18 Tuesday Mar 2014
I believe anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are anti-human and not compatible with freedom – anyone’s freedom: a note to those who would mean to indulge in the dumb refuge of the former while desperately in want of the latter.
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16 Sunday Mar 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags
Abbas, Martin Sherman, middle east conflict, Netanyahu, Palestinian statehood, political, politics
Once exposed, his weakness precipitated mounting pressures to give way again and again. And each time he did, rather than receiving any commendation for his “moderation,” all Netanyahu got was continuing condemnation for not complying with the next emerging demand.
Thus, barely five months after the Bar-Ilan fiasco, he capitulated once again.
13 Thursday Mar 2014
When I was in France about 4 years we found a man who was severely beaten in nearby park at 8 am. There was a police station nearby and we went there to get him help. Speaking in French, I told the policeman about the man, his injuries and where to find him. He stared bankly at me. I started to repeat it again. He stopped me and said I understand you, I just don’t know what you want me to do about it and told me to go away. They have lost their humanity.
Artist Michelle Vezina Peterlin responding to a report about a Jewish girl beaten in a suburb of Lyon, France when she was seen wearing on a necklace a Star of David.
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13 Thursday Mar 2014
Tags
dictatorship, mafia state, political, politics, Putin, Putinism, Russia
She warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that his actions would lead to “catastrophe” for Ukraine.
“It would also change Russia economically and politically,” she said.
But Putin has reiterated his previous stance: Ukraine’s crisis was caused by internal factors, not by Russia.
Change course in Crimea or face costs, West warns Russia – CNN.com
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President Obama has one crucial lever he can activate immediately, as was done in the case of deposed Ukrainian Viktor Yanukovich: identify, freeze, and disclose stolen assets hidden in the West.
Want Putin’s Attention On Ukraine? Follow His Money – 3/3/2014.
Related: Putin’s Watch Collection Dwarfs His Declared Income | The Moscow Times – 6/6/2012; Helping Russia avoid Putin kleptocracy – CSMonitor.com – 9/27/2011; WikiLeaks cables condemn Russia as ‘mafia state’ | World news | The Guardian – 12/1/2010.
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Britain has been handing visas to hundreds of Russian oligarchs in return for them paying at least £1million towards our £1.2trillion national debt.
Russian and Chinese businessmen have been allowed to jump to the front of the immigration queue by ‘investing’ a seven-figure sum in Government gilts.
Russian oligarchs buy UK visas for £1million | Mail Online – 2/25/2014.
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MOSCOW — When Vladimir V. Putin returned to the Russian presidency in 2012, one of the first messages he sent to his political elite, many of them heads of banks and large corporations, was that the times had changed: Owning assets outside Russia makes you too vulnerable to moves by foreign governments, he told them. It is time to bring your wealth home.
Titans in Russia Fear New Front in Ukraine Crisis – NYTimes.com – 3/10/2014.
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One notable statistic about Russia is that the mean wealth of its 110m adults last year was $10,980 while the median was $870. In other words, if the country’s assets were equally divided, the man in the middle would possess more than $10,000 but, in practice, his net worth is less than a 10th of that sum. This is the result of 110 billionaires controlling 35 per cent of the wealth.
Punishing a few oligarchs in London is not enough – FT.com – 3/5/2014.
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The pundits fret over what to do with the Russia-Crimea-Ukraine debacle not in relation to mere Slavic expansionism — start, oh Russians, with investments in the east for that — but rather the expansion of Putin’s “mafia state“.
______ For readers who have a couple of hours to spare (right now) ______
Putinism and Russian Protest – YouTube – 2:02:48 – posted 10/29/2012.
That I find this kind of thing exciting scares me!
Panels about Putin may be inseparable from concerns associated with political psychology.
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Garry Kasparov’s Advice to Obama: ‘Forget About Diplomatic Solution’ with Putin – YouTube 3/6/2014.
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On Viktor Yanukovych:
Revelations In The Yanukovych Papers – YouTube – 3/12/2014.
Primary Source: What the Ousted Ukrainian President Tried to Hide Before He Fled | New Republic – 3/12/2014.
Related Reference
Garry Kasparov on Putin | Fox Business Video (today).
Russia’s Putin Cracks Down on Media When We Need Journalism the Most | New Republic (today): Most of Lenta’s reporters have resigned in protest, writing in a farewell letter, “The trouble is not that we’ve lost our jobs. The trouble is that you’ve got nothing to read.”
Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina on Putin’s War in Crimea | New Republic – 3/2/2014.
Is Vladimir Putin insane? Hardly – latimes.com – 3/11/2014.
Russia – A mafia state? – YouTube – 1:43:47 – roundtable with Luke Harding – posted 7/27/2012.
Can Putin Contain Post-Putinism? – YouTube – 1:24:23 – – 11/28/2012. AKA “Can Putinism Be Reformed?”
Putinism and Russian Protest – YouTube – 2:02:48 – 10/29/2012: “Dictators will always steal as much as they can.”
Stephen Colbert Tackles Vladimir Putin’s TV Propaganda – 🙂
Crimea: Putin vs. Reality by Timothy Snyder | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books – 3/7/2014.
Russia blocks internet sites of Putin critics – Courant.com (today).
Russian troops gather at Ukraine border – World – The Boston Globe (today); Russian troops gathering at Ukraine border for exercises as standoff continues – The Washington Post; Russia might halt nuclear inspections | Concord Monitor; Ukraine: Russia Fired On Plane Over Crimea.
Source: Ukraine: Russia Fired On Plane Over Crimea (today): “Kyiv Post’s Christopher Miller tweeted this video that allegedly shows a pro-Russian group attacking pro-Ukrainian groups in Donetsk today”.
Related: Ukraine: deadly clashes in Donetsk | euronews, world news; Violent clashes in Donetsk between Ukrainians and pro-Russian groups as Moscow moves thousands of troops to border | Mail Online.
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President Obama’s Bilateral Meeting with Prime Minister Yatsenyuk of Ukraine – YouTube – 3/12/2014.
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13 Thursday Mar 2014
The Israeli military said a total of four rockets were fired Thursday from Gaza. Israeli officials previously refused to confirm any cease-fire deal was in place.
Rockets Strike Israel, Jeopardizing Truce Talk – ABC News
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“Our mujahedeen responded to the Zionist aggression by firing tens of rockets,” Islamic Jihad said in a statement to the BBC.
“The rockets fired today came in response to the occupation aggression against us and does not mean the collapse of the ceasefire agreement [with Israel],” it said.
BBC News – Israeli planes hit Gaza in response to rocket strikes
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End the brutal and senseless preoccupation with the Jews!
Because impotence and obsession are what Hamas and companies are all about: if only Israel didn’t exist; if only the Jews disappeared (after being plundered — let’s not be in too much of a hurry about this); if only the “occupation aggression” did not include trade throughput, medical assistance, basic utilities deliveries, employment, and so on, then the Arab mind (of the Islamic Jihad) might find itself at peace.
Last spring, scholar Mordechai Kedar noted in “An Open Letter to the Arab League”, “The way you relate to one another is so terrible that we are not sure that we want anything to do with you.”
If as much was true then, it’s certainly true now. Hamas may value its post-Cast Lead (2009) truce with Israel, but it evidently cannot contain either itself or less encumbered — for being less governmental — Islamic Jihad movements on its own block.
Last night, Israel returned like fire in response to yesterday’s rocket and mortar barrage (the latest news reports four more rockets fired from Gaza today). That tit-for-tat is an old show: curtain up, please, on the mindlessness, the essential empty thoughtlessness, of Islamic Jihad and the whole bogus mission that has proved convenient for shielding the destruction of other cultures and the theft of wealth (for Gaza, start with the UNRWA annual contribution intended to secure some benefits in qualities of living, and then move swiftly on to Arafat and funds never accounted).
Because of what it really represents, because of what it does to its own constituents and others, because of its self-serving and grandiose delusions, Hamas finds itself in trouble today.
An Egyptian court ruled on March 4 to forbid all activities in Egypt by Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas. The court ruling cuts off all official Hamas-Egyptian ties and closes all Hamas offices and infrastructure within Egypt.
Egypt Bans Hamas – theTrumpet.com
Special interest press bias?
Related: With the Egyptian blockade, is Hamas in deep financial trouble? Well, its employees are complaining about not being paid | Al Bawaba – 3/5/2014; Saudi Arabia declares Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group – McClatchy DC News – The Sacramento Bee – 3/7/2014; AP Interview: Jihadi head says Gaza groups growing – 3/9/2014; Al Qaida-inspired jihadi movement growing in Gaza, says group leader – Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz – 3/10/2014.
It would appear that when it comes to attacks against Israel, which it falls to Hamas to police, Hamas has found itself between a fiercely active and impossibly passive place: it either can’t or won’t stand up to or stall “Gaza’s secretive jihadist groups”; it won’t itself step out from beneath the Muslim Brotherhood umbrella; it won’t step forward to make peace with the Jewish State of Israel but it will allow itself to be cajoled and dragged into fairly begging Israel for incursion and real occupation on the turf it was supposed to govern (x suspect election followed by civil war with Fatah) independently.
In fact, Hamas has gotten itself so into trouble, so isolated between worlds, so caught between al-Qaeda, the Ayatollah, Egypt, and Israel, that I would not be surprised were it to look to the IDF to defend its interests from the local competitors that have infiltrated its writ and compromised whatever integrity and self-possession it once may have had.
Salafi groups have been suspected in the bombings of Internet cafes and music stores, intimidation of Gaza’s small Christian community, the kidnapping of a BBC journalist in 2007 and more recently, the death of an Italian activist in 2011. Salafi groups are also believed to cooperate with militants in the neighboring Sinai Peninsula in Egypt to attack Egyptian and Israeli targets.
Gaza’s Salafis support al-Qaida’s campaign of global jihad, but are not believed to have direct links with the global terror network. In contrast, Hamas says its struggle is solely against Israel.
Al Qaida-inspired jihadi movement growing in Gaza, says group leader – Diplomacy and Defense Israel News | Haaretz – 3/10/2014.
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Netanyahu Warns Gaza Militants Against Attack on Purim Holiday – SFGate
Oren: Why Gaza conflict risks wider war | News – Home
Israel fires on 29 ‘terror sites’ after rockets from Gaza hit towns – CNN.com – 3/12/2014 (updated).
Middle East and Terrorism: Mordechai Kedar: An Open Letter to the Arab League – 5/10/2013.
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12 Wednesday Mar 2014
Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, terrorists have fired more than 8,000 rockets into Israel. Over 3.5 million Israelis are currently living under threat of rocket attacks.
More than half a million Israelis have less than 60 seconds to find shelter after a rocket is launched from Gaza into Israel. Most rockets launched from Gaza into Israel are capable of reaching Israel’s biggest southern cities.
Rocket Attacks on Israel From Gaza • IDF Blog | The Official Blog of the Israel Defense Forces
Related: List of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, 2014 – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Israel’s military said more than 20 rockets were fired. Israeli media reported more than 50 rockets were fired.
The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad has killed dozens of Israelis in suicide bombings and other attacks over the years. Israel’s military said they had targeted the militants on Tuesday after they fired at Israel.
Gaza militants fire large barrage of at least 20 rockets into Israel; no casualties reported
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If the weapons stored in Gaza allow it, this can only escalate unless or until the IDF steps in with boots to stop it.
The news also tells the effect of having intercepted a major arms shipment last week: is the one shipment caught, however substantial it may be, the only shipment that needed to be caught?
The numbers seem to be going up. The news broke with the term “barrage” used, then noted “more than 20”, and recently AFP reported “over 50” and this latest link — BREAKING: Palestinians Fire at Least 60 Rockets At Southern Israel – The Tower – The Tower – reports “at least 60”.
The saddest statement for reading from the above:
A top Hamas official publicly boasted this week that the Iran-backed terror group intends to blanket Israel with missiles and rockets during any future conflagration. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon had warned as far back as last fall that Hamas was arming itself in anticipation of “a renewal of violence,” an assessment that came amid increasingly specific intelligence indicating that the organization was looking to provoke a conflict with Israel in order to reverse what had become a precipitous decline in its domestic and international positions.
Competing to hate, to express more hate than someone else’s hate, to do more with hate and thereby garner “prestige” . . . .
What’s garnered universally by such a philosophy: contempt.
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Video Shows Terrorists Fired From Civilian Areas – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News
Israel vows tough action after Gaza rocket salvos | News , Middle East | THE DAILY STAR
Israeli tanks hit terrorist targets in S. Gaza after 70 rockets on Israel
Earlier
Gaza rocket barrage strikes southern Israel – Middle East – Al Jazeera English
AFP: Gaza militants fire ‘over 50 rockets’ at Israel
Gaza militants fire large rocket barrage at Israel – The Washington Post
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11 Tuesday Mar 2014
Tags
Iran, Islamofascism, negotiations, Obama, political, politics, Revolution
What we should envision is a secular Iran which will allow the seeds of our ancient wisdom and goodness to grow and flourish again through our art, music, poetry and social dynamics. The U.S. has, in secular Iranians, its best friends in the entire Islamic world. It is imperative for the U.S. to help these Iranians to dislodge the vicious doomsday Mullahs, not as an act of altruism, but as a prudent measure of enlightened self-interest.
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My Fellow Traveler,
We no longer have any choice. We no longer can engage in the same old practices to deal with the massive and debilitating threats that face humanity. We must band together and pool our resources to meet the challenges. Our planet’s problems are no longer local problems that a parochial thinking and practices can address successfully. We cannot squander even an ounce of our sorely needed energy in petty squabbles and personal fights.
Unlike anything encountered in recent memory, the formidably complex and unique situation present in today’s world poses an enormous challenge. It defies any conventional solution, and simply resorting to civil disobedience is the equivalent of fighting off a pack of hungry and blood-thirsty wolves with tooth-picks!
The Western leaders and, in particular, President Obama, must know that Hassan Rouhani and his ilk are not interested in any substantial negotiation, any compromise or live-and-let-live policy. President Obama should reconsider his good faith gesture of opening dialogue with this brutal, inhumane and illegitimate Islamic government. The Islamic Republic has no respect for the olive branches being extended to it by the Obama administration; it still continues with full-speed ahead in its quest for nuclear weaponry — and the power to intimidate the region as well as the entire world.
The best predictor of the future is the past. The religious fanatic mullahs’ record is one of deception, dissimulation, treachery, violence and much more. These Quran-trained and directed agents of a wrathful Allah can never be trusted. They are master schemers. They have been at the business of scheming for centuries. They have perfected the art of deception, doubletalk, double-dealing and treachery.
The Western world must rid themselves of the “happy talk” as we tranquilize ourselves by reasoning that these doddering old-world religious fools may be mischievous, but they could never do real harm. Oh, sure, they might be arming some Iraqi Shiites, killing a few .U.S soldiers, providing a little support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas terrorists in Palestine, building several bases in South America and Africa, murdering Iranian people and calling for the eradication of Israel—but they have no global destructive capacity. After all, we pacify ourselves that we’re not exactly talking about criminal masterminds like Hitler, or are we?
I do not claim to have all the answers, but have a fair idea of where to begin. It is high time to realize that we are not dealing with the same social factors or even the same people of three decades ago. We need to collaborate on this effort and invite others who can contribute to this cause without placing personal fame and secondary gains ahead of the ultimate goal of reeducating, rebuilding and liberating Iran.
What we should envision is a secular Iran which will allow the seeds of our ancient wisdom and goodness to grow and flourish again through our art, music, poetry and social dynamics. The U.S. has, in secular Iranians, its best friends in the entire Islamic world. It is imperative for the U.S. to help these Iranians to dislodge the vicious doomsday Mullahs, not as an act of altruism, but as a prudent measure of enlightened self-interest.
Amil Imani
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Author Amil Imani writes on this web site, “My mission is to raise the clarion call about the imminent and present danger of expansionist theocratic Islam. Having witnessed first-hand the horrors and indignity that Islamofascism visits on people it subjugates, I have taken it upon myself to do my part in defeating this ideology of oppression, hate and violence.” Amil Imani
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11 Tuesday Mar 2014
Berkin Elvan, then 14, got caught up in street battles in Istanbul between police and protesters on June 16 while going to buy bread for his family. He slipped into a coma and became a rallying point for government opponents, who held regular vigils at the hospital where he lay in intensive care.
Death of Turkish boy hurt in protests rekindles unrest across country | Reuters
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. . . Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the main target of last year’s demonstrations, has so far declined to apologise for any of the protesters’ deaths. He has riled opponents, however, by praising the police response to what he and his allies depict as a foreign-backed coup attempt as “heroic”.
Protests erupt in Turkey after death of boy hurt in 2013 unrest – FT.com
Dictators fear making apologies, which perhaps would make them look wrong, or much worse, weak.
Related: AFP: Clashes erupt in Turkey after protest teen dies
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Between the Islamic Small Wars and its pack of malignant narcissists and renewed Russian imperialism driven by the vertical of the hour Putin and his coterie, I think we’re going to see a lot of breathtakingly callous violence perpetrated by the same and lied about in similar ways.
The recent revolution in Ukraine cannot be Yanukovych’s fault, except perhaps for being weak in the face of western-backed nationalist fascist aggression, or so he might say; ditto for whatever Russians may be thinking about Putin tonight while he most certainly intends to annex Crimea, regardless of the true fealty, or lack thereof, on the part of Crimean Ukrainians: and so it goes for Assad and Khamenei and too many others around the world.
Put it in common punk talk: “They wasn’t doin’ nothin’.”
Related: AFP: Clashes erupt in Turkey after protest teen dies; 40 Tragic Pictures From Turkey As Clashes Erupt After Death Of 15-Year-Old Berkin Elvan; Erdogan’s silence shows absence of moral compass – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East – 3/12/2014.
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