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Israeli Racism
by Stephen Lendman
Merriam-Webster defines racism as "a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race." It was the basis of South African apartheid and Nazi "master race" superiority above others, especially Jews.
Israel has no constitution. Basic Laws substitute, including statutes affirming exclusive rights for Jews. One is the right of return, granting them automatic citizenship. Goyim are denigrated and not wanted, especially Arabs. David Ben-Gurion once said:
"This is not only a Jewish state, where the majority of the inhabitants are Jews, but a state for all Jews, wherever they are, and for every Jew who wants to be here....This right is inherent in being a Jew." It applies to no one else.
Downsize or Modify? A Conversation with Noam Chomsky
Mickey Z.
While Noam Chomsky surely needs no introduction, as they say, that doesn't mean interviewing him has to follow a blueprint. So, after seeing him in a video called "Are We Running Out of Oil?" I decided to initiate a conversation about the future…or perhaps lack thereof.
What will happen if activists don't kick things up a few thousands notches and provoke massive changes in the way humans currently live? Chomsky and I, of course, agree it'd be best to create such change and learn the answer to that question. On a few other points, we didn't agree.
Our discussion went something like this…
Gearing up for change in Iran
Jalal Alavi
One word alone can explain why, in 1979, Iranians from all walks of life took to the streets of Tehran and other major Iranian cities to take part in what later became known as the Islamic Revolution: Freedom, that is to say, freedom from the chains of an autocratic regime that had, for so long, undermined their attempts at democratization at both the political and economic levels.
Thirty-two years have now passed since that dramatic event, and it is quite clear that Iranians, both at home and abroad, are very much divided as to the worth of the 1979 revolution.
Bradley Manning Walking in the Footsteps of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
By Kevin Zeese
“The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that we have been wrong. . . that we have been detrimental to . . .life . . . . The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways,” said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when speaking of the Vietnam War.
The documents that Bradley Manning has been accused of leaking sharpen the demands of the world upon America and upon ourselves. The classified documents describe the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as diplomatic cables that show how United States conducts foreign policy. They show a nation that bullies, threatens, blackmails, spies, wantonly kills civilians and commits wars of aggression – if the U.S. were not the world’s lone superpower it would be considered a rogue state.
Even in the era of Martin Luther King he described the United States as “a society gone mad on war” and “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” As then, the responsibility is that of the American people to correct. As King said of Vietnam “The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours.”
The “Stuttgart Declaration” represents a paradigm shift
A commentary by Ilan Pappé
Ilan Pappé at the Stuttgart Conference, in November 2010
Following the controversy (*) caused by the Final Declaration of the Conference of Solidarity with Palestine, held in November 2010 in Stuttgart under the title "One Democratic State in Palestine with Equal Rights for all its Citizens ", Ilan Pappe emphasizes here the importance and relevance of this statement which represents a paradigm shift.
Recently the organizers of the Stuttgart conference and especially those who signed the Stuttgart declaration came under sever criticism from various writers and politicians in Germany and were exposed at time even to typical German center left abrasive language.
Setting aside the insignificant aspects of the dialogue – the style and the bizarre focus on one particular person who signed the declaration – it is important to stress the main issues and the principal points that made this conference such a significant contribution to the struggle for Palestine.
Ed Rendell leaves office with mixed signals on death penalty
Mary Shaw
In his final week as Governor of Pennsylvania, Democrat Ed Rendell sent some mixed signals regarding the death penalty in this commonwealth.
First, on a positive note, Rendell noted on January 14 that there are flaws in the capital punishment process. However, being a death penalty proponent, he seemed more concerned about the time it takes for capital cases to work their way through the court system than the actual justice-related issues that worry death penalty opponents, such as the very real possibility of wrongful convictions.
Nevertheless, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Rendell "called on the General Assembly either to streamline the process or do away with capital punishment."
Baby Doc Duvalier in Haiti
by Stephen Lendman
With more troubles than Job, Haitians now have another after former dictator Jean-Claude Baby Doc's arrival. On January 16, Air France flew him back, New York Times writer Randal Archibold headlining, "A Former Dictator Reappears in Haiti," saying:
"Haitian television and radio stations reported that Mr. Duvalier....landed shortly after 6PM in Port-au-Prince," telling reporters he was there "to help Haiti."
He's most unwelcome. As Haitian dictator from April 21, 1971 - February 7, 1986, he ruled brutally after succeeding his father, Francois Papa Doc, another infamous thug in charge from October 22, 1957 until his April 21,1971 death.
Turmoil in Tunisia
by Stephen Lendman
Earlier turmoil began in 2000, the first protests since 1984 bread riots, including a three-day professional drivers strike in Tunis. Demonstrations followed in over a dozen cities by students, unemployed youths and others. Protestors attacked government symbols, including public buildings. Poverty, rising food and energy prices, high unemployment, and political repression were proximate causes. Le Monde, at the time, called the turmoil "the first warning shots aimed at President (Zine al-Abidine) Ben Ali."
Protests then erupted in mid-December after Mohammed Bouazizi, an unemployed graduate working as a vegetable seller set himself on fire in front of government offices in Sidi Bouzid, protesting police confiscation of his merchandise for operating without a permit. At his January 4 funeral, marchers chanted, "Farewell, Mohammed, we will avenge you. We weep for you today. We will make those who caused your death weep."
Martin Luther King and the Palestinians
By Dr. Elias Akleh
Today, January 17th an American holiday commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King (January 15th) the famous Oprah Winfrey’s show played clips of older shows that dealt with racism and discrimination against black African Americans in the US. The bigotry, elitism, discrimination, racism and hate crimes of white Americans against African Americans reminded me of the bigotry, elitism, discrimination, racism and hate crimes of World Zionists and Jewish Israelis against Arabs in general and against Christian and Muslim Palestinians in particular.
The crimes of Zionists and Israelis are thousands folds worse than the crimes of white Americans, for they are pre-meditated and deliberate crimes while the crimes of white Americans were mostly spontaneous and born out of ignorance. These crimes involve the exploitation and the manipulation of Americans and Europeans to wage Israel’s wars in proxy against Arab and Muslim countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran.
Hezbollah’s Nasrallah could be right
By Alan Hart
It’s not impossible that Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah was right when he described the tribunal investigating the assassination of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in 2005 as “an American and Israeli tool”. Though I myself see Israel’s military and political leaders as those with most to gain - I mean thinking they have most to gain - from a successful attempt to pin the blame on Hezbollah.
When their unopposed air force devastated large parts of Lebanon’s infrastructure (as well as Hezbollah’s headquarters area of Beirut) in 2006, Israel’s leaders thought that by doing so they would turn the Lebanese army and Christian and Sunni militias against Hezbollah. In other words, by massively punishing all of Lebanon, Israel’s leaders believed they could push the Lebanese army and Christian and Sunni militias into doing the Zionist state’s dirty work.
But once again Israeli strategy (state terrorism pure and simple) backfired. Israel’s 2006 war united the Lebanese (more or less) and Hezbollah came out of it stronger not weaker. (It’s worth remembering that Hezbollah would not have come into existence if Israel had not invaded Lebanon all the way to Beirut in 1982 and remained in occupation of the south. Just as Hamas would not have come into existence if Israel had been prepared to do the two-state business with Arafat).
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