GayandRight

My name is Fred and I am a gay conservative living in Ottawa. This blog supports limited government, the right of the State of Israel to live in peace and security, and tries to expose the threat to us all from cultural relativism, post-modernism, and radical Islam. I am also the founder of the Free Thinking Film Society in Ottawa (www.freethinkingfilms.com)

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Here's something the loony left will love...

An English-language newspaper for Al-Qaeda....
Al-Qaida launched its first online propaganda magazine in English on Tuesday, a move that could help the terror group recruit inside the U.S. and Europe.

The magazine, called Inspire, is being run by al-Qaida's branch in Yemen, which has been linked to the failed Christmas Day bombing attempt of a U.S.-bound airliner.

The launch suggests that, as al-Qaida's core has been weakened by CIA drone airstrikes, the group hopes to broaden its reach inside the U.S., where officials have seen a spate of homegrown terrorists.

"This new magazine is clearly intended for the aspiring jihadist in the U.S. or U.K. who may be the next Fort Hood murderer or Times Square bomber," Bruce Riedel, a Brookings Institution scholar and former CIA officer, said.

Tuesday's launch did not go smoothly. The magazine was 67 pages long, but all but the first three pages were just garbled computer code, according to SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist websites and obtained a copy of the magazine.

The table of contents included articles such as "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom," which promised to be "a detailed yet short, easy-to-read manual on how to make a bomb using ingredients found in a kitchen."

"We also call upon and encourage our readers to contribute by sending their articles, comments or suggestions to us," the magazine's introduction read.

Gay refugees from Pakistan....

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid...please take note....


Thanks to Vlad Tepes for posting this...

Iran to boycott Jewish companies....

Gee, who's going to put together their list???
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for a total boycott on Israeli goods or companies that do business with Israel.

Ahmadinejad signed an amendment Wednesday to Iran's "Palestinian support law," which includes a blacklist of international companies that are Jewish-owned or have branches in Israel, according to reports. The list reportedly includes Coca-Cola, Nestle, Intel and IBM.

Iran also reportedly plans to propose a boycott of Israel in the United Nations and in other international forums, as stipulated in the law.

The Palestinian support law was ratified by the Iranian Parliament earlier in June in reaction to Israel's interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla that left nine passengers dead.

The Mufti of the Palestinian Authority...

Another rocket from Gaza...

Just missed hitting workers....
Gaza terrorists attacked the Western Negev Wednesday morning with a Kassam rocket before workers arrived, but it heavily damaged a packing house that was knocked out of operation. Workers who had not yet arrived at work remained in their homes in the Sdot Negev area, south of Ashkelon.

The explosion occurred around 4 a.m., seconds after the Color Red early-warning system shattered pre-dawn silence. The latest attack returned residents to the trauma of the constant spate of missiles explosions that have plagued Negev residents since the outbreak of the Second Intifada, also known as the Oslo War, in 2000.

Saudi textbooks still teach hate...

The US needs to put more pressure on Saudi Arabia...
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah will be received by President Obama in Washington today, nearly two years after the deadline by which the kingdom’s educational curriculum was to have been completely reformed. As the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom wrote to the president last week, “This promise remains unfulfilled.”

According to Arab News, the U.S. ambassador to Riyadh, James Smith, described this White House visit as a “very important” meeting, directed toward coordinating efforts to confront terrorism. The test of its seriousness will be whether President Obama uses the occasion to personally press King Abdullah to finally keep his pledge of textbook reform.

Saudi textbooks teach, along with many other noxious lessons, that Jews and Christians are “enemies,” and they dogmatically instruct that various groups of “unbelievers” — apostates (which includes Muslim moderates who reject Saudi Wahhabi doctrine), polytheists (which includes Shiites), and Jews — should be killed. Under the Saudi Education Ministry’s method of rote learning, these teachings amount to indoctrination, starting in first grade and continuing through high school, where militant jihad on behalf of “truth” is taught as a sacred duty. These textbooks are used not only in Saudi Arabia but in Saudi-funded schools around the world.

King Abdullah has presided over some welcome counterterrorism measures, such as last month’s long-overdue fatwa — issued by the Saudi clerical establishment, the Council of Senior Ulema — condemning the financing of terrorism as a criminal act. But, as Treasury Undersecretary Stuart Levey, America’s top financial-counterterrorism official, reminded us in a recent op-ed, despite progress in thwarting the financing of al-Qaeda, “a more difficult strategic battle remains.”

Levey stressed the primary importance of directing our policy at preventing people from embracing violent extremism in the first place. He warned, “Among other things, we must focus on educational reform in key locations to ensure that intolerance has no place in curricula and textbooks. . . . [U]nless the next generation of children is taught to reject violent extremism, we will forever be faced with the challenge of disrupting the next group of terrorist facilitators and supporters.”

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Bomb threat at Jewish building in Toronto...

Is this going to be a regular occurrence?
Members of Toronto’s Jewish community were given an unpleasant reminder on Tuesday that expressions of hate can sometimes become a real threat.
 
The Lipa Green Building, which is home to many offices serving the Toronto Jewish community including UJA Federation, was evacuated on Tuesday afternoon following threats of a bomb in the building.
 
Sources on the scene told Shalom Life that two phone calls were received over a period of two hours on Tuesday. Both times, the person who made the call informed of a bomb in the building. As a result, the building was evacuated at approximately 1pm Tuesday afternoon, a time when offices are open and the building is filled with individuals going about their daily business.
 
UJA Security, under the direction of Doron Horowitz (Director of Community Security), acted promptly and quickly upon receiving the bomb threats. Following the evacuation the building was thoroughly examined for any potential threats.
 
At approximately 3pm, after a thorough examination determined that there was no threat of a bomb or other forms of explosives in the building, the evacuees were allowed to re-enter the building.

Elena Kagan's Jewish Moments...

This is a cross-post from Harry's Place - a terrific blog...
Elena Kagan, President Obama’s nominee to the US Supreme Court, had a couple of good (as opposed to bad) “as a Jew” moments at her confirmation hearings Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

A number of conservatives has expressed unhappiness that she called Aharon Barak, former chief justice of the Israeli Supreme Court, her “hero.” Among them is Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa.
“I am troubled by the fact that you hold up Barak as a judicial role model,” Grassley said. “He’s been described as creating a degree of judicial power undreamed of by most U.S. justices.”

Grassley quoted Barak saying “a judge has a role” in the lawmaking process and asked Kagan if she agreed.

Kagan said she did not, but also noted that Barak operated in a fundamentally different system — one without a written constitution.

“Justice Barak’s philosophy is so different from anything that we would use or would want to use in the United States,” she said.

Instead, she said, she admired Barak for creating an independent judiciary in a young state surrounded by enemies.

“He is very often called the John Marshall of the State of Israel because he was central in creating an independent judiciary for Israel and in ensuring that Israel — a young nation, a nation threatened from its very beginning in existential ways and a nation without a written constitution — he was central in ensuring that Israel, with all those kinds of liabilities would become a very strong rule of law nation,” she said.

She also admired Barak for personal reasons.

“As you know, I don’t think it’s a secret I am Jewish,” she said. “The State of Israel has meant a lot to me and my family. And – and I admire Justice Barak for what he’s done for the State of Israel and ensuring an independent judiciary.”
Another good “as a Jew” moment came when Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina brought up the attempted Christmas Day bombing in Times Square and asked Kagan where she was that day.

“Like all Jews,” she responded, “I was probably at a Chinese restaurant.”

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York added: “Those are the only restaurants that are open!”

Queers to hand out tons of anti-Israel material at Gay Pride....

They are ruining Pride for many people....
According to QuAIA's web site, it plans to hand out thousands of stickers, buttons and T-shirts at the parade against ‘Israeli Apartheid.’
The City of Toronto should rescind all funding of Gay Pride immediately...

Egypt shoots another African trying to get into Israel...

Gee, I wonder why they want to go to an apartheid state...
Egyptian border guards have shot dead a woman as she tried to cross the border illegally from Egypt into Israel.

The woman, who was Eritrean, had ignored orders to stop and was shot in the stomach and leg, officials said.

At least three other people, all Eritrean, were detained, including a child aged four.

Human rights activists have criticised Egyptian soldiers for killing dozens of African migrants at the border in the past two years.

The woman, 38, was shot close to the Egypt-Israeli border in central Sinai.

The death brings to 19 the number of African migrants killed this year while attempting the crossing into Israel, according to the AFP news agency.

Idiotic statement of the day....

This is from a press release by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East...about Queers Against Israeli Apartheid..
QuAIA is a Toronto gay group working to protect gay Palestinians' rights and combat Israel's attempt to deflect criticism of its violence against Palestinians by portraying itself as a gay-friendly liberal democracy.

Islamists have bought Turkey....

Michael Rubin follow the trail of money...
Turkey’s Islamic revolution began on November 3, 2002, when Erdogan’s Justice and Reconciliation Party (AKP) swept to power in Turkey’s elections. Through a lucky quirk of the Turkish election system, the AKP’s 34 percent total in the popular vote translated into 66 percent of the Parliament’s seats, giving the party absolute control.

Initially, Erdogan kept his ambition in check. He understood the lessons to be learned from the undoing of his mentor, Necmettin Erbakan, the first Islamist to become prime minister. After taking the reins of power in 1996 with far less power in Parliament, Erdogan’s predecessor sought to shake up the system—to support religious schools at home and to reorient Turkey’s foreign policy away from Europe and toward Libya and Iran. This became too much for the military, which exercised its power as guardians of the constitution and demanded Erbakan’s resignation. Afterward, Turkey’s Constitutional Court banned the party to which Erdogan belonged because of its threats to secular rule.

Erdogan himself had been banned from politics because of a 1998 conviction for religious incitement. And so he initially managed the newly created AKP from the sidelines only, working through Abdullah Gul, the lieutenant who served as caretaker prime minister after the party’s 2002 victory. Gul pushed through a law to overturn the ban against Erdogan, and the latter became prime minister in March 2003. Learning the lessons of Islamist failures of the past, Erdogan sought to calm Turks who feared the AKP would dilute Turkey’s separation of mosque and state. As mayor of Istanbul, Erdogan described himself as a “servant of Sharia,” or Islamic canon law. But after his party’s 2002 victory, he declared that “secularism is the protector of all beliefs and religions. We are the guarantors of this secularism, and our management will clearly prove that.” He took pains to eschew the Islamist label and instead described his party as little more than the Muslim equivalent of the Christian Democrats in Europe—that is, all democracy and religious in name only.

Both Turks and Westerners can be forgiven for taking Erdogan at his word. He had cultivated an image of probity as a local official that stood in sharp contrast with the corruption of many incumbent Turkish politicians. Rather than upend the system or pursue a divisive social platform, as prime minister Erdogan first sought to repair the Turkish economy. This was an attractive prospect for Turks across the political spectrum, since in the five years prior, the Turkish lira had declined in value eight-fold, from 200,000 to 1.7 million to the dollar, leading to a ruinous banking crisis in 2001. A Coca-Cola cost millions. Erdogan stabilized the currency and implemented other popular reforms. He cut income taxes, slashed the value-added tax, and used state coffers to subsidize gasoline prices. The Turkish electorate rewarded his party for its efforts. The AKP won 42 percent of the vote in the March 2004 municipal elections and placed mayors in four of Turkey’s five largest cities. In July 2007, it increased its share of the popular vote to 47 percent.

But there was far less here than met the eye. Rather than base economic reform on sound, long-term policies, Erdogan instead relied on sleight of hand. He incurred crippling debt and, in effect, mortgaged long-term financial security of the republic for his own short-term political gain. Deniz Baykal, the former leader of the main opposition party, has said that the state debt accrued during Erdogan’s first three years in power surpassed Turkey’s total accumulated debt in the three decades prior.

And that was only official debt. Outside of public view, Erdogan and Gul, now his foreign minister, presided over an influx of so-called Green Money—capital from Saudi Arabia and the oil-rich Persian Gulf emirates, much of which ended up in party coffers rather than in the public treasury.

And here begins the tale of the interweaving of Turkey’s destiny with the nations to its east and south, and to the Muslim world rather than with the West.

Between 2002 and 2003, the Turkish Central Bank’s summary balance of “payments for net error and omission”—which is to say, money that appeared in the nation’s financial system for which government reporting cannot account—increased from approximately $200 million to more than $4 billion. By 2006, Turkish economists estimated the Green Money infusion into the Turkish economy to be between $6 billion and $12 billion, and given the ability of the government to hide some of these revenues by assigning them to tourism, that is probably a wild underestimation. Some Turkish intelligence officials privately suggest that the nation of Qatar is today the source of most subsidies for the AKP and its projects.

Thus, if Iran’s Islamic revolution was spontaneous, Turkey’s was anything but: it was bought and paid for by wealthy Islamists.

AKP officials are well-placed to manage the Green Money influx. Throughout much of the 1980s, Erdogan’s sidekick, Gul, worked as a specialist at Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Development Bank. Before the 2002 victory, he criticized existing state scrutiny of Islamist enterprises. Senior AKP advisers made their fortunes in Islamic banking and investment. Korkut Ozal, for example, is the leading Turkish shareholder in al--Baraka Turk, Turkey’s leading Islamic bank, as well as in Faisal Finans, which also has its roots in Saudi Arabia.

Erdogan has systematically placed Islamist bankers in key economic positions. He appointed Kemal Unakitan, a former board member at both al--Baraka and Eski Finans, as finance minister and moved at least seven other al-Baraka officials—one of whom had served as an imam in an illegal commando camp—to key positions within Turkey’s banking regulatory agency.

Erdogan also reoriented Turkey’s official foreign trade. In 2002, bilateral trade between Turkey and the United Arab Emirates hovered at just over half a billion dollars. By 2005, it had grown to almost $2 billion. That same year, Kursad Tuzmen, the state minister for foreign trade, announced that United Arab Emirates ruler Sheik Khalifa bin Zayid al-Nuhayyan would invest $100 billion in Turkish companies. Not to be outdone, Saudi Arabia’s finance minister announced earlier this year that Saudi Arabia would invest $400 billion in Turkey over the next four years. In contrast, in 2001, Turkish-Saudi trade amounted to just over $1 billion. When Turkish-Iranian trade surpassed $10 billion in 2009, Erdogan announced a goal to increase it to $30 billion. Whether or not Turkey and its Persian Gulf allies are exaggerating their figures, the trajectory of trade is clear.

Hamas is the real threat to the Palestinian cause...

I don't agree with everything in this article...but it's still worth reading...
The extremely useful term "useful idiots" was originally coined to describe Soviet sympathizers in Western countries. But there is no reason it cannot be applied to so-called activists who wish to break the blockade, which is an increasingly untenable exercise that Israel, bit by bit, is loosening. That's a good thing. But if Israel is expected to release its grip on Gaza, it's entitled to a bit of reciprocity -- at the very least the release of the hostage Gilad Shalit, who was captured not in Gaza but on the Israel side of the border. He has been held for four years now and has never once been visited by an outsider. How about maybe one ship in the approaching flotilla just for him?

Now is the time, I suppose, to say that Israel is not exactly perfect either. It continues to overreact, uses too much force and has often trampled on the rights of Palestinians. Still, Israel is Thomas Jefferson's idea of heaven compared with Gaza, which could serve as a seaside Club Med for Jew-haters. One country is consonant with the Enlightenment; the other is a dark place of religious intolerance where the firmest principles of anti-Semitism -- not anti-Zionism or pro-Palestinianism -- are embedded in the Hamas charter.

The irony is that Israel is often called a colonialist power. In some sense, the charge is true. But the ones with the true colonialist mentality are those who think that Arabs cannot be held to Western standards of decency. So, for this reason, Hamas is apparently forgiven for its treatment of women, its anti-Semitism, its hostility toward all other religions, its fervid embrace of a dark (non-Muslim) medievalism and its absolute insistence that Israel has no right to exist. Maybe the blockade ought to end -- but so, too, should anyone's dreamy idea of Hamas. It's not just a threat to Israel. It's a threat to the eventual Palestine.

More Palestinian TV....

Monday, June 28, 2010

2 Israelis attacked in Berlin....

This is just awful...
A Berlin police spokesman told the Jerusalem Post on Monday that two young Israelis were violently attacked in a Berlin disco because of their nationality. The spokesman said the attack prompted the police to issue a statement terming the attack as “anti-Semitic.”

According to statements from two male Israelis aged 18 and 22, a Palestinian man was responsible for the assault. He asked the 22-year-old Israeli about his nationality, who replied that he is a citizen of Israel.

The Palestinian perpetrator choked the 22-year-old and punched him in the face. A Berlin police statement said that as the 18-year-old Israeli rushed to help his friend he was also struck by the Palestinian.

The assault took place in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain, a location popular among young Germans and Israelis for its lively bar and club culture.

The Palestinian fled the disco and tossed a beer glass at the 18-year-old Israeli. The police spokesman told the Post that the authorities are searching for the alleged assailant. In a bizarre twist, the disco's 43-year-old bouncer used pepper spray against the two Israelis,who eventually fled to their hotel and notified the police about the assault. The injured Israelis received treatment in a hospital.

An anti-semitic Egyptian cartoon...



This appeared in the National Today on June 15th...
The Israeli embassy has sent a complaint to the newspaper of Egypt's ruling party about a cartoon that linked Israel and Nazis, an unusual step from a mission that tends to ignore its Egyptian media critics.

Al-Watani al-Youm (the National Today) published a cartoon on June 15 showing an aid ship apparently bound for Gaza being grabbed by an octopus carrying an Israeli flag with a Nazi swastika in place of the Star of David symbol.

The weekly is the mouthpiece of President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party.

"The Israeli Embassy chose to comment on this caricature specifically because of the comparison between Israel and Nazism," spokeswoman Shani Cooper-Zubida told Reuters.

"There are a lot of anti-Semitic comments and caricatures in the Egyptian media that we prefer not to comment on. This one didn't present legitimate opposition to Israeli policy, but defamation," she said in an e-mailed response.

Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab state to sign a peace treaty with Israel, but ties have often been chilly. The storming of a Gaza aid flotilla in May by Israel Defense Forces that left nine activists dead, drew Egyptian and world criticism.

The flotilla had sought to break an Israeli blockade of Gaza. Egypt, the only Arab state to border Gaza, had been criticized by the Arab public for also imposing restrictions on border crossings. Those restrictions have now been partially lifted.

"Using the Nazi swastika symbol in the heart of the cartoon, and even the idea of using it, is an insult to humanity and is tantamount to an anti-Semitic statement," said the letter sent to the newspaper and that was passed to Reuters by the embassy.

Rex Murphy on the G20 Idiots....

Good on Rex Murphy...
No decent, civilized city — and Toronto is both — should be held hostage by the actions of a set of ferociously insolent thugs and vandals.

Which is what happened here yesterday afternoon, and in fits and starts last night and early morning.

A band of black-masked, malicious, and potentially dangerous ne’er-do-wells did their radical best to get a racket going: torched a couple of police cars, did their petty “let’s smash the windows” trick, insulted the police, intimidated spectators, and tried to order the press around.

The world has seen this knob of losers and self-nominated “anarchists” before; they gave themselves the comic-book brand “Black Bloc” long ago, and they have been the noisome tail to the dog of every high order world meeting for well over a decade.

There was even a flash of them smacking downtown windows at the recent Olympics, you’ll recall — till everyone turned on them for their vandalism and cowardice — and they vanished.

People also remember the havoc, damage and ugliness they kicked up in Seattle; remember too Genoa, Madrid and Quebec City.

It was always too much to hope that Toronto would be spared their attention.

For this set of malcontents — they’re not protestors; protestors have moral standing — the deliberations of heads of government in a time of crisis are merely a background stage on which to engage in violent and arrogant abuse of the idea of civic action.

They degrade protest.

Don’t buy their muddled mendacious rhetoric either. They care as much about the general well-being of the rest of us as the stone or brick in their hand, or that hammer cares for the well-being of the Starbucks window.

Some people are saying that Toronto shouldn’t have hosted the summit of world leaders — because this crowd would cause trouble. Absolutely wrong.

Cities and governments don’t choose to do or not to do things because a couple of hundred hit-and-run artists put up a smarmy threat of “direct action.” The splinter doesn’t direct the oak.

Yesterday’s mini-riot had one irony that will be very hard for some to digest. It gives at least partial cover for the extraordinary one $1-billion cost that went into security for the G20 meeting here in Toronto.

The Black Bloc, and you can bet they will love this, is Stephen Harper’s best political friend today.

For very long the pseudo-anarchists have been coddled and played with.

The costs of that approach showed up in the images of Toronto broadcast all over the world yesterday — Toronto the mild looking like Toronto the war zone.

Insofar as it is at all possible, those who are responsible for the criminal activity and damage to property should be arrested and charged. They should be banned for good from any like event in future. Penalties should be heavy.

Toronto is a decent, civilized city — hooligans and thugs should never be allowed to twist those virtues into a shield for their own ignorant and dangerous ends.

The Muslim War Council...



Thanks to Vlad Tepes for posting this.

A story you won't find in the mainstream press...

The One about the UN...



Thanks to Vlad Tepes...

Prayer sellers thrive in Iran...

Hey, I have a few to sell, too...
In Islamic Iran where clerics rule, unofficial "prayer sellers", who promise to intercede with the divine to solve all manner of life's problems, are seeing their business boom.

Backstreet spiritual guides like YaAli are tolerated by the authorities and increasingly sought after by Iranians seeking help from on high.

"People from all walks of life -- mostly young women -- come here asking for prayers that can solve their problems," says YaAli sitting on a chair in a crumbly old alley in Tehran.

Stroking his white beard, YaAli -- a nickname he has been given by his customers -- explains how each prayer must be used in its own specific way.

"There are lots of methods depending on the problems. Some prayers (written on a piece of paper) should be burnt and some should be put in a bowl of water. You should follow the instructions."

Terrorists attack summer camp in Gaza....

Can this be blamed on Israel???
Masked gunmen in the Gaza Strip have set fire to a United Nations-run summer camp for children.

This follows a similar attack in May on another UN-run summer camp.

Some militants view the UN as a symbol of the West and claim that the summer camps allow boys and girls to mix freely - something that the UN denies.

The attackers tied up the guard at the camp in central Gaza before setting fire to chairs, tables, easels and other equipment.

The UN says about 25 armed men attacked the beach camp in the middle of Sunday night.

This is another example of the growing levels of extremism in Gaza and further evidence, if that were needed, of the urgency to change the circumstances on the ground

Nobody was hurt, and nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack.

But in a similar incident last month a previously unknown Islamist group said its had attacked a UN summer camp in Gaza city.

Sunday, June 27, 2010

Are the Iranians coming or going???

Make my day....sail to Gaza....
Conflicting reports about whether or not Iran will be sending a ship with humanitarian aid to attempt to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip were given by officials from Teheran on Sunday.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab Affairs Reza Shibani said Sunday that Iran will send a ship with humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, denying reports that the Iranian flotilla had been canceled, Israel Radio reported.

Shibani said that the timing of the flotilla leaving from his country will depend on when various other flotillas are planning to set sail for Gaza.

He added that Teheran asked Egypt if they would allow Iran to send humanitarian aid to Gaza through the air and is awaiting a reply.

The Iranian Red Crescent announced earlier on Sunday that the aid ship it intended to send to Gaza will be postponed after Egypt refused to allow any vessels belonging to the Iranian organization from entering the Suez Canal.

"The ship's departure has been postponed because of more restrictions imposed by the Zionist occupying regime on the movement of aid to Gaza and prevention of the ship from using the Suez Canal," the Iranian Red Crescent said in a statement sent to AFP.

Palestinians fight for their rights....

....in Lebanon...
Thousands of Palestinian refugees gathered on Sunday outside UN headquarters in Beirut to demand basic civil rights in Lebanon, such as a choice of jobs and ownership of property.

The protest organised by Palestinian and Lebanese non-government organisations was initially due to be held outside the parliament building in downtown Beirut.

"The police outside parliament usually ban any protest there," said Maher Shehadeh, one of the Palestinian organisers. So the protesters gathered instead several hundred metres (yards) away outside the UN headquarters.

Maher said 6,000 people were taking parting in the peaceful protest.

The Palestinians travelled in buses from Lebanon's 12 refugee camps for the Beirut gathering organised by Palestinian and Lebanese non-governmental organisations.

"Working is a right," "We want to live in dignity," read placards carried by the protesters.

"I have the right to own property," said another, summing up the frustration of the tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees who live in dire conditions in Lebanon.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) lists almost 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, a country of four million inhabitants.

But Lebanese and Palestinian officials say the actual number may be as low as 250,000 as UNRWA does not strike off its list those who move to other countries.

The majority of UNRWA-registered refugees live in dire conditions in the camps across and are denied basic civil rights.

Under Lebanese law, Palestinian refugees can not own property or hold most white collar jobs (doctors, engineers, lawyers, architects) and are stuck in low-paid employment.

They are also denied social security and medical aid in state hospitals.

"There are 10 to 15 of us who live crammed in our room. Our children have no future and those who are sick end up dying at the doors of hospitals," said Mahmud Rashid, a farmer from Rashidiyeh camp in south Lebanon.

Oum Rabih Ghneim who accompanied her husband to the protest from northern Lebanon said their home in the Nahr al-Bared camp was destroyed during deadly fighting between Islamists and the Lebanese army in 2007.

"We are not even allowed to buy a one-room apartment," in the northern port city of Tripoli, she said.

Rev. Wright opens his mouth....

And you know that only garbage can come out....
He's been keeping such a low profile since nearly derailing Barack Obama's campaign for president in 2008 -- is it possible that the controversial Rev. Jeremiah Wright has mellowed?

Hardly.

During a five-day seminar Wright taught last week at the University of Chicago, he was back at it, claiming that whites and Jews are controlling the flow of worldwide information and oppressing blacks in Israel and America.

"White folk done took this country," Wright said. "You're in their home, and they're gonna let you know it."

The course, advertised as focusing on politics and public policy in South Africa and America, was taught in a small, ground-floor room at the Chicago Theological Seminary on the university campus, where Wright's voice echoed out an open window. The class was composed of about 15 to 20 students, mainly older African-American women who would arrive early and giddily linger during lunch breaks and after class, looking for the reverend's attention. (The course cost a little over $1,000 if taken for college credit and $300 if taken without.)

The absence of young people was telling: The lectures seemed ossified, relics of a pre-civil-rights America -- a point that Obama himself made during his famous speech on race in March 2008, prompted by the incendiary comments ("God damn America!") made by his former pastor and mentor.

"Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect," Obama said.

Yet during this course -- which was described as asking, "What is the response and public witness of persons of faith to ongoing developments in both countries?" -- Wright made many statements about what he believes are the true aims of whites and Jews.

"You are not now, nor have you ever been, nor will you ever be a brother to white folk," he said. "And if you do not realize that, you are in serious trouble."

He cited the writings of Bill Jones -- author of the book "Is God a White Racist?" -- as proof that white people cannot be trusted. "Bill said, 'They just killed four of their own at Kent State. They'll step on you like a cockroach and keep on movin', cause you not a brother to them.' "

Wright referred to Italians as "Mamma Luigi" and "pizzeria." He said the educational system in America is designed by whites to miseducate blacks "not by benign neglect but by malignant intent."

He said Ethiopian Jews are despised by white Jews: "And now the Knesset [Israeli parliament] is meeting with European Jews, voting on whether or not these African Jews can get into [Israel]."

The civil-rights movement, Wright said, was never about racial equality: "It was always about becoming white . . . to master what [they] do." Martin Luther King, he said, was misguided for advocating nonviolence among his people, "born in the oven of America."

"We probably have more African-Americans who've been brainwashed than we have South Africans who've been brainwashed," he said, and seemed to allude to President Obama twice: "Unfortunately, I got in trouble with a fella for saying this . . . All your commentaries are written by oppressors." At the mention of Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan -- whom Obama disavowed during the campaign -- black leaders "go cuttin' and duckin'," he said.

Mother of Hamas fighter says....

That all Palestinians should give their children to Allah...
On the fourth anniversary of the abduction of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas, the mother of Muhammad 'Azmi Farwana, who was one of the operation commanders and was killed in its course, said that only after much persuasion on his part did she tell him that she was willing to give him to Allah and to stop delaying him in his mission to liberate the homeland. She said she had been overjoyed to hear that her son's actions would help to liberate Palestinian prisoners, and added that men like her son existed in every Palestinian household, and that all Palestinians were willing to give their children to Allah for the sake of liberating Al-Aqsa.

Source: Al-Quds (Jerusalem), June 27, 2010

Hamas police hold up bank.....

I guess they'll have to blame Israel....
Hamas police raided a Gaza bank and seized 16,000 dollars on Sunday after the lender refused to obey a court order to release the funds, a bank official said.

The operation was part of a growing feud between the territory's Hamas rulers and monetary authorities in the West Bank who refuse to deal with the Islamist movement, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the West.

"The police broke into the main branch of the Islamic Bank this afternoon and implemented a court order to take more than 16,000 dollars (13,000 euros) by force," the official said on condition of anonymity.

"The bank has decided to close its branch in Gaza and suspend operations in protest," he added.

The official said the funds, belonging to a local educational association, had been frozen by the Palestine Monetary Authority.

The bank had refused to comply with the court order because the monetary authority forbids it from dealing with the Hamas-run government, largely because of a Western ban on handling funds linked to designated terror groups.

Iran is aching to stone this women...

And, where are the world-wide protests???
Sakine Mohammadi Ashtiani, a 40-year-old Iranian citizen, is facing death by stoning for allegedly having sex with two men who murdered her husband. In a last minute effort to save their mother, her two children issued a letter to world citizens requesting they press Tehran authorities to retract the sentence.
 
Ashtiani, a resident of Tabriz in Iran's northwest, has been imprisoned for five years. She was initially sentenced to 99 floggings for extra-marital sex. Her sentenced was later changed to death by stoning in accordance with Sharia laws stipulating that punishment for adultery is death by either hanging or stoning.
 
In their letter, which was distributed via the internet, Fasride and Sajjad Mohamamadi Ashtiani expressed their hope that waves of protest around the world, particularly by Iranian expatriates would lead authorities to retract the brutal punishment. "Help to prevent this nightmare from becoming reality. Save our mother. We are unable to explain the anguish of every moment, every second of our lives. Words are unable to articulate our fear," the letter stated. It was distributed in nine languages, including Hebrew.

Gee, they can't blame this on Israel.....

Power shortages in Gaza....
The single power plant in Gaza, which normally generates 25 percent of the electricity used in the Strip, was shut down over the weekend due to a payment dispute between Hamas and the Palestinian Authority.

The European Union used to pay for the plant's fuel as part of an aid package to the Palestinian Authority.

However, the EU decided to start scaling back and said it wants the Palestinian Authority to find other ways to pay for the fuel. The Palestinian Authority demands that Hamas pay its share.

The shame of Toronto Pride....

I love that line - what next..an anti-Israel float at the Santa Claus parade???
You've got to hand it to the organizers of Toronto's annual gay pride parade. With their cowardly volte face in allowing Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) to march, organizers have pulled off the PR nightmare hat-trick: bowing to the bullying of political correctness; violating their own core philosophy by readmitting a group rooted in hate and demonization; and shifting media focus off their main objective.

Pride's 180-degree turn is being hailed as a victory for free speech when, in fact, it is nothing of the sort. No one ever told QuAIA they couldn't march to their hateful tune, just that it didn't belong in a taxpayer-subsidized parade dedicated to celebrating inclusivity, promoting equality and combatting discrimination. What's next? An anti-Israel float in the Santa Claus Parade?

Let QuAIA have its own parade somewhere else — say in Gaza, Tehran or Damascus, where gays are tortured and murdered for daring to express their sexual preference. It would be interesting to see which pathologies in those regimes would win out: homicidal homophobia or genocidal anti-Zionism.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Who are those masked idiots in Toronto???

Arrest. Them. All.
As suddenly as they burst onto the streets, they vanished into the crowd.

The men and women, clad in black clothes, their faces obscured with bandanas, ski goggles and gas masks, had spent the last hour storming through city streets, hurling rocks and debris through the windows of banks and big-chain stores.

They embraced the Black Bloc tactic, a popular sight at almost every international protest since the late 1990s: The crowd, dressed in their black uniforms, moves as a blob, its members indistinguishable from one another. One will run from the pack and lob a rock through a window, before disappearing back into the mob.

On Saturday, as the riot police shuffled closer to the intersection at College and University Aves.— shields up, gas masks on, guns raised — they disappeared again.

Dozens huddled on a patch of grass outside Queen’s Park. Protected by their peers, the ones in the middle changed into their street clothes. Within minutes, all that was left was a pile of black garments.

“Don’t take a f--king picture of me,” said one man, now wearing a brown T-shirt, as he walked away.

As they dispersed through the crowd, onlookers were left wondering: Who are these aggressive protesters?

Many in the black uniforms are self-proclaimed anarchists; some who are members of the Southern Ontario Anarchist Resistance, a group the police say they have been watching for a year.

While Saturday marked their first rampage, many members of the Black Bloc have been attending the more peaceful protests throughout the week, unmasked and limiting their tactics to non-violent actions. Some performed anti-G20 raps; others held banners.

They bided their time and plotted their strategy.

Car loads of protesters arrived from Quebec for the weekend to join the Bloc, members said.

Expressed through an assortment of chants, the group’s causes are many: They’re anti-capitalist, anti-police, anti-colonial. While the labour members marched to have their voices heard, the anarchists are resolute that world leaders aren’t listening and don’t care.

Any change has to come at their own hands.

For the most part, their targets are specific and symbolic: As the crowd tore across Queen St., they hammered police cruisers, attacked banks and other corporate companies. Yet they left a record store, a local tavern and an independent hardware shop untouched.

“This isn’t violence. This is vandalism against violent corporations. We did not hurt anybody. They (the corporations) are the ones hurting people,” one man said.

Others pelted the Zanzibar strip bar with manikin limbs they had snatched from a nearby clothing store.

“This is all part of the sexist, male-dominated war machine we live in,” explained one member.

Factions within that group, however, appeared to just relish the mayhem. As the protest marched up Yonge St., they became more indiscriminate in what they damaged.

Two young activists sprinted onto Yonge-Dundas Square and battered the tourist information booth, sparking jeers from some crowd members.

On College St, a pack of masked protesters began to vandalize an empty BMW 4X4. A civilian car, albeit it an expensive civilian car.

“Stop it. They’re not our enemies,” one protester shouted.

The other retorted: “Yuppies are our enemy.”

Iranian exiles demand tougher sanctions....

I totally agree....
An Iranian exile group, backed by international politicians, said on Saturday that much stiffer sanctions would have to be imposed on Tehran if world powers hoped to curtail Iran's nuclear program.

Thousands supporters of the French-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) filled a makeshift stadium just north of Paris to denounce Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and demand more pressure be brought to bear on Tehran.

John Bolton, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, and former Spanish Prime Ministers Jose Maria Aznar, joined more than 100 lawmakers from across Europe, the Middle East and North America to voice their opposition to Ahmadinejad.

"The international community lost a very important opportunity a year ago when they did not give strong support to the freedom fighters in the Iranian streets," Aznar said, referring to protests that followed Ahmadinejad's 2009 election.

"And now we continue to approve sanctions that I consider are not enough." he told Reuters.

Chavez calls Israel genocidal....

Not surprising since he is delusional...
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez described Israel on Saturday as a genocidal state that acted as an assassin for the United States, predicting the Middle East nation would one day be "put in its place."

The socialist Chavez is a harsh critic of both Israel and the United States and cut relations with Israel after accusing it of "holocaust" for its 2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip.

"It has become the assassin arm of the United States, no one can doubt it. It is a threat to all of us," Chavez said, during a visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Burning police car in Toronto at G20...

Can the EU get any sillier???

EU bans selling eggs by the dozen...
British shoppers are to be banned from buying eggs by the dozen under new regulations approved by the European Parliament.

For the first time, eggs and ­other products such as oranges and bread rolls will be sold by weight instead of by the number contained in a packet.

Until now, Britain has been exempt from EU regulations that forbid the selling of goods by number. But last week MEPs voted to end Britain’s deal despite objections from UK members.

The new rules will mean that instead of packaging telling shoppers a box contains six eggs, it will show the weight in grams of the eggs inside, for example 372g.

Violence at the G20

Here we go
Black-clad demonstrators broke off from a peaceful protest and torched a police cruiser in the financial district and smashed windows in a shopping district after veering off from the planned protest route.

A group, dressed all in black, smashed the windows of a bank, a coffee shop and some stores before heading to an area where Canada's largest banks are headquarted, smashing restaurant windows there.

Police with shields and clubs earlier pushed back a small group of protesters who tried to head south toward the security fence around the site of the G-20 summit. Some demonstrators hurled bottles at police.

Is Hezbollah joining Mexican drug cartels...

Hezbollah is active in South America....
North Carolina Congresswoman Sue Myrick warned Friday that Hezbollah may be colluding with drug cartels on the US-Mexican border, and called on Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to investigate the matter.

Fox News reported Myrick is arguing that the Lebanese militia would soon begin threatening the US as it does Israel.

"It is vital we know what is happening on our border, especially as crime and violence continue to rise there and as terrorist plots and threats are increasing inside the US," she wrote.

Hezbollah has been known for years to operate drug trafficking rings in South America, especially on the Brazil-Argentina-Paraguay border, but recently claims have been surfacing that it has stepped into the Mexican drug trade as well.

Myrick said Hezbollah's drug agents undergo Spanish language lessons sponsored by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, after which they disguise themselves as Mexican civilians in order to obtain false US entry passes.

She added that the group has experience with tunnel-digging, which may put the US-Mexican border at risk for further infiltration.

The congresswoman, who is a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said members of drug cartels imprisoned in South America have been spotted lately tattooing Persian writing on their bodies, evidence of Iranian involvement.

"Persian influence that can likely be traced back to Iran and its proxy army, Hezbollah," she said.

In her appeal to Napolitano, Myrick quoted a senior Mexican army official who says Hezbollah agents may even be training cartel members to make bombs. "This might lead to Israel-like car bombings of Mexican/USA border personnel or National Guard units," she said.

Is this how you negotiate peace???

Sounds like a threat to me...
Palestinian Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat warned Friday that if by the end of this year there was no two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian Authority then Israel will "sweat."

"If by the end of this year we do not have a two-state solution, you will sweat, you will sweat," Erekat told Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor who met with him at the International Peace Institute in New York.

Iranians to join Lebanese flotila...

I guess they want a tour of Ashdod, Israel....
Iranian parliamentarian Mahmoud Ahmadi Beighash announced Saturday that he and other Iranian lawmakers intend to join a ship headed for Gaza by way of Lebanon.

"A ship is going from Lebanon to Gaza in the course of the current week and the lawmakers will go to Gaza via this ship," Beighash said in comments to semi-official news agency ISNA cited by Reuters.

Friday, June 25, 2010

If you're progressive, don't boycott Israel....

A terrific column from the Huffington Post...
It was an expose in the best traditions of investigative journalism: Commerce Department documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act that detailed how, between 1965 and 1977, more than one thousand American corporations colluded in the economic boycott of a small, embattled country, in a bid to please a group of powerful, oil-producing states. Though the boycott was prohibited under U.S. law, the government consciously looked the other way as these corporations went the extra mile in complying with the boycott. Like when they discriminated against employees deemed to have compromising ethnic ties to the targeted country.

The article in question appeared in 1981. The object of the boycott, organized by the League of Arab States, was Israel. And the magazine that published these revelations was The Nation.

How times have changed. Three decades after it named and shamed those American corporations who cozied up to some of the most repressive and reactionary countries on earth, The Nation has become the house journal of the American branch of the movement to subject Israel -- and only Israel -- to a campaign of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS for short.)

A recent issue of the magazine included a piece by Adam Horowitz and Philip Weiss endorsing BDS with zealot-like enthusiasm. Rich in distortions and half-truths, the article was at its most preposterous in depicting BDS as a grassroots movement assembling Palestinians, anti-Zionist Jews, human rights advocates and labor unionists in a moral crusade against Zionism.

Scratch beneath this complacent self-image and you quickly understand that the origins of the BDS movement have more in common with a black shirt than a rainbow flag. Horowitz and Weiss point out that there is an established boycott tradition among the Palestinians, citing their embargo against the Jewish community in Palestine during the upheavals of 1936. What they don't mention is that the 1936 boycott was accompanied by a paroxysm of violence against Jews and their property. Nor do they mention that the Palestinian leadership, under Haj Amin al Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, was unashamedly pro-Nazi. Indeed, the policy of simultaneously boycotting and beating the Jews had been introduced by Hitler when he assumed power three years earlier.

In 1945, al Husseini's Nazi-derived policy was formalized by the Arab League Council, which declared a boycott of "Jewish" and "Zionist" goods. In 1948, the Arab League launched a separate office to enforce an economic boycott of the State of Israel that functioned upon three levels, by targeting Israeli companies, foreign companies working in Israel, and foreign companies conducting business with other companies with an operational base in Israel.

Given these parameters, it was inevitable that the application of the boycott would blur the line between Israel as a state and Jews as a people. That point was cogently grasped by Mark Green and Steven Solow, the authors of the 1981 Nation piece. "There is nothing necessarily objectionable in economic boycotts of one country or community by another," they wrote. Yet, they added, "the Arab embargo of Israel can be distinguished from other boycotts by the way it discriminated not only against a country but against an entire religious group. Thus American Jews were sometimes penalized by their employers simply because they were Jews."

However much BDS advocates insist otherwise, that observation remains true today. Unlike, say, the African-American boycott of segregated buses, which aimed to change a racist policy and did not apply to whites in general, the boycott of Israel reaches much wider. Any Israeli who does not explicitly disavow his or her country is fair game -- and those who declare their solidarity with Israelis are, as a consequence, equally suspect.

Crucially, the "United Call for BDS," which Horowitz and Weiss approvingly link to, dates the Israeli occupation as beginning not in 1967, following the Six Day War, but in 1948, when Israel was created. This is no accident, for the aim of the BDS movement is not to effect a change in Israeli policy, but to dismantle the state which makes those policies.

Diehard anti-Zionists won't be bothered by that, of course. Still, there is a much larger group of people within the orbit of the BDS movement -- like the U.S. Presbyterian Church, which gathers in a few days time to discuss a report which includes a comparison of Israel with Nazi Germany -- who may wish to consider where the demonizing rhetoric and toxic origins of the boycott campaign might lead them.

In addition, as the Presbyterians deliberate on a resolution to divest from Caterpillar Inc., the bete noire of BDS advocates, they might ponder the following. In their Nation article from 1981, Caterpillar was named by Green and Solow as one of those corporations complying with the Arab boycott. They quoted a Caterpillar spokesman confirming that the company would cooperate with Arab requests for information about such vital operational matters as whether there were any Jews on the payroll ("If somebody wanted to do business with us and wanted to confirm a fact, we did it," the spokesman said.)

Isn't it ironic? Caterpillar abandoned those racist practices. Now, the BDS movement wants Caterpillar to readopt them -- and is telling the public to scorn the company until it does so. No doubt, the Mufti of Jerusalem would approve.

An attempt on the Eiffel Tower???



Thanks to Vlad Tepes for posting this...

Hezbollah TV (Al-Manure)....

Hamas wants phased plan until all of Palestine is liberated...

This is why Israel cannot make peace with the Palestinians...not until they sort out their own internal dispute with Hamas...
In an interview with the Egyptian opposition newspaper Al-Wafd, Hamas official Mahmoud Al-Zahhar said that Hamas advocated the liberation of all Palestine, from the Lebanon border to Rafah and from the [Dead] Sea to the [Mediterranean] Sea.

He said that Hamas' consent to a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders was part of a phased plan, the first phase of which was to liberate the West Bank and the Gaza Strip – and that Fatah believes, in contrast, that this is the final phase.

More hypocrisy at the UN Human Rights Council....

A plot to kill Istanbul's rabbis???

One man is arrested...
Turkish security forces have arrested a man for allegedly plotting to kill Istanbul rabbis, the French news agency AFP reported Friday, relying on an earlier report by the Turkey daily Milliyet.

İsmet Rençber, a man in his 20s, was detained, according to the AFP report, upon his arrival in Istanbul after tracking him for sending an anonymous threat to the city's main synagogue.

Rençber reportedly told investigators that he "hated Jews," but denied any intent to harm members of the city's Jewish community. He been charged and is being held in an Istanbul prison.

The world doesn't care for Gilad Shalit....

It's been four years that he has been held prisoner....
Thursday night, members of Chicago's Jewish community will stand in vigil, focused on the fate of Gilad Shalit, a young Israeli held hostage by Hamas. Our concern for him is just the tip of the iceberg.

Shalit is now entering his fifth year of captivity at the hands of Gaza's terrorist rulers. A then-19-year-old soldier in the Israel Defense Forces, Shalit was abducted from inside Israel by a Hamas terror squad on June 25, 2006. Contrary to international law and all standards of decency, the kidnapped soldier has been held virtually incommunicado, with no right of visitation by any humanitarian body.

To those genuinely concerned about the fate of Gaza's 1.5 million residents, the emphasis on the fate of one Israeli might seem distorted. But the circumstances under which Shalit was abducted, and two of his fellow soldiers were killed, cut to the root cause of suffering of all Israelis and Palestinians.

Shalit was attacked while guarding a place called Kerem Shalom (Vineyard of Peace), one of half a dozen border crossings that enable commerce between Israel and Gaza. For years, facilities like Kerem Shalom have been attacked repeatedly by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian terror groups precisely because they foster exchanges between Israelis and Palestinians.

Hamas and other radicals have perpetrated such attacks not because they desire peace or a better life for the people they rule. They do so because they violently oppose any activity that might lead to a peaceful end of conflict—something they consistently reject in word and deed on religious grounds. Earlier this month, a Hamas preacher said on the group's Al-Aqsa TV that "[The Jews'] annihilation and the destruction of their state will only be achieved through Islam, by those who bow before Allah."

Why have none of those involved in the recent, so-called humanitarian efforts to aid the residents of Gaza raised their voices — on behalf of Shalit or about the deep and vexing issues he symbolizes? Why did the organizers of the recent flotilla refuse to deliver a letter to Shalit from his family? Why, I wonder, were their voices of condemnation and outrage not heard when Hamas forced the closure of the border crossings by launching countless terror attacks and thousands of rockets at Israeli border towns like Sderot, where I experienced such a barrage in 2007?

Why were they not raised when Hamas began firing Iranian Grad missiles on major Israeli cities like Ashkelon and Beersheva? It was that development that triggered the intensification of Israel's naval blockade of Gaza and its 2008 offensive, which finally restored some semblance of normal life to southern Israel.

8 Mortars and one rocket fired from Gaza.....

Not bad for one day...
Rockets continue to fall on Gaza-vicinity communities. A Qassam rocket exploded near a kibbutz north of the Gaza Strip Thursday evening, shortly after two mortar shells exploded south of a kibbutz in Shaar Hanegev Regional Council.

A total of eight mortar shells and one rocket were fired at Israel on Thursday, causing no injury or damage.

Here's a real freedom flotilla....

We need to be more forceful in demands for Gilad Shalit's release...
Waving Israeli and U.S. flags and posters of Gilad Shalit, hundreds of Jewish activists on eight ships sailed up the East River to the United Nations on Thursday to call for action on behalf of the Israeli soldier held captive by Hamas for four years.

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations organized two large passenger boats and several groups joined the flotilla on sailboats and other pleasure craft as it rounded lower Manhattan from the West Side. The flotilla set sail on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Shalit’s capture.

The protestors sang “Od Gilad Chai” — Gilad is still alive — and other Hebrew songs, accompanied on one boat by music from singer and guitarist Gershon Veroba.

“Hopefully the world is watching and they will understand that there is a young man whose life is in jeopardy that we can’t forget about,” said Liora Saba of Manhattan as the Queen of Hearts, the second ship in the flotilla, approached the UN.
They need to go to Gaza...

More PA Television...

Thursday, June 24, 2010

North Korea demands $65 trillion from the US....

Will they take a cheque???
Cash-strapped North Korea demanded Thursday that the United States pay almost 65 trillion dollars (S$90.2 trillion) in compensation for six decades of hostility.

The cost of the damage done by the United States since the peninsula was divided in 1945 is estimated at 64.96 trillion dollars, the official news agency said, in a report on the eve of the 60th anniversary of the start of the 1950-53 Korean War.

The figure includes 26.1 trillion dollars arising from US "atrocities" which left more than five million North Koreans dead, wounded, kidnapped or missing, KCNA said.

Six decades of US sanctions had caused a loss of 13.7 trillion dollars by 2005 while property losses were estimated at 16.7 trillion dollars, said the agency which also listed a large number of smaller claims.

North Koreans have "the justifiable right" to receive the compensation for their blood, it said.

Iranian group refuses to pay respects at Buchenwald....

The Germans need to de-twin....
An Iranian delegation upset its German hosts by refusing to tour a concentration-camp memorial, the city council of Weimar in eastern Germany said Thursday.

The Buchenwald concentration camp, where Nazis killed tens of thousands of political prisoners and people from minorities through disease, exhausting work and executions, is located near the city.

Visitors usually pay their respects to the dead at the memorial and visit the museum. But the group from Shiraz, Iran - a twin city to Germany’s Weimar - refused to make the scheduled trip on Wednesday, civic officials said.

Mayor Stefan Wolf condemned the decision, saying it was inconceivable that a friend would try to ignore the pain caused by the Nazi camp. Local newspapers said the city council refused to meet the Shiraz delegation because of the canceled visit.

One of the UK's largest unions calls for the complete boycott of Israel....

And, they want the Israeli ambassador expelled....shame on these unionists...
One of Britain’s largest trade unions passed a motion at its annual conference in Bournemouth last week accusing Israel of lying over the Gaza flotilla incident and has called for a complete boycott of Israel and for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador, it was confirmed on Thursday.

The emergency motion was introduced on the third day of the annual conference of UNISON, the largest public sector union with around 1.4 million members. It said Israel was “brazenly lying” over the flotilla incident, as it “attempted to define it as an attempted lynch mob of its troops by passengers on the boats. “This is a further sign that Israel does not respond to words of condemnation, only action will have any effect,” the motion states.

One attendee said that the few Unison members who spoke against the motion were heckled.

Iranians back down....

I'd love for the Israelis to capture one of their boats...
One of the organizers of an Iranian aid flotilla that was to said to Gaza in efforts to break Israel's naval blockade on the territory, announced Thursday that the event has been cancelled due to "Israeli threats."

Army Radio reported that a separate Iranian ship, carrying 60 Iranian activists, was being prepared to sail to Gaza via the Caspian Sea. This after the Lebanese media reported several days ago that Egypt has denied Israel's request to prevent Iranian ships from passing through the Suez Canal toward Egypt.

How the Lebanese treat the Palestinians...

No complaints about them...
And now there's talk of another "humanitarian" flotilla in aid of Gaza. Another convoy of hypocrisy, well-covered by the media, is setting sail, this time from Lebanon, of all places. Now that the Lebanese have boosted their national pride by registering the world's biggest dish of hummus in the Guinness Book of Records, they are bidding for the record in hypocrisy, soon to be seen on television screens everywhere. For it is not humanitarian motives or concern for the Palestinians that are making all these hypocrites restless. All they want is spectacle, footage and headlines. Because as we have already said, the Israeli-Palestinian arena is the most photogenic arena in the world.

If they had any genuine humanitarian concern, the Lebanese would stage protests against the harsh blockade that has been imposed on the Palestinian refugee camps in their country for decades. You have to read Amnesty International's reports on the situation of the Palestinians in Lebanon to comprehend the humanitarian disaster there. This hypocrisy was best described by a European volunteer in those camps, who told the organizers of the new flotilla: "You love the Palestinians in Gaza and hate your own Palestinians."

Since 1948, the Palestinians have been a pawn in the hands of the Arab and Muslim regimes. The problem was exacerbated because the Palestinians themselves willingly accepted that role. And so we are witnessing a situation in which the Palestinian nation, even before it has taken on a coherent shape, has split into two: Gaza, backed by Iran and Syria, and the West Bank, backed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia. And then there are the "opsimists" (to use the oxymoron coined by the late Palestinian author Emil Habibi ) - the Israeli Palestinians sitting on the fence and trying to please everyone.

One reason for all this is the absence of a Palestinian leadership - political, social or cultural - worthy of the name. Six decades after the Nakba, the Palestinians have not even managed to turn themselves into a nation with a clear national agenda.

It looks as if this place, the cradle of monotheism, will continue to be a pawn in the hands of regional and international powers, a region so well covered by the media that all of the world's hypocrites rush over here to try to wipe away the moral stains that have tarnished them.

An interview with Shimon Peres....

Some wisdom from the President of Israel...
Some worry Israel is entering another period of international isolation. Turkish relations are on the rocks. The U.N. is pushing for an international inquiry into the May 31 flotilla raid. We've seen cultural boycotts. At the same time, some Western allies are angry over Israel's alleged misuse of passports in its spy operations. Is Israel losing its friends internationally?

The fact that [outsiders] are pressing us doesn't mean that they're right. There is an attempt to delegitimize Israel. It's quite easy. The Arab bloc has a built-in majority in the United Nations. We never stand the slightest chance.

But I ask myself the following question: If they are delegitimizing Israel, who are they legitimizing? They legitimize Hezbollah and Hamas and Al Qaeda too. They don't mean to. But if you delegitimize the fight against terror, which is very complicated, the consequences are that terror is being legitimized.

Isn't that an oversimplification? Is criticizing Israel's policies and practices the same as delegitimizing Israel?

Criticism is one thing. But when you say, "Go back to Poland. Go back to Germany," [as American journalist Helen Thomas recently said in a widely condemned remark] that's not criticizing. Or when they say Israel doesn't have the right to exist, that's not criticizing.

That was one woman's outburst. That's not the kind of thing people mean when they talk about Israel's isolation.

What would they like us to do? We agreed to a two-state solution. We agreed to ease the situation in the West Bank. We are easing the situation in Gaza. And there are still acts of terror. Countries that have to fight terror understand what we are doing. Countries that read about it don't understand. It's very hard for a person in Switzerland to understand. But the United States, they understand. We have a biography that no one else has. In 62 years, we've been attacked seven times in an attempt to [destroy] us.

On the isolation of Israel, I don't think it's true. There have never been better relations with the Vatican and Israel. Take India, we have excellent relations because they suffer the same thing we do.

Jon Voight's letter to Obama...

I've always liked him...
"You will be the first American president that lied to the Jewish people, and the American people as well, when you said that you would defend Israel, the only Democratic state in the Middle East, against all their enemies," wrote Voight, who last year called Obama a false prophet.

"You have done just the opposite. You have propagandized Israel, until they look like they are everyone's enemy - and it has resonated throughout the world," he wrote. "You are putting Israel in harm's way, and you have promoted anti-Semitism throughout the world."

"You have brought this to a people who have given the world the Ten Commandments and most laws we live by today. The Jewish people have given the world our greatest scientists and philosophers, and the cures for many diseases, and now you play a very dangerous game so you can look like a true martyr to what you see and say are the underdogs," he wrote.

"But the underdogs you defend are murderers and criminals who want Israel eradicated."

"You have brought to Arizona a civil war, once again defending the criminals and illegals, creating a meltdown for good, loyal, law-abiding citizens. Your destruction of this country may never be remedied, and we may never recover. I pray to God you stop, and I hope the people in this great country realize your agenda is not for the betterment of mankind, but for the betterment of your politics," he added.

The Truth about Rights & Democracy....

Leave it to Terry Glavin to tell the real story about Rights & Democracy...
If you pay attention to Ottawa scandals, you will be familiar with the story of Rights and Democracy by now: a hostile Conservative takeover of the quasi-governmental agency has destroyed R&D’s spotless international reputation as a wellspring and global clarion for human rights. Sinister Zionists are behind the whole thing.

The story’s narrative arc was further entrenched in the public record last week when a House of Commons committee recommended the ousting of R&D board chairman Aurel Braun, so it must be true. After all, former R&D presidents Warren Allmand and Ed Broadbent read from that very script before the Foreign Affairs Committee during its hearings into R&D, and the New Democratic Party’s Paul Dewar last week proclaimed that Braun and his R&D board allies have “poisoned the well” and ruined R&D’s “stellar reputation.”

There is a small problem with the story: it’s a convenient fiction that has served to hide a real scandal that had been quietly unfolding at Rights and Democracy for several years now. The vanishing of staff computers during a mysterious break-in at R&D’s Montreal offices in January – were they stolen, or conveniently removed? – is just the beginning of the intrigue.

The story so far would have you believe that everything was just fine at R&D until last year when Braun was appointed chairman of the board. In that story, Braun and his Conservative-Zionist allies immediately proceeded to wield their newfound board majority to undertake a witch hunt for anyone at R&D insufficiently possessed of an affection for Israel.

As the putsch proceeded, R&D president Remy Beauregard suffered such stress that he died of a heart attack, the entire staff revolted, and Braun then fired key management officials Charles Vallerand, Marie-France Cloutier, and Razmik Panossian. The trio emerge as the story’s heroes, and hey presto, even the otherwise intelligent Liberal foreign affairs critic Bob Rae piles on to defend R&D as “an internationally-recognized, non-partisan organization” with “decades of work promoting human and democratic rights around the world” at stake.

This is a neatly structured story, with a beginning, a middle, and what might even be something approaching an end. It is particularly gripping on account of its plot motif (Jews Behaving Badly), which is so wildly popular these days. Told this way, the story is delightfully intriguing. But it has meant that a number of rather important questions about the whole affair have gone unanswered.

Here’s just one question that the Foreign Affairs Committee might have put to R&D’s brave “dissident” managers, Cloutier and Panossian, but did not: What’s the deal with the payments you made not long ago to Donald McCleery, the infiltration-and-surveillance specialist perhaps best known for burning a barn in Quebec back in the 1970s while he was with the RCMP’s notorious and shadowy “G” Section?

Here’s a question we might all ask ourselves about the affair. Is it overweeningly Zionist to notice that for years prior to January’s management-engineered staff revolt, Cloutier and Panossian were overseeing a bully regime at R&D that former employees have described as “Nonrespect of staff, misallocation of resources, micro-management, arbitrary imposition of weakly developed policies designed with no consultation from staff, and even the appearance of systemic sexism”?
This is just a taste...go and read the whole thing...it's a must read.

Gay newspaper Xtra goes beserk.....

You can read their ridiculous article here....
Jewish advocacy group B'nai Brith commended Pride Toronto on May 14 for its decision to prevent activist group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid from marching in the Pride parade under the "Israeli apartheid" banner. In its press release, B'nai Brith Canada's executive vice-president Frank Dimant wrote, "The Pride parade is about diversity and promoting human rights. Issues that clearly do not mesh with the hateful messaging and anti-Semitism we have witnessed from QuAIA in past years."

But amidst the debate over whether calling Gaza policies "Israeli apartheid" is actually anti-Semitic, Dimant apparently has no issue meshing with the hateful messaging of Toronto Sun columnist Michael Coren, who described the Pride parade in his May 29 column as "an event where there is illegal public nudity and simulated sex, where men dress up as nuns and abuse the church and where morbidly obese lesbians pull other women around on chains. Surely it doesn't matter very much if a gang of activists try to provoke mom and dad yet again by telling everybody how nasty the Jews are."
That's just a taste. Where do I begin. First off, there is nothing hateful at all about what Michael Coren wrote. In many ways, Pride is embarrassing...and Pride parades frequently insult other groups. You may or may not disagree with Coren, or with me, but he did not write anything hateful.

Or how about this quote????
"Just once," says Stayshyn, "I'd like to see the Israel lobby concede the point that homophobia exists outside of Muslim countries, instead of using the fact that they have gay marriage to excuse the occupation. The way they use us is exploitative and cynical."
You know, just once, I'd like to see the gay community come together and work to end homophobia in muslim countries. As for the notion that the 'Israel lobby' uses gay marriage - well, excuse me, but Israel is the only country in the Middle East that accepts married couple. You'd think that would be something to celebrate.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Pride Toronto reverses decision on Queers Against Israeli Apartheid...

Gee, all they have to do is sign a non-discriminatory policy....does anybody really believe that will stop their hate???
Pride Toronto (PT) has reversed its May board resolution banning the term "Israeli Apartheid" and will instead require all participants to sign and abide by the City of Toronto's non-discrimination policy.

Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) — the target of the ban — has declared a victory and congratulated the queer community for pushing PT to reverse its censorship decision.

"This is a victory for the Palestine solidarity movement, which has faced censorship and bullying tactics from the Israel lobby for far too long," said QuAIA member Tim McCaskell in the release.

Wearning Nail Polish in Public!!!

It's a crime in Iran!
The Iranian morality court has fined a woman $224 for the immoral act of wearing nail polish in public on “four and a half” of her fingers. She also was ordered to pay an additional $250 each for three other offenses – wearing a short jacket, wearing it in bright red and green colors, and wearing make-up.

The fine for nail polish was calculated at the rate of $50 per finger. She also must pay between $500 and $1,500 for her hair being toned in a light color, and $180 for wearing glasses over her hair. The court did not order that she be lashed, a frequent punishment in Islamic law.

The report of the fine and a picture of the guilty woman’s identification card were provided by the Iran Focus web site, which said that the woman was arrested by the “Guidance Patrol” near a commercial complex.

Iran recently has stiffened its control over public conduct among women, and police have issued warnings to 62,000 women for being improperly veiled in the province of Qom, the center of Iran’s Shiite clerics.

An Iranian newspaper quoted police chief Colonel Mehdi Khorasani as saying that his officers confiscated approximately 100 vehicles carrying women who were improperly dressed, noting that "encouraging such relaxations are among the objectives of the enemy."

Canada's role in Afghanistan post-2011 - the debate has started....

We cannot abandon the Afghan people....there is much to be done. The Special Committe on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan has issued its report, and recommends:
The Committee urges Parliament to consider carefully the progress made recently in the Canadian approach to our mission in Afghanistan. We therefore recommend that the Parliament and government of Canada enter into an intensive and constructive discussion as soon as possible about Canada's work in Afghanistan and the region for the post July 2011 period. In particular, the Committee recommends that the focus of this discussion should continue to be on how to strengthen the ability of the Afghan government to provide basic services to its people: security, rule of law, health, social services and education. The end of the combat mission in Canada in 2011 should by no means be seen as the end of the engagement by Canada and Canadians. We have come too far, and sacrificed too much to abandon the people of Afghanistan. A final decision on this question should be reached before the end of 2010.
The Canada-Afghanistan Solidarity Committee has played a big role in ensuring that Afghanistan remain on the radar. We owe a huge debt of gratitude for the hard work that Terry Glavin has put into this. Thanks, Terry!

Pakistan will not adhere to sanctions on Iran...

They are going ahead with plans to import natural gas from Iran...this is our ally???
Pakistan will go ahead with a plan to import natural gas from Iran even if the US levies additional sanctions on the country, prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.

Gilani's comments on Tuesday come two days after the US special envoy to Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, cautioned Pakistan not to ''over commit'' itself to the deal because it could run afoul of new sanctions against Iran.

The deal has been a constant source of tension between the two countries, with Pakistan arguing that it is vital to its ability to cope with an energy crisis and the US stressing that it would undercut international pressure on Iran over its nuclear programme.

Hamas turns down Red Cross visit to Schalit....

I wish Obama would at least say something about this...
Hamas has once again turned down new demands made by the Red Cross to visit captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit in the Gaza Strip, Israel Radio reported Wednesday.

In an interview with Hamas newspaper, Falastin, four years after Schalit was captured, Hamas lawmaker Yichia Musa said that the Red Cross had not taken into consideration the reality and situation on the ground as well as the political and military issues involved.

Workers boycott Israeli ships in Stockholm....

Workers should get to choose what ships to unload/load...
Workers at Swedish docks launched a week-long boycott of Israeli ships and cargo on Wednesday, to protest Israel's recent raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.

Some 1,500 members of the Swedish Port Workers Union began the boycott at Sweden's ports which handle up to 95 percent of the country's foreign trade. The action is planned to end on June 29.

"Even if goods arrive in trucks, dockworkers often have some role in handling them when they arrive in port," said Per Helgesson, attorney and chief negotiator at Ports of Sweden — an industry and employers' organization for the sector.

The union supported the international aid convoy and demands that Israel lift its blockade on Gaza. Several Swedish activists were on the flotilla when Israeli commandos attacked it on May 31.

Israel recently eased the 3-year-old blockade under international pressure, but union spokesman Bjorn Borg said the measure was insufficient.

"We don't think it is far-reaching enough," Borg said. "We want them to lift the blockade."

Borg said stevedores in the southwestern port of Goteborg had already refused to handle about a dozen containers containing cargo from Israel or goods destined for it.

G20 police arrest man for possession of explosives....

What or who was he targeting???
A Toronto man has been charged with six offences, including possession of explosive for unlawful purpose, after G20 police executed a search warrant on Tuesday.

Officers from the Toronto Police Service executed the search warrant at 58 Elderwood Dr. in the Bathurst and Lawrence area of Toronto as part of an ongoing investigation, according to a news release.

Byron Sonne, 37, also faces charges of intimidation of justice system participant by threat, intimidation of justice system participant by watch and beset, mischief interfere with property, attempt mischief and weapons dangerous.

More horrible speakers at that Islamic conference in Toronto...

I feel like going to hear the hate personally....
A massive upcoming Islamic conference in Toronto, which was to be headlined by an Indian televangelist until he was recently banned from Canada for his inflammatory statements, features a list of speakers whose past comments against Jews, homosexuals and the West have raised red flags in other countries.

The Journey of Faith Conference — billed as North America’s largest Islamic conference and slated to attract upwards of 10,000 people to the city early next month — features such personalities as Abdur Raheem Green, who has advocated “fighting jihad” and who was reportedly invited by the Christmas Day airline bomber to address British students in 2007, and Sheikh Hussein Yee, who once said Jews are the “extremists of the world” and will “go to Hell.”

The National Post reported yesterday that the conference’s main speaker, Peace TV founder Dr. Zakir Naik, will not be allowed to enter Canada because of concerns surrounding past statements such as “every Muslim should be a terrorist,” Jews are “our staunchest enemy,” and “If [Osama bin Laden] is fighting the enemies of Islam, I am for him.”

But while Dr. Naik recently grabbed headlines around the world — first for his exclusion from the U.K. ahead of a speaking tour later this month — the conference itself has managed to keep a relatively low profile, despite its controversial list of a dozen speakers and chairman.

Although the speaker bios posted to the event website are laudatory and innocuous, the reality — in some instances, and sometimes dating back two decades — reveals a less favourable portrait of some speakers.

Mr. Green, for example, was put on a “movement alert list” and barred from entering Australia in 2005 after a government official accused him of “spreading hate.” And another Journey of Faith Conference speaker, Sheik Riaz Ansary, is described as having worked with Dr. Bilal Philips, who was reportedly named by the U.S. government as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and who was banned from entering the U.K. last weekend to attend a conference, according to his blog.

“They appear to be competing against each other in their level of hate, and Zakir Naik was the star performer,” said Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress.

Dr. Naik’s 16-year-old son, Fariq, is also listed as a speaker, and is described on the website as the child of “an illustrious father and world renowned orator on Islam and comparative religion.”

Likewise on the event program is Abdullah Hakim Quick, who was reportedly uninvited from an April conference in Sweden after it surfaced that, many years ago, he said the Islamic position on homosexuality was “death.”

“If these extreme voices are given a platform, then very easily people could assume that these extreme views represent the whole Muslim faith, and obviously they don’t,” said Rev. Brent Hawkes, of Toronto’s Metropolitan Community Church, who performed Canada’s first same-sex marriage.

The chairman of the conference is Imam Saed Rageah, whose Toronto mosque, the Abu Huraira Centre, made headlines last fall after several young worshippers vanished and were feared to have joined a Somali militant group.

Imam Rageah also incited controversy last year after he used a prayer to call for Allah to “destroy” the enemies of Islam from within.

Jewish dance troupe forced off stage in Germany....

This is absolutely shameful...
Members of a Jewish dance troupe were pelted with stones and insulted during a neighborhood festival in Sahlkamp, Hannover (Germany).

Politicians and local associations responded in outrage and disbelief to the antisemitic attacks in Sahlkamp. A dance troupe of the Liberal Jewish Community in Hannover was pelted with stones and insulted on Saturday during a district festival. After correlating pictures, 30 children and teenagers of mostly Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi, Iranian and possibly also Turkish origin, were involved in throwing pebbles and calling insults at the eight adult dancers. The Jewish folklore group were forced to leave the stage, one dancer was hit in the leg and suffered a bruise. The international cultural festival continued after a break, the police were not notified.

The stones apparently came from a large pile of larger and smaller pebbles, which was still around Tuesday at the edge of the Sahlkamp market. There are conflicting reports about the exact chain of events. It appears that the provocation began immediately when the group got on the stage. A young person with a megaphone shouted "Jews, out", another threw the first pebble. While the audience rebuked those disturbing, more young people aged 12-16, all together half a dozen, got up and also started throwing stones. Later, around 20 children, boys and girls, joined in. The situation calmed several minutes after the dancers left the stage, and social workers called for restraint.

Some observers said Tuesday that they suspected the action might possibly have been prepared in advance, since some of the youth already had the pebbles in their pockets. "Certainly pebbles don't just lie around in the market," says eyewitness Tatiana Ilchenko, who was also in the culture festival with a folklore group. Other observers, however, said there was a spontaneous escalation. The highly excitable youth responded aggressively to the calls to order and the initial response of the audience. The youth with the megaphone, the first to shout antisemitic slogans, was mentally disabled, they say. It is widely accepted that antisemitism is widespread among the Palestinian and Arab youth of the neighborhood. 'Jew' is an insult, says an expert on the neighborhood.