Look at this. The massing of troops on the Columbian borders is getting more attention and coverage than the actual carnage in Gaza.

Israel gives a military "operation" name to its killing of Palestinian civilians, and the mouthpiece of Prince Salman (Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat) uses that name in referring to Israeli killings.

Abu Mazen is donating blood to the victims of Gaza. The blood was found to be rotten and spoiled.

Read his account of the last week's episode of Bikul Jur'ah. I watched it and the fellow who lost his temper first and started yelling was the House of Saud journalist, and not the other guy, as is reported here in Prince Khalid Bin Bribe newspaper.

"Why are citizens being locked up for "un-American" thoughts?" (thanks FLC)

Saudi Arabia issued a pathetic little statement about the carnage in Gaza. No Saudi prince or king dared attach his name to the statement. It was attributed to "a responsible source." The king and princes were afraid of offending Israel.

Newspapers in Lebanon reported that few Lebanese turned out for the Palestinian demonstrations in support of the people in Gaza. Leftist and Arab nationalist critics (rightly) complain of Arab silence. Is it not high time to complain about Arab public silence and apathy? Do they need to see Danish cartoons to demonstrate?

"According to the selection committee, the city of Beirut was selected “in the light of its focus on cultural diversity, dialogue and tolerance..." Tolerance? The place is on the brink of civil war, sectarian clashes are reported weekly on the streets of Beirut, and they speak of tolerance? What world do they live in? Well, it is the same world in which the UN's guy refers to Palestinian children as "terrorists." (thanks Anon)

Look how the BBC headline softened the impact of the vile Zionist language. (thanks Karim)

Look how the headline of An-Nahar (the right-wing, sectarian Christian, anti-Syrian (people), anti-Palestinian (people)) tells the story of Harri goons' harassment of communist activists in North Lebanon?

This is Zionism: "Tariq Dardona, 47, a resident of Gaza, said by telephone Saturday afternoon that he was trapped in his house along with 21 family members and the body of his brother. Dardona said his brother had been shot by Israeli forces when he refused to open the door of the home and bled for four hours before dying." (thanks Ali)

Conspiracy? What conspiracy? "President Bush and King Abdullah first discussed a joint effort on Syria during the president's trip to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in January. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal then discussed details at a White House meeting on Feb. 15 attended by Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, according to U.S. and Arab officials."

Nice slogans against Arab regimes in the Nasserist demonstration in Sidon.

The poem Against by Palestinian poet Rashid Husayn (my translation):

"Against the revolutionaries of my
country injuring a spike
Against a child—any child—carrying
a grenade
Against my sister studying the muscles
of a rifle
Against whatever you want….but
what does even a prophet or a prophetess to do
when their eyes drink the horses
of killers
Against a child becoming a hero
at ten
Against the heart of the tree bearing
mines
Against the bushes of my orchard
becoming gallows
Against the basin of flowers in
my land becoming gallows
Against whatever you want…but
after the burning of my country,
my comrades, and my youth"

Bridge of Return by Palestinian poet Tawfiq Zayyad (my translation):

"My dear people!!
With eyelids
I roll out the path of your return,
with eyelids.
I embrace your wound
and pick up the thorns of the path,
with eyelids.
With the palms of the hand,
I grind the granite stone,
with the palms of the hand.
And from my flesh,
I build the bridge of your return,
on both coasts"

From the poem Here, We are Staying by Palestinian poet Tawfiq Zayyad (my translation):

"As if we are twenty impossibles
in Ludd, Ramlah, and Jalil
Here...on your chests, we stay
like a wall, in your throat,
like a piece of glass, like a cactus
and in your eyes, a tornado of fire
Here...on your chests, we stay
like a wall
washing dishes in bars
filling glasses for the notables
and wiping floors in the
black kitchens
to distill the bite for children
from your blue canine tooth
Here on your chests, we stay
like a wall
We get hungy...get naked...
and defy..
chant poetry
fill the angry streets with demonstrations
and fill the prison with dignity
and make children...
a revolutionary generation..
after generation..
as if we are twenty impossibles
In Ludd, Ramlah, and Jalil
We here are staying
So let you drink the sea
We guard the shadow of
fig and olive trees
and we plant ideas,
like yeast in the dough
The cold of ice in our nerves
and in their heart the red hell
If we get thirsty, we squeeze the desert
And we eat sand, if we get hungy...
And we shall never leave..!!...
Here we have a past...a present..
and future..
As if we are twenty impossibles
in Ludd, Ramlah, and Jalil...
Oh, our living root, cling firmly"

From the poem I Call On You by Palestinian poet Tawfiq Zayyad (my translation):
“I call on you
I press your hands
I kiss the ground under your feet
and I say: I sacrifice myself for you
I give you as a gift
the light of my eyes
and the warmth of heart, I give you
My tragedy that I live
Is my share of your tragedies
I call on you
I press your hands
I kiss the ground under your feet
and I say: I sacrifice myself for you
I did not humiliate myself in my homeland
and I did not lower my shoulders
I stood facing my oppressors
orphaned, naked, and bare foot
I call on you
I press your hands
I kiss the ground under your feet
and I say: I sacrifice myself for you
I carried my blood on my palm
I never lowered my flags
and I cared for the green grass
over the graves of my ancestors”

From a poem by Palestinian poet Tawfiq Zayyad (my translation)
"My land..! My friends!..
My stolen treasure..! My history..
The bones of my father and
grandfather are denied to me,
so how can I forgive?
If they mount the gallows for
me...I am not forgiving
These green villages of ours
have all become our blood
and scattered traces
Ones have remained
and still fighting
with nails...
Do not tell me..do not tell me..!
Even tombstones have been scattered."

Look how the British media--unlike the US media--reported this without trying to belittle or explain away--the vile language of Zionism: "An Israeli government minister warned yesterday that increasing rocket fire from Gaza would bring Palestinians a Shoah – the Hebrew word normally used to denote the Nazi Holocaust inflicted on Jews during the Second World War."

"Israel's military killed at least 60 Palestinians yesterday - almost half of them civilians, including four children - in its most violent assault on the Gaza Strip since the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power last June."

Today, Hariri hoodlums chased mourners of a Lebanese communist leader in `Akkar, and insulted them and provoked them.
PS Later, Hariri goons issued an official statement. They explained that they don't allow "the discourse of the opposition" in their lands. Kid you not. (thanks As`ad--not me)

This is how Obama, Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat, and New York Times get their talking points: "Officials in Jerusalem began laying the grounds for a large hasbara campaign to try and show the world that Israel's actions in Gaza were "careful" and the harming of civilians was "impossible to avoid" when Hamas terrorists were using civilian grounds to launch rockets into Israel." (thanks May)

It is really beyond me how any human being to the left of George W. Bush, or even to the left of Franco, can ever support such a government. I mean, you can--should--oppose Israel on so many grounds. Where do you begin? Pick one category of Zionist crimes: "The smuggling of debris from construction sites in Israel to the West Bank continues unabated despite a law banning it, Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra admitted Friday." (thanks Laleh)

I see that the Iranian president is busy showering praise on the Iraqi puppet government. Saudi and Iranian support for the puppet government is crucial for the occupation of the country.

The New York Times refers to Israeli occupation killings of unarmed Palestinian civilians as "clashes." Yesterday, the New York Times hoped to provide Israel with the necessary propaganda boost by claiming that violence "dips." Notice that this article from yesterday with that headline was removed from the list of articles on the Middle East on the NYT's site. Abu Mazen expresses sorrow not for the murdered Palestinian civilians but for "the peace process", or what Sa'ib `Urayqat calls "the vision of president Bush." Al-Arabiya TV barely covered the carnage in Gaza preferring to devote time to a security-police conference in UAE. Gizelle Khuri, I am sure, will interview gangster, Dahlan,--she calls him Abu Fadi--in order to absolve Israel of responsibility for the crimes. The secretary-general of the UN--the most pathetic in the history of the organization--blamed the dead Palestinian children for their own deaths. I am sure that Hillary, Obama, and McCain will all agree this week that Israel did not kill enough Arabs, and that it showed too much restraint.

What a state. What a state. Look at the discussion in the Israeli cabinet: "Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Sunday asked Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann to examine whether the Israel Defense Forces can legally target populated areas from which Qassam rockets are being fired at the western Negev. During Sunday's cabinet meeting, Vice Premier Haim Ramon asked why the IDF was not directing massive fire at the areas from which Qassams are being launched. "According to international law, you can do that," he said. "In the Second Lebanon War it was clear that if they shoot from within a village, we can fire on them even if the area is populated."

Notice how the mouthpiece of Prince Salman is trying to ignore the carnage in Gaza.

This baby was caught red-handed by Israeli occupation troops launching rockets at Israel, so they killed her. Obama calls that self-defense.

Something fishy. So what happened? Al-Arabiya TV was publicizing and highly advertising this glowing and fawning "documentary" about the Saudi King (in which his brother talk about him), and after one episode, they stopped airing it. Any information?

A well-known Lebanese journalist who used to work at Al-Hayat newspaper told me about a long list of taboos that were dictated by Saudi owner for religious and political reasons. For example, writers in the paper could not mention the Prophet, the book by Kahlil Gibran (Jubran Khalil Jubran in Arabic). The very title was, and still is, deemed offensive to Wahhabi sensibilities.

Look how this AP article tries to downplay the vile language of the Israeli state: "The Hebrew word "shoah" most often refers to the Holocaust but Israelis use it to describe all sorts of disasters." Even the New York Times had to admit: "Mr. Vilnai used the Hebrew word “shoah,” meaning catastrophe or holocaust, and rarely used for anything other than the Nazi extermination of the Jews."

Did people watch gangster, Muhammad Dahlan, on Al-Arabiya TV? Do you not get the urge to take a shower when you watch him speak? I do.

Worse than watching Gizelle Khuri on TV, is watching chief PA's demagogue, Sa'ib `Urayqat, use the phrase "the vision of President Bush."

Palestinians inside Israel insist on remembering George Habash.

On the anniversary of the assassination of Ma`ruf Sa`d. I like and respect and admire Lebanese MP, Usamah Sa`d. In fact, he is probably one of the few that I really like in that lousy parliament. But the other day he said that right-wing militias assassinated Sa`d. In fact, he was assassinated by a Lebanese Army sniper (and the army and the government were close allies of the right-wing militias at the time).

A Palestinian in Lebanon writes about his kidnapped wife. (Is this the same Walid Qaddurah who used to split and sabotage Palestinian leftist organizations on behalf of Lebanese intelligence services in the 60s and 70s?)

Israel has been killing Palestinian civilians daily for weeks. An Israeli official yesterday threatened the Palestinians with a holocaust, and vile language against Arabs is a symptom of Zionism. And today, the lousy leader of the lousy organization, Khalid Mish`al, took time in his press conference to claim that the accounts of the Nazi holocaust of Jews have been "exaggerated." This confirms my theory: neither Hamas nor Fath.

Prince Harry liberates Qandahar. You turn to US news, especially to CNN, and you only see wall-to-wall coverage of Prince Harry's heroic weeks in Afghanistan. If only he was allowed to stay longer, he would have been able to capture Bin Laden and all the wanted Al-Qa`idah leadership. Yesterday, the New York Times and other media reported on how the Prince did not shower or change his underwear for a few days. That was supposed to engender tears and sobs from the readers. What cruelty: the prince could not change his underwear. This news was more cruel than the Israeli ritual of daily killing of children in Gaza. And the British government is feigning outrage over the publicity of Prince Harry's military exploits when the TV footage of his clowning before the cameras had the stamp of the British Ministry of Defense.

The New York Times Covers (up) Israeli crimes. As Israel increases its killing in Gaza, the New York Times has this headline: "Violence Dips." And to justify the statement of an Israeli official who threatened Palestinians with a holocaust, the New York Times says this: "Israel and Hamas Sharpen Words." And then the New York Times reports that there was: "considerably less violence and death than over the previous two days, when more than 30 Palestinians died, five of them children, and one Israeli died in the border town of Sderot." But the New York Times terms the Israeli killing rampage: "An Israeli military operation aimed at rocket-launching squads."

Let me say it politely: any Arab American support for Obama in 2008 is as dumb as Arab American support for George W. Bush in 2000. (And no, I am not only evaluating him on his foreign policy: I trust him on domestic programs as much as I trust Bill Clinton). "His campaign Web site says the American commitment to Israel’s security is “incontrovertible.” As a senator, he backed Israel during its invasion of Lebanon in 2006 and supports military aid to Israel. Weeks after he was sworn in in 2005, he visited Israel."

Hariri supporters in Minyah in North Lebanon staged a sit-in against...Danish cartoons.

"The dump is just a few metres (yards) away from the tourist sites of the southern city of Sidon -- its crusader sea castle, ancient vaulted souk and Phoenician temple. The 30-year-old "mountain of filth" has steadily grown over the years, reaching today the height of a four-storey building and a volume of about 600,000 cubic metres (21 million cubic feet)." (thanks Sellam)

"AN Asian shepherd is facing charges of stealing a goat from a neighbouring ranch on October 12, 2007, sources said. A Sri Lankan witness, who is the watchman of the farm, told the police that he saw the accused, a 52-year-old compatriot, “sneaking into the ranch around 2am, along with three others”." (thanks Karim)

"After getting approval from the then president, Anwar Sadat, the artist arrived in Sinai with ten tons of blue paint provided by the United Nations." (thanks Hicham)

Record profit for Lebanese banks (with large stakes for Hariri family). (thanks Amer)