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April 2009 - Posts

  • THE IDEAL ISRAELI SOLDIER, KILLER & THIEF

    BY: AYMAN QUADER

    (In the photo: same story over and over again, in Hebron as in Gaza, IDF soldiers do not respect the homes of Palestinians.)

    The old man sat in the light of a kerosene lamp and looked bleakly ahead. His wife sat in the opposite corner, crying loudly "They soiled our sheets, haram, haram, they broke our bed, fired guns in our bed and," the old man said, "they took all our money. The day after we left we found a 100 shekel note in the garden, that's all."

    He was talking to a foreign photographer who had come to film the destruction in North of the Gaza Strip about the Israeli occupation of his house. Sa'ad Al Atar lived in a line of houses along a high ridge overlooking Gaza city in Atatra district. It was the part of Gaza nearest the Israeli border, and it also commanded long views of Gaza city, so it was bombed repeatedly in the first few days, and most of the houses were destroyed. Then the Apaches fired rockets at what was left and machine gunned anything that moved. Mr Al Atar stayed home with his family, even when machine gun fire came through the window and sprayed the wall behind them. The foreign Journalist put his fingers in the big holes in the plaster, but to him they were just dents in the wall; to Mr Al Atar they represented fear and salvation at the same time. But there was an even closer miss in the next dark room, where there were no lights. A row of smaller bullet holes at a lower level.

    "We were eating our meal on the floor when these came. If we were sitting on a chair they would have gone through our heads. I am lucky that I cannot afford to put chairs in both my rooms," said Mr Al Atar.

    What happened next? "The Israelis came and pointed their guns at us. They told us to get into the back room, where the shots had been fired, and to stay there, and they went on to the roof. They told us that if we moved, they would shoot us. They went upstairs, they stole my money, soiled the beds, left condoms everywhere. They fired holes in the bed - for what? While people were dying they were making love with each other in our bed, and then they destroyed it. All our money was in the mattress, everything for the whole family, and they took it all. Then after 3 days, they left. Just left."

    His family of seven children and his wife listened in the gloomy light. "There is no glass in the windows, and we cannot afford even to buy plastic sheets," said Mrs Al Atar. "The UN gave us some blankets, but we have no money to repair anything and no one helps us. No one. And it is cold, even our clothes they cut up and soiled - look, look at these cuts, why, why they do this, why?"

    They drank their tea in silence, the foreign photographer left, and the light went out.

  • GOD FORSAKEN

    BY:  SAMAH SABAWI

    What is life worth?

    A grain of earth

    A drop of oil

    A flag on a hill of holy soil

    A cross...a star...a crescent moon...

    Is it worth ending a life too soon?

    What sacred verses can explain

    Sniper fire...

    And white phosphorous rain?

    What Holy Scripture gave the command

    "Thou shall wipe out their villages

    And scorch their land"

    And after the massacre

    Did they lament?

    Did they seek forgiveness?

    Did they repent?

    Did they try to sanctify their burdened souls

    While besieging a people behind their walls

    Or did they wear with pride their murderous skills:

    A pregnant woman with a caption "1 SHOT 2 KILLS"

    No rest for the less sacred, no safety, no light

    No benediction, no prayer, no end in sight

    No bread, no medicine, no shelter, no salvation

    No angels can survive this holy Occupation

    TELL ME THIS:

    What is the life of a Palestinian worth,

    In this God forsaken earth?

     


             


  • SALAM FAYYAD FOR SAINTHOOD

     

    BY:  UM MAZEN OF KABOBFEST

    As Easter is soon upon us and with the Pope due to arrive in Palestine in the coming month, it is befitting that we begin the canonization process to declare Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian “Prime Minister” a saint. Fayyad has long been revered as a saint to most in the West. After he was (illegally) appointed Prime Minister, foreign ministers around the world clamored to declare that he was the sole reason that Palestinians were receiving the guilt money provided by the Europeans. Tony Blair – a failure as Prime Minister and now a failure as Quartet envoy – joined the chorus. Even the Israelis – never known for being kind to the Palestinians have declared Fayyad as close to G-d as a human being can be.

    Always sacrificing himself for the Palestinian cause, Fayyad, reluctantly took the job as Prime Minister and when his government failed to get confirmed by the Palestinian Legislative Council he reluctantly agreed to stay on as the (illegal) Prime Minister for more than a year and a half! During his tenure, Saint Salam could be seen attending meetings with Israelis in order to ensure that no food or fuel supplies make it into Gaza; trying to disband labor unions, threatening to cut off the electricity supply of refugees in the West Bank and banning demonstrations during Israel’s 23-day holocaust on the Gaza Strip. Of course, many have recognized his sacrificial ways: in February, Hillary Clinton, after seeing the Saint himself at another guilt money conference held to mask Israel’s Gaza holocaust, Clinton boasted about Saint Salam’s presentation skills to a group of Ramallah students: “It was one of the best I’ve ever seen!” Off-camera she said, “Some of my best friends are Palestinian!”

    This self-sacrificing neo-Saint even resigned last month just to further the Fatah-Hamas dialogue (largely stalled because of him – but who’s pointing fingers). Saint Salam vowed that by March 31st, he would be out of a job – whether or not a new national unity government was formed. The Saint called in a group of Palestinian journalists – all on the payroll of the Palestinian Authority – to explain his self-sacrifice. “Horror” the headlines proclaimed. What would the Palestinians do without the Saint?! Who could ever replace him? Who would continue to pay out the guilt money? But ever the Saint he is, and after reading the ‘analysis’ in Palestinian newspapers, Saint Salam declared a couple of days ago that he would remain in office in a “caretaker” position until a new government is formed. Phew! What would we Palestinians have done without him? At least we can rest now knowing that Saint Salam and his American backers are taking care of us. Hallelujah!


  • HIDE THE FEMALE MINISTERS

    BY:   HANITIZER OF KABOBFEST

    The Huffington Post recently ran a story about an Israeli scandal of a different size. Apparently the oasis of democracy and the guardian of freedom in the Middle East has a problem with women in power.

    Reports revealed the disappearing of two female ministers serving in the new Israeli Cabinet led by Benjamin Netanyahu. Members of the new "Screw the Palestinians" Cabinet were taking a portrait picture to celebrate the formation of a new government as well as the death of the peace process.

    Apparently, the newspapers geared toward ultra-Orthodox Jewish folks photoshopped the cabinet photo in order to take the two women out of the picture. The two ministers who have mysteriously disappeared from the photo are Limor Livnat, the Minister of Culture and Sports and Sofa Landver, the Minister of Absorbtion, proving yet again that the State of Israel fails in its attempts to reflect any culture other than one dominated by the rule of the "good ol' boys." To their edited Ministers' credit, Ms. Livnat was a good sport about the whole ordeal and Ms. Landver didn't have a problem with not being absorbed.

    According to the editors at those Ultra-Orthodox newspapers, it's immodest to print pictures of women. Radical Muslims now feel vindicated at last, by none other than Ultra-Orthodox Jews.

        The daily Yated Neeman digitally changed the photo, moving two male ministers into the places formerly occupied by the women.
        The weekly Shaa Tova simply blacked the women out, in a photo reprinted Friday by the mainstream daily Maariv.

  • ZIONISTS: WE HATE YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE EVIL, NOT BECAUSE YOU ARE JEWISH

    BY:  KHALID AMAYREH

    Zionist massacres then and now. I have been under fire of late from two diametrically opposite quarters. First, the fanatical, self-worshipping Zionists who think that non-Jewish suffering should never ever be compared with Jewish suffering.

    Needless to say, this psychotic attitude stems from deep-seated convictions that a Jew is a special creature whose life is worth more than the rest of humanity. Haven’t we noticed, for example, how Israel has made “Gilad Shalit”, the Israeli soldier imprisoned by Hamas, a household name all over the world, while next to nothing is mentioned about the estimated 10,000 Palestinian political and resistance prisoners languishing in Israeli dungeons and concentration camps?

    And, second, some pro-Palestinian activists who believe that I should avoid invoking the holocaust in my writings lest this help legitimize the Zionist narrative and inadvertently justify Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.

    To our pro-Palestinian activists, I, with all due respect, would like to say the following. I sincerely believe that we would be walking in the path of immorality if we denied or belittled other people’s suffering.  Indeed, it is imperative that we retain our humanity and moral fabric in the course of this legitimate struggle against the evil state. We must never imitate or emulate their ways and tactics. This would be self-defeating, self-destructive and immensely demoralizing.

    Moreover, we must refrain from saying or doing things that would make others portray us as inherent enemies of Jews, because we are not.

    We also need to be constantly vigilant and cautious about what we say and how we say it, lest we inadvertently besmirch the legitimacy of our just cause.

    Israel is so manifestly criminal and ugly that we don’t need to deny anyone’s suffering to prove this plain fact.

    In short, we don’t have to shoot ourselves in the foot. It is wrong and it hurts us a lot.

    Obviously, the Zionists’ “arguments” are motivated, as always, by ill-will and a malicious desire to silence critics of Israeli criminality whose phantasmagoric expressions we all witnessed recently in the Gaza Strip.

    The subject of contention this time has been an article I published a few days ago, entitled “Shame on us,” in which I strongly criticized efforts by some dubious “peace activists” to bamboozle some innocent Palestinian children from some impoverished localities into playing music before “holocaust survivors.”

    This is what happened last week when a dozen young musicians from the Jenin Refugee Camp, in the northern West Bank,  were taken surreptitiously to Tel Aviv where they were made to play a serenade before some elderly Zionists, some of whom veterans from the many criminal wars Israel had waged on our people. And as I said in the article, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine was not carried out by UFOs but by the very people our children are now being asked to cheer up.

    Understandably, the not-so-innocent event left many Palestinians infuriated by the cheap exploitation of these kids for Israeli hasbara purposes. As one who lost three uncles in one day to Zionist murderers in 1954, I felt deeply wounded and humiliated by that event.

    I am actually not against reconciliation between Palestinians and Jews. I don’t and never will view Jews as our inherent enemies. Some Jews are actually among the most effective supporters of our national cause. Those we salute for their honesty and morality.

    However, it is obvious that true reconciliation in this part of the world requires that the slate be made thoroughly clean. Usurped rights must be returned to rightful owners, and wrongs must be rectified. This I say to honest and conscientious Jews who are genuinely interested in justice and peace.

    But to the Zionists I would like to say that the following: the latest point of contention is not about music or even peace. This is first and foremost about human dignity of which the children of the holocaust and their children and grand children and great grandchildren have been trying to rob us.

    And whether you like it or not, for us, at least, you represent the real Wehrmacht, the real SS and real Gestapo. You are the *** of our time. This is what we see from our vantage point. This is what much of the world sees. This is what many honest and conscientious Jews see.

    You stole our country, you murdered our people, you destroyed our homes, and you expelled and dispersed the bulk of our people to the four corners of the world. And after all of this, you have audacity to dupe our children to sing and play music to you? This is simply beyond, far beyond, Chutzpah.

    Some of you habitually babble the word “hatred” whenever a Palestinian asserts his people’s humanity and dignity.

    Well, you are really sick to the bone if you think Palestinians must sacrifice their dignity in order to become a hate-free people according to the Zionist lexicon. We will not pay tribute to the killers of our children, we will not show respect to those who murder us.

    Besides, who do you think you are anyway to lecture us on hatred? After all, you represent and embody hatred in its ugliest form. The extirpation of a people from its ancestral homeland from time immemorial is a satanic act par excellence. The destruction and obliteration of hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages to fulfill Jewish nationalism is diabolical act of the highest order.

    Your recent blitzkrieg in Gaza during which your Nazi-like army ganged up on a helpless, unprotected civilian population, exterminating them with bombs and missiles and incinerating their children with White Phosphorus proved once again that you are no better than the hateful *** you curse day and night for what they did to you sixty years ago.

    Well, try to get yourselves out of this cocoon of self-denial. The Palestinian people don’t hate music nor do they teach their kids to hate Jews or non-Jews, it is your evil and murderous actions that generate hatred against you not only among Palestinians and Muslims but among many other people around the world.

    Just look at your ugly faces in the mirror.

     

  • LET THE WORLD SEE ISRAEL'S TRUE, UGLY FACE

     

    BY:   KHALID AMAYREH

    There is no doubt that the new Israeli government, led by Benyamin Netanyahu, honestly reflects the collective mindset of the Israeli Jewish Zionist society.  True, there are Israelis who are averse to racism and fascism, but these are unfortunately very few in numbers and their influence is almost negligible.

    Indeed, a fleeting glance at the composition of the new Israeli cabinet reveals an extremist coalition of war criminals, pathological liars, racist thugs (both of the Hitlerian and Stalinist styles), and hateful religious maniacs who inhale and exhale hatred 24 hours per day.

    For those who don’t know him, Benyamin Netanyahu is a pathological liar par excellence.  His modus operandi is based on dishonesty, mendacity, prevarication, and deception.

    Despite his public relations babbling about “peace with our neighbors,” the man is firmly anti-peace, against the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and against equal rights for Jews and non-Jews.

    He is actually an enthusiastic advocate for Judaizing East Jerusalem by checking Arab demographic growth, demolishing Arab homes and denying Jerusalemites their natural rights to build homes to meet natural growth.

    This brazenly racist policy is known as “narrowing Arab horizons” and its ultimate goal is to force the Arab inhabitants of Al-Qods, or as many of them as possible, to leave the city and emigrate for good.

    Netanyahu’s venomous racism is not confined to the Palestinians of the “occupied territories” or the “Shtachem” as the West Bank and Gaza Strip are often referred to in Hebrew.

    He was quoted on several occasions as demanding that “measures” be taken to prevent Israel’s Palestinian citizens from reaching the 30% threshold.

    Furthermore, Netanyahu who often invokes the concepts of civility, democracy and western culture, especially when addressing naïve western audiences, actually believes that Israel should embark on a massive campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians if and when the international community, particularly the US, would tolerate such a scenario.

    In 1989 Netanyahu told students at Bar-Ilan University that "Israel should have exploited the repression of the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories."

    Well, for those who take the word “transfer” lightly, they should know that “transfer” is only a euphemism for genocide.

    If such is the character of the premier, one can have a clear idea about his lieutenants and ministers from Avigdor Lieberman, to the gurus of Gush Emunim (the settler movement), who are shamelessly demanding that non-Jews in Israel-Palestine be either exterminated, deported or enslaved as water carriers and wood hewers in the service of the master race!

    And then there is the irredeemably opportunistic war criminal Ehud Barak who insists rather arrogantly that the army that exterminated hundreds of Gaza children with White Phosphorus just two months ago is the most moral army in the world.

    Netanyahu is not stupid. He realizes that his ideological convictions are too ugly and too fascist to be accepted by the international community, including the US, Israel’s guardian-ally.

    This is why he is going to mislead the world by blurring and hiding, as much as possible, his government’s fascist nature.

    He will heavily resort to employing “diversionary tactics” such as “terror,” “Iran,” “anti-Semitism,” and “Hamas” to distract attention away from the fascist and criminal platform of his government.

    He will shout “Auschwitz, Treblinka, Mauthauzen, Bergen Belsen” whenever Israeli crimes are exposed and criticized.

    He will claim that Israel will not allow itself to be pushed to the brink Auschwitz whenever Israel is demanded to end its Nazi-like occupation of the Palestinian homeland and allow the Palestinian people the right to independence and self determination.

    In short, we are talking about a man who lies as often as he breathes a dishonest politician who thinks  and smart public relations can be a more effective substitution for an honest peace process based on human rights and international law.

    This is why, the capitals of the world must not allow themselves to be duped, deceived and cheated by this notorious, cardinal liar.

    I am, of course, in no way suggesting that the previous Israeli government was less nefarious than the new one.  The previous government of the evil trio Olmert, Livni and Barak had all the hallmarks of a Zionist Third Reich.

    What else can be said of a government that ordered its army to exterminate and incinerate thousands of civilians with White Phosphorus, and then shamelessly claimed that it didn’t really mean to do it?

    However, that government was considered by many states around the world, such as the gullible Europeans, a “government of peace,” a “liberal,” even “leftist government,” which really gave a new meaning to the term “verbal fornication.”

    For us Palestinians, and despite the legitimate and understandable anxiety stemming from the rise of fascism in Israel, it is still better to have in Israel a manifestly fascist government pursuing fascist policies than a deceptively “liberal” or  “leftist” government pursuing the same criminal policies.

    Let the world see Israel as it really is.  

    In the final analysis, an honest criminal is better than a lying saint. At least the former is predictable and consistent.

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