'Israelis demand bribes to let US products into Gaza'

WikiLeaks: Coca Cola, P&G, HP and others charged 75 times the standard price to import goods through the Karni crossing.

US businesses complained that Israeli officials demanded bribes in order to allow American goods into Gaza, according to a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks on Thursday.

The cable, released in June 2006, explains that "shipments of American goods, amounting to nearly USD 1.9 million dollars, have been waiting three to four months to cross into Gaza. US distributors assert they are being asked to pay 'special fees' which amount to as much as 75 times the standard processing fee."     

The distributors are some of the more recognizable American brands, such as Coca-Cola, Proctor & Gamble, Caterpillar, Philip Morris, Hewlett Packard, Motorola and Dell computers.

The cable reads: "The normal cost of shipping cargo is USD 600-650...and the standard processing fee at Karni is NIS 370...[Coca Cola distributor Joerg] Hartmann alleged that he has been asked to pay as much as NIS 13,000-15,000 per truckload. The AmCit Westinghouse general manager supplied FCS with invoices where he was charged NIS 14,000 and NIS 28,000 per truckload."

Distributors who pay the bribes are guaranteed the first place in line, or a spot near the front of the "Israeli line," which moves more quickly. Hartmann said that the bribery ring was headed by "a certain high-leve official at the terminal."

In a meeting between the distributors, US embassy officials and Karni officials, the Israelis "did not address the issue of bribes, but suggested that the USG either push the Palestinian Authority to allow the businessmen to ship through Kerem Shalom or fund the purchase of more conveyor belts at Karni."

Source: http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=202452

A Pacifist Leader Who Was More Prophet Than Politician

After Decades of Neglect, the Ideas of Judah L. Magnes Are Getting a Second Look
 

By Laurence Zuckerman

Judah Leib Magnes may just be the most important American Jewish leader you have never heard of. Born in Northern California in 1877, the baseball-loving Magnes was integral to the creation and development of nearly all major American Jewish organizations, from the American Jewish Committee to Hadassah. He was also one of the principal founders of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and served as its head for its first 23 years. Magnes, who died a few months after the creation of the State of Israel, in 1948, is largely forgotten today because, as a passionate advocate of a binational state in Palestine in which Jews and Arabs had equal rights, he ended up on the wrong side of history.

Or did he?

As the likelihood of a two-state solution seems to fade with each passing White House initiative, the idea of a binational solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, long seen as heresy by both sides, is now inching its way in from the fringe. Magnes’s quixotic quest suddenly has new currency, and his proposals and numerous missteps carry important lessons.

Magnes’s rich, profuse life had so many acts that he has proved to be elusive prey for scholars. (His papers in Jerusalem are a treasure trove that would take years to go through.) The lack of a major Magnes biography has been a glaring hole in American Jewish historiography for decades.

Daniel P. Kotzin’s “Judah L. Magnes: An American Jewish Nonconformist” is not the definitive, magisterial work, but it is almost something better: a concise, readable and evenhanded survey of Magnes’s life and ideas that is a must-read for anyone committed to understanding American Jewish life and resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Kotzin, an American Jewish historian at Medaille College in Buffalo, N.Y., deftly traces how American idealism, Jewish tradition, Zionism and radical politics shaped Magnes’s intellectual development.

The story begins in Oakland, Calif., where his immigrant parents doted on Magnes, an overachieving first-born child. Leon, as he was then known, was a top student at Oakland High School and the star pitcher of its baseball team. The Oakland Tribune reprinted his bar mitzvah speech, which stressed the importance of Jewish ethics. By the time Magnes arrived at the Cincinnati campus of Hebrew Union College in 1894 to study to become a Reform rabbi, he was brimming with self-confidence.

Angry crowd forces Israeli PM to halt speech

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Angry relatives of 42 Israelis killed in a huge forest fire last month forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop his speech Wednesday at a ceremony honoring the dead.

Family members shouted that he should be held responsible for the handling of the disaster response. Others directed their anger at Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who was escorted out of the hall. Firefighting services are part of his ministry.

Israel's firefighting services were unprepared for the huge fire, which destroyed swaths of forest in Israel's north. Since Israel lacked any suitable aircraft, Netanyahu had to appeal for help from abroad. Several nations, including the United States, sent firefighting planes that helped douse the blaze after four days.

During Wednesday's disturbance, bodyguards rushed toward the podium and formed a line to keep people away from Netanyahu.

Relatives yelled at him to resign and called the ceremony a disgrace. They objected to his attempt to identify with their personal pain without taking responsibility for the tragedy.

"We will find out the truth. We will not rest until we find out the truth," shouted one man from the crowd.

Netanyahu had to stop talking for several minutes while security officers restored order.

Among those who heckled Netanyahu was Danny Rosen, the partner of Israel's highest-ranking female police officer, Ahuva Tomer, the police chief of the northern city of Haifa. She was killed when flames enveloped a bus she was accompanying. It was carrying prison service workers toward a jail, where they were sent to evacuate prisoners.

The flames reached the outskirts of Haifa, Israel's third-largest city.

Netanyahu has attended a number of functions and meetings of officials in the aftermath of the fire, by far the largest forest fire in Israel's history.

 

Source : AP

 P.S.  The irony is that this zionazi cowered was forced to halt his speech because of angry relatives of the 42 fire victims and no one gets arrested, yet when a similar thing was done to Israel’s ambassador to the US Michael Oren's during his speech at UCI  by students angry at this war criminal and his government's part in the murder of of more 1400 people in Gaza in what is known as "operation Cast Lead" 2008; UCI campus police arrested 12 young adults, including three UCI students, among them the president of the university’s Muslim Student Union (MSU) and the Muslim students were called thugs amongst other names and were suspended for one year due to zionazi groups pressure in Orange county.

WikiLeaks: Israel aimed to keep Gaza economy on brink of collapse

Cable from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv says Israeli officials wanted Gaza's economy 'functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis.'

Israel told U.S. officials in 2008 it would keep Gaza's economy "on the brink of collapse" while avoiding a humanitarian crisis, according to U.S. diplomatic cables published by a Norwegian daily on Wednesday.

Three cables cited by the Aftenposten newspaper, which has said it has all 250,000 U.S. cables leaked to WikiLeaks, showed that Israel kept the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv briefed on its internationally criticized blockade of the Gaza Strip.

The territory, home to 1.3 million Palestinians, is run by the Islamist Hamas group, which is shunned by the West over its refusal to recognize Israel, renounce violence or accept existing interim Israeli-Palestinian peace deals.

"As part of their overall embargo plan against Gaza, Israeli officials have confirmed to (U.S. embassy economic officers) on multiple occasions that they intend to keep the Gazan economy on the brink of collapse without quite pushing it over the edge," one of the cables read.

Israel wanted the coastal territory's economy "functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis", according to the Nov. 3, 2008 cable.

In a speech in January 2008, then-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert appeared to spell out that policy, which has since been eased in the wake of an international outcry over a deadly Israeli raid last May on a Turkish aid ship trying to break the blockade.

Zionist crimes & blind world

While murdering innocent Palestinians, terrorist Israel looks around for cooked up excuses to further terror-attack Palestine, expand illegal settlement proliferation and thus prolong the occupation. UN, UNSC and other supposedly relevant world bodies pretend they do not know exactly what the Zionists are doing in Palestine. The peace process, under the circumstances, has arrived at an expected impasse leaving the onward journey in uncertainties. The Israelis are systematically refusing to recognize the existence of Palestinians and their efforts to establish an independent Palestine to let Palestinians live peacefully. After creating hurdles to block peace talks reach a credible Palestinian settlement policy. Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu was on 16 Dec meeting with his inner Forum of Seven, a government official said, to discuss ideas for rescuing â peace talks that were raised with the US Middle East envoy. The Forum of Seven ministers was also to consider the possibility of widespread international recognition of an independent Palestinian state.

Israel controls the sea waters of Palestine and does not allow any humanitarian and defensive aid for the Palestinians besieged by Israeli military networks. It pledged to halt a new attempt by pro-Palestinian groups to sail more ships into Gaza, and claimed some of the arrested activists carried weapons. Israel has refused to lift all blockades around Palestine. Under severe international condemnation, Israel indicated would consider ways to ease the blockade to allow more goods into Gaza — a policy that has been quietly underway in recent months.

Jewish conference calls for "building Third Temple on ruins of Al-Aqsa Mosque"

A conference of ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jews in West Jerusalem has called for the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the building of the "third temple" on its ruins. In response, the Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage warned of an escalation of the attempts by the Israeli occupation authorities and "its arms" - conferences such as this - to promote construction of the so-called "third temple" at the expense of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

In a press release, the Foundation said that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is behind these calls. The Jewish groups pushing for the temple have urged Netanyahu to fulfil his promise that in the event of his re-election, he would approve and arrange for Jewish prayers to be held in Al-Aqsa.

Poll: Foreigners jeopardize Israel's Jewish character

Survey reveals majority of Jewish Israelis believe influx of immigrants, foreign workers greatly endangers Jewish character of State; 43% oppose having church, mosque built next to their homes

Anti Arab Protest 

Not only the orthodox oppose assimilation of non Jews: A joint Ynet-Gesher poll reveals that some 78% of Jewish Israelis think migrants and refugees endanger the Jewish character of the State of Israel.

The poll, conducted by Panels Institute, included 501 respondents who represent a statistical sample of the adult Jewish population residing in Jewish towns across Israel. The maximum sampling error is ±4.4%.
Some 57% of respondents said the influx of immigrants and foreign workers greatly endangers the Jewish nature of the State of Israel, while approximately 21% thought the danger was only moderate.

Only 19% said the situation only slightly undermined the Jewish character of the state, or did not endanger it at all.  

Anti Arab Rabbis' letter 

Evidence discredits the Israeli army’s version of Bil’in woman’s death

The evidence surrounding the events leading to the death of Bil’in resident Jawaher Abu Rahmah disproves completely the army spokesperson’s version, to the point of putting the army in a ridiculous light. The army’s version is based on claims made anonymously, without any supporting evidence – unךike the version of the Abu Rahmah family and the Popular Coordinating Committee of Bil’in, which is detailed below.

A Palestinian man surrounded by a tear gas cloud in Bil'in on 31 December 2010 (photo: Oren Ziv/activestills.org)

Since yesterday, the army has been promoting in the Israeli media a mendacious version regarding the events that led to the death of Jawaher Abu Rahmah of Bil’in on Friday, 31 December 2010. According to the army’s version, Jawaher was not injured by tear gas and was possibly not even present at the demonstration. The army spokesperson did not see fit to publish an official statement on the matter, instead passing the information to the media in the name of anonymous “army sources.”

The facts of the matter, which are supported by the testimony of eyewitness who were present at the demonstration, as well as by the ambulance driver who evacuated her to the hospital, contradict completely the army’s version:

Hopes of Gaza cast in lead

Israel is gearing up for another major offensive into Gaza, yet the world community still remains bafflingly silent.

By: Richard Falk

 

It is dismaying that during this dark anniversary period two years after the launch of the deadly attacks on the people of Gaza - code-named Operation Cast Lead by the Israelis - that there should be warnings of a new massive attack on the beleaguered people of Gaza.

The influential Israeli journalist, Ron Ren-Yishai, writes on December 29, 2010, of the likely prospect of a new major IDF attack, quoting senior Israeli military officers as saying "It's not a question of if, but rather of when," a view that that is shared, according to Ren-Yishai, by "government ministers, Knesset members and municipal heads in the Gaza region".

The bloody-minded Israeli Chief of Staff, Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi, reinforces this expectation by his recent assertion that, "as long as Gilad Shalit is still in captivity, the mission is not complete". He adds with unconscious irony, "we have not lost our right of self-defence".

More accurate would be the assertion, "we have not given up our right to wage aggressive war or to commit crimes against humanity".

And what of the more than 10,000 Palestinians, including children under the age of 10, being held in Israeli prisons throughout occupied Palestine?

Red herrings

Against this background, the escalation of violence along the Gaza/Israel border should set off alarm bells around the world and at the United Nations.

Israel in recent days has been launching severe air strikes against targets within the Gaza Strip, including near the civilian-crowded refugee camp of Khan Younis, killing several Palestinians and wounding others.

Supposedly, these attacks are in retaliation for nine mortar shells that fell on open territory, causing neither damage nor injury. Israel also had been using lethal force against children from Gaza, who were collecting gravel from the buffer zone for the repair of their homes.

As usual, the Israeli security pretext lacks credibility. As if ever there was an occasion for firing warning shots in the air, it was here, especially as the border has been essentially quiet in the last couple of years, and what occasional harmless rockets or mortar shells have been fired, has taken place in defiance of the Hamas effort to prevent providing Israel with any grounds for the use of force.

Israeli Court: Don't reveal number of Shin Bet detainees who did not see lawyer

High Court justices deny petition requesting Shin Bet statistics about extent of regulation, agree with State saying: Might give an opening to harm State

Aviad Glickman

The Israeli High Court of Justice denied on Tuesday a petition filed against the Shin Bet and the Prime Minister's Office requesting information regarding the extent to which a regulation preventing Palestinian detainees from consulting with an attorney is being applied. The High Court justices agreed with the State's stance that revealing such information has the potential to harm State security.

The petition was filed by the Movement for Freedom of Information and the human rights group Yesh Din requesting to reveal Shin Bet statistics regarding the use of the regulation during 2004-2008. According to the petitioners, even though the Shin Bet is not included in the Freedom of Information law, "there hasn't been any attempt to expose some of the data in such a way that will balance between the State's security and the freedom of information."
High Court Justice Neal Hendel ruled that "the detailed explanations provided by the authorities have convinced me that accepting the petition, completely or partially, might give an opening that will eventually and unintentionally assist hostile factors who wish to harm the State in some way."
Hendel added: "I was convinced this fear isn't theoretical, but real and proven." However, he did go on to criticize the Shin Bet, saying: "It's not right that the issue of preventing attorney-detainee visits isn't supervised."   
In the ruling, Hendel emphasized that "there is no basis to determine if the petitioners' intent was to harm State security" or to provoke a public discussion, as they claimed.
Just last month the Knesset approved a bill in its second and third readings allowing the Shin Bet to extend the remands of those suspected of security violations without having the detainee or his attorney present. This bill will be implemented in cases where lives are at stake.

  
In addition, the bill states that during hearings deciding whether or not to extend the remand, the detainee will not be present and the hearing will be held in front of at High Court justice. It was also decided that the general time of extended remands will not surpass 144 hours. 

Source: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4008800,00.html

ANTI-SEMITISM: ZIONISM’S INDISPENSABLE ALIBI

Although Zionism typically represents itself as the solution to anti-Semitism, the truth is less flattering. In fact, hostility toward Jews is indispensable to the cause of Jewish nationalism. If anti-Semitism didn’t exist, Zionists would have to invent it.

Why Israeli hawks beat drums of war

By: By Sami Moubayed

The big news coming out of Wiki-Leaks for 2011 is that Israel was planning a full-scale war in the Middle East, as recently as late 2009. According to a cable from the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, Israeli Army Chief Lt Gen Gabi Ashkenazi told a congressional delegation in mid-November 2009, "I am preparing the Israeli Army for a large-scale war."

Reportedly, Ashkenazi added that the "rocket threat against Israel is more serious than ever," citing 300 Iranian Shihab rockets that can hit Israel. He also made a reference to more than 40,000 Hezbollah rockets and added that Hamas has the ability to "bombard Tel Aviv, which ahs Israel's highest population concentration".

In a clear reference to the Gaza War, Ashkenazi noted that in its next war, Israel will not accept "any restrictions on warfare in populated areas".

Anyone familiar with Ashkenazi's military record would not be surprised by his war-hungry remarks. The 57-year-old general served in the Israeli Army during the October War of 1973 and was on the frontline in the Lebanon war of 1978, in which he was wounded.

He took part in the 1982 siege of Beirut and in the 1990s became chief of Israel's administration of occupied south Lebanon. In 2000, he was a vocal critic of the withdrawal from Lebanon.

Israel: The Next War

by Alain Gresh

The US’s failure under Barack Obama to impose peace between Israel and the Palestinians makes a new war likely
In March 1973 the Israeli prime minister Golda Meir visited US president Richard Nixon in Washington. He told her that the Egyptian president Anwar Sadat was prepared to negotiate a full treaty, and Meir assured him that Israel wanted peace, but that she would prefer an interim agreement as Cairo was not to be trusted. She said Egypt’s primary aim was to force Israel to withdraw to the line of 4 June 1967, then resurrect the UN plan for the partition of Palestine that had been adopted in 1947; a solution to the problem of Palestine would have to be discussed with Yasser Arafat and “the terrorists”.

Israeli journalist Aluf Benn reported this conversation, on the basis of documents disclosed by Wikileaks, and drew a parallel between the situation then, when Israel’s refusal to negotiate led directly to war and to Egyptian troops crossing the Suez Canal in October 1973, and prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s current evasive response to President Barack Obama. Benn notes that Netanyahu, who returned from the US and rushed to the front in October 1973, “would do well to refresh his memory by listening to the tape of Meir and Nixon and asking himself what he can do to avoid repeating her mistakes and keep from dragging the country blindly toward a second Yom Kippur disaster” (1). In that war the Israeli army lost 2,600 troops.

Israel’s refusal to accept Obama’s proposal to halt settlements on the West Bank (but not in East Jerusalem) for three months in return for unprecedented promises – or bribes, according to columnist Thomas Friedman (2), who is not known for sympathy to the Arabs – confirmed that Obama is unable to exert any real pressure on Israel and that Netanyahu rejects any compromise. Netanyahu, like his predecessors, claims to want peace but he wants the humiliating peace imposed by conquest and based on denial of Palestinian rights. In secret negotiations over the past year, he has repeatedly told the Palestinians they had to accept Israel’s “security concept”, keeping Israeli troops stationed in the Jordan valley along the “barrier” (on the Palestinian side) and the occupation of a substantial part of the West Bank (3). He did not say how long the occupation would last.