Khalid Amayreh

It remains to be seen if Greece has completely abandoned its erstwhile moderate stance vis-à-vis the Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice.

On the eve of his visit to Israel, Greek President Karolos Papoulias spoke of the "strong relationship in all aspects" between his country and the Zionist state. The fact that Israel continues to occupy Palestine, expand Jewish-only colonies on occupied territory and persecute millions of Palestinians, including many who practice Greek Orthodox Christianity in the West Bank, seems to have little or no bearing on the evolving relations between the Greek and Israeli governments.

"We are now involved in an intensive process of cooperation. Our ministers and officials systematically consult and work together on all levels and in key areas, including energy, defence and security, as well as agriculture and tourism," said the Greek president.

He added that "we are also working together on international issues and matters of regional concern to both countries. We are pursuing a strong relationship on trade, investment, political and security cooperation."

Greece is a sovereign state and should be free to pursue its various interests as its sees fit. However, it must also be aware of the negative ramifications that come with having close ties with what is essentially a rogue state whose modus operandi is based on ethnic cleansing, land theft and organised state terror against the Palestinians native to the Holy Land.

In recent months and weeks, the Greek air force has held joint exercises with its Israeli counterparts in the eastern Mediterranean. Moreover, the Greek authorities are widely believed to have connived with Israeli intelligence agents to thwart the Freedom Flotilla II planning to take much-needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, still in the grip of Israel's siege. The flotilla was set to highlight the illegitimacy, illegality and utter criminality of the 5-year-blockade on the coastal enclave.

The latest measure by the Greek authorities is quite inexplicable; Athens stands accused of condoning Israel's near fascist persecution and repression of the Palestinian people. Papoulias spoke of a "common culture" between Israel and Greece, ignoring the all-too obvious fact that racism represents the heart and soul of Israeli political and popular culture today. Is such vile discrimination held in common with the Greeks?

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Stephen Lendman

Palestinian analyst/advocate/author and former journalist Nadia Hijab is right, saying "(i)t was never about aid." In her article titled, "Freedom Flotilla II: No to a Kinder, Gentler Siege," she said like earlier and new initiatives to come, it's "a political act" against Israel's illegal occupation/Gaza blockade - forced isolation, in fact, since 1988 "permit system" terrorism was instituted.

In 1991, closures began, "institutionalized" in 1993, then a 1994 electronic wall, and continued repression by lawless incursions, air attacks, home demolitions, targeted assassinations, mass arrests, daily intimidation, Cast Lead, and virtually anything Israel can dream up to collectively punish 1.6 million people, guilty of being Arabs, not Jews.

Flotillas and other humanitarian efforts aren't about delivering "goods," said Hijab. They're about freedom, self-determination, and ending Israel's lawless chokehold, violating international laws, norms and principles grievously for decades, complicit with rogue partners against justice, shamelessly supporting crimes of war and against humanity.

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David Michael Green

There are precious few things that Republicans and Democrats can agree on, but one of them is that Barack Obama is a liberal.

That rare manifestation of consensus might ordinarily be occasion for celebration (according to conventional wisdom, at least – though certainly not mine – which celebrates consensus), except for one pesky problematic detail: the notion is utterly ludicrous.

Consider a batch of recent headlines as merely the most proximate examples of a phenomenon that’s been on display since before the president was inaugurated.

Last week, the New York Times ran a front page piece, entitled “U.S. Pressing Its Crackdown Against Leaks”, in which it was noted that, “The Justice Department shows no sign of rethinking its campaign to punish unauthorized disclosures to the news media, with five criminal cases so far under President Obama, compared with three under all previous presidents combined. This week, a grand jury in Virginia heard testimony in a continuing investigation of WikiLeaks, the antisecrecy group, a rare effort to prosecute those who publish secrets, rather than those who leak them.” Though the article doesn’t mention it, we should also note here that the Obama administration is also all but Gitmo-style torturing Bradley Manning, the soldier accused of releasing documents to Wikileaks.

The article does allude, however, to the gross inappropriateness of the charges in many of these cases, a sentiment that is even joined by several conservative commentators and national security experts. In particular, the White House is bringing down the hammer on individuals who appear to be fully patriotic public servants, who acted as whistle-blowers in order to live up to their own patriotic standards. In other words, the secrets they were publicizing had no effect in terms of jeopardizing national security, unless one defines protecting the nation as covering up malfeasance, corruption or waste in government. No doubt some people do define it as exactly that, since, by some purely random coincidence, doing so happens to serve very well their own interests. Evidently the big liberal now in the Oval Office concurs.

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Charles E. Carlson

A recent Global Survey of Evangelical Protestant Leaders, taken by the Pew Forum for Religious and Public Life, reveals cracks in the structure of Evangelicalism, best described as Judeo-Christianity, welcome news for all those who labor for world peace and financial stability. [1]

The report states that "U.S. evangelical leaders are especially downbeat about the prospects for evangelical Christianity in their society; 82% say evangelicals are losing influence in the United States today, while only 17% think evangelicals are gaining influence." In the global north 66% say evangelical Christianity is having decreased influence on life, and 31% think it is increasing. More than half of U.S. leaders (53%) see the current state of evangelical Christianity in America as worse than it was five years ago. And as U.S. leaders look a few years ahead, about half (48%) expect the state of Evangelical Christianity to worsen.

The survey reveals that not all "evangelicals" are Christian Zionists and The Pew Forum has learned how to tell the difference. The Evangelical boat is leaking much worse in America and Europe than in the southern hemisphere, where missionaries are far more optimistic about the future of Evangelicalism in their countries. Perhaps this is because mission workers in the field are more attuned to work and service and less preoccupied with social pursuits and monetary success.

As I interpret this poll, significant weakening of Evangelicalism can be traced to a preoccupation with Israel that is anything but scriptural. The poll asked two related and telling questions: "Does God's covenant with the Jewish people continue today?" And, "Is the state of Israel the fulfillment of Biblical Prophesy?" The latter is a question we believe should be asked of every "Christian," including our own pastors, parents, and children.

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Stephen Lendman

[Globe is a supermarket tabloid first published North America on November 10, 1954 in Montreal, Canada as Midnight by Joe Azaria and John Vader and became the chief competitor to the National Enquirer during the 1960s. In 1978 it changed its name to the Midnight Globe after its publisher, Globe Communications, and eventually changed its name to Globe. The newspaper, as well as most of its rivals, is now owned by American Media Inc. and is published out of American Media's headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida. Globe covers a widespread range of topics, including politics, celebrity news, human interest and high-profile crime stories.]

Its history is long and sordid, dating back centuries elsewhere since the 1500s or earlier. In 19th century America, the penny press and yellow journalism featured it with regular coverage of crime, tragedy, gossip, and other ways to stimulate sales.

Newspaper editor Frederic Hudson published a history of American newspapers titled, "Journalism in the United States, from 1690 to 1872," an authoritative text saying:

"The penny press arrived in New York on January 1, 1833, when Horatio David Shepard teamed up with Horace Greeley and Francis W. Story and issued the Morning Post." Both found fame and fortune in New York, but "the concept of bringing out a penny paper belonged exclusively to Shepard."

In 1835, James Gordon Bennett's New York Herald featured local news and corruption, realizing "there was more....money to be made (from) gossip that interested bar-rooms, work-shops, race courses, and tenement houses (than) drawing rooms and libraries."

As a result, penny papers featured vulgarity, cheapness, and spurious sensationalist accounts to spur sales, though later more significant information was reported.

Originating during the late 19th century Gilded Age circulation battles between Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, yellow journalism first emerged.

Dictionaries define it variously as irresponsible and sensationalist reporting that distorts, exaggerates or misstates the truth. Its misinformation masquerades as fact to boost circulation, readership, or larger viewing audiences, as well as lie for state and corporate interests.

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Bill Van Auken

Iraq war veteran Ethan McCord, who is seen running with an Iraqi child in his arms in the video posted by WikiLeaks of a July 2007 massacre of civilians in Baghdad, talked to the World Socialist Web Site about the impact of this and similar experiences in Iraq.

The video, which records the shocking deaths of at least 12 individuals, including two Iraqi journalists employed by Reuters, has been viewed more than 6 million times on the Internet.

McCord, together with another former member of the company, Josh Stieber, have addressed an open “Letter of Reconciliation” to the Iraqi people taking responsibility for their role in this incident and other acts of violence. Both soldiers deployed to Iraq in 2007 and left the Army last year.

In the letter, McCord and Stieber said, “…we acknowledge our part in the deaths and injuries of your loved ones.” They insisted that “the acts depicted in this video are everyday occurrences of this war: this is the nature of how US-led wars are carried out in this region.”

The night before speaking to the WSWS, Ethan McCord had learned that the widow of one of the dozen men killed—the father of the two children he tried to rescue—had forgiven him and Stieber for their role in the incident.

Ahlam Abdelhussein Tuman, 33, told the Times of London: “I can accept their apology, because they saved my children and if it were not for them, maybe my two little children would be dead.”

Her husband, Saleh Mutashar Tuman, had arrived on the scene of the carnage caused by a US Apache helicopter firing into a crowd and attempted to aid the wounded. The helicopter opened fire again, killing him and at least one wounded man and wounding his two children, who were sitting in his van.

The widow urged the two former soldiers to continue to speak out. “I would like the American people and the whole world to understand what happened here in Iraq. We lost our country and our lives were destroyed.”

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Stephen Lendman

Activists in Israel have warned bill would turn Knesset in-
to a "thought police" and that it would limit freedom of ex-
pression.

Israeli outrages never quit. Besides lawlessly stealing Palestine, slaughtering and dispossessing its people, occupying its remaining 22% for over 44 years, blockading Gaza, committing high-seas piracy and murder to keep out humanitarian aid, and arresting European and other human rights advocates showing up to protest, another example highlights Israel's rogue state status.

On July 11, Haaretz writer Jonathan Lis headlined, "Israel set to vote on controversial law penalizing boycotters," saying:

Israel's "controversial 'Boycott Bill' is expected to come up for its second and third (Knesset) votes" today, despite Netanyahu earlier wanting it delayed, expected criticism from Knesset Legal Advisor Eyal Yinon, and opponents holding a protest press conference.

A same day Lis update headlined, "Israel passes law banning calls for boycott," saying:

Despite vocal opposition, the bill passed 47 - 38, criminalizing boycott supporters. Provisions include letting boycott targets sue "without having to prove they sustained damage. The court will then decide how much compensation" they're due. Another provision prohibits boycott supporters (people and companies) from "bid(ding) in government tenders."

Opponents call the bill outrageous, shameful and lawless. Kadima's spokesman said:

"Netanyahu has crossed a red line of political foolishness today and national irresponsibility, knowing the meaning of the law and its severity, while giving in to the extreme right that is taking over the Likkud."

In fact, Israel increasingly resembles a fascist police state, endangering anyone challenging state policies.

In response, Peace Now opened a Facebook page, calling for settlement products, services and activities to be boycotted. A national campaign will follow.

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Ethan McCord

When we deployed we were told that the only way for us to effectively maintain control over our AO (area of operation) was to, in a sense, out-terrorize the terrorists. We were to make the people of Iraq fear us and the repercussions from us more so than the insurgents. We were getting hit with IEDs sometimes daily. The fear of losing your life on a daily basis was wearing the soldiers down. It was in June that our Battalion Commander came to our COP (combat out post) where my platoon was. He walked past us into the office where the 1st Sgt. and company commander were. After about 20 minutes the Battalion commander walked into the weight room where 3rd platoon was at, yelled out “Listen up, new battalion SOP (standard operating procedure) from now on:

"Anytime your convoy gets hit by an IED, I want 360 degree rotational fire. You kill every motherfucker in the street!”

Some of the soldiers were happy to hear this, they were tired of having their hands tied behind their backs. Others like myself couldn’t believe what we had just been told to do. The words I heard were kill them all, fuck em, they don’t deserve to live! I knew that there was no way I could kill women and children or even unarmed men.

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Stephen Lendman

Thousands have been illegally captured or killed in America's
war on Islam, also known as the "War on Terrorism". The US
is at war with Muslim countries only: Afghanistan, Pakistan,
Yemen, Iraq, Somalia and Libya.

America's dirty war, in fact, targets Blacks, Latinos, Native Americans, political activists, and Muslims for their faith, ethnicity, and at times prominence and charity, exploiting them as "war on terror" scapegoats.

On July 9, a Press TV US prison system racket interview highlighted the problem and urgency to address it, accessed through this link.

America's media ignore how unjustly it harms millions of disadvantaged people. Instead, they regurgitate spurious high-profile case accusations, always when Muslims are affected. Most often they're men, occasionally women, bogusly charged with terrorism or conspiracy to commit it, when, in fact, they're guilty only of being targets of choice and/or being in America at the wrong time.

Why Muslims when, in fact, Islam teaches love, not hate; peace, not violence; charity, not selfishness; and tolerance, not terrorism; or that Islam, Christianity and Judaism have common roots.

Who'd know though in today's climate of hate and fear at a time America wages global wars on Islam, including at home.

Ahmed Abdulkadir Warsame is America's latest high-profile target, illegally captured, interrogated (and likely tortured) at sea for over two months, based on spurious allegations of Islamic terrorist ties.

Post-9/11, the same pattern repeated ruthlessly against hundreds of innocent victims. Pronounced guilty by accusation, America's media shamelessly regurgitate fabricated hate charges, not legitimate honest accounts, doing what good journalists should - their job.

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Chris Marsden

The ongoing exposure of systematic hacking of thousands of phones and computers by employees of Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World lifts the lid on the rampant criminality of the corporate and political elite, in Britain and internationally. At least 7,000 people have had their phones hacked and their privacy invaded. The trawl for personal information has targeted a wide range of victims, from politicians and members of the royal family to the families of murder victims and soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

The scandal is revealing the thorough-going decay of democracy and all of the official institutions in Britain, including the major parties, Parliament, the judiciary and the media. The most powerful media corporation in Britain, which constantly trumpets the need for “law and order,” has presided over serious violations of the law, including hacking on what one MP called “an industrial scale.” It has done so year-on-year with virtual impunity.

Murdoch executives and reporters are notorious as well for threatening and bullying politicians and other notables who criticize the operations of News International or otherwise arouse the ire of the Murdoch family.

Now reports have emerged that a News of the World executive destroyed millions of potentially incriminating emails in order to thwart further investigations.

Both of the major parties, Conservative and Labour, are implicated in these crimes, not only because of their refusal to call to account News International, the parent firm of Murdoch’s British media outlets, but because of their intimate relations with Murdoch’s media empire. They never challenged the Metropolitan Police for accepting the patently absurd claim that these illegal practices were the actions of one rogue reporter and a private investigator, even as it surfaced that police officers had received tens of thousands of pounds in bribes from News of the World.

It was only after numerous civil cases had been taken out against the newspaper by celebrities whose phones were hacked that, in January, the Crown Prosecution Service announced it would review material held by police on phone hacking at News of the World to “assess if a fresh criminal trial is likely.”

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Medea Benjamin

Instead of high-fiving each other for their success in thwarting the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, Israeli officials should be throwing overboard the propaganda hacks who catapulted the flotilla into headline news for weeks and left Israel smelling like rotten fish.

Last year, when the Israeli military killed nine aboard the Turkish ship, the incident made waves around the world. But in previous years, the same international coalition had sent boats to Gaza five times, successfully reaching their destination with a symbolic shipment of humanitarian aid. No blood, no military interception, no story. That’s why the advice of many of Israel’s best buddies, including the lobby group AIPAC, was to just ignore the flotilla.

But no, the Israeli government refused to listen and instead announced with great bravado that it was prepared to stop the flotilla with lethal force—including snipers and attack dogs. Smelling blood, the media frenzy began. Before even leaving home, passengers were besieged with press calls inquiring why we were willing to risk our lives and giving us a chance to talk about the plight of the people of Gaza. Worse yet from the Israeli government perspective, mainstream media began bombarding us with requests to come along. With space for only ten media on our boat, we ended up choosing reps from CNN, CBS, Al Jazeera, AP, The Nation and Democracy Now. Other boats in the flotilla also started scrambling to accommodate more press. Thanks to Israel, we were guaranteed that no matter what happened, the whole world would be watching.

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Gilad Atzmon

It might be argued that the passing week was not very easy on the Palestinian solidarity movement: firstly, an international peaceful flotilla aiming to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza did not manage to leave Greek ports. The Greek government had surrendered submissively to Israeli pressure and American Jewish organisations, and blocked the naval enterprise.

Secondly, an international attempt to fly hundreds of activists from all over the world to the West Bank also partially failed, as the Israeli Government had managed to mount just enough pressure to make sure that the project fell apart before it became airborne.[1]

Though it may seem as if the Palestinian solidarity movement suffered a blow, it is actually Israel that was harshly beaten here, for Israel has managed to expose its level of hysteria: it seems that eight old yachts and a few hundred Easyjet passengers have managed to shake the entire Israeli society. Now try to imagine the potential impact of hundred of thousands of Palestinian refugees marching to their homes in Jaffa, Acre Lod, Ramle, Haifa, Beer Shiva and Al Quds.

I guess that the picture is clearer than ever-- Israel doesn’t stand a chance. Its fate is doomed. It is just a question of time. It is not a matter of ‘if’ but a question of ‘when’. But the truth of the matter goes slightly deeper.

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Khalid Amayreh in occupied East Jerusalem

Numerous Israelis know deep in their hearts that they are living on land that belongs to another people, that they are residing in homes whose real owners were expelled by Israel's terrorist army to the four corners of the globe.

Recent Israeli behavior toward a host of issues and events portrays a state in the throes of an existential anxiety. For example, the clearly hysterical response by the Israeli government to the mobilization of a few ships carrying humanitarian aid to blockaded Gazans caricatured a state that reacts in a phobic manner to dangers and threats that don’t really exist.

After all, the volunteers on board the ships, who include people from different cultures and religions, made it abundantly clear that their mission was to deliver badly-needed humanitarian materials to the people of Gaza Strip, hermetically besieged by Israel for the fifth consecutive year for no convincing reasons.

Another message these courageous men and women, who really represent the real conscience of humanity, is to highlight the utter illegitimacy, illegality and immorality of the criminal siege that is meant to starve and strangulate 1.8 million human beings whose only "crime" is their enduring determination to seek liberty from the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the holocaust.

There is no doubt that Israeli leaders and officials know this fact too well. However, this apparently didn't prevent the dishonest Israeli prime minister Benyamin Netanyahu from claiming that the free Gaza flotilla was carrying arms to Hamas, a claim that obviously didn't contain an iota of truth. However, Israel is not a classical neurotic and psychotic case. Israel is perfectly aware of the fact that it is lying to the world and for the world.

The less professional liars among the Israeli government clique claimed that the flotilla amounted to armed armada which was planning to invade Israel, attack the Israeli navy and harm Israeli soldiers. But one would have to send his or her own mind on an extended holiday to believe that a few hundred peace activists, many of them elderly men and women above the age of 70 are planning a blitz against the mighty Israeli army.

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Stephen Lendman

A number of earlier articles discussed the UN Flotilla I Commissions in detail, accessed through the following links here, here, here, here, here and here.

Last September, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC), issued its damning findings on Israel's Flotilla I massacre, killing nine and wounding dozens of peaceful humanitarian activists heading for Gaza with aid.

As a result, HRC:

"concluded that a series of violations of international law, including international humanitarian and human rights law, were committed by the Israeli forces during the interception of the flotilla and during the detention of passengers in Israel prior to deportation."

Under international law, Israel's blockade is illegal. Imposing it caused a grave humanitarian crisis, affecting nearly 1.7 million Gazans, mostly civilians. Aid is vitally needed. Blocking it is a crime against humanity. Moreover, Israel's international waters interdiction was piracy.

A "vessel on the high seas is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of its flag State."

Under the laws of armed conflict, "a blockade is illegal if:

(a) it has the sole purpose of starving the civilian population or denying it other objects essential for its survival; or
(b) the damage to the civilian population is, or may be expected to be, excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated from the blockade."

In other words, no blockade is permitted it it inflicts disproportionate harm to civilians. Israel has done it maliciously for over four years, collectively punishing Gazans illegally, despite admitting no security threat exists.

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Ray McGovern

We passengers on the U.S. Boat to Gaza represent a cross-section of America. Yet, if there is an emblematic trait that sets us apart from "mainstream" America, it is a common, radical determination to take risks to bring Justice for the oppressed — in this case, the 1.6 million people locked in an open-air prison on a narrow strip of land called Gaza.

While most of those calling us "radical" hurl the word as a barb, we welcome the label — but radical as derived from the underlying meaning of this word, "root." Like radishes, we are rooted in soil, the soil of Justice.

"Extremist?" Yes, we confess to that too — as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. did in his Letter From the Birmingham City Jail.

Replying to those who threw the "extremist" epithet at him, Dr. King acknowledged that he was, indeed, an extremist — "an extremist for love."

He placed this kind of extremist squarely in the tradition of the Hebrew prophet Amos ("Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream"), as well as Jesus of Nazareth, Martin Luther, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson ("We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal").

"So," wrote King, "the question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremist will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for love? Will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice – or will we be extremists for the cause of justice."

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Stephen Lendman

Israel is a lawless rogue state, reigning terror against millions of Palestinian civilians, denying them freedom on their own land in their own country.

On July 7, Israel National News writer Elad Benari headlined, "Failed Flotilla: Only 2 Ships Leave for Gaza," saying:

Only "two ships have so far been able to leave (Greece) on their way to Gaza." On July 5, the French boat MV Dignite/Al Karma broke out and sailed. On July 7, Press TV, Gaza TV and other news sources said Greek commandos on Crete blocked it from proceeding.

Organizer Claude Leostic told AFP that their vessel "was taken to Sitia in Crete by the Greek Coast Guard after being stopped in a nearby port (for) refueling. The authorities (gave) various administrative reasons" for doing so, none of which are justified.

On July 6, Ynet News.com writer Aviel Magnezi headlined, "Juliano ship (with Greek, Norwegian and Swedish activists on board) heads for Gaza," saying:

On board activist Dror Feiler said, "(a)ll roads lead to Gaza. It will be a small but high-quality flotilla. At this point, I can only say that after a lengthy battle, we finally succeeded in departing."

The Voice of Israel said it was allowed to sail on condition it doesn't head for Gaza. Activists on board explained that Greece's Coast Guard is monitoring their movements remotely. Israel is pulling out all stops to prevent humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza and defeat Flotilla efforts to arrive.

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Ibrahim Hewitt

Thousands of words have been written about the scandalous arrest of Sheikh Raed Salah by the British government in what is being seen as an attempt to silence him at the insistence of the pro-Israel Lobby. Supporters of the Sheikh from all sides of the political and religious divide in Palestine and beyond have stepped forward to condemn Britain's action; Home Secretary Theresa May should hang her head in shame that she has been prepared to sacrifice goodwill for Britain across the Middle East to please the right-wing media and lobbyists for Israel.

As the phrase "pro-Israel Lobby" implies, this group of individuals and organisations carry out their nefarious work to promote Israel and its interests by influencing Western politicians and anyone else who will listen; the media is a favoured tool in this work and all too many journalists are happy to take the Zionist shilling and abandon their integrity in order to oblige. The Israel Lobby in the United States is, of course, well-documented and more or less controls Congress; witness the absurd spectacle of numerous standing ovations for Benjamin Netanyahu while addressing a joint session in Congress recently, and America's slavish devotion to and support for Israel, right or wrong. Theresa May's transparent-obsequiousness in pandering to the Lobby's whims a week ago by arresting Sheikh Salah suggests that Israel has decided that it is time to come out and flex its political muscles openly on this side of the Atlantic.

At the heart of the imbroglio is a man in his mid-fifties who is known as the "Gandhi of Palestine", much to the Lobbyists' amusement. They seek to portray Sheikh Raed Salah as a "hate preacher", an "anti-Semite" (even though he is more Semitic than many of his European Jewish detractors) hell-bent on destroying the Zionist state and all in it. Charges of blood libel have been levelled at him in Israel as well as in Britain; the strange thing is that in Israel he has been found not guilty of such ridiculous charges whereas in Britain there is an assumption that he is guilty - hence the mysterious, never-even-reached-him banning order - and deserving of being arrested, locked-up and, if the government gets its way, deported. As one commentator said, Britain is being more Israeli than the Israelis.

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Adnan Al-Daini

Thomas Jefferson, in the Declaration of Independence, put the pursuit of happiness as one of the unalienable rights for human beings, on a par with life and liberty.  Research on happiness presented in a paper by Luigino Bruni and Luca Stanca, University of Milan, gives some interesting insights. 

Research based on this question: “Taking all things together, would you say you are very happy, quite happy, not very happy, or not at all happy?”  has shown some interesting results: “In thirty surveys over 25 years (from 1946 to 1970 in the US) per capita real income rose by more than 60 per cent, but the proportion of people who rated themselves as “very happy”, “fairly happy” or “not too happy” remained almost unchanged. This finding is applicable to all the OECD countries where the aggregate happiness level has not risen in line with improvement in per capita real income”.

So why are we (US and the West) so obsessed with economic growth?  Across poorer countries however, “there is a positive and strong correlation between GDP per capita and subjective well being”.

It is clear that once basic needs are met, the law of diminishing returns comes into play, and the happiness level becomes static. 

The paper identifies that our happiness is not based on the acquisition of wealth but on “the gap between income and material aspirations. To the extent that aspirations rise together with income, subjective satisfaction may remain unchanged as income rises”.

The narrower the gap the more satisfied we are and the happier we become. This could be summed up by an old Arabic proverb: “Contentment is an inexhaustible treasure”.

We have become consumer junkies seduced by advertising into believing that if only we could have their latest product we would be happy, only to discover that the euphoria is transitory, lasting for only a short period of time. The effect is similar to that of a drug addict, needing another fix when the effects of the first dose have worn off.

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Stephen Lendman

After Greece's government surrendered to banker occupation, trends analyst Gerald Celente told Russia Today that:

America's "economy continues to decline. There's no recovery in sight." Across Europe in Greece, Britain and elsewhere, people are reacting against forced austerity to assure bankers get paid.

In fact, Trends Journal months ago called it

"off with their heads 2.0....The global ponzi scheme is under collapse....whether it's in Egypt, Tunisia, whether it's in the UK, Greece. Watch out for Spain. Here comes Italy. Ireland's coming up the backstretch. It's only going to get much worse."

"The people know the score....What killed capitalism (is explained) in four simple words: too big to fail...The banks are failing, and they want the people to bail them out....I want to make this clear. The IMF is nothing more than the International Mafia Federation, the loan sharks of last resort, and the people know it. They call it privatization. Adults call it stealing valuable public assets, and selling them to your friends really cheaply."

In all these countries,

"the politicians only represent the people who give them the most amount of money....And what do these austerity measures bring - a lot more poverty and unemployment."

People know it. They're mad, and they're reacting globally.

Expect it eventually in America, the heart of predatory capitalism, stealing from the many for the privileged few, bankers and war profiteers always first in line for handouts, as much as they want whenever they want it.

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Nahida Izzat, Exiled Palestinian

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