Israeli Military Industrial Complex: a war to elect hawk Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas: Stop Now!

 

Or

 

Creating a Palestinian failed state will conflate to Israel : Stop Now!

 

(This document is given to global politicians, energy stakeholders, and global grassroots networks etc.)

 

Not five months ago we wrote these words concerning the Russian invasion of Georgia. Appallingly, they must be used once again.

 

There has been grievous outsized naked aggression and intimidation of Palestine.

 

Israeli authorities have vowed “war to the bitter end”

 

http://floodiceorfire.wordpress.com/stop-russia-gazprom-rabaska-lng-facility-in-canada/

 

Israel says Gaza assault ‘war to the bitter end’

By IBRAHIM BARZAK and MATTI FRIEDMAN – 4 hours ago

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ioi_0jtO9RjMwPNRoXNCndRPRq3gD95CJG0G0

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israel obliterated symbols of Hamas power on the third day of what the defense minister described Monday as a “war to the bitter end,” striking next to the Hamas premier’s home, and devastating a security compound and a university building. The three-day death toll rose to 364 on Monday, with some 1,400 reported wounded, according to Palestinian medical officials. The U.N. said at least 62 of the dead were civilians, and medics said eight children under the age of 17 were killed in two separate strikes overnight.

Israel launched its campaign, the deadliest against Palestinians in decades, on Saturday in retaliation for rocket fire aimed at civilians in southern Israeli towns…

Israel’s intense bombings — more than 300 airstrikes since midday Saturday — reduced dozens of buildings to rubble. The military said naval vessels also bombarded targets from the sea.

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon again condemned Israel’s use of force as excessive and called for an immediate cease-fire.

 

5 sisters killed in IAF strike

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Jerusalem Post, Dec 29, 2008 23:54

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1230456522722&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

At least 350 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,600 wounded since the beginning of the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources reported Monday night.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that most fatalities were “civilian policemen.”

It said that other fatalities included at least 20 children, nine women and 60 other unarmed civilians.

Among the casualties are five sisters from the Jabalya refugee camp who were killed in an air raid on their home early Monday morning, Palestinian reporters in the Gaza Strip said.

They said the five sisters were from the Ba’lousheh family. They were identified as Jawaher, four; Dina, eight; Samar, two; Ikram, 14; and Tahrir, 17.

Their mother, Samira Abu Bakr, was lightly wounded during the raid.

 

 

 

1) We demand the permanent full cessations of hostilities in The Israeli-Palestinian region.

2) We demand the unpartisan protection, safety and welfare of all civilians

3) We demand a nuclear-free and weapons of mass destruction free zone in the Middle East

Sarkozy Scores Diplomatic Coup in Paris

By John Leicester

The Associated Press

http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=26568
Syrian President Bashar Assad, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the more than a dozen other leaders stood on the official grandstand, looking up the Champs-Elysees toward the Arch of Triumph. The leaders had stayed over following a summit Sunday that launched an unprecedented Union for the Mediterranean, a brainchild of Sarkozy’s aimed at securing peace across the restive region.

Forty-three nations, including Israel and Arab states, agreed at the summit to work for a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction in launching the Mediterranean Union.

The Israeli Military Industrial Complex in order to perpetuate itself, procure funds and in its eyes to maintain security and stability (see George W. Bush and Neo-Conism) must secure the election of fellow neo-con Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has always been in lockstep with the Israeli Military Industrial Complex and is a chip-off of George W. Bush’s block.

Obama Defers to Bush, for Now, on Gaza Crisis http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/29/washington/29diplo.html?em

See also http://floodiceorfire.wordpress.com/abolition-of-king-coal-fossil-fuels-nuclear-power-and-weapons/

 

Neocon Middle East Policy: The “Clean Break” Plan Damage Assessment (Paperback)http://www.amazon.com/Neocon-Middle-East-Policy-Assessment/dp/0976443732

Product Description
A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm is a definitive Middle East Policy strategy authored and implemented by operatives in the highest levels of the US government. There is just one problem. The plan was a strategy for Israel, not the United States of America. Neocon Middle East Policy reviews strategies and consequences of the “Clean Break” plan authored by Richard Perle, David Wurmser, and Douglas Feith in 1996. It analyzes the core assumptions of the policy, cost of tactics that have already been implemented and discusses the likelihood others will be executed in the future. Neocon Middle East Policy then turns to the most difficult questions of all, “Can a policy crafted for a foreign government and presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu serve as a blueprint for US regional policy? At what cost in credibility, blood, treasure and American integrity? At what cost to Israel?” Neocon Middle East Policy is a must-read for anyone concerned about the convergence of US and Israeli foreign policy in the Middle East.

The Neocon Roots of Iranian-Israeli Extremism

By Jalal Alavi Political analyst

Saturday, May 17, 2008

http://www.iran-press-service.com/ips/articles-2008/may2008/the-neocon-roots-of-iranian-israeli-extremism.shtml

 

LONDON, 17 May (IPS) What do Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel have in common?  One thing is for certain: they are both true reflections of the neoconservative rise in US foreign policy…

 

While the rise of Ahmadinejad to the presidency of Iran in 2005 was in many ways related to George W. Bush’s 2002 State of the Union Address, in which he labeled Iran a member of the “axis of evil” (thus effectively playing into the hands of Iranian extremists opposed to any sort of reform, democratization, or renewed relations with the United States), ..the potential rise of Netanyahu (a staunch opponent of the Peace Process and a campaigner for US military strikes on Iran) to the premiership of Israel (as a result of Ehud Olmert’s imminent resignation) will in major part be a result of the neoconservative bolstering of extremist factions in and outside Israel.

Should this latter scenario be the actual outcome of Israel’s next general election, it will undoubtedly bring about not only the gradual isolation of the proponents of peace throughout Israel and beyond, but also the total failure of the Middle East Peace Process initiated by the collective efforts of Anwar Sadat of Egypt, Menachim Begin of Israel, and the Carter administration in September of 1978.

The fact of the matter is that a group of neoconservatives close to the Bush administration is, and has been since the 1970s, fixated on warmongering and the use of America’s military might as a foreign policy tool, so as to establish a more lasting pattern of US domination in the Middle East than that which was the case during the Cold War. The terrorist attacks of 11 September did, of course, greatly facilitate the emergence of this trigger-happy group in US foreign policy circles, as a result of which Bush was persuaded to renege on his once presidential campaign promise to limit the role of the United States abroad.

From this perspective, it may be said that the failure of the reform movement in Iran (internal factors aside) and the potential collapse of the Middle East Peace Process, which is aimed at building the foundation for what could later become a two-state solution, can both be considered as two major consequences of the neoconservative domination of US foreign policy.  What is more, the failure or collapse of such potentially empowering movements and processes as those mentioned above cannot but please the neoconservatives, as a divided and thus volatile Middle East that would be incapable of jeopardizing US interests in the region has always been one of their historical longings.

All this, of course, should be cause for alarm, as the discourse of peace is slowly but surely giving place to that of war.

With the above in mind, it would not be far-fetched to assume that the role played so far by the likes of Ahmadinejad and Netanyahu has been one of an instrumental nature to neoconservative strategizing, in that it has provided the Bush administration with the pretext necessary to “stay the course”, so to speak, in the region.  This, of course, is not the end of the story, as the spirit of neoconservative warmongering has been gaining greater momentum in the United States on almost a daily basis.  Hillary Rodham Clinton’s recent remarks, for example, with regard to the potential “obliteration” of Iran should Iran’s despotic rulers decide to attack Israel have not only boosted the chances of Bush administration pre-emptive (or rather preventive) strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military facilities, but also have very much tainted her hitherto Democratic credentials.

On the basis of foreign policy alone, therefore, it may be said that Clinton’s calculated remarks are not only in tune with those of such figures as John R. Bolton and Charles Krauthammer who have been hawkishly campaigning for further chaos, death, and destruction in the Middle East, but also are a reflection of the renewed momentum gained by neoconservative circles and media outlets in the United States.  All this, of course, should be cause for alarm, as the discourse of peace is slowly but surely giving place to that of war, most importantly, amongst general populations, as some opinion polls suggest, thus robbing each and every nation on earth of the opportunity and resources to plan for a more humane environment, be it at the local or global level.

While the likes of Ahmadinejad and Netanyahu must realize the importance of peace and cooperation for regional prosperity (the sort of peace and cooperation that can only stem from a deep sense of justice and humane behavior at both the national and international levels), the likes of Clinton must realize that a principled stance in support of democratic values and nuclear non-proliferation cannot logically or morally be reconciled with threats of nuclear annihilation against other nations, more so if those nations are governed undemocratically, as is the case in Iran. Let us hope, then, that such realizations will have a chance of emerging out of the current mentality of death, destruction, and lack of respect for human dignity. ENDS ALAVI 17508

Editor’s note: Mr. Jalal Alavi is a sociologist and political commentator residing in Britain.

 

Poll: Kadima takes lead over Likud

December 26, 2008

http://jta.org/news/article/2008/12/26/1001827/poll-kadima-takes-lead-over-likud
(JTA) — Kadima has taken a slight lead over Likud in a newly released poll.

The survey, commissioned by the Ma’ariv newspaper, has Kadima — led by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni — taking 30 Knesset seats, with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party winning 29 seats. Trailing further behind were Yisrael Beiteinu with 13 seats and Labor with 11.

The Ma’ariv poll follows on the heels of two polls released earlier in the week which found Likud had lost ground to Kadima in recent weeks, but still retained a lead in the mid-to-high single digits.

The Israeli general election will be held on February 10.

(Note: Israeli military-industrial complex strike is launched Dec. 27 08)

 

 

New anti-Livni slogan slammed for being sexist

By Mazal Mualem and Ruth Sinai, Haaretz Correspondent

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1050280.html

 

The gender card made a late but inevitable appearance on the political campaign scene Thursday when Likud launched ads featuring Kadima leader Tzipi Livni’s image alongside a slogan reading “It’s too big for Livni [to handle].”
Kadima accused Likud and its leader Benjamin Netanyahu of male chauvinism against the female politician, while Likud defended its stance and female politicians from both sides were sent into the fray to defend their parties…

“It’s unfortunate that Bibi should try and take us back to dark days when women were not considered appropriate to carry out important jobs,” Minister of Tourism Ruhama Avraham Balila of Kadima said, referring to the Likud leader by his nickname. “We remember Bibi was [prime minister,] and failed royally. I believe the women of Israel will cast their votes in such a way that Livni will prove she can succeed where Bibi failed.”

 

The Israel Women’s Network slammed the slogan.

“It is inconceivable that in the 21st century Likud and its leader would try to cast doubts on the ability of a woman to lead the country,” the organization’s chairwoman, Rina Bar-Tal, said. “The campaign reeks of unforgivable chauvinism. Like Ehud Barak who called Livni, Tzipora, we see that every time a woman manages to threaten the male hegemony, some are afraid and try to bring us back to the dark days in which women were removed from leadership functions.”

 

 

Let us be clear, creating a failed (collapsed) State of Palestine (pre even) will ensure that Hamas or Hamas-like organizations take a stronghold in Palestine.

Both Israel and Palestine have a common problem. It is not each other, you are brothers and sisters. However, by collapsing an emerging Palestine, you will both face a common enemy. Israel should make amends to their semitic brothers and sisters. And Arabs should extend their hand in friendship and solidarity.

 

Palestine as a collapsed state, will see Warlords and organized criminal syndicates as a way of life. Organized criminal syndicates are transborder and do not have an ideologic divide.

 

The Bizarre Race to Be Jerusalem’s Mayor

By Tim McGirk / Jerusalem Monday, Nov. 10, 2008

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1857925,00.html?iid=tsmodule

 

Arkady Gaydamak, the enigmatic Israeli-Russian billionaire, thought he had his campaign for mayor of Jerusalem all gamed out…

 

In the run-up to Tuesday’s mayoral race, Gaydamak — once the prohibitive favorite because of his lead in campaign financing — has had a streak of bad luck. Like many Russian oligarchs, he was hit hard by the global economic crisis. His fortune shrank, forcing him to sell off a major Israeli company at a $100 million loss and to fire nearly all of his radio-station staff. Worse still, Gaydamak, supposedly the model for the title role in the movie The Lord of War (starring Nicolas Cage as an arms dealer in Africa), is one of 42 high-profile defendants on trial in France for illegally shipping weapons to Angola in the 1990s. Gaydamak chose not to attend those proceedings. (See pictures of Israel at 60.)

These setbacks have not helped Gaydamak’s chances of being elected mayor of the Holy City.

 

The outcome of this race will have repercussions for the Obama Administration’s Israel-Palestinian peace plans, since the dilemma of Jerusalem — whether it will be shared with the Palestinians or remain the undivided Jewish capital — lies at the heart of any future accord. Gaydamak’s rivals for the mayoralty are an ultra-Orthodox Jew and a right-wing software mogul…

 

Meanwhile, Jerusalem, the capital of three monotheistic faiths, could drift toward religious intolerance. As columnist Tom Segev writes glumly in the newspaper Haaretz, “All that is left is to envy those Jerusalemites who have already left the city.”

 

 

Men of no honor

Jerusalem Post, Nov 19, 2008 19:12 | Updated Nov 20, 2008 10:21 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1226404779992&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 

It’s easy to get caught up in the romance and mystique associated with organized crime. Misfits and sociopaths are somehow transformed into glamorous characters when their names are tied to the underworld.

 

For the past three days, the country has been mesmerized by Ya’acov Alperon, the crime boss who was blown-up in his rental car on a busy Tel Aviv boulevard…

 

Israeli mobsters don’t walk in the footsteps of Don Corleone, Pete Clemenza or Tom Hagen. They have no honor, no decency.

In June, Yoram Hacham, the lawyer for crime figure Asi Abutbul, was blown up in his car in Tel Aviv. In August, Marguerita Lautin was murdered while she sat with her husband and children on a Bat Yam beach.

And hours after Alperon’s burial, a bomb was discovered outside the police station - and next to a kindergarten - in Ramle, where investigators were trying to solve the killing..
For the time being, the Alperons fight the Kedoshims for control of the Herzliya marina; the Ohanas over gambling in Kfar Saba; the Abergils over the recycling industry, and the Abutbuls over the seamier side of Netanya.
THE TRUTH is, organized crime has been a blight for decades. Back in 1977 a crusading young MK named Ehud Olmert made the headlines by probing the underworld. Even then the cars of criminal kingpins were being blown up, there were fears that the police had been infiltrated by the mafia, and a committee charged with looking into the “crisis” blamed disrespect for the law and a developing subculture of criminality.

Israelis have gone from debating whether there is organized crime to practically glorifying it.

Of course we in the media need to report on the killing of a mafia boss in broad daylight on a busy street. But can’t we do it in a way that doesn’t make heroes of thugs?

Society’s message must be that those who join the underworld are to be shunned, shamed and marginalized - not vicariously celebrated.

 

Israeli Mob Hits Spur Outcry in Nation Accustomed to Terrorism

By Calev Ben-David

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=algQE4mxkR9E&refer=home

Increased street violence between organized crime families, a rising toll in dead and wounded innocent bystanders and threats against public figures have spurred an outcry in a country more accustomed to terrorism than to gangland hits…
The gangs profit by illegal gambling, car theft, extortion, loan-sharking, prostitution, drug-trafficking and infiltration of legitimate businesses, he said. Israeli mobsters have also expanded internationally, forging links with Russian organized crime via Russian-speaking immigrants who arrived in the past two decades…
Israel has about a half-dozen major organized crime families from both the Jewish and Arab communities, said former national police commander Assaf Hefetz, who is running for the parliament, or Knesset, on the Likud party list. Each has between 300 and 400 hard-core members.

The annual cost to the economy of organized crime is about 13 billion shekels ($3.3 billion), or 2 percent of GDP, he said in a telephone interview. That includes extortion and fraud rackets aimed at legitimate businesses, property and car theft and organized-crime control of a large “gray market” funded by loan sharking and money laundering.
The Knesset held a special hearing November 24 on the threat of organized crime. “The public has no confidence that the police are coping with the phenomenon of organized crime violence,” said Labor member Ophir Pines-Paz at the meeting.

 

The last few years have seen a growing number of threats and violent incidents directed at local public officials..

 

Such acts have led to calls for the government to utilize some of the same methods and resources it deploys against terrorism in its battle on organized crime.

Alexander Lautin, testifying at the Knesset hearing, suggested mobilizing Israel’s feared internal security agency, the Shin Bet, which has always dealt exclusively with terrorist threats. Both Mantzur and Pine-Paz said the answer was not diverting resources from Israel’s already over-stretched internal security forces, but reinforcing police efforts
Foreign Loans Diverted in Monster Money Laundering

The Mafia, Oligarchs, and Russia’s Torment(1999)

Beyond Transition
THE NEWSLETTER ABOUT REFORMING ECONOMIES***

http://www.worldbank.org/html/prddr/trans/julaug99/pgs11-13.htm

Federal and state authorities, examining possible money laundering through the Bank of New York, suspect that Russian organized crime may have been involved in skimming International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans and other foreign economic aid to Russia, the Wall Street Journal reported on August 25. Altogether, as much as $10 billion was allegedly laundered through the bank, the 16th largest asset-holding bank in the United States. A top IMF team started consultations in Moscow to pour over Russia’s finance books.

The probe into the route of IMF loans to Russia is part of a wide-ranging U.S. federal investigation into Russian money transfers that passed through the Bank of New York (and its London offices) in the past year or so.
Back in the early Seventies, Israeli PrimeMinister Golda Meir, was asked to accept

notorious mobster Meyer Lansky to sanctuary in Israel. Golda said she accepts the

right of return for all Jews but not Mobsters. Lansky was the right hand man for Boss of bosses-Lucky Luciano.

Israel’s security barrier adds to wildlife’s struggle for survival

Wall disrupts breeding patterns, threatens species, environmentalists on both sides of structure say

Oakland Ross
Middle East Bureau, Nov 03, 2008 04:30 AM http://www.thestar.com/World/Columnist/article/529267

BETHLEHEM–From the steps of the Caritas Hospital in the town where Christ was born, you can sometimes see jackals or foxes frantically burrowing their way beneath the tall concrete security barrier that now separates Bethlehem from Israel.

Sometimes they make it through. Sometimes they don’t.

“You can see it right with your own eyes,” says Imad Atrash, director of the Palestinian Wildlife Society. “They are searching for their survival.”

They are also demonstrating that the notorious wall – built by Israel as a security measure against Palestinians militants or suicide bombers – imposes hardships on animals as well.

“It obviously cuts down cross-border migration,” says Hillel Shuval, a prominent Israeli environmentalist. “It’s reduced the food for any particular animal.”

The structure interferes with breeding patterns, too.

“Successful breeding in the wild requires free roaming,” says Shuval. “The wall has seriously cut down on the fertility of animals.”

The barrier, whose construction began in 2003, has also complicated life, or hastened death, for several species of birds that nest on the ground, says Atrash, and has destroyed the habitat of at least one species of indigenous orchid…
Still far from complete, the barrier is eventually to stretch for more than 700 kilometres. Especially where it passes through urbanized areas, the structure takes the form of sturdy concrete slabs, frequently spray-painted with angry Palestinian graffiti.

But, for most of its length, the barrier is constructed of chain-link fence, electronically monitored and flanked by a military road.

The wire fence is a problem for animals, too.

“It stops anything larger than a hare,” says Atrash. “It’s very limited the number of animals that can get through.”

The barrier has yet to be extended through most of the Judean Desert, a rugged moonscape that sprawls to the east of Jerusalem. Atrash says he hopes the fence never will be constructed there.

Rare and sometimes endangered animal species are more numerous in those open, still undeveloped lands, he says, and an impenetrable barrier slicing through their domain is the last thing they need.

Located at the juncture of three continents – Africa, Asia, and Europe – Israel is blessed with a rich and varied trove of fauna and flora, despite its parched climate…
Israel this “war” and this fence is an abomination. Take this wall of “Jericho” down.

 

Vigil/Info Picket against Nuclear Power and Privatization of Ontario Power Wed Dec 31, 2008, Toronto, ON

Ontario Power Generation building (OPG)
700 University Avenue corner of College/University Av,
Toronto, ON M5S 1VO

VIGIL / INFO PICKET

Say No to Ontario Power Authority Disempowerment

Say No to Nuclear Power, Gas and Coal plants

Say No to $40 Billion for Nukes

Say No to privatization of Ontario Power

——————————-

Say Yes to Green Jobs, Social Safety Net, Anti-Poverty Programs, Ending Child Poverty etc.

Say Yes to 100% Public Power

Say Yes to 100% Energy Efficient Infrastructure (old and new)

Say Yes to 100% Renewable Energy

Vigil-Info picket
STOP PRIVATIZATION of Ontario Power
say no to Nuclear Power
11-12 noon / Wednesday December 31, 2008
Ontario Power Generation Bldg corner of University and College,
Toronto Across from Queen’s Park

Paradigm Shift Environmental Alliance(a homeless network of transborder activists, students, academics, Aboriginal etc.)
www.floodiceorfire.wordpress.com

Abolition King Coal, Fossil Fuels, Nuclear Power and Weapons Everywhere!

The Great Struggle Continues….