Angela Merkel Reads Benjamin Netanyahu The Riot Act Over Settlement Plan

Flashback:

Netanyahu on record:

Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘America is something that can easily be moved.’ ‘The world won’t say a thing.’ ‘The world will say we’re defending.’ (Video)

See also:

Former Head of Mossad Meir Dagan: Israel Government ‘Reckless And Irresponsible’ – ‘I Decided To Speak Because When I Was In Office, Diskin, Ashkenazi And I Could Block Any Dangerous Adventure. NOW I AM AFRAID THAT THERE IS NO ONE TO STOP BIBI AND BARAK’


Angela Merkel reads Benjamin Netanyahu the riot act over settlement plan (Independent, Oct. 3, 2011):

Israel has infuriated its most reliable West European ally, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, by announcing expansion of a Jewish settlement in Jerusalem in defiance of a US-backed warning to both parties in the Middle East conflict to avoid “provocative actions”.

Ms Merkel’s anger, expressed in unequivocal terms in a personal telephone call to Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, was all the greater because of the prodigious efforts she had made on Israel’s behalf to thwart the Palestinians’ UN recognition bid and persuade Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, to re-enter direct negotiations.

Israel yesterday formally accepted – albeit with “some concerns” – the statement by the international Quartet of the US, EU, Russia and the UN calling on both sides to hold direct talks. But the decision to build around 1,000 new homes in the Gilo settlement came as the Palestinian leadership was still deliberating on whether to do so. In the event, the Palestinians have stuck to their line that while there were encouraging elements in the Quartet’s statement, they will not agree to return to negotiations without a settlement freeze. Mr Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa yesterday that “returning to negotiations requires the commitment of Israel to halt settlement activities and to recognise the 1967 borders without any equivocation”.

Read moreAngela Merkel Reads Benjamin Netanyahu The Riot Act Over Settlement Plan

Biggest (Anti-Bankster) Rally In Israel’s History Presses Elite Puppet PM Netanyahu

The elitists have planned – WW III – total destruction for Israel (and the entire middle east) not prosperity.

So be careful people of Israel.

Learn that there is NO enemy out there, EXCEPT the elitists that have created ALL terrorist organizations and ALL wars.

NOTHING on this planet happens by ‘accident’. Everything is PLANNED.

And if these protests turn violent, just catch the ‘rioters’ and you’ll find out that they are really undercover cops.

Flashback:

Former Head of Mossad Meir Dagan: Israel Government ‘Reckless And Irresponsible’ – ‘I Decided To Speak Because When I Was In Office, Diskin, Ashkenazi And I Could Block Any Dangerous Adventure. NOW I AM AFRAID THAT THERE IS NO ONE TO STOP BIBI AND BARAK’


Biggest rally in Israel’s history presses PM (Reuters):

Hundreds of thousands marched Saturday for lower living costs in the largest such rally in Israel’s history, bolstering a social change movement and mounting pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take on economic reform.

Protest leaders called it “the moment of truth” for the grassroots movement that has swollen since July from a cluster of student tent-squatters into a countrywide mobilization of Israel’s middle class.

“An entire generation wants a future,” read one banner as demonstrators flooded the streets of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and cities throughout Israel, shouting “the people demand social justice.”

Read moreBiggest (Anti-Bankster) Rally In Israel’s History Presses Elite Puppet PM Netanyahu

Greek Coastguard FORCES Canadian Gaza ‘Freedom Flotilla’ Vessel Back To Port

The Greek government helds up the Gaza ‘freedom flotilla’.

Now that should teach all people of Greece who they are dealing with!!!

NWO Financial Terrorist Attack On Greece: Max Keiser, Nigel Farage, Gerald Celente On Greek Austerity & Bailout

Athens Riots: ‘It Was A Real War On People By Cops & Government’

The No.1 Trend Forecaster Gerald Celente on Greece: ‘The IMF Is Nothing More Than The International Mafia Federation’ Stealing Big!

Just one solution left for the people of Greece:

Former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: Revolution is the Only Answer (For Greece, Ireland etc.)


Greek coastguard forces Gaza ‘freedom flotilla’ vessel back to port (Guardian, July 4, 2011):

An attempt by one of the Gaza-bound “freedom flotilla” ships to defy the Greek government and escape from port was thwarted on Monday when armed coastguard officials caught up with the vessel and forced it back to shore.

On a day that activists had dubbed “make or break” for the international coalition of boats seeking to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza, the Canadian ship Tahrir burst out of Agios Nikolaos port in Crete at 6pm local time after supporters blocked the coastguard with manned kayaks.

“We have left port [and] are full steam ahead – coastguard boat about 5-10 [minutes] behind us,” announced passengers on the ship’s official Twitter feed as they raced towards international waters. But the faster coastguard boat caught up with the Tahrir and prevented it from going any further.

“Our boat has just been illegally boarded by armed members of the Greek coastguard and commandeered against our will,” Dylan Penner, a member of Tahrir steering committee, told the Guardian by phone from the ship’s deck. “This is conclusive evidence that Israel’s unlawful siege on Gaza has now been extended to Greece.”

The captain of a US ship, The Audacity of Hope, was arrested after a similar failed attempt to flee the port in Athens last week.

Read moreGreek Coastguard FORCES Canadian Gaza ‘Freedom Flotilla’ Vessel Back To Port

Israeli PM’s Son Yair Netanyahu Insults Muslims On Facebook: ‘Terror Has A Religion And It Is Islam’

And again:

Former Head of Mossad Meir Dagan: Israel Government ‘Reckless And Irresponsible’ – ‘I Decided To Speak Because When I Was In Office, Diskin, Ashkenazi And I Could Block Any Dangerous Adventure. NOW I AM AFRAID THAT THERE IS NO ONE TO STOP BIBI AND BARAK’ (Guardian)

Meet the NAZIS:

On record: Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘America is something that can easily be moved.’ ‘The world won’t say a thing.’ ‘The world will say we’re defending.’

Influential Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: Non-Jews Are Donkeys, Created To Serve Jews (Jerusalem Post)

Israel: Influential Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Calls For Palestinians To ‘Perish From The World’ (Daily Mail)


Israeli PM’s son insults Muslims on Facebook (Independent, June 25, 2011):

The Israeli Prime Minister’s 19-year-old son posted disparaging comments about Arabs and Muslims on his Facebook page, an Israeli paper reported yesterday.

Earlier this year, Yair Netanyahu posted that Muslims “celebrate hate and death,” the Haaretz daily said. After Palestinian assailants entered a West Bank settlement and stabbed five members of an Israeli family to death, he wrote that “terror has a religion and it is Islam”.

Yair Netanyahu, the eldest of Benjamin Netanyahu’s two sons, is currently a soldier in the Israeli military’s media liaison unit. A lawyer for the Netanyahu family, David Shimron, said the comments were those of a “teenager” and were “taken out of context in an attempt to defame the Prime Minister and his family”.

The Prime Minister’s son also ran a Facebook group that called for a boycott of Arab businesses, and used obscenities to describe Arabs. Haaretz said the comments were removed within hours of the paper’s request for a response from the Prime Minister’s representatives.

More on Israel:

Read moreIsraeli PM’s Son Yair Netanyahu Insults Muslims On Facebook: ‘Terror Has A Religion And It Is Islam’

Former Head of Mossad Meir Dagan: Israel Government ‘Reckless And Irresponsible’ – ‘I Decided To Speak Because When I Was In Office, Diskin, Ashkenazi And I Could Block Any Dangerous Adventure. NOW I AM AFRAID THAT THERE IS NO ONE TO STOP BIBI AND BARAK’

Meir Dagan attacks Binyamin Netanyahu for aggression towards Iran, and for failing to make any progress with the Palestinians


Israel’s PM Binyamin Netanyahu with Meir Dagan as the spymaster left his post as head of Mossad in January this year. Photograph: Ronen Zvulun/AP

The former head of Israel’s spy service has launched an unprecedented attack on the country’s current government, describing it as “irresponsible and reckless”, and has praised Arab attempts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Meir Dagan stepped down as the head of Mossad six months ago but has gone on the offensive in a series of briefings with journalists and public appearances because he feels that Israel’s security is being mismanaged by Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, and Ehud Barak, the defence minister.

One newspaper quotes him as saying that he, as head of Mossad, Yuval Diskin, the head of Sin Bet – the internal security agency, and Gabi Ashkenazi, the head of the army, could prevent Netanyahu and Barak from making mistakes but all three have left their positions and have been replaced by men chosen by the current government.

“I decided to speak because when I was in office, Diskin, Ashkenazi and I could block any dangerous adventure. Now I am afraid that there is no one to stop Bibi [Netanyahu] and Barak,” said Dagan.

Upon leaving his post, Dagan publicly warned against Israel attacking Iran to stop it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Read moreFormer Head of Mossad Meir Dagan: Israel Government ‘Reckless And Irresponsible’ – ‘I Decided To Speak Because When I Was In Office, Diskin, Ashkenazi And I Could Block Any Dangerous Adventure. NOW I AM AFRAID THAT THERE IS NO ONE TO STOP BIBI AND BARAK’

(CNN Video) Netanyahu Lectures Obama On Live TV At The White House:’It’s not going to happen. Everybody knows it’s not going to happen, and I think it’s time to tell the Palestinians forthrightly it’s not going to happen.”

Flashback!

On record: Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘America is something that can easily be moved.’ ‘The world won’t say a thing.’ ‘The world will say we’re defending.’

Here is why Netanyahu gave Obama a schooling:

Obama: An Independent Palestine Should Be Based On 1967 Borders


“The only peace that will endure is one that is based on reality, on unshakable facts. I think for there to be peace, the Palestinians will have to accept some basic realities. The first is that while Israel is prepared to make generous compromises for peace, it cannot go back to the 1967 lines. Because these lines are indefensible. Because they don’t take into account certain changes that have taken place on the ground, demographic changes that have taken place over the last 44 years.

Remember that before 1967, Israel was all of 9 miles wide. It was half the width of the Washington beltway. These were not the boundaries of peace. They were the boundaries of repeated wars because the attack on Israel was so attractive for them. We can’t go back to those indefensible lines and we’re going to have to have a long-term military presence along the Jordan. . . .

“It’s not going to happen. Everybody knows it’s not going to happen, and I think it’s time to tell the Palestinians forthrightly it’s not going to happen.”

We’ve been around for almost four thousand years. We’ve experienced struggle and suffering like no other people. We’ve gone through expulsions, pogroms and massacres and the murder of millions.

But I can say that even at the dearth, even at the nadir of the valley of death, we never lost hope and we never lost our dream of reestablishing a sovereign state in our ancient homeland, the land of Israel.

And now it falls on my shoulders as the Prime Minister of Israel, at a time of extraordinary instability and uncertainty in the middle east to work with you and fashion a peace that will ensure Israel’s security and will not jeopardize it’s survival.”

More on Israel:

Read more(CNN Video) Netanyahu Lectures Obama On Live TV At The White House:’It’s not going to happen. Everybody knows it’s not going to happen, and I think it’s time to tell the Palestinians forthrightly it’s not going to happen.”

An Interview With Holocaust Survivor Dr. Hajo Meyer: ‘Zionism Has Nothing to do With Judaism’

Related info:

Joe Biden on Shalom TV: ‘I am a ZIONIST’


From January 24th to February 19th Dr. Hajo Meyer traveled through twelve cities in the US as well as Toronto on a speaking tour titled “Never Again for Anyone,” discussing his own experiences as a survivor of the Holocaust and his perceptions of Zionism and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. For more information about the tour you can visit www.NeverAgainForAnyone.com.

Dr. Meyer sat down with me for a video interview before the last stop of the tour in Los Angeles. You can view an 8 minute edited selection of the video here. What follows is an edited transcription of part of the interview.

Los Angeles, February 19, 2011–

DZ: Could you start by introducing yourself, stating your name and giving a bit of background about yourself?

HM: My name is Hajo Meyer, I was born in August 1924 in Beilefeld, western Germany. And so I am 86 years old. And I had to leave Germany in January 1939 because from November 1938 on I was not allowed to go to school anymore. When in the Netherlands I made my entrance examination to the university still under the German occupation. They allowed that for Jews to be done. Even the German occupation allowed it, under a special setting of Jewish state examination. It occurred in April ’43. Then I went underground and about a year later I was caught and brought to Auschwitz and survived 10 months in Auschwitz.

Could you summarize this idea that you’ve often spoken and written about, the “ethical tradition of Judaism?”

So now we come to a very important point. In my view—I was educated in the tradition of enlightened Reform Judaism, without any relation to the prescripts of Halacha [Jewish religious law] but just to the socio-cultural heritage and the enlightened parts of Judaism…

This ethical tradition is absolutely contrary to everything which is at the basis of Zionism. Because Zionism was created by Mr. [Theodor] Herzel and others at the end of the 19th Century, and in that era it was commonplace to be colonialist, to be racist, to be super-nationalist, to adore the nation-state–so the idea of France for the French, Germany for the Germanics, and then some state for the Jews. This all formed the basis for Zionism.

Zionism and Judaism are contrary to each other. Because Judaism is universal and humane, and Zionism is exactly the opposite. It is very narrow, very nationalistic, racist, colonialist, and all this. There is no “National Judaism.” There is Zionism and there is Judaism, and they are completely different.

[Zionism] has nothing to do with Judaism. Because Judaism, as I learned it–the Reform Movement–that is highly, highly ethical. And so, you cannot connect Zionism with “highly ethical.” You can only connect the words “aggressive,” “oppressive,” “stealing,” “robbing” with Zionism. But not “highly ethical.”

Read moreAn Interview With Holocaust Survivor Dr. Hajo Meyer: ‘Zionism Has Nothing to do With Judaism’

Robert Fisk: An American $3 Billion Bribe to Israel That Stinks of Appeasement

See also:

– FACTS!!! Gaza War Lies Vs. Facts (Video)

Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘America is something that can easily be moved.’ ‘The world won’t say a thing.’ ‘The world will say we’re defending.’ (Video)



Hillary Clinton meets the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah last year

In any other country, the current American bribe to Israel, and the latter’s reluctance to accept it, in return for even a temporary end to the theft of somebody else’s property would be regarded as preposterous. Three billion dollars’ worth of fighter bombers in return for a temporary freeze in West Bank colonisation for a mere 90 days? Not including East Jerusalem – so goodbye to the last chance of the east of the holy city for a Palestinian capital – and, if Benjamin Netanyahu so wishes, a rip-roaring continuation of settlement on Arab land. In the ordinary sane world in which we think we live, there is only one word for Barack Obama’s offer: appeasement. Usually, our lords and masters use that word with disdain and disgust.

Anyone who panders to injustice by one people against another people is called an appeaser. Anyone who prefers peace at any price, let alone a $3bn bribe to the guilty party – is an appeaser. Anyone who will not risk the consequences of standing up for international morality against territorial greed is an appeaser. Those of us who did not want to invade Afghanistan were condemned as appeasers. Those of us who did not want to invade Iraq were vilified as appeasers. Yet that is precisely what Obama has done in his pathetic, unbelievable effort to plead with Netanyahu for just 90 days of submission to international law. Obama is an appeaser.

The fact that the West and its political and journalistic elites – I include the ever more disreputable New York Times – take this tomfoolery at face value, as if it can seriously be regarded as another “step” in the “peace process”, to put this mystical nonsense “back on track”, is a measure of the degree to which we have taken leave of our senses in the Middle East.

It is a sign of just how far America (and, through our failure to condemn this insanity, Europe) has allowed its fear of Israel – and how far Obama has allowed his fear of Israeli supporters in Congress and the Senate – to go.

Three billion dollars for three months is one billion dollars a month to stop Israel’s colonisation. That’s half a billion dollars a fortnight. That’s $500m a week. That’s $71,428,571 a day, or $2,976,190 an hour, or $49,603 a minute. And as well as this pot of gold, Washington will continue to veto any resolutions critical of Israel in the UN and prevent “Palestine” from declaring itself a state. It’s worth invading anyone to get that much cash to stage a military withdrawal, let alone the gracious gesture of not building more illegal colonies for only 90 days while furiously continuing illegal construction in Jerusalem at the same time.

Read moreRobert Fisk: An American $3 Billion Bribe to Israel That Stinks of Appeasement

Israel mocks Palestinians and US by going ahead with new settlements

Listen to the Führer of Nazi Israel:

Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘America is something that can easily be moved.’ ‘The world won’t say a thing.’ ‘The world will say we’re defending.’ (Video)


Plan for 238 new houses in East Jerusalem comes at a time when peace talks are stalled


The Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu has been accused of putting settlements before peace. Photograph: Lior Mizrahi/AP

Israel provoked both the US and the Palestinians today by announcing plans to build 238 new housing units in East Jerusalem, a move that throws into doubt already fragile peace negotiations.

Publication of the housing plans comes at a time when discussions between the Israelis and Palestinians being brokered by the US are stalled.

The Palestinians today accused the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, of putting settlements before peace.

A senior US administration official, responding to media reports of the new house plan, said: “We saw that story as well and we are working to confirm that it occurred.”

Barack Obama has been pushing Netanyahu to impose a complete freeze on settlements on the West Bank in an effort to create the groundwork for a peace deal.

Netanyahu agreed last year to a 10-month settlement freeze but that deadline expired last month and Netanyahu has since rebuffed US calls to extend it.

The 238 houses are in Pisgat Ze’ev and Ramot, both in East Jerusalem and both with predominantly Israeli residents. The Israeli government regards both as part of Israel but the Palestinians, and almost all of the international community, see them as illegal, built on Palestinian land occupied by Israeli in 1967.

Saeb Erekat, the main Palestinian peace negotiator, said today: “This is a severe blow to the efforts by the United States and the Arab League to prevent the peace process from collapsing.”

Read moreIsrael mocks Palestinians and US by going ahead with new settlements

Israel: Influential Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Calls For Palestinians To ‘Perish From The World’

Netanyahu distances himself from his own policy?

Now listen to Benjamin Netanyahu:

Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘America is something that can easily be moved.’ ‘The world won’t say a thing.’ ‘The world will say we’re defending.’


rabbi-ovadia-yosef
Firebrand: Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said Palestinians and their president Mahmoud Abbas should ‘perish from this earth’

Aug. 31 (Daily Mail) –Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has distanced himself from an influential rabbi after he said Palestinians and their President Mahmoud Abbas should ‘perish from the world’.

Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual head of the religious Shas party in Israel’s government, gave a fiery sermon as Middle East peace talks were set to begin next week.

The 89-year-old rabbi – founder of the ultra-orthodox Shas Party – said: ‘Abu Mazen and all these evil people should perish from this earth.

‘God should strike them and these Palestinians – evil haters of Israel – with a plague.’

Mr Netanyahu said Israel wanted to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians that would ensure good neighbourly relations.

A statement from his office said: ‘The comments do not reflect Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s view or the position of the government of Israel.’

It added that Mr Netanyahu is going to the peace talks with a goal of ‘reaching an agreement with the Palestinians that will put an end to the conflict’.

Mr Abbas’ government responded angrily and demanded that the Israeli government put a stop to what it described as a ‘culture of hatred in Israel toward Palestinians’.

benjamin-netanyahu_001 mahmoud-abbas
Peace talks: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has distanced himself from the comments ahead of negotiations with the Palestinians next week

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J.Crowley condemned the rabbi’s comments in a statement, saying they were ‘not only deeply offensive, but incitement such as this hurts the cause of peace’.

Read moreIsrael: Influential Rabbi Ovadia Yosef Calls For Palestinians To ‘Perish From The World’

Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘America is something that can easily be moved.’ ‘The world won’t say a thing.’ ‘The world will say we’re defending.’

See also:

Exposed: The Truth About Israel’s Land Grab In The West Bank (The Independent)

Israel calls this self-defense:

(Click on image to enlarge. Can’t show this often enough.)

israel_stealing_palestine
Does this look like self-defense???



Added: 15. July 2010

The Washington Post, and Glenn Kessler, have picked up the story that Netanyahu said that “America is a thing that can be easily moved,” back in 2001. Good to have this knowledge inside the Beltway at last.

Below is a transcript of the Second-Intifadah era conversation, supplied by Dena Shunra, a Hebrew<>English translator living and working in the United States. Note that Netanyahu quotes his extremist father counseling him to give up 2 percent of Hebron (during the Wye negotiations) so as to maintain the Jewish settlements there and get people off Israel’s back. And note that Netanyahu’s defiance about American opinion extends to the whole world. When his interlocutor asks about world opinion re continued conquest/settlement, he says, “The world won’t say a thing. The world will say we’re defending.”

Shunra: “I went from 3:15 to about 8:00 – the rest wasn’t very interesting.

“Background: Netanyahu is visiting the home of a woman who just lost her husband, and she is being cheered by five other widows. There’s a young boy present, and Netanyahu asks (at about 3:00) that they turn off the camera so he can speak to them ‘freely’. The camera gets turned on again in mid-conversation.”

Transcript follows:

Read moreBenjamin Netanyahu: ‘America is something that can easily be moved.’ ‘The world won’t say a thing.’ ‘The world will say we’re defending.’

Exposed: The Truth About Israel’s Land Grab In The West Bank

“Jewish settlers, who claim a divine right to the whole of Israel” … like Hitler’s ‘divine right’ to claim land for his supreme Aryan race.

Israel calls this self-defense:

(Click on image to enlarge.)

israel_stealing_palestine
I guess Hitler would have called this self-defense too!

See also:

Now truth is bad for you: ‘Obama warns Erdogan international Gaza flotilla probe bad for Turkey’


Report reveals more than 42 percent of territory is controlled by settlers

exposed-the-truth-about-israels-land-grab-in-the-west-bank
A Jewish settler hangs the Israeli flag over a vacated building in the West Bank town of Beit Sahur (AFP)

Jewish settlers, who claim a divine right to the whole of Israel, now control more than 42 per cent of the occupied West Bank, representing a powerful obstacle to the creation of a Palestinian state, a new report has revealed.

The jurisdiction of some 200 settlements, illegal under international law, cover much more of the occupied Palestinian territory than previously thought. And a large section of the land has been seized from private Palestinian landowners in defiance even of an Israeli supreme court ruling, the report said, a finding which sits uncomfortably with Israeli claims that it builds only on state land.

Drawing on official Israeli military maps and population statistics, the leading Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, compiled the new findings, which were released just as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, arrived in Washington to try to heal a gaping rift with US President Barack Obama over the issue of settlements.

“The settlement enterprise has been characterised, since its inception, by an instrumental, cynical, and even criminal approach to international law, local legislation, Israeli military orders, and Israeli law, which has enabled the continuous pilfering of land from Palestinians in the West Bank,” the report concluded.

Read moreExposed: The Truth About Israel’s Land Grab In The West Bank

Ex-Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky: Gaza flotilla raid ’so stupid it’s stupefying’

israel-navy-gaza-aid-flotilla1

While the United States has reserved judgment in the matter, a former Mossad agent is casting blame for the botched raid on a Gaza aid flotilla, pointing directly at Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for allegedly ordering forces to act without vital preparation.

The former Mossad agent is Victor Ostrovsky, who enlisted in the Israeli Defense Force at age 18 and has since written two books highly critical of Israel’s war-fighting apparatus. His first book, “By Way of Deception,” illustrates the brutal and often confusing nature of the Israeli spy service’s covert operations, casting the agency as a villain that engages in the drug trade to further their ambitions over the good of Israel. His other book, “The Other Side of Deception,” speculates as to Mossad’s greater agenda. The book is available online in its entirety.

If one were to ask him, he’d say that Israel’s raid on the Gaza aid flotilla was “so stupid it’s stupefying” — exactly the words he used speaking with Washington Post “Spy Talk” columnist Jeff Stein.

For one, Ostrovsky suggested, commandos could have approached the ship from under water and disabled the propellers, letting the activists drift for days until their food supplies ran out. He added that Israeli soldiers should not have fast-roped into a crowd as they had, instead suggesting that it would have been more productive to board the ship from the front and back, then work inward.

“The mistakes were on every level,” Ostrovsky told Stein, “from the order to forcefully board outside the territorial waters to the actual attack.”

He ultimately blamed the Israeli prime minister for giving an order to “do something now” instead of making adequate preparations for repelling the vessel from the Gaza shore. He also chastised the Israeli leadership for stopping the boat in international waters, even if its stated destination was beyond the military blockade.

Read moreEx-Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky: Gaza flotilla raid ’so stupid it’s stupefying’

Israeli soldiers murder at least 10 civilians on boat carrying aid to Gaza

“We have the most moral army in the world.”
– Defense Minister Ehud Barak


Israel defends the raid, saying troops had been ambushed. Organizers of the flotilla, who had hoped to break the Gaza blockade, call it murder of civilians. The killings spur international condemnation.

israeli-soldiers-murder-at-least-10-civilians-on-boat-carrying-aid-to-gaza
Pro-Palestinian activists from Turkey hold a news conference on board the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara as part of a humanitarian convoy. (Reuters / May 31, 2010)

Reporting from Jerusalem — Israeli naval ships seized control of a protest flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least 10 people and sparking widespread international condemnation.

Israeli television, citing foreign media reports, said the death toll could be as high as 16.

“The images are certainly not pleasant. I can only voice regret at all the fatalities,” Trade and Industry Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Israel’s Army Radio.

The raid set off a storm of international protest and drew condemnations from leaders of Spain, Sweden, France, Germany, the U.N., the European Union and Arab League.

But after some initial expressions of regret, Israeli officials Monday came out strongly in defense of the raid, characterizing the protesters as hard-core extremists who had prepared an ambush for soldiers.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon called the flotilla an “armada of hate and violence” that launched a “premeditated and outrageous provocation.” He said Israeli soldiers found evidence that “weapons” had been prepared in advance, but he did not specify whether those weapons included guns.

Israel’s military said protesters managed to grab two guns from Israeli soldiers and use them against the commandos, prompting soldiers to return fire.

Greta Berlin, leader of Free Gaza, one of the flotilla’s organizers, called those claims “absurd.”

“This was murder,” Berlin said in a telephone interview from Cyprus.

The six-vessel flotilla, packed with hundreds of international activists, food and other humanitarian supplies, had left Cyprus on Sunday night in an attempt to break Israel’s longstanding blockade of the Gaza Strip.

Read moreIsraeli soldiers murder at least 10 civilians on boat carrying aid to Gaza

Netanyahu humiliated after Barack Obama ‘dumped him for dinner’

More than 250 Congress members declare commitment to ‘unbreakable’ U.S.-Israel bond (Haaretz)


netanyahu_aipac
The President was said to have walked out of the meeting, saying to Mr Netanyahu: ‘Let me know if there is anything new’ (AP)

For a head of government to visit the White House and not pose for photographers is rare. For a key ally to be left to his own devices while the President withdraws to have dinner in private was, until this week, unheard of. Yet that is how Binyamin Netanyahu was treated by President Obama on Tuesday night, according to Israeli reports on a trip viewed in Jerusalem as a humiliation.

After failing to extract a written promise of concessions on settlements, Mr Obama walked out of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu but invited him to stay at the White House, consult with advisers and “let me know if there is anything new”, a US congressman, who spoke to the Prime Minister, said.

Read moreNetanyahu humiliated after Barack Obama ‘dumped him for dinner’

Israel: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders new fence to keep out African migrants

Critics accuse Netanyahu of exaggerating the dangers posed by refugees

israel-orders-new-fence-to-keep-out-african-migrants
A Sudanese refugee family are surrounded by Israeli army soldiers after crossing illegally from Egypt into Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the construction of two massive fences along his country’s southern border with Egypt in a bid to keep out African asylum seekers he claims are threatening the country’s Jewish character.

The barrier will also thwart terrorists from infiltrating the porous border, according to Mr. Netanyahu. “We are talking about a strategic decision to guarantee the Jewish and democratic character of the state of Israel,” Mr. Netanyahu said.

The prime minister insisted that the step will not stop refugees in dire need from reaching Israel, saying that the country would “remain open” to those with a genuine claim.

But critics dispute this. “This nationalist and racist rhetoric is divorced from reality,” said Dov Khenin, a left-wing member of the Knesset. He added that it was “intended to frighten the Israelis that ‘the Africans are coming’. Sudanese and Eritreans make up many of the about 20,000 asylum seekers to reach Israel via Egypt since 2005.

The project is expected to cost $270m, and will cover two parts of the border, near the city of Eilat and on the edge of the Gaza strip. Although the army began planning the fence in 2005, Mr. Netanyahu’s backing for it now is part of a wider crackdown against the influx, which refugee-rights activists say has dropped somewhat recently because of Israel’s policy of immediate returns of refugees to Egypt and shootings of refugees along the border by Egyptian troops.

Read moreIsrael: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders new fence to keep out African migrants

Philip Giraldi: The Best Congress AIPAC Can Buy

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D. is the Francis Walsingham Fellow at The American Conservative Defense Alliance (www.ACDAlliance.org) and a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer.

Philip Giraldi was the foreign policy advisor to Ron Paul during his last presidential run.

giraldi
Philip Giraldi


Many Americans who thought that the health care debate was important must have wondered where their congressmen were in early August during the first two weeks of the House of Representatives recess.  It turns out they were not hosting town hall meetings or listening to constituents because many of them were in Israel together with their spouses on a trip paid for by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).  Fully 13% of the entire US House of Representatives, 56 members, traveled to Israel in the largest AIPAC-sponsored fact-finding visit by American politicians ever conducted.  And the leaders of the two congressional groups, 25 Republicans for a week starting on August 2nd followed by 31 Democrats beginning on August 13th, were drawn from the top ranks of their respective parties.  House Minority whip Eric Cantor headed the Republican group and House Majority leader Steny Hoyer led the Democrats.

Cantor and Hoyer are longtime enthusiasts for Israel and all its works.  In January, when Israel was pounding Gaza to rubble and killing over a thousand civilians, Hoyer and Cantor wrote an op-ed entitled “A Defensive War,” which began with “During this difficult war in the Gaza Strip, we stand with Israel.”  Why?  Because “Instead of building roads, bridges, schools and industry, Hamas and other terrorists wasted millions turning Gaza into an armory.” Hoyer and Cantor, clearly noticing a militarization of the Gaza Strip that no else quite picked up on, also affirmed that Israel occupied the moral high ground in the conflict, “While Israel targets military combatants, Hamas aims to kill as many civilians as possible.”  That Hoyer and Cantor were completely wrong on this vital point as well as others, in fact reversing the truth, has never resulted in an apology or a correction of the record from either lawmaker.

And there’s more.  In May 2009, Cantor and Hoyer teamed up again in a congressional letter sent to their colleagues in congress.  The message described how Washington must be “both a trusted mediator and a devoted friend to Israel” because “Israel will be taking the greatest risks in any peace agreement.”  AIPAC couldn’t have put it better.  In fact, AIPAC wrote the missive since Cantor and Hoyer apparently needed a little help to get the message just right. The actual source of the letter was revealed when the document was circulated with the file name “AIPAC Letter Hoyer Cantor May 2009.pdf,” which the intrepid congressional duo had failed to change before sending out.

Read morePhilip Giraldi: The Best Congress AIPAC Can Buy

Philip Giraldi: Wag The Dog, Again

A must read article by former CIA field officer Philip Giraldi.

Philip Giraldi was the foreign policy advisor to Ron Paul during his last presidential run.

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Philip Giraldi


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Israeli media reports that visiting National Security Adviser General Jim Jones and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have told the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop complaining about Iran because the US is preparing to take action “in eight weeks” demonstrate that even when everything changes in Washington, nothing changes. President Barack Obama has claimed that a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is a high priority but the Israelis and their allies in congress and the media have been able to stonewall the issue. Israel has made no concessions on its settlement policy, which is rightly seen as the single biggest obstacle to eventual creation of a Palestinian state, and has instead pushed ahead with new building and confiscations of Arab homes. Obama has protested both Israeli actions but done nothing else, meaning that Israel has determined that the new US president’s policies are toothless, giving it a free hand to deal with the Arabs. Vice President Joe Biden’s comments that Israel is free to attack Iran if it sees fit was a warning that worse might be coming. If the Israeli reports are true, it would appear that the Obama Administration has now bought completely into the Israeli view of Iran and is indicating to Tel Aviv that it will fall into line to bring the Mullahs to their knees. In short, Israel gets what it wants and Washington yet again surrenders.

President Obama’s ultimatum that Iran must start talks and quickly “or else” may be based on the belief that pressuring the government in Tehran will produce a positive result. If that is the judgment, it is wrong. Sanctions did not force Italy to change its policies in 1935, nor those of Japan five years later. Saddam Hussein survived them in the 1990s, and they have most certainly not brought the Cuban government down after fifty years of trying. The Iranian government will only respond by closing ranks against foreign pressure. Quite possibly, the only result an enhanced sanctions regime backed by a military threat will produce is a war, which would be catastrophic both for the United States and for Iran. Nor would it be particularly good for Israel in spite of what the current crackpot regime in Tel Aviv might think.

Read morePhilip Giraldi: Wag The Dog, Again

Obama: Israel’s security is paramount

Obama, Netanyahu stress Iran urgency

aipac_rules_america
AIPAC rules America

Meeting in the Oval Office with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Obama said Monday that he wants to see progress on the issue of Iran’s nuclear program after the country’s June elections but by the end of the year.

Related: Don’t misunderestimate the power of “change”

The Iranian issue adds to already thorny Middle East peace efforts, but Obama said he did not want to stick to any “artificial deadlines.”

“I have said from the outset that when it comes to my policies toward Israel and the Middle East, that Israel’s security is paramount, and I repeated that to Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Obama said.

Read moreObama: Israel’s security is paramount

Interview With Former Knesset Leader: ‘We Are Such an Angry People’

In a SPIEGEL interview, former Knesset president Avraham Burg discusses the right-wing surge in elections, the “monopoly of the Holocaust” on Israelis’ everyday lives and opportunities missed by the Palestinians and Israel.

Avraham Burg on the election of the right-wing parties and Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu's imminent return as prime minister: "The Israeli society has been kidnapped by the settler movement."
Avraham Burg on the election of the right-wing parties and Likud Party leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s imminent return as prime minister: “The Israeli society has been kidnapped by the settler movement.” (AP)

SPIEGEL: Mr. Burg, a majority of Israelis voted for right-wing parties, and now Benjamin Netanyahu is prime-minister designate. As someone who supports the Israeli left, are you feeling a bit lonely these days?

Burg: I feel I am losing my political, ideological and spiritual home. My political home today, the Meretz party, shrank to only three seats in the Knesset. As an Israeli I feel lost because so many of my fellow countrymen are in love with war — as the solution for everything. But the most existential loss is spiritual: For me, being a Jew is being a universalist, a humanist. I can’t understand any Jew who votes right-wing. I can’t understand how a Jew can speak a language of xenophobia. And yet so many of them just did.

SPIEGEL: You’re referring primarily to the ultranationalist Avigdor Lieberman, whose Israel Beytenu Party became the third-strongest in Israel’s parliament.

Burg: If you had told me 20 years ago that a day would come when this racist ideology would be represented with 15 seats in the Knesset, I would have said that was impossible. Now it’s as if the crossing of this red line were natural. Lieberman doesn’t talk about the West Bank and the borders of 1967. He brings us back to 1948, when tens of thousands of Palestinians were expelled from their homes. Now Lieberman wants the remaining Israeli-Arabs to leave the Jewish state.

SPIEGEL: How could an election result like this have happened?

Read moreInterview With Former Knesset Leader: ‘We Are Such an Angry People’