Gaza revenge

I sure hope that the survives in Gaza will eventually take revenge on those terrorists who massacred 500 children there.

Israel has destroyed 17,000 homes

"The Israeli military said the missiles targeted a Hamas operations room in the building, but offered no explanation as to why the entire tower with 44 apartments was brought down." "Some 100-thousand Gazans have become homeless, with more than 17-thousand homes destroyed or damaged beyond repair, according to UN figures."

No Gun Ri massacre

"Over the years Mr. Chung — who died on Aug. 1 at 91 at his home in Daejeon, South Korea — amassed evidence that American troops had systematically killed more than 100, and possibly as many as 400, civilian refugees early in the Korean War near a railroad bridge outside the South Korean village of No Gun Ri." (thanks Amir)

Sexual abuse in British classrooms

"Sexual abuse in British classrooms is increasing fast, according to official figures that reveal a 40 per cent increase in reports of rape in schools in the past three years. At least 2,865 sex-crime reports have been recorded by police between 2011 and 2013  – and more than half of them were committed by other children, according to data released to The Independent by police under the Freedom of Information Act."

"diplomats and analysts say": Learn journalism from Nicholas Blanford

Learn journalism from Nicholas Blanford:  "The US plans to send the Lebanese Army additional supplies of Hellfire missiles and other munitions and equipment to help it fight well-armed Sunni militants in the remote mountains of east Lebanon, diplomats and analysts say."   Why did the diplomats and analysts have to tell you that when it was in every Lebanese newspaper and the US ambassador made a public announcement?  I was expecting him to add as is his custom: and a secret commander of Hizbullah, who goes by the name Tony, divulged to me secret plans of the party and said that the party is a terrorist organization but that they only say that to Nicholas Blanford. (thanks Basim)

This won't be in Zionist media

"BEIRUT: Hezbollah Thursday condemned the beheading of American photojournalist James Foley, describing the killing as a “savage crime” executed by terrorist groups."  What is noteworthy is that it is rare for Hizbullah to issue press releases.

I am really sorry if this offends your stereotypes

"Christian singer honors Gaza resistance"

Zionism in one paragraph

"“For me, personally, Arabs are something I can’t look at and can’t stand,” a 10th-grade girl from a high school in the central part of the country says in abominable Hebrew. “I am tremendously racist. I come from a racist home. If I get the chance in the army to shoot one of them, I won’t think twice. I’m ready to kill someone with my hands, and it’s an Arab. In my education I learned that ... their education is to be terrorists, and there is no belief in them. I live in an area of Arabs, and every day I see these Ishmaelites, who pass by the [bus] station and whistle. I wish them death.” "

"Israeli teenagers: Racist and proud of it": the Disgrace Unto the Nations

"Ethnic hatred has become a basic element in the everyday life of Israeli youth, a forthcoming book finds."

Of the 84 MPs elected to the Palestinian parliament from the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2006, 36 are in Israeli jails, two-thirds of them under what is known as "administrative detention"

"Palestinian lawmakers have accused Israel of an anti-democratic crackdown as the Gaza war rages, with dozens of elected officials detained, placed under investigation or restricted in their movements. Of the 84 MPs elected to the Palestinian parliament from the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 2006, 36 are in Israeli jails, two-thirds of them under what is known as "administrative detention", where the evidence against them is not disclosed."

With U.S. support Saudi Arabia sustains UN Human Rights Council membership

"Saudi Arabia, a member of the UN Human Rights Council, has beheaded 19 people since August 4," "Out of the 19 people who were beheaded, eight where convicted of non-violent offences, seven for drug smuggling, while one was charged with sorcery." "Amidst all this, Saudi Arabia has been successful in retaining its membership in the UN Human Rights Council, with its term expiring in 2016."

"China must allow U.S. spy plane to spy on China"

From Amir: ""The Defense Department has expressed its concern to Chinese diplomatic officials about an Aug. 19 incident in which an armed Chinese fighter jet conducted a dangerous intercept of a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft, Pentagon Press Secretary Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby told reporters today. The aircraft was on a routine mission when the intercept took place over the Pacific Ocean about 135 miles east of Hainan Island in international airspace, Kirby said."

By Palestinian artist, `Imad Abu Shtiyyah

Making the rounds in Arab social media.

The West and ISIS

""Key to the growth of Isis and, in particular, the import of thousands of foreign fighters has been the use of Turkey as a point of entry. Determined to get rid of President Assad, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has kept Turkey's 550-mile border with Syria open, giving the jihadists, including Isis, a safe haven over the last three years. The Turks are now saying Isis is no longer welcome, but Ankara has not moved seriously to close the border by deploying troops in large numbers. A complete volte face by the US, Britain and their allies in their relations with the Assad government is unlikely because it would mean admitting that past support for the Sunni rebellion had contributed to the growth of the caliphate.""

"Navy SEAL with hard facts on number of ISIS fighters"

"JOHN MCGUIRE, FORMER NAVY SEAL: And at -- in following the news, I think at one point they said they were 5,000 strong, then 10,000, I think I heard somewhere 80,000 strong. So I would take them seriously either way." (thanks Basil)

Support Steven Salaita

"Salaita now has no job nor does his wife who quit her job in Virginia to support the family’s move, no personal home to live in, and no health insurance for their family, including their two year-old son.
 Find out more here."

Learn about Palestinian culture from the NYTimes: On Collaboration

"Collaboration has been considered a heinous crime in Palestinian society".  As opposed to other societies where collaborators for foreign occupiers are welcomed with open arms?  So collaboration is considered a heinous crime in Palestinian society, while collaborators in the American War of Independence and in WWII were treated rather kindly and humanely. 

Isarel's dirty hands even in Missouri

"Under the cover of counterterrorism training, nearly every major police agency in the United States has traveled to Israel for lessons in occupation enforcement, a phenomenon that journalist Max Blumenthal dubbed “the Israelification of America’s security apparatus.” Israeli forces and US police departments are so entrenched that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has opened a branch in Tel Aviv.

In 2011, then St. Louis County Police Department chief Timothy Fitch attended the Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) National Counter-Terrorism Seminar, an annual week-long Israeli training camp where US law enforcement executives “study first hand Israel’s tactics and strategies” directly from “senior commanders in the Israel National Police, experts from Israel’s intelligence and security services, and the Israel Defense Forces,” according to the ADL’s website."

ALS Ice Bucket Challenge: Do You Know What You Are Supporting?

"So where does the money donated to the ALS Association actually go? You may be surprised to find out that the Association itself claims that only 27% of its funds go towards research."

Egyptian magazine announces the arrival of "the Arab spring" to the US

This article in Rose Al-Yusuf in Egypt has this title: "Arab Spring reaches Ameria due to racism against "blacks" "

ISISism and its roots

My weekly article in Al-Akhbar: "The ummah now has a caliph: ISISism and its roots"

Who armed the monster of ISIS? THE US AMONG OTHERS in the region

This is from the New York Times in March 2013:  "With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders.  The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports. "  Who do you think they were arming here? secular feminists and Sufis???

The one Isareli child killed has a name

You can search in vain for the names of 500 Palestinian children killed, but this Israeli child has a name and an image.  By the racist standards of US media, he is certainly more valuable than all 500 Palestinian children murdered by Israeli terrorists.

Facebook: I am back

Yesterday, Facebook decided to close down my account claiming that I am not using my "real name". I tried in vain to explain that this name is indeed my real name. Even after I sent them a picture of my driver's license, they waited until they could "resolve the matter".

Remarks about the execution of collaborators in Gaza

Remarks (I translate from my remarks in Arabic on Facebook):
1) the New York Times published a story about the collaborators on the front page today. That is how dear Arab collaborators and informers for Israel are in the West.
2) Arab liberals (i.e. propagandists for Saudi princes) suddenly call for adhering to the Swedish law while they are dead silent about the process of beheadings in Saudi kingdom of horrors.
3) Some Palestinian human rights organizations (like some Lebanese human rights organizations) are only concerned about the lives of informers and collaborators.
4) Of course, information should be verified before sentencing occurs in order to avoid making mistakes that can't be corrected.
5) One should be careful regarding the plots of the Israeli enemy to transform and divert the conflict to an internal intra-Palestinian conflict: study what happened in the second phase of the Great Palestinian Revolt after 1937 when the pursuit of Zionist agents and collaborators degenerated into a Palestinian civil war sponsored by the Zionist leadership itself (especially through the Hashemites and the Nashashebis).

Governor of Riyadh participates in harassing Ethiopians

Prince Turki bin `Abdullah joins a police force dispatched to harass Ethiopians. 

His three children were killed by Israeli bombs

AFP

Freedom of Speech at the University of Illinois: the firing of Steven Salaita confirmed

This is what the Chancellor said: "What we cannot and will not tolerate at the University of Illinois are personal and disrespectful words or actions that demean and abuse either viewpoints themselves or those who express them."  I never knew that disrespectful words are not covered by the 1st amendment.  Also, what did they mean by "actions"? Did Steven rough up "Israel" on Twitter? That was the action? 

Today, I go back to school

I have made it clear to the dean at my school: I refuse to teach before I am provided with an exact replica of this chair in all my classrooms. Thanks. Is that too much to ask, damn it?

The Qatari regime and ISIS

Only after the beheading of Foley did the Qatari regime (which had funded and armed ISIS more than any other regime, while Saudi regime provided the ideological arsenal and donations) discover that ISIS is dangerous. It issued its first condemnation of ISIS yesterday.

The Israeli prime minister deleted his ugly tweet featuring Foley's beheading

 Tom Gara (@tomgara)

8/21/14, 5:17 PM
The Israeli PM has deleted his ugly tweet featuring Foley's beheading in an anti-Hamas ad. jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-C… pic.twitter.com/SppC57pXpk

"Civilian combatants"? Is that like "virgin prostitutes" or "peaceful warrior"? or "naive wisdom"?

"Civilian combatants" is a term invented by the Syrian Observatory (but I bet some American consultant came up with it) in order to claim that even the combatants who are killed by Syrian regime are civilians. 

Syrian Obvervatory and counting the dead in Syria

From Goran:  "According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights

more than 180,000 have been killed so far in the Syrian conflict. It further claims that 89,286 of these victims were civilians.
A careful reading   of the observatory’s statistics, however, reveals that this number includes 30,481 “civilian” combatants, whatever that is supposed to mean. So “only” 58,805 of the dead were actually non-combatants, of which 6,063 were women and 9,428 children.
If this is true more than 67% of the fatalities in the Syrian conflict have been combatants and about 91% have been adult men. I’m sure that the BBC 
NY Times, and Commentary  will soon run stories about this striking revelation. Whatever one feels about the Syrian conflict and its warring parties one can hardly accuse them of “indiscriminate” killings. This is clearly demonstrated by the extraordinary low proportion of woman and children among their victims.   Much lower in fact than in Israel’s assault on Gaza."

Beheadings and Middle East culture

"Some analysts have argued that beheading can be linked to Middle Eastern culture. "The religious and cultural symbolism that the sword carries with it in the eyes of the Muslims, particularly in the Middle East, is an important factor in determining the terrorists’ choice to behead hostages," Pete Lentini and Muhammad Bakashmar of Monash University's Global Terrorism Research Center explained in a 2007 academic paper. Lentini and Bakashmar also cited examples of beheadings in modern Islamic states – last year Amnesty International criticized a ‘disturbing’ rise in executions in Saudi Arabia, including beheadings." 1) The Guillotine was invented by a French doctor and not by Ibn Sina. 2) Saudi regime and its system of injustice is not "Middle East culture".  This is a Western entity, and I regard it as an extension of Western rule in the region.   3) All "cultures" had examples of beheadings.  In the Middle East, they only are still allowed in Saudi Arabia--your best loyal ally.

Woe to the day

Woe to the day when I have to learn from an Israeli propaganda paper how to cook my eggplants.

Anti-Semites have no place in the Palestinian movement--and I don't care if they Arabs

Such kooks tweeting against Jews have no place in the Palestinian camp.  They don't belong in the movement and they should be publicly shamed and ejected.  The Palestinian cause is too sacred to be soiled by those bigots and haters.   (thanks Michele)

collective punishment in Gaza

"The owners of the largest factories in Gaza, whose operations were destroyed by artillery shells and airstrikes, say Israel intentionally targeted the industrial sector to bring Gaza's economy to its knees. Their charge could be difficult to prove, but hundreds of factories — including producers of ice cream, paver tiles, soft drinks and cardboard cartons — appear heavily damaged in a wave of destruction greater than in the past two wars in Gaza combined."

Liberal Zionists enable Israel's genocidal ambitions

"The ninety minute-long panel was a remarkable display of Israel's most progressive supporters obscuring the genocidal desires of Israeli settler colonialism, demonstrating that the only difference between liberal and right-wing Zionists is the degree of violence they are comfortable inflicting on Palestinians to maintain Israel as a Jewish state."

Calls for violence against Muslims does not bother westerners

"If you want these companies to suppress calls for violence, as Ronan Farrow advocated, does that apply to all calls for violence, or only certain kinds? Should MSNBC personalities be allowed to use Twitter to advocate U.S. drone-bombing in Yemen and Somalia and justify the killing of innocent teenagers, or use Facebook to call on their government to initiate wars of aggression? How about Israelis who use Facebook to demand "vengeance" for the killing of 3 Israeli teenagers, spewing anti-Arab bigotry as they do it: should that be suppressed under this "no calls for violence" standard?"

Attacks against Muslims in Britain

"Figures released recently from the campaign group Tell MAMA (Measuring Anti-Muslim Attacks) showed the number of attacks against Muslims in Britain was one the rise. During its first year of monitoring, Tell MAMA recorded 584 anti-Muslim incidents between April 1 2012 and April 30 2013, with about 74 percent of these taking place online." (thanks Amir)

"An ugly carnival": " the brutal head-shaving and beating of women accused of collaboration"

 "After the humiliation of a public head-shaving, the tondues - the shorn women - were often paraded through the streets on the back of a lorry, occasionally to the sound of a drum as if it were a tumbril and France was reliving the revolution of 1789. Some were daubed with tar, some stripped half naked, some marked with swastikas in paint or lipstick. In Bayeux, Churchill's private secretary Jock Colville recorded his reactions to one such scene. "I watched an open lorry drive past, to the accompaniment of boos and catcalls from the French populace, with a dozen miserable women in the back, every hair on their heads shaved off. They were in tears, hanging their heads in shame. While disgusted by this cruelty, I reflected that we British had known no invasion or occupation for some 900 years. So we were not the best judges."

The American historian Forrest Pogue wrote of the victims that "their look, in the hands of their tormentors, was that of a hunted animal". Colonel Harry D McHugh, the commander of an American infantry regiment near Argentan, reported: "The French were rounding up collaborators, cutting their hair off and burning it in huge piles, which one could smell miles away. Also, women collaborators were forced to run the gauntlet and were really beaten...In Paris there were cases of prostitutes kicked to death for having accepted German soldiers as clients. "

Isareli casino tunnels

"Israeli police have discovered that a shelter meant to protect civilians from Palestinian rocket fire had instead been transformed into a makeshift casino, complete with mini cannabis plantation. They discovered gaming boards and chips, bottles of booze and a kilo of locally grown marijuana, according to a video tour of the police search seen by AFP. " (thanks Basim)

american foreign fighter in ukraine

"A graduate of the U.S. Military Academy and the only American known to have fought alongside Ukrainian forces against pro-Russian separatists has been killed in eastern Ukraine. " (thanks Nir)

French resistance and women who sipped beer with Nazi soldiers

After the war--yes AFTER WWII--all women who were seen by their communities sipping beer with Nazi soldiers were gathered in town squares: their heads were shaved and they were paraded before crowds where they were humiliated, beaten, and rocks were hurled at them.  Many of them were killed in the process. 

beheadings by allies of the West in the Middle East

" Saudi Arabia has executed at least 19 people since August 4, 2014. Local news reports indicate that eight of those executed were convicted of nonviolent offenses, seven for drug smuggling and one for sorcery...“Any execution is appalling, but executions for crimes such as drug smuggling or sorcery that result in no loss of life are particularly egregious,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director. “There is simply no excuse for Saudi Arabia’s continued use of the death penalty, especially for these types of crimes.”"