Stephen Lendman

On February 1, 2009, the International Solidarity Movement reported that Israel continues its E 1 area homes and infrastructure work that includes linking its Ma'ale Adummim settlement with East Jerusalem and other settlements around it. It said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, while in office, promised to expand E 1 development - the land northeast of Jerusalem, west of Ma'ale Adummim comprising about 12 square kilometers, all of it illegally annexed.

On November 15, 2009, the International Middle East Media Center reported that construction began in Ras al-Amud, Pisgat Ze'ev and elsewhere in East Jerusalem as part of Israel's scheduled 3,000 unit project.

On November 18, Al Jazeera headlined, "Israel moves to expand settlement," saying approval was given to construct 900 housing units in East Jerusalem's Gilo settlement.

Overall, Israel's E 1 Plan involves building about 15,000 new homes, a large industrial zone, hotels, other recreational facilities, a police station, garbage dump and more to be shared by Occupied Jerusalem and Ma'ale Adummim settlers.

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Najwa Sheikh Ahmed

A year has passed since the Israeli war on the besieged Gaza, a war that left more than one thousand innocent children, women and elderly people killed, a tremendous destruction of houses, universities, hospitals, schools, and infrastructure.

This malicious act of killing and destruction reached every thing and every where in Gaza, where complete families have been killed without any mercy of the screams of their children or women, without any regret. Complete districts have been flattened to the ground; agricultural lands have been bulldozed not for any reason but to keep more pain and bitterness inside the people of Gaza.

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liberalparty.org

“…if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal." - September 14, 1960

What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label "Liberal?" If by "Liberal" they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of "Liberal." But if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal."

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Sancho Jones

The Internet revolution has changed the face of our planet. Over the last 20 years there's been a complete transformation of the way we live, conduct business, and share information. In the same amount of time, information technology has helped bring countless atrocities committed by governments, and global corporations into view. We've seen the rise of groups like "We Are Change", and birthing of the" Truth Movement"; which has kicked off a viral, and grassroots information wave. The Internet's been in many regards a saving grace of mankind, and in the same likeness the greatest threat to the establishment!

Recently, we had the Global Warming talks in Copenhagen; they were a failure! What else could come from the exposure of emails showing fudged data on Global Warming? Nothing is what. Climate Gate[1] changed what would have been global "Cap, & Trade" agreements, and other carbon tax legislation from an assured victory at Copenhagen, to an embarrassment. Al Gore decided it'd be better not to show up at all, after having to run from angry mobs, and being pelted by snowballs due to the leaks. The only thing that came of the conference, was a poor attempt at "saving face" through a non binding resolution.

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By Gaither Stewart

Mexico City's main square, the Zócalo, was at one time the heart of the
Aztec empire's own capital, Tenochtitlán. A huge Mexican flag presides
over the plaza’s many activities, including political rallies.

I.

THE FIFTEEN MONTHS I SPENT IN MEXICO deepened and consolidated a fundamental transformation long underway in me. The Italian writer Ignazio Silone was right: I had to step backwards from what I once was and where I was before in order to see myself and the world. Or maybe it was simply the altitude of Mesoamerica … and the winds … and also new inclinations toward unrestraint. Or maybe what happened to me in Mexico was simply because it is not necessary to live south of the border very long in order to begin to see American imperialism at work, contributing to the existing economic disparity between north and south. It is a mystery why things are the way they are. Still, it became clear that powerful evil forces combine to compel millions of Mexicans to sneak into the United States and live a dog’s life just to eat. Though it is true that because of the missing social idea America’s poor are poorer than Europe’s poor, Mexico’s poor are still worse off. Their poverty makes them seem to grovel for sustenance. Most certainly Mexicans don’t work on the skyscrapers of Dallas and New York City and wash dishes in cafeterias in Atlanta and in Charlotte and pick fruit in California because they are enamored with Yankee life. They prefer Mexico. They are north of the formidable Rio Grande border with its growing wall for the simple reason that though man does not live by bread alone, he must eat. For anyone with eyes to see it is clear that something is startlingly and tragically out of whack in North America.

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Salim Nazzal

When Mahmoud Darwish, Palestine great poet was asked in one of the most difficult period in Palestine history, what Palestinians can do now, his immediate answer was to grow up hope. For more than 70 years, Palestinians move from war to war, from occupation to occupation, from exile to exile, from siege to siege yet they continue to hope. Hope and resistance are interacted, one resists because one hopes, and because one hopes one resists.

I asked a Palestinian who lost almost all his family by Israeli air raid how he manages life alone, he said hope. I asked Palestinian lost his arms due to Israeli raids and insisted to go one in life, I won’t let Israel murder our hopes, he said.

Hope jumps even in the most difficult times to whisper to the oppressed to stand firm. During the occupation of Lebanon in the 1980s, I saw a proud young Palestinian woman walking opposite Israeli soldiers bearing in her neck a cross and the Palestinian map, she told me she wants to convey a message of challenge and hope, the crusification of Palestine is a temporary thing, and Palestine will rise again.

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Allen L Roland

The story of Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer, was conceived during the great depression as a gift of love from a social misfit, Bob May, to his daughter as a Christmas present to give her hope. That person's brother-in-law was Johnny Marx who later made a song adaptation of the story and the rest is history:

It is stories like this that reinforce my feeling that all works of love are quite often embraced by a world that wants to be touched, versus entertained, and that the blessings of that gift are eventually returned in abundance.

Here is something to read to your kids tonight ~ or in my case ~ your grandchildren.

A man named Bob May, depressed and brokenhearted, stared out his drafty apartment window into the chilling December night. His 4-year-old daughter Barbara sat on his lap quietly sobbing.

Bobs wife, Evelyn, was dying of cancer.

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Petras: HEMOS VISTO EL AUMENTO DEL MILITARISMO BAJO OBAMA Y EL FIN DE LA ILUSIÓN OBAMA QUE PARA MUCHA GENTE LIBERAL PROGRESISTA, CENTRO IZQUIERDA, MUJIQUISTAS, TENÍAN MUCHA ILUSIÓN SOBRE LO QUE SIGNIFICABA LA ELECCIÓN DE OBAMA

Comentarios para CX36 Radio Centenario de Uruguay, del sociólogo norteamericano, Prof. James Petras desde Estados Unidos. Lunes 28 de diciembre de 2009. “El más grande peligro es esta postura militarista de Estados Unidos. Ese es el gran peligro para todo el continente. La profundidad y amplitud de esta política es una amenaza a corto plazo, no es cosa de pensar en los años venideros” www.radio36.com.uy

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