levels of sewage
Harriet Sherwood in Qasar al-Yahud guardian.co.uk, Monday 26 July 2010
Christian pilgrims should be banned from entering the river Jordan at the site where Jesus is believed to have been baptised because of dangerous levels of pollutants, Israel's ministry of health has said.
Harriet Sherwood in Qasar al-Yahud guardian.co.uk, Monday 26 July 2010
Christian pilgrims should be banned from entering the river Jordan at the site where Jesus is believed to have been baptised because of dangerous levels of pollutants, Israel's ministry of health has said.
Sunday, 1 August 2010
Going Down the Hole : Cost of War - Rethink Afghan War - Part 3
The cost of Obama's losing war in Afghanistan is now reaching astronomical levels.
Nobody really knows what the money is being spent for - RP
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The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, initiated by the Bush Minor administration as the “war on terror,” have now cost over $1 trillion, according to the Congressional Research Service. It is the most expensive conflict in US history in real dollars with the exception of World War II. By 2017 the cost is expected to more than double to $2.4 trillion. Economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes predicted that the wars would cost $3 trillion once you figure in the cost of care for veterans, but it increasingly seems as though their estimate is low.
In the wake of the financial collapse of the United States, moreover, that is trillions that we do not have (Bush borrowed most of the cost of his wars from future generations at the same time he cut taxes on the wealthy, setting things up so as to push the middle class into poverty while establishing a permanent super-rich oligarchy of spoiled brats like himself).
Informed Comment
Congress has approved $345 billion so far for the war in Afghanistan, which the United States invaded to fight al Qaeda and topple the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which produced the figure, said about $22 billion has gone for Afghan-war-related activities in other countries.
Reuters
Nobody really knows what the money is being spent for - RP
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The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, initiated by the Bush Minor administration as the “war on terror,” have now cost over $1 trillion, according to the Congressional Research Service. It is the most expensive conflict in US history in real dollars with the exception of World War II. By 2017 the cost is expected to more than double to $2.4 trillion. Economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes predicted that the wars would cost $3 trillion once you figure in the cost of care for veterans, but it increasingly seems as though their estimate is low.
In the wake of the financial collapse of the United States, moreover, that is trillions that we do not have (Bush borrowed most of the cost of his wars from future generations at the same time he cut taxes on the wealthy, setting things up so as to push the middle class into poverty while establishing a permanent super-rich oligarchy of spoiled brats like himself).
Informed Comment
Congress has approved $345 billion so far for the war in Afghanistan, which the United States invaded to fight al Qaeda and topple the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which produced the figure, said about $22 billion has gone for Afghan-war-related activities in other countries.
Reuters
Afghanistan: Condition Black
Not everyone gets White Man's special treatment. If you're Afghan you go to the end of the queue - RP
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July 25, 2010 by politicaltheatrics
On any given day NATO hospitals in southern Afghanistan enter “CONDITION BLACK” – a status that alerts military tactical commanders that hospital beds are full and patients should be diverted elsewhere. Commanders’ options are limited however – in the south NATO has only two Role-3 hospitals – those that are capable of dealing with complex polytrauma that is a common result of IED blasts.
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July 25, 2010 by politicaltheatrics
On any given day NATO hospitals in southern Afghanistan enter “CONDITION BLACK” – a status that alerts military tactical commanders that hospital beds are full and patients should be diverted elsewhere. Commanders’ options are limited however – in the south NATO has only two Role-3 hospitals – those that are capable of dealing with complex polytrauma that is a common result of IED blasts.
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