Tea Baggers, Hate, Racism, and Fox News

Poll Reveals All You Need to Know about Tea Baggers: 57% Still Support George Bush – And, Yes, Their Rage Is Fueled by Racism, Fox News

April 15 2010

By Jon Ponder

For pundits and pols who have been casting about trying to get a fix on the true nature of tea baggers, a new poll finally offers definitive insight. According to the new CBS/New York Times poll of self-described tea-party supporters, 57 percent have a favorable opinion of George W. Bush.

Furthermore, 63 percent say they restrict their their news consumption to right-wing propaganda from Fox News. This may explain why they are outraged over the Obama administration’s efforts to pull the nation back from the brink of economic collapse while apparently having no clue that the person most responsible for the Bush Recession is their own Dear Leader George W. Bush.

It is a tribute to Fox News’ mastery at obfuscating reality with disinformation that these Bush fans are seemingly unaware that the U.S. economy crashed and the Bush Recession began in September 2008, when, indisputably, George Bush was president. Having only been exposed to propaganda from Fox and hatemonger radio and bloggers, tea baggers have no way of knowing that the malfeasant anti-regulatory policies of the Bush administration and the GOP-controlled Congress, combined with Republicans’ now-famous incompetence at governing, were directly responsible for the economic crisis.

The history of the Bush regime is being rewritten faster on Fox and in the right-wing media than anyone can keep up with, but let’s also recall that George Bush left office with 21 percent approval after being well below 50 percent for years. (About 20 percent of Americans also supported Richard Nixon when he resigned in disgrace.) Bush, Cheney et al lied about the pretexts for invading Iraq, which means that the blood of thousands of American soldiers and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi families was wasted needlessly, along with billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars that were flushed away at the very moment that the economic collapse was looming.

(Let’s also not forget that, under Bush, the United States paid for universal health care for 30 million or so Iraqis while 45 million Americans had none.) But it was Bush’s ineptitude — and baldfaced lying about it — in addressing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that finally forced normal Americans to recognize George W. Bush for what he was: Worst. President. Ever. His approval ratings never recovered after that debacle.

It speaks volumes that it’s this barely articulate, incurious aristocratic bully that tea baggers voted for — twice — and still support to this day.

Another prime example of the influence of Fox propaganda: A whopping 64 percent of tea baggers believe Pres. Obama has raised taxes on most Americans. As CBS noted in their coverage of this poll result: “[The] vast majority of Americans [95 percent] got a tax cut under the Obama administration.”

One unsurprising result from the poll is that tea baggers love Fox News’ most popular propagandists. They approve of Sarah Palin by 66 percent and Glenn Beck by 59 percent. This adoration of Beck, in particular, helps explain another aspect of the poll: Like Beck, tea baggers loathe the U.S. president:

Eighty-eight percent disapprove of President Obama’s performance on the job, compared to 40 percent of Americans overall. While half of Americans approve of Mr. Obama’s job performance, just seven percent of Tea Party supporters say he is doing a good job.

Asked to volunteer what they don’t like about Mr. Obama, the top answer, offered by 19 percent of Tea Party supporters, was that they just don’t like him. Eleven percent said he is turning the country more toward socialism, ten percent cited his health care reform efforts, and nine percent said he is dishonest.

Seventy-seven percent describe Mr. Obama as “very liberal,” compared to 31 percent of Americans overall. Fifty-six percent say the president’s policies favor the poor, compared to 27 percent of Americans overall.

The fact that 56 percent of tea baggers say Pres. Obama’s policies favor the poor is telling. While only about 13 percent of Americans are black, a great many white people labor under the misperception that most poor people are black. More about tea baggers’ views on race below.

Ninety-two percent of Tea Party supporters believe President Obama’s policies are moving the country toward socialism. Fifty-two percent of Americans overall share that belief.

Asked what socialism means, roughly half of Tea Party supporters volunteered government ownership or control, far more than any other answer. Eleven percent cited taking away rights or limiting freedom, and eight percent said it means the redistribution of wealth.

Thirty percent of Tea Party supporters believe Mr. Obama was born in another country, despite ample evidence to the contrary. Another 29 percent say they don’t know. Twenty percent of Americans overall, one in five, believe the president was not born in the United States.

Not surprisingly, the poll found that tea baggers deep-seated racist views:

Fifty-two percent believe too much has been made of the problems facing black people. Far fewer Americans overall — 28 percent — believe as much. Among non-Tea Party whites, the percentage who say too much attention has been paid to the problems of black people is 23 percent.

A majority of Tea Party suppers believe the Obama administration treats both blacks and whites the same way. But one in four believe the administration favors blacks over whites, an opinion shared by just 11 percent of Americans overall and seven percent of non-Tea Party whites.

As to demographics, no surprise here. The poll that most tea baggers are middle-aged, white and Southern:

Eighteen percent of Americans identify as Tea Party supporters. The vast majority of them — 89 percent — are white. Just one percent is black.

They tend to skew older: Three in four are 45 years old or older, including 29 percent who are 65 plus. They are also more likely to be men (59 percent) than women (41 percent).
More than one in three (36 percent) hails from the South, far more than any other region. Twenty-five percent come from the West, 22 percent from the Midwest, and 18 percent from the northeast.

A lot of headlines about this poll focus on the surprising result that self-identified tea baggers claim to be wealthier and more educated than would otherwise be expected from people who are so easily manipulated and duped into believing facts that are easily disproved.

There are no national figures better known for their difficult relationships with the truth than Bush, Palin and Beck, so one plausible explanation for this apparent outlier about tea baggers’ income and education levels:

They lied.

Source

Israel: Political leaders taking bribes

Can't say this is a surprise. 

Nothing like getting caught with you hand in the cookie jar.  Well I suppose it's about time a few of them were caught. Took long enough however. This type of activity is rather common I bet.

One also has to wonder who owns what stocks as well, that make profits from their political decisions.

In the US politicians in power make a fortune off Weapons producers, Oil companies and Pharmaceutical companies etc etc.They also get tons of donations at election time from such companies. This happens in many countries.

I bet it happens in Israel too. The problem is no one ever investigates such things.

Bribery case ‘penetrated authorities’

By YAAKOV LAPPIN

13/04/2010 19:22

Custody of 5 suspects in Holyland corruption affair extended.

The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court extended the custody of five suspects, including the former head engineer of the Jerusalem Municipality and a land developer, who were arrested earlier this month by police investigating the Holyland real estate bribery investigation.

During the remand hearing on Tuesday evening, Judge Avraham Haiman, deputy president of the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court, said the police investigation had uncovered “the most severe episode of corruption we have seen, which penetrated the authorities.” He added, “the severity is increased due to the involvement of senior figures, and I will not say more than that.”

According to police suspicions, between 1999 and 2008 the Holyland development company and associated land development projects, then owned by businessman Hillel Charni, paid tens of millions of shekels in bribes to senior public decision makers in the Jerusalem Municipality, members of its planning and construction committee, the Israel Lands Administration, and others, in exchange for their approval for the Holyland housing project in the capital and additional developments in the North.

Real estate developer Meir Rabin is suspected of acting as an intermediary in the alleged bribery ring.

Police say he promoted Holyland projects and passed on tens of millions in bribery money to decision makers in the Jerusalem Municipality.

On Tuesday, Haiman extended Rabin’s custody by ten days.

The police representative to court said Rabin’s involvement in the alleged offenses was “monstrous,” adding that he refused to cooperate with detectives during questioning. “As the fog lifts, things are becoming clearer,” the representative said.

Rabin’s attorney, Esther Toledan, argued that police were seeking to keep her client in custody because law enforcement officials were waiting to question former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who was mayor of Jerusalem during the time of the alleged offenses, and who is scheduled to return from abroad this weekend.

Toledan’s claims were rejected by Haiman, who ruled that releasing Rabin would undoubtedly lead to a disruption of the investigation.

Haiman extended Charni’s custody by 10 more days on Tuesday, ruling that a “most solid basis of evidence exists to tie the suspect” to the alleged offenses. Haiman described Charni as the “suspect with the largest interest in the corruption affair.”

The police representative to court said “new evidence” had come to light in recent days pertaining to Charni’s role as alleged bribe-giver to “elements” in the Jerusalem Municipality, and alleged attempts by Charni to disrupt the course of the investigation.

Eliyahu Hasson, an accountant for Holyland who worked under Charni, is suspected of transferring bribery funds to officials and forging documents while attempting to hide evidence of his alleged involvement. Haiman said the evidence he studied in the form of a secret police dossier showed that Hasson “carried out all of his employer’s instructions which were criminal offenses,” and extended Hasson’s custody by nine days.

Uri Sheetrit, former chief Jerusalem Municipality engineer, is suspected of dropping his initial opposition to the Holyland project in Jerusalem and becoming a supporter of the plan after receiving very large bribes.

Haiman extended Sheetrit’s custody by nine days, ruling that his release would disrupt the investigation, and noting a “development” in the investigation into Sheetrit’s alleged role. Sheetrit was “entrusted to safeguard the public interest and scenery of the capital,” Haiman said, adding that “the severity of his offenses were great.”

Police said Sheetrit had “many opportunities” to turn down bribes, but chose to receive them at every available opportunity.

Businessman Avigdor Kelner, who managed the Polar Investments company between 1996 and 2007 and had majority stock ownership in the the Holyland Park and Zera companies, is suspected of paying hundreds of thousands of shekels in bribes via companies he owned to public officials in the Jerusalem Municipality to promote the Holyland residential development.

Citing “new developments” in the investigation into Kelner, Haiman extended his custody by nine days.

Meanwhile, new details have surfaced about a man who served as a business adviser to Charni and helped manage the Holyland development for several years.

The man, named as real estate developer Shmuel Dachner, fell out with Charni over a dispute about how much he should have been paid for his services.

According to a civil lawsuit filed by Dachner at the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s Court last month against a company described as a loan shark, Dachner accumulated heavy debts on the gray market after managing the Holyland project.

According to the lawsuit, Charni began paying off Dachner’s gray market debtors, though in some cases the funds paid by Charni were less than the total debt, sparking the business dispute between the two men.

Dachner had threatened to sue Charni, though the latter reportedly viewed the threat as an attempt to extort him. Source

Holyland case 'just the start'

By YAAKOV LAPPIN

April 15 2010

After ex-mayor's arrest, top J'lem councilman urges more probes.

A senior Jerusalem councilman on Thursday morning said he suspected the Holyland real estate affair was “just the start” and called on authorities to investigate a number of other massive building projects he believes may be tainted with corruption.

Councilman Meir Turgeman, the head of the opposition faction in the Jerusalem municipal council, told Israel Radio he fears plans to build at the YMCA compound, the Gilo Uptown project and Mamilla neighborhood might have been approved in return for kickbacks.

On Wednesday, the police investigation into suspected massive bribery in the Holyland real estate affair took a dramatic turn when detectives from the National Fraud Unit arrested former Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski on suspicion of accepting more than NIS 3 million in bribes to ensure that the housing plan was approved, and of money laundering.

According to police suspicions, between 1999 and 2008, the Holyland development company and associated land development projects, then owned by businessman Hillel Charni, paid tens of millions of shekels in bribes through intermediaries to senior public decision makers in the Jerusalem Municipality, members of its planning and construction committee, the Israel Lands Administration and others, in exchange for their approval for the Holyland housing project in the Malha neighborhood and additional developments in the North.

Lupolianski was deputy mayor and chairman of the municipality’s planning and construction committee between 1993 and 2003, when the Holyland plan was approved. He went on to become a member of the National Building and Planning Committee when he was mayor from 2003 to 2008.

According to police suspicions, by 1999, Lupolianski had accepted NIS 1.5m. in bribes that he received “though another suspect.”

The illicit money was allegedly transferred to Lupolianski in the form of a donation to the Yad Sarah charity for disabled and elderly people, which he founded in 1976.

A Yad Sarah representative released a statement on Wednesday saying that the organization had “nothing to do with the Holyland affair and has never taken a bribe.”

A second alleged transfer of bribes took place between 2006 and 2008, when the Lupolianski allegedly received NIS 1.4m.

During a remand hearing held for Lupolianski at the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday evening, the police representative, Ch.-Supt. Lior Rice, said additional instances of bribery were being investigated, including the transfer of $30,000 to Lupolianski, which he allegedly paid to political field activists to help secure his 2003 mayoral election win. Police also suspect Lupolianski accepted NIS 100,000 in bribes in 2005, as a “donation” to a religious educational center managed by his son.

In return for the cash, police suspect, Lupolianski exploited his positions to promote an enlarged version of the Holyland project within the municipal Construction and Planning Committee, and resisted calls to lower the height of the Holyland residential towers by two stories. He also allegedly helped ensure that almost 1,000 objections to the plan were overruled.

“The suspect was supposed to safeguard the public interest, but in reality he strayed from it,” Rice said. “He saved the project’s backers millions of shekels in expenses and led to the expansion of the project and a significant increase in profit for its backers.”

Judge Avraham Haiman of the Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court extended Lupolianski’s custody by five days.

Speaking to Channel 10 News on Tuesday, Lupolianski appeared to attempt to shift responsibility to former prime minister Ehud Olmert, who was mayor of Jerusalem between 1993 and 2003 – when Holyland was approved.

“The mayor is the one who decides, that is the truth,” Lupolianski said. “The deputy mayor has no responsibility.”

Lupolianski’s attorney, Yair Golan, said his client had denied all suspicions against him, had consistently presented receipts for donations received to Yad Sarah and did not attempt to hide the identity of donors.

Meanwhile, anticipating an invitation to the police interrogation room, Olmert cut short a trip abroad and arrived in Israel on Wednesday night, where he is reportedly set to be questioned over the Holyland bribery investigation.

“In light of the growing number of reports, according to which police are seeking to question Olmert on his alleged involvement in the Holyland affair, Olmert decided to return to Israel tonight,” a statement released by Olmert’s spokesman, Amir Dan, said on Wednesday.

“Olmert denies any link to the affair, but has publicly stated last week that he is available for any questioning,” the statement said. “We’ve already seen how large headlines at the start of an investigation change radically with time, when the real facts begin to come to light,” it continued.

A source associated with Olmert told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that the ex-premier was keen to avoid giving the impression that he was “evading questioning.”

On Wednesday night, Israel Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen spoke at an award ceremony for police excellence held at Tel Aviv University, and described the alleged corruption affair as “widespread and very worrying.”

“Corruption within the authorities undermines the foundations of a state built on the rule of law,” he said. Public officials suspected of corruption in the investigation abused their power and exploited their public office “for their own personal benefit,” he added.

Addressing critics of the police investigation, Cohen said, “As someone who knows the details of the affair, I advise them to watch what they say.”

Cohen offered his full backing to the National Fraud Unit and to the Israel Police’s Investigations Branch, which he said carried a “huge burden on its shoulders.”

“This is bad news for the city of Jerusalem,” Mayor Nir Barkat said in a statement on Wednesday night. “I hope the truth comes to light.”

“The Jerusalem Municipality will continue to assist the police in its investigation as needed,” Barkat said.

Haiman extended the custody of five of the suspects on Tuesday. During the questioning of one of the suspects this week, detectives from the National Fraud Unit presented documents bearing the initials “E.O.,” and asked the suspect if he knew who bore the initials. The suspect replied that he did not.

Former Olmert associate Uri Messer, suspected as acting as an intermediary between bribe givers and takers and transferring hundreds of thousands of shekels in bribes, is scheduled to appear before court on Thursday for a third remand hearing.

“We do not yet know whether police will seek to keep Messer in custody or release him,” a source associated with Messer told the Post.

Abe Selig contributed to this report. Source

Former Prime Minister Olmert, also former Mayor of The Jerusalem Municipality: Holyland probe is 'unprecedented character assassination'

By Tomer Zarchin,

April 15 2010

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday made his first comments on the Holyland bribery affair since being named a prime suspect earlier in the day, saying there is not a hint of truth in the allegations against him.

Olmert, who was Jerusalem's mayor from 1993 to 2003 and prime minister from 2006 to 2009, said in a pre-recorded statement aired on prime-time television that he was innocent and ready to answer police questions over the so-called Holyland affair.

"I am saying as adamantly as I said in the past, I have never been offered a bribe, and I never accepted a bribe from any man, for any mater, in any way, whether directly or indirectly," Olmert said.

Olmert was named on Thursday as the previously unidentified senior figure suspected of accepting an NIS 3.5 million bribe to facilitate the construction of the Holyland project in Jerusalem.

Police suspect that, between 1999 and 2008, the Holyland Development Company and associated land developers paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes to senior decisionmakers in the Jerusalem municipality, members of its planning and construction committee and officials in the Israel Land Administration.

"I welcome the decision to lift the gag order in what is being called the Holyland affair," Olmert said.

"I am relieved," Olmert said. "My name has in any case appeared in the press, and no one had any doubt about the identity of the suspect named as A.A. This is a case of unprecedented character assassination both in terms of scope and strength."

Olmert went on to add that the allegations have harmed both him and his family, saying baseless rumors about him have been spread that "do not have even a hint of truth to them."

"I supported the Holyland project from the start, when it was just three hotels meant to strengthen tourism in Jerusalem," said Olmert, adding that the project was part of an effort in the mid-1990s to draw non-Orthodox residents to Jerusalem.

Olmert said the project's plan changed after he ceased to be Jerusalem mayor and that he was not involved in it after he left office.

"I want to clarify: In recent years, during the time that I was involved in the state of Israel's most critical matters, the police opened six criminal investigations of bribery against me ? and all six cases that focused on bribery were closed," Olmert said. "Among them was the Bank Leumi case, which was characterized as the most serious corruption case in Israeli history, as were the Cremieux affair and others."

Olmert said the probes have caused him distress, "but not for a moment did I imagine not cooperating with Israel's police investigation," he said.

Olmert, who is already on trial in another corruption case, cut short a trip abroad and returned to Israel early Thursday following reports alleging his involvement.

Olmert's attorney, Eli Zohar, sent a letter to Jerusalem District Attorney Eli Abarbanel on Sunday, asking that the prosecutor's office coordinate the scheduling of any police interrogation of Olmert. However, no response has yet been received.

Police have already questioned dozens of figures connected to the construction project, some of whom testified that Olmert and other senior Jerusalem officials were involved in the suspected graft.

Some of the testimonies went into detail regarding the mechanism with which the funds were allegedly transferred.

Police believe that Olmert received his money through two channels: first through his close friend and associate attorney Uri Messer, who was arrested last week; and second, through his former by bureau chief, Shula Zaken, who is currently abroad and expected to be questioned by police upon her return.

The Rishon Letzion District Court on Thursday released Messer to house arrest on the condition that he would stay outside of Jerusalem and the surrounding area.

The court ruled Messer will have to pay bail in cash, and will be forbidden from traveling abroad for a period of 180 days and from contacting other suspects in the case.

Meanwhile, a Petah Tikva court on Thursday rejected appeals from four other suspects in the case. Hillel Charney, Avigdor Kelner, Eliyahu Hasson and Uri Sheetrit will remain in prison until April 21.

Police announced on Wednesday the arrest of Uri Lupolianski, a rabbi who succeeded Olmert as Jerusalem's mayor and held the post until 2008, in an investigation into whether bribes amounting to millions of dollars were paid for building permits.

No charges have been filed against Lupolianski, who was a deputy mayor under Olmert.

Lupolianski, who was Jerusalem's mayor from 2003 to 2008, is suspected of receiving more than NIS 3 million in bribes from Charney, owner of the site on which the Holyland project was built, in exchange for facilitating the project. Source

Ehud Olmert indicted on three corruption charges in Israel From
August 30 2009

Beaten College Student John McKenna Will Sue Police, Lawyer Says

One Officer Suspended After Incident, Police Promised Investigation

The University of Maryland student whose beating was caught on video plans to sue the police officers he has accused of assaulting him, his lawyer said today.

John McKenna, 21, is still recovering from the physical injuries he received last month when he got caught up in a celebration of his school basketball team's win over Duke. Newly released video shows three Prince George's County police officers in riot gear ramming the student and then beating him with batons.

Left unconscious in the street, McKenna suffered a concussion and defensive-type bruises on his arms. He needed eight staples in his skull to close his head wound, his lawyer, Chris Griffiths, told "Good Morning America."

"He's a young man ... and he's recovering from the physical injuries," he said, "but obviously there was quite a bit of emotional distress he suffered in the incident."

One officer has been suspended and authorities have promised a thorough investigation into the incident on a College Park, Md., street, which was documented in a police report that Griffiths called a "cover-up." But Griffiths said he and his client want to make sure the officers involved are held accountable in civil court.

Griffiths said today that the police abuse continued even out of sight of the video camera. In the ambulance, he charged, McKenna was told not to make a fuss about his injuries. Griffiths said that was because injuries as severe as what the officers allegedly inflicted on the college student would have required more paperwork that would have contradicted the police report.

"On the way to the jail, officers removed the bandages from his head and said, 'Look, if you want to go home tonight, don't complain about your injuries.'"

Jail officials, he said, immediately saw the teen needed medical attention and got him to the hospital.

Photographs show a large gash on McKenna's skull, held together with multiple stitches. They also show sizable cuts and bruises on his body.

"It's clear the charging document is nothing more than a cover for the officers' misconduct," Griffiths said. "By charging him they are able to justify any injuries."

The sworn statement of charges by the officers said that McKenna himself "struck those officers and their horses, causing minor injuries."

The statement described McKenna's injuries as minor, caused when he was "kicked by the horses."

It also claims that McKenna was inciting a crowd. The charges against McKenna have since been dropped.

Multiple Attacks on Campus After Game

Other students on campus said the attack on McKenna wasn't the only time that police beat students the night of the basketball game. One student told WJLA-TV that he witnessed at least five attacks, and McKenna's lawyer has a theory explaining why.

"I think what you had was a situation where they were going to pick a few people out of the crowd and make examples of them in front of the students," said . "They took the extra step of covering up their misconduct by falsely charging."

Police Chief Outraged by Video

Prince George's County Police Chief Roberto Hylton has suspended one of the officers who's been identified on the tape and launched an investigation into the incident.

"I was outraged," said Hylton. "I was very disappointed at the conduct that I saw on the part of my officers on the video tape."

Hylton said that other officers involved in the beating will likely be fired, but McKenna's family thinks the punishment for some officers should be even tougher.

In a statement released to WJLA-TV, the family wrote, "Some of these characters ought to go to jail. ... Some ought to be booted off the force, and the remainder should be properly trained to discover that force is not always necessary, and brutality is always wrong."

Source

McKenna is happily dancing down the street see’s the officer on a horse.

McKenna stops, then backs away. The officer on horse back moves towards him.

And then three officers in riot gear attack him. Keep that in mind as you watch the Video below.

Canadian Press would not publish this: Jewish Canadians Concerned About Suppression of Criticism of Israel

March 15, 2009 - 3:34pm

This statement was rejected by both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail (as an op-ed). Please help this important statement get into broad circulation - pass it on to your networks (faculty, community, MPs, university presidents, unions etc.). You may also wish to write to the Star and Globe editorials and express your dismay that they have chosen not to publish it.

Jewish Canadians Concerned About Suppression of Criticism of Israel

James Deutsch, M.D., Ph.D.

Judith Deutsch, M.S.W., R.S.W.

Miriam Garfinkle, M.D.

Over 150 Jewish Canadians signed a statement expressing their concerns about

the campaign to suppress criticism of Israel that is being carried on within

Canada. The signatories include many prominent Canadians, including Ursula

Franklin O.C., Anton Kuerti O.C., Naomi Klein, Dr. Gabor Mate, and

professors Meyer Brownstone (recipient of Pearson Peace Medal), Natalie

Zemon Davis, Michael Neumann, and Judy Rebick. *

The signatories are particularly concerned that unfounded accusations of

anti-Semitism deflect attention from Israel's accountability for what many

have called war crimes in Gaza. They state that B'nai Brith and the

Canadian Jewish Congress have led campaigns to silence criticism of Israel

on university campuses, in labor unions and in other groups. Immigration

Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff unquestioningly

echo the views of these particular Jewish organizations.

They strongly state that they are against all expressions of racism. While

firmly committed to resisting any form of prejudice against Jewish people,

their statement explicitly states that these spurious allegations of

anti-Semitism bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind.

The statement underlines the immeasurable suffering and injustice to the

Palestinian people due to the severe poverty, daily humiliations, and

military invasions inflicted by the State of Israel.

Statement: Jewish Canadians Concerned about Suppression of Criticism of

Israel

We are Jewish Canadians concerned about all expressions of racism,

anti-Semitism, and social injustice. We believe that the Holocaust legacy

"Never again" means never again for all peoples. It is a tragic turn of

history that the State of Israel, with its ideals of democracy and its dream

of being a safe haven for Jewish people, causes immeasurable suffering and

injustice to the Palestinian people.

We are appalled by recent attempts of prominent Jewish organizations and

leading Canadian politicians to silence protest against the State of Israel.

We are alarmed by the escalation of fear tactics. Charges that those

organizing Israel Apartheid Week or supporting an academic boycott of Israel

are anti-Semites promoting hatred bring the anti-Communist terror of the

1950s vividly to mind. We believe this serves to deflect attention from

Israel's flagrant violations of international humanitarian law.

B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have pressured university

presidents and administrations to silence debate and discussion specifically

regarding Palestine/Israel. In a full-page ad in a national newspaper,

B'nai Brith urged donors to withhold funds from universities because

"anti-Semitic hate fests" were being allowed on campuses. Immigration

Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff have echoed these

arguments. While university administrators have resisted demands to shut

down Israel Apartheid week, some Ontario university presidents have bowed to

this disinformation campaign by suspending and fining students, confiscating

posters, and infringing on free speech.

We do not believe that Israel acts in self-defense. Israel is the largest

recipient of US foreign aid, receiving $3 million/day. It has the fourth

strongest army in the world. Before the invasion of Gaza on 27 December

2008, Israel's siege had already created a humanitarian catastrophe there,

with severe impoverishment, malnutrition, and destroyed infrastructure. It

is crucial that forums for discussion of Israel's accountability to the

international community for what many have called war crimes be allowed to

proceed unrestricted by specious claims of anti-Semitism.

We recognize that anti-Semitism is a reality in Canada as elsewhere, and we

are fully committed to resisting any act of hatred against Jews. At the

same time, we condemn false charges of anti-Semitism against student

organizations, unions, and other groups and people exercising their

democratic right to freedom of speech and association regarding legitimate

criticism of the State of Israel.

Signatories:

Abigail Bakan

Adam Balsam

Sharon Baltman

Julia Barnett

Lainie Basman

Jody Berland

Sam Blatt

Geri Blinik

Anita Block

Elizabeth Block

Sheila Block

Hannah Briemberg

Mark Brill

Stephen Brot

Meyer Brownstone

Eliza Burroughs

Smadar Carmon

Gyda Chud

Charles P. Cohen

Nathalie Cohen

David Copeland

Natalie Zemon Davis

Eliza Deutsch

James Deutsch

Judith Deutsch

Abbe Edelson

Jack Etkin

Elle Flanders

Danielle Frank

Ursula Franklin

Dan Freeman-Maloy

Miriam Garfinkle

Alisa Gayle

Jack Gegenberg

Mark Golden

Brenda Goldstein

Sue Goldstein

Cy Gonick

Marnina Gonick

Rachel Gotthilf

Amy Gottleib

Kevin A. Gould

Daina Green

Lisa Frances Greenspoon

Ricardo Grinspun

Cathy Gulkin

Rachel Gurofsky

Deboran Guterman

Yesse Gutman

Freda Guttman

Judy Haiven

Michael Hanna-Fein

Jean Hanson

Jan Heynen

Maria Heynen

Adam Hofmann

Jake Javanshir

Jeannie Kamins

Marylin Kanee

Howard S. Kaplan

Gilda Katz

Maxine Kaufman-Lacusta

Mira Khazzam

Bonnie Sher Klein

Mark Klein

Martin Klein

Naomi Klein

Joshua Katz-Rosene

Ryan Katz-Rosene

Judy Koch

Anton Kuerti

Jason Kunin

Aaron Lakoff

Michael Lambek

Natalie LaRoche

Richard Borshay Lee

Andy Lehrer

Gabriel Levin

Gabriel Levine

Joel Lexchin

Kim Linekin

Abby Lippman

Lee Lorch

Martin Lukacs

Audrey Macklin

Elise Maltin

Richard Marcuse

Wayne Mark

Gabor Mate

Arthur Milner

Anna Miransky

Dorit Naaman

Joanne Naiman

Neil Naiman

Michael Neumann

David-Marc Newman

David Noble

Clare O'Connor

Robin Ostow

Andre W. Payant

Jenny Peto

Simone Powell

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Fabienne Presentey

Yacov Rabkin

Diana Ralph

Naomi Rankin

Judy Rebick

Ester Reiter

Jillian Rogin

Richard Roman

Joseph Rosen

Herman Rosenfeld

Martha Roth

Marty Roth

Ruben Roth

E.Natalie Rothman

B. Sack

Ben Saifer

Miriam Sampaio

Jacob Scheir

Fred Schloessinger

Alan Sears

Shlomit Segal

Edward H. Shaffer

Noa Shaindlinger

Ray Shankman

Eva Sharell

Elliot Shek

Sid Shniad

Max Silverman

Samuel Singer

Elizabeth Solloway

Susan Starkman

Greg Starr

Jonathan Sterne

Jeremy Stolow

Rhonda Sussman

Vera Szoke

Joe Tannenbaum

Howard Tessler

Marion Traub-Werner

Ceyda Turan

Sandra Tychsen

Cheryl Wagner

Jon McPhedran Waitzer

David Wall

Naomi Binder Wall

Kathy Wazana

Karen Weisberg

Barry Weisleder

Paul Weinberg

Judith Weisman

Suzanne Weiss

Abraham Weizfeld

Ernie Yacub

B.H. Yael

Yedida Zalik

Melvin Zimmerman

Source

This is in reference to this

Israel: Attempting to take away Canadians Freedom of Speech Updated April 4 2010

Fake Al Qaeda, Fake Passports, Fake planes

Thought I would start a new list today. Got to love a good list.

April 3 2010

The Phony (Mossad) Al Qaeda Cell in Palestine

Adam Yahiye Gadahn: The Fake Terrorist
The FBI lists Gadahn’s aliases as Abu Suhayb Al-Amriki, Abu Suhayb, Yihya Majadin Adams, Adam Pearlman, and Yayah.
But Adam Pearlmen is his REAL name! Adam is the grandson of the late Carl K. Pearlman; a prominent Jewish urologist in Orange County. Source

Israeli agents accused of creating fake al-Qaeda cell

Was Fake al Qaeda Member Adam Gadahn Arrested In Pakistan

March 8, 2010
By Keelan Balderson
Conflicting reports have emerged out of Pakistan that the alleged American born al Qaeda Member Adam Gadahn has been arrested. What needs to be explained should it actually turn out to be Gadahn, is that he’s already been exposed as an Israeli-Zionist agent through the ADL.
As reported by CBS:
CBS News was told by sources in the Pakistan government that it was Gadahn, even after U.S. officials refused to confirm it was the California native for whom a $1 million reward has been posted.
Later, CBS News’ Farhan Bokhari in Islamabad reported that earlier reports the detained individual was Gadahn proved false. According to a Pakistan security official who spoke with CBS News on condition of anonymity, the arrested individual is in fact “a Taliban militant leader who is known as Abu Yahya.”
The article then continues to reaffirm the deception that Gadahn is a real al Qaeda terrorist, and that the arrest is a severe blow to the terrorists.
WideShutUK exposes Adam Gadahn, otherwise known as Adam Pearlman
In truth this Gadahn fellow, who goes by several aliases like all criminals (Adam Pearlman, ahya Majadin Adams and Azzam al-Amriki) is actually an American born Zionist-Jew with ties to the Anti Defamation League, who has been caught several times putting out fake al Qaeda propaganda tapes. The Zionist movement of course has a religious and ideological motive in targeting Muslims in the Middle-East and on US soil. Mossad agents were present at 9/11, have been involved in the war on terror from the start and are now targeting Iran and pressuring the US to strike. For entire story go to Source

Mossad and al-Qaeda ‘both use fake Irish passports’

And the former US special military aide Oliver North, in his autobiography, said that an Israeli military cargo plane was repainted in Aer Lingus livery to smuggle arms into Iran in 1986 when the US was secretly supplying weapons to Iran as part of a deal to release American hostages. For entire story go to Source

Gee they even fake planes??????  My oh my.  What don’t they fake?

Fake Passports, Fake Al Qaeda, and Fake planes what else does Israel create that is fake?  Was it Israel that created all the fake Bin Laden tapes and videos.

There have been numerous tapes and Video come out with Bin Laden but he died in December of 2001.

CIA and Mossad join forces with AlQaeda for Proxy Terrorist Attacks on Iranian Regime

Video from March 09, 2010

One has to wonder just how many Al Qaeda attacks were actually Done by Mossad.  How many Fake things do we need, before this is investigated.

Maybe Al Qaeda cells are just Mossad fabrications.

We know that Al Quaeda was just a Data Base, created by the CIA.

How did a “Data Base” get turned into a terrorist organization? So did Mossad create Al Quaeda with the help of the US?

Maybe they did. After all the US did need that Pearl Harbor thing.

The Underpants Bomber- Well there to is a few Israeli connections including “Mossad that being  His own Father”. They really wanted to sell those Body Scanners.

How many so called Al Qaeda cells were actually set up by Mossad one has to wonder?

Israel does a lot of fake stuff including False Flags. The USS Liberty, or how about Operation Trojan was one of the Mossad’s greatest successes. The Lavon affair, Etc etc. Then there are all the Assassinations using Fake passports.

Israel does fake stuff all the time.

Nothing new, but should be investigated, as to just how many things that were told to us were done by Al Quaeda ,were really actually cone by Israel.

Fake stuff would help the US keep their wars going. Profit profit profit.

There was never any Al Qaeda in Iraq until the Iraq war. Saddam and Bin Laden never had anything to do with each other. That connection was fabricated y the US gov and the press.

Even the  hijackers on 9/11  could have been anyone. Seems some of the so called hijackers  were actually still alive after 9/11. Seems some of them were fakes as well. Now isn’t that special.  So who created the fake hijackers?

To all the Al Qaeda recruits out there stop working for Israel. Please. Just a point of interest.

We all know if one was set up by Mossad there are more.

Many of the fake tapes come from Intelcenter,
Intelcenter, a group that regularly ‘obtains’ Al-Qaeda tapes. Intelcenter is an offshoot of IDEFENSE, which was staffed by a senior military psy-op intelligence officer Jim Melnick, who has worked directly for Donald Rumsfeld.
Settler even used fake documents to seal Palestinian land.
Officials in Turkey traced the documents the lawyers requested and provided affidavits that the settlers’ land claims were forged. The search of the Ottoman archives, Abu Ahmad said, had failed to locate any title deeds belonging to a Jewish group for the land in Sheikh Jarrah. Source

“Israel Did 9-11″ – U.S. Military Expert Supports Bollyn Thesis April 3, 2010

“What we need to stand up and say is that not only did they attack the USS Liberty, they did 9/11. They did it.  I have had long conversations over the past two weeks with contacts at the Army War College, at the Headquarters Marine Corps, and I have made it absolutely clear in both cases that it is 100 percent certain that 9/11 was a Mossad operation. Period . . .
“And the Zionists are playing this as truly an all-or-nothing exercise, because if they lose this one, if the American people ever realize what happened, they’re done.”
For entire story Source

The Lehman Scam and Fuld’s Mossad Connection

It should be noted that Richard S. Fuld is closely tied to Menachem Atzmon, the Israeli Mossadnik who owned the passenger-screening/airport security company that was behind getting the 19 Arab hijackers on the planes of 9-11.  Uzi Ruskin, Menachem Atzmon, and his Mossad-funded comrades took over the failing United Merchants & Manufacturers, Inc. in 1993 – from Fuld’s uncle, Martin Schwab, Richard’s mother’s brother.
I wrote in early October 2008 about the criminal activity of A.I.G. and Lehman, crimes which led to the trillion dollar bail-out: For the rest Source

Fake, fake and more fake slop.

An this, well this is just sad. Almost amusing. Fake Netanyahu. Bibi makes it personal

Laugh if you will but it it true Benzion Netanyahu (born Benzion Mileikowsky, March 25, 1910

Why the Blockade on Gaza the Natural Gas. Like the Taliban in Afghanistan, Hamas also said no. Could be why all the lies are told about Hamas.

Gaza War Why?: Natural Gas valued at over $4 billion MAYBE?

Dubai police chief to seek Netanyahu arrest

Foreign control of large swathes of the Sinai Peninsula obtained through fraud and Israeli involvement

E-book on Jewish National Fund’s role in colonization of Palestine

Israel “blackmails Gaza’s patients to turn them into collaborators”

Recent

Israel And Apartheid: By People Who Knew Apartheid

Japan Tokunoshima islanders reject US Marines base

Aafia Siddiqui: Victimized by American Depravity

Two-Thirds of Boys in Afghan Jails Are Brutalised, Study Finds

Israel bombards Gaza – and threatens worse

Israel Gags News on Extra-Judicial Killings

Update April 2 2010: Disease Threatens Haitian Children

Mossad using Spanish passport Arrested in Algeria

Source

Israel And Apartheid: By People Who Knew Apartheid

1. André Brink, one of South Africa’s leading authors, whose opposition to the apartheid regime resulted in his novels becoming the first books in Afrikaans to be banned by the government. This extract is from his memoir, A Fork In The Road (in French, from which the excerpt is taken, Mes bifurcations, pub. Actes Sud, Arles, 2010). Translation mine.

[T]he decisive experience of this trip (in 2002) was the visit to the Palestinian University of Birzeit. I’d read a lot about the Middle East conflict; in Salzburg and elsewhere, I had long impassioned conversations with Palestinian writers. I still remember my discussion with Hanan Mikhail Ashrawi, when she visited the Cape years ago. On several occasions before his untimely death, I also benefited from the wisdom and the gentle humanity of Edward Said.
But this immersion in the terrible reality of this tragic place, of this land and its people, felt to me like very few other things in my life. I felt as if I’d rediscovered the hideous heart of apartheid: the way in which Palestinians, including some of the most wonderful people I’d ever met, are subjected to one of the cruelest forms of oppression on earth; the web of hypocrisy and lies through which the Israeli side tries to obscure and twist the truth.  During this visit there was one particularly shocking event: an old Palestinian man had his shack bulldozed by the Israeli army because he had presumed to install a water tank on its roof to catch the few drops of rain that fell there.
I saw the network of modern highways built for the Israelis, and the pathetic little roads to which the Palestinians are confined; I saw olive groves, often the only means of subsistence for Palestinian farmers, uprooted by the Israelis; I saw the proliferation of new Israeli settlements in the heart  of Palestinian land, built there in contravention of all the agreements signed, just to reinforce the presence and the power of Israelis in territory that does not belong to them. I had already seen this, in the era of the oppression of blacks by whites in South Africa. I had already heard the same pious excuses and explanations.
When I look back on it now, I can’t help but remember the terrible images of Dachau and Auschwitz. Even if Israel has not embarked upon a genocide of the same magnitude as the Holocaust, the ethnic cleansing it is inflicting on the Palestinians is morally equivalent to a slower and smaller-scale version of the death camps. I struggle to understand how a people that has found it so difficult to recover from the horrors of the Holocaust can go on to do to others what was once done to it.

h/t Nouvelles d’Orient.

2. John Dugard, South African Professor of International Law; formerly Special Rapporteur on Palestine to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Apartheid was a system of institutionalized racial discrimination that the white minority in South Africa employed to maintain power over the black majority. It was characterized by the denial of political rights to blacks, the fragmentation of the country into white areas and black areas (called Bantustans) and by the imposition on blacks of restrictive measures designed to achieve white superiority, racial separation and white security.
The “pass system,” which sought to prevent the free movement of blacks and to restrict their entry to the cities, was rigorously enforced. Blacks were forcibly “relocated,” and they were denied access to most public amenities and to many forms of employment. The system was enforced by a brutal security apparatus in which torture played a significant role.
…
Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories has many features of colonization. At the same time it has many of the worst characteristics of apartheid. The West Bank has been fragmented into three areas – north (Jenin and Nablus), center (Ramallah) and south (Hebron) – which increasingly resemble the Bantustans of South Africa.
Restrictions on freedom of movement imposed by a rigid permit system enforced by some 520 checkpoints and roadblocks resemble, but in severity go well beyond, apartheid’s “pass system.” And the security apparatus is reminiscent of that of apartheid, with more than 10,000 Palestinians in Israeli prisons and frequent allegations of torture and cruel treatment.
Many aspects of Israel’s occupation surpass those of the apartheid regime. Israel’s large-scale destruction of Palestinian homes, leveling of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted assassinations of Palestinians far exceed any similar practices in apartheid South Africa. No wall was ever built to separate blacks and whites.
– Israelis adopt what South Africa dropped; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 29 Nov 2006.

3. Breyten Breytenbach, South Africa’s preeminent Afrikaner poet, who was convicted of treason in South Africa in 1975, and served seven years in jail for his opposition to apartheid.

I’m a writer born in South Africa now living and working abroad. For some time back there I also grew up among a “chosen people” who behaved as Herrenvolk — as all those who believe themselves singularized by suffering or entrusted with a special mission from God.
I apologize if my comparative allusion to Israel as Herrenvolk hurts because of the echoes from a recent past when, in Europe, so many Jews were the victims of a “final solution.” But how else is one to attempt describing the comportment of your armies when one is flooded by the horror of what you’re doing?
These rough equivalences don’t come lightly. As a writer I’m deeply apprised of the need to keep the words uncluttered of any urge to rouse easy emotions. This is what facile comparisons do–they nullify understanding the complexity of the observed phenomena by a rush of outrage heating the throat and staining the adversary with the vomit of borrowed or vicarious condemnation. Apartheid was not Nazism, though to say so was a striking slogan. And the policies now perpetrated by Israeli forces on the Palestinian people should not be equated with Apartheid. Each one of these processes and systems is evil enough to merit a thorough description of its own historical singularity.
And yet… (continues)
– An Open Letter to General Ariel Sharon; The Nation, 10 Apr 2002.

4. Desmond Tutu , former Archbishop of Cape Town; headed post-apartheid South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

In our struggle against apartheid, the great supporters were the Jews. Jews almost instinctively had to be on the side of the disenfranchised, of the voiceless ones, fighting injustice, oppression and evil. I have continued to feel strongly with the Jews. I am patron of a Holocaust center in South Africa. I believe Israel has a right to secure borders.
What is not so understandable, not justified, is what it did to another people to guarantee its existence. I’ve been very deeply distressed in my visits to the Holy Land; it reminded me so much of what happened to us blacks in South Africa. I have seen the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about. They seemed to derive so much joy from our humiliation.
…

People are scared in this country [the U.S.] to say wrong is wrong because the Jewish lobby is powerful – very powerful. Well, so what? This is God’s world. For goodness sake, this is God’s world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pinochet, Milosovic, and Idi Amin were all powerful, but in the end they bit the dust…

– Occupation is Oppression, 13 Apr 2002.

5. Ronnie Kasrils, South African Member of Parliament. Member of the ANC Executive Committee 1987-2007; South Africa’s Minster for Intelligence Services 2004-2008, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry (1999-2004), and Deputy Minister of Defense (1994-1999).

May I start by quoting a South African who emphatically stated as far back as 1961 that “The Jews took Israel from the Arabs after the Arabs had lived there for a thousand years. Israel like South Africa, is an apartheid state” (Rand Daily Mail, 23 Novemeber 1961). Those were not the words of Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu or Ruth First, but were uttered by none other than the architect of apartheid itself, racist Prime Minister, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd. (continues)
He was irked by the criticism of apartheid policy and Harold Macmillan’s “Winds of Change” speech and the growing international outcry following the Sharpeville massacre, in contrast to the West’s unconditional support for Zionist Israel.
To be sure Verwoerd was correct. Both apartheid South Africa and Zionist Israel were colonial, settler states created on the basis of the harsh dispossession of the land and birthright of the indigenous people. This is unblushingly documented in Israel’s case from the time of Herzl through Jabotinsky, Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, Moshe Dayan to Sharon et al. Both states preached and implemented a policy based on racial ethnicity; the sole claim of Jews in Israel and whites in South Africa to exclusive citizenship; monopolised rights in law regarding the ownership of land, property, business; superior access to education, health, social, sporting and cultural amenities, pensions and municipal services at the expense of the original indigenous population; the virtual monopoly membership of military and security forces, and privileged development along their own racial supremacist lines – even both countries marriage laws are designed to safeguard racial “purity”. The fact that the Palestinian minority within Israel is allowed to vote hardly redresses the injustice in all other matters of basic human rights. In any case those Palestinians allowed to stand for election to the Knesset do so on condition that they dare not question Israel’s existence as a Jewish state…
– Address to the Re-envisioning Israel/Palestine international conference; held in Cape Town on 12 June, 2009.
Source:

Related: Why would anyone think its apartheid?