Outstanding  UK-based Australian journalist John Pilger contrasts Obama's sudden conversion to same-sex marriage with his failure to support the human rights of Bradley Manning, the Iraqis, the Palestinians, the Afghans etc etc.

Since President Barack Hussein Obama spoke out in support of same gender marriages I have noticed a measurable up tick in positive statements, from many I speak with, towards the future.

People are happy the president has addressed this Civil Right, even though it might cost him some support in his campaign for the presidency.

Some are saying they are so happy they could actually accept his defeat because he did the "right thing."

Doing the "right thing" seems to be what has been missing in our political discourse for a number of years.

The cynics want to denigrate his support as a total political move, as well as adding new attacks to ramp up any racial division they can mine at his expense.

 The president’s political opponent recently visited Liberty University. The schools founder claimed homosexuality to be at the core of why the horrendous attack on 9/11 took place. Within two days of the attack, Jerry Falwell, University founder, claimed God was so angered by the rampant homosexual behavior in America that he closed his eyes, allowing the attack.

That Willard Mitt Romney would make the decision to speak at the University, when their support of ongoing discrimination is so blatent, is a mystery.

Thank you Mr. President for doing the right thing for all the citizens of America.

"Dear Everyone,

With the recent idiocy in North Carolina, followed by the glorious support from our POTUS & Senator Harry Reid, a lot of old feelings are stirring in my gut; feelings I shelved away back in 2000 after being personally devastated by the Prop. 2 Campaign.
Back then, I HAD a dream. I dreamed that one day, I would wear a gorgeous white dress & walk down an aisle on the arm of a man proud to be walking with me, toward a woman who loves me & will vow to always love me, in front of all our friends & family, who want nothing more than to celebrate & honor that love.
Since 2000, that dream has been shattered & pieced together again many times, as various state & federal governments teased me with the notion of human equality. And with each "PSYCH!", my heart broke a little. It's hard not to take that kind of blatant discrimination personally.
The Defense of Marriage Act has been cited against me~ ME, a girl who has always wanted to get married!
Protect Marriage, Protect Families, Save Our Children... from ME? ME???
I am a nanny, for goodness sake!
I LOVE my families and I eat, sleep and BREATHE children!
It finally got to a point where I had to emotionally withdraw from all of it. It hurt too much to fight and be systematically let down each time.
Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships are the modern equivalent of separate drinking fountains for whites and blacks.
They are crap.
There is no such thing as Separate But Equal, just as there is no such thing as Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
Protect Marriage FROM DIVORCE!
Protect Families FROM PARENTAL NEGLECT!
Save Our Children FROM CHRISTIANS WHO MISINTERPRET THE WORDS OF CHRIST TO PROPAGATE HATE!
My emotions are stirring again... finally... as though there is actually a light at the end of this tunnel. At this point, however, should I even get excited? Cuz I've gotten excited before & had my joy dashed by ignorance. Is that daylight I see, or just reflections of strobe lights bouncing off a drag queen's sequined gown as we continue attempting to dance the pain away?
Sincerely,

Chinese student in Australia: "It is easy to see why Australian youth might perceive us as wealthy. Foreign students are the cash cows of a more than $16 billion international education industry, the third-largest export industry of Australia. We also serve as a significant source of domestic economic growth. Research by my own university last year found that every Australian undergraduate student is subsidised to the tune of $1200 by international student fees. My annual tuition fee for a bachelor of arts degree is about $26,000. Books, rent, food and everything else is on top of that."

The obsession with victimhood has prevented people in Israel and the United States from focusing on the gravest threat to Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state: demography. If there is no progress toward a two-state solution, at some point Israel will not to be able to continue to rule over millions of Palestinians without giving them the right to vote — at which point it will cease to be a Jewish state.  This may be Israel's only weakness today.

Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "Black South Africans and others around the world have seen the 2010 Human Rights Watch report which "describes the two-tier system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates for the two populations in areas in the West Bank under its exclusive control, which provide preferential services, development, and benefits for Jewish settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians." This, in my book, is apartheid. It is untenable. And we are in desperate need of more rabbis joining the brave rabbis of Jewish Voice for Peace in speaking forthrightly about the corrupting decadeslong Israeli domination over Palestinians."

Michell Alexander ( author of the bestselling book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness ) : "Recent data shows, though, that much of black progress is a myth. In many respects, African Americans are doing no better than they were when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated and uprisings swept inner cities across America. The black child poverty rate is actually higher now than it was then. Unemployment rates in black communities rival those in Third World countries."

The only legitimate way to prosecute Mohammed is in a civilian court, not a tribunal with a jury of Pentagon-appointed military officers and an Army colonel for a judge, say many members of the legal community.

Even with the minimal reforms now in place, the defense lawyers say the commissions are anything but fair. They complain that their mail is improperly reviewed by the military, interfering with attorney-client privilege, that they aren't given enough resources to investigate cases the government spent years building, that too many hearings are still held in secret and that they are barred from disclosing anything their clients tell them.

Lawyers face hurdles they would never encounter in a civilian court, including strict limits on what they can say about their clients, whose every utterance is treated as presumptively classified. Courtroom proceedings are subject to a 45-second delay so censors can prevent the inadvertent disclosure of government secrets, a system that critics say is intended merely to prevent anyone from learning details about the men's treatment.

"You can take a $5 mule and put a $10,000 saddle on it and call it reformed," said Navy Cmdr. Walter Ruiz, a military lawyer for Saudi defendant al-Hawsawi. "You still have a $5 mule; it just has a fancy saddle."

Dr Vacy Vlazna analyses Israeli military research links with  Australian universities which are accordingly tarred with the brush of illegal Israeli Occupation and horrendous Israeli human rights abuses.

Pope Benedict XVI has praised his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, as a model for the Polish people on the first anniversary of his beatification.

Benedict made his remarks in Polish during his weekly public audience Wednesday, saying "may the witness of his life, his teaching and his love for the homeland remain your particular heritage."

A string ensemble played the Polish national anthem for Polish pilgrims celebrating several holidays this week.

The beatification of Pope John Paul 11 on May 1, 2011, was the fastest in modern history, coming six years after John Paul's 2005 funeral drew calls of "Santo Subito!" or "Sainthood Immediately!"

The Vatican must approve a second miracle attributed to John Paul before he can be declared a saint.

Democracy in Malaysia is alive and well as Malaysians peacefully demonstrate for electorial reform: activists have alleged the Election Commission is biased and claimed that voter registration lists are tainted with fraudulent voters.

Saturday's gathering follows one crushed by police last July, when 1,600 people were arrested. That rally for clean elections prompted a police crackdown with tear gas and water cannon.

Saturday's rally reflects concerns that Prime Minister Najib Razak's long-ruling coalition will have an unfair upper hand in elections that could be called as early as June. Najib set up a parliamentary panel whose eventual report suggested a range of changes to the electoral system.  But the opposition are demanding a complete overhaul of a voter roll considered fraudulent and reform of an Election Commission they say is biased in favour of the governing coalition.

Najib has launched a campaign to repeal authoritarian laws in a bid to create what he called "the greatest democracy".  Obviously the people aren't buying it.

Sanctioning more West Bank settlements will kill the two-state solution.

Speaking after an Israeli ministerial committee authorised three illegal West Bank outposts, Mr Erekat called on Israel to choose between settlements and peace. He said the Palestinians would seek a new United Nations security council resolution condemning settlement activity.

Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement pressure group, said the decision marked the first time since 1990 that the government had created new settlements.

The international community considers all Israeli construction in the West Bank illegal. Israel distinguishes between the 121 established settlements, and scores of illegal outposts, set up without a formal government decision.

The newly-authorised outposts are Bruchin, with some 350 settlers, and Rechelim, with 240 residents, both south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, and Sansana, with a population of 240, in the southern West Bank.

Each was set up without formal government approval.

Interior minister Eli Yishai called the decision "important and just," and he urged the government to legalise more Jewish West Bank communities.

John Pilger article on past and present US, Indonesian and Australian power politics over East Timor, its location and its ffshore gas.

"If it becomes known that you worked for the Americans, and you receive a death threat ... if you go to the US embassy, which, you know, just recently announced it's cutting its entire staff in half, and you tell them that you need help, you're running for you're life, they'll tell you to start waiting and you'll probably wait a year or so before the process even initiates for you," Johnson told Truthout. "These programs exist on paper and allow all of us to feel really good about ourselves because a bill was passed, but in practice they are practically non-existent."

The new security checks, Johnson says, imply that the US government can go from depending on interpreters and translators to fight its war to suspecting the same people of being potential terrorists. Johnson points out that less than 10 percent of more than 60,000 Iraqis who have resettled in the US were those who aided US missions. Despite being the most vulnerable Iraqis left behind, former interpreters and translators are left to face death threats in Iraq or hide in Jordan and Syria as American bureaucrats slowly verify that these former allies won't try to blow anything up if they resettle in South Carolina or Tennessee. It's a reality that Johnson calls "cruelly Darwinian."

"I absolutely agree that we have to keep the US safe, but there is a point to which the 'protecting the homeland' argument starts to appear as a shroud to cover up incompetence or just an unwillingness to do this," Johnson says. "There's no political points to be won anymore for bringing these people over ... but I would just argue that we're not protecting our national interests if we're letting people who came forward to help get exterminated."

I am sure you have heard of it – the “Cotton Ceiling,” a term porn actress Drew DeVeaux and other Transgender women use to “challenge lesbians’ tendency to support Transgender causes generally but draw the line at sleeping with Transgender women or including Transgender lesbians in their sexual communities.”

Norris was subsequently targeted and threatened online by men who blamed her personally for the closure of their favourite eatery.
One particularly vile man posted the following on Facebook:
“Sian Norris, of the Bristol Feminist Netowkr is a c*nt. I hate her. I’m posting the details of this on 4Chan. I’m going to find her address and everything. SHE MUST PAY.” Details of her blog, her Twitter and Facebook accounts were circulated, and she received threats, including one that offered to kick her ‘in the vagina’. And who said chivalry was dead?

Up to 400 women and girls are being held in Afghan prisons for "moral crimes" including running away from home to escape beatings or forced marriage according to a study.Ten years after the toppling of the Taliban government was accompanied by Western promises of a new era of women's rights, the justice system remained "stacked against them at every stage", it found.

The Australian Gillard Labor Government has already acceded to 2,500 US Marines being rotated through Darwin and now is having talks about using the Indian Ocean Cocos Islands as a base for US spy and bombing drones.

In 2001 Netanyahu bragged  "… America is something that can be moved easily" and in 2003 Israeli PM Sharon  bragged to the Israeli President "we [Jews] control America." In 2012 Obama told Atlantic magazine: "“Every single commitment I have made to… Israel… I have kept."

TORONTO - A local bookstore has “sold out” of a controversial marriage guide that advises Muslim men on how to beat their wives.

The 160-page book, published by Idara Impex in New Delhi, India, is written by Hazrat Maulana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, who’s described in the book’s foreword as a “prolific writer on almost every topic of Islamic learning.”

 

The evil Toulouse Massacre in which 7 people, 3 of them children, were murdered in France, has shocked all decent people. However reason must prevail over emotion and must determine how the chances of a recurrence of this atrocity can be minimized. Compelling conclusions are that, in addition to having better security,  anti-Arab anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and the racist Zionist-backed War on Muslims (12 million dead since 1990) must be halted and that the genocidal racist Zionists must be sidelined from public life as has already happened to like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and KKK.

Rational risk management, that is crucial for societal safety, successively involves (a) accurate information, (b) scientific analysis, this involving the critical testing of potentially falsifiable hypotheses, and (c) science- informed systemic change to minimize recurrence of adverse events. Unfortunately,  inevitably corrupt societies typically adopt a dangerously incorrect converse approach that involves (a) lying by omission and commission, propaganda, censorship and intimidation of reportage, (b) anti-science spin involving the selective use of asserted facts to support a partisan position, and (c) resort to violent blame and shame with rejection of sensible systemic change, this further preventing crucially requisite primary reportage. A rational risk management approach to the Toulouse Massacre is outlined below.  

1. There will always be a very small proportion of people who cross the line into the insanity of homicide - indeed criminologists inform us that 90% of  violence and homicide is against people personally known to the perpetrators including family members i.e. people they know or indeed love.

2. The perpetrator of the Toulouse Massacre was killed by the authorities rather than being subdued chemically, but before being killed the mass murderer  reportedly adduced the large-scale killing of Palestinians and Afghans by the Zionists  and the US Alliance as the reason for these appalling crimes (in contrast Norwegian mass murderer Breivik was a self-confessed  virulent Islamophobe and a genocidal pro-Zionist).

3. The mass murder by the West of ethnically or culturally Arab Semitic people  (Arabs and Muslims) has reached holocaust and genocidal  proportions. Thus  in the Zionist-backed US War on Muslims violent deaths plus avoidable deaths from war-imposed deprivation total 12 million since 1990, the breakdown being  4.6 million (Iraq, 1990-2012), 5.6 million (Afghanistan, 2001-2012), 2.2 million (Somalia, 1992-2012), and 0.1 million (Libya, 2011-2012). These estimates are consonant with UN-reported under-5 infant deaths in this period totalling 2.0 million (Iraq), 2.9 million (Afghanistan ) and 1.3 million (Somalia), 90% avoidable and due to Occupier war crimes in gross violation of the Geneva Convention - evidence of an Iraqi Genocide, an Afghan Genocide and a Somali Genocide (Google the terms “Muslim Holocaust” and  “Muslim Genocide”).

4.   A key part of this genocidal madness has been played by the racist Zionists who collaborated with the Nazis before and during the war (notoriously persuading  Churchill to veto the Brand Plan to save 0.7 million Hungarian Jews of whom 0.4 million subsequently perished including all but a dozen of my family). Since 1936  about 100,000 Palestinians have been violently killed as a result of racist Zionist colonization of their country (as compared to 3,700 Jews killed by Palestinians since 1920 according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs) .  A further 1.9 million Palestinians have died avoidably from war-, expulsion- and occupation-imposed deprivation. Inspection of the latest UNICEF data reveals that race-based, racist Zionist-run Apartheid Israel deliberately murders over 2,000 Palestinian infants each year by imposed deprivation.

5. What should decent people do? Decent people - as exampled by anti-racist Jews (e.g. Google "Jews Against Racist Zionism") - must (a) demand that media inform everyone they can about the ongoing Muslim Holocaust and Muslim Genocide; (b) apply and urge sanctions against all those people, parties, countries and corporations involved in the Muslim Holocaust, the Muslim Genocide and race-based, genocidal Apartheid Israel  (e.g. Google "Boycott Apartheid  Israel"); and (c) demand arraignment before the International Criminal Court of those involved in the Muslim Holocaust (e.g. Bush, Obama, Blair, Brown, Cameron, Sarkozy,  Merkel, Harper, Howard, Rudd, Gillard and their subordinates) and the sidelining of racist Zionists from public life as has already happened to like racists such as the Nazis, neo-Nazis, Apartheiders and KKK.

Ambassador Prosor says OCHA rep in Jerusalem must be dismissed for claiming photo she posted via Twitter was of Palestinian girl killed in IAF strike; Israel found girl was killed in car crash

Whats going on here?
What are the Republicans thinking?
Is this a sound platform for the Republican party?
Have I gone nuts or have they left the rails? 
Are women really who they want to target??

The following is from U.S. Senator Cantwell pleading for people to stand up and scream at those who seem determined to curtail the rights of women. 

"...Between Rush Limbaugh’s disgusting smears and Mitt Romney’s plan to “get rid of” Planned Parenthood, it's clear that the right wing will stop at nothing to advance their anti-women agenda. But now, the New York Times is reporting that Republicans plan to OPPOSE a critical extension of the Violence Against Women Act.  The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) -- which helps survivors of domestic violence -- will come to the floor for extension in the next few days. When VAWA first made its way through Congress in 1994, it enjoyed broad bipartisan support. Yet last week, not one Republican voted in favor of the extension in committee. Not one. And reports now say that Republicans are planning to oppose passage..."  

West of Eritrea and Ethiopia, and north of Uganda, a new African state has emerged from decades of civil war to gain its independence. Last July, South Sudan was declared an official country and was recognized by the United Nations. Israel, which had been assisting the people of the region for the past decade, extended a warm diplomatic hand right from the start.

Eager to help this new country gain a foothold amongst its complicated host of societal problems, the Israeli humanitarian aid organization IsraAID is launching diplomatic and humanitarian efforts including a new social-worker training program in cooperation with the Israeli NGOs FIRST and Operation Blessing-Israel.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has taken out the torture toolkit his father once employed as he engages in the most widespread and appalling abuses his country has suffered in decades in an effort to put down a year-old rebellion.

Abdul Rahum Ayubi, who is a lawmaker from Kandahar province where the tragedy occurred, said Monday it seemed impossible for one soldier to cover the ground between the houses that were attacked — over a mile (2 kilometers) — and also burn the dead bodies.

Bismullah Afghanmal, a parliament member, said the reports he received from villagers indicate the shooting before dawn Sunday came from several directions.

"One man can't kill so many people. There must have been many people involved," Bacha Agha of Balandi village told The Associated Press. "If the government says this is just one person's act we will not accept it. ... After killing those people they also burned the bodies."

In a statement, Afghan President Hamid Karzai left open the possibility of more than one shooter. He initially spoke of a single U.S. gunman, then referred to "American forces" entering houses. The statement quoted a 15-year-old survivor named Rafiullah, who was shot in the leg, as telling Karzai in a phone call that "soldiers" broke into his house, woke up his family and began shooting them.

"This is an assassination, an intentional killing of innocent civilians and cannot be forgiven," Karzai said.

"This is an anti-human and anti-Islamic act," Khan said. "Nobody is allowed in any religion in the world to kill children and women."

One woman opened a blue blanket with pink flowers to reveal the body of her 2-year-old child, who was wearing a blood-soaked shirt.

"Was this child Taliban? There is no Taliban here" said Gul Bushra. The Americans "are always threatening us with dogs and helicopters during night raids."

Dozens of villagers crowded the streets as minibuses and trucks carried away the dead to be washed for burial. One man used the edge of his brown shawl to wipe away tears.

Sixteen civilians were killed, nine of them children.

A U.S. soldier was taken into custody in southern Afghanistan on Sunday, a few hours after he opened fire on Afghan civilians, killing 10, U.S. and Afghan officials said.

The shooting took place at approximately 3 a.m. as a lone soldier walked off a checkpoint in Kandahar Province's Panjwai district and opened fire on civilians in two villages, Javed Faisal, the director of the provincial government's media center, said in a phone interview.

Citing preliminary reports, Faisal said at least 10 people were killed and five were wounded. Provincial authorities said they were awaiting news from an investigative team sent to the villages before releasing a definitive death toll.

It is highly unusual for American soldiers to wander alone off base.

One is a religious fanatic railing against secularism, the role of women in the workplace, and the evils of higher education, as he seeks to impose his draconian moral values upon the state. The other is the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Iraqi activists sounded the bell over the killing of dozens of teenagers by religious police for having “emo” haircuts.

Activists told the Cairo-based al-Akhbar daily that at least 90 Iraqi teenagers with “emo” appearances have been stoned to death by the Moral Police in the country in the past month. The violent crackdown against “emo” Iraqi teenagers came after the Iraqi interior ministry declared them as “devil worshippers.”

Professor Martin Sevior (Physics Deoartment, University of Melbourne) : "Now Iran, of course, is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – unlike many other Middle East nations – and thus far the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has found no direct proof of nuclear weapons development in Iran. I don’t know whether Iran is developing nuclear weapons – or, if it is, why."

(Following is from Invisible Children  We are supporting these efforts financilly and organizationally)

                                                          WHO IS JOSEPH KONY? 

"JOSEPH KONY IS THE WORLD’S WORST WAR CRIMINAL. IN 1987 HE TOOK OVER LEADERSHIP OF AN EXISTING REBEL GROUP AND RENAMED IT THE LORD’S RESISTANCE ARMY (LRA).

THE LRA HAS EARNED A REPUTATION FOR ITS CRUEL AND BRUTAL TACTICS. WHEN JOSEPH KONY FOUND HIMSELF RUNNING OUT OF FIGHTERS, HE STARTED ABDUCTING CHILDREN TO BE SOLDIERS IN HIS ARMY OR “WIVES” FOR HIS OFFICERS. THE LRA IS ENCOURAGED TO RAPE, MUTILATE, AND KILL CIVILIANS–OFTEN WITH BLUNT WEAPONS.

THE LRA IS NO LONGER ACTIVE IN NORTHERN UGANDA (WHERE IT ORIGINATED) BUT IT CONTINUES ITS CAMPAIGN OF VIOLENCE IN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO, CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC, AND SOUTH SUDAN. IN ITS 26-YEAR HISTORY, THE LRA HAS ABDUCTED MORE THAN 30,000 CHILDREN AND DISPLACED AT LEAST 2.1 MILLION PEOPLE.

WHAT IS THE GOAL OF KONY 2012?

INVISIBLE CHILDREN HAS BEEN WORKING FOR 9 YEARS TO END AFRICA’S LONGEST-RUNNING ARMED CONFLICT. U.S. MILITARY ADVISERS ARE CURRENTLY DEPLOYED IN CENTRAL AFRICA ON A “TIME-LIMITED” MISSION TO STOP KONY AND DISARM THE LRA. IF KONY ISN’T CAPTURED THIS YEAR, THE WINDOW WILL BE GONE.

WE ARE TAKING ACTION TO ENSURE THESE TWO THINGS:

1) THAT JOSEPH KONY IS KNOWN AS THE WORLD’S WORST WAR CRIMINAL.

2) THAT THE U.S. MILITARY ADVISERS SUPPORT THE UGANDAN ARMY UNTIL KONY HAS BEEN CAPTURED AND THE LRA HAS BEEN COMPLETELY DISARMED. THEY NEED TO FOLLOW THROUGH ALL THE WAY AND FINISH WHAT THEY HAVE STARTED.

WHY ARE WE MAKING JOSEPH KONY "FAMOUS"?

INVISIBLE CHILDREN’S KONY 2012 CAMPAIGN AIMS TO MAKE JOSEPH KONY FAMOUS, NOT TO CELEBRATE HIM, BUT TO RAISE SUPPORT FOR HIS ARREST AND SET A PRECEDENT FOR INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE. IN THIS CASE, NOTORIETY TRANSLATES TO PUBLIC SUPPORT. IF PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THE CRIMES THAT KONY HAS BEEN COMMITTING FOR 26 YEARS, THEY WILL UNITE TO STOP HIM.

SECONDLY, WE WANT KONY TO BE FAMOUS SO THAT WHEN HE IS STOPPED, HE WILL BE A VISIBLE, CONCRETE EXAMPLE OF INTERNATIONAL JUSTICE. THEN OTHER WAR CRIMINALS WILL KNOW THAT THEIR MASS ATROCITIES WILL NOT GO UNNOTICED OR UNPUNISHED."

See What we at Let Kids Be Kids is doing about it.

  For more information email us  letkidsbekids@mac.com

Israel has sent a delegation of 100 students to represent it in the annual Apartheid Week in South Africa, an Israeli newspaper reported Tuesday.

The report in Maariv noted one unusual participant in this year's delegation -- a 25-year-old Muslim Bushra Khalilieh, a member of Israel's Arab minority in the Galilee.

"We toured Johannesburg and Cape Town's campuses and met local students," she said.

"We spoke with them about Israel and I told them about my personal issue as an Arab girl living in Israel. I feel Israel to be my hometown where there's equality and I have all my rights.

Palestine Times has a photo essay of how Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon live in squalor:

Walkout comes after UN secretary-general and human rights high commissioner tell session gay people should be protected

Mehdi Hasan in the context of US and Israeli threats to attack Iran raises the question of Israeli weapons of mass destruction that reportedly include 400 nuclear weapons (Iran has none and repeatedly states it does not want nuclear weapons and wants a nuclear weapons-free Middle East).

The Indian defence Ministry has banned for 10 years some defence contractors for corruption including Israeli Military Industries which supplies weapons, ammunition and military technology to the Israeli mililtary, including the Uzi submachine gun used by criminals and mercenaries around the world to kill people.

The media resound with warnings about a likely Israeli attack on Iran while the U.S. hesitates, keeping open the option of aggression – thus again routinely violating the U.N. Charter, the foundation of international law.

As tensions escalate, eerie echoes of the run-up to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are in the air. Feverish U.S. primary campaign rhetoric adds to the drumbeat.

Meanwhile, as tensions mount, the US applies sanctions which won't affect the leadership but will affect the ordinary citizen and may even amount to war crimes. 

While all this unfolds, one of Israel's leading stragegists has concluded tha nuclear arms are negative for the state of Israel.  He calls for a zone in the Middle East that excludes all WMD.

Meanwhile, the West's sanctions on Iran are having their usual effect, causing shortages of basic food supplies – not for the ruling clerics but for the population. Small wonder that the sanctions are condemned by Iran's courageous opposition.

The sanctions against Iran may have the same effect as their predecessors against Iraq, which were condemned as "genocidal" by the respected U.N. diplomats who administered them before finally resigning in protest.

The Iraq sanctions devastated the population and strengthened Saddam Hussein, probably saving him from the fate of a rogues' gallery of other tyrants supported by the U.S.-U.K. – tyrants who prospered virtually to the day when various internal revolts overthrew them.

There is little credible discussion of just what constitutes the Iranian threat, though we do have an authoritative answer, provided by U.S. military and intelligence. Their presentations to Congress make it clear that Iran doesn't pose a military threat.

Israel's prime minister is vigorously asserting his country's right to defend itself against an Iranian nuclear threat.

Benjamin Netanyahu's tough talk suggests he would attack Iranian nuclear facilities alone if he thinks Israel needs to do that.

Netanyahu told a gathering of the pro-Israel lobby on Monday that Israel has "patiently waited" for diplomacy and sanctions to work.

He says, "None of us can afford to wait much longer. As prime minister of Israel, I will never let my people live in the shadow of annihilation."

Let us pause here in front of this state of mad dictatorship, and compare it with what Israel has committed against us in recent times, and I say recent times as we are talking about the last 5 years, particularly the Lebanon and Gaza wars.

[...]

Today, in the case of al-Assad, we have seen the Syrian forces brutally killing their own people on our television screens over the past year – not two months – whilst the death toll stands at more than 8,000 and the tyrant of Damascus's troops have destroyed mosques, tortured and assassinated children, as well as women and the elderly, simply in order to allow al-Assad to cling to power. Despite all this, we find some countries, politicians, media organizations and figures, who are procrastinating; it is as if we – as Arabs – are saying that if the killer is also an Arab, then this is something that we can accept, however if he is an Israeli, then we must all move as one to put an end to this! This is a saddening and shameful state of affairs, particularly when somebody like Hassan Nasrallah shamelessly comes out to defend al-Assad!

(Text link to video)

Beylanesh Zevadia arrived in Israel from Ethiopia in 1984; she will go back to Addis Ababa as Israel's envoy.

Zevadia said her appointment was proof that Israel gives opportunities to all, veteran citizens as well as new immigrants

 

I thought I’d share this to see if anyone has any additional thoughts.
The question was posted to a well-known forum along with the photo adjacent to this posting.
I have edited out all the juvenile one-liners and links to all sorts of articles bashing or praising in nature. I think these tell part of the the story of where we are in our society today-

 Author (Question)

Lots of noise from the four R's on the president apologizing to the Afghan people about the burning of the Holy Quran.
Anyone have issue with apologizing for an inadvertent action that is viewed as a major trespass by believers?

 Reply #1

So let me see...our people burn some paper and we decide to prostrate ourselves to their society for such a horrific act against their population...but let their people kill ours and we get nary a word from their leaders...

How about this...let them show where every Koran is accounted for over the past hundred years; each taken perfect care of with total reverence...that not one teenager who was tied of going to the mosque did't throw one in the trash...and we have something to debate.

If I recall, we are seeing American flags burned all the time....Christians being sentenced to death, etc. This was not a bunch of folks protesting against Islam or a ME country...but a bunch of @!$%# being discarded...a Koran being part of the pile. Big difference.

See, here is the thing...if those complaining were able to annihilate a city here in America, they would....yet we are able to do this and demand not a single word of apology when the denigrate our country and our religion.

This is why we are pissed off...not that it is 'Bam...but that our President gives credibility to the complaints. It is the stupidity of 'Bam...so we spend billions fighting a war over there (Don't recall him apologizing for dropping bombs on houses that probably had Korans inside that were burnt up) and then we get all worked up because we burnt some trash. We know this is nothing but political grandstanding.

Reply #2

Yes. It is viewed as a sign of weakness in Afghanistan, where only strength is respected. We burn a book that they used as smuggling device, and they start killing Americans. Very asymmetrical. By the way, when an American flag or Roman Catholic bible are to be destroyed (when worn out, etc.) burning is the proscribed method. Prez is a good apologizer; I will give him that, though.

Reply#3

He's mostly correct, but do you want to win the battle or the war. I also doubt that our apologies mean much. We will never see Muslim leaders apologize to Christians or Jews. They are ignorant. It's a violent gutter religion from the stone ages. the people that represent it are completely duplicitous. They don't share our values so when we treat them equally we do it for us, not them.

Author

Of all the subjects floated on this forum I think perhaps this subject succinctly shows the chasm between/among members, and their approaches to people outside their American experience.
I am proud we have a president who has the courage, fortitude, strength of mind, compassion, empathy, understanding, knowledge, experience and moral fiber to apologize for and to those offended.  It takes a strong person to reach out in the name of peace accepting that there are other avenues to conflict resolution than baiting people with pathetically uneducated remarks. To refer to someone’s religion, as “It's a violent gutter religion from the stone ages.” is truly a remarkable bit of doltishness one would only expect to hear only from the truly willfully uneducated. That the 4R’s claim to be Christians is laughable since they don’t know, or accept, the central message of their Christ. If they did they wouldn’t say the things they say. For their blind followers you would think this might be an insight into the shell game being played on them-no, they are full of the same anger, hatred, racism, myopic ignorance shouted by their leadership-
The yea but, yea but, yea but “they wouldn’t apologize” etc is sad. One expects to hear that from kids, not adults who are hoping to create a world where we can all appreciate and honor our differences.
To talk, as some do about Islam etc is to diminish any credibility they might desire from others who may be open to hearing their thoughts. When their anger and ignorance becomes predictable there really isn’t any point to watching them jump up and down flapping their arms in the air. They need to be marginalized before they hurt themselves or those who are trying to find avenues of peace.
When I lived in Russia I was always impressed that after someone said every swear word they could think about someone they would conclude with вы без культуры. They would surly say it to someone who knew little or nothing about a religion but went out of their way to insult it. What it means is that “you are without culture” the most cutting thing they could say about a person. True!
President Obama scares these people because he dares to be courageous!

Wow-

"The Israeli diamond industry generates about US$1 billion in funding for the Israeli military each year. So when someone buys a diamond from Israel they are helping to fund war crimes and other human rights violations in Palestine," said Sean Clinton, a leading campaigner against Israeli blood diamond.

“While there is some public awareness about the trade in blood-tainted, rough diamonds from Zimbabwe, the media in general ignores the far larger trade in blood tainted diamonds from Israel."

The aim of the campaign is to get all of us to boycott Israeli blood diamonds.  There's already a campaign to boycott all blood diamonds--why wasn't Israel mentioned earlier?

A 15-year-old girl was asked to supply a member of an alleged child abuse ring with "younger girls", a court was told.

The teenager was giving evidence in the trial of 11 men accused of being part of a sexual exploitation ring in and around Rochdale in Greater Manchester.

Trevor Wilson (ex-diplomat, ANU fellow): "Kevin Rudd’s dramatic resignation as Foreign Minister yesterday has left Australia without a permanent cabinet level representative on the world stage."

Dr David Hearn (Associate Professor (French and Linguistics) , University of Western Ontario 1996 – present) : "

Pulitzer Prize winner and civil rights activist Alice Walker from the US Boat to Gaza says challenges to the blockade of Gaza are the Freedom Rides of our time – and like the 1960s civil rights movement in the U.S. South, we must keep up the struggle despite attempts to intimidate us.

As my colleague Ziad notes, the Palestinians of Gaza are left with “a hope in international civil society solidarity which is organising throughout the world in order to try, through peaceful actions, to break this blockade.”

"

(CNN) -- After 16 straight days of bombardment, Homs is such an incessantly bleeding wound that Syrians speak of it now as though it were a norm. Theirs are voices of resignation as food, medicine, water, electricity dwindle and Bashar al-Assad's forces show no intent of letting up.
"Is today Sunday? Wednesday? Saturday? I honestly don't know all days have become same here in #Homs- they begin and end with shelling #Syria" tweeted @Samsomhom.
Activist Omar Shakir told CNN he is confident the Syrian army is preparing for a massive ground invasion of the besieged neighborhood of Baba Amr, the heart of the revolt

President Barack Obama's top security aide will visit Israel for two days of talks on regional issues including Syria and Iran, the White House said on Friday.

Sophie McBain: "It's exactly one year since the official start of the Libyan revolution and Amnesty International marked the occasion with a damning report into the widespread human rights abuses committed by armed militias in the country and the failure of the National Transitional Council (NTC) to hold these armed groups to account... I too believe that Libya is heading in the right direction. That is not to belittle Amnesty's report: action to protect the rights of suspected Gaddafi loyalists must be taken quickly and decisively."

John Pilger: "The warmongering and human rights abuses of the New Labour years seem forgotten by all but the likes of Gareth Peirce. Yet Blair’s legacy lingers on in Afghanistan and Iraq and is re-emerging in Syria and Iran."

Report: "Nearly 45,000 annual deaths are associated with lack of health insurance, according to a new study published online today by the American Journal of Public Health. That figure is about two and a half times higher than an estimate from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 2002. The study, conducted at Harvard Medical School and Cambridge Health Alliance, found that uninsured, working-age Americans have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured counterparts, up from a 25 percent excess
death rate found in 1993."

The Obama Administration has vowed to retain close military ties to its European allies after revealing  plans to withdraw more than 11,000 troops from Germany and Italy as part of a strategic shift to Asia.

Age associate editor: "On Monday night, 725,000 television viewers enjoyed the rare opportunity of watching the strategies of a former prime minister who wants his old job back and the current Prime Minister, desperate to thwart him, being played out in real time... For the sake of argument, let's assume Rudd will succeed. Will it be worth the trouble?"

At 80 years of age, Ebrahim Yazdi has the distinction of being Iran’s oldest political prisoner. Yazdi was one of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s closest confidants, accompanied him during his triumphant return to Tehran in February 1979, and briefly served as deputy prime minister and foreign minister. Authorities arrested him three times after the disputed 2009 presidential election for his membership in a political opposition group.

Hamish Ford: "On Australia Day in Canberra this year two stark effects of an intertwined political and mainstream media narrative were revealed. First, that protests, no matter how small, are increasingly portrayed as security threats. Second, the way the events were relayed at the time and then over ensuing days illustrates how historical and ongoing Indigenous disadvantage — despite being an international scandal — is treated here with a mix of dishonest platitudinal concern and "move-on" belligerence."

"

Bullying has no place in our Society. May this Legislation by Quebec Provincial Gouvernment of Canada be an example for to stop "bullying..."once and for all.

Catriona Menzies-Pike (managing editor of progressive Australian web magazine New Matilda): "Is it sexist anytime anyone ever criticises any woman? Can anything any female politician ever does be shielded from criticism on the grounds that to do so is sexist? If a female politician who happens to be a Prime Minister screws up royally and appears to make a habit of doing so, can she ignore all the slings and arrows that come her way because they’ve all been hurled by sexist bastards who want nothing more than to see a good woman fall? The answer to all of these questions should obviously be "no".

Former Australian Democrats MP Cheryl Kernot re sexism allegations over treatment of Australian  PM Julia Gillard: "The first thing I’d say is none of those other countries [Germany, US, New Zealand] has the “gotcha” media syndrome. We seem to have perfected that. American presidential campaigns have it, but the wider political discourse doesn’t have it as much as we do. We are the masters of it. The second thing I think we need to remark upon is that Angela Merkel, Julia Gillard and Helen Clark all have no children. That has been used against Julia Gillard. There have been occasional insinuations against Helen Clark [implying] her husband is a homosexual. I haven’t heard anything much about Angela Merkel. Hillary Clinton has one child, and both Clintons are power players."

British Zionists responding to Ben White and claiming that race-based Israel is "democratic": "BICOM has recently published articles by four experts to raise the level of discussion in the UK about the state of Israeli democracy. We are starting from a position of caring about Israel's future as both a state expressing the Jewish right to national self-determination, and a democracy for all its citizens. On that basis, we wanted to stimulate a more nuanced conversation about Israel"

Canada's Prime Minister, Right Honourable Stephen Harper, a World Class Diplomat accomplishing a Noble Mission .

Peace is at the heart of Neve Shalom.

Long before universities starting granting graduate degrees in peacemaking and diplomacy, a handful of Israeli families -- three Jewish and one Arab - devised their own path to a better future for their children.

Together they founded a new intentional community in 1979, based on trust and shared values.

Australian ABC Radio National Late Night Live presenter Phillip Adams presents a tribute to "Late Night Live's longest and most outstanding contributor, the late Christopher Hitchens, journalist, author and contrarian" (and pro-Iraq War war atheist).

ABC interview: "International war may be declining, but according to journalist Peter Hartcher and Professor John Mueller, we should remain vigilant. While both agree that concerns about China and the Taiwan issue are certainly justified, if China's rise occurs without conflict, 'it will be the first time in history that a new power has risen to rival the reigning hegemony without a war.'"

Posted: 01 February 2012

“Russia’s threats to abort a binding UN resolution on Syria for the second time are utterly irresponsible. Russia bears a heavy responsibility for allowing the brutal crackdown to continue”

Russia must not block international efforts to tackle the ongoing violence and human rights violations in Syria, Amnesty International said today amid negotiations over a resolution on Syria at the UN Security Council.  Russian officials have threatened to veto the resolution if it comes to a vote.

Ben White: "Firstly, foundational to Israel's legal framework as a Jewish state is legislation passed in the first few years, specifically the Law of Return, the Absentee Property Law, and the Citizenship Law. These laws shaped an institutionalised regime of ethno-religious discrimination by extending Israel's 'frontiers' to include every Jew in the world (as a potential citizen), at the same time as explicitly excluding expelled Palestinians."

The United States is "disgusted" by Russia and China's decision to veto a U.N. Security Council resolution today that called for an immediate end to the violence in Syria, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice said today.

The Security Council vote today came on one of the bloodiest days of the popular uprising in Syray, as President Bashar al Assad's security forces launched a withering artillery assault on the city of Homs that has reportedly left 200 to 400 dead.

(Photo: AP)

Israeli facilities in North America -- and around the world -- are on high alert, according to an internal security document obtained by ABC News that predicted the threat from Iran against Jewish targets will increase.

"We predict that the threat on our sites around the world will increase … on both our guarded sites and 'soft' sites," stated a letter circulated by the head of security for the Consul General for the Mid-Atlantic States, Eliran Avitan. Guarded sites refers to government facilities like embassies and consulates, while 'soft sites' means Jewish synagogues, and schools, as well as community centers like the one hit by a terrorist bombing in Buenos Aires in 1994 that killed 85 people.

John Pilger (leading Australian-British writer): "The sheer scale of suffering, let alone criminality, is little known in the West, despite the presence of the world’s most advanced communications, nominally freest journalism and most admired academy. That the most numerous victims of terrorism — western terrorism — are Muslims is unsayable, if it is known. That half a million Iraqi infants died in the 1990s as a result of the embargo imposed by Britain and the US is of no interest. .. While popular culture in Britain and the US immerses World War II in an ethical bath for the victors, the holocausts arising from Anglo-American dominance of resource-rich regions are consigned to oblivion."

Renowned U.S. author Paul Auster said he refused to visit Turkey because of the number of journalists and writers that have been jailed in the country.

Speaking to daily Hürriyet’s Buket Şahin, Auster said he had protested the Turkish and Chinese governments for their treatment of journalists.

Nineteen-year-old Zoliswa Nkonyana, who lived openly as a lesbian, was stoned and stabbed to death outside of an informal bar in the Khayelitsha Township in 2006.

Sexual violence and hate crimes are shockingly prevalent in post-apartheid South Africa.

The country has one of the highest rates of child sexual abuse and "baby rape" in the world,

Mehdi Hasan writing on Holocaust Memorial Day, 27 January:  "between 2001 and 2007 the Muslim Council of Britain took the morally abhorrent (and strategically stupid) decision to boycott the day, crassly insisting that it be renamed "Genocide Memorial Day". In 2008, the boycott was dropped only to be resumed in 2009 after Israel's assault on Gaza. I yield to no one in my support for the Palestinian cause. But denying or ignoring the Holocaust does nothing to advance that cause. Palestinian suffering is not reduced by belittling the mass murder of Europe's Jews"

Makor Rishon reports on an interesting, if quixotic, conference that took place at Ariel University.

They were there to debate "What is the best peace plan?"

It was sponsored by an Israeli organization that had already held similar conferences in Tel Aviv, eastern Jerusalem and Beit Jala. The Ariel conference was attended by Palestinian Arabs, Jews who live in Samaria, students with yarmulkas together with Muslim men and women.

While the organizers were upset that some of the Arab invitees were barred and others were held up at checkpoints, the atmosphere was described as intimate as the groups mingled over coffee and cookies.

Israeli negotiators told their Palestinian counterparts this week that their guiding principle for drawing the borders of a future two-state solution would be for existing settlement blocks to become part of Israel, an approach that the Palestinians rejected as unacceptable.

The discussion, which occurred in Jordan on Wednesday night, was the first time the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu formally told the Palestinian Authority how it would seek to handle the territorial part of their negotiations, although Mr. Netanyahu had made the point publicly to Congress in Washington in May.

A Palestinian official said the offer “effectively abandons international law and the framework we have been focused on for the past 20 years.” Speaking on the condition of anonymity on the subject of the talks, as did Israeli officials, the Palestinian said, “If you put it in perspective, it is as if the West Bank were not occupied, just disputed, with both sides having legitimate claims, while the rest of Israel remains outside the dispute.” Read more;

The Islamist group Boko Haram, which has killed almost 1,000 people in Nigeria, will continue its campaign of violence until the country is ruled by sharia law, a senior member has told the Guardian.

As Germany commemorates the liberation of the Nazi death camp Auschwitz, The Local wrtier Miriam Widman explores just how widespread anti-Semitism continues to be in Germany nearly 70 years after the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million killed, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation). 

An Israeli Arab man has admitted locking his daughter, now 20, in a bathroom for nine years in their West Bank home, feeding her leftovers and letting her out only at night.

The woman's father cited a "family dispute" as the reason he imprisoned her behind a locked, heavy metal door,

(Text link to video)

Arabs and Jews...working together! :-)

Israel Hayom: "The owner and publisher of the Atlanta Jewish Times, who sparked outrage with a column he wrote earlier this month suggesting that Israel consider assassinating U.S. President Barack Obama, has resigned, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported Monday. According to JTA, Andrew Adler announced he was "relinquishing all day-to-day activities effective immediately" in the wake of his opinion piece published Jan. 13, which said Obama's assassination was among Israel's options in thwarting a nuclear Iran. "

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has hinted he may not visit France again if a proposed bill that would criminalize the rejection of Armenian genocide claims passes in the country's Senate today. 

When asked what his reaction would be in the event the bill was approved by the French Senate, Erdoğan said that he may not go to France again if the bill is approved

ANGRY Muslims in Huddersfield have denounced a group in the town.

They claim that the Ahmadiyya Muslims are not true Muslims and have condemned them for hosting an exhibition of the Holy Koran.

“The World Muslim League in April 1974 declared that the Ahmadiyya are falsely claiming to be an Islamic sect.

KANO, Nigeria — A coordinated attack by a radical Islamist sect in north Nigeria’s largest city killed at least 143 people, a hospital official said Saturday, representing the extremist group’s deadliest assault since beginning its campaign of terror in Africa’s most populous nation