Gilad Atzmon
Gilad Atzmon's Blog

Israel’s new map 2010. "O Lord; help Israel to restore all of its territory."
Curiously, this coveted territory also seems to include Iran. -Hard to tell
whether this map represents the wet dream of just one Zionist lunatic or
all of them. Considering their warmongering against Iran, it would seem
that this lunacy is common in Israel. Maybe it's a Mossad psyops. (Ed.)

Recognizing Israel as uniquely Jewish is one of the key demands made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the latest talks with the Palestinians. However, Foreign Minister Lieberman took it one step further. He demands all Israelis swear an oath of loyalty to the Jewish state. Liebermann’s campaign slogan is "no loyalty, no citizenship."

"We can't continue to ignore issues like that of Hanin Zuabi, who identifies completely with the other side," [said Lieberman on Sunday.]

He was referring to an Israeli Arab member of Knesset who was stripped of her parliamentary privileges after sailing aboard the heroic Mavi Marmara, and being witness to the Israeli massacre in high seas.

So here we are : Israel is basically a Western liberal ‘multi cultural’ society where all different ethnicities and minorities are demanded to swear loyalty to the ultimate form of chauvinist Jewish tribal practice.

Issues to do with loyalty are of the essence within Jewish political discourse. It was the doubt regarding Dreyfus’ loyalty that transformed Herzl into a Zionist. It was loyalty to the Jews that made Jonathan Pollard betray the USA. It was Mordechai Vanunu’s ethical and universal commitment that pushed him away from Jewish loyalty. As we know, he still pays a heavy price for that commitment. As it seems, ‘loyalty to the Jews’ is a crucial demand within the Zionist discourse.

Stephen Lendman

(Photo Credit: Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)

On September 17, New York Times writers Jackie Calmes and Sewell Chan headlined, "Obama Picks Warren to Set Up Consumer Bureau," saying:

Obama appointed Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren "to oversee" the new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (BCFP) "until a director is named later. The appointment (will let her) get the agency up and running without having to go through a contentious (Senate) confirmation battle," one she might lose because of Republican and industry opposition.

She'll be an assistant to the president, a "czar" for some, a designation held by numerous other White House advisors. She'll also be a Treasury Secretary advisor, reporting jointly to Obama and Tim Geithner.

Who Is Elizabeth Warren? A bio on the elizabethwarren.com web site includes the following: At age 16, she was an Oklahoma state champion debater. Her education includes a BS from the University of Houston (1970) and a JD from Rutgers Law School (1976) where she was Editor to the Rutgers Law Review.

She taught law at Rutgers, the University of Michigan, the University of Houston Law Center, the University of Texas School of Law, and University of Pennsylvania's School of Law before joining Harvard Law School in 1992, where she's now Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law.

She's also a member of the FDIC's Committee on Economic Inclusion, the Executive Council of the National Bankruptcy Conference, as well as former Vice-President of the American Law Institute, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and Chief Adviser to the National Bankruptcy Review Commission.

Patrick Martin
WSWS

[PHOTO: BBC News, Sep. 18, 2010: The indelible ink on voters' fingers was intended to stop people voting more than once. But outside a polling station in the west of the city, a voter was one of many able to wash the ink from his finger. "They are not checking people's fingers properly. I could wash it off with water - it's very poor quality. Why are they cheating the nation with this fraud?" he said.]

Saturday’s parliamentary election in Afghanistan was a predictable debacle, characterized by widespread fraud and violence, and largely boycotted by the Afghan population. Officials of the US-dominated government of President Hamid Karzai said 3.6 million people cast ballots, far below the 6 million ballots claimed for last year’s presidential election, which was rigged to ensure Karzai’s reelection.

The 3.6 million ballots represents barely 31 percent of the 11.4 million registered voters, but the Karzai government tried to boost that figure to 40 percent, arguing that the 2.2 million people registered in areas where voting could not be conducted because of security concerns should be excluded from the total of registered voters.

Stephen Lendman

[PHOTO: A Palestinian boy drinks water from a public tap in the Gaza Strip. Human-rights group Amnesty International says Israeli restrictions prevent Palestinians from receiving enough water in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. (Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)]

Throughout 43 years of occupation, Israel has waged war on Palestinians' human rights and civil liberties, a new UN report providing more evidence that keeps mounting exponentially, adding clarity about an out-of-control rogue state operating lawlessly.

On August 10, Haaretz writer Akiva Eldar cited it in an article headlined, "UN report: IDF barring Gazans' access to farms, fishing zones," saying:

"Over the last 10 years, the (IDF has) increasingly restricted Palestinian access to farmland on the Gazan side of the Israeli-Gaza border as well as (offshore waters) along the Gaza beach, a United Nations report (just) revealed."

Prepared jointly by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and the World Food Program (WFP), it's titled "Between the Fence and a Hard Place," explaining Israel's draconian/illegal restrictions on the pretext of "preventing attacks by Palestinian armed factions." In fact, only Israel poses a regional threat. A global one as well, what Palestinians and Israel's neighbors have known for decades.

Despite the Green Line, Oslo Accords, the so-called 2005 "disengagement," ongoing siege, the continued theft of West Bank and East Jerusalem land and more, Israel imposes punitive restrictions on Gazans, including under the 1994 Jericho Agreement. It established a 1,000 meter-wide "security perimeter" in the Territory, Palestinian police enforcing "special security measures" to prevent entry into Israel without permission.

A separate provision allowed a 20 nautical mile area off Gaza's coast for fishing, recreation, and other economic activities. Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA), in theory, share joint enforcement authority, but, in fact, Israel has sole control.

Since September 2000, the start of the second Intifada, Israel took over more repressively than ever. Palestinians have been denied all rights in their own territory under vague and restrictive rules, including use of their own land and waters. As a result, Gazans have been irreparably harmed.

Stephen Lendman

An earlier article explained his judicial lynching, accessed through THIS link.

A longtime distinguished lawyer, detailed information about him, his career, and lawless disbarment and imprisonment can be found through THIS link.

From the early 1990s until his disbarment and March 4, 2009 jailing, Fine challenged and corrected state corruption, returning about "$350 million to California taxpayers which state, county and municipal governments (unlawfully took from) 'special funds' and 'trust funds' in a series of taxpayer cases filed in federal" and state courts.

Yet, for his many years of crime fighting, he was charged with "contempt of court" and "moral turpitude," disbarred by California's Supreme Court, and jailed by Superior Court Judge David Yaffe (retiring November 1) "in retaliation for bringing the cases and exposing the unconstitutional payments," ones later held to be unconstitutional.

Last spring, Fine appealed to the US Supreme Court for release. The California Bar waived its right to respond, meaning his appeal was unopposed. Nonetheless, on May 24, 2010, Fine's Petition for Writ of Certiorari (an order to a lower court) was denied without explanation or comment. As a result, he remained a political prisoner, one of many hundreds in America, a topic an earlier article addressed, accessed through THIS link.

Wayne Madsen
Online Journal

[Derin Devlet; Ergenekon] (WMR) -- WMR has discovered a formerly Secret document from the U.S. Department of State that confirms the United States not only supported the Turkish military coup that ousted the nation’s democratically-elected government in 1980 but actively supported the military-imposed Turkish Constitution as “reformist.”

The citizens of Turkey recently voted in a referendum and approved 26 constitutional amendments that will transform Turkey into a democratic state without the threat of the military and national security state-affiliated judiciary trumping the power of the Parliament and the people. Neocons have condemned the referendum as a threat to secularism in Turkey and a move to an Islamic state. However, the neocons and their allies in Israel are concerned that a Mossad -and CIA-imposed Turkish “Deep State” has finally seen its power largely destroyed with the impending adoption of a new Turkish Constitution. The referendum, which passed with 58 percent of the vote, is a victory for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Many of the roots of the creation of the most recent variant of the Turkish Deep State, known as Ergenekon, can be seen in the State Department policy paper dated September 5, 1981, and titled “USG Policy toward Turkey.” When the State Department document was drafted, Turkey’s military junta leader, General Kenan Evren, was drafting the present Turkish Constitution. The 1981 Turkish military draft Constitution’s “reforms” were referred to in the State Department policy document’s author Lawrence Eagleburger, the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs:

“It is too early to judge whether the fundamental GOT reforms, now in place or in prospect, will succeed.” [The document also talks about the “relief” provided to the United States by the 1980 military coup:] “The military takeover of September 1980 brought temporary relief and for the moment broke the back of radical movements -- including pro-Islamic ones -- which had come to the fore in the 1970s.”

John Mearsheimer
Mondoweiss

There is no question that the United States has a relationship with Israel that has no parallel in modern history. Washington gives Israel consistent, almost unconditional diplomatic backing and more foreign aid than any other country. In other words, Israel gets this aid even when it does things that the United States opposes, like building settlements. Furthermore, Israel is rarely criticized by American officials and certainly not by anyone who aspires to high office. Recall what happened last year to Charles Freeman, who was forced to withdraw as head of the National Intelligence Council because he had criticized certain Israeli policies and questioned the merits of the special relationship.

Steve Walt and I argue that there is no good strategic or moral rationale for this special relationship, and that it is largely due to the enormous influence of the Israel lobby. Critics of our claim maintain that the extremely tight bond between the two countries is the result of the fact that most Americans feel a special attachment to Israel. The American people, so the argument goes, are so deeply committed to supporting Israel generously and unreservedly that politicians of all persuasions have no choice but to support the special relationship.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs has just released a major study of how the American public thinks about foreign policy. It is based on a survey of 2500 Americans, who were asked a wide variety of questions, some of which have bearing on Israel. Their answers make clear that most Americans are not deeply committed to Israel in any meaningful way. There is no love affair between the American people and Israel.

This is not to say that they are hostile to Israel, because they are not. But there is no evidence to support the claim that Americans feel a bond with Israel that is so strong that it leaves their leaders with little choice but to forge a special relationship with Israel. If anything the evidence indicates that if the American people had their way, the United States would treat Israel like a normal country, much the way it treats other democracies like Britain, Germany, India, and Japan.