Sheldon’s Stooges

OPEDS
Uri Avnery | Gush Shalom

Netanyahu: An unrepentant fanatic and warmonger with a big American media following.

Netanyahu: An unrepentant fanatic and warmonger continues to enjoy fawning treatment in the American media.

IN JAPAN in the good old days, Binyamin Netanyahu would by now have committed hara-kiri.

In England at that time, the monarch would have appointed him governor of the most remote little island in the Pacific Ocean.

Because in our country, the old adage is getting a new twist: Nothing Succeeds Like Failure.In Israel, his popularity rating is bound to go up.

AND WHAT a failure! Wow!!!

He has practically declared war on the President of the United States, the Leader of the Free World, the Supreme Protector of the Jewish State.

Not so long ago, one would have thought this impossible. But nothing is impossible for Binyamin Netanyahu.

For anyone just arrived from the planet Mars, here is a brief summary of Israel’s dependence on the US: it gets from it the bulk of its heavy arms and does not have to pay for them, it can depend on it to veto all UN Security Council resolutions that condemn Israel’s deeds and misdeeds, it receives from it billions of dollars every year although the Israeli economy is flourishing.

There is another benefit which is often overlooked. Since the world believes that both houses of the US Congress are totally subservient to Israel, all countries pay Israel for access to Congress. One has to bribe the doorkeeper to get in.

For an Israeli prime minister to start a quarrel with the President of the US looks like sheer lunacy – as indeed it is.

Yet Netanyahu is not insane, though his actions suggest that. He is not even a fool.

So what the hell does he think he is doing?

[dropcap]THERE ARE[/dropcap] several possible explanations I can think of.

One is pampering the Israeli public. Far from creating a New Jew as Zionism promised, the Old Jew dominates Israel. The Old Jew believes that the entire world is anti-Semitic, and any new evidence fills him with satisfaction. You see? The Goyim haven’t changed at all.

Netanyahu’s popularity ratings are bound to rise with every new manifestation of foreign hostility. If even the Americans, who for so long pretended to be the closest friends of Israel, sell us out to the anti-Semitic Iranians, we need a strong and steadfast leader. In short – a Netanyahu.

Another plausible explanation for Netanyahu’s behavior may be his genuine belief that no US senator or representative would ever dare to buck AIPAC’s orders, knowing that this would be the end of his (or her) political career. Like the worst of the anti-Semites, Netanyahu believes that the Jews rule the world, or at least the US Congress. At the crucial moment, Congress will vote for AIPAC, against the US president.

Another explanation may be, paradoxically, a blind belief in President Obama’s integrity. Netanyahu thinks that he can hit him on the head, spit in his eye, kick his behind, and still Obama will act coolly, rationally, and support Israel all the way, except on the Iranian deal. He will go on sending arms and dollars, vetoing Security Council resolutions, receiving phone calls from Israel in the middle of the night.

You know how these Americans are. Subservient. Especially black ones.

BUT THERE may be another explanation, that trumps all others.

Satire underscoring the fact Adelson buys politicians like candy.

Affronting the US president, his administration and his party, Netanyahu is gambling with our future. Which brings us to the emperor of the gambling world, the king of Las Vegas, the prince of Macao: Sheldon Adelson.

Adelson does not hide his support for Netanyahu the man, the family and the party. He spends huge sums of money on a Hebrew daily newspaper that is distributed gratis to Israelis, whether they want it or not. It is now the largest-circulation paper in Israel, and devoted personally to Netanyahu and his wife. It has no other purpose.

“The Zionist vision was born out of the total rejection of this caricature. Jews would cease dealing in stocks and shares and money-lending. Jews would till the land with the sweat of their brow, do productive manual work, reject all kinds of parasitic speculations…”

Yet Adelson seems to have no real interest in Israel. He does not live here, even part time. So what is he getting in return?

Adelson has bought Netanyahu for one single purpose: to place a stooge of his in the White House. It is an aim that any other multi-billionaire cannot even dream of.

To achieve this aim, Adelson needs to use the Republican Party as a ladder. He has to select its candidate for the presidency, derail Hillary Clinton and win the elections. To succeed in all these tasks, he has to mobilize the immense power of the pro-Israel lobby over the US Congress and destroy President Obama.

The first step in this long march is to defeat the Iranian deal. Netanyahu is just a cog in this grand design. But a very important cog.

Does this look like a caricature of Der Stürmer, the infamous anti-Semitic Nazi rag, or, worse, like a page out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the notorious anti-Semitic forgery? It is the classical anti-Semitic picture: the ugly finance-Jew striving for world mastery.

For an Israeli, there is something revolting in this picture. The Zionist vision was born out of the total rejection of this caricature. Jews would cease dealing in stocks and shares and money-lending. Jews would till the land with the sweat of their brow, do productive manual work, reject all kinds of parasitic speculations. This was considered such a high ideal that it justified even the displacement of the indigenous Arab population.

And here we are, a state following the orders of an international casino mogul whose line of business is perhaps the most unproductive in the cosmos. Sad.

IS THERE a valiant opposition to this course in Israel? None. Literally none.

In all my long life in Israel I have never seen anything as close to a total absence of opposition as we have now.

A few voices in Haaretz, some solitary pronouncements on the extreme leftist fringe, and that’s that.

Apart from these (including Gush Shalom), nothing except thunderous applause for Netanyahu or the dreadful silence of the graveyard.

The treaty is “bad”. Not just bad, but “catastrophic”. Not just catastrophic, but “one of the most terrible disasters in the entire history of the Jewish people”. Something close to a “second Holocaust”. (I am not making this up.)

Netanyahu’s shallow arguments are accepted as sacred truths, like the utterances of the other great Jewish prophets. Nobody bothers to ask the relevant question: Why?

The sun rises in the morning. The rivers flow into the sea. Iran will build an atomic bomb and drop it on us, even though it will thereby bring upon itself a historic disaster. The mullahs are Nazis. The treaty is another Munich agreement. Obama is the new Neville Chamberlain, only black.

Nobody takes the trouble to argue for these assertions. Things are self-evident. Day is day and night is night.

I HAVE seen many situations of a near unanimous public opinion in my life, especially in times of war. But in all of my life I have never experienced such a situation of total unanimity, of total absence of doubting and questioning, as now.

This situation is not without its absurdities. For example: the Iranian Supreme Leader is obviously faced with his own extremists, who accuse him of selling out to the American Satan. To appease them, he has to claim that the treaty is a tremendous victory for the Islamic Republic, that he has brought the US (and Israel) to their knees. The huge Netanyahu propaganda machine is taking up these quotes and selling them as gospel truths. Everyone knows that Iranians always lie, but this time they tell it as it is.

Yair Lapid, the leader of a shrunken “centrist” party now in opposition (the Orthodox did not allow Netanyahu to bring him into the government) denounces the treaty as a historic disaster for the Jewish people. This being so, he asks loudly, why is Netanyahu not compelled to resign after his failure to prevent it? The more so since there is a much more able leader ready to take his place and lead the fight, a man named Lapid.

There is indeed something of a paradox in Netanyahu’s situation: if the treaty is such a historic disaster, “one of the worst in Jewish history”, why is Netanyahu continuing in his job?

TO THROW out a prime minister, a country needs an opposition to take his place. Actually, that is the main job of the opposition.

Not here.

The Leader of the Opposition (an official title in Israel) condemns the treaty in as strong terms as Netanyahu himself. He has volunteered to go to the USA to help the fight against it. His competitor, Yair Lapid, the son of a far-out nationalist, is even more extreme than him. The leader of the third opposition party is Avigdor Lieberman, compared to whom Netanyahu is a leftist softy. There is, of course, a fourth opposition party – the joint Arab one – but who listens to them?

One would suppose that, faced with such a historic disaster, Israel would be alive with debates about the treaty. But how can one have a debate, if everybody agrees? I have heard not a single real discussion on TV, nor read one in the printed papers, nor on the internet. Here and there a small whisper of doubt, but a debate? Nowhere!

Indeed, one can live happily in Israel for days and hear no mention of this historic disaster at all. The price of cottage cheese evokes more emotion.

So we are happily moving towards disaster – unless one of Sheldon’s stooges, with the help of Bibi, enters the White House.

URI AVNERY, a onetime Israeli hero, is a longtime peace advocate and supporter of a substantive two-state solution to the impasse with the Palestinians.

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The Israel Lobby’s $50M Campaign Against The Iran Nuclear Deal

Richard Silverstein | Mintpress.com

If the Iran deal passes, Israel loses. The Israel lobby is spending big on whatever it takes to make sure this doesn’t happen.

THE DARK FORCES OF REACTION MASS TO BREAK THE DEAL

Dateline: July 22, 2015

Every US president bows to the Israeli lobby. Here Barack Obama exchanges a few words with AIPAC president Lee Rosenberg after addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) annual Policy Conference in Washington Sunday, March 4, 2012. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

WASHINGTON — The next 60 days offer a fateful window through which Congress will review the Iran nuclear deal announced last week to great fanfare by the P5+1 powers and their Iranian counterparts.

At the end of this period, both the House and Senate will vote on the agreement. Though the GOP has a majority in the latter body, it’s by no means a given that the vote will go against the deal. The Los Angeles Times reports there may be a few Republican senators who can be swayed if public opinion is running in favor.

To that end, the various groups within the Israel lobby have announced a massive PR campaign seeking to move both public opinion and the votes of individual senators against the deal.

Last week, The New York Times reported that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the pro-Israel lobby, has created a stand-alone group, Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran, for this purpose. It plans to spend $20-40 million on the effort.

Times Square Rally on 22 July 2015 (See Addendum)

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he group’s website doesn’t list staff and a board of directors. Instead it lists an “advisory board” consisting of the usual hawkish Democratic former senators, including Mark Begich, Joe Lieberman, Mary Landrieu, Evan Bayh, and former Rep. Shelley Berkley. Clearly, this isn’t an independent organization, but rather one established and controlled by AIPAC. Unlike some of groups below which are casting their nets wide, AIPAC seems to be targeting Democratic senators on the fence.

So far this year, according to U.S. Senate public records, AIPAC has spent nearly $2 million on direct lobbying, more than it’s ever spent in any previous six-month period since 1999. This is a further indication of the group’s dead-seriousness in pursuing the defeat of the Iran measure.

Will AIPAC use the ‘Doomsday Weapon’?

The Israeli media site, Walla, even invokes AIPAC’s use of a dreaded “Doomsday Weapon,” a massive payback campaign against those who defy the group and vote for the agreement. This would take the matter to a whole new level: It’s one thing to advocate against a Congressional bill; it’s quite another to spend the tens of millions it would take to fund primary challengers and general election opponents of any Democratic senators defying AIPAC in this vote.

A PREVIOUS DEMONSTRATION=KEEP IRAN NUKE-FREE Rally NYC- 3-27-15
They’ve been at it for a long time, and rallies like the latest a few days ago have been used before. The clueless, complicit media, is happy to oblige with its own brand of superficial nincompoop coverage.

Since the article clearly describes internal organization deliberations on the subject, this is not idle speculation. If AIPAC feels it’s on the cusp of winning, it could wheel out the heavy guns of intimidation and blackmail it utilizes in such circumstances.

Of course, if it does make such a major financial and political investment, there is the distinct possibility it could lose, as it did in the fight over the Menendez sanctions resolution. That bill would have torpedoed the Iran negotiations by adding further draconian sanctions against that nation. Democratic support for the measure collapsed amid the hostile fallout from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress in March. A similar loss in this case would involve considerable loss of prestige and the sense of invincibility which AIPAC exploits to great advantage in Washington backroom politics.

With the recent announcement of restoration of diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Cuba, it’s worth contemplating the toll the blockade against the island nation took on both its inhabitants and relations between the two countries. For fifty years, the U.S. relationship to Cuba was held hostage by a powerful domestic lobby which rewarded its political friends and punished its enemies.

President Barack Obama finally decided enough was enough. He determined that the power of the anti-Castro lobby in Florida had waned sufficiently to take U.S. policy in a new direction. The Israel lobby wields precisely the same sort of power on matters related to Israel. What would happen if a loss on the nuclear deal put America’s policy on Israel “in play” as happened regarding Cuba policy?

In Seattle, United Against Nuclear Iran aired a TV ad in recent days during prime time. And last month, the group’s chairman, Mark Wallace, who served as the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, boasted of what he’d spend against the deal: “We have a multi-million-dollar budget and we are in it for the long haul. Money continues to pour in.” The group has also distributed a press release expanding on its plans.

United Against Nuclear Iran’s June, 2o15 ad decrying the Iran nuclear deal:

United Against Nuclear Iran is known for exposing companies allegedly doing business with Iran. Their M.O. has been to approach company executives and threaten to “out” them as sanctions scofflaws if they didn’t stop, and, even better, if they didn’t donate to the group.

One shipping owner, Victor Restis, challenged United Against Nuclear Iran, and when the group accused him of violating sanctions, he sued them for libel. In an unprecedented intervention by the government in a private commercial lawsuit, the Justice Department in 2014 asked the judge to shut down the case on the grounds that exposure of the documents Restis was demanding would damage national security. Reporters covering the story wrote that much of the material Restis wanted was believed to have been furnished to United Against Nuclear Iran by Israel’s Mossad or even the CIA. Such a revelation would have exposed the level of collusion between the two intelligence agencies and their exploitation of purportedly independent, non-partisan NGOs to advance their political agenda.

Politico reported last month that the American Security Initiative had bought $1.4 million worth of TV ad time targeted to the June 30 deadline to complete the agreement. American Security Initiative is a hawkish national security 501(c)4 founded by former Republican Sens. Saxby Chambliss (who recently said Edward Snowden should be hung), Norm Coleman, and Democrat Evan Bayh.

Politico also noted another pro-Israel lobbying group, Secure America Now, founded by push-poll specialistsPat Caddell and John McLaughlin, was pouring $1 million into its own media blitz targeting undecided Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Michael Bennett and Chuck Schumer. Secure America Now was launched in the aftermath of the Islamophobic campaign against the building of a mosque “on holy ground” near the World Trade Center site.

Watch Secure America Now’s spot featuring an Iranian mushroom cloud:

Another group likely to be closely involved is The Israel Project, whose director, Josh Block, was formerly AIPAC’s public face. The Israel Project will undoubtedly add its own voice to the media melee.

Meanwhile, the tumult over the deal has entered the Republican presidential primary campaign. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, seeking to bolster his flagging prospects, has made opposition to the deal a cornerstone of his campaign. At a recent press conference in New York, at which he promoted his new website,No Nukes for Iran, he warned if the deal was ratified New York City would be one of the Ayatollahs’ first targets. Business Insider reports:

“’Where do you think they’d like to come most outside of Washington?’ Graham said. ‘Right where we’re sitting.’

‘New York City represents America,’ Graham added. ‘This is the place that they’d choose to hit us again if they could.’

Flanked by Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona) and former Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Connecticut), Graham struck an almost apocalyptic tone when discussing the deal. He frequently drew parallels between Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Adolf Hitler, suggesting that the deal posed an enormous threat to Israel and to the US and that it would lead to a nuclear-arms race in the Middle East.”

Meanwhile, supporters of the bill in Congress have some new allies in Israel itself. Jonathan Alter reports in the Daily Beast that former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon fully supports the measure. The Israeli navy veteran also reeled off the names of other senior military and intelligence figures who support it.

Adelson: The $64-million question

FILE - In this May 4, 2015 file photo, Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO Sheldon Adelson testifies in court in Las Vegas. A news organization and nonprofit group want a Nevada judge to unseal a private investigator's report that they say may tie casino company Las Vegas Sands Corp. to organized crime in Asia. The Campaign for Accountability says in its motion filed Monday, June 8, 2015, that it also wants to see the report because the group believes it might help determine if the Republican donor Adelson used money linked to overseas criminal activity for election donations. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

Sheldon Adelson is the ugly (but true) face of the Israeli lobby. His own money is as dirty as it comes. In this May 4, 2015 file photo, the Las Vegas Sands Corp. Chairman and CEO testifies in court in Las Vegas. A news organization and nonprofit group wanted a Nevada judge to unseal a private investigator’s report that they say may tie casino company Las Vegas Sands Corp. to organized crime in Asia. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

The casino magnate Sheldon Adelson is the great unknown among all the donors in the Israel lobby sphere. He alone could spend many times the $40 million AIPAC plans to spend, should he choose to. Given his status as Benjamin Netanyahu’s prime financial backer and the $100 million he spent on Mitt Romney’s failed presidential bid, Adelson will likely weigh in on the subject as well. By a conservative estimate, the Israel lobby could spend upwards of $50 million on this campaign. Should Adelson go “all in” (to use gambling parlance appropriate for him) that figure could climb to $100 million.

There are a few organizations which plan to weigh-in on behalf of Secretary of State John Kerry’s agreement. Among them are J Street, an American Jewish group dedicated to supporting Obama administration foreign policy. It plans to spend between $2-3 million in support of the deal. The National Iranian American Council, led by Trita Parsi, has long supported the deal. It’s not known how much it will invest, but its budget and resources aren’t nearly a match for AIPAC.

At a recent National Iranian American Council conference, former Dem. House member Jim Slattery warned of the mind-boggling phenomenon this campaign represents:

“I’ve been around this town for about 30 years now … and I’ve never seen foreign policy debate that is being so profoundly affected by the movement of hundreds of millions of dollars in the American political system.”

President Obama has shown himself adept at outmaneuvering his political adversaries concerning Iran. The failed Menendez bill is just one example. The political math concerning the current legislation also is in the president’s favor. Even if the Senate rejects the nuclear agreement, he will veto it. That means the GOP majority will need 13 Democratic votes. Undoubtedly, they will gain a few. But it’s exceedingly unlikely they will get all of them. If they don’t, the agreement will be ratified and the president wins.

Israel loses if nuclear deal wins

[dropcap]S[/dropcap]uch a victory has repercussions for AIPAC and the power of the Israel lobby. But it has even more far-reaching implications for Israel and its changing role in the Middle East. Until now, it has been the indisputable power in the region, especially among the frontline states of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine. What Israel wanted, it got. Having 200 nuclear warheads only reinforced Israeli dominance.

The nuclear agreement could augur an age in which Iran takes its place as a responsible participant in regional politics. Instead of supporting Islamist militants in Lebanon and Syria, it might coordinate efforts with the U.S. to contain the Sunni Islamist threat represented by al-Qaida and the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). It certainly will allow Iran to become a commercial power, with foreign delegations arriving in Tehran daily to negotiate new business deals that would follow the lifting of sanctions.

Israel could see its stature recede considerably as Iran’s rises. That’s why Prime Minister Netanyahu has been touting a purported alliance between his nation and the Sunni Gulf states. In fact, The New York Times’s editorial endorsing the Iran deal says Netanyahu has taken this one step further: He’s said that on Iran, Israel has more in common with the Sunni states than with the U.S.

It’s possible this is precisely the sort of posturing for which Netanyahu is well-known. But given the United States’s role as Israel’s arms guarantor in every major war it has fought, it’s extraordinary for the prime minister to claim Arab states are his new go-to allies. During Israel’s next war against Hezbollah or Hamas, does he think King Salman of Saudi Arabia will give him the munitions he needs to maul Lebanon or Gaza?

ADDENDUM

Thousands Of Protesters Rally In Times Square Against Iran Nuclear Deal

‘Stop Iran Rally Coalition’ Says If Deal Isn’t Overridden, Sen. Schumer Will Be To Blame July 22, 2015 11:35 PM

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Times Square Wednesday evening in protest over the recent landmark nuclear deal with Iran.

As CBS2’s Jessica Schneider reported, some 10 thousand are rallying in solidarity with signs and voices raised against the nuclear deal.

Protest organizers proclaim: “Washington is prepared to give Iran virtually all that it needs to get to the bomb. To release $150 billion to Iran will result in the expansion of worldwide terror.”

Former New York Governor, and Presidential contender, George Pataki joined the chorus of voices urging lawmakers to block the deal.

“Reject this deal. Protect America. Protect Israel and protect the world from freedom,” Pataki said.

The Stop Iran Rally Coalition — which claims to be a bi-partisan group — is also calling out Sen. Charles Schumer, saying he “has the votes as presumptive leader to override this deal….If this deal is not stopped, New York voters will know whom to blame.”

Sen. Schumer said in a statement Wednesday that he wasn’t ready to make a decision on the deal yet.

“I’ve read the agreement and I’m seeking answers to the many questions I have. Before I make a decision, I’m going to speak at length with experts on both sides,” the lawmaker said.

Thousands Of Protesters Rally In Times Square Against Iran Nuclear Deal

Al Jones reports

play

In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry led back-to-back, closed-door briefings, trying to sway lawmakers to approve the deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program.

“We are convinced that the agreement that we have arrived at with world powers is an agreement that will prevent Iran from the potential of securing a nuclear weapon. It will make the region, our friends and allies safer, it will make the world safer,” Kerry said. “And we are convinced that the absence of any viable alternative absolutely underscores that fact.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. is fiercely lobbying lawmakers to reject the deal. And Republicans are pledging to do just that.

“Because a bad deal threatens the security of the American people, and we’re going to do everything possible to stop it,” said Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner.

And many at the rally said more people in the country need to start listening and speaking out as well.

“I’m very concerned about what our situation is here. Nobody wants this deal to go through and we’re hoping that Obama will hear the voice of the American people and we’re hoping that Congresswill listen to what we have say. And hopefully we can do something about that,” said one protester.

“I feel people really don’t understand the main issue. To me the main issue is not what happens 10 years from now, but what happens as soon as the sanctions are removed from Iran,” another protester told Schneider. “Which is the main terrorist regime in the world, which spreads terrorism all around the world, which is responsible for the deaths of Americans as well as Israelis.”

Several academic, military, and political leaders will speak to the crowd Wednesday night. All of them urge that this is an issue that transcends politics and they’re urging Congress to keep sanctions against Iran, even if it means overriding President Barack Obama’s likely veto on any legislation against the deal, Schneider reported.

Congress has 60 days to approve or reject the deal. The Senate will hold a hearing on the deal Thursday.

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Gaza: The hijacking of The Marianne by “The Pirates of the Mediterranean.”

Felicity Arbuthnot

With the blessing of the US and NATO (vassals) navies.

Piracy: ”The practice of attacking and robbing ships at sea.” (Oxford English Dictionary.)

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he “international community” is, it would seem, remarkably selective over piracy. Concern over Somali pirates was such that foreign Navy’s were sent to protect shipping in international waters. In one incident three alleged pirates were killed and a Somali teenager spirited away to the US to be tried, whilst eleven others were sent for trial in Kenya. ⁽¹⁾

However, in the early hours of the morning (local time) of 29^th June, three Israeli Navy ships intercepted and hijacked a Swedish flagged ship, the Marianne av Göteborg on route to Gaza in the State of Palestine (recognized as a State by the United Nations on 30^th November 2012 by an overwhelming vote of 138-9, elevating Palestine to Non-Member Observer State a status bestowed on just one other entity, The Vatican.)

The ship was in international waters (approximately one hundred nautical miles off shore) but was boarded, towed by Israeli Navy vessels to Israel’s port of Ashdod. Cameras, computers, mobile ‘phones and belongings have been allegedly stolen by those who boarded. It is hoped they will be returned, but the track record is not good judging by the lack of return of personal – or any items, including aid cargo purchased by public donations destined for the people of Gaza – from the numerous previously pirated vessels. The Marianne was carrying a consignment of solar panels for a people whom, for most, a constant electricity supply has become a distant memory.

One of Israel’s Super DVORA Fast Patrol Boats

Israel’s territorial waters (in to which the Marianne had no intention of heading) presumably should extend just twelve nautical miles from shore as laid down in the 1984 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea which directs that:

“Every State has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles, measured from baselines determined in accordance with this Convention.” They do not extend one hundred nautical miles.

Israel has stated the Marianne was requested to change course a number of times. Israel has no legal right to demand anything of a vessel in international waters.

In a mind numbingly schizophrenic communication to the Marianne the Israeli government wrote:

“There is no blockade on the Gaza Strip, and you are invited to transfer humanitarian supplies through Israel.” If there is “no blockade”, it has to be asked, why should humanitarian supplies be sent to Israel and why indulge in multiple war ship piracy, towing the ship to a foreign country to which it had never intended to travel?

The communiqué ended in regret that the Marianne’s passengers had not chosen to visit Israel where they would have been “impressed” by the democracy upheld by the Jewish state that affords equality and religious freedoms for all its citizens. So they were forcibly taken there to experience the “freedoms” from the inside of Givon prison, where all but two are currently being held. It is surely a truly mad world in “the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Perhaps the government scribe was unaware of the latest of innumerable acts far from resembling democracy or equality, targeting, as ever, children:

“While budget allocations for private Christian schools have steadily shrunk, the private yeshivas serving Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish population have received increased allotments, to the point that the state now covers 100 percent of their budgets. The yeshivas do not teach the Ministry of Education’s core curriculum, and their matriculation rate hovers at a dismal 10 percent.”(2)

Further:

“State schools that serve Palestinian citizens of Israel are notoriously underfunded, with a recent report finding that the state allots $1,100 per year per Jewish student versus $192 per Arab student in the state system. No surprise, then, that average matriculation rates at state-run Arab high schools are about 27 percent, compared with 95 percent for the leading Christian schools. What’s more, teachers at state schools in the Arab sector must be vetted by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service. And the schools’ state-mandated curriculum places draconian limitations on teaching Palestinian history and literature.”

However, regarding the Christian schools:

“Last summer, the situation became critical after the ministry set a cap so low on the amount the schools may raise through tuition that they could no longer make up the shortfall caused by the shrinking state budget allocation.

Father Fahim Abdelmasih, the head of the Christian Schools’ Office in Israel, said that six months of negotiating with the Ministry of Education yielded no solution, calling the tuition caps a ‘death sentence’ for Christian schools in Israel.”

So much for “equality and religious freedom for all it’s citizens” – and then there’s that wall, the segregation roads, the segregation buses, the checkpoints, the travel bans, bombed home repair bans, home demolitions, olive grove arsons, flower, fruit, vegetable export bans – an embargo on all normality.

The passengers of the Marianne currently being “impressed” by Israeli democracy from the inside of Givon Prison are:

Dror Feiler (Sweden) Musician and Composer

Ana Miranda (Spain) Member of the European Parliament

Nadya Kervorkova (Russia) Journalist

Kajsa Ekis Ekman (Sweden) Journalist, Author

Robert Lovelace (Canada) University Professor and retired Algonquin Chief

Joel Opperdoes (Sweden) Crew

Gustave Bergstrom (Sweden)

Herman Reksten (Norway)

Kevin Neish (Canada)

Jonas Karlin (Sweden)

Charlie Andreasson (Sweden)

Ammar Al-Hamdan (Norway) Aljajeera Arabic

Mohammed El Bakkali (Morocco) Aljazeera Arabic

Ohad Hemo (Israel) Channel 2 Israeli TV

Ruwani Perera (New Zealand) MaoriTV

Jacob Bryant (New Zealand) MaoriTV

Alarmingly, the whereabouts of passengers Dr. Moncef Marzouki, former President of Tunisia (2011-2014) and Palestinian politician Bassel Ghattas a Member of the Israeli Knesset are unknown at the time of writing.

The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, binding for one hundred and fifty four nations and the European Union (not yet ratified by the United States) makes “piracy a universal crime and subjects pirates to arrest and prosecution by any nation.” However, for all the quoting of its fine words here, surprise, Israel has not signed this important, detailed Convention as it has ignored or violated innumerable UN Resolutions (3), starting from the country’s infancy with Resolution 57 of 18^th September 1948, which expressed: “deep shock at the assassination of the U.N. Mediator in Palestine, Count Folke Bernadotte, by Zionist terrorists.”

No doubt some of the reasons for disregarding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea can be found in Part 7:

Article 89:

No State may validly purport to subject any part of the high seas to its sovereignty.

Article 90:

Every State, whether coastal or land-locked, has the right to sail ships flying its flag on the high seas.

Article 100:

All States shall cooperate to the fullest possible extent in the repression of piracy on the high seas or in any other place outside the jurisdiction of any State.

Ironically Somalia was an early signatory to the Convention, signing in 1982, thus can be held accountable. Will accountability ever apply to “the only democracy …” Will the UN, the “international community” ever demand it?

“The “Pirates of the Mediterranean”, tweeted someone this morning.

What a tragedy that a people who have historically suffered so grievously are being tarred by the actions of a relative few and of the government of Israel, a haven defined by Lord Balfour (2^nd November 1917) as: “ the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people … it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine …”

The “existing non-Jewish community” are either exiled, bombed, restricted, or in an open prison. Those who raise money, risk much and sail in solidarity risk their lives, are hijacked, put in a closed prison or, as in the case of the Mavi Marmara, murdered.

When will impunity end?

[box type=”bio”] London-based correspondent Felicity Arbuthnot is a respected expert on Mideast affairs. She has visited Iraq and other Mideast areas dozens of times and her reports are followed by a large and grateful audience. [/box]

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8003936.stm

2. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/6/5/israels-funding-policy-on-christian-schools-spurs-controvery.html

3. http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/01/27/rogue-state-israeli-violations-of-u-n-security-council-resolutions/

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Jewish Billionaire Finances Ukraine’s Aydar SS Nazi Troops & notorious Azov battalion

Eric Zuesse

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IN COMPLETE DEFIANCE OF MASSIVE JEWISH SUFFERING UNDER NAZI RULE. The appearance of these morally-deformed characters on the world scene is one of the ghastly effects of an arrogant global plutocracy gone berserk

He also employs Joe Biden’s son.

Quel culot!

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he hyper-nationalist Ukrainian-Israeli-Cypriot billionaire Ihor Kolomoysky, a friend of the Obama White House and employer of Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, is a major donor to far-right Ukrainian causes. He sides with the followers of Stepan Bandera, the pro-Nazi Ukrainian leader whom Hitler ditched when Bandera made clear that he wanted Ukraine to be Nazi but independent of Germany’s Nazi Party. Briefly, Bandera’s #2 in command, Yaroslav Stetsko, led Nazi Ukraine, and approved the slaughter of thousands of Jews there. He clearly stated his view, that:

Kolomoysky’s financial support goes not only to Andrei Biletsky’s Nazi Azov Battalion, but also to other far-right Ukrainian anti-Russian battalions, including Aydar Battalion, shown in this video, from which, stills are presented below, with explanations:

Here is a Battalion-member proudly displaying his Nazi flag with Swastika:

Here is the side of an Aydar van, with some Roman letters celebrating the 1940-1944, Hitler-established regiments of the non-German volunteers to Germany’s Waffen SS, and sporting the “1488” symbol that especially honors Aryan women who “Heil Hitler.” It also shows the shield with the crossed clubs, which was designed by the famous Nazi sadist Oscar Dirlewanger:

And a wider view:

Here are some Battalion members, on duty, giving the Sieg Heil! salute:

And here they are doing that off-duty:

The proud Kolomoysky—100% Jewish— finances these Nazis’ killing-operations.

Wikipedia says:

“Kolomoyski is a prominent supporter of Ukraine’s Jewish community[43] and the president of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine.[44] In 2010 he was appointed as the president of the European Council of Jewish Communities[45] after promising the outgoing president he would donate $14 million,[46] with his appointment being described as a ‘putsch'[44][45] and a ‘Soviet-style takeover’ (sic) [47] by other EJCJ board members. After several ECJC board members resigned in protest, Kolomyski quit the ECJC and, together with fellow Ukrainian oligarch Vadim Rabinovich, founded the European Jewish Union.[46]”

Those things show: ideology (and class) are far more important than ethnicity (or ethnic background).

Like the Black Barack Obama, Ihor Kolomoysky, though Jewish, is fascist, if not outright Nazi (racist-fascist) in his actual ideology. (Both of them have shown by their actions, that they hate Russians or are indifferent to Russian suffering, and are willing to endanger the entire world in order to slake their hatred, their bigotry. For example, Kolomoysky was a key part of the Obama team that planned and organized the massacre of pro-Russian pamphleteers in the Odessa Trade Unions Building on 2 May 2014, which terrified Ukraine’s pro-Russians, and thus ignited Ukraine’s civil war — as it was intended to do.)

Stereotypes of ethnicity do not indicate what a person actually believes. They are perhaps even less indicative of that than are what the person mouths to be his beliefs. For examples: neither Obama nor Kolomoysky publicly declares himself to be even fascist, much less Nazi (racist-fascist). And part of fascism is The Big Lie.

Therefore, in politics, one must look beyond the surface, but most people don’t — and that’s the problem. Taking things at ‘face value’ is what makes broad masses of people manipulable (herdable) by the aristocracy: herds led to their own slaughter. The public get played for their prejudices; that’s the way humans get herded, by human meat-producers, into war, to grind up others, and to be ground up, by others, depending upon who owns the factory farm. It’s Animal Farm, or 1984. It’s industrial-grade politics.

Editors question: And where is Netanyahu in all this? What do leading Israelis think of this disgrace of a man?

[box] Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity, and of Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics. [/box]

SOURCE: http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/04/jewish-billionaire-finances-ukraines-aydar-ss-Nazi-troops.html

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What is $5 a month to support one of the greatest publications on the Left?

Sheldon’s Stooges

The Israel Lobby’s $50M Campaign Against The Iran Nuclear Deal

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Thousands Of Protesters Rally In Times Square Against Iran Nuclear Deal

Gaza: The hijacking of The Marianne by “The Pirates of the Mediterranean.”

Jewish Billionaire Finances Ukraine’s Aydar SS Nazi Troops & notorious Azov battalion

Not Even Israel Protests Anti-Semitism in Ukraine