Commenter Profile

Total number of comments: 321 (since 2009-08-02 08:11:58)

Brewer

62 yr old male New Zealander

Website: http://brewerstroupe.blogspot.com/

Showing comments 321 - 301
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  • Day after pogroms, Likud MK calls for internment camp for African refugees
    • Brewer May 25, 2012 at 6:24 am

      From Huffpost blogger Taxim on this same topic:

      "Between August 1945 and 1948, 65 illegal immigrant ships, carrying 69,878 people, arrived from European shores. Lehi and the Stern Gang were terrorist Zionist groups formed to violently evict the British authorities from Palestine, allowing unrestricted Jewish immigration."

      He's correct, if Israelis could only be brought round to looking themselves squarely in the eye - could be a game-changer.

    • Brewer May 24, 2012 at 10:34 pm

      Does it mean "Kristallnacht" ??

  • Passive-aggressive George Bush namechecks neocons for getting us into that mess
    • Brewer May 23, 2012 at 6:03 am with 1 replies

      Re Julia Gillard, Rudd, see what you can make of this:

      "The Jewish community was deeply disturbed by the abrupt change in the government's Israel policy. And Rudd's treatment of the local Jewish fraternity, too. He had always been strongly pro-Israel. A former chairman of the World Jewish Congress Isi Leibler last year described him as "a Christian Zionist - he understands and has some sympathy for us''.
      Australia had long been one of the Israel's three most supportive friends, along with the US and Canada. But now there were troubling signs that Rudd had decided to distance Australia from the Jewish state and himself from the Australian Jews he had called friends.
      It started in February with the government's angry reaction to news that assassins with the Israeli intelligence service Mossad had forged three Australian passports to enter the United Arab Emirates to kill a Hamas military commander, Mahmoud al-Mabouh, in his hotel room. "Australia would not regard that as the act of a friend," said Foreign Minister, Stephen Smith.
      It sharpened a week later when Australia switched its vote in the United Nations to signal a weakening of support for Israel. The government feigned surprise when asked if this was a rebuke for the abuse of the Australian passports but it was a deliberate and unmistakeable retaliation."

      link to smh.com.au

      Two months later he was chopped liver and Australia had the most unpopular Prime Minister in History - Julia Gillard.

  • Kristol: 'I don't see it as a huge problem'
    • Brewer May 19, 2012 at 6:26 pm

      Ben Ami seems to me to be following a pattern I have observed in quite a few whose understanding of these matters evolves at an ever-increasing pace once they recognise that something about the Zionist narrative doesn't add up.

      From his position expressed here, it is a short journey to understanding that the only possible justification for a "Jewish State" is the "barbarity of the other".

      Given what is now known about the barbarity exhibited by the Yishuv (and subsequent Israeli administration), this justification falls away and leaves naked racism exposed.

      It is a journey many of us have made. Perhaps Ben Ami will catch up soon.

  • Neverending Nakba: Israel breaks lull, attacks Gazan farmers
    • Brewer May 20, 2012 at 4:14 am

      “If you come near place X, we have to assume you are a terrorist”.

      From whence does this paranoia come?
      400 Israeli citizens die in road accidents each year. This is many times the number of deaths due to "terrorism". Rockets for, example, took one or two lives per annum.

      If the paranoia arose out of a fear for Israeli lives, would it not be better to assign these IDF thugs to traffic control?

    • Brewer May 20, 2012 at 3:59 am

      "Do you remember seeing photos of Israeli Civilian casualties? No? They must not exist, right? No. The casualties exist. The damage is real."

      So bung 'em up Sam. I'm prepared to have a look.

  • Watching propaganda in a Missouri synagogue
    • Brewer May 6, 2012 at 3:54 pm

      15 January 2010:
      The first Israeli delegation landed in the capital of Port-Au-Prince on Friday evening (15 January) and established its operation center in a soccer field near the airport.
      link to mfa.gov.il

      26 January 2010:
      Israeli field hospital in Haiti closes
      Operations at Port-au-Prince field hospital concluded with military ceremony.

      link to ynetnews.com

      Mission accomplished!

  • Fighting Jews-- then and now
  • Joe Lieberman, and liberal hero Elizabeth Warren, peddle propaganda on Iran
  • Before '60 Minutes' piece aired, Jewish Federations called for 'flood' of 'discourse' to CBS (what's next, locusts?)
    • Brewer April 25, 2012 at 4:41 am

      Historically, the Christians in Palestine have made their case. It has never gained much traction. Here is a statement from May 31, 1948:

      "STATEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN UNION OF PALESTINE

      The war which started in the Holy City of Jerusalem was for all of us a real surprise and beyond our expectations. The Security Council, the United Nations Organization and the Consular Committee of Armistice had given us hope that the Holy City and its sanctuaries would be spared the horrors of war and its consequences of destruction and ruin, both belligerent parties having signed before the Consular Committee of Armistice and the representative of the International Red Cross an undertaking to cease fire for a duration of eight days starting from 9 p.m. on May 14,1948.

      In compliance with this signed promise the Arab Command issued formal orders through loudspeakers to all its posts to cease fire, and complete peace prevailed on all Arab sectors.

      But the Jews took advantage of this opportunity and immediately occupied the main strategical points from where they tried to attack the Arabs and to launch their attack on the Holy City. We immediately informed the Consular Committee of Armistice and the representative of the International Red Cross of this infringement of agreement by the Jews. The reply received was that the Jewish Agency declared that the Stern gang, which is working separately, broke the cease fire agreement and that the Jewish Agency had no control over this group. We then realized that the terrorists are controlling the Jewish movement. In consequence of which the International Red Cross and the Committee of Armistice declared that it was beyond their power to enforce the respect of the undertaking. In this way the Holy City was turned into a battlefield where severe fighting is taking place, accompanied by destruction on a large scale. In consequence, churches, convents, religious and charitable institutions have become the targets of mortar shells and bullets. Some of these buildings were destroyed and set on fire and many of the innocent civilians comprising of women, children, priests and nuns were injured by the explosion of bombs which were fired from all sides and in all directions.

      Because of this dreadful situation, We, the representatives of the Christian Communities, deem it our solemn duty to raise our voice in protest against the violation of the sanctity of our churches, convents and institutions.

      We herewith enumerate some of the damages sustained by our institutions and injuries inflicted on their administrators and refugees sheltered therein.... "

      What follows is a list of "CHURCHES, CONVENTS AND INSTITUTIONS DAMAGED BY ZIONISTS" and personnel killed.

      Here is the link:
      link to palestine-encyclopedia.com

      It is to Issah Nakleh's "Encyclopaedia of the Palestine Problem", a very good resource although it is a bit old and clunky. The home page is here:
      link to palestine-encyclopedia.com

  • Bernard Lewis revises Bernard Lewis (says he opposed invasion of Iraq!)
    • Brewer April 23, 2012 at 5:27 pm

      Lewis is just one of a plethora of "scholars" motivated by ideology (or something even darker) to fashion History into a weapon. He and the equally (well there really is no other word for it) stupid Huntington are responsible for the monolithic and malignant image of Islam that prevails among those who have neither been exposed to Muslim society nor studied Islam and the History of Islamic thought. As such, they belong in a class of opinion makers now reviled.
      No doubt many readers of this blog are already familiar with these roosters. For those who are not, here are a couple of essays:

      "The Clash of Ignorance":
      link to thenation.com

      "Bernard Lewis Revisited"
      link to washingtonmonthly.com

      The academic system in the West is broken. That writers such as Lewis and Huntington receive the glittering prizes, enhancing their credibility in a self-perpetuating cycle of ignorance contributes much to the decline of the West, for no system can prosper when it is based on false premises.
      My only question is: to what extent is this influence fostered by political or economic power?

  • How Benny Morris transformed a patriotic struggle into a 'holy war' for 'sacred Islamic soil'
    • Brewer April 17, 2012 at 9:50 pm

      How ironical that Morris seems to be unaware that Zionism was born in and derives its sustenance from Biblical "prophecy", religion, fanatical adherents to religion and those who cynically manipulate them:
      link to forward.com
      link to maxblumenthal.com

      Morris seems to have adopted the taxicab approach to History common among Zionists. Once the destination is reached, the cab is dismissed.

  • Wallace interview with Ahmadinejad was little more than deliberate demonization
    • Brewer April 13, 2012 at 9:32 am with 1 replies

      The views Ah. peddles in the West are deliberately......mistranslated by Memri using words like "annihilate" to imply that he means physical destruction. As a long time Ahmadinejad watcher I can assure you he chooses his words very carefully and consistently refers to the political entity when making such remarks. He is also consistent in calling for restoration of the rights of those dispossessed in 1948 and 1967.
      Speaking of which, I came across an authoritative quote on the amount of land possessed by Jews in Israel before the 1948 War.

      "By 1948, the Jews percentage of the total rural and urban land was only 6.6%..."

      - God's Peoples: Covenant and Land in South Africa, Israel, and Ulster
      By Donald H. Akenson. Cornell University Press page 168

      Donald Harman Akenson (born May 22, 1941, Minneapolis, Minnesota) is a historian and author.
      Akenson received his B.A. from Yale University and his doctorate from Harvard University. He is Professor of History at Queen's University and Beamish Research Professor at the Institute of Irish Studies,University of Liverpool, and Senior Editor of the McGill-Queen's University Press. As of 2007 his work included eighteen non-fiction books, including more than a dozen about Irish history, and five novels. Akenson won the Grawemeyer Award for God's Peoples (1992) and the Trillium Book Award for Conor: The Biography of Conor Cruise O'Brien (1994). His book on the Bible, Surpassing Wonder (1998), was short-listed for the 1999 Governor General's Award for nonfiction. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Royal Historical Society (UK).

    • Brewer April 12, 2012 at 10:24 pm

      From memory, Wallace did try to have the Ahmadinejad interview aired in its entirety and was overruled. The interview with Hannity might have been part of a compromise he worked out with CBS.
      In a sense, it marked the end of Wallace's career. His respect for truth made him no longer reliable to the establishment. At the time, I got the sense that the realisation that his establishment-inspired preconceptions were dead wrong rather broke his spirit.

    • Brewer April 12, 2012 at 4:30 pm with 2 replies

      To be fair to Wallace, here is what he said when he himself was interviewed by Sean Hannity on the topic:

      MW: He (Ahmadinejead) is not trying to project an image. Look, it's very difficult. I know...I found it difficult to understand, but the more that I sat there, and the more time that I spent with the man, he is...I'm not suggesting...he despises, if you will...oh, he doesn't despise, but he doesn't like the United States. He doesn't like the United States for the reason that it's supporting the Zionist entity. He doesn't talk about Israel.
      SH: So you don't think he's an anti-Semite?
      MW: He himself, an anti-Semite, an anti-Jew...anti-Jew?
      SH: Yes.
      MW: No, I don't.
      MW: I am with you 100% in what I perceived to be the individual that I was about to sit down and talk to. And he made his case, fairly rationally. It wasn't...it was a conversation. He did not propagandize and so forth. He...when I began to talk to him about America, about the United States, and oppression, he had his facts down solid about why he feels sorry, he says, for President Bush. Why? And then he starts in about the polls of President Bush, and how they're going down, and how he's going to leave office, and it's sad that he's going to leave office and leave behind a people who don't really approve of him. His approval ratings are what they are. And what is the standing of the United States in the world generally under President Bush. And it's...we weren't having an argument. I mean, we were having a discussion. And he was infinitely more rational than I had expected him to be.
      SH: And would you deny, Mike, for example, if you ever sat down with Adolf Hitler, or Joseph Stalin...
      MW: (laughing)
      SH: Oh, wait. Hang on.
      MW: No, look, I couldn't agree with you more.
      SH: Would they seem, perhaps, informed, smart, reasonable, even though they were evil?
      MW: Well, it's a perfectly sensible question. As far as I am...Adolf Hitler? Good Lord. I mean, the man was such a hateful, hateful man.
      SH: So is Ahmadinejead, Mike. Listen to his statements.
      MW: What...running a Holocaust, which the Iranians have not done, as you know, running a Holocaust, doing that sort of thing, slaughtering six million Jews, that's not what this man is talking about doing.
      SH: But Mike, but let me answer that. Mike, but his statements are such that he wants to go beyond that. His statements are annihilate, wipe off the Earth.
      MW: No, no, no.
      SH: The world.
      MW: Hold it, hold it.
      SH: Wipe off the map.
      MW: Yes, he says wipe off the map, and of course I asked him over and over about that. He says in effect, hey, it's perfectly sensible to do...pardon me. It's perfectly sensible for them, and I'm not quoting directly, obviously, because I don't have the translation in front of me, to...for them to...it's perfectly sensible, if there is a Holocaust, and let's buy the fact that there was a Holocaust. Where did the Holocaust take place? Did it take place in an Arab neighborhood? Did it take place in Jerusalem? No. It took place in Germany. Then it seems to me, under those circumstances, take Israel, the Zionist entity, he called it, move it to Germany. Move it to Europe. That's where it happened.
      SH: Do you agree with him?
      MW: Move it to the United States.
      SH: Do you think that's a legitimate argument?
      MW: It's an argument. I'm not a commentator. You are.
      SH: You think he's a better man than we think? Do you think he's a good man?
      MW: I wouldn't call him a good man, no. I think that he's a more reasonable...he's self-assured. He is self-righteous. He is savvy. He has studied. Do you know what he does? He has a PhD in civil engineering. And...
      SH: Well, he certainly won't let his people be free. There's not the freedom...
      MW: What does that mean, free?
      SH: Well, I would argue that women...
      MW: Are you suggesting that he wasn't elected by his people?
      SH: I don't believe that those elections are honest in any way. No, I do not.
      MW: Well, all I can tell you is...
      SH: I believe if there was an honest election, people would...
      MW: Khamenei, who is the supreme leader, really, in Iran, if there's one man to whom this man, Ahma...you pronounce his name better than I do...that the president of Iran defers to, it is the man who they call the supreme leader, who is the ayatollah, the highest ayatollah. 27 years ago, I went to the holy city of Qum to talk to Khomenei, which is one of the reasons, I'm sure, that they decided that they were going to let me talk, or he was going to let me talk. I know that I am making him sound more human, more surely than I expected, and by all means, more human than you feel that he is. You feel that he's dead evil, and there's no doubt about it, and so forth. What you're telling me is that some of your best friends are Jews, is that it? That's not what I'm saying. He says, let the people who were responsible for the Holocaust, let the Zionists go there and establish their state.
      MW: I think that Khomenei...Khomenei was much more, how to say, hard-minded, much more the kind of man that you're describing that Ahma...
      SH: Ahmadinejead.
      MW: Ahmadinejead, correct, is. The...I ask you to bring not prejudice, not your own beliefs or prejudices. When you watch him, I'll be curious to see whether you think that there's anything reasonable about this man at all.

  • With 'last ink,' Gunter Grass breaks silence on Israeli nuclear program threatening world peace
    • Brewer April 6, 2012 at 7:57 am

      Works better for me without the mid-European grammatical and syntax bloopers but a matter of taste I guess. Whatever blows your skirt up.

    • Brewer April 6, 2012 at 3:57 am

      "most German soldiers were NOT members of the Nazi Party, but most were racist"

      Poppycock.

      One must assume that you, Colin, are persuaded by post-war justifications of allied atrocities such as civilian bombings, the wholesale slaughter of refugees and the horrendous atomic bomb crimes - all initiated by us, or, should I say, the psychopathic politicians of the day.

      No. The entire citizenry of countries that find themselves in our gunsights did not suddenly, collectively, abandon their human values and become demons. The projection of such propaganda is the prerogative of the victors.
      How many times do you need to learn, after the fact, that the justifications for War are manifest and mostly myths?
      Did you learn nothing from Vietnam? Iraq?
      Have you read any first hand accounts of the situation in Germany during the period or do you rely solely on the cinema for your information?

    • Brewer April 6, 2012 at 3:25 am with 2 replies

      Another translation, in my view, more literate. I regret I cannot acknowledge the translator, all I know is he/she is described as an Austrian/American:

      What must be said
      Why have I been silent, silent for so long?,
      Our generals have gamed it out,
      Confident the west will survive.
      We people have not even been considered.

      What is this right to “preventive war”?
      A war that could erase the Iranian people.
      Dominated by it’s neighbor, pulsing with righteousness
      Smug in the fact that it is they, not Iran,
      Who have the Bomb.

      Why have I so far avoided to identify Israel by it’s name?,
      Israel and it’s ever increasing nuclear arsenal,
      Beyond reproach, Uncontrolled, uninspected.

      We all know these things
      Yet we all remain silent, fearful of being labeled:
      anti-Semitic
      hateful
      worse

      Considering Germany’s past these labels stick
      So we call is “business”, “reparation” take your pick,
      As we deliver yet another submarine.
      As we provide to Israel the means to deliver annihilation.
      I say what must be said.

      Why did I stay silent until now?
      Because I’m German, of course.
      I’m tainted by a stain I cannot wash out
      I’m silent because I want so badly to make it right
      To put my sins in the past and leave them silently there.

      Why did I wait to say it until now?
      And write these words with the last of my ink?
      Declaring that Israel threatens world peace?
      Because it is true and it must be said,
      Tomorrow will be too late.

      We Germans now carry a new burden of sin on our shoulders
      Through the weapons we have sold
      We are helping to carry out this foreseeable tragedy
      No excuse will remove our stain of complicity.

      It must be said. I won’t be silent
      I’ve had enough of the hypocrisy;
      Please shed the silence with me,
      The consequences are all too predictable.
      It’s time to demand free and permanent control
      of BOTH Israel’s nuclear arsenal
      AND Iran’s nuclear facilities
      enforced with international supervision.

      It’s the only way, in a land convulsed with insanity,
      Israelis, Palestinians, everybody, will survive.
      And we too, will survive.

    • Brewer April 5, 2012 at 7:03 pm

      "were their other german soldiers besides nazis?"

      I think I get the logic of this.
      America entered the Vietnam War under a Democrat administration. Ipso facto, all soldiers were members of the Democrat Party right?
      It follows from this that, come Iraq, the military, to a man must have become Republicans.

      It is an oft-forgotten fact that WWII began with Britain and France's declaration of War against Germany during a period when the National Socialist Party was hugely popular due to the economic turnaround they had achieved.
      To expect that young German men would, en masse, become conscientious objectors is unrealistic.

      In the light of recent aggressive Wars indisputably instigated by America and Nato and historical facts of both WWI and II that have become known of late, one would have thought the ridiculous smearing of German citizens whose only crime was to respond to their country's call would cease.

    • Brewer April 5, 2012 at 4:34 pm

      The pungent smell of hypocrisy is ruining my morning coffee:

      "Fundamental Features of the Proposal of the National Military Organization in Palestine (Irgun Zvai Leumi) Concerning
      the Solution of the Jewish Question
      in Europe and
      the Participation of the NMO in the War
      on the Side of Germany

      (1941)

      The NMO, which is well-acquainted with the goodwill of the German Reich government and its authorities towards Zionist activity inside Germany and towards Zionist emigration plans, is of the opinion that:

      Common interests could exist between the establishment of a new order in Europe in conformity with the German concept, and the true national aspirations of the Jewish people as they are embodied by the NMO.
      Cooperation between the new Germany and a renewed folkish-national Hebraium would be possible and,
      The establishment of the historic Jewish state on a national and totalitarian basis, bound by a treaty with the German Reich, would be in the interest of a maintained and strengthened future German position of power in the Near East.
      Proceeding from these considerations, the NMO in Palestine, under the condition the above-mentioned national aspirations of the Israeli freedom movement are recognized on the side of the German Reich, offers to actively lake part in the war on Germany’s side."

      link to marxists.de

    • Page: 3
  • Rockets are collective punishment
    • Brewer March 22, 2012 at 5:47 am

      "Sderot was settled by Jews in 1951. According to Walid Khalidi in All That Remains, it along with the settlement of Or ha-Ner, founded in 1957, were established on the village lands of Najd, which means "elevated plain" in Arabic.*

      Najd's Palestinian villagers, approximately 620 in 1945, were expelled on 13 May 1948, before Israel was declared a state and before any Arab armies entered Palestine. According to UN Resolution 194 and also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 13, Section 2, the villagers of Najd have a right to return home to their personal property and to their native village.

      Today, according to Khalidi, "some old trees grow" on the site of the village. It is "overgrown with cactuses and Christ's thorn and sycamore trees and contans the crumbled walls of unidentified buildings....""
      link to umkahlil.blogspot.co.nz
      link to palestineremembered.com

      The villagers of Najd and their descendants are penned up in Gaza. If they fire rockets, the only protest left them, it cannot be characterised as "collective punishment". File it under "what I would do in their position".

      It should also be mentioned that a few Jews lived, unmolested, in Najd before 1948. They owned about 400 dunams of the total 12,000 (from memory).

  • Wikileaks: Google caught in spy games on execs and 'regime change'
    • Brewer March 22, 2012 at 3:32 am

      "what is the quality of the information they sell?"

      During the Iraq War when a blogger kept throwing Stratfor in my face I did an analysis of their info and predictions (I doubt I can dig it up now but I will try if anyone is interested). The wet-behind-the-ears blogger had been turned on to Stratfor by a Zionist Politics professor (who subsequently got sacked for abusing an Arab student by the way).

      Its a snake oil outfit. Their prognostications regarding the Iraq War were pro the Bush line - laughable now.
      Good business model - sell dollar each way bets to gullible clients, most of whom seem to be of the student, wannabe foreign affairs type. No-one in our Government of the time took them seriously. Kind of outfit that can tell you precisely what is about to happen then, after the due date, can tell you exactly why it didn't.

  • Fighting from civilian areas? Perfectly understandable-- in Syria
  • Exclusive Excerpt: Miko Peled's 'The General's Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine'
    • Brewer March 9, 2012 at 4:15 pm with 1 replies

      I cannot help but remark that I was amazed when I came across this clip almost a year ago and posted it on every blog I thought relevant including Mondoweiss:

      Brewer says:
      June 6, 2011 at 3:53 pm

      This is good:
      THE GENERAL’S SON
      link to youtube.com

      Miko Peled’s website:

      link to mikopeled.wordpress.com

      .....and it disappeared without trace.
      Good to see it getting an airing. It is very potent.

  • NIAC's Jamal Abdi: AIPAC-backed resolutions are 'blank check for war'
    • Brewer March 9, 2012 at 7:05 pm

      America gone stupid over Iran

      By Lawrence Davidson

      10 March 2012

      Lawrence Davidson argues that, as with the war on Iraq in 2003, the USA is drifting towards aggression against Iran propelled not by evidence that Iran is working on a nuclear weapons programme, but by the lies and obsessions of a foreign state, Israel....

      link to redress.cc

      Davidson, Lawrence – professor of history at West Chester University. He is the author of numerous books, including Islamic Fundamentalism and America's Palestine: Popular and Official Perceptions from Balfour to Israeli Statehood.

  • Blasting Obama as 'blurred,' McConnell assures Israel lobby that bipartisan Congress will authorize 'overwhelming force' against Iran
    • Brewer March 7, 2012 at 6:09 pm

      IRAQ'S SHOP-TILL-YOU-DROP NUCLEAR PROGRAM

      by David Albright and Mark Hibbs

      Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Vol. 48, No. 3

      April 1992

      ".......After exposing Iraq's efforts to enrich uranium and design an atomic bomb, U.N. and IAEA experts zeroed in on how Iraq put its program together. The basic answer is that along with determination and persistence, Iraq had a great deal of foreign help....."

      link to iraqwatch.org

    • Brewer March 7, 2012 at 5:38 pm

      You have got to love the logic.

      "If Iran was building a bomb, they wouldn't let anyone see it.
      No-one can see an Iranian bomb - ergo - they must be building one."

      Sheesh.

      Actually, the centrifuges, which are not manufactured in Iran, are all accounted for and monitored.
      Enrichment to 90% is not possible without a huge cascade of centrifuges or a lengthy time frame - years.
      Iran doesn't have the former and hasn't had the latter.

      Much of the "bomb" noise emanates from David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS, an institute which he himself founded) and author of the now laughable “Iraq’s Bomb: Blueprints and Artifacts,” “Iraq: It’s all over at Al Atheer” and “Iraq’s shop-till-you-drop nuclear program" articles. Ring any bells?

    • Brewer March 6, 2012 at 6:31 pm

      "On the eve of release of the latest IAEA report, the New York Times reported (November 7) that Amano visited the White House on October 28 to meet with top officials of the National Security Council concerning the report. While White House officials declined to even confirm the meeting or Amano’s presence in the White House, the question is, why would the head of a supposedly independent body like the IAEA need to brief US officials on his upcoming report about Iran? Do some states, like the US, have special rights? Was Amano there to get instructions from the Americans?

      No clearer proof of Amano as an American stooge could be provided. He was appointed to head the IAEA in order to carry out the US agenda vis-à-vis Iran. What credibility could the agency’s report have when its director general takes orders from the Americans and in the words of a high level diplomat, there is not only a “very high degree of convergence between his priorities and our own agenda at the IAEA,” but the transition period from July to December 1, 2009 before he took over as director general was seen as “a further window of opportunity to us [the Americans] to shape Amano’s thinking…” (emphasis added). The IAEA’s latest report is proof that the Americans have been highly successful in not only shaping Amano’s thinking but also dictating to him what to do vis-à-vis Iran."

      link to crescent-online.net

  • Bruising Judt, Fukuyama says Arabs aren't ready for liberalism
    • Brewer February 8, 2012 at 2:32 pm

      A curiousity not well known:

      Italians! Here is the program of a genuinely Italian movement. It is revolutionary because it is anti-dogmatic, strongly innovative and against prejudice.
      For the political problem: We demand:
      a) Universal suffrage polled on a regional basis, with proportional representation and voting and electoral office eligibility for women.
      b) A minimum age for the voting electorate of 18 years; that for the office holders at 25 years.
      c) The abolition of the Senate.
      d) The convocation of a National Assembly for a three-years duration, for which its primary responsibility will be to form a constitution of the State.
      e) The formation of a National Council of experts for labor, for industy, for transportation, for the public health, for communications, etc. Selections to be made from the collective professionals or of tradesmen with legislative powers, and elected directly to a General Commission with ministerial powers.
      For the social problems: We demand:
      a) The quick enactment of a law of the State that sanctions an eight-hour workday for all workers.
      b) A minimum wage.
      c) The participation of workers' representatives in the functions of industry commissions.
      d) To show the same confidence in the labor unions (that prove to be technically and morally worthy) as is given to industry executives or public servants.
      e) The rapid and complete systemization of the railways and of all the transport industries.
      f) A necessary modification of the insurance laws to invalidate the minimum retirement age; we propose to lower it from 65 to 55 years of age.
      For the military problem: We demand:
      a) The institution of a national militia with a short period of service for training and exclusively defensive responsibilities.
      b) The nationalization of all the arms and explosives factories.
      c) A national policy intended to peacefully further the Italian national culture in the world.
      For the financial problem: We demand:
      a) A strong progressive tax on capital that will truly expropriate a portion of all wealth.
      b) The seizure of all the possessions of the religious congregations and the abolition of all the bishoprics, which constitute an enormous liability on the Nation and on the privileges of the poor.
      c) The revision of all military contracts and the seizure of 85 percent of the profits therein.

      Original Italian
      Italiani!
      Ecco il programma di un movimento sanamente italiano. Rivoluzionario perché antidogmatico e antidemagogico; fortemente innovatore perché antipregiudizievole. Noi poniamo la valorizzazione della guerra rivoluzionaria al di sopra di tutto e di tutti. Gli altri problemi: burocrazia, amministrativi, giuridici, scolastici, coloniali, ecc. li tracceremo quando avremo creata la classe dirigente.

      Per questo NOI VOGLIAMO:
      Per il problema politico
      a. Suffragio universale a scrutinio di lista regionale, con rappresentanza proporzionale, voto ed eleggibilità per le donne.
      b. Il minimo di età per gli elettori abbassato ai 18 anni; quello per i deputati abbassato ai 25 anni.
      c. L'abolizione del Senato.
      d. La convocazione di una Assemblea Nazionale per la durata di tre anni, il cui primo compito sia quello di stabilire la forma di costituzione dello Stato.
      e. La formazione di Consigli Nazionali tecnici del lavoro, dell'industria, dei trasporti, dell'igiene sociale, delle comunicazioni, ecc. eletti dalle collettività professionali o di mestiere, con poteri legislativi, e diritto di eleggere un Commissario Generale con poteri di Ministro.

      Per il problema sociale:
      NOI VOGLIAMO:
      a. La sollecita promulgazione di una legge dello Stato che sancisca per tutti i lavori la giornata legale di otto ore di lavoro.
      b. I minimi di paga.
      c. La partecipazione dei rappresentanti dei lavoratori al funzionamento tecnico dell'industria.
      d. L'affidamento alle stesse organizzazioni proletarie (che ne siano degne moralmente e tecnicamente) della gestione di industrie o servizi pubblici.
      e. La rapida e completa sistemazione dei ferrovieri e di tutte le industrie dei trasporti.
      f. Una necessaria modificazione del progetto di legge di assicurazione sulla invalidità e sulla vecchiaia abbassando il limite di :età, proposto attualmente a 65 anni, a 55 anni.

      Per il problema militare:
      NOI VOGLIAMO:
      a. L'istituzione di una milizia nazionale con brevi servizi di istruzione e compito esclusivamente difensivo.
      b. La nazionalizzazione di tutte le fabbriche di armi e di esplosivi.
      c. Una politica estera nazionale intesa a valorizzare, nelle competizioni pacifiche della civiltà, la Nazione italiana nel mondo.

      Per il problema finanziario:
      NOI VOGLIAMO:
      a. Una forte imposta straordinaria sul capitale a carattere progressivo, che abbia la forma di vera ESPROPRIAZIONE PARZIALE di tutte le ricchezze.
      b. II sequestro di tutti i beni delle congregazioni religiose e l'abolizione di tutte le mense Vescovili che costituiscono una enorme passività per la Nazione e un privilegio di pochi.
      c. La revisione di tutti i contratti di forniture di guerra ed il sequestro dell'85% dei profitti di guerra.

    • Brewer February 8, 2012 at 6:08 am

      "All he was saying was that Judt might have taken his own well-observed wisdom about the enthusiasms of intellectuals"

      I doubt Fukuyama ever met an intellectual.

    • Brewer February 7, 2012 at 3:20 pm

      Thank you dahoit.
      Well put. The fact that these morons somehow survive their public brain-farts and get published again and again speaks volumes about the quality of American intellectualism (or at least the lack of it at media editorial level).
      Add to the "end of History" nonsense, the embarrassment of such stink bombs as The Reagan Doctrine and Project for the New American Century and one wonders why this soft-brain is not running a second-hand furniture mart, something he may actually know something about.

  • Dershowitz justifies war on Iran (and Iraq? again?)-- and Mort Zuckerman rides shotgun-- in fresh attacks on BDS conference
    • Brewer February 5, 2012 at 3:17 am

      Dating the decline in Truth as Beauty or Truth as God is haphazard I guess - liars have always existed. I believe however, that those who practice deceit gained a champion in Edward Bernays
      His efforts (which made him very rich) drew a cloak of respectability over what was and still remains a practice that runs counter to Man's best interests.
      So much of what I see as destructive in Western Society can be sheeted home to the pernicious machinations of this fellow. Of course, he merely recognized the opportunity to yoke Niccolò Machiavelli's ideas to the emerging mass media but his impact can be felt in every walk of life today.

      We look back at mad periods of History with amusement - the excesses of the latter Romans, the Bourbons and even some contemporary weird cultures. I'm betting that, should Man survive the era of American/Israeli dominance, it will be equally regarded as an aberration and figures such as Bernays will be rightfully denigrated.

      It was probably inevitable that Americans, having spent a couple centuries taming the land and its resources and finally enjoying the fruits of their labor by way of an emerging middle class, should become prey to those whose instincts are honed by an altogether different tradition. Clever fellows who have learned that there are ways to profit beyond tending one's own garden.

      Apologies if this all sounds a bit melancholy. Blame the effect of the Republican Primaries on a non-American who finds them rather bizarre. I find myself in total agreement with Fidel Castro:

      I must point out that the campaign to select a Republican candidate as the possible future president of this globalized and far-reaching empire has become —I say this in all seriousness— the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been heard.
      link to mycatbirdseat.com

      Triumph of image over reality.

    • Brewer February 3, 2012 at 4:39 pm with 7 replies

      As I contemplate the major changes in Western Society during my six decades, the one that stands out is the loss of truth as a value in itself. There was a time when the attainment of academic office brought with it a commitment to veracity - no matter how damaging to one's cause. The very idea of using subterfuge to win a point or support was anathema.

      What is fascinating, inasmuch as the utterly disgusting can fascinate, is how much Dershowitz relies on the ignorance of his audience and that he does not seem to care that his dissembling is obvious to any with a modicum of Historical knowledge and common sense. He is a true Zealot.

      The blatant lies (barren land etc.) are obvious to all but his reference to my country, New Zealand, which has served as a model for post-colonial reparations is particularly egregious. I speak as a Kiwi with blood ties to both colonists and indigenous people.
      New Zealand has both Constitutional Law and a mechanism to settle land issues arising from colonial settlement. Negotiations, under the auspices of the Waitangi Tribunal have resulted in settlements to the satisfaction of all major tribes. It is an on-going process, not without controversy but largely successful.

      I have suggested to our Government that NZ should offer Israel it's expertise in this field. The response referenced the well-known futility of teaching a pig to sing.
      Seriously however, I believe it is only through such a mechanism that the Israel/Palestine conflict could ever be addressed.
      Here is a comprehensive description of the process for those who might be interested in possible methods of resolving seemingly intractable problems:
      link to teara.govt.nz

  • 'George Orwell meets Mel Brooks': International activist arrested by Israeli miltary in Hebron for carrying tea; later detained for 'farting on a soldier'
    • Brewer January 20, 2012 at 6:40 pm with 1 replies

      Ahh yes. Farting. The dastardly weapon of mess distraction, the mere threat of which has struck fear into the hearts of soldiers down through the ages:

      link to youtube.com

      I have it on good authority that the offender, as well as being in possession of tea and utensils for eating, had three cans of baked beans in his kit. What more evidence do you need?

  • Video: Settlers claim olive oil as 'Israeli'
  • Throwaway line in 'NYT' story suggests that Israel is pressuring U.S. on war with Iran
  • The trespassing Jew
  • Captain Israel is back, and better than ever!
    • Brewer January 6, 2012 at 2:40 pm

      Too funny.
      With Capt Israel, Elton John, Paul McCartney and John Lydon, victory is assured, preserving Israel's place as the only Mediocracy in the Muddle East!

  • Several thousand US troops headed to Israel for 'unprecedented' joint missile defense exercise
    • Brewer January 5, 2012 at 7:44 pm

      Oops, sorry, slip of the tongue!

      Nice of Witty to provide confirmation of both his double standard and limited understanding of Sharia.

    • Brewer January 5, 2012 at 3:33 am with 3 replies

      ....and maybe Richard Witty's understanding of Sharia is filtered through his Judaic/Western conditioning - a condition that tends to obscure rather than enlighten.

      “Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy, but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril"

      - Lao Tzu.

    • Brewer January 5, 2012 at 3:13 am

      "what prompted the United States to go to war for Israel and why?"

      Hollings Says Iraq War Was Launched in Large Part to Secure Israel
      link to mondoweiss.net

      "Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq — an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right"

      - from the wonderful "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm" - the gift that gives even more as time goes on and the influence and allegiance of: Richard Perle, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Douglas Feith, Robert Loewenberg, Jonathan Torop, David Wurmser, Meyrav Wurmser, .......becomes better known and the influence it and its proponents had on the Bush regime becomes evident through the memoirs that dribble out from time to time.

      Steve Walt has a remarkable summation here:

      link to walt.foreignpolicy.com

      But let us leave the last word to Netanyahu, speaking before before the US Senate, Washington, 10 April 2002:

      "Clearly, the urgent need to topple Sadaam is paramount. The commitment of America and Britain to dismantle this terrorist dictatorship before it obtains nuclear weapons deserves the unconditional support of all sane governments."
      link to netanyahu.org

      Case f**king closed.

    • Brewer January 5, 2012 at 2:22 am

      Revealed: how Israel offered to sell South Africa nuclear weapons

      link to guardian.co.uk

      Yeah I know, shared ideology and all that.

  • B'Tselem's 2011 video year in review
  • Happy New Year
    • Brewer January 1, 2012 at 1:06 am

      Season's greetings from "down under" to all and congratulations to Phil and the team. Mondoweiss should be the benchmark for online debate - the moderators do a fine job. Due to ill-health, I have been unable to "spare a dime" of material support this past year so please accept my heartfelt thanks in lieu.

  • Three years after Israel’s deadly assault: Gaza lives
    • Brewer December 29, 2011 at 10:25 pm

      "Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz marked the three-year anniversary of Operation Cast Lead on Tuesday by hailing it "an excellent operation that achieved deterrence for Israel vis-a-vis Hamas." However, he warned, cracks have emerged in that deterrence over time, and a second round of fighting in the Gaza Strip is not a matter of choice for Israel. .....
      ......In response to a question by interviewer Ilana Dayan regarding the timing of such an attack, Gantz said, "We will act when the conditions are right." "

      link to haaretz.com

  • 'Christopher Hitchens's loathing for Israel...' --John Podhoretz
    • Brewer December 17, 2011 at 5:45 pm

      Yes. "Sophist" is a good fit.

    • Brewer December 17, 2011 at 4:17 pm

      In my humble opinion, Alexander Cockburn gets it just about right.
      Hitchens' muse - who probably appeared to him through a glass (of Chivas) darkly - was not a Goddess but a lady of easy virtue.

      I find it intriguing that I had never heard of Hitchens, despite being an avid reader of geopolitical commentary, until the Internet came along and, with it, on-line American newspapers and magazines. He was not well known down here in the Antipodes and not taken seriously in Britain so far as I can tell.
      I suspect much of his allure was the effect of his "Britishness" on the American reader rather than the substance of his commentary which I found lacking in consistency and logic. His concept of Islam (Jihad) for example, was (like that of ignorant polemicists such as David Horowitz and Daniel Pipes) based on distorted images and interpretations of events published in the popular press, not scholarly analysis of the background to and drivers of those events.

    • Brewer December 16, 2011 at 7:17 pm with 2 replies

      I found Hitch to be inconsistent and rather muddled in his commentary on Israel but gave him full marks for his essay "Wiesel words" which begins:

      "Is there a more contemptible poseur and windbag than Elie Wiesel?"
      link to thenation.com

      I thought it rather brave at the time. In it he references Israel Shamir's "The Rape of Dulcinea" which is both funny and a superb example of subtle, gentle parody that nevertheless leaves its target skewered with his own petard. Those who haven't read it have missed a treat:

      link to mafhoum.com

  • Is Ethan Bronner whitewashing rape by a former Israeli President?
  • New York liberal Democrat implies Gutman is anti-Semitic
  • Roll over Ben-Gurion and tell Jabotinsky the news (even Tablet's had enough)
    • Brewer December 5, 2011 at 4:22 am

      "when has killing innocent Muslims collaterally ever been a concern of Jihadists?"

      Since about 600 AD actually but that ignores the really naive part of your post.

      If you haven't yet worked out that "Jihadist" is a Western invention leveraged off the antics of the fringe lunatics that exist in all religions then you are way behind the eight ball. Need I catalogue the dramatic deeds of lunatic, fundamental Christians?

      That you do not understand that Iran is a progressive State with a judicious regard for traditional values, maintained by the Elders of a religion whose adherents comprise about 98% of the population is understandable - if you are American (Americans appear to be confused in the chaos that results from the wholesale and rapid subversion of culture, traditional morality and identity by commercial interests....)... but back to Iran.

      Do you really believe that a government that carries out more sex change operations than any other nation in the world except for Thailand is "Jihadist" ?
      link to en.wikipedia.org
      Do you really believe that a Nation that celebrates a female racing driver is "Jihadist" ?
      link to news.bbc.co.uk
      These are just two examples out of thousands. Suggest you read a book or two written by independent Iranian authors.

      Iran has an ancient, humanist culture that you (forgive my assessment of you, it is based solely on what you wrote which reveals a primitive mindset) probably cannot comprehend. It has a system of government that is, taken in the context of of a largely cohesive religio/philosophic populace, far more democratic than that of the U.S.
      I know this is hard for Americans, who are used to close election races, to understand - this concept of popular, majority supported Government. Your Secretary of State is inclined to label such as "dictatorships".
      Libya was one such. Now the gun sights are on Syria - despite the fact that Ghaddhafi enjoyed majority support as does Bashar Assad - both of whom were elected by plebiscite despite what your masters have asserted. Go look it up.

      Iran follows Syria. It is written:
      link to cosmos.ucc.ie

      "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
      Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

      This shit is getting too real to ignore.

  • Nakba denial: 'NYT' removes the word 'expulsion' from article describing Palestinian refugees
    • Brewer December 2, 2011 at 7:50 pm with 1 replies

      Thank you Hostage - that is a juicy find.

    • Brewer December 2, 2011 at 6:44 pm with 3 replies

      Posted this on the NYT site:

      "Skew the narrative if you will, the timeline remains.
      Take Jaffa (pop 100,000) and not in the Jewish partition for example:

      4 January 1948, the Irgun bombed Jaffa’s Town Hall, killing 26 and injuring hundreds.

      February 1948: Jaffa’s Mayor sought peace with Tel Aviv. Ben Gurion refused.

      On April 25, 1948, Irgun lobbed twenty tons of high explosive into the town. At the same time, the Haganah had launched Operation Chametz which over-ran the villages East of Jaffa and cut the town off.
      Before the Arab League moved on May 15, all but around 4,000 souls had been expelled."

      Let's see if it goes up.

  • Rafeef Ziadah - 'We teach life, sir'
  • Israel's threat to attack Iran-- will Obama capitulate to that as well?
    • Brewer November 15, 2011 at 3:18 am

      Pause for thought.

      This business has nothing to do with nuclear weapons. The great game is about U.S./Israeli hegemony.

      Regime change/control of Iran is motivated by Iran's strategic position - in control of the Straits of Hormuz.

      Iran can pinch off a large part of the World's traffic of energy products:

      "Located between Oman and Iran, the Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Hormuz is the world's most important oil chokepoint due to its daily oil flow of 15.5 million barrels in 2009, down from a peak of 17 million bbl/d in 2008. Flows through the Strait in 2009 are roughly 33 percent of all seaborne traded oil (40 percent in 2008), or 17 percent of oil traded worldwide. "
      link to 38.96.246.204

      Iran manufactures its own Sunburn Missile. As of a couple of years ago when I last researched it, it could penetrate the U.S. Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System and take down a carrier. It can be launched from the heavily wooded Iranian slopes that front the Straits of Hormuz at its narrowest point - 12 miles wide at that point if memory serves me.

      Politically, if you follow my drift, the Straits of Hormuz are pivotal in the coming face-off between the Left (China/Russia) and the Right (Israel/U.S.).

      Same old shit - left versus right, cooperative versus competitive - the never-ending story of our civilisation.

      If this is a little abstruse to some, I can elaborate.
      Please do not dismiss this as just another "its all about Oil profits" argument. Its not. Profit is not the motive. Price don't matter when you need the stuff to fight a War or, as the current crop of Neo-con, right wing thinkers would have you believe, prevent one.

  • Dueling messages on Iran
    • Brewer November 12, 2011 at 5:50 pm

      Good point eee. Absolutely correct.

      If possessing or developing nukes covertly is a cassus belli, Dimona should have been bombed decades ago.

      Frankly, an Iranian bomb could possibly do us all a favour by causing Israel to keep its dick in its pants and start behaving like a member of the community of Nations. No bad thing.

      Yup. I for one would oppose bombing Iran even if they were developing a nuke. They know as well as you and I that if they deployed one aggressively, their arse would be glass. The deterrent value vis a vis Israeli aggression would be interesting.

    • Brewer November 12, 2011 at 2:00 pm with 2 replies

      Do the bomb Iran shuffle
      By Pepe Escobar

      Get ready for a flurry of fuzzy satellite ''intelligence'' of generic warehouses all across Iran frantically described as segments of a nuclear bomb assembly line (Remember a famous ''secret nuclear facility'' in Syria not long ago? It was a textile factory.)

      Get ready for a flurry of crude diagrams depicting suspect devices, or the containers that hide them, all capable of reaching Europe in 45 minutes.

      Get ready for a flurry of ''experts'' on Fox, CNN and the BBC endlessly dissecting all this extended black ops dressed up as ''evidence''. For instance, former UN weapons inspector David Albright, now at the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS), has already pulled his return of the living dead stunt, displaying his ''bomb Iran'' credentials complete with diagrams and satellite intel.

      Forget Iraq - it's sooo 2003. Hit the new groove; hyping overdrive for the war on Iran.

      First of all, ditch common sense.

      If Iran were developing a nuclear weapon, it would be diverting uranium for it. The report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) this week - as politicized as it may be - flatly denies it.

      link to atimes.com

  • The real question is: Does Netanyahu lie?
    • Brewer November 10, 2011 at 2:02 am

      Forgive my cynicism.
      Post Libya, Unesco vote, Sarkozy and Obama needed to distance themselves. Both are up for re-election. Nothing happens by accident in politics - especially "I forgot the mike was on".
      Strong possibility this little stunt was cleared with Netanyahu beforehand.

  • Muammar Gaddafi captured and killed in Sirte
    • Brewer October 21, 2011 at 1:47 pm

      "Now,
      I am under attack by the biggest force in military history, my little
      African son, Obama wants to kill me, to take away the freedom of our
      country, to take away our free housing, our free medicine, our free
      education, our free food, and replace it with American style thievery,
      called "capitalism," but all of us in the Third World know what that
      means, it means corporations run the countries, run the world, and the
      people suffer, so, there is no alternative for me, I must make my stand,
      and if Allah wishes, I shall die by following his path, the path that
      has made our country rich with farmland, with food and health, and even
      allowed us to help our African and Arab brothers and sisters to work
      here with us ... I do not wish to die, but if it comes to that, to save
      this land, my people, all the thousands who are all my children, then so
      be it. ... In the West, some have called me "mad", "crazy". They know
      the truth but continue to lie, they know that our land is independent
      and free, not in the colonial grip."

      - from:
      Recollections of My Life
      by Col. Muammar Gaddafi, April 8, 2011

  • Afternoon headlines
    • Brewer October 12, 2011 at 10:22 pm

      Some more for you in case you missed them Annie. Be nice if more people read what Khalid actually says rather than what Israel says he says. I share your admiration:

      link to huffingtonpost.com

      link to huffingtonpost.com

      link to globalresearch.ca

    • Brewer October 12, 2011 at 10:14 pm

      "...graveyard of the IDF"

      Possibly a little unwise of al-Masri to make that statement even though it was said in this context:
      "Despite the threats, al-Masri stressed that Hamas was willing to reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel "that would include the lifting of the blockade on Gaza".

      Unwise but, being a decent man, he probably never dreamed that Israel would contemplate unleashing a massive bombing campaign against a densely populated city containing only foot soldiers. We thought International Law had put paid to barbarity of that magnitude. (It has only been in recent times we have realised that such Laws do not apply to the powerful.)

      No, he envisaged a ground invasion and it is a fair bet that Israel paid heed to his warning.

      "a game of brinkmanship"

      By enforcing a ceasefire and offering to extend it despite Israel's bad faith? Like "if you don't attack us and give us this small part of our rights, we won't fire any rockets" - that kind of brinkmanship?

    • Brewer October 12, 2011 at 3:55 pm

      "He did nothing during Cast Lead."

      He wrote this article:

      link to guardian.co.uk

      ....which was probably more potent than all the Willy Pete dropped by Israel. As thousands of bloggers rushed to fact-check the article and read his back-catalogue including:
      link to guardian.co.uk

      .....the Hasbara imposed Freddy Krueger mask was lifted from Hamas forever.

      By the time those readers had explored "Kill Khalid":
      link to foreignaffairs.com

      ....some heavyweights, including Sir Jeremy Greenstock (Britain's former Ambassador to the U.N.), were taking Mish'al seriously.

      link to news.bbc.co.uk

    • Brewer October 11, 2011 at 4:46 pm with 2 replies

      It would be interesting to hear from Shalit after five years in Palestinian custody. Given his high value status I imagine he has been fairly well treated. He may also have learned a great deal about the Palestinian point of view.
      I have encountered several young Israeli ex-military who have been shocked when confronted with the origins of conflict and the injustice of a mission and mindset they had been all too ready to assume.

      I wonder if the press will have open access to Shalit? Somehow I doubt it.

  • Perfect match: Bob Bernstein uses settler sources for racist anti-Arab 'WaPo' Op-Ed
    • Brewer September 28, 2011 at 8:36 pm with 1 replies

      Yes, that would explain a lot. I am afraid I have taken them off my "go to" list.

      Libya troubles me. It is surely unprecedented for a populace that enjoyed free Health, free education, 92% home ownership, subsidised food staples and a Human Development Index rating in the top third of the World to spontaneously rebel against their Government without outside interference is it not?

      HRW were in the vanguard, trumpeting Gaddafi's "crimes", particularly the Abu Salim "massacre". I don't want to hijack this thread into a discussion of that affair, suffice to say I have strong doubts about their version and the use to which it has been put, even though they themselves admit it "can't be verified.
      The "mass grave" recently discovered was visited by CNN reporters:

      "A CNN team was brought to the site, a muddy field, with other media, and found only what appeared to be animal bones."

      Maybe its my age but I am finding it hard to know who to trust.

    • Brewer September 28, 2011 at 4:38 pm with 4 replies

      Both Bernstein and the organisation he founded have given me pause recently. (Bernstein broke with HRW because he felt it should not report on "open societies" like Israel - they were somehow above criticism).

      I was taken aback by this Guardian article:

      link to www­.guardian.­co.uk

      It is important to study Peter Bouckaert'­s "bait and switch" presentati­on of this video, dramatic discovery of documents and film then a quick switch to the real subject - a video tape brought to him by the brother of the condemned who "wants it digitised so he can view it" (a service available in any Tripoli neighbourhood prior to the "rebellion").

      Bouckaert then shows the video pointing out the children in the crowd and “Huda the executione­r”.

      I was very surprised to find a different version of the video on Youtube:

      link to www­.youtube.c­om

      In it you will see a different crowd. No children, an all male audience as far as I can tell and a different auditorium.

      This raises a number of questions about Peter Bouckaert and Human Rights Watch.
      Was he not aware that the video, far from being secret, had been screened on Channel 7 in 1984?
      Did he or his organisati­on insert the (probably sports fan) crowd scenes being roused by Huda – the Minister of Sports? Notice that the angle of seating in the auditorium is much less acute than the almost vertical bleachers in the Buckaert version.

      It could be that Bouckaert has been duped but HRW has been the leading the charge against Gaddafi with their "Abu Salim Massacre" story which, in their fine print, they admit is based on just one witness and "cannot be verified". This is touted as the primary motivation for NATO's action which, by all accounts, has now cost something like 30,000 lives.

      Having often relied on HRW reports in the past, I find their recent activities rather disturbing and would appreciate other opinions on the above.

  • Khalidi gets two mainstream platforms (and 2 arguments)
    • Brewer September 20, 2011 at 12:10 am

      Un-flipping believable.
      Most of you, I am sure, will have read :

      "The Gaza Bombshell
      After failing to anticipate Hamas’s victory over Fatah in the 2006 Palestinian election, the White House cooked up yet another scandalously covert and self-defeating Middle East debacle: part Iran-contra, part Bay of Pigs. With confidential documents, corroborated by outraged former and current U.S. officials, the author reveals how President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, and Deputy National-Security Adviser Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever."
      link to vanityfair.com

      (If not, please do)

      Given that Abrams was up to his ugly hairy eyebrows in that affair, I have never, in all my time seen such blatant perfidy:

      Abrams on Abbas:
      ".....And I think he is a decreasingly legitimate president. He hasn't held an election. He keeps kicking off elections. He has said he's going to retire. He is today the man who lost Gaza. "

      It is Abrams and his cronies who have colluded with Israel to keep Abbas in place.

  • Guess it wasn't Saddam after all: Israeli media now trying to pin 9/11 on Hezbollah and Iran
    • Brewer September 11, 2011 at 4:33 pm

      Rather courageous (or foolhardy) to open this particular can of worms. If the official narrative is destroyed, what becomes of all the other theories, including those that finger Mossad? All of them are back on the table.

      The idea is preposterous of course. Iran has been arresting Al Qaeda suspects for years:
      link to tribune.com.pk

  • Bernard-Henri Levy, philosopher for hire
  • 'J St' comes out against Palestinian statehood initiative
  • Arrests of 100+ 'Hamas agents' in West Bank seem to be Israel's latest effort to thwart Palestinian reconciliation
  • Will Libya victory feed western hubris?
  • Avnery says UN vote could bring violence/crackdown to West Bank
    • Brewer September 5, 2011 at 3:06 pm

      "shooting “from inside the demonstration”. Such a person would have to be insanely irresponsible, since he would expose all the people around him to deadly retaliation."

      This tactic, along with sniper fire from "outside" has been widely used by insurgents in Libya, Syria and Iran. It is the simplest and most effective method by which an insurgency can be created by a minority.
      Where it is used it is almost certain that the insurgency is being fostered by the West as the reward is headlines in the Western press, justifying "regime change."

  • UN report on flotilla raid: Israel shot em the wrong way but everything else it did was fine
  • 'JPost' fires Derfner for writing that Palestinians have the 'right' to use terrorism, notwithstanding his apology
    • Brewer August 29, 2011 at 10:43 am

      I have been expecting this since I began reading his blog - long before the so-called offensive article. The progress of Larry's awakening was palpable with each succeeding essay.

  • Bad interventions, and a few good ones-- which was Libya?
    • Brewer August 29, 2011 at 11:44 pm

      Enormous fun and a welcome diversion from the disgusting World of War and politics.

      Apropos of nothing, Dylan Thomas at his very best:
      link to youtube.com

    • Brewer August 29, 2011 at 10:52 am

      If you need any help with the vernacular, I and my editor (who visits every weekday) would be happy to run our eyes over any passages set in the antipodes or featuring antipodeans - or South Africans for that matter. My editor was a top journo there before migrating to Kiwiville.

    • Brewer August 29, 2011 at 10:11 am

      Try the audio interview with Kim Hill of Radio New Zealand (above). Kim is a savvy girl but a little naive on the M.E.

    • Brewer August 29, 2011 at 10:01 am

      Bugger ewe, that's an Aussie predilection !

    • Brewer August 29, 2011 at 9:58 am

      This is interesting:

      link to rt.com

      I pricked up my ears when I heard:
      "It is a society completely different from us and our idea of democracy, they don’t approve it. Their idea of government is based on groups and tribes that have their own chief, then those chiefs together form a national counsel.

      They believe that this is the only way to represent all the social groups. For example they don’t like our form of democracy because if 60 per cent of a country votes for one president, then the remaining 40 per cent don’t agree with the president, they believe this is not a form of democracy."

      I believe I am beginning to understand the big disconnect between the West and Islamic political systems. Here's what I've picked up about Gaddafi's Jamahiriya system:

      There are about 600 Basic People's Congresses - they sound like District or tribal Councils.
      The General People's Congress (Mu'tammar al-sha'ab al 'âmm) consists of 2,700 representatives of the Basic People's Congresses. The GPC is the legislative forum that interacts with the General People's Committee, whose members are secretaries of Libyan ministries. It serves as the intermediary between the masses and the leadership and is composed of the secretariats of some 600 local "basic popular congresses."
      Further up the chain is the Secretary General, then the Prime Minister, then the President. Gaddafi no longer holds public office or title, he is accorded the honorifics "Guide of the First of September Great Revolution of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya" or "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution" in government statements and the official press.
      I am not sure that "Dictator" is the appropriate term for Gaddafi. It depends on how much control over the Armed Forces he exerts. Officially none but there is a fair bit of nepotism and a son or two hold high military rank. There are quite a few examples of his expressed wishes not being fulfilled however such as his goal of direct participation by women in national defence which has been resisted by conservative elements of Libyan society.
      Fascinating stuff.

    • Brewer August 29, 2011 at 4:52 am with 5 replies

      Quiet night. I'll make a start using some of the more obscure usages you septics (Aussie rhyming slang septic tank = yank) probably aren't familiar with.

      Bugger-all = nothing. (Sometimes "Sweet bugger-all")
      Bugger-off = go away (Interesting but probably apocryphal belief is that the Maori word for a European (Pakeha) is a corruption of bugger-off, supposedly the most common response the Maori heard after enquiring "Who are you?"
      Bugger me days, Well I'll be buggered, Well bugger me = Exclamations of surprise like "Well I'll be goddamned."
      He's a bugger for his (insert noun) = he likes (noun) a lot
      Bugger it = I give up
      Bugger you (emphasis on you)= I don't agree with you
      Bugger you (emphasis on Bugger) = Damn it/you
      It's buggered = its kaput
      You bugger (emphasis on bugger) = expression of admiration
      Buggerlugs = Whatsisname

      That's just a few off the top of my head. Here is a New Zealand Toyota television ad that was universally loved. I'd be interested in your reactions
      link to youtube.com

    • Brewer August 28, 2011 at 9:34 pm with 2 replies

      At least 18 Phil but if you include us Kiwis, 47.

    • Brewer August 28, 2011 at 8:10 pm with 1 replies

      Pepe Escobar (God bless him) omnibus:

      link to radionz.co.nz

      Welcome to Libya's 'democracy'
      link to atimes.com

      The Big Gaddafi (hilarious)
      link to atimes.com

      Disaster capitalism swoops over Libya
      link to atimes.com

      If you want more just say so.

    • Brewer August 28, 2011 at 8:01 pm

      The Lies Behind the West's War on Libya

      It was Gaddafi’s Libya that offered all of Africa its first revolution in modern times – connecting the entire continent by telephone, television­, radio broadcasti­ng and several other technologi­cal applicatio­ns ...
      It began in 1992, when 45 African nations establishe­d RASCOM (Regional African Satellite Communicat­ion Organizati­on) so that Africa would have its own satellite and slash communicat­ion costs in the continent. This was a time when phone calls to and from Africa were the most expensive in the world because of the annual US$500 million fee pocketed by Europe for the use of its satellites like Intelsat for phone conversati­ons, including those within the same country...­.
      The US$30 billion frozen by Mr Obama belong to the Libyan Central Bank and had been earmarked as the Libyan contributi­on to three key projects which would add the finishing touches to the African federation – the African Investment Bank in Syrte, Libya, the establishm­ent in 2011 of the African Monetary Fund to be based in Yaounde with a US$42 billion capital fund and the Abuja-base­d African Central Bank in Nigeria which, when it starts printing African money, will ring the death knell for the CFA franc through which Paris has been able to maintain its hold on some African countries for the last fifty years. It is easy to understand the French wrath against Gaddafi.

      link to www­.informati­onclearing­house.info­

  • Exulting over Libya
    • Brewer August 25, 2011 at 7:54 pm

      "But, of course, the massive presence of Western diplomats, oil-mogul representa­tives, highly paid Western mercenarie­s and shady British and French servicemen – all pretending to be "advisers" rather than participan­ts – is the Benghazi Green Zone. There may (yet) be no walls around them but they are, in effect, governing Libya through the various Libyan heroes and scallywags who have set themselves up as local political masters."
      link to independent.co.uk

      "We went to Libya on the 28th July and we came back on the 7th August and we found a totally different situation because NATO was bombarding civilians.

      The bombings were not only carried out on military targets, but they also hit houses, hospitals, schools, television centers, and this was totally against the humanitari­an reasons they said they were there for.

      I believe they were doing this to bring panic in the city. That’s why they were bombing the things that people use daily, like places with food and essential utilities like hospitals.­.......We went to Tripoli and to Zitan and we saw huge protests with thousands of pro-Gaddaf­i supporters turning out against NATO and all these demonstrat­ions were not shown in Italy."
      link to rt.­com

    • Brewer August 25, 2011 at 5:24 am

      I only know what I read in the papers:

      "Rebels asks leader of UK’s Libyan Jews to run for office"
      link to jpost.com

    • Brewer August 25, 2011 at 2:01 am with 1 replies

      "British military and civilian advisers, including special forces troops, along with those from France, Italy and Qatar, have spent months with rebel fighters, giving them key, up-to-date intelligence, and watching out for any al-Qaida elements trying to infiltrate or influence the rebellion."
      link to guardian.co.uk

      Well well well:

      "British troops may act as peacekeepers if Libya descends into chaos"

      Read more: link to dailymail.co.uk

    • Brewer August 24, 2011 at 8:29 pm

      Pepe Escobar reports:

      "Who are these people who suddenly erupted in joy on US and European television screens? After the smiles to the cameras and the Kalashnikovs shooting the skies, get ready for some major fratricidal fireworks....

      A large Benghazi-based "revolution" sold to the West as a popular movement was always a myth. Only two months ago the armed "revolutionaries" barely numbered 1,000. NATO's solution was to build a mercenary army - including all sorts of unsavory types, from former Colombian death squad members to recruiters from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), who pinched scores of unemployed Tunisians and tribals disgruntled with Tripoli. All these on top of the CIA mercenary squad - Salafis in Benghazi and Derna - and the House of Saud squad - the Muslim Brotherhood gang. ...

      Yet to believe that NATO would win the war and let the "rebels" control power is a joke. Reuters has already reported that a "bridging force" of around 1,000 soldiers from Qatar, the Emirates and Jordan will arrive in Tripoli to act as police. And the Pentagon is already spinning that the US military will be on the ground to "help to secure the weapons". A nice touch that already implies who's going to be really in charge; the "humanitarian" neo-colonialists plus their Arab minions. ..."

      link to atimes.com

    • Brewer August 24, 2011 at 6:28 pm

      Long term watchers should note:
      Since 1969 when Gaddafi took power in a bloodless coup:

      * The Libyan economy has become the best performing in Africa and has, from time to time, outperform­­ed developed countries such as Italy, Singapore, South Korea, Spain and New Zealand. Every citizen receives a dividend, paid into their bank account from the State Oil Industry.

      * The literacy rate has gone from 20% to the highest in North Africa; over 82% .

      * Education is free and compulsory up to secondary level.

      * Universiti­­es and higher technical and vocational institutes have gone from zero to 84 (with 12 public universiti­­es). Higher education is funded by the State. 1.7 million of 6.4 million Libyans are students.

      * Healthcare for every citizen is free, including travel for procedures not available in Libya.

      * Crime.
      Incarcerat­­ion: 173 per 100,000 people (U.S. 743 incarcerat­­ed per 100,000)
      Murder: 2.2 per 100,000 people (U.S. 5.5 per 100,000)

      * Agricultur­­e
      25-30% of State expenditur­­e goes to Agricultur­­al projects aimed at freeing Libya from its dependence on imported food.

      Let us see if these gains are maintained under the new regime.

  • Assad regime rushes to cover up bloodshed in Palestinian refugee camp
    • Brewer August 24, 2011 at 4:18 am

      Can't remember if I have posted this before, it is most intriguing. The perpetrators of the "Syrian Lesbian Blogger" scam had some very interesting connections:

      link to lespolitiques.blogspot.com

      Interestingly, I have tried to post all this stuff on Huffpo with commentary from me, without commentary, just the bare links. No dice.

    • Brewer August 24, 2011 at 12:08 am with 5 replies

      The Maan link carries the ubiquitous "activists said" qualification. Please be cautious.
      Here is an alternative viewpoint:

      "For their part, Palestinian powers' Alliance Factions on Monday condemned statements of The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) about allegations of shelling al-Ramel Camp for the Palestinian refugees in Lattakia, calling for not involving the Palestinians in the latest events in Syria.

      "The Palestinian factions deny what has been included in the UNRWA leadership about shelling the refugees camp in Lattakia, considering this provocation as part of attempts to harm the Syrian and Palestinian stances," official spokesman of the Palestinian Alliance said in a press statement.

      Ali Mustafa, Director of the Arab Palestinian Refugees General Committee called on UNRWA Commissioner –General Filippo Grandi to correct what has been included in the statement of UNRWA Official Spokesman about the concern of the Agency of the reports claiming that the Syrian Security forces launch heavy fires inside the camp in Lattakia.

      "We would like to bring your attention that what has been included in the UNRWA statement was baseless and untrue…"

      link to dp-news.com

      I honestly don't know the truth of it but I am hesitant to give full credibility to what "activists said". Powerful interests have a stake in destabilising Syria right now.

    • Brewer August 23, 2011 at 8:22 pm

      Eye-witness in Hama July this year:

      "I was surprised that the image of Syria, portrayed by the Western media as a country undergoing full scale revolution, does not correspond in any way whatsoever to the reality of the situation."

      link to pierre.piccinin-publications.english.over-blog.com

  • Libyan triumph exposes the west's double standard for Palestine
    • Brewer August 22, 2011 at 5:14 pm with 2 replies

      Since 1969 when Gaddafi took power in a bloodless coup:

      * The Libyan economy has become the best performing in Africa and has, from time to time, outperform­ed developed countries such as Italy, Singapore, South Korea, Spain and New Zealand. Every citizen receives a dividend, paid into their bank account from the State Oil Industry.

      * The literacy rate has gone from 20% to the highest in North Africa; over 82% .

      * Education is free and compulsory up to secondary level.

      * Universiti­es and higher technical and vocational institutes have gone from zero to 84 (with 12 public universiti­es). Higher education is funded by the State. 1.7 million of 6.4 million Libyans are students.

      * Healthcare for every citizen is free, including travel for procedures not available in Libya.

      * Crime.
      Incarcerat­ion: 173 per 100,000 people (U.S. 743 incarcerat­ed per 100,000)
      Murder: 2.2 per 100,000 people (U.S. 5.5 per 100,000)

      * Agricultur­e
      25-30% of State expenditur­e goes to Agricultur­al projects aimed at freeing Libya from its dependence on imported food.

      No wonder he had to go.

  • It's apartheid, declares an investment banker/CFR member who's an 'ardent supporter of Israel'
    • Brewer August 14, 2011 at 4:05 pm

      Thank you Hostage. I had thought I was a lone voice on this fascinating aspect. You have brought out some important research I was not aware of, for which I am most grateful. I wish more scholars would take an interest.

      I read once that around 70% of the Ottoman Empire was Waqf but I have never been able to trace the reference again.
      I am interested in this from another point of view - interesting alternatives to the Western capitalist system which I am beginning to detect within political Islam. I shall try to make time to review your comments archive here on MW. I'm a bit pressed by other concerns at the moment but I hope we can take up this conversation at a later date.

    • Brewer August 14, 2011 at 12:50 pm with 3 replies

      Much of the so-called "public " land was Waqf - specifically protected under all the colonial documents. The complex Ottoman land tenure system had many other forms - Musha', Jiftlik. Matruka, Mawat. Miri, Mulk, Waqf. The Zionists claimed anything that was not Mulk - owned in fee simple.

      Thanks for the link to Yiftachel. I shall read with interest.

    • Brewer August 13, 2011 at 5:00 pm with 5 replies

      "since they would receive 78 percent of the land available in 1947. An investment banker much of my adult life, I’d take this deal in a heartbeat."

      Illustrates a fundamental confusion .

      There was no land "available in 1947. Partition concerned itself with sovereignty, not ownership.

      I suggest Stephen Robert would certainly not take any deal that sent he and his family down the road with just the clothes on their back "in a heartbeat." Heart attack maybe.

  • In Israel, Steny Hoyer promises, US financial crisis won't cut our aid package by a dime
    • Brewer August 12, 2011 at 7:17 pm

      In the link above, Henry Siegman describes the "thirty-nine-member Land of Israel Caucus, the largest caucus in the Knesset".
      The official goal of the caucus is to strengthen “Israel’s grasp on the entire Land of Israel.”
      The article is nearly three months old but I had never seen it before this morning.
      How is it that U.S. support is not contingent upon agreement with U.S. foreign policy?

    • Brewer August 12, 2011 at 2:51 pm with 1 replies

      I'm having trouble getting it up. No, not that,
      This:

      link to usmep.us

      (Testing)

  • State Department awards $200,000 to Elliott-Abrams-led thinktank repeatedly cited by mass murderer Breivik
    • Brewer August 11, 2011 at 8:38 pm

      I love this title:

      Public Serpent.

      ""This snake is hard to kill,"
      said Adm. William Crowe Jr., referring to Abrams."

      link to inthesetimes.com

      Seriously, my American friends, why isn't this guy running a Bait n Tackle shop somewhere in Booneysville?
      Something is broken.

  • Slouching toward theocracy: Tehran and Tel Aviv may have something in common
    • Brewer August 11, 2011 at 3:57 am

      A dark new philistinism is behind Britain's arts funding cuts

      Looming cuts to university arts and humanities departments destroy the consensus that the arts have inherent value
      link to guardian.co.uk

      Denmark.
      Minister faced down humanities' protesters
      link to universitypost.dk

      More UK Humanities Under Attack
      Early hopes that governmental and university authorities in Scotland might resist the siren call of cutbacks in the humanities and social sciences appear to have been premature.
      link to utotherescue.blogspot.com

      ....and the good old U.S of A.
      Budget cutbacks at colleges and universities across the country have brought on waves of bad news for the humanities
      link to pbk.org

      ...the last from Cass Sunstein's former squeeze, Martha Nussbaum .

      See how its done?

  • Savage murder of musician Ibrahim Qattush shows Syria's dictatorship is brutish, uncouth, macabre
    • Brewer August 11, 2011 at 1:08 pm

      Thanks annie. I was starting to feel a little isolated. Explaining this stuff requires a great deal of time and effort.

      On the Syria Human Rights Information site, the second article listed is the "abduction of the well-known blogger Amina Arraf". This is the "Lesbian blogger" who turned out to be a bearded Scotsman.

      Great source Richard.

    • Brewer August 11, 2011 at 12:06 pm with 3 replies

      The very one:
      "Thousands of miles from his homeland, Rami Abdel Rahman runs a network of 200 rights activists across Syria who report to him to allow news of the latest bloodshed in their country to reach the outside world.

      "We are all normal people, with normal lives, normal families. We don't have an office. We work from home or from our jobs," said Abdel Rahman, 40, in a telephone interview from his home in Coventry, central England.

      The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which he heads has burst onto the world stage as a primary source of information for the world media since his country's anti-government revolt erupted in mid-March. "

      link to timesofoman.com

    • Brewer August 11, 2011 at 11:23 am with 1 replies

      Human Rights Watch is not my go to organisation. Initially it was set up to take the heat off Israel. Now it seems to be anybody's:

      "The international non-governmental organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) has been accused by critics[1] of being influenced by United States government policy,[2] in particular in relation to reporting on Latin America;[3][4][5][6][7] ignoring anti-Semitism in Europe or being anti-Semitic;[8] biases in relation to the Arab–Israeli conflict; and unfair and biased reporting of human rights issues in Eritrea and Ethiopia.[9][10][11] Accusations in relation to the Arab–Israeli conflict include claims that HRW is biased against Israel[12][13][14] and that requesting or accepting donations from Saudi Arabian citizens causes it to be biased;[15] it has also been accused of unbalanced reporting against Hezbollah in Lebanon[16][17] and against Palestinian militant groups.[18]"
      link to en.wikipedia.org

      It is really rather funny when Bernstein, who set it up, is now its foremost critic:
      link to nytimes.com

      Notice that the HRW reports are peppered with "witnesses said" and that there are substantial casualties on the Government side. From this we can deduce that the "protesters" are not your average peace love and incense crew. It is difficult to carry both a machine gun and a placard:

      Read the linked report closely, my remarks in brackets:
      link to news.sky.com

      "Syrian forces have killed at least 80 civilians in a major tank assault on the city of Hama to crush pro-democracy demonstrations, according to activists." (according to activists?)

      "The assault prompted opposition gunmen to fire machine guns and set police stations on fire. " (these "activists" had machine guns they were "prompted" to use? Lovely piece of transference )

      "Witnesses reported there were 51 wounded people at one hospital alone, and the facility was running short of blood for transfusions." ("Witnesses reported")

      "Tanks had also surrounded another main hospital, al Horani, one witness added." ("one witness added")

      A doctor who did not want to be named for fear of arrest said: "Tanks are attacking from four directions. (unnamed witness)

      "They are firing their heavy machine guns randomly and overrunning makeshift road blocks erected by the inhabitants." (road blocks? )

      "Tanks ambushed the city of Hama, killing at least 45 protesters"(ambushed?)

      "Another resident said snipers had climbed onto the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison." (whose snipers?)

      "There were also claims soldiers threw nail bombs at anti-government protesters in a suburb of of the capital Damascus." (Soldiers don't throw nail bombs, they have much better ordnance. There are serious agitators in that crowd)

      This has all the classic signs of a planned insurgency, probably sponsored.
      We know that the U.S. and Israel is active in this area and boy do they have a track record. If they can defang Syria, Israel gets a free shot at Lebanon.

    • Brewer August 11, 2011 at 4:29 am with 2 replies

      Be careful of "Human Rights" organisations reporting on Syria. The last one I tracked down was a one man operation out of a village in England.

      Do me a favour.
      Check every report of civilian casualties in the MSM. If you find one that does not include the phrase "activists said" or similar, post it.

      What do you think of reports of 500 Syrian Security personnel killed by these "unarmed" protesters?

      link to english.peopledaily.com.cn

    • Brewer August 11, 2011 at 1:38 am with 4 replies

      There's that word "clear" again.

      I haven't yet got my head around the Syrian political system but I have had occasion to examine the Iranian system. I was struck by the level of participatory democracy there (once you begin to understand Islam is, by its very nature, political). Readers who have difficulty imagining a political system different to our Western Democratic model or think it has reached a state of perfection need read no further.

      There is universal franchise (18yrs) in Syria and substantial participation in the political process. The sticking point is that B'aathism is written in to the Constitution.

      Westerners make the mistake of assuming B'aath is only a party. That is like assuming "democracy " belongs to the Democratic Party.

      Baathism is a mixture of socialism, nationalism, and Pan-Arabism, devised by a Christian, Michel Aflaq, and a Sunni Muslim whose name escapes me for the moment. It was conceived as a vehicle for unifying the various tribal and religious factions after the great powers carved up the Ottoman Empire which, may I remind you, lasted about 1300 years.
      Bashar's father wrote it into the Syrian constitution for this reason. Baathists get the top jobs.

      Bashar's term expires in two years. He has already decreed multi-party elections and I am not sure if this means the President may in fact be elected from outside the Baath party. Not that the West would believe it fair if he was re-elected which is probable. He is very popular with the people despite what you are hearing now. Of this I am fairly certain (through my personal contacts, I will try to dig up something more substantial).

      I believe Bashar will step down when the reforms are bedded in and if he is tipped out now, Syria will be a mess.

      There are some interested parties that would be delighted were this to happen.

      I'm sorry if this is a bit disjointed. I strongly recommend that everyone research Baathism and the Syrian and Iranian political systems for themselves with an open mind, remembering that Great Britain has an hereditary Monarch and America has political appointments to many of its highest offices including its highest authority - the Supreme Court.

    • Brewer August 10, 2011 at 8:45 pm with 4 replies

      I have found nothing concrete to support "Assad is clearly a bad character" and much to suggest otherwise.

      I am not wedded to him however. Please elucidate.

    • Brewer August 10, 2011 at 5:39 pm with 4 replies

      "The link above to the Shabbiha death squads is to the Weekly Standard."

      -an article written by Tony Badran of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. An organization funded by:
      * Edgar M. Bronfman
      * Charles Bronfman
      * Michael Steinhardt
      * Haim Saban
      * Bernard Marcus
      * Dalck Feith
      * Abramson Family Foundation
      * Lewis Ranieri
      * Roland Arnall
      * Jennifer Mizrahi
      * Clifford May

      Hmmmmmm.

  • Does your Congressperson represent you - or Israel?
    • Brewer August 9, 2011 at 8:31 pm

      Gags doing the rounds:

      Why doesn't Israel want to join as the 51st state? Because then they would only have 2 senators.

      In other news, Libya and Syria recognise UK rioters as the official government of the UK.

  • 'Huffpo' finds guide to Arab public opinion... Vogue magazine
    • Brewer August 9, 2011 at 8:46 pm

      Thanks for that Koshiro. I did as you suggest. This one had me rolling on the floor"

      "Syria Wins The Hypocrisy Award "
      Author - Elliott Abrams!

      For anyone who doesn't know this clown:
      "....Elliott Abrams backed an armed force under Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, touching off a bloody civil war in Gaza and leaving Hamas stronger than ever.
      link to vanityfair.com

      "Public Serpent"
      link to terryjallen.com

    • Brewer August 9, 2011 at 7:32 pm with 1 replies

      Better links:
      Reform Party of Syria:
      link to reformsyria.org

      Farid Ghadry:
      link to sourcewatch.org

      File under "strange bedfellows". Dissemblers like "Ambassador" Marc Ginsberg, Hillary Clinton and the usual Israeli suspects are all stumping for the insurgency .......alongside the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda:
      link to ocala.com

      "U.S. secretly backed Syrian opposition groups, cables released by WikiLeaks show"
      link to washingtonpost.com

    • Brewer August 9, 2011 at 5:18 pm

      Assad among the people:

      link to my.opera.com

      What can we make of reports that describe Syrian protesters as "mostly unarmed'?

      link to activistpost.com

      ....with machine guns:
      "The assault prompted opposition gunmen to fire machine guns and set police stations on fire."
      link to news.sky.com

      Try taking a machine gun to a protest in Washington.
      Something is not quite right here.

    • Brewer August 9, 2011 at 4:56 pm with 5 replies

      I recommend caution where reports coming out of Syria are concerned.
      Every single report of casualties I have read contains the phrase "activists said". Lets face it, there are major riots all across England as we speak.

      Voltairenet has film of pro-government demos:
      link to voltairenet.org

      Franklin Lamb was in Damascus in May. Here is his report:
      link to intifada-palestine.com

      It looks very like Syria is getting the Iraq treatment - a concerted campaign to destabilis­e prior to "regime change" - complete with the obligatory "lesbian blogger" hoax.

      link to globalpost.com

      In the thick of it is The Reform Party of Syria - the source of the "poor farmers paid to protest" story.

      link to ref­ormsyria.o­rg

      The Reform Party of Syria is an enterprise set up by a "discredit­­­ed businessma­­­n from Virginia" who is "Syria’s version of Ahmad Chalabi", Farid N. Ghadry, co-founder and current president of the Reform Party of Syria:

      link to www­.sourcewat­ch.org

      If Assad is a "brutal Dictator", he is a new breed. I have seen a portfolio of him moving through huge crowds touching hands with no visible security men in sight. I shall try and dig it up.

  • Retired U.S. diplomat says Palestinian disillusionment is the worst it's been in 40 years, and US credibility is destroyed
    • Brewer August 8, 2011 at 5:05 am with 3 replies

      "Other Palestinians, such as Salam Fayyad, think that the Palestinians can get almost everything they want (including the right to participate in the ICC [International Criminal Court] and the ICJ [International Court of Justice]) through a UNGA [General Assembly] resolution "

      OK. I'm a Kiwi.
      No axe to grind, known for our addiction to fair play, maybe a little naive in geopolitics.
      Can anyone tell me why it takes a UNGA resolution to grant any section of the populace of this World "the right to participate in the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice?" Isn't there a contradiction here?
      Doesn't "International" mean "all people".
      Doesn't "Justice" mean a fair deal?

      America. You tear me up.

  • IDF detains 3rd member of Jenin's Freedom Theatre
    • Brewer August 7, 2011 at 3:01 pm

      "Maybe they want strong young men out on the street aspiring to be martyrs."

      In my opinion, this is very close to the truth.

      The narrative of History often appears incoherent until decades have passed.
      Had it not been through its violent phase, the Palestinian struggle would still be unknown. Were it still violent, it would remain misunderstood.

      Retaliation (which can always be characterised as provocation) is essential to Israel's false narrative.

      Consider the value, to Israel, of rocket fire which, at its peak, claimed one or two lives per annum (in Israel, HIV Aids claims about 100, car accidents about 400) .
      With the rocket package you get impunity for settlements, IDF repression, unbridled attacks on civilians such as Cast Lead, totalitarian control.
      Add suicide attacks and bingo! Carte Blanche.

  • Will the tent protests break out of the neoliberal-Zionist-security box?
    • Brewer August 8, 2011 at 6:08 am

      Dear Mooser.

      What can I say that would not be considered prejudicial in some way except this.
      It is a mindset we combat here, not an ethnicity. Judaic thought, Roman Law, British Justice - time we took the best of it and left the rest.
      Gangsters are always the first to take advantage of society in turmoil.
      It has ever been so. If they survive long enough, become rich enough, they become "Statesmen".
      The property alienated from the Palestinian peasantry (who didn't give a rat's arse who ruled them) is enough to sustain several generations of "Statesmen". As Vonnegut was wont to say - so it goes.

      You are welcome at my house any time.

    • Brewer August 7, 2011 at 4:04 pm with 3 replies

      I have tried to uncover the nature of land ownership in Israel without much success. What I do know is that less than 7% of Israeli land acquired by Zionists was obtained by legal contract. The balance was scooped up by the JNF and Government agencies under various "Absentee" land laws brought in immediately after the '48 War.

      These protests have left me wondering what role this rather unusual system of tenure has in the overall scheme of things.

  • The nightmare of the Jewish soul
    • Brewer August 7, 2011 at 6:36 pm with 1 replies

      "It required a state when it became apparent that Jewish settlement was not going to be accepted, as is the basis for its requiring a state now."

      I think I've come across that circular logic before:

      "We hold that Zionism is moral and just. And since it is moral and just, justice must be done, no matter whether Joseph or Simon or Ivan or Achmet agree with it or not.

      There is no other morality."
      - Vladimir Jabotinsky,
      The Iron Wall (We and the Arabs)

      "The theme that “they don’t belong there” is itself a fascist theme."

      - yet it is enshrined in the immigration laws of every State.

      "The state of Israel is not substantiated on the basis that Jews used to live there, but its governance is substantiated on the basis of the current majority that do live there."

      - and around we go again.

    • Brewer August 7, 2011 at 3:39 pm

      I have always regarded the term "anti-Semitism" to be redundant. There is nothing contained within it that adds to the word "racism" except that it applies exclusively (wrongly, strictly speaking) to one ethnicity and (again wrongly) links those accused of it to the atrocities of WWII. The use of the term in today's parlance, particularly when levelled at Jews, gives rise to some interesting anomalies.

      Intriguing comment noted by Gilad Atzmon:

      "In Haaretz today Beni Ziper wrote, “I saw on television people shouting against the rich, or tycoons who control the country. Seemingly everyone thinks it's exciting and daring and nobody reflects on the chilling historical equivalence with the Depression in Germany at the time of Weimar Republic, when the ‘rich Jews who control us’ were targeted by everyone.” Ziper is clever enough to notice a close and disturbing repetition in Jewish history. However, Ziper is also very critical of his countrymen. “So I'm all for protests against the state, but in no way against people or groups of people, be they ‘rich’ or ‘ (Jewish) Orthodox’ or even ‘settlers’. Whoever gives privileges to the settlers in this country and it's not that the settlers come and rob the cashier at gunpoint.” Whether we agree with Ziper or not, it is clear that he also admits that there is a similarity between the arguments voiced in Israel against the rich, and the German right wing's anti Semitic attitude towards Jews in the 1920’s-30’s"

      link to gilad.co.uk

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