Bloody Tuesday in Gaza

6 Comments

1. 

   Oui on January 17, 2008 at 7:49 am

   .

   Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Lieberman blasts Arab MKs, pulls party out of government

   TEL AVIV (Haaretz) Jan. 15, 2008 – Yisrael Beiteinu chairman Avigdor Lieberman announced his party’s departure from the coalition, saying the rightist party would not tolerate negotiations with the Palestinian Authority on the core issues of the conflict.

   Lieberman, who served as strategic affairs minister in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government, said peace talks must address the issue of transferring the Israeli Arab population to Palestinian control.

   “From our point of view, the concept of land for peace is out of the question,” said Lieberman. “The principle must be exchanges of territory and population.”

   The outgoing minister said a withdrawal to the pre-1967 borders would not bring peace or an end to terrorism.

   “Its not that we oppose the solution of two states for two peoples,” said the Yisrael Beitienu chairman. “On the contrary, we support it – two states for two peoples, not a state and a half for one people and half a state for the other.”

   “We can’t accept the assymetry of a Palestinian state without a single Jew, and Israel becoming a binational state with more than 20 percent minorities,” he continued.

   “Our problem is not with the Palestinians, it is with Israeli Arabs,” he said. “[Israeli Arab MKs] Ahmed Tibi and Mohammed Barakeh are more dangerous than [Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled] Meshal and [Hezbollah leader Hassan] Nasrallah, because they operate from within.”  

   "But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."

   • 

     Mattes on January 17, 2008 at 9:56 pm

     http://www.politicalfleshfeast.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=1698

2. 

   Mattes on January 17, 2008 at 11:05 am

    Justify this: (0.00 / 0)
    Missile defense, AIPAC, billions in military aid and Israel  
   are connected.

   And I’d like to see this stopped:

     Bingo tycoon subsidizes extremism in Israel –

          An impoverished small town in Southern California would seem an improbable venue for funding settlements in the occupied territories of Palestine, but physician and financier Irving Moskowitz has by many accounts funneled millions of dollars into settlements on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem from the proceeds of a charitable bingo operation in Hawaiian Gardens, Calif.

          snip
          Using revenue from the bingo operation as well as in some cases his own private funds, Moskowitz has won a reputation both in this country and in Israel for funding extremist settlers on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. In addition to aiding Jewish settlers in Hebron, Moskowitz helped finance the controversial restoration of an ancient tunnel that leads from Jerusalem’s Western Wall Plaza to the Muslim quarter of the Old City. The opening of the tunnel in 1996 sparked Palestinian fears for the security of the Muslim shrines in Jerusalem and led to riots in which 70 people were killed.
          snip
         Increasing Jewish presence

          If arguably the Moskowitz foundation does not give directly to settlers, it does give to groups that support them. Tax records and published reports indicate that the Moskowitz Foundation has been a major contributor to the American Friends of Ateret Cohanim, donating $5 million over the years to the American arm of an ultra-nationalist group whose goal is to Judaicize the Arab quarter of Fast Jerusalem and drive out Arab residents living there. Ateret Cohanim–the name means Crown of the Priest–agitates for rebuilding the ancient Jewish temple and reinstituting animal sacrifices as in the time of King Solomon. In 1978 it opened a militant yeshiva in the heart of the Muslim quarter of the Old City to train students to become priests for the as-yet unbuilt temple. Jews believe the ruins of the old temple lie underneath the Dome of the Rock, Islam’s third-holiest site, and it’s widely assumed that construction of a new temple on the spot Jews call the Temple Mount would almost inevitably involve the destruction of the mosque and inflame Muslims around the world.

          Moskowitz recently built a Jewish neighborhood of more than a hundred apartments in the heart of Ras et Amud, an Arab neighborhood of 11,000 in Fast Jerusalem, and is building more units in Abu-Dis, an Arab village outside Jerusalem that has been discussed as a possible capital for a future Palestinian state.

          Geoffrey Aronson, director of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, said Moskowitz prides himself on his role in increasing the Jewish presence in the Old City of Jerusalem. “He’s donated millions of dollars to buy and build properties in some of the hottest spots in East Jerusalem and the Old City,” Aronson said.

          From scrutinizing the 990 tax forms that all foundations are required to file, Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak, coordinator of the Coalition for Justice in Hawaiian Gardens and Jerusalem, calculates that the Moskowitz Foundation has given fundamentalist settlers somewhere between $70 million and $80 million dollars. “That’s money we can track on the 990s. Then there is stuff that he has given under his personal name,” said Beliak.
          http://findarticles.com/p/arti...

   Which leads to money for military:

          http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/mid...

   Then we have other right-wing billionaires trying to run AIPAC, which is the pusher for missile defense:

       Israel Lobby Rapped for Supporting Arabs

            The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is coming under fire from one of its major donors, Sheldon Adelson, who said the pro-Israel lobby is giving too much support to the Palestinians in advance of the upcoming peace summit.

          Aipac gave its blessing to a recent congressional letter supporting increased aid for the Palestinian Authority.

          In a phone conversation with Aipac’s executive director Howard Kohr, the casino magnate Adelson argued that the lobby should not have supported the letter, because increasing American aid to the Palestinians would be destructive to Israel, according to Aipac sources.
          http://www.forward.com/article...

   And now the Israeli  J’lem approves controversial Mughrabi project
   By Akiva Eldar

          Jerusalem’s district planning and construction committee has approved a controversial plan to restore the Mughrabi bridge leading to one of the entrances to the Temple Mount, construction that caused an outcry among Muslims and generated protest from the Jordanian and Turkish governments in June.

          The plan, approved two weeks ago, also includes expansion of the women’s section of the Western Wall plaza.
          http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/s...

   Zionism run amuck, and excuse for never ending war. IMO.

   AND latest polls say Likud and Netenyahu would win in the coming elections.

   • 

     Cabaret Voltaire on January 17, 2008 at 12:48 pm

     Mattes, here’s a little video you might enjoy. It’s George Galloway spanking David Frum.
     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d0DKbbv0Lg

     • 

       Mattes on January 17, 2008 at 1:19 pm

       And I completely agree.

3. 

   Gene on January 17, 2008 at 1:10 pm

   Thanks, guys, for the support and the additional input. Last night, I browsed some of the main US blogs for more information on that tragedy. Zilch! Maybe I did not peruse the right ones, maybe I did it on the wrong day at the wrong time. Anyway, I took it for granted that I was again in the I/P black hole, and after reading this, I thought that I’d do what I can, as pitiful as that may be in the great scheme of things, to try to install some fairness and balance to the news thing.