Ghouse knocks down Pamela Geller on Hannity Show

Indeed, it was a knock down drag out with dissembler Pamela Geller. Sean Hannity asked me to cut down on expletives, an unusual for me.
I just read Pamela Geller’s note on her blog, “I will be on the Sean Hannity radio show at the top of the hour (4pm) for a knock down drag out with dissembler Michael Ghouse. http://www.wsbradio.com/s/inside/seanhannity/  and http://www.hannity.com/show/2013/02/07

We argued over the word Jihad. The word was used for the first time when Prophet Muhammad’s army came home from a victorious war.  The associates asked him, what next? The prophet said, the greater Jihad begins now. The "greater jihad" is the inner struggle to hold on to the temptations to take revenge, or oppress the captured. Instead, he taught one to be humble, and be charitable and kind to them. However the meaning of the Jihad was screwed up around the 10th century to mean war on non-Muslims.

Pamela was belligerent and going on and on, that’s when I got to her. I guess this must be a first time on Hannity show. I told her “Pamela, first, you did not listen to what I said - that is the screwed up meaning of Jihad, that was an add on, and not Qur’anic or Islamic, you did not hear me, that it was in the middle ages that it was added, and unfortunately it is believed by many Muslims.”

Secondly, we are having a dialogue here, you tell a point and cut it out and I will do the same, you got this non-sense memorized and rolling it on, breath in between your sentences, let it be a dialogue… there was a dead moment, and I realized, that was the right thing for me to do. Thanks Hannity for letting it pass, I am glad he did, otherwise neither will make the points.

Then I laid it on her that she is robbing the American public by not telling the whole truth. In Islam, there is no offensive war, per Islam no Muslim can wage a war, unless in self-defense, all else about Jihad is non-sense.

An another point, although I do not like Ahmedinejad’s loose mouth, he did not say to wipe out Israel, he said to wipe out Zionism and not Israel… of course; it was over loud conversation between Pamela and I.

I am against supplying F-16 fighter planes to Egypt.  What is it for? The only possible enemy Egypt has is Israel, and Masri has said he will continue to honor the peace accord. This is the dumbest thing we are doing to supply them with arms.

Hagel should be confirmed for Secretary of Defense, for a change we need someone who is not a damn war monger.

John Brennan - He needs to clarify about the operations of drone, we are creating more ill-will through our indiscriminate killing of the innocents.


Reference points

http://www.hannity.com/show/2013/02/07

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/joseph-klein/the-emerging-egyptian-iranian-strategic-alliance/

Ahmadinejad warned, “The Iranian people are ready to march on Israel to destroy it if it launches an attack adventure against Iran.”

and feeling encircled by hostile governments in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and other Gulf states, the Iranian regime is looking for a new dance partner.

Moreover, Egypt has to walk a tightrope in its relationship with the United States if it wants to receive billions of dollars in financial aid and advanced weapons such as F-16s to build up its military. On the other hand, Morsi sees some leverage in hedging his bets and keeping the U.S. on edge as to just how far Egypt is willing to go in pursuing deeper ties with Iran.

Second, while Egypt may not formally break diplomatic relations with Israel and withdraw from the Camp David peace treaty in the foreseeable future, it can revert to a cold peace and allow Iranian arms to transit the Sinai on the way to Hamas in Gaza.

Ayotallah Khameini

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/world/middleeast/irans-supreme-leader-ayatollah-ali-khameini-rejects-direct-talks-with-us.html?_r=0

The ayatollah’s objection is an edict to which other Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, must adhere,

“The Iranian nation will not negotiate under pressure,” he said. Noting the international sanctions against Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei said: “The U.S. is pointing a gun at Iran and wants us to talk to them. The Iranian nation will not be intimidated by these actions.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/fischer-a-no-on-hagel-he-fell-short-87310.html

Sen. Deb Fischer will not support her fellow Nebraskan, former Sen. Chuck Hagel, for Defense Secretary, she wrote in an op-ed published Thursday.

“Sen. Hagel had a chance to clear the record and address bipartisan, well-intentioned concerns,” Fischer (R-Neb.) wrote for the Omaha World-Herald, referencing the former Republican senator’s performance in confirmation hearings last week. “He fell short, consequently failing to reach the heightened standard to which nominees to this position are held. I cannot support his nomination.”

John Brennan

 Brennan, 57, was expected to be examined closely about U.S. spy activities from waterboarding to the use of drones at the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, scheduled for 2:30 p.m. EST/1930 GMT.

Even so, there has been no groundswell of objection to Brennan's nomination, and he was expected to win confirmation from both the panel and, later by the full U.S. Senate.

Brennan is Obama's counterterrorism adviser and was a top CIA official under former President George W. Bush.

The biggest concerns about the nominee have come from liberal Democrats, not the conservative Republicans whose reservations about Obama's nominee to head the Pentagon, Chuck Hagel, prompted a delay in the vote to confirm the former Republican senator.

Senator Ron Wyden, a Democratic member of the intelligence committee who has pledged to press Brennan on drones, said in television interviews on Thursday he was encouraged by Obama's to provide classified documents, but that more action is needed.


Senate Committee Postpones Vote on Hagel Nomination

The Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) decided to postpone its tentatively planned markup of Chuck Hagel's nomination to be Secretary of Defense.

SASC was planning to vote on the nomination today, but committee chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) decided to delay action saying that the committee's review was not complete.

Although he did not reference it, several media sources report that more than two dozen Republicans wrote Levin calling for more time to review Hagel's financial records, which they argue are incomplete.  Politico quotes a passage from the letter where questions are raised by the Republicans about whether Hagel was paid "directly or indirectly, from foreign sources" in relation to speeches or consulting work.  Hagel reportedly had been asked about this previously and replied that the financial information requested "regarding private corporate and non-profit entities ... is not mine to provide. ...I do not believe I have any of the information requested," according to Politico.

....
Mike Ghouse is a speaker, thinker and a writer on pluralism, politics, peace, Islam, Israel, India, interfaith, and cohesion at work place and standing up for others as an activist. He is committed to building a Cohesive America and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day at www.TheGhousediary.com. Mike has a strong presence on national and local TV, Radio and Print Media. He is a frequent guest on Sean Hannity show on Fox TV, and a commentator on national radio networks, he contributes weekly to the Texas Faith Column at Dallas Morning News, fortnightly at Huffington post, and several other periodicals across the world. His personal site www.MikeGhouse.net indexes everything you want to know about him.

Peace in Israel and Palestine begins with you and me

Thomas Friedman (New York Times) beat me to it; this is the solution for the endless conflict in the Middle-East. I urge the right wing Jewish, Muslim and Christian organizations not to hate him for writing this piece, it is something they wanted to begin with but went about in the wrong way, their passion and support is crucial to be applied in the right path, the path of peace in the holy land of Moses, Solomon, Jesus and Muhammad.  My prayers for Friedman for writing this piece and God willing I am writing one to supplement his efforts. 

Continued: http://israel-palestine-dialogue.blogspot.com/2011/05/peace-in-israel-and-palestine-begins.html  

Obama will deliver security to Israel and justice to Palestinians

We read a whole lot of material from the right wingers, though they have an aggressive presence in the Mediascape, they do not represent the majority. The American Public does not subscribe to the view of Bush, Romney, Palin and their likes and neither the Israeli public subscribes to the views of Netanyahu or the AIPAC.

It’s in our interest to hear the Jewish public and intellectuals to shape or re-form our understanding on the issues. Attacks on Obama are disingenuous, his policy will get the Jews what they have been seeking for eternity; Security.

When Security for Israelis and justice for Palestinians is the goal, it will succeed and becomes sustainable. Obama’s vision is opposed by short term macho minds powered by a false sense of power.  Of all the People on the earth, Jews have been the victims of power, no one will annihilate them or any part of humanity by sheer military might, the Ferdinand’s could not do it, the Romans could not do it and the Arabs will not do it, and likewise, the Israeli military or lobbying power will not bulldoze the aspirations of the people of the Palestine.  

Continued http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/05/obama-will-deliver-security-to-israel.html

Mubarak Hangs on

MUBARAK HANGS ON:
Random notes written during twitting.

Mr. Mubarak, it makes sense for you to resign and earn the support and good will of the people, if you don’t, you will be running for your life and looking for asylum as Shah of Iran, Zeinal Abidin, Idi Amin and a host of fascist men have done.  

No doubt you have done a lot of good in the mix of good bad and ugly things of running the government, but if you want your legacy to continue, damn it, resign.

The Egyptian people will love you for that, if not, you will go down in the history as a tyrant. You will not take all your power and opulence into that hole, but if you do the right thing, you will have a state funeral and thousands of them will attend including the state heads from around the world.

This is the first time in the Middle East History that Muslims have chosen Non-violence as their weapon to bring self governance. It must be encouraged as it will bring about a world of changes in the future.

I am proud of the Egyptian people to have taken this approach and hope this will infect the Arab world, and I pray that the Palestinians go the non-violent protest and Israeli people join them.

Who was he referring to about Foreign Powers?
He said he will follow the will of the people, which people?

Has our intelligence been ever right?
Has any information by CIA been reliable

Israel needs to remember that the deal is between the people of Egypt and the people of Israel and not between Mubarak and Netanyahu, the will come and go but the good will is sustainable.

The right wingers among Jewish people have been pouncing on the Israelis who speak sense. They gang up and reduce their wisdom and label them as self-hating Jew. The right winger among Muslims mirrors the other right wingers. 

 
I do support Judaism, Jews and Israel, but not their brutal inhuman practices. I holy hope that the right wingers on all sides come together and start talking peace, looking at each others’ children and ask themselves, am I a rotten pig to destroy the hope of that child?

Unless there is justice for the Palestinians, the Israeli society will live with a messed up conscience, and it works in funny and aggressive way and compromises the long term security.

Just watched live Al-Jazeerah http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

My appearance on Fox, talk on two Radio stations and write up in Dallas Morning News and several places:

Mubarak Hangs on

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/mubarak-hangs-on.html

Egypt: A positive change in the making http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/egypt-positive-change-in-making.html

Advise to Obama, Dallas Morning News

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/advise-to-obama-on-egypt.html

Radio with Hannity and Shoebet

http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/01/egypt-making-lemonade-out-of-lemon.html

Ghouse on Hannity show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYHm2fafBu0

Horowitz frightens the Jews

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/horowitz-frightens-jews.html

Israeli blunders

http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2011/02/israeli-blunders.html

My twitters :

@monaeltahawy - I just spoke with Aishah in

Tahrir Square

http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
5 minutes ago Favorite Reply Delete »

@AriFleischer - Ari, has CIA every produced right information from Iran in 1979 to Egypt inow?

@ @maddow -Rachel, just spoke to Aishah at Tahrir , people dont trust him - http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/israeli-blunders.html

JUST TALKE TO EGYPT IN TAHRIR SQUARE, THEY DONT TRUST HIM http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/israeli-blunders.html

MUBARAK TO SULEMAN WAS LIKE BUSH TO CHENEY

ISRAEL NEEDS TO BE CAREFUL AND NOT RECKLESS http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/israeli-blunders.html

@NickKristof - That's exactly he meant by foriegn pressurues

MUBARAK - People don't trust him, he needs to go with dignity, if he has any sense at all.

MUBARAK - GO GRACEFULLY MAN, YOU WILL BE MADE TO RUN

 @mtawfeeqCNN it finished 16 seconds after your call

MUBARAK - We will sustain the will of the people - buddy, who is the people? and Whose will?

WATCHING MUBARAK - What does he mean by we will not yeild to foriegn pressures? Who does he mean?

@seanhannity Israel should avoid blunders http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/israeli-blunders.html

 @ElishaKrauss Israel should avoid blunders http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/israeli-blunders.html

AL JAZEERAH LIVE http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

@seanhannity - sean I am keeping with two people in Egypt as well.

ISRAELI BLUNDERS http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/israeli-blunders.html

@thejakartapost - this piece for publication please. http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/muslims-condemn-murdering-ahmadiyya.html

Quraan conference in Louisville by Non-Mulism Panelists http://www.quraanconference.com/

OBAMA WILL COPY MY WORDS http://theghousediary.blogspot.com/2011/02/obama-throws-me-off-compeletely.html

Gaza Flotilla, Israel and your voice

When societies live in denial of their abuses against others or justify them, their morality declines and the society goes downhill towards a characterless nation. The following pieces and several reference links on Israel's bullying of the humanitarian aid are action items for you, if you have the time to do your share of justice in the world, it is time to act now.

Please remember this action by Israel is unilateral in nature by a few in the government, they are neither the voice of Jews, nor would Judaism approve such actions.

Where are the moderate Jews?

Indeed, they are everywhere and shamelessly their voices are being muted out in the media, they are not giving the time to the moderate Jews, just like they did with the Moderate Muslims. The extremists have the gall to discredit those voices of justice; those are the only voices that will ensure safety and security for Israel and the Jews, Palestinians and the Gazans and the people and nations around them. The extremists will run down their countries. ( New York times ran a well researched article in May this year pointing to the effect that the moderate voices of Jews are not hear and only the bullies get the pulpit- when I am in Dallas, I will post the link)

Lord Krishna had said, whenever there is immorality, someone will emerge from them and bring the righteousness back to them. I see the emergence of Tikkun Olam, the J Street, Jewish voice for Peace, Bretzdek and others among the Jewish communities to set right what has been wronged. The world needs to stand by the moderates who want the best for all including the extremists.

It is in the best interests of Israel and the world that the moderates speak up and bring corrective actions to the ill-actions of the few thoughtless individuals.

Please do your share of Justice…
I am pleased to enclose the following for you to read and reflect.

1. Draft Release from Dallas Peace Center ( it will be updated and offcially released)
2. Jewish Voice for Peace and Muslim Writers Alliance
3. Tikkun Magazine, Rabbi Lerner
4. AVAAZ
5. Arab American Institute
5. Resounce Links from the Guardian, Al-Jazeerah and others

Continued at: http://mikeghouseforamerica.blogspot.com/2010/06/gaza-flotilla-israel-and-your-voice.html

Mike Ghouse
http://www.mikeghouse.net/
>>>>>>>

May 31, 2010
DRAFT PRESS RELEASE FROM DALLAS PEACE CENTER

While details and facts are still being sorted out, we can find no justification for armed forces from Israel to forcibly board an unarmed civilian humanitarian aid vessel in International waters. Further, the killing of civilians, no matter what the reason, is a deplorable, horrible, condemnable act, for which there can be no justifiable explanation or excuse.

We herby demand not only an explanation, but a heartfelt apology from the Israeli government. We also request the ships and their cargo be allowed to be delivered to those in need, as well as a cessation of all hostilities, including the blockade of food, medicine, clothing, and any other non-military items for the people of Gaza. We urge President Obama to call for an immediate lifting of the siege of Gaza while demanding an international and impartial investigation into the tragic killing of civilians in a humanitarian mission.

Locally, we ask everyone to write and call their representatives, demanding both an apology and a cessation of the armed conflict from the Israeli government. In addition, urge your representative to suspend any and all military aid to Israel.

We also encourage those of the Jewish faith to visit their Temples and Synagogues and say Kaddish (prayer for the dead) for those who were killed.

# # #
MWA Joins Jewish Voice For Peace in Condemnation of Israeli Attack on Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Today at 7:06pm

Tragedy must not overshadow the goals; ensuring that the Flotilla's cargo reaches its final destination, to bring an end to the illegal siege and embargo on Gaza, and to bring to justice the perpetrators of unnecessary crimes against humanity.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PR Log (Press Release) – May 31, 2010 – WASHINGTON, D.C. (MWA) — Muslimah Writers Alliance (MWA) joins Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and the chorus of global outrage in response to the early morning attack launched by Israeli forces on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, while sailing in international waters, resulting in the tragic deaths of reportedly 20 civilians and injuries to 50 or more.

"This is yet another deadly escalation of the repression of nonviolent protests against the ongoing occupation of the Palestinian territory and embargo on Gaza—funded by American tax-dollars," stated MWA Director, Aishah Schwartz.

The White House has stated, through yet another spokesperson, that it, "deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries sustained [by civilians], and is currently working to understand the circumstances surrounding this tragedy." This kind of administrative rhetoric is, once again, NOT ENOUGH!

"This past December when I embarked upon the quest to break the siege of Gaza myself, I was told by a leader and activist in my own community, that attempting to enter Gaza was a 'waste of time' – words that left me in outright tears as the bus I was on moved forward over the Rafah border crossing on December 30, 2009.

"God facilitated my journey, and that of 85 other delegates–despite a lack of support and dissent, and we are collectively proof today that when God stands with us; none can stand against us—and rest assured, no wrong ever goes unpunished. The Israeli government's day of reckoning may not be by our hand, or may not even been seen in our lifetimes – but that does not mean we should give up the fight or stop standing firm for justice. Ever," Schwartz stated.

Concluding Schwartz added, "I am deeply saddened and extend my sincerest condolences to the families of those who have lost loved ones or whose family members have been injured, but it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to ensure that this tragedy is not forgotten; and that these lives were not lost in vain. We must maximize EVERY SINGLE OPPORTUNITY to further support the cause—to ensure that the 10,000 tons of humanitarian relief reaches its final destination, to bring an end to the illegal siege and embargo on Gaza, and to bring to justice the perpetrators of unnecessary and illegal crimes against humanity."

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP!

CALL the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem and DEMAND that the U.S. Government take immediate action to safeguard innocent lives!

Tel: +972 2 622 7207/21/30—or Fax: +942 2 625 9270/627 2233

BUT DON'T STOP THERE!

Contact the Israeli Embassy nearest you and let them know how you feel!
(Israeli Embassy Finder Tool: www.embassiesabroad.com/embassies-of/Israel

CALL White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and DEMAND that the Obama Administration hold the Israeli government accountable for the deaths and injuries of Gaza Freedom Flotilla civilians passengers and crew members!

Tel: +1 202 456 6798—or Fax: +1 202 456 2461

WRITE LETTERS!

Let President Obama and Congress know unconditional aid and support of Israel must end; and the embargo on Gaza must be lifted.

Send a letter to President Obama asking him to withhold U.S. aid to Israel until it agrees to abide by international law, including lifting of the blockade on Gaza. Deliver your letter via fax to (202) 456-2461. Alternatively, and respectfully, you can also voice your concerns by calling (202) 451-1111.

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20500
Telephone: (202)
Fax: (202) 456-2461
Email: (online form) www.emailthepresident.com
Or (online form) www.whitehouse.gov/contact

The Honorable Hillary Clinton
Secretary of State
ATTN: Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills
United States Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520
Fax: (202) 647-2283

Contact your U.S. Representatives and let them know you are counting on them to stand up for justice. Find your Representative at http://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml.

FREE, FREE PALESTINE!!!

Video of the Gaza Freedom March (Dec. 31, 2009) from Gaza
http://aishahsjourney.blogspot.com/2010/05/video-gaza-fr ...

MWA PRESS ROOM
http://pressroom.prlog.org/mwa-net

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
PRESS RELEASE - TIKKUN MAGAZINE

Tikkun Magazine and the Network of Spiritual Progressives' Statement on Killings on the High Seas:
We regret and deplore the killings which took place as Israeli troops, in defiance of international law, boarded and assaulted, wounded many and killed some of the participants in a flotilla seeking to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza (itself a morally outrageous policy) to bring humanitarian aid. We ask all people of peace to dedicate at least fifteen minutes today (Memorial day in the US) to silent memorial for those peace activists who have been killed (and we call upon all synagogues around the world to say Kaddish for those people at their Shabbat services this coming weekend), and for prayer for the speedy recovery of all those wounded in this attack (mostly peace activists, but also the Israeli soldiers who boarded the boats with violence). We invite all peace-loving people to attend a public memorial for those who died in this assault in Lafayette Park opposite the White House on Sunday, June 13, at 11 a.m-2 p.m., sponsored by Tikkun, the Network of Spiritual Progressives, and many other groups, and which will include a larger consideration of U.S. policies. Memorial prayers and prayers for healing will be said at 1 p.m.


We call upon Israel to conduct an objective, credible investigation to determine all the levels of responsibility for this criminal act, and to punish those from the top of the government down through the IDF who were responsible. If the past is any guide to the present moment, the Israel hasbara (public relations 'explanation" operation) will now be working full time to put the blame on the people who sought to bring aid to Gaza, claiming that they were the violent ones and maybe even claiming that they were bringing military equipment or something of the sort.. Yet there was no need for any of this to have happened. Israel could have waited for the boats to arrive at shore and then sent military to search what was being brought to Gaza to ensure that it was in fact humanitarian aid. Moreover, as the Israeii peace movement Gush Shalom pointed out today, the core of the issue remains israel's attempt to starve and punish the entire population of Gaza for the activities of Hamas.


We call upon the international community to stop the blockade and, if necessary, to introduce an international force into Israel/Palestine to protect each side from the other, and then to implement the creation of a two state solution, freeing both sides from the violence of the other, and giving to each side the security and self-determination to which both sides are entitled. We call upon President Obam to use this moment to take decisive steps to create the Palesitnian state while providing Israel with all necessary security, and providing the Palestinian people with protection from those in Israel who have used violence to prevent Palestinian national self-determination. We contnue to abhor and denounce those in Israel and those in Palestine and Gaza who resort to violence to achieve their ends, including Hamas and including Israeli settlers. We acknowledge that the Israeli treatment of Gaza cannot be understood separate from the violent attacks on Israeli civilians from the shelling of Israeli cities from Gaza, nor that shelling understood apart from the blockade of Gaza by Israel, nor that violence from Gaza apart from the violence of the Occupation, nor the Occupation separate from previous acts of violence by Palestinians, nor that previous violence separate from the larger context of the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians by Israel during the founding of the State, nor that explusion separate from the hostility of Palestinians to the creation of the State, and the story goes on and on. It's time to stop with the blame game and simply put an end to the struggle on both sides.


We continue to support the State of Israel's right to exist as a homeland for the Jewish people, and for Palestine to exist as a homeland for the Palestinian people. The violence must stop. The peace process is going nowhere. The time for decisive action to impose a just and peaceful resolution to the conflict arrived decades ago, and must be grabbed now. What level of barbarity needs to happen for the U.S. and the international community to act decisively? How many more deaths?


We mourn the lives lost, the many who have been wounded, including both those on the humanitarian aid mission and Israelis sent by a crazed and irresponsible government into actions that put their lives in danger. Israel's security was never threatened by this flotilla of humanitarian aid, and it was only macho political motivations that led Israeli leaders to order this insane assault. Israel deserves better than Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, and the world has to recognize that this current Israeli government will never bring peace or stability to the Middle East. While we continue to deplore Hamas and all that it has introduced into the equation, complicating attempts to make peace and doing what it could to stir hatred, we believe that the world and the Israeli people and the Palesitnian people deserve peace and justice, and that it is our human obligation to bring that to the peoples of the Middle East. A first step is to end the blockade of Gaza.We call upon all who protest Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza to maintain a strict non-violent discipline, and to affirm the humanity of all sides in this conflict even as we insist on bold and compelling action to stop the conflict.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FROM AVAAZ TEAM

Dear friends, The world is reeling from Israel's assault on an aid flotilla trying to reach Gaza. It's time for a full investigation to begin -- and for the siege of Gaza to end. Sign the worldwide petition, then forward this message:

Israel's deadly raid on a flotilla of aid ships headed for Gaza has shocked the world.

Israel, like any other state, has the right to self-defence, but this was an outrageous use of lethal force to defend an outrageous and lethal policy -- Israel's blockade of Gaza, where two thirds of families don't know where they'll find their next meal.

The UN, EU, and nearly every other government and multilateral organization have called on Israel to lift the blockade and, now, launch a full investigation of the flotilla raid. But without massive pressure from their citizens, world leaders might limit their response to mere words -- as they have so many times before.

Let's make the world's outcry too loud to ignore. Join the petition for an independent investigation into the raid, accountability for those responsible, and an immediate end to the blockade in Gaza -- click to sign the petition, and then forward this message to everyone:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_flotilla_1/?vl

The petition will be delivered to the UN and world leaders, as soon as it reaches 200,000 names -- and again at every opportunity as it grows and leaders choose their responses. A massive petition at a moment of crisis like this one can demonstrate to those in power that sound bites and press releases aren't enough -- that citizens are paying attention and demanding action.

As the EU decides whether to expand its special trade relationship with Israel, as Obama and the US Congress set next year's budget for Israeli military aid, and as neighbours like Turkey and Egypt decide their next diplomatic steps -- let's make the world's voice unignorable: it's time for truth and accountability on the flotilla raid, and it's time for Israel to comply with international law and end the siege of Gaza. Sign now and pass this message along:

http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_flotilla_1/?vl

Most people everywhere still share the same dream: for two free and viable states, Israel and Palestine, to live side by side. But the blockade, and the violence used to defend it, poisons that dream. As a columnist wrote to his fellow Israelis today in the newspaper Ha'aretz, "We are no longer defending Israel. We are now defending the siege. The siege itself is becoming Israel's Vietnam."

Thousands of pro-peace activists in Israel today protested the raid and the blockade in demonstrations from Haifa, to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem -- joining demonstrations around the world. Regardless of which side threw the first punch or fired the first shot (the Israeli military claims it did not initiate the violence), Israel's leaders sent helicopters of armed storm-troopers to raid a convoy of ships in international waters bringing medicine and supplies to Gaza, and some now lay dead.

Their lives cannot be brought back. But perhaps, together, we can make this dark moment a turning point -- if we arise with an unshakable call for justice, and an unbreakable dream of peace.

With hope,

Ricken, Alice, Raluca, Paul, Iain, Graziela and the rest of the Avaaz team
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FROM ARAB AMERICAN INSTITUTE
We are outraged by the reports of causalities in the latest flashpoint of the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We condemn Israel's attack upon a convoy of ships delivering much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza and the resulting loss of civilian life and causalities. The actions of the Israeli government in international waters off the coast of Gaza are deplorable and consistent with a policy in place since the brutal and illegal Israeli blockade was imposed on 1.5 million people in Gaza in 2007.

At its core, Israeli's siege on Gaza is a policy that disregards the most basic humanitarian considerations and flouts international law. Since the blockade was imposed, a not-so-subtle policy of starving a civilian population has been in place with either complacency or complicity from world leaders, including the United States. A leading source of independent analysis, the International Crisis Group, issued a statement highlighting the need for a strategic shift in policy toward Gaza.

Having little impact on Israel's declared goal of adversely affecting Hamas control in Gaza, the failed policy remains in place in spite of its distressing human toll.

While reasonable people can debate strategies and tactics for ending the immoral blockade, there is no scenario that allows for deadly commando attacks on humanitarian relief efforts and puts the lives of American citizens at risk.

The United Nations Security Council has condemned the attack and issued a presidential statement addressing the incident that "deeply regrets the loss of life and injuries resulting from the use of force during the Israeli military operation in international waters against the convoy sailing to Gaza."

The State Department issued a statement also expressing regret over the causalities and continued concern about the "suffering of civilians in Gaza," but unfortunately failed to address the implications of this attack by being the only party that thinks Israel can investigate itself by asserting that the "Israeli government will conduct a full and credible investigation."

While a great deal of media has turned the focus of this incident into a discussion of a public relations blunder for Israel, the focus must remain on the failed policy that prompted the humanitarian relief effort to begin with. While the IDF is historically adept at explaining away its "errors of judgment," Israel's standard use of lethal force has been and continues to be the problem not the PR implications of it.

Crises like this often allow for reexamination of policies and shifts. For the sake of our national security interests, our world standing and regional stability, we must act quickly to end the humanitarian blockade of Gaza, demand a full independent investigation of this deadly assault and secure the release of our citizens under Israeli military control. After that, we can move to asserting our leadership role to advance negotiations between Arabs and Israelis.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

RESOURCES:

Live coverage from Al Jazeera:
http://blogs.aljazeera.net/middle-east/2010/05/31/live-coverage-israels-flotilla-raid

Live coverage from the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2010/may/31/israel-troops-gaza-ships

"The Second Gaza War: Israel lost at sea" - Bradley Burston, Ha'aretz
http://www.haaretz.com/blogs/a-special-place-in-hell/a-special-place-in-hell-the-second-gaza-war-israel-lost-at-sea-1.293246

Analysis of violence from IDF's perspective from Debka, reporters with ties to Israeli intelligence:
http://debka.com/article/8824/

70% of Gazans suffer from food insecurity - 2008 ICRC report, cited by al Jazeera:
http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/05/20105319333613851.html

Analysis of possible political consequences of the flotilla attack:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gtowfFjiFD4HYdHuYgxydKNwVRDwD9G2B3880

Friedman on Israel Elections

Tom Friedman on Israel Elections
Mike Ghouse at 5:52pm January 26
Posted on Facebook

Mr. Friedman you may be called names for speaking pragmatism, you may even be called anti-Israeli by the lobby supporters.I was called names for making the call to include Hamas in the negotiations. On November 20, 2008, I wrote "Although we hate Hamas, they need to be in the picture to get decisions implemented. We cannot bring peace unilaterally without the parties to conflict participating in it. http://peaceforisrael.blogspot.com/2007/11/peace-in-israel-palestine.html -

Bibi will be more dangerous to the security of Israel than any one else in Israel's history. He appeases the fear mongers by bully power, but will mess up the long term security needs of Israel - not the military security, but the moral security and sense of security that comes when you can drop all your guards and walk about without fear in a shopping mall, or going to the grocery store or picking children from school.I do hope the moderates win in Israel Elections in February.

Mike Ghouse

This is not a test
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: January 24, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/25/opinion/25friedman.html

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. “Guy walks into a bar ...” No, not that one — this one: “This is the most critical year ever for Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy. It is five minutes to midnight. If we don’t get diplomacy back on track soon, it will be the end of the two-state solution.”

We’re getting perilously close to closing the window on a two-state solution, because the two chief window-closers — Hamas in Gaza and the fanatical Jewish settlers in the West Bank — have been in the driver’s seats. Hamas is busy making a two-state solution inconceivable, while the settlers have steadily worked to make it impossible.

If Hamas continues to obtain and use longer- and longer-range rockets, there is no way any Israeli government can or will tolerate independent Palestinian control of the West Bank, because a rocket from there can easily close the Tel Aviv airport and shut down Israel’s economy.

And if the Jewish settlers continue with their “natural growth” to devour the West Bank, it will also be effectively off the table. No Israeli government has mustered the will to take down even the “illegal,” unauthorized settlements, despite promises to the U.S. to do so, so it’s getting hard to see how the “legal” settlements will ever be removed. What is needed from Israel’s Feb. 10 elections is a centrist, national unity government that can resist the blackmail of the settlers, and the rightist parties that protect them, to still implement a two-state solution.

Because without a stable two-state solution, what you will have is an Israel hiding behind a high wall, defending itself from a Hamas-run failed state in Gaza, a Hezbollah-run failed state in south Lebanon and a Fatah-run failed state in Ramallah. Have a nice day.

So if you believe in the necessity of a Palestinian state or you love Israel, you’d better start paying attention. This is not a test. We’re at a hinge of history.

What makes it so challenging for the new Obama team is that Mideast diplomacy has been transformed as a result of the regional disintegration since Oslo — in three key ways.

First, in the old days, Henry Kissinger could fly to three capitals, meet three kings, presidents or prime ministers and strike a deal that could hold. No more. Today a peacemaker has to be both a nation-builder and a negotiator.

The Palestinians are so fragmented politically and geographically that half of U.S. diplomacy is going to be about how to make peace between Palestinians, and build their institutions, so there is a coherent, legitimate decision-making body there — before we can make peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Second, Hamas now has a veto over any Palestinian peace deal. It’s true that Hamas just provoked a reckless war that has devastated the people of Gaza. But Hamas is not going away. It is well armed and, despite its suicidal behavior of late, deeply rooted.

The Palestinian Authority led by Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank will not make any compromise deal with Israel as long as it fears that Hamas, from outside the tent, would denounce it as traitorous. Therefore, Job 2 for the U.S., Israel and the Arab states is to find a way to bring Hamas into a Palestinian national unity government.

As the Middle East expert Stephen P. Cohen says, “It is not enough for Israel that the world recognize that Hamas criminally mismanaged its responsibility to its people. Israel’s longer-term interest is to be sure that it has a Palestinian partner for negotiations, which will have sufficient legitimacy among its own people to be able to sign agreements and fulfill them. Without Hamas as part of a Palestinian decision, any Israeli-Palestinian peace will be meaningless.”

But bringing Hamas into a Palestinian unity government, without undermining the West Bank moderates now leading the Palestinian Authority, will be tricky. We’ll need Saudi Arabia and Egypt to buy, cajole and pressure Hamas into keeping the cease-fire, supporting peace talks and to give up rockets — while Iran and Syria will be tugging Hamas the other way.

And that leads to the third new factor — Iran as a key player in Palestinian-Israeli diplomacy. The Clinton team tried to woo Syria while isolating Iran. President Bush tried to isolate both Iran and Syria. The Obama team, as Martin Indyk argues in “Innocent Abroad: An Intimate Account of American Peace Diplomacy in the Middle East,” “needs to try both to bring in Syria, which would weaken Hamas and Hezbollah, while also engaging Iran.”

So, just to recap: It’s five to midnight and before the clock strikes 12 all we need to do is rebuild Fatah, merge it with Hamas, elect an Israeli government that can freeze settlements, court Syria and engage Iran — while preventing it from going nuclear — just so we can get the parties to start talking. Whoever lines up all the pieces of this diplomatic Rubik’s Cube deserves two Nobel Prizes.

HR 34 : Are we pleasing the lobbyists or the people?

HR 34 : Are we pleasing the lobbyists or the people?

The question is about the House Resolution 34 which “barely mentions the human suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza.”

We are the most powerful nation on the earth and Israel is the most powerful nation in the Middle East, both of us can decide whatever we want. Who will question us?

Continued: http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/House-Resolution-34-Congressman-Ellison.asp

They are neither Jews nor Muslims but evil men

A few Gazans and Israelis rejoice each other's death, shame on them;
A few Israelis and Gazans are revengeful, forgiveness to them;
A few Gazans and Israelis are hateful to each other, love to them;
A few Israelis and Gazans are messing up others lives, prayers to them;

A few Gazans and Israelis cannot see their mistakes, wisdom to them;
A few Israeli and Gazans Politicians are seeking re-elections, dump them;
A few of us are excited about killing and mayhem, humility to us;
A few of us Justify one side or the other, we shouldn't justify any killing;

To Kill a human is like killing the whole humanity says the Torah and the Qur'aan
To save a life is like saving the whole humanity says the Torah and the Qur'aan
Don't call them Jews or Muslims, they are simply killers individual or enmasse;
The war is not between Israelis and Gazans, it is between evil men and evil men.

May God help each one of us to learn to see the pain of the other and let's be human.

And speak out louder to stop this killing spree.

In pain,

Mike Ghouse

Gaza Solutions

The Gaza Solutions
Mike Ghouse, Saturday, December 27, 2008

The world sympathized with Israel for the rockets they endured in their backyards, but when they get on the revenge bandwagon and indiscriminately kill, they lose sympathy. The oppressed ones all around the world including the majority of Israelis and Jews feel the pain of this violence, it flies in the face of our continued efforts to stop massacres, it is time for all of us to speak up. This is not the act of peace making; this is the act of destroying a people.

Continued at: http://www.mikeghouse.net/Articles/Gaza.Solutions.asp

Suspected Fascists in Obama Administration

Suspected Fascists in Obama Administration

Fascism should have no place in Obama Administration or any nation for that matter. We just got out of it and we cannot let it sneak back in.

We cannot ruin our nation after the freedom we have received on Nov 4th. As friends of Obama we need to be hard on him, tough on him in his early decisions. We cannot let him go far that we cannot straighten him.

Continue

Israel & India: New Allies

Article follows my comments

Israel has so much to gain if they can listen to their majority. Just like a few extremists have hijacked Islam from the Muslims, Israel has been hijacked by the extremists from the overwhelming moderate, but silent majority of Jews from around the world.

The few who run the nation are hurting Israel from the peace and prosperity it is capable of achieving. Those few have the ability to silence the good Jews who speak up, as those few know it all. What have they delivered in 60 years? Still they keep beating the same drum, time for the majority to prevail.

Injusice, oppression and occupation is anathema to peaceful co-existence. If Israelis can really think long term stability and justice, they will not only attain, but sustain peace for generations to come and it hinges on justice to her neighbor and her people. The leadership owes security to her people, the regimes in the past 60 years have not done so.

Of course, the first change is living in acceptance of another point of view.

Let's hope Obama gets elected, he has the potential to facilitate peace and security for Israel and hope for Palestinians resulting in peace and prosperity for both the people.

Mike Ghouse
# # #
Israel & India: New Allies

By Bruce Riedel, Senior Fellow, Saban Center, the Brookings Institution. Prior to his retirement in 2006 he was a senior adviser on Middle East issues for the last three presidents. Original Commentary for Middle East Bulletin.
posted on 03/21/08

Indian PM Manmohan Singh and Israeli PM Ehud Olmert (AP)

The cooperation between Israel and India, with U.S. blessing, provides important security to two democratic countries in a very unstable part of the world.
On January 21, 2008 an Indian space launch vehicle lifted off from the Sriharikota spaceport on the Indian Ocean to put into space Israel’s most sophisticated spy satellite ever launched, the Polaris. The commercial launch of Polaris by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) underscored the growing military and intelligence connections between Israel and India. The United States helped inspire this relationship and has a strong interest in its success. Though unique in the military cooperation realm, this is but one of several evolving relationships between Israel and great or emerging powers that deserves attention.

Israel and India only established formal diplomatic relations in 1991 with the Madrid Arab-Israeli peace process creating a favorable diplomatic context for New Delhi to move beyond informal contacts that existed before 1990. Then President Bush’s National Security Council staff worked closely behind the scenes with Prime Minister Rao’s embassy in Washington to make this happen. Military-to-military contacts and defense interaction followed.

In the 1990s, China was Israel’s most important arms export market. The signature weapons system in the relationship was the Phalcon airborne warning and control system (AWACs). This system used U.S. technology in its development and was thus subject to U.S. export oversight. As the 1990s developed and tensions rose in the Taiwan Strait, Washington pressed the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv to cut back on its ties to Beijing. The Phalcon became a bone of contention. Of course, this had serious economic costs for Israel.

In 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak pressed President Clinton for relief. Clinton came back with an idea — if the United States did not like Israeli-Chinese arms deals, it had no objection to Israeli-Indian arms sales since they did not raise the potential issues Taiwan raised. More explicitly, selling the Phalcon to India would not meet objections in Washington. Clinton made clear the United States would not raise concerns about the arms balance with Pakistan since it has no commitment to the defense of Pakistan and the conventional balance of forces was already tipped in India’s favor in 2000. The two leaders talked the issues through on the margins of the Israeli-Palestinian summit at Camp David in mid-2000. They reached agreement and Israel got a green light from Washington to court India.

Now, almost eight years later, India is Israel’s largest arms export market in the world. Sales in 2006 were $1.5 billion, roughly the same as in each of the preceding three years as well. This from Israel’s total arms sales of $4.2 billion in 2006; the India market comprised more than one-third. Sales included upgrades for MIG 21 aircraft and T72 tanks originally purchased from Russia, the Barak anti-missile ship defense system, communications equipment, laser-guided munitions and the Phalcon. The first of five Phalcon AWACs were delivered in 2007. Co-partnerships are now developing between Indian and Israeli firms.

Israeli arms experts are also seeking to sell the Arrow II anti-tactical ballistic missile system to India, which would require U.S. approval due to shared technology in the ATBM system. This would give India a significant missile defense system. The Green Pine radar system has already been sold to India which is a critical component of the overall ATBM system.

The Polaris satellite is Israel’s first equipped with synthetic aperture radar that allows it to take high resolution imagery in all weather conditions. The radar looks through clouds or fog to see objects on the ground. Launched from south India into a polar orbit it offers new coverage of sites in Iran for Israeli defense planners. According to Indian press sources, two more such satellites will be launched by ISRO for Israel in the next few years. The Iranian nuclear program will probably be the principal collection target for these systems. Israel retains full operational control of the Polaris system including what targets are imaged. It is unknown if any intelligence derived from the imagery is shared with third parties.

Critics of the Indian-U.S. civilian nuclear deal negotiated by President Bush and Prime Minister Singh have complained about India’s ties to Iran. India does have important equities with Iran, not the least because India has the second largest population of Shia Muslims in the world after Iran. But there is no comparison between the sophisticated military relationship between India and Israel and the weak connections between India and Iran on security issues.

According to ISRO officials I talked to in Bangalore in February the launch of the Polaris produced a serious protest from Iran to India. But they were clear ISRO would stick with its Israeli commercial connection. They also said India will launch its own first radar-imaging satellite later this year. The Indian Army Chief of Staff, General Depak Kapoor, has said publicly that India’s imagery satellite capability is now critical to the nation’s early warning capability with regards to both Pakistan and China.

The Israeli-Indian connection in commercial military and space intelligence fields is good for both countries and for the United States. In less than two decades since diplomatic ties were upgraded, New Delhi and Jerusalem have come a long way. Camp David was a pivotal moment on the way. The cooperation between Israel and India, with U.S. blessing, provides important security to two democratic countries in a very unstable part of the world.

Bloodbath in Jerusalem

Bloodbath in Jerusalem

"I Came, I Saw, I Destroyed"

by Uri Avnery
March 15, 2008

Mike Ghouse: Until the silent majority of Jews in America and Israel speak up against injustices, and until the majority of the Palestinians speak up, Peace is difficult to come by. The extremists on both sides will keep killing the people, while shamelessly blaming the other. It is not the other, it is the extremists who are a blockade to peace. Their ideas have not worked in 60 years, why should they work now? They are destructive! People, take over the leadership and let peace makers bring real peace.

Uri Avnery:

What happened this week is so infuriating, so impertinent, that it stands out even in our familiar landscape of governmental irresponsibility.

On the near horizon, a de facto suspension of hostilities was taking shape. The Egyptians had made great efforts to turn it into an official cease-fire. The flame was already burning visibly lower. The launching of Qassams and Grads from the Gaza Strip into Israel had fallen from dozens a day to two or three.

And then something happened that turned the flame up high again: undercover soldiers of the Israeli army killed four Palestinians militants in Bethlehem. A fifth was killed in a village near Tulkarm.

THE MODUS OPERANDI left no doubt about the intention.

As usual, the official version was mendacious. (When the army spokesman speaks the truth, he is ashamed and immediately hurries on to the next lie.) The four, it was said, drew their weapons and endangered the life of the soldiers, who only wanted to arrest them, so they were compelled to open fire.

Anyone with half a brain knows that this is a lie. The four were in a small car on the main street of Bethlehem, the road that has joined Jerusalem and Hebron since British (or Turkish) times. They were indeed armed, but they had no chance at all of drawing their weapons. The car was simply sprayed with dozens of bullets.

That was not an attempt to make an arrest. That was an execution, pure and simple, one of those summary executions in which the Shin Bet fulfils the roles of prosecutor, judge and executioner.

This time no effort was even made to pretend that the four were about to carry out a murderous attack. It was not claimed, for example, that they had anything to do with last week's attack on the Mercaz Harav seminary, the flagship of the settlers' fleet. Actually, no such pretense could be put forward, because the most important of the four had recently given interviews to the Israeli media and announced that he was availing himself of the Israeli "pardon scheme" - a Shin Bet program under which "wanted" militants give up their arms and undertake to cease resistance to the occupation. He was also a candidate in the last Palestinian elections.

If so, why where they killed? The Shin Bet did not hide the reason: two of the four had participated in attacks in 2001 in which Israelis were killed.

"Our long arm will get them even years later," Ehud Barak boasted on TV, "we shall get everyone with Jewish blood on his hands."

SIMPLY PUT: The Defense Minister and his men endangered today's cease-fire in order to avenge something that happened seven years ago.

It was obvious to all that the killing of Islamic Jihad militants in Bethlehem would cause the renewal of the Qassam launchings on Sderot. And so it happened.

The effect of a Qassam rocket is completely unpredictable. For the residents of Sderot, this is a kind of Israeli Roulette - the rocket may fall in an empty field, it may fall on a building, sometimes it kills people.

In other words, according to Barak himself, he was ready to risk Jewish lives today in order to take revenge on persons who may perhaps have shed blood years ago and have since given up their armed activity.

The emphasis is on the word "Jewish". In his statement, Barak took care not to speak about persons "with blood on their hands", but about those "with Jewish blood on their hands". Jewish blood, of course, is quite different from any other blood. And indeed, there is no person in the Israeli leadership with so much blood on his hands as him. Not abstract blood, not metaphorical blood, but very real red blood. In the course of his military service, Barak has personally killed quite a number of Arabs. Whoever shakes his hand - from Condoleezza Rice to this week's honored guest, Angela Merkel - is shaking a hand with blood on it.

THE BETHLEHEM killing raises a number of hard questions, but with very few exceptions, the media did not voice them. They shirk their duty, as usual when it concerns "security" problems.

Real journalists in a real democratic state would have asked the following questions:

Who was it who decided on the executions in Bethlehem - Ehud Olmert? Ehud Barak? The Shin Bet? All of them? None of them?
Did the decision-makers understand that by condemning the militants in Bethlehem to death, they were also condemning to death any residents of Sderot or Ashkelon who might be killed by the rockets launched in revenge?
Did they understand that they were also boxing the ears of Mahmoud Abbas, whose security forces, which in theory are in charge of Bethlehem, would be accused of collaborating with the Israeli death-squad?
Was the real aim of the action to undermine the cease-fire that had come about in practice in the Gaza Strip (and the reality of which was official denied both by Olmert and Barak, even while the number of rockets launched fell from dozens a day to just two or three?)
Does the Israeli government generally object to a cease-fire that would free Sderot and Ashkelon from the threat of the rockets?
If so, why?
The media did not demand that Olmert and Barak expose to the public the considerations that led them to adopt this decision, which concerns every person in Israel. And no wonder. These are, after all, the same media that danced for joy when the same government started an ill-considered and superfluous war in Lebanon. They are also the same media that kept silent, this week, when the government decided to hit the freedom of the press and to boycott the Aljazeera TV network, as punishment for showing babies killed during the Israeli army's recent incursion in Gaza.

But for two or three courageous journalists with an independent mind, all our written and broadcast media march in lockstep, like a Prussian regiment on parade, when the word "security" is mentioned.

(This phenomenon was exposed this week in CounterPunch by a journalist named Yonatan Mendel, a former employee of the popular Israeli web-site Walla. He pointed out that all the media, from the Channel 1 news program to the Haaretz news pages, as if by order, voluntarily use exactly the same slanted terminology: the Israeli army confirms and the Palestinians claim, Jews are murdered while Palestinians are killed or find their death, Jews are abducted while Arabs are arrested, the Israeli army always responds while the Palestinians always attack, the Jews are soldiers while Arabs are terrorists or just murderers, the Israeli army always hits high-ranking terrorists and never low-ranking terrorists, men and women suffering from shock are always Jews, never Arabs. And, as we said, people with blood on their hands are always Arabs, never-ever Jews. This, by the way, also goes for much of the foreign coverage of events here.)

WHEN THE GOVERNMENT does not disclose its intentions, we have no choice but to deduce its intentions from its actions. That is a judicial rule: when a person does something with a foreseeable result, it is assumed that he did it in order to obtain this result.

The government which decided on the killing in Bethlehem undoubtedly intended to torpedo the cease-fire.

Why does it want to do so?

There are several possible kinds of cease-fire. The most simple is the cessation of hostilities on the Gaza Strip border. No Qassams, Grads and mortar shells on the one side, no targeted assassinations, bombardments, shelling and incursion on the other side.

It is known that the army objects to that. They want to be free to "liquidate" from the air and raid on the ground. They want a one-sided cease-fire.

A limited cease-fire is impossible. Hamas cannot agree to it, as long as the blockade cuts the Strip off on all sides and turn life there into hell - not enough medicines, not enough food, the seriously ill cannot reach appropriate hospitals, the movement of cars has come to an almost complete standstill, no imports or exports, no production or commercial activity. The opening of all border crossings for the movement of goods is, therefore, an essential component of a cease-fire.

Our government is not willing to do that, because it would mean the consolidation of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip. Government sources hint that Abbas and his people in Ramallah also object to the lifting of the blockade - a malicious rumor, because it would mean that Abbas is conducting a war against his own people. President Bush also rejects a cease-fire, even while his people pretend the opposite. Europe, as usual, is trailing along behind the US.

Can Hamas agree to a cease-fire that would apply only to the Gaza Strip but not to the West Bank? That is doubtful. This week it was proven that the Islamic Jihad organization in Gaza cannot stand idly by while its members are killed in Bethlehem. Hamas could not stand by in Gaza and enjoy the fruits of government if the Israeli army were to kill Hamas militants in Nablus or Jenin. And, of course, no Palestinian would agree that the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are two separate entities.

A Gaza-only cease-fire would allow Barak to blow it to pieces at any moment by a Bethlehem-style provocation. This is how it could go: Hamas agrees to a Gaza-only cease-fire, the Israeli army kills a dozen Hamas members in Hebron, Hamas responds by launching Grad missiles at Ashkelon, Olmert tells the world: You see? The terrorist Hamas is violating the cease-fire, which proves that we have no partner!

This means that a real and durable cease-fire, which would create the necessary atmosphere for real peace negotiations, must include the West Bank, too. Olmert-Barak would not dream of agreeing to that. And as long as George Bush is around, there will be no effective pressure on our government.

APROPOS: who is really in charge in Israel at this time?

This week's events point to the answer: the man who makes the decisions is Ehud Barak, the most dangerous person in Israel, the very same Barak who blew up the Camp David conference and persuaded the entire Israeli public that "we have no partner for peace".

2052 years ago today, on the Ides of March, Julius Caesar was assassinated. Ehud Barak sees himself as a latter-day local replica of the Roman general. He, too, would dearly want to report: "I came, I saw, I conquered."

But the reality is rather different: He came, he saw, he destroyed.

Uri Avneri, is a German-born Israeli journalist, peace activist, and former three-term Knesset member, who was originally a member of the right-wing Revisionist Zionist movement. He is a founding member, Israeli Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace and a founding member, "Gush Shalom" (Peace Bloc), Independent Peace Mevement.

This column can be found online at: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/

Posted by Profile of Mike Ghouse at 9:48 AM 0 comments
Labels: injustice, Israel, Jerusalem, Neocons, Palestine, zionists

Barking Neocons & Iran

Barking Neocons & Iran
Mike Ghouse, December 12,2007

Neocon may be the right word to describe the bullies of the world, there is a bully in every class room, organization, office, faith and politics.

1. You can detect them easily
2. They rely on the muscle power.
3. They refuse to dialogue with their opponent extremists.
4. They claim to preserve the values of the religion they wear.
5. They dig in their heels and entrench in their positions
6. They lack the skills to give any wiggle room to the other.
7. They are passionate in what they do.
8. They prefer to live a chaotic life.

Neocons come in various hues; Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Jews and others, and they cannot stomach the idea of peace. They strongly believe that since your enemy is my enemy, we will join to beat them up. The thought of joining to create peace is alien to them.

When a dog barks in the street, all the dogs eagerly join the chorus, many a times without any rhyme or reason... if they stop it, they feel something is not right and start all over again. Now that they have found out that Iran did not have the Nuclear program going since 2003 they are going nuts, they cannot handle a quieter world and will start barking; at the wrong tree again.

Creating chaos is entertainment to them, they have to keep themselves excited about ambushing on some one or the other. I wish they go watch a good movie instead.

Mike Ghouse

Here is a piece by Uri Avnery, a man who makes the sense.

How They Stole the Bomb From Us
By Uri Avnery, December 10, 2007

It was like an atom bomb falling on Israel.

The earth shook. Our political and military leaders were all in shock. The headlines screamed with rage.

What happened?

A real catastrophe: the American intelligence community, comprising 16 different agencies, reached a unanimous verdict: already in 2003, the Iranians terminated their efforts to produce a nuclear bomb, and they have not resumed them since. Even if they change their mind in the future, they will need at least five years to achieve their aim. SHOULDN'T WE be overjoyed? Shouldn't the masses in Israel be dancing in the streets, as they did on November 29, 1947, sixty years ago? After all, we have been saved!

Until this week, we have been regularly hearing that - any minute now - the Iranians will produce a bomb that threatens our very existence. Nothing less. Mahmud Ahmedinejad, the new Hitler of the Middle East, who announces every second day that Israel must disappear from the map, was about to fulfill his own prophecy.

A small nuclear bomb, even a teeny-weeny one like the ones dropped on Japan, would be enough to wipe out the whole Zionist enterprise. If it fell on Tel-Aviv's Rabin Square, the economic, cultural and military center of Israel would be vaporized, together with hundreds of thousands of Jews. A second Holocaust.

And lo and behold - no bomb and no any-minute-now. The wicked Ahmedinejad can threaten us as much as he wants - he just has not got the means to harm us. Isn't that a reason for celebration?

So why does this feel like a national disaster? A TWO-BIT psychologist (like me) might say: Jews have become used to anxiety. After hundreds of years of persecution, expulsions, inquisition, pogroms and then the Holocaust, we have little red warning lights in our heads, which come on at the slightest sign of danger. In such a situation, we feel at home. We know what to do.

But when the lights stay off and no danger appears on the horizon, we get the feeling that something suspicious is going on. Something is wrong. Perhaps the lights are out of order. Perhaps it's really a trap!

There is one little consolation in the new situation. While it seems as if the immediate danger of annihilation has disappeared, there is a feeling that we are alone, on our own again.

That is another sign of Jewish uniqueness: We are facing the entire world alone. As in the days of the Holocaust, all the Goyim have forsaken us. Face to face with the Iranian monster which threatens to devour us, we now stand here alone.

All our media are repeating this in unison, like an orchestra which does not need a conductor, because it knows the music by heart.

True, other peoples, too, can derive satisfaction from standing alone. Engraved in my memory is a British poster that was hanging on our walls in Palestine in the dark days after the fall of France to the Nazis, when Britain was left quite alone in the war. Under the grim face of Winston Churchill the slogan proudly proclaimed: "Alright then, Alone!"

But with us this has almost become a national ritual. As we used to sing in the good old days of Golda Meir: "The whole world is against us / That is an old melody / …And everybody who is against us / Let him go to hell…" At the time, one of the army entertainment teams even turned it into a folk dance.

In the last few years, a broad coalition against Iran has come into being. The Iranian bomb has become the heart of an international consensus, led by America, Queen of the World. With the consent of all its five permanent members, the UN Security Council has decreed sanctions against Tehran.

Now, before our very eyes, this coalition is crumbling. President Bush is stammering. Gone is the excuse for an American military attack on Iran, the dream of the Israeli government and the neocons. Gone is even the pretext for more stringent sanctions.

God knows, perhaps even the existing feeble sanctions will be abolished tomorrow.THE FIRST reaction of the Israeli leadership was vigorous and determined: total denial.

The American report is simply wrong, all the media proclaimed. It is based on false information. Our own intelligence community is in possession of much better data, which prove that the bomb is well on its way.

Really? All the intelligence in the hands of the Mossad is automatically transferred to the CIA. It is part of the mass of data on which the American report is based. It must be remembered that the published part of the report constitutes only 3% of the complete document.

So the American intelligence agencies must be deliberately lying.

There is no escaping the conclusion that murky political motives must lie behind their unequivocal findings. Perhaps they want to make up for the false reports which President Bush employed to justify his invasion of Iraq. Then they overestimated, now they underestimate. Perhaps they want to take revenge on Bush and believe that the time is ripe, since he has become a lame duck. Or they are adapting themselves to American public opinion, which cannot stomach another war. And, besides, their chiefs are, of course, all anti-Semites.

Even if the American intelligence operatives innocently believe that Iran has stopped work on the Bomb, it just shows how naive they are. They cannot imagine that the Iranians are fooling them. Who knows better than us how easy it is to hide an atomic bomb and deceive the whole world? After all, we have been at it for years.

But all this does not change the fact: this report pushes American policy in a new direction and changes the entire international constellation.

The war on Iran, which was to be the defining event of 2008, has turned for the time being into a non-event.WHAT ARE the results, as far as Israel is concerned? Why have our leaders been in a state of shock since the publication of the report?

The possibility of an independent Israeli military strike against Iran has vanished. Israel cannot wage war without the unreserved backing of the US. We tried once - the Sinai War of 1956 - and then President Dwight D. Eisenhower kicked our ass. Since then we have taken great care to obtain the blessing of the US before every war.

For the military and intelligence services, the report is an unmitigated disaster for another reason too. The Iranian bomb plays an indispensable part in the army's annual fight for its massive chunk of the budget cake.

For right-wing demagogues, the effect is even more disheartening. Binyamin Netanyahu has built his whole strategy on the Iranian scare, hoping to ride the Bomb right into the Prime Minister's office.

Furthermore, when the Iranian issue cools down, the Palestinian issue warms up. That is especially true in Washington DC. President Bush is in trouble, his fiascos in Afghanistan and Iraq are still dragging on. Any American effort to install a stable government in Iraq, with its Shiite majority, depends on the backing of Shiite Iran. Bush's dream of delivering a lightning stroke against Iran and thus leaving his imprint on history is going up in smoke.

What can he do in order to leave any positive legacy at all? The default alternative is Israeli-Palestinian peace. Perhaps he will now give stronger backing to poor Condoleezza. Perhaps he himself will get more involved. Fact: he is soon going to visit Israel for the first since entering the White House.

True, this effort has not much chance of success, but people in Jerusalem are worried nonetheless. That's just what we need - Bush acting like that anti-Semite, Jimmy Carter, who twisted Begin's arm and forced him to make peace with Egypt!

So what to do? One can instruct Israeli diplomats abroad to redouble their efforts to convince the governments that the situation has not changed, that one must fight against the Iranian bomb, whether it exists or not. But tell that to the Russians and the Chinese! The world's governments are happy to see the end of Bush's pressure - all except that happy couple, Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel, the new White House poodles now Tony Blair has gone.THE NEW situation poses a thorny dilemma for Ehud Olmert.

On the way back from Annapolis, he uttered some amazing statements. If the "two states solution collapses," he declared, "the State of Israel is finished". Nobody in the peace camp has yet dared to go as far as that.

Does he believe what he says, or is it just a new spin? That is the question that is now dominating the discourse in Israel. In other words: is he just trying to win time, or is he really going to work for a peace settlement?

All indications suggest that he is in no position to take any step whatsoever. If he tries to carry out the first phase of the Road Map and dismantle some settlement outposts, he will face not only the determined opposition of the settlers and their supporters, and the silent (but highly effective) opposition of the military, but also obstruction by his government colleagues. Before the first outpost is dismantled, his coalition will break apart.

Olmert has no other coalition handy. Ehud Barak has been trying again and again to outflank him on the right and cannot be relied upon in a crisis. The Labor Party is a chaotic, spineless and unprincipled body. The shrunken Meretz party has a faction of only five Knesset members, four of whom are competing with each other for the party leadership. The ten members of the Arab factions (that's what they are generally called, even though one Hadash Knesset member is a Jew) are outcasts, and no "Zionist" government could be seen to rely openly on their support. And in Olmert's own faction there are several extreme-right members who would obstruct any peace effort.

In such a situation, the natural tendency of a real politician like Olmert is to do nothing, to issue pronouncement left and right (in both senses) and try to gain time.

This week, the government announced plans to build 300 new homes in the odious Har Homa settlement, near Jerusalem. For someone like me, who has spent many days and nights demonstrating against the building of this particular settlement, that is bitter news indeed. It certainly does not indicate a turn for the better.

On the other hand, I have heard an interesting thesis from one of Olmert's inner circle. According to this, knowing that he is going to lose power, Olmert may tell himself: if I must fall, why not enter history as somebody who has sacrificed himself on the altar of a lofty principle, instead of just vanishing as a good-for-nothing political hack?

If he has no other way out, he might choose this solution - particularly as his immediate family is pushing him in this direction.

I would evaluate this possibility as "unlikely" - but stranger things have happened.

In any case, perhaps the peace forces should overcome their understandable reservations and try to influence public opinion in a way that would help Olmert turn in this direction. EITHER WAY, one thing is certain: that son of a bitch, Ahmadinejad, has screwed us again.

He has stolen our most precious possession: the Iranian Atomic Threat.

Uri Avnery is an academic, journalist, writer, peace activist and former three-term member of the Knesset.

This article can be found on the web at: http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery12102007.html

Commentstomike@gmail.com

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mike Ghouse is a Speaker, Thinker and a Writer. He is president of the Foundation for Pluralism and is a frequent guest on talk radio and local television network discussing interfaith, political and civic issues. He is the founding president of World Muslim Congress with a simple theme: Good for Muslims and good for the world. His comments, news analysis and columns can be found on the Websites and Blogs listed at his personal website www.MikeGhouse.net. Mike is a Dallasite for nearly three decades and Carrollton is his home town. He can be reached at MikeGhouse@gmail.com

For a full bio: http://www.mikeghouse.net/ProfileMikeGhouse.asp

Israel Lobby & democracy

Israel Lobby & Democracy

The neocons, the lobby, the Islamists and the Hindutva brigade have figured out that the good for nothing majority can be pushed around endlessly. They are also equipped with the mechanism to crucify the persons who speak out. They know how to defame and disown all those who speak out. The true peace makers like Naom Chomsky in America and several in Israel are discounted and disowned by the Lobby propoganda.

Watch the movie, the life of the bees.

As people of the world, we have to seriously give a thought about peace. What brings about peace, and what is that we have to do to build lasting peace for the humankind, what does it take. The policy of the extremism has failed and we are still letting them carry on with more destruction. Bush will go down in the history in less than polite terms, "Bush, the killer of a Million Iraqis" as I remember the title "Eichman, killer of 6 Million Jews". It is time for the silent majority of Jews to speak up, just as Muslims, Christians or Hindus majorities need to speak up against the few who run over our lives. Shamelessly in our names, they are endangering the world peace. When will we wake up?

Here is a letter to Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that is worth the read:
“Smear campaign stifles U.S. debate”

From: Robert B. Colgin
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Sunday, September 16, 2007.Letters Page C5 -Responses to Richard Cohen's column, "Why Israel matters to America: A Question for the Heart," Sept. 12 issue.

“Smear campaign stifles U.S. debate”

The study of the Israeli lobby by professors Stephen M. Walt and John J. Mearsheimer destroys the doctrinal orthodoxy that American and Israeli interests are identical and inseparable.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful and feared lobby in U.S. politics, has perpetuated this odious myth. AIPAC controls the discussion of Middle Eastern affairs in many ways, notably brandishing the threat of being tarred as an anti-Semite. That is the most toxic charge in American politics. Fear of this smear is used as an intellectual blackjack to stifle discourse concerning the issue of Israel and its value to America. Nothing is more damaging to U.S. interests than to not have an honest and informed debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

ROBERT BOSTON COLGIN, Atlanta

Mr. Robert Boston Colgin
rcolgin@bellsouth.net

You can also refer to: http://www.mikeghouse.net/LawofKarma_and_theIsraelLobby.asp

Mike Ghouse
www.MikeGhouse.net

Congressman Under Fire for Mentioning AIPAC
U.S. House Democrat Said Pro-Israel Lobby Promoted War

By Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 15, 2007; B05

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) has again come under fire from local Jewish organizations for remarking in a magazine interview that the "extraordinarily powerful" pro-Israel lobby played a strong role promoting the war in Iraq.

In an interview with Tikkun, a California-based Jewish magazine, Moran said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is "the most powerful lobby and has pushed this war from the beginning. I don't think they represent the mainstream of American Jewish thinking at all, but because they are so well organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful -- most of them are quite wealthy -- they have been able to exert power."

Moran's remarks were criticized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington and the National Jewish Democratic Council. Ronald Halber, executive director of the first group, said Moran's remarks are anti-Semitic and draw on ugly stereotypes about Jewish wealth, power and influence.

"He uses several age-old canards that have been used throughout history that have brought violence upon Jews," Halber said this week. "He uses clearly anti-Semitic images such as Jewish control of the media and wealthy Jews using their wealth to control policy."

Ira N. Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council, said in a published statement that there is nothing wrong with criticizing the pro-Israel lobby but that Moran's statements go beyond that to defamation by making a "phony" connection between AIPAC and the Iraq war.

"Rep. Moran's comments are not only incorrect and irresponsible," Forman said. "They are downright dangerous."
In an interview last night, Moran said he was dismayed at the reaction to his remarks, which he stands by. The pro-Israel lobby has not represented mainstream U.S. Jewish opinion in recent years, he said -- most notably with its Middle East policies, which he characterized as directly aligned with those of the Bush administration.

"The problem with addressing the groups who have argued strongly in favor of a long-term American military presence in the Middle East is that they raise arguments that are not related to the point," Moran said. "I would like to have a reasonable, objective discussion about AIPAC's foreign policy agenda. But it's difficult to do that because any time you question their motives, you are accused of being anti-Semitic."

Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun also defended Moran's position in the article, which appear in the magazine's September-October issue http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0709/frontpage/israellobby .

"It's the kind of statement I would have made to any religious community, or to any labor movement audience, citing their own failures to act as a critical factor in why we had gotten involved," Lerner wrote in the article.

Halber said he welcomes criticism of AIPAC's policies, but he said Moran is wrong that the advocacy group supports the war in Iraq. Most American Jews oppose U.S. involvement in Iraq, he said, and AIPAC has remained neutral.
According to the organization's Web site, AIPEC supports U.S. military aid to Israel but does not openly support U.S. intervention in the Middle East.

"I think Mr. Halber's being disingenuous in suggesting that the AIPAC board has not been strongly supportive of military involvement in Iraq and now in Iran," Moran said yesterday.
Although hailed for forging ties with the region's Muslim community, Moran has gotten into trouble with the local Jewish community before. In 2001, he angered groups by saying in an appearance before the American Muslim Council that then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was coming to Washington "probably seeking a warrant from President Bush to kill at will with weapons we have paid for."

The next year, Moran returned $2,000 in political contributions from a Muslim activist with ties to the anti-Israeli groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

And in 2003, at an antiwar forum in Reston, Moran said: "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this. The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should."

Said Halber this week: "There are only so many mistakes he can make before it's fair to call him an anti-Semite."

© 2007 The Washington Post Company

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/14/AR2007091402171_pf.html