Antony Loewenstein

Pro-settler group Women in Green are experts at explaining the supposed Jewish right over the entire land of Palestine.

Here’s their latest report. Note the casual racism against anything Arab. How did Judaism come to this?

Yesterday, Sunday, Rosh Hodesh Adar, Women in Green (Women for Israel’s Tomorrow) conducted a tour throughout Jerusalem – to see, to gain an impression, and to strengthen, hands on, the so devoted activity by the redeemers of Jerusalem.

The tour began in Abu Tor, in a house in which six Jewish families live. From the roof of their house we looked out at the Temple Mount, Beit Yehonatan, the King’s Gardens, the infamous separation wall, and the building in Abu Dis that was supposed to become the Arab parliament but, thank G-d, did not come to pass. We received explanations from Daniel Luria, the director of Ateret Cohanim, that were both learned and extremely moving.

From there we drove to Beit Yehonatan, located in “Kfar Hateimanim” (the Yemenite village also known as Silwan).It was very emotional. To go back in time 140 years. when the first Yemenite Jews arrived in Silwan and settled, initially in caves and afterwards in houses. They prayed in four synagogues. During the Arab riots they were expelled, and today Jews are returning and redeeming the area, despite all the legal and political difficulties. Beit Yehonatan is named in honor of Jonathan Pollard. We were told that Jonathan has asked that everyone visiting the house take the time to pray and learn Torah, so one of the yeshiva men who learn in Beit Yehonatan gave our group a twenty minute shiur (lesson).

Then we went to the King’s Gardens. We await the serious removal of all the illegal Arab construction, so they will once more be gardens befitting the royal city.

The “Maaleh ha-Zetim” neighborhood, that was constructed against all odds, strengthens our hope and security. The Jews are returning and taking control of the city. This is the case in Kidmat Zion too, for which a magnificent neighborhood is planned, that will afford a panoramic view of Jerusalem, from the other side, to the Temple Mount.

From there we went to Beit Orot, the first neighborhood to be established following the Six Day War, that is being developed now, and from there we passed next to the Shepherd Hotel, a large building that used to belong to Haj-Ammin Al Husseini, the mufti of Jerusalem, collaborator with the Nazis and responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews. The knowledge that the house where once this enemy of the Jewish people lived now returned to Jewish hands was very comforting. From there we drove to the Shimon ha-Tzaddik compound.

The excitement was great, simply tremendous.

In Shimon Hatzaddik (also known as Sheikh Jarrah), the Arabs, who benefit from Israeli democracy and the support of the left, are insolent, curse, and shout, but a group like ours isn’t deterred.

After an enlightening explanation by Yehonatan Yosef, the grandson of Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef, telling us the story of how the Arabs had squatted in houses belonging to Jews after the Jews had been expelled from the area in 1948,and how it was only historical justice to finally redeem these Jewish houses from the Arab thieves and return them to their rightful owners, the entire group began singing  a tremendous “Am Yisrael Hai” – the Jewish People Lives! in front of the amazed Arabs. Here, there are Jews who are not scared nor impressed by their shouts.

The charged encounter at the Shimon ha-Tzaddik compound undoubtedly left a tremendous impression on all the tour participants.

We were all accompanied by a sense of involvement. Much has been done, but there is a long way to go. The general feeling was that the reality is changing, thank G-d. The Jews, with G-d’s help, are returning, taking control, and drawing nearer to the very heart of holiness.

Jerusalem is being re-acquired and is returning to its true sons. We were moved to tears at the sight of the devotion, the faith, and the activity.

Thank you to our devoted photographers Gemma Blech and Abigai Browning for taking pictures and eternalizing our activities

For pictures by Gemma Blech from our tour please click here.

Britain has been trying for years to keep secret evidence that it allowed torture against one of its own citizens.

But what’s the real reason Gordon Brown worked so hard to keep Washington happy? Simon Jenkins in the Guardian explains:

Britain believes that publishing details of what interrogators did to its residents would lead Washington to retaliate by not warning of an ­impending terror attack on London. The belief is absurd.

How many other leading American politicians are doing and saying this?

The United States should break Israel’s blockade of Gaza and deliver badly needed supplies by sea, a U.S. congressman told Gaza students.

Rep. Brian Baird, a Democrat from Washington state, also urged President Barack Obama’s Mideast envoy to visit the Hamas-ruled territory to get a firsthand look at the destruction caused by Israeli’s military offensive last year.

The Obama administration, like its predecessor, shuns Hamas because the Islamic militant group refuses to recognize Israel or renounce violence.

Israel and Egypt have restricted access to Gaza since Hamas’ victory in parliament elections in 2006 and tightened the blockade after Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007.

Israel allows humanitarian supplies and food into Gaza, but has kept out cement and other building supplies needed for reconstruction. Israel argues such materials could be diverted by Hamas for military use.

Baird, who has announced his retirement from Congress, told a group of Gaza students Sunday evening that the U.S. should not condone the blockade.

”We ought to bring roll-on, roll-off ships and roll them right to the beach and bring the relief supplies in, in our version of the Berlin airlift,” he said, adding that the supplies could be delivered to U.N. aid agencies.

British Committee for the Universities of Palestine released the following statement on 15 February:

The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) declared that their campaign against the Zionist Federation’s annual seminar on the environment had once again been a success, after celebrity botanist David Bellamy did not show up to deliver his lecture. BRICUP had sent Bellamy a letter signed by a Nobel Peace Prize winner, members of Parliament and the House of Lords, and numerous academics from Israel and the UK, urging him not to attend the “Israel: Blue White and Green” event on 9th February which the organisation accused of “greenwashing the occupation”.

Professor Jonathan Rosenhead of BRICUP wrote to all the signatories: “As yet we have had no statement from him as to his reasons for this [his non-appearance] … In the meantime it is a reasonable inference that his withdrawal is related to our letter to him asking him to do so.” Although the hall at the Institute of Education has a capacity of over 900, the audience only reached double figures. Meanwhile a lively demonstration of about 35 pro-Palestine campaigners took place outside. Protesters mobilised by BRICUP, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG) and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) handed out leaflets and displayed placards with slogans which included: “Israel Pollutes Palestinian Land”, “Israel destroys Palestinian trees”, “Israel Steals Palestinian Water” and “Israel: Blue, White and Toxic”.

Inside the hall, three leading Israeli scientists gave presentations about the importance of underground aquifers in desert regions, the impact of aerosol emissions on rainfall, and the environmental challenges facing Israel and its neighbours. Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, a BRICUP member and secretary of J-BIG who had bought a ticket for the event, said afterwards, “The explanations about how Israel uses its technology to benefit communities in developing countries were particularly galling given the gross contrast with the treatment of Palestinians, but we were not given the opportunity to point out the irony.”

During questions, a second J-BIG activist asked about Israel’s role in depleting the Mountain Aquifer which is the main source of water for Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank, effluent discharged from Israeli settlements onto occupied Palestinian land and the disastrous impact of Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip in December 2008/Jan 2009 on sewage treatment plants and drinking water resources. He was prevented from continuing by the chair and then carried out bodily by members of the Community Security Trust (CST) and denied re-entry.

When the chair refused to allow Ms. Wimborne-Idrissi to put a question to the panel, she called on the meeting to consider Israel’s denial of fair access to water for Palestinians, as outlined in Amnesty International’s 2009 report from the Israel-Occupied Palestinian Territories. She too was physically dragged out of the meeting: “I was frog-marched up the stairs”, she said afterwards. Ms. Wimborne-Idrissi later telephoned the Institute of Education to complain about the treatment she and her fellow activist had received, and received an apology. “From the reports the IoE have received from their own staff, they seem to feel that the level of restraint used by the CST was inappropriate for the situation”, she said. The two ejected activists are now considering taking legal advice.

How similar is the civil right’s movement in the US to the current, right-wing Tea Party phenomenon?

According to National Public Radio, the comparison is “interesting”.

Syria and Saudi Arabia are the real powers behind the throne in Lebanon.

Israel and the US should remember this reality.

An interesting test-case in the US that has profound ramifications for the Palestinian cause:

Ralph D. Fertig, a 79-year-old civil rights lawyer, says he would like to help a militant Kurdish group in Turkey find peaceful ways to achieve its goals. But he fears prosecution under a law banning even benign assistance to groups said to engage in terrorism.

The Supreme Court will soon hear Mr. Fertig’s challenge to the law, in a case that pits First Amendment freedoms against the government’s efforts to combat terrorism. The case represents the court’s first encounter with the free speech and association rights of American citizens in the context of terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks — and its first chance to test the constitutionality of a provision of the USA Patriot Act.

Opponents of the law, which bans providing “material support” to terrorist organizations, say it violates American values in ways that would have made Senator Joseph R. McCarthy blush during the witch hunts of the cold war.

Arik Diamant and David Zonsheine, I salute you. This kind of article in the Guardian takes guts, especially coming from the depths of the Israeli military:

The Israeli media marked the one-year anniversary of Operation Cast Lead, the war on Gaza, almost as a celebration. The operation is recognised almost unanimously in Israel as a military triumph, a combat victory over one of Israel’s deadliest enemies: Hamas.

As combat soldiers of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), we have serious doubts about this conclusion, primarily because hardly any combat against Hamas took place during the operation. As soon as the operation started, Hamas went underground.

Most casualties were inflicted on Palestinians by air strikes, artillery fire, and snipers from afar. Combat victory? Shooting fish in a barrel is more like it. Operation Cast Lead consisted essentially of bombing one of the most crowded places on earth, striking civilian targets such as homes, schools and mosques, and ultimately leaving a trail of more than 1,300 casualties, mostly civilians, over 300 of whom were children. As soldiers of the IDF reserves, we bow our heads in shame against this hideous attack on a civilian population.

The campaigning website Wikileaks, recently out of action due to lack of funds, may soon have a new lease on life, thanks to the forward thinking of Iceland:

Following indigenous leader Noel Pearson’s article in yesterday’s Australian about admiring the Jews, I submitted the following (unpublished) letter:

Noel Pearson’s admiration of the Jewish people (Aborigines can learn from Jews how to preserve culture and prosper, 15 February) is curious for its omissions. In praising their “resilience and seriousness as a people” and dedication to never forgetting history, he seems to have conveniently overlooked the modern state of Israel. As a Jew, I am constantly astounded how many non-Jews are able to celebrate the Jewish religion and ignore what’s happening in Palestine. Modern Zionism has co-opted Judaism and left millions of Palestinians dispossessed in the name of a post-Holocaust myth. Pearson should spend some time in the West Bank, Gaza and Israel proper and discover the real meaning of modern Judaism. Israel’s ever-deepening occupation of Palestinian lands is a curious way to fight racism when Israeli laws are specifically designed to segregate people along racial lines.

Barack Obama has behaved in the Middle East exactly like his predecessor, George W. Bush. Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas is right:

Barack Obama does have a foreign policy. It’s called war.

But wait, pleads Hillary Clinton, we’re trying so damn hard:

Call it Hillary Rodham Clinton’s “Keep Hope Alive” tour.

The secretary of state ventured to the Middle East this weekend to assuage doubts that have arisen over the Obama administration after an initial bout of euphoria that the new president could quickly break the stalemates within the region, and between Islam and the West.

In what aides billed as a sequel to President Obama’s speech in Cairo last June, in which he called for ending the “cycle of suspicion and discord” between the United States and the Muslim world, Clinton on Sunday delivered a lengthy speech before the U.S.-Islamic World Forum here that essentially pleaded for patience even as many of the administration’s initiatives on Middle Eastern peace, and on outreach to Iran, have faltered.

Clinton acknowledged concerns in the region “that the U.S. commitment is insufficient or insincere, that we have not fully embraced the spirit of mutual respect and partnership that the president described, or that we will fail to translate that spirit into the concrete steps needed to achieve real and lasting change in the world.”

But she said such changes “cannot happen overnight or even in a year.”

“It takes patience, persistence and hard work from us all,” Clinton said.

How disturbed should we be when the far-right shows support for Israel because the Jewish state is supposedly fighting radical Islam?

A blast from the past.