http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/24/the-secret-country-again-wages-war-on-its-own-people/
Pilger on the appauling treatment of first Australians by successive white lens governments for the sake of ‘saving’ them. Now the call is ‘fiscal savings and poor lifestyle choices’ accompanied by silence around the real MO of further pilaging the nation’s underground wealth.
Repost from the site ‘If American’s Knew’
They introduce the post as a “response to the slanted media coverage on the recent Tel Aviv stabbings that contains statistics and facts that we think you may wish to share with others.” I heard an interview with a Palestinian busdriver who was talking about the brief strike they had after a colleague was stabbed to death by ‘settlers’, I prefer to call them ‘unsettlers’ (and that’s when I’m being generous). He spoke of having to work to feed his family and being spat on and abused daily by these doyens of diplomacy in Jerusalem.
I must be getting lazy again I was in the middle of posting and found this in my inbox so will work on something else, also just wondering why Americans are so America-centric, it’s certainly not just Americans who need to know this.
The Tel Aviv stabbings: What the media left out.
My next post is a repost of the recent Jonathon Cook article which addresses the complete madness confronted everyday by Palestinians under occupation…stay tuned.
This is one really disgusting case of anti- Islam far right propaganda that is ill informed and bundles every Muslim into an IS basket. This guy needs to be stopped. I’ve put his photo on the far right of my page because that’s exactly where he sits.
Mike Holt- Patriot
and CEO of RestoreAustralia
I first heard about this when a ‘campaign’ to prevent the labelling of food with the certified “Halal” logo was successful in having the logo removed from the companies product. Apparently they had received ” so many tweets and e-mails” asking them to do this they weighed up their potential financial losses through
a) failing to secure an Emirate Airline inflight food contract
b) Loss of sales via a ‘home based’ product boycott,
They company the small South Australian based ‘Fleurieu Milk and Yoghurt’ company bowed to pressure. The campaign has resulted in a “number of businesses” speaking out about on-line abuse over halal products and threats have been investigated by police related to the Byron Bay Cookie Co. over its halal certified biscuits. See full Smart company article here in new window
I have cut down my blogposts recently in order to complete a selection of stories I have been writing but cannot put this one off! My initial information came through a small business support site email, SmartCompany.com,au
A writer from the site, Kirsten Robb, provided a further posting today from SmartCompany saving me some trouble researching this further. The person who told Ms Robb his group is “indirectly responsible for the recent spate of social media campaigns against ant halal certified Australian companies” is CEO of “the Queensland-based anti Islam lobby group- Restore Australia”.
Without finishing her article I did a quick search, Mike Holt CEO Restore Australia: and found this………………….
Before you click I advise turning your volume down as you will leap from your seat from the sound of bad taste country renditions sung by Mr Holt blaring from your speakers! He’s “been travelling and wandering, searching all these years and (he’s) only just figured out why you cried them tears…..”
http://www.restoreaustralia.org.au/about-mike-holt/
Some clicked links on the site and I discovered another site called http://islam4infidels.com Restore Australia is “the public face” of the Foundation for National Renewal, a not-for-profit registered organization with about 100 members. Lets hope it stays that way. I also discovered more fear mongering anti Islamic propaganda like the Team Australia v Team Terror comparison, “Proof” that Halal registration funds Muslims “The money generated by this fee (tax, for that is what it really is)….is helping fund the terrorism islam is waging against our civilization”. Mosque busting, a new draft constitution download here and…… why do I waste my time?
On the anti halal certification front
..we need to understand that halal certification has become a many tentacled octopus, reaching into virtually every area of our lives. Farmers are being forced to pay a halal certification fee for the grass the animals eat. Then a fee for the animals to be transported in halal certified vehicles. In many cases, even the drivers must be muslims now, as they are the only ones who are trusted by muslims to maintain the halal conditions. Slaughter houses pay. Packaging companies pay. Food processors pay. And finally, WE pay……
They then link you to this site for ‘Proof’ http://www.frontpagemag.com/2013/joe-kaufman/can-buying-food-contribute-to-terrorism/ Thanks Mr Kaufman for your helpful US Zionist propaganda insights and glad you were beaten at the recent US midterm election in Florida.
By the way Holt was also a One Nation Qld candidate only has 107 likes at last count, admitted that’s more than I have for this blog but I’m not running a religiously intolerant campaign that spuriously changed a Small food companies marketing strategy.
I had started a post 2 days ago and with other things going on I didn’t post it.
Tonight the ABC and no doubt other channels have plastered a video of a car in Jerusalem apparently running over some people and killing a 3month old baby. Immediately the report goes to an interview of an Israeli policeman calling it ‘a terrorist attack’. The driver was shot dead by Israeli police or IDF. Shocking incident…..and empty, lazy reporting.
What follows is the drafted repost of a report from earlier this week. We never saw anything about this or previous premeditated murders of Palestinian children by rampaging Zionist Settlers. I have not got the url for it… The reason I had not posted was I intended to write about the issue after further research. Tonights news pushed this post up on my ‘tell the whole truth’ priority list.
Here is the original …I will reference later. I dont blog well on my phone!
“A kindergarten girl Sunday died of her wounds, while another was seriously injured after an Israeli settler deliberately ran them over while they were on their way home from kindergarten near a village to the north of Ramallah, according to medical sources.
Sources said that a settler deliberately ran over Inas Khalil and Toleen Asfoor, both aged five, while walking home from kindergarten near the entrance of the village of Sinjil; a settler, coming from nearby settlements, drove toward the two girls and ran them over before fleeing the scene.
The two girls were severely injured and were transferred to hospital for treatment, where Khalil died of her critical wounds, while Asfoor is still in a very critical condition.
To be noted, Settlers are continually involved in hit and run accidents against Palestinians.
It looks like we’re going to be a part of the insane US bombing in Syria and renewed (visible) presence in Iraq.
It looks like we are lamely going to follow a country run by people who appear quite MAD
It looks like so are we. Ours just look more stupid
Tony Abbott is our PM On the subtleties of the crisis in Syria he said, ‘It’s not goodies versus baddies, it’s baddies versus baddies’. see here
Julie Bishop is our Foreign Affairs Minister –“ISIL is a ‘global’ threat” (Lateline ABC TV program 11.9.2014) and “We are keen to play our part in ensuring that this heightened terrorist risk to Australia can be tackled head-on,” see here
http://www.leunig.com.au/index.php/cartoons/recent-cartoons?start=1 Wednesday 10th Sept 2014 Sydney Morning Herald
George Brandis (remember Palestinian Territories are not ‘occupied’) is our Attorney General (link to previous post)
Brandis says Palestinian Territory is NOT Occupied
We’re fucked!
Recently people were ‘shocked’, “horrified” and ‘disgusted’ by mainstream media’s (MSM) portrayal (using so-called ISIS Facebook and Youtube videos) of their exploits of death in Iraq and Syria.
Syrian and Iraqi people have been living daily lives for years with events many of us couldn’t even imagine as a result of ‘planned’ invasion in Iraq and orchestrated destabilisation in Syria since the US invasion of Iraq and the ‘insurgency’ in Syria. The internet abounds with posts about who is to blame for the rise of this group and what countries hands are covered in blood that cannot be washed off.
This post will leave further discussion of that to your areas of interest and to the numerous analysis and books on the subject of both George Bush’s ‘real Iraq agenda’ and plausible accounts of who’s been backing the so called Syrian ‘insurgents’ and why. I want to focus on the apparent rush to ‘actively’ bomb and invade two significantly traumatised countries based on these so called ‘recent’ IS events. For an interesting if lengthy English subtitled interview with an ‘Iraq War Defected AlQaeda leader’, Sheik Nabeel Naim ‘exposes ISIS and US alliance’. see here
IN THE US
Obama is being blamed by the conservatives for being weak and for leaving IRAQ too early (surprise surprise) so it would not be surprising to find homegrown US party politics is largely behind this decision. Bush on the other hand (both of them really) is not blamed for invading a country and killing its people for oil under the guise of finding ‘weapons of mass destruction’, lying about the reason for sending his own people to be killed and rendering completely disfunctional a country of around 26 million people under the guise of introducing Day..mark…crassy.
The US under Obama formally ‘pulled out’ of Iraq in 2011 leaving “trained Iraqi military in control”…….
IN IRAQ
In Iraq Al Maliki, the PM ‘agreed to step down’ here and the current President is “veteran Iraqi politician Fuad Masum was overwhelmingly elected by parliament in July 2014. He is the second ethnic Kurdish president of Iraq” (although that title of President is more given by the US as he was elected by parliament not by the Iraqi people.) The PM is now Haider al-Abadi a Shia deputy speaker ‘invited by Faud Masum to the position. Al Maliki wasn’t happy but ‘stepped down’ the political situation is fragile, despite being ‘more representative of Sunni and Kurds. Apparently Masum has asked the US for help. REALLY?
Since 2004, what is described as ‘sectarian fighting’ has increased in Iraq resulting in huge numbers of IDP’s and overcrowded Refugee tent camps on the borders with Syria, Turkey and Jordan. The destruction by both Shia and Sunni based Islamist militia has never been truly controlled by Maliki’s government and it is in fact said to have been fomented by the Shia dominance under the Maliki government in the power vaccuum of the downfall of the Saddam Hussein Ba’athist regime. The Sunni Muslim who made up about 40% of the Iraqi population have been constantly under attack and have railed against the situation. There is UNHCR evidence from fleeing Palestinians that Palestinian Iraqi’s were “forced to join” jihadist Sunni groups in southern Iraq and that many Palestinian Iraqi refugees were turned back at the Jordanian border. here
Nobody cares about that. But if the US is bombing, how many reluctant and ‘forced’ Islamist militia will be caught in this mess.
Even Muqtada al-Sadr the Shia leader of the Mahdi Army leader has left for safer surrounds, he “said in February that Iraq “is ruled by wolves, thirsty for blood, souls that are eager for wealth, leaving their nation in suffering, in fear, in water puddles, in dark nights, lightened only by moonlight or a candle, swamped by assassinations based on differences or after ridiculous disagreements.” He left for Iran, fed up with the politics and violence I n his land. This despair is what gave ISIS the opportunity to build its bases in northern Iraq.” see here and my recent post here
US-ISRAELI-BRITISH DESIGNS OF A ‘HORNET’S NEST’ IN IRAQ AND SYRIA
The US won few ‘hearts and minds’ in Iraq and I wonder how they thought they could, despite even the best efforts of troops, the shocking events of Abu Ghraib, and the arrogance of the White House showed how lip service best intentions were not backed by the reality on the ground, with responsibility going well up the chain of command. The opportunity for violent Islamism to rise in the face of their attack on the country was provided by US arrogance.
The beginning of the ISIS group started (as reported by Press TV in August this year) back to 2003 with a ‘core Kurdish militia formed after the US invasion’. see here . There is information that the US, British and Israel intelligence (Mossad) used a strategy called the ‘hornets nest’ to create the precursors to IS with the intention of attracting Islamic extremists to the one place. It is documented that a US commando with El Salvadoran experience training death squads was brought to Iraq to train Iraqi police. see here On James Steele the US Commando – This is one of the great untold stories of the Iraq War, how just over a year after the invasion, the United States funded a sectarian police commando force that set up a network of torture centers to fight the [Sunni] insurgency’ It seems one way to do this is to develop two sides of the sectarian coin. One way to get rid of Muslims would certainly be get them to kill each other and who in their right mind would want that? (I wonder?)
The creation of IS (not so named until much later this year), with the assistance of Arab oil sheikdom ‘crowd funding’ support (particularly through Qatar and Saudi Arabia) shows evidence of US, Israeli and British knowledge, facilitation and backing. See here . CIA knowledge on the operations of Al Zarkawi aka Ahmed Fadil Al-Khalayleh, (apparently among other aliases), the original leader of the group was extensive. Zarkawi was a Palestinian Jordanian secured by the CIA in 1989 to fight in Afghanistan. He later was accused of the Dec 1999 ‘thwarted attack on the Radisson Hotel in Jordan and was believed killed in a car bombing in June 2006. For more on Zarkawis life see here And this photo of John McCain with Al Bagdadi, ‘The Caliph’ AKA Simon Elliott (second from left) and Mohamed Nour (on the right) now deceased IS Commander. See an older post https://asidewrite.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/joining-the-dots-innocents-sovereignty-ignorance-and-shams-isis/
US Senator John McCain photographed with Mohamed Nour and Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi
The big item in MSM recently was that IS was recouping revenue from oil in Iraq. The question, who’s buying it and how can that be stopped was NEVER ASKED by journalists and I have seen many opportunities to slip that in. Here is one answer from Middle Eastern Monitor from July 2014 where the (now resigned) mayor of Tuz Khurmatu, Abdul Baban “said: “People who buy the oil use paved roads controlled by ISIS militants and take it through the cities of Kifri or Qadir Karam to civil refineries or across the Iranian border or they go through the city of Makhmour to the Kurdistan region in coordination with the checkpoints.” here
Tuz Khumatu is 85 ks south of the oil rich area of Kirkuk, it is primarily occupied by Turkmen people who are made up of both Sunni and Shia Muslims and has recently seen fierce fighting between IS and Kurdish Peshmurga fighters see here
Israeli news has this offering see here
“The Ambassador for the European Union (EU) in Iraq, Jana Hybaskova, admitted last week that several EU member states have bought oil from the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorist organization that has been brutally conquering large portions of Iraq and Syria.Hybaskova made the revelation at the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee, but refused to divulge the names of the countries despite being asked numerous times, reports the Turkish Daily Sabah.”
AFP reported on 31st August 2014 that at the request of the government of Iraq, the United States military today airdropped humanitarian aid to the town of Amerli,” said Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby.
“The United States Air Force delivered this aid alongside aircraft from Australia, France and the United Kingdom, who also dropped much needed supplies.”
The aid drops came alongside “coordinated air strikes against nearby ISIL terrorists in order to support this humanitarian assistance operation,”
The numbers recently reported of IS fighting force was 10,000. Today the ABC (Australian news reports this figure has been lifted (in the past few days) by the US intelligence to be more like 35,000. What a significant jump. Press TV the Iranian (in English) news network reported back in August 22nd 2014 “But instead of transforming terrorists into political participants, the U.S., along with its Saudi, Qatari, Turkish and western allies, has created an out-of-control monster with upwards of 50,000 fighters controlling an area the size of Belgium.” http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/08/22/376159/isil-independent-or-ciamossad-proxy/ Sounds like the home grown element of this force that was estimated as around
SYRIA
Bashar Al Assad is the current leader of Syria, (the country being described as under dictatorship, despite recent elections where Assad was voted in by a majority of Syrians) where events occurred that the MSM attached to the spread of the ‘Arab Spring’, started a bloody war that MSM continues to call ‘civil’. People who lived in a secular, rapidly modernising society (certainly in the main cities of Damascus and Aleppo) found themselves as refugees across the globe. The major problem of course for the US was oil and Syrian links to Russia, Iran, and what hawks in the US might call ‘recalcitrance’ of their leader, who refused to play corporate ball with the US allies Turkey and Iraq?and looked to Iran. An agreement with Iraq late in 2010 for a pipeline and another in July 2012 with Iran meant western supported arrangements with Syria could not be trusted. In March 2012 when the situation in Syria began to really hot up, this article appeared in the website with the dubious title “Imagine an Open Oil Industry”
…”The political terrain is tricky. Turkey, a NATO member, is firmly anchored with the West and will presumably want a new Syrian government as different as possible from Assad’s discredited regime. The new government’s ability to work with Iraq, meanwhile, may depend on its relations with Iran. If the transitional government, like Assad, is beholden to Iran, it may be easier for it to coordinate with the Maliki government in Iraq than if it is more closely aligned with Turkey and the West.
Nothing on this front will happen as long as Assad clings to power. But even after the current regime falls, the new government will need to pull off a difficult balancing act to make both Turkey and Iraq amenable to cooperation”. see here
Assad is a leader managed better than any other in the region to survive a concerted outside attack on his country’s stability and a so called internal albeit disparate group of ‘Free Syrian Army’ fighters across the various sections of a country with divided and tribal allegiances and leadership. The FSA has seen three ‘leaders’ since july 2011, the most recent change occurring in 2014. Monzer Akbik the Chief of staff of the Syrian National Coalition (A title that suggests more unity than the reality) said in Dec 2013
“…..the opposition had sought hundreds of millions to bankroll a scheme to establish a ministry of defence that would transform the anti-regime fighters into a single force. If we transform the very loose structure of the Free Syrian army into a conventional army this will be a much more sustainable way of fighting the regime,” he said. “As things stand the revolution is built on shifting sands. We don’t want Syria to be a failed state or a safe haven for al-Qaeda. The only way to do that is with a moderate army.” see here
Does that sound familiar? Echo Obama and the Syrian moderates.
In 2014, Many Syrians have lost family and friends and become refugees or IDP’s in the process and once lively and previously peaceful neighborhoods being bloodied, shattered and flattened. The ‘Cradle of Civilisation’ has been rocked beyond belief.
Obama’s ‘Plan’
Obama said (reported here )“I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are,” the president said from the White House. “This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.” The main reason we are being told that the US will go back into Iraq with fighter jets, military advisers, “increased support to forces fighting on the ground” so called “humanitarian supports” and extend their operations across into Syria is because we are told- ISIL (IS) is a “terrorist threat to the US” and the US intend to “counter its warped ideology”, supported by “decent countries”. This language is an appalling cover for a lie designed to be acceptable to the ‘ordinary’ person in America (also read Australia as the USA’s 51st state). We ‘share the same values’ we are continuously told by the current and previous governments of Australia. REALLY?
My Thanks to Scott Creighton at http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/top-10-us-backed-atrocities-and-authoritarian-regimes/ for the video link below. You’ll need data and 30 mins but well worth the time to brush up on your US Hegemony history.
WHAT IS THE SYRIAN RESPONSE?
Al Assad has ‘expressed to the UN special envoy to Syria, Stefan de Mistura, that the Syrian governments readiness to work with him and provide the necessary support and cooperation to make his mission a success in a way that serves the interests of the Syrian people and reach a solution that ensures the elimination of terrorism and the various terrorist organisations regardless of their names.’
Ali Haidar, Syrian Minister for National Reconciliation, told reporters in Damascus.
“Any action of any type without the approval of Syrian government is an aggression against Syria,”
“There must be cooperation with Syria and coordination with Syria and there must be a Syrian approval of any action whether it is military or not,” he said. here
CHINA?
China’s response embedded in the Syrian news video above from Syrian Free Press through the spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry is that Beijing opposes all forms of terrorism and that the International Community should come together to fight terrorism pointing out that this should be a collective effort within the framework of international Law.
IRAN?
Now we read reports that from AFP (Aug 31 2014) … “Washington has thus far ruled out any cooperation with the Damascus regime against the jihadists but has attempted to enlist the support longtime foe Tehran, a key backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.” I wonder what the Israeli’s think of that given their stance on Iran supplying Hamas!
Press TV have an article from Kevin Barrett a well known critic of the “War on Terror” his latest article posted on the 10th September 2014 states:
“To save the planet, we need to arrest Henry Kissinger for his September 11th crimes: those of 2001 as well as 1973.” He is speaking of the US assisted coup of General Augusto Pinochet in 1973 which occurred on September the 11th. Barrett’s article here
Not surprisingly the news about Iran’s response to Washington’s ‘approach’ is conflictual. On the one hand we have a report of the 5th September 2014 that says “the BBC’s Persian service quoted sources in Tehran as saying that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has authorized his top commander to coordinate military operations with the US, even though the two countries have had no ties since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.” here
Another report dated 8th September 2014 states the supreme leader Ali Khamenei said last week translation of his remarks provided to the Washington Free Beacon. see here and Original in Farsi
……Iran will lead this “new world order” that will replace American influence as capitalism and Western influence collapses, according to Khamenei, who underwent surprise prostate surgery on Monday.
“Iran will have a strong role in creating the new world order,” Khamenei said, explaining that Tehran will expand its already growing influence in Latin America and even Asia.
“We have important potential outside Iran, we have supporters, we have strategic depth, in the region, some because of Islam, some because of language, some because of Shia religion, they are our strategic depth, these are all our strengths, we should use them all,” ……………… The article continues…. On Monday, just days after delivering these remarks to top leaders in Iran, Khamenei entered the hospital for prostate surgery.
Doesn’t sound too supportive to me, despite the radaw.net report. Additional nd alongside the new world order thing.. “A sign of the West’s waning power came when “the Zionist regime of Israel” purportedly “lost the battle against the small population of the Muslims in Gaza,” according to a separate recounting of Khamenei’s remarks published by the state-run Fars News Agency.” But he’s old and having prostate surgery, perhaps Mossad can do that, give you a prostate problem and perhaps they have other things in mind.
TURKEY?
“If the United States thinks that they can fix things by bombing the area now, it is impossible.” —Mehmet Ali Sahin, deputy chairman of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party
RUSSIA?
If the US goes ahead with airstrikes in Syria without a UN Security Council mandate, this would be an act of aggression, Russia’s Foreign Ministry has warned.
“The US president has spoken directly about the possibility of strikes by the US armed forces against ISIL positions in Syria without the consent of the legitimate government,” ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich said. “This step, in the absence of a UN Security Council decision, would be an act of aggression, a gross violation of international law.” see here
On 9.11.2014 Obama said amongst other things..“I have made it clear that we will hunt down terrorists who threaten our country, wherever they are,” the president said from the White House. “This is a core principle of my presidency: If you threaten America, you will find no safe haven.” It was his day…..
Am I not getting something? Where is the threat to America? Wont they have enough oil?
Did they behead 2 journalists? Is that also a plot? here, and here and even if they did does that constitute F18 strikes? We wont see the same photos we did in Gaza and the on the ground capacity to get real information is much more limited leaving much more room for untethered destruction.
If its about homegrown’s coming back to wreak havoc in the US, haven’t they instituted the same or even more stringent airport and immigration checks alongside internal surveillance on ‘potential terrorist threats’. Can’t they stop people on return from Syria or Iraq just what threat is someone who goes oversees to make ‘glorious’ violent suicidal death that involves killing others. They’re probably going to be dead right? How many are we talking about? My recent post listed likely numbers identified by European and countries and Australia with recent reports in Australia putting numbers her around 60.
It appears that at best this latest Obama speech (he’s looking less and less like a president and more and more like a puppet of Israel under Zionist and corporate interests) is a crafted deceit to (again) suc the American public into support for the governments war machine activities (tagging Syria into the equation of securing oil interests in Iraq via IS not WMD this time) and at worst the US being ignorant as to the real costs of this incursion to the people of America while supporting the corporate war machine. Apparently US public sentiment is galvanised around the ‘beheadings’. Please see this as alternative to what has been presented by MSM. here,
Yet again, Australia actively and sycophantically ‘supports’ the US and ‘waits’ (as we did in Vietnam when we committed more troops under President Johnson – All the Way with LBJ! and when we joined Bush’s ‘War on Terror’, in the Coalition of the Willing) in the wings to be ‘invited’.
Let’s not forget Netanyahu, Israels Zionist Likud Party leader, who recently got off on tweeting “Hamas is ISIS” He must be feeling like the cat with the Arab cream, Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Saudi friends, UAE support in bombing Libya, Egypt in safe US/Israeli supported military hands, Bibi’s on fire. See here
Alastair Cook Middle Eastern Journalist in Nazareth, describes Netanyahu’s depiction of Hamas and ISIS, or Islamic State, as “branches of the same poisonous tree” is a travesty of the truth.
The best analysis I have read comes from the Australian National University supported site ‘The Conversation’ and is posted by Clarke Jones yesterday. His summary paragraph states,
Any military intervention will play into IS’s hands, and is likely to result in a more acute crisis that will encourage, rather than discourage, radical individuals to pour into Syria and Iraq to boost the terrorist group’s numbers.
A significant offshoot of increasing military intervention will be civilian casualties. Modern military forces will always face difficulties countering enemies that comprise groups of loose, shifting and disparate units of fighters that take refuge among the civilian population.
Sending the military to cure social problems or religious divides or to wage war on non-traditional opponents will always be problematic. Terrorism should be viewed as a long-term problem that must be understood, contained and treated.
http://theconversation.com/obamas-iraq-and-syria-strategy-risks-a-global-radical-backlash-31377
I feel ILL, but reading that was in some way positive.
Why isn’t Clarke Jones advising Abbott?
What are we doing…..our politicians all look so blindly stupid and blindly righteous.
If I was religious I’d say ‘god help us all’ but I’m not and its about time we all woke up from our comfy corners of this world and really helped each other instead of just talking about it. Opening our doors to refugees would be a good start, because in closing them we are seen as racists, cruel and heartless. Surely we can rely on the massive security dollars we are spending to be more aware of the causes of homegrown terrorism and the wonders of engaging other cultures and religions. Our Muslim leaders and Muftis are well known and the preachers of hate can be readily filtered if we took time to engage with our Muslim community. But that means having forward thinking creative politicians , legal advisers and policy makers. Not can’t get a job in Martin Place would be politicians. We also need to stop thinking like the 51st State.
As we say colloquially here……. ITS TIME TO CHUCK A U-EE (Make a U-turn)
One guy, sorry two guys, both adults who chose to ‘report’ on a war zone in another country, place themselves at risk, get captured 2 years ago and supposedly recently lose their lives within days of each other. All this in a dodgy video posted to taunt and big note a ‘terrorist group’ with a new name.
Meanwhile in Gaza………2,104 Palestinians killed over, including 1,462 civilians, of whom 495 are children and 253 are women none of whom ‘chose’ to be there and all of them bravely lived through an 8year seige and at least 3 separate illegal massive bombardments of their country. While the world watched and did nothing.. see sitrep Gaza August
Nothing but silence about Israels murderous attack on innocent civilians because terrorists (Hamas, their legitimately elected government) put them there?
and I Just read this ….Jewish Forward Daily here’s a section……
“The Committee to Protect Journalists estimates that at least 70 other journalists have been killed covering the brutal conflict; more than 80 have been kidnapped.
Most of them were Syrian. We mourn them, too. But forgive us if we experience a special kind of grief for the Jewish kid from Miami, who played rugby and video games and tweeted about American basketball and risked his life to tell an important story”
No I wont be forgiving you, that’s not up to me…
The ‘special kind of grief’ you speak of……it is special, its self aggrandising, lacks broad compassion and smacks of racism.
I have to post another Leunig Cartoon
This post includes a reblog of Scott Creighton’s post today.
I will hopefully always be blown away by the capacity of people to use money to influence others. Current Zionist propaganda is extreme and heavily funded but people’s capacity to see through it is not dead.
1. Scott’s post below
Playwright Wallace Shawn translates ADL ad justifying Israeli child murder into plain English.
Also heard Samah Sabawi on Gaza -short BBC -interview where interviewer continually talked over Samah yesterday but she got through some counters………The work goes on. Now we have to help Palestine rebuild, build on the numbers of hasbara skeptics and continue to increase the numbers of people who will question (and not forget those with compassion fatigue who are lucky that’s all they have!)
2. Samah’s BBC Radio Interview
and for good measure,
3. Nathan Goodman from the liberal Jewish Daily “Forward” on “How to sell Americans on Israel’s Wars” see here
The Electronic Intifada Blogsite see here ran a piece recently titled “Liberal” Guardian to print pro-genocide ad’.
I am reprinting the Advertisement here not because I want to give it space but rather because it has been given space and should be called for the propaganda it is!
Newspaper advertisement composed by US TV personality Rabbi Shmuley Boteach and Nobel prize-winning author Elie Wiesel.
There is much to criticise about the wording of the ad, the Guardian’s questionable ethics in running it and the whole continuation of Israeli propaganda involved at this time.
I only have two things to say:
The article by Esam al Amin see here from 2010 is also worth a read on Weisel and his Israeli propaganda efforts in the US.
Clooney with his Arts for Humanity Award and Elie Wiesel in May this year photo from http://eliewieselfoundation.org/artsforhumanity.aspx
asidewrite 