Bush Admin Pushes Towards Saudi Arms Sales

In a rather obvious attempt to destabilize the region and benefit U.S. arms dealers, it appears the Bush administration is finally ready to move ahead with the long since planned arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other smaller, even more unstable states in the gulf region. That plan also involved Israel, which are getting well over a billion in missiles, fighter jets, and aid. Israel was even convinced into agreeing with the Saudi deal, or at least pretended to believe in the reason of building a force against Iran and Syria by aiding such an unstable and questionable ally. Of course they're only thinking of their own national interests, while our government is thinking of anyone but ours. Americans get the big screw as usual. The $10+ billion package for the Saudis includes everything from ships to special smart bombs. The argument that the selling of arms will somehow more stabilize the Middle East is completely bogus. Since when has the region stopped their racing for the biggest and best weaponry possible? This is of complete disregard and contradiction to our current national security and will only create even more hostility for the U.S. in the region. The neocons and their supporters are certainly at a race against time, and the Democrats undoubtedly won't do anything about it. It is just one dictatorship of suppression rewarding another.

The deals could be worth a combined total of $20 billion over the years, Pentagon officials have told Congress, which has 30 days to vote to block a proposed sale from the formal notification date, but rarely does so.

The pre-notification clock that started on Tuesday lasts 20 days, meaning the formal process could start as soon as December 4 or so -- leaving Congress little time to debate the issues before it recesses for the year.

The State Department and the Defense Department jointly laid out the rationale for the build-up at the end of July. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the package would help "bolster forces of moderation and support a broader strategy to counter the negative influences of al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran."

Rep. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican, said some 150 Democratic and Republican members of Congress out of 535 had signed a letter he wrote voicing concern about JDAMs for Saudi Arabia, which remains in a formal state of war with Israel.

"The administration would be wise to listen to the voices of several prominent committee chairs, as well as ranking Republicans," Kirk said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

Israel and the Bush administration have agreed to disagree on the wisdom of selling JDAMs to Saudi Arabia, said Peter Rodman, who worked on the issue before retiring as an assistant secretary of defense earlier this year.

"But they're not going to fight against the administration" over the JDAMs, Rodman, now at the private Brookings Institution, said in a telephone interview.

"All of us are conscious of the growing strategic threat from Iran," he said of Israel, the United States and the Gulf Arab states.

Palestinian Folklore Dance Group Catches Fire with 'Jews'

A Palestinian dance group known as the Al-Ghad Folklore Dancing Troupe has been barred in Connecticut from performing at scheduled events because of complaints from obviously brainwashed kids of Zionists, or fake Jews if you will. The kids complained to their family that the dance was offensive to Jews and Israel, most likely suffering from some kind of glue sniffing or something involving falling on one's head. The kids and several parents have said that it is controversial, and it seems to them that the dances depict Israeli soldiers terrorizing Palestinians. I suppose these people are against all TRUTH when it involves something so OBVIOUSLY bad in Israel's history that still goes on today, yet in somewhat of a less extreme manner. One could wonder that if these people have such a close bond and allegiance to Israel, they should actually brush up on its actual history, or at least move there. They are certainly not Americans.

A reverend at a local church where they had performed before has stated that the performance is meant to be less political by all means, and more cultural. He also went on to say that during their performance of mostly traditional dances, a student in the audience got mad during a section of the dance that the reverend described "certainly expressed the frustration of detention by Israeli soldiers and dealt with curfews, checkpoints and the realities of detention." The kid began spouting his mouth off about how Palestinians did not want peace as the dance depicts (the gall!) and even shook his finger out at a female dancer afterwards which the reverend has to break up. So who are the racists, hmm? I am absolutely fed up with these kinds of things going on in my own country. These people have let it be known that they don't support the independence of the Palestinians, that they are and were not allowed to fight back against terrorist occupation of their land, and they'll do whatever they can to stop the truth from getting out to the American public. They are simply taught that way obviously. I am beginning to wonder if these Zionists posing as Jews really know much about their own history. This is also yet more proof of what muscle the Israel lobbies flaunt in this country that this performance would get canceled in such a short time. This story is one to remember the next time you hear someone called an anti-Semite or racist. In this case and time, the aggressors won. Kind of like in Palestine, actually.

Town resident Ginger Horton says she felt compelled to complain to school officials after her two grandchildren told her they were offended by the troupe's performance at the high school Monday.

...

Horton says the grandchildren told her the high school performance depicted Israeli soldiers beating and torturing Palestinians.

School Superintendent Joseph Onofrio says he canceled further performances after learning several parents questioned whether it was appropriate for their children.

...

The performance by Al-Ghad Folklore Dancing Troupe of Beit Sahour was meant to be cultural and not overtly political, said the Rev. David W. Good, senior minister of the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, where the troupe performed this past weekend.

But resident Ginger Horton said she felt compelled to complain to school officials after her two grandchildren told her they were offended by the troupe's performance at the high school Monday.

"[My] grandchildren came home very frightened," Horton said Thursday.

Good, who saw the performance at the school, disagreed.

"I saw nothing there that was anti-Jewish," Good said. "It was a cultural program ... Anything of this nature, given the realities of where they live, the political realities are a short distance away."

This past weekend, the troupe participated in the third annual Tree of Life Conference at Good's church. The conterence celebrates the work of peacemakers in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Horton, a retired Old Saybrook teacher, said her grandson, 15, and granddaughter, 14, told her the high school performance depicted Israeli soldiers beating and torturing Palestinians.

Good said many of the dances performed were simply traditional, but he acknowledged one was particularly upsetting to a male student in the audience. That more modern dance "certainly expressed the frustration of detention by Israeli soldiers" and dealt with curfews, checkpoints and the realities of detention, Good said.

The male student became angry and said Palestinians "do not want peace even though they talk about peace in their dances," Good said.

At the end of the performance, the student pursued the performers, he said.

"He was angrily shaking a finger in the face of a Palestinian girl," Good said. "I asked him to stop."

Horton said it was inappropriate for the public school system to host what she called a hateful, politically charged event.

"My concern was that it would be stopped, and we stopped it," said Horton, who also contacted the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut.

School Superintendent Joseph Onofrio, who did not attend the high school performance, said a male Jewish student became "emotionally charged and upset" by the visitors' depiction of Jews.

"This was not framed as a political debate, it was framed as a cultural arts experience," said Onofrio, noting the school's social studies chairwoman previewed the performance last week at First Congregational Church of Old Lyme.

"What she [Carol Moakley] had seen appeared to be appropriate," Onofrio said.

Onofrio, after learning several parents questioned whether the performance was appropriate for their children, said he canceled the elementary and middle school appearances scheduled for Tuesday because the two school principals had not previewed the performance.

Good said the troupe performed before elementary school students in East Lyme on Wednesday, and at The Children's Storefront, an independent, tuition-free school, in Harlem for students in preschool through Grade 8, on Thursday.

Bob Fishman, executive director of the Jewish Federation Association of Connecticut, said Old Saybrook public schools should not host groups with a perceived political agenda. He lauded upset local students and family members who "stepped up."

"It was a very disturbing report [Horton] got from her grandchildren," Fishman said. "I advised her that it's not appropriate for a sponsor to say it's cultural when it's primarily political."

Fishman said his organization plans to discuss the performances with state legislators and top state education officials.

"These are public schools, taxpayer dollars," Fishman said.

"They were very careful" not to make a political statement, Good said of the troupe. "They were asked to share their dance, and share their story living in the occupied territory. They did so through music."

BBC Proves Israel is Helping the Kurds

The BBC has gotten their hands on legitimate evidence that Israel has been helping and training the Kurds along Iraq's borders. This proves that Israel is strategically attempting to ready themselves for engaging Iran, and anonymous Israeli officials interviewed in the video have said that they couldn't have gone through Kurdistan without the knowledge of Kurd authority. This report is a huge blow to the Kurds who are trying to decrease the worries in the Arab community that they're trying to take over the region in northern Iraq, and that they're not involved in allowing the Israelis into the country, as suspected by neighboring states such as Iran and Syria. Israeli government is of course denying knowledge of it, as they always do, and this will create a huge rift between the Kurds and other Arab countries.

(BBC Video)

UN Chief Scolds Israel Over Syria Bombing

Sunday longtime Director General of the IAEA Mohamed ElBaradei criticized Israel's September raid on a Syrian building they claim was a nuclear installation. The U.S. were the only ones that were shown the so-called "evidence" of a nuclear installation, and Israel decided to commit yet another war crime by going ahead with the strike. ElBaradei says as everyone knows that the IAEA nor anyone else received any evidence at all of a Syrian nuke site.

"That to me is very distressful because we have a system: if countries have information that the country is working on a nuclear-related program, they should come to us. We have the authority to go out and investigate," he said.

"But to bomb first and then ask questions later, I think it undermines the system and it doesn't lead to any solution to any suspicion, because we are the eyes and ears of the international community."

Israeli FM Says a Nuclear Iran Not a Threat

In a bit of a follow-up to the Haaretz story in their upcoming battle with their own country's lobby, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni apparently said recently that if Iran did successfully develop nuclear weapons they posed no "existential" threat to Israel. Ironically, this story just popped up on Haaretz, so maybe they are truly waging war on the Lobby. I wouldn't go that far, but this is refreshing to say the least. Everyone in Israel seems to be beating the war drums except for their foreign minister in this case.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said a few months ago in a series of closed discussions that in her opinion that Iranian nuclear weapons do not pose an existential threat to Israel, Haaretz magazine reveals in an article on Livni to be published tomorrow.

Livni also criticized the exaggerated use that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is making of the issue of the Iranian bomb, claiming that he is attempting to rally the public around him by playing on its most basic fears. Last week, former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy said similar things about Iran.

The article also reveals for the first time a document Livni prepared and sent to Olmert a few months after the Second Lebanon War proposing a new division of labor between the two. "Enclosed is a proposal for work procedures between us, with the aim of providing an answer to Israel's strategic needs and facilitating early planning and the formulation of coordinated Israeli positions ... within the framework of cooperative relations, full transparency and continuous mutual updates," wrote Livni.

American Jew Says Israel Lobby Going After Haaretz

It really warms the soul when you hear from a pure and decent Jewish American voicing his analytical rights about Israel and its lobbies. Haaretz is a very popular Israel-based newspaper/online 'zine that focuses on all things Jews, Israel, and the Middle East. It is known by millions around the world for its somewhat unbiased views of those subjects compared to other Israel/Jewish-affiliated newspapers and mags. The author of the article attended a conference hosted by CAMERA, another textbook biased member group of the American-based Israel Lobby which looks to defame anyone with differing views. The leader of CAMERA, Andrea Levin, basically says "the audacity of a world-wide Israeli paper writing about the truth in the Middle East."

No other newspaper in Israel matters, Levin says, because Ha'aretz is an elite publication and it has such an amazing English-language website. It is read by millions around the world. "None of the other papers is having international impact." All true.

"We feel directly affected by Haaretz... we feel we should be directly interacting as much as possible... putting more resources into that, because of its direct effect on all of us." I believe that Levin said she had even appealed to government bodies in Israel, including the IDF, to do something about Haaretz stories. The speech ended with the call to arms, for CAMERA members to start pressuring Haaretz. "Write, phone, challenge, speak out... Haaretz is now affecting all of us."

The Israel Lobby has been under increasing scrutiny as of late, all of which is much warranted, and the same tactics being used by fading American neocons are being used by the Lobby, or the other way around you could say. This short article is a must-read that goes on to say Levin stated that Haaretz should follow suit of the American newspapers with their easily noticeable one-sided views, and also allow the Lobby members themselves to post their propaganda in op-ed pieces; and I hope Haaretz has the courage and willpower to stay the course for the sake of truth and fairness as they've shown many times in the past.

Romney Calls UN a Failure; But for Snake-like Reasons

Mitt Romney said this morning in South Carolina that the UN is a failure, and proposed a new coalition of 'free nations of the world' to cater the needs of the greater good, or rather U.S./Israel interests. He thinks this because, in his mind, the UN is too tough on Israel, and lets slide anything going on in the Arab world. Romney has repeatedly fed the interests of his biggest campaign donors since he entered the race, which in large part are the very wealthy Jewish pro-Israel contributors. They are is his main financiers, and he is merely speaking for them, not the American people. So this is not surprising that he would come out and say something like this, considering he's about to be looking at the behind of Ron Paul as far as campaign funding and momentum goes. One can't help but remember in January when he took a lengthy trip to Israel to do just this. He purposefully skipped visiting Gaza. He is willing to ignore the numerous human rights violations, with the same old excuses that Israel is getting an 'unfair deal.' Maybe he should put down the European Union, Great Britain, China, and others for their opposition to things like the increasing sanctions on Gaza. Romney is simply looking out for his campaign's pocket, trying to keep up with the momentum of Ron Paul.

One thing that was said in the actual article caught my eye:

The Romneys have five sons and ten grandchildren. Of the leading Republicans in the presidential contest, Romney is the only one who has not been divorced.

The last time I checked, polygamy has played a part in Romney's life. And as even confirmed by the Republican National Committee, Ron Paul is a now a 'top-tier' candidate. As you should know, Paul has been married for 50+ years, and has never been divorced. I guess the writer just forgot...

'Hillary Clinton Would Use Violence Against Tehran'

Well, duh. That was the title of an article Monday in the UK's Guardian Unlimited stating:

In an article for Foreign Affairs magazine intended as a blueprint for the foreign policy of a future Clinton White House, the Democratic frontrunner argues that Iran poses a long term strategic challenge to American and its allies, and that it must not be permitted to build or acquire nuclear weapons.

"If Iran does not comply with its own commitments and the will of the international community, all options must remain on the table," Ms Clinton said.

Elsewhere, Ms Clinton took the edge off her steely posture by saying she would abandon the Bush administration's policy of isolating its enemies, and would deploy diplomacy.

"True statesmanship requires that we engage with our adversaries, not for the sake of talking but because robust diplomacy is a prerequisite to achieving our aims."

She says she would even consider offering incentives to Iran in return for a pledge to disarm. However, she sets out a series of stringent conditions that are virtually identical to current White House policy.

"If Iran is in fact willing to end its nuclear weapons programme, renounce sponsorship of terrorism, support Middle East peace, and play a constructive role in stabilising Iraq, the United States should be prepared to offer Iran a carefully calibrated package of incentives," Ms Clinton wrote.

The only reason Clinton hasn't been willing to disclose any of her foreign policy plans is because she doesn't want to be seen as the warmongering constitution-shredding dictator that she aims to be. If her supporters can't read between these lines here, we may really have a problem. As usual, Hillary is looking out for ol' number one, Israel. The only question is, where does that leave Americans? Number two? Iran does not pose a threat to the U.S. Israel has the right to defend itself with nukes, but Iran doesn't have the right to start its own nuclear energy program? Perhaps she should address some of the things that Israel is doing, like not helping us one bit. They are a useless ally that follows no rules but their own, and have shown time and time again that they could care less about our safety. What I don't understand is how voters can not be seriously tired of them using our military as pawns in their sick demagogic game. We all know where the majority of Clinton's campaign funds come from. If Israel wants it, Israel will get it with a Clinton White House.

New York Times Creates Room for More Israel/Syria Lies and Propaganda

Here we go again. One month later and we're still getting fed lies and assumptions in hopes of shaping policy in Israel's favor. The New York Times released an article Saturday which stated "Israeli and American intelligence analysts" have come up with the apparent foregone conclusion that the Israeli strike on Syria was "in fact" the beginnings of a nuclear reactor. The 'Times' writers decided to spin the events of the past month in such a way as to put all guilt on Syria, to suggest Arab opposition to a Syrian nuclear facility, and to add no such debate to the actual reality in the facility ever being there in the first place. Despite this being 100% legal, despite the fact that it could have been used for energy purposes, despite Israel hiding the fact that they have their own worrisome stockpile of nukes, and despite the fact that it would have taken cash-strapped Syria no less than seven or more years to produce any nuclear capabilities (not to mention not even having the cash to complete it in that short of time, even with the help of North Korea), you still have to be highly skeptical that what they hit was even the beginnings of a reactor at all.

This is becoming more suspicious by the day with all the silence coming from administrations of both Israel and the U.S. At first, there were highly peculiar reports of Israel both "possibly" and "surely" having "satellite photos" of a Syrian nuke site which were passed along to the U.S., but there is no way that could have been true, as they seem to be slowly but surely talking their way towards that notion again. If there were conclusive evidence of a nuke site, there wouldn't be all this misinformation floating around. And why is it taking so long for these revelations to come about? There is absolutely no way Israel had any proof of a partial nuke site. It is straight-up nonsense. The Neo-con(Fox) News Channel has already ran with the story nationally today as if everything in the article is 100% accurate, and throwing the what-ifs about North Korea in as well for good measure. No stock should be put in the mainstream media's reporting of Middle East affairs, especially when it has anything to do with Israel. When will people learn? Belief in disinformation is so much more comforting for people here in America, and for the most part Israel, but some tend to prefer the truth.

The UN has said they are working on either confirming or denying the reports, and that they have not received any satellite or intelligence reports from Israel or the U.S. An American analyst had this to say:

"A very real question is whether Syria is technically and financially able to build such a reactor. It would be hard to justify an air strike on a facility so early on in construction and, if supplied by North Korea, unlikely ever to be finished," U.S. analyst David Albright, alluding to North Korea's nuclear disarmament agreement earlier this year, told Reuters.

"Israel may have wanted to send a signal to Iran. The U.S. wants to scare Iran (off nuclear work) and this air strike might have been a way to do it, and explain some of Israel's secrecy."

Renowned Minnesota University Bans Questioning of Isreali Terror

Winner of a Nobel Peace Prize and former Archbishop of South Africa, Desmond Tutu was apparently banned from the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis because a handful of Jews in the area don't like what he has said, that for the most part has been directed at the Israeli government and their anti-American lobbies. The University's administration thought that his speaking the truth and questioning the wrongdoings of Israel was just too much.

St. Thomas is a Catholic university deep in their support for peace, and just about everyone affiliated with the school was pretty psyched about not just having someone like Tutu there, but hearing what he had to say. They had scheduled his appearance for this spring, but that now won't be happening. So why the hell would a Catholic university have a problem with it? Administration staff felt they had to make a few inquiries to local Jews to see what they thought about it, and not surprisingly the administration came away with the thought that merely Tutu's appearance there would offend them.

"We had heard some things he said that some people judged to be anti-Semitic and against Israeli policy," says Doug Hennes, St. Thomas's vice president for university and government relations. "We're not saying he's anti-Semitic. But he's compared the state of Israel to Hitler and our feeling was that making moral equivalencies like that are hurtful to some members of the Jewish community."

St. Thomas officials made this inference after Hennes talked to Julie Swiler, a spokeswoman for the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas.

"I told him that I'd run across some statements that were of concern to me," says Swiler. "In a 2002 speech in Boston, he made some comments that were especially hurtful."

This has been happening all over America for a long time, as noted by St. Thomas professor Cris Toffolo:

"What happened at the University of St. Thomas is not an isolated event," says Toffolo. "Until we have an honest debate about U.S. policy related to Israel, and about Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories, the spiral of violence will continue."

Now say what you want about Desmond Tutu or of the bad things that have happened to South Africa since the fall of the apartheid, but the man has made very valid points in the past on Israel, its lobbies, its policies, and its human rights violations over the years. He has refuted claims of being antisemitic (who hasn't) many times in the past, and the points themselves are never really attacked. There are some Jews however that are outraged at the banning of Tutu, but these groups are few and far between as usual.

The truth is every real American should be outraged at this. Everything Israel does effects us because of our 100% cooperative government and horribly bad foreign policy, and not even being able to discuss these things is just unacceptable. So it hurts their feelings. I for one don't give a shit, not to mention that they're probably lying. The truth hurts. And they don't like it, so they try to shut us up any way possible. It's long past time to shut up the Israel lobbies in America.

Why the Hush-hush?

Yesterday, New York Times posted an article with the headline: "IAF recently photographed nuclear facilities in Syria." That article has now suddenly been removed, but it isn't hard to find out where that fallacy came from. Here's the gist of the NY Times article:

The New York Times on Wednesday quoted a Bush Administration official as saying Israel recently photographed possible nuclear installations in Syria.

The comments come amid ongoing silence in Israel regarding Damascus’ allegations that the Israel Air Force fired missiles at ground targets deep in Syria during an overflight last week.

“One Bush administration official said Israel had recently carried out reconnaissance flights over Syria, taking pictures of possible nuclear installations that Israeli officials believed might have been supplied with material from North Korea,” the paper wrote. “The administration official said Israeli officials believed that North Korea might be unloading some of its nuclear material on Syria”

“The Israelis think North Korea is selling to Iran and Syria what little they have left,” the New York Times quoted the official as saying.

Note how it goes from genuine assurance, to "possible." In other words, you can throw everything you've read out the window. Who wrote that article, you say? Why Israelis and the Jewish media of course. What a coincidence. Nothing that's being reported about the mysterious alleged September 6th IAF air strike in Syria through the mainstream media is factitious. It's all theoretical up to this point, but you can't keep the Jewish media from spinning the story. Israel, the Saudis, and (for the most part) the U.S., have all been quiet about this. How unusual that something like this happens, and both the Israelis and U.S. remain private about it. That never happens.

I think it's because the mission was a big, fat failure, and to save themselves and others the embarrassment, they decided to just let the biased media run with it for now. I don't think the mission had anything to do with Hizbullah rockets, or if it did, they missed. Otherwise the Israelis would be gloating all over the place. Testing of Syrian air defenses is another possibility, and is not entirely out of the question. That would sort of explain maybe why the jets had to drop their fuel tanks on Turkish land. Whatever is going on, you can rest assured that we're going to get dragged into it. The silence is quite possibly the biggest mystery, and I don't believe the lies lately of Israel not wanting to go to war with Syria and Iran for a second.