| Author | Message | | Alpha | | Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 12:39 am Post subject: |
| US Support for Israel PRIMARY MOTIVATION for tragic attacks on the World Trade Center:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2005/08/05/the-gorilla-in-the-room-is-us-support-for-israel.php
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Full-Page NY Times Ad: "Congress is in Thrall to the Israel Lobby"
November 2, 2006 (Washington, DC) - The Council for the National Interest Foundation argues in a full-page New York Times ad ( http://www.cnionline.org/nyt4.pdf ) scheduled to run this Sunday, November 5th, two days before the 2006 midterm elections, that the U.S. Congress is in thrall to the Israel lobby. The lobby's negative effects on U.S. Middle East policy, the ad argues, are demonstrated by the growing possibility that the U.S. will use its military might to curtail Iran's nuclear program, by the U.S. refusal to call for a ceasefire during the 34-day Israeli bombardment of Lebanon over the summer, and by the continuing chaos, isolation and bloodshed in the occupied Palestinian territories. The advertisement, titled "Who is Holding Peace Hostage?", will run nationwide opposite the editorial page in the "Week in Review" section of the Times. (The ad is also available as a JPEG - http://www.cnionline.org/nyt4.jpg - or as HTML - http://www.cnionline.org/pubs/ads/holding_peace_hostage.htm )
In a section titled "The Israel Lobby is Trying to Sell Another War," the ad points out that a recent Zogby International poll commissioned by the CNI Foundation found that 39 percent of American likely voters believe that "the work of the Israel lobby on Congress and the Bush administration has been a key factor for going to war in Iraq and now confronting Iran." As a solution to the present impasse over Iran's nuclear program, the ad suggests that the U.S. use its power to renegotiate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to encompass all nations, including Israel, which is not a signatory of the present NPT and has an estimated 250 to 300 nuclear weapons.
The Israel lobby, the ad says, was able to defeat a recent amendment to the defense appropriations bill introduced by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) that would ban the export of cluster bombs to countries that use such weapons in civilian areas, including Israel's use of U.S.-made cluster weapons in Lebanon. As evidence, the ad points to the amount of money that several opponents of the amendment received from pro-Israel political action committees (PACs) over their career and in the current election cycle. Total donations to Congressional candidates, Republican and Democrat, from pro-Israel PACs was more than $2.4 million in the current election cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The ad concludes: "Why are [members of Congress] selling their vote and undermining peace for Israel and her neighbors?"
The ad also promotes a DVD made and distributed by the CNI Foundation that includes a recent debate organized by the London Review of Books in New York City between Prof. John Mearsheimer, Amb. Dennis Ross, and Amb. Martin Indyk, among others, as well as an appearance at the National Press Club by Profs. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, the authors of the recent academic paper "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy." Mearsheimer and Walt are currently working on a book commissioned by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, a major publisher.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To make a tax-deductible contribution to the Council for the National Interest Foundation click here:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=220435196&url_num=6&url=https://secure.groundspring.org/dn/index.php?aid=2836
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Council for the National Interest Foundation
1250 4th Street SW, Suite WG-1
Washington, District of Columbia 20024
202-863-2951
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=220435196&url_num=7&url=http://www.cnionline.org/
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=220435196&url_num=8&url=http://www.rescuemideastpolicy.com/
To unsubscribe, please click here: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?key=220435196&url_num=9&url=http://democracyinaction.org/cnif/unsubscribe.jsp
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran: The Next War (for Israel):
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/wake-up-america-your-government-is-hijacked-by-zionism/2006/07/28/iran-the-next-war-for-israel.php | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 9:43 am Post subject: |
| http://www.haaretz. com/hasen/ spages/834572. html
Last update - 09:27 08/03/2007
PM: Plan for Lebanon war made months in advance
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Winograd Commission that his decision to respond to the abduction of soldiers with a broad military operation was made as early as March 2006, four months before last summer's Lebanon war broke out.
The commission, which is investigating the second Lebanon war, is expected to issue its interim report this month. It has sent testimony to attorneys representing individuals who could be harmed by its conclusions.
Olmert testified before the Winograd Commission on February 1, and its questions focused on three basic issues: the circumstances surrounding Amir Peretz's appointment as defense minister; how and why the decision was made to go to war on July 12, several hours after reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were abducted by Hezbollah guerrillas on the northern border; and why Olmert decided to carry out a large-scale ground operation in Lebanon, 48 hours before the cease-fire, in which 33 soldiers were killed.
In his testimony, Olmert claimed he had held more meetings on the situation in Lebanon than any of his recent predecessors. The first meeting was held on January 8, 2006, four days after Olmert was called to take the place of Ariel Sharon, who had fallen into a coma.
Further meetings were held in March, April, May and July, after Corporal Gilad Shalit was abducted to the Gaza Strip.
The day before he appeared before the commission, Major General Gadi Shamni, Olmert's military secretary, presented its members with the schedule of the meetings on Lebanon.
The scenario presented in the various assessments reflected prior incidents: the abduction of soldiers from Israeli territory accompanied by heavy cross-border shelling. Then-chief of staff Dan Halutz said such an incident would have far-reaching consequences for Israel's deterrent capability. Halutz said Israel could not show restraint in the face of a kidnapping in the north, and it had to respond. Olmert testified that he accepted this stance.
In a meeting in March, Olmert asked the army commanders whether operational plans existed for such a possibility, and they said yes. He asked to see the plans, and they asked why. He responded that he did not want to make a snap decision in the case of an abduction, and preferred to decide at that moment. Presented with the options, he selected a moderate plan that included air attacks accompanied by a limited ground operation. At the time, Shaul Mofaz was defense minister.
The Winograd Commission asked Olmert what he thought his predecessor would have done. Olmert said that following Hezbollah's failed November 2005 attempt to abduct Israel Defense Forces troops in the border village of Ghajar, Sharon ordered the army to prepare a "list of targets" for a military response in Lebanon. The list included an air attack on the long-range Fajr and Zilzal rockets, which were destroyed in an air raid the first night of the war. Sharon said at the time that the status quo, of ongoing Hezbollah raids, could not continue. Olmert told the commission that he behaved as Sharon would have.
Olmert stated that he had decided in earlier meetings that Israel's goal in an operation would be the implementation of Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for the deployment of the Lebanese army along the Israeli border and the disarmament of Hezbollah.
In May 2006, Olmert was informed by then-National Security Council head Giora Eiland and former prime minister Ehud Barak that the Lebanese government would agree to implement Resolution 1559 in return for an Israeli withdrawal from Shaba Farms. Olmert thought that it was best to implement the decision through diplomacy, and raised the issue with U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac.
During deliberations last June, following Shalit's abduction, Olmert told the committee he was certain there would be a similar attempt to kidnap soldiers on the Lebanese border. He ordered the IDF to prevent this.
Regarding the decision to broaden the ground operation toward the end of the war, Olmert said he had wanted to influence UN Security Council deliberations so that the draft resolution 1701, calling for a cease-fire, would be amended in Israel's favor.
Olmert said that the morning he made the move, he had received a draft reflecting the French-Lebanese stance, which did not suit Israel. The expanded operation was aimed at pressuring the Security Council members, he said.
Commission member Ruth Gavison interrupted Olmert at that point, saying that while she had no doubt that the final operation was very successful, she wanted to know why it had not been carried out earlier.
Olmert said that had earlier Israeli ground offensives been successful, Israel would not have been in such a situation at the end of the war.
Based on Gavison's statement, Olmert concluded his testimony feeling he had convinced the commission that he made the correct decision in calling for the final ground operation.
He told his aides that he emerged from the deposition exhausted but felt the committee had accepted his view.
The Winograd Commission also asked Olmert whether appointing Peretz as defense minister was the right thing to do. He responded that the defense portfolio had been given to Labor under coalition talks, and the party chose its ministers.
Olmert's chief of staff, Yoram Turbowicz, gave the Winograd Commission the diplomatic exchanges that occurred during the war.
He said that as early as the first day of the war, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke with Olmert and asked that Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora not be undermined. Israel understood this to mean that Lebanese infrastructure should not be destroyed, even though the IDF had originally planned otherwise.
Dov Weissglas, adviser to prime minister Ariel Sharon, explained Sharon's containment policy along the border with Lebanon, which was intended to prevent a two-front confrontation with the Palestinians and Hezbollah. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2008 9:34 am Post subject: |
| Mideast Arabs, Iran's Ahmadinejad Worried Over Worsening Gaza Situation
The Associated Press
Monday, January 21, 2008
DAMASCUS, Syria: Mideast Arab states were increasingly worried Monday over the worsening Gaza situation following Israel's fuel cuts to the coastal strip. Iran's hardline president also expressed concern for the plight of the Palestinians in the militant Hamas-controlled region.
The worries were prompted by Israeli efforts to stop Palestinian rocket fire and refusal to reopen border crossings or allow in crucial fuel supplies. Gaza City awoke Monday to closed bread shops and gas stations, while officials warned of a possible humanitarian crisis after Gaza's only power plant was shut down Sunday morning.
Lebanon and Syria called for an emergency Arab summit to discuss the Israeli blockade and military operations.
Syrian Foreign Ministry demanded "an immediate end to the collective punishment and Israeli crimes," saying Israel was violating "the simplest rules of human rights," while Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora described Gaza developments as a serious escalation of Israel's "racial discrimination and blatant human rights violations against Palestinians, under the pretext of confronting Hamas."
By nightfall Monday, Israel decided to ease the blockade and allow some diesel fuel and medicine into Gaza on a one-time basis. Israeli defense officials said the shipments will be allowed on Tuesday, adding the decision came after a high-level consultation called by Defense Minister Ehud Barak. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.
Earlier Monday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called Barak and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and urged them to ease the blockade.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Islamic and Arabic countries should urgently stop the "Zionists from continuing their crimes" and called for an emergency meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the official IRNA news agency reported.
In addition to the fuel cuts and blockade, Israel has also stepped up military operations in Gaza. Since last Tuesday, more than 35 Gazans have been killed, including a son of Mahmoud Zahar, the most senior Hamas leader in Gaza.
In a statement issued by his office, Lebanon's Saniora said the Israeli actions in Gaza were "racist and barbaric" and that the world is not allowed to "remain silent on the Israeli actions."
In Syria, Ahmed Jibril, head of the radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, called the blockade "war crimes" and cryptically warned it would have "dire consequences not only on the Palestinian people but also on pro-U.S. Arab regimes."
Jibril said recent attacks in Iraq against U.S. troops were an effort "to express anger over the siege in Gaza," adding that this might happen anywhere in the world.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' Syria-based political bureau, said the Israeli cutoff was a "crime against humanity, contrary to all international laws."
Palestinians in Lebanon's 12 refugee camps observed a general strike Monday to protest the Gaza situation. While shops and schools were closed, Palestinians marched and staged sit-ins in the teeming camps against what Hamas called Israel's "oppressive and terrorist blockade" of Gaza.
In Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest refugee camp near the southern city of Sidon, Palestinian women burned American and Israeli flags, chanting "Allah Akbar," or "God is Great" in Arabic, and called for suicide attacks in the heart of Tel Aviv.
Jordanian columnist Bassam Emoush linked the Gaza developments with this month's Mideast visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, who he said blamed the Arabs for the region's shortcomings but failed to "mention those responsible for massacres" against the Palestinians.
"The irony is that instead of ending the Zionists' crimes, Bush gave us lectures on peacemaking ... and tried to incite us against Iran," Emoush, a former government minister sacked for his membership in the country's largest Islamic group, wrote in the pro-government Al Rai newspaper.
In Kuwait, the foreign ministry said it has asked the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council to pressure Israel to lift the Gaza siege. Foreign ministry undersecretary Khaled al-Jarrallah told the ambassadors of the five countries it was their "international responsibility" to do this, state-owned Kuwait News Agency said.
Concerns over Gaza were also raised in Europe, where EU's external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said that while Europe fully understands Israel's need to defend its citizens, the closure of the border crossings and fuel cuts would "exacerbate an already dire humanitarian situation."
"I have made clear that I am against this collective punishment of the people of Gaza," Ferrero-Waldner said and urged Israel to restart fuel shipments and reopen border crossings. passage of humanitarian and commercial supplies.
__
Associated Press Writers Zeina Karam in Beirut, Lebanon, Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Diana Elias in Kuwait City and Paul Ames in Brussels contributed to this report.
To view this article online, go to: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/01/21/africa/ME-GEN-Mideast-Gaza-Worries.php | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
