Israeli Tolerance

We tolerate other religions, except when we don't

The above Haaretz article provides us with an interesting look into Israeli society. It states that despite claims, often heard by the pro-israel lobby, of Israel's "tolerance", most Israeli Jews view the non-Jewish population with a double standard. This justified bigotry allows for the existence of non-Jewish groups, so long as they remain in the shadows and to do not participate in civil society.

Some facts from the article:

•  Only 50 percent of the sample agreed that Jerusalem was central to the Christian faith
  

•  75 percent believe the state should not allow Christian organizations to purchase land to construct new churches in the city. 
  

•  Seventy-eight percent of religious Jews believe Christianity is "idol worship"

How can any State, in all seriousness, claim to be a model of tolerance when it refuses to acknowledge the freedom of religion of minority groups-i.e. the right of people to build and occupy houses of worship?

One must also be aware of the racial aspect of this religious bigotry-The vast majority of Christians in Israel are Palestinians. Thus, this can and must be viewed through the lense of Israeli Apartheid; the system which has forced an entire people into the role of the "inferior race", and where all acts must be approved from above-by the "superior race". We can now add to the list-in addition to the other human rights the Israeli state has systematically denied or stolen from the Palestinians-the right of freedom of worship.

Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 Trailer

They're all going to laugh at you, Pt.1

Fascist Agendas

Ibrahim maintained that any new government might need at least a year to consider all options and formulate its positions. "I believe that an Israeli government that has a fascist agenda cannot proceed or convince the international community of such an agenda, especially after Israel has just carried out a war on Gaza."

Obama, Afghanistan, and Poppies

Juan Cole has an excellent analysis on Obama's first official policy move in Afghanistan.

Echoing Juan's points, some notes:

• What does Obama hope to gain by increasing troop numbers? As Prof. Cole points out, the US attempt to pacify Iraq using sheer force of numbers has been a resounding failure; Obama knows this, as he made it a part of his campaign in arguing for the US' official withdrawl of combat troops. More than that, the history of Afghanistan shows that an imperial army, be it the Soviets or the US, cannot hope to outlast the Afghan insurgency simply by having more troops, in particular when the root causes remain blantantly unsolved.
• Re: Poppy production. This may play well in the United States. However, it shows a lack of understanding of the material situation of most Afghanis. Poppies for Herion production, as Juan points out, count for nearly 1/3rd of GDP. The people who cultivate these poppies are Afghanistan's rural poor. Poverty has driven them to this situation; Removing a crucial source of income for these poor will do absolutely nothing to better their situation.
• Of course, in 8 years of occupation, the US has been content to do little except engage in skirmishes with guerillas, kill civillians with impunity, and support a government made up of warlords and US-friendly puppets. The people of Afghanistan have seen little actual benefit from the US invasion of 2001-present.
• With NATO's commitment beginning to wind down, the US will once again be in a situation of unilateral occupation. As it stands, I see no reason for this imperial venture to end any differently than the one in Iraq.

I drink the coffee, you read the news

Israeli Right fights over who will brutalize Palestinians Next

The UN will "hold Israel to account." For real this time.

Obama considers UN Anti-Racism conference, bringing the US ever closer to joining the civilized world.

Racist State refuses to attend Anti-Racism conference. In other news, the sky remains blue.

Juan Cole on the biggest Foreign looting of Iraq since the Mongol invasion.

This is why we can't have nice things

I was born and raised Roman Catholic. I still attend Mass on Sundays, despite my own personal and political beliefs becoming ever more contrasting with the Vatican. In my heart of hearts, I'd like to believe one day that those the Church has officially persecuted in the 20th and 21th century for speaking Truth to Power will be officially recognized; and for those who have been excommunicated, their bannings lifted.

This is not one of those times

The development came even as a new report quoted Williamson as having declared in a 1989 speech that “Jews made up the Holocaust, Protestants get their orders from the devil and the Vatican has sold its soul to liberalism.”

Williamson’s views about the Holocaust created an uproar last month when Pope Benedict XVI lifted his excommunication and that of three other bishops consecrated by the late Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

“There was not one Jew killed in the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies,” Williamson said in the 1989 speech at Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes church in Sherbrooke, Canada, according to the newspaper.

In the same speech, the paper said Williamson asserted that “the Jews created the Holocaust so we would prostrate ourselves on our knees before them and approve of their new State of Israel.”

The Daily News reported that the bishop also wrote letters in 2001 and 2002 blaming “Judeo-Masonry” for the two world wars and claiming that Jews were bent on world domination. It did not say to whom the letters were sent.

Take your hate-speech elsewhere, Mr. Williamson. We do not need in. Not Catholics, nor Palestinians, nor the anti-Zionist movement.

I would also be remiss if I didn't point out the person behind this bigot being welcomed with open arms back into the Church. Thank you, Your Holiness (Not in the Least).

From the "False Sense of Superiority" Files

US Lectures Chavez on Democracy

State Department spokesman Noel Clay praised "the civic spirit" of the referendum on Sunday.

But he said it was important that elected officials in Venezuela focused "on governing democratically".

The US is well known in on the continent for its support of democracy. Ask the people of Chile, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil...

Still, I don't think our friend Noel has anything to worry about:

On Monday, Venezuela's electoral commission said that with 94% of votes counted, 54% backed an end to term limits.

More than 11 million voters out of almost 17 million who were eligible took part in the referendum, said the head of the electoral body, Tibisay Lucena.

Election observers, who included representatives from Latin American nations, European Parliament deputies and European academics, said the ballot had been free and fair.

Well, maybe a few things to worry about. A popular, democratically elected, anti-imperialist head of government of a major oil-exporting country? Who does he think he is? Mossadegh?

Good Idea, Bad Idea in International Diplomacy

Good Idea

Hamas pusing forward with Egyptian-sponsored truce

Bad Idea

Clinton uses Asia trip to "warn" North Korea

Negotiations with the Occupation.

Hamas awaits Israeli reply on truce

Once again, we see a clear example of how negotiations with Israel work. Hamas, the supposed "terrorists", engage in multilateral diplomacy:

A Hamas delegation met Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman in Cairo late on Monday as Egypt continued bids to broker an extended truce with Israel over Gaza, the state MENA news agency reported.

It said the Islamist delegation was preparing to return to the Gaza Strip and Syria to await Israel's final say on a long-term truce.

 while Israel continues its collective punishment of an entire people.

Israeli warplanes targeted smuggling tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt on Monday after two rockets were fired from the Palestinian territory, witnessessaid. Israel says armed groups use the tunnels around the border town of Rafah to smuggle weapons into the Hamas-run enclave.

Anyone with any logic knows these accusations, reported without question here in the West, are patently false. Gaza has been under a blockade since the supposed Israeli "withdrawl" of 2005. (A withdrawl which has left Gaza a wall-less prison of 1.5 million people, as Israel still controls the airspace, ports, and all but one border crossing). These tunnels, crude as they may be, by and large used to smuggle in not weapons, but desperately needed food and medical supplies, which Israel has cruelly denied the 1.5 million Palestinians access to.

Hamas has accused Israel of backtracking on a deal after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Saturday ruled out lifting the blockade of Gaza, a key Hamas demand, until the Islamists release captured soldier Gilad Shalit.

And what of the tens of thousands of Palestinian political prisoners, Mr. Olmert? When will they be released? People who have been arrested and jailed for years, without charge or trial, a violation of the most basic legal principles?

 I suppose that those lives are trivial, while the life of one occupying soldier must have the highest of considerations in any negotiatons between oppressor and oppressed.

As'ad AbuKhalil is awesome

Angry Arab makes Zionists go crazy

Israeli Apartheid Week 2009

Anyone who claims to be supportive of the human rights of Palestinians should attend this event.

More information can be found at the official website.

Bush's War on Terror: Institutionalizing Rape and Torture

Digby reports on the official institutionalization of rape and torture in the "War on Terror":

"A former member of a C.I.A. transport team has described the 'takeout' of prisoners as a carefully choreographed twenty-minute routine, during which a suspect was hog-tied, stripped naked, photographed, hooded, sedated with anal suppositories, placed in diapers, and transported by plane to a secret location. A person involved in the Council of Europe inquiry, referring to cavity searches and the frequent use of suppositories during the takeout of detainees, likened the treatment to 'sodomy.' He said, 'It was used to absolutely strip the detainee of any dignity. It breaks down someone’s sense of impenetrability. The interrogation became a process not just of getting information but of utterly subordinating the detainee through humiliation.' The former C.I.A. officer confirmed that the agency frequently photographed the prisoners naked, 'because it’s demoralizing."

Those complicit in these vile acts, predicibly attempted to justify them:

"Pentagon spokesmen said the procedure was medically necessary because Mr. Kahtani was dehydrated after an especially difficult interrogation session."

However, there appears to be one official with some level of human decency, willing to depart from the official regime of truth:

"Another official, told of the use of the enema, said, however, "I bet they said he was dehydrated," adding that that was the justification whenever an enema was used as a coercive technique, as it had been on several detainees."

In case you were wondering, this was an officially sanctioned act from the Executive Branch of the United States government:

 

The Bush White House vehemently objected to provisions of the law dealing with rape by instrumentality. When House negotiators pressed to know why, they were met first with silence and then an embarrassed acknowledgment that a key part of the Bush program included invasion of the bodies of prisoners in a way that might be deemed rape by instrumentality under existing federal and state criminal statutes.

Those of us who have paid attention to US policy over the years know these actions are nothing new. (Read up on the US' involvement in the Latin American wars of national liberation for the prologue to these crimes). What is shocking is that this marks the first time that such policies have been openly sanctioned and institutionalized. These crimes, anywhere else in the world, would be cause for sending its perpetrators directly to the Hauge.

What is needed (though unfortunately unlikely) is a Truth Comission to investigate and punish these crimes against humanity. Justice demands it.