Friday, February 25, 2011

Jesus Challenged Empire

From the Sabeel Conference in Bethlehem (February 24, 2001): SABEEL CONFERENCE IN BETHLEHEM: JESUS CHALLENGED EMPIRE

Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh described "the 13 percent of Bethlehem that is the concentration camp we (Palestinians) are allowed to live in," while the remainder is either zoned restricted or is "illegally annexed." He said, "Israel continues building its Wall, which in Bethlehem is 60-70 percent complete." Qumsiyeh, a professor at Bethlehem and Birzeit Universities, addressed "Mapping Empire Today in Palestine and Israel."

"Shedding fear is the most important part of people-power resistance," Qumsiyeh said. "State power requires fear," and it employs "unimaginable" tactics such as demolishing homes six and seven times.

As for "empire," we have to ask who is behind all this, Qumsiyeh said. "Greed and interests of greed that cannot be ignored. We must understand the biology of the disease we are facing so that we can treat it." Palestinians are facing world powers, not just another state, he said.

"Justice, peace, truth - these are not just words. Leaders blurt them unconsciously. I say as a Palestinian Christian, look to Jesus Christ. He was the first Palestinian martyr. He spoke Aramaic, a precursor to Arabic, and he was killed for acting, not just for saying these words," Qumsiyeh said.

The Rev. Mitri Raheb preached at the Wi'am Center, located next to the Separation Wall in Bethlehem. He spoke to the familiar text from the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth," saying it would more correctly be translated, "for they shall inherit the land." Raheb is the pastor of Christmas Lutheran Church and president of the Diyar Consortium in Bethlehem.

"We really think empire will last. Jesus says it will not," Raheb said. "How wise Jesus was. No one of Jesus' time would have imagined that Herod was not here to stay. Jesus tells us through this verse that we are released from the power of empire. Jesus speaks and empire has lost its power over us. We see it in the Arab world in these recent weeks. Young people saw that empire could be shattered. God won't do it alone, only with us."

Source

P.S. But, but then again, revolutions don't happen that way, and although it's true that Jesus honored peoples' faith by multiplying two fishes and five loaves of bread to feed thousands, the Ugly Truth is that God is unlikely to move in behalf of the duped, hapless protesters today.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Egyptians to march on Liberation Square

Millions of Egyptians are planning to continue their protests by flooding Cairo's Liberation square for a demonstration dubbed as 'cleansing Friday.'

Protesters have planned the rally for this Friday, as they say their demands have not been met, The Associated Press reported.

They want the military council to hand over power to a civilian government, and Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq's cabinet to resign.

"We will march in protest to demand the resignation of Shafiq's government and abolishing emergency law and the trial of Mubarak and his family," Mohamed Fahmy of the People's National Movement for Change said.

They are also calling for the immediate release of all political prisoners.

Fear is spreading that Vice President Omar Suleiman -- who was the right-hand-man of toppled President Hosni Mubarak -- is making the post-revolution decisions for the government. Reports indicate that he is dictating decisions to the military council.

After holding talks last week, activists accused Suleiman of being divisive and have refused to hold further negotiations. The Muslim Brotherhood has also cut contacts.

Suleiman disappeared from the public eye after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted last month. He was Egypt's intelligence chief for two decades before being appointed vice-president, maintaining a close relationship with the US and Israel all the while.

Source

P.S. The Egyptian people apparently aren't getting it or they're not buying the Ugly Truth that their protesting is all part of a zionist plot and they're all being duped. Don't you guys get it? The Ugly Truth is your protesting is all for nothing! The Ugly Truth is revolutions just don't happen this way. The Ugly Truth is tyrants aren't just going to give up their power by your protesting. The Ugly Truth is you're going to get hurt for nothing.

The truth is that the courage and tenacity of the Egyptian is to be celebrated, and it should be supported by people of good will everywhere... now!... rather than vaingloriously pooh poohing them as manipulated dopes... as if they were American Republican tea partiers.

P.P.S. Oh yes, it is true that Jesus honored peoples' faith by multiplying two fishes and five loaves of bread to feed thousands, but in this case, the Ugly Truth is that these protests are all in vain. Sorry, that's the Ugly Truth of it. I'm afraid the Ugly Truth is that God is unlikely to move in behalf of these duped, hapless protestors.

Soros Is Wrong, The Islamic Republic of Iran Will Survive and Benefit from the Arab Awakening

We take billionaire financier George Soros up on the bet he proffered to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria this week that “the Iranian regime will not be there in a year’s time.” In fact, we want to up the ante and wager that not only will the Islamic Republic still be Iran’s government in a year’s time, but that a year from now, the balance of influence and power in the Middle East will be tilted more decisively in Iran’s favor than it ever has been.

Just a decade ago, on the eve of the 9/11 attacks, the United States had cultivated what American policymakers like to call a strong “moderate” camp in the region, encompassing states reasonably well-disposed toward a negotiated peace with Israel and strategic cooperation with Washington: Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the other Persian Gulf states, as well as Morocco, Tunisia, and Turkey. On the other side, the Islamic Republic had an alliance of some standing with Syria, as well as ties to relatively weak militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. Other “radical” states like Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Muammar al-Qaddafi’s Libya were even more isolated.

Fast-forward to the eve of Barack Obama’s inauguration as president of the United States, in January 2009. As a result of the Iraq war, the collapse of the Arab-Israeli peace process, and some fairly astute diplomacy by Iran and its regional allies, the balance of influence and power across the Middle East had shifted significantly against the United States. Scenarios for “weaning” Syria away from Iran were becoming ever more fanciful as relations between Damascus and Tehran became increasingly strategic in quality. Turkey, under the Justice and Development Party (AKP), was charting a genuinely independent foreign policy, including strategically consequential partnerships with Iran and Syria. Hamas and Hezbollah, legitimated by electoral successes, had emerged as decisively important political actors in Palestine and Lebanon. It was looking progressively less likely that post-Saddam Iraq would be a meaningful strategic asset for Washington and ever more likely that Baghdad’s most important relationships would be with Iran, Syria, and Turkey. And, increasingly, U.S. allies like Oman and Qatar were aligning themselves with the Islamic Republic and other members of the Middle East’s “resistance bloc” on high-profile issues in the Arab-Israeli arena — as when the Qatari emir flew to Beirut a week after the 2006 Lebanon war to pledge massive reconstruction assistance to Hezbollah strongholds in the south and publicly defended Hezbollah’s retention of its military capabilities.

On Obama’s watch, the regional balance of influence and power has shifted even further away from the United States and toward Iran and its allies. The Islamic Republic has continued to deepen its alliances with Syria and Turkey and expand its influence in Iraq, Lebanon, and Palestine. Public opinion polls, for example, continue to show that the key leaders in the Middle East’s resistance bloc — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Syrian President Bashar Assad, Lebanon’s Hassan Nasrallah, Hamas’s Khaled Mishaal, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan — are all vastly more popular across the region than their counterparts in closely U.S.-aligned and supported regimes in Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and Saudi Arabia.

And, now, the Obama administration stands by helplessly as new openings for Tehran to reset the regional balance in its favor emerge in Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, and perhaps elsewhere. If these “pro-American” Arab political orders currently being challenged or upended by significant protest movements become at all more representative of their populations, they will no doubt become less enthusiastic about strategic cooperation with the United States. And, if these “pro-American” regimes are not replaced by salafi-dominated Islamist orders, the Arab governments that emerge from the present turmoil are likely to be at least somewhat receptive to Iran’s message of “resistance” and independence from Israel and the West.

Certainly, any government in Cairo that is even mildly more representative than Hosni Mubarak’s regime will not be willing to keep collaborating with Israel to enforce the siege of Gaza or to continue participating in the CIA’s rendition program to bring Egyptians back to Egypt to be tortured. Likewise, any political order in Bahrain that respected the reality of that country’s Shiite-majority population would be firmly opposed to the use of its territory as a platform for U.S. military action against Iranian interests.

Over the next year, all these developments will shift the regional balance even more against the United States and in favor of Iran. If Jordan — a loyal U.S. client state — were to come into play during this period, that would tilt things even further in Iran’s direction.

Against this, Soros, other American elites, the media, and the Obama administration all assert that the wave of popular unrest that is taking down one U.S. ally in the Middle East after another will now bring down the Islamic Republic — and perhaps the Assad government in Syria, too. This is truly a triumph of wishful thinking over thoughtful analysis.

...the Obama administration’s post-Ben Ali, post-Mubarak approach to Iran is putting important U.S. interests in serious jeopardy. It is putting at risk, first of all, the possibility of dealing constructively with an increasingly influential Islamic Republic in Iran. More broadly, at precisely the time when the United States needs to figure out how to deal with legitimate, genuinely independent Islamist movements and political orders, which are the most likely replacements for “pro-American” autocracies across the Middle East, the Obama administration’s approach to Iran is taking U.S. policy in exactly the opposition direction.

The United States faces serious challenges in the Middle East. Its strategic position in this vital part of the world is eroding before our eyes. Indulging in fantasies about regime change in Iran will only make the situation worse.

P.S. Read all of the source article here.

P.S. If all of the upheaval we're seeing unfold in the Middle East is due to some zionist master plan, those master planners are taking a terrible risks by letting so much truth and repressed sentiments vent themselves. They could lose control of things. Heaven knows they couldn't control things forever.

We just might see the unraveling of zionist hegemony in our time. It's possible. Minimally this is an educational moment for much of the world as so much truth that has been successfully suppressed for so long is now venting itself.

This is a positive moment. There is much to cheer, encourage and hope for. I'd sure hate to be one of those smart guys that are hanging their hats on the idea that all of this upheaval is just a zionist plot, and not be able to cheer on what was always inevitable because being right is more important than being with right.

Sunday, February 20, 2011

From Tahrir Square to Shatila Camp. The Biggest Battlefield yet to come will be in the USA.


Overnight, the death toll among Egypt’s masses protesting for the overthrow of US-backed dictator Hosni Mubarak has risen to over 150 and thousands injured. With telecommunication services blacked out by the authorities (and willingly obliged by the telecoms corporations), it is hard to verify the exact casualty figures. But it is undeniable that a massacre is occurring. And it is a massacre made in the US.

The US public needs to be very clear about this. The armed forces of the Mubarak regime are now killing and maiming civilians with weapons that are made in the US and supplied by the US at the rate of $1.5 billion a year – for the last 30 years.

Mubarak’s regime could not carry out its violent repression without the material and political support of Washington. For 30 years, the Mubarak regime could not have impoverished its mass of people, subjected them to terror, illegal incarceration, torture and killing without the material and political support of Washington (and other Western governments).

Now bitter irony heaped upon bitter irony, the Israeli regime is reported to be sending weapons to its partner-in-crimes against humanity in Cairo to put down the popular uprising. Israel, which receives $4-5 billion a year from Washington to crush Palestinian Arabs, is sending its surplus of US-made and US-supplied weapons to crush Egyptian Arabs.

The bottom line is that US weapons, whether sent directly or indirectly, are being used to massacre civilians who are simply demanding democracy, economic justice and human rights.

With millions of citizens taking to the streets in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, Algeria – and reports of similar unrest in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere across the Middle East and North Africa, it can be fairly said that a revolution in popular awakening is underway. And it is clear that these people are demanding an overthrow of decades-long regimes that have denied them, often brutally, democracy. Simple as that.

It is also crystal clear on which side of the struggle that the US government and its Western allies stand. Despite mealy-mouthed and disingenuous ‘support’ being voiced from Western capitals for the demands of the people, these same capitals are steadfastly on the side of the corrupt status quo. Think about that. The US and other Western governments are against democracy. They are for fascistic dictatorship, massive immiseration, countless other crimes against humanity and other ‘evils’ that go with that, such as extremism that so haunts the West.

In many and very real ways, as Andrew Gavin Marshall (1) and others have pointed out, what is happening in the Middle East and North Africa is the beginning of a global awakening.

Right now, the streets of Cairo, Tunis and elsewhere look like battlefields. But the biggest battlefield yet to come will be in the US. And quite fittingly so. As the executive power upholding the capitalist order that has for decades spawned wars, violence, injustice, corruption and fascism around the world to achieve its undemocratic ends, the US is the primary site of struggle for democracy, not just in the US, but also for the rest of the world.

In past decades, the battle lines were obscured by lack of communications and propaganda diversions (the ‘evil Soviet empire, Vietnam, Latin American subversion, war on drugs, and, latterly, this phony war on terror, etc). But with mounting and unrelenting poverty across the US (and Europe), and global communications, the battle lines are now becoming apparent. The real enemy is the US/Western diktat of capitalism – the economic system that enriches the few and impoverishes the majority because it is all about private profit, and increasingly elite private profit.

The people of the US and Europe are not mere observers to some kind of removed spectacle. They are intimately involved in this struggle. It is their governments that have already taken sides in this struggle. It is their governments that have sparked the revolution by creating these regimes in the first place.

It is their governments that form and inform the policies of these regimes. Because they are the very same policies of anti-democracy that are also being forced – and all too painfully being forced – on the people of the US and Europe: autocratic political monopoly under two- or three-party systems of servility, economic injustice, elite embezzlement, financial oligarchy, erosion of human rights, police state powers. It’s a sliding scale of fascism that has as its epicentre Western capitals, and in particular Washington. The struggle for democracy is not just being fought for in the streets of the Middle East and North Africa. The struggle is on every US and European street too – albeit latent and partially obscured for now. In this struggle, we are no longer Americans, European, Africans or Asians – the elites long ago gave up their pretense of patriotism in their quest for profits. We are people of the world who demand democracy – real, sustainable democracy that can not be delivered by Global capitalism.

The world is witnessing a world revolution. Its origins, of course, go back a long time to the tyrannies of Europe. But its latest phase began in the US. There, it will have to be finished. It is a vital task. Onerous yet potentially glorious for the sake of democracy, justice and peace in the world.

Source article is located here.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Was that Jesus guy duped?


I wonder if that Jesus guy was duped by some Pharisaic plan. A plan to call him a trouble maker and such. I mean look at where his protesting got him.

And weren't his followers treated similarly? And look where we are today.

Jesus should have been smarter, layed low until he had the advantage. He should have allied himself with the good jews and bargained for good judaism. Then he wouldn't have gotten himself killed, along with his naïve followers. Then perhaps we wouldn't be having all this conflict we're having today. We'd have nice jews and nice gentiles getting along just fine.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Need a Job Americans? Learn Chinese or Hindi.


You won't have to learn Chinese or Hindi just compete for jobs that have been outsourced out of our country. You need to learn these languages to compete for white collar jobs here also, well at least Hindi. American engineers have been competing with Indians for jobs in this country for years. Maybe those that have lost their jobs could learn Hindi and pretend that they're Indians to get their jobs back. Of course, they'll be getting lower pay. But it should still be better than working at McDonalds. Well, it's either that or join the army.

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Anti-Semitic Musing 015: Is Norman Finkelstein a Zionist Apologist?

Norman Finkelstein’s talk at UM-D on Wednesday was instructive and revealing—though not, I’m sure, in the way he intended.

The event began with him speaking for about an hour and 20 minutes, mostly on the December 2008 invasion and massacre in Gaza. He recounted the usual facts about that tragic event, facts that were probably well known to nearly everyone in the lecture hall. He spent about 20 minutes on the Mavi Marmara incident of last May, and another 10 on recent events. His talk concluded with no new news, no controversial statements—only the usual condemnation of Israeli atrocities that any decent person would find appalling.

Then came time for questions. I was the first. I said: “Norm, during your talk you offered neither discussion nor criticism of the Zionist project. This suggests that you find Zionism either irrelevant or unimportant to the question of Palestine. So I have a three-part question for you: (1) What is your definition of Zionism? (2) What percent of Jewish Americans are Zionists? and (3) Are you a Zionist?”

For the next 15 minutes, literally, the audience was treated to a rambling, incoherent response that failed to even address, let alone answer, any of the three questions. This gist of his answer, as far as I can tell, consisted of a dismissal of the term “Zionism” as irrelevant to modern-day society. Labeling people is counter-productive, he seemed to say. We don’t want to upset anyone, he implied. Finkelstein ended his reply by stating explicitly, regarding the question of his own Zionism, “I refuse to answer that.” (This non-answer drew applause from a few members of the audience, including Nabeel Abraham of HFCC.)

Moderator Tarek Beydoun then interjected a follow-up question, to the effect that, the first question was indeed relevant, and why won’t you answer it? Finkelstein then launched into yet another (!) 15-minute sprawling non-answer, ending with the suggestion that we all need to “adjust and accommodate” ourselves to the reality of the situation—whatever that means.

It got no better after that. Of the few remaining questions, we heard that Norm cares only about the occupation and the civilian killings, and that the rights of Israeli Arabs are of little concern; that “nobody” really believes in equality of all people; and that it is simply not reasonable to allow all Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland (“maybe they should just choose not to return”).

Most people left the hall knowing scarcely more than when they went in. We don’t need someone to tell us the obvious. We need an examination of the ideological basis for the present situation. We need to expose the power of the Israel Lobby in media and government. And we need a concrete strategy to restore justice and true democracy to the Middle East.

Perhaps I am too hard on Norm. Everyone has their limits, and his happen to include only the most obvious and blatant Israeli crimes. This is fine, as far as it goes. But let’s not fool ourselves. Let’s not portray the man as some noble critic of the Zionist state. In fact he is no critic of Zionism at all; he won’t even discuss the matter.

At best, Finkelstein has a very shallow threshold for criticism. At worst, he is a closet apologist for Zionism. If American Zionists wanted to create a “safe” critic of the Jewish state, one who would point to only the most obvious flaws while covering up the root causes, they could do little better than Norm Finkelstein.

Source article can be found here.

P.S. Is Norman Finkelstein an apologist for zionism?

Uhm........ YES. Norman is a zionist apologist. He's two-state zionist.

I encourage everybody to ask Norman the same question that the author of this article did the next time zionist peace rockstar Finkelstein makes an appearance at a university in their neighborhood. Listen to Finkelstein dance around the issue of zionism at another one of his university rockstar events here.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Hijack the Zionist Plot, Support the Protestors

It is noteworthy to note that it is our jewish MSM that is giving these protests prime time coverage. I'm a burned out anti-war protestor. I know our jewish MSM worked to kill, and ultimately did kill, the anti-war movement in this county first by ignoring it, and then when it was impossible to ignore it, by low-balling its size and significance and demonizing it. You never saw any jewish MSM aerial view of the large crowds protesting at the national protests in Washington DC, the first of which had crowd of over 100 thousand protestors from across the entire country, the second of which double that number, at least, and the third of which included over 500 people from across the country.

And prior to the largest protest in February, when over 8 million people protested the imminent invasion of Iraq worldwide, NYC officials per-emptively killed the protest in NYC by banning the protestors in this country from assembling on the main streets, forcing the protestors to split up into smaller smaller groups spread across smaller side streets, in order to minimize its visual impact as much as possible. There were a million protestors there.

That said, NOW is the time to SUPPORT THE CAUSE OF THE PROTESTORS in the Middle East by focusing on why they are protesting, why they have cause to protest, what they are protesting, why they have puppet dictator, etc. Who cares if its a zionist plot. Support their cause. Take advantage of the jewish MSM coverage. Hijack the plot. PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST. JOIN THE PROTESTS. Don't discourage it by sitting on the sidelines, and encouraging others to just sit on the sidelines, by constantly harping that its all just a zionist plot. Let me say that again with emphasis:

DON'T DISCOURAGE THE PROTESTS BY CONSTANTLY HARPING THAT ITS JUST A ZIONIST PLOT.

Support the protestors. Make a stink. Make it evident what 9/11 and this bogus “war on terror” is all about, i.e., zioinism and Israel. Let the US masses see the burden to the world that zionism is. This is a golden moment for that. It is the best moment for it. Then at least people, especially Americans, will get some cognizance of horrible burden that zionism is to the world. That will be a major victory in itself.

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Amazing Video: Child Leading Protest Chants


Here's an example of hijacking the "zionist plot to incite protests" and running away with it. Try not to be inspired. Can zionists match this spirit, or squelch it?

Friday, February 4, 2011

Israel Soon To Fulfill Lonstanding Dream


Never before have Satan's little helpers been closer to fulfilling the century old Zioscum dream of a 'Greater Israel' from the Euphrates to the Nile

While millions of Egyptians are protesting for an immediate removal of Mubarak, Western politicians are pressuring the Egyptian government to refrain from the use of force, respect 'freedom of the press' and 'listen to the people'. At the same time, Israeli politicians keep handing out Judas kisses by reminding everyone interested of what a great friend and ally (!) Mubarak has been for the past 30 years and how terrible, terrible a regime change would be for the Jews-only state. Who needs more evidence that what is currently going on in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt is being orchestrated by nobody else but the Anglo-Judean Axis of Greed?

It's not like Israeli politicians are so stupid not to realise that their praise for Mubarak is not exactly making it easier for him to cling on to power. Nor are Western politicians so stupid not to know that their criticism of Mubarak's desperate attempts to save his rule will only serve to encourage demonstrators and political opposition. No, both Israeli and Westerns politicians are doing everything in their power to ensure a victory of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The fall of Egypt is likely to trigger similar developments throughout the Middle-East, including Saudi-Arabia and Turkey. Israhell - slavishly supported by Western governments - will 'secure' strategic assets such as oil fields, pipelines and the Suez Canal, resulting in an all out Middle-East war, in which the Zionist hellhole - 'desperately fighting for its survival' - will wipe strategic rival Iran off the map and annex large chunks of territory of its neighboring countries. Never before have Satan's little helpers been closer to fulfilling the century old Zioscum dream of a 'Greater Israel' from the Euphrates to the Nile.

Source article can be found here.

P.S. The good thing in all this display of protesting is that it is becoming apparent what a burden Israel is on the world and what 9/11 and the so-called "war on terror" has been about all along. What self-deceiving argument will two-state jewish altruists and fellow traveling sycophants come up with once the dream of Eretz Isreal is fulfilled? Will it be now that jews are secure there can finally be justice? Will jews ever feel secure?

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

If it's a Zionist Plot, Hijack the Zionist Plot.


But then again, if it’s a nice zionist plot... hmmm let me contemplate that one....

Nice Zionism Now!

1) Back to the ‘67 borders... well as close to them that’s reasonable.

2) Get out of the West Bank... well as much as is reasonable.

3) Let them have a Palestinian state now!... or maybe two states: Gaza and Trans Jordan. [But then again maybe Gaza, North Trans Jordan and South Trans Jordan. But then again maybe Gaza, North Trans Jorndan, South Trans Jordan, East Trans Jordan and West Trans Jordan. We'll make as many states as is necessary to make things better.]

The above message --not the video-- is approved by all jewish altruist zionists and their traveling jewish sycophant companions. All altruist jewish zionists and their traveling jewish sycophants recommend that you stop all that protesting now. It's just a mean zionist plot. You'll just get hurt and you're making it more difficult to campaign for a two-state solution. Jewish sycophants want to emphasize that you're just playing into the hands of the mean zionists, who don't even consider you human, let alone virtually equal to jews as jewish altruist zionists do. Stop that protesting. You're making those mean zionists foam at the mouth about their Eretz Israel with all this protesting. So stop it now.

Anti-Semitic Musing 014: The J-factor in the Middle East Turmoil

The uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen are the inevitable results of the J-factor, which destroys everything. As I was told by a Saudi army general many years ago, all Arab countries are secretly controlled by Israel, including his own. It is Jewish control of Arab countries that was the exact reason the Russian Jews were forced into the region following WWI: to destabilize Arabs and eventually control their huge oil resources.

Read more about the J-factor here.

Listen to discussion of the J-factor between Daryl Bradford Smith and Muhammad Rafeeq of February 1st here or here.