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Posts Tagged ‘State Of Israel’

source:FitzInformer

Evidence continues to mount against American radio show host and self-proclaimed patriot Alex Jones that he is a counter-intelligence operative working for the state of Israel.

The latest comes from his promotion of Grant R. Jeffrey and his recently made documentary Shadow Government, which has been spammed all over Alex Jones’ various websites and forums for the last 8 months.

Jeffrey, a prominent Christian Zionist author, takes the unorthodox futurist view of Bible prophecy that places Jews on a pedestal and as the centre of attention during the alleged future “Last Days.”

While similar Christian Zionist authors and TV evangelists have typically shied away from speaking against the 300 plus-year-old Illuminist forces (comprised mainly by Judaics and Freemasons) their Zionist handlers have instructed them to jump on to the “Truth Movement” band wagon as a means to employ their anti-Christian and pro-Jewish propaganda.

Jeffrey’s Shadow Government gives a very generic perspective of the “New World Order” and is hardly different from anything the mainstream “Truthers” have been putting out over the last 12 years. The movie has the appearance and feel of several of Alex Jones’ films. From the flashy DVD cover to the used car salesman promotion of the video, it appears that Jones’ Zionist handlers are using his video producing skills to aid and abet the Christian Zionist branch of the Judeo-Masonic plot.

Chuck Missler, another popular Christian Zionist author and lecturer, is interviewed as some kind of expert in Shadow Government and of course, confirms the Kosher conspiracy view of world events. Missler’s credentials may be strong in the academic field but his socio-political affiliations are highly worrisome.

Missler is a member of the Council for National Policy, which is basically Bilderberg lite, and tours the world with ardent ultra-right wing Zionist Jews like “Avi Lipkin.” The CNP falls under the umbrella of the Zionist-Illuminati network, which is funny because Missler claims to be exposing and fighting the New World Order.

Missler often blends into his sermons bizarre and extreme views on science and physics, likely as a means to impress and captivate his audience, in preparation for a propaganda blitz. The rest of his sermons are filled with Masonically-inspired prophetical views on the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation.

So here we have Alex Jones promoting the snot out of Shadow Government, despite the fact that only a few months ago, old footage began surfacing on Youtube showing a young Alex Jones saying:

“I want to say this out in the open: I support the state of Israel. They have been in that land, that is their land, and it’s the UN that has declared them terrorists, the UN has declared that Israel is acting wrongly, and the UN supports groups that want to dissolve the state of Israel…”

Whew! After years of speculation and what was the most suspected fault in Alex Jones by skeptics not impressed with his charismatic ramblings, the truth finally comes out, but from the past. Isn’t that always what ends up happening?

So it really comes as no surprise that Jones is endorsing pro-New World Order snake-oil salesmen, like Grant R. Jeffrey and Chuck Missler. In addition to Jeffrey, Alex Jones has at least 19 Jewish advertisers who regularly promote their products and services on the various Alex Jones websites.

While it has been confirmed that Alex Jones’ wife, Violet, is Jewish, it is unknown if Alex has converted to Judaism, if he is a Christian Zionist himself, or if he is aiding Zionist propaganda for monetary gain and/or protection from the Jewish-led New World Order.

source: truthjihad

note-I have to add my two cents here. If you have children or grandchildren you love and are dear to you, then I’m sure you can relate to this photo. There are those who will give any argument to justify hurting children. If you can justify harming a child by raining hell down on them because you view it as your God given duty, I pity you.
NMC

William A. Cook, professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California, has charged the state of Israel with genocide — but his publisher won’t let him use the G word in the title of his new book!

Discussing the brand-new The Plight of the Palestinians: A Long History of Destruction on the Kevin Barrett show yesterday, Dr. Cook said that the publishers, Palgrave-McMillan, told him: “‘We can’t use the original title As the World Watches: Genocide in Palestine.’” Dr. Cook added that the book’s contents, which provide ample proof that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians, were not censored.

I asked Dr. Cook: “There does seem to be a taboo against calling what is being done to the Palestinians genocide. And yet, according to the internationally-accepted definition of genocide…as I recall, there is a strong argument that it does fit what’s happening in Palestine.”

Dr Cook responded:

“The book deals with that point quite extensively in at least three different places (including my article). The Christisons’ article deals with it as well. In the article that I wrote, ‘The Rape of Palestine’…I refer to the 1944 genocide term, which was a neologism created by Raphael Lemkin in The Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Frank Chalk and Kurt Jonassohn summarized Lemkin’s meaning. And let me read that paragraph because I think it’s essential to grasp the fulness of the intent the UN grappled with and passed in its accepted definition of genocide. Under Lemkin’s definition genocide was ‘the coordinated and planned annihilation of a national, religious, or racial group by a variety of actions aimed at undermining the foundations essential to the survival of the group as a group.’ That’s group, it is not state. Lemkin conceived of genocide as ‘a composite of different acts of persecution or destruction.’ That’s a quote. His definition included ‘attacks on political and social institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of the group.’ Even non-lethal acts that undermined the liberty, dignity, and personal security of members of the group constituted genocide, if they contributed to weakening the viability of the group. Under Lemkin’s definition, acts of ethnocide, a term coined by the French after the war to cover the destruction of a culture without the killing of its bearers, also qualified as genocide. You take that composite understanding, and everything looking back from today — the siege on Gaza, going back to the various intentional destructions and massacres in Janin or Rafa, Ramallah, you realize that what’s taking place, including the building of the wall, which makes the independent economic condition of the Palestinian people impossible — that is genocide.”

Listen to my interview with Dr. William Cook.

source: Palestne Telegraph

By Stephen Lendman

On August 9, Israel’s self-appointed Turkel Commission, its planned whitewash, began hearings into the Freedom Flotilla massacre, a humanitarian mission delivering essential aid to besieged Gazans, Israeli officials blaming the victims, not themselves.

After the incident, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said organizers incited the attack. His deputy, Danny Ayalon, connected them to international terrorists, trying to smuggle in arms, bogusly claiming weapons were found on board the mother ship, the Mavi Marmara.

Netanyahu’s spokesman, Mark Regev accused the activists of “initiat(ing) the violence,” insisting IDF commandos “were attacked with knives, clubs, and even live fire.” Chief of Staff General Gabi Ashkenazi said soldiers were forced by violence to open fire.

He and other Israeli officials lied, clear evidence showing commandos attacked peaceful activists even before boarding, shooting others multiple times at point blank range, some in the head. Their well-planned mission was to interdict, attack, assassinate designated targets, seize the ship’s cargo, take prisoners, brutalize them, then send them to an Israeli prison for interrogations.

Straightaway, damage control cover-up began, including appointment of the Turkel Commission, Israel’s thinly veiled whitewash, hearings now underway – on day one, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the first witness, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs publishing his full testimony. Let the charade begin.

Deceiving no one, he absolved his government and IDF commandos, saying they:

“conducted themselves in accordance with international law….display(ing) a rare courage in fulfilling their mission and in defending themselves against a real threat to their lives. I have full confidence in our soldiers, and the State of Israel is proud of them. (My) appearance before this committee is the best evidence of the high standards by which Israel’s democracy functions.”

Democracy or hypocrisy? In Israel, as in America, for the privileged, not others; for Jews, not Arabs; why observers call Israel a failed state, a rogue one – reckless, lawless, and out-of-control, the Flotilla massacre one of many examples, murdering civilians in international waters, the Prime Minister condoning it, his above statement self-explanatory – words of a criminal, not a leader, asserting bald-faced lies, making false accusations, saying:

“Israel has always been different (from other Middle East states) – very different. Israel is a liberal, democratic country governed by the rule of law, with independent courts, a bona fide parliament, and a free press.”

False – Israel spurns democracy, the rule of law, and free expression, treating Jews one way, Palestinians another, including 1.5 million Arab citizens, denied their rights, treated like a fifth column in an alien land – persecuted, threatened, and intimidated to leave, perhaps expelled one day if they won’t.

Yet Netanyahu cited “unprecedented threats of war and terrorism,” his government “defend(ing) the security of its people and protect(ing) its democratic values, (meeting) this challenge for 62 years.”

No nations threaten Israel, the region’s only nuclear power, its history blood-drenched in violence against neighbors and Occupied Palestinians, living for 43 years under conditions Westerners can’t imagine, surviving and persisting nonetheless, determined one day to be free on their own land in their own country, reclaiming just 22% of what Israel stole, or living cooperatively in one state treating Muslims, Jews, Christians and all others equally, renouncing violence to live peacefully, what Israel won’t do and never has, its politics driven by violence, its motive – a dominant Jewish-only Greater Israel, dividing and subjugating other regional states, rendering them weak and subservient, what’s never acknowledged but true. What the Turkel Commission knows but won’t hear or discuss.

Netanyahu then bogusly called Hamas a terrorist organization, “work(ing) toward the destruction of Israel,” assisted by Iran, “also (wanting) to wipe Israel off the map….equipp(ing) Hamas with thousands of rockets, missiles, and other weapons, (transforming Gaza) into a terrorist enclave.” False, but Turkel Commission members won’t dispute it.

Asked by its members to justify military action, Netanyahu called it “a last resort, and the instructions were to conduct it with as little friction as possible.” False again. Planned weeks in advance, commandos had names and photos of activists to assassinate. Even IDF video was faked, filmed in advance on a look-alike ship, staged to comply with Israel’s version of events, the real ones entirely different, showing intent to commit premeditated murder.

Yet Netanyahu claimed Flotilla activists were terrorists, “interested with clashing with the IDF,” saying commandos had a right to defend themselves from violent attacks, the way Israel always blames victims for its crimes, in this case courageous activists delivering humanitarian aid, risking their lives and welfare doing it, knowing the risks, yet committed as are other planned flotillas coming, determined to break Israel’s illegal siege.

Haaretz Writer Gideon Levy Comments

On August 8, ahead of Netanyahu’s testimony, he headlined, “Missing the forest,” saying:

“Does anyone actually know the meaning of the term ‘Jewish state’? Wouldn’t it be better to live in a just democracy,” instead of Israel’s fake one?

Levy calls Israel’s “forest of political, governmental and institutional racism….dark and deep, (containing many) poisonous trees: Citizenship laws, loyalty laws, conversion laws, the razing of Bedouin villages in the Negev,” Israeli citizens losing their homes to make way for Jews, “and even the story of the Arab delivery man who was convicted of rape for pretending to be a Jew.”

Few see the “big picture….several times worse than the sum of its components,” more than ever today under Netanyahu, Israel’s most extremist ever leader, backed by a rogue government – militant, racist, fundamentalist, and dangerous, threatening everyone in the region.

“Defining Israel as a Jewish state condemns us to living in a racist (one). This is the new definition of Zionism,” moving relentlessly from one injustice to another, a character “embedded in the state’s most fundamental values. There is no other state” where religion is so blatantly one-sided.

“Jewish blood, whether authentic or dubious, is kosher. Other blood….is unacceptable.” Does this not reflect “a new kind of ‘racial purity….a religious ethnocracy or an apartheid state? Wouldn’t it be better to live in a just democracy? And how is it even possible” to call a Jewish state democratic, especially one defiling the rule of law, committing crimes of war and against humanity throughout its history, murdering humanitarian activists in international waters, claiming it’s self-defense, suppressing truths too disturbing to reveal under a leader even Jews should fear, Levy earlier saying Israelis should be worried.

Discussing the Flotilla attack, he cited a “chorus singing songs of falsehood and lies,” accusing activists of committing “a violent attack on Israeli sovereignty,” outrageous propaganda claiming the aid convoy violated international law, not the siege but legitimate aid trying to break it, so stopping it by cold-blooded murder is righteously justified.

“We (are now) portrayed not only as the ones that have blocked assistance, but also as fools who do everything to even further undermine our own standing,” Israel’s friend, Mario Vargas Llosa saying the “occupation was approaching its grotesque phase.”

More astute analysts know that passed long ago, reaching new heights under Netanyahu, Levy calling him “Tricky Bibi,” a pathetic outrageous extremist, preaching peace while waging war, practicing deceit, a man “betraying himself in his own words as a con artist,” worst of all a dangerous, treacherous one, endangering Jews like Arabs, Exhibit A the Flotilla massacre exposing Israel’s true face, revealing what everyone in the region fears, most of all peace and democracy advocates, notions Netanyahu and his colleagues won’t tolerate.

A Final Comment

On June 2, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) approved formation of an international committee (like the Goldstone Commission) to probe the Flotilla attack, comprised of lawyers and international law and human rights experts. They’ll visit Israel, Turkey, Greece, and the Flotilla coalition, then present its findings in September, during the Council’s three week Geneva session. If they investigate as admirably as Judge Goldstone, expect a true account of Israeli lawlessness, exposing the real face of a rogue state.

source: 91177info

Thank you 91177info for posting this video and getting the word out.

Busloads of civilians who cheered as the dwellings were demolished. They said armed police deployed with tear gas, water cannon, two helicopters and bulldozers.

Israel destroys a whole Negev Village — 200 Children left Homeless. The villagers, mostly children and old people, were left stunned near the destroyed village, shelterless and waterless under the blazing sun.

The destruction of the village was carried out despite dispute over ownership of the land still pending in the courts. Residents of al-Arakib are neither squatters nor invaders: their village has existed many years before the creation of Israel in 1948.

http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2010/07/israel-destroys-a-whole-negev-village-200-children-left-homeless/

Villagers said they’ve lived in the region for years back to the Ottoman days before Israel was founded, and have original deeds to the land.

“The state of Israel is treating us like cockroaches,” said Sulaiman Abu Mdian, 29, a father of four who works as a chicken farmer.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/07/27/israel.bedouins.demolitions/index.html?section=cnn_latest#fbid=65iczb0Ahbr

“More than 1,500 police arrived at the village at around sunrise — they came in dozens of vehicles and began destroying the structures there,” said Chaya Noach, head of Negev Coexistence Forum for Civil Equality, a group which fights to protect the rights of the 160,000 Bedouin living in the Negev.

“It’s like they want to erase the Bedouin from the landscape,” she said.

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=40238

“Usually they destroy seven or 10 houses at once, but this time they bulldozed the roads and anything that would indicate people had lived here,” said Waqili.
The operation set “a dangerous precedent,” he warned, saying it posed a threat to the 45 unrecognised villages in the Negev that are home to some 100,000 Arabs.

http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=376937&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17

Bedouins are predominantly desert-dwelling Arabs who have been living in the Negev desert for hundreds of years.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=136428&sectionid=351020202

Many live in extreme poverty.

The Bedouin say they have lived in the area since before the foundation of the state of Israel.

“Today we shall evacuate them and should they return we’ll do it again,” he said.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10777040

Thankyou to CNN for this video footage

source: Intifada

Destruction implemented though land ownership still pending in court

Israeli” police evicted 200 Palestinian Bedouins and demolished their village as crowd of Jews cheered

Police evicted 200 Bedouins from their homes in a southern Israeli village on Tuesday and demolished their dwellings, an act decried by residents who said they are on ancestral land. The move occurred five miles north of Beer Sheva in a village called Al-Araqeeb, an enclave not recognized by the state of Israel. Witnesses told CNN that the Israeli forces arrived at the village accompanied by busloads of civilians who cheered as the dwellings were demolished. They said armed police deployed with tear gas, water cannon, two helicopters and bulldozers. But Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said there were no disturbances and the operation went according to plan. He said the move was in response to a court order and people had been settling there illegally. Rosenfeld said there were about 30 shacks and 200 people removed. Villagers said they’ve lived in the region for years back to the Ottoman days before Israel was founded, and have original deeds to the land. After the Israeli forces left the scene, some villagers immediately started rebuilding their dwellings. “The state of Israel is treating us like cockroaches,” said Sulaiman Abu Mdian, 29, a father of four who works as a chicken farmer. Bedouins are Arabs who live in the desert regions of the Middle East. Some are nomadic and others are sedentary and remain in one location.

CNN’s Paul Colsey, Kareem Khadder and Ben Wedeman contributed to this report.

Haaretz.com

Destruction implemented though land ownership still pending in court

Netanyahu calls Bedouin citizens of Israel “real threat” – and next, an entire village in the Negev is demolished

Early this morning police raided the unrecognized Bedouin village of al-Arakib in the Negev, destroyed all 40 of its houses, and evicted more than 300 residents. The residents, mostly children, were left homeless. The unprecedented raid began at about 4:30 in the morning, residents were surprised to wake up surrounded by a huge force of 1,500 police with guns, stun grenades, helmets and shields, including hundreds of Special Riot Police (Yasam) as well as mounted police, helicopters and bulldozers.

At the residents’ call, dozens of left-wing activists and volunteers arrived from all over the country, helping them to offer non-violent resistance. Several residents were bruised and beaten by police, thjough not needing medical attention. One woman demonstrator was detained by the police. The police removed the residents’ property into prepared containers, and bulldozers demolished the residential buildings and sheepfolds and destroyed the residents’ fruit orchards and olive tree groves.

The villagers, mostly children and old people, were left stunned near the destroyed village, shelterless and waterless under the blazing sun

The destruction of the village was carried out despite dispute over ownership of the land still pending in the courts. Residents of al-Arakib are neither squatters nor invaders: their village has existed many years before the creation of Israel in 1948. Residents had been evicted by the state in 1951, but returned to the land on which they live and which they cultivate. Ownership of the land is now the subject of proceedings in the Be’er Sheva District Court, where academic researchers have already testified in confirmation of the residents’ ownership right in the land.

http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/1178648.html

The destruction’s declared aim is to facilitate plans by the Jewish National Fund to plant a wood on the site. We regard this demolition as a criminal act. Bedouin citizens of Israel are not enemies, and forestation of the Negev is not a reasonable pretext for destroying a community which is more than 60 years old, dispossessing its residents, and violating the basic rights of hundreds of Israeli civilians, men, women and children.

This act by the state authorities is no “law enforcement” – it is a act of war, such as is undertaken against an enemy. This act cannot be dissociated from yesterday’s statement by Prime Minister Netanyahu, who at the cabinet meeting sounded a warning about “a situation in which a demand for national rights will be made from some quarters inside Israel, for example in the Negev, should the area be left without a Jewish majority. Such things happened in the Balkans, and it is a real threat.” Presenting the Bedouin citizens of Israel as “a real threat” gives legitimacy to the expulsion of Israel’s Bedouin citizens from the Negev in order to “Judaize” it. We call on all who care for democracy to give their support to this threatened community.

Speaking during a reception for outgoing Israeli UN envoy Shalev, U.S. envoy Susan Rice says that Washington remains fully and firmly committed to Israel’s security.

source: Haaretz

The United States will continue to maintain Israel’s military advantage as well as protect it in the diplomatic arena, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Wednesday, adding that the American commitment to Israel’s security was “not negotiable.”
Susan Rice

U.S. UN envoy Susan Rice
Photo by: AP

Speaking during a reception for Israeli Ambassadors Gabriela Shalev and Daniel Carmon, held by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York, Rice said the “United States of America remains fully and firmly committed to the peace and security of the State of Israel.”

“That commitment spans generations and political parties. It is not negotiable, and it never will be,” Rice added, saying the United States would “continue to strengthen Israel’s qualitative military advantage so that Israel can always defend itself, by itself, against any threat or possible combination of threats.”

The U.S. UN envoy also reiterated the U.S. conviction to defend Israel in the diplomatic arena, saying that, “as U.S. President Barack Obama] pledged, we will continue U.S. efforts to combat all international attempts to challenge the legitimacy of Israel—including and especially at the United Nations.”

“Our two countries have a long and extraordinary friendship, going back to the moment that President Truman made the United States the very first country to recognize the State of Israel—11 minutes after it declared its independence,” Rice said.

Referring to recent attempts to jumpstart the stalling peace process The U.S. envoy to the UN also said that in the wake of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ” recent meeting with President Obama, we will continue to work together to seek a lasting and comprehensive peace, that meets Israel’s security needs and creates a viable, sovereign Palestinian state.”

On the subject of the outgoing Israeli ambassador to the UN, Rice praised Shalev’s work, saying that while “being the American Ambassador to the United Nations isn’t always easy…being Israeli’s Ambassador to the United Nations is never easy.”

“But Gabi and I had the opportunity to work closely together on a series of important issues, from dealing with the deeply flawed Goldstone Report to seeing through the passage by the Security Council of the toughest sanctions resolution to date against Iran,” Rice said, adding that Shalev had been “a lioness in defense of Israel’s security and its legitimacy.”

Shalev, Rice said, worked tirelessly to ensure that Israel has the same rights and enjoys the same responsibilities as any other UN member state.”

Rice also went to compliment the Israeli envoy, comparing her to other Israeli greats who had served as Israel’s UN envoys, such as “Abba Eban, Chaim Herzog, and a scrappy up-and-comer named Bibi Netanyahu.”

“But I believe when the history books are written, in all honesty, historians will rank Gabriella Shalev as among the best representatives that Israel has ever had at the United Nations for her dedication, her skill, and her extraordinary heart,” Rice said at the Conference of Presidents reception.

The American ambassador to the UN also pointed out a reception Shalev hosted in honor of Israel’s independence, one that was attended by “many, many ambassadors, from all over the world were there”

“And they were there not only out of respect for Israel but deep and abiding friendship for Gabriella,” Rice said, adding that Shalev was her “kind of diplomat,” saying she was “smart, she’s creative, and above all, she always plays it straight.”

Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu has been met by protests on his visit to the White House for talks on the Middle East peace process.

Protesters chanted slogans against Israel’s crippling siege on the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu’s visit to Washington comes shortly after the US called for direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian authority.

Acting Palestinian Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas has ruled out direct talks unless Israel clarifies its stance on East al-Quds’ (Jerusalem) frontiers and security.

Among the protesters are “True Torah Jews” — an organization dedicated to informing the world that not all Jews support the Zionist state of Israel.

Senators in Jerusalem to discuss Middle East tensions

source: Jerusalem Post

There is wide support in Congress for using all means to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power, “through diplomatic and economic sanctions if we possibly can, through military actions if we must,” visiting US Senator Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said Wednesday in Jerusalem.

Lieberman, flanked at a Jerusalem press conference by his senate colleagues John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC), used very tough language, saying the words “military action” in regards to stopping Iran’s nuclear program. Most US officials opt to tiptoe around the subject, saying “no options are off the table.”

Lieberman said that “a certain trumpet needs to sounded here for the Iranian regime to hear.”

He said the sanctions Congress recently passed against Iran were meant to signal to Teheran to “negotiate the end of their nuclear program and re-entry into the civilized world, if that is possible. But if not, they should know that when Congress says it is unacceptable to get nuclear weapons, we mean it. We hope economic and diplomatic power will work, but if we must use force, that must remain a very active option.”

Regarding Tuesday’s friendly meeting in Washington between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama, Lieberman – based on reports he heard from people there – said “it was a positive meeting, and we can say with some encouragement that the relationship between the US and Israel is back on track.”

Lieberman, acknowledging that the past year was a “difficult one” in the US-Israel relationship, said that even during this period “the members of Congress across party lines continued to both feel and express strong support for the security of the State of Israel, and for the relationship.”

Graham was even blunter.

“The Congress has Israel’s back,” he said, “and never misunderstand that. Whatever relationship problems we have had in the past, it has never seeped over into Congress. The Congress has been united in protection of one of our best allies in the world, the State of Israel.”

Regarding another American ally, Turkey, McCain – referring to both Ankara’s vote against Iran sanctions at the UN and its hostile rhetoric toward Israel – said he has been “disappointed recently” by Turkey’s “actions and words.”

At the same time, he said, Turkey is an old and close ally with whom the US has common interests.

“I hope that at some point the Turkish leadership would lower the rhetoric, reduce it to the point where we can try to solve differences in a quiet and diplomatic way,” McCain said.

Asked what would happen to US-Turkish ties if Ankara severed, as it has threatened to do, its ties with Israel, McCain replied, “obviously it wouldn’t be helpful. I hope this won’t be the case. I hope that there will be conversations.” Saying that the Israeli-Turkish relationship has “contributed to stability in the Middle East,” McCain said he found the situation “disturbing,” and said he hoped the US could play an “interlocutor role to bridge some of these differences.”

Fundamentally, McCain said, Turkey remains a secular nation that has “contributed enormously to peace in the region and the world.”

All three senators, who met during their two-day stay with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, as well as with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, praised the US-trained PA security forces.

McCain, in an apparent reference to talk about putting PA security forces at border crossings from Israel into Gaza, said the willingness of Israel to discuss this issue showed the confidence Israel had in these forces as well.

source: Haaretz

Kagan rejects criticism that she seeks to emulate Aharon Barak’s judicial activism, but says she admires what he did for Israel.

U.S. Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan on Tuesday rejected Republican charges she would be a liberal judicial activist, brushing off complaints she was more interested in politics than legal precedent and promising her rulings would be based solely on the law.

Criticism of the judicial method of Israel’s former Supreme Court president, Aharon Barak, featured high on the second day of Kagan’s confirmation hearing at the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 29, 2010, during her confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 29, 2010
Photo by: AP

When asked whether she would follow the method adopted by Barak when deciding cases, Kagan responded with a resounding: “I will not”, but added that she admired what he had done for the Israeli judicial system.

“I do admire Justice Barak,” Kagan clarified. “He is very often called the John Marshall of the state of Israel because he was central in creating an independent judiciary for Israel and in ensuring that Israel – a young nation, a nation threatened from its very beginning in existential ways and a nation without a written constitution –with all those kinds of liabilities would become a very strong rule of law nation.

“And that’s why I admire Justice Barak. Not for his particular judicial philosophy, not for any of his particular decisions.”

“As you know, I don’t think it’s a secret I am Jewish,” she added. “The state of Israel has meant a lot to me and my family. And – and I admire Justice Barak for what he’s done for the state of Israel and ensuring an independent judiciary.‬”

If appointed, Kagan would be the third Jewish justice on the nine-member Supreme Court panel.

“My politics would be, must be, have to be completely separate from my judging,” Kagan told Republican critics at the hearing. “The question is always what the law says.”

Senator Jeff Sessions, the panel’s senior Republican, pressed Kagan on whether she would follow Obama’s political agenda and whether she was a “liberal progressive.”

“I honestly don’t know what that means,” Kagan said. “This isn’t a job, I think, where somebody should come in with a particular substantive agenda and try to shape what they do to meet that agenda.”

Kagan, 50, has sparked little controversy compared to other Supreme Court nominees and appears headed to relatively easy confirmation. Her nomination has been overshadowed by recent events, including the Gulf of Mexico oil spill and the removal of Afghanistan war commander U.S. General Stanley McChrystal.

Both parties jockeyed for political advantage during the hearing as November’s congressional elections approach.

Democrats have criticized what they say is the court’s shift to conservative activism under Chief Justice John Roberts.

Kagan, who is Barack Obama’s solicitor general and a former aide in the Clinton administration, refused to take the bait when Republican Jon Kyl asked if she agreed with complaints the court had favored corporations in recent rulings.

“I would not want to characterize the current court in any way — I hope one day to join it,” Kagan said.

“And they said you weren’t political,” Kyl responded to laughter from Kagan and the crowd.

Kagan, a former dean of the Harvard law school, defended her decisions limiting access to military recruiters under university anti-discrimination rules because of the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on gays, which she called unjust.

While dean of the school, Kagan reinstated Harvard’s policy preventing military recruiters from using its career office, but allowed them access through student groups.

“I’m confident the military had access to our students, and our students had access to the military throughout my entire deanship,” she said, adding she respected and “revered” the military.

“But I also felt a need to defend our school’s very longstanding anti-discrimination policy and to protect the men and women, the students, who were meant to be protected by that policy: the gay and lesbian students who wanted to serve in the military,” she said.

Sessions said Kagan’s decision made the military second-class citizens on campus. “The actions you took created a climate that was not healthy toward the military,” he said.

Talking to reporters afterward, he said he was “less comfortable” with Kagan after the exchange.

If Kagan wins Senate confirmation to succeed retiring Justice John Paul Stevens, she will be the first new member of the high court in four decades who has never been a judge. She also would be the current court’s youngest member and its third woman.

Kagan was asked several times about a book review she wrote that criticized high court confirmation hearings as a charade because nominees rarely divulged their real views on key cases.

She has adjusted her view now that she is on the other side, she said.
“I skewed it too much,” she said of her criticism. “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to talk about what I think about past cases — you know, to grade cases — because those cases themselves might again come before the court.”

Each of the Judiciary Committee’s 19 senators have 30 minutes during the first round of questioning, which is expected to last all day on Tuesday and into Wednesday.

Under questioning from Democratic chairman Patrick Leahy, she said the court’s decision on Monday extending gun rights to every city and state was “settled law.”

On abortion, she said the court had repeatedly held that a woman’s life and health “must be protected.”

Kagan also said she supported televising court hearings, and promised to recuse herself from any case where she was the counsel of record as solicitor general. She said there were about 10 cases in that category on next year’s court docket.

source: freegaza.org

This is being posted as it was printed. There appears to be no firm documentation to verify this letter.

Written by Greta Berlin | 05 June 2010
Posted in News
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,
Israeli commandos, acting at the direction of the State of Israel, attacked and seized a Turkish ship in international waters, in the Mediterranean Sea.
At least nine were killed in the incident aboard the Mavi Marmara. Hundreds of civilians were taken into custody and goods were confiscated. Since the United States considers Israel our most important ally in the region, whose survival is a primary concern, it is incumbent upon the Commander in Chief to call Israel to an accounting for its conduct in planning and executing the deadly military attack in international waters upon a peaceful flotilla carrying citizens from over 50 countries.
The State of Israel’s conduct, attacking a Turkish ship in international waters, constitutes an act of belligerence against Turkey, which at one time Israel considered an important ally. It also undermines United States’ troops efforts in Iraq, since your administration’s efforts to achieve stability in the region and to withdraw troops from Iraq has depended upon Turkey’s cooperation through use of its air bases.
In its violent commando raid on the Mavi Marmara, the government of Israel showed no concern as to how its conduct may affect the lives of defenseless, innocent people, its friends and allies, and in particular the United States. The United States must remind Israel as well as all of our other friends and allies:

It is not acceptable to repeatedly violate international law.

It is not acceptable to shoot and kill innocent civilians.

It is not acceptable to commit an act of aggression against another U.S. ally.

It is not acceptable to continue a blockade which denies humanitarian relief.

It is not acceptable to heighten tensions in a region while the United States continues to put so much blood and treasure on the line.

The State of Israel’s action necessitates that the United States, which is Israel’s partner in the region, begin to redefine its relationship and to establish such boundaries and conditions which are sufficient for mutual respect and cooperation.

It is incumbent upon Israeli officials to bring forth the truth about the planning for and the attack upon the Mavi Marmara.

No one questions the right of Israel to defend its border, but that defense does not extend to shooting innocent civilians anywhere in the world, anytime it pleases.

Israel must account for our support, for the lives of our soldiers, for the investment of billions from our taxpayers. Israel owes the United States more than reckless, pre-meditated violence waged against innocent people.
The attack on the Mavi Marmara requires consequences for the Netanyahu Administration and for the State of Israel. Those consequences must be dealt by the United States. They must be diplomatic and they must be financial. The U.S. can begin by calling for an independent international inquiry of the Mavi Marmara incident. The integrity of such inquiry necessitates that it not be led by the nation whose conduct is under scrutiny. If our nation fails to act in any substantive way, the United States licenses the violence and we are complicit in it and our own citizens will be forced to pay the consequences.

We the undersigned deeply regret the loss of life. We are also fully aware of the dangers to world security which exist in the region, which is why the United States has been unstinting it its defense of Israel. We have a right to expect that Israel not add to those dangers with military conduct which all people of good will know is neither defensible nor moral. There must be consequences for such conduct. We await your response.
Sincerely,